#ok so i've been obsessed with this parallel ever since i first played it and yes i went back to replay me2 just so i could take these videos

[acomputeryguy]

I've been thinking a lot about episode four, Friendship.

This episode made me kind of uncomfortable at first, but after re-watching, I think that is the intended effect.

Spoilers and long commentary below.

It is easy to empathise with Warren if you have ever been bullied or felt disrespected (by a group, an institution, anyone) in your life. We can also empathise with Yellow Guy who is being disrespected in this episode too. He berates and punishes himself for something everyone does (forgetting a password), and instead of comforting him, Red Guy and Duck call him names.

Cue Warren. A stereotypical keyboard warrior. You could replace his message on how not to be a bad friend™️ with a crusade of your choosing - how not to be any of the -ists, -phobics, or bad-anything. I think to simplify things though, it's easier to replace 'bad friend' with 'bad representation'.

It’s no coincidence Warren shows up on computer day to immediately start policing a group of people he’s never met, make assumptions about their dynamics and a situation he wasn’t present for, and justify his invasion of their space with an anecdote as if that personal trauma gives him authority to speak over them.

Yellow Guy is the one being poorly treated (/represented). But rather than allowing Yellow Guy to stand up for himself and use his own words to talk about what he's experiencing, Warren literally takes over his mouth by superimposing his own and speaking for him, going on to do the same to Red, creating what he believes is the most proper and correct way to navigate the conversation. He has no official backing to do any of this (hence the repeated mentioning of him not being associated with the “OK Stop” organisation), and is bastardising their values so he can execute them how he sees fit, as we see play out in the episode.

Warren’s story clearly shows that his friends were never the problem though, it was all down to his own negative mindset, which is a message the episode circles back to at the end. It's hard to take that message away from the episode when there is so much angry, bullying behaviour from all sides. We, the viewer, desperately tries to find the "good, right, moral" guy to root for, and yet by the end, they're all as bad as each other. Yellow Guy, after being treated so awfully, is the first to throw a punch, starting the fight that sees us through the end credits. He also joins in bullying Warren about his appearance.

I think the overall "theme" is that people who make advocating online their one personality trait are rarely in the game with good intentions. They inevitably become the type of person they're trying to educate, lacking all self-awareness as they employ worse and worse tactics to make their point.

Warren himself views friends (representation) as something that should only serve him, even keeping himself awake at night obsessing over it instead of just… enjoying himself, as his friends were doing. In Warren’s eyes, his friends not aligning with his beliefs (business idea) meant something was wrong with THEM, not him, so he had to cut them all out of his life. His friends apologise and are visibly rueful, but it’s not enough. “The damage (poor representation) has already been done”, right? Too late for sorry!

We can draw parallels here with how creators can be treated online if they make a faux pas in their work, or if they fail to execute representation accurately. They’re not allowed to apologise and aim to be better next time, they’re immediately cancelled and considered Problematic. Or in Warren's case, angrily crossed out of his presentation and his life (boycotting). The only recourse in Warren’s eyes is for these people to learn how to be “better best friends”, yet their apologies don’t count towards that. So since he can't preach at them (creators, usually inaccessible), he has to take his ire out on smaller fry instead.

The significance of Warren calling himself an eagle when he’s not is that he has a false perception of himself and what he’s actually doing. He’s not being this impressive symbol of freedom (an eagle). He’s a worm that will crawl into the minds of vulnerable people online and impose his thought process onto them and the ones who are actually hurt by that are the people he’s claiming to be championing.

This is because he's all talk (arguing with people online), no action (creating something for himself, or going out there, making friends, spreading positivity).

In true internet fashion, this can open a person up to receiving the exact kind of attention they throw at their so-called "enemies". We're made to feel sorry for Warren when Red Guy, Yellow Guy and Duck all begin tearing down his appearance. One wrong move - no matter how pure and "woke" you are - and the knives all turn, and it's always ugly. No one is a good guy and no one is a bad guy anymore - you're all just guys on the internet, squabbling for that sweet, sweet social currency Warren is so desperately chasing as well.

His offer to teach the trio how to be better and maybe share a restaurant-style meal together (his true goal: to be liked) is forgotten in all of the vitriol, and then Yellow Guy remembers the password and he, Duck and Red Guy all dive right into having fun online, which is what they started out wanting to do.

As is typical of the internet though, the tables turn once again when Yellow Guy runs into exactly what Warren was trying to educate them about. Red Guy and Duck have emails, and Yellow Guy has nothing. No evidence of friendship (no representation), and he is immediately rendered without a voice when Warren talks over him again to explain to Duck and Red Guy (who are confused by Yellow Guy's, in their view, dramatic reaction) why he must be upset. Warren quotes the organisation’s slogan: “When things get to be a lot, you can always say OK Stop”, which is a good, healthy way to approach the online world. You don’t have to feed the trolls, you don’t have to obsessively check comments and messages, you can log off and take a break and go back to things when you’re in a better headspace for them. But he delivers this as a spiteful punchline to the people he perceives to be the creators of the problem (Duck and Red Guy), not as advice for Yellow Guy who is the one who is actually upset and friendless (not represented).

While it is kind of sad that Warren is so easy to manipulate with the promise of a restaurant-style meal in Red and Duck's company, what the viewer learns from that is he's only really interested in helping someone if it means getting something for himself in return. This being the attention of the people he's trying to impress/educate.

Yellow Guy, now in the place of a creator, retreats into himself and makes up a perfect world full of people he personally wants to appeal to. It's a positive, colourful place where everyone gets along and enjoys Yellow Guy's imagination. The point is made that even though this is not necessarily healthy, nobody is being hurt and it works for Yellow Guy and his friends. The Yumpferdinker "only really has the one song" and it's coincidentally a song everyone vibes with. Yellow Guy's achievements - no matter how simple - are celebrated and enjoyed. All ruined of course when Warren worms his way in with the wrong intentions.

The jump-lump becomes this cancerous, mangled sore where once it was a fun, harmless game, and Warren chases all of Yellow Guy's friends away by dictating how things should be rather than just enjoying (or at the very least accepting) them for the way that they are. Because Yellow Guy's imaginary friends aren't minded like Warren, they take themselves offline (the shy brother doing so quite literally), and Yellow Guy is left all alone via his association with Warren.

And Warren has completely lost sight of why he originally even got involved, no longer OK-Stop-ing to impart wisdom and educate, but to twist the narrative to make himself look better. To justify his poor behaviour.

He takes a pure creation that wasn't really causing any trouble and suffocates it with his insufferable persistence to be involved, even though this space isn't for him. It's a bone he cannot let go - even after Yellow Guy withdraws further into himself (where everything is so abstract and vague, we can't make proper sense of the ideas), Warren is there, ripping through his thoughts and mind to harass him (which is how it can feel when you're trying to create anything these days - you're plagued by the fear you could be cancelled before you've even started). Warren's goal now is not to help Yellow Guy at all (educate), but to be perceived as the one and only best friend (the only correct choice/method of representing a thing).

Warren can dole out criticism, but he can't take it. He expects other people to change and be better, but he won't learn the same lesson. As uncomfortable as it is watching the trio tear down his appearance and to watch his heroic attempt to rescue Yellow Guy (which he was manipulated into) devolve into him becoming the harasser instead, it's Warren's reactions we're meant to be paying attention to. Instead of taking criticism and understanding why he's receiving rejection at every turn, he immediately falls back on false confidence and waits around for his got-cha moment. He could have taken a leaf out of his own book and left after Duck, Red and Yellow Guy called him names, but he hung around in the trio's house, delighted when he could finally snipe at them with a "teachable moment". He makes other people vulnerable and renders himself vulnerable with this obsessive behaviour.

Deep down, his self-imposed "OK Stop" work isn't to help and educate people, it's to fill the gaping, friendship-less void in his life, and it's that intensity in him that drives others away.

Warren has allowed "the worm in his brain" (read: negativity) to completely consume him. The episode ends with a quick song about why dwelling in negativity isn't helpful, the undercurrent being that you do still need to be self-aware, however (looking at Duck's brain-worm here...) Like Warren, the trio miss that part and immediately start fighting as soon as Yellow Guy breaks their new toy by accident. Like Warren, they haven't learnt anything at all. And so the cycle continues.

It's a really clever, multi-layered episode I think. Like Warren, the viewer can easily lose sight of the point if they get too hung up on taking sides.

#don't hug me i'm scared #dhmis #dhmis spoilers #theory

[kinfeelings]

30-day fictionkind challenge...all in 1 go!

My kintype is a (psychological? spiritual?) vaporeon pokémon whose sex I don't even know yet. Equal chances of being male or female. I'm trying to figure out if I'm in fact a feral one, likely abandoned someplace wild by an irresponsible human ex-owner as an eevee? Maybe?

My dysphoria is pretty light tbh. I used to absolutely despise being human when I was younger and full of debilitating self-hatred. I've gotten much better and healed since then, and I accept that I live in a human body; it's really not so bad. Hence why I call myself "alterhuman" instead of just "nonhuman" entirely. Still can't avoid nor ignore my otherness though, and I don't want to.

I am exclusively open with only some of my online circles about being alterhuman. Nobody I know IRL would understand at all. I'm okay with keeping certain things to myself.

I participate in the Pokémon fandom regularly! I play the games, occasionally watch the anime, and make my own AUs and fanfics and fanart. It's fun.

I often fictionflicker! Mostly for two particular (and very AU) protagonists (Randy Cunningham from RC9GN, and Jack Spicer from Xiaolin Showdown) of my biggest fanfiction/crossover project Retoldverse which I have a blog for here: @retoldverse-crossover-au. It's not a sideblog, I made my own separate new email/account for it to be its own mainblog. Not extremely active but ok I'm done self-plugging...as for other flickers, do other pokémon species count lol?

When I was a teen on Tumblr I gradually began hearing about "otherkin" and after while the mentions became so frequent on my dash, not always in a good light, that I decided to look into 'em and I at first was leery because it seemed very mockable but at the same time the notion seemed familiar to me in a strange way. I must've been...16 maybe? Maybe a little younger. I've been here ever since.

My introduction to fictionkin was basically what I said in #6 lol.

I am similar to vaporeon in that I like being in pools, rivers, and beaches. I can't fuckin' swim though...I sink like a rock whenever I try.

I don't look anything like a vaporeon whatsoever.

@aestherians

I know/have seen a bunch of fictionkin of all kinds.

Never had a canonmate. It would be nice to have at least one.

I doubt it's possible for there to be a double of my kintype because I am just a random vaporeon, not canon to any existing media at all.

Shifts are nice. I get them most often when I'm in or near a body of moving freshwater, less so but still noticeably when I'm in a manmade pool, or when I'm watching environment ambience videos about lakes/river sounds/visuals on YouTube. It can also happen randomly, just springing up on me suddenly.

I don't like KFF, especially not the ones who actually know and understand what they're doing and still do it anyway.

I like symbols/flags/etc. They're neat.

I used to think my kintype was spiritual but now I'm not so sure. More likely psychological and parallel-lifey?

It definitely has something to do with my neurodivergence yeah. I'm autistic.

Nobody's ever pointed out to me that I'm "like a vaporeon" in any sense.

I would like to buy more vaporeon merch one day, probably stuff from Etsy. I have an art charm of a normal vaporeon and a shiny one on the opposite side attached to my wallet currently, I bought it from the Etsy store LoafiDoodles. Totally recommend!

I can't really think of anything I'd change about the fictionkin community tbh.

I appreciate the open-mindedness of the fictionkin community in general, and also in the entire otherkin umbrella.

I can get pretty obsessive over Pokémon in all honesty lol.

The worst anti-fictionkin take I've seen is one we're probably all familiar with: "You're delusional, you're schizophrenic, you're trying and wanting to be something you're not." I hate hearing it.

Haven't seen any "best" anti-fictionkin arguments, imo.

I like listening to environmental ambience of running freshwater like I said before. Not really music except for abstractly.

Sea lions!

I have a favorites folder on DeviantArt just for vaporeon fanart that I really love.

I love fish tacos and I like to float in swimming pools and wade in rivers whenever I get the chance to and the weather is right.

It's pretty cool being a vaporeon, overall. I wouldn't change it.

Link to the blank challenge.

Did it all in a single post because I'd most certainly forget to complete it day-by-day if I did it the normal way.

#challenge #vaporeon #ansel speaks #old

[windfalling]

garrus/shepard + thane/irikah, parallels

#meedit #meleedit #mass effect #shakarian #garrus vakarian #mass effect 2 #ok so i've been obsessed with this parallel ever since i first played it and yes i went back to replay me2 just so i could take these videos #i think if you have that scene with thane first it sets up a really interesting potential intentionality from shepard's perspective #but i also like how if you play this the other way around - especially if you take thane with you on the sidonis mission - #there's also meaning in hindsight #...if you approach all of this from a shipper lens i mean lol #it's v much that one text post where garrus is talking to thane and thane is like 'have i told you how i met my wife' #also i tried to put the text transcripts in the captions but there's a character limit rip #and yes i mashed together some conversations but [shrugs] #sometimes i make things

[seths-wife]

Theory: why is Seth Twiright the demon of wrath? What's his backstory?

Note: this theory tries its best to be as objective as possible in explaining and deducing facts basing on only what is known in the novels and not basing on personal preferences and sensibilities, just cold gathering of the facts and trying to draw plausible conclusion. That doesn't mean i'm right, necessarily.

Index:

1) Demon of wrath or demon of pride? (Biblical references and discordance of themes).

2) Was Seth a victim of abuse? (Can we draw this conclusion basing only on what we know?)

3) That one comic by Ichika

4) Conclusion

Chapter 1: demon of wrath or demon of pride?

Seth is a really peculiar character: the sin he's represented by doesn't seem to be...displaying that much, contrary to those of the other demons in this series.

Gilles is clearly lustful (basing on the catholic religion definition of it, at least) seen his high sex drive.

Vlad is not really explained but he's a cook so he must be obsessed with food (joke), also his interactions with Banica seem to suggest a morbid curiosity of his to try new foods for hedonistic pleasure, no matter if it's immoral and illegal to eat those.

Marie Annette is a really prideful human/demon seen her few lines in the entire series, like "bow down to me" without any legitimate reason.

Eve...well...on another theory about that...

Rahab is clearly envious when also other people get what she has, seen that she's basically the ec version of Ayano Aishi and a big stereotypical yandere, at least in one part of the narrative.

Salem (does he even exist? (joke)) is an economist so he must be obsessed with money and gathering earthly and perishing goods. (joke)

I won't talk about Adam Moonlit as the demon of greed here as it's for another topic.

But Seth? When in the series does he show unrighteous wrath? Do we see him get angry outbursts and go around beating up and killing people because he's angry at them?

No.

On the contrary, in the whole series Seth seems to be pretty calculating and cold, and he doesn't seem to be really excessively troubled by any behavior or at least he doesn't really show a strong vengeful attitude towards them.

Yes, he might get on bad mood when his plans don't succeed as he expected to, but he never goes like "you'll pay for ruining my plan" or something. He proceeds with his plans, trying to adjust the latters in order to fit the new situation.

Actually, sometimes he seems to find amusing and funny when people try to kill him and unmask (pun or not lol) him for his evil bahaviour, like when Adam tried to kill him and the latter was surprised he couldn't succeed since Seth outsmarted him, or Gammon when he confronted him about brainwashing Miroku.

It's as if Seth finds funny when people are frustrated because of him, it soothes his ever-roaring mind and boredom.

For months, i've thought that Seth should have been the demon of pride because of his attitude in the crime novel and because it fit him better as for the Biblical references:

We see multiple instances in the crime novel that Seth likes himself very much: he loves the fact that he consideres himself to be the best scientist in the country™ as he uses this bunch of words everytime he introduces himself (both as Horus and as himself), also he considers himself to be very handsome to the point he doesn't want to change his face because it would be "such a terrible crime" (i mean, i also think he's hot but Seth, calm down, what the hell...).

But his pride doesn't end with him flaunting his intelligence and hotness.

There are also other instances of Seth's pride that are even more remarkable.

Like for example, the whole matter of Seth making artificial humans (so called "ghoul children") mimicking the creation of the "gods" in the series. This can be considered a matter of pride, as he wants to act as the "gods", he thinks he's able to be on par of them.

Well lol, gods...i always found pretty unrealistic how we got from human scientists with high tech from almost omnipotent beings that can cast lightening wherever they want, make ladies pregnant and instill thoughts and visions in people in a single arc while being trapped inside of a spaceship. This always provoked some strong cognitive dissonance within me, this sounds like a stretched, inappropriate and unrealistic even if they have big tech. That's why i call them "gods wannabe". They're still humans playing God after all.

But that's besides the point.

Even more remarkable is this other line, right after quoting the achievements of other "gods" in the series:

"In that case—

I am the god who creates “evil”.

Seth is literally and explicitly placing himself in the place of the gods, considering himself to be a god on par of the pillar ones in the series.

And this is very coherent basing on the fact he should be the parallel of the Biblical serpent, the demon who thought he was on par of God and fell because of pride.

So it would have had much more sense to have Seth as the demon of pride.

So when and why is seth the demon of wrath since in the series it looks more like he's the demon of pride?

His motive? Not really...Seth doesn't seem to act because of some sort of anger as his main motivation is to "follow his h.e.r.s nature and make himself 'new friends' (his own definition of friends)".

Then i think we have no choice than look at his backstory and see if we can spot some unrighteous anger there.

Chapter 2: is Seth a victim of abuse and angry at his mother?

The vast majority of the theories around about the reasons of Seth's evil are based off the fact that Seth might have gone through motherly abuse that provoked him some childhood traumas back when he was a little white and red mask.

Those assertions are usually backed up by pieces of the short story "Outlaw and lychgate".

Let's look at them.

The most quoted line about this issue is:

“My, and what sort of dish is that?”

“It’s not really much of a dish. You just splash some curry powder and ketchup on a sausage. My old ma used to make it for me a lot when I was a child.”

“Just like mom used to make, hm. That sounds quite nice. My mother never did any home cooking for me.“

Well...from this particular line, fans have begun to speculate than maybe his mother starved him or refused to cook for him.

But is it necessarily the case? It can be a possible interpretation but we don't know how masks work in this series or whether or not they need to eat, especially since they don't have a mouth or a digestive system of some sort.

It can also be that Seth was just curious about food in the line upwards since as a mask maybe he could not experience food, given that he couldn't physically eat when he was a mask.

This doesn't necessarily refer to an abusive situation of a mother refusing to provide food and care for her son.

There is also another instance in which Seth spoke about his mother.

"I often hear strangers tell me that they can’t tell what I’m thinking.

Even my own mother said so, before she died.

That’s why, to get her to understand at least a little bit, I shot her in the forehead.

To this day I still remember how stopped moving, her mask cracked in two.

That was the first murder I committed."

Ok, the fact that his mother "didn't understand him" could have been because of various reasons:

1) maybe she didn't try to understand him and neglected him.

2) maybe Seth became too different from his mother since he contracted hers and she couldn't understand and relate to him anymore even if she tried to.

3) Seth is just too cryptic or changes his mind too fast (probably because of his boredom) when it comes to expressing his true intentions or having certain intentions therefore people have big trouble understand him.

I would go for 3 since Seth also explained that not only his mother didn't understand him but also various other characters, so it's not necessarily true that Seth's mother just refused to listen and understand him, it could have been that Seth was too cryptic or that she couldn't relate to a her.

Anyways, we don't have a lot of info about this but i don't think it is correct to see a mysterious passage in just one possible way.

And also i wouldn't like for Seth to be "he's evil because mommy wasn't nice therefore he's angry and wants to make everyone like him and destroy everything uwu" because:

1) that's a really misused trope.

2) it doesn't properly explain why Seth did what he did in the crime novel, it's clear that there has to be an even deeper motivation that made him do those horrific things: abuse is too much of a simplistic and lazy motivation given his role.

Also there is no specific mention of anger and resentment even if there could be.

So where can we see that Seth is angry?

Chapter 3: that one Ichika comic.

Let's look at this one comic.

It is kinda difficult to understand what it means but the face resembles Seth's human form a bit and also this comic shows a theme of anger against the human creators of the first period since the comic seems to be talking about the second one "in this world where everything is an extension" (the second period is a virtual parallel reality to the first one in the series).

Seth seems to be pretty aware of the first period.

I think so because Kiril (his clone) at one point gained back the memories of his original.

Who? Seth? Pale? (That twist complicated things a whole lot).

I will go for Seth since in the series he's always referred to as the original talking about his "clones".

Kiril with Seth's memories came up with "Vocaloid, huh?!", showing awareness of the knowledge of vocaloid (since the first period is similar to the real world in the series) but i don't think this is an info Kiril learnt on his own but he took from Seth's memories since he was a researcher of parallel worlds and wouldn't have been out of place for Seth to learn about the first period.

So, given that Seth is the one of the comic and he's talking about the humans of the first period, he seems to be angry at the fact he was born to be an her (let's remember the humans of the first period started the her problem for their own personal gain) and in the society of the second period he's seen as a problem because of that.

Therefore Seth in his anger invites people to blame the creators instead of him since he doesn't think to have a free will and has no other choice than being evil because of those humans who "made him this way".

Funny how the same topic is faced with Irina and Levia in the duel. And funny how Levia in this series seems to also be a victim of her own pulsions and can't really be a moral authority in this, again, gods wannabe. They have their morals inspired by their originals who made their avatars who have tainted them with a virus, so they can't create, define or judge good and evil themselves.

So funny.

Chapter 4: conclusions.

So i think this is a plausible reason Seth might be the demon of wrath. But still, i wonder how it is that Seth is happy later on to follow those pulsions he thinks he can't control (given by humans) and doesn't try to fight back the instincts.

Maybe he accepted and got happy with his disease or he just resigned that that was his destiny thinking that he had no choice.

I don't know if i will make anymore theories after this, since i want to go on and make content for something else.

#evillious chronicles #evillious #seth twiright