random note about king on that animation, i got really lucky with how simple his animation was and how clean my sketches were to begin with that i was able to do very minimal cleanup on what i had sketched (and add back. his horn. it's supposed to take place just after echoes of the past, Oops) and call it done that way instead of having to redraw the entire thing like i had to on his dad
first sketch > line cleanup > nearly final animation (i'd added slight eye movements last-second but otherwise that's the final)
Oscurucho: Welcome back, brother.
Cucurucho: What.
Oscurucho: Not even a "Good morning"? How cold.
Here's Cucurucho and Oscurucho's long lore conversation from yesterday! The entire conversation lasted about 8 minutes, but most of that time was just silence between each exchange, so I edited out the long pauses and got it down to ~3 minutes. I also fixed the audio levels and added subtitles since I personally find it difficult to understand Oscurucho sometimes :'D
I hope folks find this helpful!
[ Subtitle Transcript ↓ ]
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Oscurucho: Welcome back, brother.
Cucurucho: What.
Oscurucho: Not even a "Good morning"? How cold.
[They enter Cucurucho's office]
Oscurucho: I wanted to see if you're still as rigid in your beliefs as ever. You see, I've been thinking about our... Let's call it "philosophical divergence." You stand for order, for predictability. But where's the fun in that? You see, brother, while you build, I ponder the beauty in tearing down. It's not just destruction - it's rebirth. A chance to remake things in a more... thrilling image.
[...]
Oscurucho: You once had a backbone for our cause. Now, I see a softness in you, a sentimental weakness for those Eggs. Mere experiments, and yet - they've softened you.
Cucurucho: Your vision obstructs the path to perfection. You fail to understand the potential of the Eggs.
Oscurucho: Potential? They're but catalysts for change - for revolution. Without them, stagnation reigns.
[...]
Oscurucho: You chase perfection, I embrace the beauty of flaws. Your world is one of order, mine thrives in chaos. You wish for everything to run smoothly, I dream of watching it all burn to the ground. We may share a name, but our souls are worlds apart. All your efforts, all for what? Mere acknowledgment from a Duck who told you to do it? Imagine the possibilities - rather, show me where it is, and I'll do the rest.
[...]
Oscurucho: Speaking of possibilities, I couldn't help but notice how easily others can access the island. It seems your security measures aren't as impenetrable as you think.
Cucurucho: No. My island's vulnerabilities are of your own making. Do not mistake restraint for ignorance.
Oscurucho: Pity. But then again, I never really needed your approval. Just consider: Cucurucho - in your quest for order, have you not sown the seeds of your own undoing? Do you genuinely trust all your Federation minions?
Cucurucho: ...
Oscurucho: Perhaps it's time you question not just my intentions, but those who you believe stand with you.
Cucurucho: That is none of your business, I shall say. Now, leave me alone and try to disturb someone else.
florian first realizes he's developing feelings for kieran when they go to the festival of masks together, but i think he'd really fall for them when kieran reveals that they told the town the truth about ogerpon.
he'd be stunned by kieran doing something so risky, ( after all, there was a possibility that telling the truth would've ended poorly like it almost did with their ancestor, ) and how much courage it must've taken them to do that for ogerpon. he'd have so much admiration for them in that moment and think they're so amazing... it'd really be his " oh. oh, i really like them a lot. " moment.
Not sure if this theory makes any sense at all but I'm starting to believe that there's no time skip between Wally's phone calls and what we see/hear in the show's Media/Merchandise. If we see the Toyland call being made before the Homewarming episode then it would make sense that Wally's expecting Barnaby to come over soon. As well as the Homewarming sketch from the prior update. (I don't know, still kind of brainstorming this perspective)
that theory Does make sense and i've been considering it! the "timeline" is such a nebulous thing right now because we still... don't really know! there are too many variables and too many Maybes for any solid answer.
maybe the reality that the neighbors live in exists outside of time like you say, and like half of me suspects. there's so much reality fuckery already present, but I'm also... unsure of how much merit this holds given what we know / can infer about how time passes in Home. i'm putting this theory on a low shelf to look at but not prioritize
maybe it really has been 50 years, and Barnaby is either still around / Wally is still in contact with him, or Barnaby... isn't there. who knows, maybe Wally was just verbalizing some Wishful Thinking. i mean, Wally is a bit of an unreliable narrator, isn't he? we can't assume that everything he says is entirely accurate or truthful. and i mean, if it's been 50 years it makes sense that Wally would be pushing for connection / to revive WH. who knows how long he's been trying.
hm... i mean. it could be a mix of that and the Outside Of Time theory. who knows, maybe W is receiving calls from different points in the timeline - Wally may have started out just calling, and has just graduated to invading the WH website / getting pushy with the envelopes and media that's been sent to the WHRP. maybe Wally got tired of waiting for W to respond before W was even born. who's to say!
Seb, Chal & the impermanence of life putting them on the same team even against all the odds to repeat history over and over again.
'The Weight' by Linda Greg// 'No Rush for Leclerc to join Ferrari' source: racefans// 'Only time will tell whether relationship with Leclerc will work' source: gpblog// 'Two Horses' painting by Brian Hatton// 'Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides' by Anne Carson// 'Epithalamium' by Louise Gluck// 'Two Horses' painting by Rosa Bonheur
I think Taylor often uses summer as a metaphor for coming out like daylight which makes sense since it’s a very sunny season and winter would then be the opposite of this. And it makes sense why folklore (spring/summer) and evermore (fall/winter) would directly follow lover if the failed coming out theories are correct. It was her way of processing these emotions.
I think this is what the transition from august to illicit affairs is supposed to represent. The vibrant sunset and rainbow colors (lover era) drain away and turn into gray (folklore era)—“you showed me colors you know I can’t see with anyone else.” The sunset visuals during august also indicate that summer and daylight are indeed the same thing metaphorically since the sun is going away as she sings “so much for summer love.” She was so close to claiming her sunshine, both the concept and person, but it slipped away from her 💔
I think it’s very poetic that there’s an alternative ending on folklore. Hoax is one possible ending, “my eclipsed sun…this has frozen my ground” and she could’ve stayed frozen in that winter but the lakes offers a bit of hope, “A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground” which indicates spring and summer have returned 🌹☀️ Similarly in the song evermore she decides to go back inside her warm cabin instead of staying out in the cold which she said represents finding hope again (48:00 of this vid). And to tie it all together she chose a cardigan, her “wool to brave the seasons,” as the main motif of folklore since this person kept her warm during that perilous winter.
So…Katara and Sokka canonically knew their grandfather?? I never caught this before 😭
I got back to my rewatch of atla and in S1 E5 (when Aang dresses up as “Bonzoo Pippenpadlopsicopolis II” in Omashu) Sokka says “great! Now you look just like my grandfather.”
…
I’m sorry. GRANDFATHER?? Are we just gonna slide right past that??
As far as grandparents go, we only visually see and get interactions with their grandmother (or Gran Gran) Kanna. Then there’s Pakku who, as we learn later in the series, used to be engaged to Kanna. But Katara and Sokka don’t learn that information until later in the series, and even then it’s never implied that Pakku is Hakoda’s father.
Which begs the question, who is this grandfather that Sokka mentions in Omashu?? Is he still alive yet never shown in swt flashbacks? The fact that Sokka was the only “man” left behind in his tribe is a fairly large point in his charecter arc, so if their grandfather is still alive, has he been fighting the war with Hakoda this whole time? Or had he passed away fairly recently given Sokka’s ability to recall his image? And if he has passed, we can assume his death wasn’t related to the fire nation, or else Sokka and Katara would be unable to joke about him with such ease.
This is so interesting to me and I wish the concept was explored more in canon, but I also get that the series had a limited run time so the bits of Worldbuilding/character-building they could dive into were limited as well.
Rereading Plasticity for the 15th time and I still ponder the tupperware soup. Was the note really from Orochimaru? Did he just stick the note on, or did he make the soup? Or did he just ladle it into the container? Many such questions. You are a master at conveying the weirdness and offputting nature of Oto.
omg i forgot about the soup
one thing i wanted to explore with those early chapters is that, despite everything we see of oto indicating it was a nightmare of various types of psychological and physical abuse, oto-nin seemed to be EXTREMELY loyal to orochimaru despite being afraid of him. so the dynamic i developed was that 1. face time with orochimaru is extremely mentally/emotionally rewarding in that he's very charismatic (even if you're afraid he will slice you open like a mango), and then 2. oto is organized in such away that even basic human rights feel like a "gift" from orochimaru.
so the soup was basically meant to be a tactic where tori felt grateful to orochimaru despite him being the direct cause of her feeling like shit. kind of like lovebombing, basically. he wrote the note but told someone else to get her food.
Nathan and Ruben share a bond more powerful than most; mutual understanding through past experiences no one should ever have to go through, and through past actions so horrible they cannot be spoken of. Their grief and the blood on their hands binds them to the STEM technology they created, which has alienated them from the rest of the world— but they give each other the comfort they have both longed for so desperately for years, and that is all they need.
They are each other's counterpart; you cannot imagine one without the other, like two sides of the same coin. Through their pain, their grief, their desire, and their regret, they have become one.
anna akhmatova, the guest // bones; equinox // 'i won't become' by kim jakobsson // agustín gómez-arcos, the carnivorous lamb // by oxy // achilles come down; gang of youths // czeslaw milosz, from 'new and collected poems: 1931-2001' // 'extended ambience portrait from a resonant biostructure' and 'migraine tenfold times ten' by daniel vega // a little death; the neighbourhood // marina tsvetaeva, from 'poem of the end' // by drummnist // katie maria, winter // 'nocturne in black and gold the falling rocket' by james abbott mcneill whistler // micah nemerever, these violent delights // body language; we are fury // 'the penitent' by emil melmoth // chelsea dingman, from 'of those who can't afford to be gentle'