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uniformbravo · 5 years

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ok but these panels are actually a really great example of subtle characterization?? it’s just a short little moment that seems like a funny way to set the scene, but it also 100% highlights that spender does NOT know how to talk to or handle middle schoolers

like. that’s kind of an actual Big Important Thing with his character, how he can’t handle his own club and how he’s losing them because of it? this is just a really subtle manifestation of that theme

he tries too hard to appeal to them despite being so out of touch with their generation that he doesn’t even know what appeals to them- using forced metaphors and weird cringey terminology like “homechallenge” and “funsheet” and just generally being very “how do you do fellow kids” to them. he’s obviously trying to connect with them, but it really just comes across as talking down to them and treating them as younger than they are

he calls them “children” even though they’re definitely at the age where they’re growing out of that, and most of them would probably prefer not to be called kids anymore. he doesn’t give them enough credit for that because he just views them as so much younger than him, they are children to him. so rather than being on equal footing with them like he’s trying to be, he’s actively alienating himself from them because to everyone else it’s clear as day that he just doesn’t get them

there’s also the aspect of his cheerfulness being very fake, as we see in the very next panel when he drops the smile as soon all of the students are out of the room (and then immediately starts privately discussing his actual problems with his spirit- he only feels comfortable revealing his true feelings when nobody else is around to see, feels like he can/needs to handle things on his own, etc)

this all reflects his relationship with the activity club; he tries to connect with them, but it only ever ends up being awkward or with him being made fun of. he constantly refers to them as “children” or “kids,” seeing them from only his perspective and never theirs. he keeps secrets from them, inherently breeding distrust in a relationship where trust is vital. it’s obvious that he tries his best to be for them what he believes a responsible and good mentor should be, but it falls flat because he fundamentally isn’t equipped to handle that responsibility. i think he had an idea of what it would be like to be in charge of a small group of kids, but the reality of it is proving to be much more involved and complicated than he was prepared for; middle schoolers are a lot more mature than he seems to comprehend.

the fact that all of this can be alluded to in a simple, seemingly irrelevant three-panel scene bumper is honestly so impressive to me, it’s amazing how much meaning and detail is contained in every single panel of this wonderful webcomic 💖

#paranatural #pnat #richard spender #mr spender #retag later #pn blogging #talkin bout pnat

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uniformbravo · 5 years

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OK SO i’ve been doing a lot of thinking on this sequence and what it means for dimitri in particular?? because i mean Look at him, obviously this is some kind of Significant Moment for his character that we just don’t have all the Deets on yet, but uhhh. here’s what im seeing/guessing so far:

so at the beginning of the game when dimitri first shows up, after hijack launches that first Super Throw, he generally seems pretty casual about the whole thing

like, he calmly assesses the situation and works out the best theoretical solution,

and builds a mini team on the fly with each of their strengths and weaknesses in mind,

all while maintaining this almost detached sort of attitude, as if he’s tentatively letting himself get involved in what he, being a spectral, has identified as a Supernatural Situation, but not letting himself get TOO carried away with it.

he DOES end up getting carried away, though, and the shift can be pinpointed to this exact moment:

it’s when he decides that everybody around him is ill-equipped to properly handle the situation and that he’s the ONLY one capable of coming up with a plan that will take jeff down for sure- that is the point at which he starts taking things more seriously, and it is by no means an irrelevant detail- but we’ll get to that later

from here on dimitri gets very....... intense..... to put it lightly..... like to name a few things,

suddenly very uncharacteristically rude/bossy,

literally trying to Shout advice from the bleachers after he’s already out,

concentrating so hard on the strategy of the game that he straight up ignores ed trying to talk to him,

and just generally like,,,, SUPER invested in the fight

which brings us to that sequence at the top of this post! which i am just now realizing i have structured kind of poorly uhh here it is again whoop

dimitri is one step ahead of everyone, having been following along with everything going on in the match, being able to work out max’s plan in advance, etc, so he Naturally expects that everyone else is going to act accordingly to that plan- and when they don’t, he calls them pawns!! he’s thinking of himself as Above them, that they’re inherently inferior to him for not being able to figure out what was so obvious to him, for needing to be told what to do by someone else

but then, before he can even Finish that sentiment, johnny bursts in with the call to action, and LOOK at the way dimitri reacts- everyone else in the bleachers is all fired up but he looks like he just got slapped in the face, like he’s in shock. even cody, who has his own personal reasons to be upset at this moment, gets covered up in this panel to further push the focus onto dimitri’s reaction

then there’s the contrast between that panel and the one directly above it, where in the top one everyone else is in “shadow” while he’s the only one brightly colored, and then that gets flipped in the bottom one- signifying the shift in.. enthusiasm? emotions? highlighting the separation between himself and the group as a whole? something along those lines

here’s what i think is happening though: dimitri never meant to get that intense, and johnny’s call to action is what snaps him out of it, for two reasons. first, inaction, and the fact that johnny is the one to actually do something about the situation. according to the rules of the game, the whole team is supposed to get off the bleachers and rejoin at this point, so when they don’t, dimitri’s immediate reaction is to sigh and disparagingly call them pawns. johnny, on the other hand, reaches out and gets them to come back onto the field. also, there’s the fact that dimitri is actually ON the team that’s supposed to be rejoining, and even though he knew what was supposed to happen, he subconsciously thought of himself as separate from (or “greater than”) the group and as a result ALSO failed to jump into action right along with them. the moment reads as such: having a thorough understanding of the situation doesn’t mean anything if you’re not going to take action.

now before i get to the second reason, i wanna take a little detour into Theory Town: personally, i believe that this isn’t the first time something like this has happened with dimitri; it may even be one of the complications that led to him leaving the activity club, on top of what happened with isaac. based on the events of this arc, he seems to have something of a superiority complex, especially when he thinks he’s right about something, and is prone to letting himself get carried away with it; this may have been a source conflict between himself and the other club members, previously. it isn’t a quality he enjoys having, or else he would probably act like this more often, and from what we’ve seen, the majority of the time he’s just super chill and completely content letting other people take charge (see: suzy)

so i think the second reason johnny’s call to action affects dimitri so strongly is because it gives him the sudden realization that he’s fallen into old habits again. while dimitri was sitting there rolling his eyes at everyone’s “incompetence,” johnny actually bridged the gap and invited them back onto the field, giving them much more credit as allies than dimitri had. johnny effectively met dimitri’s “unbelievable, they have to be told what to d-” with “well, then let’s TELL THEM.” it’s a stark contrast that immediately spotlights the shortcomings dimitri had been trying to leave behind; he let his superiority complex get the better of him, became someone he didn’t want to be anymore, and lost sight of the reality of the situation in his obsession with the meta game. at the beginning of the game he had been so careful to keep himself in check and maintain control, and in the end, he failed.

(also, there’s the fact that it’s implied near the end of ch 5 when we meet peekaboo that part of why he quit the activity club was because he didn’t want anything to do with spirit stuff (or at least his own spirit) anymore, and yet here he is getting involved with spirit stuff again. so there’s potentially a Lot of inner turmoil going on in that panel tbh)

but, of course, that’s all my personal speculation, i could be way off base here! either way, there’s Definitely something important to dimitri’s character/arc going on here, and at the very least we can assume that this sequence is the point that snaps him out of Intense Mode because the next time we see him (aside from being a purple background blob), he’s back to being Chill Dimitri again

thanks for coming to my ted talk

#paranatural #pnat #pnat theory #dimitri danger #retag later #pn blogging #talkin bout pnat #idk how the read more got deleted lmao sorry about that #fixed now

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uniformbravo · 5 years

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@shadowreader2013 replied to your photo:OK SO i’ve been doing a lot of thinking on this sequence and what it...

Something I also noticed is that Dimitri only gets intense AFTER the Student Council recruit them, and even then it doesn’t happen until he’s confirmed that their plan will fail. So you’re right about him deciding that he’s the best one for the job, because the “authority” couldn’t step up (which makes me wonder about his relationship with Spender). It also strikes me that he seems especially heated at the “sacrifice” part even though he includes it in his own strategy

Maybe because he sees that their sacrifice wouldn’t mean anything with the STudent Councils plan

oh that’s an interesting point! maybe rather than clashing with isabel & ed like i previously assumed, his conflict was more with spender himself? that would make a lot of sense considering the running theme of “every activity club member coming to realize they can’t trust or rely on spender” that’s been going on, as seen with isaac, max, and now even isabel; maybe dimitri was the first one to come to this conclusion

as for the sacrifice line, to me it reads as dimitri not wanting a valuable asset (himself) wasted on a plan that’s not even going to work, like “they’re really gonna throw me away when i’m worth so much more than them??” he seems to have this fixation on “talent,” which comes up both here and after the game:

(the student council’s lack of talent is what loses his loyalty to them)

(max’s talent gains his respect)

which leads me to believe that above all else dimitri places the most value on how capable someone is, according to his standards. like, he believes that if you don’t have what it takes to succeed then there’s no point in even trying and you’re just wasting yours and everybody else’s time- something like that

also, in that second bit of dialogue he does praise max’s sacrifice too, so i think there is something to your idea that sacrifices mean something to dimitri, at least from a strategic standpoint: if you’re going to make a sacrifice, make it count. don’t lose something if there’s no greater gain to make up for it, or else it’s just a needless waste of resources. the student council’s plan involved a sacrifice in which the loss would have far outweighed the gain, which was clear as day and therefore very frustrating to dimitri. on the other hand, max’s sacrifice was a necessary one that ultimately won the fight, which is on par with what dimitri considers a valid strategy. also, there’s the fact that the student council's plan involved throwing someone else away, whereas max actually sacrificed himself, so that could be a significant factor as well

anyway Yeah i really like your thoughts on how dimitri feels about authority in general ahhh i really hadn’t considered that!! it makes SO much sense in context wow

#replies #shadowreader2013 #pn blogging #talkin bout pnat

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