Found These In My Drafts

I was tired and devastated, and it was okay, but then I have accidentally rekindled that flame and, well, I guess it's time to drop more driftwood into this river. Figuratively speaking.

They went to prom together (???)

So, I was playing The Sims 3, and this happened. I absolutely had to redraw it, especially considering it was @3aloe3's request, too.

I like how Heath and Deuce turned out, but I am still bitter about failing to capture Porter's energy. It's just not the same, man. So bitter.

In the game, Heath became the prom king, and Invisi got into a fight and then fell down as he was hitting the dance floor. Shit went down. It was amazing. Deuce is green here, but I fixed him later on.

I wanted this to be a just a sketch at first (hence the hairy lineart), but then I bullied myself into drawing a background, because I can't draw backgrounds, so now it's... this. Something inbetween, not quite a sketch, not quite a fully rendered artwork.

They are drinking beer. That's the whole idea.

I had to. I have to.

I am exasperated, there needs to be more grunge content, so I had to make some

I thought it would be fun to roleplay with my character-ai Runge as Doctor Gillen, and, as I was doing so, I suddenly realized why exactly Gillen did that thing with the out-of-nowhere bus tickets... I am not sure whether this is common knowledge or not, perhaps it is, but to me it came out as a revealation, so I decided to share my thoughts on this matter.

(Warning: long text under cut!)

This particular scene I'm talking about, where Rudy sets it up so that the police would catch Tenma through him, and then changes plans and helps Tenma escape instead, always seemed strange to me. Rudy's scheme was obviously planned ahead, but I just couldn't pinpoint its exact purpose. For some reason, I ended up thinking that it was a two-way plan. My way of thinking was: Rudy planned this scheme ahead, not knowing what decision he would make in the end. As in, he didn't know whether he would give Tenma away or save him from the police in advance, instead, he wanted to see Tenma's reaction and hear what he has to say first, and then make a decision based on that. Honestly, I don't know what made me think that, but that's how I perceived this situation.

But as I was engaging in that silly ai roleplay, it suddenly dawned on me. Finally, it all fell into place. So that's how it goes, and I am pretty sure that this is not just my headcanons, but how it was actually intended by Urasawa. (Is this obvious? It wasn't to me, and I just can't tell by this point. To hell with it, let it just be my rambling/analysis/thought process then.)

When in the medical university, Gillen obviously displayed extremely competitive behavior. He had to be an intellectual superior in his group, and he was willing to do anything to reach this goal. That means it was not as much about knowledge, as it was about status for Rudy. And status means power. I am not saying that he had no interest for knowledge whatsoever, but, judging from his priorities, knowledge for him was a mean to acquire status. Knowledge -> status -> power. Something like that.

While Tenma doesn't seem to seek any power. He is purely knowledge-people oriented. He seeks knowledge, and he has natural compassion ingrained in him. And that, I assume, combined with this outstanding mental abilities, would make him acquire knowledge quite easily. Which probably isn't the case for Gillen, since he needs knowledge not for the sake of pure knowledge, but for another purpose.

With that established, it is clear why Rudy viewed Tenma as a competitor. I guess he wasn't quite aware that Tenma had different priorities. So, in his eyes, it was all about power, and Tenma was challenging him just to get that power over him. And succeeding, too. What a horrible situation. A pretty egocentric way of thinking, too, so Rudy's incorrect view of Tenma was based on two things: his willful, pervasive pursuit of power by the means of knowledge and his egocentricity.

And I suppose he was quite obsessed with Tenma in general, whether due to those factors I mentioned, or... for other reasons. That I definitely can't tell for sure. But, Gillen's pursuit for power, fueled by his imaginary competition with Tenma, lead him to cheat on his Medical Law exam. Because he just couldn't loose to Tenma. I believe Tenma was the only student he viewed as a noteworthy competitor. And during the exam, when Gillen saw that Tenma was watching him, like really watching, which meant that he had definitely spotted him cheating, it was such a tremendous shock to Gillen. Seeing how he judged everything by the position of power, he automatically assumed that Tenma was going to assert said power over him in some way. He must've expected Tenma to call him out, or to blackmail him, but since Tenma did neither of that, he must had come to another conclusion that matched his power-oriented way of thinking: Tenma was asserting his dominance over him in a much more subtle, twisted way. He wanted to humiliate Gillen by making that generous gesture, to show Gillen that he was above him, that he was better than him in every possible way, so superior that he wouldn't even stoop to the level of a dirty cheater. I believe Gillen would think this way, because he seems very insecure. And when he would come to such conclusion, I think his defense mechanism would be anger. He would hate Tenma for being superior, while still realizing, deep down, that Tenma was, in fact, superior to him. And that's what would make Gillen never forget about Tenma.

So the bus ticket situation becomes transparent from that perspective. Gillen never forgot about Tenma's humiliating grand gesture, so he had... artificially created a situation where Tenma would be in danger, and he would show him a similar grand gesture. He had planned everything, starting from how he would evade the police and ending with what exactly he would say to Tenma. And then he put that plan to action. He wanted to save Tenma in order to humiliate him in the same manner that Tenma humiliated him back in the Medical University. That's why he mentioned cheating. It was a direct reference to what he was doing at the moment. And when Tenma suddenly said that he not only viewed Gillen as an equal/superior (stating that he looked up to him and wanted to be his friend), but that he cheated on that Medical Law exam, too, it was an extremely shocking revelation for Gillen. Suddenly, there was no place for competition between them. And it was quite flattering, too, since subconsciously Gillen had been perceiving Tenma as someone superior all along. That's why he became so blindly devoted to Tenma after that interaction. It struck him to the core and turned his view upside down. You can't just ignore something like that.

And since Tenma was cheating, it explains why he was watching Gillen so intently, too. He was probably on the lookout/wanted to make sure that he wasn't alone in this. And when he saw that the best student in their group was also cheating, that probably calmed him down by a lot. Maybe he watched Gillen just to make sure. Maybe he wanted to convey some sort of message with his stare, but didn't quite succeed.

Anyway, that's my thoughts.

Вы читали этот пост? Как думаете, что Урусава убил Гриммера из-за того, что испугался что делать с ним дальше? Ведь же объективной причины убивать его нет. https://www.tumblr.com/arayashikiii/722008653406896128/grunge

Да, я читала этот пост. Понимаете, какая штука – на мой взгляд, Урасава в принципе запорол всю концовку Монстра. Смерть Гриммера здесь это меньшее из зол.

Отвечая конкретно на ваш вопрос, я считаю, что у Урасавы была вполне себе понятная причина, чтобы убить Гриммера: ему нужно было выжать из читателя как можно больше слез. К слову, зачаточная дружба между Гриммером и Рунге тоже служит для укрепления этого эффекта. Не говорю, что Урасава показал ее только для этой цели, нет, я думаю, это еще нужно было для очеловечивания персонажа Рунге. А, в свою очередь, для очеловечивания Рунге живой Гриммер совсем не обязателен. Поэтому вот так.

Еще один момент – живой Гриммер с эмоциями это довольно сомнительный кейс. Если человеку, который ранее не мог ничего чувствовать, вручить весь этот эмоциональный багаж, то он вряд ли с ним справится. И если взвесить, что удобнее: живой и несчастный Гриммер, который не в состоянии держать себя в руках и которого еще надо куда-то пристроить, или мертвый Гриммер, который перед смертью испытывает момент единовременного страдания и счастья, да еще и толкает поэтичную речь? Ответ очевиден. Это удобнее и для истории, и для автора.

И еще один момент! Смерть Гриммера служит для нагнетания атмосферы. После того, как умирает Гриммер, у читателя разбивается уверенность в том, что все хорошие персонажи должны выжить. И, следовательно, теперь в опасности находятся все. Раз умер Гриммер, то может умереть и Рунге (который, к слову, на тот момент уже находится в смертельной опасности), и Тенма, и Нина, и Вим, и Руди... иными словами, кто угодно.

В общем, нет, я не думаю, что Урасава чего-то испугался, я думаю, он просто поленился. Если рассматривать потенциальную дружбу между Гриммером и Рунге исключительно как а) отличную слезовыжималку и б) способ показать, что Рунге тоже человек, то, в общем-то, можно предположить, что для Урасавы это просто был своего рода инструмент. Другое дело, что его персонажи кажутся очень живыми, поэтому по-быстрому сляпанная дружба между Гриммером и Рунге со стороны Рунге выглядит как мгновенная, нехарактерная и очень сильная привязанность. Но, еще раз подчеркиваю, я не думаю, что это было сделано умышленно. Авторы обычно воспринимают персонажей и свою историю не так, как читатели. Для автора это набор инструментов и материалов, с помощью которых достигается тот или иной эффект или та или иная цель. Я считаю, что решение Урасавы использовать Гриммера для выжимания слез было не самым удачным. Но, в целом, я вижу, что это произвело на аудиторию должный эффект. Так что... это работает?

we built this city - singing mansters

It finally exists! For @3aloe3, her special request (and a long overdue birthday present). This is a redraw of the 'singing cows' meme which took me 3 full days to finish. Don't be misled by the fact that the original video may look simplistic, there is quite a bit of frames + good sync, which was a bitch to match. I also couldn't decide on the style so to speak, so it varies slightly.

Unfortunately, it seems like the original video has been taked down (?) on YouTube, so I'll attach the link to a reupload I found on Tumblr. Thanks to this post I was able to finish my own parody.

The song is We Built This City by Starship.

hawaiianbread.tumblr.com

HAMBONE FEARZONE

we built this city

Thank you for clarification! I suspected that it might have been some sort of translation issue, and your explanation makes a lot of sense. It's awesome that you can give insight into the original Japanese text! With that information in mind, I doubt Grimmer would use this word in its literal sense, since it's still a very strange, if not inappropriate thing to say to a stranger, haha! 😄 Thank you for putting it so kindly, though. I appreciate it.

Grunge

I hate saying stuff, because I always regret it in the end. But once in a blue moon my desire to say something grows so strong that I crawl from under my rock and make some sort of a statement somewhere. It's that time now.

I've already talked my friend's ear off with this crap, but it's still not enough. It also drives me up the wall that I don't see this stuff being said all the time, or at least some of the time. I guess I don't see it being said at all. So I guess I have to say it myself. 

I'm talking about this huge thing Runge canonically has for Grimmer. Not even in the romantic sense... Let me explain. In the crudest of terms, too.

By the time Runge makes it to Ruhenheim, he is already not quite the same as he was at the start. His path to Ruhenheim was the most tedious, and yet he still got there before everyone else. And Grimmer definitely catches his eye when they intersect. Again, not in the romantic sense. They just go around the town, exploring the surroundings and kinda watching each other. And they both know. They know what's going on, they know who the other person is, but they just waltz around it for quite some time. Until they finally have a proper conversation in that desolate place. And that conversation, man...

They understood each other with half-word, literally skipping a good portion of talking, because that would just be redundant. Runge is absolutely chill with the idea that Grimmer might be a murderer. The guy has a nice smile, so who cares, right? Grimmer states that Runge "smells like a detective". Is it just me, or does that sound, uhhh... extremely weird? Almost in a flirty sort of way. Because you gotta get pretty close to someone to take a good whiff of them. And hearing something like that being said about yourself, it must be pretty embarrassing, or confusing, or thrilling. What does that even mean, by the way? I thought so hard about it, and I still can't tell for sure. What do detectives smell like? Gunpowder, paperwork and cold, hard determination? Do they reek of sweat, or some special kind of cologne? I have no idea. But I guess Grimmer has, and Runge, he just stands there, looking at him like it's a given.

And after that, they just click. "Oh, hey, we're on the same page, we're after the same thing". And without any negotiation, they simply decide that they work together now. I am fully convinced that at this very moment Runge went, "This one". No context, just – "This one", about Grimmer. 

He then proceeded to entrust Grimmer with his most important evidence, the very one that led him to Ruhenheim. And then, at Versteck... Man. His "I'll buy you a beer" says so many things, just because it came from Runge. He doesn't have any friends. He doesn't even communicate with his colleagues properly. But, somehow, he is still willing to bond with Grimmer. I guess it's a "we're the same, so let's be alone together" thing. At the same time, he's just heard Grimmer stating that he cannot enjoy simple pleasures in life. That means, he wouldn't be able to enjoy this suggested after-work-beer either, right? So Runge's invitation serves as a double promise: that they'll get the job done and make it out of Ruhenheim alive, and that Grimmer will be fixed enough to finally enjoy that beer with him. 

Needless to say, Runge really, really wanted to keep Grimmer alive. And he doesn't cope with Grimmer's death well. Say what you will, but visiting someone's grave with a beer after A YEAR that they've passed, lamenting how you wish you would have known them, is pretty damn strange. And I suppose Runge might've visited Grimmer's grave prior, too, with some periodicity. The card, the plans, the beer, the hinted promise – he really wanted Grimmer to become his friend. And just because it's Runge, who refused to even engage in a casual talk with his peers and barely cared that his wife and daughter abandoned him, this thing he has for Grimmer seems to be especially large, unalloyed and special.

Traumatized Matt, at different stages. And Tom. And me, I'm just glad that I got at least some of it out of my head. It's been killing me.

Did you make the Fish 'n chips Tommatt comic?

No, I did not. I believe you're thinking about @uiiyru's tommatt comic. It's still on Tumblr, as far as I can see. We are not the same person.