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dabistits · 4 years

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To talk about Twice and villainy is to talk about class and criminality (IV)

(Masterlist)

cw: references the dehumanization of “terrorists,” like, irl

The trash of society

“Disposability” is a framework that interrogates the way human lives are valued. Arising from observations about material disposability in the rapid industrialization of post-’45 and the increasing hold of mass-production and consumerism, “disposability” eventually expanded to an investigation of the human cost of this modern landscape. Theorists raised the question of how the disposability of human lives could be understood in tandem with the disposability of material goods, linking together issues of class, poverty, migration, imperialism, race, production, and consumerism. In essence, disposability as a framework investigates how human lives come to be rendered as disposable—and thus, like waste, byproducts of a lifestyle of endless growth.

This concern is one that receives frequent exploration in fiction that delves into the framework of humans-as-waste; for example, the sci fi dystopian short story Folding Beijing follows a waste worker in his efforts to fund the education of his adoptive daughter, who he found abandoned outside his waste-processing station. Although the conditions in BNHA aren’t nearly as grim, there are nevertheless clear connections drawn between its villainous characters and the concept of humans-as-waste, to the point where villains refer to themselves or are referred to by others as “trash.” Quirks may have effected a massive social upheaval, but that didn’t do away with, only shifted, the specifics of the idea that there are people who are deserving and people who are not, innocent people and criminals.

Throughout the series, we see characters mistreated while a society of deserving innocents looks on. There was little concern from the public when Izuku was mocked and bullied for his Quirklessness, when Rei was sold into a marriage for the benefit of a wealthy and abusive pro hero, when five-year-old Tenko wandered the streets alone, and when Jin was left to fend for himself as a teenager. Under the framework of disposability, they might as well have been rendered “waste,” as Zygmunt Bauman writes: “[t]he story we grow in and with has no interest in waste[...],” instead

“[w]e dispose of leftovers in the most radical and effective way: we make them invisible by not looking and unthinkable by not thinking. They worry us only when the routine elementary defences are broken and the precautions fail—when the comfortable, soporific insularity of our Lebenswelt which they were supposed to protect is in danger.” [source]

It is, interestingly, a bigger-picture version of the charges Shigaraki Tomura directs against the world of BNHA: like Bauman says, the innocent civilians are oblivious, recognizing neither the fragility of their peace nor the artificiality of it as it is maintained by heroes, unwilling to acknowledge the "leftovers”—the people who weren’t saved—until they return as villains and that very peace is threatened.

As for the leftovers themselves, they feel their alienation acutely. According to Bauman, to be “redundant” in a productivity-driven economy is to “share semantic space with ‘rejects’, wastrels’, ‘garbage’, ‘refuse’—with waste.” He outlines the conditions of redundancy thusly, describing it as a kind of “social homelessness”:

“To be redundant means[... t]he others do not need you; they can do as well, and better, without you. There is no self-evident reason for your being around and no obvious justification for your claim to the right to stay around. To be redundant means to have been disposed of because of being disposable[...]”

The experience of this kind of disposability is evident in BNHA, as class and exploitation seem to be highly correlated with social isolation. The members of the Shie Hassaikai were used and abandoned, and bonded strongly to one another after joining Overhaul. Jin’s experience of “social homelessness” shows him walking alone through empty city streets, before he ends up talking to his own clone below an overpass. Jin, too, finds companionship in joining a group, the League of Villains, but fears of disposability and further isolation plague his thoughts. Whether or not he genuinely believes League of Villains would abandon him, Jin feels the need to continue justifying his place among them. The societal bleeds into the personal; Jin’s disposability to society, best represented by his interactions with law enforcement and with his employer, also becomes an anxiety in his interpersonal relationships. Horikoshi’s decision to characterize Jin in such a way makes it impossible to ignore the larger issues that created him; namely, class issues that reflect real-world concerns.

As Jin sits below the overpass, talking to his clone, he asks whether he went wrong somewhere. The other Jin responds that it must have been “being born without an ounce of luck.” Bauman comments on unluckiness thusly:

“In Samuel Butler’s Erewhon it was ‘ill luck of any kind, or even ill treatment at the hands of others’ that was ‘considered an offence against society, inasmuch as it [made] people uncomfortable to hear of it.’ ‘Loss of fortune, therefore’ was ‘punished hardly less severely than physical delinquency’.” [source]

These observations are perfectly applicable to the characters we’ve met. It’s often the “unlucky” who get treated the worst: Izuku was bullied relentlessly for his “unlucky” Quirklessness, and Rei wound up trading her “unlucky” marriage for an institutionalization of ten years. Jin was fired from his job after an “unlucky” accident, fell into a life of crime, and is finally killed by the same hero who offered him a second chance. When Dabi probes Tokoyami Fumikage in an attempt to make him contend with Jin’s “ill treatment” at Hawks’ hands, Tokoyami dismisses it and justifies Jin’s execution, undoubtedly because it would be uncomfortable, possibly even world-shattering, to acknowledge Dabi’s charge. The fact that these people have been unlucky, or have even been actively mistreated or failed by others, turns the public’s gaze away in an attempt to escape the discomfort elicited by these embodiments of society’s waste. For the “redundant” to remind society of its human cost—or even to remind the non-redundant of the small gap of bad luck that separates them—they become objects of revulsion, to be forgotten or discarded as quickly as possible. Rendered “invisible” and “unthinkable” as leftovers, they become “ontologically non-existent.” [source]

Some of the anxiety towards the “redundant” is precisely because the framework of “becoming waste” is permeable. This permeability accounts for the possibility of transforming from citizen to disposable human; perhaps, then, when “all it takes is one bad day,” the line which separates citizen from villain is just as permeable. In the framework of hero society, it may be argued that villains are not simply redundant waste, but the trash whose alienation hero society relies on in a highly visible way. "The disposable, the waste as objects and humans, inhabit a place of exclusion from society which provides not only an unrecognized space of reinforcement for society itself, but also the fuel and the labor for maintaining the status quo.” [source] In BNHA’s terms, not only are villains excluded from a deserving, innocent society, they are also the fuel for maintaining it by embodying its opposite—the guilty and undeserving—their exclusion constantly reinforced through the public spectacle of their arrests and the public idolization of heroes. Villains are no longer simply inert leftovers that can be easily ignored, as Bauman described; villains have broken past hero society’s elementary defenses, and threaten the Lebenswelt of deserving innocents. While their visibility transforms villains back into an acknowledgeable existence, the very act of breaching their invisibility renders them a kind of waste that must be permanently disposed of.

A livable life?

Heroes do not kill. This is stated in 251 by the death-seeking Ending, who, despite his best efforts, is spared an unceremonious execution at the hands of a hero, who the readers know is a domestic abuser. The deathless resolution to Ending’s conflict, then, further compounds the horror of chapter 266, when Jin is eliminated with extreme prejudice by Hawks, who admires the aforementioned hero. The irony is shocking and bitter as readers witness the violation of one of heroism’s fundamental tenets, broken no less for the elimination of one of the series’ most sympathetic villains, after Hawks himself concedes that Jin is “a good person.” It may be said that heroes do not have carte blanche to kill, but neither is it an inviolable principle, and of course a no-kill mandate says nothing about the ways villains have been injured or tortured at the hands of heroes. While arguments can be made about the imminent risk of certain occasions, the issue remains that it’s often the most vulnerable people who pay the highest price for maintaining a nebulous definition of societal “safety” (a “safety” which always seemed to exclude certain people), a concept that is primarily defined by the state and the policing class. Furthermore, the willingness of a hero to kill in defense of hero society begs the question: who may be killed without consequence, and under what circumstances?

In her collection of essays addressing responses to terrorism, Precarious Life, Judith Butler writes:

“Certain lives will be highly protected, and the abrogation of their claims to sanctity will be sufficient to mobilize the forces of war. Other lives will not find such fast and furious support and will not even qualify as "grievable."”

The notion of a “safe” society hinges on the protection of those sanctified lives, at the expense of vulnerable lives deemed “disposable” through poverty, homelessness, or criminality. A threat against the deserving innocents or the murder of a hero unites every other hero and every citizen in public mourning, and then in opposition against murderous villains—there is no such mobilization for the suffering of Quirkless kids, abused women, or orphaned, destitute teenagers. The threats against their well-beings are considered part-and-parcel to their world—normal, unavoidable, and indeed not violence at all. Certainly, a murdered villain will not find such unanimous grief nor anger mobilized in the wake his death, not even directed toward changing the isolated, impoverished conditions which made villainy an appealing choice in the first place. Jin’s death is privately witnessed and privately mourned, only by those who comprised his ibasho. It’s through these uneven displays of grief that Butler questions: “what counts as a livable life and a grievable death?”

Butler argues that certain lives are removed from the bounds of “normative” humanity, and thus “grievability.” Violence against vulnerable lives is dismissed or legitimized by the state through their dehumanization: in the world of BNHA, villains are “presented [...] as so many faces of evil” and treated as mere vessels of a killing instinct.

“Are they pure killing machines? If they are pure killing machines, then they are not humans [...]. They are something less than human, and yet somehow they assume a human form. They represent, as it were, an equivocation of the human, which forms the basis for some of the skepticism about the applicability of legal entitlements and protections.”

This kind of dehumanization is, of course, explained through the claim that certain people are “dangerous,” a designation which (as Butler points out) is determined by none other than the state itself.

“A certain level of dangerousness takes a human outside the bounds of law[... T]he state posits what is dangerous, and in so positing it, establishes the conditions for its own preemption and usurpation of the law[...]”

Perhaps, then, if villains are something other-than-human, something so dedicated to violence that they can be stopped only through death, no "sanctity,” and no law, is violated if they are killed.

The ability of the state to designate certain people as “dangerous” is linked to another political strategy: defining the difference between “legitimate” and “illegitimate” violence. Butler explains:

“The use of the term, "terrorism," thus works to delegitimate certain forms of violence committed by non-state-centered political entities at the same time that it sanctions a violent response by established states. [...] In this sense, the framework for conceptualizing global violence is such that "terrorism" becomes the name to describe the violence of the illegitimate, whereas legal war becomes the prerogative of those who can assume international recognition as legitimate states.” [source]

In the world of BNHA, clearly such a discernment exists between “legitimate” and “illegitimate” violence. Although certain readers have been quick to draw the “terrorism” analogy, the series itself tends to differentiate between “legitimate” and “illegitimate” violence not through charges of terrorism, but through the designation of “hero” and “villain.” Legitimate violence is wielded by heroes in defense of the state, in defense of property, and against villains, whereas illegitimate violence is wielded by villains against the state, against property, and against heroes. This difference between “hero” and “villain” is, in actuality, insubstantial as far as the question of morality, as even labeled villains such as Gentle Criminal behave within a palatable frame of ethics, while some career heroes are just as capable as villains of taking and ruining lives; nevertheless, the state has a vested interest in strongly promoting the idea of this divide—of legitimate, heroic violence as moral, justified, and legal, and illegitimate, villainous violence as immoral, unjustified, and unlawful. In this way, the state can engage in “legal war” with very little questioning or dissent from its populace, and it further delegitimizes the violence of its opponents. The violence of heroes is justified, and therefore they have an understandable human rationale; on the contrary, the violence of villains is unjustified, it is attributed to their innate violence, which is incomprehensible and inhuman.

“The fact that these prisoners are seen as pure vessels of violence [...] suggests that they do not become violent for the same kinds of reason that other politicized beings do, that their violence is somehow constitutive, groundless, and infinite, if not innate. If this violence is terrorism rather than violence, it is conceived as an action with no political goal, or cannot be read politically. It emerges, as they say, from fanatics, extremists, who do not espouse a point of view, but rather exist outside of "reason," and do not have a part in the human community.” [source]

No one personifies this better than Tomura himself. He is named the “Symbol of Terror” by AFO, and is undoubtedly viewed as such by the heroes and civilians of BNHA. It has been repeatedly emphasized that to everyone but the League of Villains, Tomura is not so much a human as he is the embodiment of thoughtless destruction. Tomura is referred to as a monster, as someone unshackled to humanity, as an “it,” as something that cannot be reasoned with. This is an idea that Horikoshi himself seems to play into somewhat, because although Tomura voices certain critiques of the hero system, he nevertheless seems to remain rather apolitical in who or what he decides to target. It’s Jin, then, who lends a political voice to the villains by criticizing pro heroes from his very first narrated chapter, but even a clear articulation of his grievances gets him no understanding reaction from the hero in front of whom he raises these charges.

While the fictional heroes may see villains as nothing more than vessels of violence, it can be argued that Horikoshi himself went through an extensive effort to depict the rationale and humanity of the villains. As I’ve stated before, Jin is very clearly connected to the real-world struggles of certain Japanese citizens, making him real and relatable in ways other characters may not be. At the same time, the rationale and humanity that Horikoshi recognizes are things that heroes like Hawks can’t grasp: as someone who idolized a hero as a child, and who was, for better or worse, enveloped by the hero system, he does not question the legitimacy of the hero system. Hawks understands only unluckiness in Jin’s circumstances, and shows little awareness of the fact that Jin was failed by the very society Hawks defends, that his suffering was both enforced by the legal system and by his boss, and ignored by institutions supposedly designed to help. Jin, of course, is not so obtuse—he reiterates his awareness that he is one of those disposable, ungrievable lives that heroes don’t save, and he is ultimately proven right—when Hawks’ offer of rehabilitation is rejected, he instead moves to kill. Jin, and other villains, are so thoroughly dehumanized, likened to killing machines, that it doesn’t occur to any hero that they can possibly be reasoned with.

Could there have been any other conclusion? I don’t believe so—not without a significant shift in thinking from heroes. For many of the villains, there’s very little to gain from rejoining the society that they were ejected from. Bauman writes that, for “disposable” humans:

“Unwelcome, tolerated at best, cast firmly on the receiving side of socially recommended or tolerated action, treated in the best of cases as an object of benevolence, charity and pity (challenged, to rub salt into the wound, as undeserved), but not of brotherly help, charged with indolence and suspected of iniquitous intentions and criminal intentions, [they have] few reasons to treat ‘society’ as a home to which one owes loyalty and concern.”

It should come as no surprise, then, that Jin rejects Hawks’ offer of a “socially tolerated” rehabilitation into the society that both caused and ignored his suffering, which he has no reason to believe wouldn’t outcast him again for another slip-up. Of course, he instead chose the place he was understood, where his mistakes were met with patience, where he wasn’t forced to justify his presence, where his sense of belonging felt stable. The people he called his ibasho were a home, a place he was allowed an ontological existence—the very inverse of that old, disposable life.

Conclusion

Bubaigawara Jin should be read as class commentary. The various obstacles in his story are all too reflective of the systemic issues of real-world Japan, concisely highlighting the shortcomings and common abuses of the alternative care system, the justice system, and the workplace. It’s also highly likely that Horikoshi himself is aware of economic inequalities on some level, which seems to reflect in the obvious and less-obvious ways he addresses class in BNHA. I think this probable intentionality is important, as it can lend itself to our speculation on the series’ messages and themes. Importantly, if Jin’s story is a commentary about the real-world trials of economic marginalization, then surely this also applies to the way he is treated by heroes and by wider society. Beyond simple evaluations of “X did this, which forced Y to respond,” certain narrative choices may be better understood as a pattern of illustrating disposability, of the way this fictional society creates “human waste,” and to relate them to real-world patterns of which lives are considered worth saving.

I somewhat downplayed the real-world inspirations for Bauman and Butler’s texts, because I believe those are true and serious topics about capitalism and war that should be discussed on their own merits, unrelated to a fictional series; however, they also perfectly show how certain beliefs in the real world are transferrable to BNHA’s world. Because these beliefs are transferrable, readers’ reactions to certain narratives in fiction are rooted in certain truths we believe about the real world as well. For example, it would pointless to call the League of Villains “terrorists” as a condemnation, unless someone believes that the charge of “terrorism” in itself tells us anything meaningful about morality. As Butler has explained, and as real life shows (e.g. through the designation of black radical groups like the Black Panthers or antifascist groups as terrorist organizations), the term “terrorism” alone holds no inherent moral implication. Imagining that the label of “terrorist” can meaningfully convey anything about morality, and that "being a terrorist” removes a person from the boundaries of “normative humanity” (and thus due legal process in-universe, and reader sympathy out-of-universe) reflects an ignorance about certain real-world political processes.

Injustice in the world doesn’t only take the form of obvious oppression and violence; manipulation is also involved. There is a vested interest by the ruling class in guiding the ways people think and perceive reality, teaching us what we deserve and don’t deserve, what prices are acceptable and unacceptable to pay for human life. These lessons must be rejected from the outset, leaving rules and definitions open for interpretation. What qualifies as violence? Is violence more than a physical act of harm? Is it violence to isolate “unproductive” members of society? Is it violence to deny them food and shelter? Is it then violence to cage and execute them when they do not non-violently accept their subjugation? What forms of violence are unacceptable and why? Where does violence really begin?

Dismantling oppression can only be achieved by questioning its very foundations and the language used to justify it; fiction, by enveloping us into a new reality—a new world with new rules—should make this questioning easier if we’re willing to divest ourselves of certain beliefs fed to us by those in power. BNHA, as imperfect as it is, certainly tries to raise some of these questions about the designations of “heroes” and “villains,” about the deserving and undeserving, about who is saved and who gets left behind. I would go further, and argue that to invest legitimacy into the hero system is to invest legitimacy into everything that perpetuates it: the poverty, the violence, the disposability of those judged “villainous,” and the idea that agents of the state are uniquely positioned to enact legitimate violence. Confronting crime means eliminating the need for it and the conditions that give rise to it, and only then, not a moment before, will the problem of villains largely cease to exist.

#jin bubaigawara #bubaigawara jin #bnha meta #the exhaustive meta about i love twice

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whumptober · 4 years

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Whumptober 2020 - Updated

Welcome to Whumptober 2020! We’re doing things a little differently this year so please make sure to read the Event Info carefully. We are also excited to announce the addition of an AO3 Collection, which can be found here.

We hope you’re as excited as us to watch the Whump Community come together once again for a month of bone-crunching creativity and collaboration!

(All 31 Themes + Prompts, Event Information, and FAQs are posted below the cut!)

No 1. LET'S HANG OUT SOMETIME Waking Up Restrained | Shackled | Hanging

No 2. IN THE HANDS OF THE ENEMY "Pick Who Dies" | Collars | Kidnapped

No 3. MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY Manhandled | Forced to their Knees | Held at Gunpoint

No 4. RUNNING OUT OF TIME Caged | Buried Alive | Collapsed Building

No 5. WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING? On the Run | Failed Escape | Rescue

No 6. PLEASE.... "Get it Out" | No More | "Stop, please"

No 7. I'VE GOT YOU Support | Carrying | Enemy to Caretaker

No 8. WHERE DID EVERYBODY GO? "Don't Say Goodbye" | Abandoned | Isolation

No 9. FOR THE GREATER GOOD "Take Me Instead" | "Run!” | Ritual Sacrifice

No 10. THEY LOOK SO PRETTY WHEN THEY BLEED Blood Loss | Internal Bleeding | Trail of Blood

No 11. PSYCH 101 Defiance | Struggling | Crying

No 12. I THINK I'VE BROKEN SOMETHING Broken Down | Broken Bones | Broken Trust

No 13. BREATHE IN BREATHE OUT Delayed Drowning | Chemical Pneumonia | Oxygen Mask

No 14. IS SOMETHING BURNING? Branding | Heat Exhaustion | Fire

No 15. INTO THE UNKNOWN Possession | Magical Healing | Science Gone Wrong

No 16. A TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY Forced to Beg | Hallucinations | Shoot the Hostage

No 17. I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING Blackmail | Dirty Secret | Wrongfully Accused

No 18. PANIC! AT THE DISCO Panic Attacks | Phobias | Paranoia

No 19. BROKEN HEARTS Grief | Mourning Loved One | Survivor's Guilt

No 20. TOTO, I HAVE A FEELING WE'RE NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE Lost | Field Medicine | Medieval

No 21. I DON'T FEEL SO WELL Chronic Pain | Hypothermia | Infection

No 22. DO THESE TACOS TASTE FUNNY TO YOU? Poisoned | Drugged | Withdrawal

No 23. WHAT’S A WHUMPEE GOTTA DO TO GET SOME SLEEP AROUND HERE? Exhaustion | Narcolepsy | Sleep Deprivation

No 24. YOU’RE NOT MAKING ANY SENSE Forced Mutism | Blindfolded | Sensory Deprivation

No 25. I THINK I’LL JUST COLLAPSE RIGHT HERE, THANKS Disorientation | Blurred Vision | Ringing Ears

No 26. IF YOU THOUGHT THE HEAD TRAUMA WAS BAD... Migraine | Concussion | Blindness

No 27. OK, WHO HAD NATURAL DISASTERS ON THEIR 2020 BINGO CARD? Earthquake | Extreme Weather | Power Outage

No 28. SUCH WOW. MANY NORMAL. VERY OOPS. Accidents | Hunting Season | Mugged

No 29. I THINK I NEED A DOCTOR Intubation | Emergency Room | Reluctant Bedrest

No 30. NOW WHERE DID THAT COME FROM? Wound Reveal | Ignoring an Injury | Internal Organ Injury

No 31. TODAY’S SPECIAL: TORTURE Experiment | Whipped | Left for Dead

Alternate Prompt List

Alt 1. Punctured

Alt 2. Falling

Alt 3. Comfort

Alt 4. Stitches

Alt 5. Stoic Whumpees

Alt 6. Altered States

Alt 7. Found Family

Alt 8. Adverse Reactions

Alt 9. Memory Loss

Alt 10. Nightmares

Alt 11. Presumed Dead

Alt. 12. Water

Alt. 13 Accidents

Alt. 14 Shot

Alt. 15 Carry/Support

Event Info

WHUMPTOBER is a month-long, prompt-based creation challenge (think: Inktober, but whumpier). There are 31 Official themes this year - one for each day of the month - which can be used, skipped, or combined in any way you’d like. They are meant to serve as inspiration without being taken literally (e.g. you don't have to include the exact wording into your work). Additionally, there are 3 prompts for each theme. These are optional suggestions and can be used in conjunction with the theme, or as options/alternatives. We want to give everyone as much creative freedom as possible, as well as increase event accessibility for folks with triggers and squicks.

Creators can PRODUCE work in any media they choose, including but not limited to: writing, visual artwork, and photo/video/audio edits. Creators can PARTICIPATE as much or as little as they want (i.e. you don’t have to do ALL the prompts if you don’t want to) and prompts can be used in any order. They are also free to use even after the event ends.

When uploading Whumptober content to your blog, be sure to tag the with:

#whumptober2020 …..(the event tag)

#no.1, #no.2, #no.3, …..(theme number)

#bruised, #stabbed, …..(the theme or specific prompt you chose)

#fandom or #OC

#medium …..(gifs, fic, podcast, art, etc.)

#teeth, #etc …..(trigger warnings & any additional tags. Keep in mind not to add “tw” in front but only use the word/trigger itself, because tumblr sucks)

#nsfw, #nsfwhump …..(only for nsfw content)

PLEASE BE DILIGENT WITH YOUR TAGGING. Only properly tagged posts are considered for archiving on the official @whumptober2020 blog. They must be tagged in the order above.

Unfortunately, due to the sheer number of participants in recent years, we cannot guarantee your work will be archived. A random selection of properly tagged posts from all genres will be reblogged each day.

Whumpers who produce content for 31 total theme days are considered event completionists and will be tagged in a masterpost at the end of the month.

Questions not addressed below can be directed to this blog as well.

Thanks for reading, and happy whumping!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q. What kind of content can I make? Can it be NSFW?

This is a MIXED MEDIA event! You can write fic, post meta, doodle or paint, create a gif set or photo edit, link a song, or get crafty with video - anything goes. As for NSFW, make what you like, we just hope that you’ll tag your work accordingly so that others participating in the event can stay safe :)

Q. Do I have to do all 31 Days? Can I post early/late?

Participate as much or little as you like, and post whenever! Just be sure to tag your posts properly (ex. #no.11, #psych101). Combining prompts into one piece of work is okay, and posting late is as well so as long as it’s in October.

Q. What if I don’t understand a theme?

Send us an ask! We’re happy to help clarify. That said, the themes are entirely up for interpretation :)

Q. Can I combine Whumptober with other creation challenges?

Absolutely! That’s like shooting two whumpees with one bullet :)

Q. Can I upload/repost my whumptober content to other social media platforms?

Of course! We’ve created an AO3 Collection to archive any fics posted there. The archive can be accessed here. The blog is the official archive, so please respect the boundaries of any closeted whumpers in your social circle :)

Q. Can I use prompts to write a new chapter for an existing fic?

Yes

Q. An existing fic I am currently writing contains many of the Whumptober prompts, can I use it?

If you are actively writing this fic at the moment with the whumptober prompts in mind, yes. If it just conveniently checks the boxes, then please don’t. You can, however, add new chapters answering one or more of the prompts.

Q. What kind of characters can I write for?

Fandom characters, OC characters, human, furry, alien, cyborg, whoever you like.

Q. Can I use a prompt multiple times?

Yes, but it only counts once

Q. If I’m not comfortable with one day's prompts can I use a prompt of a different day as a substitute and still be a completionist?

Yes, but please do not use a specific prompt twice. We have also created an alternate prompts list that you can draw from [here].

Q. Where can I post my work?

Post where and how you want. You don’t even have to (cross)post it to Tumblr. Just keep in mind if it’s not on Tumblr we will not be able to add it to the blog archive.

Q. Can I start posting early?

You can, but this is an October event and wouldn’t it be more fun with everyone doing it at the same time? That being said, you can post early, but we won’t be reblogging any work predating October 1st.

Q. Do I have to finish a fic I started/can I post WIP’s.?

Yes you can post WIPs. And you’re not obligated to finish it in October for it to count towards being a completionist.

Q. Is co-writing allowed?

Yes, absolutely, and it would count towards being a completionist for both/all of you :)

Q. Do I have to create 31 standalone pieces to be considered a completionist or can I write one continuous story?

One continuous story is fine. The challenge is to write something for 31 prompts. If that’s spread over 31 fics or just one, you are still considered a completionist. (The same goes for every other media you choose.)

Q. Is there a min/max limit on word count?

There is no limit

Q. Can I combine prompts? Is there a limit on how many?

No limit and combine as many as you’d like.

Q. Is a hc/angst focus ok?

Of course!

Q. What’s considered nsfw?

See this post

Q. What's whump?

See this post

Q. My interpretation of the prompt isn't whumpy at all, does that count?

No, sorry, but keep in mind that whump [see definition] is something very nuanced and different for everyone and emotional whump/angst is just as much part of it, as is physical whump and torture. So before you dismiss your idea, think about this.

Q. Can I start working on the prompts before October?

Absolutely! That’s why we posted the prompts a month in advance. We recognise how difficult it can be creating for 31 days in “real time”.

Q. How do I tag triggers?

tw at the end of the word, ex. emeto tw

Q. Do I have to use your tags?

Yes, if you want your work archived on the blog. If not, feel free to use whatever tags you want.

Q. Does combining prompts count towards completion?

Yes

Q. Can we @ you?

Yes but we mostly rely on the whumptober2020 tag

Q. Is there anything we are absolutely not allowed to write?

There are no rules, just be sure to properly tag your trigger warnings. And keep in mind Tumblr’s policies if you are posting it here (or the policies of whatever site you use).

Q. Where can I go for brainstorming help?

Here on Discord

Q. My characters are minors, is that ok?

Yes, but as with everything else, tags are your best friend.

Q. Can I cross post on other blogs?

Yes, multiple platforms and blogs are perfectly acceptable. You can also post different works to different accounts under different names, without posting them everywhere at once.

Note: This is a creation challenge, please don’t repost your old work under our tags (unless it’s been changed or edited for the event).

#eventinfo2020 #whumptober2020 #whumptober #promptlist2020 #prompt list #FAQs #event info

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starfirexuchiha · 3 years

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The Flower Meanings behind each P5R Flower Keychain Merch

After pre-ordering the P5R flower keychain merch, I decided delve into the flower meanings that each PT character is associated with in the new flower keychain merch.

I’m going to research into the Hanakotoba (花言葉) meaning of these flowers, the English meanings, and the relevant flower essences to hopefully get the right information. Then I’ll try to connect how they relate to the characters. Understand that what I’ll say may not be 100% right, because this is my own interpretation.

The flower meanings I gotten are based on the Japanese websites and English websites that I looked into. THIS IS GOING TO BE A VERY LONG POST so please excuse any potential grammar mistakes I may have made.

If I ever have time, I might make separate posts for each Phantom Thief regarding the history, folklore and meta of their flowers.

Ren Amamiya - Red China Asters & White Daisies

China Asters are called 蝦夷菊 (Ezogiku) or in Katakana, エゾギク in Japanese.

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) China Asters in general mean:

追憶 (Recollection)

私はあなたを想うでしょう (I will think of you)

変化 (Change / Shapeshift)

信じる恋 (Believing in Love)

貞節 (Fidelity)

And Red China Asters in particular mean:

変化を好む (I prefer change)

The English meaning of these Asters are:

Patience

Elegance

Daintiness (Gentle and Kind personality)

Afterthought (Remembering someone who is no longer with you / Thinking if things should have happened differently)

Love of variety

And the Red color in an Aster is the color of passion that expresses strong emotions towards these meanings.

So basically China Asters mean Change and Recollection (Remembering something/someone), and “私はあなたを想うでしょう (I will think of you)”.

Note: There are 2 different classifications of Aster flowers. One is the Shion (シオン) Aster. The other is the China (エゾギク) Aster. There is no such thing as a red Shion Aster. China Asters on the other hand, comes with a variety of colors including red. Therefore, the red asters are China Asters.

Shion Asters tend to have the meaning: “君を忘れない (I won’t forget you)”. China Asters tend to have a similar meaning which is: "私はあなたを想うでしょう (I will think of you)”. This indicates remembering someone who is no longer with you, or when they are far away and separated from you. It seems that Asters in general involve remembering someone and not wanting to forget them.

How this connects to Ren:

Since Red Asters in particular mean “change”, I think this refers to how Ren is a “shapeshifter” (from the Beneath the Mask song), since he is a WildCard user who uses different personas and masks. I think the “変化を好む (I prefer change) ” meaning refers to how Ren wanted to reform society as a Phantom Thief.

China Asters in general also mean “recollection”, I think this refers to what happened between Ren and Akechi. Ren deeply regretted how he wasn’t able to save Akechi in the engine room and wanted things to happen differently between them (Like peacefully playing chess with Akechi in his room in the “Bad Ending”). For Akechi to be present and by his side...that was his wish in the dream world. This can also refer to how Akechi said “If only we had met a few years earlier...”. Recollection is also connected to the "私はあなたを想うでしょう (I will think of you)” meaning. Ren still remembers his promise with Akechi, even after the dream world ended. Akechi was separated from him twice but Ren still carries Akechi’s glove with him, thinking of him.

The meaning of these flowers are probably connected to the meaning of Akechi’s Forget-Me-Nots that I will mention later in this post.

Daisies are called 雛菊 (Hinagiku) or just デイジー (Daisy) in Japanese.

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) Daisies in general mean:

純潔 (Innocence / Purity)

美人 (Beautiful person)

平和 (Peace / Harmony)

希望 (Hope)

And White Daisies in particular mean:

無邪気 (Innocent)

The English meanings of these Daisies are:

Innocence

New Beginnings

Purity

Harmony

If the Daisy color is White then that specifically means “Innocence” and “Purity”.

How this connects to Ren:

Ren has his own sense of justice and righteousness, and he believes that what he’s doing is for the greater good. He is the Trickster who brings hope and drives away ruin. Shido falsely accused Ren of assault even though Ren’s innocent. He gotten a criminal record even though he is innocent. Ren started off as a misunderstood hero... and yeah I guess Ren is pretty good-looking too “美人 (Beautiful person)” lol.

Ryuji Sakamoto - Sunflowers & Red Ace Hydrangeas

Sunflowers are called 向日葵 (Himawari) or in katakana ヒマワリ in Japanese.

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) Sunflowers mean:

私はあなただけを見つめる (I only have my eyes on you)

あなたを幸福にする (I will make you happy)

崇拝 (Admiration / Adoration)

光輝 (Brightness)

あなたは素晴らしい (You are amazing)

偽りの富 (False Riches)

The English meanings of these Sunflowers are:

Adoration

Faithfulness

Loyalty

Joy & Happiness

So basically Sunflowers mean admiring someone or adoring someone and it also means happiness.

How this connects to Ryuji:

Ryuji is Ren’s best friend, and he also greatly admires Ren for being the leader of the Phantom Thieves. Ryuji is also the type of guy who is loud, cheerful, and optimistic. This can connect to brightness and happiness.

Hydrangeas are called 紫陽花 (Ajisai) or in katakana アジサイ in Japanese.

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) Hydrangeas mean:

高慢 (Boastfulness / Arrogance)

冷酷 (Ruthlessness / Cold-Hearted)

謝罪 (Apology)

The English meanings of Hydrangeas are:

Gratitude

Honest Emotions

Vanity

Boastfulness

Desire for forgiveness

Regret

In Japan, Hydrangeas are usually used to express apology for bad behavior. That’s why negative words like 冷酷 (Ruthlessness / Cold-Hearted) and 高慢 (Boastfulness / Arrogance) are associated with it. It’s to apologize for behaving like that.

How this connects to Ryuji:

Ryuji is a delinquent and a troublemaker. However, he’s also the type to apologize for the things he messed up on. One example is Ryuji feeling sorry for his mother because attacking Kamoshida ruined his chances of making things easier for her (like getting an athletic scholarship). Another example is the 3rd Semester where he deeply apologizes to Ren for abandoning him to enjoy the dream world. For 高慢 (Boastfulness / Arrogance), Ryuji wanted to have more fame and recognition as the Phantom Thieves were becoming more popular, but that was until the Okumura incident.

Ann Takamaki - Red Roses & Strawberry Blossoms

“A Beautiful Rose has thorns!” - Ann

Roses are called 薔薇 (Bara) or they can be just called ローズ (Rose) in Japanese.

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) Roses in general mean:

愛 (Love)

美 (Beauty)

And Red Roses in particular mean:

あなたを愛してます (I love you)

愛情 (Love / Affection)

美 (Beauty)

情熱 (Passion)

熱烈な恋 (Passionate Love)

The English meanings of Red Roses are pretty much the same: Passionate Love, Romance, and Beauty. Roses are the most well-known flowers across the world.

How this connects to Ann:

Ann is associated with the Lovers Arcana. Ann’s phantom thief attire is also associated around the themes of beauty, lust, and love. This is because her Persona is Carmen, who is a Femme Fatale (An attractive and seductive woman, especially one who is likely to cause distress or disaster to a man who becomes involved with her). Like what Ann said in battle: “A Beautiful Rose has thorns!“

Strawberries are called 苺 (Ichigo) in Japan.

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) Strawberry Blossoms mean:

尊重と愛情 (Love and Respect)

幸福な家庭 (Happy Family)

あなたは私を喜ばせる (You please me)

先見の明 (Foresight)

完全なる善 (Perfect Goodness)

The English meanings of Strawberry Blossoms are:

Perfection

Righteousness

Spring / Rebirth

So basically Strawberry Blossoms mean perfection, love, and righteousness.

The essence of a Strawberry Blossom can help those who are going through a mental loop of fear and anxiety. For people who are worrying themselves to exhaustion and tears.

How this connects to Ann:

Ann is very kind, compassionate, and also cheerful when she’s with the Phantom Thieves. When it comes to “righteousness“, Ann has moral values and tends to reflect on whether her’s or the PT’s actions are right or wrong. She also has a strong desire to help those in need. I think “perfection” connects to how Ann is confidant about her physical appearance, but she also wants to be mentally strong and confidant like the female villains she watched.

The essence of a Strawberry Blossom (a mental loop of fear and anxiety) could connect to what Ann was going through during the Kamoshida arc. She worries a lot about Shiho, and was unfortunately put into a situation where she had to deal with Kamoshida’s threats and sexual harassment. This is because she feared that Shiho would lose her position in the volleyball team. This situation was so stressful that she suddenly had to talk to Ren about it at the station.

Yusuke Kitagawa - Nemophilas & Lily of the Valleys

Nemophilas (aka Baby Blue Eyes) are called 瑠璃唐草 (Rurikarakusa) or just ネモフィラ (Nemophila) in Japanese.

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) Nemophilas mean:

どこでも成功 (Success everywhere)

あなたを許す (I forgive you)

可憐 (Sweet)

The English meanings of Nemophilas are pretty much the same: Victory and Success.

However...

Nemophilas have essences for anyone who during their childhood, had lack of support from their father figure or had issues with their father figure.

How this connects to Yusuke:

Sure the “success” meaning could probably connect to Yusuke trying to succeed his art career, but I think the Nemophila essence meaning connects to him more. Yusuke did have a father figure in his childhood who is Madarame. Madarame adopted him shortly after his mother’s death. He became corrupted by his distorted desires and treated Yusuke as a tool to help bolster his fame and riches. Yusuke had issues with Madarame‘s abuse and eventually fought against him in the Metaverse.

However Yusuke still have this conflicting case of Stockholm Syndrome towards Madarame and it shows during the 3rd semester. In the dream world, part of Yusuke’s wish was to have Madarame be a supporting and sincere father figure towards him. This can connect to the Nemophila meaning of “feeling supported and loved, especially by male figures”.

One of the birth flower dates for Nemophilas is January 28th, which is Yusuke’s birthday. So these flowers are REALLY for Yusuke!

Lily of the Valleys are called 鈴蘭 (Suzuran) or in katakana スズラン in Japanese.

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) Lily of the Valleys mean:

再び幸せが訪れる (Return of Happiness)

純粋 (Purity)

謙遜 (Modesty)

優しさ (Kindness)

The English meanings of Lily of the Valleys are:

Motherhood

Womanhood

Purity

Sweetness

Return of Happiness

You made my life complete

So basically the Lily of the Valley flowers mean “Return of Happiness” but it could also mean “Motherhood”, because this flower is considered to be the perfect flower for the month of May, and Mother’s Day takes place in May. On May 1st, it is a custom to give a loved one Lily of the Valleys.

Lily of the Valley also has essences for those who are yearning or desiring relationships that are unattainable.

How this connects to Yusuke:

The “再び幸せが訪れる (Return of Happiness)“ meaning could refer to Yusuke becoming part of the Phantom Thieves and obtaining new friends. The PTs saved him from Madarame. Note that Yusuke first met the Phantom Thieves on the month of May, and Lily of the Valleys are heavily associated with that month.

I think this also relates to the Sayuri painting. The true form of the Sayuri painting expresses motherhood. The woman in the painting is holding a baby. Yusuke’s mother created this painting of herself happily holding her newborn son in her arms. “Yearning for relationships that are unattainable” could probably refer to how Yusuke deep down yearn for parental love. His biological parents aren’t present in his life and Madarame is a corrupted father figure. I mentioned before that part of Yusuke’s wish in the dream world was to have Madarame be a supporting and sincere father figure towards him.

Makoto Niijima - Canterbury Bells & Pink Tree Peonies

Canterbury Bells (aka Bellflowers), are called カンパニュラ (Campanula) in Japanese.

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) Canterbury Bells mean:

感謝 (Gratitude)

誠実 (Sincerity)

節操 (Loyalty)

思いを告げる (Telling your Thoughts)

共感 (Sympathy)

The English meanings of Canterbury Bells are:

Gratitude

Humility

Everlasting Love

So basically Canterbury bells mean “Gratitude” and “Telling your Thoughts”.

The essence of Canterbury Bells are for those who are stressed and cannot think for themselves. Canterbury Bells can help clear their minds so that they can stand up for themselves and make their own decisions.

How this connects to Makoto:

Before she joined the Phantom Thieves, Makoto was considered to be an obedient “good girl type of pushover” who followed the rules and couldn’t make her own decisions. During the Kaneshiro arc, so many things were happening to her at once such as the Principal giving her a difficult task, Sae getting angry at her during dinner, and Goro calling her a pushover. All of this really stressed her because her obedience is suffocating her. This connects to the “思いを告げる (Telling your Thoughts)“ meaning because it wasn’t until she entered Kaneshiro’s palace that she was finally able to speak her mind and stand up for herself.

One of the birth flower dates for Canterbury Bells is April 23rd, which is Makoto’s birthday. So these flowers are REALLY for Makoto!

Tree Peonies are called 牡丹 (Botan) or in katakana ボタン in Japanese.

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) Tree Peonies mean:

王者の風格 (Personality of a King)

富貴 (Wealth and Honor)

はにかみ (Bashfulness)

恥じらい (Shyness)

思いやり (Compassion)

The English meanings of Tree Peonies are:

Good Fortune

Bravery

Honor

Nobility

In Japan, Tree Peonies are well-respected and known to be called the “King of Flowers” (花の王様) or the “King of a Hundred Flowers” (百花の王). The reason why they’re called that is because back in history, Tree Peonies were used to decorate throne rooms and royal palaces. That’s why Tree Peonies tend to have meanings relating to royalty and honor.

The essence of Peonies are for those who are overworking themselves and trying to work hard for everything.

How this connects to Makoto:

Makoto’s code name is “Queen”, because of her bossy and strict personality. This also connects to the “王者の風格 (Personality of a King)“ meaning. Makoto’s bossy personality can be a King-like trait. Also a Queen is just a royal female version of a King. Makoto also worked hard to keep her grades in check and studied a lot in order to go to a good college. This could connect to the Peony essence for trying to work hard for everything. Makoto also drove a lot in P5 Strikers and exhausted herself from it. This could mean that Makoto is also the type to overwork herself.

The “はにかみ (Bashfulness)” meaning could probably connect to how Makoto has vulnerable or cute sides to her. She is scared of paranormal activity and have cute buchimaru merch in her room.

Futaba Sakura - Dandelions & Red Carnations

Dandelions are called 蒲公英 (Tanpopo) or in katakana タンポポ in Japanese.

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) Dandelions mean:

愛の神託 (Oracle of Love)

神託 (Oracle)

真心の愛 (Sincere Love)

幸福 (Happiness)

別離 (Separation)

The English meanings of Dandelions are:

Happiness

Joy

Youthful Thoughts

Dandelions are known to be a fortune-telling flower which is why words like “神託 (Oracle)” are associated with it. It seems like Dandelions also mean “Happiness” but also “Separation”.

How this connects to Futaba:

Obviously Futaba’s code name is “Oracle”, so all of the “神託 (Oracle)” and “愛の神託 (Oracle of Love)“ meanings of this flower connects to her. The “別離 (Separation)“ meaning could refer to how Futaba is separated from her mother because her mother died. The “幸福 (Happiness)“ meaning probably refers to how Futaba became happy again and gained new friends after the Phantom Thieves saved her.

One of the birth flower dates for Dandelions is February 19th, which is Futaba’s birthday. So these flowers are REALLY for Futaba!

Carnations are called カーネーション (Carnation) in Japanese.

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) Carnations in general mean:

無垢で深い愛 (Innocent and Deep Love)

魅惑 (Fascination)

愛情 (Affection)

And Red Carnations in particular mean:

母への愛 (A Mother’s Love)

The English meanings of Carnations are:

Admiration

Love and Affection

Fascination

Distinction

Carnations are known to symbolize Mother’s Day which is why “母への愛 (A Mother’s Love)“ is associated with it. The Red color of that flower in particular are used the most for Mother’s Day.

How this connects to Futaba:

Futaba loves her mother (Wakaba) a lot and she also misses her mother a lot. The whole Futaba Palace arc was about Futaba struggling to overcome her mother’s death. She later realized in her Palace that her mother doesn’t hate her and still loves her. This connects to the “母への愛 (A Mother’s Love)“ meaning. Futaba deep down still hasn’t overcome her mother’s death and it shows in the 3rd semester. Futaba’s wish in the dream world was to have Wakaba still alive. Futaba knew it wasn’t real early on, but she still rolled with it anyway because “If I got to see my mom again, then it was okay...”. She eventually apologized to Ren for this though.

Haru Okumura - Pink Roses & Hypericum Berries

As you already know, in Hanakotoba (花言葉) Roses in general mean:

愛 (Love)

美 (Beauty)

But Pink Roses in particular mean:

しとやか (Graceful / Ladylike)

上品 (Elegant)

可愛い人 (Cute person)

美しい少女 (Beautiful Girl)

誓い (Oath of Love)

感銘 (Deep Impression)

The English meanings of Pink Roses are:

Gratitude

Grace

Joy

Gentleness

Ann’s Red Roses represent passionate love and romance. Haru’s Pink Roses on the other hand, have a different meaning. Pink Roses are more associated with beauty and grace.

How this connects to Haru:

Haru is the “Beauty Thief”, and is associated with the themes of classy elegance, beauty and grace. This is because her Persona is Milady, who is a sophisticated and elegant woman. It’s also because Haru is rich. Haru is familiar with what it’s like to live in a high-class lifestyle.

Hypericum are called ヒペリカム (Hypericum) in Japanese

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) Hypericums mean:

きらめき (Sparkle)

悲しみは続かない (Sadness that doesn’t last)

The English meanings of Hypericums are:

Cheerfulness

Inspiration

Antidepressant

Hypericums are usually given to those who are grieving or lost a loved one. They are also known to relieve depression, because the medicine that uses this plant are antidepressants. Hypericums are also used to drive away devils, witches, sorcery, and misfortune. This is the reason why Hypericums have “悲しみは続かない (Sadness that doesn’t last)" as its meaning.

How this connects to Haru:

I think this is connected to how Haru lost her father and she was really sad about it. Hypericums are for those “who are grieving or lost a loved one“. The meaning of “driving away devils, witches, sorcery, and misfortune“ could refer to how Haru had to fight against her father in the Metaverse in order to stop his corruption and save anyone (and herself) who were affected by his distorted desires. Even after the Okumura arc, she still grieved about her father to the point that her wish in the dream world was to have her father alive again.

The “悲しみは続かない (Sadness that doesn’t last)" meaning could refer to Haru joining the Phantom Thieves and not being sad anymore. Her new friends relieved her depression.

Sumire Yoshizawa - Baby’s Breaths & Blue Star Milkweeds

Baby’s Breaths (aka Gypsophilas) are called かすみ草 (Kasumisou) in Japanese.

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) Baby’s Breaths mean:

清らかな心 (Pure Heart)

無邪気 (Innocence)

親切 (Kindness)

幸福 (Happiness)

永遠の愛 (Everlasting Love)

The English meanings of Baby’s Breaths are:

Everlasting Love

Newborn babies

Innocence

Holy Spirit

Unity

So basically Baby’s Breath mean “Innocence”, “Purity”, and “Everlasting Love”.

How this connects to Sumire:

The name of the flower. In Japanese, Baby’s Breaths are called “Kasumi” (かすみ) in hiragana. The name of Sumire’s twin sister is also in hiragana: かすみ芳澤 (Kasumi Yoshizawa). It appears that Kasumi is named after the Baby’s Breath flower. Sumire on the other hand, is named after Violets, and Violets are called すみれ草 (Sumiresou). What is the Hanakotoba meaning of Violets? “白昼夢 (Daydreaming)” and “あなたのことで頭がいっぱい (You Occupy my Thoughts)”.

Kasumi = Baby’s Breaths (Innocence, Pure Heart)

Sumire = Violets (Daydreaming, You Occupy my Thoughts)

Sumire was the first to be affected by Maruki’s power. Her cognition was changed, causing her to believe that she’s Kasumi. This is connected to the “白昼夢 (Daydreaming)” meaning. During her time being Kasumi, she was completely oblivious that she’s not Kasumi. This could connect to the “Innocence” meaning.

It’s also the reason why the Sumire keychain have Baby’s Breaths flowers instead of Violets. This is the Sumire that thinks she’s Kasumi.

The “永遠の愛 (Everlasting Love)“ meaning could probably refer to the bond between the two sisters.

The Blue Star Milkweeds (aka Tweedias) are called ブルースター (BlueStars) in Japanese.

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) BlueStars mean:

幸福な愛 (Happy Love)

虹あう心 (Rainbow Hearts)

信じあう心 (Hearts that believe in each other)

The English meaning of BlueStars are:

Faithful Affection

BlueStars are one of the common flowers that are used in weddings in a bride’s bouquet. I guess that’s why meanings like “幸福な愛 (Happy Love)“ and “信じあう心 (Hearts that believe in each other)” are associated with it.

The essence of BlueStars are associated with dream and reality. It helps balance the ability to daydream with the need to keep one foot fully grounded in reality.

How this connects to Sumire:

Sumire’s 3rd tier Persona Ella, represents Cinderella during her wedding day. The blue color of the BlueStars could also refer to the color of Sumire’s 1st Persona, Cendrillon.

But the essence of BlueStars seem to connect to her more. Regarding the Inharmonious Expression, Sumire wasn’t able to accept reality at first, and wanted to stay being Kasumi in the dream world. This could connect to her lack of ability to move forward and her inability to travel to another dimension (Reality). Then during her time in the 3rd semester with the Phantom Thieves and Akechi, Sumire eventually gained the courage to accept herself. She was finally able to keep one foot fully grounded in reality.

Goro Akechi - Lobelias & Pink Forget-Me-Nots

Lobelias are called ロベリア (Lobelia) in Japanese.

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) Lobelias mean:

悪意 (Malevolence / Evil Intentions)

謙遜 (Modesty)

いつも愛らしい (Always Charming)

嫌い (Hate)

The English meanings of Lobelias are:

Distinction

Malevolence

Arrogance

So basically Lobelias symbolizes “Malevolence”. The reason why Lobelias have these negative meanings is because even though these flowers look pretty, they are really toxic flowers that can kill you.

How this connects to Goro:

Goro’s true nature is full of malevolence and hate. He had caused psychotic breakdowns, had killed some people, and had attempted to betray the Phantom Thieves and kill Ren. His hatred comes from his desire for revenge against Shido, because Shido is the one who ruined his life as well as his mother’s. The 3rd semester showed this side of him even more. He is more ruthless, vulgar, aggressive, and wildly feral especially towards shadows. He takes great pleasure in killing them. Goro can also make himself go berserk by using “Call of Chaos” on himself.

Goro being a murderer and taking pleasure in killing things can connect to how the Lobelia flowers are really toxic and can kill you.

The “いつも愛らしい (Always Charming)” meaning could refer to how Goro is still pretty and charming despite showing is feral side. Like come on, look at this baby face:

Forget-Me-Nots are called 忘れな草 (Wasurenakusa) in Japanese.

In Hanakotoba (花言葉) Forget-Me-Nots in general mean:

真実の愛 (True Love)

私を忘れないで (Don’t forget me)

思い出 (Memories)

And Pink Forget-Me-Nots in particular mean:

真実の友情 (True Friendship)

The English meanings of Forget-Me-Nots are:

Don’t forget me

Remembrance

True Love

Eternal Love

Desperate Love

Memory of a dead person

The meanings of “True Love” and “Don’t Forget Me” came from legends of tragic romances in medieval times.

The essence of Forget-Me-Nots are for those who never fully resolved their isolation and abandonment issues after experiencing the death of an important family member or friend during childhood.

How this connects to Goro:

The “私を忘れないで (Don’t forget me)” and “Remembrance” meanings refers to what happened between Goro and Ren. Goro made a promise with Ren and gave Ren one of his gloves. But then Goro “died” in the Engine Room and Ren was devastated about it. Ren still kept the glove that Goro gave him and remembers him from it. This can also relate to the meaning of the China Asters that Ren is associated with: "私はあなたを想うでしょう (I will think of you)”, and also relates to “Memory of a dead person”.

The “真実の友情 (True Friendship)” meaning from the Pink Forget-Me-Nots in particular could refer to how in P5R, Goro now has a manual confidant. Ren is able to have an “open and honest relationship” with Goro because of this.

The essence of Forget-Me-Nots also relates to Goro. Goro does indeed have isolation and abandonment issues. He mentioned how he’s an unwanted bastard child, and in the engine room he mentioned how he wanted to be loved. He also deep down wanted to be acknowledged by Shido since Shido is his only biological link. Shido of course took advantage of that. All of this is because during Goro’s childhood, his mother committed suicide, leaving him feeling alone and unwanted. The death of an important family member.

For the ShuAke fans:

Since Forget-Me-Nots gotten their name from tragic romances, this can connect to how ShuAke is a tragic and angsty romance as well. Since they have an “open and honest relationship”, their “真実の友情 (True Friendship)” can turn into “真実の愛 (True Love)” as the story progresses. Also… their flowers communicated to each other like:

Goro: 私を忘れないで (Don’t forget me)

Ren: 私はあなたを想うでしょう。君を忘れない (I will think of you. I won’t forget you)

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Whew.... I gotta say, making this post has made me learn a lot about flowers and the flower language. Thanks to this new knowledge, I will consider using the meaning of flowers in my future video projects from now on. Making this post also made me delve into the meta of the other Phantom Thieves and I began to like them more because of it.

Like I said, my interpretations aren’t 100% correct, so make what you will with this knowledge.

You’re welcome 👋

#p5r #persona 5 royal #p5 royal #merch #flower language #ren amamiya #akira kurusu #ryuji sakamoto #ann takamaki #yusuke kitagawa #makoto niijima #futaba sakura #haru okumura #sumire yoshizawa #kasumi yoshizawa #goro akechi #shuake #akeshu #meta

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catty-words · 3 years

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an exhaustive list of things i love about “perfect harmony”:

- on a meta level, i am deeply obsessed with the fact that madison and charlie wrote it together because that’s such a clever way to give the actors more immediate access to a huge part of their characters’ intimacy AND because it’s a really nice mentorship move, affording two actors early in their careers the opportunity to push their creative limits

- luke singing step into my world when he’s actually taking a step into julie’s, both in the context of the fantasy and in the story more broadly, and how the world being that of a bittersweet love story ‘bout a girl reinforces this crafty juxtaposition

- much of the choreography being a mirror image of the dance julie just did with nick, starting with the hands and how carelessly julie can take nick’s vs. how much pathos goes into the moment she tries to grab onto luke’s

- julie’s ‘please reassure me through this’ look she gives to luke when their hands miss coming into contact twice and his ‘trust me, you got this’ eyebrow wiggling and subtle little nod

- and then the way she freaking Comes Alive when they finally do touch

- when the keyboard beat drops and just. the song currently exists solely in julie’s head so of course it’s driven forward by her instrument while being supported readily by luke’s lulling guitar (god i just *clenches fists* love subtext)

- nick’s lift being straightforward and about the act of the lift vs. both of luke’s lifts being more stylized and romantic

- the lyric when he goes, i know he doesn’t leave because it’s a playful line about luke being a ghost but also because luke’s not there in dance class yet he’s fully alive in julie’s head and heart she’s carrying him with her always the ROMANCE of it all

- speaking of ROMANCE her hand planted over his heart for the move that accompanies the lyric? top-shelf

- nick’s fancy floor moves ft. julie vs. luke’s fancier floor moves ft. fancier julie

- they just have the cutest flirty expressions here idk

- nick & julie’s clumsy and short-lived version of this move vs. luke & julie’s smooth af, lingering version

- the way all these mirrored moments add up to say that luke has fully supplanted nick as the loverboy of julie’s fantasy life and is clearly a far more complete person to her than nick ever was. on the flip side of that, though, is the way these mirrored moments speak to flynn’s line about julie ‘always want[ing] what she can’t have’...nick is there in real life and it’s less glamorous than the fantasy. which is only a small part of why julie’s going full ‘i am not looking i do not see it’ with nick’s feelings but the writing/framing is encouraging us to see that it’s still for sure a factor and i, for one, am compelled

- luke’s finger flare when he reaches his destination and they’re finally palm-to-palm and how it makes me need to lie down for a full hour

- smiiiiles

- and lastly, the way the complete song is chock full of lyrics that play with the convergence of these two people being in each other’s lives unnaturally (two worlds collide when i’m with you + we’re heaven on earth) and their connection being only more powerful for that fact (we come to life when we’re / in perfect harmony speaking to how they defy death through music + love me as i am / i’ll hold your music here inside my hand building on that to bring the deepest ‘music = the spark of life’ cut into being)

#julie and the phantoms #jatpedit #julie molina #luke patterson #gifs by catty #eml*#jatp meta #500 #did i really kick off this list getting emotional over resume building?#I SURE DID. and that's how you know i'm one of the adults in the fandom skgsdk #anyway #another lyric i'm obsessed with but can't quite fit onto the list because i try to go in chronological order #and the chronology of the shortened song is all off #is 'you set me free' sung by luke because. LITERALLY.#and then of course shout out to my jukebox tag #melody & words #in other news #i tried out a new skill for this list (the one moment fading into another thing) so please clap for me #it turned out quite nicely if i do say so myself

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thenamesblurrito · 3 years

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OC dump-

hi i’m trying not to think about something so have some self indulgence as an attempt at distraction. not all this art is finished but whatever

i think i forgot to post this TFA version of Buzzard (they/them) and their minicon companion Gremlin (he/him). i just keep giving them redesigns smh. it’s fun though! their TFA version is created when two Allspark shards activate in a plane museum and bring them to life. they fall in with Wreck-gar and go their merry way around collecting anything shiny or interesting. their special ability is snatching anything they want for their magpie hoard, even if it means sneaking a hand into somebody’s internals to pry out a fuel pump! they can do this lightning fast with excellent precision, so oftentimes they’ve already got their new shiny tucked away before anyone even realizes what happened. the concept of stealing needs to be introduced to them gradually. Gremlin helps by having incredible bite strength and an unbreakable jaw, so if Buzzard can’t quite reach something, they can hold him up to whatever they want and have him chomp it. granted, Buzzard is about as tall as Cyclonus, so it isn’t too often there’s something they can’t reach!

have a See-saw (she/they). she knows you’re here. she knows you’re watching her. unfortunately, she is also aware there’s nothing she can do about it, and is thus anxious. that’s their special ability actually, a play on their name, since they “see/saw” the story they’re part of. they have meta information about the universe they live in and what’s going on around them, so she comes across as paranoid, cowardly, and the most intense conspiracy theorist in the world. given that she’s a TFA OC who is an Autobot intel agent, working under Longarm Prime... yeah they know exactly who they’re working for and are properly afraid. nobody is aware of her meta knowledge, so they just assume her uncannily on-point guesses is a sign of being excellent at her job. most people assume their incredibly perfect balance is their special ability, which is the reason they were named See-saw to begin with.

my first Transformers OC, Mantis, and some freakin old art for her too. she started as a Bayverse OC, a deliberate mary sue, because i wanted to explore what being a mary sue would do to a person’s psyche. (the answer is, nothing good) she’s a gentle person with a little too much compassion, sometimes willing to let people take advantage of her because she wants to be kind. but she’s got two younger siblings of her same frametype, Seraph and Quetzal, and she’d move mountains for them. a nice mom friend. her alt mode is a hovercraft, by the way, those circles are large wheels containing rotors.

if you thought i could resist getting accidentally attached to this trio of jokingly-named darlings, you were wrong, which is why i’ve actually made art for them. a trio of contentious sisters, Post Haste, Lambaste, and Toothpaste are all just worker bots. Post Haste delivers mail because she’s pretty fast! even when she delivers it to the wrong person she’s fast enough to go back and correct her mistake with a smile without losing time on her route. Lambaste works alongside people twice her size because of her incredible strength, but oftentimes ends up using that strength to punch people out because they picked a fight with her. she’s got a semi-permanent glower on her, and the only people who are exempt from having a permanent grudge held against them are her siblings (only bc holding two grudges against the ppl she’s related to gets exhausting when you love them too). Toothpaste (yes i actually did name her toothpaste, i wanted their names to rhyme) is very careful with the details of her work, which means the spaces she cleans always end up looking absolutely spotless. usually she’s polite and demure and kind, but if you ruin her hard work (like a certain person who appears below) she will get Toweringly Mad. prepare to be chewed out by the personality equivalent of a furious kitten. each of them are variants on an alt mode inspired by that autonomous car up there. Post Haste is the basic version, Lambaste has a truck bed and a hitch, and Toothpaste has street cleaner attachments, with the big brush forming a skirt.

aaaaaand the most recent OC made out of spite/joke and once again i got too attached. Hot Dog (he/they) only exists because my phone for some reason keeps autocorrecting hot dog to be capitalized. clearly this is my phone trying to give me an OC. he’s a country boy, a buff giant, and a rough-and-tumble boyish neighborhood “no girls allowed”-type rascal, tracking mud and leaves everywhere he goes. also i don’t know how this works but he’s somehow Hot Rod’s cousin. i didn’t know what to do with him until i thought about what he’d be like interacting with other OCs and was promptly slapped in the face with the enemies-to-lovers vibe of prim and proper Toothpaste/annoyed farmboy Hot Dog

#tfoc #buzzard #gremlin #see-saw #mantis #post haste #lambaste #toothpaste #hot dog #transformers #macaddam #wip #i thought about trying to finish these before posting but i have so little art energy rn. gatoraider was a miracle #u can ask about them if u want! they aren't in snap and i dont rly have a super developed story in mind for them but #talking about them is better than being sad yknow!!!!!#long post

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madame-mimsy · 3 years

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Theory Behind the Reward Tier Levels in Janus’ Corridor.

Has someone done this, already? Probably. But nothing says mental exhaustion like procrastinating on schoolwork by over analyzing the levels of tiers in Janus’ Corridor of Stored Rewards.

So with the release of the amazing art by James von Hollen (@ignoreitforever on Instagram) of each of the tiers (and the honestly delightfully terrifying images of Janus ripping through a wall like the Shining), I’ve had some thoughts on what the levels mean in relation to them because I am a Fander and we cannot leave well enough alone gdi.

See, at first I liked the idea going around that Janus was just giving tiers based on people he liked, as he’s stated that he prefers Remus over the others in livestreams. But the thing is, he obviously does NOT like Virgil, so that doesn’t quite fit to me. And the idea that it’s just giving preferential treatment to the Dark Sides made sense to me, until the new images came out and we had padlocks galore.

Instead, my theory is that each tier is based on how deep into the secrets he’s promised in his Corridor you go. The further along the more he WANTS to keep them secret, and thus the more money it takes, meta-wise, to pry those secrets loose, and why there is no Janus level tier. There’s no way he’d want to reveal everything he knows, no matter the amount. He (Janus) even got downright angry when people tried bugging him for spoilers in streams.

So instead he has the tiers listed by how willing he is to make that Side “public” or not. (Longwinded theory under the cut)

So first we have the Logan tier: the Federal Education Budget

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From the Snake’s Own Mouth:

“Ohhh, so you decided to share with us? Then, I suppose I can share with you.”

Honestly, this startled me because of the fact that it looks so arcane and mystical, which doesn’t match how I imagine Logan at all. My friend @onnastik pointed out that the creature on the right, surrounded by sigils, is the demon Baur, who among other things is said to “teach natural and moral philosophy, (and) logic...” which fits the bill pretty perfectly.

Speaking of a bill, the name for the tier fits Logan perfectly, too, to me. The Federal Education Budget is not only the budget used in the American system to make sure kids have free education until the highschool level, but is also part of the college loan system. It signifies public education, and that’s why I feel that Logan is the lowest, and thus most accessible, tier. Janus considers him bland, safe for public consumption, and maybe even wants to put up a front of logical intelligence first and foremost, to make even the broadest view of Thomas seem as intelligent as possible.

And look at how much the basic tier gives! That’s a huge amount for just the lowest tier, and gives you plenty to enjoy. That fits the ideal of something like a broad education system, and gives a very open feel. Logan’s tier is literally an “Open Book” of all sorts of delights.

And with that horrible pun, we move to Patton’s tier: The Monthly Allowance.

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From the Snake’s Own Mouth:

“That not enough for you? Fine. I'll give you everything from that last tier, PLUS...”

For all that it is creepy as heck, the fact that Patton’s tier is also a pun is perfect. The candles heat must surely make this... heartwarming. And the addition of blooper reels in the rewards, and the commentary, feel more personal than Logan’s open tier. Which is why I don’t think Patton was the first tier.

Patton wears his heart on his sleeve too much for Janus’ tastes, I bet. All of those emotions just out there where anyone could see? Those bloopers that showcase how imperfect Thomas and the crew are? Yikes. That is definitely something a certain snek wouldn’t want to be the most public option, though, at the same time, Patton’s gentle qualities and general love of the fandom also mean he’s a good symbol to push closer to the front of the Corridor, and doesn’t need to be as hidden as some of the others.

Also the fact that Patton’s tier has a sticker as a reward is absolutely perfect and you can’t tell me otherwise. Can’t you just imagine him going “Thank you so much, kiddo! Let’s watch some bloopers and play with sticker books! I’ll get the cocoa”? He’s the good goofy dad and stickers are fun. Bloopers and being silly are fun. It’s perfect for the sweet lad.

Then we have the illustrious Roman’s tier: A Prince’s Ransom.

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From the Snake’s Own Mouth:

“You want more? Really?? … You can only half tell, but I’m blushing over the fact that we’re worth this much to you. How about, everything in that last tier AND...”

Hooo boi there’s suddenly a lot more to unpack here. This is in no way an insult to the lovely Crew as a whole, but doesn’t it feel like this tier has more bribery going on than the last two? More self-centered reasons to join? It’s not just your name in the credits like Patton offered: it’s your name as a writer. That T-shirt (which I 100% leaped at when I saw this because holy heck it’s so pretty), and of course the mysterious Writer’s Room.

This tier feels very creative as well: look at all the stuff about influencing the show, the art of the shirt, etc. This is all about being showy and creative like our wonderful prince. But it’s not the first tier, even though Thomas is very much a creator. Why? Why is the tier for the showiest, flashiest Side just randomly tucked in the middle, not even the highest for show?

Because Janus doesn’t want Roman to be the first thing everyone sees. Our sweet boy is definitely eye-catching, but he can also be vain to the point of pompous, even annoying. And his fragile ego isn’t something that Janus likely wants to show off. Janus’ statement about “blushing” and “being worth that much to you” even feels like it matches that pride and ego.

And that fragility is in the crown’s design, too. At first glance it seems fine. Very fantastic, with Roman’s sun symbol in lovely display. But a longer look reveals cracks, broken sections and fissures. And a slight, odd green shine, too. Hmm.

No, Roman couldn’t be made the first tier because of his pride, but his is also the last tier to not have any outright locks on it...

The Strange Dark Son’s tier: OK, Now You’re Making Me Feel Guilty...

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From the Snake’s Own Mouth:

“PLEASE, don’t give us any more money! I don’t know what we could possibly do with it! But alright… since I like you, you can have everything in the last tier, and I'LL THROW IN...”

“Now you’re making me feel guilty” is absolutely what I would expect Virgil to think about someone giving him money because they enjoyed Thomas’ content. He’d freak out, and want to make sure to do something equally nice in return, to say thank you. Hence the thank-you video.

NGL I can also imagine him panicking and rushing around his room to pick up a random mug and just thrust it out at the gifter in return too, before hiding away in an anxious mess, but anyway. xD

The artwork for this seems to very much be in homage to the Annabelle Doll: a supposedly haunted ragdoll, kept locked in a case at an occult museum.

Something interesting about this doll’s story, though...

Wiki: “According to the Warrens, a student nurse was given the doll in 1970. They said that the doll behaved strangely, and that a psychic medium told the student that the doll was inhabited by the spirit of a deceased girl named "Annabelle". The student and her roommate tried to accept and nurture the spirit-possessed doll, but the doll reportedly exhibited malicious and frightening behavior.”

Huh. Who else do we know that when confronted with too much coddling responds by lashing out?

And this is the first tier with a lock. The glass is chipped (from inside or out?) but the lock is holding. The doll is inert and doesn’t seem likely to do anything unless disturbed, if it matches the original story. Which seems to fit Virgil relatively well. Sure, he’ll make you anxious (maybe those cracks are where the influence leeches free), but doesn’t seem intent on outright harm. Also the cracks and the creepy living doll cabinet as a whole made me think of spider webs and our boi’s Halloween decor, so I thought that was excellent, honestly.

This tier is hidden behind Roman’s shining pomp. It’s outright locked away, as if to keep it from seeing the light of day. The Dark Side tiers both seem this way: hidden from prying eyes by the splendor of the first few tiers.

And the most hidden one of all... Gross Profit.

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From the Snake’s Own Mouth:

“Oh you bougie rascal, you! Your generosity is seen and I truly thank you for it… but a few kind words from me aren't enough, I'm sure... so how about, you get everything from the last tier ALONG WITH...”

Firstly we have exclusive tier level gifts that Janus won’t even reveal. Meta-wise, this is likely more because the team has to decide what those gifts ARE, and how to safely ship them, but the way it sounds in the description not only feels super secretive, but also very much like Remus to me, as well. I’m pretty sure any and all gifts from him are a surprise in some way. Whether that is pleasant is debatable, but it’s still a surprise!

The highest tier also looks to have the highest security. Look at that sturdy, metal bound chest and huge padlock. Not only that but it also has chains wrapped around it to hold it shut, and even then, the contents are actively seeking to escape, like our delightful trashman would. Even the shuggoth-like appearance matches his presence as a shifting, terrifying and likely quite gloopy entity, capable of squeezing even where he’s not wanted. Even the green fabric below looks stained with mud or blood or something equally as upsetting. The image does a great job of showing how hard it is to contain Intrusive Thoughts, as a whole, and is likely a main reason Janus drinks so much “juice” on his birthdays.

Unlike the last image, this one is outright trying to break containment, and oddly, it almost seems like someone left a golden key in easy reach for just that purpose... A key which also looks rather oddly shaped, to me.

It’s hard to tell from the angle, but it doesn’t look like the eye is a simple circle, but that it has a point, like a heart almost. Or even the ornate letter D from the Corridor logo?

I can’t be sure of that, but what I can definitely be sure of is the sheer amount of lock, key, and chain symbolism our Snekky Fren has to his name.

While Janus has no tier, the entire SITE has his symbol, like a brand.

Every post, the icon, the about page, it’s there. And the snake isn’t trapped by the lock, but guarding it. It looks to have a green highlight around where a chip is (hmm), but other than that, it looks quite solid, and well-guarded by watchful creatures that never blink.

The shape of the lock looks like it could be heart-shaped as well, like that golden key allowing the Remus tentacles to wriggle free.

They also do a heckin blep and honestly what could possibly be better?

So yeah, that’s my way overly long ramble about the tier levels and what I think they mean. Maybe if I’m not too lazy I’ll do one on the pictures of Janus playing peekaboo with my nightmares on the about page.

God but this art is amazing and y’all need to go preesh the artist holy heck.

#thomas sanders #sanders sides #Patreon art theory #I have no life and therefore must preesh good art #janus sanders

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grimmradiance · 3 years

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Close to Me: How the Hollow Knight's Fighting Style Reflects Their Trauma (and the Radiance's as well)

So I've been trying to actually beat the Radiance, which means I've been fighting the Hollow Knight. A lot, as a matter of fact, since I'm beans at this game sometimes. I've also been thinking about @lost-kinn's meta about how fighting styles are how Vessels, especially the Little Knight, communicate.

In trying to apply this to the Hollow Knight, I've been coming to some very interesting conclusions, especially taken in context of...Everything Else in the lore, and Everything Else implicated in this by the psychology of it.

There's a lot to cover here, and it tracks through a LOT of different places, including trauma psychology, the relationship between chronic stress and lifespan health, and shape symbolism. Two warnings first:

One: this essay is gonna get heavy. It includes fine-grained discussion of the Hollow Knight's trauma, including discussions of the real-life machanics of psychological abuse, as well as the Extremely Concerning Implications of them harming themself during their boss fight. please read with caution and when you're in a safe emotional place to do so.

Two: This post is not a place for justifying the Pale King. If you read this essay in its entirety and still want to do that, please make your own post; my relationship to the Hollow Knight themself is deeply rooted in my own experiences, so in the context of this discussion I can't promise I won't take it personally.

With that out of the way, let's talk trauma and fighting styles:

We know that the Hollow Knight is trained to be a paragon of fighting skill, through the Pure Vessel fight, and this gives us a fantastic way to compare what they were like before they were made Government Assigned Radiance Jail, and after. Or, in other words, we're given the perfect opportunity to see what the Radiance is doing (i.e. context effects), and what Hollow is (i.e. what we can conclude is reliably consistent as a part of them). Listed here, for reference:

Hollow's attacks:

Three slashes

A dash slash

A Radiant Shade Soul, which launches a volley of Infection blobs in arcs

A Radiant Desolate Dive, which produces pillars of entwined Void and Light at random intervals

The Infection bursting out of them in random arcs, covering a significant amount of the aerial space of the arena

The Radiance ragdolling their body around trying to hit the Knight

Contact damage from them stabbing themself and falling over atop you

The Pure Vessel's attacks:

Three slashes

A dash slash

A Pure Shade Soul, which launches a volley of nails in straight lines

A Pure Desolate Dive, which produces nails at specific intervals

A Pure Focus, which causes circular explosions across most of the aerial space in the arena

Lashing out with a Void Arm (word choice intentional)

I've highlighted attacks from each battle that are different, since those are our points of interest here. In addition, both the Pure Vessel and Hollow are exceedingly fond of teleport-spamming in a way that is usually reserved for a specific group of bosses.

Another very important distinction between these two fights: the Pure Vessel doesn't scream. Well, they certainly try to, but no sound comes out. No voice to cry suffering, after all. All of these points have a lot to go into, so let's address them one at a time.

All That Remains: Theoretical Background On The Significance Of Constants

Making comparisons across time is important specifically because humans (and human-like bugs) change. Most personality traits aren't set in stone--they exist as an interaction of someone's internal tendencies, their experiences, and their environment. Speaking of those last two points, not all experiences and environments are created equally. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs for short) are known to have lifelong implications for a child's health, both physically and mentally. These are events that are so stressful or stressful for so long that they exceed a child's ability to cope and become toxic stress (yes, that's the term in the literature, because it actively damages your organs). They compound, as well--the stress of one ACE makes it harder for a child to cope with another, especially if they overlap.

Some examples of ACEs? Being exposed to physical danger or the threat of physical danger, deprivation of normal social relationships with peers of a similar age, being forcibly seperated from family members, witnessing a loved one being hurt or killed, chronic illness in oneself or a family member, neglect of a child's emotional needs....

Poor fucking Holly. It's a miracle they didn't disintegrate under the pressure. The only other option is that they bent and adapted under that much stress--in other words, most of their personality has been forcibly reshaped by what they've gone through. Anyone who has up-close experience with parentification or complex child abuse already knows: this was by design. I'm not saying the intent was to traumatize the Pure Vessel past several points of no return, but the intent definitely was to reshape their personality for the purpose of being The Vessel. We only see them (the Pure Vessel) in battle after this process is mostly or entirely complete, but we do see them a few times beforehand. I'd like to draw attention to the Path of Pain cutscene right now.

I've seen people talking about the look the Vessel and the King share as a sign that TPK really does love his child. That might be true, but it's definitely not relevant when it comes to how abuse works. This is, in fact, exactly how the cycle of abuse uses affection as a tool. Long periods of abuse or neglect, smoothed over by small periods of affection that placate the survivor? That's textbook love bombing, the kind that forms stubborn trauma bonds and facilitates unhealthy dependency. Forgive me for not giving the Higher Being of knowledge and prescience the benefit of the doubt on that one. (/s)

Team Cherry knows about the importance of parallels and dissonance. There's a reason the music in the second phase of the Hollow Knight fight plays in the Path of Pain. There's a reason it cuts out the moment the battle with the Kingsmoulds is over, instead of at the room transition. There's a reason it doesn't cut out in the Black Egg. Actually, there's two potential reasons, which could also coexist: either little Hollow trusts the Pale King to keep them safe, even after the borderline torture that they were just subjected to, or big Hollow is so hypervigilant that they're in full functioning-through-trauma mode even while they're at death's door.

If you don't see how much the Pale King scarred his child at this point, I'm not sure we were playing the same game.

Walking the Straight Line: How the Pale King's Teachings Show In the Pure Vessel

The Pale King loves order and control. Everything about the White Palace and every decision we see him make implies this. Everything is spotless white walls and well-maintained gardens; the only signs of disorder are hidden away, either in his workshop or in The Pit™. This also reflects in the Pure Vessel's title--pure as in holy, but also pure as in without flaw. Considering the Nailsmith's emotional state after completing the Pure Nail, TPK's fate with his Perfect Controlled Kingdom, and the Godmaster ending as a whole, attaining perfection is not a good thing in any sense.

We know the Hollow Knight isn't perfect--that's the whole catalyst for the plot. But considering their upbringing and their fighting style as the Pure Vessel, their imperfections absolutely kill them emotionally. I'll spare the lecture on how perfectionism affects neurodivergent kids even more severely than neurotypical kids, if only to keep this post to a reasonable length (look up "twice-exceptional children" if you'd like to know the theory I'm glossing over in more depth). But, in essence, the deck is doubly stacked against them--they have a higher goal to reach, and far more obsctacles in their path, including their own emotional scars.

I've already discussed how Hollow isn't meant for this kind of stress in a physical sense in other posts. They're not prepared for it emotionally, either--the Pale King wants perfection, and they can't even stand up straight (every spoonie in the audience already knows how exhausting people's obsession with Standing Up Straight is). There's another page on their stack of emotional baggage, even BEFORE you consider that the Pure Vessel knows their perfection is what bought them a ticket out of the Abyss.

Bringing Teleportation To A Sword Fight: Where The Pure Vessel Reveals Their Fears

How else are they going to cope with that need for perfection, that need to prove themselves worthy of the reason their life was spared, by being flawless in any way they can? Being a mechanical, flawless fighter puts so much pressure on them, both literally (repetitive strain injuries fucking HURT) and figuratively--if you're predictable, the only sure way to win is to mop the floor with your opponents before they figure you out. Hell, that's the way most people play their first run of Hollow Knight, by throwing themselves at the bosses over and over until they figure out the patterns. That strategy is inherently going to fail against an opponent that's, say, an immortal higher being.

There's no way that the Vessel didn't figure this out, and yet none of their TPV specific attacks are positioned randomly--the nails are always evenly spaced, and the Focus explosions are always in a specific height region of the screen. That's clinging to survival strategies even when they become maladaptive in its purest form.

Another dip into psychological theory: let's talk about disorganized attachment. Attachment styles describe how someone's relationships to their main caregiver(s) influence their understanding on relationships in general. Disorganized attachment is a result of an upbringing of inherently unstable parent-child relationships, where there's no way of a child predicting whether an adult is going to be delighted to see them, ambivalent, upset, or otherwise. If my parent woke up some days saying "all right my child, time for the Infinite Buzzsaws Obstacle Course," I'd be the same way. In adulthood this manifests as an inability to form a stable sense of self-concept as well as concepts of others. Mission accomplished, TPK, there's no will to break if you broke it yourself.

This is where the fighting styles as communication comes in--Hollow needs to keep Ghost at a distance to fight, but also wants to be closer to their sibling (the only being who has a chance of understanding what they've been through), BUT also has a trauma-rooted fear of attaching to people, as their experiences with attachment are inherently unpredictable and dangerous. Hence, both the teleportation that doesn't seem to match their fighting style any more reliably than "aim at the thing attacking you" and the second attack unique to the Pure Vessel--they're quite literally lashing out in pain to push people away. There's a reason that attack is so reminiscent of the Thorns of Agony.

Of note is that Holly does seem to teleport like the bugs of the Soul Sanctum do (favoring the edges of a screen, rather than going wherever like Dream Warriors do), which makes sense--they're the most obvious answer to the question "how did they learn how to teleport, anyways?" However, Sanctum bugs have abilities designed to capitalize on this, like homing spells and slashes from above. I can only assume this means that someone saw Holly's proficiency with the nail and assumed it translated to other forms of combat, and didn't feel the need to give them at least a bit of a primer on how to make the best use of it. There's another tally for the Hollow Knight as an autism metaphor.

Trauma Bonds: How the Radiance Speaks Through Hollow

Now, we're back to the Black Egg, and two people stuck in the same sinking ship. The thing that makes this hurt so badly is that Holly and the Radiance are at complete cross purposes here, and yet they both want the same thing:

They both want out, no matter the cost. For the Radiance, this means forsaking the pacifistic nature of the moths and nuking Ghost personally.

For Hollow, this means forsaking the way they were raised and everything that was bludgeoned into their personality: the only way out is to fail, give up control, and trust that Ghost will do what needs to be done.

Imagine how much pain they're in to actually go for it. Going against a literal lifetime of conditioning is something that takes the average person years to even consider, let alone go through with. It's a form of learned helplessness--if you try to break free and fall, again and again, it actively discourages further attempts. Breaking through learned helplessness is an interesting process, because it generally involves re-establishing a sense of control by recalling previous events where the person was able to change their situation.

Which, as far as we know of, are nothing but traumatic memories for Hollow. It's very unlikely that they'd break through it on their own, but we know they have by the time we see the second phase of their fight. This is them at their most desperate: the same music as the Path of Pain, the way they let, or can't stop, the Radiance throw their body around, the way they actively try to let the Radiance out by stabbing themself.

You'd think that giving up and learned helplessness are inherently compatible, but when giving up both goes against your core personality, and involves your active participation, they're in direct opposition. So either Holly was able to process all their trauma by themself (which I doubt, judging by how much effort the player has to go through to even see Ghost's and Hollow's traumatic memories), or someone gave them a nudge or three in that direction.

Considering that there's been someone living in Holly's head who has a vested interest in them Not Doing Their Duty, I think we know who. And the thing is, I think we watch Hollow have this breakthrough during their battle. Imagine for the first time in decades, at least, you can move. You're in pain from being in the same position, probably hallucinating from sensory deprivation, with an infection sucking at what strength your body has left. And there's this little creature who looks ready to fight you, who seems to have let you go for that exact purpose.

And you look down, and both you and the Radiance recognize them from a place rooted deeper than consciousness, in the murky depths of trauma. You see the other Vessel who just as easily could have been you, and who looks so much stronger for not being you, for being an imperfect, willful creature. And the Radiance sees history threatening to repeat itself, another one of the Wyrm's cursed children seeking to lock her away once more.

What else do you do when you're triggered? You scream, and you go on instinct, and you retreat into your head. Those first blows, with the epic music? That's the Vessel the Pale King forged, the fighting machine that will endure unimaginable stress because it knows no other way. What snaps you back out of dissociation? Usually, either the passage of the triggering stimulus, or an even more relevant stimulus (severe pain from getting beaten up by a nail, for example).

The tragedy is this: we know this isn't a triumph. I think most of us went into that fight the first time, knowing we'd be putting the Hollow Knight out of their misery. The music turns tragic, Hollow screams, and then we see the Radiance and Hollow themself break through: the Radiance trying to fight Ghost directly with the resources she has, and Hollow trying to help her along.

For what it's worth, Hollow even had the right idea, when it came to letting themself rest while helping Ghost stop the madness their father started--they were just digging for the Radiance in the wrong place. The dynamic between the Radiance and the Hollow Knight is something I could write on for pages and pages, but this has gone on for long enough. Tune in next time, where I'll presumably talk about this same topic but in reverse with regards to the Radiance.

#hollow knight #hk #the pure vessel #the pale king #the radiance #my meta #the higher being speaks #i hate fact-checking my abuse infodumps because the ableism against personality disorders is EVERYWHERE #but here this monster of an essay is #anyways the hollow knight as a character sniped my trauma on sight #so i may be a tiny bit biased here But Also I'm Right #abuse //#child abuse //#emotional abuse //#i legit do not know what tags to throw on this #also the overarching title is a reference to the song of the same name from just shapes and beats because. yeah

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thealexchen · 3 years

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One Year On: Life is Strange 2 Critique

December 3rd, 2020 marks a year since Life is Strange 2 ended. I was inspired by @smitethepatriarchy‘s text posts (here, but there are several other answered asks worth reading) and @suhaplays’s text post (here) criticizing Life is Strange 2 to write a critique about how Life is Strange 2 handled certain themes and social issues.

(tw: gun violence, police brutality, animal death, incarceration, racism. In this essay, I use the word “queer” in a reclaimed sense, as a queer person myself. Of course, spoiler warning for all five episodes of Life is Strange 1 and 2).

A year on, my feelings about this game have soured... a lot. When the game was first announced, I was overjoyed that our new protagonists would be two Latino boys. Finally, we would have a culturally meaningful, groundbreaking video game with people of color and their experiences at the forefront!

Then the game was met with immediate backlash and I utterly exhausted myself defending it for weeks on Reddit and Tumblr. Throughout 2019, as the episodes came out I became increasingly disillusioned, frustrated, and disappointed with where the story was going. I couldn’t figure out why I felt so damn miserable while playing this game.

Then in the summer of 2020, when Tell Me Why began rolling out pre-release material, I noticed that they posted a Q&A about transphobia, gave content warnings, and discussed at length about their collaboration with GLAAD, Checkpoint, and the Huna Heritage Foundation to make the game with sensitivity and proper research. I cannot speak for trans and gender non-conforming people on whether Dontnod succeeded at doing so with Tell Me Why. But Life is Strange 2 did… none of that.

Essentially, I realized that the reason why I was so frustrated with LiS2 is because it focuses way too heavily on a trauma narrative. This comes off as insensitive to players of color without any content warnings or extensive research.

Sean didn’t have to get kidnapped, kicked in the face, and called a racial slur by a gas station owner. Daniel did not need to watch his puppy get mauled by a mountain lion for the sake of a “difficult choice.” Sean didn’t have to lose his eye for the sake of heightened drama. Sean didn’t need to get called a racial slur and humiliated by his native language/beaten in the desert for refusing to sing. Daniel didn’t need to get shot— twice. Hell, all of “Faith” probably could’ve been cut— how is a church cult that brainwashes Daniel and beats Sean half to death relevant at all to the story?

Even if not all of the game’s violence was racially motivated, the consistent trauma that Sean and Daniel endure does not make for positive representation— or even good characterization. There is a difference between sympathetic characters and well-written characters, and trauma does not make Sean and Daniel any more complex or likable-- just more fucking traumatized.

LiS2 is more grounded in reality, but that also makes plot holes that much harder to excuse (Daniel’s powers being spotted, most of the Parting Ways ending, Sean’s prison sentence). But most of all, it grounds all of Sean and Daniel’s pain and trauma in reality.

There is no magicking away a town-destroying storm with time travel. Sean can’t keep his dad alive by ripping up a Polaroid. After Max unlocked her powers, she was still a Blackwell student, reconnecting with Chloe, taking photos, saving lives, and uncovering a murder mystery. After Daniel unlocked his powers, the Diaz brothers lost everything.

The game never lets you forget that Sean and Daniel are homeless, wanted, constantly in danger, and that they are never getting their old lives back. It permeates the entire game, and for players of color, just reinforces a sad, miserable, grim reality about living in the United States. It is, as @smitethepatriarchy said, potentially triggering for players of color, and it is certainly not something I needed to be reminded of.

And the representation of POC? It feels shallow and ill-researched. It would only take a Google search to find out that Dia de Muertos (a holiday to honor the dead, no less) was from October 31 to November 2 in 2016, the year the game takes place, but Daniel only talks about Halloween in episode 1. Sean and Daniel never discuss any Mexican customs, foods, or holidays. Sean doesn’t speak Spanish with his immigrant father, only during a scene when he’s traumatized (again!) by two racists, and again when talking to Mexican immigrants— in jail. Daniel doesn’t speak Spanish at all. Most of their allies throughout the game are white, including Finn and Cassidy, who appropriate Black culture with their dreadlocks.

So what’s left? Sean and Daniel’s existence as people of color is, at worst, just a narrative prop to justify everything that happens to them. They are people of color on the surface only. In a meta-sense, the game only considers the color of their skin and their last names as what is narratively important… yikes.

I don’t have anything against people who genuinely loved the game and were moved by its messages and story. But I can’t help but feel bitter that white players have the luxury of only thinking of this game as a work of fiction and not feeling any personal reliability to Sean and Daniel’s racialized trauma.

I don’t regret playing LiS2, but I do regret all the time and energy I spent defending it in the beginning. I understand now that I shouldn’t let people’s opinions get to me, nor should I feel obligated to like or defend a game for its attempts at representation. But now, I think I understand how queer fans must have felt in late 2015 when Polarized released. After following the game for 10 months, to see that Chloe’s ultimate destiny was to die and Pricefield is another ship plagued by the Bury Your Gays trope (in the ending that the devs clearly put more work into) must have been just as disillusioning and infuriating. I understand why some fans were so quick to unfollow LiS or develop mixed feelings about the series, because that’s how I feel too after following LiS2’s development from September 2018 to December 2019.

Before I end, I will admit that Life is Strange 2 arrived at a time when I needed it. I still stand by my belief that DN did a great job characterizing Sean, Daniel, and Chris without toxic masculinity, which is the best thing they could’ve done for a male-focused follow-up to a game about queer women. I love that Sean is still a canonically bisexual man of color in a major video game and that DN didn’t forget their queer audience. I love the world and characters that DN built, but I still prefer AU fanfictions of their normal lives, without all that trauma.

So, I will continue to treasure Lyla and her 10 minutes of screentime (aka the only shred of Asian American representation I can get from this series). I still reblog LiS2 fanart to support the artists. I still support Dontnod, because as Tell Me Why has shown, they are capable of researching and writing stories with more sensitivity. And let’s be honest-- I’m still gonna be hella excited if Life is Strange 3 is announced.

But so many aspects of Life is Strange 2 were bungled that it came off as a remarkably average and forgettable experience. A year on, I don’t hate Life is Strange 2, but I am writing this to move on from it.

Thank you for reading.

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disgruntledspacedad · 3 years

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in defense of Din’s subdued reaction to losing the kid...

gif by @quantam-widow

I know we were all thinking it. We got a 2 second reaction shot to the destruction of the Razor Crest (may she forever rest in peace), but then, Grogu gets taken, and... nothing?

What the fuck, Din? we all protest. That’s your baby on that ship! Don’t you care? Scream, curse, kick a rock, cry, make a fist, something!!

I will acknowledge that so far, the show has been excellent with giving us emotional payoff, am I right? I mean, just today we got Din laughing, twice. Twice in a row. I honestly never thought we’d see that. There have been so many excellent, precious soft!Din moments this season, and they all feel deliciously earned.

So, from a meta POV, I guess I’m saying that I have faith in the writers to get it right, and in Pedro to deliver. Duh.

In universe, though, I think it’s fair to point out the obvious - that Din is a pretty reserved guy. He’s much more of a thinker than a feeler. He’s used to keeping things bottled up, and I would even argue that his life often depends on his ability to dissociate from his emotions. Din’s entire journey so far has been about how one little baby yodito shakes his worldview to its very foundations. He’s getting there, but it’s a slow process.

And also, consider this - we haven’t seen Din alone yet, not since Grogu was taken. For a guy who lives a guarded life literally encased in fucking armor, any display of emotion is going to be carefully protected until he’s in private.

But anyway, Din is detached, rational, a little emotionally constipated, and definitely comfortable in a stressful situation. A true ISTP if you ask me (yeah, I know you didn’t, but whatever). Often, it seems that these cool headed, logical types who have never ruffled a feather over anything in their lives are the least adept at handling genuine fear. In other words, when panic does strike, it strikes them hard.

And guys, Din was definitely panicking during this episode.

He’s clearly unsettled from the jump - that outburst of “dank farrik!” in the cockpit sells it, and his distress only becomes more obvious from there. Talking out loud, trying to convince himself that the best thing for Grogu is for him to be trained as a Jedi. Reminding himself of the creed. His overt caution as they approach the seeing stone. His impatience, “Are you seeing anything??”

Then there’s the effects of long term stress. Sure, a bounty hunter in the outer rim doesn’t exactly live an easy life, but Din is definitely used to the drama being on his terms. Compare Din’s body language in the opening scene of season one to when Boba confronts him in chapter fourteen. You can just feel the anxiety, the weariness, the frustration. Din has been on the run for months now, constantly looking over his shoulder, sleeping with one eye open. Notice how he even startles at Fennec’s voice? Season one Din would never have given that much away, regardless of the situation. Long term stress has clearly taken a toll on him.

So we have unsettled, stressed out Din in an emotionally charged situation. He’s exhausted, he’s scared, he’s desperate. This scenario is a recipe for even the most level-headed of adrenaline junkies to loose their cool, and that’s exactly what happens to Din. He panics, and he makes some pretty big fuckups because of it. Leaving Grogu unprotected, twice. Trying three different times to break through that “force field,” even when he knew he couldn’t. Dropping that jetpack and then just forgetting about it (I know we were all screaming about that one, or at least, I was).

So, fear is a positive feedback loop. Those neurotransmitters that do us good in a bad situation - raising heart rate, narrowing focus, shunting blood to the muscles - can also be detrimental if we get too high of a dose - tachypnea and tachycardia, inability to think critically and see the big picture, lack of blood and oxygen to the brain. Epinephrine, in particular, even inhibits the laying down of new memory pathways. In other words, stress leads to poor performance, and poor performance leads to more stress, which leads to... you get the idea.

Then, in the middle of all this chaos, they fucking blast the Razor Crest.

More epinephrine, more cortisol, more stress.

By the end of it all, Din is a fucking shitstorm of stress hormones and pent up emotions. Notice how he seems to be on autopilot in the immediate aftermath, robotically scanning the ashes of the Crest for anything that might be left intact. Notice how empty his voice is when he says, “the child is gone.” This is a dead man walking. Din has nothing left. His whole life has just gone up in smoke, and he can do nothing about it.

Guys, Din is holding onto his sanity by a fucking thread in this scene. “The child is gone,” he says, like he’s reminding himself, grounding himself in his shitty reality. He’s stunned.

And helpless. There’s literally nothing he can do for Grogu. He has no ship, no credits, no resources, nothing to bargain with, nothing to offer. Din literally cannot allow himself the luxury of feelings right now. He’s just got to focus on surviving this very shitty day.

Then, Boba Fett upholds his end of the deal, and suddenly, Din has something to hold onto. An ally, a badass friend, some hope. I don’t think Boba shows Din that chain code in order to verify his claim on the armor - he’s already wearing it, for godssake. I think Boba shows him the code in order to catch Din’s attention - hey friend, I know you’re hurting, but I’m a man of my word. When I make a vow, I keep it. Let’s regroup and go find your kid.

And Din would totally latch onto that. A fighting chance? Din fucking leaps at it. There’s a job to do. A kid to save. All of those stress hormones are going to keep on stewing, because Din has never really come down from his adrenaline high.

It’s like this in real life, too. There isn’t time to be afraid. There isn’t time to be sad, or second-guess, or say, oh how terrible, or wonder what if it doesn’t work? There’s just you and the job, and if you are the only thing standing between life and death, you will put everything else aside and do what you have to do, for as long as you have to do it.

And that’s where Din is at this moment. He’s running on the fumes of his adrenaline, all tempered focus, all strategy and no bullshit.

Emotional shock, my therapist buddy calls it. Apparently, it’s normal. Expected, even.

But guys, the fallout of this kind of crazy ass adrenaline high is insanely intense. I’m talking collapse to the floor, legs won't hold you, trembling, crying so hard you sling snot, shuddering breaths, stare dead-eyed and spent at the ceiling because you’re just too wiped out to even sleep kind of intense.

And then, after the breakdown comes the angst. The detailed thinking. The oh god, what if this had happened, or, should I have done that instead? It seems like every emotion that gets put on the back burner in the moment comes back to bite you with twofold intensity when all is said and done.

In other words, Din is definitely going to feels some things .A lot of very intense things. A reckoning is coming, my dudes. Trust me. It’s just not quite here yet.

That being said, here’s what I can expect from Din going forward:

Just like he’s is slow to acknowledge his growing parental feelings for Grogu, I think Din’s going to be slow at processing his grief at Grogu’s loss. In the next episode, he’s got plenty to distract him - getting together his hit team to take back the kid and coordinating an attack on the empire.

However, I do think we’ll get a slow moment with Din, probably sometime at the beginning of next week’s episode if the pattern holds. I doubt it’s the full-blown breakdown that we’re all needing, but I’m willing to bet money that we’ll see Din grappling with the fact that his kid is gone. I also think that badass beskar murder machine Din from chapter three will resurface. Stress and desperation make us do irrational things, and anger is one of the stages of grief that Din will inevitably have to work through (I think he’s flickering between denial and bargaining for now).

But then, after Din gets Grogu back? I think that’s we’ll have our big, dearly earned emotional payoff.

For one thing, Din won’t be able to deny his feelings anymore. He wants to keep this kid, it’s so very obvious. Losing him just forces it all to the forefront.

And then the relief/joy/regret/guilt that Din is going to feel once he’s got Grogu back? Not to mention the physical exhaustion? All of the fear/terror/angst/grief that he ignored in favor of just going pedal to the metal, guns blazing, get the kid or die trying? That shit’s going to crash into him with all the subtly of a fucking tsunami. I guarantee you, we’re going to get some sort of confession, or adoption vow, or face revel, or other sort of profound softness from Dad!Din in the falling action of this season (At least, I hope we get it at the end this season but I wouldn’t put it past them to kick it into the premier of season three, just for pacing reasons, but then again, I obviously have trust issues).

Personally, I would love to see Din grappling with the long-term fallout of losing Grogu - night terrors, guilt, paranoia, etc. That’s probably the stuff of fanfiction - mandalorians don't have nightmares on screen, surely - but still, some lingering effects Grogu’s kidnapping would be realistic, and I would absolutely live for it.

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