#this man is traumatized and his best friend was lobotomized | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

autisticandroids · 2 years

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anyway SPEAKING! of wildly ooc shit from the carver era. i need to talk about goodbye stranger for a minute. anyway the thing about goodbye stranger is that it's kind of a tragedy of miscommunication that's no one's fault. we the audience see cas brainwashed and forced to murder hundreds of copies of dean, and how traumatic that was for him, and the devotion to dean it implies. because of that we understand that dean matters to him deeply, and when he says "i don't know" in response to dean's "what broke the connection?" he's lying to hide how much he cares from dean, because when dean said "i need you," cas interpreted that as being about usefulness, not affection. on the other hand, dean was just beaten for no reason by his best friend, and bared his soul to him on his knees in that crypt, and then that friend gives a rushed explanation about some kind of brainwashing dean had no idea was even possible, a few incomplete, avoidant answers, and leaves, while dean, though physically healed, is still feeling totally emotionally raw from both the violence and the vulnerability.

basically, it's a situation that's designed to cause maximum hurt feelings which is maximally no one's fault.

now, obviously, people who are bad at watching television find ways to make cas into a villain here anyway. one of the most common bitter deangirl refrains that i see, even from the more reasonable ones, is that cas sucks for leaving after goodbye stranger. to which i say, can't a man take a moment to think after receiving hundreds of lobotomies? can't be be forgiven if he does not immediately swallow his own issues and work on fixing dean's, especially since he has no way of knowing what dean's are?

but also like, that makes sense, because the lobotomy plot is one of the most dean-centric cas plots in the show. like, it's not really about cas' trauma, that's secondary. we never see cas process or reflect on it after the fact. it's not really relevant to cas' character. the main thread of the lobotomy plot is actually dean being hurt and confused that cas isn't there or it acting strange. it's about dean's feelings. even if you look at torn and frayed, which is about the most cas-centric episoode of the lobotomy arc, the beat the episode ends on is the winchesters being kinda like "hey what's up with that guy? he's acting weird. is he a potential threat?" rather than concern for his well-being or anything. like the main takeaway from the episode isn't supposed to be "oh no, cas is suffering!" it's supposed to be "oh no, cas is brainwashed and might be dangerous/Not Himself!" and this is highlighted even more because the angel we see cas kill is samandriel, an angel we care about not because of his relationship with cas - we never see them interact under non-brainwashed circumstances - but because of his relationship (or at least, previous conversation) with dean. it makes sense to just ignore the effect it might have on cas.

plus, if you're thinking about the original draft of goodbye stranger and the i love you, and a lot of people are and do, then cas comes off looking a lot worse. like, in the canon version of goodbye stranger, cas' "i don't know" is logical emotional self-protection. he's refusing to show dean the vulnerability of caring, which makes sense, given that cas has just been, you know, lobotomized hundreds of times for caring about dean, and he has no idea how dean will react (dean seems pretty mad!). but in the "i love you" version, dean has just shown cas extreme vulnerability in a way even cas can't misunderstand, and cas' refusal to show his own in return is somewhere between clueless and callous. that version of cas is fleeing from his own vulnerability, either lying to himself about it or trying to. and that's still fundamentally sympathetic and doesn't make cas some kind of villain. once again i must say, can't a man take a moment to think after receiving hundreds of lobotomies? but it's still way more on cas than the canon version. it's also not that believable, since cas is uh. pretty aware that dean is his weakness and vulnerability at the very least starting in season six.

okay so this has been kind of a long ramble because it's about eight posts rolled into one, but i needed that stuff as groundwork for my point, which is: it doesn't actually make a lot of sense that cas leaves at the end of goodbye stranger.

like, i was talking to @housewife-castiel about bitter deangirls who are soooooo mad about goodbye stranger and she was like "cas was justified in leaving with the tablet because dean hates angels and would have used it for ill" which is like. that's true. that's definitely true. however, i think it's out of character for cas, because one of cas' greatest and most tragic flaws is failing to recognize that dean is a danger to his other loved ones. he sees the best in dean, often to his detriment and the detriment of those he cares about.

and there's not really another good reason why you could see him leaving with the tablet. certainly there isn't one presented. like, when i first watched season eight, i assumed it meant that he had been like, brainwashed by the tablet into serving its own purposes, which isn't really a stretch given that the tablet seems integral to breaking naomi's brainwashing, but is also never brought up so like. i don't think that's what happened.

the only other reason i can think of for cas to leave with the tablet is because he needs some space due to he just got a bunch of lobotomies and was traumatically forced to nearly beat dean to death and now dean is standing in front of him. this, by the way, jives way better with the "i love you" version - if cas is running from his feelings, it makes sense for him to run. but even then, i don't think it's believable, because like... cas is not a skillful spontaneous liar. he does lie sometimes, but it's rehearsed, and he seems so suddenly certain about the tablet that it really scans as genuine.

the real reason cas leaves with the tablet, obviously, is that they don't want to pay misha collins for like the next four episodes, so they have to find some way to write him out. i'm sure that they were planning to justify it later and then never got around to it. but in-universe it just... doesn't make a ton of sense.

#spn

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femalechibiblogger · 4 years

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Fran Bow Character Bio (Fran Bow)

Age: 10-11

Occupation: None

Family: Martin Bow (father; deceased), Lucia Bow-Dagenhart (mother; deceased), Grace Dagenhart (aunt)

Likes: Mr. Midnight, her family, playing, drawing, dolls, exploring, animals, helping others, Itward.

Dislikes: Her parents’ death, Mr. Midnight missing, Oswald Asylum, Remor, Dr. Marcel Deern (formerly), murder, betrayal, witchcraft.

Voice Actor: None

Description

Fran Bow is the titular and main protagonist of the horror game: Fran Bow. During the first part of the game, Fran tries to find her cat, Mr. Midnight, and return home to her Aunt Grace after her parents had been murdered. But as she tries to find her way back home...she is haunted by an evil entity for unknown reasons.

Personality

Fran Bow is a nice and polite girl who had a strong bond with her family, as well as her pet cat: Mr. Midnight. Fran enjoys typical childlike activities such as drawing, playing with dolls, tea parties, and reading fairy tales. Fran is quite trusting towards some, but can be wary and suspicious towards some people, such as Dr. Marcel Deern and Remor.

Fran is quite adventurous and brave, due to her determination to find Mr. Midnight and reunite with Aunt Grace. At first, Fran is afraid of the ghosts and other spirits that she sees while on Duotine...but she was able to become brave and no longer feel afraid of them. She is shown to be more scared of losing her loved ones than the paranormal.

Fran is very smart and creative, as she is able to make contraptions out of other items. Fran is quite clever in order to escape, such as spilling coffee on the security guard to escape the asylum, as well as tricking Clara and Mia by making a new potion and spell in order to defeat them.

Fran is able to see and access other worlds. When she takes the drug Duotine, she is able to see spirits and other supernatural beings, which helps her find clues and answers.

While at the asylum, Fran denies that she is insane and that she does not need to be in the asylum. Fran is not very trusting towards the hospital staff, due to them being rude and uncaring towards her and the other child patients. When interacting with the other children at the hospital, Fran plays along with their behavior and delusions, as a lot of them have suffered much mental, physical and emotional harm.

Relationships

Martin and Lucia Bow: Martin and Lucia were Fran’s parents. Fran had a good relationship with her parents, as they were very kind and caring towards her and Mr. Midnight. Fran is the one who found her parents bodies dismembered in their bedroom, which then leads to her being committed to Oswald Asylum. Throughout the game, Fran misses her parents deeply and is greatly traumatized by their murder. Fran becomes greatly upset when she is led to believe that she had killed and dismembered her parents. While Fran is relieved to learn that she did not kill her parents...she was still devastated by their deaths. The reason they were killed, was because they were preventing Dr. Oswald from experimenting on Fran. When Fran was born, Lucia’s twin sister, Grace, was working for Dr. Oswald, and wanted to help him with his experiment. This caused them to cut off communication with Grace in order to protect Fran. But years later, Lucia and Martin had believed that Grace had changed and allowed her to be a part of Fran’s life. Unfortunately, this would lead to their murder. At one point, while on Duotine, the words,"Daddy was not there, Mommy would not care.", was written on the walls of a room in the asylum. It may be that Fran’s parents had a rocky marriage that Fran was unaware of...though this remains unproven, and was never mentioned by Aunt Grace or anyone else.

Grace Dagenhart: Grace Dagenhart is Fran’s aunt and the twin sister of Fran’s mother: Lucia. At first, Grace appeared to be a kind and caring woman who loved Fran and wanted to bring her home from the asylum. Reuniting with her aunt is what gave Fran determination to find her way back home. However, it is later revealed that Grace was actually the one who killed her sister and brother-in-law. The reason she had killed them, was because she was working with Dr. Oswald, who had wanted to experiment on Fran ever since she was an infant. But Martin and Lucia were greatly against it, as Dr. Oswald had conducted twin research on Grace and Lucia when they were children. After becoming a part of Fran’s life and reconciling with her sister...Grace killed Lucia and Martin so Dr. Oswald would be able to experiment on Fran, as her parents were no longer around to prevent this from happening like before. Grace is a manipulative sociopath, who is willing to killer sister and sacrifice her niece for Dr. Oswald.

Mr. Midnight: Mr. Midnight is Fran’s pet cat and best friend. Mr. Midnight was given to Fran by her parents, and the two of them had a strong bond ever since. Mr. Midnight is a sweet and polite cat who cares very much about Fran, and is very protective of her. Mr. Midnight disappeared after Fran’s parents had been murdered, and was eventually kidnapped by the conjoined twins: Clara and Mia. In the first part of the game, Fran is driven by her determination to find Mr. Midnight to escape the asylum. Fran loves Mr. Midnight dearly, and is an important member of her family. Mr. Midnight seems to be able to speak as well as a human, and is able to tell if someone is good or bad. Like Fran, Mr. Midnight misses her parents and Aunt Grace, and wishes to return home as well. However, Aunt Grace attempted to kill Mr. Midnight due to him protecting Fran. In the end, Fran and Mr. Midnight travel to various worlds together.

Itward: Itward is a mysterious entity who has known Fran since she was very young. However, her memories of him faded over time, but Itward continued to watch over her. At first, Fran was skeptical and not very trusting of Itward, especially after learning that Clara and Mia blamed him for them being stitched together. However, Itward revealed that he was not the reason for Clara and Mia’s condition, and that he had tried to help them but it was too late. Itward is a very caring, whimsical, serious and polite person who acts as a guardian towards Fran. Itward is the one who helps Fran and Mr. Midnight return to their world, and even saves Fran from Remor and Dr. Oswald.

Dr. Marcel Deern: Dr. Marcel Deern is Fran’s psychiatrist while she was at Oswald Asylum. At first, Fran does not like Dr. Deern due to him not allowing her to go back home to Aunt Grace, and thinks that he is keeping her prisoner at the asylum. However, when Fran returns to her home, she encounters a worried and relieved Dr. Deern. It was revealed that Dr. Deern had been fired from the asylum, and had been looking for Fran ever since she went missing. Dr. Deern is actually the only doctor at the asylum who actually cares about the patients, and does not approve of Dr. Oswald’s inhumane experiments. Even after being fired from the asylum, Dr. Deern still investigated Dr. Oswald and the asylum to find clues to what was actually going on at the asylum. While working at the hospital, Dr. Deern had just been doing his job and was really trying to help Fran. Dr. Deern does not believe in the supernatural, and believes that Fran was just hallucinating. It is not until he sees Remor and Itward that he begins to believe what Fran had told him. His ultra-reality self reveals that Dr. Deern’s father was a dangerous and abusive man who hurt him and his mother with a kitchen knife. Dr. Deern’s memories of these events are erased and is returned to his world. His whereabouts afterwards are unknown.

Dr. Oswald Harrison: Dr. Oswald Harrison is the founder and head psychiatrist at Oswald Asylum. Dr. Oswald is a highly recognized psychiatrist who specializes in twin studies, as well as experimenting on those who can perceive other realities. While Dr. Oswald is not seen until the final chapter of the game...Dr. Oswald’s picture is often seen and is mentioned by some characters. As shown by the condition of the patients at the asylum, Dr. Oswald believes that lobotomizing or delivering shock therapy to the patients is the best solution to cure them...though it seems to make their conditions worse. He is very cruel and uncaring towards the children at his asylum, as the children are mistreated by some of the nurses, meaning that he may not actually care about their health and wellbeing if it does not benefit him. When Lucia and Grace were children, Dr. Oswald wanted to experiment on them as part of his study on twins (it is unknown of their parents allowed this, or if they were sent to Dr. Oswald for regular check-ups as children). Lucia hated and feared Dr. Oswald, while Grace idolized and was dedicated to him. Dr. Oswald experimented on the twins Clara and Mia by stitching them together to see if their DNA would be different...which ended up killing them and he threw their body down a well near the asylum. Despite being a man of science, Dr. Oswald believed in supernatural phenomenon, as well as the belief in other alternate worlds. Dr. Oswald employed the evil entity, Remor, to psychologically torture Fran and bring him to her so he could experiment on her. This was because Fran’s mind was connected to the ultra reality, which Dr. Oswald wanted to know more about and study as well. Dr. Oswald would even go as far as to commit murder in order for his research to succeed. It is possible that Grace and Dr. Oswald also had a romantic relationship with each other, though it may be that Dr. Oswald was only using Grace for his own benefit, and may have even brainwashed her for years as well.

Remor: Remor is an evil entity who is one of the main antagonists of the game. Remor is a wendigo-like creature who is able to see other realities like Fran, but he cannot be seen in Fran’s world for very long. Throughout the game, Remor tortures Fran psychologically and feeds on her suffering. Remor uses the death of Fran’s parents to taunt her, even going as far as to make her think that she killed her parents. It is shown that some people can see and even communicate with Remor, such as: Fran, Dr. Oswald, Grace, and Philmore. At some point, Remor began to help Dr. Oswald to capture Fran...likely so Remor could feed off of Fran’s suffering. Fran is afraid of Remor, and can become angry with him whenever he taunts her. Remor was born in the Fifth Reality, and is the son of Mother Mabuka, the ruler of the Fifth Reality.

Palontras: Palontas is a doctor who resides in the Second Reality. Palontras is a giant, flying axolotl who heals Fran after she is turned into a tree in the Second Reality. He is a kind and caring doctor, though he thinks of himself as a monster...but Fran sees him as a beautiful creature. Palontras is protective of his home and Fran, and even fought off various monsters to protect them. Palontras can transform into a dark feathered creature when fighting enemies, showing his brave and protective side. Fran loves to fly on Palontras’ back, and even travels with him, Mr. Midnight and Itward through the other realities. Palontras and Itward appear to know each other, meaning that they have probably been friends for quite a long time.

Clara and Mia Buhalmet: Clara and Mia are conjoined twins who reside in a small house at the bottom of a well. Fran first them after she traveled into the well to search for Mr. Midnight. At first, Clara and Mia are polite towards Fran and even offer her food. However, they are shown to see Fran as their new pet, and will not let her have Mr. Midnight back unless she helps them. Clara and Mia were not actually born as conjoined twins, but rather...they were stitched together by Dr. Oswald. The reason for this was because Dr. Oswald wanted to see if their DNA would change if they were conjoined. It was revealed that their parents did not love them and purposely gave them up to Dr. Oswald...but Clara and Mia remained in denial about it for quite some time. It is revealed that Clara and Mia knew Itward, as he was their friend and was the only one who showed love and compassion towards them. However, the twins hated Itward and blamed him for all of their troubles...though why they blame Itward is uncertain. While Fran is in their home, she learns that Clara and Mia actually hate each other, as they were both jealous of each other’s looks. Before they were sewn together, they had actually tried to kill Itward when he tried to help them get along...but ended up stabbing each other instead. The two girls seem to have skills in witchcraft, as they have various recipes for spells and potions, and even a cauldron. They created a spell that could separate them...but the people whom they had perform the spell did not do it right and died. Fran took the advice of a talking frog and changed the spell, which freed Clara and Mia’s souls. According to Dr. Deern, the twins died after being sewn together and their bodies were thrown down a well. Their skeletal remains are shown within their house, which further proves this. It is unknown if Fran had actually interacted with them or not, or if they were a hallucination due to the Duotine or Fran’s mental state. Their ghosts are seen in Itward’s ship, which may be where they reside now.

Philmore Bronstone: Philmore is a patient at Oswald Asylum. Philmore is a young boy who shared the same room with Fran, and was shown to be quite ominous. Philmore appears to know about Remor, as he is able to see him, just like Fran. On Duotine, Philmore’s Shadow talks of Philmore having a mad uncle that he used to play with, and being responsible for the death of a bird. The Shadow could represent Philmore’s uncle, and that he may have been the reason for Philmore being a patient in the asylum. It is implied that Philmore’s mother may have been the one who sent him to the asylum, as she believed that he was sick but Philmore denied that there was something wrong with him.

Adelaida Fugents: Adelaida is a patient at Oswald Asylum. Adelaida is a young girl who is obsessed with drawing, and is often mistreated by the nurses. Adelaida can sometimes harm herself, and that she refers to her blood as ‘red milk’. Fran gives Adelaida bandaids to stop her wrists from bleeding, and is horrified by the abuse that she suffers. Adelaida’s Shadow implies that she was sexually assaulted and nearly killed, but that she was blamed for it. Her parents likely blamed Adelaida herself for being assaulted, and had her committed instead of actually trying to help her.

Victoria: Victoria is a patient at Oswald Asylum. Victoria is a paranoid girl who does not trust people easily, and can also see the Shadows while under the effects of Duotine. Victoria believes that Dr. Deern ate her brain, and that the children will also have their brains eaten if they get too close to her. She believes that Fran is dead, but Fran still shows concern for her due to her behavior. It is hinted by Victoria may have been lobotomized, as she seems to know what goes on downstairs...unlike the other children, who are unaware of the lobotomies. It is unknown as to why she is in the asylum... Her Shadow talks about her being ‘deceived’ and ‘laughed at’, implying that Victoria may have been mistreated by someone she trusted, such as a friend or family member. She may be a patient due to her paranoia, which may imply that she is a paranoid schizophrenic.

Damian Golsman: Damian is a patient at Oswald Asylum. Damian isa young boy who believes himself to be a king, his cane is a sword, and that the other children at the asylum are his ‘royal subjects’. But as Fran talks to him, and calls him a ‘king’, he becomes well-mannered and reasonable. Damian seems to suffer from schizophrenia, which could explain his delusions. His Shadow implies that Damian was molested by a priest, and that his mother didn’t believe him when he told her.

Annie Szhultz: Annie is a patient at Oswald Asylum. Annie is a young girl who is friendly towards Fran, and is always pacing back and forth and full of energy. Annie appears to have ADHD, as she has a problem concentrating and is often walking around. Annie does not have a Shadow when Fran is under effects of Duotine, meaning that she did not suffer from anything traumatic before her arrival at the asylum. Fran mentions that Annie will be released from the asylum soon, which may indicate that her treatment was successful and that she is loved by her parents.

Jason Cogh: Jason is a patient at Oswald Asylum. Jason is quiet and appears to be very distressed. He asks Fran to kill him, either because he does not want to talk to her, or he may be suicidal. For some reason, Jason wears a mask for unknown reasons. He may have a facial deformity of some sort, or he may feel more comfortable wearing the mask. Because Jason is in the room with the more functional children, his treatment may be doing well. Jason’s Shadow does not talk, but it is shown to be hugging him. This could imply that Jason may have been molested by someone close to him...likely by a relative who claimed that their actions were “love” instead of abuse.

Robert Clark: Robert is a patient at Oswald Asylum. Robert is a chubby boy who is quite playful. He appears to be attached to the television for some reason, and seems to perceive himself as an “inventor” of some sorts. It is unknown why he is in the asylum, although Dr. Roman Bates believed that the best solution for his treatment was a lobotomy. Unfortunately...Robert woke-up from failed anesthesia, and it caused a trauma that may explain his odd behavior. Robert’s Shadow says both nice and mean things to Robert, such as he is ‘loved’ while telling him to ‘hate himself’. This may indicate that he is self-loathing and has trust issues. Robert may have been bullied before being sent to the asylum, which may have caused him to become deeply depressed. That could have been the reason for him being in the asylum.

Isabelle: Isabelle is a patient at Oswald Asylum. Isabelle is a young girl who is often shown sleeping...though Fran states that she is actually unconscious. Not much is known about her, except that her treatment requires her to be under heavy sedation. When on Duotine, Isabelle’s Shadow appears to be a man gently stroking her. This may hint that Isabelle was sexually abused by a relative or an adult that she knew. This could have traumatized her greatly, and it may have made her lash out towards others...which would explain why she has to be sedated.

Gladys Hanna: Gladys is one of the nurses at Oswald Asylum. She appears to be the oldest nurser there, and is very cranky and mean towards Fran. She does not seem to actually like the children at the asylum, and can be easily irritated by them. She cares very little for Fran, though it is unknown why. In an older picture, she is shown to have been working at the asylum since she was young, and that she may have known Fran’s aunt and mother when they were being studied by Dr. Oswald. She may have also taken part in the experiment involving the twins: Clara and Mia.

King Ziar: King Ziar is the ruler of the Ishersta, which is in the Second Reality. He is a kind and wise ruler who helps Fran when she ends up in Ishersta, and explains to her why she has taken the form of a tree. Fran takes a liking to him, and even wished to return to his world someday.

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#fran bow #main character #character description #horror #horror game #video games

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bettycooperoutfitwatch · 4 years

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3x21 Chapter Fifty-Six: The Dark Secret of Harvest House

Hi.

Betty has come inside, and is living under the protection of the Farm, since the Black Hood is once again at large.

There are no ponytails in this episode, and we open with Betty in this (fucking dope, up there with the RHS wrestling shirt) Farm ringer t-shirt. She’s trying to play nice; but true to Betty-form, she’s keeping her ear to the ground and trying to figure out what’s up. She’s Betty Snoopering.

Now that Betty is in Farm-control (sort of), they gang up to stage an...intervention.

Ah, The ‘serial killer genes.’

I think this is perhaps where the season 3’s occasional reference to Betty’s failure to remember childhood events (see 301 and 315, and this episode’s reference to Caramel the cat) was leading to—a childhood injury, and perhaps even a traumatic brain injury (TBI).

TBIs have been most prevalent in recent cultural conversation around sport, as a history of repetitive brain trauma & concussion in sports can lead to CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy). CTE can only be diagnosed post-mortem, but amongst many many other symptoms that present in individuals with CTE, there is indeed memory loss.

Many people have speculated about violence & CTE, notably in instances of former/current American football players who commit family/intimate partner violence or even murder. But there’s no certainty around causation versus correlation. Men who commit family/intimate partner violence against women are also often misogynists, and there’s absolutely reason to think this has just as much consequence in their actions as a history of TBI would.

A lot of serial killers have a history of childhood TBI, and a lot of serial killers are raging misogynists—but you know what, there are also millions of other people who have and are both these things, and don’t go around killing people.

Betty may have what Riverdale calls ‘serial killer genes,’ (but which popular science casually calls ‘warrior genes’) MAOA and CDH13, but as literally any geneticist will tell you—genetics are not destiny. Even Edgar acknowledges this; but as Edgar is wont to do, he twists it to serve his purposes.

Betty might have worn these trousers at the end of 311; hard to be certain. As it is, they’re a departure! Straight-leg burgundy velvet crops with an exposed button-fly, worn with this aforementioned Farm t-shirt and some Chucks (her pink low-tops, I’m I’m not mistaken.)

Betty!!! You are not your thoughts!! We’ve talked about this.

Or—at least I thought we had. But I’ve looked back through the archive, and it appears I cut it out of an earlier post. Que sera.

One may be walking over a bridge and think, what would happen if I threw my laptop over this railing? (as indeed I myself thought pretty much twice a day for like a year), but that thought has literally no power if it’s not acted upon.

Intrusive thoughts are endemic, but they’re not defining unless you turn them into action. You are defined by your action. Betty is a person who has obviously-if-abstractly dealt with matters of personal mental health; she’s struggled with familial and societal expectations of her and how those abut and perhaps contradict her personal desires. To then interpret this as being of two minds? It makes sense.

And it sets up nicely a situation in which Betty is hypnotized and convinced she is conversing with her ulterior/interior/submerged/other self. Maybe her id? Idk—Freud is outdated and has more prevalence in casual conversation around psychology than in the actual practice of it, or so I understand.

Now—Id-Betty (which is what I shall call her for lack of better options) wears an outfit Betty donned verbatim in 213. It’s the outfit Betty wore when she was trying to outwardly maintain her chill—after she and her mother had disposed of the Shady Man’s body, and in a moment where she was trying to keep composed and assure the outside world that everything was Very Normal, Thank You Very Much. It’s Peak Betty.

So that Id-Betty dons this look? Makes sense to me. Id-Betty (aka Polly in Betty Drag) is attempting to break Betty on behalf of the Farm. Broken people are easier to get on-board with cult activity.

But true to form, Betty proves hard to break.

The Farm’s argument is that Edgar is able to convert emotional pain into physical pain, which then can be surgically excised from the body (but as we shall see, is just an excuse to put people under anesthetic in order to steal their organs Riverdale fucking went there!!!!) Betty gets a headache during her hypnosis session—thus setting up Edgar’s attempt at lobotomizing her. More on that in a bit.

I told you there was a vibe.

Well this is fly as fuck, right? The flared overalls? The purple sweater? It’s all great. Worn with those platform pink Chucks.

Overalls are kind of apropos in the moment, as it could be argued Betty first really began her investigation into the Farm in 303—wearing overalls.

The reveal!!!! Polly uses her personal history with Betty to really sell the con.

(Even the boots are on point.)

Not relevant to our plot-line, but this fight sequence is shot so fucking well. Admittedly I’m only usually half paying attention to any giving boxing scene, but this moment!! Kudos to Mr. Seidenglanz & the team for really nailing it.

Riverdale.

Oh I bet.

Betty tries to get her friends out, and well...they’re converts, they literally drag her back into danger.

There’s a...lengthy history of people—and arguably of women, specifically, given the status and relative lack of autonomy women held during the years lobotomies were an accepted medical treatment, ie, the mid-20th century—subjected to lobotomy for variety of reasons: history of depression, anxiety, homosexuality, arthritis, talking back or misbehaving, schizophrenia, being prone to seizures, OCD, suicidal ideation, etc etc etc. In essence, it was often an attempt to instill conformity on a ‘difficult’ of ‘deviant’ individual.

A lobotomy very often left people incapacitated in one way or another for the rest of their lives. It’s objectively horrifying.

What’s more, brains aren’t transplantable (at least in this world. Riverdale is Riverdale so who fckn knows.) Edgar’s lobotomizing Betty to placate her, to domesticate her, to get her to stop causing trouble, to submit.

We know Riverdale isn’t going to actually lobotomize its star-player (the production team knows what it has in Ms. Reinhart, who is either the White Michelle Williams or Blake Lively of this show—which, tbd; I’m rooting for the Michelle route bc she has the range), but still—it’s up there in the pantheon of disturbing shit Riverdale throws at us on a normal Wednesday evening.

Summary: two outfits, plus one that Polly wears while pretending to be Betty, and one hospital gown

I Own This: W h e r e can I be getting a Farm t-shirt please and thanks

Key necklace appearances / Is Betty a River Vixen?? / That backpack?: no

The floggingink Memorial Peter Pan Collar Count: We have one very consequential peter pan collar!!!

Best outfit: purple sweater and flared overalls

#3x21 #s3 #riverdale #betty cooper outfit watch #betty cooper #long post #cw abuse #cw medical procedures #cw kidnapping #cw hospitalisation #cw mental health #lotta cws here let me know if there are ones i have missed pls

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linkspooky · 5 years

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Thanks for the tags @jeanandthedreamofhorses

Rules:

Name your top 10 favorite characters from 10 different fandoms and then tag 10 people.

I’m gonna tag @kenkamishiro @inumaqi @bloodycarnations @kaibutsushidousha @desmondneedshisscalpel @harostar @cirrocumulus-cloud @coromoor @sir-argues-a-lot (list your top 10 buff dudes conspic)

Hello my name is link and my faves for each series can be divided into two strict categories, white haired bastards, and black haired bastards. Blonde is just white haired bastard LITE. Herre are ten of my favorite bastards.

1. Kumagawa Misogi - Medaka Box

My favorite character of all time, Kumagawa Misogi is a fantastic character because he embodies every bad victim stereotype. He’s aggressive, he lashes out, he blames other people for his problems, he has a bad attitude, he’s pessimistic, he’s ugly, he’s mean. He has every single character trait that people traditionally consider bad, and yet underneath it all he’s still a good guy. By playing the bad victim (which is intentional act on his part because Kumagawa is very self aware especially of his own flaws and weaknesses), he makes the point that all victims even the ugliest ones are still human underneath.

Like the reason Kumagawa is a bad person isn’t because he’s selfish, or because he doesn’t care about other people’s pain. He cares. He cares way too much, to the point where his emotions are so deeply ingrained in him and so illogical that he almost always acts on those feelings above everything else. At his heart he’s a person who wants to save others, especially those who are weaker and those who have been abused, but it always manifests in the most negative ways and his good intentions always go wrong.

Yet through all of that we see Kumagawa continues living, and that’s the most important part of his character, even as the worst person ever, even completely useless, even as a disaster for everyone around you, you have to keep living and keep struggling to be better. Kumagawa finds identity in being a loser, and he comes to accept himself the way he is because that’s the only way for him to move forward. Not only that but Kumagawa is clever and genuinely subversive, not only is he capable of outwitting people because he’s so good at bluffs, lies, and he’s just so used to surviving every situation that his brain is stuck in permanent survival mode, but he also subverts the whole ‘weak character has to become stronger to protect the people around them’ trope. Because, Kumagawa is still weak but that never stops him from helping others. He never thinks becoming strong is the solution, and his character development is him leaving the mindset that it would be better if he was the one hurting others rather than being hurt by them.

2. Enoshima Junko - Dangan Ronpa my favorite Junko is not actually her appearance at the end of DR1, or in DR3, or in DR2 as alter ego though all three of those are fanastic and fun to watch. My favorite reading of Junko is how she’s represented in Dangan Ronpa Zero, as this like, girl who has this incredibly overactive brain who literally makes a plan where she lobotomizes herself because the only way to stop herself from getting bored is to erase her own memory so she constantly forgets everything, and even THAT DOESN’T WORK.

I’m not saying Junko is a tragic character in any way, but the fact that she can never escape her own head no matter how desperately she tries is what makes her interesting. Even her obsession with despair fails her in the end, because she was getting too bored of a world that was exactly what she wanted, pure chaos. If you read her that way there’s a lot of interesting subtext with her character and her actions.

The best part about Junko is she’s not what is considered a fictional psychopath in a traditional sense, she actually has the ability to make connections with people and genuinely care about them. However, with Junko that just means you’re going to be worse off then if she did not care about you at all. Junko’s motivations are so simple, she really is just trying to enjoy the life everybody else does, but she can’t because her brain is a supercomputer. And she’s trying to feel something about the world, or create some meaning about the world, some reason to continue living in it and she’s willing to break the world and all her toys to accomplish that.

3. Dazai Osamu - Bungou Stray Dogs No Longer Human, and The Rising Sun two of Dazai’s works are in my top ten favorite books of all time. Bungou Stray Dogs understands the writings of Dazai when they personify him in this character.

What makes Dazai so fantastic a character is that he’s genuinely mentally ill and traumatized, especially from the way he acts he’s been suicidal since he was a teen and a person is not born that way. Yet, at the same time he’s also a bad person. Which is a fantastic bit of nuance. He’s not bad because he’s mentally ill, he’s bad because he runs away from responsibility, he abused Akutagawa as a way of venting his feelings for the port mafia then completely abandoned him, he doesn’t trust people and goes out of his way to manipulate and control his own allies.

Dazai struggles the most with seeing people as people, and part of this is for what I call Junko Reasons when a character is smarter than everybody around them and therefore, can read them to a certain extent that they become predictable and boring and cannot relate to them in any way. Part of this however is also Dazai’s own fear of loss, which makes him want to control everything.

Rather than an adult, he’s more like a child that’s far too smart for his own good. He is smart enough to predict and control situations far in advance, and yet he’s so emotionally vulnerable that just the idea of experiencing loss itself makes him scared to ever be emotionally invested in anybody. And Dazai will spout philosophy all day to make it seem like he’s simply too smart to have friends, but his one sincere friend was just an average person that became his friend because he treated Dazai like a normal human which is what Dazai wants ultimately. The human failure wants to be human and his story is his slow journey to that state.

4. Shigaraki Tomura - My Hero Academia Horrible. Terrible. Baby. Infant. Shigaraki Tomura is a character I have loved since his introduction. Just like Kumagawa he’s a character always violently lashing out at the society around him. Also like Kumagawa, he’s always taking in victims of trauma around him who aren’t ‘acceptable’ or ‘good’ victims and giving them an outlet and genuine friends.

Shigaraki Tomura has scars that reach deep under his skin all the way to his bones. One of the most interesting things about his character is how much of a subversion he is from the way he’s originally presented. All Might reacts to Shigaraki like he’s a psychopathic manchild who does not care about a thing and destroys things for no reason. That is also what All for One raised him to be, someone who exists to be a symbol of destruction and fear and nothing else.

Yet, we eventually learn why he is this way and how little sympathy the hero system has for a victim like Shigaraki. He’s a man-child because he was literally raised in All for One’s basement, only for the purpose of becoming a villain and nothing else. He’s deeply angry at heroes because he knows deep down none of them would save him, he’s a bad victim, and only the good looking victims get saved.

Despite having every reason to turn into a heartless symbol of destruction, Shigaraki is very, obviously, not. He’s trying desperately to be All for One, but he can’t be that person, because Shigaraki cares about people too much. He wants validation, he wants freedom, and he wants the same for the people under his protection and that keeps him human and stops him from turning into the monster he was raised to be.

5. Norman - The Promised Neverland so the exact opposite of a villain who cannot help but be good, we have Norman an undeniably good person who chose to become a villain instead because otherwise he was powerless and that was the only means of accomplishing his high ideals.

Norman is the smartest of the gracefield children, and admired by both Ray and Emma and yet in spite of all of this, his self esteem is incredibly low. He has always put Emma on a pedestal and declared her a good person, and himself the bad person. Due to that he has almost no dreams of his own, and desires almost nothing for himself, putting absolutely everything into making the ideal world that Emma envisioned come true.

Norman regularly denies that he is a human being, a common trend on this list, because to be human is to be fallable and make mistakes. He puts far too much pressure on his shoulders, and that turns sensitive, kindly Norman, into a card carrying manipulator that plays high risks games with people’s lives in order to get the best result. He is at the same time, an angel someone wanting to martyr himself for heavenly ideals, and a devil someone who wants to commit evil so Emma’s hands can stay clean and Norman is so complex because he’s simultaneously both at once.

6. Orihara Izaya - Durarara!! Sometimes you just grow up and become an Izaya stan, and you reflect back and regret every single choice you made in life. Orihara Izaya is interesting not because he’s a card carrying mastermind, but because he pretends to be.

Izaya’s image as someone who can manipulate all of Ikebukuro is something that far outstrips who he is as a person, which is just a very sensitive and lonely child. Izaya is basically too sensitive to love anybody as an individual, or even be an individual himself, so he denies the personhood of all of humanity and instead decides to love humanity. Because accepting everything about humanity and being happy no matter what the result is easier for him than having to deal with individual hardships. He basically wants to become an observer to everybody, and wants to no longer have a body, or be a person, or have to have feelings that aren’t a bemused smirk.

Izaya is however, extremely transparent in his actions to the point where several characters can see through him. It’s interesting to have a mastermind-type character whose actually not that much of a mastermind, but still because everybody sees them as one things generally go their way. Izaya is great at lying, bluffing, and playing speed chess but he never really has the city in his palms as much as he claims.

Another interesting quality about him is how complex he thinks and all these little rules he sets up for himself. Basically his only friend is Shinra because, Shinra is guaranteed never to love Izaya because he already has Celty, and yet at the same time Izaya also gets mad that 1) Shinra will always choose Celty over him and 2) Shinra is too detached to love anyone as a person. Even though, he also envies that detachment because Izaya is too sensitive basically to live. In short Izaya is petty. Petty, petty, petty, petty, petty, and he has to follow his own petty little rules to the letter.

7. Takizawa Seidou - Tokyo Ghoul: Re he starts as a lovable, but repressed bastard who has all this resentment for his life, and the people around them, and constantly blames them and takes it out on them. Overall though, he’s someone you can see turning into a better person if he just grew up a little.

Then instead of getting better, he gets way worse and hits absolute rock bottom. All of the ugly emotions that Seidou was repressing come to the surface and he turns into a monster who makes other people suffer to take out his long held resentments about the world. Not only that but all of the flaws he shows as a ghoul were there to begin with, he always had an inferiority complex, he always resented others, he always lashed out, it was just they were brought to the surface instead of being repressed.

Seidou however after hitting rock bottom gains awareness, and also the realization that even after he’s crossed the point of no return a long time ago, he can still continue to live and do improve himself. Not only that but it’s his resposnbility to improve himself for the sake of the others around him.

One of my favorite parts about his character is he used to be an example of how great Ishida was at not playing Good Victim Bad Victim because Seidou is introduced to us as this monster who went insane because he was ‘weaker’ than Amon who stayed righteous despite being ghoulified. Until we learn that actually, Seidou went insane because he took a chainsaw to the face, and Amon was just saved by other people and never endured the same, and therefore never even attempted to come to terms with himself as a ghoul either.

One of my reasons for liking bastards is because they are all objectively terrible, but most of them also have such a deep sense of self understanding so that the ones who have positive arcs, actually feel like they’re very honest about who they are as a person and grow from there. They just genuinely accept who they are and live as who they are not in denial about anything. Rather than following a narrative blindly laid out for them they break free and create their own.

8. Kiryu Yoshiya - The World Ends With You If there is a death game for some reason I always end up liking the mastermind the most. Kiryu Joshua is this child, who is just, too smart, too creative, too much for the world. When he’s pretending to be human that just turns him into a pretentious tool. When he’s the demigod of Shibuya, that means he might destroy the entire city because the people aren’t growing in the way he wants them too.

Joshua is very unique because he’s basically the closest to what I call a “Junko Enoshima for Hope” he places people in terrible death game like circumstances, and shows little empathy at all for the ones who lose, but at the same time his intention is to give a second chance for people who have died, and also to steer people in the right direction.

In a meta sense Joshua will basically force you to have character development. The fact that he sees himself as the author in other people’s stories means he has to control everything. It’s a unique character trait to have a god complex when you are a literal god.

Despite his good intentions, he’s also very flawed especially in the way he treats people around him, even the ones he likes like Neku and Sanae. He enjoys pushing their buttons, and pushing them to their limits far too much, and makes attempts to control them like any other piece on the board. Joshua is also, suicidally depressed and a lot of his musings about the world in general are some of the most tragic but insightful thoughts I’ve ever read. The fact that Joshua changes his mind at the end, is basically just as impactful as watching someone give life another chance when they wanted to die, because for Joshua, Shibuya is his life.

9. Jack Vessalius - Pandora Hearts it’s another mastermind yay. The fun thing about Jack is unlike most of these characters who are like, halfway broken, Jack is just this extremely broken person whose far beyond the point of no return. Not only that but he’s not interested in living as a person anymore anyway, even if he were given the chance to come back.

Jack has worn masks his entire life, to the point where it’s made him an incredibly selfish person who is never genuine in any situation. A child who has told lies all of his life. At the same time Jack is not the one who got himself started on this path, he’s a victim to the cruel and uncaring ways of the nobility, as a bastard being raised with his mother destroying any sense of identity he had by only seeing his father in him. Jack is in a way for them, a reckoning.

Except Jack does not care about any of that, because his entire goal is to go to extremes, and make the most convoluted plan in history, because he wants to find a reason for himself to keep living. When the person he was using as a reason to live dies, he decides to destroy the world for basically no reason at all, because the act of trying to destroy the world gives him something to do and a reason to keep on living.

Jack needs to find identity in something, otherwise he’s entirely empty on the inside and he’s exactly the tool the nobility raised him to be. Which is why he ends up doing all of these things for basically no reason, because that is his reason. He wants to feel things like a person. He wants to desire things like a person. He wants to know who he is, and what he wants. And yet, he’s also so terribly afraid of being a person that he does not let anybody get close to being able to understand him.

In the end one person accepting Jack as a person in spite of all of his lies, and saying they were happy to meet him is enough for Jack to give up all of his plans and instead offer his body up to others.

10. Accelerator - A Certain Magical Index Accelerator is such a fave for me that I will literally go out of my way to read a series that I’m not even a fan of because Accelerator is in it.

What I like about accelerator is he is pretty much past the point of no return, and he knows he’s never going to be forgiven for what he’s done and yet that doesn’t stop him. He’s not doing this for atonement. He killed 10,000 sisters and he’s going to save the other 10,000 that are remaining. And he knows he should have done that from the start, but it’s too late to take back a single thing he did.

Accelerator is just this fantastically messy character. He plays the villain, but secretly nobody desires more for heroes and justice to exist in this world than Accelerator himself. We see him finally motivated to help others, because even if he’s a bastard, and will always be a bad person marked for what he’s done, that’s no excuse not to do something when somebody innocent needs help in front of you.

He’s also, genuinely traumatized, and also genuinely disabled. He goes from this untouachable character to like, someone who is very desperate, with a very fragile sense of ego whose constantly reliving his trauma and having flashbacks in the middle of fights. Accelerator is so genuinely plagued with guilt for what he’s done it almost destroys him several times. And he’s never going to stop feeling that way. He’s never going to stop being broken. And still he fights.

11. Jacopo Bearzatti - House in Fata Morgana I know this is cheating but sssh, I wanted to talk about Jacopo. He’s the best bastard on this list because he’s not even a bastard.

Jacopo is someone who breaks himself into fragments because he’s not good enough. He’s always born in an incredibly low position in life, and is always trying to make something worthwhile of himself. He views himself as a person lower than dirt, whose only good quality is how hard he can work. One of them is going to break, either the world, or Jacopo himself.

Jacopo’s heart is either made of stone or glass and it’s impossible to tell from an outsider’s perspective, because he’s able to commit himself to doing incredibly heartless things, but at the same time Jacopo is far too kind and emotional and it’s something that destroys him over and over again. Jacopo is someone who always takes far too much responsibility, which means he will forgive other people who have betrayed him, see the humanity in his friends when they turn knives against him, but because of that he ends up being hurt over and over again. Jacopo kills his own heart not because he’s unkind, but because he’s too kind and empathic, and it’s something that will literally get him killed unchecked.

However, the amount of responsibility that Jacopo takes is ultimately what turns his character from a tragic downfall to a redeeming one, because reincarnation Jacopo is willing to take responsibility for two lifetimes worth of mistakes that were not even his. Ultimately Jacopo does genuinely want to do right by the people around him, which means if they do not want him he would force himself to let go because it’s not just about his atonement but the victim’s feelings as well, but if they wanted him he would spend the rest of his life working for the sake of both of them. Jacopo’s realization at the end of this story, because I want to see it too. Is one of the most touching things I’ve read in all of literature.

Honorable Mentions: Reiner - Attack on Titan, Akechi Goro - Persona Five, Subaru Natsuki - Re: Zero, Emiya Shirou - Fate Stay Night, Kaworu Nagisa - Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ryoji Mochizuki - Persona 3, ii-chan -Zaregoto, Squall Leonhar - (FF8)

#spooky speaks #kumagawa misogi #enoshima junko #osamu dazai #takizawa seidou #shigaraki tomura #orihara izaya #norman tpn #accelerator #jack vessalius #joshua kiryu #top ten list

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