#and there’s no one I can talk to bc everyone’s connected

[entityart]

Right so I want to talk about Cyn's designs, bc there's something really interesting to me about them.

We have two big ones: Manor and Flesha. Between the two, Flesha seems to be getting a lot more love, which I get; The animators went insane on making her movement both creepy and a bit silly, which fits her perfectly. But between the two, I actually prefer Manor Cyn. Why?

Because it's when she's at her strongest.

@/snugglesquiggles once posited that one of the big themes of murder drones is how connection can help us overcome trauma & manipulation, and with Cyn as our main antagonist, it makes a lot of sense. She's played with Uzi & the alphabet gang again and again, but whenever they work together they can make it out of her schemes.

But Uzi was never in the Manor.

Cyn at the manor is Cyn at her best. She's already got her hooks so dug in that even trying to work together (J and Tessa) it still fails. She's incredibly dangerous, especially as she can take over J V and N as she pleases.

But Flesha? she doesn't have any of that.

Her only "ally" left is J, and she holds no power over N Uzi or V. When she wasn't directly interfering, they were able to create a bond that could threaten her directly. And now she's all out of tricks.

I think it's really interesting that Flesha is a corpse while Manor Cyn is a maid. One evokes repulsion and disgust, the other is merely an afterthought. Something added to set a story in a specific time period.

And Manor Cyn is really good at looking weak.

Our first glance of her, in episode 2, doesn't seem like much. It's honestly a bit cute, her peeking out behind Tessa. But by the time episode 5 rolls around? Our first view of her is her ruthlessly killing a roachbot then drinking it's remains.

And yet, she seems harmless. She seems to struggle to get up on the counter, and her every expression seems childlike. She clings to N when they enter the gala, despite easily being able to kill or control everyone inside. Our first truly offputing moment is when she speaks back to Louisa, and she only gets creepier from there until she reveals herself before the party gests and has J shut the door.

But Flesha? While she's still in Tessa's suit, she puts up a great facade. But it's easy to tell something's up, especially with how we can't see anything through her helmet. And once the big reveal happens, she's out of tricks. She tries a few things to mess with V, N, and Uzi, but it's far weaker than anything we've seen before. Uzi takes exactly one hit during the final battle, and now Cyn's stuck in her tail. Every successful attack is accompanied by a distraction, unlike the sheer power she showed off at the gala.

TLDR Manor Cyn > Flesha

[benetnvsch]

Blocking ppl both makes me feel safer and yet skyrockets my paranoia

[bunnihearted]

being too weird and unlikable and off putting and always being shunned and turned into an outcast everywhere i go and not having felt the connection and healing friendship has on you for so many years has really done a number on me

[scionshtola]

i am not really a zenos enjoyer in the sense i think most ppl think of it but i do appreciate what his role does for cori. like i do think it’s neat he looked at them and saw their power and then made up everything about their personality in order to see connection. it’s cool to me that cori gets to be like no, he’s wrong about me. that cori gets to have all this power and still be kind, still not be bloodthirsty in any way, still not want to engage with him. idk i just think it adds a lot!

[giantkillerjack]

Uh-oh! You are like, SOOO awkward!!

You're so awkward that it is occasionally mildly uncomfortable for people!

You're so awkward that sometimes people are confused by you and then there are awkward silences!

You're so awkward ...... that ultimately no one is harmed!!

Oh damn!!! What a vile crime you have committed! What an unforgivable thing it is to make a fellow human briefly confused!

Why, if *I* were ever briefly confused and kind of uncomfortable as a result, I'd be devastated.... by the absolute net zero change in my happiness and health! - From which I might never recover!! Yes indeed! No punishment can ever be enough for you!!

So you better absolutely hate yourself for it.

Better be SO MEAN to yourself about every single missed social cue so you don't forget your horrible crime! Meaner than you'd ever dream of being to someone else for the same thing! This is YOUR responsibility!

You need to show the world that you KNOW you are bad by punishing yourself constantly! After all, think of all the people who BENEFIT from you punishing yourself! - No, really! Think about it! Think about who benefits from your pain.

Think of alllllll the definitely-good people that your definitely-necessary self-torment definitely helps! I mean, you can't just cut off their definitely-life-sustaining supply of your suffering, right?? Sure, everyone else has a breaking point, but you're probably the only person in human history who doesn't, right? Best not to question it probably. Sure, it's a symptom that billions of people with trauma have had, but who knows? You could be a one-in-seven-billion exception. Anything's possible!

Instead, better just accept that idea that bullies carry like guns in holsters - the idea that people who have trouble with social cues deserve to suffer. Better carry on the burden they placed on you until you drop. Aid the cause of the callous by enforcing shame and suffering upon yourself extra hard; try your best to do their work for them. They're very busy.

Better not recognize that you need patience and kindness to heal from your trauma. Better not find out that it was trauma rather than personal weakness filling your head with self-hating thoughts. Better not find out it wasn't your fault.

Better not find out that awkwardness is not inherently harmful or unkind, and, in fact, the people who act like it is *are the ones enacting harm and being cruel.*

Better not get righteously angry when you realize just how much unnecessary damage this has done to you. After all, if you get mad, you might realize you deserve better. You might even feel brave enough to DEMAND better! You might build boundaries that keep you safe! You might make other people think they deserve to feel safe too! And we obviously can't be having that, so...

Better not show yourself even a little kindness a little bit at a time.

Better not make a habit out of it after all that practice.

Better not get confident.

Especially if you can't first wipe out every trace of awkward. (And you probably never will. Because people who experience absolute social certainty at all times tend to be insufferable assholes that enforce the status quo. And you just don't have the stock portfolio for that.)

Better not be confident and awkward because then you might confuse and delight people

- you might accidentally end up making other people feel less shame for their social difficulties

- you might make isolated, traumatized, and shy people feel like they deserve to be included in social situations

- you might even make them feel they can be themselves around you

- you might start loving the effect you have on a room

- you might enjoy conversations more

- you might forgive yourself and bounce back from shame more easily and frequently

- you might come to enjoy some of those moments of harmless confusion you cause because NOBODY expects the Confident Awkward, and that can genuinely be an advantage in social situations

- you might stop apologizing so much.

- you might find that socializing is like a video game: it requires practice but also a safe space for it to be fun and positive.

Or if you can't become assertive and confident, better not remain awkward and shy and quiet, and then love and forgive yourself anyway!

Why, it would be carnage!!

In either scenario, you run the risk of finding out that it's not your fault that safe spaces full of kind people can be really hard to find, create, and nurture. You could end up building a skillset that helps you do those things if you're not careful!

If you start giving yourself even the tiniest amount of grace at a time, you will find that you've accessed a gateway drug with extreme long-term side effects:

- You might realize that it was never your fault that it took so long to like yourself.

- You might realize that you were always worth talking to, even when you didn't like yourself and communication felt impossibly difficult.

- You might realize that you'll still be worth talking to even if communication becomes harder as you age and/or experience disability.

- You might come to know that you deserve to be heard even on bad days when words come slow and blurry.

You might discover that you were always deserving of kindness, first and foremost from yourself.

So. As you can see, it's FAR too much of a risk to start granting your awkward self free pardons for your many heinous and harmless crimes. Better to just leave it there.

[shopcat]

this might sound a bit dumb and out of no where but hmmm. how do i say this... there are a lot of posts and a general consensus about quote unquote media literacy on tumblr and how we feel about it, as well as the things that go hand in hand with all that (discussion of mischaracterisation, symbolism, analysis, etc) and i think people (generally) need to be more open about their thoughts or findings and less i don't know... harsh isn't the word but like, just less assumptive that people are inherently out to be willfully ignorant when it comes to dissecting media thematically or discussing characterisation & the narrative, esp things where the outside factor of the consumer/creator changes things drastically if you do or do not know or experience something (and therefore would have no reason to be like, somehow maliciously interpreting something). i guess?

like i get it and i absolutely understand and also hate when people seem to go out of their way to say all the wrong things and stubbornly cling onto things that are WRONG, and confronting someone's opinion and it being SO wrong that you can comfortably think of a rebuttal is ultimately very satisfying and scratches a certain itch and can lead to a lot of thoughtful discussion despite being essentially a big "get a look at THIS guy". but i do think there is a vast difference between like, a) someone masquerading behind being knowing buzzwords and being able to say the right words in the right order, b) someone who isn't familiar with certain concepts and DOESN'T know the right words to say but is happily open to learning, and c) someone using the guise of talking about "media literacy" to be ignorant, bigoted or willfully misinterpreting something in a biased way who refuses to concede if confronted or goes out of their way to pick arguments. whilst the first two aren't malicious, both could turn out to be, just like the last category tends to be rejects of the first two who dug their heels in about it.

whilst there is a DIFFERENCE if someone was being say bigoted and prejudiced with hateful intent, not being "media literate" is not actually a moral failing as much as it is made out to be in moments of sweeping generalisation, and i think punishing people for not knowing how to hold thoughtful discussion is obviously cruel and dumb and unnecessarily othering. you don't want people to learn things out of a sense of shame or guilt. i know it's not the INTENT, and i don't like, interpret even 99% of discussion about this whole thing that way, but that doesn't change that discussing people very broadly who just Don't Know something is always going to leave the 1% of a LOT of harshness thrown against someone who doesn't deserve that. even if they're the stupidest twitterina known to man or something.

media literacy itself is not inherent and it is HARD, as much as people try to pretend it isn't. personally i am someone who has always and probably always WILL struggle to understand complex themes and often do need someone else to guide me towards thinking a certain way, thinking in these ways don't come naturally to me as much as i try my best to and i often think the "wrong" thing as my natural conclusion. and every Damn time that happens i see someone going "if you didn't realise this you're a fucking idiot" like woah man 😭 calm down. i dunno i feel like people just forget that this stuff is something you have to train like a muscle, esp things like vocabulary or a more complex academic way of speaking, and to some of us that is always going to be inherently inaccessible or it's going to take twice as long for us to grasp, for whatever reason. i just wish people were more fair is all.

[dandyshucks]

part of me wants to (re)start up the indigenous selfship tag bc it seems to have died last year but also i do not feel like the right person to do that bc I'm still working to reconnect w my culture properly. also i missed saying anything about indigenous history month last month and augh I wish I'd been around for it properly to actually make art for it ;-; maybe I'll make some late art.... share some cultural things I've learned over the past couple years... draw Wardell with a sash and ribbon shirt perhaps,,,

[aropride]

hello i sent the ask like an hour ago about being the guy bullied for having tiddies and i feel like i should say a couple things to clarify.

It should absolutely be feminism 101 that the patriarchy hurts everyone, thats the point i was trying to make in sharing

At the time the bullying happened I identified as cis. This is to say that being a cis guy doesnt shield you from this bullshit, people will still cup your chest and announce a cup size to humiliate you

no yeah ur good!! it's so insane how like. the patriarchy + beauty standards + Everything like Inherently affect cis men and men in general negatively and yet ppl will still say it only affects women like ..idk the lack of like. nuance & understanding is so wild 2 me !!

[fiendishartist2]

guys what if i want to make my own apollo justice game.

[theygender]

Mine and my girlfriend's special interests are so funny to me bc I'm just like "hi I'm autistic and my special interest is dinosaurs uwu" and then you ask what her special interests are and it's like

The wreck of the Titanic

The Russian Revolution

The assassination of JFK

Unsolved murder cases from the 1800s

Stage magic

[vaugarde]

god i really hope the concordia and anthea stuff is as good as i remember it being bc ngl the plasma arc has really been lacking

[milo-is-rambling]

My mom was just like ahhh Im anxious to go out of my comfort zone and I was like you’re good how is this out of your comfort zone you’ve done this before and she was like why do you always judge my feelings and say I’m not allowed to feel that way I should feel some other way and I’m sitting here like :| as if she hasn’t done that to my my entire life and as if I didn’t mean you’ve done this before as a you got this sentiment not get over urself

[scripted-notions]

parent: shoves soap in my whole mouth for "talking back"*

parent: why can't u brush ur teeth n don't like things in ur mouth

*I to this day as a whole ass adult have no understanding of what the fuck I was ever punished for when I was punished for talking back. that's code for ur autistic and I don't understand you but that makes me feel bad so ur in trouble. btw this will forever impact ur ability to hold conversations :)

[daisybell-on-a-carousel]

Batman wishes he could Spider-Man

[hauntingblue]

Just got reminded that vivi says nami predicts the weather with her body and wouldn't that be a kind of observation haki or am I reaching

[trans-leek-cookie]

Ppl who would get called "aphobes" by Tumblr: annoying but fine

Ppl who try to be inclusive but fuck up: genuinely the worst please go away