The Road To Heaven Is Paved With MALICE 😈

it's cool that more people are watching tokyo godfathers thanks to youtube, but that version has outdated subtitling (particularly regarding hana, a trans woman character). i recommend the 2020 gkids release, which has more accurate subtitles and a really good dub as well. i'm sure you can find this version on various movie/anime streaming sites (hi)—you'll know it's the newer release if it starts with the circular gkids logo. merry tokyo godfathers everyone

😒✋ "daylight savings means you lose an hour of sleep"

😎👉 "daylight savings means you get to go to bed an hour early"

its like a gacha pull talking to my plural wife i might get the one who usually fronts but there are the rarer ones also . dormant ones would be a legendary but i havent seen those

always remember,

a weed is not a classification of a type of plant,

it only means a plant growing where you dont want it,

but no plant at all, Is a Weed

This adds an interesting irony to Deltarune with Kris seemingly struggling to "be themself" while the red soul is inside them.

the red soul

(undertale spoilers)

each fallen human has a specifically coloured soul associated with them. these colours can be seen on the coffins in new home, asgore’s soul containers, and the photoshop flowey boss battle. little is known about these souls, but what can be inferred is that each soul colour represents a unique trait. accessing this information requires multiple rounds of “ball game” in the snowdin forest. if the game is completed fast enough and the red flag is obtained, the following message appears.

however, red soul’s trait is never mentioned. or is it?

determination is not a trait

before exploring the red soul’s trait, it’s time to explain why determination is not the red soul’s trait. while it is a popular choice, it ultimately does not work for a few reasons. unlike the other traits, every human soul has determination. 

rather than being a trait, determination is more akin to willpower or resolve. it’s a power that gives human souls “the strength to persist after death.” furthermore, this determination is extracted from the six human souls and injected into a golden flower, bringing flowey to life and giving him the power to control the underground’s timeline. this same power is what gives the humans the power to save and load.

unlike all the other traits, determination is inherently inside all humans. furthermore, “determination” is never mentioned in the ball game. it’s also never specifically linked with the red soul nor is it ever written in red text. the word “determination” is only written in white or yellow. 

there is nothing that suggests determination is an exclusive trait to the red soul. it is merely a component in all the coloured human souls.

» read more: determination is yellow

the ball game

the different soul colours each represent their own positive traits according to “ball game.” the first time the red flag is achieved, the following message appears.

these are the positive traits of all the souls besides the red soul. when the ball game is won a second time in the conditions for the red flag, a new message appears.

it’s important to note that the ball game can only be played as long as snowdin is not cleared of monsters. if genocide is successful in snowdin, then the snowball will be gone, rendering the ball game useless. this is the only time the ball game cannot be played. in the neutral and pacifist routes, the game can be played even after reaching snowdin or after defeating papyrus.

the mirrors

from the red flag, the phrase “be yourself” is important. the idea of “being yourself” is seen repeatedly throughout the game, so long as the genocide route is not in motion. if frisk is still on the neutral route, frisk can look into the mirror in toriel’s home, and the following is said:

in new home, frisk can look into a second mirror and see the following:

this text appears in every route, except the genocide route. whether this is a reflection of frisk is up to interpretation.

in a pacifist route, after defeating asriel, frisk can look into the mirror in home once more to see this:

one of the most important elements of the pacifist route is the reveal of the protagonist’s true name, frisk. it highlights how frisk’s identity, or even their true self, is only revealed at the end of a pacifist route.

in contrast, the genocide route makes it clear that frisk is not themself from the start.

the red soul’s trait: being yourself

ultimately, the ball game holds the most important clue. the statement seems rather vague, until the one-word limitation is removed and the trait is seen as a phrase.

“being yourself” is seen in two ways in the context of undertale. the first is more obvious, with the phrase referring to how frisk is only themself in the neutral route and pacifist route. once the genocide route is in motion, frisk is no longer in predominant control – chara is. interestingly enough, when chara is in control during the genocide route and the snowdin forest is cleared, the ball game is unavailable, perhaps highlighting the fact that frisk is no longer truly themself.

the second way the virtue of “being yourself” is used in game is by its definition. “being oneself” means to be genuine, honest, or true to one’s character. along with determination, it is what allows frisk to keep going, especially in the pacifist route. sans alludes to this when he judges frisk in the last corridor.

“so as long as you do what’s in your heart” can be seen as another way to say “be true to yourself.” there is another reference to this trait in sans’ judgment should frisk have killed any monster.

while subtle, sans stresses the importance of being true to "yourself,” even in the face of committing a terrible crime.

“being yourself” may seem synonymous with integrity, but there is a difference. integrity is defined as “the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.” while both are a quality of being honest, there is a difference to what that honesty is towards. those with integrity are righteous, fair, and of good character. however, integrity is not needed to be yourself. being yourself is to stay true to who you are, regardless of what that may be. perhaps a word for this could be “individuality,” “nonconformity,” or “sincerity.”

conclusion

while the other soul virtues are clearly defined by their colour coded trait, the red soul remains much more ambiguous. perhaps this is because frisk, chara, and the player persist as such different individuals despite being intrinsically linked, therefore the common trait between them can only be just that: their individual “true” self.

Happy Yam Ween to those who celebrate!

my millsberry pets have probably been repossessed now that it's been eighteen years since i bought them food with my cinnamon toast crunch pachinko money

Happy Yam Ween to those who celebrate!

i read the hobbit in 3rd grade and i thought it was really lame. however i liked bilbo baggins for some reason and i was fully convinced he was some sort of rabbit/mouse thing until i saw the lotr movies and was really, really confused

I unironically really enjoy the opera-rap + tuba sections.

Okay so it’s finals season which means I’ve cracked and need to go on my ramble about one of my favorite pieces of music of all time: The Most Unwanted Song.

The thing about this song isn’t that it’s bad. It’s a special kind of horrific. It’s so bad it crosses the invisible artistic barrier and becomes brilliant. And it was designed for that. 

See back in the 1990s these two artists decided to make a series of paintings (I promise it’s connected). Graphic designers  Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid sat down to create the “best” and “worst” paintings based on opinion polls. There’s commentary about public opinion in there, but that’s not the point right now. The point is, they were approached by a gallery owner and asked to make a CD using the same principle. 

So they started polling people. Turns out, the American public, when asked about what they hate in music, has a lot of answers. Winning answers included bagpipes, opera, rap, intellectually stimulating music (hah!), cowboy music, swearing in music, long songs, songs about America, children’s choirs, advertising jingles, and accordions. 

And then they set out to put all those things into one song with the help of Dave Soldier. 

And boy did they succeed. 

In order to make this song work, they couldn’t just have all the individual elements working separately. There wasn’t time for that, and they would have lost a lot of unity. So they went the inventive direction. So that’s why we have a opera-rap soprano singing lyrics with casual profanity about being a cowboy and philosophical discussions. That’s how we get this: 

It’s 22 minutes long. 22 minutes to consider your place in the universe. 

People also hate politics in songs, so at the end someone screams a protest rant through a bullhorn. At one point it sounds like someone is throwing up in the background. 

The best part of this, of course is that it was done by professional musicians. It’s pretty clear that they know what they’re doing and are choosing to do it really really badly. It adds to that flavor of chaos. 

I genuinely believe that everyone should listen to this song at least once. If nothing else, it will be funny.