#backslide theory

[fleetinggabi]

I got recently thrust into knowing about twenty one pilots stuff and as such I seem to have Blessed Unbiased Hot takes (or as I'd like to call them, good opinions), so I have a theory about the Saturday line in Backslide;

So the already established readings are two: A meta commentary on the fan response to the album as a whole and Saturday specifically (the boring reading, Tyler don't come across to me as someone ashamed of his work, plus Saturday fucks) or an actual opinion that Clancy holds in universe due to being forced by Dema to write it.

What I suggest is kind of a bit of both! The callbacks to Blurryface on this video, aka the guy who "cares what you think", as well as the theme of trying to get better and evolve past his mistakes are central to Backslide right? And the whole lore is to a certain degree an abstraction of this depression and the tension within him, the pull to relapse into an insecure person who isnt proud of their work.

So it's a commentary on the refusal to make music which appeals to that expectation (Dema) while fighting back at the actual real expectations that clashed with the release of Saturday without stepping out of the fictional narrative, thus keeping the integrity of his work.

Anyways it's kinda silly and I've written a lot so may be hard to get what I mean but point being Tyler is aware of the Saturday backlash, stands for and defends why it was written, reivindicates it in this song and keeps everything in lore to boot because they're cool 🙏🤓☝️🌄

[moxiepower2]

this is part of theory I’m working on, but I thought it deserved its own post

A Quick Analysis of Montresor’s Spectre form:

I think Montresor’s spectre is a demon wrapped in chains because while demons lure people into damnation-

They in the end, are also prisoners of Hell (Conservatism and the oppressive force of Patriarchal Society)

There are the remnants of angel wings on Montresor’s dybuk form. I think this represents the “weaker” more vulnerable side of himself that he tried to destroy. The part of himself that dared to be anything other than what he is now.

The wings are burnt almost as if Monty’s own ‘fire and brimstone’ powers razed them down. I think this symbolizes how Montresor’s ideology is self-destructive. His constant need to not be see as “weak” and to be “in control” causes him to constantly start fights and push himself beyond his actual limits-

And prevents him from forming real relationships due to fear of vulnerability

Even in literal purgatory, Montresor refuses to leave the “Hell” he’s created for himself. Because even though it hurts him, it’s a familiar and expected pain. Because it’s all pain he brought on himself. Because being vulnerable and actually opening up to someone and instead of being an asshole hurting others would be way scarier and beyond control

(Okay, now that I’ve gotten that off my brain- back to writing my main theory)

[mysadblacksoul]

Backslide - 3/13 of the Clancy album

Grab a coffee and let's start this madness

MV

Tyler is wearing the same clothes that he wore in Overcompensate MV to I would assume that this MV takes place right after

Let's break down the signs first

We see the return of Ned Bayou as well as FPA, now standing for Food Petrol Etc.

You can buy 9 buns for $21, love the symbolism

There is a Jim sign omg. Baby is having his own bubblegum business

Of course the Bishops sign with 9 lines marked on it

I could've sworn that the black sign says "Dema Vapes", but looking closely I believe it's "Velma Vapes" lol

What is more, the cones (?) are yellow and I'm pretty sure that the fact that there are 5 of them is not an accident

They sold him bread that went bad lol. Nah for sure it's not the case since he gives the same bread to a child

But I believe that the scene and the lyrics are closely tied with Stressed Out

Now the next scene is interesting

I think that the bad weather is a simple metaphor for feelings of anxiety or fear

We can see that Tyler was contemplating then he was suddenly pulled from his thoughts

This is when the scene changes to normal, right? Exactly on the line It's over my head

Then we move to the scene with the kid

And I really believe that this little lad is personification of Ned

Like he has the same boba eyes lol

No but for real, this is parallel to Chlorine - kid is giving Tyler a cup just like Tyler gave to Ned. Yet he accepts it and drinks whatever is inside and Ned just shudders

Another interesting thing, that could make my point more valid is that the kid literally asks Is that a stain? You should change / Are you doin' good? / Did you solve all of your problems? like he knows Tyler very well and is in a way looking out for him

It's like he's keeping Ned by him - okat I'll stop

It might be a stretch, but the N kinda looks like a mirrored band symbol, do you also see it?

If 0.75c is equivalent to the cost of one bun than Tyler is being ripped off since he paid $21 for the pack instead of $6.75 lmao

Something is really wrong with those buns lmao

Then the mood changes again, but this time is even worse. Like his mental health is declining even more and even faster

The bread is wet, the day is ruined, thanks Mr. Joseph

You killed it Josh, love your creative mind

*funny music stops*

Now let's talk about the way how the MV is looping itself

I would say that it is a demonstration of the twisted circle that is life

Maybe it's a very basic analysis but I think of all the complicated lore-oriented MVs this one is uncomplicated

What is shown here is how our psyche can play tricks on us and how we can complicate a rather simple situation ourselves

If Tyler hadn't had dark thoughts then nothing would have happened to the bread, so he would have just gone and given it to Josh

This shows how our psyche itself can abolish the situation in which we find ourselves

Looping, on the other hand, shows that as long as we don't do anything about it ourselves, we will be stuck in this fishbowl (see what I did there?)

Maybe it's one big AD to check your mental health and a sign to try to get better

Lyrics!

Rat race, place to place, adding weight / Tendencies on repeat, innit? - rat race for sure happened in Dema, and repeat is literaly the loop, innit meand that Clancy is canonicaly British

Benefit from a shoe with no lace - shoe with no lace would make you fall back on the behaviour that you are running from

Take the seat with the crease in it - seat of someone who already tried to change their life, or even who had the same dreams and hopes for better future like Clancy

This could be parallel to When I leave, don’t save my seat/ I’ll be back when it’s all complete from Chlorine

I don't care, you control me / Leading me anywhere - well, all I should say is Dema don't control me and we all know the rest of the story

I don't wanna backslide to where I've started from - he doesn't wanna go back to his back habits as well as doesn't wanna go back to his life before he tried to escape

There's no chance I will shake this again - if he falls back one more time that will be the end of him. His psyche won't take it anymore and his plans will be buried

'Cause I feel the pull, water's over my head - this is parallel to Fall Away And I, I can feel the pull begin. But it also gives me the parallel to Holding On To You MV, the scene with the rope

Strength enough for one more time - like I said, this would be the last attempt to change everything

Reach my hand above the tide - it could indicate that his physical strength is also wearing out

I'll take anything you have / If you could throw me a line - again with the line. But it also can mean that he can endure anything now, he just needs a little helping hand

I should've loved you better - this line can be directed both to himself but also to the person who extends his hand to help. He might not have appreciated both parts before and now regrets it

Do you think that now's the time / You should let go? - This line is like both a request and an apology. As if he wants to say “I'm sorry I treated you badly before but please don't leave me when I need help”

Bad place, on a hundred-dollar bass - this line is also giving me Stressed Out. You can imagine the cheap bass being transported on the bicycle right?

Kinda wishin' that I never did "Saturday" - I think that he doesn't mean the MV irl lol, but the regret of taking part in Bishops' manipulation altogether

Is that a stain? You should change - a play with mentioning Saturday and the lirycs She said that I should change my clothes

Are you doin' good? / Did you solve all of your problems? - like I said before I believe that this is Ned looking out for Clancy, wishing him well

Thanks for asking, in a way, but / Accidentally uncovered a new one yesterday - safe to say that he is not doing better lol

What happened to what I brushed under the rug? - what happened to how well he used to be able to hide his problems and true feelings

I used to be the champion of a world you can't see / Now I'm drowning in logistics - if viewed as a fact that he created this world it now looks like he wants to regain all control over it. Logistics is to take care of the management of planning. And once again we see the mention of drowning

The bridge is acting as an externalization of his myhs and fears that even if he is outside the Dema, the Bishops will still have control over him

The entire song is about both regaining conrol over the world of Dema but also regaining control over himself, his psyche.

The main theme is about not going back to old habits.

The most important thing here is progress and pushing forward.

Because one wrong move can make all the work in vain and we will sink to the very bottom.

Safe to say that I liked it haha

[blurryface-never-left]

So... do we have any theory abt the old man that was in front of the convenient store in backslide, or was he just there for funsies? His constant staring at Tyler was a lil sus

[lucabyte]

obligatory ramble about postcanon loop ask

also your art is amazing

Hiiiiiiiii :D thank you :)!!

and thank you for the excuse to post the. just absolute wall of text that i truncated down to form the tags of that post. (i did,,, hit the tag limit. i forgot tumblr had one of those...) so let me just paste that and tidy it up a bit...

I am putting this under a readmore because it's a bit long. but:

This is like. The General Context for all* of my postcanon doodles? (Except AUs obviously) Like this is the base idea I've been drawing them all in. So, feel free to backread with this in mind. I've basically had this 'postcanon' timeline set in my brain since finishing the game...

My general thoughts are that I like the idea of Loop (even if through dubiously ethical means) being able to slowly reintegrate with the party as a whole new person, because they are, in fact, their own person.

It's a muddle of thematic threads im pulling on and "wouldn't it be fucked up if", but. (at its core, it's powered by the fact that like, while narratively isat's theme of 'the only person who can truly take the first step to help you is yourself'. (wrt: loop helping the party help siffrin in act 5) which i LOVE AND IS GREAT NARRATIVELY…. would be super fucked up irl to learn that your friend 'learned as a lesson' while you stood by kinda uselessly. I know i'd be upset about it. but thats mostly background here. doesn't really come up. at least not until loop has to explain who they are and the party realises they had to fall back on literally themselves again for help, but i digress,)

The real core concept is: Occam's razor. It is like, inherently, a buckwild thing to accuse a person of being somehow a clone or copy of your friend. Even if they start vaguely alluding to a backstory it's far more likely they were some other person before all that. (I still think Odile has that theory in the back pocket but she's rational enough to know it's a really long shot without a solid explanation. and i think Loop deep down knows this, and would, if cornered into confessing, turn the situation around to go J'ACCUSE and make HER explain it instead. Ever longer dodging being direct with their emotions...)

And the party are nice! And if someone has changed and wants to keep stuff secret it's kind of not their business? (Though it's hard not to speculate… see: the main joke of the doodles) And they seem important to Siffrin so they just try to accept them abrasive quirks and all. And eventually the question of their prior identity just fades away since, well, they're Loop. Their friend Loop.

but yeah. personal headcanon is that a few months/weeks after picking up and getting aquainted with Nille** (since that was presumably the IMMEDIATE TASK postgame), Loop reappears (either after a literal period of nonexistance, or just spending a few months wandering the french countryside alone being attacked by wild dogs). Since Siffrin has had a while to be therapised by the party they're doing mostly okay, but Loop showing up and still being agitated/aggressive pulls them both into a bit of a backslide behaviourally and puts the party on the back foot again.

Hooowever, I do think that due to no longer being literally stewing in the worst pressure cooker of all time together, the two do mostly actually sort themselves out with productive conversation. (Via a cycle of: genuinely distressing argument -> weeeird lovebombing -> ok we're good -> repeat, that gets less intense over time)

Thus, allowing the party to just. Integrate loop as a new person. They and Siffrin shuffle into different ecological niches (Loop taking over stuff Siffrin is now too squeamish for, etc (see: hunting, mostly)), and while it's not exactly what Loop wanted they generally get that beggars can't be choosers and it's a pretty good deal. And the rest of the party does straight up just like them as a friend, especially when Loop quits trying to actively antagonise them after a few weeks of being around them, since they just can't keep up being mean to people they like forever.

As for how I think the truth eventually drags itself out. This is where I invoke The Isabeau Torment Nexus™. So its gonna get shippy here for a bit hold on.

Which is, I think giving them time before Loop reappears long enough that Siffrin and Iseabeau actually manage to become established, Isabeau has to be the one to nudge the pair of them and go. "Hey. You know we're in Vaugarde right. I'm okay with polyamory if we all communicate." Before Loop and Siffrin actually even acknowledge that whatever the fuck they have going on kinda looks a lot like a relationship of some kind. (or have already been agonising about that via fighting and arguing, depending) (Obviously this comes after Isa "Emotionally intelligent enough to keep a lid on the jealousy" Beau has managed to use that big brain of his to Not just go Scream somewhere on the daily because oh godddd they keep talking like theyre suicide-baiting each other jesus chriiist. is it overstepping his boundaries to bring that up?? god)

This, taking a bunch of the tension out of Loop and Isabeau's relationship (Since I imagine Loop is a. being weird for the obvious reasons and b. feeling kinda guilty about 'getting in the way of' Siffrin and Iseabeau), allows them to actually get close in a normal friend way. (I think an interesting turning point could be Isabeau actually taking Loop's side in an argument vs Siffrin, which would absolutely break Loop's brain. Especially if it's an argument that matters. Like what do you mean he isn't just going to play favourites. What?)

Then Isabeau, just actually open minded and charmed by Loop (and maybe even somewhat at Siffrin's suggestion?) tries to close the final open side on the polyamory triangle here and that's the final straw for Loop on "This lie by omission is too unethical to keep up, this is just actually sick and wrong. I can't do this while he doesn't know who I am." Though. Obviously it probably goes. Very poorly with emotions high like that. And the added element of several months of deceit. Getting dark here for a second but that dagger is going MISSING and so are THEY for a hot minute.

Then yaaay everything works out in the end 👍 yippieee!! all it took was maybe a lot of harrowed recontextualisation of all the weird shit your new friend said and did when it turns out they're your old friend. It's fine.

But yeah. this is basically the context all of my postcanon doodles have existed within? And those exist to give other people something to chew on. So this does too.

I suppose TL;DR: Imagine if sloopis almost fucking happens before isabeau knows who loop is. can you fucking imagine. can you imagine having to navigate that. nightmare.

*Yes this includes the implied cannibalism comic. Uhh. Comes part and parcel with headcanoning that Loop went way off the deep end similar to A5 Sif But Maybe Worse before giving in. Add weepy half-asleep confessions to murder wherever you see fit in your mind palace. 👍👍👍

**Re: Nille footnote. I don't have anywhere to put this besides here! I have some thoughts on Loop and Nille having an odd dynamic. I don't imagine Nille to be super gung-ho on trusting a bunch of adults (even if they are majority around her age) given their implied backstory. It's probably a big shock to the system, especially since Bambouche is a good couple hundred Kilometers up north from Dormont and these guys don't seem to have trains. She would've been unfrozen and without Bonnie for some time....

Which is to say: I think she's suspicious of them. I think she may be looking for excuses to distance herself, keep Bonnie safe. SO.... A new guy showing up? And antagonising the party? What do they know that I don't...? I should find out.

And since... Loop didn't ever know Nille, they have no ammunition or real reason to be cruel. Plus, if they're trying to stay on Bonnie's good side (SINCE... if Bonnie thought Loop was cringe they may as well kill themselves. In their mind.) they SUPER have no reason to antagonise Nille.

Mostly, they might be able to open up to each other easier than they can the rest of the party?

I feel like this resolves with Loop feeling compelled to apologise for what they and Siffrin let happen to Bonnie, though... Hmm... Depends on how you interpret Nille that they'd be glad nobody else had been told about that yet, or furious it had been secret this long. I lean toward the former.

[ninyard]

a thought that's been spinning around in my head is what if jeremy did relapse? like what could drive him to that and how he would move forward considering the whole self hatred of "i'd rather die than be that person again" and shame in asking for help bc "ill never forgive you if you backslide"

OKAY so i’ve been sitting on this just thinking about it for a few days and although it’s not a theory that i believe would/will happen, it’s one of the few ideas i can come up with as to what could cause him to backslide

(i do believe him when he says he won’t. but god, for my own selfish reasons, do i want to see him crash out monumentally)

SO

Jeremy’s mom/stepdad stop allowing him to stay over at Laila/Jean’s place because of what happened to Bryson, how dangerous they think it could be, and how dangerous they think Jean is. Everything that has happened has made their control over Jeremy a thousand times worse. It’s torture for him, his final year, commuting to and from the university every single day for practices and that’s it; no parties, no free time, just practice, and classes, and then home. He’s forced into isolation, almost, but he still talks to the guys on video calls, and lies about having practices that don’t exist just so he can see them. But it’s few and far between. For him, mentally, it takes a huge toll. He hasn’t felt depression like this in a long time, if ever, really. It’s not good - He’s stuck with Bryson far more often that he’d like, and the only solace is those few hours a day where he gets to relax with Jean, Cat, Laila, and the few trojans he gets a chance to see outside of practice.

The guys notice this heaviness in him; Laila in particular gets worried to a point where she shows up at his house a handful of times just to make sure he’s okay, but the Wilshire household is a hostile place for her to be, and Jeremy hates her being around them if it at all can be avoided. Even the diplomats daughter excuse fails Mathilde and Warren: Jeremy has to focus on his LSATs, and he can’t afford outside distractions stealing his attention.

Jeremy pushes sitting the exam further out, and further out. He comes up with all the excuses he possibly can until he’s exhausted every single one, and with Bryson’s threats, he fails the first exam he sits. and it makes everything so much worse.

His phone is taken away from him at night, he’s not allowed to go for runs when he’s unaccompanied or without sharing his location the entire time. Everything the same as it’s been, but amplified, so much more suffocating than what’s healthy.

While all this is going on, the Trojans are doing well. They make it through to the Spring championships as expected, and one night Mathilde allows him to stay at Jean’s place, with the condition that he’s home by 10am the next morning. Its supposed to be a night of relief, a well deserved day off, but he cries in his friends arms and tells them that his family is destroying his life, and he doesn’t know why, and he doesn’t know what to do. Laila only looks at him with mild dissatisfaction as he spends most of the night sitting on the balcony, or out the front of the building, with cigarette after cigarette between his lips. They try to come up with a million ways to get him out of there but he knows none of them will work - he’s trapped, and there’s really nothing he can do.

Bryson corners Jeremy again, when he learns that he’s finally taking a resit exam, and tells him he has to fail this one too. Jeremy almost accepts the consequences of not doing what he says, that some planted coke or pills would be far less of a punishment than living in this prison is, but he takes the test, and he fails. It’s only half intentional, too. His mental health is in the gutter, because he’s a social butterfly, and he needs people around him to feel like himself. how can he focus on studying when he’s spending most of his days bored and resisting the temptation of the escape promised to him all those years ago?

The Trojans qualify for the semi finals, and then they qualify for the finals. It’s the Trojans V Penn State, or by another miracle, it’s the Foxes again. The date has been set. It’s a Friday, the same time of year that it usually is. It’s hard to enjoy the well earned chance at victory when he’s spent most of the year just trying to survive that big house with all its empty rooms and ghosts that walk the halls.

Warren has had enough of his failures, of course he has, the silly achievements of college sports irrelevant on his tall ladder of expectation. Jeremy spends a full night being berated, and belittled, called every name under the sun, full of vitriol and hatred for the disappointment of a son who refused the name of success and landed himself in such a position. Twice? He’d slammed Jeremy’s poor results on the table in front of him. Are you stupid, or do you faggots just get off on being embarrassments?

That night he texts his old dealer from high school, but when the response dings into his inbox, Jeremy deletes the message. He can’t. He thinks about Noah, and he thinks about everything riding on his sobriety. He can’t. He can’t do it.

But he wants to, so badly, and after that, he spends every waking second trying to prevent himself from asking again.

A morning or two later, Mathilde neatly sticks a sticky note to the top of the LSAT guides Jeremy has been pretending to study.

“What is that?” he asks, a date and time scribbled in her fancy scrawl across the green paper.

“It’s your exam, because you insist on avoiding it.” She says, turning around to do something else, like this was unimportant and meaningless to her. “I took the liberty of booking it for you. You aren’t going to fail this one.”

Jeremy picks up the piece of paper and stares at it. “I can’t do that date.”

“That’s too bad,” She almost laughs, sickly sweet. “It’s the only one they had this side of the month.”

“No, mom, I can’t do this date.” Jeremy’s head is in his hands already. This can’t be happening, and he doesn’t have the energy to argue anymore. “We’re flying out to Pennsylvania the night before. We play that evening. It’s the finals.”

She shrugs like that meant nothing to her, and Jeremy isn’t stupid enough to be surprised.

“Well,” She puts a hand on his head and endearingly rubs a thumb over his forehead. “You should have thought about that before failing the other two, Jeremy.”

He calls Cat as soon as he manages to pull his head out of the clouds of disbelief. It’s not long before the other two are on the other end of the line begging Jeremy to just leave, and they’ll figure it out later.

But he thinks of his life, that rides on a good relationship with the Wilshire empire, his reputation, and the Wilshire’s ability to ruin any potential recruitments he might have dreamt about in the future. One leaked document and every pro team in the country will know about Jeremy’s past, and his multiple run ins with the law. He thinks of his documents hidden under floorboards he’ll never find or safety deposit boxes he’ll never have access to. For a moment he wishes David Wymack had spent his time coaching a pro team, so maybe then he’d have a chance. He spends all his time agonising, trying to find a way, but everything in his life feels like it’s falling apart. He’s drinking so much coffee that he feels like his heart is going to burst. He’s barely even able to focus on playing anymore. He’s just about failing ceramics, for gods sake, and he’s not sure about most other classes - he has barely attended more than a lecture or two in weeks.

He spends hours, days, begging his mom to understand that this can’t be negotiable, it can’t be. He can’t let the team down at this point. Even Rhemann attempts to talk Mathilde down from her high pedestal, but Warren’s strong hand on her shoulder stops her from backing down. Jeremy’s dad stops answering his calls, not interested in being interrupted in the middle of the night to listen to the son he never cared about’s woes.

So the night before the championship finals comes, and Jeremy texts his teammates to have a safe flight, and he calls his dealer. They can’t meet anywhere suspicious, so he asks him to join him on the route he’s forced to run on. He knows his mom watches his every move when he leaves the house for even a second these days - he can’t stay still for too long either.

It’s not long later before he’s running home, with too much cocaine in his pocket, too many tears running down his face at what a disappointment he’d become. Noah would hate him for this; To be let down again, a promise broken, again, looking down from heaven at enough white powder to trigger a heart attack beforeJeremy even gets the chance to sit the exam.

He doesn’t take any of it that night; he knows he can’t fail again. The temptation is incredible, though, and it’s a very difficult thing to resist. He settles for some adderall he stole from Bryson’s room, and crams as much as his frazzled mind can take it.

He cries as much as he studies, every now and again just looking at the clear baggie that he hid in his wallet, heart racing every time he remembers that rush, that feeling.

The exam goes about as well as he expected, but he manages to find an hour somewhere afterwards before he’s expected to be home. he turns his phone and location off, and finds the nearest booty call to him in his contact list.

The coke goes down much easier than he was expecting it to, as if being out of practice would have made it different, but by the time his pupils are tiny and his heart is pumping, he’s at the front door of a bad idea. He doesn’t even feel able to question himself, unable to spend a half a second in his body to remember how much he’s destroying his life all over again, in that moment, because his brain and body are in seperate places. He doesn’t remember driving home, if his hookup kinda drove his car and got a cab back, or if he’d drove high out of his mind for the tedious 45 minutes that it takes. He hoped it was the former, but knew it was the latter. He just hoped he hadn’t caused an accident somewhere on the way.

His mom doesn’t stop him to ask how it went before he’s shutting his bedroom door behind him. He has a few hours to kill before the game, so he spends his time wisely between putting his nose in the bag, or smoking out of his bedroom window like a teenager afraid to be caught. By the time the game starts his paranoia has set in, an old and unwelcoming friend, and he hides his cigarettes deep in his closet for fear the tabloids would leak a photo of him smoking 10 cigarettes in an hour.

He cries when Jean takes to the court. He almost snaps his phone in half when Cat gets injured. When Derrick steps back from a fight, when Cody calls a timeout for an injury, all he feels is this hollow, empty pit in his stomach. When the Trojans lose, he can’t keep it in, and he feels his world start to crumble.

He wonders if this is how Noah felt before he made that decision to jump. He wonders if he’s high enough off the ground for it to work.

Laila calls him an hour or two later, and her face drops at the sight of Jeremy. When she asks him to hold the phone up to his eyes he smiles, an empty smile, obliging before she starts to cry. She hangs up, not out of anger, or rage at his decision to relapse, but sheer heartbreak at seeing him in such a state, alone, alone, alone, not able to do a single thing to stop it.

Cat calls him back minutes later, and he doesn’t feel heartened by how her voice cracks when she asks him what he’s taken. He’s angry, he thinks, a ball in his stomach and a voice in his head saying, “how dare they make this about them?”

She tells him to call his sponsor. She begs him to think this through. She knows she lost him when he’s half lucid and forgets he’s on a video call, dipping his head down to his bedside locker to snort a line he’d lay out earlier.

There’s an ending here, somewhere, a happy one, maybe, a complete one more likely. He said it himself; he can’t live with himself if he gets high again. He’d rather die than feel like that again. So maybe that’s just how it goes.

[armageddidnt]

How has my ability to cope with the finale only gotten WORSE over time like it’s been 40 days and I am no closer to reaching even a semblance of normal life again I am spending even more time on tumblr spiraling in good omens theories than I did back in July it consumes my every waking thought and I can barely focus on Real Life because I’m just like How Can It Have Ended Like This anyone else relate or am I just backsliding even deeper into the Good Omens Pit of Depression

[ettengiv]

Today's concerts shirt

The HDS theme continues. It’s the answer to the bunny.

To me it looks like a doberman inside smth. It makes me think of either Nico or Blurryface being inside Clancy.

It could be Nico since in this case a dog represents death which Nico is. And a german dog for a german concert is also kinda funny

But it also could be blurryface, clancy's defense mechanism, since a doberman is very protective

————————————————————————

Then this image flashes in The Judge which is Clancy during backslide in Hamburg's concert

He clearly looks terrified of smth, he is covering his ears to not hear possibly Nico's words

The "Clancy, Never (…) Never" also gives kinda the impression of Clancy never existed which reminds me of Ode to sleep's line: " They told me I was gone - They told me I was gone" and the "they" here refers to the demons inside his head which is either Blurryface or Nico or both. Their words are louder than Torchie's

————————————————————————-

Another thing that happened during Berlin's concert is Tyler saying smth liked: What if I just have forgotten everything?

Why would he say that? I dont think its a random thing or coincidence.

I think it aligns with my theory that Clancy forgets while drowning in darkness, bc he is so afraid he is running on instincts afraid of death (hence the bunny)

And blurryface is taking over bc it is a negative defense mechanism. Which explains the upper part of the bunny shirt from Hamburg's concert

And since blurryface is in control it controls dema the only way he knows: the way clancy grew up in there

Which is why Torchie repeatedly says that they have to do better

[fandom-susceptible]

So Harrow's In The Bird

So. I'm not here to argue with anybody. If anyone really dislikes this plotline, that's your prerogative, and if you want to use this post as a jumping off point to talk about it, that's your business. This is not a promise of interaction. This fandom has always been a comfort/safe space for me and I'm not changing that, but I did want to share some more . . . nuanced analysis of why I'm okay with this development.

The theory that Viren switched King Harrow's soul out with the bird has been a thing since 2018. I personally was one of the ones who really liked it, though I don't know if I ever bothered posting about it. The creators of the show claimed it wasn't true at SDCC 2019, but even if this was the plan, they sort of had to or it would have ruined their own plot twist. There was definitely something going on with Pip in the show, they made too much of a point of showing us the bird behaving oddly, so I don't think this was actually a last minute out of the blue choice. They've been genuinely planning this since the early seasons.

Now, part of the reason I was also okay with Harrow just being dead is that it does add to the impact of the story. Both old kings are dead, killed by each other's legacies, while their sons work together to bring about a new beginning. There's a certain symbolism in that.

However, Harrow's character is more than just the King of Katolis or Ezran's dad. He's also Callum's stepdad, which I think is more important for this particular plot line. Like Runaan, he had unfinished business. Not only did he leave behind both of his children, he never got the closure of having an openly stated father-son relationship with Callum. The same way Rayla still refers to Runaan and Ethari by name, Callum always called him King Harrow or Your Majesty, and Harrow never heard him say Dad instead.

I also don't think it's a coincidence that there were three Quasar diamonds, and Callum and Rayla only used one, with Claudia using the other. There's still a third out there that hasn't been used yet. Once again, I'm convinced they had this planned all along; it's not just a last minute hail mary to spare Runaan some sort of guilt or disgrace.

It's going to be messy when he comes back, if we get Arc 3, and I genuinely hope we do. It will be interesting to find out if he eventually agreed to Viren's plan or if Viren forced it on him knowing he could leave Harrow in the bird to watch and suffer as Viren usurped his sons and took control of Katolis. I genuinely look forward to the confrontation between Harrow and Runaan, Harrow facing down the man who killed him (also his son's father-in-law) and Runaan facing someone he killed (also his daughter's father-in-law).

The thing is, I really don't think Harrow being alive spares Runaan anything. He's a professional assassin and has been for over a decade (Rayla mentions he has 20 years more experience than she does, which may or may not include either of their training years). Harrow is not the first life he's taken, and having to face not just the outer consequences but actually look someone in the face and listen to them after killing them would be a mindfuck at best. Harrow being returned doesn't excuse what he did, and I really don't think Runaan will see it that way either. We see him struggling with guilt for almost killing Rayla, and his entire arc in season 7 was realizing how fucked up his worldview (which, admittedly, is highly driven by Moonshadow culture as a whole) is. One singular life being returned isn't going to backslide that entire mental breakdown, no matter how important that particular life is to everyone else. Runaan didn't have a personal tie to Harrow. It was just a job.

Now though, he does have a personal tie to Harrow, through their children, and I think that's going to play a role in how things develop in the next arc. I expected Callum and Rayla's romantic arc from the very first episode where they met, and I think this was all planned to fall into place this way.

So, Harrow kills the dragon king to avenge his wife, restarting a war that had somewhat cooled with time. His sons aren't involved with this decision, but they have to live with the aftermath.

Runaan kills Harrow to avenge the Dragon King, and brings Rayla in order to counter the shame of her parents' fleeing (which they later discover didn't happen, but while it's better culturally, it's not much better in the long run).

Harrow's sons and Runaan's daughter work together to rescue Zym. One of Harrow's sons carries the political plot by going home and taking the throne. The other continues with Rayla to return the dragon prince, and along the way, the two begin a romantic relationship.

Callum's father was killed by Rayla's. Rayla's father dies in Callum's father's dungeon.

Skipping forward, we discover that neither of their fathers were actually killed, but they were both cursed by Dark Magic. Importantly, they were both cursed by the same man, who was manipulating them both (Harrow personally, Runaan as part of a whole) in order to orchestrate his own ascension to the throne and an eventual war and attempted genocide.

They find out about Rayla's parents first, and Rayla looks at recovering them as a personal quest, but Callum looks at it as both personal and a way to undermine Viren's legacy. They only manage to obtain two Quasar diamonds, which means Rayla has to make choices about which parents to rescue, and this drives her personal arc of making peace with her abandonment issues (a plot which runs parallel to Claudia's abandonment issues) and cultural shame connected to Tiadrin and Lain. The father she recovers is the one who stayed with her growing up, and took her with him when he left for his duty.

He is also the one who is ultimately the most helpful as the plot develops. He doesn't run from the consequences of his assassination; Rayla's the one who breaks him out and urges him to go home despite his arrest, and he just doesn't argue with her (I have a whole other post about the confrontation between Ezran, Callum, and Rayla where I go into Runaan's response and why I think he behaved the way he did in season 7). And when greater forces are threatening the world, he doesn't hesitate to work with Callum. In the early seasons I was prepared for him to end up being as racist as Viren in the opposite direction, and I found myself pleasantly surprised by how he just treats Callum as another person.

I think Callum makes his peace with Runaan as a person due to his experiences with dark magic, actually. He understands being so driven by his need to protect someone that he'll do very dark things because he doesn't see an alternative. He's chosen to step beyond that, but I think he understands Runaan's worldview in a way that Ezran simply doesn't until he has the epiphany with Aaravos and the Nova Blade late in season 7. So he's able to look past it, especially since this is Rayla's father.

Then in the very end, we discover that Viren cursed Harrow too. So neither Callum nor Rayla's fathers are dead, but they were both cursed by the same man to be no better than dead and left that way. And Viren died before revealing it to anyone, so Runaan, the man who came to kill him, ends up also being the one whose story saves him.

So now, a killer from the previous generation, who contributed to the cycle of violence, has been returned not only to help end it but to save another and reverse a little bit of the damage he's done.

More specifically, Rayla and Callum both lost their adoptive fathers to Viren. Now, they will be the ones to rescue those adoptive fathers and finally get the closure of claiming them as such.

Plus, the impersonal angle of Harrow's assassination is now disrupted because there's a personal connection through their children now, which will further drive Runaan's cultural deconstruction and likely some mental dissonance for Harrow as well.

All in all, I hope they greenlight Arc 3, because I look forward to seeing how that develops Callum and Rayla's relationships with each other and their respective fathers, and how it changes Runaan and Harrow both as people. Runaan's development didn't really get the focus it deserved in season 7, which I really honestly think was because it was intended to take place over a longer period of time and the writers just didn't have it because Netflix refused to promise them seasons 8-10. So it'll be interesting to see how that goes once he and Harrow are both around to be having their midlife crises at the same time.

[csphire]

YES! I hate how much the romanced end relies on Lavellan just being ok with everything Solas has done. Including things he's done directly to her or to her friends. I've had fellow Solavellans coming at me because their Lavellan forgives him whole heartedly and it all feels like they're being completely dismissive of any desire for an option for the inquisitor to be hurt or angry. I feel like we can feel bad for Solas but acknowledge that most people would be hurt by his actions and Lavellan isn't cruel or disloyal if she draws a line or, heaven forbid, expresses an emotion that isn't immediate grace and forgiveness.

It's sad when some don't want to face the reality of what's being presented and choose to ignore that what Solas did to Varric was inexcusable. As a Solavellan fan, the whole of Veilguard feels icky to me because of this. One can perhaps overlook Solas killing Felassan because it happened while he was in his deep sleep and he did not understand the current state of the world yet or why Felassan refused to help him. I even had, at one point, a tinfoil hat theory that Solas was always a spirit and had taken over the body of Felassan at that moment instead of killing him. That it was another reason why he did not sleep with Lavellan was because the body he was in was his friend's which he would have to relinquish eventually. But I digress. It was wishful thinking. In Inquisition, we watch Solas potentially grow into a better person thanks to the Inquisitor only for him to backslide in the next game. In Veilguard Solas REPEATS his mistake, killing another friend only this time it's one of Lavellan's too. This should be alarming. Easily Solas had the upper hand in that final confrontation. Last time I checked stabbing someone is red flag behavior and it's messed up that the developers did not give Varric's death the full weight it deserved. Lavellan's seeming lack of mourning for her friend feels like it shoehorns her and us the player into him being not as close of a friend as we would all like to think he was. Plus it romanticizes the dangerous messages of "Our love will conquer all" or "Oh but he won't hurt me." I personally expected better from BioWare and killing off Varric for a cheap plot twist was an incredibly stupid and toxic idea.

[paragonrobits]

so apparently there's Megatron sympathizing discourse in Transformers One (which unfortunately happens every time he's given a tiny bit of nuance instead of acting like Cobra Commander spent 50 years doing nothing but Super Coke), and its the same bizarre trend of people ascribing leftist and revolutionary principles to a character whose personal slogan is 'PEACE THROUGH TYRANNY'

and its especially annoying in TF One because in terms of recent Transformers adaptations, it is by far one of the least appropriate for this. You're seeing a lot of people stretch themselves into accordians trying to ascribe morals to Megatron that he does not give a damn about

evidently there's people going 'Optimus Prime is a fascist dictator' because ???

look. The entire movie has Orion Pax/Optimus Prime talking with wide eyed ideals about FREEDOM, PERSONAL AUTONOMY and MAKING YOUR OWN CHOICES, while Megatron is generally depicted as being a very firm believer in the rules and in systems. You do as your told and follow protocol, he says, and things are fine. This is very much a precursor to their later extremes, but its possible to read Megatron as completely indifferent to injustice in the system as long as it doesn't effect him, personally; heck, he outright DOESN'T CARE that he was born as a disposable miner, while Orion finds it unjust.

Megatron spends the movie mostly concerned with himself; he doesn't honestly care that much about societal problems, only about his own grievances. That, on its own, is not a fascist or power-mad mentality... but it is telling that the biggest moment he has in his character arc about any kind of statement is first that he wants to horribly murder and torment Sentinel for the things he did to Megatron.

Not for the societal ills Sentinel engineered, not for the unjust conditions of Cybertron he created, but because of what Sentinel did to him, personally; even at his best, Megatron is largely concerned with his own problems, his own suffering, and his character arc focuses a lot on him getting worse, backsliding from a more compassionate view until all he cares about is lashing out and taking out his problems on everyone else.

And the biggest moment there is when he seems to outright agree with Starscream's idea of 'the only thing that matters is one bot's power over another' and that's kind of a nail in a coffin for this Megatron being any kind of stand-in for your flavor of revolutionary praxis. That's an EXTREMELY militaristic viewpoint at best, and is probably the most outright fascist statement in-series.

Megatron's turn to villainy is him furiously trying to kill Sentinel in cold blood despite him already being deposed at that point, and he's clear that the only reason Megatron cares so much is what Sentinel did to him personally; its not about injustice or righting wrongs or rebuilding the world or how history will look at this moment, he's bitter and violent and wants to take it out on Sentinel. This is then followed up by him accidentally killing his closest ffriend, and thene DELIBERATELY letting that friend fall to his death so he can have his revenge and then start blowing up buildings at random to destroy the legacy of a now-dead dictator.

None of this makes him a revolutionary, and its honestly kind of ridiculous to act like he is. At best it implies that you don't think a revolutionary has to have actual ideals and political theory, they just need to kill the Bad Guy and then everything is magically good forever.

That's not just absurd, that's just childishly naive.

[mysadblacksoul]

Backslide - breakdown and theories comming very soon

[apas-95]

Maybe stop getting your fucking news from twitter and look into the multiple independent journalists who all reported the babies death. The left is backsliding fast into Q-Anon style conspiracy theories about ‘fake news’ and your whole post is a thinly disguised attempt at trying to say that Jews control the media. Fuck yourself

The IDF and the White House have both stated that there is no evidence for the claim of babies being beheaded by Hamas. The 'multiple independent journalists' all got the news from each other. The idea that propaganda exists and that western media is not always truthful, especially when repeating claims from military sources, is not 'Q-Anon style conspiracy theories about fake news', it is basic fact to anyone other than utter morons. I never mentioned 'Jews' once, and the attempt to equivocate between the Zionist occupation and Jewish people as a whole is itself incredibly antisemitic — and beside the point, given that neither do I believe that Israel controls the western media, but rather that western media corporations have a vested interest in supporting the occupation of Palestine which is financed and militarily backed by their own imperialists as a profitable military outpost in the middle-east.

On that note, I have horrific news about some other babies in Kuwait, and some very definitive evidence of WMDs I'd like to tell you about, unless you're suddenly a 'Q-Anon style conspiracist' too.

[schweizercomics]

Companions of Christmas, Day 2: Mrs. Claus

Mrs. Claus was once better known by her given name, Alba. She was the nymph of the silver fir tree, a captain in the retinue of the Greek goddess Artemis, and she first met St. Nicholas when he came to do battle with her Lady.

Nick was on a campaign to destroy Artemis's shrines and temples in his Asia Minor diocese in order to keep the Christians in his flock from “backsliding” into paganism. In these attempts, he frequently had to fight Artemis and her retinue, including Alba.

Over the years, Nick and Alba often ran into each other on the same errands of mercy, coming to the aid of a child or creature in peril. Although both were pledged to see the other undone, they found themselves allies in these ventures, first reluctantly, then enthusiastically.

Over the course of many decades and many encounters, Alba came to fall in love with Nick because of his kindness, generosity, and, above all, his fierce devotion to and protection of children, which mirrored her own. And Nick fell in love with Alba because of her unwillingness to stand by while the weak were harmed, the patience with which she sought to understand those who were different from her (patience and tolerance both being virtues that Nick clearly needed a lot of help learning), and the unmitigated joy she took from the natural world and its wonders.

Alba brokered a peace between Nick and Artemis (who presented him with her famous flying deer as a sign of peace and a means by which to better undertake his mission), married Nick, and now stewards the great fir forests of the North Pole, acting as protector and champion to the many creatures who find sanctuary there.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Happy December, friends! Each year around this time I post up drawings of Christmas and other winter holiday figures, along with narratives to explain the practices with which folklorists and holiday buffs might be familiar. When stories exist, I use them; when they don't, I do what I can to piece together what folklore surrounds them to fill in the gaps (or, in some instances, defer to the theories of my friend and fellow narrative reconcilianist Benito Cereno). I hope you enjoy them!

[thekingofwinterblog]

Maka and Crona's Journey - Wasted Potential

So one of the things I have come to heavily critique the Soul Eater manga for is the way it handled Maka post the defeat of Archnophobia, where it feels like there was a whole host of interesting character moments, but because this was the point where the Manga began to spin it's wheels and had no idea how to connect it's various ideas together into a coherent whole, it ultimately leads her story to feel like a mess of wasted potential.

And after doing an analysis of Maka and Crona's relationship through the manga, i came to realise that the pieces are there to tell a very good character journey that came thiiiiisss close to being amazing, but fumbles the ball on the most important moments, of which the ending is just the final, coup the grace that ensures it's a truly terrible story at the end of the day, rather than just being wasted potential.

I have always been of the opinion that Maka and Cronas second fight was where Soul Eater as a story peaked, as it represented the highpoint of it's themes and the journey of it's characters that would never quite be matched in either the anime, nor manga... But one thing I only realised when looking at what the Manga was trying to do, and how it differed from the Anime, is that the intention behind Manga Maka's journey foreward, was how, while this moment was the defining moment for both Maka and Crona, unlike the Anime, the Manga wanted to explore the negative aspects of this idea.

Maka comes to deeply love and appreciate Chrona and the bond they shared together... But this deep affection also led to Maka's biggest moment of weakness in either take on Soul Eater.

Her learning that Medusa is still alive and Chrona is still under her strings.

This revelation paralyzes Maka. She, the girl who during her second fight with Crona finally was able to overcome fear and be truly brave, now finds herself held back by fear. Not fear of what could happen to herself, but fear of what might happen to Crona depending on her own choices.

If she turns Crona in, there is a very strong possibility that Shinigami-Sama's wrath upon Crona will be quite brutal and swift, but on the other hand, if she does nothing, Medusa's plan will continue unopposed and she might lose Crona anyway.

And so she does... Nothing.

She turns into a coward. She's unwilling to commit to any course out of fear of where it would go.

This is great. It's easily some of Maka's best moments, but the problem comes later.

Because in theory Manga Maka and Anime Maka aren't supposed to be different characters, it's just that they go different journey's to reach the same place.

Anime Maka does not learn about Medusa the same way, instead she only learns about everything after the fact, and so has to react to the revelations in a manner that forces her to make a choice then and there... And her choice is that she will support Crona all the way, consequences and the opinion of anyone else be damned.

Manga Maka however, because of her moment of Weakness loses Crona, and they don't reunite again before near the end of the series.

When Maka tries to reach out to Crona, and convince the Pinkette to come back with her home, it's a sign of both Maka's loyalty and devotion... But also an intentional backslide of her development.

Rather than confront the matter head on, Maka tries to essentially sweep EVERYTHING that has happened since they last saw each other under the rug.

Lets go home, and pretend this never happened.

It's not that Maka's words that she WILL protect Crona are empty, because they're not, but the Manga very much want's this entire scene to be a mirror to the basement scene where the two of them first bonded.

Back then, Maka left Soul behind because she understood Crona, and trusted that she didn't need him for what she had to do.

Here, while she's alone inside the church, she brought her entire team with her, that is outside just waiting to back her up if something goes wrong.

Back then she understood that to reach Crona she had to confront the problem head on, with both kindness, but also with a very firm hand.

Here she is wishy-washy and though she is kind, she has none of that firmness that was so essential in forging their bond back then.

When Crona confesses to murdering Medusa, Maka, better than anyone understands how much this destroyed Crona... But she doesn't have an answer.

The confidence she once had in being certain in how to help Crona is gone.

And of course...

The girl who once walked through deadly and painful spikes to embrace Crona, now flinches away in shock, pain and fear at those spikes.

It is a remarkably powerful contrast and symbolism.

The problem... Is how we got here.

The idea is that this is meant to be where Maka fails Crona a second time, once more due to a moment of weakness, only here it's because she hasn't truly come to terms with the consequences of her own choice back then, and having mustered the strength to truly accept Crona's actions, and then go from there.

She wants everything to go back to normal, the wqy it used to be, when Crona tells her very clearly that that is impossible.

What Maka NEEDED to do here(And what should have been the climax of the story when they meet again inside the black blood) was to help Crona deal with the trauma of Medusa's murder, to help Crona realize that whatever else has happened, Maka still loves them, and that Crona is not fundamentally unworthy of that love as Crona thinks they are.

And at this she fails. Spectacularily.

It's a great sequence of events... It's a real shame then, that her character arc post Archne hasn't been about building up to this moment AT ALL!

Maka's storyline COULD have been about her dealing with depression, sadness over losing Crona, and probably more importantly than anything else, a deep, deep longing to go back to the time they spent together, to return to "Simplier days".

It COULD have been about exploring Maka in a deeply unhealthy and yet incredibly human part of her life, when the backsliding from the person she had begun to become thanks to her and Crona's bond was both painfully obvious, and clearly intentional storywise.

Even after growing as a person, that doesn't mean the way to reaching your best self is a straight road upwards. Sometimes you fall off the track, sometimes you lose sight of the goal you were seeking, and sometimes you look back and what was and feel tempted to go back to an earlier point because you are deeply unhappy with where you are now.

It's a real shame then that Maka's storyline between these points tackles absolutely none of these points or ideas for her character.

And on the moon, we see this pattern of a clear idea for a coherent character story continue, both with Maka's incredibly vicious reaction when she and Crona begins fighting, and how the plot points set up between them really goes nowhere.

The idea here is that Maka is having another moment of weakness, only this time one fueled by anger and Hurt, as she beats the snot out of Crona while saying things she obviously doesn't really mean.

It is, again, an intentional backtracking on her entire character, and if you look at it from the concept stages for her and Crona's relationship it makes perfect sense.

Maka, despite her love for Crona was deeply, deeply hurt by Crona's actions both at the church, and at the moon... The problems with the execution here is:

1. Her mood between the church and here has not in ANY way been building up to this very viscious but human outburst of anger.

2. Other than rejecting Maka at the Church, Crona hasn't really done anything yet that varrants Maka being this viscious and agressive. It feels like there should have been a scene where Crona really wrecked the rest of the cast here, but it didnt happen in the final product, and so while the idea of frustration and anger reaching a boiling point on paper makes sense, in practice Maka's anger in this scene feels really overblown.

3. It doesn't really lead anywhere. This moment comes, and then it's gone, forgotten, rather than playing into Maka's final character arc. You would think Maka would have a moment where she snaps out of it and realises how bad an idea/reqction on her part this was, but no. Much like the rest of the moon fight, it's flash and no substance.

And finally Maka's assession here where she informs her dad(and Black star) that Crona killed Medusa was clearly meant to be some dramatic turning point originally. The point where she FINALLY gets her shit together and realizes what she has to do... Only for Asura to regain control, and so she instead of talking this out with a hug here and now she has to break into Crona'a soul and talk there directly.

And there, you would probably expect her to have to once more go through some scenario where she has to brave painful thorns despite the pain, before embracing Crona in a hug anew, thus showcasing that Maka has FINALLY gotten her shit back together again, and has both regained her courage, but also her determination, her self confidence, from when she was at her height, and is now, finally, after a long, long period of depression and loneliness, ready to take on Azura, with Crona at her side.

You know, the logical rule of 3(one success, one failure, and then a final success as the big redepmtion to make up for our Heroines previous moments of weakness) of storytelling used to showcase both Maka's growth, her hugging Crona leading into some development where Maka finally manages to get Crona to forgive themselves for Medusa's death, and embrace the courage to face the world anew.

The pieces are all here to tell a really, really good tale of a Character who went through ips and downs, who lost something very, very important to her along the way... Only to regain it anew thanks to the bond eith the person she treasures most in the world.

She isn't perfect... But that's okay. She has the people she loves besides her, her partner, her friends, even her dad who she dinally is able to let go off her resentment towards(Which should have been the entire point of her finally wielding him in battle), and her relationship with Crona, the single most important bond she ever made with anyone through the story. Ready to take on the world.

Thst sure would have been a way better story, while also continuing all of Soul Eater's themes into an actual, thematicly coherent climax.

[kyliafanfiction]

One thing that annoys me about some people who like to denigrate fix fics in Worm fandom is their insistent belief that like, Amy is unfixable. There's just no stopping her destruction, and like...

That's just not true. I mean, it's true that a long term, permanent solution to the basket of issues that is Amy Dallon is hard. And it's probably the work of years. But if all you're trying to do is prevent her complete breakdown or even more specifically, what she does to Victoria that's... that's easy. (Not by killing her or imprisoning her before even the bank, which a disturbing number of fics seem to endorse and by god those people suck)

Like, you can't actually argue coherently that mind-altering Amy and then Wretching (or even raping, if you want to go with Ward's version of events) was some long-term plan of hers, or something she'd been hoping to do for ages. If she was that level of messed up, she would have done it sooner, and frankly, her power could have let her get away with it pretty easily.

So clearly, pretty intense shit had to happen to make her break in that specific way, from Mark getting the brain damage to Bonesaw showing up, to Bonesaw making her do that specific combination of things, to learning about Marquis to Victoria finding Amy when she ran away to Victoria hugging her - and that's just the mind control!

If you interrupt the days of spiraling while on her own and running, Siberian chasing her and biting off two fingers, Vicky getting Crawler'ed, Amy making a poor decision about how to heal Vicky, Amy spending any prolonged time with Jack Slash ([Broadcast] didn't directly cause Amy's final, horrible actions, *fine*, but Jack is mundanely supposed to be a skilled manipulator and spending time with him is hardly good for someone's mental health) -

All of that happened, all of that had to happen. That's all very doable.

Fixing all of Amy's problems is not simple, yes, definitely a project of years. But arresting her fall? Preventing the specific, horrible act that destroyed the only support she had? Preventing the thing that meant she really could never turn back to anything like what was? All doable. And if you can simply stop the downward spiral, you can set her on a better path too. Again, long-term, not easy, backsliding and regression is possible, but like -

The tragedy of what Amy did to Vicky, and What Amy Went through to get to the point where she was broken enough to do it is that it didn't have to get that way. if it really is unpreventable, if Amy's fall in some form is inevitable, then there's not really any tragedy. The fact that "this could have been prevented, in theory" is at the core of any tragic narrative. Yes, it's often because of the specific natures of the people involved, but the whole point of a fix fic is to change something of the natures, or the people, or something. It's changing one of the elements that ensures the tragedy is a tragedy.

If 'fix-fics' aren't someone's speed, that's fine, though pretty much any fic where events go better than canon is a fix fic, and it's not hard for things to go better than canon, but Amy's fall is not unpreventable. And it annoys me how many in the Worm fandom really think that.

And hell, I'm pretty sure that even in his own antisocial misanthropic nihilistic sort of way, Wildbow probably doesn't think that either. People can't hate her if it was all inevitable, and he's got a lot invested in making sure people hate her at this point. (/s, mostly, to this last paragraph)