Duality - Tumblr Posts
Ooo, I LOVE it! It's beautifully tragic. 🤍 🖤 💔
My SGE Prequel friends…
do you like my little painting I did :))
Vriska's Return and the Alpha Timeline's Fate
There is something downright ominous about Vriska’s return. Something about it just seems so foreboding and …wrong.
It brings to mind John’s reaction to Caliborn’s retelling of events in “Homosuck”:
Her return is so ominous, evidence suggests that John will eventually retcon his retcon to restore the original Alpha Timeline.
But what makes Vriska’s return so foreboding? What significance will this new Alpha Timeline have upon reality? And why must John undo this change?
Overview of Topics:
Personal growth
Terezi’s inverted behavior
Characters’ meta-awareness
Retcons, void timelines, and semi-stable retcon loops
Caliborn’s statements
Doc Scratch’s omniscience
Alt!Calliope
Gamzee’s importance
Vriska’s Thief of Light and Page of Void roles
Horses: the Ultimate Bad Omen
Vriska’s return is disturbing because it undoes all the experiences and personal growth the heroes have undergone for the past three years on their journey through the Furthest Ring. The very notion contradicts something in story Hussie himself emphasized as important:
They have to face all those issues themselves, or they will never learn and grow as people. […] The journey itself is more important than the destination. The struggle is what builds character and teaches us about ourselves and about life.
He elaborates, comparing Trickster Mode shenanigans to Mario using a Star to overcome obstacles:
But the point is, [Mario] didn't really win. That magic star was actually devastating to his development as a human being. WHY. Because he skipped over many critical trials on his spiritual journey. Mario NEEDS to stomp on all those mushrooms. He NEEDS to bonk those bricks with his head, for the sake of his personal growth. By using the star, he is denying himself many powerful moments of catharsis.
This idea very much applies to John’s retcon powers and using them to change the Alpha Timeline, the events of the story. Like Trickster Mode and Mario's Star, retconning seems like an easy fix, a cheap, deus ex machina solution. It’s cheating. Dave even states, “messing with the alpha timeline [...] almost seems heretical.” Solving problems by retconning them out of existence is ineffectual and does not lead to growth.
By Terezi having John reset the timeline, undoing Vriska’s death, many of the characters will no longer face the challenges and hardships they previously would have. Terezi undoes the guilt that torments her, her abusive relationship with Gamzee, and the healing of her eyesight.
It is absolutely understandable that Terezi would want to do this! How many people wish they could undo something in their lives, especially mistakes they deeply regret making? How many people would change these mistakes if given the capability? However, in doing so, Terezi is denying herself the opportunity to grow and to heal from these experiences.
The events of our lives and the actions we take shape, define, and refine who we are as individuals. By having John retcon Vriska’s death, Terezi is essentially changing who she is and who she will become. Consequently, she’s changing who the other characters are, as well. Terezi is acting as a Witch of Heart, one who changes and controls the core identity of individuals.
The comic even visually hints at this role behavior when Terezi wears Jade’s Witch shoes:
Her Witch of Heart subrole should support her Seer of Mind role, not the other way around! Using the subrole, one’s inverse, as the lead role is not a healthy mode of operation! It spells disaster! This behavior foretells dire consequences.
There is something else foreboding about Vriska’s return. The characters all seem to intuitively KNOW these events are not supposed to happen. They KNOW things have been changed, that this is not how the story is supposed to go, that this is not the intended path of the Alpha Timeline. They have an almost meta-awareness of it.
JANE: But it wouldn't surprise me if the one who dealt my fatal blow was the leader of the raid [Vriska].
JANE: This was the unanticipated factor. JANE: Their leader was someone who was not expected to show up with them at all. […] JANE: You see, Callie, your historical documents make no mention of the leader of the raid, because originally, the curtains closed early on this plucky customer. JANE: But the hero was written back into our story by some inscrutable gambit of circumstance which we may never fully understand.
JOHN: i randomly appeared and knocked vriska out cold, just like the scarf told me to. […] TEREZI: YOU W3R3N'T SUPPOS3D TO DO TH1S! TEREZI: 1 W4S SUPPOS3D TO K1LL H3R! TEREZI: YOU JUST DOOM3D US 4LL!!!
Does Terezi’s reaction sound familiar? It should. Dave reacts the same way when John accidentally “zaps in,” interrupting his and Jade’s conversation and retconning events that originally occurred.
DAVE: you being here DAVE: thats not supposed to happen […] DAVE: its not supposed to go down like this i can feel it JOHN: i know! […] JADE: whatever dave and i were going to argue about JADE: i think the moment has passed JADE: the whole thing is kind of ruined to be honest
Dave has the same thoughts as Terezi: that John should not be there, these events are not supposed to happen, and John has doomed the timeline. John explains to each of them that this is not the case because it’s “not time travel,” yet Dave and Terezi remain skeptical and uneasy.
This meta-awareness and sense of a doomed timeline occurs elsewhere, too: when Aranea puts on the Ring of Life and invades the merged session.
MEENAH: you know all youre doing is making another doomed timeline where everyone dies right ARANEA: Of course I know that.
After the events of Game Over, Roxy and John sense the timeline is doomed, as well.
ROXY: this is starting to feel an awful lot like the end […] ROXY: maybe we should just ROXY: admit to ourselves this is probably what its like when you find yourself in a timeline where everything went wrong ROXY: and you know it means youre doomed
But here’s the thing. In each of those cases, the timeline isn’t "doomed" in the traditional sense, events undone because of time travel. In both cases, events are actually retconned by John, making the timeline not doomed, but void.
John voids the Game Over timeline by going back and retrieving the Ring of Life, preventing Aranea from obtaining it.
Regarding Dave and Jade’s confrontation, John purposefully retcons his retcon, setting events back to how they originally transpired, voiding his interference. He creates a semi-stable retcon loop.
In the new Alpha Timeline, because the characters have this same meta-awareness that these events are not supposed to happen—that Vriska is not supposed to be alive—and they sense that the timeline is doomed, I suspect John will retcon his retcon again, undoing the undoing of Vriska’s death, and creating another semi-stable retcon loop.
Why? Meta-narratively speaking, so events will play out how they originally were intended, how the characters KNOW and FEEL they are supposed to happen. So it won’t undo all the character growth the characters undergo. Besides,
It's also logical, since there is essentially nothing new in paradox space. Everything that can happen is either a visual or substantive reproduction of something which has already transpired on a timeline, offshoot or otherwise.
Another semi-stable retcon loop is bound to occur at some point. We were shown the first one for a reason.
Aside from all the parallels to events surrounding John's previous semi-stable retcon loop, more evidence supports a retcon of this new Alpha Timeline.
Caliborn points out the irony that Vriska “ACTUALLY THOUGHT SHE WAS GOING TO BE RELEVANT” and tells her to “KEEP DREAMING,” which is visualized by a “PSYCHE-OUT!!!” watermark and Vriska losing her head.
In the current iteration of the Alpha Timeline, Vriska’s new life state gives her the opportunity to have greater relevance and importance than before, when she was dead. “Dreaming” can even be a euphemism for “dead,” as death in dream bubbles compares to the state of dreaming and never waking up.
Caliborn seems to know Vriska will not be as important as she thinks she will be, and by telling her to “KEEP DREAMING,” he’s effectively telling her to stay dead. If John retcons his retcon, and Vriska actually remains dead after all, not only will this fulfill Caliborn’s statement, but it would prove to be the ultimate “PSYCHE-OUT!!!” to everyone, particularly to us readers.
Doc Scratch provides another indication John will retcon his retcon. Doc Scratch claims to have “absolute mastery of the Alpha Timeline” alone, any deviations withering from his perception. If the Alpha Timeline remains on its present course, it would make Doc Scratch either a liar or incorrect about this mastery.
When John retcons Vriska’s death, it voids events of the original Alpha Timeline, events Doc Scratch explicitly shows us.
John's retcon turns the original Alpha Timeline, the events Doc Scratch shows us, into a void timeline. If Doc Scratch’s knowledge only pertains to this pre-retcon Alpha Timeline, his mastery is not of the true Alpha, but a voided version of it.
Doc Scratch is omniscient and does not lie. Yet at the same time, he has difficulty with Void.
AG: Sure you know a lot, 8ut I know for a FACT there's stuff you don't know. That's true. But the gaps in my knowledge exist by design. They are the pillars of shadow on which my comprehensive vision is built. Necessary pockets of void meant to effectuate outcomes I've foreseen and which will require my influence. Each dark pocket, in time, will be filled.
Occasionally I discover there are things I have not always known. It gives me the opportunity to make deductions, which are practically always flawless. […] But sometimes that is the nature of these hollows in my perception. It feels a bit like dark water, sloshing about the cavity in my head.
Wouldn’t it make sense for the new, current Alpha Timeline to be eventually retconned back to how events originally transpired? It would make the present Alpha, wherein Vriska lives, a void timeline. Void, which can escape Doc Scratch’s perception.
Considering Vriska “occupied a blind spot” to the Condesce, Jane, and Jade with her return, it seems reasonable she could occupy one of Doc Scratch’s “dark pockets,” as well.
If John retcons his retcon and creates a semi-stable retcon loop, it would validate Doc Scratch's mastery of the final, true Alpha Timeline, and it would reinforce the notion of pockets of Void in his knowledge.
But all of this raises another question: If eventually John is going to retcon the new, current Alpha Timeline back to its original state, what importance does the present timeline have?
The answer is Calliope’s alternate reality self.
JADE: like i said, [Alt!Calliope] just finished telling me that she was able to beat her brother in this reality JADE: but apparently, that wasnt supposed to happen? JADE: so she lived out the rest of her life in a doomed timeline and eventually died
Now, granted, this Calliope could be any Calliope from any regular doomed timeline, but I don’t think this is the case. This Calliope seems too important and special to be a random doomed one. This Calliope indicates her story is tied somehow to our John, the same John with retcon abilities and unstuck in canon.
JADE: and then she did this kinda fancy transition [...] to a story about MY brother... who was stuck in a doomed timeline too […] JADE: almost all our friends had died JADE: and johns only hope was to return to his planet, and attempt to complete his personal quest
Jade’s wording about Calliope is suspiciously similar to descriptions of timelines John retcons: Her defeat over Caliborn isn’t “supposed to happen.” If this Calliope is one who retroactively embodies Paradox Space, it would make sense for her to have been a part of the Alpha Timeline at one point, even if that timeline is eventually retconned. A standard doomed Calliope likely would not have enough importance to have such drastic influence over all of reality itself.
The difference between this Calliope and all other doomed Calliopes, why she unprecedentedly dominated her brother, could be in how they were raised: without Gamzee’s influence. In the present Alpha Timeline, Gamzee is suspiciously absent at the end of the three-year journey.
The meaning of Terezi’s ominous message, “you don’t need him,” has not yet been explained. Perhaps it refers to Gamzee. If removed from the picture, he cannot raise the cherubs, influencing their upbringing, personalities, resources, and knowledge.
Remember, just as Calliope is “not supposed to” dominate, Gamzee is “not supposed to” die. Hussie even states he is “not aware of a single timeline in which [Gamzee] dies.” If Gamzee only ever dies in a void timeline, each time the Alpha retconned so his death never occurs, Hussie’s supposed lack of its awareness makes sense.
If John retcons his retcon, it will make the current Alpha Timeline, wherein Vriska lives, a void timeline in actuality. It seems fitting that a Thief of Light from a void timeline would steal the Alpha Timeline’s Light—its importance and relevance. Not to mention her Page of Void subrole, empowering others to exploit Void—a void timeline—maximizing its use.
However, everything the heroes have done so far has advanced Lord English’s machinations. What exactly will happen is unclear, but all the ominous foreshadowing surrounding Vriska's return hints that something disastrous will occur and force John to go back and retcon this timeline.
One clue is Jane’s phrasing of Vriska’s return and the raid she leads in the merged session:
JANE: The tilt between the friendly and felonious was a true horse race again. A real barn burner in the brewing.
Jane’s colorful wording metaphorically surrounds them with horses.
VRISKA: I think I've just decided that 8eing surrounded 8y horses might 8e the ultim8 8ad omen. Nothing good can ever follow or precede those circumstances.
The Ultimate Bad Omen. Vriska’s return is ominous indeed.
Hi! I was wondering if a Knight of Mind, Heir of Blood, or Seer of Heart would be a better leader?
Well, it would depend.
A Knight of Mind would be good at using façades and choices, exploiting and maximizing the usefulness of thoughts, rationale, and the outer self in order to get things done. If balanced, they could also use their Rogue of Heart inverse to obtain, redistribute, and share souls and inner desires.
An Heir of Blood would be good at influencing and inviting change relating to bonds, pacts, and connections of a group. If balanced, they could also use their Mage of Breath inverse to understand what direction the team should take—their goals and quests—and use that knowledge to act or lead.
A Seer of Heart would be good at understanding the core of each person in the group, such as their strengths, weaknesses, fears, and inner desires. They would then guide the team using that knowledge. If balanced, they could also use their Witch of Mind inverse to change others’ minds—their rationales and decisions—and their outer selves.
I’m inclined to think an Heir of Blood would make one of the best leaders in general, but there are a lot of factors to consider. It’d depend on the individual leading, the group dynamic, the purpose and goal, and what the team actually needed. It’d also depend on how “realized” (and competent) the person is.
Certain classpects are probably naturally better skilled and equipped to lead than others, but each classpect has the potential to be a good leader (or a poor leader), depending on the circumstances.
Jk duality is insane 🙈💥💜
Es perfecta.
dua lipa icons
credits on tw: @folklorewalls
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© on twitter: @folklorewalls
The Duality of Man
This is just too funny lmao.
Original post credits: @orpheuslament (top post) & @ponyoisms (bottom post).
(Click on the image for better quality)
Duality
Two forces, battling in mind.
The actions I have taken,
The actions I have yet to undertake.
Emotions that have run wild,
At last a chance to breathe.
I am enlightened, I am blissful.
The road ahead is dangerous,
The fire of my mind is equally so.
I am indecisive.
BTS Appreciation {Jimin Sexy VS Cute} - Admin Kath
Park Jimin
Even though I know no one is going to read this I feel the need to say how much I love Park Jimin. He makes me so incredibly soft, I just adore that cute squish. His duality is insane. I just want to hold him and give him all my love and praises. That is all.
The Duality of Park Jimin #1
==>When you cut your finger:
Scene A
You: *accidentally cuts finger while chopping vegetables*
Jimin: OMG!!! Y/N!!! *throws away the knife and immediately wraps a bandage around your finger as cautiously as possible* This should help :3
Scene B
You: *accidentally cuts finger while chopping vegetables*
Jimin: *grabs your wrist and licks-off the blood oozing out from the finger with utmost skill before finally wrapping a bandage around it* This should help ;}
|MASTERLIST|
*Send Requests for Jimin Fanfics/Scenarios/Imagines/Reactions via ASK
Why Do I Study Physics? (2013)
There is no "perfect" or "imperfect," only things we feel line up nicely and things that don't quite fit with our assumptions of the world. The true perfection, then, is accepting things as they are.
"The world is not beautiful, and yet because of that, it is."
I reuploaded this level with some bugfixes - Mario could get stuck in a few places, which is to be expected with something of this scope. Shouldn’t be an issue anymore. Course ID is above.
I made a level in Super Mario Maker called Duality that flips upside-down every time Mario enters a pipe. The course ID is 2FA8-0000-0030-C2AD if you want to try it out!
Why wouldn’t I be making Super Mario Maker levels with all my spare time?
A couple of these were already posted here, but I included them anyway just to keep everything in one place. If you want to catch these levels as they’re posted, check out my Twitter.
Reblogging again because DUALITY WAS FEATURED ON NINTENDO UK’S TWITCH STREAM AAAAAA
I made a level in Super Mario Maker called Duality that flips upside-down every time Mario enters a pipe. The course ID is 2FA8-0000-0030-C2AD if you want to try it out!
12. Animus. por Oz O.R.
