citylightsthings - Tumblr blog

[citylightsthings]

it makes me laugh knowing that there will forever be a chunk of society that viscerally hates tlou2. because in a few decades, death will be knocking on their doors and the game will still be on their minds RENT-FREE

[citylightsthings]

Otohan went Super Saiyan and FCG said HOLD MY MOTHERFUCKIN BEER

[citylightsthings]

Work keeps them apart sometimes, but they always find a way back to each other

[citylightsthings]

Have you guys ever seen grocery store sweepstakes?

Sorry—

[citylightsthings]

i frequently wonder if liam o’brien is aware that his voice lines for Yasuo in league of legends are highly popularized in the electronic music scene, and it’s rare to go to a show without hearing HA HA HE HU in Yasuo’s voice.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8Kp3XKu/

[citylightsthings]

oh Robbie Daymond I’ve missed you so much

[citylightsthings]

SO DOES THIS MEAN WE GET THE JACKSON LEVEL IN TLOU 2 PS5

[citylightsthings]

no bc imodna is actually the most realistic lesbian representation. like it’s literally just months and months of mutual yearning and pining until somebody confesses in a fuckin grocery store

[citylightsthings]

me to everyone who said imodna was only platonic

[citylightsthings]

warrior nun is getting a season 3 officially i am SO HAPPY

[citylightsthings]

arcane / jc leyendecker study 

[citylightsthings]

stay warm this winter ❄️

[citylightsthings]

Lie in 😴💤

[citylightsthings]

“She distracts you.”

[citylightsthings]

NOW THIS. THIS ANALYSIS RIGHT HERE. GOLD STANDARD. I’ve said it and I’ll say it again: We cannot conflate our real world ethics to a post-apocalyptic world 20 years after their fallout.

not a fan of how ellie's agency is being talked about in this situation. obligatory disclaimer that everyone involved takes away her agency and that DOES include the fireflies and I DON'T support what they did either, because I obviously am a supporter of informed consent, and also from an emotional standpoint I am on joel's side because I do not want ellie dead and I wouldn't want him to make a different decision. but I will still probably talk about joel's decision more because that's the one that had a larger emotional effect on ellie.

anyway. baseline facts we need to establish here are that BOTH parties did. not. care. about ellie's agency. the fireflies do not ask her if she'd like to die for the cure, because they don't care what the answer is, they plan on getting that cure either way. joel ALSO does not care about ellie's agency in this situation. I've seen people say that he wasn't doing that because the fireflies "started it" or whatever, and that he was simply rescuing her from the inability to make that decision. and this is not entirely true, because he argues with marlene a fair amount, and if that mattered to him he probably would've tried to insist that marlene wake ellie up and ask her, but more importantly, even if ellie had been awake and said yes, he still would've taken her out of there, because she's his daughter, and he's not gonna let anyone take his daughter again. in that moment, for joel, it is very much about him and about how he does not want to lose another daughter. so both parties took away ellie's agency in this situation. the fireflies didn't give her an option to say no, and joel would not have let her say yes, so ellie had no agency here due to BOTH. PARTY'S. ACTIONS.

moving on, I've seen a fair amount of talk about how joel is in the right because as a parent he's the only one who should be able to make that decision. I've seen things about how ellie is 14 and traumatized, and so she could not truly consent. and it's not that I disagree entirely with those points, ellie IS traumatized, and a large part of her desire to give her life for a cure comes from her survivors guilt. I also generally wouldn't want to put the fate of the world on a 14 year old's shoulders. where I'm having the problem though, is that in this situation, to me, even with those points, ellie is STILL the only one qualified to make these decisions about her life. not marlene. not joel. just ellie.

first of all, I feel like this is a situation in which no one, no matter age or trauma level, could truly consent. "die for this or doom the world" is an inherently coercive situation, so true consent just can't be reached honestly. but with that established, I don't see why ellie isn't equally as capable of consenting as anyone else. there's no saying she doesn't truly get the gravity of this situation, she gets it probably better than most, she's seen lots of death. and we also can't hold a 14 year old in the apocalypse to the standards of a 14 year old in our world. ellie should not have gone through the things she's been through, she shouldn't have the world on her shoulders, but she's in this situation regardless, what difference does another 4 years make here? and I think it's incorrect to say this makes her incapable of deciding what happens with her life. "she's traumatized and has survivors guilt" what if this was joel? joel has canonically suffered survivor's guilt, and he tried to kill himself. if he was the one who was immune, could he truly consent? or would he not be in the right mental space for it? if this were a 14 year old in our world with a medical condition of some sort that put them in a situation where they had to decide whether they wanted to live or not, I would still want that 14 year old to have the autonomy to decide. I wouldn't want that decision to be just up to their parents, it's not the parent's life!!

and most critically, who other than ellie should even be allowed to make this decision? if you think a parent should be allowed that agency over their kids life, that's fair, but joel, as much as he loves her, is not her parent. they care about each other a lot, but he is still just a man she's traveled with for a year. she's been alone her entire life, and now, when it matters most, should decisions about herself, and her life, go to someone else?

[citylightsthings]

Eclipse of the Sun in Venice in July 8, 1842 by Ippolito Caffi.

[citylightsthings]

We are in no position to second guess other people’s desires and decisions based on our estimation of their mental state. The things I am reading are making me very concerned about how you all actually treat people with PTSD and mental health issues in the real world.

Anyways, we cannot conflate real world ethics to a fictional scenario, with fictional science and immunity to a fictional infection.