#he's so full of contradictions/ hypocrisies and he doesn't even realize it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

spacecasehobbit · 2 months

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Oliver's last conversations with each of Farleigh, Felix, and Venetia are so consistently fascinating to me. Each of Farleigh and Venetia think that they are calling Oliver out, forcing him to face the harsh truths of his own insignificance, while Oliver stands passively by and lets them reveal their own hypocrisy before revealing the true fragility of their positions, the power that he has over their lives.

Farleigh towers over Oliver, belittling him against the backdrop of this party that is supposedly for Oliver and is full of people whose regard for Oliver spans from indifference to outright hostility. Yet while he thinks that he's giving Oliver his victory speech, gloating over the fact that it is Farleigh, not Oliver, who will stay at Saltburn after this summer, he's also admitting to the tenuous nature of his own position there. "I was invited," he tells Oliver, when Oliver questions his presence at the party, along with, "I'll always come back," and, "This is my house."

The contradiction that Farleigh doesn't even realize he's admitted to, however, is that people don't have to be invited back to their house. He's always been as much a guest as Oliver, but he's the one who can't face the possibility of getting kicked out for good. Thus, Farleigh is the one who is really clinging to hope instead of action, the one who will never be fighting quite as hard as Oliver to ensure that possibility doesn't come true.

Farleigh gloats over Oliver's loss and takes Oliver's silence as proof that he is right. When really, Oliver doesn't gloat or bluster or protest. Oliver listens to what people tell him, and then Oliver acts.

It's the same thing we see in Oliver's confrontation with Venetia in the bathtub after Felix's funeral.

Venetia is clearly devestated by her brother's loss, and she is looking for someone to lash out at. And what a convenient, easy target Oliver seems to make. So polite, so soft-spoken, so awkward and innocent and small.

A harmless moth, batting up against the windows. At the same time, a parasite, consuming what wasn't his to take. Eating holes in her family - her family who would have greedily consumed every last drop of the sad, pitiful life he fed them for their own amusement, before casting him aside like a moth-eaten sweater abandoned in the back of a closet.

She calls him out, too, for wearing Felix's aftershave (but not the fact that he's wearing Felix's bathrobe, interestingly enough), while she's the one sprawled in Felix's bathtub. "I bet you're even wearing his underwear," she tells him scornfully, and he kisses her to prove that she'll still kiss him back, that for all her mocking words she's just as desperate as he is to cling to any scraps of Felix left behind. That for all her words to the contrary, he is a scrap of Felix left behind.

And then the harmless moth puts holes in her wrists, puts her in a hole in the ground, and walks away.

In contrast, the confrontations with Farleigh and Venetia make Oliver's confrontation with Felix in the maze all the more devastating in a different way.

With Felix, Oliver isn't quiet. He isn't timid or passive or small, and he is trying desperately not to listen when it's Felix telling him to go away, to stop, to give up, with nothing else he can latch onto for hope of a different outcome. With Felix, Oliver shouts, he protests, he snarls. He loses control of his voice and his body, even pins Felix up against the minotaur statue while he begs Felix to listen to him because he doesn't know what else to do; all he has are these words that he desperately wants to be true, that Felix doesn't want to hear.

It's Felix who is forced into silence while Oliver talks, and it is Felix who finally sees the truth that Oliver can't bear to face in himself.

It's Felix who tells Oliver, "You make my fucking blood run cold."

And he's the only one who gets it right.

#saltburn #saltburn meta #oliver quick #felix catton #farleigh start #venetia catton #look okay as much i loved both farleigh and venetia as characters #both of them were lashing out at oliver in those scenes due to their own insecurity or grief #neither of them really understood him #and he knew that and used it to his advantage #felix was the only one who actually saw the hard truth oliver wanted most to bury #felix and oliver both wound up seeing the worst parts of each other #the parts that neither of them wanted anyone else to see #which is....#honestly really sad

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kitkatopinions · 6 months

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The biggest instances of hypocrisy in RWBY mostly have to do with characters getting mad at Ozpin for something they themselves do (and sometimes they're really irrational about blaming Oz anyway) and it's funny that it feels like the RWBY writers just haven't even realized they're doing it.

Jaune: "How dare Oz involve Pyrrha in his war without telling her all the details, she's dead because of him and not because of any choice she made!" Also Jaune: "Yeah, let's try to recruit everyone in the world to the war with Salem via video message without telling them all the details and also I will kill Penny for the Maiden Powers because 'it's her choice.'"

The entirety of RWBYJNROQ: "How dare Ozpin keep secrets, give half truths, and not tell us everything!" Also the entirety of RWBYJNROQ: *Proceed to keep secrets, give half truths, and not tell everyone everything.*

Raven: "Ozpin keeps secrets, prioritizes what he wants, and also uses people for their powers." Also Raven: *Doesn't tell anyone what happened with Summer, barely does anything to help people and even works with Cinder and Salem out of selfishness and cowardice, and it's heavily implied that she took in and befriended the last spring maiden only to murder her for her power so Raven could have it herself plus essentially uses Vernal as a human shield while keeping her Maiden powers a secret.*

Hazel: "Ozpin's attempt to teach willing specialists how to fight Grimm resulted in my sister choosing to try to learn and then dying on the field of battle, therefore he's evil and monstrous and deserves death and torture and I'm going to blame him for her death. How dare he-" *checks notes* "Try to stop the Grimm from killing innocent people indiscriminately by asking for willing participants who don't get their hunter licenses until age twenty one to learn to fight them to defend said innocent people?" Also Hazel: *Literally kills tons of people and wants to kill a child and tortures a child on screen while working for the murderous woman actively attacking cities full of helpless innocent children who also partially controls the very monsters that killed his sister in the first place.*

Like, the show is entirely unconcerned with checking any of this hypocrisy either despite the fact that outside of Ruby and maybe Oscar who regretted keeping secrets (and Ruby regretted more than keeping secrets) Ozpin is the only one who ever seems apologetic or uncertain about the things he does. It's only ever Ozpin who is treated as bad for doing... anything that isn't one hundred percent perfect and flawless, no matter if his back is to a wall and no matter how uncertain or unhappy he seems in his choices. Then there's Raven and Hazel over here acting superior and totally sure of themselves and yet they're the ones who pretty much go unchallenged. Like I said, it's like they don't even realize they're doing it, like they wanted their 'morally gray mentor' story, forgot to actually include it in a convincing way, and then just do not actually give a damn about the morals and lessons involved so they write the rest of the story as if it doesn't matter at all. RWBY is like this in a lot of ways, where you have to actively pretend that the rest of the story didn't happen in order to enjoy moments that contradict it (whether morally or just through story beats.) But the Oz thing is just so frustrating because it's like.... Okay, so I'm not supposed to have any sympathy for the cursed abuse victim out here doing his best and acting heartbroken while in extremely bad lose-lose conditions, but I'm supposed to have all the sympathy in the world for the screaming murderer electrocuting teenage girls and trying to murder children while victim-blaming the guy he's trying to kill for all his own actions.... And the reason for why I'm supposed to be angry at Oz is because he was attempting to help the world in sometimes flawed ways with the weight of the world on his shoulders? But I'm supposed to have no problems at all with like, Jaune or Yang because they're trying to help the world in sometimes flawed ways?

Once again, RWBY as a show has no actual real morals to follow and zero consistency.

#rwde #pro ozpin

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seyaryminamoto · 4 years

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Isn't it hypocrisy from Ozai to like Ursa more yet he doesn't want Azula to have more important person? You said Ursa wouldn't care but Ozai is different. He likes Azula more if she stands her ground instead of acting like the perfect pet project, but would be bothered a lot if he wasn't her No.1 person? Why?

... Because it’s Ozai? Being selfish and unfair is pretty much part of the package when someone is writing Ozai, no matter how much deeper or complex he may be (I suppose the only exception would be AUs but even there you’d have to give believable reasons to write him as not-a-dick). He doesn’t tend to respect what other people want, much less when what they want comes into conflict with what HE wants. And Azula wanting to elope with a certain Water Tribe man and live happily ever after is absolutely in conflict with what Ozai wants and expects from her.

As for Ozai liking her better when she stands her ground, that’s entirely unconscious on his part. It’s, mostly, because he associates that kind of thing with Ursa and he’s predisposed to accept it, but ONLY within certain boundaries. Even in their worst falling out so far (The Fire Lord’s Shadow arc), Azula hasn’t done anything Ozai considers utterly unacceptable (he even thinks she killed the White Lotus guy despite it should be obvious she didn’t, because she placed the guy’s tile on the Throne Room’s floor before leaving). She hasn’t acted on any impulses, as far as he knows, that go against what’s “best” for the Fire Nation. Falling in love with Sokka and giving herself to him completely is a full-on contradiction of what Ozai believes is best for the Fire Nation.

And why? Because, while I write Azula without as much supremacy as other people might (though I did give her a fair share of it when the story began, she has just learned better by now), Ozai IS a supremacist. He believes his nation is superior, his people are superior, and everyone else ought to submit or die. He fashions himself as the top authority of the entire world, and as glimpsed in the latest published chapter, some of his people actually treat him as such:

"Turn themselves in?!" exclaimed the woman from the beginning again, outraged "They must die for what they've done! That's the only acceptable outcome for this crime!"

"Well, do excuse me, but that's not up to you. Or any of us" said Sokka, shrugging "This matter has reached the ears of the Fire Lord, lady. If someone's going to decide how justice will be served for these ruffians, it'll be the Fire Lord, not you or any of us"

Those words seemed to silence the woman. Perhaps because she knew Ozai wouldn't possibly choose a fate for these men that was any different or any better than what she wished on them… or perhaps this was how deep the indoctrination went, Sokka thought. The Fire Lord's word superseded everything else, clearly… and that worked to his favor, if just for now. It would at least stop the most hot-headed of the villagers from trying to impose their twisted sense of justice on the rebels by their own hand.

So, if ordinary commoners who probably have never seen Ozai in their lives would immediately back down and let the Fire Lord have his way... naturally, Ozai expects the same kind of obedience from his daughter, in the long run anyhow. Whatever rebellious bouts she has are merely over them seeing the world differently, Ozai believes, and not abot her genuinely opposing him.

And THAT is the crux of the tragedy in this relationship. I’m not going to say Zuko had it better, hell no... but Zuko can rebel against Ozai and Ozai will allow it, even encourage it, because he doesn’t want anything to do with his son. He will gladly go to war against his son, as he sort-of does in canon, because it’s Zuko and Zuko pretty much embodies everything about himself that Ozai would like to destroy. Fucked up and weird, but that’s how his head works.

Azula, though? If Azula rebels against him for good, it will be actual betrayal in Ozai’s eyes. It’s not something he wants, it’s an unforeseen development that he absolutely cannot accept because Azula is valuable, useful, the heir he has been raising since day 1 and on whom he relies more than anyone else. There is an affectionate component involved though it is subconscious, because Ozai has zero control over his emotions despite he has convinced himself of the opposite. But ultimately, the point is that he has always thought that, no matter who abandons him or turns his back on him, no matter how many enemies he may make, he will always have Azula on his side.

It’s a fucked up, toxic mentality, one that I’m lifting pretty directly from canon because that’s what his attitude came off like to me, all through the show but seen especially in Sozin’s Comet. She’s his back-up, she’s his reliable support, he entrusts her with missions and she delivers. Gladiator-wise, it’s the same thing: he expects that she’ll be there, standing by him loyally, no matter if everything else falls apart, and as she’s smart as hell she’ll likely resolve all his problems for him too, so she’s too valuable an asset for Ozai to let go of.

That there’s someone else in her life that she is far more devoted to than him, for whom she might sacrifice absolutely anything, including her position at Ozai’s right hand... that can’t sit well with him because of all these reasons. It’s part of the problem with their relationship, no matter how much more I’ve developed it so far: he trusts her to be his rock and his legacy, and Azula had been honored by that until she realized she can and should have a life of her own beyond just being her father’s faithful daughter.

#anon #but to be honest asking why ozai is a hypocrite #is probably a question you ought to address to bryke instead of me #yes sure I've developed him further #but he's a hypocrite since the show #and that's facts

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