#narratively I understand his purpose

[rosehathaways-sidepiece]

Malcolm: "I do know this Vanessa: wherever we walk, we walk together. I will not leave your side."

#sir malcolm I want to fight u #narratively I understand his purpose #personally I would like to punch him in the face #penny dreadful #vanessa ives #sir malcolm murray

[varpusvaras]

Fox's position as the scapegoat in fandom is very interesting and something I honestly think the writers kind of made him to be.

The part of the fandom (which is...really large) that doesn't like him always blames him for Order 66, in saying that "if he hadn't killed Fives, then Order 66 wouldn't have happened". Interestingly, they never blame Anakin, who had even more direct power to stop it. Fox had no idea that anything was going on, and did what he had been taught to do from the moment he was created: Followed orders. He didn't shoot Fives because he necessarily wanted to; meaning there were no personal feelings attached to what happened. Anakin, on the other hand, went and voluntarily murdered a lot of people for only personal feelings. But somehow that is not Anakin's fault.

(I've posted about it before, but the same people who blame Fox are always happy to boast about Anakin murdering him. Always happy to bring out Anakin's trauma as a slave, and then be happy about him murdering another slave, someone directly under his power, who had never known anything else than being a slave in his entire life, and who had been indoctrinated from birth to believe that being slave was all that he was, and that he should be proud of it)

Some fics from people who do like Fox also put him in the position of the scapegoat, where they have all the other clones blaming him for everything that had happened, and ostracise him. In some fics I've seen, they continue this even after the war has ended, even in scenarios where Palpatine didn't win, and this feels like the clones, who have been made to believe in the system, cannot make themselves blame said system. No, it's easier to blame one of their own instead, no matter how little power Fox ever had in his entire life.

The writer's also do this, by having Fox mess something up (in the writer's eyes at the very least) almost every single time he is on screen. I think the only time he wasn't positioned to be in the wrong in some capacity was on his first appearance in the movie, where he did a front flip down some stairs and shot at the bad guy of the movie. Almost every single other time he is doing something wrong or messing something up, causing something negative to happen, be it the bombing on Coruscant (not actually his fault, but the fault of the people who wanted to do it and prevent the peace talks from happening; still, Fox is put in the middle of it), or what happened with Ahsoka (from Fox's point of view, there was a dangerous person on the run, who had just killed multiple people in a violent way, and was continuing their rampage, killing his brothers as well). Objectively speaking, Fox is completely in the right with everything he does here, but the writer's still seem to position him to being wrong, because he is against Ahsoka, and Ahsoka is the character the viewer is supposed to be rooting for (no matter how much worse she actively makes her own situation during the arc).

No one ever remembers all the good qualities he had: he was hard-working, capable, brave, and cared for his brothers. No, instead, the fandom is endlessly debating over giving him, a slave who never knew anything else, some shred of dignity, while freely giving the absolution to the fascist who is standing over his still warm corpse.

#then again the canon also works hard to forgive Anakin for everything #which is a can of worms itself #I understand the purpose of that narrative and I understand that in the original trilogy it was more about Luke than it was about Anakin #but the current narrative is never being interesting and truly looking at his character with a critical eye #or even truly portraying him critically #the ahsoka show waved its hand to that direction but missed the actual target by a mile #anyway free Fox from Felony and the narrative he was put in #sw #tcw #commander fox #anakin skywalker #star wars meta

[clownprince]

alright i was already intrigued by the premise of knight terrors: the joker but i'm SO fucking hyped now you're telling me rosenberg is elaborating on the divorce arc??? also dark workplace comedy is exactly where i hoped they'd go with this

#scared to get my hopes up bc rosenberg hasn't done much with the batman/joker dynamic so idk his take on it #i think he has a solid understanding of joker as a character #and i'm beyond thrilled at the possibility that they're not just ignoring endgame and joker war and all that shit #joker trying to do his own thing and be his own person without batman is the logical next step #and i'm glad rosenberg managed to salvage something out of the raging dumpster fire that was tynion's take on joker #also mildly concerned about where this might go bc personally i like it when joker has no identity or purpose outside of batman #to me that's what defines joker. his lack of a stable identity and willingness to change to be what he thinks batman needs him to be #and idk if rosenberg is talking about in the nightmare or irl but my assumption is the nightmare will be reflected in the main narrative #rosenberg is also like. genuinely funny. to me at least. so i'm excited. just a bit nervous for what this might mean for the batman/joker #dynamic moving forward. idk #uhhh #batjokes #joker #knight terrors: the joker

[un-pearable]

the most important zane character trait to me isn’t that he’s a robot, but that he, fundamentally, is new to it. he’s bad at being a robot. he’s constantly finding out new things about himself and what he can do and excitedly showing them off to his friends like a kid with a new toy. he spent the most important part of his life (in his opinion, bc it’s when he met his friends and started pursuing being a protector) not understanding anything about himself and now he’s constantly discovering something new and it’s so important to me that he’s not reduced to just “the robot guy”. pixal is the one who being a robot comes naturally to, zane is the one who is permanently stuck between human and artificial and at this point is thriving there

#ninjago #zane julien #99% of non-zane oriented fic cheaps out on it and just makes zane pixal #they serve different purposes in the narrative!!!! they’re equally interesting and fun and i love them soooo much #he places SO much value on his ability to relate to his friends and others and reducing him to The Robotic One. while understandable. #is disappointing. #text✨ #loadbearing nindroid #pixal and zane even each other out in regards to common robot tropes and it’s just lovely #they’re so important to me now i disliked pix as a kid but after rewatching n stuff now… love them so so much #they both don’t deserve the disservice they get by their characterization #he’s The Smart OneTM everyone turns to for answers but he is still very much learning about himself figuring out Who He Is #which is a constant process in anyone including you and me but i love it. yes i am overextending simplistic kids media characters shut up. #edit: this has been in my drafts for like a week bc i keep rephrasing it so fuck it im just posting it. this is my zane thesis

[munadyke]

ok. sometimes I just want to listen to people talk abt star wars but the youtube results are all men and I refuse to do that to myself. found myself on a reddit thread of good sw youtube accounts/podcasts and it's like....for one dollar name a woman:/

#CRINGE or whatever #but like i am thinking abt themes of fate and agency and the way they change across series and how certacertain characters exist outside #the narrative etc and i just wanna talk abt rebels and how its such a fantastic follow up to tcw/the prequels in terms of its core cast and #the fact that their only commonality is that they chose to be a part of the rebellion as opposed to the characters of tcw that are stuck in #this perpetual loop of following orders and uplifting those in power & feeling as though everything in their lives are destined meanwhile #there were so many opportunities to stop the end destiny (if u will) of the prequels if only they werent so blind etc but at the same time #you have characters like maul and ahsoka who exist outside of these power structures (one by choice and the other not) and when it comes #time to change anakins fate together ahsoka cant do it bc shes refuses to see the truth #and then this is directly paralleled at the end of rebels s2 where it takes kanan being literally blinded for him to see ezras pull to the #dark side bc until then kanan (the last remaining jedi) still clings to the beliefs and structures that raised him. he cant see/understand #ezra bc he refuses to view the world outside of the lens of his jedi training he has to be blinded to see the world around him in a new way #ofc this is all happening while ahsoka and anakin meet again and we see what could have happened had kanan failed to change #idk something something the illusion of choice under capatalism & 2 party systems leading to facism #something something rebellion/change comes from the ability to question authority and find individual purpose #noooo idea where im going with this shit at the end i promise i understand facism #see this is why i need to listen to other people talk abt it i am just spewing nonsense in my tumblr tags!!!!

[torgawl]

a bit obsessed with the idea of kusakabe dying as a form of sacrifice to specifically protect/save somebody else. it's consistent enough with the theme of the past generation achieving no meaningful feats against significant threats but it's also ironic enough that someone without a technique and who claims their philosophy is primarily self-sacrificial - although he tends to stay from his own ideals in critical moments, proving he's not only brave when necessary but he does have a sense of responsabilty and guilt - ultimately redeems themselves through death resulting in the achievement of something his colleagues have failed to do. not that i'm wishing for him to die, i hope he doesn't. but it would also make a clear-cut distinction between him and a character like mei mei, who narratively serves a very similar purpose (besides her being a foil to nanami). to have someone be awarded by their selfishness just for it to not be worth much within a world and system that runs and sustains itself due to the sorcerer's labour power, whose only means of subsistence is to sell themselves away. a class of people who is doomed no matter what path they choose to take, as long as they do not break free from their duties and as long as the system doesn't collapse. a death that could serve as a symbol of punishment towards solidarity and altruism but a win for revolution.

#okay gege came for me when i said i didn't like kusakabe and now i'm thinking so much about him and his purpose in the story #why would he go against his own ideal and what is his purpose besides introducing questions like 'is self sacrifice noble?' you know? #so that got me thinking about him dying or suffering a big loss and how that would consolidate his character in my eyes #unless his purpose is completely different and i'm just deeply misreading the situation #if his purpose is to simply highlight personal choices and free will vs his generation's dogma #then i suppose him dying could serve no purpose but i'm not finding that side of the coin very straightforward or totally compelling #but again i feel like i'm failing to read him so maybe it is skill issue #anyway obsessed with kusakabe today awkkajwkaj feeling personally attacked by this twisted chain of events #gege really came for my ass after i was vocal about my kusakabe hate (which i feel like is dead at this point rip 🕊️) #which by the way is so mean. god forbid a bisexual do anything 😔 why can't i be a hater man? #also don't take this post seriously it's more about my mediocre reading of his character and my headcanons/wishes than a theory #i'm not trying to imply he will die or that there is narrative purpose in that #just that it makes sense in my brain if that's the case and the plan gege has for his character #but also he's literally the info dumpster gege probably wouldn't kill him because who will explain things to us 😂 #he's like our amateur narrator i bet that gives him total plot armour #ps. maybe this is just my zero braincells moment #i just hate that i don't get it like i want to understand why he exists #but i'm aware that maybe this is a me thing and maybe everyone else just get it #and that makes me feel like that meme #let me iiiinnnn #okay bye

[peachpitss]

this is silly and unimportant. but i was checking out this thing on gender in deltarune and the writer tried to argue that kris is an allegory for being the only queer kid in a small town. and i just…but they're not? susie and noelle are right there. monster kid still uses they/them. presumably undyne and alphys are also still queer. multiple times i've seen people try to make kris' narrative about queerphobia and it always gives me the icks for some reason. literally nobody in hometown is homophobic or has a problem with their gender and i don't think we need our fun pixel rpg to have a little homophobia for flavor. now an allegory for neurodivergency?? that i can see. kris' character deals with isolation and ostracization, but not for the reasons that that argument would assert.

#abby.txt #deltarune #kris dreemurr #i DO understand why folks w that bg irl project that onto kris. esp with the game's emphasis on religion in their town. #but they don't even have a concept of sin according to father alvin and noelle's dad is trying to wingman his lesbian daughter and clearly #is supportive and loving #there is something troubling happening in Hometown but it's not queerphobia #there's enough media about that haha i think we're all barking up the wrong tree for that in DR #this is not me saying narratives that include queer struggle are bad or wrong. #just that i do not believe DR is about being in pain bc you're queer #it's abt being in pain for other reasons (: #hahahahaha #they could also be an allegory for a person of color adopted into a white family. but i doubt toby fox is doing that on purpose

[breadedsinner]

WIP Wednesday

*

Sebastian ran his hands through his hair, pushing it back so far that a twinge of pain stretched at his scalp, and sighed. “I suppose I feel shame, mostly. After everything… Anders got what he wanted. He carried out his plan, he sparked the uprising, and died a martyr for his cause. Perhaps not now, but ten years, a hundred years… he will be revered. And if I’m to be remembered at all, it would be as an obstacle. A fool who stood idle, waiting for a sign, while the maleficarum plotted and began this war. Even when I tried to stop it, even when I cried for his death, I did more to assist him in his goal.”

“Dearheart,” Hawke’s voice was soft, yet commanding. She gripped his knee as she spoke. Her dark eyes were neatly aligned with his, a firm brow, but a thin film of water. “Listen to me. I told Anders I would kill him. I told him if he lost control again, or if he carried out his plan, I would do it. He did, and I kept that promise. You almost died. Had you not been with me, had it been any other day, I might have lost you. And if that happened, I would have made him suffer for it, tenfold. So, let me be the one to carry that burden.”

#Tether Fic #Writing Tag #wip wednesday #Prince Hunny #Judith Hawke #OTP: We Found Each Other in the Dark #Yes the ten years hundred years is on purpose because narrative foils #So the idea is that they're maybe a few weeks out of the Thing #A bit of time and space #And they're slowly unpacking all that happened #Admitting they were wrong but if they had to do it again.... it might have gone the same #I think this is more interesting than just being 'right' but hey #I like to think Seb could come to an understanding if his frustration were respected #Anders Negative #Character Death

[rosesradio]

as far as the disk horse on “this (dark theme you could see on any given tv show) is bad and should not be written in any fanfic ever!!1!” goes, i’m for people writing what they want, and if i think it’s gross i’ll just move past it. what i do wanna see removed from all fanfic ever is when the girl that “gets between” [insert mlm ship here] gets bitch-ified and/or treated like shit

#not to say 'anti' and 'proship' bc i don't wanna tack a label in all the bs. but like. #antis will complain about certain ships that We Know are problematic and purposely write that way-- #but then turn a blind eye towards misogynist shit like this. like it benefits no one get rid of it. #or at least post psas so authors writing that can understand that bc a lot don't and they're just using a trope #and before you say i'm talking about fanfic from 2002. it was definitely more common then but i stumbled on a fanfic made Last Month #where the guy cheated on his girlfriend and talked shit about her in his narrative and then she was framed as the bitch for being mad at him #i dunno i ramble. write what you want it's whatever i just think that trope is really gross #rose.txt

[malewifehenrycooldown]

not interested in stranger things (the first season is perfect as a stand alone story imo), but SBS on Demand has this show called ‘Paraíso’ which has a very strong Stranger Things vibe but it’s set in the late 1980s-early 1990s (at least I think it’s that time period) in SPAIN. I’ve only seen one episode but the ending to that episode is a real cliff hanger and I’m interested to see where it goes.

also the end credits song is a banger, literally once i heard it I had to go looking for it.

#also. neon lighting my beloved <3 #if your show has neon lights and a neo noir-ish aesthetic. I'm GOING TO WATCH IT #best way i can describe it has the same lighting vibe as reprisal and john wick #shallow rambles #honestly knowing the political and historical context of the time it's taking place in REALLY sets a tone for the story #if you know and understand the context #you'll understand why they take the direction they do in the show #francoist span is a hell of a deep dive if you're interested #*spain #that said the first episode is a little slow but it catches up real quickly at the end. #also there are some moments that feel like they don't have a narrative purpose but rather for cheap suspense and thrills #note that there are some references to books and stuff like lotr and a character getting the original gameboy for his birthday

[beeapocalypse]

the way the lore wiki talks about aigul as a whole is annoying but the way it talks abt the first mate actually kind of pisses me off. ‘mysterious and indistinct gender’ theyre nonbinary you dick. ‘to the point that the first mate considered wedding him’ their relationship with the wounded captain is an incredibly important aspect of aiguls theme of addiction and devaluing that to just an expression of loyalty (????) rather than love is so goddamn stupid

^ look at this bit from the regret drilling bit instead. during your first orbit you are so bright that you cast a shadow in daytime

#truly appalling to realize just how many people cannot look at a narrative about addiction and process it with any sort of nuance. come on #THE WOUNDED CAPTAIN IS STILL A 'JOVIAL MAN'. HIS LAUGHS ECHO DOWN THE HALLS OF THE FORTAS-- #--KETTLE HE GREETS THE ZEE CAPTAIN WARMLY WHEN THEY SNEAK INTO HIS ROOM. COME ON NOW #[guy who gets incredibly emotional over a bit in a game that has three total pages of google search results] im normal about aigul #i am calm i am normal over this garbage lore wiki page. i saw something a while ago that seemed to say that the lorn-flukes are-- #--originally from space+just Somehow got down to the neath? i think it was suness skies stuff and i do not even own that-- #--game but thats a really interesting idea. need 2 learn more abt flukes for the sole purpose of understanding aigul better

[cycle-hit]

uhhhh tier list of how well i think i understand the characters

#i thnk i saw some1 else do this before shoutout to them #i was born to understand kotoko. it is my full time job. i am LEGALLY REQUIRED to understand kotoko. #little guy posting #i feel jackalope being that high is a crime but. i DO understand his character moreso than the others its AUUGGGHHH #I UNDERSTAND HIS NARRATIVE PURPOSE AND HIS CHARACTER AND I FUCKING HATE HIM BUT I HAVE A GRASP ON HIM MORE THAN THE OTHERS!!!!

[chuchayucca]

I don’t understand why people think Draxum would be a struggling father in those parent swap AUs. He never saw the turtles as people, only as war machines. He changed his perspective once he saved humans but he still spent a good sixteen years dehumanizing them.

#Splinter is the struggling parent not Draxum #if Draxum raised the turtles he would put them through brute training while never showing them respect or parently love because the- #only purpose for their creation was to create war machines not thoughtful people #If it’s after his redemption arc then I can understand this narrative but before then. especially Draxum raising the turtles from mutantion #Yea there’s no better way to say this but he have absolutely be a terrible abusive dad #chuchayucca.text #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles spoilers #spoilers #tmnt 2018 spoilers #rottmnt spoilers

[tariah23]

They’ve been tearing yuuji apart on twitter for the last 2 days now

#he’s a decent protagonist that’s my boy y’all just don’t understand #I can go on but what can you expect from dudebro anime fans I swear to god most of them only care about who can punch the hardest and this #and that and that’s it man #apparently ppl don’t like the narrative that gege chose to run with as far as having the adults take center stage in the story in favor of #not having to burden the child protagonist’s with the duty of saving the world and being hero’s (they already are part of the game so it’s a #little late for this now but you get what I’m saying) and ppl are talking about how yuuji sucks and hasn’t done anything noteworthy after #the shibuya arc 🫣… they don’t get how rare and risky it is as a narrative choice to have the MC act as a backseat driver to their own story- #nothing wrong with it and it’s even cooler when they’re a blank slate character like yuuji (similar to fsn shirou actually if you get me) #well he starts off as one and is still one since never learned much more about him as a character other than the things on the surface and #through other characters and I don’t think it’s really a form of bad writing when a character is written for that purpose #it’s risky but it’s not impossible #yuuji is a really enjoyable mc actually and I get the slander but most of these ppl are just being annoying about it lol #like okay #my current issue is the doo doo level pacing of the manga as of late… at this rate we will never get anymore development for #characters like yuuji if gege continues to speed run his own story into the ground like he doesn’t care about it anymore #like it’s so bad bro omg #the pacing went to hell directly after shibuya man that’s when the story never had any misses lol #oh well #but anyway #I’m a yuuji celebrator I am rooting for him 👍🏾 #rambling

[numberonetrashwitch]

Some observations about Baldurs Gate 3 that hit too close to home.

After another few runs i will probably just make an in-Depth Character Analysis for every character simply because they are good reflections of actual trauma-manifestations and how abuse can manifest in people. They are also so well written that it serves a narrative purpose to explore all the material that is out there about them. I am also personally cursed with actual medically-relevant levels of Empathy and Hyperfixation; so writing this helps me put a pin in it and move on.

But so far here are my highlights

(SPOILERS and obviously content warning bc these are deep)

before you ask; i have almost 300h in this game.

You have to convince Shadowheart to eat the Noblestalk. She actually stells you she rather get her memories back from Shar but when you hit the persuasion or intimidation (what the fuck) check to get her to eat it she'll tell you about her childhood friend. Not her name, not her parents but her best firend. Possibly because she has had a closer bond to that person after being abducted and indoctrinated. With her believing herself to be an orphan, she would've looked elsewhere for comfort and sought out her own family, this is why she falls hard and heavy for Shar and builds the backbone of her indoctrination. She is literally ripped out of her home & given a new identity to server her from all she has known. Religious indoctrination, Gaslighting, Abduction, being forced to let go of your personality are her main themes.

There is a scene out there floating around in which you see Astarions pespective of the night when he bites Tav for the first time, in his meditations he is confronted with the rules Cazador put on him, including that he can't eat intelligent creatures, can't be away from Cazador unless allowed to, has to obey every command and that they are should know that they are property. Which in turn means that Astarion literally didn't just have any autonomy, he was objectified (and not just through seductive/sexual measures) and that is really the crux to understanding why he doesn't believe in kindness, but rather shows self-serving behavior in most cases. Since we know that Astarion was extremely young for an elf before he died and became immortal (literally stopping the aging /maturing process) it is also very telling that Cazador constantly calls him brat, boy or other very juvanile names, refering to them as a family... well it is also the story of a very controlling parent. Themes of (Bodily) autonomy, infantilization ( & puer aeternus, forever-child), slavery, depersonalisation, corruption of life and torture to break someone.

Gale isn't just a guy hung up on his Ex, but also a victim of abuse. In this case a power imbalance none of us can fathom; She is described as being a jealous goddess and rules over the domain of mysteries and magic. So with Gale being a Wizard, she is literally his boss. He admits that he was foolish enough to aspire to be an equal to her, but she is so jealous that she tells him he can't really be worthy as long as he takes breath. She could just take his powers away and be done with it, that would be more than enough punishment for a guy who literally made Mystra and her domain his life's purpose, but she rather makes him do it himself. Add to that, that she literally only tells him this after years of self-isolation (after he put down so many wards that he could've blown up a whole army as he says if you click the right dialogue) to really fuck him up well. He also talks about death pretty much constantly, not surprising giving your situation, but he will tell you that he will kill himself at several points in the game, for instance after he comes clear about his nethrese orb. Themes of romantic abuse, power-imbalance, toxic work enviorment, self-isolating behavior, suicidal ideation

Wyll ... well from the looks of it he is the most well adjusted of all the companions (my opinion) but he has something that i'd describe as the "eldest daughter"-syndrome, more commonly known as parentification. This pattern usually occurs within single-household parents and is commonly described as a parent looking to their child for emotional or practical support, rather than providing it to their kid. We meet Ulder and see that he talks over Wyll a lot, not listening but expecting him to follow the standard he sets for him. That is also why Wyll repeats his fathers words like gospel (because this is what, in his mind, fullfills the expectations bestowed upon him) and why he loves fairytales / bard tales so much (because they are an ecapist view of the job he set out to do) Ulder literally exiled his teenage son because Wyll did the only thing he could to save an entire city, by sacrificing himself. Thats a lot to expect from a 17 year old - even more so, he doesn't stop with the heroics. He expects himself, as a human who hasn't even reached the age of 30 to hold up to mystical creatures such as Astarion or Karlach, or even Gale who is a accomplished Wizard. Themes of parentification, escapism, self-harming through putting himself in danger, chronic-self-sacrifice

In plain words; Gortash, Karlach's Idol sold her to a Devil. But add to that that she must have been pretty young when she was sold (late teens to early twenties possibly) and being that if you play as a Tiefling, you face a lot of predjudice she was likely forced into that position as well. Starstruck she was, with a juvenile naitivy that Gortash used. Appropriately, as he is the chosen of Bane the god of "tyrannical oppression, terror, and hate, known across Faerûn as the face of pure evil through malevolent despotism" (Source: Forgotten-Realms Wiki / Bane) So she pretty much was raised in a toxic enviorment, which forced her to become a killing-machine, first figuretively, then with the extraction of her heart, literally. Themes of slavery, oppression, misuse of trust, being taken advantage by a more powerful/older(?) person, being drafted.

Jaheira - to be honest, you need to know the lore of the previous baldurs gate games or just listen to her dialouge, ask her all the questions. She is a war-veteran against Bhaal, the good of ritual murder, and has a long history of fighting to achieve some sort of balance of power. She lost her husband and several close people all to this, or any other war, but due to her wisdom and strength people look to her for guidance. Themes of: Survivors Guilt.

Halsin - he is really closed off at first but then just casually hits you with "i was captured in the underdark and spent 3 years chained to a bedroom wall by a pair of drows who used me as they pleased". He is reprimanded by some of his druids for leaving the grove as soon as opportunity struck, just to get back and leave the next day, and if you talk to him about his position in the grove he is actually very forthcomming. He actively holds himself back; indulging in simple hobbies because he knows what lies within his heart. He is afraid of himself and his potential (canonnically he can't control his wildshape, which is very weird for an ARCH-druid) Themes of: impostor syndrome, avoidant-based self-harm, sexual opression, loss of control, emotional regulation.

Lae'zel is a very tragic case, and one that closely resembles the stories of Shadowheart and Karlach. Her entire existence is based upon a matriachial war society allowing her to live if she proves she can be of use and that in a culture which only values brutality, dominance & service. All of that culimating in her finding out that her oh-so-beloved Queen is actually just an imposter, and that everything she has lived for up to that point is merely political propaganda created to make her, and the rest of her entire species, willing pawns in a war that has no longer bearing on their survival alone, but is fought to justify Vlaakith's (the reigning monarchs) personal ambitions. Not only is she forced to reconcile that she is turned into the thing that controlled her kind for hundreds of years, that the only cure she knows of would kill her and then on top of that, that her hopes and dreams were lies and that she is now the Nr 1 enemy of the person she has served with all her being. themes of: oppression, propaganda, casual violence, objectification, child-warfare, eternal warfare

Minthara in short, her story is about being shamed for growing up in the same scenario that Lae'zel grew up in. Lolth, the god of the Lolth-sworn drows is a crazy queen who values scheming & backstabbing so much and is so volatile that you can't know what to expect of your deeds (and i mean it; there were people who were appraised by her for scheming against her, but also those who were killed. It's almost random.) She considers Lolth to be cruel and abandoned her for the Absolute, only to then be used and abused the same way Lae'zel has. Not with promises, but erasing her memory and exposing her perceived weakness. Themes of: casual violence, violent culture, her own ambition colliding with her desire to be safe, being a pawn in a larger game.

#baldurs gate #bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #non-witchy #baldurs gate iii #baldurs gate character #background to baldurs gate 3 #character analysis #analysis #fan theory #media analysis #astarion #wyll #karlach #minthara #halsin #jaheira #lae'zel #gale #minsc will have to wait #im sorry its so long #yeah some characters are a bit more shallow #i will go in depth sometime #dark urge has a grip on me i swear #please do yourself a favor and look up the earlier 2 games

[comicaurora]

Nick Bostrom's "Fable of the Dragon Tyrant," which CGP Grey adapted into a video, left me feeling unsatisfied, and I got a certain unsettling vibe about the entire story.

I don't think it was the dragon's lack of agency, that just makes it an unusually traditional Western dragon.

You're a master at picking narratives apart to figure out why they don't satisfy. Do you have any insight, opinions, or cracktheories about why this story might be unsatisfying to some folks?

Probably because it's a very unsubtle metaphor casting the dragon as death, and death itself as a cruel, malevolent beast devouring and subjugating humanity for its own whims. This is very much intentional on the part of the writer. The paradigm of the story is that the dragon is huge, terrifying and incalculably cruel, and everyone lives their lives in the shadow of its terror or are just too deluded to recognize that it's COMING TO EAT THEM OH GOD

Intrinsic in this metaphorical structure is the idea that the dragon, aka death, is an artificial imposition on the natural order, and if we just got rid of the big ol' mean dragon, everybody would live forever and be fine. Accepting that the dragon exists is framed as a sign of desperation or even cowardice. This is an understandable read when facing a monster that only SEEMS timeless and inevitable (like LeGuin's thoughts comparing the current state of capitalism to the historical acceptance of the divine right of kings) but becomes bizarre when applied to something as legitimately factual as biological death. It's not even framed as unnatural death - the dragon specifically gets sent mostly old people. The metaphor is very explicitly about trying to frame death from old age as a big horrible dragon that everyone only thinks is unstoppable.

I get what they're going for here. The purpose of this story is to make the audience question if death is a true inevitability or if it can be fought, staved off, even defeated. But in the process, the story frames the systems of the world that have formed around death - doctors, pallative caregivers, will executors - as macabre gears in the machine dedicated to the genocidal cruelty of feeding the dragon.

In the dragon tyrant framing, these people only exist to make the rest of the world more okay with flinging themselves down the gullet of the dragon and to streamline the process by which everybody dies. By casting death as the enemy, everybody whose jobs are based on the compassionate act of comforting and aiding people suffering from loss become reframed as collaborators with the incalculably evil enemy, and everyone who's ever accepted their own death becomes a loser. This is a deeply cruel way to frame people who dedicate their lives to helping people through one of the hardest and most tragic aspects of life.

Damn, that's fucked up. Look at this eloquent idiot, explaining why we should be okay with letting a big dragon eat us because it's the natural order. Clearly he is wrong and it's not debasing at all to want to stay alive and not get eaten by a big dragon. This is a fallacy of false analogy: death is like being eaten by a big mean dragon. All his arguments look ridiculous when applied to getting eaten by a big mean dragon, therefore they must be ridiculous when applied to dying when your organs start failing because they've been running nonstop for nine decades and biological systems accumulate wear and tear like literally everything else in the universe.

Entropy increases; systems break down, from DNA to planetary orbits. Successfully shoot down the dragon and you'll end up outliving everything you thought was eternal, even the stars. The goal of immortality isn't really to personally witness the sun exploding, it's to have more good time. It's to make your twenties last into your sixties. It's to keep your back painless and your vision good for longer. We want to postpone the story's end as long as we can, and so we extrapolate "more time" into "I never want to die, I want to be young and healthy and hot forever" even though "forever" doesn't exist. To look to "forever" is to understand that your culture and language will drift, your home will eventually crumble out from under you, your shoreline will erode and change, your climate will transform, your tectonic plate will subduct or shatter, your moon's orbit will slow and tidally lock, and eventually your sun will start burning helium and cook your planet. You don't want "forever" to look like that, you want it to look like your twenties felt. But at that point you aren't fighting the Big Mean Dragon That Eats People, you're fighting the ocean and the biosphere and the earth and the stars, trying to hold them in place against entropy so your immortality can have an equally immortal world to enjoy it in. No, this argument doesn't want true immortality, it wants their twenties to last longer. But it can't admit that.

Back to the story. There's a condescending and spiteful tone in the narration. Death (being eaten by a big mean dragon) is OBVIOUSLY awful and we should all be fighting as hard as we can to make it stop happening. Even a child can see it.

The story even helpfully adds a lengthy moral explanation at the end, in case you didn't understand that the dragon was the inevitability of death and we should dedicate all our resources to figuring out how to make a big rocket and shoot it.

"Nobody should ever die" is generally understood to be a childish dream with extremely obvious and unpleasant consequences that would turn its realization into an unending and waking nightmare, and once out of the confines of easy metaphor, the story tries to act like that wasn't what it was just saying. But its more realistic proposed substitute, "It would be great if people could live longer and have more healthy, youthful years in them," is probably the world's most uncontroversial statement. This story frames it like a bold revelation that the world will attempt to beat down and crush out of a misguided acceptance that Big Mean Dragon comes for us all. It's a morality fable whose conclusion is "I hope science improves the length and quality of our lives, potentially even to the point where we never have to die at all," which has been the number one goal of huge swaths of science since the invention of agriculture. This is not a bold or controversial take. It's just being written as though we're all looking at the naked emperor and pretending he's wearing pants.

#asks #not aurora