gnome-minion

[gnome-minion]

Sorry, sorry, but manipulative hurt/comfort is fucking cocaine to me. The predatory aspect of it. The vulnerability—500% better if the hurt party knows they're being manipulated and is past the point of caring. The juxtaposition of sweet and sharp flavours. Barkbarkbark

#it has the ability to hurt you in ways you didn't know you could be hurt #im unsurprisingly a fan of this. i mean the two scenes in insignia that fuck me up the most are literally this

[gnome-minion]

Last two hyperfixations ive had had these main character trends

-inferiority complex because they are surrounded by talented people. (Which they are not)

-got brain surgery to make them smarter/better or to cure some kind of imperfection

-repressed memories cause of brain surgery

-has an alter ego (or just alter) that's literally just the main antagonist of their story

-terrorists

-responsible for apocalypse

Like damn back to back.

#if you guys are wondering where i am I'm hyperfixating on the problematic murder game #post from my game blog

[gnome-minion]

Plurality in the Insignia Series: Tom's Dissociative Identity Disorder

If you haven't heard of the Insignia Series, I recommend reading it, because it is incredible. It's a trilogy about kids who are drafted to fight in World War 3, which takes place in space, and is piloted by kids. It's also about the horrors of big corporations, and humanity. I really love it and I find each character very compelling, along with their arcs.

Now, if reading it doesn't matter that much, there will be spoilers for the series in this rant. So either read it, or don't, I can't stop you. But I do recommend reading it, because it is amazing. However, becasue I know this is a niche series, I will explain as I go along (Sorry to those who have read it).

In the third book of The Insignia Series, Tom, our lead character, is kidnapped and taken to a floating space station by the lead bad guy. Why Tom is chosen is because he is special. He, along with a girl on the other side from China, a girl named Yaolan, aka Medusa, have a special ability. They, unlike everyone else, can bypass any security or firewall, and in fact form a friendship by secretly meeting in book one.

Now, while he's trapped up there, our lead bad guy uses this power by getting into his head and affects worldwide technology. And using a form of mind control. However, throughout these events, Tom stops being Tom and becomes a boy who goes by Vanya. After Tom stops resisting, Vanya takes over.

Vayna is quite different from Tom. He has a pet bunny that our lead bad guy gives to him, goes along willingly with what our lead bad guy has said, which is how he gets things to survive, such as food. Hpwever most notably, Vanya is completely cut off from Tom. Not to say he doesn't know about Tom, he seems aware of his headmate on some level, but he and Tom are completely cut off.

And, in fact, when Tom goes back to Earth after getting rescued, he is considerably less affected then one would imagine being if you were trapped in a space station being tortured for, I believe 18 straight months. This might be because there is a time skip and he gets therapy, but right when they take the chance to kill the lead bad guy, he seems mostly unaffected to see his torturer. Granted, not completely, but not as if he's been tortured and controlled for over a year by that guy.

So obviously, Vanya is a trauma holding alter who was created when Tom was kidnapped, as he appears to have been named by our lead bad guy.

The question is, however, was Tom already a system prior to the creation of Vanya? I suspect he is. And given that I have claimed that he has DID and DID is formed through early childhood, though other systems can come to other formats or times, this shouldn't be a surprise.

Now why do I think he was plural prior to these such a series of events? There are hints. In book one it is mad very, very clear that his life is not happy. When he was a kid, his mom left him. Well, to be more specific, she was kidnapped and mind controlled by her new husband after divorcing Tom's dad. Tom's dad forcing him to gamble using video games in order to get money and miss school frequently, which was luckily online since they moved, staying in hotels above casinos. Tom's saving grace was that he was very oddly good at video games.

So, a young child who was forced to move a lot, lost his mom, and was abused (emotionally at the least) whenever he visited his mom, and had to do all of the work to get money for his family for a very young age? It only makes sense that his brain would form older, non-human, or just other alters, in order to protect his little kid mind.

There are other pieces of evidence.

Tom has seen his mom in the past. However, he doesn't know much about her. As if he doesn't actually see her as much as his apparent memories tell us. And given that all these memories seem to be negative, it would make sense that one of Tom's alters would have taken over when they visited their mom.

Also, a lot of the time, there are things that Tom doesn't act completely normally. Tom is a very impulsive guy, who never really makes the right choice because he's an act first kind of guy. However there are times when he acts differently, seemingly without any reason.

There are a couple times it makes sense. In one part of book one, there is a program in his brain that made him the model kid.

However, other times, it's completely out of place. Even with his impulsivity, there's a scene where he is given a fear of scorpions. When he is coded to see and feel a scorpion, despite there not really being one, he feels something come over himself. Even though his first instinct is to run, what he does instead is biting off the scorpion's head. As if someone else was reacting to the fear. Someone who was trying to keep him safe, even if a bit oddly.

And we know it's not the teacher who was programming him, because he was fucking pissed about it.

Now, there is other stuff in the books, but I will need to reread them in much more detail, and also this has already gone on for pretty long.

~~

Credits:

The inspiration for this series comes from @sophieinwonderland, a wonderful tulpa who, like our Host, loves to analyze media and over analyze it.

The first time we considered the plurality of The Insignia Series comes from this post by @gnome-minion. Please check both of them out if you liked this.

#!!!!!!! #oh my goodness #I'm not a system so my analysis/interpretation could only go so far #i never even considered the reason he's able to recover relatively easily was cause vanya was a trauma holder #god damn blackburn absolutely pointed that shit out #one thing i also thought about was how his father actively implied that Tom didn't remember much in his childhood #like when his dad got beat up and taken away by loanshark's goons #tom only remembers it because of the census device #also he does begin to imagine his friends and allies are talking to him when escaping the antagonist #although that might be something different

[gnome-minion]

The stuff that happens in Insignia and Vortex are completely understandable and easy to think about. The stuff that happens im Catalyst is manmade horrors beyond my comprehension

If i think about Catalyst too much i start to take psychic damage.

#i literally couldn't read the cruithne chapter and THAT part still hits me a decade after reading it

[gnome-minion]

The stuff that happens in Insignia and Vortex are completely understandable and easy to think about. The stuff that happens im Catalyst is manmade horrors beyond my comprehension

If i think about Catalyst too much i start to take psychic damage.

#i literally couldn't read the cruithne chapter and THAT part still hits me a decade after reading it

[gnome-minion]

If i think about Catalyst too much i start to take psychic damage.

#15 months man #insignia #s.j. kincaid

[gnome-minion]

Update on the book I'm writing. I'm Desperately trying to make it not obvious that i oc-ified two insignia characters.

#one of them is pretty obvious if you look at my designs for them but shush

[gnome-minion]

my dad: I like that Tom is an idiot and a main character because it means I could be the main character of someone's story :)

also my dad, every three seconds: GOD Tom is such an IDIOT

#yeah hes an idiot but to be fair this is the first year of his life with consistent basic human needs #so i cut him some slack

[gnome-minion]

I’m currently binging Insignia and I honestly love it lol

I managed to stumble upon this blog and I must say, your art is amazing

THANK YOU! I'm so happy theres another person reading insignia. And as for my art- thank you! That means a lot :)

[gnome-minion]

bioshock audio recording type of tweet

#NO NO NO #I KNOW HOW THIS ENDS

[gnome-minion]

Awfully ironic that blackburn blew himself up to save two kids. And by ironic i mean absolutely gut wrenching.

#insignia #s.j. kincaid #james blackburn #the more i think about him the more everything hurts #catalyst spoilers #spoilers

[gnome-minion]

Constantly dying over the scene where Tom gets rescued in Antarctica. Imagine your weird relationship with your coding teacher getting even weirder because you thought he was your dad for a few seconds (you were then dying of hypothermia and he was saving you) and now the trauma you associate with your coding teacher (he tortured you for 2 days straight and nearly drove you insane) is mixed with gratitude and severe daddy issues. And then he has a catfight with the guy who threw you out into the Antarctic tundra. So it's like.... Enemy of your Enemy is like your new shitty dad. Lucky you.

#their relationship is literally peak writing #insignia #s.j. kincaid #insignia trilogy #tom raines #insignia series #thomas raines #james blackburn

[gnome-minion]

Just realized two of my favorite characters of all time kill their moms. So uh. I think i have mommy issues

#insignia #tom raines #arthuriana #gaheris

[gnome-minion]

Pov: You just watched your ex-crush get murdered by your coding teacher

#LMAOOOOOOOOO

[gnome-minion]

Hate when a character has blonde hair and blue eyes. Get the fuck out of here spongebob gijinka

[gnome-minion]

I am not immune to rabbit symbolism and it hurts

[gnome-minion]

Ive never told anyone this but my pitch for insignia was seeing my twin making a sad face, asking her what's wrong. And her describing that the main character of the book she was reading was getting psychologically tortured, alone in a spaceship, and gets convinced hes a another person after months on end of isolation and manipulation. Meanwhile im just like 🧍‍♂️

#literally the next day I listened to the audiobook #insignia #s.j. kincaid #insignia trilogy