M'lady, doth this harlot bother thee?
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I definitely think there's Something (TM) to say about the portrayal of "off-human" characters in modern media adaptations as having (particularly facial) deformities and/or learning disabilities.
Robert Louis Stevenson was fully like "this is my OC, Hyde, who represents the impact of a complete apathy toward your fellow man. There is nothing extraordinary about him except that his rancid vibes make people uncomfortable which adds to the core theme of the role of morality in humanity, so its really important that he's physically normal so the audience can recognise that it's what's inside that's most important," and every film adaptation was like "mmkay. Yeah, no, I've got it. We can show that he's evil by using prosthetics and making him non/semi-verbal, which, as we all know, are the True Measures of Evil."
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The only thing more powerful than the Buffy writers' reluctance to give screentime to a woman over the age of thirty is the collective Buffy fandom's eagerness to seize on the slightest scrap of canon characterization as evidence that said thirty-plus-year old woman is some sort of monster.
The show: Willow Rosenberg likes spending time with her mother and does so willingly even after moving out (as we see, for example, in Forever) and her mother was keen to invite her high school boyfriend over for dinner to try to get to know him as soon as Willow admitted to her that he existed (at the end of Gingerbread) and her mother was fully accepting (literally "proud") of Willow when she came out as a lesbian (already implicit, but confirmed in The Killer In Me). Oh, but she has a full time job in academia and sometimes Willow wishes she paid her more attention (this despite the fact that Willow canonically does hide things from her all the time) and she doesn't always notice when Willow cuts her hair or properly remember her friends' names and she only met Willow's first girlfriend a few times.
The fandom: well, clearly Willow is as much a victim of parental abuse as Xander Harris or Amy Madison or Faith Lehane. This is a completely reasonable and proportionate conclusion to come to based on one on-screen appearance and some throwaway lines of dialogue.
I mean ... don't get me wrong. Shelia Rosenberg is not a good mother. She's not much more than a cardboard cutout, really. Less of a character than even Hank Summers, and that's saying something.
What she is, really, is the sort of lazy cliche you get in a lot of teen movies of the 1990s and 2000s (something which is true of Joyce Summers as well at times, only Sheila is permitted far less depth or screen presence or other redeeming features). She's a somewhat reactionary take on the idea of an adult woman who dares to have a professional career and therefore cannot "properly" attend to the needs of her children. A woman too busy focusing on the abstract (her academic study of "adolescent development") to care about the practical (the growing pains of her own teenage daughter).
(Get it? See, it's funny, because she's a woman with both a child and a career. What will those crazy feminists dream up next?)
As written, Willow's mother kind of sucks: not because she's a bad person but because she isn't written as a person at all. She's a joke, and not a good one.
But the weirdly popular idea On Here that Willow is somehow traumatized by having what is, by all accounts, a fairly ordinary and comfortable childhood is absurd. There is simply nothing in the text to support this.
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Omega: Every zoo is a petting zoo. Unless you’re a coward.
Crosshair: I’m worried about you.
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oh she was no phoenix, but a creature of the ash
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Thinking about Lestat seeing Louis’s eating patterns as a waste of his gift/himself while Armand gives Louis food that he literally can not enjoy or digest just so he has something on his stomach
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Alright I told someone I would give propaganda for these two so here we go. As a warning, I didn't play mobile or Re-Mind soooooooo. Yeah there's that. I know they're apparently involved in past stuff but shhh.
So first off, everyone's weapon is super useful! Except theirs. Which I always thought was really funny? Even in Re:CoM Zexion's book was more direct than these two. I really enjoyed them just as the most indirect fighters? And figured they'd be pretty chill and after playing KH2 as a kid I'm like. I think Luxord would be most tolerable to music while vibing. He could play Solitaire or something while Demyx played music and possibly chatted. Therefore, my younger self was like "it's perfect".
ALSO CONSIDERING THEIR NUMBERS! And the line in KH3 during the scene where Demyx is like "yup I got benched", they've probably got a history. However, the number they get originally is supposed to be the order they joined. So with Marluxia and Larxene obviously tied together in the past, all I can think of is these two just being absolute bums wandering around pre-Organization and just hitch hiking their way into a cult. Which is also REALLY funny to me because what if they joined at the same time but Demyx got to be IX and Luxord is X.
Demyx would hold his rank over his head for the dumbest stuff (in my head canons of the past).
Like there's so many things we specifically do not know about these two so basically, until I'm proven absolutely incorrect in game (which might have happened and I just don't know) ! I think they'd be a good match.
And I mean, it's also just (gestures) LOOK AT HOW CUTE THEY ARE. Great designs and I think that's good enough for me!
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Finally got enough energy to talk about Furina's SQ and while I loved her and the troupe, MC and Paimon were .... Not Great. I talked about this with friends but in Paimon's case especially, the way they interact with Furina feels like people who just don't understand trauma and depression and then engage with someone suffering from both in all the wrong ways.
Talking about how much of a downgrade her house is from the opera house, making fun of how she can't cook, pushing her to act when she's set a very clear boundary and then guilt tripping her after she's stuck to her guns, shaming her for not being able to fight well (Paimon literally talks about how second hand embarrassment is overwhelming and I'm just like ?????), telling her she's "not acting like herself" when she attempts to open up and be vulnerable....it's just really rough. That and the MC asking "is something wrong" when Furina gets sad over Poission ..like bro people died and she couldn't save them and she's tearing herself apart over it. Those people are never coming back and you know it and you have the gall to ask her is something wrong??? Of COURSE there is!!
It just feels especially odd because we literally get to see all of Furina's suffering and Paimon in particular is. SO mean? Like she was more understanding with Wanderer and Ei and THEY'VE tried to kill us multiple times!! I don't get it, and honestly I'm very proud of Furina for refusing to waver. Let her rest!! She's tired and depressed and she needs time to heal; and honestly fuck Paimon for trying to make her feel bad. Furina's worked harder than she EVER will.
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I really think having divorced parents can make you so jealous. I don't know how to get over it. I shouldn't be like this but divorce shouldn't be a thing in the first place either. None of it is good.
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Goddd and just the gentleness with which vex treats laudna. the immediacy in her desire to help them that all but betrays the sorrow and the guilt at this revelation. the offering up of gold and diamonds and weapons without hesitation to a cause she readily shares. a cause that will not be shaken even as an old haunt makes her presence known. the gentle taking of this ghost into her lap, tracing torn ears cuffed with gold like an attempt to piece back fragile china. a close-up look into lengths of abuse this girl was put through, and all to send a message she’d only ever see from afar. vile, pointless cruelty.
but the love this world has for laudna is not held by the woman in her head, no matter what she whispers. it is in the blood and sweat and tears of those would stop at nothing to get her back, and the sorrow of helpless strangers who are not so helpless now. past the cruelty of existence there is kindness still, and it fights to win her back.
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'suranne jones could play the doctor 100%' you are SO right for this
i'm imagining THICK northern accent, always bedraggled and a little coarse around the edges, outwardly cynical but quietly so so in love with humanity. loses and loses and loses and rages at the universe and at the end of the season they realise where they've seen this face before, and what it means; that no matter how it seems, no matter who they lose and who leaves and who betrays them, they're never ever truly alone
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i cant think about the way laudna sees herself for more than 5 seconds without going insane. like "i have a crazy woman in my head who likes to tell me what to do. thats really not that dissimilar to, you know, being programmed" + "fcg have you ever thought that maybe you are like me? you were once alive and now... you are in a puppet?" + "i can understand the feeling of a false sense of security and power from an ungodly source. that doesn't... you don't have control. it does. it can be intoxicating, borrowing from a power beyond you. just be careful of the moments that you can no longer separate yourself from it." like ARGHHHH SHAKES CRIES THROW UP.
the way she absolutely isn't able to see herself as a Real Person in the same way that she sees everyone else as a Person. and the way that she relates to fcg the most because she too sees herself as part of a tired old machine! with delilah as her creator! because she knows, she knows, that no matter what she's not really the one in control. she knows that at the end of day shes just a puppet, a means to an end, a disposable machine.
or at least this is what she believes in. and i mean can you BLAME her for not being able to see herself as An Actual Person when her entire life, her youth, has been robbed from her in the absolute most violent, horrifying way imaginable. when her very image has been so heavily brutalized and dehumanized, both in death and in the years after.
like. of course she does not see herself as entirely human. what human being could possibly endure what she has? what human soul could carry that kind of violence and still remain intact? (certainly it would shatter)
no wonder she minimizes everything that has happened to her. no wonder she buries it down by saying that she feels like it happened a very long time ago. to another person. in another life. no wonder she wants to separate her present self from her past self because, again, what human could go through what she has gone through and remain sane?
and how can she even trust herself to try and be human again when she isn't even allowed to be in control of her own mind, her own body. when she knows that at any moment the evil woman inside her head can just take over her body whenever she feels like it and do whatever she wants with it.
she has to be a machine, or a puppet, but she can't be a person. no, she isn't human. she can't be human. because no human could ever live like this.
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Rachel zegler has me wanting to bang my head repeatedly against a wall until I start bleeding to death
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To be fair, the whole, “I’ll come back to you even if you don’t promise to wait,” is a line pulled directly from OG FFVII. It’s mentioned late game by Cid (who hilariously went to see a showing of loveless in Midgar but fell asleep then woke up just in time to view this ending scene 😂). But if you wanna deep dive on the meaning of this line, it’s worth noting that a version of the line is used in FFVIII in reference to the main ship of that installment — Rinoa and Squall — who also happen to be another mage/swordsman pair. And if you wanna go big brain square enix energy, there’s also the famous, “I’ll come back to you; I promise…I know you will,” between Sora and Kairi in Kingdom Hearts when he goes off on another journey while she awaits his return. If you go down those rabbit holes, it seems square really has a type for their main pairs, no?
I don't remember that line in OG FF7, but it's been years since I played it so I'll take your word for it. But you're right that similar lines/sentiments pop up frequently in other FF and KH games, so yeah, Square has a type. I still think the conversation between Cloud and Aerith in KH2 is the quickest and easiest parallel to make here though, considering the same pair can have basically the same interaction, in an entirely different game. Yes, Cloud could also have this conversation in the play with T or Y. But only Aerith's would have the added depth of being a potential callback/reference to another moment the pair shared.
And considering this game liked to callback to several moments between Cloud and Aerith in the previous game (him remembering their first meeting being what snaps him out of Sephiroth's control, the "will you be okay getting back", "if I said I wasn't" in the ending...) I think it's totally reasonable to assume that Square might have subtly referenced at least one Clerith moment from outside the compilation.
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