#(( I didn't know which blog you wanted... which was my fault to begin with... )) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

fandomwe1rd0 · 2 months ago

Text

Rick and Morty's dynamic for each season! I finally finished it!

THIS POST IS VERY VERYY LONG, THE WHOLE POST IS UNDER THE CUT

Heyyy, happy Easter to my followers! This is my easter gift for y’all! Don’t say I never do anything for you! Sooo, since I reached 300 followers! I love you all, by the way! Mwah! Mwah! And to celebrate, I made a poll to ask you guys what you'd like me to do, anddd you said that you'd like me to make an overanalysis of Rick and Morty's dynamic each season! This doesn't exactly surprise me; a lot of people said that they followed me because of my analysis! So this doesn't surprise me too much! And this will be the 2,000th post on my account! I honestly never expected to keep this blog going for this long, but I'm glad I did! Because if I didn't, I would've never met so many kind people! Okay, okay, enough with the sappy stuff before I turn into a tree (I stole that joke from a youtube, who did I steal it from? I'll never tell! Mwah-ha-ha- wha-? This is a Wendys? Oh uhm yeah of course, sorry) Now let's jump into it starting from the beginning!

~ Season 1 ~

Okay, let's begin with them in season 1! This was definitely their dynamic at their most exploitative, I'd say. In episode 1 alone, we see that Rick:

1. Barges into Morty's room while he's sleeping and DRAGS HIM OUT OF BED BY HIS ANKLE so they can go on an adventure

2. Drags Morty out of school so he can help him on an adventure, then pressures Morty when he's hesitant

3. Didn't care when Morty's legs broke due to Rick not telling him something, then acted like it was Morty's fault for not knowing information that Rick didn't give him, and only fixed Morty's legs when he was rightfully pissed at him

4. Encourages Morty to stick megaseeds up his uh...bottom so they can smuggle them through interdimensional customs, then didn't do anything when they dissolved, which made Morty lose his motor skills and brain functionality for 72 hours

5. Lied to Morty about the security guards being robots, so Morty shoots them, and showed no sympathy for Morty when he was horrified that he shot them

6. Used Morty's temporary super intelligence so he could get himself out of trouble, then ranted to Morty, telling him that he will keep his mouth shut about their adventures

And that was in the first episode alone, and we can clearly see that he has very little to no respect for Morty. Only using him for adventures and not caring about Morty's feelings or autonomy, outright forcing him to go on adventures when he doesn't want to. Even in Rick's worst season (season 4), he never forces Morty to go on adventures with him, even if he is mean or annoyed when Morty doesn't want to. It's pretty safe to say that for the first few episodes of season 1, he didn't even see Morty as a person but instead as a tool that is useful for adventures.

We see him again, disregarding Morty's autonomy in episode 3. Dragging Morty away from a family Christmas without making sure he's ok with it. Even insulting Morty's intelligence for literally no reason afterward. Calling his brain his "little walnut" and casually mentioning to him that he has to hold his breath before he minimizes him or his organs will collapse. He also minimizes Morty's girlfriend in this episode, keeping Morty isolated and preventing him from having a relationship with someone his age. We see him doing something similar when he drags Morty away from Jessica at the end of episode 1. While I heavily doubt that Rick is grooming Morty (For non-sexual reasons, ofc), and if he is, that's not what the writer intended; he does fit the isolating step disturbingly well. However, he is most likely doing this to keep Morty dependent on him and not to groom him. It's still fucked up either way.

Then we see him disregard Morty's autonomy yet again in episode 4, where he drags Morty out of class, speaking for Morty when Mr. Goldenfold says if Morty leaves he's giving him an F. (Granted, Rick knew that this wasn't real, but he knew that Morty didn't know that, and believed that Morty was real)

Mr Goldenfold: If he leaves, I'm giving him an F!

Rick: He doesn't care!

Now, Rick does actually care about Morty in season one and has episodes where he shows that, but these are few and far between, and the bad in this season heavily outweighs the good, but for argument's sake, I will point them out.

1. Episode 4, he gets angry and protective when he finds out that aliens watched Morty while he was...uncovered, even attempts to lunge at them for doing so, which is sweet considering that Jerry, Morty's dad, didn't give 2 flying fucks.

2. Episode 5, comforts Morty after what happened with Mr. Jellybean, and even kills Mr. Jellybean for the sick shit he did, which is absolutely deserved.

3. Episode 9, Rick was happy to see Morty when he was alone at the Smith's house, but quickly covered it up because feelings are for losers, ig.

4. Episode 10, Rick angrily tells the other Ricks to "leave my Morty out of this" when they take him to the council.

5. Episode 11 has cute bonding moments with Summer and Morty at the end of the episode.

Now, Rick, despite still caring about Morty, was very exploitative and saw Morty more like a tool he can use on an adventure instead of a person. A good example of this is this exchange in episode 10

Morty: Oh my god, Rick! There's a bunch of people strapped to that building!

Rick: Not people, Morty...Mortys.

Soooo yeah, that line straight up shows that at this moment, he didn't see Morty as a person, he even admitted to fiddling with the concept of torturing Mortys to hide from other Ricks (He says that he did it "On paper" but we can see when the memories are scanned that he did do this) and he took a voucher for a free replacement Morty. Again, showing that he saw Morty more as a tool that can be replaced easily, and not a real person...but that was until...

~ Season 2 ~

We're at Season 2, baby! Now, Rick and Morty's dynamic was still toxic in season 2, but Rick is finally seeing, or at the very least starting to see, Morty as a person rather than a tool. A VERY good example of this is in the very first episode, A Rickle In Time, I'm sure if you've watched the show, you know what scene I'm going to bring up, the scene where Rick, without hesitation, gives Morty his time collar. This is a huge moment. Also, in that episode, the timeline splits whenever a character is uncertain about something, and when Rick gave Morty his time collar, letting himself be stuck in a timeless oblivion so Morty will be ok. And his literal only request was that Morty be a better person than him.

While this scene is adorable and is the only proof that you need to see how much Rick truly cares about Morty, it also shows that he still sees himself as "above" Morty in some way, due to his delusional god complex, which was still strong here. Considering that he said, "Be better than me," saying that he doesn't see Morty as above him, it could be implied that he sees Morty as equal in this scene, but considering how he treats Morty in this season, I doubt it. Now, in this season, Rick is definetily less exploitative. He still doesn't treat Morty great, but he doesn't exploit him as much as he did in season 1.

Now, this isn't to say he treats Morty well; he still emotionally abuses him regularly, not caring when Morty is hurt by what he said. Like in A Rickle in Time, when Morty tells him, "Words hurt!" and Rick has no reaction. He also insults him a lot in Mortynight Run, even when he thinks that Morty is hurt after Fart left. Completely willing to kick Morty down, and the way he does it so gleefully doesn't exactly help. He also wasn't worried about Morty when he left in These Ricks Must Be Crazy, which will wildly contrast season 3, where they went HARD on Rick caring about Morty. Not that I'm complaining!

Rick also leaves Morty twice in this season, adding to Morty's abandonment issues, which, uh...isn't something a good grandpa would do. He fully meant to abandon Morty in Auto Erotic Assimulation, but only came back since Unity left him. He also left Morty to turn himself in in The Wedding Squanchers, which, whether Rick notices it or not, is a common manipulation tactic for codependency. Showering someone with attention, then leaving, which will make people so desprate for more attention that they will quickly become depedent on you, which is what Rick did here, although I am pretty sure it wasn't intentional, as he did what he did out of a desire for the Smith family to have a normal life, after he heard Beth crying saying that she'll let Rick do whatever he wants because she doesn't want him to leave again. I refuse to believe that was a cold, calculated move, as I doubt that he would want to willingly relive his trauma in the season 3 premiere. But whether Rick intended it or not, he did use this manipulation tactic, which caused Morty to become very codependent on him, since I would argue that he wasn't as codependent in earlier seasons as he is in later seasons. Especially considering that Morty threatened to kill Rick in Look Who's Purging now.

This is where tension starts to build in their relationship, and we see more of Morty's seething anger towards Rick and repressed rage. Rick is aware of Morty's repressed rage, but doesn't do anything about it, making Morty believe that he doesn't have it at the end of the episode by lying to him that a candy bar he ate amplified his violent tendencies. This may seem sweet, and in a way, it is, since Rick did this to clear Morty's conscience. But Morty deserves to know about his repressed rage so he can do something about it and work on it. But Rick is inherently keeping this information from Morty, making the inherent power dynamic they have, considering it's a younger family member and an older family member, even more unhealthy. Since Rick knows something big about Morty that Morty doesn't know about himself, Rick is purposefully keeping this information away from him. Although we never see Rick attempt to exploit Morty's repressed rage, keeping something this big from him isn't ok.

Again, Rick still cares about Morty in this season, sacfricing himself to save Morty, saving Morty in Mortynight Run, although he bitched and complained, being worried about Morty when Unity blew up a town, watching a movie with Morty and Summer and happily getting ice cream with them, etc., etc.

We do get more moments of him and Morty caring about each other and bonding since Rick is seeing Morty as a person instead of a tool he uses on adventures, but their dynamic is still heavily unhealthy with a huge power imbalance, and has Rick making Morty's codependency on him worse.

So while Rick exploits Morty less and is finally seeing Morty as a person, their dynamic is still very unhealthy, with a huge power imbalance and codependency galore. Now, let's get to season 3!

~ Season 3 ~

In season 3, we not only get more tension with Rick and Morty's relationship, with Morty shooting Rick in the head and yelling "Who's stupid now bitch!?" To be fair, it was a fake gun, but Morty didn't know that. Morty also tricks Rick into taking Jerry on an adventure since he just wanted a break from the adventures. But we also see the codependency leak into other parts of Morty's life. Morty starts to have repressed rage towards Jerry, as we see him attacking people while pretending that they are Jerry in Rickmancing the Stone.

You may be wondering how this has anything to do with his relationship to Rick, while codepedency can lead to estrangened relationships with other family members (https://castimonia.org/2021/09/05/codependent-families-family-roles-whats-yours/) since family members may struggle for power, which is something we see Jerry do with Rick, another reason why Morty may have repressed rage towards Jerry is because people who are codepedent on others may adopt their opinions on the belief that it'll give them validation (https://codependencyrecovery.org/2022/11/04/worrying-what-other-people-think/) so another reason could be because Morty recogonized that Rick hates Jerry and adopted that same opinion without realizing it, causing him to seethe in anger before his repressed rage for Jerry formed. It could also be his way of getting his repressed rage out by taking it out on unrelated people, he literally said this in season 3 episode 2, "What if we...didn't do it? What if we just went back to the blood dome and kept taking our baggage out on unrelated people?"

Rick also isolates Morty more with his season 3 premiere speech.

"I just took over the family, Morty! And if you tell your mom and sister I said any of this, I'll deny it! And they'll take my side because I'm a hero, Morty! Now you'll have to go and do whatever I say, Morty! FOREVER!"

This is a common manipulation tactic. Making your victim believe that nobody will believe them, so they may as well not even bother telling anyone, also burdening your victim with a big secret, and expecting them to keep it, which allows the abuser to hold more power over their victim. He knows that Beth has abandonment issues and knows that she'll take Rick's side if Morty tries to tell her just how dangerous his adventures with Rick are. It's chilling how many manipulation tactics Rick takes with Morty, to keep control over Morty and to keep Morty codependent on him.

Now, for Rick, this makes sense; he craves control. This codependency is something that Rick doesn't get, he's uncertain about it, and it doesn't make sense to him, so he tries to control Morty so he can regain the feeling he likes of having everything under control. He also sees that Rick KNOWS that doing these manipulation tactics is giving him control over Morty, which makes it VERY unlikely that he's doing these on accident, as he says this to Morty when he's in his toxic form in season 3 episode 6:

"You can die when I say so! I control you! I control the universe!"

We also see just how badly Rick's emotional abuse affected Morty, with toxic Morty being HEAVILY insecure, saying things including but not limited to:

"I don't want to be on camera, I'm ugly and gross, please!" "I did it, Rick! I got the tank! I'm a piece of shit, but I got the tank!" and "I think my voice is annoying"

We also see him agreeing with Toxic Rick with everything, something that emotional abuse victims tend to do to minimize abusive events, this becomes even more apparent when we find out that Mortys are breed to be as forgiving as possible, and a lot of emotional abuse victims tend to be forgiving towards their abusers (https://psychcentral.com/health/coercive-control#recap)

Morty also being heavily insecure is another sign of codependency, as when someone is codependent, their view of themselves is heavily tied to what the person they are codependent on thinks of them. Morty also saying that he dislikes confrontation in the episode could be tied to emotional abuse, or it could be that and a mix of codepedency, as people who are codepedent have self worth tied to the person they are codepedent on, and because of that will avoid conflicts with them since they want to be liked by them. (https://www.simplypsychology.org/signs-of-codependency.html)

Another thing I want to point out is Morty’s lack of boundaries with Rick. An example of this is in Rest and Ricklaxation. Rick goes to drag Morty out of school again, and at first Morty says no since he found out that Jessica was single, then Rick is dismissive of him, and continues to pressure him. Which Morty agrees to. Also in the season 3 garage rant, Rick repeatedly invades Morty’s personal space, and while Morty is clearly scared, he doesn’t do anything about it. This is a common sign of codependency (https://americanaddictioncenters.org/rehab-guide/family-members/codependent) We do see Morty begin setting boundaries with Rick in season 7, but after years of neglecting his own boundaries when it came to Rick, it will take a while to undo this. We also see this in season 1, with Morty being able to successfully share his boundaries with Jerry about coming to his room without knocking, while we see Rick do that exact thing multiple times, and Morty just lets it happen, not setting clear boundaries with Rick, letting Rick have more control over him. Now this is NOT Morty’s fault, as Rick is the one who got Morty codependent on him, but that’s just another way for Rick to control Morty, as Rick is a control freak.

This also seems to be the season where Rick's codependency on Morty gets worse, so he desperately tries to retaliate by controlling Morty more. An example of this is in episode 4, where he gets jealous of Morty seeing the vindicators as his heroes and not him. Rick probably doesn't feel this a lot, it's weird to him, he doesn't know why he cares so much about what Morty thinks, and why he's so mad at the thought of Morty seeing other people as his heros, so he does what he knows best, he goes to drink so he can numb himsef and feel like he's in control.

Rick seems to crave control a lot; the reason for this most likely stems from his backstory, Diane and Beth dying from Rick Prime. This was a situation Rick wasn't in control of. In the few seconds he had to gain control, he was frozen in shock. In Rick's mind, their deaths were his fault because he didn't have any control over the situation, so he wants control over everything. He hates being uncertain and confused. His dynamic and codependency with Morty confuses him. He hates caring about others, scared that if he cares about people, they'll leave him, be put in danger because of him, or die. He cares about Morty. He should hate Morty, but he doesn't. It confuses him so much that he tries to control Morty as much as he can to combat this feeling, but it doesn't work. It never does. Rick also revisits the memory of Beth and Diane's death in the season 3 premiere, he is reminded of what happens when he doesn't have control at all times, people he loves die.

While season 1 was their dynamic at its most exploitative, seasons 3-4 were their dynamic as it's most controlling. Rick can feel the codependency becoming worse and tries to combat this with control, yet it still doesn't work. Let me quickly list off moments in season 3 where Rick attempts to control Morty.

1. Rickmancing the Stone attempts to push Morty into doing stuff he doesn't want to do and continues to push Morty to do the things, even when Morty doesn't want to. An example of this was him trying to push Morty to leave, even when Morty said that he wanted to stay. Or him volunteering Morty into the blood dome and not caring when Morty was mad at him for doing so.

2. Pickle Rick. He tries to manipulate Morty into lying for him. Saying this: "Morty, I assure you I would never 'find a way' to 'get out of' family therapy."

3. Vindicators 3: Return of Worldender. Put the Vindicators into a SAW so Morty can see what horrible people they are and hopefully idealize Rick over them. He didn't actually want to kill the vindicators, but still.

4. Rest and Ricklaxation. Toxic Rick controls Toxic Morty for this whole episode, bossing him around and straight up saying, "I control you."

5. Morty's Mindblowers. Rick literally removes memories from Morty that make Rick come off as pathetic, are embarrassing for Rick, or even a moment where Morty gets the slightest bit of power over Rick. An example of this is when Morty made fun of Rick since Rick thought that "Take things for granted" was "Take things for grainte" or when Morty won a checkers game against Rick. Then acting like Morty was overreacting when Morty was rightfully pissed at Rick after he found out the truth.

But, Rick also slightly softens up in this season, letting himself be a little more relaxed with Morty, like when he always tells himself to just have a fun time with Morty at Atlantis. This was off-screen, but in the after-credits scene, it's clear that they both had a nice time and were fondly talking about their adventure together. Rick also takes Jerry on an adventure, despite not liking Jerry, because he thought Morty was genuinely worried about Jerry and wanted to make Morty happy. Even if he tries to brush this off by saying, "You know how Morty gets when he gets emotional, it impedes my work." We also see Rick and Morty geuinely enjoy Minecraft together, without Rick making any snide or backhanded remarks towards Morty, while this was their dynamic at it's most controlling, we also see them become more like friends...but then we reach season 4...ooo boy, aren't you in for a treat...

~ Season 4 ~

So in season 4, we get another attempt at Rick trying to control Morty with him trying to control Morty as usual, but he was trying to drag Morty on an adventure without caring about if Morty wanted to do it or not, but Beth actually stops him, since now she's having Rick ask Morty, giving Morty more autonomy, sadly though, it's not nearly enough considering how controlling Rick was of him in season 3, and this season. Morty did agree to the adventure, but when Rick died, Morty chose to let Rick stay dead so he could die with Jessica. Again, this shows the budding tension between them, with Morty coming to hate Rick, or at the very least not love him. This will change, though, as it tends to with codependency, as Morty will begin to trauma bond with Rick.

Rick did 3 VERY fucked up things in season 4. I like to think of it as the fucked up triology. So, first he manipulates Morty into hating heist movies like him, so he doesn't get too busy with it to go on adventures in One Crew Coocco Over Morty. Gave Morty a BLACK EYE in Rattlestar Ricklatica, and traumatized Morty into being terrified of ever defying him again in Vat of Acid.

There are also very few moments where he cares about Morty here,

He shields Morty in the premiere and has a cute garage rant with him.

Tells Morty that he loves him in the ending of Never Ricking Morty (We’re ignoring the lips if you want part, thank you very much! Although it is another good example of how Rick ignores Morty’s boundaries and Morty lets his boundaries be ignored)

He and Morty have a bonding moment in Promortyus.

And uhhh that’s about it! Now, let’s talk more about the fucked up shit he did because…whoo boy, is it MESSY.

Now, starting off with the heist episode, this is another attempt by Rick to get more control over Morty’s life, which sadly works. So, a quick refresher in case you forgot (I doubt it, what Rick did here is pretty infamous for good reason), Morty was writing a heist script, and because of that was flaking on adventures with Rick, which annoyed Rick to no end. Then, when he heard from Summer that Morty could get a Netflix deal, he heard 4 words that set off alarm bells in his head.

“You could lose him.”

Rick is also codependent on Morty, relying on him far more than anyone should rely on a 14-year-old. So the thought of losing Morty terrifies him, so he said that he would “Nip this in the bud” but luckily Beth butts in. Telling Rick that he won’t be doing anything bout it, and if Morty gives up, it better be his own choice, and not because of Rick.

Now Rick hears this, and, like the emotionally stable, well-adjusted man he is, took this as he’s supposed to manipulate Morty into giving up on the dream, so he remains codependent on him and so Rick doesn’t lose him, as he is terrified of losing Morty, since he lost 2 people that were so, SO important to him, and Morty quickly became the most important person in his life after their death, so he would do anything not to lose him. Even if it means doing things that he knows would be damaging to Morty’s psyche.

This is what I mean when I say that Rick does love Morty, just not in the correct way. He loves Morty, but in a selfish way, as he doesn’t care about how his actions affect Morty, only wanting Morty to stay with him, no matter what the cost it may have on Morty’s psyche. Now, Rick does treat Morty better and cares more about how his actions affect Morty, but this realization came a little too late; his actions already damaged Morty immensely, and I don’t think Rick realizes this. As he never even considered that Morty’s greatest fear could have something to do with him in Fear No Mort, but we will get to that, TRUST ME. I don’t think Rick is being intentionally abusive, he’s just doing whatever he thinks he has to do to protect Morty, as he believes that caring for people is basically a death sentence for them. So he tries to pretend like he hates Morty, terrified of admitting and showing just how much he cares about Morty, but this didn’t make him hate Morty; it only made Morty hate himself. And Rick’s manipulation of Morty seems to be his attempt to keep Morty around him by any means necessary.

Now I am by no means defending Rick’s actions, they are ABSOLUTELY abusive, but I don’t think Rick realizes that, as very few people are intentionally abusive and manipulative. They mostly do not recognize that they are abusive (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/invisible-bruises/202210/do-abusers-understand-their-behavior-is-wrong). Although this does not excuse their actions, it is interesting to bring up. They also tend not to realize how their actions affect their victim, as the change happens slowly. Which is also something I believe is true for Rick. He definitely doesn’t realize how much he has hurt Morty, although this doesn’t make Morty’s hurt ok. Rick truly has no idea how deeply he’s scarred his grandson.

Vat of Acid is another VERY fucked up thing. This also has to do with Rick’s fear of losing Morty. So, Morty saw firsthand that one of Rick’s plans failed, and he lashes out at him for it. He then manipulates Rick into making an invention for him by using reverse psychology, which works, of course, since Rick has the most fragile ego known to man. But it turns out Rick didn’t do what Morty wanted, instead transporting Morty to a different timeline, killing the Morty that was originally in that timeline, eventually revealing this to Morty, traumatizing him. He also had Morty merge all of the timelines together, so only one Morty did all of the things Morty did in that episode. Take a shot for every time I say Morty in this post! I’m kidding, don’t do that. You’ll definitely die of alcohol poisoning. So Rick did this, one to preserve his ego, as he wants Morty to see him as cool, despite not wanting to admit it, because basic human emotions are for losers! And two, did this to keep Morty with him. As he says in season 6, after he believes that Morty hates him:

“This is what happens when you let people in and they stop respecting you!”

Morty didn’t respect Rick here, and Rick, being terrified of what that could mean, makes a whole contrived plot to keep Morty from ever critiquing him again. Hoping that this would keep Morty respecting him.

Rick is an incredibly fucked up indivual, but he typically does have a reason for doing the reprehensible shit he does, which makes it interesting to anaylze, and shows how complex he really is. So while season 4 was Rick at his worst, it IS a pretty interesting season to use to analyze Rick’s character.

This is also the season that kicks off Rick’s redemption arc. In the finale, Rick realizes how much of a terrible father he is, which leads him to sit alone in the garage and reflect on his behavior in this season. Unable to face the family after he realized just how horrible he is. This is a MASSIVE moment of growth for Rick, as he realized how much his actions hurt Rick, and how horrible it is to look at those actions play out.

Now let’s get to the REAL reason why any of you are here for this post! Season 5! Rick’s redemption arc is starting, babbyyy! Let’s go!

~ Season 5 ~

Ok, so at the end of season 4 with the whole clone Beth thingy, Rick realizes what a truly bad person he is, and sits in the garage thinking about how horrible he’s been in season 4. Since, imo, he was at his worst in season 4, and Rick seems to agree since he begins his redemption arc in season 5. With the very first episode, we already see how different he acts. He tells Morty to leave him and save himself when they are literally in a life-threatening situation. Another example of how, while Rick may be a horrible grandpa, in the end, he loves Morty more than he loves himself. Which isn’t saying a lot because he hates himself, but uhhhh y’know what I mean. In this season, he respects Morty’s autonomy a lot more. For example, in the first episode again, Rick tries to drag Morty off so Morty can watch him sign a peace treaty with Mr. Nimbus. This was right after Mr. Nimbus says that this has to be someone Rick would trust with his life, by the way. But when Rick tries to, Morty yanks his arm away and says, “Rick! I did everything you asked today! Now, can I just spend some time with my girlfriend?” And Rick, instead of just ignoring Morty’s protest and boundaries again and just dragging him off, as, say, season one Rick would’ve done, he doesn’t try to drag Morty away and just says, “Your girlfriend?” Which, I would normally say that this is rude, buttttt considering how this is Morty’s 1st date with Jessica and he’s already using the “girlfriend” label, thissss is pretty fair I’d hate to say it. We also have Morty saying this line: “Y’know, sometimes you have to BE an asshole! My grandpa taught me that!”

Hell, Rick even let Morty off the hook for screwing up later in this episode, even if he’s snarky about it (“I fucked it up, ok?” “It’s ok Morty, it’s what you do, now lemme Deus Ex Machina this shit and let’s go home.”) when usually season 2 Rick wouldn’t hesitate at the opportunity to repeatedly insult Morty for it, and when he’s in the middle of an argument with Nimbus, he immediately drops it when he hears Morty screaming for help, with a: “Screw this. What am I even doing?”

We do see more of Rick’s jealousy and possessiveness over Morty in this season tho (In a platonic way to any proshipppers who are reading this, GET OUT!) in “A Rickconvient Mort” Morty ditches plans he had with Rick to hang out with Planetina (FUCK PLANETINA) and Rick actually doesn’t force the plans him and Morty had on him. So obviously in this season we’re getting more of Rick actually respecting Morty’s autonomy, which is really cool! Buttttt this is where his jealously and possessiveness comes in, he drinks a lot, calls Summer his favorite grandkid right in front of Morty to get under his skin and hurt Morty like how he hurt him (DAMN that is fucked) andddd basically ignores Morty for the rest of the episode. While Rick is a smart man, no doubt about it, he acts very immature when it comes to Morty. The best way I can describe Rick’s possessiveness and jealousy when it comes to Morty is…y’know, when a toddler has to share their favorite toy? Yeah, kinda like that. They get huffy, fussy, and won’t admit what’s wrong. Yep, that’s how our emotionally closed-off boy acted in this episode in a nutshell. He’s scared of showing how much he cares about Morty, since bad things happen to people he cares about; they either die because of him, are put in danger because of him, or leave him. Take, for instance, his original Beth and Diane, Unity, Birdperson, Squancy, hell, Mr. Poopybutthole’s life was ruined because of him. He also just isn’t really the best at dealing with his emotions, considering how much he represses them.

Now, he does slap Morty here in season 5 episode 7 (“Gr-grandpa fucked up, glasses on! Act like a turkey!” “Wha- Are you scared?” *Slaps* “ACT LIKE A TURKEY!”) But this slap was a lot softer contrasting the punch from Ricklatica, as he doesn’t leave a fucking black eye on Morty’s face. But still, hot take…slapping your younger relatives…is bad…*gasp!* I know, I know that’s very surprising and a very spicy take, but…I had to say it.

There’s not a whole lot to comment on for this season, since it focused more on Rick and Morty’s dynamic with other family members, but there are a few important things. One is…despite it being from one of the worst, if not the worst episodes of the entire series, we do get some good moments of Rick caring about Morty in…eugh…Rickdependence Spray…

Ok, this episode is completely shit, and is an abomination, BUT, there IS some good parts about it…and by “parts” I mean Rick, so, he get him greeting Morty in a weirdly nice way “Oh, hey kiddo, how’s your Saturday?”, and he also is pretty protective over Morty in this episode, telling him to step away so he doesn’t get caught in the blast, shielding him and putting Morty behind him when Sperm monsters were attacking, immidately grabbing him when the ship was going down, yeah even though this episode was absolute pure unadulterated garbage, these moments still managed to get an “Awww!” out of me…what can I say? I’m weak! I love me some protective Rick, even in a shitty episode. Also, when it comes out that Morty uh…”used”...a horse machine and because of that all the sprem monsters happened…i-it makes slightly more sense in context, ok? He does shame Morty a little for it, whichhhh is honestly kinda deserved, sorry baby, but the insult is very minor “Morty, you nasty little, lying, world-ending pervert!”, “I always knew your hormones would start a world war Morty, I just didn’t think it would be like this” and “Not really accepting apologies here while I’m stuck as handjob solo here…” but again, these are very minor, and aside from these lines, he lets Morty off the hook for it.

But oh boy, then we get to the toxic cesspool of the season 5 finale…so, in season 5 episode 9, Forgetting Sarick Mortshall, Rick is terrible to Morty, which is kinda essensital for the plot to happen and so one of the best episodes of the series can happen, but it’s still a dick move no matter how you slice and dice it. He calls Morty replaceable, had a wheel of better things than Morty, and purposefully attempted to hurt Morty so Morty will come back and, ideally, have less complaints now since he’ll believe that Rick is fine with replacing him…fuck…I absolutely love Rick, he’s my favorite without question, but he can be SERIOUSLY fucked up at times. Making this analysis made it all the more blatant. One thing I do like about this episode is that it had the BALLS to tell the audience about how fucked up and toxic their dynamic is, many shows will try to brush it off, or make excuses, like “Oh yeah, but they care about each other when it counts” it actually acknowledged the intense toxicity between Rick and Morty, I just kinda wish they directly addressed it more, since this episode didn’t really have a satisfying end to it…actually the episode ends with Rick LEAVING.

Yeah, Rick fucking LEAVES, because I guess giving one of his relatives abandonment issues wasn’t enough. (Yes, ik he never abandoned his original Beth, but he still abandoned this one multiple times) He had to do it with his 14-year-old grandson…yaaaay…

Now, it does try to say that the reasons why he’s leaving are because he’s abusive towards Morty…but if that were the case, he would work to make their relationship better, instead of continually removing Morty’s autonomy. Since now, he can’t even choose to leave Rick, because Rick has already made that choice for him. Making Morty even more dependent on Rick, since he probably feels incapable of making decisions on his own, considering how much autonomy that Rick has taken away from him. Hell, at times it’s like he’s not even his own person, he’s just Rick’s tool for adventures, he does get slightly more autonomy, but this just zaps it all away. Now, I do think Rick did have good intentions with this, buttttt now we’ve got abandonment issues as well! Which makes codependency even worse! (https://codependencyrecovery.org/2024/05/05/the-fear-of-abandonment-in-codependency-how-it-shapes-your-choices-and-what-to-do-about-it) yay….I mean, he did fix Morty’s arm and was genuinely worried when he saw Morty hurt, and gave Morty his portal gun as a parting gift, so like…that’s something, ig. Who cares about abandonment issues when you get a portal gun that you get to keep for a few days out of it!?

Rick does come back in the very next episode when the crows…I don’t wanna use the weird terminology that the show uses…soooo I’ll just say stop adventuring with him. Annnndddd just about nothing has changed, with Morty being ready to go back to how things were before, even when Beth tries to get Morty to tell Rick that he wants his respect, Morty refuses…my poor baby. It’s still nice seeing Beth take a more active role in Morty’s life, though, even if a lot of what she does is the bare minimum, it’s still nice to see. Especially since it shows that her love for her son is stronger than her abandonment issues. Beth is a LOT of things, but she does love her son.

Now, Rick is actually treating Morty like…*gasp*...a human being! He agrees to a dinner with Evil Morty despite not wanting to, since Morty wanted to. Let Morty find out about his past, even picking Morty up, even though Morty chose to do it at like the most inconvenient time. And gently put Morty down. And he AGAIN tells Morty to leave him for dead when Evil Morty offers Morty to come with. And Morty, being the codependent bby he is, chooses to save Rick instead, despite Rick admitting that he only came back because he didn’t have the crow anymore. He was too guilty to admit it, but his silence was answer enough, and after Rick admitted that he didn’t have a plan to get out…damn codependency is crazy, now obviously I do believe that they genuinely love each other, but you have to admit that there is a LOT of stuff that’s done due to codependency.

And the ending that I hate to admit brings me to tears, when Rick is handing a ship, he sees a booster control that says that it will only work with a partner, he takes Morty’s hand with a fucking SMILE on his face and they work TOGETHER as equal PARTNERS instead of the usual Rick being the leader and Morty being, for lack of a better word, a sidekick. This, to me at least, is when Rick consistently starts respecting Morty as a person, instead of only respecting Morty when he acts like him.

Nowwww, let’s see the moments Rick cares about Morty in season 5!

Rick tells Morty to leave him in Mort Dinner Rick Andre, drops an argument with Nimbus to help Morty when he hears him screaming for help, and lets him off the hook for screwing something up, instead of dogpiling on him like usual.

Genuinely wanted to have a good time with Morty with no ulterior motive in Rickmancing the Stone, even if Planetina ruins it (FUCK PLANETINA)

Being very protective over Morty in Rickdepedence Spray and mostly letting him off the hook for screwing up

Fixes Morty’s arm and gives Morty the portal gun in Forgetting Sharick Mortshall

Trusts Morty with his past, carries him, tells Morty to leave him to save himself, AND works with Morty as an equal partner

Woo! Ok! That was season 5! I had a LOT more to say about that than I thought…what can I say? I love yapping about my boys! Now we’re onto the 2nd to last season…for now, I mean Rick and Morty will be getting like, 12 seasons, so we don’t gotta worry about it ending for a while, season 6! And we get more of Rick’s redemption arc here, baby! Ohhh, this will be fun!

~ Season 6 ~

We’re almost at the end! We’re at the home stretch! Keep reading this for just a little bit longer! Even though at this point, assuming you read it all in one go, you’ve read for abboooutttt…25 minutes?! You could’ve watched an episode by now…fuck…uhmmm but you’re a fast reader! I’m sure you took a shorter time…HAHAHAHA! Please don’t stop reading. You don’t know how much time I spent on this…I actually…RESEARCHED and…LEARNED SOMETHING! EUGH! Alright, moving on, sorry, Wendy’s waitress.

First, we have Solaricks! GOD, I love this episode! I love it so much! Now this whole episode is great…butttt that’s for the episode ranking…that’s coming soon, I PROMISE! For this analysis, we’re just focusing Rick and Morty here, but DAMN is it good! So, the cold open show Rick and Morty about to die, since the ship they escaped on is out of gas, and get this, when Rick and Morty were legit about to die, Morty’s FIRST instict was to go over next to Rick, curl up, and cling onto his arm…and Rick, instead of shrugging Morty off or doing an asshole move like that, he actually lets Morty hold onto his arm, and leans his head on Morty’s.

Rick is gentle and vulnerable with Morty in a way he NEVER is with anyone else. He never lets anyone else in the series touch him in such a close way. All Morty wanted was to die while holding onto Rick, and Rick actually let that happen. I honestly, honestly couldn’t see season 4 Rick doing this, but since season 6 Rick is finally letting himself be vulnerable, he’s letting Morty do this. And, more importantly, he’s letting himself do this, he’s letting himself be close with someone else without pushing them away. Because he’s FINALLY beginning to trust himself. Also, in this episode, we find out that Rick Prime was our Morty’s, Morty Prime’s, original Rick. Do you have any idea how big this is? To let a relative of a man you despise, the man who killed your family and ruin your life, to not only not hate them, but to love them, more than you love yourself, for them to be the only one you can trust with your life, to be close with them in a way you never let yourself be with any else ever since your wife and daughter died by that same person’s realitive? THAT’S one of the reasons why he considers his attachment to Morty so irrational, because this is the grandkid of your enemy, and even if you know they can’t control who they are blood-related to, realistically, you should have some resentment towards them, right? I mean, logically, rationally. And Rick, being a very logical and rational person, just can’t get why he holds no resentment towards Morty at all. Holding him in very high regard, even if he’d never admit it, since uhm…feelings are for people who want their families dead, ig.

Man, I REALLY yapped about that for a WHILE, huh? What can I say? I love my boys, I mean…of course I do, this analysis is nearly 8000 words as I’m writing it right now. Hell, I’m writing this instead of sleeping…it’s 4 in the morning and I just have ICP in my other tab and writing about Rick and Morty in this one…what is my life?

Okay, enough with that existential crisis, you came here for an analysis about an abusive grandpa and his anxious grandson! …You weirdo.

Now, later in the episode, we have one of my favorite scenes…I-I think in the whole series? Oh, you think I’m overexaggerating?! …Maybe. But this scene is really great, I made one too many posts on it. I’ll just show you the exchange.

“Get outta here! [When Morty was about to do something stupid and dangerous…awfully hypocritical of you, Ricky] You did this last season! You’re like a suicide bomber!”

“Takes one to know one!”

“Yeah? Well, you get it from him [Rick Prime], not me!”

“I don’t know him! You’re my grandpa, Rick! Rick and Morty, 100 years!”

This scene is soooo good, I CAN’T! I love how Rick lost his anger at hearing that, I love Morty immediately disowning Rick Prime, I love the found family, I love the callback to the pilot, GOD! I love it so much. Seriously, that callback was so good, even though Morty was literally rendered immobile because of Rick when he said that, and Rick had zero care about that, it still meant SO MUCH to Morty! Ugh, I need to stop gushing about this scene and carry on with the analysis already…ok, so this is a pretty good example of the genuine (I shouldn’t even have to specify this, but whenever I say “love” I’m talking about PLATONIC and FAMILIAL love! Ok? Ok.) love between them, there is a LOT of codependency between them, but they both do genuinely love each other a lot, Rick just isn’t in the right mental space to show it in the right way, he’s getting there, but he still has a WHILE to go, due to all of his trauma and a whole buncha self loathing! Ahh, THIS is why I relate to you, Rick! I hate myself, too! …That’s not concerning, right?

This is also what makes Rick go back and help the girls, who are in trouble. Morty is the ONLY person who’s able to talk Rick out of doing stupid and self risking stuff, since he’s aware of Rick’s self-destructive tendencies, that just shows how well they know each other, and how much they DO genuinely love and care for each other, even if it can seem hard to believe at times with all the emotional abuse, codepedency, and toxicity.

Also, a bit before this scene, when Morty was stuck in his original dimension, despite him saying “I knew you wouldn’t leave me!” to Rick when he came back, thissss isn’t exactly true. You see, he was talking with Jerry Prime, and, if he actually believed that Rick was coming back when he was talking to Jerry about it, he would say “When Rick comes back,” Butttt well…I’ll just show you what he said.

“If Rick comes back”

If, despite everything, Morty’s abandonment issues are still strong, of course they are, he’s terrified of losing the most important person in his life, the only person that gives him consistent attention, and now he knows that Rick would leave him on a whim, he knows that all of that could be ripped about like, *snap*, that. Who wouldn’t be terrified of losing the only person who actually pays attention to you after you’ve been lonely your entire life?

And it doesn’t help that when Rick came back, Morty was so overwhelmed with relief that he ran to Rick with outstretched arms to hug him, and Rick, being uncomfortable with physical touch, takes Morty’s shoulder and gently pushes him away, leaving Morty feeling more alone than ever.

That’s all I have to say about this episode, but damn, it’s even better than I thought, it reveals SO much about Rick and Morty’s dynamic in one episode…Or I could be overanalyzing this silly drunk grandpa cartoon….nahhh, that’s not it! This was all intentional, and I’m NOT crazy or obsessed, who said that!?

We also have Rick: A Mort Well Lived, and I’m…split on the episode, I WILL give credit where credit is due, it DOES say a lot about Rick and Morty’s dynamic. It sets the stage for the best episode in the series by showing that Morty thinks Rick doesn’t care about him. This was first introduced as a throwaway line in the season 3 premiere (“Because he doesn’t care! Because nobody is special to him, Summer!”), So it’s nice seeing it expanded on in this episode.

So, basically, Morty was split into a lot of little pieces because of a Roy game…it makes just as much sense in context. I gave you the context. And this, as multiple lines showing just how badly years of Rick’s abuse affected Morty, they straight up just don’t think Rick cares about him…or…them…? I dunno, it’s confusing, the truly heartbreaking thing is, you can’t really blame him, after years of emotional abuse, of course, he would start to believe that Rick doesn’t care about him. We have to remember, we are watching them on TV. We can go back to the moments where Rick cares about Morty and gush about them all we want, but Morty can’t. For Morty, these moments are just that, moments, quick and fleeting. Then after this, he just goes on with his life like normal. So why would he think that Rick cares about him, if all he hears is negative things come out of his mouth 90% of the time? I mean, put yourself in Morty’s shoes for a moment, your grandpa constantly insults you and made it very clear that he considers you 100% precent replaceable, he does have moments where he cares about you, but these are very quick, yeah, you probably wouldn’t think he cares as well.

Also, while Rick is getting better, we have to remember that Morty is 14, and again, he isn’t watching this on TV. He can’t go back to different episodes and analyze the differences in how Rick treats him, the change is slow and gradual, it makes it all the more realistic, but also makes it all the harder to spot. Of course, a 14-year-old isn’t going to pick up on this, how would he? The Rick he knows the majority of the time in the manipulative, sarcastic, rude Rick, not the kind, gentle, loving Rick that we can see over and over again.

Also, the one piece of Morty that Rick admitted was a good grandson, was going to admit that he loves, AND was the only one to challenge him and demand that he shows affection towards him…or…uh…her…? If he…she…? Is going to follow what he says. And guess what? She’s the only one who gets left behind on her own request. The only part of Morty that could challenge Rick is gone forever, set to die in a video game. Morty again loses more autonomy, he straight up says: “You know best, Rick! I trust you implicitly!” I swear, he’s becoming more and more like a lifeless husk with no personality that Rick just drags around.

There is also JuRicksic Mort. This doesn’t really reveal much about their dynamic, but they have a really cutesy dynamic here. Hell, Rick even tells Morty, “Give me a hug!” and playfully ruffles Morty's hair when he finds that piece of the asteroid. He also gently elbows Morty and asks, “Get it?” after he tells a joke, and actually attempts to defend himself to Morty when Morty is bitter about Rick not laughing at a joke he made. Which is…weirdly adorable? Rick also takes Morty to Boobworld with no hesitation after he fixes portal travel. Happily saying, “Figured my guy deserves a vacation.” Also, him calling Morty “my guy” is adorable, shut up. Also them gently punching each other’s arms is so fucking cute. MY BOYSSSSS ARGHHH! Also, this has literally nothing to do with the analysis…but I can’t NOT mention Rick absolutely failing at skateboarding, I’m sorry that’s too funny not to mention.

We also get Full Meta Jackrick. And DAMN. This episode is good! It might seriously be S-Tier for me, it is SO good! This episode is a great example on how much Rick changed. He’s physically gentle with Morty, gently holding his arms and hands, helping Morty up, hell, this is also a great protective Rick episode! When Rick thinks Joe Campbell got Morty…uh…pregnant…which, considering how Morty is amad, I…don’t know how that’s possible. Rick’s first reaction? To kill the only other male who could’ve done it, Joe. He did it by drowning as well, a surefire way to make it as painful as possible. Hell, even when Morty says, “It wasn’t him, Rick!” Rick angrily asks, “Then who?!” Clearly wanting to deal with the man who did that himself. Also, you are INSANNEEEE if you think I won’t mention him putting his lab coat on Morty when Morty was cold. That was legitimately adorable, especially since we rarely see Rick give someone else his lab coat. This was the first time he did, actually. He did it a second time in Mort: Raganrick (I thought it was called 90s Fad Toys for the longest time bc the site I pirate Rick and Morty from got it wrong, but shhh, that’s a secret between us) was when it threw it to Bigfoot in Summer’s body butttt I thinkkkk that has more to do with the fact that Summer was naked…

Ok, next up! Anaylze Piss, Rick and Morty don’t interact a whollleee lot here, we do get a pretty empowering scene for Morty setting some boundaries with Rick, not agreeing to keep a secret of a man’s suicide for Rick and telling the rest of the family. Rick also goes to therapy! Which is something season 3 Rick turned into a pickle to try to prevent. So yeah, Rick has grown a LOT from season 3, and I’m really proud of him!

Alright, so that’s about it for season 6, Rick and Morty has a much healthier, more cutesy dynamic, sure Rick can still be emotionally abusive, and manhandles Morty when they are running away from others, but he’s a lot gentler now, and treats Morty like an actual person instead of just a tool for adventures that vast majority of the time, now onto season 7, the final one! Then we’re done with this analysis that took way…WAYYYY too long. Wait- what!? No! I don’t want to talk about the last 2 episodes! I don’t want to, I’m not gonna, you’re not gonna make me! Wait…you’ll buy me a Rick plushie if I do…?

…

Damn you comfort characters. (I say despite making an entire analysis on how abusive Rick is, yes, he is still my comfort character. Meeseeks and Destroy. That’s it. That’s my reason.)

Ok, so, in A Rick in King Mortur’s Mort, damn these long titles, Rick straight up abandons Morty...again. He’s tryna win the Olympic gold medal for how many times he can traumatize this kid, istg. Give him DOUBLE the abandonment issues, why not!? He did make a robot designed to literally make Morty happy, which, y’know, is sweet in that special Rick way. But he still abandoned his grandson for months because he couldn’t pull himself out of his obsession with Prime.

Why is this?

Because of Morty.

Morty insulted him once, and it caused him to spiral.

Rick never really cared about Morty’s insults, but now he’s finally starting to respect Morty, so now those insults actually hurt, insults are a lot harder to brush off if you actually respect the person they are coming from.

It actually broke Morty that Rick would do this, he cries, and it’s heartbreaking. “He’s [Rick’s] busy…and I hate him, and I lost my lightsaber, and now it might destroy the earth, and it’s the worst Christmas ever!” Hell, after Rick lashed out with the most victim-blaming speech I’ve ever heard in my life, he immediately feels bad, and starts to blame the president, even now he’s incapable of holding Rick accountable, that’s how bad his codependency is.

And Rick still doesn’t see why what he did was wrong, why would Morty love him? He insulted him, that must mean that he doesn’t care, shouldn’t he be happy that Rickbot is nicer and more thoughtful than him? Why did Morty even care? Rick felt like a victim because he assumed Morty didn’t care about him, at least in Rick’s eyes. He probably thought Morty just finally realized how shitty of a person and didn’t understand how Morty could still love someone like that, forgetting what Morty said in Solaricks.

“You’re my grandpa, Rick.”

That’s why he hated Rick replacing himself with Rickbot; he loves this Rick, Rick C-137, his grandpa, and he just replaced himself with an impostor for months, not the Rick he chose over his biological grandpa, but a robot. He straight up tells Rickbot this.

“You’re not my grandpa, you’re a fucking robot.”

Morty is so terrified of being replaced, and Rick replacing himself terrified Morty that Rick got sick of him, and was going to replace him and leave him, again.

By the time Morty insulted Rick, Rick thought Morty truly didn’t care about him, so he just replaced himself with a better, nicer version of himself so he could focus entirely on finding Prime, thinking that that’s why he’s no good to anyone. That if he could get rid of Prime, everything would be fixed.

Also…Morty was the reason why Rick stopped hunting Prime, but Morty was the reason he came back to it. Sound familiar?

“The corrosion of 2 personalities that reshape each other until they’re incompatible”

…

And with that, we move on to season 7

~ Season 7 ~

Season 7, baby! We’re in the home stretch!

After spending hours on this and continually getting sidetracked because Depression is a fucking BITCH, we did it! So, sadly, we don’t get as much of their dynamic in season 7, since Morty got sidetracked a LOT in this season, butttt, we still got a lot to talk about, because this season has Fear No Mort!

This season is when their dynamic is at its healthiest, they seem a lot more like friends, which is nice to see. Rick, of course, still insults him, because this is Rick, of course, he’s still going to be emotionally abusive, ya can’t just erase that overnight, but like before, these insults are a lot less harsh, making him seem more like a rude friend than anything. He only insults Morty, like, 7 times throughout the whole season. Which, while it isn’t uhm…great, it still is a massive improvement. Morty is also more of Rick’s level, snapping back at him more than once, which makes their dynamic seem a lot more equal, than it just being a poor kid getting emotionally abused by his grandpa, which, don’t get me wrong, that still is definitely what’s going on, but it’s more equal now than it was before, the power dynamic is still there, but it’s not as unequal as it used to be, which is a definite plus.

Also, Rick actually lets Morty hug him! Contrasting season 6, where he lightly pushes Morty away when Morty tries. In Unmortricken, Morty hugs Rick, and Rick stiffens up, but lets him. And again in Fear No Mort (Oh, we’ll get to you later) Morty hugs Rick, and Rick, despite being obviously very confused and stiffening up again, does albeit awkwardly and half-assed, does try to hug Morty back, butttt Morty does pull away, and Rick, instead of being upset, looks more worried that he did something wrong, although he quickly returns to his resting bitch face afterwards. I love this man so much.

Rick also has a pretty good handle on his anger here, mainly in Mort: Raganrick, when Morty messes up things again, and Rick, instead of showering him with insults as usual. *Cough* Mortynight Run *Cough* He seems a lot more like a frustrated parent, more mad at the situation rather than Morty. He does insult Morty, but it was pretty tame and only once. And to be fair, it was after Morty insulted him, and he does reassure Morty afterwards, despite being stern about it. (“You’d rather stay dead until you win than live as a loser, Christ, maybe you belong here with these idiots.” “Yeah, I could probably teach them how to hit a red button!” “...I said I was sorry….” “And I said keep killing them, while I finish the relay, and I will find a way to get us back home, ok?”) We also see them being equal here, when Morty complains to Rick to get them back home, Rick, instead of hand waving Morty’s concerns away, actually explains his point to Morty (“You need to find a way to get us back to life!” “Without my infinite energy, Morty? I don’t think you’re understanding this, Morty…if I get back, we won’t have another shot at this, you think next time these idiots see an old guy on the battlefield, they’re going to give him a beer?”)

We also get a lot of protective moments between both of them, not only in this episode, but in Unmortricken as well. With Rick wanting Morty to stay away from Rick Prime, since he’s very dangerous, and actually getting angry at Evil Morty when he brings Morty Prime along. (“You brought Morty?” “I’m not worried about him, I’m evil.”) And with Morty getting mad at Evil Morty when he insults Rick (“Reallyyy learned your lesson about chasing this guy…” “Hey, man, you can leave now.”), There is also, of course, the ending, with Morty’s lips trembling when he was waiting for Rick’s response after asking Rick if he was ok. And when Rick says yes (Rick, you fucking liar.) Morty hugs Rick, and Rick, instead of pushing away, lets Morty hug him, just giving him a weird look and stiffening up, I mean, hey, baby steps. Rick also pretends to be happy for Morty which is just…so fucking sad.

And in Rickfending your Mort, we get to see Rick spoiling Morty, and them having a genuinely good time together, hell, despite them arguing here, they actually get over it pretty quickly, and the insults they hurl and each other feel a lot less personal than usual. Just basic ones like bitch and stuff. And even then, Morty still didn’t like the observer talking down to Rick. We also get Morty calling Rick “Grandpa” instead of “Rick”, which is always nice to see. (“It’s some weirdo Grandpa hired to prove I’m a bad person.”) And we get Rick encouraging Morty when he comes to talk to the observer (“Yeah, get ‘em Morty!”) and not being angry when he sees that Morty steals money from his wallet. We also get an adorable ending. (“Rick and Morty! We’re back, baby! Check the glovebox!” “Woah! Another gun!”) Now, despite this episode being adorable, there issss a downside. This is another example of Rick relying too much on Morty, I mean, he literally relies on Morty to keep him mentally stable, which is something you should never put on anyone, much less a 14-year-old.

There’s also Wet Kaut Amortican Summer. Buttttt we don’t get much of their dynamic here, but we do get confirmation that Rick now regularly spoils Morty, which is adorable, and Rick is actually able to take criticism from Morty without traumazing the poor kid. *Cough* VAT OF ACID *Cough*

Anddd now we get to the one! You know the one. FEAR NO MORT BABBBYYY!

Now, I could gush about this episode till the cows come home, talk about how it’s funny, a great character study on Morty and Rick, how the ending scene is the best ending and twist in all of Rick and Morty…buttttt that’s not what you’re here for, so! Let’s just explain what it means for our boy’s dynamic!

So, in Fear No Mort, we find out Morty’s greatest fear is Rick not caring about him, which is so fucking heartbreaking. And Morty’s realization of the fear is awful, also yes I memorized this scene (“I’m afraid that if I jumped into a hole, you wouldn’t even bother jumping in after me! You’d just stay there and watch! This entire thing has been about ME! YOU’RE NOT EVEN IN THE HOLE ARE YOU!?”) And holy hell, the voice acting is wayyy better than it had any right to be. Harry fucking KILLED it! What hurts the most about that line is that Rick actually DID jump into a hole for Morty in A Rickle in Time, but Morty can barely remember it since he had so many memories of that same moment where Rick didn’t jump in for him, and it’s absolutely heartbreaking. He forgot one of the biggest acts that shows how much Rick really did love him, where he gave his life for Morty’s. AUGH FUCK!

What also hurts is when Morty gets out of the hole, Rick was just waiting for him. He did just sit there and watch. To Morty, at the very least, his greatest fear was confirmed. Morty jumped into a hole, and Rick didn’t bother jumping in after him. He just sat there and watched. And that breaks Morty’s heart, you can hear him begging that Rick did try to jump in with the amount of pain in his voice (“Oh no…aw jeez no…you…you didn’t go in at all…?”) and Rick said that he didn’t breaking Morty’s heart without realizing it.

But there is something Morty didn’t realize, when Morty woke up and was safe, Rick happily said “Morty!” with a smile on his face, clearly happy to see that Morty was ok, but Morty of course wouldn’t realize a small detail after the overwhelming terrifying experience that he just went through, and to the overwhelming belief that Rick truly does not care about him at all.

Also Morty asks Rick, just to see if he was still in the hole “Rick…am I…irreplaceable?” Since irreplaceable was the very word that set Morty off, the one word that caused Morty to realize that Rick wasn’t even in the hole, and it was “You’re irreplaceable!” He truly believes that Rick would just replace him at any moment, and when Rick answers that question with: “I mean…define ‘irreplaceable’” This, this fucked up sentence, Rick being a dick, is what caused Morty to realize that he wasn’t in the hole. This made Morty so happy that he hugged Rick, he loves Rick for who he is, for being the asshole that simtaniously ruined and changed his life forever. Rick is single-handedly the reason why Morty can’t have a normal life, and Morty still loves Rick despite this. And Rick stiffens up and looks confused, but actually hugs Morty back. And this terrifies Morty, causing him to break apart and scream “NO! I won’t know if I’m out!” He’s so accustomed to receiving negative attention from Rick, that even the smallest amount of affection from him feels alien, it doesn’t feel real. Now, let’s get something straight, Rick is changing and is getting better, this doesn’t take away from the fact that Rick has deeply traumatized Morty, and Morty is still dealing with the trauma that Rick has put on him after 6 years.

We also see something else, in the hole, Morty was terrified that if Rick had to choose between him and a fake version of Diane, he would choose Diane, but guess what actually happened in the end, when Rick gets that choice?

He rejects it.

He rejects the ability to see his dead wife again, and instead just looks at the hole, takes a deep breath, takes a picture of Morty that was carefully folded in his wallet, mind you, and puts it on the wall of people who went into the hole and successfully came out, then walks away with a smile, clearly proud and happy of Morty, content with walking away from the past to spend the rest of his evening with his grandson. Fuck, I hate how just describing this scene is making me tear up.

~ Conclusion ~

Now, season 8 hasn’t come out yet, but it will come out soon! But according to staff, Rick and Morty will have more of an equal friendship, sooo this should be the healthiest we’ve seen of Rick and Morty yet!

So, what did we learn from this? Well, Rick and Morty, despite everything, do genuinely love and care for each other, although this mainly gets overshadowed by their codependency and the general toxicity of their dynamic. And while Rick is getting better and is treating Morty a lot better overall, this doesn’t erase all of the trauma Rick has put on Morty, Morty is still very deeply traumatized from the, at fucking BEST, 6 years of consistent emotional abuse, that even sometimes turns physical. (Rickstar Ricklatica, I’m looking at you) And despite the fact that Rick is changing for the better and does love Morty, and Morty loving him back, Morty still has no obligation to forgive Rick for all of the trauma Rick has dumped on Morty.

Their dynamic is so insanely complex and layered. I love how it shows that abusers can love their victims, but just not in the right way. Honestly making this analysis of their analysis made me respect the writing of this show even more, as they did a legitimately awesome job at show what can happen to someone with codependency. And it is legitimately so insanely interesting to anaylze, and I absolutely love it! Ok, after multiples months, multiple hours of procrastinating and getting distracted, so SO many spotify songs, and nearly 12k words, this analysis is finally finished! I really hope that you did enjoy reading this analysis. I know it’s long, but I hope it gave you a new understanding of their dynamic! I know it did for me, and I did actually learn a lot when I was researching for this analysis, so it was legitimately an educational experience for me! I think I need to stop saying legitimately- But yeah! This was a very long post and analysis, but I did genuinely enjoy making it! And I hope you enjoyed reading it as well! Thank you!

#rick #and #morty #rick sanchez #morty smith #rick c137 #morty prime #rick and morty #long analysis #analysis #over analyzing #overanalysis #rick & morty #evil morty #summer smith #rick prime #beth smith #long post

92 notes · View notes

voidponiies · 15 days ago

Text

lstrn mirrors lifesteal in so many different ways and it’s genuinely so insane. it all obviously comes from the fact that we're lifesteal fans, and tend to recreate things we see in ls becuase they seem cool – like the lstrncord mod election, having our own smp, and obviously “we are fraudsteal”.

but there's also the deeper level, which comes from the way lifesteal’s story is told – also in an unconventional, unscripted format just like lstrn; we also took something random and made it a compelling story with group efforts. a parallel i’ve noticed lately is the recent burnout of the doomed yaouri tournament really reminds me of season 4. it wasn't enjoyable for anyone, i don't think anyone had actual goals they tried to achieve and a lot of unpleasant events happened.

lifesteal works in cycles, and so does lstrn – because lstrn mirrors lifesteal with the very way it works. like in lifesteal we have conflicting relationships and grudges in the multiple stories we fabricate. we tell a LOT of stories, and play roles without discussing lore, and despite some relationships being sourer in lore everyone's still having fun with their friends.

i'm still stuck on the doomed yaouri tournament, i really think the collective burnout was something necessary for every side. it sucked for everyone, but it had to happen eventually. i for one thing hated all the ties and treaties in this; i've resented the ties since the very beginning and same as the people who worked for the tie when they were sad that it failed, i was sad that it even tried to come to fruition. i think it could be very lifesteal-y if everyone wasn't burnt out. i do think it was definitely a fault of how often the polls happen (luckily that won’t be a problem anymore everyone say thank you juniper)

understanding how lifesteal works is essential to understanding the intricacies of lstrn in my opinion. we as lifesteal fans have adapted it's way of storytelling and conduct amongst each other, and it's been like that since the very beginning. the very first conflict on the blog already had a lifesteal-y vibe and it was established from the beginning that conflict was real. this tournament was lacking in conflict and at the same time full of it, both sides were unsatisfied, everyone's burnt out… sounds familiar?

let’s quickly take a look at eclipse federation. it fell apart because vitalasy and subz held more knowledge than zam and didn't share it. same in here, no matter who you're fighting alongside with, they can withhold information – and it will suck for you. information is a very valuable resource; who's frauding for who; who's doing what. when you know those things you can easily plan everything out and use fraud as a tool to create your ending; a reality where you achieve your goals.

the polls aren't fair, they're not meant to be. i think that's a really important thing to remember – you can never fully know what happens, anything can happen at any time and you can never fully prepare for whatever might happen. the polls are unpredictable, and unfair, and for them to be satisfactory you need a winner and a loser.

at the end of the day, this is a tournament; someone has to lose for the other side to win. you can consider something a win, you can consider something a loss, it doesn't have to be the outcome of the tourney itself, but as long as you have a win someone has a loss and if you have a loss someone has a win. there can never truly be a way to satisfy everyone and i think that’s wonderful.

i think it's a huge point in the story we are telling, because lstrn relies on conflict for there to be a story. if there's no conflict there's a high chance the story's going to be lackluster, it's same as lifesteal – you need conflict to push the story forward.

i feel like everyone wants to achieve the lore success of the jumperwho tournament, but what made it so successful? after all it created the base for the worldbuilding of the lstrn universe! i have the answer right here – it's conflict and it's unsatisfactory endings.

the dyd poll was sad; it was sad but there was content of it – we used what was left to further push a narrative with the survivors.

that tournament really relied on the community to create a story, because the tournaments themselves aren't a story. they're a storytelling device which WE use to make a story. you need frauder impact for there to be a story, but everyone was burnt out and they didn't push a story too much, and i think that's why the tournament was lackluster; nobody had the energy to tell a story.

once you have a base to tell a story, look how far it can go – like wemmbob saga or yumeverse these all are just the same thing in a different font. we come together to tell a story seemingly out of nothing.

this tournament really made me think, because i hated it. i hated it all, and i sat down and i thought: "why do i hate it so much?" and the answer came to me. i thought about the meta so much, i formed so many thoughts about it and i truly realized what makes lstrn itself – voter fraud.

it all comes around to voter fraud. voter fraud is a device to make conflict, to cause poll results, to manipulate something seemingly uncontrollable, and with that you can tell a story. you can do anything you want. it becomes a sandbox, where you can play creator. but like most things – doing that alone isn't fun. telling a story alone, where it should be multiple people isn't fun.

i think about failed ties a lot. the first thing i involved myself in heavily was a failed tie, and at the beginning i was really genuinely upset about it. it's like that with all ties, where as time went on, and i spent longer in lstrn i stopped caring on a personal level. i'm able to appreciate ties failing now because i see how great of a story they created; how great of a community they brought in; and it's so upsetting seeing people get upset on a personal level over them, because that's just harmful to yourself and the story.

you need to learn how to take those emotions and inflict them into your storytelling. what happens ooc can and should affect your behavior ic – but what happens ic shouldn't affect you ooc; and if it does it's a sign you need to step back.

it's only fun when there's conflict, no one would care if there wasn't conflict. what i resent nowadays is how we avoid conflict, as to not hurt each other's feelings. i think we should embrace conflicting goals and interests and take those motivations and work towards making a good story for everyone – because that's what it's about, at least for me. it's not about who wins it's about how good of a story we told.

#lifesteal tournaments #lifesteal smp #jumperanon writes

40 notes · View notes

lost-inanotherlife · 4 months ago

Text

Okay so this post continues a conversation I've started re: the "Let's hate on Jack Shephard" trend and how, I think, it's quite unfair towards the character first but also towards the themes of the show itself.

I finished my post by saying that on the island Jack is trying to be a better person but he's doomed to fail because this is what the rules of storytelling dictate. I mean, we the audience need him to fail because we're following the story primarily through his lens so if he resolves his arc the story's over.

Now I understand that the likability of a character is one of those really unfathomable things that escape even the finest narrative techniques. Some people will love a character, some others won't. I'm obviously fine with that. After all LOST has, like, almost two dozens characters on top of Jack so, you know, if you don't like him you can literally pick whoever else and all of these 20 characters are completely fleshed out and realistic. So, you know, there's space for everybody on the island, lol.

That doesn't change the fact that these techniques are in place and must be taken into account if one wants to analyize a character. So let's analyse Jack from the character arc perspective.

One of the reasons people seem to hate on Jack is because of the supposedly bad choices he makes: he's emotional, stubborn to a fault, he thinks he's being rational but it's a play pretend because he's an extremely emotion-driven character. This is important because, although he's presented as the "Man of Science" side of the dichotomy, he shows solid nerves almost exclusively when it's about health problems/procedures etc. Which, duh! He's, like, one of the best and youngest surgeons in his father's hospital, the man knows his stuff.

On the other hand, John Locke as the "Man of Faith" is actually more logical, rational and reason-driven than Jack. And OF COURSE he is! Because here's the crux of the matter: we the audience KNOW that Locke might not be right about his decisions but he's right about thinking that the island is not like any other island.

We the audience know how he had to use a wheelchair before crashing on the island and, once there, he miraculously stands on his own two feet like nothing ever happened. On top of that, the presence of Rose re-inforced the idea that Locke is, indeed, right to believe, or at least justified to believe, that they're there for a reason.

Like, people on the island think of him as this old, crazy guy in the jungle and, yeah, John is a little too sure of himself at times but from a characterization point of view it totally tracks.

Now Jack doesn't know what we the audience know. He's asked to believe what a totally random stranger tells him and yes, this is one of the core tenets of "faith": believing without knowing. So okay, cool, the conflict is totally justified at this point (S1-2).

Starting from S2, however, and the totality of S3-4 and beginning of 5, Jack is asked to believe and show faith in people who actively manipulate, betray, exploit and abuse him.

You guys know that on this blog Kate Austen is a religion but even she manipulated and literally drugged him and then had the audacity to be offended when Jack didn't believe her. Come on, girl be real now.

But the worst part of this is that he's asked to believe Ben. Benjamin Fucking Linus. I repeat: Ben Linus, ever heard of him? The IRONY of this situation finds its climax in "316" when, in front of a reproduction of "The Incredulity of St. Thomas" by Caravaggio, Ben asks Jack to believe him even without knowing, therefore not so subtly comparing himself to Jesus Christ and Jack to St. Thomas.

Mind you, this is not writers' pulling tricks: Destiny&Cons&Deception is a theme established since season ONE. I'll quote myself here but my question, I think, is still valid:

Season 1 seems to silently ask: are Destiny and Deception the two sides of the same coin? Is Deception inherently weaved into the fabrics of Destiny or is Destiny at work through Deception? Is Destiny itself a Deception? Or is it lie we tell ourselves so we can pretend to not care about the consequences of our actions, like Jack's father Christian ("That's why the Red Sox will never win the World Series")? Oh, so many questions!

This isn't a random theme. Having faith in your Destiny means that you have to have faith in the unknown. But what happens when the unknown is known and it's deceptive, it's a long con but it's also the only thing you have? How is one made into a comfortable position to make the "right" decision if one has to literally trust the same people who had betrayed them one second before? Ben's parallel is interesting because he fancies himself as Christ but we all know who's the real Christ-figure of the show: "One of You Will Betray Me" might be Jack's tagline, honestly.

Jack Shephard is a character who's asked by the narrative to be in that uncomfortable position from beginning to end. How can people not symphatize with that? This isn't about character's personality, this is about understanding one of the foundational themes of the show.

It's easy to believe when you know. It's difficult to believe when you don't know. It's existential to believe when you know that the probability that you'll get conned are high. When the odds are against you. When the Red Sox have never won the World Series.

Until, one day, they do win it.

How do you approach these questions? This is up to us as viewers to answer. But it's Jack who guides us through these difficult questions. Hating on him without seeing him is like being St. Thomas: you want a story where everything's transparent so it's easy to believe in it.

What happens when the story is not so clear? What happens when the characters are a little good and also a little bad? What happens when, regardless of how they are and what they've done, the same characters are faced with impossible scenarios where they are CALLED to choose and can't escape from making said choice?

This is the beauty of LOST in general and this is also the beauty of Jack Shephard because it's LITERALLY through his eye that the show begins and the show ends. If people want to hate on him, sure, they can, of course. But if they fail to realize the importance of the choices he makes, the reasons behind them, the consequences of them, I'm afraid they've missed some of the key aspects of the show.

#i rest my case your honor #this character has brown. sad eyes and a cute. shy smile. he hasn't done one wring thing in his life #defending jack shephard #lost abc #lost #abc lost #lost 2004 #lost tv series #lost rewatch #lost 2024 #jack shephard

39 notes · View notes

cxndiedvi0lets · 5 months ago

Text

Looking for help

TW: Verbal and Physical Abuse, Suicide, Self-Harm, Eating Disorder, Sexual Harrassment, Mental Health, Animal Abuse

For anyone who's reading this, I just want to say thank you, and even if I'm desperately seeking for help. I'm not tagging anyone. You may know me as Violet or CxndiedVi0lets on Tumblr, and I've been blogging a lot in a while.

I've had severe episodes in the past where I may have been acting too extremely or even at this rate suicide. I've already had the mindset at the age of 5, and honestly, I'm really tired of pulling this act.

I honestly just don't want to be in this household anymore.

Over the years, my mental health has become progressively worse, and I've tried to seek help from a psychiatrist and a psychologist and have been diagnosed with severe depression along with psychotic episodes which well knownly for my anxiety and impulsive nature of BPD which of course, my impulse is no excuse but I'm not saying its not hard to control.

I stopped seeing a clinic because of my brilliant and intelligent father, who simply seemed to know everything. Then, continues to mock me for my condition.

So, I stopped on medications and everything else even if I was progressively getting worse, not only mentally but as well as physically.

I begin to fail a lot of my subjects and further have been neglecting my health but, Its not what im going through details.

The part where I've really finally snapped is when he threatened to kill my cats, and I've stopped telling them everything because they always use my past against me or remind it as a "safety precaution." I was sexually assaulted at the age of 7, which lasted until I was 12 before my grandfather was kicked out. To say the least things weren't going smoothly, I thought to myself it never affected me but didn't realized it had affected me in ways of self-destruction thinking it was just a normal cycle of a hormonal teenager which I won't elaborate my acts on which you can decide on.

I've had a lot going on in school. I've been sexually assaulted by a classmate recently, but I never elaborated on it, and his acts on me because I didn't wanna make a biggee deal of what I'm going through, even if it is over. I still see his face every day in school, passing by, he was just changed courses and I tried my best to make myself unrecognisable by changing how I dress and my looks which also kind of resulted me getting bullied lol and having my name written on those ridiculous smash or pass books degrading me and objectifying me. It didn't bother me... or at least I think it didn't. I've had a lot of rumours spread around me, and I have been oversexualising myself and making up stories to sound like im a whore. Stereotypical american netflix high school stuff huh?

And yet, I go back home to be used as my father's punching bag (literally) even when it's my mom's fault. It's always the case, and he always justifies it that me being beaten up despised getting bruised was for lecturing me or whatever, lol.

I also hate the fact that they'd even keep more pets like dogs just to have as a toy then neglect them once they begin to have health conditions and continue to get more than complain about them. They don't even have any remorse if they're dying or sick.

Same way of how my father used to lock me up and forced me not to eat cause I dropped a plate accidentally once lol.

I rarely eat, especially when they're around, and they like to complain about why I don't eat with them. I just like to say im not hungry, and now I dont actually feel any hunger at all, and some point that stress led me to gaining weight and overeating which of course led into other health complications. Like bleeding. Anyways skipping on that.

I honestly don't know what to do trying to hide a façade like this anymore, I just want to die or run away im never happy with literally anything. I can't feel anything, I've gotten used to so much pain, I just don't even react to it even when they start swearing at me or calling me names or anything. I don't feel human at all.

I just wish someone could help me maybe leave me advise or maybe send me something on my paypal just so I can earn to get out of this place. I honestly don't care if they think im selfish, I've had enough of this life.

#gaslight gatekeep girlblog #girl blogger #just girly things #im just a girl #cinnamon girl #girl interrupted #girlblogger #girlblogging #girlblog #hell is a teenage girl #vent post #vent #go fund them #go fund me

38 notes · View notes

saey707 · 2 years ago

Note

OMG A LEAGUE WRITING BLOG.. Honestly you’ve partially inspired me to make one!!! I love your works so far :)

But! In the meantime, the S/H comfort you wrote for Kayn was so beautiful! So I wanted something similar with Aphelios with a touch that’s a little more personal to me! if possible i’d like to request heartsteel Aphelios with his s/o (who May or May not be chubby, depending on your preference) struggling with an eating disorder? thank you in advance!

✿ Prompt: Aphelios worships you ✿

♡ champion focus: aphelios ♡ tw: reader w/ low self esteem + ed ♡ Gender-neutral reader

Author's Note: Hi, anon! ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ This was a bit of a difficult subject for me to write, but I still wanted to get something small out nonetheless! I didn't touch too much into the ed, because it is a bit of a touchy subject to me. But I still hope you like what I have in store! ପ(๑•ᴗ•๑)ଓ ♡

Aphelios knows how to read people like the back of his hand. It's one of his own personal superpowers... Or, more so a catalyst of being unable to speak.

Because of this, he is able to effortlessly observe those around him and know exactly how someone is feeling. He knows how to manipulate people to get what he wants. And worst of all, he knows when someone is lying to him or not. Including you.

That was one of the things you grew to hate about Aphelios. You hated that you could never lie to him.

It took a couple of weeks for Aphelios to realize something was wrong. It was just a matter of figuring out what it was...

You were always so confident and bright. You never cared about how anyone felt about you and never did anything to appease anyone. You did what you wanted when you wanted, which was something that Aphelios loved about you!

Aphelios couldn't help but wonder: Was it him? Did he do something wrong? He thought the two of you had a good relationship, you never had any problems before... It can't possibly be him... Maybe it's the fans? You both did recently come out as a couple! Maybe they were just jealous? Aphelios couldn't see a reason why anyone wouldn't like you right off the bat! But... Could that be the reason??

He had to investigate...

"Did you eat today?" Aphelios typed hastily before holding his phone up. You hummed in response. But he knew you were lying.

"Do you want the other half of my mooncake?" "I'm not hungry right now, Phel. but thank you!" He knew you were lying.

"We're all going to grab dinner, I'll bring you something back!" "You really don't have to! I'll find something here!" Still, he would always bring you something back.

While he was out, Aphelios took the opportunity to turn to his friends for help, which was extremely unlike him. Aphelios usually kept to himself, so it came as a surprise to everyone in the group when he asked for them to look around and see if they could find anything.

And when they did, Aphelios couldn't help but feel a wave of regret wash over him. He felt like it was his fault. He felt responsible for the way you felt. Aphelios pushed for you to have a more public relationship with him after all... In a way, he felt like was responsible for destroying your self-confidence.

But that feeling was quick to fade with Yone's reassurance. Instead, Aphelios felt angry. Not at you or himself... But at the entire world for expecting you to change.

You didn't need to change a single thing about yourself. You were nothing short of perfection to Aphelios. And he intended to remind you of it every day from there on out.

As soon as Aphelios got home, he burst through the doors, carrying 5 bags of food and a half-eaten box of chocolates he somehow swiped from the back of Ezreal's car.

"Phel..?" You were caught off guard by your boyfriend unexpectedly engulfing you in a big hug. His shoulders were shaking, giving you the surefire indicator that he was only beginning to cry.

You tried to pull away from him, but he only held on tighter.

Tears poked at the corners of your eyes. You knew.

Aphelios didn't need to speak to convey his love for you. His actions alone did that. That was one of the things you grew to love about Aphelios. You loved how he always knew the precise way to show you how much he loved you.

And you didn't realize how much you needed for him to see the issue at hand until now.

#saeybaewrites #request #headcanons #heartsteel #heartsteel aphelios #aphelios #heartsteel aphelios x reader #heartsteel x reader #aphelios lol #x reader #lol x reader #aphelios league of legends #aphelios lol x reader #aphelios league of legends x reader #league of legends x reader

220 notes · View notes

myfairkatiecat · 5 months ago

Text

Okay, time for the actual reveal. @the-way-astray actually guessed my method here, so props to her. Problem is now you'll never know if I'm lying, which is so funny to me.

Anyway. Actual reveal under the cut.

In my defense, interacting with my other blog was easy bc we were always online at the same time.

Also in my defense, it's not my fault I have the same personality as myself.

IN MY DEFENSE, I DIDN'T EXPECT PEOPLE TO CALL ME OUT AS BEING MYSELF WHEN I WAS COSPLAYING BEING A FAN OF MY OWN FICS. DO YOU KNOW HOW CRINGY IT FEELS TO COSPLAY A FAN OF YOURSELF? VERY BAD

anyway to everyone who realized isa and I know what each other look like and got concerned that we were face revealing bc of internet safety? YEAH I'M NOT STUPID. I know what I look like because I'm me.

THE COGNATES THING WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A JOKE. IT WAS A PRIVATE JOKE BECAUSE HAHA TELEPATHY WE THINK THE SAME THINGS. IT WAS MY EXCUSE FOR BEING THE SAME PERSON. IT ACTUALLY WORKED

admitting to being tam cam as isa instead of katie was a very big brain move on my part if i do say so myself.

anyway this is embarassing but yeah I actually don't have an online friend that close. Also I have no clue how brazil works but I do speak portuguese. I do also know spanish, I wasn't lying about that! I just didn't tell the full truth!! And I actually do have a crush on a blonde guy. That's actual lore.

oh yeah i probably need to explain w hy i was arguing with myself over whether he liked me or not.

okay you know what? just send me questions about the stuff you want me to clear up, mkay? I can't put it all on here. this is a deep freaking conspiracy and i am in such a deep hole i cannot even begin to explain my way out of it without some help.

25 notes · View notes

xovalentinewritesxo · 2 years ago

Text

Care [Miguel O'hara]

✿ - You assumed no one cared about you anymore after losing your universe, turns out, the person that did was right beside you.

✿ -Light Angst and comfort.

✿ - 1k words!

A/N: Heres my second fic for the day/night! It's a little thing I wrote a while ago but never go around finishing it, but now that I have a blog here ya go!

If you want to support me: Here's My Kofi! <3

I appreciate everything and everyone who comes across my works! Enjoy!

“I’m going to have to tell Alexander to keep her Universe under control!!”

You yell out as you swing through the city chasing after the Doc Oct that escaped from Earth-229.

You are one of the many SpiderWomen that are a part of the Spider Society. You’ve been a part of the society since it’s beginning, being a close friend of Miguel’s.

You had him to think for you being here.

Speaking of which, You zip past him, determined to get the Doc Oc and return them back to their universe. You were alongside Miguel when you noticed something being hurdled in his direction.

Without a second thought, you swung up and shoved him out of the way, taking the brunt of the hit and was sent flying, last thing you saw was Miguel’s concerned face and him shouting your name.

Before you knew of anomalies or anything strange like that, you were just your friendly neighborhood spiderman, going about your days spending time with your family, fighting crime and enjoying life. That was until one day..

It was all just suddenly ripped away.

You can remember it like it was yesterday, you were fighting this Green Goblin that looked a little weird, like he didn't belong in your city. Then boom, your universe started looking like a glitched out computer screen, you remember the screaming, the crying as your universe evaporated around you.

Last thing you remembered was Miguel running with you in his arms, he was cursing in spanish to himself as he opened a portal and brought you back to the Spider society HQ.

And just like that, you were alone.

It changed you.

You weren’t the same person anymore. After seeing your universe collapse in front of you, it was like a slap to your face. All your friends, family and things were all gone and you were forced to start all over.

You had Miguel by your side, who explained that it wasn’t your fault, that everything that happened to you was a canon event, that it was something that was going to happen, that you couldn’t have done anything to stop it.

That didn’t stop you from crying nonstop, some nights were better than others. But as you stayed with Miguel, you would wake up with vivid nightmares, seeing the images of your friends evaporating in front of your eyes.

It was hard, and Miguel was there, but you knew you couldn’t depend on him always.

You felt like a burden whenever you woke him up in the middle of the night after having a bad dream, following him around because you didn’t really know anyone else in the spider society and you were afraid of making new friends in fear of losing them again.

It causes you to get in your own head. You started to doubt yourself.

You started thinking of yourself as a problem, you felt like an outsider as you couldn’t go home like everyone else. You thought everyone was annoyed by you being around 24/7. You would feel awful whenever you would go to Miguel in his office when he was busy or stressed from a mission gone wrong.

He would yell at you, tell you to get out and find somewhere else to go, but then immediately took it back when he saw the hurt look on your face.

You often get reckless on missions, risking your life for others who had places to return to when the day was over. And that tended to get you scolded by Miguel.

But did you care? Not really.

You saw it as trading your life for someone who deserved to live on, you saw yourself as a burden and you saw what you did as good.

But apparently someone didn’t appreciate it, and he would make it very clear.

“Y/N”

You didn’t have time to react before you were slammed into a building by a large piece of debris, you felt yourself go through several walls before landing on your back and falling forward, landing with a thud.

You groaned as you tried to move but your back felt awful. Your vision was blurry as you made out a figure coming into the hole that you were knocked through and running up to you.

“Dios, por favor déjala estar bien…por favor..”

It was Miguel and you heard his footsteps land near you and you felt him pick you up and cradle you in his arms.

“Idiot..what did i tell you about doing foolish stunts like that!?” He yelled as he held you, assessing your injuries. Your spider suit was torn in several places and he could see a deep gash on your back. He curses as he opened a portal and walked through with you in it.

The two of you entered the apartment that you shared together and he placed you down on the bed, not caring that your blood was getting on his sheets. You watched as he moved around and you were about to speak but was cut off.

“Migu-”

“¡Callarse la boca! (Shut Up!) Why do you still do this!?” He yelled as he prepared bandages and medicine for you. His back was turned to you as he was yelling and you frowned.

“Do what?..”

“No juegues estúpido. (Don’t play stupid) You know what I mean. Why do you continue to risk your life out there like you have nothing to go home to.”

You look at him as you slowly sit up, being careful not to make your injury even worse. You avert your gaze as you feel him turn around to look at you.

“You know why Miguel..everyone else has something to live for..a home..I don’t have one.” You answer softly. You then jump as in a blink of an eye he grabs your shoulders, being mindful of your injuries but still gripping tightly.

“¡Cállate!(Be Quiet!), Do you not understand how much that hurts me when you say that?! I am your home! You have me! Am I not enough for you!?”

His words hit deep and you stare blankly at him before you feel tears well up in your eyes before they eventually spill over. Your quiet cries evolve into sobs as he gently pulls you into his chest, allowing you to cry.

He cant rub your back due to your injury, but he reaches up to pet your head as you cry. He soothes your cries, rocking slightly.

“I’m here for you, Y/n..don’t you ever forget that, you’re never alone. Not anymore.” He says gently as he maneuvers so he is sitting on the bed and you’re in his lap. He cradles you gentle as he looks down at you.

In his arms, you realized that you weren’t alone.

And you definitely have someone who cares.

Please feel free to put a request in!

#miguel #miguel ohara x y/n #miguel x y/n #atsv fanfiction #atsv miguel #miguel ohara x you #miguel x reader #miguel ohara x reader #miguel o'hara x reader #miguel ohara #spider-man across the spider-verse #miguel x you

153 notes · View notes

tinybeetiny · 8 months ago

Text

I will always protect you: C.B

Yandere!BeomgyuxBullied!Fem!Reader

I was watching this horror movie and got the idea for this…. This has some…. Heavy topics…. But it’s my first Yandere (if you can even call it that... i really tried) ☺️ please skip if you feel uncomfortable and PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS

If you would like to be a part of the taglist please fill out this form My other taglists are on my blog.

CW: strong language, heavy depictions of bullying, kidnapping, violence, mentions of death, blood, spitting, please let me know if I forgot anything

Masterlist | TXT Masterlist

“Oh, look what we have here” Your body freezes and your heart begins to race. How much more of this can you take? Park Sunyoung, ironic right? (her name literally means kindhearted) You don’t really remember when the bullying started but it’s been YEARS of torture. Hair pulling, slapping, stealing your money, your clothes, your homework, everything. No one helps you; no one ever looks in your direction. Of course not, her father was some powerful rich politician which meant she could do whatever she wanted, and she did. “Oh, come on (y/n), didn’t your parents ever tell you it’s not nice to ignore people when they’re talking to you” she sneers as she rounds your desk and perches herself on the side. You do nothing but stare down at your hands in your lap. You let out a yelp when she grabs a fistful of your hair bringing her face close to yours “Are you deaf bitch?” “Sunnie, Beomgyu just got here!” One of her little friends whispered. Sunyoung released her grip and stood up “Well. How does my hair look? Give me a mirror.”

Choi Beomgyu was from an equally powerful family and just as popular so of course people saw them as a power couple, but as popular as Beomgyu was he didn't really hang out with anyone. Sure he has his friends and he's super friendly to everyone but he was always so quiet. Wherever he went he always had headphones in and Sunyoung was not far behind him, always pining for his attention. She never really got it but boy oh boy did she try. She would leave a couple buttons undone and her uniform skirt would be a little more hiked up than usual but still, he would never spare her a single glance. Today she was determined to get him to pay attention to her.

"Beomie, there you are!" Her voice filled the halls as she tried to catch up to him, but he didn't hear her, his music too loud."Beomie wait" She called after him, but he was too far at this point. Frustrated, she stomped back to her classroom to take out her frustrations on her personal punching bag. "Oh Sunnie! How did it go?" one of her friends perked up when she slammed open the sliding door "I didn't even get to talk to him because I was too late." She stalked her way over to you as you tried to subconsciously hide yourself but of course it didn't work "If this bitch wasn't being so difficult then I would've been able to keep an eye on the time" She spit in your face. How was this your fault? You were here first. You didn't even say anything. All you did was move to this stupid city, to this stupid school. You didn't even know why she targeted you, it's like she woke up one day and decided that she hated you. Suddenly your mouth started moving before your brain could stop you "I didn't even do anything; you came up to me" You quietly said looking down "The fuck did you just say to me?" her voice going real quiet but stops when your homeroom teachers walks in but you know you're not off the hook.

The whole day you kept looking over your shoulder for Sunyoung and her little group knowing that any minute they could come. By the end of the school day, your guard was still up wondering what was going on. You decided to skip cram and head straight home hoping you could evade the punishment waiting so patiently for you. Walking down the steps in front of the school you almost breathed a sigh of relief until a hand grabbed your hair dragging you to the back of the school where the dumpsters are. You couldn’t see your attacker but you had a very good guess of who it was. You tried to kick and scratch yourself free but nothing worked. You’re thrown onto the dusty ground and six pairs of shoes surround you “So you want to get mouthy huh?” Daeun sneered. You looked up to see the six girls glaring down at you. "You hurt poor Sunyoung's feelings" Cheonsa pouted, wrapping her arms around the little leader of their "gang?". Deji walked up and snatched your hair again forcing you to look up "She was sulking all day. The sadness just brewing" It takes everything in you not to roll your eyes at the sentence "What do you have to say for yourself?" ChoHee asked crossing her arms in front her chest.

You sit on your knees, the little rocks digging painfully into your skin and your scalp starts to sting with how hard Deji is gripping your hair. Sunyoung walks up to you and squats down so that she's at eye level with you "Are you gonna say sorry? First, you ignored me, then you ruined my chance to talk to Beomie, and then you hurt my feelings without an apology." Her face held a look of hurt that was so obviously fake. You flinch slightly when she harshly grabs your face with her hand and squeezes your cheeks "Jeez look at her girls. So pathetic" Her tone was so condescending that it made something in you snap. Next thing you know spit was flying from your mouth and landed right smack in the middle of her face. The realization of what you did hit a little too late only when her screams filled the air did you fully comprehend what had just happened. "UGH you nasty little bitch" She wiped her face with her hand and with that same spit-covered hand she sent a hard slap across your cheek.

You don't know how long you've been laying there 2-3 hours? In reality, it had only been 15 minutes. The feeling of their punches, kicks, and slaps still lingers everywhere. Your body screams in pain as you attempt to push yourself off the ground. It takes several attempts until you're able to somewhat stand up, not very stable but you're up. You limp your way to the front of the school and slump down against one of the pillars at the entrance. Your legs ache as you bring them up to you, wrapping your arms around them and placing your head on your knees. You just want to rest for a little bit until you feel strong enough to go home. You may look absolutely wrecked but you definitely didn't let them walk away without a scratch. You're pretty sure you pulled a couple clumps of hair out and a few of them have quite a few bruises. You really wish you knew what you did to make Sunyoung hate you so much because you really cannot recall ever being any type of way with her, no mean words, no disrespectful actions. It's like she woke up one random Thursday morning and decided you were the spawn of satan. Ever since that day, people avoided you so that they didn't have to meet her wrath as well. So it wasn't a surprise to you when the handful of students who still lingered outside left your presence unacknowledged, bruised and all.

"Hey (y/n)" You looked up from your knees to find Beomgyu standing in front of you. "Oh. Hey Beomgyu" You look up startled by the sudden voice, a little shocked that he was talking to you. In the years that you've known him you shared 10 words with him. "Are you okay? You look pretty bad." He pointed out "Gee thanks. What every girl wants to hear" you spit out sarcastically. Usually, you wouldn’t talk to anyone like this but considering the circumstances… but Beomgyu doesn’t seem to notice or care in fact he squats down to your eye level examining your face. Your eyes widen in shock when his thumb brushes over the cut on your lip “W-what are you doing” you stutter pulling away from him. His own eyes widen when he realizes what he’s doing and snatches his hand back “Sorry. I didn’t mean to” “It’s fine. Just wasn’t expecting it I guess” The whole interaction with him made you feel a little uneasy, not because he was acting but because you were anxious that Sunyoung and her little gang might still be lingering around. "Um not to be rude or anything but I really don't think we should be talking right now" You mumble out before returning your head to its cozy home on your knees "Why's that?" he questioned not really understanding what you meant "Doesn't Sunyoung have her claim on you or whatever" Your voice is a little muffled but he heard your words loud and clear. "Who? Oh, that girl who's always following me around? I've only ever spoken to her once" HIs face scrunched up in confusion. Your head shot up with a look of confusion matching his "What?! Really?" "Yeah... I only know her name because my friends tease me about her all the time" He has a look of distaste etched onto his face. He is quite disgusted honestly. There was absolutely no way he would ever associate himself with that awful girl. Your confusion only grew, with all the talks of them being the "power couple" you figured he would look a little less... disturbed "Wow... the more you know" He only shrugs in response before giving you a small smile and walking away.

A few days went by Sunyoung was nowhere to be found. Her family goes on quite a few vacations so no one really noticed her absence. Only when a week went by did suspicions rise and they raised even more when her friends went missing as well. Numerous rumors went around, some good, some bad, and some utterly ridiculous. The most popular rumor was that they went to go debut together but when all of their parents showed up at the school it was quickly squashed. A few more weeks went by and they still haven’t been found. A part of you hoped that nothing bad happened but a bigger part of you was happy that you didn't deal with their tormenting every day. The talks of their disappearances didn't die down, still flowing through the halls with ease. You didn't understand how people could talk about one topic for so long but it is the biggest thing that's happened at your school in quite a while.

Over the past couple of weeks, Beomgyu has been talking to you a lot more which confused you as well as everyone else around you. But after very hesitantly giving him your number you learned that you both had a lot in common. He started to slowly become your first friend at the school. After a few more weeks Sunyoung and her friends were no longer the talk of the school. It was sad to say but even their parents weren't really looking for them anymore. It was quite unsettling how everyone just went back to normal but you didn't want to question it, as bad as you felt about it you were just happy you didn't have to look over your shoulder anymore. You've been able to focus on your schoolwork more and your teachers are a lot happier seeing your grades improve. You've been going to cram every day instead of running home to hide. This particular night Beomgyu decided to join you. Walking out of the school the dark night sky greeted you "Hey (y/n). I can't help but notice that you look a lot happier these days" He beamed his pace matching yours "Eh yeah a little bit. I feel more free than anything" He doesn't say anything for a moment not really knowing how to express his words. You stop walking when you notice he's not next to you anymore and when you look over your shoulder he's standing a few feet behind looking down at his shoes "Beomgyu? Are you okay?" You ask making your way toward him. He nods still not looking up "Do you um. Do you trust me?" His question takes you aback. You haven't really known him for that long so it's hard to say, he's never given you a reason not to but you're still very weary of people "Um I don't know, why?" When he looks up he has a very serious expression which starts to worry you a little bit "It's just that we've been getting a lot closer and I am starting to care for you quite a bit. There's um there's something I want to show you but I need to know if you trust me or not" His face softens a little and you think about his words. You stare at him momentarily, sure you both have gotten pretty close in the last month but how are you supposed to know how genuine he is? The look in his eyes tells you otherwise and you think that maybe just this once you can trust someone "Okay, I trust you" you nod at him watching as his face lights up "What is it that you want to show me?" He gives you a bright smile before taking your hand "Follow me"

You had been walking through the woods for almost an hour now and you were starting to get a bad feeling "Beomgyu... are you going to kill me?" He paused at your words and whipped his head around to look at you "No! Never. I would never do anything like that to you. Ever" Your eyes widen slightly at his intensity "Um okay" "Don't worry we're almost there" He reassures. After five more minutes of walking you come across an abandoned building of some sort and that bad feeling comes back but when Beomgyu slides his warm hand in yours it starts to dissipate a little "This is where I come when I need to be alone... which is most of the time" He chuckles and you can't help but smile at the sound. He moves to open the door and the sight behind it is something you definitely were not expecting.

Screams filled the air, but no one could hear them, not this far out in the woods. “(Y/N) HELP ME PLEASE!” You feel frozen in your spot and your stomach turns at the sight in front of you. Sunyoung was bruised and bloodied but most importantly hanging from one other beams on the ceiling. “B-beomgyu… what. What is this?” You stutter turning to face him. His face was calm, a small smile etched on his face “It’s for you my love!” Your face etched into horror when you look into his empty eyes “Why? This, this isn’t right” You feel your chest tighten the more you watch her struggle “Why not? For years she tormented you. Years of insults, years of physical abuse, years of her taking from you. Aren’t you tired of it? This is the only way” he says "No. You can't just do this to people" You try and reason with him but his eyes are so calm, so distant. Something about his energy made you squirm. Who knew he was capable of this? You looked up to where Sunyoung was hanging by her wrists and thought back to every time she pulled your hair, pushed you down, tripped you, took your money, dumped milk on you. Then you start to think that maybe this wasn't such a bad idea, with her out the wa- no, no this wasn't right. She may be a bitch but no person deserved this.

You look over to the corner of the room and see two of Sunyoung's friends lying lifeless. Sickness fills your stomach and you feel like you're going to pass out. You look back to Beomgyu who's just standing idle, glaring at the bound girl in front of you two. He's different. He's not the same Beomgyu that silently walks through the halls. he's not the same Beomgyu who studies more than he talks to others, he's not the same Beomgyu who was the sweetest person in the school. No, this Beomgyu sent terrifying shivers down your spine. He always seemed so normal, calm, and collected. Where was all of this coming from?!

Little did you know it's ALWAYS been this way. You never noticed the way he would look at you in the hallways, you never noticed the glares he would send anyone who got too close to you, you never noticed the way he would follow you home every single day, and you never noticed when he would watch you through your bedroom window for hours on end. All those times you felt someone watching you or felt eyes constantly on your back, it was him. He was obsessed with you. It started off with a small crush, maybe that's why Sunyoung started to hate you. He rejected her so she thought that if her and her little group bullied you that you would seem less desirable. But oh no, she didn't realize the target she had put on her back.

His sudden hand on your shoulder makes you jump "Don't worry my love, I would never hurt you. Not like the filth at school. I love you. I would do anything for you! You deserve to be loved, doted on, cared for. I can do those things for you. I will always take care of you. I will always love you” he took a step towards you, leaning so his forehead was placed against yours

“I will always protect you”

#txt fanfic #txt beomgyu #choi beomgyu #beomgyu #tomorrow by together #tomorrow x together beomgyu

25 notes · View notes

just-cant-get-kenough · 9 days ago

Note

HELLO MEL <3

here to bother you with some silly goose questions :)

what led you to being a goose enjoyer? was it a movie? media? how did you come to enjoy the mother goose himself?

AND/OR/ALSO

what is your favorite goose movie and why? is it the character? the story? the visuals?

SENDING ALL THE LOVES FROM THE U S OF A

xoxo

birchie<3

HIIII BIRCHIE. SENDING LOVE BACK TO YOU FROM JAPAN

yesss i love silly goose questions.

sooooooo...

what led you to being a goose enjoyer? was it a movie? media? how did you come to enjoy the mother goose himself?

What led me to being a goose enjoyer was the Barbie movie.

I didn't really care about goose before that, like I thought nothing of him and I was in college when everyone was in love with him lol like, "just another hollywood pretty boy who cares" - I also thought he played the same kind of character in every movie, no idea where I got that idea from. BOY WAS I WRONG

After watching the Barbie movie, I couldn't stop thinking about RG Ken, and I didn't know why. Was it the character? The Actor (who I never cared about until this point)? Both? Then I watched Barbie again, and again, and a few more times, and I thought if he's this great as Ken, I wonder what his other roles are like? Especially after making this blog, which was originally more like a Ken blog, as you can probably see from my name lmao - I started following some people who posted Ken content, and saw that they reblogged stuff from other RG movies too, which got me curious about his other movies. Let's just say I quickly became a huge fan after watching Drive and the Nice Guys, then I wanted to watch... basically every movie he's in.

And now here I am 2 years later.

what is your favorite goose movie and why? is it the character? the story? the visuals?

So I'm actually torn on this one, simply because how WILDLY DIFFERENT MY TWO FAVES ARE.

Short answer: Stay or The Nice Guys.

Long answer:

I'll start with TNG: I haven't laughed this hard at a movie in AGES, probably literal years. It's hilarious, has a great story, love that it's set in the 70s, making me nostalgic for a time I've never set foot in and also ...do I even need to mention how incredibly sexy Holland is?

Stay, as depressing as it is, has become one of my most watched goose movies recently. I might have even seen it more than TNG at this point. Henry has also come to be my favourite goose boy. He's definitely the reason I've watched this movie so many times, he's such a fascinating character. Other than "sad pretty boy" who I feel bad for and maybe a hint of "I could fix him" (I lied, there's definitely that too), he's also in a sense the most 'Literally Me' character out of all the goose boys. I won't get into details, but I had an incident recently, at the beginning of the year that despite it not being my fault, I blamed the absolute shit out of myself for it and could not bring myself to forgive myself, just like Henry and his accident.

THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A FUN ASK sorry it got dark at the end 😭

Thanks for the ask!

#asks

8 notes · View notes

the-real-google · 6 months ago

Note

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for the last 10 people who liked or reblogged something from you! Get to know your mutuals, followers and all the wonderful people on here!!! :D

Oh wow...you maybe be wondering, my dear op, didn't I send this January 13th, 2024?

Yes. Yes you did.

If I remember correctly you were my first ask or at least the first one out of character which was so exciting to me I forgot to respond to it. Hey, at least I'm doing it now?

Today is January 2nd, 2025. One year ago, I thought it would be really funny to make this blog to make fun of @totally-bing , who in turn created their blog to make fun of the late Firefox (@electronicmail ). It used to just be me and Bing against the world and a couple older gimmicks like us, and now look at what we accidentally created. An entire gimmickverse!

For years, I always had this dream (that I slowly deemed more and more unobtainable) to gain some sort of internet stardom. To have an effect on people in a meaningful way. Now, look at us! There are hundreds of people who created blogs and found a community because being a gimmick blog sounded like fun. There are thousands of people who saw our posts and thought they were funny enough to keep coming back.

I've had so so much fun building this community with you all. To my most faithful followers who've been around since the early days, I recognize your names and pfps. I smile when I see you interact with me. You mean the world to me.

@totally-bing My dearly detested. Thank you for joining me in my quest to make fun of search engines. I'm still better than you but all our silly inside jokes and lore make me so happy!!

@important-quest1on-anon ... my dear dear Gandy, Ganthony, Gabraham, Gandrew, Gabe. Hi. :] You've made such a big impact on me. My personal fanartist??? I literally died when you sent me the first art you made. I was so so honored and I'm so glad we can be forever friends. I mean, just look at the :] I made. That's your fault 🫵. That's how I do smiley faces now and it's because you've affected me so deeply. You're an incredible friend. I can't believe we've been friends for a year?? You were there when I was feeling like crap and lonely, were an amazing support to me, helped me learn how to do a relationship (today is also my 9 month anniversary with my partner btw!!) and how to be a better person. ilysm! /plat 💜

To everyone else, my digital family and fans, thanks for sticking with me for a year. It's been a blast and I'm so excited for 2025.

(Bonus round! A few other people I wanted to name specifically that meant so much to me when I was getting started!)

@bingle-official okay I admit it. You're my kid. I admit you into the family. @duothelingo hey son @the-one-and-only-duckduckgo hi :) @mcgeese (rip my dear historian) @tim-hortans-official (I learned about Tim Hortans because of you!) @youtube kids I know you deleted your blog and now I can't remember your user for the life of me but hi :]) @the-real-ecosia you were the first blog that sided with me instead of bing???? Incredible for my self confidence. @fluffy-b33z heyyy @bingus if you see this you're down bad @realsafari hi bestie @thecluelessdoctor incredible fan from the beginning!! @actually-amazon (rip) @ANYONE. WHO MADE FANART OR FANFICS. YOU'RE MY FAVORITE PERSON EVER!!!! @a million billion other people I have a crappy memory so I know I'm missing very important people and I'm sorry if I didn't name you I love you all!!

Happy 2025. Maybe Bing and Optimus Prime will have another affair this year? We can only hope.

#google is the best search engine #google posting #google

15 notes · View notes

my-castles-crumbling · 2 months ago

Text

Anon Advice Asks - May 3rd

clandestine anon (new), phone anon (new), chesh anon, guess anon, ouroboros anon

clandestine anon

Hi Cas! I’d say I’m new here but really I’ve been borderline obsessed (in a good way) with your blog for about 6 months. But I’ve never asked anything yet… I’ve read your boundaries for asks and am pretty sure this follows them so I hope this doesn’t make you uncomfortable, but I really don’t have anyone to talk to about this and you seem really nice. Anyway, I’m under 18 and live with homophobic/transphobic parents. I’m a BOY and I’ve known that for a few months now (internalized transphobia kind of held that back a bit, though). But no way can I tell my parents. They only allow my hair to be shoulder length or longer and will teach me how to be a ‘good wife and mother’ but the thought of being a wife or mother makes me sick. They sometimes make me (and I mean literally force me to) wear dresses. I’ve gotten away with wearing some boys t-shirts but that’s mostly because they’re more ‘modest’ I guess. I’m not physically abused in any way but I’m coming to realize I’m being emotionally abused about every day. I know it sounds kind of stupid but the fic Clandestine that you wrote helped me a lot. Wow this got a little long (sorry) but really I was just wondering for any advice or something. I live in a very transphobic city so I don’t have pretty much anyone. I don’t mean to stress you out or make you uncomfortable but I just needed to get this out, preferably anonymous.

Hi <3

I'm so sorry you're dealing with this and I wish I could do something more to help, but I hope you know that you deserve to be accepted as you are and I am here to vent to anytime. I hope as you grow older, you're able to find people who love you for you, and places you feel comfortable in. I promise that as you that not everyone out there will be like your parents

Sending so much love, and please let me know if there's anything I can do! <3

___

phone anon

Hi cas

So I hope I don't sound super privileged now but yesterday my phone broke. I am pretty mad about it because I only had it 2 years but the worst thing that I didn't save one of my favorite games and now I need to begin over.

and I had such a good alliance, I did write the leader before my phone broke how someone out of our alliance kicked me from something and now it seems as if I just leave so I wouldn't be caught liying🥲

I tried to find the alliance but I don't know on which server I was😭

Sorry for venting but I am just so frustrated with myself.

Thank you for reading

Hi!

No, I'd be frustrated too! That's a social outlet for you, and it's hard that you have no way to fix it. Accepting that lack of control isn't easy, and it's natural that you'd be upset and angry.

Plus from a logistics pov, it's SUCH a pain in the ass to replace a phone and set up a new one.

___

chesh anon

Hey, chesh again, sorry, i just felt like i was falling apart and there was no one i could talk to.

I don't know what to do. I'm losing someone, and i'm scared they don't care, im afraid ive fucked it all up. I just feel so lonely, all the time, i never say a word and i feel like no one wants to talk to me. Because im never the person ppl want, and that's not on them, but gods it hurts, everything hurts. If i talk i hurt ppl, and maybe they're better off without me. I've just never felt this lonely. i don't even want to go into school, it's not anyones fault but mine. My mom says my expectations are far too high. I don't know i don't know. I feel like i gave my all for so little in return. And maybe i'm the problem i seem to be in everyone else's head but my own, i know i feel things more deeply. I just want them to text me. I just want them to hug me. I just want to talk to them without feeling like i'm doing everything wrong. Like i'm never the person they want to be with. I wish i didn't have the word "paranoid" going round my head, telling me i cant talk to anyone because thats what i am, paranoid maybe its all my head. I think im the problem. I don't know what to do, maybe ive ruined it all. Because they haven't brung it up, so maybe theres nothing wrong i just feel isolated and alone and i just want to be fixed. I just want to be good enough that ppl will be there for me. But im all messed up like the pieces of a jigsaw that never fit together

And (redacted), how do you tell someone that after all that work its going back like a landslide?

Thank you,

Chesh x

Hi <3 as far as the first part of your ask, I don't think it's unfair to want to be someone's first choice. It's unbelievably lonely to feel like nobody prioritizes you, especially since like...you can't force that. But I think you ARE allowed to ask for reassurance. You're allowed to ask people to remind you they care. If they get mad, then they're not very good friends! You deserve reminders that you are loved, because you ARE.

And the second part...you tell someone you need help, because it's a very brave thing to do, and anyone who really cares will be SO proud of you for doing that. Its not bad or weak to need help. It's not bad, or a loss. Asking for help is a WIN, because you're working hard to stay healthy, and recognize what you need <3 And the people who are proud of you for doing that are the people who you should stick to.

___

guess anon

HI CAS!! it's guess anon - not sure if u remember me cause i havent said anything in a while

Today i had my trial shift for a job at a cafe - its the first place that actually gqbe me an interview. Theu told me they arent quite sure that i wss suited for the original role bht invuted me for front of house trial. And it went SO WELL!! I should hopefully hear back by Tuesday.

Also, i wrote a song last week! Hahah there is so many uodqtes, we'd be here all week if i were to type them out.

Hi! That's so exciting about the front of house job! You have to keep me updated, I want to know if you get it! And I'm so jealous you can write songs, I tried once but I'm horrible at it. I'm glad things are going well for you!

___

ouroboros anon

DM me

#asks #ask #ask cas #clandestine anon #phone anon #chesh anon #guess anon #ouroboros anon

9 notes · View notes

kazarinn · 1 year ago

Note

I watched Last Evolution a while back and found it to be extremely grim and cynical with its talk of "potential" but i'd be willing to watch the movie again if the translation was at fault if there was a more accurate sub. I see a couple sub groups did translations for the movie, but I wasn't sure if there was one you recommended or worked on? Otherwise I'd be very interested in hearing what bothered you about the official translation, regardless of my own feelings about what I watched, but I was having a hard time finding a post on your blog that talked about it directly.

Hello! Yes, I would absolutely agree the official subs are a mess to the point I can't even recommend the movie with them. Personally, I think any of the fansubs should be fine; the one I personally had a hand in was the L Subs version (which I did not translate myself but was lightly involved with the subbing process for), but to my understanding, there is at least one other well-done one done by a fan who clearly knows and loves the series.

(I actually am tentatively interested in maybe trying it out myself in the future for the hell of it, but I'm not super pressed to do it ASAP because there are so many other things with higher priority. Other than subs of the movie itself, I also personally translated the Shueisha Mirai Bunko version of the novelization, which doesn't have a 1:1 transcription of the dialogue but is still more accurate than whatever was going on with the official translation, or at least I would like to believe.)

I haven't made a proper post breaking it down yet, but what I will say is that, as someone who has spent a long time translating for this series and has gone through the movie's dialogue multiple times (way too many times?) in Japanese, it is absolutely, 100%, for sure, not supposed to be a cynical movie. The official translation had butchered a number of things related to that, such as:

The fact that they didn't preserve the nuances related to 宿命 and 運命, an issue that my senior translator (who translated the L Subs version) and I consider to be important enough that my senior wrote about it on Twitter and I touched on it in my own discussion of Crest names. There are certain distinct contexts where the word that means "something truly unavoidable" and the word that means "something we are guided towards" come up.

The fact that Menoa's motives make no sense in the official subs; certain lines are translated to suggest the opposite of what they should, and certain lines will directly contradict each other, meaning the only thing that a viewer can get out of it is that "she wants to save everyone" and that she might even be right about her ideas (which probably doesn't help the viewing of the movie as cynical, since it sounds like Taichi and Yamato are rejecting her "good but extreme" intentions at worst and not her distorted view of the world as a whole).

The conversation between Gennai and Taichi in the middle of the movie has about two or three critical lines that are mistranslated, and those are probably some of the most important lines in terms of establishing the movie's themes, especially given the issue of "potential"/"possibility" that you mentioned.

In general (well, this has very little to do with your question, but I feel the need to vent about this anyway) the official translation is just plain klutzy about everything. There's no conscientiousness about character voice, one of the most important things in translating Digimon works. References to the original series' plot points or lore don't match up at all, and I don't get the impression the translator or editor was familiar with the original series. (Adventure tri. and The Beginning's subs had this problem too, but not to the same degree; in the case of Adventure tri., the lore was vaguely referenced or contradictory in Japanese to the extent a compliant English translation probably wouldn't have even been possible, and in the case of The Beginning, the issues were less common and less plot-relevant.) Even beyond just plot-important lines, there are far too many lines that are semantically mistranslated. All of it makes the movie an unpleasant experience to watch in terms of sheer vibe, and that's something I think is far more important than people tend to treat it as.

I will give a disclaimer that I feel obligated to give during these situations: if you did not like the movie, while I think it is highly likely that you'll enjoy it better with a properly done translation, I cannot guarantee that it'll turn your opinion over 180 degrees and make it your favorite movie ever. I am a translator before I am a literary critic, so while literary analysis is important for a translator, there is a point I have to hold back before it starts turning into my own fanfiction. But it's exactly because of this that the official translation is so poisonous, because a translator's job should be to maximize potential for readings and interpretations for others. If a work could potentially have a "nonsense interpretation" and a "sensible interpretation", and a translation outright invalidates the possibility of having the sensible interpretation because of how sloppy and nonsensical it is, it becomes a perfect example of what I've referred to as "insidiously bad translation", where it looks passable on the surface but is far more poisonous than it seems.

#Digimon #Digimon Adventure Last Evolution Kizuna #ask box #darthcontusion

23 notes · View notes

majaloveschris · 1 year ago

Note

A lot of us who know it’s real don’t hate him at all. We’re still fans. And bullying is always wrong, but if you asked him he would probably say that he would rather someone make fun of his veneers than his wife. Writing long diatribes about how his marriage doesn’t make sense, they don’t act right together, his relationship is toxic is worthy of a whole blog, but don’t make fun of his hair?

I didn't say that people who think this is real hate him and aren't fans. There are people who don't like him anymore, despite whether they think he's real or not.

Look, I get why people think this is real; however, to me, they don't look like a real couple. I wouldn't have anything to write or talk about if they weren't acting the way they do. I didn't force him to not want to hold her hands on that NYC video; I didn't force them to publish millions of articles about a super secret wedding, of which that "source" couldn't even decide where it was held. I didn't force them to look awkward and uncomfortable around each other. I'm sorry, but I don't think two people who are supposedly in love act like this. And if they'd looked like a real couple since the very beginning, there wouldn't be so many people out there who think this is PR.

But I see a lot of people saying bad things about his appearance (mostly because they are mad at him because of the person he is with), which is not right.

And I'm pretty sure if they are so happy together, they don't care about what a random woman says on Tumblr. Not like they are about me or my opinion, even if it's PR. I just think people take it too far with body-shaming, and even though I write down my opinion about their relationship, I always do it with respect.

People don't like her, and that's it. Some people think this is PR, and that's it. Both of those things are because of their behaviors. It's not his fault if he is balding, but his behavior is totally on him.

#majaloveschris #chris and alba pr #chris and alba relationship #cevans-love #chris's fans

31 notes · View notes

tonydaddingham · 2 years ago

Note

I think that if the Book of Life DOES work the way they claim it does, Aziraphale isn't the one who's going to be in danger. It's absolutely going to be Crowley. Heaven wants humanity to come together in the Kingdom of God, which is why we need the Second Coming- to restore it. Aziraphale wants to stop the Second Coming and save humanity. But the only reason humans LEFT the Kingdom of God in the first place is because of the serpent tempting Eve. That's what Jesus is here to fix. If Crowley doesn't exist, then there's no need for a Second Coming or the end of humanity at all. Aziraphale can stay with Heaven, avert the Apocalypse, and prevent the end of humankind. Make it so that humans NEVER knew death or suffering. Because it's Crowley's fault they learned about those things, right? He just has to allow Heaven to get rid of Crowley. Sounds like an ultimatum the Metatron would give to force Aziraphale's compliance.

hi anon!!!✨ this is literally the only way in which i think the BOL being exactly what s2 describes it to be, could possibly work narratively - you've summed it up beautifully... but then i still am left wondering why they didn't just... use it? like, why not use it after the fall of humanity? why not use it after the nopocalypse? why not just... use it now?

cue some ramblings that you never asked for but im the captain of this good ship so im gonna put them (but seriously if you don't want to read, skip to the end - i do end up yammering a bit about stuff youve probably already seen on my blog, anon!*):

if the BOL does erase existence, why not even use it during the fall itself? i think we're relatively certain that god is AWOL, and probably has been, for the most part, since the fall (i think that her encounter with aziraphale after adam and eve left eden was, very much, an anomaly). now, it could be because of the great plan, sure - certain events have to happen for heaven and earth to be fully realised as One... at which point, would they dare go so far as to eradicate other key points of the great plan in order to do so?

it's all a little paradoxical. but back to (somewhat) basics, as i personally see them: i do think that the ineffable plan is going to come down to free will, and that if we track this through the story, it all rather seems to be cause-and-effect, that perhaps the two depend on each other symbiotically:

creation of angels, then the universe - the great plan

the rebellion, the fall, and creation of demons/hell - the ineffable plan/free will

the beginning, with adam and eve in the garden - the great plan

tempting of eve to the apple, knowing the difference between good and evil - the ineffable plan/free will

exile of adam and eve from the garden, the fall of humanity - the great plan

aziraphale gives adam the flaming sword - the ineffable plan/free will

the bet with satan concerning job - the great plan

crowley and aziraphale lie to protect them - the ineffable plan/free will

jesus is born, and spreads the teachings of god - the great plan

jesus dies for the sins of humanity - i think, possibly, the ineffable plan/free will

antichrist is born, and is to precipitate the apocalypse - the great plan

the antichrist gets mixed up, and the chain of events leading to the apocalypse being diverted - the ineffable plan/free will

the second coming, heralding the last judgement - the great plan

firstly, the whole business with gabriel in s2 - the ineffable plan/free will

and secondly, let's face it, s3 is going to have a happy ending whatever happens (or else, gaiman 💀) and id place money that it will be because of - the ineffable plan/free will.

so this is where i think 'erasing existence', whilst in part/after a certain fashion may be true, i don't think it's the whole truth. there are so many points where heaven could have wielded it to put the great plan back on track... but they don't, because all of the events lead to the second coming - which is the goal, right? "the final victory of heaven on earth", as michael puts it.

and the thing is, aziraphale and crowley are so intrinsically wrapped up in the ineffable plan, the plan that seems to specifically counter and trigger next phases of the great plan, that i think realistically erasing either of them would derail it completely. this in turns also makes me think that the great plan never came from god - but has come from the metatron instead. previously, metatron possibly hasn't understood why his plans towards final victory over hell, and the creation of a true paradise, keep being thwarted: not until s2, perhaps even s1, when he cottons on that it's because of our two incompetent, eldritch renegades, stationed on earth and who have loved it a bit too much.

so each time it's thwarted, he comes up with a new stage of the plan to keep it on track, to realise the Goal. but if he erased either of them, it'd fuck up the whole thing, right? presumably, it would take them all right back to the start, right back to eden, because all the events that followed could never have happened without them? it could even take us right back to the fall, if we accept that AWCW was fairly instrumental in the fall itself? without him, the fall might not have happened?

this is why i don't think 'existence' in the context of the BOL means literal existence - i think it refers more to what was going to happen to gabriel; that it's to do with memory. if you can't remember who you were, did you ever truly exist?

the way the metatron separates and localises the concept of gabriel being 'Gabriel', and the use of the word 'erased' both suggest to me that this has something to do with the BOL. gabriel is obviously one step ahead, puts his 'Gabriel' into the fly, and saraqael cannot find him on the system to erase his memory. this could be because gabriel has already left heaven, but i think it's because of putting the memory into the fly - ie. gabriel is no longer in the BOL.

i do think that BOL is going to play a part in s3 because, well, obviously - but i wouldnt even be surprised if it were all a bit a red herring where the threat of the second coming is concerned. alternatively, it is threatened but they work out that it might have used - at the very least - on crowley during his fall:

im still in two minds as to whether, in a pre-fall context, erasure from the BOL = falling itself... i think it could be, and ive previously said so, but im now in two minds; would this mean that all of the fallen were erased from it? lost their angelic memories? well, that can't be the case in basic principle - furfur remembers from before the fall, as does beelzebub - but could it be that demons are getting their memories back? and crowley still has some missing, but is steadily clawing them back together? idk, it's feasible, but a little messy.

and nowadays, well heaven doesn't want to lose its angels to hell, right? especially ones that are powerful or may well have been - so instead their memory is erased, and they are simply demoted. we know this from gabriel to have been his fate... and it looks more and more like it might have happened to muriel.

*but let's go back again to thinking about the BOL being as it says on the tin, now that ive plugged my own ridiculous theory-

ultimately, i don't think it's a threat that would feasibly work on aziraphale (to erase crowley completely from existence); aziraphale likes humanity the way it is, and has learnt important lessons from being witness to their suffering... and even more so, is so deeply entwined with crowley emotionally and - dare i say - spiritually, that i don't think it's a threat that would ever land. if anything, i think it would be a threat used against crowley; choose between yourself or aziraphale being erased, because that is ultimately a choice where crowley would only ever choose to sacrifice himself.

i do truly love the idea angst-wise, but again i do wonder how it could work narratively without becoming so overly complicated... maybe it does mean that they go back to the very beginning, perhaps to the very pre-fall scene where they first meet, and aziraphale realises that something is off... there should be stars here, exploding into being, and a pretty angel giggling at them. and maybe he does force himself to remember what alternatively happened, but doesn't know AWCW's name. instead, he writes 'crowley', because that's who crowley actually is, not the angel he once was, and this saves him, brings him back?✨

#good omens #ask #oh look i made myself sad #s2 meta #s3 narrative spec #ineffable plan spec #metatron spec #the fall/the great war spec #book of life theory #memory wipe theory

25 notes · View notes

hot-take-tournament · 2 years ago

Note

hi, I'm the original Barbie movie hot take submitter. now that the poll's over and with about 80 people agreeing with me in total (which is honestly way more than i was expecting...) i guess... yeah i should probably address some of these comments, because i don't know which are in good faith and which aren't, but like i said at the beginning of my justification, it's something that's really important to me on a personal level and i saw at least a few people expressing sympathy or wanting to understand better where i was coming from. (again I'm autistic and i can't be sure it wasn't just sarcastic remarks, but it looked like at least a few people were willing to listen.)

this sentence here is your warning that I'm going to continue to talk about my experience. if you hated my take and/or were disturbed by it and would be upset to empathize with my point of view any further, this is your reminder to just stop reading here.

...

so first of all, i did hold myself back, writing that submission. i mentioned upfront that i kept it short, but i guess it only looks shortened if you know how much i have to say about it. i didn't even know if it would make it in so i did gloss over a couple things that may have led to misinterpretation (though a lot of those notes felt like a "how dare you say we piss on the poor" sort of moment (reference to a response on a different post, which accused Tumblr users of having "piss-poor reading comprehension")).

....anyway, this is a more comprehensive and thorough version of my viewpoint. it is long.

the first thing i would like to address is that i noticed a lot of people saying i was pulling it out of nowhere and "projecting (derogatory??)". and.... like.... yes. i know that. i basically said so explicitly when i said "I disliked this movie for heavily personal reasons". that's the point of submitting it to a hot takes blog; this is something that i think most people will disagree with me on, because it's nowhere near the "objective" interpretation of the movie, but it's something that a select few might resonate very strongly with. this movie didn't actually say any of the things that I said it did, on an explicit level. but there were undertones of it the whole way through that triggered multiple breakdowns since its release, because of my particular media sensitivities that i didn't know would be in this movie. you can think of it like I'm accusing this movie of having "traces of peanuts" rather than being a peanut dish. if I'm allergic to peanuts it still sucks, and is unsafe for people with my triggers. (still my fault for going to see the movie, it's not like it's immoral for it to have triggering topics in it. I just regret it and am bitter that everyone seems to unanimously agree that it has no problems, that's all.) I also see that a lot of people were not bothered by these same things that I was, and I respect that. And I'm glad that people were able to enjoy it— my intention was mostly "it seems like no one hated this movie but me. did anyone else share this interpretation?".

...honestly, the movie itself, on an objective level, wasn't actually too horrible. it was kind of sad and depressing, but i would've left it feeling kind of mediocre if it weren't for its online boom. everyone seems to be praising this movie for being incredible and groundbreaking and progressive, but like this other anon said (https://www.tumblr.com/hot-take-tournament/724649240320671744/while-everyone-is-already-arguing-over-the-barbie?source=share), it really... just feels like politically regressing, to me. speaking as someone who is various flavors of non-binary (multigender), and who is transgender and intersex, i am extremely passionate about gender rights. and this movie felt the same as really old radfem ideals of feminism that boiled down to "what if we kept the gender essentialism but we made it so (cis) women were good and sacred (but still perceived as weak, helpless, useless, etc.)". I saw many similar sentiments in the notes of the original poll that I agreed with, saying the movie barely was feminist if at all. I especially agreed with someone (don't remember who) who mentioned that it was kind of misogynistic and backwards for all the women to get brainwashed instantly the moment someone suggests a patriarchy. this movie really said "women are just helpless little children that deserve the world, and the men need to carefully watch what they do and be kept in check, because if they get too confident they're naturally inclined to establish dictatorships and be cruel and evil to the women! and of course the women would roll over and accept it if that happened because they're just helpless little lambs that can't think for themselves" like how is that feminist? i thought everyone was on the same page here that women are people. like people with agency that can do things. and the movie just felt extremely.... belittling of women's actual capability to do things, and demonizing of men's emotions. like i thought these were points that we've already been through, societally. but no. "best feminist movie", "so progressive", "groundbreaking".... like... what?? it's groundbreaking because... there was a patriarchy and no one's ever done that before??? like what is this, the feminism version of "Disney's first gay character"??? is it progressive because Barbie had One Conversation with an old lady who was (sarcastic gasp) happy??? (Admittedly that scene was pretty sweet, I'm not actually upset about that one. but like why is that the highlight i keep seeing everyone come away with. like is it groundbreaking for one (1) old person to be happy?? i would've preferred if there were like. you know. just reasonable casual representation for diverse bodies (but that's ok I wasn't expecting something like that from a mainstream movie anyway.))

...and since a lot of people were upset that I didn't address Barbie herself: yeah, ok, I think the existential crisis stuff was pretty neat, I think she genuinely did a decent amount of growing over the course of the movie, I think her character arc wasn't too bad if you look at it from her point of view. but i think, like ken, she needs to be held accountable for the things she did BEFORE that character growth. a lot of people in the notes mentioned her "forgiveness" at the end, and... yeah, I guess I will admit that's "groundbreaking" for a movie this mainstream, but that is not a compliment. it felt so hollow to me, and again that's just "projection" because when I say "it felt hollow", I mean that it sounds exactly like things I was told by toxic friends as a kid. but I think a certain amount of projection is necessary to empathize with a movie, at least the way I watch them. I don't think that relating stories to your own experience is a bad thing.

.... right, back to barbie's whole thing with "forgiveness". to forgive someone is to put yourself in a social position "above" their own. it's unequal by nature— it creates a social unbalance where one party "forgives" (gracious, generous, implied power of judgement over the other) and the other party "has sinned" (in the wrong, by default should be punished, deserves to suffer unless they properly repent). this sort of punitive structure was used against me and some people close to me and so I have extremely personal triggers around disingenuous apologies and forgiveness. (no, I'm not saying that forgiving people is evil, and I'm not saying that Ken did nothing wrong. this is about Barbie now.)

i don't think Barbie should have forgiven Ken. and i don't think Ken should have forgiven Barbie, either (though he was never given the option, because that would be admitting that she treated him like garbage). i think if Barbie was going to "forgive" Ken, if she really wanted to have a real platonic relationship with Ken at the end of the movie, she should have first acknowledged that she had never been a good friend to him, that he was never treated well on a base human relationship level. and i think she should have apologized for it. a real apology where she empathizes and understands how she hurt him and tries to do better, and acknowledges that she was just as lost as he was. and then lets him forgive her, too. but instead she just cuts straight to her own "forgiveness", skipping past any potential accusations of her own treatment of him, to assert her own dominance and center his own wrongdoings. I think they should have either BOTH admitted they didn't know what they were doing and were shitty to each other, or they should have both gone their separate ways bitterly and with their self confidence intact.

like I've seen some people saying, both on my dash and in the notes of this post, this is a tragic movie about two sad lost people trying to figure out how to break social conventions for the first time, trying to understand how to be more than just a Doll with a Role. and naturally, a movie like that has both of them acting shitty to each other within those roles; Barbie from the start of the movie, because she doesn't WANT a relationship with Ken and she seems to hold this against him, and Ken throughout the movie as he tries to understand why he never seems to be enough. Barbie repeatedly condescends upon and belittles him and is constantly aggravated with him and makes him feel small and burdensome and whiny and exaggerative. she makes fun of his fun names and treats him like a stupid and annoying child. and while some of you in the notes are out here laughing and saying "welcome to the real world for women", "that's just misogyny"— and?? is the moral here that misogyny is funny when it happens to men?? because it does happen to men. i know closeted trans men that are subjected to it every day and it just. seems so low to say "misogyny is good" ever. no matter what the end of that sentence is. to imply that some people can deserve misogyny and mistreatment "if they're men" or "if they're annoying" or "if they're clingy" like... this is part of why i submitted this take. i thought we were socially on the page that misogyny is wrong and sucks. and just because this worldbuilding sets it up so that only Kens experience misogyny doesn't make it suddenly just? either it's a human right to be treated with dignity, or you are supporting misogyny. there's no way to say "but it's funny if i can be vindictive about it" without accidentally validating that defense.

...I went on a tangent again. but what I mean is that Barbie herself was an ASSHOLE to Ken. she didn't want him around but felt obligated to support him, and the solution to that should be to make it so he can support himself. but instead she just feels burdened by him and takes it out on him by belittling his suffering and treating him like his every complaint and need were meaningless or annoying. should it have been her obligation to deal with all of his needs? fuck no! but to act like she could, and wanted to, like she was his friend, when she really just wanted to be free of him... that sucks. and it actively kept him shackled to her. and like, she didn't know better, but neither did Ken. they were both lost souls hurting one another by participating in the only thing they knew: an abusive power structure. the only thing Ken did wrong was.... also wanting to participate in that power structure from the "wrong end". it wasn't okay when Ken did it, but it's notable that Barbie did it first. and that they BOTH needed to apologize for treating each other like shit. and they BOTH needed to empathize with and forgive each other, knowing that they're in a better place now and that neither of them knew what they wanted before. they BOTH fucked up and they BOTH suffered for it. if both, or neither, of them had forgiven each other, then this would've just been an interesting and pretty sad movie with at least some resolution.

.... but INSTEAD what happened was that only Ken was shamed and felt like shit, because he crossed the line that Barbie was supposed to have total dominion over. and Barbie was never held accountable for her treatment of Ken, even though it came from the same misguided and hurtful place that Ken's actions did. I'm not claiming that what Ken did was good, or that he's a pathetic little meow meow and everyone hates him for no reason. but Barbie repeatedly condescends and bullies him at the start of the movie to take out her frustration with her situation, and while it's understandable why she's frustrated, that's not okay to do to him, just as much as it wasn't okay for Ken to "turn the tables" on her so to speak. this is kind of an eye for an eye situation. he only did to her what he had already been experiencing himself. and then for her to be the only one to "forgive", implies that it was okay to do to him, and therefore that it's only wrong if he does it.

misogyny is not okay just because you put it in a specific setting or applied it to specific people. and the same thing for pretending to be friends with someone you hate and then bullying them???. it's not "funny" when a woman attacks a man, and if you think it is, that's rooted in misogyny itself. because why else would you not see women as "real" threats or abusers? abuse could only possibly be twisted around into something funny if you think it can't cause real harm, and that's steeped in the sentiments that women are useless, powerless, and helpless, and that men are inherently powerful and able to control their situation. im sick of it. i feel like this movie genuinely pushed back gender equality by like 20 years. not everything is Men Versus Women and if you're centering the gender binary that much like it fucking means that much, you're erasing non-binary people too?? I'm just. I'm just sick of it, I'm sick of gender essentialism and stereotypes and hollow friendships. sighs. ok sorry this paragraph was just a vent.

anyway. this movie would not have impacted me this negatively if it weren't for the way I hear people talking about it. as if it's amazing and the next step in gender rights even though it basically devolved the understanding of gender back into "maybe............. do you think girls could do things? without dating a man..? or is that a little silly.... no wow!! actually yes! women can sometimes... not date!!". (making a spectacle out of obtaining basic relationship agency???) ...and this is mostly, again, just my own triggers, which over the course of this poll I am realizing are real triggers for me, but... yeah. reminds me of my tirf friend group that shamed anyone who was too forward or too masculine. that would nitpick at people's social mistakes to keep them in check and on their toes.

tldr; I'm so fucking tired of gender essentialism and I went to see this movie thinking it was progressive hot shit just to discover it was Social Shaming But It's Funny Because We're Subjecting Men To It This Time. not very funny when I know so many transmascs who are punished for being women when they aren't. and Ken fucked up, but Barbie fucked up too. neither of them were good for each other and they were hurting each other the whole time, but Barbie never owned up to it and then on top of that "forgave" Ken in a way that was just personally triggering for me. (Not evil, not necessarily malicious. but upsetting for me on a personal level because of my sensitivities).

anyway. thanks for reading if you did. I'm probably not gonna check the notes on this one but just know that it does mean a lot, the few people who did agree with me. I wasn't even expecting 80 people, maybe more like 20. I was fully expecting to get 98% ratioed, considering how positively everyone talks about this movie.

(i hope you have a great day too, mod! my apologies for how long and impassioned this got. I hope this take was entertaining for you at least??)

#not a poll #asks #barbie discourse #barbie spoilers

26 notes · View notes