#agaywithlotsofbooks

[agaywithlotsofbooks]

I am about ten percent of the way through Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman and I have only this:

This book is FUCKED UP on a whole new level in a deliciously devious and sadistic way.

Imagine Ready Player One meets the Hunger Games with an especially sadistic evil corporation as the games organizer instead of a fascist government. Everything is for the ratings of the broadcast, including abuse and manipulation of the NPCs and even the enemies. Maybe the true enemy here isn’t what they tell the dungeon crawlers…I have a feeling the real enemy is the corporation itself.

Each time new exposition drops, the world gets more and more like a twisted, dungeons and dragons version of worker and network exploitation in capitalist society. I am floored, amazed, and irrevocably hooked!

[agaywithlotsofbooks]

“That motherfucker’s gonna burn!”

-Darrow, Lightbringer Chapter 80

[agaywithlotsofbooks]

ok. ok. listen. the symbolism in this frame is delicious.

First, we have Eve. She is naked, clean, and whole. Her power is creation. She creates. Which is fitting, because she’s depicting descending from on high. She is tilted downwards as if she descended from heaven. Say what you want about Christian symbolism, but it suggests that she is heavenly, or angelic. I’m not saying she represents “good”, because she doesn’t—she represents creation.

Then. We have Mark. Covered in blood, broken teeth, broken bones. He represents destruction. His power is not inherently destructive, but juxtaposed with Eve’s and the damage Invincible has caused throughout the three seasons so far, he’s been pretty destructive. He is oriented upwards, like he clawed his way through hell to the surface. I don’t feel as if this suggests he is somehow tied to a demonic idea (but after the last scene of season 3 episode 8 with Darkblood, I might be onto something…). It just means he is destruction.

Separate, they are warring entities. But together? They defeated Conquest. They found a balance. They struck harmony. I think it was so clever for the animators to orient this frame this way because it highlights their inherent representations, but also argues that neither could exist without the other. You can’t destroy anything if nothing has been created. You can’t create anything if nothing has been destroyed. They are two sides of the same coin.

[agaywithlotsofbooks]

as I am finishing golden son, I am struck by the power of visionary leadership. When Darrow’s inner circle—a bunch of people who are perfectly capable of leading by themselves and just as deadly—is asked why they follow him, they say it’s because Darrow is the one that knows where they’re going. They’re there to make sure they get to their destination, but Darrow is the wayfinder. He has that ability to see how the world could be, overlaid by how it is. And I think it’s that visionary power that is so intoxicating in leaders and makes it so easy to follow them.

There are several real world examples of this—great leaders that gather followers who may not see the vision, but want it to come to fruition because they believe in the cause. Darrow is interesting because he’s fighting for a cause, but only a few people know what it actually is. Regardless, even the people that don’t know what Darrow’s true cause is still believe in him because they know he’s fighting for a better society and a better system.

[agaywithlotsofbooks]

“Our strategy is speed. Speed and extreme prejudice.”

-Darrow “Reaper of Men, King of Strategy” Lykos

[agaywithlotsofbooks]

rip Gideon Nav, you would’ve loved the band ghost

[agaywithlotsofbooks]

the howlers are a frat confirmed

why else would they have a hazing ceremony with two initiated naked in the shower being told to chug

[agaywithlotsofbooks]

The proctors, as Darrow breaks every rule of the Institute in the span of about ten minutes: