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"What do you see, Kaneda?" (Karin Han, V8) - The only quote on this list that isn't from a thread title I actually named, but it was discussed and done in consultation with Dr. Adjective based on our mutual fondness for the movie Sunshine. What puts the title in this tier is that it forms a completely unplanned call-and-response in Karin's wiki entry, because she left this thread and immediately joined a thread titled "The sun... ". The quote "What do you see, Kaneda?" is said while Kaneda is being roasted alive after being caught out on a solar shield while it's exposed to the sun. Kaneda never responds, but it's treated as though being exposed to the sunlight gives him some divine revelation that he's taking with him while he dies. It makes for a very poignant and dramatic moment, but imagining him just saying "The sun... " in response is just *chef's kiss*. Never stops making me laugh.
"One Restful, Gentle, Happy Final Day" (Rebekah Hayes, V8) - This one is a reference to Centaurworld, the only animated show that's ever made me ugly cry. The episode it comes from deals with some incredibly heavy subject themes, and this lyric is describing a benevolent being who comes to people who have chosen to give up on life, and gives them the only help she can - giving them one last good day before they pass on. This description really doesn't do the episode or the song justice, but trust me when I say that it hit me like a freight train. Rebekah's death was very hard to write, for a lot of reasons, and trying to find that sliver of happiness in hopeless situations felt like the perfect fit for her. But what puts it in the top tier for me is that the character singing the song is a whale, and Rebekah's death post heavily features imagery of the lonely whale Blue-52. It just all came together in a really sweet way, and it was a great sendoff for her.
"It's a Wild, Wild World Out Here" (Karin Han, V8) - Lyric from "Run Away to Mars" by TALK. I'd never heard this song until about a month before Karin died, but as soon as I did, I knew that it was going to have to feature in a thread title for her. Most people probably picked up on Karin's thread titles having a space theme, but it was actually a lot more pointed than that - all of her titles reference space specifically in the context of distance, loneliness, and death. You could say that it's used to create... alienation. (No, I didn't actually realize that I could make that pun until I wrote this thread. Wish I had picked up on it sooner, RIP). Space, for Karin, was this thing that put distance between her and everybody else in her life, and the song makes this really potent metaphor about being alone up on an empty world by yourself, with that distance and loneliness being largely self-inflicted. I couldn't think of a better note to send Karin off on than that last glimmer of tragic self-recognizance, even if she was never going to be able to bridge the gulf between herself and everybody else.
"It's Quite Hard Enough Just Living With The Stuff I Had Learned" (Rebekah Hayes, V8) - Rebekah's thread titles all generally fall under the umbrella of "prose I liked in a melancholy sort of way." This one comes from probably the last place you'd expect to find decent lachrymose prose, The Brave Little Toaster. There's a scene at the end with a bunch of cars singing snippets about their lives as they're being fed into the crusher (it's a really weird movie, even for a 90s cartoon) and this lyric briefly describes a car singing about having been in a crash that killed someone, and how they had to carry on after that. I haven't seen the movie since DVD players were invented, but this lyric has always stuck with me. It was a pretty solid fit for Rebekah's sort of "Sorry for existing, I don't really belong in the human race" dynamic.
"All The Flowers Are Gone" (Rebekah Hayes, V8) - A line from Daybreak, a criminally neglected Netflix series (which, I guess, applies to basically every Netflix series these days). It's said in a voiceover by the (deceased) principal of Glendale High, talking about how he planted flowers every year, to remind students of how they could grow, but then nuclear armageddon happened, and now all of the flowers are gone. It's a really haunting line, and Matthew Broderick delivers it perfectly. That loss of innocence and brightness just works so well, thematically, and it fit perfectly with Rebekah's loss of innocence watching people die around her.
"Bible Discussion Study Meeting" (Karin Han, V8) - The thread about WAP meeting to discuss the horrible, terrible, no good Cardi B song that ruined their acronym, and it has the initials BDSM. It's really doesn't get more Karin than that.
"Bro, I'm Straight Up Not Having A Good Time" (EXTREME STEVE Dodds, V8) - Taken from the meme from which EXTREME STEVE's appearance was derived. I think the original quote is from Real Bros of Simi Valley, but that's about all I know. There's something very himbo about the complaint, and it seemed like a good fit for the funny, ridiculous, but genuinely painful situation that my favorite meme boy found himself in.
"Independence is a Dead Stick" (Karin Han, V8) - Direct quote from Armageddon, one of my favorite movies. As dated as the effects are, as egregious as the science is, and as stupid as the premise of the film is, it does have a very campy 90s charm to it that just can't really be replicated. And damn if that moment with the shuttle Independence getting hit by space degree and crashing doesn't get me in the feels every time. Pretty good analogy for this thread, which saw Karin crashing and burning out spectacularly.
"RACCOONS?!" (Rebekah Hayes, V8 Pregame) - I straight up forgot that I just named a thread "RACCOONS?!" but it made me laugh when I saw it on Rebekah's wiki entry. This was an oblique reference to the card in Cards Against Humanity that just says "Bees?"
"I Just Want To Look Good For You" (Rebekah Hayes, V8 Pregame) - Comes from the Selena Gomez song "Good For You." This song always gave me a very creepy Stepford vibe. I don't think the lyrics are meant to be that way, but I've always heard it as this undertone of "I'm dressing up, even though it makes me uncomfortable, and I'm not doing it for myself, I'm doing it to make someone love me," and it just really matched the feeling I was going for with Rebekah attempting to doll herself up for her mother's approval.
"The Day of Sagittarius" (Karin Han, V8) - Title refers to the The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya episode of the same name. Melancholy's one of my favorite series, and it's a shame the anime never caught up to the LNs (and probably never will.) This episode, fittingly for Karin, is space-themed. It features the cast facing off against the computer club in a real-time computer strategy game set in deep space. It's a fun episode with a lot of great visuals, and it spawned some of the best enduring memes from the show, but it also has some great character beats about the quiet lonely character, and I like that resonance.
"All Things Bright and Beautiful" (Rebekah Hayes, V8) - A James Herriot reference. I grew up reading those books. Haven't read them since, probably should since I'd understand a lot of the British prose a lot better than I did as a child. Less impactful than Rebekah's other titles, but it was animal-related, and gave some really nice irony to the violence of the thread.
"Houston, We Have a Problem" (Karin Han, V8) - This was probably the biggest possible gimme of Karin's space-related titles. I was always planning on using it at some point, and it would have been her death title if "Run Away to Mars" hadn't been such a perfect encapsulation of her arc.
"Skateballing, Anyone?" (EXTREME STEVE Dodds, V8 Pregame) - A play on "Tennis, Anyone?", which is probably a reference to something I can't remember.
"Drops of Jupiter" (Karin Han, V8) - This title isn't as good as a lot of Karin's shoutouts. For those familiar with the song it does broadly introduce the concept of space being used as this metaphor for distance between people, and the question of whether or not she'll be missed, but I think it's not as poignant as a lot of her other references.
V8 Characters:
Juanita Reid Rebekah Hayes Karin Han EXTREME STEVE Dodds
". The quote "What do you see, Kaneda?" is said while Kaneda is being roasted alive after being caught out on a solar shield while it's exposed to the sun. Kaneda never responds, but it's treated as though being exposed to the sunlight gives him some divine revelation that he's taking with him while he dies. It makes for a very poignant and dramatic moment, but imagining him just saying "The sun...