#I love symbolism as a whole really

[kage-mochii]

"We are our own company now. We asked to be let out. And we let ourselves out."

Any We Know The Devil enjoyers out there? Is it just me on this hill?

If you haven't seen this game I BEG you to watch a playthrough or play it yourself. It absolutely changed me, and it's such a wonderful message about LGBTQ+ and how even if people try to repress you, you deserve to be who you really are. You'll find your people, and they'll never be able to silence you again.

I'm not a religious person anymore, but this game is so beautiful with its religious symbolism, the way it portrays the way some religions see the LGBTQ+ community, how they try so hard to suppress it, mark you as bad or troubled. But there's always a little devil inside of us, aching for change, to be welcomed, to be loved. Maybe we should let her out sometimes.

#we know the devil #we know the devil fanart #neptune #venus #jupiter #jupiter wktd #venus wktd #neptune wktd #wktd #wktd true ending #I love religious symbolism #can you tell? #im always so fascinated by the metaphors #I love symbolism as a whole really #Im so normal about it #not even insane at all #fanart #sketches #kage rambling #kage art

[tomatoart]

it ate my soul and left my body

#trigun #vash the stampede #millions knives #trigun 1998 #vash #knives #I just think the death of their harmony together is so interesting that it’s like . as if a whole person died #tearing each other apart from being one but it doesn’t erase being connected.. or something symbolic like that idk I tried to convey that #also plantc*st freaks get the fuck off my shit LOL I hate you it’s not for u!!!!! #their relationship as brothers is so important to me I really love it dearly heee heee… *breaks all my bones* ok #also caption is Float On by good tiger I love their music . lol HI. ok bye #no new color work i forgor to touch them all up

[rookflower]

been going insane lately over remembering about leafpool hiding hollyleaf's fur lately

leafpool covered up for hollyleaf's murder, hollyleaf's own codebreaking, with horror but with barely a moment of hesitation or regret. she later confronts hollyleaf about it calmly, with an open mind and the assurance of secrecy, just desperate to understand why. so that being paralleled against HOLLYLEAF'S reaction to finding out about LEAFPOOL'S crimes is just...... uuuaghhhhhh god it's so tragic. she sacrificed everything for those kids and won back nothing for it

#this is not really a hollyleaf hate post she's a character who (if messily written and often heavily mischaracterised) i think is very fun #but a lot of that stems from how absolutely horrible she is to leafpool who has given her nothing but care and patience her whole life #leafpool loves hollyleaf so so much and hollyleaf sees her as this despicable symbol of everything wrong and uncontrollable in her life

[heartslobbf]

hater alert! far too many people say that juri’s character arc ‘isn’t about her being sad about being gay, it’s about being sad about unrequited love that happens to be gay’ and. well. that is not true and by saying that you are completely flattening the brilliance of juri’s character arc which literally culminates in her being able to accept her own lesbianism despite her unrequited love, despite all her shame and self-loathing, despite this pursuit by Some Fucking Guy to try and ‘save’ her from these feelings. like if you think juri’s entire character is just ‘sad about shiori’ how do you appreciate even a modicum of the emotion packed into that final juri duel. it is both about shiori and, even broader, her lesbian identity and what that means to her intrinsically as a person, removed from romantic relationships and just purely as like. you know. Who She Is. the idea that even when juri’s locket is cut from her neck she is still a lesbian that’s still who she is and she cant change that and, crucially, she doesn’t want to even as she is agonised by these feelings. that’s why she forfeits the duel!!!! she’s clocking out she’s quitting she’s saying no!!!!!! this is me and ive got to be ok with that this is me and i can accept that this girl might not love me and i can keep living despite that. like. god im so normal arisugawa juri im so sorry that no one understands you and your intrinsically unapologetically lesbian storyline like i do

#ok got that out of my system now (rewatched ep 29 duel too many times) #revolutionary girl utena #rgu #idk i just see that argument so much and it makes me so sad #bc i get where ppl r coming from there r a lot of unnuanced ‘sad bc gay’ narratives out there #but juri’s whole arc is about actively challenging and deconstructing that idea #and it deals with the sadness that comes with being closeted with knowing youre gay and not really liking that about yourself #and eventually she does accept and embrace that aspect of herself but CRUCIALLY she doesnt do it via romantic validation #in fact she does it in the face of like. All Opposition Ever #no one says hey juri if you were gay that’d be totally fine actually haha #ruka tries to save her from her lesbianism!!!!!!!! like!!!!!!! #it is juri and juri alone who makes this resolution and that is just So Fucking Important to me #shes so. she is the queer character of all time to me i literally dont care no one else will ever come close #LIKE!!!!!!! THE CASTLE WEEPING ON HER WHEN SHE MAKES HER CHOICE!!!!!!! #accepting that part of yourself and having the symbol of matrimony and heteronormativity WEEP over you #no one ever validates juri’s choice to accept her queerness but she keeps making that choice #and her in episode 37…….. god i just might keel over and die girls when juri utena touga parallels…… #anywayyyyyyy love and light i love juriposting #shut up daisy

[laniemae]

was just thinking

#milgram #So hard for me between muu and kotoko but I feel like the yellow looks really nice on muu #Man I love the anniversary outfits so much I wish there was more fanart of them #Now to go on a rant about how much I love these artwork because no one can stop me #I love how Amane’s cake had little trumpet cookies which remind me of the whole marching band thing in t2 #But the lightning bolts… #I’ve bought this up before but Mikoto actually has a split expression here where the right (our perspective) part of his face #Appears to be more shy which makes me think how John has never experienced something like this before which is sad #Too bad it’s just promo art and not canon #I also love how Yuno’s cake represents the staircase from umbilical and Haruka’s has the rabbit plush from weakness kinda #And how all of them have their respective birthday flowers #And the characters who wear earrings having symbolic earrings like what’s shown in their MVs #Like muu having an hourglass with the green slime mahiru having bird cages and mikoto having what appears to be cards

[almoststedytimetravel]

Idk why I even try to write anything romantic. Romance peaked in 2007 when Junpei brought his wife back from the dead.

#They really are every romance trope all in a single package #enemies to lovers? Yup! #Gloomy/sunshine? You betcha! #Dying tragically in each others arms? Yeah! #Being revived via the power of love? Twice even #Why would I even try to top that? #They deserve to live a long and happy life together #In a way they also do the whole “canabalism as a symbol of all consuming love” #Because Junpei's persona consumes Chidori's when she revives him #junpei iori #chidori yoshino #persona 3 #persona #persona 3 spoilers #jundori

[michaeljoncarter]

kyle is such a fun character because he’s so positive and friendly and good 99% of the time, and then the other 1%, he’s just a straight up sadistic manic

like he’s an artist. he’s a hopeless romantic. he’s become a god multiple times and never let it go to his head. he uses his ring to make bouquets of roses for his loved ones more than anything else. and also he’s tortured and killed multiple people and never shown an ounce of remorse about it. the range ❤️

#kyle rayner #like a hero w a temper isn't a revolutionary idea or anything but #i find it rly interesting with him because he really... really does not seem to give a shit at all lol?? #like where other heroes lose their tempers and 'go too far' they end up feeling bad after #sometimes having a whole crisis about it #we instead get him breaking into prison and torturing a dude who's completely helpless #and when confronted about it by bruce just being like 'yeah AND?' #we get him burning his symbol into a dude's chest and then decapitating him and sending him off FULLY CONSCIOUS into the void of space #while he begs him not to and then just flying off completely unaffected like 'i am god's perfect angel' #and he's RIGHT #i love him

[moeblob]

What Deacon thinks: what did that mean? did he want me to wear a collar too? why else would he mention my neck? i mean, if he /asked/ me i would wear one but he didn't so would wearing one be weird?

What Ymber meant: It's nice to be near someone who isn't tethered to this world to serve it with a physical reminder for all to see.

#my characters #this just in ! thats why all the deities in the plot have collars and a chain ! #its because THATS THEIR DESIGNATED I AM HERE TO HELP THIS WORLD SYMBOL #they cant remove their collars and thats fine by them - its a constant reminder that they exist to serve #deacon really shouldnt get as much crap as he gets in canon for being weird cause the deities are just a different brand of weird #like its not deacons fault that apparently you can say nice neck with no underlying desire #but he cant say hi would you please possess me i want to know what its like to have someone else in my body #like thats really not something you should pin on deacon YET EVERY deity is like wow what a lil weirdo #he also just really wants to please ymber so if ymber asked he would definitely do whatever #on the flip side i need to point out that deacon very specifically doesnt ask ymber for things nor does he pray for things #and it drives ymber up a wall because this is his favorite human who wont ask for anything and he isnt a psychic #he doesnt know what deacon wants or needs and its infuriating cause he exists to serve humanity #and yet this ONE GUY wont let him do things for him #this is very important and i cant believe i mentioned it like a month ago to someone and today #i received gift art of these two and i may never recover #its so perfect and its ymber just looming over deacon telling him that he can pray about anything to him #its also worth pointing out that when i was telling the person about the whole ymber begging for a prayer #its because he realizes that after all this time hes never had a single prayer from deacon - not before nor after the hire #so hes like oh well thats odd hmm #and then begins to talk to deacon like you know people pray to me for lots of things #and deacon looks at him unsure of what this is leading to - did someone offer a weird prayer? ask a weird thing? whatst? #and no - its just ymber saying that people will pray for wealth or an item #or they will express frustration if something is lost or broken despite it not being ymbers fault so deacon just stares #he has no idea what this is going to end on really so he points out 'well you do like to think you break people' #and ymber just ASDFASDFSADF STOP OK NEXT POINT people pray to me to bless relationships with happiness #and thats fascinating so deacon is like wow can you actually do that? #and ymber is so stressed as hes like i mean kinda i can simply amplify the positive emotions in gestures #like if someone gives an item out of love then its blessed #he also admits that he cant mask insincerity or malice so those feelings are not hidden nor amplified #and deacon just is impressed bc that is actually VERY cool

[dmitriyuriev]

「これ大柑子十五あるベし」

"There are 15 oranges inside"

#fgo #fate grand order #Ashiya Douman #another little thing while i work on the big piece #i really like rats as a symbol of his inability to surpass Seimei its a pretty famous story i think? #the one where Douman (correctly) divines that there are 15 oranges in a box but Seimei changes them into rats and wins the contest #ive been reading abe no seimei monogatari its great douman is soooo arrogant and petty and i love him #(a modern jp translation since its from 1662 its really nice it has og text on top and modern jp on the bottom and a ton of annotations) #which get me sidetracked into things like heian court rankings and the palace layout and the shishinden #anyway the whole reason the contest was held is cause douman hears about seimei #and is soooo upset at the possibility of someone possibly being better than him so he goes to the capital and shows up at seimei's house #to challenge him and prove himself better and its huge event the emperor and all the nobles are there #first part is flashy magic displays but douman (who is losing) basically goes uhh that didn't count divination is the proper way to decide!

[phoenixcatch7]

Why can't we have a batman is the spirit of Gotham au?

He already is, in meta, in character, in theming. Him and the joker. He is so very built upon what Gotham is made of, and Gotham builds from what he needs in turn, the setting of his story.

What if that is the reason he can take damage that would permanently ruin a physical career and come back? What if that's how he's managed to maintain his no-kill streak to such an extent? What if that's how he manages to maintain such high maintenance and all consuming identities?

For the heart and soul of a city containing all extremes, the richest nobility and the lowest of the poor, the cruellest villains and the most compassionate heroes, orphaned children and ancient lineages, a city rooted in fear and madness and grit-teeth determination and hard won kindness, what better choice could you find than Bruce Wayne?

But what if he wasn't alone in that? What if Gotham has sunk to such a low because its spirit is damaged and corrupted?

For the heart and soul of the cruellest city in the dc universe, the most unrelenting and uncaring, the one that practically laughs at your pain and suffering as you try to make it through another day, what better choice than the Joker?

#Batman v joker is yin yang up down left right it's the oroborus #Like it's possibly one of the most famous arch enemies of modern day lmao #Something something what if there was an actual reason b couldn't kill joker?? Like if joker died it'd kill him too. #Unbalance the incredibly fragile equilibrium b has spent decades fighting for #Like those threatre masks. Love theatre mask symbolism. But the batman is the smiling one and the joker is the frowning one #Its apathy vs compassion. Someone made a really good post about it a while ago but I can't find it ToT #But yeah imagine if b found out about the whole city spirit thing and freaked out it until he found out it was him. #Like full on possessive trawls through research and 'no I'm fine' to everyone watching and lying awake fuming and then it's all fine #Except now he can have an existential crisis because he never realised lmao. Idk maybe the waynes were infertile and he was a surprise baby #Maybe there's no hint he wasn't entirely human until he had the option opened to him. #Like he just thought all his weirdnesses were just from one of the various things he never got official diagnoses for #Which he still is! Some things were just supernatural lol #The kids are laughing at him but they've got the Gotham spirit of the protection which is how they're all (mostly) still alive lmao #Batman #Bruce Wayne #Cryptid batman #Gotham spirit au #Fic idea #Story idea #Batfam #Batfamily #Dc comics #Gotham #Dc city spirits

[skunkes]

having struggles with hobbies and enjoyment and creativity again

#thinking about buying more supplies to make more clay things with and like #idk. id never get good anyway but if i got good what would i do? theres only so many smunkers or als or talons i could sculpt #ykwim? #i wish i liked things and i wish i could make things #i liked making something out of clay but i have no ideas #i love printmaking: screenprinting and block printing. i have block printing supplies. i have 0 ideas. #if i woke up tomorrow an art master id still have no ideas on what to draw #its why i havent improved at bgs or composition. bc i dont draw it because i dont know What to draw #wrt symbols and icons and colors and such #ykwim... #my whole life is just. i like thing so much. i wish i could do it too but im stuck outside looking in thru a window. i wish #i could participate. its not enough to like it i want to do it too. but i cant...! #if i were any good at art id make a piece out of this. out of all my other feelings. but i dont know how to make work that Means anything #its just. technical show of skill. no feeling. no meaning. nothing. i cant make anything #i always talk about how I fear finding a partner bc what would I have left to draw? #i am not an artist. not really. #and if I am i got the worst luck and the worst brain for it. defective. #talkys

[wildwood-faun]

Okay hear me out.

In the beginning, the cake was round and saffron yellow, symbolising the sun.

This year, it's round-ish. And pale yellow. There are raisins in it. A tired, shapeless sun, with sunspots.

But there's orange in it as well, a sun egg if you know your Elsa Beskow. Perhaps that's it. Within the sun that looks as tired as I feel hides the sun reborn. Happy solstice.

#this was going to be about how clear symbolism sometimes gets muddled with time but I found some new symbolism instead #there's a whole gram of saffron in this btw but i think it needs to be drawn out in a liquid to really colour the batter #this recipe had me just mixing it with room temp butter #but! it smells lovely and i bet it will be tasty #eat the sun #happy solstice

[lucy-ghoul]

i'm sorry, what? '''katpiss'''? what are you, 5? also, peeta is the one who's too boring for katniss, who's actually a great protagonist for a ya series. but yes, let's keep on shitting on "flawed" complex female characters to lift up your bland fictional boys

#fyi i DON'T hate peeta at all. i just think he's boring #he's not the male character archetype i'm usually into. and no i'm not a gale/katniss shipper either #honestly i don't give a fuck about the whole love triangle thing #and while i understand the Themes and Symbolism of it because i can read tyvm #i still consider it the weakest part of the trilogy #anyway for me peeta is just as not as interesting as other 'good' but ultimately flawed male characters like idk. haymitch #it's just personal taste. nothing against him and everlark fans #but this comment really pissed me off #...... god i'm way too old for this bullshit #*just not as #val speaks #the hunger games #txt

[yumedoca]

And the MV for the ED is finally out! Been waiting for this one to come out and it is so, so pretty!!

#such a damn cute mv!! #i already love the song since its so innocently precious in the cutest way possible #and the visuals are mwahh #im so happy we get to see ataru properly in the mv since i was really hoping he appears.. #ataru in that artstyle is just chefs kiss.. #and him being reflected in lums eyes.. #she truly loves him smm #and the atalum marble symbolism is so cute!! #lum being the purple one and ataru being the green one #the one that follows the other around but in the end they both click.. #was grinning like an idiot the whole time #urusei yatsura #うる星やつら #urusei yatsura 2022 #lum #ataru moroboshi #atalum #maisondes #raiou #9lana #sakuramoti #god i love them sm

[sunfollows]

what makes a sunflower a sunflower? a brief post on symbolism, aesthetics, & harper yi.

sunflowers are, honestly, literally everywhere on my blog, as i'm sure everyone has noticed by now. i have the lyrics to sunflower by allie x all over my carrd and in my tags, but i wanted to do a post explaining why i associate harper with sunflowers, and what this imagery means for him.

young sunflowers are heliotropes, meaning they follow the sun across the sky. mature sunflowers, however, don't. mature sunflowers point in a fixed position (apparently usually east?) because their growth stops, so they don't really need to anymore. there's a whole scientific process behind this, but this is as deep as i'm going to get into the actual science of the circadian rhythm of flowers. this post is about harper! more under the cut because i totally rambled while writing this.

so, why is he a sunflower? they're his favorite flower, for one, and he thinks there's nothing like a sunflower bouquet in the summer to brighten up his apartment. but more than that, there's something kind of poetic about them, isn't there? young sunflowers chasing after the sun, following something they'll never reach? it's in their very nature to follow the sun's warmth, to depend on it, only to let it go and stand on their own once they're old enough.

harper's like that, always chasing the fulfillment others give him and depending on it to get through the day. he builds himself up based on the warmth he receives from his loved ones and uses it to guide himself ... but can he stand on his own? does he want to?

the answer is, ultimately, yes, but ... it's so hard. to be himself. to be alone with himself and stand proudly, and to accept that he's whole and doesn't need the crutch of approval to be who he is. to accept that he's grown up and can thrive in the sun without depending on it and feeling worthwhile is so ... hard. it's about self-love and growth, really, and the idea that he can overcome his hardships and be something worth caring about. worth loving.

there's also the layer that comes from the lyrics i love to use everywhere: i'm a sunflower, a little funny / if i was a rose, maybe you'd want me. roses are beautiful, and everyone loves them. they're the perfect image of romance and they're the right flower for any occasion. he feels like a sunflower in a world of roses. it's not to say that sunflowers aren't beautiful, or that people don't like them, but they're different. not as loved as roses. they're just distinctly different, and, in harper's case, he doesn't see that as a good thing.

he's so deeply tired of being different, of not being enough for everyone. his otherness is what keeps him feeling like he'll never be able to stand alone. he's stuck trying to be something he's not to make other people love him. and what for? why does he want other people to love the image he's created instead of wanting them to love the authentic him? he goes to so much effort to erase his differences and be what he thinks he should be. if you can have a bouquet of the most perfect red roses, why would you want a silly little sunflower that can't do anything outside of the sun?

all of this is to say that harper is, at his core, a character whose arc is about growth. his ultimate goal is to grow into himself and not need the sun to thrive, even if he enjoys the warmth. it's about realizing that he, like a sunflower, is beautiful and loved, even if he's not quite the standard he sees other people meeting.

one day he'll be kinder to himself, but for now he's going to keep following the sun.

#« if i could i'd change overnight & turn in to something you like. » about. #long post / #this is a huge ramble on my end because i !! love harper so dearly and i put so much love and work into him and i try to be thoughtful #about everything really? and especially in the face of people trying to essentially copy him this is like. #an exercise in reminding himself why i love him and the care i've put into his development and symbolism #idk i just !!! love harper yi !!! more than anything !!!! i have so many feelings about my sunflower boy #and there's probably so much here i didn't get to saying because i didn't want to write a whole essay but. god. i have feelings #feelings about how he perceives himself vs how he ACTUALLY is and how hard he works to feel worthy of love #anyway i'll shut up i'm just emo

[gideonisms]

I think the thing about ntn is, it's like making a friend who you broadly agree with on the most important things but who you HARD disagree with on some of the details

#ntn spoilers #i'm at the point where i can have actual opinions now i think. #paul. paul. #i loved the campal tragic moment i loved everything with pyrrha and nona's reluctance to remember the ways she'd been hurt the #compartmentalizing of identity the acknowledgement that sometimes we just are going to become someone vastly different #the question of whether love can overcome that or why love matters if everything's just going to change and end and restart again #and the conclusion that it did matter because it mattered in the moment #love as this huge imperfect force of acceptance for others vs love as a determination to cling to them the way you think they should be #all of that was so good #even the stuff with gideon kind of. felt like it belonged in a different book but i agree with the broad character strokes of like #the horror of what's been done to gideon the way she is trying to become a different person making her own terrible decisions etc #but still trapped in this awful framework for her life & death where she only matters as a symbol for others #and her reckoning with that is messy and awful bc of course it is! #but it did feel like it needed more space than the brief chapters we got & hopefully it will come to the forefront in the next book #like all of the elements didn't necessarily mesh well and i think the humor she was trying to go for with the silly name didn't really work #and the stuff with judith was like. the most boring way to handle that imo. did she have to be unconscious the whole book #she's got so much potential as a character #and! my top pet peeve when harrow lobotomy girl nonagesimus is like i'm going to find the real god you suck #iconic yes but it reveals #she's had the agency to walk away from john the whole book and has sat there listening and now is going to find alecto when? #like?? #the point of the lobotomy was that she is rejecting the framework for her previous life bc she's decided she cares more about the human cost #like??????? #if she was just sort of drifting in the river having alecto's dreams that's one thing but i refuse to believe #she wouldn't be trying to figure out where gideon was the whole time #maybe if she hadn't done the lobotomy i would buy it but she did do the lobotomy!!!!! she literally did do the lobotomy #you have to do a lot of work to get harrow from only caring about gideon's life and i guess religion kind of to just hitting pause on #thinking about gideon for an entire book! #this is not even my shipper brain it makes sense gideon has other priorities is in mourning for her previous self the things she's lost etc #but harrow literally did the lobotomy if u needed to get her to the 9th for plot reasons there were better ways to explain it!!