Analysis - Blog Posts

tired: making 'haha mpreg' jokes about the Weird Pregnancy Stuff in mtmte/idw, betraying the fact you think 'robots undergoing objectively insane levels of Weird Pregnancy Body Horror Metaphor despite being literally inorganic' is less worthy of mention than 'and some of them use he/him! freak shit!'

wired: hey so when are we gonna use the existence of functionism as a metaphor for labour and class to discuss that rung being literally built to Make People in a way that the comic presents as frightening and confusing is a way to talk about how we can bring the concept of reproductive labour into the fold eh

Starscream from Transformers: G1 is autistic!

Hamilton x JJK

This is 1000% brought on by me consuming those edits again, but Burr and Alexander are Satoru and Suguru if Suguru didn't defect. Hear me out, Hamilton didn't know how Burr felt. The inferiority, the jealousy, he to an extent always considered him a better half. In the musical we witness how excellent he was, leagues above everyone else, not cut from the same cloth, yet we have the musical because people never acknowledged him compared to some other founding fathers. Akin to how Gojo didn't even get a funeral, he altered the balance of the world when he was born just to die the same as you and I. Burr truly never held any ill will towards Hamilton in the beginning, their paths aligned, they became acquainted, but he did not excel. If it's sad that a founding father's legacy is a musical, is it not sadder for Burr to be remembered as the man who isn't Hamilton? If Geto had not defected but still harboured the same feelings and went through the same trauma, yet saw Gojo overcome and "win", then what's the difference? I think when you take songs such as 'Wait For It' or 'Non-Stop' this is better shown. The obsession Hamilton had with writing the same as to how Gojo exceedingly became so far above everyone he wasn't human, he is literally untouchable. He fought, took mission after mission, works 21hrs a day, he could theoretically handle it all alone. How Burr wasn't willing to back up the constitution, how Suguru didn't defect immediately, a year passed. The hatred brimming and boiling, him hoping it'd subside just for the wait to result in a different outcome. How the only time Burr did not hesitate was for that final shot, contrastingly enough, the only time Hamilton did. Satoru has always hesitated in taking Suguru's life, yet Suguru was truly happy when he was away from Jujutsu society. Honestly, JJK is ripe with symbolism, excellent re-read material in the sense that everything comes together so beautifully with certain characters. Gojo's ability being unbeatable, being his only weakness, how him messing with the fabric of reality impacted his life and the consequence of being untouchable. How regardless of the strength he has never got what mattered, just like his domain. Toji deciding to risk his life by fighting Gojo a second time just to prove to the people he hated that he was good enough, yet if he had won that fight there'd be no difference between him and the Zen'in clan. He died for the same people who wished he was dead anyway. And if Geto Suguru didn't wind up hating non-sorcerers he'd end up hating Jujutsu, believing the world would be better with 0 cursed energy. To dismantle Jujutsu can be done in multiple ways, but perhaps the most effective would be to take down the pinnacle, i.e Satoru Gojo. I will one day draft an entire character study and analysis on Satoru (because clearly I cannot shut up and I have too many thoughts), but when SatoSugu were like Lafayette and Hamilton just to technically wind up in the same fate, is post hidden inventory Geto the real Geto or did he die in that fight against Toji? If he didn't, was hidden inventory Geto the fake one and the racist the real one? This is also interesting because say Geto tried helping, pushing it down, not going insane. Would he be Jefferson? Would Satoru be Jefferson? Would Geto/Jefferson view Satoru as Washington?

You could say the trio ended up becoming like John Jay, James Madison, and Hamilton. What with Shoko never being recognized, John Jay recovered after writing four to write the fifth. James Madison writing more than their agreed upon original limit simply by himself but never given value, like Suguru being a special grade that came from no resources. Him having virtually no weakness. And of course, Hamilton going insane and losing everything in the pursuit of his 'dream', I wonder if anyone has ever randomly hugged Satoru and told him they love him. He never had an Eliza after all, fuck did he even have an Angelica? A Maria Reynolds? Yet Suguru had Theodosia. This is such a niche but goddamn do I love to yap.

All Might was literally suicidal and people dont talk about it enough.

How it must've felt to have to pass on the one source of his strength, for years that has kept him at the top, his sole source of not only livelihood but also his way of helping others? How he must've felt knowing that he could not be the pillar of peace as he had been for almost four decades, that he had to subject another young person to carry that weight. How he must've felt after Kamino, after losing that power for good, after the entire nation saw him at his weakest.

His talk with Aizawa about deciding to live for the next generation, absolutely broke my heart. He felt useless, in a way probably none of us could ever even grasp. Not even izuku could.

What does it mean to be the entire world's pillar in one moment, the strongest man alive, only to go powerless in the next? It's no wonder Toshinori considered ending his life after Kamino- He didn't even look the same. What other option would you have but to end it all there? When you go from the man everyone looks to for help, to a man who can't even take a punch and survive?

But the fact he chose to live speaks volumes of his strength. His willingness to carry on, and help his students and successor fight with whatever strength remained. He helped Izuku during his tenture as a vigilante, because All Might would've done the exact same thing. He packed those lunches. He chased after Izuku, trying to give him the same support he knew All Might would've needed if he was the same age as Izuku.

It's why he put on that suit and fought All For One, even if it meant stalling and not defeating.

Because All Might is beyond his quirk, the same way Izuku is. He has the heart of a true hero.

The reason Izuku probably managed to survive those eight years without an ability to fight alongside his class- was because All Might was likely there beside him, both of them sharing the loss of their power after being at the front of the field. And they both know the importance of sharing their strength, their true strength, with future generations.

It was the strength of their hearts that put All Might and Deku above the rest.

The original percy jackson series is about cycles of abuse and neglect, right. Were introduced to percy as a kid who has clearly been left behind by a school system that has given up on him, restless and unengaged and self-defetist because hes been given nothing that works for him and no one even tries to meet him where he is. Then hes told no, listen, your neurodivergence is amazing and you just need to be given something that actually utilizes your unique palatte. And thats obviously the uplifting idea rick wanted for his kids, right. But once we get to know chb the same cycles are happening there too. There are kids "left behind" there too for one reason or another, because their parents dont want to claim them, because their parents werent important enough to get a cabin. Do you get it, all the kids who dont fit the most common neurotypes get shoved into the same closet. Kids are being left in a cruel world to fend for themselves without the tools they need. Theyre dying because no one bothered to accommodate them. Its such an obvious parallel that the first chapter introduces a teacher whos written to be especially hard on percys disability and she turns out to literally be one of these monsters trying to kill him. Meanwhile sally jackson tells him she named him after Perseus because she wanted a redemption for a hero whos story ended in tragedy. Meanwhile every book in the series replicates a greek myth step for step until the moment they break the cycle. Annabeth, playing Odysseus, is talked down from her hubris and grounded by her friends. Percy, playing Heracles, meets someone wronged by the original Heracles and rights his wrongs by refusing to go down the same selfish path as him. Monsters are reborn because they are--as the books explicitly call them--achetypes. These kids are stuck inside the cyclical nature of mythology because thats what happens to mythology, it gets retold over and over again. But these are the kids who have to live it. The series ends with percy being offered immortality and he rejects it because he wants to use his godly favor to force them to break their cycle of neglecting their kids. The series ends with a declaration that we cant keep letting this happen. The very first book offees the same choice. It ends with percy refusing to keep the head of medusa as a spoil of war, refusing his heroic reward. He lets his mother have the head and use it to kill gabe. Isnt that fucking crazy for a kids book? Gabe wasnt a Monster. He wasnt going to Turn to Dust and Disappear in a narratively convenient way. He was a living breathing mortal dude and percy and his mom killed him without remorse. Break the cycle of abuse!!!! Dont let this happen again!!! Anyway thats why the original percy jackson series is Hey where are you going with our breadsticks

The Goncharov meme is such a fun little spotlight on how people view media. Like, fake academic analysis about a movie that doesn't exist. Cool. But that's only the first level.

Next you have posts recreating a modern tumblr audience "discovering" an older piece of media and engaging with it through the lens of fan culture. Particularly tumblr-specific fan culture. Particularly in a way that feels like it got its blueprint from Dracula Daily. (Shitposts and memes, intense love for the most prominent female character, reads of complex romantic dynamics between characters, etc.)

Then you get fake discourse about the fake fan response to a fake movie that are quietly complaining about real ways real people respond to real media. I.e., America-centric readings, shallow, shipping-based readings, fans lionizing a protagonist not meant to be admired, etc.

(My personal favorite are posts that recreate the experience of being told a piece of media is so gay, you guys, only to watch it and find it isn't even remotely, that fans who wanted queer subtext wrung blood from a stone and thoroughly misled you.)

I also like the extra-meta ones about "this obscure movie being recently re-discovered," fake film history about copyright battles or the original cut being suppressed, etc. And of course, Johnny fucking Truant is here to give his editorial take on it, as he should be.

Pale Fire, House of Leaves, Goncharov. Humanity is such that every now and then we need to get really invested in fake arguments about a piece of media that doesn't exist.

Maybe I’m just too late to realize, but Jason Grace (PJO) and Adora (She-Ra) are actually really alike. They have similar backstories, personality traits and goals! Maybe someone have already written this, and done an analysis on them, but here is mine!!!!

Jason and Adora:

Both of them are blonde individuals who were taken in and raised in the military since they were small, are their mother figure’s (Hera, Shadow Weaver) favorite child, and are purely seen by their leadership skills. At the beginning of the story, both of them were kidnapped by the “enemy” (who they learn are actually good guys) and joined forces with them to save the world from evil (at one point or another in the story, both of them were forced to fight their previous allies - fighting Romans/soldiers from Camp Jupiter, The Horde).

There are a lot of expectations and pressure on them, since both of them are seen as “important” and “dutiful” people by their position in society (Jason being Jupiter’s son, and Adora being She-Ra). They’re constantly trying their best to not let their friends down, constantly trying to act and be like how everyone wants them to be (a warrior/hero/leader/etc.), and has intentionally tried to sacrifice themselves, but to no avail (both of them were stopped by a brown-haired “friend” of theirs - Leo, Catra).

Both of them are also connected to magical horses, each have a magical weapon, and each have a childhood friend that was seen for a while as the “enemy” by their allies (Reyna and Catra). As well as, both of them likes to have a sense of purpose, has felt out of place with their new allies, has a hero complex, and feels like they alone are responsible for the well-being of others (Jason, due to the promise to look after the lesser gods, and Adora, due to the abuse of Shadow Weaver).

I didn’t mean to write this much, but it’s insane how similar they actually are!

Should I add something???

I think it's really interesting how people try to say that Saiura is a much better ship than Saiteru...because their only reasoning is that "they're soulmates" yet we never got a full elaboration on what soulmates could define for Aiura.

And even then, Saiki and Aiura are not close, even aiura herself doesn't consider to be friends with Saiki and claims that "we end up being more like strangers" when talking about her and Saiki. They never talk, and all Aiura does is try to corner him every time, to which Saiki is uncomfortable with and annoyed by reasonably too.

Aiura has a very wrong and flawed perspective on who Saiki really is. She literally assumes he's some sadistic guy playing hard to get.. or whatever her words were, she thinks that he would enjoy sexual things (he would not 😭) because all she's doing is that she's projecting on to him. Lied about her and Saiki dating and doing..... things to which made Saiki uncomfortable and awkward visibly. Idek what to call this.

Did not want mention this either but in the manga, she tried to SA saiki, with some so called "lucky feel moment" (when two people get into a inherently sexual situation, one knowing and one not knowing of this.) That's literally weird AF.

Anyways....

She has no idea or concept on who Saiki is. It's so far off from him that it's an entirely new person. Not to mention, she does not like Saiki at all romantically, though. The only thing that has her invested with him is that he might be "Sadistic", oh Aiura... 😭...

It proves further on that she has never had feelings romantically at all and still does not, she is only "fascinated " with this idea of Saiki.

We also need to talk about how uncomfortable saiki is from aiura by a lot. She doesn't respect his boundaries at all, thinks knowing his secret is something she owns

(I'm pretty sure her and Toritsuka also thought this, which is odd because what?)

and tries to use to her advantage, tried to make saiki do some weird favor (obviously inappropriate implications to which Saiki said no to immediately before she could add anything).

Yikes..

and is very selfish and pushy about saiki 😭 yet she calls saiki selfish?

this is what I'm talking about. She still doesn't understand saiki and still has a five hundred million perspective on who saiki is. That shouldn't be good in a relationship.

Ship them all you want, but the chemistry is absolutely nowhere

Although yes, they have some good moments, I can not see this going further romantically. Friendship, yes, anything else, NO!

Underrated opinion, but Saiki x Mera is better than this ship. I'm just saying.... I think Mera and Saiki are very cute and wished for more interactions with them. Obviously, Saiteru is much better than this as well from Teruhashi's side.

Must've been the wind...

This isn't supposed to be hate, this is just what I gathered from one of the bad aspects of their relationship. I wish they were much closer and that Aiura didn't do.. that 😭

Today I present to you an absolutely non-delusional analysis I’ve made for over a year now. The song “Man on the Moon” by Alan Walker and Benjamin Ingrosso reminds me of Luke Skywalker and Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader’s story in the events of the Original Trilogy. The more I listened to this song, the more I felt it was made for them so I will proceed to explain:

“What happens in dreams where we fly?”

It’s the first line in the song, and casually one of the first introductions that is given to us about Luke’s character. He feels stuck, head full of dreams about flying away from the desert lands of Tatooine into the wonders of the galaxy

“Never been as high as tonight”

The battle of Yavin. Not only is Luke high up in the sky, but it’s a high point in his life. It’s the start of his long journey on a crucial mission which he succeeds, but that comes with pressure

“Staring through a window in time for someone to show me what I’m like”

The forever iconic horizon scene. The horizon acts as a window in time through which Luke stares into nothing and everything, thinking about the future that could await him. He hopes to find answers to all the questions he has about his past but everything just seems to make him more confused

“He said hello, it’s like a mirror in the sky”

The vision in the cave. When Darth Vader’s helmet falls to the ground and explodes, Luke sees his own face inside. That’s the mirror of his fear, the reflection of what he could become

“Oh boy, we looking good tonight and I just don’t understand”

Luke’s first duel with Darth Vader on Bespin in which he decides to tell him the truth, the big revelation. He is his father and this stuns him as well as his emotions. At that moment Luke is vulnerable physically and emotionally: defenseless, one hand and his weapon missing, clinging onto a bar to keep himself from falling and fighting to deny what has just been told to him. Vader tries to use this vulnerability as a way of turning Luke, but he can’t understand his restraint as if saying “Imagine how great it would be if we could rule the galaxy together as father and son, I don’t understand why you won’t cave into temptation and join the dark side”

“I met the man on the moon”

Initially Luke thought that the Death Star was a moon. That makes Vader, the man on the Death Star, the man on the moon

“I met the man on the moon, he wore his hat to the side”

When Vader asks Luke to remove his helmet so he can look at him with his own eyes for the first and last time

“I met the man on the moon, he asked if I had a light”

This part is difficult to explain, but it’s in Vader’s last moments that he understands Luke “gave him light” (made him understand that there was still good in him) but it was too late

“He told us to hold it together, we’re falling apart”

When Vader tells Luke that he was right. “You were right, you were right about me. Tell your sister you were right” acts as a sort of reassurance and a way of letting him know that nothing was in vain. Yes, his death couldn’t be prevented, but now he would die as a good man. They are both falling apart in different senses: Vader is literally falling apart, falling into his inevitable death. Luke is emotionally falling apart, grieving for the death of the man he saved but couldn’t save at the same time

“Lost, all my tears have turned to dust”

The Ewok celebration is seemingly a time to celebrate freedom, the threats of the Empire are finally gone. Happiness arises while Luke tries to process what he just lived, he feels lost. The dust can represent the ashes of the fire in which his father is being burned

“Maybe somebody is calling us, the man on the moon”

This can represent two scenes:

The one where Luke is talking to Leia about how he must face Vader and try to turn him back to the light. His instinct is calling for him to go and attempt to save their father, the man on the moon

And the one where Luke sees the force ghosts of his former mentors and his father. His father out of his suit, not as Darth Vader anymore, but as Anakin Skywalker

English is not my first language so there might be some mistakes, but I needed to share this and finally get it out of my system

Hey so actually, the newest chapter for A Human Condition fueled my BILL vs Billy analysis and I actually want to CRY, now I’m nack to the board, adding on to it and making more small notes

GUYS GUYS THE MABEL HUGGINHG BILL SCENE, I HAD A VISION 😭😭 I know that face was shifted between those two cuckoos ☹️ but it was Bill who ultimately won over the moment he saw Ford. His selfishness and arrogance come first 😕

Ford bringing the Billy side out through the Candyland game is so heart-wrenching I actually wanted to collapse, they made me so happy and then when Ford realized what was going on, I just VISUALIZED Bill’s face shifting to his default, almost treading the line between BILL and Billy ☹️ and when he called out to Ford, that literally had to be Billy I refuse to believe anything else

It KILLS ME ☹️ personally, I think the only way the Bill vs Billy situation could ever be resolved is Bill accepting Billy and the full healing process continues, or Billy is just completely killed all over again. (Worst-case scenario, Bill accepts Billy but it doesn’t matter because some thing happen and Bill reverts back, the piece of Billy dying)

OH AND THE FIDDLESTAN SCENE HOLY SHIT 😭 GOSH I WAS HOPING FIDDLESTAN WOULD BE INCLUDED !!! They made me so happy this chapter, had me in tears fr… Sorry, I might be overthinking this, and maybe call this a stretch or not, but the fixing the railroad was such a perfect parallel to Bill and Ford ☹️ Except with was the oppsite, where Stan went into a defense mode and then soon softening up, quite literally the opposite to Bill 😭 Stan continues to parallel Bill but he’s if Bill changed for the better. Fiddlestan and Billford my beloved.

Both these couple weave together so beautifully and it drives me insane ☹️ to love someone who doesn’t know themselves is the most challenging form of love, but they just need to guide each other to the safety of security 😭

Fiddlestan being included guys, im actually so happy and such the perfect balance for Billford angst that’s actually going to bash into us. I fear they are going to have so much parallel to each other and I’m not ready ☹️

This was Chapter 29 got me looking like bro 😭 LIKE HOLY FART, what I give to already be good at animations because I would have absolutely tried animating so many scenes 😭 A Human Condition is so animated worthy and that would stop me from at least learning 🥹

@sapphosscribe I SHOULDVE WAITED FOR THIS CHAPTER TO BE OUT BUT IT SERIOUSLY HELP ADD ON TO EVIDENCE FOR MY ANALYSIS 😭😭 back to the drawing board everyone, i need to AT LEAST make a sketch for the scenes i want to redraw 🥹

A more literal interpretation of Jevil's "freedom" (also some rambling)

The last post I did on Jevil- I talked about how his "freedom" could be like a sort of "inner freedom." He is trapped physically, but free from the contraints of responsibility, society, morality, etc. Now, I think that mindset is exactly the thing that led him to do whatever he did to get imprisoned, but the freedom he talks about in game might be a different thing entirely.

The thing that got me thinking about that is a video by halfbreadchaos. (I forgot the specific video but check them out- they make great stuff) They led me to notice the fact that Jevils prison is very oddly positioned, and the entire "???" floor area as a whole is really strange as well.

The room itself looks eerily similar to that first area we wake up in on chapter 1. The creepy atmosphere, the color of the floors (kinda), and the torches are literally the same as the ones found in that pre-castle town area. The entire place looks so incredibly different from the rest of the card castle. The walls and surrounding area don't even seem to be like... there. Like it's some sort of abyss. Like the entire room is out of bounds of something.

Jevil's cell/room shares a very similar vibe in that aspect as well. On the outside, the bars just seem to lead into nothing. And even on the inside, It just looks... wrong. The spinning carousel thing is so different from anything else in the game. I mean, toby said it's made out of 2D parts, but it's obviously supposed to look kinda 3D. The characters aren't even standing on the thing properly. Even behind the carousel, it's just more nothingness.

____

Now, let's look at Jevils dialogue directly.

"BUT I'M FAST, FAST, CLEVER, CLEVER." "THEY LOST THE CHASE, AND LOCKED UP THEIR ENTIRE RACE." "BUILDING A PRISON AROUND THE WHOLE WORLD. NOW I'M THE ONLY FREE ONE." Ralsei: "But you're clearly the one behind bars..." "THINGS DON'T SEEM SUCH FROM HERE LIGHTNERS!"

Looking at this completely literally, this is what we can gather: The guards and/or Seam chased him around, but he was too fast and clever for them. They somehow decided to build a prison around the dark world and trapped everyone behind bars, making Jevil the only free one. This is obviously not the case. If we try to fit this interpretation into what we know about the dark world and Jevil's situation... it uh, kinda looks like he's joking about how it looks like everybody is trapped because he's looking at them through bars.

But that answer is pretty boring, isn't it? There is obviously a lot more we can read into the dialogue. Jevil is shown to speak with a certain bit of abstractness. This analysis is supposed to be a more literal interpretation, but it's clear we need to look a little more deeper than that.

____

Let's take what I brought up before the dialogue, along with some other points.

Jevil's prison is very clearly separated from the rest of the dark world. Hell, maybe even the rest of the game with how odd it is.

Jevil talks about how everybody else is trapped, and he is the only "free" one.

This freedom doesn't exactly seem to be "inner freedom," as he directly connects his prison with this "freedom" by inviting us "outside" when we use the key on the door.

They way he doesn't elaborate any further when we do enter his room, and because the characters don't seem to have like, any sudden revelations or something inside of the room, leads me to believe that it's that inherent oddness, that separation from the "normal" part of the game that Jevil is finding freedom in.

Nobody in the world of Deltarune technically has automony over their choices. Every single choice, every event, is because of the plot. All of these people are characters in a video game, able to be manipulated by higher forces on a whim. Gaster/the mysterious entity made Jevil realize this and drove him insane with the knowledge.

Now, Jevil doesn't actively dispise that fact like Spamton does. He might almost relish in it- as he did go on that "NOTHING MATTERS EVERYTHING IS A SIMULATION! UEEHEEHEE!!!" rampage that caused so much chaos.

But then he faced the consequences of his actions. His own coworker/quite possibily a good friend locked him up in this dark, creepy place far, far below where the regular prisoners are supposed to go. And it all felt quite... stupid.

"Look at all those little people, obediently following the rules of this worthless world. They don't realize, don't they? They've simply placed another peice in the great game being set up by the higher beings. They're just walking themselves closer and closer into their eventual end. It's almost as if... they're trapping themselves. Building a prison around all of them, allowing themselves to be puppeteered by the people who control the world.

Hah! I'm quite clever, aren't I? Thanks to what I've done, I've been relagated as even lesser than a side character, sitting in a little haven tucked away from the influences of the outside world... No, I'm the one looking from the outside this time. I'm the only one here who truly understands, aren't I? But it's not my job to enlighten such fools. I'll be content watching from the backseat as the chaos unfolds..."

___

I, uh... didn't mean to write a fanfic- but I'm pretty sure that's Jevil's mindset. He fully accepts this messed up world he's inside, but he defnitely wouldn't mind if he was granted a little more freedom. And somehow... that's what he got. As a secret boss, he's... basically fully separated from the main story, but his presence is still enough to make it clear he exists in the world.

He's "free" in a much more literal sense than I intially thought. After all, isn't being that pedestrian on the streets who (hopefully) doesn't get caught in the crossfire of the MC's the best freedom any story could give?

Some spamton art and rambling

Spamton is a very interesting character. Anybody who had payed attention to Deltarune after chapter 2 would know this. And his sheer popularity makes sense. His odd way of speaking, the perfect mix of quirkiness and terrifying insanity, the tragic backstory. The elements are all there to make a insanely well written character. But uh- I'm not here to gush about how good of a character Spamton is. (I mean, technically I am) I'm here to look at his character specifically through the lens of him being a spam bot.

Despite what the addisons said about Spamton being "like the rest of us," I think Spamton always was meant to be a little different. The way his appearance is very similar to the addisons but not quite the same - I'm pretty sure his marketing tactics followed the same principle. Whether it was because he was simply a bit more pushy with his advertisements, or that there was something a bit unnerving about his character even before gaster/the mysterious entity came into play, I'm sure there was a reason the customers ignored him. Just like how people ignore real life spam emails. They're annoying, unsafe, weird, stupid. Spamton was always meant to be ignored. To be that one email guy popping up at people with advertisements on the streets. People just DON'T LIKE SPAM.

Then the mysterious entity came into Spamton's life. Somehow, defying all logic, they made spam emails popular. They made Spamton popular. But they also gave him knowledge on the nature of their world. That everything is controlled by the plot and other such unseen forces, and that nobody can truly make their own decisions in this world. With this, Spamton knew his popularity really wasn't supposed to have happened in the first place, but everybody already loved him, (well, the addisons left him- but that was just because they were jealous! He didn't need them!) and he'd ride the wave as high as it'd take him.

But it all came crashing sooner than even Spamton expected. Without the entity's help, the world corrected itself, and everybody went right back to hating spam emails. Spamton would go back to being that forgetful email guy. No, it was even worse now. At least back then he had some people that were friendly to him. Now... he had nobody. He didn't even have a house.

He was always meant to be this way, wasn't he? No matter how hard he tried, the world simply wouldn't let him be a big shot. Spamton absolutely hated that. He wanted to fight back against this cruel world. Now, he didn’t just want his popularity back, he wanted freedom. To escape the confines of this story and his role as a personified spam bot, to become something… more. To truly become a [BIG SHOT]!

But that didn’t change the fact he was still a spam bot. And what do spam bots do? They just keep sending emails to as many people as possible, just in the off chance somebody will click that link. That’s exactly what Spamton does to try to gain his freedom. He latched on to a ray of hope- that robot in the basement- and repeatedly attempted to sneak inside the queens mansion to get to it without regard for exactly how good his plans are, in the vain hope one of those attempts would succeed at one point. He just kept trying. Over and over and over… slowly losing his mind even more in the process. There is evidence that he tries multiple times to get inside the basement, with Sweet Cap’n Cakes mentioning a “funny little man” asking them for help to sneak in the mansion, and Swatch mentioning an impersonator- which is probably Spamton. Which uh… the image of the tiny dude dressing up as this huge bird guy and thinking it’s a clever enough disguise to get past everybody in the mansion in a funny thought- but kinda sad at the same time. Seriously- did Spamton really think there was a chance that’d work??? But I digress.

Even with his repeated unsuccessful attempts to infiltrate the mansion- there was one attempt that worked. When Kris and the player came into the picture. But even with the help of a lighter and a literal god-being on his side helping him with his plan… he still failed. That neo robot didn’t do anything for his situation. He was still trapped. And so he turned against Kris, and by extension the player, in a last ditch attempt to get his freedom. That was what fully solidified his utter failure. He was going against us. But even if he hadn’t attempted to fight the player, he would’ve have failed in any other attempt anyways.

From the very moment Spamton decided to oppose the rules of this video game world, to try to become something more than a spam bot, he was destined to fail. Even if he managed to get Kris’s soul. Even if he somehow became as powerful as Asriel in undertale, he still wouldn’t get the freedom he wants. Because he is a character in a video game, and he will never become anything more than that.

An analysis of the funny lil gremlin:

Jevil is a pretty facinating character. He's gotten obviously overshadowed by characters like Spamton. Which is justified as Jevil played an admittedly insignificant role on the plot of chapter 1 and was more confined to his role as a "secret boss" than Spamton, who did play SOME role in the plot (even though he kinda barged into it) and had a much more fleshed out backstory than Jevil. Though the clown man does play a pretty important role in the bigger picture of the game by introducing the theme of freedom in characters other than Kris, and setting the predecent of future secret bosses exploring said themes of freedom.

Jevil's whole "I'm the only one free and everybody else is the one trapped" thing is kinda odd, but it starts to make sense when you really think about it. Gaster, or whoever it was that drove him to insanity most likely gave him some degree of knowledge of the nature of Deltarune. (Or at least a bit MORE knowledge, as even regular darkners seem to be a little aware that their world works on video game logic- ie. the tutorial puzzle guys- Lancer and his sign telling you not to take the darkfruit) This is a videogame. With main characters, npc's, and a set storyline everything is supposed to follow. Everybodies actions are dictated by the plot, the creators, (toby fox) and everything in this world isn't even for the darkners or the lightners. Everything is just for the convinience and enjoyment of some otherworldly being. (the player) Nobody can choose their own fate in this world. Nothing anybody does truly matters because the story will find SOME way to keep going. (take the weird route as a prime example of that)

This knowledge obviously broke Jevil, but his mind rationalized it in an extremely strange way. If nothing he does matters, than that means he could technically do anything. There are no consequences. At least to him. This is what he means by "being free." He is free from the limitations of society, responsibility, morality. This, of course, led to him doing whatever he did to get himself thrown into prison. A prison separated from even the ones in the normal basement.

Though, even faced with obvious consequences, Jevil was way too deep in his insanity. Being stuck in a prison alone defnitely didn't help his mental state either. That's part of what makes Jevil scary in my opinion. He's somebody with absolutely no restraints. He has absolutely nothing to lose and nothing to gain from fighting you. He just does it because he's desperate for SOMETHING to happen after probably years of being stuck and alone.

He represents the joker card (I mean it's pretty obvious, but is there anything actually confirming he's the joker card?) pretty well, with all that said. Obviously there's the whole thing of "being abandoned," as typically for most card games, (there are actually games that require the joker card) the joker is set aside without being used. And also to my knowledge, joker cards can be used for pretty much any purpose you want. They can replace a missing card on a deck, be used in magic tricks, be put in the bottom of the deck to prevent anybody from seeing the bottom card, or even be something like a "skip card," forcing a player to skip their turn. It's specifically because of their lack of functionality and adherence to the 4 suites of the deck that they are able to [I CAN DO ANYTHING!] I found that pretty cool.

I also find it interesting that Spamton seems to have the exact opposite mindset as Jevil. Jevil probably(?) didn't have to struggle too much to get his position as court Jester. Even before he went crazy, he most likely always was just a little goofball who just happened to get the attention of the king with his antics. In contrast, Spamton most defnitely struggled a lot to even keep himself afloat - Wondering why all the other addisons seem to be doing fine, when he was (probably) doing the exact same thing. (at least before gaster/the mysterious entity) He was most likely given the same knowledge the entity gave Jevil, and he absolutely hated it. He actively tried to fight against it, unlike Jevil who basically embraced the idea of a world where your choices don't matter and used it as an excuse to do whatever the hell he wants. Spamton didn't want to be confined to a story. This... game. He desperately wanted freedom, and he would do anything to get it. Even when he failed he would keep trying. After all, perseverence did let him become a big shot, even for a little while, so he just had to keep trying... right? Uhh... this wasn't supposed to be a Spamton analysis, but I just found that contrast cool.

All in all, Jevil and Spamton set a really interesting precedent for the future secret bosses and I'm excited to find out how toby fox handles the next one and how that boss will tie in to the whole freedom theme.

Young Ford literally shoved that journal in Stanleys hands, giving him no other choice other than accept it and just do what he was told, while later on Ford held out their childhood picture, waiting till Stan accepted it himself.

"can you give me one more chance?"

Ford pulling out that journal from the left side of his coat which represents logic, but then after the development - pulling out their childhood picture from the right side, which represents feelings.

I'm talking about brain Hemispheres, whose side of the brain is responsible and dominant for one exact action.

Yes, this topic can be arguable, because, from viewers perspective their right is our left and the opposite, BUT

above I spoke from our perspective, but even in such switched around context you can easily adjust this statement.

Young Ford pulled out that journal from HIS right side because he was acting up on his feelings. He was in pain, he was suffering simply for trusting someone, which resulted in getting pathenically used and manipulated, and only hope he had left was to reach out to his brother, whom he openly loved and cared about at some point.

Older Ford reaches out their childhood picture from HIS left side, because believe it or not he's finally rational. He sees the full picture and decides to make the RIGHT decision.

THAT'S the result of making the right choice. The difference in the reaction is everything for me.

(it took him lil over 40 years + to witness and get tortured at the end of the world by one eyed demon...... that man is too much of a stubborn and vindictive hoe.)

This post is getting too long but I wanna address my opinion towards Fords "right" choice/desicion I mentioned above.

Right choice wasn't to go sailing with his brother, but rather than to make up with him.

None of them were fully right and none of them were fully wrong, it's complicated and that's what I adore about their characters.

Ford is flawed in the head, which was supposed to represent his brilliance and superiority

While Stan is flawed in the heart, which was supposed to represent his so on "grumpy" and "unloving" nature for the whole show.

Both of them were hurt, and none of them knew where to properly direct it, which at the end caused the incident with the portal.

Bonus:

Stanley raised his hand to reach out for his bro only AFTER Stanford closed the curtains on him, which means Ford probably continued looking at the whole thing, quietly peeking from his window, not to dare and go against their fathers desicion.

He basically has the image of his strong, firm, and hotheaded brother looking at him full of heartbreak, imprinted in his head, and won't even allow himself to forget it. Even after 10 whole years.

He can't forget, he didn't deserve to forget it.

Guilt does a lot to a person, both of them were guilty, and also both of them were stubborn, which means that none of them will or would ever admit it.

I HAD to get this out of my system even if someone probably said it before me I deeply apologize you had to whitness that

yall i miss jily😭😭😭 not like its gone but like the marauders used to be so happy sunshine gryffindor vibes. but also i feel like we collectively all forget how much james potter HATED slytherin. idk i also think that yes death eaters were humans BUT they also killed so many people like are we forgetting that barty crouch jr literally tortured alice and frank longbottom he is at fault for neville growing up without his parents😭 i genuinely think that people forget that evan, barty etc. actually killed people and killed people who were probably friends with the marauders. ik that everyone deserves a second chance but seriously???? do you actually think that the rosiers were good people and didn't hate and discriminate against muggleborns??? NOT EVERYONE HAS A TRAGIC BACKSTORY IDK SOME OF THEM ARE JUST EVIL. the way everyone defends evan rosier (love his character but i have beef with the way he gets away with being a death eater later on) but snape, who i absolutely detest, hate and think should have died earlier, who also actually did something that was not evil in his lifetime, is the most hated marauders character like????? and the black sisters???? yes love a complex female character but are we seriously trying to redeem bellatrix? do we not remember WHAT SHE SCARED ON HERMIONE LIKE WHAT. and love the newer marauders fandom but everyones so emo and depressed this is supposed to be FUN. also the characters feel so ooc. everytime i see casanova remus lupin im like 'huh thats supposed to be sirius and james???' love remus but my boy aint rizzing anyone up hes a shy af introvert. and jegulus is so cute but remember that james is #no.1slytherinhater and he was absolutely smitten with lily evans FROM THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. REMEMBER WHEN JILY WAS THE BACKBONE OF THE MARAUDERS? like they ate fr. this became a whole ass paragraph damn i did not know i had so much to say about this. i can lowkey already sniff the comments or thoughts saying 'oh let us have our fun its just a story' im not stopping you this is just my opinion. 'oh none of this is actually proven' please give me a break😭🙏 like most of the source material goes against the fandoms perception of the marauders. 'fuck jkr we'll do what we want' youve basically just made 10 million ocs and give them names of characters like im eating up all the marauders content but genuinely can we go back to the happier times??

an analogical analysis from an intrulogical idiot

as a newly converted analogical enjoyer and orange side/dark side logan truther i feel the need to mention that their arcs FUCKING MIRROR EACHOTHER. I AM SO NORMAL ABOUT THEM. so because i have absolutely nNO life i am going to give you, unlucky scroller, unwitting follower or one of the folks who followed me for invader zim, the play-by-play of these emo nerds.

so

in the beginning (only going from the start of the series) they were admittedly at odds, but not as much as say, virgil and princey or logan and patton. the first time (to my recollection) that they interact outside of the group setting is the negative thinking episode where they debate, in which virgil (to my recollection) receives the first positive feedback from any of the lightsides. now, at this point in the series, logan is still relatively respected and listened to by the lightsides and thomas while virgil isnt, given he's a darkside its not that surprising. in this period logan gets progressively more and more ignored and brushed off, slowly but still, an important piece in this timeline that i dont think is recognized enough is mind vs heart in which is the first of MANY times he is forced to compromise or back down to keep the peace. in the same time however, more and more virgils points are heard out and taken into account and compromised with (dark side of disney, alone on valentines day, etc) for virgil being compromised with is a step towards being heard, for logan being forced to compromise is a means to shut him up.

then excepting/accepting anxiety happens. OH BOY! i feel the need to point out that our bespectacled boy very much does his best to help the situation by providing hard facts that "no anxiety=bad". but the consequences of this episode should also be mentioned, that being, when virgil gains a seat at the metaphorical-but-also-probably-literal-given-this-series table, logan's is all but ripped out from under him. this is shown in the episodes immediately following, in which patton copies logans logo (minor but should still be said), being forced to be stage hand in can lying be good, etc BUT something i skipped over on purpose so i could talk about it here

THE FUCKING NOSTALGIA 2 PARTER (aka 38:33 seconds of why patton is my 2nd least favourite side) now before i continue, do note i am relentlessly biased about how based logan is in this episode because his advice in it prevented my own anxiety spiral SO BE WARNED. so, in this episode logan suggests that partaking in recreational nostalgia could help thomas cope with being reminded of his breakup, this leads to the whole crew (+ janus who was probably in disguise as roman but i digress) going on a field trip to pattons room. this causes virgil to freak out and logan likely blaming himself for hurting his anxious associate because of his mistake (likely associating this with his other mistake of misdefining infinitesimal and that might be why he doesnt like to be reminded of it but thats just a theory A FILM THEO-) so logan leaves and lets everyone else sort shit out, starting a pattern in which instead of causing what he perceives as unnecessary conflict logan attempts to remove himself from the situation at all costs, while virgil becomes more vocal when he's uncomfortable with an idea or plan.

then a bit later things continue going downhill for logan with his contributions being more ignored and solutions dismissed, becoming more vocal, confrontational, aggressive and frustrated when he is pushed aside (sound like a certain early arc anxious side anyone?) this period also features an odd 2 episode alliance between logan and roman that i still dont quite understand but feel like it is worth noting. also during this time virgil generally doesnt show up in an imprtant role for a while for whatever reason (truly the episodes, why do we wake up through learning about ourselves fundamentally confound me) also during the period of crofters the musical going forward logan fixates on being taken seriously more than usual. now one of my least favourite and simultaneously favourite episode.....

LEARNING NEW THINGS ABOUT OURSELVES!!!! MY BELOATHED!!!!!! THIS IS THE EPISODE THAT STARTED MY 3 MONTH LONG PUPPET OBSESSION (DONT ASK)!!!!!!!!! now while i will gladly go into more detail about my thoughts on this episode at a later date i'll do a quick run down. thomas calls out that logan has a temper in the overlap bit (orange side probably= anger temper= logan therefore anger= logan and logan probably= orange), logan rebounds like a goddamn kickball from the prior episode into desperately trying to prove that he is serious, logan is a LOT more resistant to compromise than usual, while virgil just rolls with it when earlier in the series the opposite would be true, logan and roman are back to fighting as usual, and thomas says that virgil doesnt have to go puppet if he doesnt want to but literally everyone peer pressures logan to. i will go more in depth on this episode later, mark my words fam(ILY).

now, the next several episodes (besides are there healthy distractions, which has some adorable analogical btw) follow the format of "darkside pulls up/patton in the plushie episode, puts logan in their crosshairs, silences him for the episode, problem eventually fixes" (listen as much as i ADORE svs: redux, the amount of disrespect for logan in it is lethal to my system)

to summarize

1 for virgil being compromised with is a step towards being heard, for logan being forced to compromise is a means to shut him up.

2 when virgil gains a seat at the metaphorical-but-also-probably-literal-given-this-series table, logan's is all but ripped out from under him.

3 a pattern starts in which instead of causing what he perceives as unnecessary conflict logan attempts to remove himself from the situation at all costs, while virgil becomes more vocal when he's uncomfortable with an idea or plan.

4 logan becomes a LOT more resistant to compromise than usual, while virgil just rolls with it when earlier in the series the opposite would be true

5 thomas says that virgil doesnt have to go puppet if he doesnt want to but literally everyone peer pressures logan to

... am i the only one who sees this??? their character arcs are going in opposite directions!!!!!!!! if we analyze this trend, we might be able to gleam where logans arc is going next!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

growing up is realizing that dipcifica was actually a pretty damn good ship and holy shit i totally misjudged this pairing.

i never really liked dipcifica mainly because of how it got represented by the fandom, but looking back on it, it would've made a lot of sense and it would've been beneficial for both of them to date each other. and even in a completely platonic sense, their dynamic worked well enough that they could've done a lot more together.

dipper is a very nerdy awkward guy, clearly. he likes solving mysteries and sometimes he gets a little in over his head because of it. and his silly little awkward teenage love life reflects all of these things. that little shrimp was disney's #1 simp, it's actually insane. whenever he'd start to fall for a girl it'd end up going pretty terribly because he'd have no idea how to just act like himself and he'd also become a little bit of a jerk. (i'm not trying to like dog on dipper btw. he's just a kid and these are all understandable flaws, especially at his age and at the time period gravity falls took place in). however, with pacifica, a lot of these flaws are manageable solely because of how they're introduced to each other. dipper hates pacifica at first and wants nothing to do with her, but eventually they're forced to work together and realize "huh. we actually make a really good team." for dipper, this gradual building of a relationship is really beneficial to him. he wouldn't just go head-first into simping for some random girl and he'd also learn to respect her as a person and realize when he's being a little bit of a dick. being with pacifica, platonically or romantically (though personally i think romantically would strengthen their pros more but thats just my personal taste), would've helped dipper become a better person.

this goes for pacifica as well. pacifica's homelife is extremely controlling and it's what groomed her into becoming the mean girl that she's first presented as. as the show continues though, it's clear that she doesn't really want to be mean to anybody. she only acts spoiled because she doesn't know what else she can act like. she wants to connect to people but she's been so forced into this fake rich life that she has no idea how to be genuine with anybody. that's why her having a connection to dipper is so important. dipper is a little blunt, and he especially won't hide that from pacifica because he initially hates her and her family's lifestyle, so this'll eventually help pacifica realize "oh shit. i'm kind of a dick. my family are kind of huge dicks." and we do end up seeing this from her in "Northwest Mansion Mystery". she learns how to be herself, learns who "herself" even means, and learns to stand up for who she is when she figures that out. also pacifica's pretty damn smart???? especially socially???? she could absolutely help dipper do a lot of things when it comes to mystery solving, and with her status it'll most likely be things that dipper could never pull off and never even thought about because that's just what he's used to. they'd both end up learning a lot from each other because they'd be dragged into environments that they're not familiar with, but the other is. and their different perspectives/lifestyles would help the other view their environment in a new light.

not only is their relationship genuinely really beneficial to the both of them, but i also just know that their dialogue and scenes with each other would be so damn silly i can't not say yes to it anymore. i also just personally like headcanoning them both as bisexual so that's a plus for me.

anyways, tldr: i was wrong about dipcifica and its actually really good, i just think people should really analyze their relationship more since the way the fandom presents it (or how ive personally seen the fandom present it) is a little icky and shallow at least in my opinion. yay for dipcifica being silly little goobers :3

i cannot stand the fact adap Chishiya is a Hearts player, sowz. it's clear to me the adap writers completely misunderstood what makes someone a Hearts player in the first place and ran with it.

Chishiya can read others emotions to some extent, sure, but not in-depth enough to sympathize.

you wanna know why Chishiya (and Niragi) are Diamonds players? because they don't care enough to truly understand the hearts of others. they manipulate situations, not (usually) out of desperation, but because it's all they know. they lack a genuine understanding with others.

(adap) Arisu being a Diamonds player also completely misses the point: Arisu is so similar to Chishiya and Niragi that if, at any point prior to the Borderlands, he had one more thing go wrong, he could've ended up like the two of them; but he didn't because he refused to be like that.

Arisu is a Hearts player because he's both smarter than he gives himself credit for, and emotionally mature enough to take to heart (wink wink) the emotions of others and actively put himself in their shoes to get through a game.

that last reason is why Matsushita Enji is such a lousey Hearts player, because, like Chishiya and Niragi, he isn't emotionally mature enough to truly be good at Hearts. he has great setups, sure, but he's too proud to acknowledge other players and their inteligence, which is why he was ultimately defeated by Yaba and Banda.

Yaba and Banda both come from backgrounds where they need to read others to some extent: Yaba, a CEO who climbed the corporate ladder by reading others and using those emotions to his advantage (as we saw happen with Arisu when he was confronted by the militants), and Banda, a misogynistic murderer who got into the houses of women he killed, needed to be agile enough to get them to trust him by manipulating the situation in his favor, all while keeping in mind the emotions of those he killed.

Hearts games are not won by sheer manipulation, as we saw with Enji and Urumi; there needs to be a level of connection with others if you want to survive, which is also why Mitsurugi's defeat was so upsetting; ideally, he did everything right, but ultimately was a bit too confident in his plan and thus, refused to acknowledge the power the other players had. he was too good of a person.

Mira is a bit of an outlier, not because she was bad at the games or anything, but because she's the perfect mix of both understanding and master manipulator; if she went up against any other player in the Borderlands, they would easily lose. Arisu almost lost too, but as we've established, Hearts games are built off connections with others and Usagi was needed in order to make it.

I'm sure Mira was well-aware of that fact, especially with Arisu, but her ulimate failure was the same as Mitsurugi's: she ended up downplaying the connection between him and Usagi. Hearts games need love, level-headedness, mild manipulation, and an open mind if you intend to win.

going back to my main point, that's why Chishiya either avoids Hearts games all together, manipulates people during them, or turns to violence; he lacks the emotional maturity and agency to clear one the way they are meant to be cleared, why Arisu is a much better Hearts player than Chishiya will ever be, and why the adap writers completely misunderstood that point.

(i wrote this while sick before going to the movies and then finished it after watching a movie so forgive me if it's incoherent or whateer im laying down)

do you ever think about how Azure Lion groomed Sun Wukong from a young age into being this perfect people to act as the poster child for the Brotherhood, abandoned him at his worst, was confident he could manipulate him into working for him again and then tried to do the same with Xiaotian and Xiaojiao upon first meeting them? And that, by association, he almost groomed Macaque and you can see how his manipulation affected Macaque even into adulthood when he first met Xiaotian?

No?

Azure Lion groomed Sun Wukong, tried to groom Qi Xiaotian (and Long Xiaojiao) and heavily affected Macaque's world view on Sun Wukong.

EDITOR'S NOTE:: grooming in this case does not mean anything sexual between the characters, grooming is a common trope in media and it's commonly seen as a power imbalance and manipulation tactic (see: when a father grooms his son to take over the company by inflicting him with his own ideals)

Azure Lion has a tendency to display Sun Wukong on this high pedestal and sound very confident in how he describes him. The very first thing he says in his debut is this:

“I'm flattered, truly, but if it were not for Sun Wukong bringing us together, right? Without you, none of this would be possible. Your courage to stand up to the Celestial Host has inspired us to finally take a stand. To make a true difference in the world. And I could think of none other more suitable to lead us on our conquest than you, brother.”

notice how throughout this episode sequence Azure is spoken about like he's the leader and right in every word he says. The other adults at the table (Peng, DBK and Yellow Tusk) smile and turn to him as though he's in the right. They hang on to his every word. something interesting is the fact Macaque and Sun Wukong are talked down to like they're the younger pair of the brotherhood — Peng's insults to Macaque, the way DBK asks SWK to repeat what happened during Havoc in Heaven—

heck even the way they laugh at Sun Wukong when he's being silly is a clear indicator that they see him as... silly.

It isn't until Azure Lion speaks up that they turn to him and start seeing Sun Wukong into a new light.

Not only that but the way that Azure talks to Sun Wukong raises several red flags. He looks at all his brothers the same way (e.g when he's helping Peng during a flashback in Episode 8) but it raises so many red flags when he looks at Wukong like this.

And Wukong hangs on to his every word.

Because Sun Wukong believes in what Azure Lion is saying to him. Everyone believes him in that moment. he sounds so confident in the way he says none of this would be possible without sun wukong. It's a way to manipulate him especially considering Sun Wukong was not the one to form the Brotherhood - Azure was. Azure decided to form this trio after seeing Sun Wukong for the first time according his own flashback:

And guess what? It works. Sun Wukong was minding his own business up until that point, the only thing he'd done (if the timeline matches up correctly) was become immortal and return to Flower Fruit Mountain to train his monkey army. In JTTW at this point he would've turned into a giant version of himself, scaring the other spirit kings into joining alliances with him just from witnessing that—instead we get Azure Lion believing him to be the perfect idol for his plan to come into fruition.

Fun Fact: Macaque is the only one who looks at Sun Wukong like this during Azure Lion's little speech about him and being the rightful leader of the brotherhood.

He seems more confused and shocked than the rest of them are. Mind you, he's known Sun Wukong longer than the rest of them have.

He hears Azure Lion, a veteran celestial warrior, praise his best friend and put him up on a pedestal and it confuses him. because his best friend is not like that. at least, he thinks so—but Azure sounds confident, right? he's speaking so confidently about this, so he must be right... right?

It will, eventually, lead to Macaque changing his view on Sun Wukong entirely. this is why we have shadowplay.

"That's what I believed. What Azure would have you believe."

Azure Lion affected not only Sun Wukong but Macaque in his manipulation — the timeline does not show us where Macaque went after his fall out with Wukong but the theory that he ran into the Camel Ridge Trio before fighting Wukong again works considering that line.

(Not only that but Macaque also tries to do this with Xiaotian: he introduces himself in a easily approachable way and trains him, takes him under his wing, then stomps on him the moment he stops being useful to him. he uses him to get to Sun Wukong. Xiaotian reminds Macaque of Sun Wukong and he uses similar tactics that Azure Lion used to get to Xiaotian — and it isn't until the Samadhi Fire Ritual that he realizes what he's done by being reminded of his and Wukong's fallout. He, a bystander, was also affected and influenced by Azure's manipulation.)

Additionally, Sun Wukong defends Azure Lion. He justifies attacking Heaven during Havoc in Heaven, he justifies the brotherhood's plan to go to war against Heaven—none of these plans are Sun Wukong's ideas. They are Azure's influence. In the original book, the reason why Wukong attacks Heaven in the first place is because they refuse to grant him the respect he wishes and thus Heaven is angry at him for dubbing himself the Great Sage Equal to Heaven. They ask the Jade Emperor to take care of Sun Wukong and he does—which, y'know, ends up with Wukong imprisoned afterwards. But in Monkie Kid it's all because of Azure's influence on Wukong.

Because he groomed him into being a faithful right hand man. And he is so confident in that that he gives these grand speeches and pep talks and says every perfect little line to make Sun Wukong want to follow him to Hell and back.

"When we triumph in this rebellion, the people will never live in fear. We're about to change everything. It's all because of you, brother!"

And, of course, he tries this on Xiaotian and Xiaojiao, too, when he first meets them.

When he presents himself to Xiaotian and Xiaojiao, he comes to their rescue. He already introduces himself as a savior and protagonist because he saves them from the scroll—even seemingly displaying himself as non-threatening because, while he laughs at them, he does so in a manner that's sincere and genuine. It's a goofy laugh. He's being goofy. He's playing to their good side.

It's the way he talks to them and laughs, introduces himself with such flamboyance and loudness that he mirrors Sun Wukong himself. He is such a direct influence to Sun Wukong that it carries throughout the few scenes we see of him that resemble what Sun Wukong has done with Xiaotian: the astral projection, the goofy displays of excitement, the sarcastic tones when talking about Tang, the way he greats his brothers when they are freed as old friends and all cheery and genuine.

He allows himself to be called uncy lion and romanticizes the past of the brotherhood while not elaborating on the fact he lead Sun Wukong and his brothers to a war while still blaming the aftermath and defeat of their party on Sun Wukong.

"Ah, well. The Sun Wukong isn't exactly the easiest person to get along with. He has quite a habit of keeping people at arm's length. We were young, mistakes were made... and some mistakes can't be undone."

He speaks of him in a way to spark doubt between Xiaotian and Xiaojiao and it works in the way they react to what he says. They are disheartened and Xiaojiao even mentions, later, how Sun Wukong has had a habit of keeping things to himself. I wonder why that is.

" [...] If your friendship with Monkey King meant anything to you—" "It meant everything to me." [....] "We're brothers. Nothing could ever change that."

It's the way that Azure talks to them about Sun Wukong. It's the way he still thinks he is close enough to Sun Wukong to say that nothing will change their relationship. It's the way that he tries to plant these ideas into Xiaotian's head when they first meet, because he is the Monkie Kid.

That and the fact that later, when Sun Wukong is bursting through each and every memory, he reaches Xiaotian and goes to him and tries to comfort him and say they'll get to safety soon and they just have to deal with the scroll curse—it's the fact that the moment

that pigsy

mentions Azure Lion

all of that gets paused for a moment

"Oh he says his name like that because he put him in the scroll, he shouldn't be here—" there is also the fact he's not fully blown surprised by this. he's also wary. he's hesitant. sure you can say he's surprised to hear they've met Azure Lion,

but then you get this

this is hatred. this is anger. this is not what Sun Wukong feels towards Macaque during Season 3 — he lunged at Macaque for putting Xiaojiao in danger, for putting Xiaotian in danger, for ruining his plan, and he hesitates to attack him, to deliver that final blow, his fist is shaking and Tang's interuption easily causes him to lose focus and he drops Macaque. He lets go.

THIS? This is him protecting Xiaotian. this is him not wanting Xiaotian near Azure. Xiaotian looks at Azure with wide eyes and a gaping mouth because "oh Azure's here?" but Wukong knows better.

And you cannot tell me Sun Wukong was not heavily hurt by Azure Lion's actions without looking at the way that Sun Wukong puts himself between Azure and Xiaotian immediately, how Sun Wukong tries to be a better person by putting Xiaotian's safety first, always, even if it means he gets possessed or hurt or thrown around.

You cannot tell me Azure Lion wasn't a manipulator or abuser or a person who used Sun Wukong's admiration of him against him, to turn him into an obedient follower and devoted friend, when the very first thing he does when he sees Wukong step between him and Xiaotian is sigh.

Sighs like an older mentor looking at their pupil and going "didn't I teach you better than that?"

And then he imprisons Sun Wukong.

Because he is of no use to him at that moment.

And the fucking kicker: Xiaojiao modeled her new sword after Azure Lion, then is blatantly disgusted by this when she figures out how much of a bastard he is and openly says so. Xiaotian looks distraught and confused. Because Azure admits to being guilty of using them and manipulating them. He aims for sympathy with them.

He aims for sympathy with Xiaotian.

He twists the narrative again when he and Xiaotian are alone.

He's manipulating him. He's using him.

He keeps painting Sun Wukong in this negative light. he keeps putting himself up as the sympathetic victim of it all.

"My former brother was sent to destroy us and all we had built."

and yet he still talks about Wukong as though he has a grasp on their relationship. he calls him brother. he has not abandoned that title. he still thinks of Sun Wukong as his brother and will continue to use him and his name in whatever way possible to get ahead.

Maybe it is not on purpose and Azure thinks he is being true and genuine with Xiaotian but it does not erase the fact he twists the narrative to paint Sun Wukong in a negative light in front of his successor. Because Sun Wukong and Xiaotian have a strong relationship, a bond so strong that Qi Xiaotian bursts with power and strength when he realizes Azure will not give him back to him. It's precision and control and Qi Xiaotian could wreck havoc among everyone for keeping his mentor away from him but he is so controlled and careful with his movements that he manages to not attack Azure, but throw him off balance to get him to release Azure.

All because Sun Wukong is important to him.

Because Sun Wukong was not going to treat his successor as though he were a weapon or a pawn in some major scheme like he was.

Azure Lion showers people with praise that they do not deserve nor want and does so in a way that makes the party feel either delighted to have aided with his success or horrified at the revelation. He does so when Sun Wukong brings the brotherhood together (which wouldn't have happened if Azure Lion hadn't seen Sun Wukong with his subjects that one day) and he does so when Qi Xiaotian for returning his brothers to him (which he didn't know he was doing, because Azure Lion told him he needed to defeat the curse without mentioning his friends would be released too, at least from what I can remember).

"His betrayal, his brutality. He took the only friends I had from me. I would have done anything in my power to bring them back. But it wasn't in my power, it was in yours. You saved my friends. You returned them to me. And for that, I am eternally grateful."

This is similar to what he says to Sun Wukong when he was thanking him for bringing the brotherhood together.

And then, what happens when all this manipulating and tricking does not work? When Qi Xiaotian teams up with Sun Wukong instead of siding with Azure Lion?

"After all Sun Wukong has put you through, how much he's let you down, you would still meet your fate trying to protect him?! (...) He doesn't deserve such loyalty, yet you insist on learning the hard way, just as I did! I should've never trusted the Monkey King! The False Sage, Equal to Nothing!"

He fucking insults Sun Wukong. Sun Wukong who rushes in to protect Xiaotian, who shoves Azure Lion out of the way, and checks on Qi Xiaotian when he glitches out and starst to lose control of his powers.

And when he's losing against Xiaotian? When he struggles to keep up with him?

"Look what he's done to you! Reduced you to a mindless, savage animal."

Again, Macaque's obsession over Sun Wukong makes sense now. His obsession is a result of Azure Lion's doing. His obsession is what Qi Xiaotian could have been had he not known Sun Wukong for who he really is: his mentor and friend.

What gets to me is what Xiaotian says to him when he's losing:

"That's what you were pretending to be, right? To be my friend? To care about me? When really, you were just using me to get what you wanted! To turn me against my own mentor! Well, put your hand in the monkey cage and expect to get bit, son! Come on! Come on! Come on, Uncy Lion! You're the big hero, right?! Then prove it! Show me!"

It's a perfect way of snapping back at Azure for all his manipulation.

And then Azure dies.

He learns he's being manipulated for someone else. He cries and smiles and dies.

What for?

He doesn't save anybody.

He doesn't suffer consequences of manipulating people. He doesn't do anything heroic and he doesn't even save the world by sacrificing himself because Nezha is the one who seals away the Jade Emperor's powers in the end.

He's a natural manipulator.

He's not a hero.

he's a loser

From Izuku to Katsuki, chapter 119.

I really love this little quite done by Izuku. To me it shows that despite being bullied by Katsuki from kindergarten all the way to their first year at high school, he still admires Katsuki. In my eyes it's so Izuku that I love it. He himself stated int he very same chapter, just a few panels before this: "As and as your bad side was... your strengths were just as impressive,"

He knows Katsuki has a bad side (and all to well sadly) but he seemed to focus slightly more on Katsuki's strengths which he called impressive. Basically, admiration.

Another example of Izuku's admiration for Katsuki is in the final exam mini arc where Izuku and Katsuki were paired up to fight All Might. There was this mini flashback of Katsuki standing for himself against two seniors at the age of 6.

Izuku is seen admiring Katsuki's bravery behind a near by tree, admiring at how Katsuki, like All Might, always wins at the end. Again, he had said that he could only admire All Might from a distance, but Izuku is is here admiring Katsuki just behind a nearby tree.

Izuku's admiration had stirred somewhere around the age of 4 a deepened later on. How I can conclude this, is because, there was another flashback where, the two of them were in a forest, Izuku telling Katsuki how amazing his Katsuki's quirk is. Once again I repeat, admiring Katsuki. I feel that Izuku's admiration shall never stop and that even when Izuku becomes the No.1 hero, all while Katsuki is the No.2 hero, he will still find something amazing about Katsuki.

So you can see how much Izuku admires Katsuki and how significant Katsuki is in Izuku's life, so when in the infamous chapter 362, Katsuki seemingly dies, you can see the impact it brings upon Izuku.

See how his eyes change? From how the light in his eyes slowly but surely disappears as he sees a dead corpse on the floor, and how his pupils vanish the moment he realizes it's Katsuki. He doesn't believe that the person he admires just as much or possibly even more than All Might, is dead. Because he admires Katsuki for Katsuki's bravery, and sprit of always winning. Hence, Izuku's image of victory being Katsuki.

Katsuki has come a really long way as well. From bullying Izuku to 'admiring/accepting' Izuku. I feel his biggest change as a character towards Izuku was when he apologized in the rain, and for the first time in ten years or so calling Izuku by his given name.

How Horikoshi draws and depicts their development by drawing the two of them when they were toddlers, to middle school, then high school, to the moment where he's apologizing, brings forth a mountain of indescribable feelings and emotions. How Katsuki said he looked down on Izuku because Izuku was quirkless, and therefore thought that Izuku was meant to be classified as beneath him.

But even so, he always felt that Izuku was above him, and he hated that. So Katsuki bullied Izuku, to keep Izuku at arm's length,but Izuku kept running and chasing after him, as I have said, because of how much Izuku admires Katsuki. He tried to act all superior by rejecting Izuku, but as he says, he kept losing that fight if trying to act superior. And through out the whole first year at UA, he was forced to realize Izuku's strengths and his weaknesses. And he apologizes, along with saying Izuku's name in front of all his classmates.

For Katsuki to show even some sort of weakness is hard enough but the fact that he willingly and ooenly shows his weakness in front of at least 20 people, is a lot to say on its own. And Katsuki continues by saying how he and everyone else will be there to help Izuku when Izuku can't handle everything on his own.

His apology to Izuku was one of the final pieces needed to bring back Izuku to UA, the efforts of Ochako, Tenya and everyone else in 1A will not go unnoticed. And as Izuku falls from exhaustion, all his emotions starting to cave in, we can how fast Katsuki runs to just catch Izuku from falling.

You can't even see the remainder of Katsuki's leg due to the speed he was running at to catch Izuku from falling, while muttering how he and everyone else in 1A gets how Izuku feels. From how Katsuki used to bully Izuku to now 'admiring/accepting' Izuku shows how far Katsuki has come, and there are still others out there stating how Katsuki has zero character development.

And another thing I should point out is how Katsuki is trying to change his habit of calling Izuku, Deku. Katsuki is trying to make the effort of calling Izuku by his given name, instead of a nickname he had made up that meant how useless Izuku was. Why he stops calling Izuku by his given name was due to him saying, "Deku-Izuku," And Izuku had replied, telling Katsuki that if calling him by his given name was too hard, then he doesn't want Katsuki to force himself to call him Izuku.

And Katsuki took that as a rejection. Therefore, he stopped calling Izuku, well... Izuku, anymore. Until of course the last few moments before Shigaraki crushed his heart, and killing Katsuki.

His final thoughts were about Izuku, his final words were also about Izuku. Katsuki has come a long way from bullying to 'admiration/acceptance' While Izuku has continued to admire Katsuki despite the consistent bullying.

"So Izuku... can I... still catch up to you?"

~Bakugou Katsuki, chapter 362.

This is just my thoughts by the way, I was just merely reading chapter 119 again, and Deku's single sentence just prompted a whole analysis in my mind. It's more of a focus on Katsuki and Izuku's friendship-rivalry than actual bkdk.

The interesting, underutilized thing about the intersection of superheroism and apocalyptic fiction- zombie fiction in particular- is that a core part of the appeal of the superheroic fantasy is that you're simply powerful enough that you don't have to make hard choices or do triage; you can just save everyone. Whereas zombie fiction is basically predicated on so much going wrong at once that saving yourself becomes a stretch goal. A total societal collapse highlights the ways in which the superheroic power fantasy was always kind of quietly dependent on the continued existence of modern society to function- the extent to which a superhero's basic identity is being outsourced to the continued existence of observers, to your continued success at the project of keeping those observers alive so they can continue to agree that you're a superhero. If everyone is going insane and eating each other and you're an indestructible guy who can bench press a car, suddenly that's all you are. Applicable to the scenario at hand, sure. You're in a better position to survive than most. But that's all that you are.

These images from J. Michael Straczynski's Rising Stars gestures in the same direction I was gesturing with that Aquaman post- there's a really interesting archetype in superpower fiction consisting of characters who "Step Outside" in the way described here. Superhumans who remove themselves from society- not in a "kneel before me" way, but simply out of recognizing that participating in society in a conventional manner offers them significantly less than it does an average person (though not nothing- insert that MP100 monologue about "can you make a soda can.") Libertarians who fuck off to the moon and carve a Gadsen snake visible from earth, that kind of guy.

Invincible featured the title character gradually sliding into something adjacent to this as he realized that he was just sort of going through the motions by attending college and so on, when his girlfriend can wish a house into existence and the Cecil throws money at him to do stuff he'd do for free. The entire main cast of The Power Fantasy is doing something like this- you're most likely in no danger if you see one of the Superpowers walking down the street but most of them probably haven't paid for a meal in years (unless they insist on paying, which wraps back around to having the same dynamic as not paying.) Superman yo-yos on the topic of how accountable he makes himself to human governments, but I strongly doubt he got a permit for that fuckoff-huge fortress in the arctic. And so on. Obviously not all superhumans can get away with this- Spider-Man is held back from becoming a full-time bank robber by way more than just his conscience. But whether they could get away with this is a great characterization question to ask of any superhuman, and it's a door you can't really close once it's open- any decision they do make from that point forward will be implicitly contrasted against their everpresent option to just Hit Da Bricks.

So there’s a question that Worm asks, and answers, again and again. And the question is, “If a person does something sufficiently bad, if they are a bad enough person, does it become okay to do bad things to them?” And again and again, the answer to that question is no.

Glory Girl flattening the Nazi is a pointed example of this; she breaks an irredeemable scumbag’s back, and no tears or shed, but the narrative is really pointed about the fact that she shouldn’t have, that the power disparity made it totally unnecessary, and she clearly knows that too. And later, when the karma wheel comes back around, what happens to Glory Girl is patently in excess of anything bad she ever did as a dumb, angry teen.

Regent enslaves people! But he exclusively (on-screen) enslaves gangsters, serial killers, and bullies who use their power to hurt those weaker than them. This appears to be an actual line in the sand he drew for himself; he’s outsourcing his morality to common ideas of cathartic vengeance. But when he systematically disassembles Sophia’s life for what she did to Taylor, it’s framed as horrifying.

Armsmaster throws Kaiser, a wealthy Neo-Nazi gang leader, to the wolves, and Kaiser gets torn in half. He had it coming and it’s still treated as a massive ethical breach that Armsmaster did this. 

Moord Nag suffers a breakdown during the tail end of Gold Morning, and it’s treated as an example of how Taylor’s gone too far- forget the fact she built an empire on literal human sacrifice, nothing justifies what’s being done to her.

I think, or I have this theory, that about 40 percent of worm discourse is rooted in the fact that people have very, very different intuitions about the correct answer to the above question.

Because I’ve seen people criticize the writing and ethics of Worm on the basis that the dumpster Nazi deserved it, and that the framing is overly sympathetic to Nazis for having that be how Glory Girl abuses her power. From the opposite direction, I’ve seen people- fuck that, it’s been ten years, we’ve all seen people saying that Vicky, in turn, had the wretchening coming because she’s a junior cop. I see people cheerleading Regent because they do, in fact, think Sophia had it coming; I see people criticizing the race and gender politics of the book because they think the author thinks Sophia had it coming. Armsmaster feeding Kaiser to Leviathan? I’ve seen people criticize how that’s treated as an ethical breach alongside all the other stuff he did during the Endbringer attack, that it’s overly sympathetic to Nazis. 

And, you know, I don’t think it’s necessarily wrong, per se, to hold many of these opinions. Vengeful Bloodlust is kind of foundational to my personality so I do very much get it. But so often this gets painted as “bad writing” or “plot holes!” 

 No! No it isn’t! You just disagree! You’ve got a different ethical framework than the one presented by the book and you disagree with the conclusions it draws! 

Hated it at the time, but I can't understate how much I've come to like the reveal that Brian died on the oil rig. The protagonist's love interest-turned-ex died off-screen due to her decision making, and while she's recovering from getting literally blown in half by the same thing that killed him everyone decides that they're just Not Gonna Tell Her What Happened to her romantic lead, they're gonna tell her almost literally that he fucked off to a farm upstate. And she believes it, and hinges her last scraps of psychological stability on it during the endgame, and then either dies or escapes the narrative still believing it, possibly forcing herself to believe it. I think there are very few works playing in the same space as Worm that would have the balls to treat the quote-unquote "lead pairing" this way.

Ever think about how Scion’s defeat matched the Chicago Ward’s modus operandi during the time skip? In both cases direct force was not an option, in Scion’s case because it was either ineffective or could be easily avoided and in the Chicago Ward’s case because it was forbidden, and both had the same answer: to apply relentless psychological torture until the enemy literally gives up.

It’s honestly embarrassing that Taylor didn’t come with the idea to do this against Scion considering it was most of what she was doing during the previous two years

Cauldron’s funny in this regard, first because all of its members can fit in a minivan and because literally 90% of their capacity relies on Contessa; when she has to fake her death and can’t intervene Cauldron stops existing within a handful of hours.

And their plan is also based on the bus factor; they let the apocalypse happen early because every 2-3 months a bus crashes and every bus maybe contains the person who can kill Scion. And they are vindicated in this; Foil, Tattletale and Weaver all could have died in any of the 8+ Endbringer fights they went to, and very likely would have eventually died in one of the dozens they would have gone through if Cauldron stopped Jack from setting off Scion

This discussion of superhero logistics reminds me of an element of Worm's background worldbuilding that I've always found really interesting, which is that the heroes are running out of teleporters. They had a cloak-style mass teleporter, Strider, who was apparently indispensable for troop deployment at Endbringer fights, but he didn't get the hell out of dodge in time so by the Behemoth fight they mention having to seriously kludge other not-as-good powers to get everyone on-site on time. No one dies forever in comics so the question of "what are the risks of one guy's powers becoming indispensable to our organization" isn't as salient, but here goes Worm, gesturing at the idea that you might just get super fucking unlucky because you became organizationally dependent on a couple golden gooses who you inexplicably keep bringing to live fire situations. If they weren't hard to replace, they wouldn't exactly be superheroes, would they?

This discussion of superhero logistics reminds me of an element of Worm's background worldbuilding that I've always found really interesting, which is that the heroes are running out of teleporters. They had a cloak-style mass teleporter, Strider, who was apparently indispensable for troop deployment at Endbringer fights, but he didn't get the hell out of dodge in time so by the Behemoth fight they mention having to seriously kludge other not-as-good powers to get everyone on-site on time. No one dies forever in comics so the question of "what are the risks of one guy's powers becoming indispensable to our organization" isn't as salient, but here goes Worm, gesturing at the idea that you might just get super fucking unlucky because you became organizationally dependent on a couple golden gooses who you inexplicably keep bringing to live fire situations. If they weren't hard to replace, they wouldn't exactly be superheroes, would they?

i really like how worm commits to making superpowered characters weird. i think in most superhero media, superpowered characters are largely distinct, normal individuals with powers tacked on like tools they can use. but in worm, having a power kind of inherently puts you to the left of being entirely human. in worm, the lines between the power and the person are blurred, both literally in terms of how shards work & in terms of how powers present themselves. you can’t have a power without it altering your relationship to your mind and body.

and the “relationship to your body” bit applies to almost all capes, not just the ones who have been physically altered by their powers! whenever the experience of having a (not physically altering) power is described, it‘s phrased as being some sort of additional sense or sensation in a way that is still inextricably connected to the cape’s physical self. imp’s power isn’t just “okay, i’m invisible now,” it’s “i can physically feel my power rolling over my skin and jabbing out into the air to push memories of me away.” 

the other examples i specifically have in mind here are skitter and regent. skitter’s power isn’t just “move the bugs and make them bite people,” they’re effectively a part of her. like additional limbs. she keeps functioning in fights when her human body is knocked the fuck out on the ground because the rest of her body–a million other little bodies–is still there to work with. the fact that she has millions of extra eyeballs at any given moment means it’s not actually so bad when the two of them that happen to be physically connected to her human body are blinded, which results in my favorite Worm Out Of Context ever:

and regent has one of my favorite subtle, uncanny examples of a power that seems like it shouldn’t alter the power-haver’s connection to their own body, but does anyway. in alec’s interlude, while he’s puppeting sophia, there’s a point where the undersiders get far away enough from her that it makes it more difficult for him to control her. he starts struggling to coordinate her movements.

the uncanny part is that he starts struggling to control his own body’s movements, as well. he puts his alec-self’s earbuds in so that he doesn’t have to talk to anyone, because he knows that if he did speak, he’d start stuttering and slurring his words from loss of physical control. sure, his alec-self is the body he’ll end up in when he’s done using his power, and his sophia-self was taken by force, so there’s obviously a distinction between the two, but that doesn’t make his alec-self easier to control. his power implicitly calls the separation between himself and the people he’s puppeting into question. he doesn’t get to have a “main” body he can control without effort, he has to divide his attention between each body and put concentration into moving each of them. in that way, his own body is placed in the same category as the bodies he’s hijacked. it’s Weird!

if worm happens after wildbow develops ward/weaverdice power sensibilities she never meets the undersiders. lung doesn't hear her stepping onto the gravel roof because his trigger only has like light thinker notes tbh. and he's already a brute/changer, blaster with mover notes, that's already a lot, we should trim down, we should trim this down. Really drive at the cocaine elements of his trigger