#we are in an age where you can't like anything that isn't “pure” and “progressive”. fuck off

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

People on social media will get mad as hell and call you problematic if you enjoy a villain for being, well, a villain.

#txt #“this villain promotes bad values” ok and what's your point? #just because a character is morally questionable it doesn't mean i can't like them lmao #we are in an age where you can't like anything that isn't “pure” and “progressive”. fuck off #now if the villain's stans are actually trying to paint them as a poor misunderstood angel victim that's DIFFERENT #and let's be honest stans (usually female mind you) do this when the villain is attractive/hot/sexy #if a dude is ugly or fat there is no way you would have swarms of women defending that son of a bitch #but because he was drawn to be hot (or the actor who plays is hot) some chicks are READY to paint him as a poor baby #like... baby you are missing the point #just appreciate that son of a bitch as he is. there is no need to “sympathize” with him #i miss it when villains were villains and people appreciated that about them #anyways yes a character can be a very shitty person and you can still like them because that's the entire point of them #they are the antagonist/villain #i enjoy palpatine as a villain but that doesn't mean i think he was a poor lonely wholesome baby #that piece of shit deserved to be burn in hell lol but he still is a fantastic villain #but again tumblr twitter and fandom in general have no grasp of the concept of enjoying villains because they are villains #one side thinks you are fucking evil and disgusting if you admit to enjoying a villain #and the other side wants to find every justification in the book to paint the pos as an actual good person who is misunderstood :( because #that mofo has a six pack and a nice smile or is generally visually appealing lol

[cardboard-aliens]

A thought that just occurred to me: What was jack doing during those two years on the surface pre-game?

Was he just alone on some farm the middle of nowhere, going through the motions of being a person in a haze until he was recalled? Did Fontaine have some of his gang pretend to be his parents to make sure he didn’t wander off into traffic? Was he just locked in a box to hallucinate his fake past until he was put on a plane? Many options.

YEAH, I've thought about this TOO- Did Jack have a JOB??? There is about zero information on this subject so it's PURELY headcanon and interpretation space, and everyone has wildly different ideas on what happened during those two years.

So anyway here's my loose version: First thing tho, I think Jack was done by the time they shipped off to the surface, so he was an adult. I take Fontaine's comment before the final fight about Jack 'being no more than 2' was in reference to his chronological age. I can't imagine they would send Jack to the surface to do growing up there on his own, he's the first of his kind there's a lot of instability and risk that comes with developing him and they'd want him on hand to make sure everything is progressing smoothly and to intervene if his condition drops. His whole development makes more sense to me if he was 22 when he left Rapture, with his growth stable after that point.

I also don't think Jack's fake parents were real at any point, just something they put in his head to keep him content enough. The most there would be to them would've been whatever actors took the photo in his wallet with him, and I don't have a preference on if the photo was taken down in Rapture or on the surface- tho toying with the idea that the photo also isn't real is an interesting idea since Jack doesn't look at it after the intro.

(I think Jack's fake memories were more so to justify his conditioning to himself. Which is probably a reason farm life was chosen [along with being disconnected from the ocean]since it would be easier to set up ‘always working, always busy, no rest, no breaks, no play, just do what you’re told’ and then tint it with ‘you have loving and supportive parents’ in that setting. I mean why would you tell your weapon it's a person? Wouldn't that make it harder to control? I figured towards the end of his time in Rapture he must've been putting up some resistance for them to try to repackage his conditioning so he would accept it easier. [there are a lot of other angsty interpretations tho, but we've already tangented enough on this post sjkdflsd)

That said because Jack is triggered most easily by audio input I'd imagine Fontaine would've arranged somewhere isolated to keep Jack to make sure random people couldn't accidentally trigger any of his phrases (I've met people with a 'would you kindly' verbal tick before- so even though it's unlikely for Jack to run into someone like that it's still a possibility they'd want to avoid).

I imagine he'd basically be in standby for those two years on the surface where he was basically stuck in his fake memories only vaguely aware of his physical surroundings automatically going through routines to keep himself alive and his body physically well (workout routines were probably his main form of exercise in the labs).

They probably set him in standby down in Rapture, giving him his fake memories and locking up the memories of the labs- I don't think his memories got erased, since during the reveal he has a flash of himself as a child with Suchong and Tenenbaum and that wasn't a photo we physically see in the game so those memories are there even if they're repressed. (I mean not that Ryan is a good source for anything Jack related, but I think 'Sleepwalking through life' is a pretty solid hint at what his life was like pre-game).

Since he's basically locked down and kept from the public there would have to be someone Fontaine was paying to bring Jack supplies to keep him alive and make sure Jack hadn't just keeled over randomly one day due to an unforeseen complication in his body, along with getting to the airport and with the package and note to hijack the plane. I just don't think there was anyone playing house with him the whole time (With the 'your special' comments either being completely made up in his head, or it being something Tenenbaum told him before he left Rapture and his subconscious worked it into his fake memories)

AND OKAY- the plane flight is one of the canon details that makes the least sense to me. Why would his flight be in California???? I don't personally think Jack was ever actually in Kansas, but even if you do, you wouldn't go to Cali to go to England??? You'd still go to New York, and that's where I pretend his flight took off from.

BASICALLY... I think Jack was idle on the surface, waiting for input. I don't think he had a job, or meet other people- he probably didn't even talk for those two years. Fontaine wouldn't want Jack meeting anyone else, keeping him deprived of genuine human contact so he doesn't know any better than mind control. I also feel like him being isolated on the surface makes the most sense with Jack's character arc- If he had a genuine life on the surface between his time in Rapture then the reveal wouldn't be that bad because he had a job and coworkers he would've gotten to know- he would've had something real to ground himself in. Something to go back to.

But given that we only see him ever thinking about his parents or the farm I don't think he had anything at all and put all his value on his family just to find out it wasn't real (His fake memories are probably everything he longed for during development- something more genuine than the twisted relationship he had with Fontaine, Suchong and Tenenbaum as his parental figures).

Which is what makes his relationship with the little sisters so important for him, because it's the first thing in his life that's completely real and untainted by his existence- The girls don't feel guilty about him, pity him, they don't know anything about Jack beyond the kindness they show each other. And that's a starting point for Jack to move forwards in his life and form genuine connections with people and actually live his life instead of sleepwalking through it.

#bioshock #jack wynand #jack ryan #jack bioshock #frank fontaine #brigid tenenbaum #cardboard cutouts #long post #THIS GOT SO LONG IM SORRY #i just physically cannot shut up about this boy #there are a LOT of different interpretations you could have depending on what exact narrative you want to build up #or angst potential #the tldr is just your last option 'locked in a box hallucinating' sjdfksldjfsklf #the ones I general don't like are the ones where is fake family was real #that's just me tho #there is no info on his surface life so it IS free real estate