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hannahhook7744 · 2 years

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Do you think Lonnie is obsessed with her mother?

That depends on what you describe 'obsessed' as.

But in my personal opinion, no. Not really.

Look, I know she talks about her mom alot compared to other characters but that's easy to explain away.

She's the child of two warriors, who grew up up surrounded by several warriors and their wives. She comes from a traditional culture that can be a bit overbearing as seen in the Mulan movie and as in seen in many posts about families/places in that culture.

So assuming that she grew up there at least for a few years before moving to Auardon than that alone would have given her some problems with her identity as a not entirely feminine young lady.

And then she moves to Auardon where gendered sports are a thing and where female sports apparently don't exist even though that Fencing (which can't be too different from Swords and Shields) is as far as I'm aware a non gendered sport.

She was expected to act a certain way by teachers and her peers. And while it wasn't a big deal most of the time because she is feminine too, it did cause some conflicts for her growing up.

In theory at least.

And Lonnie, who seems to be going to school at a boarding school where her brother no longer attends probably had issues coming to term with who she was as a person. Probably had trouble coming to terms with her conflicting cultural beliefs and personality.

She's feminine yes. But she also loves sword fighting and sparring and hip hop and a ton of other non feminine things that kids would be cruel about (speaking from experience).

And being away from home wouldn't help. Especially after her brother graduated.

So, my theory is that Lonnie brings up her mom alot for a lot of reasons. Not only because she misses her but because she's everything Lonmie wants to be and because she's a convent throw away excuse to use whenever Lonnie has to defend the way she is.

Her mom is confident. Her mom is well liked. Her mom is strong and funny and nurturing and doesn't need to be feminine to get by. Her mom is beautiful without trying.

And part of Lonnie wants to be that.

But another part doesn't want to throw away her femininity.

Lonnie wants to be both. She wants to be all that and more.

She wants to be confident and strong and nurturing and funny but feminine as well. She wants to be accepted for who she is. For every side of her. For every part of her.

And until that can happen without people questioning her, without people dismissing her or accusing her of wanting to be special/wanting attention she will continue to bring up her mom.

Because no one really thinks twice about a kid wanting to be like their mom or dad. About a kid bringing their parent up as a reason for wanting to do something.

Plus, Lonnie wants to make her mom proud of her. So of course she'd bring her up alot. But no, she's not obsessed.

She just has a good relationship with her mother who she wants to make proud and issues with her identity because traditional places and sometimes even non traditional places aren't always accepting of people who are different.

Hope that answers your question and thanks for the ask. If you have any other questions about her or the other main aks and vks and why they are the way they are I will gladly answer them.

Or if you just have a random question about any of my stories and ocs. I always love nice asks.

Also I wonder if I'd be a good therapist or character profiler.

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tirsynni · 8 months

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So for the longest time, I refused to think of the original Hyrule Warriors as canon. It was a fun little hack-and-slash side bit and I adore Link with his blue scarf, but I didn't actually add it to my mental timeline when it came to the LoZ games.

Then I made the mistake of thinking too much about the game and its implications on the overall timeline, especially the implications regarding the Spirit of the Hero. Stay with me on this. (Yes, it is once again time for me to put far too much thought into video games, because why not?)

Arguably, the Spirit of the Hero became entangled with everything due to Demise's Curse in Skyward Sword: "Those like you... Those who share the blood of the goddess and the spirit of the hero... They are eternally bound to this curse. An incarnation of my hatred shall ever follow your kind, dooming them to wander a blood-soaked sea of darkness for all time!" Thus the Cycle of Hatred is introduced.

In dissecting it a bit, it shows three permanent players: an incarnation of Demise's hatred, the Goddess's bloodline (note not Hylia herself, but her bloodline) and the spirit of the hero (note in contrast to the previous line, not the hero's bloodline, but the "spirit of the hero"). So we have an incarnation of a demon god's hate, a divine bloodline, and... some dude. Sorry, Link. You really got the short end of the stick here.

Obviously, he's not just "some dude," but he is a mortal tossed into an immortal war. Even as the Goddess's bloodline is mortal, they forever hold divinity within them, descended directly from divinity. Arguably, the Hero's Spirit holds some divinity itself through Hylia's blessing, arguably Farore's blessing, and playing emissary to multiple deities and powerful spirits through the games, but it relies on external sources instead of being inherent. The root of the Hero lies within the mortality of the Hero. That mortality probably provides a great deal of flexibility, as LoZ seems to follow along the popular concept that immortal beings are stuck to certain rules and mortals can go places and do things immortals can't. Biggest example is the Goddess Hylia needing a mortal Hero in the first place to fight Demise.

Okay, so where does Hyrule Warriors come into this? Because while the concept of the Spirit of the Hero comes up in multiple games, it's usually through inheritance, stepping into the role of the Hero, etc. When Cia comes into play, her target isn't the latest Hero: her target is the Spirit of the Hero itself. Not the concept. Not the implications of the role. The identity of the Spirit of the Hero. She didn't look at Link in HW and become obsessed with him: she became obsessed with him specifically because he possessed the Spirit of the Hero. It changes things a bit when looking at his character in the game.

First, there's the question of what awakens the Spirit of the Hero. In the other games, there's a great evil on the horizon -- the incarnation of Demise's hatred, which doesn't necessarily mean Demise or even Ganondorf but the awakening of an evil influenced somehow by Demise's hatred -- which leads to a Hero being born. Evil stirs, the Hero is born, Evil acts, the Hero awakens to their destiny. In the case of HW, though, the only reason Cia attacks that era is because there was a Hero present. So what sparked the birth of this Hero? If this Link wasn't born, then Cia would have targeted another Hero. Considering she was interested in the Spirit, not the person, I don't think age would have been a factor, so any of the other Heroes would be open targets. Cia didn't need to go after an awakened Hero, though. Instead, this specific Hero was born (looking remarkably like the Hero from the SS comic with his pretty scarf and such) and becomes Cia's target. So does more than the curse cause the birth of a Hero? If so, was this particular Link set up as a target? Or are the Heroes set up with specific destinies? Just Like OoT!Link is connected with Ganondorf and Majora, was this Link's soul somehow connected to Cia's? How does it work?

Which leads to the next issue: the challenges and pros inherent to mortality. In most cases, the Heroes have a choice in their destiny. Can they be pushed? Guilted? Strongly encouraged? Yes. However, in the games, one of the first things you do is choose to pick up the sword. You pick up the weapon. You start on your path. Link in almost every other scenario gets to go, "I want to save these people. I want to save the princess. I want to save Hyrule." In HW, while Link has the option to choose to fight or not, he would be targeted by Cia regardless because he was born with the Spirit of the Hero. He does choose to become a Knight and fight, though, which awakens the Triforce and puts him right in Cia's path. Pro to mortality: freedom of choice. HW-specific con: even with that freedom, being born with the Spirit put a bullseye on Link's back.

Another con of mortality, one presented in multiple games: the dangers of corruption. Link is a mortal, albeit a powerful mortal, who through his role as Hero regularly deals with divine objects. In most games, he deals with at least one piece of the Triforce and the Master Sword. The Triforce is not a symbol of good: it is a symbol of harmony: Power, Courage, and Wisdom in balance. If it had some sort of inherent morality, then someone like Demise reaching it wouldn't be such a big deal. Unfortunately, that's not the case. Link's Triforce is just insane power. Combine that with handling the powerhouse of the Master Sword, among all of the other things Link deals with, and you have a mortal who is dealing with one hell of a threat and burden. The Hero is repeatedly warned against falling to that darkness and has to fight against symbols of his darkness, ie, Dark or Shadow Link. This is a vulnerability most others won't have to deal with. He is a mortal struggling with the weight of immortal, powerful objects and needs to not lose himself to them.

Now combine that threat of corruption with the emphasis on the Spirit of the Hero which occurs in HW. With the other games, the threat is Link being corrupted. In HW, Cia's target is the Spirit of the Hero. Link's just the pretty package. If she succeeded, Link would be corrupted, but so would Cia's target: the Spirit of the Hero. There are a couple implications connected to that: what happens when you corrupt something as ancient and powerful as the Spirit of the Hero, something blessed by multiple spirits and deities and something literally older than Hyrule itself? Something which has the ability to turn the tide of battle against impossible odds? When no Hero arose once, the Goddesses responded by flooding the world. When Link slept(?) for a hundred years in BotW, no one, no matter their ability, was able to replace him. The Calamity remained unchallenged and untouched for that century, with even Zelda's powers limited to just holding the Calamity. That's a lot of power to corrupt... and that can also be one hell of a boon to Ganondorf. If not just Link but the Spirit was corrupted, how would that affect the Cycle of Hatred? Cia would have her obsession and the Spirit could not be incarnated into a new Hero to fight against Ganondorf. One hell of a win there... literally.

WW proved that if it came right down to it, a Hero could forcibly step up by fulfilling their own Hero's Journey. After all, even the initial Hero had to come from somewhere. But that would be an insane blow against Hyrule and the Royal Family. That would also be an insane amount of power available to Ganondorf. No opposition and all of the power inherent in a corrupted Spirit of the Hero. Oof.

If you view HW as canon with its focus on the Spirit of the Hero over the Hero himself, it does lead to some interesting questions regarding the role played by the Spirit, what happens if something happens to the Spirit, and the the lines between the Spirit and the Hero himself.

...hey, The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy book, why don't you focus on these questions instead of the stupid ones you went over? Bastards.

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cellarspider · 2 months

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Part 1/??: Descending into the depths of madness, and also Prometheus

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We begin with the dissection of a movie destined to be picked over by eagles for all eternity, Prometheus.

I want to preface this by saying that this is not intended as a general critique of the movie. I’m going to be explaining how this movie became a font of madness for me specifically, in a way that friends of mine have found amusing. More below the fold.

I sat down in a theater in 2012, having seen all of the main Alien movies, having vague-to-specific awareness of the ancillary stuff–comics, games, et cetera–and a fascination with H.R. Giger’s work, and the way others had adapted his style to fit the series. I had seen the first trailer for Prometheus, and the “David 8” promotional video.

It’s worth giving a moment for these videos, actually, because whoever cut it did a phenomenal job. Trailers are there to sell a movie, sure, but they’re also setting expectations, and this one set them high.

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It is a fantastic trailer, for a movie that does not entirely happen. I saw this and it said to me “this might have a similar tone to Alien”. Which is the message it is intending to send: Alien opens with a title card revealed in a very similar manner, and features howling klaxons at its climax, and panicked screaming at unresponsive technology. The trailer is deliberately invoking these scenes:

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Flashing light warning for the following video, though the sounds themselves are effective enough:

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Combine with the further context that Ridley Scott directed Alien and was back to direct Prometheus? This was a must-see, as far as I was concerned. I like slow, measured horror films that work on atmosphere, building something darkly beautiful in the process: My top three at the time were Hellraiser, Sunshine, and Alien. Annihilation has since joined that list, and at the time, Prometheus looked like it might as well.

Particularly with the video that introduced David.

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I’ve always loved android characters, and this series already included some excellent ones. Ian Holm’s plays the perfect merciless corporate man as Ash, and his reveal as an android is deeply unnerving. Lance Henriksen’s performance as Bishop in Aliens is iconic for a reason. In this fake advert, Michael Fassbender nails a combination of corporate blandness, carefully tuned non-threatening behavior, and absolutely dead-eyed emotional insincerity. At the same time, he’s presented as a new being, a fully capable individual with no personal history or chance to define himself. That can be really interesting when played properly. I wanted to see more of David.

That was where I was at, when the movie started.

The first scenes in a movie are important for setting audience expectations. A viewer could have never seen anything about the movie before sitting down to watch it. For those who do already know some things–the publicity around a movie, its place in a broader series, or broader things like genre tropes–these people also have to be led to an understanding of what the movie is going to be.

The first scenes are also vital for establishing suspension of disbelief. Suspension of disbelief isn’t turning off your brain, it’s allowing yourself to entertain certain ideas as fact, and then following those preconditions through the logic presented in the movie. If scene-setting fails–or the audience goes in unwilling to follow in the first place–then you’re in trouble.

And I was very willing to follow this movie at the start. I’m a geneticist. I love science fiction, even though I know how wrong most works in the genre are about biology. If a work says “this thing is possible”, I’m usually able to say “okay, I’ll allow it”. This first scene successfully managed to do that for me.

This is in part thanks to the fact that Iceland is a gorgeous place.

(Source)

Sweeping shots of nothing but landscape so stark that much of it looks like abstract art. I would, and have, watched movies entirely composed of this. Yes, I am the sort of person who enjoys Koyaanisqatsi.

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Despite the contemplative subject matter, cuts in Prometheus feel off, and in a deliberate way. In the clip of Koyaanisqatsi above, the film follows the music. In Prometheus, they’re consistently off, coming at moments that feel like they’re halfway through a breath. Usually we speak of dissonance in music, but in this case, we have dissonance in motion. I didn’t notice this in the theater at the time. It’s subtle, but there.

The opening shows us a humanoid alien engage in what appears to be a deliberate, religiously-tinged self-sacrifice, drinking a black substance that causes them to disintegrate. More dissonance in motion, going from deliberate action and the slow departure of a ship, to sudden and seemingly agonizing death. The view zooms in to the microscopic, where DNA is shown disintegrating and then reforming into new strands. We see what appears to be embryonic division: the beginning of new life.

(Sources: https://screenmusings.org/movie/blu-ray/Prometheus/, https://www.cap-that.com/prometheus/ )

The movie has asked for you to believe this much: humanoid aliens exist, they are technologically advanced, and they have a substance that can break down and remake biological material.

This also provided the first minor hurdle for me, as a then geneticist-in-training.

I’m very used to abstracted illustrations of DNA. All most people need to know is that it’s a double-helix (two spring shapes) held together by connecting bits made of four different, paired “bases”. Like A and B in the figure below, you usually don’t need all the information in C:

(Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-mcc-microbiology/chapter/structure-and-function-of-dna/)

And in some ways, the movie gives a very decent illustration! They preserved much of the geometry, evident in the “major groove” and “minor groove” shapes noted in Figure A: the usual configuration of DNA in our cells is a slightly wonky spiral, which they appear to almost nail here. They also appear to have tried to render this DNA in a visual style coherent with H. R. Giger’s work.

They have done so by turning it into a pale bacon ladder, or possibly some very strange pasta.

This was slightly humorous to me, but it’s hard to render molecular-level stuff in a way that’s intelligible to an audience, so I was willing to go with it. This also gave an extra bit of information: this alien species has DNA.

Now, this is a given for multicellular life on Earth, but it’s not a given in the speculative world of astrobiology. Life requires some sort of way to encode instructions for how to build its component parts, but DNA is not the only way that could be done.

Overall, I like this scene. It, and one that comes relatively soon after, are stand-out scenes in terms of setting mood, matching the expectations from the trailer.

Unfortunately, they set the mood for a different movie than what actually follows.

And we meet the first stumbling blocks in the next scene, and have our first brush with some of the movie’s blunt-force approach to themes and exposition.

(Previous) | (Index) | (Next)

#Prometheus 2012 #This is only the first few minutes of the movie #And seven pages into my writing on it #You do not want to know how long my draft document is by now

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theratlivinginyourcouchcushions · 3 months

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Meet Rosetta and Crème!

These two are members of the flock made/inspired by @fishy—friend (I can’t figure out how to tag them) and this post of theirs:

I also added lore! (My thoughts are kind of jumbled on the logic behind it, so there are random spots where it launches into a related idea I had)

While making their designs, I started thinking about the ways that other demons might treat their nightmares, and had the idea that succubi/incubi/ whatever they’re called, keep dreams to entice potential summoners, and that Rosetta and Crème formerly worked under one.

(Wouldn’t it be cool if some demons have their nightmares helping them with their jobs, like torture demon’s nightmares being extremely skilled with “tools”, diseases, dissections and prepping machinery (idk there’s a lot of ways to torture people) or time loop demon’s nightmares being really good at puzzles and noticing small details. I can’t think of good examples but it’s a really cool concept, and it’s not even that far fetched, bc it’s canon that the midway bar has nightmare staff serving as waiters for the “customers”)

Anyway, Rosetta and Crème and the other dreams were treated more like bugs that happened to benefit the demon, so she kept them around.

(demons just don’t care about their nightmares the way Alcor does, but this one just ignore them until she has a job for them. Also it has been confirmed that nightmares are just dreams tough enough to survive in the wild, and that it’s possible for dreams to become nightmares.)

Anyway, Rosetta and Crème are some of the tougher dreams living there, so when their master is killed in a demon battle, they’re some of the only ones to escape before the new demon eats the rest of the dreams. They’re still the only ones to survive in the wild though, and they grow even closer than they were before. (They’re basically sisters)

When they hear about a “kind” demon who cares for his nightmares in ways most of his kind can’t even comprehend, they decide to take their chances, and seek out the comfort of a real home. They join the flock and continue to seduce humans, because why not? And besides, they enjoyed their old jobs, and now they get free food!

(However, they are strictly prohibited from making any moves on Pines descendants or reincarnations of Alcor’s close family or friends (Mabel, Henry, Stan, the triplets, Thomas ect)

Anyways, they live their new home, and family, and have human forms for when they go down to mess with humans. Rosetta is visibly inspired by characters like Verosika Mayday, Miss Heed (I’ve never seen the show she’s in) and a little bit of Angel Dust (Hazbin hotel) she has a similar personality to these characters too. (Mostly Verosika bc she’s a dom)

Crème is a reworked version

Edit: I spent an hour retyping this (3 times) bc it keeps cutting off, so I give up now.

#transcendence au #Rosetta #crème #the flock #tau #theratlivinginyourcouchcushions #alcor the dreambender #digital art #my art #gravity falls #art #gravity falls au #art prompt

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altocat · 3 months

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7, 8 16 for the fandom ask game (if they've not already been answered <3)

7. Favorite tropes to read/write/draw

I love characters who go through a psychological transformation over the course of the story. Specifically "good" characters that sorta lose their minds and descend into villainy lolol.

8. You hope more people will come to appreciate ___

This would be literally any of the points I've made on Sephiroth over the years. I really would like people to try to view him as something more than two dimensional. He's got a lot of layers worthy of dissection.

16. A tiny detail in canon you want people to appreciate

Gen's thing with the apples in relation to Sephiroth is heartbreaking. No one ever talks about it because lots of people tend to immediately dismiss Gen's character. But the apples thing add sort of a depressing edge to his relationship with Sephiroth. All of this started off not in rivalry, but a young boy's wish to share his accomplishments with his personal hero.

#asks #ffvii #ff7 #final fantasy 7 #sephcanons #sephiroth #genesis rhapsodos

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deiscension · 3 months

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so when can we expect this dissection of that lyric for sqx huh 👀🍿

@deathfavor You can get it right this instant if may be allowed to pull an swd and lose my entire gotdamn head. This isn't as detailed or organized as I'd like to get with it because I want to pull very specific lines from the different arcs they're involved in but I'm going to summarize as best as I can!

First off I need to emphasize that I think as "unfair" as what happens to SQX is, I think it needed to happen. I am putting "unfair" in air quotes because I'm also a HX defender and as terrifying and life-altering as Black Water arc is for them, I also do not think SQX would lament how "unfair" any of it was after the proverbial dust has settled (that's a discussion for another time though because I have A Lot Of Thoughts about swd's beheading + the direct aftermath + SQX not wanting to ascend again + immediately seeking to descend and not be sought out again after willingly giving up their powers).

SQX loves SWD, MY/HX, and XL. I refuse to put past tense there too okay she's full of love for better or worse. Usually for worse. I digress. She loves them, but she doesn't know them. She thinks she does. She's had no reason to believe she didn't, and that she was running out of time to know them all. That's why things had to happen the way they did. That's the price of her ignorance. It's not a faultless thing even if it was never meant to be malicious. And my GOD, she's lived her whole life in layers and layers of ignorance, all of it heaped onto her. She can go her whole life loving with all her heart but she has to learn how to actually know others, too. Let me try to break down what I mean through the three specific characters I mentioned. I am going to try to keep this short-ish because I will elaborate more when I've got the braincells and quotes to go for it but!! Here we go.

Also before I get into it, I don't mean to say that she didn't know any of them at all. She knew them all in exactly the ways they wanted to be known, in my opinion; not all of it convenient or surface level either! And she's a fair more insightful about all three of them than one might notice on a first reading. But she's still missed key facets of each one-- if I may be a bit heavy-handed, she's blinded by the sun and stumbling through the shadows, thinking that because she can't see those shadows they're not there. And that's not how people work. So!

Xie Lian -- while it is very indicative of the type of loyal, rational (when necessary), ride-or-die, and kindhearted person SQX is when they defend him against PM and then against the Heavenly Court, it goes to show just how easily blinded they are. Don't get me wrong, it also says a lot about their ability to think for themself (that's another bone I have to pick with popular fanon interpretation of them LOL) and not bend to social convention/pressure. But they're also letting one interaction inform them against centuries of history. Granted, we aren't ever told how much SQX knows about XL before coming across him at Banyue Pass. However, considering the amount of officials that play nice with SQX, I can't imagine they wouldn't have heard all matter of gossip-- truth mixed with tales and the like. And then there's the whole "he had remembered the flower but forgotten about the sword" line: SQX knows XL as a gentle, level-minded, experienced person. They haven't yet contended with his personal history. This trait of theirs is a double-edged sword. I can't imagine they wouldn't have reflected on this after being left in the Heavenly Capital. They would've never meant any harm by not digging into XL's past, but how ashamed they must feel of trying to be a good, reliable friend while remaining ignorant of all his past troubles.

Shi Wudu - that's her brother! She LOVES her brother! He's given her the world, he's kept her safe, he was the only person she had for so long-- the only person who didn't try to take advantage of her pain and ignorance and just wanted what was best for her. He'd never lie to her, he'd never hurt her, he'd never belittle her, he'd never give her reason to fear him. Not in any way that's anything more than a temporary sibling tiff. Except he did. Time and time again, he did. And I'm not saying this to disparage SWD because especially after a second reading of BW arc, I know SWD loved them too, and he is a fascinating character. We need characters like him alright, just as much as we also need SQXs and HXs and XLs and HCs and so forth. There's so much that needs to be taken into account when examining SWD's behavior towards SQX and how frightened SQX is of her own brother even before discovering the truth-- and I'd love to get into it but maybe not here because I'm already rambling soooo much LSDKFJSDF. Back to the point. SWD loved her. But at what point does love become a cage? At what point does it become hands around your throat? SQX has no idea what all was sacrificed for her. She's not allowed to know. Yes there's the iconic "the one he feared most had been beside him all along" about Ming Yi but HAVE WE CONSIDERED HOW MUCH IT APPLIES TO SWD TOO. HAVE WE!!!! Because I am Considering and I am Dry-heaving at how on the nose it is for SWD too. I already talked a little bit about it (here) but in his efforts to secure a place in the heavens for himself and her, SWD became the exact thing SQX hated and feared the most. SWD is a mirror to the Reverend, at least in actions. Gobbling up lives without a second thought, using fear as a means of control, laughing in the face of another's undeserved and unearned misery, "we've lived good lives"-- EVERYTHING SQX fears is her brother. Her brother, who she loves so much but didn't know nearly well enough.

I'm planning on doing a whole Shi sibling meta but I need to read through a few more passages with SWD first because while my brain is not particularly big I also refuse to misinterpret his character on purpose just because I sometimes want to give him a swift kick to the ass. SWD my beloathed-loved. Idk. Bestworst shitass brother. Still meditating upon that one though because they are both unreliable narrators with each other and XL is an unreliable narrator too so I have much to think about.

He Xuan - [gripping your shoulders and looking into your eyes] Help Me God I Am About To Explode. Where Do I Begin. I'm not gonna lie the first time I heard this part:

I was a kid until I fixed it Tore into a love affair Between me and what wasn't there Oh, I was kissing you Just to feel the air

my brain was like 'wow S.arah K.insley that's so SQX reflecting on her time with MY/HX you're so right'. Which is what led me to thinking even more about all SQX's other relationships too. I know fandom has a lot of contention in how to read into their relationship pre-BW arc and post-BW arc. Frankly I am here to cry as hard as I can and as long as I can so based on my second reading of BW arc + the way SQX acts with both MY/HX and comparing it to how she is with everyone else, I think her feelings with MY/HX are deeper than they're often given credit for. SQX is "friends with everyone", sure. But to HER, MY is her first true friend. Her most beloved, most trusted, most treasured friend. And she never really knew him. Oh, we can point the finger at him and say "well, he was pretending to be someone he wasn't, she wouldn't have found anything out either way". To that I say yes-- and I'm sure SQX did try to poke around for more, but she's so carefree and trusting, it seems logical to me that she would've taken his prickliness and closed-off nature as "just how he is".

All we have about her social life before ascending is pure speculation. I know I'm not presenting good evidence for my reasoning at the moment (I really want to cook up a post about the type of sheltered life SQX lived because all that spoiling and opulence came in after being brought into the middle court-- like yes SWD spoiled them by always being the one to take care of the difficult things, but again! Another topic for later! I have much to say about SQX's learned helplessness there). SQX didn't have anyone but her ge. I'm sure she had "lots of friends" in the Middle Court too. But she didn't have a capital-f-Friend. And then-- she has MY! Someone who's not trying to get to her brother through her (LOLLLLLLLL), someone who doesn't disappear during times of storm, someone who doesn't disguise their true nature or intentions for the sake of personal gain (LOL x2). Well I'm laughing there but again- HX defender. I digress, again. SQX isn't latching onto MY out of pure convenience. If SQX wanted to befriend someone who goes along with all her whims, never gives her a hard time, and plays coy for her amusement, she has thousands to choose from. Hell her brother could've picked for her. But she wants MY as her best friend and closest confidant. It would've been so easy for her to dump him on his ass and chase after best friend status with XL if all her clinging to MY was purely informed by self-interest and the desire to feel good about herself all the time. They themself even say that XL has earned "second best friend" status during the beginning of BW arc, all while XL is objectively the only person giving her tangible comfort. She doesn't just want a best friend, she wants her best friend Ming-xiong. My god! He's the first they cry out for at what's arguably their lowest: right after willingly giving up their power, when it turns out their brother is the type of person they've always feared the most, when it's clear they cannot save anyone, they cannot even save themself.

And oh, how she wanted to be the same for him! She risked HC's wrath (or at least she thought she was, which is also so funny in greater context) to "rescue" him. She would've done anything for him. Except she couldn't. She didn't know him. She failed him so terribly, so miserably, so shamefully. Him and everyone else who loved him and actually knew him, the ones who died so she could have a life she hadn't earned. We both know how agonizing those moments in the Nether Water Manor-- but what about the aftermath? What about when it was just them stumbling around, after the fear and shock had worn off, with nothing but their own audacious words echoing around in their head? "This whole thing has nothing to do with Ming-xiong, but he had to suffer like this". THEY DIDN'T KNOW THE HALF OF IT! And they said it with such grief then-- well, what about now? How much worse had they made his suffering? Had he felt nothing but revulsion that whole time? Had she made his loneliness, his suffering, his weariness worse? All those times she told him not to worry, all those times spent fussing over him, (trying to) dote on him, looping her arm through his and pulling him this way and that. Did it mean anything at all? He was her best friend, he was who she wanted at her side, but who was she to him? Was he ever really there?

But SQX is too empathetic to only think about herself when it comes to such pains. Once the wallowing wore off, how often did she spend wondering about him? Knowing that of anyone in the heavens and on earth, he was the one deserving of the good life, he was the one deserving of someone who loved him for who he was. What a fool she was for thinking she was that someone! She couldn't even call the right name. She did indeed cause the death of her closest family. She did indeed cause the death of her best friend. And what can she do? What can she say? Sorry doesn't bring anyone back; sorry doesn't make everything better; sorry doesn't make up for being unworthy of the time she squandered at his side, all because she didn't know. Ignore, for a moment, the fear and trauma now casting impenetrable shadows over the image of "her best friend", and consider: by any grace yet again unearned, could she ever accept an offering of forgiveness for such grievances?

I know SQX is doing "fine" as a mortal, she has friends that don't just want something out of them, and I know she's taking better care to practice knowing along with loving. But it just kills me how all her life she has had "everything" but nothing at the same time. None of it was hers. She did nothing to earn it, no matter how much she as a person deserved it. What's deserved without earned, after all?

#▌ ◈ ooc ; ⌜ he fucking ascended again! ⌟#▌ ◈ SHI QINGXUAN ; ⌜ study ⌟#deathfavor #collapses into a boneless heap in front of you. TYSM FOR ASKING BRIT. I'M IN SHAMBLES.#don't uh. don't mind how long the last bit is.#i have a lot of feelings and thoughts about all sqx's canon relationships #but i in particular have Many Many thoughts and Many Many feelings about sqx and hx #'short-ish' [folds my hands in my lap and smiles beatifically] i love being a liar!

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monster-d0ll · 1 year

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mh g3 , witches + more

i will address deuce , manny , iris , cupid , casta fierce and spelldon to make the following analysis

so , a few things to dissect (tw : discussions of greek myths , including mentions of rape , bestiality)

In “Nightmare Nightmore” Deuce and Manny are leaving at the start of the episode , chanting “party like the greek gods”. Their mere existence indicates that greek myths are more than just tales, that there are greek gods in the mh world (we know this). However , egyptian gods and christian supernatural beings (heath’s dad) are too present in the mh canon , posing the existence of egregors , and i personally interpret this through the lens of absurdism . Anyways , these gods clearly do interact in a tangible manner with the “solid world” , be it due to devotion or whatnot , deuce and manny and iris are proof of how tangible these gods’ actions can be. However , these are the children of cursed (for lack of a better word) entities in greek mythology :

the origin of medusa varies, whether she was a priestess who was raped by poseidon and cursed by athena afterwards (as a case of victim-blaming , though some interpret this as a gift rather than a curse , giving her the power to liberate herself from her victimhood) as per Ovid (though depictions of her as a “beautiful maiden” predate the poet) , medusa is otherwise one of three gorgon sisters , daughters of Phorcys and Ceto (otherwise Gorgon and Ceto as per Hyginus) , daughters of two (or even just one) sea god[s] , they have god lineage. Assuming Deuce’s origins are that of the latter interpretation , he is at the very least a demigod ;

the minotaur is too a creature that resulted from poseidon’s involvement , he who gifted a snow white bull to Minus , who was to sacrifice the bull to honour the god , but decided instead to keep him , and so poseidon made Pasiphaë (minus’ wife) to fall in love with the bull , and mate … resulting in the minotaur who had no source of nourishment and so devoured humans for sustenance. Minus had Daedalus, per Delphi’s advice, build a labyrinth to hold the minotaur. In mh lore , g1 and g3 , minotaurs are good at mazes , though g1 manny isn’t , g3 Manny is exceptionally good at them. In any case , they both allude to this whole godly dispute that resulted in their kind ;

the cyclops has some godly lineage , being descendants of uranus and gaia , two of the “greek primordial deities” , who “produced eighteen children” , three of whom were cyclopes , who , alongside their siblings were imprisoned deep within gaia by uranus who despised his monstrous children, but cronus castrated him and became the ruler of the cosmos , however he did not release his brothers , and as gaia foretold , he was overthrown by his children , who he kept imprisoned in his belly , except for zeus who rhea managed to protect and who “forced his father to vomit his siblings” and too released the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires. The Cyclopes’ great weapon was the thunderbolt, and they gave it to zeus to aid in overthrowing the titans. So , theoretically , Iris too has god lineage and her kind has been at the mercy of godlike creatures ;

this is to say , all their individual lineages have dealt with affairs with the gods , though arguably Manny stands out , being the one without godly lineage , what they all have in common is that they are all the kids of entities that have been antagonised, vilified and outright defined as monstrous, thus making them monsters. So , i wonder , is this what separates them from the kids of other gods , or does their godlike status add to their monster status ? do gods inherently hold monstrous attributes ? or is this a distinction amongst them ?

I ask this , to pose the question: how does Cupid fit into the picture ? and subsequently , how does Casta and Spelldon fit into the picture as the kids of Circe ?

These are characters that are yet to appear in g3 , however they fit in just well in g1 Monster High , and their existence overlapped with Ever After High (ie. C.A. Cupid) , regardless , one could argue that the public perception of their being plays a role in whether they’re seen as monsters or not , so why and how is Cupid a monster ? And what exactly makes Casta and Spelldon monsters ? In g1 , they had monstrous aesthetics , however , in g3 , magic can be practiced my humans and monsters , their status is interstitial and i wonder if their monstrous nature stems from them having godly lineage ? And is their monstrous nature the result of public perception ? If so , again , how and why is Cupid a monster ?

Cupid , daughter of Eros , god of love and its various forms , otherwise a primordial god and personification of love. Eros was celebrated and worshipped throughout history , so what exactly grants Cupid her monster status ? Is it simply the fact that she isn’t human ? She is the adopted daughter of Eros , so one could argue , given mh lore , considering she doesn’t know her biological roots , that she is a monster who follows “her adoptive father's footsteps as an arbiter of love and is specialized in the dealings of relationships”. This poses the question whether these gods are their own kind of entities or if their actions are what grant them their status . Cupid’s story also demystifies these gods , as she was “found on the doorsteps of the Cupid household as a baby” which frames them as much more integrated to common folk society. And as for whether gods are their own kind of entities or not , and whether their powers are inherent to godlike entities or not , considering Cupid possesses the ability to “analyse the powers of other love derived monsters , such as emotional vampires”, as well as love related powers she can wield without her arrow but with her hands alone (as seen in Ever After High) , one could argue it is about the actions and not so much what kind of creature they are. However an Ever After High narrator referred to her as a cherub , perhaps loosely , though it could indicate what kind of creature she is , and once again rehash the question , what makes her a monster ? and is her monster nature derived from her not being a human ? also , she is a bone elemental , at least to some extent , and this is possibly derived from eros becoming phanes , prompting whether she was granted these powers through supernatural means and she doesn’t innately hone these abilities , and if so , what kind of creature is she ? or is she in actuality a bone elemental who was granted the rest of the previously mentioned powers as heritage from her adoptive family ?

Casta and Spelldon, children of Circe , an enchantress and goddess. G3 poses magic as something anyone could practice , though witchcraft is more popular amongst humans, , it is a universal craft , and so her only non-human attribute would be her god status , once again hashing the question , is a godly status innately monstrous ? Is it enough to be considered a monster , or is it an interstitial state that is neither human or monster ? Does that state lean into monster nature ? If their god status is but a rank , then how would g3 interpret their monster nature ? The thing is , as previously mentioned , the reason Deuce , Manny and Iris are monsters is because thats what their lineage has been dubbed out to be , because no average child of a god has attended monster high , Cupid being an exception considering her uncertain origins , but its only the children of those creatures that have been vilified in history that are in monster high. So is public perception what makes Casta and Spelldon monsters ? And does their godly status or lineage aesthetically morph them into monster-like creatures ?

Let me know what you think , im seriously curious how g3’s iteration of Casta and Spelldon will look like , and whether their god lineage will be addressed directly , and if they are to have a monstrous aesthetic , i wonder if its going to be attributed to the other parent .

#monster high #monster high g3 #monster high witchcraft #monster high analysis #mh analysis #deuce gorgon #manny taur #iris clops #ca cupid #mh cupid #casta fierce #spelldon cauldronello #draculaura #mh #mh g3 #my mh hcs

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katyspersonal · 10 months

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8, 9, 12, 13!!! World peace wooo yeahhh!

ALSO SILENCE MORTAL YOU ARE STILL THE ROM PERSON IDC LIKE SHE MATTERS TO ME THANKS TO YOU 🕸️🕷️

Ah, really though?? I am so flattered to hear this! There is just... so much lore about her that is told visually and via use of other gameplay elements rather than verbally, and THIS type of lore is easier for me to decipher! Well, Bloody Crow matters for me thanks to YOU, so we are even! xD

(Asks from this ( x ) meme)

8) common fandom opinion that everyone is right about and should say it

Hmmm, well! Opinion that Gehrman is, in fact, not a "misogynist creep" or whatever but rather a complicated, nuanced character with multilayered vibe of grieving, who is not necessarily a good person but made a Doll in such image somewhere on the range from 'Maria herself HAD a gentle, even feminine side that was ruined and he blames himself' to 'He trapped her image in that femininity as last ditch mental effort to pretend she is "safe"'. That's right - in recent couple of years, this opinion on Gehrman became common! I remember how it started in Summer 2021 with my post ( x ) shedding light on some mistranslated lines and missed possibilities, that changed opinion of a few or his haters and shaped opinion of some that never cared for him, but now? Now every popular blog has a nuanced take on Mister Doomer that goes viral in less than a week every time! Moreover, the MOST viral of these takes basically make a peace between "she is legit masculine" and "Gehrman is certainly not a misogynist" takes; basically no one is left unsatisfied and everything is compromised on. I am glad to announce that takes like this count as COMMON! We did it, fandom!

9) best part of canon

Damn, you guys really think there is such thing as "canon" in From's games? xD Okay, okay, I will be serious. My favourite part is how there is a complex affiliation with the Eldrich Truth! There are 'Stars', and the 'Paleblood Moon' boldly hinted to be behind it, and the latter also can be associated with Bloodmoon, that is itself is more the state of being 'nourished' and descending to "bless" the humans, but also Flora does seem to be in charge, and there is the 'Sea' from which Kos presumably came, but 'Sea' seems to lead to the 'Stars', and there are some weird and cursed Kin like Amygdala and maybe Wet Nurse. There are Kin that are each of these and Kin that are both, and Rom is all three affiliations- meanwhile some beasts show signs of Kin, and some Kin show signs of beasts! I dissected the complexity in my Kin headcanons post ( x ) to my best ability, but the variety of the material to work with is pretty much canon, even if the way to go about it is up for the lorediggers. But this is ENJOYABLE. I LOVED connecting these dots!

12) the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

I'll say Forgotten Madman! Honestly, find a character that lives up to their name more... He is implied to have been a member of the Choir - dude uses A Call Beyond, that is a secret weapon of the Choir! Also, the only NPC to use Empty Phantasm Shell. Also, the fact that obtaining Cosmic Watcher badge lets you buy poisonous knives, and he happens to be fought in the Hintertomb, a location notorious for being very venomous- Like, what if he came up with those knives? What if he sets his Ludwig's Holy Blade in arcane mist in attempt to recreate the conditions which made Ludwig have his revelation? After all, the 'Madmen' prospectors were ones who went insane trying to gain more Insight in the dungeons, and wrapped husks of phantasms around themselves like lucky charms. He also has very unusual face, and pink skin. Also, whereas all the remaining prospectors seem to be solitary, he has an escort! You know, unusually so, like... a noble man having a butler? Or he needed assistance for other reason? But there is an implication of a tie between Hemwick and Hintertomb (more on the topic in this ( x ) post), and Hemwick is an underling of Cainhurst, and Cainhurst IS nobles, and-

Okay, you see what I am saying. This wholeass character, and his escort by effect, are like a Lego set from which you can craft really interesting stuff! Most of Soulsborne characters will have little to no lore, just 'material to work with', so I don't really see why not craft something with him too! ...or at least include him in the Choir gang. Yeah I know everyone hates his hairstyle, but that IS why they agreed to not take hats off ever again, come on dsnfgsdfd xD

13) best blorboficiation

Hmmmm... Tricky question, because the concept itself has negative implication *thinking emoji* I think maybe Djura? Blorbofication I've seen used in a synonymous concept as idealisation or something. Like, striping character off the flaws, complexity and wrongdoings, and making it all about their good side (sometimes exagerrating it either). Djura must have taken part in burning of the Old Yharnam, seems to have hunted a lot and viciously from how worn his clothes are and how two of Powder Keg weapons straight up celebrate EXCEPTIONAL hatred for the beasts, and there is still some layer of hypocrisy to him (source: analyze all his interaction/questline with the player very hard) and dark implication about defending the beasts like he does... I can go on. But like... I am yet to see the "harm" (if you could call it that?) of blorbifying him to being the cool beasts' dad and liking his redemption arc to the point of forgetting what he redeemed himself FROM...? He is just such a good character that I've grown to like it when people are blinded by his good traits xd There are also some characters with whom 'blind love' opens the gate for controversy and even attacking other characters and/or fans, but 'blind love' towards Djura doesn't... really cause anything bad? There is nothing but wholesome stuff, like... no one gets hurt? besides the Paleblood Hunter lolololol

Thank you for the ask!

#bloodborne #fandomry rambles #ask replies #this is probably the most wholesome yet #some things i am realising AS I am typing the replies #like blorbofication of maria can cause quite a havoc #but blorbofication of djura is just.... like it is Just Here. nothing bad follows #as for based gehrman takes it is mostly through the 'i know a guy that knows a guy that knows a guy' system #but i still see some just find me #like that cool one from yharnam-is-a-fuck for example #based gehrman stuff goes super viral super fast and i haven't even noticed #like... we have changed #*says a person that discovered BB way too late past its prime lol*

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romancomicsnews · 8 months

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Who should play Mr. Fantastic in the MCU?

With the upcoming MCU Fantastic Four movie set for 2025, as soon as the writer's strike comes to an end, we will likely get our cast for the film dropped. Before that time comes, I thought I would give me two cents for who should play each role, starting with our leading man.

Perhaps the most over fan casted character in the past year, Reed Richards is a particularly hard nail to hit on the head. While the characteristics are simple enough, smartest man in world, leader of the fantastic, emotionally distant, maybe a bit awkward, borderline mad scientist, all of those traits can easily be attributed to a number of different actors.

Depending on how you want to play it, there has been a number of fantastic (pun intended) options thrown around the rumor mill: Penn Badgley, John Krasinski returning, Glenn Howerton, William Jackson Harper, Adam Driver, Matt Smith, and oh so many more.

While I like a lot of these and really wouldn't be upset with most of them, I thought I'd throw my three ideas in the ring.

I will also say, my initial pick was William Jackson Harper, but twitter and one of my favorite Fan Casters Nando V Movies (go check out their YouTube channel) already casted him. But if he got it, I would be very pleased.

Finally, I'll preface, I am going for originality. There have been SO many picks for Mr. Fantastic. I tried so desperately hard to pick actors I haven't heard brought up who can do an amazing job.

First, as always, let's look back and three renditions we got:

Ioan Gruffudd

I don't have strong feelings about this particular version of the character. He hit the notes he needed to but there really wasn't alot for him or Jessica Alba to do in the film.

Gruffudd did a solid job at playing the straight man, letting Evans and Chiklis play off of him fairly well.

He was also fairly good at playing a realistic nerd. He didn't feel like someone who was on the football team, which other Fantastics lacked. We need someone who can feel believably awkward. More Maguire less Garfield.

Miles Teller

*sigh* Fan4stic is definitely a movie.

Miles Teller and the cast do what they can with what they were given, but there isn't much for me to dissect here. Teller does a good job with the awkward nerdiness, but he lacks the believable confidence to be a leader. Fantastic should be confident in his intelligence, Teller wasn't there yet.

We need someone who can believably be a leader.

John Krasinski

I think for what he is given, Krasinski does a solid job at a particular kind of Mr. Fantastic. That is to say, he is a Mr. Fantastic who has done his three movies and has learned the importance of family and connecting with people and taking care of others.

That being said, as a flawed Fantastic, he's boring. Yes he is strong, confident, and feels like a leader, but that's all I'll give him.

So clearly, we don't have a lot to work with as far as definitive versions of the character goes.

What ethnicity is Mr. Fantastic?

Mr. Fantastic does not have a particular ethnic identity in the comics. There is one piece of comic lure that I think is interesting when discussing Mr. Fantastic, particularly in the MCU.

You see one of Reed Richards descendants is Nathaniel Richards, a time travelling super-genius from the 31st century, wo becomes a supervillain warlord known as..

Kang the Conqueror.

While his lineage is sometimes questionable, I think this wrinkle puts a potential for people of color playing this role.

However, Kang could be mixed, and with the fact Mr. Fantastic isn't really any particular ethnicity, I think casting anyone is okay.

Other Stipulations

Mr. Fantastic may be one of the major leads of the MCU moving forward. We are casting the main enemy of Galactus, Doctor Doom, and maybe even Kang. We are looking for a Downey or Evans, someone great.

As the leader of the Fantastic Four, we need someone who can believably be the smartest person in the room. With his powers, his intelligence, and his borderline madness when it comes to science, Mr. Fantastic should feel like a threat to someone like Doom.

I'm looking for someone in their mid 30s to mid 40s. He needs to feel older than Johnny but young enough to keep this going for awhile.

We need someone confident who could lead the team but can be a little awkward to be around. Almost Batman like.

I'd like taller and lanky as far as look goes, and if they can grow a nice beard that's a plus. Any ethnicity is good.

As always, I'm looking for someone who hasn't played a major superhero role.

Let's get into it:

3. Dev Patel

Kicking off our list with the safest choice, Dev Patel is one of those actors you're surprised isn't already a superhero. From roles in the Green Knight, Slumdog Millionaire, and Modern Love, Patel is a fan favorite actor with range to compete with the big names. At 33, He is the youngest person on my list and most qualified for the job.

He has played intelligent in roles like in Chappie, has done dangerous in the Green Knight, and villains in roles like Zuko (sorry I had to bring up The Last Airbender).

My worry with Patel is he may be a little too likeable. I want a character we can warm up to, which is hard balance. He also seems like an actor who could potentially be great as a different character. Maybe even Doctor Doom.

I definitely think he has the chops and the potential to be a great lead, not just for the Fantastic Four but the MCU.

2. Zachary Quinto

When casting in Sci-Fi, it's always good to cast someone who has pull in nerd circles.

Known for roles in Star Trek, Heroes, American Horror Story and Invincible, Zachary Quinto is always a treat to watch.

He was originally my top choice to play Doctor Strange in the MCU, but I think for those same reasons, he could do an excellent Mr. Fantastic.

Zachary Quinto is great at playing characters just a little off from human. Spock is a great example of this, but I'd look closer at Robot from Invincible. He displays real emotion through a robotic voice throughout the show, and quickly became my favorite character. I think bringing a little humanity to Reed can help us follow and grow with him as the movies progress.

Quinto also has a solid background in playing villains. He has voiced Lex Luthor, and even played a superpowered serial killer, Sylar, in the hit NBC series Heroes. I think having someone who can play a villain be beneficial to Reed, as he often feels closer to a villain than a hero.

My biggest concern with Quinto is age. At 46, he feels a bit older than I would prefer. Not that that should be a problem, but a younger Reed we can see grow into Mr. Fantastic is preferred.

Quinto also isn't typically a leading man. I'm not sure if I can see him leading the MCU in the same way I see Patel.

I think it would be a curveball pick that fans could get behind and end up loving.

1. Jerrod Carmichael

If I had a nickel for every time I casted a comedian known for stand-up over acting as my leading man, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.

Jerrod Carmichael is one of my favorite comedians and writers working today. Known for his stand-up specials, the Carmichael show, and smaller roles in The Disaster Artist, Mid90s, and Transformers the Last Knight, Carmichael really came on my radar as an actor and a writer in his amazing movie On the Count of Three.

Also Directed by Carmichael, the film centers around two friends who decide they want to kill themselves after one last day of righting wrongs and tying up loose ends. It's an incredibly bleak, well acted, and at times funny movie, full of sadness and pain.

In the film Carmichael taps into a sadness and alienation I think would be perfect for Reed. In the film, he feels dangerous and alone.

We also known Jerrod can do comedy and likeable, which could eventually translate to a more balanced Reed Richards.

He also has a talent for writing. His stand-up special Rothaniel won him an Emmy in 2022. Imagine what he could do with Fantastic Four Screenplay.

Carmichael will also be starring in Poor Things, a new movie starring Emma Stone which appears to be getting buzz. Clearly he is expanding his acting portfolio, and the MCU is a great place to start.

I think if you want a surprise pick who can act, direct, do comedy, and write, Carmichael feels like the choice that would get people talking. I think he is the type of artist who should be leading big things like the MCU, and would look damn good wearing the 4 on his chest.

Thank you for reading! If you'd like to support me you can:

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twiceasfrustrating · 2 years

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Replacement

Rating: Teen and Up

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: Gen

Fandom: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!

Characters: Lucifer, Main Character

Additional Tags: amab!MC (you/your), forced feminization, implied physical abuse, dark fic

Summary: You would make a very fitting replacement for the eighth member of their family.

A/N: I literally have not written for my DARK ABCs series in a year. Also, I skipped P and Q. Oh well. lol

You could never do anything right. Each of the brothers had different opinions and beliefs on how their precious sister would look if she were alive, but only Lucifer knew the truth. He was the only one that had seen her as a human. He was the one who had to ensure they could see their sister again.

“This one would look better,” Lucifer said as he held a long, red dress up in front of you so he could imagine how it would look once you were wearing it.

You bit the inside of your lip as you looked down at your feet. “I don’t think that suits me.”

“It’s not about suiting you.” He pulled another dress from the rack, something black and short. “This one would be acceptable if we lengthened the skirt.”

Your fingers grabbed at the hem of your dress, fidgeting with the fabric that you hated looking at. The tights you were wearing felt like they were squeezing your legs too much. The heels of your shoes were too high and it made your feet hurt.

Lucifer looked at your downward-turned face and finally asked, “Which one do you propose?”

This was a test. You knew he was seeing how well you knew your role. The problem was that he was enough of a prick to make sure neither option was right. Maybe that was the point. Maybe he wanted you to be wrong so he could teach you again. The problem with that plan was that you weren’t eager for another reminder that you’d have to cover up with makeup.

“Lilith wouldn’t wear either,” you muttered, barely looking up at him. “She liked lighter colors and wouldn’t wear anything shorter than her knees.”

He paused for a moment, staring you down as if he was dissecting you with his eyes. “Speaking in the third person is unbecoming of you.” You expected him to be more upset, but he seemed pleased enough with your current answer.

He placed the dresses back on the rack before pulling off a floral print. It was a rarity in the Devildom to find something so soft and subtle; something fitting. “This would look much better on you than either of those.”

The corners of his mouth were upturned ever so slightly, so you figured you may as well try to push your luck. “Can I have some pants?” Lilith was beloved and spoiled, so why shouldn’t you be? It wasn’t even a big ask-

“No.” And now that small, barely noticeable smile was gone. “I have already compromised on allowing you tights.”

“But they squeeze my… my… you know too tightly. Pants would be mor-”

“What could they possibly be bothering?” That little aspect of your anatomy was irrelevant as far as he was concerned. “You don’t wear pants. You never have.”

Lilith. He meant Lilith didn’t wear pants. The problem was that she was your great-great-great-great-great-something-grandma. She probably wasn’t even allowed to wear pants without being burned at the stake or something stupid. You’re sure if she was alive now she may just appreciate pants.

You felt a sudden pressure on your chin as he lifted your head, turning it from side to side with careful examination. “Your roots are the wrong color again. We’ll have to fix them.”

Which meant he’d be bringing you to the salon so you could get your hair dyed and styled to look like Lilith’s again. Just another thing you had to deal with.

He hung the dress over his arm and took your hand like a parent leading a child to pull you toward the checkout.

You were Lilith’s descendant, so certain features of yours were more reminiscent of hers than others. Those he could work with. Other things about you were more difficult. Like, for instance, your own sense of self. Soon enough, however, he’s sure you would fall in line. Soon enough, everyone would be a happy family again; all eight of you.

#obey me #obey me lucifer #obey me main character #obey me fanfic #dark obey me #dark fic #mine

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dynamightmite · 2 years

Text

Been seeing a lot of takes about how Bakugo should stay dead "because it's better narratively speaking" and I don't mean to tease, because hey, valid opinion, but the more of these I read the more I'm realizing that most of you uhhhhhh do not know what the fuck that means lol.

Like? Him coming back to life being a "bad" narrative choice simply on the basis that he doesn't stay dead is not... how that works. Not just because a "good" narrative is subjective, but there is such a long history of characters dying and being resurrected in stories that are far older, more popular, and more critically acclaimed than My Hero Academia could ever hope to be.

Yes, I stole that from Wikipedia. The hero's journey/monomyth is an extremely common and infamous narrative structure (which yes, has many flaws and has been dissected at length in the academic sector, especially Campbell's, I know, shut up) which has a specified part of the story where the hero character dies/descends. It's a Biblical callback— you know, with Jesus and the dead for three days thing—but character resurrection as a narrative tool appears in even older works as well, such as the Mahābhārata. It features in the Greek myths, in folklore around the world (Little Red Riding Hood is one most western readers will be familiar with), the Arthurian legends, and has a place in modern literature such as The Lord of the Rings, meaning it has spanned our collective storytelling and been used as a narrative device to great success for thousands of years. If I wasn't being clear ebough—there is nothing inherently "bad" about a character dying and being brought back to life, because it can serve just as much purpose as keeping a character dead. Generally speaking, the concept of resurrection is one associated with transformation and change, and can even be a purifying act. It's a mark of the ultimate low, and is frequently a test of a character's ability/growth.

Beyond the historic/literary route, character resurrection has a very long, prominent place in manga/anime, especially shonen. Watch any season of Dragon Ball if you don't believe me. Naruto? One Piece? Jojo's Bizarre Adventure? Actually I can't just start naming them, we'll be here all day. Suffice to say it's practically a running gag at this point that characters aren't dead until the story's over, and sometimes not even then. To be clear: despite my previous phrasing, manga is not somehow "less" literary than any other medium of storytelling, and the tropes that come with it should not be devalued. People love to pull the whole "it's a manga thing", but the point of our Lit 101 speedrun was to show that "manga things" are rarely a) unique to manga, nor b) considered universally bad/stupid outside of manga.

Like, yeah, there are absolutely arguments as to why Bakugo coming back to life would be to the story's detriment. You could feel it would cheapen his sacrifice, or you could talk about how it would affect the emotional impact of the war setting. Maybe you feel there wasn't enough lead-up to the possibility of the character dying and coming back. You might prefer tragic hero characters, or maybe you just hate Bakugo. Maybe you just hate character resurrection. None of those reasons are wrong, because they are opinions first and foremost and you have the right to yours. But please, for the love of God, get it out of your head that character resurrection is always a lazy deus ex machina used by writers backed into a corner. It's not true and is, quite frankly, poorly informed.

Personally, I find there to be a lot of foreshadowing of Bakugo's continued, active involvement in the plot, as well as further developmental growth that otherwise has just been cut short. If the goal is to get him into the vestige world where a bunch of dead people are, him dying doesn't seem strange or out of place to me. Equally, this being a transformative moment for his character, where afterwards he will never be the same, makes sense. Character resurrection is frequently used as a symbol of hope within the story, and if that wording rings any bells— it was intentional. To me, Bakugo coming back to life could easily serve a purpose that fits appropriately within the narrative framework and the morals and ideals it imbues. I can't 100% guarantee he won't stay dead, but hey, the story's still not over.

Final disclaimer: no, I don't care if you hate Bakugo and/or want him to stay dead, it's fine, people can disagree about things. I just hate the rhetoric I've been seeing surrounding character resurrection as a narrative tool. Also, yes, this is an overly simplified look at literature studies that has a more western slant to it, I am extremely aware. If you try to debate with me about Joseph Campbell I will physically manifest in your house and chew on your drywall.

#bnha #bnha spoiler #bakugo #bnha 362 #bnha meta #god I had to cut so much out typing this like I kept having to remind myself nobody gives a shit #seriously joseph campbell is flawed and so is the hero's journey archetype but like that doesn't mean it isn't worth talking about #but also don't talk to me about it

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felikatze · 1 year

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bashing my head against a wall. i could fix binding blade's story. i could. and i am going to ramble about it and you can't stop me.

so long. this is so long.

Feli special usual features:

- tangents

- no apparent structure

- probably many typos

- getting emotional over the 2 moments i will actually deign to call well written

- i might as well just write fanfic at this point

- if you're me you understand

- actually dont even look at this. dont look at me.

first off one thing i actually really like about it compared to other FE games. everything, every location or name that ever gets mentioned, also shows up. every country can be visited and has more than one representative in the cast. additionally, you always know who to recruit people with if you paid attention to dialogue.

playing blazing blade rn and the augury really clutches it for that game. but in binding blade? the only characters i had to look up how to recruit were karel and gonzales. that's it. somebody's trapped or also fighting your enemy? talkto them with roy. anybody else? oh look, it's the brother clarine mentioned! that's the girl noah was hanging out with! that's sue's grandpa! character relations are clear and evident right from the introduction.

in short, the story is incredibly cohesive.

...doesn't stop it from being narratively weak though.

i've seen suggestions for changing who the main character is, and yeah, that works. the first suggestion is always lilina, which would work incredibly well. she fits more typically into the mold of FE lords, and hector's death gives her a more concise motivation for revenge against bern and zephiel. another suggestion i've seen is Fae, since she's the focus of the dragon conflict, and binding blade 100% undervalues her narrative potential (see: my complaint that she doesn't even get unique battle quotes against jahn)

(side note: for how cohesive the story is, jahn kinda spawns out of nowhere. like, he's the only guy not mentioned beforehand somewhere. wack.)

but the story could work with roy, i think.

so there's this part with roy and guinivere, when roy gets the binding blade. he asks if anyone could've pulled it, and she says yes. anyone could've pulled it with the fire emblem, but what matters now is that it's roy specifically who does so.

roy doesn't have anything to do with the conflict at large. he doesn't. the scouring? well, lilina's the descendant of one of the eight heroes. etruria and bern? elffin is actually the prince who faked his death, and he's the one percival and douglas care about. dragons? well, fae's the last divine dragon besides idunn.

but i think if you just like. made that the point. like echoes, except instead of undercutting your everyman protag by having him be a secret prince, he just stays.. some guy.

some guy who was in the wrong place at the right time, and it all just kinda spitballs until he's leading the etrurian army. ike is a protag who does this well, i think. it's just a job for him. and once he's done and paid, he leaves to do the next thing.

it's like. roy is kinda bland. but he doesn't have to be. this is ABSOLUTELY me honing in on minor character details because dissecting bland protags is a personal hobby of mine, but, dude was studying to be a bureaucrat. land management and shit. he's brains over brawn (if his stats didn't already show that). fucking string bean of a unit.

he is ardently chill about everything in the plot, but what if instead it like.. started to actually weigh on him. he struggles to live up to all the expectations suddenly on him, when all his life he just expected to be head of the second most important house of a minor nation. now there's un-dead princes and vengeful kings and dragons running about- and he has to unravel all these things as quick as he can to keep himself and his home safe.

what if he figured out that elffin is etruria's prince and had to weigh telling the three generals to gain their support, or potentially feeding an ally to the wolves? what kind of decision is dismantling the government of the nation you're supposed to be helping?

he just Does The Right Thing, Unquestionably, and that's it.

as for the dragons, introduce jahn earlier, by god. or, find some other way to exposition dump everything about idunn. hell, maybe fae has heard of idunn before, of a divine dragon who didn't make it to arcadia, and roy slowly reveils the horrifying truth of the demon dragon with what snippets he hears from bern's soldiers. maybe have an earlier fight with idunn actually staying on the field as a mysterious figure. anything. i bet you could just cut out jahn altogether if you did that.

like, make roy and everyman and commit to the bit. he wasn't born to step into hartmut's legacy. he just wanted to save his dad from a random attack. but he chose to do it anyway.

and one moment i do really like. from the atrocious exposition dumb of ch24. is when jahn says the binding blade conforms to its user's will, and that's how hartmut spared idunn, i could feel it just click for roy. in that moment, he knew how to save idunn. and he knew he would save idunn long before that.

play into the theme of legacies. hartmut's legacy is, on the surface, of the man who killed the demon dragon. a legacy of violence that roy finds himself in. but, beneath that, it was a legacy of kindness. of only as much blood as need be, and not a drop more.

put this against zephiel. he's like. i dont know how to phrase this. but the opposite of what the previous paragraph is. zephiel has a gigantic legacy as crown prince of an empire, but it's one that's denied to him out of petty jealousy by his father. i think his motivation is actually pretty compelling; he's lost faith in humanity. so he claims his birthright through murder, and uses it to end all legacies to ever exist. whereas the legacy roy obtains is kindness cloaked in violence, zephiel's is violence cloaked in kindness. by trying to end all conflict, he will only create an empty world. he doesnt really care about the dragons, either; it's idunn's soulless war dragons that are his ideal, not fellow creatures of ego like jahn.

and guinivere. god. the potential. zephiel has become to her what his father has become to him. it's again, legacy. zephiel's father broke his faith in humanity, and he has broken guinivere's. she is an ardent pacifist until the end.

....until she gives roy the tool he needs to kill her brother, that is. she first steals the fire emblem in the hope it will force a peaceful resolution. and she gives up. not in humanity. just in her brother.

GOD. THE TRAGEDY OF IT ALL?? in my head it could be so good. it's again just all cycles of violence and kindness. she's trying so so hard to break violence with kindness but it doesn't work. but she chooses to see the good in humanity despite it all. she really embodies that philosophy that roy brings up in his speech against zephiel. it may be humans who do wrong, but it's humans who stop them. we're all just going to keep making the same mistakes over and over, but we're always going to try to do better, and that's what matters. history isn't moving upward. just forwards. but we're trying. hartmut tried, and he didn't quite succeed; just prolonged it. but hartmut was just some guy who tried to save idunn, and that vain attempt was what allowed her to be saved for real.

(clears throat)

OTHER CHARACTERS!

so. since this hypothetical binding blade remake would cater to me specifically.

first of all, replace merlinus with lilina. binding blade's story with her is really hampered by the fact that lilina is killable.

only unkillable characters (i.e roy), characters who 'retreat' instead of dying (elffin, merlinus) or NPCs (Guinivere) are allowed to have narrative importance for more than their intro chapter and relevant gaidens. this blows.

make lilina the deuteragonist. there's already a clear trajectory for her; she calls herself a warrior, she says she must stay strong in the face of adversity, she cannot allow herself to cry now, but still she fiercely believes in the good of others. she's an incredibly good judge of character, and chooses to bet her life on kindness, as seen in how she can recruit both gonzales and garret.

she's, as brought up occasionally already, a much more archetypical FE lord, with a weighty legacy and a dead dad. it would be fun if she just bottles everything up and it crushes her. maybe she has her dad's temper and is trying to be a Proper Marquess in conduct. she n roy can find solidarity in fellow imposter syndrome. they'd both believe they're not good enough, think the other is so much better, only to end up as each other's biggest supporter.

and. listen. the lilina ogier support haunts me. and it gives a terrifying opportunity. like choosing your legacy and not being bound by blood but by shared conviction?

hey. what if lilina was adopted.

i dont know where exactly i'd put a reveal like this. second half of the game, surely. how would she find out? who knows. i don't. i'm just rambling about random points of potential. maybe she encounters someone in the enemy army who fought hector; murdock, maybe? and then it's pointed out how odd it is for hector to have a daughter when he died a bachelor. reverse alm.

and then she'd remember something incredibly distant, long buried as unimportant; of being young and alone and abandoned and seeing a city for the first time.

it would be crushhhingggg for her, since she relied so much on "blood of a warrior" as a crutch. BUT THEN! thematic coherence. it doesn't matter whether she's of his blood or not; there's no doubt in anyone's mind that she's hector's daughter, through and through. and she chooses to keep that legacy, to believe herself worthy of it. she didn't get so far by being roland's descendant; she did it on her own strength, her own smarts, her own merits. hector could've picked anyone off the streets, but it happened to be her, and that's what matters. the paths life offers are infinite, but we are here, and these are our choices.

and that's what i'd do for lilina! yay!

if it wasn't difficult to figure out logistically considering theme-ing and pulling an alm again i would also ABSOLUTELY make ninian!roy canon since blazing blade pushes elinini anyway. yeah i talked about the unimportance of blood but also. manakete roy is REALLY fucking funny.

"dragons still exist?" listen to me boy you are for real a dragon asking this.

also fun recontextual reading of his desire to learn all he can about dragons to learn more about himself since he would've thought his mother was the last dragon in elibe, which would've given it a more tragic slant. and additionally his very existence would be proof that dragons and humans can live in peace, which feels poignant. imo you could still push the everyman angle since ice dragons are largely irrelevant to anything happening with the demon dragon, and all the shenanigans nergal pulled had no effect on binding blade's plot outside of worsening zephiel's already bad relationship with his dad.

it's also just so so so funny to me. on god. it really is.

also allows for solidarity moments i.e sophia as part-dragon people. and also a reason for him to be invested in the dragon plot. and maybe a motivation for him to want to save idunn too. and the sheer irony of wielding a dragon-slaying weapon.

feli is this hypocrisy. maybe a little bit. But Also you can still push thematically. It Just So Happened that roy pulled the binding blade. there are dragons already living in harmony with humans. sophia may well have been the one to lead instead. she just happened not to be.

it also extends the just some guy-ness to eliwood i guess. he kind of is. to me. a gentleman, maybe. a righteous guy. but not the most important guy ever.

anyway! yeah! this was my word vomit about binding blade!

don't let me know what you think! i don't want to hear it because i am doing this to exorcise thoughts from my brain! thank you for not reading! bye!

#feli speaks #long post #did i spend. fourty minutes. word vomiting.#this is what fixation does to a mfer #IT COULD BE SO DEEP. I HAVE A SHOVEL. LET ME AT IT #ONCE AGAIN. geneaology remake truther because i want a binding blade remake.

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runawaymun · 2 years

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1, 4, 13, 17 for the writing asks! 💙

writing ask meme

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

I used to write exclusively in Calibri but now I prefer either Arial or Georgia. I find them easier to read. If I’m struggling with my work or editing I will change the font. Usually to comic sans.

4. What’s a word that makes you go absolutely feral?

ok so this isn’t one word but I am genuinely obsessed with combined words (i’m forgetting the literary term right now) from old (read: old english, icelandic, or ancient greek) poetry. Wine-dark. Whale-path. God-cursed. Mindgrief & bloodgrief. Treasure-child. Death-shadow. Sea-swirl. Hngggg g they make me go feral.

Like??

Around their mask-helmets golden boar-heads beamed to the sun flashed a war-gleam on fire-hardened steel signaled their weapons. They walked strong-stepping crested the sea-wall till they saw the glinting of that timber-strong hall trimmed bright with gold tall horn-gables towering in the sun high to the heavens Hrothgar’s gift-house its light shone forth over land and sea

Does this make you lose your mind or are you normal?

13. What is a subject matter that is incredibly difficult for you write about? What is easy?

Emotionally, there isn’t a lot that bothers me tbh. I like the exploration. But in terms of things that I just sort of muddle my way through and feels like trudging through sludge: action sequences, politics/intrigue, and time jumps. I have such a hard time with these and they always take me forever to dissect and get through.

I also struggle a lot with writing any kind of genderfluid, enby, or trans characters purely because while I’m bi-leaning-pan I’m very cis and I a) do not understand the experience from a personal level and b) am terrified of getting it wrong. This means I don’t have good representation in my work and that really bothers me.

Slow-burn romance, trauma recovery, gothic horror, eldritch horror, and sci fi/fantasy worldbuilding descriptions come out of me like water though. Also character’s interior thoughts. I have to edit out a lot of naval-gazing.

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

There’s a lot here that I could talk about but one thing i’M SO MAD that I didn’t remember to work in anywhere is Thalionel and Elrían’s relationship with animals.

In their background experience, dogs are scary & will rip your face off and constantly were used as a weapon against them. Horses are off-limits unless specifically you’re sat on a horse. They do not actually know how to ride and wouldn’t think to ask, and also wouldn’t really feel comfortable with riding-- it would take some getting used to. There are a lot of ingrained mental blocks there because that’s not for them. That’s for real people.

Dogs especially I wish I could explore more. Imladris fam are big on having dogs (Elrond’s hounds are descendants of Huan). So I know at some point the kids were introduced and had to become accustomed to having a dog around and having it be Fine. This is not Fine at first. There’s a lot of initial panic and fear there. The Eotheod hounds chase, hunt, and are socialized to be aggressive (especially with thralls).

So anyway I might have to go back and write a couple of oneshots because a) Elrond with animals makes me melt and b) i’m very mad that I didn’t find the time to explore this. It happened sometime during the first fic because I know that by the end of it the kids are pretty used to Elrond’s dogs being everywhere around the house.

#out of uniform #LOVED these thank you!!#and the stars shine the same #beneath a boundless sky

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regrettablewritings · 2 years

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Same anon here, a lengthy dissection is exactly why I came to you tbh! And you delivered, as always <333 What you said about not starting with a character already in his final stage makes perfect sense, still the idea of changing the character that much doesn't sit right with me. (Part 1/4)

Since the series has been announced years ago I always thought we were going to see a Cassian that was voted to the rebellion but kinda "fresh faced", less jaded (the series is set five years before Rogue One, he's 21 in here, so it makes sense to me that even tho he has been "in the fight" since he was a kid, being recruited by the Rebellion is a big change and he might be kinda lost and new to the rules of the Big Game they are playing) and we would be shown how he descended into the stiff and aloof spy we know through story points, or we could have gotten a series that wasn't character focused but more story driven were Cassian was more or less the same we see in the movie. "Self-serving nihilist into a selfless martyr" is Jyn, Cassian was supposed to represent a different aspect of the war and the Rebellion.

I'll probably watch it regardless but this whole thing really curbed my enthusiasm. :/ Thank you for "listening" and hosting these thoughts of mine on your blog, I hope you have a nice day! 💖💖💖

(Sorry I'm just now getting to this, I've had a very busy and exhausting week or two 🙃🙃🙃)

In all fairness, I don't think they entirely expected Cassian to be the a breakout character when they first penned him. (Though that would arguably be odd, considering that nowadays, companies put a lot of pressure on film productions to make any and every person or thing franchisable. I would LIKE to believe that when Cassian was first created, they just wanted to make a man made cynical after years of chasing hope and no longer in the fight necessarily because he believes in it, but because he's already invested so much time into it that he sorta HAS to see it to the end. But that's just me.)

I do think, though, that he can start of cynical and still progress. It's hard for me to explain, at least through writing, but try and stick with me here:

Cassian is meant to be human. Meaning he can fluctuate at any given moment, so long as it aligns with who he is as a person and who he can potentially be as a person.

He starts of a child who is taught to be distrusting, either through the people around him or by his own experiences. However, because he is a child, he can still have hope because, well, children are often humanity's purest source of it even after being colored by jadedness. He sees himself as a Rebel, regardless of how indoctrinated he may be because he's been brought up to believe that every thing counts -- including throwing rocks at Imperials.

He's a rather rigid child, as anyone experiencing a forced exodus would be. But he's still a child who has wants and needs like comfort and the chance to play safely.

But as he grows up, the hope starts to dwindle. He comes less certain: This thing has been going on for his entire life and yet no real signs of progress have happened, at least not on the side he's in support of. But he sort of has to keep trying because it's all he has.

But then he gets deep into his teenage years. And teens, by nature, are kinda just . . . moody. Apathetic. And what's not going to help is realizing your entire life has been overshadowed by war, and that you've spent the entire time being pressured into fighting in it. You never really had a childhood and given the trajectory of things, you can't exactly see yourself as having an adulthood, either.

But he's already devoted his entire life to it so he's sorta going through the motions. He rises up the ranks, catches the attention of the actual Rebellion. There's no point in saying no, so he carries on.

But something has to happen that makes him genuinely want to hope again. Something strong enough to make him want to believe in the cause again, but fragile enough to have been worn down some by the time Rogue One starts to take shape. Kinda like how when you're depressed, you have a break where you want to still continue going, even though that feeling may wear off after a bit.

He's still Cassian. He's still changed, yet stayed the same. He can still be hopeless while fighting for a hope he doesn't actually believe in. There's a reason I stress "investment" in my writings about him: It's because it doesn't matter how much he feels for it, he's already in the fight. He's given this war everything, from his time to his thoughts to his blood and so on. He sorta doesn't have much of a choice but to go all in, even if he doesn't necessarily want to. He just sorta HAS to because that's what's expected of him and it's what's been drilled into him.

He's the side of war where people put in the time not necessarily because they WANT to but because they HAVE to. They go through the motions because even if you're fighting for "good", you still have to do dirty things and put your own personal wants aside.

And given that Cassian's been doing this a lot longer than Jyn, he could easily claim that he has more skin in the game than her, regardless as to whether or not he took a break or tried to distance himself from it at one point.

. . .

Buuuut that's just me. I could be very wrong. Like I said, I'm still gonna watch it to see what they decided to go with, but I'm frankly mostly just hesitant on the grounds that they handled TBOBF so poorly. I'd be glad if they gave Andor the respect they give The Mandalorian, but I'd admittedly also be a wee bit skeptical of their reasons as to why. Suffice to say, there's no real way Disney can win this unless they give TBOBF a second season and actually make a damn effort. That's on them.

Anywho, I feel I've rambled long enough. All we can do now is wait until August and see what happens . . .

#long post #the void speaks #response #i'm also admittedly not hyped up from the trailer #he wasn't really in it it was literally all these other fuckers i do not have any investment in whatsoever #which gives me bad vibes considering TBOBF's trailer situation was just them recycling the same clips over and over #in order to hide the fact that they didn't really TRY with Boba or Fennec and instead saved everything for Din's storyline #a sTORYLINE THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE --

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explorefacelock · 5 months

Text

words from a puppeteer

Mr. Biden and his office are expressing progressive interest in going through with his procedure, sir. With the success of Bill 183 in California, we have great reason to believe he will comply."

Gregory June sat in a chair, king-like in his position at the head of the long table. "Thank you, Karina."

The intern for the FaceLock project walked away, leaving June alone in his dark, minimalistic barren meeting room. He folded up the piece of paper sitting on the table in front of him and slipped it into an envelope.

"Dear Father,

As I write this, I can't help but reminisce on a childhood at the mercy of your stern hand and implementation of stoicism. You are what made me this emotionless shell of a person, acknowledging emotions as the enemy. I wonder if it ever crossed your mind that your 'lessons' would be the very foundation for my current life's work. In the past couple of years, my success with FaceLock has been mind-blowing. Even though you're not here anymore to dissect and disregard my work, everyone else thinks it's phenomenal.

But, hey. I know you'd appreciate the truth. This is my true masterpiece of manipulation of the human mind. Did you know that my experiments are inspired by the ones you imposed on me? I guess I can't really blame you for enjoying it, but I have to be careful with my selections. But it's not too hard to find desperate minimum-wagers who will willingly surrender the essence of their humanity at the promise of greatness. They believe they are gaining control, but little do they realize I am the one who controls them.

My own personal lack of FaceLock is intentional because of the lesson you taught me; the importance of detaching from the emotions that bind normal people. You'd be so proud, Dad. Just like you taught me to be stoic, I am teaching the kingpins to abandon their vulnerability willingly.

Your 'son',

Gregory"

The lanky man printed the mailing address on the envelope messily, which was out of character for the reticently calculated founder of FaceLock. Although June’s outward appearance remained neatly put together, the final stage of his accessibility plan for FaceLock had thrown him in for a manic loop.

He spun in his chair sporadically and paged his intern with a small, grey device. As she walked into the room briskly just moments later, he shot out of his seat and handed her the envelope with gusto.

“Karina,” he chirped, “Send her off for me.”

The woman, in her mid-twenties, obediently nodded her head without question and began to walk out of the room. June observed the back of her head tilt down to gaze briefly at the envelope. Suddenly, she halted in her tracks. Karina remained unmoving for several seconds, then turned around. June stood directly across from her. Upon seeing her face, completely void of emotion in a neutral state, he began to cackle. He knew she was horrified, but the most she could do was look back at him, her expression like a blank slate. June descended into a fit of unhinged laughter, taunting the woman and reminding her that she could never again, mimic his crazed behaviour.

"If you think I seem crazy now, don't take a peak through door 2."

Karina nodded and walked away briskly.

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savmahrthrew · 6 months

Text

*Ethos, Pathos, Logos*

In this entry, I will examine the critical question(s): What is the main purpose of this artifact's message and how are ethos, pathos, and logos used in this rhetorical artifact to achieve that purpose? Is the way that these rhetorical appeals are used ethically?

To investigate these questions, I examined the Disney movie Descendants as my rhetorical artifact. This movie uses ethos, pathos, and logos to argue that everyone is ultimately in charge of their destiny when given the chance, which is overall ethical as it teaches children that although some things in life may be predetermined, nothing is truly set in stone. The movie focuses on the story of four descendants of Disney’s classic villains: Maleficent, Cruella De Vil, The Evil Queen, and Jafar. King Ben of Auradon gives them a second chance in society. These four are enrolled in Auradon Prep, a school that is composed of mainly the good characters and protagonists from Disney, and it is up to these four to change their deviant image. They are given a change in normal society to change their narratives, and they definitely do. Specifically, Mal’s speech towards end of the movie exemplifies this.

Herrick (2013) calls upon Aristotle’s artistic proofs: ethos, pathos, logos. Ethos looks at the speaker’s credibility and devlops their backing. Further, there are three parts into dissecting the speaker’s ethos. These consist of one’s intelligence, or Phronesis, their virture, or arete, and their goodwill, or eunoia. These come together to form a speaker’s backing to convince their audience to listen to them and their message. A speaker also needs to appeal to their audience’s emotions through pathos. This idea is more audience focused and puts them in the center. A speech uses different emotions within their speech to persuade the audience to feel a certain way. When the emotions correspond to the speech’s message in an appropriate manner, the audience is more likely going to listen and agree with the message. The last component is logos which appeals to the message’s argument. This is the intellectual rationality of a an argument and the truth of one’s form of reasoning. Thus, if a speaker does not have a higher level of reasoning, their rationality is weak along with their logos.

Mal creates ethos as a a role model by stating her new position after all that she’s been through. She states, “I choose good, you guys.” Through this statement, she is stating her definitive stance. There is no question in her statment as her mind is made up. It is important to note in the movie that as soon as she says this statement, she puts her fist out to her friends to unify them and join her in her decision. They have all gone through these moments togehter. They grew up together with their villian parents, and they have gone to school in a new environment that has shown them the potential of what they can actually achieve. And Mal wants them to take this next step together, of their own accord, without their parents. They are still free to make their decision since Mal is appealing to them, so she is still giving them the choice to turn back to their ways, but it is clear that they are all in this together and they will be in the future when they put their own hands with Mal’s. Through redefining their identity, each of them is still in control, and Mal keeps it that way.

Mal uses a pathos appeal to make others feel empowerd. “I want to listen to my heart, too. And my heart is telling me that we are not our parents.” Each one of them have difficult relationships with their parents. Some of them are grateful to them for taking care of them, but these connections became more and more skewed as their time at school increased. Thus, with Mal stating that each one of them is their own person, she is also stating that their parents do not control them any longer. Here, they can live by their own rules and live the lives they want to despite what anyone, especially their parents say. Further, Mal draws on her own heart, something that every person has. In doing so, she asks everyone to listen inside themselves. She makes it clear that they are their own individuals, but then she asks them to discover what kind of person that they want to be. In stating their freedom of the past, Mal makes it clear that the ball is in each of their corners.

Mal uses logos by stating her experiences and how they have affected her. “And I don’t want to take over the world with evil. It doesn’t make me happy. I want to go to school. And be with Ben. Because Ben makes me really happy. Us being friends makes me really happy. Not destorying things.” Mal has been through it, really through it. She grew up on an island of villains and had to find a way to survive. When she traveled to Auradon, she was faced with a whole new realm of challenges similar to what all teenagers face, such as coursework and fitting in among the other students. Thus, she has seen both sides, so she is able to make a well-rounded decsion about staying there, about staying with Ben, and about staying with her friends. When she says this, she is tearful, but sure. There is a new air about her as she establishes herself in the overall narrative while rewriting her own.

These techniques are overall productive in the sense that as children are the intended audience, they are able to see an example of someone establishing themselves in a new story. They are successful in creating their own narrative and can do so with support from their friends. However, as this is fictional, the manner of achieving this success is unrealistic. Children may perceive that leaving their family is the only way to establish themselves or at least the easy way. An accurate depiction of this is when a student first moves away from home to college, but even then, parents can still be involved and connected with their child. Also, this movie is a very extreme example of establishing narratives since teenagers are not usually offered enrollment at a very wealthy private school with everything paid for. However, these extremes aid younger audiences in understanding the complexities of good and evil and how they change easily change.

In summary, the movie Descendants approaches Aristotle’s three artistic proofs of ethos, pathos, and logos in a successful manner. Specially, in the chosen speech, Mal uses all three to boost her credibility, to reach out to her audience’s emotions, and to establish her own responsibility in this. Although it is a fictional story, there are many attributes that audiences can reach to and bring into their own lives.

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