playing "spot the reference" in this series is fun. "that reagan thing in 88," huh? "those fucking tomatoes," huh?
Conclusion: I really enjoyed The Cool Wars a lot! I don't think I ~got it, but what I did get was clever, and I am unfairly attached to all of these background artists who just make weird shit. And to Tangerine. Poor Tangerine.
I've made it to the sixth page of top-ranked SCPs and am taking a break because I'm skimming again. categories of SCP, in my estimation: -weird object -demon object -edgelordy -INCREDIBLY CREEPY -hilarious send-up of existing SCP entry/cultural touchstone -creepy thing that's actually sad when you think about it -somebody's cool* OC so many SCP objects and phenomena could be considered 'accidental relics of someone trying majjyyks and fucking it up', and I love that, a lot, except for when it's sad because that thing is all that's left of them and now it's just a creepy trinket getting poked by nerds in a bunker somewhere. and a bunch of the other ones could be quantified as 'the detectable, anglerfish-esque parts of various horrific whatsits that want to eat your eye jellies and inhabit your corpse'. I have a lot of feelings about the SCP experience in general and how it's basically applying science to magic and hoping that gets you somewhere, and my operating theory is that there are a bunch of youngish, largely-male, largely-American contributors who are reconciling their religious upbringing and culture with the things they learned in school and are experiencing as science progresses and the world changes and all that. but even that doesn't describe the entirety of the site, because like all fandoms it's not a monolith, and I just. love it. even the bits that are stupid. what an excellent bizarre creation. *technically belongs in the 'edgelordy' section but there are probably exceptions, somewhere
There are also ones that are "just plain weird and hilarious" (the tomatoes, the sea slug, the house that communicates with a casually racist alien). And non-hilarious incredibly creepy meta-commentary ones, like the teddy bear.
some of my absolute fave SCPs are the ones that combine absurdity and genuinely disturbing things. like the mountain peak that regularly launches mice out of a cannon into the surrounding wilderness (and if you go inside it, you will get hopelessly lost and also dead). and the tomatoes are amazing. tbh my categories list is at least half joking and definitely a product of personal opinion :P (I forgot to add 'gross' and 'I wrote this SCP so I could refer to it in another SCP's writeup') what part of the teddy bear one is meta-commentary? is that the builder bear?
the logs on the fucking mouse cannon are upsetting racist eldritch abomination is one of my favorites. my favorite scps in that kind of mode are the corncrake and the communist spiders also this sweetie but keep an eye out for a bit of an ominous edge fuck ow
ahahahaha the communist spiders are incredible I dunno if I get what's up with the corncrake, but it definitely makes me laugh. I love how it seems to be bizarrely powerful in addition to being just a garden-variety non-malicious pain in the ass
That's the one. If I'm remembering right (and I may not be), it was written in part because the author was annoyed at kinda weird but harmless and cute Safes that were given free run of the Site they were on and were basically pets. So it's intended as, "no, that's a bad idea, and this is why."
according to the comments these are people's theories for what do "a cosmic (possibly divine) being on extended vacation in the form of a corncrake a looney toons character set loose in the SCPverse a planeswalker with vast knowledge of the multiverse an unfathomably ancient immortal a being from a neighboring plane of existence where he makes total sense any of the above, but also mildly insane and ditzy all of the above"
tin can labcoat guy 1802 really struck me as one of the sad ones, like he's pretty much a performance art installation with self-awareness and that seems like a hell of a way to live. :/ but I also feel bad for the malicious computer program that only communicates in rage-shorthand, because robo-empathy problems :P
my favorite thing about scp 1802 is it keeps trying to open its own head, even though there's nothing inside considering he's essentially just a mean parody of the foundation what do you think that says about them? :3
What about the data disc from an alien equivalent of the Foundation talking about the terrifying, mysterious, and deadly object they found which, if you read between the lines, Spoiler is a laptop ?
huh, interesting! I had no idea. it did seem like it was written with a specific 'moral' or point to it, but I couldn't figure out what that was, and just found it tasteless and weird (that was one of the ones I disliked on completely subjective grounds, oddly enough). omg excellent