Okay, I gotta dig out my Society of Tinfoil Hattery credentials from the junk drawer for this one piece business, so strap in and get ready for some flow of conscious yapping.
And just to be clear: ELBAF SPOILERS
Okay. So the triptych(?) mural. I’m gonna be very insufferable about the mural because that feels like THE center point of this arc. Not so much the poems, because as far as I know, the translations are still unofficial and I can give my thoughts on them then.
Okay, so, the first third. The “First World”
We see people- we can assume slaves- coming out of complexes with machinery beneath and steam billowing from above. Is this a refinery? A power plant? A reactor, maybe?
We see these people go down deep, and come back up carrying something starlike that they bring to a crowned figure on top of the hill. Ore? Precious stones and metals? Some sort of fuel source? It looks the same as the stars depicted, so… nuclear energy?
We also see beneath the ground- perhaps hidden?- a winged figure (sky islander?), next to a very large ship with animals trailing towards it (Noah??) pointing skyward (to the moon???).
Above the crowned figure at the top of the hill, we see a ship in the sky sending a lightning bolt to the feet of the crowned figure and towards the roots of the tree centerpiece (Uranus? Something like the Ark Maxim and Enel?)
And the central piece to the first world portion of the mural… this “Serpent of Hell” coming up from beneath the earth where the slaves are going down into getting into a conflict with the bird-like creature at the top of the second world’s tree (Nidhogg and Hraesvelgr imagery? Who would be the Ratatoskr of that?). It seems from the fire the two are spitting at each other, that the whole world has become enveloped in war and- if the bit about the Earth God becoming enraged is translated correctly- rendering it uninhabitable (the reason why the sky islander is taking the animals to Noah? The reason why the sky islanders went to the moon to begin with? Was the land irradiated?)
This one is the most dicey for me, but bear with me.
The Second World is a tree with the Hraesvelgr-esque figure perched at the top, warring with the Nidhogg-esque figure going down into the earth beneath the roots. We might assume, though I’m not exactly certain about it, that this tree could be symbolic of this eight hundred year reign of the world government? Its branches don’t stick out very far from the trunk, so this could just be to keep the image from being cluttered, just something that wasn’t thought about, or because the tree is giving shade to only a select few.
This Hraesvelgr looking beast seems to have won the conflict with the Nidhogg one. So the Nidhogg beast might have been symbolic of a rebellion coming up from where the slaves toiled away? (The x marks on the serpent’s sides do make me think of a certain tattooed someone with a certain ophidic moniker with certain unsavory opinions on the Celestial Dragons…)
And then we see the last portion of the triptych. Nika leading the charge with an army at his back against a winged demon holding the sun.
I see Nika and Imu (or maybe even Teach…) depictions here, obviously. I see a whale with two people on it’s back (Laboon, Crocus, and that one dude who was drinking with him that one cover art (that might be the man marked by flames))? I see a Lunarian (King and/or the Seraphim?). I see Emmet. I see Dogstorm and Catviper. I see Shirahoshi and the Megalodon. I see Leo. I see Loki! We see several ships, too! All of these people fighting against one big demon and one tiny ship with just a handful of people. The world has turned on the powerful few.
In conclusion… I think this is a sort of history-prophecy thing like with Alduin’s Wall in Skyrim. These aren’t “worlds” per se, but Ages. It just gives that illusion because it feels like how humanity speaks of bygone eras as totally different worlds. I think this is the Void Century, Imu’s reign (specifically Imu, because clearly something or someone was calling the shots before them. Perhaps the Nerona were ruling? And Imu formed the alliance of the 20 Kingdoms when the Nerona family was being threatened by this “Serpent of Hell”? Maybe Imu was the only survivor of their line and refused to let go of their power?), and Imu’s downfall respectively.
I… really don’t think Nika brings the end of the world. I think he just brings in a new Age.
I’m going to go on my “Imu is an eternal child” soap box when I say that I think Imu is embodying a sort of foil to Nika (a moon god/dess mythical zoan, maybe?). Both Nika and Imu seem… childish to me. Nika is all the positive things we associate with childhood. Play and laughter and imagination. While Imu… Imu is all the negatives. Selfishness and moodiness and “I’ll break my toy so I don’t have to share it” mentality. You get what I’m saying?
Again, this is by no means a comprehensive thing. This purely just me spitballing things.
Thoughts are absolutely welcome.
I wanna thank Warner Brothers for laying down the facts that Bugs likes being the damsel, and Daffy likes being the hero. Like bro wtf. Y’all doing my shipping work for me fr
canonically Bugs likes the feeling of being rescued, he likes the drama and attention he’d get from both his hero and villain. The sense of helplessness that’s associated with the title? nah, Bugs doesn’t let it get to him. he uses that to his advantage. Plus he’s a natural flirt so narratively he’s allowed to engage in banter and ogle as much as he wants.
Daffy loves being a hero: the high he gets from adventure, the swelling sense of pride at the thought of being admirable, taking control of his own destiny. He’s a possessive, greedy lil dude so of course he’d leap at the chance to rescue a damsel (probably laughing crazily as he makes a great escape “ha! this damsel’s mine! all mine!”)
ANOTHER reason these two fit like a glove. like I’m at a loss for words, thank you for this knowledge Warner Brothers.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAP!!!
I hope you have an amazing birthday!!
@thisanimatedphantom
@theinkymystery
I found a one shot of Luffy with braids and I absolutely adore the concept, especially when it was described of him having the beads of his crew (I think??) within the braids that circles his head like a crown. I thought it was adorable. It’s A Story in Braids on AO3 by @islenthatur if you haven’t read it go read it ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ
Raws: strcysouls-archive (tumblr) Translation: @ce-la Typesetting: @awkwardbsd
Dazai doing what he does best – bothering Chuuya!
OK correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel like the main 'yin/yang' parallel with Atsushi and Akutagawa is not something like 'this one is bad but secretly has a good side and this one is good but secretly has a bad side'.
I feel like it's more about 'who they are at their core vs who they choose to be'.
At his core Akutagawa is kind and at his core Atsushi is not. But despite this Atsushi tries every day to make the kinder choices and I love him so much for it. He has to work so hard to be good.
He wants to be a bitch SO bad I know he does but he tries his best to help people and be nice (sometimes he fails but that's OK <3)
Atsushi doesn't always WANT to help people, a lot of the time he's selfish and scared, but he does help people anyway. He keeps helping people over and over again. There's still some selfish motivation to it, and his initial motivation for helping people was because the headmaster told him that's all he was worth, but overall he does care about the people he helps and it weighs on him if he fails to save them. And of course, as the series goes on he starts helping people more because he can rather than because he feels like he needs to.
In Akutagawa's case, he's still capable of being kind but his environment led him into being someone who chooses to hurt people. But he's always been a protector at heart. In the start he was bad compared to Atsushi because he was choosing to hurt people and keep the cycle of abuse going. Just like how Atsushi developed in why he saved people, Akutagawa starts to get redeemed when he chooses to not just act on his rage. Not only does he start to spare people, but he speaks more kindly to them (apologising to Higuchi and telling Kyouka he's proud of her). It all culminates into the moment he chooses to help Atsushi and sacrifice himself for him, going back to his core value of being a protector. Even when he's finally revived, he keeps this role in his new position as Aya's Knight.
I kind of see the streaks of white in Akutagawa and the streaks of black in Atsushi not as their 'hidden sides' but as their fundamental selfs. That's who they are at their core, and their main colours (black for Akutagawa and white for Atsushi) are how they're presented to everyone else and how they try to have people see them as.
gomu gomu of your eye
Kinda criminal that he has a transformation power-up that color coordinates any outfit as a side effect, and the anime just… keeps him in bleached jorts.
Deepest Darkest secret :3
I still watch those gacha reaction videos. Every time I join a new fandom my first instinct is to look at those gacha reaction vids. I love them sm guysss.
"At your big age?" Yes
"In 2024?" Y E S... YES YES YES YES.
Canola is way too good at her job, Poor Felix.
This is a theiry my brain has cultivated since watching the 4th episode, since it is a theory, don't take anything I'm saying as fact. it's purely speculation for now.
also apologies in advance, but this will be a wall of text, that is to say, a long post.
So, Each character in the Digital circus seems to have a gimmick of some kind. Ragatha gets hurt by the environment often, Gangle's got her breaking comedy mask, Zooble has their ever-changing parts, Pomni seems to have an existential crisis every episode, and Kinger has his fluctuating lucidity. But what about Jax?
well, in episodes 3 and 4, Jax either didn't get a lot of screen time, or didn't take many opportunities to cause mischief. Hell, in episode 3, Jax vacuumed up ghostly only because that's what he thought he was supposed to do for the adventure. after that Jax didn't get to do much on account of being tied up.
In episode 4, as far as mischief goes he just throws Ragatha in the deep fryer. but before that happens, I think we see the first glimpse of Jax's gimmick. it happens in the first minute of the episode, where Ragatha was helping Gangle learn to throw a baseball. Jax honestly seemed to just want to play a game in the moment, yet when Gangle threw the ball, and he hit it, the ball hit her right in the face. Jax might not have looked apologetic in the moment, but he did seem confused. and when Ragatha went to scold him about it (assuming he did it on purpose), he says "I actually didn't mean to do that".
This is interesting to me because in every other episode, Jax has done something to cause mischief. and said mischief usually involved someone getting hurt, thrown around, or having something of theirs broken.
Here's the thing, I think that Jax deliberately causes this mischief on purpose, because his character gimmick is causing harm to others. maybe when he first arrived in the digital world, he had tried to be nice, maybe even helpful, but those efforts would backfire in a wacky way, ultimately resulting in something or someone getting hurt. in other words, he'd accidentally do something that harmed someone or something important to someone.
I think at first he felt bad about it, accidentally causing harm to others. but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to go a day without hurting someone. and the harder he tried to avoid it, the more others would get hurt. So Jax, seeing the pattern, decided to embrace it. He started deliberately causing mischief, and found that if it wasn't an accident on his part, then he would have a level of control over how much pain he causes. like if he feels he has to cause chaos, at least he can control it to a degree.
over time, I think Jax started to find humor in others misfortune. and it sorta turned into a coping mechanism for the gimmick of constantly having to cause someone else misfortune.