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pinkeoni · 10 months

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Figuring Out Lonnie’s Whole Deal

(Or, assembling a timeline of pre-show events inspired by a culmination of theories centering around one Lonnie Byers)

After spending much time deliberating and theorizing, I’ve come to what I believe is a solid timeline of events relating to Lonnie Byers grounded in evidence from the show.

Now I don’t have all of the pieces, but also if I had all of the pieces then I wouldn’t need to be theorizing in the first place. Still, I’m fairly confident in my assessment. Maybe it would be wise of me to wait for The First Shadow to come out to give me more information, but for all intents and purposes of this I will only be looking at evidence within the text of the show. So no cast or crew comments, no supplemental materials, and as much as I love it, no speculation regarding TFS. Still, I think the show has enough evidence to support my assertion.

Things to establish:

A lot of what I’m about to talk about comes from a basis of these three things—

1. Will and El’s storylines mirror each other, which I charted out here. Their stories share a lot of differences, and a lot of similarities.

2. Powers are being used in this show to explore themes of sexuality through a sci-fi/supernatural lens. I talk about this in length here, but tl;dr El’s powers are used to explore the exploitation and reclamation of female sexuality, and Will’s powers are being used to show the demonization and repression of homosexuality.

3. Oh yeah, and Will has powers, by the way.

Surface Level Information We Are Given About Lonnie Byers:

It might be best to have a refresher of what we know about Lonnie Byers. Most of this comes from season one and all of it is displayed directly to the audience—

Lonnie is the absentee father of Jonathan and Will and ex-husband of Joyce

He left his family at an unspecified date that led Jonathan and Will to build Castle Byers the night of

He currently lives in Indianapolis

He used to call Will homophobic slurs

Joyce once argued with him about not showing up to a visitation with Will

Jonathan and Joyce do not speak of him fondly. Will’s feelings are unclear but seem positive “It’s fun to go with him sometimes”

Expressed interest in wanting to see Jonathan more

Referred to Joyce as “babe” despite being apart and having another girlfriend

Did not take Joyce’s calls to his house

Doubted Joyce, took down her Christmas lights and tried to repair the hole in the wall

Has unspecified debts

Likes to fix cars

Doesn’t like cops

Tried to use his “dead” son for lawsuit money

Was kicked out by Joyce and hasn’t been seen on screen since

Things to glean from just below the surface:

The following are things that are not stated directly, but can be easily inferred from clues given in show—

Lonnie is likely an alcoholic, shown through an abundance of beer bottles littering his house. Even if he splits it between him and his tiny girlfriend, it’s still an absurd amount of beer for two people. It’s possible he may have other addictions as well.

Lonnie was likely physically abusive towards Jonathan given his “You’ve gotten stronger” comment in the house. It’s possible that the extent of his abuse could stretch far beyond that for both Jon and Will.

Will likely used to hide from his dad. Jonathan and Will built Castle Byers the night he left, which Jonathan remarks that Will likes to hide in. Not to mention the “he’s good at hiding” comment.

The rest of this post is going to be much more speculative, but it’s all speculation that is grounded in what we see on and just below the surface.

Theory #1) Lonnie was involved with MK-ULTRA

This was an idea that I tossed around a while ago, that after spending time with and finding new evidence I’ve now grown more confident in.

Most of this confidence comes from this conversation between Becky and Jopper. Becky tells Hop that him and Terry would have gotten along, as Terry didn’t like authority or the government— “The Man , with a big capital M.” (which is ironic given Hopper is a cop)

When discussing who was involved with MK-ULTRA, Becky mentions “people like [Terry]”

So people like Terry, who maybe don’t like authority as was just mentioned?

It seems as though the Byers have always been down on their luck in terms of finance. Would it be hard to believe that, especially given the close proximity of the lab to the Byers house and Lonnie's willingness to get money in the show, Lonnie might have partaken in a paid study in the past? ("You were in it for the money!")

Above I mentioned the implication that Lonnie is an alcoholic. If he was involved with a study involving hard drugs, could he have developed addiction problems through the program? Furthermore, wouldn't it also make sense for Lonnie to gain a mistrust of authority after being taken advantage of by the government?

In my initial post about it I discuss how this could be foreshadowed through Hopper’s past as well. Hopper was involved with something government related that required chemicals, something that ended up affecting his child.

Theory #2) Lonnie was working with the lab during season one

Another part of proving Lonnie’s MK-ULTRA involvement is his connection with the lab. Everything that I’m about to list could align perfectly with Lonnie simply just being a shitty ex and father, but everything that I’m about to list could also align perfectly with the idea that Lonnie was working with the lab against Joyce the entire season.

1) Lonnie’s fishiness with Joyce’s phone call

I’ve already made an entire post about this here but I’ll recap all of the important bits.

Right before we see Joyce call Lonnie in the first episode, we are shown the lab spying on her conversation explicitly. Joyce is then sent to voicemail, which given the ordering of scenes makes me wonder if the lab purposefully intercepted her call.

Joyce also never actually talks to Lonnie on the phone. Cynthia picks up until their call is disconnected, which could have been Cynthia but also could have been the lab interfering again.

When Jonathan confronts Lonnie about not returning Joyce’s call, he kind of shrugs off his answer.

Why the hesitancy at first, Lonnie?

Lonnie tells Jonathan that he’s talked to police, which is likely, but then adds a comment that makes me question if he talked to any Hawkins cops at all.

Why do you need to ask if Hopper is chief, if Hawkins police came to question you, Lonnie?

2) The timing of Lonnie showing up in Hawkins

Even after being told this his own son is missing, Lonnie does not show up in town until after—

Will’s “body” is found in the quarry

Joyce refuses to sign off on the fake body

Joyce actually speaks to and is able to see Will through the hole in the wall

The next time we see Joyce is when Lonnie pulls up that night at the Byers house. Here is what Lonnie does while he’s there:

Tells Joyce that Will is in her head

Tell Jonathan not to feed into Joyce’s “delusions”

Takes down the Xmas lights that Joyce was using to talk to Will

Covers the hole in the wall that Joyce saw Will through

Unsuccessfully tries to convince Joyce to use Will’s "death" for money

All of these actions align perfectly with Lonnie’s character, do you also see how it also aligns perfectly with Lonnie trying to purposefully cover up the truth?

We don’t see Joyce call Lonnie to come over and I highly doubt that Jonathan asked him to come. Granted, Lonnie was most likely notified by police of Will’s death, why not come right away? Why wait until after Joyce refuses to believe that it’s Will’s body and after she actually sees Will alive in her walls?

Remember that the lab had likely bugged her house as well, given the scene where Hop finds a bug in his cabin.

Think about the timing of when the lab decided to place Will’s body in the quarry and have it found, something that we know for a fact was their doing. This comes after Joyce had discovered the ability to talk to Will through the lights and right after the writing on the wall scene, when Joyce was coming closer to the truth.

If a lab personnel showed up at the Byers, took down the lights and hammered over the wall, that would obviously draw a lot of suspicion towards them. But if the lab could get someone on the inside to do it, perhaps an ex-spouse that can be easily manipulated with cash and already had connections to them, that wouldn’t raise an eyebrow.

That’s also where the lawsuit comes in. If the lab is paying off Lonnie and his family, they can’t just give them the a ton of cash directly, it would likely have to go through a third party under the guise of something else, like a legal suit. I’m willing to bet all my money that the suit Lonnie wanted to file on the Sattlers was just another cover from the lab.

Theory #3) Lonnie was trying to hand Will over to the lab

Another note about Terry, if Will and El are mirrors then Lonnie and Terry may possibly be mirrors, too. If Terry was desperate to get El out of the lab then maybe Lonnie was desperate to get Will into the lab. Also the difference between Terry's daughter being taken from her/Lonnie voluntarily leaving his own son.

Something we know about Lonnie Byers— he was homophobic towards Will and did not want to visit him after he had left.

Something else we know about Lonnie Byers— he likes to fix cars.

We have confirmation that Lonnie was trying to “fix” Will, at least in a less aggressive manner, by taking him to baseball games. Jonathan says explicitly, “He’s trying to force you to like normal things.” This line is so incredibly loaded, what Jonathan is saying below the surface is "He's trying to force you to like girls."

The above scene is in the same episode where Jonathan goes to Lonnie’s Indianapolis house, and we get a line from Lonnie about him fixing up a car.

Yes, Will is being compared to a car. Lonnie wants to fix him.

And remember, Will has powers, and powers are being used as a way to explore sexuality.

So given Lonnie’s connection with the lab from MK-ULTRA as expressed before, along with Lonnie’s hatred of Will and homophobia, along along with powers as a metaphor for Will's queerness, it leads me to believe that Lonnie was trying to cure Will of his powers through the lab. This would essentially be the supernatural version of gay conversion therapy.

I want to talk about the word “mistake”

This word is so potent and really sticks out because we haven’t really seen it used in this way on the show before. The writers could have had Will say “monster” to relate to El's arc, or they could have had him say “freak” which would not only relate to Eddie but is something that Will has called himself in the past. But instead they decide to give him a new word that is different from the labels other characters give themselves.

The word mistake is unique to Will.

What do you do with mistakes? You fix them.

I have a lot of fun with Will-being-a-lab-kid theories, and nothing but absolute love to those who make them, but after doing a lot of my own thinking I’ve since come to the conclusion that Will didn’t grow up in the lab at all, but Lonnie was making an unsuccessful effort to ship Will to the lab. Part of El and Will’s narrative mirroring is Will coming from a normal background while El does not.

Which isn’t to say that the lab didn’t want Will, I think they very much did. I’ve seen the take that Lonnie tried to hand Will to the lab but he didn’t display powers at the time so they wouldn’t take him. But do you really think that that would stop them from wanting him anyway, especially if the boys father was giving him to them willingly? Do you really think that Martin “you wouldn’t stop” Brenner was gonna turn down another child? That someone was willing to give to him?

So then, if Lonnie was willing to give Will to the lab and the lab was willing to take him, what was stopping them?

For starters, I’m guessing that the process involved in receiving a new test subject, especially one that wasn’t born into the lab, would take patience. They can’t just nab Will off the street. They would probably have to surveil things for a while, gain intel from Lonnie, and come up with a strategy.

A strategy that may involve falsifying an accident, a fake body, and the funneling of money via fake lawsuit?

I’m not saying that the lab was the ones behind Will’s disappearance, at least initially. I think the mothergate opening was completely unpredictable from their end and instead necessitated the plan to be accelerated due to sudden unforeseen circumstances, as well as taking advantage of Will’s presence in the Upside Down to try and take him for themselves.

So why wait until now? If they had an airtight plan, why not act sooner?

Could there have been an incident, perhaps, with the lab, which happened prior to Will’s disappearance, that may have delayed this process?

I’m willing to bet that a mass death event of majority of the test subjects and personnel from the place that Lonnie was trying to send Will to, might be enough to put the brakes on this operation, if not on delay for a few years so they can regroup.

While we’re here, I wanna talk about Will’s similarities to Henry Creel

The comparisons between Henry and Will aren’t something hidden under the layers for only die hard theorists to find, this is something that everyone and their mothers were discussing on twitter. The similarities were noticeable even from casual viewing.

Image via Reddit

We know from his monologue that Henry’s mother knew he had powers and wanted to send him away to a doctor, a doctor that we later learn was actual Papa Brenner.

If Will and Henry are similar, is it possible that their parents wanted similar things? The main difference being that Will actually did evade Dr. Brenner.

Furthermore, is it possible that Will has powers similar to One’s and that the lab could have been knowledgeable of this? If that is the case, it may stand to reason that they might be hesitant to bring in someone with similar abilities to the guy who just killed a bunch of people.

I used to think that Will and Henry had to have completely different sets of powers, and while I do think that Will may have abilities unique to himself, given how they are compared I do think that Will may have similar powers to him. In fact, we may have already seen Will display a traveling into the mind ability in season one.

Theory #3.5) Lonnie’s departure correlates with the Hawkins Lab massacre

If Lonnie was desperate to get rid of the son he hates, and then was told that there was an unexpected delay, it would make sense for him to give up and leave town.

There’s been comments from cast and crew in the past regarding when exactly Lonnie left, but it’s never been confirmed in show.

Evidence for why I think it coincides with the massacre actually comes from the shed scene.

Joyce first mentions Will’s eighth birthday, which would have been in March of 1979. The massacre was in September of 1979.

Mentioning his eighth birthday specifically places emphasis on that age. Jonathan then follows Joyce by talking about the night dad left.

We don’t get an exact timeframe or age, but the fact that this follows the story if Will’s eighth birthday does create a correlation with that age. We then switch timeframes when Mike brings up kindergarten.

Think about it, if their dad had left when Will was eight, bringing up his age again would be redundant because Joyce just mentioned it. Mike mentions kindergarten to let us know that this is a different time and age that we’re talking about.

Let’s talk about Lonnie’s debts

What exactly these debts are that Joyce brings up is never specified. And it could be anything. Maybe a loan he took out, drug or gambling debts, since nothing is stated it’s all possible. But here’s my take:

Will is Lonnie’s debt. That’s what he owes.

Remember that the exact way that Lonnie was going to pay back these debts was with Will. He is linked with this debt conversation.

It is Joyce who brings up the debt, but since she doesn’t specify there’s a reasonable doubt that she herself doesn’t know the specifics. She could know that Lonnie is indebted to someone but not know what/could have been lied to.

I’m imagining the lab giving Lonnie some kind of advanced payment for Will, with the promise that they’ll eventually have him. It would be a way for the lab to control Lonnie. He now owes them, and the lab expects to collect their debts. Despite the lab and Lonnie having similar goals, there is definitely a power imbalance.

Lonnie does want a family, just not one with Will in it

More thorough post here, but in season one we get indications in Lonnie's dialogue that he does want to be around his family, like expressing interest in seeing Jonathan more and calling Joyce "babe," which seems to contradict him living in another town, or hell even leaving his family at all.

When Joyce gets mad with Lonnie over the phone about not coming to visit, it was specifically a Will visitation day. It's seeming more and more that Lonnie's departure is centered on Will. (Which doesn't take away from any of the potential abuse he hurled at Jonathan or Joyce. He doesn't care about their interests, only his. Furthermore, I'm not placing blame onto Will for Lonnie's absence. That is all Lonnie's doing)

Am I saying that Lonnie has powers?

Well, maybe.

That is something that I’ve been wondering if Lonnie had powers, which granted is something that relied heavily on speculation regarding TFS which I said I wanted to stay away from for this post. Since I don’t have all the pieces yet, I want to consider as many options as possible.

Option A) Lonnie was born with powers, and MK-ULTRA was simply how he became acquainted with the lab/his powers were repressed and MK-ULTRA activated them

Option B) Lonnie received powers from MK-ULTRA and passed it on to Will

Option C) Lonnie was not born with powers nor received powers from MK-ULTRA but it did give him super-powered sperm

May I remind you of Lonnie's comparison to Terry from earlier in the post, and the fact that Terry herself does have powers.

I oftentimes see the theory that Joyce herself has powers, and I myself even theorized that her Aunt Darlene may have had powers. However I'm more inclined to believe that Joyce is a carrier of this gene rather than having powers herself. Most of the evidence used to suggest that she has powers comes from Joyce reacting to what Will is showing her. There's also no indication that Jonathan has any powers.

If Lonnie participated in MK-ULTRA after Jonathan was born, then it could explain why Will would have powers and not Jonathan. Moreover, having both a mother who is a carrier and a father with powers/nuked balls would likely have a higher chance of having a powered child. (That's how genetics work, right? Please forgive me if my science is wrong.)

Notes on Lonnie's character

You'll note that there are multiple times in this post where I acknowledge that I lot of Lonnie's actions are explainable because of his identity as a shitty guy, and maybe that's all this is. However, I want to explain why having this type of character is actually perfect for a reveal like this.

In order to pull off a successful reveal, you have to hide the truth while also giving enough information so it doesn't come out of nowhere. Lonnie's personality allows for the truth to be hidden in plain sight.

Let's say that Lonnie was actually an upstanding man. Jonathan and Joyce both had fond memories of him, but he left in the past for some unknown reason. Lonnie was always a great husband, but for some reason he's doubting Joyce and taking down her Christmas lights even when she asks him not to.

Do you see how that would create a huge plot hole? How season one would feel incomplete? How it would create a giant unanswered question that needs answering?

Why didn't Joyce know about any of this?

Unfortunately we are told pretty explicitly in season one as to why something like this could have been happening under Joyce's nose. We are told in the first episode that Joyce works long hours, leaving early in the morning and not coming home until later in the night. Jonathan is expected to get Will up, make breakfast, and take him to school. My guess is that Lonnie may have been in charge of such tasks when he was still home.

If Lonnie was, say, taking Will to the lab for some preliminary tests or meetings, he could have easily done this while Joyce was at work or while Jonathan was in school.

We even hear from Joyce herself that she hasn't been keeping up with Jonathan, she isn't in the know how with her sons. (This is not me calling Joyce a bad mother btw, this is definitely a symptom of capitalism rather than bad parenting.)

Why doesn't Will say anything?

If Will was being taken to the lab for appointments in the past, wouldn't he say something about it? Especially to El, who grew up in the lab?

Well, there's a chance that Will doesn't remember this.

Longer post here, but we are given a scene in season four where Will expresses not remembering something from his childhood very well.

Which I could write off as Will being too little to remember this small detail, but this is also coming from the same season where we just got an entire plot line about memories from El's past being erased. (El who, as I stated in the beginning, has a storyline that mirrors Will's)

The Final Timeline

Tl;dr, or, the timeline written out chronologically:

Lonnie marries Joyce and has Jonathan. Jonathan is born without powers

Lonnie becomes involved with MK-ULTRA sometime prior to Will's birth as a way to make money

Joyce and Lonnie have Will, who was born with powers

When Will is very young Lonnie knows that he has powers

Lonnie begins taking Will to the lab in hopes of curing him

Lonnie and the lab strike a deal that involve taking Will in exchange for money

There is a plan to take Will involving a fake accident. Lonnie will file a fake lawsuit in order to exchange the money and avoid suspicion

The Hawkins Lab massacre happens and the plan is delayed

Lonnie leaves

Mothergate is opened by El and Will is taken

Upon realizing that Will is in the Upside Down, the plan moves forward with Lonnie in on it

Things don't go as expected and Joyce is on to Will being alive, so the lab asks Lonnie to come home in order to help with coverup

Joyce is infuriated about the lawsuit and kicks Lonnie out

The rest of the season follows as we see on screen and the labs plan unravels, some of the personnel is killed by El and the demogorgon in the school

#lonnie byers #will byers #will byers has powers #tw child abuse #stranger things #stranger things theory #my theory #woof this is another big one #maybe giant posts like these will become my thing #okay the plan is post now but schedule a reblog for the morning to ensure traffic #maybe someday i'll talk about how owens is continuing the surveillance of will #byler #<- target audience

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lxmelle · 25 days

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Exploring the symbolism of the Tsubaki / Camellia and Gojo Satoru

Cover of vol. 26 shows us the beautiful image of Gojo on a snowy day; his breath tints white - he is surrounded by what we can interpret as Camellias in full bloom, location unknown, but we surmise it is sometime between December - March (depending on source of information - usually late winter to early spring) where they tend to flower despite the cold.

More under the cut. Please be warned: This post is littered with information, and you may interpret it freely, however you wish.

Just be mindful that I almost always have a Satosugu lens is on. Headcannon and overall reaching is all on me!

The setting is simple but poetic. It’s snowing and Gojo is standing looking at us. It’s blue all around him; a crisp winter’s day. Gojo’s birthday reflects the heaviest snowfall (refer to character birthday chart below), so in addition to flower symbolism is potentially the symbolism of dates. We know Gege is deliberate like that. Is this headcannon? You can decide!

The plant looks really beautiful amidst the snowfall. Their leaves are evergreen and lush, so looking even at the foliage, the plant seemingly being taller than Gojo as painted by Gege, it would appear to be more like the Camellia than Peonies. Very much like what tends be be planted at a Shinto / Buddhist temple gardens.

And what does it mean then? Let’s keep going:

Those pictures above are the red varieties, but they can appear very different - coming in different colours and the way the petals are arranged, colour of the middle, etc. varies. Upon closer inspection, we see two types pictured on the cover.

Behind Gojo’s head seems to be a flower in a lighter shade of pink, and akin to a lotus camellia. I’d say it’s stylistic and has symbolic intentions, and you can google to look into what others have to say about it. Generally, it’s around being enlightened, freedom and purity. All fitting with Gojo’s life (his fate at birth) and death.

Before I continue, I must address the question: is it possibly any other type of flower? Well, sure. You’re welcome to interpret it that way, it’s a drawing after all. However, based on how tall the plant is, the thickness of the branches the leaves are attached to, as well as the blossoms, it seems more like a Camellia plant to me.

Moreover, I cannot ignore the inference from the conversation we see him have with Nanami in chapter 236 - that his death was fitting, and his reflections of it were considered “old fashioned” like a commanding officer’s (bushou) view of a swift and noble death. When we consider the symbolism of the flower and the fact that it is a late-winter blooming plant... it fits.

It also fits in with Gojo’s beliefs in his conversation with Megumi when he was alive. To die victoriously because he gave it his all, in an individual sport, and also died thinking he had an ace up his sleeve.

Just to add some of my interpretation in here: He died trying to reach Megumi as well as fulfilling his ideals, despite not winning. He was satisfied.

As in my previous post on ch. 236 (see: https://www.tumblr.com/lxmelle/745848828838756352/thoughtsponderingsmusings-on-ch-236-about-gojo I feel that each expression drawn was a decision made, and can sometimes be absolutely deliberate in how it tries to convey something - so, it can be very telling.

Gege is a huge fan of using repetition to foreshadow something or draw connections to emphasise a point or relationships.

I don’t think it’s headcanon when we know as a reader that gojo is an unreliable narrator. We would be doing him a disservice. He can “whale on Megumi” because he has killed his best friend before. It is but "fighting talk".

He could do it, but with difficulty, as we know it was horrific for Gojo to have done to Geto and he put it off for as long as he could, nevermind the expense to human lives (although I doubt Geto killed indiscriminately too much as it’d draw too much attention - he probably hunted curses using those weekly “Wednesday special” shows Gege talked about in the character book as well as within his temple through visitors).

We see Gojo’s eyebrow furrow when he noticed Megumi had been taken over by Sukuna upon his release from prison realm. In battle, he also scans Sukuna for Megumi’s soul.

I digress. Sorry.

Gojo did fight with everything he had - every ounce of power - forcing his brain into overdrive… in vol 26, there are images gege drew to illustrate just how overextended he was with a bleeding brain.

Gojo absolutely surpassed his ancestors and achieved so many unprecedented things within that one battle - and died in a sudden world slash, slicing through him. It wasn't a fair fight to begin with, we know that. Sukuna used Megumi to tank UV hits and had a 3v1 setup going.

We should all be proud of his performance. He put himself on the line; and even Sukuna was impressed. He had an ace up his sleeve but didn't sacrifice himself - he burned brightest and it was his all.

Sukuna can have the title because he's practically sold his whole entire self to be the embodiment of a curse. Gojo died to a calamity. A calamity with decades of fighting experience, whereas Gojo was a mere baby compared to him, and yet already achieved so much, and his legacy will continue.

The suddenness of his passing shocked us all. This is also symbolic of the Camellia, where in the negative, it can imply a sudden death, by beheading. In the positive, it means unity - a love tied together by the way the flower falls whole.

Gojo... was killed in that way. Being somewhat beheaded. Bisected. The image above is from vol 26. Gojo died a noble death fighting with his all, in battle.

Nevertheless, one can imagine Gojo seems to have risen in spirit on this snowy day as his body has been left behind. He is smiling at... the reader, the others left living, or... at Geto? More on the latter later, as it'll enter headcanon and shipping territory.

So if it indeed is a Camellia, there were different meanings for the Camellia based on its colour.

Different counties have different meanings for the blossom, but some things appear universal. Just some examples of cultural differences. Western interpretations are more around love as a theme. Since jjk is from Japan, I’ve included these to offer a more regional and diverse interpretation for this piece of writing:

Generally speaking, the Camellia plant is admired for its entirety: its evergreen and robust leaves are hardy, in addition to its gorgeous blossoms.

We know that Gege chose pink for some reason. Gojo also smiles somewhat alike his smile in death which is a little disturbing, but may be a bit like what Geto’s body did? Or, a symbol of him actually lucid dreaming at his death and the airport scene was not real (but Gege’s approach is a bit “mystical” for this interpretation- he brought Toji back to life after all, plus all the stuff about souls and touching it etc.)

Now we take a deeper dive into the symbolism of the flower. Mind you, depending on interpretation, I may be reaching, but I honestly did not make any of this up.

I think Hanakotoba is something that Gege has an interest in, alongside playing the long game and usage of foreshadowing, mythology, religion, and popular culture). He really is a clever writer, although I’m aware opinions vary as of late due to various reasons.

And Camellias...?

Outside of hanakotoba, culturally, the Camellia also bears a potentially ominous / inauspicious meaning. To expand further and echo what’s already been said above:

Plus, the Western interpretation is quite similar, isn’t it?

And Gege really, again, could have gone for a different colour and it would still be imbued with impressively deep meaning. Red, white, but for whatever reason, he opted for pink - longing. Is he longed for? Well: Yes! By us readers and his students. Does he long for anyone? Hrmmm… let’s look at the clues as we go along. *resists shipping mode*

Another source has this to add about what pink Camellia flowers are in flower language...

What about the history of the Camellia?

The camellia was named as a priest’s helper. Seriously you cannot make this up. I lol’ed at this. It HAS to be a coincidence right?

*resists shipping and reaching* ha ha!!

Moving on…

And what does religion have to say about the symbolism of the Camellia?

Ah yes , indeed very fitting and auspicious signs for our beloved Gojo. Freedom, new beginnings, a triumphant victory for his spiritual self.

Shintoism:

This, I find it intriguing how it can also explain how Gojo was amongst flowers on the cover, and then also at the airport. Like: where are you, really? If you want to read more, here is the link: https://justaboutjapan.com/what-happens-after-death-in-shinto-understanding-the-japanese-afterlife/

Certainly interesting ; I find it poignant and spiritual in interpretation of the world. Like the concept of continuing bonds in Grief work.

Make what you will of the information! I have no idea where the airport is or where they are headed (or if they even head out to the same place… I hope they do. I guess that’s what my fanfics are for, lol).

Now. That’s already quite a bit of information, right? But you know... it doesn’t stop there.

The Camellia represents the birth flower for Geto Suguru. (And yes I checked, it is nobody else’s).

Is it coincidental? Maybe?

Yesssss we are in Satosugu shipping territory! Take it with a pinch of salt. *shrug* I’m not really going to make any apologies for my insanity brainrot.

What about other flowers, if I were to stretch it a little and bring the lotus symbology into the picture? Referring back to chapter 236 and how Gojo himself reflected on being a creature with a line drawn, and the lotuses.

Ah, excuse me!! Chastity? Purity? Being far from the one he loves?! Stop right there, Gege!!! *slaps self* okay, I’m calm now.

Back onto Camellias. Turning to the West now, which has reached international shores for decades: The story, the Lady of Camille portrays two young people in a romance doomed, within a punishing culture, marked by longing, and separated by death. It is also not without controversy, as the woman was a prostitute, but the writer depicts her kindly, as if her redemption was due to her ability to love alone. Sounds familiar?

Again, I’m not making this up. This is the cover of the novel.

And some excerpts of the novel (you can google this as I have, if you wish) that you can be free to interpret based on your own understanding:

The image that comes to mind is their reunion on the school grounds in jjk 0 where they stare at each other and then Geto fakes this cheerful “long time no see, Satoru!” And Gojo is just icy, lol.

The above would seem to apply well to Gojo as well, for various reasons, namely how he lived his life, what he longed for, and his “enlightenment” where it gave birth to his supremacy and untouchability (distance, isolation) from others. Denoting him to almost being a “creature” due to being unable to relate to the limitations that plague sorcerer and humans.

It’s Gege’s favourite type of romance. His brief journey into BL had similar themes if I’m not mistaken. It may very well mean nothing too, of course. It is just information.

One of the sites I visited while researching Camellia’s in Japan, had referred to this novel and I was intrigued by why. To me it’s not reaching terribly far to find the doomed romance theme - it’s everywhere if you look for it.

But you know : to recognise it means that you equally recognise it is a kind of a romance. At the very least a form of love / connection.

Similarly, it’s only a breakup if they were ever an item of sorts.

And, Shoko was there but “would never love either of them”... inferring that love was the only exclusive thing between them that they alone shared, that she could not give to alleviate their loneliness.

Anyway, I’m a hopeless “satosugu kaisen” shipper and I admit it. Sorry if that’s not what you’re here for. It is nevertheless quite interesting to see what one can dig up; sometimes they’re highly interesting coincidences:

Like this one. It bloody has to be, right? Lol!

That’s it from me 😉 the rest is just indulgences:

Love the cover of vol 26 or hate it? Either way, it’s here to stay...

The Camellias spoke volumes (pun intended), in terms of symbolism for how he lived, what he shouldered, how he suffered, what he stood for, and fought for up till the very end. Honourable and honourably, even if there may be those who didn’t think so. We all fight for different reasons after all. It’s ok.

Our much-loved Gojo Satoru standing proud, smiling with his eyes, looking as soft as ever - with that fresh face, sporting his handsome smile (that borders on a smirk) playing on his lips, a little dimple appearing on his cheek. He looks self-assured, as if he were smiling a warm greeting, or imparting heartfelt farewell.

And I want to maybe interject here to return to a point about Gojo thinking about Geto when his breath tinged white one year ago.

In my previous post (purely indulgent)

I pointed out that gojo has been the only one who stylistically has been drawn with his breath tinting white, aside from uraume whose skills have something to do with ice. It seems to tie in with the death of Geto, which was just one year prior. And he was thinking about said person, in his conversation with Yuta.

It’s just a connection, nothing more and nothing less. And Gege didn’t have to, but Gojo was then shown to be reunited with Geto right upon his death. Parallel with emerging from prison realm and going to pseudo-Geto? It is also fitting that they die on the same day, one year apart, and Geto’s body that was inhabited by Kenjaku, was also released through Yuta and Takaba, not long after Gojo died.

And then the flower being Geto's birthdate flower? It's quite a few coincidences, even if any one wasn't deliberate. The anime goes as far as using Osmanthus flowers to depict their “first ‘love’” or blue spring. Geto’s name having “summer” in it, birthday being the start of spring (refer to chart above) and it being generally accepted that they’re each other’s “one and only (best friend)”. To me, it does seem like Geto represents the spring for Gojo’s deep winter.

Gojo wasn’t afraid of loving someone morally reprehensible... he wasn’t afraid of being stained. His sense of self was arguably either too hollow or too firm (firmly hollow?) for it to really matter. Just like his sense of responsibility - he was just searching for who Gojo Satoru was within the role as the strongest. I can see why the symbolism of longing and love are there in representation of flower language for Gojo, and scattered deeply within the series, as it is tied to Geto - his first and last blue spring. There are countless other points of symbolism but I’ll end it here! Apologies if anything is innacurate - do leave a comment to correct me if you can.

Thanks for reading and drop me a comment with any thoughts, or hit <3 if you found it interesting!

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noonblight · 1 year

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Champion Geeta, The Pokémon League, & The Hidden Story Of Pokémon Violet’s Turo - Another Analysis

So this is just a small analysis to tide you over before my biggest two posts planned (Analysis of Arven and Turo as characters) drop, and while I am terribly sorry for the long title and the multiple parts, it’s warranted, I promise!

You see, while going through ScarVi, I noticed some very interesting background storytelling and symbolism that I thought would be interesting to bring up in a post in case others didn’t catch it. I also think it would be super cool if any future DLC expanded upon these concepts, because they tell us a fair bit about the League, Geeta, and Turo! Of course, a lot of this should be taken with a grain of salt as it is based on inference, but I still felt it was important/interesting enough to share. As usual, this post will contain giant spoilers for the plot under the read-more.

I adore any feedback / opinions on what I post, and everyone’s comments on my last post were so sweet they made my day. So if you have any theories or things to point out that I may have missed, please do bring them up! I love reading them! :D

Without further rambling, here ya go.

The League and Champion Geeta know a lot more than what they say throughout the game, and it’s entirely possible that both the Academy and the Pokémon League were financing Professor Turo’s dangerous research in the Crater for a time, but then stopped.

We know already that the first successful foray into the Great Crater a few centuries ago was funded by the Uva Academy, as can be viewed in the picture below which can be found within the Violet Book.

However, who was financing Professor Turo’s Research? When exploring the Research Bases, we’re introduced to many journal entries written by Turo, all which shed some light on the main plot, but also help to hint at several things that have happened in the background.

First of all, we know that he was being funded by a corporation of some sort. We can also infer that this funding was given with the expectation of receiving the fruits of that research (we will revisit this and why it is important later).

So what corporation funded this exploration of the unknown? Well, you see, there’s a littering of symbolism across Paldea, and a lot of it revolves around two concepts: Treasure, and Travel. More accurately, how to find treasure through exploration. Maybe looking at some of that can help us.

Let’s start with the research stations themselves. Each one has a large logo branded upon it, fairly difficult to miss. This logo depicts the silhouette of the Great Crater, and the latitude and longitude lines of a map. This makes sense, as for centuries, the Crater has been a culturally significant mystery and the driving force behind many expeditions which had intentions of documenting it. That, and maps are often associated with treasure, something which the Crater was fabled to hold within it.

Now, where else have we seen other similar symbology linked to exploration?

The Paldea Pokémon league displays quite a bit of this symbolism, with the boat logos of the gyms potentially representing the journey, and the vessel that drives one forward through it. Each gym is a pace forward on the path of discovery.

However, it’s the compass I really want to focus on, considering that we see it throughout the entire game. From the loading screen icon, to the gloves and lapels of every League staff member, the symbols seen across the League building, to even the rooftop of the very building itself!

The meaning of a compass is simple enough, it shows the viewer where the cardinal directions are, and is used as a reference point for navigation. In relation to the gym challenges, this makes a lot of sense. If the gym is the boat on a journey, then the League is the direction one should go in. It’s a point to work towards.

But what if that wasn’t the only thing the League was pointing you in the direction of throughout the game?

You see, I initially thought that the League and Champion Geeta were quite boring and more of a backdrop for Nemona’s fun little antics until I started to notice things in the background. Quite literally.

When you fight Champion Geeta, throughout the entire fight, you can see the Crater looming behind her. The roof of the League building even has a gorgeous compass incorporated into it, sure, but did you know that the ENTIRE building is actually in the shape of a compass too?

But rather than pointing in the direction of true north like the rotom on your map does, what is that compass and the building pointing in the direction of? The Crater. This isn’t simply an error either. With the specific placement of the league building beside the crater, and the way it’s framed during Geeta’s fight, the League has a little too much association with the Crater symbolically by this point. We even know that the building is oriented correctly, because the Compass on Geeta’s glove lines up with the shape of the building perfectly.

Speaking of Geeta herself, she also happens to have a rather damning reference to the Crater baked into her design. Her signature Pokémon, Glimmora, the Pokémon whose design shares visual flare with her outfit, is a Pokémon who is found exclusively within Area Zero and Terra Raids. It is also the only ‘regular’ Pokémon to have a dex entry that explicitly links it to the Tera concept.

She’s even the one who gives your character the rare TM and recipe for the move Tera Blast, a move that is best utilised by Pokemon that have undergone Terastalisation in battle.

All this symbolism to do with travel conveniently lining up with the Crater, Geeta’s signature Pokémon being a Glimmora instead of the pseudo legendary of the region, what’s it mean? Surely these are too weak a link, you say. Well, I wouldn’t be presenting it if it was my only proof! Do you remember how you’re given your Tera orb when going through the game? Nemona states that these orbs are difficult to obtain and receive permission to use, and she very politely gets permission from Champion Geeta for you to use one. So the Tera orbs are a limited resource. It also just so happens that the League and the Academy were given these orbs by Turo, as told to the player by Miss Raifort in one of her history lessons. Seems awfully convenient, doesn’t it?

It’s because of these details that I think we have a good reason to believe that the League is profiting off of the Tera technology developed by Turo. I believe that they even helped to fund it, for a time.

Geeta’s polite and professional Champion Of Champion’s personality also happens to be accented by a desire to set an example for others (such as Nemona) and to create a spectacle with the battles that take place throughout the gyms and the league challenge. She also has a habit of being very interested in taking time out of her busy days as Chairwoman just to scout talent to recruit it into the league. Everything she does is to further the League, even recruiting Penny for tech support for the League in postgame.

So it stands to show that she and the League would have a fair bit to gain from investing in the Tera technology, especially considering that she is currently stated to be the active Chairwoman of the League. And now here’s the part where I get to say that I think support was discontinued for Turo some time ago.

You see, I think that in his obsessive downward spiral after Sada left, Turo became paranoid that others would discontinue their support of his project. And honestly, I also think that they did. Turo was stated to have been missing from public view for a while, even before the window of time we can assume his death occurred in, and the league probably had what they needed from the Tera Orbs, so they might have left Turo to research whatever he wanted. After all, the League never really talks about Turo, despite him being the most famous scientist in the region and the reason anyone’s Pokémon can use the Tera phenomenon in battle to begin with. However, there’s another possibility. And that may be the possibility that the League doesn’t speak about Turo not because they were simply done with things, but instead for… other reasons. You see something that bothered me quite a bit during the story was this interesting technicality about the AI Defence System and the Pokéball Lock Technology that Turo created.

Why would Turo need this? Think about it for a moment. If the Paradox Pokémon were the real danger, the very thing that ended up taking Turo’s life in the end, why was the security system built entirely around the concept of trainers other than himself?

Turo built this futuristic AI and the defence system it is connected to, and the Pokéball lock system. He built all of it to keep the Time Machine, his one shot at a perfect world, safe.

But why did he assume that he needed to keep it safe? We know already that the heavy iron gates and League rules bar most normal people from entering the Crater, and if that doesn’t deter them, there’s even biometric scanners that inspect any visitor who steps inside The Zero Gate. We also know thanks to a piece of dialog from Hassel that only a very small percentage of gym trainers even make it to over halfway through gyms in the region.

So then who was Turo afraid of? Easy!

The League.

If the league were these mysterious investors, all of this would make sense. If they had visited previously, they could get past the gate or the biometric scanners. They could use force to stop Turo if they felt he was finally going too far. It would have given Turo enough of a reason to be afraid they would come bashing down the doors with Tera Pokemon, maybe even with his ex wife who might be able to figure out how to put a stop to his research.

No wonder why his answer was to build a battle system that could defeat champions and, if all else failed, could take the opposition’s Pokemon away entirely. Ironically, this paranoia for a defence system had Turo so afraid of other trainers, that he stopped being cautious around the paradox Pokemon, and ultimately lost his life because of it.

Without bleeding over too much into my post that I’m making about the psychology of the Professor, and without making this post too long, I think I’ll wrap-up by saying this. We know that the Professor’s experiments were starting to get dangerous, so dangerous that they were beginning to make even corporate backers fret and even eventually driving away Arven’s other parent.

The Professor was an impulsive, obsessive individual, to the point where they did not care for the ecology of the Paldea region, they only cared about the means to an end. Keeping the time machine running. Even after corporate backers jumped ship due to the risk, the Professor continued. If the Pokémon League found out, they would surely intervene, and the Professor knew that.

So they made the Garden Defence System not for the safety of anyone who worked there, or for the protection of the local ecology, but to protect the Time Machine itself. And in order to protect the Time Machine from every possible threat that could face it, the Professor had to build a system that could even defeat the Champions.

So that’s where things stand. Can’t wait to dive into why Turo is such an obsessive prick and how he expresses that in my next post, because there is a LOT of juicy hints around the game >:)

#pokemon #pokemon scarlet and violet #pokemon scarvi #pokemon scarvi spoilers #geeta #ai sada #turo #pokemon spoilers #analysis #arven #professor turo

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lesbianalanwake · 4 months

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so curious about what freya didn't tell saga and why. we know so little about freya and I doubt remedy will ever explore saga's family in a straightforward way, but she's also very much between at least two worlds in an intriguing way

I know Saga mentions off-hand that her mother told her the mind place was just imagination, but that's all I remember and I haven't had much time to play lately. Freya was obviously a loving mother, if her card and the knitted sweater and Saga's fondness for her are anything to go by, but we can pick up on some distance there that Saga noticed - if I'm remembering correctly, she comments on how Freya never spoke about her family and wonders that same thing, how her mother didn't tell her things.

if I had to guess, it was probably for the same reason that Mr. Door decides to play along with the story - to protect Saga. Freya didn't part from Tor and Odin on good terms, and I think the game states or implies that she had the same psychic abilities that Saga does (I have GOT to find time to finish NG+ and get details straight in my head, lol), so I'd assume she knew just how dangerous Cauldron Lake and the world of the paranatural is.

I can't remember if it's implied or if it's ambiguous, whether Mr. Door was already Something Else when he and Freya had their thing. no records of him, like Hatch in QB, but was Cauldron Lake the beginning of his woes or a step along the way? (Hatch has a mostly established reason for being the way he is, and I'm just going to work under the assumption that he is A Version of Mr. Door. I also need to finish Quantum Break for real, LOL.) but the idea that Freya got down to business with someone who was already Something Else, and that she may have been aware of that fact, is VERY interesting.

also thinking a lot about how Freya hides many things from Saga, and how Mr. Door has yet to reveal himself to her, and the similarities there.

ALSO curious to know how much the deer motif represents Mr. Door and how much it represents Freya. Mr. Door doesn't have much direct association with it that I can recall, except for Mr. Deer = Mr. Door (thanks, Remedy) and some graffiti in the Dark Place that depicts a deer head with lightning in its eyes, but we can infer a lot from the fact that it's Saga's motif and deer often symbolize spiritual transitions and travel (much like doors do). and for Freya, we can connect her to the mythological Freyja for many obvious reasons, but if we include the deer motif, then her twin Freyr can possibly be invoked too (for her? for Mr. Door?) - Freyr gave away his sword and was later forced to fight with a stag's antler (something that also dooms him to eventually die in Ragnarok). in Room 108 in the Elderwood Palace Lodge, unlocked by Saga interacting with all the deer heads, there are a couple of skeletal deer heads and a saw, with the implication that the saw is used for removing the antlers. and the deer head in Saga's mind place speaks with a feminine voice.

so,

#alan wake 2 #alan wake #saga anderson #freya anderson #warlin door #i'm gnawing at the bars of my enclosure. my need to know disease is TERMINAL #remedy posting #*posts

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minim236 · 1 year

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Okay, said once I would make a post about this, so here is my observation of The Matrons™ of the Bridgerton-verse, as someone with a really awesome mum.

So, I think a majority of women in the Ton do not want children. Not in the Eloise sense, but in the sense that they did not get a chance to explore what they want and are highly aware of this. So they marry men with titles, and do their duty. But then they also love their children. Bear in mind, these children were forced upon them and it's that awful paradox that happened with many noble ladies.

They have children they do not actually want. However, they must have them out of duty, which then clashes with the nature of loving their children but still being driven by duty - Lady Sheffield, Lady Featherington, and even Lady Gunningworth are all examples of this. They love their children but also see them as extensions of themselves, and because they did not have the chance for a love match, then why should they? Lady Sheffield, I infer a lot of this because her daughter rejects an Earl with 12,000 acres and a hefty income to add to their already large fortune - she marries a royal secretary instead, who was probably more equivalent to a member of the gentry, has no connections to her families friends

Which brings me to one of my favourite Matrons:

Mary Sharma-Sheffield - her only expectation is for her girls to be happy because she looked at her mother and realised she did not want that at all and did not want to become that. She ran to India with her husband to avoid becoming that, even in that scene when she tells Kate to go (she's separating her two children in a fight, not expelling Kate from the family!). She sees her daughters as two individuals she and her husband had the grateful opportunity to raise. Kate is only her stepdaughter on paper; that's blood to her.

She has also lived a 'real life' compared to her peers. She is tough. Also, she likely scares the other mothers because there is the possibility - they can do it, and shock horror! be happy! And then her daughters, welp-

(If anything, Mary should not have said, 'let's show the ton who we are' because Sharma-Sheffield genes seem to give ladies super speed in ballgowns and ridiculously long veils. That's on her.)

Violet Bridgerton-Ledger is different because it appears all she has wanted is a family and children. She sees her duty is being a good wife and mother, and that's awesome. She got a faithful, loving husband in Edmund. It's why her children are all romantic weirdos. But she is not above convention (separate post on how the Bridgertons are just like the rest of the Ton, but we'll move), but she adjusts out of love.

Nothing much to say about the Baddest in the Ton, but she is the best and if I recall in the books, she takes Gareth as her grandson, even if he is illegitimate (she is not lacking male relatives!) and she takes in Simon because she loved Sarah. Nuff said!

#bridgerton #bridgerton discourse #i guess #im giving depth to women who do not get any #lady sheffield #lady cowper #lady featherington #mary sharma #lady danbury #violet bridgerton #the matrons

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oathbreakerapologist · 2 months

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Sortie Conlang Exploration 1: Oh God We're Really in It Now

EDIT THIS IS INCORRECT LMAO

There's really nothing to justify this project other than my sheer desire to peel back every layer I can find in this goddamn comic until I've burned it into my brain permanently. What's this project? There's a conlang in Sortie (et al) and I'm gonna try to figure it out the long way.

The first appearance of this script in SADS/Sortie is at the end of SADS #5.

Based on placement and context, I think this is a transliteration of "thank you for reading" (written right-to-left) because the letters line up where I'd expect them to be (e.g., see the repeated glyphs at the end of the third word from the right and the start of the fourth word from the right—that'd be the "R" in "for" and "reading", and see the repeated glyphs in the second position of both of the middle two words, that's the "O" in "you" and "for"). I'm going to use this as a key. This is a big assumption that I'm accepting for now because it's the best way I have to start, but I recognize that the rest of this project fails if I'm either (1) wrong about the meaning of this inscription or (2) wrong that the letters that show up in Sortie correspond to their usage here or (3) wrong about both. So with that liability in mind, I proceed.

The first part of this process is to collect all uses of the conlang in Sortie (#1–#3, for now) and figure out which of the letters that appear there are ones we now speculatively know (based on the key), and which ones we don't.

I went through and filled in blanks for all the ones I knew based on the key phrase—those are the ones in green next to each inscription. Then I went through the ones I didn't know from the key phrase and recorded them in the unknown box. I ended up with eleven unknown glyphs, which is not a terrible number (actually much lower than I expected, but more on that later). I might even have less than that, because some of them are quite possibly just slightly different forms of ones I have already seen; I was deliberately quite liberal about classifying things as unknown, as I'd rather artificially inflate my number of unknowns than misclassify something if I wasn't absolutely sure it was an instance of a certain letter. I numbered those unknowns and filled in the blanks with those numbers in yellow. If/when I reference a word like "H(1)(2)RD" (from Sortie #1 p. 121, and of course written RTL there—I flip words to LTR for my convenience when writing about them), read that as H-(mystery letter 1)-(mystery letter 2)-R-D.

Then I marked all the letters that appeared in the key phrase but not in sortie in orange in the known letters box. This is a surprisingly high number of letters; of the 14 unique letters in the key phrase, only 7 appear in the several bits of text taken from Sortie. The 7 letters omitted include all the vowels, except (infuriatingly) "O," which appears exactly once in Sortie #3 text. Jumping the gun a bit, but for reasons I'm about to get into, I suspect that the glyph I took to be "O" has actually been repurposed for something else, because I don't actually expect the letter "O" to appear in the text.

And that's because I think this conlang is an abjad, a writing system in which only the consonants are represented, leaving the reader to infer the vowel sounds. That explains the omission of vowels. And, for the record, I am fairly confident that the vowels are actually omitted, for a couple reasons.

Firstly (and most speculatively), our bank of letters from the SADS inscription gives us 6 consonants. Then we have at maximum 11 mystery letters, so at maximum 17 letters. Even if we're making use of an extremely limited vowel inventory (say, 4 vowels), that leaves us with at maximum 13 consonants. That's a much more limited consonant inventory than we'd expect, even if we assume there are a few uncommon letters that don't appear often enough to show up in the text taken from Sortie. Most European languages are in the mid-20s, so ~17 letters is quite short (there's several Pacific languages with letter counts in the teens, so it's not impossible, but it's unusual, especially considering the obvious Phoenician influence to the language). But ~17 is a perfectly reasonable number of consonants.

Secondly (and most concretely), there's just a bunch of consonant clusters that are probably unpronounceable if we assume they're supposed to be pronounced as written, i.e. without vowels, like "RFH," "RKR," and "DGD."

So I think it's an abjad. That's useful to know.

As for next steps, I think I'm going to write a quick script to count frequency of individual letters as well as two- or three-letter strings at the starts and ends of words, with the hopes of identifying commonly-occurring word parts. Without it, I can already pick out a few interesting words, but it'd be faster and more accurate to have a script for it. As for interesting words, "H(1)" is short and it shows up a couple times at the start of a sentence. If I can identify the word order (I think Phoenician was VSO, but I'm not going to assume that's true about the conlang), that'll help me figure out what part of speech "H(1)" is. There's also one string that seemingly occurs twice with an interesting variation: "H(6)(6)DGD" is said by the masked man on Sortie #1 page 123, then "H(6)(6)DGR" is said by him on page 124. A change of suffix? A verb tense? That's all pure speculation, but I'm guessing that is the same word root.

To be continued............

(Man, it'd be really fucking funny if I'm wrong about the key phrase I've been using to decode these.)

#not bg3 #sortie #sad sack #my sad sack thought journal

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incrediblemeh · 2 months

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I feel like I really have to complain because while I think it's commonly understood that Monster Hunter has serious problem with with the differences between male and female armor sets, I get the impression most people assume it's very typical difference between "sexy" and "cool" armor. (Male hunters get big pauldrons, female hunters get bikinis.) But that's not really why the situation is so damn frustrating, because there's remarkably little actual fan service throughout the female armors. The sexy bikini armor is sometimes present, but it doesn't really represent what's going on. It's more like there's just an underlying assumption in what fashion style of armor the developers assume you want based on the player's chosen sex.

Like there are examples of a male/female dichotomy in the armor design actually being stylistically justified. Even if they're approaching masculine or feminine presentation in a very simplistic way (and let's be real many games will do far worse than that) it offers up some very interesting fashion choices.

Rhenoplos armor for example has some actual extremely fun differences. On the one hand, there's this extremely unique look for the male set that has a round build some very bizarre claw arms and this cool wide helmet. And on the other hand, you have this delightfully overly cutesy bear motif for the female armor where the gauntlets look perfectly ideal for punching the shit out of something. Deviljho armor also plays with gender dichotomy in a really fun way, effectively exploring that wrestling heel vibe through two very different forms of presentation and ideas of physical prowess.

Late game Barroth armor, Odogaron, Paolumu, I think these also stand as great examples of how male and female sets can positively contrast.

But there's a reason why differences are seen negatively, and Goss Harag is a great example of where things start to get really annoying, because ironically the two armor sets aren't that meaningfully different from eachother even though there are some minor differences because of the implied physical build of female characters. For the most part, they're the same armor set aside from the thigh and chest area. In my situation, getting to see that my character's armor emphasizes the boobs is actually kind of a plus. And the male armor emphasizes the pecs so much it's easily justified. ...but while the male Goss Harag set gets to have a sick skull helmet, the female one gets stuck with this stupid looking visor/headdress nonsense. Aside from the crime of being denied a cool skull helmet, were it not for that one point of difference I would not even have to think about what fashion I'm potentially losing out on at all.

It's likewise just as frustrating as with the Tetranadon armor. I don't really personally give that much of a shit how much skin is on display here or whether you can see their boobs. The differences between the male/female form are more egregious here but I'm not gonna die because of it. What drives me up a goddamn wall is that the male set gets this cool looking full gas mask helmet, and the female set gets a doofy hat with goggles. It's not even that I particular dislike the faces in monster hunter, it's that whether a character has a full helmet or not is all the difference in the world for how much of a cool badass you feel like.

This pattern repeats for a lot of armor sets throughout the games with varying degrees of difference between the male and female sets. The poster boy Rathalos, Legiana, Diablos, Seething Bazelgeuse and Nargacuga are all valid examples of this. The reason for this difference I have to assume is because there's an initial assumption from the designers about what I want. If I chose a female character it may be inferred that I am explicitly interested in seeing my character's face as often as possible. Because (I assume) they see that choice as me wanting to look at a female character for their body and the face just happens to be part of that. And that's not actually entirely inaccurate, but there's a difference in what I get out of that. And it's a little screwy to think that no one could choose a male hunter for similar reasons.

And I hate deliberately choosing a female character for my own sense of comfort only to loose out on the style and vibe the male armor oozes, which also from a trans perspective is a uniquely infuriating problem.

Going back to positive examples, the Frostfang Barioth Alpha armor does not have this problem. While I hold preference for the male helmet, I cannot deny that the female helmet is equally cool and conveys a distinct feminine quality that makes it feel sharp and dangerous. There are as many differences as there are similarities between these two armor sets, and the inclusion of the rapier accurately conveys what vibe they were going for with the female set, an equal degree of competence and mystique conveyed through elegance rather than machismo.

And it might be a bit difficult to talk about this problem without making it seem like I'm specifically complaining about objectification, I think that's a part of why this issue exists to begin with but I'm not really cool with harping on people who just want a create-a-character they can use to engage in light voyeurism. I don't like the idea that the solution here is to start taking away sexy outfits, that feels like moving backwards and I'd rather continue to put up with this problem than start putting my comfort above someone else's. Even though there are many sets where the differences could be simply phased out and merged into one armor set, It does not feel fair to do that at the expense of the range of choices and styles these different sets have brought, with Frostfang Barioth I think serving as a peak example of that positive aspect, a true silver lining. All in all, I would much rather that some thought be put into what parts of the existing armor designs are compatible with androgyny, and work on making both choices available to male and female hunters based on that. The best possible case scenario for me would be that female character get to look like a goddamn WH40K space marine in exchange for a bunch of spindly twinks in Nergigante bikinis. And somewhere in between those two extremes, I get to enjoy a much wider selection of cool helmets.

#monster hunter

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aha-chuu · 9 months

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Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae’s Character Stories

So DHIL’s character stories leaked today and I wanted to discuss them/share them for anyone who hasn’t seen them. I’ll mainly be focusing on his Character Story III because it seems like the climax of Dan Feng’s arc. Also, I’ll be referring to DHIL as DF to denote his past self.

A note: there has been some talk of the English being mistranslated. Other languages refer to plurals on occasion, or don’t have as specific details. Keep that in mind (I’ll point it out when I find it necessary).

First, we have a proper look at the High Cloud Quintet (HCQ) in action from DF’s perspective with Character Story II:

This provides some interesting information. Firstly, DF self-describes as a “God”, with the military beneath him as “ants” - I don’t think I need to explore that inference for you. He sees all these mortals with “icy detachment” and later does not care that they get caught in the crossfire when he attacks the enemies. He does, however, take notice of the HCQ, implying he does care about them, or cares more about them, at least. The pilot is Baiheng, the white-haired swordswoman is Jingliu, the Lieutenant is Jing Yuan (he holds the “devastator glaive” we know he owned). We can assume that the “exceedingly arrogant craftsman” is Blade, since we know from his character stories that he used to be a craftsman -

(From Blade’s Character Story IV)

None of this is new information if you’ve been keeping track of leaks and in-game lore, but it certainly does portray DF as a much more aloof and uncaring character than I anticipated. It does make me wonder how much of DH’s separation from DF is genuinely being a new person, versus still being somewhat self-centred and wanting to avoid the sins of the past and the people that come along with them. It is still unclear, after all, exactly how DH and DF interact with one another in terms of identity.

Then we move onto Character Story III, which appears to describe the point of no return for DF’s character. It begins as so:

(NOTE: in other languages the person “urging the dragon to commit to the decision” is not specified to be the craftsman. It would be out of character for Blade, considering the lore from the Wandering Cloud relic set:

This says DF was the one to stick to the “plans” (whatever they were) and so it seems unlikely that Blade would be urging DF to commit to the plan.)

Anyway, back to the actual content of Character Story III. The sequence of events seems to be: DF and the craftsman go to the ruins, the craftsman is bloody and wounded but guarding DF and they are about to carry out some sort of plan. Because this is framed as DH’s dream of his past life, the note “whether to bury his old friend or to grant them new life — or, perhaps, those two actions were one and the same” could be out of sequence. Maybe DF and Blade went to the ruins with the intention to bury/revive an old friend, or perhaps that is DH’s memory of what ended up happening. Is the “old friend” Blade? Well... It’s unclear.

In this passage, Blade is clearly not on death’s door, despite being described as wounded, he is still walking around, carrying a sword. However, if DF is granting him immortality, he doesn’t have to be on death’s door - they might be carrying out a risky plan that will either kill him or extend his life. It could also be DH recalling what happens, so they don’t go to the ruins with the plan of Blade dying/being revived, but that’s what happens. Or, DF expects the fight (why else would he need a “guard”?) they’re possibly walking into to kill Blade and therefore is anticipating what he’ll do after.

I’m sorry I know that is confusing. The wording is not clear. There are, in fact, more options!

DF and Blade could be going to revive a different friend, not mentioned by name here. This idea of burying makes it seem unlikely to be Baiheng, as several theories suggest, because she appears later in this same Character Story:

Baiheng didn’t have much left to be buried. It’s not impossible that it’s her, however she doesn’t have a body left to revive. On the other hand, she is mentioned in this same section, so it’s sort of ~~~ who knows?

That extract comes right after a shift in the narrative:

“Returned” makes it seem like this whole Character Story is out of order. DF goes to the ruins with Blade, then it jumps back to a fight against a monster, where Baiheng dies.

And that monster... well, here’s what Character Story III has to say about the fight with it:

“The moment before his sense of self disappeared”... WTF is that? It sort of seems like transforming into the dragon caused DF to be under the control of an outside force, not that this was his final moment as DF, even though it’s a bit weirdly worded. That would make sense as to why the “dragon heart” is personified and described as the one fighting, not just “the dragon” as DH refers to DF elsewhere. He then must have returned to himself in order for the rest of the events described to occur.

And because of course this is not explained, Character Story IIII jumps right into DF being already captured for his sins, and being tortured for information on the dragon heart,

Just fighting the dangerous monster would not constitute a crime, so the Character Stories just completely skip what happened between the ruins and the imprisonment. So, the actual important part of DF’s sins.

So what is going on? This is the best order I can come up with:

1) DF knows the HCQ. They have a good time generally, occasionally fight big battles.

2) DF fights against an especially bad monster. He turns into a dragon to combat it.

3) The monster is somehow connected to “the god of life” and shows DF a vision during the fight. “The dragon heart” is ancient vidyardhara magic; a source of power that takes over DF and is struggling to defeat the monster.

4) Baiheng shows up and runs her starskiff through the monster, helping to defeat it and basically getting herself disintegrated in the process.

5) Blade (the craftsman) likely also got injured during this fight, leading him to be injured in the next event.

5) DF and Blade head to some ruins, intending to revive Baiheng... Or bury the two strands of hair she has left. Possibly, DF is working from the vision he received, which was “unsettling and beautiful”, connected to the God of Life.

6) Whatever they do in the ruins, Baiheng is not revived and Blade becomes immortal (this is the last opportunity for that to happen before DF is imprisoned and reborn). Either this was an accident, intended for Baiheng, or the procedure was dangerous and Blade got caught in the crossfire, leaving DF to pick who to save.

7) Also in the ruins, the procedure meant DF’s dragon heart went missing, which is why the Elder rebirth cycle is screwed up and why he was being tortured for information.

8) Neither Blade nor Baiheng come up again. Baiheng is dead, Blade is missing... Along with the dragon heart. Possibly, the dragon heart is inside him and making him immortal, or all its power was used up to save him.

Bear in mind, this is speculation based on the evidence we have. My reading leaves Jing Yuan and Jingliu totally uninvolved, and still does not clarify what DF and Blade were intending to do - it’s a guess that it’s something to do with Baiheng that went wrong. Blade considers himself and DF to be sinners, so we can presume they were working together to commit that sin that DF is so hated for -

Anyway, now for some less story related stuff that intrigues me.

Blade, DH and DHIL all have the same framing for their character stories, not seen elsewhere for other characters. Every character story starts with a repeated sentence, the same one each time -

Blade:

Dan Heng:

(his is short lol)

Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae:

I think this matches throughout their stories in order to emphasise that Blade and DH/DF are stuck in the same narrative loop. DH is a “new dawn begins”, very obviously a new life and a fresh start are emphasised here. Then Blade “must have died”, being an end and a consequence. It’s literally the reverse of DH. DF/DHIL gets “returned to the insides of a Vidyadhara egg” - his is the space between death and life, as an egg is both the end of one existence and the birth of another. Together, all three make up stages of rebirth.

These stages might seem more connected to the vidyardhara (death - egg - life), however it also suits Blade. Either because it’s vidyardhara magic from the dragon heart that is causing his immortality, or because his “egg” stage does not exist. He cannot be at peace because he is unable to transition between life and death, making death his end - and yet, he doesn’t actually die.

Blade and DF also both experience torture as a punishment after whatever they did, DF at the hands of the other vidyardhara so they can get information, but Blade’s Character Story I details this:

Blade actually does not remember. Much like DH, he’s being punished for something he cannot recall. Just another connection between his story and DF and DH’s.

It does make me wonder; many people have spoken about how it is unfair for DH to be punished for DF’s crimes. Personally, because identity is so nuanced for the vidyardhara, I don’t think it is so simple as just “DH is a new person”. However, if DH should be forgiven because he lacks DF’s memories and therefore his responsibility, are we supposed to view Blade through the same lens? He cannot remember his own name, and here is mind is “empty” of the information his attacker is asking for. Yet, I would presume people would view this differently, as Blade’s body has not changed and his memories seem taken by Mara, not a cleansing forgiveness ritual.

Anyway, that was an exceedingly long post. I would be interested in other people’s interpretations of these Character Stories, because there really is a lot of vague information and unclear narrative. The whole framing of it being DH’s dreams means that a) the order of events could be totally messed up, and b) DH might not even have blank spots filled in. It does intrigue me that he has any memories, however, because it does weaken his defence of being separate from DF entirely.

#Dan Heng #Blade HSR #HSR leaks #DHIL #dan heng imbibitor lunae #Dan Feng #honkai star rail #renheng #honestly I don't talk about it here but #Hoyo did make them intrinsically connected #that's kinda gay ngl #speculation

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thenarddogmeister · 2 months

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Everything Everywhere All At Once. The Daniels. 2022.

I love this film and have watched it three times so far so it’s about time I wrote this review.

First of all, I think the main themes I see being explored in this film are the different outlooks/ philosophies a person can use to live in a world like this. Everything Everywhere is a daunting film to write about because it’s postmodern to the maximum, there’s so much to talk about. Firstly, the absolute hybrid of genres and intertextual references (ranging from Disney’s Ratatouille to Wong kar-wai’s In The Mood For Love) makes this a staple of post-modernism and reflects the chaos of the world we live in today. We have access to everything and we can see so many things (especially with the rise of social media) and just like this film proves, it can provide beauty but it can also cause chaos and destruction. The movie is beautiful in its variety of colours, creative costumes, and allowing Evelyn (Joy’s mother) to understand her daughter’s sexuality better by jumping to a universe where she is in a relationship with Jamie Lee Curtis’s Deadre. However, it is also immensely destructive as by having a surplus of meanings and universes, Joy finds that she feels now, nothing has any meaning and she can’t trust anything she sees because she has seen everything. To use a perfect quote from the film, “She no longer believes in an objective truth.”

The Daniels like to draw contradictions in the film to highlight this distrust we feel in our modern culture due to having access to so many juxtaposing “truths.” For example, they comically use phallic and yonic imagery to reinforce the binary opposite drawn between nihilism (nothing matters) and absurdism (represented by Waymond’s whimsy throughout the film). This imagery is funny when we see Joy fighting with large dildos but it also allows us fresh perspectives when Evelyn and Joy put their hands together to create a vaginal-like shape, allowing Evelyn to see what Joy sees. This juxtaposition of humour and deep understanding supports the theme throughout the film that in this culture of media oversaturation, we cannot find an objective truth or an objective way of living anymore. It’s all about choice. This is also inferred as Evelyn is seen at the beginning of the film choosing to either stick to her laundry and taxes or go into the mysterious janitor’s closet - at one point, the screen even explicitly cracks into two perspectives to anchor this idea of choice.

Another part of the film that I love, is the soundtrack/score, which also expertly contributes to the point of the film, that we are all confused and scared in this overstimulating postmodern world. Clair de Lune is used as a musical motif throughout the film, which perfectly sums up the point the Daniels are trying to make. This is an old, classical song used in possibly the least classical movie ever, showing how we have access to content spanning over literal centuries (due to streaming platforms like spotify I can listen to the 1905’s Clair de Lune and seconds later listen to the 80’s She Goes Down by Motley Crue). This overwhelming level of choice can be beautiful as we can watch Everything Everywhere All At Once and hear the magnetic and majestic Clair de Lune but it can also create so much disillusionment and confusion as how do we decide what is true and how we should live when there are million and millions of contradicting answers to those questions out there.

The last thing that needs to be mentioned is the motif of the Bagel. The bagel represents Joy’s nihilism. It sucks everything in and leaves nothing in its wake. Moreover, it is black which is what you get when you mix all the colours together, surplus resulting in nothingness. However, the room we see the bagel in is overwhelmingly white, which is what you get when all the colours of light are added together. White has happier connotations like heaven and purity, adding to this idea that the same situation (all the colours added together) can be interpreted positively by us or negatively. Will we see the black-hole bagel or the googly eyes that Waymond leaves around the house?

Lastly, I love the match cut at the end where Joy and Evelyn share a mother-daughter hug, which then transitions ,through this match cut, into planets colliding. It really anchors this point that we can either focus on the massive destruction in this world (planets colliding) or the intimate moments of love (the hug). And each is powerful.

The theme of this movie is so masterfully explored in the film’s editing, sound, cinematography, genres, imagery etc and so in my opinion it might be a perfect film.

#film review #movies #film #cinema #everything everywhere all at once #the daniels #michelle yeoh #ke huy quan #jobu tupaki #oscars 2022

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jackoshadows · 11 months

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Saw the stuff from THAT side about the girl in grey on a dying horse unfortunately in the tags recently and not surprised they’re using the show to justify their twisted theories for a ship that never happened, how boring does a character have to be for them to steal a side characters small arc to justify their delusions

The show was trash even for Sansa and yet they want show Sansa's plots for the book version if it gives them Jonsa, never mind that this crackship did not happen on the show either.

Sometimes someone likes or reblogs old posts of mine when GOT was running and I take a look at those posts and go 'I wrote all this?'. What a sweet, summer child I was 😂.

Anyway, in one post I talk about how despite giving show Sansa book Arya's theme of 'The lone Wolf dies but the pack survives' they failed to implement what that actually means in show's Sansa's story.

And I think that's one reason why the North plot was so much superficial, one dimensional, badly written garbage. They replaced Jeyne with Sansa in order to give Sophie Turner something to do on the TV show. And then what? They never carried over any of the reasons for why that plot existed in the first place.

GRRM seems particularly bothered about that plot change and views it as where the divergence happens with book and show canon as I explain here. That's because Arya's marriage to Ramsay in the books is a thread that connects together several plots in the North, exploring themes of loyalty and love.

We got nothing of that in the show because according to Benioff and Weiss themes are not important to the story they are telling.

On Game of Thrones, characters are free to while away hours, even entire seasons, on the periphery. The story lines move forward and dig deeper as the episodes progress but rarely circle back and almost never pause for reflection. When I asked Benioff and Weiss if it was possible to infer any overall intentionality to the upcoming 10 episodes, they sneered. “Themes are for eighth-grade book reports,” Benioff told me.

Theon risking it all, braving the fear of capture and more torture, overcoming that fear and panic to save a nobody like Jeyne Poole - who no one cares for - is now helping Ned's s daughter Sansa who pushes at Theon to help her and who he ends up saving.

While Ramsay marries Sansa to hold the North (Same excuse as in the books for marrying 'Arya'), the show never follows through on the theme of 'The North Remembers'. Even after Sansa escapes from Winterfell, the rest of the North keep fully supporting the Boltons!! They even support Ramsay over Sansa and Jon in season 6!

So why in the world did Ramsay marry Sansa in the first place if he does not even need her to hold the North?!

Rickon is quickly dispatched off even though we get the most powerful Northern house supporting him in the books. There are no mountain clans supporting Ned's girl anymore, no plotting and the game of thrones being played by the Northern houses for the Starks.

And while it's clear Stannis will in some manner be responsible for what happens to Shireen given this was a plot that GRRM told D&D, I am confident the motives and how it happens in the books will be more complex and conflicting than him burning his little girl at the stake to win some battle 🙄

Jon breaking his oaths to go save Arya is no longer a thing, removing that very important conflict (Which makes him a flawed character) from his arc - instead we get Olly killing him for the watch because he let the Freefolk in 🙄.

The less said about Jon's resurrection the better. He got about 30 minutes to be sad and then become mopey Jon Snow so that D&D could hand over his book plot - of rallying the Freefolk to attack the Boltons - to show Sansa. And that was it, he was back to the usual boring and 'noble' Jon Snow after a couple of episodes.

And why the hell did Melisandre randomly decide to resurrect him considering he had no role to play in the defeat of the White Walkers, spending his time running around screaming at a dragon? It would have been better for the show version of the character to stay dead as D&D couldn't be bothered to write for him.

Ghost and Nymeria? The direwolves are non-existent. Who care that these beasts are part of these characters, their soul, their other halves. Bran was not even given one line of dialogue to mourn the loss of Summer. The show only has the space/time and budget for one magical creature and dragons it is.

The Northern houses randomly make Jon Snow KITN when Ned Stark's legitimate daughter is sitting right there! Why? Could it be because she got many of them needlessly killed in the battle of the bastards by not telling them of the Vale army? Nah, that's no big deal and Jon shrugs it off with a kiss to the forehead!

The Vale army? It's Littlefinger who rallies them to support Sansa and all she does is write him a letter accepting his help and then lie to Jon Snow about it. She makes idiotic arguments about how the Karstarks would help and it's Davos who explains that Robb's actions with Rickard makes them enemies. And it's Davos who gets them the lone support of Lyanna Mormont while Sansa criticizes him. So Sansa is not even written as smart on the show!! The Vale lords and army then continues to hang around in the North for some reason.

D&D just wanted the shocking moments from the books without the deep characterization, nuance and complexity. They just wanted to replace Jeyne with Sansa and shock and disgust their audiences with what happens to Sansa without any of the actual plot that goes along with what happens to Jeyne in the books.

This is why Jonsa fans - and even a lot of times just Sansa fans - trying to co-opt this plot for the book character (because they want Jonsa and QITN for book Sansa) leads to all these ridiculous theories of the 'Girl in Grey' being Sansa riding all the way from the vale to the Wall on a horse in the thick of winter... It was ridiculous on the show and it's ridiculous when they try to rewrite the books to mirror the show fanfiction.

#ask

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seeingteacupsindragons · 10 months

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I’m thinking a lot right now about pacing, specifically as it applies to characters—particularly protagonists.

Yes, this definitely spawned from the fact that I watched classic 90’s anime and then one episode of the reboot, but this isn't about that. This is about the fact that the contrast in this element between them threw this thought into relief for me. I have tons of examples in this post, and those two are none of them.

I just think exploring it as a concept is good for my brain and going to be an interesting read.

For the purposes of this post, there are two potential primary tactics for characterization pacing:

Shoving all the important/relevant bits about a protagonist as soon as feasible (usually within an episode or two if it’s a show, or the first couple of chapters if it’s a novel, etc.)

Doling characterizations out in bits and drips and drabs to treat things like reveals

The first often has the advantage of making people feel like they know a character immediately. It works well for shorter works, and adaptations expecting its audience to have at least some idea of the source material—there’s not a lot of reveal in Steve Rogers being Captain America, for example, so there’s no reason to play coy with it. It shows a lot of exciting things quickly to get people hyped and invested early.

But telling a story this way can also feel like a lot of information thrown at someone at once, and the character ends up feeling shallower because there’s nothing to explore. No matter how much there is there, if it’s all upfront, it can be hard to sort through it all and see what parts of the character interact with what parts of the story. It can be hard to recognize and discern signal from noise. It can also limit emotional impact and investment in their character—if everything is shared up front, then there’s no build, tension, or emotional investment in the punch, if you’re hoping for one.

There is something very special about reacting with, “Oh God, I was so wrong, I didn’t know, I didn’t know,” about a character, about a facsimile of a person, than there is about a plot, even. The complicated feeling of realizing you didn’t understand someone and now you do, or that you actively misunderstood something, is only possible when you’ve been given time to adjust to a normal without that before learning more.

I’m not talking “sudden character flashback” when I talk about layers, either. I’m talking about things the character is fully aware of and acts on, that simply aren’t made clear to the audience immediately because the story isn’t rushing to tell you everything.

Here, let’s explore some examples that might clarify what I mean.

Consider Yuukoku no Moriarty. William has a lot going on with him. There’s lots of things we don’t know about him at first, despite the first chapter being a double feature length flashback explaining his origins, motivations, and goals. And chapter two established his current situation. Cool.

But you know what we didn’t know about him until volume 6? That he was suicidal. He knew he was suicidal. He was taking actions based on that. You can infer a little bit from some of the odd moments prior to the Reveal. It’s a necessary part of his characterization and the climax of the story wouldn’t work without that being critically ingrained in him.

And yet, the creators chose not to share it with the audience in a clear, stated way, or clearly apparent and undeniable until volume 6. He didn’t change: that was always a part of him. But the audience didn’t know it was there yet. But we had to wait a while to pick up that piece of the puzzle.

Compare to something like, Yuri!!! On ICE, which came out the same year Yuukoku no Moriarty started, so I’m not talking about changes story telling trends of over time. Yuri!!! On ICE wasn’t based on anything, so the reboot factor wasn’t in play. But it’s short, and by the end of episode two, we know Yuuri is stubborn, emotional prone to wild outbursts, obsessed with Viktor Nikiforov, obsessed with skating, and very unsure of himself. No other major character traits were ever revealed in the twelve episodes. Even the whammy of a plot twist in episode 10 was based on those traits: prone to wild outbursts, obsessed with Viktor, very emotional. He grows and becomes more sure of himself, but we never learn anything new about who he was and what situation he was always in that really matters.

And no, this isn’t limited to anime. Take this novel I just finished reading the other week that came out this year from an American writer and an American publisher set in America: the protagonist, in first person, introduced himself in the first chapter or two as a flamboyant, femme gay boy who loves talking too much and is tight with his friends and stubbornly wants to prove himself. That’s fine enough. But even if he grew or changed (a…little), there were no other important character traits that affected the story. We knew all we needed to know right away.

Meanwhile, something like Jeweler Richard, which was originally a novel series, set up that Seigi was a blackbelt in karate, that he was weird about relationships and bad at pursuing them, awkward at making his feelings clear, and even that he had a bad childhood and abusive father. But it’s not until volume 6, from a first-person narrator in the same style as the book above, that he tells us he’s terrified of being in a relationship because he knows the statistics of victims of domestic violence becoming abusers themselves. And everything slots into place. So many of his prior actions and behaviors make so much more sense.

So maybe this is a short vs. long thing? Not necessarily.

The Eden of the East anime only has 11 episodes and manages, depending on if you consider Saki or Akira the protagonist, to show different aspects of their characters toward the end of it: Saki’s connection to the Eden program comes up for the first time about halfway through the episode run, and the reveal that Akira has been changing his name over and over and over comes even later. Now, he didn’t know that, either but I can easily see a show having a flashback of some kind or having it mentioned by another character in the first episode so the audience at least would know how he got there. There are ways to get that info crammed in there if the creators wanted you to know it. We know Princess Aurora is cursed to be The Sleeping Beauty even though she doesn’t.

Meanwhile, I sat through four seasons of My Hero Academia and Deku’s character and story was pretty set pretty early. Maybe something changed later in the story, but I never saw any spaces for it to arise.

Because that’s part of what’s missing in the upfront narratives: any breathing pause for the audience to go, “Hmmm,” and think about the story for themselves and notice something a little odd. There are no questions raised to be answered, because the answers, as far as the characters are concerned, is set.

I don’t think the character necessarily has to know the thing about themselves, necessarily. I think it helps, but there’s also things like Sam’s demon blood thing in Supernatural, which wasn’t revealed until season two, even though it was obviously planned with his psychic visions well before the reveal. The audience was given something to poke at for a bit before it became clear how it fit into the character. I’m talking about things pre-established with a character that aren’t explained why or how they’re reacting the way they do.

I think one method or the other is more common in some genres and some mediums than others, although I can compare within one medium and find examples of both. It definitely depends at least a little on country and culture of origin of the story (Lord knows how much harder a time I have pulling slow examples from American media). And I especially think it depends on when it was written.

I don’t have stats for this. God knows I don’t watch and read enough media to even take a stab at it. But it’s feeling a lot more common these days to make sure everything is easily packaged and digestible up front, as much with characters as it is with plot and the rest of the story.

Maybe it’s because they want to show you their favorite interesting shiny bits as soon as they can and they get excited. Maybe because it’s easier. Maybe because they just like those kinds of stories. Maybe because they don’t want to deal with fans who have no patience or don’t understand that the layers were always there.

Each gives a story a completely different flavor, and it’s a completely difference experience of enjoying and comprehending the story. One is slowly uncovering a treasure box and the other is being given a treasure box to dig into and coo over.

I think the slower approach helps a story feel richer: it gives the impression there’s so much more that could be uncovered and the world is more expansive and the characters full of deeper lives. I think the quick and shiny approach helps a story feel flashy and dramatic, and some stories should be flashy and dramatic.

Do you want an hour-long firework show, or do you want to set off all your rockets in five minutes? You get the same amount of rockets either way. It’s up to you.

#writing #pacing #characterization

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welcome-to-green-hills · 1 year

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Hey mystery I have a question. While trapped in the tube frozen, do you think that Shadow could dream or anything? Do you think that he had a level of awareness of what was going on? Asking for research for a fanfic I’m writing. Also, you’re the smartest person I know so I wanted to ask.

Hello, my dear!❤️✨

This is a very interesting question. To be honest, I feel that it really depends on Shadow’s situation. I’m not entirely sure as to what direction you’re writing Shadow’s experience in for your project. (When you’ve finished, please send it to me. I wanna read it). It kinda factors into what answer I give you in the long run. For this ask, I feel that it would be safer to supply more than one potential scenario so that you have that information in hand.

Let’s make a little disclaimer first: most of what I’m sharing with you are hypothetical scenarios. As much as I would love to delve deep into this topic, I find that my answers might be… hmm… taken with a grain of salt. I express this because this is a developing field. There either isn’t much research to it, or existing case studies haven’t been updated since the early-to-mid 2000’s. Research of the topic barely have much to contribute to it for multiple reasons (I.E., finding volunteers, researchers, funding. You know, fun stuff). While these ideas and concepts are fantastic, the best I can offer are educated guessed with some research that brings some support to a claim.

It’s also important to keep in mind that this is a fictional character. Not everything needs a scientific explanation. Sometimes it’s just fun to bend the rules a little bit and let your imagination run wild! You can take all of my ideas to heart and use them, or you can throw them away in the trash. It’s not gonna hurt my feelings, Let Shadow be whatever you want him to be in your project, okay?

Alright, now for the fun stuff. Here we go!

What is REM Sleep?

To put simply, REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is the state of consciousness in which an individual experiences low function of the body to gain full rest. This is the state of sleep in which people experience dreams from as well. With this rapid eye movement, we can infer that a person is engaging with either a memory or a dream! It’s a form of memory that allows an individual to remember muscle spasms, movements, sights, smells, sounds, etc., and process nearly everything that was absorbed through an engaging environment (NSF, 2020). REM sleep play a crucial part in development of the mind. Having that down time to experience dreams and memories allows for a sense of mental and emotional maturity of past/current situations.

Infant-Like Slumber:

If the question in mind is geared towards him being created, then possibly? More than likely not. We run into a couple of problems when exploring this topic:

A). We don’t have enough information on fetal and infant development to make a logical conclusion.

B). We don’t have enough technological advances and volunteers to make this happen.

The best that I could describe is this: he would have lots of muscle spasms, but he’s dream with select sound and no pictures. His form of “dreaming” would be sensory-based and how he engaged with his environment. “Environment” being him in his stasis pod. This is the same way that newborn infants engage with their REM sleep (American Institute of Physics, 2009).

Let’s create a hypothetical scenario for you here: If Shadow’s stasis pod was built to be interactive, then I think that he would be able to hear and sense touch pretty well! His little pod could allow him to hear Maria, Gerald, and all of the other scientists in the lab while he’s still “cooking.” If touch was implied as well, then he could reflect on that physical contact. It could help create an emotional connection and recognition of safety establish with everyone even before opening his eyes (Harmon, 2010). Anthropologist like myself make it a point to share that physical touch is important through cultural and social teachings. When I mean “physical touch,” I mean along the lines of hand holding, high five, hugging, kissing, anything! Not only does it help create of safety and familiarity, it helps individuals recognize and distinguish people to form inner circles. Individuals need physical touch for emotional development and a boost in physiological development (Cekaite et Al., 2011).

Again, this is hypothetical scenario. I did not find any indication through Gerald’s journals (SA2, Sonic Battles), Rouge’s field report, and trivia from his creators on Twitter that he was able to hear things around him while he was in his stasis pod.

Cryogenic Hypothesis:

Cryogenically freezing—otherwise known as Cryopreservation—is another iffy scenario to explore as well. Traditionally, cryogenically suspended individuals are deceased… and have bee deceased for mere minutes. Cryopreservation is not flash freezing an individual like a popsicle, these are individuals that are kept in a temperature controlled environment for extended periods of time in a liquid nitrogen temperature (Paulo, 2012).

This is a topic in the scientific community that is considered a bit controversial. Some believe that it can be real and life saving, others believe that it’s completely a pseudoscience. And then there’s a small cluster of scientists who don’t really have an opinion on it because there isn’t a lot of information on it. If there was more funding and willingness to explore this topic, then sure! I’m positive that there will be more researchers out there that would like to explore cryopreservation on human and their mental state more.

What I can tell you is that there can’t be any form of dreaming in cryopreservation. There would be cellular damage. There isn’t a trace of brainwave activity that could display REM from cryopreservation individuals. This would not be plausible for Shadow if you’d like for him to dream in your fanfic.

Comatose Hypothesis:

My final thought would be to portray him as if he were in a coma-like state for there to be a form of dreaming.

Medical research has strongly indicated that a patient’s brain does not show signs of normal sleep and wakefulness cycles, meaning that they more than likely cannot dream in a coma (Blackburn, 2023). However, it depends on the state in which the coma is caused (I.E., if the visual context of the brain is damaged or medically induced to help patients heal). Some patients that have awaken from their comas shared that they’ve felt as if they were in a dream-like state/nightmare loop. J. Schradar, a psychologist reporter for Psychology Today, shared that when she was in a coma it felt as if she viewed “memories upon memories and violently ripped away from them (Schradar, 2021).

It’s like being trapped in a maze with fuzzy feelings. You’re aware that you lived a life, but you can’t make out what you did and what happened. There would be speech and compression problems with retaining new memory. We do know that coma patients can respond to select sound as well (Blackburn, 2023). As stated in a previous section, sound plays a vital role in creating a memory. With sound—as well as following under the idea that Shadow’s in the process of being sealed away by GUN after the raid on the ARK—Shadow can build upon that and form dreams. He can form memories and emotional responses to them.

Discussion:

We know that Shadow was created with the intentions of being a cure for illness, as well as a cure for immortality (Sonic Heroes game manual). However, there are some limitations. We don’t know the true extent of his immortality. He could easily die depending on the extremity of the situation. All that we know about our ageless hedgehog-alien hybrid is that he’s got kickass air shoes and a sense of immortality.

I am much more inclined to believe that Shadow was put into an induced coma before being sealed away. Dreams and memories that Shadow had experienced in the past are behind metaphorical doors and locked away. His subconscious walks around through an endless maze of distorted images of what he engaged with in the past. He—supposedly—can hear sounds, but we’re not entirely certain of his surroundings and mental state of mind. He could absolutely have an idea of him being trapped in the fog of his mind. The only thing that he could do is relive memories of the past and be haunted by nightmares. I’m also willing to believe that he had a state of conscious (to a certain degree) while being created aboard the ARK. We’ve seen through the games that each time Shadow awakens from stasis, he already has a knowing. He displays the ability to react quickly and speak by the time his eyes open. He already has a stream of consciousness.

I feel that either of these would be an interesting approach to your personal project to explore. I’d like to share one more with you for your story. One that is a bit more of a stretch, but would be interesting to explore.

As soon as Shadow awakens by Dr. Robotnik in SA2, Shadow says the line “my name is Shadow. Since you’ve been so kind as to release me, my master, I will grant you ONE wish.” I feel that this line has a lot more meaning to it than what fans give it credit for. I don’t believe that this line was put in the game for the sake of the scene being cool and relatively cheesy. Of all the things that Shadow could have said when he was awaken, why that line? I feel that this particular line strengthens the idea that Shadow had dreams as if he were in a coma-like state. This one line could indicate that he just awoke from a revisited memory of him and Maria having philosophical talks about fulfilling their wish to go to Earth. This one line foreshadows that both Shadow and Maria had wishes. And maybe, just maybe, that would be his “dream.”

Anyways. I hope that this helps with your research for your fanfic. These are my thoughts on the subject. I’ve made sure to put sources to my thoughts for you to read further if you’re interested. Again, you don’t have to use these ideas if you don’t want to, or you can 100% use them to your full advantage. I don’t necessarily believe that we’re supposed to be thinking that hard when it comes to Shadow being awaken from his 50+ year sleep, but I can completely understand the need to question. If you have any further questions or thoughts, please feel free to ask! I’m more than happy to help! Best wishes❤️✨

#mystery anon #off topic #I am an anthropologist #I am an archaeologist #I hope that this helps you with your story #This ask was a lot deeper and spiraled a bit more than it needed to…. whoops #shadow the hedgehog #Movie!Shadow

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romirola · 9 months

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Hi Romi :)) For the WIP ask game I was wondering what the thought process was behind which characters are paired up together! Was it what worked best with the story or some pairs you’ve been wanting to write together for a while? Maybe a secret third option. <3

Hope you’re having a good day!

@arrowfleur, thank you for the ask about Balancing Act! I'm thrilled to have the chance to talk about it. This is a wonderful question, and I went through a lot of different pairings in my head before settling on who swaps powers with whom. Since I know you've read the first two chapters, I know you can infer the swaps, but just in case anyone hasn't yet read the story and wants to avoid spoilers, I'll put my answer under the cut.

I knew right from the first word that I wanted David and Angel to swap powers, so that David would have the chance to move about the world as an unempowered human and Angel a shifter alpha. I felt like this pairing made sense and offered a lot of opportunity for drama and tension. My first inclination was to have all the mates swap with mates, but honestly, that almost seemed boring. If we did that, then the David/Angel dynamic mirrored the Asher/Babe dynamic. Moreover, so did the Darling/Sam and Milo/Sweetheart dynamic, with the non-wolves "becoming" wolves and the wolves beings some sort of other specialty. Besides that, I felt like pairing the mates together was going to be really limiting. One common thread in a lot of my fics is that I like to write interactions between the pack members we often don't get to see, to explore their relationships, so it made sense that Balancing Act would follow suit. So the possibilities were wide open!

So, from there, I got to thinking, which pairings made sense for the story? I knew Babe needed to be magical, but not a wolf, so that led to their swapping with either Sam or Sweetheart. I imagine that they are all great friends, but I realized I also wanted Sweetheart to stay magical, though struggle with having their immense power taken away from them, meaning Babe had to swap with Sam.

Likewise, I wanted Milo to have the chance to experience another wolf's body (since he has a history of struggling with his smol but mighty wolf), but David was already paired up with Angel, leaving Asher or Darling. BUT I wanted Darling to swap to a nonshifter, but I couldn't pair them with Sam (since he was paired with Babe)... It was like a logic puzzle! I was going crazy, arrowfleur!

A gamechanger for the pairings occurred when I figured out a way to open up the swap to non-Shaw Pack people, that's when things really got interesting! Originally, when I thought I could pair Sweetheart with a telepath who wasn't very skilled in other types of magic, I had imagined they would swap powers with a perp they had just arrested, but that ended up being too complicated, and I'm so glad for that, because changing the swap to Cutie let me depict Sweetheart's and Cutie's friendship, work Geordi and his bakery into the fic, and streamlined the plot to keep things manageable. That decision also provided an opportunity for Darling to experience a completely different type of magic, and frankly, Huxley was the first one I thought of there because I think it makes total sense they'd see each other at the DAMN student gym and have a blast digging holes together. I very much like the contrast for Darling because they had once felt they needed to socialize the likes of Quinn. But now that they've healed and grown, they get to have someone like Huxley in their life. Plus, earth-elemental Darling was super-duper fun to write, so it made sense for the plot to take that shape.

Overall, I think the pairings provided me with the opportunities to explore the characters in a way that felt fun, engaging, unexpected, and hopefully, authentic. We shall see as the story progresses! Thanks again for the ask!

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asherlockstudy · 1 month

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Hey! Im a recent anon and I wanted to react to what youve been discussing with the anon who agrees with you. Personally, Ive had phases about what I believe about Rhett and Link and the nature of their relationship. I have found the idea of these two attractive, weird, charismatic, creative men being into each other quite appealing, but I dont think Ive ever truly believed it without the help of fan speculation and overinterpretation of giffed moments. Especially after the reveal about their religious background… Without the fan content to feed the nice fantasy, I go back to the presented reality of their unique, brotherly friendship. You believe something that is extreme, even within a tumblr fandom that fixates on the idea of them as a couple. You do you, I dont even have to tell you that! What I find frustrating, just for me, is that I can’t easily refute your view. But I really do believe, without much doubt, that theres nothing between them, like they’ve repeatedly said, and, moreover, that theyre just not physically attracted to each other, despite the moments that may be interpreted as flirting (or… as mind-in-the-gutter banter, you know!). The one thing that I could concede is that, if there is any kind of sexual tension between them, it’s mostly subconscious or repressed, and they don’t want to explore that and only feel comfortable with their current, deep, but platonic friendship. I think that your interpretations, the ‘signs’ you notice in their videos, while beautifully packed with meaning, are not necessarily there. But once again, I can’t really prove it to you, and I find that frustrating. It’s about what feels like a plausible conclusion, an ‘inference to the best explanation’ as philosophers would say. My current opinion is a conventional one, but certainly not within the tumblr fandom, which is full of people that seem to at least believe that there’s something there even if not acted upon. I just think that their interactions could be what they say they are: two lifelong straight male friends connecting, having fun, learning about each other and the world, performing for an audience, often winding each other up, showing us their strange humor, their fascination with awkwardness and love of silly innuendos. And here we are, chronically misinterpreting it to maintain our delightful fantasy, a fantasy shared by many other fandoms built around two apparently straight men that have good chemistry, by the way. This is what I think is happening, and Im not going to judge, because as I said, the fantasy is really nice. As for the overarching themes and methaphors you have identified in their scripted content… I think alternative interpretations are definitely possible. The digging a hole video, for example, might be about collaborative endeavors in general, about the dramatic structure that is still exciting without normal dramatic content, about the joy of absurdist concepts and doing things just to do them, together… not the specific situation you imagined about them wanting to come out of the closet eventually, and navigating their relationship. I have to say, I was impressed and entertained by your interpretation of their puzzle video. I also think that there’s a lot of basic ‘if our characters did this somewhat suggestive or odd thing this would be funny’ reasons behind their scripted content… and not necessarily the cohesive story about viagra that you believe has happened to them. I think that sadly, they might be more boring or random than what you give them credit for, as far as cleverly hidden messages go. But yeah, I dont know how we could definitely know who’s right about this... If they never come out as you suspect they are planning to, if they stand by their no-homo claims, would you give up on your theory, or do you think there’s a chance that, in your worldview, they might never ‘fully come clean’, rendering both our theories basically impossible to prove or disprove? What do you expect from the TV show they’re going to release, for example (sorry if you already shared that before)?

Hello, thank you for analysing your different perspective in a polite way. I have been having a lot in my mind these days and I delayed answering. I was about to explain why I support some things regarding the videos and the puzzle video but somehow in this crazy world I didn’t answer before the brolinoscopy episode and I feel like R&L answered for me before me in this video!

After 9 years, Rhett brought up the reference by saying “you can even find missing puzzle pieces inside rectums”. It’s not even the first time they suddenly bring up the puzzle video after a silence nearly a decade long. Link as Sandy had a small puzzle tattoo in the Brown Diamond too. But today’s insinuation was so much more straightforward. As you understand, after this development, I am once more convinced I cannot find a more suitable explanation than the one I had in the puzzle post (the viagra thing might be a stretch or made up story by them but I stand by all the main and crucial points I made there). And that reference is generally nothing compared to all the things Rhett (also Link) said (supposedly I guess, but wild if true) incoherently in the brolinoscopy.

However, I do not intend to make an analysis here, neither do I plan to try to convince you, I am kinda over that in general and I don’t want to push something down the throats of people who find it unlikely or uncomfortable. I have figured out some people consider me extreme and… it doesn’t resonate well with me. If I am proven correct, will I have been extreme then all this time? Of course I will definitely keep doing my own thing in my original posts but I don’t want to try to change anyone’s mind anymore. Therefore I am curious - you said it is frustrating that you can’t refute me. Is this about me (I don’t think I matter, I am just an anonymous randomer blabbing potential nonsense) or is it about the possibility of Rhett and Link truly being more than friends? Or is it just because you are so convinced you are right that it would be frustrating to be proven wrong? I would understand that last sentiment (I am often the same way), less so if it’s a case of any of the former two scenarios though.

The only thing I want to stress again is that for me all my ships have started as an observation and then some became a pleasant fantasy. I have never liked a ship because I liked the idea of it first and then tried to force it into my reasoning and conclusions. It has always been the opposite with me - I see cues I consider very clearly there and then I decide whether I like that ship or not. Which is why I never liked fanon ships. Save for the Sherlock fiasco, I have a record of 100% canon ships and 0% fanon or slash. In fact, I almost have a personal aversion to them, idk why. As for Sherlock, the entire fanbase was essentially proven wrong and it wasn’t that we were all wrong but that apparently something happened and bombed this show and they wrapped up one season earlier than intended with enstranged actors . Still, many many fans were sure there was no case the show could end like it did and waited for another season. Not me. I realised the plot and show was bombed for good and I was done with it very quickly. I was proven right. I am saying all this only to explain that this “aw it’s a nice fantasy I am having so now I am misinterpreting gifs” is not representing me accurately. I was perfectly happy with Rhett and Link as platonic friends and I would be very happy with this image in my mind forever. I value deep friendship and, you know, being loyal to your spouse extremely. It’s just that it’s been quite a few years this is not the image I am getting from them at all. Of course I could be wrong but even if I am, it’s not because I try to make my fantasies reality out of nowhere.

I agree many people misinterpret gifs. There are gifs and gifs though. And some leave very little room for misinterpretation.

Regarding your question, I do doubt from time to time that they will get on with it. But then shit like today’s happens. There is always the chance that they will get scared for good before the end. But since November-December, I think something has shifted inside Rhett and he has made his decisions. But who knows. I definitely think there is a possibility they never come out, not even in the show they prepare, and keep hiding forever but I consider it a very very very small possibility. I could also eventually give up on my theory but for this to happen, there’s a shitload of undoing they would have to do first!

#rhink #rhett and link #randl #anon #mail #R&L #brolinoscopy

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m-s-justice · 2 years

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Can we talk about Dempsey? I mean really. REALLY talk about Dempsey? I'm going to do it anyway. I'm not even talking at this point, I am just ranting. Beware: long, meandering post ahead.

Disclaimer time. I only play Black Ops and Black Ops 2, and even then very casually. I don't do the ciphers or extract and listen to every voiceline. On top of that, as for everything in 3 and 4, I only have the most tenuous grasp on. If I get something wrong, I beg pardon.

With that out of the way, let's get into the meat and potatoes: This Bitch has a lot of weird shit going on with him, so I'm going to try and (record scratch) break it down for y'all. This Bitch is a Main Character. One of the staple Four Motherfuckers. And we know next to nothing about him.

Nikolai and Richtofen both speak about having a family. Ultimis speaks about a sister(with him generally antagonizing her for his own amusement) and Primis had both of his parents die. Nikolai speaks about having a sister who made dolls and that she was, apparently, "a bitch" with brother in law and, potentially, unmentioned niece(s) or nephew(s). Takeo frequently mentions his ancestors, so he very obviously has a family.

Dempsey? He has a one-off line about a five year old daughter. She isn't even given a name. And she's never brought up in any significant way.

Then there's nationality. None of the characters explicitly go out and say where they grew up, but we can use context clues and inferences to at least headcanon where they could possibly be from. Nikolai in Gorod Krovi doesn't know the layout of the city and could very possibly have grown up on a farm. Takeo is close to the emperor and at least his Primis version was from a noble lineage, so he probably lived in Tokyo. As for Mr. Tofen, he probably had lived in Berlin at least at one point in his life since between World Wars it was The Place for gay people.

Dempsey? Uhhhhhh. He's American??? He has an Irish last name?? He knows like one or two Spanish words?? I have no fucking clue. I can't even reach for straws to grasp, there's abso-fucking-lutely nothing here.

Past Friends? Lovers, even? It's certainly implied that Dempsey is a slut, but? Actual receipts? Names? That one vague Phoebe mention in Alpha Omega with McCain. That's the closest thing we get and even that is so open-ended and vague we can't be sure. As for friends, Ultimis was at least friends with McCain and, presumably, the rest of the Marine Extraction Party at Verruckt. Did this Bitch just not exist before the marines?(Damn this Mf was amab[assigned marine at birth])

And then there's the thing all of the other three have where there's a big off-screen character that one of the Motherfuckers is heavily tied to and is vital to their backstories and character. Takeo has the Emperor, Nikolai has his wife, and Toffens has Group 935/Maxis(and in the case of Ultimis, the Voices).

But Dempsey kinda,,, doesn't? Primis has his field reports, but that's only in Solo and the American government is very uninvolved with the Crew directly. Also I don't think they ever received any of the reports and it's mostly some kind of routine/coping mechanism for the Bitch. The only sort of stand-in I can think of is the Player, as absurd as that sounds. Dempsey talking to Us(and Treyarch) is brought up by both the Shadowman and Samantha in either a manipulative or taunting fashion, so it has to be important. Or not.

(I would fucking die if a metanarrative was explored in Call of Duty: Zombies of all places. And the main character being Tank Dempsey of all people.)

My question is a bit of all of these things and a bit of more. Why? We don't even have his FIRST NAME. and that's literally lampshaded. Dempsey himself jokes about it. Why doesn't he have a name, or a life before the marines? And if not why, then what's stopping him from having one?

(To digress a bit and jump into something purely personal[more so than this already is], I'm pretty upset over the waste of it all. All this potential and we get fucking nothing. He's just killed off with no resolution. You could tell me that Dempsey is actually a Keeper construct built specifically to help fight against 115's influence and at this point I could fucking believe you. You could tell me that the Shadowman went down on Dempsey's non-existent mother and that Dempsey is actually the Apothican-equivalent of the Antichrist whose sole purpose is to spread death, destruction, and disorder wherever he goes and I'll go "that's absurd!" but take it anyways since it's better than the nothing we got.)

But even worse is we'll never get an answer. (Probably. I mean something is going on in COD:Z: Mobile, but I don't think it's canon to the main story.) Dempsey just shows up in the marines one day, does something absolutely wild to get the nickname Tank, and then he eventually(inevitably) meets Richtofen and the other Fuckers and it's all downhill from there. That's it, stripped to the barest of bones, that's all we know about Dempsey.

#call of duty zombies #tank dempsey #edward richtofen #takeo masaki #nikolai belinski #cod zombies #writing entire essays on COD:Z #A word count of 902 #goddammit #I think my favortism is showing #I love all my boys equally #but dempsey gets me THINKING #there is something wrong with this Bitch #and its not like the other bitch(ed-boy)#this guy has been fucked over by God(Treyarch) specifically #for seemingly no reason #treyarch never gives the community what they want #I hope I didn't come across as too bitter but I needed to rant about this #It's been marinating in my head #like the shrimp #I just needed a good scream and maybe a few people to tell me I'm not crazy #I guess my contribution to the fandom is unhinged rants written at 11:30 PM #and very little editing with only the vaugest hints of organization #and a diction that changes wildly throughout the post

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