#Type of analysis

[aerequets]

this post was the catalyst for this comic, and i was also thinking of a desi song lyric (tere dil ke sheher mein ghar mera ho gaya / in the city of your heart, my home is made) and just... hmmm.... leaving your mark.... making a house into a home..... when the marks a child inevitably leaves behind (messes, scribbles, and in this case stickers) eventually fade away as they grow older and you're left with the memories stored in what hasn't been erased....

im not verbalizing it very well but catch my drift?

[the-crooked-library]

Nosferatu (2024) is unquestionably a multifaceted work, but what I personally consider to be the unifying idea behind its facets is that, for Ellen, Orlok represents validation.

Her fears are dismissed and called childish?.. He's a nightmarish manifestation of them.

She is consistently disrespected by everyone around her?.. He considers her his only equal. She never uses his title, it's permitted.

She is told to fix herself, misunderstood, and always isolated?.. He knows all the darkest parts of her and is delighted by them. He wants her just as she is, so much that he will lie, kill, and cross the ocean to find her.

The scene in their death/wedding bed is a direct parallel to the scene of her waking in that bed at the beginning of the film. She complains to Thomas that the "honeymoon is yet too short" and tries to pull him down with a kiss - however, he is worried about being late for work, and so he extricates himself and leaves. Cut forward to her sharing the same bed with Orlok, similarly early in the morning; he is startled by cock-crow and begins to rise, but she guides his head back down - and, even though he knows that he will die, he stays. He is her sexual and emotional desire, realized.

Given that there is a plethora of emotions Ellen is forced to suppress on daily basis, there is no singular correct interpretation of her relationship with Orlok. To erase any one of them is to render it shallower than it actually is; but there is no doubt as to why their attachment is mutual. To each, the other is something they’ve never had before.

[venusaur-propaganda]

Drawing Venusaur with every Pokemon pt. Slither Wing

[jamtamart]

what will it take to be more than just a man

[plutoons]

Patty. Pleaaseeee tell me more and doodle more about patty please.

thinks about patty and swoons and gets sick in the head… 🫡 i got you mate patty doodles for you + some of my Thoughts in tags

[yikesy]

and like I don't even blame the other gods for not doubting or thinking too much of apollo's personality change despite how obvious it should have been that something was up if you looked at the gap between his domains and his behavior and just thought about it for a minute

and that's because despite everything, the idea of apollo having learnt to lie is such an existentially terrifying concept that I do not blame their brains for refusing to even consider it

[the-depressed-comedic-relief]

Thinking about how at Neil’s funeral at the school, all Mr. Nolan says about Neil is

“He was a fine student, one of Welton’s best”

Nothing about his contagious joy, his loyalty to his friends, his passion for acting, his spark that helped Todd be more alive. How utterly glowing with positivity he was even when things were hard.

Just a good student, nothing more.

Neil played the role of the diligent son in the unfair game that after he lost, he was only remembered by his score.

And maybe that’s why Charlie didn’t sing, because he knew the funeral wasn’t for Neil. It was for the student he was trying to be.

[nuapriori]

Overall reaction to Kim without glasses has been funny... but by funny, I don’t just mean ha-ha, I mean *revealing.*

It’s interesting how people will fixate on a character who prides himself on wearing a mask, and then get uncomfortable when a literal one is removed. That’s his face. He’s a person.

And I definitely shouldn't have expected good tidings from Reddit, but after sharing it there (in hopes people will appreciate him more, maybe use it as a reference point) I noticed how ignorance is not only tolerated, but celebrated. Easy as spitballing nonsense with hopes something sticks, because votes are currency.

Anyway, one comment really stood out. I’ve seen it before, thought nothing of it, then I saw it again on my post: “Jim Mitsubishi.”

I thought, "Who the fuck is that? Are you talking about Kim?"

I thought, wow. I get it, but it isn't harmless, and it's also really not funny.

There's a real undercurrent of racialized mockery in the way people react to Kim, still, especially when they fixate on features like his eyebrows or hairline like it’s some kind of punchline. "Jim Mitsubishi" is just a convenient way for people to mock an Asian man while pretending they’re just being funny. It’s not critique. It is a coded rejection. And it feels really familiar.

But beyond that, it flattens a complex, deeply human character that I tried to humanize further and represent accurately, because I love him, and I give a shit about how he's perceived.

Sorry if this seems like a non-issue. Kim himself would let it slide, move on, but for me, it is an issue, and I know I must not be the only one who finds it extremely disheartening, especially being more than 5 years after release of the game.

Representation isn't just about who shows up. It's also about how we treat them when they take their armour off.

[loosescrewslefty]

This interaction explains a LOT about Aira's character, and why her feelings for Okarun feel so unserious when compared to the likes of Jiji. Aira didn't enjoy playing piano, but she cannot STAND losing to someone else, leading to her obsessively working to win. But after winning, she lost interest in piano altogether because she 'won,' and no longer had the drive to play.

For a long time now, Aira's place in the story feels way more like she is invested in Momo. Momo is the one who inspires character growth in Aira on at least two different occasions I remember (confessing to spreading rumors after the fight with Nessie, and becoming more serious about fighting when she accidentally caused the Evil Eye to attack Momo), but while Jiji is slowly moving into a position where his feelings for Momo can no longer be ignored by the other characters, Aira's interest in Okarun is basically a hamster wheel. It spins and spins, but it doesn't go anywhere. But Aira clings to it out of stubbornness because she doesn't want to admit defeat, while at the same time never making serious effort to get Okarun to see her as a viable romantic partner.

From the start, the majority of Aira's focus has been on Momo. First by convincing herself Momo was a demon that needed to be defeated. Then trying to insist that she needed to save Okarun from Momo. And now she has fallen into a comfortable pattern of throwing herself at Okarun any time Momo is around to incite Momo into arguing with her. But she ONLY does that when Momo is around, and then loses interest in Okarun the moment she and Momo start throwing hands. I suspect that's the real reason she isn't doing anything to either try and seriously progress her relationship with Okarun or bowing out the way Rin and Vamola did once they realized that they were better as friends rather than trying to get between Momo and Okarun. Because she is afraid that if she doesn't push the idea of liking Okarun or makes a serious effort and either 'wins' or gets turned down and can't justify pushing herself on him any longer, she'll lose the frienemy relationship she developed with Momo.

And in the end, what keeps Aira going is the competition, not the trophy she earns when she wins.

[whoupsqlointing]

Lots of thoughts in my head about Extraordinary Lougferd and his very human portrayal of evil, as opposed to the soulless overlord so many expected him to be. An out of touch father, disconnected from reality by grief. Causing harm not out of malice, but out of ignorance.

[chocobje]

Guysguys hey guys... If it's not too much trouble I'd like to know how y'all interpret/characterize Sprout and Cosmo... I love seeing people's own depictions cause seeing different takes upon the characters are cool... (Hcs are welcome too!)

[goomyloid]

"when noelle finds out kris hasn't been 'kris' this whole time, how will she feel when she realizes she's been reconnecting with someone completely different?"

this sentiment i've seen a lot is an interesting thought but it never actually clicked with me all that much for some reason, and i wasnt sure why or how to put it into words until somewhat recently.

like, i guess i think about it in similar terms to kris's relationship with susie; i think it's unfair to say that kris and susie aren't really friends or something just because that person is 'not kris.' at least by this point, they clearly enjoy being around each other, it's a two-way street. kris is still there, and is always there... on a normal route. that's when our role (so far) amounts to merely 'opening up opportunities' for kris, i.e. giving them a reason to go on Epic Adventures (with the goal of closing dark fountains) all while winning battles with the Power Of Friendship, etc.

sure, we control their specific movements, which will always feel limiting to them (which leads into my assumption that no matter what we do, kris will always hold some level of resentment towards us -- no matter how luxurious the prison cell is, you will always be trapped).

all of this is my long-winded way of explaining that when the two work in harmony, the boundary between kris and the player becomes less distinct. that's why the separation between the two didn't feel as important in chapter 1, where there wasn't really an opportunity for things to go 'wrong,' so to speak. so if we follow the path of least resistance -- how the story 'should' go -- then i think it's fair to say that at least SO FAR, kris is still there, working with us when they have to, not shutting anything out in particular, becoming real friends with susie, and reconnecting with noelle.

the time they spent together in cyber city wasn't 'fake' -- kris is still there, emoting, our voice going through their mouth, they're having fun with noelle (i always think of kris saying "Nooooo" when noelle asks if they need a dog treat, they had no reason to actually howl like that, i swear to god they're just enjoying being a little goofy like old times)

(there's also plenty of other examples of our prompts (presumably) coming out of kris's own mouth in their own voice, they're just in control of HOW it comes out, i.e. yelling "NO" or barely muttering "yes" after spamton neo. but this post aint about that so im moving on)

all of this is the normal route, of course. i dont think i need to explain how much this differs in the weird route, lol. we force kris down a path they Very Much Most Likely Don't Particularly Want to Go Down, but we make them. they dont want to say Proceed, but they have to, which is when that voice comes out as US, not them. from the soul or something, probably, a voice beaming commands into noelle's mind regardless of whether or not kris actually says anything out loud, hence noelle still hearing us even when kris is down in battle.

this disharmony is what manifests as friction between kris and the player, and while we dont Really know what all is happening inside kris's head, i sort of always imagined it as kris closing off/almost going dormant, as some form of protest maybe, maybe to at least communicate to noelle -- the only one who can see something's wrong, not just different -- that this isn't them, it's something else. kris wouldn't do this, and she knows this. that's why when it's all over and berdly has been ice'd, all we know is that they "look kinda..." out of it, distraught, barely there, maybe. i heart dissociation and all that

basically, the split between kris and the player (in my own probably-not-end-all-be-all-correct interpretation of the story thus far) becomes more rigid only when our interests conflict, and the more we work together, the less reason kris has to dissociate, for lack of a better term, and the 'kris' that susie comes to know and noelle comes to reconnect with isn't exactly the wrong 'kris' at all. sure, they're being controlled but that doesn't mean they aren't still THERE.

and if the story continues down along the path of us micro-managing everyone's goals into fruition (noelle getting close to susie comes to mind), kris will still work against us in some ways no matter what we do, but finding some kind of 'happier path/ending' is probably far closer to what they want rather than Manipulating Their Childhood Friend into Killing Their Classmate. just a hunch

anyway the TLDR is i don't really know if the initial question will end up being a problem in the same way that everyone thinks it will, on a normal route. sure, they'll all be shocked and maybe horrified to find out kris is being controlled and whatnot, but that doesn't make the time they spent together any less real, because despite it all, kris was still there.

[scribbsrambling]

Anyone wanna tell me why this lemur only ever gives herself 3 seconds to feel sad before shoving it away?

You could easily argue that this is Tangle being mature. Putting aside how she feels, stopping herself from dwelling about the past for too long. Which is a noble trait to have to an extent.

Like, those were both instances where she saw people die (only supposedly in issue 60’s case but still). Yes, good for her that she’s pushing herself to focus on her task at hand, but like, Tangle, no one was gonna penalize you for taking 57 more seconds to cry😭

As I’ve said before, it really depends on how frequently she does this to determine how good or bad this behavior is for her.

Another thing, Tangle is known for being a very expressive, very emotional and emotionally-driven character. It’s interesting that she can also be so eager to gulp it back down when the big sad feels come up. And do it so quickly.

Although, it makes sense too. Someone who is more emotional/empathetic would have probably had to learn to reel it in sometimes after being “too dramatic”

Hopefully after all the crap she went through in Urban Warfare, she took time to talk to someone.

However, while Tangle is often interpreted as a very “wears her heart on her sleeve” type of character, she’s shown to not be incapable of keeping things to herself.

She even seemed to be embarrassed to talk about how she’s feeling with Jewel, her best friend, in front of others,

but she’s comfortable to open up when it’s just the two of them.

people with low-self esteem either crave to be the center of attention to feel validated or hate it because they feel undeserving of it but that’s for another rant

[morphean42]

I’ve finally figured out why I really dislike Twink Whizzer!

So, in ‘This Had Better Come To A Stop’ Marvin sings the line “that’s what pretty boys should do”, and I’ve always interpreted this as another example of Marvin thrusting Whizzer into an unrealistic role. We all know Marvin treats Whizzer like the woman of the relationship, expecting him to cook, clean, serve him, and be generally feminine. However, Marvin also puts Whizzer in the category of ‘pretty boy’ in addition to ‘woman’.

Whizzer is, in many ways, more traditionally masculine than Marvin. He knows more about and is good at sports, he’s tall, he’s what one might call a ‘player’. Especially how Stephen Bogardus plays Whizzer in the OBC, he is not a stereotypically gay man. This, obviously, is not okay in Marvin’s eyes. He sees his own failings of masculinity through Whizzer’s performance of it, and this makes him incredibly insecure, so he forces Whizzer to be ‘the feminine one’. The gay one. The pretty boy. The twink.

So, when Marvin calls Whizzer a pretty boy, that is a slight against him, that’s Marvin trying to force this idea of a ‘small, feminine, non-athletic lover’ onto him because it makes him ‘the man’ in the relationship. Nearly everything Marvin does that hurts those around him is not done because he hates them, but because he hates himself (that’s a whole other point but anyway). So, Marvin calls Whizzer a pretty boy because it’s everything Whizzer isn’t and Marvin can never accept being the less masculine of the pair.

This analysis is running on a correlation between the terms ‘pretty boy’ and ‘twink’ but I think my point stands even without that.

Whizzer isn’t a twink because just like Marvin is trying to force him into being ‘the woman’ he’s making him take on an effeminate, not traditionally masculine role.

Oh and one more point! Unrelated to all this! The term twink refers to a gay man traditionally between the ages of 18-25, or at least appearing young like that! Whizzer is balding! Whizzer is not twenty years old! If I see one more person make Whizzer like twenty-four and Marvin like thirty-seven I will lose my goshdamned mind!

[loredrinker]

Trespasser Dream Slides - Fade Dreaming and Continued Connection

The Trespasser dream slides for a romanced Lavellan mark a subtle but interesting divergence in the story of Lavellan and Solas, in that not every player who romanced these two gets these slides - depending on choices.

If Lavellan ends their relationship with anger or finality, vowing to stop Solas no matter the cost, even if it means killing him - these dreams never appear. And I think that detail is brilliant. The story is using the absence of these dreams as a narrative device, one that, to me, actually reflects how the Fade responds to emotions. So when Lavellan emotionally disconnects from Solas, when she severs the bond and chooses to carry nothing of him forward, the Fade has nothing to echo and Solas never appears, honouring her choice. The absence of these dreams in this path becomes the story’s way of saying this relationship is indeed over.

But for the Lavellan who holds hope, who vows to save him from himself and his own destruction, who has expressed her love clearly to Solas - the dreams do come. This narrative path reflects the choices of a player who's decided that their bond endures.

And through these dreams, the game shows how these two people continue to affect each other, be drawn to each other even across distance and years.

The Dreams 

What keeps drawing my attention to these slides is they never confirm whose dreams they are.

“Lavellan sometimes came awake from dreams in which her lover watched her sadly from across an endless distance���

It doesn’t say her dreams, or that she dreamed of Solas, nor does it deny they may be his. And I appreciate how that ambiguity again mirrors the nature of the Fade, leaving open the possibility that these dreams belong to either of them, or to both.

The dreams could originate with Lavellan, stirred by hope and belief, with Solas drawn into them by her emotional presence in the Fade. They could originate with Solas subconsciously pulling her into his dreams, revealing his own hidden ache for her. Or it could be a mutual convergence - neither initiating, but both arriving, called into the same dreamscape by the strength of their bond. These slides allow for all of these possibilities in it's refusal to define the source.

What's interesting is that Solas is always withdrawing from them. When Lavellan reaches for him he doesn’t speak, doesn’t approach - he vanishes. It suggests that he’s not drawn to her to control or watch her possessively in dreams, but allows himself to be near her, pulling back before any contact is made.

Remember, Solas himself confessed to Lavellan she draws him away from the Fade. It's logical to assume then that she draws him in the Fade as well. Because Inquisitor Lavellan is still Fade Walking.

Lavellan - Fade Walker

What we know for certain is that the Inquisitor has demonstrated the ability to find Solas in the Fade before. In the Haven dream sequence, the Inquisitor locates him while sleeping. After they wake, Solas expresses surprise that they were able to find him and that he changed the setting to Haven once they did. At the time, it’s assumed that the Anchor is what allows the Inquisitor to remain conscious and lucid within the Fade. But that may not be entirely true, the Trespasser dream slides complicate that assumption because at that point in the story, the Anchor is gone and yet:

“Still she searched, and dreamed, and waited, for a way to change the Dread Wolf’s heart.”

The way “dreamed” is used here - alongside verbs like searched and waited - positions it as an act in itself. It implies that Lavellan isn't just sleeping, but actively entering the Fade to dream and seek. Here, dreamed carries intention, movement and purpose.

Whether she communes with spirits, follows the traces he’s left behind, or navigates the remnants of memories, we aren’t told. But the phrasing highly suggests that Lavellan is looking for answers, information, ways to change the Dread Wolf's heart while in the Fade. (Which continues to support my theory that the Inquisitor has been forever altered by the Anchor.)

Do the Dreams Continue?

We’re never told that the dreams end - and the use of the plural dreams reinforces the sense that the tension between Lavellan and Solas remains unresolved. It suggests an ongoing, quiet pull that continues to draw them to one another. Perhaps unconsciously, they return to that shared space again and again, a connection that spills forward into Veilguard.

Maybe that ongoing pull is why Lavellan receives the wolf statuette, why she can tell Rook she still loves Solas, and why Solas, close to his goal of reshaping the world, stops to write her a letter. It even colours the way he speaks of her to Rook - “She is a good woman.” Not was, not someone I once knew: she exists for him in the present because their dreams keep finding their way to each other.

For the story, eight years separate Trespasser and Veilguard. For us as players, that’s a long time - but for them, if their dreams still connect them, still reach across the Fade? That distance may not be felt at all. Time moves differently in memory, and even more so in the Fade. Their last shared dream with each other could have come the night before the ritual, close enough to stir old feelings and sharpen Solas’ need to send those final words to his vhenan.

[yikesy]

also apollo is very much an optimist who never gives up and zeus fucking hates it

he keeps escalating putting him in more and more of the most heinous circumstances that would literally pulverize anyone's mind with despair so he would just. break. and he just goes *inhale* *focused Intense gaze* *through gritted teeth* "I can work with this"

it's a matter of principles and baked deep into him being the personification of Light

it's very important to me he's Very Much This

The Sun. Will Rise. Again. and that's both a promise and a threat