Billary's wonderful world of [I have no idea]

I just reblog almost everything on my feed. Sometimes because I laughed at it. Sometimes because I relate or agree. Sometimes I don't relate or agree, but reblog out of solidarity anyway. Sometimes I just see someone's Hot Take and reblog it so that You can form your own opinion on it.

[maudit]

[profeminist]

RIP Marjane Satrapi, author of the amazing graphic novels Persepolis about living during the fundamentalist revolution in Iran in the 70’s and 80’s. She also created the animated movie based on the graphic novels, which is where these gifs come from.

Gifset source

[missbliss12]

Reblogging in honor of Marjane Satrapi, one of THE great graphic novelists. Her comic Persepolis was a crucial text for shaping my belief that comics can deeply explore identity, culture, politics, and history.

[bluehairedspidey]

[flufflecat]

almost time

[everythingfox]

Purrcussion

(via)

[unashamedly-enthusiastic]

[headspace-hotel]

she DEMAND to be Percussed

[hirilelfwraith]

[Video description: a fluffy calico cat being drummed with cardboard paper towel rolls, which make a pleasant percussive sound. Every time the drummer stops, the cat looks at them and meows demandingly or paws at them until the drumming resumes.]

[everythingfox]

Purrcussion

(via)

[unashamedly-enthusiastic]

[headspace-hotel]

she DEMAND to be Percussed

[hirilelfwraith]

[Video description: a fluffy calico cat being drummed with cardboard paper towel rolls, which make a pleasant percussive sound. Every time the drummer stops, the cat looks at them and meows demandingly or paws at them until the drumming resumes.]

[punkitt-is-here]

so I had an interesting time yesterday

[therobinflieseast]

[sam-fry-eggs]

I need to draw more cute Dr coomer art 

[i-am-a-fish]

please do not look up to me. I am 1 inch tall. I'm down here. if you look up you won't see me

[breezey-with-an-e-art]

but what if i.....

[i-am-a-fish]

I REALLY LIKE THIS ART THIS IS SO CUTE I'M BEING HELD UP

[sufficientlylargen]

My T-shirt with the entire text of Borges' theoretical Library of Babel is raising a lot of questions already answered by the shirt, somewhere.

[justactgaussian]

@libraryofbabel-postlocator

[libraryofbabel-postlocator]

page 52 of volume 21 on shelf 5 of wall 2 of hexagon (below cut)

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

[severehydra-deactivated20230926]

@weirdmageddon  Voicebox secret voiceline without plushie casing

[weirdmageddon]

SPOILER FOR THE SPAMTON PLUSH except not really since this has been isolated from the game by fans before. this is just a clear version of what was said in BIG SHOT that fans were trying to filter and decipher

op said “the plushie muffles a lot of the sound. When you take the voicebox out of the plushie, it is SUPER loud” so i asked them to get a clip of the big shot lyrics with the voice box removed from the plush. it makes it slightly clearer since the fabric muffles it. i think this is as clear as we can get it raw.

i was saying stuff on twitter when someone else posted the plush saying this but the voice box was inside them

(i also said that “the “gets” part sounds like two syllables but it could just be stress on the S sound”. this recording made it clear it is just “gets ripped up”, not “can’t keep breaking up”)

i was uncertain to say it but now i am confident that he actually says “Fate is coming for me”, not “Think it’s coming for me” as fans thought (and still think that they still hear it due to expecting it through priming) but it was always slightly fishy to me since the first word is clearly one syllable, and “Think it’s” is incorrect grammar since it drops “I” before “think” which isn’t necessarily wrong for informal talk, but just…. fishy.

also, fate is an important concept in the game and it makes sense for Fate to be the “it” that pulls the strings and makes them ring. your choices don’t matter. no one can choose who they are in this world.

clearly hear it starting on the letter “f” in this recording with the voice box removed from being muffled, and the next phoneme is definitely the a-sound in the word “fate”.

so i feel confident that the actual lyrics are:

Fate is coming for me; answer the phone

[The hands wait] until you’re all alone

It pulls the strings and makes them ring

Until your heart gets ripped up

IMPORTANT UPDATE: instead of “I can’t explain” this might be “The hands wait”. the more i’m listening, the more i hear “h” instead of a hard “c”. it’s seriously hard to unhear “i can’t explain” but i think it makes more sense it also fits into the saying “the hands of fate”, as well as what susie said after the spamton fight with him talking about hands (and gaster—the man who talks in hands), and additionally, fate is the “it” talked about in the next line, continuing the subject being about fate instead of shifting to something else

and in the end. it’s spamton grappling with fate. not with a scary nameless guy, not mike, not gaster. just fate. this makes sense narratively and i feels like it clicks in place more.

[agentravensong]

Dance as a motif in UnderTale and DeltaRune

Wow, I actually went and wrote out some of my more unhinged DeltaRune thoughts. Let's not waste this and get right into the analysis.

We're gonna start with DeltaRune because I think that's where the thematic ties are more potent, and then we'll look at UnderTale to see if there's any additional stuff in it that supports it.

Firstly, a detail we'll return to multiple times in this post: Kris's solo act option in the Jevil fight is to pirouette. The specific choice of dance move sticks out to me, as it makes me think of those little ballerina figures in wind-up music boxes. We'll get to why that image sticks out to me later.

Next: In Chapter 2, there's the fight with the robot trio that's resolved by everyone dancing. On its own, it doesn't seem too thematically relevant, but I do think it's significant that this is the battle where Susie unlocks her and Ralsei's ability for them to ACT on their own. In theory, this is them gaining more autonomy... but they're still following Kris's (or, perhaps more accurately, our) command. Not to mention that Susie technically forces Ralsei into it.

I find that this brings out an interesting tension in the thematic idea of dancing: on the one hand, it's an expression of one's bodily autonomy, their skill and creativity. It's often spontaneous and symbolically an expression of freedom (think of the movie/musical Footloose, where the teens of the conservative religious town are banned from dancing). On the other hand, many dances are tightly choreographed, with high-level performers expected to perform them perfectly. And even those that aren't are still, for the most part, bound to the beat, the rhythm of the music.

In other words, dance encapsulates the dichotomy of freedom and control. Of chaos and order. The dichotomy at the heart of DeltaRune's narrative.

Kris's pirouette action in Jevil's fight also contains that dichotomy of chaos and order in it. At first, it seems like its effects are random, but one can figure out that they're actually tied to the turn number, and always occur in the same order. As Toby Fox said about Jevil's attacks, all chaos has some order in it.

Not only that, but there's also a second dichotomy one could consider as part of the first: dancing for oneself, as a personal artistic expression, versus dancing for an audience.

Here's where we begin to transition to talking about UnderTale. Because there's a character in UnderTale who's all about performing for an audience, and has super sweet dance moves: Mettaton.

And Mettaton has a pretty clear parallel in DeltaRune.

Spamton. Who takes DR!Mettaton's artistic creation (the NEO body) for his own, hoping to achieve freedom through someone else's self-expression, and is therefore doomed to fail. Spamton, a puppet dancing on his strings. Spamton, who calls out to a heavenly audience.

Spamton, whom Kris is heavily implied to relate to in some capacity.

Kris, who, when faced with the first secret boss, pirouettes. Like a ballerina in a music box, forced to spin around for as long as they've been wound up.

Kris, who plays (used to play) the piano, but can't do it - can't express themself artistically - while their body is under someone else's control.

Kris, who, when they rip out their SOUL and regain their autonomy at the end of Chapter 1, pulls out a knife and gives a cheeky grin to the heavens. To whatever audience might be watching.

...Some of that is more generally music-related or performance-related than dance-related, admittedly. There's a whole ton of stuff one could discuss re: music as a theme/motif in these games, but I'm gonna leave that for others to go into for the sake of time.

Let's properly transition into discussing UnderTale now, where I have two main examples to point out.

1. One of the pairs of items you can get are a Dusty Tutu and Ballet Shoes. Not just dance-related items, but ones of the same type (genre?) of dance as Kris's pirouette. This item pair is tied back to the blue Integrity soul. To have integrity is to be honest and have strong moral principles. You could say it means being true to oneself. This connection, therefore, basically confirms the thematic association between dance, personal expression, and autonomy.

2. Now, I could go more into Mettaton here, about how his character arc (and that of Mad Dummy / Mad Mew Mew, from whom Spamton stole the "festive jig" bit) reflects the theme of integrity; or how he has that one musical scene with Frisk where he has this strict, boring choreography while Frisk can move around however they want, but no matter what they do, the ending of the scene is still the same; and how all of Hotland is scripted by Alphys, but Mettaton still enjoys the performance, until he doesn't and then decides to make the dance his own...

And I guess by typing all that I kind of already did. But what I meant to get to, is this:

This is the dialogue for the mushroom in Temmie Village. They do a little dance when you interact with them, then look above Frisk's head with piercing eyes to deliver the rest of the dialogue.

The most interesting bit of this to me is the initial, standard dialogue, where Ragel describes their dance as being an expression of their imprisonment and torment. Their lack of autonomy, of freedom. A pain and lack unique to them, as even the destruction of the barrier won't solve their problem.

They have just enough autonomy to express their feelings via dance, but they're still limited by their circumstances. By their very body. Like how dancers are still bound to the beat, and the capabilities of their own bodies.

Can you see the parallels to DeltaRune here? To Susie, who keeps "breaking the narrative", but was also the one to tell Kris "your choices don't matter" and, at the end of the day, mostly falls in line as a Delta Warrior under their command? To Ralsei, who's wed to the prophecy but still tells Kris that their choices are important too? To Kris, who's forced to follow our commands, but begins in Chapter 2 to show more of their personality through the way they speak the lines we give them, finding ways to add their own flair to this tightly choreographed dance? Kris, whose restriction of their autonomy comes back to their very body?

Speaking of DeltaRune and Ralsei, there's one more thing I'd be remiss not to mention, as it's what set me off on this path of inquiry months ago: Ralsei has a weird, out-of-place sprite that has a small chance of showing up at a certain point in the Weird Route. A sprite that's stored, hidden, among his dance sprites from the robot trio battle. This video goes over that whole thing if you want to know more.

In conclusion, dance is a prominent motif in DeltaRune, tied to some of the game's most prominent themes, which UnderTale helped lay the ground for. We'll see how the use of the dance as a motif evolves in future DR chapters, likely coming to a head with the festival Susie teased at the end of Chapter 2.

After all, while one can certainly dance on their own... what about the time-honored tradition of dancing with a partner? A tradition that requires finding a balance between personal expression and following another person's lead?

I'll close out with a quote from the old version of the website for The Stanley Parable, which you may or may not deem resonant with what we've discussed here today:

“The game is not here to fight you; it is inviting you to dance.”

[gothicprep]

is your cat still green

-_-

[cornbread-but-cringey]

[ID: photo of a cat curled up sleeping on a white chair. the cat is green. end ID]

[paper-mario-wiki]

Alfred and I have a specialty of running a joke into the ground until it’s not even recognizable as a joke anymore.

[jethroq]

[felinepipebomb]

via @orbitalpirate

[acerbicecho]

[starbotic]

@disteal how dare you leave this in the tags

[scripps]

many are asking this

[spill-that-anxietea]

I think I’ve found that some media is more fun to consume through fandom, and other media should be consumed without fandom entirely.

[wizardsisananimal]

is there a word for a baby wizard or are they just called baby wizards

hmm this is a great question that i will have to get back to you on

[wizardsisananimal]

vicious