Have You Ever Noticed How Much We Use Signal Degradation As A Shorthand For Existential “wrongness”?

reason no. 264 why sans is smart af

Yoooooo okay I realized something. So we know that shopkeepers can’t be attacked. It isn’t a game function; it’s literally not possible. 

When you threaten Gerson, you get:

Shopkeepers/NPCs that sell items are invulnerable to attack due to an in-universe rule that you can’t initiate a fight with anyone who is actively selling something. I say actively because technically you have the option to sell items all the time at different shops (although not every shopkeeper will agree to buy), but monsters will still attack you and bosses can still pull you into a fight. If you’re smart, like Gerson, you can use this weird mechanic to keep yourself safe and alive. You can avoid hostile encounters, and thus damage/death, by becoming a peddler. 

And who do we know in this game that a) has dangerously low HP, b) keeps a tight lid on powers that could otherwise be used to protect themselves, and c) is constantly found selling things?

Sans is literally keeping himself alive by selling random stuff.

An emotional first reaction to Arcane's finale

With an accent on Silco's arc...

*Wipes tears away*

Anyway. When was the last time you sat down to a tv show that punched this hard and respected its villain this deeply? Silco is by far the most interesting character, and he carries the show on his scrawny shoulders.

Compelling if mysterious backstory, overcomes his demons and his traitorous brother in one fell swoop as he gains power. Silco's a zealot who dreams big for everyone. And yet in the end he finally understands why Vander did what he did. Finally has an emotional tie on a personal level that means more to him than the Nation Of Zaun, that big all consuming project that's been driving him from the start.

And yet in a completely masterful twist, Vander chosing his daughters over Zaun means the Status Quo, while Silco choosing his daughter over Zaun means War.

He gets everything he ever wanted. He's a villain who uses all ends to reach his goals and actually gets there, and the creative minds behind Arcane had the guts to make it absolutely irrelevant to his death. That is so wild, honestly. His love is his personal downfall (or more likely, the lack of mental health care in the Lanes is his downfall...) but he's never more human and more like Vander than when he dies...

For the creators to chose to NEVER redeem him, and instead just... humanize him to the very end... To let him say his piece and clear out misunderstandings and also to go knowing all his *fucked up* efforts fucking paid off...

*Silco style slow clap*

Fucking bravo.

Turns out Silco wasn't lying, not anymore than any of us do from time to time, even to our loved ones. Turns out that he was really worrying, really caring, and that it was really "just the two of them".

There's plenty wrong with Jinx's arc as a villain in the becoming, the whole "hearing voices makes me unhinged and violent" really isn't palatable.. it's an easy cop-out that puts people with IRL mental illnesses in another toxic limelight.

But there's incredible beauty in her being truly embraced by the villain, for the most wholesome family to really be with him. To be fought for as hard by him, as much as Vander did. Vi doesn't want Jinx. She truly wants "Powder", and even if she probably loves her and probably needs the mental help Vi would desire for her "to change" and "become stable", Jinx's toxic, zealot, asshole second dad loves her exactly as she is. Why the fuck would you not chose that side, being in Jinx's boots?

*chokes up for a minute*

I can't clap my hands hard enough to applaud the team behind Arcane (so I'll use them to write fanfic instead)

How did they manage to break the curse of video game adaptation?

Well, I think it helps that the studio itself retained absolute creative control. For once it's not a film industry giant buying rights and trying to do it's usual "adaptation" cash grab wringer. It's a studio getting another studio to work their (insane) magic and produce the best 9 episodes cinematic we've ever seen.

The vision was theirs, the story was uncompromising and unflinching.

I am not surprised the writing punches this hard. Video game writers know what the fuck they're doing, because they create immersive worlds and storyline in which the players/viewer is directly active. I mean look at other hard gut punches out there like God of War, Wticher 3 or even Jackie's arc in Cyberpunk.

But for them to stick to their guns to the very end... To give us characters this compelling instead of following the cliche route... For them not to betray us, the way so many other storylines do by trying something bold for a hot minute before falling back on tried and true cliches like deflating souflés...

Guys, I'm sorry but even Disney doesn't clap this hard. Arcane came on to the scene and swatted everyone aside. The visuals, the animation style, the music, the cast of character all painted in deep shades of grey, the riveting plot with its series of mirrored pairs going through the same divisive process... Arcane is the show we've all been begging for, but we were asking for it to the wrong people.

Bravo team. None of y'all will ever see this post, but know you're appreciated. You made me scream and choke up and built a whole new condominium in my skull for Silco to live in rent free. Fuck you and bless you, I love you guys.

Encanto is on Disney+ for Christmas, so here’s another piece of meta that no one asked for but 

As much as I like Bruno, I don’t think he’s actually immune to the whole “trying to do the right thing but causes harm instead” itis that plagues the rest of the family 

Like, to start with, his disappearance after Mirabel’s gift ceremony. He thought he was trying to do the right thing, but he didn’t really stop to think about the emotional and psychological harm that would cause his family. (Even Alma was probably retraumatized IMO, given that her darkest moment was someone she loved disappearing from her.) 

And yes, Pepa has her whole “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” song, but she’s also the first person to run and hug him when he returns and I bet 100% that it’s easier to be pettily mad at Bruno then to be sad all the time (and potentially flood the Encanto.) 

BUT that’s not even the main thing I want to talk about: Instead I’m talking about him fixing the cracks. 

“Wait, why is that a bad thing?” You might be asking. 

Simple: He’s only fixing the symptom, and he’s hiding from the rest of the family the fact that there’s even a problem in the first place. He’s spackling up the cracks so that everyone only sees smooth “perfect”/”strong” walls. No one is aware of the faults, so they operate under the assumption that everything is fine, until the cracks get so big that they can’t be ignored any longer.    

tl;dr A Madrigal takes a course of action that they think is for the best based on their own history of trauma without really acknowledging how it would hurt their family emotionally/psychologically. They then spends their time focusing on covering up the cracks/issues in the Casita/Familia Madrigal allowing it/them to project a facade of strength and perfection without actually unpacking the underlying cause of damage. 

Am I talking about Bruno or Alma? 

tl;tl;dr Bruno takes after his mother 

(editing to add: this is not an Anti-Bruno post or an Anti-Alma post. I left the theater caring for all the members of the family.) 

it feels very star wars, in the best sense, for dooku to fall deeper into the dark side after qui-gon's death because he becomes fixated on blaming the jedi council so that he doesn't have to reckon with the fact his conspiring with sidious played a far more direct role in what happened than whatever mistakes the council made. sidious calls qui-gon a necessary sacrifice for their cause, which upsets dooku, but not as much as the idea that his death was an entirely preventable tragedy that dooku failed to stop... which is why yaddle telling him qui-gon didn't need to die made him snap. because if that's true then dooku is as guilty and corrupt as the senators he despised for ignoring suffering. and he can't bring himself to face that reckoning, not when it's so much easier to just make it another reason the jedi are at fault.

The Pre-Undertale Timeline 

[ View at Full Size ]

A visual compilation of the events before Undertale based on research from @nochocolate​. Special thanks to the mods of NoChocolate for all the help and proofreading! 

Not every event is captured on this timeline, but the main chronological order of events and the rare, specific mentions of dates are included. In order to be as objective as possible, theories and speculation have been omitted. All data has been taken at face value (including possible hyperbole, such as Bratty claiming they’ve been underground for “millennia”).

Source content and in-depth analysis:

[ Undertale takes place in less than a day ] [ How long has Flowey existed? ] [ The Undertale Timeline ] [ Mettaton Added Last Week ]

(Kindly do not delete the comments above.)

Flowey’s trauma metaphor

(CONTENT WARNING: themes about trauma, unreality, emotional numbness and child death)

I said this would be an essay but it really isn’t, it’s just me rambling about Flowey. There is no structure here, it’s a mess, but I hope I at least make my point clear

더 보기

I'm recently into sneville, snuna and the trio( I'll call it snuneville if it doesn't have a name yet)... have no idea what on earth I drew so please don't ask anything …🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️💦💦💦💦

neville and luna look after snape who survived the war while suffered brain injury↓

( just want to see him being disabled and fragile I'm so sorry 😇🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

another book covers

Image description: Digital art in saturated tones of orange, pink, blues, and purples of humanized Hollow Knight characters. Quirrel and the Knight sit on the sandy shores of the Blue Lake. Quirrel smiles, relaxed, with his cheek resting on his hand. He is visibly aged, his face lined and his hair sprinkling with white. The Knight holds their helmet in their hands, expressionless. Both watch the waves of the lake out-of-frame, neither facing the other. End ID.

there is no death

felicia telling irving the only time she ever saw burt scared was when he spent two hours fixing his hair before going to see him,,,,,, irving drawing burt over and over between the times he could see him,,,,,, felicia hugging irving the second she saw him, having lunch with him and telling him stories,,,,,,, irving's getting the "widow that's still loved by the family" treatment by o&d as he rightfully deserved