#analyzing anonymously
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raining-anonymously · 5 months ago
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something about mouthwashing that has always bothered me is the cake-baking scene. where the game’s dialogue is usually very realistic, this scene feels… weird. the dialogue is unnatural and too video-gamey. anya, swansea, and jimmy are telling curly things he should already know for the player’s benefit, such as the backstory for the communal birthday parties and how to bake the cake. it’s strange. but i think i’ve finally figured it out!
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We start with Daisuke. “Look at your face!” suggests that Curly’s reaction to being surprise-birthday’d was an expression of shock. This is supported by Jimmy later apologizing to Curly for jumping him like that.
Back to the present. Curly, who tends to use fewer filler words comparatively, uses the word “uh” twice in two lines. “Uh. Wow,” followed by:
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I wanna talk about this question for a minute. Let’s look at the scene. Curly can see the birthday party decorations from his position. Curly knows the approximate date off the top of his head, according to the dead pixel scene, so he should know it’s around his birthday. Curly has also undoubtedly experienced many Pony Express birthday parties before. All this to say, why the hell is he asking what the occasion is? It should be pretty obvious, no?
The answer is dissociation.
We know from Curly’s POV introduction that he spaces out in conversation, and that Anya is aware of this. This lasts to the point where he’s staring off at nothing until Anya asks if he’s listening.
He also appears to dissociate during his conversation with Jimmy before the crash: he stops talking completely until prompted by Jimmy to respond and doesn’t seem to understand what’s happening (Jimmy tells him everyone on the ship should die and Curly seemingly agrees, only to very clearly be upset and in shock when Jimmy goes and makes this happen).
Now, Jimmy, Anya, and Swansea have known Curly for years. Seems pretty reasonable that they would be able to recognize signs of his dissociation, yeah? And they do.
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Again, these are things that Curly should absolutely know. I believe Anya and Jimmy saw the facial expression that Daisuke referred to and noticed Curly’s inexplicable confusion and realized he was dissociating. They then informed him of the details of the situation while posing it as a question, likely in an attempt to ground him. Anya ends her information with “right?” while Jimmy ends his with “remember?” This allows them to give Curly the information he isn’t grasping in a gentle way that doesn’t call attention to the fact that this is something he should already know.
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Anya then gives him more direct instruction by telling him where the cake recipe is (again, a thing he should absolutely know considering he eats in that kitchen every day) and lightly tells him to go make it. She’s guiding him to a task that he would ordinarily be able to complete on his own because she can tell that he’s unsure and out of it.
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Swansea—who, while not as close to Curly as Jimmy and not as attentive to the crew’s mental wellbeing as Anya, has known the captain for years— does the same thing, more directly. He asks Curly about the cake recipe and tells him where to find the ingredients and recipe. Again, Curly should absolutely know this already, but for some reason he isn’t doing it on his own.
From the crew’s perspective, if you as Curly choose to engage in this optional dialogue, Anya and Jimmy told Curly to go make the cake, and instead of doing that Curly wandered quietly around the lounge. Brought on, probably, by this dissociative episode. So Swansea reminds Curly what he’s supposed to be doing and where to go to do it.
(While Jimmy and Anya are consistently shown to be in tune to Curly’s emotions (Jimmy moreso pre-crash), Swansea typically is not; however, he’s standing near Anya during this segment, meaning she had the opportunity to tell him what she’d noticed.)
Now, an interesting thing about Curly’s optional conversations with the rest of the crew here: He doesn’t say anything during them. This is a little odd, considering Curly is a fairly social character. He does have other optional interactions where he doesn’t respond, but those are typically after he’s just had a back-and-forth with the other person or where you’re able to respond nonverbally (such as closing/opening the door to Utility when Jimmy jokes about it). But for the most part, Curly does respond to what others say.
Not here, though. He can drift between Daisuke, Anya and Swansea, and Jimmy, but he doesn’t say a word apart from when Jimmy notices his silence and prompts him to speak.
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Even then, he just agrees with Jimmy without any indication that he processed what Jimmy said. If you go for Jimmy’s second optional dialogue, Curly once again has no response.
All this to say—
This post was not made to demonstrate any overarching story element. Honestly, I kinda thought I was stringing conclusions together. But now that it’s all down? It… kinda makes sense. This is consistent with Curly’s character, with Anya’s and Jimmy’s dynamics with Curly, and with the typically excellent, human, non-meta dialogue Mouthwashing utilizes in all other scenes.
It works down to the little details, such as Daisuke being the only one who doesn’t have weird dialogue here; he’s only known Curly a few months and is probably less in tune to the captain’s mannerisms. (Plus the crew tends not to tell him about anything serious.) Furthermore, dissociation can be caused by stress, and Curly is VERY stressed in this scene, preoccupied as he is with needing to tell the crew about the termination. His flavor text during this scene demonstrates that pretty well; his flavor text is much more cynical than his norm and often leads to him thinking about the termination rather than what he’s supposed to be doing.
Is there a possibility that I’m completely wrong? Of course. But I finally have a plausible explanation for something that has been bugging me for months, so I’m satisfied.
hope you enjoyed today’s episode of MOUTHWASHING THEORY TO FILL A PLOT HOLE THAT NO ONE EXCEPT MY PEDANTIC ASS THINKS ABOUT <3
If I said anything wrong re: dissociation or if you have another Watsonian explanation for why this scene is written so oddly, please do feel free to share!
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bruhstation · 5 months ago
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Do you have any favorite ships
I like a lot of them but the ones I'm crazy about are 2x3x4 and anything in between, duck/diesel, spencer/hiro, lady/d10, rebecca/sonny, zip/ten cents, and captain zero/captain star. especially when they get worse and everyone is forced to get involved. also the idea that several people used to have a crush on thomas but nobody ends up with him because they all (including him) need some self introspection tickles my brain
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canisalbus · 1 year ago
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Which is your favorite platform? (of the ones you have accounts to post things I mean. I can't imagine it being Instagram since you don't really post there which honestly fair)
Tumblr, Twitter (X?) bluesky? Something else?
I think I'm going to have to go with tumblr, and it's not just because we're here. Twitter and Bluesky are nice and my experiences on both are overwhelmingly positive. But tumblr has an atmosphere that encourages originality, sharing your creations and talking about things in depth.
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prideprejudce · 2 years ago
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I just watched the godfather trilogy for the first time & I swear this isn't bait but I was wondering if you had any opinions about the women in the movie(s)? I don't want to be like "these movies are sexist/misogynistic" but I also wonder if there's something to be said about how the women are portrayed? Like personally I thought there was an added layer of tragedy, in the second movie especially when Michael struggles with his dad's legacy & he goes to his mom for advice but she offers so little & then dies like man... what if there was more of her perspective... was it intentionally done, that by ignoring or dismissing the women in these men's lives it contributed to the uh, tragedy of it all? Especially with Kay, how her character progresses in the first two movies & the choices she makes. Or if it's just what women are "reduced" to in these types of stories & it's just me (maybe missing the point as well) that saw it as an addition to the other tragedies/losses?
I think it would be unfair to simply label these films as "sexist" when they reflect the period that it was set in extremely well. It would be like saying that Pride and Prejudice was sexist because it was set in a time when women couldn't inherit their family's land and titles. Well duh, it was a sexist society! That's why it's so fascinating to watch this family scramble to find husbands for their daughters while the second eldest rebels against her gender constraints!
Actually, for a movie that mostly surrounds men, there are a lot of dynamic female characters in The Godfather with actual depth and character development. Coppola doesn't make his female characters' background accessories with blank faces and no personality. They are dynamic human beings with their own sorrows and desires. Even the most minor characters like Sandra (Sonny's wife) get a scene where it's made extremely apparent that she knows that Sonny cheats on her frequently and that she has a lot of built-up resentment in their marriage for it.
The movie also has a lot to say about traditional gender roles and how it provided some women with protected lives behind their husband's achievements while forcing other women into a cage of miserable submission to their husbands. On one hand, we have Carmela, the matriarch of the family who is the traditional wife and mother figure. She seems to have had the luckiest marriage out of the bunch because even though she was in a traditional marriage, her husband respected her and loved her. However she also willingly ignored the reality that Vito built a criminal empire and therefore doesn't really understand Michael's internal struggle with his father's legacy and losing his own humanity. She kept herself at arm's length to the criminal side her whole life and therefore doesn't understand how someone can lose their humanity or their family. In her era, family was EVERYTHING no matter what your husband is or does.
On the other hand, there is Connie, who is married off to a wannabe gangster who viciously abuses and cheats on her. And even though she's the Don's daughter, nothing is done to protect her from her abusive spouse. Why? because also in that period, women essentially belonged to their husbands. Even Carmela quickly reminds Sonny to not interfere with their marriage because it's no one else's business. Connie is trapped in her own personal hell built by a society that restricts women in their own households, which Coppola shows the consequences of (RIP Sonny)
And then there's Kay - the essential "Modern American Woman" who is thrown into this chaos world when doom and gloom savior son Michael makes her his wife. Unlike the other female characters (including Apollonia as her character foil), Kay cannot look away from Michael's criminal life like a wife is taught to. Kay was not raised as a traditional Sicilian housewife. She tries to be one for years, but she can only stomach this world for so long before she actively turns her back on it and ends her "role" in it by aborting her child and divorcing Michael. She can almost represent how modern feminism slowly began seeping its way into society where women no longer have zero agency over their lives and bodies. Instead of continuing to get pregnant like the dutiful wife for Michael to get his next son, Kay eventually said F That I'm done bringing more kids into this nightmare
The Godfather series as a whole is about change. New Dons replacing the old ones. Power shifting inside a family. Sons getting stepped over for other sons. Selling illegal liquor and gambling to selling drugs. Trying (and failing) to make an illegal business into a legitimate one. The change in women and their roles in that world also changes too which is why I like the film so much. It speaks on so many layers of society and how it grows and changes
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silverskye13 · 10 months ago
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i just analyzed a piece of Red Crusade for my college class, just wanted to say you're an amazing fucking writer
Holy shit?? That's so cool! I'm glad you liked it enough to give it an analysis!
Can I ask? What was analyzed? Was it formal or was it themes? Oh I'm wildly curious now.
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waitineedaname · 5 months ago
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Always happy to see more t4t lesbingqui, what’s that one meme, nobody says no to more cakes!!!
that is true!! i just need to stop being a perfectionist about it, but i just cannot get it to flow the way i want. augh!!!
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dreemurr-skelememer · 1 year ago
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… you might have started a Dreamtale Interpretation 101 class here, not complaining!
this happens. EVERY time i talk about dreamtale HAHAHAHA
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raining-anonymously · 6 months ago
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sorry but i NEED to talk about how heavily curly is implied to have poor mental health.
in our first scene as him, he’s spacing out, staring off to the side, despite actively being in conversation with anya. this could very well be dissociation.
anya then says that she wishes he would open up more. this is in the context of a psych evaluation, so the implication is that she believes curly is holding back mental/emotional struggles.
the whole blood lake scene. i personally didn’t interpret that as a diegetic hallucination, but it still certainly speaks to curly’s mental health! yes, it’s supposed to be a red herring over the cause of the crash and has all sorts of symbolism to do with the wider story, but i believe it’s meant to represent an anxiety attack, which is repressed when curly reaches the cockpit in the white void. the sudden build-up of noise and anxiety-inducing visuals feels a lot like my own anxiety.
“standing on the edge of a bridge with your feet in cement.” this an interesting line that i’ve seen a lot of interpretations of, but in my mind it implies suicidal ideation. yes, “feet in cement” brings up cement shoes, which are traditionally a murder method, but “standing on the edge of a bridge” has heavy implications of jumping off. curly does not deny jimmy’s assessment of him whatsoever. it’s interesting that this is coming from jimmy, who is shown in multiple scenes pre-crash to be attuned to curly’s emotional state enough to recognize when he’s distressed before anyone else. (edit: jimmy calls back to this statement when he’s planning on crashing the ship, saying he “gets it now” and furthering the implication that he believes curly is suicidal.)
“i’m just working on my life being a place i don’t have to fucking escape!” generally, people who are emotionally and mentally healthy do not feel the need “to fucking escape” their lives. this is also the ONLY time in the game that curly raises his voice at jimmy (edit: forgot about “what the fuck did you do?”).
curly has another weird anxiety musical sting while cutting the cake.
while heading to jimmy in the final sequence before the crash, curly has his least subtle anxiety attack, with his heart audibly pounding in the soundtrack. after jimmy leaves, curly can be heard breathing heavily to calm himself down.
curly’s “take responsibility,” “kills 99% percent,” “take care of it,” “system failure,” and “safety” flashes come across as bursts of anxiety.
he shuts down during intense conversations, which— apart from being a sign of trauma/abuse— can be a sign of anxiety or dissociation.
he has serious trouble sleeping, which can often be wrought by anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues.
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doevademe · 1 year ago
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Hi! I wonder how Nico and Percy would navigate a conversation about the "not-your-type thing". Like after the three days in the infirmary (I like to think that Nico would be just sleeping during those 3 days btw), Percy would approach Nico and really talk about it.
It wasn't enough to make them a couple or something, but at least Nico "tries" to be honest and Percy also "tries" to think about it.
I'd like to try and write it, but for some reason, only the last part comes to my mind like:
"Nico has been a master of holding back, putting himself last, letting himself hurt and long and want. But just this once, he tries to be honest. Just this once."
"Percy never had the time to think about his own feelings, let alone how others feel about him. For the first time, after a long time, he has all the time in the world. And he uses that to actually think."
Hope it's not a bother ^^
Hi! As you might know, prompts are sort of in a limbo, but I can give you this: thie conversation can go any way you want, it just depends on Percy's mindset once he's done thinking.
How does Percy actually feel about it? Flattered? Sad at missing his chance with Nico (since he said it wasn't the case anymore)? Maybe he feels like he needs to try now, to actively make Nico fall for him again.
Each of these possibilities make for different interactions. Nico already said his piece, if he wants to be honest, there's only one way he can go: admitting that liking Percy hurt, and he'd gladly keep at it if there was a chance, but there's not. The ball is in Percy's court, and his actual response to Nico will lead the conversation.
They don't need to become a couple right away, but clearing the air is a must, just so they can move forward (into friendship, the beginnings of a relationship, into becoming strangers, what have you), otherwise, they'll be each other's ghosts for the rest of their lives, though there's something romantic about that path too.
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oflgtfol · 1 year ago
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MarvelDC anon x5 sorry im back again I just wanted to say I agree 100% with everything you say and don’t rly have anything to add there that isnt just recycling your points. It’s genuinely fucking crazy how the entire point of the superhero in 90% of cases is that they are vigilantes who operate outside of the legal system and yet so many of them are given plot lines about how the cops or the military are Awesome. Or like will show them buddy buddy with cops or the government. LIKE STOP ITTTT. STOP ITTTTT. And most of the time too it’s for characters where them being hyper connected with the government etc makes their overall story Worse. Ill use flash as an example bc You Know that guy but I LOVE flash I love him as a disabled character struggling w addiction issues for personal reasons BUT HIM LOSING HIS LEGS LIKE SHOOTING PEOPLE IN THE SWANA REGION AND THEN BECOMING A GOVERNMENT GUY IS SO FUCKING ASSSSSSS IT MAKES HIM WORSE AS A CHARACTER AND A PERSON IN A WAY THAT ISNT INTERESTING BECAUSE THEY NEVER SAY ANYTHING INTERESTING ABOUT IT!!!!! Like why the fuck did Flash even become disabled in regard to Going To Commit Imperialism For The U. S. A like NYC gets destroyed on the daily!!!! Have him lose his legs by a building falling on top of him!!!! Im spitballing ideas here but why wasn’t Venom Flash uhhhhhh Him Losing his legs in an event like that, in conjunction with him saving someone else, since this is the era of Symby and Eddie's breakup Symby is slithering along + sees this and helps him out, bc you know they can make their own choices and do what they want and maybe they wanna be a hero too even for a moment, then like maybe a few months later or whatever They Meet again and Symby is like hey….. I felt something when we bonded for that brief time. Im going through something rough too right now (The Divorce) so why don’t we try something new together. AND NOW BOOM. you can have Flash as Venom. Now without the stupid venom as addiction metaphor too! Like if you really fucking want you can include stuff about the government trying to manipulate them or whatever but as a whole this would have been so much better of an angle to start venom flash with but NO that we DIDNT GET Because Of The Military Complex meaning We Cant Ever Have Good Things
i know this is so controversial among the venom fans but like i'm really not that attached to flash lmfao i know nothing about him he's just some guy to me i just know he's so much better than mac gargan cuz by god that was a dark time for venom comics.
so now i'm the one nodding along with you and not adding anything lol. i trust you to come up with a better backstory for him because i literally don't know anything about him beyond the vaguest outline. i don't even know what war he fought in that he lost his legs to i dont know Anything. eddie some little absolute freak to me but flash is just some guy
Like if you really fucking want you can include stuff about the government trying to manipulate them or whatever but as a whole this would have been so much better of an angle to start venom flash with but NO that we DIDNT GET Because Of The Military Complex meaning We Cant Ever Have Good Things
i do have to say though that this is totally how i thought venom 2011 was going to go. the first like, four-ish issues got my hopes up so much. i really honestly thought it was going to be drawing parallels between symby and flash how they are ultimately just tools of the government, just weapons that can be discarded in pushing the military's agenda.
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this whole page drove me insane at the time and it still kinda does. the way flash is lying directly to his superior to stay with symby longer despite how much he's been drilled that being with the symbiote too long is a danger. they aren't friends yet this early but there's still this impulse to stick with it. and it's because they're parallels!!! the symbiote is quite literally being treated as a mindless tool by the government - it's deprived of all rights that a sentient, sapient being requires. it's trapped and it's being forced into serving and fighting on behalf of a government that doesn't even care for it. likewise, flash is being given the illusion of choice, and to some extent he still does have a choice, but he's being so manipulated by the government here that really he is also just a mindless tool for them - or at least, they want him to be mindless about it. the final fucking panel at the bottom of the final page is crazy.
it was such a strong start to a run that i was very apprehensive about due to aforementioned lack of knowledge of flash as a character, and my general fed-up-ness with the way the comics had been handling venom and eddie in general during that irl time period. so i was so so hoping that it would be taking a blatant and staunch anti-military stance, or even at the bare minimum if it was even still done in a liberal way, as long as there was still SOME criticism of the military complex i would be jumping for joy. and the idea of flash and symby then also bonding during all that?!! crazy. but then it just kinda. goes off the fucking rails halfway through that run/??? like demons and hell and satan kinda off the rails. absolute bonkers. i need to reread venom 2011 actually i barely remember it it was like a fever dream to me. could have been because i descended into madness shortly after i read it but i digress
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canisalbus · 1 year ago
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i dont know if this is a strange compliment but the way you dissect art is so amazing and something i can only aspire to do one day. you pick up on every little symbolism its wonderful! hope youre having a good day btw!
Oh, thank you! It's so nice to hear you think so!
I don't know about picking up on every little symbolism, but I really like art and I like talking about art. I'm just trying to look at it thoughtfully and (in some cases) do my best to let the artist know I paused to appreciate and ponder the piece.
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starmocha · 8 months ago
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I saw your breakdown list of Sylus’s myth. Do you have one for Zayne’s or Rafayel’s, especially Zayne’s MOF myth. I think I understood it when I watched it on YouTube but the end was kinda confusing
I never did this before since while their myths were sad in their own way as well, it did not mess me up as bad as Sylus' (I needed an outlet). I think I originally did mean to do something with Zayne's MOF myth, but I never got around to it.
If this is something you're interested in, I can reread their myths and do something similar or offer my interpretation of anything that seems confusing.
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ladybugkisses · 9 months ago
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Would you say that Eleanor and Ari are a parallel to Viktor and Mordecai, or maybe another Lackadaisy duo?
i do love me some good parallels, but no! i just enjoy duos where the two people involved are opposites, which is a lot of what i focused on when designing Eleanor and developping her character
any parallels you might see between my OCs and the canon characters are purely coincidental/happy accidents
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inocennt · 1 month ago
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People need comfortable narratives for Taylor's songs and meanwhile she just creates to heal and hopefully other people relate. IE "But the story isn't mine anymore" like her going through that and writing an album about it or two and sharing and then other people can probably relate. You can think and feel about a thing one way and then ten years down the line have a different feeling and thought about it. I know, as a creative person, I've had multiple perceptions of my own experiences and healed things from years ago.
well of course! that's just life in general i feel, creative mind or not. you're always applying the mentalities of new experiences to old ones in order to grow and evolve and heal. and obviously taylor's spoken at length about how her songs are part of that process for her, and how writing them helps her come to terms with feelings and experiences she can't put into words. all of this feels like exactly why we see her revisit old stories and locations and experiences and characters within her songs, even years after the initial events occurred; it's that constant process of reflection and new experiences shifting your perception of those past ones.
#asks#anonymous#irl commentary#im not entirely sure what to say in response but i hope i understood the point you were making anon sdfdsfds#if people seem to need 'comfortable narratives' i think thats simply a side effect of the inherent parasociality of distance in consumption#and what i mean by that is that it is the natural response for people to absorb and interpret and discuss taylor's songs and life#in the same way that they would do so to a book or movie or tv show because there is that same distance between the media and audience#which creates this inherent expectation of linear evolution‚ the same way you see characters develop and grow in fictionalized media#that dissolution makes people forget that even though she is dramatizing and sometimes fictionalizing her life experiences into song#taylor is Still a human being who experiences ups and downs and may '''regress''' in a way that is unbefitting of a 'comfortable' narrative#because that's just not how life works!#like. ultimately This Blog that i run is attempting to analyze songs like i would if they were my assigned readings in english lit class#i do not care nor want a comfortable linear perfect narrative with no contradictions because that is simply not fun to apply litcrit to!#i think if anybody IS hyper-analyzing her songs through the lens of just her irl life and nothing much else#but are still somehow neglecting to consider the fact that hers is a human life and not a pre-written arc in a tv show bible#then they're kind of missing the entire point#anyways. yap over im sorry i Really do not know what prompted this and i am not really one to wanna talk at length about the irl of it all#something something. gestures broadly at the paragraph on my about page sfdsfds
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academicgangster · 1 year ago
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I'd love to hear you gush more about Die Another Day; for some reason a lot of people seem to think it's the worst Bond movie.
How could it be? It's got some of the best puns/one-liners in it! "Saved by the bell!"
It also has MADONNA. I mean come on.
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And Halle Berry as Brosnan!Bond's endgame romantic partner - I'm convinced they retire together and have a great life sipping mojitos on the beach.
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And Rosamund Pike, whom I love because she's not only gorgeous but delightfully unhinged in general
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as well as the absolutely iconic "Read this, BITCH!" ending
and it has the legendary invisible Aston Martin, what more could you want in terms of high camp
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and also, best 007 title track of all time bar none because did I mention MADONNA
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mandy4ever69420 · 1 year ago
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you got any more “controversial” shameless takes?
probably unlimited bc im relentlessly political and most fandom people are like, fandom style people. example: lip telling campus cops that kenyatta tried to sell him crack was way more racist than anything carl did until he became a cop. and even so, all of carl's "cop" plotline was an extended explanation, basically directly to the audience's face, as to why fixing the system "from within" cannot and will not work
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