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viivenn · 1 month

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making an important announcement about some things i’ve noticed in the gwendoline christie fandom that really bug me.

disclaimer: read this at your own convenience and discretion. i am not responsible for any sort of hurt feelings and frankly… i don’t care. if you’re mad about this, you are probably the problem. /lh

to start with id like to begin on a positive note so that i’m not diving into negativity, i don’t want to be completely negative about my experiences because i’ve actually met some of the kindest people in the world through this fan base.

the gwen fandom, the gwandom, the gwendoline christie fandom , the lesbian cesspool, has been an incredible experience that i’m grateful i’ve had the pleasure of being apart of.

i went through a rough patch during november, and if i hadn’t found out about gwen, or met such wonderful people during my time here , i honestly wouldn’t be here right now. i owe my life to these people, gwen included. i will forever adore miss christie and what she stands for alongside the friends i’ve made along the way.

and while i know someday this hyperfix will end, it’s really disheartening to me when a fandom is what makes me grow distant from things i enjoy. it happened before, i feel as though it is happening all over again.

and no, i’m not taking issue with anything like the catrissa stuff or the brienne and larissa ship going around or anything like that. i like that we can all be weird together and enjoy aus like catrissa and crackships like bririssa (not sure the official name that was decided lol). my issue is the amount of content i’ve seen that either focuses on gwen herself, or the strange relationship with minors, or the odd artwork of gwen, and the absolute disgusting behaviour towards giles.

gwen would be absolutely appalled seeing fanfictions of herself that involve nsfw or just her in general, anyone would, it’s disgusting to make works of real people in that setting. it’s like you’re treating them as an original character you can mould and manipulate as you see fit and using someone who is real with thought and feeling and consciousness for smut fics is not okay, or any fic in general. i totally get the hype around her characters, i literally have “brienne’s princess” in my bio and i’ve had “jane murdstone’s bloodbag” (in reference to my vamp au) as a name in a discord server.

but i think the fandom has begun to blur the lines between fictional characters and reality settings when it comes to gwen and the personalities she portrays on the television screen. it’s not fair to her. it’s disgusting. i’ve seen a minor do it, i’ve seen a grown adult do it. it’s something i don’t see shamed and frowned upon often enough and it’s really not okay.

on that note i’d like to quickly mention the photos, we alllll know what photos i’m talking about. the bunny one, the nudes, the ones gwen has expressed regret towards and wishes to not have them spread. was there not a “fan” who brought her a book of her nudes and wanted her to sign it? that person who was blocked on instagram by gwen because they reposted her nudes on their story and tagged her???? how can you refer to yourself as a fan after behaving so abhorrently? absolutely disgusting behaviour. as a collective fandom we need to stop touching those photos (metaphorically speaking) and leave them in the past.

i’ve been told of numerous circumstances in which adults have shown their nsfw works to minors in this fandom and it has to fucking stop. it’s disgusting!! how can you do that knowingly? i constantly ponder terminating my account after a minor got ahold of my nsfw work, and upon realising they WERE a minor it was as simple as blocking and moving on. it’s truly not that hard, folks. and the minors on tiktok who fight with others saying silly things like “that’s my wife” or worse. i’ve seen it all, i feel like, and the more i see it the more sick i become. i cannot stand it.

i have seen and heard of fans who have fat shamed gwen for that one pink dress she wore to the met gala. she looked so happy in that dress, and the audacity one must have to fatshame that poor woman on twitter then turn around and continue to proclaim your ‘love for her’ as if you’d done no wrong? are you fucking serious? are you mental?

and the sexualisation over the porcelain doll look, gods some of you are sick. those were not real breasts, people. considering the fact she wholeheartedly regrets her nude photoshoots , what possesses you to believe she would actually flaunt her chest in that outfit?

the blatant mistreatment of poor giles is not fucking okay either. just because you’re jealous of someone who makes her immensely happy does not give you the right to post something so vile and cruel about him. shame on you. why do you believe this is okay to post:

????????

are you serious? have any of you stopped to consider how HAPPY giles makes her? or is her happiness the last thing you ponder when you look at her? have you even noticed how unhappy she looks lately? have you truly paused to consider how she would feel about seeing this on your page, random twitter user, or the rest of you who think this is okay? bless your hearts.

and some of the absolutely horrific things i’ve seen about her online and the hurtful behaviour towards giles makes me question the difference between a fan and just the general paparazzi. because if you truly loved her and you truly loved giles then i would not be ranting into the fucking void about it for no reason.

i avoid interacting with pages i find problematic on here to keep from stirring the pot but tonight i chose violence and got reeeeeal pissy about how i felt about this place. it’s not okay what i see on here and it’s getting exhausting seeing the same cycle of content on a daily.

that’s everything i have to say, i think. i probably missed a lot that should be discussed in the comments but i’m done for now because i know if i go on i’ll probably cry.

before you post things about real people with real feelings , stop to consider how they will feel those real feelings towards the content you put out. chances are you’ll become less problematic and obnoxious that way. 💘

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lkaruss · 2 months

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An extensive KFP 4 rant (spoiler heavy)

So, Kung Fu Panda 4 was… an experience. It took about 3 glasses of whiskey to get through it.

There is so much wrong with this movie, from the pacing to lore breaking issues. However, this is an attempt at trying to formulate my opinions regarding the film, and explain why certain story decisions were detrimental.

My live reaction to the film:

The movie makes it clear right from the start that it was made for very young children. It’s filled to the brim with jokes. If there is a chance to make a joke, then there is a joke. Regardless if it's appropriate or if it hurts the story/lore/characters. In normal circumstances, this would be offset by the fact that the jokes are creative and unpredictable, but they aren’t. I would say most of them can be seen either from a mile away, or they just fall flat. I think I only managed to laugh once or twice when Po’s dads were doing something, but outside of that, the film couldn’t get a chuckle out of me. On the contrary, I found many to be cringe, and some even made me uncomfortable.

But why am I talking so much about the jokes? In the previous Kung Fu Panda films, the jokes were used to break tension. The way the seriousness of the story and the jokes were in harmony is what made those films so memorable and impactful. The story (and films) took itself seriously, but it would sprinkle in jokes that fit the universe, the situation, and most importantly originated from the scene themselves.

Compared to this, the jokes in KFP 4 are, unoriginal, forced, and usually can be traced back to pop-culture. The last one being important as the original Kung Fu Panda films stayed away from referencing pop-culture as it would break the immersion and authenticity of the setting.

This ties into the ERA that these films depict.

Setting

Based on my limited understanding, the original films have done an excellent job at depicting a world that is supposedly set in an authentic ancient China. From the way names are handled, to symbolisms, everything was well done.

The same cannot be said about Kung Fu Panda 4.

I’m not an expert on chinese culture, but from what chinese friends have told me, „Juniper” city doesn’t sound Chinese at all, or has a meaning in Chinese. It’s essentially a Latin word for a common plant that can be found all over the globe.

The architecture of the city is also questionable. It’s trying to give off a metropolitan feel, which doesn’t fit the ERA. Additionally, the architecture of the buildings is odd. It’s like a mesh of the architecture of several Asian cultures.

Then there are some of the names. „Steve” and „Scott” to be specific. These are the names of some masters and I don’t think I need to explain why these don’t fit the setting at all.

I was constantly questioning what movie I was watching as it was hard to believe this is Kung Fu Panda.

Identity crysis

What made me question the film’s identity the most however is the story.

This 4th film felt like a 1st installment rather than a sequel. It conveniently disregards everything from the previous movies that would contradict its plot and world.

The film immediately starts with Shifu coming out of nowhere and saying Po has to choose a new Dragon Warrior at that very moment. Not only did this feel incredibly random, but it’s also thematically incorrect.

First off, why is Shifu saying this? Why would he want Po to pass on his „title” if it's destiny? Why would he want him to do it now? Why did he not even consider ANYONE FROM THE FIVE and instead got 5 randos as candidates out of the blue?

The issue with the whole premise is incredibly flawed. Let me explain…

Po was chosen as the dragon warrior in the first film. There he proved his worth as such. The key to this is that he is the chosen one because it’s his destiny to deal with threats that no one else can.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that he is the best. He is the guy who is and will be in the right place at the right time, with the right tools to deal with threats that no one else can deal with. But I digress, it's a different topic.

The point is that Po’s role as the Dragon Warrior is his destiny. The „title” merely represents that role in the world. So you can pass the title to anyone you want, but that does not change the fact that due to destiny, it’s still going to be Po’s role.

This is not just a coincidence though. Po has shown many times that he has a very open view of the world. This is then combined with his traits of being is warm, outgoing, energetic, friendly, goofy, and unorthodox. He represents the Dragon, Yang in the Yin Yang.

All of this is important to understanding why there is only 1 dragon warrior, and that is Po. End of the story.

The film however completely throws all of this out the window and goes with the new Dragon Warrior plot anyway.

That means the new Dragon Warrior is literally right there next to him. Master Tigress.

Now you might be asking why that would be the case.

This film, although throws out all the symbolisms of the previous films, still shouldn’t disregard the other characters that are around Po.

The 2 characters work like the 2 sides of the Yin-Yang, as complementary forces. They are opposite forces that need each other in order to create balance.

Her influence is extremely necessary throughout the three films, particularly the second and third. It is her companionship, her support, and her constant push against Po’s natural instincts that lead to the best outcome.

Po has achieved a lot of spiritual enlightenment and character development. A lot of it through his own means, but without Tigress he wouldn't be where he is right now.

The Yang is the strongest when it contains the Yin, and the Yin is the strongest when it contains the Yang.

But this dynamic goes both ways. Although we mostly see the effects of this relationship on Po as the films focus on him, it has also changed Tigress. This leads to her opening up more and being more expressive as the films went on, giving us glimpses into the compassionate person she truly is.

While symbolically she is not the dragon, the 4th film establishes that it doesn’t care about the symbolisms or anything that the previous films have established. So naturally a character that compliments Po this well, should be put into the spotlight and get the character development that she deserves. A character that went through serious changes, but is still left incomplete. You might as well make her the new Dragon Warrior then.

She - altough deserved the title the most even in the first film - lacked the ability to see the world from a perspective that's required to handle certain situations. The Dragon Warrior is way more than just being the perfect warrior. Po's presence was necessary for her to change her attitude. Leading to her slowly becoming her best self. Knowing all of this, it's not such a wild thought that if there has to be a new person who takes over that role, then Tigress would be a great choice for that.

But what is there for her to learn from Po? Spirituality.

Tigress has always been a grounded, by-the-book character. This can be mostly attributed to her upbringing. Her changing and becoming more open, seeing things differently would have been something interesting to explore, and this would also take care of the issue of the „new trilogy” copying the original trilogy’s main character development.

However, the film completely ignores her existence, and the new Dragon Warrior is instead a random Zootopia fox.

The (new) deuteragonist

There is so little to say about Zhen. The best thing I could compare her to is an untreated wooden board.

It’s rough, full of splinter, and there are many like it. Probably one of the most cliché characters I have seen in a very long time.

She is generic, has an overused „misunderstood fox thief” trope, and a character arc that is so predictable that we all knew what was going to happen just from reading the film’s synopsis at the beginning of 2023.

Her backstory is a copy of Tigress’ except if Shifu was evil. An orphan who is taken in by a master who emotionally neglects her. Said orphan doing what her master wants in order to be loved/accepted by said master. Except that Zhen doesn’t seem to have any attachment or loyalty to the Chameleon. So the „Sad backstory” fails to garner any sympathy towards the character.

Her dynamic with Po is non-existent, which is why their „friendship” is forced. The creators tried so hard to make the two bond, that they forgot to give them time, shared experiences, or anything that would resemble an emotional connection between them. They just quickly went over everything that they have in common in a dialogue and that’s it. There was no prerequisite completed that would make Po care about Zhen or vice versa.

Furthermore, Zhen doesn’t fit the traits that the dragon has, she is not spiritual either or has an open view of the world. So why is she the new one then?

And I wanted to avoid talking about this, but the character is a textbook Mary Sue.

per wikipedia

Zhen is more than capable in a fight to keep up with Po, even though it was not shown why she is so good at fighting. One thing is for sure, she shouldn’t know Kung Fu as she certainly didn’t learn it from her „master” the Chameleon if the film’s plot has any consistency.

She is not only able to manipulate Chi, but also to use Po’s staff without knowing anything about either of those.

A previous character’s role being retconned so that she can take it for herself (See the rant about the Dragon Warrior title above)

She always gets along with characters that matter, getting what she wants.

No real character drawbacks.

A throwaway character like this, should be a minor support character, not the new main protagonist for crying out loud.

Her inadequacies are so blatant as a character, that no wonder they didn’t even want to have at the very least Tigress in the film as Zhen would immediately become irrelevant to the audience. They put all the spotlight they could on her, at the expense of the story, and in the end achieved nothing in return.

Tell me with a straight face that a character that has an entire movie focusing on them - who still remains a generic, boring character by the end, without any story potential - should be the new main protagonist. The fact that most people don’t even refer to the character by her name, but by the actress’ name Awkwafina should tell you everything about how memorable she is.

Most new characters and animal designs don’t fit the KFP art style.

A good example of this is Zhen.

This is how a fox would look like in Nico Marlet’s KFP style:

And this is what we got:

Sorry, wrong picture. I meant this:

Now, I’m not a character designer, or a professional artist, I only draw a couple of his characters, but I can see that this is way too far off from his work. If not from personal experience, then from the interviews that Nico Marlet himself gave.

The same issue applies to the villain of the film, the chameleon, but atleast with her they tried (somewhat).

The Villain

They say a film is as good, as its villain. This seems to be true in the case of this film too.

The Chameleon sucks.

She has no connection to anyone from the cast. She has no emotional leverage or pressure on the cast. She is not scary or powerful enough to make the audience care about the cast. Her motivation is so terrible, it might be one of the reasons why the Five was kept out of the film because their mere existence single-handedly demolishes her reason for breaking bad.

Outside of this, the character is unoriginal and uninspired. She basically can “lick” people and steal their Kung Fu? I honestly don't know how to put this into words because it doesnt make any lick of sense (I did the funny). If anything it's a budget version of Kai.

They didn’t even bother to give her a name.

What I will say though is that Viola Davis did what she could with what she was given. I found it amusing that she managed to give the chameleon those serious villainous vibes, while at the same time, the character is a joke. If that’s not a testament to the voice actor’s abilities then I don’t know what is. She was definitely wasted on this role.

As for the “returning villains”. I knew they were only there for cash-grab from the moment they said that all of them would return. Shen, is dead. He is not a Kung Fu master, he doesn’t have any connection with Chi, and he hasn’t been banished to the spirit realm. Then there is Kai, whose soul/spirit doesn’t exist anymore.

The only one that could ever return was Tai Lung. However, due to the gravity of his character, if he does return it has to be done perfectly regardless of what direction his character takes.

Now, many of us knew from the start that whatever they were gonna do with him would be bad (I mean there is a massive beef between Tigress and him, and yet she is not even in the film), but I think I speak for all of us when I say that they managed to somehow lowball it even worse than expected.

Basically, the Chameleon brings him back from the spirit realm, licks the Kung Fu out of him, he says like 3-4 lines, and returns to the spirit realm…. what the actual f*ck.

I’m sure I don’t need to go into a 10-paragraph rant on how much storytelling potential was wasted with this, because everyone knows. From reconciling with his dad, to her little sister having a crazy beef with him, to having to accept all the wrongs he did, accepting that he is not the Dragon warrior etc. etc. etc…

There was always only 1 chance of bringing him back. If he came back in a new film or show (again) it wouldn’t have anywhere near the same impact as it should, and it would also feel weird to the audience.

DreamWorks, you had 1 chance to bring this guy back, and you wasted it all on this film.

The non-existent magic system.

Or rather, how this film didn’t care about it at all.

Kung Fu Panda has a relatively grounded world. It’s animals that do Kung Fu based on their natural abilities. The closest thing we got to supernatural was Chi, but it was well handled in the 3rd film in my opinion.

Chi is life force and not magic. This means if you use it, you are exhausting your own life force. This means you would only use it in certain situations, such as healing someone who is mortally wounded, or perhaps to enhance an attack in a desperate fight.

The film doesn’t care about this and handles it as just a regular, inexhaustible force of energy. This can mostly be seen with Po as he uses it whenever he feels like it.

The other type of magic is what the Chameleon is using. It’s not explained, or shown how it works. It’s just there to further progress the plot so that the character can take the Kung Fu from others. (Seriously, how does that work?)

The Kung Fu action

The fight scenes were also a downgrade compared to the previous films.

In KFP 4 they felt less energetic, less grounded, and overall too cartoonish. As an example, Po can jump ridiculously high because… I don’t know, I guess the film just ignores the fact that he is Panda who sometimes even struggles to pull himself up to a rooftop.

The previous films incorporated the strengths and weaknesses of the animals that fought. Po is not very mobile, but he is very durable, and his fighting style compliments this. However, when he really needs to get somewhere, his lack of mobility is then offset by his friends, the Furious Five.

The Furious Five

Their absence can be severely felt throughout the movie. That is because in their place was a generic character that had forced interactions with Po.

They have great synergy with him, that cannot be replicated, however minor their role might be sometimes. They serve as a great way to fill in those empty spots in the story, and to elevate the villain. Additionally, their fight scenes are entertaining and help to spice up the choreography.

Although they are great companions, if the film really doesn’t have the time to spare for them, then it's understandable if they aren’t around. However the same cannot be said about Tigress.

A Kung Fu Panda film has to have Po and Tigress interact, due to the reasons already explained above regarding her, and also because of the following:

They are direct opposites, which is why their relationship is so entertaining, regardless if you look at them as platonic best friends, or as a potential couple.

Po is warm, outgoing, brash, energetic, friendly, goofy, and unorthodox, however, he is also serious when needed. While Tigress is introverted, calm, calculated, passive, and intuitive, but deep down she is also a very compassionate and conflicted person that we rarely see. This is then in conjunction with the emotional bond that the previous films have built up between them. These are the reasons why just putting these two in a room is enough to create entertaining scenarios. They add a lot of fun, heartfelt, and emotional moments to every film.

Whenever Po is facing a problem, she is right there to help him through it, whether by talking it through or by beating some sense into him (literally).

She has always been quintessential in Po’s development and motivations.

Memberberries, Memberberries everywhere…

It was jarring to see the film disregarding the existence of the previous movies to justify its plot, but at the same time heavily relied on tropes, and scenes from said films. I’m not kidding when I say that there were moments that were ripped straight out of them.

One of those moments is the standoff between Po and Zhen before the final fight. Zhen wants to stop Po to avoid him getting hurt, but the fight ends with her hugging Po….

Yeah… it was a blatant copy of the prison scene from the 2nd film. However, I think the 2 scenes here perfectly encapsulate why the previous films worked, and why the 4th film doesn’t.

The prison scene in the 2nd film was essentially an emotionally unstable Po being held back by a caring Tigress. Po is so focused on getting to the truth that he forgets the reason they are there, and would put his and his friends’ lives in jeopardy to know what happened to him and his parents. So much so that Po was ready to get beaten to a pulp by Tigress instead of staying down there and waiting until the Five finished the task.

But instead of that happening, Tigress saw how lost Po was, and realized she needed to calm him down to help him understand their situation. And so the person who has always been portrayed as an unfeeling, hardcore, essentially perfect warrior gave Po an unexpected hug and told him he is too important for her to lose him.

This moment has gravity and weight, because of how she is perceived, because of how Po views her, and because Tigress was forced out of her comfort zone to emotionally connect with Po, to help him. It’s a moment of pure comradery and care towards each other that ascends the situation they are in. It’s a moment that in many ways defined their relationship going forward.

In comparison to this, the scene that copied this in the 4th film has none of the emotional underlinings that I discussed, and so it falls flat and feels cringe rather than heartfelt and warm. This is mainly due to Po and Zhen having no connection, bond, or reason to care about each other. But then there is the other element that I discussed when talking about the villain. Po is in no real danger, and it never felt like he was.

Production

From the early leaks, it was blatantly obvious that the production of this film was rushed. Between the artificially forced plot, the generic character designs, the non-existence of the Five, the lack of time, money, commitment, and care was apparent.

However, due to an interview that the Co-director did with some folks on the subreddit discord, light was shed on the nightmare that was the production. I won’t go into details, as everyone should read the Q&A for themselves, but I’ll touch upon a point that was brought up as an excuse for this film turning out the way it did.

(this is a real concept art from the production btw)

Some are saying the reason the film turned like this was due to the budget restriction. That they simply didn’t have the money to have characters like Tigress return due to Angelina Jolie costing a ridiculous amount of money.

But then I have to ask: They had the budget for characters like Shifu (Dustin Hoffman), Po’s dads (James Hong & Bryan Cranston), Tai Lung (Ian McShane), who in the end turned out to be completely irrelevant to the story, but not at the very least for Tigress (Angelina Jolie)?

I’m not saying that you cannot make a story with these characters, because you obviously could make a great one. What I’m trying to point out is if you have such a limited budget, are you really going to blow it all on actors who play characters that essentially add nothing to the story? This is why I call bullshit on them not getting at least Angelina Jolie back to play Tigress.

Let’s not even mention how you could always recast these characters anyway (although it's clear that the execs are the ones forcing the use of A-list actors).

So for the sake of the argument, let’s come up with a story, that has a reason to exist, has characters that you can do something with, and fits the budget that you are given.

For me - considering that this film was essentially a buddy adventure film - it's an easy task. Just have Po help Tigress explore her origins. I know it's cheesy and basic, but at the very least you have what’s needed for a decent story that would be able to expand on a beloved character, and even help develop Po into a spiritual leader as he has to aid her best friend.

Another idea is what my friend and I had come up with. Have Po bring Lei Lei (now much older, and is a student under him and Tigress) on an adventure. You wouldn’t even need Tigress to appear in the film, because these characters would reference her many times. Lei Lei is a copy of Po in the sense that she wanted to do Kung Fu because she puts Tigress on a pedestal. Because of how influential she was in her life, Lei Lei’s personality is a copy of Tigress’.

I’m just shooting ideas here, but at least these wouldn’t ruin the continuity of the franchise and would be able to navigate the studio limitations that the creators had to face. (from the ones we know of).

"Limitation is the mother of creativity"

KFP 4 was a shallow, artificial story that didn't add anything to the franchise, only degraded it and stripped it of it's remaining value. It's missing the foundations of a KFP film, such as the heart, artistry, and warmth. It's not unexpected as none of the original brains worked on this film.

So what can be expected from this franchise going forward?

Well, not much honestly. It was a weak attempt by DreamWorks to continue the main storyline, not for the sake of the story, but to milk as much money out of it as they can. Even though with a little bit of effort they really could have at least made a good film in the end. However, between the incompetence of the decision makers, the rushed production, and the new people not knowing much about the franchise, that was never going to happen.

The only thing that we can hope for is a spinoff (which is about a decade late at this point), that focuses on Tigress. It’s the only way I see anything for this franchise going forward and hopefully, this film served as a wakeup call for the executives.

Thank you to those who had the patience to read through my inessential rant. Let me know what you guys think about the film.

#kung fu panda #kung fu panda 4 #kfp #kfp 4 #review #rant post

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respectthepetty · 5 months

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Wild Ass Theory - Who is the Second Killer?

@anotherblblog asked about the colors in Dead Friend Forever as a response to my Phi is Sus AF post where I listed the reasons I think Phi is in on the kills since they think White is sus too, but I cannot answer questions about White/colors because . . .

Who the fuck is this?!

Freeze frame: Is this Tee?!

Well, it sure isn't Non (Barcode) taking off the mask!

In the original film the boys were shooting and the one played at the party, Non was the killer who unmasked himself.

But apparently, Non wasn't the only one playing a killer.

There were two killers.

This is why we see Jin and Non running in the opening scene because they are being chased by the second killer in the film.

So who is the second killer?

Just like with the original film, the second killer isn't some magical ninth person, but someone already in the group, and in the recreated scene, there is a person missing.

Tan!

Tan and Phi didn't come into the friend group until 12th grade, and White is the baby of the group, so he was too young to hang out with the core friend group until he started dating Tee (way to already start pissing off Tee by holding his man's hand, Phi).

So Phi, Tan, and White are new to all of this and weren't part of the original incident that happened in the 11th grade, but White is now playing Non's part in the film by running away from the masked killer with Jin. Yes? Yes!

From the trailer, we got this scene. Phi, Tee, and Tan are all standing in a bloody room that has hanging signs stating "He Must Die" in Thai with a fourth person, who could either be White or Jin.

And we got the scene of Phi keeping Jin quiet in a box as the killer lurks around them.

So it seems like the final girl boy in the "He Must Die" scene is Jin and not White based on the jacket he is wearing, and

Because Jin is the target.

He is the main character.

And he is about to leave. For. Ev. Er.

Which is something Tan throws out when agreeing with Phi to reshoot the film.

And White is the final push for Tee to agree to it.

From the trailer, we know Non had feelings for Jin, and those feelings seemed mutual.

But Tee is the worst.

And somehow convinced everyone that Non was creepy and should be bullied.

So if Jin was the main character and Tee was possibly the second killer and main bully, it makes sense why they would be saved for last since Non wrote this story,

Yet Por, the first one attacked, is the one credited as writing it, so by reshooting it, the killers are going to correct the wrongs and follow the script the way Non originally wrote it.

Which is why I thought White was the other killer since he is now playing Non's part and Phi asked Tan if he brought his inhaler while he was smoking, which seems like a quick way to kill him in the future, BUT . . .

It doesn't seem like White was supposed to be on this trip in the first place. Tee brought him because he thought White "would be obedient" but he doesn't want White involved in what is happening, and it seems neither do the killers.

When all hell broke loose, Phi went with Jin to look for a saw and sent White and Tan to call for help ensuring that Jin was under his watchful eye and that White and Tan, two people who weren't involved in the original incident, were out of the woods, literally and metaphorically. But Tan seemed surprised that White got the walkie talkie working, while White was confused because all he did was charge it.

The conversation is odd in multiple ways but mostly because Tan is smiling the entire time knowing that their dear friend Por is still out in the woods with a tree limb sticking out of his stomach. But then again, Tan is closer to Phi than anyone else, which is why Jin told Phi to go have sex with Tan.

Which is why I fully believe, after one whole episode, that Tan and Phi are just friends . . .

who plot murders together.

#dead friend forever #dead friend forever the series #please don't disappoint me #I need another good thriller #I know the rules #and these boys already lost #there are two of them #never just one #I don't think this is supernatural #this is personal

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dynamic-swap-au-archive · 11 days

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I'd like to offer gorillaz fans (and Potential gorillaz fans) another resource that I've spent over a year creating and perfecting.

The Gorillaz !

This playlist is, to the best of my ability, Every Single piece of gorillaz content that can be found on youtube in story order.

all of the music videos, all of the indents, all of the interviews, animations, radio shows, news specials, podcasts, audio books, tiktoks, Everything.

on top of that ! I made the decision to include select fan content! because Frankly the gorillaz fandom is unimaginably talented and creative. this includes Fully animating several music videos that were cancelled, but given to us in animatic form, original animations, animatics, and storyboards, fan visualizers and recreations of live visuals, even voice fan dubs for written material like the interviews and novels.

and more than that, with the (incredible) fan content that was available I've Also been able to flesh out the stories of each phase! a decision I made due to the plastic beach, the third album, never getting to finish the story officially (leading to the band breaking up and coming back 7 years later).

I'm so proud of what I've been able to do with it ! and even happier to share the picture I've been able to make as a whole :>

below the cut I'm going to include several other playlists that are based on this one, but made to be more digestible and less intimidating for newcomers ! as well as many other resources to fill in the gaps that this playlist can't ! (namely the written material)

thank you ! and I hope I can share something I love with all of you !

First is the simplest ! all of the music videos in order ! (plus a Few indents, because I can't help myself): [Link]

this obviously means that you lose out on quite a bit of context, as much of who the characters are as People and their relationships together are in the extra material (especially the shorts and interviews). BUT

this is the most Accessible, and also really convenient if you just want to vibe to the music. if you're not sure if you want to commit this kind of time to a cartoon band, consider checking this out! you may find yourself interested enough to learn more, or you may just have a good time and feel satisfied with what you've seen ! either way I'd be honored to have helped :>

Second, the Midpoint between these two extremes !: Phase 1-3 [Link] Phase 4-7 [Link]

these Include extra material like the shorts and animation, but Cuts Out some of the longer content like the podcasts and interviews! you can still get a pretty good idea about what happens in the story of each phase watching this, but it's not bogged down by videos that are hours long.

it'll give you a clearer picture of what's going on, include fun side content, while being less intimidating than the Full playlist. this is what I use to show my friends gorillaz !

alright, so you've got just the music videos and just the short stuff, now lets try just the Long stuff. all of the interviews, radio shows, podcasts, Etc: [Link]

maybe you've used my last playlists and now you'd like to listen to some of those long form videos you missed out on. maybe you just want to listen to these characters talk because it's Nice. either way, it's all here :> (I know, because I had to upload some of them myself)

Pirate Radio: [Link]

it's all here with One technical exception. pirate radio was the serial radio show for plastic beach/phase 3, that gave us insight into murdoc's frame of mind as a character. it Also used copywriten music. the reuploads on youtube cut the music out (likely because they wouldn't be available otherwise), while this google drive has the full unedited audio files if anyone would be interested!

this one may seem redundant, but I promise it isn't. All of the gorillaz albums in order: [Link]

this playlist (for the most part) doesn't Have any visuals, it's Only the music.

likewise, all of the music in the previous playlists are only those songs that Have visuals (official or fan made), which means not all of gorillaz's music is present! which is exactly what this is for :>

you have every album in order, filling in the gaps of what's been missed, As Well As special albums that are Associated with gorillaz, and gorillaz' guest appearances in other people's music !

now we're out of my playlists and into other resources :>

Lobotomy Pop: [Link]

this is a website that's worked for years to preserve and organize Every Single written interview gorillaz has ever done ! it's an invaluable resource and really just very cool.

it also categorizes several other things ! such as listing out all of the personal playlists the gorillaz members have put out over the years, or every profile that's ever been written for the characters ! it's very much so worth checking out as a fan.

Gorillaz Art Archive: [Link]

exactly what is says on the tin ! this is a google drive that's attempting to archive Every Single piece of official gorillaz art that was released from phase 1 in 2001, to phase 5 in 2018. it is Massive and it's such a joy to have access to

The Kong Files: [Link]

if you were wondering why the art archive stopped at 2018, this would be why ! the kong files has much the same goal, but instead picking up at phase 6 and continuing on Theoretically forever ! or at least it's kept up with all of phase 7

that said ! the kong files is attempting to document Everything relating to those phases. so all of the social media, all of the music videos, all of the written text, Everything !

I wouldn't try to Only use this for watching phase 6 and 7, but it's an Excellent resource for everything that could fall between the cracks

Rise of the Ogre on Archive dot Com: [Link]

rise of the ogre was an official novel released at the end of demon days (the second album/phase 2), that covered the entire history of the band up until that point! their backstories, how they met each other, what they'd gotten up to in the 10 years they'd known each other, and the shocking event that happened at the very end of the phase and the band's reaction to it. all leading in to plastic beach, (arguably) the Most story heavy phase of them all.

as I understand it, this novel has been out of print for a very long time and is quite expensive to buy second hand. so ! it's been scanned and uploaded here to the archive! there's actually several more scans available in the gorillaz art archive, but this is the most recent (having been uploaded just earlier this year).

Dawn of the Ogre: [Link]

dawn of the ogre is the fanmade sequel to rise of the ogre, attempting to fill in the gaps of what happened at the end of phase 3, the 7 year gap, and up to the (then) newest point of canon.

this is, of course, unofficial. so this is essentially fancy fanfiction. But it's extremely well done fanfiction that happens to be novel length, attempting to emulate the style of the original novel, and is fully illustrated. along with being available completely for free!

I'd definitely give it a shot, if you're the type of person who's already read rise of the ogre

the gorillaz wiki !: [Link]

I have no clue what the fandom thinks about it, but it was absolutely invaluable both in making my playlist, and becoming a fan at all. with all the work I've done my hope is that people won't need to go digging for themselves, but the Option is certainly always nice !

I'd Especially like to highlight this page [Link] which has transcriptions for all of the pirate radio show episodes !

I feel like there's a lot to find here :>

and of course, my own dynamic swap au archive! [Link]

if you've fallen in love with gorillaz and are desperate for more to sink your teeth into, then I couldn't recommend this enough !

keep in mind that these resources will continue updating ! as new music is created and new fan content is made! I'm keeping my eyes out on a fan project for a fully animated mv right now that I'm sure will make it to my playlists one day :>

#gorillaz #stuart pot #2d gorillaz #murdoc niccals #murdoc gorillaz #russel hobbs #russel gorillaz #noodle gorillaz #guide #it's a shame I Just missed demon day's anniversary #such is life

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chaotic-tired-fox · 9 months

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Resident Evil obscure facts PART 3

Since y’all like these so much

(Probably the last part since I really scraped the bottom of my brain here)

Part 1 Part 2

☠️ Hunk telling Nighthawk to go and leave him during RE2 4th Survivor is the first time we see him respond with any emotion or concern for anyone else other than his mission.

☠️ Nikolai and Sergei Vladimir were friends and fought together in the soviet war.

☠️ Sergei Vladimir and Ozwell E Spencer were also old friends which is how Sergei came to rule over the UBCS in the first place. He was completely loyal to Spencer.

☠️ Chris bulking up between Code Veronica and RE5 was a direct response to Wesker being able to beat him so easily. He wanted to get stronger despite Wesker possessing superhuman strength.

☠️ Claire and Leon have a really shaky relationship thanks to Leon’s loyalty to the US Government. He doesn’t deviate from this until RE6 when he decides to defend Helena Harper and sympathises with her actions.

☠️ The knife Leon carries in the RE4 remake is the same knife Marvin gives him in the RE2 remake

☠️ Jake Muller said he was trained by an unnamed mercenary, some speculate this could have been Hunk as he became a mercenary after the Umbrella trials in 2003

☠️ The metal band Ice Nine Kills made a song based on the Resident Evil franchise called ‘Rainy Day’ (and its very good I recommend)

☠️ For Hunk to snap necks the way he does would require a hell of a lot of strength

☠️ Umbrella Corps (which is canon) set after Resident Evil 5 has voice lines from Wesker in it which implies he may be still alive.

Quote: “The circumstances of my death were greatly exaggerated.”

☠️ In Resident Evil 4 The Merchant’s eyes are blue but glow yellow in the dark/at night. In the Remake he doesn’t do this.

☠️ Luis Sera was Catholic which was the original religion of the village before Saddler moved in.

☠️ In Operation Raccoon City Nikolai has a scar on the side of his face but in the Resident Evil 3 Remake he doesn’t

☠️ Chris’s height was changed from 5’11” to 6’2” in later games

☠️ In Resident Evil 7, Ethan loses his left hand, in RE8 he loses his right.

☠️ ��Master of Unlocking’ is perhaps the most well known ongoing Resident Evil reference not only in the series but many other games as well including most recently as an achievement in the game ‘Killer Frequency.’ You’ll find it most commonly as the name of trophies.

☠️ In Resident Evil 3 Remake RPD, Carlos makes a quote about cameras being used to kill monsters which is a reference to the Fatal Frame series.

☠️ Also in the RE3 Remake, we never truly find out who Nikolai’s client was and Jill never does the ‘detective work’ on it either. It’s theorised that it was Sergei Vladimir as he is the only person Nikolai had any kind of contact and relationship with.

☠️ There is an unofficial Resident Evil 4 inspired puzzle game on the Switch called Safe Room where you organise items into differently shaped grid boxes. Perfect for those that enjoy the satisfaction of good inventory management.

☠️ Crimson head zombies are a mutated variant of regular T-Virus zombies that can happen sometimes if you ‘kill’ them. But they are actually the midway point between a regular zombie and a Licker. (Note the sharp claws)

☠️ Rebecca’s coffee order is an iced caramel macchiato

☠️ Extra fact: I write Hunk related short stories on AO3! I’d love if you checked em out! The link to my fics is HERE

Death Island spoilers below!

☠️ In Death Island, Chris and Leon have matching watches

☠️ As of Death Island, all five of the main characters have been infected with something and cured.

☠️ Chris mentioning Piers in Death Island is the first we’ve heard of him since RE6 (and it hurtttt)

☠️ It’s implied that Chris finding Leon in Vendetta and bringing him back saved his life. We see his mood has greatly improved since then

☠️ We don’t actually have an answer for when Leon and Jill first met but it could have been around the same time he met Chris in 2010

☠️ Once again the trend of Leon crashing every vehicle he touches continues!

#resident evil #resident evil facts #chris redfield #leon s kennedy #jill valentine #claire redfield #rebecca chambers #resident evil hunk #piers nivans #resident evil operation raccoon city #nikolai ginovaef #sergei vladimir #albert wesker #resident evil death island #leon kennedy #ethan winters #resident evil 4 #jake muller

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the-s1lly-corner · 5 months

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creepypastas of your choice being new parents (reader can be included or not, or the reader can BE the kid. either works)

Eyeless Jack, Slenderman, and Jeff as dads/dad figures

getting silly with it. last request in the inbox, might write some other stuff later today for myself but idk we'll see, admins feeling a little sleepy RAAAAAAH no real mentions of reader i think, just the characters being dads but there might be vague mentions of partners so you can imply that is reader. shrugs. i tend to write these notes before actually writing the post this was originally going to have laughing jack but then i got bummed out when i realized that jack would not make a good solo parent simply because hes too chaotic accidentally swapped from saying "the kid" to "you" midway through writing this but im too tired to fix it so uhuh im making it everyone elses problem/j

SLENDERMAN:

by default i think slenderman can be an okay dad and im purely basing this on the fact that i grew up on the 2010s era of the fandom where quotev quizzes and fics for the fandom were peak. i think in the beginning he would be a little lost, especially if hes going to be raising the kid alone. i mean hes a solitary creature that rarely connects with others, he knows knowing about raising a human child. and thats assuming the kid is even human. if he has a kid with a human reader, are they more human or more... creature..? are they a hybrid? how much of slendermans genetics carry over? can he even have children since admin personally thinks he was made by zalgo like all other demons in this timeline? many questions. protective and strict dad, makes sure the kid does their work and chores, but makes sure he doesnt raise a pushover... definitely hostile towards anyone who harasses the kid, be it bullying or generally just being a douchebag. i think if hes the sole parent he raises them in the woods and teaches them things himself. doesnt bother with putting the child through schooling, theyre a child of the woods now babey!!/hj

look at it this way the kid is really self sufficient and can survive in the wilderness for an extended period of time and they know how to kick butt, assuming they also grow up with his proxies. yeah.. thats going to be interesting... would they see them as uncles or as sibling or family friends? its anyones guess. bonus father figures!!

EYELESS JACK:

also does not know what hes doing. i think i wrote somewhere that jack would put the baby in a carrier and walk around with them in the woods. maybe even showing them different animals and plants even if he knows that the kid cant understand him. definitely a case where hes going to need someone else to help him, be it his partner if theyre still around, or someone else... naturally its going to be harder to find someone to help him if his partner is out of the picture for one reason or another. main reason because that jack is... oh you know, literal man eating demon who sometimes goes into blind feeding frenzies if he gets hungry enough + he tries to put off feeding for as long as possible because it literally means taking a life and he still has his humanity in there. not going to say it out right but i think you guys can put two and two together and understand why jack is wary about having a small child hanging around his cabin. also he wants the kid to be able to grow up around other people. its unlikely, since the other person is likely going to be another creepypasta character because any normal person would rat him out... but he might also want the kid to have a 'normal' upbringing. lots of feelings here for him. kind of like a tired dad, between juggling the child and the things going on with him is really going to do a number on him. giggling at the idea of him trying to get slender to help him esp since i hc they have weird territorial beef going on

JEFF THE KILLER:

actually has a decent grasp of how to treat them but thats because he had liu/was an older brother. the dynamic is less father child and more so older brother younger sibling. probably lets you have a fair amount of free reign; he doesnt really strike me as a strict guardian. probably forgets to pick you up from soccer practice/j ....actually wait no i can kind of see him actually doing that on accident. tries to make it up to you by giving you treats because he does kind of feel bad for leaving you behind. you remind him a lot of his brother. im still torn on whether or not liu is still alive in my silly au but imagine hes not and he kind of. tries to raise you good and treat you well to make up for everything that happened. jeff with some level of mental clarity after the height of everything hits me in a weird sad way i can quite describe. like dont get me wrong hes still the knife wielding dude hes usually written as, but hes a little.. just a tiny bit mellowed out. just a tad.. side note i fully blame the idea of jeff being remorseful over murdering liu from a fic that had a chokehold on me in middle school so oooo... you probably know/interact with ben through jeff since theyre good friends. jumping into my personal hc/au jeff carries ben around in a phone since bens usually confined to electronics and they grew up together. obviously jeff outgrows ben because. you know ghosts dont grow up. so imagine you start becoming best friends with ben and ben is just. SPILLING so much old stuff on jeff, mostly dumb stuff jeff did and him being a jackass. idk i just think thats funny. its like when you suddenly get dad lore but instead of getting it from your dad you get it from dads ghost best friend

#creepypasta x reader #creepypasta x you #slenderman x reader #slenderman x you #eyeless jack x reader #eyeless jack x you #jeff the killer x reader #jeff the killer x you

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bestworstcase · 29 days

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What do you think Salems goal is, exactly? It's obviously not ending the world to kill herself, but honestly I feel like she has ulterior motives than just "overthrow the gods".

I personally wouldn't be surprised if she wants to rule in the Gods stead after overthrowing them. She's already brought up replacing the gods, and seems to believe that humanity "needs" gods/guidance, but specifically Not The Brothers. I only say this because she was the one who said that humanity was more divided than ever without the gods and that they need guidance (and essentially replacement gods), not Oz.

It's hard to say whether she Still believes this, but since she parallels Darkness (to an extent) and destruction is essentially taking out the old to make way for the new, I definitely wouldn't be surprised. The Brothers are the old, Salem is the new n all.

I just find it hard to believe that all she wants is to overthrow the gods and do... nothing afterwards. I believe characters like Cinder have stated that they're going to be high up in her new world?? I'm not sure tbh.

Plus, I think her goal being that she wants to rule the world after killing(?) The Brothers would be an interesting dilemma for the main characters. Overthrowing the gods? A good idea even Oz would agree with. Salem ruling? ...Well that might not be such a good idea (she *did* immediately go to "let's spread our word and destroy anyone who goes against it" in the Lost Fable, but I have different opinions on whether or not it's reliable so it likely doesn't matter to you). Either way, it'd make things interesting for our heroes. At least, that's how I'd write it.

Thoughts?

to be clear. my stance on the reliability of the lost fable is that jinn answered with absolute honesty exactly the question ruby asked, which was “what is ozpin hiding from us?”—i think she obeys the same rule ambrosius does. you get EXACTLY what you ask for.

so ‘the lost fable’ includes:

information ozpin knows or sincerely believes to be true, AND

actively chose to hide from team rwby, oscar, and qrow.

the reason jinn frames it as a fairytale (“once upon a time…”) is because she is conveying specifically ozpin’s perspective, and fairytales, stories, are fundamental to how he sees the world. she is telling his story in his words, because that’s what ruby asked her to do!

but the lost fable doesn’t include:

anything ozpin doesn’t know

anything salem told ozma that ozpin believes to be false, except when a synopsis is necessary to provide context

anything that ozpin knows but wasn’t actively keeping a secret (for example, the story omits her answers to his questions about the other relics because neither their original locations nor their powers were something ozpin was hiding; he told them what the lamp could do, when they asked, and if they’d asked about the others he would have told them that too).

so jinn herself is not an unreliable narrator per se, but the question ruby asked necessitated that jinn tell only ozpin’s side of the story, without filling in any gaps in his knowledge or correcting his misunderstandings and mistaken assumptions. the lost fable is therefore honest (in the sense that no part of it is a deliberate lie) but biased and limited (because ozpin is fallible and doesn’t know everything.)

which is something ozpin himself points out in his commentaries in the fairytale anthology—on the infinite man: “no one who wasn’t there could know what really happened. and even then, they would only have a small part of the story,” for example.

all of which is the long way around to saying that i do trust the dialogue in the lost fable to be accurate to what the characters actually said, and the scenes to be accurate depictions of events as they happened (if he was there) or as ozma imagined them happening based on what salem told him (if he wasn’t). the parts i don’t trust are the narration, because that’s the part colored by ozpin’s perspective, and the elisions of ozma’s dialogue in the key ozlem scenes, because things salem says in response to ozma lack the context of what ozma said.

(think about what listening to someone make a phone call is like; if the conversation is about a complex subject, it’s difficult to follow along and easy to misunderstand what the person you can hear is really trying to express.)

and on the topic of those elisions: if salem wanted to rule the world herself, i think she would have made an effort to do so before ozma returned. she is demonstrably capable of both merciless conquest (razing vale) and inspiring awe (slaying the nevermore). she’s immortal. she cannot be killed. before ozma returned there was absolutely no one who could have prevented her from, like, taking over a kingdom and expanding it into an empire with herself as the eternal god-queen.

but she didn’t. she lived alone in the woods, in a miserable hovel. given the well-maintained path leading to her doorstep, she had to have been visited on a regular enough basis for whatever community lived outside the woods to go to the effort of paving the way to her shack. which says… village witch.

left to her own devices, that’s what she did with her life: found some village or town at the edge of a forest and built herself a little house in the woods, just close enough that the townspeople could find her when they needed her but otherwise isolated.

and then once ozma found her, they fixed up her house together and lived happily for… apparently quite some time before ozma brought up “humanity seems more divided than ever” as a problem.

there’s nothing in the lost fable to suggest that salem wanted anything more than the life she had with ozma in that cottage. everything she says about bringing humanity together is specifically in response to OZMA telling her he wasn’t satisfied. she’s supporting HIS stated ambitions.

and like… she’s not… wrong? her phrasing is extremely blunt, but… you can’t bring people together without giving them something to believe in—a cause, a creed, a faith, a purpose—no one is going to unite for the sake of being united. ozma despairs that “humanity seems more divided than ever,” and salem goes… well yeah. the gods killed everyone and fucked off. people just need help. we could help. we have the will and the means to change the world, make it better than before.

but.

the problem is.

the task ozma was given isn’t to help people or make the world a better place; it’s to prepare for the final judgment by uniting the whole world—the god of light instructed him to end conflict full stop. ozma needs everyone to unite in submission to the brothers.

and salem is absolutely correct that you cannot achieve that except by conquest. you cannot, you cannot, you cannot unite the whole world under one creed without genocide. it is impossible.

this is why i say the divine mandate is a fundamentally genocidal ideology: the premise is that humans as they are now do not deserve to exist and must be ‘redeemed,’ and the only way to achieve ‘redemption’ is through genocide. the logical end of any ideology that requires universal adoption or universal acceptance of a certain belief or creed is genocide.

salem understands this intuitively; when ozma asks her “are we sure that this is right?” she spells it out to him in plain terms that it’s what is necessary to achieve his goal. her implication is that if the end does not justify the means, he needs to reconsider the end. i don’t think she cared either way as long as ozma was happy, until she learned the truth about what he wanted to do and why.

as i’ve said before, i believe her final statement—why spend our lives trying to redeem these humans when we can replace them with what they could never be?—a) reiterates her longstanding dream of humankind overthrowing their “old masters” and claiming the power of creation for themselves to “perfect their own design” and b) quotes/paraphrases the closing lines of ‘the shallow sea’ to express this idea because she’s trying to communicate in ozma’s language, through stories.

and i think ozma understood her perfectly well, he just doesn’t think her third option of rejecting the mandate is possible. in the present, oz only suggests salem is out to destroy the world when he’s trying to scare hazel into turning against her; what he tells his inner circle is that salem’s after the relics because she wants to “change the world.” he believes she’s doomed to fail.

anyway, as to the question of what salem wants now: it’s revolution.

pretty… overtly. “your so-called free world.” her protégée was an enslaved child who grew up wearing a shock collar in the gilded heart of ozpin’s crowning achievement some sixty years after the vytal accords abolished slavery, and the huntsman who found her in that situation used her suffering to groom her for the huntsman academy instead of using his authority to help her by enforcing the laws against slavery.

watch WOR: kingdoms. compare the almost tender tone with which salem talks about the democratic councils that represent the people to the utter disdain she has for the huntsmen academies that exist solely to train “the next generation of defenders who will fight and die to protect the lifestyle that they’ve become so accustomed to.”

she wants to defeat the god of light, yes—or at least prevent him from ever returning, i do think Plan A might be “destroy the relics”—but she also wants to tear down the systems ozma built to uphold the divine mandate, systems that turned a blind eye to slavery and injustice and abuse. she wants the whole world to know the truth.

i think she also probably wants humans to coexist in peace with the grimm, and i suspect that will be the biggest sticking point; but salem clearly feels affection for the grimm, and—gestures at menagerie’s lack of a grimm problem—coexistence between people and grimm is possible, and because salem herself is grimm she’s never going to have peace or freedom until the existential war between humans and grimm is ended.

and i think she does intend to make good on her promises to her inner circle, in some form. hazel believes she’s planning to create a “new world order” (which, definitionally, a world with no huntsmen academies and no everlasting war is) and mercury says she’s “promised [them] everything,” which he takes to mean that they’ll be “top dogs in her new world.” but the one thing we know for certain about what salem offers to her followers is very vague; all of them project their own desires to fill in the gaps and come away with wildly disparate ideas about what this ‘new world’ will look like.

what salem has always wanted is freedom. she’s never shown any personal ambition to rule—even her rebellion, she isn’t the one who leads the charge, she walks among them. before ozma returned, she was… just the village witch somewhere. i do think it’s really quite likely that her plan is to tear down everything ozma built, destroy the relics or defeat the god of light, participate in rebuilding from the ashes to ensure that the new world isn’t founded upon lies or subjugation or eternal war against her existence, and then just… find a place where she can live. all she ever wanted was to leave the tower. i don’t think that’s changed.

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trelinha9 · 2 months

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Every time I see a Friede x Amethio post, ten of my neurons die. I know these posts come from new fans who only watched the episodes released on Netflix (which goes up to 13 if I'm not mistaken), and he's only appeared in 6 episodes at this point (which is a crime against my mental health. What the hell is he doing in that time offscream? I WANT ANSWERS!!!) I remember in the first episodes of Horizontes, that Tumblr and AO3 were full of posts and fics about Friede x Amethio, and they disappeared over time as the episodes went on.

It's funny, because nowadays, almost a year after Horizons officially started, fans who watch the subtitled episodes are all worried about the mental health of this teenager and wondering why the heck they are in Exploradores, while the new fans are in the same boat as most of the old ones were and abandoned, shipping the poor guy with Friede.

I personally never shipped them because:

1: Amethio is, canonically, and confirmed by his original voice actor, a teenager (on bulbapedia it said he was between 13 and 19, but now they removed that part and only added the fact that he is a teenager, without mentioning a possible age) I headcanon him as 16, because, for me, it's the age that makes the most sense for his behavior and mannerisms, but that's just me. You can imagine him as 18 or 19 if that makes you feel more comfortable shipping him with Friede, but it doesn't change the fact that he's still a young and emotionally immature person, with no apparent emotional support base other than his Pokémon and his subordinates (Zir and Conia will get there someday, I know they will), while Friede is a fully grown adult, and clearly more mature than Amethio (there's even a line about it in episode 25). Friede had already been a Pokémon teacher for probably a reasonable amount of time when Liko was around 5 to 7 years old (we find out about this in episode 18), and honestly, Amethio doesn't look that much older than Liko. The clear age difference between them makes me uncomfortable. There are a lot of adults in the Horizons cast to be shipped with Friede, leave the traumatized teenager alone.

2: The way Friede, especially in the first arc, keeps teasing Amethio, even though he's clearly irritated and on edge, makes me want to punch him. I love Friede. But the way he interacts with Amethio, one minute he's having a good time taking care of Liko and Roy, and the next he's ready to annoy the shit out of a teenager make me so angry. I love this idea that Friede is a complete social disaster who doesn't really know how to pick up cues (scareing a deaf girl, for example, is definitely something he would do by accident 👀), but there's no way he can't see how negatively his actions and words affect Amethio. Amethio wants to prove himself. He wants to fulfill the mission ordered to him, and this idiot adult, in addition to getting in the way, bothers him every chance he gets (ep 5, ep 22 and ep 25 are the best examples). I'm amazed at how Friede either doesn't really realize the harm his actions cause to Amethio, or he does and simply decides to keep doing it.

This post may make it seem like I don't like Friede, which isn't true. I love Friede. I think he's a very funny character, but he also has a lot of flaws, and bullying a teenager is one of them.

I don't want to start fights about ships, because I'm not in Horizontes for the ships, but for the story and the characters. The only ship I really like is Friede with a certain Explorer who erased a child's memory (because for the love of god, they couldn't have made their battle in the last episode any less gay, could they) I don't want to offend anyone who ships Friede and Amethio, I just wanted to give my opinion on the matter and why I, with my interpretation of the story and characters, hate this ship. (Hate is a strong word, but I feel uncomfortable whenever I see this ship somewhere)

I'm really sorry if I offended anyone at any point in this post, I just don't like seeing a teenager and an adult being shiped.

#pokemon horizons #amethio #professor friede #pokemon friede #pokemon #Amethio is my favorite character he needs therapy not romance #I tried to avoid as many spoilers as possible here #I know that this new popularity of the ship comes from new fans #and I don't want to ruin their experience with the story #but be warned: episodes 22 and 25 have a lot of interactions that I consider problematic between Amethio and Friede #“you wanna play tag?” asks Friede to the teenager who wants to throw him into a wall #Dude who you think you are?#The Collector?#And his line in ep 25 is SO MUCH WORSE #WHY WOULD YOU SAY THAT TO A TEENAGER MY MAN?#ARE TOU INSANE?#I have a lot of fun when these two interact #it's fun #when Friede isn't being an amoeba incapable of socialization that is

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celestial-specter · 3 months

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So I finally got around to watching the first three episodes of the final season, and I’ve got to say, I’m very intrigued by the addition of the three clone cadets! Most of my interest comes from their names- and since I haven’t seen anyone else discuss them yet, I thought I’d throw my own thoughts out there.

As we have seen in many star wars projects over the years, character names seem to be overwhelming literal, either revealing elements of their background, or foreshadowing their future (think how in Rebels, Kanan means ‘little wolf’, while his true name, Caleb, means ‘dog’, foreshadowing his link to the Loth wolves.)

Of course, we know that the clones either name themselves or have the name bestowed on them by their brothers (think of Echo getting his name). The trio of clones that we meet in Paths Unknown are named Deke, Stak, and Mox. There hasn’t been much information released regarding at what age clones typically receive their names, however in the Clone Wars episode Clone Cadets, we see Cutup take his name from a trainer who criticizes him for his attitude. As that episode focuses on Domino squad’s final training simulation before graduation, and that they all appear to be fully grown adult clones, it can be assumed that they are all around ten years old, the same age of most clones sent to war. Given that we see Cutup choose his name during this episode, and that Echo is struggling with his nickname and remembering Fives’ name, it suggests that Domino squad had only recently begun thinking about what name they would choose for themselves.

While we haven’t been given a definitive age for Deke, Stak and Mox they are all still clearly children. I wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t even have names by the time they were taken off Kamino, and had to create names for each other while trying to survive on the planet they were stranded on.

To begin with Mox, his is the name I could find the least amount of reference for. There seems to be three possible interpretations:

Mox is a type of fuel designed for use in nuclear reactors.

Mox is a shortened version of moxie, meaning ‘energy, courage, and determination.’

Mox is the Latin word for ‘soon.’

I’m not overly drawn to the first idea, but I can understand the second - as Mox is clearly the eldest and protective over his younger brothers, I can see him taking a name which shows that side of his personality. I also see Mox as a direct parallel of Hunter; both are the eldest brothers of their respective groups, and are both incredibly wary of outsiders due to their need to keep their brothers safe.

However, I much prefer the third choice. The idea that Mox’s name means ‘soon’ can have both good and bad implications. For starters, Mox is clearly the most emotionally conflicted throughout the episode, unsure of his place on the mission, and of his place once they leave the planet. Hunter assures him that he has time to consider being something other than a soldier, and Mox offers his hand to Hunter. This action could be foreshadowing that soon, Hunter himself will be able to retire from this lifestyle, by finding Omega and Crosshair. Alternatively, Mox’s name meaning soon could be a very bad omen for the batch, as it could foreshadow the clone cadets being used as leverage against them (I’m thinking this could come into play when the empire attacks Pabu if the cadets are there).

Moving on, the word Deke was originally coined by Hemingway as a shortened form of the word decoy. We do not see him act as a decoy in any way during this episode, so I believe it is solely to foreshadow future events. Considering the many parallels drawn between Deke and Tech during this episode (e.g. Stak dubbing Deke ‘the smart one’ and Deke almost falling to his death in the base) his name meaning decoy only makes me more convinced that Tech is still around in some capacity (even if that capacity is just his body being used for cloning experiments).

Finally, Stak is most commonly considered to be an old version of the word stick, which makes sense when you consider the basic stick-based weapons that the cadets carry, and Wrecker’s first words to Stak and Deke when he meets them: ‘Blaster beats stick, kid!’ Knowing that the Star Wars writers love foreshadowing, this comment has me thinking things might not end so well for Stak. Interestingly, another link I found while researching this is that Stak is a common phrase in the Rogue Trooper series, in which a war is fought between facist Norts and democratic Southers (you can already see the obvious parallels to Star Wars here). In the series, in an attempt to win the war, the Southers create genetically engineered soldiers, but only one, known as Rogue, survives. Even more links involve one of the main stories of this series being titled ‘The Marauders’, and each one of the genetically engineered soldiers having a bio-chip in their body. While not a direct link, these coincidences do make me think there is a direct link between the two medias, it is possible that there is a fan of the Rogue Trooper series within the team behind The Bad Batch.

Either way, I’m very happy to finally be getting some explanation into what happened to the young clones who never saw the battlefield during the clone wars - though I am a little concerned that their worth being tied to their unexplored identity as soldiers could lead to them taking risks in further episodes in the hopes of proving themselves.

#star wars tbb #star wars analysis #star wars spoilers #star wars the bad batch #star wars #sw tbb #sw:tbb #sw #the bad batch season 3 #the bad batch theories #the bad batch spoilers #the bad batch #tbb mox #tbb deke #tbb stak

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evangelineshifts · 4 months

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I need to tell someone this at least.

So this new pjo show is a complete joke, especially to some of the oj book fans(like me) who are so disappointed by how it turned out. The acting was stale(actors weren’t given anything to work with so fair), the visuals weren’t anything to speak of, the plot was nonexistent, everything was going too fast or too slow at all the wrong times, there was so much telling and almost no showing it felt like a voiceover or something, not only did they completely change what happened in half of the original book but they also added new and completely unnecessary scenes, to top it off the episodes were 30-40 minutes long with each episode having a budget of FIFTEEN MILLION DOLLARS. From the start of this they already messed it up, they promised a book accurate series but they’d be better off calling it loosely based (Percy is supposed to have black hair but his actor has blond hair and they expect me to like it??) they changed everything that didn’t need to be changed and the quality was so bad it makes me sick, and everyone is defending it and they’re all saying how good it is and yet there’s almost nothing good about it at all. And everyone’s defending the actors ‘oh they’re just kids’ they’re also getting paid to do this why aren’t they showing any emotion??? So it completely ruined any chances of this show being good and now I’m getting it practically shoved down my throat by every app and site I visit so it’s just sickening me even more and I’m trying to leave it alone but nobody is letting me because they’re saying how ‘good’ and ‘accurate’ it is. And rick(the book author) said he chose the cast because they were the best for the characters but none of the cast was actually good in this series(they were more in character out of it and that’s a whole nother slap in the face), the best thing I have to say about them is that their best performance was when they weren’t in the scene over explaining(which was almost never) the show never gave us any time to figure things out or be interested because it’s just so badly written it drags down everyone else involved. So now not only at i waiting for the ‘real’ pjo fans to realize that this show sucks but I’m also waiting for this show to get cancelled because it know it will. It sucks, and after waiting almost a decade this feels like a slap to the face. Why? Why would they completely change almost everything that made the books good? And I feel like what’s worse is that whenever anyone puts out any valid criticism on how little they stick to the book(making Percy blond, making clarisse skinny and not masculine) they get harassed into silence as if that’s a good argument? Is it so hard to put on a wig or some eye contacts or smth? You’re telling me these bland script writers are all they could find with a 15 million dollar budget? And where are the new faces? Everyone in that show is some kind of nepo baby or well known celebrity so that doesn’t work either. And it hurts so bad how they butchered the books to make this knockoff barely well thought out show. I hope this show never gets a season two because I’m actually sick thinking about how they’re gonna butcher that book.

I agree with some of the stuff said here except for the things to do with the actors. I think with the material given they did an excellent job with what they had. Their emotions were more in micro expressions which is really all they could do cause the setting was so serious and not in an action type way (which is when actors usually get to use big facials) through out the majority of the show. As a viewer I can understand why you think they’re acting was stale or emotionless but as an actress myself I can see it was anything but. They did really well considering the circumstances. And as for looks I really don’t see the point of making a big fuss cause that’s one thing I do agree with Rick about (one of the only things) as long as they embody the characters they can play them. And you can tell that from the way they act at the very least outside of the show that they do embody their characters amazingly. There’s no doubt in my mind about why they were casted. I do think that RR was a bit in over his head when trying to be so involved with the making of the show. I feel like overseeing the writing process just to make sure that they’re getting it right would’ve been enough but I think he got a bit too excited to try and make this something memorable and to his liking that he sort of overshot it. I wish there was a way that they could like redo season 1 or make some sort of redemption in season 2 but I’m a bit skeptical. These kids deserve a shot though, I’ve been following them all since the casting announcement and they’ve been working their ASSES off. They all read and reread the source material, they made an effort to interact with the fans and give as much insight as possible to the filming process, the kids themselves made an effort to become good friends with one another which really they just had to be friends at the least but they have frequent sleepovers and hangouts all the time from what I can see. They really care about this project and I think that in and of itself means that it’s worth fighting for. If not for Rick, for them and for the fans who DO like the show. They deserve their chance.

I do appreciate you feeling comfortable enough to share your thoughts with me!! Your opinion is completely valid and understandable!!

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serahlink · 1 year

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❗HELP A HOMELESS ARTIST❗

Reblogs/shares are greatly appreciated as well!

Making an updated post of this with newer works, and because we're in desperate need of help again, so this'll hopefully give me and my new family some new work.

Hi, my name is Link and my family and I (father and younger sibling) have been homeless for a year and a half now (since November 2021). It's a long story but in short, my father fell into a diabetic coma and lost his job, leaving him without a home since he mainly lived in his truck. My sibling and I were also being forced to leave our homes, so it was a very sad coincidence 🥲 my friend, who's home I had to leave due to family issues, drove us to the nearest motel and I've been doing commissions to support us ever since.

We're living day by day with the commissions I and my sibling recieve (I'll link their commissions here and here if you want to check them out) and recently, work has been very scarce. Most days, like today, we're staying up all night and afternoon to pay for our room that we're trying to stay in and we barely have any food for the week. I'm hoping to get enough to pay for at least today and something to eat for tonight.

We don't have any family support (each side of the family has refused to help) and no friend support from any of us, so we've been doing things ourselves from the start. We'd really appreciate any kind of help we could get, especially with the way things are going right now. I'll be putting my prices and contact info below if anyone is interested. Thank you for taking the time to read this and for sharing this or any help you give us if we do, it really means a lot to us.

Also! My turnaround time per commission is up to two weeks for smaller commissions and up to a month for bigger commissions since I'm usually busy with starting/finishing other commissions because I have to take on a lot at once to maintain our living situation. Nowadays I'm setting it to a month regardless of a piece to avoid burnout. If you'd need a deadline for one, you will have to pay a deadline fee. If you ever need an immediate update aside from my normal updates between stages, please let me know! As for payment, it will be made upfront with no refunds since we need to use them right away either for the room or food and don't have the extra funds to repay in case someone would want a fund.

Business Email - [email protected]

~Prices~

Sketch (price depending on type of sketch) - base price of 10$

Sketch page - 10$ per sketch

Headshot - 20$ (+10$ if shaded)

Bust - 30$ (+10$ if shaded)

Half body - 45$ (+10$ if shaded)

Full body - 60$ (+10$ if shaded)

Couples Commission (a commission that includes two people) - 90$ (+15$ if shaded)

Group commissions (commission that includes more than two people, price dependant on the details) - 60 base price(one character, unshaded; each extra character is +75% to the original price) (40$+ if shaded)

Paintings (price depending on the details) - 100$+

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sirenjose · 6 months

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Edgar Analysis

(This will essentially include 2 analyses. 1 more extensive analysis on his deductions, letters, and such I wrote back in 2022, and another analysis I wrote recently as I was rereading this and had some thoughts I decided I wanted to add. The 2nd was partially an attempt to update it, add some new thoughts, sort of summarize Edgar's character, and just generally get into his head and understand how he felt)

Original Analysis (Deductions, Letters, etc...)

Edgar’s personality largely developed due to the type of family he was born in (powerful and wealthy), which led to him being spoiled, which relates to Edgar’s 1st deduction (“I once believed that my destiny had chosen the best start for me”).

Also due to the high status of his family, this led to Edgar being praised often for a lot that he did, especially his painting. His 2nd deduction confirms this: “The book says praise is one of the ways to express love”.

It also confirms Count Barriere knew the Valden family and was 1 of those trying to get close to them: “Some presents: The enclosed letter is filled with flattery and praise and signed by Count Barriere”.

All the praise led to the development of Edgar’s ego and pride, which is why he’s so confident with his art skills. As we see in his trailer, he once got his inspiration from “all that is beautiful in the world”. We see in his deduction 3, he painted to “preserve such beauty”.

He was a happy child in the beginning, and painted things like “a garden, delicate snacks, and a beautiful white puppy”.

Edgar’s letter shows he was quite different back then compared to how he is now. It also informs us that Edgar had a sister, who Edgar apparently cared about considering he painted her a portrait despite the fact he wasn’t as good with portraits to try to make her feel well.

But things wouldn’t remain happy, especially when, due to his skills, he was recommended to be taught by a painting teacher named Sarai.

Edgar’s deduction 5 has Edgar talking about dreaming of “Master” (likely Sarai) “holding my hand to paint on a canvas”.

In the CN/JP version of Edgar’s deduction 5, it describes the paint as being sticky/viscous.

Deduction 6 and 7 is where Edgar learns the truth: of all those that had praised him, including Sarai, didn’t actually care for him or any of his art. They only got close to him because of his family’s power and wealth.

In his deduction 6, it mentions Edgar found a “letter inside a book: Edgar, do you want to know about real art?” It also says it was a “birthday present” for his “tenth birthday”, which was when “’he’ spoke”, likely referring to the letter previously mentioned.

It's not specified who this “he” was. Considering it was “inside a book”, but the letter itself addressed Edgar, this “he” meant for Edgar to find this letter, but didn’t want anyone else to find it, which would include Sarai and Edgar’s family.

As the deduction right after that one is when Edgar talks about finally understanding everyone only caring about the “Valden family’s power and wealth, just as Mr. Sarai does. He doesn’t even love art, let alone these paintings”, whoever this “he” was knew the truth about Sarai.

(I wondered if it could be Barriere, considering the mention of a book and a letter, which are also referenced in the deduction Barriere is mentioned in. It could be someone else, like Baron DeRoss, if he knew who Sarai really was)

Based on the CN/JP version of deduction 5 sounding a bit suspicious with how Sarai was guiding Edgar’s hand as he painted as well as how the paint was described, I wonder if Sarai was either selling Edgar’s paintings or making counterfeits of it to sell.

Maybe that’s why the “he” in deduction 6 says “real” art. Maybe that’s also why in deduction 8 Edgar says he wants to “burn those terrible paintings” and compares the noise they make to “those people”, the ones described in deduction 7.

Back in Edgar’s 1st letter, we learn that his mother and sister were sick, and based on how he says the inspiration he got from them eventually “faded into obscurity”, they likely eventually died.

This left Sarai, the only 1 he felt understood him, as by then he’d learn that those around him only cared about him for who his family was. Unfortunately for him, he was betrayed and eventually learned of Sarai’s “true colors – he was a filthy liar”.

As a result, just like the inspiration from his mother and sister, the inspiration he gained from Sarai eventually disappeared as well. This left him (at least in his mind) with no one he could trust, no one that could “understand” him, and no one that truly appreciated his art.

All everyone cared about was his family’s power and wealth. This was when he determined that no one was worthy to talk to him about art.

This also connects to why his deduction 8 has him saying “I don’t care about anything but art”.

Art was now his only way to express himself, to vent. It was the 1 thing he cared about, that he was always told he was extremely good at, yet now he was all alone once he realized no one truly appreciated his art.

Speaking of his art, due to learning the truth regarding Sarai, he likely grew to hate the paintings he made with Sarai. That’s why (in deduction 8) he wanted to burn them, and why it’s only now Edgar describes them as “screeching”, “screaming”, and “crying”.

(1 random idea, but I wonder, if Sarai really was either stealing or counterfeiting Edgar's art, maybe Edgar somehow found some of the paintings Sarai had stolen or the art he'd counterfeited, and wanted to burn them to prevent Sarai from using them, or maybe as a way to vent?)

This part connects with the end of Edgar’s 1st letter, where he says “Lately, I've heard the cries of the canvas and paintbrushes: ‘If you need his color, why don't you take it yourself?’”. He didn’t want Sarai to escape with his deceit and “lies” (maybe if Sarai was actually selling Edgar’s paintings or making counterfeits, Edgar in this deduction might be saying he doesn’t want Sarai to get away with his actions, to benefit without being punished, especially considering art was the 1 thing Edgar really cared about).

This + Edgar’s lack of “inspiration” now leads to him deciding to acquire Sarai’s “color”.

Sarai’s “color” is the “red” referenced in Edgar’s deduction 9, which is also titled “new color”. The “missing person report” is for Sarai, as he was the “family teacher” for Edgar.

Edgar likely killed him with the letter opener referenced in Edgar’s deduction 10, considering it has been “tainted with a bit of red”, the red “color” he got from Sarai: blood (which is “sticky”/“viscous”, just like the paint described in deduction 5).

The letter opener was likely also referenced to imply Edgar accepting the invitation to the manor. This is why his last deduction describes the painting in it as being the “last”. Like the trailer says, he had lost his inspiration (with the deaths of his mother and sister, then when he learned of Sarai’s true colors), and went to the manor to find new inspiration.

I imagine his family had to have been aware of what Edgar did, as I doubt he seems the type to want to hide what he did or evidence of his actions. I imagine they covered it up, which wouldn’t be too hard with their power and wealth.

I want to add a few other additional details, which I’ll put here to keep it a bit separate, as it comes from the diaries written for Edgar by his original creator, but they seem at least semi-applicable still, which is why I want to mention them anyways.

1st is how Edgar’s father was frequently away. This seems to fit with Edgar’s canon story, as he only references his sister and mother in his 1st letter. Also, considering how a family’s status in the 19th century stemmed largely from the head of the house (the man/male), and would be lost soon after their death, Edgar’s father had to have been alive (and Edgar’s 2 deductions don’t imply anything happened to him, while his first 2 make it sound like everything was well in the beginning). The lack of a fatherly figure likely also caused his personality to develop how it did in the end.

2nd comes from how Edgar was unhappy with some parts of his life as a noble. Specifically, certain expectations, such as having to learn specific subjects he didn’t care about, or having to attend banquets and deal with “meaningless greetings, dinner that can only be wasted and not finished, noisy, hypocritical, meaningless everything". He also mentions disliking having to "dance with those superficial women who only care for fame and fortune. Seeing them surround themselves with money and accessories without aesthetics makes me sick" as well as comments on gifts from "idlers who have money and nothing to spend it on".

That explains why Edgar describes most people the way he does: "vulgar and noisy", "all they do is bore me", "simply covet the Valden family's power and wealth", as well as “hypocritical and double-faced, avaricious and insatiable, obstreperous and useless”.

3rd is mostly minor, but in 1 part Edgar refuses to paint someone’s portrait because "just by looking at his face, I felt uninspired". Considering how he later on describes everyone, this likely in part relates to why Edgar isn’t as good with portraits. It could also explain why he was able to attempt making 1 at all for his sister, considering he did say her (and his mother) did give him “inspiration”, not to mention he did show he cared for them. So once they died, and their inspiration dried up, and he lost trust in most everyone, he likely stopped bothering doing any more.

The last thing I want to bring up is about Sarai, especially considering Edgar’s deduction star skin is Leonardo da Vinci, as Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno or Salaí aka “Little Devil”. He was a boy from a poor background who entered Leonardo’s workshop aged 10 and had a reputation as a troublemaker. He was frequently referenced stealing from Leonardo and his guests, or eating more than his master though respectable. Leonardo even described him as “a liar, a thief, stubborn, and a glutton”. Still, he ended up staying with Leonardo for 25 years and was even noted for his beauty, with Salaí thought to be the model for the paintings Bacchus and Saint John the Baptist. Leonardo drew him so much, its not hard to say he was a muse. Yet Salaí ended up in possession with more paintings than Leonardo left him, which suggests he either stole or faked them, which are likely considering he “had a reputation as a chancer and a scammer”.

The parallels between this Salaí and Sarai in Edgar’s story are clearly apparent, especially as Salaí also ends up getting killed due to “dying in a duel” from a wound received from a “crossbow”. Due to the parallels, this seems to give some credence for the idea Sarai was either selling Edgar’s art or making counterfeits of it to sell. The mentions of Salai’s beauty could also explain why Edgar actually had inspiration from Sarai before it disappeared.

New Analysis (Attempt to Understand Edgar)

Edgar said "beauty" inspired him, but when it became "hideous", he went to the manor for new "inspiration".

That beauty disappeared due to the deaths of his mother and sister, due to how he'd learned the truth behind everyone's praise, and due to Sarai's essential betrayal.

The praise of those around him were empty. The truth was they only cared about the Valden family's wealth and power. They didn't actually care for his art. It was simply a means to an end.

He'd also lost those he loved, leaving Sarai as his last and only lifeline. But even he turned out to be fake. Just another person motivated only by greed and selfish desire.

Edgar had nothing left. No one that truly loved or cared about him, nor friends or anyone that simply enjoyed his art due to his skill or their own interest. He'd lost faith in people.

There was no solace at home. It only helped remind him of the deaths of the only ones he knew truly cared.

Home was also where those that faked concern in an attempt to get closer to his family's power were.

The world was no longer a beautiful place to Edgar.

Reality was harsh and humans were ugly once you saw the truth they hid behind false smiles. The spark that had once inspired him was gone. And this was reflected in his attempts to paint.

Any attempt resulted in paintings that simply felt lifeless and empty. Especially when he remembered the empty praise of those in the past from people he now knew didn't truly care. Or the truth behind Sarai's motivations and actions.

He'd still grown up and developed due to that admiration, whether it came from his family or others. So he leaned even more heavily on the knowledge that he was skilled. He knew he was good. It was just no one was worthy to talk to him about art.

He'd also lost hope to find anyone else that actually was worthy. Someone else with the self same interest in art that he had. No one was worthy, not after what he'd experienced and learned.

Edgar closed himself off, partially due to his own dark emotions over everything, but also to prevent any more liars from trying to get close to him, to prevent any more pain, like with Sarai.

It was hard for him to simply enjoy painting as much as he used to. He was never happy with what he produced now, nor did his surroundings provide the inspiration it used to. As such, he decided to look elsewhere, and to the manor he went.

#idv #identity v #edgar valden #painter #idv edgar #identity v edgar #idv painter #identity v painter #sirenjose analyses and theories

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saltwukong · 7 months

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“Your humanity is not tied to your flesh and blood. Your humanity is who you are, and your ability to experience the world around you and interact with other people, to perceive and understand them and be perceived and understood in turn.”

That is honestly beautiful thinking: even if an being was completely metal (penny for example) she has more human qualities then most.

Cyborg from teen titans lost limbs and a lot of flesh: despite that losses he still is an outgoing guy that protects his friends and the innocent.

Why does people assume that losing a limb means you are less human?

Our actions on how we treat anyone should be our biggest factor not what body part we use.

This is part of why I believe the ableism in Ironwood's "arc" is largely incidental. Kerry's assertion that his new arm graft in Volume 8 symbolizes his loss of humanity, disgusting a parallel to make as it is, also stands in stark contrast to Yang--whose prosthetic was intended to be symbolic of her recovery--and Penny, whose humanity was validated when the winter maiden's power transferred to her, thus considering her by any standard that matters a "real girl".

I do not believe that Miles and Kerry necessarily believe that having prosthetics and requiring them to function makes someone less human; I just believe they were willing to make this parallel to enforce the Ironwood villain narrative. In the same way, I believe that the decision to make Penny flesh-and-blood-human did not necessarily say that Miles and Kerry considered her in need of fixing; this was done more to suit Miles' determination to kill her off than to say anything about her personhood either way.

Of course, this doesn't make it better--if anything, it makes it worse, since hypocrisy of this nature says quite loud and clear that Miles and Kerry really don't give a fuck about disabled characters or their struggles or their personhood, and will switch stances as soon as a character they don't care for comes along.

This fact is of course lost on RWBY stans, who consistently misunderstand that Ironwood's disability is not the problem, it is the awful way a character with those disabilities was written that is and always will be a problem. It not only misses the point RWBY was supposedly fond of making about the soul and the self, it misses the point of the Tin Woodsman analogy Ironwood supposedly stands as. The original Tin Woodsman was the kindest and most compassionate of Dorothy's companions, and never truly needed the heart the Wizard gave him in the end. Choosing to say that the character allegedly based off of said Woodsman was cold-hearted and threw away his humanity is quite the ill fit.

And consistently choosing to label Ironwood "fascist" as a shorthand for "evil" when Ironwood would've been immediately murdered by a real-life fascist because he's disabled and therefore imperfect (read: human), is quite the appalling stance.

#asks #grooveguylove #rwde #james ironwood #penny polendina

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cookinguptales · 10 days

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Out of curiosity, do you have any theories for why the bizarre narrative shift wwdits had circa late s4 happened?

I've gotten some uh. Pretty intense anons for saying what I'm about to say, for some reason, but sure, yeah. I'll talk about it. This will be pretty long because I haven't written wwdits meta in a long time, but. Oh well.

For s4 specifically... There's something that Anoop Desai, the actor who plays the Djinn, said in an interview once that I thought was really interesting. He said that they initially only wanted him to be in a few episodes of s4 and told him they'd go from there. As we all know, he ended up doing a great job with the part, the Djinn ended up becoming wildly popular, and the role was expanded.

But when you think about it... a lot of things in the back half of s4 only happened because the Djinn was around, right? The wish for Marwa to like whatever Nandor liked (and its subsequent issues), the wish for Marwa to become a Freddie clone... Those can only happen the way they did because the Djinn's wishes were available as a plot device. It's entirely possible that they were going to happen anyway, just another way, but... I don't think it's really going too far to say that there had to be rewrites of late season s4 in order to incorporate the Djinn, and we just have no way of knowing how extensive those rewrites turned out to be.

I think certain aspects of the end of s4 still had to have been there (a boyfriend for Guillermo, the wedding going poorly) but the exact way that things played out? Well, it did kind of smack of last-minute rewrites to me. We know there was also a lot of confusion about episode order, too, with the wedding seeming to have been originally placed closer to the end of the season... (Based on slates seen on IG.)

So... it really does make you wonder if things might have gone very differently if not for the Djinn's presence. I always kind of felt like I got monkey pawed because I love the Djinn, I really wanted him to be around longer, but then... oof.

s4 was kind of bewildering because it had some truly wonderful episodes, but there was a sense that they were building up to something that just never happened. A lot of themes, like Guillermo learning he can't lie to his loved ones and still keep a strong relationship with them, were really emphasized only to be dropped when they should have been very important with Freddie and all of s5.

Even what I'd argue was the most successful part of s4, the relationship between Laszlo and Colin, was really kind of unceremoniously dumped in s5.

I feel like s4 was where we really started to see a lack of payoff in long-running arcs. s2 was really the last time a season finale cliffhanger had much of any impact on the long-term events of the show (and s3 was when there was a showrunner change, so that could partially be why) and I think that fans were hoping that we'd still see those long-term arcs for characters, especially when s3 on seemed to focus more on characterization and relationship-building.

But what's actually ended up happening is that we constantly get these build-ups that either fizzle out, go nowhere, or worse, get retconned altogether. There's been a real lack of canon consistency the last few seasons, and what felt like small momentary lapses in consistency (like Nandor suddenly being better at hypnotism than Laszlo when the opposite was true in s2) suddenly felt much more dire when fundamental character changes seemed to happen with characters like Guillermo.

I've noticed a real divide between s1-s2 Guillermo and s3, s4, and s5 Guillermo, with him starting to get... almost Flanderized, honestly, with his whole uwu I could never hurt anyone thing. It seems to get worse every season, and this last season making it canon that he feels no guilt towards killing vampires but could ~never~ kill a human (despite being totally blase about it in early seasons) really seems to turn the whole conceit that he loves supernatural creatures (and can't meaningfully connect with humans due to his social otheredness) on its head. Personally, I'd consider that a core aspect of not only Guillermo's characterization but the overarching themes of the show, so it really kind of shocked me.

(In other words, I'm not actually disappointed that he didn't become a vampire. I always kind of thought that was how things were going to happen. But to make it be because he's too gentle?? Because he values human life over vampire lives??? Oof! That lack of character consistency is rough!)

I guess... the reason why I thought the end of s4 was rough was the rewrites. It really did feel rushed, and often themes/characters/relationships seemed to be chucked out in favor of jokes that weren't even all that funny. But I think the overall quality dip (imo) of the last season and a half are due to larger problems. There's a lack of commitment to things established in early seasons that I find troubling, and a total inability to commit to the arcs they're writing now, too.

It's odd. I feel like the first two seasons were more episodic and were less concerned with big arcs, but they still pulled off slowly growing character changes well -- Guillermo finding out he's a slayer especially. Since the showrunner change, they've been much more ambitious about characters, relationships, and long-running arcs -- but they never seem to stick the damn landing! They're aiming higher (building expectations) and landing lower. Which is a bad combination.

So then you have s5, which kind of feels like a culmination of all this. Characterization choices that don't always make sense, season-long arcs that don't go fucking anywhere and ignore previous canon (Laszlo was particularly egregious here), important characterization moments being thrown out in favor of jokes that no one fucking liked. (God, those fucking hybrid creatures.) And in the end, they again refuse to commit and instead send things back to a status quo, now made even shittier because they've closed off a narrative path.

I would hope that this season finale would mean something and we'd see the characters dealing with everything it brings up for the next season, but that didn't fucking happen the last two times, so... I have low hopes. I'd love to be proven wrong, but. I do feel very tired.

Finally... In retrospect, I actually think the death knell came very early on in s4. It was the time jump. Instead of really dealing with the way that any of these characters would have to function with the set-up they created in s3, they skipped all that. I'm not sure Guillermo ever really made that much sense after that, especially, and I think it's because they simply didn't think about what that year would mean to him very much. In interviews, we've seen that Harvey had to make up a lot of backstory himself, we've seen that Harvey and Al independently came up with two very different backstories for how Guillermo and Freddie met and how long they knew each other, we know that the writers often didn't really seem to know what Guillermo was doing in London...

Like. I hate to say it, but that's lazy writing. A time skip doesn't have to be lazy writing, but it often is. It's often used to skip the hard work of getting from characters from A to B, and the only way to do one well is to still know what happened during it. But once they did that, we started to increasingly get these [scene (and characterization) missing here] periods that really brought down the momentum every single time.

So... I guess I think that's been the overarching problem. Rewrites, a lack of loyalty to early canon and worse, a lack of loyalty to the stories they're writing now. If they're not invested in the story arcs they're making, why should we get invested? The way that the whole Laszlo and Colin thing was barely ever mentioned again in s5 was egregious. It was treated as lasting trauma in s4 and then Laszlo seemed totally fine in s5, even going so far as to have sex with the man he'd seen as his son like... two weeks before. For a while, we kept thinking that his weird behavior towards Guillermo was a form of transference, but that never really amounted to anything, either. I think we were just putting too much faith in the writers, maybe.

I guess, in the end, that's probably the biggest problem of all. The writers did some really amazing stuff in the first three seasons. They had a lot of long cons, so to speak, and it was hugely fun to see those pay off. We came to trust the writers, and now we keep thinking that these confusing plot arcs are just one more long con.

But they're not.

So we just get annoyed and let down every single time because we keep expecting payoffs that never come anymore, and in the end we just get kinda bitter.

That's just my two cents, anyway. And it really is still possible to turn things around! But uh. There's not much more time to do it. lmao

Fingers crossed, I guess. (But not around the vampires.)

#replies #wwdits tag #wwdits meta

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koalas-koalas-everywhere · 6 months

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Honestly? While there's no doubt that Luffy fucked up in Whiskey Peak? Like 80% of the outrage and 100% of the accusations of "ooc"ness come from 1) the misconception of Luffy being this super intuitive guy leading to him being put on an altar, and 2) a refusal to allow him any emotional depth.

To start off – Luffy's not that intuitive. The closest thing to it is what the crew call his "animal instincts" in Water 7, where he predicts that he will have to fight Rob Lucci, like he predicts other fights before and after. Only – is that really what happens? He "just knows"? Because, from what I remember, he very clearly identifies him as the leader and the strongest member of CP9 (#366: "of all the people we'll be fighting in a little while, the strongest is that pigeon guy! I'l definitely be the one to send him flying!"). Of course he assigns himself to fight him. That's his reasoning every other time, as well. At times (certainly not often, but sometimes), he demonstrates actual strategic thinking, like with Moria.

I think a lot of people want to think that Luffy "intuits" the Straw Hats' potential or even their pasts when he asks them to join, but we don't see any evidence of that. What we do see is a lot of instances where Luffy witnesses good things about his friends, both in terms of skill and of character. In Brook's case, he literally just went "talking skeleton cool cool cool cool cool". And that's all. It might be hard to swallow that some of the deepest and strongest bonds we see in the series, the most important ones and the cornerstone of the story, are based on something as flimsy as "hee hee I like you be my nakama", that Luffy didn't somehow know that they needed to be taken in. But that's just the way it is. Hell, if it had been solely up to him, Kureha, Iceberg and a bunch of random zombies without a will of their own who were trying to kill them would be part of the crew.

I think that what happens is that Luffy is very undiscerning and undemanding about who can join the crew or even sail with them (he also let Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9 go with them without a fuss, same with the Franky Family, who he only knows from, you know, having beat up Usopp and stolen 200mil berries from them) and we want to think that there's some deeper reason for it. We know that it's nothing rational, because we're not so detached from what's happening on the page, so that leaves some kind of instinct telling him that these are the right people. It's a nice idea – it gives Luffy some unconventional wisdom to make up for his lack of it otherwise and fits well with his upbringing in the jungle.

But there's not really anything special about the people he picks up, except the fact that he picks them up. Not in the sense that they're special because of him, but that they become special to him. That's the real reason why he goes after Nami and Robin and Sanji when they leave. It's not that, oooh, he can sense how tortured and traumatized they are and that deep down they're good people. Nah – he just believes them when they say they are his people, so he refuses to abandon them.

And, okay, this might seem damning in the context of Whiskey Peak, because where was this faith when it came to Zoro, who arguably earned it more than anyone else in the crew? To be honest, that's one of the points where I'll concede that Luffy fucked up the most, but there is another matter at play here: everyone else claimed to be on his side, or at least be a certain kind of person, before apparently turning on him. He chose to believe that original impression out of loyalty.

Not only is Luffy not that discerning, he is known for being a sucker for deception. He can't lie, and he's so honest that most of the time he can't even conceptualize that someone might be lying to him. ("Are you going to betray me?" "No." *grins*) The idea that he could just... take a look at someone and divine either good or evil intent goes directly against canon. He gets taken in by CP9, by Kanjuro, hell, he buys that King Cobra betrayed Alabasta as Vivi is telling him of how Crocodile manipulated them.

And that leads me into Whiskey Peak and point 2.

Before we start, think back to Wano, if you would. (If you haven't reached Wano, don't worry, the spoilers in this paragraph are very light.) Imagine that, after spending the day with Tama, and Tsuru, and Kiku, and the rest of the village who gave up their scarce supplies to feed them, Luffy and Zoro go to sleep. The morning after that, Luffy wakes up to a massacre. Everyone, and I mean everyone, has been cut down. The people who helped them, the people who he was talking and laughing with just a few hours ago, dead or near enough. He recognized Tsuru among the pile of bodies and she still has some breath left, so he asks who did it.

Basically, imagine sympathetic victims to the Whiskey Peak massacre.

When we read Whiskey Peak, we know there's something fishy going on. For starters, it's Miss Wednesday and Mr. 9's town, which makes it suspicious enough. Then, before the attack, we see them writing a letter saying that they wanted the Straw Hats to go there, making it obviously dangerous. This is without even getting into the clear threat evident to us readers because we know this is a story and that there's no way the heroes will have it that easy. We mistrust and refuse to sympathize with the Whiskey Peak inhabitants from the start. Until the reveal that Vivi's undercover, they're enemies and future meatsacks to us. We forget that that's not the case for the Straw Hats. Especially, that's not the case for Luffy, who takes everyone at face value.

I think a lot of people maybe get too caught up in their image of Luffy as a sort of chaos, "do things for the laff" entity who'll liberate you from tyranny in exchange from food, so they don't realize that there might be emotional, non-transactional reasons for his behavior. That he feels thankful to the people who help him, because he's survived on the kindness of others all his life and he would've died without it (and if you think that doesn't apply now that he's a pirate, go back to read the Baratie arc). That he might get attached to the people who are kind to him and others. That, even if he doesn't feel affection for them, he'll still be outraged when their kindness is met with cruelty by others. We joke about his disproportionate responses to being fed (aka overthrowing the government for a bowl of rice), but that's because he's not acting under a perceived debt, but out of a bond he's created with his benefactor/s.

So Luffy, who couldn't understand duplicity if it showed up with a twin, gets to a village full of people who happily welcome him and his crew, who appear to do this for every weary traveler that has just passed through the harrowing ordeal of Reverse Mountain. They offer them food, drinks and shelter for as long as they need it. Not only that, they all spend hours partying together, chatting, having fun. Than, Luffy wakes up to find everyone either slaughtered or nearly – the people he was partying with not long ago, from the elderly to children, and, okay, gross, but let's recognize that One Piece is a piece of media with an antiquated system of gallantry that says that it's also an outrage that the women were also hurt. He walks up to one of them and asks them who did it. He says it was Zoro.

Take a moment to place yourself in his shoes. This was objectively a horrifying experience. You wouldn't be surprised if he went after the culprit if it was a stranger. And while I think he should have given Zoro the benefit of the doubt, there's something actually a lot more horrifying in the fact that it was one of his friends who did it: that means Luffy's responsible. He's the one who brought Zoro there, after all. Most codes of honor would have the leader of a group vouching, at least implicitly, for its members.

And it might have easily felt like a betrayal. Not because Zoro went against Luffy, but because he let him down.

A lot of people bring this fight back to loyalty – hasn't Zoro shown Luffy how loyal he is? (And, you know what, I think we could have an interesting discussion about that? About what's said, what's implied, also what's actually witnessed by the characters, but never mind.) Zoro promised him he'd be the best, and that he'd stick by Luffy in his path to achieve that... but he never promised he'd never cruelly cut down an entire village in the meantime, something which is not beyond what any other pirate would do, loyalty notwithstanding. And a good thing, too, because he did, in fact, do that in WP!

That's the other thing. Imagine waking up to a whole village of people who helped you and your crew cut down by a member of said crew. The children included. The idea of there being a good reason for it is actually more out there than a prideful and powerful man who agreed to become a pirate, specifically to establish himself as the strongest in his field, would lash out at the flimsiest offense to his ego, to be honest.

Basically, it all goes down to how this guy, so honest he can barely conceive of being lied to when he's directly informed of it, should have walked out to find bloodied piles of bodies and gone "this guy with violent tendencies I met like a month ago killed dozens of people, including children, who fed us and sheltered and fed us, who I like because of that, probably did it for a good reason". Forgive me if I bring up the children too much, it's just that, if there's one demographic you don't expect anyone to have enough of a good reason to maim, it's that one. Faced with this kind of scene, it makes sense to doubt your initial judgement of a person.

Of course, what he did see of Zoro before that should have told him enough to at least doubt. At the very least, he should have heard him out before killing him. Zoro did try to explain. (Then again, if someone admitted to slaughtering a whole neighborhood and then claimed to have a good reason for it I wouldn't be jumping to hear them out.)

That said, it's not about Luffy doubting Zoro's loyalty, it's about doubting his character when faced with incredibly damning evidence against it. One the one hand, maybe Luffy's the one who should've been more loyal. On the other, the fact that his loyalty didn't extend to forgiving one of his crew when they apparently go rogue and attack not just an entire village, but of full of people who helped them and continuously did the same for others, just goes to prove that he doesn't have the moral backbone of a wet noodle, in addition to checking out with his tendency to develop an attachment to people who feed him.

#One Piece #Whiskey Peak #Monkey D. Luffy #Roronoa Zoro

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