#blame all the people who poisoned me with the parallels

[ladygreene13]

Viserys pushing daemon away when he wanted to be around, then asking him to stay close when all he wanted was to keep away. Daemon wanting to be seen by his brother since the beginning and Viserys only really seeing him on his last day. Daemon telling Viserys he would protect him and Viserys only realizing he needed the protection when it was too late. Daemon asking to be by his brother's side, offering help, and the first time Viserys accepted it also being the last time he ever did.

[fox-daddy]

The arcana as stolen memes again, again

Julian; the desire to disappear vs the desire to be held and wanted

~~~

Mc: what is the most complicated way to cook an egg?

Nadia without missing a beat: Atmospheric re-entry

Mc holding an egg:...well shit

~~~

Muriel: What if instead of stepping out of my comfort zone I step into an even comfier zone?

~~~

Lucio: huge fan of when my speech patterns rub off on people enjoy when that happens

Lucio: NEVERMIND, my mum just said skill issue to me

~~~

Mc: I wish I had the ability

Muriel:...to do what?

Mc:yeah

Muriel:...

Mc:...

~~~

Asra: I think we should have glowstick juice injected in our bones when we're born so if we break em there's a fun little surprise

Mc: whats the surpise?

Julian cutting in: blood poisoning

~~~

Lucio: if you step on a person's foot they open their mouths, just like trash cans.

Mc: trying not to encourage him by laughing*

~~~

Mc: one time Asra put a glass of milk on the table in front of me and I meant to ask them 'who's milk is this?' because I wasn't sure if it was for me or if they were putting it down on the table to go grab something else and I just stared down at the milk and said 'who's this?' and they turned around and without missing a beat said 'that's your new friend mr.milk' then we stared at each other for a solid twenty seconds before they asked if I was high.

~~~///~~~

(modern day arcana *not the au faking it*)

Nadia: the worst part about parallel parking is the witnesses

Mc: you know their are no witnesses if you're bad enough at parallel parking

~~~

Mc; those moments when straight people assume you're one of them and you feel like a gay secret agent

Nadia: lebionage

Portia:bi spy

Julian: it's an ace case

Asra: secret gaygent

~~~

Nadia: 'kobe' is for accuracy and precision while 'yeet' is for power and distance

Mc: I can turn this into dnd stats

Nadia:???

Mc:Kobe is dexterity, yeet is strength, oof is constitution, tea is intelligence, yolo is wisdom, and wig is charisma

~~~

Mc; You want to know one of my favorite facts? If you leave a hamster wheel out in the forest wild mice will come and run on it. That is one of my favourite facts.

Muriel:... bobcats and lynx's will sit in cardboard boxes abandoned in the forest. I asked Asra about it and they said 'cat's' while shrugging.

~~~

Mc; George Washington died in 1799, 15 years before the first dinosaur was classified. So therefore, Gorge Washington never knew about dinosaurs

Portia: Why does this make me so sad?

~~~

Nadia: if you add two pounds of sugar to literally one ton of concrete it will ruin the concrete and make it unable to set properly. Which is good to know if you want to resist something being built, French anarchists used this to resist prison construction in the 80's.

Portia: I'm just going to go ahead and take a note about this for purely educational purposes.

~~~

Julian: you got to be dunkin my doughnuts

Asra: you gotta be hutting my pizza

Portia: you gotta be mackin my donalds

Nadia: you're really innin my outs here, buddy. You're fivein my guys.

Lucio: ya whiting my castle. Ya darying my queen. Ya steaking my shake.

Mc: but are you belling my taco?

~~~///~~~

(ones with my oc's because why not)

Hunter: stuck in an elevator because Portia decided to jump?

Everyone minus Muriel and Julian: fucken mint

Hunter: Julian's had three panic attacks in ten minutes?

Everyone minus Muriel and Julian: Fucken mint

Hunter:Muriel hasn't said a thing since we got stuck?

Everyone minus Muriel and Julian: Fucken mint

Hunter: Lucio being immature and yelling the whole time?

Everyone minus Muriel and Julian: Fucken mint

Hunter: Asra has just been listening to music and trying to call Nadia to come get us?

Everyone minus Muriel and Julian: Fucken mint

Hunter: Kyle has to pee so bad he might get a bladder infection?

Everyone minus Muriel and Julian: Fucken mint

Hunter: Lucio's going to be the one we blame because we all hate his fucking guts

Everyone minus Muriel and Julian: Fucken mint

~~~

Hunter: I've got some kind of allergic reaction going on and my face is breaking out in a bad rash and Julian is freaking out and wants to take me to the hospital. Portia was like 'let's not make any rash decisions' and we high-fived and now Julian is yelling at both of us.

~~~

Hunter: someone will be like 'coca cola can remove rust from metal imagine what it's doing to your body' like psssh removing the rust obviously

Nadia: that's not how that works

Hunter: Yeah? while I don't have rust in my body so check mate

Nadia:

[sleepysandy]

some thoughts on acftl

just finished an hour ago and i need to vent (spoiler heavy and pretty long)

stuff i liked

apollo pov

unpopular opinion but i do like the idea of an apollo pov. i think it makes sense since there are some plot points that can only be revealed through apollo. however i think the execution could be better.

at first i liked hearing about his messed up thought process and daddy issues but at some point it became repetitive. it all became about keeping evangeline captive and killing jacks which made it obvious he was just obsessed, not loved, with evangeline. i can't decide if i like it bcs it was a sorta parallel to jack and donatella but also made the reveal at the end kinda obvious.

i also expected some sibling angst?? like the brother plot was just brushed off when they were pretty close until they had a falling out then when the brother came back he poisoned him?? i cant remember but the brother tortured him too i think?? the whole anti valor arc group was never brought up again too like...

2. evajacks

they didnt have a lot of scenes together but those scenes were *chefs kiss* i also liked their development. evangeline is jaded from everything going on, she did learn to not be so trusting and really think for herself what she wants. i liked how she didnt lose a lot of her hope and optimism too.

i disagree with reviews saying that jacks wasnt good in this book since he was so different. i think that was a testament on how eva's death really affected him. i actually wasnt convinced that jacks had feelings for eva until she died in tbona so seeing how jacks so despondent and serious in acftl cemented his feelings in my mind. i feel like people would buy jacks' characterization if there were flashbacks to his past and more povs.

stuff i didnt like, its mainly about how many plot points from the previous books werent mentioned at all

i wish they used the previous characters more

kristof knightlinger was kinda hyped in the beginning, like where did he go?? i wished he and eva had at least one together that would plant doubt in eva that apollo was this perfect prince. (i kinda had a problem with the whole memories thing in general, more on that later)

i also thought that the old librarian would be important lol

i wished luc was in the book too :((( eva lost a quite a bit of her pre-north memories so luc wouldve been perfect to bring those memories back since eva did say that luc had been there for her when her dad died. also he couldve mentioned something about marisol since he wouldve been the only one in valorfell in tbona i think.

i wish lala's feelings for dane were explained more. like does she have commitment issues, does she not feel real love anymore since shes a fate, is there something going on with chaos/castor??? i wanna see more of her relationships with the other valors too but i do acknowledge that including all that is too much for a side character

chaos/castor and jacks angst!!!!! the eva and castor interactions were good but like jacks said he became a fate for castor (which is a good insight into jacks character) but i wanted to see how they interacted after castor killed eva. like your have a friend who you kinda cursed to be an immortal so you then become immortal then your friend then kills the love of your life like..... i need to see how that went down. but also your friend's crazy sister is obsessed with you??? to the point that she also curses you??? like give me friendship angst!!!!!! (speaking of, why did lala agree to be a fate too...) (also what happened to the real chaos fate??)

3. jacks past

to jump off the last point, like where were the flashbacks???? i think jacks being serious this book would make a lot more sense for more people if scenes of his friends dying in like one day and the first fox dying from the curse were shown in the book. show how much jacks blames himself with the deaths of his loved ones, thats why he was so desperate to keep eva alive.

4. jacks pov

kinda related but i feel like jacks pov was underutilized. his povs were super short and didnt reveal much about what he was doing away from eva. in contrast to apollos pov where it was shown how he was manipulating eva and the public about jacks but also his relationship wtih the valor family. wished we couldve seen how he uses the scar to know where eva is and he follows her around.

i woudve loved to see more pining from his end too

also i dont think it was ever explained how they have the telepathic link???? and why eva was immune to his powers??? was it love at first sight? it was mentioned how he watched her from the start but was it love??

5. evas family

what was evas dad's secret shop??? like are not supposed to find out?? the clothes shop was even featured in caraval but not here?? also did the mom know about the prophecy?? were the fox and key motifs on her clothes supposed to be a coincidence or bcs of how much she liked the story as a kid?? that would explain the foxes but not the keys...

i kinda wish that eva discovered something about her mom's life in the north. give her more connection to her family and maybe reveal more of her prophecy

6. memory stuff

getting majority of the memories all at once was meh for me. i wish that each side character revealed/triggered memories for eva. like luc could trigger memories about her life in valenda, kristoff for coming to north and becoming apollo's fiance then wife, lala for her curses and apollo hunting her, chaos for the stones and arc stuff so that evas letter to herself revealing her and jacks relationship could be a final piece of the puzzle.

i do like the fact that jacks kept the letter for himself and eva reading the letter didnt make her distrust jacks but bring her memories back.

7. breaking the curse

so did evas love break the curse?? i kinda thought it was leaning towards jacks love that could break the curse since it was mentioned in tbona that jacks doesnt know if he actually loved the fox but there was no big declaration of love from him.... im just confused, happy but confused

i did like the fact that the curse was 'wrong' that it was never about jacks true love but someone who could never love him. altho i have no idea how eva broke that curse and if that means donatella survived that bcs she would never love jacks

so when jacks admitted that he loved eva, did he turn human?? was that why the curse broke???

also the bells werent as important i guess?? i totally thought the bell stuff was gonna come back....

also what was all that about how eva was like the first fox??? i thought while reading that aurora misinterpreted the vision "he'll fall in live with a Fox" that jacks will fall in love a fox girl but in reality a capital f Fox but castor said in tbona that she was similar to the first fox and eva said that the little fox nickname was familiar.....

anyway thats it for now, after i reread my notes from the three books i might add to this. overall, i think the book was ok, but definitely not enough to be an finale especially for a 5 book arc for jacks. i think the book shouldve been a whole lot longer but i kinda feel like garber wanted the length to be similar to the previous books so the end felt pretty rushed. i kinda feel bad that i had more dislikes than likes when i rlly loved the first 2 books so this was so..... i think there were a lot of good ideas but the execution was not it i guess

VERY MUCH DISAPPOINTED THAT JACKS DID NOT SHOOT A SINGLE ARROW

i do get that this is a romance focused trilogy, not a fantasy so you could argue that plot points and lore shouldnt be looked into as much but the relationship and character development of evajacks could be better too... imo it's mostly jacks character that was lacking

also this did feel like a build up for an apollo book but garber said she wont write for this universe for a while so ??? kinda disappointed if there will be an apollo book bcs the amount of apollo chapters screwed jacks over but in the caraval series, the ending focused on the actual main characters at least and not so much on jacks.

[lullabyes22-blog]

You've mentioned points you like about Silco? Is there anything you dislike?

Oh lmao, I have a whole bunch. But that's mostly dislikes on the writing choices - and my own politics and biases coming into play. 

They will come into play, of course, because the consumption of art is inherently filtered through one's own biases. It's why I enjoy the series so much, because each take tells me so much about the viewer's own life experiences and worldview (CaitVi is adorable vs CaitVi is faux-woke Copaganda, Silco was a manipulative shit vs Silco is the best dad ever, Jinx blowing up the Council was an act of irredeemable terrorism vs. a reckoning both justifiable and overdue etc.)

But regarding Silco:

One of the factors I feel weakened Silco's character was the lack of coherent plan re: the nation of Zaun. A five-point manifesto etc that would detail what he wants for Zaun as an independent nation - and explain why people like Sevika backed him in the first place.

We get a brief chickenshit version during his parley with Jayce (amnesty, access to the trade routes via the Hex Gates etc). But the very amnesty concept is bulldozed by Jayce's demand for Jinx, and Silco just folds and laments in a way that's completely out of character.

However, I blame that less on the character than on Riot games in general. Anyone familiar with their MO knows they write their revolutionaries as spiteful assholes with no end-goal beyond ~*chaos! mwahaha*~ 

Silco is no exception to this. They likely also knew that giving him a concrete plan for Zaun's independence would take away from the villain status he's meant to occupy, and make audiences start to question, "Why is this guy actually making sense?"

It happened for a lot of the audience anyway. But much like Magneto in X-Men and Eric Killmonger in Black Panther, the narrative quickly gives him lots of Kick the Dog moments as if to remind us that the guy actually bothering to champion for respect is soooo evol whereas the centrist Papa Wolf type (ilu Vander, but dude…) who is preaching patience and passivity while their people are literally assaulted in the street is squarely in the right.

Of course, we're told the story through Vi's and Powder's perspective, so the man who kidnapped their dad won't win any brownie points. But the centrism-is-good/all-we-need-is-love narrative is deeply on brand for Riot. Heck, even Screen Junkies has called out their 'very fine people on both sides' style of storytelling. As if a Fair Cop with *misfit syndrome* from an immensely privileged background and a bunch of pampered pricks at the top of the social ladder are somehow equal in their level of suffering to a group of outcasts whose literal air and water is poisoned thanks to their indifference. 

Jayce is interesting in that he's clearly meant to be middle to upper middle class. He's also the placeholder for many of the engineers and artists within Arcane's production team itself, so his struggles to leave a mark and break through social barriers for the sake of recognition mirror their own.

It's a sweet underdog tale, and compelling in its own right. But then they have Jayce inadvertently serving as the shining innovator foil to Silco's dark opportunist. And that's where the comparison falls flat because a boy from humble beginnings, but still in Piltover's inner-fold, is nowhere near the same as a man whose whole character is typified by poverty, corruption, and ostracism. 

It's why Viktor serves as a much better parallel to Jayce (also the whole sciencebros thing is cute.)

Meanwhile, the popularity of CaitVi often tends to automatically exempt Caitlyn from blame, because she's not manipulative or fame-hungry, just ignorant. By the end *Her Eyes Have Been Opened* (and possibly her thighs, but I digress...) However, ignorance is by definition both a privilege and a danger, especially if it's ignorance at the expense of someone else's suffering. I guess in S2 they'll maybe low-key 'punish' her for it with (possible spoiler - Cassandra Kirraman's death), but we'll cross that bridge for her character arc when it happens.

Back to Silco though. Development into his Nation of Zaun dream was sorely lacking beyond wordy abstraction. I get that they wrote him as a 'svengali' type, so verbal thaumaturgy is his shtick. But if they really wanted him to be a 'sorta villain' as opposed to a full-blown one, then nuance re: his lifelong mission would've gone a long way. Ditto for him and Jayce being subtle mirrors re: the heights and depths of innovation, which didn't work, and which made the final parley scene feel kinda trite.

I, of course, welcome counterarguments. Just keep it polite<3

[agentrouka-blog]

Cersei will probably blame Tyrion for blowing up the Sept, not only she already tried to pin the blame on him for her shitty plots (like the plan to murder Trystan) but the smallfolk of King's Landing already hate Tyrion for burning their houses down with wildfire, so it would be easier to convince them it was a revenge plot

I'm not so sure.

I don't think merely blaming Tyrion would would be a very successful ploy. He's not on hand, hasn't been seen in months. It doesn't really resonate. It would rightfully seem not credible. The smallfolk may hate him but that doesn't mean they would happily believe any claim by the queen they just saw marched naked through the streets for the crime of fornication. Even if she has been making pious noises since then. It'd have to be someone more immediate and concrete. (But don't ask me who.)

But I also want to emphasize, I don't think it'd be an explosion of the scale in the show. A burning of some kind, probably. An explosion, no.

We have examples of such fire traps.

Ser Gregor Clegane:

Ser Raymun Darry took up the tale. “At Wendish Town, the people sought shelter in their holdfast, but the walls were timbered. The raiders piled straw against the wood and burnt them all alive. When the Wendish folk opened their gates to flee the fire, they shot them down with arrows as they came running out, even women with suckling babes.” (AGOT, Eddard XI)

And in a painful copy, by the Brotherhood Without Banners:

Flaming arrows flew through the morning mists, trailing pale ribbons of fire, and thudded into the wooden walls of the septry. A few smashed through shuttered windows, and soon enough thin tendrils of smoke were rising between the broken shutters. Two Mummers came bursting from the septry side by side, axes in their hands. Anguy and the other archers were waiting. (ASOS, Arya VII)

And in a particularly interesting example:

On the thirtieth day since the trial of seven, the king awoke with the sunrise and walked out onto the walls. Thousands cheered—though not at the Sept of Remembrance, where hundreds of the Warrior's Sons had gathered for their morning prayers. Then Maegor mounted Balerion and flew from Aegon's High Hill to the Hill of Rhaenys and, without warning, unleashed the Black Dread's fire. As the Sept of Remembrance was set alight, some tried to flee, only to be cut down by the archers and spearmen that Maegor had made ready. The screams of the burning and dying men were said to echo throughout the city, and scholars claim that a pall hung over King's Landing for seven days. (The World of Ice and Fire - The Targaryen Kings: Maegor I)

I imagine the bulk of this imagery is likely to be replicated with Dany in Vaes Dothrak, but their arcs have not been studded with parallels for no reason, so something along the lines of a fire trap is bound to be in play with Cersei as well.

Maybe much smaller and sneakier, than what they show suggested, though no less deadly to her enemies. Perhaps smoke inhalation may even suffice. Have them choke like Joffrey did.

And it may be that it simply happens in a way that leaves her looking to have narrowly escaped danger herself, dramatically staged, making her involvement seem as unlikely as that of the Tyrells poisoning Joffrey (since Margaery was drinking from the same cup at one point). It may be that a third party will rear its head looking suspicious beforehand. After all The Hand of the King Kevan Lannister, the queens own beloved uncle, has just been murdered, as well. And the grand maester Pycelle. Clearly every signifyer of order and authority seems to be under attack.

Whichever third party may end up being blamed, it primarily needs to look like Cersei did NOT do it, giving her the opportunity to appear like she's restoring order after the fact. That would help her regain some credibility with the smallfolk, too. The repentant queen mother, defending the Faith that was so cruelly attacked by [insert conveniently suspicious outsider group], avenging her beloved daughter in law and her late uncle, striving to protect her son king Tommen.

If a scapegoat is found, it's more likely to be someone who is an actual threat to Cersei right now. Killing two birds with one stone. Or two enemies with one fire.

[ammonitetestpatterns]

the evening skies of prince george, i saw them as a causeway to hellfire cradletipping out of breathless space, hinting that maybe, hell prefers enclosure and feels exposed at extreme parallels. kintsugi scars, blinding cream yellow, the mistold fortune of a world looted of locality, your eyes are the ransom paid for the last bit of natural mystery, handed over to unreel the pastripened azimuth. was this daylight meant to repair the night? he walked with me through homemade forest trails, advertising to mosquitoes. the sun gilded arrows onto leaves, our arms locking round the other’s waist. for an instant, he jolted with the lost memory of a free trial girlfriend, parting the thicket of dissociative brain damage only for it to recoil back into place. clamoring up, batting bugs and sweat, we found the horizon of a lookout on accident. it caught us with an elegiac feeling, the tension of the changing light. a curving armory of evergreens to entrust the city history before the letter and the ledger. i wondered if this place would ever regain its holocene prestige and surrender back to immemorial waters. a small furor then, entertaining which invisible forces are most likely to affect the accumulation and exchange of social energy by its common means, a density of presence. at least, we were both “feeling it.”

this was beyond any doubt one of my most important trips. the pine boughs responded in their sway, my sensitivity to forgone home, placefulness, the sense of having business somewhere. jonas said with the satyric nonchalance that often hides his spite, you were locked outside consciousness, you lost your key with the loss of the impossible family. he takes himself to be at the end of consciousness, i feel my judgment falling to the end of telemachus. under the same skies that melted him all those years ago, all the catastrophic beauty punctuated by its alienation from the earthly/georgic homing of the human and the mirage of its loss after thought, how dishonesty comes to rot, it all fuses down to the productivity of nature, world without end, an accomplice we can barely understand. why won’t my mind’s poison arrow find him, why can’t i bring myself to hate him? the woundsalted blame, repressed bloodrooted longing for the maternal, strangeness, lying with the wolf, the gold of reality taken between his teeth. reunion, breakdown of the manifold with her smile.

as we made it out, night now inaugurate to its depth in low dying bands of blue, my companion beside me mounted his respect for judas, taking seriously the determinist explanation for his betrayal, the solemn pain, brandishing the social logic localized to a blink of time, for a prophecy of the higher good, mass forgiveness and resonance to form, way past the matter scatter. the paradoxical strength in sinning and willing to be misunderstood and reviled for lifetimes to come, we held a look and felt a sliver of the same. the mortal kiss, such a harrowing, complicated picture of evil.

the touch memory placed me in the same motor mold of late may, real people romance walking under heavy crepuscular glow, gathering lilac bushels and tulips wherever they laced our path, satchels of new herbs in our pockets. my head mooned with the realization that threatened to restore all before me to an imagined valor of unity, how much i respect you, always for who you are, i want to sow your quiet field to a harvest of dreams. like a saint to me, with the smile of a devil! sharing dreams, timeless against the lapse of the scent, however deep its momentary pull. there is an ineffable essence to dreaming and hoping that cannot be uncovered and had elsewhere, the foldless desire for a better day that is lyrical, thin, ephemeral and tender, that threshold of expansion. it compels you back to childhood without overstaying, the progression of the generational cohort at the beginning of consciousness, “we all have a dream, maybe.” in darkened dovelike bed, the first after days of roadside sleep, he placed a square of dark chocolate on my tongue and brought umeshu to my lips, velvety plum like the tulips. terpenes simplified to lipids and even further, the virtual cataclysm of synthases.

what is left after orison? spectacular sunrise, waking out of the offal, over the skew of every shutout star, one speck in the dust ramble, torn by thoughtless time. being ready to live outside the impresses of the external drilled inward, crossing, cut exposure, cardinality of tongue, carrion signs, pointer posture. walking to make not only nature, but a circulatory, somatic awareness into your accomplice against communal death, vanishing inlets. within the boundaries of the individual, the body is a means and not an ends, the self is an ever attractive block.

[butchladymaria]

Sorry for ranting but that post really resonated with me,thank you! it aways seemed so weird how everyone was ignoring these themes and focusing only on what they considered badass about the lore. When playing i could clearly see facets of the suffering that afflicts mainly women on each female character,like the old lady who mistakes you for her kid and gives you sedatives to make you forget,implies that "your fathers blood" is to blame when you atack her and remarks that "you were aways the brave one" when the player has no woes to share... it instantly reminded me of stories from older women about what life was like with abusive husbands and sedatives being prescribed freely due to their stress at home with no way out. Adellas negative levels of self esteem due to church brainwashing (that mirrors Adelines) and the presence of the female rivalry that is instilled in many of us,Ariannas entire questline and the questions it makes the player ask themselves in the end, and finally the doll and Marias whole THING,especially if seen through the lens of a lesbian or GNC woman! like how can people be so blind and not realize how womanhood is a core theme here?? I get disagreeing with individual analysis but to outright deny that there is something there is bonkers to me

okay but seriously, all of these insights are SO important!!! the women of bloodborne are so much more complex than people seem to give them credit for. the old woman and adella especially so clearly have biases. but what really gets me is how realistically those are portrayed: tools of the power structure they were born into which serve to separate and isolate each of them in their subjugation.

this got Insanely long… under the cut it goes!

i mean, seriously though. the women of oedon chapel are very different, each from a different marginalized background of their own. in addition to what you described, the old woman lives in central yharnam — which the church has essentially thrown to the dogs. arianna is a so-called “vileblood” who is forced to the margins of society because of that and her (presumed) identity as a sex worker. adella has been groomed within the church (a word which specifically implies a process beginning in childhood) to see herself as nothing but a worthless vessel for “lowly blood”. these women are all subjugated by the church in different ways, and in an ideal world, they would realize they have much more uniting them than they do separating them.

which is exactly why the church has invented scapegoats to prevent that from happening. the church tells the old woman that it isn’t them who has reduced her home to ruin and likely sent her son to die in the hunt; they tell her it’s foreigners and their tainted blood. the church tells adella it isn’t their fault of that she is treated worse than dirt and has no one to turn to when she is abducted and nearly murdered by a branch of the church itself no less; they tell her she deserves it, because she’s only worth how much she can be bled out for others. they tell her it’s the fault of “vileblood” taint turning the world mad, not their own poisoned healing and insane experiments. i mean seriously — the parallel between arianna’s (implied) “vile” blood and adella’s self-described “lowly” blood is not lost on me.

and arianna, who is wholly innocent yet painfully aware of how isolated she is in that chapel, is left to stumble into a sewer and left with nothing but madness and isolation and the wretched thing she birthed when she is raped by a god and forced to bear its child… and based on how we see the upper ward of the church positively crawling with the exact monsters that she was forced to birth, i’m willing to bet that this is exactly what the church wanted.

bloodborne illustrates how prejudice is ultimately used to subjugate and silence all but the upper echelons of the powerful; and how it is the most vulnerable in society who are left to suffer the worst of it, utterly alone and alienated from their would-be allies. it shows how a class of the oppressed can be so purposefully be driven apart, so their oppressors remain unchallenged. it shows how even those like adella who play a crucial role in their grasp on power are still treated like scum. their oppressors enable, orchestrate, and weaponize the pain these women suffer and force them to bear it all alone.

and as for maria & the doll — again, i COMPLETELY agree. lesbianism aside, maria is undeniably, fundamentally gender nonconforming, especially when compared to the other NPC women. the relationship between her and gerhman is something i plan to go more in depth on in a later post — but i will say that i actually see gerhman as more of a paternal/protective figure. that is to say: i think gerhman in the text represents the gender role of men as a protector of women taken to its natural conclusion; not as a role made for service or assistance, but rather for ownership of the woman under protection. he’s an incredibly tragic and twisted man. i want to poke him like bug under microscope etc.

i am so glad my post resonated with you!!! these are honestly the kinds of conversations i want to have with other fans — because they’re so damn INTERESTING to me to pick apart!!!

tl;dr: The Girls Should Unionize.

[sasquapossum]

Free Speech For Whom?

Marc Andreessen - Netscape founder, vulture capitalist, and the most literally egg-headed person I know of - recently tweeted this.

Besides the obvious problem of trying to poison the well by implying that anyone who disagrees is connected to an anti-free-speech conspiracy, this represents a very common set of misconceptions (deceptions) about freedom of speech. Maximalist free speech will always appeal to those like Marc who can always be sure they’ll have the biggest megaphone. But that’s not real freedom of speech. To explain, I’ll have to take you all on a bit of a winding road.

In the mathematical study of network flow (which includes not just computer networks but electrical grids and interconnected systems of roads or water/sewer lines), there’s something called Braess’s Paradox. It’s the observation that sometimes adding a road can decrease overall traffic flow. The corollary is that sometimes closing a road (or IIRC adding one in the “wrong” direction) can increase total flow. There’s a parallel in economics: markets are most truly free when certain behaviors are regulated. A market dominated by trusts, cartels, insider trading, and other forms of manipulation by moneyed parties is anything but free. Sports also have rules and referees for a reason. These results might seem counterintuitive, but “some local restriction increases global freedom” is a very common and well proven phenomenon.

OK, back to internet free speech. The same principle applies there. What I should have said before is that maximalist “free speech” (with the quotes) always appeals etc. Historically the rich could just buy a platform such as a newspaper. This still happens, e.g. with Murdoch or Bezos. But in the internet age, the most valuable platforms are internet-specific platforms and Twitter is a prime example. People like Musk and Andreessen can get that megaphone in the form of followers, sock-puppets and bots to amplify their own message and harass proponents of any other. Algorithmic ranking also plays a role, as it tends to bury all but one narrative at the end of an infinite scroll - i.e. functionally equivalent to their having been removed. I think the right (and libertarians) hate such ranking because they would rather blame someone else than admit they are a minority, and to justify their use of sock-puppets etc. “Just making up for others’ unjust treatment” they tell themselves. Affirmative action for assholes, I reply. Meanwhile, the left dislikes algorithmic ranking because of the result after the right’s manipulation. Turns out it’s just a bad idea all around.

Andreessen even tacitly admits this point when he talks about freedom of reach in the middle of his endless stream of bad-faith arguments. (BTW I’m pretty sure the real Frederick Douglass would be horrified and disgusted at the way Andreessen twists his words.) Freedom to speak without any chance to be heard means nothing. I’m not saying everyone has a right to be listened to, let alone to say anything without consequences as the Musk/Trump imitators would have it, but I will say that people should have an equal chance to be heard. Imagine a town hall where anyone can speak but some must do so within a cone of silence, unheard except by those banished to the same cone. Burying all but one opinion under a mountain of trash is not real free speech, but it’s exactly what the plutocrats want. They only focus on and oppose the hard power of laws so that they can exercise the soft power of money and the pseudo-populism it brings. The “consistency” Andreessen claims to want is really stasis, the system (and opponents) not allowed to adapt while people like him have freedom to undermine it in new ways. Its what oligarchs have always wanted.

As for me, I continue to support meaningful free speech ... just as I support meaningful equal opportunity and not just a Potemkin version of it. The freedom to sleep under bridges and eat from trash cans while our new feudal lords try to outdo each other in folly and cruelty is no freedom at all. As paradoxical as it might seem, if you want real free speech for everybody some kinds of speech-related behavior have to be disallowed.

[melody-of-lost-souls]

the 220th episode of boruto frustrated me a lot, ykyk that SNS fight/argument scene blabla. that part isn't even in the manga. so, what did you feel about that scene?

Hello Anon!

At my first watch I did like it cause I saw it as a marital argument, which is fine because all couples have arguments this brings some dynamic to the relationship. It was interesting because Naruto and Sasuke are the only people whom they can verbally fight with each other without feeling weird or repressing something; for example this is not something that Sakura nor HInata would ever do with their husbands.

That argument started at first as a comfort moment between Sasuke and Naruto, Naruto was feeling guilty about not being able to stop boruto on time and feeling guilty and sasuke comforting him saying he was not to blame (a total reserved place for your partner in fact)

All about that conversation was focused on Boruto, a kid that Sasuke knew like what months ago i think. The person who had to be there was Hinata his mother, because that was a total conversation reserved for the parents of the child, guessing what will they do from now on with the karma issue. Does hinata know smt about the karma in any case? xD Well. But sasuke here is taking her place (as always) bringing comfort to Naruto, and saying what hes goona do with boruto.

Some argue about the part where Sasuke said he is ready to kill Boruto if its needed. Saying he is cold hearted and he wouldnt do the same for sarada and blabalbalalbalbla. And for how i see, its because of that love he has for the kid that he prefers killing him by his own hands, than by the aliens ones.

I see a parallel to a scene of game of thrones where Cersei was going to poison her son before any of the enemies could kill him. So, I didnt see that "fight" as certainly baaaaaad, cause again it brings some dynamic to the relationship of these 2, and they were arguing about Boruto as real parents so I give a credit for that

BUT.

What frustrastes me the most is that here they are forgetting about certain things set on the previous story, and also about Kawaki.

Naruto is more of a father for Kawaki than he is for Boruto, and Sasuke is the symbolic father of the blonde kid.

Naruto said after this argument that he is ready to give his title to protect the gremlin.

Basically what they are giving us here is a lot of NARUTO FATHER MATERIAL that we never asked for. A lot of NH fans and even some dudebros, say that naruto journey is about to become a good husband and father AND EXCUSE ME???

All about that episode is naruto being teary because his problems to be a good father and blabla which i dont care. Because the journey they should show us is about him doing his hokages duties, being cool as his predecesors, not crying because boruto doesnt love me ;____; doesnt sound good i know, but all about the previous story set us 2 thins. 2 bring sasuke back his most important bond, and being hokage. Well now that they are fullfilled show us this new journey that he longed so much time.

But no, instead of this , they give us this Father Naruto (which i agree is cute sometimes) who sometimes goes OOC because of this kid made by a loveless marriage and that is willing to give everything for this powered-up-gary-stu boy.

Its like in the end, all sums up into being parents and that's it. And that wasnt the message that the prev. manga sent us.

Conclusing, have mixed feelings. Its interesting for sns relationship since they are equals they can do this, and shows who really care for the boy; but at the same time this manga and episodes set all that father material (that average fans love since they think having a kid is what naruto really needed¿) and protecting father that we never needed, just to bring nostalgy and say "Oh naruto he protects the things he desired the mosttt a family god save hinataaaaaa"

PD: in any case, we had some really SNS nice moments in the previous episodes so jaja <3

[transpoettryinghisbest]

(As some of y'all know, I've been dealing with some old near death trauma lately and so I wanted to channel that into a fic. Thanks to the anon who let me kinda talk my way to this point and got me thinking about parallels between myself and Godot.

Trigger warnings are in the tags.)

“What am I doing?”

I look over. “Not a lot, it looks like.”

“No. I mean, what am I doing here? Why am I here? What's the point of this?”

I put down what I'm doing.

“Armando. If you don't want to be here, you can go. I won't force you to do anything.”

“It's not that, Wright, it's…” He sighs. “You wouldn't get it.”

“Try me.”

“Mia was such a perfect person. Like, a truly kind and beautiful soul. And she didn't even make it to 30. She left me behind.”

“It wasn't-”

“I KNOW! I know it wasn't her fault. Or yours or mine or anyone's except the guy who decided his own wants were enough for him to go out and just take people's lives away at will.” He rests his head in his hands. “I've done enough blaming the wrong person.”

“Then…what are you trying to say?”

“I've tasted death. I know what she feels like. But I crawled out alive and now I'm here. And that wasn't because anyone saved me, it was just life's random decision that I should keep going and Mia shouldn't. But I don't know why. There is no why. I just have to keep living. But what am I even doing? Life gave me another chance and for what? What have I even done to justify being alive again?”

“You saved Maya.”

He gives a small scoff.

“Yeah. My one act of heroism. That landed me six months in prison.”

“Armando. You might not think of yourself as a hero for that, but Maya does. And so do I.”

He won't look at me.

“You said you don't know why you did it, right? To avenge Mia, save Maya or get back at Dahlia. But either way, you saw a way to right things. And you did it.”

He picks up his mug, running the tip of his finger around the rim.

“I still remember her. Dahlia. Every time I take a sip, she's there in my mind. And that taste. That feeling overcoming me. Dread. I had just enough strength to look up at her and from her little smirk I knew.” He rubs his forehead. “It's so clear in my mind, I can't get rid of it.”

I hesitate. Then decide I should.

“I get it.”

“No, you don't.”

“No, you're right. I don't know what it's like to be in a coma. The…the pain you have to go through. But I do understand…”

He glances up at me.

“You must know. About me and Dahlia.”

“How you'd do anything for your angel?”

“I believed in her. But she was using me. She tried to kill me too.”

I expect him to say something, but he just stares.

“You want to know what happened? She poisoned my medicine, but before I could take any, some distraction happened and I was framed for murder. That's how the whole truth came out. I lived through pure luck, that's all I've ever done. I know you think I'm just stupid and don't know anything-”

“I don't think that anymore. I know you've suffered.”

“I just kind of get on with my life because if I think too hard about what happened or what could've happened…it really scares me.”

That's what I had Mia for. When I first met her, I was a mess, but she knew how to whip me into shape and make me realise that there are better things to do with your life than lie around moping.

Armando never had that. He was abandoned at the moment he needed Mia the most.

“You've done so much good, Wright, you've saved so many people. And I don't know if that's cos of your brush with death, or cos that's just the person you are.”

“Maybe both? But it's not too late for you. That's the best part about being alive, you can still, uh…make the most of what's left in your coffee cup. Right?”

He chuckles. “Sure. I'll drink to that.”

[sunandmoongobrrr]

Korra and her Brutalization: A Legend of Korra Meta

In honor of International Womens’ Day, I want to talk a little bit about Legend of Korra and the treatment of Korra (and to a small extent other women) throughout the show. Content warning: there's some disturbing scenes that I show here, but if you've watched all of LoK, you should be fine.

Korra starts off confident; she is a young avatar who is eager to learn and feels suffocated from the isolation she is kept in from a very young age. But that doesn’t stop her, and like the headstrong girl she is, she moves to Republic City to make a difference and step into her role as the avatar.

Korra immediately starts to doubt herself; she becomes unsure of her abilities and frustrated with herself, and through that she learns to become emotionally vulnerable with Tenzin. To me, this was really great. It showed that you can be confident and vulnerable, and that the two aren’t necessarily independent of each other.

(I’m going to be honest, the 2nd season I didn’t really remember much of, so I’m just going to skip over that. Because what I really want to talk about is season 3.)

In season three, Korra faces the Red Lotus, an “anarchist” group that essentially wants to kill her. And they get pretty close. First, I want to talk about how Tenzin is beaten by the Red Lotus. This has been brought up in Lily Orchard’s (in?)famous LOK video, and while I disagree with her on many many topics of the show, I really think she has a point here. When Tenzin is being brutalized by the Red Lotus, the camera pans away. It is SO painful to see him like this, and the directors know it. It’s TOO painful to see it, so they don’t show you it, and the episode ends before we can see him be defeated.

Contrast that with Korra. They show you every detail of this. And I mean every detail.

It’s disgusting, and they refuse to treat her with any sort of decency or respect like they do Tenzin. It’s almost like they want us to enjoy her torturing. It’s genuinely gross.

People will often refute this by saying “LoK is just a darker show! Look at what they did to the Earth Queen!” And while yes, it is marketed towards an older audience, there’s still no point in brutalizing Korra this way. The main difference between Korra and the Earth Queen is that… well, Korra’s the protagonist. We’re supposed to be rooting for her, and while the Earth Queen being suffocated was definitely dark, it wasn’t unprecedented. The audience was never supposed to like the Earth Queen—she exploited and kidnapped her own people, so of course we wouldn’t care THAT much if she died. But we’ve been with Korra since the beginning. We’re supposed to want her to be happy, and why on earth would we want her to be tortured brutally in such a disgusting way that gives her absolutely no dignity? If we want her to succeed?

(here Zaheer uses the same technique used on the Earth Queen to suffocate here on Korra. for some reason)

In Season 4, the main focus is on Korra and her healing from the brutal things the Red Lotus did to her. She is clearly still struggling, and it could have been another great way to show how being physically strong and confident doesn’t mean you can’t be vulnerable. But they make a lot of bad choices in this season.

One of my main gripes is that in order to heal, she has to return to her abuser, Zaheer, and HE has to teach her how to feel better.

I don’t want to compare LoK to ATLA, although it’s very important to mention that a show that’s a direct sequel, uses its old characters, and banks off of references, should be able to be compared to its predecessor. But I think it’s important to compare Korra’s arc here to Zuko. This doesn’t come out of nowhere; Korra has a lot of similarities to Zuko. The chopping of her hair is a significant turning point in her arc, and there’s an episode called “Korra Alone” (which is clearly a direct callback; shown below).

The difference between Zuko and Katara is that, a. Zuko never had to accept his abuser, and b. Zuko started off as a villain.

One of Zuko’s major points is when he confronts his father—his abuser. He does not bow to him and give in, saying that maybe he had a few good points or his heart was in the right place, but he directly says that Ozai was wrong for what he did. This isn’t the case with Korra. For some reason, Korra has to learn to trust her abuser. The person who did this to her:

And she has to hear him out.

This leads me to my second point, and what’s basically the complaint I have; despite being a protagonist, the show treats Korra like a villain. It frames her torture scenes as if we’re supposed to be excited that she’s being brutalized, as if we’re supposed to think she deserves it. And it’s not even handled properly as one of the villains we know so well—Zuko, who was able to overcome his abuse and become a protagonist who we root for. Again, Zuko and Korra aren’t directly the same characters, but there are parallels between the two and the show encourages their comparison. When it comes to Korra, however, we’re supposed to believe that she deserves everything that comes to her; the brutal scenes and the lack of dignity, even if she is a protagonist.

And in the end, that’s what we’re meant to believe; that Korra deserved what happened to her. In the finale, Korra says, “I finally understand why I had to go through all that. I needed to understand what true suffering was, so I could become more compassionate to others.”

This is, to put it short, ridiculous. I hate this so much I can’t even begin to say how much I hate it. No, Korra did not have to go through the torture she went through. She did not have to go through the mercury poisoning. She did not have to go through every hardship she did. This “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is so harmful because Korra’s healing revolved around accepting her abuser and thanking him for the awful things he did to her. Korra wasn’t even that cocky by the end of the first season, so what it’s essentially indirectly teaching girls is that if you’re confident, you’ll pay. It’s disgusting.

Zuko got a banishment to the Earth Kingdom, got to have his ideas and practices challenged, but he never got physically tortured. I truly, truly believe that one of the main reasons why Korra is quite literally villainized by the show is because she was a confident, brown teenage girl. None of the male characters are treated with such disrespect and we never get told that they need to be “humbled” by abuse.

This is not completely resolved to LoK; there are some aspects in ATLA that I think could’ve been fixed had there been more women in the room. I tag her a lot (bc her metas are awesome), but I really recommend you read @araeph 's Katara: Consumed by Destiny series. I also have a meta here about how Katara is treated in ATLA, specifically in “The Fortuneteller.” (I want to emphasize that while I am anti-Kataang, I don’t believe that Katara’s treatment had to do with the ship itself or that kataang is inherently anti-Katara. It’s just a note about how her character is treated in this episode and beyond.)

I’ve heard a lot of people say that they’re ‘glad’ that LoK didn’t feature Suki or Mai or Ty Lee, because they can’t imagine how poorly they’d be represented. And honestly, I can’t blame them.

This isn’t to say that we need to stop watching LOK or even ATLA. I think the internet has this weird problem where we’ve been told that the way to get rid of problematic media is to just stop consuming anything even remotely problematic altogether. But certain aspects of media will always be relatively problematic, since as content creators we sometimes input our biases into the things we create. The solution, then, is not to banish anyone who puts any harmful stereotypes into their content from society, but to actively and healthily criticize it. Bryke are not God, but they’re also not demons put on the earth to suppress woc. They’re white guys that have implicit biases that have worked their way into the content they produce. I think the lesson learned here, is to have women, especially BIWOC, in writing rooms, to prevent atrocious acts from happening to future Korra's.

Happy International Women’s Day, y’all.

[myundeadgayson]

my favorite flower husbands moments of 3rd LifeSMP (part 3) (includes spoilers up to the finale):

the entire concept of Scott building them a bunker and only giving those he trusts a chest with potions. basically any time Scott shows how much he genuinely trusts people and puts in the effort for them makes my heart warm. Jimmy, of course, at the top of that trust chain tho and it’s sweet.

again, me imagining Scott as this kind of lone elf pre-everything that lived his life mostly alone, but now he’s opened up his new home in this world that’s rapidly turning more dangerous by the day to someone else. him being so trusting of others bc for one, he knows he can handle himself if worst comes to worst. for two, he has no reason not to trust others. some would find it naive, but he’s simply just a realist that happens to be optimistic sometimes about people.

i’m mentioning all that bc i think it makes it more special knowing he trusts and cares about people, but he is incredibly realistic about how bad things can happen, but it all comes down to the fact that as long as he and Jimmy can live happily with their home safe, then he’s fine with everyone else. and i think it’s adorable imagining how Jimmy probably realizes all this and thinks it’s so nice. his catboy tax benefits husband is very sweet:)

Jimmy scaring the fuck out of Scott by shouting any time he needs him.

Scott pranking Jimmy with a cake of all things and Jimmy just “can you please taste it for me:(“

focusing in on the cake, Jimmy’s become so nervous about hidden traps killing him that he can’t even trust a cake of all things. and the double-edge of Scott pranking him with the cake to scare him, but also reminding Jimmy that he doesn’t have to fear everything. always be safe, but also Scott wouldn’t willingly put him at risk like that.

Jimmy: “i’ll run with you! let’s do some skipping together.”

the fact Jimmy’s solution to making Scott eat the cake ever included running around WITH Scott in case the fact that Scott wouldn’t be alone would make Scott more willing to do it. it’s Dogboy energy innit.

the way Jimmy instantly goes from being nervous to “awwwww :D” when he finds out Scott made the cake for him

any moment Jimmy pops up randomly, but it’s during a peaceful moment and surprises Scott. i can’t explain it. there’s just domestic husbands randomly visiting each other energy here.

any time Scott and Jimmy show up somewhere together. power couple energy enters the chat, but in the shape of a fancy elf man and his zombie husband following at his heels like a lost puppy.

Scott calling Jimmy his ride or die

the mirror dynamic of Scar and Grian, a red-life and green-life that have been active in the fighting and know the terrors of not being able to trust anyone, versus Scott and Jimmy, a red and green life that have tried to live a mostly peaceful life. the fact Scar and Grian learned they have to constantly be on guard, watch their back, always have a trap ready, etc. the fact they live together more for their own safety as allies rather than Scott and Jimmy, who agreed bc they enjoy each other’s company.

honestly there’s so much in those parallels to talk about, but i just needed to mention how much i love that this exists and you constantly see those parallels seeing as the two pairs are allies.

it’s the hostile zombie man and his human companion dynamics for me, but one pair is hardened and cautious from the ongoing wars and the other pranks each other with cake.

Grian: “i don’t trust anyone. i’ve invested so much gunpowder into this project that i’ll take down everyone with me included if i have to.”

Scott, casually standing with his full trust in various people: cool, i’m in 👍

Grian telling Scar “i can’t let you go like that” and Scott following up with “yeah, and i can’t trust Jimmy to pull a lever so—“

Scott losing a life, Jimmy, and all his shit all in the span of five seconds, then proceeding to accidentally drink poison bc he’s so frazzled from everything. it’s a purely Jimmy move and you know Jimmy would be yelling at him about it, but now Scott’s alone and doesn’t yet know how to process their one braincell being his officially.

upon losing Jimmy, Scott instantly turning to revenge, murder, and arson. the fact this was him basically deciding to give up peaceful life entirely to maintain a life of war bc his husband that essentially represented that hope for a better life is now gone. he’s alone, single, and a bit unhinged.

also, Scott becoming untrusting of majority of people upon losing a life and Jimmy. hardened widow of the war turned badass archer moment.

i’m crying in the club. i miss Jimmy.

i’m on the last episode of the series now, and i’m absolutely crying over the missing zombie man. his husband misses him and i do too.

i’m never going to get over the fact that after Jimmy died, Scott immediately turned from peaceful and trusting to “i have a husband to avenge and i’m going to take down as many people to blame for it as possible”

mans showing that he does know how to kill and has many tricks up his sleeve on how to kill people. him being peaceful from the start was the safest option for everyone else, not him.

he was simply out for blood. i love that for him<3

i’m now crying.

they’re together again tho,,, but i’m in Tears,,,

[nitw]

Can you explain what you mean with misinterpreting Chara? I've always been confused about that character and you seem to have a pretty solid read you alluded to in that post about Snowgrave.

of course!!! as your local chara defender since the ripe age of 13 i hope you don't mind me doing a small essay on this. please bear with me tho because i sometimes can't articulate my thoughts well on stories that deal with philosophical themes ;;

UHHH SPOILERS FOR UNDERTALE AND DELTARUNE CHAPTER 2 BELOW

first let me make a few things clear so i don't have to repeat myself a bunch:

only tobias radiation fox himself has The Word of God privilege when it comes to things that haven't been explicitly confirmed in the games yet, EVEN if they're strongly hinted at. don't take anything i say about the plot as more than firm personal interpretation based on the info we have right now!

i cannot stress this one enough: undertale is a game that was never meant to be experienced from a singular perspective/mindset. the genocide route doesn't JUST exist for the sake of "enjoy your personalized edgy fuck-you run for being a serial killer in a video game", every one of the total 93 endings (look it up) in this game exists to reflect the player who achieved it in one way or another. the genocide route is really no different from any of the others, because in the end, no matter what, the player who decided to go through with the things they did will ALWAYS be rewarded for it. the question the player will have to ask THEMSELF afterwards is "is this what i wanted?"

OK MOVING ON-

let's think back to the little but vital amount of info we have on who chara actually was, like, as a person. we know pretty much all of this due to 1) the tapes in the royal lab 2) asriel's additional dialogue at the end of true pacifist.

while we'll never really know why frisk fell into the underground, asriel tells us explicitly about chara's hatred for humanity, and how they jumped from mt. ebott for "not a very happy reason"; supposedly a suicide attempt. chara "never talked about why", it's left intentionally vague because their reasoning isn't really what matters. what DOES matter is how this is relevant to the genocide run, ESPECIALLY with the new obvious parallels in deltarune's snowgrave route. i'll get to that.

when you finish the genocide route, chara will talk directly to the player in person. they talk about your (you AND chara's) success, despite "their plan (having) failed". this "plan" is one they secretly made with asriel when they were both still alive, as revealed from the tapes. chara got terminally poisoned from eating buttercups (whether this was fully intentional or not is still kiiinda up for debate), and while on their deathbed, asriel says that he doesn't like the plan anymore. yet despite his fear, he still fused his soul to chara's when they died.

the actual plan here was to become a monster powerful enough to slaughter humanity, specifically chara's home village by their own dying request - this all ties into their mysterious spite and hatred mentioned before. but due to asriel's resistance against chara, their fused body was killed by the humans - which eventually led to the creation of flowey, and asriel's inner demons after death.

but back to the genocide route. during chara's monologue to the player, they give us a LOT of important exposition. basically:

at the very start of the game, frisk's own determination is literally what brought chara's soul 'back to life'. we know how human and monster souls are different and how "determination" in this universe is something only humans possess, so it makes sense why it awakened them. i won't get into the whole narrator theory because i feel like it's not that relevant to my point (it's fun tho), but chara is always present from the moment frisk falls down, and stays regardless of the player's actions.

if you managed to finish undertale at all you'll already kinda know this (thanks sans), but the EXP and LV you (can) gain throughout your journey aren't just numbers on your screen - they're genuine in-universe manifestations of power that increase when you kill someone. and in genocide, chara explains how they were directly affected every time your stats rose. they could FEEL their spirit growing stronger for every life you decided to take (REMINDER THAT THE GENOCIDE ROUTE CAN BE PERMANENTLY STOPPED AT ANY POINT BEFORE SANS. YOU DID THIS.), so is it really that strange that they felt the desire to grow even stronger?

and once you do reach this point, there's no return. all that excessive time and effort you put into killing off a civilization OBVIOUSLY has some consequences. the consequences HERE being - if you paid attention to chara's life story - you took advantage of a traumatized child who was already at the breaking point and making irrational choices on their own, and you led them to believe that this was what they needed!

this is VERY MUCH SUPPORTED by the snowgrave/weird/pipis/whatever route of deltarune chapter 2 that was discovered about 2 days ago as i'm writing this. i'm gonna go ahead and assume you know what happens in it and i don't care to go into details if you don't, since this post is about chara, but surprise: THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO NOELLE, TOO! even in a completely normal run, noelle makes it clear multiple times that she wouldn't mind staying in the dark world; that in spite of how scary and dangerous it seems at times (something something horror movies), she started to feel at home. POSSIBLY even more so than her ACTUAL HOME, with her dying dad and negligent mom. like chara, noelle is a young person with low self esteem and her fair share of trauma, even if it's not as apparent. and like in the genocide run, the player's desire to ruthlessly kill in order to grow stronger affected her already-poor mental state.

someone else already pointed this out specifically, so don't credit me for it, but the main difference between chara and noelle is that noelle managed to break free in the end.

if you're like Most People Who Played The Genocide Route Back In Like 2016 and you played the genocide route with no further knowledge about it than "i have to follow these specific steps to get a harder fucked up version of the game", i don't blame you. you didn't actually know what you were doing in the end, did you? but did the outcome disappoint you, make sense to you, or did it just leave you with an empty/confused feeling? i love undertale because it WILL force you to think about things like that. i mean, if the result wasn't gonna affect you in SOME way, why would you go through all of that trouble in the first place? you had your reasons, as the player of any video game where you know your choices matter. would you have carried out the entire thing if you knew what was coming? the answer to that is only relevant to yourself.

[blackbirdandbutterfly]

That’s the way it is...

I’ve been haunted by the ghost of someone I used to love for the past 7 years.

I don’t know whether he is literally dead, or he’s just a phantom born from my trauma. But recently the universe forced me to face that trauma and work my way through it. Forgiveness - TRUE forgiveness - can be a tricky thing to achieve. Especially when the person has hurt you in ways that left you permanently scarred. Forgiveness isn’t just a simple declaration or action. It’s a process. It’s something that you have to practice, because depending on who or what you are trying to forgive, chances are you’re not going to achieve the first, the second, even the tenth time you try. You go through phases, stages...

In the process of trying to forgive him, I've realized there’s a striking parallel between forgiveness, and processing grief. But I don’t know why that surprises me so much. Grief and trauma are so tightly entwined that the line between them is as thin as an atom.

The stages of forgiveness and the stages of processing grief are even pretty much the same. You start with denial...

“Why should I have to forgive them?”

“I don’t need to forgive them. I can’t. I won’t. I never will.”

“If I live a thousand years, I will never forgive you.”...okay you know what? You got a two for one deal with that last one, because there's a whole lot of anger in that statement too. There’s a whole lot of anger in the process of practicing forgiveness. A lot of people never get past it. But sooner or later, sometimes you realize that the anger is poisoning you. At that point, you may move on to bargaining. 

“Maybe I can forgive them someday, but not now. I’m not there yet.” If you can make it this far, it’s an accomplishment, and you’re probably going stay in this phase for a while. Quite possibly very long while. And that’s okay! 

Then the depression hits you like a freight train. You really do want to forgive them, for yourself if nothing else, but the traumatic memories keep coming to you. Sometimes they’re triggered by the most infinitesimal things; sometimes just completely out of nowhere. Even though you try to acknowledge that it happened a long time ago, even though you try to process it and move on, you just can’t. Those wounds might be old, but they’re still open and bleeding, and the pain feels like it really will be there forever. This experience can and probably will send you flying back to angerville. Rinse and repeat.

Acceptance is a stage a lot of people just never reach. And you know what? this is where forgiveness and processing grief differ. Sooner or later you have to accept the source of your grief. But forgiveness? That’s not always going to be possible. There are some things that just can’t be forgiven, and in those situations the mere suggestion that you should do it is tone deaf at best, and abusive at worst. Then we get into the thing that really sucks for the person who is being forgiven...

Nothing is ever going to be the same. Trust can never be unbroken. Some scars just never go away. Sometimes the pain never does either. Just because someone forgives you, it doesn’t mean they’re ever going to want you to be in their life again. And if you find yourself in the unfortunate position of being someone who is forgiven, but ever after unwelcome in someone’s life, you have to be okay with that. Sometimes that’s just the way it is. Having a prominent place in someone’s life is a gift that you should never take for granted. There are nearly 8 billion people in the world. Even if you’re the biggest social butterfly in the world, you are never going to know even a fraction of them. Losing someone you used to be close to is a tragedy. But sometimes when it happens, we only have ourselves to blame. That’s a lesson that everyone learns sooner or later, and it’s one of the most painful lessons of all.

I never thought I would be able to forgive that man. And forgiveness, much like grief, isn’t linear. Sometimes you’ll bounce back and forth between the stages so much you’ll feel like you’ve got whiplash. Such was the case for me. It took me seven years. But I think I am finally, at long last, ready to forgive him.

I don’t know if you’re dead or alive, and to be honest I’m still too afraid of you to find out. But Dan...if you’re out there, and you happen to ever read this...I forgive you. We were two people who had no idea how to be in a healthy relationship. We both hurt each other so much. It took me a really long time to accept that. I accepted it in my head almost as soon as the relationship was over, but accepting it in my heart was my Everest. I think I’ve finally reached the peak, and the view is breathtaking.

Now I really believe that we both deserve to be happy. I’m sending you all my love and wishing you all the peace and happiness in the world.

Just...maybe...find your happiness far away from me.

[thinkingisadangerouspastime]

what do you think of aang's comments in "the southern raiders" and what they meant to katara? I watched that episode recently with my sister who dislikes atla, and assessed similar things to what certain people of the fandom are saying: "aang didn't understand her", "aang was pushing his beliefs onto her", "it didn't seem like he knew her", etc. she was more fair than those people of course because she did say it was realistic that he'd be so worried since she recognizes that he does love her.

Honestly those arguments are all,, tired. They’re outdated. They’re boring. They’re wrong. They’re a result of a fundamental misunderstanding of A:TLA canon. This isn’t to say that those who genuinely, truly believe these arguments are terrible people (obviously not lmao), but somewhere along the line they had a seed planted in their mind that posits them to have inherent dislike for Aang. And honestly? I just feel sorry for them, because not understanding and appreciating Aang means their A:TLA experience really can’t be that great. But I digress!

“aang didn’t understand her”

Oh, what’s the post? Right - “Fandom once again forgets that Aang is the sole survivor of genocide.” Aang understands better than anyone else what Katara is going through*. There is a direct parallel between Aang finding Gyatso’s skeleton and Katara finding Kya’s body. I’m not going to sit here and argue which was more traumatizing (literally can’t stand when people do that) because you can’t quantify grief like that, but it cannot be denied that Aang has experienced something incredibly similar to what Katara has gone through: the loss of a close parental figure followed by finding said parent’s corpse. Not only that, but Aang and Katara both share a unique sense of helplessness intertwined with their grief regarding their parental figures’ deaths. For Katara, there are the questions of:

- what if I wasn’t a waterbender

- what if I had run a little faster

- what if I had fought against Yon Rha back then

All leading to “Could I have saved her?” For Aang, there are the questions of:

- what if I wasn’t the Avatar

- what if I hadn’t run away

- what if I had stayed to fight the Fire Nation back then

All leading to “Could I have saved him?” Both of them feel incredibly guilty on a personal level about the death of their parental figures, thus blaming themselves. Katara tries to push it off onto Zuko/the Fire Nation and Aang tries to suppress it entirely, but ultimately it is revealed how closely they hold responsibility to their chests. For Aang, it comes out in “The Storm.” For Katara, it comes out in “The Southern Raiders.” So, bullshit that Aang doesn’t understand Katara! He understands her grief better than anyone.

Also, many, many people have gone into this before, but Aang’s example of Appa being stolen was not callous/rude/etc. Appa was the last living piece of his culture. Appa is not “just a pet.” People who insist so are the actual ones being callous, not Aang. And, as Aang himself says, “How do you think I felt about the Fire Nation when I found out what happened to my people?” Aang has experienced more hurt at the hands of the Fire Nation than anyone. There’s a great meta here that delves into Aang’s experiences as the sole survivor of genocide. I don’t understand how someone could acknowledge all that Aang has lost (read: he has lost everything) and then argue that he doesn’t understand Katara’s pain. Like, what? Do you have no sense of empathy?

But most importantly, from Katara herself: “Thanks for understanding, Aang.” She says this after her initial dismissal of him. So take it from the source, my friend - Katara believed Aang understood her. Who are we to argue?

*The only exception perhaps being Sokka, since Kya was indeed his mother, too, but it is worth noting that Sokka did not have the same experience of seeing Kya’s dead body or feeling the intense self-blame that Katara did.

“aang was pushing his beliefs onto her”

It is SO funny how those SAME people have NO problem with everyone in the Gaang telling Aang to kill Ozai the finale! Y’know, when they were disregarding the pacifistic beliefs of his people in exchange for emphasizing their, ahem, more aggressive ones? SO funny! I’m laughing SO hard right now!

Heavy sarcasm, in case it wasn’t obvious. They’re hypocrites and they know it.

But, more importantly, Aang was not pushing his beliefs onto her? At all?? Tell me where in the episode Aang:

- refused to let Katara go after Yon Rha

- told Katara what she was doing was wrong

- told Katara that HE was right and that SHE needed to listen to HIM

Here’s the thing: none of that ever happened! Not only does Aang accept that Katara needs to go (see: “I wasn’t planning to [stop you]. This is a journey you need to take. You need to face this man.”), but he allows her to take Appa on her journey. Appa, the last living piece of his culture. Aang has incredible trust in Katara, and his choice to send Appa with her (essentially sending a piece of himself with her) demonstrates this fact clearly. That should end the discussion point blank, but I guess I’ll break down the lines people seem to have issues with:

1) “It’s okay, because I forgive you. [Pauses.] That give you any ideas?”

Honestly, the criticism this line gets is laughable to me. People use it to argue that Aang was being disrespectful to Katara’s feelings and?? I hate to break it to them, but you HAVE to look at the context a line is in if you’re going to judge it. That is Analysis 101: Context is Everything. This moment is used to break tension. That type of scenario is an entire literary trope, okay? A:TLA did not invent it! Shakespeare literally did it in Romeo and Juliet when he had Peter argue with musicians about something stupid after Juliet’s “death.” The whole point is to break tension before more serious scenes. In R&J, it is before the lovers kill themselves, and in A:TLA, it is before Katara leaves with Zuko to confront Yon Rha. That’s why there’s another moment just like it at the end of that scene! Y’know, Sokka asking to borrow Momo for no reason? It breaks tension! It’s a moment of respite before weighty scenes! It’s incredibly common in every form of media! This is what no Humanities classes did to some of y’all, I swear to God. So yeah, Aang was not disrespecting Katara’s feelings with this. It’s just a tension-breaker. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news for those who devoutly believed it was a sign of Aang being a Horrible Person. You were wrong, ain’t no big thing, go drink some water and stay hydrated okay darlings?

2) “I don’t think so. I think it’s about getting revenge.”

Um, a major point of “The Southern Raiders” is that Aang was right about Katara’s initial drive to face Yon Rha? It was a quest for revenge? Katara literally bloodbends, an ability she was forced to learn and essentially feels cursed to bear? Also, nowhere here does Aang tell Katara she was a horrible person for feeling angry and wanting revenge. He simply brings her attention to the reality that what she’s currently seeking is revenge. He’s worried about her. She’s his best friend! He loves her! He doesn’t want her to kill Yon Rha because he knows that for Katara to have blood on her hands from a revenge quest would hurt her tremendously. (As a matter of fact, the audience knows - or should know - this, too.) So, sorry that Aang expresses concern for her? Apparently not wanting your best friend to murder someone is forcing your beliefs onto them? Damn. Y’all are harsh these days.

3) “The monks used to say that revenge is like a two-headed rat viper. While you watch your enemy go down, you’re being poisoned yourself.” // “Katara, you do have a choice: forgiveness.” // “No, it’s not. It's easy to do nothing, but it’s hard to forgive.” // “But when you do, please don’t choose revenge. Let your anger out, and then let it go. Forgive him.”

I put all the forgiveness quotes together since people tend to complain about them as a whole. But like,, I really don’t see how this is Aang forcing his beliefs onto her? He asks her to choose forgiveness. And just speaking plainly: on an emotional level, it is better for someone to forgive than to murder. Killing someone is not easy, even if you hate that person with every bone in your body, and it will mentally scar whomever does it. Y’all know this! It’s obvious! I shouldn’t have to say it! But Aang knows this, too, and thus he doesn’t want to see Katara kill Yon Rha and perhaps kill a part of herself in the process. Katara is not a killer. I’m not arguing about whether she could have or even if she wanted to, because you know what, she admits she was tempted, but Katara is not a killer. An FMA quote is very fitting here:

“Your hands weren’t meant to kill. They were meant to give life.”

Why should Katara have to live with a man’s murder on her conscience, especially when his death would be a result of fruitless revenge? The answer is simple: she shouldn’t, and Aang doesn’t want her to. Katara is a warrior. A healer. A leader. A friend. But not a killer.

Anyways. Back to my point: Aang is not forcing his beliefs onto her here. He’s offering her another option, the option she ends up choosing, albeit she extends forgiveness to Zuko instead. And Prince Holier-Than-Thou (jk love you Zuzu) acknowledges it himself: “You [Aang] were right about what Katara needed.” Aang didn’t force anything on Katara here. He reminded her of her choices, he reminded her about the consequences of revenge, and he reminded her about the value of forgiveness. Never once did he tell her she had to forgive Yon Rha or else. And when it came down to it, he stepped aside, and he let her go, because he knew this was a journey she needed to take. So… He actually did the exact opposite of forcing his beliefs onto her! He respected her feelings and let her make her own decision! Seriously, how many pairs of anti-Aang goggles do people have to wear to genuinely believe otherwise??

“it didn't seem like he knew her”

Ohhhhhh my God this is SO close to one of the actual points of the episode! So close!! It’s not that Aang didn’t know her; it’s that Katara wasn’t acting like herself. I’ve talked about it before here and here, but Katara was incredibly consumed by her emotions in “The Southern Raiders.” It’s why she ignores Zuko the entire time before they leave on Appa! It’s why she makes that callous comment to Sokka about their mother that we know she never would have made normally! She is drowning in grief about her mother’s absence, guilt regarding her mother’s death, and anger about Zuko (she still does not trust him, and yet he can lead her to her mother’s killer; I don’t know about y’all, but that is really freaking difficult to reconcile). So when Aang compares her to Jet, it’s not a far-off description. She is acting like Jet, because she’s consumed by grief and hurt and anger and she’s not acting like herself. It is instrumental, too, that Katara isn’t acting like herself, because it makes her decision not to pursue revenge and instead offer a second third chance to Zuko even more profound. “I’m proud of you,” Aang tells her, and damn! The audience is, too! I was incredibly proud of her for finding her way out of what can be a bottomless spiral for some people. So again, it wasn’t that Aang didn’t know her. It was that Katara wasn’t acting like herself (I guess meaning… no one knew her?).

In conclusion, literally all of these anti-Aang arguments regarding TSR are exhausting and so easily disprovable. The fact that they somehow manage to live on is evidence that people just want excuses to hate Aang, plain and simple. Like, it’s so easy to just say you don’t vibe with his character? You don’t have to pull BS excuses to “justify” it? I don’t vibe with Ty Lee as much as I do other characters (although I have recently grown much more fond of her; bless the Renaissance for more Mailee content, even if some of it is just a Zukka byproduct), but y’all don’t see me twisting her sacrifice in “Boiling Rock” to make it seem like it was selfish or something (mostly because, spoiler alert, it wasn’t). Like, you can say Aang isn’t your favorite and move on instead of using the same boring rhetoric over and over and over that just makes it look like you lack critical thinking. :/

TL;DR - Aang’s comments to Katara in “The Southern Raiders” came from a place of concern. A place of wisdom. A place of love. And honestly? I think Katara realizes this, and she’s grateful to him all the more for it.

[agentrouka-blog]

Sansa felt that she had swallowed a bat in her tummy when she saw Joffery looking at her in ASOS. In same book she was described as some kind of witch with bat wings fly away after killing Joffery with spells. For me it's foreshadowing for Dany. Dany had a child who had bat wings. She also dream of having bat wings which came true through Drogon. She already engaged in witchcraft in AGOT. Sansa 'killing' Joffery could be implying Dany killing Aegon. Thoughts?

Hi anon!

The question to me is: what purpose do these parallels serve?

The suggestion of Dany connected to regicide or kinslaying is not so outlandish that GRRM needs to try and foreshadow it subtly by using Sansa as a "passive vessel". The parallel is not to the future for Dany but to the past. So the foreshadowing must apply in the other direction.

The entirety of ASOS, but especially the weddings and that wedding breakfast, have a number of parallels between Sansa and AGOT-Dany, and the death of a "king" is no exception.

Sansa witnesses the murder of the guy she was originally supposed to marry, which is officially blamed on her legal husband. It gains her the reputation of a killer. Joffrey and Viserys seem to line up more than Joffrey and Aegon. It's also a vague parallel to Cersei, who thought to marry Rhaegar and marries his killer instead.

Dany "exchanged" Drogo's child for the dragons. Cersei had three bastards with her twin. Sansa has... a leather-winged creature in her belly. Not her husband's work, for certain. If we are going three for three... Brienne is bearing the Lothston bat shield on the first part of her journey to find Sansa, but she paints over it with kingsguard Duncan's personal arms. Not exactly fertility imagery. So this bat likely refers to something closer to what Cersei and Dany did: a "child" by a controversial partner, incest-vibes and an elemental connection to her ancestry: snow. Or a "leather-winged creature", a snow dragon.

The bat-in-tummy is part of a pattern in this chapter: mentions of an upset tummy and moonblood, mentions of burning eggs, mentions of having a baby in her belly by the same Joffrey who triggers the bat comments, mentions of Ellaria bearing bastard children... there is a lot of imagery playing on fertility and bastardy surrounding that bat for Sansa.

She is not Joffrey's bride, and not truly Tyrion's wife, and the bat fluttering in her belly is only an image. It has to be about the future. A bastard bat in Sansa's future. Or, rather, a bastard dragon.

The rumored flight on batwings, on the other hand, is in Arya's POV much later. It underlines the connection between bats and dragons, but it's only a rumor that we know is untrue. Killing with a spell and flying dragon imagery fit Stannis and certainly Dany but not Sansa. The "magic" for Sansa was murder by poison, she climbed down from the castle herself, and her "wings" were the sails of a ship.

I'd venture a guess that this second mention is much closer to the kind of foreshadowing you suggest. This rumor matches the scary stories told of Danelle Lothston in AFFC, which foreshadow a twisted image of Hazzea and how rumors affect Dany's reputation in Essos and Westeros. It stands to reason that this is an instance that paints a contrast between Sansa and Dany. When told about Sansa, the rumor is pretty silly. But people will have reason to tell similar stories about another character in the future, and then they might just be true. Killing kings with a spell ("Dracarys") and flying away and all.