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#shinee analysis
fawnforevergone · 2 months
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i am forever thinking about the admiration hozier sings with in verse two of "abstract (psychopomp)". the way he compares the death of his relationship with the collision of hitting an animal, but is more in awe of his lover's reaction than the tragedy itself?? "the speed that you moved"?? "the screech of the cars"?? "the creature still moving that slowed in your arms"?? the way they could look death in the eye and care for it rather than run from it, and, instead of hating their acceptance of the breakup, hozier says that that is why there is "no choice but to love you"?? 'the way you are ending this is the reason i love you'?? the fact he is thankful that his lover has the strength to be the psychopomp because he knows he would have just kept flying into the sun icarian style?? how, despite how lost he feels ("the earth from a distance"), he cannot help but find the compassion his partner shows to the end of their love beautiful ("see how it shines")?? it is on my mind day in day out i can think of nothing else
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frenchgremlim1808 · 1 month
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Why Midori is such a breath of fresh air or how to actually write a Villain.
So the awaited essay, the winner of the FrenchGremlin polls of laziness finally has come! It took some time but it’s finally over. If your choice didn’t get chosen that’s okay! I’ll repost a new poll with old and newer options. Please reblog this one i put a lot of time in it, it's like, five pages long over a silly goose. Also sorry for the grammar i sucks and i'm not native. So let’s begin:
(also here is the link to the video format)
So first let’s make things clear, What IS a villain?
“A villain is a character whose evil actions or motives are important to the plot.” That is why I do want to make a difference between a villain and an antagonist, an antagonist is a character who are a plot devices that creates obstruction to the protagonist. That means that a villain is forced to be an antagonist while an antagonist is not forced to be a villain. For example shin is an antagonist but not a villain, he is driven by selfish desires which are themselves fueled by fear anger and loss, he is the protagonist of his own story and is a sympathetic character despite it all, and Midori is just a bitch. Midori falls under multiple stereotypes of villains. Such as “the mastermind”, “evil incarnate” (lmao),”related to the protagonist” etc. Midori is evil, there is no denying in this, he is purely evil, and he doesn’t have a sad weepy backstory, he doesn’t feel empathy towards other, he is a despicable piece of shit who ruined so many lives. I won’t list everything but here is a list of his crimes, murder, assault, domestic abuse, grooming, verbal abuse, and torture, crimes against humanity lmao, stalking, violent crimes, and participation in a cult. And his worst crime is being a pussy bitch of course. So now that we have put the bases up let’s really begin.
Hollywood has a hate boner against villains and I hate them for that.
Recently Hollywood decided that pure evil bad guys is actually a bad thing, so now they decided to do stupid side story with them, to give them ”””depth””” since I guess how could we like those villains since they are bad. A great example of this is the Disney remakes which I loathe so much oh god I hate them. So first they did a maleficient it was okay honestly, then they did a freaking cruella movie where her mom gets killed by Dalmatians, that’s not a joke, in the peter and wendy movie that nobody saw they decided to have made the captain hook be a lost boy who was abandoned by the lost boys and peter, oh also they decided that PETER CUT HIS HANDS OFF AND LEFT HIM TO DIE BECAUSE HOOK WANTED TO SEE HIS FAMILY. They are going to do a freaking mufasa movie, in no time I can’t wait to have a Ursula movie where it’s discovered that ariel killed all of her family in cold blood or something’s. So you might say what’s the problem? I mean isn’t that supposed to make the story more interesting. No, no it doesn’t, because first they take all of the character personality traits and throw them in the bin, second they are supposed to be the vilain in a musical animated movies, I am not against complex villain, I love them, but by doing this, the original character doesn’t exist anymore. Just create original content with new interesting characters instead of doing stuff like this. Also it’s kind of funny than in all of those interpretation they take all the fun and sucks it out, what do I mean by fun, the gayness, Disney vilain are fun because they are camp, they are fabulous extravagant extra in all the ways possible, and that’s the reason we liked them. Not every character needs something super deep, like “my family was burned down at the stake and my dog was eaten by my ex”, sometimes we just like bad fun people, they are the story, and Hollywood hating them so bad just bothers me a lot. Also now the new thing is to not have a villain at all which can works in some narrative but not all of them, it gets boring after a while. In the past people were angry that villains are bland, but now I kind of miss it. While I will critique villains who have no purpose outside of being evil that’s dumb, like for example Voldemort is bland like white bread because his only motivation is being evil, but evil people do exist compared to what some Hollywood writers think, they should know. So that’s why I will put a difference between evil villains and villains whose only purpose is being evil; we loved Disney villains but they still had motivations, goals, reasons that to them a least were worth everything. World domination isn’t enough, why do you want world domination, what is the true reason deep in your heart, is it an inferiority complex, is it a savior complex fuelled by xenophobic beliefs.
That is how to write a pure evil villain, evil people exist all over the world, but I have never seen one who doesn’t have they own reasons to be so bad, it doesn’t excuse their actions nor really explains them. We do not want justifications we want explanations. If you are justifying evil behavior then do it, but don’t claim that it is a pure evil character. A pure evil character can be fun, can be interesting, he can be deep, it’s all about balancing all of their traits to truly make them greats. Which is why midori succeeds while current villains fail. Current stupid remake/spin off try to justify the behavior because they feel like this is what the audience wants, but it’s not what we need. So I will defend to the grave evil villains.
Creating an evil villain doesn’t make them boring guys.
Why the heck does big budget movies have either the blandest protagonist or the blandest villains sometimes both, like I said evil people do exist but comically evil character only works in satire not in a serious multiple millions of dollar movie. Example that boring ass avatar movie, the one with blue people, none of the characters are interesting the villain is one note. The lords of the rings also suffers from that, but I don’t care because the protagonist are so awesome that sauron being personality less doesn’t matter. Also sauron is more of a force of nature villains so it’s not the same. The recent kingsman movie has a bland one note villain, there is nothing entertaining, funny, about him he’s just evil, borrrrring. Every Disney remakes depiction of the characters are boring. I just feel bored out of my mind. Atla one of my favorite shows of all time has a main villain that’s kinda one note, Ozai, but he is actually intimidating guy, azula is the superior character, but I wouldn’t consider her a villain she is an antagonist though. I honestly don’t get why Hollywood thinks that just creating a character with no personality and whose only goals is to be evil is good.
So back to midori for a second, here is my question, when midori was on screen did you ever feel bored? Never right! Because despite midori being an evil character he has an actual personality, he’s fun, you want to punch him in the balls. Because midori has other personality traits than evil, midori is petty, childish, extremely intelligent, controlling, a natural manipulator, he is a trickster, he doesn’t seem to get some social norms, he is narcissistic, easily angry, and fears death etc See how I counted a lot of traits, traits that in other character would works, midori has positive traits, and I think that is the best thing nankidai could have ever done, midori has traits that a regular person could have. Which is why if I put midori in any settings his character would work.
Example, instead of a death game the cast is under the sea to discover the insane wildlife and supernatural stuff happening, what would midori do in this situation? Well he would very passionate about finding all of what’s happening, he’ll do anything to find out, even sometime sacrificing others, not only will he try to find what’s happening, but he is also going to try to find a way to make this discovery favour him in the end. Or let’s imagine it’s a vampire situation, where a vampire attacks  the city, midori would try to stop it, not because he cares, but to experiment on them to get their biology and finds the real secret of immortality since he fears death.
Here is my second advice, after creating your character try to imagine them in another completely different situation, like normal life, or a fantasy world, ask yourself the question what would they do in that environment? If you can find a real complete explanation of their actions then yes your character has multiples dimensions if not try thinking about it again. Some example of questions I do want to point out are some like “if my character had all the power in the world what would they do first or”, “if my character had only a day left to live what would they do”
Why is Current media incapable of creating good threats like bruhhhh.
Okay so first of all let’s talk about stakes in a story, let’s say you are watching a slasher movie, slowly the cast gets slimmed down and people die in horrible ways, that should set stakes right ? Well if the villain is an absolute buffoon who makes the stupidest actions and decisions in the world, you wouldn’t feel intimidated at all because despite what the filmmaker might try to say the plot armor will NEVER make a character intimidating. It’s just like a detective character who just seems to know everything without a thought, well you won’t really fear the character failing. Worse is the the final girl, who is for some reason always escaping the slasher guy by pure luck every time, she is shown as incompetent but still she survives, which make the villain seem completely incapable so now you feel nothing.
To avoid this filmmaker often use techniques such has unpredictability, I mean good I mean good ones, for example instead of immediately seeing whose going to survive because the black guys always dies first and the virgin white woman is the last survivor, change the status quo, make us think that this character is obviously safe while they actually aren’t at all. Or actually make them menacing by SHOWING to the audience how horrible dangerous they can be. Which is why SHOW DON’T TELL is so important, telling us how dangerous someone can be only to see them get beaten to death at the end of the movie makes us feel nothing.
Midori felt like a impossible person to beat, he is smart, had twenty plans in advance, even in situation where the cast felt like they might have a chance he was always armed, just like the gun he promised to use or the rocket punch. When they felt like they were finally advancing, he put obstacle in their ways, such as the collar game or the moment he put the collar on explode mode for  ranmaru. The entire point in the murder game was to make time pass, it took a long time for the cast top realize that this whole time they were losing precious time not realizing that the dummies were the real problem. The characters that made you feel the most hopeless were the dummies, if you won by killing midori they would die, but if you lost you might lose people you love (keiji or gin). It felt hopeless because they were no solutions in the end. That creates tension so that creates stakes. If we were told how dangerous unpredictable sou was then it wouldn’t hit the same, we are shown that he is that terrible. There is a scene ingame where bbg shin ai tells us that midori tortured and like to destroy people. That’s exposition so TELL, but do you why it works, because we are SHOWN before his behavior. Midori felt unbeatable, so the fact that we were shown his weakness such has his petty behavior, hatred of minors, and fear of death, for the first time it feels like there is a chance that we might survive this. And still after he isn’t shown has an incompetent buffoon, he is one, but the narrative doesn’t show us that he is.
What is also consider is good to make the audience feel actual stakes is to first really develop well the main characters, how can we feel worry for a character if we don’t know them, the audience need to feels emotional connection to the main cast to actually care. You can use things such has moments where there is nothing special happening just character talking getting to know them. Make us feel why we need to care about them possibly losing, instead of being indifferent. Or I don’t know maybe make an entire spin off game where we get to have the cast talk to each other and seeing dynamics between character that died early to get them a chance to shine and make their death even more tragic, or even make mini episodes of characters who only got a single chapter to show off their characteristic, to get us to know them better? But that’s just a silly idea of course, wink, and wink.
My favorite thing about Midori is that he is actually pathetic, like really pathetic, but weirdly realistic?
Midori is the most pathetic character in the cast, yes more than shin, shin is leagues less pathetic. No I’m not saying that midori is not intimidating or scary, I would piss myself if I saw him. He’s a scary guy. But if you look at him more closely you can see that he is a baby brat in a big boy suit.
So let’s start by something clear, Sou Hiyori clearly displays antisocial behavior, or in common terms he is a psychopath/sociopath, this illness is very badly seen in medias, I am not saying that people who lacks empathy like him are inherently bad, he is, a lot of people with antisocial behavior actually suffers a lot and have a difficult life. Sou real issues is not his antisocial behavior, it’s his narcissism and god complex. Sou feels the need to HAVE CONTROL over others, he like the feeling of being in power, he sees the rest of the world has beneath him, toys for his pleasure. He says that he “really like humans” because despite it all he seems to put himself in a different categories than regular people, they are beneath him. When he loses control his calm and cool behavior disappears and we see his true face, a grown man who has throws a tantrum like a baby. One of the best representation of this is midori views on the cast:
Midori hates kanna, like no jokes he has beef with her, a fourteen years old, actually he has beef with a lot of people in the cast. Midori views emotional people has weak, people who are loving optimistic as beneath him and useless. He preferred when sara was cruel and horrible, that’s what he loved about her, he liked seeing her scary emotionless side. But Kanna, kanna is everything he hates. A crybaby who not only puts the group in harmony, is a source of hope in general, is the reason he near got to have closure with shin (killing him), he views kanna as “not fun shin”. We have many proofs for this, if you type the word kanna kizuchi he says this: “Poor Kanna'd weep! I think a more worthless name would be better for someone like me” He mocks her, but also himself (I’lll come back on this later), he calls her worthless. Also in the electric charge minigame, when he can choose who to shocks he chooses two people in particular, kanna who he hates and hinako who ruined his fun by giving the cast a chance in saving ranmaru. But he does also says mean spirited stuff to other people, qtaro and gin. He also says some sarcastic comments about nao and joe, saying that it’s such a shame that they died so young. But you might say why kanna especially? Because he is a petty baby who is jealous of kanna, Yes jealous, of kanna, a fourteen years old. Because he feels like she stole his hubby wubby shin away from him…. God I hate him. And you know what that make him a pathetic idiot, after the scene where kanna beats his ass, he’s all mad and like “uhh I’m going to pout I wanted you to cry like a lot, now I’m gonna cry”. An that’s actually god, because it humanize him, he wants need thoughts, he isn’t one note, and that’s the most important!
Sou is a villain but before that he is a character, a fully developed character, and THAT’S WHAT MAKE HIM GREAT, Sou works because he works realistically, I mean if you forget the robot part, it’s easy to imagine a narcissist man child who needs to feel in power towards other, so his main prey are young vulnerable people.Which leads me to my next point:
Sou is a failure like really, and we aren’t sad for him.
Sou failed everything he worked on, he failed to get the paper from alice, he failed whith shin since he had to leave earlier than he thought he would leave, because of his mistake he lost his position in the death game, then he failed to kill gin or keiji, and then he died like an idiot losing his cool and acting like a toddler. And he knows it that why he is a bit self-hating (he should be). And yet none of us feel any sympathy towards him, why? Because sou is one of the most despicable guy in existence. He is a disgusting pervert, sadistic asshole, and abusive narcissistic cunt who thinks he is better than everyone. From the bottom of my heart I hate him sooooo much he is literally the character I hate the most in existence. He abused shin, ruined keiji’s life, traumatized the entire cast, literally assaulted sara like he physically assaulted her. He mocked nao and joe and kugie life as useless. He is an obsessive jerk AND I HATE HIM. And you know what…… It’s good. Like I actually feel a lot of emotions when I think about him, he fuels me with anger and disgust, and if your characters can make me feel that much rage then you did it, you created an actual perfect character. Hiyori is such a shit person that I think about him a lot, writers shouldn’t be scared to make a character such hittable assholes, example bojack horseman in bojack horseman is the vilest man on earth and I love it, because I genuinely hate him. Just like I genuinely love kanna, like really I really love her, I in the same time despise midori so bad. We hate him because he is horrible to good people that WE KNOW AND CARE ABOUT, not random npcs. There is a lot of… disgusting implications in his story with shin that I will not talk about it makes me really uncomfortable right now. SO HERE IS A VERY TACKY TRANSITION TO TALK ABOUT WHY I HATE JUNKO FROM DANGANRONPA.
Junko is boring, that’s it, she is boring, not funny not interesting, she is a fetish, she is the biggest Mary sue on earth, she is a gross character made to make fun of people with disabilities and queer people. Her only traits is being crazy, that’s it. I wouldn’t call midori that crazy actually, he’s methodical calculated, and precise. Crazyness is a term for people who aren’t in control of their actions and delusional about reality, sou is not crazy, he knows what he is doing, he is in full control, while characters like shin should actually be consider crazy, like shin is actually crazy but sou isn’t.
Conclusion:
Sou is a breath of fresh air, because nankidai had the balls to write an actually interesting deep and threatening character AND make him a villain. He didn’t fall into the trap of making him have a sad backstory or good motives, sou is just selfish, that’s all he is. He make him a fun entertaining guy who you absolutely hates, he made him threatening and at the same time a complete doofus. He made him humane and pathetic.
But the thing that make me love nankidai the most is this
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The fact that he actually killed him that takes courage as a writer to just end a character THAT WAY, which is why midori will never come back alive he is forever dead. And that take a lot of talents as a writer to just take one of the most important characters and just get him drilled to death in the anus, like dammn nankidai you are a savage. That fact alone makes him one of the best characters in game, I hate him as a person, but has a character he is a masterpiece.
Though Kanna could solo him
this was posted as a video on my blog this is mainly so people who don't want to stay there reading a 24 minute video of my stuttering can have a bit of quiet
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grimalkinmessor · 3 months
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Just to put a lot of my posts and beliefs about Light Yagami's character in one post (headcanons not included):
• He does not do anything for purely moral reasons. The reason he started killing criminals was because he was curious, and then afterward his "crusade" was built from panic and spite. He thought using the Death Note was going to kill him, so he decided to take everyone he considered a threat to society down with him—that way he would still be good. He would still be remembered. If he can't live, then criminals don't deserve to either. The weight loss and the insomnia shown in the manga, were more likely results of a fear of dying than moral stress.
• Then Light discovers he won't die. This negates part of the spite, but not the need for a moral justification to keep himself "good". He no longer needs to be a martyr, so instead he's chosen to become a God.
• During this week and half of time, Light goes from being a bored, lonely, listless teenager disgusted with the world because it's not how his father taught him it should be, disgusted because if he can manage perfection why can't the rest of the world—to a boy with a new friend and a new mission that gives him purpose. Something interesting. If the world can't be perfect on its own, he'll have to help it. The world needs his help, making him its "savior".
• In comes L. It is no longer about Kira, no longer about saving the world from itself, even if he might tell himself it is—it's about the game. Kira was a fun pastime, yes, but L has made things so much more interesting. (Light and Ryuk are actually wildly similar in several ways it's just not immediately obvious). This game is more fun, too, because this time he has an opponent—one not so nebulous as "the criminals of the world", who offered no challenge. Light is still justifying his actions through a lens of morality, because he has to, but they're beginning to run rather thin.
• Both the broadcast and the obvious taunts to L through changing Kira's killing methods supports the above. "You're too stupid, L. If you were just a little smarter, we could've had some fun." Drawing L in was to progress their game, not Kira's goals. If Light truly only cared about Kira's vision, Kira's new world, Kira's righteous justice; then he wouldn't have continued to play the game after the broadcast. There was no way for L to find him without Light drawing him in—the Death Note is literally the perfect murder weapon. Light knew this, he just ignored it because he wanted to play.
• In the same vein: Yotsuba Light doesn't know he's playing the game. He's forgotten that there even is a game, and so he sees L as someone who's been duped, who either isn't as intelligent as he's been made out to seem, or someone who's being purposefully cruel just because he can. Either way, to Yotsuba Light, L's threat level has only increased, because Light no longer has any sort of weapon to go against him with. He can't even wield his own innocence against him, because his innocence is not certain. Even to himself. Yotsuba Light knows that he has to play along with L's plays of friendship and morality in order to secure his freedom, but he does not respect L or like him. At least, not until near the end, where they're closing in on Higuchi. Where his freedom seems closer....and yet he sees his own, true innocence as more tenuous than ever. Notably, even when Light feels positively towards L there, he still does not share his suspicions about himself with him. His own life still takes precedence over any sort of justice or morality he might have, because Yotsuba Light is still Light. And Light will always put his own self-interests first.
• After killing L, something interesting happens. Because the game ends, but Kira is still left. And Light was willing to take risks and make wild plans in his game with L, but Kira's goals always, always came after his own life. And when only Kira's goals are left, Light stops taking those big, potentially lethal risks. (i.e. bomb desk trap, killing Raye Penber in person by handing him pages of the Death Note, killing Naomi Misora in person right in front of the police station, writing Higuchi's name while sitting right beside L with the murder weapon literally in his hand, etc. etc.). Winning the game was worth dying for—Kira's ideals are not. Or, to put it even more simply: His pride is worth dying for, but his morals are not. Five years after his victory against L, he's presented with another game, but instead of feeling fearful and excited as he did with L, Light is angry. Arrogant and angry. Because this isn't a game to these opponents, as it was to L—they're playing against each other, and Light is merely a piece in it. This game is not like his game with L; it's more like his "game" with the criminals of the world. One with no true challenge, just another defense of Kira's world—worth winning, but not worth dying for.
• Light's pride is more important to him than anything. He needs to be able to take pride in himself and his actions. Pride comes before everything else, before Kira, before family, before L, even before his own desires and physical health. He does not enjoy killing—he just turned it into something he could be proud of. Into another mastering of craft. Light is not particularly sadistic, he's just spiteful. He'll only take pleasure in someone's suffering if they make someone else suffer first, especially if that someone is him. Attacking his pride would count as making him suffer, because that's the most important thing in the world to him. Even though Light also values his life incredibly highly, attempting to kill him wouldn't invoke as much hell-hot wrath as attempting to humiliate him would. And Light will always get even. Always. He does not forgive and forget.
• He believes every lie he tells himself. Every. Lie. He is a Good Man. He is Good Son. He is a Savior. He is Better. He is NOT Evil, he is Good. He's incredibly adept at not only fooling other people, but fooling himself. Even if he's vaguely aware of the truth, he'll take great pains to make sure that truth never comes to light—because it would crush him.
• Light does not take his own desires into account. If he likes or wants something that contradicts with the perfect image he's crafted, he purges it from his mind. Makes excuses for why he doesn't need it, or even convinces himself very thoroughly that he didn't even want it in the first place. If it's not something he can be proud of (or convince himself to be proud of), he doesn't allow himself to desire it.
• Light sees everyone as beneath him (family notwithstanding, Light loves his family deeply), and while it's a pyramid scale of how far beneath him they are, it's not actually ranked by things like gender, sexuality, race—it's ranked by morality and intelligence. The more intelligent and moral you are, the higher up you are on the scale. Light feeling hostile towards someone does not always mean he sees them as further down beneath him; with L and Misa specifically, it means that they're a threat. Light tends to only see people near the top of the intelligence pyramid as threats; evidenced by him dismissing Matsuda completely even with the knowledge that Matsuda was a marksmen, and yet him immediately setting out to kill Naomi when he found out she figured out one of Kira's secrets. With Takada and Mikami, he treats them exactly the same as each other because they're both on the same level of the scale—and he didn't hesitate to get rid of either of them. (Or try to get rid of, in Mikami's case). Everyone is either a tool, a threat, a criminal, a citizen, or family to him. People to use (tool, criminal), people to serve and/or placate (citizen, family), and people to eliminate (threat, criminal). Everyone falls into at least one of these categories for him.
• Light Yagami is a tragic character. And he's a tragic character because he refuses to believe he's part of a tragedy. He would rather swallow broken glass than be considered a victim of anything.
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heroesbyler · 8 months
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Sexuality themes in s4 : Lucas and Mike as foils in conflict compared to the rest of the party
So. I've been meaning to talk about how the theme of Lucas being the prototype of straightness (sorry bi Lucas truthers<3) continues in s4 , and how it ties to how sexuality is written concerning the young party.
Lucas as Mike's straightness prototype, in universe and as a meta narrative
So , I'm definitely not the first person to talk about how Mike is incapable of being authentic in his straight relationship, so he relies on Lucas telling him what to do, in comparison to him acting on his own accord with Will. Many analyses have been written about this. Let's show an overview of the times, narrative wise and in universe, that Lucas lead and Mike followed suit:
S1
S1 is an interesting concept because Lucas isn't at a place where he's actually interested in girls yet. In fact, he shows great jealousy and contempt because a girl is "stealing" his best friend, who "betrayed" them and Will to spend time with a guuuurl because he likes her. Even so, we get Lucas's narrative blessing :
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We also get this in their fight, but i'll talk about this later. We get this scene before Mike kisses El for the first time, or shows any kind of "interest" in her other than being a weapon.
S2
Lucas and Dustin start actively being straight, and having a crush on Max. Mike is not pleased with this, and he has absolutely no interest in Max or the princess in the game or any girl. The entire season leads to the Snowball, where Mike looks at Lucas and Max dancing like this.
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Why does Mike seem more upset and displeased than Dustin lol. He does not like this new fascination with girls around here. But well, Lucas is dancing with Max, before they kiss. So what will Mike do, mere seconds apart, the takes cutting from one to the other?
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S3
Now that kissing and, presumably, making out are checked in the checklist, there's another part of being in a straight relationship that Mike learns from Lucas : conflict. Pretty hard to have conflict in your relationship when your gf was raised in a lab, knows nothing about the world and only talks to you, the person she's latched on to, and her dad, while never leaving the house or having a single friend (sigh).
In the Lumax-Mileven break up arcs, the "Mike has no clue and needs Lucas to tell him everything all the time because he's gay" is kind of spelled out for us. Later, Lucas spells out to Mike the entire plan : buy a present that says sorry and the lots.
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Which leads us in s4. A season where Mike and Lucas are apart for almost the entirety of. But their sexuality coding and narratives are still deeply interwined. Before that, let's see what the rest of the party get, before we highlight the Lucas-Mike foil.
Max
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Max has her own thing going on this season, but she's not exempt from having a "sexuality" scene. In fact , she's the only member of the party to even talk about sex at all, in s3 , as she read in "her mom's cosmo".
Dustin
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Dustin has a long term girlfriend, and we know he's made out with her plenty from his comments to Steve. Before that, he has talked about seeing Lumax's electricity. Here, we get some classic "my mom almost caught me" scene. Pretty straightforward.
Will
Will is a very complicated character when it comes to sexuality coding. As a victim of sexual abuse, and a boy who is well aware he's attracted to boys, his relationship to this topic isn't the same as the others. However, we do get his reaction and acknowledgement of the hose scene, which is meant to be the first time Will coexists with this kind of coding and it's not non consensual. (yes i know this sentence is awful but it's like. true. let's get rid of the rods for one moment)
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El
El has her own thing going on as well this season and she in fact has zero (0) scenes regarding sexuality. With the definitive amount of csa coding El gets, and the ambiguity of what she knows about sex at all, sexuality is in the back burner throughout s4, and more importance is given to her becoming an actual person.
And then, we have Mike and Lucas. Lucas' sexuality coding is overt this season : forget show don't tell, we're told loud and clear that Lucas likes girls.
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We get Lucas framed under a poster of a woman during his throwing up scene : he's had his first hangover, he's partied, he's "grown" now. Posters are important framing for all the characters. After that, we get the "69" road sign and the sexy calendar pages above his head, where he sleeps. Genuinely doesn't get more straightforward than this. Textual sex references and half naked girls.
And then , Mike.
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The composition is identical : road sign and posters. With Mike, everything is code. It's not in line with his staightness, but it's also all in code. Nothing overt here. Mike's road sign says one way and points to a closet , and while the dragon is half naked, it's still a dragon and not a person. The actual half naked man poster isn't on top of his bed : he's not nearly in the same ballpark as Lucas. His sexuality is all show, no tell.
Moving on to the second scene they parallel each other in (as they also parallel each other in having 2 such scenes altogether : once again they're a package deal in the meta narrative) :
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Lucas has something gross under his bed, embarassing enough to be blackmailed with . In case there's one person in the entire world who didn't get it, this is about masturbation! So sorry you had to hear this from me. And Mike's parallel scene is....drum roll....Everyone's favorite means of filling a pool!!!
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Will is also there (his reaction is important as i stated earlier and @bylertruther den has mentioned before) but when it comes to Mike, this is as explicit yet covert a scene can get. @scrunchietown has talked about this in length and I'm still traumatised by the All Of It so you can infer the rest lol.
This time, Lucas leading by example isn't possible : Mike messes up with everything regarding being with El, she does too, it's a mess. But out of the narrative, we are shown that Mike being gay and in love with Will is true, because Lucas liking girls and being in love with Max are true. This also happened in s3, it's not new : Lucas has ran to apologise about his mistakes to Max a thousand times, and Mike did the same for Will without thinking about it.
Lucas and Mike's s1 and s5 fights
Now that it is established that Lucas is the expression of authentic sexuality progression to the inauthentic and complicated Mike situation, let's talk about Lucas and Mike's s1 fight and their relationship where we left them.
S1
In their fight, we got this :
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For starters, Lucas absolutely 100% believes Mike is straight and has no reason not to, as much then as now. Lucas was harsh with Mike here, but considering his pov, he was completely right : Mike was prioritizing El , the supergirl , over their friend. By blaming El here, he actually blames Mike for stalling them and siding with the person that could very much be behind everything.
Lucas keeps pushing , getting into the "Will is dying" territory, which escalates the fight immediately to physical : Mike lashes out about what seems to be defending/talking about El, but in reality is about Will and the fact that Will is more special to him (does that ring...any bells...something about a rain fight and a rinkomania fight...the closegate season 2 situation...yeah.) This fight does eventually get resolved, but we take from it that Lucas is a very logical person that cares deeply for his friends and doesn't shy away from conflict, and that human relationships are a touchy subject for Mike lol.
s4 -> s5
In s4, we find Mike and Lucas' friendship at a rocky place. Mike and Dustin both acted horrible towards Lucas, and hurt him deeply by not attending his game and because of all the connotations of that. While Dustin never apologised about it, he and Lucas spent meaningful time together bonding, being friends like before and fighting a greater evil together. Mike just went to California and left things with Lucas in a bad place. And to top that off , after Mike says "We came as soon as we heard" we get this :
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Now. For the love of god, I can not think of a single thing that Lucas could be a) realising b) looking at Mike like that over. I really don't understand why, but whatever the reason + their previous conflict set them up for a repeat of season 1, only this time it concerns Max, and not Will.
In this case, the stakes are in fact higher. In s1, Mike stalling because of his obsession with El could potentially be killing Will, and El maybe was behind it all . In s4, it actually did result in Max's death, who is as loved by Lucas as Will was. Having the object of the debate be Lucas' romantic interest puts an interesting spin on the dynamic of the fight compared to a friend : Lucas will confront Mike as a person in his shoes, as he always has, they're a narrative pair in whatever they do, right? And Mike, in his eyes, cares about neither him , nor Max, and he is blind, because a girl isn't grossed out by him, all over again.
What this could look like in s5?
I definitely believe they'll get a very similar fight, and obviously a more severe one, but the themes will remain. Only this time, Mike is fully aware of his sexuality, and he also lied because he thought helping El was the best thing to do, exactly like having El around in s1 was the best thing to do. But Lucas doesn't know that. I expect lots of Will and Max parallels, Lucas not wanting Mike to help save Max and openly naming him as the reason why she died, Mike being unable to handle explaining why Lucas' accusations aren't true ( in s1, unable to explain them to himself, in s5, to Lucas).
I also expect the final parallelism confirming Mike's feelings for Will to be blatant and direct s5!Lucas to s1!Mike parallels. As far as Lucas is concerned, I hope that after Mike has already come out, can get an honest apology from Mike, without needing Dustin to push him. I could also definitely see Lucas integrating the conforming theme in his fight with Mike, seeing as he has already rejected it.
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yellingaboutkp · 2 months
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Jin Is A Coward
Sure, he's brave enough if the stakes are low. But if the stakes are high? Time and time again, he'll lose his nerve.
Brave enough to apologize to Non, too cowardly to say what for. Brave enough to tell his friends to talk about Non like he's a person, too cowardly to turn them in for his disappearance.
When the stakes are high, and he has time think about that fact, Jin always chooses the cowardly path...
But what about when he doesn't have time to think?
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He jumps in the middle of a fistfight to try to break it up.
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He sees that Tan is behind him on the ground and would not be able to dodge easily, so in a split second he chooses to stay between Tan and the masked killer.
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He tries to push Phee behind him when he sees Keng's ghost.
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He repeatedly tries to sweep Fluke behind him when Non confronts the group with a knife, but Fluke doesn't seem to want to comply. Eventually, the 2nd time Non tries to attack Tee with the knife, Jin just steps directly in front of Fluke as he draws Non's attention, figuratively shielding Tee and literally shielding Fluke.
As it turns out, Jin's pretty darn brave when he doesn't have time to think. Time is his enemy. Time gives him the opportunity to back down, to chicken out, to choose the coward's path.
But if Jin can choose to stand in front of a swinging axe when he doesn't have time to think... what will he be capable of when he finally finds the courage to think about what he's doing and do it anyway?
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honeyfizzly · 1 year
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Melon soda lady
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the-gayest-sky-kid · 22 days
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I'm not the biggest fan of Oda, as many here already know. That comes from the INCREDIBLE disconnect between the fandom version of him as opposed to the canon. I see often on Twitter, Reddit, Youtube, etc etc. this treatment of Oda as some great force of pure good, and furthermore this scene as a grand bit of final wisdom. So right now, let's talk about his death scene.
The anime puts it like this:
"You told me you might find a reason to live if you lived in a world of violence and bloodshed. [...] You won't find it. You must know that already. Whether you're on the side who kills people or the side that saves people, nothing beyond what you would expect will appear. Nothing in this world can fill that lonely hole you have. You will wander the darkness for eternity. [...] Be on the side that saves people. If both sides are the same to you, become a good man. Save the weak, and protect the orphans. Neither good nor evil means much to you, I know... but that'd make you at least a bit better."
And the light novel puts it like this:
"You told me if you put yourself in a world of violence and bloodshed, you might be able to find a reason to live… [...] You won't find it. [...] You should know that. Whether you're on the side that takes lives or the side that saves them, nothing beyond your own expectations will happen. Nothing in this world can fill the hole that is your loneliness. You will wander the darkness for eternity. [...] Be on the side that saves people. [...] If both sides are the same, then choose to become a good person. Save the weak, protect the orphaned. You might not see a great difference between right and wrong, but… saving others is something just a bit more wonderful."
I want to break down what bothers me in these. This portion especially.
You told me you might find a reason to live if you lived in a world of violence and bloodshed. [...] You won't find it. You must know that already. Whether you're on the side who kills people or the side that saves people, nothing beyond what you would expect will appear. Nothing in this world can fill that lonely hole you have. You will wander the darkness for eternity.
You told me if you put yourself in a world of violence and bloodshed, you might be able to find a reason to live… [...] You won't find it. [...] You should know that. Whether you're on the side that takes lives or the side that saves them, nothing beyond your own expectations will happen. Nothing in this world can fill the hole that is your loneliness. You will wander the darkness for eternity.
I think we often forget that Dazai is still a suicidal teen in Dark Era, and that he's one that's held on to the hope he'd find something for all this time. I dont disagree with the fact he must know he won't find anything in the mafia already. But Oda misunderstands a lot of fundamental parts of Dazai, which lead to this scene being devastating.
Whether you're on the side who kills people or the side that saves people, nothing beyond what you would expect will appear.
Whether you're on the side that takes lives or the side that saves them, nothing beyond your own expectations will happen.
The thing is, Dazai DOES find things he doesn't expect. He meets Chuuya and Chuuya surprises him! He meets Oda and Ango and they fascinate him!! He meets Kunikida and Ranpo and everyone else and he finds them interesting!!! He gets proven wrong, he gets surprised, he has NEVER been infallible. And he's incredibly hopeful too, as stated earlier. He held on to the hope he'd find something for the past 3 years despite how horrible of an environment the mafia was for him, and he still tried his hardest to save Oda. To tell him that not only would he never find anything here, but anywhere else he goes? It's kind of.... well, shitty.
And there's another thing about this line I have to point out, something from a couple pages earlier.
"But he's different. He's sharp-witted with a mind like a steel trap. And he's just a child—a sobbing child abandoned in the darkness of a world far emptier than the one we're seeing."
"He was too smart for his own good. That was why he was always alone. The reason why Ango and I were able to be by his side was that we understood the solitude that surrounded him, and we never stepped inside it no matter how close we stood."
Oda believes that it's Dazai's intelligence that isolates him. While this is true, it's only true to an extent. Look at Ranpo, who was also isolated because of his intelligence. He doesn't stay that way, despite not having any peers. Ranpo found his place with Fukuzawa at the agency, and there was nothing stopping Dazai from also finding his own.
Nothing in this world can fill that lonely hole you have. You will wander the darkness for eternity.
Nothing in this world can fill the hole that is your loneliness. You will wander the darkness for eternity.
And I don't know how to explain this to people, but telling an emotionally distressed teenager that he's going to be lonely forever is, erm, kind of bad? Especially when the person he thinks understands him the most is like... dying in his arms.
Oda tried to help Dazai in his final moments, I'm not trying to discredit that. He gave Dazai his advice and Dazai chose to take it, because he knew Oda was speaking from his own experiences. But Oda's words were still harmful to him, regardless of how well meaning they were.
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murcielagatito · 11 days
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something about janine taking the district position and her wardrobe becoming more muted in color than its ever been more refined yes more professional yes but just missing a lil something and how janine takes that and adds her broches as a pop of janine thats so 🥺 and something about how janine is her most authentic colorful self when shes teaching versus muting her colors for the district
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dumping-ideas · 1 year
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About Tsukasa's Commissioned Songs and Featured VS
The most important part of Yama-san 1,5-hour stream about Mr.Showtime is:
There's a specific reason why Luka is chosen for Mr. Showtime, but the reason is confidential.
SO THERE IS SOME SIGNIFICANCE IN THE FEATURED VS (or at least for Tsukasa's commissioned songs)!!!
I mean, the reason might be that they need more Luka in their commissioned songs, and Tsukasa getting KAITO again (even though he's in desperate need of one) would be getting kinda stale, but, BUT, what if there's some story significance to the featured VS in Tsukasa's commissioned songs...? Especially because there is one specific thing that is both mentioned in Sasakure-san's interview about Tondemo Wonderz and in Yama-san rambling:
There has to be some kind of mood dissonance in Tsukasa's commissioned songs. Just brightness is no good, but just darkness is no good either.
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TONDEMO-WONDERZ have some JP comments (in the original version) that said there's just something slightly off(?) about that song---how even though it sounds upbeat and playful some parts of the lyrics are quite questionable when they pay more attention to it. I've mentioned that Tsukasa is hinted to be posing a lot to make everyone smile (which is hinted again in 88☆彡 and confirmed in Mr. Showtime lyrics), so the mood dissonance in TONDEMO-WONDERZ is probably about the incongruity between the music and the deeper reading of the lyrics. Sure, the singers are super happy about it, but is it fine to feel confident in your boisterous act and won't ever let anyone see what's behind that act...? The dissonance is only there if people pay more attention to the lyrics, but other than that, you can read the song as about never giving up no matter how many failures they faced and will face. So, yeah, super positive on the surface, kinda disturbing if you dig deeper into it.
The featured VS, WxS!KAITO has been largely recognized by fans (with hints in multiple event stories) as Tsukasa's ideal self. A gentle, reliable, mature leader who can do anything and is always able to give a solution to everyone's problem that everyone depends on. Some fans also have a small critique before about how TONDEMO-WONDERZ doesn't feel like a Tsukasa commissioned song at all and feels more like a WxS ensemble song, but that's because that's what WMS is about on the surface---the story of WxS and how far they have come. Read deeper and you realize that it is a Tsukasa focus event with multiple layers, and so is TONDEMO-WONDERZ.
So, the reason why KAITO is the featured VS (other than because he's one of the OG VS of Wonderland SEKAI) might be because Tsukasa is still showing off the 'him' that he wants everyone to see. Sure, he might be putting up a bravado, but he will never give up! He will embrace both successes and failures, and no matter what happens he'll keep getting back up, like a phoenix! He will make everyone smile!! That's the Tsukasa that everyone knows and loves! He's the dependable leader of WxS, as WMS demonstrate perfectly well.
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88☆彡 (still my favorite commissioned song next to Kanade Tomosu Sora) is properly recognized as Tsukasa's commissioned song, not only because Tsukasa has a vocal focus (although shared with Rui and Nene), but because it's also a song that conveys a side of him that people might not realize before Dazzling Stage. Both the song and the lyrics are warm and kind, and between Tsukasa praying for everyone to be happy and WxS telling us it's okay to rest between rushing to our dreams, it feels like being hugged by the warmth of a gentle sun and pushed forward by encouraging friends to the point of tears.
(okay, I'm gonna stop my gushing now)
The mood dissonance in 88☆彡 is not a constant presence like it is in TONDEMO-WONDERZ, but in the early part of the song. How the singer 'realizes' along the way that 'this' is only a child's play (or only something that can only trick children), and that he's 'the anticipated pierrot who's not discouraged' and as long as everyone smiles without restraint, he can laugh as well. I think everyone is of the opinion that there's just something not right about how happy the singer is to play the pierrot just to make everyone smile. In fact, the part about the pierrot is later kinda confirmed but also debunked in Mr. Showtime (and Tsukasa's trained card in Sky's Edge).
One thing to note about 88☆彡 is the reff is about the importance of taking a rest. We've spoken about how everyone in Wonderland SEKAI relies on KAITO, but another running storyline in Wonderland SEKAI (especially after Dazzling Stage) is that everyone in Wonderland SEKAI wants KAITO to rest and take a break from all his responsibilities. However, none of the VS and other residents of SEKAI is capable of replacing him, and so he has to step up again. Of course, he isn't mad, and it's more about gag shenanigans, sure, but tilt your head, squint your eyes, and you can kinda read it as KAITO not being able to step down from his 'reliable leader' role yet---and that is what Tsukasa still feel at this point in the game. This Tsukasa is the Tsukasa who has faced his pain and childhood loneliness, but I think this is just the surface.
KAITO might be chosen for 88☆彡 because this song conveys Tsukasa's caring and gentle personality that influences KAITO, and also how he should take a rest from his 'reliable leader' act. But Tsukasa couldn't (and wouldn't) step down that easily because everyone is still expecting him to fill that role, to be 'Tenma Tsukasa' that never waver.
However, Mr. Showtime and Sky's Edge finally shows the 'ugly' side of Tsukasa behind all his posing in TONDEMO-WONDERZ and his gentleness in 88☆彡. In other words, the other side of the 'reliable leader' that he has been showing to WxS, everyone around him, and even himself all this time.
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Mr. Showtime... Oh, I wonder where I should start with this... Rather than a mood dissonance, this song sounds like a mysterious, secret, late-night circus show where everyone is laughing and having fun but you know there's something off about the circus... There's just some lurking darkness(?) and a deep melancholy in the music no matter how stylish it sounds. Fitting, because even if the song is about how the singer doesn't give up on shows (life) no matter how ugly and hopeless he feels, some highlights from the lyrics alone we have these lines:
The monologue echoes in the world (stage) where I was left alone
Is it impossible for me to do this and that?
I can't reach out at all. I don't think I can. To the stars I wished on.
Why? How come? I feel pathetic......
Popcorn didn't pop (I can't hear any hand clapping). It's getting burned, and it's a flavor of (tastes like) defeat. It tastes so bitter
Am I taking the long way? Am I making a fruitless effort?
This is not funny at all. I'm pathetic. I can't satisfy myself.
Even when the sky is dark at night, even when warm tears are shed blow away my melancholy.
Oh, flowers (lights) and songs (sounds), please comfort me; see?
The greed of an ordinary man; crawl to move forward.
Narcissist fools himself; give it your all and act like you are the brightest star.
Bluffing is fine! Am I having too much confidence?
Huge bluffing on the stage; even if I get scolded harshly.
So many negative thoughts compared to his previous commissioned songs, wow. Tsukasa really doesn't hold himself back when he decides to stop fooling everyone and himself, isn't he?
And this song might even reference his previous commissioned songs! The part about bluffing might be referencing how he's 'posing' to save everyone and make everyone smile in TONDEMO WONDERZ, and also the 'pierrot' in 88☆彡 (in all songs this is treated as a good thing, although Mr. Showtime tells us the 'pierrot' isn't as strong as previous songs hinted he is) , and the part about 'taking the long way' and 'the merry-go-round (thought process)' might be referencing the 'going around in circles' in 88☆彡 (while previously it's treated as something positive, it's treated as a negative thing in Mr. Showtime).
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But geez, now it's really blatant who Tsukasa is, isn't he? It's not like he doesn't have any worries, it's just that he only 'presents' the confident part of himself in front of everyone---for everyone's sake, including himself, so he can always be the 'reliable leader' and the 'never-gives-up pierrot' that everyone can rely on. He manages to work around his problems due to his unrelenting diligence in front of challenging hurdles, but his worries about his acting skills all the way back in Pop in My Heart only finally comes to a climax in Sky's Edge, where he breaks down in tears because he knows he's pathetic and hopeless and still so far away from the place he wants to reach.
And that's probably why Luka is chosen to be the featured VS for Mr. Showtime.
See, even in the story lore itself, although we have so many details about Wonderland SEKAI, the game hints that we need to know Tsukasa more to know more about his SEKAI which, judging by how WxS storyline never touched Wonderland SEKAI and their mechanics, might be something of a plot point in the future. And the side story has hinted that there's something slightly off about Luka's sleeping tendencies. We know that she's sleeping when everyone is happy... but Wonderland VS never gives Rui and the players the exact why she is the way she is, just that it's involving Tsukasa's feelings somehow. However, the fans speculated (and the game also hints) that because Luka is sleeping when everyone is happy, she's awake when someone feels troubled over something---in Mr. Showtime, it's Tsukasa.
Back to Mr. Showtime, the fans (in JP, EN and KR from what I've observed) have noticed that Luka only opens her eyes in a few scenes---the reffs, the bridge, every time she appears with Tsukasa, and one where her lyrics is 'Until the day comes (the hands of the clock point to the closing time)'. Possibly hinting that this isn't the end of his worries.
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So, it can be said that Luka is chosen because this is (one of(?)) Tsukasa's worries. Mr. Showtime is Tsukasa's first commissioned song where he doesn't try to hide the 'lesser' parts of himself with a happy-go-lucky attitude or purer feelings, unlike the songs where KAITO (his ideal) is featured.
However, he's still 'not there' yet because he's going back-and-forth by treating his life as only a show. Remember that the commissioned songs are canonically born from the character's feelings, so what does that say about Tsukasa where he still hides behind the pretense of a show, and even calls himself by the moniker Mr. Showtime? It might be because for Tsukasa, he is an actor in his show/life, only pretending to be the future star that he calls himself as, and/or maybe because he's not ready to show others his 'ugly' side yet.
But it's not like the song is all gloom and doom, because the song is about trying to reach your dream with ladders, no matter how ugly, pathetic, hopeless, and useless your effort and struggle is.
......Putting it like that sounds super depressing, but the fact still stands that even despite feeling all that, the singer doesn't want to give up. Only just now, compared to the two previous commissioned songs, Tsukasa manages to voice out his anxieties better(?).
But I don't think this is not the depth of Tsukasa's darkness(?). Somehow this feels just like the tip of the iceberg. We haven't even touched his baggage from his childhood days yet, only getting a glimpse of it here and there.
And with Tsukasa saying Show Must Go On---Mr. Showtime's show still doesn't end yet. He's still playing the 'reliable leader' and the 'anticipated pierrot' for everyone's sake, as can be seen in Sky's Edge too. That's why Luka's presence in this song doesn't feel like this is the end of his worries but the start of finally seeing him behind all his 'pierrot posing' and 'puppet-mastering'. And with the hints that we might get to see Tsukasa's origin in his next group event banner, I can't wait to see and hear his next commissioned song....... which will probably be a 3DMV (please be another 2DMV).
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Other info that I can gather from Yama-san half-drunken (lol) ramblings about Mr. Showtime are:
The song is finished in September, and the final touches are done in November
The one who decides on who singing what part is the sound director in pjsk team with some input from the lyricist (in this case Hitoshizuku-P), not Yama-san.
Confirmed that in the original version, Len is in Tsukasa's position and vice versa.
The theme they are given are showtime, stage, and circus(?). They read the main story, HItoshizuku-san iirc read all of WxS key stories to write the lyrics. Yama-san has no particular feelings for any WxS members.
They are asked to keep the characters (esp. the one they were commissioned for) in mind when writing the lyrics.
Whether they were told about the backsides of the characters (things that aren't mentioned in event stories yet) or the content of the event story they were commissioned for is confidential.
Also, Sasakure.UK said Tsukasa's light is very bright because he overcame a deep darkness... but did he, though? Sky's Edge has him just properly faced how difficult it might be to be the star he wishes he will be. Who knows, Tsukasa might have just forgotten about the dark feelings he had like TONDEMO-WONDERZ and Dazzling Stage implied.
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takeunknownroadnow · 2 months
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creativity in the neo-egoist league and what it means for the final matches
alternatively titled "here's how barcha can still win"
So I've been meaning to make this post for a few weeks now and given that the final matches are starting soon, I wanted to get it out there so I can cry when I am inevitably disappointed
I realized while I was reading Ness' backstory that behind the motif of magic associated with his character was this larger theme of creativity, a theme that's actually really prevalent throughout the entirety of NEL and also integral to the Barcha team. Given that, its interesting to me that the final matches are BM v PXG and MC v Barcha.
(Putting under read more bc this will be long)
Let's start with BM v PXG and Ness' role in this upcoming match.
We know that Ness is going to be integral to this match for several reasons: 1) he got the backstory right before the match. If we look at the pattern for backstories, that usually means the character is going to play a big role in the following match (Hiori being the latest example); 2) Charles' description as "the heart of PXG" is significant because once upon a time, we also saw Ness described as the "beating heart" of Bastard Munchen so we have a clear match-up here not only in the positions they play but also metaphorically.
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(You know who's also been described as the heart of their team?)
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(But we'll come back to this later)
The juxtaposition of Ness and Charles is also interesting because of the respective set-ups of their teams. For PXG, Charles serves as the linchpin for a dual-star striker system that leverages Rin and Shidou's skills. In BM, Kaiser and Isagi represent the two opposing factions on the team. Up to now, there's been no outright collaboration between the two sides and even with certain outliers like Kunigami and Yukimiya who didn't immediately fall in line, there's still a sense of where they stand overall.
Now there's been a ton of discussion about Ness potentially passing to Isagi (or even going after a goal himself) so I won't get too deep into that but I do want to note it here because it's important. In the backstory, we see that one of the things that drew Ness to Kaiser was Kaiser's ability of making the impossible possible. Kaiser saw Ness struggling to make the plays he envisioned a reality and he gave him someone to pass to, a partner that understood his vision.
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Now by the time we see Kaiser and Ness in NEL, their dynamic has changed and I'll link @kurobachisagi's excellent post on 'logic vs creativity' here bc I think they did a great job at showing how Kaiser's attitude towards Ness' creativity changes and why that came to be.
But going back to making the impossible possible, Hiori and Isagi's play at the end of the Ubers match showed Ness just that. With that game-winning goal, Ness saw the "essence of Isagi's magic", he saw that there were more possibilities out there. His own creativity doesn't need to be stifled (now whether that's a thing he wants is a different question altogether and a topic for another day but I have many thoughts about Kainess potentially breaking up lmao).
But I do want to point out one other thing - Isagi's had his own realizations about magic, "the protagonist's magic" to be exact. It's with this realization, sparked by Nagi, that Isagi's able to leverage Yukimiya's skills and lead BM to victory against MC.
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So we have here a rough understanding of Ness' role in the upcoming match and this on-going theme of magic but going back to Ness' backstory, I want to highlight the moment where Ness decides to team up with Kaiser because in this pivotal moment, Ness links magic and creativity together. He makes that connection and for me, that was sort of a lightbulb moment.
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I think there's also a third dimension to this (originality) and we saw it resurface as a concept in the latest chapter (247). But "originality" was first introduced as part of Barcha's team philosophy.
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For Bachira, his "originality" is his monster. That's where his creativity is centered. He learns from Lavinho and adapts his play style to those teachings but at the heart of it, the monster remains. So for a team that embodies "originality" to an extent, the key to winning as Ego says, why isn't Barcha doing better?
For starters, I think Barcha was deliberately written and set up to fail. But so was Manshine and again, that's deliberate (@thyandrawrites wrote a really great post on Reonagi's partnership and why they seem to struggle and I would highly recommend)
Before I move on, I want to point out this panel from the MC v BM match because I think its so critical to what I'm trying to get at (and it ties back to Isagi's realization about the protagonist's magic)
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Barcha only has two Blue Lockers and Bachira, as the heart of the team, has been making most of the team's goals. But despite being at a disadvantage, I think a Barcha win has narrative weight behind it because of the very themes I've set out to examine here.
Now, could Reo and Nagi turn things around in time to eek out a win? Yeah. But personally, I think they've yet to hit real despair and furthermore, to have these four teams set up as the final two matches indicates a running theme / a set of parallels. BM v PXG are undefeated, Barcha v MC are both at the bottom of the NEL without any wins.
While we haven't seen Barcha get a decisive win, I would argue we've been seeing the fruits of its philosophy all along. Creativity /magic/ originality, we've seen them in every match from Barcha to MC to Ubers and we're sure to see it in PXG. PXG v BM specifically has a ton of references to fantasy and mythology from the roles they play (dragons, kings, emperors, magicians, knights, etc) to the weapons they metaphorically wield (swords, shields, etc) so its almost fitting that Ness is playing such a pivotal role in this match as a character closely associated with magic.
While it is very likely that Barcha could lose with Bachira as its stand-out star (sorry Otoya), I think a Barcha win (alongside the creative plays we're sure to see in BM v PXG) would go a long way in highlighting the importance of these themes because at the end of the day, your ability to improvise, your creativity on the field is crucial.
Ego's speech in the latest chapter brings us almost full circle to what Lavinho first said to Bachira and the others. Originality / creativity / magic, they're all entertwined and I think we're going to see the implications of these themes finally play out in the final matches.
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leemontoast · 27 days
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Before we get absolutely trashed by whatever lore Fit has planned for today, I thought about something cute about Fitpac.
So yknow how their houses are quite close to each other? I really love that. It's like they're not quite committed to the idea of living together yet but still wish to be close. And there's the fact they can littrealy see each other's house from their own. It's like the need their own space but their space is no longer separate. It's a perfect metaphor for their relationship and I love it SO much.
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im-sew-curious · 2 months
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Isn't it glorious?
It’s here! I finally tackled my analysis of Key’s gold Gasoline era costume, worn in his music video for the song, photoshoots, a stage performance at the Inkigayo show, and a live performance at SM Town 2022. I’ll discuss everything from the fabrics used, the gloves, the shoes, complain about the zipper, talk about whatever the heck jumps are, break down all of the tiny little types of ornamentation (including the things I don’t actually know the name for) and more.
It’s scary in the best way. Buckle up. Grab some coffee or tea or vodka and a blanket.
I want to preface this by saying that this is going to be VERY long. I’ve polled my followers and nearly everyone said they want me to get as granular as I want. So I’m doing that. If that’s not your thing, here’s your exit ramp now. I get it. This is absurd.
You can also read it on my Twitter here. It actually has a LOT of bonus photos because they only allow me to have 30 on here, if you’re interested in seeing more. It may help clarify some things, as well.
Now then. Welcome to those who are left. Let’s begin!
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Costumes by Dénicheur by Seo Seung Yeon
For his Gasoline era, Key has had four costumes designed and made by Dénicheur by Seo Seung Yeon, a Haute Couture Designer House that, among other things, makes elaborate costumes for Kpop performers. They’ve got an amazing Instagram portfolio to check out. They made him a gold and black costume for his G.O.A.T in the Keyland concert, the blue and white one for the Gasoline MV, this gold one, and a cream and gold beaded jacket for the 2023 SM Town Concert.
This fashion house’s trademark is intricately beaded, appliquéd…encrusted…costumes. I was able to get some high quality photos from some of you (thanks so much!) And the more I looked, the more I discovered.
If this were a piece of art (well, it is, but not in the same way) “Mixed Media” is what I’d call it. There are literally over twenty different types of beading techniques, appliqués, various types of sequins, trims, braids, rhinestones, chains, and more.
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First, I’ll do an overview of the garments themselves, and then I’ll move on to the ornamentation.
The top (it’s not a jacket, it’s not really a shirt, it’s not a tunic. So I’m going with “top”) has a very boxy torso with exaggerated wide, padded shoulders. They’re completely squared. There are straight sleeves—not too slim, not too bulky. There’s a heavily ornamented oversleeve that reaches down to about his elbows and a “nude” colored full length under sleeve. It also has heavily ornamented cuffs at the bottom the sleeve. It has an exposed zipper up the center back that goes up into a short turtleneck collar. The collar and a portion of the lower neck back region are sheer with some beading and appliqués. There are sheer spirals around his arms and in chevrons on his front and scooping around to his back.
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Just LOOK AT that masterpiece
The trousers are closely cut through the waist, hips, and thighs but become a bit wider at the knee. It looks like they were made full length but are always worn bunched up over knee high boots. They close at the center front with a very beautifully set fly zipper and flat trouser hook and bar. It’s so low profile that it wasn’t until I got some 4K images that I was even sure of where they closed. It was like he had been sewn in. I wrote a whole thread about it on Twitter that reads like a mystery novel, though I already spoiled the ending for you. Sorry.
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The top is made of what is probably a “nude” (aka specially dyed to his skin tone) base fabric to hold the structure, with the ornamentation stitched over top. The external stabilizing fabric is what appears to be some sort of jacquard, possibly silk.
Jacquard is a type of weave, where the fabric is made of long and short “up and down” stitches of sorts, to make a pattern. Because some of the time it uses longer “stitches” on top, it becomes more vulnerable to the fiber breaking and makes it become kind of “fuzzy” looking. This can be especially true if it’s a natural fiber that usually has less structural integrity than a synthetic one. I initially thought this had started to happen on Key’s rear, but after a very close zoom in, I think that’s just a bit of appliqué edge pulling up. I think maybe one of his mic packs is down there too, but I’m really not an expert in that. I did the research so you don’t have to, folks.
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Left: A type of jacquard fabric. The shine comes from the longer top threads, contrasting with details of shorter threads. Right: Is it an applique or is it some snagged fibers? Ultimately, I think it's an applique edge.
Perhaps the most interestingly nerdy thing about jacquard is that it was originally made on a loom that led to the creation of computer programming by utilizing a sort of “binary code.” There were punchcards that showed the strands of fibers when to go up and down. Like “holes and not holes” in which to weave.
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A Jacquard Machine Loom with punchcards that create the desired design on the fabric
It’s important to note that this fabric needs to have some stretch because it is also used to make his very tight fitting trousers. If it were not a stretch fabric, he wouldn’t be able to do this like THIS or…most things, really.
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Even though the jacquard is stretchy, it has some structure to it. It’s used as a stabilizer in between the “flesh mesh” on the outer layer. (aka power net, stretch mesh... There are many names!) It forms the base on which the majority of the ornamentation is stitched.
Flesh mesh is a stretchy mesh fabric dyed to the performer’s skin color and is used to give the illusion that you’re seeing their skin, but it gives much more strength than just a cutout. I wrote a thread about flesh mesh and the importance of taking into consideration the performer’s actual skin tone when building them a costume here
In this case, flesh mesh allows for adornment of these areas, as well. It’s important to note that, even though it’s a separate layer over the base, it is “tacked” through all layers in a regular fashion so it doesn’t droop with the weight of all of the ornamentation.
There are also some parts that have metallic gold applied pieces. This was probably made of a beefy metallic spandex applied on top of the base rather than some solid pleather, due to way it behaves on the body. The latter would have been way too rigid in comparison to the rest of the fabrics.
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Heavy gold stretch spandex, forming a chevron on which to affix beads and other trims
Okay. Range of movement time. You know how I love discussing this. That’s because it’s the single most important aspect of costumes for dancers.
Let’s talk armpit gussets. They’re an American football shaped piece of fabric that is stitched in the armpit partially to the sleeve underarm, and partially to the torso underarm. It’s often made of a stretch fabric, but sometimes it’s out of the original “fashion fabric,” which is what we call the main garment fabric.
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Gussets out of different fabrics under each underarm. You can see the gold bunch under his arm when it's at his side
It allows the performer to more easily move their arms above their chest and head to help keep the top from riding up. You can see in this photo, though, that it does bunch up a little when his arm is down, because of the extra fabric. It has to go somewhere when it’s not taut.
With this particular top, it’s interesting to note that, due to the asymmetrical decoration of his arms, one gusset is the gold stretch fabric and the other is the jacquard. That means that, either both fabrics have the exact same stretch, or his arms may be SLIGHTLY more limited on one side than the other. That’s fun! I really geeked out about this observation.
Often with jackets for dancers, they’ll have what are called “commodity pleats” around the center back shoulder area. They’re a sort of sneaky hidden accordion-like bit of fabric that stretches out during movement that may otherwise split the back open. Taemin uses them a LOT. But, since this top is so boxy, Key doesn’t need them in this instance. He already had the room he needed without any other accommodations.
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They put commodity pleats in the back of most of Taemin's closer fitting jackets. I wish they'd make them the same color as his jackets, though!
With Key’s trousers, we’ve already established that they’re made of a fabric with a decent amount of stretch. But since I can’t find many good photos of his bottom half, I’m unsure about if he also has “crotch gussets.”
By this point, I’m kind of notorious as being the “crotch gusset person.”
The following posts explain them in much more detail, but basically, they’re long triangular wedges that start in the trouser crotch and taper down to nothing in the inseam. These are often put in trousers of dancers when people need a better range of movement.
I wrote about this in detail regarding Taemin’s pleather pants he wore in his Metamorph concert, as well as all of SHINee in the Your Number dance video. You can find my posts on the subject here:(Metamorph) (Your Number)
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Jinki rocking a black crotch gusset in SHINee's "Your Number" Performance Video (Black Version)
Gussets allow for extra room and movement when one is trying to do extreme leg movements like squatting. Unfortunately, I don’t have many good photos of his inseam. There’s so much going on with appliqués and piecing of mesh vs jacquard, it’s hard to tell. Part of the front half of his trousers is flesh mesh, swirling around them. The other parts are the jacquard, whereas the back is all jacquard.
I saw one photo which made me begin to wonder if the inseam is a little further forward than it could be, though. That could mean there IS a gusset. I’m really not sure...I don't have official visual confirmation, but now you know more about crotch gussets either way. You’re welcome.
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That seam line is up a bit more forward than usual. It really has me wondering, because that would happen if there was a gusset installed. Hmmmm.
Okay. Zipper education time. I apologize in advance. Things get spicy but I tried to tamp it down. The center back (abbreviated as “CB” in the industry) of the top has an exposed zipper. This means exactly what it sounds like: it’s exposed. You look at it, and it looks like there’s a zipper right there. It’s not hidden. Sometimes it’s a perfect match, and sometimes it’s “featured.” Exposed zippers actually become a trend every once in a while in everyday fashion.
I thought it was extremely interesting that, on this elaborate costume, they chose to use a zipper with metallic teeth on white “tape.” (The fabric on the sides of the teeth.) It was a huge disappointment for me, actually. I would have loved to have seen the zipper more carefully hidden like his fly was.
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Hello, zipper. I see you loud and clear!
I have to comment a bit on what I view as the one flaw in this otherwise perfect costume. I will preface this by saying that I was not in the fitting room where this was conceived, and I don’t know about any extenuating circumstances and the reasoning behind this decision. But there a few things that I would have done differently regarding the zipper and back collar of this top if were to have made it.
But first: some zipper education. Besides exposed, there are center lapped, as well as regular lapped zippers. With the center lap, it’s like the fabric covers your zipper but you can pull the zipper down through it. Your hoodie probably has one. The regular lap zipper is more like your trouser fly in that there is one flap of fabric that covers the whole zipper, hiding it.
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Top: Exposed. (Though it has a matching zipper and zipper tape.) Bottom Left: Center Lapped. Right: Regular Lapped.
Either of those types could have been used to make the zipper more discreet. I personally would have chosen to use a regular lapped zipper, which is less likely to get snagged than a center lapped zipper.
People have defended the exposed zipper by asking if it’s because it’s less likely to get caught. I very much get this argument, and, technically it’s right.
But, in my extensive experience, I don’t think I can recall a case of an exposed zipper in the back of a costume, quick change or no. It’s unattractive. (Not to mention a dead giveaway in a period garment!)
If it’s sewn well and tested, with the correct size lap and no loose fabric, it will work just fine. There should be a hook and eye at the top to make sure that it stays secure while dancing.
Part of being a good dresser is being methodical and purposeful, not frantically zipping something up in a way that is more prone to snagging. They keep their cool, perhaps taking a couple more seconds but ensuring that they pull it up smoothly. They use their fingers to block the overlap as they guide the zipper up.
(Random side note: I met a dresser once who preferred zippers be installed upside down for their quick changes. Hey, whatever works best for them! I wonder how they discovered that…)
I will also note that, as far as I’m aware, the only times he’s worn this costume, he didn’t need to get in or out of it quickly. I know that he wore it in the MV, the Inkigayo performance, and the photoshoot. He also performed at SM Town Tokyo 2022, though he had 11 songs during which to change between Bad Love and this. He never wore this look at his G.O.A.T. in the Keyland concert. Oh, and the collab with the Jinro frog. I’ll talk about that later.
So ultimately, all of the zipper quick change talk is for nothing. There COULD have been a chance that this was going to be worn during his concert, I suppose. But if not, in the end, I can find no reason that there needed to be an exposed zipper other than: they wanted it that way.
Sorry for that rant. I know that it was intense. I just…wish it were pretty. That’s all. I know it wouldn’t have bothered most people, but I personally think that the costume deserved better!
Well then. They arranged the symmetrical beaded appliqué motifs so they didn’t interfere with the center back line, so it wasn’t an issue being all chonky around the zipper.
Unfortunately, since the zipper was built into the neck with just the “stretch mesh,” it moves very differently than the rest of the top. It has a substantially weaker structural makeup and it can’t support itself the same, so it stretched at a different rate than the zipper on the solid fabric on the bottom. It kind of “bubbled” when he moved and it rode up.
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Showing the neck bubbling, and, on the bottom left photo, you can see that there is some sheer stabilizer to ensure that the zipper doesn't just tear out of the sheer net.
It couldn’t have been helped unless that whole back neck area had been backed with the solid nude base fabric. That’s what I would have done, personally. But using the stabilizer helped a bit. Without it, it may have not lasted a performance.
I don’t know why they did it that way, but the result was rather disappointing to me, especially considering the care that was taken with the rest of the garment.
Okay. End rant. The rest of the costume is EXQUISITE.
One more thing to note is that the zipper terminates about 4” above the top’s bottom hem. It is right around where his waist is. It was built that way to ensure that he was able to move his legs and hips comfortably without getting hung up anywhere.
His knee high boots were covered with the same peach jacquard as his top, as well as utilizing the gold fabric to serve as ornamental buckled straps.
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The stretch element of the jacquard is further showcased by the fact that it pulls over the boot toe smoothly, with little issue. A completely stable fabric wouldn’t be able to do that.
Now for the ornamentation. Oooooh boy. There are around twenty types of various adornments on this costume, and I thought I’d highlight some of them.
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I can spy about 15 different types of ornamentation here alone.
Beaded appliques at the neckline
Heavy chains
Rhinestone appliques and/or individual rhinestone pieces
Bugle bead chevrons
Gold round beads
Yellow individual small rhinestones
Grey beads in between bugle beads
Gold and silver flat braid trim
Gold stretch fabric
Round flat decorative chain
Hanging paillettes
Dark seed beads with some of the paillettes
Gold dangling lil dudes
A sequined applique peeking out from behind a chain
Utilizing the main fabric as a chevon stabilizer as a design detail
About paillettes: these might actually be my favorites. They’re like “floppy sequins” that only have one hole at an edge. They’re made of a very lightweight plastic, so they’re virtually silent. If you wear a dress completely covered in paillettes, you’ll just hear a little rustle. In this case, his were mainly attached via dangly wires as fringe around the upper sleeves. There are a few other random instances throughout the garment where they’re stitched on individually. You can read more about paillettes in my post here.
Appliqués: There are at least three different types of appliqués in this costume:
Beaded
Lace
Sequined
Rhinestone
Appliqués are premade decorative pieces. It looks like someone hand beaded everything on the costume, but they were able to take a shortcut by using these. So no, contrary to what you might believe, there wasn't someone laboriously hand beading every single thing on to this costume.
It still takes FOREVER to invisibly stitch each motif on to the costume as well as, in this case, sometimes layer upon layer. A lot of them are attached to a net base, and in closeups, I saw how they trimmed the net away closely around the motifs.
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On the top, we have the gold paisley sequined appliques. On his trousers, you can see the low profile lurex embroidered lace appliques. Bottom left, you can see the beaded and rhinestone applique. And on the right, beaded appliques. You can see that they're over flesh mesh so, when it's on Key, it just looks like he has a beaded collar.
The sequined, beaded paisley motifs are the most prominent and plentiful form of appliqués, focusing around the top’s cuffs and lower edge. They’re also heavily featured spiraling around the trousers. There are even some appliqués stitched across the seams of the trousers and top.
There are some huge, gorgeous bead and rhinestone appliqués, like this one on his right bicep that you can see in the photo above.
There’s also the Lurex lace (metallic threaded) embroidered appliqués that concentrate mostly on his trousers' waist and hips. It’s low profile without any bits that might snag the top while moving. They added a few jewels to it further down once it was no longer posing any danger to snags. There are also a few flat appliqués on his rear, so as to not make sitting uncomfortable but still be adorned.
Beads and gemstones: There are also individual beads and jewels both sewn and what appears to be discreetly glued on as accents. A popular adhesive we use for that sort of application is called E6000. It bonds pretty much everything from plastic, leather, metal, rubber, and wood. It’s like a slower acting super glue, but is more flexible.
You definitely need to use this in a ventilated area or, ideally, with a respirator. The fumes are no joke! There are little chevrons made out of long tubular metallic bugle beads that were probably glued instead of stitched on. There are also round bronze beads and gold rhinestones glued to the edges of the metallic fabric.
There are little dangling gold dudes, though I don’t know what they’re officially called. There are individual sew on rhinestones. There are circular decorative flat chains. There is gold beaded fringe at the wrists of the sleeves.
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Top left: gold braid, beads and chains are heavily featured. Top right: the dangling gold dudes. I don't know what to call them. Bottom left: Paillettes, hanging on gold wires on the upper sleeve hem. Bottom right: Gemstones highlighting the center of the chest, with a whole organized, beautiful mess of braid, beads, etc.
There’s gold flat “braid” trim that also looks like it has a bit of silver in it to add dimension. It’s basically like a braided ribbon, often in metallic colors. It’s used a lot in military uniforms.
And there are a few other various random beads and trims that show up amongst the circus of adornment.
The layout of the overall design is asymmetrical, with left and right arms and legs that don’t match. However, the front of the top is completely symmetrical (which is extremely impressive) except for a few rampant rhinestones that intentionally deviate a bit. Here’s an abomination I made of the sleeves next to each other to see the asymmetry more clearly.
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I THINK (not based on this photo but others that aren't Frankensteined together with different perspectives) that the sleeves are actually different lengths as well.
Something that I should cover is that with garments made out of a stretch fabric, like Key’s trousers in this case, stitching on something non-stretchy (like some appliqués) can be fraught. The appliqué can keep the fabric from stretching as much as it needs to accommodate a body in it, and it might tear off.
Sometimes, we need to stretch the fabric a bit as we sew on the motif so it will look normal when a leg is in it. It may look a bit puckered when it’s not being worn. The good news is that it appears that most of the motifs in this costume are on what is most likely a mesh backing, so they probably didn’t have to deal with that headache here!
Since the motif on the Jacquard fabric is pretty small, as well as the fact that some of the appliqués wrapped across the side seams, “pattern matching” wasn’t a big priority on this. However, it’s always preferable to keep the motifs at the same horizontal height. This is a REALLY small pattern, so it wouldn't matter terribly, plus the fact that it was so covered it can hardly be seen. There WAS a point on the right side seam where the pattern did match, but the fabric slightly torqued on the left so it didn’t. All in all, it wasn’t a big deal whatsoever. If it were a bigger print though, it could have been. I made a thread about pattern matching here. It's a subject I'm pretty passionate about!
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This side seam was cut so that, at a fixed point, the motif was all at the same level horizonatally at there was a part where the motif perfectly matched up to create one complete one. Because there are curves in the seam, it can't do that everywhere.
Now for a bit of a departure: SHINee and its members have done a few collabs over the years, dancing with the frog mascot from Jinro soju. SHINee did one for Don’t Call Me, Taemin did one for Move, and Key did one for Gasoline.
They dressed the frog up like Key, complete with jewels and chains! It was precious. SO GOOD. Watch it now. I also bring this up because that video was the resource I used to figure out where the gold chains on Key’s top were “tacked” (AKA stitched to keep it held down strategically.) It was a nice close-up view. Thanks, Jinro frog!
(Side note: I have made mascots before and it's ironic because they freak me out. I also refurbished a hot dog mascot that had gotten too gross after public appearances over a decade. My life is weird.)
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I love how scaled-back but accurate the frog's costume was.
Through the magic of the Jinro frog, I found the answer to the question “where were the chains tacked?” Here. Enough that they still have independent swing and look natural, but frequent enough to keep them from smacking him in the face. Based on the way they move, I think that is metallic coated plastic and not actual metal. Also, for safety's/comfortability's sake! You don't want to be thumped in the chest with every move.
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Here's where the chains were tacked
Someone asked me how much they thought this costume weighed. My answer?
I really have no idea…but probably not NEARLY as much as it looks? I'm like 99.9% sure the chains aren't actual metal. I’m not sure if the “jewels” are glass or plastic. The tiiiiiny “seed beads” and "bugle beads" are glass, but there aren’t enough that they would weigh a significant amount. There's a lot of gold braid on there that's very lightweight. A lot of what you see are layered appliqués with sequins and seed beads, which weigh nearly nothing. The dangling paillettes are just a light plastic.
For the garments themselves, as we’ve established, the are a few layers of fabric and mesh, which aren’t very heavy. Because of the “encrusted” nature of the ornamentation, of course, it still weighs a bit more than just a regular top, and is probably kind of rigid on the front. However, it’s not like he’s dancing around in chainmail.
Lastly, there are his gloves. His left one is made out of that heavy gold stretch fabric that was incorporated into the rest of his costume, and his right was also made out of a flesh mesh. From the way it behaves in this photo, it appears to be a much heavier mesh than the top and trousers.
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The right glove has thicker mesh that almost appears to have a natural fiber content that is getting snagged. It doesn't completely conform to the skin like a tight flesh mesh would.
The gloves are heavily ornamented with appliqués and beads. I’m going to guess that these were actually custom made for him, which is a big deal. I know very little about glove making, except it involves a TON of pieces to be done right. Gussets in between the fingers to make them slim and elegant and such. No Mickey Mouse hands here.
Stitching the ornamentation on to gloves is pretty difficult work. You either need a hand form and a curved needle or a very brave stitcher who uses their own hand as a form (palm up.) I haven’t done that for gloves, specifically, but I have been a “sacrificial hand” for other situations. I’m so calloused in most places, I don’t really feel much anymore!
There’s one more aspect to this costume that was seen in the intro for his Gasoline Inkigayo performance: the cloak. He didn’t wear it for very long, but it appears to button across his chest to the other shoulder with snaps underneath. The snaps keep the underlap from peeking out from…under the lap.
It looks like they might have had a wardrobe emergency here, because you can see that two of the three snaps were hastily stitched on with red thread. The ornamentation is asymmetrical, mostly focused on his right side. On his left shoulder, there is a decorative beaded “epaulette.” Those are the ornamental shoulder pieces you often see on military dress uniforms.
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Left: The full cloak. You can see the facing on the inside edges, made of the same fabric as the outside. I'll write about that in a bit, and I'll show you a closer view later. Top right: The red thread holding on the upper snaps. Bottom right: Metallic epaulette.
It’s hooded and made out of the same jacquard fabric as the rest of his costume, and it has a satin lining the same color as the “fashion fabric.” It appears to be about calf length. One of the photos I found actually has a shot that shows the facing, the lining, and how the hem is done. Of course, I nerded out. It’s “self faced,” which means that there’s the same fabric that’s on the outside making up the “facing.” The facing is the first ten inches or so of the inside edge of the cloak. It makes a pretty transition from the outside to the inside, without a harsh switch to lining.
Then, there’s the hem.
While attached at the top, the hem of the lining and the outer fashion fabrics are allowed to “hang out” separately while on a dress form. Because fabrics stretch out at different rates (and it also changes by the direction they’re cut from the fabric, but that’s a whole different lesson…) it’s ideal for something like this to hang on a dress form and do its thing for a day or so.
In an ideal world, you’d have a fitting with your performer and you would mark a “level line” on them while they’re wearing the cloak (and also the shoes they will be wearing. Different shoes can change a lot!)
There are several different ways you can mark a hem. You can safety pin it up the way you want it, using a ruler measuring up from the floor to keep it even. But this can be awkward and clunky.
Or you can safety pin a “level line” and say that it’s, for instance, 18” off the ground, and you’d like the hem to be 16” off the ground. You’d draw a new hemline 2” down from the pins. It's the easiest way to know what's level and then decide exactly what you want to do later.
OR you can use what I call “the poofer” which is a little measuring stick on a tripod with chalk and a rubber squeezy ball that poofs chalk into a line at a set height, instead of dealing with pins. But sometimes the chalk doesn’t like to brush away, so that’s a bit of a risk in exchange for convenience.
First, let’s talk about hemming the outside cloak fabric. Because it may have stretched out unevenly, you may have wildly different hems lengths now that they’ve been “leveled.” Let’s say we’ll leave 6” of “hem allowance” to fold up into the garment so it can be lengthened later if we need to. You’ll trim the rest of it away. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve altered hem lengths on cloaks over the years! I'm always grateful to have extra.
You may want to finish the hem with a “serger” or “overlock” machine, which is the sewing machine that uses 3-4 threads to sew things, often stretch, together and kind of seals off the edges. It’s probably what stitches together the side seams of your t-shirt or hoodie or lounge pants or basically anything stretchy. It’s used to keep hems and the edges of fabrics inside garments from fraying. Sometimes people don’t do it, especially since it's inside, but it’s nice if you’re planning on altering it or if the fabric is really prone to fraying.
The cloak fabric is then thoroughly pinned and hand stitched up. There are many different sneaky stitches which grab a few threads at a time from the front of the fabric and are virtually invisible. Everyone has their favorites. My personal favorite is the “vertical hemming stitch” or “vertical blind hem.” I like it because it holds the inner hem and the outside of the cloak more tightly together than a lot of other styles. The “cross stitch” which is called the “blind catch stitch” here in this diagram is one of the most popular methods. However, I feel it can be a bit too loose some times and is more likely to be caught on something. The one downside of the vertical blind hem is that, if you pull it too tight, it’s more likely to show from the outside. It takes a very sensitive hand to get it right. The lining is usually slip-stitched to the cloak hem.
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Once you’ve got your level line of your fashion fabric, it goes back on the dress form. I’m…not entirely sure I’ll do a good job explaining this because I work best with showing things with points and grunts. My apologies.
You mark the lining to match the level where the hem of the fashion fabric ends. You decide how far up from the bottom of the hem you want the lining to end (in this case, 4”.) So normally, you think you'd fold it up 4", right? Ha! You subtract two inches from that number. This means you’ll be folding up only two inches of lining. But, since we will be stitching it 4” up from the hem, that means there’s a floppy extra two inches. (Cue Advice.) What’s that for? Now I have to tell you about “jumps.”
Jumps are a sneaky trick. This method is used in suit coat hems and sleeve linings as well. Basically, they’re a way to give a little bit of wiggle room with the length of the lining to hem interaction.
After the fashion fabric is hemmed, you hand stitch the lining 4” up from the hem. You have two extra inches of lining. One extra inch of lining is pressed down so there’s an extra inch of “underlap". This photo (top right) showed me that they had done this to Key’s cloak. You can see it stretched out with the pressed line on the left, and it is folded over on the right.
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Left: The "self fabric facing" at the center front inside of the cloak. Top right: The cloak hem showing the underside of the "jump" (left) and it down in its "resting" position (right). Bottom right: the "poofer." They're marking a level line.
If you want to get even MORE granular, that is considered a “soft press”, which means that the iron steams and very lightly rests on the fabric. A “hard press” is what it sounds like. Squish that lil dude and steam the heck out of it. That line is never gonna come out.
Okay. Enough of that. I can’t believe myself.
I could literally discuss this costume inch by inch, but I think I’ve covered it enough that you can peruse it yourself if you’d like and kind of know what you’re looking at.
I deeply admire and respect the, perhaps, 100+ hours of craftspersonship that it took to make this stunning costume. Don’t even ask me what it cost to make!
Do check out the Instagram of @denicheur.official where you can see other costumes they’ve worked on for groups like IVE, Enhypen, Stray Kids and more. They’ve got an amazing portfolio to drool over.
I hope you’ve gained an even greater appreciation for this gorgeous look, and the knowledge you’ve gained here can go forward with you as you enjoy future costumes! And thanks so much for sticking with me. I hope it was worth it!
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kyouka-supremacy · 5 months
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hi! I've been going through your blog and I love all your analyses, we may not agree on everything but it's definitely fun to read and eye-opening and I'm grateful to see someone looking into bsd with such depth and whipping out whole essays <3
On that note. There was a fan theory I read when dead apple came out (for the life of me I cannot remember the source, if anyone knows please tell me) that Atsushi's healing ability applies only to the injuries caused by other abilities, and he can't heal from non-ability things like guns etc. The op cited the scene in ch18 where Atsushi is caught in a shooting, and healed by Yosano in the next chapter.
This theory came about because 1) in dead apple, Shibusawa says that the tiger is "the antithesis to all abilities" and "the ability everyone desires." Then we never get the reason why Shibusawa was so obsessed with Atsushi. And 2) in ch7 after sskk's first encounter where Atsushi's leg is severed, Yosano takes a look and thinks "there's no scar, it's more of a restoration than a regeneration."
The gist of this is that I like the idea of Atsushi not being 100% invulnerable. And, if his is indeed the antithesis to all abilities then I'm excited to see what that entails; it implies that in the face of a time travel ability, he would be able to turn back time (if he knew how to use it ofc, cough Fukuchi fight cough). If the book is tied to an ability, Atsushi may be able to undo changes done by the book? he may also nullify Dazai's nullification? idk this opens many doors. Anyway! this is my fave bsd theory. I think, with how Akutagwa's ability sort of completes Atsushi's, and with the whole Rashomon being able to eat space, maybe with this development it will also "eat" a portion of the timeline, as in, undoing the events that occurred? is this making any sense? sorry for the rant I'd love to hear what u think, thanks <3
Hi!! Thank you for your kind words, they mean a lot!!! Could this be the post you were looking for? Funny enough, it was at the very top of my reblogs queue. Indeed, it's an extremely insightful theory!!!
So, there's a lot to unpack here. Ever since I've read that theory, I've found Yosano's thoughts regarding Atsushi's healing from chapter 7 extremely interesting. It's curious, because the nuance gets completely lost in the official English translation:
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(Raws → fantranslation → official Yen Press English translation). As you can see, the meaning gets totally lost in the last one. It almost makes me wonder if it was an intentional change due to the fact that the plot point won't be brought up in the manga in ten years (much like opting out of adapting the Steinbeck Guild uprising in the anime, since that plot point has been apparently discarded), but I hope it's not the case.
All taken into account, I don't think it's a stretch to say Atsushi's ability, due to his quality of denying other abilities, can only quickly regenerate as far as other abilities wounds go. When I was reading the manga I thought it was only plot conveniency and suspension of disbelief, but taking a closer look perhaps the pattern of wounds not caused by abilities taking longer to heal isn't concidential: it already happened with the wounds he suffered from in the orphanage, which ended up leaving scars (chapter 28), with the Guild's attack, which was of unknown nature but required Yosano's help to heal (chapter 18-19), with Twain's sniper attacks, which as the theory's Op point don't seem to have healed immediately (chapter 29). But in my opinion it's still too little instances to be able to affirm with certainty that it's not just coincidences dictated by plot convenience.
I do have a feeling there must be Something to Atsushi's ability. it can't just be tiger transformation and wounds regeneration. He's the protagonist, and leaving it at that, that's about the lamest ability of them all (sorry!! I love him still!!). I like the idea of Atsushi's ability being truly special, carrying qualities that have yet to be unfolded that make it different and somehow above the other abilities. I really think it'd be the most satisfying progression narrative wise, because so far Atsushi has gotten really little to claim for his protagonist role, being constantly overshadowed by Dazai; but he's the main character still, and it's like the story itself is waiting to reveal what makes him special. And there being something special to his ability has been, though subtly, consistently underlined: the extraordinary bounty on his head that nothing about what we know seems to explain, the fact that the Guild wanted to capture him specifically, the no further elaborated on fact that he's the key to finding the Book, Shibusawa's concern with him and, most importantly, the ability's quality of tearing through other abilities. Like, that feels very relevant; it's different from Dazai's nullification ability in the way it doesn't just temporarily nullify the other ability, but straight up denies it. I feel like in a manga that is so littered with meta commentery on literature, it'd be fitting to have an ability that denies other abilities' very existence, like moving a rubber through the page. It's certainly interesting to think about. And I like the concept of Atsushi's ability as an alternative to Dazai's nullification ability. Dazai has been feeling invulnerable so long, it would be gratifying to contemplate the existence of something that's outside of his sphere of influence, and potentially even more powerful and destructive than he is.
Again, there's already so many elements that make it impossible to ignore the uniqueness of Atsushi's ability; but even then, they're still so sparse and obscure it's really hard to take a guess on what it could really be about, or what is the reason why it's special. There's so much space for soeculations - a connection with the book, a singularity, a God-like ability just to name a few -, but in my opinion none of them have any concrete enough canon basis to leave space for theories. I think I'd rather limit myself to say it would make a lot of sense for it to be an ability superior to other abilities, since it's something that has the power to tear through abilities themselves, and I believe that such quality is also coherent with its link to the Book as another ability-originated, extremely powerful object. The ability's power to rewrite reality, if only to a smaller extent compared to the Book, may further hint to its connection to the Book / being originated from the Book / sharing origins with the Book. When the ability immediately helps Atsushi regenerate from ability induced wounds he is lowkey rewriting the story to portray a reality where Atsushi wasn't hurt, and when he tears abilities apart it is lowkey rewriting a story where the ability didn't exist. In that, I believe it wouldn't be too far-fetched to draw similarities with the way the Book works. This also made me realize that where it's confirmed that the Book's altered reality to the point of changing the ada's memories so they remembered committing the terrorism crimes, I'm pretty sure that we never got the confirmation the same happened to Atsushi. Then, what if the book can't have effect on Atsushi due to his ability, but only on the reality surrounding him.
So yeah. I'm curious to see how this will unwrap, although I have my doubts I'll still be around when it does (man, the manga is going to take another six months just to catch up with the last anime episode, so you know). I really really like the concept of Atsushi's ability developing in a way that will make it more functional in a rematch against Fukuchi. I've been advocating for a sskk vs. Fukuchi rematch for years at this point, and it seems like we will indeed be getting it; and sskk BETTER win it this time, it wouldn't make any narrative sense to be otherwise. But to do that they'll have to overcome their biggest disadvantage that is Shintou Amenogozen's time manipulation, so you know!! Looking forward to see a sskk that is now mature and experienced unveil new skills to their abilities.
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mintnoodles · 1 year
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Ponderings/ramblings about Kikuri Hiroi
Spoilers for Bocchi the Rock ep 10
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Look at Kikuri's expression after Hitori asks her to see her play at the school festival. And though she doesn't know it, there was little worry on this anxious kid's part about asking her, too. Hitori genuinely looks up to and trusts her, a self-proclaimed 'mess.' That's a huge feeling to know.
We don't see much of Kikuri's regular life, so this is speculation, but I wonder if helping out this kid on a whim is one of the highlights among the dissatisfaction. Something outside the 'alcoholism spiral'. To the point she braves a typhoon to see her grow.
She sees her past self in her. Maybe she tries to give her the support and advice she would've wanted back then. Notice the blue couch in these two shots, past and present:
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In the flashback, she's alone, where she's now sitting with Hitori and encouraging her. Where Hitori has a whole room of people wanting to help her grow. And where perhaps Kikuri didn't quite have that, not yet, but now's part of the reason this kid does.
...I love how Kikuri does not have her life together at all, but after a chance meeting with Hitori she just chooses to be kind, just like that, and I think it's been great for both of them. There's something about strangers just helping each other out that gets me.
[ID in alt]
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cccotard · 1 year
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alright gonna be so ill about this scene rq and why its so incredibly amazing for Kanna’s character
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Kanna understands the power of emotions and how it can drive people to do things they normally wouldn't, while other characters cannot quite grasp the concept. She's the only one confirmed going through it with hallucinations, (Sara, Keiji, and arguably Shin,) but isn't letting them deter her in any way, and in fact accepts the people who died trying to protect her and is living for her; which is obviously not the case with the other three.
Sara lets the memory of Joe completely consume her in chapter 2, and in the emotions route, while she no longer struggles with hallucinations of Joe, it's still evident that his death changed her motivations. This is different from Kanna, who already learned this lesson with her sister’s death in chapter 1-2; she learned from Reko and Sara to not let her sister’s death completely consume her and then learned from Shin's death how to recognize what compelled them to sacrifice themselves for her
The difference doesn't seem like a lot but it’s 'living for yourself, learning your strength from the people who loved you and could see it when you couldn't' vs 'living to not have someone's sacrifice in vain' y’know? It says a lot about Sara and Kanna's self worth in relation to the deaths of their loved ones.
Looking at Shin, while his hallucinations are more implied, I think it's fair to believe that at the Very Least he would struggle with delusions revolving Kanna's death.
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^This scene specifically showcasing how if its not struggling with the reality of Kanna’s death, he’s ignoring it to cope. It’s easier to pretend the people he has to be allies with didn’t have as big of a role in her death as they did. - (this dialogue from Shin and Keiji is some of my favorite but that’s for another day)
Back to the topic at hand, after Kanna's death, Shin's motivations completely shift. One of my favorite scenes in 3A is when the gang uses the elevator for the first time and whichever one Sara decides to use, Shin uses the opposite. Of course, this can read as him just being petty, but before this, Shin typically followed people with high percentages- he usually wouldn't go somewhere for the first time by himself unless he goes with someone with a high percentage, or at least scoped out by someone with a higher percentage. This is such a character defining moment because this illustrates  he is no longer desperate for his own survival. 
Chapter 3 and on, Shin is only motivated by revenge. Revenge for Kanna, revenge for everything he's lost. His motivations went from 'cheat the death game, beat the odds. just survive, fuck everyone else' to 'revenge for Kanna, I don’t care if I die anymore, just as long as these people go down with me, how dare these people kill someone innocent' (how logical of him to throw his own survival....) 
And finally Keiji- Keiji, like Kanna, went into the introduction scene already struggling with the death of a loved one, but he went into it knowing how to suppress his emotions way better. He, of course, lost Mr Policeman a while before the death game and is not a 14 yr kid who just lost her sister. Arguably, Keiji is one of the most, if not is the, most logical character in the game. He does a lot of cruel things for the sake of his, or someone he care's abouts’ survival - which is why he is able to vote for Kanna, or go behind Saras back for all the card trading in mg 2. Both cruel, but both helped him and Sara's chances of survival.
Keiji lost a kind part of himself after Mr. Policeman’s death. I'm not saying he’s evil, or cant feel emotions, but he is kind of .. empty. He’s been going through this death game motivated by his primal urge to survive. The only times his emotional side comes out is when his grief is pulled out and is used against him, like with Everything with Midori in 3A or all the gun discussions. Which due to the suppression of this grief and him not healing from Mr. Policeman’s death, it completely overwhelms and consumes him.
Joe, Kanna, and Mr.Policeman's deaths all communicated to the people that wanted to save them that they were Too Weak to save them. Something they did, or failed to do, caused their death. It is Sara/Shin/Keiji’s fault. 
And now why Kanna's 'Kind Hallucinations' are amazing - she's the only character to willing to accept her weakness, and realize that she is surviving because the people before her saw her strength. Kanna knows she’s stuck in a death game and has little-to-no control over almost everything around her. But despite that, she stands up to characters like Midori in chapter three, not because of Shin or Kugie, but because she is strong; she is doing it for herself, and of course she has the world's best cheerleaders behind her, if only in spirit.
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frenchgremlim1808 · 5 months
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We already know the ending of the game, at least one out of all them.
So for once i'll write an actual full analysis instead of blabbering about greenbling for the 900 time
One thing that i always thought when playing ytts was what is the purpose of that game in game. Because in reality this game was created to expand upon the characters of the game we lost early and give them a time to shine. But what is the in game reason for ytts ?
If you didn't play it please do because this game is pretty good and the interaction are either hilarious or very sad. Especially if you are a kai or mishima fan this thing is gold for you. But also play it before this because i think that ytts gives us not only one give us blatantly one the endings of the game in front of our eyes, but also give us vital info for the rest of the game.
okay got it then let's start.
The game is a simulation full of ai of the characters. There said it. we can see this in the tested one ending and the sunnies ending. In the tested ones ending we see this
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This isn't Sara, at least not the current one. This is a Sara who won the death game and became the leader of asunaro. The scientists in the room fear and respect her like a leader. This is the "perfect Sara", ultimate sara, the one that asunaro gro*med into becoming after the entire death game. It doesn't make sense for her to be a past Sara. This simulation goal isn't to make the percentage, no, it's for sara to watch the cast all together and happy. And compared to what people say her expressions and words do not strike me as an "evillllll" sara that much, more like a broken one.
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All of this screams that sara knows that watching this hurts her, but, she still wants to see them again and again, even if it breaks her heart, again and again. That's the ending she wanted, her dream ending. But this isn't reality. Also her expressions doesn't scream evil but more so pain
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Look a her eyebrows, her eyes despite the fact that there is nothing inside, you see the pain. If she smiled or something then yes evil sara, but no she's in pain.
So what does this says for the future of Sara and the game itself:
-In at least one of the endings ( probably one of the endings for logic routes), sara will be the sole survivor and asunaro will win. Le'ts call this ending the asunaro ending. Sara will become the leader of asunaro and continue on the organisation.
-But this also tells us that the manipulation that asunaro did on sara since she was a child to make her this unloving killing machine capable of doing anything for survival didn't work. Because she still misses and wishes for a different reality where they could have all survived together and happy away from all of this.
My favorite part about this is that technicaly even in the ending where asunaro wins they still lose which is great because fuck them so hard
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