#killing eve analysis

[wearevillaneve]

What we don't talk about in the KE fandom.

Easily one of the best deconstructions of the repulsive way Killing Eve destroyed the four seasons of goodwill it built up was written by Vulture essayist Angelica Jade-Bastien's "Killing Eve Chose Cruelty". In four words, Jade-Bastien captured why weeks after the last gruesome minutes of the show flickered away from the eyes of horrified viewers it continues to burn and sear into their minds.

The fourth installment to the series, but particularly its last two episodes, demonstrates how far the show has fallen from the dizzying heights of its premiere. Gone is the delicious fashion pivoting on moments of transformation in the manner of fairy tales. Gone is the supremely precise characterization, replaced with a confused internal logic that jockeys the characters according to the needs of its threadbare espionage plotting. Gone is the spry presentation, achieved through blocking, editing, and costume and production design. But most important, gone is the tense cat-and-mouse game between Villanelle (Comer) and Eve (Oh) that acted as the engine. Killing Eve is a study in how jumping from different showrunners each season can leave a series without a profound singular voice — and it is evidence that a shallow understanding of representation and the female gaze isn’t enough to create a memorably good, cohesive story that gives a damn about the women onscreen. It amounted to a finale that gave once perpetually ravenous viewers a paltry version of what they wanted before snatching even that away.

Read the entire essay and it makes you feel better about the nonsensical trash Laura Neal dreamed up one night over too much cheap beer. Jade-Bastien brings up the one problem that predates Neal and the KE fandom hasn't talked about nearly enough.

This is a topic that many in Killing Eve's non-White fandom are well aware of, yet many of their White peers are oblivious to. Racism? In my favorite show? How could that be? Real easy.

The obvious and overt racism of Donald Trump or Kanye West is in your face and it can't be easily ignored. The soft, but pernicious bigotry practiced by the KE writers' room was manifested by keeping Eve an enigma from beginning to end. She was never given a family or life outside of her job, marriage, and the obsession with Villanelle that cost her everything. It's an irritation to know less about Eve than we do about Gemma, Geraldine, or Pam, but that's where we are. Eve was an enigma because she was never written to be anything else. A decision was made by someone to ensure nothing more than the bare minimum would ever be known about Eve. She was given a name and the bare bones of a backstory, and that's all.

For many in the KE fandom the Villanelle solo episode is their absolute favorite. It's one of my least favorites because it made erasing Eve official as Villanelle forgets all about her and so much so in "End of Game" even her name isn't uttered.

KONSTANTIN: I don't think you really want this.

VILLANELLE: I want it!

KONSTANTIN: You know what it means? It means you have to leave everything, the clothes, apartment… and her.

VILLANELLE: I know.

"...and her." "Her" has a name and it is Eve, but to Heathcote that wasn't important. That was a disservice to Sandra Oh, the actress who brought Eve Polastri to life even though she was not allowed to be more than a one-dimensional cut-out of a character. Remember Oh was one of the two stars of the show. This was one of those rare occasions where the titular lead character gets less fleshed out than multiple supporting ones.

That's not accidental. It was deliberate and it robbed Eve of her agency and autonomy. She really was little more than "an Asian woman with amazing hair." Eve was the lone woman of color constantly reacting in a world of Whiteness. Phoebe Waller-Bridge boldly chose to be colorblind in casting Sandra Oh as the very British and very White Eve Polastri and deserves all the credit in the world for it. Unfortunately, when she left she didn't leave any instructions to her successors on what to do with Eve, so they all chose to do nothing. After the show ended some sought to scapegoat Sandra Oh for the lousy last season stating as an executive producer she must have approved the direction the show went when Suzanne Heathcote and Laura Neal became the lead writers. Nobody knows how much input Oh had into the writer's room, but if she did that means she went along with a noticeable drop in screen time and the complete absence of a backstory for Eve. It's hard to believe any actor would deliberately reduce their own role in just the third season of a show, but that's exactly what some KE fans believe Oh did. They're the same ones who say Villanelle needed a stand-alone episode to explore her history, but have no issue with Eve being devoid of a past. This isn't racism in the Killing Eve fandom. Most of the fans don't show up that way. What they do instead is fail to notice how little Eve there frequently is in Killing Eve. It's not necessarily racism, which is bad, but it is erasure, which isn't good.

#killing eve #eve polastri #killing eve analysis #where is eve? #yeah that happened #sandra oh #villanelle #phoebe waller bridge #suzanne heathcote #emerald fennell #laura neal #new york magazine #ke s4 #supporting characters #i don't want to call it racism #but it’s there #sandra oh is my eve polastri

[stryc-9]

Villa-No-They-Didn’t: How Killing Eve’s Final Season Took a Stab at Women Everywhere

Or alternatively, Goodnight, Sweet Psycho: In Defense of Villanelle

It took me 3 months to dissolve my anger into something coherent and I debated whether or not to post this here because tumblr is weeeiiirrrddd, but whatever, I am too.

It’s over 3,000 words, so I’m dropping the link and not the content.

Enjoy!!

Article Link

#killing eve #killing eve analysis #killing eve spoilers #villanelle #oksana astankova #goodnight sweet psycho

[bioswear]

he's not even hiding it at this point 🤪🤪🤪

I don't think Adam and Eve are specifically One and Brother One incarnate but they do have way too many shared traits to be purely coincidental reuse of character tropes.

#Drakenier #nier automata #the three eyed twins. the dragons. #the way Eve falls into anger and hatred in the game and Adam falls into depression and despair in the anime #the way their personalities are mimicking One and Brother One #the way Adam was birthed in what resembled a Machine Seed of Destruction #the way Eve was born the way an Intoner reincarnates #its delicious. its agony. Yoko taro might as well just come into my home and kill me personally #too many people sleep on this detail... i think. #like how too many people are sleeping on NieR Reincarnation simply bc its a gacha game #but like YOURE MISSING LORE!! UR MISSING SO MUCH LORE #the drakenier timeline is like a puzzle and it makes my brain happy lol #i dont care if other people already figured this out before me. what joy is there in media analysis #if you do not conduct your own first before taking others at face value

[muppetcube]

Sometimes i look to the sky and i go 'Please, please let me interact with this media normally' and g-d gently places a dab pen between my lips and tells me that she'll let me know when to stop and then, after making me hit a blinker, she just leaves me alone in the middle of a grocery store while i wail like an injured beast in my distress

#this is about my recent doctor who x dalek eroticism post i think #also the weird character analysis i keep writing about the doctor while high off my ass #doctor who #also yellowjackets and naruto and killing eve and the hunger games and and and

[queen-susans-revenge]

Ever since finishing Journey I've been restless, without a creative focus, and without even many mundane demands since my kids are all in school now.

It's a real trip, by the way, going from a decade-plus spent as a 24/7 on call caregiver with barely the time to form a full coherent thought, to... a pampered housewife with few demands on her time.

I keep asking Sam if I should get a real job. Our "deal" -- which was only ever the deal that I proposed, and clung to, throughout those hard years when even being by myself in the shower felt like a snatched luxury...the deal was, that after the crunch was over, I'd get two years to write and market a novel.

Well. Journey took five years to write, and hasn't been sold yet. But it's still useful for me to be home and flexibly "on call" for childcare in case of illness or Sam having an out-of-town conference or whatever, and also I do still cook every night. I'm not entirely useless. Just...mostly.

One day not so long ago Sam came into the bathroom in the middle of the day, when I was having a luxurious candlelit bubble bath soak. "Should I...get a job?" I asked weakly.

"Nah," he said. "You're fine. You do plenty."

But I objectively do...not that much. I have SO MUCH time in the day now, I have hella time, and I'm not even writing. Journey is in the slush pile with Baen and I don't have a current project. I'm getting itchy and restless with it. It's like I'm retired at 47.

I don't have a conclusion for this. It's just where I am. It's not a bad place by any measure; no, I'm incredibly lucky. I've always been so fucking lucky.

#I don't even think it was ever my luck #I think it was Sol's #so I should not count on it going forward but I'm so glad he has it because he really needs it #and the thought that I'll be here for him so long as he needs me is very comforting so I'll continue to believe it #I know that I'm smart and I know that I'm a good writer but also I know that mostly I'm lucky #even back in college my bff called me a wild irish child with the luck of the fairies #it's obvious to anyone around me that I have poor judgment and worse impulse control and all the luck under heaven #I don't even believe in astrology or w/e but that one time I was in Seoul and a friend of my dad's paid for a star chart analysis #they were like 'well she's doing her best to kill herself but she won't succeed because the universe won't let her' #and I have to admit that has in fact been my experience #anyway yeah Sol is my fairy gift (conceived on Midsummer's Eve in a fertility ritual that was MEANT TO BE FOR MY GARDEN) #spill your seed on the fertile earth I said to Sam #no we won't use any other contraception bad for the magic I said #I don't think you get to call a child a surprise that's conceived in a midsummer fertility ritual in your backyard #but I MEANT IT FOR MY GARDEN #to be fair the tomatoes were great that year #and now I have a Strange son and I believe the luck was always for him

[kideternity]

Do you guys wanna talk about Shadowpact. Do you guys please wanna talk about fucking Shadowpact. Please. Please.

#shadowpact #dc #dinu yells into the void #dinu yells in the void #temporary respite from like digimom mode because im thinking about shadowpact sooo much again #I MISS LAURA I MISS RORY I MISS ZAURIEL I MISS DANNY I MISS EVE I MISS JUNE I MISS JIM I MISS DEC!!!! #i am soooooo overdue a shadowpact reread but not only that i am so due to just like. reading the full chronologies of every member #its not like 2020 2021 anymore and my media analysis opinions taste etc has changed wildly so like. i wanna come to everybody in fresh eyes #i want to relearn the joy and what was so special about these characters. even if i get to the awful stuff i still want that magic #you know. #i dont think illl get to it anytime soon. im still in like digimon mode and i dont plan on leaving #but. slams the ground. CAN WE GIVE IT UP FOR SHADOWPACT!!! ONE OF THE BEST TEAMS DC EVER MADE #and can we kill bill willingham too whilst we're at it. please. thanks

[deafsapphic]

hot take

why are so many lesbian movies so utterly traumatizing? i’m watching a film right now that has two corrective r*pe scenes and a forced (late term) abortion…

as a person who identifies as a lesbian, i don’t want to see that kind of content in movies that i try to find solace in. now, more than ever, we need positive representation that shows that two women can have a good life together without dying, being SA’d, or ending up sad and alone.

what’s even more interesting is that the movie i’m watching is an adaptation of a book. i’m aware that adaptions to movies need to take certain liberties, but i’ve started noticing recently (with media specified toward lesbian couples) that the endings are changed to better fit a heteronormative narrative - and that shit is HARMFUL. examples include: killing eve and tell it to the bees.

i’m fucking tired.

#why can’t lesbians have a happy ending #important #film analysis #wlw #lesbian #sapphic stories #lesbian movies #heteronormativity #tell it to the bees #fiona shaw #killing eve

[edwardteachswombtattoo]

Watching Our Flag Means Death after the Killing Eve finale is...cathartic.

Going from "These queer women don't get a happy ending because one of them is a monster" to "these queer men are going to get a happy ending even though one of them views himself as a monster and has done monsterous things" is such an experience.

#ofmd #stede bonnet #edward teach #blackbeard #the killing eve finale killed me but our flag means death resurrected me #i want to do an analysis of how killing eve failed and our flag means death succeeded

[acornered]

“a cosmic wrecking ball”

huge shoutout to Hacks for actually doing research on their tarot cards and not just using the Death card to mean Bad Thing. This drives me crazy about so many other shows (looking at you Killing Eve) and it frustrates me to no end. Not only did Hacks do right by explaining that Death is not an inherently bad card and can also indicate a rebirth, but they really went the extra mile when she pulled the Tower to indicate an impending disaster, correctly identifying it as a worse card than Death because it implies a sudden upheaval/destruction of one's foundation. 

#hacks hbo #hacks spoilers #killing eve #tarot analysis #this show is in a league of it's own tbh #bugboypost #personally I would have gone with the three of swords #because that card usually signifies a betrayal #especially in a romantic sense and like #I am onboard this ship in a major way #but I also understand that a card from the major arcana has more dramatic weight to it #I'm just gonna go feral a bit for a sec #imagining Ava's face if she flipped over a card #showing a heart with three huge swords plunged into it #like the i m p l i c a t i o n s #the fic begs to be written guys

[wearevillaneve]

Endgame.

Q: When is a good time to leave a fandom? A: When there's no future to look forward to and a past too painful to look back at. Welcome to the 2023 Killing Eve fandom and here's the latest news. There is no news. There is nothing in development. The stars of the show have parted ways and moved on to new projects and so have many in the fandom. But don't take my word for it.

Good question. What else is there to talk about Killing Eve? How long can you be bummed the fuck out by that ending? How many times can you watch that sweet kiss between Eve and Villanelle and wonder what kind of life they could have had together if only a better writer than Laura Neal was in command of their destiny? How many times will you think about a Season Four rewatch only to wonder why bother? Wine improves over the passage of time, but nothing's going to make that shitty ending better. Anger and resentment can only take you so far. After it fades into disgust and depression, it's just a grey cloud hanging over your head while it eats you up inside.

KE fanfics have helped me get through the depression and disgust I felt after the finale, but the seething rage at Neal and Sally Woodward Gentle though---that has not gone away.

I keep thinking there's something more to say about Killing Eve and how it went from being born for greatness before sliding into mediocrity before the bitter disappointment of the finale. I keep thinking that, but really what more needs to be said about it?

In the immediate aftermath of "Hello, Losers" the KE fandom went hunting for bastards to blame. The obvious targets were head writer Laura Neal and chief producer Sally Gentle and coupled with some truly awful interviews by the pair in Collider, Decider, and the Hollywood Reporter, they went out of their way to justify being cast as the villains. Afterward, more witches needed to be set alight, and some fans, including some I personally respect, settled on Sandra Oh as next to dragged face down over concrete for not openly denouncing the finale (Jodie Comer escaped the scorn by swiftly pivoting to her one-woman play, Prima Facie, and shutting up about Killing Eve entirely). I've never thought the scorn for Sandra was merited or justified. Most of it hinged on a vaguely worded "quote" from a Gay Times interview in 2018 that has been hung around the actress's neck as evidence she never believed in a same-sex relationship between Eve and Villanelle. I read it differently, but I admit to perhaps being biased on the behalf of a mature Asian woman cast in a role written for a much younger White woman. But mostly I don't think it's entirely fair to blame any actor for the failure or even give them too much credit for the success of any given show. Even in Prima Facie, there's still a playwright who provided the dialogue and a director making sure everything comes together to put Comer in the best light. In film, television, or plays, collaborating successfully with other talented people is the secret sauce that separates success from failure. This is a hard, fast rule and something any KE fan who watched the plunge from a Phoebe Waller-Bridge to Laura Neal can attest to. New Yorker film critic Richard Brody wrote in response to the 2022 Academy Award nominations, "It’s rare for actors to give performances better than the film they’re in. Actors, whatever power they may have as stars, are still, in effect, employees, working under the command of directors."

I agree with Brody, and add when there is constant churn and turnover in the writer's room the actors can't act their way out of it. Indeed, the saving grace of Season Four is the consistency of Comer and Oh who often created the best moments out of the table scraps of Neal's uninspired and clumsy scripts. They succeeded in spite of Neal, not because of her. Very little blame has been directed toward Oh and Comer for the work they did as actors in Killing Eve's fatally flawed final season. They did their best with the little they were given to work with, but even these two accomplish award-winners could not redeem the damnable, disgusting mess of a last go-round that was Season Four. But it's not enough to sustain my enthusiasm or direct participation. It seems unlikely I will ever not be a fan of Oh and Comer, but what I'm not particularly interested in is turning a Killing Eve blog into a Sandra Oh or Jodie Comer blog. No disrespect to Big Swiss, The End We Start From, The Sympathizer, or the second season of Invincible, but none of those things have anything to do with Killing Eve. This is why this blog began years ago and why it will end days from now. Stepping away simply makes more sense than hanging on. There is nothing else to say about Killing Eve, but even if there is, I'm not the one to say it.

#killing eve #endgame #killing eve analysis #take a bow #eve x villanelle #eve polastri #villanelle #villaneve #ke s4 sucked #everybody knows #stepping out #the end is here

[earth-electric]

Everytime I see some one label Villanelle as a villain I lose a day from my life. SHE IS AN ANTIHEROINE. I say it again: Antiheroine.

Antiheroine. Antiheroine. Antiheroine. ANTIHEROINE!!!

It really rubs me the wrong way how unknown, underutilized, and underrepresented the Antiheroine is.

I’m once again promoting this video essay for your continued learning:

#killing eve #antiheroine #earth electric #essay #analysis #villanelle #Youtube

[stryc-9]

Part 4 in my series of 5 obvious things Lauren Seal completely misunderstands about storytelling… the purpose of new characters in an established narrative

Well it's been a minute since part 3, but whatever. Laura had two years and look at the shit she churned out.

Anyway she came into an established narrative and decided adding TONS of new characters was a good idea. Not only an established narrative, but THE ENDING of said narrative. This part makes my eyes roll so hard that I'm not sure I can keep typing. Like wtf?!

This is such a simple concept. The purpose of new characters in an established narrative is pretty straightforward, especially as the narrative is winding down to a close. When Laura came in, the story was 75% done!! By that point, the purpose of every new character should be to propel the main characters and the narrative itself toward their conclusion.

If the new character does not serve to push the story toward its (GOOD) ending, THEY. SHOULD. NOT. EXIST.

PERIOD.

*insert limit does not exist.gif -- but with new characters or whatever*

I'm going to speak as if Laura's intentions for her new characters were obvious, because honestly I think they were. I don't think she intended for most of them to serve much of a purpose beyond KEEPING VILLANEVE APART.

That's it. Simple as it gets. She didn't want VE together until the last episode, so there was a ton of screen time to fill with bullshit.

What she thought she was doing with each character...

Yusuf: showing Eve working with another fuck buddy who I guess also had access to information? Oh and he trained her in combat? I don't fucking know. (This was a gap V should've mostly filled.)

Pam: showing who V could've been if she got out and how Konstantin could've been more of a positive presence in her life, killing Daddy K.

Gunn: showing who V could've been if she formed no attachments

Fernanda: Ok, I don't even know here. Someone who Helene fucked over, Eve fucked over, and Pam could kill I guess? You spin that sandwich sign, girl.

The couple introduced in the FINALE: showing a contrast of a couple in "domestic bliss" versus VE (which was stupid because that phrase is so meaningless to start with and those people would be annoying AF to anyone).

This is an aside, but I'm going to toss Helene in here for a second since she was upgraded to a regular. Laura thought she would be the "face" of the 12, a villain to hunt. A foil for V (as well as a stand in) and a worthy opponent for Eve. But she was none of those and a text solved the whole mission anyway, so who cares?

There were probably more characters? Idk. I'm trying to forget this shit.

Suffice it to say she accomplished absolutely none of what she supposedly set out to do and these idiots had their own storylines in a show that's not about them!!

This basically plays into part 3 about screen time utilization. She used new characters, not to serve the narrative or the mains, but to EAT UP SCREEN TIME because she hated the main characters and didn't want them to have an arc together until she was forced to shoehorn it in for the finale.

That's just fucking stupid. Such. A. Hack.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

#killing eve #killing eve spoilers #killing eve analysis #villanelle #eve polastri #villaneve #lauren seal sucks #why was she given this opportunity? #a true hack #as always fuck lauren seal

[joncronshawauthor]

🧟‍♂️ New Episodes, DJ History & Zombieland Rewatch | Author Diary, March 15, 2024 #amwriting 📚🎥

📝 “Punks Versus Zombies” Updates: This week has been productive with the addition of two new episodes to the “Punks Versus Zombies” series. Each episode brings its own set of intriguing challenges and exciting developments in this thrilling zombie narrative. 📚 Reading & Inspiration: Reading: My current read is “Last Night a DJ Saved My Life,” an engaging exploration of the history of DJing. It…

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#author diary #author lifestyle #author&039;s weekly update #character development #Creative writing #engaging storytelling #entertainment analysis #episode writing #Killing Eve season 2 #narrative development #post-apocalyptic fiction #Punks Versus Zombies #scriptwriting #storytelling techniques #suspenseful storytelling #television reviews #Traitors US #TV show insights #zombie serial

[villanelleskiss]

killing eve vs the last of us: a comparison

A niche post for the likeness of those who are obsessed with Killing Eve or The Last of Us, or both. 

I’ve recently been listening to the TLOU podcast for both the game and show and I’ve noticed a lot of similarities to the characters of Villanelle and Ellie. They are both similar characters, along with similarities between Eve and Dina, with possible similarities between Konstantin and Joel.

WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR BOTH KILLING EVE AND TLOU 

Villanelle:

Villanelle is a character who we’re introduced to right away in the show. Seeing a speckle of blood across a watch, getting the sense that she is not who she says she is. Hiding her true identity while never shying away from her anger and murderous natures. She has felt these emotions from a very young age and displayed them as well, while also never having any family connections to fall back on for comfort. Her mother sent her to an orphanage, her father passed. In school she hurt and maimed other children before being sent to a juvenile detention center. She had a relationship with her language teacher, whose husband she proceeded to mutilate. Which sent her to prison, where she presumingly killed more people and led to the faking of her death. Where she met Konstantin who recruited her into a twelve, a group of powerful government entities with a mind to create their own militia of seemingly teenagers/young adults whose minds are easily swayed and preyed upon. 

Over time, we see Villanelle has become one of the victims of this group. But does she ever really see herself as a victim? She sees herself as a predator, like a shark, hunting its prey. Given orders to murder who she thinks are random people, but we as viewers know it’s serving a higher purpose to those in charge. She never questions what she does and rather, she enjoys it. Villanelle is flamboyant and creative, acting much like a child. Killing men with fancy poison pins, clamping their balls, holding their ties into elevator doors, and gutting them like pigs in front of their scorned wives. It’s all a game, how she can make each kill more interesting than the last and we enjoy it. Seeing how she does it and what her thought process is behind it. But there really is no thought process, she kills because she wants to and that’s how simple it is. That’s what makes her different from everyone else. 

But what happens when we add Eve to her story? Villanelle becomes unraveled at the seams. Everything that she has worked for and trained herself to be, devoid of emotion with a lavish lifestyle with endless money, slowly becoming a life of the past. Eve shows her what a normal life is and can be for her, that she can put away  her anger and let herself feel all those emotions she’s tried so hard to keep hidden. To be herself, to be happy, and no longer fighting inside. 

Likewise, with Eve who understands Villanelle and wants to know more. She wants to know everything about her and she will throw away her normal life in a moment if she can get even a sliver of that. But Eve is the same, too. She wants to know what it’s like to kill in a world where having dark and angry thoughts is considered to be a bad thing and here’s Villanelle who embraces all of those things with wide open arms. It’s exciting to know that there is someone like her, who can equally understand that. She shows compassion and empathy to Villanelle for the first time ever and that overwhelms her. To know that a person like Villanelle is capable of being loved by someone like Eve, it’s beautiful, but it’s only possible because they are the same. 

Though, there are qualms with how their story unfolds. When we do see these women together, they bicker but they work well together. They’re enemies but they’re lovers. If they choose to and they can, to kill together, it’s one of the most dangerous things possibly ever in the world and everybody should be terrified of that. They can tear the world apart and rule it together. 

Ellie: 

When we first meet Ellie, she’s a bold, defensive 14 year old girl. Orphaned from a young age due to losing her mother, who was bitten by the infected, leaving Ellie with exposure to cordyceps which later would cause her to become immune when bitten by a runner. She’s in military school, where she was put by a somewhat surrogate mother, Marlene, because it is the safest place for her to be in the world we see. Then Joel and Tess come along, who are asked to smuggle her out of the city to Salt Lake to a group called the fireflies, who have a team that can create a vaccine from her. 

At first, we see Ellie as a girl with an extreme childlike wonder due to never being able to experience anything from the world before. All she sees is remnants of it. But when situations become dire, from Tess becoming infected, to the tragedy of Sam and Henry, we start to see a change in her. She learns how to use a gun from Joel, killing only when necessary but she enjoys it when she does. She wants the power that Joel does when he kills. So, where does this darkness come from? Is it who she is? Or is the cordyceps fungus that is growing in her brain? If she wasn’t infected and simply “just a girl”, would she have those same thoughts or feelings? We only ever saw Ellie briefly before becoming infected in The Left Behind DLC, where she was just a girl having fun and exploring the broken world with her best friend. So it’s hard to say if we’ll ever know the truth. 

And by the end of the first game, we start to see where more of this anger and guilt manifest. Because she was not able be the cure due to Joel’s love for her, she questions everything she is. Is she a monster, is she nothing? Her feelings are so strong that despite how hard she tries to hide it, she simply can’t. Every chance she has, she asks Joel the same question, or rather demands it, Tell Me The Truth. And each time she is lied to, the anger just becomes stronger, taking on a personality on its own. 

So, at the event of Joel’s death, it allows this anger to manifest and show itself in the deepest and strongest way possible. By hunting down and killing everyone and everything that had anything to do with it. Murdering people who have lives, who mean something to others, without any mind. And when she does find the people who were directly involved, only God can save them because Ellie does literally become an animal. But inside, we know she is still that girl we met at the mere age of 14. So, does it become difficult for us to see her mindlessly kill or does it become even more exciting and interesting? Because by the end of her journey, she saves and spares the life of the person who killed Joel. Would a monster do the same? That action shows that there is humanity inside her and she is just so broken inside from her own emotions, that, that is what controls her actions. 

With Dina, we see them fight but we see them comfort each other. They bicker but they trust each other and love each other. They are partners and where one goes, the other follows. They kill together and is just as rough around the edges as Ellie is. They protect each other, always. We see the tenderest of moments, sometimes it’s just a song, sometimes it’s through sickness, and other times it’s after Ellie kills someone, but they have each other, through it all. Ellie is loyal at all costs, to everyone she loves in her life. The only time she betrays that is through the pain she feels. But she realizes her mistakes and in the end, wants to make everything right again and follows her heart back to where it belongs. 

Father Figures:

Villanelle’s real father dies when she is young so the only father figure that is in her life, is Konstantin. He believes in her like nobody else does, but he is also afraid of her. He knows what Villanelle is capable of and tries to keep her at a distance, but his own love for her, his own curiosity doesn’t let him. She figures out he has a daughter and later on, takes her away from him by introducing her to the darkness. So, he tries to kill her, she tries to kill him, he tries to save her, she leaves him, it’s an endless cycle but it’s one that works for them. It’s a dynamic only they could have for each other, because they are not a real family, not connected by blood, which is a point Konstantin points out to her. But she is truly the only one that he has. His own actions despite the ones we would be led to think Villanelle caused. But in the last season, their relationship is strained. Why? It could be because of Villanelle’s attempted religious rebirth but it could be the effect of everything they have done to each other. Villanelle finally realizing that Konstantin continues to lie and hurt her, so she does the same to him.  And by the end of the series, it ends with Konstantin’s death, again by his own actions before they’re able to reconcile. 

Joel is Ellie’s father. Wholly and simply. Blood or not, that doesn’t matter. His lies to Ellie about the fireflies would regard the same outcome as if he was her father by blood. The hurt and anger is possibly even more because she knows what they have been through together. They crossed the country and saved each other from infected, and their lives have literally been dependent on each other. It was an easy decision for Joel to save Ellie, killing everyone that got in his way, much like Ellie would later kill everyone in her way to avenge Joel. So, them not speaking to each other and Ellie publicly berating him is not easy for Ellie. Especially when Joel lost his own daughter Sarah. But her choosing to want to fix that relationship is a brave one, when his death was less than 24 hours later. And Ellie finally choosing to let her life with Joel go, so she can live her own with Dina. 

Overview:

If you put these four characters together and switched their places, you would have a nearly similar outcome. Both Villanelle and Ellie are lesbians, while Eve and Dina are both bisexual. They are similar but different, but their stories are unique and borne of trauma, anger, and overwhelming emotions, which are calmed by love and humanity by Eve and Dina. 

(Disclaimer: Eve is not being sidelined to just Villanelle’s counterpart in this post, as Eve is her own person, this is just a comparison to Villanelle and Ellie’s stories)

TLDR:

They are the same person except Villanelle is clean and smells good, while Ellie is stinky and dirty. 

#killing eve #villanelle #eve polastri #villaneve #Konstantin Vasiliev #KE #the last of us #tlou #tlou2 #the last of us part 2 #ellie williams #ellie tlou #joel miller #joel tlou #dina tlou #video games #tv shows #hbo #text post #analysis #this was fun to make

[txttletale]

i hope this isn’t weird, but istg i’ve seen some of your posts (reposts?) about low empathy people / media with such representation, but i can’t find it anymore. as somebody with very little empathy and emotions in general, i really wanted to read more about people who may also experience this / understand what i mean, because a lot of times i feel like i’m borderline inhuman. do you maybe know any analysis / media about it? thanks in advance!

i dont really believe in like, 'good representation' in the sense it's usually used--i'm not that interested in media serving as an ambassador from a marginalized group to the world. some low-empathy characters i've talked about finding resonant with my own experiences include baru from the traitor baru cormorant, insul from serious weakness, vilanelle from killing eve, racter from shadowrun: hong kong, and like half the cast of worm but especially rachel.

in terms of analysis, i think this interview with a psychologist about how empathy isn't necessary for morality has been useful to me. more generally reading a lot of marxist political theory has helped me detach the necessity of a certain interiority for morality--as argued in many places beginning with the german ideology, morality is not absolute or ephemeral or rooted in 'humanity' or 'the human soul', but a product of material and social conditions. rejecting the idea of a 'universal, human' morality undergirded by a 'universal human experience' in favour of a marxist model of morality informed by culture and social relations has done a lot to help me untangle some of the internalized stigma

#ask

[sweet-and-insane]

Idk about you guys, but Adam's rant before his death kinda reminded me of Angel's breakdown after being rejected by Husk. Both their rants were about how they were hot shit, and the contents of the rants being sexual in nature. Angel yells about how people would KILL for a chance to fuck him, while Adam yells about how him fucking Eve is the reason everyone existed in the first place.

Both of them also talk about sex a lot, and it's the main part of their personality. Angel is like that because he feels like that's how he has to be, likely due to pressure to be like how he's portrayed in the movies he's known for. Many "fans" don't like when celebrities don't act the same way from the media they're known for, and if his fans aren't happy with how he acts, Valentino probably won't be ether.

The whole reason Adam existed in the first place was to breed more humans. Nothing else until he became an angel. All he had was fruit to live off of, and Lilith. When Lilith ran off, she was easily replaced by Eve. Adam could have been just as easy to replace with another man willing to breed if HE had been the one who ran off. But he didn't, because he had nothing else besides Lilith/Eve, and had no idea that Lucifer could have let him join him like Lilith did. So he stayed, and fulfilled his life purpose.

To make this analysis even worse, he was probably really young at the time. His personality makes me think of a sexually active teen who's probably aggressive due to hormones. Being born at that age would make him more likely to fulfill his role God gave him.

In short, it's likely that Adam has sexual trauma as well, and is the reason he acts like a fuck boy all the time. But that's just my theory.

#hazbin hotel #angel dust #adam #theory #analysis