#which is not necessarily a bad thing? she's still a fine character she's just different | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington · 4 months

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yooooo!!! you’re my favorite ethan winters artist i just wanna say that first and foremost, thank you for the wholesome content of my comfort character and father figure 🥹🫶

i’m really curious bc i feel like i see a lot of people against mithan (not me personally, i’m p neutral on them!) but i’m curious to know all your thoughts on them! thoughts on their canon relationship, their fanon portrayal, the backlash against them/mia accusations, and your headcanons? i’m just really interested!!! hopefully that’s not weird :”)

have a good day!! sparkle on!!! ✨💖

i heart mithan... i think that they can be so cute...

i personally hc them t4t and i like to think that the dated in highschool before they both had fully transitioned

mia likes to bake and ethan likes to scrap book and he always likes to take pictures of mias cakes/ baked goods and has a album for them 😭

i am a multishipper so i draw a lot of ethan ships so my girl is left out sometimes and im sorry mia 😔

i actually really like their relationship, its a really complex dynamic that i like to talk about with my friends

i think the issue is that when talking about mithan or mia in general, theres just SO MUCH misinformation that its honestly a pain the butt to talk about

people still think that she was responsible for the creation of eveline, people still think that she experimented on eveline, people still use examples of her attacking ethan as if she did it on her own will instead of being mind controlled

in reality she was just someone who oversaw the transportation of evie. im not excusing her or anything because obviously she knew what she was doing, but people really try to accuse her of doing something she didnt and it bothers me alot lol

the problem with the fandom is that people either try to water her down to girlboss who did nothing wrong and fail to acknowledge the complexity/ moral grayness of her character and the other side is misogynists 😭😭😭😭

its hard to talk about her without people either going "stop trying to villainize her and make her look bad!" or people ACTUALLY villainizing her and acting like heisenberg would have treated him better 😭😭

mithan is such a sad relationship because they loved each other so much and that ended up being the reason their relationship fell apart (sort of... its not like the broke up... ethan kinda just straight up died)

i get a lot a trouble for saying this, but mia is a selfish person.

its not a bad thing! well i mean it is but it doesnt make her some evil witch who is somehow worse than the guy how made a werewolf american ninja warrior. its just a major character flaw she has! which is good! mia being a flawed person who makes mistakes and morally gray decisions make her a more interesting person!

she is selfish in the way that she wants to keep her family with her no matter the cost. even if it means lying to ethan about her job so that he wont think different of her. here is a interrogation from the re7 DLC, which is easy to miss!

she isnt necessarily trying to apologize for the things she has done, she is more of a, "u wont need to forgive me in the first place if we just forget it all and move on"

she doesn't try to redeem herself for what she has done, she tries to move on and return to the normal life that she wants so bad. which is fine! everyone copes a different way and she has to right to move on from her trauma. the problem that lies in this is that she has a shared trauma with ethan who still has no idea what went on in dulvey and still effects him till the present (he is mold! this is a important thing to know! most people would want to know if they were a walking corpse)

she played a direct part in what happened in dulvey, and im not referring to the email, she did not send that. she never wanted ethan to come in the first place. she tried her best to send a video to him, begging him to forget about her because she wanted to protect him, BUT it didnt send.

he got involved because she was involved. its honestly a series of really really unfortunate events.

THOUGH! she did know what she was getting into. im tired of seeing the narrative that mia was innocent and didnt know what was going on or was simply a bystander. she knew what she was doing, she knew eveline was a bioweapon, she knew eveline was a child. she used a MACHINE GUN! she knows how to use weapons and was obviously trained for it.

she tried her best to keep everybody out of the mess, ex: warning the bakers not to take them in, warning ethan not to find her, sacrificing herself for ethan in the later half of re7

but again, those are the consequences of HER actions

her consequences just happen to get really big and end up hitting ethan on the head like a metal sheet 😭

their relationship is really so interesting, it makes me really sad to think about sometimes 😭they both went through something that nobody else would ever understand, in the end they really only have each other. they get moved to an entire different country and the dulvey incident gets covered up with a "gas leak"

its really tragic because their marriage definitely had some flaws and bumps. and i know im repeating myself but its because people always take this in the worst way possible but just because i say their relationship was rocky doesnt mean im saying they dont love each other!!! thats the entire basis of mias character!! saying she doesnt love ethan would destroy her entire character!

you can see in the re8 DLC how fondly ethan talks about mia! he loves her so much, though im not sure if his comments in the DLC are him narrating current (post re8) or his thoughts before everything went down and he died (pre re8)

everything mia did was because she LOVED ethan. she would never do anything to intentionally hurt him, she is not a cruel person. she hides the truth of her job from ethan pre re7 because she loves him and doesnt want her job to drive them apart. she CONTINUES to refuse to tell ethan the truth post re7 because she wants to move on a live a happy normal life with him and knows something like her being directly associated with the connections would probably cause (more) problems. she refuses to tell ethan that he is mold because again, hard to live a happy marriage with your husband after you tell him hes a bioweapon.

obviously i dont think it was right that she did this, thats what makes her selfish! she did it for herself! she did it for her family! she thought it would work out, she thought that they could move on and be happy together.

the issue is that ethan didnt want to forget. he wanted to know what happened, he wanted to know the part mia played, he wanted answers! which is reasonable! he knows to some extent that mia was partially responsible for his involvement and he was always suspcious that mia was lying to him about her job which is implied when mia says "you were right, i did lie to you"

she doesnt learn, she doesnt stop lying, her lies get bigger and worse and it sucks yeah but it makes her so interesting!!! she keeps doing stupid things under the idea that this is whats best for her and her family, that if she hides this everything will work out and it will be for the better but its not!

just because telling your husband hes dead and a bioweapon is a hard subject to bring up doesnt mean you DONT bring it up. people shouldnt use that as a reason to excuse mia 😭, its a very bad excuse and honestly highlights how horrible their communication skills were. you cant just not tell your husband that he is actually infected with the mold and not tell him for the tree years between post re7 and pre re8.

im not saying these things to put mia down, or try and villanize her. these are all just actual things her character does! she isnt evil, but she isnt a knight in shining armor either. we need to be able to have talks about complex characters without crying everytime someone points out a flaw. characters have flaws! and mia just happens to have a lot of them!

im not mad at her, i dont dislike her because i think this way of her. shes a fictional character! you can like characters that are morally gray, or villains that drink blood and make corpse soldiers. they are fictional! pointing out the flaws of a character does not mean i dont like them.

i wouldnt call her "the real villain of re8" but i wouldnt treat her like a damsel in distress either. she is a competent person, she knows what shes doing, she has her reasons for doing them. she made bad descions with good intentions behind them! they can coexist and we should let them!

i like mithan! its a complex relationship because they both love each other so much but hurt each other in the process

talking about them is just a pain in the butt because talking about mia is a pain in the butt lol

i really hate how she keeps getting sidelined, its super frustrating to see mia get put in a cage in every game 😭

its even more frustrating that mia straight up just disappears???? in the shadows of rose DLC... like she just stops taking care of rose and theres nothing said about it. no reason or explanation. i dont think mia would ever ditch rosemary because she didnt care about her, but we probably will never know because capcom sucks at writing and they probably forgot the mia ever even existed.

all in all, i think the fandom is really just full of misinformation which make people either think mia is some horrible evil person, or its full of people who think that saying mia messed up is the equivalent of comparing her to wesker lol.

i really love mia, shes a incredibly fun and complex character, its just hard to enjoy her sometimes with the people in the fandom haha.

also ive got no idea what u meant by "the backlash against them/mia accusations" so sorry if i didnt answer that!

thank u for the ask! sorry for the long response!

#mia winters #resident evil #ethan winters #mithan

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nin-deer · 2 months

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Ch 143

i mean i think we all knew deep down the kiss was gonna happen based on the flow of the story but i think this chap reveals a lot about gorou and sarina

(uh warning this got a little out of hand so its pretty long lmao)

so.

i dont think anyone's completely in the wrong, but i definitely don't think they're in the right either. (not that i condone incest; its just that their motivations led them to this specific point. would the story have been fine without it? hell yeah. please i actually prefer it that way. but this is the direction the author decided to take it, so we have to take it as it is as a point of learning more about the character's motivations)

Let's first analyze sarina and gorou's relationship pre-reincarnation. I think I covered this in my last post where I rambled about onk, but gorou is doing a doctor thing where he "accepts" sarina's proposal just to make her happy. We learn in this new chapter that he basically catered to her every request, and that's what started that infatuation. we know from previous chapters that her bio family's shitty, so the only place she would get this love is from gorou. we also learn in this chapter that it's not actually a romantic love but a fanatic love, for lack of better terms. she sees him as her idol. does sarina even know what it feels to be romantically in love with someone? she spent her whole first life in a hospital, isolated from others her age. she spent her second life very curated and protected because of her mom and her future career; she couldn't really live a normal life. (we'll get back to this point later) all she knows about love is through her idols, so she's channeling it into (what she thinks is) romantic love for gorou.

gorou, on the other side of this, is an actual adult who had an actual life before all this, so he knows what a normal life is like. assuming sarina is one of his first patients, its obvious to see that he got attached, which is a very risky situation for scenarios like this. we see this attachment made her death worse, as he threw himself into following Ai to cope for her death. not gonna go too in depth about this here because, again, i made another post for this that i'll probably link at the end bc im referencing it more than i thought... continuing! he knows sarina doesnt have long left so he wants to do what he can for her, thus creating that "idol" persona sarina has for him.

we see in his regret in this new chap that he actually knows what he's doing and is aware of the consequences of his actions. ruby doesn't. she doesn't regret anything. as someone who reads a lot of isekai/reincarnation stories, its easy to joke that ruby and aqua are their old age + their new age, but that isn't necessarily true for ruby. sure, aqua is old and this could apply to him. but ruby? she didn't make it past 18 before she died. she's like,,, 13 times 2. double 13. she never fully developed in her first life, and she's developing in this current life. it's like a continue from where she left off. aqua actually was an adult, so he has all the knowledge and wisdom of an adult. why does this matter? shift your attention back to the concept of love for a bit. aqua knows what she's doing is bad and is trying to stop her, but the knowledge that she's sarina is making him automatically succumb to her wishes. a part of his brain, because of the trauma, still sees ruby as the sickly sarina he was caring for.

ruby is naïve. she doesnt know what love is. all the love she's ever been exposed to is whatever she saw online: idols. i dont even think she fully knows what the concept of family is. aqua is her brother? nope. aqua is the doctor she proposed to and now she has a chance to follow through like all the shows she's seen. she's closer than ever to him, so why give up the chance? even as ruby, she wasn't exposed to a lot of normalcy because of idol culture. she isn't able to learn about the difference between platonic love and fanatic love. we even see this with ai, who she sees more as an idol than her mom. the joy is in her idol being her mom, someone who's supposed to care for her. it's like shes living a fantasy made just for her. because aqua was so obsessed w revenge, he didn't have the chance to teach her anything, and it's not like he needed to learn bc he already knows. ruby doesn't.

aqua, as the one who understands these nuances, should have sat her down and explained things, but he didn't because of the trauma of sarina. ruby is ignorant and is treating things like a tv drama, now that her dreams as sarina can finally become true. aqua doesn't realize how serious ruby is about this because in his mind this is just a child playing house. ruby is like,,,, imagine you die and you wake up actually being sold to one direction. or whatever happens to you in your fav self-insert scenario/fanfic. idk a better analogy lmao but its like finally being able to play out your fantasies irl. she doesn't realize the real world impacts of her actions because, frankly, she doesn't care. she gets to live out her life as she wants. aqua was shocked after the first kiss with ruby because he realized then she was being serious, but he didn't speak out about it because, again, the trauma™. (we see him again uncomfy with the whole situation in the next page, but his lack of objection could be bc it's a scene in the documentary and he finds it more important to get revenge rn) ruby kissed him then because she purposefully created the mood like that so it would fit in the story she was writing in her mind.

so what does this mean? because of their shared pasts, aqua and ruby are put in this situation where ruby can do what she wants and aqua goes along with it. even if he knows its morally wrong, he can't bring himself to break ruby's immersion in all of this. BUT. big but. aqua shouldn't act like this. they're both capable of living out their lives as normal (barring the revenge and the whole idol stuff). he doesn't need to act like this anymore; ruby's not terminally ill. he's not a doctor. what he should have done was firmly deny her stuff he knows is wrong because then he can educate her about the reason why. as much as their personalities are inspired by their past lives, sarina and gorou are dead. they need to move on and live a aqua and ruby. (Harsh, I know, but because of this scenes like *gestures vaguely to the newest two chapters* happens. if aqua stood his ground and taught ruby about familial love and that what she's feeling is probably not romantic, i think this could have been avoided. but alas, we need it for the ~drama~)

sorry that went on way longer than i thought lmao. i think i covered everything i wanted to say but im too lazy to read back so fingers crossed

if you made it this far and are curious about the other post i mentioned in the beginning, its here. i just think its some context to my thought process but not necessary to understand this post

#my writing #oshi no ko #oshi no ko spoilers #onk ch 143 #jasdlkflsdkajfh #why did it take me longer to find that first post #than deciding to make this post #anyways #lots of thoughts #none coherent #i wasnt planning on doing this so sorry if its too jumpy #i just finished reading the chap and #i had the urge #man i was living glass half full #then this chap dropped #hopefully it gets addressed #i mean its that last panel that gets me #aqua looks so uncomfortable while ruby is beaming

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kettlequills · 4 days

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Thinking about why we don't see Nica working with the other survivors, and it turned into a character study on Nica.

I think Nica and Andy are probably pretty bad for each other, actually. I feel they'd recognise a similar darkness in the other - being eager to torture another person is actually not something you do when you are fine, mentally stable, and thriving - and bond over that, but without a more even keel to drag them back they go a bit far (this is why they need Kyle, who has responded to her trauma very differently by becoming practical and outward-facing, trying to focus on maintaining some level of a normal life, unlike those two, who have a tendency to dwell, withdraw, hurt, and in Nica's case, manipulate and lie until she can't hold the pretence any longer and explodes). This darkness in Andy is something we see Kyle does not entertain - she refuses to respond to Andy making a comment about torturing Chucky in their first car ride appearance in S1, and she redirects their attention to their current goal, which is hunting and killing Chucky for good, rather than drawing it out.

All this to say, Andy gets Nica's obsessive need to find Tiffany and turn the tables on her, whereas Kyle gets that Nica simply deflects and moves on until she can no longer do that, but Both of them are mildly freaked out when she laughs like Chucky, acts erratic and downright gleeful in the ways she did at the trial and potentially really struggles adjusting and missing the familiarity of being a captive and having her life regimented, either as a patient in Lochmoor/Harrogate or a captive under Tiffany. I could see the stress of finally being free triggering some upsetting symptoms for her, e.g. her psychosis from Cult and Curse, but even if it doesn't, she is clearly unstable, hurting, and struggling to orient to life that doesn't revolve around destroying Tiffany. She knows some of Chucky's magic, she has spent a year living with Tiffany and him in her brain, and she Still maintains contact and affection with GG despite the fact they are a doll and have left the country, like, how much can she be trusted after that? I think at this point Nica is a box of trauma neither of them have the skills to actually help with, but convincing Nica to trust a psychiatrist is ... a tall order.

For that reason, I think Kyle would possibly mildly discourage Andy from getting too close to Nica, because she's likely to just make him worse by encouraging him to think about drawing out Chucky/Tiffany's agony rather than prioritising just killing them so they cannot hurt others anymore. She is sympathetic and tries to help Nica, but I think she is probably pretty aware that Nica has shit going on and would absolutely manipulate Kyle to further her own aims, because Nica's ability to trust and form connections with others has been severely damaged. She likes Nica, and is willing to help out ... but she's aware that Nica is putting her own goals first always, and that if Kyle doesn't necessarily agree with those goals, Nica will just lie to her about it. She'd be a lot less forgiving of Nica stranding her at a gas station than Andy, for example. Plus, add Andy's self sacrificing nature to Nica's bloodyminded determination to destroy Tiffany at any cost and things could end badly. Allies - but not trusted.

Nica's goals are loosely aligned with theirs in that she's against Tiffany, but her focus and her methods become myopic. She doesn't want to kill her right away, she isn't focused on stopping Chucky. She just wants to hurt Tiffany until Tiffany dies. Nica saying she wants to torture and kill Tiffany herself and then being suddenly content with allowing her to go through a legal process and be sentenced instead demonstrates Nica's mind changing rapidly about her plans and her getting overwhelmed by her hatred depending on how triggered she is by Tiffany's presence. While in Tiffany's presence (on the phone), she's desperate to hurt her any way she can, but when away from Tiffany, she makes the arguably more sensible choice to get her arrested, which is harder for Tiffany to escape from. We see this loss of control when she shoots Glen and also at the trial, when she assists Tiffany's lawyer's argument that Tiffany is insane, and undermines her own, by losing her temper when Tiffany says she loves her. Nica yells that Tiffany is "fucking crazy" with eyes only on Tiffany - again, seeking to hurt Tiffany by rejecting her rather than able to continue as she began, wherein she named Tiffany as "Jennifer Tilly" and represented her as in control of her actions.

She wants to hurt Tiffany, she's clever enough to make that psychological harm instead, but she doesn't really care about how she gets there, it's just important that she does. Maybe the others or GG convinced her to just watch Tiffany die in her execution instead, maybe Nica decided herself that it was enough - we see that at the execution, Nica is making an effort to prioritise her connections with others (relating GG's message) rather than her own revenge and hurting Tiffany, which I think she can only do after having had that long distance from Tiffany and being on the cusp of her own victory, but she clearly struggles with this and pretty obviously goes for the best gut shot she can afterwards. She instantly tries to chase Tiffany when Tiffany escapes and is simply vocally frustrated with a man dying in front of her because he is in her way rather than displaying any concern about his life (counter to S1, where she prioritises trying to help a captive in the hotel room escape over fucking over Chucky and Tiffany) and she goes so far as to physically crawl after Tiffany despite the impossibility of actually catching up to Tiffany like that - showing that Nica's intense desire for vengeance still overwhelms her rational sense and abilities to care for others. Given that Tiffany does manage to escape, I can see this forming another split between Nica and the others where Nica is singlemindedly focused on tracking her. She hasn't been the most careful about collateral damage while doing so.

From the other survivors perspective, I'm sure there's some doubt whether she actually meant to shoot Glen or not when she fired on Tiffany (I truly believe she didn't mean to, but also that she wasn't thinking clearly, and taking the opportunity to try and hurt Tiffany regardless of two people standing close by, very little gun training and having poor aim with her hooks shows you exactly what she is prioritising, which I think Kyle and Andy would recognise). She then lets Tiffany go/Tiffany escapes with Glen and Glenda, while Nica is visibly struggling to process what she has just done, which again, implies she was acting on a very dangerous reflex and cannot be trusted to think rationally about risk when confronted with Tiffany. Again, I think Andy/Kyle are more willing to understand accidents happen, especially with their own risky behaviour (shooting Chucky when he's being held by the little girl during their "census taking" comes to mind) but Kyle and Andy are clearly both weapons trained, and Nica is not. Andy literally went to military school, lol. I doubt they want to have to worry about Nica accidentally hurting or killing someone else or even them while she is focused on trying to take any opportunity to hurt Tiffany. Equally, she lets Caroline, who she knows is an ally of Chucky's and travels with him, drive off in the Pontiac (though she has bugged the car) and goes to hunt for Tiffany instead. There doesn't seem to have been any communication from Nica about the first time she spotted Caroline at Tiffany's arrest, either.

Nica demonstrates that given the choice between hunting Tiffany or Chucky, she will choose Tiffany, at any cost. This is regardless of the fact that Caroline is in active danger travelling with Chucky in front of her eyes, and Tiffany is, at present to Nica's knowledge, focused on her own survival and equally has a much trickier job escaping as a famous face than Caroline does which will require her to have to lay low and possibly minimise her threat for a while. But Nica is not focused on ending Chucky and Tiffany's threat and helping the other survivors like Kyle and Andy are, she is focused on her own revenge.

She cannot relax until Tiffany gets what she deserves, it is her goal above all others and it overrides her capacities to care for the welfare of others, and this makes her dangerous if she perceives someone getting in the way of it. Resultingly, the other survivors cannot trust her to have their backs, and they don't have the connection with her that Kyle and Andy have with each other that would allow them to forgive anything she did to deprioritise them. This results in Nica kind of being alone and unsupervised for the first time in over five years (arguably longer, considering her home situation in Curse: the last time Nica was likely trusted to be independent was during her stint at college) without much support beyond the practicalities that maybe Kyle/Andy is happy to assist with ... which is why I think we see her turning to stalking Tiffany to have somewhere to put her energy instead of trying to make a normal life and recover, and why we don't really see her forming any connections with anyone else.

#nica pierce #andy barclay #kyle #kyle chucky #chucky #chucky syfy #chucky tv #tiffany valentine #charles lee ray

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gin-juice-tonic · 9 months

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Hey there! I have a friend who wants to write a character with OCD, but I'm worried that she might not have a fully accurate image of what it is. I don't really know many people with OCD, but if you could could you give some tips to pass on to her? Sorry if this is weird, and you don't have to answer this if you don't want to. I just thought it would be better to get information from someone who is affected by OCD than skim an article about it. Thanks again (p.s. I really love your comics!!)

This is going to go under a cut cause i wrote more than I really intended. It's very long. I put a video clip of a character who I think is a good representation in media at the end if you decide you dont want to read all of that and just skip down there.

The thing is that OCD varies a lot from person to person. My experiences arent gonna look the same as someone else's who also has it. Some people have very visible symptoms, some people have things that are still obviously ocd symptoms but would only be recognized by someone who knew what to look for, some people only have mental symptoms - you wouldnt be able to tell unless you were a mind reader. And just like any other disorder it has a range of severity.

Also not everyone's triggered by the same things. I know you said you'd rather hear from a person than an article, but I think she should look at articles that detail what typical obsessions are (Though she should go in knowing these thoughts are beyond people's control. They're sometimes extremely upsetting, and theyre of course upsetting to the person who has them. They may be very hard to read if you arent well-versed in this stuff.) In fiction I usually see perfection and contamination, but there are wayyyy more than that. Some triggers come and go even. One day I can be completely fine about something and encountering it a different day it might take me 3 months to stop spiraling about it.

An important thing that IS spread across everyone who has it is that giving into compulsions makes things worse. They are a feeling of momentary relief that can fade incredibly quickly, which is what leads people to do them over and over and over again much to the detriment of the person doing it.

There is not a lot of rhyme or reason to it. And it cannot be logic-ed with. You could be the smartest, most level headed, logical person in the world, but you cannot logic your way out of obsessive thoughts. (This usually creates an obsessive thought spiral even, which is bad and can be dangerous...)

Adding onto that, she should think hard about whether the character would know they have OCD or not. The public perception of OCD is not great. Most people dont understand what it looks like, including people who have it. And the people who do have it often feel like they cannot talk about it. (I was encouraged by a psychiatrist to never! talk about the intrusive thoughts I have to ANYONE. She sucked, but it shows the attitude that surrounds the disorder.) And whether they know or not will make a big difference in how they view themself and their mental health. Personally when I did not know I had it I was doing a lot worse mentally. A lot. Frankly it very nearly drove me to suicide. And then I found out what it was, and it helped. It didnt magically make things disappear of course, but it helped.

She also might be tempted to make the characters symptoms manifest in ways that are comedic or silly. I am not bothered by this necessarily, I think a lot of the things I do are silly and would be perceived as funny by an outsider. But if she is going to do this I ask that she makes sure she shows how frustrating and embarrassing it is for the character. If you want an example, there is a character in the show Scrubs with OCD. (Side note, Scrubs is rated TV-14 so turn back now if youre too young but)

His name is Dr Kevin Casey, though you could probably just find his scenes from looking up Scrubs OCD. He is played off as a jovial man whose disorder makes him quirky, but he is given a scene in which you can really see the toll it takes on him. One line he says "Nobody's supposed to see this" hits especially hard.

So if that was too long and you didnt read most of it the number one important thing I'd personally ask is however inconvenient this characters OCD is going to be to everyone else Id like her to make sure she shows that its a million times more inconvenient to the person who has it.

#suicide mention #tw suicide mention #ask stuff #cw ocd #long post

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strqyr · 3 months

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here to say thank you for understanding the characters the way as they should be, so many misinterpret them horribly and take them at their face value or will straight up make up a headcanon and then trick themselves into thinking thats what the character is(yang being the biggest one that gets mischaracterized so much and so badly). you actually go through each characters heads while considering canon material and fune tooth combing each and every scene and piece of information for them

i try my best lol. i'm sure i get stuff 'wrong' (i.e. not necessarily what the writers themselves were going for) every now and then, such is life when we all come from different backgrounds and have different life experiences that mold us, but nothing is more fun than putting myself in specific character's shoes and really digging in to see what makes them tick, how their backstories inform their actions, both past and present, and so on and so on.

i think a common stumbling block—besides headcanons taking priority, which frankly is a package deal with fandom in general—is the though that if you like a character, they must be good, and if you dislike a character, they must be bad, which leads to all their actions being painted in same light, nuance be damned. people want nuanced and flawed characters as long as it suits them; the moment it doesn't, all that gets thrown out the window while still claiming that nuance is everything—just don't point out that the character they like might actually be *GASP* flawed, or that character they dislike might actually not be Pure Evil™, and everything is fine.

(people relating to characters probably also plays a part here; any pointed flaw towards a character they like is seen as an attack against them, etc.)

yang to me is a fascinating case, because, well. people often point towards jaune as the character most often bastardized by fandom, and i completely get that, but what i've also found is that these jaune fans often just. stay on their lane, doing their own thing, which is very easy to ignore if you so please. with yang, though, i've seen people getting upset at other fans for taking an official description of yang into account when portraying her in artwork or fics and straight up claiming that the very obvious canon trait of yang's is either a) never really been a thing (it has very much been a thing since day 1), or b) a made-up fanon thing, and it's like

if you don't like it, take it up with rooster teeth??? why get mad at other fans for characterizing yang as she is in canon??? makes no sense lmao

anyway, not that i need them to stop; the most appreciation i've gained towards characters has been solely because i've seen takes about them that immediately, without ever having thought about these characters that deeply before, make me go "that's bullshit" and then dig through canon to make myself understand why my instinct was that strong—and often finding new things that i had never considered before. it's a win-win situation for me skdgkjhkfh

#thanks for the kind words!! ♥#anon #ask.strqyr #most importantly i'm just here to have fun #ultimately these are just made-up characters #they're not real #they can be or do whatever any writer wants them to be or do #like it is that deep... but also it isn't #if that makes sense?

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balladedutempsjadis · 1 year

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Ponniyin Selvan (The Book vs. Movie edition)

I've just today finished the five volumes of Kalki Krishnamurthy's epic historical novel Ponniyin Selvan, which was the basis for the two-movie series of the same name which I ADORED after I watched the first movie for the first time a couple of weeks ago. And ... I have some thoughts on the books and on the adaptation of the books. First of all, some general thoughts about the books:

I really wish I could read this in the original Tamil. In my understanding, these books are a beloved modern classic of Tamil literature, and the English translation, though perfectly fine and serviceable in terms of explicating the plot, rarely has memorable language.

Perhaps this is a function of the translation, or a different literary tradition, or the author's style (and I'll never really know which), but there is a lot of stuff that I can best describe as static. Actions and events are often described after they occur so as a reader, I felt distanced from what was going on in several scenes.

There are a LOT of coincidences (the entire Sembian Amuthan plotline is heavily based on coincidences) and repetition.

Even if I didn't know this was serialized, I would have guessed because of the repetition mentioned above, frequent flashbacks, and the padding out of some of the scenes. This isn't necessarily a bad thing (it reminds me of Dickens' novels, which I happen to be quite fond of) but it's definitely a hallmark of the novels.

I felt sometimes that Kalki was having a bit of a struggle with the historical characters having to do what they did in history versus his fictional characters like Nandini being able to do what they wanted. So sometimes I felt the characterizations were a bit lacking (and I definitely skipped some of Sembian Mahadevi's musings, SORRY!)

Now for the differences between the books and film versions (SPOILERS FOR THE BOOKS AND BOTH FILMS BELOW).

In general, with one exception I'll talk about later, I think the scriptwriters did an amazing job of adapting this immense series to film. In fact, for a number of things, I think they improved the pacing of the narrative and cut out extraneous stuff that detracted from the momentum of the main story - these were things that may have worked in a serialized novel but would have drowned even a gigantic six hour film series. All that follows is just my opinion, of course!

First of all, a fair number of characters were just cut out of the story, which I thought tightened up the narrative. (For example, Manimeghalai was completely unnecessary IMO for the story to proceed and she really detracted from the scene between Aditha Karikalan and Nandini when Karikalan dies; the intensity of that scene would have suffered from having anyone else observe it.) Poonghuzhali's brother and father (her sister-in-law Rakkamal is still there but not related) are gone in the film version. And that's all fine, I think it would have made things more confusing and I don't even think a tv series would have been able to use ALL these characters. (Also, I think I like that Poonghzhali seems more stable in the movie.)

I also liked that they cut out the astrologer. I thought the book relied way too heavily on the astrologer's predictions and while that may have been an accurate portrayal of 10th century Chola society, it also removed the jeopardy from the characters. If Arulmozhi Varman's sister would be confident that nothing terrible could happen to him because of the lines on his palm, then it was really hard to generate suspense about him within the story. (I mean obviously as readers/moviegoers we might know that he became Rajaraja Chola and therefore survived the assassination attempts, but his contemporaries and the fictional characters in-universe didn't know that he would end up being a great king.)

For me, it was more powerful to see how much the kingdom mourned him and his family mourned him than to have his sister shrug and be like "oh well, the stars don't say he dies so he's probably alive." And the way that they mourned him also helped develop their characters (To be fair, I also can't figure out what Kalki believed re:astrology either, because occasionally the author's voice is very skeptical about the astrologer as well.)

More controversially, I think they were right to cut out the whole Senthan Amuthan storyline about being the real son of Sembian Mahadevi and the previous king etc. etc. The hidden identity heir business was just way too melodramatic for me even in the book, and I don't think it would have worked at all for me in the movies. I mean, SA doesn't really even have much characterization in the book anyway (he's there a lot and helps out when he can but other than the fact that he loves Poonguzhali and has a nice voice, I couldn't tell you much about him.) Plus that would necessitate that Fake!Madhurantaka be Nandini's twin etc. and that would also have not been believable.

Now ... onto the main characters books vs. movie:

Aditha Karikalan: I honestly liked him much more in the movies than in the books. He was the tragic hero of the movie, with a clear arc, and Vikram brought oodles of charisma to his role. But in the books, he was a lot more opaque to me (his love for Nandini is not his focus - so he maybe falls in love with Manimegalai? - and that moment where he chooses to die isn't as crystal clear.) Also, Book!Aditha is a bit of an asshole towards all of his friends, frankly, which movie Aditha is not.

His chief faults in the movie are that he's ruled by his emotions (which is both why he sins against Nandini by beheading an unarmed man - Veera Pandyan - in a fit of rage that Nandini is pleading for his life AND why he tries to atone for that sin by committing suicide, which of course doesn't actually solve anything and in fact embroils innocent people like Vandiyathevan in a horrible situation).I still think he wouldn't have made a good king, not least because he would not listen to ANYONE'S advice, whether that someone was his grandfather, his friend, or his brother or his sister.

Book!Aditha might have made a better King - he actually goes to Kadambur not just to see Nandini, but partly in order to find out and allay the different Chola clans and possibly cement one of their loyalties by marriage to MM, so I thought that made for an interesting contrast. Even in the books, though, Kalki compares how the people mourned Aditha (as a great warrior whose absence threatened their kingdom's survival) and how they mourned Arulmozhi when he was believed to be dead (as a beloved son/brother even if they didn't know him personally.) The book (and movie though to a lesser degree because it's so preoccupied with Nandini/Aditha) has a lot to say about power and responsibility (so there are constant contrasts between not just Aditha and Arulmozhi but between the Pazhuvettarayar brothers and Arulmozhi - for example, over whether the Chola kingdom should supply the army in Elangai or whether they should live off the land. AMV is much more farsighted and knows how important it is to not make a conquered populace feel subjugated because they will rebel.)

Nandini: I feel like she was a lot more fleshed out in the film than Book!Nandini, and as she and Aditha were the emotional focal point of the movies, it makes more sense. Her motivations seemed clearer to me, and I also appreciated that we actually found out what happened to her, and she didn't just disappear off the page. I also liked, as mentioned above, that they didn't bother with the False!Madhuranthakan who was actually Nandini's twin etc. I liked that they fleshed out the love story between her and Aditha and gave Kundavai a role and also showed how it was Aditha's impulsive declaration that she would be THE Chola Queen that directly led to Nandini - who had done nothing wrong - being unceremoniously bundled off to wherever. (Would I also have liked a little more of how Aditha reacted to his family's banishment of Nandini? I think I would. Like we got a little bit of that in PS1 when he blames Kundavai for being jealous but not much more than that?)

Kundavai was very awesome in both book and film, but she had a lot less to do in the second movie. As I mentioned above, I loved that she actually believed her beloved younger brother to be dead so we got to see her reaction compared to Aditha's. (Aditha basically goes into beast mode and is like “I can fight whoever to avenge my little brother” and Kundavai is, as usual, a lot more rational even in the depths of grief.) I also really liked that brief scene the film gave us with all three siblings together which was a nice addition to the story. I felt there were not very many differences between Book! and Movie!Kundavai - although the book definitely played up her influence over her younger brother a bit more. She is the mirror to Nandini and maybe Nandini would have been like Kundavai if she had not had such struggles in her early life? I do like that in both books and movie, the female characters are so strong (I mean, well-characterized) and different from one another.

Vandiyadevan is just a great character! His resemblance to D'Artagnan was even stronger in the books (he had time for even more adventures) and his verbal sparring with Nambi was great and nicely translated to screen, I thought. I did think his presence in Kadambur and his (partial) witnessing of Aditha's death and aftermath was handled with more pace and worked better for me in the film (again, no Manimegalai was a great decision. And the picnic that Nandini goes on with Aditha and Vandiyadevan and MM and others (I think?) It was late at night when I was reading and I was like WTF so I might be misremembering it) dilutes the Aditha/Nandini meeting a lot. Anyway, back to Vandiyadevan - still sooooo charming. I loved Karthi in this role and am going to watch Kaatru Velliyadai (although I understand he's very different in that one!) sometime this week. But I found Book!Vandiyadevan lovely as well. I think his character translated perfectly from book to screen.

Arulmozhi Varman - I thought the books would focus more on him than they did, given that he's the title character. And I was a little surprised that he still wasn't the main focus of the books (though there's more focus on him in the later volumes), but there were some nice little character moments that I wish could have come into the movie. (Though there were a couple of things in the movie that I also really liked which showed his character beautifully.)

I read Kalki's afterword about how the pivotal scene in all of the books is Arulmozhi Varman's sacrifice of his crown, because that is an amazing thing for any ruler to do, to voluntarily give up his own power and step back. The books talk about the Chola ancestor Sibi, who was willing to give up his own life to protect a pigeon from an eagle because the pigeon was under his protection. I believe we are meant to understand Arulmozhi's sacrifice in a similar light. He is all about protecting the realm, even if it means sacrificing his own ambitions and that makes him Sibi's worthy heir. (In the Mahabharata, Arjuna is the peerless warrior prince, but his brother Yudhishtira is the Dharmaraja - the best of all; and I think we are meant to see echoes of Arjuna (and his son Abhimanyu, alone in the midst of his enemies) in Aditha and echoes of Yudhishtira in Arulmozhi.)

The books and the movie handle this immense sacrifice a little differently; in the book, we get a lot more motivation for that action: AMV is steeped in the history of the Singhalese kingdom and horrified by how bloody their succession battles were (he references fathers killing sons and vice versa more than once) and he is super clear that he doesn't want to bring that mess to the Chola kingdom or cause a civil war or anything like that. But there are two more elements as well, that I mostly got from the book: he truly loves Vanathi and she has sworn an oath that she doesn't want to be empress, so he can't have both Vanathi and the throne (but it's also a political decision, since if he's King, and marries Vanathi, then he'll be seen as privileging her clan above all others unless he marries a bunch of other girls as well). I also genuinely think he also wants to go hang out with Vandiyadevan and have adventures (while also doing the necessary jobs of fighting pirates and expanding trade and all that other stuff.)

The movies don't make that explanation as explicit, but there is this golden thread of self-sacrifice that runs through Arulmozhi's scenes in the movies as well: first of all, he refuses to take the throne of Elangai, though it is offered to him by the monks who crowned all the kings of the island. (This happens in both the books and the movie, but the books make this a more political decision - AMV says Elangai is too small for the scope of his vision, and that he doesn't want it to look like he's setting up a parallel second kingdom to the Cholas in opposition to his brother - whereas in the movies, it is clearly a matter of dharma. And the movie really sells that.)

Then Arulmozhi jumps into a stormy sea to swim to a ship full of people who want to kill him, in order to save Vandiyadevan. (I mean also some breathtaking confidence in himself that he and Vandiyadevan by themselves can defeat the Pandya rebels. He definitely does not lack for confidence :)) I cannot believe I actually forgot about this and had to come back and edit this post.I guess I am too used for Arulmozhi being awesome for this even to register on the scale?

The third self-sacrifice is when Arulmozhi is recovering from his life-threatening fever amidst the Buddhist monks at Nagapattinam. In the movie, somehow the Pandya assassins find out he's there and rile up the crowd which threatens to destroy the monastery which they claim is hiding their beloved prince from them. Although AMV is encouraged to slip away to escape the Pandya assassins, he refuses to repay his hosts by allowing their monastery to be destroyed. So he goes out to face the crowd, despite knowing that he's putting his life in danger by doing this. In the movie, he makes a choice to reveal himself and once again we see that Arulmozhi will always privilege the good of the people under his protection (the people of Elangai, Vandiyadevan, the monks, and ultimately the whole populace of the Chola Kingdom) over his own desires, and even his own life if need be. Over and over again, he shows himself to be the true heir of Sibi. (I also thought the elephant-goad plot was REALLY well done in the movie; even knowing obviously that AMV survived this, I was SO tense during that entire sequence. The book version just wasn’t as tense. Anyway …) So in the movie we keep seeing WHY Arulmozhi will be the great king he becomes but also why he will not take the crown at the end - and by not taking it, he makes himself all the more worthy of it.

In the book, in contrast, he leaves the monastery because there's about to be a devastating cyclone and it's not safe there any more. His disguise is revealed against his will by Rakammal hailing him as the prince; he's not given any choice in the matter. And he has very good and valid reasons for not wanting to reveal who he is which are also an excellent lead-up to his giving up the throne. Book!Arulmozhi wants to avoid a civil war over the succession at all possible costs. And he knows the public is fickle and easily swayed (there’s a whole subplot about there are rumors that HE had Vandiyadevan kill Aditha Karikalan so he - AMV - could be crowned, which only one character says in the film and everyone ELSE is like “Arulmozhi would NEVER!” But in the books more people seem like they are could be swayed by that thought - and giving up the throne to his father’s cousin is one spectacular way to give the lie to those rumors. And here’s also me, getting so angry on behalf of a fictional /historical character ;))

I think the movie version and the book version of this event both work really well for their respective media in terms of establishing who this man is, and what his character is, which lead up to his ultimate sacrifice.

The last sacrifice is, of course, that he give up the kingdom that *everyone* wants him to have. I think in both the books and the films, it's clear that the weird succession situation from his great-uncle Gandaraditha's day (where the throne when to the younger brothers of the king, and then to Sundara Chola - AMV's father - Gandarathia's nephew - rather than to Gandaraditha's own son) was bound to create a locus for discontent and coups egged on by the enemies of the Chola Kingdom. And that internecine strife is, from Kundavai's and AMV's perspective, what killed their brother and even put AMV in line to the throne at all. (They don't know all the backstory about Nandini and Aditha's guilt and his essential suicide. Also, I think it’s an interesting contrast between Aditha Karikalan who offers to give up the throne - once to the council of plotters where he says he’d do it if he had an army to go get himself another kingdom, and once when he proposes to Nandini that they just run off together. Arulmozhi had his chance at a kingdom won by force of arms - Elangai - and said no, and when he gives up the throne at the end of the books/movies it’s for love of the country he was expected to rule, not for love of an individual.)

The one thing I wish the movies had done was flesh out the Kundavai/Vandiyadevan and Vanathi/Arulmozhi connections. The actors did a lovely job with what they were given just from facial expressions and eyes (Vandiyadevan looks hopeless in love in the course of a single conversation when he's dressed as Krishna's uncle) and I bought into Vanathi and Arulmozhi's love for each other with nothing more than him reading her message in PS1 and a couple of times they looked at each other (so much love for Jayam Ravi and Shobita Dhulipala's facial expressions which sold the connection), but IT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE FOR BOTH THESE COUPLES TO HAVE A CONVERSATION! But I realize I've seen a couple of Mani Ratnam's Hindi films (Dil Se, and Raavan - though I really want to watch the Tamil version of that) and he does doomed romance very adroitly. (Although from reading the plots of his several other films, apparently he also does do happy endings sometimes and I sort of wish we could have shifted the focus from Nandini/Aditha A LITTLE BIT to maybe just get a tiny conversation between these two other couples the I also loved. But at least I got some crumbs in terms of the full videos of the songs of "Veera Raja Veera" (for AMV/Vanathi) and "Aga Naga" (for Kundavai/Vandiyadevan. (FYI, the Veera Raja Veera video song is super hot - Rajaraja Chola is looking at his beloved while she dances as though she is an extremely tasty snack he can't wait to sample :P)

ALSO, if anyone wants to make PS3 with these actors I WOULD LOVE YOU FOREVER. In my head, it would be about Vandiyadevan doing wild stuff and flirting with EVERYBODY while Arunmozhi Varman sort of sighs and goes along with him to try and exercise some control over him* because Kundavai will kill him if anything happens to her boo, and they keep getting embroiled in weirder stuff and getting hit on the head (Vandiyadevan) and chilling out looking at Buddhist cave art and talking to elephants (AMV) and Kundavai just sits back and continues to run the kingdom (because she knows that AMV will not let anything happen to her boo). And of course, Nambi would be keeping an eye on both of them as well. Meanwhile, Vanathi is doing lots of dancing and going on some of the art tours with her husband, and also hanging out with Kundavai and rolling their eyes over their husbands. That would be totally fine!

*one of the things I loved in the books was that Vandiyadevan is influenced by Arulmozhi to be more truthful and upstanding, while Arulmozhi gets more devious after he meets Vandiyadevan. I feel this dynamic (along with the real-life bromance of Karthi and Jayam Ravi - every interview I've seen with them is the two of them having a great time!) would be AWESOME.

OK, this is insanely LONG again but I really enjoyed the novels and the movies - each medium enhanced the other for me, and in my head, the version of Ponniyin Selvan is what takes the parts I liked the best in movies and film. So Movie!Aditha and Movie!Nandini, BOTH the Vandiyadevans, Kundavais, Arulmozhi Varmans and Vanathis live in my heart :D

And I've also acquired Anirudh Kanisetti's Lords of the Deccan (which is more about the Cholas' predecessors and opponents like the Rashtrakutas and the Chalukyas) and Kamini Dandapani's Rajaraja Chola, which is about Ponniyin Selvan (but also about his predecessors and successors.)

#ponniyin selvan #Ponniyin Selvan 2 #aditha karikalan #arulmozhi varman #kundavai #vandiyadevan #vanathi #aishwarya rai bachchan #vikram #trisha #jayam ravi #shobita dhulipala #mani ratnam

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1moremilgram-enjoyer · 6 months

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Amane T1 Cover - Positive Parade

Been a while, but we're back to covers! Time for the specialest girl ever, Amane and Positive Parade! I miss her sounding as happy as she does in this song, man. At least she seemed to be having fun in parts of Purge March too, but that was a different kinda fun. Anyways, let's go!

CW Cults and indoctrination, child abuse

Positive Parade is possibly the one covered song in Trial 1 with no explicit references to romance or sex, which in my eyes is a win for Amane, common best character w.

What also makes this song stand out is just how happy it is! It actually is an extremely optimistic and uplifting song, where the singer encourages someone else to follow their dreams and remain positive in the face of adversity.

Stuff your heart full with all your dearest dreams Go for broke on all the things you wanna do! “We can’t stop” Is this a good feeling? Or is it no good after all? On these never-ending nights, let's talk while dancing with the stars Even when times are tough, the light is always by our sides “We can’t stop” You’ll turn out okay! Because you'll find your smile fits you perfectly

(I'm using this translation because the translation in the Milgram wiki has very odd wording at times, so I think it kinda confuses the meaning a bit)

The 'never-ending nights' I believe represent the struggles of life, which at times feel endless. But the singer suggest to talk while 'dancing with the stars', while engaging with the light in the darkness. "Even when times are tough, the light [of the stars] is always by our sides." Optimism! Happiness!

There is the "is this a good feeling? or is it no good after all?" line which seems like it could imply some lurking horror, but there's a few ways to read that. I actually think the singer is asking if the person being sung to is happy with what they're doing, or if they should stop and move on to something else, which is similar to this line:

This isn’t enough, not yet I need to make sure I don’t mess up the words I want to say “I forbid you from pushing yourself too hard" "I’ll be right here” So you won't be discouraged by what comes tomorrow, if we could laugh together again... That's why you gotta stop those "what'll happen if"s!

The singer wants the other to make sure not to push themselves too hard, and reassures them they can rely on the singer.

The important part there is that the singer wants to be relied on. Not in like a dangerous way necessarily, just a "I'm your friend and I want to help you when you're down" kinda way. At least that's the vibe I get.

Heeeey, aren't you straight up bawling your eyes out? It's not normal for you to pretend that everything's fine. Even though you've got things you want to say Where's that sadness you've been shouldering? Come on, one day it'll just overflow "I'm sorry, I can't do it anymore, please help me" You don't want to imagine it, You don't want to hear it, do you? So before it comes to that, rely on me!

You know, I've seen people say that some people think this song is about toxic positivity, but to me it doesn't really look like it. The singer's literally telling the other that if they hide their pain, it's gonna overflow and that's bad. That's, like, the opposite of toxic positivity. And "you" don't want to hear yourself saying "I can't do it anymore, please help me", right? Just rely on the singer now before it gets too bad!

I guess you could say that sounds like a savior complex, which is definitely a way to read the song:

If someone tells you you're wrong, Even when you're not wrong at all I won't support anything that denies you You can take the opportunity to hold me close and you can share the burden of your worries with me You say it's embarrasing, but I'm embarrased too, you know! Don't laugh and say this isn't like me, It's my answer to meeting you. Rely on me, rely on me, please

Yeah, the "rely on me, rely on me, please" certainly feels a bit too desperate.

However, I still feel it can be read more charitably. Listen, this song was written as a theme song for a collaboration with a theme park named Yomiuri Land (Source, it's in Japanese but Google translate gives you the idea). There doesn't need to be a hidden horror here. While again, it's perfectly fine if you read it as a savior complex or something else, I personally see it as completely innocent positivity.

The line about both of them being embarrased by what's going on is very sweet. No big meaning there, I just like it.

So the singer either does or doesn't have a savior complex; at least they find quite a bit of happiness in helping others. If you're wondering about Miku shedding a tear in the artwork, it's probably a tear of joy from "dancing with the stars." In my personal opinion, there is no hidden horror in this song, it's just a really nice optimism anthem! The only way this would be horrifying at all is if it were being sung by, like, an abused cult victim or something.

... Oh.

Yeah this is where we acknowledge that, even though the original song may not be hiding anything too horrifying, it's being covered by Amane fucking Momose. And nothing this girl does ever fails to make us sad.

So, Amane here has the same "I want to make other people happy" attitude that we see in Magic.

[Magic] Only if, only if, only if I could be a good girl I hope, I hope everyone can be happy and smile Forever, forever together would be a dream

She's even called something akin to "Happiness Support Sister" in the credits. Amane wants everyone to be happy, that's ultimately her goal in everything she does. The thing is that the concept of "happiness" has been so horrendously twisted by her cult that a lot of the time it shows in a very... uh... concerning way.

Timeline 23/01/17 Amane: Happy birthday.Mahiru-san. How is your body feeling? Mahiru: ……ah, Amane-chan. Thank you. Yeah, I’m fine. Now I can move around if I use a wheelchair…… It’s all thanks to Shidou-san looking after me…… Amane: I’ll give you one warning. The two of you are dabbling in something tabooed. If you continue to go against the way of nature like this, you’ll just bring an early death upon yourself. Think hard about this. Mahiru: Amane-chan……? Are you really Amane-chan……?

Like, technically speaking, Amane is trying to make sure Mahiru stays happy. As in, not dead. She does something similar with Fuuta. Notably, she's only shown herself really hostile towards Shidou, who she dislikes for reasons even beyond the whole medicine thing. Long story.

But since this is Trial 1, she's likely not really speaking to anyone in the prison. So, who is Amane talking to? The most straightforward answer is that she's talking to her abusers, more specifically her mother probably. Because they are the "everyone" she's talking about in Magic; Amane thinks that if she can make them happy, she'll stop being punished and thus she'll be happy too.

Of course, this paints the entire song in a horribly grim light. Because now the singer's pleas to be relied on are Amane asking her abusers what she needs to do to make them happy.

You can take the opportunity to hold me close and you can share the burden of your worries with me You say it's embarrasing, but I'm embarrased too, you know!

The "burden" here may very well be the things Amane does """wrong""", so Amane might be asking what she needs to change.

Question: What do you think happens when "it overflows"? When Amane's abusers are frustrated at something? Not Amane, just anything in general. How do you think that goes? In a lot of cases, chid abusers will find any excuse to """justify""" hurting their child when they're frustrated by literally anything. That means it's very possible Amane now tries to make sure her abusers are happy all the time, because it's the only way she can think of to avoid being hurt.

"I need to make sure I don't mess up the words I want to say" sure reads a lot more sinisterly when "messing up the words" could end up with Amane being seriously hurt.

Yeah like that.

If someone tells you you're wrong, Even when you're not wrong at all I won't support anything that denies you

And this definitely reads like something she'd say about the cult. She won't support anything that denies the cult or their doctrines, you don't have to worry about that! Please don't hurt her.

The chorus is a bit strange with this reading, since what the "dearest dreams" are is very debatable. It's possible it's just general positivity without referring to anything in particular, but if it is something specific, my best guess would be "following the cult's doctrines and going to [heaven or equivalent]". Apart from that, again, the other stuff is kinda sinister under this reading. "Yeah, focus on the good stuff! Don't worry about the sad things! Please don't get mad! Please please please don't get mad and hurt me!"

But the thing about "chasing the dream" being following the cult's beliefs makes the "we can't stop" line really mortifying. Originally that's just "we shouldn't let our doubts stop us in our dreams!" but now it's "we can't stop following the doctrines because horrible horribe things will happen if we do!"

[The Purge March] If you become a bad girl, monsters will come out This is the magic that stops that from happening

And wanna know a """fun""" little detail? I haven't been paying much attention to differences between the og songs and the covers, but Amane gets special treatment.

I invite you to listen to the "we can't stop" line from around 2:18 - 2:19 minutes into the song both in the original and in Amane's cover. In the Miku version, that's sung pretty much the same as every other time. However, in the Amane cover, it's sung in a noticeably different way. It's hard to describe, because it sounds a mix of exhausted, resigned, depressed, something like that. Think of it like this: if the rest of the song sounds like Amane is singing with her Trial 1 sprite, this one line is sung like her Trial 2 sprite. So:

Stuff your heart full with all your dearest dreams! Go for broke on all the things you wanna do! “We can’t stop” Is this a good feeling? Or is it no good after all?

Or translated for Amane:

"Follow your dreams of being a great follower and going to heaven!"

"Do all the things God tells you you should want to do!"

"We can't stop, can we? Even if it hurts, even if we are unhappy, we have to keep following that dream. Because horrible things will happen if we don't. And even if we try to change, then what was it all for? What did you hurt me for? There has to be a reason. Please tell me my suffering isn't meaningless. God will save us in the end if we keep doing this, right? That's the only thing I have left to hope for. We can't stop"

"Ehem- Doesn't it feel good?"

Or maybe I just like Amane angst a bit too much.

Anyways, that's the main takeaway from Positive Parade in my opinion. There is another way to read it, though, which I think is equally interesting. Mainly, that she might be singing it to herself, right before killing her mother. The "dreams" would be killing the mom, with the one more sinister "we can't stop" being there because it's a somewhat sinister dream. The "light in the dark" is a future without abuse I guess? The whole "rely on me" thing does come off as a bit weird, unless you go the "council of Amane" route and/or read it with the idea Amane has DID and then it just sounds like an alter, which would be something. "I won't support anything that denies you" and her mom did deny her... the issue there is that Amane also denies herself a lot of "vulgar" pleasures because Gozake ordainment. I don't think it works perfectly because of things like "I forbid you from pushing yourself too hard", but it's still a valid way to read the cover!

Anyways, hope you're not crying too hard! Take care!

#milgram #amane momose #positive parade cover

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welcome-to-green-hills · 6 months

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Okay so we know about your stance on sonic crying (which I 100% support) what about the whole debate about shadow moving on from Maria? Like him not mentioning her at all recently and sega wiping that from him completely. Shouldn’t he talk about Maria? It is his sister after all. It just feels weird to not really hear much about her if she means a lot to him. You get what I’m saying?

Hi Hon!❤️✨

Don’t worry, I completely understand what you’re trying to say. It’s not a silly or demeaning question at all. It’s a pretty good one that I think needs to be explored. I know that this is a hard conversation to have, but I think that it would be rewarding in the end. Let’s talk about this!

I don’t believe that SEGA is wiping Maria’s existence from Shadow’s character completely. It doesn't necessarily make sense. Maria Robotnik is essential to Shadow’s character and his development throughout the series. However, I believe that we’re witnessing Shadow and his healing journey currently. It’s almost like we’re watching him grow up and recover along side with him. Remember: Shadow is still a child. He's practically a teenager (SOURCE). Children and maturing individuals (I.E. teenagers) grieve differently than adults do. We don't see that perspective enough in media today. We mostly see grief and healing through representation of adults. What we're seeing now is a child’s healing journey right before our eyes. Shadow handles his grief and healing in a way that makes sense to him.

So what exactly does it mean to grieve? Much like what we’ve discussed with crying, one feels many emotions all at once. There are specific characteristics that help identify when someone is grieving, but the emotions that the griever feels doesn’t exactly fit into a binary. The act of grieving comes in a plethora of shapes and forms. Sometimes it's in the form unhygienic practices, dark thoughts, loss with a divine spiritual connection (I.E. religion), lack in behavioral and cognitive response, guilt, and much more. It's how one responds to loss and what they do with that energy. It fucks with your brain, your heart, and makes you feel worse than small. These emotions can linger for extensive periods of time as well. But... there is a silver lining. You learn how to live again. Once when we've come to terms with grief and recognizing when we're grieving, we begin to heal. And believe it or not, this is harder than it sounds.

We do a fantastic job with conveying to others that it’s perfectly okay to let it be ugly when mourning. What we don’t do a good job with sharing is that healing might be fucking ugly. It has to be ugly in order to heal properly. Sometimes we feel pretty good on our healing journey. Sometimes we feel pretty annoyed and easily startled. Sometimes we start feeling guilty because we're the ones that are healing and getting closure, or we start forgetting simple things about the ones we cared about. And sometimes we go backwards and have to start all over again. And you know what? That is perfectly okay! You are human. You think, you feel, you respond, and you exist. You know how some people say, “the cure is worse than the disease?” This is a prime example of what it means to go through with healing.

Here’s the thing, no one is ever truly gone. I’m not telling you that as an archaeologist, I’m telling you that as a human being. You, yourself, are a beautiful mosaic of people that you’ve encountered. Most of it is good, some of it is bad, and perhaps there's a bit of excess material in there to add a bit of detail. And that’s perfectly fine. The materials that are used to make your mosaic are experiences that have moved you. Being emotionally and spiritually moved by someone will always be with you. All of this, whether you like it or not, helps define who you are. Think about something that you do now because were inspired someone else. It could be something mundane, like whistling while walking on a specific street corner, doing jazz hands to empathize joy, listening to music or even preparing a meal the same way that someone has done because that's how they've liked it. These little quirks that appear out of the blue are indicators to let the griever know that they're okay. They are never truly forgotten. It may be hard to remember their face at times, but you never forget how much they've moved you. And you never forget how much you loved them and continue to love them to this day.

To answer your question, no. I do not see this being a problem, nor think that it's a concern. Yes, we don’t really hear him talking about his sister in newer games and spin-offs. That’s not a bad thing. This is showing us that he on his spiritual journey of finding peace. Remember: there's a difference between being reminded of one's death constantly as a defining trait compared to sharing an experience and growing from it. We, as the audience, are watching Shadow embark on his healing journey. We're watching him move forward and come to peace with what happened. It seems painful to us because we're watching it live as it happens. We've watched him spiral in SA2 with the wounds still fresh in mind, we've watched him find contentment with being alive in Heroes, we've seen him question his existence and find solidarity in Battles, and we've seen him find peace with his creator and sister in ShTH 2005.

Shadow doesn't necessarily need to share these emotions if he doesn’t want to. He’s surrounded by the right people that recognize he still in the process of healing and give him space if he needs it. The emotions that he feels in his heart and his mind are for him to experience only and to share when he’s ready. At least... this is how I interpret the situation.

I hope that this answers your question, my dear.

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #shadow the ultimate lifeform #mystery anon #off topic

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balanceoflightanddark · 11 months

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Well... I don't think that Azula hallucinating Ursa is her first hallucination.

Her reaction is slight initial surprise but then she's immeadiatley just ... annoyed. She isn't shocked or freaked out at all. It's like she's used to it. She talks to the hallucination as if it was just another day. Then she smashes the mirror, like she is fully accquainted with the fact that this isn't real.

That's not the reaction of someone who sees and hears their lost mother for the first time. No way.

(Ofc some people don't like to headcannon in this direction of her having long-lasting mental illness and prefer to think it was just a single breakdown. Which I get and is super fine).

Just thought, objectively looking at the scene, there's no freaking way this was her first hallucination.

It looks like she's been dealing with this for quite some time. And surely alone. She couldn't show weakness to Ozai. And I don't think the royal palace is big on mental health.

;

Headcanon that fits this:

Despite Azula's betrayal of Ozai (lying to him, failing him etc.), he still planned to keep using her because... that's what narcissists do. They use you as long as you can be used. And Azula is super useful! Why would he throw her away after all she did for him? When she is still so desperate for his "love"? When she could still be so very useful to him?

He wanted to keep using her, but when he saw Azula starting to "lose her mind", he decided to ditch her.

Iroh: "She's crazy and she needs to go down"

Ozai: "She's crazy... gotta ditch her. (...) Better give her the throne she never wanted so she doesn't kill me. Lmao if she turns on me im dead this bitch has blue fire, killed the avatar and conquered Ba Sing Se. She different. I still can't read maps and fire only comes out when angry"

...okay. Let me just preface this with saying that Ozai's last sentence is hilarious, is completely in-character, and should be framed.

I should also say that...since we're gonna be going into territory which is a bit of a sore subject for myself, whatever I say is not an attempt to tear you down. I do not believe in that and will try to keep this as levelheaded as possible.

With that said, while I certainly respect your opinion on Azula...I still don't believe that she has a mental illness that results in recurring hallucinations. We only have the one scene and there's only so much we can get from that. And I certainly don't think we should base everything we know of a character over their worst and lowest moment. I know because...I was guilty of that with Zuko.

But I digress.

This masterpost belongs to my dear friend @prying-pandora666 who goes into quite a bit of detail concerning Azula and mental health if you're interested. But the crux of it is, when looking at it from the lens of a professional, we don't have any evidence that Azula was mentally ill. Does that mean she wasn't? No. Of course not. It's just we don't have too much onscreen evidence to make a definitive conclusion.

And even if Azula was mentally ill (I don't think she was and was probably suffering from a mental breakdown), one should be careful to make sure it's not overemphasized to the detriment of her upbringing and Ozai's bullshit. After all, even the best kid wouldn't last too long under his parentage without getting SOME kind of trauma.

As for your headcanon, I don't necessarily believe Ozai was aware of Azula's deteriorating mental state. She didn't show any signs of it initially and he left before things got really bad. In this case though, I'd pin the blame more on Ozai's lack of focus on Book 3. Is it possible he saw the signs? Yeah, and I can believe that. Doesn't make him any less of a scumbag for abandoning her. I'd argue it makes him even worse since he left her when she needed him most after years of presenting himself as the only stable adult figure in her life.

And as a quick aside, can please stop using the "crazy and needs to go down" quote as evidence? Eshasz and Greg Baldwin both said that Iroh was in the wrong there for saying that.

...sorry. I have autism which can be constituted as a mental illness, so I get a little bit tender when discussing this. There's nothing inherently wrong with Azula being mentally ill like so many would say and you're completely within your right to believe she is. My personal advice would be to just...be careful is all. Treat Azula as a person instead of a mental illness, never try to give people the wrong idea about mental illnesses or misdiagnosing characters (especially minors) and you'll be fine.

#azula #princess azula #atla #azula deserved better #azula meta #ozai #ozai's a+ parenting #azula mental illness #anon answered #anon ask #ask answered #ask me anything

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disregardcanon · 4 months

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upon a spies are forever rewatch, i've sorted through some of my feelings a bit better: the positives and the negatives

okay, so the stuff that i do really enjoy: the choreography, most of the musical numbers, tatiana and cynthia's characters in general, the running theme of torture as weird foreplay with owen and curt, and then the concepts of gay spies during the lavender scare era.

things that i really do NOT enjoy: barb's entire deal. she didn't feel like a very fleshed out character and i didn't enjoy the joke or feel like her presence added anything. the concept of a scientist with an unrequited crush on the gay spy lead is fine, but it just wasn't executed very well in my opinion.

susan's entire deal. what was up with him? why was he there? what did he want? like i feel like the scene with him and the foreign dignitary was supposed to show a bit of period typical queerphobia but it just. came off too much as a transphobic punchline for me to really buy it. also still don't know what his narrative role was really supposed to be.

the nazi deal. i GET IT! i don't even necessarily think that it was done all that badly for the genre it's parodying, i just did not enjoy it.

sergio was fun and funny, but i think that he needed a wig or something to distinguish him better from owen carvour. i know that the perils of having the same actors playing many parts are difficult, but it wasn't just me but all three people i've showed this to that assumed that sergio was owen carvour because it happened so soon afterwards and the costume change was so minimal. if it wasn't intentional (which i think if it was that was a bad move) then a bigger visual change could have been made

things that i almost enjoyed/areas that i would dig into:

there were a lot of elements that i felt like almost came together, but didn't quite get there. for one, the theme of curt needing a support system and not being able to do it all alone. for that to work for me, i think that he and tatiana should have started working together more concretely on a more permanent basis. i also would have liked more of them just being good friends. personally, i would have put our comphet revelation a bit earlier to give them more time to work that out and deal with working together.

beyond the theme of curt needing a support system, we have the attempted theme of whether it's good or bad to have individual humans spying and controlling so much of the fate of the world. is the finese needed to accomplish this a GOOD thing? are the secrets worth it? what would things look like without these hurdles, with computers doing the job and no one being allowed secrets anymore?

this is a VERY interesting concept, especially paired with the concept of the cold war, mccarthyism, conformity, the lavender scare, and a pair of gay spies who are very much in love and have no room to be so. but we didn't get a whole lot of room to sit with that, you know? we spend so much time with characters who don't really keep to those themes, a love interest-villain who's in disguise, and a farcical plot that only furthers his goals tangentially.

above everything else, i think that spies are forever doesn't quite know what it wants to be? the concepts that it plays with are so interesting, but it doesn't spend enough time with them as opposed to the more shallow elements of the farcical aspects to do much with the parts that i was most interested in.

i don't even necessarily think that it had to be what i wanted it to be, you know? it could have gone in a direction that isn't focused on questions of secrecy, queerness, the myth of a single great man, and community and focused entirely on the farce of the spy genre, but it raised those questions and didn't follow through, which made the other things that it was doing in a different direction weaker too. it just... wasn't enough of any of things it was playing with

which makes it a very frustrating but tantalizing piece of media for me.

#spies are forever

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yuikomorii · 1 year

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Saw a post about inconsistencies in Diabolik Lovers and I have prolly the biggest ones:

In Shu’s HDB ending Shu calls Yui an Asian woman and Yui also refers to herself as an“ average Japanese high school student” but later on in Laito’s and Reiji’s routes it is mentioned how she’s actually a foreigner and her step father only left his old country because he didn’t want Yui to be caught by the vampires there and settled in Japan for a peaceful life.She even only called herself “ an average high school girl” without using “Japanese”as in Shu’s route.Now all games follows the lore presented in Laito’s and Reiji’s routes, so what was written in Shu’s one was a mistake because it doesn’t really make sense anymore.I don’t really mind it because let’s be fr, she’s the definition of white girl but I feel like the writers should pay more attention to those details. |:

There was this test battle CD drama where Yui got the highest scores out of the Sakamaki’s but in the routes she’s a pretty bad student as far as I have seen.There’s no day she doesn’t ask anyone for help when doing her homework although it’s based on what was taught in class and heck she was even on the verge of failing her math class in HDB if Reiji didn’t study all day with her.I even remember that one time when even she got wrong even the first answer, and there are several times she doesn’t pay attention during class because she doodles or thinks about different stuff.Beside that, she has the cultural knowledge of a toddler wym she couldn’t even name one fricking painter like what the f?

// Referring to the first one:

Perhaps Shu's route was the first to be written, because Cordelia, who is a major character in the HDB plot, edit: only appears in the after story for a short time, and the writer most likely went with the flow and didn't add too much lore because it had nothing to do with Cordelia. After his route, they probably wanted to give Yui a proper backstory and added: dead orphan child with an implanted demon heart given to a vampire hunter who fled to Japan not to be caught, in order to fit the whole plot. It's also possible that the writer didn't read the other routes before. I mean, I can't blame them entirely, given that those details were largely irrelevant in Shu’s route and weren't presented as lore as they were in Laito's and Reiji's routes. However, yes, it was a mistake. Shu's HDB route had a slew of errors in general, such as in Ecstasy 3, where Yui mentions Shu's heartbeat, despite the fact that vampires don't have one, haha.

Referring to the second one:

It's fine to like the silly Tokutens, but you shouldn't take them too seriously. They present funny and plot-twisty scenarios to generate laughter, such as when both Kou and Subaru entered an ikemen contest, but Shu won despite the fact that he wasn't even registered. xD They can be very OOC, as I doubt Subaru would ever participate in such a superficial activity, but as I said, they're just for fun. In terms of Yui being a bad student, I wouldn't necessarily label her as such. Sure, she gets some low scores, and I also recall the scenes you mentioned, as well as one in which it is revealed that her physics exam was a disaster, and another one where Ruki threw shade at her for getting a bad grade on the foreign language exam. Nonetheless, I believe she is simply not good at that kind of subjects, maybe she’s good at something else. I guess it’s already obvious that Yui catches things pretty slowly, since her learning ability isn't exactly the best, so it's no surprise that she asks for help and has to study harder and longer in order to show good results. I still consider her a good student though; I don't mind that her grades aren't good all the time; she still tries to study and to complete her assignments even if they're wrong, doesn't like skipping, and takes her school duties seriously; she's exactly what I'd call a conscientious student, to be honest. I can't defend her on the painter thingy though, that was the bare minimum, but again, Yui doesn't have much knowledge in general other than what’s common so… it can’t be helped. :P

#admin

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white-weasel · 3 months

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Saw VII and Jigsaw thoughts this fine Saw Saturday! (We actually watched the movies on Thursday but shhh it was Saw Saturday for us in spirit)

I am so sad that Saw VII was…. Not Very Good to put it mildly. Very rushed and all over the place and just did not give me the same feeling as the other Saw movies which was upsetting as this was kinda supposed to be the end cap of the main series :(

Dr. Lawrence Gordon, the character you are. I was so excited when I saw that he came back for this movie but was so disappointed when he was barely in it. I was really hoping for him to be more involved in the story or at the very least to be given a little more explanation for why he joined up as an apprentice. Like give me this man’s psyche and emotional state!!! What made *him* decide to help John do unto others what was done to him? Did he buy into the philosophy? Did he develop some sort of weird Stockholm Syndrome when John nursed him back to health after he survived his trap?

Idk if this is just me but they treated Jill kinda weirdly in this movie? Quite literally just kept her locked in rooms and not allowed to do anything and like. Obviously I would also run to police protection if I had just tried to kill an incredibly dangerous serial killer and failed like Jill did at the end of Saw VI, but I just wish they gave her something more interesting to do than have a weird dream about Hoffman killing her with a train car and cower in fear

The blood and violence was so bad this movie and I genuinely don’t know why. My guess is it’s something to do with the movie being shot/intended for 3D? But even then I don’t think that should make the blood, like, pink right? I’m not watching Saw for the gore necessarily but it was a bit disappointing when you’d see Hoffman’s face ripped open from the end of 6, and then the next shot it looked totally different

(Speaking of the 3D, the scene at the end with Gordon tossing the saw was so unintentionally funny because of it. Like, yes king throw your hacksaw at the audience)

On the plus side I thought the character of Bobby was an interesting angle to explore. A man who basically used Jigsaw for clout and profited off of faking trauma then has to go on and live through that same trauma x10

(It is kinda weird that his wife was punished for his mistakes though considering she literally didn’t know he was lying……… like we saw in 6 with the mother and son that John doesn’t want to hurt those he thinks haven’t done anything wrong (though of course his logic on what that is is skewed) but now he’s suddenly cool using this woman as motivation for a man to do these traps? Seems off)

Mostly solid trap designs this time around!

Jigsaw survivor support group is also interesting! I couldn’t tell if everyone in that scene was actually survivors we had previously seen, but it was cool to be able to pick out a few of them and be like “oh my god I remember you!”

Wish we had gotten to see more Hoffman this movie as well, though seeing him go complete cold blooded killer in the police station was kinda fun, even if it was extremely goofy and unrealistic

If they wanted to, I could definitely see a world where Hoffman is still alive. Yeah he doesn’t have the saw to cut off his own leg, but we know you can skip the chain by breaking your own foot (Eric Matthews) and we also know Hoffman has no qualms about doing that sort of thing to survive (Reverse Bear Trap escape) so he definitely did that. The only question is if he could actually get out of the bathroom afterwards

There’s probably a lot I’m missing about my Saw VII thoughts but unfortunately it’s probably my least favorite of the bunch rn. I think it had some good ideas, some ideas that I was actually super invested in, but the execution was rushed and a lot of our existing characters were seemingly flattened to make them work

So maybe it’s just because I was coming off the disappointment in VII, but Jigsaw was an enjoyable movie to me! The pacing could be a little bit weird, but I also recognize that it was made like… 7 years after the last movie and they were probably trying to find a way to “modernize” the franchise and bring in new fans

The main thing I didn’t appreciate about this movie is how I felt it basically had to trick me for its twist to work. I absolutely LOVE the idea of “the game you’re seeing play out actually happened 10 years ago. We just didn’t say it was a flashback.” It’s such a classic saw thing to do and a lot of it a was foreshadowed. However stuff like the technology level and some of the fashion choices of the victims (I’m thinking specifically of the style of jeans Mitch wore) don’t always work with what would have been around in like 2001 or earlier. Maybe that’s me showing my age and I’m underestimating what was around in the late 90s/early 00s but it just made me a little mad because I felt I couldn’t just sit in the twist and instead had to justify why it didn’t make sense

I do however like the idea of Logan being someone who was saved from his trap by John. He was put in for making a careless mistake, only for John himself to make a mistake in his sedative dosage, not giving him an actual fair chance to fight for his life. It does help bridge the gap between the very obviously personal revenge John took in his first trap with Cecil towards the philosophy he spouts about the games being about appreciating your life later in the timeline

Genuinely though the whole movie I thought the killer was gonna be Detective Hunt, Halloran’s partner. I totally thought it was gonna be something similar to Logan where he wanted revenge on Halloran due to all the shit he had gotten away with. Also, the movie made such a point that “omg the body showed up at Eleanor’s studio/warehouse but only Logan and Eleanor knew about that place” but like….. Hunt followed them to that location. He could have gone in and placed the body there later to frame everyone and then told the cops about the workshop just to make sure the evidence was found. I was so convinced it was him because I felt like Logan was a bit too obvious for most of the movie lol

I liked the shotgun barn game. Very good early Saw trap/game. Short, sweet, and gets the lesson across

Logan’s reveal was hard as fuck, I don’t care what anyone says. I already made a post about how that scene is full of banger lines but it bears repeating: “I am him” “You have a choice: scream or don’t” “I speak for the dead” like okay sir go off

Logan certainly isn’t the most interesting apprentice or character, but I truly think that’s only because we don’t get to see him as an apprentice very much. From everything I’ve seen, he does not come back for either of the next two movies which I think is such a shame because there’s something to explore here with him being the first apprentice! With him being moreso an equal to John, teaching him part of his philosophy that’s so iconic about him, that’s a different apprentice dynamic from what we’d seen before and ahhhh I just wanna know the direction they would have taken this guy

Also makes me curious how much the other apprentices knew about each other. Amanda and Hoffman obviously interacted, but did anyone know about Logan? Was he just like “none of my business” when shit was going off the rails after John died? I want answers on how the Jigsaw apprentice relationships operate lmao

Overall, not the best Saw Saturday showing but yknow what, they can’t all be bangers. At the very least these movies have given me something to chew on and I also still enjoyed myself a lot. Saw, they could never make me hate you even if they’re doing the most with it!!!

I’m hopeful that my friend and I will be able to watch both Spiral and Saw X next week and then we’ll officially be through all of them and I won’t have to worry about any more spoilers! Hooray!

#sawposting #saw series #saw franchise #white weasel talks

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dootznbootz · 4 months

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hehehee that writing ask: 3, 5, 6 and 7!

HEHEHE indeed!!! >:D Thank you, Niko!!!

3.) What loves do you tend to write about? (You knew which question I was DYING to answer >:))

Honestly? All of them! I do tend to write romance as the center but I think it's really important to show different "loves" going on even with the same characters. Honestly, for the romance, I like showing multiple as, for example, you should definitely consider your lover a friend xD can be kind of obsessed with them and "still get butterflies" in a way. (not necessarily nervous. as with "long time love" you shouldn't be nervous around your love anymore, but you can be GIDDY >:D ) I have a LOT of thoughts on how love and showing it :P I'm a very affectionate person so it's nice that it usually kind of comes easily to me :D It's funny because even though I was excited for this question once I tried to answer it, it was kind of hard to. As there is just... SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT IT!!! I love people caring about each other!!! I love having "shitty moments" still being met with love as that's what matters! Loving people at their worst!!! TRUSTING that you CAN be not at your best and still knowing they'll be there for you? That you have them no matter what??? And this can be for ANY love too!! I just am a sucker for romance in particular for whatever reason :P Honestly I think what's most important in a way is the smaller moments. She looks between seashells to figure out which one will be "the middle pendant" and have him look at her so she can see which ones match his eyes best. They tell each other about each other's day and he's so excited to tell her that family friend's puppies have finally opened their eyes. SMALL MOMENTS OF "Hey! I care about you and I wish to share something with you/have a lil something of you" I love the little things!!!

5.) Would you rather write a happy or a sad ending?

Honestly, I'm a sucker for both depending on the context. I usually try to end on a "hopeful note" or at least let it be known that "It's bad now but it'll be fine soon." I mean...take the Telegony for example, that's a sad ending and I hate it. there's nothing really happy or hopeful about it. A "sad ending" I plan for a fic would probably be that "after the Palladium stolen" incident where Menelaus and Odysseus have a good cry about things. It's sad, they're not necessarily happy with where they're at right now...but they're both at least HOPEFUL and determined to GET that happy ending. That'll just be a moment of...bad. :D

6.) What POV do you like writing in?

I actually love switching from character to character >:D There's not many instances where I don't do that. (probably if one character is "secretive to the other" that'd be the only reason why but even then I'd probably write a snippet of the other POV as a "bonus" afterward :D I love having characters react to each other and have introspection about what's going on!!! :D

7.) Favorite description in WIP >:)

This is probably so far :D Yeah, she was just sick earlier so it's a happy moment!

He placed a few soft kisses on the once sweaty and pale forehead that he would push her hair away from. He cupped her other cheek, pulling her face closer to his own to continue his affection. The kisses only stopped momentarily as he could not hold back his grin as he squished his nose into her cheekbone, no longer red from fever but from joy. Her sharp teeth glinted as she giggled and squirmed. Her body was sore and moving so much hurt her ribs but she couldn’t bring herself to push him away. She leaned away from him, as his hair was tickling her; it only left her neck vulnerable. He nuzzled himself on the pulse point, the same spot he desperately felt during the past week. Her laughter, although still hoarse, was his goal; she truly meant it when she said she was feeling better.

That one's shorter. :D I have a lot of little bits here and there that I love but they're...LONGER and also probably a bit much :P as you know I like showing "love despite unpleasant moments". And she's stubborn and sick. I LOVE LIL SILLY AFFECTIONSDFK sj

#klsjd fI love them so fucking much.#Thank you so much Niko! :D #nikoisme #ask #Mad rambles #shot by odysseus

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thestrangestthing89 · 1 year

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Season 1. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Season 2. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Season 3. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

Season 4. Part 1

Mike Character Analysis - Season 4 part 2

It's a very different Mike than the one we see at the airport. The Mike that arrives in Lenora is awkward. He is wearing bright chaotic clothes we have never seen him wear before - Argyle calls his clothes (aka him) a shitty knockoff. He has become The Boyfriend. He's overthinking all of his actions here just like last season. He's putting on a performance because now he's around El. Mike's body language is important here just like it was during the kissing scenes last season. Because instead of putting his bags down like a normal person would when they hug someone they haven't seen in months, Mike is holding on to his as he gives her an awkward one armed hug. Because his other hand is holding flowers that he puts between the two of them. He is minimizing physical contact with her. He doesn't want her too close to him. While they do kiss it is brief. He interrupts the kiss to tell her she's squishing her flowers. The flowers he could have easily moved out of the way if he wanted to. I think that since Mike has accepted his sexuality at this point, he was planning on breaking up with El when he got to Lenora. Because he is clearly not comfortable with intimacy around her (he never was) in a way that suggests he is doing it on purpose. Like last season only now he's comfortable with himself. So now he's more aware of how forced this is. He's setting boundaries and trying to soften the blow. He's trying to be nice - the flowers - but he's also not going out of his way to be emotional with her. This is not a tearful reunion with lingering hugging and kissing that you'd expect from a happy couple that missed each other. I think it's also possible that the flowers are meant to be an apology. They established last season that Mike needs to buy a gift for El when he has something to apologize for (he doesn't have to, but he feels like he does). Mike giving those to her could be him trying to end things as nicely as possible.

Mike's reunion with Will is also awkward. He is still overthinking things. He gives Will a dude bro shoulder tap and fixates on the painting. Seriously, he bypasses all normal greetings - no "How have you been?" "What have you been up to?" - just "What's that?". This painting is bothering him. It's the Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets reunion with Ron and Hermione and it confuses Will. Because he was happy to see Mike and was acting like a person who was happy to see his friend would act and Mike got weird. And we know from El's letter that Will has been weird because he likes someone. Mike spends the day doing what El tells him. They go to eat where she wants and they go to the skating rink because she wants to. It's not necessarily a bad thing - Mike isn't familiar with Lenora so her picking a few places to go is fine. The problem is that Mike is clearly uncomfortable with skating and she doesn't ask him if he wants to. It also indicates that she doesn't know what he likes and never bothered to ask. Because she's pretending too. She's pretending she isn't unhappy that he won't tell her he loves her. She's pretending that everything is fine and that they are on this great date. She ignores Will because she's so focused on making it look like everything about their relationship is fine. But Mike is not ignoring Will. Mike is back to being hyper-aware of his every move and we see him glancing in his direction a number of times. Which is funny because Will is feeling ignored and doesn't notice this even with his own constant glancing at Mike. The moment where they are sitting and talking is telling. Because Mike and El are talking about their milkshakes. Do these two ever have a significant conversation? They haven't seen each other in months. They aren't catching up? They aren't talking about what's been going on since the last time they wrote to each other? I am pretty sure that not only was Will annoyed and jealous in this scene, but he was also bored. Because this is almost as bad as the two of them reading the ingredients label on the M&Ms last season.

El gets pulled away by her bullies and Mike realizes that she's been lying to him for months. She made it sound like her life in Lenora was wonderful and it wasn't so he's understandably annoyed. But he's also pissed at the bullies because he has his own experience with bullies and knows how awful this is. I want to take note of a couple things here. Mike and Will are both responding to this scene in the way that people who are triggered by trauma do. Will's response to trauma is to freeze (and we know this from season 2). He has a hard time getting himself to move to help her even though he wants to. Mike's response is to lash out with anger. He's mad at the bullies and does what he can to stop them but it's not enough. He's also mad at Will for not telling him about the bullies. Except that's not really the problem here. He's really just upset that Will hasn't been telling him things in general.

We find out a couple things during this fight. Not only is this the second and last time Mike and Will fight, but like last time Will is calling Mike out for not acting like himself. Like last time, Will feels neglected by Mike. Only this time it isn't true (not entirely) and Will is missing some things. Because Mike proceeds to list several things that Will was doing all day - he was paying attention to him. The two of them are having some communication issues. Which is very unlike them. Throughout this whole fight though, they are able to clearly communicate to each other why they are upset. They missed each other. That is what this whole fight is about.

Will indicates that Mike only called a handful of times. So they did talk a few times and one of them must have been recently because Will is excited to see Mike at the airport and he painted him something. So these calls, while there weren't many, at least involved catching up with each other and were positive. We know that Mike must have told Will about Hellfire because Will paints him and the party as their D&D characters. Will knows Mike in season 3 thought this was lame but at the end of the season Mike doesn't want Will joining another party and he says he won't. So the two of them at least reached some understanding about D&D. Mike is also upset with Will for the same reason. It's not just on him to reach out. Will didn't either. He never called Mike. Both of them were waiting for the other to make the first move. They have this whole fight while they are supposed to be looking for El who's just been humiliated. They forget about her for a few minutes because they are so upset with each other.

I think there are a couple things going on with Mike's attitude in response to El's attack of Angela. He's upset with Will and their fight, and he's upset about El and her lying but Mike is once again triggering her trauma with Brenner when he questions her. We haven't seen that since S1. Mike has continually kept himself emotionally distant from her. When she doesn't do what he wants he gets mad and asks her what she did. He has this idealized version of her as the superhero and when she doesn't act like this he's either angry or confused. Is this fair of him - no. But it does show that he doesn't know her as a person. They never got to know each other because they aren't friends.

I think part of Mike's attitude at dinner is also just the fact that he wanted to break up with her and now she's devastated so he feels like he can't and he is feeling trapped. He just started getting comfortable with himself and his next step is telling El he wants to break-up but now he can't make her sad because she's just been humiliated. He spent all day doing things she wanted to make her happy even though he wasn't comfortable and now he can't do what he set out to do. So he says something snarky - "she didn't look fine".

Part 3

#byler #gay mike wheeler #mike wheeler #will byers #mike x will #anti mileven

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golden-flute · 2 years

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Dragon Prince continues to amaze me

Why hello there! I’ve been AWOL on Tumblr for a hot minute, but I finished season 4 of Dragon Prince at like 4:30 a.m. and now have to break down my thoughts or I’ll explode. Sorry if it ends up kind of long and disjointed. Buckle up, buttercup! Spoilers, obvs.

First, Soren and Claudia’s Confrontation Deep Dive

So this is what has taken up most of my brain’s bandwidth since I watched episode 7. Soren is one of my top favorite characters (others include Amaya, Gren, Runaan, and Bait), so I’m totally invested in his growth. Claudia is also very high up on my favorites list and her negative character arc is so amazing to watch. I’m a sucker for complex character stories where not everything ends up tied into a perfect package. This sounds a little sadistic, but I love watching characters struggle and fight for every morsel of happiness they can get their hands on, especially when their desires conflict with each other’s. Just like Soren and Claudia!

I suspect that this is not going to be the only confrontation these two have with each other throughout the remaining seasons. By the end of their conversation in episode 7 of season 4, nothing had really changed, and I think a part of that is due to how Soren approached Claudia. He painted everything in broad strokes, saying that understood how she felt because he had been on “the wrong side,” implying that Claudia was still on the wrong side and, by proxy, a bad person. But he also wanted to make it clear that change was possible. She could still be saved, in a way.

Soren was being aboslutely genuine and heartfelt. He clearly loves Claudia or he wouldn’t have tried to talk to her at all. And from our perspective, he’s absolutely right in his convictions! He’s basically telling Claudia what we, the audience, have been saying for the last three years. But, as we know, Soren is not exactly a “words guy,” and his desperate attempts to make her see things the way he does fall short. Claudia isn’t in the headspace yet where she’s ready for the sort of self-reflection that Soren had already undergone.

Claudia is an incredibly complex person with different motives and world views than her brother, even before they grew apart. Soren, I think, is more comfortable with seeing the world in black and white, and that’s how he explained himself and his thoughts to Claudia. But if/when he speaks with her again, he will have to get on her level and take all of her thoughts, feelings, and motivations into account without talking down to her from a pedestal of righteousness (which is how I think how Claudia would have perceived the episode 7 conversation to be). Only then will Claudia be able to listen and not feel as though he’s trying to take advantage of her, or making her choose sides--something she clearly has an aversion to.

Which brings me to my other thought: I think Soren is going to have another crisis of conscience before the end of the final season. Maybe not as big as the one he had in season 3, because I think that moment fundamentally swayed his morals. But we still have three seasons to go, and I don’t think all of it will be filled with an unchanging, flower-child Soren, beautiful as he is. That wouldn’t necessarily be interesting, and I don’t think Aaron Ehasz would let such a fantastic character off the hook that easily, lol. I’d honestly be fine if Soren stayed in his pure boy form, because he’s so fun to watch.

Buuuut where he’s at right now reminds me a lot of Zuko in Avatar: The Last Airbender season 2, after he recovered from his illness. At that point, Zuko believed himself cured of any and all bad feelings ever, but it only took seeing Azula again to bring all the trauma back. I don’t think we’ll see as big of a change for Soren (after all, he’s already seen Viren--the primary source of his trauma--again), but there are still a lot of unresolved aspects of his life that need to be ironed out before he truly earns his peace. A big part of his future character changes will revolve around his relationships with Claudia and Viren.

All I really have to say at this point is that I’m so amazed and delighted by Soren as a character. At first, I sort of wrote him off as guy who filled the stereotypical, comical “dumb jock” role, but he’s so much more complex than that, and I really can’t wait to see how his story progresses, whether I’m right or wrong in my guesses.

Next, Soren and Viren

One of my main disappointments from season 4 was the lack of any sort of progression with Soren and Viren’s relationship. And I don’t mean that I expected them to resolve all their differences and decide to be bffs or anything. But... I didn’t expect to get... nothing. If the creators had kept the two separate for the entirety of the season, I would have honestly been fine with that. But they had them meet again, face-to-face, only to have no confrontation at all.

It felt really unsatisfying to go from the end of episode 7, where Soren had such a visceral reaction to learning about Viren’s resurrection, to the start of episode 9, where they’re just quietly walking side-by-side with no context for what happened in between those two moments. Did they talk? Did Soren shut down? Did Viren give him the silent treatment? Did Claudia keep them apart until they entered the Rex Igneous’s lair? We don’t know, all bets are off! And then afterward, Soren acted like it hadn’t happened. I just hope that they don’t just put any conversations in a comic or something, because I think it’s such an important part of Soren’s character. It would feel almost disrespectful to banish their relationship development to a different media format that not everyone may read/see.

I’m hoping this means the writers plan to have a little fun with the whole scenario in future seasons. Soren, Rayla, Callum, and possibly Ezran all have seen Viren alive now, which puts a huge target on Team Aaravos’ backs. Buuuuuut, if Viren kept mum during his and Soren’s reunion, there’s a chance Soren may think that Claudia was conjuring an illusory version, the way she did in season 3. Perhaps they may try to manipulate Soren into thinking it was an illusion to both put Team Ezran off their scent and diminish Soren’s reputation, just like when Viren threw Soren under the bus before about their murder-the-princes “misunderstanding.” At the very least, this sort of scenario would make for an interesting AU fanfic, lol.

I’m trying to keep myself open-minded about this particular issue. I think I feel a bit more rushed about it because I’m imagining the wait between seasons 3 and 4 and thinking of how long we’d have to wait to see anything more from father and son. But the creators have said in recent interviews that the three-year wait was an anomaly caused by the pandemic, and that they’ll be resuming a more regular schedule again. When I think about only having to wait 5-9 months for the next installment, my frustration about the lack of progress in this particular vein subsides a bit.

But still, it would have been nice to get a little more from those precious few Soren/Viren moments if they were going to bring them up at all this season.

Ezran’s Speech

I’m actually really surprised I haven’t seen more people talking about Ez’s speech in episode 3! But then again, after binging the entire season, so much had happened that I’d forgotten about it myself until I went back to watch a bit more carefully. But it was a really powerful moment.

Once again, I saw some ATLA parallels, but I figure if they’re deliberately putting them in anyway, I might as well call them out, lol. I got major Zuko vs. Azula Agni Kai vibes when watching Claudia and Ibis get into an absolutely gnarly fight while Corvus played the fantasy-cello. Something about string instruments playing over really bitter encounters really transforms the moment. It becomes sad rather than epic. Paired with Ezran’s speech about holding love and anger at the same time adds another layer to it as well.

The thing I found most interesting about Claudia and Ibis facing off is that these are two characters known for holding the prejudices that Ezran speaks about. In season 3, Ibis initially brushed Callum off for wanting to learn magic as a human. And even when Callum proved he knew the Sky Arcanum, Ibis told him to run. I think, given, time, he may have changed his tune, and perhaps he did. But from what we saw, he did carry some bias against humans. And then there’s Claudia, who hates so thoroughly that humans are looked down upon by elves and dragons. At first, I thought that might have been Aaravos’ influence on her, but as I re-watched a few key moments in previous seasons, I found a moment that she and Callum talk at the start of season 2, where she also voices similar opinions--that humans were born with nothing but that’s why Dark magic levels the playing field. I think Aaravos just fed that belief in her, but it already existed. Also the fact that Claudia is currently dating an elf! So, in a way, she is also holding her love and anger at the same time. I can imagine it gives her complicated feelings. Brings me back to Rayla calling Callum out for saying that she may be an elf, “but a good elf.”

To have these two particular characters who feel so strongly in their convictions fight while Ezran talks about old wounds just hit the mark. It was a really poignant, if not slightly heavy-handed moment. I don’t feel totally equipped or at rights to find the parallels in today’s world, but I felt them pretty hard during this scene. “Sobering” is a good word to describe it.

Other, less composed, out of order thoughts

Season 4 was very much a transitory season. It was setting up the final three seasons, so it’s understandable that we got more questions than answers this time around. I’m just glad we (hopefully) won’t have to wait another three years for the next season!

The animation was SUPER clean and beautiful this season! There were a few moments that really stood out to me, particularly in the way that Callum gesticulates. Tiny, subtle movements that they could easily leave out but don’t, such as him accidentally knocking his hand into the Tome of Translation when he asks Bait “now what?” Or rubs his face in frustration. Callum is just a jittery, hyper guy, and it’s especially noticeable when those quirks are suppressed by Aaravos’ possession of him. Callum is all about short, quick movements, but as Aaravos, he was slow, fluid, and confident. It was just the perfect amount of unsettling to watch and I loved it.

I love Zubeia so much. We’ve seen badass human moms, and a badass elf mom before, and now we can add badass dragon mom to the list. Honorable mention to the badass aunt!

Corvus is a musician, and I love it so much!

Terry has been adopted by the fandom and I am HERE. FOR. IT. Before the season came out, I saw exactly one (1) comment speculating that he was trans, and I’m so glad they confirmed it in the show! Especially since the comment pointed out that there’s very little representation for trans people who are actively in the transition process. I can’t speak for the trans community, but I feel like Terry could be much-welcomed representation in that regard.

I really love how pure Terry is. I feel like he sort of filled Soren’s vacant role in Claudia’s life as “her doof.” I’m willing to bet we’ll see a comic of Claudia’s travels in those two years, and their subsequent meeting. I’m curious how they found each other and discovered their attraction for one another.

Terry’s megane-shine picture in the credits gave me evil scientist vibes and I love it so much. His curiosity about creating mystery flubber out of Sir Sparklepuff’s chrysalis goo (a string of words as weird and random as the situation which prompted them) was really fun as well.

Viren is a lot of things, but he’s not transphobic. Yet another example of complex, layered characters. Even the “bad guys” can have decent qualities.

Trees to meet you is a thing, lol.

I’d never really shipped Soren with anyone before, but after watching his and Corvus’ interactions in episode 1, I would not be mad at their ship sailing if they felt so inclined. TBD.

More Gren and Amaya friendship! I love seeing those two together, they add years to my life.

Janai’s proposal actually made me cry, it was so cute. And their “two cakes” conversation was so tender and sweet.

The whole conflict between the Sunfire elves and humans in the camp could be an entirely other essay, but again, I don’t really feel equipped to write about it (also it’s like 1am now and my brain isn’t braining well enough to go in-depth about it). But I did notice the parallels with our own current societal problems, and appreciated that, in the end, the answer wasn’t to decide between right and wrong, but to find a way to learn and grow together. (But also that the offender had to show up for her actions and resolved to make things right--though it would have been nice to also see her apologize directly to the elf that she wronged and not just his leader).

Sir Sparklepuff is half creepy, half adorable, and half bizarre. And yes, I know that’s three halves. He gave me major Gollum vibes when he first crawled out of his chrysalis.

LIZARD IN A HAT.

I appreciated that Rex Igneous apologized to Zym when he realized he’d been talking shit about his late papa.

I also appreciated the dragon saber-rattling contest at the end. Again, Zubeia is awesome.

Soren spending half the season in floral pajamas was something I didn’t know I needed.

Also, Soren with the butterfly was pure and delightful. And also a great contrast to Viren and Claudia, who would have seen the butterfly as a means to gain magic. Soren saw the magic of its life, throwing him into sharp contrast with his family.

People have already spotted the parallels between How to Train Your Dragon and Soren befriending Squeaky, but I also KNOW in my heart that we’ll see fanart of Soren in the Chris Pratt Jurassic World pose, like he’s "taming” a bunch of widdle dragons/velociraptors, lol.

RIP Ibis. I talked shit about him a bit, but he really was a cool character.

I swing between being amused by the fart jokes and tired of them. Claudia’s season 1 “It wasn’t the hooooorse” still cracks me up to this day, but I may have to draw the line at “It smells SO good when he farts!”

Again, no Runaan, but RAYLA HAS THE COINS. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

I really like that they kind of nerfed Viren in this season. He’s obviously recovering from actually being dead, and he’s also dealing with trauma over how he died. So few adults admit to having similar troubles, so it was neat to see an adult in a show display some vulnerability, even if he’s objectively an evil adult, haha.

I’ve seen some speculation about whether Rayla is actually fully Rayla or not. I’m kind of inclined to agree. Something about her is off. The best argument I saw for this hypothesis was someone pointing out that she argued NOT to defend Squeaky from the Earthblood elf guy, even when Soren was raring to jump in. Season 2 Rayla would have absolutely slapped the bejeezus out of season 4 Rayla for walking away from a dragon in need. Miss “It’s not just the right thing to do, it’s the right thing for ME to do” did not show up that night, and it’s... suspicious. Also the fact that she didn’t remember Ibis’s name? What changed? Signs point to Stella, with her... giant, unblinking eyes that give me Furby vibes, lol. Did she affect Rayla somehow? What happened to Rayla in those two years? She just showed up with no explanation. I think she is actually Rayla, at least physically, based on the fact that she also gave up chasing Viren and Claudia to save her parents and Runaan and also made a very heartfelt speech about how Runaan and Ethari were like fathers to her. That felt super genuine, so... I don’t know where the cutoff is for where the Rayla we know is and who we hung out with for most of season 4.

Soren recognizing the mirror and trying to offer Callum advice on his obsession with magic to avoid seeing him go the same way as Viren.

Also Soren suggesting to Claudia that the world might be better off without magic. I wonder if that’ll be foreshadowing for something?

I can’t believe this is so far down on my list, but Aaravos possessing Callum was SO intense! I actually gasped when Callum turned his head to show his blackened eyes. Aaravos knew exactly how to get to each of them, and I loved it. But then after Aaravos released Callum, it was KIND OF discussed a couple times, but it was just like they were talking about the weather or something. I don’t know... between this and dropping the ball on Soren’s reaction to Viren, this season kind of went wild when it came to following through on some of the most interesting talking points of the entire plot.

I’m surprised how little Aaravos showed up this season, especially since they rebranded it “Mystery of Aaravos.” At least we got a little of his sexy, sexy voice. Erik Dellums, you’ve done it again.

I’m SO excited to see what the creators have got planned for Callum. He was talking to Rayla about his concerns on whether he’s on a path to darkness. One thing I love about this series is that they also explore the concept of “too much of a good thing.” Like I said before, Soren is just too happy and pure for it to last three more seasons--I bet his beliefs will be challenged at some point and he’ll have to defend them. And I think Callum will face a similar challenge when it comes to his obsession with magic. I TOTALLY understand feeling like you can never do anything right and finding that one thing you’re good at and latching onto it. But then when it becomes your entire personality, you run the risk of narrowing your life path to just one, inevitable end. His greatest strength has also become his greatest weakness. I have a feeling that Callum will have to explore that concept a bit in later seasons, with the help of Aaravos, of course. I don’t think he’ll go Claudia-level darkness--he’s pretty self-aware of this potential danger--but I wonder if he’ll become a bit more morally gray as the series progresses. I’m here for it, if that’s the case! I love me some dark character development, after all.

God, how long is this list? I didn’t realize I had this much floating around in my head.

I adored the rock golems! Their designs were GORGEOUS! Did anyone else catch the Over the Garden Wall Easter Egg in the credits? My friends and I adore OtGW and try to watch it every year, and I got way too excited by that find, lol.

Zubeia and Soren’s friendship is so wholesome.

I wonder if we’ll ever see Soren and Claudia’s mom? IS SHE THE NEW URSA? ;P

I’m kind of glad that they backtracked on Callum and Rayla’s relationship. Watching two fifteen-year-olds admit their undying love for each other at the end of season 3 left me with kind of a bad taste in my mouth. That probably sounds a bit unfair, since I know there are plenty of high school sweethearts out there who become each other’s endgames, but... I guess it felt rushed. Season 1-3 covered the span of... what? A few weeks, maybe? A month, at most? In that time, Callum and Rayla went from mortal enemies, to strangers, to friends, to romantic interests. My guess is the writers did that so there would be some sort of closure in case they didn’t get renewed for more seasons, which is fine. But it always just felt off. So I’m glad that a) they backed off a bit this season and are working through a bump in their relationship, b) said relationship is still being worked on at the end of the season, and c) Rayla and Callum communicated their concerns with each other and respected each other’s boundaries. It makes it feel much more realistic and less cookie-cutter. And I’m glad they were renewed for all seven seasons so they don’t feel pressured to rush the relationship development again.

The Earthblood elf designs are so cool! I really love all the elf designs, but the Earthblood elves are really fun and different! Also Terry in activated Earthblood elf mode was so badass! More, more, more! ;P

YIP YIP!

Sad that we didn’t see a glowed-up Queen Anya!

Or Ellis and Ava. Or Lujanne. Didn’t she meet a human while she was on her prank war tangent?

I wonder how our favorite blind, narcoleptic ship captain, Villads-with-a-silent-D, is doing.

Congrats to the Associate Crow Lord on his promotion and his... um... excitement over rare Xadian birds, lol.

At the end of the day, Dragon Prince is a kids show, but I really appreciate that they don’t shy away from real-world issues. They offer a chance for us to view our world through the (more comfortable) lens of a fantasy world. We can see ourselves reflected in these characters, who are incredibly complex and three-dimensional. No one is fully good or fully evil, not Claudia or Viren, or Soren, Ez, or Zym. Maaaaybe Aaravos, lol. I love it when content geared towards kids recognizes that kids are a hell of a lot smarter than they’re given credit for and they don’t talk down to them or avoid covering more difficult subjects. It’s shows like this that will shape today’s kiddos in the same way that shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender shaped my generation.

Okay, I think I might actually be done.

If you’re still reading, you rock! What were some of your favorite part of Dragon Prince?

#the dragon prince #dragon prince #tdp #tdp spoilers #spoilers #soren #claudia #viren #callum #aaravos #rayla #amaya #gren #janai #zym #azymondias #zubeia #terry #terrestrius #runaan #corvus

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