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leftistfanenboii · 7 months

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So I have been playing Children of Morta and there are a lot of things I really enjoy about. I haven't quite finished the story mode

LET ME REPEAT THAT: I LIKE A LOT OF THINGS ABOUT CHILDREN OF MORTA! I LOVE A LOT OF THE GAME PLAY AND CONCEPTS GOING ON IN THIS GAME! ITS A BEAUTIFUL GAME AS WELL!

However... (do not pass this point if you are not up for dealing with criticism of the game, especially with a feminist lens)

The writing for the women and girls in the game is kind of awful. At least that I have seen so far

Mary is so chronically ill that she had to leave Lucy in the care of Margeret for years, and yet she is still having another kid. In fact, her whole character boils down to the sickly wife and the occasionally nay saying mother. Narratively, there isn't anything else to her, and in game mechanics, there is nothing to do with her. In a game about family, somehow, the mother is sidelined.

Sheila, the only woman mentioned so far at all to be a physical close combat fighter, never makes even an appearance and is, in fact, dead. Her death and the introduction of her son are used as a reason for character growth for Uncle Ben.

Margeret is supposed to be the matriarch to the family, and at least narratively and mechanically, there is a decent amount to actually back this up. Her upgrades from the book of Rhea are an important mechanic to progress. Her cutscenes consistently show her as knowledgeable and an authority in the family. She is still somewhat static, but she is shown to be consistently impacted by the revelations that have been made about the Corruption. However, she still has limited impact to the storyline for the family members compared to Ben, and her role as a magical herbalist and religious scholar are also overdone roles for older women characters.

All the playable girls (unless the final character I haven't unlocked yet goes against this trend. I am betting money that is not the case) are ranged fighters only. Lucy as a mage and Linda as an archer, which are some of the most common roles that women in media are put into. We rarely see, if ever, a woman in media that is allowed to be physically strong on par with her masculine counterparts, especially not in some way where she isn't damseled, killed, violated, or made palatable to male audiences. In fact, even Lucy and Linda both are made chickified by things such as their hobbies being music and art.

Lucy had to go through a whole trial to show she was ready to join the fight, while Kevin simply snuck out to prove himself with very little consequence for terrifying the family. Linda also sneaks out but only to join her father on his investigation at the start of the game and immediately return home.

All of these things separately, I could write off, but with these elements combined, it really comes off like the game has an issue devaluing the women in the Bergson family. It likely wasn't a conscious decision on the part of the writers. That is the insidious thing about patriarchal culture or any other cultural absorption of prejudice, you can unconsciously perpetuate it. However, it has been something grating at me while playing the game.

#Children of Morta #meta #listen do you know how badly I would kill right now for Mary to be the mage playable character?#think about it we could have Mary not pregnant and Lucy be younger and sickly...Mary could have a storyline about passing her condition on #also holy shit shelia got fridged so bad #Joey seems sweet and all but we could have had a shield maiden instead and that is a trade I would make in a heart beat #It could be that at first she is only coming for the sake of the other bergsons and later her and Ben could reconcile #tbh we should also probably consider some of the writing about disability in this game as a problem as well #again I love the game #i am just frustrated with some of the writing decisions

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elequinoa-world · 1 year

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I expected nothing watching queen charlotte but goddamnit here I am crying my heart out it was SO beautiful and well done well executed and god I hope they put the same care into the next seasons of the actual bridgerton show cause that was fucking perfect

#i mean it #bridgerton #queen charlotte #the way they treated each character like human beings #that everyone was right in their way that made sense even though some points of view were hard #it was so well done #I’m speechless #and emotional don’t touch me #gosh I had forgotten what it was like watching a show with soul in it #i need to decompress now #also the actress playing young lady Danbury is the most beautiful woman on earth right now #her eyes are out of this world #and the fact that the side storylines were so delicate and thoughtful and served the plot but mainly the characters #wow it’s insane #Reynolds and brimsley killed me they were so good what the hell happened to Reynolds I need to know ;-;#I’m sobbing I need to cool down #and the feminist and racism discussions were in point #it was due for #no seriously how are they gonna top that #you mean they will bring back annoying Eloise and I’m supposed to accept that #uuuuugh #they need to bring the focus back on the characters and the love stories please I’m begging you #you proved you could do it well!!!!#do it again #please ;-;#3615 ma life

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sunflowerdigs · 1 year

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No Mencken on Sunday they're saying but at least he'll be openly working for Team Mencken when speaking with Connor at the party.

Who's saying that? Early reviews? Either way, that's disappointing, but also about what I expected at this point. Super excited for the galaxy brain "Roman is now human scum" takes from reviewers instead of the much more complex reasons behind it, which I think actually seeing him with Mencken and how he interacts with him would have revealed. Thanks, anon.

#succession #roman roy #jeryd mencken #romencken #like...why even do this storyline if you're not going to do anything with it?#i'm very frustrated right now #you cannot just bring up fascism and present the most simplistic take possible and expect anyone to remain sympathetic to your characters #this isn't about sex or shipping at this point btw it's about a basically dropped and underwritten plot point #for an actor who is absolutely killing it and who by the way probably didn't love having to go around with fash hair for months #but did it because it was supposed to matter for the story #but there is NO STORY at this point and unless episode 8 is just exposition i don't see how there will be #anyway #i'll probably delete these tags #i've had a frustrating day #i'm sure when i wake up tomorrow i'll be over it

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shallowrambles · 3 months

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I actually think the Benny in Dean's Werther Project hallucination was truer than Dean's idealized recollection/memory of him.

And deep down, even though he rejected it for self-preservation, Dean knew it. That's why his anxiety manifested the way it did in the first place. TLDR: It's alllll about Andrea.

A lot of this is redundant, but here ya go.

Benny was acquiescing of the execution of corrupt loved ones. Blood Brothers is a crucial Benny episode. It's illuminating...and unflattering.

Reality check? Benny was mostly okay with "a sacred executioner (Dean)" doing the painful dirty work so he didn't have to. Benny might also be particularly sympathetic to monster-suicide, as that's what he chose for himself.

Benny directly showed us in-canon that he was resolved to kill even his most beloved "corrupt family members"--like Andrea Kormos. She was quickly deemed too far-gone and corrupt, nevermind that their conversation was too short, too condescending, and too aggressive on Benny's part to explore meaningful change and solutions.

So yeah.

I think the real Benny might be totally game for Dean killing himself so his loved ones didn't have to. Especially if Dean himself posed a risk of doing harm/attacking said loved ones, as Andrea Kormos did when she attacked Benny.

That was the "real" Benny all along. And that hurts.

///

Benny didn't try to convince Andrea. He instantly judged her, offering no validation of the emotional struggle with addiction or alternative way forward.

Benny believes in sparing loved ones the task of killing their corrupted loved ones. He was part of practicing it with regards to Andrea. See below:

ANDREA takes his hand, but stays where she is. ANDREA: Where, Benny? BENNY: What are you talking about? Anywhere. [ANDREA looks down.] You're not leaving here, are you? And you never were.

So, yeah. Okay. He's clocking her intentions here, but he's also doing a lot of heavy lifting assuming her thoughts, ascribing the most uncharitable mode to her motivations. (Using an always-and-never statement to boot.)

It comes off so condescending. It's an accusatory mode of communication.

He jumps straight to the vibe of, "you never wanted to leave here, you're corrupted!" whereas her "Where, Benny?" speaks more of desperation and fear. (It reads to me more like: "How, Benny? Why should I fight what I am, Benny? I can't do this, Benny. Can't fight this. It's too hard.")

But he...doesn't seem interested in helping her rediscover herself. He doesn't validate her feelings or illuminate a path to redemption using his own past sins to help pave the way.

He doesn't even talk about another way forward. (Nevermind that he himself did some pretty awful crimes on the high seas for decades before "redeeming" himself. (Rules for thee, but grace for me?)

ANDREA: We have everything we need right here. The operation is still perfect. We can ride the high seas, plunder together. We can have the life we always wanted. BENNY: What I wanted was to leave a burning crater behind. I wanted to put your memory to rest. ANDREA: But I'm not a memory. Benny, I'm right here. BENNY: What I loved – it ain't here anymore. It was snuffed out a long time ago by monsters like me... like what you've become.

I just want to emphasize how this conversation is barely a conversation. It's an attack on Andrea before a real conversation can even begin to take place.

The mere act of being afraid of leaving, of having Stockholm Syndrome and losing her "father," of feeling connected to the Easy Mode of vampiric hunting is met with an over-the-top attack on her character.

(You're not you. You're corrupt. You've become like me, because of me, and I don't want you anymore. You're dead to me if you're like me. You can't be redeemed...even though *I* was.)

It's a flagrant dehumanization.

///

What could he have said? Is this a tonal argument?

I guess it could be if you squint, but he directly insulted her, denying her existence to her face. That's why she reacts with a desperate, "Benny, I'm right here."

She's not a memory. She's monstered.

He could start with acknowledging how hard it is to be a 'human-ethics-centered’ vampire. He could share his own struggles. Show some empathy, or at least some sympathy! At bare minimum, he could discuss a new way forward. ("Anywhere," isn't a discussion.) Instead, we get...zilch.

He's much too busy being horrified by the apparent corruption of The Perfect Woman.

He goes straight to the vibe of: "you're an irredeemable monster."

///

Is it worse to go too far...or not to try at all?

And here's where the Sam-Bobby-Dean triad of demon detox takes on a more positive light. Their methods may have been cruel and harsh. (Detox is an ugly, horrific, twisting, screaming-and-lying thing. Detox tells you that drug dependence is who you are. It tells you you like the disease. That you perhaps ARE the drug/disease).

But anyway, Bobby-Dean-Cas did not give up on "corrupted/addicted/overly righteous" Sam.

Likewise in season 10, the methods of Sam-Cas-Charlie were evil, but they did not give up on "corrupted/disinhibited/unfeeling" Dean. Although Sam and Cas started out being resolved to kill Dean, they realized they couldn't. Wouldn't. (In season 10, perhaps Sam is in his mind resolving not to trigger the abandonment Dean got so unhinged about in season 8.)

So I guess the question is, what's more evil? In SPN, is it worse to go too far...or to barely try at all? They're both bad, perhaps, but one is driven by hope, and the other by nihilism: "we're all damned."

Benny’s arc is rooted in nihilism from start (Andrea, revenge) to finish (torn apart in Purgatory, as he probably intended to go out).

///

I think Andrea's feelings were obviously hurt; she was insulted...and with very good reason.

I mean, it's no wonder she attacks him. She cries, "You think you're better than me now?" He says he thinks they're all damned, and that certainly enrages her.

She senses, perhaps correctly, that it's really just lip service.

His actions imply that he really does think he's better than her. He did crimes and got redeemed. She's not even gonna get that chance. Not really.

(She has the "chance," I suppose. Technically. Sorta. But he purposely agitates her with his nihilistic lamentation of man-woe, spending much of his time judging her, not trying to convince her.)

You see, even when he messes up, Benny still "gets to be" himself. Even if that's a corrupted vampiric self. He's still "Benny." Not Andrea. When Andrea is a struggling addict, a vampire, Andrea "just is a memory."

Andrea is immediately disallowed her own identity simply for voicing that it might be easier to stick to the vampiric ways of hunting to live. It's black-and-white, abruptly cruel judgement, even before Dean gives the killing blow.

///

Later in the season, via deleted scene, Benny completely falls off the wagon, insisting "Dean doesn't wanna know (about his feeding off innocents)."

Benny is a symbolic perfectionist here. (As Dean himself can be when it comes to hero-worship and people.) Benny wants to remain idealized, just like he wanted Andrea to remain idealized. They're eaten alive by the symbolic, cooing Empty: "Wouldn't you rather remain a fond memory than a constant, festering disappointment?"

Benny's okay with that. And in the end, Dean's okay with that, too. That's why both Amelia and Benny feel like mirages. If Benny is "away," Dean can fantasize that maybe Benny got to be “King of purgatory,” and most importantly, Benny gets to live in the idealized space Sam could never live up to: "brother who never let me down."

(Dean is struggling to cope with life in this season. I think his hero worship of people is something he tends to do to help combat the abandonment he feels is inevitable. And yes, as I've said before, I think this is because John was a hot-and-cold caretaker!)

The deleted scene implies that Dean could perhaps be content not knowing all the ways Benny fails to live up to the cartoon of Benny he's drawn in his head (as a means to cope with the disappointments of living). Benny was good because he was at arm's length, not close enough to wound, hurt, or disappoint. And as Benny's organ donor/blood donor/drug dealer, there's a comfortable dependance Dean can fall back on, giving him control and feeding into his specific brand of abandonment-neuroses.

Benny never clawed his way back the way other characters did, because the writers decided to strip away his complexity and cut out the meat of him. Give me the guy who fell off the wagon. Give me the guy in The Werther Project. That's the real Benny, and he's great. He's, to quote Amara, better than the false ideal. He's real and complicated.

As for Andrea's redemption, perhaps in Benny's mind, if Benny's not *immediately* enough on his own to change her behavior by *checks notes* coming at her with the least charitable assumption and denying her personhood, then she's a Lost Cause (TM). If Benny's not enough for her to change, as she was enough for Benny to change, then "no one/nothing is."

So, he goads her with harsh, black-and-white words. "It was snuffed out a long time ago by monsters like me... like what you've become." I.e. I'm a monster reformed, but you're a monster that deserves to die before we even validate your pain or talk about the chance of recovery/healing. (You were ruined/corrupted by my father in our game of war. Ouch.)

She is hurt and ofc attacks, and the sacred executioner (Dean) strikes her down (so Benny doesn't have to).

It's also potentially a kind of family annihilation/self-nihilism. That in Benny's mind both he and Andrea deserve to die for being "damned." (Indeed, Benny will submit to his own murder with nary a complaint.) I think this latter one is perhaps more charitable, that Benny was always in a bad place--suicidal.

Again, Benny’s dependence on Dean as drug dealer was comfortable for Dean, allowing him to both keep Benny at arms’ length/not let him close enough to be de-idealized and hurt him the way his family and loved ones have, while at the same time being forever on the hook of blood donor/organ dependency (the symbol of the in 8x03 cooler). Benny’s life on the show was like Benny’s death: a figurative open door that you never intended to open. And Season 8 is all about surreal, idealized figments.

ANDREA: You think you're better than me now? BENNY: No. I think we're all damned. ANDREA snarls and her fangs descend. DEAN stabs her from behind and then cuts off her head. BENNY and DEAN look at each other before BENNY looks down at ANDREA’s body.

Anyway, that's why I wanted Andreas Kormos for Purgatory II. I still do.

I was also so partial Andrea's rage, disappointment, and confusion. I wanted to see Andrea versus Benny. At minimum, I wanted Andrea back as The Stockholm bookend to the Nihilism, even if Benny was ripped to pieces (as his nihilism would predict). Andrea still had a will to live, even if it was evil/vampiric, and that's far more interesting to me.

///

All in all, it would be completely in-character for the nihilistic Benny we got to know to be comfortable seeing Dean go the way of a corrupted Andrea. We didn't see Benny’s nihilistic worldview develop or shift in a meaningful way during the course of the show. Indeed, his nihilism actually became more severe the longer he drifted.

If "one friend" (Dean) abandoning him and some hunters tailing him is enough to get him to fall off the wagon, he had a very tenuous grasp on resilience indeed. We should all support one another and not seek to violently undermine (Hi, Sam), but at the same time we are not responsible for another person’s addictions.

Benny can be an off-key parallel like how Sam sometimes shifts the burden of his "wellness responsibility" to others? (The Benny-as-idealized-surreal-brother and Sam-as-real-imperfect brother hits hard. Benny’s addiction is excused and enabled as necessary; Sam’s is framed wholly as a choice, which...addiction is complicated. We're much less kind to family about it.)

All in all, I think it's foolish for Dean (and the audience) to think that Benny would treat Mark of Cain!Dean in any way meaningfully different than he treated Andrea Kormos.

Dean's hallucination in Purgatory was more in-keeping with what we saw out of the real Benny. The box knew that Benny was in fact the most likely of Dean's friends to argue for suicide, and it was probably uncomfortably right about that because Benny did not arc towards growth on any occasion. Dean's self-soothing narrative was the false one. Hopeful, maybe. But false.

Makes you wonder if the killing of Andrea was something that was subconsciously actually haunting Dean in a very real, gloriously complicated way. (The way I think Cas's taking of a human vessel subconsciously haunts in him 14x10 Nihilism).

I think Andrea haunts him especially in light of his own newly devolved disinhibition/loss of free will/corruption.

(The real Benny wouldn’t encourage a friend to die? We saw him do just that: tell someone they were too gone…and then watched Dean kill her so he didn’t have to.) Deep down, I think this is an example of Dean’s anxiety over the reality of what happened with Benny and Andrea. Charitably, he’s not seeing through an illusion so much as choosing to live for himself in this moment! Which is fine. We all need our fictions.

Disclaimer: I like Benny. I think all of this makes him crunchy and interesting. And it makes him make SO MUCH SENSE. He, like so many many characters in SPN...fell to nihilism. :(

#complex benny #idealization of memories #dean rewrote the narrative to self-soothe ofc because that's what dean does #like how john rewrote his memories of his loved ones in glorified two-dimensional perfection - fond memories can't let you down #but then...that's how grief works i suppose #so many of the characters devolve to honor killing + worrying that their loved ones should *at least die human* so it's not unique to benny #but this episode of benny's is so underanalyzed and it paints benny in a pretty unflattering light if you ask me #from just his conversational style with andrea *alone*#and yes he's a minor character who barely appears and is thus underwritten by design but this andrea storyline always gave me a big think #i believe in redemption but *saving sam* wasn't enough to redeem benny in my eyes - he had other issues #*shrugs* if you happen to chafe at seeing benny as anything other than perfect then you're perhaps buying INTO dean's lie/ idealization?#and i saw his returning to purgatory an opportunity to give into his own nihilism rather than being about The Cause (or dean or sam)#benny's sort-of a surface-level nice guy. i don't think that's in doubt.#BUT his achilles' heel is his own naval-gazing nihilism/misery...and that he perhaps idealizes ppl worse than dean does?#to me andrea just seemed far far more interesting. and sexier to boot. ANYWAY--#why is dean so shocked that benny was torn apart? that was benny's GOAL. dean missed the nihilism and self-annihilation all along?#not a great look for dean tbh #Unlike Sam Benny worked to save Dean’s happiness (Cas)#and that seemed to have a huge impact on dean #whose happiness never mattered #all the same they killed andrea…benny’s happiness wo even trying #so in a sense dean becomes like sam #neither seeing benny as real person struggling w nihilism #not a person who gets to be de-idealized #he gives up on andrea too quick bc benny’s happiness is not as important #benny gets the narrative dean treatment #BY dean #benny’s mental health catches dean off guard the way dean’s poor mental health surprises sam #the dean who raised me would never give up etc #the depth of person of character of emotions

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laulink · 2 years

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I think it's pretty well established now that Edelgard and Dimitri are foils to each other in that one looks to the future and the other to the past and that's a huge part of why their outlook on the war and what they went through is so different, but I haven't seen it pointed out and discussed yet that a good chunk of their classmates follow that theme as well.

(I haven't seen all the Blue Lions' supports so this is in general, from the Academy phase's supports I've seen, which means I may lack a specific example one way or the other, but is still globally accurate, at least for their Academy phase)

In the Blue Lions House, based on the students' supports with each other, the most obvious are Ingrid, still mourning and resenting the loss of her fiancé, Felix, still mourning the loss of his brother and focused on that one day he saw Dimitri rampage and those two things being basically the only things that inform his decisions, and Dedue, who literally tries to push EVERYONE away because of how still hung up on the Tragedy of Duscur the Kingdom is and how anyone who spends time with him would be shunned for it (though he does look forward to Dimitri's reign because he believes Dimitri will change things in Faerghus, but most of his supports are still based on the Tragedy of Duscur still impacting his life to this day). Sylvain also fits because bad past examples and relationships have taught him that women are only interested in his blood line ; he doesn't ever talk about finding someone who would think differently, for example, he stays hung up on the past and doesn't even consider the future, at least not as something that could bring a change. Mercedes is less hung up on her past, though still quite focused on what happened to her mother, her brother and herself and wanting to find her brother so they can be happy again, like when they were children. Annette and Ashe, from what I've seen, don't fit the theme.

In the Black Eagles House, the most obviously focused on the future are Dorothea, who talks about her past but only to explain why she's so focused on securing a good future for herself, Ferdinand, who can't SHUT UP about becoming Edelgard's Prime Minister and guiding her in her reign, Petra, who holds a grudge against Caspar's father for killing her own, but whose supports pretty much all mention her desire to make Brigid an equal to Adrestia and ensure a bright future for her people, and Caspar, who is focused only on getting stronger to carve his own path in life. Hubert, of course, being aware of Edelgard's plans, is also solely focused on the future, though always only related to Edelgard and her goals, never his own person outside of his work ; Linhardt is neutral, as he focuses only on Crests ; Bernadetta has been traumatised by her past, but she's not hung up about it, she's only focusing on how afraid she is in the present, so I'd say she's neutral as well.

It always struck me as odd that no one, among the Black Eagles, ever said a word about the Insurrection of the Seven, Edelgard's time in the Kingdom when she sought asylum there, or Edelgard's siblings when, in comparison, the Blue Lions wouldn't SHUT UP about the Tragedy of Duscur and the Faerghus Four's childhood friendship. Even Edelgard and Hubert barely ever mention that they knew each other as children (Edelgard only tells you once, in Hubert's introduction I believe, that he has served her since she was a child) and the others never mention any time spent with Edelgard as children (the only ones who admit they saw each other often as kids are Caspar and Linhardt, but it doesn't even really come up in their supports, when the Faerghus Four's supports with each other are FULL of reminders of their shared past). Now I think it's to further emphasise the themes of their houses : the Black Eagles represent rebellion and the desire to shape their futures the way they see fit while the Blue Lions represent order, discipline and the shackles of the past.

It's really super interesting on a meta level. I haven't played VW yet but I'm curious to see if a similar theme is shared through the House, or if it's a patchwork of different goals and focuses, to represent how disparate the Alliance is and how they can never make a unanimous choice.

#fire emblem three houses #black eagles #blue lions #side note but that may be part of why the fandom is so divided between their fave houses #some fans prefer the drama of the past and it still impacting the present until the characters find resolution and peace if they can #others prefer storylines where the past forged the characters' persona and views #but they're not held back by it and instead focus on their future and how to make it better than their past #that's also why I like Byleth's storyline in CF the most (based on what I know of the others)#they get fused with Sothis without their consent and in 3/4 routes it means they end up running the Church with or without the country #no real agency they're just symbolically the best for the job and have to fix past mistakes #in CF however their actions (killing Rhea and yeah I assume that's the thing that prompts the disparition of the Crest Stone #the fact that Byleth made the decision to kill Rhea to free Fodlan of her hold and unconsciously also rejecting Sothis at the same time #''when humans stand together there's no need for gods'' so Byleth rejects the god in her to go back to being human)#anyway their actions in CF lead to them rejecting Sothis' power and everything that comes with it including expectations for their future #meaning they finally get the agency to decide what they want to do and how they want to help #instead of the Lord/Rhea telling them ''I entrust you with this'' and not being able to really say no #Byleth rebels and shapes their own future

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