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Strife / Petra @csstrife.bsky.social · 2h

just played Desktop Explorer a couple days back. Really cool horror-Hypnospace type thing with obtuse (complimentary) puzzles. Would recommend!

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Strife / Petra @csstrife.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

205. It Follows (2014), dir. David Robert Mitchell 5/10

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Strife / Petra @csstrife.bsky.social · 15/10/2026

I lied btw here are some thoughts in a very scatterbrained fashioned with no editorializing SPOILERS TO ALL OF TURN A GUNDAM

I actually think that Victory and Turn A aren't necessarily a change of Tomino's ideals, but a closing of the cycle.

Tomino deliberately uses imagery of death and rebirth in Turn A in many many instances, and it's all in service of working alongside what the previous shows propositioned. Whereas the earlier shows talk about humanity "leaving the nest", Turn A is about the return home, the acknowledgement of the end. But, at the same time, it's not a permanent, stagnant death, but one where new life springs forth. You can see that very easily exemplified in the Adesca episodes - old, tired kings are killed when young, spry blood appears, and are replaced by them. I think it's the way that Tomino confronts the thought of "what happens after space colonization?". The show rejects the idea of life drawing out for an obscenely long amount of time and then rotting away because of entropy. It rejects the idea that humanity will stop being humanity one day, and proposes that our strength is in our ability to persevere as a species. It's why the Turn A is a butterfly - the Turn A keeps hatching from a cocoon (the statue at the start, the cocoon at the end), grows from the bagworm into a butterfly, and finishes its life by retreating back into a cocoon.
You can obviously see the birth aspect exemplified in other places, notably though I wanna point out the opening of episode 1 - the first thing we hear is Loran, Fran and Keith singing nursery rhymes. Yes, they are going back to Earth, but to them in their short, singular lives that "return" is kind of a birth into a new world - thus the nursery rhymes.

I think it's best exemplified with Kihel and Dianna. I was trying to think for a while about why they look the same, and it finally clicked to me in a way that feels sensible.
Dianna has been the Queen for centuries, and is tired. She explicitly confesses that she had hoped to die in that final trip to the Earth as part of the Earth Return Plan. It contrasts with the opposing…

At the same time, Kihel is very young, and importantly, very ambitious. She wants to work and bring about change, and rejects mulling over historical facts she already knows in university. That's why she acclimates so well to being the Queen on the Soleil - it's not just her similarity to Dianna, but her drive and passion. She also has her own Agrippa in Guin - a man who rejects living his life in full, and seeks the next opportunity for his name and empire to rise again and to make a name for himself. It's why the last thing you see of him in the show is him setting out to reestablish himself in the world, instead of retiring and finding any peace after the tumult of the show.
Them switching places is a condensed exemplification of the whole death and rebirth idea - Dianna gets to have her sunset, returning home to Earth and living out her days peacefully, while Kihel gets to start her adult life as a leader like she wanted to. Yes, Dianna will die, and we see her body start to break down as she needs a cane at the end of the episode. But the point is exactly to not be scared of death, but to realize that retaining one human life, or one culture, in stagnation, brings nothing but rot. Being able to retire and die peacefully with the person you love is more important than the valor and longevity of your name or of a culture. You live one day at a time - as Loran says, "See you tomorrow, Queen Dianna".

I think that, in a metatextual context, this show kind of helps with coming to terms with the existence of the AUs. Not in how they are slotted into the canon, but rather, in that shows like After War deliberately rehash the events of 0079-CCA. Instead of having a grim, cynical outlook on those shows, Tomino chooses to embrace them, basically saying that many civilizations have risen and repeated events from the past shows (similar to how the world of Turn A "rehashes" the names of places from the real world), and that those civilizations will also end, but that despi…

Of course, that might sound defeatist, saying that we have to accept that civilization will die someday. But I see it more as an acknowledgement of our strength and ability to stay a species. The show does, in fact, propose a change - it hopes for an end to violence and meaningless conflict, it rejects Gym's ideology of "humanity survives because of violence".

This show is what 3.0+1.0 is to Evangelion. It is "Goodbye, all of Gundam". Not as an ending to a franchise, but as an acknowledgement that it will, one day, end, and that's fine. It's the journey that mattered, and it's an achievement to be able to hang up your coat and rest at the end.
All good things must come to an end, and that's fine.

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Strife / Petra @csstrife.bsky.social · 14/10/2026

203. Jacob's Ladder (1990), dir. Adrian Lyne 8/10

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Strife / Petra @csstrife.bsky.social · 13/10/2026

202. Child's Play (1988), dir. Tom Holland 5/10

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Strife / Petra @csstrife.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

once again i'm thinking about the clickbait title Discovery made for a clip from Manhunt: Unabomber where a guy gets mangled by a mail bomb in front of his wife and daughter

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Strife / Petra @csstrife.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

201. When Evil Lurks (2023), dir. Demián Rugna 9/10

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Strife / Petra @csstrife.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

200. Freddy vs. Jason (2003), dir. Ronny Yu 6/10 Pretty damn fucking solid! Tight script that leans into lore stuff without feeling too "point at the screen", and some great fights. It's exactly what it needs to be, and it does that well.

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Strife / Petra @csstrife.bsky.social · 11/10/2026

me when i wanna watch Dragon Ball GT

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Strife / Petra @csstrife.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

this show was made specifically with me in mind (that is to say, I'm only on episode 8 and this is already in contention for being my favorite show of all time)

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Strife / Petra @csstrife.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

"uhhhh fuck we need to make up a surname for Laura" "what if it's just Laura again" "yeah Laura Rolla fuck it"

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Strife / Petra @csstrife.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

bro what the FUCK are you wearing😭

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Strife / Petra @csstrife.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

they're doing this to oomfs on a daily basis

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Strife / Petra @csstrife.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

looked at the trailer again after seeing people point out some details and uh yeah wow this is upsetting lol it's just the Halloween soft reboot series but for The Exorcist III I guess I'd be fine with having it be tied to that movie, that's cool, but it seems to be just the same movie again

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Strife / Petra @csstrife.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

reaaaaally don't know about this, man It could be really good but this reads just as a soft reboot of The Exorcist III, which is a perfect movie I really don't know what this could bring to the table that would make it stand out on its own

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Strife / Petra @csstrife.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

okay yeah i guess she's playing Julie Kinderman

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