(I’m using caps, I am not upset JUST PASSIONATE)
This is an Eleven character rant/study, I have a really hard time putting my thoughts into words so I’m sorry if I talk in a circle a lot but I am simply ranting
Y’ALL DONT GET IT
ELS CHARACTER ARC DOESNT MAKE SENSE IF SHE STAYS WITH MIKE
AND IM GONNA TALK ABOUT IT BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE A LOT OF Y’ALL FORGET THAT IF BYLER DOES HAPPEN SHES GONNA PLAY A BIG PART IN THE STORY CUS YK SHES MIKES GIRLFRIEND AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP HAS TO END FOR THAT TO BECOME AN ACTUAL THING
From the moment we’re introduced to El we know that her character arc is about personal freedom, being free, being her own person, she escapes from the lab where she has no freedom and has never had the ability to make her own decisions, that is THE FIRST thing we learn about El; Is that she is searching for freedom. We know El has never had the chance or has even been given the right to choose what happens in her life. We learn that throughout season one, with her being uneducated on the simplest things, not knowing what privacy is and in the end not really wanting privacy, and then she “dies” finally choosing something for herself.
Even in S2 we see her yet again, being in a situation where she does not have freedom. Living with Hopper was like a prison, it reminded El of living in the lab, it reminded her that she did not have control over her life, THAT YET AGAIN the government was deciding what she could and couldn’t do. Even if not directly, the reason Hopper wouldn’t let her out of the house was because the lab was actively searching for her. El didn’t have freedom when living with Hopper.
And then we see her finally choose something for herself, she leaves the house despite it not being safe because she doesn’t want to be controlled anymore, she wants to have freedom. And then someone see’s her and Hopper yells and takes away the ONE THING that connected her to the outside world and she runs away. To be free, to try and finally get some answers for herself. To have the freedom to create her own opinions on information she doesn’t know yet.
And then we meet Kali, and it’s the free-est El has probably EVER felt in her entire life. AND THEN Kali manipulates her, and tries to get her to do something she doesn’t want to do. SHE YET AGAIN DOESNT HAVE TRUE FREEDOM BECAUSE SOMEONE ELSE IS TRYING TO DICTATE HER LIFE, TO USE HER AS A WEAPON
IN S3 SHES ABLE TO SEE MIKE AND GET OUT OF THE HOUSE SOMETIMES BUT SHE STILL ISNT FREE BECAUSE WE KNOW THAT SHE REALLY ONLY SPENDS TIME WITH MIKE AND MIKE ALWAYS COMES TO HOPPERS HOUSE WE KNOW EL DOESNT KNOW WHO SHE IS, THAT SHE DOESNT TRY AND DISCOVER HERSELF FOR AT LEAST 6 MONTHS AFTER THE EVENTS OF S2
El’s arc in S3 is, again, about self discovery (freedom), finally having a sense of being able to make her own choices, trying to figure herself out as a person, OUTSIDE of Mike and Hopper. Figuring out what she likes and doesn’t like and how to have fun and how to be a kid with Max.
EVEN IN S4 EL HAD A TASTE OF FREEDOM AND THEN GETS SWEPT AWAY BY THE LAB ONCE AGAIN. WITHOUT LEARNING TRULY WHO SHE IS YET
Now I know a lot of Mike and El shippers would argue that being with Mike was something that El actively chose on her own but you have to understand how their relationship even came to be to know that’s absolute bullshit
El didn’t know what a friend was when she escaped the lab, and I can tell you FOR SURE that she didn’t understand what Mike meant when he kissed her. Maybe on a surface level, but not really fully understanding it all, I highly doubt Papa taught El ANYTHING about relationships. So this idea of romance was thrust upon her when she had no real idea what it was
The only understanding of romance El had was that of the shows she watched in Hoppers cabin, and we all know that was a dolled up fantasy version of love, but it’s the only example El was ever given, so even if she didn’t fully understand love she thought that was what people did. I don’t know if El ever loved Mike, or if it was hormones, or just simply because she thought “oh, this is what people do. This is what Mike meant. Well, it doesn’t seem too bad. And I’m supposed to do it right? That’s how I’m supposed to act? That’s how people act. So that’s how I will act.” And maybe El did really like Mike, or maybe she confused friendship for love. That I’m not really sure.
But I do know one thing, and that’s that being in a relationship is not healthy for El. Even at this point El doesn’t know who she is as a person, she’s still figuring it out. She’s still searching for that freedom her ENTIRE arc has been about.
And I know a million people have already talked about how Mikes arc surrounds needing to be needed, and that, at its bare bones, is not healthy for El. She does not need him. Maybe at first she did, in S1, when she had just escaped from the lab and needed some sort of guidance, but it was the same way she needed Max, she needed someone to guide her through the basics of being a person..But she does not need him now.
At least not in the relationship type of way. I THINK MIKE AND EL COULD BE REALLY GOOD FRIENDS. But it’s not healthy for either of them to stay together.
Because El needs to find herself outside of someone else, outside of Hopper, outside of Joyce, outside of Max, outside of Mike.
And being in a relationship does not allow her to do that.
Might rant about how Mike staying with El also doesn’t work for him as well idk
I WROTE THIS INSTEAD OF DOING SCHOOL SO SORRY IF ITS RUSHED
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im sure its been said already but as the election draws near more and more liberals will come out of the woodwork to shame people with a conscience to give away their vote to the democrats for free. i'm already seeing posts saying "why aren't people more concerned about a trump presidency?" you want to know why? it's because people already know he's bad. everyone already knows what he is and what he's done and what he'll do. there's nothing to discuss. he's a racist despotic worm of a man. there's nothing else to say.
biden is currently president. the genocide is happening under his watch. he's the one funding isra*l and arming them; he's sidestepped congress more than once to give them weapons. by oct. 27, the biden administration already knew that "Israel was regularly bombing buildings without solid intelligence that they were legitimate military targets." the state department/biden have engaged in atrocity propaganda, cast doubt on the legitimacy of the death toll recorded by the gaza health ministry, and so on. the united states is currently in the process of trying to pin the "war in gaza" on netanyahu (see sen. schumer's speech) after months of backing blatant genocide as a means to act as if they're "doing something" about the genocide (Instead of, say, threatening to cut off all aid to israel with the condition that all hostilities in gaza, the west bank, and occupied jerusalem are halted immediately and permanently, allowing palestinians freedom to travel, allowing aid into gaza, etc etc etc.)
the long and short of it is that liberals view their own lives as being worth more than palestinians'. that's it. they'll vote for another 4 years of the guy ushering in genocide and supporting apartheid + settler colonialism because he isn't outright attacking them (despite various laws and rulings happening both at the supreme court level and at the local level all over the country that will endanger people). they'll settle for the illusion of safety and security and shame anyone with a conscience and accuse them of "supporting the republicans" when in an actual democracy you would be able to use your vote as leverage to extract concessions from those who want to be elected. that's how it's supposed to fucking work.
democrats are not owed people's vote. if biden loses, it will be biden's fault; it will be his campaign's fault; it will be the democrats' fault. trump is bad; the republicans are bad. we already know this. this is not an endorsement of either. but if democrats are too cowardly and feckless and servile to the motivations of the american empire and never do anything for their constituents then why the fuck should anyone vote for them. you want to get mad at someone, why don't you do something useful and stop worrying about team-sports with a purely selfish basis and start hounding the people in power who are supposed to serve you, the voter.
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Okay but the way Sherlock kept reassuring Mariana that she doesn't need to do anything she's not comfortable with?? That he would do it instead so she wouldn't have to?? Like? EXCUSE ME SIRRR?? 😭
I hear the talk about Mariana and John this, Mariana and John that - but let's talk about Sherlock and Mariana!!
This case had Sherlock encouraging Mariana to speak up and NO don't say you shouldn't talk when you got smt to say to the team! Your input is just as valuable and needs to be heard!! You're a part of this team and this is a team effort!
And when they were about to find the bodies, the way he talked her through an extremely traumatic situation? 😭 That shit got me fr like yes what you're thinking is horrible but whether you like it or not it is true and we cannot change this to suit the reality we want, we can only accept it and continue from there - and he was kind!! He didn't look down on her or mock her for wanting to not believe what was true, because it was traumatic and something she wasn't accustomed to.
HOWEVER what I really loved was that she didn't need to do smt she didn't want!! Im so glad it didn't take the 'but you have to do this' bullshit route that many stories do because it's okay not to, it's okay to know your limits and stay in it, it's okay to not want to do something you don't want to!! There's nothing you have to prove because you shouldn't have to!!
This podcast mannn.
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i hope we continue to see more protests within the US military. i see a lot of leftists and folks who are anti-military who have such an open disdain for the people who are in the military, yet neglect to considering the conditions this country makes to produce ideology, poverty, and the illusion of choice to make all kinds of people choose to enlist in the military. You ever see those videos of ROTC kids recording each other asking why they joined the military and everyone's like, "healthcare", "it helped me go to college", "I was bored" or "free ptsd lol". I hate to remind everyone but folks who are in the military are people, too, and they are the same victims and perpetrators of violence as the rest of you, we have all been shallowly conditioned to view each other as enemies just because one person is wearing army greens and the other is not.
some of the biggest anti-war advocates are those who engaged in war. Veterans who genuinely believed they were protecting the US against "terrorism" come back with blood on their hands, and they choose to realize that it was US imperialism that forced them to carry out violence, instead of doubling down and shielding themselves from the fact that they too are capable of atrocities... This is a class of people who are intentionally conditioned to be as poor and as ideologically aligned to US imperialism so that the military has a never-ending pool to send their youth to destroy other country's youth. The only people I have ever heard say "do not join the military" are those who ARE military.
This is in no way to ever excuse or explain away any of the atrocious war crimes and violence this industry and its people have committed against others. What I am saying is that we absolutely cannot cast aside the individuals who have been victimized within US imperialism, even if they are wearing army greens. I was speaking with my Palestinian classmate last week and another classmate--a member of the US air force-- walked up to me and struck up a conversation. My military classmate showed me her new bird, bid both of us goodbye, and left. My Palestinian classmate asked me if I was close with her, and I said we talked quite often, and she said, "I never met a person who's in the military. I still hate the military, but I never knew that they did, too. I didn't realize that they were also victims."
If my Palestinian classmate--one who is actively watching her own community die--can understand that it is not individuals who are the problem but it is in fact systems, US imperialism, white supremacy, capitalism...why can't we all? And she has EVERY reason to hate any individual military member. A lot of online activism just creates more barriers. if your optics look bad, complicated, or contradictory, you are cast aside. Everyone has got the be the perfect activist, you can never make a mistake or share a half-baked thought, you should always believe every word from a marginalized persons mouth (because being marginalized doesn't mean you're not entrenched in white supremacy too!) and you should never question what you see...Do you know what you sound like? The very imperialists who are convincing poor whites to vote against themselves. Perfectionism is white supremacy. Black & white thinking is white supremacy.
I'd rather have a military member who genuinely believed in the US imperialism machine but was disillusioned after being deployed as my comrade than some leftist who cherishes the performance of "being a good person". I don't want "good people" in our movements. I want humans who care. I want humans who make mistakes and who learn from them. I want humans who accept the messiness of a person. I want humans who hold others accountable and allow themselves to take responsibility for their actions. I want people who change for themselves and others.
fight systems, not individual people. we can change each other, but if we're too preoccupied looking like the World's Perfect Activists, we will only consume each other alive. Connect to your fellow humans, forever and always.
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OH. okay so normally i dont touch discourse with a 20 ft pole, but this has been niggling at my brain tonight and i finally realized why
the people who are mad at qbbh for the memory loss and “dodging consequences” dont understand that he doesnt want to dodge consequences. Like they cant know that, they werent focused on him when he was literally feeding himself to the soul vultures and planning his eventual imprisonment and also. The Many Many Many hints he made towards suicide/sacrifice/Just Fucking Dying.
ccbbh is a subtle roleplayer, he’s been building this shit up for two whole months- it was day FIVE of the eggs going missing that he resolved to do whatever it took (hurting his friends) to get the eggs back. It was day three that he followed in dapper’s footsteps and started feeding himself to the soul vultures (and gaining a Massive headwound beneath his hood in the process- you can only see it if you go on namemc and remove the layers). He’s got impaired judgement. Even the memory issues arent a new thing- i cant remember exactly when they started, but one of the first big moments i remmeber was september 30th where he spent an hour falling into a delusional frenzy searching his base for cameras that he forgot he asked aypierre to plant.
The super murder of purgatory and the memory loss afterwards probably all feels very sudden for people who havent been following his story, but as someone who has been- all of this has been true to character. The only cheap swings he’s made have been combat-based in purgatory, and even the motive for those was built up in rp.
People are calling for consequences, but he has alrwady been experiencing self-inflicted consequences for months. The blue on his usual outfit is blood. This recent memory loss isnt a restart to get away with the atrocities - it is yet another consequence of his egg-protecting complexes and the ways he punishes himself for failing them.
he is NOT a moral character. he’s a demon hiding in plain site. he has eaten people. he has killed people. he understands the cruelty of his actions, and the consequences of them for the loved ones of his victims. but it matters when that harm is being done to his loved ones. he’ll still do it, because he will do anything for the eggs, but it matters, and that means that he has already started the process of self-inflicting those much-demanded consequences
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