guiltycorp

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i bet there were guys in the 1800s who were super fucking Reddit about everything, but no one had the right word yet for why those guys were so annoying. so they just had to wonder

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does it ever get better? has it gotten better? will it get better? when will it get better?

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evil creature i don't like

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girl you've been running through my mind all day

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YOU are a neurotypical cisgender woman. going about with your latte and such

[obediently] I am a neurotypical cisgender woman. Going about with my latte and such

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Replayed Undertale and had a thought, perhaps the human-monster conflict was exacerbated by monsters underestimating their own magic and hurting humans by accident? I'm sure fandom discussed this before sometime, and I know everyone talks about Frisk's self-defense and whether their decision to fight would be morally wrong, but like yeah, a lot of the non-boss monsters talk as if they never meant to harm the human at all. Even among boss-level monsters, let's say Papyrus... An early spike in difficulty in neutral/pacifist routes, super easy to die to, and yet the way he acts in No Mercy route leads me to think he wasn't fighting with the intent to kill at all. In fact aside from Undyne, Sans in No Mercy and Asgore, nobody is that serious about killing the protagonist. Plenty of other enemies claim that they plan to do that but then are easily distracted or swayed, acting like it was never that serious.. ...And yet the game clearly assumes that you'd die at least a couple of times. Of course, the human is also a child so we can assume it's much easier to hurt them than an adult, but I'm just saying, I could easily imagine monsters unintentionally hurting humans before the war and playing it down due to their whimsical and light-hearted nature, provoking even more anger... That could be an interesting layer to the story where we only see the situation from the monsters' perspective. Obviously most likely the game is just Not That Serious about these things in general, it's all pretty much silly fun, but idk yeah!

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did you guys see the new Dybowski allegations thing, a post from his wife detailing the abuse she faced from him? (this translation on reddit looks correct to me) sigh yeah I don't know, there is immediately a lot of people doubting the post's authenticity but at this point like let's be real! sure, before this in my mind there was some plausible deniability concerning the rumors of him harassing his female students - although knowing that particular university and what the students themselves said it seemed a little too likely anyway tbh and now there is NO doubt in my mind ...when i was googling his wife's name i realised that she had also been his student at one point, jesus christ and then that man had the audacity to feign deep hurt that his darling students could 'twist' his almost-paternal feelings towards them like that, blegh, typical i've also listened to a bunch of his interviews recently out of sincere interest in his creative process and he did mention having problems with alcohol which at the time i kind of squinted at, like yeah haha, admitting you have a problem is the first step, but like for a teacher it's a bit too yikes... anyway all this to say is that despite my previous hype and interest idk if i'm even going to play p3 now ://// it's too difficult to divorce the man from the game considering that it seems he is more heavily involved now than during p2 development, and also the whole plot is clearly him projecting his self-aggrandizing teaching experiences? from the way he talked about his new take on Daniil and Simon it truly sounded like whatever is left of his early ideas about the characters and the lore will be tainted by him doubling down on all of his personal flaws in recent years ...maybe the promised demo-version will shed some light on the kind of game it will actually be and i'd be happy to somehow get back to previous hype but mmm #doubt

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Carl, some people have immunity to the virus. I can share it with you, but we have to hurry.

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god this confused me so much actually because i was 100% convinced it was an INTENDED reading Jayce forgetting his hard-earned s1 lessons out of extreme fear when he finally experiences violence targeting him specifically not once but twice, whether he's finally making the 'right' decisions or not... i assumed that he was very aware that the second attack had a real motive, vengeance, and that was actually worse than the seemingly random act of violence by Jinx he made the logical leap that if he was near killed for murdering a random kid then Zaun as a whole could do the same thing to Piltover in the end! ...you know, over all the other random dead kids and loved ones so instead of working through his guilt and using his experiences to resolve tensions Jayce doubles down because he's heavily shaken by all the recent events (makes sense considering how comfortable his life used to be before he became a councilor), plus the main opponent to this idea is marinating in goop anyway which seals his future break-ups with both Viktor and Mel since neither are into making hextech weapons now then Viktor leaving immediately after looking over weapon plans - sure, ambiguous if it was only the weaponry and hexcore betrayal or some shifty magic mind control too but like still, the weapons were an obvious influence all of that made sense! and I expected Jayce to confront the consequences (or maybe get even worse, full on denial of responsibility and self-reflection), this time perhaps on a more personal level than some random dead enforcers/zaunites/children lmao maybe with Viktor finally expressing a coherent stance in an argument, maybe Mel pitching in, maybe seeing what access to hextech meant for Caitlyn's unchecked behavior, idk, something instead his next scene is learning about a magic mcguffin (potential issues with its location being close to Zaun pipes addressed by Ekko in the fucking background because that's not what this story is actually about guys) and then everything else is one big ? made of mixed metaphors and parallels and abstract dialogues that has no relevancy to previously established conflicts and arcs

One of the best examples of Piltover’s lack of genuine self-reflection is when Jayce decided to make hextech weapons for Caitlyn. I understand that he nay have been rattled by Renni's attack during the memorial, but the only reason Renni even had the place stormed was because Jayce killed her son... with a hextech weapon! Renni literally told Jayce to his face this isn't some random act of violence, this is about revenge for her child that he shot and left to die on a cold factory floor.

And instead of internalizing the series of events that caused this specific situation, which was an act of retaliation against Jayce's own aggression. Instead he just made more weapons for Caitlyn and her team, as if that wasn't the reason things escalated in the first place. Jayce may have been remorseful for killing that kid, but any feelings he had about it were largely irrelevant to how it informed his actions later on.

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i for real need people to understand how upsetting it is that arcane said, "the revolution never mattered."

arcane said, "trying to actively bring about systemic change is both wrong and futile."

arcane said, "the only moral way to become unoppressed is to simply do mutual aid, and wait for your oppressors to decide to give you rights after a suitably high-profile child death and/or foreign invasion."

arcane said, "to resist or raise arms against your oppressor makes you as bad as them. it is the duty of the victims of violence and oppression to break the cycle of killing."

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our spiritually elevated rejection of canon vs their intellectually dishonest refusal to engage with the text

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Also, why was like 95% of S2's dialogue just so— weak?

Half the conversations felt vapid or unfulfilling because they never even really got to finish the conversation. It was mostly just a back and forth of jabs or one-liners and then nothing, and that really dampened the storytelling. We needed substance in these conversations, especially knowing this was the end and we didn't really get that.

We didn't even get the actual conversation between Jinx and Ekko which led to her not killing herself after we had to watch him try to save her from doing just that several times. We got the start of it and then we got a cut off I assume to be like 'well did he or didn't he' even though that was unnecessary because we knew he had to have been able to get through to her at that point. We deserved that conversation. They deserved to have that real conversation.

I will also go on record saying that the 'I am the dirt under your nails' line was actually a horrible thing to make Vi say. Vi, the one in season 1 that we hear say 'I grew up knowing I'm less than them,' equates herself to dirt under her Piltover girlfriend's nails? That's just crazy to do. That line is not cute (honestly, it's just bad in general. No one should equate themselves to dirt in comparison to their partner) when literally nothing has actually changed. Like, oh yeah, you gave one seat at the table to Zaun? Big deal, the rest of the council was scowling at Sevika the moment she walked in to the moment she sat down. Anyone that could have served as an ally on that council is gone/leaving (Jayce, Mel, etc), and so Sevika's hardly going to have a fair chance at getting much for Zaun.

I could go on about more but those ones stuck out the most for me at the moment. I am just frustrated because I watched scenes from s1 last night and in comparison to s2, it is like day and night when it comes to consistency in character and substance.

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and i keep thinking about Vi... like, she didn't have much progression back in s1 either, but at least she was always pushing the plot forward by being very proactive! if the writers didn't want to write her character arc they could have at least repeated the same trick again and made her be the one starting domino effects left and right, but nope

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I feel the most upset over Mel though... realised this when i saw how my fellow fujoshis have reacted to her involvement in jayvik jdfhgfd, the Viktor parallels that i have always enjoyed and pointed out before are now treated as Yaoi Proof and nothing else. ...because well yeah they lead nowhere else this season sadly, her relevance was cannibalized by her future league iteration and by fandom's reductive approach to shipping. To me the parallels used to be interesting because Viktor and Mel in s1 were polar opposites in social standing/background & physical health and visibly disliked each other BUT they were more or less on the same page when it came to their rather centrist but ultimately pacifistic beliefs, and they both were enamored by Jayce's ambition from the second they heard him talk about magic, inserting themselves into his life immediately. Those comparisons and visual symmetry were compelling because Jayce was lowkey trying to find a way to unite the two most important people in his life (telling Mel about Viktor's importance to him, trying to get Viktor to accept his involvement in politics, having them in the room together) while technically opposing both of them ideologically by not caring that much either about applying hextech for the benefit of the Undercity or about Piltover's participation in global politics and preserving its neutral status. While initially it seemed like he had to 'choose' between them, ultimately their separate character journeys (Viktor with Hexcore and killing Sky, Jayce with Vi and killing a zaunite kid, Mel with hearing her mother's justifications of war) led them to be on the same page in the last episode of the season which was a cool twist. So logically for character growth they either needed to improve their relationships further or to have sudden conflict, right? ...but s2 ultimately went for... just getting rid of both Mel and Viktor entirely! Viktor's motivation to give himself more time to leave more of a mark on the world (and finally getting to feel good about his own efforts by focusing on the Undercity rather than working for Piltover's financial benefit) was overshadowed by Hexcore corruption and a sudden inexplicable wish to transform humanity into a hivemind, that's a different guy entirely. Mel's motivations ended up not mattering at all, the only progression was her hardening into a proper warrior, like sure yay... her vision for Piltover and her identity as a Medarda was rewritten by sudden magical powers that ultimately, yeah, also make her into a different character. She did have a brief argument with Jayce over seeing him as an 'investment' of sorts but they didn't even get to finish it and their relationship is just one big ? before Jayce fucks off to die alongside his one true partner, like all of their previous loving interactions were just a situationship they both easily moved past without even acknowledging it. Like sure yeah we got our yaoi fanservice but at the expense of female characters and previously established relationships and plotlines... And btw there's a lot to be said about the cowardly approach of the showrunners to once again centering a 'male friendship and brotherhood' while getting pissy at anyone who might interpret it as romantic at the same time, as if a canon lesbian romance is a great excuse to be saying shit like that. Also imo timebomb pairing got more actual development and emotional investment compared to CaitVi in this season despite how hollow Jinx's character felt, so there's still a vibe that a hetero ship was more interesting to the writers... while the only things they wanted from queer ships were the aesthetic and the fan engagement.

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was the alternate universe Ekko ended up in meant to feel disturbing and like everyone was an artificial husk of themselves? the whole time I was waiting for it to be a Arcane induced hallucination trick. none of that made me go "aww look at how it could have been" it made me go "oh this is WRONG. there is a trick here"

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although ok we have to admit that it's absolutely hilarious for jayvik to have a running sentimental theme of preventing each other from killing themselves only to go and commit DOUBLE suicide at the end ...'we finish this together' indeed no notes 10/10

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Damn i really want to know tf happened in the writing room of arcane s2. Some of the downgrades were inevitable due to the show's corporate limitations (not being able to progress the class war story in a meaningful way, having to tie things back to league of legends in terms of making playable characters more appealing to well, play... rip Mel and Viktor in particular), sure. But i still feel like it's even worse than that? There are so many bad decisions that i couldn't even start listing them all... the characters, plot, pacing, themes, it's just such a mess? Even the dialogue writing, it feels much more mm Marvel at its worst i suppose. What i am most bothered by is probably just the straight up harmful messaging so um... Cycles of violence and abuse can be broken by individual decisions to become a better person! Got nothing to do with systemic oppression, living conditions, mental health issues, you can just conveniently ignore aaall the social context, live laugh love and then things get better automatically yep, oppressors famously stop oppressing you when you show them that you're harmless and won't put up a fight anymore. Literally three out of three suicidal characters dying to redeem themselves? Not even in a tragic/cathartic way but in a bittersweet 'they finally atoned for their mistakes' way? Groundbreaking lmao. Romantic relationship between Vi and Caitlyn including no communication about their biggest fight, just conveniently skipping to sex and getting back together - would have loved that if it was framed as the unhealthy fucked up thing that it is, skipping over Vi's hurt and her background to once again become a cop, her girlfriend's direct underling at that (!) due to her not having any other support systems... But nope that was our cute lesbian romance wrapped up, a good thing all around, not concerning at all. Jayce telling Viktor that what he 'always admired about him' was his disability and his deadly disease (??? from a character who spent the whole s1 and first act of s2 desperately trying to help Viktor find a cure? sure) and that those imperfections don't need fixing, just wtf truly. Magic bullshit was also weird, some implications of 'natural magic is ok, but achieving that power through other means corrupts you into a crazy robot bitch or just wilts your trees i guess', but tbh it was written in such a weird and inconsistent way that we can skip this one... Yeah actually a lot of things were just such a mess that I feel silly pointing to specific moments or lines I didn't like, I mean duh, it barely makes sense as a story at all... I am happy we have s1 which comparatively was a masterpiece, and i also really enjoyed s2 act1, i truly believed it would lead somewhere good at the time, my mind still kind of cuts off the story at that point when i think about it, that WAS the open ending of the show to me (is it possible that there were rewrites? targeting act 2 and 3? idk, wishful thinking perhaps). Despite my extremely negative feelings about this season's conclusion i remain glad that so many people appreciate the show regardless, it is clear that there was STILL a lot of love in the process of its creation (although i'd argue that even some of the visual aspects of the show suffered in quality, once again i have to wonder about behind the scenes mood of it all) and i get very upset when i see creatives online despairing over reception of their projects even when i'm absolutely in the disgruntled crowd hahaha... ...however yeah, this wasn't great In a world that increasingly grows more and more right-wing politically... we really needed something different i think.