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princessjojo-x · 11 months

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CancerVenus ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

💝 he’s unlikely to make the first move, unless he’s known you for awhile & has good reason to believe his feelings are reciprocated. even after you’ve both shown mutual interests & began dating one another, he’ll resist being the first to confess feelings & he may even take his feelings to the grave. he’d much prefer you to open up first which will allow him to feel comfortable enough to open up too. he’s far too sensitive & reserved to risk being rejected in any capacity.

💝 usually, it takes awhile for him to become emotionally invested in a partner. he may act quite aloof & hard to read with love interests. he may hide or sabotage in order to refrain from falling too deep in love. he will analyse & evaluate before opening the door to his heart. you’ll need to prove to him that you’re dependable, familiar, safe & nurturing.

💝 his emotional state is vey changeable & unstable. it’s possible that this originated from a cataclysmic emotional event in which his ability to feel inwardly secure has been serverely compromised. old wounds & past traumas can heavily influence his present rxships & cause him to react from a place of fear rather than love. he has a tendency to become engrossed in memories, potentially distorting them, leading to psychic disharmony. he has a deep connection to the past, making it difficult to make room for new memories with a new significant other.

💝 despite him continuously learning a lot of hard lessons through love, somehow he never gives up on love. once the hard crab shell comes off, he is extremely nurturing & protective. he can even be smothering & clingy. he overwhelms his lover with attention.

💝 he’s emotionally intelligent & he encourages others to let out their emotions. if you’re going through emotional distress he naturally responds with nurture, wisdom & support. his way of connecting with others is by revealing something emotional.

💝 however, he has potential to become a covert narcissist & he can be emotionally manipulative (blaming his partner for his own low mood, especially since he take everything she says personal).

💝 he may be a quiet, shy, moody, submissive & vanilla lover. but he’s extremely loyal, willing to weather the storm & not easily bored.

💝 he has a fear of being too vulnerable & even verbalising what he needs or feels can be too exposing for him (its an instinctual response to his distrust of most people). therefore, he has a silent emotional expectation that his partner should somehow know just what he needs without him even verbalising it. when these needs are unmet, he can react very badly, from deeply crushing silent treatment to extreme anger outbursts. this can leave his partner feeling like she has to walk on egg shells around him!

💝 he usually has healthy self-worth, influenced by family perceptions & upbringing.

💝 you will know someone with cancer placements is taking you srsly & trusts you when they invite you to their home bc their home is a very important place to them. it’s where their personality shines, it’s their walls full of pictures of family & friends, books their mother read to them when they were little, blankets their grandmother made for them. they can’t let go of these things so when they let you inside their little shell, you can tell they put a huge amount of trust in you, they don’t do that with just anyone.

💝 he holds grudges a lot bc it's the only way to stop him from forgiving others.

💝 if you try to lie to him he’ll always have receipts ready!

💝 all cardinal venus signs tend to stop making efforts in their rxships once they get the person they were chasing, then either leave or complain about how boring things got.

💝 typically, if he isn’t interested in someone he will fabricate an excuse instead of telling her bluntly bc he doesn’t want to make her feel rejected & sad, a feeling he knows too well.

Turn On’s:

💝 he prefers love over lust. infant, being loved is more important to him than anything else.

💝 he seeks a partner who is emotionally understanding & provides him emotional security.

💝 ensure to give him lots of physical affection bc he establishes trust through physical touch. the best method to calm him down is literally giving him a hug.

💝 he loves a woman who’s the perfect blend of docile & dominant. dominant in the sense that she’ll be mature, reliable & persistent (he loves the mother archetype, being babied by a partner who feels like home). docile in the sense that she is willing to taking care of him & cater to him. he may even like passivity & receptivity in women, where he is the one providing & she can receive it.

💝he likes sweet, soft, gentle, delicate, nurturing, compassionate, patient women with feminine energy. create a warm, loving space for him to relax in at the end of the day or be willing to listen to how his day went.

💝 treat him like a priority & make him feel important. he needs constant reassurance, comfort, safety & vulnerability. ts

💝 his ideal partner has a water sign moon or ascendant.

💝 he wants someone with a strong connection to family or someone who wants to build a family (family oriented).

💝 ask him abt his rxship with his mum as he may have a mommy kink or mommy issues (or he may tend to attract people with mommy issues).

💝 sexually, he needs very strong touch, holding & kissing in order to feel sexually secure & trusting. unless he feels emotionally safe, he’ll feel sexually insecure.

💝 to impress him, dress a tad more modest & traditional, he likes a gentle aesthetic. he likes the colours of the moon (white, grey, light blue). don’t dress with too many colours or patterns. show da titties off, cancer placements love titties.

💝 he finds shy people super cute & charming.

💝 all water venus’s want emotional security. they want to be able to have a safe space & build a deep bond (they lacked this this security growing up). they want to feel spiritually bonded with their partner.

Turn Off’s:

💝 he loves to talk abt his feelings so he’s turned off by overly aggressive, emotionally closed off, overly confident, arrogant, aloof, flashy & inconsiderate women.

💝 he dislikes being rushed or pushed to make decisions. he moves at his own pace & if he become overwhelmed, he’ll retreat.

💝 he’s turned off if you don't let him in bc he likes to build a full connection asap & may have problem with the waiting stage. he wants to be sure things are going steadily in the direction of you being fully open to him, fully trusting in him & being an open book for him to read. he craves that intimacy & prefers love over lust, so if you don’t share yourself fully too it may annoy him.

💝 he’s turned off when you make him feel left out, unwanted & refuse to take his feelings into account (same for all water venus).

💝 telling him he makes you feel super uncomfortable & unsafe. telling him that he’s creepy, perverted & gross.

💝 rejecting his cuddles & food.

#astro notes #astrology #venus signs #cancer venus

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mmmkaybye · 7 months

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Why Zutara Shippers are Wrong (JK, You can ship who you want lol)

(Although, I don't care if you do actually ship Zutara, that's your prerogative, I'm just waiting for better arguments for the relationship and for people to stop negatively viewing Kataang)

First of all, I'm premising this with the fact that I don't think that ATLA should have ended with Katara and Aang kissing. I think it would have been fine to just end with a slightly more intimate-than-friends hug/cuddle. I would have personally preferred that two children who survived being literal child soldiers get the chance to be kids before they delve into a more mature relationship with one another, but they didn't exactly have adults of the modern culture there to guide them a different way, now did they?

BUT! I am a firm believer that Zuko and Katara would never have worked out romantically and that Katara and Aang's relationship 1. makes more sense and 2. is actually healthier in the scope of trauma and trauma responses.

First of all, I don't understand how the creators of ATLA managed to craft literally the MOST traumatic childhood backstory ever with incredible detail and nuance and everyone just fricking glosses over it like WTF??? Not to mention, the creators did an amazing job diversifying trauma responses to similar trauma experiences.

Let's discuss Katara's childhood trauma, which was not healed magically after a little side quest with Zuko. Katara carries immense survivor's guilt over her mother's murder. Katara understands very well how and why her mother was brutally murdered in their family home. She has been deeply aware of this since the day of her mother's murder - and she fully blames herself. Katara understands that a fire nation soldier killed her mother, but he killed her because of Katara - she said so herself. Then, Katara, who was the last person to interact with her mother, discovers her mother's body, and it is insinuated that Katara might have even witnessed her mother's brutal execution-style murder. This forever alters Katara down to her core personality traits. Katara is 'bossy' because of her trauma. I work with kids from pre-k through graduating american high school. It's pretty normal for girls to do what I call 'mothering' to their peers and to kids younger than them. It often is described as being 'bossy' and some girls are in fact bossy, but for the most part, they are roleplaying a caretaker mentality as they are most familiar with. In Katara's deep guilt of being the reason her mother was murdered, her trauma response was burden herself with the role of mother. This is further antagonized when her father leaves with the rest of the adult men to fight against the Fire Nation. He might've well as died too due to lack of communication for many years. Sokka does not allow Katara to mother him for very long, so she doesn't get to have a chance to work through her personal trauma response to her grief because she has no one to safely and consistently direct these mothering tendencies towards. The other children in the village are not orphans, their mothers are most likely very alive and very involved with them, so they would be temporary fillers at best. Sokka has stepped into the role of village man and definitely would reject Katara's mothering, which often led to tension between the siblings. Toph had the very reaction to Katara's mothering tendencies as I expect a young Sokka had to them. He lost his mother, too, he didn't want a replacement, nor did he want to lose his sister to the role of mother.

Zuko, in the same fashion as Sokka, had a mother who he loved, and lost, and was not looking to replace. Zuko's mother was also a topic that is deeply rooted in a lot of Zuko's personal trauma as well. Zuko did not get to spend much time with Katara for her mothering tendencies to be extended over him, but he definitely would have aggressively rejected them as Katara's trauma response would have negatively triggered his own. Their trauma would have deeply and negatively impacted any romantic relationship they could have developed because of how they would react to each other. Their relationship would have crashed and burned very quickly.

On top of that. Katara would have never left the South Pole indefinitely - that is her home, and she consistently returned to it throughout her life. That is an effect of her cultural upbringing. Zuko couldn't leave the Fire Nation, and as we saw in the graphic novels that followed, Zuko's personal welfare suffered greatly because his whole world was upended and now he was responsible for the one nation that didn't get peace at the end of the war. It's incredibly naive and slightly delusional for people to desperately push romantic wishes upon a sixteen-year-old boy who was burdened with the responsibility of healing an entire nation, one that fought him every step of the way in many aspects. He did not have the emotional energy to expend upon a frivolous relationship. That's why Mai and he broke up, not because they didn't love each other, but because Zuko simply could not have personal relationships until his reign and nation had stabilized - that alone would take upwards of 10 years. Plus, Zuko may have helped others work through parts of their trauma, but he had to address his trauma too, which we saw the beginnings of during the graphic novels. Simply put, by the end of ATLA and all of the graphic novels, Zuko was in no place emotionally, mentally, and even physically and politically to seek out a relationship that was meaningful and healthy. And I know that Zuko would have changed the tradition of political marriage, at the very least he deserves to have married for love at the end of everything he suffered through. Zuko is a great opportunity to normalize waiting until you're in your mid-twenties -thirties before seeking out romantic relationships. Logistically speaking, I don't think there would have been much opportunity for romantic feelings to develop between the two of them. I especially don't think Katara would have easily been able to live in the Fire Nation because the Fire Nation was directly responsible for her trauma, and that is also why I don't think she would have every pursued a relationship with a Fire Nation man, Zuko or not.

Now onto Aang. Everyone always jumps onto this idea that Katara and Aang had a very mother-son relationship - which is wrong. Aang comes from a culture that literally does not have mother and fatherhood. There are NO mothers and fathers in the Air Nomad Nation. Sure, kids had birth parents, but parenthood was not part of their culture, nor did Aang ever seek out that kind of relationship. Aang may have been kid-like, but he was the most adultified kid in the group. He was incredibly independent and confident in his ability to travel internationally by himself at 12. Katara had never thought to leave the South Pole to seek out a waterbending master in the North Pole because she didn't have that confidence or training. The Air Nomads thrived on a mentorship-based village raising of children. So, Aang never thought of Katara as his mother. He literally couldn't, because he had no scope of reference for such a relationship, same with fatherhood. He never had a parental relationship with Monk Gyasto. It was more like a fun uncle mentorship. I think that's why everyone thinks Aang was a bad father, but he was an outlier in the Air Nomad nation because there was no Air Nomad nation when he had children. The village that raised the children in his culture was gone. He was actually a fairly decent father and the two older children probably felt bitter because Tenzin was the only other air bender in existence so it obviously Aang is going to spend a lot of one on one time with Tenzin in the scope of mentoring Tenzin in the way of Air Nomad culture. Aang was not an absentee father like how many people assumed from the very one-sided and brief explanation given by the two older, jaded siblings. Was he perfect? No, he literally had no clue how to be a father. Did he and Tenzin leave to get milk and never come back? Also no. That being said, Aang was the only individual who was comfortable with Katara mothering him, he never felt threatened or overburdened by her trauma response, which allowed for Katara to genuinely work through her grief and mature out of the extreme bossy mothering we first saw in book one. If you pay attention, yes Katara does retain that 'bossy' kind of personality, but that was permanent fixture due to her childhood trauma and a little bit of cultural influence as well. I think, if Katara had never been traumatized, she would have always leaned towards a very soothing and nuturing type of personality, which we began to see in the middle of book three. Her bossiness/mothering trauma response gradually lessened the longer she 'mothered' Aang. Once again, neither of the two saw each other as Mother-son. They were simple too close in age and Aang also had the added sense of duty-boundness due to being the Avatar. Katara was always going to be a caretaker archetype personality, trauma or no, and that simply wasn't the type of person that Zuko would lean towards for a romantic relationship due to his own personal upbringing and culture. Aang is a much more gentle and playfully empathetic personality that works with Katara's firm care and sassy disposition.

In the graphic novels, I personally saw a great deal of healing and maturation in Katara in relation to her trauma. She was less mothering towards Aang, too, and I think that had a lot to do with the fact that Aang matured a lot as well and the change in their once platonic relationship to a more romantic-leaning one. Was their relationship perfect? No, they are kids who survived a horrific war and many many trauma-inducing situations. However, once Katara fully leaned away from the mothering habit, we get to see that Aang allows Katara to relax and be more playful. She genuinely was just happy with Aang. He pushed her to be a little more child-like and to have child-like fun even as they grew up into adulthood. Katara helped Aang mature and face a lot of adult burdens that were placed child.

In the end, Katara and Aang always brought out the best in each other. Katara and Zuko didn't have enough time together in ATLA to develop an individual relationship outside of the group. There simply isn't enough time outside of their little side-quest in which Katara and Zuko interact solo- which was definitely NOT Katara's best, and in fact was Katara lashing out aggressively towards people who loved and cared for her and she them. Zuko was also not his 'best' in that time either as he was also being triggered emotionally. In fact, during ATLA, there's way too much negative tension between the two of them that leads to really intense disagreements and emotional outbursts more often than not until Katara begrudgingly accepts Zuko into the group, they don't even positively interact until Ember Island which is what, two weeks? She's not exactly nice when she pretty much demands him to help her hunt down the man that murdered her mother. Zuko is all gung-ho about vengeance too. Of course, they both have a lesson learning moment, but that episode cemented in my brain that Aang is the better partner for Katara than Zuko. Aang, once again the most mature in the Gaang, fight me on this, has a deep, empathetic understanding of the world, he doesn't do a great job trying to explain to Katara, but I think that's because no one in the Gaang understands how Appa is not just an air bison, and Aang never views Appa as an air bison like how everyone else in ATLA do. To everyone else, Appa's an animal, but to Aang and Aang's culture that is deeply offensive, Appa is an individual with emotions and value outside of what he can offer the group in terms of transportation and that's never really explicitly clarified to the audience either (because despite being a kid's cartoon, the creators knew their audience well and did not treat the audience like we are stupid and can in fact infer and read between the lines). If Katara had killed that pathetic worm of a man, it would have absolutely destroyed her as a person. She would not have been able to heal from her trauma and would probably suffer even more trauma and guilt. This side-quest was a plot point to lead up to the big debate of killing Ozai, and not many, in fact I don't know if anyone has talked about that fact. I have no doubt that Zuko has probably killed people, at the very least, he's deeply desensitized to people dying as I think he probably at some point did experience or witness some form of warfare battle before he began chasing Aang down.

Once again, I don't really care if you do ship Katara and Zuko. In fact, I think that's a-okay. But, with the Netflix live action adaptation's take on the Secret Tunnel scene, I've seen a lot of people speculating and even hoping for it to become canon and there have even been some opinions of Kataang that have resurfaced that really rub me the wrong way because it feels like many individuals are just looking at the surface level of ATLA. There's so much nuance to each individual character in terms of culture, societal norms, age and gender, and most importantly, trauma and trauma responses. The creators did an amazing job world building and story telling that a lot of what I put up in my opinion in preference for Kataang over Zutara is information that I inferred from the show and graphic novels due to my personal experience and education in familial relationships and childhood trauma. My thoughts are not the end all be all to this debate, nor do I think they should be, I've seen some really solid opinions in favor of Zutara that I can understand and somewhat agree with. I think a lot of those details and moments that people look to as indicators of romance between Katara and Zuko were remnants of the creators' previous intention, but I think that the change to Aang and Katara as end game was logistically and realistically more accurate. I never thought that Katara and Zuko were meant to be, and I always struggled to put to words as to why until I had pursued my psych studies in college that focused on child development, childhood trauma, and marriage and family counselling. I think that the creators instinctually were seeing the red flags that would have occurred naturally within Zutara and changed course accordingly. There were just a lot of details and nuances that I noticed personally that I wished more people would discuss.

Anyways, thank you for coming to my TedTalk, I'd love to hear some of your opinions about this.

#ATLA #avatar the last airbender #atla netflix #katara #zuko #aang #trauma #childhood trauma #kataang #zutara #katara x zuko #katara x aang #long post #debate

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sapphiphilic · 11 months

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“Not moving on is worse.”

In the context of season two, I struggle to reconcile the intersection of sincerity and comedy, and the idea of what pains and traumas we are meant to understand at the deeper level of what trauma is with those that serve only the purpose of comedic timing. This isn’t limited to one character, but rather to the season as a whole.

Season one highlighted childhood trauma and the ability to move on from that, becoming the best adult version of oneself possible. We see this evident in Ed, Stede, and Jim specifically as we are allowed to explore their pasts and their traumas — and we can presume that no one on the crew of the Revenge is without trauma (Fang’s dog, anyone?) of some kind that they carry with them. Stede handles his traumas and how to process them through running away and avoiding the issue until he no longer can. Ed does something similar, though he is able to craft a facade to use as a shield and a weapon, even if he never delivers a killing blow himself. Jim dedicates their life to revenge.

We witness all of these characters allow the defining characteristic of love to be allowing themselves to be saved and valued for who they are — not for what they can offer.

When season two opens, we as an audience see Ed at, arguably, his worst (I say arguably because we didn’t see Blackbeard in his prime, so… do with that what you will, I suppose). We see how this affects beloved and treasured characters, as well as new characters that we have yet to fall in love with. We see Fang fall apart not once but twice within the first two episodes alone. In episode two, we see Ed — a much beloved and adored character who we know intimately — lash out when confronted for his behavior. He lashes out at his crew and physically mutilates his closest confidant for daring to question him. “But that’s piracy!” And you’re right! But don’t we watch the first episode of season one highlight how much Stede Bonnet wants to change piracy? Isn’t this show supposed to be about found family, and getting better, and finding healing? In which case, we’re watching Ed behave abusively in the wake of his mental struggles as he once again attempts to hide behind the same facade that has protected him in the past. Ed suffers this breakdown in response to not one but two perceived rejections from the two people he would claim to be the most important in his life, and in a classic mental illness fashion, he barricades himself off and settles into the persona that is everything he doesn’t want to be.

His crew fears him. They’ve been kidnapped and essentially held hostage under the man they believe to have murdered their crew — their friends — and are watching him continue to devolve. Enter Izzy Hands and Jim Jimenez. Izzy is well aware of his hand in Ed’s state. “Well, he instigated it!” He did. He wanted back a version of Blackbeard who he saw as safe territory: a necessary evil for the continued survival and safety of the crew, ship, and Ed and Izzy themselves. And then he watched Edward “Only Ever Killed One Person Personally” Teach fulfill the legend he’s always been known as, and watched him become someone who couldn’t care less about life or death or anything in between. Ed surpassed and buried the version of Blackbeard that Izzy wanted to return, and he was force-fed the consequences of this with an unavoidable cruelty. “Well, he deserved what he got! Violence was always on the table, because it’s piracy!” But once again, we’re operating under the assumption that the big themes of this show are healing from trauma and being worthy of being loved even if we’ve done bad things.

While we’re on that topic, though, let’s explore that. Ed’s childhood trauma comes from his abusive father. He carries the weight of that abuse with him well into adulthood, as well as the weight of what he had to do to survive it. What he had to do to save his mother. This season sees him abusing those around him. Despite this, despite his erratic behavior and the mistreatment of his crew, he is still loved (by crew and fandom both, if I may add). He is still loved by Stede, despite the trail of blood he leaves in his wake. Stede is still longing to find him, despite knowing what he’s done and what he’s now capable of, and this continues to reiterate that idea of you deserve to be loved even when you’ve done wrong.

And then, Stede finds him.

We as an audience witness Ed make the choice to stay alive. We watch the thought process, we see that he chooses to fight for that love that comes alongside being saved. Being wanted. Being seen for who you are and loved because of it. And up to here, I’m on board. I’m excited to see what’s next and how Ed will reconcile for what he’s done and the harm he’s caused at the hands of his mental illness — because the truth is, we harm people when we aren’t adequately being responsible for our mental illness. This is a real-world thing. We lash out when we’re hurt, or when we’re rejected, or when we’re struggling. When we’re suffering, we often can’t see past ourselves to see whether or not we’re also causing others to suffer. This does not make us bad people — and it didn’t make Ed one. And then the “apology” came and went. The only member of the crew Ed really sits and ever has a drawn out conversation with about anything is Fang, and even this is somewhat shallow. Fang absolves him and moves on. We don’t get to see whether or not Ed ponders this conversation long-term or whether or not he battles with himself over how to move on.

We’re left with a traumatized crew who semi-accepted a half-hearted apology and a beloved character who hasn’t actually been held accountable at all. “But he apologized and wore the bell and fixed that door latch!” Yes, and? He physically mutilated his first mate, instructed him to be killed, traumatized an entire crew — and this all takes a backseat to his relationship with Stede. And what a stunning scene between the two of them in the moonlight, where Ed finds it in him to ask to take things slow. Where he recognizes his needs and vocalizes them. I left this episode feeling so hopeful, because half-baked apology aside, Ed is actively learning to vocalize his thoughts and ask for what he needs when he recognizes in himself that something is going to be harmful to him. We had a kiss, we had Ed asking for help when he needed it, we had a proposal, we had “not moving on is worse,” and even knowing only three episodes remained, I left feeling like we had been so perfectly set up to see how things were only going to keep improving.

In the first episodes of the season, we see murderous raids and mutilated first mates and two suicide attempts (though I suppose one was more of a mass murder-suicide attempt?) and these are all thrown together. In episode six, Stede deescalates a raid from a bloodbath of his own crew and sends another crew on their way with the lessons and values that he has been pursuing since the first episode of the first season. He then, in a parallel to the French ship of season one, causes a man’s death. This is highlighted as a turning point, something that can’t be ever moved on from. (“There’s no coming back from that.”) But what about the other traumatic events of the season that are treated as jokes? Izzy’s drinking, day in and day out, bottle after bottle after bottle — coping with the reality of his life and the way it’s been altered beyond recognition. The mop he used as a makeshift leg snapping, forcing him to pull himself away from the crew with his own hands. Lucius’s mention of being sexually assaulted and Stede’s look of disgust, the way he literally runs away from the conversation. Lucius never gets to air out his traumas, not really, not with someone who listens and tells him he’s safe and allows him to talk things through. Even Pete gets ill instead of being able to offer support.

I struggle to reconcile what is and isn’t comedy in this season, or what violence is meant to be taken for what it is. The Ed and Izzy breakdowns in episodes one and two sat far too close to my chest for me to look past them into comedy — and the suicidality of both men was glossed over and moved on from so quickly, never explored. Did Izzy’s “I wanna go” in the final episode mean he never moved on? That some part of him was still lying in that room with a gun to his head? You don’t become non-suicidal in a matter of days — is there still something lingering in the back of Ed’s mind? There was never a conversation about it, and there was never anything between the two of them that could allow me comfort in knowing that they had reached some sort of understanding. This season pulled domestic abuse, alcohol abuse, and suicidal tendencies straight from my own traumas and never held anyone accountable for any of them. There was no healing. There was no real talking it through. “Well, it’s not a rom-com, so—” Except it continues to be presented as one. Shortcomings of storylines of characters that seem to have been cast aside or mischaracterized this season aside, I cannot for the life of me reconcile how a show about kindness and moving on and being loved amidst all of your flaws could have a season so wrought with traumas and yet never discuss them. Never explore them in a way that allows me to move on. I love this show and there were so many good things about this season; I love these characters, and yet I feel so disconnected from it for the first time in over a year. Not moving on is worse, sure, but moving on without accountability leaves wounds unable to heal. How do you move on from that?

#ofmd #our flag means death #pluviophiliqueue #ofmd s2 #my thoughts and feelings on s2 #ofmd s2 critique

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proudfreakmetarusonikku · 5 months

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anyway quick summary of what i think each character represents to isaacs psyche before i go to bed. regular characters are a part of him as a person and the tainted characters then reflect part of his trauma imo

isaac: obviously himself, but also isaac being a blank slate represents how he created so many personas to deal with his trauma/tainted isaac: the physical abuse isaac experienced and how he had to adapt as a survival strategy

magdalene: his love and admiration for his mother, to the point of wanting to be just like her/tainted magdalene: isaac's desperate need and latching onto any positive attention + his association of love with physical and emotional pain due to having shitty parents

cain: isaac feeling like he destroyed his family and the guilt that comes with that/tainted cain: hoarding

judas: isaac feeling like he’s betrayed both those he loves and his faith/tainted judas: intentionally acting out bc you believe you’re evil anyway

???: isaac's perception of himself after death/tainted ???: generally playing with feces is a common symptom of childhood trauma, which tainted ??? takes to an absurd extent.

eve: isaac's suicidal ideation and desire to self harm, along with internalised misogyny from his upbringing/tainted eve: self harming and suicidal behaviour

samson: isaac's anger and frustration/tainted samson: violent outbursts from trauma triggers

azazel: isaac's religious delusions of being the antichrist and his sins/tainted azazel: isaac's belief he needs to be punished and physically hurt for those “sins”

lazarus: potentially past suicide attempts/thoughts of suicide, and the religious implications of such/tainted lazarus: isaac's fear of purgatory and being unable to enter heaven due to suicide being a sin.

eden: the playfulness and silliness of like, a normal five year old, and isaac's maladaptive daydreaming/tainted eden: the fawn response, changing who you are to try and make what’s hurting you stop

the lost: again, isaac's idea of himself after his suicide/tainted lost: fear of being forsaken and abandoned again bc suicide is a sin and he’d be stuck in purgatory in his own head.

lilith: isaac's negative thoughts on his mother shifted to a “safe” alternative/tainted lilith: fear of sexuality and growing up

keeper: both again isaac's constant thoughts of death + a representation of his father, who he both admires and fears becoming/tainted keeper: indulgence and risky behaviours as a distraction

apollyon: due to the void representing delirium, possibly a reflection of isaac's own thoughts/reflections on his psychosis?/tainted apollyon: dunno tbh the later characters are less obvious and it’s 2 am

forgotten: isaac's idea of purgatory and what he thinks he deserves after his suicide, due to it being “sinful”/tainted forgotten: again, isaac's fear of being stuck forever due to that

bethany: isaac's idea of what he “should” be, being virtuous and holy where he feels he is sinful and damned/tainted bethany: clinging to his religion as a coping mechanism or rejecting it violently out of fear

jacob + esau: desire for a friend/sibling?/tainted jacob: impostor syndrome, feeling like you’ve betrayed/stolen from people around you.

again these are very simplified very tentative and it is 2 am so I cannot elaborate but. i think about this way too much.

#Tboi #the binding of isaac #isaac theories

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judasalicent · 14 days

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transcript of my alicole (really rhaenicent) essay

Let’s look at a few scenes in Season 1 Episode 5.

CRISTON’S CONFESSION SCENE (1x05)

So what’s happening in this scene? Criston confesses his sins to Alicent, and coincidentally, Alicent realizes that Rhaenyra has lied to her about having sex. Alicent then chooses to not punish Criston, but to instead make an ally of him.

Notably, this is also the first time during the show that the audience hears ‘The Green Dress’ theme. Knowing this, let’s a look at the actual green dress scene…

THE GREEN DRESS SCENE (1x05)

So we see Alicent, arriving late to the party, interrupting Viserys's speech, and wearing the colors of her father’s house. She’s making a very loud political statement in favor of her father’s family. She also refers to Rhaenyra as her step-daughter, rejecting their former intimacy.

From these two scene, what can we learn about the significance of the green dress?

Ultimately, by wearing this dress and making this entrance, Alicent is fully aligning herself with Otto’s ideals as she abandons her own personal morals. The green dress is a link in Alicent’s chain, in the sense that Alicent has been trapped into a way of thinking that is not her own (i.e., Alicent chooses to believe the manipulations of her father after Criston reveals the truth about Rhaenyra, and Alicent believes she can not longer trust her former best friend). The green dress is not empowering, it is a loss for Alicent. The green dress is not who she is, but who she is forced to be.

So, what does Criston have to do with all this? Well, obviously, this is the beginning of Criston and Alicent’s relationship. Their whole connection is built upon a foundation of this situation with Rhaenyra. It is Criston’s confession that catalyzes Alicent’s choice to wear the green dress and believe Otto when he says that Rhaenyra is untrustworthy.

Also something important in these scenes, we see Alicent and Criston both assume an idealized image of themselves relative to each other: the lady and her knight. Keep in mind that this is an ideal of Westerosi romance, and is a major way that heteropatriarchal ideals are reinforced in this society. These are images that Criston and Alicent look up to and see themselves in, making the other person in their partnership more of an idea than a human being. Alicent and Criston will maintain this idealized image of each other throughout Season 1, but it is inevitable that all of it will come crashing down because we already know that Criston doesn’t wholly conform to this idea, having broken his vows when he slept with Rhaenyra…

PART 2: WE CANNOT, AGAIN

So, Viserys died ten days ago, and Alicent is having sex.

FIRST ALICENT/CRISTON SCENE (2x01)

First, let’s make some observations. The first we see of Alicent in Season 2, what reintroduces this character to us, is her hand. She’s picking at her fingers again, she’s still wearing her wedding ring, and she has bracelets on that looks like shackles. Basically, I don’t think Alicent is doing very well; I think the writers are telling us that she’s very conflicted and feels out of control.

Control is a very important aspect of this new relationship. On one hand, the control is sexual. In Season 2 Episode 1, Alicent is always in the dominant position while she and Criston are having sex. This could obviously be a trauma response, or Alicent taking control over this part of her life that was not hers for so many years in her relationship with Viserys. The control in this relationship is also expressed in other ways. Alicent uses this relationship with Criston to assert herself at among other men.

COUNCIL SCENE (2x01)

I think Alicent is obviously lost and looking for purpose after Viserys’s death and Aegon’s ascension. She has fulfilled this role of mother and queen, and what is her value to these men now? The floor is falling out from beneath her, and Alicent is grasping onto this relationship with Criston to try and remain relevant and in control.

Another important observation about the first sex scene: notice that a variation of ‘The Green Dress’ theme is playing.

FIRST ALICENT/CRISTON SCENE (2x01)

There is a question being asked as the score calls back to this very defining moment in Alicent’s life: who is Alicent outside of the duty she committed herself to when she put on that green dress? She has fulfilled her role as Aegon’s mother, the role that Otto manipulated her into, the role she chose when she put on the green dress, so who is she now? The score is telling us that Alicent is reflecting on her past choices.

But why is Criston there? Well, Criston is very tied up in that moment when Alicent puts on the green dress. A large part of what informs Alicent’s decision in Season 1 is…

I WANTED WHATEVER YOU IMPRESSED UPON ME TO WANT SCENE (1x09)

In other words, Alicent was never given the choice to do what she wanted; Otto chose for her. I believe during Criston’s confession scene in Season 1, Alicent thinks she is choosing Criston for herself, but that’s not true; Alicent keeps Criston as a sworn protector, in part, because of the resentment for Rhaenyra that was planted by Otto. Alicent further allies herself with Criston through Season 1…

SPOILED CUNT SCENE (1x06)

They bond over a seemingly shared resentment for Rhaenyra (though Alicent’s resentment is not wholly true, because it is in part Otto’s).

I think Alicent is exploring this relationship with Criston in Season 2 because she thinks it was her choice to accept him to begin with. What did she see in Criston those years ago? Alicent’s disillusionment with the the green dress was inevitably going to fall back onto Criston and the illusion of choice she had in choosing him as a sworn protector.

Another important development in this scene: the lady and the knight are fading away. We see in Alicent and Criston’s conversation after their first sex scene, they are very awkward, literally talking about the weather. They aren’t approaching each other emotionally. I do believe that Alicent and Criston care for one another, considering they’ve been by each other’s sides for ten years now, but adding sex to their relationship has shattered the image of the lady and knight that their dedication to one another is based upon. Criston can no longer worship Alicent as the chaste lady, and Alicent can no longer see Criston as the gallant knight. This whole idea between them that formed during the green dress moment has been destroyed. And then, everything obviously falls apart when Criston is promoted to Hand in Season 2 Episode 2.

THIRD ALICENT/CRISTON SCENE (2x02)

The power dynamic has shifted, and Alicent is no longer in total control. During this sex scene, she is literally positioned between Criston and a wall. The relationship that Alicent wanted, the one she used for control, is effectively over in this moment. After he is installed as Hand, Criston continuously dismisses Alicent, publicly asking for her favor and calling her by her first name in public.

FAVOR SCENE (2x03)

NAME SCENE (2x05)

Alicent cannot achieve what she wants through Criston any longer. Alicent is a woman to be protected, not a person to respect. He will not represent her at council, and he will not let her voice her opinions concerning the war effort. The last semblances of control Alicent was achieving through Criston are gone. Alicent no longer pursues the relationship.

So, to summarize, Criston and Alicent are bound together by their experience with Rhaenyra in Season 1, sparking the green dress moment that marks Alicent’s abandonment of her true self and the beginning of her dedication to her father’s desires. In Season 2, Alicent has fulfilled these duties. She doesn’t know who she is, and this green dress moment is so woven together with her relationship to Criston that he was always going to be involved in her disillusionment with this idea.

Additionally, the knight-lady dichotomy fails Alicent, and she realizes that Criston views her as a woman before anything else. Alicent no longer finds fulfillment or power in this heteropatriarchal ideal. But… there is something unsatisfying about what I’ve spoken about so far. It’s like this story isn’t falling together completely, like there are pieces missing.

With that, let’s finally address the elephant in the room…

PART 3: RHAENYRA

Alicent and Criston’s relationship wouldn’t exist without Rhaenyra. To think about these two characters having sex and ignoring Rhaenyra’s presence in their relationship is impossible.

Notably, all of the sex scenes between Criston and Alicent take place in Rhaenyra’s old bedroom. Their activities in this room stand in great contrast against the people they portray themselves to be as outside of it. In this room, they have sex, and Alicent hits Criston. There’s debauchery and violence. This is a space where the image of the lady and the knight fall away. It is in this space, a space that Alicent knows and remembers as Rhaenyra’s, that she freely explores a part of herself that she keeps hidden beneath the mask created by the green dress moment. Rhaenyra is offering her freedom in a sense, though Alicent does not yet see it.

Additionally, Alicent living in Rhaneyra’s room takes her back to a time before the green dress, when Alicent would have visited that room often and felt comfort there. Olivia Cooke has described Alicent’s Season 2 journey as a coming of age.

This tracks with what the show is presenting. It’s been observed that Alicent’s outfits in Season 2 closely resemble the silhouettes of the dresses younger Alicent wore in Season 1. On top of that, Alicent’s dresses in Season 2 are ill-fitting; they seem to be too big on her in the same way a child may look wearing the dresses of an adult. When we think of Alicent when she was a girl, before the green dress, what was important in her life? I think Rhaenyra. The first sex scene between Criston and Alicent directly calls back to Rhaenyra and Alicent’s relationship, the two scenes paralleling each other almost exactly. I think, in part, Alicent is looking for that comfort she used to feel with Rhaenyra, in that room, with Criston.

FIRST ALICENT/CRISTON SCENE (2x01)

RHAENYRA NAMED HEIR (1x01)

There is also a significance to the fact that Alicent knows Criston has had sex with Rhaenyra. Alicent is obsessively jealous of Rhaenyra’s freedom, specifically her sexual freedom, during Season 1; Alicent sees Rhaenyra do whatever she wants (with Daemon, Criston, and Harwin) with no consequences, whereas Alicent has never even been given the opportunity to explore this part of herself. I think Alicent is curious what Rhaenyra saw in sex, why Rhaenyra would risk so much for sex, so Alicent has sex with Criston to figure this out. Alicent finds physical pleasure in her relationship with Criston, but she obviously doesn’t find it fulfilling enough to continue after she loses her power in the relationship; there is something missing. I think what is missing is Rhaenyra in the sense that Rhaenyra is the only person to have ever given Alicent any sort of idea of freedom and comfort.

CONCLUSIONS

So where is this all headed? I haven’t mentioned a lot of other very important scenes that have happened in Season 2, like the sept scene, and, as of right now, we are still yet to see other important Alicent scenes like the lake scene in Season 2 Episode 7. Regardless, it is my opinion that Alicent’s experiences in Season 2 are all leading up to a confrontation with Rhaenyra. Whether or not Alicent is a double agent, as of Episode 6 of Season 2, she has basically totally accepted that she does not have any power as as a member of the Green council. Her relationship with Criston was a part of this journey of disillusionment, and I think that is something that should be acknowledged and not simply dismissed as ‘bad writing.’

See you during the Dragonstone Reunion.

(this essay was written after s2ep6 of hotd)

#do i dare put this in the alicole tag? no probably no #rhaenyra targaryen #alicent hightower #hotd #house of the dragon #hotd spoilers #rhaenicent

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pavel-chekov-appreciator · 8 months

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I want better for Sybok.

I want a world where he got a fighting chance to do anything but become a cult leader. I’ve seen aus where he becomes a counselor and I can’t stop thinking about it.

No gods, no Sha-Ka-Ree, no cult. Just a kid who knows his history. Who researches Surak, and the world before him, and finds himself dissatisfied with present day Vulcan’s interpretations of his teachings. Unable to see the logic in following one ancient man’s words with no additional input or thought. Is this truly the best way for them to live? His mother didn't think so. He doesn't think so either.

He’s young, and he has big ideas and a lot of charisma, and a lot of inner pain from losing his mother and being suddenly told the way she was raising him was wrong. He quickly earns a reputation as a troublemaker. Indulging in blatant displays of emotionalism, just to prove his point, that he smiled and nothing bad happened, he cried and he felt better after.

He’s dissatisfied and ostracized and convinced there’s a better way to be living.

He fucks off at 18-not quite banished, but so strongly encouraged to leave that he might as well have been-and goes to a college on Earth, because the federation is a post-scarcity society so he has his basic needs met and he just wants to figure himself out, and where better to do that than a college campus, as far away from Vulcan society as possible. On his step-mother's home planet, where he knows at least a little of the culture, the language, what to expect.

He sees the school counselor a lot, and gets a lot out of their sessions. Takes some psychology courses and ends up getting really passionate about it.

Teaches himself to embrace his emotions while acknowledging that it’s very easy to be ruled by them. Utilizes aspects of traditional Vulcan control combined with the human practice of mindfulness to understand his emotions and control his strong impulse to act on them, without completely rejecting them. Knows he is choosing not to control his emotions, but he can and should control the actions he takes in response to them to avoid hurting himself or others. Knows that understanding why he feels a certain way can help him understand himself better.

Lives his best life and studies psychology to help other people find the same joy and peace he has, in whatever form that takes for them.

Then he finds out his baby bro basically told the VSA to fuck off and that dad more or less disowned him for joining Starfleet. Feels so damn proud of him for standing up the their parents like that.

Reunites with his brother after years of separation.

It’s rocky at first, but after both being disowned they’re all the family the other has left now, and they both do really care about each other.

Spock doesn’t understand Sybok’s choices, but he doesn’t need to understand them to respect them; Sybok is clearly still exercising some degree of control over himself, he even still meditates, he’s just controlling himself less, and differently, and his mind is more at peace than it’s ever been before. Sybok doesn’t really understand Spock’s continued dedication to logic either, but he respects it too, because clearly it still means something to Spock in a big way.

They make peace with each other, and their differences, and with the fact that their parents and society have rejected them. That Sybok did everything “wrong” and Spock did everything “right” and yet they both ended up in the same place; on Earth, with mom ignoring their calls, because she loved them both but she loves her husband more.

And ultimately he enrolls in Starfleet medical to become a ships counselor, because he still takes great joy in doing things he knows dad would hate, and because he wants to specialize in trauma and grief counseling and Starships need a lot of that, and because getting a new perspective on life from being around humans helped him a lot and he’s rejected a lot of philosophy that he found unhelpful but IDIC is something he still believes in; he wants to be around as many different ideas and perspectives as he can to improve himself and his practice, and Starfleet is a great way to do that.

Getting to follow his only remaining family into space is just a bonus.

#star trek #star trek tos #spock #sybok #s’chn t’gai sybok #priority one shitpost #i havent actually watched any snw yet i know some sybok stuff is explored in that but im not 100% on the details #this is mostly based on st5 and some secondhand info from a plot description of the novelization of st5

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thecruellestmonth · 9 months

Text

Jason Todd 2023 fic recs

Some of the best Jason Todd fics that were posted or updated in the year 2023.

"Beneficiary" by sirsparklepants https://archiveofourown.org/works/44845189 - The beneficiaries of the estate of Jason Todd. Wonderfully bittersweet. A story about "the logistical demands of death" and "the banalities of death and grief".

"The Extremely True Story of the Titans Tower Attack" by Wisetypewriter https://archiveofourown.org/works/45011785 - Red Hood evilly dragged the iron maiden Talia had gifted him in the Titans Tower’s kitchen. He cackled to himself, so deliciously happy to be able to test it on Robin. -- The most "Titans Tower AU" ever of all time. A must-read for anyone who hates or loves fanon.

The Foreigner by somecaveats https://archiveofourown.org/works/44992420 - Jason had played out Bruce’s first words to him again and again, the blame, the disgust, the rejection, and then, sometimes, when he was feeling sentimental, tears and warmth and muttered prayers about the miracle of his return. He had thought he was prepared for anything. --Or; Immediately after the Lazarus Pit, Jason comes back. -- You know those fantasies of Jason returning to the family in a neater and more palatable way? And all his loved ones react so sweetly and supportively and sensitively—as if Jason's own behavior were the singular deciding factor in whether the family is functional and healthy? This isn't that. Or; in which Jason receives a damningly reluctant welcome home, has several ugly ugly panic attacks, and expertly deduces that one of Bruce's Wayne ancestors got it on with John Singer Sargent. [work in progress/incomplete]

"how it feels to be immune" by maangoes https://archiveofourown.org/works/44490682 - He spent a year in a villa in the Hindu Kush. He doesn’t remember most of it. There were people that cleaned and made him food. The whole house smelled like Talia, like rose and jasmine flowers. This is a soothing little vignette, like a calm before a storm. Talia shines in her competence and in her tenderness, while also struggling to make the right choices for Jason's post-resurrection recovery.

whether a beast or a human being by Goldmonger https://archiveofourown.org/series/3417622 - The Red Hood has been recaptured by the Batman and consigned to a private prison, one buried deep beneath Gotham City. The Dark Knight has encountered insane and deadly criminals before, and knows the havoc that can be wreaked from allowing them any kind of freedom. The Red Hood will spend the rest of his life under observation, and will be cared for according to the directives of the Batman. It is unlikely that he will rejoin society, but that is a sacrifice that must be made to protect the citizens of Gotham. Or: "The Wide Sargasso Sea: Jason Todd Edition." Now serendipitously even more relevant after Gotham War! This story contains extreme and unmitigated pain, and severe medical abuse. In the words of the writer: a story "of how even the closest relationship with the most love in the world can fall apart under the right conditions." This is an ongoing/incomplete story, but each installment feels like a satisfying pausing point.

"catch and release" by hellsreluctantheir https://archiveofourown.org/works/50457703 - Dick & Jason hurt/comfort, with POV Dick. In the words of one commenter, this is a sweet story that really appreciates Dick's "constant worrying & planning & trauma and huge sense of responsibility that he’s always got going there" with respect to the ups and downs of his history with Jason.

"Neighbours" by Aingeal98 https://archiveofourown.org/works/40132554 - Bruce loved his son. Bruce was delighted that his son was making new friends. But there was something odd about that family, and no it wasn't just because Cassandra's mother outvoted him at the last PTA meeting, Jason. (That may have played a small part. Sue him, he's human.) PTA AU starring Cass and Shiva, with Jason as a supporting character. A feel-good story with comedy, friendship, family, and tiny pre-teen urban justice crusader Cass as our intrepid hero!

"EURUS" by cowboymater https://archiveofourown.org/works/50555239/chapters/127711369 - "Eurus is a continued interrogation of our own beliefs […] the record seeks to capture the feelings of dark woods, dry branches, dead leaves, and wondering who had migrated — you, or your flock?" OR: Jason Todd, his convictions, his forgiveness, and the cycles of violence and hope (violent hope, sometimes) he may never be free of.

"Ages 12 & Up" by motleyfam https://archiveofourown.org/works/52384984 - See, the real reason that Damian always refuses painkillers is that he cannot swallow a pill. Cute and fun. Damian is a tough little guy, and Jason is an obnoxiously annoying big brother.

"YOU MUST KNOW LIFE TO KNOW DECAY." by orpheusaki @damianbugs https://archiveofourown.org/works/48513616 - For as long as Jason can remember, it's always been raining. Jason's memories of rainy days throughout his life. The rain continues, and so does Jason.

"Get Joker" by chucklesbuckles https://archiveofourown.org/works/49377664 - Harley tries to bond with Jason over their singular shared point of trauma, obsesses over the dead bird's hands, and alienates him by having a platonic hard on for his dad. Jason just wants to make bets over who on their team will bite it first. In which Suicide Squad: Get Joker! is scrapped for parts and melted down. Harley's retrospective on having knowingly loved someone who tortured Barbara Gordon and killed Robin. [POV Harley Quinn.]

"Down to Dust" by Sparkypants https://archiveofourown.org/works/47407291 - It's not the warehouse that Jason has nightmares about. It's Bruce. Bruce deciding to cremate him instead of bury him. Because if he had, what would Jason be now? An infinite number of pieces, cast into the wind. Smoke hanging in the air and never whole or home again, part of him always missing. A spiral of psychological horror, then some hurt/comfort.

"the shadow of violence" by shipyrds https://archiveofourown.org/works/49059019 - Jason shoots someone to protect Damian. Bruce, as usual, has opinions.

"promises" by sunspikes https://archiveofourown.org/series/3413851 - After a nightmarish premonition, young Jason makes Bruce promise not to bury him.

"through death and time" by sparkycap https://archiveofourown.org/works/45733813 - After a mission that takes Batman and Nightwing back twenty years in the past, they end up with time to kill. Bruce does what he does best: he finds a kid. Luckily this one is already his. The fluffiest feel-good fluff available, featuring Bruce & Dick & Jason. Sweeter than WFA.

"The Daughter of the Water" by chucklesbuckles https://archiveofourown.org/works/46605205 - “To walk the world!” it croons, bright gold spilling over it’s cheeks, highlighting the springy white curls crowning it’s head. It bends, cold wet hands cradling Talia’s face, wiping her tears away. It places a soft kiss to her forehead, tucking a loose curl of hair behind her ear, torchlight eyes burning. “Thank you for the body.” The Lazarus Pit takes Jason's body for a long and productive joyride. A creepy and wet story featuring Talia & Jason, with POV Talia.

"Confessional" by Temeritous https://archiveofourown.org/works/45307363 - Jason gets hit with a truth spell and uses it in an inadvisable manner. Ooh, the emotional pain here is exquisite. It's like helplessly watching a glass bottle of olive oil drop and shatter and spill all over the floor.

"Oracle Movie Trailer" by centreoftheselights https://archiveofourown.org/works/47940070 - A screenplay for a trailer for a Oracle: Year One origin movie, featuring Robin II as a supporting character. We love the idea of a movie following Barbara's recovery and journey to becoming Oracle.

Red X by ilovelegendsalot https://archiveofourown.org/series/1211157 - Mostly following the canon events of the Teen Titans cartoon, from the perspective of the second Red X, Jason Todd.

"salt in the wound (and a kiss on my cheek)" by pseudonym123 https://archiveofourown.org/works/52471159/ - A RHATO #25 canon divergence fic where Roy doesn't come to Jason's rescue that night on the rooftop. Bruce and Jason deal with the fall out. [incomplete/work in progress]

[2022]

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leantailean · 8 months

Note

Ain't no way you're paying victim. You called Zuko a supremacist colonizer when his whole arc was about rejecting the Fire Nation's nationality and colonialism. You defended Aang prioritizing his culture over Katara's trauma. You can't get mad at Zuko for brushing off Aang using his culture to project his self-righteousness and not at Aang for dictating Katara's grief by implying culture is the only right way. In no way was that user being racist.

(Especially because Aang has made fun of cultural Water Tribe food and touched Water Tribe artifacts like they were toys)

YOU started the confrontation with her, then got mad that she rightfully replied (twice). You're butthurt because you were proven wrong. Grow up.

Hello anon, may I draw your attention to the fact that my interaction with the person you obviously mean here was limited to one post in which I disagreed with her opinion and dared to express my point of view, in which I was so polite, that I even apologized for the fact that the post turned out to be long and praised her art (yes, I bought that, mistaking this AI for real watercolours. Only after the last post did I look more closely and noticed all these countless artefacts, sixth fingers and meaningless shadows lying on the wrong sides of the form). I wrote my opinion and forgot about it because, you know, I have a life. But it seems that my post really hurt you and this person much and you felt so insulted and offended that you have not been able to calm down for several months: that person wrote gigantic (but rather meaningless) “responses” a few months later, you all bombarded my mailbox with anonymous hatred, and took ridiculous attempts to slander my art.

And, anon, can I ask: do you even read what you are responding to? I didn't call Zuko a supremacist colonizer; I called him the great-grandson of a colonizer (which is literally who he is in the story). And yes, Zuko's role in history is worse than it could have been for a conventional great-grandson of a supremacist colonizer, because Zuko personally took part in his great-grandfather's war, attacking the Southern Water Tribe, threatening the elderly and children, and using physical force against them

burning down the Kyoshi village and trying to capture the avatar, the world's last hope, even after he began to realize that this was not right (that scene from the book one where he turned away from the fire nation banner).

Just because Zuko repented and self-improved doesn't suddenly erase these facts from his story. I think that remorse and deep pain for his actions will haunt Zuko throughout his life because he truly became a good person, unlike you, who are just ready to pretend that none of this ever happened and are not worth remembering.

Aang is a genocide survivor. His beliefs are hard-won experience. Because he knows what it's like to lose your culture, your people and find the passed away parent (their direct parallel with the Katara). His philosophy of forgiveness is not something he was taught in school, nor is he the affluent 21st century suburban boy as he's so carefully portrayed by you. This is his experience. And he shares this experience with his friend, who is also a genocide survivor. He and Katara share this experience and Aang has every right to tell her his opinion. It is Katara's choice to agree or not, and she makes her choice, but Aang had every right to express his opinion.

And I wonder, anon, what can you say about Sokka? He is just as much a victim in this situation as Katara. Sokka is not a pacifist or an air nomad. Kya was also Sokka's mother. And he is also against Katara committing a murder. This is not the first time I have seen how, while attacking Aang, haters pass by Sokka in deathly silence, and past Zuko who also agreed with Aang in the end.

I will not specifically address your point about Aang being a racist for not liking traditional Katara’s food or for putting a hat on without knowing what kind of hat it was. I don't believe you are stupid enough to actually make such arguments seriously, it must be trolling. It’s clear that you have nothing to complain about Aang at all, because these arguments look desperate.

It's impressive how much the opinion of a stranger on the Internet can hurt you. Are you so offended that someone dared to respond to your baseless accusations against fictional cartoon characters? Or maybe you're so offended by the fact that I can criticize a character and keep liking him (Zuko is literally one of my three favorite characters, along with Toph and Aang). If you look at my blog, you'll get a pretty clear impression of how much I love Zuko and what a giant amount of time and effort I spend on art dedicated to him. Because I see all of Zuko's flaws and still continue to love him—unlike you, who only love the emasculated "ideal" version of him. As very well said here, your treatment of Zuko is very similar to how Ozai treated Azula: "be absolutely perfect, otherwise you're a good for nothing waste of space". This is very noticeable from the posts of the person you are defending here.

So yes, the advice to grow up is very good, but you should turn it on yourself, who, for some reason, writes your complaints anonymously, like a coward, or on those people whom you are defending. This is the Internet, and if you're not ready that not everyone agrees with your opinion and that someone can actually respond to your takes, maybe you should just get offline.

(I see that you want to start a drama, but you are in the wrong place. Any anonymous letters like this one will be deleted.😎)

#aang #kataang #ask

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marvelstars · 3 months

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Anakin´s choice to leave the Jedi Order

He may not have talked about it too much in the TCW because the show didn´t truly went indepth with the characters motivations but you can see part of the reason he didn´t want to train Ahsoka wasn´t just about him not choosing this or because he was just recently Knighted but because he was going to leave the Order after the war and hence, not being able to complete her training and the only reason why he dediced to accept train Ahsoka was because he saw how hopeful and excited she was to become a Jedi, he didnt want her to feel rejected just like he did when he was told by the Jedi Council he had too much fear for his mother to become a jedi, Anakin choose to train Ahsoka to the best of his habilities and then leave, he truly believed she belonged to the Jedi Order unlike him, given she was raised there, this is also why he went by the playbook to teach her, Ahsoka wanted to be a Jedi and that was precisely what he was going to teach her, whatever personal problem he had with the Order he keep to himself, Ahsoka didn´t need to be burdened with his bitterness towards the Jedi Order even if at 14 she noticed the tension between Anakin and the Jedi Council.

Bassically at the beggining of EP III Anakin just wanted to get rid of all the secrecy, in ROTS novel he was preparing to be one of the "lost ones" as the Order called them for leaving the Order and in the earlier part of the war he told Padme he expected the war to end to go with her and live on Naboo.

This didn´t mean he hated the Jedi, he just knew he didn´t belong in the Order as it was and probably never did in the first place, in fact the very reason why he stayed a Jedi after marrying Padme was because he didn´t want to just get up and leave just when they are entering a war of galactic propotions and Padme supported him, telling him it was his responsibility to stay and help the Jedi Order and whoever believes Anakin stayed a Jedi because he wanted to have his "cake and eat it too" I will ask them "Having his cake is getting additional trauma seeing all the padawans of his generation die around him without being able to save them despite being the so called chosen one? , seeing soldiers, civilians, etc die?" reinforcing the trauma he already had with his mother´s murder? because that´s quite a strange way of eating his cake when he could have chosen a quieter life helping Padme in Senatorial duties on Naboo and maybe finally realizing his dream of helping free the slaves of Tatooine but the problem is that despite his bitterness towards the Order he still cared for them enough to go to war with them.

#anakin skywalker #star wars #ahsoka tano #jedi council

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xjulixred45x · 2 months

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If it's okay can I please ask for a romantic yandere choso

With sister Rosa

And the rest is up to you

Also you can find more information about her on my page here on Tumblr

Okay, thanks for the Request

Yandere Choso x Rosa! Reader

Genre: Headcanons

Reader: female

Warnings: YANDERE BEHAVIOR, OVERPROTECTION UNHEALTY MINDSET, STALKING, SPOILERS FROM THE MANGA, Reader has the past and caracteristics of Sister Rosa of @nunezs-stuff .

Let's say that Choso and reader know each other (and he becomes obsessed) when reader is with Demaryius.

The reader has a great loyalty towards Demarius that many cannot understand, even Choso himself at the beginning when they had to work together for the common good of defeating Sukuna.

Why would I have respect for someone so SOFT?

What they don't know is how Demaryius practically saved the reader's life, literally and figuratively.

Choso and reader interact relatively often because they are 1- the most responsible for their groups and 2- they are the only ones who can handle Demarius' young children/apprentices, which makes Choso interact more with her.

At first, Choso had only seen a very standard side of the reader, the way she treated everyone (the overcoat) with harshness and rigidity and even became strict and disciplined.

It reminded him a little of not very pleasant aspects of someone (Kenjaku).

However, when they had to take care of the youngest children (especially children with trauma), something changed in the reader.

All her intimidating aura disappeared and she became someone much more maternal, calm and friendly.

It was almost like seeing another person.

and in a way Choso rejected that type of treatment.

Not only because of his own lack of a mother figure, but because he genuinely wanted to get closer to the reader, but had no idea how.

(I may have even asked Yuki, Yuji and company about what to do, but they all give him answers that contradict each other and he is even more confused).

Even so, Choso begins to make a strategy (not at all creepy or worrying) on how to approach the reader.

First, know what things you both like or have in common, how? easy, FOLLOWING HER everywhere so I could make sure she was okay:D

He can't help it! Reader is not even a user of cursed energy, how are you supposed to defend yourself from the horrible beings that plague this world if you can't even see them?

Add to that that by now most of Choso's brothers are dead. Therefore, he clings very closely to the relationship with the reader and wants to have her approval.

Second step, have a better relationship with her, this one is not as worrying as the previous one, but it is definitely still a bit creepy because of the previous one.

Choso tries to talk as best he can with the reader and thus be closer, which works half-heartedly, since the reader does not enjoy when Choso is not clear with what he says (he stutters) or, in his words, says nonsense.

but at least he and the reader manage to understand each other better, since Choso manages to resolve one of his doubts, his relationship with Demaryius.

reader, seeing that Choso seems(heh) to be harmless, decides to tell him how she met Father Demaryius.

It turns out that reader (like Choso) was let down by humanity on many occasions, whether with her parents, the people of her town or "religion"... her fiancé.

Everything came to a point where the reader decided to flee without thinking about whether she would live or not, she simply wanted to escape from that nightmare.

and that was when he met Father Demaryius.

He was the one who saved her, who gave her a name, a purpose, a home...

and I would always be grateful for that.

but he wouldn't tolerate any nonsense when it came to him.

Choso opens up to the reader and realizes that they both really have a lot in common, more than he thought...perfect.

Thanks to this, the reader trusts Choso more and ends up unaware of several of his worst yandere tendencies.

precisely because after knowing everything the reader went through, Choso doesn't want to end up being like the people who hurt her before.

so there is no kidnapping, but there is a lot of manipulation.

what type? the kind that makes you feel guilty for not giving him attention, for leaving him alone.

Choso is also not above using the reader's trauma to keep her close, whether by mentioning her own trauma with an abusive father or after Yuki's death.

Possessive as shit, when they are already in a relationship, rest assured that he becomes a shadow reader. He even continues to stalk her! He just feels less guilty about it now that they're official.

I think the only person he wouldn't be jealous of is Yuji for OBVIOUS reasons, and maybe Father Demaryius, but even so he is "cautious" with him (mostly because of the level of power between the two).

He still respects and even loves Demaryius, but Choso will not let him take something so precious from him.

VERY LOVING, whether physical contact, words of affirmation, gifts, etc. Choso loves to pamper the reader and have her around in general, which is sometimes a disadvantage for the reader 😅 but don't worry, eventually you get used to it.

definitely overprotective to unimaginable levels. I already said it with his stalker tendencies, but he believes that if he takes his eyes off the reader for ONE SECOND something horrible could happen to him, and it terrifies him.

A large part of their yandere tendencies are related to fear, fear of being alone, fear of the reader dying, fear of abandonment, disappointment, etc.

so the reader can also easily manipulate it if she wants, so she can make it improve or FLEE.

because he's still a yandere.

He has killed, will kill and will continue to kill as a reader.

It doesn't matter who, if they get in the way of THEIR happiness, they will encounter death.

He deserves to be happy. No matter what.

He will be selfish. For ONCE

just...leave him and Reader ALONE....

Shares, reblogs and comments are very welcome!

This is a little shorter than usual bc im not quite used to Sister Rosa😅 and honestly am not in the mood for JJK stuff but i wanted to make this for You! Hope this is of your liking and i didn't mischaracter Your oc😭

#headcanons #fem reader #jjk #jjk x reader #jjk x y/n #jujutsu kaisen #jujustu kaisen #jujutsu no kaisen #yandere jjk #yandere choso #jjk choso #jujutsu kaisen choso #choso kamo #choso x reader #yandere choso kamo #yandere choso x reader #oc reader

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warden-melli · 10 months

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AGREED WITH UR TAGS. their friendship and relationship is so interesting because there's like. a LOT to it i think. i think its interesting in showing irida's flaws as a leader until she's able to learn a bit more about it and how to forge her own path but palina's response is also very interesting and it kinda makes me wonder about her response to the events, not just irida's pleading for her to train growlithe but to irida becoming the leader. and also like, what happens after they make up, that kind of thing.

some people interpret it as them just never getting along again, but i do like to think they eventually make up again, despite palina giving her a bit of tough love during the player's second visit to firespit island and the whole heatran thing. also irida seems like she wants to be on good terms with them again, so i do think they make up again, but just thinking about their friendship with one another (and how someone in the pearl clan suggests that due to irida having a dead mother when she was young, palina is someone she's very close to) is like. very interesting and i like it. sorry for the wall of text i have many thoughts about All Things Irida

Agreed their friendship is so interesting and I just keep thinking about it. I agree that Irida had a lot to learn about being a leader at the start of the game (as did Adaman), but even so I feel like Palina was a bit unfair to Irida, and I personally feel like their conflict is based on jealousy over Irida being selected as leader over Palina, and also Irida not wanting to accept that the nature of their relationship has changed as opposed to Irida’s shortcomings as leader

Like, we know that the two used to be super close, with Irida considering Palina to be an older sister that she clearly looked up to. We also know that the two competed to be leader of their clan, and that Irida was ultimately the one selected to be leader

I do understand Palina’s disappointment. It has to hurt to try really hard, but fail to achieve a position that you really, really wanted. Especially if you lost to somebody younger that you, and who you served as a mentor figure for. It may also hurt more after the incident with Lord Arcanine sr, as the trauma of the event may may have made her feel like she also failed in her duties as warden. I think it’s evident that Palina despite scolding Irida for acting as if their positions haven’t changed, still sees Irida as her little sister first, and doesn’t truly respect her as leader

I keep coming back to this dialogue - It really makes me think that this may have been a deciding factor in why Irida was selected as leader over Palina, and she’s clearly still very upset and bitter about it

I don’t like how quick Palina was to embarrass Irida in front of both the player and Iscan, especially after Irida challenged her by attempting to lay down boundaries as leader. Palina claims to know and accept that Irida is the leader, yet scolding her in front of everyone like she’s a child isn’t a good way to show it. I also get that she doesn’t want to be called that nickname anymore, but I don’t think Irida is doing it maliciously at all. It genuinely seems to be a force of habit, but even still Palina has requested she stop, so she really does need to work on that. In saying that though, I don’t think that Palina rejects the use of that nickname because she genuinely doesn’t like it anymore, but as a way to push Irida away, and to reestablish their relationship as a purely business one as a way of coping with her failure to become leader. I think Irida is confused, and having trouble coming to terms with the fact that things have changed between them after becoming leader, and she’s stressed and just wants her big sister.

I also keep thinking about how much this differs from Adaman’s relationship with his older sister figure, and of how opposite these two’s relationship is compared to Irida and Palina’s.

Mai (as seen in this offical art) happily teaches Adaman to play the flute (despite him being absolutely awful at it - another direct opposite of Irida), and throughout the story happily performs tasks for him, and advising him without question. This contrasts Irida and Palina’s relationship where Palina is the one less talented with the flute, and who pushes back against Irida’s requests (growlithe), and who sees any requests for guidance as a personal failure as leader.

I could keep talking, and there’s so so much more to the relationship, and feud between these two, but I really think the biggest conflict between them isn’t the direction, or lack of experience of Irida’s leadership, but the fact that Irida is leader and Palina is not. Another important factor I didn’t even touch on was Palina and Iscan’s relationship, one forced to be kept secret due to the two Clans feud, and how Irida’s position as leader of that Clan may further complicate their relationship

The saddest part of all of this to me however is it’s kind of implied that Irida had no great ambition of becoming leader, and it can be interpreted that she may have only competed to be leader because Palina was doing it, or because the two share a love for their people that may have been encouraged by Palina in Irida in the first place

Despite Palina’s concerns about Irida’s leadership, Irida is is nothing but loyal and defensive of Palina. Even with Palina’s behaviour and her reputation as warden plummeting due to refusing to train Growlithe, and no matter what people may say about her, Irida only ever speaks highly, lovingly and respectfully of her, even when Palina doesn’t extend the same grace

Despite their feud (which feels mostly one sided to me) their relationship started from a genuine place of friendship, so I truly would like to believe that the two of them could work through their issues and one day become friends, sisters, again.

Sorry for my own wall of text but my respect for Irida incurable and I have so so many thoughts about the girl ;.;

#just my interpretation of course #clan leader irida #warden palina #clan leader adaman #warden Mai #warden iscan #pokemon legends arceus #pokemon #ask melli

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henrysglock · 1 year

Text

We Really Need To Talk About Henry Creel and the "Psychopath" Label.

I'm putting the word "psychopath" on a high shelf and out of reach until further notice because we as a whole clearly a) does not understand what psychopathy is, b) does not know what it actually looks like in people, and c) is more than happy feeding into the already existing stigma around the disorder by using the term to describe someone who is a villain, but who's also very much not a psychopath if you look at his actual mannerisms and beliefs.

That is to say: If we completely ignore any timeline fuckery and treat Vecna/Henry like one singular guy...The terms you all are looking for are "pathological altruism", "superiority complex", cPTSD, and/or autism.

Y'know, things that can stem from intense, prolonged childhood trauma and are characterized by a) believing oneself to have the power, authority, and duty to fix others' problems for them, b) fluctuations in sensitivity/reactivity to triggering situations, and c) reactive judgmental behavior.

"Psychopath" is not a catch-all for villains, and it does not equate to "violent man disorder".

Let's do a little psychoanalysis of what Henry actually does, working chronologically.

Little Henry (age 12)

He's described as "sensitive". This is code for many things throughout the show, some of which being artistic tendencies, quiet personality, increased vulnerability to emotional harm, queerness, neurodivergence, and connection to the supernatural.

He's shown gently collecting spiders in furnished jars. Henry identifies with the spiders, identifies that they both have been cast aside, and uses that connection to reach the conclusion that the spiders need love and care. He then handles them gently and spends time making homes for them. This alone is a display of empathy, sympathy, and compassion.

He's lonely, rejected by his mother and his peers. This rejection hurts him, and he later bitterly internalizes/recontextualizes the experience to avoid that hurt.

He's called "broken", but later realizes that he isn't broken at all. This indicates that he believed he was broken for some span of time, and his later anger surrounding the topic indicates that that experience hurt him.

He displays a variety of emotions. Henry openly displays sadness, fear, anger, enjoyment, fascination, and excitement.

He is unable to hide his social "wrongness". He couldn't hide the fact that he was different from the other children, indicating that a) he tried and failed, and b) he wanted to fit in at one point.

His father seemed to have liked him as a person. Whatever was "wrong" with Henry, whatever it was that he couldn't hide, it wasn't something that made Victor dislike him.

He recognizes cruelty in society and openly condemns it. Yes, I recognize the later irony in that. That's part of the narrative structure of his villain arc. This isn't about Vecna, it's about preteen Henry.

He hates dishonesty. Whether it be dishonesty with others or with the self, Henry has a specific and powerful hatred of lying.

Now, if anyone tries to tell you about diagnosed "child psychopaths", they're lying to you.

Psychopathy is clinically knowns as Anti-Social Personality Disorder, and it cannot be diagnosed until ages 18+, since children tend to grow out of any "psychopathy markers" they might display in childhood. Children displaying these markers might be flagged as having "conduct disorder", but not psychopathy.

However, lets look at the markers anyway:

GM: Grandiose-Manipulative, DI: Daring-Impulsive, CU: Callous-Unemotional Source

Conduct disorder: Generally characterized by aggression towards others/destruction of property, lying, theft, and limited prosocial emotions. GM: Superficial charm, glibness, suave behavior. Megalomania and narcissism. Lying. DI: Fearlessness, impulsivity, recklessness, lack of responsibility. Risk taking behaviors. CU: Lack of remorse, empathy, sympathy, or compassion. Shallow emotional affect.

Let's tally him up.

Psychopathy:

Grandiose-Manipulative: ❌ Henry does not fit in, and it's clear to everyone that he does not fit in. He can't hide this, no matter how hard he tries. He is not charming or suave. He also internalizes the "broken" label and recognizes that he's rejected for a reason, and it hurts him. It's only later in his childhood that he realizes being different=/=being broken. He has a specific hatred of lying. If we compare him to Billy, the narrative anti-hero who acts as both parallel and foil to him, we can see artificial charm in action. Billy lies and uses acting to get his way. Repeatedly (see: his interactions with Karen). Billy represents GM behaviors in action. Little Henry is, then, in direct conflict with GM traits.

Daring-Impulsive: ❌ Henry only lashes out with violence when he perceives himself as being in imminent danger. He is shown as and later described as being afraid. The only fearlessness we see is in regard to spiders, and that fearlessness can be traced back to his empathy for the spiders as disliked/socially rejected creatures. Again, Billy. Billy and his erratic driving with Max in ST2 and his attempted fling with Karen are both classic displays of DI traits. Little Henry, in contrast, does not display DI traits.

Callous-Unemotional: ❌ Henry displays a range of genuine emotions. He also displays empathy, sympathy, and compassion. He's described as a sensitive child, for heaven's sake. Billy, as a contrast, does not display empathy, sympathy, or compassion. He's unnecessarily cruel and violent for his own entertainment (the car scene) or to maintain control (Max), and he does not display remorse for it. Little Henry does not meet the criteria for CU traits.

Conduct Disorder:

Aggression/Destruction: ❌ Henry is often hiding, he's reclusive, his father describes him as "sensitive", and he's gentle with the spiders. Even his later visions aren't particularly aggressive. It's spiders crawling out of a drain, a cradle in a fireplace. Disturbing, yes, but not aggressive. Henry is shown killing a rabbit, but his reaction is distinctly unhappy and we're only conclusively shown him doing so once. Due to differences in killing style between his singular kill and the other dead animals his family finds on the property and the fact that there are animals that show up mutilated on the Creel property which Henry wouldn't reasonably have access to (see: chickens)...It's not a concrete pattern of behavior. He's not an aggressive child, especially if compared to Billy. Billy is openly violent and aggressive, and he seeks out opportunities to physically hurt others. Henry does not do this. He only lashes out when cornered, which is what happened in 1959 (if we take canon at face value).

Theft: ❌ We are not shown any instances of or inclination towards theft.

Low guilt/remorse: Inconclusive Henry is shown (supposedly) practicing his powers on a rabbit, but he looks distinctly disturbed while doing so. Henry lashes out at his mother with his powers and displays little remorse, but that was self-defense, which muddies the remorse waters. Compare him to Billy, who is clearly enjoying tormenting kids whenever he can (see: the fatshaming at the pool, Max in the car, Lucas at the Byers house). Generally, Henry doesn't meet this criterion, but it remains inconclusive.

Low Empathy: ❌ Henry visibly and verbally displays empathy for the spiders (A similar trait in autism: more empathy for creatures than humans)

Low Affiliative Behaviors: Inconclusive He has issues with regulating eye-contact (it seems like he tends to stare), and he doesn't seem to seek people out. He's reclusive and quiet. However, these are also shared traits with autism...or just being an introvert, and we do see him display warmth/happiness on multiple occasions. We also know he has interest in connection with others due to his later bitterness over the lack of connection he experienced as a child.

Deceitfulness: ❌ Henry hates lying and dishonesty. That's his whole thing.

Fearlessness: ❌ Henry visibly and verbally displays fear on many occasions.

Henry Creel, age 12, is not meeting the markers for conduct disorder/precursors for psychopathy.

Next time point.

Henry Creel, age 32: Orderly

He's good with kids. He soothes El's anxiety, calmly engages with her anger surrounding her mother, sits on the floor beside her to be on her level, takes her concerns seriously, and tries to help her succeed against her struggles in the lab.

He's relatively social. He's the only orderly who interacts with the children willingly/actively seeks out social connection with the children. He's shown wandering around the room observing them, and he seeks El out as company (this will come back later).

He's not harsh with the children. In ST1, we see El being carries around by her arms and thrown around by orderlies. We see Henry being dragged by his arms by orderlies after his electrocution scene. Henry, even when given the authority of an orderly, doesn't engage in this kind of disregard for a) personal space, b) autonomy, and c) wellbeing. The worst we see from him is his reprimand of 002 when 002 is bullying El, and even that's just a quick verbal reprimand.

He empathizes and sympathizes with the children. Henry is openly disturbed by 002's electrocution, even when no one is watching him except the audience. El isn't watching, Brenner isn't watching. Henry empathizes with 002, given that his own electrocution scene just happened in the previous episode. We're being shown genuine empathy and sympathy coming from Henry.

He's still quiet, gentle, and reclusive. He often hunches in on himself when he's not being watched by Brenner. He's consistently soft-spoken and unassuming. His likability comes from his lack of stereotypical superficial charm/suaveness. He comes off as the guy who was bullied to hell and back as a kid, not like a politician (which is what psychopathic charm is most likened to).

When he isn't being like that, it's an act...and an unconvincing one at that. Henry looks distinctly uncomfortable and out of place when he's trying to play the straight-backed, unfeeling orderly. We get tons of side-eye from him directed at Brenner. He doesn't enjoy being on display like that.

Henry tries to help El and then acknowledges that it didn't work/made things worse.

Henry tries to help El escape with no request for anything in return. Her escape was not transactional. Soteria's removal only happened when El reached out about Henry not coming with her, and even then he never asks her to remove it. He gives her information, and then he lets her make her own choices. She wants him to come with, he did not ask her to set him free. All this, despite the fact that he easily could have asked her to remove it as repayment for letting her loose without any red flags being raised on El's part.

Henry displays concern for El's wellbeing He takes her with him when the guards come running after Soteria, even though it would have been a good distraction/would have given him a head start if he'd left her. He defends her and himself from the guards who clearly want to hurt them. He hides her in the store room and tells her he's going to find them a way out.

Let's tally him up.

Grandiose-Manipulative: ❌ Henry still lacks the "classic" psychopathic charm. He's still a bit kooky, definitely not suave. A touch of narcissism might come into play with his desire to "save" El, but that's leaning into pathological altruism. He doesn't display himself as powerful, even after Soteria is removed. He's still soft-spoken and curled in on himself. Of course, we could argue that he's doing all this to manipulate El. Sure...but he never asks for anything in return even when it would be logical and understandable to do so. Getting El to remove Soteria would be like taking candy from a baby. All he'd have to do is say "If you take Soteria out, then I can help you escape. I can only help you if you take it out, though", and she'd do it. She's a lab-raised 8 year old. It would be a far safer gamble for him to flex his authority than to...what? Not mention it and hope she says something? Hope she chooses to do something? Okay. Hell, if we take the show at face value, no timelines or anything...Henry has already leveraged his authority with El before. "If you want to escape, you must do exactly as I say", he tells her in the chess scene...and then he just straight up never mentions Soteria. No matter how you slice it...that wasn't manipulation. It was altruism.

Daring-Impulsive: ❌ Henry does display risk-taking behaviors, but we need to apply context. He's been locked and abused in this lab for 20 years, El's been there for 8 years under similar conditions...there's no chance at escape for either of them unless someone takes a risk. Even so, it's not the type of risk that's associated with thrill-seeking. He's not doing it for the thrill, he's doing it to get out.

Callous-Unfeeling: ❌ It's a bit more difficult to say that it's not an act here because he's usually being watched by El, however...in the times when he's not being watched, he displays empathy, sympathy, and compassion, and those displays are paired with distinction emotional expressions. This is where the escape scene comes into play. Henry once again only attacks once he's cornered and in danger (not to mention that this time he has a dependent to worry about). His plan is to run. He's not inclined towards violence until he's left with no other choice, and when he does lash out he doesn't actually use his powers to kill until that final guard (who seemed to take great pleasure in the prospect of getting to shocked both him and El). He throws the other soldiers around, but he doesn't give them that menacing, sadistic look. That's reserved for that specific guard. It's sadism borne of a personal grudge due to prolonged mistreatment. It's revenge, not sadism for the sake of sadism.

Orderly Henry Creel, age 32, definitely has something going on up there (likely a whopping dose of cPTSD). He sure is a Guy in a Situation. However, he does not meet the criteria for psychopathy.

And now, my favorite and most controversial section:

Vecna-Henry (ages 32-38)

First and foremost: I need you all to read this with the understanding that I am explaining behaviors, not excusing them. Nothing that happened was right or justified, based on a normal person's frame of mind. However, in order to even come close to psychoanalyzing someone, you have to get inside their head. It's their thoughts and motivations that matter here, not what outsiders judge them to be. That's why it takes months of talking and testing to pin down diagnoses.

We need to be able to look at things from Henry's point of view and piece it together in his frame of mind. You feel me? Good.

I'm abandoning the checklist format for this section because it requires more nuance than just "yes" or "no", but I'm still going to list off some key traits about Vecna:

He chooses his victims carefully. Our 4 victims are not chosen willy-nilly. This isn't "I want to kill for fun", or we'd have Art the Clown instead. He personally kills exactly as many as he needs to open the Rifts, no more. He doesn't kill for killing's sake.

Each victim is chosen with a specific backstory in mind. I've spoken about this before, but if you know anything about serial killers it's that they're almost always going after victims that tie into their own trauma (i.e. killers with mommy issues going after women who look like their mothers, etc). Stranger Things, of course, is a touch more intricate. The order and specific stories of the victims tells a meta narrative. Chrissy and her horrible mother with the rotting food that's a direct link to the custom-made painting in the Creel dining room during the dinner scene. Fred and being a murderer, even though it was a negligent accident. Max and Billy, whose story is so complex and so inverse of Henry's that it fits perfectly with a song about swapping places to feel how the other feels. Again, a death outside of the victim's control, but this time tinged with the relief that an abuser had died after years of wishing for it to happen. Patrick and his abusive father, his abusive Papa, if you will. They tell us a story, just like almost every other serial killer. We know Virginia was a bad mother based on the situation Henry finds himself in at age 12, but we're never shown the extent of that conflict because we never see them interact. It wasn't physically possible for Henry to have killed Alice. How could Henry, who was near-fainting after having "killed" Virginia, find the strength to trance Victor and kill Alice? How could he do that, when we don't even see Vecna do that, when he's so much more powerful? He's not capable of multitasking. ST4 made that very clear. Thus, negligent death. Billy and Max vs the Creel murders are essentially just an inverse situation. Older abuser dies, the young victim wished for it to happen and is now Feeling Things about the situation. Lost a sibling in the process. And last but not least, Patrick, who shares a name with a lab guard in ST1 and has an abusive father. That's a Brenner link. It's a story by proxy. Vecna uses that shared trauma to connect with his victims. (That's the real deal: Shared Trauma). It's weaponized empathy.

He talks over and over again about honesty and ending suffering. Those are his two huge Things in his kills. He holds up a mirror to what the victim perceives to be the worst part of them, and then he turns around and all but tells them he'll make it end. After all...everyone is just waiting, waiting for it all to be over. He's got a fixation on making sure his victim knows that a) this was their fault, and b) he's being the Good Guy by relieving their suffering.

He has no reason left to pretend to have a Good Moral Justification for his kills, and yet he still talks to his victims like he's justifying their deaths.

That's...a lot, but let's dive right in.

Henry and his funky morality complex is endlessly fascinating to me, because what he seems to be doing is self-soothing about it all. Psychopaths, in contrast, are aware of moral compasses, of good and bad, but they aren't typically beholden to the concept. A psychopath likely wouldn't feel the need to self-soothe about their actions by telling themselves and others that they're doing what they're doing to relieve suffering...which is coincidentally exactly what Henry, as Vecna, does the whole time.

At this stage in the story, Henry would have no reason to keep up that kind of savior charade when his audience is just himself and his victim. There's no one there to manipulate by falsifying morality. The only other person listening is going to die imminently. The interesting part comes in when we understand that Henry doesn't have to play the angel at all in ST4. He's certain he's already succeeded by the time we realize what he's up to. He doesn't have anything to gain by lying about his perceived morality. Psychopaths, generally speaking, don't care enough to put the effort into lying if it isn't useful. That means that the last time he would have actually needed to play the angel was during his 1979 monologue. However, we see the same phrases about suffering and the associated release that we hear in 1979 continuing to return as far in as 1986, when Henry no longer has any reason to lie, even if he were okay with lying in the first place (which he's not)! They're all genuine lines. They're a core part of his character.

Vecna wants to be in the right, in the clear, morally. He can't accept that what he's doing is abusive; he has to frame it specifically so that he is doing what's right, that he's freeing people and solving problems.

He's doing his damndest to actualize his "predator, but for good" line from 1979.

This does not smack of psychopathy.

This smells like a savior complex.

Even as far back as 1979, Henry has been obsessed with saving things from their problems ("Tricked you? No. I saved you"). He "saves" spiders from the vents of his house and gives them new homes, he "saves" El from the lab's brainwashing, he "saves" the ST4 victims from their suffering...and dare I say it...he "saves" the lab children in 1979 from their suffering as part of Brenner's lab, the only true escape from which is death (And if it was a 2-birds-1-stone situation with absorbing abilities...well. That's just a bonus).

Granted, the morality surrounding the manifestation of Henry's savior complex has been warped by massive psychic alteration and 20 years of unimaginable abuse with no feasible escape, so yeah. It's a little fucked up. He's a little fucked up. Obviously.

However, at it's core: Everything Henry has ever done has (in his mind) been Right, Good, and Necessary, despite the fact that he's now actively doing more harm than good.

This reeks of pathological altruism.

Here's what that can look like, clinically:

Source

Well damn, doesn't that sound familiar? (I'm staring directly at Henry's spider hoarding versus the above image)

"Saving" spiders, but condemning them to death in jars after his kidnapping. "Saving" El from the lab, but traumatizing her and ultimately condemning her to his own fate: being the sole focus of Brenner's attention. "Saving" the ST4 victims from their suffering, but hurting them in an attempt to kill two birds with one stone: free himself, and eliminate their suffering as a nice morality bonus.

Pathological Altruism. Savior Complex.

Jamie himself has said that, based on what has been shown to us, Henry truly believes that what he's doing is right and beneficial (which fits with his Catholic-God coding (here) so well).

All this to say, and I cannot stress this enough: This is not psychopathy. What Henry displays is not psychopathy. This is pathological altruism. Psychopaths, particularly those who go on to commit violent crimes, largely do not have savior complexes. A psychopathic serial killer would not care, and would not hide that they don't care if there isn't anything to gain from it.

Henry also has this incredible fixation on truth and right vs wrong, and yes, he weaponizes that, but again he does so while self-soothing with padded morality phrasing. He monologues for ages about how terrible it is that everyone is lying to themselves and others, and how everyone is suffering but no one wants to admit it. His main goal is remaking the world with a "better" version of society that's less oppressive (which happens to be one where a rule-bound society is entirely done away with). Henry then swings way past "Good, Right, Necessary" into villain territory but going so far as to force his victims into facing the truth of what's going on inside their heads, forcing them to stop lying about their own mental states, only to then use the "worst" thing about themselves to judge them. He's quite literally playing God based on his use of right and wrong to maintain control/power while holding a moral high ground. (He's doing a pretty good job, too. He sounds just like the Catholic God.)

This is not psychopathic behavior.

His behavior seems more like black/white judgmental thinking:

A misguided and overwhelmingly strong sense of justice:

Source

and a killer superiority complex fueled by chronically low self-esteem:

Source

A psychopathic serial killer would have little attachment to truth or right and wrong.

A psychopathic serial killer would not care.

Source

The thing is: Henry's whole issue is that he cares entirely too much. His problem is that everything matters, everything can and should be sorted into good and evil, right and wrong (and obviously he is in the right here), save and destroy. It's judgement and warped justice and the need to believe he's special, that it all happened for a reason, that the world deserves to burn for what it did to people like him, that he can fix the world if he destroys it first.

This also happens to be why Henry cannot be considered a nihilist, which is another term I'm putting up on a shelf. Henry sees the world as inherently having value, that life has value, that there's something worth rebuilding (so long as he gets to dictate what the rules are...so long as he never gets hurt again). If he didn't care so much, he wouldn't be so damn upset about it all. He's a mess. He legitimately cares too much, the hurt is too deep.

That, in combination with the perspective warping from not only his absorptive quality but also 20 years of MKULTRA/Hawkins National Lab Fuckery, has created the mentality we see in ST4 and the actions it has manifested in (again, ignoring timelines).

Vecna is a violent, lab-made hypocrite with a touch of trauma-borne misanthropy, for sure, but he's not a psychopath.

tl; dr: Psychopathy is not synonymous with "villainous man disorder". Henry Creel is not a psychopath, though as it stands he is technically our villain.

#breaking: media fans told that psychopathy is NOT just ''evil man'' disorder #[squirts fans with a water bottle] AHT. AHT. PUT THE LABEL DOWN.#henry was a good kid. a good young man even. and i'm standing by it #henry creel analysis #henry/vecna/001 #psychoanalyzing henry creel #st character analysis #stranger things

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autistic-ben-tennyson · 1 month

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Letting Go: How Shinkai Succeeds where Lucas Fails

After reading that essay on how Kung Fu Panda did the “letting go of attachments” story way better than Lucas did, I was inspired to write this. The problem with SW is that it tries to apply what is spiritual advice to a hero’s narrative when it’s not about heroism. It’s about coming to terms with grief, preparing for death or letting your child grow up. I want to talk a bit about two of Makoto Shinkai’s films that are both favorites of mine, Weathering With You and Suzume as both delve into this topic. The latter has its title character come to terms with her grief and trauma while the former is a rejection of the utilitarian view of letting one person die for the “greater good”.

Suzume succeeds with its “letting go” message because it focuses on the journey and shows the importance of a true support system and that it takes time to come to terms with grief. Expecting people to just let go immediately isn’t fair and unrealistic. Suzume’s whole journey is about exploring new places, meeting new people and learning joy can still come from grief.

Shinkai based this movie off the 2011 earthquake which was a real source of trauma for Japan. Suzume is a survivor who lost her mother and her home. She has to learn to not dwell on her past hurt but at no point is she shamed for missing her mother or told to just let Souta rot as the keystone for “the greater good”. She’s allowed to mourn. She and her aunt, Tamaki grow as people and as parent and child through emotional experiences, both in the movie during their argument and reconciliation as well as in the booklet that revealed a bit about their past. Tamaki had the responsibilities of being a parent thrust on her and resented it at times but communication was what helped their relationship become healthier and she never shamed her niece for having negative emotions. I’ve written an essay about this too.

The reason this movie succeeds at its message is that it treats its characters and audience with sensitivity. Suzume heals by remembering the happy moments with her mother and Tamaki was willing to adapt to her needs, unlike the Jedi Council. I think @abla-soso’s written about this but George doesn’t have the healthiest view of human psychology and trauma or of relationships nor is he a good writer. He’s sympathetic to Anakin, sure, but he and much of the fandom treat him as just greedy for holding onto his attachments when he doesn’t have a support system that validates his emotions and won’t help him heal except for telling him to meditate. A child healing by remembering their mother while going on a road trip to come out of their shell is not the same as being forced to go and help slavers that caused you so much pain. How can one heal from that?

The other movie in question, Weathering With You, is sort of a response to the ultra collectivism in Japan. Hina is expected to die so the rainfall will stop but what about the people who know her and have to deal with her loss? The little people are always forgotten about in these greater good arguments. Kind of like Trace and Rafa in TCW. Hodaka may have been selfish, yes, but Hina was the one person who treated him with kindness and affection as opposed to how his parents and the kids from his hometown did. Not to mention she still had a brother to take care of with their mother dying a year before the film was set. To just die would be abandoning those who needed her. Hodaka’s trauma and anger is treated with respect by Shinkai as opposed to just being written off as evil like Lucas or Jedi stans would.

Some have interpreted the movie as a climate change denial story with the rains and flooding being treated as natural. But it��s really more of a response those who put all the blame and pressure on one person to fix the problem, especially the young being forced to do so by the older generations. It’s not fair for the older generations to create these problems then put all the burden of solving it on the youth. The Jedi council was plenty guilty of that with how they treated their padawans. And it’s okay to live your life to the fullest, even if the world is falling apart.

I’m sure the Jedi apologists will probably respond by saying “Jedi aren’t against love or emotion, just possessiveness” but that’s not what the movies show even if Lucas didn’t intend for it to come off that way. Maybe these movies treat the subject with more sensitivity and nuance because they’re written by someone who understands Shinto philosophy unlike a 70s hippie who blends stoicism with eastern beliefs. Yes, SW was intended to be black and white, but that’s not how real life works. What may not affect one person will affect another and it’s not wrong to need time and unconditional love to heal. You can’t just slap labels like selfish attachment or greed on someone when you don’t know or refuse to understand their circumstances and motivations and it’s not fair to judge or write them off.

#makoto shinkai #george lucas #george lucas critical #suzume #weathering with you #anime #tenki no ko #suzume no tojimari #jedi critical #anti jedi #star wars #essay #Jedi stans can kiss my ass

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