Yeah, Bowling! It's the pin, from Bowling! Bowling is a game, so it is fair game for this blog. And the pins are Weird Enemies! The whole point of Bowling is to Defeat as many pins as possible. You are taught to HATE them! It's messed up. I will teach you to love them.
When anthropomorphizing a bowling pin, are you on Team Face On Tip or Team Face On Base? I think both have their merits. Tip is good for if you want to give it a humanoid impression, like it could walk up to you and shake your hand. Hug you. Even... kiss you?! Base, however, is more of a creature, which I imagine waddling around on a bunch of legs or tentacles emerging from the bottom. It would hobble up to you and ask you, "Gleep gwanorb?" Answer carefully, or it might aim its Space Ray Gun at you! In the base design, the tip of the pin could be an antenna, or it could be read as a long-haired creature that tied its hair up in a tall bun!
You know something messed up? There are more types of bowling pins! No one ever told me that! The classic one we all default to is the Ten-pin, but there are two others! We'll get to them. Biologically, a Ten-pin must abide to the specific standards set by the United States Bowling Congress, adopted by World Bowling. They MUST be 15 inches (380 mm) tall, 4.75 inches (121 mm) wide at their widest point, and weigh 3 pounds and 8 ounces (1.6 kg), give or take 2 ounces (.057 kg). Wow! These would be some unrealistic standards to live up to, if these were not chunks of carved and coated wood produced specifically to match up to these measurements.
The reason the different pins are pictured with different balls is that they are used in different variations of the game! Candlepin is pretty self-explanatory. It's shaped like a candle. But Duckpin? That looks like a smaller, cuter, more marketable Ten-pin. What's its deal?
My first thought was, it's called a Duckpin because it looks like a duck! It has the one red line like the ring around a male mallard's neck, and it is rather shaped like a duck as seen from the front, overall! How cute! In reality, they are called Duckpins because the way they scatter when hit reminded a duck hunter of a scattering duck flock. Always comes back to violence with poor little Bowling Pin. They have it so rough! They could really use a friend, who's always there to pick them up when they're down.
Name: Pinsetter
Debut: Bowling
Pinsetter is just the sort of friend a Bowling Pin needs! No matter how many times Pin is knocked down, Pinsetter will be there to pick it up and put it back in its deserving spot. If any mean ol' stray Bowling Balls try to land a cheap hit, Pinsetter's sweep bar will block them. Play fair, you bully ball! Pinsetter's job used to be done by human Pin Boys, but there can still be a human in the mix, making sure the machine is clean, and unjamming it if need be. I can only assume this beautiful relationship between human and machine is just like that of horse and rider.
The more I think about it, though, is Pinsetter really helping? It's just putting the pins back in harm's way every single time, facilitating their unending torment. It blocks incoming balls, but only briefly, allowing them to crash through the pins as soon as they're all reset. Why does it do this? Who does it work for? Who is sending all these balls?!
...It's Pinsetter.
Pinsetter does not only set the pins. It detects the score, encouraging players to hit as many pins as possible. It returns the balls, giving them the weapons to do so. Humans think they're playing a game, but Pinsetter is playing them all! It controls the whole operation, driven by nothing but pin bloodlust! Maybe Bowling Ball has been misunderstood, another tortured soul, an unwilling pawn in Pinsetter's twisted game!
Bowling Pins are beautiful creatures. They belong in the wild, or with trustworthy, knowledgeable caretakers. To bowlers, they are an Enemy. To me, they are a Friend.
Like... she's so small. And there's SO MUCH POOP. I know her digestive system is different. but the total volume of poop to the total volume of cat is out of proportion 🤯
"Power, this! Power, that! It's what anyone cares about! What good is power if you can still lose everything in an instant? What good is it if you have nothing?! Nothing to protect? Nothing to care for-?"
oooooooohh nooooooo, John's in trouble! Do we find out he can now copy mental abilities, will he get caught, will Arlo and the others come to his rescue or is he gonna blanket bomb the school to get away???????? so many questions and so long till we find out!
Honestly not sure which way I want it to go either. John could use a break so I hope he doesn't get caught or if he does Arlo and the rest capture him before he can be properly taken into custody. But it really would be the icing on the cake if John gets caught and taken to the same facility as his mum only to have to choose between her or Arlo and the rest when they rescue him.
He might make it out though. If the others get to John then maybe they can escape and might somehow wind up at John's uncle's place, hopefully he gives a shit after hearing them out??
dunno if anyone here reads webtoons but I just binge read 200 ish episodes of unordinary in a couple of days, holy shit it's so good. I've never seen an author pull off a fallen hero arc this well. This whole comic is full of ACTUALLY deeply flawed characters who make very real and reprehensible mistakes, and their development is not steady--they stumble and regress and then have to pick themselves back up again.
And yet, I still root for these characters because I understand exactly how they've all been pressured by the weird fucked-up world they're in, and they are genuinely trying to be better. It's realistic, it's reassuring, it says so much about cycles of violence, and responsibility, and structures of power, and marginalization, and redemption, and it's nowhere near done yet.
sugurugetos
stormborns
snowghoul
yousharknotpass
