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definitely-not-captain-america · 3 months

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Spoilers for the first episode "Aang" of the live action ATLA under the cut. I'll always put spoilers under the cut so as to not ruin it for anyone who has a life and hasn't seen it yet

Content warning for depictions of fantasy violence and death.

I think the animated series starting with Katara and Sokka was a good choice, but I like this one starting with Aang in his original time. It's cool to see the air temples full of people, and Aang is better humanized beyond the "goofy 12 year old who never takes anything seriously," which is partly true but not fully accurate to his character.

The genocide happens so early on so it's impossible to not talk about that right away too. We literally watch firebenders burn airbenders alive, so there's that. I do have mixed feelings about the genocide. On the one hand, I think it's a little tasteless showing it, especially the amount of people who will watch it, sympathize with it, but then not do a thing to support the genocide in Palestine right now. At the same time, I think it's important to show it. It shouldn't be an easy topic, it's supposed to be devastating and horrifying and I think the scene was the right amount of graphic for that. Not to mention the allusion of Sozin killing those kids after he killed Gyatso.

Like others have said, I don't really agree with them cutting out Sokka's sexism. It was a major growth in character for him, and it's important to show young men growing up from things like sexism and maturing and apologizing after you're proven wrong. Still, the casting is incredible so far and all the actors definitely feel like their characters, so that's good too.

Onto Zuko and Iroh (I'm literally writing all this as I watch the episode). I see people say Zuko's scar should've been a lot uglier, for lack of a better word, and I agree. It's small, it doesn't look like it has much texture, and his eyebrow is still there. It's a burn scar, and burn scars never really look pretty in the nice, aesthetic way they made it in the live action. Of course, animated Zuko was always hot, but for the scar to be a point of shame that the audience can really understand, I think it should've looked worse. (Sorry for my brusque language. I don't mean to say that burn victims are ugly and horribly disfigured. Zuko's scar is just so far from a burn scar that it's mostly just aesthetic in the live action.)

Also, and it's so early in the show, but so far Iroh has a bit of a tough love thing going on and I kind of like it. We all love the gentle, tea-loving, proverb-using old man who probably-definitely committed war crimes but is now a big softie who regrets his actions, but I kinda like what may be happening here.

Their village in the South Pole is beautiful, and I'm glad they have more than just like 12 people living there. It's still obvious that all the men went off to war, and I always kinda hated how empty the village was. Plus, like I said, it's still really pretty, so we get to see how there was a culture there that's been somewhat lost.

I love Aang and Katara's conversation about them growing up fast. I think it's a little easy to forget how young everyone is in the animated series — everyone who's not Aang anyway, because even sixteen/seventeen is very young and we can forget that when everyone is drawn to be muscled and attractive and without any real baby fat.

I don't really like how Appa looks, but I typically hate all CGI animals because their fur always looks weird. He isn't terrible, it's just a serious case of uncanny valley for me so it's just not my thing.

I kinda like that Katara goes off to the ship on her own before Aang. We get her gentleness and a lot of her uncertainty, but we also see her conviction and the fact that she'll do whatever she wants if she believes it's for the right reason.

Right along those lines, I really love how evident Sokka's role as the child soldier/child leader is. Katara mentioned that he was told to watch the village since he was 13, and he's doing what he can. He has no idea what's right, he's just doing everything he can to hold things together and keep people safe. Aang calling him the bravest person he's ever met was so wonderful and exactly the validation Sokka needed to hear but probably never did. It also helped him come to his decision to help Aang, which was awesome.

I also love the reckless abandon we see with Zuko and the other firebenders. Sozin entered the Fire Nation into a world of divine right and basically the American Dream of conquering and doing whatever you want because they're in charge, they have the right, so they can. I also love the slight juxtaposition of Aang and Iroh's short encounter where Aang asks why the war was started. I just really like all the character interactions so far.

We also really get to see Zuko being young. His desperation when Aang escapes, the anger and fear he experiences. It's all very realistic and I'm glad we get more of that in this one.

I can't quite figure out if I like the costumes and the setting a lot. I don't like CGI heavy movies because they never look real or good to me, which is something I care about. I'm also not a good judge of whether CGI is good or not. I end up comparing everything to Narnia or Babe the Pig, both of which were pretty incredible, and nothing has been to those standards since.

In that same vein, I can't tell if I like the bending or not. It's not terrible, but the hand movements always look a little off to what ends up happening (which, I understand why, I just think it could been a little cleaner). Though that's probably just a byproduct of this being a live action, and the animated will always be better for bending. That earthbender in the beginning just took so long to earthbend, and I've always appreciated that earthbending is like, the heaviest and there's a lot more force that goes into it, but he was taking too long for me.

I 100% love this cast. So far they've all been very true to their characters while also being slightly new interpretations, which I like. I can't wait to see how they develop throughout the show, especially Katara, who I think goes through the most amount of growth in the show in a fairly short amount of time. Aang is still playful but also a bit more grown up, Sokka is still sarcastic but also focused on being a leader, Zuko is young and scared and angry and desperate to prove himself. I'm really happy with this actually, because it'll be easier for me to forgive the parts I don't like because these actors are so good.

That was very ramshackle and haphazardly thrown together. Oh well. This is starting out better than I expected and I'm excited for that.

#atla #avatar the last airbender #live action atla #live action avatar #netflix atla #netflix avatar #lok #legend of korra #aang #katara #sokka #zuko #iroh #appa #waterbending #airbending #earthbending #firebending

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frukmerunning · 11 months

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How do you reconcile the Nazi-apologia aspects of Hetalia as a Jewish fan (I presume you are Jewish because you made a Passover headcanon, if you are not, apologies). I don't mean this as a callout or accusation or anything, I'm asking for advice. I'm also Jewish, and I want to enjoy Hetalia, like, I stumbled on this fandom and this anime and I want to enjoy it! But I can't get the guilt and shame out of the back of my head.

I don't think Himaru intentionally meant Hetalia to be anti-Semetic. I'm not accusing anyone of being a Holocaust denier for engaging in this fandom. But it doesn't change the fact that this anime is about the Axis Powers during WWII and they're portrayed as good guys. Like, you can't even argue they're villain protagonists or anything they're just straight up lil cinnamon rolls. And it is fucking adorable, but it makes me feel so dirty! Like, its not intentional but when I'm watching any WWII episode or reading one of the WWII strips I'm watching it feels like Nazi apologia. And when these characters' fascist uniforms are their standard designs, when the imagery of fascism is used without context, it unintentionally erases the real, extremely fucked up, and personally traumatizing, history.

So how do you personally find a balance? Like how do you engage in a way you feel like doesn't cause further harm? How do you reconcile canon, history, and your own thoughts on these characters? And do you have any advice on how I can?

I've thought a lot about this question since I got it, and I have a lot of thoughts but I don't know if I can organize them very well. （also yes I am Jewish you assumed right)

So I guess the first thing I'll tackle is that my own thoughts on the characters trump everything in canon, especially with Germany. For an American, I have a pretty strong connection with Germany. I've had a German penpal since I was 13, I've visited Germany, one of my favorite professors was German, and right before I started typing this I spent almost 3 hours talking with the German students that come to the music camp I work at. I've met a LOT of Germans in my relatively short life, so I have that personal connection to influence my thoughts on the Hetalia character. And I've completely separated my view on the German people from my view on that time in their history. I think then it was easy for me to separate the character Germany from that time in history.

Bouncing off from that, Hetalia isn't REALLY about WW2. Yes, the catalyst for Germany, Italy, and Japan being friends is WW2, but there's nothing in the anime that is explicitly WW2. The "battle" scenes take place on a deserted island, their "war meetings" amount to nothing, and no specific dates or events are really mentioned when WW2 is involved. Now in the manga, however, I kinda just steer clear of the specific WW2 stuff?? But even then the only example of Hima explicitly mentioning something that happened in WW2 I can actually recall is an old strip about the Anschluss. That strip is from very early Hetalia though and Hima has definitely shifted his focus to other aspects of world history and culture.

Another thing about Hetalia is that pretty much everyone is a "good guy". There are no real antagonists or villains. There are literally only protagonists, with the main protagonists being the axis powers.

From your ask I kinda gather that you're very new to Hetalia and maybe you have the wrong impression of the anime and fandom from people who hate it. But honestly, Hetalia is not inherently antisemetic or even about WW2 when you really get down to the meat of it. Hetalia is a comedy anime and it doesn't take itself or the things it's presenting seriously (with some exceptions). Hima doesn't really doesn't delve too deeply into ANY of the history he potrays, so it would be a little out of place to see him addressing the very serious war crimes committed by those countries.

Also idk where to fit this in, but the countries in Hetalia are not representative of their government, but their people. Which I think is how Hima avoids talking about serious war crimes committed by governments. He's more interested in talking about culture, rather than history. Or he uses historical settings to talk about fun facts or culture.

I understand feeling guilty though. Personally, I avoid the historical hetalia side of the fandom, just so I never run the risk of seeing something weird (not saying that people regularly write that kind of stuff). In my own art and thoughts about the show, I'm more interested in portraying the characters as real, modern people, based on my own experiences with people from those countries. I also do a lot with my favorite character Austria, who is jewish coded. My favorite characters in the series are the axis affiliated ones, countries I've visited and met people from and built a connection with. But I've also been in the fandom for 10+ years at this point, so it's much easier for me to entirely change Hima's characters and morph them into something that fits what I want.

I'm really tired because I've been working a music camp all week, so I hope this makes sense. I definitely have more thoughts and I'd love to talk to you more about this, please feel free to dm me here and we can exchange discords or something. I always like talking to other jewish hetalia fans, and I think it's nice to have these kinds of conversations so we can help each other.

But to answer your question in a short way - I just don't think about it. Maybe that makes me a bad person but it's what I have to do at this point, because I can't not like hetalia

#hetalia #rayanne rambles

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devildompossum · 2 years

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There are so many very interesting parallels between the celestial realm and the devildom. Like to the point I'd call them almost character/narrative foils.

(This gets long, sorry, I'm on mobile and cannot for the life of me get readmore to work, I'll add one in when I can access a computer)

If you allow me to go full English Major for a second- A foil is a device in writing to highlight specific characteristics in a character, usually the protagonist. If you want to show us that the heros are good because they fight for the poor, then the bad guys (their foil) would extort the poor with taxes, for example Robin hood and the sherif of Nottingham.

At face value, the celestial realm seems like the good guys. It's a metaphor for heaven, if not outright being heaven. The people living their are angels, they want to protect humanity, it's eternally day. The art we see of the celestial realm is bright and vibrate and radiant in the way one would expect of the land of angels.

On the other hand, the devildom is the exact opposite of that. It's eternally night, is Not hell but is where the demons live. The architecture is harsh and heavy and Gothic, often literally using (I assume) real skeletons. It's a land full of dangerous magical beasts where the poor human exchange student needed protection in case some demon decided TO EAT THEM

Now let's look at two very similar situations, and their handlings by both worlds.

The celestial war was started because Lillith saved a humans life. I imaging there were other tensions boiling under the surface, but the act of SAVING a human was the tipping point. Sure, she wasn't supposed to even go to the human world, let alone fall in love with one and then try and save his life, but does the punishment fit the crime? She was going to be executed for, in as many words, going against God's plan.

This started a literal war, called a GREAT war (for context the great war in our world is world War 1, so we can assume this wasn't a small couple of battles) because the brothers refused to accept their sister should be put to death for her crime of saving a life.

In a narrative foil, Belphie was locked in an attic by the acting kings right hand man, a direct act of treason. The consequences of this action included the death of an important political representative, MC. The exchange program being Diavolos main goal in life, he brought this human to his land in an attempt and bring real political alliances between the three realms. This crime, I would argue, is a much more serious one than the act of saving a life. One that seems much more fitting of execution, don't you think?

It's never really said what will happen to Belphie when it's found out Lucifer was harboring him in the attic. He was in some sort of jail, and we can assume his punishment wouldn't be kind to him.

But Diavolo offers and alternate suggestion. Go back in time, see what caused the door to open, and we will let by gones be by gones.

There is no mention of a crime after the actual death of MC, presumably because the time shenanigans meant MC is still alive.

Comparatively, Diavolo almost seems too forgiving, especially for a demon king.

But even if we look at broader society. Maybe it's because the devildom social ladder is based on pure strength, but there doesn't seem to be any sort of like- body guard position? Like being a king we can assume Dia would have like knights or something thay follow him and make sure no assassination attempts happen, and Barbatos kinda fills that role but he seems more there to prevent social scandals of the prince drinking too much than anything. Sure there's a navy so they have some sort of military branch, but given how little time Levi spends doing anything at all related to that we can assume it's not very active (that or admiral is more of a figurehead title than an actual job)

The celestial realm seems to have a culture of violence as punishment (or at least they did in the brothers time there). We can see this in Raphael, who is known to 'rain down spears' on people when they do things he doesn't like. (I remember something about Raphael being an assassin?? But I can't find anything to verify that so maybe I made it up).

It's very interesting to see the peaks behind the facade in both worlds, and it does make you question what exactly is going on in the celestial realm (I'm not caught up on recent lessons so idk whats going on with simeon).

#obey me #omswd

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yellowtomb · 26 days

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It was a late February, when I wrote this post. And now its May 1st.

In this February post I promised to tell about two ukranian documentaries, that shed a light on russian warcrimes. Since that, one of the docs, 20 days in Mariupol won the Oscar. Since than russia committed so much more. Yesterday they bombed Odessa, again, with ballistic missiles. The war is still going on. ________________________________________________________

20 days in Mariupol is a first documentary film of Pulitzer Prize-winning ukrainian journalist Mstyslav Chernov. Chernov have been a war photographer since the 2014 year, from the start of this war. He also documented Euromaidan protests. He was wounded couple of times during his work as war correspondent. In the last two years of full-scale war, I saw a lot of his potos, as I am involved in design process of Russian War Crimes exhibitions, that took place in Europe and USA. I saw this photos of dead civilians too many times. As a part of my job, I also designed (and curently also editing) a map of russian war crimes in Ukraine. By editing I mean constantly adding new places on the map (you can see the map on the site of the project).

I should mention, that I still cannot watch 20 days in Mariupol. I could not force myself to watch it in cinema, its too hard. I heard about Mariupol from my dear friend, who spent those 20 days there herself. I saw lots of video in the first month of invasion and they still terrifies me.

And its because of that horror, that I am trying to avoid - you should see it. You don't see films like that from russia, in which they would show you, how "Ukranian Nazis" destroyed Donetsk. Cause it never happened. After ten years of conflict, Donestk (which is the capital of one of the separatists quasi-state) is still there. Although russians claimed that we bombed it every day. And yet, it took them less then a month to turn Mariupol into ashes. And its been documented and even translated in real time, such is a nature of our media era. And yet the world missed it. But we should not forget it.

________________________________________________________

The second documentary is Intercepted. The film consist of telephone conversations intercepted in 2022 by the Ukrainian Secret Service between russian soldiers in trenches in Ukraine and their families. It may sound trivial in 2024, but this movie does let you see the most grounding example of 'banality of evil'. I mean, its almost trivial to hear famous Hannah Arendt's quote again and again, especially when you don't live in war-torn country. But Intercepted illustrates it just like it is - you hear wives, mothers, girlfriends of russian soldiers tell them, that it's okay to kill, to steal from dead civilians. Someones wife is okay with the fact, that her husband will rape ukrainian women. It does not count as cheating, even more - she supports it. Another wife asks her lover to take home some fine electronics, or kids clothes for their kid. From the destroyed house of ukrainian family, I mean, and she knows it. While you listen to this hellish dialogs - you can see pictures of destroyed ukrainian cities, burnt homes... but its the voices and words of everyday russian families that make this documentary so bone-chilling. Its inhumane in a very literal sense - they just don't see ukrainians as people.

(I could not find where you can see Intercepted right now, but I will edit this and provide links later.) "20 days in Mariupol" 2023/"Intercepted" 2024

#war in ukraine #russian invasion #russian imperialism #war crimes #ukraine #20 days in mariupol #intercepted #oscars 2024 #berlinale 2024 #documentary #war documentary

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ruby-whistler · 3 years

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The Prison Arc - a Complete Recap

[ /dsmp /rp - All of the people mentioned in this post are the characters, not the content creators behind them. TWs for mentions of fictional murder, abuse, torture, self-harm, and other canon-typical themes. ]

Watch the cut-down version of this recap here! The video doesn’t have all the details, but is well-edited and easier to watch.

Starting where we left off, after the Disc War finale, Dream reveals the last trick up his sleeve, the revival book. Seeing him as an active danger to the server, the people need a way to get rid of him in order to keep themselves and each other safe, but instead of killing him, they store him away for later use, also making the prison a Vault in a literal sense.

This is where the story of the prison seemingly begins, but - let’s rewind for a moment, because any and all information here is vital. What do we know about the prison? It was commissioned for 64 diamond blocks by Dream to be built by Awesamdude a day after Tommy was exiled. The prison was supposed to be inescapable, and hold a highly capable individual, yet allow visitors.

Getting back to the lore, a day after Dream arrives in the prison, Tommy goes to visit him. During this visit, Dream states that there is nothing to do in the cell besides watching the clock on the wall, and that he is planning on writing something in the books that were given to him. Tommy shows him how to spin the clock really fast, which Dream calls a new game. He says that he is doing well so far, that he gets fed raw potatoes and can write or “swim”. He goes on to jump into the lava that blocks off his cell, killing himself. Tommy teases him, Dream asking him to visit more as he is alone in the cell with no real interaction. He then argues that if he stays for a long while and gets better, he can be freed, however Tommy doesn’t agree. Dream then apologizes, presumably to convince Tommy he can be let go, and talks about feeling bad about things he lost during the Finale. Tommy gives him five books to write, saying it’s so that he can forgive him. After this exchange, Tommy asks who Dream misses the most, and Dream yells for Sam to make him leave.

Around this time, as he reveals later, Dream starts telling Sam about what he did to Tommy in exile, which leads to the Warden becoming increasingly fearful and especially hateful towards the prisoner.

Nine days later, BadBoyHalo decides to pay Dream a visit as well. Dream is slow to respond at first, commenting that BBH is the first visitor in a while. He says he’s doing good, and spins the clock, because apparently he burnt some of his books, and doesn’t write much anymore. Bad tries to be optimistic about his conditions, and Dream agrees in a very… unconvincing, tone of voice. (29:40 - 29:49)

He says that he gets potatoes, but they’re raw, so they’re not good food. Apparently, Sam has told him he couldn’t have any visitors for a few days, because he would try to get out. He concurs to Bad that he did bad things that got him locked up, and asks how Sapnap and George are doing - noting that they haven’t visited him yet. Bad tells him that Tommy has started a hotel, and about the Egg. Dream seems lethargic and preoccupied the entire time, spinning his clock - he says he’s named it, but doesn’t want to elaborate further. He gives Bad a note that says “thank you for visiting me badboyhalo!” and explains that his sentence is forever, which is later also confirmed by Sam, and goes on to talk more about the clock and how he “likes it halfway” it’s because c!Ranboo metaphorically is the clock-

He once again reiterates that there is not a lot for him to do, and that nearly no one has visited him. He reveals to BadBoyHalo that he sometimes does a “prank” where he’ll burn his clock, so that Sam has to come to replace it and he can see and say hi to him. After being asked whether or not he gets in trouble for it, he replies that Sam will sometimes deprive him of food as punishment, essentially starving him for his attempts at interaction, though Dream diminishes it and laughs about Sam reprimanding him. The Warden is planning to make an automated food dispenser so as to not have to come into the cell himself, which means even less interaction in essence. Despite all of this, he says that Sam is “treating him amazing” and that he’s happy. During the visit, he sniffles and coughs as he talks, voice low and void of energy.

BadBoyHalo wants to become a prison guard so that he can make the cell look nicer, perhaps giving Dream a potted plant and flower or two, as well as promising he’ll talk to George and Sapnap who Dream says he wants to visit him the most. He encourages him to look forward to better things, think positively, and - (42:03 - 42:20) As BBH freaks out, he explains that hurting himself this way is how he keeps himself entertained, setting himself on fire again. He says he wants to summon Bad into the cell by breaking a block when he becomes a guard, but goes back on this as it would potentially make Sam mad. Bad promises to visit with his friends, and leaves the cell.

He tells Sam that he needs to replace the clock, who refuses to, seeming frustrated with Dream’s antics. Bad tries to convince him to give it back, Sam saying it doesn’t matter whether Dream has it or not, although it’s basically one of Dream’s only sources of entertainment, and Bad tells him to give him one more clock as a compromise. Sam asks whether he… said anything, suspiciously enough? And Bad says they only talked a bit and that he jumped in the lava. Sam confirms he does that a lot and he thinks it’s for attention.

BadBoyHalo feels conflicted, to say the very least. (53:34-54:02 54:16-54:33 56:34-56:53 1:02:24-1:03:05)

That very same day, Ranboo has a strange hallucination-like nightmare about visiting Dream. However when he tries to visit again, Sam tells him that he visited not too long after Dream was first locked up, also bringing a memory book with him. Later, during the prison podcast with Techno, Dream himself mentions Ranboo and says that he “used to visit a lot” before stopping completely - this lines up with what Ranboo does afterwards, having Sam promise to never let him in again.

On February 7th, Dream dies in lava repeatedly on someone’s stream. This happens a couple of times throughout people’s time on the server, and seems to line up with Sam’s claim that he swims in lava pretty often.

Twenty-one days into Dream’s stay in the cell, Sapnap finally decides to visit. Dream stands mostly still and silent, holding the clock in his hand, and explains through books that he’s not talking because he’s on strike. He places the clock and spins it - Sam seems to have renamed it to “DO NOT BURN”. He tells Sapnap that he took too long, who responds that it took him a while because he felt hurt, but also says that Dream can talk to him if he wants to. Dream’s cell has had some of the obsidian changed out for crying obsidian as a security measure - Dream could’ve, and tried to, light a nether portal in the cell to escape. Sapnap tells him he needs to stay in the prison, because that is where he deserves to be - Dream burns his clock in response, insisting that he will get better and get out eventually. Sapnap threatens to kill him if he does - Dream simply tells him to deliver a message to Ranboo because he stopped visiting, a smiley face, which seems to trigger his enderwalk when received, and promises to stop throwing his clock away in return. Sapnap says he’ll visit more, and that he’ll tell George to visit him as well.

The next visit is nine days later, and is an attempt at getting closure. Tommy notes there’s a little hole on the prison roof when he goes to check up on it beforehand. (1:39-1:44). When Sam asks, Tommy says he thinks Dream is deserving of being locked up, but he highlights he doesn’t think he deserves death. He implies he could or might deserve torture though. (12:13-12:16). He says he’ll only ever visit Dream if he needs anyone revived from now on, calling it the only reason Dream’s still alive. Upon entering the cell, he notices some of the obsidian is now crying obsidian.

The first thing Dream tells Tommy is that he lost his clock since the last time he visited him. Tommy seems nervous, stumbling over his words. Dream eagerly tells Tommy he’s glad he came to visit him, that it’s been a while, and that he wishes he would visit him more. He says he likes having people visit him, that he likes just talking to them (23:46-23:49).

Tommy tells Dream this is his last visit. Dream argues that forever is a long time, asking why it is the last time. Tommy tells him he’s the pinnacle of villainy and that he wants to move on. He says he’s been suffering from success while Dream wasn’t there. Dream replies that he has been too, except without the success part, just suffering - Tommy says he had it coming. Dream nonchalantly replies with “yeah”. He goes on to say that maybe one day he could leave, saying he’s already been changing since he came. They talk about the crying obsidian, Tommy comparing the situation to exile, which devolves into an argument. He finds out that Dream burnt the books he was supposed to write, and that BadBoyHalo visited at some point. Dream asks him to visit again, but Tommy refuses, saying he’s terrible. Dream says that everyone thinks they’re in the right, and that he did bad things for good reasons (31:51-32:13) - Tommy refuses to listen to said reasons, listing Dream’s crimes again, and says he refuses to stress himself out by going to visit Dream any longer. Dream says he’s trying to change, promising to be better if he comes back, and Tommy says goodbye.

In that moment, explosions are heard going off in the distance. The two talk about it for a moment, before Tommy starts yelling for Sam. His name disappears and the Warden doesn’t answer as more TNT goes off, Tommy freaking out and Dream seeming to find it interesting.

Tommy starts begging Dream for a way out, and Dream tells him calmly that Sam is dealing with the security issue. Tommy doesn’t get it, so Dream explains that it means he could be stuck in there for a little bit, maybe even days. Tommy is getting desperate, Dream tells him he knows he signed a book, because he’s the one who wrote it, that said that if there’s a security issue, he can be in there for up to a week.

Tommy rambles about all the things he has to do that week and calls out for Phil. Dream suggests they break out together, but Tommy refuses this offer.

Dream gives Tommy some potatoes, who hits him and yells at him to explain, to which Dream yells back he has no idea what is going on as he’s locked in a room.

Tommy accuses Dream that he’s lying, saying it’s too perfectly timed to be a coincidence, calling him the monster of the server, saying he hasn’t changed, and Dream trying to convince him he did or he’s trying to. The two argue, Dream bringing up exile in the process, until Dream suggests to just deal with each other’s presence, not hit each other, and explains he’s happy to finally have company, Tommy panicking and saying he wants to hurt Dream. He takes the “thank you” books from the chests, as well as empty books and quills, and burns them despite Dream’s protests, telling him if Sam hears him panicking over the items, he’ll come back - Dream begs Tommy to just wait, panicked, and gives him potatoes.

After quite a bit of arguing and Tommy nearly punching Dream into the lava multiple times, Sam says the prison is on lockdown. Tommy is incredulous. Dream says it’s not that bad, that they have tons of time to bond, and after Tommy repeatedly calls him dumb and evil, Dream loses his cool, yelling that Tommy’s the one that’s being dumb. Tommy calms down as the realization sets in, and the stream ends.

The next time we see Dream and Tommy, the scene opens with Tommy running around the cell, making loud noises, and Dream sitting in the cauldron, writing. He’s frustrated and asks Tommy to be quiet - who looks at the cat that seems to have appeared in the cell, calling it annoying. Dream disagrees, saying it’s the best thing that’s happened to them - Tommy tries to repeatedly lead it away from its place on the chest, however the cat always comes back. He keeps asking Dream questions, punching the cat to which Dream stands in front of it, asking him to stop. Sam appears to give them potatoes. He asks Sam to let him out, who refuses as the security issue hasn’t been fixed yet. Tommy complains about not having enough food, to which Dream gives him some as well as Sam dispensing more into the cell. Tommy punches Dream away from the potatoes, also getting the clock. He tells Sam that this feels like exile, but worse, saying he’s claustrophobic - he refuses once again, and leaves the two alone. Dream says it’s not that bad - that he’s gotten used to the cell, that he’s happy to have company and a cat with him. He burns the clock, and after Tommy asks to be let out again, suggests they escape together - Tommy says no, punching the cat as Dream tries to stand in front of it to take the blow. He asks Dream if he loves it, killing it when he says that he does and wants it to stay after Tommy leaves. In response to this, Dream says that the cat was hope he could stay in the prison and be content, however now he’s even more motivated to escape and get his revenge on everybody who’s wronged him. He says he’s grown tired of Tommy’s whining about being in the same box he’s been locked in for a hundred times longer - Tommy tells him he will never get out, and Dream promises to never use the revive book on him or his friends. He says he’ll be freed someday, because the only way he’ll ever revive anyone, is if he’s let out - Tommy reveals he doesn’t think the revive book, the only reason people are keeping Dream alive, is real. They argue, Dream asking if the fact he can’t be killed because of the leverage he holds makes him some kind of god - Tommy disputes that he has said leverage, Dream killing him as a result to prove the point that his life still holds value because he can bring people back to life.

In the aftermath of this event, Sam reacts by saying he didn’t anticipate Dream actually killing Tommy - hence he never reached the cell in time. When Bad mocks him for this, he replies saying that he thought he had “broken the will out of him” to act up that way. He also reveals that Dream laughed when he started screaming at him - he says he can’t think of worse ways to punish him than he already does, not knowing what time it is, without the clock and with only raw potatoes as food.

After this happens, Sam leaves for an island that we see in Quackity’s lore later on. Quackity comes to visit him, only to rile him up and give him the idea to kill Dream in retaliation - however, when they arrive in the prison, Sam realizes that Tommy trusted him to keep Dream locked up and alive, and decides against it because of his duty and the revive book.

Two days after Tommy died, he was revived once again, with Dream asking him questions about death and the limbo, such as how long he’s been there, who he’s talked to, and what it felt like. He says he was scared it wouldn’t work, because he had never tried it before; Tommy details that being dead felt horrible, he’s talked to Wilbur and Mexican Dream although Schlatt, strangely enough, appeared to be asleep. He expresses signs of trauma when Dream punches him after being asked to do so, and has somewhat of a breakdown in the cell. Dream proclaims he is a god as he can revive people, and Tommy says Wilbur said horrible things to him while he was in limbo with him, and tried to get Dream to promise him that he would never bring him back, declaring Wilbur worse and more dangerous than Dream ever was - Dream refuses, saying he is the only one with the power to decide on that, and he thinks Wilbur hasn’t done anything that bad. He also suggests experimenting on Tommy to find out more about the afterlife, and perhaps even become unkillable. Tommy realizes Dream is the revive book, in essence, and there is no other way to get rid of it than to kill him, to make sure Wilbur stays dead forever. Dream invites him to kill him, however Tommy realizes he can’t, because then he’ll be stuck in the cell alone forever - Dream even walks into lava for him, all the while detailing the possible consequences of such an act.

Dream says that when Tommy gets out, he can tell everyone the revive book is real - that he wasn’t lying. He also says since he can kill everyone and bring them back, they’re his puppets - when Tommy asks him why he killed him, Dream says he wouldn’t listen to him, and hence he had to prove the legitimacy of the revive book to him. He says he’ll let Tommy go, and not kill him again, just so that Sam doesn’t cut off his visitors further or starve him again - but also promises to bring back Wilbur, with whose help he will escape.

After eight more days, Dream and Tommy are still stuck together within the room, Dream remarking that he’s starving, confirming Sam hasn’t come back to give either of them food during the time since Tommy’s revival. He lets Tommy keep his when he says he has only one, and the two bicker after Dream hits him. They’re bored, waiting for the Warden, and have no idea how much time has passed - Tommy burns his food in lava as they argue again, before Sam finally arrives, and Tommy is released. Tommy warns him to not allow Dream any visitors, saying he plans to escape, and that Techno owes him a favor. He also calls Sam inadequate to run the prison.

After this experience, both Ranboo and Tommy start plotting to kill Dream, so that he can’t “bring back the villains” of the past, present, and future, allowing them to rid the world of such dangerous individuals for good.

However, another person also ends up becoming interested in the powers of the revive book - and that person, is none other, than Quackity.

He doesn’t intend to destroy its powers for good, though. He persuades Sam into letting him bring weapons into the cell as a means of getting the revive book, taking away the last bit of power Dream has, and allowing them to take his final life. Sam agrees in the end, giving him better tools before he steps into the cell, including netherite weapons and shears. During the first visit, Dream comments he hasn’t had a clock in a while, Quackity saying the cell doesn’t look very comfortable. He goes on to talk about Dream’s loss of control since he got locked up, to which Dream asks if he came to gloat. Quackity brings up Tommy’s death, and Dream is interested in other people’s reactions. The topic goes back to the revive book, Dream asking again whether people knew it was real now, saying it’s good that they do. Quackity begins to ask that he gives it to him, but Dream refuses, saying he burnt it a long time ago and it is preserved only in the form of knowledge. Quackty takes out the weapons, and after the initial shock, Dream begins to frantically yell for Sam, not knowing the two are working together. Quackity promises to come torture him daily until he gets the revive book from him.

Around this time, the prison’s keycards are stolen by Ponk. Sam builds him a room, planning on killing him and then burning him with lava, beating and poisoning him until he gives them back, even though at this point they aren’t even functional. (4:05 - 4:24) Ponk tries to talk him out of it, saying that the prison is controlling him as much as the Egg would, and that he’s changed. (6:26 - 6:38) Sam ends up cutting off one of Ponk’s arms, successfully getting every last one of the defunct keycards back.

Later on, while BadBoyHalo and Antfrost are handing out invites to the Red Banquet on behalf of the Eggpire, Sam greets them holding a clock and gives them empty books & quills he claims to have confiscated from Dream.

In Quackity’s next lore video, we get confirmation that he has in fact been coming in daily to torture Dream, always escorted by Sam, using different tools and staining his shirt’s sleeves red.

Tommy finally decides to come and kill Dream, sneaking in with an invisibility potion while using Ghostbur as an alibi. The lava starts dropping, and Dream seems to run around the cell once, before coming to a stop at the center. Ghostbur yells excitedly when he finally spots Dream on the other side. He looks at Ghostbur, coming closer to the edge to wave at him, but stops waving when he spots Sam. He backs off slightly, breaking eye contact with Sam. Ghostbur and Tommy cross the lava, and Dream has his back turned on Ghostbur.

As soon as Tommy arrives at the cell, and before the netherite bars drop, he reveals the Axe of Peace. Sam yells at them to stop. Dream takes a step towards the entrance, Tommy immediately turns to him, trying to hit him. Dream backs off until he hits the wall, letting out a small “What?”. Tommy crosses the bridge while Ghostbur stays. Tommy and Sam argue, Dream interrupts, but Sam shuts him down, telling Ghostbur to get further away from him.

Dream pleads for Sam to let him out, who tells everyone to shut up, as Tommy is asking Ghostbur if he can reach Dream to kill him. Dream yells that he has a hostage. Sam answers that he’s just a ghost, while Dream stammers that Sam wouldn’t let another person die.

Tommy starts insulting Sam, calling him a horrible warden and telling him to kill Dream, and they start arguing again. (31:00-31:13, 33:50-33:58) Dream shows that he has the revive book in his hands. Ghostbur starts pleading for Tommy to help him. Tommy and Ghostbur count to ten, Sam telling them to shut up. After he shuts down a last request to set Dream free, he kills Ghostbur as the lava starts covering the entrance.

After well over two months of daily visits, a scene opens with Quackity showing Dream which weapon he will use that day, choosing an axe. Dream tries to take it off the item frame, however fails and only gets himself in trouble, with Quackity yelling at him while he cowers. He says it’s getting tiring, but that he needs to come in to remind him every day about everything he’s done or else he’ll forget, to which Dream promises he won’t. Quackity then proceeds to ask him questions about his involvement and relationship with Technoblade, and tells him to write a note, inviting him to visit. He refuses to say why, but promises to give Dream a week-long break if he obeys. Dream doesn’t trust him, continuing to question his motives. He tries to compromise, offering to write a note to Sapnap instead. Quackity goes on to threaten to kill him, saying he doesn’t care about the revival book, and that he likes hurting Dream, because in his eyes, he can never pay back the amount of evil Dream’s done to everyone on the server. He says not even Sam can help him, swinging his axe around and hitting Dream with a sword while he begs him to stop. In the end, Dream agrees to write the note for him.

Outside of the cell’s confines, Foolish proposes to Sam an idea to reform Dream through community service. This idea is shut down immediately.

MichaelMcChill, a new addition to the server, also tries to break him out a couple of times because - because he. Because he thinks he’s hot???

Interestingly enough, Quackity doesn’t have the note to give techno and just tells him to visit Dream verbally - Techno does, getting trapped in the cell in the process. And, well, in the end: (4:24 - 4:40)

That’s it for the recap!

Thank you.

#dreblr #dream smp #c!dream #dsmp recap #prison arc #c!awesamdude #c!sam

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troquantary · 3 years

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Cutting Hair as Punishment in the Twilight Saga

Okay, I’ve been trying to organize my thoughts around this into a sort-of-essay format for a while, because I find it disturbingly mean-spirited: Meyer has a pattern of using hair-cutting as a form of punishment for characters, especially female characters, who fail to embrace Bella and the Cullens with open arms. I’m talking particularly about Leah and Lauren, both of whom, while not outright antagonists like Victoria or James, are situated along with Rosalie as “against” Bella throughout the series. The Quileute pack, meanwhile, is situated largely “against” the Cullens, meaning Jacob and the rest of the pack get the Haircut of Shame, too.

(Also, I’ve been creeping through @panlight ‘s blog because I thought she had a recent post relating to this -- I was probably thinking of this submission and her addendum, which does discuss Meyer’s “punishment” of certain characters, but that post was about characters suffering for not waiting for True Love, or daring to do the Devil’s Tango before marriage. Still, it’s on-theme and very much worth reading, like all her stuff!)

So here’s the general outline: first I’m gonna talk about the shapeshifters and how their overall lack of choice frames cutting their hair as something forced on them and therefore punitive. Then I’m going to discuss Meyer’s FAQ response where she reveals that Lauren was tricked into cutting off most of her hair over the summer before New Moon, and how this adds an extra fun misogynistic element to the hair-cutting theme with respect to Lauren and Leah. I also use way too many words to do it, sorry.

Punishment | The Shapeshifters Are Given No Other Option

I don’t have the background or knowledge to discuss the significance of long hair to indigenous culture and identity in detail, and my understanding is that different tribes ascribe different meanings to it. What I’ve read it about it suggests that, generally, long hair represents strength of one’s individual spirit and of the community. It’s a source of pride, and is only cut off voluntarily in extraordinary circumstances, often as an expression of grief, or to mark a significant life change.

This sort of works in the context of the shapeshifters all cutting their hair -- phasing into a giant wolf, discovering the existence of the supernatural, and assuming the role of protectors is a major life event for these characters. But the negative associations make it a troubling choice on Meyer’s part, and that’s without even getting into the problem of her imposing her own worldbuilding onto the legends and culture of a real tribe. Because of the lack of choice involved in becoming a shapeshifter, the whole situation feels like a scenario in which the Quileute characters have their hair forcibly cut -- a degrading and traumatic act that (depending on their particular tribal belief) might symbolically sever them from their sense of cultural identity and connection with the rest of their tribe.

It all kind of begs the question: why does Meyer even have shapeshifting work this way? What narrative utility is there in having the length of their hair in human form determine the length of their fur as wolves, thereby compelling the shapeshifters to cut it so it isn’t a physical impediment? It’s another sign of the changes in Jacob, sure, but he’s already being uncharacteristically cold and distant, plus suddenly has the physique of a fit twenty-five-year-old; Bella already knows something’s very wrong. His short hair is just another jarring thing for Bella to notice and mourn, like the loss of Jacob’s “baby face” and general sunniness.

It does work as a symbolic thing, representing another sacrifice Jacob has to make and the change in how he now has to perceive himself -- but he’s already got a literal giant wolf form to represent that change in identity/self-perception. Forcing him to cut his hair too just feels like piling on. My argument here, which I hope will be supported when I discuss Lauren and Leah further in, is that it’s not just piling on, but actively punitive -- because much like Leah and Lauren are “against” Bella, the pack at large is “against” the Cullens pretty much through the end of the series.

The Quileute pack is definitely not a Cullen fanclub. The entire purpose of their existence is to destroy vampires, and the truce they have with the Cullens isn’t friendly. They still don’t particularly like or trust the Cullens even after allying with them in Eclipse, and in Breaking Dawn Sam is fully prepared to go to war against them to enforce the treaty. Bella expresses frustration with Jacob and the pack for not appreciating the Cullens more, yet is curiously less willing to scold Alice, Edward, or Rosalie when they call the Quileutes dogs and complain about their smell. (I think she might reprimand Edward for it at some point, but I don’t remember the exact passage.) Bella even starts throwing around “dog” and “mutt” as an insult herself -- I think we know whose side ol’ “Switzerland” is on, here, and whose side Meyer is on as well. The Quileutes aren’t exactly enemies, and in fact are crucial to the Cullens’ survival in both the newborn and Volutri conflicts, but they’re punished nonetheless because they aren’t wholeheartedly Team Cullen from the get-go.

So to explain why I’m so convinced that there’s a link between hair-cutting and punishment in particular, let’s talk about Lauren. There’s a definite gendered element to it this time, too -- by being tricked into cutting her hair, Lauren isn’t just diminished/shamed, but rendered (*thunderclap*) unfeminine.

Lauren Was Rude To Bella Like Twice, Let’s Humiliate Her

I think Meyer’s answer to the question “What happened to Lauren’s hair?” on her FAQ page speaks for itself:

Ha ha. I had fun imagining this one—I only wished that it had fit into the book somewhere. Lauren fell victim to the “model discovered in the mall” scam. An alleged modeling agent approached Lauren in a mall in Victoria, B.C., and told her she was a natural model. Lauren ate it up. The agent told her that if she did something edgy with her hair, and took some high quality head shots, her future was assured. Lauren followed the instructions—dropping fifteen grand on the pictures taken by the agent’s partner—and waited for her career to begin. She’s still waiting. Snort.

It’s pretty obvious that this was done spitefully. Here’s the list of Lauren’s crimes against humanity Bella at this point in the series: 1) she was jealous of the attention Bella was getting as the new girl; 2) she talked behind Bella’s back once, saying Bella might as well just sit with the Cullens now (and she isn’t wrong); 3) she eyed Bella “scornfully” the day of the La Push beach trip; and perhaps most damningly, 4) she’s blonde.

Post-haircut, she has the gall not to be thrilled that Bella’s deigning to speak to the lowly non-Cullens again, then sides with Jessica after Bella uses Jessica to make a point to her dad, is shitty company, and then risks getting them both raped and murdered in Port Angeles so she could get off on her hallucination of Edward’s voice.

I think it’s pretty common knowledge that long hair is tied to patriarchal notions of femininity and attractiveness. Women with short hair are still derided for being ugly, or assumed to be lesbians in a derogatory sense, or simply considered less feminine and therefore less desirable/worthy (because a woman’s worth depends on her desirability, after all). For many women and girls, losing their long hair -- whether because of illness, or gum getting stuck in it, or whatever -- is very upsetting and a hard blow to their self-esteem. Just look at Alice as an example of Traumatic Short Hair; her hair was shorn like that because she received electroshock “treatments” in an asylum. (Although in Alice’s case, I don’t think her having short hair is punishment, but a facet of the traumatic backstory all female characters in Twilight have to have for some reason. Plus, she started the series with short hair, which distinguishes her from the pack and Lauren, who were tricked or compelled into cutting their long hair during the series.)

But Lauren’s so bitchy, so she deserves it, right? Ha ha, she was mean to Bella and cared about her appearance too much, so now she’s ~ugly!

Leah Has It the Worst and It Makes Me Want To Burn Everything

The misogynistic aspect of hair-cutting as punishment is taken up to like, twelve with Leah. Not only does she suffer for being “against” the Cullens along with the rest of the pack (and Bella, too, so extra sinning), but she suffers uniquely for being the only female shapeshifter. A bunch of teenage boys regularly see her naked body against her will. Her previously devoted boyfriend imprints on her cousin/best friend, Sam dumps her and can’t even explain why, and the whole pack -- including her own brother -- resents her for being upset about it, even though she can’t help the lack of mental privacy. Because of that same lack of mental privacy, she has to hear every gripe the boys have about her, plus every enthralled thought Sam has about Emily while she’s still deeply wounded by their breakup.

She blames herself for her dad’s death, because she phased at the wrong time. We don’t get any indication that her fellow shapeshifters or the elders are trying to reassure her otherwise.

And of course, because she’s a shapeshifter, she has to cut her hair. In addition, because Leah’s a woman, this has the same misogynistic connotations as it did with Lauren. In Leah’s case, though, the de-feminization is compounded by her sudden infertility. It’s clear that Leah attaches her sense of womanhood to her fertility, rightly or wrongly -- she bitterly calls herself a “genetic dead end” in Breaking Dawn and thinks of herself as a freak. She feels like there must be something wrong with her, some un-womanly flaw, that made her one of the shapeshifters at all.

Then, just when Jacob starts to see her as a human being worthy of compassion, he imprints on Renesmee and doesn’t give a shit about anyone or anything else anymore. No more bonding with Leah, no blooming friendship to help her heal and come to terms with the new realities of her life. (This is one of those dropped threads that aggravate me to no end -- what was the point of having Leah opening up to Jacob, or starting Jacob on the path of realizing he was being a dick to her this whole time and that she’s a person with value, if he was just going to spend the rest of the book as Renesmee’s love-zombie and never think about it again? Disgusting.)

Leah was a lot more forgiving of Jacob than he deserved at that point in the story, for all the good it did her -- I think she’s mentioned maybe once in Book 3 of Breaking Dawn. At least she got her god-tier moment of yelling at a deranged, pregnant Bella Swan.

Speaking of Bella...

I’m just going to note, for no particular reason, that in Breaking Dawn we get to hear explicitly that Bella’s got hair that falls “almost to her waist” and that she looks like “a freaking supermodel” because she’s so “beautiful and pale.” It just strikes me as a telling contrast at this point.

#twilight renaissance #i stared too long and the twilight abyss gazed back #leah clearwater #lauren mallory #jacob black #the wolf pack #long post #i felt myself getting petty about bella okay -- i'm aware it's happening but i have no self control #i also know i sidestepped the racial element to this and it's because i don't feel qualified to speak on it #so any additions from more knowledgeable people on that score are much appreciated

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moomingitz · 3 years

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It’s... interesting looking back at the Jak and Daxter series, because when the second and third games first came out during my edgy teen years my mindset for them was mostly, “OMG Jak is now a buff and rugged edgy boi, he’s saying curse words, and has a literal edgy dark side to him. And Daxter is a big playboi who doesn’t hide his love for bewbs. Jak and Daxter is no longer for babies but for mature big kids like me!”

But looking at the series now; Holy shit, Jak has had it rough. Where do I even begin? This is going to be long, so get comfortable:

First, Jak was ripped away from his father at a very young age due to an insurrection. Then he was kidnapped by one of the people who was responsible for it, with the intention of being used to awaken some ancient Precursor technology, but luckily he somehow escaped and then was taken in by a rebellion group.

Then he was sent back into the past to be raised by Samos, the Sage of Green Eco. While that was a good thing for Jak, since he was able to grow up in a loving and supportive environment, what happened to him before that is something that would still be traumatic to a little kid especially in the form of something like Separation Anxiety. While this goes into headcanon territory, I can’t help but wonder if that had a lot to do with why Jak was the mostly silent type before the events of the second game. But thankfully he was lucky to grow up with two best friends like Daxter and Keira.

Surely you think that would be the end of misfortune Jak would have to go through. Wrong!

Fast forward to where he’s now 15 years old and everything seems all good and exciting after he and Daxter saved the world from Dee Snider and his twisted sister. Sure they didn’t accomplish what they set out for by turning Daxter back into his old humanoid self, by Daxter is content staying as a furry anyway. At least they saved the world and found some ancient Precursor technology. But hold up! Turns out it was some kind of rift gate and the moment they activated it some giant bug monster pops out and they’re all separated and thrown into some new place they’ve never seen.

Literal seconds later, before Jak or Daxter have any time to react or process what exactly just happened and where they ended up, Jak is immediately arrested and knocked unconscious, despite doing nothing wrong. He’s then tortured and experimented on for the next two years, in hopes of turning him into a living weapon by pumping Dark Eco into him. Keep in mind Jak was only 15-16 years old during those nightmarish two years of his life. But his BFF Daxter never gave up looking for him and eventually rescued Jak.

Upon busting out Jak has no damn idea where exactly he is, and when he does it turns out him and Daxter are now in a totalitarian, police state of a hellhole where never ending propaganda is blared everywhere you go, and where Jak’s only crime is just existing. Oh, and there’s currently an ongoing war between this police state regime ruling the city and some species called Metal Heads, so the territory outside the city is near inhospitable. So just simply leaving Haven City isn’t really an option. It’s either deal with the Krimson Gaurd who will get on you for just sneezing in the wrong direction, or claw your way for survival outside the city walls.

Until finding Samos and Kiera much later, Daxter is the only familiar and welcoming face Jak still had until then(the only exception being Sig in the “welcoming face” department).

Oh, and it turns out those Dark Eco experiments gave JAk some dark Hulk like form that he has trouble controlling(at least that’s what the game tells us). Oh, and they eventually learn that this shithole place they found themselves in is actually their home 500 years into the future. Oh, and it turns that this little kid they’ve been having to protect from both the Krimson Guard and the Metal Head army is actually Jak’s younger self.

Despite all that, the rebellion group and many of the criminals they had to work with eventually warm up and even become their friends, the authoritarian regime eventually crumbles, and they kill the Metal Head leader. Even though Jak doesn’t go back to his childhood home in the past, Keira, Samos, and Daxter choose to stay with him in the future, so he’s definitely not alone in the end. Happy ending earned, and that should be the end of all the bad stuff to happen in Jak’s life, right?...

Of course that wouldn’t be the end of bad traumatic shit to happen to Jak!

Right after the events of the second game, Jak is not only blamed for the fallout of the Praxis regime falling and the Metal Head army’s demise, but he’s outright banished to the Wasteland, no thanks to some weasely council member, Veger.

But ya boi Daxter snuck out to join Jak in his exile, so at least Jak still has his best friend with him. Jak now has to survive in a Mad Max esque land after proving himself worthy to Damas, the leader of some refuge village. But it’s kind of good because he slowly gets on this guy’s good graces.

Oh, but later on it turns out this Damas guy is actually the very father Jak was forcibly separated from during his very early childhood. But, Jak only figured that out just as Damas was dying, and he didn’t have a chance to tell Damas that he was his son that’s he’s been wanting to find for years.

It also turns out this Veger douchebag was one of the people aside from Baron Praxis who was responsible for Jak being separated from Dadmas, and was the guy who kidnapped him in an attempt use him to obtain that ancient Precursor technology.

Of course everything works out in the end. But yeah... You see what I mean? Jak was put through the wringer during the events of this whole trilogy! He's done nothing wrong! Yet starting from a very young age he’s either been targeted or dragged into other’s messes for just existing, or for something he had no choice to do in order to survive. The only real thing he did wrong was dragging Daxter over to Misty Island, which led to him being accidentally transformed into an ottsel in the first place. But the events of the first games was all a lighthearted adventure anyway. Aside from that it’s been one unfortunate or traumatic event after another for Jak.

When letting everything Jak went through really sink in, there’s guaranteed trauma and the resulting PTSD this poor guy is going to have to address or else it will inevitably manifest itself in some way later on. Acting gruff and blase' will only work for so long. I know some people get tired with pieces of fiction being compared to Steven Universe, but Steven’s eventual mental breakdown seriously came to mind. And some people will say, “It’s just a vidya game, stop thinking too much into it.”, but there was a conscious decision to take this series into a more dark and mature direction after the first game. So, it’s a bit hard not to think about more possible unpleasant implications based on what happened in the sequels, especially when looking at the events of the games through the lenses of today.

Taking all of this into consideration is also why I think Daxter is seriously the “MVP” of the series.

Daxter grew up being Jak’s best friend, which I’m sure helped Jak a lot after being separated from his father and taken to a literal place in time completely different and unfamiliar to him. I’m very sure his time growing up in Sandover Village and hanging out with Daxter was the best period of Jak’s life. Even after Jak dragged him to Misty Island, accidentally causing him to be transformed into an ottsel, and sacrificing his chance to be turned back to normal in order to save the world, Daxter showed no hard feelings towards Jak and he even learns to like being an ottsel.

He spent two years trying to find out where Jak was being held prisoner in Haven City, and infiltrated the place once he did and helped Jak escape.

And despite not having any fingers pointed towards him for the fallout after the events of the second game, Daxter still chooses to join Jak in exile in the Wasteland.

Daxter has never shown any ill will towards Jak despite him being the one responsible for being turned into an ottsel, and he’s never really abandoned him even when he is given many chances to or a way to get himself out of really bad situations. Despite everything, Daxter is still the same quippy, upbeat dork of a friend Jak has grown up with.

I really believe Daxter helped a lot with keeping Jak’s sanity intact during all of the hell he was put through and beyond. If there was a guaranteed way for someone to sign their own death warrant with Jak, I think harming or outright killing Daxter would be it.

#Jak and Daxter #Jak II #Jak 3 #Daxter #Damas

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theseerasures · 3 years

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why is it so hard to defect from Atlas?

Barbara Dunkelmann said during Comic-Con at Home last year that this season’s theme would be “distrust,” but i’m wondering now if the more appropriate word is “discontent.” since Divide, we’ve had arguments big and small, teams splitting up and recombining, and of course, :( and :/ galore at all the war, all the crimes, all the war crimes, and all the general bad decisions (not to be confused with James Ironwood, General Bad Decisions). we’ve now had our first major defections of the season with Hazel and Emerald, which is...interesting to me; they’re both long-runners, certainly, but part of the reason they’re long-running is because their arcs have ALWAYS been on a slow boil. for the defection to happen around the mid-season mark, a lot of things (particularly for Hazel) had to happen very quickly, particularly since they both skipped out the previous season altogether. this is made all the more interesting by the fact that the Atlesian supporting cast who filled the time in season 7 are similarly discontented, but...well, a generous reading of it would be that they’re still “figuring things out,” but we’ve also been watching them “figure things out” for two seasons now, Winter and Marrow especially. why did Hazel and Emerald defect first when they work for the main villain, when Winter and the AceOps--who have taken up more screen time cumulatively during the Atlas arc--are still hemming and hawing to various degrees?

long discussion under the cut--but the tl;dr is: it’s because they live in a (narratively constructed) society

i’m actually gonna start with the discontent that DIDN’T result in defection, which is obviously the Yang-Ruby split. we’ve known that members of Team Protagonist--most notably Yang and Ren--have had doubts for a while now, and sure enough, when push comes to shove they pick a path separate from their implicit leader. as protagonists Yang and Ren are frequently our POV characters, so we’re predisposed to sympathize with them as they doubt Ruby’s agenda, root for them as they bring it up to Ruby in conversation, and...watch as they...regretfully but cordially agree to disagree...

wait, what?

that’s the thing about Team Protagonist, especially at this point in the narrative: everyone feels safe and secure enough in themselves and in each other to communicate openly, even when they disagree. every time Yang felt uncomfortable she talked to somebody about it, and even Ren--Mr. Weaponizing Repression himself--was able to express how he felt. even if it took some prodding from Nora/Yang, even if the direction of his emotions ended up misfiring and hurting his friends--they’re his friends. his family, even. Team Protagonist is able to act and stay together so effectively because they make open communication a priority: they follow Ruby’s lead, but they also trust that Ruby will LISTEN to them, even if she doesn’t always agree.

(the reason they had this disagreement at all is because of the time they couldn’t talk things through, and just had to uncritically back Ruby’s play--when they first entered Atlas. funny, that.)

Team Salem obviously doesn’t work the same way, and this season has made it particularly explicit just how much everyone lives in a state of constant fear and surveillance. what makes solidarity and eventual rebellion possible (though terrifying), though, are two things: first, Salem--being an upstart herself--actually encourages a level of individual initiative in her followers (well. encouraged; i have a feeling with the Hound being a success and Hazel and Emerald’s defection she’s about to change her tune). she’s a master manipulator, and uses people’s individual wants to sway them to her side; but she’s also not a mind-reader, which is kind of biting her in the ass right now.

second, Salem herself is so many LEAGUES beyond everyone else on her “team” that (unless you’re actively trying to be a tit) there...isn’t actually much of a hierarchy beyond “Salem’s in charge.” Watts and Cinder--both Atlesian to varying degrees, mind--are the two who try the hardest to carve out some authority of their own, but even Watts is at least convivial with everyone (except Cinder). to be on Team Salem you have to accept that this is her world and you just live in it, and that ends up equalizing people from very disparate backgrounds with very disparate personalities and skillsets. no one, not even Tyrian, is under the delusion that Salem cares about them, or will listen to their counsel. so when it comes to the least of her followers--Emerald, who (joke copyright @professorspork) is basically Salem’s grandpet, this gerbil who follows her around now for some reason and occasionally makes weird noises (”you mean crying?” Emerald asks, crying)--it’s actually quite easy for her to escape Salem’s notice until it’s too late, while firming up the solidarities that she has (Hazel and Mercury--not Cinder).

to defect, Emerald and Hazel need a degree of narrative interiority, some sense of security with each other (even if it’s just subconscious), and time. time to work things out from their point of view, pull the wool from their eyes. this season’s narrative has given them all that and more.

our Atlesian potential defectors...haven’t been so lucky, and the most recent episode has made that contrast very explicit.

i’m sure i’m not the only one who assumed, when Ironwood first floated the bomb plan, that we’d be getting some kind of Mission Impossible sneaky stealth shit. we’re used to seeing the AceOps do small squad missions, after all, and the timing felt right thematically too, since we left War with Ren literally expositing to all of them that they do, in fact, have feelings. an extended mission to themselves would give them a chance to air out those feelings away from Atlas’ own system of surveillance, figure out what to do together...

but we didn’t get any of that. instead, we got the whoosh laser kapow version of a Sassoon poem, and the AceOps barely talked to each other at all. the only points of view we got were from Marrow, and Winter.

this isn’t the first time something like this has happened to them this season, either--remember the Penny Retrieval mission that wasn’t? there were also hopes that Marrow and/or Winter would turn at that point, but then Salem invaded. Winter and the AceOps have had the potential to defect for a while now, but the narrative has been actively withholding opportunities for them to actualize on any of that potential. it’s been actively withholding opportunities for them to act as a team, period.

it’s possible to handwave this as writerly convenience--everyone can’t defect at the same time, the episodes don’t have room for it--but the ways that defections have been prioritized so that the Atlesians come after also points to a recurring motif with Atlas, which Elm says explicitly in Witch: you can deal with your issues later.

there’s always some kind of delayed promise at Atlas, isn’t there? the Amity project will help. Mantle’s Wall will get fixed (until it wasn’t). when Penny confronts Winter about leaving Mantle to die, Winter says first that they don’t have time, and it seems like they never actually do, except for in this imagined later, when they’ll reckon with every thing that they’ve done.

it doesn’t exist, of course. fascism is only able to remain effective through the engineering of crisis, and Salem might as well be a crisis perpetual motion generator. you can’t conscientiously object if your conscience is constantly stifled by the next emergency.

what the Atlesian scenes in Witch demonstrate is this: Atlas presses down all around them, at all times. even if the AceOps want to stop policing each other and work as a real team, they can’t right now, because they are now officers in a war, because they’re constantly looked to, because they’re part of an infinitely greater machine that demands their service. and right now lasts forever--you will NEVER have time to talk out your discontent...

and even if you steal time and perspective like Marrow does (like Emerald has been doing, thief that she is) with Winter, there is no guarantee of any solidarity. what makes their conversation so simultaneously fascinating and frustrating is that there is clearly some level of rapport, or at least recognition. Marrow goes to Winter because Winter’s in charge, but Marrow also goes to Winter because Winter might hear him out...and she does. Winter does what Winter has consistently done when a person seeks her out and earnestly asks to be heard, and responds compassionately. but at the same time, Winter does what Winter has consistently done when a person seeks her out and earnestly asks to be heard: she turns away. in a conversation that is supposed to be about a shared trust between the two of them, Winter cannot bring herself to trust Marrow. the Atlesian system is built out of these hierarchies within hierarchies, distrusts within distrusts (well i guess Barbara had a point after all), and Winter, abused kid that she is, has played this game all her life. so she defaults to rank and duty--what they have to do now--and the conversation goes nowhere. Marrow leaves it as alone and bitterly resigned as when he’d entered it.

so when is this moral inertia gonna go somewhere? IS it going somewhere? well, i’m still holding out hope that the AceOps will get some time to themselves as part of Bomb the Whale, and i’m certain that even if it doesn’t fall into their lap Marrow will eventually demand it. the fact that they still work well together on the field as partners should mean something. the question is, though: what will it take to bring that later to the present?

and at what point does it become too late?

#rwby #'too late' doesn't necessarily mean 'death' btw #helen writes meta

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antiloreolympus · 3 years

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8 Anti LO Asks

1. as a mythology buff, i honestly think it was really weird of rachel smythe to take Hecate, a goddess who helped Demeter search for Persephone after she vanished and heard her screams and shared in Persephone and Demeter's joy after reuniting... and then just make her into Hades's like... total bro who plays aggressive matchmaker to h/p to the point of trying to break up Hades's current relationship. but honsestly i refuse to believe rachel smythe did literally any research before making this comic judging by how she depicts the mythology she's taking inspiration from so honestly im not suprised

2. I don’t know if anyone on here has discussed this, but LO very much plays into the idea of “good victim vs bad victim”.

A “good victim” has suffered many things, but despite it they still remain cheerful and happy and pleasant, they do not put others out or lash out at them even if they are triggered, they do not become petty or angry or hold onto negative emotions. They, in essence, “get over it”. Thus, the narrative rewards them: they get many friends, a love internet they’re happy with, and a happy ending. This is what Persephone is. She’s the “good victim”. Despite her many hardships, we know she will not suffer in the end. She will get everything she wants and more.

Then there is Minthe, the “bad victim”. They too have gone through many hardships, but they’ve become cold, angry at the world, they lash out and have trouble opening up and connecting to others, they even hurt others, themselves victims to the toxic pain they can’t get rid it. They do not and have not “gotten over it”. Thus, the narrative punishes them, even when they try to better themselves. It’s never good enough. These characters often are lonely, the cast are large do not like them if not outright hate them, and they more often than not end up dead. This is what Minthe is. She is not a pleasant person, she’s a victim of a manipulative older man and a cruel, unjust society and system, and we know how her story ends. It’s in pain, her maiming/possible death framed as a joke and not even a genuine hint of sympathy towards her fate. She was a “bad victim”, she “deserved” what she got.

Now, you only often see this in fandom, since the actual works that deal with victims of trauma and how they react will often try to give more nuance to every shade of victim they may have on cast, but it’s very disturbing to me that Rachel seems to eagerly play into this idea, like she gets joy out of punishing a victim she created and watching them suffer even more at her hands. It’d be one thing if she kept Minthe a shallow, one dimensional character who was just evil for the sake of it, fine, but her showing us her actual complex nature and the very real struggles, trauma, and manipulation she went through, especially at the hands of our supposed “heroes” of the story, just to have her demise framed as a win for Persephone and a joke for the audience to laugh at? That’s highly disturbing to me. It’s one thing for fans to act that way, but the writer themselves? It’s very dark, to say the least.

3. "I'm invested in working with fairy tales and folklore for my next project" oh no no no oh god please no. Fairy tales have been through enough hot takes and modern "betterments", they really don't need Rachel "Apollo is bad, actually" Smythe to add to it

4. Quick question

Greek Mythology is mostly incest.

So what if someone who is actually good at writing and storytelling and consistent artwork

Kept it in

For example Zeus and Hera arguing like the married couple they are

And Hera uses older sibling card

With Zeus dumbfounded face

I don't know why but I want it but would it be weird since it's incest

Most fanfics always keep it out. Just keep it in if you want it to be closer than the actual methods you know

Hera is youngest daughter of Cronus and Rhea and older than her brother Zeus, who was also her husband.

I want to do it but like I have no clue how to start a webtoon so you know💀

5. Oh god, Hades not needing therapy because Persephone's "love" is enough? To quote my lord and savior Kennie JD: "not the p*$$¥ being therapy!"

6. uuuuuh sexual trauma warning.?

So I was writing a comment on the "Re: bpd" ask and i had a realization about persephone

She reminds me of how I was about the idea of sex

I'm demisexual and have sexual trauma and the idea of sex excited me but I wasn't able to like, do it. Me and my partner would mess around but because Mctrauma i couldn't do it cuz I hadn't exactly worked through my trauma and i wanted to get through that because i was finally experiencing sexual attraction.

Kinda reminds me of Persephone. The problem is at that point it had been 6-7 years since my trauma occurred and persephone's happened like last month.

Considering how everyone talks about persephone being a self insert i think Rachel has some things to work through

Also made the realization literally as im typing that Rachel's attitude towards asexuality could be because she's demi and doesn't fully understand what that is or means

becuase if you're ignorant enough you can 100% end up describing demisexuality as "being asexual and then like, slowly turning gay."

this ask weirdly personal so fuck it this is gonna be anonymous feel free to delete if it makes u uncomfy

7. That’s also a part about Hubris Rachel clearly doesn’t get: it was always committed by rich, often people in high authority, NEVER lowly farmers or the poorest of ancient society. They always knew better. Niobe was a queen! Minos was a king! Arachne was the rich, spoiled daughter of a really successful merchant. Sisyphus was a cunning king. The trojan war was kicked off by royal drama. The list goes on and on. You have to notice these things and genuinely study the myths or you become like Rachel, who seems convinced the poorest people would be stupid enough to not only defy their bosses, but the gods themselves? They would be the last people to do such a thing! They don’t have the ingrained sense of entitlement and arrogance like the rich and powerful to even dare act like that towards the gods, as is the case with hubris. Because of this, Rachel ends up creating a narrative that the rich and powerful (literal GODS) are the real victims to those cruel, uppity poor people, going as far as to say in comic they deserve to be slaves for hades’ benefit and they’re wrong for ever hating Persephone for, you know, murdering them because she had a bad day! They should know their place! It’s absolutely insane that she doesn’t actually seem to realize what she’s writing. Unless she does, which is an even bigger issue, and shows a really dark look into how she views the world and society and how it should be run. It’s all a bad look.

8. Have you seen the "The demon, is here in the room right now?" meme

Welp, that's literally Persephone and her "feeling"

I legit saw that video about a dude faking a mental illnes (and seeing a demon that made him do bad things) after he commited a crime and that was so cringy and I can't stop thinking about Persephone confessing her AOW like that

#anti lo #anti lore olympus #lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lo art

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relaxxattack · 3 years

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ayo! (wait this might be a bit of a jumpscare dishdks i apologize) i’m op of That Post and was wondering what your opinions were on the whole woobification thing? /gen

because it’s a Tiny Bit widespread within the dream apologists to sort of,, overdramatize stuff like l’manberg hurting him. like they’re not a 100% wrong but if you look at it subjectively you can see some sort of bias going into that sort of thing that makes the character’s mistreatment a bit more blatant and intentional which,, it really wasn’t? and there wasn’t That Much of it either. especially on twitter (tumblr is much better about it) people just jump to conclusions it seems and yeah. since you brought it up i was wondering if you wanted to write a bit about it from your perspective!

we’re kinda from different corners of the fandom but i still notice that once you are too attached to a character you start taking certain evidence and giving it more weight than it actually has. there’s a blurry line between “taking away a character’s humanity” and woobification and it’s extremely difficult to find a balance when said character shows pretty much nothing of his emotional life (e. g. putting up the intimidating villain act in front of only c!tommy, pretty much everything he does making rational sense with no emotional subtext) and a lot of the fandom instantly jumps to one side or the other while it’s like.

we don’t know by far enough to say “he’s traumatized” or “he isn’t traumatized” or “he was villainized and it hurt him” or “l’manberg didn’t affect him at all”

as a very analytical person people constantly jumping to conclusions grinds my gears, but that’s about it for my own view of the situation - sorry for the rambling.

in general i agree with you that both dehumanization and woobification is Bad and i really hope getting Actual Context sorts this out (e. g. him saying he was betrayed by his friends doesn’t mean it wasn’t partially his fault or that they were allowed to leave him, but it also shows that he did care about that happening. mentioning the cat doesn’t mean anything about what happened to c!tommy but it also shows that he did care about what happened to it. it’s just always interesting to get more information about the way he feels because he usually does a very good job at hiding it.) because man.

it’s like being stuck between a rock and a hard place, especially if you also are attached to the character and are expected to automatically agree with everything the people on “your side” say. it just ends up with everyone being mad and the character being mischaracterised overall.

oh wow hello! i didnt expect the op of the post to find me you’re right lol

and yes i agree! you seem to have a lot of very good thoughts tbh.

and by woobification, i mean exactly what you’ve already pointed out— the people who will say l’manberg purposely villainized dream, the people who will say wilbur faked his mental illness to manipulate dream, the people who are pretty much always talking about how badly dream was treated by people who were acting only fairly for themselves, usually.

for example people who act like dream was a perfect peacemaker before tommy showed up, or that tommy started most conflict. these are just actual lies that are told by c!dream himself to justify his abuse of tommy, and people fall for them incredibly easily because not a lot of people watched early dsmp and know that truthfully it was chaotic even then, and that dream was chaotic too. not to mention wilbur soot tried very hard to secede peacefully with l’manberg and dream jumped directly into war with no warning. and then people say he was forced into their war when, no, he started it.

theres also people who will say like, dream and sapnap for example are such good friends. i’m sure they cared for each other, but dream on multiple occasions has done horrible things to sapnap with no regard for his feelings (like leading fundy to sapnaps pets during the petwar, leading tommy to sapnaps pets during the other petwar and encouraging him to kill them, handing mars over to tommy to use as leverage against sapnap, etc). george he’s been less awful too but he certainly spoke over him and ignored his feelings enough that george felt hurt. he had places in his hall of attachments for beckerson and mars. george and sapnap were right to walk away from being treated like that.

there’s also what you just said here — “dream puts on a villain persona for tommy”— but honestly he acts like that around quite a few people (example: eret) and it’s usually when he’s revealing crucial info, which leads me and many others to believe that ‘persona’ is actually a more truthful version of him.

there’s the fact that he really isn’t safe for people to be around (or at least he wasn't before the prison) because he was planning to come up with ways to control every single person by stealing and threatening their attachments (some of which were not items but were living animals, or a real breathing person).

and then people will say dream was doing exile to enforce rules, or to keep the peace— when it’s very clear in canon it was a deliberate plan to get tommy on his own and into the prison. (from the way he was framing tommy for multiple crimes, and having sam set up the prison, and kidnapping tommy instead of correctly exiling him, all at the same time).

not even going into how he wants to kill and revive people for fun or make tommy immortal.

it’s just— ignoring all these actual facts and saying “oh he misses his friends, let’s get him some friends now” reminds me of like. when people would put flower crowns on pictures of serial killers. and then, there’s hardly anyone on the server who wasn’t subject to dream’s plans, so there’s absolutely no one i would be okay with him interacting with.

just remembered about the torture thing, and wow i still hate it so much. it’s someone’s sick revenge fantasy twisted into a way to get a manipulative villain sympathy, and it’s just gross to me on every account. i do think dream is traumatized-- just not by l’manberg, which was a conflict he started on his own terms. i would think l’manberg did affect him, because he was scared of losing control.

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again— my ideal ending for dream would be for him to be sent far away from dsmp to an island full of therapy animals and super strong therapists who have never met him before. and for him to get a shit ton of therapy until he becomes a halfway normal person. and then eventually he could get integrated into society again; but a different one with new people. (although maybe dteam + bbh + puffy can visit him, they might still like him.)

none of the people on the server (who have all been affected by dream) should be burdened with befriending him or rehabilitating him— look how that turned out with sam! sam had a personal grudge towards dream and it ended with the poor dude being tortured every day; and sam himself falling into corruption and literally cutting off his boyfriends arm. like we can all see thats fucking awful right?

no one who was affected by dream should have to deal with him ever again. and contrary to popular belief, that includes a LOT more people then just tommy. dream isn’t just tommy’s antagonist, hes almost everybody’s.

the only person on the server who might also be able to stand to help dream is techno, and that’s from sheer lack of ability to give a shit. but techno is probably THE furthest thing from a good therapist there is lol, and dream needs better then that.

this kind of just ended up being a rant about my thoughts on c!dream, so im so sorry op. especially since it was probably negative for you. i hope you’re doing very well.

i guess in the end it’s true what you said— people will highlight or ignore things based on what characters they like, and it’s especially easy to do in this fandom, where half the content doesn’t even get watched and then we become a big echo chamber of half-truths.

considering dream has hurt so many of the characters i care about, i almost can’t understand how he could be someone’s favorite or comfort character— but he is nonetheless, and it would be unfair of me to be rude about that.

essentially it just bothers me to see someone who was a perpetrator of accurately portrayed abuse and manipulation (using both those words in their actual definitions, not just as random buzzwords lol) being given the flower crown edit effect. especially since he’s hurt the characters i care about a lot.

ANYWAY all of that being said (this got LONG im so sorry op) i am so so excited to get dream’s pov, because although i disagree with his actions strongly i actually find dream’s character very interesting and cool, and watching his POV is going to insanely fun. i cannot wait to see what theories get confirmed or denied

ALSO incase it wasn’t clear this is all /nm at you! you seem lovely and smart, and neither of us can help what characters we get attached to :]

#c!dream critical #dream meta #og post #hey guys i would actually like some feedback on this one since i worked hard on it #rbs are okay and encouraged :]#my meta

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haleigh-sloth · 3 years

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Hello! Your meta posts are wonderful and I was just wondering if you have written about how you think the redemption of Dabi, Toga, and Shigaraki will go down in terms of where they will end up. How will hero society reconcile with their crimes without locking them up and leaving them to rot (which seems to be antithetical to the point Horikoshi is trying to make). Do you think they will be rehabilitated into society or at a facility? Or something else?

Whhhaaat 🥺🥺🥺 I know for sure that I’ve rambled about what I think will happen and hope will happen here and there but idk if I’ve really dived into it. Idk if anybody’s ever asked so here I go!

So as far as society reconciling with their crimes without locking them up, that’s not really going to be that hard tbh.

Think about the way society is portrayed right now in the manga. Just look at the chapters between the end of the war arc and now. Society is only getting worse. It’s growing more chaotic, disorganized, and dangerous. And even worse, but very important to note, society is stooping low to a point where they are blindly discriminating against each other just because of how someone looks (sound familiar?). The way things are right now, they’re only going to get worse and worse until the final battle involving AFO gets here, and all of this can be put to rest. It’s as the vestiges said in chapter 310, society is going backwards. Everybody is using their quirks illegally and lots of people are out committing crimes, playing vigilante, and destroying the cities just by using their powers. So by the time the final battle gets here, do you really think they are going to have the capacity to really care about what happens to the LOV? Not only that, but the main LOV members are being set up to redeem themselves by helping defeat AFO, at which point I expect that final battle to have caused so much chaos and destruction in society that there is literally no point in worrying about what happens to the main 3 villains who literally helped save the world. I mean...their redemption is rooted in defeating the one true villain of the story--AFO. Little Tenko wanted to be a hero who saved people, and defeating AFO is satisfying that dream of his. That’s his, and Toya’s, and Himiko’s redemption.

After that last final battle, everybody should be more worried about finding their families, rebuilding their homes, finding new homes, etc., more so than worrying about what happens to Toya, Shigaraki, and Himiko who just helped save them all from imminent death at the hands of AFO. So that’s how I expect the story to address the whole “do we lock them up? do we not?” situation.

As for what I think will happen with each member, well, it’s really up in the air for ones like Spinner and Compress (assuming they make it out alive), but for the main 3 I kind of have an inkling of what I think might happen, but I can’t say for sure. This is ALL just speculation and predicting so please take it with a grain of salt lol.

For Toya, it’s actually pretty obvious. He has to go home. He has 10 years without his family to make up for, and so does Rei. Toya will heal best in an environment surrounded by unconditional love. He also has to get to know Shouto, seeing as how he never got to. As for whether or not E is included in that...well I can’t say what I expect yet. Either way though, I’ll be happy as long as Toya is home and he can finally have a real relationship with Shouto and catch up with his mother and other two siblings. He just needs to be safe and happy.

For Toga, I THINK because of her age being that of a high schooler still, she may end up at UA. Maybe. Also I should clarify, I don’t expect UA to be a regular high school by the end either. I don’t see how society can go back to having a prominent school that feeds into the quirk elitist system that the story is criticizing and actively dismantling. What we’re learning right now in the backwards aging hero society is that everybody should have the privilege and opportunity to train their quirks, not just a select privileged few who have “strong” or “cool” or “convenient” quirks. People not knowing how to use their own quirks is exactly why society is shit right now. So I think UA will be more of an all inclusive institution by the end, and Toga will find acceptance there around other kids her age. That’s the thing about her too, she yearns for friendship. She has it with the league yes, but you can tell by how she goes after Ochaco and Tsu that she needs that connection with other teenagers and girls her age. She is still a teenage girl after all, and the LOV is comprised of all guys way older than her lol. So that’s what I kind of expect for her.

Shigaraki is hard for me to get a handle on ending wise because ideally I’d like for All Might to survive and take on that mentor/parent role for him. Kurogiri kind of took that role for Shigaraki, but I’m absolutely positive he’s not going to make it past the final battle. I mean he’s already dead so. But there’s a very real chance All Might might not make it out either. I’d rather he did though. I’d rather Gran Tostito bite the dust. I feel like All Might may survive so he can take his second chance at taking care of his master’s legacy, her grandson. He missed the opportunity the first time and those consequences were...well you see it now lol. So I feel like it would make sense for him to take that second chance, but again I really don’t know. He’s kinda the perfect character to kill off? But taking All Might out of the equation, I don’t know to be honest. Shigaraki has no family waiting for him. Which I think is important to remember. Really right now all he has is Midoriya, who is still technically a stranger to him. I do think they’re going to form some sort of bond and life-long friendship, I just don’t know how that will look in terms of “the aftermath”. But I don’t think Shigaraki will be alone by any means. He has no family so he’s going to have to find one in the people around him. I expect that main cast of 7 to kind of stick together in the aftermath, so there’s the people who will surround him who care about him. But as far as like...where he’ll live, I have no idea. I have it in my head that Aizawa may take on that mentor role I mentioned earlier, if All Might doesn’t make it. Aizawa is the only pro hero set up to have a change of heart, he’s the only pro who currently criticizes the system in place, so he’s kind of in a perfect position to take Shig in as well. Plus, Aizawa already took in Eri (who is Shigaraki’s reflection). So that’s very possible imo. But as far as relationships and friendships go, Midoriya will be there for him and I think Bakugo will be too. They’ll be an unhinged chaotic trio of absolute madness. It’ll be great. They deserve it tbh. Also with Shigaraki, I highly highly doubt he’ll be going by that name anymore. His name is Tenko Shimura. He and his family went missing when he was 5 years old. He was kidnapped and held hostage for 15 years, and now he’s finally been found.

So basically I expect society to be in such dissarray that they don’t have time to worry about the league, especially since by the end the league will be an established ally, no longer an enemy.

Now I have heard the possibility of them all being in behavioral hospitals like what Rei was in. And I’m not like...against it, but I don’t love that idea either. Mostly because I don’t want BNHA to suddenly start sticking with the rules of reality. Why can’t they heal in the best environment for them? WIth people who love them? I would prefer for them to be completely free by the end. If they do get put in behavioral health hospitals then I would at least like to be shown them living their lives after their release. I don’t want it to end on the note of institutionalization. I want to see them be free.

So yeah, happy endings for everyone! If this isn’t what happens exactly then that’s fine. What matters most is that they’re all happy and get everything they need. Toya needs to be with his family, Toga needs to be accepted, and Tenko needs to heard, acknowledged, and cared for. I think all three of them will get that regardless of how it looks.

#jeez long post again sorry guys #bnha #bnha asks #bnha endgame #bnha speculation #bnha predictions #boku no hero academia #anonymous #bnha lov #bnha league of villains #shigaraki tomura #todoroki touya #toga himiko

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iturbide · 3 years

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the fact that edelgard is the villain in 3/4 routes and yet intsys STILL glorifies her to no end enrages and annoys me. no other villain has been given that perspective of “well actually maybe they arent so bad” except for the hypocritical tyrant. even when she has *literally become an inhuman monster* intsys is still like “oh no dont worry she was right actually!” and it upsets me deeply

It upsets me, too, friend. IntSys seems to really like glorifying people who don’t deserve it, especially in recent games (Walhart in Awakening, Rudolf in Echoes -- I can’t say if his whole ‘orchestrating a plan to have his son murder him’ thing is carry-over from Gaiden or not, but it definitely exists in the recent remake so I’m including it), but Edelgard actually ends up as a bit of a weird case.

(I have a lot of thoughts about this, so I’m just going to cut preemptively.)

Now, I’m actually not opposed to Edelgard being the protagonist of the fourth route in Three Houses. Anyone who’s been here a while knows that I generally see Grima, a figure that IntSys generally tries to paint as a rote villain, as at least a sympathetic villain (and possibly even a secret hero in the events of Awakening itself); it’s entirely possible for someone that’s a villain in most of their appearances to have legitimate reasons for what they’re doing and why, and revealing that in their personal route could be incredibly powerful if done well.

And here’s the thing: Edelgard really is a compelling character, in large part because of her moral ambiguity. I actually agree with her when she says that the Church of Seiros is corrupt at its core and the system needs to change. She’s right about that! While Seiros might have had decent reasons for establishing things this way, over the past thousand years human societies have changed while the church itself remained stagnant -- something potentially exacerbated by her selfish ambition to restore her mother -- and this has led to a structure that once served an important purpose becoming a toxic and destructive mess for humanity at large. Edelgard has a completely valid point there, and it’s something that I could absolutely get on board with if she had gone about achieving change in some other way, because she does have other methods available to her that she writes off without real reason -- and even that can relate back in part to her deep trauma and difficulty trusting people after the betrayals she faced at the hands of her “uncle” and her own father’s powerlessness to stop the nightmare she and her siblings suffered through.

IntSys probably could have crafted a narrative that showed from her perspective why she believed war against the Church was the only valid option available to her. The issue is that she undercuts her own argument by targeting all of Fodlan, rather than specifically going after the Church: she doesn’t give the Kingdom and Alliance a “stay out of my way or else” warning, she literally turns her sights on the Kingdom as soon as the monastery falls and attempts to fully annex it once Cornelia sets up Dimitri’s fall, leaving the Alliance only because she has her hands full with Faerghus. She didn’t have to take Cornelia up on her offer of making the Kingdom into the Dukedom of Faerghus and sending troops to finish the job: she could have just left the woman to her own devices, forcing the Twisted to utilize their own people to maintain and secure full control of the region while she worked on addressing the systemic issues, which would have had multiple benefits:

The Imperial Army doesn’t get overwhelmed and exhausted fighting in conditions they’re not equipped to deal with, leaving them stronger overall while the Twisted forces are potentially weakened by the same

Hubert is able to better assess the threat they’re dealing with, including learning their capabilities and possibly even where they’re coming from before Merceus

Edelgard actually puts her money where her mouth is and ends up helping the people she claims to be doing this for, rather than just using them as fodder for the war to grind up

Unfortunately, the way she’s written ends up just making her an imperialist. She’s not just going after the corrupt core of the Church, she’s trying to forcibly unite the continent and return Fodlan to some long gone ideal where it was all united under the Imperial banner because she refuses to believe that Adrestia could have split by natural causes.

Crimson Flower ultimately ends up being a particularly egregious example of this glorification phenomenon in action because they give her a personal route that makes no effort to critically examine her actions and make her face consequences for them. This, I think, does her a massive disservice as a character, because that aforementioned moral ambiguity that makes her so interesting could have been utilized to great effect -- and the proof is actually there already, because they do it in Dimitri’s route.

Dimitri is himself another interesting character, and outwardly presents as Edelgard’s polar opposite: he recognizes that he doesn’t have all the answers, struggles to figure out the correct course of action when presented with difficult subjects that have no clear-cut answer -- like the fact that reliance on the Crest system is toxic for noble families, but it’s those very Crest-bearers and their Relics that help keep Faerghus safe from invasion by Sreng -- possesses incredible strength but specifically refrains using it in most cases to avoid harming others, and generally takes everyone’s problems onto himself to his own detriment. He’s also deeply traumatized and was never given a chance to deal with it in a healthy manner, which contributes to how he snaps -- and Azure Moon starts with Dimitri being so far out of reach that you can’t unlock any of his supports and can’t even engage with him in the weekly discussions. He’s lost himself to his survivor’s guilt and need for vengeance, considers himself to be nothing more than a monster, and has no qualms about killing if it helps advance his quest; as the story progresses, he faces a direct consequence for this murderous inclination in the form of Fleche who attempts to exact vengeance for her brother’s sake in the same way that he’s attempting to claim it for his family and friends -- only to lose Rodrigue, and have his dying words be a plea for Dimitri to live for himself rather than those who died before him, at which point Dimitri sets his sights on opposing Edelgard rather than killing her and seeing to atone for the crimes he committed. While I think the game made the change a little too abrupt, it’s handled well overall, and shows a real development arc complete with both actions and their associated consequences that directly relate to Dimitri’s growth as a person.

Contrast this to Edelgard in general and Crimson Flower as a route. Edelgard believes that she has all the answers despite not trying to engage with anyone outside her own House, decisively chooses what she believes to be the right and proper course of action regardless of how difficult the subject matter, possesses great strength (both physically and of sheer will) that she uses to dominate others, and forces others to join her in addressing what she sees as problems -- such as her line about making her own people into “worthy sacrifices” for her “higher cause.” Crimson Flower is the only route where her attack on the monastery fails to capture Rhea, but once Byleth returns she sets her sights on attacking and subjugating a territory that has remained entirely neutral through the past five years, turns on the Twisted while she’s still in a vulnerable position which ultimately causes the deaths of at least a third of the forces she left at Arianrhod once they fire their warning shot, lies to her friends and allies about what happened there, murders her step-brother, and allows a city full of trapped civilians to burn unchecked while she deals with what she considers to be the “real” threat on the opposite side of the Faerghus capital -- and all of this is capped off with her never dealing with the Twisted, and cute little endcards that talk about how everything worked out fine and there were no problems ever, The End. Edelgard doesn’t get a development arc in her route: she’s never challenged, she never faces real consequences (and the one she does face she literally lies about to her friends and then leaves as a problem to deal with later), and she pretty much ends the game exactly where she started it: completely assured that she made the right choices. The moral ambiguity inherent in her character is instead cast as “of course she’s in the right, she’s so great and there’s nothing at all wrong with what she’s doing or how she’s going about it, isn’t she wonderful?”

At least in the main game, Hegemon Husk Edelgard is treated with real gravity, shown as the pinnacle of her drive to see her ambition come to fruition and the tragic consequence of her inability to change course and find another path. The Forging Bonds event just takes the CF brush and paints her actions as the right ones, even though what made her so compelling is that her reasons were right while her methods were horrific. Edelgard really could have been wonderful. The potential is right there in her character. But IntSys completely botched the execution of it, so that her route feels rushed, incomplete, and at best unsatisfying (or, if you’re me, utterly disgusting for how it glorifies imperialistic conquest), and her Heroes appearances only make it worse.

#answered #anonymous #fire emblem: three houses #edelcourse #look i really do find edelgard to be interesting #i just find intsys' execution of her character to be utterly terrible #and fandom at large has kind of made it worse #i'm just going to keep the nuance and explore the real consequences #and write a ton of fanfiction to that effect

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whetstonefires · 3 years

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Reverse Unpopular Opinion: Naruto

Hm! Only Positivity huh? I still don’t know why this is defined as Reverse Unpopular; some of my least popular opinions are already Thing Good.

Okay I actually really liked how Naruto (the manga, which I followed week to week for most of high school lol, hurrah for scanlators and rip mangafox) carried off the Big Twist about Itachi. The followthrough could have been better, as is the case with basically every element of the story, but the basic sell of Itachi’s real motives just landed really successfully, in my eyes.

There are a few reasons for that--mostly that it was the endpoint of quite a lot of direct buildup, of weird choices by Itachi that seemed just like his weird personality at a glance but which added together made foreshadowing, plus actual foreshadowing, followed by his absolutely bananas behavior during the climactic fraternal battle and the panel comp for his last words. Which really got me in the heart before I even had context.

But also that it snapped into place with a lot of the story’s strongest existing themes and tied them together in what looked at the time like the potential for a strong wicker sort of framework.

About the harm their society did its people and especially its children by molding them for war, and how seductively meaningful that shape could feel, going back to Haku. About cut-throat intra-clan bullshit going back to Neji.

About the weird emphasis placed on the concept of genius and its enforced advancement, going back to either the early Chuunin exam arc with Lee or earlier with Sasuke’s basic characterization. And about the fuckery that isolation wreaks on the psyche and how easy it is for authority figures to take advantage of vulnerable children, going back to literally the first chapter.

A lot of the time these twist-reveals that some baddie was Actually A Victim All Along are really unsatisfying, because they tend to diminish the horror of their crimes and even argue they were Justified.

With Itachi, the true story of the Uchiha Massacre was worse. Konoha’s government or a subset thereof (it was never clarified who was complicit) actively coercing a thirteen-year-old child into helping to kill his entire family and taking all the blame so they (that is Danzou) could avoid the potential repercussions of a civil war in the worst way possible while eliminating the Uchiha as internal political rivals is so much more deeply horrifying than a genius just snapping. Systemic rot is so, so much worse than individual violence.

(That’s why we as a society are encouraged to view crime as an individual thing, after all, and the prototypical criminal mind as the serial killer driven by nothing but deranged psychosexual needs.)

The fact that everything Itachi put Sasuke through was out of love and a desperate need to keep him alive, because Sasuke was who he loved most and the only thing he loved that he was allowed to save, that is so much more awful than it being out of hate. That that very love was cynically used to corral this child into leaving the corner he’d been backed into at an angle useful to others.

It’s obscene, but it pulls so many elements of the setting and characterization together.

And even though Itachi’s scheme technically went off exactly as planned, the narrative does not embrace it as in any way a good plan that reflected good judgment or even sanity. Which was nice.

The new version of What Really Happened is worse and it adds dimension to the past events being retconned rather than flattening them, which is cool and honestly difficult to pull off.

Also I love the premise of Itachi being, by nature, a very gentle person. Because that hasn’t stopped him from being a mass murdering serial killer, when the correct pressures were applied. He hates violence. He hates people being hurt.

No one ever cared what he wanted. And his family pressured him into a particularly violent and traumatic version of their murder career extra young for the prestige. And that was why, when more pressure came from different angles, he was already someone who could shut down his personal volition and kill whoever he was supposed to kill, no matter how much it hurt him.

They made him into a knife and he was turned against them. I go wild for that. It wasn’t right or fair and so many people died who weren’t directly at fault, but it is a closed circle. Which I find narratively satisfying.

Itachi also played interestingly against Gaara, the series’ previous benchmark for its recurring theme of Utterly Broken Boy, because he was walked a steady path down from Being At All Okay by the demands of the adults in his life, then took a really big hit, then just kept getting worse and worse without ever really snapping completely, but also without anybody ever even coming close to saving him.

While Gaara was betrayed by his family much harder and faster and in many ways more comprehensively, went completely insane when the big hit came, and then with Naruto’s help pulled himself together and ascended to a position of power, and began making things better and having positive sibling relationships.

Another thing that always struck me about the Real Itachi Backstory is that, because the breaking of him was conducted so much within the system--without kidnapping or sand demons talking in his head or social collapse or abandonment or even overt abuse or torture, unsanctioned wetworks divisions and insane cousins impersonating insane great-grandfathers notwithstanding--he makes it much easier to see the parallels between the way the ninja world eats its brightest stars alive very young, and the abusive expectations the real, contemporary school system tends to lay on high performers.

Fugaku’s abuse of Itachi is in some ways understated for fiction but also utterly deranged, in terms of the kind of gore and horror he pushed his genius child into confronting at such a young age. But it’s still sufficiently normalized within his society that it looks enough like a normal dad demanding outstanding academic achievement at all times to be really...the opposite of trippy. Strangely grounded for a relationship whose core element is ‘refused to let son choose not to be a child soldier.’

I’m torn about the level of intentionality there.

Of course, salt incoming lol I can’t hold it back, praising this kind of thing in Naruto just brings attention to how the resolution of the story was unsatisfying, because it ultimately disengaged from all its major themes other than self-sacrifice and friendship being A Big Deal in order to bring a big finish and a firm conclusion.

Which...man looks like an even stupider decision in hindsight considering it now has a sequel. Hah.

#ask meme #naruto #uchiha itachi #kishimoto pulled this kind of twist a lot of times #a lot a lot #and i think itachi was the most successful #although the followthrough and payoff after that point was #utter pants #because the narrative lacked the courage of its convictions #as is common in this genre lmao #reverse unpopular opinion #a nonny mouse #ask #hoc est meum

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