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the-priestess-of-dawn · 5 months

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Grima and Final Blows

The other day I mentioned that I had an essay about Grima to write that I'd been putting off, and between that and all the great essays my fellow Grimleal scholars have been putting out recently, I decided to sit down and finally get it done.

So here you go. An analysis of Grima's difficulties with directly killing people.

Okay, so I’ve been thinking about this for quite some time, because one of my favorite things to explore when it comes to Grima is the gap between their villain act, which they actively play up in front of others in both Awakening and FEH, and their true feelings, which are hinted at in Awakening (particularly through the Future Past DLC) and made even clearer in FEH— their own evil actions are repulsive to them, and they wish they could live normally among humans, but they don’t believe they have any choice but to be the monster that “the fell dragon, Grima” is supposed to be. They are committed to this “fell dragon” character, to putting on a show for everyone, and they are so good at it that it’s easy to overlook that they… uh… aren’t very good at killing anyone important. Not directly, anyway.

Sure, Grima is responsible for numerous deaths. But what is their actual kill count? Well, in Awakening’s main game… zero. (Unless you count Chrom, but, as we witness, that was not a voluntary act on their part; Validar took control of their body. You could also make the argument that Grima “claiming the sacrifice” at the Dragon’s Table counts, but the problem with that is, although it’s obvious that Grima accepts the life force of the Grimleal members as a sacrifice, it’s not at all clear whether or not Grima personally kills them. Although it’s possible that they did off screen, it’s also possible that Validar killed them, or that they were ordered to take their own lives; there’s no reason Grima would have had to lay a hand on them.) In the Future Past, it’s… one, maybe one and half (Naga’s spirit, and Tiki, but only in body. More on this later.)

And it’s not as though Fire Emblem shies away from showing villains directly murdering people, Even in Awakening itself, the intro to Chapter 9 shows Aversa killing a Plegian soldier for delivering an unsatisfactory report, so it wouldn’t have been out of place to let Grima stab a few NPCs as a show of brutality. Especially seeing as Grima is the evil dragon final boss. As early as Mystery of the Emblem, we can see Medeus killing his cleric hostages to restore his own health if you fail to rescue them before trying to defeat him, and as recently as Engage, we get a whole cutscene of Sombron eating Hyacinth. Fantasy violence my beloved <3

Anyway, the point is, Grima could have been written to be much more violent and I don’t think anyone would have complained. Instead, though, Grima repeatedly— and consistently across the series— tries to avoid engaging in direct combat.

Let’s start with what Grima does in the main game of Awakening. We know that Risen pursue Lucina into the past, because we see them fall out of the portal with her in Chapter 1. We also know that those Risen, as well as the others that are appearing throughout the land, are not being directly controlled by Grima, because later in Chapter 13, as the Shepherds are leaving Plegia after meeting with Validar, Aversa, and the Hierophant, they are pursued by more skilled Risen, and Frederick notes that “Either they are learning our ways, or someone is commanding them…” So… It seems that sending the Risen—with or without specific orders—to attack while Grima is not themself present is a favored tactic.

But what about when Grima is present? Take a look at the Endgame: Grima chapter. Yes, you eventually get to engage Grima in direct combat. But not immediately. What Grima does first is…

Grima attacks the Shepherds with dark spikes from a distance, reducing everyone’s hp to 1. Now, here’s what happens next: Grima attempts to possess their past self, Robin hears the voices of their friends and breaks free, Naga heals everyone back to full health, and then the fight against Grima begins… Except actually, the Shepherds have to get to Grima first, because they’re at the top of the map and they’re not budging. Naga warns them that “Grima’s servants will beset [them] to no end.” and she’s not kidding. Grimleal reinforcements will spawn infinitely, and they can hit pretty hard. Even with everyone starting at full health, it’s possible to lose units to these Grimleal soldiers if Grima isn’t defeated quickly. Can you imagine what would happen if Naga hadn’t healed the Shepherds first?

Well, I’d guess that they’d probably all die to the Grimleal without Grima having to face them up close. Which was probably what Grima was going for.

This isn’t the only time Grima tries the dark spikes trick, either. Grima attempts this exact same move in the Future Past 3 when they face Lucina, Severa, Laurent, and Gerome.

Grima announces “With the next blow, I will kill you.” and then demands that they hand over the Fire Emblem as well as the gemstone they hold. The threat is very real. But…

Given that at 1hp, a gust of wind could take the kids out, would it not have been easier and faster to kill them and just loot their bodies immediately? And yet Grima lets the kids have an extended discussion about sacrifice, and even suggests that Lucina would indeed buy a little more time by running… Again, I cannot stress enough that Grima should be able to finish them off in one hit at this point.

So the plan was almost certainly to back off and let the Risen do the actual killing, even though that would be a lot less efficient under the circumstances. And when Chrom and the Shepherds arrive, Grima immediately turns their attention to them, saying “If it’s a reunion you seek, my soldiers shall welcome you on my behalf.” Then they once again pick a spot at the back of the map and refuse to move from it, forcing the Shepherds to fight through the Risen in order to engage Grima in combat at all.

And sure, Grima has some excuses. “I was hoping not to have to flex any muscle,” they say right before the dark spikes attack, as if to justify why they didn’t do it sooner. And of course they taunt Lucina over having to choose to whether to run as her friends sacrifice themselves for her or to stay and fight and die with them. “I must say I shall enjoy this either way!” Yes, Grima, we get it, you’ve made it very clear that you’re an arrogant asshole.

But is arrogance really all there is to it? If we look at what Tiki tells Grima in the good ending of the Future Past, it looks as though Grima’s arrogance has brought their own downfall. “If you had left Mount Prism alone, Grima, you might have stood a chance. Instead, you have brought the Awakening right to your feet.” However, when you think about it… Is Tiki’s continued existence not in itself a result of Grima’s repeated pattern of not really wanting to land a finishing blow? The game states that Grima did in fact kill Tiki… but only in body, not in spirit. This is, according to Tiki, because Robin intervened.

Now, the question I have is… Is it really possible that Robin could have intervened both against Grima’s will and without them having any idea? Honestly, it’s hard to tell exactly how aware Grima is of Robin’s resistance, because they lie about it a lot, e.g. stating that Robin’s spirit perished in sending Chrom back to his own world, even though just moments later, Robin is once again overpowering them. So, keeping in mind that Grima is a liar, was Grima really arrogant to leave Tiki’s body in Ylisstol, and to not make sure that her spirit was fully destroyed? Or was Robin simply able to capitalize on Grima’s propensity towards backing off?

Because surely the only way Grima could be unaware that Robin had acted against them is if Robin hadn’t actually acted against them. I don’t think I believe that Grima really wanted Tiki gone. Naga, sure—longtime nemesis and all. But if Grima had truly cared about seeing Tiki’s existence destroyed… Well, I doubt Robin could have interfered that much.

But maybe it could still be a matter of arrogance. Maybe Grima just didn’t think Tiki’s spirit could do anything with Naga’s spirit gone, and thus didn't care to pay attention to her anymore once she seemed dead enough.

If that’s true, it doesn’t explain why Shadows of Valentia Grima exhibits the exact same habits when fighting Alm and Celica, despite never having been outside of the Thabes Labyrinth at this point in their life. As opposed to the various Terrors throughout the rest of the Labyrinth, which chase Alm (or Celica) down in the overworld to force a fight, Grima is immobile in their room, and will wait patiently there indefinitely until the player chooses to engage. You can even evacuate from the dungeon.

But if you do choose to fight Grima, it proceeds much like the battles against them in Awakening go. The main difference is that they actually will move from their starting position this time, if you position someone in their range. That still requires a fight against (proto-)Risen who are spawning in from the sides to stop your party’s advance.

So… Now it’s starting to look like Grima actively prefers this one particular trick… And it’s a fundamentally defensive maneuver, which makes perfect sense from SoV Grima’s standpoint (they were attacked out of nowhere, after all), but is not really an obvious standout strategy for Awakening Grima, whose taunts and threats suggest an aggression that would be better supported with a more offensive strategy… Consider, too, that Awakening Grima is in fact being even more defensive than their SoV iteration, since they don’t move towards you at all.

With all that in mind, it really, really looks like Grima doesn’t want to fight, especially in Awakening. Not that they don’t intend for the Shepherds to die—on the contrary, they’ve set everything up so that the Shepherds will eventually be overwhelmed—but that they don’t want to land the killing blow.

(And gee, I wonder what might be fueling their reluctance? Being controlled and made to kill your best friend by your own hand wouldn't be totally traumatic or anything, right?)

And then... Funny thing here, I’ve been procrastinating writing this essay for a long time. I originally started thinking about it shortly before the Depths of Despair banner was released in FEH, so imagine my surprise when I saw this characterization hold up in the writing of Fell Exalt Chrom’s Forging Bonds as well… The Grima there says that Chrom was the one to kill the rest of the Shepherds. Now, it’s pretty clear that it was through Grima controlling him, but that’s not the point. The point is that once again, Grima didn't have to do any direct killing.

Look, if it had only ever happened once, I could buy that maybe Grima was just underestimating their opponents, that maybe they thought they could get away without having to put very much work in. But for Grima to operate this way so many times, so consistently, and to their own detriment? No...

Grima doesn’t like direct combat. Grima has trouble even when it’s a fight they asked for.

And when you think about it, that makes their reaction to Robin choosing to land the final blow themself in the sacrifice ending all the more understandable.

“…YOU WOULD… NOT DARE!”

Because Grima would not dare. Grima has always preferred to let someone else land the final blow.

#grima #fire emblem awakening #fe13 #grima studies #honestly realizing that main game grima doesn't kill anyone kind of shook me #future past grima only has naga and tiki... neither of which we get to see on screen so tbh grima might have weaseled out of them too #expiration has 5 range after all. naga could have just taken some dragon breath to the face from afar. we truly have no idea what grima did #to my knowledge the only time we see grima actually try to KILL kill (not dark spikes 1hp em) is... rearmed grima in the forging bonds stor #not her specific forging bonds but the general overarching one for that banner #which i have major problems with for other reasons anyway #and which might be retconned by feh itself bc thrasir said arcane weapons should be avoided at all costs yet... so many rearmed heroes now #so i don't feel too bad ignoring that one #but yeah like... writing this essay made me feel for grima even more #um... you know that one quote that the robin who's part of the day of devotion duo with chrom has...#“Having someone to express your love to is an amazing thing. There IS more to life than constant battle!”#yeah. i think about that quote and i think about grima's defensive fighting style and i. feel things.#to exist always on the defensive...#such an exhausting life they lead

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welcometogrouchland · 1 year

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[ID: ten pieces of digital owl house fanart.

The 1st image is a finished illustration of Amity and Willow in clouds on the horizon, in fighting poses welding their magic against a dark purple background.

The 2nd image is a doodle of Luz from hollow mind with an exaggerated and distraught face looking at the viewer against the purple background. She's labeled "has witnessed the horrors" a small scribble of hunter can be seen in the background.

The 3rd image is a limited green, yellow, orange and blue colour palette drawing of willow in her flyer derby uniform.

The 4th image is a doodle of Luz and Hunter in a Labyrinth (1986) au. Hunter wears an outfit similar to his one in eclipse lake and looks at Luz grumpily. Luz wears Eda's jacket over an azura dress and looks back at hunter. Each has a thought bubble- hunters says "ruining his chances of getting his uncle back" and Luz's says "brother napper".

The 5th and 6th images are a set of limited colour palette drawings of Willow and Hunter. Both are from the bust up, willow's palette is green and hunters is blue.

The 7th image is a doodle of Caleb and Evelyn labeled "ye olde bisexuals".

The 8th image is an all green doodle of willow in her Halloween costume on a transparent background. The 9th image is of possessed hunter on a black background.

The 10th and final image is a young Luz being held by Camilla as she cries. The palette is all purple and yellow and the lyrics "one of these days I'm gonna move far away..." Are written and partially cut off in the background. End ID]

All the art from last year (dad joke) that I liked but never posted! I'm not gonna write a huge dedication because this post is long enough (that's what the tags are for). Instead I will simply say that now my conscience is cleared of all the requests I did but never posted (third image is a request for @hotwizardstuff and 10th is for @loverboybrightsideghost), I am finally free to be as silly as I want in the new year!!! 🎉🪩

#the owl house #toh #hunter toh #luz noceda #willow park #caleb wittebane #evelyn clawthorne #amity blight #camilla noceda #TOO MANY GOD-DAMNED CHARACTERS #oh my god never let me make a doodle dump post again. so long and for what!!#long post #i feel like the last doodle dump post i made yonks ago was a lot prettier 😭 I wasn't experimenting as much w/ colour back then #I've honestly been pretty touch and go with posting art this year? owl house got me back into it but even then I've made less art this year #than i think in previous years #mainly cause whatevers going on with me (i am back on medication for my blood baby!!) has kinda impaired that #but even beyond physically making less art I've been posting less of it #on the one hand it's very freeing to not care so much about what people think of me and my art!#i really enjoy being able to keep things for myself. it takes the pressure off and makes me happier i think #on the other hand i miss the engagement with other fans that i get from posting art frequently #i think the only reason I developed a small presence in my own corner of the last fandom I was in (besides a couple good meta posts)#was the fact that i posted a LOT of art at a semi frequent pace #compared to toh where i just. haven't been able to lol #there's also the fact that the last fandom i was in spanned beginning of GCSE and lockdown to middle of A Level #which was overall a much less taxing time school wise than now where I'm in my final year of highschool #it's nothing that really bothers me but it's interesting to muse on the way fans respond to different types of creators #who have very different outputs #i definitely think i wanna hone my skills a little more this year (maybe come up with some reasonable goals to achieve?)#and try and set up commissions over summer for a bit of extra cash and just for fun! to say I've done it #I'm out of tags so I'll just end by saying the most important thing: happy jules holland hootinany to all who celebrate <3

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bardofvibes · 28 days

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I just finished watching Hannibal for the first time and I’m having emotions (I’m not okay, help)

Will had such a chill life after everything that had happened to him. A nice life, a simple one, some might say. Then Hannibal came back into it, all went to shit... or did it?

Will could have chosen not to get involved with the FBI again. He could have chosen not to get in the car with Hannibal in the end. But he went with him. He chose him over the simplicity he might have had a chance to go back to in some way. But in truth, he didn't have much of a choice. He went with him because he needed to. Because he was too deep in the whole thing again. Because the Dragon was still free and alive. Because Hannibal would have gotten away and Will would not have had peace in his life either way. Because the side of him that needed Hannibal was awake again. Because they understood each other in a way that nobody did before they met.

"When life becomes maddeningly polite, think about me", Hannibal had said. He coaxed that part back out of Will that Will had tried to bury over the years. Will's whispered "it's beautiful" about the life he and Hannibal could have had. Seeing beauty in what he had tried to ignore but in some way still wanted. This was not about winning each other over anymore, or helping each other become a "better version" of themselves; each with their own perception of what better means. This was acceptance of the impossibility to cut each other out. There was acceptance and relief in their hug in the end, the way they clung to each other. There was Will's final acceptance of it all, of himself, in the fall. They fell for each other in whichever way that might have been. They fell with each other because it was the only way left to be together at this point.

#hannibal #hannibal s3 #hannibal s3e13 #hannigram #yes I knew about the ending before I saw it but I didn't realize it was Will who threw them off the cliff FUCK #this whole thing made me cry so hard #his voice on “it's beautiful” broke me #this show changed my brain chemistry idk what to do with myself now #just my thoughts right after watching #not much deep analyzing went into this yet #only AAAAAA and OW #I'm feeling so normal about this #honestly rude to put so many feels into the last 10 minutes of a show /lh

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mewtwo24 · 3 months

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I just watched s2 episode 10 in the english dub and I have to say. Nothing could have prepared me for Howard's delivery of that final scene where Xie Lian gets worked up about the truth coming out.

The just...sincerely agonized delivery of "That my words were the empty ramblings of a sad child!!" shook me to the core. The absolute self-loathing in that line, the raw emotion. The way concealing the truth was done to spare Lang Qianqiu but also at its heart was about Xie Lian's unresolved feelings of humiliation and shame, the way [redacted] did everything in his power to make Xie Lian lose faith in himself and the possibility of good prevailing in the world.

The way TGCF keeps me up at night, man...

#tgcf #xie lian #lang qianqiu #the runner-up line that devastated me too was: 'it's the least of what I DESERVE!!!'#i dont think there are words to describe how that made hua cheng feel knowing all that he does (from his time as wu ming)#legitimately its on the spectrum of mantis shrimp im guessing bc i can't fathom trying to put it into words either #the way xie lian won't stop punishing himself for wishing for better--for wishing for peace and collaboration--even 800 years later #the way he continues to take responsibility for all the wrongs others commit--the way he deems himself a failure ->#for things he simply could not change or did not purposefully incite. the way he won't stop punishing himself when things go wrong #i honestly cant get over how acutely xl feels like the result of gifted child syndrome #having all of these grandiose expectations placed on him and doing his utmost to uphold them at any cost #doing everything he can to the point of self-destruction to do the right thing #only to end up hated in the end when he proved to have limits--even as a god #and discarded despite his efforts; ultimately deemed worthless for not measuring up to what were impossible/rigged standards from the get g #and like . the way up to this point they made the creative decision to make xie lian's emotional range fairly static #not that he's unfeeling but that he doesn't tend to raise his voice or express anything extreme (for good reason)#until this precise moment where it all comes flying apart with so many old scars torn open #absolutely fantastic im on the ground #honestly i feel like i forget how difficult a decision this had to be for hua cheng #i mean naturally he chose this because he wanted xie lian absolved #and ultimately xie lian really does need to stop the self-flagellation--he takes it too far #but watching him tremble with fear haunted by the echoes of what he almost became #fucking cHRIST

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irregularbillcipher · 9 months

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having a normal one about brad and birdie again

#no spoilers for definitive edition here because i haven't played definitive joyful yet and haven't gotten any new birdie content in painful #lisa rpg #i know that half the things i say about birdie are looking Too Far Into It #but also they give us another bearded b-named addiction riddled wreck ruining his life because he's haunted by the deaths of young family #members he feels he should have protected (one of whom even committed suicide) and you expect me NOT to go 'wait that sounds familiar'#honestly the 'like/love' parallel really gets to me because it's so throwaway and i don't know why it's THERE #terry and buzzo say that (and ofc lisa originates it) but that makes SENSE #they're both categorized as someone deeply devoted to someone in the armstrong family. ofc that parallel is made #but why BIRDIE #brad's shirt pattern when he's young is the same pattern as birdie's poncho too #god it's not even just brad #dustin's least favorite thing being 'letting people down' and birdie's being 'being a failure' ESP. with the context of his children like #and (prefacing this by saying i do NOT think birdie was at all the type of father marty was) there's even similarities to marty #like you're telling me the companion who visually looks most like marty is *checks notes* the alcoholic single dad whose kid killed themsel #like there are so many weird things that are canon traits of the armstrong family that you can also see in birdie it's WILD #i'm not even saying i think any of this is THAT intentional or deliberate. like i think having fathers that failed their children on brad's #team is an obvious and deliberate choice but i don't think all this minutia w/birdie was intentional. i acknowledge i'm a lil insane #(birdie has rosy cheeks like marty because they're both drunk. fly also has the same shirt pattern so it's recusing assets. i get it)#there's just a weird amount to pick at if you want to

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itspileofgoodthings · 10 months

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the truth is I simply have a lot of trauma and a lot of anger around beauty culture for women and one of the gifts of being older is to be able to unpack that and separate out the stuff that is toxic/ridiculous/a symptom of an insecure image-obsessed culture and the stuff that’s just honestly part of the legitimate fun (and sometimes legitimate burden) of being a woman

#like I just. I used to hate makeup on principle and refuse to participate #and there is always a part of me that understands the Extreme and Angry Feminists!#and also like. there is a way forward and a comfort level to be reached #where participation in it is not evil or cringe lol #but just. part of the funniness of life and living in a physical aging slightly wilding body #idk if this makes sense. it’s just been a battle in me since I was about 5 #and like so many things it is not insurmountable #anyway this is partly inspired by Emma (of vanilla tea fame) giving me a gift bag of the most delightfully girly lotions etc.#and honestly that being a gift that kind of would have just deeply upset me in high school/grade school/adolescence #because I just distrusted it all so deeply #but which only made me feel loved and seen and like. allowed. right now #Idk. so many thoughts. so much going round

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tonyglowheart · 2 months

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Okay, wait lmao. I got to chap 45 and was surprised too see what I think is That Betrayal that I see some people get so so hung up about. Is this it? in Chapter 45? Chapter 45?? out of 128?? Like the way I saw some ppl cite it as a "I like yanshen except-" or like this is an unforgiveable thing by YWS.... and it's like. idk man, we're not even at the halfway mark yet. YWS is still like in his enacting his theorem on the world to try to get SQ to see it as a proof of concept stage. It also didn't really feel like it came out of nowhere at least not for me lmao, I was like, yeah this makes sense as a next step, like. whatever YWS does has to be an escalation and it has to come from him, and it has to be something that WOULD be personal like this. Especially after SQ called him his friend (even if part of the excuse was that it's easier to explain and etc)

#qian qiu #yan wushi #idk anyone else feel like this? lol #I just am like.... bro we're at chapter 45 / 128 #I guess if it were a WIP and I didn't know how many chaps there were it might be more shocking #or more of a like oh no how badly is sq going to get fucked up and can be come back from it #but like. knowing that we're like a little over a third of the way through....#and honestly. I only went back to check the chap number once I saw oh is this The Thing? so like even chap number notwithstanding.....#it still made sense to me as a logical progression from like YWS's perspective #sorry some of you guys can't handle YWS's toxic yuri swag ig!#anyway I am still very much here for yws's girlboss wrongs #(also arguably- yws knew or suspected or thought that sq would be able to figure out a way to handle sjx)#(and if not then perhaps it's still two birds with one stone)

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dreamonminecraft · 2 months

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I'm glad you all think I'm well articulated because I've had two bloody noses today, throw up in my mouth every time I get a notification, haven't left my bed in 6 hours, eaten anything since yesterday afternoon, or brushed my teeth. So. Sunshine and rainbows everybody I'm doing great.

#I've calmed myself down a little bit and made moral qualms with myself but I'm still very much in the trenches emotionally #the fact that so many people are validating my feelings is making me feel a lot less alone #tw eating disorder ->#honestly ever since dream posted the picture of his scars it really triggered me #I was very anorexic during quarantine and i had gotten better #im not doing as bad then as i was then but this whole situation is so mentally taxing that nothing even smells good #things are tough. I can't lose this. and maybe some of what im saying is copium but it's really all i have left

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saucy-mesothelioma · 4 months

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Me: I can totally manage my emotions in a normal way!

Outer Wilds:

Me: *on the floor curled up into a ball sobbing uncontrollably*

#you'll never guess who got emotional over Older Than The Universe again #ok honestly I got emotional over the whole soundtrack that song was just the one that made me finally break down #in a good way though #I'm fine I promise #this game just makes me feel so many things and sometimes it shows through a nice little breakdown!#outer wilds my beloved #outer wilds #outer wilds echoes of the eye #I don't think this requires the spoiler tag? I think I'll be ok #meso's musings

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rawliverandgoronspice · 11 months

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Hello.

You and gay-jesus-probably have successfully made me question everything with your view that Tears of the Kingdom is imperialist propaganda, so that's been fun.

Anyway, I decided to share this discussion with the Zelda fans on reddit, and perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot of them disagreed. Here is what they said (I'm Alarming_Afternoon44):

So what do you think? Have I and all these other people just been duped by the game's manipulative framing? Or do they actually have a point?

And if you'd rather not answer this, or would prefer if I censored the usernames, just tell me and I'll delete this.

Hey! Thanks a lot for reaching out, and I'm glad it made you think stuff through!!

Honestly, as I mentioned in this post, I am not super interested about in-world conversations about who oppresses who, because what can be assessed from the game is super vague and more vibes-based than evidence-based. Within the text, of course that the Good Zonais are good and the Bad Ganondorf is bad! But that's my whole point! The narrative has been deliberately crafted so that the zonais and Rauru (and Hyrule) are as blameless as possible (and it's not doing a great job at it overall to be frank; we would not be having these conversations about how offputting it all feels for a non-zero number of people if it did do a great job). More importantly, I want to focus on what sort of real-life narrative it all parallels. Because people make stories, and people live in the real world.

Not going after everyone's throat here, gamedev is hard and the hydras that are AAA game production do end up doing super weird stuff, especially since the thematic ramifications are absolutely never prioritized (and it's also always the same kind of people who make the final calls and push out what can and can't be talked about also). And as fans, we tend to have trouble stepping outside the lens of lore and take a look at the bigger picture sometimes; not as an attack on any individual part of that decision-making process but to just pause, stop, and question our standards, our priorities and the kind of reality (or skewing of reality) the stories we tell each other reflect.

Again: do we want to take videogames seriously or not? If we do, then we need to accept they are a vehicle for ideology, just like any other artform. And sometimes, you push out questionable ideology, sometimes without meaning to, because you didn't unpack your own biases as you did. And it's even fine to do it, nobody is perfect, a 300+ people team spread over 6 years certainly will not be that. But that it wasn't prioritized is, in my opinion, a problem. As a narrative designer, I want games (at least the narrative side) to be held to a higher standard than this. It's literally my job to work with the industry so it can hold itself to higher standards of quality --so the whole TotK situation is quite frustrating to witness from a very pragmatic, work perspective where I already spend my days trying to convince people that things mean things. I have a vested interest here in not having the companies I work for being given a free pass by gamers to do literally whatever as long as it's fun, especially when we're talking about a billion-dollars company suing its own fans left and right for any perceived slight. Nintendo are not underdogs here. It's fine to point out they cut corners and maybe promoted messy ideologies, voluntarily or not.

So long story short: no I don't believe anyone here has a point in regards to what I think is actually important, which is why these choices were made in the first place. If you look at an imperialist text expecting the text to tell you that it's imperialist instead of recognizing a framing used for propaganda by yourself, you're never gonna find any imperialist text ever, obviously not!! I'm sorry if I sound a little gngngn here, but I don't know why audiences have, at large, this feeling that lore and story beat decisions materialize themselves already formed and without any human bias, meddling, intervention, internal politics or approximations (it seems that people can only conceptualize this part if they have actual names to attach to the story, but without clear authors it's like there are no authors and so no bias, which is... a very strange bias in itself). I can promise you that it does not work that way in practice: every narrative department on every big game is a battlefield --some nicer than others, but all of them very emotionally draining either way.

So yeah, I guess that on these grounds, I disagree with every point raised here. Sorry Reddit :/

But thank you for the ask and sorry if I didn't go more into details as to why. The big Why I Dislike Rauru Post and the Gerudo Post might have some more specific rebuttals, but I am not super interested in debating small detail stuff tbh. I feel like it's no use if the frame of reference isn't being understood in the first place.

#totk spoilers #totk #totk critical #thoughts #asks #yeah I just disagree with a lot of these in general but I just don't feel like going through them one by one sorry ;_;#feel like I'm starting to repeat myself #especially for a game I liked okay but will definitively not revisit in the long run #tho @ the last redditor: yes thank you for proving my point because do you actually know about afghanistan's recent history :))#like... who funded the mujahideens' war not so long ago :))))) and for what purpose :)))))))))#everything said by that redditor is 100% far right propaganda it's not even a little bit anything else it's textbook applied imperialism #it's.... yeah how do you want to have these sorts of conversations when the real life parallels are unackowledged #I don't know it's just.... so frustrating to me that so many people have such a hard time to unpack external influences in media #or do not know how to pull apart thematic framings from in-world fluff #sorry if I sound a little dry but it's just... it's all a bit tiring honestly #I'm glad this made you reconsider things! or that you took the time to read stuff through even!! thank you!!!#and thanks for compiling the whole thing!!#I feel like it's a good way of showcasing well... the narrative doing a good job at defending itself #but not disputing that the entire framing is deeply flawed #at least in my opinion

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jinx-you-owe-me · 1 month

Text

PART 20

of the dfk 2023 audiobook translation

@cnka

Narrator (audiobook): Robert puts another piece of wood on the trunk and swings the axe.

Bökh: „And you never wanted to get in touch?"

The Nichtraucher picks up a piece of wood.

Silence.

Nichtraucher: „Why should I? We didn’t see each other for the past ten years either.“

He rips the piece of wood apart with his bare hands. While holding eye contact with Justus.

Silence.

Justus lowers his head.

Jo: „Uh.. weren’t you-" Martina, quietly: „Jo, leave it. Lets go.“

Martina, louder: „We need to go! We still have something to do.“

The kids leave. Jo and Martina are holding hands as they walk away.

Bökh: „Yeah… Thank you, kids.“

Jo, whispering as they walk away: "What was that just now?!"

Robert picks up the chopped wood and walks back to his wagon. Justus looks after him.

Narrator (audiobook): If the two friends will find back together? Matze isn’t so sure of that.

Matze, sarcastically: „Well, that was a great success!“ Jo: „Yeah, so much for friendship between Internals and Externs.“

Narrator (audiobook): At least Robert granted Herr Bökh access to his wagon. He looks around lost in thought more or less, while Robert washes the dishes.

Dishes clatter. There is silence otherwise.

Justus stares wistfully at Robert while he washes the dishes.

Justus takes his eyes off Robert and starts looking around while Robert continues to ignore him.

Bökh: „I thought you were living in London.“ Nichtraucher: (silence) Bökh: „It's nice here.“ Nichtraucher: (silence)

Justus starts walking around.

Bökh: „I told the kids about our friendship.“ Nichtraucher: „As a cautionary tale?“ Bökh: (chuckles/scoffs) „No. Of course not.“

Narrator (audiobook): Bökh spots the poster of „the Bandits“, the same one hanging in his apartment.

Bökh: „The 'Wild Dog' that we always played in is still there.“

Nichtraucher: (silence)

Bökh: „Should we meet there sometime? For a beer?“

Robert looks up.

He lets out a small huff, almost like an incredulous laugh or a scoff.

He dries his hands on a towel and folds it.

Nichtraucher: (silence) Nichtraucher: „I don’t know what we would have to say to each other.“

Bökh: „Hm. Well. A lot of time has passed.“

Narrator (audiobook): Robert sits down at the table and lights himself a cigarette.

Justus turns as well and starts looking around again.

Nichtraucher: „Why didn’t you come to Marie’s funeral back then?“

Nichtraucher: „You didn’t even get in touch.“

[„You didn't even get in touch“ -> parallels to „And you never wanted to get in touch?“]

Justus is silent. He starts fiddling with his jacket and pulls it off his shoulder. He lets out a deep, shaky sigh and is silent for another few moments.

Bökh: „…I don’t know, you met her and… and suddenly you were gone.“