#he does absolutely look like an angelic robot design-wise though!!!

[muzzleroars]

We've had an angel-ified V1, what do you think of a machine Gabe?

When I first got the game, my only exposure to it was fanart, and I had assumed from what I'd seen that both V1 and Gabriel were robots made in the image of angels. I've seen some people play around with fanart and theories of Gabe secretly being a machine, what do you think of it?

Also, how do you prefer to receive fan art of Fallen Gabe? Sent over inbox or just tagging you?

i'm honestly very split about how i feel about the idea, because i absolutely love gabriel as an angel and actually how that reflects being a machine despite apparently being so much above earthly existence, yet i also think it's incredibly interesting to explore how turning out to be a machine would affect his entire sense of self. so when i do consider the idea, i naturally like to go half in on it with the thought that gabriel was once an angel but was torn apart and remade as a machine by the council basically as an experiment in obedience. so it's sort of a ghost in the shell scenario, leaving gabriel to wonder what this means for his memories, his existence, and even his identity - is he still an angel for presumably still having the "soul" he once possessed? or is he just a construct given gabriel's memories? and it taps into the genuine pointlessness of his service - he wasn't even made by god, he shares no part in heaven. i think it would genuinely lead to a breakdown of his self and personality, not just by feeling "fake", but to think he may not truly be gabriel, just something that stole a dead man's memories and took pride in an identity that was never his. just a foolish computer that believed all the lies programmed into it. an ai that mimicked gabriel's personality and walked around as his macabre copy (because i think even if he truly once was gabriel, he could never know what digitizing that identity did to it).

i will say it also makes a very unique scenario for him seeking out v1 because he finds the wires and circuits beneath the blood in his body and he just. needs help. he needs someone to tell him what he is. and in that intense panic, he flees to the only machine he kind of...knows. and it's very sweet, v1 teaching him about maintenance and figuring out just what kind of computer he is, as well as the dilemma of him likely running on emergency power as the light was his source. of course, v1 doesn't recognize most of his components (heaven-made electronics! cool!), but it doesn't say anything to that effect since it knows all that's gonna do is panic him again - plus it's confident it can figure it out. so i do really like the element of how they might bond over this and how v1 helps gabriel accept himself as he is...as well as the idea that they go hunting to figure out just what happened in his past - if he was ever truly an angel, if he's entirely constructed, or if he's somewhere in-between.

(and you can send it either way! i think it's easiest if you tag me tho :])

#overall it's more a fun idea for me to play with as a small au concept #but for my actual headcanon gabe's fully an angel #he does absolutely look like an angelic robot design-wise though!!! #esp with the hologram-like halo and wings!! #so i can totally see why it's a popular idea (plus the implications are neat for sure) #cake answers #gabriel

[legionofpotatoes]

we decided to watch all story cutscenes from the new resident evil village videogame on a whim, since it’s not really our cup of tea gameplay-wise but seems to be this massive zeitgeist moment that made us morbidly curious. And I know how much everyone cares about my thoughts on things I know very little about, so. let’s get into it huh gamers. and yeah spoilers?

for context, I’ve only played resident evil 4 and a small portion of 5. I also read the wikipedia entry for 7’s plot recently. all this to say I was only vaguely aware of how tonally wacky the series was going in

I also completely gave up following the plot of the mutagens’ soap opera, so that paid off in spades here as you might imagine

anyway so that baby in the intro. that baby’s head is just massive. humongous toddlerdome. when ethan finds the baby’s head in a jar later on. there is no way that head would fit into that jar. bad game design. no not even game design. basic stuff. one hundred years in prison for jar modeler

if I see a single functional hetero marriage in video games I will cry tears of joy. I understand their misery is kind of The Point irt them badly working through the hillbilly romp trauma but like. sheesh. at least set that up as an emotional story goal the plot will help resolve. but nope they start off miserable and it goes nowhere

I know I know the mia thing has a huge wrinkle in it but like. not really in terms of dramatic function?? set up a happy end to the re7 nightmare (miranda can keep up appearances for all she cares) and then take that all away from angry griffin mcelroy for manpain. it will still absolutely work to set up the dramatic forward momentum. why throw in this cliche Hollywood Tension in their marriage if you’re not going to address it oh maybe because it’s normalized as automatically interesting because nuclear families are a self-propagating pit of a very narrow chance at emotional happiness relying on social stigma to preserve their empty function oops my baggage slipped in yikes abort mission

I called him griffin mcelroy because I saw his face on twitter and. yeah. I will continue to do this occasionally. my house my rules

... fuck the reason I’m hung up on this is specifically because the rest of the game is so tonally dexterous (which is a shining point to me! more on that later!), and yet they felt weirdly compelled to create the aesthetic trapping of a family-at-odds trope without following it through too well. a sign of both the good and the bad stuff to come

but listen the real reason why I wanted to talk about any of this is to nitpick the fascinating backwards-engineered nucleus of the entire thing; in that this game essentially creates a melting pot of just SO many disparate horror tropes and then makes a no-holds-barred unhinged effort at weaving thick lore to piece them all together. it is truly a sight to behold. like straight up you got your backwoods fright night situation, your gothic castle vampires, your rural-industrial werewolves, and don’t forget your bloated swamp monsters over there, with then a hard left turn into robotic body horror, and the entire ass subgenre of Creepy Doll writ large, and the bloodborne tentacle monsters, and a hellboy angel bossfight, which rides on the coattails of a mech-on-mech pacific rim bonanza, and just jesus henry christ slow down

almost all of these are textural hijack jobs that don’t really get into the metaphor plain of any of those settings but the game sort-of makes an argument that the texture IS the point and revels in it. It is kind of admirable almost. The same reason why the intro felt boxed in and unmotivated is also why the rest of the game just blasts off of its hinges to the point of complete and self-indulgent tonal abandon. I kinda loved that about it. lady dimitrescu made sure to hold her hat down as she bent forward in mahogany doorways and then suddenly she’s a giant gore dragon and you settle in your temp role as dark souls man with Gun to take her ass down. Excellent??

this rhino rampage impulse to gobble up every horror aesthetic known to man comes to head when the game wrestles with its FPS trappings in what is the most hilarious solution in creating visceral player damage moments. Since most cinematics and the entire game is in first person, that leaves precious little real estate for the devs to work with if they really want to sell griffin’s physical crucible. To wit. This dude’s forearms. Specifically just the forearms. They are MASSACRED throughout the story. The poor man lives out the silent hill dimension of a hand model. by the end cutscene he looks like a neatly dressed desk clerk who had decided to stick both his grabbers into garbage disposal grinders just a few hours prior. like in addition to everything else it manages to rope in that tinge of slapstick violence into its general grievous genre collection except this time it IS for a lack of trying! truly incredible

but wait his miracle clawbacks from everything his poor paws go through are retroactively explained away, yes, but far too vaguely and far too late to console me as I sat and watched everyone’s favorite baby brother reattach an entirely severed hand to his wrist stump by just. placing it on there. and giving it a lil twist ‘n pop terminator-style. and then willing his fingers back into motion right in front of my bulging eyes. this game just does not care. it does not give a shit. and boy howdy will it work to make that into one of its strongest suits

cause generally speaking resident evil was THE premiere vanilla zombie content destinaysh for like a decade, right? and as the rest of the world and mainstream media started encroaching and bloodying its blue ocean it went and just exploded in every single conceivable horror trope direction like a smilodon on catnip. truly, genuinely fascinating franchise moves

yeah the big vampire milf is hot. other news; grass... green. although I do love the implication that her closet is just identical white dresses on a rack. cartoon network-level queen shit

apropos of nothing I’ve said there’s also this hobo dante-devimaycry-magneto man, and I can’t believe this sentence makes sense. anyway he made that “boulder-punching asshole” joke referring to chris redfield and it was probably the only easter egg that really landed for me and boy did it land hard. I have not seen him punch the boulder in re5, mind. I had only heard about how funny it is from friends. and here this dude was, probably in the same exact mindset as me, trying to grapple with that insane mental image. with you on that ian mckellen, loud and clear

I advocate vehemently against the shallow pursuit of hyper photorealism in art direction but I gotta admit it works really in favor of immersive horror like this. the european village shacks especially gave me super unchill flashbacks to my rural countryside retreat in western georgia. I could smell the linoleum dude. not cool

faces are weird in this game. can’t place it. nice textures, good animation, but the modeling template is... uuh strange? and the hair. it has that clustered-flat-clumpy look that harkens to something very specific and unpleasant but I just don’t know what. sue me

griffin’s mental aptitude to take all this shit in stride and end every seemingly traumatizing bossfight involving some fucking eldritch being yet unseen through mortal eyes by essentially throwing out an MCU quip is just. What the fuck dude? I mean that was funny how you casually yelled the f-word at a god damn werewolf that you considered a fairy tale an hour ago but are you like, all right?? it was swinging a sledgehammer the size of a bus at you, ethan

oh oh the vampires are afraid of cold and your last name is winters. I get it haha

Pro Gamer Nitpick: boss fights seemed a bit unnecessarily long?? idk why the youtuber we picked decided the ENTIRE propeller man fight counted towards the vital story scenes he was stitching together, but man mr big daddy lite there really had some get up and go huh??

why are they saying dimitrescu.. like that. is it really how you say that word or is the english language relapsing into its fetish for ending every single word with a consonant at all costs

I’m not saying it’s a dramatic miss of a twist in context of all that’s going on, but the “you died in the last game actually and have been DC’s clayface ever since” revelation is low-key. it’s. it’s just funny to me, I dont know what to say. century-old god-witch fails her evil plan after she mistakenly removes heart from what was definitely NOT just some white guy with eight fingers after all

chris realizing he’s about to become the player character and immediately swapping out his tsundere trenchcoat for the muscletight sex haver sweater

the little bluetooth speaker-sized pipe bomb he taped to his knife was nuclear?? really??? I must have missed something because that is just too good. I buy it though I totally buy it. chris just got them fun-sized nukes in his car trunk for, you guessed it, Situations

anyway this is all for now just wanted to briefly touch on how unexpectedly funny and tonally irreverent this seemingly serious game turned out to be. did not articulate any cathartic story beats whatsoever but my god it had fun connecting those plot points. he just fucking put his severed hand back on his stump and it Just Worked todd howard get in here

#text #another one in my bulleted review series with no rhyme or reason #sorry resident evil fans this could be a painful read pls turn away #i know almost nothing about it but i am gonna be super fake familiar and critical of this one hey ho

[paunchsalazar]

hey!! bro ur my number #1 source for lupin III content so can I ask like how in the hell I go about watching all the series / movies / etc for it in order??? I’m really pumped for the live action so I wanna at least dip into all the other stuff. thanking ya kindly //tips hat

hello!!! what an honor!! oh my… ok I’m so sorry in advance… I’ve gotten a few similar asks and I started writing out a list and it was getting over 1500 words long so I had to try to chill out…so…

LUPIN III CRASH COURSE

I’m sorry that this is so long.. and consider I cut it down! but here is my intro because I know this franchise is huge and confusing!! (I’ve had multiple instances of friends being like ‘I tried to find that Lupin thing you like but I could only find the third one?’) 

I kind of liken it to Scooby Doo? it stretches some 60 years and has been handled by many different writers, directors, and animators across very different eras? most important to know! the order doesn’t really matter and things aren’t really sequential (save for where the three most recent shows) so you can jump in and explore whatever seems compelling! it’s overwhelming because there is so much but also nice because there’s something for everybody! if you like fun and pure, edgy, etc. etc. 

feel free to disregard everything coming… I will say my personal priority order is

- Castle of Cagliostro

- some episode of part 2

- part IV, ideally all of it! there’s filler but it’s hard to know which ones

- part I (or some episodes of it? up to you!)

- Fuma Conspiracy

- part V 

- part III (it’s great too!! just not as sequential as IV and V)

- First Contact… truly indulgent but its so cute!

(below I broke down a little about each and my favorite episodes, where to find them, etc. and there’s so much more but just doing everything below is a whole lot)

TV (All the shows except for The Woman Called Fujiko Mine are on Crunchyroll!)

Part 1 (1971) - crunchyroll!

The beginnings kind of a weird feeling because the first half was directed with one vision vs. the second half being co-directed by Takahata and Miyazaki, there’s a shift in Lupin’s personality and most significantly they sought to shed his ‘sense of apathy’ and make him more of a hero? something that’s echoed later on! honestly, I don’t think the transition is as dramatic as some people find it? but it does shift across the episodes and end on a sweet note!

truly they all have something to enjoy but I made note of 

episodes 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 16, 18, 19, 23 

for some reason? really really suggest watching the last episode! but get a bit of the first and second half beforehand!

Part II/Red Jacket (1977-80) - 155 episodes - on crunchyroll dubbed and subbed

there are a lot so I tried to narrow it down to a few of my favorites/ particularly noteworthy ones? I bolded my absolute favorites! I’m sure I missed a few but save for a few two-episode arcs you can jump in anywhere and it’ll be fine.

episodes 1-79 are dubbed on Crunchyroll! In my personal opinion the script makes it worth it!! there are a bunch of non-dubbed episodes anyway if you want to get a feel for both

(these episode titles are often hilarious, misleading, and/or horribly embarrassing?)

1 - ‘The Return of Lupin the Third’ - just a good starting point!

5 - ‘Will the Leaning Tower of Pisa Be Standing?’

6 - ‘Tutankhamen’s 3,000-Year-Old Curse’

7 - ‘Venetian Super Express’ - I want to say this is a cute little road trip episode? it’s been so long

9 - ‘Steal the FIle M123’ - this dub… madness. very strange Christopher Walken impression for absolutely no reason?

10 - ‘Bet on the Monaco Grand Prix’

15 - ‘Crude Reproduction, Perfect Frame’ - Lupin keeps committing strange and uncharacteristic crimes, but he has no memory of doing so!

29 - ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ - Lupin has some mysterious Levitation Technique and everyone is after it 

32 - ‘Lupin the Interred’ A famed hitman is after Lupin!

34 - ‘But Your Brother Was Such A Nice Guy’ - this episode is one of the zaniest ones and that’s saying a lot… Vampires? Jesus? Really really funny moments though especially in the dub

42 - ‘Cruisin’ in Drag’ Lupin infiltrates the ship of a wealthy bachelor disguised as a woman 

45 - ‘Diamonds and Minx’ kind of a mess of people stealing from each other? 

46 - ‘The Island of Dr. Derange’

57 - ‘Alter-Ego Maniac’ - Inspector Zenigata goes criminal

62 - ‘Church of the Poison Mind’ - Jigen and Goemon stumble into a religious cult

69 - ‘Zenigata Getcha Into My Life’ - this title is awful but this episode is great. 

78 - ‘Ice, Robot’ - an inventor has made a machine that can cry diamonds!

79 - ‘Baton Death March’ 

81 - ‘Fujiko, Men are a Sorry Lot!” - Fujiko gets engaged to a Prince, the rest of the gang goes after the monarchy’s Golden Bell

96 - ‘Lupin’s Gourmet World’ tbh this is a vore episode but there are some great gang moments here and a really fun third act

99 - ‘Fighting Jigen’ - first anime episode (I think like in history? but I could’ve misread) in stereo! And I believe the first to air of the TMS staff’s work, you can tell because the style shifts to a more Miyazaki/Cagliostro look and this will keep happening for the rest of the show

101 - ‘Fervent Love at Versailles’ - a crossover episode with Rose of Versailles! 

103 - ‘The Wolf Looked at an Angel’ - Goemon is an angel I can say little else

104 - ‘The Most Dangerous Golden Bed’ - debut of perhaps the best opening! I love this episode?? so much?

112 - ‘Danger! Goemon’ 

122 - ‘An Unusual End to an Expedition for Napoleon’s Treasure’ 

143 - ‘The Miami Bank’ 

145 - ‘Wings of Death: Albatross’ - ah yes, one of the famed Miyazaki-directed episode, truly so worth it

151 - ‘To Arrest Lupin, the Mission at the Highway’ - another not exactly Miyazaki episode but a lot of the people he trained? They depart from the part 2 style(s) again but its a good bit of fun all around! Really lovely character animation

152 - ‘Jigen and the Hatless Pistol’ - Jigen loses his hat and thus his ability to shoot

155 - ‘Thieves Love the Peace/Farewell, Dear Lupin’ - the finale episode! Miyazaki-directed as well, and just beautiful 

Part III (1984) - 50 episodes - crunchyroll!

I’m still very early in this one so I can’t say much yet! But it gets a bad rep? Perhaps for being more inconsistent stylistically and a bit on the zanier end! But I really like it!! these drawings are such a blast! I think each bit has its merits and this one is no exception. Plus with all their freedom animation-wise they can do a lot of fun stuff!

The Woman Called Fujiko Mine (2012) - 13 episodes - on kissanime for certain and I think animetake?

this is the most dramatic departure from the rest of the shows/films/specials. Fujiko Mine is the star of this part! It definitely has less obviously plot-important episodes but it’s one narrative from start to finish. I must note that it’s by far Lupin’s edgiest, I think it’d be safe to deem this part as R-Rated. There’s sex, violence, sexual violence, abuse, bodily mutilation, obsession… a gay character who gets a pretty tragic fate (at first I was excited by the very existence of an LGBT+ character but he really goes through the wringer and never gets a resolution.. I don’t want to spoil). This is probably Lupin at his ickiest? I do like Jigen’s personality here! And his dynamic with Fujiko, but it’s a lot more disjointed than the other parts. She meets each of them separately and towards the end, Lupin and Jigen interact more but there’s barely a time when they’re all together. That’s not meant to be a deterrent but personally, I’m a sucker for their friendship and love them as a group so it’s a bit of a bummer. Sequential plot-wise though! This one is definitely captivating, a bit disturbing, and there is a plot-twist that really got me. The villain design is really cool too!

Part IV (2015) - 26 episodes - on crunchyroll, also dubbed on Funimation

This part is narrative-based and sequential! It still has some more standalone episodes but there’s definitely an overarching story throughout! I think they’re all worth watching and might leave little important bits that’ll be confusing later on. Essentially this part takes place in Italy for the most part and starts with Lupin getting married to a multi-millionaire heiress/model/celebrity who wants to get into the thief business. This one feels like a good combination of old and new, it’s not quite as silly as the earlier parts can be, but it’s full of nostalgia while still feeling original. I really had a good time!

This dub isn’t bad but!! It comes with a different opening and soundtrack, I guess Lupin’s pretty big in Italy and perhaps there were licensing issues? I’m not sure? But it’s a bit of a bummer to be without the Yuji Ohno soundtrack. The alternate opening feels more like a collection of stills and footage found throughout the show? It’s not horrible, just different! Regardless, the Part IV Japanese OP (vs. the Italian/US one) is worth a watch!

Part V (2018, airing on Adult Swim right now, summer 2019!) - 23 episodes 

I’m actually not done with this part but its good fun! more directly tied to part iv then the others are to each other. It’s more sequential as well with a few sub-arcs and since it fell on the franchise’s anniversary it has callback episodes with Lupin in various jackets in various tones. Interesting Lupin characterization here… he seems… sadder, wistful? and we get hints of Lupin lore! Lots of fanservice but… I love it! I still think they could’ve pushed it more? it feels somehow more reserved than part IV in some ways, which is already different from the 70s and 80s, but it’s got a lot of lovely moments!!

Films/TV Specials

From 1989 to 2011 they had a special every year!! So much!

Castle of Cagliostro (1979) - Available on Netflix! 

perhaps the best-known piece of media in the Lupin franchise? And rightly so. This film is Hayao Miyazaki’s directing debut and a blast from start to finish! This characterization of Lupin is definitely Miyazaki’s more than Monkey Punch’s but that seems to be the strange nature of the Lupin franchise! I could really go on forever… please watch it!

The Fuma Conspiracy (1987) - 

perhaps harder to find, but it’s on Kissanime! Goemon is getting married but before the ceremony is over the bride is taken by the Fuma ninja clan and the gang helps him to get her back as well as learn the story of a family heirloom? Really great stuff from everybody! Adorable Zenigata, the fluffiest and most handsome Goemon, cute Jigen, Fujiko, and Lupin interactions, a really really incredible car chase! Even with Cagliostro’s fame, this one has got some serious pizzazz

Episode 0: The First Contact (2002) - on Kissanime as well! 

A journalist asks Jigen how he met Lupin III, this is probably my favorite TV special? And features one of my favorite opening scenes in the whole franchise. The instrumental!! Perhaps each member of the gang at their purest, whatever that means, really great moments between everybody and peak Lupin and Jigen meeting and somehow signing up to be life partners

#oh my god #i'm so sorry #please.. feel free to ignore this #lupin #lupin the third #lupin iii #lupin the 3rd #diggitydamnsebastianstan

[wehaveallgotknives]

american gods credits breakdown/analysis

bc why not? full of weird speculation about the intentions of the creators, but basically they mash up a lot of the things that made/make america what it is - both what it’s proud of and what it’s not.

warning: this has like 30 images. i am not an american, or a god.

buckle up, comrades, and feel free to argue.

so we open on a root system - we got yggdrasil world tree vibes but as we all know, america is home to some of the oldest/largest trees/forests in the world - i read the redwood forests can communicate through their root systems

but you pull up to the tree and it looks dead - fruitless, barren, unable to support life (very possibly a hanging tree, which is obviously relevant)

but

that’s fine because it flickers into fibre optics! which will never die! rather than light being turned into energy for us to eat like with plants, light is turned into information to keep us plugged in!

and we come up on our first actual figure: a slain medusa, her snake hair electrical connections. remember that medusa was killed by hero pegasus and the disembodied head was used by athena, goddess of war/wisdom as a shield decoration. the symbolism of the medusa head is a sign to ward off evil. she flickers blue and green - serpentine yet inorganic. (freud, unsurprisingly, had a whole thing about decapitation=castration and medusa being the mother you wanted to fuck and kill and were afraid of - a man looks on her and stiffens! i only mention it because it might link to the next imagery.)

pull up on a statue of some sexy ladies - faceless, touching each other the way women in pornos do - no man in sight, no pubic hair in sight, a pose clearly designed for the voyeur, not the woman’s pleasure, women to be looked at - particularly to be looked at through a lens.

BUT THESE WOMEN LOOK BACK!!! all of them have a single cyclopean camera eye in their foreheads. the surveillance state and the pornography industry: two great tastes that taste great together. we are all voyeurs! the nsa can watch you masturbate and cry through your laptop camera!

cut to: a menorah! they used a hannukah menorah instead of a temple menorah? is that significant? but it’s all midi cables and that - i can’t work out what the reference here is? maybe there’s a thing about the lamp no longer serving as a lamp? someone who knows more than me about judaism and/or midi cables please chime in.

the fucking co-exist wallpaper up there does my head in too - judaism, christianity and islam are all of an abrahamic lineage, so i get putting them together - but they’ve just chucked in the yin yang symbol? is it meant to stand in for buddhism, and this is like the big four major players? i always associated it with taoism? i mean this whole frame might just be dumb! 

here’s a another suggestion of a pretty lady though!!! she’s like bernini’s veiled sculptures

which are marble (i kno right?) and are mostly one of the marys from the bible. but this one’s draped in circuitry that resembles a map. i’ve decided she’s saint siri.

laughing buddha! who isn’t the buddha you’re thinking of. fat/laughing buddha is actually budhai, different dude, chinese folk god, said to be a monk all about being content in poverty. i mean, similar enough to the stoic parts of gautama buddha’s philosophy for no white people to really care. but the abundance/contentment available to the poor here in america is DRUGS. i bet some those DRUGS come from ASIA. i bet the people who made these credits weren’t sure which part of asia this laughing buddha is from. i mean, if they were going for a nirvana/ecstacy joke, they kind of got the wrong buddha? but also, almost no one in the west can tell them apart, so. BUT there’s also like one long close up of a pill with a star stamped in it, which might be symbolising china, where budhai is from, BUT i also might be reading too much into it. MOVING ON.

cut from the joy of drugs to a bullet???

oh no it’s fine it’s a jet engine! those have definitely never killed anyone!!! certainly not whole cities at once!

keeping in the pointy/deadly symbology, there’s this sort of centrifuge/hypodermic needle thing that i thought, first time around, was more recreational drugs - but! the centrifuge vibes made me think it was more the medical drug industry? which could be supported by the face that it’s right underneath...

ganesha! god of science, learning and art! ganesha! many handed and wise! ganesha! shaped like a friend!ganesha, my friend, what’s that you’re holding? traditionally it’s an axe, and something delicious, or some letters which represent intellect, or - 

oh you’re holding smart phones. the smart phones are scrolling infinitely  - so this could still be an arts/science thing, but i’m assuming it’s a critique and not a celebration of the technology/its infinite uses.

ok this might be the lamest one, because that is an aibo robot dog, and they aren’t even from america? but he is in front of a pyramid, which might make him anubis. the glowing top is pretty good - there’s a story that the pyramids at giza had, once upon a time, golden capstones that caught and reflected light. if they existed, those capstones were absolutely melted down at some point in one of the wars. but, now the pyramids with the glowing tops are at vegas, where the gold is pre-stolen.

and we’re back to tits! these ones are attached to some weird robot legs (pistons suggesting horse power, steam engines?) and this fucken face

which is possible in pain, possibly orgasmic, possibly drowning in oil. she’s in front of this neon machismo

and her head is poised at his crotch, cool cool cool

but it’s when you pull out you see the extent of this fuckery

she’s his ride

this one could be a cool comment: the cowboy in neon is clever, because it sort of suggests that he’s an illusion - the myth of the wild west does rest on the back of horses, but also on unnamed women and people of colour, on mechanical industry that gets left out of the stories?

but this is all speculation. it’s a fucked up centaur sculpture.

we have next an angel - but you can already see that along the wings are automated weapons and on the angel’s head

night vision goggles.

like seal team six wore. fuck this might even be a joke about how the cherubim are covered in eyes!

then we have some muscle cars, a bloke in a vr headset carrying a missile like it’s lunch, as you do. i think this is about production lines and automation - the model t ford, the drive in fast food restaurant and the military industrial complex all use the production line. the vr headset is sort of plugged into this

confusing, slightly organic carving thing - the cables down the bottom resemble roots or tentacles, and the obelisk shape at the top could be from any temple, from any time, any continent - but as it lights up, it comes together

it’s the goddamned space program - all the firey gods we send into the sky to look down on us, to carry our prayers.

but all great religions need sacrifice, as the show will tell us over, and over - and you must sacrifice the best, the most beautiful, the most beloved

i mean they go out with a bang, don’t they

and finally, the only piece of remotely indigenous imagery - the bald eagle as the thunderbird, topping the totem pole (looking, at this angle, a little like the chrysler building’s gargoyles, but let’s say thunderbird)

the whole strange stack of it, under the flickering neon signage that america didn’t invent, but they may as well have, for their widespread and tenacious adoption

which is probably a metaphor!

let me know if you have opinions about any of this?

#american gods #my analysis is based on being a huge nerd