#i keep thinking about trauma responses and fandom's reactions to them.

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Stop misappropriating the abuse and trauma cults use through purity culture for your stupid fucking shipping discourse? Holy fuck no wonder everyone hates this whole discourse.

Since when is "priests getting shuffled around after raping kids and kids being told they're sinful because they had bodily reactions to being SAd" comparable to "Bobo the clown said my ship was cringe"

I'm not gonna answer this with The Aristocrats, as a I threatened, because I want to make a very serious point to this anon:

Purity culture isn't just religious abuse. It is most widely connected to religious abuse. Including actions in the Catholic Church and all fundamentalist Christianity. It's entire existence is about terrifying and indoctrinating people into being fearful of their own actions and bodies so that they feel certain that moving out from the "umbrella of safety" (to use a fundamentalist term) will result in them being harmed in ways they can't imagine. This is generally happening at the same time as they are being harmed by those who are supposed to be keeping them safe from all those terrible, worldly evils. Like speaking up when you're being abused. Believing you are not responsible for the actions of a rapist, and many, many other things that any person with an ounce of self-worth and good sense (two things not allowed in fundamentalist circles) knows are true in abuse situations.

But the point of the purity culture as identity in the above-mentioned circles is to teach people from birth that they aren't to have their own feelings, ideas, or instincts. They are only to follow the feelings, ideas, and instincts on the approved list in order to stay within the structures they know and feel safe in even as they feel very unsafe.

That being said:

Purity culture can also exist WITHOUT a religious structure while still being about controlling the thoughts, feelings, and actions of everyone within it. In terms of fandom, purity culture is groups of people stating that if you write something uncomfortable or gross or immoral, then YOU must be uncomfortable or gross or immoral and therefore, not worthy of the safety and moral superiority of the group.

Purity culture without religion teaches black and white thinking, encourages thought policing, and shames anyone who steps outside of a very narrow definition of good and bad by turning an entire group of people against them for being "bad".

Just like in religious circles.

Just like in the cult of fundamentalism.

Purity culture is a term taken by fundamentalists and turned into a whole way of life because the goal of fundamentalism is to make people too scared to leave. Purity culture in fandom does the same thing. It uses fear and threats of abandonment/harassment to control the way people act because a group of people decided they didn't like something, so they must try and wipe it out rather than simply ignore it.

I am not mis-using the term because "Bobo the clown said my ship was cringe." My use of the term is intentional and precise because what is happening in fandom spaces now is non-religious purity culture cult thinking. My use of the term does not invalidate or water down the use of it in conversations about religious abuse and trauma. With or without religion, purity culture is a dangerous cult of "us vs them" that is built to demoralize and eradicate those deemed unworthy.

#purity culture #purity wank #religious trauma #religious abuse #it's all the same shit #just wearing slightly different hats #ask #anon #answer

[anxiety-elemental-kay]

And Take Away Its Pain: A Comparison of Masculinity, Trauma, and Queerness in Warcraft and Warframe

First, I want to shout out my friend Silriven at BluSky. (If any of you are mean to her I will Find You.) This thread she wrote recently reflecting on if/how she still likes Anduin as a character was what got me started writing this essay. She talks about the fandom response to Anduin, and the ways both the fandom and writers contradict themselves in discussing the character. The reason I wrote this essay is because I can think of another character and video game that work as a counterpoint to the way Anduin is portrayed.

Even before this specific thread, I made made a thread on BluSky comparing Warcraft and Warframe much earlier because both these games had major update reveals at around the same time. Not only that, but their content served as an interesting contrast between the different games' stories, and my own reactions to each.

The War Within[1] trailer and related announcements were revealed at Blizzcon 2023, around the same time as Digital Extremes, the developers of Warframe, held Tennocon 2023, which included a thirty minute demo of their next major story update, Whispers in the Walls.

For those unfamiliar with either/or World of Warcraft and Warframe, I’ll give a quick summary of the trailers.

In TWW trailer trailer we see Anduin Wrynn sitting by himself in a desert. Anduin is a character the players have known for a long time, and last time we saw him he chose to disappear in response to a trauma he suffered in that expansion’s story. Here his face is dirty, he’s grown out a beard, and his hair is cut short. He has a vision of something that looks like a star calling his name. A second character appears, an orc named Thrall. The two talk; Thrall is calm while Anduin is angry and confrontational. They discuss the visions they’ve been having, how someone at “the heart of the world” is calling out to them. (Anybody who’s kept up with Warcaft's story even a little bit will know this voice is the Titan Azeroth, who lives inside the planet Azeroth.) When Thrall touches Anduin’s shoulder, Anduin has a brief flashback to when the ghost of his father touched his shoulder. Anduin draws his sword and declares “I’m not that person anymore! I have no Light! Not after what I’ve seen, not after what I’ve done!” Thrall replies “You are not your past, Anduin” and expresses his trust in Anduin, who struggles to not cry, and lowers his sword. Both of them experience a much stronger vision of the star calling for them, then Anduin accepts Thrall’s hand, and Anduin pledges to stand with him. They both express confusion at who could be calling out to them. (It’s Azeroth you dinguses!!!) The trailer ends with a cool shot of a giant sword sticking out of the desert, before switching to The War Within expansion logo.

Now, the Whispers In The Walls showcase was a full demo including gameplay, but to keep the comparison as fair as possible, I only talk about the opening three minutes [2]. You can see the whole showcase here.

In the Whispers preview, we open with a cutscene. We start with some spooky eldritch speech, then we shift to someone the player will have heard of before, but never seen, Albrecht Entrati. Albrecht checks a beeping pager, and then an old computer, both out of place against the stylized sci-fi future setting of Warframe. He is followed by his feline companion. He gives his cat some pats, then he sits in a sci-fi casket, where his kitty also curls up. A second character, who we’ll learn later is named Loid, approaches Albrecht with his head bowed and eyes on the floor. Albrecht reaches up to Loid to touch his cheek, and wipes away a tear with his thumb. (Remember this moment, it's important for a point I'll make near the end of this essay.) Albrecht's dialogue is subtitled as (Quiet whispering). Then Albrecht lays down, and the casket closes. Loid raises a hammer as the casket makes loud sounds and lights flash, before he finally brings the hammer down to smash the casket. The screen cuts to black, then the gameplay starts.

Comparing these two teasers at the time, I thought about how Whispers was much more effective at building a story hook by creating mystery. Even if I limit myself to that opening cinematic, we have one character, Albrecht, who we’ve heard a great deal about and is important to the story, but we’ve yet to meet him in-person. The contrast of his 90’s tech and fashion against the more fantastical technology common to Warframe’s universe is stark and creates interesting questions. We’re introduced to this relationship Albrecht has with Loid. I don’t know who these people are or what their circumstances are, but I see genuine love and conflict. I’m already invested in learning more and seeing what happens to them. It’s a great hook! I actually rewatched that opening three minutes a few times while writing this because I have brainworms!

The TWW trailer is about creating a hook based on seeing where beloved characters are now, seeing what’s become of them when the player wasn’t looking. Azeroth the Titan is speaking to the main cast, which is clear to the audience familiar with the game but not the characters for unclear reasons. Anduin is still suffering, unable or unwilling to heal from his trauma. Thrall wants to him to come out of hiding. Anduin agrees to. That’s it. What’s the story hook here? Anduin seems to have gone nowhere in the years since he was last seen, and I have no sense of where his story (or Thrall’s, or Azeroth’s) might be going. I don't even know why Anduin changes his mind and chooses to help Thrall. What, just because there's another big threat to the world? The last one wasn't enough to bring you out of hiding? It’s just stuff happening, a general sense of vague Peril. I can't even get that excited about the shot of Sargeras' sword! Blizz should've thought to address that earlier, like, when the planet got stabbed! That was cool and exciting! Our planet got stabbed by Warcraft Satan! Then it's ignored for years until now, after people kept asking what was going to happen to it. The trailer tries to build a mystery about where the visions are coming from, but it's the Titan Azeroth, the players figured it out right away, there's no mystery. I don't have any reason to feel like the writers care about the story, setting, or characters. I’m left feeling nothing for any of it but a vague sense of disappointment.

Even more, the TWW trailer feels like it’s deliberately avoiding adding any details. Anduin talks about how he’s lost his Light, how he’s “not that person anymore” which is not a bad way to take his arc, but I can’t connect it to when Anduin was enslaved by the Jailer in Shadowlands. I know where his trauma comes from, but the trailer makes no effort to explain or expand on how those specific events affected him. I’m not even going to explain what any of that means to people unfamiliar with Warcraft because it doesn’t matter! In both dialogue and in visuals, the trailer gives little texture or meaning to what Anduin is feeling. In the Whispers trailer, I know Loid is sad, not just because Albrecht is leaving, but that he has to have a role in that departure. I don't know what happened to Albrecht at this point, but the emotional hook is there along with the questions about the story. I care because I believe these two characters are in love. Why should I care that Anduin feels he's lost his Light? I have no sense of what this loss means or feels like. I have no sense of what he's struggling with, or what he might face in the future.

Since those trailers were released, Warframe had its promised Whispers update, and I’ve played the full quest and leveled up the linked faction, which contained more story. While I know I’m being unfair comparing a trailer to a full release, I will continue to do so anyway because 1) I’m a bitter old faggot, and 2) the full story of Whispers makes the comparison between Loid/Whispers as a whole and Anduin/TWW even more interesting/saddening.

This is your warning that I’ll be spoiling the quest Whispers In The Walls. Eventually. I've got some foundation I want to lay first.

I found a tweet thread by Christie Golden, one of Warcraft’s major writers. She links a TIME article about a woman struggling to raise her son to be gentle and kind in a world that encourages anger and violence in men. Golden lists Anduin (among others) as an example of nontoxic masculinity in fictional media. In her replies she goes on to expand on her thoughts.

Here’s the tweet by Golden that stuck out to me: “Too often men and boys who gravitate to the gentler side are automatically perceived as being gay, whether they are or not. ALL men/boys should be able to display these qualities, just like all girls/women can be tough and fearless and athletic if that's who they are.”

What’s wrong with being perceived as gay, Golden?

To be fair, there is a point here about assuming someone’s sexuality based on their personality or behavior. That is nonsense, and assigning traits to someone based on an observer’s opinion isn’t good. I even agree that not all straight characters should be one thing and all gay characters should be another! The problem with Golden’s statement is the implicit bias, being “automatically perceived as being gay” is framed as something bad. Why shouldn’t straight men and boys look up to a gay character? Can they not see themselves in a queer character? Why?

This is another reason why the comparison between TWW and Whispers is so interesting, because Whispers is gay. Sure, there are people who will argue Loid and Albrecht weren’t in love, because no one explicitly says they were together, but if you’re paying attention that’s unneeded. Loid refers to Albrecht as “my Albrecht”, and later, in a diary entry, we hear Albrecht refer to Loid as “my Loid”. There's a moment in the quest where we watch a recording of Albrecht, and he says, “I need Loid to understand why I had to leave. Without him. Why I forced him to destroy the device after I had gone. And why I could never say the words he so needed to hear.”

If you listen to the codex entry “Albrecht’s Notes: The Aftermath” about what he went through after coming back injured from the Void, you get even more. Albrecht describes Loid as “crooning motherly” and how “Loid nursed me then” back to full health. His descriptions, and the voice acting, are entirely earnest. There is no sarcasm or veiled disdain as he describes Loid in these feminine terms. The affection Albrecht both received, and gave, was genuine.

“The agony bit deep, but it was clean. Blameless love bled up from me.

I had decided to live.”

Yes, yes, this section is partly for me to be snappy at the people in the Warframe community who insist Loid and Albrecht aren’t a couple. What I want to demonstrate here is mechanically how Warframe tells its audience these characters are in love without needing to spell it out. Why it’s reasonable (and valid) to interpret characters as queer even if they don’t list their labels on their bios, so to speak.

To bring this back to the character of Anduin Wrynn: while he’s never been officially portrayed as queer, his story, at least in its earliest years, very much was.

Though we don't see much of Anduin in-game early in Warcraft's life, his first story plays out in the supplementary comics and novels. There’s a conflict between who Anduin feels he is and who he is expected to be. He’s expected to become a warrior like his father, Varian, but Anduin finds wielding weapons difficult. He's unable to reach Varian's standards for who he should be. Instead, Anduin chooses to become a healer, in Warcraft terms he chooses the priest class, and focuses on spellcasting and support. At one point, as Anduin is about to leave home to go and train in healing magic, Varian reaches out and nearly breaks his son's arm in his attempt to force him to stay. Varian is horrified at what he's done, and Anduin leaves.

Anduin's story is literally about rejecting the traditional masculinity his father represents to pursue his own, alternative path. We see how the life Varian's lived, a warrior's life full of violence, has poisoned his relationship with his son, how his toxic masculinity was a destructive force. Varian’s story in parallel is learning to accept Anduin’s choice, and learning to understand that his son is still powerful and capable, even if he’s not “strong” in the way Varian himself is. In addition, Anduin is one of the few characters who objects to the war(craft) between the two player factions and wants to find peace between them. Anduin’s story was, in theme if not in content, very much a queer narrative! It's about challenging tradition and finding a path that's more true to who he is and what he believes in.

This was why I connected with the character of Anduin initially. I started playing Warcraft in late Wrath of the Lich King, after ICC came out. When I first met Anduin he had a default human child model, and he said and did basically nothing. Then Cataclysm was released, he got his own teenager model, and a whole questline to himself. Suddenly he was someone with agency, wants, and personality! And then Mists of Pandaria came out and Anduin got to be a major focus of an entire expansion!

Anduin was absent from the next expansion, but the one after, Legion, Anduin returned with an adult model, and his father dies during the story's prologue. While he didn’t get the same focus he did in Mists, in Legion Anduin still had a whole storyline about becoming king, accepting his new role, and making peace with his father's death. It's smaller than his role in Mists, but it's a storyline I enjoyed!

I’ve literally watched this character grow up in real time. It’s a powerful experience!

(Side note: there’s a lot that can be said about Anduin as a monarch, what kind of state head he is, how he treats his people, and is an aspect that largely goes unacknowledged in the canon story. I'll shout out Silriven again, this is a topic she's gone a good job of discussing before. I want to acknowledge this part of his character, but I consider it beyond the scope of this specific essay. I do think making him king, making him someone who extracts taxes and sends people to die in war, does have a major impact on his character, his masculinity, and how he processes trauma. However, talking about monarchy, even a fictional one, is its own topic and needs its own space to explore. It's something to keep in mind whenever discussing any major character in Warcraft who is also a major political leader.)

Through all this I would say I saw Anduin as queer. At no point does he express serious romantic interest in anyone, nor does he appear to be under any pressure to find a partner through either societal or political norms. The themes of his stories made me think he was gay, especially as the only other character he grows close to is another boy. Anduin was a comfort character for me.

This began to change in the expansion after Legion, Battle for Azeroth.

Anduin begins to wear a set of plate armor, looking more like his warrior father, and the role he once rejected, than the priest he chose to be. He leads his armies in a war that he used to be wholly against, a contradiction he never fully confronts. When he punches Wrathion, a childhood friend who reappeared in the last expansion patch, players responded with praise in real life. “Manduin” punched Wrathion, who Anduin claimed was responsible for his father’s death. Which he wasn’t, and can only be seen as responsible through a Five Degrees of Kevin Bacon type web. I'm not sure why Anduin says this, unless the writers wanted to either smear Wrathion or erase the history of friendship the two had previously. Or, maybe they didn't want to bring up any legitimate reasons Anduin might be angry at Wrathion, like abandoning him. If I had a nickel every time one person abandoned another to go on an ill-fated time travel adventure, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't much but it's weird it happened twice.

(Here's a tangent: Imagine if Albrecht ended up in alternate Draenor and/or Wrathion ended up in 1999. Those stories would've gone VERY differently.)

Since I’ve brought him up, it’s time to talk about Anduin and Wrathion.

This topic is. Divisive. In the Warcraft fandom.

Wranduin, the ship name, is something that appeared in fandom mid Mists when the two characters first met. Anduin was curious about who this Wrathion person was and set out to investigate. Long story short, their families had a long history of conflict, and Anduin had every reason to be suspicious and mistrustful of Wrathion. Was openly mistrustful of Wrathion. They continue to hang out together through the rest of the expansion.

This all leads up to a particular moment in the novel War Crimes, taking place after the main events of Mists of Pandaria. Anduin and Wrathion continue to spend time with each other in that book, playing games and discussing politics. When Anduin expresses how tired he is, Wrathion declares “I shall, if asked politely, take you on my back and ferry you to fascinating places, where we will have adventures that will age your father ten years in one night.”

I've never read any of the books myself, but I’ve seen this passage passed around online and it stands out to me. It feels genuine, two teenagers who are close friends but also bad at vulnerability and Feelings, making a connection and finding comfort in each other. I’m not even asking anyone to see a romantic angle to this, just to understand the emotions of the moment. It feels specific to them.

I was in the Warcraft fandom during Mists, I thought their relationship was interesting, and it could make for an interesting romance. Despite ideological differences, they were very much kindred spirits. People born into power who’ve also suffered immense loss of agency. Both were forced to grow up quickly, had their lives endangered at young ages, and both want to protect the world they live in, even if that means different things to both of them. That tension, the clash between their ideals and their personalities, the potential for connection and division both, was what made their relationship so interesting.

Then Wrathion disappeared for several expansions, came back in BofA, and the first thing that happens is Anduin punches him in the face. We never see them in a scene together after this moment ends.

It's worth noting that while Wrathion isn't human (he's a dragon in disguise) his humanoid form makes him one of the very few non-white characters in the main cast. They reintroduce him by having a white man, who was once a friend, punch him in the face. This is an action Anduin has never apologized to Wrathion for.

There’s another Warframe character I want to talk about briefly: Ticker. She’s a trans woman.

She's been in the game much longer than Loid and Albrecht, but like them, her identity is never explicitly stated, but at the same time it's unambiguous. She has a deeper, more masculine voice, has a masculine appearance (Old Mate rank spoilers, but if you know you know) while her body language is very feminine and she uses exclusively feminine pronouns and terms for herself. One her voice lines when you speak with her is “A person gets told a lot of things over the course of a life. Who they are. Who they should be. Amateurs, lecturing a professional.”

She is a trans woman, she has some of the best lines in the game, and I love her.

My greatest disappointment with Ticker is that she isn’t involved in the greater storyline associated with her zone. We do meet other good characters (Eudico in particular is a lady character I adore) but Ticker’s exclusion sticks out to me. Sure, one could point to Smokefinger as also being largely absent, but Ticker’s role in the story is to help pay off people’s debts so they don’t suffer more than they have to. This is something she has to do in secret (to her boss’s boss, not to the player natch) or risk facing harsh punishment herself. This could tie directly into the area’s larger story about a workers' union violently revolting against its hyper-capitalist overlords. Why isn’t she in Vox Solaris DE??? By the way, the player sides with the union.

(Side note: Blizzard is an American studio, while Digital Extremes is Canadian. I can feel a potential discussion of these two countries, labor unions, and these two games, but like the point about monarchy in Warcraft, that needs its own space. There's definitely things to talk about, but I'd need to do real research before I could begin to approach it.)

So looking at Ticker, then looking at Whispers, this update shows growth to me. Warframe is showing two men in love[3], both characters and their identities are treated with respect by the narrative and other characters. Yes, this isn’t the same as depicting a canonical trans woman, but I’m inclined to be patient and kind when I sense that creator(s) are earnest about portraying experiences that aren’t theirs. We all have internal biases we need to uproot, it’s a journey that will last our whole lives, and one that will inevitably end incomplete. We can all and always learn to improve our art, as well as our compassion and understanding of other people. For me, forgiveness for earlier depictions that were poor or problematic is easy when I believe the creator(s) are making a sincere effort. We all make mistakes, and we all grow. Hopefully DE will add another canonical trans person to their game who will have a bigger role.

I’m hammering this point home because I have never felt this level of sincere effort from Blizzard.

I know I’m comparing an middle-ish game studio to a massive AAA company, and I do not care. Whether it’s because of the writers’ cowardice or a producer’s mandate, Warcraft takes only small steps to be inclusive, while Warframe is genuinely trying. (DE also updated skin shaders specifically so darker tones would look nicer in their new lighting system!) It's things like this that make Golden's talk about Anduin being an example of nontoxic masculinity ring hollow. Only one of these games seems willing to engage with marginalized stories, with people who live outside of the strict roles we're assigned. The concept of "nontoxic masculinity" cannot exist if one is unwilling to engage with queerness. Allowing men to embrace more gentle behaviors also means not shaming anyone for being gay. Allowing men to do and be things that aren't the pinnacle of traditional masculinity means understanding and embracing that men can and will engage in more feminine behaviors or roles, and this doesn't diminish their gender identity. These concepts are linked.

(I know this is a very binary way of framing these concepts, but let me tell you, Blizz is NOT ready for that discussion.)

Warcraft has added gay characters or made some existing characters gay, but never anybody in the main cast, nothing that would get a major spotlight. Anduin could’ve been an easy solve for this, whether he started a relationship with Wrathion or someone else, it doesn’t matter! Having a major character in a game as large as World of Warcraft would've meant so much. Instead they hide their queer characters in secondary roles, in supplementary media, and made them into easter eggs in the game. Never major characters, never the focus of the story. Nothing they would, for example, show off at a major convention in 2023.

Moving away from talking about queerness for a moment, something that struck me watching the Whispers demo again is that DE isn't afraid to make their new character flawed. I don't want to say unlikable necessarily, because I did like Loid right away, but he's also rude to the established character traveling with us ("Resume your duties, construct!) and then dismissive of the player. He's supposed to wait for an "operator" to arrive at the labs, and thinks it's obviously not the player. By the end of the quest (which I'll talk about in a moment because yes it's relevant) Loid comes to accept that the player is the one he's meant to work with. When you level up the related faction in the full release, Loid eventually tells the player that his role was to care for Albrecht, and it would be his honor to extend that same service to the player. This arc is sweet and feels earned because Loid started so abrasive, the writers weren't afraid to make him abrasive, and even by the end I wouldn't say he's flawless. In fact, in the next update, Dante Unbound, DE has hinted that Loid will have to confront the established character he was rude to in Whispers. Loid feels like a person who's going through shit, in the way that people go through shit. Not with grace, but trying his best anyway.

I bring this up because one of the long standing issues with Anduin as a character, which has gotten worse as time goes on, is the unwillingness to give Anduin flaws. I wonder if this connects back to the point about the lack of specificity about his feelings or experiences in TWW trailer, why Thrall's simple "You are not your past" feels so strange, and why the trailer seems reluctant to acknowledge Anduin's anger as a problem. Anduin has, for a while, been positioned as a moral core for the game, the character who is primarily interested in peace for unselfish reasons. Part of the reason I enjoyed Anduin as a character in Mists was because, sometimes, he got to act like a shitty teenager. He'd be sarcastic or smarmy or do something objectively dumb, like run off to fight a major enemy of his nation on his own. This is especially true when interacting with Wrathion, which includes Anduin using the taunt "You're what, two years old?" To which Wrathion replies "Two in DRAGON years." It's very endearing! Look at these brats, they're believable teenage friends to me. Yes, Anduin is one of the few peace-seekers in the story, he tries so hard to be good and kind even to his enemies, but in moments like these he still feels like a person.

We could look at TWW and say Anduin is demonstrating anger issues, which would be interesting because, like in the example of almost breaking Anduin's arm, this was something Varian struggled with. Except it doesn't feel like the trailer recognizes this as a flaw. The moment goes by and is quickly forgotten. I can look at Loid in Whispers and I recognize where his bitterness comes from: he felt abandoned and so pushes others away. The one detail I did like in TWW trailer was the comparison between Thrall touching Anduin's shoulder, and Varian's ghost doing the same in the past. That moment felt like a trigger for Anduin, reminding him of that moment when he was so vulnerable, but also of his grief for his father. (Nevermind we had that story in Legion about Anduin coming to terms with his grief. Let's ignore that.) It's the most sincere moment of the trailer, but it doesn't follow through! As soon as the second vision dissipates, Anduin takes Thrall's hand and pledges to help. Why? Again, "because there's another big cosmic threat" isn't a good enough reason. What does he feel in this moment? Why did he change his mind now?

Nontoxic masculinity doesn't mean "flawless person". I would still say Loid is a good example of nontoxic masculinity, regardless of if or when he does engage in more toxic behaviors. I'd say as a character Loid is a better demonstration than Anduin of nontoxic masculinity because he's capable of self-reflection, realizing he did something bad, and correcting himself. One interpretation of events in the story of Whispers (because much of Warframe is open to interpretation) is that the local eldritch horror was feeding off of Loid's resentment towards Albrecht, and this was fueling its assault on the labs. Only in reminding Loid of Albrecht's feelings for him, specifically in a way Loid had been deliberately avoiding, can the player begin to take down the bad guy of the quest.

This is a great time to move to my last point about Whispers’ full story: the ending.

I know we can talk about ludonarrative dissonance about two games where the player regularly enacts mass murder and trying to square that with certain story themes. Listen. Hear me out.

In Warcraft, the solution to the final boss is always kill them. (Or arrest them in the case of Garrosh in Mists. In truth this was only a stay of execution). Part of this is the limit of always putting an expansion’s conclusion in a raid. There always needs to be a big fight in a specific kind of setting with specific player expectations. I wish Blizz played with this more; maybe we can only seal away the bad thing? Or maybe the goal is to hold something off while an NPC does a magical ritual that saves the day by some other method? I’m sure there are possible, creative solutions other than “hit bad guy (or his toes if he’s big) until bad guy falls over”.

How does the player save the day in Whispers in the Walls? I’m going to cover this in detail because it’s one of my favorite moments in the whole game.

You spend much of the quest fighting off The Murmur, constructs summoned by the local eldritch horror, called the Indifference (among many other names[4]) which is trying to break into the labs the quest takes place in. The final encounter, the story's climax, has the Indifference possesses a Vessel, one of many unfinished biomechanical giants Albrecht created and left scattered around his lab. The evil Vessel moves in to attack the player, who then possesses a Vessel themself.

The player’s Vessel holds up a hand, and we see a button prompt.

I'm stealing a point from another Tumblr user because it's great. Go read their post and the replies if you're curious about this particular moment!

This button prompt isn’t unusual. There aren’t many quick time events in Warframe, they're not a part of regular run and gun gameplay, but they do appear. If you’re like me, you’ve gone into the accessibility options and toggled button mashing off because wrists hurt. This prompt isn’t unusual to see for me.

But if you didn't use that accessibility toggle, you'll still get this specific prompt. It will be unusual that you're being asked to hold to interact with the scene, rather than the usual smash a button to make thing happen.

So you hold the button, the player’s Vessel reaches out, and when I first played I got excited because I think I’m powering up a big blast to destroy the enemy Vessel!

Then this happens:

I encourage everyone who can to watch the video for the full effect, but I’ll still describe it here:

The background music is ominous, and as you hold the button there's a heartbeat sound. The player's Vessel slowly reaches toward the enemy Vessel. When then the prompt button disappears, the scene goes quiet. The player Vessel gently holds the enemy Vessel's face, mirroring how Albrecht did to Loid at the beginning of the quest. As the music changes to a calming vocal track, we see the enemy Vessel's face change, drop from aggressive to lonely longing. The camera backs away as the two Vessels slow to a stop, posed to echo that "memory of love". The camera switches to Loid, who holds a hand to his own cheek, then looks back at the Vessels. He understands the connection too.

This kind of thing isn’t unheard of for Warframe either! I'll keep additional spoilers to a minimum, but a previous main story quest, The Sacrifice, has similar themes. In fact, my favorite moment from that quest involves a monologue by a major villain about how he is literally unable to comprehend the idea of empathy or compassion. He doesn’t understand why the player character, in a moment of vulnerability and understanding, is able to do what he couldn’t, with all of his violence and brutality.

“And it was not their force of will - not their Void devilry - not their alien darkness. It was something else. It was that somehow, from within the derelict-horror, they had learned a way to see inside an ugly, broken thing —

— and take away its pain.” [5]

In a story where the primary antagonist is a mysterious entity called “The Indifference” we don’t defeat it with force. With hate. What’s the opposite of Indifference?

It’s old man yaoi love. We defeat Indifference with love.

I don’t feel like I was cheated out of a cool moment. I suspect some people did. It’s not like Whispers didn’t have cool moments! I’m not even going to argue that this moment was uncool, just that it brought up different and unexpected emotions in me! It was an interesting and affecting twist on how we expect these encounters to go. It’s moments like these that tell me that Warframe's writers, for all their flaws, are putting genuine thought and emotion into their game. They’re thinking about characters and themes, trying to follow them through even with the scattershot way that video game design demands writers work.

Writing this description reminds me of a moment in Shadowlands, the expansion that traumatized Anduin. It takes place in (surprise!) the Shadowlands, the afterlife of Warcraft’s universe. Thrall, the second character we see in the TWW trailer, meets his mother in Shadowlands. She died when he was a baby, and now that he meets her in these weird circumstances, they begin to create the bond they couldn’t have before. In particular I found this conversation they have touching. A mother who didn't get to know her son, and a son who never knew his mother, finally get to connect. “I knew who you were the moment I saw you,” Draka tells him, “Do you really think I would not recognize Durotan's eyes?"

“Come, I wish to know more of your life, all of it,” she says to him, sounding tired.

It’s such a sweet moment, and bonus points for focusing on Draka, a woman who was functionally fridged prior, who now gets to be a character with personality and (some) agency in Shadowlands. It’s such a perfect demonstration of everything that could’ve been interesting in Shadowlands, what was and is interesting in Warcraft’s story, and what’s so often set aside or overlooked. Can they continue to have a relationship when the current conflict is over? Questions like this are interesting, but Shadowlands doesn’t engage with them at all, and it's poorer for it.

In Warcraft, trauma is aesthetic. Pain is aesthetic. It doesn’t matter what caused Anduin’s suffering in TWW trailer, all that’s important is that we know he’s suffering. We know he's important because he’s a main character and he’s sad about something. But, like, not sad in a way that would make him cry. That part is critical because we all know boys don't cry, right? That bias feels implicit in much of Warcraft's emotional moments. How much more touching would Thrall and Draka's reunion be if Thrall was allowed to cry at finally getting to meet his mom?

Loid does cry, at the beginning of Whispers' quest and during the story of the faction associated with the update. His emotions, and thus his story, feel more genuine and engaging for allowing him that vulnerability.

Warframe wants to engage with specific traumas, how they can make us bitter towards others, perpetuate our own and others’ pain. The point of pain is to understand it, because in understanding, that pain can be taken away. Warcraft has no interest in taking away pain, and it has no interest in understanding it. It’s not about emotional connection, because that requires a vulnerability and a capacity to self-reflect that Warcraft has no interest or courage to engage with. Pain is aesthetic.

Whispers is setting up a longer story arc for Warframe. At the time Whispers was revealed, Warframe was celebrating its 10th anniversary, and the previous main story quest wrapped up the storyline the game told from its release. In this way, Whispers is again an interesting comparison to Warcraft’s The War Within. TWW is also meant to be the start of a new story arc that will last several expansions. I know which story I’m excited about, and which one I feel nothing for.

Loid was a character I met for the first time last year, he immediately felt like a person, and I was emotionally invested. As a player I so badly want Albrecht to finally say the words Loid needed to hear. Anduin Wrynn is someone I’ve known for years, but is now a cardboard cutout. I don't feel compelled to follow his story because... what could it be? Warcraft doesn't seem interested in any conclusion or goal for him. He just is.

I have a lot of complicated emotions about World of Warcraft, as a game and as an influential piece of media. I played the game for many years, and it was an important part of my life. In many ways I’d say it's still a part of me, even after I stopped playing the game itself. Part of writing this essay was following up on some thoughts I shared with friends on BluSky, but part of it feels like exorcising a demon, or bleeding out poison. Part of me grieves for Warcraft, what it meant to me and what I thought it could have been. In Warframe though, I've found a place of comfort and compassion. In between all the space ninja nonsense and vast quantities of horrific violence the player commits, Warframe offers growth, and a way to let go of what hurts us.

—

I'll take a moment and shout out an excellent video essay by Shaun on Youtube called Andrew Tate: How to be a Real Man. It's a great resource for a more general discussion of masculinity in the real world. The video is a criticism of Tate and his approach, why it appeals to some men, and further dissects what masculinity means, and what nontoxic masculinity means. (Is it an inbox full of pictures of Aragorn?) It's a good dissection of masculinity as a concept, and one I'd recommend if you're curious about the topic of toxic/nontoxic or negative/positive masculinity.

—

Yes not only do I have my paragraph long asides I've now also added footnotes. This isn't a peer reviewed journal, you're not my mom, I do what I want!

[1] One of Warframe’s major quests is also called “The War Within” which might be confusing to a reader who knows Warframe. Don’t worry about it, I’m talking exclusively about the upcoming Warcraft expansion here.

[2] For bonus points, if you haven't played Warframe, go to 20:55 on the demo video. You'll see a logo and release date for Whispers In The Walls, hear the live crowd cheer, and the creative director will start to speak... until she's interrupted by something in the game. What you see and hear next is almost exactly as it is in the final release, including the music, minus an extra line of exposition from Loid. This wasn't just a stunt for the convention. I fucking LOVE Warframe.

[3] To be honest this is part of a personal measurement I use to gauge how queer friendly a work is: if they have queer women do they also have queer men? A good example of why I use this is Mass Effect. That franchise always had queer women and an option for lesbian romance, but only in Mass Effect 3 did they add one (1) queer option for a masculine Shepherd. I am a (nonbinary) lesbian so on the one hand I don’t want to dismiss all queer women in media as “pandering” and queer men as “valid”. It’s more of a guideline to estimate how willing a piece of media/creator is to transgress heterosexual norms. Depicting men who love men is seen as more transgressive than two women in love by the gaming community at large. The reasons for this are complicated and they all suck.

[4] hey kiddo

[5] I wanted to avoid spoilers for other Warframe story quests, but The Sacrifice is, again, an interesting point of comparison for Anduin's story. The Sacrifice is, largely, about a character coming to terms with his grief over the death of his son. If you see the whole video I link there, you'll see the player presented with three options: Wrath (We use this memory. It fuels our wrath), Acceptance (We accept this memory and move beyond its reach), and Emptiness (We return this memory to the Void and find peace in our emptiness.) I just wish Anduin's grief over Varian was, at any point, treated with this level of nuance and care.

#kay writes things #warframe #warcraft #anduin wrynn #loid #i'm a little hesitant to tag this #since i could get some real negative attention based on what i've discussed #and the nastier parts of both fandoms #whatever i wrote thousands of words i'll share it #for me and my friends and i guess the rest of you can read it too

[scary-flag]

People being all "Ed is just an emo babygirl after a breakup, like, who wouldn't act like that???" and yeah I LOVE emo babygirl Ed, but I do not think cutting off someone's toe and feeding it to them is really a sad babygirl action (although you go girlies, he did deserve that)

Jokes aside, though: We are NOT being told anything in specific, and his actions can be interpreted in various ways. Did he go fucking feral, all kraken and shit? Sure, but he also cried when looking at the lighthouse painting later, which tells us he did not really, like, vow to not give in to his emotions again or something.

On the other hand, we ARE explicitly told in canon that Ed is *not* mentally well, and I do not mean it in a bad way. Maybe we, as a fandom, should stop acting like Ed's PTSD and his trauma responses are something bad that we can't work with? Ed has every right to be sad. Ed has every right to be angry. He has every right to be fucking traumatised. And by making him feel those feelings the fanfic writers or fan artists are not necessarily being racist, homophobic or mental-illness-hating. Ed is just human and he has human feelings. People react in all kinds of ways to heartbreak and trauma.

I know we all love babygirl Ed, but keep in mind that woobifying his reaction to Stede leaving him, we are kind of writing off the whole mental health aspect of the character, which, I think, is super important in the show? Going as far as removing this aspect of Ed (and I have seen people who really believe Ed has absolutely zero issues) is kind of building the stupid "we shouldn't talk about mental illness" ableist taboo agenda.

(to read more about masculinity and rage in the context of POC experience, I recommend to dig into what @uselessheretic posts who is definitely better at writing in English than I am and likely more educated on the subject)

There is nothing wrong in wanting a character to be flawed. Flaws make us human

Another point: He is a PIRATE. Most people are not making him violent and angry because he's gay, nor because he's a POC. Most do it because he is a pirate, and if anything, the legendary pirates were generally known to be unhinged. Pirates stabbed people, keelhauled them, burnt whole villages down, traded slaves and r*ped. I know we all love OFMD and our blorbos, but let's not forget who the inspiration behind those characters were. No one does anything wrong by just by saying a pirate character HAS issues with his mental health, anger management or attitude. Some people just give Ed (or Izzy, or Stede, or any character honestly) more of the real-world pirate characteristics.

Yes, it is a comedy show, but in fan works it can become anything - a drama, a horror, a post-apocalyptic sci-fi slasher, whatever the author wants. So I think that people who do not interpret Ed's reaction to the breakup as basically a cutesy american teenager eating ice cream in bed listening to Evanescence are not necessarily wrong and neither do they have bad intentions.

#ofmd meta #our flag means death #ofmd ed #blackbeard #blackbeard meta #sorry for my bad english but i just cant human today #im ill and tired

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I don't know if this has been addressed, but what is Floyd's "squeezing"? I assumed he dragged students away to beat them up since the victims always reacted with fear. However, if Floyd's tsum copies his behavior, is he literally just squeezing students with all his might? It seems a little anticlimactic to elicit such a response because of a tight hug, don't you think? I mean, it will obviously hurt to be crushed, but it's better that getting beat up, right? 🤔

Interpreting Floyd's squeezing as only a "tight hug" is... well, it's sort of downplaying the harm he's causing to other people 😅 Depending on the context in which the phrase "squeezing" is used, I do believe it's a euphemism that can either mean beating people up (in a general sense) or actually squeezing them (because he is shown to do both). EDIT: In some contexts, “squeezing” can also mean playful hugs. It’s just that most of the time when Floyd’s threatening to squeeze mob students or other characters in the main cast, it’s meant in a more malicious way.

One thing you should keep in mind is that the size difference between regular Floyd and tsum Floyd is significant. Tsum Floyd does not have the arm or body length to completely wrap around someone, but regular Floyd definitely does (especially if we consider his merform). Therefore, even though they carry out the same action, the results are not necessarily 1:1. LOOK AT TSUM FLOYD'S NUBS, YOU THINK YOU CAN ACTUALLY DO A PROPER FULL BODY SQUEEZE WITH THOSE????? At most, it can handle someone's arm. Given Floyd's larger stature and longer limbs (to completely ensnare others), he'd be able to deal much more damage. There's a very clear example of Floyd "squeezing" someone so hard that they pass out early in episode 3 of the main story. He's strong enough to make them lose consciousness with physical strength alone, and (if we really want to go into darker fandom interpretations), this may even imply strangulation 💦 Floyd also has a number of voice lines in which he promises to "wring" people out, meaning he knowingly applies as much pressure as possible to deprive his victims of air. It isn’t some accident or an “oppise”, it’s intentional. Consider his merfom as well; he could easily coil around his enemies and squeeze them until they go blue in the face and their eyes pop. Just because Floyd squeezes people on land without the tail doesn't mean the matter is any less serious. Restricting someone's movements in general and/or cutting off their air supply will naturally elicit a panic of fear response. There's also the possibility of Floyd squeezing someone so hard that it damages their internal structures (ie like how even helpful movements like CPR compressions can break the ribs). "Crushing" someone in this manner is something that I would consider the same as "being beat up", not "better than" or "worse than". It's still damage, it's still legitimate fear and trauma. It's cruel, period, and the other characters' apprehensive reactions are 100% valid.

Again, tsum Floyd is presented much differently than regular Floyd. They don't match in size, and there is much more of an overall innocent, playful energy to the Tsumtsums. Them being a part of an event also says a lot about their presentation; TWST events are much more lighthearted than how the characters are typically portrayed in the main story. Mismatched anatomy aside, of course TWST won't show tsum Floyd squeezing students so hard they pass out. That's not the vibe the event is going for, so when tsum Floyd squeezes, it’s meant to be playful/cute and not at “full power” capacity.

(Side note: this is NOT to say that Floyd isn't capable of just normal behavior or genuine tight hugs/playful squeezes as well. He can do those too!! I'm just saying when he does threaten to "squeeze" others, there is always the potential for very real damage to be involved.)

#Floyd Leech #twst #twisted wonderland #disney twisted wonderland #notes for the writing raven #question

[punkeropercyjackson]

Hmmm imo the mass mischaracterization and misterpretation and also flanderalization of Percy Jackson as a character comes from their status as the protagonist of a piece of children's media.This is absolutely not meant as mean or to be condesending,especially because the fandom is full of minors and i'm a firm believer that they should be spoken to with respect when it comes to how they make content since kids' shows and such are made for them,but i need you guys to understand that while yes,Percy is kind,he's not nice.He's a role model but that dosen't make him an ideal hero-He's described as 'a troubled kid' from the first page and is now an even more troubled adult in current canon and the reason for that isn't just the demigod jazz,it's his actual personality.He hates authority figures and vocalizes it to their faces,he's very rude with the exception of towards his mom and younger girls(as he should),he frequently gets into fights and absolutely decimates his opponents and he's got a temper.None of this makes him a villain-Looking at you,people who compare him to Luke-and he's an anti-hero at best.This is the point.Percy is like he is because of trauma so his flaws are not only to make him well-written but for representation.It's incredibly important to have abused characters who have trauma responses and certain coping mechanisms even-No,ESPECIALLY in pg media so abuse victims can see they're not monsters because other people ruined them and be given inspiration to keep themselves kind and shown they deserve kindness too

And on a somewhat different note but on the same topic,Percy is also not immature or stupid.He's a genius who's saved tons of people and even the world multiple times with his plans and quick thinking and you can't say 'Well,Annabeth calls him dumb all the time and she's the daughter of Athena so he canonically is!' because Annabeth's literal fatal flaw is hubris,she calls him dumb all the time because she thinks EVERYONE is dumb compared to her and we just see it most with Percy because they're the mcs so they interact way more with eachother than they do everyone else and if i'm being completely honest,i also think she might be worried her in-universe status as 'the smartest' being compramised by him(Which is kinda funny to because the most in-character reaction for him to discovering that would be to either play dumb to reassure her or joke about it in a way that's too funny for her to be upset by it anymore).And yes,Percy is extremely goofy and he has the vibe he's into kiddy interests over mature ones(/pos ofc)but he's also learned a lot of emotional intellegence over the series since he's grown up like we did and speaking as someone who falls under this irl,his treatment of Nico and Hazel is very older sibling-like and even has some parentalness mixed since he knows their dad is shit and their moms aren't alive anymore so they need someone to take that role for them

What i'm trying to say is:Percy Jackson's not a soft uwu sunshine boy protagonist who hasn't been effected by the consequences of what he's been through yet.He's a jaded asshole who refuses to give up being kind or even his sense of humor because that would be letting the people who traumatized him win and by the end of Hoo,he's also grown into a Team Dad and chilled out a bit.Less Miles Morales,more Hobie Brown

#YES i did this just so i could compare percy jackson to hobie brown why do you ASK #also with hobie i don't mean 'asshole' as in 'mean' but as in 'little shit' #another similar difference between them is that hobie is my little brother and my son while percy is my malegirlbosswife #that's about it though they're the same person otherwise #percy jackson #perseo jackson #persephone jackson #percy jackson defense squad #black percy #latino percy #autistic percy jackson #punk!percy #trans(fem)percy jackson #team parent percy jackson #annabeth chase #leahbeth #ocean girl and wise guy #percabeth shippers can interact but please do not tag as ship #nico di angelo #hazel levesque #nico percy and hazel #group:it's in my nature to love you #perlex #pjo #hoo #tods #💌 #summerposting #anti luke castellan #black nico di angelo

[imagineitdearies]

not a Perfect Slaughter question but Astarion one. you remember that scene in goblin camp where a Loviatar priest and PC can do an impromptu bdsm session? Astarion's reaction always confused me. he seems to be strangely into it for a person who experienced a lot of non consensual sex with physical violence sprinkled on top. like yes, he could be faking it (it's act 1 after all) but he gives a lot of approval points for it.

is it just a case of him being his usual gremlin self? or is he more amenable to the show now when he isn't the one on the receiving end of a whip? also at this point in a game i doubt he cares too much for PC (reminds me abt his remark "i don't like seeing you hurt" or smth along the line).

and more generally, what do you think is his stance on pain play and d/s stuff in the bedroom? anyway would like to hear your musings on this, ciao <3

Hey anon!

I'm no Astarion expert compared to some in this fandom, but this is a scene I've thought a lot about the implications of myself so I'll offer my two (very long-winded) cents. I'd love to hear others' thoughts as well!

I agree that Astarion's big approvals should be isolated to the context of when in the game he's giving them. Based on his smaller approval points in Act I, when Astarion starts out this journey he seems to like watching people get treated how he once was. Just a few really early examples:

Tav* making Lae'zel say please (Astarion begging Cazador)

Tav making Zorru bow (Astarion having to bow in Cazador's presence)

Tav prodding Nettie's injured bird till it dies (Godey flashbacks)

Tav telling Mayrina's brothers they won't help (no one ever helping Astarion)

Tav terrorizing Lorin/entertaining his delusions (☹)

So we could argue Astarion is just leaning into this sadistic trauma response in the Loviatar scene as well. He finds satisfaction, however temporary, in seeing others endure what he once had to, and reassuring himself that he's on the winning/powerful/in control side this time. AKA not the weak pathetic person he feels like he was before. The self-loathing is subtle, but not far under the surface.

Considering he often disapproves of Tav being self-sacrificing and weak in other instances, however (usually when it's on behalf of others), why does he highly approve in this certain instance of Tav submitting to pain and injury for seemingly no good reason?

I think the timing of this scene in Act I makes a big difference, considering it's deep in the goblin camp where the party is usually at least a couple levels into their adventure. So in that case, Tav is the established leader, Astarion's vampiric nature is revealed, and they've survived quite a few encounters together already. Some trust has been built. Astarion is more assured of Tav's strength, competency, and willingness to keep him in the group....but that assurance of Tav's strength could be crossing over to feeling unsafe again.

There's plenty of other chaotic, less-sadistic things that he likes (BAAAA!), but almost** all of his big +5 or +10 approvals come from Tav agreeing to something that makes Astarion feel safe and/or powerful. So perhaps Astarion wants Tav to say yes to the Loviatar pain ritual because he views it as a show of strength. He might feel safer knowing that his leader can not only handle pain, but is so entirely unafraid as to welcome it even in the midst of a dangerous goblin camp--something Astarion's 'weak' past self never would have done (cue the self-loathing again).

Based on how eager he sounds when encouraging Tav, though ("don't you dare say no!"), I like to think that he's playing it off as sexual but in reality wants to assure himself he's not with another Cazador. While Astarion is likely to follow Tav regardless, I think he's more interested in being intimate with Tav--if he hasn't already--after seeing that Tav is okay with not always being in charge and assertive, in control. I think, especially at the start, Astarion craves control after not having it for so long, and this kinky display tells him Tav wouldn't mind him taking over for a little while.

Which, at last, gets us to your question about Astarion's views on "pain play and d/s stuff in the bedroom." I think it's telling that Astarion has a +5 approval during the first sex scene if Tav rolls over and lets him bite, and no matter which final romance scene you end up with in Act III, he's depicted as the top. If he ascends, he quickly jumps into what I'd call a permanent d/s dynamic with spawn!Tav where's he's the one in control, made all the more evident with the new kissing animations for patch 6. Plenty of implications to be had, about his preferences.

Now (and these are entirely my headcanons/opinions from here on out), Astarion just isn't in a place for what I'd consider actual healthy d/s dynamics in the bedroom during or immediately after the game timeline, as his mindset is too rooted in fear, self-loathing, and desperate grabs for control. It's been days, weeks at most since he was tortured and controlled on the regular--a lot of this stuff could be triggers and provoke flashbacks, or at the least reinforce the idea in his head that sex is a tool of manipulation and control. Truly safe, sane and consensual d/s acts just don't seem on the table--he goes through a period of not wanting sex at all, much less intimacy where so much trust is required.

But post-game, with enough time? I could see spawn!Astarion*** eventually enjoying some light bdsm in either role, maybe pain play beyond bites if he was the one giving, not receiving the pain. Which all could be a healing experience for him, with trust and aftercare involved. He wouldn't make it on my list of 'top three kinkiest companions' though 😂

Anyways, this is all very much my personal opinion!! Astarion is a fascinating character with so much nuance, there's endless ways to interpret him. And maybe he was just feeling extra chaotic and kinky that day 🤷‍♀️ "Ah, drink it in - that sweet, sweet chaos. Not that I approve of goblins, of course - filthy little beasts - but I do like a good den of debauchery."

Thanks for the question anon. If nothing else, I hope these ramblings entertained! 💙

*Tav represents Tav, Dark Urge, and origin characters in this post

**The one exception that I can think of is the +5 approval for letting him interrupt during the bugbear/ogre scene. Chaos gremlin indeed.

***Ascended!Astarion's characterization and lore is just a bit too inconsistent and vague (in my opinion, of course) for me to analyze a future for. Press (x) to doubt that he can eventually practice safe, healthy bdsm on the side with spawn!Tav while he does his evil stuff and tries to take over the world, but maybe??? Lol he doesn't make sense to me.

#ask me anything #me blabbing #astarion #bg3 astarion #astarion lore #astarion x tav #bg3 headcanons #bg3 meta #bg3 analysis #baldur's gate 3

[utilitycaster]

Either is denial of processing that trauma (which we know Launda compartmentalizes like fuck), or she's already processed it off screen (even prior to meeting Imogen). I think she's processed her death quite a bit, as we've seen with her early talk with Orym. ("The worst thing has already happened to me...") - I'm confused with why people think it's not being explored ENOUGH when we've literally been back to Whitestone and even got Vex's own reaction to the dead woman who was her doppleganger on the Tree? I think Laudna could easily go Dark Side for the people she loves and Delilah would fucking love that shit and stoke the flames for it. I guess I'm confused as to why you think she's "aimless" when there's a bigger picture happening? Also maybe we're not diving more into Launda's stuff because we're dealing with some exploration of Ashton's past at the moment?

Hi anon, my apologies if I misread this because I found some of it a bit hard to follow, but: you actually bring up a pretty major problem, namely, we know Laudna is compartmentalizing - we see this come out notably in her conversations with Ashton and in Issylra - but Marisha initially envisioned her as over her trauma and so this expression has been inconsistent (and to be clear: not inconsistent in the sense of a person compartmentalizing so hard they don't realize it; inconsistent in that whether Laudna is being played as over it or as compartmentalizing is so vague that even you seem to not be able to decide which it is in this ask).

As for Whitestone: Vex's response to Laudna has nothing to do with Laudna's growth as a person or feelings; that's an exploration of Vex's feelings. We got Laudna's backstory. Laudna's got tons of backstory. We are not actually doing much meaningfully with this backstory. It's there, and because it's a backstory that relies quite heavily on one of the most famous villains in the world and because Laudna does not like Delilah yet has done virtually nothing to get rid of her, it stands to reason that there needs to be some sort of exploration of why this is, but there's not. She's just kind of hated her for 30 years on her own and 2 years with Imogen and however many months with Bells Hells and done below the bare minimum to like...investigate, find a new patron, do anything. As Marisha even said on 4-Sided Dive, she's just going to roll with the punches...which, again, not an invalid decision per se but you need to actually explore why someone would have their murderer in their head and capable of controlling them physically and be like "yeah I'll roll with the punches."

And the issue, to be clear, is that in 71 episodes we have never gotten that. We're dealing with Ashton's stuff now but like. what about the rest of the entire campaign. I could tell you what every other character in Bells Hells (and, frankly? both past campaigns) felt about their past, and what they were working towards at most given points. With Laudna? That's not happening. Like, it's great that you think she could go "Dark Side" although you'll have to be more specific but like, is this a thought based in evidence? Or are you just saying "this is a thing I think would be cool"? Because the latter is valid but as I said in the previous ask (and the one linked, and, frankly, have been saying for nearly a year now), the fandom is filling in all the gaps and we're not even able to do so consistently in the way we have with other characters. We keep throwing out possibilities and none ever come to fruition.

As said, I have my speculation why this is (in brief: I think Marisha has excelled at playing very driven characters and is running into difficulty trying to play one who is go with the flow and overcorrecting into "stuck" without exploring why she's stuck) and honestly she's still like, fun to watch, I liked her conversation with Pate this past episode and the dog fight and, my thoughts about sorlock mechanics aside she's good in combat, but like, I have little investment in her narratively because I don't expect to get anything. And that could change - but my grace period has long since expired and so it's a case of "if something that actually engages with this concept happens I'm going to be here for it - I'll even throw out some ideas if they come to me or engage with the ideas of other people who have interesting things to say - but I'm not waiting around when there's six other characters who actually have arcs."

#answered #Anonymous #critical role spoilers

[getvalentined]

Yesterday I lamented a bit about people literally believing that sex is worse than violence, and I want to talk about that in more detail today.

Trigger warning for discussions of sexual assault, and somewhat detailed descriptions of body horror and violence.

One of my worst-kept secrets is that I'm into body horror. I try to keep it on the subtler side in my work, but it's probably still a bit extreme. I rarely get complaints about this—but I have been harassed for saying Yuffie could have a crush on anyone else in Avalanche. Not that she could or should have a relationship, or even implying that she does have a crush. Only that she could be attracted to another member of the party, because they are all extremely attractive, and teenage girls have crushes all the time.

I've drawn Vincent with his trachea exposed and written about Genesis' internal organs rotting away in fairly visceral detail, but the thing that makes me "sick" and unworthy of the air I breathe is that I think a teenage girl could find someone older than her attractive. This is the thing that has led people to tell me to kill myself.

Another terribly kept secret is that I was, at one point, a teenage girl myself. This didn't stop me from finding multiple adult celebrities attractive. For people who experience sexual attraction, this is normal. Me being fifteen years old didn't make Angelina Jolie any less attractive when playing Lara Croft.

This opinion is the one that's led folks to say they hope I get raped to death in prison. Not describing a character's skin being removed while the one removing it cackles in glee—that doesn't imply I'm a monster, because it's just violence. It's fiction. But I said teenagers can experience attraction, because I was one who did, and I'm inherently and undeniably evil.

This is what I mean when I say that people think sex is worse than violence. I'm not exaggerating, I'm referring to my actual experience—not just in fandom, but I'm not going to talk about my life in the cult because this is already too long. The point here is that I can portray the most gruesome torture, and everyone knows it's not real, but the instant human intimacy hits the scene it becomes some horrible, unforgivable concept that proves that I'm a monster who deserves to die.

I don't portray much sexual violence in my work, or engage with a lot of work that does, but—and this took me a long time to unpack—it's just another brand of violence in fiction. It can be gratuitous, sure, but so is my body horror. If I don't like it, I don't engage with it.

Before anyone brings up the topic of trauma processing and recovery, I need to add that I have personally experienced physical violence, medical violence, and sexual violence in my real life. I shouldn't have to explain that to keep people from attacking me for my work, and the fact that I've been through those things doesn't mean that my portrayal of these things is "valid" while portrayal by anyone who doesn't have the "correct" related trauma is "glorification." That's not how this works.

Some people experience sexual gratification from pain, or from engaging with portrayals thereof. For them, my work involving torture may inspire feelings of lust, my illustrations of body horror may be sexually arousing. Does this mean that I am sexualizing torture and abuse? Does this mean that I am encouraging skinning people alive? Of course not! No one has ever even implied such a thing!

Other people's reactions to my work, whether it's lust or disgust or anything in between, is not my responsibility. Likewise, my reaction to the work of others is not their responsibility. Sex is just sex, and fictional sex is just fiction—no matter how violent or inappropriate it may be.

You have every right to feel how you feel with regard to a creator's work. You can love it, hate it, it can be enticing or repulsive, you can find it exhilarating or triggering—all those responses are valid because you're a real person who feels things!

We attribute emotions to art, as well we should, but we should never attack the artist (operating in good faith) for creating something that caused an uncomfortable reaction in us. Those feelings are not a creator's responsibility to regulate for us.

Further, if you're a survivor of sexual assault who genuinely believes that murder is the kinder option, I am so sorry that your pain runs that deep. Truly. No matter what you've been through, the world is better for you being alive than it would be if your abuser had killed you. I'm sorry that it hurts so much that you can't see that yet. For a long time, I couldn't either. I understand the reaction, I understand seeing your own pain in every portrayal of sexual violence, I understand thinking it would be better to just be gone forever.

But that's not true, and if seeing it in fiction makes you wish violence and pain on-par with your own on other real people, you need to unpack it. You need to deconstruct that mindset. Hurt people hurt people, and you are hurting people.

But the world would be a darker, harder, sadder place without you in it. I'm glad you survived. I'm glad we both survived.

#fandom vent #fandom bullshit #tw sa #tw body horror #tw violence

[soullessjack]

tbh a lot of the ways jack’s infantilization pops up is in discourse around him and dean and their relationship , especially after Mary’s death in game night. because everyone’s relentlessly clinging to the idea of jack as a pwecious widdle baby who can do no wrong, there’s this unanimous refusal to give him any accountability whatsoever for anything he does, particularly with killing mary and hurting dean so severely in the process. instead, everyone decides that dean is the bad guy for reacting to his childhood trauma unfolding again after he’d finally healed from it and got her back.

I mean spn fans fundamentally do not see jack as an autonomous person so it only makes sense that nobody can put him on equal footing in any of his relationship dynamics, but to vilify dean for having a very justified reaction to his fucking mother dying again is just an insane thing to do in the name of woobifying jack. yes, it was entirely accidental and yes, Jack is equally as traumatized by it, but that does not take away from the fact that what he did directly emotionally damaged sam and dean.

not only would a lot of fandom discourse benefit from realizing these are literally not normal functional healthy people dealing with normal situations that give them the liberty to approach said situations in normal functional healthy ways (dean promising to kill jack if he needed to in 13x02, & shooting jack in 13x23), but it would also benefit from realizing that jack is a grown ass invulnerable demigod with the capacity to cause a lot of major damage if he spins out of control, and he bears full responsibility for that damage (which is why it is actually so fucking stupid whej I see ppl say that jack becoming a baby would magically fix their conflict. no it fucking wouldn’t, you just don’t see jack as a full person with direct responsibility in said conflict and you don’t care about their relationship actually being healed mutually).

on the other hand, dean was reacting to a presumed threat almost immediately after losing two of his loved ones in a situation directly related to jack. he has every right to be wary and cautious, and given that he is actively traumatized and already an emotionally dysfunctional person from being abused by John, he isn’t exactly going to outlet his trauma healthily or behave in a way that miraculously breaks the cycle John created. I’m getting tired but lastly, ppl should also realize that jack is a grown ass adult with the emotional maturity to understand and forgive dean for the way he acted before—even while Dean actively struggles to forgive himself and tries to be as good a father as possible to make up for it.

Because again, their situation is not normal and they have no way of treating it or reacting to it normally. as far as jack knows and has seen of his powers, he is dangerous and is able to reach a point where he’s too much of a threat to keep alive. the tragedy of it is that he doesn’t want to be a threat, he doesn’t want people to fear or hate him and he doesn’t want to hurt anyone. that’s why he says “you were right all along” in moriah. between dean and jack, a huge facet in their relationship is the question of whether or not dean is right, and by the time they’ve reached a point of mutually seeing each other as father and son that question is up in the air as something neither of them want. jack never wanted dean to be right, and now that dean knows jack as a person and as his own kid he especially doesn’t want to be right anymore.

just. Please start thinking of Jack as an actual autonomous person. That is literally all it comes down to. It will open up your world

#spn #supernatural #jack kline #dean winchester #dean&jack #moriah #mary winchester #spn fandom #fandom discussion #spn thoughts #long ass post sorry I drank black tea again #goodnight everypony

[larsisfrommars]

Simba Is A Good Dad, to BOTH his Cubs, Actually.

So I’m about to rant about some shit that nobody is gonna care about considering it’s about an almost 20 year old movie and a cartoon that’s technically over(?) but I need to get it out of my system

One of the coldest takes (in my opinion) on the internet I’ve seen since dabbling in the TLK/TLG fandom is that Simba isn’t a good dad to Kiara, hypothetically compared to Kion his younger son especially.

Granted he’s not a perfect dad, nobody is, and I mean, he’s got some big shoes to fill regarding Mufasa as a king and as a father. Then again, we never got the chance to see him really mess up because he never had the chance to see Simba grow up or the challenges that come with that tragically.

But like, Kiara is like under 10 years old at the TLK2. He’s protective of her then, sends Timone and Pumbaa to watch her (like Sarabi sent Zazu, not really that different).

She deliberately loses them and almost gets eaten by crocodiles and encounters someone who very well might’ve killed/kidnapped her given the opportunity, Zira.

Then the scene that follows mirrors the scene from TLK where his father chastised him for putting himself in unnecessary danger and gives him a narratively potent lesson about the Circle of Life.

He overreacts a bit at the prospect of Kiara being out in danger. But the thing is he doesn’t do it for no reason. Yes there’s past trauma there from his childhood, but because of the Outlanders the Pridelands aren’t as safe as they were when Simba was a cub.

Kiara doesn’t look for trouble, trouble finds her because there are factions willing and able to exploit the fact she’s Simba’s only heir (especially with Kion absent). Both times Kiara went out on her own the Outlanders used her against him and she almost died the first time. Even though he freaks out initially and is like “no more hunts for you!” he still lets her go out alone with Kovu.

He doesn’t know what the audience (or Kiara) knows about Kovu. His worst fears were confirmed and his reaction to Zira (and seemingly Kovu as well) using Kiara to get to him was to protect her. He’s ultimately in the wrong and is stubborn, but he does learn in the end and apologizes to Kovu for misjudging him instead of doubling down. He’s an okay dad and becomes a better one by the end of the film.

So how does this relate to Kion? Well the arguement I’ve seen is Simba not being as protective/showing favoritism to Kion over Kiara in TLG.

I strongly disagree. I think Kiara and Kion are very different children with very different responsibilities. Plus by TLG they’re both older than Simba or Kiara at the beginning of their films.

Kiara is princess regent, the next in line to the Pridelands throne, this a bigger target than Kion, a bigger target who also has more complex responsibilities.

In the TLG pilot, Simba is about as overprotective and mistrustful of Kion as he’d been with Kiara, he still lets him play, he’s an older cub and isn’t alone (because Bunga).

Then it turns out Kion has the Roar of The Elders, and has an entire group of friends he’s assembled and travels with. Not only does tradition (something Simba holds in VERY high regard) demand his son lead The Lion Guard, he also has a group of friends who can and do protect him. He’s not going around all alone with no protection (be it ancestral gifts or allies) picking fights with Hyenas just because he wants to.

I’m almost certain that had Kiara been the one with the Roar of The Elders, Simba would have a hard time justifying keeping her cooped up. And as we can see, Kiara isn’t quite as cooped up (even in TLK2) as people tend to project.

They’re different kids with different needs, personalities, and Royal duties. Simba, in my opinion, reacts pretty reasonably (if not perfectly) to each of those individual cubs given the circumstances. Parenting isn’t easy, especially if you’ve got trauma and there’s a lot at stake.

TL:DR, cut Simba a break, he’s doing his best, and his best really isn’t all that bad, damn.

#the lion king #the lion king 2 simba's pride #the lion guard #tlk #tlk2 #tlg #simba #Kiara lion king #Kion lion king #Disney #meta #meta analysis #character analysis #disney meta #disney analysis #Lars rambles

[herwrittenuniverse]

Thoughts on Rayllum Post S4

Last week, I posted a chapter of my story Lunation and got some pretty divisive comments. It got my wheels turning and before I knew it, my fingers were flying, and I ended up writing something small an essay on Rayla and Callum's communication at this point in their journey.

I'm going to put it below because I feel like people may disagree (which, by all means, you are free to do so and keep scrolling without reading). Click below to read more.

Are you sure you want to read?

There's still time to turn around!

Alright then!

Also, please feel free to sound off in the comments or reblogging.

Edit: Adding this one because I feel like this blog is making its rounds and it needs to be said. Let me make this 100000% clear that this post is not to blindly defend Rayla in any way. Her actions (lying/leaving) in TTM were awful (and I talk more about that below). However, this post is a reaction to some comments on my story - comments that made me realize that there are those in the fandom that believe her actions are (especially to Callum) unforgivable - that no matter what Rayla does, says, or thinks in future seasons, she will forever be at fault for leaving, and doesn't deserve to reconcile with Callum.

Original Post:

I didn’t realize how much of the TDP Community takes serious fault in (ahem, hates) post-TTM Rayla. Last week, I posted a chapter of Lunation (a fanfiction/character study of what would happen if Rayla and Callum actually talked post S4) where Rayla and Callum try to talk about things. In my story, Rayla realized how much she truly hurt Callum, and while she attempts to explain herself, she ultimately apologizes, realizing her actions hurt Callum more than she could ever imagine. Callum, who is still blinded by anger and repressing a lot of his feelings, lashes out at her. It makes them both explode and nothing is settled between them (until later chapters - but that’s a different post).

Obviously, I am just a fan, and I am using this work as a creative release. But I take pride in proper characterizations - I want to be sure each party member is behaving like they would in the show. And, on top of it all, I am spending my free time putting genuine love and devotion into something purely because I enjoy it.

But many of the responses on the chapter really left me scratching my head, and quite frankly, made me…sad. Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and that is not the issue - I understand you can’t please everyone. I was genuinely upset because people seem completely ignorant of the absolute trauma Rayla has been through. Readers called me biased towards Rayla (with no sympathy towards Callum), called Rayla toxic, said they want Rayla to "truly regret her decision and actually apologize," calling my interpreted apology disingenuous because I used her family dynamic as one reason why she would leave to protect Callum (and honestly, likely also because she didn't grovel at Callum's feet). 

I am not saying what Rayla did in TTM was right - actually, I think the opposite. Rayla’s response was definitely not healthy, and it wasn’t correct, and there were more plausible options. Yet having been through trauma myself, I understand Rayla’s actions. When TTM begins, we see how Viren has taken away literally everyone Rayla has loved - every parent she’s ever had,  including (in a way) Ethari, who is not dead but is forbidden to see his foster daughter due to the fact that she is a Ghost. 

Rayla left to protect literally the last thing that she loves in life - Callum, and probably Ezran too (but remember, she saw Callum encased in ice along with her parents and Runaan in TTM). Through Seasons 1 - 3, Rayla is self-sacrificing, rash, and guilty - her choice to leave, while not right by any means, aligns with her character that we have all seen through Seasons 1-3. 

Again, was her decision right? Nope. Was it correct? Absolutely not. But those were Rayla’s actions, and at the time, she felt it was right and justified, which again fits into her character. In S4, we see Rayla come back empty-handed, and frankly, that shows growth. She realizes that her attempt was fruitless, and hence returns. It sure looks shitty to Callum because she has nothing to account for - and at the beginning of S4, he seems justifiably hurt, angry, yet still hung up on Rayla. So yes, Rayla’s return is incredibly hurtful to Callum - but let’s not forget that it was likely also hard on Rayla. She is both a prideful and honorable creature, so returning to Katolis empty-handed had to be one of the hardest things for her to do, especially with nothing to account for. No one likes to admit they’re wrong, especially about something as big of a decision as that. That is not to take away from Callum’s pain - it is just as hard and traumatic for Callum. But I think members of the TDP Community are forgetting that it’s hard on Rayla too. 

And Callum’s ire is understandable. However, my interpretation from S4 (and from his short story 'Inheritance') was that for two years, he stuffed down all his feelings and made everyone around him miserable. At this point, those around Callum have been dealing with him wallowing for two years - and now, the love of his life is here, in front of him, and he is still choosing not to address anything with Rayla. He is withdrawn, and has been for the past two years. Rayla's return is essentially forcing him to finally process what has happened. That’s why I decided to explore Lunation. S4 gave us no resolution with Rayllum, and it had the gears in my brain going. 

Some people are also saying that Ezran and Soren should be loyal to Callum because they know him the longest, and that they should be more angry with Rayla (both in the show and in Lunation). Yet I see Soren and Ezran as mediators, both in the show and throughout my story. Yes, they’ve seen their friend/brother desperate for nearly two years because of Rayla (which I’m sure gets tiring in itself). Now Rayla is back, but Callum is not taking any means to move communication forward. This is plainly addressed when Ezran and Callum speak in the Drakewood (“Lots of things are hard, like magic. But you figured that one out.”) and when Rayla and Soren speak on their ‘adventure’ (“When you left, you hurt him - real bad.”). It is natural that Ezran and Soren are not going to have the same bitter response to Rayla that Callum had because A. Their love/relationship with Rayla is different, and they have likely already processed what has happened. B. It is not in their nature to be inherently angry or bitter (Ezran, especially). C. I would like to think that, at this point, they want to see Callum happy. I am sure they were angry and mourning Rayla in their own way, but Callum would be the most affected by Rayla’s departure. 

Let’s also not forget…that Jack DeSena (when being interviewed about S4) himself said that Callum repressed his feelings during the two year absence, and dove into magic. 

And again - in case you didn’t read the first or second time I said it - Callum has every right to be angry. But remember, these are conflicting emotions that Callum is suppressing. He loves Rayla deeply, but is also angry and hurt. Still yet, he hasn’t talked about it or addressed it, even at the end of S4. A person who is withholding all these feelings is going to act angry, bitter, moody, and likely lash out - we saw evidence of all of this in S4. 

But…those of you who are anti-Rayla seem to miss the fact that Callum is still in love with her. He never stopped loving her - not ever in these two years. But he still has these repressed, unspoken emotions that are going to burst through, and that is what I wanted to explore in Lunation.

I deliberately made their conversation drawn out and slow, starting right from Through the Surface (my fanfic that takes place before Lunation). They’ve been slowly getting there, bit by bit…because if you’ve ever tried to repair a relationship (especially one where both parties are hurt), it takes time. That’s one reason why I liked S4, as Rayllum wasn’t addressed at all. Why would it? While it was disappointing to Rayllum fans, it was a perfectly normal response. It is not realistic for a couple to just pick back up after two years and pretend like nothing happened. 

And ultimately, that is the point of Lunation - to show that relationships are messy, are not linear by any means, and that in order to make it work, there needs to be communication, and communication is freaking hard. 

As a bonus, for those of you insisting “But Rayla hurt Callum! Rayla doesn’t deserve to go back with Callum! How can you ever go back to someone who has hurt you?” To you, I say this: it is painfully obvious that you have not had any complex relationships, life experiences, or the ability to empathize. It seems like you’ve never had someone you hurt (or they hurt you) terribly , only for the love to remain ever present. Truly, it must be nice to live on a plane of reality where things are so black and white. But in my reality, life is not black and white. Life is messy, and love is the messiest thing of them all. 

And, on top of it all, these are fictional characters that do not exist, and I (along with several other creators) am writing fanfiction out of free will and my love for the show. I don’t get anything out of this process (including writing this rant/blog post). So if a person doesn’t like my interpretation of these characters and this story, that’s cool - but you can say your opinion kindly and without aggression, or simply close out the tab and decide not to read. 

And hell, write your own damn story if mine makes you so angry.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Feel free to sound off in the comments.

#the dragon prince #tdp #rayllum #tdp rayllum #samuel seabury #free thoughts #my writing #blog

[vampalpatine-archive]

Your post about Shiv made me think for a long while bc it's true that Shiv's trauma and specifically her trauma around sex is largely misinterpreted/outright ignored by the fandom but now I'm confused bc 1. when did Tom pressure Shiv to have sex??? I mostly remember her pushing Tom to do stuff he didn't want, even while he was clearly uncomfortable, but every time he tries to initiate something and she doesn't want it he backs off right away and doesn't push. The period tracking WAS creepy and I will definitely not be defending that, but Shiv would actually make annoyed faces if Tom didn't want to do what she had planned, and insist or ask "no?" in a mocking tone when he wasn't particularly enthusiastic about it. If he ever did that to her everyone would be calling it "rapey" but bc Shiv does it it's... Girlboss I guess. Idk.

And 2. I also think there needs to be a conversation about this definitely bc yeah the ear flick was weird and the way Shiv's face FALLS and she even steps back a little??? Holy shit. Literally what I did, gasped in shock and recoiled. HOWEVER. Putting my "this is a tv show and not reality" goggles on, to me context is important I mean she's kicking dirt over his shoes to humilliate him in public (nothing new there) and getting all up in his space and the flick read like Tom just needing to do something to get her to back the fuck up and leave him alone. I've seen people dismissing Shiv's abuse of Tom completely, through the years but especially this season. And I get it, Shiv is in a vulnerable state both bc of her father passing and bc she's pregnant and conflicted about it, but none of it justifies the way she has treated Tom and keeps treating him. He did not hit her, or push her, or even start commenting on her body the way she does to him constantly. He flicked her on the damn ear lol and I GET IT, I was lowkey horrified by it at first but looking at it from Tom's pov, I have been in a situation where someone kept coming at me and getting in my face so I get that reaction. Anyway. Yeah it was a weird scene Idk where the writers are going with this!!! If they make either of them start hitting the other I'm gonna be furious tho like that'd be the last straw of bad tomshiv plot points. Like if this is them trying to Logan-ify Tom more I'm gonna be so fucking pissed lol

god there's so much of this i disagree with, and it's so long... honestly i wasn't gonna answer i was gonna say something like "i ain't reading all that" with a shiv fancam or some shit. plus you just said you randomly saw my post so you don't follow me you'll probably not read this

but the notes on that post have been bothering me all day to the point where i'm seriously thinking of shutting the fuck up about succession, and i don't want to cause it's my fav show so i'm gonna answer at least to a few things

first of all, to your question "when did tom pressure shiv to have sex?" i simply recommend rewatching retired janitors of idaho as it has one of what i consider the most disgusting scenes of the show and if you don't agree with me in that that's him pressuring her then i simply don't think we'll be able to reach any mutual understanding here, which is okay i guess.

secondly, i don't think there's any scenes in the show where shiv pressures tom to have sex or do stuff he's not comfortable with in any way that i would deem "rapey" if shiv were a man. maybe you're referring to stuff like opening the relationship? or the threesome from 2x10? both of which i would call asshole moves AT WORST.

about the "this is a tv show not reality" thing i can only say that it was a post for my mutuals that i honestly didn't expect to win traction, in fact, it was a response to another post from a mutual i had just reblogged, so it wasn't even supposed to be read on its own. obviously you don't know me, but if you did you'd probably see why it's funny you'd say that. i don't think it's a bad thing that they included this scene of tom flicking shiv's ear, i don't think its wrong to keep having tom as your favorite character, or tomshiv as your favorite relationship. i think it's a very interesting scene that adds a lot of depth to his character and their relationship and i think liking complex characters who do bad shit is so incredibly fun.

also the way you said "hey he hit her but just a little bit not like he hit her for real" is exactly what i was criticising people saying in my original post so maybe next time when you read a post you don't agree with in such a fundamental level just move on it's not that deep. block me, even, if you see it more than once and it bothers you

to wrap this up i'll just say that i HOPE they keep loganifying tom, as the parallels with him and logan have been there since the beginning, it makes him 10 times more interesting and if you took that away he wouldn't be much of a character. i HOPE tomshiv never get a divorce, as i'm rooting for the cycle of abuse to never end and keep repeating itself, i consider succession a show that runs in circles (complimentary) and would be really disappointed if there was a sudden catharsis moment where anyone at all makes it out. if i had to bet, out of the two of us, i don't think i'm gonna be the one who ends up disappointed here

[arceespinkgun]

I’ve seen people talk about how TFA Blackarachnia got shafted in the name of man pain™️ and to make Optimus look noble in comparison, and I wholeheartedly agree. Her deep trauma is used mainly to show Optimus’s reactions to it, and she is coddled in ways no men would be. Like, she puts Prowl and Bumblebee on a countdown clock by envenomating them so Optimus will have to do her bidding... and then she needs rescuing (so Optimus can look heroic) and when she keeps her end of the deal and spares Prowl and Bumblebee, the conclusion of the episode is that maybe she’s good deep down—not that she was true to her word to make sure she can get Optimus to do what she wants in the future!

...But there’s also another trend in TFA that I noticed, one that I think could be extremely controversial in the fandom: I think TFA also treats Sentinel unfairly. 

Hear me out—I’m not saying he’s not a jerk! All I’m saying is that I think there were many cases throughout the show where he does reasonable things or draws the correct conclusion about something, and then the show goes out of its way to force him to be wrong... even when he’s actually right. That sounds paradoxical, but here’s a list of instances of this happening:

—Sentinel wasn't wrong to think Bulkhead broke that building while at boot camp and also wasn't wrong to want to disqualify him from service for it, but the show makes him look like a big over-the-top jerk to do that even though Bulkhead could've actually hurt people and that was a lot of property damage! And Bulkhead is the only one who could've done it, but the show doesn't take that direction with Sentinel's choice.

—I didn’t care much for the episode where Lockdown catches the Decepticons for Sentinel (I mean, he couldn’t even catch Starscream with Prowl’s help before, and why would he be dumb enough to think the lying clone would pay him more?) but if Lockdown is capable of catching them, why is it wrong for Sentinel to hire him? He’s a neutral, not a Decepticon.

—“We're in hot pursuit of a convicted Decepticon spy.” “Oh, you mean the one you just let get away.” Sentinel even goes silent for a moment like we should all see this as such a burn... but those are pretty bold words from Optimus when in actuality his team just let “Wasp” escape! There was enough time between “Wasp” fleeing the base and Sentinel and Jazz arriving that there was no way they could have even seen him!

—Optimus tells Sentinel he shouldn't be chasing Wasp on Earth and should be leading Cybertron, while Sentinel insists that Wasp's escape had something to do with the Decepticons. And he's right! Shockwave arranged it! But because Wasp gets mutated by Blackarachnia, the show never even reveals this and it doesn't matter.

—In the episode where Blackarachnia takes Wasp, Sentinel says a horrible thing about how she should've died as Elita. Saying that is probably the most terrible thing he ever does in the show. But later, when he says she didn't escape in the Transwarp explosion to save everybody and instead says she sacrificed Wasp to escape... I have no reason to doubt him? I feel like he's the only one who treats her a villain? But because he said something so terrible before, the show clearly doesn't want me to agree with him on this.

—When Sentinel later does what Optimus thought was right and tries to get home to Cybertron ASAP so the planet has a leader, he's immediately punished by the narrative because his prisoners escape.

—When Sentinel institutes curfews and makes propaganda videos saying the Autobots should be wary of Decepticon-like activity, he's framed as a fearmongering fascist by Ratchet and the show—but how unreasonable was his response really when their top intel bot was just revealed to be a Decepticon who critically injured Ultra Magnus? Sure, it looks extreme, but from his perspective, doesn't it seem reasonably cautious? The Decepticon who did that was still at large!

—In the most egregious moment IMO, the crisis literally would have been averted if he had been able to fire on Omega Supreme earlier—Megatron also wouldn't have wanted himself and Cybertron to explode! Sentinel would have called his bluff and saved the day! But instead, Ratchet and the Council immediately shame him for being "reckless"... even as the Council calls Ratchet and Captain Fanzone the REAL heroes... even though they also disregarded the rule of law?!

—Then, adding insult to injury, the show rewards Ratchet for taking the Magnus Hammer and Jazz immediately quits.

—In The Stunti-con Job comic, Sentinel is framed as being stupid for punishing the police for conducting a search without a warrant—so he's punished for being militant, but also punished for NOT being that way? Which is it?

There are also a lot of smaller moments, like all the times Optimus's team claims something major with NO proof and Sentinel is framed as being a jerk for not believing them. But given Sentinel's position, wouldn't it be bad if he did believe claims that they broke the Allspark just to keep it from Megatron and that it isn't really destroyed (even though they had no fragments to show until later) or that Longarm is a spy without being presented with any proof first?

I just don’t think anything is gained from Sentinel having chronic always-wrong syndrome like this. If he was occasionally right or had a point despite being really flawed, then wouldn’t it just help characters like Optimus learn things and make the show more complex? It also would make it more understandable why Optimus goes to bat for him at certain points, and would explain how Sentinel has a high position and became a Prime. 

TL;DR Sentinel just can’t win!

#Sentinel Prime #transformers animated #tfa #my analysis #long post

[tobeornottotc]

Kinn and Korn: the importance of subtext

Lol, it’s the way they added all the scenes with Korn (Kinn’s father, manipulator and literal and metaphorical chess player controlling/puppeteering the whole game/characters of this show) to show people yet again why Kinn regressed this episode and struggled with his guilt and need to protect Porsche vs his image and power and fear of the past. It’s the way the dialogue tells you; he’s fucked up his position as a mafia lead once before and he’s terrified to do so again by letting his heart and dick think for him hence his actions immediately spiral into apathy towards Porsche when it’s literally killing him and he feels like a monster for hurting him. In his way he’s protecting both Porsche and him by staying back and acting unfeeling but Porsche spirals instead thinking he’s dejected and he’s falling for someone who assaulted him (it’s clear to me now Porsche has feelings and he knows them but it is keeping them secret because of protection of self which they already foreshadowed would be his reason). They both spiral because of lack of communication and manipulation and fear from their environment; Vegas, Korn and lastly the most important one, from their walls in their heart. 

And yet, this fandom receives this information in two scenes with Korn and then even more dialogue from every character in this episode, and still refuse, still refuse to understand Kinn. As a morally grey character, they still refuse to understand, piece it together; even reactions on YouTube gloss over the scene with Korn as if it’s not fully explaining this episode. Instead of focusing on how Kinn rejected/’hurt’ Porsche; how about focusing on how uncontrollable his need to protect and keep Porsche by his side is that it’s even going against his fathers wishes. Him going to seek Porsche out irrespective of his image, power and bodyguards, literally this Kinn  is the mafia boss who sleeps with a gun and can’t let people be behind him because he lacks trust, he went unarmed to Porsche alone just to make him return to him because he wasn’t thinking about anything else but Porsche. The juxtaposition of his traumas and struggles vs his defense and armour in episode 5 is stark and real and he’s just as in pain as  Porsche (despite different severity levels),  because he’s also dealing with his own traumas and past and he’s trying to find a line where to protect the people and himself he’s had to protect as his father reminds him  vs the guy he is slowly falling in love with (doesn’t fully know it yet) and is losing everything to protect and risking it all just to keep him by his side.

 It’s the dialogues:

The way Ken mentions: yes Porsches punishment is severe but it’s actually less than what other bodyguards are meant to receive for getting drugged and ruining his image . 

“It’s the talk of the town”

Pete mentions,  it’s ruining and making Kinn seem weak and he is embarrassed by his employee, other bodyguards would be tortured far more but people focus on only the on the surface/ forced woke reaction only seeing it the way Porsche  sees/misunderstands it… like… there’s so much I can talk about with this episode with these 2 characterisation and feelings, so much ITS not BLACK OR WHITE…

 There’s so much darkness and pain and yet attraction and passion hidden in every scene in this episode. And Kinn and Porsche both are both confused scared and hurt by the risks it pose for them to fall for each other it was us seeing what those risks where for Porsche on the surface and for Kinn in subtext. 

This show is nuanced with complicated people. Sigh... Vegas can be both evil and actually good, he can be both menacing and actually feel things during the bike scene, Kinn can be both responsible and an aggressor and just as bad as Vegas but he can be also just as protective and a safe space for Porsche, the one that Porsche is falling for and is feeling hurt he’s not reciprocating or seeing him as special, Porsche can be both traumatised and hurt, and still want to be with Kinn (his massive struggle this whole episode was that while he was traumatised by episode 4 he was still attracted and hurt because Kinn wasn’t showing him care, affection more than anything, and he had to process the idea of falling for someone who did that to him, for having these uncomfortable yet passionate feelings for his aggressor). 

It’s layers not just Black or white, not just wrong or right. The truth of the matter is that KinnPorsche although they don’t know it are falling fast and deep, they both view each other as a safe space but their environment taints that and manipulates them to keep their walls up so they don’t break, and because of that they can’t be actually who they want to be with each other, the natural safety they feel from each other, the natural exposure and vulnerability they get when around each other, the ‘natural ‘happiness’ they gain even in their messed up and dark moments. Look at the flashbacks again in episode 5 especially when Porsche is crying in the bathroom, he sees him self in ecstasy and smiling,  the way it’s framed; there’s still the horror of what it is, but also the terror at how much he felt during episode 4 problematic scene. He didn’t hate it but he was confused how he got there, and how he was feeling with Kinn. Newsflash: it’s until Kinn starts to act out in his mask of nonchalance, that’s when Porsche starts to spiral and realise the gravity of his trauma by the person who’s meant to be (without his realisation) his safe net, by Kinn choosing to distance and show apathy, that’s when Porsche was pushed to the brink being alone trying to process these feelings and believing they were wasted on someone who didn’t reciprocate or cared about him.

That’s why it’s framed the way it is, the show is saying yes this is r*pe, but it’s more than just that, it’s awful and traumatising but at the same time Porsche wasn’t focused on that, he was focused on what it unveiled to him about his feelings, It wasn’t good what Kinn did (he even is swallowed with guilt and tries to run away from it due to his father’s warnings) but they both are falling and both naturally gravitate and feel safe, and better with each other, it wasn’t the actions of episode 4 that ruined their safe place, it was the outcome of it, it was Kinn pulling away and it was Porsche hurting and losing his protective barrier without Kinn to fall back on (when naturally he would), it was that, that destroyed this, not the actions in Porsche’s head or episode 4, it was Kinn who made him spiral; it was his masks that scarred and maimed him more, and gave him as they literally mentioned in this episode: a broken heart. 

But y’all refuse to see nuance and listen to the dialogs and just stop thinking in Black or white. Don’t even get me started on the extreme spectrums about the Vegas bike scene. Sigh

#kinnporsche #kinnporsche the series #reviews #meta #thai bl #bl series #bl drama #kinn x porsche

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Sometimes I can just never understand the hate that Beth receives from the GA. I’m always reading posts and comments about how Beth was a useless character or a brat or whatever, but they don’t really understand how important her character is. We don’t even have to view this in a Bethyl way—even if she did cause Daryl to burn down his past and become the character we all love and know now. Beth was just the epitome of good and hope and yeah even if she was a tinyyyy bit stubborn with getting a drink, she was able to drag Daryl out of his catatonic state and change him for good. Also hello—she was literally a surrogate mother for Judith and that was an extremely important role she had to play but she NEVER gets credit for it. She saved Carol at the hospital too and we all know just how much the GA cherishes Carol, yet the GA still calls Beth useless. Idk, it’s a bit frustrating and it’s so obvious people hate her mainly because she was paired with Daryl and like, kinda stole his heart..lol.

I have so many responses to this, lol. First of all, obviously I totally agree with you. I loved everything you said here.

The thing is, I don't think most of the GA hated Beth or still does. I think it was mostly the other shippers, especially the Carylers. For exactly the reasons you said: it was obvious they were setting up a Bethyl romance and that really threatened the other ships. Even though many of those shippers are very loud online, they truly are a minority. Most the GA either really liked Beth and Daryl together or at least didn't hate her. A lot of them probably had a meh-whatever-as-long-as-Daryl's-happy mentality about it. But again, they didn't hate her. It just seems like it's a lot of people because the online shippers are so loud about their beliefs.

As to her getting a drink, people's reaction to that has always bothered me. Because we've seen similar storylines with other characters. Maybe not the drink exactly, but what she did here to deal with her grief wasn't terribly different than Rick going to crazy town for a minute after Lori died. People might possibly wonder why Rick was like...frolicking with the butterflies in the yard when his family--including a newborn--needed him. But no one really said anything like that. And then there's Daryl in Find Me, who was so depressed for months and months that he hung out with the woods and didn't go back and see his family at Alexandria or the other communities for the better part of 2 years. Why doesn't anyone criticize him for that?

And don't get me wrong. I'm not being critical of either of our favorite heroes here. It's called trauma, people, and everyone deals with it in their own way. Beth dealing with it by looking for a drink probably sprang from what had already been established about both her character and her family (Hershel was an alcoholic in his youth).

So, all I'm saying is, keep in mind that the people who hate on her for that and think she's useless are being extremely hypocritical and exercising a truly shocking double standard. And the truth is, that kind of hate comes way more from women in the fandom than men. Think about that.

Obviously I also agree with you about Beth's affect on Daryl. That's been well established in our fandom, and I don't think I need to go into too much detail about it here. (Plenty of other metas already written about that.) But even outside of Daryl and their magical dynamic together, Beth's own arc was so much more than the haters make it out to be.

It's funny that you mention her taking care of Judith. My fellow theorists and I have been talking about the storyline, mostly in Fear right now, though I think the Maggie/Negan spinoff will get wrapped up in the same thing, of the children being kidnapped. From the very beginning, we saw children and babies around Beth, and we firmly believe Beth will be a big part of that storyline.

And what that means, is that the writers didn't have Beth taking care of Baby Judith back in S4 just because it was convenient or because they didn't know what to do with her character. They did it, at least in S4 and on after Gimple took over, because they were already setting up an arc for her that is just now playing out.

I get that most of the GA doesn't know or see that. Even so, these two arcs--Beth taking care of children and now children being taken by the CRM, when it's so obvious Grady was connected to the CRM--are so clearly linked over time. Believing that Beth was nothing more than a "babysitter" is severely short-sighted.

I could probably say more, but I'll stop there. Thanks for your thoughts, Nonny! As I said, heartily agree! Xoxo! 🍀💕

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

[icharchivist]

percy villain arc sounds hot though

apparently Belial mindcontrol him in gbvs and forces him to turn against the people he loves (i also know i go bonkers over how Belial calls him "Paashii" which is the nickname only his family gives him. (Vane calls him "Paasan" -- the localization translated both nickname "Percy" but they hold different weight). Adds to how to provoke him and to corrupt him you have to twist his association to his family in his mind.)

also therefore it's worth mentioning, his Alter Ego look.

(tho gbvs probably doesn't work on the tits argument since they gave him boobs there and i'll never forgive them for it)

Anyway point is that, i did think about it before, because yeah. It's interesting how in the story he is the only one of his brothers who didn't get corrupted in some way, who didn't sway into doing evil things ever. He managed to balance out his trauma (that still affects him still!) and managed to mostly do good out of it, where his brothers' reaction to their trauma, as extremely different as they were, ended up pushing them into different evil path.

And while i do like this arc for Percival (i have a thing for "younger siblings take the whole burden of the family and somehow manages through it more responsibly from their older siblings as they have to manage how the older siblings are collapsing", makes me vindicated as someone who hates seeing fandoms reduce younger siblings as carefree people who can never understand the burden of their elder siblings), i do love also the idea of him snapping.

because yeah he's been holding his family on together, and while thankfully he can face what's happening with Lamorak with Aglovale this time, compared to how fighting Aglovale came with a whole other level of burden, i feel like eventually at some point he's been holding everything together much enough that he could snap.

Like i could imagine once both of his siblings are stable enough, that Percival ends up having this burden off his shoulders and because this is off of him, eventually the weight of everything he's been through all this time finally falling on him.

Anyway i don't really know how badly he could go on the evil path per se but i feel like him ending breaking could be a really good storyarc.

also i feel like, with Percival just trying desperately not to lose anyone else, hear me out, i'd really love to see his reactions and see if he would break if he believes MC died. For reasons. personally. Like it can work with his brothers too, but i feel like MC would be the stronger argument with how positive their influence has been on him and how it's MC that allowed him to stand all the harsh moments of his life and all of that. so i wonder if believing MC had died, or is suffering, or something, could make him snap because so far he's managed his trauma and grief by keeping it firmly in the past and making sure nothing like that happens again, but if it does happen again to the one person he managed to open to unconditionally, how hurt would he be?

AND SO it would be very hot. That's my final argument.

not like i overthought any of that or anything.

#sorry i have opinions about percival #ichareply #ichafantalks gbf #anonymous #ichablogging 4kishi