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thosewildcharms · 1 month

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i'll be thinking about 1x04 for the rest of my life probably, but currently i'm thinking about how genius it was that instead of the episode being about convincing rick to fight the CRM, as I originally thought it would be, it ended up being a battle to bring rick himself back to life. it's both rick and michonne fighting to revive a dead man who is doing anything he can to stay dead.

the show had already established that rick metaphorically killed himself and made okafor's mission his own instead of committing suicide and that from the moment she arrived he went into panic mode and was doing everything he could do put himself between her and the many threats aimed at her. like, we knew all of that going in.

and then this episode blows that wide open in the first, what, ten minutes? the CRM thinks they're dead. they can leave. and still, rick clings to okafor's mission. and in the hands of lesser writers, in the hands of any other production team who did not understand these characters as profoundly as danai and andy understand them, that's where it would have ended. rick would have genuinely been fully brainwashed and have been coming from a place of misplaced egotism, and they'd be having a very different fight. it would be rick insisting he had to fight the crm alone and michonne arguing that they can fight them together with nothing deeper than that going on.

but of course that's not it, because that's not rick grimes, and this is danai gurira's pen. he's not brainwashed, he's broken. he's so deeply and profoundly traumatized that clinging to this mission as a way of maintaining his own metaphorical death has become the last and strongest wall of his self-defense mechanism. and he spends the whole episode desperately trying to keep that wall up, and failing.

when he sees michonne's scar, he immediately looks for the PRB. because the physical proof of how much danger she will always be in reminds him of how much he can no longer bear to witness it. when michonne tells him about RJ, he asks her to give him the PRB and when he learns that RJ calls himself Little Brave Man, he doubles down on okafor's plan. because he can never lose another child (the way he lost carl twice) if he never knows or meets him in the first place. when michonne blows up about how scared and guilty she feels about not being with their kids he goes completely cold and blank and tells her to go back home. because if they're all out of sight and together they'll always be alive in his mind. because he's already dead, but they don't have to be. he becomes truly recognizable to michonne, to remain unmoved in the face of her pain like that.

and yet. he lasts about ten seconds before sprinting after when she leaves the room. he fusses over her when she can't stop coughing and refuses to leave her side when she's in danger. several times michonne checks in, to see if her rick is still there ("do you still love me?" "I just needed to hear you say it") and confirms that yes, he is. he's emphatic that he has never stopped loving her and never will, that she never has to thank him ever, for saving her life or for anything else. over and over, his love for her wins out even though he's trying so hard to keep that wall up. to remain dead so she will leave and keep living. he's trying to convince both her and himself that he's already gone, but always breaks at the last minute because the immediacy of seeing her right in front of him is more powerful than his own fear. tries to shut himself down, can't resist her, rinse and repeat.

and god, michonne. i've been yammering about the intensity of rick's love for michonne for weeks now, but michonne has done nothing but prove that she's right there with him, if not more. to reveal that rick is the only person who has ever made her feel safe, only to have him continually reject her and be a stone wall against her anger and pain and fear and confusion was so fucking heartbreaking to watch, and still she spends the whole episode banging and scratching and tearing at that wall around him, begging to understand why he's lying to her, why he's being so antithetical to the man she loves. and once she figures out that there's something else going on, that the rick she loves is undoubtedly still in there, she knows exactly what to do to save him. she forces him to say how much he loves her, how much he can't bear to actually let her leave him, so both of them can hear it and then reminds him of how he loves her. this woman spent a decade alone, afraid, raising their kids and facing horrible trauma herself, almost dies trying to find her husband only to meet a stranger once she does, and still does not give up on him. fucking incredible.

i said in a previous post that the only thing that could keep rick grimes from doing anything to get back to his family is a threat to their lives. and it's still true - his grief and trauma is so profound that even the nebulous threat of losing them is so horrifically terrifying to him that he's refusing to go home to them, keeping himself dead to protect himself from their possible deaths. but ultimately, michonne's love for him is even stronger than that. it took almost a decade for the CRM to break him, and michonne brings him back in a day. because the love they have for each other is more powerful than anything. as she says, it can't be denied.

it's honestly the most romantic hour of television i've ever watched. there's so much more that i can say that i haven't even touched on here, and i'm sure i'll be thinking about it for a very long time.

#richonne #the ones who live #i think it goes without saying that danai and andy's performances are fucking insane as well.#twd

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synesealedelivered · 2 months

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i feel a desperate need to write a game of thrones modern AU where jon snow is the coach of Arya’s 8th grade soccer team (he knows nothing about soccer) and together they takes the team to nationals or whatever (i don’t know shit about soccer either) and the girls help him solve his personal problems and find his place in the world. Bran is his assistant coach (he is the only person keeping up with all the responsibilities of the team, scheduling buses for trips, making sure everyone has uniforms, etc and the only one who knows anything about soccer he is also 9 years old) Robb is there the whole time yelling words of affirmation to his siblings in the bleachers and ignoring emails from his family failing business so theon and him can run around the field pushing bran in his wheelchair at top speed, while jon frantically googles “soccer rules for dummies” and “how to help a 12 year old choose which parent she wants to live with after the divorce”. Sansa is babysitting Rickon as a way to prove to her parents that she is the best and most responsible child so mom and dad should let her spend the summer in her friend’s margeary’s super fancy house in the city living her best “ it girl coming of age indie soundtrack life” but rickon is insane and she is slowly losing her mind controlling what is technically a worse version of kevin macallister in a giant house with 6 dogs while also trying to be her class valedictorian to prove to fucking joffrey (they are in the same school and hate each other and compete in everything) that she isn’t “a stupid little girl” and she will get into harvard AND be the class valedictorian (they are years away of graduating)

theon and robb get jon to smoke weed behind the bleachers so he can “relax a little” before one of the practices and he gets insanely paranoid and the girls in the team (they all think he is a loser, but love him in a “ugly teddy bear at goodwill i have to buy so he won’t feel rejected kinda way” ) think his red eyes are from crying and his weird behavior is him trying to cover it up and constantly stop their training to try and comfort him by saying insane stuff to try to convince him not that he is not a loser, but that is ok to be a loser and arya laughs so much she throws up.

Myrcella being on the team and Cersei being an insane soccer mom and doing everything she can to make jons life a living hell by being the chaperone parent during away games. Joffrey being forced to attend his sister’s games and arya creating new and inventive ways of fucking with him by slowing convincing everyone that he is going insane because she knows he is shitty to sansa.

shireen being on the soccer team and baking cookie for jon because she heard him in one of his 5 minutes screaming breaks in the janitor’s closet and thinks he is hanging by a thread (he is) she gives bran the cookies and he uses them as training treats for jon and summer.

i’m going insane

#i have so many stupid ideas for this au they are eating my brain from the inside out #arya stark #game of thrones #jon snow #theon greyjoy #asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #margaery tyrell #ned stark #cersei lannister #sofia shut up

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captainn-hook · 24 days

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Character analysis on Prince Sidon (BOTW vs TOTK)

One thing I love about totk is how the game addresses Sidon’s trauma.

In botw you see how desperate he is for his father’s approval, it’s like Mipha set an impossible standard for dying not only for her domain and her people but for the whole kingdom of Hyrule. In their father’s eyes, she’s the perfect child, not only in personality but also in the way she’s honoured her family. Sidon sees how his father thinks of her, and although the king doesn’t do it consciously, he always put her on an impossibly high pedestal, and Sidon grew up believing that he HAD to meet that expectation, and that he would never, no matter how hard he tried.

When Link tames Vah Ruta and they both go to see the king, he tells his son:

“As your father, I am proud of you for fighting the Divine Beast alongside Link. You have grown much recently. I know you will be a worthy heir when your time comes.”

Then Sidon bows his head, as if he’s overcome with emotions because his dad tells him he’s proud of what he’s accomplished. King Dorephan isn’t a bad guy, don’t get me wrong, but the grief of losing his daughter (in this case, he thought she went missing and had been in the DB for 100 years, he didn’t know she died) made him sort of lose sight of Sidon’s achievements in those 100 years because he was so racked with worry and guilt. So although the king isn’t a bad father, he fails to reassure his son that he doesn’t need to do anything to make him proud (even though Sidon had definitely done stuff to make his dad proud over the years).

(Btw im pretty sure tripple digits in age is considered teens or early adulthood for Zora, so he’s still pretty young, I imagine around Link’s age if he were Hylian)

But that’s about all we get in botw.

So now we move on to totk. And oh boy do we get a load of Sidon angst. Some people might disagree with me but having read between the lines of what Lady Yona talked about (and just WHAT she actually said) in the first half of the water temple quest (before we find it, when we’re up in Mipha court), it really is angsty.

She’s aware of the fact that his sister’s death affected him a lot and still does despite knowing that her spirit moved on, and it (at this point) has started to affect their relationship.

Yona and Sidon have a disagreement before/after the battle with the Sludge Like, where they argue about him going with Link to this pillar of light that has suddenly appeared. It starts with Sidon saying: “Lady Yona! It is far too dangerous for you to be here” in reference to the sludge, but she has none of that.

She tells him that she wants him to go to the pillar with Link, and that: “For a long time, I have been concerned that you are holding yourself back and not acting as freely as I would have expected.” This has some credit because it’s mentioned somewhere how they were both childhood friends, and the Zora live long lives so it’s safe to assume their childhood is prolonged, which means that they’ve known each other for a very long time. Yona knows how he acts and behaves, his mannerisms and his fears, and that’s why she wants to push him to face them.

She tells him that if he goes with Link they’ll be able to overcome this problem, but he hesitates. She notices, asking him what is troubling him, and he hesitates again to speak what’s on his mind. This is when the Sludge Like comes in, and after the battle, the conversation continues.

Sidon hurries back to Yona and says: “Thank goodness. Lady Yona, if something had happened to you... I...” and there’s where it becomes clear just how terrified he is of losing her. He doesn’t finish the sentence, though, he changes the subject and tells her that she should go back to the domain in case more monsters show up. She tells him that he should focus on what Link said and that he can leave the court to them (Yona and the others that came with her). Sidon replies with: “W-well... Of course it would be best for me to accompany him. However, I cannot leave you alone in this dangerous place!” He’s ignoring what’s best and instead focusing on the safety of his betrothed, because of course he would! A monster just showed up and it took both Link and Sidon to take it down, imagine if neither of them were with her, what would happen? What would he do if she got hurt? And then the following dialogue happens (you dont need to read the whole thing, you can just skip to the bold parts):

Yona: “Did you not entrust this task to us already? We will not be on our own for long. We shall be just fine.”

Sidon: “But…”

Yona: “Sidon, my darling... I truly appreciate that you worry so for my safety. It speaks to the kindness in your heart.

But you are the prince of the Zora. One day, you will lead the people of your beloved domain.

I can see right through you, whether you want me to or not. You are yielding to the fear of losing someone you love again.

You must overcome your past and face whatever the future holds with courage.”

Sidon: “But... I...”

Yona: “Enough is enough! You are not acting like yourself! You must leave this place to me!

Sweet Sidon... Do not get lost in the past. You must keep moving ever onward. Just follow your heart, as you always do!”

Sidon: “Like my old self... Like I always do...”

Yona: “It is all right. I swear it. I am not going anywhere.”

Sidon: “I see... And there it is, clear as day... I was giving in to my fear of once more losing someone I love... I… I…

You are right, Yona! I will not give in to this fear! Nor forsake my trust in you! I leave this place to you, my love.”

[skip]

Yona: “All this time he was clinging to regret over being unable to save his precious sister, Mipha... My poor, tormented Sidon.

And to think he was unknowingly paralyzed from taking action because he feared losing me as well...

Yet he has overcome this trial and placed his faith in me. At last, the Sidon I know and love has come back to me.”

During this conversation, Sidon hesitates more than once and you can see it starting to irritate Yona because she knows the potential he doesn’t see in himself, because it’s not just fear of losing a loved one, but it’s his own insecurity from not being able to save Mipha.

He doesn’t care that he was very young and wouldn’t have been able to anyway, he just cares that he couldn’t. In his eyes, he failed to save his sister. And I’m not going to go too deep into this point but it’s clear that she was playing both older sister and mother, because we can assume their mother died a while back (she’s never mentioned and it’s just the two of them and their father even as far back as age of calamity if you want to include that).

What I’m saying is that with technically both the loss of his mother and his sister, it’s safe to assume that he feels some sort of responsibility for not being able to help, even if he was too young to do so, his disregard for the age he was at the time shows how much weight was left on his shoulders after Mipha died.

He never expected to be the heir to the throne, the sole survivor of his family (along with his dad), sure he’s a prince and princes have responsibility, but Mipha was always going to be in the spotlight (not that I’d imagine him jealous of this, it’s simply just a fact, and I think he might have actually even been comfortable with that), she was always going to be the Zora Champion and then Queen one day, so to have all of that suddenly dumped on him after the calamity as a literal kid would’ve undoubtedly had its effect on him.

Yona understands this, she tells Link, knowing he’s probably caught on, how he was “clinging to regret over being unable to save his precious sister, Mipha...”.

She has to reassure her love that she’s okay. “It is all right. I swear it. I am not going anywhere.”, she comforts him because she knows he needs it, he needs her to say it to him because that’s the only way he will believe she is in fact okay.

But his character develops. Sidon realises that in fearing for Yona, he has made her feel as if she isn’t trusted. He recognises the position he’s put them both in, him worrying relentlessly and stressing out about his loved ones because of his trauma, and her having to watch him fall down this never ending rabbit hole and being unable to do much about it because all he tries to do is shelter and protect her, even when it’s unnecessary.

But she does what she can anyway, and it pays off, because he comes back to reality and understands that although there will always be the risk of losing her, he knows that she is more than capable of taking care of herself. He knows of her strength, it was just hard for him to see the situation from her point of view. But she pushes him to do so, and he betters himself for her.

I think he’ll always have some small hint of this trauma response hidden away, but after this discussion, he’s got a firm hold on it, and is willing to control his fears for the love of his life so that they can start to build a life together without the sense of utter doom and despair over his past looming over them both.

I’m glad the writers did this, and didn’t just make them seem like this perfect couple with no issues, it shows a real and healthy relationship, and it shows that Sidon isn’t this perfect person and that he indeed has faults of his own.

That’s my take on it, anyway.

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lovl3igh · 1 month

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alicent as a mother is always so intensive subject, cause where tg refuse to admit that alicent was a bad mother, tb don't give her justice in reasons why that happened (it's not general, both teams has exceptions ofc)

tg defend her saying it's not her fault, she was used, she didn't want those children, they forced her, but was it said otherwise? yes, she was bad mother because of her own trauma and assault she experienced but she was still a bad mother. having an "excuse" don't change that

and not every time that someone said she is not a good parent, they need to add why. no need for assuming that person who says it, doesn't know the reasons. they can say why alicent became bad parent or the way alicent shows bad parenting or that she is just that, bad mother, they can say all of it or just one thing. all of that coexists

before I'll start: there's most stuff from the show, but there's book spoilers, maybe that will be also show cannon in the future, I dunno, sorry for mistakes, english is not my first language

we have evidence of her being basically sold by her father, sa'd by viserys, forced to birth one child by another. she was motherless child forced to becoming a mother before she was ready. she was not a fan of her children, we see her unhappy with them, and when she speaks it's about dry facts like the labour and not her feelings. she does not care for them that way, which is fine bc she not wished for them and she's still a child herself, but that's a fact

we see her later with her kids and again we cannot say she became better while becoming older. she sees them as her duty (her worst enemy), her responsibility and also (admit it or not) way to put rhaenyra down. otto said to her way before jace was born that he wants aegon on the throne, he already could be accused of treason but alicent remained silent and later she acts the same way. she puts on aegon big pressure, responsibilities and also involves him in act of treason (because again she thinks it's her duty to the realm)

what's more she abuses him physically and mentally. we see her beating him more than once, screaming or neglacting him (all of that are forms of abuse). blames him for aemond's losing an eye while it was her responsibility to watch her kid or a servant and guards', not his (you can say also viserys', there was never a dispute if he's a good father, we know he isn't, it's about alicent only discussion then)

aegon in his 20s has to ask his mother if he's being loved, how sick is that? that he drowns in need of attention? (you can say he deserves all of this but the truth is alicent - and viserys ofc - failed to raise him well and now she fails to punish him, cause he should be sent to the wall, instead she beats him and let's him be a monster to another girl, now as a "king". all not to protect him but to protect his reputation, all she does there is bc of her sense of duty)

helaena hates being touched by her own mother, why wouldn't she? child bride alicent did the same to her daughter, knowing what a menace her son is. she does not understand haelena, she forces her to early marriage, childbirting, unhappy life. (and be fr, haelena might not like touching generally but 1. it's speaks even worse about alicent who touches her againts her will and married her to sexual predator, 2. she didn't mind being touched by jace who not really knowing his aunt was far more gentle)

absence of daeron would say more about their relation if not for long time skips, the truth is sending away little child is a form of neglacting however we do not know if they were in touch and how often. i know it's a common practise, i am glad that baela was at least sent to her loving grandmother in her later childhood, but I still do not like the whole ward thing and i won't comment on it in daeron's case, cause we did not see it here how was it done

I will speak about aemond x alicent relation though which is by far the most interesting. he is the only one we can say that he loves his mother and cares for her which doesn't automatically means she was a good mother for him. for the dynamic he observes alicent needs protection from men around her (rightfully so) and decides to lie to the king to protect her. not only he usually lives meeting her expectations (ekhem ekhem not anymore ig) but can initiate his actions to please her even if that means he'll go against his own wishes (searching for aegon to make him a king)

the fact is he was much miserable for not having dragons AND for being bullied. yet two things we have: first alicent as queen could easily arrange aemond going to dragonstone to claim dragon or take rhaenyra's deal to have syrax's egg. second - she blames velaryon boys as if she wasn't the one who destroyed good relations between kids and as if aegon weren't bellwether for bullying actions (YES, JACE AND LUKE ARE GUILTY TOO, but we discuss here alicent dynamics with her kids, so I point her fault right now) and she raised one child to bully others, his own siblings

then we have the children's fight and aemond loses his eyes. one of the best scene when alicent attacks rhaenyra, 10/10 love everything here. that's gonna sound harsh but alicent's behaviour here screams about duty too. it shouldn't at all, her child just lost his eye, her priority should be to comfort him. instead she wants rhaenyra to take responsibility for having bastards (that's not the case), aegon for not taking care of aemond (it's her responsibility), viserys to admitting her own sacrifices weren't for nothing. she put here herself and her needs above aemond, she used his wounds to attack rhaenyra and her children (no, I do not say she didn't care aemond got hurt, don't put words in my mouth)

"if the king won’t seek justice the queen will" she wants so called "justice", but stated by her only, where's justice in taking child's eye after accident? would she also break aemond nose for "justice"? if he'd killed luke or jace, would she call for killing aemond? it's not caring mother, it's the queen wanting revenge cause she doesn't like princess' privileges (and also privilege that bastards here have). she calms down when she realizes that she went too far, "neglected her duty", that's not aemond's doing (and also fcked up that her assaulted child feels that he needs to calm her down)

"she was ready to die for her children" desperate actions in the worst scenarios to not matter that much with previous behaviour, especially since her children were doubting if she would do that for them in the first place (that ig you can take as opinion, but if mother abuses child for years how much does it counts if she gives up her life for this child?)

regarding rhaenyra she doesn't understand a good mother patterns as well. she either doesn't care nyra will suffer or doesn't understand that mother who just gave a birth to a child, will not send it away even for a second. she doesn't care or understand mother will not allow for taking her child's eye for "duty". she doesn't understand that bastards are not any less worthy of love. her view of motherhood is sacrifising herself, not enjoying what she can

perhaps she did not know any better, her mother was a child bride (forced by old pedo otto) just like her, she did the same to helaena and unfortunately later that happened to jaehaera. she was abused in many ways but later also became an abuser. and all that because she thought life is about duty and sacrifice. she had every reason to be bad mother and she became one but that it should be seen as a fact while some of you see it as an opinion and criticism

if you read all of that - seven hells okay

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litnerdwrites · 24 days

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So Nesta might also have second hand trauma...

+ Elain is a hypocrite.

“I went into the Cauldron, too, you know. And it captured me. And yet somehow all you think of is what my trauma did to you.”

This quote has rubbed me the wrong way since I read ACOSF for the first time. I reblogged and responded to a post by @simmanin where I discussed how Elain is a hypocrite for this line, since the IC have never considered what Nesta's trauma did to her. That was one of two thoughts I had regarding this quote, the second being how Nesta's reaction seems completely logical.

I think Nesta's response to Elain wanting to search for the Cauldron to be a form of real trauma caused, not only by her mother, her father's neglect, the cauldron, turning fae, the war and the shit ACOSF put her through, but also the trauma faced by Elain. This is a form of trauma called Secondary traumatic stress disorder.

Secondary trauma is most common in health care workers and mental health professionals, as well as others who help and deal with other people's trauma on the regular. This, to me, makes complete, logical sense. If you're exposed to so many traumatic experiences, even if it isn't directly, on the regular, then it makes sense that your mental health would also suffer for it.

There have been cases in which a person goes through trauma, and their family members, like siblings, develop secondary trauma as a result. Moreover, it's natural for any form of trauma to affect a person's relationships with friends and family, which we see happen to Nesta in how she distances herself from even Elain.

It makes complete sense that Nesta, who has set herself up as Elain's protector their whole life, and acts as more of a mother figure to her, would develop some form of secondary trauma when she almost loses Elain, or watches Elain endure suffering when shoved into the cauldron.

It wouldn't be far fetched for a parent/sibling to develop a form of secondary trauma after almost losing their child/sibling, in an accident or at the hands of another human being. So why is it that nobody considers that Elain's kidnapping caused even more trauma for Nesta.

While I'm not trying to say that it should come before Elain's trauma and experience, it also isn't okay to discount and overlook Nesta's just because her coddling of Elain is considered a bad trait. It isn't good that Elain is coddled like a child, but using it as an excuse to disregard the obvious traits of trauma that Nesta is showing is unfair to her, and just another example of Elain, perhaps unknowingly in regards to secondary trauma, thinking only about Nesta's trauma is doing to her. How she's upset by the way Nesta handles it, rather than considering that Elain's support is the one Nesta needs the most.

Nesta spend her whole life feeling like a failure. To her mother. Her grandmother. To Feyre. To Amren. To the court. Nesta grapples with feelings of self worth and views herself as a failure for being unable to protect those she loves so fiercely, which greatly affects her mental health and is a huge factor in driving her to want to commit suicide. The only thing she didn't feel like she failed at, was protecting Elain. Until the cauldron. Until Hybern. Until they were dragged into a war that Nesta wanted no part of, but got involved with because of Feyre's request and Elain's insistence.

Nesta tried to give to Feyre what Feyre gave to her in that cabin when she allowed her to use their home (despite Feyre's friends accosting her for issues that aren't theirs to address or comment on), and even then, she feels like she failed when the mortal queens turned traitor. Failed to make it up to Feyre, failed to protect her people, and when Hybern came, failed to protect Elain.

Now, for Elain to not only reinforce those negative feelings, but dismiss Nesta's traumas entierly, from the moment the war ended, is cruel. Elain is a hypocrite. She is a hypocrite who was quick to abandon the one person who's been in her corner for her entire life. While there are clearly issues between Elain and Nesta that need to be sorted through, especially in regards to how Elain is coddled and borderline infantilised by her Nesta, discrediting Nesta's trauma, the way she's accused of doing to Elain despite how Nesta sacrificed her own healing just to be by Elain's side and get involved in the war, again, at Feyre's behest, is not how you go about it.

Nesta appears to have a form of secondary trauma that stems from Elain's own traumas, and she's not the only one. I think tamlin's actions stem from a form of secondary trauma from watching how Feyre suffered and died under the mountain. It doesn't make what he did right. It doesn't excuse his actions. Nor does it excuse Feyre's, since one might argue that seeing her sisters dumped into the cauldron gave her a form of secondary trauma too (since Mor mentioned Feyre feeling responsible for what happened in acofs, and wanting to fix all their problems as a result).

However, it does explain them. Much like how Nesta's traumas, first and second hand, explain her actions. That's not to say that an explanation is an excuse. It merely provide a context from which to examine their actions can be examined and create a path to empathy and compassion. Whether they're forgiven and forgotten is entierly up to those affected by their actions (pretty much just Feyre and maybe Elain for the coddling), and in the case of fictional media, audience discretion.

Nesta has certain things she should apologies for (again, to Feyre mostly, and maybe a little bit Elain), I don't disagree with that. However, none of that can happen until Nesta is able to heal.

The quote above is the perfect example of Nesta being denied that, despite the delusion of the IC in thinking that's what ACOSF was about. Her trauma isn't considered valid by the Ic, or even her own sisters, which is why it isn't treated as such.

So to sum it up, yes. Nesta is thinking about what Elain's trauma did to her because it did have a very real affect on her. It caused real trauma that Nesta has to deal with. The dangers faced by Feyre and the entire court, cause her trauma. She suffers with the fear of losing those she loves so fiercely so that her mental health took a swan dive because of that, amongst other reasons. Yet nobody acknowledges that Elain's suffering, real and horrible as it may be, also caused Nesta pain. Hell, they don't acknowledge the pain Nesta's own suffering caused her, much less anybody else's.

Also Elain and the IC just prove that they have no empathy or compassion despite their own traumas being so similar to the hell they're putting Nesta through. Either their traumas weren't traumatising or the cycle of abuse broke the so badly that they can't even recognise the abuse they put others through.

#anti acosf #anti ic #anti inner circle #anti rhysand #pro nesta #nesta deserves better #nesta acotar #anti amren #anti mor #pro nesta archeron #anti elain #anti feyre #anti morrigan #Nesta's trauma needs to be addressed #preferably by a professional #but apparently those are off limits to Nesta for some reason #pro tamlin

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vaguely-concerned · 5 months

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Thoughts upon finishing Master and Apprentice! A good double read with Padawan; the ending of that leaving Obi-Wan slightly hopeful about his relationship to Qui-Gon makes for a very sad yet hilarious ‘Local Padawan loses last little bit of hope he didn’t even know he still had’ sort of vibe to the beginning of this one, which is set one (1) year later and Obi-Wan is So Done with Qui-Gon’s whole deal by this point (correctly btw). Also if you can’t tell already I will not be objective or free from bias in this because I love Obi-Wan so much and some of the stuff Qui-Gon pulled made me incandescent with rage on his behalf <3 let’s go

- 'oh obi-wan, you're so mature for your age, I keep forgetting you're only seventeen years old,' qui-gon says, word for word, repeatedly, in master and apprentice, apparently willfully deaf to the industrial-sized warning bells about their relationship dynamic that should probably be setting off in his head. qui-gon believes in vibing with the living force and being in the moment right up until the moment requires him to pay attention to the kid he's raising for more than oh, one and a half minutes of self-effacing inner monologue and then he's like 'well unfortunately there is simply no time for that right now there are prophecies to be pondered'. (the fact that the admission that obi-wan has essentially been left to raise himself emotionally and the resigned reframing of that as 'and maybe that is a good thing!' is part of the olive branch they extend to each other towards the end... will my sadness never end)

- most of all it's so heartbreaking to me that qui-gon seemingly never understands just how much obi-wan as a person is rooted deeply in shame. I don't think that's a feeling that's particularly prevalent in qui-gon's own inner world so he doesn't recognize how central it is in obi-wan's psychology and completely misunderstands and misaligns with him again and again and again and then gets annoyed with obi-wan for that, thus making the shame even deeper. doubly painful because he does see the way rael lives so much of his life out of shame now and feels sad about it, but can't see the way he's contributing to obi-wan doing so. this is what fucks me up so bad about the generational trauma in star wars -- no one here meant to be cruel. for all his faults I do think qui-gon does love obi-wan and doesn't mean to hurt him. but the original sin of the prequels as far as I'm concerned is qui-gon tenderly drying away obi-wan's tears as he's dying even while completely failing to see him, his eyes too fixed on anakin's future to actually be with obi-wan, who's there right now and needs him.

these are simply very different people trying and failing to understand each other, and the harm that can still happen in that… 'if you love me, you don't love me in a way I understand', all the way through the disaster line, even when the love is there, it is there, that’s what hurts the most, it just doesn’t reach where it’s needed, there’s a connection that doesn’t happen. (ironically I think ahsoka doesn't doubt that anakin loves her, it's just uh everything else that went down. so y'know family curse broken! new even more fucked up curse achieved now with more child murder. I mean there already was some child murder in this family but anakin upped the game exponentially)

- a lil guy who's basically tarzan except the gorillas are replaced with protocol droids and then he becomes a jewel thief is one of the funniest star wars concepts I've ever heard and I hope pax and rahara get to pop up in more star wars media, they’re great fun. (also an idea I think would be super fun to make a character/campaign around in Edge of the Empire or something, everyone playing different droids and then one person being robo-parented lol)

- was not prepared to have rael posit a theory of what essentially seems to be the jedi version of predestination in his despair, but I do love to see it haha. especially interesting since he, qui-gon and dooku must be among the people alive who've studied the prophecies in most depth, and they've all reached different conclusions -- dooku decides to join the war of light and dark on the side of dark for some reason, qui-gon (possibly the stubbornest fucker the jedi order ever produced) 'turns towards the light not to win some great cosmic game, but because it is the light', and rael in the middle falls into the depressed apathy of 'it doesn't matter what we do here, the outcome is already decided; for there to be true balance there has to be as much dark as light in the world so we're fucked'. but in the end he does take qui-gon's words to heart and turns towards the light rather than accepting dooku's offer, even if he might not believe it makes a difference in the long run. man I love rael. hobo-looking sonofabitch living in a castle for eight years will just suddenly fling out some deep jedi theology huh

- master rael 'I'm gonna make up for the big terrible mistake I made on accident by making an even bigger more premeditated mistake on purpose' averross (affectionate)

- the added layer to dooku’s fascination with prophecy after reading dooku: jedi lost — that his best friend in the world was a seer who couldn’t turn it off and it destroyed him……….. dooku you’re not getting him back if you just understand what he saw you know that right

- the more I read of master and apprentice the more I realize that the reason yoda and qui-gon don't get along is that they're two of the judgiest bitches the jedi order ever produced. They’re like two cats scowling judgmentally at each other from opposite sides of the room pretending to live and let live while going ‘you’re wrong tho’ internally.

- I dunk on him constantly (not entirely without affection, however grudging), but Qui-Gon is genuinely a really interesting character. He’s so… he’s so. He’s infuriating but he’s infuriating in an equidistant sort of way. You feel me. He’s pissing everyone off equally and he just doesn’t care because again, he’s the stubbornest judgiest bitch around and thinks he’s right all the time. I would be free to just enjoy his ornery ‘no actually I’m right about this’ ass and the chaos he wreaks so much more if Obi-Wan didn’t have to live with the emotional consequences of it lol.

- poor rael closing in on fifty with his puriteen middle-aged little brother clutching pearls about his getting laid once in a blue moon fhdskjahfas. again a really interesting insight into different ways of interpreting the jedi code, though, I love seeing the jedi not be an ideological monolith. to be fair to rael, having sex sometimes does seem to be the indulgence he has that causes the least conflict with his principles or loyalties so you know what honestly force speed you my friend why not. (and then there's qui-gon 'noooo sex is only okay if you're In Love (implied: like I was)!!!' jinn lmao. I wonder what he'd think of anakin and padme's relationship, would that pass the 'being sufficiently purely in love' test for him) I do like how consistently it’s shown that rael doesn’t mean to be cruel or unkind in anything he says, he always notices something landing too close to home and then pulls carefully back from it instead of pushing on. He seems to be the emotional intelligence powerhouse in this lineage (as long as he doesn’t have his feelings too tangled up in something, at least).

Dooku: jedi lost also shows us that dooku absolutely knows rael is out there in the galaxy laying pipe and is, at worst, softly amused by it. So in this little family unit it’s only qui-gon losing his mind over it fjsdkafa I’m so used to having qui-gon be the wild card maverick compared to obi-wan ‘*in tears* but what are the RULES master’ kenobi, it’s so fucking funny that within the context that raised him he’s the stick in the mud

I guess. the book also had a plot and it was not bad! some interesting insights about how the republic interacted with the big corporations and just how fucked everything already was by this point. I'm a pretty character-driven reader so that's what sticks with me for the most part

- obi-wan’s big teenage rebellion here being that sometimes. Occasionally. When he really loses his temper and gets hot under the collar. He’ll say something slightly passive aggressive out loud instead of keeping it contained inside his head. And qui-gon still can’t handle that gracefully AT ALL he snaps right back fdjskfhas. (I guess he also snitches on qui-gon to the council but well, you know, qui-gon was breaking republic law pretty brazenly at that point I think that moves beyond teenage angst and into ‘...master that’s a wholeass felony’ territory). Obi-Wan does go for a couple of low blows, but like. Nothing that’s not actually true, is the thing. And mostly he blames himself for not being good enough, because surely if he were qui gon wouldn’t treat him like this. Augh. hngh. Pain. suffering.

- I am not one of the people who think everything would have automatically been just hunky-dory if only qui-gon lived and could have been anakin's master (in fact I would have given it a 50/50 chance of going exponentially worse way faster; being more similar as people is not always a guarantee that a relationship will go smoother and qui-gon is an incredibly difficult man to be close to for any length of time), but the way this book basically presents how the dynamic between dooku, rael and qui-gon could have gone on in the next generation too... it would have been incredibly unfair to obi-wan (as always I think that's just an universal constant lmao) but I think the odds of it turning out okay would have been better if you had him in the mix to run crisis control for both qui-gon and anakin, as he does for each of them individually as best he can anyway. at least he could have been free to be anakin's brother and friend purely in that scenario, without all the added mess of grief and having to take on a parental role there so young. he does basically fill that role in ahsoka's apprenticeship, after all.

- qui-gon finally hugging rael before he leaves the planet (and especially since when they were younger he wanted to, but held himself back from it)... that's still his big brother even with all the shit that's happened since ;_____; when someone teaches you how to swim (literally and symbolically) that shit stays with you I suppose

Relatedly: DOOKU getting hugged, and gladly. What the fuck. Are you all seeing this shit. I’m gonna cry or laugh I’m not sure which one why am I emotionally invested in the galaxy's most problematic grandpa now this sucks

#and that's the power of star wars baybey #star wars #master and apprentice #obi wan kenobi #qui gon jin #rael averross #count dooku #star wars meta

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bestworstcase · 16 days

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seen a few posts on the subject lately that have me pondering the fandom theory that cinder will eventually, to some degree, lose control over the grimm arm. which mainly gets put forward as either:

it overtakes her completely, a la hound

salem uses it to kill her after she opens the choice vault and/or she defies salem and the arm attacks her

the arm acts of its on accord to do something cinder has chosen not to (e.g., attack a maiden)

with the arm in every variant becoming a straightforward reiteration of the shock collar from which cinder must be saved, or at best save herself (🔥). i think the difficulty in this reading is twofold.

first that removal of the grimm is thorny because it’s cinder’s arm, a part of her body, and so much of her character after beacon turns on the trauma of the violent dismemberment she suffered; i don’t think you can do ‘saving cinder from the grimm arm’ with any seriousness unless you engage with it as the act of a trapped animal gnawing off its own limb, so it has to be cinder cleaving herself from the arm in order to free herself from salem. any scenario wherein cinder is dismembered by someone else to save her does a disservice to the character and a scenario where cinder destroys a part of herself for another person’s sake reifies the view rhodes imposed on her that the only way for cinder to ‘be good’ is to allow others to hurt her.

and that’s… i think, the whole point of the grimm arm on a thematic level. this:

is the grimm arm, is what the grimm arm symbolizes. cinder strangles her owner while the madame frantically mashes the collar’s button to electrocute her; insofar as the grimm arm reiterates the shock collar, it’s the collar that can’t control her, but more importantly it represents is cinder being refigured in this moment as a monster.

which ties into:

the distress cinder feels watching tyrian maul this beowolf toward the end of v4; her particular focus on its arm comes from her self-identification with grimm, because the grimm are not and have never been the monsters in her story. as a child her predominant experience with the grimm was of being electrocuted and made to denigrate herself in punishment for failing to adequately clean crystalline statues of the monsters kept at bay by the bars of her gilded cage. she was ten at the oldest when she began to fantasize about killing her owner. so what did she see when she looked upon these statues?

there’s a reason salem fills the role of magical benefactor in the cinderella narrative, and it isn’t as simple as trading one evil stepmother for another; the grimm are the golden shoes, or the glass slippers if you prefer, which empower cinder to pursue her freedom. (i think it’s likelier than not that the arm was cinder’s idea, for this reason.)

so the narrative question underpinning the grimm arm is whether rhodes was correct in his condemnation; the arm is only a physical manifestation of the judgment laid against her that night and her transformation in his eyes from innocent child to monster.

that becomes untenable if the arm is parsed as merely an iteration of the collar and the mechanism of control which chains cinder to salem against her will. cinder has very clearly-articulated ideological reasons for being where she is, and her interest in the maidens is only a proxy for the power struggle she’s having with salem; she is bound to salem by her own conviction that the huntsmen uphold an unjust and unmerciful order.

separately from that there is also the question of motivation, and to a lesser extent the actual material nature of salem’s connection to, and hypothetical ability to take over, the arm. in order for cinder to lose control over her arm we must accept the presupposition that the grimm arm obeys cinder at all only because salem allows it, and therefore that salem may revoke cinder’s illusory control at any time she chooses. however:

one, i’m not sure that interpretation aligns with the struggle we see and what salem says in v4. “can you feel it? it can sense your trepidation. don’t fight it, girl. you must make it dread you.” <- implies a more complex relationship between cinder and the grimm than a simple matter of salem attaching it to her and ‘programming’ the grimm to obey; i could write a whole post picking apart this one line, but in the interest of brevity:

the grimm is responsive to how cinder feels about it, and her trepidation—her fear—is inhibiting the process.

cinder is in pain and visibly distressed, so salem’s question, can you feel it?, is not about the physical sensations; salem knows the grimm is sensing cinder’s trepidation, and cinder needs to be able to reach through the pain and grasp that too. it’s “can you feel what the grimm is feeling?”

her trepidation has become an obstacle because it’s driving cinder to fight an emotional or spiritual connection to the grimm, one that needs to open both ways.

“make it dread you” is an interesting choice of words, especially in conjunction with “don’t fight it,” because when the statements are paired they seem contradictory; how does one make something afraid by surrendering to it? but. dread can also mean reverence. and i think that might be the sense salem has in mind, because if it is necessary for cinder to open herself to an emotional or spiritual bond with this grimm, then salem is talking about synthesis and combination, and inciting ‘dread’ in the sense of regarding with great reverence, is a natural converse of ‘fighting’

if that’s so, ‘not fighting it’ isn’t an act of surrender but rather invitation; you must let it in so that it may know you as something greater than itself. you must transcend your fear and give it reason to revere you.

the “easy” answer, like always, is to presume that salem is making it difficult for cinder on purpose and weaving an elaborate lie to blame her for struggling, and like always the problem with that is it renders the text meaningless: the only way to ‘analyze’ salem under this lens is to disregard everything she says and make assumptions based on things other characters have said about her, which must be unquestioningly taken as fact. but the narrative keeps telling us, in increasingly unsubtle ways, not to do that.

so we cannot dismiss anything salem says as a complete falsehood without interrogating that possibility. if she is lying to cinder here, why? what purpose does it serve to give cinder false advice? if salem is deliberately withholding control over the arm from cinder, to what end is she hiding that? when she sends cinder off to haven in v5, her parting advice is “take care to protect [yourself and your gifts]; there is only so much i can do to aid you.” she does not seem to want cinder to feel dependent on her; how likely is it, really, that this is all a long and convoluted gambit to trick cinder into believing she’s free when in reality salem could turn her into a literal puppet at any time? if salem wants an obedient slave, and has the means to enforce her will through magical compulsion, why bother with the charade?

it is much simpler to interpret this as truthful instruction, which cinder likely doesn’t fully understand because salem does not explain it very well, setting up the continued struggle throughout the rest of v4 (because cinder doesn’t understand) and salem’s growing frustration (because this all seems quite straightforward to her).

and if it is truthful advice, then… control over the grimm arm isn’t something salem gave to cinder, but rather something she taught cinder how to achieve; thus, it’s unlikely to be something salem can just take away.

which, two, casts the incidents when cinder doesn’t have complete control over the arm into an interesting light. the first time occurs after winter cuts it off, and i think this one is somewhat ambiguous as to whether the arm grew back by itself or regrew in response to the shock, pain, and panic cinder felt when it was severed. if we take salem’s instruction in v4 to be truthful, the grimm arm is in tune with and responds to cinder’s emotions, and by v7 she has undoubtedly bonded with it, embraced it as her arm. it doesn’t seem like a leap to speculate that the arm grew back because cinder wanted it to.

the other two incidents, of course, are salem torturing her through the arm in 8.6 and cinder feeling salem reconstitute through the arm in 8.14; only one of these is clearly a deliberate action on salem’s part.

does cinder’s arm go haywire in 8.14 because salem is giving her a warning? i’m a little skeptical that cinder would react the way she does if that were the case, and far more skeptical that salem—as risk-averse as she is—would risk losing both relics and getting her fall maiden killed by tasering her mid-battle.

further:

salem knows cinder is alive after haven, despite everyone else presuming cinder dead, and refuses to explain how.

growing the arm back is extremely painful.

salem has a phenomenal tolerance for pain, to the point that even having her bones smashed into paste doesn’t faze her.

salem undeniably has some kind of connection to cinder’s arm; unless she managed to sneak her seer past dozens of huntsmen on high alert after killing lionheart, that connection is the only possible way she could have known that cinder survived.

when salem reconstitutes, she doesn’t appear to be in pain—but we know that grimm can and do feel pain (not just cinder’s arm, but there are many, many examples of ordinary grimm reacting to injury with obvious pain), and we know that nothing short of being set on fire can make salem flinch. so her stone-faced reconstitutions may or may not be painful; cinder’s agonized screaming while her arm regrows suggest that it is painful for salem too, and salem is just used to it.

if salem could feel that cinder was alive through the grimm arm—and if sensation can flow from salem to cinder through that connection, which it can—then it’s well within the realm of possibility that the link goes both ways such that cinder is aware of salem through it just as salem is aware of her.

which is to say, in 8.14 i think cinder may have experienced spillover of the pain salem felt when her body pulled itself back together.

and that leaves The Torture, the one clear-cut case of salem abusing whatever power she does have over the grimm arm to hurt cinder. as it pertains to the question of whether salem can revoke cinder’s control over the arm, there are two details worth noting:

one, it’s not clear whether the pain salem inflicts is accompanied by a loss of control; the arm thrashes and cinder grabs it by the wrist with her other hand to hold it down, but the writhing might be an involuntary reflex (pain!) and grabbing the arm an instinctive attempt to quell the pain. cinder’s arms spasm in similar ways during the flashbacks when she’s electrocuted. if salem does try to seize control over the arm, however, it doesn’t look like she succeeds: cinder presses the arm down and makes a fist, after which point there is no more thrashing.

so either the arm remains completely under cinder’s control and its writhing movements are an involuntary pain response, or salem tries to take control and fails. the former seems more in line with the—very delicate—balance salem has to achieve in this scene between punishment and capitulation.

and two, when the pain starts, cinder flashes back to the helplessness she felt as a child, but by the end, emotionally, she is here:

so i think it’s a little ambiguous as to whether it was salem or cinder who made the pain stop. after all, salem’s tactic here comes down to rewarding cinder for being defiant so that cinder will stay—she’s begun to figure out that cinder is more interested in winning the power struggle than in the maidens per se—which means she now has a vested interest in making cinder less afraid.

torture may seem like a counterintuitive way to accomplish that, but it isn’t a warning or a threat, it’s a battle she knows cinder can win. cinder expects to be brutally punished; she’s horrified when she realizes emerald brought her back to salem. but then… the pain salem inflicts on her is no worse than what she’s survived before. she’s able to bear up under it and overcome it, make it end, just like she did when she killed the madame.

that’s the worst salem can do to her?

and then salem goes into “it’s all my fault. you’ve fought your whole life unwaveringly for what you want, and here i am holding you back, instead of lifting you up.” the point of this is not to get cinder under her thumb, but rather to make it appealing for cinder to stay by demonstrating that the consequences for losing a battle with salem are not too severe and that salem can and will concede should cinder outmatch her, and that outmatching salem is possible.

if this is what salem intends to do, then the most important question with regard to the possibility of cinder being overtaken by the grimm and enslaved is how much salem might have held back so as to let cinder ‘win.’ but i think this tactical approach in and of itself is a concession that cinder cannot be controlled, because salem is more or less openly inviting greater defiance: relinquishing control for the sake of giving cinder an incentive to stick around. it’s, “you deserve more than i’ve given you and you can get it from me if you fight for it.” so again, either salem values cinder’s free will above obedience, or she can’t take control over cinder’s grimm parts.

you don’t try to carefully thread the needle of permitting and rewarding open defiance when a subordinate threatens to defect unless you have no other choice, or else really, really care about that subordinate having free will!

(which does also have some interesting implications for the hound; the narrative frames him predominately through the heroic perspective and in scenes with salem he seems to be under her complete control, so he is—apparently—an enslaved, tormented victim of brutal experimentation. but we also know nothing about him or the circumstances that led to this experiment, and there is a sixth seat at salem’s table unaccounted for. no other character in this story is what exactly what they appear to be at first glance; is he?)

the point being that i have serious doubts as to whether salem even can turn the arm against cinder in the way that the fandom generally seems to expect, to varying degrees. hurt her with it, certainly. but reach through that connection and puppet the arm against cinder’s will? it isn’t like the seers—those act like extensions of salem herself, with limited autonomy outside of her direct command. cinder’s arm is part of her, and salem’s part in cinder mastering it seems to have been limited to telling cinder how to form her own bond with it.

there is also the question of why: to what end? if salem embedded some sort of hound-mode failsafe into the arm against the possibility of cinder defying her, why did she not trigger it when cinder disobeyed direct orders in v8? if the purpose of the grimm arm in salem’s plan is to enforce cinder’s hunt for the maidens—prevent her from showing mercy or turning away from them—then why did it behave when cinder attacked winter instead of fria? if salem wants cinder to be more ruthless, more violent, why does she keep trying to divert cinder toward less destructive means?

the one suggested inciting moment that hasn’t already happened in some capacity is opening the choice vault, and by that point either the sword will be in play or salem will still need the summer maiden to open shade’s vault. she has never been particular about how the vaults get opened before; if the crown can compel obedience a la the golden cap, that is the obvious method by which to force the destruction vault open, either by compelling the summer maiden to open it or compelling her to deliver herself to cinder. and if cinder is still willing to play ball—why would salem choose then to enslave her, after handling cinder’s disobedience in atlas the way she did? to what end?

the only thing salem needs the maidens for is to open the vaults. she has plenty of her own magic to be getting on with, an inexhaustible supply of grimm, and two-going-on-three relics at her disposal.

when cinder defies her, she capitulates. when hazel defies her, she drops all of her hostages and pretends to fight him instead of like, doing this to him—

—and we know this woman is a capable fighter: she matches ozma blow-for-blow during their duel, and that was before he gave up his magic. so she, to put it gently, doesn’t seem all that keen on retribution when one of her own turns against her, and she’s already demonstrated some willingness to just Let Cinder Leave, even against direct orders, with minimal punishment when cinder returned.

so i think a reversal is difficult to justify in terms of motivation, because salem is demonstrably willing to concede and seek compromise if cinder refuses to be controlled, and it’s working—not in the sense that cinder is loyal or obedient again, but she’s invested enough to stay and play the game, which is all that matters to salem. i’m not sure why that would change before the choice vault gets opened, and it’s hard to see how even the worst-case-scenario crown (i.e., outright mind control) would change the calculus that much given that salem could only get to it with cinder’s cooperation.

if i’m right that the 8.14 “she’s back!” moment was not a deliberate warning from salem but rather cinder feeling the pain salem felt upon reconstituting, i think it’s a lot more likely that we’ll see cinder take a stab at turning the connection against salem: if the awareness through the link goes both ways, and salem can use the link to hurt cinder, it stands to reason that cinder may also be able to use it to hurt salem. at the very least i think it would cross cinder’s mind to try.

because, as i said, if the grimm arm is a repetition of the collar, it’s the collar that couldn’t stop her from wrapping her fingers around the madame’s throat.

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aspoonofsugar · 1 year

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Alyx - The Protagonist

Yang: But she was kind of a mean person, right? She lied and cheated her way through most of the book. Weiss: She was trying to survive. The morals of those old stories are so simplistic.

This exchange is interesting, especially because it is not the first time characters interpret Alyx in opposite ways.

Oscar sees her as a child who goes on an adventure, is changed by it and struggles to go home:

Oscar: I thought the idea of falling through Remnant into a new world was exciting. I never understood why she was so sad when she finally made it back home. But now it makes more sense.

Ozpin sees her as a girl, who runs away from her problems in a fantastical dimension:

Ozpin: I was recently reminded of an old fairy tale. A young girl flees the consequences of a choice, to a magical place. But, having never learned from her initial failure, she only succeeds in spreading it.

All of these characters project parts of themselves on Alyx:

Oscar sees her as lost, because he himself feels lost and away from home.

Ozpin describes her as a coward because he himself has run away into Oscar's subconscious.

Yang criticizes Alyx's tendency to lie and cheat because she sees these 2 attributes as the worst of the worst. She is conveniently ignoring she herself has been omitting information about Raven. Not to count that lie, cheat, survive are ideas that apply to Raven specifically. This means there is a part of Yang she herself is not confronting.

Weiss sympathizes with Alyx and refuses the moral of the story as too childish. Which kind of adult would truly believe that lying and cheating to survive is wrong? Except that Weiss's whole arc revolves around her embracing childishness once again and finding the hope and wonder that was stolen from her as a child.

So, everyone sees Alyx as a part of herself, but who is Alyx really?

ALYX - THE CHARACTER

Alyx is no-one, just a shadow:

Just an empty silhouette that can be filled by anyone:

This is what characters are, especially protagonists that are meant to carry a whole story on their shoulders:

Blake: I've read so many stories... I never thought I'll be the moral of one.

Characters are in stories to teach people morals and to convey messages. Basically, they all have purposes:

Blake: Have you ever heard the namy Alyx? Little: Alyx... Is that a purpose?

Maybe this is the real reason why names equals purposes in the Ever After. It is because characters are their purposes in a story... and yet, people are much more. So, what happens when a person ends up making their sense of identity overlap with their purpose?

Little: And is to Ruby Rose your purpose?

They lose themselves. Like it is happening to Ruby and like it has most likely happened to Alyx.

Weiss: What did Jinxy want from Alyx? Blake: Her saddest memories and her happiest.

Jinxy wanted Alyx's saddest and happiest memories. If a person loses both, they lose their past self. They lose who they are. It is probable Alyx chooses to leave the previous "her" behind, but can't forge any new identity, trapped forever to be a character. A protagonist. A fairy tale.

RWBY - THE LEGENDS

Blake: We are doing the same thing Alyx did. We are ruining everything!

Here, Blake is talking about RWBY's predicament in Ever After. She thinks that since they know how the story goes, they should be able to avoid Alyx's mistakes. She is frustrated they can't and overreacts. Why is she so emotional about it?

Because Blake is not talking about the Ever After. She probably means this:

Weiss: Maybe Jaune and Winter were able to get them out. Despite everything. Despite us.

RWBY has seen the adults fail at Beacon, so they strived to be better. They learnt from their mentors' mistakes, grew stronger and chose a different approach. Only to fail in the exact same way.

Blake and Weiss are having opposite reactions to the Ever After, but deep down they are dealing with the same sense of failure.

Blake is filtering it through a fairy tale. They must do everything perfectly here in Ever After, because if they can't, what good are even they?

Weiss is dealing with it by refusing the fairy tale. They messed up so royally in Remnant, that who cares what happens in this bizzarre world, which isn't theirs?

What about Yang and Ruby?

Yang is reacting the same as ever. She is going with the flaw and cracking jokes:

Ren: It's okay to be afraid, you know. You don't always have to hide it with a joke.

Ruby is choosing to push forward:

Ruby: We may not know exactly what's going on, but for whatever reason, this place is putting us on a similar path as a book we all read as kids. I say we follow it and stop pretending we know what we are doing.

She is given the role of Alyx and she is determined to fulfill it. She is stepping once again in the role of a protagonist. And yet, to keep on following an already pre-established script without putting that much mind to it isn't the right answer.

The fairy tale should be a chance for Ruby to face heself: who she was, who she is and who she wants to become.

What if you could leave Ruby Rose behind, shed like an old coat? What might happen, if you don't?

Isn't it interesting that the metaphor of an old coat is used? What is a little red hood if not something similar to a coat? A mantle (similar to that of a superhero for that matter) that Ruby chooses to wear? Who is she outside it? Outside her allusion? Outside her fairy tale?

The same goes for RWBY as a whole. They aren't in training anymore. They are Huntresses and are slowly growing into legends. They saved Haven, protected an ancient Relic, decided the fate of a Kingdom. Ruby is famous worldwide as the young Huntress who is challenging Salem. They are growing into more than just themselves. And yet, this is extremely dangerous, because losing one-self in a bigger tale is rather easy:

Pyrrha: For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all.

This is why they are in a fairy tale they all know deep down, even if they have forgotten. It is so they can reconnect with whom they are. Metaphorically, they are going back to The Girl Who Fell Through The World, so that they can look at it from a different perspective. What teachings would they learn that they missed as kids? What will they discover?

What's sure is that they won't get anything if they keep refusing it (Weiss), not taking it seriously (Yang), being too worried about doing everything perfectly (Blake), following the script without thinking too much about it (Ruby).

ALYX - THE PERSON

RWBY must find themselves again and it would be interesting if they succeed by finding Alyx, as well.

In general, I think Neo, Jaune and Alyx are all characters the protagonists must "find" if they really want to figure out the world and their current situation. It is easy to see how this may work out for Neo, an enemy mad with grief, and Jaune, a friend traumatized and lonely.

What about Alyx?

It is possible she might stay in the background as a symbol. However, some hints suggest there might be more to it:

Weiss: He's adorable! Blake: And a lot older than I remember from the book

The world they are in isn't exactly the same of the fairy tale. Jinxy is much older and Little isn't in the original fairy tale. This is why they have no idea who Alyx is. How can they? They are too little to remember. They are in the Ever After, but in a future version of it. This ties with the idea they are confronting their childhoods as adults. It might also be there is a reason for it plot-wise.

Everyone seems to have their own idea of what happened to Alyx. Maybe the whole point is that they will have listen to Alyx's own version of the story.

THE GODS - THE WRITERS

These meta-themes are important outside this volume and for the story, as a whole. After all, let's not forget the Gods allude to the Brother Grimms. This means they are symbolically "the writers" of the characters. Through this lens, then, the whole conflict between the God of Light especially and Salem can be summarized as a writer not being able to write a character.

The God of Light wants Salem to learn an important lesson, so he comes up with a punishment and an obstacle for her to grow. This is how usually a writer approaches a character arc. However, Salem refuses to change, as the God of Light wants. She refuses to learn the theme he desires. If anything, the result is the opposite of what the God of Light expects. Why is that so?

Because the God of Light is dumb and not such a great writer on his own :P To write humans well he needs his brother's help. That is because humans are a mix of light and darkness, of selflessness and selfishness, of logic and emotions, of mind and heart. He approaches Salem as if she were to function exactly like him, but she is much more similar to his brother. Emotional and driven by her personal wishes.

So, the Gods are the writers and RWBY and the others are characters in their hands. When is it that a character overcomes their author? When they end up communicating something their author did not see coming. In this way, they surprise the writers and help them grow. This is probably how RWBY is gonna solve its conflict.

The girls will end up embodying a theme and a teaching the Gods and Salem did not account for. In this way, they will defeat them, symbolically.

At the same time, a meta-reading can very well apply to RWBY's most existentialist themes.

Let's consider these 2 lines:

Weiss: We are not in a book and even if we were we know how it ends, right over there.

Cinder: Oh, come now. Even if you know how the story ends, that doesn't make it any less fun to watch.

Even if all lives end in the same way (death), it doesn't mean they are not beautiful and worthy to be lived. Even if you know how the story ends, it doesn't mean you should not live it fully. You should dive deep into it, embrace wonder and go through it to the very end. Skipping pages means you are just giving up on new opportunities to grow and bloom.

#rwby #rwby volume 9 #rwby spoilers #team rwby #ruby rose #weiss schnee #blake belladonna #yang xiaolong #alyx #rwby meta #my meta

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xerith-42 · 4 months

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What is, in your opinion, the best and the worst moments of the entire series and why? If you haven't already made a post about that

[cracks knuckles]

It's hard to put a finger on what I would say are best moments because through my rewatch I've actually discovered a lot of good moments early on that I think are overlooked because they don't play into the larger story later on. I talked about one of them in the context of a rewrite on my side blog, but I want to talk about a smaller moment that I actually don't think needs to be rewritten. (this isn't me saying this is the best moment in mcd, just that I think it deserves appreciation)

It's the entire opening sequence of episode 11. Like the whole thing is just really good. It opens with Aph finding out that Donna has gained sentience building that idea into the world, and she gets the story started right away by telling Aph about how Brendan got injured at the end of last episode. Aph instantly rushes in to help, finds out what she has to do from Garroth, and then takes off to do it. Earlier episodes have a problem of being kind of nothing a lot of the time, or Jess will get distracted and take way too long to get to the story, but that just isn't a problem here.

At this point Brendan has been established as a character with gripes, ambitions, wants, love for hamsters, and has an emotional connection to another character in the cast. So both the audience and Aph are invested in his safety, and it's great to see how seriously she can take these situations when circumstances demand it. Furthermore once she gets the medicine Garroth needs, it's Garroth who actually treats Brendan's wounds as this is before Zoey entered the series and became the resident healer.

I really like this aspect of Garroth's character and think it has a ton of potential! Garroth learning battle medicine during the year Phoenix Drop didn't have their lord because he failed to protect his lord before? Maybe he learned it even earlier, like in the guard academy shortly after the death of his brother to ensure that he doesn't lose someone again. As far as I'm aware this is never expanded on outside of this episode but I think it was a really solid piece of character work with Garroth.

And Zenix in this scene?? On point. He is playing up the whole scared guard who's a rookie and new to everything aspect so well, and the way he talks about the whole ordeal is just fantastic. He's so good at playing on Aph's trusting nature and when you learn that he knew the arrow was meant for him and put Brendan in the way? It makes the entire scene all the more heartbreaking. Overall a really great showing from one of the earlier episodes of the series.

And on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, we have one of the much later episodes in the series run that if you ask me, is one of the worst scenes in anything I have ever witnessed. Season 2 Episode 95 of Minecraft Diaries is perhaps the best example of character assassination happening in real time I have ever seen. The rot upon Laurance's character has been creeping in for some time during season 2, but this is when it hits it's crescendo.

I can and will do an entire post breaking down this entire episode minute by minute one of these days because it's failures are something I take personally. For those of you who aren't actually going insane over the block show, Season 2 Episode 95 is titled "Shadows of the Past", and this is the episode where everything with Laurance hits it's breaking point. In this episode while Aph is just having a fun day playing with Dante, Leona, and the other child who is there, she sees an imp in the forest disguised as Aaron. (Keep in mind Aaron died in episode 81 so the wound is still sort of fresh)

Aph is shaken by this and halfway through the episode she sits on the beaches of the Phoenix Alliance island holding Aaron's bandana and having a quiet moment. Laurance comes up behind her, before he sits next to her, and the two start talking. In theory, I like this conversation. Laurance has largely not been able to express his feelings on Aaron and what he did because he ran away right after it happened, and showed up only 5 episodes ago trying to kill Aph while she was in disguise. He hasn't had a moment to really process Aaron's sacrifice and what it means for him. The strange contradictory feelings he has over his jealousy, his desire to protect, the calling, and dare I say it, his respect for Aaron.

In theory, I really like this conversation. In practice this conversation manages to drag not one, not two, but all three of Minecraft Diaries main characters to their lowest points. In this scene Laurance proceeds to berate Aph for her feelings, invalidate previous lines he said about Aaron, completely betrays his own character and motivation, and forever ruins his character arc. And that's not including how much of a fucking asshole Garroth is in this scene, like Laurance was being bad, but Garroth saying "You were lucky to come back alive" after Laurance was forcibly raised into undeath??? Not cool dude.

The entire scene also reduced Aph into just a grieving widow. She's so grief stricken she can't even stand up to Laurance, which could be good in theory, but I just don't like it. It just doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel like the character I've been following. Aph has always been a proactive and reactive character, bad stuff happens and her response is to do something about it. This scene makes her far more passive and while I don't object to her grieving, this just isn't it. I can't explain it better than that, it just isn't it.

As stated before, Garroth may have had some good points but completely lost all merit he had in this argument when he hit Laurance with that line. That was just uncalled for.

And poor poor Laurance. Let's just give a quick rundown on things in Laurance's life that greatly impact the way he views death: His parents dying when he was a kid, his lord dying while under his watch, seeing someone he knew was dead walking around alive, literally actually dying and being forcibly raised into partial undeath with a great curse to bear and no control over any of this happening, his best friend sacrificing their life to save him, AND losing his OTHER parent after being thrown 15 years into the future. Laurance has been a victim of death and it's many ways of truly ruining someone's brain in ways we mortals aren't even able to comprehend.

He would never yell at someone for grieving. He would never get mad at someone for being sad that someone they care about is gone, no matter how jealous he can be. He would never see Aph with tears in her eyes and keep yelling. The only circumstances I could see him doing this under is if the calling is influencing him, but that isn't explicitly shown to the viewer or ever even implied to be the reason for this outburst. We are just expected to take this at face value. That his is who Laurance is, who he has become.

And it's not Laurance. I don't know who it is, but it's just not him. It's someone else who's using Laurance's likeness to prop up the story of two people falling in love and losing each other that takes longer than Romeo and Juliet and manages to somehow be worse than that. In a sick and twisted sense, Jess is how we've all been headcanoning the Shadow King, turning Laurance into her little puppet that she can control to do whatever she wants when the plot demands it, previously established character be damned. She didn't write this scene because she wanted to explore Laurance's character, she wrote this scene so fans would get off her back.

Laurance deserved better than this.

cutting myself off here because if I keep going I will just rewrite this entire episode in real time for the third time

#text post #minecraft diaries #laurance zvahl #minecraft diaries laurance #garroth ro'meave #mcd garroth #aphblr #answering asks #mcd zenix #mcd brendan #rant post #fuck season 2 episode 95 #laurance deserved better #everyone deserved better but especially Laurance

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mauesartetc · 8 months

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I've observed that some HB fans with trauma feel so attached to the characters and the show that they defend every writing decision and take any criticism as a personal attack. I can understand relating to and feeling sympathy for a character because of personal experiences, but Helluva Boss is a terrible media for emotionally vulnerable teenagers and young adults to uncritically consume.

It just pisses me off that so many people will praise HB for representing abuse with Stolas and Stella, yet ignore the unhealthy relationship dynamics, abusive behaviors portrayed in a positive light and bad writing in general.

Real talk: Speaking as an emotional abuse survivor myself, it pisses me off to no end that Helluva Boss has failed to represent this subject with any sensitivity or subtlety.

It's important to remember that abusers are often charming and charismatic, and they exhibit positive traits (at least early on) that make the other person want to salvage the relationship.

What the hell are Stella's positive traits? In what little screentime she's had thus far, she's been elitist, rude, destructive, pouty, murderous, sadistic, and a little stupid (failing to consider that if Stolas died, Octavia would inherit all his wealth and leave her with nothing). While there's evidence to support the claim that she acted like she was in love early on in her marriage (she's smiling in the Loo Loo Land photo, sleeps in the same bed as Stolas in a flashback and has stated she used to pretend to want to fuck him), there's nothing to suggest her personality was ever anything but odious. Even when Stolas first sees her photo as a child, it portrays an awful little brat.

It's pretty clear Stolas has never had any reason to love her, so why does he stay?

He says it's because he wants Octavia to have "a normal life", aka a two-parent household. But how exactly does that benefit her when those parents are constantly fighting? You might think "Well, that's a lot of parents' excuse for not getting divorced, but that doesn't mean it's right", but the show never challenges his stance on this. There's never a moment when he realizes, "Oh shit, maybe my definition of 'normal' is actually hurting my daughter". He only declares he wants a divorce after his first tryst with Blitzo and on the balcony when he tells Stella he "can't do this anymore". He's doing it entirely for his benefit, not because it would improve Octavia's life.

(And because the writers blatantly favor Stolas and everything he says, I have to wonder if they actually believe the standard nuclear family represents a "normal"- implied in this case to be good and desirable - life by default, regardless of how miserable everyone in the family is. On the off-chance that is indeed the case, as someone who lost a parent at a young age: Fuck all the way off with that, show.)

Also, we're not lead to believe divorce was never an option at any point. If a royal in this world gets divorced, what are the consequences? Would Stolas lose his title? Would he be executed? The whole point of this marriage was to have a kid, so literally what was stopping them from splitting up after she was born (other than the bullshit "normal life" excuse)? Why can't Stolas just visit Octavia? Why does he have to live with her? Plenty of kids with divorced parents still get quality time with both of them. The solution was right there all along, but Stolas felt the need to wait until his daughter was seventeen to split with his wife? For some reason?? The writers try to pass it off as some noble sacrifice he's making, but in reality, he's just being a dumbass.

Okay, so maybe he's just afraid to leave, like many abused people are. I'll have to call bullshit on that, since he never even tried to keep his affair a secret. He's openly flirted with Blitzo in public (at Loo Loo Land and the Harvest Moon Festival, in front of dozens of witnesses) and met Blitzo at a couples-only nightclub, where they sat in plain view of everyone else there. Couldn't even bother using your powers to disguise yourself, bud? Or does that only work when it's convenient to the plot? If Stolas were the least bit threatened by Stella or what the Goetia family would think, he wouldn't be this bloody obvious. While it's possible this is a self-sabotage sort of thing, the show has never given us evidence that Stolas has those kinds of tendencies.

In short, Stella's a hamfisted, stereotypical portrayal of an abuser, and Stolas just doesn't come off like the abuse affects him at all (or at least not until the episode where it needs to for plot reasons). Obviously not all abusers or abuse survivors in real life will fit into the same mold, but there's straight-up zero logic to these characters' behavior. I've mentioned this very astute video before, but here's one quote that perfectly sums up how poorly this show handles character motivations:

There's a... character consistency issue that results from having these characters exist only to dispense abuse. Their actions stop adding up... [Stella's] thing is that she wants to be away from Stolas... Why does she repeatedly show up to the house just when Stolas is around to torment him? This behavior is quite strange. She does not like him. She does not want to be around him... We're to assume that Stella wants to feel mad, wants to feel bad, and that's what she wants to do with her life.

This isn't how real people act. And of course fictional characters aren't real people and any sense of agency they have is just an illusion at the end of the day. But ideally they should feel real to the audience.

I now fully understand why I was leery of these writers potentially exploring a character's addiction. It's because they've shown they can't be trusted to give serious subject matter the care and weight it deserves.

#helluva boss #helluva critical #writing #helluva stolas #helluva stella #ask #chinesegal

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be-the-glenn-to-my-maggie · 1 year

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Guys I am on the edge I am losing it. I haven’t written fanfiction since freshmen year of high school, since then I’ve said all my writing will be publishable. And yet I am mere seconds away from losing myself to a Sully family adopting Spider fic what is wrong with me. The chokehold this series has on me. Anyways here are some headcanons that have been giving me holes in my brain:

-All the Sully's constantly argue over who Spider likes best, especially Kiri and Lo'ak. "That's my best friend" "NO, that's my best friend." "I knew him first." "Well, that's not fair you were born first. I've known him my whole life." Then dark horses Tuk and Neteyam come in like "You'd be surprised to learn spider actually likes me best." For a while after Tuk was born the competition was HEAVILY in her favor and everyone was mad about it. Neteyam doesn’t participate unless he wants to annoy someone, but no one thinks he’s in the running as much as he actually is. Spider has no idea this competition exists and whoever tells him is instantly disqualified so he never will.

-This shit absolutely applies to Jake and Neytiri too if/when they officially adopt him. Which parent Spider likes best competition. Who can get him to call them mom/dad first wins. It’s absolutely RUTHLESS and everyone knows about it except Spider. I’m fairly certain Jake and Neytiri’s love language is borderline unhealthy competition. Bets are made, sabotage is attempted, Tonowari definitely tries to help his bestie Jake and whatever plan they come up with is dumb as hell, I don’t know what it is but it’s stupid. Ultimately, Neytiri wins. Jake is not sad about it actually.

-Tuk is every parents worst nightmare. Her siblings are so much older than her, she has been desensitized to everything. When Lo’ak and Kiri were Tuk’s age they were fighting over a toy, but Tuk is pretty sure she’s ready for an Ikran. She is the ringleader of all her friendgroups and she can manipulate anyone into anything. She was the youngest to do everything in her family just to keep up with her siblings, and that means she knows so much more than all her friends her age. She taught them all the swear words they know, and she definitely told every child in the clan how babies are made as soon as Lo’ak told her and they were ALL way too young to know.

-The entire clan is worried Jake and Neytiri will have another accident child. Only they were surprised by Tuk, no one else was.

-Neteyam confides in Spider in a way he can’t with his siblings. Not only are they the oldest, but I think he isn’t afraid to not be perfect in front of Spider (This is why Neteyam is Spider’s favorite jkjk). I think they have a lot of chill talks up on the mountains, or they go flying and Neteyam’s just like “What if I fail at the hunt tomorrow?” or some shit and Spiders like “Well, it would be about time, and then you would just try again.”

-Spider is Mo’at’s least problematic grandchild, and the one that annoys her the least consistently. Kiri is still her fav tho. There is no Mo’at’s fav competition because everyone knows Kiri would win, but sometimes Lo’ak says he’s her fav because their names are similar and then everyone calls him stupid.

-Speaking of Mo’at, I’m pretty sure her and Jake get drunk together at least once a month. I don’t know what they talk about but GOD I want to. Only Norm has ever been invited and that was like one time and it’s because he and Mo’at are secret besties.

-Spider gives the best advice ever, because of being the only human child on Pandora he has empathy for everyone. He’s the best person to go to if you did something wrong because he’s for sure done something worse. Unfortunately he is incapable of taking any advice himself, and he is def suicidal a lil. You cannot convince me that kid doesn’t wake up every day wanting to die a little bit.

-For a solid half a year certified dumbasses Lo’ak and Jake were pretty sure Rotxo was some sort of spirit from Eywa because they never met his parents and never saw him go home and he was always somehow around. They shared this theory with no one but each other, which is good because it’s dumb.

-I think once adopted, Spider is a mama’s boy. He craves physical attention and he has been raised essentially Na’vi in a way that Jake hasn’t. I think he would connect with Neytiri’s parenting style more, I think they’d do a lot of weird shit together that the other kids would rather die than help with, like cooking or mending shit. I think Spider would be literally delighted to help with boring household chores with his mother and that’s so mamas boy of him. He’s a “mother, do you need help with dinner, can I do the dishes so you can sit down?” kid while all the rest of them are gagging and calling him a suck up in the background.

-It comes to a head when he tries to help make lunch instead of going surfing with Lo’ak, Kiri, and Ao’nung, and they have to have an intervention. It’s very serious, everyone was there, Tsireya, Ao’nung, Rotxo obviously came because I’m convinced he doesn’t actually have a home. They treat Spider like a five year old going to his first day of preschool.

-Spider and Neytiri also both have experienced such immense loss, and it shaped them both so much at such a young age. I think the way they would talk about it would be similar, and it would be a connection discovered that wouldn’t be vocally acknowledged often but they would both have that. It’s a mutual understanding that the others can’t get as much that helps them get past any animosity and fear. It takes them longer to get to casual conversation actually.

-If Spider ever got an Avatar Mo’at would make them put off the full transfer until he was older 50% because of his safety and 90% because he’s forced to spend time with her every night when he goes back to his human body no matter where they are. She is vocally grumbling always about how her family never visits. He does not pretend to hate it.

-It started out because Spider wasn’t taking care of his human body well enough, for sure. He’s Jake coded. Mo’at was on Feed New Grandson For Daughter duty. But now it evolved and he’s popping out of the link after a long day of Spearfishing with the Boys (I believe this is Tonowari and Jake’s fav father/son + Rotxo bonding activity) and Mo’at is there with Norm and Spider’s dinner like “you will not believe what this idiot warrior did” and Norms like “Do tell” and Spider has his second dinner with the HOTTEST TEA in the Omaticaya camp that Norm and Mo’at can spill. And one time he’s like “Lo’ak fell off a tree today because he’s too used to the water now” and then when Lo’ak finds out about that he pushes Spider out of a tree (from a safe height).

-(He has to recount this tea the next morning to Jake, this is what he and Mo’at did when drinking, he pretends he wants to be up on current affairs in his former tribe but Jake Sully is a gossip whore and he isn’t hiding it well).

-No one else is interested in this but Lo’ak. He cares so much. It’s Spider spilling the hottest tea with so much disinterest (he only cares because it’s Mo’at and Norm) and Lo’ak and Jake like gasping and then pretending they didn’t.

-Obviously Kiri and Spider’s bond is insane and unbreakable but I think one time he stepped on a bug and she didn’t speak to him for the entire day. He probably has nightmares about that day. But also Lo’ak did the same thing once and she didn’t talk to him for a week so.

-I like to think the rest of the Omaticaya do love Spider cause he’s just that weird little guy that’s always like crouched on the rocks and in the trees and shit. I think he and the Sully’s do have other friends and do spend time with others, but Spider, Kiri, Lo’ak, and then later Tuk, all spend literally every waking moment together because they all can’t escape that little feeling that they don’t quite fit in.

-Tuk doesn’t feel this way she just wants to be there. Neteyam totally feels this way he just feels like he has to be responsible.

-Neteyam also spent every waking moment with them until he had Adult Business to attend to, like learning to be in charge. Now he just spends all his free time with them. His friends are probably like “Why do you want to spend all your time with your little siblings?” and he has Vietnam flashbacks to the 17 things that Lo’ak and Spider did that almost got them killed that week alone (but also he loves being with them all).

-When the Sully’s leave Mo’at is really sad but Norm visits her annoyingly for weird advice that he doesn’t actually need every day and she pretends to hate it but doesn’t because they are secret buddies.

-Idk if this even happens to Na’vi but Neteyam’s human dna finds a way and he goes prematurely grey for sure. Kids so stressed it’s a miracle he doesn’t go into cardiac arrest.

-Tonowari and Ronal literally don’t know where Rotxo comes from half the time. He’s just always there. One time when Ao’nung was a baby Tonowari turned around for like 15 seconds to stoke the fire and then there were two babies, Ao’nung and Rotxo, on the mat.

-Lo’ak doesn’t think things through. Spider has no self preservation skills. There is a difference. So when Lo’ak suggests a dumb thing Spider will probably do it first cause he has recognized and acknowledged the risks, he just doesn’t care, whereas Lo’ak hasn’t realized yet. So he’ll test it out for Lo’ak first. The amount of dumb shit Lo’ak did went way up when Spider was captured because his human test dummy wasn’t there.

-Once with the Metkayina, Spider and Lo’ak have found a kindred dumbass in Ao’nung (+ Rotxo). He’s never thought a single decision through in his entire life (neither has Rotxo, he’s just here to vibe). They are menaces.

-Unfortunately for everyone, Jake and Tonowari created them from their own very loins, and they too, are dumbasses. If the RDA ever leave them alone the amount of bad decisions the five of them (and Rotxo) will get up to will be astronomical. There’s at least one incident that gets Jake and Tonowari exiled from their respective marui for the night and they have an Adult Men sleepover on the beach that is like the most fun either of them ever had, but they pretend it was no fun at all when they come back.

-After that Tonowari replaces Mo’at as Jake’s monthly drinking/gossip buddy. Tonowari has never met most of the Omaticayans, but he could ruin lives with some of the info he has.

-This one might be out of left field, but I think every single Sully child has had a crush to varying degrees on Spider at some point. I think Spider has never even remotely fathomed that anyone on planet Pandora has ever or will ever like him, and if anyone ever did he might just die of shock. He thinks he’s dying a virgin, probably at a young age.

-Ronal and Neytiri go on pretending to hate each other long after they became friends just for fun. No one figured it out until Neytiri was the first choice babysitter for Ronal and Tonowari’s new baby for like the tenth time.

-If Spider ever beats anyone at anything he believes they let him win and literally nothing can change his mind. He’s convinced baby Tuk let him win in a foot race one time, and that Lo’ak fell out of a tree on purpose to let him win a climbing race. The most criminal one is his claim that Ao’nung got a hole in his net intentionally so all his fish escaped and Spider had more. The joke is that no one other than Neteyam or Tsireya would ever let him win.

-The amount of times a Sully child accidentally dislocated Spider’s arm trying to pull him somewhere is way higher than anyone wants to admit, but Spider can now relocate his arm on his own like a pro. His pain tolerance is way higher than anyone’s should be. Kid just braces that shit against a tree and pops it back in and everyone is horrified every time. The first time it happened in front of the Metkayina kids Ao’nung threw up and then Lo’ak laughed until he cried. Spider shouldn’t use that arm for at least the rest of the day but he used it to shove Lo’ak for Ao’nung.

-Spider loves babies, will stop, drop everything to watch any baby, because he knows how much Na’vi treasure children and he never feels more important then when he gets to watch a little kid because he was trusted to keep the kid safe.

-Lo’ak and Spider are equally matched at sparring because Spider knows where Lo’ak is ticklish.

-One time Kiri and Lo’ak had a sleepover with Spider at the lab. Norm pretended to hate it but then let them sleep in the room with Grace’s tank and also made them cookies. It was the best night of Spider’s life. Tuk was too little to go and threw the most massive fit ever about it so Neteyam stayed back to keep her company and he was Very Mature and Not At All Jealous about it.

-They brought him back a cookie, and then everyone was tired all day because literally no one slept except for Tuk. They all took a nap halfway through the day all in a little puppy pile and that was the real sleepover.

-Post sleepover, the amount of printed out images of human Jake Sully from video logs with like dumb things drawn on him that have made their way around camp is insane. Norm made the kids draw mustaches on him for sure. Jake can’t take a single solitary step without there being a picture of him with a dick for a nose on a tent pole. He was probably stressed about something and this was Lo’ak’s brilliant Cheer Up Dad plan. It was the worst plan ever, but for some unknown reason it worked, and Jake keeps cackling at them like a crazy person when he sees them. Retaliatory Norm pics are in the works, Jake got all the kids in on it this time. Tuk is really good at drawing pa’li shit on Norm’s head.

-Neteyam knows everything about everyone so when he gets in on teasing and jokes his are fucking crazy accurate and targeted, you’ll never recover. Tuk has picked this up from him and she has that little kid talent to destroy you.

-Every single time someone goes somewhere Spider says some shit like “I hope I see you again!” and everyone knows it’s not a joke and no one finds it funny but he can’t stop doing it.

-The pact that was born between Ao’nung and Lo’ak to impress their respective love interests is the Fight Club of all pacts, either would kill the other to keep it quiet and not feel even a little bad about it. Lo’ak teaches Ao’nung to climb trees to impress Neteyam and Ao’nung teaches Lo’ak to surf to impress Tsireya. Ao’nung eats shit so hard that Lo’ak almost literally dies laughing but then Ao’nung doesn’t warn him about rip currents so he can rescue Lo’ak in front of Neteyam like he’s in Baywatch, coming out of the water all dramatically and with a lil hair flip and then presenting him with his half murdered little brother like a gift.

-The Sully children have been divvying up who gets what of Jake’s stuff when he dies since Tuk was like four. Obviously, they will be devastated, but it’ll be a little less sad when Kiri gets Jake’s coolest knife and not Lo’ak, or Tuk gets his best arm band before Neteyam can call dibs even tho it won’t fit her. It was a lot funnier before the RDA came back.

-No one has ever dared to do this to Neytiri’s stuff.

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flower-boi16 · 1 month

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The Duality of Luz and Hunter's Mental States in Thanks to Them

Hollow Mind is a pretty big turning point for both Luz and Hunter's characters, as they are both faced with traumatizing revelations that follow them for the rest of the series. But something that I find interesting is how both characters go in exact opposite directions in terms of their mental health after Hollow Mind.

It's no secret that, prior to Hollow Mind, Hunter was stuck in an abusive environment, never being able to make any friends or have much of a social life due to being isolated from kids his age by Belos as a way to keep Hunter close to him, so Belos could keep on manipulated and lying to Hunter, making him think he's doing the right thing.

In Hollow Mind, Hunter is faced with the truth that, Belos, the person he looked up to his whole life, was secretly a terrible person who was just using him all along, an never truly cared for him, that he's only just a clone intended to be a "better" version of his brother, Caleb, one that wouldn't betray Belos and stay loyal to him. Oh, and that he also cloned and killed his own brother over and over again. Hunter is obviously traumatized by this, having his whole worldview flip on his head and having to come to terms with the fact that his whole life and everything he knew was a lie.

But...after this, Hunter's well-being and mental health actually change for the better. Obviously, he's still traumatized by these revelations, but he's also now officially out of the abusive environment that he was stuck in for his whole life, now surrounded by people who support him fully. He has real friends now that he can rely on too now, no longer being isolated for his whole life.

And, while he hasn't fully healed from his trauma, and still has to keep his secret about being a grimwalker, Thanks to Them shows him healing from it due to being in a much more supportive environment. He's allowed to actually...be a kid for once, obsessing over sci-fi books with Gus and having fun with his friends during the summer. Thanks to Them shows that Hunter, while still traumatized and not fully healed, is on a road to recovery due to him escaping the abusive environment he was trapped in for years.

Luz, meanwhile, is the exact opposite. Luz's was doing well mentally up until Hollow Mind, where, she's faced with her traumatizing revelation that she helped Belos meet the collector, meaning she had some part in Belos' plan for the day of unity. After being hit with this, Luz's mental health slowly begins to go on a downward spiral, as she blames herself for the day of unity happening, believing it's her fault due to helping Belos. It begins her depression arc where she falls into a pit of self-loathing.

Her mental health only gets worse from this point onward, as in King's Tide, Luz fails to save the Boiling Isles and is separated from King and Eda, not knowing if they are even alive or not while there's god child running around causing chaos.

Thanks to Them shows Luz at her lowest point. She's now completely gone into a depressive state, no longer being the happy-go-lucky, bubbly Luz she was before. She still feels immense guilt over helping Belos and her self-loathing only seems to have gotten worse. She thinks that she'll lose all of her friends if she tells them what she did, believing that they'll never forgive her, showing how much guilt Luz feels over helping Belos and how much she believes it's her fault.

Luz even thinks that, throughout her whole time in the demon realm, she did nothing but make mistakes that ended up hurting others she cared about, and that her friends are all better off without her because she thinks she does nothing except make things worse for the people around her. The episode even goes as far as to give Luz flat out suicidal thoughts, as she says that it would be better if she never existed at all.

Thanks to Them shows Luz and Hunter's contrasting mental states after Hollow Mind, one closing off and becoming more depressed while the other gets in a more supportive environment and is healing from his trauma.

Just an interesting thing I noticed.

#luz noceda #toh hunter #toh analysis #toh #the owl house

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w98pops · 6 months

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So Nico's parents were Khans 👀👀👀

YES!!

I didn't really thought out them that much, Nico is a new character after all and I wanted to explore him a bit, before going all in into my obsession with writing a whole bloodline with 15 generations and personal backstories for each and everyone.

BUT. I have a silly little drawing of them ⬇️

They both were kids at the time of New Khans wipeout, first generation Great Khans. They were good friends with Papa Khan. (Pretty much the only reason Nico was allowed back in. Papa recognised the memorabilia that Nicodemus has on the hilt of his machete-sword, that one of his moms wore.)

I don't think Nico had any thoughts about his parents before the meeting with Papa, he never remembered them and the only reason he got his mom's necklace back is because Aletus won it in caravan from a legionary who participated in killing of Nico's parents.

About their death, I think Legion not in a million years could've openly confront Khans, they unknowingly found Nicodemus' moms in a vulnerable position (They were having sort of vacation, to celebrate their child's birth) and AFTER losing 12 good soldiers to raid this one house, and finding just two Great Khan women and a child, Legate and Caesar took a note of the tribe's strength, which contributed years later in the decision to try to negotiate "peace" with Khans, instead of just doing it the Legion way.

Also, in my playthrough as Wendy I did expose Legion's plan to Khans, which now that I think about it kinda doesn't make sense because at that point in time Wendy had no real agenda against the people who she literally grew up with.

I think she visited Red Rock twice, before the Fort, and after. Before the Fort she just kinda hang out, met Nicodemus and Chance, and then after her witnessing the horrors of the Legion she never faced as a child, and having a talk with her dad, she deliberately came back to convince Papa (and Nico) to drop this stuff.

Nico got some insight about his parents from Papa, came back to the Legion, got demoted from the frumentarii position because of a failed negotiation, (not crucified only because Nico is too valuable of an asset and also too heavy to lift him up on a cross) was sent to Arizona, deserted and joined the Khans.

Silly chain of consequences regarding the necklace ⬇️

Aletus just randomly won it > Aletus remembered it belonged to Nico's parents > Aletus gave Nico the necklace > Nico thought it looked like the Eye of the Providence, religious man he is, and kept it > Papa recognised it > Wendy and Papa provided Nico with information that changed his life forever > Nico is now on the right path and fixing the mistakes he made > The world is a little bit better!!

It's a bit silly and I just realized I barely talked about the question at hand and just rambled about Nico's relationship with Khans 😭 But hopefully it's fine.

Thank you so much for the ask and letting me ramble about my characters!!! Much much love 💗

#fallout #fnv #fallout new vegas #caesar's legion #the great khans #oc: nicodemus #oc: wendy

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yanderefairyangel · 6 months

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I can''t... I just can't... this fandom can't be real... this has to be some ... WHY WHY WHY ?!

why do i bother.

Ok, look. See that one criticsm of Alear's reaction when they ask Veyle to give them back the rings in chapter 10 :

"OOOh why does Alear says that, you can't take my rings, not fair gimme back, acting like an actual child like they are on some playground to they think Veyle will really give it back are they serious ? This game's writing sucks so much uwu"

It's all you need to know about how low the bar is for media analysis these day.

"Alear behaves like a child in this scene. They are so immature". Congrats. Congrats on getting the freaking point this scene tried to establish !!

Yes, Alear behaves like the child they are ! they are 17 year old for God's sake, they are thinking with their amygdalia !! This is what this scene is trying to establlish and by the reaction you all have it did it incredibly well !!!

Alear literaly got stolen from them the 6 rings that they spend all the game collecting. All of them !!!! With the rings he stole, Sombron is at 2 rings of reaching his objective and to destroy Elyos !!!!!! The world is so close to be doomed because of this !! And Alear losing the rings mean losing their emotional supports and the one thing that helped them feel braver. Alear is someone who is 17 year old, they are amnesiac, they just woke from coma, they are weak, unaware of the world, they showed they were scarred by the Corrupted and fear to not being ready to fight them and Sombron yet, Marth's presence is what helped them defeat them, if it weren't for Alfred's arrival they wouldn't have been able to handle the castle's attack, they didn't had the time to prepare when Lumera died, they saw their mother dying right in front of their freaking eyes to protect them and were thrown into a bitter war in that state when they didn't even had the time to properly mourn her, are in a state where they clearly aren't ready and are very dependent of other, notably Marth !! Of course, of freaking course they are acting as their character are !! As a teenager who has been living all of this and got it pushed into them as the successor of their mother when they aren't ready yet, of course they are going to show immaturity !!! That's the freaking point of this scene, showing Alear's flaws !!!

HOW THE HECK DO YOU WANNA KNOW THE FLAWS OF A CHARACTER IF THEY NEVER SHOW THEM ?!

That's the whole point of this freaking scene !! Alear is literaly desesperate to know that they failed to fufill the promise they made Lumera to colllect all the rings and prevent Sombron's faction to collect them before they do !!!! They lost the Emblems whom they consider to be their friends !! Did you see the face of absolute terror they have upon seeing Sombron summoning Marth ?! How do you want them to react exactly ?! To brush it off as if they are some sort of Superman ?! They aren't !! They are just a normal person, a teenager that is pushed into this when they are amnesiac and desoriented !!! This is incredible that this comes from the same people who keep saying that Alear isn't a relatable protag because of their deity status (which is quite ironic considering Engage's message about birth not mattering) when they are literaly reacting like anyone their age would in a situation where they got stolen from them the one thing that might threatened the balance of the world when used with ill intent knowing that they have a whole world weighting on their shoulder when theya re 17 amnesiac and didn't even had the time to mourn their mother who DIED TO PROTECT THEM RIGHT AFTER LEARNING SHE GAVE ALL HER LIFE FORCE SO THAT THEY CAN SURVIVE AND FEELING GUILTY ABOUT IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhhhhhhh !!!!!!!

Don't get me started on how they also just learned that Veyle whom they considered a friend was on Sombron's side, killed their mother and are incredibly disturbed by how differently she behaved !!! Or the fact that a 1000 years earlier, they were speaking like a child because their trauma got them frozen in their age resulting in them using the alphabet of a 10 year old !!

"Why do you ask her to give you back the rings ? Are you stupid You think she will give it back ?" OF COURSE NOT THEY DON'T !!! This dialogue exist to SHOW Alear is desesparated !!!!!!! It's not based on logic or anything, it's just to convey their freaking emotions of being desesperated !!!

It's absolutely jarring that people keep acting as if the story never showed Alear as evovling or failing at being brave ! There. There it is! Look at the terror on their face and how they are falling to their knees, begging Sombron to stop in a sign of desesperation !! There they are ! Can you really not look at this scene and see that Alear is failing at being brave ?! They are overwhelmed by the situation. This is the most angry you will ever see them in the entire game !!!! Yet "they don't evolve, their so called frail character and fear is just narrative gaslighting "and yadi yada WHY DO I EVEN BOTHER ?!

It took them 10 chapter to realize that they were too imature yet. It took them 10 more chapter to have Alfred comment on how far Alear went and how they finally seemed to have stepped into their role as a leader and deity figure. It took them 25 chapter to show how much they evolved from their mother dying in chapter 3, begging for her to not die and leaving them alone as they REVERT FREAKING BACK TO SPEAK LIKE A CHILD and being so marked by it that Lumera won't stop haunting the narrative, to chapter 25 were they had to take her down while Lumera was still refering to chapter 2, the only moment the two of them spent as family, with them actually accepting what's comming and refusing to cry anymore !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And this, this is the straw

"A 17 year old becoming the head of an army when they are amnesiac is unrealistic". YES CONGRATS ON UNDERSTAND THE WHOLE POINT THAT THE STORY WAS MAKING ON HOW THE EXPECTATIONS PUSHED ON ALEAR ARE UNREALISTIC WHEN THEY ARE A TRAUMATIZED AMNESIAC TEENAGER THAT IS INTO THIS SITUATION TO SUCCESS TO THEIR MOTHER WHEN THEY WEREN'T READY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats on understanding the whole point the story was trying to make to explain why Alear acts the way they do !!!

I swear... I am tired. I can't, I can't with this fandom,...

But writing this reminded me of how good of a character Alear is... I CAN'T, I LOVE THEM SO MUCH THEY ARE SOOOOOO !!!!!!!

#fire emblem #fire emblem engage #fe engage #fe alear #alear #alear fire emblem #THIS LITTLE DRAGON IS DRIVING ME INSANE #Alear gush #I love them sooooo much #mentally ill for them

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