#justification about how it's not love and he's really tricking & using & manipulating them for his own means | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

oneoftheprettynerds · 3 years

Text

Fixed: Dark!Steve x Reader (Mob AU)

Chapter 4 in the Lipstick and Crayons Series.

Chapter 3: Love So Soft

Main Masterlist

A/N: It’s shorter than my usual updates but I’m busy so sorry for the delay. My final exam dates have come and all I can do is pray right now lol. Please pray for me if you can, this sis is out here writing fanfics for yall instead of studying so, haha. ANyways, enjoy babies! Shit happens in this chapter.

Warning: Non-Con, Sickening Threats, Mob Themes, Violence, Death, Manipulation, a mild mental breakdown, Cheap Tricks.

Genres + Characters: Mob AU, Single Parents AU, Steve Rogers x Reader.

Summary: Steve can’t ever repay you for what you did. After meeting you, Steve believes his broken family is the missing piece in the puzzle of your own wrecked one. Indebting the crime lord to you has been the biggest mistake of your life, cause now you can’t get rid of him, no matter what. Loyalty and favours go a long way in the mob.

Word count: 5K

Chapter 4: Fixed

You didn’t sleep that night. Or the next few. Your hands shook every time you got a flashback and even though you were numb to emotions that entire day, tears threatened to spill whenever your mind took to you to that overpriced kitchen again.

Now that he had gone to a dangerous and unnerved assaulter from a Dad trying to take care of his daughter, your mind wouldn’t put anything past him. You knew that in the back of your mind that he was a mobster and your ‘friendship’ was alarming to say the least, but now there was no denying his resources and power and the very obvious threat to your life lingering in the air.

At least before you had the luxury to be oblivious and ignorant, not anymore though. Steve felt even more unhinged and liberal now, even messaging you daily, greeting texts that you obviously ignored. He knew you both were aware that you never handed him your number and he felt no need to hide his pursuit.

You read most of the messages, not bothering with a single reply though. You tried to block him but somehow your phone would still receive messages from his number, even though his contact would always peek back at you from the otherwise empty blacklist.

As if his torment wasn’t ample, another message thread from a different number would forward you alarming images, photos of Grace in her daycare, on a class trip to the park and even her playing in your backyard. You had no doubt that this was another game of his to show you his resources.

You skipped daycare for a few days, your mental health worse than it was after the carnival attack, because now you had a personal tormentor and you cursed yourself for falling into this mess. At times, you believed it wasn’t your fault really, you just helped a kid and this situation spiraled itself but what would pointing fingers now get you? The harsh truth was you were in a calamitous situation now and every step from now on had to be thought out.

So, you let Grace attend her daycare and acted if nothing was amiss or altered, after the few initial breakdown days of course, kept going to your job and earning the bread. You considered your options, you really wanted to go to the cops or a higher fair power but those were few these days, almost non existent in your city. You also vaguely recalled meeting three of the Captains of the PD at Sarah’s birthday, all smiley and doe eyed for Steve. You knew they wouldn’t help, fucking kiss-asses.

Maybe you would have to move somewhere else, perhaps to your hometown, at least till things cooled down or better yet were forgotten? But that trail was very predictable and you didn’t want your parents in this mess.

You also came to know that Steve had inserted himself in the other spheres of your life. You were sure your location was always being sent to him, the knowledge a courtesy of the black car following you while you travelled to home at some late day’s end.

Aiden told you whereabouts were easy to track, when you inquired ambiguously. Another instance was when you went to the bank to deposit cash for your debit card, you came face to face with an enormous amount already there. Somehow, the limit on your credit card was also extended. How, you knew. The clerk told you about an email you must have gotten in regards to it, you dismissed that justification away and told them to not accept the cash. To sum the discussion, they weren’t helpful and had no policy against anonymous donors.

Aiden, your trusted coworker cum pal, sensed the shift in your aura and fidgety form very easily, pestering you with questions and you decided to turn to him, stressed and tired and ready to do something. His questioning eyebrows made you confess vaguely but you refused to tell him the extent of it. Just that his prediction came true and you needed help. Let’s just say, Aiden was a good man.

With time, Steve’s ‘affectionate’ messages became deranged, and you found it harder to act nonchalant in your daily life. You were thankful he didn’t come to visit you, possibly occupied with the rumored war between the mobs. You just prayed for a few more days of ignorance, just enough time to think and do something.

“What do you mean someone collected her?!” You had a hard time controlling your voice, you were about to burst, in tears or with anger, you didn’t know.

“The man was verified in the emergency contacts and we got a letter signed and approved by you to skip the day an hour into the first activity.”

“A man? Emergen-, wait no! What fucking approved letter?”

You had three emergency contacts, your mom in another state, Aiden, and one of the other kid’s mom you had grown close to. Aiden was with you at work all day, so did someone disguise themselves as him? And what was the deal with the letter signed by you? You surely didn’t remember writing and authorizing one.

The boy, Pietro, who had been the receptionist for as long as you could remember, shuffled through the chaotic piles of paper and presented a letter to you, and your blood froze as your eyes skimmed the font.

Your beautiful cursive stared right back at you and you knew that no one would ever be able to distinguish between this penmanship and the one in the pocketbook in your clutch. No one but you. Even though you knew you had not written it, the slightly different ‘f’ and ‘g’ told you everything.

Your signature at the bottom though, was done quite perfectly and that made you even more scared.

“I did-, I didn’t write this! What the-” Your widened eyes met Pietro’s from above the paper but all he offered you was a meek smile. Your hands shook with rage and for the first time in your life, you had the urge to slap someone really bad.

“Maybe your family had an emergency to take he-”

“No, you don’t get it!” You stopped yourself from getting frantic, willing yourself to take deep breaths and think rationally. Today of all days, things had to mess up.

He didn’t know you had no family in this city, that you had a mobster after you or the subtle threats that his hired spy sent to you.

Was going to the police an option? Aiden already told you that the cops were as good as Steve’s men. But this was about your missing kid! You’d never forgive yourself if something happened to her. And you were giving Steve way too much credit, what if he wasn’t behind this all? Come to think of it, what if the other number wasn’t his?

Relax yourself! Thinking of disturbing theories wouldn’t help anyone. You thought you should go to the cops, just in case. No mentioning of Steve, just a woman with a ‘missing child’ report.

‘Missing Child’ left an acrid taste behind and you were too close to a breakdown, but your whole journey of single-parenthood taught you to kick vulnerability aside, well most of the times.

You turned and were about to leave, but Pietro stopped you. “If you are going to the cops Ma’am, they require 8 hours of inactivity or disappearance time for kids under 5.”

Well look who just read your mind.

You huffed and kept the tears at bay, your mind thinking of what to do then? Grace was obviously taken-

“How could you let a toddler leave without informing the parents?” You knew your anger was channeling out at the wrong man but didn’t he all but hand Grace to the stranger?

You beat him answering and inquired, “What did the man look like? Do you have any footage? Anything?” The wrinkles in your forehead and stress creases on your face paired with the eyebags betrayed your age surely. You were sure you had aged more this week than an entire decade, juggling your normal life with the hovering threat.

“You shouldn’t be this worried Ma’am.”

The fucking audacity.

“Your daughter recognized him, she all but ran to him and this other little girl he came with. You should maybe ask your parent-friends around? A blonde family perhaps?”

As all the emotions drained from your face and terror took over, the young lad in front of you looked smug. You wondered as if you imagined the faintest of smirks on his face.

You crumpled the letter in your hands, seething with rage as you stepped in your car. Oh, you were mad, more wrathful than ever. You could take any hits on you, any threat but not on Grace, never on her.

You were stupid, you had already decided you wouldn’t put anything past him but unknowingly, you did put this past him. You thought this man had a shred of decency to not use your kid in this adult war, being a parent himself and all but what a surprise! You were wrong.

You drove to your home, your thoughts a mix of trepidation, anxiety and fury. You were scared of him and his reach and resources but if he put Grace in any type of danger; whether to teach you a lesson or use her as bait or both, there’d be consequences.

Lord knows you killed a man a month ago Grace was threatened.

You had one thing to do before contacting Steve about Grace but you never got to do it because unexpectedly the bastard was in your home. In your home.

The black sports car outside was a huge giveaway but your suspicions were confirmed when you opened the door with your house key. The banter and giggles from inside alarmed yet calmed you; the dread of confrontation and the assurance of Grace’s safety reigned your mind.

As the door opened painfully slow like a horror movie, the sight that met your eyes made you sick with a feeling of failure. It wasn’t gore or blood or grunge, it was Steve bouncing Grace in the air and catching her while Sarah twirled around in the living room.

This man was craftier than you thought, every action of his was calculated, each a refined step. You had been so preoccupied to avoid direct encounters with him in your little family’s life that you didn’t think he had other ways. He was always looming around with Sarah and as Grace began to trust Sarah, she consequently began to trust her blonde guardian too.

As you slammed the door behind you, Steve’s eyes snapped to yours and his smirk made you want to punch him so hard. The smugness on his face while he let Grace down without breaking eye contact told you he had no regret, no remorse. In fact, he was loving every second of this cat and mouse chase between you two.

You were a millimeter close to losing your shit, the only check being the kids in the room. But you were mad and he was going to know it.

“What the hell, Steve? Messing with my kid?” You threw your clutch onto the couch, Steve haughty by the reception of his sent message but still holding back because of the kids. He called Wanda and you didn’t really notice where she came from but you did register Steve asking to take the girls to the park for a ‘private discussion’.

As Grace passed by you, you grabbed her arm lightly, making her look at you with doe eyes resembling yours. You gave her a smile trying to ease her, but you knew she was smart enough to sense the change in the atmosphere.

Apparently, the whining Sarah wasn’t.

You looked back to Steve, your hold still on Grace and continued with a frown and raised eyebrows, “She isn’t going anywhere, not out of my sight and obviously not with you or your goons.”

Wanda had the audacity to look offended and you scoffed at her, eyes staring Steve’s down.

“Honey, I don’t think the kids should hear what I think you have to say right now.” He said nodding to Wanda to take Grace.

“You must be deranged to think I trust Grace near anyone even remotely related to you! Take your people and get out.” You held your hand up to stop Wanda and pointed towards the door with the most menacing glare you could form.

Grace looked incomprehensibly between you two, concern and confusion on her face. That might have been the first time such a tone was used in your household. The grumbling Sarah was close to throwing a tantrum, irritated by the change in the playful air or the lack of attention to her, you didn’t know. She was hanging on Wanda’s forearm, her feet slipping on your printed rug. Wanda was trying to not look hurt still by your previous statement, distracting herself by the blonde kid and you were baffled by her obliviousness to all this.

Steve, the beefy blonde Lucifer, was furious and seething. His white knuckles and ticking jaw were the most obvious giveaways, the fingers just itching to beat the shit out of someone no doubt.

Was he imagining striking you into compliance into his weird playhouse game complex? You wouldn’t be surprised given the extent of his attempt to ‘win’ you over.

The ‘get out’ tone and blatant disrespect was a bruise to his ego for sure, and by you, a middle-class woman nonetheless was a worse injury. Steve was the deadly boss to armored men in the vicinity, the kids’ father figure, according to him, and Wanda’s stern yet kind employer.

People had been killed for less and there you were, standing in all your glory, being the only person alive to reject Steve Rogers and now, the only to raise your voice at him.

You almost scoffed at his impudence to look offended, what did he expect? For you to submit to him after the stunt he pulled? His reach was scary he proved today and that any future with him in your life in any way, was a fearsome possibility to entertain but you’d be damned if you went down without a fight.

“You can’t make me leave; we both know. You don’t have the physical edge nor the mental one. I have no problem drawing out G-U-N-S in front of the kids or to throw the warnings around, although I would prefer not to.”

Your free hand itched to slap him, like how his did minutes ago. It wasn’t a mankind problem about men thinking they were entitled to everything; it was a Steve Rogers’s problem. Of course, with him consent didn’t matter. If he had a ‘housewife, kids and fences’ fixation, he’d make it come true.

“Do you even listen to what I say? Or your own words even? Please, go ahead! Traumatise my kid and also yours in your wooing process! Why are you so obsessed? Leave us alone, you freak! I just ignored few messages!” You had a hard time maintaining your cool, if there was any left. You were sure you were scaring Grace and no matter what happened next, you knew she was already traumatized by this entire ordeal already. You were so sorry, so, so, so sorry to your poor baby caught in this mess.

You knew, no, you hoped, he wouldn’t pull out the gun, his actions at the carnival a proof, you remembered how he hid his gun on finding Sarah. That threat was empty but the next one wasn’t, his words making you freeze in your spot.

“I think you keep on misunderstanding me, sweetheart. I don’t make empty promises,”

Posh word for threats.

“For starters, maybe I should pay my future in-laws a visit in their blue duplex. They might need help with the vast garden they have, it is the season for ‘violets’, isn’t it?”

As you froze with your parents being brought up, he also cooled, albeit differently, smirking once again gaining the upper hand, not that he lost it if you were being honest.

“Isn’t threatening my kid enough for you, Steve?” You hated how your loud voice almost broke, your anger slowly subsiding into helplessness and you hated that. You hated his guts, his entitlement, his claim; everything about him.

“You still don’t see it, do you? Our family of four is the most important thing to me right now and I’m not above doing anything to save it.”

“There is no family of four Steve! I keep explaining and you keep coming back to square one with all this bullshit!” The curse word did tick Steve off but he would correct that later, when bigger things weren’t at ploy.

“Your ignorance makes me a little mad sometimes sweetheart and that is why I have to do all I do. You haven’t realized we need each other yet, but I’m staying until you do and even after that, I promise. You know how much it pissed me off to see your tickets and the packed suitcases after I’ve been nothing but nice? I was so generous to spoil you with my riches but instead I find that in your finances.”

This fucker knew. Of course, he did!

You were wondering in the back of your head what had prompted this visit with so many threats and warnings and anguish. He was pissed even before you ‘acted out’, he tracked the tickets and the plan and that meant he even tracked-

“You have so much to learn, but luckily you interact with quite a few people. I am most tempted to start out with this Aiden guy, trying to be the hero and giving you all the ideas. Maybe I should visit him?” Steve wondered out loud, and you flinched at his suggestion, hating how you were trapped by this man.

You couldn’t live with yourself if anyone got hurt because of you, be it your parents or Aiden or any other possibility Steve would come up with. Of course, Grace was your peak priority but you doubted he would hurt her as he threatened to harm them.

“Steve, please.” The fire was almost out, your hands trembling, Grace worried and Steve smug.

“Let the kids go and I think we can come to a conclusion.”

“Steve this needs to stop.” You said, your breaths heavy and helplessness clawing away at you.

“I won’t repeat myself.” He voiced out with a threatening edge, gesturing to Grace and Wanda, clearly telling you to first get the kids out.

For a deranged fucktard, he sure cared about the kids a lot.

You loosened your hold on Grace, patting her arm softly and nudged her to Wanda. Wanda received her little hand and enticed the kids with the promise of ice-cream. Sarah clapped her hands and as the trio left, Grace did look over her shoulders at you in concern and for permission, majorly in concern though. You nodded and waved, a tear dropping as soon as the door clicked shut.

You were still staring at the door, not wanting to meet Steve’s stormy blue orbs when he began, “Today was a slip up that I won’t tolerate again. Neither the cursing nor the dramatics.”

We aren’t in a fucking play, what the fuck is he labelling as dramatics?

Your eyes slowly flickered to his, and you had a hard time not letting the tears escape except the one traitorous one earlier. The fatigue, the worry of Grace’s disappearance, the threats to your friends and family were all catching up to you. It took all in you to stay strong and not fall down right now.

“Steve this isn’t funny anymore. It’s sick and you know it! I just said no! Was that so inexcusable that you had to follow up with this? You have violated me for that, broken into my home and now kidnapped my daughter! At what extent will you stop?” You broke down finally, arms a flailing mess as fat tears rolled down. Nothing scared more than the helplessness this moment. He won and he knew it. The carnival incident was nothing in comparison to this. The only good thing you could hope in all this was a safe Grace but that too only if you complied, which seemed like what you would do now given your attempts at fighting back and scampering have failed laughably.

“Gosh, I forgot how theatrical women are. You are smart darling; you know what I want from day one, just a happy family. Nothing that horrendous has happened and especially not as badly as put it. I’m just looking out for you and me in the long run.” Steve slowly treaded towards you, his hand extended to pat your arm comfortingly but you involuntarily flinched at contact and stepped back. Steve clearly didn’t like that as he caught your arm in a bruising grip and jerked you towards him. Manhandling you as your wet hands rushed to ease his grip was not a tough task for Steve, a surprise to none.

“Stop trembling like I’ve actually done something to harm you!”

Steve clearly didn’t know how to comfort women and it showed.

You stopped with the cowering away, even though it disgusted you to be this much in close proximity with your assaulter. He clearly had anger issues and no clue how to solve them. You needed to steer the conversation right and get him out. You could see your hands visibly shake as you put them on his chest, just to create some distance and in a way of surrendering to not fight. The tears slowed but you don’t think they stopped; it was hard to tell with a million other things on your mind.

As your eyes made contact, Steve loosened his grip, clearly a bit satisfied by your submission, as he began counting to help you breathe. As much as you hated to admit, it helped you and you got a flashback to the time when you freaked out on him about Grace at that extravagant dinner date. That was a sweet gesture then, not so sweet now. Funny how drastically things change with time.

It wasn’t so much Steve’s help as it was your own mind telling you to be fucking smart about the whole ordeal right now.

“Good. Better. Now let’s talk. Why were you planning to run away? I’ve been busy and coming home to find out that wasn’t joyful, you know.” His smile suggested a better mood than before but his voice, his husky voice always had this daring edge that almost challenged you to defy him but at the same time warned you of unpleasant consequences if you did.

“Steve, I’m scared.” You spoke with utmost honesty. “The part of the world you associate yourself with scares me. You can’t blame me for not wanting that life for Grace, I mean you have a kid of your own. Wasn’t the carnival attack specifically on Sarah?”

The reasoning was right but you knew you triggered him the moment his smile evaporated. He either felt insulted as a parent or disrespected in his profession or probably both.

He was fighting his inner demons already and you pointing it out was a slap to his face, a hit he didn’t want to take.

“That was a slip up, I admit. Never again. I’m only human, okay?” He convinced himself and you, his grip tightening a bit again.

Oh no, not the right direction to take.

You reckoned he still had nightmares about it like you, he really did love Sarah a lot, all things aside.

“Besides, I am looking out for you! Out for you and Grace and Sarah. I remember my promise of never putting either of them in harm’s way ever again.”

You definitely didn’t trust his security or his people because what sort of a mobster let his daughter get targeted and possibly abducted? You definitely didn’t know the whole story or if it was just a bad day but he wasn’t a person that deserved some slack. Despite all this, you knew what all he held above you, above a common man. He might not be ‘Kingpin’ skilled but a threat to you nonetheless.

Before you could stop yourself, you blurted out, “Is that what you call following me around, huh?” which you immediately regretted.

“Trust the process, baby. Everything is just to protect you.”

Is that what he called stalking even Grace around and twistedly enough, sending you proof of that? The anonymous thread of photos was another nightmare of yours, thanks to him. The last being a candid photo inside Grace’s room, her sleeping in her bed this morning and that’s when you decided you needed to get out. Of course, that didn’t go as planned.

“How am I supposed to do that when you have cameras in my house?!” You scoffed and he reeled back at the accusation, having the nerve to look impressed at being uncovered and caught red-handed.

“Oh my fucking God, it was you! You sick pervert!” You jumped out of his grip, your eyes wide and horrified. “I wasn’t aware of what to make of it but of course, it was you! Who else would be sick enough to do that?” You let out a humorless chuckle. You always put things past him even when you keep telling yourself you shouldn’t. When will you ever learn huh?

You were full on panicking yet again, this man was an assaulter, a stalker and a creep too. It would have made a good dark, psychological thriller for you to watch if you weren’t the protagonist about to suffer his obsession.

He reached out to steady you again, but you whipped and stumbled back, realizing too late that you elbowed Steve’s nose so bad that there was a crunch. That, right there, was the look a man real-fucking-furious on Steve’s face and now you could see the feared mobster, the man who was personally terrorizing you under the beautiful, Greek God façade.

Steve reacted so fast even with an injury that in a split second, your view of his face turned into a view of his crotch.

“You do realize that there are others ways for me to teach you obedience? I think it’s fucking time you show me your gratitude for my care and attention and apologize for your misconduct and unkind response.” Steve spoke with a hoarse voice, a voice running out of patience and just about done with defiance.

His hand fisted your hair, maintaining eye contact while he nodded between you and his crotch. You knew what he wanted, what he was expecting as ‘thanks’.

“Steve, please no, you don’t-”

His other hand grabbed your jaw, stopping you from speaking as he warned, “I think you have done just enough talking for today, so why don’t you put that tongue to a better use and show me how sorry you are. Better make it convincing because I’d hate to pay one of your friends a visit and then bitch about a nasty blowjob.” He smirked at the end of his monologue, eyes shining with triumph and amusement.

You wouldn’t let him harm anyone else, you couldn’t. You and your daughter were already knee-deep in a pit and at this point, it’d just be cruel to drag someone else in. With shaky hands opening his pants, you just hoped you could get Grace out before you eventually were buried in it.

“Now that’s a good girl. Submissive is a sexy look on you.” His hands patted your hair, playing with your tresses while yours pulled his pants and then briefs down.

His member jerked out, almost slapping you in the face as you recoiled at his insolence to get hard and erect at your torment. Your disdain must have shown which he took as admiration and derision to take his affluent cock in.

“No need to get shy, I have faith you’ll be able take it just as well in your pretty pussy as you will right now. Open up-”

“Steve, I beg you-”

Just as you had cut him off, he interrupted your pleading. Your gag reflex was probably the most efficient in the world but that turned this narcissist on. It had been years since you had done it, never with a man as beefy as Steve.

His taste was salty and if you had to put it into better words, it was the like overpriced sea salt flakes that you never bought. High and pricey and for the entitled.

Your hands clutched at his thighs as you blacked out multiple times; your jaw aching, uvula swaying and tears escaping. Him forcing himself on you brough a new sense of vulnerability as your body trembled. Steve relished like a sadist, practically rutting into you all by himself as you just sat there with your jaw unnaturally open.

His obscene moans and groans were crass and nauseating and you just prayed for this to be over soon and for no one to walk in on this, especially your kid.

It seemed like it would never end, your body dehydrating with all the spit it produced, the drool dribbling and landing just beside your knees on your printed rug. You would have to throw that out.

The tears stooped after some point, the sobbing an unnecessary action that just tired you out more on this eventful day. You moved your tongue around to prevent your teeth from scratching him when he shifted angles. If this was what he did on slightly mad, you didn’t want to find what he did for a more serious punishment.

Apparently, that action was something that turned him on even more, his breath hitching as neared closure. In broken whispers he demanded that again and you complied, wanting to get done with it.

He growled in the moment of his release and you tried to lean back but his grip didn’t relent. “Swallow.” His grainy, exasperated voice said out loud and you knew better than to defy.

He released you and you fell on to the rug, hip bruising by knocking into some furniture and tears coming back again after being hydrated by his seed. He packed himself, his smile smug and content as his expressions truly resembled ecstasy being personified.

“You be a good fiancée from now on and maybe you’ll have all your friends alive and present at our wedding. No cheeky business from now on, got it?” Steve hummed then and strutted out, not even bothering to listen to your reply.

As soon as the door slammed, your eyes closed and your demons danced again.

There was no right direction to take when you were stuck in a loop.

634 notes · View notes

fernaee · 3 years

Text

about lenore from castlevania

tw : rape, abuse, toxic relationships, suicide

don’t get me wrong. lenore is a great character. i almost wrote was, but in the end, yes, she still is.

but the way her relationship with hector evolved in season four is truly so f*cking messy. and this is, imo, the biggest problem with lenore.

i loved that she was this cute, seemingly soft vampire (even though it was too good to be true, yeah, i’m looking at you hector) but well, she is a vampire, part of an evil sisterhood with a super-evil vampire as its head. she had a mission, she did it in the most cruel way, that’s true, but she succeeded. i personnally despised people who use their power as she did with hector, who was abused, denied food and clothes, tortured (probably) and literally treated like a dog. it might be ~ sexy ~ in some situations (the bdsm vibes, not the abuse ofc) , it’s not supposed to be when you’re a prisoner.

that’s the key word here : hector was a prisoner. and lenore was his torturer. let’s not forget about this. PLEASE, LET’S NOT FORGET ABOUT THIS.

what happened at the end of season three is definitely super upsetting. it’s obviously very morally wrong as lenore tricked him, forced him to have s*x with her. yes, she forced him. i won’t listen any justification of what she did. it was morally SUPER wrong. it was r*pe. i only see two options here, from hector’s perspective : one) he wanted her because he developed feelings/some sort of comfort for/from lenore, or two) he didn’t and thought that having s*x with her would probably help him with his situation.

well, it’s still bad. it’s still r*pe. and don’t tell me lenore got to like him while playing with his feelings. do you remember how she treated him after she bound him with the ring? she was harsh, cold, laughing at him for thinking it was more than her manipulation.

as i said, i have no respect for this, definitely not. but we’re watching castlevania. a show about evil vampires and horrific creatures. even some of the human characters are big pieces of shit. so i can understand what the show did. lenore is as evil as her sisters and she clearly did a great job here. i was surprised, hector was surprised, carmilla was suprised. great job girl. (and this is where i truly started to despise lenore, because i really liked hector as a character.) (and i’m not even gonna talk about lenore saying she plans to have more s*x with her pet. i think you get my point now.)

but then season four. wtf was season four??

in two months. two. months. we go from hector being horrified by what happened, lenore being so cruel to... the both of them being fine with each other? i was suprised but we quickly saw that hector had a plan. it was probably too obvious but i really hoped it was a revenge plan. in the end, it was for revenge, but only towards carmilla?? and then he asks isaac to spare lenore because he wants a peaceful life with her?

i have no words to tell you how disturbed i was about that. i just don’t understand this. maybe lenore realised what she did was bad but still, i don’t think that’s enough to forgive someone. maybe hector had some sort of trauma bonding, that’s the only explanation for me. i hated how they tried to get her some sort of redemption in the end when she k*lls herself. it wasn’t an act of “””love””” to free hector of her. it was sooo selfish. and i know she had just lost everything, i know she had feelings and everything. but when you got to be so cruel for centuries, you can’t just whine when it’s your turn to be the oppressed. she wasn’t even a prisoner like hector was, she was protected by him and still, she preferred to die instead of staying with him. this is, for me, the proof that she never loved him as it is sometimes hinted and/or largely talked about here and there. she was just using him, as she always did. for company, for sex and to have someone to rant with. that’s all. and once again, i don’t say this as a bad thing, it is actually quite interesting, for a character. still, it was super messed-up.

lenore was done wrong. hector was done wrong. and i can’t stop thinking about how all of this was so wrong.

just gonna quote someone on reddit : “Not to be that kind of person but I don't think it would have been taken well at all if it was the other way around, I mean, if Lenore was male and Hector was female.“ Just, think about this.

as a conclusion, i’ll say it again, no, lenore isn’t a bad character. she’s actually a really good one. but she deserved better (and hector too). still, i’ll continue to despise her for what she did to hector. and i will never understand anyone who ship them together. i can’t.

thanks for coming to my ted talk.

#castlevania #castlevania netflix #hector castlevania #hector #lenore castlevania #lenore #hector x lenore #i had to get it out #hector should have kill her #and stay by isaac's side #that was his happy ending #lenore was a vampire she was one of the bad guys of the series #she didn't need a happy ending #that's my opinion #also i'm sorry for the mistakes #english isn't my native language #and i'm a bit tired today #i'd love to discuss about this ofc #in a civil way obviously

155 notes · View notes

number5theboy · 4 years

Note

Please elaborate on how Five could've turned into the most insufferable character to watch

Thanks for asking me to elaborate on this text post:

@tessapercygranger, @waywardd1 and @margarita-umbrella also wanted to see a more detailed version of it, and I ended up writing an essay that’s longer than some of my actual academic essays. So buckle up.

WHY NUMBER FIVE SHOULD BE THE MOST OBNOXIOUS CHARACTER IN TV HISTORY, AND HOW HE MANAGES NOT TO BE

Number Five: The Concept That Could Go Horribly Wrong

Alright, let’s first look at Five in theory in an overarching way, without taking into account the execution of the show. The basic set-up of the character, of course, is being a 58-year-old consciousness in a teenager’s body, due to a miscalculation in time travel. Right off the bat, Five is bar none the most overpowered of the siblings; by the end of Season 2, no one has yet been able to defeat him in a fight. He is a master assassin – and not just any master assassin, but the best one there is – and a survival expert, able to do complex maths and physics without the aid of a calculator, shown to have knowledge of half a dozen languages, has very developed observational skills and, to top that all off, he can manipulate time and space to the point where he can literally erase events that happened and change the course of history. And Five knows how skilled he is; he is arrogant, self-assured and sarcastic, and his streak of goodness is buried deep inside. David Castañeda once described Five in an interview as 90% chocolate with a cherry in the middle, meaning that you have to get through a lot of darkness and bitterness before knowing there is a good core, and I think it’s an excellent metaphor. However, Five is also incredibly, fundamentally terrible at communicating with anyone, and, because he is the only one with time travel abilities, the character a lot of the actual plot - and the moving forward of it - centres around. Also he’s earnestly in love with a mannequin, who is pretty much a projection of his own consciousness that functions as a coping mechanism for all the trauma he has endured. All in all, this gives you a character who looks like a teenager, but with the smug superiority of a fifty-something, who a) is extremely skilled in many different things, b) has a superiority complex, is arrogant and vocal about it, and most of the superiority is expressed through cutting sarcasm, c) has one very hidden ounce of goodness that he is literally the worst at communicating to other human beings, d) is what moves the plot along but is also bad at talking to anyone else, meaning that the plot largely remains with him, and e) his love interest is essentially a projection of himself. Tell me that’s not a character who is destined to be just…obnoxious, annoying, egocentric, a necessary evil that one has to put up with to get through this show. There are so many elements of this characterisation that can and should easily make Five beyond insufferable, but the show manages to avoid it, and I’m putting this down to three aspects.

That Trick of Age and Appearance

Bluntly put, Five as a character would not work if he was anything else than an old man in a 13-year-old body. Imagine this character and all his skills and knowledge, but actually just…a teenager. Immediately insufferable. Same goes for him being around 30, like his siblings, all of which are stunted and traumatised by their father’s abuse. If Five, being comparatively unscathed by Reginald to the point where he explicitly does not want to be defined by his association with his father, were 30 like his siblings, it would just take the bite out of that plot point and also give him a lot less time in the apocalypse, reducing the impact it had on him as a person. And making Five his actual 58-year-old self would make him very similar to Reginald, at least on surface level, with the appearance and attitude. Five and Reginald are two fundamentally different people, but having one of the siblings being a senior citizen that’s dressed to the nines and bosses his siblings around in a relatively self-centred way does open up that parallel, and would take away from Five’s charm as a character. Because pairing the life experience of a 58-year-old with the appearance of a teenager gives you the best of both worlds. You get the other siblings (and a lot of the audience, from a glance in the tags of my gifsets) feeling protective and paternal about Five, but his age and experience also give the justifications for his many skills, his arrogance, in a way, and his ability to decimate a room full of people. It’s the very interesting and not new concept of someone dangerous with the appearance of something harmless, a child. This is also where Five’s singular outfit comes in. I know we like to clown on Five to get a new outfit, but I think what gets forgotten often is how effective this outfit is at making the viewer take him seriously. The preppy school uniform is the perfect encapsulation of the tension between old man in spirit and young teenager in appearance. The blazer, vest and especially the shirt and tie are quite formal, relatively grown up. They’re not something we, the audience, usually associate with a teenage boy wearing; it makes Five just a little bit more grown up. But there is also a reason characters in this show keep bringing up Five’s shorts and his socks, because those are not things that we associate with grown men wearing; they’re the unmistakably childish part of his school uniform. Take a moment and imagine Five wearing a hoodie or a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers; would that outfit work for him as well as the uniform does? Would he be able to command the same kind of respect or seriousness as a character? I don’t think so; the outfit is a lot more pivotal in making Five believable than a lot of people give it credit for.

Writing Nuance

The other big building block in not making Five incredibly insufferable is the writing. Objectively speaking, I think Five is the most well-written, and, more importantly, most coherently written character on the show (which does have to do with the fact that the show’s events are all sequential for him), and his arc and personality remain relatively intact over the course of the two seasons. More to the point, a giant part of what makes Five bearable as a character is that he is allowed to fail. He is written to have high highs and low lows, big victories through his skills and his intelligence, but also catastrophic failures and the freedom to be wrong. His superior intellect and skillset are not the be-all end-all of the plot or his character, just something that influences both. His inability for communication has not (yet) been used to fabricate a contrived misunderstanding that derails the plot and left all of us seething; instead, it’s a characteristic that makes him fail to reconnect with the people he loves. This is a bit simplified, as he does find common ground with Luther, for example, but in general, a lot of the rift between Five and his siblings is that they can’t relate to his traumas and he does not understand the depth of Reginald’s abuse, which is an interesting conflict worth exploring. Another thing that really works in Five’s favour is that he is definitely written to be mean and sarcastic, but it is never driven to the point of complete unlikability, and a lot of the time, the context makes it understandable why he reacts the way he does. Most of the sarcastic lines he gets are actually funny, that certainly helps, but in general, Five is a good example of a bearable character whose default personality is sharp and relatively cold, because it is balanced out with many moments of vulnerability. Delores is incredibly important for this in the first season, she is the main focus of Five’s humanising moments, and well-written as she totes the line between clearly being a coping mechanism for an extremely traumatised man and still coming across to the viewer as the human contact Five needs her to be. In the second season, the vulnerability is about his guilt for his siblings, it’s about Five connecting a little bit better to them. There’s also his relationship with the Commission and the Handler specifically – which honestly could be an essay on its own – that deserves a mention, because the Handler is why Five became the man he is, and this dynamic between creator and creation is explored in a very interesting way – their scenes are some of the most well-written in the entire show. And TUA never falls into the trap of making Five a hero, he is always morally ambiguous at best, and it just makes for an interesting, multi-faceted character, well-written character, and none of the characteristics that should make him unlikeable are allowed to take centre-stage for long enough to be defining on their own. I know a lot of people especially champion the scenes where Five goes apeshit, but without his more nuanced characterisation, if he was like that all the time, those scenes would not hit as hard.

Aidan Gallagher’s Performance is Underrated

But honestly, none of the above would matter that much if the Umbrella Academy didn’t luck out hard with the casting of Aidan Gallagher. I think what he achieves as an actor in this show is genuinely underappreciated. Like, the first season set out to cast six adults having to deal with various ramifications of childhood trauma, and a literal child that had to be able to act smart and wise beyond his years, seamlessly integrate into a family of adults while seeming like an adult, traumatised by the literal end of the world, AND had to be able to create the romantic chemistry of a thirty-year-long marriage with a lifeless department store doll. The only role I could think of to compare is Kirsten Dunst in Interview with a Vampire, where she plays a vampire child who, because she is undead, doesn’t age physically, but does mentally, so she’s 400 in a child’s body. And Kirsten Dunst had to do that for a two-hour movie. Five is a main character in a show that spans 20 episodes now. That’s insane, and it’s a risk. Five is a character that can’t be allowed to go wrong; if you don’t buy Five as a character, the entire first season loses believability. And they found someone who could do that not only convincingly, but also likeably. As I said, he is incredibly helped by the costuming department and the script, but Aidan Gallager’s Five has so much personality, he’s threatening and funny and charming and arrogant and heartbreaking. He has the range to be convincing in the quiet moments where Five’s humanity comes to show and in the moments where Five goes completely off the rails. Most child actors act with other children, but he is the only child in the main cast, and holds his own in scenes with adults not as a child, but as an adult on equal footing with the other adult characters. That’s not something to be taken for granted. But even apart from the fact that it’s a child actor who carries a lot of the plot and the drama of a series for adults, Aidan Gallagher’s portrayal of Five is also just so much fun. The comedic timing is on point, he has the dramatic chops for the serious scenes, the mannerisms and visual ticks add to the character rather than distract from him, and his line deliveries, paired with his physical acting, make Five arrogant and smug but never outright malicious and unlikeable. It’s just some terrific acting that really does justice to the character as he is written, but the writing would not be as strong if it wasn’t delivered and acted out the way Aidan Gallagher does. He is an incredible asset for this show.

Alright, onto concluding this rambling. If you made it this far, I commend you, and thank you for it. The point of all of this is that Five, as a character, could have been an unmitigated disaster of a TV character. He is overpowered, arrogant, uncommunicative and could so easily have been either unconvincing or completely unlikeable, but he turned out to be neither. It’s a combination of choices in the costume department, decisions in the writing room, and Aidan Gallagher’s acting skills that make the things that should make him obnoxious and annoying incredibly entertaining, and I hope you liked my long-winded exploration of these. Some nuance was lost along the way, but if I had not stopped myself, this would’ve become a full-blown thesis.

#thanks for the ask again #TUA #The Umbrella Academy #Five Hargreeves #tua s2 spoilers #my meta #i guess #Replies #Anonymous

898 notes · View notes

crimeronan · 3 years

Note

Can you explain the appeal of Julian Blackthorn? This is a genuine question because I read the books and came away utterly bored by him and unconvinced of his moral greyness as opposed to like, Adam Parrish’s. He seemed so one dimensional to me but I want to know if I’m Wrong TM considering I tend to be very very biased toward my favourite characters and bored by the rest, and my favourites were Mark and Kieran. So maybe I just didn’t pay him enough attention??

it’s been a while since i wrote any earnest tsc meta but cringe culture is dead and the chance to infodump about my julian thoughts has me vibrating where i’m sitting so. yes okay.

technical stuff

(aka: things pertaining to How The Story Is Constructed)

cassandra clare’s characterization has become much stronger just in general since she first began writing the series like twenty years ago

perhaps most importantly: the more recent stuff i’ve read from her has involved characters who actually grow, change, and learn from their past mistakes

rather than repeating the same stupid decisions over and over again

and over and over and over some more

seriously take a shot every time someone in tmi miscommunicates or self-destructs in ways They Have Learned Not To Do for no real reason. u will die of alcohol poisoning

in tda this shines ESPECIALLY with the evolution of mark, kieran, and cristina’s relationship, but that’s a separate post

clare’s trademark is also the angsty traumatized jerkass love interest with a secret heart of gold

the woman is almost singlehandedly responsible for draco in leather pants and the proliferation of this kind of character type in fandom and teen lit. this isn’t a criticism it’s me marveling at how if you commit hard enough to a single trope you truly can change the world. follow your dreams

sad jackass with a heart of gold isn’t an Inherently Problematic Character Type

but poorly done it can lead to relationship dynamics in which one partner is constantly being hurt by and then forgiving the other despite them making no real effort to change, because they are narratively absolved due to being sad

(there’s a lot of this with earlier jace content. in some ways i think will was later created specifically to be a same-archetype protagonist who actually does get called on his shit and grow. that’s also another post)

also if all of your sexy male love interests are tortured jackasses with a heart of gold then people start calling you a one-trick pony

enter julian blackthorn!

from the very start everything about him is designed to be the INVERSE of the heart of gold jackass. which immediately makes him interesting just from a meta perspective

(mark and kieran are also both alternate angles on this time-honored archetype. mark gets the heart of gold and kieran gets the jackass and then they’re both much more deeply messy than that. yet another post)

julian is kind, self-sacrificing, empathetic, artistic, emotionally supportive, responsible, and favored by old grannies everywhere

so a completely nonthreatening milquetoast guy, right

immediately forgettable if you’re only here for the dramatic conflicts and shithead antics of clare’s other protags

except that he is A Mess

and that he has structured his priorities very carefully, and they are as selfless as you expect from The Hero (TM) but they are also Not Heroic (TM) and they do not align with the moral framework The Hero (TM) is supposed to use

moral ambiguity in characters always exists in relation to their narratives imo. you mention adam parrish - trc’s narrative already mucks around in different ethical shades of gray, and adam falls on the canon scale about where julian does on his canon scale. both more willing than the average pov character to do the ruthless thing or make the fucked-up choice if the ends justify the means; both with an intensely strong sense of internal priorities that they adhere to at all costs, both so unbelievably fucking down for murder; etc

i do think there are ways julian’s choices could have been pushed even further, but considering the number of readers who hate his guts already, i can see why clare opted not to go for the most controversial possible conflicts

so we’re flipping the narrative

instead of seeing this angsty bad boy and peeling back the layers of his trauma to find his heart of gold, we’re seeing the put-together selfless family man and peeling back the layers of his Responsibility Mask to expose the rotting husk underneath

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

THAT IS FUN AS FUCK

then when julian DOES lash out in hurtful, uncontrolled ways, he has significantly more narrative justification for it than most of clare’s protagonists (will elaborate in characterization thoughts)

julian is also interesting as fuck because of how his struggles allow for a more in-depth look at the failings of shadowhunter society, something that’s also sorely lacking in clare’s earlier work

his apparent amorality is simply the result of him making pragmatic and impossible choices because he has been faced with fucked-up ethical dilemmas since age 12 Because Society Has Failed Him

which opens the door for narrative exploration of how and why he’s been failed so badly & what needs to change

i also love that he has such a coldly calculated way of analyzing situations and allowing harm to occur when need be, bc a lot of clare’s early protagonists have such a bad case of Rush In And Get Myself Killed Because I’ve Got Feelings About Impulsive Heroism syndrome that i wanna push them in front of a truck

probably there’s other meta narrative stuff i could say but i’m stopping myself and moving on to character analysis

characterization stuff

(aka: reasons why i’m also attached to him in a vacuum)

i don’t read him as one-dimensional at all tbh

u may feel the narrative pushes “ruthless julian blackthorn” too much without delivering enough actual ruthless julian But i don’t think that’s the same as having only one dimension

from the get-go, the big question centered on julian is always “how far are you willing to go?” and the narrative pushes the stakes slowly higher and higher to continuously test julian’s “the price is always justified” mindset

he has a far more layered and realistic response to trauma than clare’s early protagonists - trauma affects every single aspect of his personality and how he conducts himself, and the effects vary depending on the circumstances

his conviction that he has to be the perfect parent to his siblings because they will fall apart if they see him show weakness?? rooted in how he feels like he’s fallen apart since losing the stable adult support he once relied upon

his willingness to hurt semi-innocent people, commit coldblooded murder, manipulate people using political leverage, allow harm to befall any stranger if it protects his family?? rooted in how he has already had to ask himself how much he’s willing to sacrifice, and how his family is his only source of stability when the world has never done Shit for him

his conviction that he has a darker heart than anyone else because he killed his possessed father, even though intellectually he knows he was saving his brother’s life?? rooted in having no means of processing this trauma and being unable to voice his feelings for fear of backlash from a deeply non-understanding society

the way he represses every single negative emotion he ever has, to the point where emma - his actual literal magic soulmate who can feel his emotions - is startled to find him hurting or angry?? once again all about how he has to be the perfect father or he’s failed completely

the way his anger is so totally disproportionate to different situations and the way his negative emotions can only come out in completely uncontrolled breaks?? all that repression baybey. this kid has not processed a single bad feeling in five years. every single real grievance and petty annoyance has been festering indefinitely inside him like a slowly spreading infection

julian’s arc involves him needing to get thru being his worst self to actually start to heal

as in, he has to actually learn to acknowledge his feelings, take care of himself, lean on his family, and let other people take some responsibility

he also has to learn that in his quest to be the perfect emotionally controlled authority figure, he has not actually learned how to control or deal with his emotions. like. At Fucking All. good god

the narrative setup is also about asking “how far are you willing to go?” until the answer is finally “not this far. not this far”

and once he reaches that point, he has to reevaluate everything about how he weighs his priorities and morals and plans, etc

(i also like that emma has a perpendicular arc in which she’s always the one tempering julian and telling him “no we can’t go that far” until she’s willing to do something horrific that he absolutely won’t and HE has to stop HER. very sexy)

it’s also just really nice to have a character who’s learned to relate so well to literally every single member of his family while still having a very detached ruthless interior consciousness. i have similar feelings about how adam teaches himself to love people, but with julian it’s spelled out more explicitly in canon & it’s a more central character theme

i’m sure i’m also forgetting stuff here but this post is long enough so i’m gonna say good enough

and like i said in the tags on my other post, there are things i’d personally write differently if it were my story - plot points i’d shift, character contrasts i’d up, themes i’d explore differently, pacing i’d adjust, etc. i have plenty of ways i could be nitpicky and editorial about the effectiveness of julian’s arc. but i also don’t feel like writing them out at the moment & none of my critiques on effectiveness have an impact on the core appeal of his character 2 me. he’s so fucking good

#replies #tsc #tda #julian blackthorn #meta #long post #ungodly long post.#shadowhunters #Anonymous

207 notes · View notes

spacingoutzone · 3 years

Text

Okay… so… I read Redo of a Healer(manga)…

I ⚠️Warning⚠️ contains discussion about rape and sexual assault |

First of all, no matter what, there is no justification for rape. It doesn’t matter how much trauma the victim went through, that doesn’t give them the right to rape their perpetrator. No one deserves to be raped, period. But, this also a fictional revenge tale that’s meant to be disturbing, and people have the right to explore those themes in writing. That doesn’t mean they can’t be criticized though.

Now, I don’t think the author’s intention is to justify Keyaru’s behavior. He is clearly written in a way that makes him look mad and villainous. Though, that is how some readers are interpreting the story. I feel like the audience isn’t supposed to root for Keyaru, or at least we shouldn’t, but instead to watch in horror and suspense as to what he’ll do next. At least that’s how I’m reading it.

Although the author goes out of his way to depict Keyaru’s perpetrators as violent sexual abusers and rapists themselves, I think this is to trick the audience into feeling confused about how we should feel about Keyaru and his actions. He doesn’t feel like an evil person yet his actions are evil, though the people he’s attacking are also evil. After all, you can’t have a completely hateful main character or no one will read your story. They have to be somewhat relatable and sympathetic. By making victims awful people it makes his disturbing acts of punishment more digestible for the audience.

Keyaru himself states that he’s no longer good, and he takes extreme pleasure in committing atrocities such as, torture, murder, rape, forcing others to commit incest, brainwashing, and drugging people. He also calls his female companions (two of which he brainwashed to love him) his toys and property.

Yes the he is helping Eve and Setsune to achieve their own revenge, but it’s not out of the goodness of his heart, but to use their power for his own personal gain, and for sex.

And GOD! I was rooting for Eve to see through his bullshit, but no, she caved in and slept with him. In her defense, as well as Setsune, she is a victim of oppression and genocide. Keyaru is her only companion and she believes that he wants to support her for her own happiness, but thats not his real motive. What he actually wants is to control the woman around him. He’s manipulating them.

He not only rapes woman physically as a way to dominate and humiliate them, but also mentally rapes woman by brainwashing them into his little toys that he can play with.

Thats his character. He had his entire free will taken from him and was turned into a mindless zombie by his perpetrators. He was violated in every conceivable way both sexually and physically. It’s not just revenge he desires, but to have full control of his environment, including the woman around him. He deals with his trauma by committing the acts done against him onto others. Which doesn’t justify his actions, but explains them.

My favorite revenge stories are when the MC either let’s go of their revenge as they learn it won’t grant them satisfaction but only more pain, or for them to become an absolute monster who’s just as bad or even worse than the person they want want revenge on, and they end up alone or dead.

If all of Keyaru’s female companions turn against him when they realize the extent of his actions, if Keyaru just goes full on villain and becomes more of a monster than his perpetrators, or dies a violent death, then I will be satisfied with this story. He is too forgone to let go of revenge, and there is no way for him to live a happy peaceful life, his urge to cause suffering and pain is his only way to deal with negative emotions. He’s a monster who enjoys raping and torturing people, he does not deserve a happy ending and if he gets one I will hate this story, because that would be such an unsatisfying ending!

Also Freia (brainwashed Flare) has developed a close bond with Setsune, whom is also protective of her. I’m really curious to see what will happen if Keyaru turns on Freia and Setsune protects her, or if Flare gets her memories back and returns to being hateful. Keyaru has contemplated giving her memories back, since he’s still using her as part of his revenge.

Also, I’m really curious to see what he’ll do to Bullet. Flare and Sword mostly beat and insulted Keyaru, but they did also sexually assault him. Afterwards, both their punishments mainly involved being violently raped. Bullet did physically assault Keyaru but he mostly sexually assaulted and raped him. Bullet is his rapist. Like what is Keyaru going to do? What is he going to do? Will his treatment be different because Bullet is a man? I’m guessing he’s probably going to turn Bullet female then torture him, like he did to the last guy.

Am I overthinking this? I do like the story and I’m curious what will happen next, more specifically what horrifying atrocity will Keyaru think of next.

#redo of healer #disturbing content #content warning #long post #I fear the potential response of this post and pray to the anime gods to have mercy on my soul #horror manga

38 notes · View notes

hawkinsschoolcounselor · 3 years

Note

Hi hi! I'm glad you're well, except for the commute (oof). If you haven't done this already, I'd love to hear thoughts from you about Brenner. First of all, how does someone like him live with doing the sort of things he's done? Also, with him being "papa" to El in her early life, how well would you say stories of why abusive parents abuse, and how they understand what they're doing, fit to understanding Brenner's behavior and mind? (I hope that all makes sense?) Thanks! and have a good one! ^_^

Ok, you’ve been waiting for this one for quite some time. I apologize. It’s been hard to stay motivated between all the stress of the past year and the lack of fresh Stranger Things content. You’ve put forth a very thought-provoking question, as it really demands that I get into the question of human behavior and why anyone does anything, let alone something that many would see as horrible.

Too often, people like to write certain people off as “just plain evil.” This is a problematic argument, however, as it avoids any exploration as to why something might have happened. If we don’t understand the root of a given behavior, we leave ourselves open to it happening again. Brenner isn’t evil, but only because “evil” is a social construct that isn’t naturally occurring. Brenner himself would certainly give all sorts of justifications for his actions, and that is the real issue here. A stereotypically “evil” person would know he is doing wrong, and either not care or enjoy it.

Brenner doesn’t see anything wrong with what he’s done. He may know it’s illegal, even unethical, but he sees himself as doing something great. Those who are hurt along the way are simply the cost of doing business, for lack of a better term. He has little, if any, remorse for his actions. Everything is justifiable to him if it works towards his goals. What are his goals? First, to achieve greatness. Second, to have his greatness known. The closest he gets to caring for something other than himself is his desire to defeat the Russians, but that may well be driven by his desire for greatness rather than a desire to help his country. He’s not out to hurt anyone, but he cares little if that’s what it takes.

What this shows is a disregard for the rights of others, along with the previously mentioned lack of remorse. This is where an evil argument can be made, since it creates a situation where he quite simply seeing others as lesser than himself. This is what leads to people treating others as subhuman and expendable. Most people, even when put into a situation that requires decisions that can result in others being seriously hurt or killed, will struggle with it. It’s the sort of thing that would haunt the average person, even if they tried to rationalize it away, at least until they became desensitized to it.

We get no sense that Brenner himself was simply broken down until this emotionally detached person was all that was left. There’s no indication that he came into his research as someone with ethical standards, but got disillusioned over time. Everything we see in Stranger Things, as well as the supplemental materials, tells us that this is basically Brenner’s modus operandi. Any display of emotion from him is simply part of a greater strategy of manipulation. He tricks his subjects into thinking he cares for them, and, especially with the children, grooms them to see him as a father figure whom they will wish to please.

Using Brenner as an exploration of abusive parents is a bit dicey, as his parental status is essentially fake. God willing, he has no actual children. Still, it can work as a sort of metaphor, I suppose. An abusive parent would behave similarly, unrealistic elements of the series aside, in that I’d wager that abusive parents rarely see themselves as abusive. I don’t have any research handy for this, but, anecdotally, people take on traits of their parents (and other significant people in their lives growing up). The cycle of abuse is not a conscious choice that people make, and this is what makes it difficult to break. Billy was abusive because Neil was abusive. Billy started to see Neil’s methods as the only way to 1) be safe and 2) get what you want. Neil’s abuse of Billy likely decreased in frequency and severity as Billy took on traits that Neil appreciated. This reinforced the behavior in Billy, turning him into a carbon copy of the man he hated. Billy also likely harbored a great hatred of himself, assuming he had moments where he was able to clearly see the person had become. Abusive parents, particularly those who had been abused, would likely have a similar sense of shame once the defense mechanisms stop protecting them from their own behavior.

I’m not sure Brenner would feel ashamed of himself, though. Even if someone, somehow stripped away his delusions of grandeur, arrogance, and claims of the ends justifying the means, there’s no reason to believe that Brenner would have a Heel Realization. He’s not a Well-Intentioned Extremist or He Who Fights Monsters who simply needs to be put down. The man is a sociopath. He doesn’t value others enough to have any genuine emotional attachment with them. If you watch his scenes with El, you can actually see that any reactions he has are due to the results of his experiments with her. His emotional attachments are centered on his work. These people are subjects to him, merely nameless numbers. Their names only exist to allow him to put up a paternal front, so they feel compelled to obey and desire to please him.

I think a better look at abusive parents in Stranger Things would be with Neil or Lonnie. They’re both horrible people, but at least tried to be parents in their own twisted way. If we use the story of Lonnie taking Jonathan hunting to illustrate parenting, we can sort of see the differences. A good dad would see his son is upset and end the hunting trip. An abusive dad, like Lonnie, would make his kid do it anyway because he thought it’d toughen his son up and because he cared more about what other people thought than how his son felt. Brenner tried to make El kill a rabbit just to see if she could, so she can be a weapon.

Lonnie was a selfish abusive asshole, but Brenner was only ever in it for himself. El would have been killed or locked away in an asylum if her powers never developed. It takes a lot to come across as worse than Lonnie, but, hey, there’s always a bigger fish.

#stranger things #martin brenner

16 notes · View notes

goneseriesanalysis · 3 years

Text

Misogyny In Gone

Spoilers for the Gone series down below - please don’t read if you haven’t read all the books

Also minor spoilers for the monster trilogy

TW: Mention of non-consensual s*xual activity

In one of my first ever posts about Gone, I mentioned that when I first read the series I found myself strangely intrigued by characters such as Caine and Drake, whilst disliking or simply being disinterested in female characters, such as Astrid or Lana. Now, in that post I chalked that up to being a result f the internalised misogyny that a lot of girls experience through the teenage years, but looking back I really don’t think I was giving younger me enough credit. I was reading plenty of other books at the time where I had absolutely no problem relating to the female characters. So that got me thinking as to why my experience was so different with Gone. I asked a question the other day about why @gone-series-orchid thought so many younger fans fixate on Drake in particular. And when I was answering the question myself, I found myself realising that it wasn’t so much a connection with that character, but more a disconnect from any female characters - the characters who I would usually relate to.

It made me realise that the issue was not with younger me, but with the writing itself. I began thinking back to various plot points, and it made me realise that women are heavily villainised throughout the series, without them being actual villains. This creates a set-up where you have numerous female character who are subtextually punished in a way that is usually associated with wrongdoers, without actually giving them the autonomy to make the decision to be bad. And so of course 11-14 year old me didn’t like them. And I instead developed an obsession with a sociopathic misogynist, which is really harmful for obvious reasons. Now, I really don’t think mg did this on purpose, but it’s there all the same and so I’m gonna talk about a few things that are irking me as I’m looking back.

Quick disclaimer that I have only re-read Gone so far so I don’t have quotes for evidence as I usually do, and I may even be misremembering some plot points. But I wanted to get my thoughts down while they are still fresh so here goes.

My first thought is that a lot of the villains we see, even the smaller ones, are male. We have Orc for a short amount of time in the first book. We have Caine, Drake and Zil. And even most of the background antagonists are male (Howard, Panda, Mallet, Hank, Turk, Lance, Bug). While you can argue that a lot of these characters are rather one-dimensional and cartoonish, they all have two things in common. Agency and autonomy. They are all able to make their own decisions (with the possible exception of Caine in Hunger). They all have their own clear and distinctive reasons for doing the things that they do and they are all relatively sane - I suppose you could argue against Drake being sane but realistically he is fully capable of making rational decisions when he needs to which would indicate that he is to at least some extent.

And this is something that any female villains just...never have?? And I literally mean all of them. I’m going to go through them one by one.

(Reminder that I’m talking about these characters specifically in their role as an antagonist - some of them do possess agency and autonomy outside of these roles but that is another topic of discussion)

So first we have Diana. Not really a villain, but certainly an antagonist in the first book. So let’s look - Agency?? No. Her role as an antagonist is dependant solely on Caine’s actions, rather than any desires of her own - even the few scenes where she manipulates Jack. She’s doing it to protect herself from Drake...another male villain. Not because of any villainous intentions that she herself has. Autonomy?? No. She is thrown around (literally) by Caine and is forced to go along with HIS schemes, despite actively voicing her unwillingness. She is even forcefully kissed by him - she has no right to self-government and no moral independence for as long as she remains an antagonist.

Lisa - If I remember correctly, Lisa is the name of the sole (I believe) female member of the human crew. So let’s get straight into it because I barely remember her. Agency?? I don’t think so. Now, I could be wrong here but I’m pretty sure we don’t even get an explanation as to WHY she joined the human crew in the first place. If that is the case then that’s a big fat nope for agency. Autonomy?? Again, not that I can remember. I believe she is mainly treated as a romantic prospect for Zil (even though I’m pretty sure he calls her ugly at some point). I don’t think we are ever introduced to her morals and beliefs in any capacity that is separate from Zil. Sorry Lisa.

Brittany - This is quite possibly the WORST example. Brittany is the girl who was killed in Hunger and then brought back as the Jekyll to Drake’s Hyde. Agency?? No. Brittany’s role as an antagonist happens only after she has become insane. She is separated completely from her original characterisation and instead becomes a puppet for the gaiaphage’s desires. Autonomy?? NO. She is literally attached to Drake, and as the series continues she becomes less and less able to govern her own body until in the monster trilogy she is introduced to us as nothing more than a face in Drake’s chest. That he treats as a pet. I mean what the f*ck. She is also completely separated from her moral compass when she turns insane, even having that and the image of her dead brother used against her. I’m actually fuming just thinking about it. Like yeah, I wonder why little 11 year old me didn’t really like the women in this series.

Nerezza - As I remember Nerezza was some form that the gaiaphage took in Lies in order to manipulate Orsay. Agency?? Somewhat. She had a clear goal that she was working towards but points get taken away because she is not a real person. Interesting how the gaiaphage used a female body instead of a male one. However, if I have misremembered and the gaiaphage was possessing an actual kid then let me take that agency point right away. (I’m pretty sure she wasn’t a real person though). Autonomy?? No. Again, she isn’t actually real. ‘She’ is the temporary human form of a glowing pile of rocks. She does not have the ability to self-govern or have any moral independence. Also minus points for the fact that she was used to take away the agency and autonomy of two other female characters through manipulation. (Orsay directly and Mary indirectly).

Penny - Penny is the moof who has the ability to make people see monsters. Agency?? Somewhat. Penny acts purely for herself when she cements Caine, an act of revenge at that. Her goals are clear and she is established as a villain in a way that is separate from the male villains (we learn that she puts bleach in her sisters cereal). However, it is stated that the reason she does not desert to Perdido Beach in Hunger and Lies is because of her crush on Caine. Ew. It is also never really addressed that she does have a reason for attacking Caine in Fear. It’s played down to her just being crazy. (Notice how Drake and Penny are very similar, but he is sadistic and she is crazy- even though she has more justification for attacking Caine than he does for attacking Diana and Astrid). Have another ew, as a treat. Autonomy?? No. I mean, she literally gets her legs broken by Caine in Lies when he drops her off of a cliff. She is unable to move and has to be bathed by Diana and Caine. I mean why did he need to be there mg. Have another ew, that’s a Hat Trick. She cannot self-govern and her moral independence is undermined by her insanity.

Gaia - Gaia is the child of Caine and Diana, who is possessed by the gaiaphage. Do I really need to continue?? Let’s do it anyway. For fun. Agency?? No. She is possessed. By a glowing pile of alien rocks. Completely wiping away any personality or beliefs she may have grown to have. Autonomy?? No. She is possessed. By a glowing pile of alien rocks. She is also killed because of this. She has no ability to self-govern and no moral independence.

Bonus round - Lana temporarily becomes an antagonist in Hunger while under the control of the gaiaphage. Agency?? No. Autonomy?? You guessed it, no. Because she is being controlled. By a glowing pile of alien rocks.

My second point is that the two main female characters experience their character growth at the hands of men. This is not unusual in media. But it’s annoying as hell. Let’s review:

Astrid – Her main role throughout the series is to be Sam’s love interest, despite her being a much more interesting and developed character. She also changes a large part of herself in order for their relationship to continue (I know that’s not why she undergoes the change, but from a storytelling perspective it needed to happen for them to remain together because of how mg wrote them) and Sam is just fine as he is, for some reason. The character development that she goes through in between Plague and Fear is not only directly linked with LP but is also, for some reason, a secret. We, as a reader, are not allowed to see it. She also experiences a lot of character growth due to her fear of Drake and what it takes for her to overcome that. Another man. Yay. I know there is a lot more nuance to it than this but you get my point.

Diana – Again, her main purpose is to be Caine’s love interest. And she is yet another victim of Drake’s sick obsession. I’m not really going to go into detail with this one because Diana’s whole character is a result of the attraction men have to her and the way that they treat her because of this. I talk more on this is my analysis of Diana is you are interested but if I go into it here then I’ll probably cry.

Some bonus characters in this category include:

Lana – Big fat glowing pile of rocks (it’s genderless, I know, but I’m counting it), Quinn, Sanjit

Penny – Caine

Taylor – Her character doesn’t really rely on a man but it does rely on other characters (and mg) treating her like a sl*t for daring to have an attraction to one

And point number three: Women having sex = bad??

Again, not uncommon in media. But boy does it get on my nerves. For some reason women having sex or exploring their sexuality in the gone series seems to immediately have negative connotations. Now, I’m not sure whether this was intentional or not, but I do know that the same subtext is not there for the male characters. I’m going to preface this by saying I’m not overly fond of any of the kids having sex. Because, you know, they’re kids, and as an 18yr old re-reading the series, it makes me pretty uncomfy. But for any 14 year old girls reading this series, the take-away is immediately that girls exploring their sexuality is bad and wrong and punishable and I hate that. Because it’s just not true. So let’s begin.

I’m going to start by talking about Taylor. Taylor doesn’t actually canonically have sex as far as I can remember, but as I mentioned before, she is treated as a sl*t pretty much from the get go. And why?? Because she is open about the fact that she finds Sam attractive. Which is NOT a bad thing. It’s good to be open about these things, as long as you aren’t making a move on anyone who is already in a relationship then there is nothing wrong with voicing an attraction. And she doesn’t make a move. He does. And when he pulls away?? She accepts it. She doesn’t shout or get upset. She accepts that he is drunk and that he didn’t mean it and she moves on, with the exception of a few jokes. And that is a good reaction to that situation. Yet she is constantly villainised both by characters in the text and subtextually and I hate it.

Penny – Again, Penny doesn’t actually have sex within the story, and I’m not going to talk about her crush on Caine because I already discussed my issue with that. But there is one bit that makes me go absolutely feral. We learn in Fear that she uses her powers to kiss Turk whilst making herself look like Diana (she also does this with Howards although it is never stated who she turns into with him), and this is not presented as an immoral thing to do?? Which it very much is. She is literally commodifying Diana’s body – without Diana’s consent, and mg didn’t think to mention that that is not an ok thing to do?? Like she is SELLING Diana’s body for I can’t even remember what. And this infuriates me so much more because of how Diana is treated for consensually having sex within the series. She can’t even escape from being sexualised when she isn’t around I just AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA. I’m crying now over the horrific way in which Diana is treated ugh.

Brianna – Ok so Brianna is the final one on this list who doesn’t actually have sex within the series. My issue here is how Brianna is treated for her reaction to Dekka’s confession of love. Now, as I have said I haven’t re-read Plague or Fear yet so I’m not sure if Brianna is villainised for this within the text, or if I’ve just seen some fans do it. But. She is a CHILD. She is 12. And someone she looked up to as a sister just told her that she is in love with her. Of course she is going to be confused. She isn’t homophobic – she is a literal child who probably has no real notion yet of her own sexuality. Also, she is allowed to not be attracted to someone. And she is allowed to set boundaries – that is a very healthy things to do. Most women have been in a situation where a man we have considered to be a friend has told us that he has romantic feelings towards us. We’ve all experienced that sinking feeling. This is the exact same situation. And I hate the idea of anyone reading this series to think that they have to reciprocate feelings just because someone is nice to them. Also just to be clear, this is not a criticism of Dekka. Dekka was also a child, who was dying – and she had every right to tell the person that she loved just that. My issue is with the way that I’ve seen Brianna be villainised for her reaction. I love them both and they both deserve the world.

Astrid – Ok so Astrid is the first character on this list who has sex within the series. And I really wished she hadn’t. Or rather, if it had to happen, I wish it had happened under different circumstances. Again. My ideal situation when reading a book about fifteen year olds is that none of them have sex, but that doesn’t happen with Gone so I’m going to work with what I have. A lot of tension in Sam and Astrid’s relationship comes from the fact that Astrid refuses to have sex with Sam, which is a perfectly normal and healthy boundary for a 15 year old to set. But Sam, because he is a whiny little boy with the emotional capacity of a crusty tissue is not ok with this as so seems to develop a victim complex. Now this in itself is not outside the realms of possibility, and it could have even been a good way to add some intrigue to Sam’s character – if mg had explicitly stated that Sam’s reaction was not ok. But he doesn’t. And so Astrid suddenly becomes a prude. The Ice Queen. Now Astrid’s reasoning for not wanting to have sex is because (if I remember correctly) it doesn’t tie in with her faith. She seems to associate her morality with her ‘purity’. This, again, is flawed thinking. Having sex doesn’t make you a bad person just as abstaining from sex doesn’t make you a good person. But mg doesn’t mention that this thinking is flawed, just that her not having sex with Sam is. Which only reinforces the idea that women having sex = bad, unless it is for the benefit of a man. Again, I’m not sure if this was intentional or not but it’s sooo harmful. And to make matters worse, it is only when Astrid becomes an Atheist that she finally decides to have sex. And that just makes me want to scream. Do you know what would have been a good character arc?? Astrid retaining her faith but deciding that she wants to have sex with Sam because she wants to and because she realises that having sex does not make her any less ‘pure’ – or good if you will. Do you know what also would have been a good character arc?? Astrid becoming an Atheist for reasons but still deciding to not have sex with Sam because she isn’t ready yet and having sex is not indicative of moral or religious beliefs. But it just feels like Astrid having sex was more for Sam’s benefit than hers instead.

Diana – Ok so Diana is a big one. Of course she has consensual sex on the island with Caine (even though he does threaten to have it be non-consensual which I just hate so much) and then immediately afterwards becomes pregnant with the Gone series version of the anti-Christ. So Penny literally selling Diana’s body?? Yep that’s fine. Diana choosing to have sex with a boy she ‘loves’ because she wants to?? Bad. Wrong. You must be punished. It just reinforces the narrative that women having sex is bad. Especially when there are little to no consequences for the boys involved. Again, Diana’s characterisation is reliant upon her sexualisation from male characters so it’s hard to separate her from that, but if you want a more in-depth explanation I talk about it in my Diana post.

Connie – And finally we have Connie. The mother of Sam and Caine. Now Connie isn’t exactly shown as bad for having sex – but she is the only grown woman whose sexual past is talked about within the series and she also happens to be an adulterer. Which isn’t amazing. I don’t have too much to say about Connie other than she is presented in an overtly negative light, mostly from Sam, for a situation that happened over 15 years ago. She tried her best. I don’t remember her much but I wanted to mention her because she deserves some justice. Please feel free anyone if you have more to add.

Well that concludes my thoughts on misogyny in the Gone series. I feel like I got slowly more aggressive as this went on so I apologise for that but I had a sudden epiphany and had to write all my thoughts down immediately. I still love the Gone series so much but I had honestly never thought about these things before and it’s now quarter to 5 in the am. I just want to add a quick note that this is a Gone blog but it is also a safe space for women. I love you all and please feel free to critique anything I have said or to add onto it, I would genuinely love to hear your thoughts on this. – And that goes for anyone. Thank you so much for reading :)

#the gone series

26 notes · View notes

wanderbythewayside · 4 years

Text

I think one of the things I really like about ToG is that there is no cheap redemption (it can actually be argued that there is no redemption since being good isn’t actually a requirement of being a main character here and no one does shit to deserve it.

I’ll have to dip into other fandoms to explain my point but I’ll try to stick to big ones so most people can follow along.

Because so many shoujo mangas/animes are targeted towards younger people there’s this sort of unspoken rule that if a character is going to be in the main cast they have to be good, or at least on their way to being good. But when you combine that with too many side characters that you can’t spend any real time on them or if it’s an adaptation of something and the writers are trying to make a character more palatable you end up getting this forced, awkward sudden turn around or a ‘surprise! they were good all along! they just had (bad) reasons to act like a shitty human being.’ And not only is it majorly unsatisfying if you take any time to analyze these characters but it creates this sort of precedent of victims being expected to forgive their abusers or, in the worst case, outright victim-blaming in an attempt to make the “redeemed” character look good. The latter is usually by the fans of said redeemed character and it’s gross.

Before I go on let me make this clear, you can have bad characters, you can have redeemed characters, you can have problematic characters and relationships, half the reason we have media is to explore that shit, but don’t try to tell me or make me believe a morally wrong character is actually good when you’ve put none of the work in.

Fairy Tail and Naruto were really bad for this. One of the main signs they were trying to make a bad character look good is if they keep flashing back to their Tragic Story whenever that character is doing something shitty or when that character is apologizing. It’s a great flashing “See! This character isn’t that bad! Pity them! :P” And asking the audience to forgive a character after 20 seconds of sad footage with absolutely no set up is one thing, but having their victims only ever forgive them and move on is not only lazy it massively under-represents real life victims. And you see the clash in the fandom, people who love the redeemed characters just rage on fans who accurately point out that an apology or a sad past does NOT equal redemption or forgiveness and it is UNCOMFORTABLE to watch.

I get that you relate to this shitty character but please don’t pretend that you loving them makes them a good character.

In Naruto Itachi’s grand “He’s a good person!” reveal comes after he tricks Sasuke into killing him, which comes after he tortured Sasuke twice (something he wasn’t forced to do unlike some of the rest of the shit he did) and so many fans decided he was a perfectly good person and ignored how even that last act, meant to be about Itachi punishing himself for the shit he himself did, fucked over his brother, but I’m still supposed to believe he was a good character all along. And in Fairy Tail Minerva beats the shit out of Lucy for no other reason than that she can, but later I’m supposed to believe that she suddenly had a change of heart with no other set up than the, also, abusive Guild Master was no longer there to encourage it or that she’s actually done anything to deserve that redemption.

Again, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t like these characters, or that you shouldn’t like morally questionable characters, but if you can’t like them without distorting them in your head to make them good maybe you should take a better look at why you like them.

In ToG literally no character gets a redemption arc despite the fact that they have all done some pretty awful things. The greatest example of this that I can think of is Hoaquin. As an audience we’re in the train being told how terrible and awful this guy is and then we get hit with a flashback, and it shows us that he does have some sad shit; all he ever wanted was the approval of his father, and it is his father’s callous disregard and neglect that causes Hoaquin to go to such extremes. And it’s following the shoujo formula, or at least the start of it. But then in that same flashback (sort of) we’re also told that Hoaquin had no intention of ever letting one of his siblings lead their weird body-horror-group-project and deliberately mislead them as to what the spell would do. It is so important that he is roughly the same age in both scenes because we are, in fast succession, given a reason to sympathize with him, and then a reminder that even that young he was a manipulative little shit that cared about no one’s life or ambitions more than his own.

Instead of some ham-fisted attempt at getting my sympathy so I’ll accept that he’ll work with Baam or Baam will work with him I am (implicitly) told exactly what he is: He’s a shitty, morally dark character, he’s just ALSO a fleshed out character with reasons and motivations for the way that he is. I am not supposed to think he’s a good character, I’m not supposed to think he is worthy of redemption, I am just shown who and what he is and get to decide whether or not I like it for myself. And I do like him, not because I think he has the capacity to be good, but because I find him deeply compelling in his complete lack of justification for himself or any hint of remorse. ToG doesn’t try to tell me what to think of it’s characters, it just let’s me learn about them, and I fucking love that.

#tog #tower of god #character analysis #redemption #tropes #fairy tail #naruto #itachi uchiha #sasuke uchiha #hoaquin #minerva #lucy heartfilia #in this essay i will

34 notes · View notes

the-daily-dreamer · 4 years

Text

“The Stark’s are villains!” - A deep dive into the validity of a Dany stan claim: Part 1

“Manipulators”

“Schemers”

“Back Stabbers”

“Oath Breakers”

“Hypocrites”

“Xenophobes”

“Power-Hungry”

“Murderers”

“Selfish”

“Willing to kill everyone to get what they want”

“Ned would be ashamed”

“They’re the new Lannisters”

Villains

The Dany stans have really started a movement that the Starks are the new Lannister. The new villains of the show. They’re selfish, powerhunry, racist, conniving characters. The lowest of the low. This is obviously utter nonsense.

But for the sake of something to do, I thought I’d take a deep dive into the actions of the Starks and see if they really are all these terrible things (or..if Dany stans just don’t understand words and what they mean) and how their precious queen stacks up! This’ll be a long post so I’ll break it into two parts. Analyzing the Starks (part 1) and then analyzing Daenerys herself (part 2).

Disclaimer: This is part 1, which focuses on the Starks. I will mainly be focusing on Jon and Sansa since they are the most vilified Starks by Dany stans. Arya is mentioned, but not much.

Manipulators: a person who controls or influences others in a clever or unscrupulous way.

I assume Dany stans are making the arguments that the Starks are manipulators because 1) Sansa “manipulates” Jon and Dany into...doing something??? D stans never make it clear, and 2) Jon “manipulates” Dany into fighting for the North.

1) Sansa manipulates Jon and Dany. Where?!? Sansa is completely open with Jon. She makes her opinions clear, not to manipulate Jon but to continue having an open and honest relationship with her brother/cousin. She understands that they all need each other. Sansa is not being vocal because she jealous or petty or any of that bull. She’s being vocal because she’s a leader. She’s in a position of power. She needs to be heard, just as much as any other lord or lady present at a meeting. Jon is never manipulated. He is being told the truth. When it comes to Dany...Sansa never really manipulates her. The only scene I can imagine would be even close to manipulation is the “What about the North scene”. I even say so myself that Dany is easily manipulated and receptive to Sanaa’s praise and thanks. But that means Sansa’s only manipulation is complimenting Dany in hopes of persuading her to free the North, which never happens ans doesn’t work. So Sansa doesn’t manipulate but rather stroke Dany’s ego and butter her up, in hopes of getting on her good side. If that’s manipulation then oh boy do I have news for you! DANY DID THE SAME THING TO SANSA AND WAS FAKE NICE TO GET WHAT SHE WANTS!

2) Jon manipulates Dany. I so desperately want this to be true. Unfortunately, the show was unclear on Jon’s motivations. Personally, I don’t think what Jon did was manipulation. He never tricked her or lied about anything to her to get what he wanted. He was open and honest. He told Dany that the others were coming and begged for help. Where is the manipulation? Asking for help by using dragon glass and dragons to defeat a literal horde of ice zombie that will kill everyone? If that’s manipulation, then every person that has ever asked for help is a manipulator. Even Dany says that Jon manipulated her into coming to the North, but there is no basis for that claim. He was ready to leave her castle and prepare for the battle, she kept him there. He didn’t use her affection against her. Jon simply asked for help. If Dany chose to go because she was “in love” or something, that’s on her. The other instance I could see for Jon manipulating Dany is the parentage reveal, but again, Jon never uses anything against Dany!

In short, the Starks didn’t manipulate Dany. They had autonomy. Just because they didn’t agree with your fav doesn’t mean they manipulated her. They are not unfairly controlling her. They are giving their opinions and council. She makes her own decisions.

Schemers: a person who is involved in making secret or underhanded plans

I love this one. The Starks are schemers now lol. They have a grand on to dominate the world and kill everyone. I have to laugh.

I assume the rhetoric of this comes from the scene in which Arya and Sansa tell Jon they don’t like Dany. That would be the closest thing to scheming the Stark girls do. The thing is...they never make plans to kill Dany, they never make plans to usurp Dany, they don’t do anything. They tell their brother/cousin that they don’t trust Dany or like her. And with good reason! They want independence! But telling your family you don’t like or want someone as your head of state is not scheming. Telling your family your opinion is not scheming.

The other instance would be Sansa telling Tyrion there’s another. Again, that isn’t a scheme. Unfortunately, the show left out a lot of personal involvement, so I can’t be sure what Sansa’s motivations or ideas are. But here’s the thing, she couldn’t have known what would happen after telling. To be a schemer you need to have a plan, know what will happen every step of the way. Pull strings. Littlefinger was a schemer because he planned everything out. Sansa didn’t have a plan beyond, get the North freedom. I can see the justification that this is still scheming because she tells Tyrion; however, I don’t believe it. Because Sansa didn’t know what would happen after.

And even if it was scheming, it’s not villainous. Her plans are for freedom for her country. She is pushing independence, which her people have fought for and declared over and over again. She is protecting her nation’s interests, not just her own. That’s heroic. Rob did the same thing. He made plans and “schemed” to win independence. But it was against the Lannisters, so to D stans it was ok. Sansa’s actions, if you perceive them as schemes, were still lined with noble intentions and were heroic for her people.

So whether you think it was a scheme or not, it doesn’t matter. Sansa was right to do it.

Backstabbers and Oath Breakers: Backstab - to attempt to discredit (a person) by underhanded means, as innuendo, accusation, or the like. Oath breaker - Someone who breaks an oath.

I’m clumping these together because they work hand in hand. This one has validity, so I won’t completely say no. But it’s an interesting question.

I assume this comes from broken promises, right? I’ll admit that Sansa did break her promise to Jon. She did tell a secret she promised to keep. But that wasn’t an oath. Oaths are more serious than promises.

Oath - a solemn promise, often invoking a divine witness, regarding one's future action or behavior

Promise - a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen

Sansa promised to not tell Jon’s secret. She did not swear an oath to Jon. She broke her promise, which I’m sure everyone has done.

Jon never promised Dany he wouldn’t tell his sisters. So that isn’t a broken oath. He did swear an oath that she would be his queen...and guess what! He didn’t break it!!!! Dany was his queen until her very end so no oath was broken.

So on the oath front - The Starks are clear

Backstabbing? Simple. Yeah. It happened. Jon killed Dany and Sansa spread Jon’s secret. That falls under the category of undermining. However context is important. They did it for the right reasons. Jon killed Dany because she was crazy! She killed an entire city! Murdered hundred of thousands and planned to keep going! Sansa did it to keep her kingdom free. So were they backstabbers....? Yeah...kinda. But they needed to be in order to defeat the villain and threat.

Hypocrites: the contrivance of a false appearance of virtue or goodness, while concealing real character traits or inclinations, especially with respect to religious and moral beliefs

I’m not spending time on this. They weren’t hypocrites. The Starks never feigned morality with underlying evil. They were open and honest at all times. And no...Sansa being polite back to Dany is not hypocrisy. Next!

Xenophobes: a person having a dislike of or prejudice against people from other countries.

This one kills me. I have to laugh. There’s no evidence! THE STARKS ARE NOT PREJUDICED AGAINST IMMIGRANTS! If the Stark girls were prejudiced against immigrants...they would hate Dany because she came from another country. And that would be it. They would hate the unsullied because they came from another country. They would hate because people come from other countries.

But they don’t! The Starks dislike Dany and her army because they are invaders who are trying to take over their country. They are oppressors coming in. There is no fear or hate of immigrants, there’s fear of oppression.

To say the North is xenophobic to Dany and her army because they come from another country, is to say that India was xenophobic towards Britain because they came from another country. The stupidity of it all!

Power-hungry, selfish, and willing to kill their people to get what they want: 1) power-hungry - having a strong desire for power 2) selfish - lacking consideration for others

1) How are the Stark’s power hungry? Jon never asks to be King. He hates being king. He takes back Winterfell because that is his family’s home. Sans never accepts the Lord’s invitation to overpower Jon. She stays behind Jon wholly and isn’t seeking to become queen. She takes back Winterfell because it’s her family’s home. And neither want the iron throne. Sansa wants Jon to have the throne, but that’s so he can grant independence. Neither one of them seek out power. It’s given to them because they show that they are capable leaders.

2) Both Jon and Sansa put others needs before their own. Jon is searching for a way to defeat the others. Sansa is searching for a way to feed her people and help them through winter. Sansa is also seeking a way to give her people the independenc they have fought for. Neither of them is thinking about their own gains. They are concerned about everyone else.

3) Willing to kill others for their own gains. I’m added this in because I hear this claim a lot. But again, Jon and Sansa do not kill people to get ahead. They do not let people starve or be killed be zombies. They do not kill the Lords of houses who did not support them initially. They do not kill to get ahead. There’s no evidence. Next!

Murderers:

You got me there! They do commit murder. They killed people. Everyone in the show except Gilly, Little Sam, Bran, and Rickon have killed people!

But let’s look at the kills they made in the last seasons, shall we?

1. Ramsay Bolton - Sansa fed him to his dogs After he lost the battle of the bastards. He was a murderer, sadist, rapist, and torturer. He raped Sansa, killed her brother, tortured her family friend, and was in control of her home unjustly. Deserving? ABSOLUTELY!

2. Little Finger - Sansa had a trial and asked him how he pled (guilty or innocent) for his crimes. His throat was slit by Arya. He was a manipulator, murderer, schemer, abuser, and cause of her fathers death + marriage to her rapist! Deserving? ABSOLUTELY

3. Daenerys Targaryen - Jon stabbed her in the stomach after she burnt down Kings Landing, murdered almost the entire population by burning them to death, and let her soldiers pillage the city and rape and murder the survivors of her fiery destruction. She was a mass murderer, abuser, destroyer of a city, and a tyrant. Deserving? ABSOLUTELY

So yes. You win. The Starks, like everyone in the show, are murders. Because they killed people before. And each one of them had it coming.

Ned would be ashamed and The New Lannisters:

This’ll be quick.

No. Ned would be proud of all of his children for coming back to one other and taking back their homes. He would be proud of them surviving their abusers. He would be proud that they continued the quest for independence after Rob. He would be proud they protected the North and defeated the others. Ned Stark would be proud of his children and nephew and would not prefer Dany.

No. They aren’t the new Lannisters. They haven’t done anything like the Lannisters. That’s a false comparison, and it’s stupid.

__________________________________________

Let’s redo the list. Shall we?

Manipulators - Nope! Dany did everything on her own

Schemers - Not really, and if they were then it was justified

Backstabbers - Kinda? Again justified! Against a mass murderer!

Oathbreakers - Nope! Broken promises? Yes. Oaths? Not once.

Hypocrites - Nope!

Xenophobes - Nope! Anyone who thinks so doesn’t understand the word or oppression

Powerhungry - Nope! They don’t want power, and if they do they don’t seize it unjustly.

Murderers - Yep! But they only killed Dany (mass murderer and tyrant), Ramsay (rapist, murderer, sadist, and stealer of their home), and Little Finger (manipulator, muderer, and schemer).

Selfish - Nope! They worry about others

Willing to kill everyone to get what they want - Nope! They don’t kill anyone to get what they want

Ned would be ashamed - Nope! He’d be proud

The New Lannisters - Nope! They’re not!

__________________________________________

I know this post is long, but if you’d like to see part 2 here’s the link!

#game of thrones #anti dany #anti dany stans #anti daenerys targaryen #anti daenerys #anti jonerys #pro stark #pro jon snow #pro sansa stark #sansa stark #sansa stark defense squad #jon snow #house stark #jon snow defense squad

171 notes · View notes

kob131 · 4 years

Text

https://melonishus.tumblr.com/post/190368286718/theres-something-really-weird-and-about-the

Well anon, the issue is a lot more complicated than that.

It’s really how the narrative treats the traumas of the characters that upsets people. Salem was traumatized and mistreated by her father and the gods, but we’re supposed to side against her because of her reaction to it.

She wasn’t mistreated by the gods: they literally treated her like everyone else. She was demanding special treatment.

And her reaction was ‘ruin innumerable lives’. That kind of removes any justification.

In another sense, it’s also the main reason why I rag on Taiyang so much and am more defensive/neutral about Raven. It’s about how they’re treated. Taiyang shut down on his kids, but according to his defenders, “It’s okay if he shut down, because he’s trying!” Opposed to Raven who would likely have to go through the “Redemption Equals Death” trope to get people to forgive her.

Taiyang shut down once and made amends and made a joke Yang laughed at.,

Raven abandoned her daughter and left her with emotional scarring, watched her but never helped her aside from once, ditched her again, used her brother/Yang’s uncle to say ‘I don’t love you, fuck off’, never tried talking to her daughter about her depression or severed arm despite having an instant teleport to her AND you people insisting she’s always around, tried manipulating her in their first encounter, tried gaslighting her into joining her, insulted her family, threatened her life, used her as bait, dared to call Yang out on the issues SHE caused and then left her for the THIRD TIME.

The narrative treats these differently because they are different situations. You treat them different because sexism.

It’s all about the narrative in this situation. Yang’s trauma is met with “She needs to get over it!” while Tai’s was met with “He lost people closest to him! Cut him some slack!”

Taiyang already got over his drama.

Saying the same thing would be redundant.

As for the whole “shipping” thing, it’s primarily the way the writers framed it. They promised same-sex couples and a lot of LGBT+ Representation. So when the writers shoveled hetero couples at a mile a minute, it’s understandable that people would be a little miffed that they were baited into watching when the first rep that was gotten was a bitter lesbian that was ready and willing to drag Blake back to her abuser and was complicit in the attempted murder of her parents, that they would only want to focus on positive and healthy same-sex couples. With Emerald x Cinder being more like a “Harley and Joker” vibe (Admittedly, it’s a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine).

Except that Illa was also a victim, saved them all and you have directly called out people for calling her a psycho lesbian.

As for the whole “Men are trash” thing… Well, look at the track record. Ironwood’s army was hijacked into attacking Vale, Ozpin has been throwing bodies at an immortal opponent with no real plan of how to stop Salem, the gods started Salem’s start of darkness with their insensitivity, and Adam is Adam. Pyrrha’s character revolved around Jaune until her death, and there are a lot more scenarios that II could bring up that highlights the double standards that the narrative is willing to let slide that the fndm is less willing to (Example: Yang charges in on her emotions ad gets belittlement and a lost arm, Jaune does the same thing for far more selfish reasons and gets to unlock his semblance).

Meanwhile we have: bitchy teacher (Glynda), Mass Murderer (Raven), Terrorist (CInder) and Attempting Mass Genocide (Salem).

Yep, looks like the woman are worse. Kind of what happens when you focus a show on one gender.

TL;DR: It’s because the narrative won’t give them any slack when the other characters have been given every bit of it.

Hold on you misspelled somethings

TL;DR: It’s because the narrative won’t give them any slack even though they do far more harm with either no regret or meaningless regret than their male counterparts who try to right their wrongs and regret their actions because I’m sexist.

Fixed it for you.

You know what anon …no

Time to prove my point.

Salem’s story starts with being locked in a tower, is saved for like five minutes and then loses her savior before she tries to get him back and is punished FAR more severely than what was warranted

She directly tricked and lied to gods, the show literally said they had a life together and she still kept doing it.

Ozpin had some semblance of a life, he had his large chunks of freedom through several lifetimes as he threw bodies at the wife he was all too eager to betray. Oh no ! He’s sad for a few lifetimes ? Did he get cursed to become an immortal monster because he got too mouthy for the gods liking ? No ? Fuck Ozpin

Same semblance of a life as Salem since they SHARED that life, Ozpin literally hesitated to betray Salem and had kids with her during that time, they were all willing participants as Jinn said and Ozpin was tricked into this scenario whereas Salem knew she was gonna get punished because she kept doing the same shit. Funny how context changes things huh?

The male characters are given an annoying amount of leeway from the fandom, to the point where people could see someone like Sun, stalk Blake across the world in a creeper cloak, and not see why a girl would have an issue with being stalked. But god forbid a girl show the slightest amount of emotion in the face of trusted authority figures throwing them into harms way for no reason at all

Except the majority of the fanbase criticized them and no one calls any of the female character’s angst ‘womanpain.’

And please excuse me if I’m not up for the “My het ship is abused by the fandom “ spiel again. Ya’ll are doing fine. You’ve all been perfectly content with shipping Jaune with every woman that breathes, or pushing Ruby X OzpinJr or still clinging desperately to Blacksun while simultaneously harassing Bumbleby shippers and trying to deny any connection between the two characters past friendship

Meanwhile you and Dudeblade will make DIRECT THREATS to the creators and spread slander about them due to being born the wrong gender.

This fandom spots a male character and latches onto it from the second they’re introduced, desperate to support or idenitfy with any male character, even if they have to cling to winners like Adam or Mercury. And the second they do, they can never do any wrong. Then when they decide to turn their attention to lets say…Yang, they see her yelling at Ozpin, and deciding she’s being abusive to Oscar, because of course she is

Or Ozpin killing his kids, killing every single human on the planet and planning to it again. Or Taiyang destroying entire villages for his own selfish desires while repeatedly abusing his kids.

Oh wait, that’s Salem and Raven, the people you both defended. Who we know wouldn’t get away with it if they had dicks.

5 notes · View notes

commentaryvorg · 5 years

Text

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 4.16

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time, we finally finished up the trial proper of trial 4 (trial 4!!!!!!), which took so many posts because I had about a million things to say about all the best parts. Kaito’s faith was truly blind for once, his desperation to deny the truth produced the best deduction he’d ever come up with (which was still completely wrong), Shuichi tried to reach out to him and help, which only made Kaito push him further away, and Kaito literally, provably still could not accept the truth in the end.

Now it’s the post-trial conclusion, in which Everyone Is Suffering.

Monokuma: “Well, look at that! You voted correctly!”

Well, most of them did. It’d be kind of fun if Monokuma straight-up called Kaito out for voting wrong, but I do enjoy how Kaito refusing to accept the truth in the end is so relatively understated, like so much is with him.

Kaito: “Dammit… why!?”

Kaito finally speaks again… and of course it’s to desperately wonder why.

Monokuma: “Hey, Kokichi… You said this would liven things up. What gives, huh?”

I… don’t see what your problem is, Monokuma. Look at all this delicious despair you’re surrounded by right now, all thanks to Kokichi.

Kokichi: “Ah-haha, that was juuust a lie.”

…It wasn’t, though? You did liven things up, a lot.

Shuichi: “Are you satisfied, Kokichi? I want you to tell us. What is the outside world? Is it the motive you gave Gonta?”

So despite his justification of Gonta’s motive in the Closing Argument being the consciousness error, it seems like Shuichi’s also thinking of the possibility that there was an actual proper motive too. Kokichi never mentioned during the trial that the motive might have had anything to do with the outside world, but apparently Shuichi figured out that possibility anyway.

Here’s Alter Ego Gonta! Of all the deliberately gratuitous Danganronpa gen wun references in this game, this one is probably my favourite, because Alter Ego was a good.

Alter Ego Gonta: “Huh? What this? What happening?”

This must be so weird for him. The last thing he’d remember is trying to log out, and then this. How is he even experiencing this? Is he just, like, in some dark void where he can see a screen that’s showing him what the laptop’s camera sees? Probably something like that.

Alter Ego Gonta: “G-Gonta not understand… Who this ‘Alter Ego’ person?”

Of course he’d be confused about all this talk of him being a computer simulation and not understand that he’s technically not the real thing. Gonta is Gonta, right? How can Gonta not be the real Gonta?

Alter Ego Gonta: “Kill Miu…? Why does other Gonta know about—”

It’s actually kind of surprising that Alter Ego Gonta wasn’t expecting another version of himself to know about this. Wouldn’t he imagine the other Gonta would have the same memories as him? I guess he’s thinking of this as a Gonta from an entirely different world that didn’t have a reason to do any of this in the first place.

Alter Ego Gonta: “Then… Gonta no could save everyone?”

He just wanted to save everyone. Like every other selfless murderer in this game. I love all these selfless murderers.

Alter Ego Gonta: “Gonta think he gotta do it, cuz everyone else not want to. So… Gonta kill Miu.”

Kaito: “What do you mean by that? I… I don’t get it at all!”

This is the first thing of substance Kaito has said in quite a while, and just like his brief line earlier, it’s about wanting to understand. Kaito has always made a point about wanting to understand the killer’s reasons after every single trial (even with Kiyo), and this time more than ever he needs to do so otherwise he’s never going to be able to deal with this. He must have been hoping that hearing from the Gonta who actually did this would help him understand and accept this, but right now this still doesn’t make any sense at all.

(Which is fair, because Alter Ego Gonta’s explanation is currently missing out the rather important detail of why he considered killing Miu to be a necessary evil that no-one else would have wanted to do.)

Maki: “The secret of the outside world in the Virtual World was about the Flashback Light?”

Kokichi: “And, if it was the Flashback Light… it would mean the secret of the outside world is part of our forgotten memories.”

So, in other words, if Kokichi hadn’t figured out when he first saw the outside world that Flashback Lights can contain fake memories, he definitely has now. At this point, he remembers the world’s complete annihilation, yet he also knows it cannot possibly be the truth.

Kokichi: “This might be a trap, y’know? Shouldn’t you check if I’m lying first? I mean… you wanna protect everyone, right? This is the perfect time to do it.”

Gonta: “P-Protect everyone…?”

[Gonta rushes to use the Flashback Light]

Of course that would be how Kokichi made sure Gonta viewed the Flashback Light there while they were alone – by manipulating his desire to protect everyone yet again.

Alter Ego Gonta: “But that… just confuse Gonta more about what to do… What can Gonta do to save everyone…? Gonta no could think of anything…”

Kokichi: “So I told him. If he wants to save everyone, he should put everyone out of their misery. In other words… a mercy kill.”

Note how Gonta was not the one who came up with the mercy kill idea. That was suggested to him by Kokichi. So yes, okay, Gonta did choose of his own volition to commit murder given the situation he was in – but had he been on his own, the option of doing this would probably never have even occurred to him. He’s just too kind for something like that to cross his mind even when in that desperate state of mind.

A mercy kill is not the only way to deal with such a horrible truth, either. A more risky but less murdery way of trying to save everyone would have been to do essentially what Angie was trying to do: make everyone happy inside the academy and stop them from wanting to leave, in which case they’d never kill each other and never find out about the outside world. If Gonta had realised that was also an option, it’s entirely likely that he would have chosen to try and do that instead since it wouldn’t involve hurting anyone. But Gonta has always been confused as to what the right thing to do is such that neither of these options occurred to him, so when Kokichi presented the mercy kill like it was the only option, he felt like he had to do it.

Gonta: “Was Gonta… tricked!?”

Alter Ego Gonta: “No, you not tricked. Cuz, when Gonta remember secret of outside world, Gonta think… it would be easier… to die.”

I do like that the writing stresses this contrast between what Gonta assumes and what Alter Ego Gonta insists. Throughout the trial, first-time-me had been convinced that Gonta was genuinely just tricked and manipulated into this, so it’s nice that actually he had more of his own agency that one might expect and that he made the choice to do this awful thing knowing full well how awful it was.

That said, he still was tricked. Kokichi knew that the secret of the outside world was one big fat lie by the gamemakers, and yet he showed it to Gonta anyway while letting him think it was the truth. Then he acted like a mercy killing was the only possible option so that of course Gonta would choose to do that, given the kind of person he is.

Remember that one time Kokichi tried to insist that lies are what gives the world free will, and I argued that actually lies give people less free will if anything? Yeeeaaaahhh, that’s especially applicable here. Gonta believed he was choosing this of his own free will, when really he was manipulated into thinking it was his only reasonable option by the combination of something Kokichi knew was an outright lie (the outside world being in ruins) and a smaller white lie (acting like the mercy kill was the only reasonable way to deal with this).

It’s a lot like how Kirumi was manipulated into thinking she had to escape in order to save everyone outside by the Flashback-Light-induced lie in her motive video. Except this time, the gamemakers weren’t the only ones using the lie; Kokichi used it too.

Kokichi: “Gonta took on the dirty work for us. If he had survived the class trial, he would’ve lived in this hell alone… Gonta took on that role for us! Shouldn’t we appreciate him more!?”

Literally everybody here already appreciated Gonta plenty, you dick. The only person who didn’t properly appreciate him is the person who took advantage of his self-sacrificial nature in order to push him to do this when they knew it wasn’t necessary, and got him killed for it. Someone’s deflecting, as usual.

Kaito: “Wait a minute! I still don’t get what’s happening!”

I love how panicked Kaito is by the fact that he still doesn’t get it. He needs to understand this. He has to.

This should be enough to explain it by now, but I suppose with Kaito’s unshakeable optimism, he would find it hard to comprehend how anything could be so awful that it would make Gonta believe that killing everyone is the only way out. But Gonta is still the person you believe in, Kaito, and that’s the important part! He’s just… not quite as strong as you’d hoped he was. Just like Kaede.

Alter Ego Gonta: “Sorry! Gonta no can tell you!”

Shuichi: “Can’t tell us!? Why!?”

Alter Ego Gonta: “B-Because… if Gonta tell you, then… everyone will end up like Gonta… Everyone… despair.”

Of course Gonta can’t tell them. Of course he doesn’t want anyone else to suffer the way he’s suffering. He wanted to protect them from that so badly that he was willing to kill them all rather than let them find out. Anyone who genuinely cared so much that they were willing to go to such extremes for that outcome would never give up on it no matter what happened.

(They’d never turn around and stop fighting for the mercy kill halfway through the trial, and they certainly wouldn’t suddenly up and outright show everyone the outside world a couple of days later either, is my point. Have I mentioned that it is simply not possible that Kokichi could have ever wanted this.)

Keebo: “Despair!?”

Whoops, that word set off all the mindless Danganronpa fans inside Keebo’s head. I’m pretty sure this is the first time we’ve heard that word all game! Which is definitely deliberate.

Kokichi: “I… know it… A despair that makes you want to die… A despair that makes you want to put everyone out of their misery…”

No, you don’t, because you never believed that despair was the truth in the first place.

I’m not saying Kokichi doesn’t essentially know a kind of despair, namely the despair of being stuck in this awful killing game that he hates and sees no escape from, which he’s felt from the very beginning. But that’s not the despair he’s talking about here, and he certainly doesn’t give two fucks about how anybody else is being affected by the kind of despair he’s feeling either.

Miu: “I-I’m sorry, but… you should just give up. This is… my only chance. I have no choice but to do this… My inventions will change the world… They’ll make the world a better place! It’s my duty as a genius inventor! S-So, I can’t afford to die here—”

I really enjoy this! Miu was trying to do this simply because she was terrified of being murdered and selfishly wanted to survive at everyone else’s expense. Yet she knew she was being selfish and doing an awful thing, so she couldn’t bring herself to do it without desperately trying to justify to herself that it’s not selfish and she needs to survive because she’s important and this is about the whole world. Her issues this entire time (which I’ve never been willing to talk about because they’ve been smothered in her awful unnecessary sexual references) have been about her feeling horribly inferior and covering it up with desperate, obnoxious, obviously-fake insistence that she’s the best and everyone should love her, so it’s great that that also ties in with her paranoia-driven decision to become a selfish murderer here. Miu really could have been an interesting character! She is, sometimes! I just absolutely despise what the writers did with her the other like 80% of the time and aaargh.

And if Miu hadn’t hesitated like this and taken so long psyching herself up for it with this big justifying speech, she might have been able to actually kill Kokichi – because Gonta didn’t jump to attack her the first opportunity he got, since he was almost certainly also desperately trying to psyche himself up for it during that time.

[Gonta begins strangling Miu]

Gonta: “S-Sorry…! Gonta so sorry…!”

[Kokichi heads for the rooftop door and unlocks it]

Kokichi: “Don’t be sorry, Gonta. She was trying to kill me too. She said it was for the world or whatever, but that was just a poor excuse. We’re doing this to stop the vicious cycle of misery! So you don’t need to apologize.”

[Miu’s avatar collapses, and Gonta falls to his knees]

Gonta: “B-But… but…! Ergh… nrgh…! Gonta sorry! Gonta so sorry, Miu!”

Kokichi: “I already said you don’t need to apologize. We had to do this for everyone’s sake.”

This is another of the bits which make me believe that a part of Kokichi does feel bad about this: the way he insistently tells Gonta not to apologise here.

Even using Kaito’s principles regarding apologies, Gonta probably still has every reason to be apologising for this. Yes, he believes it’s for an end goal that’s worth it, but he is still deliberately choosing to hurt someone in aid of that end goal. That hurt deserves to be apologised for, because, you know, taking responsibility for your actions and the pain you cause. Kokichi, on the other hand, has his own very different “principles” that go approximately “nothing I do is ever bad so I don’t need to apologise for anything, but if anyone else does anything that’s bad for me then how dare they”.

So the only reason he tells Gonta not to apologise is that Gonta being this emotionally tormented by what he’s done is… apparently actually getting to Kokichi somewhat. Gonta is making it so obvious that murder is bad and you should feel bad if you murder someone and that he in particular feels awful for it, and haha nope Kokichi’s not having any of that, not the fact that he also murdered Miu and should feel bad about it, nor the fact that he’s making Gonta suffer this much for no reason. Kokichi’s animations seem impatient and angry as he’s telling Gonta not to apologise, making it clear that he’s not doing it because he selflessly cares about how Gonta’s feeling and wants to limit his suffering, but because he’s annoyed that Gonta’s apologising is making him feel bad about all this, how dare he, stop making Kokichi regret this obviously terrible decision that he can’t take back any more.

He claims it’s for everyone’s sake, but it was never about that, because he knows that’s all a lie anyway. It’s ironically very similar to the way Miu was just insisting to herself that she needs to do this, using things she knew were only an excuse, to try and stop herself from feeling bad about becoming a murderer. Kokichi could tell that’s what Miu was doing, but of course he’s not doing exactly the same thing, right?

Also of note is Kokichi moving around to the door almost as soon as Gonta starts strangling Miu so that he can’t even see her face (or Gonta’s) as she dies. Shuichi pictured Kokichi continuing to stand in front of Miu, if still not facing her directly, but it turns out he was being even more avoidant about it than that.

Kokichi: “You should know that it was Gonta’s idea to slide the body to the chapel wall.”

Gonta: “What? Gonta’s idea?”

Alter Ego Gonta: “Before Gonta went to the roof, he happened to see… Miu walk through the wall. Gonta tell Kokichi, and he think of everything else…”

So, not Gonta’s idea at all then. Gonta accidentally happened across information that allowed Kokichi to come up with that idea, that’s all.

Kokichi: “I like to think… we make a pretty good team.”

Only if “one person comes up with literally the entire murder plan, and the other shoulders literally all the moral responsibility of killing someone” counts as being a “team”.

Kaito: “Well, I mean, hearing that story, it sounds like you were tricked by Kokichi.”

Kaito’s right, but… definitely more by luck than judgement. Without knowing the “truth” of the outside world, he can’t comprehend how something could be so awful that it could push Gonta this far, so he’s assuming there was trickery involved, in order to make himself able to accept this. There was, but not in the way Kaito’s thinking.

Alter Ego Gonta: “Gonta not save anyone… Gonta just make everyone suffer more… Gonta… is stupid! So stupid! How can Gonta call himself gentleman!?”

Because you tried, Gonta! You tried as hard as you could to save everyone in the situation you were presented with, and it’s not for lack of you trying that it failed! (And it most certainly isn’t your fault that doing this actually wasn’t the appropriate way to save everyone because you couldn’t possibly have known that you’d been lied to.) A gentleman shouldn’t have to be someone who always succeeds at everything, just someone who always tries to!

(The same could be said about heroes, by the way.)

Kokichi: “But… you reached for the truth. And Gonta’s plan failed. All of you could have been saved if you died without knowing anything…”

No, Kokichi. You told them the truth. All of them could have potentially been “saved” if you hadn’t said anything. He is conveniently forgetting to mention that right now.

Kokichi: “Gonta even killed Miu for that sake, y’know?”

Kaito: “Enough of your shit! You made him kill her!”

Kaito is still a little off in his assumptions about the kind of trickery involved, but even so, and even if you take this at the face value that’s being claimed, Kokichi is still partially responsible for Miu’s death. Kaito does not appreciate the way he’s refusing to acknowledge that and pushing all the responsibility onto Gonta.

Gonta: “Sorry! Gonta is sorry he fail everyone… Gonta is sorry for being stupid! Gonta is sorry he make everyone suffer! Gonta is so sorry!”

Gonta’s whole arc throughout the entire game and especially this chapter has been focused on him desperately trying to help everyone in whatever way he can… but in the end he’s going to die feeling like he failed everyone in the worst possible way and it’s heartbreaking. Especially for this Gonta, who technically didn’t even do anything wrong if we go by the argument that memories make a person who they are, which is an argument we can’t not go with in this story.

(You might note that Kaito is not trying to tell Gonta not to apologise even though he’s just making himself feel even worse without deserving it.)

Kokichi: “You’re probably all thinking that I should’ve taken on the dirty work and not Gonta, right? Everyone… hates me… so the role of villain is perfect for me…”

Everyone hates you because you’re constantly being a villain. It’s not the other way around.

Like, okay, granted, maybe in his past he was persecuted and hated without having done anything to deserve it and that’s why he started acting like a villain the whole time to protect himself from that. (Though it sure would be easier to sympathise with that if we knew literally anything about it!) But even if that’s true, at this point it’s just become a self-perpetuating cycle and now he’s bringing it upon himself. Nobody here has treated Kokichi in a way that he didn’t already thoroughly deserve based on how he’d been acting.

Kokichi: “Yeah, I know already! It should have been my responsibility!”

If you really were willing to accept responsibility for killing Miu, then why don’t you do so right now, Kokichi? After all, you still did kill Miu, just not directly.

Kokichi: “That’s why I had to ask Gonta! I would have done it myself if I could!”

Yeah, no. Hypothetically, if this was about the mercy kill, and if Miu hadn’t had some failsafe to protect herself from Kokichi, I’m still not remotely convinced Kokichi would have done it himself, based on the fact that he’s not even capable of accepting his actual responsibility in Miu’s death here. If ever any of his plans gave him the choice between murdering someone directly or indirectly, he would always choose the indirect option, to allow him to tell himself he’s not really killing anyone. This here is just another excuse, deflecting the deflection, so that he can insist he’s not wilfully running away from any responsibility at all.

Kaito: “Okay, but… You didn’t need to push everything onto Gonta to—”

Kaito is so good. He seems to be willing to buy Kokichi’s story that he genuinely cared about this! (Which is fair, since the story is plausible as long as you’ve forgotten that Kokichi threw Gonta under the bus in the trial, something he’s conveniently not reminding them of, and he does sound reasonably genuinely emotional about it, because it’s rooted in part in genuine emotion that he’s telling himself is all a lie like a lot of Kokichi’s displays are.) Despite everything Kokichi’s putting them though, Kaito would still rather take the interpretation that Kokichi is a vaguely decent person if that interpretation can be made to make sense, because Kaito wants to believe the best in everyone if he can!

But, even accepting that story, Kaito still can’t stand the way that Kokichi is pushing literally all the responsibility onto Gonta for Miu’s death. What Kaito’s trying to tell Kokichi here is exactly what I was just saying – to take some of the responsibility for Miu’s death himself, because some of it is rightfully his, whether he killed her directly or not.

Gonta: “Stop! It’s okay! Everyone, please… Don’t… blame Kokichi anymore…”

Of course Gonta would say this, though. He doesn’t understand the situation well enough to appreciate that it’s partly Kokichi’s fault – all he knows is that he did an awful thing, and he’s hating himself for it so much that he feels that he’s the only one who deserves to suffer for it no matter what the rest of the situation is.

Kokichi: “Gonta… you…!”

Don’t act so surprised, Kokichi, you knew full well Gonta is the kind of person who would take the responsibility all upon himself, and that’s probably part of the reason you chose him to be your pawn here.

See, despite how genuine Kokichi’s expression looks here, he’s still mostly acting. If he truly wanted to take some of the responsibility for himself and was moved by Gonta saying he didn’t have to, then the correct response would be to insist that no, he should take some of the blame, Gonta shouldn’t be heaping absolutely all of it onto himself.

Gonta: “Someone as stupid as Gonta could never be a gentleman—”

Being a gentleman was never about being smart, Gonta! You are the best gentleman.

Kokichi: “Wait! If you’re gonna punish him, then please… punish me too.”

Shuichi: “Kokichi…?”

Kokichi: “I’m prepared for it! If you’re gonna execute Gonta, then I—”

Nope. Kokichi knows perfectly well that Gonta is the kind of person who wouldn’t let him do this – he literally just took all of the moral responsibility upon himself, so of course he would also take all of the physical punishment upon himself too. Kokichi would know that making this move is completely safe and won’t get him killed.

And okay, maybe that tiny part of him that actually does hate what he did to Gonta is having a bit more of a say than normal and kind of does hate himself enough to want to die for it. But the rest of Kokichi that stubbornly wants to “win” the killing game no matter what and refuses to acknowledge any kind of responsibility for anything ever is still mostly in the driving seat right now and isn’t going to let himself die just yet. He’s able to let that suppressed part of him seem like it’s in control while having no conscious intent to get himself killed. This is just a very elaborate, for-once-not-overexaggerated example of all those times he displayed something based in his genuine emotions while telling himself it was totally all a lie.

Gonta: “Just promise Gonta… that everyone forgive each other and be friends. Okay?”

It’s going to be very hard to forgive Kokichi for killing you, Gonta! Especially considering that he is never going to show the slightest shred of remorse for it. I know that Gonta just wants to be reassured that everyone is going to be okay once he’s gone, but it’s hard to be able to promise that when someone who would throw two people’s lives away as pawns in his own selfish plan is still among us.

Kokichi: “…Alright, I promise.”

No, you don’t. Since Kokichi’s the one who did something wrong, his part in this promise would be to become someone who deserves to be forgiven, meaning he’d need to acknowledge that he did an awful thing and start trying to make amends for it. Fat chance of that.

Kokichi: “W-Wait, please! I don’t want this! Don’t go, Gonta!”

Oh, now you don’t want this? Well, maybe you should have realised that before you made it happen. It is way too fucking late to be saying this now. You did this, very consciously and deliberately. Now deal with it.

For once, I’m putting the part of Kokichi that actually does care about this down to a little bit more than just basic human decency. While he’s never shown any indication of caring about anyone else’s pain, the signs I’ve pointed out indicate that Kokichi was at least somewhat affected by Gonta’s emotional suffering and not just the fact that he’s about to die now. Which means that on some level Kokichi did care about Gonta as a person, at least a little bit. It makes sense that Gonta would be the one person Kokichi might feel some level of attachment to, since Gonta never stopped thinking of Kokichi as a friend and a decent person and openly cared about him despite how little he’d done to deserve it. Kokichi is always terrified that people will betray him, but if anyone is going to be so obviously genuine and trustworthy that even Kokichi might realise they really wouldn’t stab him in the back, it’d be Gonta… so maybe Kokichi did start to believe that just a little bit. (That might be why it seemed to get to him so much in the trial when he thought Gonta was still lying about not knowing anything: because with Gonta being apparently more of a liar than Kokichi expected, it felt like he was being betrayed?)

Kokichi makes such a big deal about being a liar partly so that nobody will ever want to trust him, which gives him an excuse not to trust or get attached to anybody else in turn, so that he doesn’t have to worry about being betrayed. But that protective shell of his was never going to work on Gonta, simply because it’s Gonta. It’s ironic that the exact blind faith Kokichi kept insisting was clearly the idiotic way to see things, the kind of naïve belief that everyone is always good rather than Kokichi’s naïve belief that everyone is always bad, was exactly what it took from Gonta to make Kokichi start to somewhat care about and maybe even ever-so-slightly trust someone. Gonta got through to that vague semblance of a decent person inside Kokichi more than anyone else ever did, even Kaito.

…But it still clearly wasn’t enough, since Kokichi repaid Gonta’s kindness and trust by taking advantage of it and getting him killed. Every single bit of the pain he’s feeling at what happens to Gonta here is entirely his fault and entirely deserved. Ideally he should learn from this and try to become a better person. He’s not going to.

Gonta: “Gonta’s… really not scared… B-But… Gonta upset! Gonta upset… he no could protect everyone!”

Oh, Gonta. Of course he wouldn’t be scared to sacrifice himself for everyone’s sake when protecting everyone is what he’s desperately wanted to do this whole time. He’s just sad that he couldn’t have done it in a better way that isn’t this much of a tragic failure.

Gonta: “Gonta love you all!”

These are real-Gonta’s final words, and god, platonic “I love you”s melt my heart every time. Gonta is so pure and precious and of course he loves everyone here. They love you too, Gonta. (Even Kokichi kind of somewhat did, and that’s saying a hell of a lot coming from him.) You were the best and truest gentleman.

Alter Ego Gonta: “Gonta is so sorry… for being stupid!”

You’re not stupid! You’re the Gonta who remembers what Kaito said to you about how people who are stupid aren’t constantly thinking of how to save everyone else! That makes you one of the smartest people here!

So… I am extremely Not Okay with Gonta’s execution. I can still watch the thing, because I’ve become desensitised enough to these executions by now, but that doesn’t mean I remotely approve. Remember what I said back in chapter 1 about how some executions bother me because the character stops being a character and just becomes an object for this horrifying deathtrap? Yeah, exactly this. There’s no sense that the Gonta in the execution is still Gonta, our precious friend and gentleman who tried so hard, and not just a Gonta-shaped object. He said just moments ago how upset he felt that he’d failed everyone, but there’s no indication of that in this scene.

I do get that the writers made it so brutal because they wanted to emphasise how much this is making everybody else suffer to have to watch it, but they could still have done that while having Gonta still be a character, and honestly that’d probably have had more impact.

(Narrative purpose of the brutality aside, Gonta deserved to go to fluffy bug heaven, much like another DR character who was executed in a chapter 4. You know he did.)

Also, the execution music has lyrics? Which means that apparently the composer hasn’t forgotten about execution music lyrics and isn’t averse to putting them in the execution tracks in this game. These lyrics are something about the bottom of the ocean, which sure has literally nothing to do with anything that’s happening. Maybe there’s some secret law that states execution lyrics are only allowed when they’re completely irrelevant to the execution itself or something.

(I’m totally not mentioning this for a specific reason, of course.)

---

[Next post]

#danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #ndrv3 #chapter 4 #class trial #commentary

11 notes · View notes

justanearth-boundmisfit · 4 years

Text

A friend asked me to write some thoughts about Cas and the bros not mentioning him in the last episode, and metas thinking that that is amazing. Tbh I think her post is quite complete and great, and I hope she understands these words and the reason why I’m writing this on my blog instead of continuing the replies on the original one.

The thing is: I’m tired. I’m tired of spn of course, but most of all I’m tired of reading the justifications people create just because they can’t let go. And in some cases it’s not even their fault (metaland is another issue more on that later). It’s not their fault they still have hope that this trashy show will give them what they want. Some of the fans have invested years of their lives in spn. I understand it’s not easy to see some things, the bs underneath it all, the manipulation, the bait and how BAD written the show is. It’s been their show for 15 years, not easy to see the bs, when you love something so much.

It’s also how we deal with loss, denial at all costs. I get it, believe me. That doesn’t mean that I’m going to accept the pile of excuses and the passes people in general give to the writers and the show runners of spn. But I have been on this road for SO LONG. And the last four years, have been truly painful. I had to deal with people hating on my blog just for saying that I didn’t think that Cas being absent or dead was a good thing, I had to deal with an ex spn “actor” attacking Misha, just because said “actor” can’t deal with his jealousy and being a nobody after what he did, I had to deal with anons on my inbox trashing me because “I didn’t get the show”, I had to deal with a show runner that destroyed my fave character and put that final nail in the coffin of my ship... Yeah I’m quite done guys.

Which takes me to metaland in Dabb’s era. Listen these people are not going to stop trying to sell you bullshit. They have been doing it since season 11 and will continue to do so even after the show ends. Those who have been following me for a while know who those people are and how they have bullied others out of fandom for not thinking like them. They still do it. But back to their bs, I think it’s a personal responsibility if you buy it or not. I made idk hundreds? of posts talking about how damaging they were to show and Cas, but most of all, fandom and how people were going to be hurt when their metas didn’t come to life like they promised. And still people read them, and still people believe in them. Can’t do anything about that. About having hope at all costs.

I’m a little spot in the huge amount of spn blogs, I’m not popular by any means (of course I’m not with the things that I write about the show lmao), but I tried. I REALLY tried to at least make my followers see how great manipulators these metas are. I don’t think I reached many people tbh. So again, I think it’s a personal choice to believe or not. To keep reading them or not.

They are writing, once again, how the absence of Cas and the bros not mentioning him, it’s great! It’s on purpose, because that gives Cas an importance in the show and in the story line. That makes Cas even more present. I’m writing this and I can’t believe the pile of bs XD. They are also writing about how Cas might die again, and how it’s all going to lead to deancas holding hands in the end. I HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE! Sometimes I think this fandom it’s like this huge matrix when things get repetitive and we all fight for the same stuff, and people complain about the show, but continue watching because reasons! and metas keep meta-ing and people continue to believe in them.... It’s exhausting af.

As exhausting as the show is, and, despite having a very simple core story line that is a bros fest in the last season above all, everybody and their mother are looking for something else that proves that Dean loves Cas, that they are canon already, that despite how horrible and abusive Dean is being towards Cas, what Dean does and says is LOVE and MARRIED and HUSBANDS!.

And again, if they want to believe, I think it’s personal. I think it’s a choice, I think some know deep down that is all bs, but like a magic trick that people know is fake af, they still want to believe.

Are people going to get hurt? SURE. But it’s not like some of us didn’t try to send some warnings out there.... Personally when spn started being harmful af to my MH, I let it go. I think I wrote about this before, no, I’m SURE I did. I started watching more shows that TRULY had representation like Pose and B99. I started rebloging other stuff, I stopped writing so many vents and rants and being mad ALL THE TIME about a show that doesn’t even deserve my attention. That’s how bad I think spn is. I’m only thankful for Cas, Misha and some of the amazing peeps I met in this fandom. The rest FOR ME, it’s toxic af. Doesn’t worth it.

But that’s just me... I can’t tell people what to do, how to think, or to stop reading metas, or to stop shipping or to stop watching... I just can’t. Not my place. We are all responsible for what we choose in life. When anons write to me I can give an advice, a suggestion. But that’s it.

To finish this ranting/venting: when spn ends, this is going to be a mess. Heck it’s a mess already and the show is on episode 4 of 20. But is YOUR choice to keep watching, to keep getting mad, to keep getting hurt. Or not. Maybe you are truly enjoying it and that’s fine too. Maybe, like I said you can’t let go. I just truly hope that it’s all worthy in the end.

To the friend that asked me for some words: I’m not tagging you because maybe this is not exactly what you wanted from me. But I appreciate you reaching out and know that I always will be there to listen.

And if anyone wants to message me in or out of anon, I’m here too. I’m not going to stop replying if you have a question or if you want to share something or if you want to vent about the show.

I’m just tired, in general, of trying to warn and save people from what I think it’s pure bs. But again, I think it’s not my place anymore.

#venting #ranting #I just read some things and yeah can't believe that people find SO MANY EXCUSES #but again #keep going you know?#spn it's on it's 15 season #this is not a new show #so you know already what it's about #and that in general it's going to disappoint and hurt #but it's YOUR choice #to keep watching #and to keep reading metas #not tired of saying this #anti spn #anti metas bs #dirt for ts #long post for ts #excuse the typos it's late af here #ps nobody is going to read this anyways but this doesn't mean that I'm going to stop venting about the show #when something bothers me #like the becky stupid thing #this just means that everything that I write is from my pov #you don't have to like it #and I'm not going to try and stop you from reading metas or trying to impose my opinion on your blog #that's why I wrote this solo #on my blog and my blog only #I hope it's clear af

4 notes · View notes

cornerverse-mlp · 5 years

Text

I wrote this post, like, a year and a half ago but I just found it so here I’m throwing it into the void!

Okay, I have no justification of any kind, other than “the other night I rearranged my room, saw my mlp toys on my Percy Jackson shelf, and decided to debate with myself about “if the MLP cast were all in the PJO Universe, who would their godly parent be?”.”

Obviously they’re all Humans, or well, Demigods, in this AU(Actually, there’s one Mortal), instead of being ponies(I think by default horses are Poseidon territory). That said, their in-show abilities/traits count for what I choose. Same for choosing the ‘godly parent’, meaning that while full Myth(and my interpretations) will be in play, how the gods work in the PJO books count as well.

I’m also keeping to just the more well-known gods/goddesses. Because while there’s a lot of minor ones and I could probably spend days going down the rabbit hole of Wikipedia articles to find a ‘perfect fit’, why would I do that? For that same reason, I’m also sticking to Greeks instead of trying to balance ‘should I make them Greek or Roman?’.

So! On that note, this is mostly a list, however, I do add more and give reasons for my choices, even talking of ones I debated about. And a few bonus headcanons.

Twilight Sparkle - I feel like Athena is the obvious choice. I mean, Twi’s intelligent and strategic so Daughter to the Goddess of Wisdom is a good idea, plus she has a pet owl which is one of Athena’s symbols. It’s what most people go with.

However, I’m going with her as a Daughter of Hecate. My reasons?

First of all, Hecate is Goddess of Magic, and, well, Magic is Twi’s thing. She’s a talented spellcaster, and that’s a big part of her character.

Hecate is also a Goddess of Crossroads, something we see a lot with Twilight, in multiple ways.

She is the character with the most ‘counterparts’, not just her literal Counterpart in Sci-Twi, but metaphorical counterparts, ‘other paths she could have taken’. I mean, there’s Sunset, Starlight, Sci-Twi, Trixie, and also Moondancer that show off places Twilight could have ended up had she chosen differently in life.

However, Twilight is also the Crossroad for others. She is the character who is trying to lead others down the best path, giving them the choice of where to go. Again, we see this a lot with reforming villains. She offers them a chance to change the path, to turn and go down another.

Another thing that Hecate is associated with is childbirth and nurturing the young.

In the show, Twilight earned her Cutie Mark by hatching Spike, and even if she wasn’t his direct mother(I headcanon them more as siblings), she did help to raise him.

She’s also a teacher, both in usual subjects (as we saw with the CMC in Twilight Time), and in teaching others about friendship(While those characters are not ‘young’, it counts).

Pinkie Pie - Again, it seems like an obvious choice as a Daughter of Dionysus, God of wine, parties, and madness. Okay, we have no idea how Pinkie feels about wine since this is a kids show(Personally, I feel like she shares my tastes and doesn’t care for it.)

Which is why I’m making her a Daughter of Apollo instead. He’s God of the Sun, and Pinkie is a metaphorical ball of sunshine. Other things Apollo is the God of include: Healing, Music, Art, Archery, and also Prophecy.

Pinkie’s relation to Music and Art are obvious, and while we don’t get to see her with a bow, she seems to have good aim. As for Prophecy? Pinkie Sense. She’s canonically able to predict the future.

Now, you might not think Healing fits in, but it does. After all, isn’t Laughter the best medicine? Okay, jokes aside, while Pinkie isn’t a ‘healer’ in the doctor sense, she’s more like a ‘healer’ in the therapist sense(Obviously not licensed, but you get the idea). When she can’t cheer someone up from just a simple party, she puts her all into working through their problems and getting them to be truly happy again. And that’s a type of healing people forget about alot.

Rarity - Huh. Another one that gets a ‘this has an obvious choice’ category. A Daughter of Aphrodite, Goddess of Beauty, Love and Lust, able to charm any into doing what she wishes. And in terms of the PJO world? She’d fit right in with the others of the Aphrodite Cabin(Well, she’d probably punch Drew in the face but whatever.).

However, once more, I’m going for an odd choice: Daughter of Hades. And before I go into my reasoning, take all the memories of Hades as a villain and anything from Disney and chuck that out a window. Not just here, but in general. Because damn it, he’s not evil. He’s probably one of the most chill of the gods. Stop making him the villain. Even this series only used him as a fakeout villain in the first book. And we don’t talk about the movie. What movie? That doesn’t exist!

Anyway, while Hades is God of the Underworld, he also has a few other things he rules. Hades is also known as the God of Wealth, as all of the precious metals and gems in the Earth were of his domain as well. Rarity and her ability to manipulate Gems reminds me a little bit of Hazel’s abilities(though obviously less cursed(And I know Hazel is technically ‘Pluto’s’ but they’re both the same god and not the same god)).

However, there’s a few other things that made me decide to have Rarity be a Daughter of Hades instead of Aphrodite:

First is the fact that, as much as Aphrodite was a good fit for her in quite a few ways, she is also considered a Goddess of Desire(not just Lust, but all desires and even the fulfillment of said desires). As materialistic as Rarity can be, she’s also the Element of Generosity. While the MLP universe can balance the traits, making her want things but always giving to others as well, putting Desire in her nature feels wrong.

Secondly, within the PJO series, Hades is shown to be very generous, even if it’s a trait rarely seen by the other gods(due to family feuding), but is shown in his relationships with the women he loved.

His love with Persephone, for example. He was kind and patient with her, wishing for her to love him as he did her. He started with magnificent gifts,and took to spending all of his time with her and doing whatever he could to make her happy. He even hired the most skilled (deceased) gardeners in the Underworld to grow a magnificent garden for her. He says that though he is God of Wealth, she is dearer to him than any precious metals or gems.

(Because I know someone will point it out, the whole thing with their relationship and the pomegranate seeds has several interpretations, some happier than others. The PJO version has Persephone truly fall for Hades, and one of the gardeners tricks her with the pomegranate seeds. (My personal interpretation of the story is that Persephone fell for Hades and ate the Pomegranate seeds on purpose so that they wouldn’t be separated. I mean, within actual Greek Myths, they’re the most stable couple with the least affairs))

Back to the books, we have Maria di Angelo. Hades tried to convince her to live in Underworld with him, despite the fact that it would piss off Persephone a bit, to protect her and their kids from the other gods. He insists that he will build her a beautiful golden palace by the River Styx, but doesn’t get a chance to because Zeus kills her first. (He wishes to resurrect her, but even a God of the Underworld must obey the laws of Death.)

While it’s technically ‘Pluto’ and not ‘Hades’, we also have Marie Levesque. He loved her so much he swore on the River Styx to give her anything. When she took him up on that and asked for all the riches of the Underworld, he begs her to ask for anything else, as the greediest wishes come with curses. And even though she ignored the warning and cursed their daughter, he did what he could to protect them.

Another reason is that I find that most interpretations of the afterlife are Generous, in a way. While there’s definitely punishment in the afterlife, most versions include some version of ‘unless you’re a huge dick you’ll be rewarded with everything that would make you happy’.

Final reason: the fanfic “In the Twilight of Death” which includes Rarity as a Grim Reaper. It doesn’t really factor in ‘logically’, but tbh I can’t help it. That fic’s good though so check it out.

Applejack - While it’s obvious, I’m not going to pull what I did before and be like ‘this is obvious but..’ thing. Applejack would be a Daughter of Demeter. Goddess of Agriculture and Harvest and all that.

Rainbow Dash - I debated about this one for a while. I thought of using Ares(Rainbow’s middle name is ‘Fight Me’), Zeus(Because God of Sky and Lightning), and even Iris(Because Goddess of the Rainbow).

However, I ended up deciding on her being a Daughter of Nike, Goddess of Victory, Strength, and Speed. It fits quite well.

Fluttershy - Daughter of Iris. While I considered this for Rainbow Dash, I feel Iris fits Fluttershy more because of the version in the books. I mean, non-violent, only attacks in self defense, a little with the hippie crowd, severely underestimated due to their most known traits(Iris is known for messages and rainbows, Flutters is known for being kind and shy) but will totally kick your ass when needed.

Sunset Shimmer - Okay, I really want to put Hestia, because I associate Sunset with Hestia a lot because of reasons. But apparently Hestia has no kids as she’s one of the Virgin Goddesses. I’m really trying to think of other options. Like

Hecate, because like Twilight she’s Magic

Apollo, because of the Sun connection, good with her hands(art and music)

Athena, because she’s intelligent and strategic

Hephaestus, because she could totally build magic robots(Again, good with her hands) and also fire association

But just.... none of them feel right.

Fuck it! I don’t fucking care. Let’s just pretend that Hestia is like Athena, she creates children through other means and is still an eternal virgin. IDK, maybe they spawn out of her hearth fires. Anyway, Sunset’s a Daughter of Hestia.

Celestia and Luna - I’m putting them together because their headcanons are a bit connected. Okay, so, in this AU they’re either half-sisters or adopted. Celestia is a Daughter of Apollo(because Sun), but Luna is a Mortal.

However, because they’re always together, and because Luna can see through the Mist, she knows all about the whole ‘Demigods’ thing. But this puts Luna in a lot of danger, and Celestia insists she be allowed to come to CHB too so she can protect herself.

Obviously they don’t allow it since Luna’s Mortal, but Celestia decides that instead she’ll train Luna with all the Greek weaponry herself.

At some point, they’re off on their own somewhere and end up running into some monsters. They handle it beautifully, and catch the attention of Artemis. She invites them both to join her Hunters, which they agree to. Luna took to the life better, being nocturnal and seeming to almost be able to see through the darkness, so she quickly became the Hunters’ Lieutenant

Discord - Son of Eris. Come on. That one’s too perfect.

Chrysalis - Daughter of Aphrodite. Again, kinda perfect on that one.

Cadence - Can we go three for three on perfection? Yes, because here’s another Daughter of Aphrodite.

Shining Armor - I was debating on this, because he and Twilight are siblings so how should this work? I don’t want him to also be a son of Hecate. So they’re step-siblings on the Mortal side in this AU

I was also debating on whether to make his godly parent Ares or Athena. On one hand, while both are war/battle gods, Athena has a heavier emphasis on strategy. On the other hand, Athena also has heavier emphasis on her non-battle qualities.

Not to disrespect any character and/or gods, but while Shining is intelligent and a good strategist, he doesn’t fit the rest of the Athena kid qualities. So I’m making him a Son of Ares, though a bit more strategic and less bloodthirsty than his godly half-siblings(he gets it from his mom’s side of the family).

Spike - Son of Hephaestus, and definitely has those fire powers. While his character isn’t known for building, I think he could have some skill with it. As for his relationship to Twilight and Shining in this AU: He was adopted by their Mortal Parents. I’ll go more into that later.

Sweetie Belle - Rarity’s half-sister, on the mortal side. Daughter of Apollo. She sucks at healing and if you value your life keep her away from the bows, but her music skill is fantastic. Her prophecy abilities only show up when she’s being sarcastic.

Scootaloo and Flash Sentry - Full siblings(because I headcanon them as such in-show). Children of Athena. An odd choice, but I think it works. We know Flash is a Guard in-show, meaning he’s likely good with fights, and if Scootaloo had a middle name it’d be ‘fight me’, but both have also shown some craftsmanship abilities. Well, Scoots has(working on her scooter and all(also, you have to be smart to calculate those tricks yourself)) and I headcanon that Flash has shown those type abilities as well because the show gives him so little character that anything with him is ‘canon until proven otherwise’ and- Whatever. Rant for another time.

Big Macintosh - Full sibling with Applejack. Son of Demeter. Self-explanatory.

Applebloom - Daughter of Hephaestus(AJ and Big Mac are her step-siblings in this AU). I chose this because all expected her to get a Cutie Mark for, well, building shit in general. (I’m still a little salty there)

Starlight Glimmer - Daughter of Nemesis, Goddess of Justice/Vengeance/Balance. You can figure out that one on your own.

Diamond Tiara - Either a Daughter of Hades,or another example of me saying ‘fuck it!’ and making her a Daughter of Hestia like Sunset. I am undecided.

Have a few more headcanons for this AU:

This all would be post-PJO series, because a few things would vary a lot from Canon if it were during-series.I mean, Hades can only loophole kids into the series so many times before someone snaps. Also Luna becoming the Hunter’s Lieutenant would involve Thalia either dying or stepping down. And I want this to be when minor gods/goddesses have their own cabins too, and perhaps CHB has established something similar to New Rome where adult Demigods can just chill(Or Percy said ‘fuck you let us have a safezone to chill as adults’ and had some friends help buy a horse ranch in the middle of bumfucknowhere for people to set up their own town of Demigods. Because I’m pretty sure summer camp has an age limit.)

As for ages, most of them would be the ages I usually headcanon for them: Mane 7(And Flash) are 16-19, younger siblings(And Diamond) are 13/14, older siblings(and Starlight) are in early twenties. Might drop Celestia/Luna/Discord/Chrysalis down to early twenties too.

I mean, age is irrelevant, as I’m not writing a story with them at these ages. I’m just giving the ages relevance to one another.

Oh! So, I mentioned the whole Twilight, Shining, and Spike thing and how all that goes down.

So, Twilight and Shining’s Mortal parents are their in-show parents. Velvet met Ares during her ‘rebel phase’ and had a one-night-stand that resulted in Shining. Night Light met Hecate and had a bit more of a relationship, but it was only a few nights and then she ‘stopped texting back’, allowing him to move on. He soon met Velvet and they fell in love. Then one night Hecate knocks on his door, drops newborn-Twilight into his arms and is like ‘Hey, I had a kid, she’d yours. I can’t take care of her or stay in your life. Bye!’. Despite the confusion, Velvet sticks by him and they get married. Also, imagine that itty bitty Shining pretty much thought Hecate was ‘the stork’ until sex-ed classes.

Anyway, while both kids are showing various abilities(Some more concerning than others. Shining is the embodiment of ‘Let me see what you have...’ ‘A knife!’), their parents don’t know about Demigods or anything. Just that their kids have powers. They convince them to keep it all secret, which works for a while. Until one year on the last day of school. At the time, Shining’s 11 and in 5th grade, Twi’s 6 and in 1st grade. Spike happens to be going to the same school, though he doesn’t run into them often because he’s in Kindergarten. Spike’s story is that he’s an orphan, his bio mom having either disappeared or abandoned him. The adults weren’t sure about his age but stuck him in Kindergarten(we later find out he’s actually 4 at this time, but he’s a smart kid so he didn’t struggle through it).

As I said, it’s the last day before summer break(because of course it is), when a monster manages to herd the three of them into an empty classroom. They fight the thing off well enough. Luckily, one of their teachers happened to be one of CHB’s undercover people(maybe a Satyr or a former camper). Unluckily, their teacher has to take them on the run since more monsters are chasing them.

During their ‘on the run to camp’ time, Twilight and Shining bond with Spike a lot. They all get to camp, and get to properly message their parents(AKA give mom and dad another heart attack because phones are banned but rainbows work fantastic!), and essentially get the rundown on the whole Demigod business.

Unfortunately, they get separated pretty quick. All three get Claimed, and sent to different cabins. While they slowly get used to sleeping so far apart and do end up making some friends with other campers, they stubbornly refuse to be separated. People try, but it’s hard to argue with the guy with a perfect intimidating stare and knife collection, the girl who has little issue spellcasting when angry, and the toddler with fire powers.

By the end of the first summer, Twilight and Shining don’t want to leave Spike behind. I mean, his two options are either becoming a year-round camper, or going back into the foster care system. They talk to their parents about it, and it doesn’t take much convincing for them to legally adopt Spike into the family.

Oh, another family thing I’d have to talk about is Pinkie and her family. I’m not quite sure how though. Maybe she’s adopted by them at some point? I don’t usually like making Pinkie the ‘adopted’ one, but I’d kind of have to since she’s third oldest and that’s better than the alternatives. But I don’t think any of her sisters are Demigods.

Her relationship with the Cakes though! I headcanon differently. So, I’m gonna bump up the twins to elementary school age(7). Anyway, the twins are also Demigods(children of Hermes). Someone’s probably asking ‘uh, wouldn’t that involve an affair?’. Well, I’m just going to go with either 1.)Mr. and Mrs. Cake weren’t together yet or 2.) open relationship?

Anyway, Pinkie met them two years ago. She happened to be hanging in the park near their bakery(because they still own a bakery in this au). The twins go to the park a lot after school, usually with one parent supervising the playground. This time, however, a monster attacks. Since Pinkie was nearby, she leaped into action. She manages to get the cakes to run off, and follows because the monster seems more intent on the easier kill(Aka, she can’t lure it away).

Eventually, she manages to kill the beast, and the twins are scared but think she’s a superhero. She correctly guessed that Mr. Cake isn’t their bio dad, and asks if there’s been any other ‘incidents’, either attacks or unexplained things happening. She does decide to tell them the truth, showing off her own powers to prove it. After that sinks in, she tells them about CHB, and how it can keep the twins safe, and teach them to defend themselves.

At first, they’re against it, as they really don’t want their kids to learn something so dangerous. But Pinkie sticks around to protect them, walking them from school in the afternoons and babysitting when they want to go to the park. Monster attacks and weird things become a bit more frequent(mostly because now the Cakes now about this, and also Pinkie can testify that it wasn’t ‘small children with overactive imaginations’).

So they ask Pinkie about CHB again, how safe is it? She assures them that it’s safe, and that if they want, they can do it just for the summer, pretend it’s a normal summer camp. So yeah, after the school year ends they let Pinkie play navigator and drive to camp. Pinkie helps them with the sign-in process(since Mortals aren’t usually allowed in and she doesn’t have the authority yet), and both Pumpkin and Pound have been going to CHB for the summer since. Pinkie still sticks with them during the other months, protecting, babysitting, and making sure they keep their skills sharp(which terrifies their parents because, uh, you are dual-wielding swords to battle small children??), but they’re happy and safe and Pinkie’s grown on them, so they’re good with it!

I don’t think I have any more specific headcanons on how the others found out/how they got to camp.

9 notes · View notes

itsclydebitches · 5 years

Text

RWBY Recaps: Vol. 6 “The Lost Fable”

This is a re-posting from Nov. 10th, 2018 in an effort to get all my recaps fully on tumblr. Thanks!

Today is a glorious day. Today, Ozpin stans and Ozpin haters must unite in friendship against the real assholes on this show:

The Gods.

But I’ll get to that. First, we start off with the clip that we were given earlier this week. Thrown into a high def pocket dimension housing all of Ozpin’s personal backstory (still not letting the girls off the hook for that one) we see Salem when she was still human, a lonely girl locked in a tower by her “cruel father.” She desires freedom above everything else, but can’t achieve that without help, despite her own magical power.

Lucky for Salem, a warrior by the name of Ozma arrives. He’s a man of “pure heart and courageous soul,” driven by righteousness and justice, not greed at the prospect of securing the maiden’s hand. So here we see a possible explanation (though not justification) for Salem’s father’s actions: it sounds like she was the prize for whoever could fix the problems in the kingdom. Ozma does this and, through the common irony found in fables and fairy tales, wins the girl’s heart because he was never looking for it in the first place. They fall in love, travel, and Jinn gives us a “happily ever after,” only to pull back and say that’s how it should have ended. Of course, we know that’s not the case.

The beginning of this tale is everything RWBY is trying to undermine: the simple, predictable fairy tale. There’s a helpless woman, a warrior arrives to save her, they fall in love and live in bliss. End of story. However, even in the simplest tales there’s still conflict and I want everyone to keep that in mind as we move forward. The original world Ozma and Salem inhabited was by no means a paradise. We’ll come back to that.

So, despite surviving beasts and battles, Ozma falls ill and dies, leaving Salem a wreck at his passing. Let’s keep in mind that this was an abused woman who, presumably, was locked up for most—if not all—of her life. Ozma was the one person who cared for her and then suddenly she was left alone in a world she’d never learned how to navigate. We’re told it straight out: Salem found freedom in Ozma’s eyes, not the act of leaving her tower. Without him she doesn’t know who she is. The idea that you’d go to any lengths to win your true love back is always a good story. Combine that with your true love being your only link to the outside world and suddenly Salem’s actions read as pretty inevitable.

She immediately heads to the God of Light’s temple to ask for Ozma back because, presumably, that’s what the temple is there for. To pray for things. The Gods literally want the mortals to kneel, beg, and then they get to decide whether they'll grant the favor or not. In this case Light says no. Resurrecting Ozma would upset the balance of life and death.

Except… it’s already upset? Because of the grimm. It would be one thing if this was a world where people lived and died naturally; by old age, disease, and even by one another’s hand. But this is a world where one God has created an un-ending stream of destructive monsters that Humanity has very little defense against, and we know from past stories that the grimm have frequently pushed Humanity to near extinction. Death is already winning. What freaking balance?

Regardless, Salem isn’t happy with this decision.

Salem: “That’s not fair!”

Now we start getting into the morality attached to this episode and you know what? Salem’s right. We—meaning the actual humans watching the show and currently reading this recap—understand that the cycle of life and death is something we need to accept because for us it’s inevitable. On the surface that seems like a good thing for Light to demand Salem come to terms with. However, Salem is not living in our world. Why does a cycle of life and death exist for her, particularly one where death comes violently and unexpectedly to those who don’t deserve it? Because this God said so. He and his brother have the power here. They could change things if they wanted! Make a different world with different rules! Again, we think of death as inevitable because for us it actually is, but given the option why not create a world where everyone’s immortal? I’m not claiming that’s actually the solution here—people need space, resources, they want freedom from the pain life can bring—only that Light is acting like this balance is something intrinsic and not of his own creation. He could literally say, “Yeah okay, from here on out if people die when they’re not ready they can come back until they want to move on.” But he doesn’t. He's denying her this because he wants to, not because he has to. I can already hear people going, "Too bad, snowflake, the world isn't fair" but the entire point is that this world could be.

Light tells her to “let [Ozma] rest,” establishing that these beings are hypocritical as well. He preaches letting a mortal move on, but then drags that exact mortal into an endless existence when it serves his purpose. So yeah. These guys are dicks.

Ultimately, they want an unfair world. Why? So people will revere and pray to them. If they actually created something that was close to a paradise, well, then Humanity wouldn’t have need of Gods anymore. And as we’re about to see, the Gods are far more arrogant beings than Salem ever was.

God of Light won’t grant your prayer? Well, there are two brothers. I’m not blaming Salem for making use of her options here especially when, as established, she recognizes that things don’t have to be this way. She approaches the God of Darknesses’ domain and we have a more overt characterization that paints him as incredibly fallible. He’s not some omniscient, greater being that stands above Humanity in terms of ethics. He’s a megalomaniac, thrilled to have the “prize” of a “low woman kneeling before him.”

Keep the parallel imagery in mind: Salem is under the thumb of her “cruel father” and now she’s at the mercy of brothers who delight in her subservience. She’s a woman who is pushing against the presumed power of men… and she’s about to be punished for it.

Salem recognizes that the Gods have emotions just like Humanity because she’s careful not to mention the God of Light, acting like Darkness is the first one she approached. Thrilled at her supposedly blind faith in him (catching the theme here with Ozpin?) he immediately grants her prayer and Ozma is resurrected in a panic. For a brief moment Salem thinks everything is going to be okay.

Then Light shows up and the brothers start squabbling like, well, siblings. Just like it’s bad when teenagers with powerful weaponry and relics throw temper tantrums, it’s bad when super-powered gods start bickering. We see clearly for the first time that they really view Humanity as toys to fight over, rather than beings to be respected: Ozma is resurrected, killed, resurrected again, and killed again as they fight. Salem has to watch it all.

The fight finally ends when Light says that he doesn’t want to control his brother, but Salem does. She lied about approaching him first. So… she’s evil incarnate?

Seriously, this is some crazy manipulation on the Gods’ parts. They claim that Salem is punished for her arrogance, but what’s arrogant about praying to the gods who wanted your prayers in the first place? Of course, the real issue is she didn’t pray in the right way. They’re not upset that she’s messing with the (not intrinsic!) balance of life and death, they’re upset that she dared to question them. Light hates her because she didn’t say, “Okay, master” like a good girl and drop the subject. Darkness hates her because she didn’t feed his ego and actually approach him first. He doesn’t have any problem with resurrecting Ozma until he learns that the measly mortal managed to trick him, and then his pride is hurt. It’s not about the resurrection. It never was. It’s about a woman who won’t stay in her place.

“You monsters!” Salem cries and yeah, I agree.

They claim that they made her immortal so that she can learn the super important lesson that death is supposedly inevitable, but the real punishment is announced just a second later: “You cannot be with your beloved.” The immortality isn’t to teach her, it’s to make her suffer. It also says a lot that Light literally tortures her before explaining the curse: he swallows her in dragon form, has her fall from a great height, briefly drowns her, and then slams her against the now hard water. They want to bring her low.

Which might make sense to some people because in the real world a lot of religions teach that God is absolute and we must never, ever question Him. But in this world the Gods only have authority because they have the power to enforce it. We’ve been shown no reason why Humanity should obey them like this.

Oh but wait… it's because the brothers created them. So Humanity should be grateful and obey them in return, right? Except that argument has never worked for me. We see the same logic applied to parents and their children: I created you, so you have to do everything I say. Um, what? Keep in mind that I'm not talking about basic respect or parents enforcing rules because they have actual experience to draw from: i.e. you have to eat your vegetables because it's my job to make sure you grow up healthy and I actually understand why vegetables are important in a way you don’t yet. Rather, I'm talking about parents who see procreation as a catch-all excuse for blind obedience in all things. A child didn’t ask to be born and eventually they’re going to grow up. They’re their own, autonomous person who is not beholden to the people who first put them into the world. Have you ever heard parents claim that you should keep quiet because they gave you existence and food and a roof over your head? As if those aren’t the basic requirements of deciding to have a child in the first place? Have you ever had or met a parent who refuses to let their children become independent—including forming their own opinions and asking their own questions—because they like the feeling of power the current dynamic gives them? Yeah, we’re seeing the same thing here. Salem is starting to question her parents’ actions and they’re coming back with the God equivalent of, “How dare you defy me I am your father!”

[Insert obligatory Star Wars GIF here.]

Light: “Your selfishness and arrogance have led you astray”

Seriously, that line reads as a lot less damning if you question why Salem is selfish and arrogant for asking for happiness--happiness the Gods can easily grant her.

So she’s a prisoner again and Salem lets her anger guide her, deciding that she’ll take down the men who cursed her for—again—doing nothing except questioning them and their pride. She unites all the kingdoms together… which is supposedly what Light wants from Humanity. But oh, your unity is at the expense of worshiping us? Yeah no, don’t want it anymore, sorry. Granted, Salem unites them under a falsehood—she didn’t steal immortality from them—but the goal of this crusade, achieving immortality for all, is something that can happen. Salem has gotten all of Humanity to ask the question she started out with: why do you insist on governing an unfair world and why should we stand for that?

The Gods’ response? Kill everyone who’s questioning them.

From the Gods’ perspective Salem has infected Humanity with real independence. They don’t have blind faith in them anymore. So they should just be wiped out. Darkness kills every human alive for the actions of a few, further reinforcing that they’re interested in promoting an unfair existence. Light does absolutely nothing to stop him.

Salem calls it what it is, a “massacre.”

Then the Gods decide to leave. They made what they saw as pets, the pets started questioning their masters, so they slaughter them and move on to try again. “This planet was a beautiful experiment, but it’s merely a remnant of what it once was,” meaning that the time when Humanity possessed blind faith in the Gods was supposedly when it was “whole.” Darkness destroys the moon on his way out (finally that’s answered!) and “once again, Salem was alone.”

They’re still torturing her though. They’re mad at the pet for its lack of obedience, so what’s the best way to hurt it? Leave it isolated. The worst parts of Salem’s life were when she was alone in her tower, so now she can be alone once more with an entire planet as the tower instead.

And this is a common abuse tactic, the “see how better things could have been if you’d just listened to me?” The Gods are setting up a lopsided comparison. If you’d just obeyed us from the start you could have had the world even without your love, but because you didn’t you get nothing. Think about that the next time you want to question us.

So Salem wanders alone, trying to find some way to die. What else is she going to do? Really can’t blame her for throwing herself into the grimm pool, thinking that would finally get the job done. Instead that magic creates a “being of infinite life desiring infinite destruction” and the Salem we know today emerges; one who is literally incapable of working towards true peace. Destruction is all she understands now. In some ways, from then on she’s lost some responsibility for her actions. Oh, I’m not saying team RWBY and co. can just ignore her—still trying to destroy Humanity here—but if magic warps you into something that literally can’t be reasoned with, and you had no idea the magic would do that, and the magic was your only hope after the Gods royally fucked you over… yeah, talk about a tragic backstory. I certainly don't claim to know whether RT is going to go the redemption arc route (even if Ruby’s silver eyes look a lot like Light’s power and could perhaps destroy the grimm part of Salem…), but there’s leeway to do that if they wanted to. Remember our opening?

Salem: “There will be no victory in strength.”

Ozpin: “But perhaps victory is in the things you’ve long forgotten… a smaller, more honest soul.”

Strength quite literally won’t work because Salem is a cursed immortal. All the armies and relics won’t put a dent in her power. She can’t be killed… but maybe she can be redeemed. To me Salem the human and Salem the grimm are distinctly different people and if you can get rid of one half, the other might finally take responsibility for her actions and find some peace.

For now though, we get this bullshit between Light and Ozma.

Talk about further manipulation. Light tells him that “a tragedy has befallen your home at the hands of my brother” and while technically that's true, he’s spinning it like Darkness went AWOL and caused all this without Light’s knowledge or consent. He’s painting himself as the Good God here that Ozma should listen to. He was dead for pretty much all of these events and thus doesn’t know how cruel the Gods have been to Salem. If he had, I doubt he would have listened.

Light then gives Ozma a job: unite Humanity and then summon us with the four relics. If we like what you’ve accomplished we’ll live among you again; fail and we’ll destroy you. Oh, and here’s four powerful relics to help you achieve this. Remember though, what the Gods actually want is obedience, not harmony. There never was harmony! This is why I wanted everyone to keep “cruel fathers” and a kingdom at war in mind: even when the Gods considered Remnant “whole” there wasn’t peace. Things were still awful for humans, it’s just that humans had blind faith in the Gods at the time. That’s what they want again. It seems significant to me that Jinn—a being created by Light and probably a reflection of his beliefs—says at the very beginning that this was the age where Humanity was “capable of greatness.” Only in the shadow of Gods is Humanity supposedly at their best.

So basically, “Re-train the puppies so that they’re obedient. If you don’t we’ll just kill everyone a second time.”

However, all of this hangs on Humanity actually wanting the Gods back. I wouldn’t, and at this point I don’t think Ozpin does either. He’s trying to unite Humanity in his own way—bring about true peace by getting rid of Salem and defeating the grimm; working through the problems they have amongst themselves—and intends to use the relics’ power to achieve that goal. I’d be super shocked if after 2000 years and hearing at least part of Salem’s story, he’s still all, “Yeah let’s bring the Gods back! They seem like cool dudes.” Not unless he thinks that’s the only way to get rid of Salem’s immortality. The lesser of two evils and all that.

Back to the conversation though. It’s important to note that Ozma doesn’t want this responsibility. He wants to join Salem in the afterlife… who he apparently doesn’t know is still alive? He’s been dead for a while now so I guess Light just had him hanging unconscious in this space between worlds?? Idek it’s so messed up. It’s more manipulation. Ozma goes back not because he thinks the world should really rest on his shoulders (something that will change in time as survivor’s guilt starts eating at him—our current Ozpin think it’s “all [his] fault”), but because he wants to see Salem. He goes back for love of her, just like all of this began because of Salem's love for him.

This is why choice is so important to Ozpin. This is why he didn’t let Pyrrha rush into the decision to become a Maiden and questioned her convictions all the way up until seconds before flipping the switch. He once made a decision impulsively… and this is where it got him.

How the world was re-populated and why it’s so different isn’t made clear, but it sounds to me like Light deliberately created an even harder challenge—a more interesting “experiment.” Ozma has agreed to unite Humanity? Okay, okay, but how about we make two separate races that already hate each other? And take away all their magic? And scatter the relics so he doesn’t have easy access to them? And have him reincarnate in other people so it’s constantly a battle to balance their lives with his duty? And change all the cities so he can’t pull from any of his former political power? And keep the grimm so the people he’s trying to bring peace to are constantly threatened and terrified? Ozma is a rat running around a very complicated maze, one the Gods keep chucking traps into while wondering curiously if he’ll still manage to succeed. I don’t think they really care if he does or not. It’s a win-win for them. Ozpin either creates a world willing to worship them again, they destroy the world and move on like they’d originally planned to, or they just never come back at all. What have they got to lose here?

So Ozpin reincarnates in a man with short white hair and a green necklace, tiny bits of personality that he’s clearly held onto. He emerges into a world literally on fire, but after a panicked “Where am I?” and the staggering trauma of no longer being sure of who he is, he immediately jumps into saving people mode, cutting down a grimm that threatened a civilian. Ozpin is a good man.

During his travels he learns about someone known as The Witch and realizes it must be Salem. It doesn’t surprise me that after everything they’d just bask for a while in finding one another again and eventually question whether they shouldn’t be Gods in the brothers’ place. That’s the kind of arrogance that caused all this trouble to begin with. Not Salem’s supposed arrogance for questioning them, but the Gods’ warped logic: you should bow to me because I happen to have more power than you. Luckily, Ozpin realizes after a couple of years that this isn’t how to bring peace to Humanity. Especially when your wife wants to kill everyone who doesn’t agree with you.

Who did that before? Oh yeah! The brothers.

He doesn’t leave before having children with Salem though and oh my god they’re such cuties I'm so upset. They’re also clearly the first four Maidens: girls pure of heart who can wield magic. I don’t think Ozma’s daughters are literally reincarnating though. Rather, I think during one of his lowest points he met four kind sisters and was reminded of his own children; what Humanity is capable of achieving when driven by hope and love. So he gives them his magic and tells a story that further reinforces the connection in his own mind. Every time a Maiden is created there’s a little piece of his girls still living on.

Which puts an entirely new spin on how much he cared for Pyrrha… and how difficult it must be seeing Cinder wield that power.

Ozma tries to sneak his girls out during the night, but Salem finds them. Here we finally see how the grimm pool twisted her. It’s not just a nebulous “oh we should destroy people who don’t agree with us,” now we—and Ozpin—see first hand what a magical appetite for destruction creates. It has you attacking your husband while your children stand directly beside him; burning him to death while he tries to talk.

Yeah. Regardless of whether or not we think Salem is responsible for how she got here, the fact remains that she has to be stopped. A force like that can’t exist among Humanity.

Oh, and for the record? This is why Ozpin has trust issues. Even putting aside all the other times he’s been betrayed, the first time he spilled his secrets to someone he trusted, this is what it ends with.

And Yang is yelling about how he hasn’t shared shit with them. His own wife murdered him and their kids when he told this story and you literally just pulled out your weapon. Yeah, I’m sure Ozpin is feeling real comfortable right now.

We see some of the lives he’s lived since then. Old men just trying to get by, younger men who drown everything with alcohol (no wonder Ozpin doesn’t criticize Qrow for his drinking), but also men who keep moving forward and try to make a difference. Dadpin creates the cane—and I really like the idea that he did that so there’d be no more killing. Like Kenshin’s reverse blade sword or the Doctor’s screwdrivers. You might need a weapon in a war, but you don’t necessarily need one that kills. Ozma has seen (and experienced) enough death already.

Ozma finds peace with his hosts, learning to live among them instead of fighting them, and he hopes he can achieve the same sort of cooperation with the rest of Humanity. So he finds the relic of knowledge and asks the three most important questions:

Where are the other relics?

What are their powers?

How do I defeat Salem?

Jinn’s answer to the last question? “You can’t.”

It’s hardly the hopeless situation that the last frame paints it as though. As I said last time, jinns and genies are notorious for twisting wishes or taking questions too literally. So though that perhaps adds a grain of salt to all that we’ve learned today, it also means that Ozma’s initial question may have been too specific. “How do I defeat Salem?” You don’t. Not alone.

It reminds me of (minor spoilers!) Castlevania, where Big Bad meets Big Good and Big Bad wants to know why they think anything has changed. After all, you couldn’t defeat me before.

Big Good: “I was alone before.”

(Seriously please watch that show it's great.)

But that’s RWBY. From the Beacon teams to this entire volume talking about trust, cooperation is the key to survival. For reasons both personal and practical Ozpin has been fighting this war primarily on his own, like the God of Light willed him to, but that’s just another manipulative distraction. Saving Humanity is not Ozpin’s sole responsibility and even if he thinks it is, going it alone will never work. But with Team RWBY and company? Now he stands a chance.

I’m hoping now that the end of RWBY sees the destruction of the grimm and Salem (either completely or just her destructive half) with the acknowledgement that Humanity will never find paradise… but they can keep striving to make things better. The relics are destroyed, the Gods can no longer be called, and these creations live out the rest of their existence without cowering in any being’s shadow.

I’d like that for them.

So yeah. That’s the takeaway. The Gods are dicks. Direct all that visceral hatred towards them instead of Ozpin. I’d like that too.

See you next week!

Additional Notes

So when does Ozma change to Ozpin? He seems to have been Ozma for all of his reincarnations up until the one we originally thought of as Ozpin—unless Jinn is just picking a name and sticking to it. Still, I wonder when and why that syllable changed.

A couple of other fans have pointed out that the markings we see around Salem’s room look like an incomplete version of Jaune’s symbol—the one that would have been facing outwards on his shield when Tyrian says that Jaune interests him. It could be that Jaune is a direct descendant from the revamped version of Salem’s kingdom. The kind of person that Ozpin might have a soft spot for and let into his school even though he can’t fight yet…

I enjoy the twist on “ever after” here: Salem wanted to be with Ozma for forever—he wanted the same in the afterlife—and they both technically got what they wanted, just in the most horrific way possible.

The God of Darkness moves the same way the Nuckelavee does. Creepy.

Ozma is destroyed by the God of Light in the same manner that Cinder killed Pyrrha. Hmm…

Jinn says that “fate led [Salem] back” to the grimm pool, which is another odd mention of fate in a world where the Gods are canonically fallible.

“The brothers’ grimm”—excellent line.

I’m kinda bummed that the Faunus theory didn’t pan out. The one where Ozpin accidentally created them while figuring out how to turn people into animals lol.

So magic is inherited even if the rest of the world doesn’t have it… is that connected to semblances somehow? Because they still seem pretty magic-y to me. I hope we get an explanation of how those abilities tie into Humanity 2.0 this volume.

#rwby #rwby spoilers #mymetas #RWBY Recaps

33 notes · View notes