#devils and realist icons

[multimedia-maniac]

#anime #makai ouji devils and realist #devils and realist #william twining #dantalion huber #icons

[genghisthebrain]

did my tarot card reading for the month. seems about accurate

#wait_no on ao3 #forget live laugh love #i've got death devil temperance #wtf do you mean by this horoscope people #tbf it sounds realistic #i have a cold right now #so like #maybe i will die #if i do die i hereby bestow my ao3 account to my grandparents' dead dog joseph #rip joseph you icon #write some fic for me

[d34dlysinner]

Prettybusy Updates/promises for the future. Year 2024

I literally took this from their website so. This was posted today: 10/01/2024.

Hello, this is Prettybusy.

Since the release of <What in Hell is Bad?>, many people have found Hell to support us and tell us what could be improved.

We are most apologetic that we cannot reply to all the voices.

But even when we weren't able to respond to everything, we still read every email, made sure we didn't miss anything,

and kept the production crew together for ongoing discussions.

We would like to apply many new things to Hell, but here's our first response to your voices,

summarizing what we can realistically expect to see in 2024.

More info about content, pricing and improvement of environment under the cut.

[Addition of contents]

Life goes on forever.

To those of you who come to find <What in Hell is Bad?>, we hope to be with you for new stories and new events.

So, here are some new content that we promise to add.

First

The addition of a new main story - Chapter 5 - (within January)

Hell's next story will be added.

What will be added in the new main story are main story episodes including battles, Minhyeok's story, and Hell's chatrooms.

We aim to add new chapters once every 3 months.

Second

The release of the minigame <Catch Minhyeok's Boxers> (within January)

Minhyeok's boxers have flown away in the wind! It is a game where you catch boxers floating in the sky with Ppyong who is armed with shibari.

To satisfy your desire to earn paid currency, we will add a minigame that allows you to randomly farm items alongside light gaming.

You can obtain not only Lesser Keys and Greater Keys, but also Solomon's Seals if you're lucky(!)

Third

The addition of new daily chats (within February)

The interest of all devils which you can see once a day. Daily chats will be added.

We are aiming to add daily chats steadily once every 2 months.

Fourth

The addition of the Friends system(within March)

You are not alone now...!

Adding friends gives you the ability to earn additional items, see what characters your friends have that you don't, and show your profile to other friends.

Fifth

The addition of Realm of the Seraphim(within March)

The closed <Realm of the Seraphim> of the Dark Sanctuary will be opened.

You can now enter Gabriel, Raphael, and Michael's realms to fight them.Similar to the Nightmare Dungeon, you can only face them if you fulfill the conditions, and while it will be a scarier battle, you will be rewarded with better items.

What's unusual about this is that you won't exchange items through an exchange, but rather you get the

items you loot from their realms immediately after the battle.

Sixth

The addition of a birthday system(within April)

The devils understood the human world's <celebration of birthdays>.

Now, the devils will congratulate the day you were born, the most unusual being in Hell.

Devils who are on good terms with you will contact you, and also prepare presents with their hearts.

Seventh

The addition of decorating the lobby icon(within May)

The production crew also enjoy decorating everything with the devils we love.

Like on Halloween, the function to decorate the lobby icon with a single devil's theme will be added.

The icon packages for all devils won't be there from the start, but the icons of all devils will definitely be added.

Eighth

The addition of line stickers(once registration is complete)

We are preparing line stickers of each devil version.

First off, Ppyong's stickers are ready and we are getting ready to register. It is not up to us to decide whether it will be able to register so we can't give you an exact timeline, but barring any major issues, you should be able to see them in the first half of the year. We will also be creating a number of opportunities for you to join the devils outside of the game this year.

[Pricing system reform]

Once again, we sincerely thank you for finding Hell despite its many shortcomings.

We will continue to improve the parts that inconvenience you in Hell's environments you experience.

So, here is our promise of 2024 to make your experience more comfortable.

First

The function to 'select' when summoning an L grade character (within February)

We confirmed that you have been working hard to get your hands on L grade devils, and we have seen how

frustrating it can be when you have reached your number of guaranteed acquisition but can't get the devil you want more.

Therefore, the production crew discussed this to be the improvement that should be made first.

Now when L grade characters are newly released, you can select the character you want once you

reach the number of guaranteed acquisition.

Moreover, we sincerely understand and apologize for the frustration of those who didn't get their limited characters.

In the interest of equity, we can't directly give you the angels you didn't get, but we have added a system to make it

easier to get Solomon's Seals with the promise of a definitive reprint of the angel characters.

Second

Monthly acquisition of Solomon's Seals (within February)

We have confirmed that people who play the game 100% for free don't have the opportunity to get an L grade character, and that makes them feel a great sense of loss.

We have made all of our stories available for free for those who want to play for free, but we empathize that the devils, especially the touchable ones, tempt you so strongly that it is difficult to resist.

Therefore, players who play for free can also obtain 500 Seals per month through various activities such as quests and attendance.

Third

Pancake Shop renewal (within March)

We have received a lot of feedback about the efficiency of the Pancake Shop and how getting S grade characters and artifacts with pancakes just isn't that much fun.

Also for 100% free-to-players, one of the largest opinions was to to give them the opportunity to

earn L grade characters when they obtain duplicate L grade and S grade characters, even if it costs much currency.

While it is impossible for us to listen to 100% of the feedback we receive, we have been working hard to make sure we are listening to you as much as possible, which is why we are announcing a complete renewal of the

Pancake system and prepare the opportunity to obtain L grade characters.

(1) The Pancake Shop will now be upgraded to the Nightmare Pancake Shop, and free-to-play players will now be able to obtain L grade characters through the Nightmare Pancake Shop.

With the addition of the Nightmare Dungeon and the Realm of the Seraphim, you will need to develop a variety of characters. Gold and Tomes will be much more important, and you will need to be more efficient with limited action power.

As a result, duplicate acquisition of B/A/A+ grade characters will now grant Gold and Tomes, and duplicate acquisition of S grade and L grade characters will grant <Nightmare Pancakes>.

(2) <Nightmare Pancakes> will be used in purchasing goods in the newly opening <Nightmare Pancake Shop>.

In the Nightmare Pancake Shop, you can purchase a monthly rotation of <L grade characters> and <L grade character artifacts>, <exclusive stickers to decorate your chat room profile>, <in-game icon design packages>, and

<Solomon's Tears>.

(Through fun planning, we will continue to add novel and adorable goods.)

(3) The <Pancakes> you already own can be used to purchase items from the existing Pancake Shop, or exchanged for <Nightmare Pancakes> - currency that can be used in the Nightmare Pancake Shop. (*Not at a 1 to 1 ratio.)

This is an upgraded version of the Pancake Shop that we have been working hard to continuously bring you as many opportunities as we can.

Not all functions are immortal, and we are planning to listen to many opinions again after implementing the shop.

Through the renewal of the Pancake Shop, we hope you obtain more efficiency and opportunities.

Fourth

Adjustment of the price of the Nightmare Pass (within March)

The Nightmare Pass was designed to give players a chance to get a guaranteed L grade character and a lot of paid items for a fraction of the cost.

However, there were various opinions ranging from the Pass being cheap to too expensive due to exchange rate

differences between countries (in some cases due to the dual conditions of exchange rate and app store).

One thing we know for sure is that most players had a blast.

We want you to enjoy your visit to Hell, so we have decided to price the Nightmare Pass a little lower than it is now, taking into account currency differences between countries.

We will announce the exact price again.

However, we respectfully ask for your kind understanding that it takes a lot of time and effort to bring

L grade characters to you, including the artwork, Live2D, stories, comics, and voice acting, so we can't just make them too cheap.

[Improvement of environment]

First

Adjustment of staging time of Ultimates (within February)

While we wanted to maximize the spectacle of combat through fancy staging, we found that the pacing of

combat can be a bit sluggish for those who are already used to staging.

The scenes in which the characters' faces appear will be reduced to 1/2.

Second

Enjoying event story illustrations (within March)

We accept wholeheartedly the feedback that after watching an event story, it is very sad not to be able to see the illustrations after the event story period.

You can now rewatch the illustrations you enjoy in the future event stories you meet in the existing album.

Third

Addition of a Boss skill window (within March)

We hear your feedback that when a boss angel appears, it is hard to respond because you don't know what skill they use.

Boss angels will now have skill icons next to the angels, and you can tap on it to see the skill they use.

However, there are bosses that intentionally do not expose their skill icons in some places for the sake of difficulty.

Fourth

Faster announcements

We recognize that announcements about new character additions and release schedules do not give you enough time to prepare, or even make you feel anxious.

To explain the situation so far, the <evaluation> takes a very long time unlike other games, and it is very difficult to confirm the release date.

This is because even if we announce our release date well in advance by the standards of other games, 2-3 weeks can easily pass if we get rejected only a few times.

But this is not a situation that our players should have to deal with, and it is something we must solve.

For a safe announcement, we are planning to update only the main story and minigame in January without releasing new sub stories, new S grade characters or L grade characters.

We will be pulling about two months' worth of evaluation for new characters that are tied to evaluation, so we'll be able to give you a stable schedule ahead of time once we have the results of the evaluation.

We realize that not releasing new characters can be boring for our users. But if you could understand that this was a very difficult decision for us to make, we'll be working harder in the month of January to ensure that we're able to give you stable announcements.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank you from the bottom of our hearts for finding Hell once again.

We would like to say that although we do have many shortcomings, but we never made decisions to give you bad experiences.

And that we'll never stop, and that we'll continue to think and listen every day to keep things moving in the right direction.

We wish we could use large staff to make faster improvements and respond to more voices in real time, but we are deeply sorry and saddened that we can't.

We will repay your love with a production crew that will answer your questions as quickly as we can.

You are the most valuable and appreciated part of the production crew's experience.

Though it may be slow, Hell will not stop. It will become more experienced and faster.

Thank you always.

Link of the website:

http://whb.prettybusy.kr/

#whb #what in hell is bad #what in “hell” is bad? #whb prettybusy #prettybusy what in “hell” is bad?

[loveoaths]

it fucking kills me that i have seen NO ONE talking about the reaction jess jordan, kendall roy’s assistant, has. because it is jess, and rava and sophie roy, who have the reactions that twitter and reddit and all the succession lovers are looking for in shiv, for some goddamn reason. it’s jess who not so subtly pleads with greg to delay calling the election, who is blown off dismissively and ignorantly by greg who cannot understand or even SEE how strong of a panic reaction she is havjng. to him, and every other roy and tom and everyone else at their level, this is just another crazy day with literally zero consequences. a fascist dictator president will literally not change the quality of their lives as rich white people. but it will change jess’ life, as a biracial woman. it will change rava and sophie roy’s lives, in spite of kendall’s money and protection. and the show purposefully cuts off their reactions — jess blinking fast and breathing hard and about to have a panic attack meltdown in the hallway, rava and sophie scared in the back of an SUV — because the show isn’t about them. the show is about the roys, who do not care about the consequences of their actions, partially because they never have to SEE the consequences of their actions. greg does not see jess freaking out; even when she is clearly panicked in front of her he cannot see her pain and if he could, he wouldn’t care. it’s only when he turns his back on her that she starts to break down, which is a great if painful blocking choice. not only is it realistic — she can’t lose face in her workplace, she can’t react negatively when she works for the guy who owns the Devil Right Wing Fascist TV Network, and she most certainly can’t react any way people don’t like because she is one of the few, if not the only, black women in the building and working for the roys. while greg sighs and laughs about this day being crazy, she is having a meltdown as she fears what this election result means to her. if rava, a wealthy woman of color with a powerful ex husband, is scared, how much more scared is jess? is everyone else under jess?

but the show cuts off her reaction and takes us back to shiv because this show is from the roy’s pov, and this episode is largely from shiv’s pov. shiv “cares about democracy” and the country to an extent, because democracy only effects her to an extent. she knows on paper this election is bad news. she also knows it’s not going to change her life directly because she’s rich. like her brothers, who do not care at all who is President, who only care about which candidate will give them what they want, shiv is more upset because this election means she isn’t getting what she wants. she’s going to lose her power in the potential matsson deal. because that is how the roys chose who would be president: they chose the candidate they could buy and who could sell them control over their interests for the lowest number, and meincken outbid jimenez by a landslide. tldr the reaction people are looking for in shiv and in the roys were there, but in jess and rava. and even rava and jess aren’t progressives, aren’t “feminist icons”, they’re also complicit and victimized all at once, like shiv is, but with far less say and power. it’s almost like… the show about face eating leopards… is making a point that if you get in a cage with a hungry leopard, at some point you will run out of steaks to throw at it and it, too, will eat your face off. huh.

#succession #succession spoilers #this is a ramble but my god i am getting heated now #so many gifs and essay posts about the roys… zero about rava and Jess…. who are actually used as surrogates for the audience and marginalize #*d and even they HAVE HIGHER AMOUNTS OF POWER AND CONTROL AND AGENCY than the average person and woman of color #like. idk y’all I know the succession fan base is overwhelmingly white and therefore has a white USAmerican pov etc etc etc but my god I am #seeing greg levels of missing the point and not recognizing the pain in characters other than the Roy’s lol #and like I get it’ they’re the main characters #but also like. idk. jesse armstrong has a p strong vision and uses his characters effectively so like #maybe let’s look at some of those minor characters reactions here to paint a less insular picture yknow

[yukkoislost]

[SCRAPPED DESIGN?]

my insanity accidentally uhm. enabled me to think of like a whole other 4 ocs so...

meet SD-R !! more below cut

i had to actly sit down and consider what i was making w this kid because that adds a whole other layer of freakin lore that i gotta plan so,,

i don't really like his design atm... so this is most likely NOT the final design, more of a trial?

anyway the main idea i had for him was that he's a project along with his two other squadmates created by the last surviving humans on earth to combat the absolute solver/cyn

another example of people creating things that they can't control !!!! i love it !!! anyway in order to combat AS, who is basically a god (or the devil, however you wanna see it), they thought that they should make their own god

crazy genshin shit ik

SD-R is one of the first of the project, along with his squadmates SD-A and K

R is the leader of the squad, but he doesn't pilot (that's A's job) and K is kinda just there,, haven't had a proper purpose for them yet but might make them a priest disassembly drone playing on the whole cross usb thing idea i liked it

so basically humans facing extinction who didn't learn from past mistakes though HEY!!! what if we made a GOD DRONE or something like that because realistically speaking i don't think that's possible but seeing how far the AS got it may as well be tbh. anyway.

his voicebox doesn't work because of having a 'true voice' which affects humans so they disabled it,, the chains keep him down to earth in a sense

i think i'm trying to do too much making a god-ish drone thing 💀 please smack me

you see this little icon !!! it's like their symbol (like how the AS has its own little triangle hexagon thing) :)

i think i might switch out the demon wings for like angel wings or something but erm haven't decided yet !!!! I'M THINKING TOO MUCH GRR

i js wanna make em look a lil more diff since they're meant to be differentiated and stuff but my creativity isn't working tdy and my brain is melted lol

his hairs tied up btw idk where that went but i wrote it on the ref sheet and uhm deleted it somehow?? i didn't realise sorry sobbing

a silly little paper doodle for R,,

I SAT HERE AND WONDERED WHY HE LOOKED SO OFF TO ME ITS BECAUSE HE LOOKS LIKE A HOMESTUCK OC OR SMT ill change the colours

will delete this post eventually probably

#murder drones #murder drones original character #murder drones oc #md oc #yukko has ocs #original character #murder drones fandom

[nicklloydnow]

Judge Holden by Rob Wood (2021)

“The judge is clearly no ordinary mortal, but at times it is suggested that he is more of a god than a demon. Sitting half-naked in front of the fire, the judge is described as a "great pale deity" (92). Later, the judge appears as a statue of some godlike being or idol. His eyes, like a sculpture's, are "empty slots" (147). Sitting on the ground with "his hands rested palm down upon his knees," the judge seems to be engaged in deep meditation 147). Rick Wallach argues that here the judge " incarnates the attributes of an oriental deity." Specifically, "the judge's poses suggest Shiva," whose "visage, like Holden's, is always serene amid the carnage he engenders" (128-29). The men seated around the judge grow wary of this meditative state, "so like an icon was he in his sitting that they grew cautious and spoke with circumspection among themselves as if they would not waken something that had better been left sleeping" (147). The implication is that the men grow fearful in the judge's presence, because they sense something otherworldly and malevolent.

The judge is situated somewhere between the demonic and the godlike, a position that corresponds to the Gnostic view of the god of this world. As Hans Jonas explains, the Gnostics believed that demons known as archons "collectively rule over the world" and "are also creators of the world, except where this role is reserved for their leader, who then has the name of demiurge" and "is often painted with the distorted features of the Old Testament God" (43-44). The human spirit is "a portion of the divine substance from beyond which has fallen into the world; and the archons created man for the express purpose of keeping it captive there" (44). The demiurge and his archons conceal the existence of the divine source, or the alien God, in order to keep human beings imprisoned in the cosmos. Thus Gnostic theology identifies the biblical God, Yahweh, as a demon, responsible not only for the creation of the world but also for the obscuration of divine Reality. By conflating the creator God and the devil into one entity, Gnostic theology creates a new kind of deity, whose simultaneously demonic and godlike characteristics are reflected in the multifaceted enigma that is Judge Holden.

In "Gravers False and True: Blood Meridian as Gnostic Tragedy," Leo Daugherty argues that "gnostic thought is central to Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian" (159) and perceptively identifies the judge as one of the Gnostic archons, or perhaps even the demiurge himself. Daugherty writes that like the "archons, Holden also possesses all the other characteristics of Yahweh as the Gnostics saw him: he is jealous, he is vengeful, he is wrathful, he is powerful and - most centrally - he possesses, and is possessed by, a will" (163). The "Earth is the judge's" (164), writes Daugherty, and, indeed, the judge is described as seeming "much satisfied with the world, as if his counsel had been sought at its creation" (140). Christopher Douglas draws attention to McCarthy's use of "as if," arguing that it "marks the failure of traditional realist language to evoke the larger theological design behind the events of the novel and the impossibility of linguistically imagining the design that McCarthy suspects must lurk behind the amoral nothingness of the world" (13). Thus, far from dismissing the judge's participation in the creation of the world as a hypothetical fantasy, McCarthy's "as if" actually gestures toward the ineffable and unutterable reality of this vision.

Sitting in a saloon, the judge is depicted "among every kind of man, herder and bullwhacker and drover and freighter and miner and hunter and soldier and pedlar and gambler and drifter and drunkard and thief," but though he "sat by them," he remained "alone as if he were some other sort of man entire" (325). Once again, we may apply Douglas's reading to McCarthy's characteristic usage of "as if," identifying it as a linguistic marker pointing to a "larger theological design" rather than a simple exercise in hypothetical rhetoric. Although the judge seems perfectly at home in the crazed, blood-soaked world of Blood Meridian, it is continually suggested that he is somehow not of this world. This is yet another of the judge's paradoxical attributes that can be resolved in the light of Gnostic thought. Gnostic texts often refer to the world as the "inn" in order to emphasize the concept that the pneuma lives in temporary exile from its true home. The archons can be thought of as "the 'fellow-dwellers of the inn' though their relation to it is not that of guests" (Jonas 56). Hence, just as the archons inhabit the realm of the manifest world without being human, the judge walks among men while being no ordinary mortal. Furthermore, the judge's existence is not limited to the so-called Wild West of the 1850s, for he was also "among the dregs of the earth in beggary a thousand years and he was among the scapegrace scions of eastern dynasties" (325). This suggests that the judge cannot be limited by time, place, or social hierarchy; his existence stretches back to distant times, distant lands, and infiltrates all levels of human society, from beggar to king.

Most disturbingly, the judge seems to possess no beginning and no end. In a fit of ether-induced delirium, the kid experiences a revelation regarding the judge's mysterious lack of origins: "Whoever would seek out his history through what unravelling of loins and ledgerbooks must stand at last darkened and dumb at the shore of a void without terminus or origin and whatever science he might bring to bear upon the dusty primal matter blowing down out of the millennia will discover no trace of any ultimate atavistic egg by which to reckon his commencing" (310). The kid's vision reveals that the origin of the judge cannot be uncovered through genealogy, nor scientific enquiry; any attempt to do so will only lead one back to the primordial void, the chaos that precedes the existence of the cosmos in the creation myths of countless traditions. Similarly, the judge has no final destination; in the final paragraph of the novel he is dancing an eternal dance, reminiscent of Shiva's cosmic dance of destruction: "He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die" (335). Ordinary sleep is a minor prelude to the great sleep of death and the immortal judge is eternally wakeful.

Harold Bloom comments on the judge's lack of origins in How to Read and Why, but he curiously argues against a Gnostic interpretation of the passage. Despite the fact that Bloom identifies McCarthy as a Gnostic - "Faulkner is a kind of unknowing Gnostic; West, Pynchon, and McCarthy in their different ways are very knowing indeed" (237) - and is prepared to admit that "McCarthy gives Judge Holden the powers and purposes of the bad angels or demiurges [sic] that the Gnostics called archons," he inexplicably goes on to insist that McCarthy is actually telling "us not to make such an identification," because "any 'system,' including the Gnostic one, will not divide the Judge back into his origins. The ultimate atavistic egg' will not be found" (Modern Critical Views 4). I agree with Bloom's assertion up to a point, namely that the supernatural nature of the judge is such that he surpasses the limitations of the human mind and thus cannot be limited to any one system of thought. Nevertheless, certain aspects of the judge's nature may be illuminated by references to the various spiritual and philosophical traditions that have attempted to address the problem of evil. This is the line of argument adopted by Steven Frye, who argues that the judge's purported lack of origins should not discourage us from interpreting the literary figure in the context of various systems and traditions, including, but not limited to, "Judeo-Christian cosmology and typology, scientific materialism with its often purely atheist implications, the continental philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, philosophical nihilism, and the fascinating conceptions of ancient Gnosticism." Frye argues that Judge Holden "is by no means a patchwork creation of competing philosophical configurations, but a distinctive artistic embodiment of darkness that stands apart but nevertheless draws on these various perspectives" (Understanding Cormac McCarthy 79). He adds that "it is perhaps more fruitful to consider that various notions of evil, literary or philosophical, partially illuminate rather than define his nature" (91). I would argue that although Gnosticism is not the definitive system through which one may arrive at an understanding of the judge, it is nevertheless a particularly useful one due to its preoccupation with the evil manifest in creation.

Furthermore, McCarthy subtly alludes to the judge's connection with Gnostic archons in his esoteric subheading to chapter 15, "The Ogdoad" (204). The heading refers to a scene in which the Glanton gang stumbles upon eight decapitated heads arranged in a circle. "The heads were eight in number . . . and they formed a ring all facing outwards. Glanton and the judge circled them and the judge halted and stepped down and pushed over one of the heads with his boot" (220). According to A Dictionary of Gnosticism, the ogdoad (Greek for "group of eight") is the "eighth sphere, above the seven planetary spheres" and "may be considered to be the sphere of the fixed stars, but may also be associated with the home of Sophia [the Gnostic personification of wisdom], or the demiurge, or in simpler cosmologies the home of the true God" (A. Smith 177). According to these "simpler" Gnostic cosmologies, the cosmos is ruled by seven archons, whose kingdoms are hierarchically arranged in concentric circles around the manifest world.In what is known as the "Ascent of the Soul" - a teaching common to both Hermeticism and Gnosticism - the souls of the dead must pass through the hebdomad (Greek for "group of seven"). During this process "all passions and vices are given back to the various spheres from which they were derived in the soul's original descent." Afterward, the "essential man' proceeds to the Ogdoad (Eighth) where he praises the Father with those who are there" (Pearson 279). In other words, the perfected spirit ascends to the "eighth realm," thereby returning to its divine source. By knocking over the eighth head, the judge reduces the ogdoad of the alien God to the hebdomad of the archons. If one considers the ogdoad to be the realm of the alien God, then the judge's action is symbolic of his denying transcendence to those who would seek to escape from the manifest world through spiritual development.

The very title of "the judge" carries connotations of biblical judgement, a concept that strengthens his resemblance to the demiurge and the archons. Harold Bloom writes that Judge Holden "seems to judge the entire earth" and the name Holden "suggests a holding, presumably of sway over all he encounters" (Modern Critical Views 4). The judge seems to be obsessed with bringing every animate and inanimate thing in creation under his jurisdiction. When asked why he shoots and stuffs birds, catches butterflies, presses leaves and plants between the pages of his ledger book, and sketches artifacts - often destroying the originals after their image has been recorded - the judge replies, "Whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent" (198). This statement would be absurd if uttered by a mortal man, but chilling if uttered by an archon bent on keeping all things imprisoned in the fetters of manifest existence.

This reading also illuminates the judge's desire to have "the existence of each last entity . . . routed out and made to stand naked before him," so he might be "suzerain of the earth." When asked what a suzerain is, the judge replies, "He is a special kind of keeper," one who "rules even where there are other rulers," because his "authority countermands local judgements" (198). Once again, the judge's emphasis on judgment links him significantly to a Gnostic portrayal of Yahweh. Similarly, his insistence that he be the supreme ruler recalls Yahweh's commandment: "Thou shalt have none other gods before me. . . . Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God" (Deuteronomy 5:7, 9). As the Gnostics were quick to point out, Yahweh is actually unwittingly revealing the existence of another god, "For if there were no other one, of whom would he be jealous?" (qtd. in Pearson 66). Like Yahweh, the judge's insistence on being the sole ruler subtly suggests the existence of other "principalities," "powers," and "rulers of the darkness of this world" (Ephesians 6:12) with which he competes for supremacy.”

Most telling of all, however, are pronouncements the judge makes with his hands placed on the ground: "This is my claim, he said. And yet everywhere upon it are pockets of autonomous life. Autonomous. In order for it to be mine nothing must be permitted to occur upon it save by my dispensation" (199). Robert Jarrett explains that "dispensation . . . is a key term in evangelical Protestant theology, referring to the different covenants regulating the relations between Jehovah and man" (Cormac McCarthy 78). It is by such a "dispensation" that a "terrible covenant" (126) was formed between the mortal Glanton and the sinister, Yahweh-like Holden. Leo Daugherty also links this passage to Yahweh, arguing that "Judge Holden's power is not yet complete, since his will is not yet fulfilled in its passion for total domination" and that "this was also necessarily true of the Gnostic archons, just as it was true of the Old Testament Yahweh" (163). According to Gnostic thought, the demiurge and his archons must exercise their tyrannical rule in order to prevent the trapped fragments of the divine from returning to their source, for if all divine fragments were liberated, there would be nothing left to animate the dead matter of the cosmos. As Kurt Rudolph explains, "the powers which rule the world, the Archons . . . try to impede the [spirit's] return in order to prevent the perfecting of the world of light and thus protract the world process" (172). The archons are powerless in exerting their dominion over those who possess gnosis, or what the judge calls "pockets of autonomous life." Thus the judge knows that he will never be suzerain of the cosmos unless he can keep every living thing imprisoned in the manifest realm.” - Petra Mundik, ‘A Bloody and Barbarous God: The Metaphysics of Cormac McCarthy’ (2016) [p. 35 - 40]

“Satan, avenging angel, albino monstrosity, or hyperrealist of paradise lost, the judge remains the most morbidly captivating character in Blood Meridian. He is reminder alone that the American west was at times a holocaust of Manifest Destiny and white supremacy, the devil's genocidal shibboleths.” - Kenneth Lincoln, ‘Cormac McCarthy: American Canticles’ (2010) [p. 87]

#mccarthy #cormac mccarthy #blood meridian #judge holden #bloody and barbarous god #mundik #petra mundik #gnosticism #harold bloom #metaphysics #shiva #demiurge #archon #satan #devil #kenneth lincoln #canticles #manifest destiny #shibboleth

[ihatetheinternetandeveryoneonit]

Ok a little Wyll appreciation post because he also has my heart.

He's basically a superhero: gained powers in an unexpected way and is using them to help those in need and earned himself fame and a cute little title. Blade of Frontiers.

And he's SO WHOLESOME, so my immediate comparison is Superman. And like Superman, Wyll has the tendency to get overlooked nowadays. I guess we're so cynical that we find wholesome heroes overdone, unrealistic, unrelatable, etc. But in the 1970's where cynicism was already very alive and well, the guys behind The Godfather made the iconic Superman films of a "boy scout" hero bringing some hope back into a messed up world.

And idk, I like the idea that Wyll plays a similar role in bg3. He's this shining beacon who brings hope and smiles to people who are ready to give in to this fucked up world. And to get devil horns and all the marks of a man who made a deal with the devil, his major concern is undoing all the hope and joy he inspired in people. Becoming another "never meet your heroes" situation and having people believe their source of hope was a fraud all along.

Thanks in major part to his upbringing, he can't allow himself to be human, to make mistakes. And in his struggle to Always Do The Right Thing, Wyll is bombarded with impossible decisions.

And despite all that, he's still boyishly optimistic and open and kind and HEALTHY (for the most part. Needs a little work on setting more realistic expectations on himself but compared to the others, srsly he's doing amazing)

I know a lot of changes were made from EA and I'm certainly no expert, but it is such a shame that his story has the outline of these themes but didn't quite get the time to work all the kinks out.

Paragons ARE interesting!! And we need them more than ever.

#wyll #wyll ravengard

[pineapple-frostyfruits]

I would like to hear the two hour rant about Jhin 👉👈

O h B o y, I will happily talk about him for AGES.

Are you familiar with music theory? 4/4 time is also referred to as Common Time in the western music lexicon, and I wonder if Jhin is familiar with said concept and/or frustrated by it. Perhaps he is instead satisfied with it being so recognisable.

There are no X/3 bar times, because the 4 revers to Half Notes/Quavers, Eighth Notes/Semi-Quavers, or Sixteenth Notes/Demi-Semi-Quavers. So if Hwei was to have a beat, it would most likely be 3/4 instead, which is a common waltz beat.

The combination between the two would be 12/4, right? 3×4, and then the 4. But no - thats 12 quarter beats that is uncomfortably long. Realistically it would be a 12/8 beat - maintaining those 4 main beats, but each one internally containing a "ONE-and-a TWO-and-a" to maintain that waltz feeling and that same energy throughout.

That combo manages to find the middle ground between both musical ideas, mixing them evenly, whilst also keeping the flow and the energy of either piece.

Why do I mention this? Well, in Jhin's theme, that Violin solo that moves up and down those scales is using triplets to replicate a 12/8 beat in the 4/4 time signature. Jhin's most iconic and recognisable instrument is already within that compromise.

Ray Chen has attempted to play Jhin's Theme (within 30 minutes of seeing it) with the official RIOT score, and in doing so managed to talk about how it is a consistent movement up and down scales, not a hard thing theoretically, but that it is done so fast, and so precise between the constantly changing scales that it is actually difficult.

Which is the same rules applied to the moral/skill of The Devil Went Down to Georgia: Whilst the Devil plays things with inhuman difficulty and can make unique sounds, that means nothing if no one knows what you are playing. By playing something recognisable, and easily identifiable, but by doing it so well and so consistently as to not make a mistake in timing or fingering or ANYTHING - that takes TRUE skill.

There is also a sound effect found in Jhin's theme that I cannot fully identify. It is also found in the Jhin Teaser Trailer "The Mind Of the Virtuoso", much louder and when the blue tendrils of light from his gun are on screen, but still present in the theme on it's own. I have tried for AGES to find what exactly the sound is. It is akin to the sound of a silent whistle, or maybe a chain metal slowly being moved or lowered into china? I cannot find an exact replica of the noise no matter I how to find it.

What is the sound they use for his magic? How is it? How does it relate to Jhin's character and what does it mean that it is there? Is it sharp metal or something against silk? I do not have access to such things so I cannot know - and it drives me insane. What does it mean for his characterisation????

The gun as percussion within his song is much more obvious: Both in what it is and what it represents. Percussion is the hearbeat of the music. That and the base instruments are what drive music forward, what provides the momentum and a pace for the piece as it goes.

The gun is Jhin's own drive, his forward momentum. He lives for his "art" and the new (better than his old knives) medium he has been given to express it. He manages to keep it, and get more resources, by using it - by using it in specific places on specific people. His desire is to push forward, to build up, to lead to his final performance he has mentioned quite a few times. And that is done through the gun - the gun is his drive and his drive is the gun.

If I wanted to rewatch and actually analyse more of these thematics and pick through each part of his music and theme, I very much could - but it is getting late and also my arm is hurting from typing all this out.

So analysis of Key, Chorus, Echoes, Piano as instrumentation, and also how all of this ties into musical stereotype and how music is used to explain characterisation will have to wait until tomorrow or later. I will reblog with it once I get around to it.

Also this is only accounting for two of the several pieces of media he is in, and not even considering HOW said characterisation affects his interactions or place within the story.

#Anyways yeah #I can talk about Jhin #Jhin #jhin league of legends #I have CONSIDERED writing out a full video essay analysing everything about Jhin but I feel like that would take literal years to do alone #Especially considering how much I talk/rant

[writingonleaves]

have the devils ever done a sibling trip???

bc all i’m thinking about rn is clementine going on it as both jack and luke’s sibling and her hanging out with nina (tbh everyone) the whole time. if anyone saw that sister of the yotes player shotgunning a beer after her brother scored? nina and clem on the jumbotron doing that. iconic. lovely. kinda funny bc it’s a siblings trip but she also do be dating the captain. even funnier if by this time everyone Knows clem and nico are dating and the media even poke a little fun at it (realistically they probably wouldn't, but it would be hilarious if they did in a respectful way)

also bruins did a tiktok during their siblings trip once asking about fun facts of their sibling. clem’s response below verbatim would be:

“fun fact about jack? he never closes the door behind him. ever. no matter how many times i yell at him. i think he does it purposefully now just to piss me off. and then luke? he’s the reason i always have orange juice in my fridge. i don't even like orange juice that much, but it's somehow in my grocery list every week.” like some siblings took this question in a nice route. clem took it as a chance to rag on them

#this was in my drafts and its late and im giggling about it #you just KNOW clem would jump at the opportunity and be a little shit about it #and jack and luke would pretend they hate it but they love it #the blue au

[fwb-anon]

the idolz and their controversies... part 1

because we love drama

i don't hate any of them btw <3 i just like to make the world as realistic as possible with people doing some questionable shit or having controversial actions/opinions at times...

gonna get beheaded for that but LET'S START WITH GOJO <333

gojo (ex... whatever the big jjk group is called, former tripleS + GG member)

he's actually fine, at least for someone who's been an idol + a producer for like... almost twenty years sheesh

does get a lot of rumours but we don't care about those

his biggest controversy is basically the one that.. he hasn't "fixed"... putting "" because truth is everyone is divided on this ("does he really need to fix it?" you decide booboo)

anyway, he uses aave despite being the palest japanese mf ever ❤️​ some black fans don't care, others do care, some non-black fans don't care (not that... we care about their opinion...), some non-black fans do care, one of the pro arguments is "well at least he uses it correctly" so you decide if you're pro or anti gojo now /J... /hj i know some of y'all are extremists

has been called greedy as a producer but let's be real he's a man so he doesn't actually get called out a lot for this + he's one of the most popular idols anyway so who cares (if it were a woman tho...)

okay so this one is actually fake af but he's been called xenophobic and racist towards panda (who's chinese) and yuuji (who's half dominican) because they had less than 2 seconds of line in a song. gojo didn't respond to that, but a week later the behind recording was out on socials and everyone was able to see that 1/ panda actually had more lines but got outsang by most of the group (understandable, he's not a vocalist), 2/ yuuji can't sing to save his life, so giving him one line was already very nice of gojo

okay everyone, you can breathe again it's over for gojo's controversies

shikamaru (from hanafubuki)

oh god where do we start

nah tbf he only has one big controversy and it's: he's sexist

OKAY SO technically he isn't anymore because he got women's studies classes as a trainee otherwise he was kicked out for being a sexist little shit

he does have.. "traditional" views but honestly he's also very open minded

got accused of being sexist because he said he "sees himself with a boring job, a wife, two kids, and his wife cooking dinner for him when he comes back from work"

gonna play devil's advocate and say that's literally how it works with his parents and they like it that way, so

also he said (after being accused of sexism) in a radio show that while that's how he sees his life in twenty years, he wouldn't mind it if his wife was like "no i wanna work too"

they'd just have to agree on a schedule and all, especially for the kids (he wants kids so there's no way he's marrying someone who doesn't tho which is... common sense)

jiraiya (ex wabi-sabi, now soloist)

he's not sexist but he's been labelled a pervert... ngl he does like to look at women's bodies BUT he doesn't make them uncomfortable... leave me and my old man alone... where is @sexygeriatric-retirementhome :( <3 i'm still working on your ask i just take years to reply

has a tendency to date younger people, mostly women but sometimes men (bi icon) <3

has had some ableist comments in the past, mostly when he was a teen though, and although he never addressed it he's never done it again so... you decide...

(btw you gotta realise bro was technically in the public eye from 1991 [pre-debut era] to... well... nowadays... so he's been an idol for 33 years so yeah)

has been caught with porn magazines on his shelves LMAO he's such a loser <3 he was a teen when that happened and also had a gf at the time so that was fun LOL

has struggled with an eating disorder as a late-teen/young adult, which led to him being in a very poor mental state and "giving advice" on how to lose weight. <- pls don't excuse that, that's just the explanation as to why he said those things in the first place ❤️​

he did talk about it a decade later and said he was wrong, also donates yearly to charities (mostly anorexia related ones)

oh yeah i forgot but he's also been accused of having predatory behaviour towards young idols (hanafubuki's neji, bureikou as a whole, kismet's konohamaru)

basically -> he hugged neji when neji was crying (neji was 16). he regularly compliments bureikou (girl group with the naruto girlies + AFAB NARUTO YEAAA), also has a very close bond with naruto herself since he's her godfather, DID talk about her body as in "she's growing up fine" (you take that as you want honestly)... did make a joke about naruto growing up fine but being so tall yet so flat (<- didn't phrase it like that tbh but that was the joke, naruto is 180cm tall and flatter than sakura). konohamaru is his nephew in this au and the way he's been teasing him or even hugging him rubs people the wrong way, mostly because of the previous things (for people who think he's actually having predatory behaviour) and because kono was 15 when he debuted. honestly idek, you make up your mind <3

gonna be real he probably has way more, he's been in the industry for 30+ years LOL but yeah brain is smol

neji (hanafubuki, soloist)

has had ableist comments in the past, mostly about shino's quirks (fyi shino is on the autism spectrum) -> owned up to it and apologised to shino and shino's dad, literally people learned about it because neji mentioned it during a public apology when they were having a concert

neji is basically if character growth was a person

bro is gay as hell (and dating shino!!!) but was homophobic so... character growth <3

honestly props to shino for staring at neji and thinking "i will talk some sense into him" cuz LOOK AT THEM NOW <33

a few fatphobic comments towards choji during predebut era too, but gonna be honest he quickly changed his mind and is literally "choji's husband" (and choji is his wife <3 <- their dynamic is light hearted) so ykw i don't think choji would be fine with that if neji was still fatphobic

again: ✨ CHARACTER GROWTH ✨

i'm hungry so i'll make a part two later

geto will be in it.. if i don't forget

#fwb.idolz #cw eating issues #cw ed mention

[oifaaa]

Annabeth anon here. Yeah I agree Percy never seemed to have much patience w Annabeth in the first books and he’s been oblivious throughout, and you’re right, I need to readjust my perspective, just because she’s a daughter of Athena I shouldn’t expect her to behave a certain way to show that’s she’s smart/good fighter, she’s her own person first. And that we’re only seeing things from Percy’s narrative first so it’s never the whole picture.

When I said her being mean, I didn’t mean the usual violence forced onto all demigods, I meant more of the times Annabeth casually punched Percy and called him stupid etc. as a sort of way of showing her affections, pulling on his metaphorical pigtails. For example when I saw fanarts about the judo flip, there were almost dozens of comments similar to “this is such an iconic romantic scene” “she hit him because she was so worried, I would do that to my so too if it were me” “she only hurt him because of how much she loves him” and it’s times like this when I think, if their role were reversed how would the fandom react, and if this is a good way to portray a relationship, especially when those comments seem to have come from younger audiences. If it were Percy who punched Annabeth in the gut and told her to ask him to dance, if it were Percy who slammed Annabeth onto the ground (without knowing the loss of the curse), if it were Percy’s jealousy that kept Annabeth from certain friends, would that still be considered romantic? (Of course we need to take in the account of them both being traumatized teenagers and being demigods their circumstances are different). I would love to hear your thoughts if you want to share , I know it’s a long ass ask and not even your primary interest, and please correct me of any biases and misconceptions x

See I get were your coming from expecially the whole if the roles are reversed would this still be okay and the obvious answer is no but i think this is another matter of perspective as well the question of how percy feels about it is percy actually hurt by it does annabeth actually do these things to hurt percy like if percy asked her to stop would she which is the really important thing the fact that they're demigods on top of this and they're trained gives the impression that it's more play fighting then anything, as for Rachel I think you need to remember she did have feelings for percy and jealousy may not be pretty but it's natural and speaks more of Annabeths insecurities (which we know annabeth has it one of her character faults we see it with her Step mum and half brother) like these are issues and trauma annabeth has but like I said having negative character traits doesn't make a character the devil it just makes them more realistic and at the end of the day if the characters flaws mean you can't like them that's fine honestly

#Ask #Anon #Tho I also think when it comes to #Woman beating up man is hot #It's not like Annabeth is the leading figure of this #if you get what i mean #Like this is just a media troupe at this point #Like the iconic scene from Princess mononoke comes to mind #Shes got a knife to his neck and he says your beautiful #So if I'm gonna take about the harm this trope could cause #I don't think annabeth would really be the first person who jumps to mind

[torturedpoetemotions]

so, having watched the first 6 seasons… what did you think of riverdale? did you like it? i'm interested in hearing your thoughts on the show :))

I genuinely cannot believe a show with the premise of "edgy grimdark take on Archie comics" is so fucking good. It has no business being this good. No business whatsoever.

Season 1? A murder mystery in a small town full of odd characters and secrets, family issues and generational traumas. Pretty standard CW fare, but with an added element of class commentary that was surprisingly thoughtful. Every character is so interesting and well fleshed out. Every episode feels so intentional. Fantastic balance of plot and character development with an ending I TRULY did not see coming. 10/10

Season 2 is more of a thriller, or a slasher even. Funnily enough though the plot got more sensational, the characters felt more grounded. The story felt very character focused and driven. Every insane detail made perfect sense in the context of what the characters were dealing with. They also really built on the class commentary from season 1 and fleshed out the world of Riverdale. Iconic Jughead moments in every episode. 11/10

Season 3 focused far more on plot, sometimes to the direct detriment of characters in ways that frustrated me. But the plot was interesting enough to keep me from being too bitter about that, especially as the season went on and the character-driven storytelling started to reassert itself. Overall I preferred seasons 1 and 2, but season 3 is iconic in its own way for sure. Betty supremacy this season! 9.5/10

Season 4 was a welcome return to what I genuinely consider to be the central theme of Riverdale as a whole: class struggle and the wicked excesses and abuses of the capitalist elites. I loved the return to more grounded, character-focused storytelling, and the boarding school mystery is a classic trope. It was also nice seeing the characters less siloed into separate stories and more in pairs or groups. There were definitely storylines I cared about more than others (Veronica's endless cycle with her dad began to grate after three seasons of the same shit over and over; I wanted to see her win!). But overall it was a fantastic season that made incredible use of its non-linear storytelling device. Also? Cooper-Jones family absolutely owned this season for me. 12/10

Season 5 was hard for me at first. I balked at the state of everyone after the time jump, especially Veronica ans Jughead. But eventually I realized that the thing that made me balk so hard was how heartbreakingly realistic it was. Once I got past that, I was able to truly enjoy this extremely grounded small town political drama. Archie and Veronica really shone this season, though I continued to be frustrated by Ronnie and Hiram's storyline. This was definitely the season where Archie came into his own, though, and in my opinion Veronica's true victory over her father as well. Toni had a much more central story as well, given how deeply entwined with Riverdale and the Serpents she is, which I loved. This felt like a more adult take on seasons 1 and 2, with the characters now adults who are fully responsible for how their community turns out, rather than kids just trying to survive it. 10/10

Season 6 was pure unfiltered wackadoo in the best way possible. The writers have never adhered to genre conventions, but in this season they took genre as a concept, ran it through a crosscut paper shredder, burned the scraps, and scattered the ashes. The addition of magic made an odd kind of sense given Riverdale exists in the same universe as Greendale, and the Rivervale episodes had me riveted and horrified. The fact that magic in Riverdale is grounded in pre-existing worldbuilding and character development certainly helps. Like of course Betty can see threatening auras and Pop's is the final battleground between good and evil! Of course the devil is a businessman and angels are comrades! Of course the police are corrupt agents of violent control! Riverdale really said the ultimate battle between good and evil is fought with unions, mutual aid, and class solidarity. Chef's kiss. 27/10

I cannot wait to see how it all ends. Though I'll be sad that it's over.

#riverdale #riverdale spoilers #ask box #sonyarebecchi

[marklikely]

11 and 25?

25. a film that is roughly 90 minutes long

I have so many but I'll go with a comedy (since the next one is also a comedy lol) and say Serial Mom

Happy housewife Beverly Sutphin has a charmed life - a beautiful suburban home, a successful dentist husband, and two normal teenagers. However, when one of her son's teachers speaks disparagingly of the boy at a parent-teacher conference, Bev runs the instructor over in the school parking lot. Suddenly she has an insatiable taste for murder. Six homicides later, the cops get wise to her crimes.

Might be biased in saying this since it was my first John Waters movie, but I think its the perfect introduction to his stuff. It's still got a lot of the tastelessness and absurd satire of suburban heterosexuality without going as extreme as his 70s movies. Kathleen Turner as Bev Sutphin is honestly such an icon she's so funny. Also Matthew Lillard is there so that's a fun draw.

11. a film whose main genre is Comedy

I thought of a recent release that should get more attention here, Problemista

Alejandro is an aspiring toy designer who's struggling to bring his unusual ideas to life in New York City. As time on his work visa runs out, a job assisting an art world outcast becomes his only hope to stay in the country and realise his dream.

This is a really good directing debut that's basically a surreal take on the shitty job market and immigration system that we have right now. It's focused on really mundane realistic issues but shows them in a wild off the wall way that makes it funny even though its also like. Painful because you think of how the world sucks SO BAD. I thought it was fun and funny and there was some Devil Wears Prada energy to it with him being the assistant to someone who's an absolute monster.

#asks

[duckmeat13]

Wanted to take some time out of my day to gush over this one particular page of Chainsaw Man Chapter 137 (the most recent release as of this post) because of how genius it’s paneling and use of the comics medium is:

It’s very easy to think of comics as a combination of pictures with text bubbles/balloons/captions, but this takes it to a level I’ve rarely seen. Thought and speech bubbles are probably some of the most iconic elements of comic art beyond the single panel itself, but Fujimoto manages to COMBINE these two elements of comic design to create a sense of visual storytelling that only comics can.

To break it down, we see actions that the reader would normally assume to be reality itself, Denji’s thoughts and actions in real time. The pages prior to this one don’t imply anything other than the very real actions of the story are happening within the pages of the comic…

…despite this being the exact opposite of what is happening, as shown when we expand our view outwards to the next “panel” of sorts, or at least the next action being shown. If these were shown side by side in square panels, we’d assume that they happened one after another - Denji tries to rebut the mystery girl’s advances only to act purely on instinct in the next panel. Not very compelling for a character we’ve seen grow and change over the entirety of Chainsaw Man’s first major arc.

However, the use of the thought bubble AS A PANEL ITSELF transforms this into something that much greater. Denji has actions he’d like to do. He wants to have self-respect. He wants to be able to reject the advances of a women who clearly doesn’t have the best in mind for him (which is confirmed to an extent at the conclusion of the chapter). However, how Denji THINKS he should act is different from how he ACTUALLY ACTS. Despite seemingly knowing better, Denji goes ahead and takes the mystery girl’s bet. He knows he’s falling into old habits but for one reason or another choose not to. And THAT is what I find so genius about this single page.

Denji as a character has transformed from Chapter 1 in a very realistic way. He’s more aware of his needs as a human being and wants a better future for himself and his loved ones. However, his mind hasn’t really caught up with his body. Despite the danger it poses, he still WANTS to be Chainsaw Man. He wants to be idolized and worshiped and have women hanging off of his shoulders because he’s a goddamn superhero who eats other Devils for breakfast and looks cool as hell while doing it. As a result, his body hasn’t caught up with his mind - despite the events of Part 1 deeply changing Denji’s life from a physical and emotional perspective (now being the breadwinner of an apartment with a bunch of dogs, as well as a cat and a college-bound Nayuta), he’s still trying to do what he’s always done - kill Devils and try to live a fulfilling life.

As a result, what Denji recognizes as his wants and needs are separated from what he actually does, which this single pair of contrasting images communicates gracefully.

Denji knows he should stand up for himself more. That he shouldn’t be so easily convinced by a pretty face. But his thoughts and feelings are directly contrasted by what he actually does… and it’s not even clear why he does it! And yet, this message couldn’t be better communicated through the medium of sequential, visual art. Mic drop.

TL;DR The above page from Chainsaw Man Part 2 manages to completely explain Denji’s struggles as a character by nesting speech bubbles describing what he thinks he does within a thought bubble, that then shows what he actually does. It pulls off illustrating Denji’s contrasting character elements as well as subverting audience expectations about him in an intelligent and artistic way. Speech bubbles without speech might be the best thing since sliced bread.

#chainsaw man #chainsaw man 137 #comics #manga #manga panel #comic panels #sequential art #sequential storytelling #sequential illustration #chainsaw man denji #media analysis #character analysis #character appreciation #tatsuki fujimoto #shonen

[please-someone-give-me-love]

One piece live action review #1

There's a lot of good things but also some bad things. In general, I think the live action was really enjoyable, the pacing was good (maybe a little too fast but it's understandable why), almost every change fits good and for what I have seen, I think every main character and side characters feel in character withh their priginal counterparts.

The ost wasn't as great as our dear original ost but it was pretty good as well, the cinematography esencially is the best, not only in the one piece standsrt but in the anime live action standar, I would say it's on the same level of "Erased" cinematography.

Now, I have saiid a lot of good things of tecnical stuff but what about the story?

There wasn't a couple of changes that I pretty much enjoyed while watching it.

1. The way Luffy gets to introduced to Cobh, Alvida en everything.

Obviously, following the anime and manga route and reoolicating the exact movements and things to say would be leas to a cringey failure, we can't replicate anime expressions neither their comedic gags so they have to changed it and adapt it which was a great decision.

The scenes have the same vibe and love as the original but in a more "realistic" way to adapt to real people.

2. Luffy as a kid and his way to eat the gomu gomu no mi.

That kid nailed it completely in every way, he nailed it, did an incredible job replicating Luffy's stubborning and admiration for shanks, he was great and I like the way they made him eat his devil fruit.

Sure the scene is not as iconic as the original but it feels special and magic and also pretty funny.

The red shanks pirates nailed it as well, I think they showed the comfortable vibe that they have in the manga/anime.

3. Coby.

I think the best characterization from the first episode was Coby, the actor did a great job on portraying his fears and insecurities. It's a pity they couldn't show more of his participation.

4. Nami, Zoro and Luffy.

Their dynamic was really funny to see, I was worried at the beginning when I saw the first trailer but now nowing the context I understand why they changed it, still, their sheninigans were really funny and have a great chemistry.

5. Captain Morgan and Helmeppo.

They really adapted them well, in a really good way, I think they did a great job.

6. Buggy.

I don't need to clear nothing, good my hormones are crazy for that clown.

Now, even that I generally emjoyed the episode and adaptation, there were also things I didn't like.

*clearing that I am not taking account things like cgi because they actually did an incredible work with the cgi or stupid nitpickings but more like scenes that I think they could be make but they decide to not do it, as well as some (just one) characterization.

1. Luffy's characterization.

NOT HATE TO IÑAKI HE DID GREAT.

I understand why they couldn't adapt Luffy as the original, it would ended up horrible and cringey and Iñaki did a great job capturing Luffy escence and spirit, there were a few times that I thought:"Wow that's something Luffy would do" but in general, I do think his characterization is pretty oc, nothing that would stop me to watch the series but it something thag I had to say it, hell, even Oda himself admit that there were things Luffy wouldn't say or act but it was alright.

Please send love to Iñaki, it's another fellow mexican actor that I am supporting so this is not hate or anyhing.

2. Hopefully they change Garp's vibe.

I think since the very beginning in the original we knew that Garp wasn't normal lol but here he is so much more serious, I hope this is only a question to hide his relating to Luffy like Oda did in the manga with the whole dog mask.

3. This scenes.

Shanks and the bandit.

I don't think it was a bad scene but I think they could recreat the original scene with no so much problem, they added Zoro's fight with the baroque work member, so I doubt they couldn't recreate Shanks getting humilliation from the bandit.

More because it will become a single during Jaya arc, showing Luffy's grow and understanding towards his pirate life, we all knew this parallel and I think it is important because we really didn't need words to understand how much Luffy's view has changed, it's that subtle message that feels so close and personal to us.

The scene is good but it didn't have a lot of impact.

Zoro and the little girl.

They did a great job, everything is great and this little complain is more like a stupid nitpicking by myself but I think the scene is less impactful in so many ways even if it's the same, I understand why they changed but it's still, I enjoyed in generall but I haave to say this.

4. Haircolor

Sorry but I am actually ranting about this, the haircolors look so bad, it took me completely put, just bad, it looks fake for exception of Coby and maybe Zoro but god, I hate the way they made them look so bright and put of entonation.

Conclusion.

It was a good show, a great anime live action, easily one of the best in the list (sorry but for me Erased is the best LA) but an incredble adaptation, I can see the love and dedication and they did a fantastic work.

*Ps. I started laughing so hard with the den dem mushi.

#one piece #one piece spoilers #one piece live action #one piece netflix #anime live action

[mermaidsirennikita]

LK will always be iconic for that last minute breastfeeding scene. Like I was a teen when I first read and was so shocked but also so into it ?? Derek became my man ever since 💗

I think the last minute nature of it is what makes it surprising? Like in a lot of books today that would be a Shocking Moment, and Lisa just went, oh, here, an epilogue sex scene where he very deliberately sucks on her tits while she's lactating and drinks her breastmilk, and then they fuck for the first time since she had the baby. Lmao.

I also think it's a really good example of the sex... or in this case, the kink? Fitting the couple and the romance. Imo, we see a lot of shit in romance (more in contemporary, but honestly everywhere) wherein the specific kink or vaguely "outside the box" sex thing feels... just there. It's not something the author is really connecting to the characters. I mean, I'll kind call a later Kleypas out for this--I actually like Devil in Spring, but Gabriel Challon being into Mild Bondage has like. No connection to his character. No connection to his relationship with Pandora. He's just into it, she's like "ooh scandalous" and is also into it. They have like, a mild "rake meets rebellious girl" tension, but I didn't feel like that light bondage was a payoff to anything in their dynamic. It was just... nicee.

Which is realistic, sure. In real life, lots of people don't have Deep Reasons for their kinks. But in real life, we don't have to connect to character arcs and plots. Our sex lives are just ours. And while I'm good for casual kinkiness in romance, I do think that... the romances I like the most are sexually explicit (I'm all about sex in romance) but connect the sex to the characters?

~Like, in Then Came You, there are two scenes with bondage (which to me, both easily top--haha--the scene in Devil in Spring). Lily (wild) ties Alex (uptight, can't stand her) up to keep him from interfering with her schemes. Because their in an enemies to lovers deal, she then climbs on top of him and taunts him, and just like, to fuck with him, leans in to give him a light kiss. And he's SO aroused, and so embarrassed and unmanned by it, and he can't help but deepen the kiss and she's shocked to realize how into it he is... and then later he ties her up as "revenge" foreplay after they get together. It makes sense with the dynamic Lisa has set up--he can't stand how attracted to her he is, and he can only give in to it when he has no choice but to do so.

Similarly, in The Duke Gets Even, it actually makes sense that Lockwood likes pain during sex (both inflicting and receiving) because he feels like he's living on borrowed time, he wants to feel alive and vital and like he can withstand anything... But additionally, his love of dominating in the bedroom--biting and bruising Eleanor, fucking her mouth versus a sensual~ bj--is connected to how much power he feels he doesn't have in life. He doesn't ever whine about it, which is why he doesn't come off as a Nice Guy type, but we know that he is embarrassed by his lack of money, his need to sell his title and really his Fetishistic Ducal Qualities and in a very real sense his body, to keep his estate afloat. He knows that dukes don't actually fucking matter on a practical level anymore. He wants to control Nellie in the bedroom because he feels totally out of control in his regular life.

(Contrast this to many, many BDSM romances wherein the dom is like... also in control in every other aspect of life. Which, yes, those types do exist in real life, but it can be hard to execute in a romance without it feeling kinda flat? Like, I love dominant heroes, but something does ring a lot truer to me with a dominant hero who constantly feels as if his life is spinning out of control.)

With Dreaming of You, I feel like the breastfeeding plays into several things? Beyond it just being hot lol. For one thing, let's be real, Derek being drawn to Sara's maternity and shit is absolutely Oedipal because Derek was abandoned by his mother... Derek also is very fond of Scandalous Ladies (which Sara is a mild form of as a general rebel who's bored with her staid life) like Lily and the sex workers he works with, because his mother was that. And That's Fine. Having an Oedipal Complex of some sort isn't bad and let's be real, it's.... more common than we might wanna admit, it just depends on how you handle it. Derek has a bit of a mommy fetish. Read that epilogue and try to tell me otherwise--it's not just the breastfeeding, but him being so satisfied and like, emotionally and physically aroused by Sara being a good mom lmao, him watching Sara feed the baby, him seeing her domestic. IT IS WHAT IT IS.

Also, however, from a writing perspective--it's very Nice Boys Don't Do That. He isn't a nice boy. You don't even read about a lot of like, rakish types drinking breastmilk. It's an earthy act that... Unless you specifically pay someone who is breastfeeding and catering to that clientele, you really aren't going to Casually Experience very often if ever. It's something that I imagine... happens among partners a lot more than people wanna admit, again, lmao. It's intimate, it's earth, it's something that speaks to how close he's let himself be to Sara after holding himself back--and a lot of Derek's dialogue with Sara speaks to that too. He wants to be Deeper, he wants to hit her cervix essentially lmao, he wants to crawl inside her. His conflict is that he wants to be as close to her as possible, and he doesn't feel deserving of the privilege, so obviously, once he's over that, HE'S GONNA BREASTFEED.

And of course, it also just speaks to how that's still like. Their Thing. Him enjoying pushing her boundaries, her knowing that he likes to see her act all scandalized. Because when you do read breastfeeding scenes in historicals lol, it's often an OOPS, and she very much warns him "I AM LACTATING" and he's like "that is the POINT". It's so good because he's actively seeking it out, and he isn't a little bitch who's afraid of bodily fluids of any kind and in conclusion Derek Craven eats Sara out when she's on her period.

Anyway, that's what I've got to say about that.

#romance novel blogging #the thinkpiece no one asked for #so yeah the adult breastfeeding scene is hot