I guess what irks me about a lot of the conversation around canon Marichat is how many people seem to think that this was the Only Way. It never could have gone any other way, it had to be through Marichat. And I have such split feelings on that, because on one hand, yes, this is the direction the narrative went, and the narrative is the definitive voice on what it is. There are indisputable facts about canon, and here are the facts: Marichat confessed mutual feelings toward one another before any other side of the love square.
But on the other hand, it's not like these characters can only have a healthy relationship if they're using those particular costumes, which is how a lot of people treat it, and have treated it for years. Fun drinking game: take a shot every time someone called Ladrien "toxic" or "codependent" or "unhealthy" or "idolizing" or any other bogus word used to justify shitting on that side of the love square.
And it's really, really difficult to see so many people using this rhetoric, but more than that, there's so many things that I've associated with that rhetoric and now those things are basically canon and it's just. Hard. Because so much of my dash is justifiably filled with shit that used to almost exclusively be red flags for "this person probably is unnecessarily salty toward Ladrien."
I don't know. I'm sad. And I have complicated feelings toward Marichat, and I really did love Elation but at the same time I'm finding it difficult to retrain my brain not to respond harshly to the things that everyone is saying.
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Norma Natividad is autistic.
Now, I know it might seem iffy that I'm headcanoning the academically-inclined jerk character as autistic, but hear me out. :V
Her investigative tendencies strike me as a special interest of hers, so when the mystery of the mole comes on the scene she pounces on it and remains focused for the entirety of the story, while all the other Interns are varying degrees of apathetic. She tells everyone it's for the extra credit points but Lizzie's post-game comment - "she's been 'helping' me all my life" suggest it's just a Thing Norma Does. She's also shown talking about her investigation to a less-than-interested Gisu, despite the fact that Raz is standing right there, suggesting that's her 'I'm gonna spill about my interests today because I have to tell someone' moment.
Playing into the above, she wants to make herself helpful and useful - hence the investigation and snitching on Raz to 'Truman' - but has a bit of trouble with impulse control and reading the room. Sometimes she 'helps' when it isn't really asked for and has difficulty leaving well enough alone. I do imagine this is rooted a lot in her past as a psychic, but there's also an element of internalized ableism - she wants to prove she can 'fit in' and contribute to neurotypical society.
While she wasn't unbiased towards Raz to start with because, you know, literal child getting into the Intern program on his first day and all - she came up with her theory because she 'saw what others couldn't' and took the events surrounding Raz's arrival at face value (kid she's never heard of before suddenly showing up out of nowhere, becomes an Intern immediately and is apparently best buddies with three Senior Agents) and came to the logical - but incorrect - conclusion that something didn't add up. This feels like a very autistic thing for me personally, to see something that should be obvious yet gets ignored for apparently arbitrary reasons.
She seems adept at, essentially, spycraft, which she accomplishes by putting on acts - again projecting here, but when you mask for long enough eventually you sorta understand how to mask and in what way to get a desired reaction. I personally don't do this because I can't stand being dishonest, but Norma has no such hangups... which is not to say she enjoys it. Masking for a long time can be exhausting. So when she doesn't need to, she speaks bluntly and honestly, and depending on her mood she either doesn't know or doesn't care if she comes off as rude in the process. It's her treat! (Her comment to Raz about his father, "I'm sorry, are you jealous? Did your father not spend much time with you growing up?" was half-honest question, half-low-blow jab to get a rise out of him because she still thinks he's a smug brat who's duping everyone and 'if only everyone else could see what I'm seeing!')
Kinda grasping at straws for this one, but she has a couple tics she repeats a lot - she's often seen with her hands clasped together in front of her and regularly pulls her glasses up her nose, which both feel like stims.
Finally, going by one of the cut Bottled Thoughts, she suffers from anxiety over if she's really a good person or not, showing she still has empathy for others buried beneath that prickly exterior. This is sort of made apparent in the final game - she apologizes to Raz for thinking he's the Mole and promises to make it up to him, and using Clairvoyance on her in the postgame reveals she at least begrudgingly warmed up to him after that. However, when Raz and her sister directly confront her over her wrongdoing, her knee-jerk response is to downplay it and be like 'well it all worked out in the end, what's the problem?'. I know based on my own experience and convos with other autistic folks that an unfortunate reality of being autistic is having strangers overreact towards something you did or said for seemingly no logical reason, so it's tempting to wish that everyone would just stop making such a huge deal over minor errors - pobody's nerfect, just accept mistakes happen and move on. Except in Norma's case it's more than just a simple mistake, but she's still in the denial phase of the incident and doesn't want that 'am I a good person?' anxiety to flare up again, and her difficulty at reading the room lead to her reaction.
Also note that this is the only time you can finally hand her the 'Mission-Critical Assets', whereupon she'll act like a jerk towards Raz again ("get over yourself, it's just a scavenger hunt!") - which, considering my earlier thoughts, strikes me as a 'well fine, if you wanna treat me like a jerk then I guess I'll act like one!' moment (showing she still struggles to regulate her emotions). Then she gets uncharacteristically flustered when Raz suddenly turns the tables on her, and let me tell you, I felt that. :V
Just to be clear, this is in no way meant to justify or excuse her dickish behaviour towards Raz, who I'm pretty sure is autistic himself (and I know I'm not the only one who thinks that). I'm autistic and I was a kind of a dick when I was Norma's age, and I make no excuses for that. She just has some growing up to do, really.
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I will say I get the vibe that a lot of peoples interest and support for strikers is a bit too much for a vicarious ‘burn it down’ thrill, rather than for the actual goals of a strike.
Like UPS has agreed to come back to the table and it is very possible they will concede to Union demands and avert a strike. And if that happens (so long as the union does not make concessions on its key demands) it’s a good thing. It’s a victory for the laborers. It is the same ultimate conclusion that a strike would intend to produce except without the workers having to go on (not so great) strike pay for a week or two.
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You know what I realize that people underestimate with Pride & Prejudice is the strategic importance of Jane.
Because like, I recently saw Charlotte and Elizabeth contrasted as the former being pragmatic and the latter holding out for a love match, because she's younger and prettier and thinks she can afford it, and that is very much not what's happening.
The Charlotte take is correct, but the Elizabeth is all wrong. Lizzie doesn't insist on a love match. That's serendipitous and rather unexpected. She wants, exactly as Mr. Bennet says, someone she can respect. Contempt won't do. Mr. Bennet puts it in weirdly sexist terms like he's trying to avoid acknowledging what he did to himself by marrying a self-absorbed idiot, but it's still true. That's what Elizabeth is shooting for: a marriage that won't make her unhappy.
She's grown up watching how miserable her parents make one another; she's not willing to sign up for a lifetime of being bitter and lonely in her own home.
I think she is very aware, in refusing Mr. Collins, that it's reasonably unlikely that anyone she actually respects is going to want her, with her few accomplishments and her lack of property. That she is turning down security and the chance keep the house she grew up in, and all she gets in return may be spinsterhood.
But, crucially, she has absolute faith in Jane.
The bit about teaching Jane's daughters to embroider badly? That's a joke, but it's also a serious potential life plan. Jane is the best creature in the world, and a beauty; there's no chance at all she won't get married to someone worthwhile.
(Bingley mucks this up by breaking Jane's heart, but her prospects remain reasonable if their mother would lay off!)
And if Elizabeth can't replicate that feat, then there's also no doubt in her mind that Jane will let her live in her house as a dependent as long as she likes, and never let it be made shameful or awful to be that impoverished spinster aunt. It will be okay never to be married at all, because she has her sister, whom she trusts absolutely to succeed and to protect her.
And if something eventually happens to Jane's family and they can't keep her anymore, she can throw herself upon the mercy of the Gardeners, who have money and like her very much, and are likewise good people. She has a support network--not a perfect or impregnable one, but it exists. It gives her realistic options.
Spinsterhood was a very dangerous choice; there are reasons you would go to considerable lengths not to risk it.
But Elizabeth has Jane, and her pride, and an understanding of what marrying someone who will make you miserable costs.
That's part of the thesis of the book, I would say! Recurring Austen thought. How important it is not to marry someone who will make you, specifically, unhappy.
She would rather be a dependent of people she likes and trusts than of someone she doesn't, even if the latter is formally considered more secure; she would rather live in a happy, reasonable household as an extra than be the mistress of her own home, but that home is full of Mr. Collins and her mother.
This is a calculation she's making consciously! She's not counting on a better marriage coming along. She just feels the most likely bad outcome from refusing Mr. Collins is still much better than the certain outcome of accepting him. Which is being stuck with Mr. Collins forever.
Elizabeth is also being pragmatic. Austen also endorses her choice, for the person she is and the concerns she has. She's just picking different trade-offs than Charlotte.
Elizabeth's flaw is not in her own priorities; she doesn't make a reckless choice and get lucky. But in being unable to accept that Charlotte's are different, and it doesn't mean there's anything wrong with Charlotte.
Because realistically, when your marriage is your whole family and career forever, and you only get to pick the ones that offer themselves to you, when you are legally bound to the status of dependent, you're always going to be making some trade-offs.
😂 Even the unrealistically ideal dream scenario of wealthy handsome clever ethical Mr. Darcy still asks you to undergo personal growth, accommodate someone else's communication style, and eat a little crow.
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