#these are all incredibly surface level and basic analysis

[emotreech]

tell me the mizzen thoughts i beg

YES HI I LOVE TALKING ABT HIM

okay so to preface mizzen is my fave character in the series if i am thinking abt the hunger games im probably thinking about mizzen and / or district 4 ( d4 tributes get behind me )

anyways recently ive been mostly thinking abt his family dynamic and how it intertwines with his relationships in the book. i feel like he lives in a pretty matriarchal household , purely self - indulgent but his mom is a single mother in my eyes. i also think he has an older sister whom he really looks up to / tries to emulate , leading to his close relationship with coral and pippa , two strong women who entered his life when he was incredibly vulnerable and needed support. also just him in d4 in general. who were his friends?? did he have to work?? we know he's good w a net and has basic trident skills so maybe he had to do stuff w that. did he do well in school?? what was his dynamic w his siblings?? what was his favourite subject??

wait i just realised i turned him into prim whoops 😭 coral and mizzen as katniss and prim parallels or smt even tho they are barely similar

( editing to say: i personally headcanon mags to be mizzen's older sister for no reason other than sad bcus there is NO canon evidence to support that )

for a tribute so young he lasted an incredibly long time in both the book and the movie , surviving a couple pretty close encounters ( moreso in the book but in the movie too , ) only being stopped by extraneous factors ( teslee's drones and gaul's snakes. ) id love to see how far he'd last were it to have been " fair " ( though i argue that technically teslee didn't do anything to crazy all she did was manipulate the capitol's faulty tech which , though im sure the capitol didn't like it , is really their fault that it was able to be manipulated so easily. ) im also interested in how she managed to do that but that's another topic.

i don't usually think abt the mentors a ton ( besides festus and the usual sejanus and coriolanus ) but ive been thinking abt pippa a lot recently. idk just their relationship in general , ik it's not that realistic to think they formed a pseudo - sibling bond in the time they spent together but let me dream 😭 she obviously cared about him more than coriolanus' unreliable pov would let us see cus he was too busy claiming lucy gray and being mad at sejanus for existing. you're the pippa expert im sure you have better thoughts on their relationship ( which i NEED to know btw i love reading your writing. )

unrelated but his actor was perfect he looked so little ( obviously because he was young filming it ) it made me even sadder having to put a face to the character

okay final one i think but i canNOT stop thinking abt coral and mizzen. did they know each other before the games?? were they just super close immediately because they were thrown in the situation together?? are they family friends?? they obviously had this incredibly close connection that honestly i don't think we saw between any other two tributes in these games. they seemed to be able to speak to each other without words and she trusted him with things im sure she wouldn't trust tanner or treech with ( taking her trident to find lucy gray for example. ) ugh she just protected him and was softer with him and he was rlly one of a few people to see past her angry protective exterior i wish we could've seen them outside of this because i love them sm.

no i don't like mizzen wdym 🤧

delilah be normal challenge ( impossible )

[remxedmoon]

You should tell us about color psychology that sounds cool as hell

YES… HA HA HA… YES!

GGGOD I WISH I WASN’T OUT OF THE HOUSE RIGHT NOW. but i’ve been thinking about colors literally all day so you all get to be subject to my madness! sorry this is long and rambly wauaua. nightmarishly long post under the cut.

okay. first things first, a few basics. color theory and color psychology tend to get confused a lot in discussions, but they usually refer to different things. color theory is more about we physically perceive colors (color wheels and color schemes the like), while color psychology focuses on our emotional response to colors. if you’re familiar with the children’s hospital color theory post, that poster wasn’t actually talking about color theory, but color psychology (and also it’s incredibly surface level and heavily misunderstands the subject because in what fucking universe does the quantity of positive associations with a color matter more than the context it’s used in and sorry i have personal beef with this tumblr post).

color theory is also a special interest of mine but i’m not gonna touch on it too much here because it’s not entirely important. mmmaybe another time…

essentially, certain colors (and color combinations) have associations in our brains and that affect our behavior and emotions. these associations are also very much affected by the context a color is used in. colors don’t exist in a vacuum! so while red can symbolize passion and love when used in something like a dress or a bouquet of flowers, it has a very different connotation when it’s, say, splattered on the walls or smeared on the ground in a snail trail.

or for a less Children’s Hospital Themed example, i’ll put my euphrasie and king designs here!

(of course the saturation and brightness of these blues play a massive part in how they’re perceived but this is not a post about color theory this is n)

and, of course, combining colors in a piece can also change their meanings!! i’m about to get real fucking normal.

i’m gonna be focusing on the color combo of red and yellow here because it’s the one that’s most relevant to my art (and also it’s really interesting.) basically, seeing these two colors together activates the part of our brain that controls our appetite, making us actually feel hungry. this is why so many food companies use red and yellow in their branding! it’s neat stuff!!

also, if you’re familiar with it, this is why the mv for butcher vanity uses this color palette!! along with red’s general associations with danger and blood, the color combo also physically induces hunger. pretty fitting for a song about cannibalism!

(there is also red’s association with lust and passion and how that intersects with the double meaning in the lyrics but i cannot derail this post into being an analysis of butcher vanity i’m sorry. we’d be here all week. maybe another day... wipes a tear from my eye)

and i think this might be the reason why some people feel hungry when they see my art, even when i’m not drawing food. while i don’t tend to use red outright, most of my art has very warm undertones (red-oranges and yellows especially), which could be activating that hunger response??

(ah fuck color theory managed to weasel its way into this post again)

admittedly this part is just speculation on my end. i think my rendering style and Shapes also play a role in it, but it’s interesting for me to think about!!

this is only scratching the surface of how complicated colors can get. i was going to go on an entire tangent about color grading and how green lighting can make a scene feel unnerving but this post is already Too Fucking Long. aaaa super sorry if this is Rambly or hard to understand!! i’m not Entirely sure how much the average person knows about color theory and psychology so if there’s any confusing terms here i’m fine with adding stuff for clarity!

wauauuaa thank you so much for asking!!!! i love talking about colors.

tl;dr colors have a bunch of different emotions and meanings tied to them, but you’ve gotta pay attention to the context in which it’s being used. so maybe take a step back before you put that thick red trail on the floor of your children’s hospital.

[menaceoffandoms]

LMK analysis rant: Mei

I said I was gonna do this and I'm keeping to my word! The only thing that may stop me is my procrastinating... and the fic I'm slowly writing but uhhhhh-

ANYWAY- We're here to talk about Mei, our favourite white horse dragon pepper girl!

Mei stands out as the most different from her inspiration, something the writers perfectly portray in the yellow-robed demon episode of s4, which is likely to do with how little they had to go off of. Despite being one of the pilgrims in jttw, Ao Lie dose very little in the novel. His most notable chapters being when he's introduced and when the group faces the yellow-robed demon, which is why we met him in that memory in the scroll. Combined with my belief that Mei isn't a reincarnation of Ao Lie -- just his descendent -- means that Mei is one of the most unique characters in the entire show.

There's just less source material for her to draw from, it let's the writers have more fun and do more things. It's not that they don't make the others characters unique -- they like to play very fast and loose with things over all -- but Mei feel like her own complete and original character. She's inspired by Ao Lie in the same way Mk is inspired by Monkie King basically and she all the better for it.

Being the female lead (isn't it interesting how most of the female characters in this show are villans?), Mei is a refreshingly strong, confident girl who begins the show as the most powerful cast member. Being a descendent of the great dragon gives her amazing powers that no other cast members have, a birth right that leads to her being the most protective of her friends and the first to help out in any fight.

What she has in power, however, she lacks in experience. Mei has no mentor -- other than her parents, but I believe its safe to assume they weren't very focused on teaching her combat -- which leads her to trust her gut more, rush into things and learn through observation, like when she mimics what her great x1000 uncle did in s3.

Overall Mei is an excitable, energetic and loving person with a "You only live once" kinda attitude, for lack of a better explanation. Even still, she has her own insecurities and flaws which make her all the more interesting. Due to the shows run time, Mei and many of the other main characters don't really get explored as much as Mk, however what we do see of these struggles and fears is incredibly interesting even on a surface level.

Her tendency to rush head first into danger without first examining the situation or creating a plan, truthfully, tends to work out for her, but it can't always. It's something shown perfectly in s4, when Mei is the only member of the group to not get a star from Master Subohdi, however what a lot of people seem to miss is how Mei actually did earn that star eventually.

When they leave the temple and head to the celestial realm to try and stop Azure, Mei leads them there with no plan at all. As such, they fail and need to be saved by Mk. Faced with proof of Subohdi's criticism, Mei makes the more important amendment to Mk's plan in the s4 special. I don't think we've even seen Mei make a serious plan until this point, which feeds back in to another one of her flaws: being unable to take things seriously.

This isn't something I see said about Mei often, but when watching her character I think it's externally obvious. Don't get me wrong, Mei can be serious, but usually only in moments of vulnerability or high stress. For example: when talking with her pearents, after she gained the Samahdi fire and whilst imprisoned by the Yellow-robed demon.

I think this flaw is Mei's own version of Mk playing dumb. They both behave this way to lessen the emotional impact of serious things, to protect themselves and help those around them deal with trauma or difficult topics. Mei and Mk really are two sides of the same coin and I'd love for them to do more with that in the show.

Going back to Mei's parents, one of her biggest struggles is reconciling who she is with who she's meant to be. She is a noble dragon, a descendent of the great dragon of the West Sea and practically the successor to Ao Lie. It's a lot to live up to and -- evident in episode 3 of season 1; Welcome home -- she doesn't believe she dose.

Mei is confident in her abilities, she's sure of her strength and quick to help those around her, but in the face of her legacy she stands uncertain. It's another thing her and Mk have in common, though in vastly different flavours, and it's interesting how this legacy colours Mei as a character.

She wields the dragon blade, proving herself as a worthy part of her family and gaining the approval of her parents, however the stark difference between her and the rest of her clan is more blatant than ever. We see this perfectly in season 3 when they visit the great Dragon of the East Sea, Mei being put into fancy clothes she instantly ruins in order to have a place to hold her sword. She fights against her uncle, fights against her family, because she knows they'll never understand her. But even still, she knows she's still one of them and she's so proud to be.

Becoming the vessel of the Samahdi fire is only more proof of Mei's legacy and connection to her family. It gives her a moment of pure vulnerability where she vents her frustrations and fears before rushing away, wanting nothing more than to protect the people she cares about.

When Red Son finds her she's still serious, but even with just a basic understanding of the fire within her Mei falls back to her normal nature; a silly excitable girl not taking things seriously. We see this after Red Son attacks her with the spears and when she's eating later on, but even if her attitude doesn't show it, she's still listening and taking the training seriously. She just needs to be silly so she won't freak out again.

Since we're on the topic of the Samahdi fire, I think most people can agree that the way it was handled post s3 was very poor. With only one mention of it in s4, by Master Subohdi no less, I assumed that the fire had been resealed, this time correctly. Something that dangerous should be locked up, even if a capable wielder is around. It would also prevent power creep and stop the show from having another Wukong predicament, by which I mean a character so powerful they need to find a way to prevent them from trivialising whatever threat they have to face in the plot. Wukong will get his own post soon don't you worry...

Instead, we learn in s5 that Mei still has the fire, she just kinda forgot? She learned to fully master it when breaking out of LBDs mech, so since the fire was no longer a raging uncontrollable inferno she just didn't realise it was still there... for an entire season. Yeah it feels lazy and honestly is probably the worse written choice the show has even made. Even still, it dose lead to a very interesting and in character moment for Mei.

When attempting to seal the willow wisp with Red Son, Mei loses her confidence, believing that she lost the Samahdi fire and thinking she's lacking. Mk getting Monkie Kings powers was one thing, but the rest of her friends now having cool weapons and magic? If their all so strong and only getting stronger, then what's the point in Mei? She was the strongest but now she might be the weakest, and that terrifies her cause if she's weak she can't protect people. How can she act when she's powerless to do so?

This dilemma is quickly resolved by Red Son telling her she's had the fire the whole time, amending it's use to Mei's lightning motif she's had since s1 -- I know fire benders in ATLA use lighting but come on -- and basically saying she's been using the fire the whole time. It takes away from Mei's whole struggle to be honest, but I do think there's potential for her to relearn this now tamed Samahdi fire so she can better use it. Just depends if the show wants to do that...

Moving on from my thinly veiled complaints about season 5 (I like it I swear but it is the weakest seasons to me so far), let's talk about Mei's role in the group a bit. Aside from being the token girl, she's also Mk's best friend and the only other character his age and acts around the same age as the shows target audience. Mk's the main character and leader, Tang is the lazy historian smart guy, Sandy the loveable giant, Pigsy the cynical brute and Mei's youthful and silly power house.

I would love to go into some narrative tropes, specifically the 5 man band since jttw is one of the primary bases of the trope, but I've realised I have far too many thoughts about that to fit here. This is the 21sh paragraph and I'm sure at least some of this is a mess, but I hope I'm getting my point across! Overall, Mei is an extremely compelling character how often gets side-lined due to run time and other stuff, but is honestly one of my favourite characters in the show.

[splinterofpandora]

High Volume: Year One. Part Three. Audio. The voice that will define your world...

My first Jim Gordon was the Arkham Knight. In some way, it's an ultimatum variation that had the honor of both reciting the famous line about criminals from the debut issue and announcing Batman's death.

Jim could be rude, dangerous, because that's how circumstances work. More often than not, however, he was tired, observant, loving. We're talking about the man who lived his work. Who lost his wife because of it, almost lost his daughter twice...

He continued because he believed in the Law. That some people deserve help while others deserve second chances. Year One was the culmination of the journey. The point of no return, after which he could not going back. His future became in the commissioner, the mayor, the Batman.

My soul belongs to this cluster of pathos, duty, confidence to the system. But it's an old approach. It's the idea of world near the end of time. It doesn't work right these days.

At first I was angry with audio-adaptation for dropping the shadow of the Bat's flashbacks from the script. Every hero has golden steps.

It's a stage that fully demonstrates how a character is both perceived and perceived by the world within comics.

On an external level, i.e. for our world, it also carries a strong weight because we're talking about elements that have become entrenched in society's public consciousness after their first appearance or the debut of a particular element.

For example, Clark's connection with trains is a consequence of 2 basic concepts at once - the phrase "Faster than a rushing train" and numerous covers/moments where he stops the train.

When we talk about Batman's first steps, it's about completely "overcoming" himself as a human being. On the surface, it's just a cool and intimidating demon. But on an ideological level, it's really about trying to break beyond all the limitations that humans have. We show the Knight as a monster because his liberation, at this stage, a priori cannot be otherwise. This is what he strives to become - the perfect weapon of fear.

The Batman passage always messes up the bad guys' plans. It's an unfortunate flashback after which the integrity of their story is compromised. In other words, Batman destroys the evil that has become the norm. And we need to see it! Aren't we?

There are two major points of divergence in the comic and the film adaptation.

First, the pitches of Bruce inside the burning house are very different. If in the second half, when he starts beating the police, it's more about overcoming himself, through great pain, through effort.

In the movie, it's more about the invulnerability of the hero. The power of the image that Batman is. Even the music supports this narrative, creating an upbeat and frightening (if you're a cop in the building) mood. You know that no bullet will take him. He's an instrument of Justice. And he hits hard.

In the comics, Bruce is a human being and a bit of a victim of circumstance(in a moment, not the entire project). He's still incredibly strong and able to scare, but at the same time...the text emphasizes his vulnerabilities.

Perhaps this is why Miller spells out the moment of Batman's preparation for future missions as he came to "summon the bats". Whereas the cartoon relies specifically on the action itself. The awakening of the creatures of the night and Gotham takeover.

All of this leads us to a simple conclusion. If Miller, being the beginning, is interested in revealing HOW Bruce works, then the animation that came out at the peak of Batman's career speaks to WHY he works. That there is a Batman as a symbol, as an image in people's minds...

The audio adaptation emphasizes speed of analysis, something no one else does. Batman here acts like it's an everyday routine, nothing more. It's our days. The well known character with new patterns and psychology. Maybe that's why it doesn't need all those classic flashback moments...

And yet, why so much Jim in our text? I start with him, then I think about Bruce...crazy!

Jim finds his place through Gotham. The city shows him the true faces of people, the price of love, the difference in ideas...

In audio, he sounds softer and acts lighter. He feels younger. Juggles Frank's killer mistakes and animation's caring. The audio is more about observing what's going on, a calmer rhythm of life. On the surface, he's younger.

Ideologically, rightly older. As if he's finally found his peace. If we change Bruce's position, we change Jim's. We change Jim = we change Bruce. Because Batman would never have succeeded without a purge within the police force. And the GCPD wouldn't have been successful if they'd gone to Gordon's head or his family.

At the end of the comic, we see Bruce's silhouette in the darkness. In the animation, Wayne is smiling. In the audio, those two are literally laughing after saving their son. They did it. They defeated the Darkness.

And if you still remember past posts, we've said that each adaptation is a reflection of its era, the condition of the medium within that.

Audio has...strange times these days. We have the successful The Flash and The Sandman. For Batman, we have the utterly failed Spotify projects and the good as an idea but broken in the implementation aspects Audio Adventures. Year One has its own difficulties. There are some baffling action moments here. It doesn't convey the intensity of the pain of the blows. Sometimes it requires context, which is impossible to find if you don't know the comic. That's...absolutely not ultimate start.

But it also has important new things. A really young Holly who sounds like a child for the first time, not a teenager. Gentle Barbara.

You feel the pain in Jim's words when he talks about the possibility of losing his wife.

A new school of old ideas. Give it a chance.

[autisticandroids]

Seeing as you provide every interesting in depth spn analysis I'm probably coming to the wrong person for something so possibly surface level but I'm rewatching spn and would really love something to keep notes on, so is there any interesting phenomena in there you think would be worth keeping an eye on?

i received this, like, a month ago 🥴 sorry. anyway.

so, first of all. i'm flattered but i have also always been a little uncomfortable with the superlatives people attach to my name. the reason people think of me as some kind of spn scholar is a result of four factors, give or take: first, i make a lot of posts. in the year after november fifth i made something like five thousand posts. i know because i tag all my spn posts spn. and a lot of those posts were half a sentence! or an ask i answered with emojis! but it's still a lot of posts. the second reason is that i'm kind of a last man standing. a lot of the big name post-nov fifth destiel fandom crowd has kind of evaporated in search of newer, shinier things; my fascination was more enduring, so i still get the credit. the third reason has to do with like... i have slightly different tastes than the average spn fandom person and so the things i pay attention to are different and so my takes are unique. there were a lot of blogs that were bigger than me that people don't remember as much because their takes were more in line with conventional fanon (and therefore more similar to other people's and less memorable), whereas mine, because i have specific interests and am an incurable contrarian, were more unique and therefore people remembered who i was. fourth, and here we are down to the meat of the issue, i speak very authoritatively and use a lot of big words when i'm excited about something so people think i'm right.

i guess what i'm saying is don't take me so seriously.

now that my narcissism is out of the way, let's talk about themes in supernatural.

first of all, the thing about supernatural is that it has three hundred and twenty seven episodes organized into fifteen seasons, written by fifty three different writers supervised by four different showrunners and that's just the writing! that doesn't even mention directing, or acting, or producing... personally i like to say that i can feel when the story editor changes! so there really is... almost nothing you can get out of the whole show as a text that isn't incredibly broad and/or vague and/or boring. "they say family a lot" yeah they sure do. "it's a reactionary macho fantasy" like every other show from 2005. "they kill all the women" mmmmhm. like, basically every consistent element of spn as a story is a result of either classic genre cliches from the scifi or procedural or teenie bopper genres, very basic conclusions from the premise, or just the material nature of the behind the scenes of supernatural. they're going on a case instead of working on the main apocalypse of the season because this is a monster of the week show. cas has gone away again because they don't want to pay misha collins. quiet emotional scenes get dropped from the script because they don't serve the plot. and while there's some interesting things you can get out of these elements - one piece of analysis i've been thinking about a lot lately is this video about the mcu that argues that the classic serialized storytelling logic of constant escalation leads inherently to a fascist politics, and i think this point applies very well to supernatural - it only goes so far. it's interesting if you want to look at how the show exists in the wider politics of the real world. it's not that interesting if you want to sit with the show supernatural in its particular uniqueness.

so basically my recommendation, first of all, is to divide the show up into chunks. there are some obvious chunks - by season, by showrunner. most people do these. i would also recommend other methods, for example tying together some adjacent seasons. for example, even though season eleven is technically carver era and season twelve is technically dabb era, i would argue that seasons eleven and twelve have more in common in terms of tone and style than eleven has with 8/9/10 or twelve has with 13/14/15. seasons four, five, and six have a lot in common in terms of tone and themes that they don't share with seven or the first three. i would also recommend paying attention to the individual writers; their bodies of work will usually have more in common with themselves than with the episodes around them in terms of character, tone, and theme. for example, in season six, ben edlund creates a whole other arc about the angel civil war that he wants the season to have that exists only in his episodes, and none of the other writers really pick up what he's putting down so he's kind of left hanging. you can see all sorts of patterns like this if you sit down and look, and i would recommend doing that. maybe you can be the first guy to memorize all the directors and have Thoughts.

and then the next thing i would say is just... pick some themes you want to iterate on. so for example: one of my favorite themes to contemplate is a theme that season six almost has - dean believing that it is his job to protect ben and lisa, which justifies anything he might want to do to them, or anyone else.

----

man everything above that line is an ask i half answered then forgot about in july of 2023. i NEED to check my drafts more often

[vanguarddawn]

There's something I've been thinking about tonight that I really don't quite know how to explain, but I'm going to try it anyways.

It all regards a question I've received several times over the years: Why is Walhart one of my favorite Awakening characters, when Edelgard is my least favorite Fire Emblem character? Aren't their goals essentially the same?

This is a question I mostly receive from Edelgard fans who usually don't want to listen to what I actually have to say about either character, and just want to try and put the legitimacy of my biases under scrutiny, usually with accusations of misogyny being thrown in for good measure. And I've never really had an answer for them, not because I didn't want to get involved in that discussion, but because I had always judged Walhart and Edelgard based on gut feeling rather than deeper analysis.

Honestly, the more I look into them both in comparison to one another, the more vast that rift becomes. I'm not necessarily starting to like Walhart even more, but I'm definitely learning to like Edelgard even less, something I'd thought was impossible. I do not have the time or patience to write out a full Edelgard analysis, and honestly I don't want to do that either. So I'll talk about what connects them and what differentiates them.

Walhart and Edelgard are, on the surface, somewhat similar characters. They are both the leader of their nation, and seek to unify the rest of the continent through force, and ultimately intend to forge a world where man can only rely on their own strength rather than that of the gods. Both are armored axe wielders primarily associated with the color red, and both bear inhuman levels of physical strength. Both can potentially end up being defeated by the kindhearted king of the nation they invaded who seeks to strengthen the existing world through structural reform rather than wiping the slate clean, and cherish the power of bonds over the strength of the individual.

So why do I love Walhart but hate Edelgard again? Simple.

Walhart is absolutely fucking delusional. Dude is straight up off his rocker, and the game is actually willing to acknowledge this rather than trying to defend it. He truly believes in his whole "unity through conquest" bullshit, and is only willing to let go of it when he's defeated by Chrom. And you know what he does, instead of Edelgard's "if only i had your strength we could have made the world a better place together" stuff?

Walhart concedes. He basically just tells Chrom and Robin "alright, you guys won, you clearly know what's best for the world. I was wrong, might does not make right, and from now on I'm gonna do things your way." Of course he says it in his own distinctly Walhart way, but the message is still the same. While he doesn't come to accept the real message that Chrom and Robin were trying to send, one of bonds and togetherness, he does realize that his way of going about securing and maintaining peace was wrong. I understand that Edelgard also concedes somewhat in VW/SS, but in AM she tries to murder her salvation after being given one last chance to redeem herself, and in CF she successfully conquers Fódlan so there's no redemption to be done.

It also helps that the god Walhart was trying to stop to begin with was objectively evil and not just a traumatized archbishop. Yes, Rhea does some incredibly fucked up things, but comparing her to Grima, who literally destroys the entire world just for funsies, can't really be done in good faith. Rhea is more compelling as an antagonist because she actually has nuance - nuance that Grima mostly lacks.

I also want to address some localization weirdness regarding both characters. In Awakening's English localization Walhart's goal of crushing the Grimleal is only made clear after the player has already defeated him and is headed to stop the ongoing resurrection of Grima. The English localization of Three Houses, on the other hand, may as well be Edelgard apologist fanfiction with how much it rewrites her character to make her look completely justified in starting her war, including actively writing mentions of civilian conscription and execution, as well as foreign military operations out of the English script, and adding a line to her endings stating that she gives up power once her dream of a Crest-less Fódlan has been realized. She is a completely different character between scripts.

I also like how Walhart is written entirely seriously about even the most mundane of things in his barracks and DLC conversations. If you thought he was crazy about military, wait until you hear his opinion on vegetarianism (he is one and he intends to make it your problem).

Basically, I like Walhart because he isn't meant to be endearing. Awakening makes no effort to redeem him or justify his actions, because they are ultimately unjustifiable. Edelgard did essentially the same thing he did and required a whole game rewrite to justify allowing the player to side with her at all.

[punkrockscully]

tagged by @misskattylashes to share WIPs!! (i love being tagged in things even if it takes forever for me to do them lmao)

my WIPs aren't that exciting because i'm not working on any fiction/poetry right now, but i have a TON of essays in progress for my music blog (absolutely shameless self promo) and elsewhere so i'll share some of those 💙 leave me a comment if you read all of this bullshit, i'd love to talk about my projects!!

“Here Ain’t No Place for Dolls Like You and Me”: Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino Through the Lens of Context

oh, this essay—i love her, i hate her, she's breaking my heart, i think about her constantly. this is basically about TBHC in context of the aftermath of the EYCTE tour. it's gazing at EYCTE and TBHC through a queer lens, through the lens of context, through the lens of Alex and Miles' friendship. it's also about The Car, and Alex's use of concept albums as a vehicle for honesty. this essay is an analysis, a poem, an autobiography, and a love letter all in one. it's as much my story as it is theirs, as it is all of ours, and it's also insanely ambitious of me. i have no idea when it'll be finished but i'll be posting it on ao3 eventually (because i found out essays and analysis count as transformative works, who knew).

2. "Puncturing Your Bubble of Relatability": Grappling with the current Arctic Monkeys sound through an interpretation of "Sculptures of Anything Goes"

"sculptures" hurts me (all of The Car hurts me if we're being honest) and i've been wanting to specifically explore the lines "is that vague sense of longing kinda trying to cause a scene / guess i'm talking to you now / puncturing your bubble of relatability / with your horrible new sound" for a long time. something about those lines hits me right in the chest, their sullen pettiness. this is an exploration of Alex's new influences as well as the general reaction to TBHC and the new sound.

3. Ethel Cain's 'Perverts' In Her Own Words

i really loved 'Perverts', and i love that Hayden engages with fans on tumblr a lot about her work. going through some of her asks here, i was able to broaden my understanding of 'Perverts' and its influences. initially, i wrote a review of the album for work that kind of regurgitated a surface-level analysis that everyone was putting out (not to say it was necessarily wrong, but we all kind of came to the same basic conclusion, which isn't really fair to 'Perverts'). after reading some of Hayden's responses, i really want to go deep into the album and explore it through her answers, her intentions. the great thing about 'Perverts' is that it's simultaneously something really specific and incredibly interpretive—Hayden made drone music because she likes drone music at the same time that she created a nearly impenetrable response to a hostile environment. it's protection, but it's also whatever else you want it to be.

Some loose essays that kinda have titles:

Kneecap's Thoughts on Winning a BAFTA for Outstanding British Film, ya know, because they're Irish -> i've been listening to Kneecap for almost a month straight and i'm obsessed, and i really want to write a longer piece (i wrote one for work but word count ya know) about how they're preserving their language and keeping the fight for Northern Irish independence on the forefront of their work. they've led me to learn much more about Irish politics, history, and language, also they're just a really rowdy good time and i love them so much.

How a Late-70s London Punk Subgenre Got Overtaken by Skinheads -> while researching rock subgenres i discovered the Oi! movement, which essentially started out as a working class, anti-racist punk movement in the 70s (or at the very least was non-political) that got lumped in with white supremacist punk and all that bullshit. Oi! existed somewhere between the "commercialization" of punk and the creation of hardcore punk, and really started out as an expression of working class rebellion, workers' rights, and experiences of police harassment. apparently there are some bands who fit into Oi! that were definitely skinheads, and others who were adamantly against white nationalism, but the movement became associated with nazi punks anyway (can you tell i love microgenres??)

CRISIS HOTLINE: Why Do I Love White Men in Bands So Much? -> i noticed this while making a list of my favorite bands recently and i swear to god it was a total accident but i apparently really love white men in bands please send help!!!

Loose essays that are still just ideas

something about the rise of DIY bedroom pop artists who are closely aligned with the music industry, which is like the antithesis of the DIY scene (think Clairo, Mac DeMarco, Steve Lacy, etc); true bedroom pop artists are distributing cassettes and posting on bandcamp because they can't afford streaming distro fees, while others are using industry connections/nepotism to get on spotify playlists and press releases but are still labeled "DIY." idk this is just really interesting to me lol

something about how Fiona Apple and Eddie Vedder both said something along the lines of "fuck the industry" in the 90s (her at the VMAs and him at the Grammys) and Fiona took a career hit while Pearl Jam did fine; essentially a specific look at misogyny in the industry and how people loved to hate Fiona Apple

a couple of concert reviews: i'm going to see Jack White on the 19th and Fontaines D.C. on the 30th, i'm so stoked for both!!!

i told you i had ton of essays!!! this is not even close to all of the half-baked ideas i've got stored away on a loose google doc lmao i need a better organization system tbh, suggestions that are not an excel spreadsheet are welcome 🤪

as per usual, if you 🫵 see this and you're a writer consider yourself tagged bitch!!

[judaismandsuch]

A Small Note on Gilgamesh (and arguments based on parallels)

So, I saw a post that briefly refrenced the simalarities between the flood story in the Epic of Gilgamesh and the story of Noah.

Now, I am not going to recount the 2, because... I don't want to, but suffice to say the similarities are not simply surface level, but are fairly significant.

Now, I have seen that used as a 'GOTCHA' for Judaism/the bible. "This story clearly predates Judaism, so the religion is clearly bulshit."- though not exactly phrased that way- is the thrust of the argument.

I want to address *exactly* how stupid that argument is/give several counter arguments that exist with a quarter ounce of thought.

Assuming that Judaism *is* correct in it's entirety, and that therefore the story of Noah actually occurred as written, then of fucking course another culture in the area would have a near identical version of story! It happened! It's collective history! It would be weird if they didn't!

There was a major flood in the area, it permeated the collective unconscious and, due to base cultural similarities, both cultures independently developed there own similar myths.

The flood story was incredibly common across all cultures in the area, and when G-d was creating the mythological history if it was ignored people would have rejected the creation myth, so HaShem took the most popular one (Gilgamesh version) re-adjusted it to fit the morals and lessons that were desired, and put it in.

It is a portion of Jewish theological doctrine (not a necessary aspect, but a popular view) that G-d went to each people and offered them the Torah, but it was rejected by all but the Israelites. If this occured, the ancient Babylonians would have heard the Noah story, and then re-jigged it to match their beliefs in the epic of Gilgamesh.

The dating of Israelites and/or the creation of the bible is off. So the 'historical analysis' of the bible puts the creation of Breishit at around 500 BCE*, but the Exodus at around 14th c. BCE (usually), Assuming that the Jewish view of the creation of the Torah is correct, it would be written at 14th c. BCE as well. The oldest copy of the Gilgamesh flood myth is 1640 BCE, toss in a touch of wiggle room, and you could have Gilgamesh written post exposure to Israelite nation.

Abraham is dated to about 1800 BCE, if HaShem told him the flood story, there would have been more than enough time for him to tell it to others, and for it to make its way to Assyria.

Now, basically all of these do depend on one running with the pre-supposition that Judaism is actually G-d given (or at least willing to accept that for the sake of the argument), which I feel is kinda ok in an argument about whether or not a religion is full of crap. After all, if you refuse to accept any argument with 'the religion is to some degree true' as a premise, no argument about its validity can function.

But I am not endorsing any of these arguments per se, rather I am giving them to show how stupid using another religions flood myth to discredit Judaism is.

The same form of argument goes for a lot of the caananite religion based 'gotchas' that people have tbh.

*k I'll be honest, the arguments about the bibles age and authorship bug me *so* much. They all feel preseneted in a 'if you disagree with this you're a fucking religious nut job' kind of way, and really run with 'lack of physical evidence before such and such a date', which... its a book, written on hide. How much did you expect to survive in an agrarian society almost constantly at war which went through multiple periods of straight up ignoring it and reverting to paganism? Like, they would have pushed them more recent if the dead sea scrolls hadn't been found! I know it's a tad fundamentalist of me, but damn those arguments annoy me.

[kattitude130]

the hakuchiori essay

Notes: i don't really subscribe to dynamic ordering of ship names, this is just the name i'm using. suggestions welcome for fun names like paperfish or [term]shipping. obviously i ship them romantically, but i am also heavily invested in the platonic and friendship aspect of their potential (queerplatonic OT3 perhaps? helllllll yes.)

let us begin

Intro: i didn't mean to get so invested in this OT3, in fact i deliberately tried not to until more of this arc was done, but i failed. miserably. it's taking over. i can't stop thinking about it. so now i'm taking all of you down with me (if you feel like it). hakuhiro is already so popular and rightly so, and i believe the addition of iori would multiply the cuteness and pulls at my heartstrings in a way an OT3 ship hasn't before. this is truly my One True 3airing (yeah? yeah)

The Parallels: this part of the post kinda doubles as normal character analysis and comparison-contrast, but i think it's important. any level of reading comprehension would hopefully reveal the narrative parallels between these characters, which always adds points to a ship for me. the most obvious are their relationships to their respective fathers and the importance of these relationships to their character development throughout the story. where they contrast is their level of closeness and the ways these relationships have (fatally) concluded, especially with iori's currently being up in the air. chihiro had a great relationship with his father and a pretty stable (if nontraditional) upbringing, until he was violently ripped away, now following a path of vengeance into hell which may only reveal his beloved father's hidden flaws. hakuri was once "loved" by his father, until he couldn't meet his expectations, leading to years of rejection and abuse, and a fatal confrontation. iori seemed to love her father, who loved her in return, but traumatic experiences and guilt have lead them to be separated; will she learn of her father's sins as chihiro has? will her father need to be stopped as hakuri's was? it's easy to see how her circumstances, while still new and interesting, can be related back to the other two; she may even exist in the middle of their venn diagram: her father as an antagonist who must be stopped, but genuinely tried to give her the best life he could. the emotional turmoil this causes in her is heartbreaking yet compelling to watch unfold, and having relationships (platonic or otherwise) with chihiro and hakuri who have had similar experiences could help her (and us, the audience) make sense of it all.

Chihiro x Hakuri Angle: knowing how popular they already are in these spaces, do i even need to explain? i'll talk more about the dynamics between the three of them as a trio and how it may affect the hakuhiro angle in a later section.

Chihiro x Iori Angle: on the surface, it may get dismissed as typical "ohh he's the male protagonist, she's the damsel, how basic" but let me try to explain it further. iori has so much going on besides just being a "damsel"; sure, she can't fight (yet?) and needs protecting right now (remind you of anyone?), but everything going on with her memories of samura and whatever the hell is going to happen between them is keeping me on the edge of my seat. there is incredible potential here as chihiro vows to keep her safe, but may have to take down her beloved father. it's tense! we've seen a few conversations between them now which acknowledges their similarities (and differences) and how chihiro feels on the matter. he cares about her and her agency in this situation, which i believe she appreciates. he also believes they are too different, restating his self-damnation; iori may even feel the same, as she is obviously not used to the violence chihiro engages with so easily (at least, in her amnesiac state), and does not want to be a part of it for any longer than she has to ("i want to go back to school"). however, i get the feeling she also cares for him. her asking "are you scared?" still gets to me. if she only saw him as a completely unrelatable killing machine, i don't think she would be interested in how he feels about all of this. she still sees the humanity in him despite everything he tries to say to deny it. she feels scared and helpless, but has complete trust in him. i think she feels sorry for him as well. chihiro wants what's best for her and can theoretically make that happen, but what can iori do for him? right now, she's a reminder of everything chihiro is not. i admit it's not a very happy situation right now, but who knows about the future… a shipper can dream, can't i?

there's a sort of "in another life…" and "the damned x the innocent" dynamic they could have going on as a ship that i think many would find compelling, and although as previously stated may be dismissed as "basic", yes, the "guardian/hero x damsel" as well; vowing to protect someone at all costs does add something to a ship, i must admit. but i am more partial to the other interpretations in which they help each other, not just one-way. and if you caught on, i do believe there are chihiro x hakuri parallels here. she's not immediately head-over-heels like hakuri was, but still! chihiro wants to be strong for her, too. i wonder if chihiro will again seek iori's opinions when it comes to what should be done with her father in a similar way he hesitated killing hakuri's family members until they fought kyora together. will he once again be subject to that hesitation, which he called weakness, now that he has gotten to know her? maybe iori will overcome her fears and find motivation and strength in chihiro's example the way hakuri did?

Hakuri x Iori Angle: HURRAY SPECULATION! a lot of this hinges on iori keeping her memories, whatever happens to hakuri next, and if they'll even meet… but others have shipped over less.

with the various parallels previously discussed, there's a lot here too! their respective dads left them for very different reasons, but they're both sad about it, and i think they could understand each other. hakuri's willingness to turn against his family for the greater good (and his own greater good as an abuse survivor) sort of mirrors iori's willingness to abandon her father's memory (good times mixed with trauma) or possible turning against him if she can't accept the man he has become.

i'm desperate to know how hakuri would react to iori in general. there could be some tension if hakuri comes to hate or be strongly against iori's father; he would never take it out on iori, but iori might be uncomfortable by it since she still loves her dad-- which hakuri would understand! despite all the harm, he wished desperately for his father to just acknowledge him. despite everything samura has done and that iori may learn about, she might still wish to be his daughter again. having familial attachment mixed with traumatic memories towards someone is a really hard thing to go through. hakuri may be able to help her through these feelings, especially if the decision to stop samura by killing him arises.

their traumatic pasts are another point of comparison. hakuri went through a lot, directly because of his family and the evil auction they were running. we don't know how much iori has been through yet, but it was definitely something scary, and at a very young age as well. her father may not be entirely at fault the way hakuri's family was, but he seems to feel pretty guilty about whatever she went through. i believe something very traumatic is being hidden in her memories that may be revealed soon. it's hard to imagine what could "top" or match hakuri's trauma, but it's not really about that. it's about being able to further understand each other, and maybe even comfort each other through recalling similar experiences.

iori's ability to still see chihiro's humanity despite his path to hell may apply, too. despite me laying out their similarities, hakuri might agree with chihiro that they are just too different from the innocent normal people, like (amnesiac) iori and her peers. hakuri may not have killed as much as chihiro, but his upbringing was far from peaceful, and he seems dedicated to following him in damnation. additionally, if chihiro vows to protect iori, he would too. iori and her guard dog boyfriends is something i'd kinda want to see, i must admit to you.

a lot of this has been the sadder/hurt-comfort part of their possible dynamic, but there's definitely room for fluff and sweetness. they're good kids! the way they would hypothetically behave while harboring a crush or developing feelings for each other is too much for my heart to bear!! please help!!!

Effect of Adding Iori to Chihiro x Hakuri (The Anti-Suicide Glue) this section is thanks in part to @trans-hakuri (aka blinkeasy). to quote: "I'm curious to see how much she matches their freak re: putting yourself on the line for others. She's done it once already when she was fairly certain the Hishaku wouldn't kill her, but she doesn't seem to carry the same self-worth issues that Chihiro and Hakuri do (as far as we know) and it would be nice to see her as a voice of reason for them sometimes. She should participate in the mission just as much as they do, while modeling how to be less suicidal about it." iori being the glue that keeps them from killing themselves for the sake of others is admittedly a bit darkly funny to me. chihiro x hakuri is great partly because of how messed up they both are, and throwing in a (to be fair, also somewhat emotionally messed up right now) civilian girl who at least sort of knows what "true" normalcy feels like into the mix might just be the missing ingredient they need. although iori may not come out of this completely "normal" anymore, she would still have that perspective to offer. (and while chihiro had a relatively peaceful childhood, he believes he must abandon that life forever, and iori may be able to bring him back to reality somewhat.) it's true that i enjoy thinking about all the ways chihiro and hakuri support each other through the madness, but an extra (un-bloodied) hand can't hurt, and i do think there is some significance to gaining a friend their age. (for the AU lovers, i can also vividly imagine the close friendships they could develop in a more peaceful world (like high school AU) if canon is not meant to be.)

lastly, i want to highlight trans-hakuri's quote "She's done it once already when she was fairly certain the Hishaku wouldn't kill her" to state once again that iori is not just a damsel. she's scared and feels out of her depth, but she can be strong and brave too. that being said, i believe she also symbolizes normalcy and innocence/ignorance, which she may soon lose; if so, i do hope chihiro and hakuri are there to catch her.

[running-tweezers]

Ok, I’m finally doing it.

The Damien/Huxley Pining Playlist

I am well known amongst my friends for my Far Too Thought Out Playlists. I have one for like, every D&D character I’ve ever made, and have written full Google docs about each song and why it’s there.

Combine that with my voracious love of DamiHux and pining? We get this.

So if you just want to listen without reading an essay, I will put my annotations and thoughts under the cut. (But it will probably enhance your listening experience tbh)

Congrats you’ve entered the

MARISA ANALYSIS ZONE

Welcome. You’re my kinda people.

First the basics, this playlist encapsulates Damien and Huxley's entire pre-confession relationship, from their first meeting, through Inversion, to the confession itself. It alternates POVs, I’ll label each song with a color to make it easier to follow. Cool? Let’s go.

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Stray Italian Greyhound - Vienna Teng

Kicking off the playlist with one of my very favorite songs on it. First song, Damien’s first impressions of Huxley.

The denial was REAL. Those initial feelings were met with a “OH NO, OH GOD, OH FUCK” kind of reaction. Damien was totally unsure of what to even do with what he was feeling. After all, he isn’t the kind to get so mushy and sappy over a little crush! Especially on someone he literally just met! He’s far too cynical for something like that. So he just tried to push it down, ignore it.

But it “won’t sit still” “won’t do what it’s told”. Huxley came into his life and changed EVERYTHING. In a way that feels incredible, but makes things complicated. And he’s going to have to deal with it eventually.

But not now.

Enchanted - Taylor Swift

Putting this song on this playlist is part of where my “Huxley is a Swiftie” headcanon came from. It was a joke at first, I swear.

This is Huxley’s POV of their first meeting at the bowling alley. The “forcing laughter, faking smiles” really plays into where Hux was at that point, still putting on a bit of an act and not letting people see past the surface level. But he met Damien, they hit it off, and Hux was immediately feeling some kinda way.

I’m convinced this big guy had some giddy, twirling hair, kicking feet energy about Damien. Thinking about him for days after they met. Hoping that they would continue to be friends and get closer. And that this was the beginning of something that could be amazing.

Trouble - Troye Sivan & Jay Som

You can’t deny it forever, Damien.

This is Damien coming to terms with the fact that yes, he does have some feelings for Huxley. He’s now got a group of friends like he’s never had before, and that’s changing his outlook a little bit. He doesn’t want to live like he’s been living anymore, focused entirely on school and grades, and hurrying to the future he wants for himself.

And one of those friends felt like something different to him and he can’t deny it anymore. As scary as that was.

THATS WHAT I WANT - Lil Nas X

I think we as a society do not talk enough about how lonely Huxley was.

Huxley was the kind of guy who was friendly with everyone. He was liked by pretty much everyone. He was liberal with hugs and willing to give every ounce of love he had to other people.

But he was still guarded. Playing the version of himself everyone expected. Afraid to be himself. All that friendliness and love given away didn’t translate to anything substantial.

He wanted someone to love him back.

And now he had friends! Which was amazing and made him a lot less lonely. But one of his friends, again, was different. And he desperately wanted a different kind of love back from him. One he was more than happy to give, but afraid he wouldn’t receive in return.

Out of My League - Fitz and the Tantrums

First of all. God I love Fitz and the Tantrums.

We know that Damien doesn’t think he’s good enough for Huxley. He ESPECIALLY thought that in this stage, around the time of Friendsgiving.

Damien knows he’s easily annoyed, loses his temper quickly, and doesn’t think he’s much to look at either. But Huxley is so patient, is a calming presence, and is incredible to look at as far as Damien’s concerned. Huxley is so wonderful, and so far out of his league that he really thought he had no chance.

But that doesn’t stop him from daydreaming. Hoping someday he might be more than just a dream.

Golden - Harry Styles

Damien might think that he’s not good enough, but Huxley would definitely beg to differ. In a lot of ways, Huxley thought Damien was too good for him. Too smart, too bright, too driven to be interested in someone like him.

So he decided to keep his feelings to himself. Because he knows Damien isn’t nearly as open with that kind of thing as he is.

Also I think this song’s bright, firey, sun-coded imagery being seen as something to be admired and adored is really in line with Huxley seeing everything Damien thinks is bad about himself and loving him for those exact things.

Line Without a Hook - Ricky Montgomery

This is the one. I could do a whole lyric by lyric breakdown of this one. But I will attempt to keep it brief. Bc I’m obviously so good at that, just look at this post

Immediately after the Inversion, Damien had some very complicated feelings. About Huxley, about himself, about everything. This song encapsulates all of that.

Huxley saves his life in several ways that night. Both by being a support during his breakdown, and physically, literally saving his life when he exhausted all his magic. And he still feels like he can’t reach out. They hasn’t spoken at all. I can’t help but think that maybe he feels like it’s better that way, like it’s his fault, like Hux doesn’t want to hear from him. After all, Huxley was so emotionally mature about it all and he was not.

Combine that with his feelings of inadequacy, looking back at the night and wishing there was some way to take back some the the decisions he made. He would’ve helped Hux the same way Hux helped him, if he had just done things differently.

So he’s throwing himself completely into training. Maybe if he just works hard enough, he can make up for it. And maybe those complicated emotions will go away.

Also. Two specific lyrics I feel I need to point out. “I need you here to stay” is an excellent counterpart yo Huxley’s “right here” and we all know how I feel about a fuckin motif. And of course “all my emotions feel like explosions when you are around” is almost literal in this case’

(I have so much more to say about this one, but perhaps another time)

Heat Waves - Glass Animals

Though Huxley seemed to handle the aftermath of Inversion with a calm maturity, that doesn’t mean he didn’t have his own struggles.

As he went home to be with his family and deal with things, his feelings for Damien stayed. I do wonder what he was thinking during that time, when Damien wasn’t talking to him after everything they went through. I think that maybe he also blamed himself a bit. Maybe they weren’t as close as he thought? He felt like no matter what he did or said, it wouldn’t help Damien, no matter how much he wanted it to.

Also like. “Heat Waves” is too perfect a concept to not use in this playlist.

Delicate - Taylor Swift

After things start to return to some kind of normalcy after Inversion, Damien’s feelings for Huxley are stronger than ever. There’s no denial anymore, he really likes Huxley. He’s thinking about Huxley a lot. He wants to be with Huxley.

But things are different now, whether they like it or not. Inversion changed things, and everyone is still working through that night at their own pace. So there is a lot of hesitation on Damien’s part about what he should and shouldn’t do about the feelings he has.

By this point they’re hanging out together more, just the two of them. And Damien is really wrestling with whether or not to let Hux know how he feels. There’s a fear that he might upset the delicate situation they’re currently in, as friends who have been through hell together and are still healing from it.

Dandelions - Ruth B.

At the same time that Damiens’s so concerned about what moves to make, Huxley has never lined harder. He is firmly in “lovesick puppy” territory. He’s gotten even closer to Damien, and know him on a deep level now. He knows the parts of Damien he doesn’t show most people. And he loves them.

Damien just makes him so happy.

This song’s imagery is so good as well. It gives vibes of lush, green earth and flowers and something just so Huxley imo

In My Head - Joe Serafini & Andrew Barth Feldman

I am incapable of making a playlist for anything without including at least one musical theater song, and this is no exception. Through this not from an actual musical, it’s more theater adjacent, let’s call it.

We’re into right before the confession territory, a song for both of them, a duet. This song perfectly illustrates the awkward stage they’re in, as friends who both desperately want to be something different.

So much of this song feels so perfect for them specifically, it’s like it written for them, I swear. Huxley’s worries about being too much, Damien feeling like he’s not good enough, the gym line, it’s all too good honestly.

Right Here - Betty Who

And the playlist caps off with this one, the song that Erik Redacted himself said was their song. And it really is perfect, especially with that “Right Here” motif carried through their relationship that I love so much. It’s just so damn soft and so am I. I love them your honor.

——————————————————————————

HOLY SHIT this took so long. I sincerely hope you got something out of all of the ravings of a mad man that this ended up being.

Also @redactedbloop dinner’s ready, eat up!!!

[electric-eulogy]

Thoughts on the Tomodachi Game Manga: Yutori Kokorogi

Wanted to put this out here because my friend told me that my thoughts were interesting, haha. Several months out from when I finished the manga itself, but my motivation to post things online isn't exactly great... Regardless, Tumblr is the only place to get my thoughts on the media I consume at the moment (as this is the site that I find has the friendliest UI for me).

Anyway, this is more like a character analysis for a few of the characters than any kind of story evaluation for the most part. I'll put the actual analysis under the cut for people who don't want to read it.

Keep in mind that I've only read the manga, so I don't know anything about anything that's (presumably) only in the anime.

I want to talk about the main cast here... Yuuichi Katagiri, Shiho Sawaragi, Tenji Mikasa, Makoto Shibe, Yutori Kokorogi, and Kei Shinomiya. I'll likely touch on Yuka Katagiri, Taizen Shiba, Masakazu Shibe, Yutaka Mikasa, and everyone else that comes to mind with that list more briefly… Not individually, but in their relation to the others and the parent/child parallel in the story.

This post is for Yutori, though.

Please note that there will be spoilers for Tomodachi Game below.

Yutori Kokorogi

Starting with Yutori, as she's one of the ones I found the most interesting by the end of the story....

Her character is rather... interesting, and feels similar to D'arce from Fear & Hunger to me. They're both... incredibly bold and opinionated individuals, but their whole world revolves around one man. For D'arce, it would be Le'garde, and for Yutori, it would be Yuuichi.

Yutori doesn't read to me as though she has a particularly cohesive sense of identity. From the beginning, her personality was an act (which I thank every star above for), but she's not actually that stable of a person once that facade falls. She's obsessed with Yuuichi.

But before we get to that, I want to talk about her beginning personality in the manga. The classic... moe air-headed klutz girl. Honestly, this is one of my least-liked tropes in the media. I don't like it. But I do think that it's worth mentioning as her facade of choice. I wonder if it's because that's the kind of personality that can be effectively utilized to elicit sympathy and pity points if not exasperation and/or a sense of protectiveness... if only because she acts so much younger than her age.

It'd be easy to get close to people that way, and she'd also be filling a niche in the group that they didn't have filled yet. In the most surface-level, distilled way of phrasing it: Shiho is the upright law keeper, Yuuichi is the glue that holds everyone together, Makoto is the rich kid who's... constantly wavering on the borderline between "normal guy" and "creepy pervert," and Tenji is basically the upright law keeper 2.0 (male edition). And Yutori can step in as the "cute nieve klutz that everyone steps in to protect."

It feels like she made the personality explicitly to target that protective instinct in people who have a concious. She's the sad, wet cat on the side of the road with the big eyes that everyone pities, but only a few will actually step in to help. And she's made it so that Shiho, Yuuichi, Tenji, and Makoto will all step up to help her.

But once that mask drops, it does get painfully apparent that she doesn't know what a real friendship looks like. She'll act out the fantasy of one, but I don't think she knows what it actually is. But it's not about the friendship to her; it's about Yuuichi.

Rounding back to my idea that her entire sense of identity is dependent on Yuucihi: When she talks about him, she talks as though he's a god, and she also quite literally refers to him as one (if memory serves). She sees him as a sort of arbiter of divine will-- if only because of how fucked up he and Taizen ended up making her family situation (although I'll talk about that more when I talk about Yuucihi. Because I'm not sure that Yuucihi is the one that should shoulder that blame).

Anyway, she has this... obsessive, perhaps religious, view of Yuucihi... And similar to how some people make things like Being a Christian (TM) their whole personality, her entire personality is dependent on her perception of Yuucihi and what he's done. I phrased it to my friend as follows: She spent so long pinning things on Yuuichi to the point that it's become a fanatical, cult-like obsession for her. Her sense of self is tied to that. Her sense of self is innately connected to her sense of "past" and not a (her) sense of "like/dislike" or "hobbies," so the idea of what she "knew" being wrong would naturally fundamentally shake her sense of self.

Her entire personality is based on her personal worship of, and eventual vengeance upon, Yuuichi. So it's only... normal that learning or realizing that things were at least a little different from the way that she initially pictured it would destroy her. The idea that Yuuichi isn't the sole incarnate of pure, true evil and that there were more factors to blame than a child no older than her would also be something that I think wouldn't be pretty for her.

Because that's her obsession. That it's Yuucihi who did it, it's Yuuichi who did it, it's Yuuichi who... well, you get the idea.

But, in the end, she's also aware that she's no better than he is. An eye for an eye makes for an endless cycle of vengeance; somewhere in there, you will eventually become that which you hate. In an attempt to constantly get the better of, or win the battle between, you will sink to their level and worse because there are just some things that you can't feel like you've won/been vindicated by if you don't throw away your morals. Fire can only be fought with fire sometimes, and sometimes that means being worse, or at least on the level of.

And it could be said that Yutori is worse, just like it could be said that Yuuichi is worse. That's all a matter of personal perspective. But they're both not good people. And she knows that. So, by the end of the story, when everyone decides whether or not they want Yuucihi to live, she doesn't say anything until Makoto does because she knows that she's sunk to his level, sort of like the idea that her horse in this race is weaker than the others.

She's almost on the level of Yuuichi when it comes to manipulating others or at least pulling an act in front of them. This can be seen in how long she's able to fool everyone, including the cult leader Saika Kamishiro. However, it could be debated whether or not Saika was actually that perceptive to begin with.

Doesn't change the fact that she manipulated him so successfully, though.

Regardless, I get where she's coming from, but I don't necessarily sympathize. I can't condone her decisions and behavior, especially towards her mother and friends in the story (even if that's rectified in the epilogue).

I also want to mention what her name means: 心木 ゆとり... With 心 (kokoro), meaning "heart" in a sort of cutesy way (though it can also mean mind and soul). And 木 (ki/gi) meaning "tree/wood". ゆとり (yutori) all together can mean something like "space/affluence/time/reserve," and it'd be used as a noun that way, but broken up ゆ (yu) would mean "hot water" and とり (tori) would mean "bird".

I'm sure that I'll have more thoughts bite me later that I'll regret not expanding upon here, but this is it for now.

[skull-earring]

👀

Do you have any song suggestions for Meg 🤔

I will so take suggestions

SMILES

Okay it really depends on like. I think there are a lot of angles you can look at Megaera from and I like exploring all of them so I’ll go through a few.

Here’s my playlist for her (Spotify) I’m gonna explain some of the song choices

So I think the most popular one I see and also the most surface-level is the badass unbreakable front she puts up and for that part you get songs like Blood in the Cut (K. Flay) and Natural (Imagine Dragons). K. Flay is very good for vibes uhh President Has a Sex Tape would go in here too if I wasn’t so incredibly picky about lyrics.

The second aspect of her is like… her inability/unwillingness to show vulnerability that can contribute to that sharp outward persona and makes a lot of the more sensitive/self-aware songs like off the table kind of in my opinion because she’s not one to be outwardly emotionally vulnerable at all. But this is where uh Roadkill comes in I love that song for Megaera because I think it perfectly brings in her want and need for someone to return the care she has for others without actually prioritising herself. This is also uhhh O My Heart, with struggling to keep relationships because she literally just can’t be open enough with someone (I see this with Achilles most, but also a lot with Alecto, and in her conversations with Zag it’s often obvious).

That also leads into my favourite thing ever and that is Megaera’s guard dog theme. Because the thing is Megaera’s main priority - kind of her only priority - is her duty to everyone else. It says in her Codex entry that she’s loyal to Hades, but not actually Hades, she’s loyal to the House itself. And nearly every overheard conversation of hers with someone else is her trying to help someone and doing a very bad job at hiding that she cares about them. And also the whole “I’m only doing this because I have to” “I’d rather be on [Hades’] bad side than yours”. Megaera can literally do less than Cerberus can. Cerberus doesn’t even have to fight Zagreus he can be bribed to let him pass, Megaera doesn’t have that luxury and doesn’t have a choice in killing him, she’s on orders. This is getting very long but trust me okay she’s more guard dog coded than the literal guard dog. So anyway that’s to say that Cop Car, I’m Your Man, Until It Doesn’t Hurt (the “not being allowed to do anything but stay put and do what I’m told”), Bullet with Butterfly Wings, Saint Bernard, a couple more, all that.

And also Giver is for the whole “constantly serving everyone around her and still believes being kind is not her thing”. She’s got that ISTP inferior Fe swag. That’s a different thing.

There’s also the whole oldest sister essentially being “favourited” and “abandoning” her sisters and the guilt that comes with that and having a wall kind of form between you and them and not being able to try and rebuild that relationship because of aforementioned inability to allow yourself to open up and your sisters growing closer to each other and further away from you as a result and there’s probably a lot of songs that go with that whole thing. Who knows though.

Ignore how this immediately derailed and turned into a character analysis post. Basically I go insane over her every day.

[tribow]

So I watched Asura

This one is a fully CG 2012 movie animated by...Toei Animation??? Whaaa?

It's actually not bad animation either. This is some pretty good CG! (for 2012). I wonder if this is the early days for many of the animators who worked on Dragonball Super: Super Hero.

Well anyway, Asura is a very violent and tragic movie. I say that with no exaggeration. There's a lot of gore and nudity right out the gate. The younger crowd should not watch this and anyone who is even a little sqeamish should steer clear.

It's a struggle to put together any feelings on this one. Anyone who is not used to a tragedy (in a narrative sense) will probably reach the end of this movie thinking, "What was the point of that? All that violence and drama for that??? What's the message??? No one is shown to be right or wrong! What am I supposed to feel?!?"

This movie has some very clear Buddhist themes. If you have a surface level understanding of Buddhism, you know that the religion values the struggle of life. To struggle is to live, denying one's struggle is tantamount to denying life. If you want to live, why wouldn't you struggle? Do you struggle only to live?

Vague questions, but they are questions important to the movie. Ones that inform Asura's decisions as we follow his early years in life, and the terrible struggle that accompanies it.

That's all well and good, but man does Asura's life require some suspension of disbelief. This child survives getting burned alive as a baby, falling into a ravine with only dead bodies at the bottom to break his fall, and cannibalism.

No he's not the one getting eaten, it's very heavily implied he eats people, although we don't really see him actually do it. He certainly bites off people's flesh a lot though, just not for food reasons. (The commentary Asura has on cannibalism is interesting though).

He's also incredibly competent at combat to an unreasonable degree. You're telling me this kid is schmoving this hard with no parental figure? How does he have this much skill? I know that monk didn't teach him shit outside of basic compassion and sutras. How's he this good?

Asura is like a wild animal, but give this boy an axe and his skill could only be human.

It's VERY hard not to give this any kind of analysis without some story summary, and I won't. Despite how much can be said with some spoilers, I do think this movie is worth the watch if you're up to it. Seriously, it's a tragic story with a lot of violence and nudity. It's set in medieval Japan times. Y'know, when a parent selling their daughter is normal. It's fucked up.

If you're able to look past the dark themes, there's a lot to gleam from this. It's not gonna blow your mind or anything. Asura's story is pretty straightforward, but it does shine a spotlight on humanity that often stays hidden in a closet. Instead of shunning this dark side of humanity away, Asura embraces it.

Despite everything, it's still human. Is that not beautiful? Very Buddhist of you Asura.

Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and my eyes are straining a bit. I liked the movie, I didn't look away, I can appreciate it, but I can still say that's fucked. I'm allowed!

[speed-seo]

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So don't take shortcuts with on-page SEO. A holistic approach covering all the factors will give you an advantage. The Future is Yours for the Taking There you have it - the latest and greatest tactics the top SEO experts are leveraging before the competition catches on. I know it can seem overwhelming, but the future is yours for the taking if you start implementing these strategies now. Here are some key takeaways to help you get started: - Match Content to Searcher IntentDon't just target keywords. Analyze the intent behind search queries and craft pages tailored specifically to each intent. - Leverage Data to Find Hidden OpportunitiesDig into keyword and trend data to uncover under-served topics and queries your competitors are missing. - Produce Innovative, Interactive ContentGo beyond blog posts to capture attention. Interactive content earns links and engagement organically. - Let AI Accelerate Your Content EngineCarefully utilize AI tools to draft content faster. But always have humans review for quality. - Obsess Over On-Page OptimizationCover all the factors with a comprehensive on-page optimization strategy - don't just chase keywords. - Build Genuine PartnershipsFocus on forging strategic relationships vs. mass link building. The links will naturally follow. The sites dominating the SERPs today got there by leveraging these same tactics before anyone else did. Now it's your turn. Choose one or two strategies to start implementing this week. Consistency and persistence will pay off. I can't wait to see the success you achieve! Read the full article

[lilyblackdrawside]

Good post! Really well-put together analysis of the branch.

But i find it difficult to even look at Wiš'adel as a Flinger. She just ignores the identity of the branch so much by dealing incredibly high damage to high defense enemies all by herself, hitting flying enemies (I didn't know Rosmontis could bypass that limitation with a future Branch, but even then she needs another operator helping her to do it) and I agree that flyers aren't an issue, especially not when you're not in IS and have access to your entire roster, but it is still part of the branch's identity. Even her attack animations don't sell her as a Flinger to me. Going by the module short, the original name of the branch is probably something like "Bombardment Sniper", but both Greyylter and TRC throw something in the traditional way and Rosmontis throws something non-traditionally with her big invisible hands.

If I didn't know what Wiš'adel was and you showed me a clip of her without revealing her attack range, I'd think she was still an Artilleryman Sniper.

Because of this, I don't consider her a win for Flingers. They made her a Flinger to let her abuse the upsides they have while letting her ignore the drawbacks that come with the branch. Which yes, could be described as her being a look at what the branch could be, as you said, but blowing past the limitations just isn't it for me.

I've used Rosmontis a bunch here and there, mostly with her S2 cause it's easier to use and found her to work well for me. I am one of those players who use Marksman Snipers a lot, or just low-rarity operators who simply don't have such high stats so I always have some form of support around, be that just Skalter for general stages or adding Warfarin and Pramanix to really shred through sturdier enemies. In that sense, I've never seen her as lacking. The branch on a surface level is designed to clear crowds of weak enemies, not to nuke down elites or bosses. Similar to Splash Casters (who are also quite disliked in an overblown manner). With that expectation in mind, she never disappointed me and backed by the previously mentioned support units, she put in a lot of work beyond her limits. She is similar to Marksman Snipers in that her raw dps is quite high and as a multi-hit unit, she really magnifies buffs given to her - just like someone like Exusiai or Marksman Snipers similar to her (Archetto, GreyThroat).

Your IS and RA examples also enhance this point. It's a branch that has potential that needs to be brought out by outside factors and I consider that to be part of their identity. Which is another reason why Wiš'adel doesn't feel like a Flinger to me. She just functions all by herself. (But that's also just part of recent 6 star design. They're all meant to not need assistance.)

Greyylter kinda does his own thing, focusing more on control effects with his basic attacks and then doing arts damage with S2 to sidestep the def issue and he works pretty well, from what I've heard.

Also about Dusk: She was considered pretty bad until her ModY came out. She wasn't that bad, her S2 in particular was/is quite powerful, but ModY really elevated her and helped her fulfill the phantasy of using her S3 to put up a mass of summons to hold back groups of enemies.

Also also I agree with prev that Ho'ol has always been just fine.

On release, people were disappointed by how "bad she is at levitating enemies" when that isn't even really the point. The levitation is just a means to an end, that being activating her silence and damage boost, as well as disrupting attack windups. Her S2 deals really good damage (450% atk per attack), S1 is way more consistent in actually levitating enemies than you'd think, because enemies tend to enter her range one by one and S3 is alright. It has good use-cases and excels against large bosses, cause she can hit them with three tornados at once.

How the Arknights Community was Wrong on One of Arknight's Most Powerful Classes

Or, alternatively, you all need to apologize to Rosmontis right now.

Flingers are experiencing a modern Renaissance right now. Thanks to the release of Wis'adel and the introduction of Rosmontis's absolutely busted IS module, it seems like things are on the up and up for Flingers. Even Greyy the Lightningbearer is a common sight in high level IS runs, and he doesn't even have a broken module.

How on Earth did this happen, when it wasn't very long ago that Flingers were the butt and punchline of their own joke?

The Original Let's start with how the archetype was introduced into the game: Rosmontis. Rosmontis was released alongside Mudrock for the Chapter 8 release event, and the reception was pretty mixed. Rosmontis was a limited operator, and to this point, limited operators in Arknights had been pretty middling. Nian wasn't really conclusively better than Hoshiguma, and W was good but nothing special. We were not at the point yet where Dusk or Skadi the Corrupting Heart had been released, so the running joke was typically to roll on the other operator on a limited banner. Mudrock was a really strong laneholder that still sees a lot of use today, and Weedy is by far the strongest shifter operator ever released.

It's also worth noting that Rosmontis was released during a general downturn of opinions on AoE ranged operators. Leonhardt and Meteorite were considered actually quite strong in the early days of Arknights, and I know this must sound crazy, but Mostima and W were actually super hyped for their release. People thought Mostima, base-ass Mostima with no modules, was good. But after CC Blade, and a general stint of CCs where AoE operators made relatively poor performances, the tide had shifted. Operators like Eyjafjalla and Angelina (god remember when Angelina was considered really good. Well I guess she is now. Regardless) had AoE capabilities but were much cheaper in DP and had solid secondary skills for dealing with single enemies. So people were generally pretty down on AoE operators, which wasn't helped later on by the release of Passenger, an operator considered so bad it resulted in several attempts by Hypergryph to make him better (the retrospective view is that while Passenger was bad, he was made out to be a lot worse than he was, a view I agree with).

These two factors did not help the views of Rosmontis as an operator, but it was also further not helped by what content was available to use Rosmontis in: Contingency Contract. Rosmontis, tragically, released after the first theme of Integrated Strategies came and went, and so the only high level content available to use her in was CC. CC is particularly harsh to Flingers as we'll discuss, but this is also something that Wis'adel has managed to avoid as there hasn't been a CC since her release. The only difficult content since Wis'adel's release has been IS and RA, two game modes that honestly favor Flingers as we'll discuss later on. There was just nowhere to use Rosmontis in more difficult content where she didn't feel bad.

Flingers are a pretty interesting subclass, and Arknights has really not designed any subclasses to be like them, ultimately. They have a very impressive attack range, higher bulk than other ranged operators, and a unique gimmick to their attacks: they will deal an additional hit of damage, but one that only has 50% of their ATK. In addition to this, Flingers are the only Sniper subclass that cannot hit aerial enemies without certain conditions being met (Wis'adel's S3, Rosmontis S3 with an aerial blocker).

In general, this results in a class that is very good at dealing with large groups of enemies with only modest DEF stats. This is because DEF ends up having an increased effect on Rosmontis' damage, because it will apply to both of her hits. An enemy with 375 DEF will, after the 175 Def ignore from her talent, reduce her attack damage by a total of 400.

This for a lot of people was sort of the final straw that broke the Rosmontis back. Her vulnerability to enemies having DEF was a problem, and it was generally stated to be in a way that other DPS checks would avoid. In addition, if we take a look at ideal DPS scenarios with the introductory 6-star for each Sniper class:

Ray: 1,346.22 Narantuya: 1,062 Schwarz: 880.28 Exusiai: 815.99 Chen the Holungday: 647.17 Rosmontis: 601.71 Fartooth: 583.88 Rosa: 539 W: 373.93

Rosmontis is very middle of the pack, losing in particular to Exusiai. Now, Exusiai also had the problem of being very soft to enemy DEF stats. Honestly, it should be noted that Rosmontis was always hitting higher DPH than Exusiai would for her normal attack damage.

(I've been getting really into Desmos lately)

Now this is all just auto-attack stuff and I don't want this to be exclusively a Rosmontis analysis by any means (although it's coming). The point here is that there was a pretty common conception that Rosmontis didn't really have a place in the meta, because Exusiai was so dominant in that spot. It's not hard to understand why. If we look at their S3 DPS really quickly...

At low DEF values, Exusiai is overdominant. This isn't super surprising, as she has a lot of factors working in her favor: a busted 5 hit S3, an attack interval reduction as well as a sizable ASPD buff from her talent. But it doesn't take a huge amount of defense for Rosmontis to come out on top. The specific DEF number is 580, roughly. Then, the perks of Rosmontis's S3 come to light: it's larger DEF ignore, it's halved attack interval, and it's much larger ATK buff.

This being said, there are still things working against Rosmontis, like her skill cycle being very long, and her own ATK buff resulting in Warfarin's buff being diluted compared to Exusiai. If you take a look at CC results, it is true that Rosmontis only has one top to her name: CC Spectrum, where she is part of a Risk 31 clear alongside Exusiai, which is pretty cool. But CCs, which often increase enemy DEF while reducing friendly ATK, are just very harsh to Flingers. Given that it is a class so sensitive to DEF and ATK changes to hit breakpoints, most CCs just hit Rosmontis in a double bind.

Funnily enough, Exusiai also doesn't have any top clears in CC past this point too, which is interesting to point out.

(For those counting: Rosmontis: CC5 Exusiai: CC1, CC5)

Rosmontis' position probably wasn't helped past this point by the release of Chen the Holungday either, and the rest is history. Rosmontis goes down as one of the weaker 6-stars in the game. People feel bad when they roll her. People on this website nurse weird ass grudges against her.

The Blip

It would be remiss of me to not remind people about Greyy the Lightningbearer. Greyy was a 5-star, which means that 99% of players ignored his existence, Gamepress made a dogshit summary about him that was made by people who don't play the game, and life moved on. We're going to talk about Greyy in more detail later on because he is important to talk about...

Oh well right now

Lone Trail: The Update That Should Have Changed Everything

Lone Trail was a super massive event, releasing three 6-stars that can be kindly regarded as "good but nothing amazing, bad, and my wife". It also introduced to the game the Flinger Modules, and I'm going to tell you all a secret. You and me, real close now.

It's fucked up these modules didn't receive more hype.

These modules gave Flingers a second shockwave hit. Now that doesn't seem all that impressive. After all, you might think to yourself, that shockwave still deals 50% damage. But the addition of an extra shockwave really changed the numbers of the game, because it meant a huge chunk more damage.

At minimum (673 DEF roughly) this module improves her damage by about 45%. That's pretty crazy for a module as it stands, but if you want to see the full chart, here you go. Arknights Youtubers hire me.

The extremely high peak there, where Rosmontis is doing more than triple the damage she was originally is actually getting to the exact point where Rosmontis without a module moves towards dealing scratch damage. This is pretty common with modules involving physical DPS operators, such as Blaze, to have very unique high points.

But this is 45% just off of, what is essentially

An extra shockwave

60 more points of DEF Ignore

+75 ATK attribute

This is a remarkably tame talent upgrade. The base effect, the second shockwave, is pulling so much work here. These numbers will be a bit more tame when you compare with S2 (already comes with +2 shockwaves) or S3 (already has some DEF shred) but this is still a very impactful module.

It also impacts the stun chance on her S2. Without her module, and having 4 total hits per attack, this puts her stun chance at roughly 59.04% per attack. The additional hit raises those chances to 67.232%. Not a massive increase, but it does help to patch up her odds.

This is also why Greyy's module was so important. Greyy's slow is tied to his talent, and hence the jump from 2 hits to 3 hits is very notable. Without his module, Greyy has a 64% chance to slow the enemy with every attack. With his module, those chances go up to 78.4%! That's pretty significant! He also deals 15% more damage to Slowed enemies too, which is a pretty strong mod on top of the extra shockwave. I haven't actually done Greyy's numbers, but it really does make him a lot more consistent at slowing enemies.

So now we're here, with Flinger's getting a surprisingly good module. They now deal 3 hits per attack, with Rosmontis dealing 5 hits per attack with her S2, which is actually relevant for Lone Trail (Rosmontis can remove a clean 250 DEF with every one of her attacks during her S2 against Arc Screenguards). So what happened?

Well...Flingers weren't popular, were widely regarded as a flawed class, and mostly passed over. It just wasn't worth it to people to raise Rosmontis or Greyy the Lightningbringer even if you had some inkling their module was good.

The Return of Integrated Strategies and Reclamation Algorithm

A miracle the likes of which Hypergryph may never do again...well okay maybe they will, they do be kind of nailing it on the alternate gamemodes, we have the return of Integrated Strategies and Reclamation Algorithm. These modes are actually uniquely situated in comparison to CC to benefit Flingers over other classes. This is largely because of how these modes chose to scale difficulty and the tools they give you to combat this.

In IS, enemy difficulty typically results in scaling HP and ATK buffs, and that's it. It's rare to see enemy DEF buffs in IS. In addition, many relics in IS focus on increasing ATK or ASPD or improving damage dealt. Flingers get much and much better when they deal damage with their shockwaves, and it is pretty easy to do that in IS. Rosmontis's S2 is of special note here: with her module, it deals 5 hits of damage, which means it benefits from ATK buffs to the same degree as Exusiai does, but with a lot of added perks. DEF ignore, a moderate AoE radius, and a chance to stun. This skill is way more dangerous with additional ASPD.

Greyy also benefits a ton here. Extra ASPD allows him to basically permanently lock down entire groups of enemies with slow. This is something that can also sort of be done with Chain Casters, but notably, Chain Casters can only slow down a certain number of enemies at a time with each of their attacks. Since slowed enemies tend to create clusters, Greyy can slow down entire waves of enemies with his attacks, while still dealing pretty impressive damage.

The only issue is the aerial enemies. I haven't mentioned this up until now, because in my opinion, it is the single most overhyped drawback in the entire game. There are tons of events and chapter releases where this basically doesn't matter. Aerial enemies are, for all intents and purposes, rather rare in Arknights. But in IS this is important. Flingers need some degree of map knowledge to use well. But your Sniper ticket is not necessarily the only solution to aerial enemies in any IS, and chances are you'll find more than one. For IS3, you can pick up Kroos Alter and Rosmontis and in the grand majority of situations be completely fine.

Of course, if you play IS5, this basically isn't an issue and Rosmontis is the second stronger Flinger in the game, and I think arguably the second strongest Sniper pick?

I almost forgot RA by the time I went to post this, so it's a good thing I went back because, yes, Flingers and Rosmontis are also good there too. It's literally designed for Flingers to be good, it's huge mobs of enemies all clustered closely around each other. You can use Provisions to give Rosmontis a ton of ATK or ASPD and watch her go ham on like 115 exploding spiders. They also have amazing range for vision on resource maps and have multi-hit mechanics for those stupid locks.

It's like, impressive how nicely Flingers slot in here. I'm really curious how Greyy feels when you give him one of the ASPD provisions so he has +60 ASPD.

Rosmontis CRAVES your Coagulate Supplements!!!!

The End-Times: Wis'adel and Rosmontis's Busted Module

If you've ever wanted to know how we got to this renaissance, it was Wis'adel being released, having absolutely busted numbers on her kit that basically ensured that her shockwaves would always do damage, and then going and soloing IS3 A15 like it was fucking nothing.

Wis'adel proved Flingers could be fucking fantastic.

Rosmontis has actual problems in her kit, she's ultimately a pretty early Limited operator with all the design choices that carries. Wis'adel is what you get when you ask "how far can a Flinger go?" The shockwave mechanic works well with her huge numbers and her shadow status effect. Her summons work to keep as many enemies as possible attached with a shadow. Her blast radius is massive. Honestly the fact she can blow up the UFOs in IS3 barely matters.

Soon after that, Rosmontis got her specialized Module. I've seen people complain about this. You're wrong. There's no fucking way this module should be allowed to be used in general content. It is, in fact, maybe the most busted specialized module they've released. It completely changes Rosmontis as an operator. Benefitting from Caster relics is insane for themes like IS3 which has a ton of genuinely broken ones, her new and improved equipment are insanely powerful, and the fact that she allows every Sniper and Caster to create a free rather tanky blocker with a crazy debuff effect is like

You understand this module is nuts? Surely?

The trait wouldn't really make Rosmontis meta anyhow. It would improve her damage by a lot but puts her, rather frustratingly, into the camp of mixed offensive operators who now have to worry about enemy RES values coming into play. Plenty of the enemies with decent DEF stats that Rosmontis struggles with now also come with sizable RES stats. As I've mentioned in my brief thoughts on Dagda, there are a ton of enemies Dagda hits harder by brute force than Indra does by trying to side-step the bigger stat.

It's also okay that the module is IS only, because IS is where Flingers are just at their best. Nothing is stopping you from using Rosmontis in general content, especially with her still really good BOM-X module!

Flingers, ultimately, are just a well-designed class. They have great range, AoE, and having extra instances of damage is always incredibly powerful. I do think Rosmontis has some kit issues, but I also think that a lot of people immediately dismissed her as bad based on community consensus. You want to know a cool thing about Rosmontis I haven't brought up yet? She can attack invisible enemies with her S3. Invisible enemies feel a lot more common than aerial enemies do, hell Lappland the Decadenza's event is literally a bunch of invisible enemies.

But like, that's never seen as a positive to Rosmontis unless you're a Sniperknights player and then you might just say Totter is better (and I get that, he is a bit more consistent). Rosmontis can hit an entire enemy type with her S3 that Wis'adel can't, but it's seemingly never mentioned. It's just...this community is very strange, you know?

Try Rosmontis out, hell try her out with Shamare or Warfarin. If you use Exusiai a bunch (godspeed soldier it's been rough since the Chen days), you probably already have those operators. Try Greyy out too. Then, if you really want the challenge, E0 Level 1 Wis'adel. Come on. You know that's better than like half the cas-

[vidhya777]

Navigating the Digital Landscape: Unveiling the Realities of Digital Marketing

In the fast-paced world of business, the digital landscape has become a battleground for brands striving to capture the attention of their target audience. Digital marketing, a powerful tool in this endeavor, opens up a world of possibilities for businesses to connect with consumers. While it holds the promise of immense success, the ease of delving into digital marketing is a nuanced concept. In this blog, we'll explore the facets that determine the accessibility of digital marketing and whether it lives up to its reputation of being "easy." 

For those aspiring to master the art and science of digital marketing, enrolling in a top Digital Marketing Institute is a strategic step. By gaining in-depth knowledge and hands-on experience, individuals can navigate the complexities of the digital marketing landscape and contribute meaningfully to the success of businesses. Elevate your digital presence, equip yourself with the right skills, and embark on a fulfilling journey in the dynamic field of digital marketing, setting the stage for a prosperous career. While it offers incredible opportunities for businesses, the ease of execution depends on several factors. 

1. Understanding the Basics:

Digital marketing, at its core, involves promoting products or services through online channels. The foundational principles, such as identifying target audiences, creating compelling content, and leveraging various platforms, are relatively easy to grasp. Online resources and courses provide accessible entry points for beginners, offering a foundational understanding of digital marketing concepts.

2. Accessibility of Tools:

One aspect that contributes to the perceived ease of digital marketing is the availability of tools designed to simplify tasks and streamline processes. From social media management platforms to analytics tools, there's a plethora of resources at the fingertips of marketers. However, while these tools enhance efficiency, understanding their intricacies and maximizing their potential requires time and experience.

3. Content Creation:

Content is the lifeblood of digital marketing. While the act of creating content is straightforward, producing content that resonates with the target audience and aligns with the overall marketing strategy demands a combination of creativity and strategic thinking. Crafting compelling narratives, designing engaging visuals, and maintaining consistency across channels are skills that evolve with practice and experience.

4. Evolving Landscape:

Digital marketing is anything but static. It is a dynamic field influenced by ever-changing algorithms, emerging technologies, and evolving consumer behaviors. Staying current with industry trends and adapting to shifts in the digital landscape is essential. This adaptability factor adds a layer of complexity that challenges the notion of digital marketing being universally easy.

5. Targeting the Right Audience:

Success in digital marketing hinges on reaching the right audience with the right message. While tools like social media advertising and email marketing offer precise targeting options, understanding the intricacies of the target demographic, creating accurate buyer personas, and tailoring campaigns accordingly requires strategic thinking and a nuanced understanding of consumer behavior. This aspect may pose challenges for those seeking a one-size-fits-all approach.

6. Data Analysis:

In the digital realm, data is king. Analytics tools provide a wealth of information, from website traffic to user engagement. However, interpreting this data and deriving meaningful insights demand analytical skills. Marketers need to go beyond the surface-level metrics, understand the story the data tells, and make informed decisions. This skill set is developed over time through experience and continuous learning.

In the grand tapestry of digital marketing, the ease of execution is a multifaceted concept. While the basics are accessible to beginners, achieving mastery involves navigating a learning curve. The abundance of tools and resources may streamline certain tasks, but understanding their nuances and utilizing them effectively requires dedication. The dynamic nature of the digital landscape adds an element of unpredictability, making adaptability a key attribute for success.

In essence, digital marketing offers a world of opportunities for businesses and marketers alike. Its accessibility depends on factors such as an individual's familiarity with the field, their willingness to adapt to changes, and the specific goals of their marketing campaigns. Success in digital marketing is not just about mastering tools; it's about continuous learning, strategic thinking, and a deep understanding of the ever-evolving digital terrain. As businesses navigate this landscape, the journey may not always be easy, but the rewards can be truly transformative. For those aspiring to master the art and science of digital marketing, enrolling in Digital Marketing training in Chennai is a strategic step. By gaining in-depth knowledge and hands-on experience, individuals can navigate the complexities of the digital marketing landscape and contribute meaningfully to the success of businesses. Elevate your digital presence, equip yourself with the right skills, and embark on a fulfilling journey in the dynamic field of digital marketing, setting the stage for a prosperous career in the vibrant city of Chennai.