#< analysis tag fuck yeah

[quixtrix]

rayman, eden's feel good american dream story; an analysis

guess who's back with taking ubisoft's silly guys and cutting them open. yknow, if you strip rayman of his personality, of all the behind the scenes we get of him, we get a run of the mill news reporter that is an immigrant, who by face alone serves as a shining ray of hope. he's easily something that by all means, can be classified as a diversity hire. immigrant, nonhuman (which in the world of clh can be considered to be equated with poc irl), and notably the only one in his work environment. don't believe me?

we rarely ever see anyone other than rayman on the show in the form of a coworker. the only time we do see other eden affiliated people, they are both white. "but you can't see red's face!!" there is a reason his dialogue makes you think of more right leaning people with their claims of 'wokeness is destroying everything' under something like april from tmnt being black and not ginger. he's a caricature meant to represent a specific group of people under fascism; those who have successfully consumed the fearmongering and have let it turn from fear of those that they are told are beneath them into hatred for them. there is also the fact that on live tv he throws up a middle finger, refers to an implied group of immigrant people as 'filthy interdimensional alien scum,' and seemingly gains no backlash for it. yes, the other reporter does try to give red a chance to go back on his words, but he sticks to it. and despite all of this, we get no indication that neither red nor the niji 6 had to apologise or received punishment for this. in fact, red is possibly given more chances by eden due to him being weirdly in charge of bullfrog's containment in a way? (i'm not entirely sure WHY he was there, but as he is one of eden's tv personalities, he's at a possibly televised trial of a terrorist.) now if you compare this to rayman, who also acted inappropriately on tv by literally saying fuck, you'd come to realise that rayman was treated so much more harshly. he was IMMEDIATELY replaced by a clone of himself, with no warning nor any indication that eden would do such a thing. it's very likely this was one of, if not the first time that rayman has slipped up like this on live tv. maybe it's a repeat offence considering his personality, but then you could argue that red is a repeat offender of the same shit and then you have to wonder why a soldier like red was not easily replaced but someone who is the literal face and voice of eden was with ease. it's because rayman made himself more than jus a story, he humanised himself by showing a peek of his raw feelings. remember that cute little exposition of the rayman kids show about hybrids? where we see all of these hybrids working as society's grunts and the kids are told to be thankful for hybrids? it's very sweet and gives a good message! now the rayman kids show is a product of eden propaganda, but rayman very much has a hand in it, most likely as a writer. he uses his platform to speak on issues that has happened and affected him. this can be seen in his biopic.

jus sit with this image for a moment. you ever think about why rayman is specifically made as an alien? why he's specifically an immigrant? in real life news reports and speeches, there is a difference in implications when people use immigrants and not aliens. you wanna know why?

as someone apart of an immigrant family myself, i live in a community of other immigrants. majority of them are hispanic, and while i myself am not hispanic, i am very aware of how hispanic immigrants were referred to and treated by politicians under trump's presidency. how couldn't i? even as children in middle school and elementary, we had discussions about what trump was saying because it directly targets my friends and their families. they are people targeted by a man who specifically uses derogatory terms to dehumanise them, to make it easier to justify in the average american mind that the government is doing the right thing by keeping out and protecting america from these so-called 'invading animals.' makes what red was saying earlier feel very on the nose, right? adi shankar, the showrunner for captain laserhawk, is also an immigrant man. immigrated from india, which by the way, did you know has a lot of people immigrating for the purpose of having a better life? that's a common sentiment that can be found in every single immigrant family's story. i've asked my filipino mother why she took an opportunity to live and work in america, and she told me it's because she wanted to give her children a better life than what we would have had in the philippines. hell, i bet if you share a similar background to me, you can ask your own parents the same thing and get the exact same answer, regardless if you came from latin america or africa, or asia. it's because of the concept of the american dream. everyone who has ever engaged with any degree of immigrant discussion has heard of the american dream. it's a concept that seems to be consistently proven via word of mouth, with the biggest examples being celebrities. they will always, without fail, eventually speak about the american dream within their backstories. and typically, they will use their platforms to further empower others within their community. it's why people from specific ethnicities tend to group together, why people make art meant as something akin to a homage to their people. it provides hope to the masses, makes you relate to the person on the screen, and believe that this society is truly a gracious one by providing opportunity. because yeah, it may be bad, but it could be worse. i mean we appreciate you! just look!

dont mind the fact that the majority of opportunities allotted to you is grunt work, the work where you at the base of the pyramid, with the harder jobs and the jobs no one wants to do. dont mind the fact you will be actively dehumanised, forced to work for hours in conditions we wouldn't put anyone else in, but hey. we appreciate you. we thank you. and yknow, you can become more than what you are. yknow, we let someone just like you be more than what you are! nevermind the fact that if they slip up, they'll be met with MUCH harsher criticism in comparison to someone who isn't you! aren't we so gracious? i probably sound a bit like matpat's insane out of context real world examples, but this show is filled with political imagery, so let me be. anyways, let's get back to eden and rayman. rayman, despite being specifically from dimension x as an alien, keeps hybrids in mind when he's doing his work.

people of colour tend to share solidarity with one another due to the fact that surface wise, we share similar struggles. to grossly oversimplify things, we all face discrimination through our appearances and are oppressed by the rules of a society created by our white oppressors. again, hybrids and dimension x immigrants can be equated to irl poc, and despite being different from each other, there is still community. rayman keeps them in mind, hoping to make things better for the overall nonhuman and nonnative (native as in naturally born) population of eden. but, rayman is not what he believes he is. because despite everything he has worked for, despite what he has tried to do, he is still a facilitator of the fascist regime that has an active hand in the perpetual oppression of his own people. one of the core concepts within fascism is us versus them. it's an easy way to instill fear (which is very much needed in fascism to make it easier to lie to the masses) and it's used in multiple layers, beginning with a large group (ex. us versus ussr, capitalism vs communism), then progressively sizing down (ex. saying all eastern europeans are communist, then going smaller and say all those affiliated with eastern europeans are communist) with the goal being to put people against each other and break up community since if you put your minds together, you'll start to realise that the fascist system is bullshit. what i've personally come to find is that in order to hide the fact that there is fascism lurking is that someone that can be considered a 'them,' an other, will be given a seat at the table. it's so they can be used as an excuse, a human shield, when they inevitably slip up and can be paraded to the masses as proof that the other is not as smart or powerful as 'us.' the 'other' within the 'us' is used as something to look down at, while also justifying to oneself that they have a place, that they are not being oppressed. they have an opportunity as much as anyone else! so long as they don't mess up. rayman messes up, and is shunned from 'us.' hes a mistake, impure, clearly not like 'us,' 'us' who had been so gracious to give this 'other' a place. he's cut out and discarded because he has well worn his purpose, and clearly, they can just get another little puppet. they'll dress him up and make him worthy of being one of 'us,' and make sure that this one won't fall to the fault of his little ideas. which is exactly what leads to rayman's transformation of ramon. being forcibly forced out and discarded by eden because he showed his true ideas makes him realise that there was no real place for him within the system. because what good is his work if it leads to what he tried not to create? it's worthless, just as the system it attempts to thrive in is.

tl;dr, rayman is a representation of the american dream, specifically celebrities. he tries to do what he can with his platform, but the fact is that within a fascist system, his impact is not entirely felt in the way he wants it to. that is why he becomes ramon.

anyways if you reached the end of THIS LONG ASS PIECE GOOD LORD thank you!! always open to discuss this and take criticism, my ask box is open in the lil 'who's asking' :^]

#this was a fucking long one my bad #this is inspired by saji sharma's video on mindy kailing #in the sense that it made a few things click nd well here we are #i'm on my fourth rewatch and yeah #yeah i had to say smth bc i dont think anyone has said shit abt this? #i blame the fact that i believe theres not that many poc doing the lil insane analysis thing i do #which is fine btw #also sorry if i got anything wrong !! #im slightly going off of my own memory sooo #captain laserhawk #rayman #clh rayman #captain laserhawk rayman #all the rayman tags bc idk what to do #character analysis

[babydrummer]

hobie brown's character/dimension is a critique of systematic oppression by means of the government and the police force, while miles g / 42!miles (as we've seen him so far) is a critique of capitalism as seen through corporate injustice. while both of these things are deeply intertwined, these stories are clearly attempting to show the difference between how capitalism/society takes advantage of the class divide vs the racial divide. in this essay i will-

#.mine #atsv #across the spiderverse #hobie brown #spider punk #miles g morales #42!miles #prowler miles #atsv analysis #yeah i'm tagging this im fucking awesome

[orcelito]

i've seen ppl talking about Meryl & how little we know about her family, but the geo-plant arc of trigun chapters 10-12 gives us some really useful pieces of info, i think

first, we see her thinking of herself as Cold Blooded, just like the dude that wanted Badwick to kill his own parents

[ID: Meryl stands with her gun drawn and a troubled expression on her face as she thinks to herself, "Exactly as you described him... the cold-blooded type..." In the next panel, she closes her eyes and wonders, "Am I really... any different?" End ID]

at the start of this arc, Milly wrote one of her massive letters to her family, while Meryl mentioned not knowing what she would write to hers. then we see Milly get PISSED at Badwick after she learns he threatened his parents at gunpoint, which leads to this page:

[ID: Meryl, held back by Milly, tells her, "Milly... I envy you... My father would have wanted me to get justifiably angry at a person who points a gun at his parents. That is an important thing." She flashes back to the moment in the chapter before where Milly is attempting to punch the son, Badwick. Milly calls in concern, "Ma'am?" Meryl continues, "But I... I just stood there and took it all in without even budging. I am such a cold person. I chose this path of blood and tears without thinking about the rest of my life. All I can see is what is right in front of me." The page shows the face of the father, dressed in basic battle gear, who is watching silently. Now in tears, Meryl laments, "Why could I not see... that when I closed myself off to him, something was wrong? I..." In the last panel, Milly stares down at Meryl in surprise as Meryl slaps her own cheeks and exclaims, "No... Nevermind!" End ID]

this entire situation is obviously striking something in Meryl's heart. some kind of insecurity she has about her distant relationship with her own parents. she shakes herself out of it, determined to not fall into a funk, and then jumps into defense of the land.

after the battle's over & the father's fallen to his ass, we see these pages:

[ID: In the first page, the father, off screen, tells Meryl and Milly, "There are no words to express how thankful I am for your help." Meryl replies with a smile, "Ah. There's no need." The father goes on to tell her, "Ms. Meryl... I know it was rude of me, but I overheard your conversation earlier. Having raised that rebellious son, I don't know if I have the right thing to say, but... All people are different, but the bonds between parents and children are inseparable. It is a great burden, but also the most precious thing in the world..." In the second page, the father concludes, "... Choose your own path, and walk it with confidence. All of life... is connected. You must live your own life, and your parents will love through you." As he speaks, we see Meryl listening to him with a surprised expression. End ID]

this entire arc feels like a metaphor for Meryl's own situation. after these pages, we see Badwick turning in the deed, then finding out that his parents were entrusting the property to him after all. he's the problem son, someone who separated himself from his parents due to his disagreements with them (likely stemming from his dead younger brother). yet at the end of the day, his parents still love him and entrusted their life's work to him.

Meryl sees all this go down, hears these words, and it touches something in her heart. so we see her go from talking about writing to her family like this in chapter 10:

[ID: A single panel of Meryl with her eyes closed and a peaceful expression on her face. She tells Milly, "That would be the normal thing to do... especially when I've been away from home for so long. But I don't know what to write beyond 'it's dry'..." End ID]

to this bit at the end of chapter 12:

[ID: Meryl approaches a mailbox with luggage in hand. She slips a letter inside, then sighs with a smile. Milly yells, "Maa'aam! What are you doing?! We're already late!" To which Meryl replies, "Ok! Ok! Ok! I'm coming!" End ID]

the experience was enough for her to accept that she might not be the closest with her parents (or just father? considering she only ever mentions a father in this all), but it's still worth reaching out even if she doesn't have much to say.

this arc is the most we see about Meryl's backstory in the manga, but I think we can draw a few things from it. we have a definite mention of a father, but no others. no mention of siblings or any other family members. she's distant from her father, too busy following her heart & goals, but she doesn't have a bad relationship with him. just Distant. she feels disconnected from him, even Cold, for her focus on her work & the practicalities in front of her. but even with that disconnect, she still cares enough about him to feel guilty when she realizes she's been doing this.

and then considering later, when we see the flashback of a man giving her the gun... i'd assumed that was possibly a senior at her work (probably tristamp giving me that perception, from Roberto), but keeping all the rest of this in mind... it really could have been her father.

i went looking to try to find that part. did not find that one exactly, but i DID find this one from trimax chapter 34:

[ID: A nearly bald man with a kind face and what appear to be shooting ear muffs around his neck tells Meryl, "Consider guns delicate. Women, most of all, should make use of them. One shot will level the playing field between you and a big, strong man." End ID]

if this is indeed her father, it would explain why she knows how to shoot like she does. perhaps her father taught her as she was growing up out of the wish to help her protect herself. maybe they weren't incredibly close, but he still clearly cared about her & wanted what was best for her and her safety. the kind of father that's content to let her do whatever her heart wishes, since her happiness is his happiness.

and then chapter 12 ends with this page:

[ID: A black framed page with a single panel at the center. The panel shows Meryl from behind, running with her luggage in hand. The text boxes to the sides state, "All of life is connected by a river... And the beginning of the river... is now." End ID]

she continues on her own path, not looking back, but she is still connected to the ones in her heart... including her father.

(Manga panels referenced from @trigun-manga-overhaul !)

#speculation nation #trigun #meryl stryfe #fanny's trigun analysis #fanny reads trigun #oh god this got longer than i was planning on it being #also writing IDs is a little hard lol. tried my best tho #but YEAH we really know so little about meryl and her home life. but this really does give us some great context for it #im picking at fucking crumbs here lmfao but they're still pretty solid crumbs #this. is probably what i'm gonna be running under for my own ideas of meryl's backstory #single child raised by a single father. a gunman who taught her how to shoot so she could protect herself #a slightly distant relationship. but not a negative one. #someone she still loves and knows will be there for her should she ever decide to return #someone who wouldnt ever even dream of trying to stifle her. he wants her to follow her dreams. #it's... actually kinda really sweet lol. #meryl #<- for my own tagging purposes lol #long post/

[no-light-left-on]

Let's talk about the Chaos System in Dishonored

“Your actions affect the city. A high number of deaths results in more rats, more weepers, different reactions from your allies and darker final outcome.”

The most important thing to note is that we need to distinguish between chaos and morality. A lot of people interpret Low Chaos as Good and High Chaos as Bad which is… not inherently correct. At the same time, it is important to acknowledge that while non-lethal takedowns of key targets result in lower chaos, they are not the only thing that contributes to the chaos rating of a mission. I highly recommend reading these two posts [1] [2] by the lovely @kirtlandswarbler who looked into the science behind the chaos system.

It is perhaps easiest to imagine as the DnD alignment of Lawful to Chaotic. Low Chaos aligns with Lawful, the player character going after their targets and not dragging bystanders into their mess. All the takedowns are tactical, some might even say deserved – the Lord Regent hanged for his crimes, Campbell branded as a heretic that he was, Hypatia cured of her madness caused by the serum, Delilah locked in a painted world she desired so. The achievement for completing the game with non-lethal ways is even called Poetic Justice in DH and In Good Conscience in DH2. If the game is completed in a self-serving, bloodthirsty, anger satiating way, the chaos ends up being high – or plain chaotic on the alignment chart. But that is what the chaos means for the playstyle.

Chaos within the world is, in short, the way the world reacts to the player’s actions. The good and the bad, but every move the player makes in the world is a choice, and the world responds accordingly.

Let us set the scene, first, in general terms. In both games, the Empire is at a point of heightened anxiety. In DH it’s the plague, in DH2 the Crown Killer. Both games deal with brutality citizens face from the City Watch/Grand Guard, religious anxieties and terror from the Overseers, gang activity and a tyrannical regime from the Regent or the Duke respectively.

This is the world we walk into as Corvo, Daud or Emily. Everyone is uneasy and somewhat distrustful, and the player character then descends into the streets with a blade in hand, carving their way through a crumbling city to reach their goal. Loved ones go missing. Fathers don’t come back from work, cousins stop responding to letters. Even the elite in their palaces aren’t spared, slaughtered in cold blood with their loyal guard lying close by, staining the expensive hardwood floors. This is the world the player creates in high chaos – a world where no one is safe, and the few survivors live in terror, afraid that every breath they take might be the last. They see no reason to trust their neighbours, become more selfish, angrier- even your allies become more cynical, watching you slaughter your way back to the top, and why are they helping you again? To replace one tyrant with another?

In low chaos, however, the people remain safe. The civilians are allowed to continue going through their day to day life, however harsh it might be. The guards and overseers are spared, for the most part, and the nobles and rich that might go missing? That is their problem. They never cared for the smaller people. Both games open with a large shift in the political landscape – the assassination of an empress, a coup that seats a witch on the throne. And yet people still die of the plague or to the bloodflies. If a couple more members of the parliament die, that is, at the end of it all, just politics. It is among those who meddle with political issues, and not the business of the rest of the world.

The chaos is calculated by the absolute body count, along with a few special actions that the player can take. Most of them make sense. The chaos is higher if Daud blows up a slaughterhouse, killing many in the process, harming an industry, terrifying people who only hear of the event. Saving a young woman and her brother as they are harassed by the overseers over witch crimes they never committed lowers your chaos, because Corvo helped people in need. It’s a balance of the good and the bad you do, in total, rather than the simple distinction between killing and not killing the key targets. The overall chaos remains low even when all the key targets are taken down lethally. However, even if they are all spared, if the player killed every guard in sight just to reach these targets, the chaos will be high.

Something that I see (wrongly) be brought up is that killing key targets grants you a High Chaos ending, while the non-lethal takedowns result in Low Chaos ending. As mentioned above, that’s not true – they do count towards your total body count, but their deaths do not have a greater weight towards High Chaos. The non-lethal neutralization thus helps maintain lower chaos, but it does not necessarily mean that these choices are the right ones to make. The best example of this is probably Lady Boyle, which is oftentimes brought up as “oh but the morality of this game!!” critique. Death vs. poetic justice has little to do with morality in these games. After all, the protagonist (not counting DLCs) is out for revenge, to an extent, on people who have wronged them and caused them to fall on hard times. Just because a character lives does not mean there are not fates worse than death – like handing a woman to her stalker under the threat of death.

Morality and lethality in Dishonored are two things that don’t necessarily overlap. Lobotomizing Jindosh is, most definitely, a horrible thing and Jindosh ends up begging the MC to rather take his life than let him live without his intellect. There is no doubt that he is a horrible person, and many people tell you so during the game, but is this really the right way to go about things? Is an existence without the one thing you truly value about yourself worth it? On a similar yet completely opposite side of things, when you overhear one of the guards talk about how they have fun killing people who break curfew, is it truly a bad thing to kill them? One or two more deaths won’t affect your chaos all that much. It gets even more worth considering with the special actions that decrease your chaos which involve saving people from getting murdered by overseers or the guard. These actions are often difficult or impossible to perform without killing the attackers (like the guard harassing the girl that worked for Bunting).

These actions then reflect on your surroundings – the more corpses litter the streets, the more weepers and rats there will be, the nastier the bloodfly infestation. With a killer on the loose, there have to be more guards around. Mind you, the special actions that cause your chaos to grow are not enough to tip you over into high chaos alone. And as you, and Corvo/Daud/Emily by extension, grow more cruel, your allies grow more cynical. The Loyalists see Corvo butcher the city, and, well, it’s working. So why shouldn’t they get more cruel to achieve their goals, too? Emily is the most impacted, in Low Chaos growing to be Emily the Wise, the beloved empress of the Isles, asking Corvo innocent questions, while in the high chaos she talks about executions, asks how many people he's killed. Some grow to despise you, like Samuel, seeing the growing corruption and wishing for the quest to be done because they now see that the person they were helping was as much of a monster as the ones they are opposing. If you are cruel, the world will be cruel back, and the world involves those you might hold closest, like your daughter or your second in command.

The world, then, behaves in the way you mold it. Chaos reflects it, the destruction or kindness that you leave in your wake. Of course the murder of a noblewoman on a party she hosted, guarded by tallboys, will cause people to worry. Of course panic will spread when civilians are murdered in the streets. The general population of Dunwall will worry when the medicine that was meant to cure the plague suddenly turns everyone into weepers. But just the same, if people are shown kindness by a stranger without having to ask, they will be soothed. A cruel political leader being executed for the crimes he committed will make people excited, hopeful even. When Emily switches the Duke for his body double, the common people won’t notice. There is no need for fear, with the non-lethal takedowns. Not for those who are not directly involved.

Chaos, at the end of it all, dictates how the world evolves from the brink of collapse. The Outsider says it best, in one of his many speeches. “I have to wonder whether you're going to give if that final nudge, or pull it back from the edge.“ You have the power to tip the scales with your actions. Your choices matter, the big and the small, each life you save and each life you take, because at the end of the game, you are the one that has shaped the world that you will rule.

#dishonored #dh #li.txt #essays tag #YOU HEARD THAT RIGHT THERES MORE COMING YOUR WAY #yes there is an essay about the lack of chaos in doto coming #indirectly inspired by all the videoessays that talked about low and high chaos 'outcomes' of missions in a 'but this is not Good :((' #basically what Im trying to say: yeah chaos is about how fucked up you are. but from the perception of OTHERS #Im really tempted to write a full length analysis of all the games on their own and how chaos impacts the world #especially after dakota's hard work #which again massive thank you for answering all of my questions and actually tearing the game to shreds for this info

[carlyraejepsans]

I’ve started watching Utena because of you. What. Is going on

HI. WELCOME TO THE CLUB, watch the trigger warnings. but yeah, revolutionary girl utena veers more and more towards surrealism the further you get into the series. it often and voluntarily forfeits narrative/logical consistency in favor of visual storytelling, metaphors and symbolism. i was just talking about it with nic the other day, and if the story weren't so harrowing, i would recommend it to everyone who wants to get into literary analysis, because it is SO packed with symbolism EVERYWHERE that it actually encourages you to try to decode it.

whatever you think utena is about, it is NOT. you can't go in and treat it like your 49293th classical shoujo. utena is a firework show of visual symbolism and it very rarely, if ever, explains itself to the viewer. it refuses to handhold you, but it never berates you for trying and getting it wrong either. there is SO much handholding in modern day media, but utena trusts its viewer to take away something meaningful from itself and to piece its message together on their own. it's one of my favourite pieces of media of all time just for that

#it's almost closer to a poem and to poetry than to a story in the sense that we think think about today #you see why ye standard transformative fandom was never able to take hold with utena? #my suggestion is try to actively analyze what's going on and the symbols presented to you as you go along #find recurring motifs. utena deals a LOT with cycles and repetition (they were playing into their budget limitations and did it brilliantly #what objects keep returning. what characters are they associated with. how do they relate to the irl systems of power the story criticizes #what does the white rose mean #^ had a lot of fun trying to figure that one out. i landed on something other people in the fandom also got but then nic told me his take #and yeah they basically pried my third eye open with a crowbar. #this anime made me want to try out symbolism and allegories in my own works #it's so fucking good #but hey if you finish it and still feel like you didn't get 90% of that you can go to nic metanarrates' blog and check out his rgu tag #basically 50% of the fandom posts are visual and narrative analysis. the other 10% is breathtaking art. the remaining 40% is memes #BUT! wait until you're finished..watch for spoilers #rgu #answered asks

[fatalism-and-villainy]

oh boy so I’m thinking about what might have come about in a) a more extended Red Dragon arc that had a full season’s worth of time to play with, and b) a Red Dragon arc less adaptationally married to the book, AND c) a Red Dragon arc that engaged the secondary characters more, and allowed them to be more dynamic than they are during that part of the show -

and while I know Hannibal was more immediately concerned at that point with dealing with his feelings regarding Will than with fulfilling his promise to Alana, I can’t help but imagine (and really wish we’d gotten) a scenario where it’s Alana, Margot, and their son who Hannibal sends Dolarhyde after.

(Could be a what-if AU scenario, or it could exist alongside the attack on Molly and Walter in an extended arc.)

A lot of the threads the show picks up on from the book involve the theme of family - Dolarhyde’s murders of the families are used to dig into the family Will made for himself, in contrast with the family Hannibal wanted to give him. Margot and Alana’s family would have made a fantastic counterpoint to that - an unconventional family that was forged in blood under circumstances that occurred heavily in Hannibal’s shadow. I often think that Hannibal symbolically officiated Alana and Margot’s marriage ceremony - they first got together during the search for Hannibal, the murder that they committed together (parallel to the shared Hannigram murder at the end of season 3) was done partially at Hannibal’s urging, and they were only able to get away with it because of the devil’s bargain they struck with Hannibal in which he took the fall for it. So how fitting, for Hannibal to be the one to torpedo the family dynamic that he helped facilitate!

And I think for Alana too, there’d be the topic of how family burdens you with the protection of others - how others’ vendettas against you suddenly extend to the people closest to you, because family is often considered an extension of you.

Of course, those last two points would have to feature in any post-canon threat to the Verger-Bloom family as well - their indebtedness to Hannibal, and Alana having to contend with the fact that Hannibal’s “promise” to her has put others in danger as well. But they would work so well when incorporated into the arc that already focuses on family, especially since Margot and Alana’s deal is arguably something of a middle ground between the full normie familial experience Will was trying to enact with Molly, and the completely outrageous murder family scenario Hannibal was gunning for.

Ultimately, Dolarhyde’s deal is that he breaks families in one way or another - whether via murder, or by psychologically fracturing them (i.e. what happened to Will and Molly in both the book and the show). A threat to Margot and Alana could similarly shake things up between them and bring up pre-existing tensions (I’ve never particularly been interested in the ultra-peaceful fanon Marlana) while raising the question of whether they could fall apart, like Will and Molly, or be strengthened by his attack - as Will and Hannibal ultimately are.

Also, imagine the “how’s my wife? she’s lucky”/“she survived the Great Red Dragon. takes a pinch more than luck” exchange transposed onto Hannibal and Alana. It’d work sooo well in reflecting Hannibal’s pre-existing fondness and admiration towards Margot (and perhaps as foreshadowing of the ruthlessness that she’s still capable of more of).

#hannibal #headcanoning #my meta #alana bloom #margot verger #hannibal lecter #marlana #hannibal season 3 #eh fuck it there's enough analysis here that i'll also tag it #hannibal meta #recalling a server conversation about how #instead of wanting season 4 we pine for the two theoretical seasons they could have gotten out of season 3 #por qué no los dos but. yeah

[mysteriouslybluepirate]

Can't send asks from my sideblog, but this is @chewing-the-drywall

I feel like much of s2 fell into Frenchie's "we put it in the box and then lock it and don't open it again" in the sense that it set up A LOT that I was intrigued about how they would address it, but it either never was mentioned again or was handled poorly.

Examples range from light, like how I wish we saw more of the crew interacting with each other in ways that built on their characters from S1, where in S2 they didn't feel any more developed, or even regressed. (Example, Fang used the word Fingies 2-3 times through S2, and it felt like they were using it almost as a shorthand for his character, rather than making him feel more real and multidimensional as a character.)

100% @chewing-the-drywall. When I first heard that line I had I was so excited for the story to prove Frenchie wrong. Or show how important it can be to put aside problems to stay alive in the moment. But in the end, this one line summarized how the season handled everyone, besides Stede and Ed. Below, is an in depth discussion on where this season decided to spend it's limited amount of time. Instead of focusing on the characters and plotlines they'd already established.

This season had so MANY ideas it wanted to touch on.

Izzy trying to deal with his unrequited love and opening up to a new way of living. The traumatized 'Revenge' crew trying to adapt to a softer way of life again. The abandoned crew learning how to help their traumatized friends. Introducing new characters like Zheng, Auntie, and Archie into our main group. Setting up a conflict to resolve in season three. Along the way, referencing Pirates of history like Ned Low, Mary Reed, and Anne Bonny.

Notice, I've said all this and we're not even at our romantic leads.

Which is fine. Stories are fluid things. As long as the story knows how to flow from our leads to our side characters. Which leads us to how I feel this show took a lot of time away from establishing our central crew-

[Warning- this will be a controversial opinion- I want to know what y'all think about this] Zheng/Oluwande. This seasons habit of retreading old plotlines and referencing scenes from S1.

What S1 did so well was paralleling the side stories with what was going on with Ed/Stede. Usually, highlighting how well Stede/Ed worked by showing how much Ed/Izzy DIDN'T work. Or general hijinks that tied into the plot (Oluwande and Frenchie on the French ship).

Season 2 chose to parallel our main story with what was going on between Zheng/Oluwande as a budding romance and Izzy's slow recovery. The reason Zheng/Oluwande scenes felt like a waste for me in that the story was JUST a retelling the story we watched from S1.

A frustrated first mate(Auntie), and a legendary captain(Zheng) fighting over the captain falling in love with an idiot(Olu). In season 2, much like every callback for me, it felt like it slowed down the plot by pulling us out of the story. Like...yeah, you did the thing again, do you want me to applaud you for it?

I LIKE Zheng and Oluwande as a couple! I like that Oluwande was debating leaving Stede and taking Jim and Archie with him. But at the same time, I didn't care about Zheng until episode 7 when she beat up Stede, showing that yes. She's not just some all powerful woman taken down by a mix of love(the crew in ep3) and thinking that she was above it all (ep 7). She's fast on her feet, smart, and willing to stab someone who gets in her way. She's her own person. But.

Every other scene that established her was about her romance, felt like we could have put Rhys and Taika in there. It didn't feel...unique. It's as if the show only knows 1 way to write a romance between a badass and a bumbling idiot. Again. Oluwande in season 1 wasn't dumb in the same way everyone else was. He was protective of Jim, a bit nervous overall, but he was the person the crew chose to lead them. The season just dumbed everyone down a bit and called it a day.

This comes to the larger issue. When we only have eight episodes I don't want to rewatch the exact same plot beats with different characters. Time spent here ends up taking away from other stories we could have told about trauma and growing as a family and other forms of growing as a family. We didn't need another romance plot line. Imagine taking this time instead to show Lucius reaching out to Pete AND the crew for help. Or Frenchie finally feeling safe enough to play his lute. Or Roach helping Fang get over his thing with cakes-you get my point.

The fact we took all the found family stuff from season one, and pushed it onto only Izzy in S2 means when he dies, all the found family shit falls away. His death makes us realize we've been ignoring the central family we were supposed to care about. Because in so many words, their trauma was ignored.

[I even theorize if Izzy was alive and sailed away with them. Showing how he was taken in and loved by his crew, the ending wouldn't feel so hollow. This crew doesn't feel like a caring family. The person who protected them for months died, wasn't mourned, and then they threw a wedding the same day. Not even a full day to mourn. The 'New Revenge' feels like a heartless crew of characters we barely recognize because they aren't a family like they were at the end of S1. More like coworkers who sometimes fall in love with eachother.]

Trauma, Timelines, and Tonal issues when jumping from Episodes 1-3 to Episodes 4-5.

When the crews meet up, the story chooses to focus on the fun plot. Ed and Stede recovering their relationship, only dipping back into that serious tone when Izzy or Lucius come on screen to 'make things sad' again. I don't think the transition from 'serious' to 'comedy' was handled well.

I don't have an official timeline of the events of season two. But from what I remember, everything happens within 2 weeks.

In episode 4, Stede ignored the vote of his crew- to let the man who was torturing half his 'FAMILY' for at least 80 days- back aboard. This rubbed me the wrong way, as it showed Stede being a selfish prick in a way that could seriously harm his crew. That's when I started to see how not adding a *single* time-skip mid-season would hurt S2.

Imagine if we had a one-week off-screen time skip between episodes 4 and 5.

Maybe it's implied that they stay in that town for a bit. Izzy would a bit more time to learn to move on his new leg and start to open up to those he already trusts. Include a scene of Izzy WITH the crew, maybe laughing about something with the old traumatized crew, even if it's just a 30-second opener. Imply that the traumatized crew would have more time to settle in with the family they miss. Show that yeah, the traumatized crew needs more time to heal. Imply at the start of the 'Ed apology' that Ed and Stede have had more time to talk their issues out.

THEN have Ed apologize. You can even keep the bullshit corporate to show that Ed still has to work for this.

Healing takes time. Setting a series over the span of two weeks after half your cast was tortured by your lead love interest? After five of your main crew thought they would sail off into a storm and die after months of stress and life threatening battles? Why did that shit get shoved to the side so quickly?

Framing episode 5 as the START of Ed making amends with the crew, only to drop the plot by episode 7? Not a smart move. Because let's be honest, 'poison into positivity' in episode 6, referring to the fact that they sold all of Ed's loot to pay for the party, ignores the sacrifices the crew made to live that long. (The death of Ivan, and intense trauma they all need to work through). In a way, Ed throwing this party was him asking the crew to start putting everything away in that imaginary box.

It's Ed retroactively letting himself say 'hey, that time I spent torturing my captives was worth it because we got something good out of it' while still ignoring his own guilt. Ed needed to take accountability for his actions. No more 'I took 'a' mans leg' bullshit. The reason his arc feels so unsatisfying is that the plot easily forgives him. Fuck. I hate what they did for Ed's arc, but that's not the point.

Overall.

My issue with this season is not that it chose to do these topics, it's that it didn't think about the implications of what they were bringing up. It didn't dare to think 'maybe it's fucked if we quickly brush off a trauma like this'. Again. I know we have to blame MAX for cutting off two episodes. But I don't think 2 additional episodes would fix a tone problem seen going from episodes 3-4.

Fucking hell. Each member of the revenge had the potential for their own arc, so it's baffling to see them all reduced to 'well meaning idiot' when they all felt so fleshed out in S1.

When izzy gives his speech about belonging, there's a reason the only image in the show of the crew all together was from S1.

At the end of the day, Season 2 didn't let our surviving side characters grow. This is a mean spirited bit on how I feel the writers see the their own characters.

Stede and Ed are our leads. They won't die, not in this genera. Their shitty actions will be forgiven because it's a comedy, and as long as it's joked about, it holds no weight. They won't die. They won't get fatally hurt. Their trauma will be taken seriously, but it's a 50/50 on if they'll talk about it before breaking up again. They will eventually get a happy ending, their trauma looked at head on, because duh.

Jim, Olu, Lucius, Pete? Characters who used to have defined personalities in S1, but haven't been defined much beyond their relationships with their partners? Whose trauma might be mentioned, but will quickly be 'resolved' in one scene? Shame. Seems like they're only useful as set dressing, But we might make you useful as interchangeable side characters to riff against. Oh, and you're in love! Isn't that cool!

Izzy? I'll just quote Jenkins here. "To have him become a father figure to Blackbeard, and on some level to the rest of the crew, and to see him become the heart of why we’re giving pirates the chance to stand for being able to live how you choose. In reality, they’re thieves and criminals, but what our pirates stand for is a life of belonging to something larger than they are in the face of a crushing, slightly fascist normalcy." So...Is Izzy a pirate and accepted into the Revenge family? Or is he still an outsider? Jenkins gave us a romcom but still defines Izzy's character as that of one stuck in a drama/tragedy. Point and laugh, because tonally these two things clash HARD and will make an audience lose trust in it's writers unless well established. Leading us to the entire issue we've pointed out of not letting your characters actions hold in dramatic weight in your story.

Frenchie, Wee John, Roach, and Fang- Ah. No love interests again...shit. Well. Background actors it is... for now. We'll see. But we need 2 more scenes of the couple breaking up, so MAYBE you'll get some backstory hinted at in dialogue. You all have 1 thing your good at, so that's easy enough to put you where you belong.

Buttons and Swede? Well. They're still alive!! Don't be sad, fans :) The actors just couldn't show up anymore. We don't want our silly happy queer pirate rom com to not end on a happy ending! (Closes the lid of the trash can where they're keep Con O'Neill a bit tighter, thanking God Con was silenced by a strike this entire season from social media)

Do you agree, or disagree? Leave any lingering thoughts down below!

I'd love to chat down below.

#I am absolutely screwing myself over spelling-wise by adding a poll but fuck it. That's what we do #Overall: Just because you can fit something into your story doesn't mean it needs to be shown on screen. #I wanted to add a section of all the scenes I'd cut/tighten to make my added scenes work but I don't think we're there yet as a fandom #I theorize that the reason they couldn't change the script and had to hack it up was due to them already having 10 episodes fully written #also I SWEAR I LIKE ZHENG- but the part of me that sees her as a hollow Ed 'narrative mirror' finds her a bit boring until episode 7 #I LOVED her ship and how she hated Stede. But that's just because I generally don't enjoy Stede when he's unquestioned #Stede on her ship was a pacified lamb slowly getting fattened for the slaughter. She would have turned on him SO EASILY. She almost did too #I semi-tolerated Ed/Stede's love story of not communicating and puppy love. Seeing it again but sped up didn't make me like it more #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd critical #? #yeah I'll tag that just to be safe #izzy hands #edward teach #ofmd s2 finale #ofmd season 2 spoilers #ofmd s2 meta #ofmd s2 analysis #trauma

[sasukyss]

I remember someone saying that having police in Konoha was basically useless because the whole system is focused on creating soldiers, so why would they need a a completely separate unit of individuals solely for looking after the minority of civilians? Amazing point, and it also adds on to the fact that making the Uchihas cops was to further isolate them! Why was this whole unit of people just for dealing with petty civilian issues necessary? And why make one of your most important assets, the Uchihas, the group that leads this force, when they could be doing much more useful things like actually participating in the government and going on missions? We see that after the Uchihas massacre there's no more police force, and Konoha doesn't exactly struggle without them there, we don't see anyone else take the place of law enforcers either, so really, what was the whole point of them in the first place? As I stated before, this was all to alienate and isolate the Uchihas, making them seem "other" and increasing the distrust between both parties. The Uchihas "coup" (if it can even be called that since it was never even able to happen) was a result of the Uchihas finally having enough of the treatment by both the government at the time, and the village in general. The Uchihas didn't intend to take over the government, it was going to be a desperate attempt to be heard and have change take place so the Uchihas situation could improve. But instead of hearing them out, the Hokage decided to order their execution without thought for why they would even attempt such a rash thing, just brushing it off as the "curse of hatred", even though that's bullshit.

#im sorry if this ended weirdly i didnt know how to finish it #its midnight rn and i had to write this down or I'd die #anyway fuck the government and especially fuck the Hokage #naruto #oh my god i cant believe im posting naruto analysis #jo was right i am a naruto blog #uchiha #pro uchiha #anti konoha #anti hokage #uchiha massacre #like 0 spelling mistakes omg #might as well tag this as pro sasuke cause yeah #pro sasuke

[whitestopper]

Before Season 2, I thought that Tao's father had left Tao and Yan, and since Tao('s actor) is mixed white and Asian, it could've been shown that Tao's anxiety over fitting in as a half-Asian boy in a white school started from a young age. Maybe his father told Yan to stop teaching him Cantonese, or not letting him bring egg noodles for packed lunch. Maybe Yan would agree out of fear that Tao wouldn't assimilate with his classmates or maybe she'd just agree so he wouldn't cause a fight about it. Just little things that started building up the idea that being 'too Asian' would make Tao unlikeable, which would then reach its peak when his white father leaves him.

Or if Tao's dad needs to be good but dead so Yan can speak happily about him without any issues, then Tao could've just had a bad time at school. Teachers expecting him to be a minority model student (quiet, polite and getting exceptional grades) and peers doing racist stuff like broken accents and stretching their eyes. His parents could do their best to make sure that his spark isn't dulled but his insecurities still come out, especially at school where they started.

Now I'm speaking as a white-passing half south-east Asian who was spared being targeted - to my memory the school I went to, while having all white staff, had a decent of mix of white and (east to south) Asian kids. But make no mistake, kids are very much exposed to racism and internalising it. My brother and I were younger than 10 when we learned about the aforementioned racist imitations. We watched Family Guy (to my mum's displeasure) and Eurocentric beauty standards are very clear (and I did internalise the idea that because I was 'ugly', I should put my pride into being 'smart'). And when I became a teenager who realised just how detached I was to my Asian heritage - to the point of thinking myself as less than half-Asian due to lack of exposure - it very much fucked with my sense of self and made me feel like a tourist/outsider when trying to get in touch with it.

All this to say, you can get away with not addressing race when your story is centred around two white boys and poc are just side stories (I mean, you shouldn't and you can't really, but you can), but when you're trying to bring poc to the spotlight, it's really bad to only acknowledge homophobia, mental illness and passing sexism/transphobia (Elle's experiences with transphobia are only mentioned as happening at Truham, but who really believes that the homophobes at Higgs are trans allies?) and not racism, colorism, or xenophobia. Like, does Elle being able to pass as cis supercede the fact that she will never pass as white? Is there not a certain reason Tara struggled to accept that she was a lesbian for longer than Darcy did? Would Tao not have had experience with white peers who bully him and white peers who don't stand by him?

And I won't say much on it as a cis woman, but as Asian men are emasculated as 'weak', Tao's seemingly inexplicable aggression towards Nick becomes... well, explicable when you recontextualise it as (subconsciously) trying to match the white masculine ideal of aggression.

#it mine #heartstopper #yeah. oseman did the characters of colour so dirty. #tao xu #elle argent #tara jones #fuck it. i'm tagging all the characters of colour. #sahar zahid #mr ajayi #mr farouk #otis smith #sai verma #mrs singh #heartstopper analysis #heartstopper criticism #heartstopper critical

[citrinide]

Saying this in the nicest way possible.

Some people really need to shut up.

#cecil.fm #DESPERATELY begging some of you to stop ignoring huge parts of a character JUST because you like them #He's an asshole. He's CONSISTENTLY an asshole. He makes slights and unnecessary judgements toward EVERYONE. PLEASE IT'S NOT JUST THE CHASSIS #yes this is about Wheatley obviously I'm going to be pissed over people misinterpreting characters from my special interest AGAIN #I was there when people UwU-ified him and treated him like a precious baby while demonising GLaDOS at the same time I'm bashing heads in rn #they're. fucking. FOILS!!! #THEY'RE BOTH BAD PEOPLE OH MY GOD THEY BOTH MAKE UNNECESSARILY RUDE REMARKS YOU NEED TO ACCEPT THIS OH MY GOD #I am begging oh my fucking god #there's moments where I see this behaviour and like desperately want to block people because oh my god what ELSE are you blatantly ignoring #like I'm not innocent either here I'll be the FIRST to admit my f/o is a shitty person too! He's a pathetic little suck up #he's annoying and so fucking rude but I'm not ignoring any of that! #The portal fandom has such an issue with this I swear to god. nothings changed we're going in circles. character analysis is dead. #I think thats what made me cancel LaaC originally too. fuck. #this is why I stay in my little Aperture Tag corner. Because at LEAST we aren't operating under the false pretense that Nigel is some saint #forcing you all (non-specific) to play the game again and TRY to explain away the blatant instances of him being all types of awful #just a general sentiment I've seen again recently that I REALLY despise. stop declawing characters im going to MAUL you #anyway sorry for the tag rant im just very passionate about this game and people misinterpreting characters WILDLY off is. Yeah :)) #extra note: blaming the chassis for his actions as if he wasn't predisposed to that behaviour is a stupid ass take and always has been <3 #i could go on for hours but I'd hit the note limit so <3 #one of my biggest pet peeves in fandom honestly.

[04tenno]

I have to admit I’m so unsure of what message they were trying to send with Nick Ogata

Looks classically fruity but I’m still… unsure

Well, they say if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck...

I think it goes past appearances, though. Of course, he does dress like a dandy (the same way Yokoyama first visualized Mine dressing, incidentally), and there's a certain flamboyant charm there. And he does have Those Mannerisms. You know the ones, I'm sure.

If that much seemed tenuous, the fact he frequents Earth Angel, more or less acts as Ichiban's "sugar daddy" over the course of the game, and is very excited to hear all about Ichiban's "date" with Arakawa while clearly under the impression Ichiban means it in a romantic sense (💀💀💀) leaves few doubts for most about what they were trying to get at.

But as always, I'd like to talk about queerness in the context of Japanese culture. Earth Angel no longer billed as an "okama bar," but that was part of its history, and the Champion District is also home to Drama Queen. Like I've touched on before, the "clustering" of LGBT-friendly establishments in the Champion District makes it more like a cross between Golden Gai (what it's actually based on) and Nicho (Shinjuku's hub of gay subculture), which naturally carries implications for regulars.

Another thing I've touched on before is wealth. Among the sexual minorities in Japan, gay men appear to have the highest ceiling for financial mobility. Characters like Nick and Mine, who've accrued more wealth than most other characters could even dream of, demonstrate that perfectly; the sums of money at the core of games like Yakuza and Yakuza 4 are pocket change to them. To a degree, this goes for Oda too, though in a cast of characters of characters who are also filthy rich, he doesn't stand out as much.

Those are pretty broad, of course, but there are a few things specific to Nick. For one, his theatricality and dramatics. In particular, his showmanship in the iconic finale scene stands out to me. There is a fair amount of crossover with queerness in Western culture here, so I'm sure it'll sound familiar. Let's see...

"Mainstream" visibility and acceptance of transgender identities and homosexuality in modern Japan first came to be through big spectacular televised events inviting queer entertainers to perform. And although these were joyful occasions that many were happy to see, the lack of seriousness in media in general has more or less lead to the generalization of queer people (mainly gay men and trans women) as entertainers and performers, theatrical, dramatic, camp.

To quote Queer Japanese, "Curiosity is the only driving force. Sexual minorities portrayed by media are funny and entertaining, but without real voice. The invitation of sexual minorities to the program by NHK satisfies the curiosity of viewers while also showing the viewers how open, accepting, and tolerant the media has become." This is the case for a lot of Japanese media, RGG included.

Another thing specific to Nick is that he's half-American and has clearly spent a lot of time stateside, being bilingual. Now, that might not sound related, but frequently in Japan you'll encounter the sentiment that being queer is a "foreigner thing"; many people are more willing to accept foreigners and the diaspora as being queer than the alternative. The sentiment lies at the intersection of too many ingrained assumptions to unpack here, but it's one that's reflected in characters like Nick (or even Mine, who is heavily Westernized himself.)

Analysis aside, the biggest instinctive "tell" for me was the attempt to subvert expectations with him dating women and enjoying their company (unlike Mine, for once). In attempting to subvert expectations, it's necessary to acknowledge the fact the expectations are there in the first place. So to me, Nick is a character who is crafted to set those expectations, and his character cannot be divorced from them.

And my reasoning may sound counter-intuitive, but... I'm not sure what man who's actually interested in women only dates them to refine them to their best selves and then immediately breaks up with them. It's like, he only gets in relationships knowing they'll end and he'll be the one to do it, and that's not only fine with him, but the appeal. So it kind of just circles back around to being pretty gay.

While I'm here, Nick is partly based on this guy from RGGO (whose name I never bothered to learn/remember, but I assume he has one.)

Neat.

#long post #asks #my analysis #anonymous #yakuza 3 #yakuza like a dragon #ryu ga gotoku online #nick ogata #ichiban kasuga #kasuga ichiban #yoshitaka mine #mine yoshitaka #yeah fuck it im tagging #brought to you by the guy behind the Mine Gay Essay: the Nick Gay Essay #not that i needed to really make an argument here. i mean... #i was gonna make a joke like For More Gay Essays drop random characters in my inbox but. nah. realistically i don't have that many thoughts #or THE TIME like jesus christ mine and nick barely have screentime but they've got me writing PARAGRAPHS #but yeah i don't think he's bi or anything despite what he says #as a certified bisexual i have nfi what he was talking about lol #what do you MEAN catch and release. what do you mean by that. #i haven't seen the business storyline though so i'm missing out on The Full Picture. but i'm pretty sure about this one #HONESTLY THOUGH LIKE. SLAY #HE'S SO OP FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER AND I WAS BEYOND THRILLED TO SEE HIM DO SO MUCH SHIT THAT'S PIVOTAL TO THE PLOT #like. usually. characters like nick will just be bit characters at most. relegated to substories or side content #but there's so much of the story that literally COULD NOT have happened without nick #it was so foul for ichi to give him the impression he was going on a /date/ date with arakawa though that shit made me vacate my skin #i know you didn't know he was your /dad/ dad at the time but...... ichi............ just think once before you speak please #i don't have any opinions one way or another about how nick is handled as a character though #i mean. sure. plays off stereotypes. But Have You Considered I Love Him #i was going to say something else but i don't wanna ruffle feathers soooo yeah :) PLEASE come back in 8 king

[nyxofdemons]

okay okay. now that ive got the complaining out of my system i do need to say. i recognize that expecting this show to be brilliant all the time is unfair and it IS important to recognize that its really fundamentally a small dark comedy spin off show. in fact i think one of the main reasons this show GETS so much hate is because the long wait between episodes builds up high expectations and fans want it to be amazing and groundbreaking the whole time (ive actually briefly mentioned this before. there's a whole essay in my drafts abt this rn)

all of that said. i WAS deeply disappointed by the episode unhappy campers, but i also recognize this is an episodic situational comedy show, and i'm not gonna hold it against the show or anything. this is very rambly i just. i think its very good and useful to be able to recognize that this show really can be hit or miss and you can be disappointed with it without having to devolve into critic and anti territory (i previously said i still thought it was a good episode, just not for me, but i have since changed my mind. i do think it was a bad episode actually. there were... crumbs? of it? that i thought were really good? but barely and even at this episode's best, NONE of it feels on par with the rest of the show. but again, expecting this show's best to be the STANDARD is not fair.)

i really don't know where i'm going with this i just want to point this out i guess bc i have never REALLY complained about this show before and i don't wanna come across as pessimistic or anti. but i don't think this was a good episode at all and that's alright

#mine #helluva boss #this makes no sense sorry #desire to express negative opinions vs fear of being grouped in with antis #i am still hbs biggest defender ofc i just have media literacy and critical analysis skills #yeah this episode sucked ass compared to the rest of the show that doesnt mean the show itself is bad or actively devolving #i DO really think the next episode will be better and i AM excited for more. i just wish a lot had been way different abt this ep #okay like. at risk of sounding really annoying. i am worried about criticizing this show because it gets SO MUCH criticism thats #really not fair at all and the last thing i WANT is to sound like that #esp bc so much of the fandom has a knee jerk defensive reaction to ANY criticism bc of. you know. our show getting so #much hate for stupid reasons (or no reason) #and i feel like maybe some other people might also be nervous to express negative opinions or disappointment #(me though? i am incapable of shutting the fuck up. so perhaps this might be some small reassurance to anyone else<3) #being in this fandom is like being in a war trench but someones gotta pull the pin #e: unhappy campers #helluva boss unhappy campers #nyx crit tag

[mcybree]

Ok ok ok I'm not Tryna start discourse but bluestars prophecy was my first ever warriors book and bluestar will always be my favourite so I'm gonna make some counterpoints to you about her being a Smajor character

bluestar has always been led by an intense loyalty and dedication to those she loves and cares for - this includes her mum, her sister, her clan, eventually Firepaw when he joins the clan, and she has a VERY strong moral compass when it comes to doing the right thing - when she sees thistleclaw teaching tigerpaw to hurt a then baby scourge she very much discourages it and is against it

Afaik scott is Not like that, he doesn't have an emotional or love-driven moral code, he does things because they're smart decisions in the long term or because he wants to. Granted I havent seen a ton of his stuff but I have seen his limited life and 3rd life perspectives and he is very much a singular team player there, there to look after himself and well if people align with him that's great he's got allies (jimmy and Martyn) but he won't go out of his way to care for them

Bluestars defiance of starclan in the first series is BECAUSE she gave herself to them and what the warrior code demanded so much - yes she broke clan rules by having kids with crookedstar but she did everything in her power to make sure they'd have a happy life and felt terrible that thrushpelt was willing to say they were his to save her reputation. She didn't do it out of a selfish want, she only ever wanted to help her clan and those she loved, and her becoming clan leader is emblematic of that want. When she rejects starclan so wholeheartedly in the first series it's because THINGS KEEP GOING WRONG WHEN SHES TRIED SO HARD TO STOP THEM FROM DOING THAT - starclan has never cared about the sacrifices she made to keep her loved ones and clan safe, she lost her mother, her sister, her kits, her mate, literally everything, and things STILL KEEP GETTING WORSE. it's not a demand that she deserves to have everything good, it's a cry for help that shouldn't something go right after she's tried so hard???

C!Scott isn't like that. He puts himself above others and inherently believes he will get the best if he just plays his cards right, and he is good at it, he's very competent at lasting a long time in life series and getting what he wants - the ruthlessness of gem driven by desperation kills him in secret life, Martyn's complete fucking about face kills him in limited life, and I'm pretty sure it's etho who gets him out in 3rd life by luck. He doesn't plan to look after the ones he cares about, because he cares about himself first and foremost. Yeah you can argue when he doesn't get what he wants he gets annoyed, but his is less of a 'why don't I get this don't I deserve it' and more of a 'oh fuck this didn't work. Ok new plan double down on getting what I want by appeasing to people cos they're easy to read and therefore account for'

I don't doubt Scott would make a bluestar adjacent character if he made a warrior cats oc BUT his character would honestly be closer to darktail or ashfur than bluestar and that's that on that.

(sorry you activated 13 year old me's unskippable cutscene sjdjsjsjja this isnt meant to be a serious argument I just love bluestar a lot and love talking about her)

OKAY 1. this is fucking awesome thank you 2. i am going to do something new and exciting (advocate for scott instead of beating him to death with sticks) because unfortunately this bluestar info has only made me believe she is a smajor character even more.

As a general note when I talk about smajor characters as a collective here I’m referring to characters more in the realm of esmp/traffic/rats/pirates/etc, less vampire scott or necromancer scott who are intended to be villainous.

Scott characters tend to operate under a “If I am not a Good Person I may as well die” rule, and consequently abide by a strict moral code to keep themselves feeling clean. For instance: traffic Scott will never go back on his word, he will avoid dishonesty, and he won’t take from others unless he is sure that he can repay them. He will never betray his seasonal primary ally (even when they betray him first), and will often give people things just because they asked him nicely. He stakes a lot of his own identity on this, because it is through being a “good person” that he justifies his superiority (and, by extension, his own existence); in his mind he deserves the best and *is* the best because he is such a good person. When things don’t go his way, he thinks he doesn’t deserve it because he has been nothing but good, so he tries to place a reason. He often assumes that somebody must “have a vendetta” against him, even if this somebody is the world (see: him asking if limlife episode 1 boogeyman is some kind of joke played on him for not giving in to the boogey curse in Last Life.) which is very Bluestar to me, convinced that her misfortunes are a divine punishment.

This is all to say that Scott does have a strict moral code and deep sense of loyalty. Being a “good person” and devoted partner in the ways he understands it are so ingrained into what he is that I think he definitely has the capacity to be a Bluestar if he were raised being taught clan values, even if his internal systems are often built around never letting gross emotions be fully felt rather than what those emotions compel him to do.

#ive always wanted to partake in pointless character debate on tumblr #considered maintagging this but didnt want people looking at your ask weird. sorry yall we serve fucked up scott here #“But bree” you might ask “what about pearl? He wasnt a very devoted partner then!” #and to that I say: pearl isnt a person to him. and neither is jimmy. Scott fucked up with both of them and unfortunately if he is not good- #and justified 100% of the time he loses his entire identity so convincing himself that they are incompetent or crazy so that he #doesnt have to self reflect is how he gets by. he would literally rather kill himself than earnestly admit fault for anything #… huh. about the above tags I dont remember the lore but is there any parallel there with the whole bright heart thing #genuine question bc I do not remember why blue star did that and I dont trust the wiki #(Trying to space out names so they dont tag) #I really hope this makes sense btw bc I feel like I usually list a lot more examples… but im tired #I can elaborate on any point here if need be ig. I dont talk about this aspect of him often because the literal entire fandom does already #Every scott analysis post out there is about his damn loyalty… anyways yeah scotts loyalty is transactional more often than emotional but #It’s still loyalty and also. hard to draw the line between where the emotions stop sometimes because he can stop giving a fuck about— #most things on a whim. How much scott genuinely cares about something is a forever undefinable concept #asks #he is genuinely a very good ally to have usually. like jimmy was very much the exception there #he does like helping people out he does. he’s just also emotionally detached so he tallies his favors and good deeds to bring up later if— #someone he’s helped decides to go against him. If that makes sense #sorry man I just keep talking. I love this blue animal……. #thanks for the ask genuinely I love when paragraphs about characters #anyways im gonna pass out and. Shakes myself STOP ADDING MORE TAGSSS i think im so tired man

[your-friendly-neighbourh00d-fag]

my conscious brain: heathers the musical deals with serious issues and should be treated seriously.

my subconscious, feral brain: HEEEYYYYYYYY RRRRRRROONICAAAAAA WAWAWAWAWWOOOOOW YOU MAKE MY BALLS SO BLUUEEEEEEEE YOU HURT THEM BADLYYYY~

#im sorry but blue is a FUCKING BANGER and it shouldn't have been taken out of the west end version #like yeah its uncomfortable #its SUPPOSED to be uncomfortable #because thats how teenage boys talk and act #its a dark satire of course there are going to be uncomfortable/wrong themes like that its adressing the problem #anyway im a blue defender until death bc. its so smart. #heathers #heathers the musical #veronica sawyer #kurt and ram #kurt kelley #ram sweeney #heather macnamara #heather duke #anyway sorry i kind of wrote a whole ass analysis post in these tags

[aceofstars121]

Thinking about how Dream said that people’s limbos were affected by how they died. Thinking about how Wilbur’s limbo is a train station, and how he died by suicide. He must’ve expected something after death, must’ve expected to move on to somewhere new, only to be left at the station, never to board a train to take him somewhere happier. And if Wilbur’s just some guy from Utah who managed to stumble his way into the world of the dream smp, well, trains and train stations aren’t exactly something you can find in Minecraft. Maybe, he thought, by dying and by leaving the story and the world that had hurt him so much, he could finally go home.

Or maybe, he really did just want it all to end. Maybe the train station was the universe telling him that everything wasn’t over for him. One day, the train would come back and the doors would open to let him in. One day, he’d still have a life left to live.

#dream smp analysis #my old English teacher would hate me for this one #apparently ur supposed to have just one opinion and stick to it when analysing things #and not explore different possibilities #yeah fuck that #and fuck the English curriculum #wilbur soot #c!wilbur #c!wilbur soot #dream smp #dsmp #dsmp spoilers #I should come back and take that tag off later but I know I never will

[cartoonpigeon]

sillays :3

#obligitory i understand Feyd and Paul are shitty people but goddamn i am a gay warrior cats obsessed man to my core :3 #loveeeee Chani's design so much #you can tell i have a favorite lmao #I feel like I didn't do enough to convey that Feyd and Paul are cousins but whateverrr #also not shaded because I was fuck ot we balling it and I wanted to get it done before school starts #I LOVEEEEEE chani's design #I've said that already but yeah #anyways I probably need a tag for this lmao #new dune followers.... meet the hyde to my dr. jekyll (/hj) #also analysis post IS COMJNG!! I've gotten to the Duke Leto section 👍 #dune spoilers #dune wcs au #<- VERY loosely #fremen r probably a form of loners and the houses form clans #arrakis is a really sought-after territory #so on and so on #chani #paul atreides #feyd rautha harkonnen #chani kynes #dune fanart #dune 2024 #dune part 2