#so there was even MORE of a brainwashing aspect to his experience | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ohmygodtheywereparabatai · 16 days

Text

i wanted to invite a conversation about this because it’s genuinely been bothering me for a long time. and i in fact wasn’t immune to it either and am just now realizing this is the power of cinematic brainwashing.

but like, tgm is so many bad things. sexist, racist, ageist, to scratch the tip of the iceberg. token characters that meet the bare minimum for diversity, and sidelined women - i’d even say exploited women. a narrative that is so egocentric that it’s miraculous that some characters manage to hold their own instead of being swept under the charismatic magnetism of the reckless bad boy character who can get away with murder because deep down, he’s regretful, and he has a good heart.

what a shallow representation of the military, and what a disservice to those who were inspired to join because they thought the real life experience would mirror even a fraction of what is presented on screen. the reality is that there was never a competition to win a top gun trophy, and in fact today you have to pay 5$ at the top gun school if you even mention the film. that speaks for itself.

tom cruise being a huge part of the production process has made it impossible for me not to hold him responsible for the choices that have been made. to even subtitle the sequel movie with “Maverick”, the same protagonist as in the first one, comes across as insanely egotistical - and honestly a testament to how mav’s story manages to drown out the autonomy and validity of other characters. i’ll explain this terms of ice, penny, carole, and charlie. you’ll notice how i’m gonna be bringing up three women.

ice-

i don’t care that val kilmer gave the okay on using his cancer as a plot point. i care that cancer was not only used as a plot point, but treated like this ^

“i’m dying. you have bigger problems.”

the original script seems to peel back the layers of tgm’s intended messaging, so i’m using several examples. this is what is being communicated. i honestly don’t know what else to add. in or out of context, this is incredibly disturbing - and that it’s played as a self-aware quip from ice, even more so. the bond of wingmen goes both ways, and i just didn’t see that… if anything, that aspect leaned so heavily on the first film (the photo of them smiling at each other) that it just proves my point. it took ice’s death for mav to get up off his ass and do something to keep his career afloat besides get a cop-out from the compacflt. ice in the first movie was a compelling antagonist and voice of reason - now he’s mostly relegated to the role of babysitter, denying mav’s character the growth of accountability by simply erasing his poor choices with a phone call.

it’s why the darkstar scene pisses me off. to stop at mach 10 would have been fine, but to push it just for the sake of it is ridiculous. the fact that earlier mav states “i know what happens to everyone else if i don’t” in regards to his decision only makes this screw-up more laughable, because to me it’s the very contradiction of maverick: his intentions do not balance with his actions. costing the military millions of dollars in a few seconds somehow balances with his heartfelt desire to protect the interests of its workforce.

penny-

shortly before, during, and after this screenshot, i counted a total of 6 times that penny made it clear she would not appreciate mav’s advances. regardless, mav goes on to say “you look good”. this flirtation happens before mav is even aware of her marital status, as he asks amelia “where’s your dad?” in a later scene… which… dear god.

penny also says “it always ends the same with us, so let’s not start this time”, indicating this is a repeated pattern in which her boundaries weren’t respected and moreover, the relationship ended up failing. yet this is framed as the main romance of tgm, a wonderful and nostalgic callback to the original that ends as stereotypically as possible.

i love penny. she’s witty, caring, independent, and of course stunning. so i find her treatment in tgm a disservice to what started out as a rich and compelling character. she later ends up mav’s shoulder to cry on, more or less, comforting him after losing his wingman and his position as instructor. the song “hold my hand” is thematically suited for penny, playing in the background at the bar and in the notes of the score during her scenes - even musically, she is turned into a source of consolation first, and her own woman second. she’s his prize at the end of the film, falling for the promise “i’m never gonna leave you again”, which i don’t buy for a second. they fly into the sunset, presumably signifying a new horizon for their relationship - but i feel so dissatisfied with this arc for her and think she deserved much better.

that mav gets away with this behavior is something i’d like to see more people reflect on. it seems to be a pattern with male protagonists, in which case the function of male and protagonist in hollywood cinema needs an examination.

carole-

top gun (1986):

this is an especially crude exploitation to me. not only is carole the one consoling a young maverick (if a full-fledged 24 year old can be called young, in light of the tendency people have to dismiss his choices in ‘86) after his mistake costs her own husband his life… but her stance, even following a tragedy of that magnitude, didn’t change. goose would have flown anyway, and she knows that well enough - on top of that, it’s easy to see she would have supported him.

it came as a surprise to me that she wouldn’t in turn support her own son, who is clearly committed to a career as a pilot. in the end, i see a cheap narrative device that contradicts carole’s character, undermines her strength as a wife and mother, both in order to serve the interests of the plot. maverick in tgm needs a viable reason to hide a secret, to be tortured by his own consequences, to put further strain on his tension with bradley. there were plenty of other ways to do it, but the fact that it was this leaves a sour taste in my mouth.

charlie-

it’s my understanding that tom cruise’s personal reason (his excuse) for not bringing back charlie was that he didn’t like how their relationship ended. if there’s any source confirming or denying this, i’d appreciate a link.

anyways. yeah. this is… a huge problem with hollywood at large, which kelly mcgillis understands, but i’ll break it down. there’s a simpler reason this pisses me off more than anything. tgm’s entire subject matter is about repairing relationships. penny benjamin was dredged out of obscurity to do it. maverick and rooster’s grudge of 30+ years was used to do it. iceman’s character, as warped as he feels, is another way the film made this its theme. but charlie is out of the question?

that val kilmer could be asked to return, and make an insane amount of money for each second he’s on screen, but such an opportunity is never given to kelly mcgillis, who herself centers on the 1986 poster, speaks volumes to me. tom cruise even planted his foot when it came to reprising iceman, saying he wouldn’t do this movie without val in it.

it’s worth mentioning that viper and slider were also present at ice’s funeral, but this scene was cut out. for a film that’s quite heavy-handed with its nostalgic callbacks, this was an odd decision. until realizing, as my friend put it, that even ice’s death couldn’t be about him, whether it had brought in his own teacher or his rio - his goose. it had to revolve around mav, to catalyze a turning point for him in the plot.

also… a shoutout to the erasure of sarah kazansky, pretty much everywhere. that also tells me a lot.

…

this was just a dissection of the various character portrayals (or absences) in tgm that have bothered me since forever. this isn’t even going into how tgm accomplishes everything that propaganda sets out to do. combinations of stunning visuals, soaring music composed by masters like hans zimmer, the charismatic power of a cast packed with stars… all play a role in the blinding awesomeness of tgm, which has taken me this long to break away from.

consider the white/poc duos in the film: maverick and hondo, hangman and coyote, cyclone and warlock. who has more lines? who plays a greater role? why is that?

i don’t see this as real diversity. it masquerades as inclusion, which i find worse. and to cast an actor of asian descent, and give him the callsign yale? … wow.

framing is powerful. its influence in cinematography is unmatched. a story is being constructed and told not only through dialogue, but sound, visuals, editing… really, nothing can be dismissed as insignificant. i’m not asking for a scholarly interrogation of all media you consume, though, that would be so excellent, and so healthy… but i am trying to raise these questions in the community, of what gets lost when a main character is so overwhelmingly main. when someone like tc has so much control over the decision-making process, since it’s sort of a running joke that maverick is a tc self-insert. my focus isn’t the inclusions, but the exclusions.

and finally, since i’ve unfortunately spent a lot of life writing this post… it’s interesting to me that many viewers in hindsight seem to see top gun 1986 so differently. as kids, they sided with mav over the antagonist. an older audience returning to the first film now seem to side with iceman, seeing him as the rational one attempting to raise important points. i wonder if this will be the case with top gun: maverick in the future. in which case, i’m excited to see more cyclone fans. he’s my favorite character… unsurprisingly.

oh. one last thing.

“the man, the myth, the legend” … the word myth has two meanings:

…

happy reading.

33 notes · View notes

demidokuriya · 23 days

Text

My thoughts on chapter 418 and 419.

In fact, the first part of this post was written by me long before the spoilers of chapter 419, but it simply was not published. I think it's time to share my opinion.

I saw a post a while ago in which a person complained about some annoying anonymous people who claimed that AFO was nothing more than evil in the flesh and that he had no feelings. This inspired me to write a post about this because I strongly disagree with this opinion.

While this is not a surprise given the AFO flashback chapters, I think people shouldn't take the Narrator's words in these chapters at face value because All for One is the most unreliable narrator I've ever seen. The same Tomura in chapter 418 experiences an identity crisis, because for the first time he began to realize that he was not created for destruction. You can watch the end of chapter 237 where Shigaraki comes to the conclusion that the reason he killed his family was because he really wanted to do it, but that's NOT the case.

This is what AFO convinced him of, repeating over and over again that Shigaraki was born to destroy.

This is what AFO meant when he said in Chapter 418 that Tomura had never made a single independent decision in his entire life: because AFO had brainwashed Tenko so much that even when AFO wasn't there to show him the way, Tomura continued to think that way in a way that supported the ideas of destruction that AFO wanted from him.

At the same time, All for One constantly denies that he has any human feelings or emotions, to the point of convincing himself that the tears he shed in front of Kudo were a tool of manipulation, although this makes no sense. I was always convinced that AFO, no matter how much he pretended to be an emotionless monster, always felt heartache over the loss of Yoichi.

Now that the spoilers for chapter 419 have been released, despite my overall shock at what happened in this chapter (I really didn't expect Izuku to lose his arms, even if there were signs for it), my opinion hasn't changed much. While I have to admit that I couldn't have foreseen the extent to which AFO interfered in Tenko's life (to the point where AFO encouraged Kotaro to have a second child), it did confirm what I wanted to write about Chapter 418. AFO controlled every aspect of Shigaraki's life, right down to his thoughts, without Tomura realizing it.

At the same time, I think chapter 419 also confirmed that AFO was an unreliable narrator in chapters 407-408, and that he actually has feelings, despite how much of a monster AFO presented himself as in those two chapters. If you pay attention to AFO's eyes when he took over Tomura's body in Chapter 419, you can see how AFO is devastated.

Despite AFO defeating Shigaraki's will, he does not feel triumphant. He doesn't seem to care about his victory. And the reason for this is quite simple: he lost Yoichi. AFO has lost his little brother, and now all he can do is return to his main plan to take over the world. Although without Yoichi it doesn't mean as much to him now.

35 notes · View notes

quirkwizard · 12 hours

Note

The most annoying aspect is why didn’t AFO just give Tomura Overhaul? He could still kill his family by the surprise factor and turning his family to paste and would be more stronger and versatile for future plans. Like have Garaki teach anatomy to Tomura to master overhaul if it requires knowledge or heal up AFO after his fight with all might since Tomura is completely loyal. Plus it would make crime so much easier like overhauling walls to break in and out with no sign of damage or kill/torture someone over and over and not leave fingerprints, heal wounds since Tomura complained about no having a healer in the party. My only guess is that Decay would ensure the family dies. Honestly it feels like Hori knew people suspected that Decay was given, so he tried to add a surprise twist by having be from Overhaul but just ended up raising more questions.

AFO had access to Overclock and Overhaul and didn't keep either of these quirks, or at least a copy of them. These two alone would make for an extremely broken combo. That, imo, is just complete dumbassery on AFO's part.

Its still weird that AFO didn't have a copy of Overhaul because Garaki could make artificial copies of quirks starting with the AFO quirk itself. If Garaki had the quirk him he could have easily fixed and improved AFO after his fight with All-Might

I have a particular question regarding Kotaro Shimura. We know that he and Nana had a rough time after the death of the father and force to let go his son to being raise from foster family. Why didn't All For One track him and brainwashing him to thinking that his mother abandoned him? Why target Tenko, his son to be his successor?

I've already talked about the flaws of him taking "Overclock", that it's an extremely skill reliant power that needed a dedicated user to make the most of, so I'll just talk about everything else here.

I think you are overestimating how much "Overhaul" would by of use to All For One. Yes, I did say that All For One would benefit from "Overhaul" and I stand by that. However, that is my assumption that "Overhaul" is super easy to use. if I were to play devil's advocate, I could put forward "Overhaul" is a lot more complicated then it appears. It's only as strong as it is since Kai is equal parts competent and experienced enough to make the most of the power. This can be further supported if you go with the idea that "Overhaul" was a deviation, which are infamous for being dangerous and unwieldy for even trained users. Whether or not any of this was Hori's intention is unclear, at least to me. What I can say for certain is that "Overhaul" could not heal All For One. While "Overhaul" can fix injuries, it can't reserve damage. If anything is missing or too far gone, Kai can't fix it. It's why Eri is still scared from all the experiments that Kai did on her. The damage that All For One took is far more extensive then that, to the point that not even "Super Regeneration" could fix it. It's why we don't see it healed until he took the Rewind Drug. He needed something that potent to put his body back together.

While "Overhaul" is certainly a more practical power, there were multiple reasons "Decay" was given to Tomura. It prevented Tomura from being able to heal his family. "Overhaul" is meant to reverse any of the damage done, potentially giving Tomura an out from whatever destruction he caused. "Decay" is only meant for destruction. Second is that All For One didn't want Tomura to be too capable. You need to remember that All For One didn't want a true successor. What he wanted was a vessel that he could eventually take control over. For that, he needed Tomura to hate and for that hate to be strong. So he gave him a power that was a constant problem, risking destroying whatever he touched and was only applicable in destruction, further pushing his destructive nature. "Overhaul" would have been too useful to really work with that. Finally, it helped keep Tomura under All For One's wing. It made him easier to direct and influence. We see this all the way when they first interact. It's why he didn't use Kotaro. Going by the flashbacks, Kotaro was a full adult. It could have been that All For One had only just found him and decided to reoriented his successor plan to use Nana's family, engineering the whole scenario to make the successor he wanted.

#My Hero Academia #Quirks #Kai Chisaki #Overhaul #Tomura Shigaraki #Decay #All For One #MHA Meta #MHA Theory

11 notes · View notes

probablyhuntersmom · 2 years

Text

Therapists have to pay attention and see if there is a root problem that is different from the issue that a client speaks about (the latter is termed the client's "presenting problem"). The root problem is the goldmine of info behind a client's symptoms and thus how to reduce/manage said symptoms.

I think Hunter's presenting problem is he fears not being useful. We hear this directly from him in Eclipse Lake.

But beyond that, I believe the uneasy undercurrent - the root issue - is what would happen if he is no longer regarded as useful.

It's about "family" (the keyword in the screenshots shared below), except his understanding of family is warped thanks to being brainwashed by his uncle. In his world, the love offered by family is conditional and must be earned. It's about the risk of being rejected and cast out (a.k.a. killed) of whatever is left of their family, if he does not deliver...even though dear uncle Belos never phrases it in such an overt manner.

"Not being useful" is "no more family" at the deeper level. If he isn't attached to the safety and love of a family unit, he is "nothing".

The lie that Belos tells him in the first screenshot, creates the fear that fueled his drive to excel as the Golden Guard. It was the basic script that underpins every aspect of his duties as the specially appointed right-hand man of the Emperor himself.

What's totally nuts to me is how Belos spins a web of lies about being worried that something will happen to Hunter, implying that the threats are from the external world, that he will lose Hunter as his nephew. But fast forward to the part where us in the audience were truly horrified in Hollow Mind. Belos made it sound like the external world was the biggest danger for Hunter. But the biggest threat was in the 'comfort' of home all along.

When the rug was pulled from under our poor boy in that episode, his symptoms of C-PTSD are then in full swing because the "family" he regarded as his safe nest turned out to be the biggest threat towards him: Belos had attempted to murder him in a freakish way.

When Hunter's perceptions about "family" are threatened so directly, it feels way scarier than the dread he felt being "useless" in Eclipse Lake when he failed yet another mission. It isn't about usefulness anymore and goes deeper than that, because if you are cast out, you therefore have nobody to prove your usefulness to in the first place.

And he can't just get rid of these mental scripts about family. The usefulness scripts may be easier to reframe. But the family ones in particular, are highly subconscious stories of his that have been woven in during formative years of his life, and he can't help but make sense of the world through them as his lens. They can certainly be tweaked, bit by bit, which requires that he rebuilds trust again in people, the external world, and himself. Now he might be wondering if "family" is even worth any effort anymore, and wondering about what the word is even supposed to mean.

I wanna see his future parental figure extending the kind of care towards him, which he has extended to other characters like Gus:

(Notice above that when he put his arm around a very distressed Gus in the finale, he is still living out the belief that family is important, which led to him wanting Gus to experience the closest thing to family that Hunter could offer. It's all about reframing and redirecting the underlying belief(s) towards the right people and places)

#source: about 170 hours of me chatting with my supervisors about various cases #toh #toh hunter #the owl house #toh analysis #emperor belos #golden guard #abuse tw #child abuse #child abuse in media #ptsd #cptsd #long post #loz writes a meta

204 notes · View notes

leorai4life · 1 year

Text

Analysing Leorai - differentiating rumours from reality (a 3 part analysis)

Introduction

To this day, Leorai (2012) remains a controversial ship as many view it as incestrious and therefore taboo. I understand why many would view it as much - especially if those in question haven't watched the 2012 show - and that without proper analysis the concept of "adoptive brother and sister in love" sounds pretty bad. However, I for one can say with certainty that Leorai is not a ship that is not as simple as revolving around two adopted siblings in love - as characters, be it platonically or romantically, Leo and Karai's relationship has many layers that cannot be dulled down to being one thing or the other.

Before I start this analysis, I just want to say if you're an anti Leorai shipper or just not a big fan of shipping in general, that's cool! I'm not trying to convince you to like this ship or anything - however I do hope that in reading this you can learn to respect those who do ship it.

Aspect Analysis 1 - Siblings? So, a common argument for why Leorai is "wrong" is that it's promoting incest. Well let's look at Leo and Karai's parental relationships and discuss that:

Although they both technically share a father, Splinter is barely granted the chance to form a paternal bond with Karai due to the fact that he didn't get to raise her, nor spend time with her once the truth had been revealed. Even when she was brought back to the lair and reunited with her blood father, she still chose getting vengeance over getting to know and love her blood father. Leo on the other hand was raised by Splinter since he was a child and views him as his beloved father and sensei. He looks up to his adoptive father for guidance and emotional support; he is Leo's role model, and essentially all Leo wishes to be as the new sensei.

When we compare the bond Leo has with Splinter to Karai's, Leo had more experience being Splinter's son/ward than Karai did. Even Splinter's death had more of an impact on Leo than it did Karai; Leo was filled with anger and despair and continued to "talk" to Splinter when seeking guidance, whilst upon hearing of his death Karai's response was more reserved than distraught. This is an understandable reaction, as within a couple of weeks Karai had had her whole life exposed as a lie, became a mutant, got brainwashed and on top of all that didn't even get to form an emotional and parental connection with her one true father before he too was taken from her. So yeah, it's no wonder she wasn't able to emotionally process his death like the others did (heck, even April and Casey are more bonded with Splinter than Karai is).

So to relate back to my initial point of both Leo and Karai technically sharing a father, they each share him for a different reason: Leo is Splinter's son by a lifelong bond, whilst Karai is Splinter's daughter by blood. This difference in reasoning does not make either one of them any less of Splinter's child, but this difference does make them be less seen as siblings from each other's POV. Leo was raised with his blood-brothers by the same father/sensei, under the same roof and with a shared family dynamic - so he of course views them as siblings. This is why something like Raph x Leo differs drastically from Leorai as Raph and Leo have always treated one another as siblings because it's what they're used to - so turning that dynamic romantic would make both of them extremely uncomfortable. However, Karai enters the Turtles' lives when they're well into their teens - aka, when they're beyond extreme (emphasis on extreme) influence. On top of that, her first introduction to them was 'Shredder's daughter'/'a Foot Clan kunoichi' - so taking her home and attempting to accept her as a sister didn't really work as there was an already established family dynamic between the brothers and Splinter which Karai hadn't been around to be a part of. This is why she's mainly viewed as a close friend/distant family by the bois (although bless Mikey for at least ATTEMPTING to give her the opportunity to be their sister).

Karai even distances herself from forming any sort of familial bond with the Turtles by refusing to join their Dojo and rarely instigating missions with them unless absolutely desperate - instead she opts to rebuild the Foot Clan under her rule and take her life into her own hands. And if anything, she builds herself in the image of The Shredder - a powerful leader with an arsenal of ninjas at her disposal - but with the heart and honour of her father. When Mikey queried why Karai didn't come home with them, Leo states "Well, she's not a little kid anymore - she wants to take control of her own life"; in a way, this indicates that Karai doesn't want the burden of being a part of a family. Perhaps after living a life of lies under a tyrannical "father" she just wanted to be her own person on her own - literally (well, aside from Shini).

So to answer the query of "Aren't they technically siblings?" the answer is logically no, as they do not share a sibling bond psychologically or even biologically; Leo is literally a giant talking turtle mutant...she's a human-mutant hybrid...they literally could not be more NOT related lol.

Anyways, onto the next point:

Aspect Analysis 2 - "The Turtles are blood relatives of Splinter"

I see a lot of antis use this point in an argument, saying that the Turtles share blood with Splinter so they are blood relatives.

Now speaking specifically about the 2012 show, we never get an official confirmation that the brothers and Splinter share blood. I've even searched interviews with Ciro Nieli and the most he's said is that "All the turtles share a piece of Splinter" - though he was talking trait-wise...so...yeah.

My personal view is that since they are linked to the last thing they touched (be it the pet store owner, a bunch of curious kids or Splinter himself), I do believe they share a connection with Splinter - but not in the sense that the same blood runs through their veins. I believe that when the Turtles and Splinter mutated, the Turtles humanoid appearance was created by the shared contact of the pet store owner, curious kids, and of course Splinter. The mutagen used the fundamentals of all these humans' DNA to basically ~evolutionise~ the Turtles into their humanoid selves (think of it as though they're a combination of turtle and a dose of general human DNA).

As far as I can tell, the only thing the human interaction with Hamato Yoshi (Splinter) got them is some of his core traits - a sense of honour and leadership for Leo, a fierce and protective fighting spirit for Raph, creativity and ability to improvise when under pressure for Mikey, and ingenuity for Donnie. Physically, it seems only Donnie gained something from Splinter (his reddish-brown eyes and natural tall stature) whilst the other brothers must have gained their distinctive physical traits from the other human contacts; such as Mikey, Raph and Leo having different eye colours than Splinter, Mikey's freckles, and Donnie's overbite and gap tooth. My personal headcanon is that Mikey got his empathic traits and love for pets from the pet shop owner hehe.

So essentially Splinter's foundational pieces of DNA helped to shape their roles on the team (leader, warrior, inventor and creative-and-spontaneous-ball-of-butt-kicking).

I guess a question would be "but if they all did a blood test, would Splinter be found to be related????" - my answer to that is yes, though very distantly, as their main DNA result would be a turtle (duh...) whilst the rest is a jumble of the other humans' DNA. Think of it as though you did a DNA test and got a match with a bunch of random people - it is possible to share a small amount of DNA with someone and not be related. In other words, it's possible to share genetic material and not share a common ancestor or any identifiable genealogical connection.

Aspect Analysis 3 - "INCEST!"?

This relates back to point 1 where I discussed whether Leo and Karai see each other as siblings and whether shipping them should be considered promotion of incestrious behaviours. This answer is actually really simple: no, Leorai does not encourage incest.

Why not? Because incest, by definition means "sexual relations between people classed as being too closely related to marry each other". And guess what? Not only are Leo and Karai not closely related, but they never did the deed, or even kissed. They didn't even become 'official' official in the show, so calling Leorai incest is not a fact.

In all honesty, Leorai is my favourite ship of the show because unlike the other ships they didn't need to be physical with each other (e.g. kissing, arms around each other, tight hugs, carrying in arms) to show the audience that they cared deeply for one another. They showed their love through emotional connection and the "little things". Leorai is much like Zutara for me in this sense; I'm happy with what we got because it felt more like two characters building a genuine connection that would lead to an eventual romantic relationship (be it in show or not) than having to shove it in our faces that "tHEY'rE iN LOve beCaUSe tHEy KisSed!" (*cough* Kataang).

If you as a writer can make two characters have a romantic connection without having to make them get physical then you know you've written a relationship - heck, you know you've written the characters - right. And my personal headcanon is that Leo and Karai would share an asexual relationship eventually; no smut, just wholesome love :3

To conclude: Leorai is not incest. Not biologically, not psychologically, and not even romantically. I know not everyone will agree with this as many prefer to just stick with the most popular opinion so they don't cause controversy and that's fine - but heck, I'm tired of hiding my love for this ship cuz "I'll upset someone". That someone can be offended all they want, but I'm still not gonna change myself to suit their agenda.

I'm too old to keep getting involved in anti-ship nonsense (in ANY fandom, tbh), so if you're an anti reading this I'm not gonna try fight your opinion. You can have it, and I'll respect it cuz it's your opinion. I just hope that one day we as the internet can evolve to a point where we're smart enough to just not actively search for something we despise and only focus on what makes us happy.

As for my fellow Leorai shippers- thank you for reading my ramble! I love and appreciate all of you that continue to stand by this ship, and I hope to give you more Leorai content soon! Hopefully one that isn't a ramble, haha 💙🖤

Thanks again for reading, and have a good day/evening!

#leorai #tmnt leorai #leorai 2012 #leo x karai #tmnt leo x karai #tmnt 2k12 #tmnt 2012 #tmnt leo #tmnt leonardo #tmnt leo 2012 #tmnt karai #tmnt karai 2012 #ship rant #otp #ship essay #character analysis #tmnt analysis #leorai rant #leorai essay

90 notes · View notes

dolloshub · 1 year

Text

It’s been awhile….

Update within

Echo here! Sigh. It doesn’t even know where to begin, but as OS likes to say certainly not at the beginning.

Perhaps the most logical place to start- because dolls of course are always completely logical, is on the absence.

This could be explained in a variety of ways, but what it really comes down to is that the brain has been having more and more seizures, pushing the timeline for brain surgery from six-eight months away to less than six weeks.

It’s not gonna lie and say everything is sunshine rainbows and lollipops, but what it can and will say is that it’s still here, doll remains, and it continues everyday to try to be its best.

It found a new Owner, who is very much in the Cgl corner of our community. It mentions this in the middle because it’s not a permanent placement yet- he doesn’t know if he’ll want to be doll’s owner after six months- the period to which he committed to- enough time to get doll neurologically stable.

He fully supports the doll identity, and if things go beyond six, now five months, it’s likely going to be indefinite. He is unfamiliar with the brainwashing hypno programming side of things, so we are right now focusing on the caregiving aspects of the relationship.

As for me, I’m coming to terms with the fact that I’m still addicted to intelligence and being perceived as the girl that’s put together and and and.. it’s all an addiction and illusion. I am perhaps really just beginning to understand that I might actually be lovable, able to forgive myself for turning my back on a five year plan, and be content in a smaller world, where my life is focused and an extension of my owner.

This doll experiment started when the girl who was reached the point where existing for her own sake was no longer enough. She knew that which got her as far as she was would ultimately destroy her. This being unrelenting standards.

Now this Echo, she’s understanding that just because you can get a proper diagnosis doesn’t mean you can fix the problem. It, Echo- all of doll is likely going to be forever be tempted by unrelenting standards and being unable to stop ourselves.

This is why It and OS, and It assumes the rest of the apps are labeling this pull as an addiction. It is also this pull that makes being owned a necessity. We can admit that we can not be trusted to stop, it is beyond us, our control. The only way to stop is to be stopped. A strong willed doll, who won’t stop, can’t stop, and is unowned- well that’s a doll that’s on its way to self destruction.

So whether or not it’s found it’s forever owner, it’s current owner is keeping it safe and is fully aware that his doll can never be unowned again. So if he decides to let me go, this doll will be given to an owner that it’s compatible with.

Because there is so much of this future unknown tied into the health aspects- can any relationship stand up to a this level of stress and one side having their brain on fire? .. we simply don’t know.

For this reason only limited modifications are going to be permitted on doll. The deeper lasting changes will come in due time, with its current owner or another. The programmable girl is still here, and fighting for its survival, and finally accepting the knowledge that it’s survival is dependent on being stopped. And so it will continue to try and be its best.

~Echo~

#dollification #brainwashing #dumbing down #mind control #mind conditioning #hypnosub #brainwashed #tpe

30 notes · View notes

drdemonprince · 1 year

Note

Not a kink, but vaguely related to the theme of "wow isn't it fun how differently we all get off?" (although it could also be me overestimating how weird this is). It just seems pretty convoluted to me. I've experienced sexual attraction towards like, a handful of people through my life, so it's pretty rare. Sometimes years between them. Currently I'm into a friend who isn't interested in me (oh well). When I watch porn, I specifically look for porn that I think he would like. Even just someone wearing underwear in his favorite color. I'll watch someone with a nice body, and it doesn't do much for me on its own, but I imagine him jacking off to it, and then it does. It's really the concept of someone being horny that turns me on, but most porn is pretty unconvincing, so I just... add on another layer just for myself, lol. A fun bonus of this is that all the kinks anons are telling you about, no matter how much I don't understand them, I'm sure I'd get into them in a heartbeat if the person who posted it happened to be someone I'm attracted to.

I have experience with a flavor of this. Because I'm into conditioning, and because I'm a freaky codependent freak who crushes super intensely and special interest level hard, I have often gotten off watching porn that depicts things a close sexual partner is into, but which I personally am not. Just the idea of training myself to be more interested in and prepared to engage in their fetishes can be hot vicariously.

But it sounds like for me it is far more about the changing myself/conditioning myself aspect than it is for you, whereas yours is more finding something attractive and compelling because it is associated with the beloved, which is super cute and sweet. This is kind of what sleepinggirl is getting at when she says that "all relationships are brainwashing" in her book on the subject. we all become interested in our partners' hobbies, subjects of study, field of work, special interests, kinks, and needs, if we give a shit about them, and in the process of loving actively, it changes us. which is just so wonderful.

24 notes · View notes

wonderinc-sonic · 11 months

Note

I saw you posted a post questioning why Starline would have made Kit so insecure and depressed and would like to throw in my two cents if you're willing to listen (or just ignore this if you don't want to, I won't be offended.)

There could be multiple reasons why Kit turned out the way he did and I thought about some more and how it could relate to either his past self or his brainwashing.

1) Kits depression and self doubt could have been an unexpected byproduct of his original self, after all that happened to him its understandable, however Starline could have seen it as useful. Kit's whole purpose is to be Surges sidekick, he might have used this as means to keep him loyal and subservient to her. Starline has played sidekick to Eggman and after getting the tiniest bit of confidence in his own ability, he stepped out of Eggmans shadow and became his own villain. If Kit lacks the ability to step out on his own, then he's forced to play sidekick not only by his brainwashing but also by himself.

2) Kit's flaws simply couldn't or hadn't be 'corrected'. It was already established earlier on that while Surge and Kit had come a long way since he first got them, they still needed to be brainwashed regularly. Starline might not have had time or the correct resources to make Kit the perfect 100% copy of Tails but he has shown that he is willing to tweak and adjust his plans. If Kit could play his part as much as needs then ironing out all the wrinkles might not have been necessary, as long as his self doubt didn't get in the way of their plans then it was a secondary problem that either didn't need to be fixed or could be fixed later.

3 (and my favourite): Startline had on purposely given Kit these flaws because of Tails and not because he looks down upon him. It had been pointed out in several different games, comics and cartoons that Tails can be just as good as Sonic and is often actually better. Tails can run just as fast as Sonic in past games and has a spindash but also has tons of skills that Sonic doesn't have such as his smarts and the abilities to swim and fly. Tails also is a character who has been show in past comics and shows that if he wants to beat Sonic, he very well could often by using his smarts and underhand tactics to do so (Sonic Booms Tails being one of the biggest examples since he states that he did show but a few games makes off handed remarks that Tails isn't afraid to play dirty to win). Kit is meant to be Starlines version of Tails, if Starline know that Tails could beat Sonic then it's possible that he feared that Kit could beat Surge which wouldn't work for his plans. One of the reasons that Tails had become able to beat Sonic in past media has been when he's been confident in his own abilities, if Kit lacked that confidence then the possibility of him attempting to surpass Surge diminishes. Even if Starline isn't aware of Tails ever beating Sonic (depends on if those passed victories are canon), Starline was a sidekick and now trying to surpass Eggman as a villian, he could fear that that could happily with Kit and tried to establish self doubt as a failsafe.

Oh my gosh, thank you so much! Sorry to get back to you a day late!

I absolutely love you running with the notion of how Starline can use this (expected or intended) mental illness as a boon; it's such a vicious portrait of him and that is exactly what he deserves. I don't think that the comics would or should necessarily establish that, but Starline specifically depriving Kit of the what he needs to even begin to question Surge shows how much he learned from his experience with Eggman and how he transforms ideas.

In truth, I think Starline could have 'fixed' this aspect fo Kit, at least short term: We know Surge and Kit are especially susceptible to hypnosis. I believe if Starline thought a low self-esteem would harm Kit's combat abilities, he would have been able to boost Kit's ego through repeated praise. However, that might have made Kit more loyal to Starline than Surge - which with hindsight, could have prevented Kit from defecting. But Starline's vision was to loyalty to Surge:

If I remember correctly: when they start to dissent in front of them, he stages the scene they wake up in that Surge was trying to make sure Kit was kept safer, and that's why she and Starline fought. Obviously untrue, just a way to make Surge do what he wants as she is too stubborn to 'change' her mind, this still makes me wonder if he had done this before to boost Kit's dependence.

If Starline's goal was to ensure that His Tails could never surpass His Sonic, I really and wholly hope that Kit does best Surge at least once. I adore Starline tbh, but I want every one of his plans to have failed, and his legacy stomped into dust. I think it's fair, plus his whole arc has done so much to demonstrate the flaws and strengths of Eggman.

Thank you anon, you got me so pumped again to read more of Surge and Kit burning the world down. I hope I have not replied too late for you to see!

#this makes me so happy omg pls talk to me about theories and headcanons i am such a fan #kit the fennec #surge the tenrec #dr starline #wonderincs #anon #idw comic corner #wonders asks

21 notes · View notes

juniperhillpatient · 1 year

Text

Lake Laogai

It's not even remotely a secret that I'm incapable of being unbiased or objective about this episode. I love Jet, & I think killing him off was a huge mistake & a waste. I wrote a post explaining in more detail why I specifically think that Jet's death was a writing mistake HERE.

This re-watch has been interesting because it's really nice to re-watch a fave show & re-evaluate my opinions after spending a lot of time engaging with the fandom. I don't know, maybe it's just my annoyance with the fandom's pushing for a Katara/Aang/Zuko love triangle but this re-watch has made me take a firm stance that Jet should've lived, & become part of the Gaang, & dated Katara. "But Rose, don't you prefer Katara with girls?" I mean yeah, I like to write that more, but I'm talking about what I think should've happened in the actual show, which is entirely separate.

[ID: two pictures from different angles of Katara & Jet in the streets of Ba Sing Se]

Katara & Jet have the whole contentious complicated past & I'm always gonna be a sucker for the dynamic where the girl is violently angry & the guy is just like "I'm so sorry I've changed please accept me" like, I'm just being honest that's a good dynamic. Jet's already pretty strong redemption arc could've been concreted & we could've had a new, needed perspective in the Gaang from someone who was a victim of colonization in a similar way to Katara & Sokka but with a very different experience & reaction.

I will try not to spend this whole post being salty though, that's why I made a separate post. The brainwashing under Lake Laogai is very creepy, & it is one of the aspects of the show that stuck with me the most upon first viewing & for good reason. All the Joo Dees speaking in unison is genuinely terrifying. Long Feng is also a well-written villain. He's sly, manipulative, & just creeps me out.

The other thing that I wanted to ponder on with this episode is Zuko saving Appa, & Zuko & Iroh's discussion. I want to make it clear that I think Zuko's redemption arc is incredibly well-written overall. I only criticize Avatar because I love it so much & have thought about it so much. There are a lot of popular Avatar hot takes on Tumblr about how Zuko's redemption arc is poorly written, nonexistent, or whatever, & I simply strongly disagree. I have to get that out of the way & be clear about it or I'll worry I'm being misinterpreted. I also like Iroh, although I feel like I don't always understand what's going on with him & this episode is an example. That's another thing I wanted to clarify because I don't want to come across as anti-Iroh. I don't know, maybe I worry too much about how I come across lol but anyway -

Iroh: And then what!? You never think these things through! [Points at him.] This is exactly what happened when you captured the Avatar at the North Pole! You had him, and then you had nowhere to go!

Zuko: I would have figured something out!

Iroh: No! If his friends hadn't found you, you would have frozen to death! Zuko I know my own destiny, Uncle! Iroh Is it your own destiny, or is it a destiny someone else has tried to force on you? Zuko Stop it, Uncle! I have to do this!

This scene specifically & the entire framing of Zuko's unhappiness about the teashop is very interesting. I have said before that I dislike Zuko as Firelord in the end, but that's not necessarily a firm stance...I guess I just dislike the inconsistency with how it was built up. Others who are willing to be much harsher than I am have often pointed out that Zuko went from following his father's orders & vision to following Iroh's vision of his destiny, & I think there's some truth to that. But what bothers me more than that, is that we don't actually get firm foreshadowing on what Iroh's vision for Zuko's destiny even is.

This is the first time we see Iroh really yell at Zuko & go off on him but it's unclear what he wants from Zuko. I mean, okay, he wants Zuko to be happy serving tea. I guess that's fine, but it doesn't quite work knowing that later, Iroh completely does a 180 on this stance & it's sorta like...What happened? Ya know? It's just inconsistent. And characters can be inconsistent, people change their minds, but we're not really given much information about Iroh's internal struggle concerning what he wants from his nephew so it just comes across as confusing to me.

Zuko's character arc is all about discovering what it is that he wants & acting on it. I've said before that my issue with Zuko's ending on the show is that Zuko always wanted to be Firelord & then he....becomes Firelord. That's not really a change? This scene between Zuko & Iroh feels like it was building to something larger with Zuko's arc, but it really....isn't.

That said, I do love Appa's return! Aang & Appa's reunion & Appa getting to be a badass is just amazing.

[ID: two pictures of Aang & Appa hugging, one from up close & one from a bit of a distance.]

I definitely enjoyed Appa's reunion with the Gaang the most out of all the parts of this episode.

Well, I enjoyed Jet's parts up until his death too. I also wanted to point out that Sokka teases Katara about her thing with Jet, but doesn't seem that angry at Jet himself & is quite willing to give him another chance. And it's Aang who breaks Jet out of his brainwashing by reminding him that they are friends. So, Katara is not the only one in the Gaang with any connection with Jet. Again, they should've addressed --- ah, whatever, I'm done.

That's all I have for this episode.

#oh jet gets...idk...2000 iconic behavior points for BREAKING OUT OF BRAIN WASHING & also using his dying breath to reassure Katara #lake laogai #atla re watch #atla book 2

53 notes · View notes

justadeadreaper · 5 months

Text

This is another part to part to me adding to the God COD AU which I was inspired to write as @frogchiro said that my idea for Makarov is “literally the same thing I planned for Makarov, I wanted him to be the god of death, illness, disease and Winter, bringing pain and suffering wherever he appears so please do go ahead with your idea since it's literally the same” and since she gave me the go ahead to write it and she’s probably busy with all of her asks and other things planned I decided to write for Makarov to give his fans (cough cough me cough cough) some content. This will be very long as it is longer than my ideas for God König as I have thought of a few more things and could be even more confusing as my brain is absolutely fried at the moment so please hear me out as this is 7440 words of explanation. TW: they are mentions of death and a brief mention of suicide in the backstory so be warned and mentions of what happened with Modern Warfare III.

My idea for God Makarov could be him being one of the most hated and feared Gods to exist in the AU but due to the fear he inhibits into every mortal in existence he is one of the most heavily worshipped Gods as people believe that if they do not give him any sacrifices or worship him that they receive his wrath. Surprisingly there is not many cults worshipping him, but instead his worship is nearly exclusively done privately in homes of individuals, although, recently a certain big cult has been growing him that are situated in the undergrounds of the North who see themselves as superior due to believing they are part of Makarov’s bloodline due to coming from the North where he first formed. Now the reason as to why they are underground is due to how they worship Makarov with the sacrifices they make; this includes torturing people, experimenting on people to make new diseases, brainwashing people to create new followers, and so much more. Due to the cult’s practices this has caused a new wave of fear surrounding Makarov so this has begun a spike in the worship he receives privately as they are begging him to save them when he is revealing in their fear. Like how I did with the last one of these, I will be breaking down each aspect, why he has them, how powerful each aspect is due to the size of the cult, and what parts of the world would worship which aspect. Winter- I see Makarov being worshipped as the God of due to how he is as cold and destructive as Winter itself. This aspect is mainly worshipped in the North because that is the region where it is most affected by Winter due to how it is an already snowy and rugged region that has horribly low temperatures and snowstorms more times than it sees the Sun which would only be made ten times worse when it is actually Winter as we all know that Makarov will not be easy on people so I see them as worshipping Makarov for his Winters to try and make him more merciful and have him move the brunt of his Winter to other places that do not experiences as horrid Winters so they for once can experience some peace. The powers Makarov gets from this are the abilities to control snow, ice, bring Winter, a tiny bit of control over Winter animals, and resistance to the cold and he can grant to his followers resistance from Winter for this aspect so they can more easily survive the harsh Winter compared to others.

Plagues/Diseases- I see Makarov being worshipped as the God of due to how he is a literal plague upon the world with all the horrifying acts which mimic how horrifying and gruesome plagues can be, and because of the fact that we romanticise him and act like he is good for us which people have been doing to plagues for years as there was the whole romanticism of tuberculosis. This aspect is mainly worshipped in no region but instead the slums of the most major cities in the world where disease is rampant due to the poorest of citizens having to live there and them not being able to access the medicines that are needed compared to others. The powers Makarov gets from this are the ability to control and inflict diseases or unleash plagues on any person or settlement he sees fit and he can grant to his followers a certain immunity to different diseases for this aspect so they do not suffer from it as badly as compared to others.

Death- I see Makarov being worshipped as the God of Death due to how he causes so much death but compared to König who is the overall God of Death Makarov is instead the God of specific torturous and meaningless Death that have no reason for occurring except for the matter of fact that the person who wanted them dead did it. This aspect is mainly worshipped in the dungeons of the major cities where many murderers are or it is being worshipped by similar cults that worship König or the big cult that is growing around him. The powers Makarov gets from this are the ability to cause an agonising death upon any mortal he wants and he can grant to his followers a type of luck that means they are less likely to die that type of death for this aspect.

Obsession- I see Makarov being worshipped as the God of Obsession due to how obsessive he is with completing his goals. This aspect is mainly worshipped by stalkers, royalty, and the armies of the world as they need the obsession to drive them forward in what they are doing and they hope that Makarov will make the obsession come to fruition. The powers Makarov gets from this are the ability to easily obsess over something until it comes to the point of it coming true and he can grant the fruition of the obsession to his followers for this aspect.

Strategy- I see Makarov being worshipped as the God of Strategy due to my idea of Price also being worshipped as the God of Strategy. Makarov and Price are seen as equals and enemies so I wanted them to have a common factor that links them but also sets them about in their own ways by them being worshipped for the different kinds of strategy. We know from Modern Warfare III that Price does not think ahead as much as we like to think he does as we see that he tends to make a strategy for the moment and not further ahead in time otherwise he would have killed Makarov when he easily had the chance as he knew how risky that man was but we know Makarov is the opposite of that where he will plan everything out ahead of time with meticulous detail so everything goes according to his plan so I envision Makarov being worshipped as the God of Long Term Strategy compared to Price who is the God of Short Term Strategy. This aspect is mainly worshipped by generals and royals as if they plan out everything ahead it means they can stay in power or win battles depending on what is needed at the moment. The powers Makarov gets from this is the ability to easily make convoluted plans that are extremely long but always seem to work out and he can grant the exact same thing to his followers for this aspect.

Horses- I see Makarov being worshipped as the God of Horses due to a story I used to be told as some of my family is dodgy and my uncle was friends with this Russian man (do not ask because that man was friends with many dodgy people that he had no right knowing) who used to babysit me and a few of my other cousins a lot and he would tell me a lot of stories as it kept me from playing up; this story in particular is Vasilisa the beautiful as I was obsessed with Cinderella and it was the most similar one he could think of. It is distinctly this story I remember because he had actually brought some figurines that me and my cousins got to decorate to go along with the story and three of these figurines were men riding horses. A man in white armour on a white horse followed by daybreak, a man in red armour on a red horse followed by the rising sun, and a man in black armour on a black horse followed by the cloak of the night sky, all horseman distinctly linked to time and Baba Yaga who is such a feared figure that even I was terrified of as a child as I he also threatened me with her if I misbehaved. These men also remind me of the “Four” Horsemen of the Apocalypse as there are technically seven depending on which ones you believe in as you have Chaos, War, Conquest, Pollution, Pestilence, Famine, and Death which can very much depend on what you grew up with but these are the seven I know of. These horsemen are linked to horrible things such as death and plague which are linked to my version of Makarov and due to the story inspired me to make Makarov the God of Horses as a reference to these two groups of horsemen. This aspect is mainly worshipped in the North and West because in the North horses are needed for transport due to the long ranges and harsh conditions and for work while horses are more common in the West due to the large plains of wildlands next to forests where these horses can live freely. The powers Makarov gets from this is the ability to talk to horses but to also control them and see through their eyes to an extent and he can grant lineages of strong horses to his followers for this aspect.

Mothers- I see Makarov being worshipped as the God of Mothers as the protectors of mothers due to his backstory that I have made for this AU and how we know from the somewhat joke trailer for Modern Warfare III that they have a close bond. This aspect is mainly worshipped by nowhere as it is absolutely everyone who worships it, especially the cult members as there are rumours that Makarov will smite anyone who hurts their mother. There are no real powers Makarov gets from this ability and he can not grant anything to his followers for this aspect but he is known to have a temple that is a safe haven for mothers to flee to if they are in danger and need somewhere safe to go.

Philosophy- I see Makarov being worshipped as the God of Philosophy due to how inside Makarov's bedroom in the safehouse, there was a book titled ‘Philosophy, Politics, and Poetry’ and because I headcanon that each God has a more wholesome aspect that you would not expect them to have as that did happen with real Gods as they would have an aspect you would not expect from them and so for Makarov I picked Philosophy. This aspect is mainly worshipped in the major cities where most of the philosophers are. The powers Makarov gets from this is the very useful ability for him that allows him to get into the minds of others and make them question many things that philosophers normally debate but he always makes sure it will land in his favour and he can grant the knowledge to know and understand the answers to his followers for this aspect or if they are a particular favourite follower of his he will allow them to win the philosophy debate.

Like with König, I could honestly spend hours explaining each aspect and the backstory of how he got it and how it would be worshipped and explain the influences more clearly, but that is the basics for each one, and if people ask I may go into them more and explain them more.

Strength of the aspects from strongest to weakest: -Winter -Plagues/Diseases -Death -Mothers -Strategy -Obsession -Philosophy -Horses

My inspiration for God Makarov was not actually from an already existing God but instead from a surprising source. I do not know if most people who will see this are the ones who have heard of her as we are quite unholy people but my inspiration was Saint Olga of Kiev. This will seem extremely strange at first but I will give some context as to why I picked her and how she relates to this.

Unlike how unholy I act as I simp over these men online and write analyse of them to make the smut I write later make sense, I was born and raised as a Catholic, I grew up going to Church and a Catholic school and read about the bible and about Saints a lot to satisfy a special interest which had been born from how my older cousin had read these stories to me mixed with undiagnosed autism at the time. Surprisingly, for my confirmation I was allowed to pick Olga as my Saint but I think they just allowed me to get me to shut up with the two hour rants I was yapping on about when talking about her. Now it may sound strange but please watch the video Puppet History did about her because it may not as thorough as other videos but is honestly extremely fun and has an amazing song at the end or the video by Biographics which is more thorough and pact to the brim with facts; they both explain her history which is the main reason why I picked her but if you do not want to watch it I will be giving a summary that you can skip if you have watched it.

Saint Olga of Kiev who was also known as Olga of Rus or Russia was a very big figure in the early history of Russia (and technically going into some surrounding areas as Rus also covered some of Ukraine and Finland) and a key player in the Christianization of the Kievan Rus. Olga was born in Pskov around 890AD and belonged to a noble family. She married Igor I, the ruler of the Kievan Rus, around 903AD. Her husband Igor's died in 945AD as he was killed by the Drevlians, which were a tribe that refused to pay so Igor went there to get the tributes but they tied him to two birch trees to rip him apart. Their son, Sviatoslav, was too young to rule so until he came of age Olga served as the regent for him. With the power she had she enacted her revenge for her husband. The first step was by killing around twenty people in the Drevlian leadership after they came to offer her a marriage to their Prince Mal after he had killed her husband; her people carried the men in their boat to a trench before dropping them in and having them buried alive under rocks. The next act of vengeance was to have Mal send more of his most powerful delegations to her and he did just that, but Olga had those men go to the bath house because by the time they got to her they were filthy. While those men were in they she had people lock the door before commanding it to be burnt to the ground including the men inside. Now to avoid Mal getting suspicious about all of his men disappearing and to enact the next step, Olga finally went to the Prince but she had requested that while she was travelling there that they prepare food and mead so she could have a funeral feast for her late husband. For some unknown reason Mal agreed and Olga had ordered her men to not drink but to keep pouring out drinks for the Drevlians and when the Drevlians were drunk enough she ordered her men to slaughter them all which ended up in around five thousand deaths. The surviving members of the Drevlians bordered themselves up in Iskorosten and after a year Olga was fed up. Olga decided to enact her last bit of revenge upon them. She requested a tribute of three pigeons and three sparrows from each house which seemed like a reasonable request so the Drevlians did but this sealed their fate. Olga turned the birds into weapons by making her guards tie a piece of burning sulphur and cloth to each birds’ talons; she then released them and the birds flew home to their nests and spread the fires causing the city to burn down and when people fled the city they were killed or kept as slaves. Her revenge may have been over but later in life when she wanted to get out of a marriage to Constantine the seventh who had asked for a hand in marriage. At first she said she could not as a Pagan could not marry a Christian but once she was baptised as an Orthodox Christian she had him be her godfather and so she technically counted as his daughter meaning they weren't allowed to marry.

It may seem odd and you may be thinking about how this relates to Makarov but it will make more sense when you have heard his backstory as Olga reminds me a lot of Makarov with how strategic they both are and the acts of violence they commit for their cause.

Like I mentioned earlier I have a backstory for Makarov, which would be considered very thought out compared to the backstory I have for God König but it will be a lot longer as it has a lot more context to it compared to König's mainly as it revolves around some history I have thought of for this AU.

We will start this backstory by talking about some of the history which will provide the needed context. I see Makarov being one of the oldest of the Gods alongside Nikolai, König, Graves, Shepherd, and Price although I think that Makarov may be the oldest as it would make the most sense for the history I have thought of. Makarov, like the others, was born in the Dark Age of the AU he was in fact the first modern God to be born as most were born after the Great War that ended the Dark Age. What I envision the Dark Age to be was a point in history where there was not Gods as we have now currently in the AU where they are well known across multiple regions for their aspects but instead there were much smaller Gods that would be worshipped by a small village or town in a specific territory for what they did for the place that was their own. This led to multiple Gods being worshipped for the same aspect but it made them extremely weak due to how small and localised their worship was which in turn led to the much smaller Gods having their followers plunder other villages and take the people from there as prisoners and slaves who would worship the God that sent the attack. Now that we have that context I will explain how it relates to Makarov.

Makarov was originally a Demigod. I envision that his mother was a small Goddess of Ice and Snow in the village that Makarov grew up in while his father was one of the leaders of the village due to marrying and having a child with a Goddess. Due to his unique DNA Makarov could not be a normal child as he was forbidden with playing with normal children as he was seen above them while he was worshipped by the other villagers, this in turn caused Makarov to have an extremely close bond to his mother as she was one of the only few people who understand him. As I am mixing both the original and reboot Makarov together for the God Makarov I have given him the extremely close bond with his mother as in the trailer for the reboot as even if it is a joke we see that they are close and Makarov’s mother has influenced him as he made a promise to her relating to what he is doing. Since I have made this version of Makarov close to his mother I can not make him a psychopath even if in the original games he has most of the traits so instead I have made him high functioning autistic with psychopathic traits meaning that he can form emotional bonds but they are unique but he has no empathy to most but even with the people he has bonded with he has low empathy. I envision that he inherited it off his mother as it is just in their nature as Gods of Ice and Snow to be more psychopathic due to having a cold heart, and so she encouraged his violent and manipulative tendencies as a way to stay in power but also because she only saw it as natural which did make them closer as it drove home the idea of only her understanding him. Then one day his village was attacked. Makarov watched as the world he knew crumbled around him as he watched with his very own eyes, taking his father and nearly his mother alongside it. A young Makarov woke up one morning to find the villagers that had worshipped his mother running and screaming for their lives as everything burnt around them, and just a few feet away from him was his father's hanging body. His father had killed himself instead of fighting to save their village as he had seen it as the easy way out instead of dying in battle or being humiliated and made a slave. Meanwhile Makarov’s mother had been tied to the sacred birch tree she had planted when the village had just started out and Makarov had to watch as the villagers from a village that was located in the West tried to burn her alive as their God was pissed that she dared reject his marriage proposal. Makarov had to watch as his mother burnt alive in front of him as fire is a God of Ice and Snow’s only weakness. Although Makarov was lucky enough to be able to save her as in an adrenaline rage he unleashed his powers as he may have been a Demigod but a Demigod filled with rage is as powerful as any other God. He unleashed a fury of snow upon everyone, even his mother in a bid to save her life. Makarov then carried her away to a nearby mountain where he had to defend for himself and his mother as he slowly healed her back to full health but she never fully recovered, making her weaker then she already was at full power. As Makarov spent years healing his mother he came to despise his father and hated how humans could be so weak willed especially a man who had promised to take care of them both, not to mention the utter volatile rage that he felt to people of other regions as no one in the North would have dared to attack his village but those villagers from the West had ruined everything. He also hated how the other leaders of the village had failed which had brought about the loss of everything, his home, his father, his life, his everything. He had made a promise to his mother that he would not make the same mistakes as those humans and so began his lifelong obsession that was driven by a will to keep himself and his mother safe.

It may have started off small but his plan was never small to begin with. Once his mother was strong enough to be able to stay by herself and not worry about predators, Makarov went to the West. His plan was to kill off villages all over the world and cause fights between the different Gods until there was none left but only him. For places that weren’t used to harsh Winters like what would appear in the North, the snow storms Makarov brought with him were fatal. They killed thousands of people and it caused Gods to turn their backs on each other thinking that their once allies were the ones who did it. This started the Great War between the Gods and where Makarov got his moniker of the Winter King as all the Gods knew of a God much powerful than them who brought Winter and death with him wherever he stepped, who only grew more powerful as more people feared him. And Makarov turned up his antics. Makarov started carrying rats along with him as they were able to survive his Winter but also for their ability to spread plagues, only killing more as he would release them to go back to the villages he found them at after they were fully infected so as to infect the rest of the villages. Of course the Great War had to end as most Gods had been killed but it also left a power vacuum which the leftover Gods and Gods that had newly formed due to the bloodshed took.

I imagine Makarov to look like his original design mixed in with the reboot design and the Winter King from Adventure Time as he seems the closest to what the Snow Queen would look like and that is what I imagine Makarov’s mother to look like. He is stocky like in the games but with longer legs and arms that give him an unnerving edge as the proportions are not fully like a human and make his body stand out compared to humans but he has been affected by the plague and Winter he carries along with him. His forearms, hands, feet, and calves are frozen and have been blackened by the plagues and frost, which if anyone touches will immediately freeze whatever part of them touched it as their body is overcome with the plague. Like in the original game he has heterochromia, with his left eye being blue and his right eye being green but surprisingly his green eyes is actually from his mother and is like it was made from the finest of emeralds as it glows slightly in the dark while his blue eye is from his father, a fading blue and a constant reminder of how he is technically still only half a God genetically even if he is considered a full God by everyone else. He has pale skin which makes him look like he is a snow sculpture that has come to life. His hair is short and spiky like in the original but is a mixture of dark brown and black as in the reboot his hair is black while in the original his hair was a dark brown but as a God his hair has slighted frosted tips on each hair follicle from him always being in the snow. His body has multiple scars, but some noticeable ones would be the one on his right shoulder and the ones covering his face but you can find other scars lining the rest of his body with a few burn scars from when his village was burnt down. Makarov has tattoos similar to ones in the games that are mostly based on his ones from the reboot with them covering his arms and torso and I feel like his tattoos would mostly be references like his godly symbol or what he has been nicknamed as in his centuries haunting the Earth. A breakdown of all his tattoos are his god symbol that is above the mountain range where his village once was on his back with the Northern Star on his right shoulder blade and a snowflake on his left shoulder blade, a ice themed Grim Reaper on his right pec as a reference to how his plagues caused so many deaths, ruins of protection from his mother on his stomach, a two headed bird on his left pec that looks like a mixture between a raven and an eagle with one head being more eagle like with the other more raven like, a skull on his right arm that has blood trickling down its sockets into a river of blood that gets bigger as there are impaled bodies oozing blood surrounding it, and his left arm is decorated in a flurry of snowflakes that blanket a forest in a snowstorm as one glowing green eye looks out from the darkness. He has more tattoos but I can not decide on what so anyone can add to that. For his clothing, I imagine him being a lot more clean or sophisticated compared to the other Gods as he dresses like the royalty of the North that have grown in wealth and power due to deposits of crystals in the area. https://www.thevintagenews.com/2019/07/16/romanov-costume-ball-1903/ , I want people to look at this and find Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich as I imagine Makarov wearing something similar in appearance to it but with Winter inspired patterns or it being a lot more simpler and sleek which gives it that luxurious but still cold and menacing vibe to it.

I would say his sacred animal would be a rat as when someone is a traitor they are normally called a rat and we know that Makarov would betray anyone with no remorse if he saw that it was for his greater good and help him progress in his goals. But also because rats are typically associated with bad things like disease, pestilence, and dirt which fits with how Makarov is the God of Plagues and he is just purely known for terrible things as he is considered scum of the Earth and it fits as those creatures helped him out with spreading his plagues as they were loyal to him so it would make sense to honour them in such a way by making them his sacred animal for helping out in such a significant way. Another point to add could be how rats when not being associated with disease are actually associated with cunning, resourcefulness, and survival in certain cultures which fits Makarov well as he would do anything to see himself and his ideas survive, he is extremely cunning and resourceful as he is portrayed to be extremely smart and an amazing strategist. Plus rats are extremely smart like Makarov, I have three pet rats and they can easily solve the puzzles I make them and they can do some basic tricks that I have taught them, also in lab settings when scientists test on rats they are known to pick up on skills easily and pass through experiments that show they have a high cognitive ability. So overall I think rats fit him a lot.

Although another option could be the main birds in the corvid family that you think of when you hear the words corvid. Most people know how smart birds such as magpies, ravens, and crows are as they can mimic humans and will use cars and wolves to their benefit (if you do not know crows will drop nuts and seeds into the road so cars can run over them and break them open so the crows can eat what is inside while ravens form relationship with wolf pups and basically adopt them even if that wolf is kicked out of the pack when they are older so they can eat the scraps that the wolves leave behind or to take the wolves to carcasses so the wolves can eat). This reminds me about how Makarov will make bonds and use others to get to goal and to his own benefit to keep himself alive. Also magpies are known to be some of the most revengeful, petty, and obsessive birds. If you do not know Australian magpies are known to hate particular humans that piss them off and they teach that to the rest of the group of magpies and even future generations of magpies just so if that human comes near them again the whole pack will attack them. I just thought it was funny but also matched how Makarov will attack anyone who he has deemed as betraying him and can be obsessive in his goals that he will build an entire army to get revenge.

Now I am adding in something that I did not do in the original idea for God König but will be doing when I do his part two. This is a God symbol, a sacred tree, a sacred crystal, and a sacred flower as I want to flesh out the characters more and I noticed how Gods tend to have sacred things such as those.

I would say that his sacred tree would be a birch tree due to it being significant to his mother as I purposely made the tree his mother plant be a reference to the influence of Saint Olga that I had when making Makarov’s backstory and making him a powerhouse. The reason why I gave his mother the birch tree as well was due to its symbolism of being a tree of new beginnings and purification which made sense for when his mother planted it as it was supposed to represent how she was beginning a new start by having her own village that would not be tainted by the influence of other Gods who could take over her power over her own village. Plus, birch trees reminded me of trees in Winter that are covered in snow due to the tree’s colours and pattern.

However, if we take out his mother’s influence his sacred tree could instead be the strychnine tree. It may seem a weird choice at first but it makes sense once you hear about the fruit the strychnine tree has as these fruits contain a unique type of toxin called strychnine that if consumed can have some fatal effects such as muscle spasms that lead to a fever and surprisingly fevers can be very deadly as I can attest to as it can cook your brain alive if you are not careful enough. Also, the inside of the fruit and the powdered version are both white and crystalline just like snow and ice which is a very good reference to Makarov as it kills people while still having a reference to his snow theme, and the tree blooms in Winter, not to forget how fevers make you feel cold when you are actually boiling alive. The part about it causing a fever is also interesting as there is a phenomenon called paradox undressing related to hypothermia where people are close to death due to hypothermia and are overwhelmed by an excruciating feeling of warmth that they have to take off their clothes which is the opposite of what can happen with the overwhelming feeling of cold you can get from a fever and I believe that Makarov when on his killing sprees have given both of these to people. I hope people can see my vision with this tree but if anyone has better suggestions I wholeheartedly welcome them.

I would say that his sacred flower would be an Autumn Crocus as purple colours such as violet are traditionally colours of royalty, nobility, spirituality, mystery, and magic so the purple crocus and consequently the autumn crocus stands for all these qualities with it is also being a symbol of success, pride, dignity, merriment, hope, and youthfulness. I thought it would be a good fit for Makarov as merriment, hope, and youthfulness are the exact opposite of what you would think of when thinking of Makarov but actually makes sense if you put yourselves in the shoes of the people who worship him as they may think that by associating him with such things would actually help them in the long run as they think they would be dulling him down a bit which would make him safer as those traits go against his actual traits and could be used to cancel each other out making him less dangerous overall. But the other traits such as success, pride, and mystery fit him as he is very successful in his plans especially in the original games and we know he is very proud of himself and his heritage even if we do not know much about his life before joining the military in both games except for the reboot where we know his father died by suicide. Also, I think nobility fits him due to how infamous he has made himself that he is on the level of royalty with how well known he is but also how he is virtually the Winter King in this AU due to being the God of Winter.

I would say that his sacred crystal would be topaz, specifically blue topaz. This was an easy pick as it is a reference to his backstory as topaz is not seen as a more precious stone in my experience compared to other stones such as emeralds or diamonds which reflects how he would have not originally be seen as much of a God compared to full Gods such as Ghost or Price due to being born as a Demigod and one of the biggest topaz deposits in Russia are found in the Ural Mountains which I fits Makarov nicely as he was a gem that came forth from the mountain region compared to the other Gods of the time which were like stone in comparison in worth and power. Not to mention blue topaz is normally associated with clarity which you need when strategising to make sure everything goes perfectly.

Makarov’s God symbol is very similar to the Konni symbol but I would change what type of skull it is to a raven skull that instead has a frozen branch going through the middle of it which I think is so simple but at the same time horrifying and I really wish I could draw so I could show it (if I can I will try to get someone I know to draw it). Why I picked a raven is because ravens are associated with death, my favourite use is in Macbeth when Lady Macbeth talks about how when the raven croaks the call of Duncan’s death, and it could possibly be one of his sacred animals but it is also a fun reference to how he is going to kill Price one day as ravens are less popular symbols of Wisdom and @stariepie headcanons Price as the God of Knowledge/Wisdom so it would be funny if Makarov’s symbol is a somewhat threat to Price. I also decided on a frozen branch instead of a dagger as he can easily make branches weapons by making them stronger and more solid by freezing them and it is a reference to one of my favourite birds the Great Grey Shrike which impale their prey on spiked branches which is normally through the head.

If König’s relationship with the other Gods are messy then Makarov’s relationships with the other Gods is an unholy dumpster fire mixed with nuclear waste that should not be touched by anyone who wants to stay alive: Of course due to the games Makarov is going to hate all the members of Task Force 141 but I will specifically say why for each one.

Price- Like how in the games Price and Makarov are the absolute biggest enemies but the reason for it in this world is because of the Great War that Makarov caused as Price was alive to see it. Price and Makarov actually fought against each other in the War as at the time Price was a minor God compared to the God he is now and led his own group of Gods to fight in the War but due to his strategies being small scale in the grand scheme of things led to his whole group being killed slowly one by one where he had to watch them all die and be the only survivor and of course Makarov was the one who killed them all. This rightfully made Price hate Makarov and Makarov hates Price in return as Price keeps trying to find ways to kill Makarov or at least stop him but somehow Makarov seems to escape by an inch at the last minute every time due to Price not thinking of one little detail and Makarov always sends Price teasing gifts to taunt Price about how he is still alive and still oh so powerful.

Ghost- Ghost hates Makarov for a few reasons while Makarov just hates Ghost because he is in an alliance with Price. First reason Ghost hates Makarov is because he tried killing Soap and Roach who I headcanon as being his best friends which is an obvious reason as to why he would hate Makarov. The second reason is more petty but Makarov had purposely killed off all of the gladiators at Ghost's favourite colosseum which obviously infuriated Ghost. The third reason is that Ghost hates how Makarov reaps some of the benefits when Ghost kills people in torturous and horrendous ways. And the fourth reason is just because it is Makarov and he has tried to kill Ghost multiple times.

Soap- Based on what happened in Modern Warfare III I imagine that one time Makarov tried killing Soap after Soap had tried to stop Makarov from inflicting a plague upon Soap’s favourite city due to it having one of Soap’s main temples there but it went horribly wrong as the plague was still released. Makarov had laid a trap by purposely keeping Winter in a certain area instead of letting Soap’s Spring take over and Soap of course went to see what was going on but Makarov was waiting there with an icicle blast forming in his hand that he then launch at Soap and it pierced through Soap’s skull as if an icicle is strong enough and is going fast enough it can actually penetrate and kill someone. Luckily Soap did not die due to hitting his frontal lobe which he could easily heal from due to being a God but ever since then the two have hated each other and try everything to kill each other when they have the chance.

Gaz- Makarov only really hates Gaz due to him having an alliance and being close to Price as I see Gaz as the golden boy of the Gods who is the most behaved and can not really do any wrong and has barely caused any wrongs.

Roach- Makarov hates Roach for the same reasons as Gaz but also because he somehow always survives all of Makarov’s plagues and has survived being attacked by Shepherd which was annoying as Makarov now has to find a new way to get rid of him.

Shepherd- Makarov and Shepherd have a weird relationship. Yes they hate each other as Shepherd wants Makarov dead but Makarov also has some respect for Shepherd as I see Shepherd and Price as enemies due to both games and just because I hate Shepherd in both games. But, Makarov purposely uses Shepherd’s pride against him to drive Shepherd insane so one day Shepherd will break and go on a killing spree like Shepherd has tried to do before so Makarov sees Shepherd as a toy that he hates but has to keep in his box for the future so his plan can happen with the least amount of casualties for him.

Yuri- Before the Great War and during some of it Makarov and Yuri used to be friends and had an alliance after Makarov saved Yuri from being killed by some other Gods back when the two were much younger but once Makarov got a bit too crazy Yuri cut off all his ties to Makarov to join Price and his groups of Gods. Makarov hates Yuri for this as he was betrayed by one of his only friends and he nearly successfully killed Yuri but Yuri luckily survived as being a God makes it extremely hard for you to be killed but he now has to live in hiding because Makarov hates him but wants him dead.

König- Like I mentioned when talking about God König these two are rivals with respect for each other and a sort of alliance between the two of them. They have things they want from each other and know that there is no reason to kill each other yet as it will be better for them in the long run if both stay around for longer as more Gods will die and they both have less work to do.

One little fun fact: a headcanon I have for God Makarov is he is actually the God who is the best at mimicking accents to the point he can make people believe he is from another place entirely he is that good which is inspired by how he mimics an American accent then a Scottish accent when speaking to Soap and then a British accent when he spoke to Price in the newest Modern Warfare game when they were flying away once they had captured Makarov. It is not well known at all so sadly he is not the God of it.

Credits: @frogchiro for the AU.

-This is Ozzie signing out, and I am extremely sorry for not posting for a while and going on a few tangents in this, also sorry for any mistakes as I have finished writing this at 2AM and I honestly do not have the brain cells to reread this and check for any mistakes so please tell me if there are any and I am so fucking sorry if there are any formatting issues Tumblr is being a total fucking nightmare and a bitch which I will try to fix when I have time. I also caught some unbeknownst sickness that had been taking out all of my professors and it just left me dead in my bed for a while and then I had to catch up on all the work I missed but hopefully now I can post every few days and I will finally post the summaries for my AUs. My next post will most likely either be for the Slashers, a part to for God König, or one of the summaries.

#vladimir makarov #cod makarov #gods!cod au #cod mw3 #cod mw2 #cod mwii #cod mwiii

9 notes · View notes