So Today It Snowed For The First Time This Year And Ive Naturally Been Online All Day And Didnt Know

invented a game called “I throw dice at the cat”

Do you think Welt just Says Things with zero comprehension of how it comes off. Stares at the Second Eruption panel with him going “Kneel” I genuinely do not think he knows how it looks shhssh

First of all, here's the panel for those who don't know what anon is referring to:

OK SO. Short answer is yep, I agree with your take! Long answer is nope, I kind of disagree with your take! I'm gonna make a distinction between fanservice and characterization and take this joke-ask as an opportunity to go full autism with my interpretation and analysis of this scene, because I think that this is a moment where Welt ABSOLUTELY knew what he was doing and was intentional with his words here. I also think that this is a moment where we, as the readers, can see this and go "??????"

Starting off with the analysis, there's several important factors here! A) Both Schicksal and Anti-Entropy are investigating the base in Siberia, B) Schicksal and AE are bitter rivals and C) They do NOT have the time to fight when there is a much bigger threat to deal with.

The Schicksal gang is currently struggling to fend off a horde of honkai beasts, which is the perfect chance for Welt to swoop in and save them and then establish an alliance with them (especially bc Siegfried, the white haired dude, is an old friend of his). So the question is how he does it and why he does it Like That.

Here's the pages following the previous one:

What the fuck is cognitive destructuring. Anyways. He enters the battle by immediately asserting his dominance as a Herrscher and showing off his powers, literally forcing them to their knees, before stopping right in front the AE mechs. And only after that dramatic entrance does he introduce himself and tell Siegfried & co that he doesn't wish to fight them and wants to cooperate for the time being.

He doesn't really give them a choice there, does he? He makes it very clear that he's "above them" and could easily wipe the floor with them if he wanted to. It's a threat within a call for peace - Welt being the Herrscher of Reason is the threat looming over Siegfried & co's heads while he asks to keep things peaceful for the sake of humanity.

By the way. Welt calls Siegfried an old friend, sure, but a more accurate descriptor would be "The guy he beat up in an alleyway after drugging his girlfriend". At least he decided not to kidnap her because he felt bad for them. How sweet of him.

And one of my favorite aspects of Welt as a character is the difference in his behavior as a human vs as a Herrscher. It's just so very fun to see the way he acts when he fights! For example, one thing he does is to start undressing:

Taking off his gloves so he could tear a hole into the imaginary space Sirin was residing in (well not quite but I'm trying to keep it simple here),

taking off his scarf when he starts fighting Sirin, AND

Him actually getting serious in the fight.

Bonus: The lines blurring as the act he puts on in front of Sirin mixes with the desperation he fights with.

It's an important tactic of his, either making the enemy underestimate him or fear him, and a fascinating part of the divide that exists between Joachim and Welt. Also, given that he spent the majority of his life impersonating his dead hero, I think he is pretty aware of the impression he gives off!

In a fight.

Dropping the TED-Ed voice to say that yeah, I picked These Panels on purpose (I was trying SO hard to stay serious while I brought up that last panel). Like? Is being a slut important to your combat ability? Why the hell are you taking off your glove like that?? DID YOU HAVE TO SAY KNEEL??? ARE YOU DYING OR ARE YOU GETTING EDGED HERE?????

I would show more examples but I genuinely think I'd have to screenshot every single chapter he appears in. I think he isn't quite aware of what he fucking sounds like when he talks like that, and how hot he is, or, well, kinda doesn't know what to do with that information.

(Some context for panel 1: Welt's second body is said to look much younger - too young to be on a tenure track but old enough for Himeko's friend to indirectly call him a dilf)

Like. He's got that autism rizz. But he's also got that "several people in the art and writing department REALLY wanna fuck this guy" rizz. So he will just Act Like That and yeah, it's perfectly normal in canon, but if we give the characters a little bit more self-awareness it immediately gets really fucking funny really fucking quickly

Honestly, I could talk about this whole topic for hours on end. I am so fascinated by the characterization AND sexualization of this man. I didn't even bring up his worldview or the doctors and the void archives and sirin (in detail) and the astral express but holy shit I'd be sitting here writing until tuesday. So I will leave it at that for now ^^

Also. I have to include this. Who would I be if I didn't include this.

My wife and I have a little game we play called "Speaking From Ignorance."

To play Speaking From Ignorance, all you need is a phone with a voice recorder, and another person who knows considerably more or considerably less about a topic than you do. The topic can be anything: from "how to bake a quiche" to "what happens in the Peter Jackson Hobbit movies" to "who is Florence Pugh" to "how does the traveling salesman problem work." All that matters is that one of you has a firm grasp on the material, and one of you absolutely the fuck does not.

Then the person who knows about the topic turns on the recorder, and says to the person who knows barely anything: "Hey - tell me everything you think you know about [X]."

The speaker is then not allowed to ask any questions. Nor is the expert allowed to volunteer any information. The expert is allowed to pipe up with a faintly incredulous "Oh--really? Do you--do you think so?" from time to time, but for the most part, the expert's job is just to sit there and make encouraging sounds while the speaker digs their own grave.

This is never not funny.

The reason you record it is because, very often, the first thing the speaker wants to do after finishing the recording is find out how you actually make a quiche, or whatever. Then you both get to go back and listen to how wrong they were.

We have a small library now of Speaking From Ignorance recordings, and I'm going to be listening to them until I'm eighty.

OK, so save this one for public release, but I need to know what your reaction was as a fan of Archives to that name drop in episode 22.

What was it like?

I may have yelled a little in surprise.

seele and veliona my lovessssss

Did a thing💾👁️

I will miss you if they finally realize about you, Tumblr the website and app Twitter account. You shined bright, you magnificent being.

👏🏾Education 👏🏾is 👏🏾a 👏🏾right,👏🏾 not👏🏾 a👏🏾 service 👏🏾

Pass along and use the shit out of them