We’ve all been talking about the willingness of Dan and Phil to perform the ritual, we’ve all been talking about the intimacy of carving out your lover’s heart, but I have not heard anyone talk about the fucked up side of Dan and Phil’s (fictional) relationship with each other, and with Him, so here goes.
On the craft channel, Dan and Phil act overwhelmingly positive, like satanic children’s show hosts, but this is clearly a farce. We see them drop their smiles quite a few times during the crafting- most notably in Glitter Faces when Dan’s craft turns out wrong, and when Phil cuts Dan’s hand. “Don’t cry, craft” is directed towards the audience, but it seems Dan and Phil are following their own advice. Cults, after all, prey on vulnerable people. While they do seem scared of doing the ritual, and their involvement with Him, they are, however, definitely willing. In
The blood on Dan after he kills Phil is interesting; The handprint on his shirt isn’t a sign of a struggle, but rather Phil just grabbing his shirt- that’s pretty intimate, honestly. The blood on his face could’ve been caused by a bunch of things: blood splatter he wiped at? wiping at his face (eyes?) with a bloody hand? or Phil holding his face? (I like the third option) The blood on his nose might totally have been accidental, and just a thing that happened, but it could also be an allusion to the cat whiskers, in the spirit of bringing things back to the beginning and whatnot.
After the ritual is complete, there’s the obvious tarot symbolism. @freckliedan has a great post about this, but I’ve got more to add, so bear with me. Yes, Dan and Phil are framed as the lovers, but that’s not all. While the sexual deviance associated with the devil card has clear connections to queerness, it’s main association is usually unhealthy relationships and dependence. We also see Phil always giving Dan the directions, implying some kind of power unbalance. Applied to Dan and Phil’s (fictional) relationship, we’re told that it’s just not as healthy as their real relationship. These characters, while obviously in love and super devoted to each other, are not in a healthy relationship.
Furthering the unhealthy relationship idea is when Phil calls Dan “Sampson”. In the Bible or whatever (I’m not Christian sue me) Sampson topples these pillars, killing both himself and his enemies, which has a clear parallel to Dan’s stacked ingredients falling over, but the use of “folly” is interesting, and suggests a further connection. Sampson had married a prostitute, and she sold him out, basically, leading to his enslavement and later death. In this story, this is the clearest and most obvious act of folly by Sampson: marrying someone who he shouldn’t have, someone who it was taboo for him to be with. Connected to Dan and Phil, it suggests that their relationship is dangerous due to the social taboo, but it’s also implied that Phil will betray Dan.
Speaking of unhealthy relationships, that’s sure what they’ve got with Him! Leading up to the ritual, Dan and Phil are shown to be scared of Him, even though they call Him their friend. Dan’s head shake when Phil says “crafting has improved my life in numerous ways” is very telling. At the end, Dan’s shoulders tense at His first footstep, however, when He actually touches Dan, he doesn’t seem scared at all- forgive me for this next point, but from the way he kinda leans into the touch and tilts his head back, it seems more like he’s going for “turned on” rather than “scared”.
“Okay, cool” you say, “but what does it mean?” Well, Dan and Phil’s relationship in this series is not just about homoerotic undertones- this is an allegory for toxic queer sexual relationships. Why would they make something about toxic relationships when they’re in a healthy relationship? With the toxicity, and the power imbalances, and the satanism, Dan and Phil’s (fictional) relationship is a representation of Christian fears of queerness, and the supposed immoral/corrupting/anti-Christian effects of being in a queer relationship. The fear Dan and Phil show throughout the series is representative of internalized homophobia. They’re scared to align themselves with Him because it means accepting their own queerness. Dan shows more fear than Phil throughout the series (like after his glitter face turns out to be a pentacle) which parallels his real world internalized homophobia that he’s experienced. By holding hands with the devil (or baphomet?) standing behind them, Dan and Phil have embodied every conservative fear about queerness, but have come out on top. Through their YouTube channel, we get to do the same.
The new upcoming pixar movie /j
clawing at the walls gnawing at my enclosure bars i need to be a boy in the way that chigiri is a boy please please please pl
aikusen x wish you were sober by conan gray send tweet
When the only crimes you committed to end your career before it even started were you being a team player who genuinely loved your teammates and being a good guy and ran after a flight risk ,who dove headfirst into what normal people would assumed was a trap straight out of a horror movie, to make sure he was okay.
guys the biggest letdown in blue lock is the fact that kira got killed off (he is not dead he's just gone and I'm mourning)
LIKE THATS THE POTENTIAL MAN OF BLUE LOCK FR. HES OUR MEGUMI
I actually miss him so much he was such a cutie
honestly I'm calling it right now once the NEL finishes and they go to the U-20 world cup, they're gonna play against a country like portugal or argentina and kira is gonna be on that team seeking revenge for what isagi did to him (its literally not even his fault)
MARK MY WORDS THIS WILL HAPPEN. I USED MY META VISION TO FORSEE THE FUTURE OF THIS MANGA, AND THIS IS WHAT I'VE CONCLUDED
this makes sm sense in my head like why else would they kill off what could have been a main character. and since I'm pretty sure the whole not being able to play for the national team is strictly limited to Japan, kira may have got an offer from a really good club and could just have been training ever since and we would never know bc there's no exposure to media in blue lock.
he's so pretty I might cry
so ive been playing a lot of baldur's gate 3 recently and after i finish my current playthrough im gonna do a dark urge run but have my tav be Matt Motherfucking Engarde. and I do actually have strong opinions about his class.
wild magic sorcerer . ! because he's definitely a charisma based class and I like to think about how his life might have been affected by the chaos that only wild magic can induce. And I've thought about maybe warlock before but I think it's very important for Matt to be like. The source of his own power, y'know? In line with his acting talent being the thing that got him where he was, like, he was a Child and he was working his ass off, it was not the result of some deity/being of some kind like "hey want some power??"
~~more under the cut~~
Maybe there's something with his backstory like . Something really terrible happens, maybe due to a wild magic effect (scar related? possibly? like that's how he gets his eye scar??) and he swears off using magic for a while but misses the feeling of being able to do great things and in this period of confusion is when he gets approached by some devil (he would be pact of the fiend, fight me) of some kind like "I heard you've been wanting power again?" and that's the kick in the ass that Matt needs to have this resurgence of faith in himself and his natural ability.
He's a performer/entertainer but I don't think he's bard coded y'know? Especially in fantasy land. And Paladin is the only other charisma class and um. No . That's just not him. I could see him maybe taking a few levels in rogue for sneak attack and cunning action type stuff but at his heart he's a magic user, it's intrinsically tied to who he is.
I also think he's either a human or a half-elf (high elf, sun flavor).
2023's new handmade tree ornament is to celebrate the important holiday of Almost Christmas
Raichi would be so pretty if he just stopped trying to look like a gremlin every waking moment.
Like look at this pretty bitch,
please teach me your eyeliner ways
Oh, and then there's,
Such a ✨PRINCESS✨
But no:) He wakes up every morning and decides to,
And my personal favourite,
Raichi, bro, are you okay?? Velociraptor looking fucking headass
please don't ever change i still love you
Just wanna say thank you for your Juangarde content (as a starving Juangarde fan and as a Juan fan in general haha) and for the fact that you realized how bad Inpax and her relationship with Juan and Matt is. I’m just tired of people viewing her as entirely angelic and all
These two are also kinda my comfort ship too so, even a mention of them is cool to me and your posts did exactly that, thank you again lol
Oh my god stop I'm literally gonna cry (/pos) over this— Believe me anon I am also starving over content for these two so I decided to Be A Chef and make my own food lmao!!
And yes yes yes oh yes I will be the first person to shout from the rooftops how absolutely horrid of a person Inpax was. Between the age gap and the power dynamic???? No wonder these two boys were kinda crappy lovers at times, they were TEENAGERS. KIDS. what are you as their adult supervisor doing dating and getting engaged to them!!!!!!!!!!! i hate her so much . and omg if juangarde is your comfort ship pls pls let me give you some headcanons of them i think are really cute, I'd love for someone else to hear the machinations of my mind—
Matt has a few pet names for him. Yes he’s the type to use ‘dude’ and ‘bro’ romantically, but he’s also disgustingly romantic once he’s done some healing, and he’ll use the corny shit like ‘mon ange’ and ‘mon musique’.
When they were younger, pre-Inpax, so like 11-12, they were never able to dance together at award show afterparties because that wouldn't align with their (fabricated!!!) rivalry, so they have to wait until they’re back in one of their hotel rooms (Matt comes to his more often, since it’s not like he’s got parents looking after him) to get time to themselves. They get their time to dance together in the late hours of the night, candles and the city skyline surrounding them, music playing from one of their phones.
Juan sings to Matt when he’s having bad nights (be it his road to recovery/sobriety or Inpax related trauma) because nothing can calm him down like his nightingale.
Matt names all his animals by picking them up and holding them like an inch away from his face and just saying the first thing that pops into his mind. His first cat was Armchair, of course we have Shoe, and then when he names a cat Vacuum and Juan sees this ritual for the first time, he goes "You are not gonna get to name our kids if this is your method, I don't want a kid named Jukebox or some shit—" (shoutout to my bestie for that Juan dialogue) and then Matt almost drops the animal out of shock, looks at Juan with the biggest widest puppy dog eyes, and just "Did...you say 'our kids'...?"
Anyway I literally love these two so so so much and I want to keep pumping out content for them I've got a hurt/comfort type thing on the way that's pre-2–4 and I'm working on a long-form multichaptered fix-it fic that will be canon divergent!!!! And of course more posting here whenever the boys invade my brain and I have a Thought
21, he/him || matt engarde enthusiast || hq atz bllk aa || cosmicallylyss/serpentcorelyss on ao3
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