what if argenti's hair wasn't always red? (headcanon based on his character story, specifically part 3)
that alternative ending where the tb stayed on the space station and became a researcher. how much angst do you think it can contain
To me, the funniest thing about the idea of Tesla and Einstein being in Star Rail is the sheer difference between how Welt is seen in his own universe and how he's seen in Star Rail.
In hi3, literally no one thinks of him as this reasonable old man who knows everything. He's not a member of a group that befriends governments. He's a fucking terrorist. He's a little shit. He's a bad influence on Bronya despite being a good dad to mini Joyce.
Also, almost no one respects him. Everyone is constantly calling him pathetic and stupid. Even his own Himeko thinks that he's a pathetic dumbass. Tesla especially thinks that he's a pathetic dumbass, and is the single most vocal person about it.
And coincidentally, the only person from hi3 who DOES think of him as a wise, reasonable person is Void Archives themself. The only person who came to hsr with him.
If Tesla and Einstein were to show up in hsr, they're going to hear someone like Jing Yuan being all like "Mr. Yang is very wise and calm. We are proud that he has chosen to help us in the past" and Einstein would be like "wow, I thought he would be on your wanted list." And Tesla would be like "oh my god has my stupid dork finally gained social skills?!" And everyone else would be "...what???"
I am so in fucking love with the stairway to heaven animation and the only ways I can express that is to either say I am bricked the FUCK up, or I give in to the uber instincts of my uber autism and write an essay on what I THINK are some of the references/inspirations used in the animation. I chose the essay because I need people to know why I am "bricked up."
I am fully willing to accept if I am wrong/reaching for some of these but even then, I think it's cool that I can still connect certain moments with things I enjoy. With that out of the way, behold my analysis/breakdown of Stairway to Heaven!
Spoilers below the cut not just for the animation, but also minor spoilers for Kane Pixel's backrooms series, Liminal Land, Skinamarink, and Mandela Catalogue. Also just a warning for the incoherent ramblings of a guy who's abnormal about analog/indie horror. Please please please please PLEASE go watch the animation if you haven't.
First, "subject 087" is in reference to SCP-087, the never ending staircase SCP. I actually didn't even catch that the first time until I scrolled down to the comments lmao. In my defense, when SCP was blowing up in the mid 2010s I wasn't really old enough to appreciate it or find the format interesting (and honestly it is still hard for me to really get into it, but that's more of a me thing. Conceptually a clinical approach to horror like with SCPs or in All Tomorrows is fascinating, but it can be a bit of a slog for me), so I only knew the main three's numbers. (173, 096, and 682).
"Motion detected" has been used in just about every analog horror series now, but Mandela Catalogue is probably the main series that popularized the trope when analog horror first started getting popular.
The backrooms is, obviously, the backrooms. You can probably assume it's Kane Pixels' backrooms because his version really blew up but it feels more like early days backrooms before we got all those monsters and almond water stuff. (Which btw it's so funny we got "almond water" from whoever the first person to say the air smells like almonds was. For reference, almonds smell like cyanide. OP was trying to say the air smells toxic, not that almonds are the safest thing to consume in the backrooms.)
This shot just reminded me of The Oldest View, ALSO from Kane Pixels. Tbh that's probably just me but I thought it was neat.
Next up, the door. Aside from the obvious 333 angel numbers which also appear very prominently in Mandela Catalogue (this series is going to pop up a lot, I'm sorry), but for some reason it reminded me of the Silent Hill 4 door. Again, that's just the tism probably.
Skinamarink ahh shot, was honestly expecting the door to just poof, disappear.
Next, the shot with all the houses. While KP's Backrooms do have that creepy neighbourhood, this exact shot and set up feels closer to H.O.M.E. from Liminal Land.
And then our most darling biblically accurate horror icon Columbina would make False Gabriel proud, and just... she is so fucking cool and creepy in this and I love her so much.
This whole sequence was for one absolutely horrifying and beautiful, but what caught MY attention were the settings and locations shown. These are standard creepy liminal spaces and analog horror gore censorship, yes, but they also reminded me of the locations Trevor Henderson uses in his art pieces, so suffice to say I think Columbina looks RIGHT AT HOME regardless of how you wanna look at these shots. And the animation on her face opening up into wings and eyes is just an absolute chef's kiss moment. Props to the animators, man.
This trope, the whole main character monologue overlaying the screen moment, very common in analog horror but for me, again popularized by its use in the Mandela Catalogue.
The smudged picture is a reference to one of the ending shots in Skinamarink, where it pans over the childhood photos only for their heads and faces to now be missing, which most agree is the movie's way of saying these kids were trapped her for so long they eventually just stopped existing/faded into nothingness.
And finally, the classic ending scene of KP's first Backrooms video.
I know for a fact there are probably other references to liminal spaces/analog horror that I either missed or they're like general concepts/tropes used in analog horror. I did almost mention the mill in petscop because of Columbina's "two in the mill, one taken, one left" because that phrasing felt really specific, but it doesn't quite fit the vibes of all the other references. Also her only being seen in the camera is a trope used in all manner of horror media. My first thought was the forest scene in VHS (2012) where the murderer could only be seen in the film static.
I just wanted to get the especially cool/unique moments out there. I didn't even touch on the storyline but that's because it seems pretty straightforward. I'm also aware not many people are gonna read my red string corkboard ramblings, which I'm fine with. I just needed to get this out of my system, but I do appreciate those who did take the time to indulge my ramblings!
That's all for now, back to whatever the hell I had planned for today.
you can only find comments like these on tumblr anymore i have never seen these fourteen words in the same sentence before
ok so maybe, as a gifted kid w gifted kid trauma, i may throw my hat in the ring on ratios relationship w the genius society.
I don't think he wants to be a part of the society because hes such an open critic of them and some of their practices. However, I do think that there is a little bit of bitterness there. But not for the reasons that you'd think.
i want you all to consider for his perspective on this: You've spent your entire life striving for perfection in your field. Day and night, year after year, you work and work and work towards a goal that you believe is a good, selfless cause. And people have likely told you that you're simply too altruistic, that its not worth it and that your talents and skills are best put to work in areas that would instead tear the world apart. It hurts your heart to think that, being raised to be a kind and diligent person, the world feels your kindness is beneath you.
You've spent your life dedicated to knowledge in the pursuit of a greater tomorrow, not just for knowledge's sake. And a part of you hopes that maybe THEY will turn THEIR eye towards you, and recognize that someone so good and hardworking is worthy of recognition - that humanity and simply caring enough to go above and beyond, something so intrinsic to your identity - is worthy of all the praise lavished upon them over the years. That maybe when THEY see your hard work, everyone will recognize the truth and that things will finally be better. Maybe the universe will say "you have done enough, you have helped all you can, rest easy."
But that never happens. And if no one else will do the work, then you will.
How would you feel?
Im so goofy cause i will scroll twitter and repost an artwork and then i will go on tumblr and reblog the exact same artwork from the same artist again
Bill Cipher, βthe Book of Billβ:
"... I don't need anyone, I NEVER HAVE, and I DON'T MISS ANY OF THEM! I'M FINE!".
Fyodor Dostoevsky, βCharacter card letterβ:
βI'm always alone. And this is fine by me. Has been, and always will beβ.
Yes, they're both βfineβ. Only Bill screams into the void, and Fyodor becomes one.
So what do we have here? Two infinity-old almost-immortal demons, who destroy themselves just to prove they can be alone forever.
Spoiler alert: they can't. And they despise the vulnerability that's still left inside of them.
Well, at least Bill's in therapy. But he is also at the point of breaking. Fyodor is still holding on, I guess? But barely.
Those delusions and fallacies have been shattered. He wanted to be the sun of the whole world, yet He fell from the sky.
183 posts