A Lovely Silver Mounted Kris Of The Maguindanao, Philippines, Ca. 18th-19th Century, Housed At The Metropolitan

gods the soft LongJun moments in S2 E5 is just… good shit good shit

the best thing about Trese is how it very carefully treads the fine line between urban fantasy, tropical gothic, and magical realism and how that specific brand of horror perfectly captures Manila's vibe because? honestly?

Manila really is Just Like That.

i go to Plaza Miranda and within seconds i will find a practicing mangkukulam selling cheap toys, tarot card readings, underwear, and curses all from the same stall in front of Quiapo Church. i have bought a curse off one of them once. i still have it in my bedside drawer because i chickened out last minute and never used it but now i'm too scared to get rid of it.

i walk through the informal settlers/squatter areas near my home and hear whispers of people dying in their sleep-- and it's almost always because of either two things: the police shot them in the night or because they brought something back with them from the province.

people disappear a lot. sometimes, they never find them again. sometimes, you only find parts of them. you're sure it's probably the work of a human but. you're never actually sure.

there are balete trees where you least expect them. there's one by one of the back roads leading to my office building and nobody wants to take it down because there's something living in it. same goes for the great sampalok tree in front of our office building. but they park their cars right next to them, paying a simple bow and "tabi, tabi po" as a parking fee. i try not to look at both trees when i pass by in the evenings on my commute home.

just last week my aunt called to casually tell me that they had their house blessed AGAIN because their maid had accidentally angered something the last time she visited her province of Nueva Ecija and everybody in the whole family has been waking up with scratches and bruises on their arms ever since. they had the house blessed by an abularyo this time because the first blessing from a catholic priest didn't work.

actually, my whole family on my grandmother's side is sensitive to this shit-- which explains the nonchalance, tbh. this isn't their first paranormal rodeo.

i know there is a branch of literary theory that studies why the development of magical realism, tropical gothic, and urban fantasy in fiction is largely credited to the global south (i.e. latin america, mainland asia, and south east asia), but fucking living in this bizarre city really drives it the fuck home.

there's at least two fucking balete trees near Manila's town hall. a building that is, by the way, shaped like a fucking coffin. i cannot make this up. it's so on-the-nose, it's like actual literary imagery right out of a magical realist/tropical gothic short horror story. and it's REAL.

and it's just normal here.

philippine myth creatures gothic

they talk of creatures lurking in the night, always reminding you of their ways whenever you do something bad. using your fear as a way for you to obey them.

they talk of the tiyanak, and how they attract travelers by imitating a baby cry and then attack the victim. you walk home late one night from school, you hear the baby crying, not so distant. you stop for a second, the hairs on your arms rising, a shiver running down your spine. you resume walking. you don’t turn back.

you remember the tikbalang one time you got lost with your friends. you drive and drive but you keep returning to that tree with the branches that look like arms and it feels eerie. you had your stereo on full volume and you turn it down. you tell your friends to keep quiet and to turn their shirts inside out. you keep driving and this time you get out. but it’s been five hours when it felt like five minutes.

you think of the manananggal when your mom gets pregnant. you think of it flying to your house and using its long proboscis-like tongue to suck out the heart and blood of your would-be sibling. you think of its severed torso, the upper doing the job while the lower just stands there. you sit up every night waiting for it. you don’t get much sleep, too scared to sleep in case it comes.

you wait for your friend one time. you hear, ek ek ek. it seemed very far so you don’t pay much attention to it. you tell your friend this and they say it was probably an ekek, similar to the manananggal. your friend also says that they fool people into thinking they were far when they were actually very close.

your mom tells you that your maid’s mother is an aswang, a vampire-like witch ghoul. your maid is probably one too. you remember what happened to your neighbor, how he didn’t seem like himself and then he became sick and died. you hear people saying it was your maid and that it was the way of the aswangs to replace their victims with doppelgangers only to become sick and die. you’ve been very nice to you maid ever since. you don’t know who’s real, you don’t know who’s a doppelganger.

these are some of the creatures you’ve been afraid of your whole life. they tell you to let go of it. they tell you it’s not real. but you can’t, you can’t, you can’t.

Tarot Gen Cards - A conspiracy theory and Hcs

Well, I was re-re-re-reading some chapters of manga (I can't help it, sorry) and I'd noticed one thing about Gen' cards.

But first, when and who made one of the most powerful trick of this cute mentalist?

Let's start straight (or not, in this case?).

↘️⬇️↙️

In chapter 70, paper (and the possibility to make sheets to draw and write on them) is acquired by the Science team. So I don't think Gen' cards already existed before this chapter because they made by paper with a touch of plastic (I supposed because the paper it was more easy to draw something on but only paper isn't enough).

In chapter 82, Gen remembered Senkuu' words about the entertainment (so like his own magic show) and how they will come back. I wanted to include it because from chapters 70-81, Senkuu and all of them in general had zero (0) chills to make something of frivolous like cards. So when Gen' cards could be made? Maybe after this chapter?

In chapter 84, finally we could see one of the cards: the Joker + Gen explained one of his psychological tricks.

Had you noticed? The Joker had a sort of title.

Uncertainty Principle.

It wasn't a psychological or magical concept but a scientific one. The Uncertainty Principle was also known as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. Google-chan was trying to explain to me what it was but it wasn't important for this post, so let's forget about what it was but not that it was a scientific concept.

Also the double faced joker here had the same scar of Gen.

Cute.

🌻

In chapter 88, we could more of his cards. On the cards were written Tarot Gen Card (and they hadn't the pattern motive that they had in few chapters before).

At first I thought that there was something strange but Wikipedia-chan explained that even cards like these that Gen used could be called like this. For Tarot Cards I did mean another type...

Btw, in this chapter we also saw another card. 3 of hearts that had a title as well.

Theory of Evolution.

This one is an another scientific concept like that for the joker's card. It's a reference to theory of evolution made by Charles Darwin, of course.

So here we go with my theories:

1) Gen made these cards by himself

I mean, he needed them and finally he had all materials to use. Tarot Gen Cards are useful for good (little show that he could make as it was shown in a small photo in this panel from chapter 99)

or "evil" magic tricks (when it was to make his and Senkuu's interests went well). This could be valid because on cards there was Gen's name (normally on something made by Senkuu there was always his name).

2) Gen asked to Senkuu to make these cards

Gen was very lazy. He needed cards and he asked them to Senkuu for the same reasons that I'd said above. Also Senkuu maybe could draw (we didn't know nothing about Gen's other skills) or they asked to the little child from the Village to draw a few illustrations on cards lol

3) Senkuu made them for Gen as a gift (after all, Gen has made for him the telescope)

Yes, same reasons above but there was more. Senkuu didn't express his feelings and he preferred to do something concrete for who he loved and cared about. So he made cards with Gen's name but call them with scientific concepts also to teached them to Gen.

The scene that I've pictured in my mind is like this:

"A mentalist like you have to have cards with him... So here we go. Use them for Science Kingdom's Sake."

"Have you given to me a present, Senkuu-chan~? For what? I'm not complaining."

"It's not a present, it's for your mentalist job. Use them for tricking who wants to trick us."

"Wait... Why has every card a different scientific principle on it?"

"Because you can study them now."

"Have I to study here too? Tewwible!"

And I've done, let me know what do you think, if you mind or if you want me to focus on something else about SenGen or Dr. Stone story 🃏

Forgot to put this up here oops.

Anyway, a manananggal for mythsona! 

beside you is the safest place 😴

Kulay ng lupa at mga biyaya nito

instagram.com/Ililikhaanceramics

I think we should separate the two salute in 132 and 139. This is totally two different things.

The salute in 139 is a whole SC thing, (we still have Hange in the centre and she was the only one who has a different facial expression) Anyway it is hard to tell Hange was stand out from the other (we know it is kinda focus on her). Also “are you guys watching” thing, I think it is more refer to Hange in 132 “do you think our comrades are watching us?” And Levi in 136 “the hearts you guys dedicated”

It’s give me a strong SC vibe (with low-key Levihan). Levi saluted to them and they saluted back means the duty of SC is done, and Levi gave the meaning to all his comrade.

I would be mad if we only get this. But no, the Levihan is in the FINAL panel of levi.

The shinzouwosasageyo in 132 was definitely an ONLY Levihan thing, because if it was a normal salute, Isayama would just concluded in the SC scene. (Maybe will let Levi mentioned Hange in that scene). So other than a normal salute, it’s more like Levi confessed his feeling to Hange with the salute, and only Hange can understand it.

Therefore we can exclude the normal meaning of the salute: sacrifice yourself to the mankind . Which Levi definitely means more than that and this is not the main purpose.

Remember the Levihan bird, they complete each other, and they really are. The 132 sasageyo was more like, take my heart with you and I will keep your heart with me. Hange will live inside Levi. (*Over interpretation: Don’t be scared Hange, I will be with you, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it I will live for you, as long as I’m alive, you will live inside me, with yours and our dreams)

I saw some Levihans said Levi didn’t wear an eyepatch because he think Hange will be seeing from his right eye (prefect explanation👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻) This more like the answer of 132 sasageyo to me, Levi and Hange literally became Levihan.

OK then talk about Hange’s dream and Levi’s dream, actually they shared the same dream, “the dream world” in 136

Hey it’s only the mf ZOË talking shit in 136. We don’t know the others, but we knew Levi remembered EVERY SINGLE WORD Hange Zoe said and would took her daily shitty talk seriously (He just love her...) , from that moment Hange’s dream also became Levi’s dream. And what did Levi do in the post war? Travel! Maybe not exactly is, but he is exploring a new world that could be their dream world, they shared the same dream, and mf Hange Zoe will do the same, to travel around with him if she was alive....

And finally the plane was the answer to 132 “keep watching me Hange”

The reason I don’t think the 139 SC scene is refer to this because 132 means more to Levihan, Levi wanted Hange to look at him even though their duty was done (which is the SC scene, and literally everybody were really watching from the path lol)

The plane scene is somehow confirmed that Levi wanted more from Hange, he wanted her to stay with him, just Hange and just Levi, but not the member of SC or commander and captain, their true feeling was acknowledged by a non SC member, Onyankopon. (It seem a little bit far-fetched, but I feel it means after Levi left SC, he will not remember Hange as a part of his SC duty or SC promise, I can see when Levi and Onyankopon talk about Hange, Levi was always talk about the stupid and funny thing Hange did other than her SC career and achievement, he cared and respect it but Levi just loved to remember the bright side and funny stupid side of Hange.

Sadly Hange can’t control the plane like Eren lol, but thanks for the parallel we know that plane was 100% symboling Hange, Hange was keep watching Levi. The look on Levi when he look at the plane and Onyankopon Levihan shipper stare confirmed Levi was also keep thinking about Hange.

Which means HANGE LOVE LEVI and LEVI LOVE HANGE

=CANON

The moment I think Levi started to realise his feeling towards Hange was probably here:

12. [orv] joongdok

‘laser tag’

.

“Yoo Joonghyuk,” says Dokja, warily, “why did you bring me here?" 

"Tactical retreat,” Joonghyuk replies. He’s doing that thing that’s in all the substanceless fluff romance novels, with his arm on the wall next to Dokja’s head and caging him in– not that Dokja reads those sorts of novels, of course, it’s obviously just osmosis– and his distressingly good-looking face is equally distressingly close to Dokja’s. This is not at all how Dokja had planned this day to go.

“We’re on opposite teams,” Dokja points out. Then they both pause while the outraged yell of probably-Kim-Namwoon echoes faintly from the other side of the field. “And I’m pretty sure that was your teammate. Whom you abandoned.”

“I have something more important to do.” Joonghyuk leans in and kisses the corner of his mouth before Dokja can formulate a response. “So? Planning to shoot me?”

The expression on Dokja’s face is probably not very attractive right now, stunned as he is. “I guess not,” he says, faintly.

Joonghyuk kisses him on the lips this time, tilting his head for an angle that lets him slide his tongue deep into Dokja’s mouth. Dokja can’t do much else other than wrap his hands around Joonghyuk’s unnecessarily thick biceps and kiss back, messy and eager.

When Joonghyuk finally leans back, they’re both flushed, hips pressed against each other still. “Are we still playing?” Dokja asks. Joonghyuk runs a hand down his side and he shivers.

“We are,” Joonghyuk informs him, and unceremoniously shoots him right in the chest.

Watching Yoo Joonghyuk saunter arrogantly away as his vest lights up and the stun sound plays in his ears, Dokja discovers, to his lasting shame, that he’s entirely capable of getting turned on by sheer bloody annoyance.

Two-point Perspective of a Tausug Stilt House on Water

-Luna