This Post Is What Caused Me To Put This Book On My Christmas List This Year. I Got It And I’m Not Super

This reminds me, just the other day I was thinking about which MCR album would correspond to which house! I feel like Danger Days has pretty obvious Gryffindor energy, what with the whole Killjoy storyline being all about impulsive bravery and a fight for ideals. Then, I decided I’d put Black Parade with Ravenclaw, since it’s a very contemplative and philosophical album, reflecting on and exploring death as it does. Also, it’s theatrical as heck, and you know Ravenclaw has plenty of theatre nerds (including me, and several other theater people I know). 

The last two I had a harder time with, because I feel like a good case could be made for both Bullets and Revenge for being associated with either Hufflepuff or Slytherin. Bullets has that close-knit family-feel of the “van days”, and there’s something hardworking and loyal and bristling with Hufflepuff energy about the band just starting out, that whole “us vs the world” mentality they had. (I know this is based less on the album and more on the era than the first two, thought I feel it’s also somewhat reflected in the songs- you’re not in this alone...). At the same time, though, early MCR were certainly ambitious, and there’s perhaps somewhat of an edge of dark cunning in some of the songs, too. 

Revenge, on the other hand, is also underlaid by loyalty, albeit a darker, murderous loyalty, that of one Demolition Lover to another. The quest for 1,000 souls and the ideals of vengeance could perhaps be construed as Slytherin ambitiousness, but at the same time, if we’re going by the narrative of the Demolition Lovers, then a desperate, tragic love is really the driving source more so than personal ambition; but then again, the pair only got themselves separated in the first place because of their criminal ambitions. 

My gut says that Bullets is more Hufflepuff and Revenge is more Slytherin, but it could easily be the other way around. 

Hogwarts Houses represented by Gerard Way

~GRYFFINDOR~

~SLYTHERIN~

~HUFFLEPUFF~

~RAVENCLAW~

I may have also spent at least half of my weekend binging MCR music :) And music videos. And behind the scenes stuff. And interviews. 

I sometimes feel like a bit of a bandwagon fan since I first heard Welcome to the Black Parade in 2016 when I stumbled onto a Doctor Who fanvideo set to it (which you can find here btw; it’s still a fantastic video) and so I’m not one of those fans who’s been desperately waiting since 2013 for this reunion, but I’m still quite happy to hear they’re back together, and I guess I’ve been making up for lost time by obsessing, haha.

It’s kind of fun to get into a band that has a fandom attached, too. Like, I also really love Shinedown, but I’ve never found adorable art like this of chibi Brent Smith hanging out in teacups (although if anyone has any, do please let me know!!). Like how cute are these? And the color schemes, and the aesthetics... an excellent artistic tribute to an excellent band :) 

I would like to present: Pirate Killjoycore! I’m pretty sure I’m not the first person to suggest pirates in the Danger Days ‘verse*–after all, we know that east of Battery City, the desert is full of runaways fighting BLI, but there’s all that ocean to the west unaccounted for. Why wouldn’t some ‘joys run off to sea instead of the desert, steal some boats, and carry on the fight on the other front? 

So, I wanted to try and capture how the Killjoy vibe might play out on the pirate side of things. I figure some ‘joys steal big yachts and graffiti them up and manage to run them off of the same mystical fuel source cars in the Zones run on. Maybe others who can’t get the magic gas thing to work for them or who don't want to rely on fuel patchwork together sails from scraps of fabric, graffiti those, and cobble together some rigging--and maybe some were lucky enough to grab up actual Tall Ships for that authentic Pirate Vibe.

If you’re a pirate ‘joy, of course, your boat will also be your crew’s home, so I figure they’re pretty cozy and colorful inside, too (and probably pretty cluttered, but in a homey way). As far as Pirate Killjoy fashion, I imagine it’s as bright, chaotic, and colorful as its counterpart Zones fashion, except naturally more pirate-inspired, with long swishy coats and big hats. 

I have a lot more Pirate Killjoycore pictures saved that didn’t make it into this moodboard, too, so let me know if there’s something specific you’d like to see more of! I can always make posts with individual pictures, too; my standard moodboard formatting wasn’t working this time since I needed my pictures to be different widths and heights for this one, so I had to make it elsewhere, hence why it’s all one image, but if you want to see one or more pictures closer, let me know. 

Seriously though feel free to ask me about Pirate Killjoys and related aesthetics! I am very slow about answering asks but I do have many thoughts about this :) 

Sources and more below the cut.

*I thought for sure at one point I’d seen a headcanon post about pirates in the DDverse, but I haven’t been able to find anything in the tags. If you have one, feel free to tag me in it or otherwise send it my way! 

Sources: x  x  x  /  x  x  x  /  x  x  x

Disclaimer, I don’t necessarily go through all of my sources, I just grab the pictures and links from image searches; that said, I did happen to click around a bit and the image on the flickr account the bottom left picture came from is right next to a picture of a dead person so I felt like I should give fair warning in case you decide to look through that flickr at all. It appears to be some part of a funeral procession in India but the dead person is clearly visible so, fair warning. 

Also I did watch the video on La Preciosa (top left, the boat with the smiley face) and that was pretty cool (and had definite Killjoy vibes). :)  

Also technically I found the first graffitied tall ship here but I did a reverse image search to find my sources and the artist’s page has more information about the painting. Now that I look at the original post though, you can actually see the details of the painting better there I think. 

One of the things I love about having a tumblr now is tracking down all the great fanart I’ve appreciated for so long and getting to share it and sing its praises properly :) The lovely Christmas Tardis picture in this set was my first phone screensaver when I started using my first smartphone last Christmas. (Yes, I’m very behind on technology for a millenial.) I love all of these so much, though. The style feels like proper, old-fashioned book illustrations, gentle and fantastical and nostalgic--and, of course, Christmassy :) 

In response to the “which door” question--well, the cheating answer is the Tardis so that you could visit all of the other worlds with it ;) Honestly, though, I would choose the Tardis first for the sake of variety--I mean, how could you turn down the whole universe, past, present, and future? Second place is harder to pick, though. Probably Hogwarts, followed by Middle Earth and/or Narnia--I think those two tie for a close third. Each promises similar fantastical adventures. Wonderland and 221B would be neat, too, but they’re lower priority. I don’t actually recognize the door below the Tardis with the hippos (or horses?) and the lighthouse. Whatever fandom that is is probably laughing at me now. In any case, I love how each door leads to adventures :) 

“The universe is big. It’s vast and complicated and ridiculous. And sometimes, very rarely, impossible things just happen and we call them miracles.” 

— The Doctor

So if some bizarre Christmas miracle was about to happen with you and all of those fantastic worlds become actually properly real - what door would you choose? ~_^

Also, I have temporary added all of this illustrations to my Redbubble shop, so if you want some of those Christmas cards - it’s better to hurry because they may  disappear from there any second now ^^’

Here is the link: redbubble.com/people/illustore/collections/341550-christmas-cards

Forget what I said before tonight’s episode about possibly wanting Isaac’s betrayal to stand for the sake of emotional intensity, by the way. Identity part 2 handled things beautifully and I couldn’t’ve hoped for better. While it might’ve been interesting to have all of Isaac’s past interactions so profoundly undermined by the realization that he was simply a genocidal Cyberman playing his role all along, it’ll be more fun in the long term to have an artificial intelligence who believed he was incapable of emotions realizing he has them and figuring out what to do with them amidst being cut off and isolated from his people, all the while having to heal the wounds his betrayal caused.

Also, human!Isaac was great and I love how his expressions are so level and robotic yet vaguely bemused with hints of wonderment. They’re just so on point for a human manifestation of an intellectually curious robot. I’m glad I can go back to enjoying him properly. 

I’d like to do more than that.

I have decided that DJ Dr. Death Defying absolutely loves the song “the Last DJ” by Tom Petty (and he vibes with it pretty hard for obvious reasons), and in fact, Tom Petty is one of his all-time favorite artists. 

I completely agree, this is the best happily ever after for them. Like “get married, have kids” doesn’t have to be everyone’s happy ending always, but I do think it would’ve been the best fit for these particular characters (and it’s certainly a darn sight better than Ben winding up dead). 

After all, as a lot of people have been saying, Rey has always been looking for a family, and as great as her friend group is, I still think she would have loved this life. It’s the opportunity both characters need to do better with their own family than what they had in the past (no offense to Han and Leia’s parenting, but just things obviously went awry). Also this would be a perfect setup for future movies if they wanted them, with another next generation.

Anyways, mini-rant aside, this is simply gorgeous art; I love the coloring and the depth of it. And, of course, it fills the heart with much-needed warmth. 

This is how it should have ended

Credit to jabberwockyface

This looks like it belongs in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and I very much want to pet it and find out how soft it is... Also, I’m quite curious what sort of sound it makes.

Also I just looked them up and these pretty babies are endangered. Good on you, mysterious person’s hands taking care of this precious polka dotted baby :) 

Baby Eastern Quoll, Bruny Island. Tasmania, Australia

Me, believing every word of this: Wow, this is fascinating!

Me, who knows almost nothing about music: I wonder what a high C sounds like. Maybe I should look up songs in the key of high C so I can hear--

Me, finally getting it: Oh...  Oh. Ooooooh! Ha. 

Me, a little disappointed: So... none of that was real then. But... but... pirate shanties...

Me, still not sure how music works: But I still want to know what the key of high C sounds like, though. 

hey did anyone hear the news that scientists have actually been able to figure out the most common key that old pirate shanties were sang in

Putting on "The End" and wiping off my makeup in the sharp white light of the hotel room mirror as Gerard sings for me to do so. Thinking about them towelling the bloody bullet hole off of their forehead somewhere, either in a nicer hotel room than this or perhaps on the bus. Picturing all the makeup coming off all the faces of all the fans, rinsing down a thousand drains as adrenaline fades to weariness and the concert high fades to a vague, aching yearning for more. There is a mournfulness at the end of the celebration, but there is yet a celebration in the mourning, a togetherness even still. And after all, is that not what this band is about? The twinned emotions of mourning and rejoicing and the times when the two are inextricable?

Putting on eyeliner this morning for the My Chemical Romance concert and thinking about how many other fans might also be doing this at the same time; thinking about how many fans have done their eyeliner for a show over the years in the past. Thinking about Gerard doing his own eyeliner. Achieving spiritual union with the MCR fandom through slightly messy eyeliner.