Disclaimer: I want to say upfront that my personal interpretation of Black Lady on this blog is depicted as a separate entity from Chibiusa, simply because of the amount of ick this whole arc gave me, but I will be explicating on this subject in strictly canon terms because the fandom infuriates me. You can read more about my personal canon here.
I don't really know where to start with this meta so I'm just gonna jump right into it. But let's unpack everything surrounding Black Lady, starting with how she was created. I think before we touch on that, though, it would behoove everyone to read my meta on Chibiusa's insecurities, which had a direct impact on her physical development.
Prior to Black Lady's official introduction, we must first set the scene. In Act 20, Chibiusa has gone back to the 30th century using the Space-Time Key with Sailor Moon (Usagi), Tuxedo Mask (Mamoru), and the Inner Senshi in tow. It is there they meet King Endymion (Mamoru's future self) and it is revealed that she is the future daughter of Usagi and Mamoru. Up until this point, the Black Moon Clan — which are the main villains of this arc — had been pursuing Chibiusa.
In Act 22, we learn that it is because she stole the Silver Crystal from her mother after her peers bullied and harassed her, to prove she was really the princess.
The Silver Crystal is what the BMC are after, so taking it had the unintended consequence of perfect timing for the Clan. It caused the defence of Crystal Tokyo to drastically lower, and allowed the chance for the BMC to initiate an unmitigated attack. The result was absolute destruction of Crystal Tokyo, and Neo Queen Serenity ultimately ending up encased in the Silver Crystal like a cocoon to protect herself. King Endymion and the Inner Senshi took direct hits and were rendered unable to maintain physical forms, so the King Endymion everyone meets is merely a projection of his spirit.
Chibiusa, of course, feels extreme guilt for this. And it's this guilt, coupled with her insecurities, that ultimately gives Wiseman the opening he needs to make his move only a few pages later.
I won't sugarcoat it. What Wiseman does is nothing short of grooming Chibiusa into what he wants for his own ends. He doesn't intend to fulfill Chibiusa's deepest wish of becoming a "true grown up lady." What he wants is an obedient puppet who will do his bidding. A pet, as he puts it himself.
Wiseman knows exactly what Chibiusa's insecurities are and he uses those against her to keep control, continually feeding her these ideas that she's unloved by everyone, that she'll never be good enough, that she'll never measure up to her mother's greatness. And honestly, those feelings are valid, even if they aren't true. It's how she feels, regardless of how true they really are.
A friend of mine pointed out, and I totally agree, that a lot of it also comes down to Chibiusa having envy for the community and relationships Usagi has. This is made all the more apparent when she sees that sense of community firsthand as she travels back to the past. She sees Usagi surrounded by friends who would do anything for her, with parents who love her, and a miracle romance that is undeniable. In Chibiusa's eyes, Usagi has everything she's ever wanted, but doesn't think she'll ever attain. It's true her parents do love her, but Chibiusa is also an incredibly lonely individual — she lacks the sense of community and the friendships that Usagi holds so dearly. And it feeds into those insecurities of never feeling like she'll experience them because, as mentioned in my meta linked at the beginning, she can't age properly. She is stuck in a child's body and has been for over 900 years. It's only through Wiseman that she is finally, finally able to experience being an adult. But it's not right. It's twisted. It takes her innocent dream of making her mother proud and turns it into something dark and ugly and, frankly, predatory.
I think one of the more upsetting aspects is that as this arc continues and we get more and more of Black Lady's personality, it becomes apparent that she isn't entirely operating as an adult. Her mind and body have grown up, but she lacks the genuine experiences that come with growing up to fill those developmental gaps. And so what we get is a sick caricature while she tries to find meaning in this false "adulthood."
Which brings me to the elephant in the room. That moment where Black Lady declares Mamoru is hers and kisses him in front of Usagi. It's not okay. I'm not going to pretend it is and I'm not going to insult anyone's intelligence by trying to find some logical meaning to it because there really isn't. Naoko was weird for including that. Period. I will say, though, that she and Mamoru do have a lot in common when it comes to insecurities and feelings of loneliness, so in some small way it is important to include it — as much as I hate it.
Mamoru is the most important relationship that Chibiusa forms prior to meeting Hotaru. He is the first person to trust her implicitly when she arrives, despite everyone else (including Usagi) being deeply suspicious of her intentions, and he is the first person to defend Chibiusa when the others express that doubt and mistrust. Even without knowing at the time that she is his daughter, he can see bits of himself in her — the loneliness, the inadequacy. Because he's been there. He's felt it, too. He's felt the deep-rooted loneliness after he lost his parents and spent his childhood as an orphan. He's felt inadequate next to Usagi, who can perform so many of these miracles that saves others' lives. In the face of that, he's virtually powerless by comparison (until the Dream arc, at least). They have a special bond right from the beginning, before things like destiny and futures even come into play. He has to share Usagi with the Senshi, with the world; but Chibiusa is his. And vice versa.
So, to some degree I understand what Naoko was trying for.
Chibiusa's envy and competing with Usagi for Mamoru's attentions, the way children sometimes do with their parents, is a very real thing. So I don't want to completely write off her feelings regarding that. Even Usagi admits to being jealous of how close Mamoru instantly was with Chibiusa.
But the whole thing with Black Lady was just... horrendously executed and those sentiments could have been translated without her literally kissing her father. Ick.
All that to say, the fandom has it so wrong. She's not in love with her dad. The fandom at large too easily decides that is what motivated her to kiss him, but that absolves Wiseman of his part in it. Does she idolise him? Absolutely. As much as she does her mother. She wants the attention of her parents and not have to share them all the time with everyone else. It's a perfectly normal thing to feel, but what Wiseman did was not. Chibiusa was a victim of extreme manipulation and grooming, to the point where her entirely innocent motivations and feelings were skewed into something incredibly uncomfortable and gross. She essentially becomes the Anti-Usagi; where Usagi's love for Mamoru is pure in and of itself, Wiseman takes Chibiusa's love and manipulates it into something dark and grotesque, and that absolutely should not be ignored or glossed over. We should be throwing our stones at Wiseman, not Chibiusa.
| | ★. ° ｡ ⋆ SEASONAL AESTHETICS, bold what applies and italicize what applies sometimes !
SUMMER. cold drinks after a long day, hiking in the woods just outside the city, swimming in a lake, spontaneous picnics, the warmth of the sun making you drowsy, the buzz of insects flying by, blooming wildflowers, the scent of bark and leaves, snapping twigs in half, a blade of grass between your teeth, light sunburn on the tip of your nose, barking dogs, rosy cheeks, children laughing in the distance, sunflowers reaching for the sun, fresh ice tea, resting your head on someone’s lap, warm yellow, the sound of waves crashing.
AUTUMN. cool breezes that feel just right, piles of leaves, rust red, oversized sweaters, knitted blankets, pumpkin spice, the scent of freshly baked goods, open windows letting the fresh air in, cold cheeks and hands, rain boots, carving pumpkins, soft scarves, a comforting embrace from an old friend, the scent right before a storm, wild mushrooms, ripening berries, a cup of hot tea, purring cats, blueberry muffins, braided hair, wearing your partner’s shirts, an alarm pulling you from slumber, burning candles.
WINTER. the crackling of a fireplace, hot chocolate with marshmallows, the smell of fresh cookies, fuzzy socks, beanies pulled over your ears, a strong pot of coffee, dark clouds gathering on the horizon, the sound of wind shaking the house, melting ice, snowflakes in your hair, melancholy afternoons, curling up with a book while the world stands still, cough drops on the nightstand, excitedly giving gifts, long coats with deep pockets, pale blues, flour on the tip of your nose, warm soup, stubble turning into a beard, the scent of leather.
SPRING. the smell after it rains, waking to the sound of birds singing, the crack of thunder, soft pinks, energy drinks or protein shakes, the scent of fabric softener, tidying up, the sweet taste of fresh fruit, competitive spark in eyes, sand beneath your feet, sweat on your brow, catching your breath after running, light green, frosted cupcakes, electricity in the air, forbidden kisses, the sharp hunger after a work out, daring romances, high ponytails, unexpected storms, picking flowers, running barefoot in the grass, iced coffee.
tagged by. @iudicatus, my beloved :)
tagging. @killborn, @ujima, @dawnade, @fangyard, @huckberries, @obeay, @obsecuring, @bleedbath, and anyone else that wants to !
hello! i will likely be on tonight, but i'm here to talk about omukade jay's anatomy and physiology.
yes, omukade jay counts as vampiric, but omukades are basically like... mega vampires. in jay's verse, there are many subspecies of vampires, but very few omukades. omukades require more energy to function and therefore need to eat human flesh instead of just drinking blood, but they can also survive for longer in the sun. the sun drains their energy slowly instead of burning them to a crisp, so omukades opt to avoid the sun and go out at night all the same.
jay's moniker is 'the centipede' because of the multiple limbs that sprout from his back, but those limbs are more similar to a scorpion's than a centipede's. the centipede was a name coined for him by the vampire community after someone first described him as centipede-like, but it is a definite misnomer.
jay sprouts those arms when he feeds, attacks, or fenzies, as well as mandibles from his mouth and claws. the closest i would describe him is the las plagas from resident evil 4.
in his normal state (not feeding or fighting), he has bioluminescent red eyes, paler skin, and his veins are black/dark red underneath.
I can't agree with the popular fandom interpretation that Norm has max perception, max intelligence, and then ridiculously low charisma. I feel like charisma is probably his third highest skill and it's not any lower than a 5 minimum. Yes, he's a little socially awkward and introverted compared to Lucy and their dad and he doesn't fit in with the other vault dwellers, but charisma is not just about how much people like you or how easy it is to reason with them.
Sometimes charisma is deception and lying to get something you need in order to reach your goal (off the top of my head, in FNV you can literally just pass a speech check to lie to an NCR soldier at HELIOS One like 'oh no its ok my brother works here, i'm just here to see him' and they believe it and let you in). That's something Norm is good at playing at.
When he says "we can do what [the raiders] would have done to us," it shocks the others. He knew that it would, that was his whole purpose for saying it. He sees the power struggle between Reg and Woody as they compete for the the helm as interim Overseer in Hank's absence, and he knows that they're not going to last very long before Betty claims the title for herself. They don't have control over the meeting, Betty does. He acts more vulnerable around Betty than he truly is, he knows that she's trying to manipulate him and he's too sharp-minded to fall for it, but he does let her believe that she has the upper hand through deception.
Lord help us, I'm theory-crafting through late night analysis again. Under read more because it is long and also very potentially disturbing to read. TW for mentions of cannibalism, death, child death, animal death, and pregnancy.
Okay so. In one of the more horrific realizations I think I may have stumbled onto tonight… I did notice that the first time Norm goes into Vault 32 in episode 1, where he finds a corpse that appears to be missing a leg and then he runs back out with the realization that the real 32s are dead and the ones at the wedding party must be imposters… He was walking into 32's nursery wing, filled with baby cradles. I don't recall seeing any baby or child corpses among the dead which could be either comforting (maybe there weren't any kids within this crop of 32s yet) or incredibly sick and fucked up (maybe…the 32s ate their young in desperation to survive, like dysfunctional lab rats would…)
Dervin, one of the raiders captured and imprisoned by the 33ers, eventually tells Norm that he doesn't know what was going on in Vault 32, but the dwellers there were anything but innocent, pointing to the secret that Norm will soon dig into uncovering throughout the next several episodes.
Upon re-entering 32 later on, this time with Chet in tow, Norm examines a dead dweller's Pip-Boy, which indicates that the last bio-sign detected was over 2 years prior. Everyone in the vault has been dead for at least that long. As Chet and Norm explore, they stumble upon a television set in one of the living quarters with a corpse who had evidently been electrocuted. The TV plays a section of holotape describing the Rat Utopia experiment conducted by ethologist John B. Calhoun between the years 1958 and 1962. In this experiment, 4 groups of Norway rats were given unlimited access to food and water, enabling major population growth of their species over a period of 4 years.
In the original papers, educational films, and consequently the theory presented in the context of the TV series, the described experiment is heavily anthropomorphized and applies human characteristics to the animals such as greed and dominance.
However, dominance theory, as a way of describing animal behavior, was based on a heavily flawed study conducted by Rudolph Schenkel in 1947 on captive wolves. The scarcity of resources such as food and breeding partners in captivity made the wolves feel anxious that they would lose whatever they had to another wolf if they didn’t act aggressively to ward off the potential threats. Humans saw this and we collectively decided, for some reason, that this must mean animals operate on a theory of alpha males and that they must dominate other animals to maintain their leadership role.
Consequently, the quintessential Dominance Theory study was conducted in 1971 by behaviorist David Mech, who examined the behavior of wolves in the wild. A much more natural setting for them than a concrete cage. Influenced by the preceding study Mech based his work off of, he observed that wolf packs consisted of an alpha male and a omega female mate, and that they ruled over all of the other wolves in the pack, who were submissive to them.
In reality, what Mech was seeing was a pack that consisted of two parents known as breeders and their offspring as the subordinate wolves. By the time Mech published his original study, he realized he had made a serious error in his observations and has since spent his entire career trying to correct that one mistake. His original study is described as outmoded by many ethologists in our present-day, and yet the concept is so pervasive in modern societal convention that we apply it universally to almost every species of animal.
So the reality of Rat/Mouse Utopia is less about rodents gaining an insatiable bloodlust because every society throughout history is built on violence, and a lot more like this:
Due to the rat’s short gestation period and ability to raise multiple litters in quick succession, overpopulation can occur very rapidly and resources such as food, water, and breeding rights become more scarce because there are more rats to divide them between. This decrease in available resources causes the rats to become more anxious that they will not be able to sustain themselves or the new generation of rats they are meant to raise, often causing them to react with aggression toward other rats, whom they see increasingly as threats to their survival. If there is a lack of resources, or if the primary source is seen as inaccessible by the rats, they may resort to cannibalism, eating other rats to survive.
This phenomena came to be known as a behavioral sink, a collapse in species-typical behavior that can result from overpopulation.
Humans don’t have nearly as quick a turnaround rate on reproduction as rats or mice, but sustaining a pregnant human and then providing food for the resulting children through to adulthood does put more strain on available resources in the same way as with rats. Or any mammal, really.
We know that the people of Vault 32 discovered the truth about what was in 31, because they left behind messages written in blood that say “WE KNOW THE TRUTH” “DEATH TO MANAGEMENT” and “WE KNOW WHAT'S IN THERE” regarding Vault 31. They successfully started a revolt and they were able to overthrow the Overseer. But ultimately, that revolt ended in failure with everyone dying off. While some of the bodies seen clearly killed each other, it looks like others may have died by their own hand instead, or have at least been made to look as if they did. No matter what the real answer is behind why this happened in 32, but not 33, these are conditions that replicate the results achieved by the Rat Utopia experiments in a human population.
Dan Heng's new idle pose resembling Yaoshi's so strongly is genuinely spicy since Long ( the Aeon of Permanence that the vidyadhara originate from ) was absorbed the Abundance, meaning that their paths inherently had an overlap before they were assimilated. They were not that different at all.
On top of that, this is apparently a reference to the lalitasana, a stance or mudra from Indian art / dharmic religions. This relaxed attitude is known as the " royal position " or " royal ease " and is common in portraits of royals and religious people whose kingly characteristics are purposefully being emphasized. The person is seated on a throne, often stylized as a lotus throne ( very notable given all the lotus themes Dan Heng has in this form ), with one leg tucked under the seat and the other hanging down ( " pendent " ) to touch the ground and / or rest on a support.
Oh, also the fact that his horns / antlers grow longer in this pose, and one of Yaoshi's signature features being their large deer-like antlers ... 👀
I'm half asleep but I just wanted to write up a lil meta on vasya VS the five love languages because it's probably not what you'd expect coming from her.
#5: Physical touch: On a surface level one would absolutely think given how physically affectionate she is that this is her love language. She enjoys touch and sex greatly, but at the end of the day it's simply a tool for her to use. Physical contact and sex mean very little to V in the grand scheme of things. It's a means to an end most of the time and she gains very little from it.
#4: Words of affirmation: Another one that might seem like she would be all over it. She loves to be praised in all areas of life, more than she'd ever let on. Vasya's had so little validation throughout her life that she tends to soaks it up like a lil sponge. That being said though, she's incredibly dubious about receiving it and who she's receiving it FROM. She tends to believe more readily that people are lying to her about whatever it is they're praising her for (unless its work related, she knows she's a good merc)
#3: Gifts: Because of her nomadic lifestyle, gifts mean very little to her too. While she'll be incredibly thankful for whatever gift you give her, she ultimately is uninterested in receiving physical things from people, save for weapons. And as stated above, she tends to think the worst about such things. Give her too many gifts and she'll assume you're bribing her or hiding something from her.
#2: Acts of Service: This one is actually pretty close and probably falls under the category of how she would express love instead of how she wants to receive it. While she appreciates a helping hand with gigs and mundane chores, she'd much rather complete said tasks alone because she knows she's doing it right 😔 Which brings us back to that being how she expresses love (and also asserts dominance) She very much goes above and beyond when someone she loves asks something of her, or if she gleans that they want something.
#1: Quality time: Vasya's love language is quality time. She isn't great at giving gifts or praising people. Touch doesn't equal love, and gifts are rarely more than things to her. She is so used to people leaving her that every moment with her loved ones counts. Sit in silence with her, go to the grocery store with her, read a book with her. She pretends she dislikes the company (and for awhile this is entirely true, she's been alone for so long its an adjustment) but she craves it much to her dismay. V wants to be wanted, to be someone that isn't intolerable like she feels she is. Like she's not worth disappearing on <3
