#but the story isnt about them and ultimately they arent going to be the ones in the spotlight ever!

[erythristicbones]

curse of suddenly becoming unreasonably attached to side characters in my stories strikes again

[seal-berry]

sooo

-jay and little destiny left behind bonnie and jays siblings right after their father possibly died

-golbetty couldve eaten simon and he wouldve thanked her and had his wish to be with her forever granted but nope he gets to be PATHOLOGIZED! dont worry simon, your problem has a NAME and its CODEPENDENCY. phew, sure am glad that thorny, complicated topic gets wrapped up nice and neat! be sure to pick up a copy of "the body keeps the score" on the way out, simon. (no shame against that book but the things people assume after reading it are wild and labelling a relationship that has some small flaws as toxically codependent to the point of breakup is one of them)

-fionna gets to get told WHATS WHAT about how STUPID she is for wishing magic was real. just picket and play roller derby like a normal girl, its not like the world needs to REALLY change... changing it might risk what you have! and you APPRECIATE what you have, right fionna? need to watch your friends die some more so that you accept wage slavery america as the pinnacle of existence? you should be sorry for thinking it was so boring, thats not very self care of you fionna

-oh but cake gets to stay. because uhhh. idk. it would be fucked up to have a detransition narrative, i guess? and shes not a 20-something who needs to grow up. i guess we cant accidentally teach our audience to become stretchy cats, so its fine, its not teaching them anything bad! but fionna being magical, now THAT would send the wrong message

- every other couple gets to have romantic/imperfect/codependent moments-- gary sacrifices his WHOLE DREAM for marshall. but the writers know its not very 2023 of them to make the gays more problematic than just. having some psychosexual violence thrown in there for spice. but simon and betty? sorry you werent perfect and she dont want you no more

-any romance that ends with "i am willingly breaking it off with you even though we could be together" needs to work HARD for that to satisfy. golbetty couldve eaten simon and he wouldve thanked her. blowing him off into the world IS DISREGARDING HIS WISHES! it just feels like they imposed Recovery Aesthetic onto simon and fionna and were like see :) Happee Ending! dont look at all the loose threads, simon went to THERAPY! zoomers love when old men go to therapy, right?? simon and betty's issues werent wrestled hard, long, and to the ground enough on-screen to sell that she doesnt want him anymore and that that truly is the best ending she can bring with her ultimate power, it reads that golbetty truly did override betty's self and changed her into an unrecognizeable figure. its so stupid that adding a little bit of pathologizing therapy talk can make people say this was good.

and codependency IS pathologizing. how much dependency is healthy, at what point does it tip into being too toxic to save? that depends on which therapist youre talking to. humans are wired for connection, no amount of CBT and DBT will make you not mourn losing a connection, and the pain of that loss shouldnt be used as evidence that you should just be less attached. simon isnt a mind reader, and betty made her choices. you can call it a "fawn response" but that still implies that you think she was unfit for autonomy. if she really doesnt regret those choices, why doesnt she want to be with simon? that question is not answered well enough to leave it not feeling like a swerve for audience members who arent projecting their own codependent experiences onto betty. the text alone doesnt support it enough for that to ring true, not when they only actually delved into the topic for about 5-10 onscreen minutes. Not to mention the fact that the ending ends with a fucking montage where it looks like simon just turned happy and is living his dream of cheers sitcom life. is that really better than becoming one with your beloved crazy wife forever? is that actually more realistic, in the visceral emotional language that stories speak? is it a more satisfying ending, getting 80% there and then saying "actually this dramatic cool story has some Problematic Elements, I'm going home"?

i wish they gave her more lines. they couldve given her more lines, made simon talking at the audience into a real conversation, and they didnt. there were so many things they couldve done and it ended up at something just as toxic as whatever codependency they were railing against, the idea that the relationship we were shown was too toxic and flawed and that betty was clearly fawning for simon and not capable of making her own decisions while simon shouldve stepped up and fixed that for her. they want to play it like "we must go our separate ways" but there's no must. this is still a choice betty is making, to break up with simon for good, and that choice was always gonna be a hard sell but not even letting betty have more than a few lines about it? how do you expect to sell such a big emotional shift? therapy speak, apparently.

and they seriously played the "simon goes back to his life" card WITHOUT a marcy scene??? lazy heroes journey shit.

[aesteasis]

do you have any brazilian literature recommendations :))?

ooohohoho yes i do, im glad you asked >:)) grab some snackies and a water bottle, this is gonna be a long post.

most of what i've read from brazilian literature are classics and like books that are at least decades old lol (uni life go brr), so my recommendations will probably rotate around that. so lets go!

first of all, of course, i recommend Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis (black author btw!), it wouldnt be a br lit rec if i didnt mention this one at some point. this is like the ultimate classic i'd say, but im not recommending just for that. i REALLY enjoy unreliable narrators and this book is all about it. its a novel about a guy who marries his childhood love, but suspects she's cheating on him, but yk, he's a white man from the 19th century, he thinks he's always right and is privileged af and it shows in the way he tells his story, so his opinions arent that trustworthy. and the author knew very much what he was doing, and he did it on purpose.

still about Machado, i must mention his short stories. i really really enjoy grotesque and gothic literature (think the vibes of poe, lovecraft, gogol, dostoevsky, etc) and Machado nails at it. he's also translated poe's works to portuguese back in the day, so we know for certain there's some influences in there. well, i recommend Machado in genereal, my guy really knew how to criticize society with some great witty and sarcastic comments if you know where to look.

if you want more grotesque but is tired of reading stuff written by men, i recommend Julia Lopes de Almeida (who isnt as known as she should be, she was done dirty and purposefully neglected by ABL - brazilian literary non-profit society) and Lygia Fagundes Telles. both of them have some reeeal creepy stories, just the way i like it.

now, if you're into authors who dissect the human mind and master the stream of consciousness and love to relate to the thoughts of the characters of your books, i highly recommend Clarice Linspector. no one does it like her, my girl knows how to transform thoughts into a narrative and its insane, her books are really endearing to read imo.

but if you want something that will thresh the brazilian society (or well, any third world country's society i'd say) and expose every flaw about the system, racism, misogyny, colonialism and class conflict, i recommend specifically the books Vidas Secas, by Graciliano Ramos (idk if theres a translation, but the title says Dry Lives), The Slum, by Aluísio Azevedo, and The Devil to Pay in the Backlands, by Guimarães Rosa (this one is sooo hard to read in portuguese bc it uses a lot of regionalisms from a region im not from, so hard that i actually got a copy in english to read for my finals lmao. but worry not, the english translation is much easier to understand. it also has some queer themes, both gender and sexuality wise, and its a literal masterpiece).

for poetry, i highly recommend Augusto dos Anjos, a personal favourite. im not that into poetry, but Carlos Drummond de Andrade and Cecilia Meireles are very good too.

there's so much more i could recommend, but these are the ones that come to my mind rn. idk if thats what you were thinking about, and sorry i coulnt bring anything contemporary, if thats more your vibes, but i really recommend all of these, for anyone, they're really enriching to read.

[pyonzzz]

Please tell me about the fucked up little Pokémon oc siblings

hehe . hehehe . uueehehehe

obligatiry warning for faked suicides , some death , and toxic families

sososo important backstory is most of the siblings story takes place in my fan region , fioreé ( fee-or-eh ) , which is located somewhere to the north of unova !! and in fioreé its . mostly snow . its a very cold region and that part isnt really relevant but i think its very funny and cool ( hehe )

so here is where we meet a pokemon nurse / caretaker named grace , and her explorer husband , fissure . grace and fissure are the sweetest people youll ever meet , and they dont like to battle with their pokemon at all . most of them arent even officially caught in pokeballs , theyre just gentle people who want to live in complete peace with pokemon . grace runs a hospital / daycare out of their home for pokemon , often injured ones that fissure finds while exploring and brings home

they have a child and name them dogwood , and raise dogwood , who we will call dog for short , with their same values of non violence and harmony with pokemon . dog seems disinterested from a young age with continuing the family business , and prefers more academic things , which fissure and grace understand and allow

everything is fine , in dogs eyes , until they turn 7 and their parents have another child — this one named deerwood , who well call deer for short . from birth , deer seemed much more invested with the pokemon surrounding him , and it was clear to dog that their parents seemed to favour deer and his love of pokemon more than they did dog and their academics

this came to a head when one day , a wild , rampaging pokemon comes to the familys home / hospital and scares off most of the pokemon staying there , the only ones remaining being those that belonged to fissure and grace . by this time , dog is 18 and deer is 11 . the pokemon ( a legendary unknown to the kids ) attacks and eventually kills grace and fissure , and instead of fighting the pokemon , the parents sent out their pokemon to take the children to the nearest town to keep them safe

from this point onward , the siblings are nearly left to fend for their own . a friend of their parents gives them an apartment to live in once what happened is learned by the town , but dog has to balance working to pay bills and school with taking care of deer , and deer drops out of school to help out at the local pokecenter

dog refuses to get near any pokemon , even their parents old partners , a stantler and an arcanine , instead releasing them from their pokeballs . the two pokemon occasionally visit the children , mostly deer , until they pass of old age

meanwhile , deer continues to devote himself to caring for pokemon , so one day he can soothe any rampaging pokemon and prevent anyone else from going through what he did

dog was in the top of their classes , but due to their hatred of pokemon and overall antisocial demeanor , they were often bullied in school . they would in turn take this anger out on deer , berating him and such for the smallest things . deer never got mad at dog for it , though , as he view his older sibling as yet another rampaging pokemon to soothe one day

but dog ends up getting scouted by a scientific group , one wanting to understand everything about nature and the world . they ultimately want to return the world to a blank slate , with no humans or pokemon , for the longevity of the planet , even if they use pokemon in the meantime to help in some aspects of their plan . when they tell this to a now 22yr old dog , dog joins immediately , and within a year is promoted all the way up to vice-chairman of team ghast , the underground scientific laboratory

deer learns quickly what his older sibling is doing and absolutely despises it , because it goes against everything their parents taught them . but dog doesnt care about grace and fissure , since " they didnt care about me , either . just like you to kiss their asses as always , deerwood " . dog tries to convince deer repeatedly to join team ghast , but deer refuses and starts making secret plans to leave fioreé to live in peace

but to do this , they have to do something extreme , as dog was the sort of person to be able to track down deer almost immediately if he went anywhere behind dogs back thanks to fissures exploration teachings . so deer , 15yrs old , after months of making plans , fakes his own death with an attempt on his life that hospitalizes him , wherein the doctors and nurses help him escape his toxic older sibling . deer then goes into hiding before flying out to kalos by himself , to live freely with pokemon and never looking back on fioreé . he still has it in his heart that he wants to soothe dogs anger , but he wants to be happy , too , and his parents taught him that it can be dangerous to always protect others and not yourself

dog , meanwhile , takes the " death " of their little brother horribly , blaming themselves and their parents and the world itself for the loss . they devote themselves wholeheartedly to team ghast and their goal to erase all life from the planet . because theyve lost their parents to pokemon, they lost their brother to the pain living creatures cause . if they cant have happiness in this world , nobody can . they eventually become the ruler of team ghast after catching their first pokemon partner , an absol , and defeating the teams leader in a landslide battle .

maybe they reunite . maybe they dont . only tine will tell

now for lighthearted fun facts !! the story of my fan region was also a " fan game " i was planning , which would take place 3 years after deer runs away . 18yr old deer is 6'2" and 25yr old dog is 5'7" . deer is transfem with he / him pronouns and dog is intersex agender with a fem presentation

[nuggyshouse]

I was there in a stream when you explained you feel bad for others answering "have you played this/these games?" questions, but I won't mind if you say no cause we all like different things. With that being said, Have you played Any of the Punch Out games? Any Valve game made before 2013?

Which Smash Bros games? Movie or show licenced games? For me I played Shrek 2 among others.

Any Mario Kart games? Any Doom game? Any New Blood games? (Usually fps games)

Wii games? (Like Wii in the title, like Wii Play Motion, or Sport Resort) Other Wii games without Wii in the title? God of War games? I know you've played Kingdom Hearts, but which ones? Games on the Original Xbox? A childhood classic of mine is Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge

ok this post is long

Punch Out I played the Wii one once. it's pretty neat. I think it's okay but I think I like it more for what it represents more than the game itself

Valve Games I've played everything in the orange box and Portal 2. I think TF2 ruined my life and I will never go back, and Half Life 2 is great until I remember the fucking vehicle sequences and the motion sickness it gave me. I think Portal is an evergreen game that you can recommend to people who don't play video games, granted they can grasp how to control it. Portal 2 is also good but I feel like they heard people say "portal is funny" and dialed it to 100. Portal is a puzzle game with a few quirky jokes in it and Portal 2 is wearing a clown nose.

Smash Bros I've played all of them at some point. the first one I owned personally was Brawl and I feel like I really enjoy 4 and Ultimate. I was never big on Melee so I dont get it when people talk about how the last 2 games are worse. I'm like "but it has simon belmont in it!" because that's what I like about it. I think if I was more into frame data and competitive games more, I'd agree but I'm not and I want to play a character that isnt Fox or Marth.

Licensed Games our PS1 library was like almost 100% that and Gundam Battle Assault 2 really stuck with me. that's the game that taught me fighting game inputs. Also Toy Story 2 on PS1 was played a lot. I dont remember if it's actually good but we ended up beating it and really liking it.

Mario Kart I've never been big on Mario Kart but I played 8 on switch the most because it was the only thing my ex wanted to do with me but that's a whole can of worms and also the reason I dont play it anymore.

Doom I remember thinking it was cool when I was a kid but I never really got into it. I never had it myself either. I picked up 2016 when someone gave me a copy and I liked it a lot. I think Eternal is lacking something that makes me want to keep going. part of it is that I dont want to buy a gamer mouse just to play it. My hands arent build for keyboard control, so I can't hit every key to maximize my efficiency and that also bugs me. I never finished it.

New Blood I don't keep tabs on them nor do I know what they've made off the top of my head but I've heard they're good. I'm not big on FPS. Finishing Doom 2016 was a fluke.

Wii Series Games I dont really care for these games, but I recognize their place in the world.

Other Wii Games I really liked the wii for some fucking reason. Metroid Prime 3, Mario Galaxy, Tatsunoko vs Capcom, No More Heroes 1 and 2, the virtual console, Megaman 9, Castlevania Rebirth, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Colors. good shit. I still barely played Galaxy 2 though.

God of War I have never ever touched GoW and I thought about it but everyone I asked about it told me it wasnt super worth it and I believe them

Kingdom Hearts I played 1, Chain of Memories, 2 and (Numbers) Days. the only reason I fell off was because Birth By Sleep was a PSP game and I didnt have one of those. by the time DDD came out I felt like I wasn't in the loop and realized I wasnt invested anymore.

OG XBOX I played Halo at a friend's house and that's where my history with the Xbox begins and ends, sadly. I want to try Blinx the time cat just because

[cloneslugs]

also i hate most things where the final challenge is like well batman now you must give up your mask mostly bc it plays out so cliche and imo is such a weird stopping point for batman's story (esp if it's a villain who i dont think would care but props to ak for making me believe that jonathan has enough reason to care his hope v fear thing was actually good) but ak did such an interesting followup for post game seeing everyone close to batman react, esp w the high security lock up people i find it interesting that most people take it as batman = bruce wayne (seen a lot w everyone at the gcpd who tell him theyll just stick w batman or keep it to lighthearted jokes) and its jonathan's whole thing of giving face to the faceless and bringing down the idol-hood of a hero/hope (his argument for it is slightly diff than what i would go for though. i see it less as "now you have a face to blame, to put failure to" and more of "giving batman an identity takes him away from being a hero/urban legend/myth and turns him into something lesser which is a man" which i think was kind of touched on but eh. second doesnt work as well when hes long established and people know hes real which is another reason i think later timeline stuff is shakier for me depending on how it plays out) but im interested in the viewpoints of the majority batman = bruce wayne vs how a very small minority takes it, both being the people who knew batman most intimately, joker and harvey, who both make a statement about "wearing a mask" joker is harder to pinpoint in this game bc he is just a mind thing and most of his stuff is said to just be edgy or mean (but you can also argue that it's just bruce's own thoughts gone through some twisted joker way of saying them) but even still i think he makes a clear distinction (even if incorrect) that between bruce wayne and batman, there is a mask and an act put up & that theres freedoms in one that arent available w the other (even if he means it in accordance to violence) i think harvey's is really very interesting, idk as much for his dialogue to batman (aka bruce wayne) vs his to just batman, but his lines of saying "i didnt make a promise w bruce wayne on that roof" etc really sticks w me & the many diff implications w it & he goes out to say he understands what it means to wear another face, which goes into stuff arkhamverse never really explored which is the personal disconnect that bruce has between himself & himself + which one is more genuine, batman doesnt feel fear while bruce wayne does (ashose) -> who can afford to be emotionally vulnerable, who can do more good and who is currently doing more good (imposter) + i think it's such an interesting facet of being a superhero (at least for some) of being which one is who i pretend to be and which one is really me, which ik isnt as deep as ak takes it but to go back to it im just very interested in how harvey points it out that his friend on the rooftops wasnt bruce that he didnt give all this up for bruce that this trio didnt include bruce & how ultimately he wasnt let down by bruce wayne bc there is a distinction, and he, more than anyone else, would understand the distinction

[down-thedrain]

for the opinion post ummm let me know your opinion on either six or mark heathcliff ^_^

ohhhhhhg okay . youre taking me out of my comfort zone i never thing about the alternates LMFAOOOOOO. putting this under the cut cuz its long

ig ill start with mark??? first of all nonbinary as hell and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you. second xe's a very interesting character to talk about because basically everything i can say about xem spirals into other characters but ill try to keep this focused on xem as much as possible. anyways GOD i miss act 1 when we were constantly learning new information about xyr life and xyr suicide. i honestly really wish the first act had gone even farther with establishing xem because i feel like all we really know about xem is the encounter and xyr paranoia. especially since alex didn't intend to go much farther with xem after the first act it would have been nice to get more detail with xem back then.

LUCKILY I AM THE RULER OF MAKING UP RANDOM BULLSHIT ABOUT CHARACTERS ! SO I DONT CARE

i genuinely think mark had so much love to give to so many people but it just got stifled again and again and its extremely heartbreaking . i think mark wanted to be better and make a difference in the world but ultimately was never allowed to. xe was excited to have a baby sister, as evidenced by alt!cesar using her against xem in vol 1 restored. xe was glad to FINALLY leave school (i believe xe was a senior when xe died. which is awful but yk) after giving everything xe had left in xem to just barely pass. xe loves a lot of things about life like the autumn leaves and drumming and . xyr one friend that xe does doesnt even like xem. but its okay xe's sure xe's just misjudging him!!!! (xe's too afraid to confirm or deny this.)

but i think all that love gets stifled by xyr environment. xe's miserable, feeling restrained by the stories xe's had drilled into xyr head from birth; even though xe still believes them, xe's been coming dangerously close to seeing the holes poked into xyr little worldview. xe fights every day to hold onto those little things that make them happy, because some days it feels like thats all xe has. and okay i was memeing earlier when i said people who tell you mark isnt nonbinary are lying but unironically i think mark takes solance in xyr identity because its the one thing no one can take away from xem to matter how hard they try. xe's continuously told that xe has to succeed and be fine for the sake of everyone else around xem and it exhausts xem because xe is traumatized. its so awful and xe's so tired of it all. thank god this this the last year of high school, because maybe now xe can finally hope to be free.

but. yk. thats not really how the story goes. is it.

it is a sin to kill a mockingbird.

UHHHHH SHIT NOW I GOTTA TALK ABOUT SIX NOW OOPS!!!! like i said earlier i dont. think. about the alternates very much. they just arent interesting to me in the same way the human characters are. theyre interesting in their own way of course!! but personally i prefer the more complex and nuanced conflicts present between the human characters.

HOWEVER!!!!! six really stands out from all the other alternate characters because . a. the implication that he ISNT an alternate makes me crazy insane and i really hope that gets elaborated on in vol 5 and b!!!! he's responsible for so much in the plot and a lot of the conflicts that i really love in the human characters. he's responsible for mark's paranoia, adam being. like that. lynn dying which brings thatcher and ruth over to the murray house and resulting in ruths death. SO GODDAMN MUCH. he influences nearly EVERY major aspect of the plot but in a much more direct way than gabriel does, and that makes him much more interesting to me. i really like how so much of it can be traced back to him and he DOES SOMETHING WITH THIS. he comes in to talk to adam and is like hey girl. im gonna drop the most devastating information of your entire life without any kind of warning whatsoever. oh yeah and you also only met me like two days ago in a basement after you lost the only person that ever cared about you. get fucked ! and thats so funny to me . i love him hes a piece of shit

unfortunately like i said i just dont think of him in a blorbo way like i do with the human characters.... (and adam) i just dont think hes all that 3 dimensional. i think the POINT of him is to be creepy and uncomfortable and threatening and making it so that he like. cares. about mark or adam or wtv kinda kills the vibe?? i really like when people do it in aus and such but trying to apply it to canon. cant say im a fan sorry. IT CAN DEFINITELY BE INTERESTING THOUGH just not for a horror series that horror in it. yk what im saying

uhhh idk how to end this post. i could talk about how mark and six relate to each other but im tired LOL i think six should bring mark back wrong that would be fun. bless

[llycaons]

I'm sure all my cql posts start to sound repetitive. Whenever I go to make one I should just find the one I've already made and be like 'please refer to post 16263 which explains why wq/jc would be a disaster and make jc miserable and also why its shippers are misogynists' or 'see post 2768 about how unhealthy jc and wwx's relationship was despite it being genuinely mutually loving" and 'attached is my series of essays on how lwjs character is chronically underdeveloped and he often comes off as one-note but I love him anyway because my god, what a romantic lead' and such

[killjoycatlady]

Naruto’s narrative sucks for many reasons but imo the biggest reason it doesnt work for anyone willing to put an ounce of doubt into their thoughts is that the worldview is so limited and black and white. most of the characters’ (and especially naruto’s) reactions are watered down and forced to fit a very specific mold because of this.

In Naruto, VIOLENCE = BAD and PEACE = GOOD… but Naruto’s narrative and many of its characters are complicated, so their much more morally grey (at best) actions/motivations are inevitably filed down into ultimately being either GOOD or BAD by the lens we see the story through, which is naruto.

Take itachi for example. His character and motivations are hugely complex due to the fact that he was a literal child soldier with an immense amount of pressure put on him by multiple parties from a very young age (and yes i understand people’s gripes about him bc he was retconned but this isnt about that). But the Uchiha had been treated like shit since the founding of the village and had pursued peace for the entire time until, what, a few years before the massacre? Clearly nobody was interested in peace, since Sarutobi Hiruzen’s solution was to kill them all. Is it not objectively fucked up that despite all of that, Itachi murdered everyone, traumatizing his little brother to boot? But because Itachi wanted peace and PEACE = GOOD, and the Uchiha were going ti be violent and VIOLENCE=BAD, we see Naruto basically accept Itachi as a Good Guy without much else, and Itachi is forced into this mold of a Good Guy even though he was just as violent.

Obito’s another instance of this because probably one of the most fucked up things we see Obito do is release the Kyuubi, directly leading to Naruto being and orphan and a jinchuuriki that made his life miserable. He literally killed Naruto’s parents. But because in the end Obito remembered himself and decided not to end the world and pursue peace, and since PEACE = GOOD, Naruto calls him…the coolest guy? His parents’ murderer?

It’s why the narrative ends up being so pro-shinobi system, because even though the system is bad (and this is pretty much acknowledged textually), complying with the system brings about “peace for the lands”. It goes beyond just the whole “pro-system” issue in my opinion because characters arent even allowed to take any personal responsibility. Its not that “yeah I did awful things but I ultimately contributed to the greater good”, characters are literally just sorted into being either GOOD or BAD and there’s no sense of nuance to it at all. Once a character is determined to be GOOD you aren’t allowed to go against them (within the narrative) or you yourself are acting BAD. The Sandaime wanted PEACE which equals GOOD. Madara wanted VIOLENCE and stayed that way so he was BAD. Pein was VIOLENT which was BAD until he accepted PEACE which is GOOD. None of the underlying issues are ever addressed even though there’s a clear common thread for all these problems (shinobi system). All we need to know is after the war there is PEACE, which has to be undoubtedly, unequivocally GOOD.

[sningo-prompts]

So i made a what if Ingo died post and i think its rude i left Emmet out of the fun. So im gonna do a what if he dies. @meltedteethismilk this is for you. Im already sobbing because my roommate just texted me and told them they dropped the whole ham on the floor so idk how good this is gonna be xD we know im no writer

Warning major character death! Its Emmet

The news of Ingo being a sneasel was made public and it actually kept most low level would be kidnappers from even trying anymore. Though now its got a whole different crowd interested. Im going full Detective Pikachu here and these people wanna become Pokemon themselves. Dedicated scientists who dont care what it takes to get their research done. Pokemon are the stepping stones to their ultimate goal. And now all over the news is the story of a man who disappeared for three years only to be returned as some extinct sneasel. Its everything they have been trying for years to accomplish. And from what they have seen while following the subway bosses the sneasel even still has a fully functioning human mind. Its amazing to see. But they want to do more than just see him they want to study him. To replicate what has happened. These arent the run of the mill sloppy teamrocket grunts. No they can wait for what they want. They have been waiting for years and years to achieve their goal. Whats a few more weeks.

The problem they have come to find is Emmet. He never leaves Ingo alone anymore. The twins are always side by side now. But Emmet is just one trainer all they need is to take him down. He wont be easy, seeing as hes a subway boss, but if hes alone theres only so much he can do. So they gear up and wait for the moment Emmet and Ingo are alone. Which comes up easily enough. Turns out they are planning a camping trip. Something about finding something. But it was the perfect opportunity. Who knows when the next chance will be so they gear up and get everything ready to finally have their hands on Ingo.

Waiting till the cover of night they start surrounding Emmet and Ingos camp. Slowly and quietly, they dont wanna alert the target. Emmet goes to get something from inside the tent leaving Ingo alone in the open. Couldn’t ask for a better moment to strike. So they do. What they hadn’t prepared for was the fact that Ingo can fight back. He isnt some helpless sneasel no he knows what hes doing by now. They had hoped it would be a quick grab and run but they are prepared for a fight. So the moment Emmet hears Ingo yowl out in pain hes rushing back out of the tent. Sure they got in a cheap shot before Ingo knew they had been there but the fight to follow was intense. One after another Emmets and Ingos pokemon fall. Not knowing what else to do Emmet scoops up Ingo and tries to run.

Hes running through the woods trying to not trip over branches or roots. The sound of houndoom following behind. Ingo isnt going to much help fighting those. That first hit he took really did some damage to him. All it takes is one misstep and Emmet is crashing down, tumbling to the ground. He pulling Ingo close as they fall and roll in hopes of keeping his brother safe. He quickly recovers and starts to run again. Hes injured and hes much slower now but he keeps going. He wont lose Ingo not again. Ingo is clutching on to Emmets shirt trembling. Emmet cant let them take him not again. Never again will anyone get their hands on his brother.

Its only a matter of time though till they catch up to the pair of running brothers. Sending out a Jolteon they have it use thunder on Emmet. He and Ingo both scream out from the attack. Emmet falls to his knees still clutching Ingo close. All he can think to do is wrap himself around his brother small frame to try and protect him from. Its his last resort. “Give it up!! Just hand him over and we wont hurt you anymore!” Someone yells but Emmet isnt going to budge. His mind is racing a mile a minute trying to figure out how to get out of this situation. Another thunder crashes into him. He grits his teeth and holds Ingo as tight as he can. He cant lose his brother again. No he wont give up he cant. The moment the thunder lets up he gets ready. He can hear them moving closer. Then he attempts to bolt. Hes running on nothing but adrenaline.

Then a fasle swipe racks into his back sending him falling back to the ground. Ingo falls from his grasp. He watches as Ingo crashes into the hard ground with a thud. Emmet cant move. He tries weakly to reach for Ingo but his vision is getting dark. He cant give up he had to protect Ingo. Slowly someone walks around him. They lift Ingo up by his scruff and look down at Emmet. Emmet is still trying to reach for his brother desperately but he cant move his body. Ingo weakly looks to his brother. He tries to wrestle his way out of their hold but hes too weak. Then they injected him with something. Emmet screams out his brothers name. Hes begging them. Anything he will do anything please dont take him. Not again. They just ignore him and walk back past him. He lay there. Unable to get up crying out for his brother. Slowly his vision starts to go black as he watches them drift away. The last thing he sees is them disappearing into the woods. He blacks out from the blood loss. They left him there. Its better to not have the brother on their trail anyway.

[seravph]

Hi, I didn't really know who to reach out for this question, but do you have any tips on how to find your own unique fashion style? I'm not really looking to hop on popular clothing trends on social media e.g. eboy/girl or cottagecore, so I'm not exactly sure where to start! I come to consult you because I've seen some of your posts and you look very well versed in fashion and you seem to know your own personal style. My wardrobe is very outdated and I would like to update it to reflect the truest expression of myself. Thank you 😊 You don't have to answer this if you don't feel like doing so btw 😅

EEEE more fashion asks i love these thank you!!!! warning this got a lil (very) long so its under the cut :^)

so first and foremost the most important part about curating your own style is to learn more about your body and what flatters/doesnt flatter it. it's learning some basic fashion 'rules' pertaining to proportions, cuts, etc. there are plenty of resources on this if you dont know where to start (kibbe body test, video, video) but keep in mind this step has nothing to do with your weight!!!! i could talk wayyy more about this but at the end of the day, some clothing is just more flattering for specific body shapes - that doesnt mean you cant wear something that isnt perfectly flattering, but knowing your body and knowing what flatters it will make you understand your own style and help guide the pieces you buy. fashion 'rules' arent necessarily meant to be followed, but just understood so that 'breaking' them is a conscious choice. (it also really helped with my insecurities???? like this step is basically recognizing that its not your body thats unflattering, its the clothing, if that makes sense???)

also remember that every 'style' works for every body type. i.e if you want to be a 60s vibe but youre too curvy for shift dresses, there are plenty of clothes in a similar style that would look great on you <3 basically, if you dont like the way a piece looks on you, you can still achieve the same vibe with a different article of clothing thats more flattering. but also umm.... you can just wear the unflattering thing if you want LOL if it makes you happy... then it becomes your own controlled decision <3 live love laugh follow your heart

okay. now that you have that out of the way. there are a million ways to develop a sense of style, and no particular order in which i recommend them. what i love doing is creating pinterest boards for the spring/summer or fall/winter seasons and just filling them with pieces i would wear in a perfect world. i dont mean like cottagecore aesthetic boards, just boards full of runway looks and clothing pngs that i like. i also love making little outfits for characters which can influence my own style. everyone thinks of their style differently; i think of my own outfits as little vignettes with narratives behind them, but other people are more concerned with just wearing things they think are pretty, other people view it as an expression of art or their identity, and other people just want to feel comfortable!!! its all up to you and what youre drawn to!!

one thing that tan france mentioned once was to go online window shopping by going onto the website for a brand you like (regardless of whether its affordable or realistic!) and just adding things to your cart that youre interested in. dont worry about how expensive they are or anything, and when youre done, remove all the items you like the least. and then keep reviewing and removing until you have just a handful of really nice items you really like, and keep doing this with other brands until you can identify common threads between the pieces you like. you dont have to buy them!! in fact maybe its better if you dont!!! and the websites dont have to be like zara or h&m ... go on balmain or chanel if you want, play pretend and have fun!!

re: the last bullet point, i think a big turn off for people in terms of fashion is the idea that you need to wear something palatable and 'appropriate.' its like looking at a runway and thinking "its nice, but i would never wear that in real life." but honestly????? in a perfect world i would be wearing full gowns to the supermarket!!!! if your ideal style is imaginative but unattainable, your style in practice will be a microcosm of it. basically... dream big... dont be afraid to 'overdress' if its what you like!! one of the best pieces of advice i ever got was from my aunt, who offered to by me a plastic tiara. i asked her when i was ever going to wear it irl, and she just looked at me and said "??? you can wear it whenever you want to!!" so true!!! wear a tutu to mcdonalds. wear a bedazzled tux to prom. who cares

accessories, nail polish, hair, jewelry, perfume and makeup goes a long way in developing style. i dont wear a ton of makeup, but just putting some color on my cheeks achieves a kind of sunkissed lovestruck vibe that i strive for. i paint my nails red because i think its chic or bright colors so they contrast with a toned down outfit. even wearing no accessories is an accessory in itself. accessorizing (or specifically not accessorizing) is like adding texture to an outfit imo

anything that advises you about 'absolutely necessary essentials everyone needs' is entirely wrong. there is no one size fits all; i.e everyone says you need one good pair of denim jeans, but i havent worn jeans in two years!!! an essential for ME is a pair of neutral wool shorts, but an essential for another person could be a thick knit sweater or for another person, a flannel. the idea that everyone needs a 'little black dress' or a 'basic white t shirt' is preposterous. YOUR essentials depend entirely on YOUR style. a pair of denim jeans is useless if you hate wearing jeans!!!!

as for my personal style, im mostly influenced by movies, books, songs, characters, feelings, colors, high fashion, and costumes. ultimately, you should worry less about what you want to be and worry more about what you already like. every piece i have kind of plays into some narrative ive constructed, or otherwise theyre all special to me :) if you want to update your wardrobe, dont feel the need to over consume fast fashion (or any fashion for that matter) to do so. if you take it slow and buy pieces you really love, every item will have a story and you'll begin to develop a more stable internal style and they'll last longer :)

let me know if you have questions or want me to talk more about any of this because i really love answering these kinds of questions!!!!!! especially the body type thing because thats such an important but long winded thing i couldnt really fit it all LOL

some more videos + resources about style and fashion i think are interesting:

deep dive into kibbe body types

pinterest aesthetics, fatphobia, and white washing

lies about clothes to unlearn in your twenties

studio ghibli: how clothing shapes identity

breakfast at tiffanys style analysis: the reinvention of onself with fashion

will the millennial aesthetic ever end?

go viral, post #spon, get canceled: how social media transformed fashion in the 2010s

analyzing the "is it a cute outfit or is she just skinny?" meme

[just-a-fangirl13]

Why s5 *might* be the season MacRiley happens

Okay so...Hear me out! I'm not crazy I promise!!

Firstly, after 5x03 (and probably 5x04) it may seem very unlikely that MacRiley could ever happen. But I thought of a few reasons why they might actually happen by the end of s5 after all.... (it gets a lil long winded and kinda complicated but just stick with me till the end!)

1. All the MacRiley moments including the ones in 5x03.

[this Mac smile could not be an accident or something that slipped through both production and post-production right?! that in itself is a whole reason!]

Every Macriley moment we have ever had- whether it's the hugs, Riley saving Mac, Mac saving Riley, the ultimate show of loyalty when Riley went after Mac during Codex or even just the looks exchanged between the two- to any outsider it would seem pretty obvious that they are dating or at least in love. Keep in mind the writers would have written each of those scenes and Lucas and Tristan have acted them out with a specific build up in mind aka MacRiley.(think about the date episode: Riley just got dumped but was still thinking about how Mac might be hungry. She didnt have to do that. She could have just shown up at his place..) I mean how can they write two people so perfectly in sync and so perfect for each other and not have them end up together? It would just be a waste of all that tension and slow burn. (not to mention all the hugs and glances)

2. They know we exist. 

The MacRiley fam is very active on twitter with the writers and while they were writing 5x01 they knew we were around. They know we are a huge group. They would not want to risk pissing 90% of the fandom off by not making MacRiley endgame.

[P.S.yes 5x03 was a bait and switch but if you were paying attention you would have noticed that neither Lucas not Tristan live tweeted or hyped up the episode. They knew we would probably hate it so they didnt publicise it too much! so in the future if you have doubts about the episode being a MacRiley one just check their stories or posts on twitter/intstagram]

3. Yes 5x03 happened. 

I really think it was an episode they HAD to write. Ok so after 4x13 they had 7 more episodes planned and were filming 4x20 (aka the finale) when the pandemic struck. So they have these 6 episodes but no finale for it. [Idk if anyone else has noticed but in 5x01 there were clearly some parts cut out. For example the conversation between Desi and Riley towards the end seemed a bit jilted. Riley asking Desi to forgive her but Desi replied with yeah we are cool (still no apology ofc) I feel like something happened during that which ended up getting cut out so it could fit with the final story.]

This makes me think that they have rewritten a few bits to tie into the new finale episode. In 5x03 when Mac asked Desi to come fishing with him which was clearly something very personal to him she was like no do better.. then we see Mac's disappointed expression. She could have easily said okay but maybe not for our first date? Or its not really my thing? Or just about anything else rather than laughing in his face like that. Eventhough MD is together they still arent compatible. Mac’s final words in 5x03 was him being desperate. I truly think he is so broken and lost that Desi is the only safe thing left, the only thing he feels like he can fix right now. Once he finds himself again and heals...then it's going to hit him like a pile of bricks!!

4. But Riley doesn't have feelings anymore...WELL doesnt she? 

When it comes to Mac, Riley is always in denial. We saw it in s4 when she tells Bozer not to make her say it. I think s5 will show her finally accepting it. Finally accepting that she is in love with her best friend and that it definitely isnt Codex adrenaline because she caught the feels when Codex wasnt even around. While Mac's arc would include realising he and Desi are never going to work and that he is unhappy and that RILEY is the one for him.

[why else would they give Riley feelings for Mac? Something has to come of it.]

5. The slow burn rule.[this point is a lil complicated] 

Now season 5 is rumoured to have 13 episodes. So here’s what I think: If MacGyver follows the pattern that most shows do when it comes to slow burns, then technically MacRIley should have happened at the end of season 4. But since the season got cut short and they didnt get to air/finish their final episode the writers had to improvise. 

From what I know, 4x19 which is 5x04 for us is the episode where Mac meets Desi’s parents and 4x20 was supposed to be the finale that was left unfinished.(they are definitely moving the timeline ahead if a pre finale episode is suddenly a mid season one.) There might have been a 4x21 or 4x22 but I haven't heard anything about those....EVER.

So what I think they have decided to do instead is extend the MD storyline a bit longer just so they dont end up scrapping all their s4 episodes where they would be together and write a new finale that ties everything together, aka MacRiley.

If you think about episode counts, s4 and s5 together would have 26 episodes which is a how long a normal season runs. Basically what im trying to say is if we follow the ‘slow burns end by s4’ and take season 5 as an extension of 4 then MacRiley should get together in the season 5 finale or maybe the episode just before. (IM REALLY TRYING TO GET SOME LOGIC INTO THIS)

This would be a typical TV thing too where the couple finds out about each other’s feelings while the main arc of the show is also at its peak, which perfectly sets up a future season where fans are hyped but still has a satisfying ending.

6. So what about MacDesi?

So far the macgyver writers have given us characters we love. Think of every character on the show apart from maybe Desi... Mac, Riley, Bozer, Jack, Matty, Leanna, Samantha, Russ and even Murdoc. WE LOVE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM. So then why is Desi such a strange character? I think shes purposely been written as an opposite to Mac or even Riley (I get she’s supposed to kinda replace Jack but Jack is really irreplaceable). 

It's not necessarily a bad thing its just not a great thing to do or have great execution. People have said things like Desi is a badass and shouldnt have to apologise or say I love you back to her boyfriend because she is a strong woman...I'm sorry but your opinion of who a strong woman is, is EXTREMELY skewed. A strong woman is someone who can make mistakes and when she does, she is ‘strong’ enough to own up to it, she is loyal and fierce and also caring while being a badass who can take down bad guys. And for GODS SAKE, RILEY DAVIS IS A STRONG WOMAN...people have called her mushy and feminine on twitter and I'm just very confused by that.....

Anyways before I go off on a rant, it seems like Desi is intentionally being written this way. Every opportunity they get to redeem her and make her more relatable or just a better person they just dont take it. While Rileys character arc is one of the best I've ever seen. Either its intentional or they’ve forgotten how to write characters...which is worrisome but ill give them the benefit of the doubt.

The writers also know we dont like Desi. The amount of times we've tagged them in the toxic posts or pointed out problematic things we can be sure they've seen at least half of those. So theres no way they dont know. RIGHT?

So why then is MD still a thing you may ask??

Well for one they cant break them up again off screen because of those unreleased s4 episodes. (not to mention the other parts of the audience who arent as invested in mac’s love life would probably be very confused.)

Secondly Mac has to be the one to pull the plug, not Desi. 4x13 made it seem like Desi was the annoyed one not Mac. He apologised to her which meant he wanted to fix things. 

Thirdly, they are opening the chpt one last time before they permanently close it. MD is going to be a stark contrast to macriley(it already is in every way possible). Every issue Mac and Desi had can be used to show how amazing macriley really is as two people who arent even dating yet.

Fourthly, MD being together is a sort of commentary on Macs mental health as well. We can see how happy he is with Riley but around Desi he becomes some one else. If the writers are doing this on purpose or subconsciously still remains to be seen.

And Yes keeping MD around for a few more episodes seems like a necessary risk right now but I have a feeling its going to be worth it later.

[I know we have had like 4 desi entered episodes already but I really think 5x04 will be the last of it since 5x05 is the Jack episode and 5x06 is Mac+Riley+Bozer episode with no mention of Desi at all!]

The writers know we are a dedicated bunch and they know that once MD breaks up for the last time the entire fandom will be waiting and watching. That's when the show will be at its peak. That will be the perfect moment to bring in MacRiley’s arc to a new start!

Congrats if you stuck with me through this whole thing! if you agree/disgaree with any of these or have other reasons why they could be endgame in s5 let me know!!

[anti-endings]

I’m fairly sure at this point that Naruto is more or less fascist propaganda. There are so many things that we as a fandom want to turn a blind eye to yet when SNK was called out for being fascist, we had no problem boycotting it because it wasnt an anime that we’d come to love throughout our childhood. Unfortunately Naruto was a lot more subtle and pulled a fast one on us towards the end - 14/15 years after its initial release. 

Theres a lot of intricate reasons as to why I’d call it fascist but I’ll list the general points to be made that everyone can easily recognize. 

• Genocide for the good of the nation. This one is pretty obvious but I thought I’d get it out of the way. Slaughtering possible defectors of the state is apparently an honourable and justified choice. Even if some members of the oppressed minority were completely unaware of their leaders planned coup or had no desire to revolt against the system, each and every single one of them apparently deserved death. 

• Brainwashing children into military violence goes completely unquestioned by the narrative. The only people who challenge this idea are portrayed as “hateful.” The best example of this is how the narrative feels the need to emphasize that Itachi murdering his clan was his own decision. I just find it awfully strange that we’re expected to believe that a 13 year old, who was sent to fight in a bloody war for his country when he was just a toddler and was shown to suffer from severe PTSD, apparently wasnt brainwashed with threats of war on his impressionable child brain when he was already completely numb to the concept of killing people. Itachis history details the story of a brainwashed child soldier yet goes to great efforts to brush it aside and give Itachi the autonomy that he never actually had. On a meta level it’s pretty messed up that Itachis actions as a result of his brainwashing, was praised by Hashirama Senju - the ultimate force of “peace” who founded the village and “the will of fire” that were so expected to admire. 

• Consistent denial of blatant military violence. In the manga, the truth about the Uchiha massacre is covered up by Naruto, Sasuke and eventually Sakura to “maintain honour of the Uchiha.” This makes absolutely no logical sense whatsoever. How is it more honourable to say that a clan was slaughtered by a rogue criminal of their own (further perpetuating the selfish, bloodthirsty and power-hungry stereotype) when the truth is that an oppressed group of people were slaughtered off by the government? How can an act of genocide be prevented by a future government when the truth is actively censored by the governemnt? Neither Naruto nor Sasuke did anything to implement some sort of bill of human rights, laws or Geneva conventions in honour of Uchiha to prevent more innocent bloodshed at the hands of the state.

• Ultranationalism at every opportunity. The village is literally gated off. No one enters or leaves without permission from authority. The unification of the village under the statist military + the slaughter of any and all potential defectors is pretty telling. Its scary that “the will of fire” and protecting the state is the only honourable and good goal/ideology to have in this series as shown by Sasuke only ever being seen as “not evil” when he is beaten down into conforming to the government.

• Evil is in the genetics of the oppressed. This was pretty unsettling to witness and I’m surprised there havent been more people speaking out about it. Ideologies are inherited not just by fate, but by your genetics. The Senju-Uzumaki obviously have “The will of fire” which is known to be the supreme ideology. It consists of uniting and enduring the hardships of the world under the totalitarian government but NEVER pursuing revolution or change for the better. “The curse of hatred” is its counterpart which has its origins exclusively to the Uchiha. Its explained to be Uchiha culture to some degree. The narrative very desperately tries to paint the pursuit of revolution to prevent more violence as evil, bloodthirsty and selfish. This, in reality, makes no sense. Why are the Uchiha hateful for trying to fix a situation for the better of their family yet somehow the senju arent characterized by hatred despite openly hating the Uchiha? Simply put, the Uchiha are GENETICALLY undesirable and their push for equal rights are characterized as hateful, selfish and lonely. In reality, Madara Uchiha would not become a rogue ninja who decides to attack the entire village including his own family with Kurama because he could not get equal rights for the Uchiha. This doesnt add up with why he was so angry in the first place. Non of the “bloodthirsty” actions of any Uchiha do. They’re a fictional race of people that are only evil by the design of the author to portray oppressed people as selfish and aggressive. Towards the end of the fourth war, the story of Ashura and Indra is told to Naruto and Sasuke. Indra is apparently the original Uchiha who was influenced by some deranged evil spirit to pursue power over unification for completely selfish purposes. This is very unfairly equated to Sasuke and the rest of the Uchiha clan to explain to audience that the Uchiha are inherently evil and selfish detractors. 

• To be a revolutionary is to be lonely. This ties into my last point. Sasuke is constantly referred to as lonely by just about everyone in the cast, Naruto especially. This has always been bothersome because Sasuke wouldnt have been lonely if his entire clan wasnt slaughtered by the very same people that Naruto stands by. This point is incredibly simple yet its overlooked because the anti-uchiha propaganda is so successful in what it sets out to do. To add onto this point, what if Naruto had simply said to Sasuke “I believe you have every right to bring the murderer of your clan to justice and I’ll stand by your right to justice every step of the way” instead of physically fighting him and screaming at him all the time? Sasuke isnt inherently lonely exclusively by his own means, he is alienated by everyone around him. The narrative acknowledges Sasukes emotional unfulfillment, IGNORES the real reason why hes lonely and then states that the only way that Sasuke will find a sense of family through the acceptance of his peers is if he conforms to the government and adopts the hegemonic ideology…. after “repenting” for ever daring to get justice for his clan in the first place. This eerie emotional blackmail is completely normalized and unquestioned by the narrative. It sends a harrowing message to the audience that it’s more desirable and fulfilling to conform to the government despite their poor treatment of your people and should you question otherwise, you must repent for forgiveness. 

• The leader of the village is the most powerful member of the military, who is chosen exclusively through nepotism by a rich man who owns the land instead of the people, and is in power for an indeterminate length of  time. Again with the military obsession! Not even necessarily the best military commander or anyone with experience in any leadership position at all. This is partly fascist due to the fact that theres no limitations on what a Kage can do to their village, they’re selected through nepotism and not democracy and they’re in power for as long as they please no matter how the public feel. The leader is not necessarily someone who is shown to be compassionate, responsible, trustworthy, intelligent or reliable. In fact, you could be a known, unpersecuted war criminal like Danzo and still get the position. 

• To add on to that, war criminals in the Government or Military go completely unpersecuted and often unpunished - as shown by Danzo and the village elders. The village elders are still in the same position during the events of Boruto as they were in over 20 years ago when they conspired to execute the Uchiha massacre. Naruto and Sasuke know of their involvement yet havent held them accountable in any way. 

• Child soldiers are sent to die for the government. It seems that only Obito notices this when Rin dies. The second he becomes critical of the fact of this reality is the second he becomes “hateful” and “evil." 

Theres plenty more but I’ve already spent an hour typing this up and checking over every little detail. Generally speaking, much like SNK, the theme of Naruto is to just simply ENDURE hardship, stay loyal to your government at all costs even if they cause the hardship and NEVER revolt. Naruto as a character serves as the purpose of being as reductive as possible to every single character that faces hardship with "I too was lonely and oppressed but I coped by worshipping the government for a sense of emotional validation and you can too!" 

[fuckblizzardbearlover]

its awkward cus i tend to see people go like “who the hell cares, its fiction! I think *morally reprehensible character* is sexy . no harm done*”  And then go with other media like “oh this character did 1 really fucked up thing and was kinda sus before then. it says ALOT about the author that they want you to sympathize with this character”

its not an exact 1 to 1 because there is a difference between an author trying to get you to morally feel for a bad person, and just like...liking a fictional character for what they add to the story. but also like...an author wanting you to sympathize with a bad person isnt to...make you think of them as a good person. Its usually to feel sorry for them, to find it tragic that this otherwise normal person went down a dark path and now its to late. Like they didnt have that scene with Thanos and Gamora to make you feel bad for thanos. they did it to juxtapose the Horror of Gamora ultimately dying because she is loved by her abductor with the senility of Thanos’ insanity in thinking he’s the only one in the UNIVERSE who has correct morals and how he sees murdering someone he abducted after killing her planet as a burden HE has to face. you arent suppose to go “oh thanos has to kill the only person he loves, i feel bad for him and wish he could get a happy ending” you are suppose to go “holy shit thats horrible that Gamora feared her abductor this whole time and shes finally going to die because hes fixated on her; how fucked up is this person that he thinks murdering his abducted daughter is a horrible burden for HIM?!”

Like you are suppose to feel bad for John Walker, but not in a “oh he did nothing wrong”, but in a “isnt it fucked up that He is like This because the American government was just ok sending decent people overseas to kill people and continued to exploit them. He’s like a rabid dog trying to get loved by doing what America taught him, ripping out throats”

the author wanting you to feel bad for a villain or morally grey character isnt them saying that character is a good person or was justified, its just them trying to make you feel and in a morally grey world often those feelings need to be conflicted.

[chikkou]

Will you talk more about Lisa?? Lisa the character specifically but also your feelings on his feelings about Buddy? I just thought your analysis was so good and I want to hear other thoughts you have on her.

yall are honestly spoiling me rn sdhkfdjfks this is like a dream come true 

i already got into the stuff with buddy in this ask here but i have a LOT to say about lisa and the connection between her and buddy so u better settle in!

ok so firstly ill start with lisa. i played the original lisa game (lisa the first) not long after it first dropped in 2012, and im not even kidding when i said it changed me LMAO.... seeing a story about a girl suffering is nothing new, but austin jorgensens approach to it was so fucking unique. you dont just witness it, you get to EXPERIENCE it right along with her. many stories that involve sexual abuse/rape show or otherwise depict it explicitly for the shock value, which is both disgusting and, in my opinion, extremely fucking exploitative. i feel that it is horrific to dignify an act so deeply evil with screentime. but lisa stood out to me immediately because, even though you know exactly whats going on, the game NEVER shows anything explicit. everything is layered in subtext and symbolism, and austin is fantastic with indirect storytelling, so you learn so much from just a little drop of information. this applies not just to the game proper, but to the character as well.

in case its not clear: i absolutely ADORE lisa. she is my favorite character in all of the games, bar none. its going to sound kind of fucked up, but as a kid around her age going through some fucked up shit, her committing suicide at the end felt like a sort of victory to me. she knew she could never escape from marty or what he was doing to her. he leaks into every single part of her psyche, everything she ever cared about or loved is ruined because of him, and even the vague memory of her mother is completely corrupted, and turned into a muddled version of him. lisa the first also had the added benefit of some religious commentary, as there are crosses all over their home and marty is characterized as an extremely religious man, which i fucking LOVE and wish had come back in the painful, but its an acceptable loss. anyway, lisa committing suicide at the end was an act of defiance against not just marty, but martys god, as suicide is considered a mortal sin in catholicism. lisa knew she’d never be free of marty in life, so she escaped the only way she could; she was defiant to the end.

ive seen people complain that the painful has a bit of a “lost lenore” thing going on, since lisas death seems to fuel the Manpain of both brad and buzzo, but i actually disagree. on the contrary, its just like austin himself said - lisa will never be gone. lisa is ALWAYS there, with brad, and buzzo, and buddy, and marty, and yado, and the ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD. i dont necessarily think that there is something paranormal going on in the game, but i AM going to say that, unlike other cases of a girl/woman dying for a mans backstory, lisa isnt just a bittersweet memory they can reflect on and then put away when its convenient for them. she is a presence that is felt throughout the entire game. brad sees her more than once, sometimes watching, sometimes reprimanding him. buzzo is clearly haunted by her, as he cries out to her a few times in the joyful. every character who was directly touched by lisa - brad, marty, and buzzo - calls out to lisa as they die. call it their guilt or call it her actions, but in either case, it is clear that lisa just as significant of a character in the painful as she was in the first, even if she cant always be seen. even in a meta-sense, every game in the series - even the joyful, whose protagonist doesnt even know who she is - is named after her. she is at the center of everything that happens in them. 

that actually brings me to buddy, because i find the dynamic between her and lisa fucking fascinating. as i previously mentioned, brad never talked about his past with buddy, and snaps at her for bringing up his adoptive son dusty (rando), so it goes without saying that she definitely doesnt know who lisa is. in spite of that, though, lisa is a fucking massive part of buddys life, and while she may not know the person herself, i think she is aware that when people (and brad especially) look at her, they arent seeing HER. 

i mentioned it in another post, but even though brad takes it upon himself to raise and “protect” buddy, he seems to almost unwittingly recreate lisas appearance, primarily by allowing her hair to grow long even though he knows what a risk that is to her safety. he also treats buddy in a manner thats incredibly similar to how marty treated lisa (sans sexual abuse, of course) - he insults her, does not let her leave the house at all, and forces her to do unsavory things that no one should ever have to do (in buddys case, this means killing at least two innocent people because brad doesnt want a “weak” daughter). the most literal comparison between buddy and lisa is the fact that they are both very young girls being essentially held captive by their father figures, albeit for different reasons, and both long for freedom from their captors. 

theres also the fact that both buddy and lisa have to deal with misogyny and the effects of rape culture firsthand; they both battle against men who feel entitled to do with them whatever they please, and the threat of ongoing sexual abuse looms heavy over both of their heads. neither one can seek help from anyone; the neighbors in brad and lisas town seem complacent at best, if they even know what is happening to lisa at all, and buddys only allies (sans rando) are long dead by the start of the joyful. this is not just a hypothetical or a distant possibility. this is the real, tangible fate that will befall them if they cant somehow secure their safety.

sadly, because lisa wasnt playable in either of the rpgs, we dont know if she was able to fight as brad was, but it is highly probable that she had the innate skill but was never able to learn it (as marty highly discouraged them from learning “their grandfathers karate,” and seemed disgusted whenever brad did so). however, she did have ONE weapon she could make use of, and this is a weapon buddy ends up using, as well - her femininity. she became close to bernard (aka buzzo), made him fall in love with her, and then used him as a last ditch effort to stop martys abuse by having him mutilate her face. im not saying lisa never cared about bernard - in fact, i think she DID really love and care for him - but her own fucked up experiences with “love” meant she really couldnt understand what it was supposed to be like, or that it was wrong to manipulate the people you care about. lisa did very few things wrong - it pretty much just stops at the maiming of the cat and her manipulation of bernard - but she knew that she would never get away from marty without some kind of drastic action being taken, and scarring herself was her last ditch effort before ultimately committing suicide.

buddy ends up taking a somewhat similar tack in the joyful, and like in lisas case, its simultaneously resourceful and horrific. one of buddys key moves in the joyful is to flash the enemy (which the player obviously doesnt see) in order to distract them long enough to get the kill. its fucking horrible and disgusting and makes you feel so dirty, but then, how must buddy feel having to do something like that just to survive? shes just a child, but in a world where almost every man is out to get you, she knows this has to be done to save herself, very much like lisa. unlike in lisas case, though, buddy is successful in securing her safety in this way - lisas effort is for naught, and leads to her committing suicide not very long after. 

in a way, i sort of attribute buddys brutality to lisas omnipresence; all of the men pursuing buddy are just like marty, monsters who would harm a fucking child for their own disgusting ends, and i think that when buzzo said that lisa wouldve loved olathe, what he means is that she would have loved seeing so many horrible men being punished for what theyd done. so in my opinion, buddy carving out a place for herself in olathe by killing all those who would subjugate her seems very much in the mentality lisa would have had. sure, there are some innocents who sadly get roped into it, but that would definitely not be her intention; for example, if buzzo could have practiced amputation without harming a living thing, i dont think lisa would have asked him to practice on the cat. note the LACK of brutality at the beehive and the swamp bar, two of the few peaceful places in the painful and both devoid of predatory men hunting for buddy - lisa has no qualm with any of them. but marty? brad could hardly even get a full sentence out before killing him on the spot. i dont doubt that that has a great deal to do with lisas presence. 

ok i talked for a while LMAO but basically i think that, in a more metatextual sense, lisa and buddys relationship really strikes me as an accurate depiction of generational trauma. of course it was intentional with the more obvious trauma chain (marty to brad to buddy), but the trauma chain of marty to lisa to buddy is rarely ever addressed due to lisa not physically appearing in the painful. however, i believe it may inform buddys actions a great deal more than people realize - after all, buddys experience is unique, but who could understand it better than lisa? who knows that sort of pain, of being alone on an island, the lone woman trapped with a man (or men) who want nothing more than to cause you harm? even without her realizing it, lisa is guiding buddy, encouraging her to take back what is hers no matter the cost, to punish those who would try to take what they want from her. lisa might be dead, but she is a vengeful presence throughout every game, and buddys actions feel like theyre meant not only to save herself, but to avenge lisa, even if she doesnt realize it. at the end of the day, buddy and lisa both get to exact revenge against all the men who have wronged them, and they succeed. they are aggressive, and violent, and selfish, and ANGRY - and they have every fucking right to be. 

[normal-thoughts-official]

UWU I'm in the mood for some Raphael talk, I love the headcanon you've talked about in the chat about Raphael tolerating Alec only because he makes his dad happy (which is so damn valid of him), and it's one of my most fave things do you have more slightly silly headcanons about it?

you really want me to be beaten up huh may. you want them to come for me again. you want to ruin my life

okay disclaimer Alec stans pwease dont hate me uwu I'm not saying i hate Alec I'm saying that i dont think Raphael would vibe with him. especially after the whole punch which I'll never get over cuz like i KNOW rationally that alec didnt have the full story and if izzy was hurt and sitting beside a white shadowhunter he would go there and beat them up all the same cuz alec's like this, but I'm still upset eidndidjdid my boy doesnt deserve this okay

anyway with that being said

i dont think its Raphael like, genuinely hating him as much as them having nothing in common besides their mutual love for Magnus and desire to see him happy. so Raphael can tolerate him fine, but he's not exactly dying to be best friends. besides, alec's like, all of the most annoying things about shadowhunters (all serious, never fucking relaxes, must have a weapon close at all times, doesn't understand food, doesn't listen to music, doesnt-) that arent like straight up nazist bigotry. so hes just like. ugh. whatever. I'm here for Magnus. leave pls

i can absolutely see that tbh Raphael just goes to their house and is all like "Alec leave i want to talk to Magnus" and alec's like "this is my house?" and raphael's like "and?" and alec's like "Fine, ill take a walk. Magnus, Raphael is here." but he also kisses Magnus goodbye in front of Raphael because he can, in fact, be an ass

also i know i told u about that already but Raphael lowkey challenges him every time like. he'll come by Magnus' and bring food, and of course theres food for 3 because Raphael is not gonna be that rude and he doesn't want to make Magnus feel like Raphael wants him to choose between Raphael and Alec. Alec makes Magnus happy and Raphael would never want to make Magnus feel like his love or presence in his life is conditional. Plus, he doesn't actually hate him. Just a little.

anyway so he brings the food and he's like (clearly judgemental tone) "i brought hot sauce because i figured Alec doesn't usually eat spicy food" and he's obviously correct, Alec had never eaten anything with season in his life before he met Magnus, much less pepper. he's the kind of ultimate, boss-level gringo who puts salt on his food when he's feeling adventurous

so Raphael sits down and puts the food on his plate and he pours hot sauce into his plate while making unwavering eye contact with Alec (yeah raphael can eat in this because he deserves it and i said so) and it's an obvious challenge and it evidently works because Alec 1- is competitive, and 2- actually wants Raphael's respect because he knows how important he is to Magnus. so he takes the salsa from Raphael and starts pouring it too while maintaining eye contact right back, jaw clenched in challenge, looking all serious and Magnus is like "children, please" and raphael's all like "oh no no no, let him" but Alec considers that a win because Raphael is clearly trying to contain a smile and thats the first step to winning him over

so anyway Alec sweats and grimaces through the whole meal, cuz like, look yes he may have pain tolerance because he's a shadowhunter but he's also the bitch who reacted to taking a sip of beer like someone had farted on his face. he can't hide his reactions for shit, but fuck if he doesn't lick the plate clean (not literally like gross) and doesn't shed a single tear, even as he clearly can't keep his eyes open with the effort

Magnus is like "Alexander, you dont have to do this" and alec's like "(eyes squeezed shut, grimacing, drenched in sweat) do what? this is very good" and Raphael is smiling into his plate even as Magnus shoots him dirty looks

then Alec is like "i won. i ate it all" and Raphael is like "(looking at his red sweaty face and puffy eyes) really?"

also look ill always love the hc that Raphael resents Alec for his height and Alec doesnt even notice. Raphael is not short, god damn it, hes 175! thats TEN whole centimeters above the mexican average! he was the tallest boy in Guadalajara! RAPHAEL IS TALL, OKAY

EXCEPT everyone in the goddamn shadow world is apparently a god damn giant. Its humiliating enough that Magnus is 180. but Magnus is his dad, so whatever. but Alec is FUCKING 190. no one needs that much tall. no one! Raphael went from being the tallest boy in the neighborhood to the shortest, and boy he is so not pleased about it

but Alec has no idea because who cares? (Raphael. Raphael cares. deeply. he cares so much) it's not even good to be that tall, he keeps banging his head on things. so there will be moments like. Raphael is standing in front of the bookshelf, seeming very focused. Alec shrugs, figures he's looking for something, and puts the book he was going to put there up. Raphael shoots him a dirty look that might as well be a stab, and Alec's like ???????? did i disrupt you? sorry? and Raphael just crosses his arms like "you didnt do anything, i dont know what you're talking about"

in reality the shelf was too high up because Magnus adjusted his shelves to his and Alec's height, and Raphael refused to stand on his tiptoes or god forbid, a stool, to grab his book, so he was just glaring at the shelf until the book came to him or something. and when Alec put the book up he was mad cuz Alec could reach it fjdndid

later Alec tells Magnus about it like "i dont get what i did. is he just that private?" and Magnus is like "hmm. i have no idea, darling" but next time Raphael comes, the shelves have been spelled to adjust to the book picker's height

also this always makes me think of that scene in hsm where zeke tries to talk to sharpay and she goes "evaporate, tall person!" and leaves and i love that mental image tbh

also like. eventually Alec apologizes for the punching thing (look. look. Im still salty and Raphael deserves it okay) and Raphael is like. moved because something deep inside of him still believed it was his fault and he was a monster, and it's. nice. and Alec kind of extends his arms and Raphael is like "dont think so" and crosses his arms and Alec kind of very very slowly lifts his arm and pats Raphael's head once and Raphael wants to scream and Alec looks very awkward and sheepish and Magnus bursts out laughing

(Raphael doesnt mind, though, because Magnus is genuinely so happy all day that they had a good interaction. so happy. and Raphael thinks, okay, this is okay. it's good if it makes Magnus happy.)

(Magnus also pats his head and plays with his hair, but its okay because Magnus has always done that and Raphael doesnt mind. only from him though. and raphael's partners. but anyway)

plus whenever Magnus is like, upset, or sick or something, theyre like. an unit. because for all they have no common interests they do think very alike (autistic solidarity i guess) and are very practical when it comes to taking care of others, and they both just. adore Magnus, okay. so Raphael will arrive, make Magnus soup. while he makes soup, Alec stays with him and takes his temperature. once Raphael is back with the soup, Alec goes out to buy medicine, and Raphael stays with him to make him company. and so on. at some point Alec is almost falling asleep by Magnus' side and Raphael taps his shoulder and points to the chair nearby, and Alec nods and dozes off for a while. then its the other way around. Magnus isnt seriously sick, of course, but he doesn't usually get sick so it's an event, plus they're both Like This. and for all the grief they give each other, they trust each other to take care of Magnus. theres no argument about that

(Magnus was resting, but he did see some of these moments, and smiled a bit to himself before dozing off again)

also Raphael and Ragnor gave Alec the ultimate shovel talk (Ragnor doesn't trust anyone after Camille, and while neither do cat and dot, they were more chill), but it lowkey backfired because they were like "if you ever hurt him, we'll remove your kneecaps" and Alec was like "(nodding seriously) thats fair"

also i know we've talked about this already but i also love the idea that Raphael goes to their house and is all absentmindedly like "hm can i have some coffee" and alec's like "sure, ill make it :) you stay here and talk to Magnus" and when Alec comes back he hands Raphael his coffee in a "best. bonus son. ever" mug and then he leans back against the wall, sipping his own coffee from his "world's #1 stepdad" mug that he bought himself, trying to hide his shit eating grin, and Raphael scowls and deliberately holds it so his hand covers the words, and Magnus laughs and his eyes shine as he sips his tea.

(later, Raphael is like. guess me and lightwood have a dynamic now. gross. but he still rolls with it)

in short Raphael and Alec being little shits to each other but still building something of a relationship for Magnus and always taking care of him..... ultimate trope