ashkav

[ashkav]

how many pieces of jewellry do you wear?

(includes individual rings, necklaces, earrings, piercings, etc)

none

1

2-3

4-5

6-7

8-9

10+

i add more/remove more depending on where i am

#five earrings and two rings #i rarely wear necklaces #but the two rings never really come off ever im too used to them it feels weird when nothings there #i want more earrings eventually #maybe a lip piercing too

[ashkav]

The latest numbers coming from Gaza state that there are about 77,575 injured Palestinians as of April 28, 2024.

I honestly see this number as a very humble one, but regardless, I said this in 2014 and it bears repeating: considering the types of weapons Israel is using in Gaza, the overwhelming majority of these injuries are severe and critical. So when we say that well over 77,000 people are injured in Gaza, we're talking about tens of thousands of people who have ended up with a lifelong disability. Thousands of amputees with no proper care. Thousands who will not be able to walk or see again. Many won't be able to go back to school or work again. Burn victims without the means to reduce or take the pain away. Many on life support and many more who will not even make it.

So many open wounds, both literally and figuratively, that we need to keep present in our conversation about Gaza.

[ashkav]

we still get immediately shoved out of our immersion in tv shows or films when The Girl find a dead body and immediately shrieks - we just don't find it realistic because we're pretty confident most people would gasp rather than shriek (i.e. sharp inhale rather than sharp exhale) and it also feels unnecessarily (and predictably) misogynistic too, as men encountering corpses almost never do the same on screen

also of course please do tell us if you've actually encountered a corpse unexpectedly, because tumblr is absolutely a place where some people have done this thing and we love a good anecdote

suddenly imagining "burst into song" as a potential response

#unless the dead body dropped from the ceiling i dont think id make any noise at all #id probably stare in silence trying to figure out if its a dead body and then if its real or not #i get very quiet when im really scared

[ashkav]

[ashkav]

Fans spent decades claiming that Hideo Kojima is a creative genius who's being held back by the studio system, and then the first time a production gave him free rein to do whatever he wanted he promptly made a game where you have to play out using the bathroom in real time so the protagonist can collect his own urine to craft magic piss grenades. It's unclear whether this confirms the fandom's hypothesis.

#hideo kojima #death stranding

[ashkav]

I just KNOW they would have the craziest beef

#i think they would both tear at each other with their teeth like an ouroboros #locked in an eternal state of frenzy until they fuse into one mega creepy child #with all the worst qualities and twice the incestuous implications! #alia atreides #renesmee cullen #dune #twilight saga

[ashkav]

[ashkav]

Kojima's perception of big boss and clifford unger: the relationship between mother and son

Where best to start than with big boss. The catalyst for big boss becoming the man he was, was none other than his only figure, his 'mother' the boss being killed by his own hands. From then on in the serious, he takes a serious change in character that leaves him spiraling until his mother’s grave is the only place to feel loved.

Kojima decides that one of the many ways to show big boss's attachment to the boss is having him carve out that same c-section scar that she had. We already know of its importance of the scar from the boss as she had explained America already had taken everything from her, including her son, so there was nothing left for her to do except give her life (hence leaving john to take it) it's an interesting choice that big boss decides to take that scar from her and put it on himself, the exact same pattern of the botched c-section (like a snake). Later we find out that eva had volunteered to have big boss's children through his cells and using her as an incubator.

Now talking about Cliff. While Cliff was married to Lisa who had gotten pregnant around the time of the first death stranding happening, she got into a fatal car crash that essentially left her braindead and in a coma. The child was able to be saved and put into the BB program, incubated while Cliff constantly visited BB and Lisa in the hospital room. From then on Cliff was thrown into a role of both mother and father, sharing stories of his life and talking to Lisa in front of BB. But when it was found out that the BB program was going to take BB from Cliff and never giving it the chance to be born, Cliff, even after death vowed to set his child free.

The moment Cliff and BB were killed, set off a chain of events, but most importantly changes that effect how both Sam and Cliff are perceived. They both ended up being shot right in the abdomen, connecting them not only as father and son, but through death as a string.

But dare I even say connected as mother and unborn child. I say this because of the constant parallels put in the game. Kojima describing Cliffs cords as umbilical cords as well as holding a misconstrued version of his BB whenever he shows up as a BT ghost. Sam swimming in the waters of the beach every time he 'dies', flaoting like a baby in the womb. Connected by other BTs by cords adjacent to umbilical cords. It's hard to just see these things being put in as a coincidence when this can be heavily interpreted as a relationship between a pregnant mother and her baby, even sam shows this behavior passed down with him and Lou. Connecting with her through the cord hooked up (umbilical cord) viewing his memories through her. Being possessive when people try and take her from him or even being separated for too long. That C-section like scar that he shares with Cliff. And what tops it off is how the typical mothers in both of these relationships are never shown. Lisa was already in a coma when we see her and Lucy has been dead before the game even started. They are important figures in Sam and Cliff's relationship but aren't important to focus on them being mothers, rather than mother imagery and symbolism being used on Sam and Cliff instead.

C-section like scars for reference:

I just find it extremely interesting that Kojima has now TWICE used this imagery for important male figures in his games that tie down to deeper symbolism than at first glance, just viewing it as "coincidental" scars in the same places but not really understanding the purpose and place of the scars.

Big boss has the scar to symbolize his deep unhealthy attachment to the boss and his twisted vision of who and what she stood for. He carries her to her own grave, his love for her was never surpassed by anyone else.

Cliff's scar is not only there as a reminder of how he and Sam are connected by amelie and john (by proxy) but that deep connection that exists between a pregnant mother and that unborn child.

#YEAHHHH #parenthood scars both the parent and child = the cycle continues #and then cliff and amelie as the two warring factions fathermother vs mothersister #the parental role as one which consumes and has no clear boundary #family as a fucked up amalgamation a reanimated corpse you drag around with you #a dead corpse that comes back to life a zombie that haunts you #im going feral #mgs #death stranding #clifford unger #theoryposting

[ashkav]

crawls into your ask box like the girl from the ring. so i noticed you made a post about death stranding and what it says (or does not say/is not able to say) about labor and i haven't been able to stop thinking about that subject all during my playthrough but i don't have the vocabulary for it and was wondering if you had any other thoughts

Hi I have way too many thoughts about this but I tried to keep it short. I am assuming you’re referring to my joke about Drone Syndrome and Marx’s alienation theory.

We have no information as to what happened to the delivery workers pre-Stranding when drones took their jobs. Was there mass unemployment? Did people lose their homes? Did the government give them universal basic income and pay them to stay home or pursue passions (probably not)? Did they get retrained for a new field? All we know is that they developed Drone Syndrome which seems analogous to the theory of alienation.

But Death Stranding takes the alienation of labor further. It isn’t about people seeing little value in their exploited labor but people having no value because the have no labor and becoming depressed and developing hormonal imbalances. Without any labor to do at all, the delivery workers became miserable in the same way workers are when being alienated from their labor when they’re being exploited in industrialized work owned by someone else. There’s no choice, no sense of fulfillment, no sense of value, no connection. The game lore calls putting the delivery workers back in the process a step back from progress but for whatever reason doesn’t offer an alternative for what those workers could have been doing. Robots freeing people from drudgery could be good but only if those workers are able to transition into different work, or are supported without working, and not be financially ruined. We don’t know what mechanisms existed for this suddenly extinct labor field in universe. Not to mention how restless and bored many people irl get when they aren’t at work or doing basic household tasks. People want to contribute to things, people want to feel important, needed, like what they’re doing has value or impact.

There is another omission in the lore that’s interesting as well. Is there money post-Stranding? Many games have a pseudo-economy in them as a way to upgrade your abilities or gear. But in Death Stranding you get better gear by increasing your connection level with different facilities. Sam never gets paid, and no one talks about money. Igor never says “y’know corpse disposal is a dangerous job but it pays well”. Everyone seems to be motivated either out of a desire to help other humans or for personal reasons, nothing financial at all.

Post-Stranding, it was impossible to use autonomous delivery drones or planes anymore and the delivery workers who became porters were literally the most essential of essential workers so preppers and people living in cities did not die from lack of medicine or food. This sudden increase in the value of their labor caused some some of them swing the complete opposite way—developing Delivery Dependence Syndrome, becoming MULEs, contaminated by Chiralium. Literally a different class of human beings altogether, homo gestalts. The fact that they want the cargo itself simply to hoard and no longer care about delivering it to who needs it is important. That’s the breakdown. It’s no longer about helping people but simply getting things. They don’t even sell the cargo, they just keep it.

Lore-wise, the best way for porters to mitigate DDS caused by chiralium contamination was to join an organization like Fragile Express or Bridges, where the organization’s leadership, structure, support, and resources could alleviate the symptoms by increasing oxytocin production through human interaction or with smartdrugs.

Considering how anti-isolationist and anti-rugged individualism the game in, it’s clear Death Stranding is telling us being a part of a community is far better than doing it alone, and it isn’t trying to shit on self-employed labor or uplift corporatized mass organized labor, especially since there seems to be no profit motivation behind Fragile Express or Bridges. Porters are simply middle-men, filling a vital role in the post-Stranding society.

People go by nicknames based on their labor. Craftsman, Engineer, Roboticist, Novelist, etc. Sam’s name changes from Sam Strand (family) to just Sam (no family no connections) to Porter Bridges (labor and connection). Identity has become inextricably linked to labor that has once again become fulfilling. Everyone seems aware how vital their role is in the survival of humanity. Medicine and weapons aren’t all we deliver, but books and art, too. Although Sam himself is disillusioned with his labor and the world, but that’s a different topic.

Porters (and preppers) are the opposite of alienated from their labor. They know their labor is crucial to the survival of other human beings. Porters can choose the routes to deliver packages, can rest whenever they want, and aren’t doing it to make someone who owns the means of production richer. Preppers provide Sam with mutually-rewarding upgrades to his equipment, increasing his chance of survival, and humanity’s. They may not even get a wage from it, but do it because it is fulfilling, because they know other human beings depend on them. Their labor has objective value and is highly prized in the post-Stranding society. There’s no enriching shareholder value and, presumably, no money. Porters leave ladders, ropes, structures, and post-boxes filled with items for other porters simply to help each other out.

#fantastic analysis op!!! #there's a joke to be made about amaelie's strands and marx's chains here someone complete it for me #death stranding #theoryposting

[ashkav]

Starting another text about how my mind is deteriorating as I think more about Death Stranding 2. Here we go!

Today we're going to talk about how I believe Fragile will be the friend who betrays us in the sequel, but not because she's bad, but because she had no choice or because she's in a risky situation.

Let's start with a few points (which may be confusing because my memory isn't great, sorry). During my conversations with @love-bigboss1fan-me about Metal Gear and how Kojima's mind works within his worlds I came to a few conclusions. Let's get started!

-> Fragile and Higgs will be "on the same side".

If we were to put APAC as the common point between Higgs and Fragile then I could assume that both would be working "together", without knowing it, or knowing it, but still with a certain dislike between them.

How did I come to this conclusion? Coffin.

Coffin is the only thing that closely links Higgs to Fragile and I am very suspicious of the ease with which Fragile closed Fragile Express simply to open Drawbridge. The Qpid that Sam will now wear is basically the same design as the necklace that Coffin wore. Higgs' cool sarcophagus has the same ideas, so we have Coffin linking Fragile and Higgs here.

And you know what's bizarre? I was looking for these photos and then I thought "Fragile's father reminds me of Higgs…", the type of hair, the style, I don't know…

But then you ask yourself "why would Fragile be involved?" - Was the design of the new Qpid made by Drawbridge or APAC? The DHV Magellan is something that was given to Fragile by APAC so I assume that all the technology Drawbridge has is thanks to APAC, the ship, the Qpid and the "rings". And then we come to the second very funny thing that makes me think APAC has Coffin's finger in the middle.

I thought this new technology represented rings, but it could also be miçanga, remember?

A bead (miçanga in brazilian portuguese) is a small decorative object made from natural materials such as stones, bones, shells, wood or, in most cases, glass. They are usually used to decorate necklaces (or any other ornament made from glass), and are recognizable because they have a small hole in the center for threading or stringing. They are then attached to a string, chain or necklace. Their colors and different shapes are widely used in fashion, handicrafts and decoration to create unique pieces. The use of beads originated in South Africa and surrounding countries, where they have a spiritual value, since these necklaces were used in their early days for prayer or devotion, or perhaps to ward off evil spirits. For indigenous peoples, their meaning is not purely aesthetic, for them there is a question linked to ancestry and corporeality. x

Coffin hands the miçanga to her husband and then he hands it to Fragile. The object is purely a bridge between mother and daughter and then becomes a bridge between Sam and Fragile.

These new miçangas will be used by us (Sam) and the entire Drawbridge team, each miçanga is a "knot" that is joined by a large cord, leaving everyone united.

So we have the design of the coffins, we have the miçanga, we have APAC behind Drawbridge and Higgs (according to theories), then we have Coffin. "But ah… Coffin is dead!" - Cool, since when was that an impediment in Death Stranding? Since when, for Kojima, is killing someone the end of the line? And I'm talking now because I have knowledge of MGS and all the architecture behind "bringing people back to life through AIs" - here in Death Stranding 2 we'll be going into a world that's "very Metal Gear on Kojima's part" so I think it's important to take into account the fact that he's going to CONTINUE using Metal Gear references. And I say continue because DS1 already has a lot of references...

Coffin may be dead, but her ideals still survive somewhere, in someone, and just as we believe that Higgs raised this cult of Amelie as an extinction entity, we can assume that leaving Coffin with her ideals somewhere, germinating, would not be crazy. The next point would be to think that there is something behind Coffin, in case Coffin is "the face" of APAC? Probably. This is Kojima we're talking about, and in terms of manipulation, things work like an onion.

In DS1 Fragile tells Sam the "whole truth" that Higgs tells her, before she leaves him behind on the Beach. Knowing the unknown field that is Higgs Monaghan I would have thought that handsome son of a bitch had a card up his sleeve from the start. He had to. He didn't look like someone desperate in the face of imminent destruction. So taking on his big Hollywood starring role, because acting is also his "thing", it would be easy for him to keep telling truths that hurt and he obviously does with Fragile since he was "about to die", but what would stop him from telling her that he also worked with Coffin?

They are damaged goods and damaged goods with common points that hurt both parties, they are already deeply connected by the red thread of destiny, they are already part of that great string full of miçangas.

Assuming that in the trailer 1 when Fragile escapes with Lou, the vehicle she uses already contains the Drawbridge logo, then she will basically have had her team assembled since the beginning of DS2. I'm going to conclude that, in trailer 2, when we hear her telling Sam that she's closed down Fragile Express and set up Drawbridge, it's actually at the very beginning of the game, probably in one of the scenes where we have Fragile visiting Sam to look after Lou for a few moments. So these visits will be frequent in the same way that Fragile's insistence on Sam coming to work with her at Drawbridge will initially be frequent. When the trailer 1 comes to an end and Fragile invites Sam to meet her crew, that's Fragile's last attempt to convince Sam to work with her, and guess what? It works because Lou is gone… There's nothing left for Sam… AGAIN!

We have some points that I haven't been able to think about yet, like Higgs. If he's with APAC because there's Coffin's "face" behind it, then why is his cult for Amelie and not for her? That sort of thing. But let's leave it alone because I believe that, although Higgs and Fragile may have this much in common, they still have particularities that will set them apart.

-> Higgs is not so "bad".

Evil is a point of view, and in my honest opinion Higgs was never a villain, he was a victim.

As @love-bigboss1fan-me always reminds me, no robot/human character in MGS is a total villain. They always come across as "neither friend nor foe" (although most of them are more like friends, but they don't admit it). So I'm taking into account that Higgs in DS2 will be an anti-hero. Messing around and creating chaos is still his thing, he's there to do it and he enjoys it, but he's going to help us.

Higgs in DS1 wasn't afraid to get close to Sam, to look him in the eye, to break the safe distance of Sam's private zone. No, Higgs wasn't. Higgs would pierce any barrier Sam put between them. Higgs puts his tongue in Sam's cheek without trembling, he likes it. But in trailer 2 he simply keeps his distance, he hardly looks Sam in the eye. He touches the gun, a soulless husk, he touches the puppet, knowing that it is a soulless little husk, and then he touches Lou's empty pod.

But while Sam? Well, he only touches Sam with his words and, probably, with his truths. When he says later on that Sam will have to seek the truth and that the pain he's in will only get worse, I don't believe he's only talking about Lou because later on we have lines from Fragile indicating that "it wasn't her intention to string him along". And it's not as if Fragile is the villain, perhaps the lie she tells Sam is exactly the omitted truth "I didn't tell you because you never asked!".

If Fragile and Higgs have a link to APAC because APAC is linked to Coffin, then why should this be Sam's business? Sam doesn't seem to share his visions of Cliff out there, so "everyone take care of your family" and we'll be fine, but back to Kojima and his way of telling stories, we know that family isn't exactly what descends from our own blood or genes, family is what passes on and leaves a connection in us. And connections are what Death Stranding is all about. Humanity needs to connect, because humanity is the Great Family here…

-> Is it Higgs who "kills" Lou?

I can see Kojima saying "we need to set it up so that everyone thinks Higgs is the one who shoots. Maybe he shoots Fragile, maybe Lou. But actually Higgs is shooting at whoever is chasing Fragile and Lou. Higgs is helping them."

They don't look shot to me. The background isn't even the same color and for the situation to get to where it is, with this fire and destruction, then there was a lot of fighting, something that just one shot would have solved, one shot would have ended the show.

And Higgs, like a good son of a bitch, is going to help with his own intentions behind it. He's going to help Fragile and Lou, but maybe he's going to kill whoever's after them while acting as if he killed Lou and got Lou out of there (here comes the theory that Lou is closely linked to Amelie and then Higgs' interest with his EE cult). Higgs had opportunities to destroy Fragile and never did, Higgs had opportunities to destroy that baby in the pod and never did. Higgs talks too much, but he wouldn't kill them. Fragile gave him a choice, shoot or be trapped forever on the Beach. Fragile was merciful so I don't see Higgs wanting to get back at her.

So how could Fragile become the "villain", but not because she wants to but because she "had no choice" or "is at risk"? APAC is a new face, a new company, Kojima likes to deliver the new as friendly and then that's not really a very friendly thing. We'll have APAC vs UCA then we have the top of the pyramid. These are dangerous names because they are names that have power, so these are the names that will be in control. Seducing Fragile and Higgs using their deepest connections isn't something new for Kojima either, we're still treading the same minefield as DS1 and the entire MGS franchise. The big problem is what's behind those masks, what's behind all the curtains when the show is about to start and then when it's over, what only the people who have that power in their hands will be seeing. We are just puppets, pawns.

You seduce them, hand them a fraction of that power through weapons and soldiers (for Higgs) and technology (for Fragile) while they believe they are using it for THEIR OWN INTERESTS, when in fact they are bait, they are "the pawn bridges" for the purpose of these "kings".

I don't believe that Higgs becomes "the villain" in DS1 because he wants to, and I don't need to explain his reasons. So here I don't believe that Fragile would be the "villain" because he wishes it when everything is about manipulations and well-rehearsed lies. Fragile is at risk because she does again what she condemned in DS1, she will ally herself again with something "faceless" because it gives her powe/and or has things in common (technology, dhv magellan, connect the world, make deliveries) and that will lead her into the hole. In the same way that we have Higgs doing again what he did in DS1, letting himself be seduced by icons. And we have Sam doing exactly what he didn't want to do in DS1, teaming up with a "great idea" to connect the world, this time, because it's the only thing he believes he's good at, and because he has nothing else left and because someone told him that it would heal him. THE SAME CYCLE IS STARTING ALL OVER AGAIN.

And when I talk about cycles that repeat themselves, I talk about reincarnation, I talk about how a spirit needs to repeat the same things during its spiritual journey so that it learns from its mistakes and breaks this karmic cycle and thus evolves. We see this in MGS with Hal, for example, breaking the "karmic cycle" that his father Huey "started" and so on with "the future generations" or "descendants" that are placed in the story and that can also be interpreted as "future reincarnations" of the same "soul" = idea, ideal, character. And yet, we can compare the karmic cycle of all humanity, which, in both Death Stranding and Metal Gear, continue to practice/and or be part of the same "karmic cycle" that only generates its own destruction.

#yes yes yes #death stranding #death stranding 2 #theoryposting

[ashkav]

#i clicked gameplay but i changed my mind i will play dogshit for a good story

[ashkav]

Starting to think that the bots in the second trailer actually contain dead BBs, either in their abdominal cavities (since the light emitted from them is reminiscent to BB pods) or in the coffin-shaped containers on their backs because when you see one of the bots deploy that dog robot, the humanoid bot’s head turns into the shape of an odradek—which also shares the same shape as the robot samurai’s head—but also when Sam aims his gun at one of them his odradek starts spinning as well which in the first game indicates the presence of BTs, and we already saw Lou get killed and turn into what is probably a BT, so the bots are likely controlled by BB BTs. Maybe they’re the sacrificial BBs that Bridges used to connect each city, as is mentioned when we get to Edge Knot. Also since the first game focused more on bodies without souls (e.g. Amelie/Bridget, Deadman, Mama), I think the second game might focus on souls without bodies, and I think these souls will be anchored to the world of the living through artificial bodies, such as the puppet, the robots, and probably Higgs’ new body as well. One more thing with the odradeks, but during the fight with Higgs and the robot samurai in the closeup shot where their weapons cross we see the robot’s odradek-head start flapping which is what happened when BTs where in the area in the first game, so again thinking that Higgs’ soul has been placed in that new body and his real body is somewhere else.

#listening and learning #this is so intersting and i agree conpletely that the robots are puppeted by something from the other side #since tut is known for his death mask i think the fact that higgs has 2 masks now (the red and the painted white) verrrry intersting #death stranding 2 #death stranding #higgs monaghan

[ashkav]

It's gonna be such a funny mess when Donald Trump dies of a stroke on April 1st, 2024.

Naturally everybody will think it's fake because of the date only to lose their minds (both positively and negatively based on their opinion of trump) when realizing it's real

There will be massive celebrations in the streets and on social media and lots of predictable "don't speak ill of the dead" discourse about those celebrations

Weird evangelicals will pull some weird number trick talking about how Jesus was conceived on April 1st and that makes Trump a sort of messiah and people will make fun of that

The Republicans (after they're done with the faux-sadness and faux-outrage) will stomp over each other to be his successor but none of them will succeed. They'll tear each other apart and have no single nominee for the November elections.

There will be discourse about if Biden and the living former presidents should go to his funeral (they won't, he was a traitor insurrectionist)

The Ukraine-Russia War immediately goes in favor of Ukraine as morale in the Kremlin is reduced. China similarly backs off from its threats on Taiwan.

Ten thousand new memes are made, some sticking around for years to come.

Not a month later a bunch of unofficial biographies of Trump hit the bookshelves, many with new details about just how awful he was.

[ashkav]

Have you seen Moebius’ take on Feyd-Rautha?? I love the 2024 film but the femboy appreciators were robbed in this way. They really said ‘one mountain cannot contain two twinks*

#dune #dune part two

[ashkav]

[ashkav]

6 hour workday maximum i’m not kidding, if it can’t be done in that timeframe it doesn’t need doing.

[ashkav]

Remember.

(inspired by sp1cy3gg and seinquant )

#hey. hey #ohhh it hurts so much #spiderman ps4