#...this isn't even relevant to anything anyone else is talking about in this thread

[amber-tortoiseshell]

You guys, i finally found and read the full paper, and there's some serious misinterpretation going on here. (I so knew that statistics can't be right!)

So. Both the first article linked by froody, and the wikipedia page suggest 80% of cats are or carry blotched (kinda unclear which one they mean).

But let's see what the actual scientific paper (cited as the source of their claim by both) actually says: "We found that the recessive allele responsible for the blotched-tabby pattern in 80% of present-day cats (W841X) occurred in our ancient dataset not earlier than the Medieval period in SWA (3%, minimum number of total alleles, see Methods) (Fig. 2). Thereafter, its frequency increased in Europe, SWA, and Africa (50% in total), showing late expansion of this typically domestic allele."

The 80% refers not to percent of the cats carrying the blotched pattern, but the percent of blotched cats carrying this particular allele they studied! They even mention the actual percentage of this allele in the cat population in the same paragraph: 50%. (Although i think that's a not entirely modern data point either, but still. Much better and a lot more believable.)

A new cat color has been spotted in Finland. This is really interesting. A lot of common cat coat patterns have only evolved in the last 1,000 years. The tabby cat coloration only evolved in the Middle Ages.

[fallloverfic]

(Ennead anon) ahh I see, thank you! Looking forward to that chapter. I’ve been really enjoying the deeper lore of this comic. There’s something bigger going on and so many threads in the background, like the fact that Ra is having children again while denouncing her kin for becoming too human, Sekhmet’s whole deal, FG’s whole deal, now these ancient gods that are becoming relevant to the story…

I’ve also been really loving Isis’s journey to acknowledging/accepting the monster that her husband was all along (and her feelings and actions That night).

There’s so many threads that Mojito’s weaving

You're welcome! Hope you enjoy the episode!

This got a little long.

I'm not sure what "something bigger" you're talking about is. In re: Ra having kids again, it's implied the goddesses in the temple Seth and Horus are in starting in S2E104 are decently old, at least by some years, since they were placed there to teach humans how to procreate back when humans were more primitive. If you mean Ra's baby with whom she was pregnant at the end of season 1, I'm not even sure that's all that relevant to the story since it hasn't been brought up since the end of season 1, so ~108+ episodes (at least not officially). Some folks theorize that the grape kid Seth keeps running into is that baby, but it's just a theory based on there not being many other kids to choose from (I kind of doubt it's one of the two other kids they talk to in Hermopolis).

I'm not sure what having children has to do with Ra denouncing her kin for becoming too human, since it sounds like you're implying she's hypocritical or something? Ra's whole deal is seemingly that she doesn't have to be pregnant in the way humans do. For all we know, she can reproduce by parthenogenesis, where an egg can be fertilized without sperm (or in some other way wherein she can just get pregnant without anyone else's help). In most myths, Ra gives birth to the first gods on his own, through means other than pregnancy (e.g., spit, ejaculate), and at least the opening of ENNEAD says this is the case, even if some of the narration in that format isn't true. So how she is able to be pregnant/have kids is possibly very non-human. If anything, humans imitate her with a modified version of pregnancy, since she, at least according to the myths in universe, had kids first (it's what happens when you create most things). Even if she had help, having children and potentially being pregnant isn't an innately human act. Animals do it, too.

Ra's issue with her descendants is that they're obsessed with stuff like marriage as concerns humans, which is screwing them over (S1E70). Marriage is a legal status created by governments. It's not something innate to existence. It's used to mark property and other rights, generally. In S1E70, when Ra says, "This is why I should've never made marriage", she also notes, "that may work for humans who only live for 30 or 40 years, but how can an immortal be expected to do that?" She explicitly made marriage for humans, not the immortals who are getting all fussy over it (e.g., Nephthys insisting she's to blame for everything Seth did because she cheated on Seth, which is bad because she's his wife). In her view, immortals should be allowed to sleep with whoever they want: "What's there to gain by being exclusive? When perfect beings tie themselves to imperfect bonds . . . their love is bound to cause bloodshed . . . Originally, such useless rules never existed for gods in matters of lived. . . . If you liked someone, you became lovers, and if you didn't like them anymore, you broke up." She's specifically saying that Seth and his siblings obsessing over following human rules on physical + romantic relations is an issue. If they didn't follow those rules, Nephthys and Osiris being together shouldn't, hypothetically, bother Seth and Isis, so it's a non-issue, and Anubis' parentage is also a non-issue, since all of them are responsible for raising him. Further, Ra insists that they shouldn't be trying to pretend to be humans (who have to follow human rules, like human marriage). This is allegedly tied to what Horus was talking about in S2E70, where Ra, worried about Thoth's prophecy, is still trying to discourage her descendants from destroying everything.

I say allegedly because Horus, as shown in the recent arc, can greatly misinterpret his intuition, so the conclusions he draws are really speculative if not wrong. That being said, there's possibly a grain of relevance in Ra being worried about the downfall of her descendants due to one particular child of Geb and Nut (as mentioned in S2E70), and it is and isn't related to the Ogdoad.

I don't personally think the Ogdoad stuff is part of the "something bigger" exactly so much as background world-building (I think it's notable they're all gone and their temples are in ruins, and most things Seth and Horus are uncovering seem to be related to Thoth, not the Ogdoad). In S2E78, Ra notes there are other creation gods. Mojito likes mythology, so she may just be exploring all the different gods. I'm not sure how ultimately relevant they'll be to the overall plot. But maybe they'll show up in some more important way, I guess. Maybe some of them are hanging out in Thoth's moon temple. Maybe they'll help in the fight with Osiris. Maybe they'll make FG go home. Maybe they'll help Horus and/or Seth ascend. Who knows?

Honestly how Hermopolis fell kind of has vibes of how Osiris essentially sabotaged his chunk of the pantheon. Potentially one person (one child of Geb and Nut) destroyed everything: Osiris struck down Ra, brainwashed Nephthys, drove Seth and Isis batty, helped lead his son to suicide, is a big part of why Horus has Issues TM, and as a result of Osiris' machinations, Seth destroyed a lot of temples and infrastructure, and now the humans are struggling and there's massive distrust for the gods. It's possible this is just a "this kind of happened before, and if we (Seth, Horus, FG, and maybe Isis and Anubis) don't stop it, it could happen to Heliopolis in a way far worse than what Seth did". Especially because Osiris is seemingly causing havoc in Duat and wants to drag Seth down there before he's done with his work. He's already on the road to destroying everything for good this time, since balance between the living and the dead is so important. Then the Ogdoad/Hermopolis stuff is just foreshadowing, not part of some bigger scheme.

I also think it's notable that in Hermopolis, a library, a place of records, was targeted by whatever past person destroyed it. Whatever Osiris did with Ra kind of shut her up for a bit, and he used an artifact from her hoard that no one knew about, allowing him to do his evil in secret. A good chunk of the story is other characters uncovering - in pieces - records of all the stuff Osiris did, and a central theme is recording, memory, hearsay, and propaganda. History in the eye of the beholder, something easily twisted (e.g., the narrator's frequent lies about Seth; Osiris testifying in half-truths about the night of usurpation; Isis twisting things so that she can punish Seth, sort of protect Osiris, and punish him in her own way; Horus' half-truths to Seth and himself through his misunderstandings of his intuition, lack of experience, and fear). The opening is literally a story within a story.

Osiris has a lot of the info, basically. He controls the narrative, still. He's beloved and respected by gods and humans alike. For centuries, he was working in secret doing stuff. But now, stuff is coming to light: Isis and Anubis are learning some of what he did. Anubis is hopefully going to be able to talk to Isis and Nephthys about what's happening in Duat. Horus is figuring out what happened with Nephthys, and because of all that, there's potential for Seth and Nephthys to realize just how much they were manipulated. Maat, as well, has a sort of realization here, especially if what Osiris is doing is worse than what Seth did (and I think in some ways it is). If Bastet realizes she's been had, she's not gonna be happy. A bunch of people are potentially about to realize they all share a common enemy, and there's an easy solution to dealing with that, especially with Ra and Sekhmet happy to support taking Osiris down.

A big chunk of season 2 is Seth being reminded of why he's a guardian deity, and that he still has a role to play in Egypt. He can't keep abandoning his duties. Between FG threatening to invade, Horus needing guidance, Isis struggling, and now this reminder of the potential worsening of their circumstances from without and without, as has happened before, I think Seth (and allies) will be galvanized to stop it before it happens again, which will cause Seth to be welcomed back by the other gods to some degree. Seth already knows Osiris is an issue, but once he learns about the mirror, I think he's going to be very charged towards, "We really need to deal with him, he's a danger to everyone," in a proper retaking his god of war title. He doesn't actually know how far back Osiris' treachery goes, or how bad Osiris' actions continue to be, and learning about all that will change some things.

Though I also think he might just head to Duat for revenge, especially since he already wants to go in order to save Anubis.

A shorter version of this is that ENNEAD as a whole narrative is sort of fanfiction of the myths of how Osiris went to Duat and the battle between Seth and Horus, and an important question is what happened the night Osiris died and why, because it's the subject of a lot of different myths. It's always been that mystery, whether it's Osiris obsessing over Seth for centuries, or Seth's - and Isis', Anubis', and Horus' - main trauma coming from Osiris' actions. I think the only "big" thing going on is that once people put the pieces of his actions together, Osiris is going to be dealt with, and people can go back to living their lives and restoring Egypt.

I'm not ignoring the ability of South Korean authors to bring in new and very complex lore and plots relatively late in a narrative, and maybe that'll happen, who knows, but I honestly think everything really ties back to what it's always been about, and it feels more complex than it is because most people in the story only have bits of the truth and aren't working together (and have various reasons and agendas for avoiding each other). Once the latter is fixed, and people work together to piece together what they know, things should smooth out.

I don't know that Isis is accepting Osiris as a monster so much as coming to grips with the fact that she still loves him and she can't keep loving him, or at least allow that love to dictate her actions. He was monstrous, and he was monstrous for a while, and Seth didn't make him that way. But yes, it is good she is coming to grips with the reality of the situation.

Detailed stories tend to be detailed, especially long ones, like ENNEAD, based on very complex mythology. But most of it is just world-building set-up. It's not honestly that complex when you get down to it. Currently, Seth, Horus, and FG are trying to get to Thoth (and Maat) to deal with FG's contract (and I think Seth wants to talk to Thoth for his own reasons, possibly for Anubis and what's what's up with Seth's curse bracelet). Horus just wants to be with Seth. Osiris is still hunting down Seth to claim him. Isis, Nephthys, and Khnum are trying to fix Anubis. Bastet (and maybe Sekhmet) is trying to help Hathor win over Horus, and Osiris is possibly trying to recruit Bastet for his ends, presumably for dragging Seth to Duat. The series was originally going to be two seasons, so I don't think there's necessarily a ton of story left to be added, it just takes time to tell, which is why it became 3 seasons (or at least that's my theory anyway; Mojito had the whole story outlined in advance and noted in a recent tweet that it's a matter of deciding what to leave in or not). The big events remaining are probably Seth learning about the mirror and how the fallout goes with Horus, some sort of reconciliation between Seth and Isis (maybe), Anubis getting his memories unblocked and his head unmixed-up, Horus ascending (maybe), Seth getting his powers back for good, Nephthys getting her memories back (maybe), a big battle with Osiris, FG returning home, and presumably Seth and Horus having their happy ending.

[thoughtsonargentdawn]

On the matter of "Faction Conflict" in roleplay.

Hello good readers one and all, it has been a bit of time. I have for the most part been simply busy RPing or generally engaging with that strange realm called 'real life'. I was given a drop about the latest weirdposting thread courtesy of Hatescale/Dargeus/Santern regarding his effusive praise, or some may say delusion, for Faction Conflict RP, or WarRP I suppose you could call it.

RP PvP has always been contentious on Argent Dawn, going as far back as the fabled on and off conflicts between the 'North' Rpers and whatever brand of Undead or Blood Elf roleplayers were present. It has been a source of more drama and discourse rather than actual character development and narrative storytelling. Don't let anyone otherwise tell you. It can be a fun distraction and has been the source of many hilarious memes over the long years of Argent Dawn's existence but it cannot seriously be considered on the same level as normal RP.

I noticed that some friends of mine have pointed out that WarRP is no better than other forms of roleplay that don't really fit with the setting. We're talking on the level of Witcher RP, GoT RP, Boardwalk Empire RP. That is certainly the case these days. The lore is an ever evolving and changing - for better or worse- thing. The era of BIG WAR has passed with Legion and BFA.

But there are a handful of groups - you know who I mean - who are adamant on remaining locked into this clown fiesta of an RP mode. Usually I am of the opinion as those who may have read previous posts I've made, that there's a balance to strike between anything goes and grounded in the setting. Lets not kid ourselves that the primary pursuers of RP PvP are after a power trip rather than actual RP interaction, the mechanics behind it entirely gear towards your standard toxic pvp bros who think that the only meaningful interaction is /duel. Why not settle your differences in Counterstrike? A far more balanced game mechanically.

Even that alone isn't truly the issue, strange players can do strange things as long as they're not infringing on anyone else as far as I care. What truly is the problem is that they elevate their - type - of RP as the sole and only true arbiter of RP, the litmus test for self-awareness, to quote Santern himself.

Had this been in Legion or BFA, sure I'd say WarRP has a place but it's time has long passed. It really started during WoD when the lack of actual expansion relevant material that players could engage in forced players to 'write' their own 'lore'. The results being that many lazy roleplayers got hooked on the quick fix of RP PvP campaigns and did no upkeep on their own guilds, only thriving from one campaign to the other and even recruiting non-roleplayers to make sure that they 'won' their fights.

So by all means engage in your WarRP, but you're no better than the 'Darkshire RPers' - whatever that is meant to mean - or any other niche community.

[i-was-a-teenage-eldritch-horror]

You turned on anon a long time ago and I forgot to ask. Sorry! I just wanted to ask what is the proof that Gendo SAed Rei? Here's an interesting thread by the way. I just wanted to know your thoughts.

Hi, thanks for your question.

This has been a rather contentious topic for a long time in the eva fandom. The thread you linked started in 2009, but I'm sure this was being discussed before then as well.

Before I get into anything else, I want to point out that this is an evageeks thread. The evageeks wiki is somewhat useful for things like trivia, but it is not a good place to go to for in-depth analysis of the girls and women in eva, their trauma, and how that relates to gender. Evageeks is rather misogynistic and clownish.

I have to assume that by "proof" you don't mean explicit dialogue, since you're talking about Neon Genesis Evangelion and asking an analysis blog about it. Analysis is about reading between the lines, yes? But I suppose it's worth bringing up that Ritsuko does mention the abuse pretty explicitly in a draft of episode 24, if that's worth anything to you.

To me, it's obvious that Gendo was sexually abusing Rei. The fact that she's a teenaged clone of his dead wife is suspect enough, but let's dive deeper.

The scene in episode 5 where Shinji tries on Gendo's cracked glasses in Rei's apartment is pretty solid evidence. The glasses represent Gendo's worldview -- his gaze -- and the fact that the lenses are cracked, distorting the sight of the wearer, signifies that Gendo's worldview is very warped. The first thing Shinji sees after putting them on is a naked Rei, too. Shinji then falls on top of Rei, accidentally grabbing her breast. This mirrors Gendo's purposeful action in end of eva. The cherry on top of all this is that Shinji violated Rei's space -- he not only walked into her apartment when he believed she wasn't home, but was also snooping around in her room! He could've left her new ID card on her bed or dresser and left. This is interesting when you compare it to Toji's attitude towards Rei's space in episode 17 -- he's a bit weirded out by Shinji's willingness to just barge in and clean up while Rei isn't home. Also, in the scene from episode 5, you can see shoe prints on the floor in the apartment that don't look like they come from Rei or Shinji, so make of that what you will.

Another tidbit I want to mention is that there's a scene in episode 23 where a bunch of tiny Reis pop up out of Shinji's hand while the angel is attacking. In the ADV dub, what the tiny Reis are saying is "Ikari, it hurts!" I'm not sure what the Netflix dub dialogue is, and I doubt this dialogue is indicated in any subs. If anyone reading this speaks Japanese and wants to weigh in with what the tiny Reis say in Japanese, please do. Being that the later, more psychological angel attacks dredge up the pilots' past and ongoing trauma, I find this relevant to mention.

There's also the many scenes of Gendo gazing at a naked Rei throughout the series. Most notably in episode 15, which also shows Ritsuko glaring angrily at Gendo in jealousy while he does so. Later, in episode 23, Ritsuko says that she lost to "these dolls," meaning Rei and the clones. Lost in what respect? In what ways are Ritsuko and Rei different? Well, Rei is younger -- the same as Ritsuko was when she first met Gendo. Also, even though Ritsuko is thoroughly traumatized, she still retains some semblance of an ability to say no, and conceptualize the consequences of saying no. She had a life before Gendo. Rei has not experienced a version of life without Gendo. In episode 5, Rei asks Shinji why he doesn't have faith in Gendo, to which Shinji replies that he doesn't trust him. The "faith" vs. "trust" distinction is pretty consistent throughout English translations, and Rei's usage of "faith" indicates the god-like power that Gendo holds over her.

Ritsuko inherited the tripartite division that plagued her mother: that of woman, mother, and scientist. She views Rei as sexual competition (I hope it's not controversial to state here that Ritsuko and Gendo had a sexual relationship? Also there's that part in episode 24 where she basically says that he's raped her), which is "woman." She's one of Rei's caretakers, arguably spending more time around her than Gendo, which is the "mother" part of it. Finally there's the "scientist" part -- Ritsuko is a scientist and Rei is her test subject. There's a scene early on in the show that's rather striking. Rei is bandaged up in her underwear undergoing a full-body scan. This procedure is supervised by Ritsuko, who coolly converses with Misato as if none of this stuff with Rei is happening. Despite the fact that Ritsuko's the one supervising it! Not an ounce of concern or compassion. Because that's what abusers do, they divide, conquer, and pit their victims against each other.

It's worth noting that if you look at the Gendo-Ritsuko-Rei dynamic as a warped version of a nuclear family, it aligns very well with what is known about families where the daughter is being sexually abused by the father. Typically, the mother (Ritsuko) in this situation will only tolerate the abuse of her daughter if she is also being abused or if she feels especially powerless. Both of these describe Ritsuko, who thinks of Rei in much the same way Naoko thought of her. Naoko was sleeping with Gendo and being manipulated by him, too. Also, a lot of people in that thread you linked deny that Gendo was sexually abusing Rei because "he thought of her like a daughter." They point to the line in one episode where Gendo says that if his and Yui's child is a girl, they'll name her Rei. But sadly, fathers do sexually abuse their daughters. Even ones who are biologically related.

It's horrible -- nobody wants to think of it, but it's an uncomfortable truth. For far too many men, the definitions of "daughter" and "lover" are not mutually exclusive. I believe that "incest" as a term applies to Gendo's abuse of Rei because he's in a caretaking position, Rei thinks of him as a caretaker, and carries all the baggage that comes along with having an abusive caretaker. Nobody with more than 2 braincells to rub together would say that the Nanami-Touga thing in RGU isn't incest simply because they're not biologically related. Rei's afraid of being abandoned by Gendo, works hard to figure him out, why he treats her the way he does, why she was created, and what to do with herself. Shinji and Rei's Gendo-centric angst are two sides of the same coin; the edge that separates the two is gender.

With all this in mind, the structure of Gendo and Rei's relationship heavily gestures towards the familial. The evageeks users in that thread correctly observe this, but they allow their own naive assumptions about abuse to prevent them from taking the next logical step in their analysis of the show.

Lastly, a major part of Rei's character is her relationship with her body. Any type of trauma and abuse, but especially sexual abuse, has a nasty habit of disconnecting victims from their bodies. A major theme surrounding Rei's character is her body. It's so overwhelmingly obvious that even the dullest viewer would pick up on it. Rei spends a decent chunk of her screentime naked, and her status as a warm body is relevant to Gendo's plan for 3rd impact (he needs Rei because she houses Lilith's soul in a physical form -- this was his own design), the dummy plugs (which run off her decision-making process), and Gendo's abuse of her (she is literally a clone of his dead wife, whom he spends the entire show trying to reunite with).

I hope this answered your question!

[centrally-unplanned]

No it isn't.

I'm sorry, but you made this up - or well Jezebel writers made it up parroting other writers in a long line and now its on to you. Its mirroring this structural thing where there are more avenues of "being a victim" for women then there are for men, and women are attracted to different things than men. This is real enough, but that reality is not claiming anything near this.

Men cannot cry about their weaknesses on a first date. You know who else can't? Women! Fucking anyone! That is cringe af and a huge red flag that the person in front of you doesn't have their act together. Outside of like specific contexts both partners are expected by society to be put together. Now, a man will forgive more weaknesses in a girl who is hot enough or something, for them its not load bearing to attraction. But its is pretty load bearing for a relationship. People tire out from that level of drama and leave a woman all the time unless they can achieve emotional stability.

Men can definitely admit weaknesses to women, and the vast, vast majority of men will do precisely that in all of their serious relationships. How could they not? They just not talking? This is nonsensical, partners know about their respective lives. You tell partners about past bad exes, feelings of inadequacy, parental trauma, etc. Hell, "emo trauma baby", "I can fix him" is literally a popular male sexual archetype!

Now it is true that a guy frequently being less confident and mopey, etc, is more unattractive than a girl doing it. Its still unattractive for a girl most of the time but its more forgivable. And I don't even object to someone hating on that double standard, its reality but sure (culture finding men "hard" crying awkward is a dumb one for example). But you can't say that this is "shameful for a man to admit to weakness or vulnerability", that is not the same thing at all. I can casually do that not even dating, a simple comment about how I am bad at X, or totally vulnerable to family trauma Y, as part of a relevant convo amoung friends and it isn't shameful.

It is true that women, again on average, are attracted to men who "take care" of them. But admitting to weakness doesn't contradict that at all. Wallowing is, but you can be emotionally open without being whiny and be "masculine" in your actions around their problems. Women (like men, this is pretty universal) also like being emotionally valuable in "fixing" the needs of their partner, its literally weakness-based.

People just constantly conflate all this stuff and project individual experiences around it - men take advantage of women's vulnerabilities all the time, that doesn't make it a gender role. Some people are just assholes. What else is going on is that men tend to not feel comfortable expressing emotion. This has many causes - one is that male friendships are (again, averages here) different and less expressive so they get less practice. Another part is that dating is very hard for men emotionally because of the inequality, it makes men feel performative. In a certain sense this is "society", sure, its the society we build in our mind, the instantiated "third person" every judging us. But that isn't in a way composed of polling numbers of average responses. Its in your mind. It does not have to reflect the real consequences of a given action.

And the fucking twitter threads performatively dunking on this or that gender as "toxic" or w/e certainly do not reflect reality.

[finitefall]

Hill's Alive is hellsbellschime on tumblr. I hate her channel so much. The only reason her channel is popular is because most of her videos are about how evil Daenerys and the Targaryens are. Not only her takes are awful and wildly incorrect, her previous video on Rhaenyra had so many repugnant comments calling Rhaenyra bed hopper and disgusting for having bastards. She loves using misogynistic talking points against her hated female characters while prioritizing a specific type of female character (Sansa and Alicent).

She’s also a Klaroline stan actually and harassed Phoebe Tonkin so much that Phoebe herself got wind of it and specifically called her out by username and asked her to stop the harassment.

She knows her audience is mostly raging incels, dudebros and Targ haters who never read the books but do read the Reddit threads and watch YouTube essays. She knows she can leave out HUGE chunks of the text and key passages to lie about Daenerys because her audience won’t call her out. She also started making shit up about the Hightowers to please her anti Targ incel audience. The Hightowers are Valyrians (or better yet Velaryons) now but also they are from the Great Empire of the Dawn but also they are Daynes but also they are First Men but also they have magic but also. The gymnastics she does for making them relevant to the main story is INSANE.

Hi! Just a little disclaimer: I strongly advise my followers to not go on their tumblr to send hate, anon or not. I never do this, I answer, but I don't send hate or bully anyone, even if their behavior is awful. I like to believe my followers are smarter than this, so I hope none of you is feeling insulted, but since her username is being revealed to me and everyone else on this post, I don't want anyone to accuse me of sending people after her.

Of course she's a Sansa and Alicent stan, who's surprised?

I was in the TVD fandom so I heard about Phoebe Tonkin being bullied by Klaroline shippers. I'm a Klaroline shipper myself, but it's crazy how people don't make the difference between fictional characters and actors. Phoebe isn't Haley, Joseph isn't Klaus, and Candice isn't Caroline. TVD shippers were wild, it happened with Delena stans too. Again, I've always been a Delena shipper but it was crazy how fans reacted to Nina and Ian breaking up and him marrying Nikki Reed. Nina isn't Elena and Ian isn't Damon: they're real people, not their fictional characters, leave them alone ffs.

Phoebe was absolutely right to call her out, stop harrassing this woman who's never done anything to you...

Thank you for telling me about her, now I understand better why so many were talking about her and asking my opinion. Well, it's simple: what @queenrhaenyrah said here.

[thebreakfastgenie]

I know I mentioned I'm a Trapper complex skeptic once but I don't think I ever elaborated, so let me do that now. The Trapper Complex basically boils down to two episodes, and one short moment in Depressing News. If there are other examples I'm forgetting feel free to point them out, but Trapper references after he left the show are pretty rare. I'll tackle Depressing News first because it's faster, then get into the rest, and I'm putting it under a cut because it got long.

I do think BJ is hurt when Hawkeye says "same size, same shape." I don't think this is indicative of a complex of any kind. I am not a jealous person, but I would also be hurt in that moment. I don't think BJ is displaying any abnormal jealousy. Hawkeye effectively said BJ is just a replacement for Trapper without realizing he said it, and that stings. I think he's having a normal human feeling. And in that episode, at best he gets over it, and at worst he just distances himself from Hawkeye for a couple of days (and Hawkeye is busy with his manic tower building anyway) depending on if you view BJ's exit from Hawkeye's storyline as connected to that line or just a coincidence of writing.

The first relevant episode is Period of Adjustment. I'm just not convinced that anything in that episode is actually about Trapper, just like it's not really about Radar, and I don't think it's about Hawkeye either. Period of Adjustment, in my view, is just about BJ cracking because the misery of being in a war is unbearable. The common thread between being angry at Radar and being angry at Trapper (who only even comes up very late in the episode) is that they're both home. Anything else is secondary to that. Erin calling Radar daddy isn't about Radar, it's about the fact that Erin has never called BJ daddy because he left her before she could talk and that eats at him. I just don't really buy that smashing the still was because it was a physical reminder of Trapper's existence. I do think you can make a compelling case for that one, but it's not my take. I honestly don't think BJ's violence in that scene was particularly motivated or directed. I think he was just angry and hurting deeply and lashing out at anything and anyone in reach. Ironically, even though it's probably the worst he ever treats Hawkeye, Period of Adjustment is BJ's most sympathetic breakdown for me. I really do feel for him in that one and while it's not necessarily excusable I think his behavior makes sense without any additional complex to explain it.

The other episode is The Joker Is Wild and this one is harder for me because I don't like it. It feels very tonally weird for being in season 11 and it's just uncomfortable for me to watch BJ psychologically torture Hawkeye for 24 hours and get everyone in on it. So admittedly I'm a bit biased by not thinking about this one as much when I form my takes. However, since I don't see an existing pattern of unusual jealousy from BJ, I guess it just doesn't register that much. But I think The Joker Is Wild is a combination of jealousy and ego. The thing that sets it off isn't just Hawkeye talking about Trapper, it's Hawkeye saying Trapper was better at practical jokes (which I also dislike because we almost never saw Trapper pull a prank without Hawkeye, but that's another writing quibble). Practical jokes are BJ's thing. They're his coping mechanism (per Dear Sigmund) and at this point a pretty big part of his personality. You know how upset Hawkeye gets when BJ claims to be better at telling a joke than he is? This is BJ's version of that. Pranks were also part of his personality before the war, based on Last Laugh, and it makes sense that at this point in the show, when he's lost so much of himself, that he's clinging to that. I also think BJ doesn't like being reminded not just of Trapper, but of that whole first year, because BJ genuinely does not know how he would survive without Hawkeye, and most of the time that seems mutual, but the fact is there was this entire year that Hawkeye survived without BJ, in large part because Trapper was there. And yes, this is jealousy. But I don't think BJ is a jealous person.

Every instance of jealousy I can think of think of is tied back to BJ's insecurity and need to be needed. His weird tirade about Carl the Handyman comes with Peg cleaning the gutters by herself or having Carl do it means BJ isn't needed. One of their neighbors hitting on Peg is part of a breakdown that culminates in BJ asking Peg if she still needs him. BJ does get jealous, but I don't see jealousy as a primary personality trait so much as secondary to his insecurity. So with Hawkeye, he is jealous of Trapper, but it's more because Trapper means Hawkeye needs BJ less than BJ needs him. And BJ can't handle that because I think BJ is terrified of what's happening to him and if Hawkeye can get by without him, maybe he's the only one struggling this much.

I'm not saying you have to interpret this part of BJ the same way I do; I'm not trying to talk anyone out of anything. I even enjoy memes about the Trapper complex. But I avoid using it as shorthand in serious meta, because I don't completely agree with the implications. BJ is jealous of Trapper but I don't think BJ's jealousy toward Trapper is all that extreme. That's the tl;dr.