#let him be selfish and controlling and delusional about his moral standing

[justalittleguest]

Why is the spiciest, vilest, sinisterest take on Horror him being a cannibal. Girl that’s NOT his toxic trait. He’s so much worse.

[nefariouscryptid]

Me backieee! What is your OC's life philosophy? I mean their way of coping with life and what or who they hold dear. Their values, personality preferences, way of thinking, approach of things, etc. Thanks!

Yay my favorite of anon is back

Hmm, bit of a tricky question since a lot of my ocs dont value much, not truly at least. But this is what they do and how they view the world and their morals.

Peter: the world is his chess board. He can do whatever he wants and face no consequences. He’s not so delusional to where he thinks it’s impossible to fail, but he has the mindset everything will work out for him. He says he thinks logically, but in reality he thinks more on an educated impulse. While he thinks about the consequences and what he will gain from what he does, or lose from what he does, his ideas aren’t pondered over for too long. He doesn’t care enough about the bad that could happen and cares more about the good. Which isn’t.. “good” just benfitial to him. He likes people that aren’t exactly like him, and he likes people that aren’t pushovers, and those that don’t let things like extreme morality and remorse control them. While he finds it easier to work with people that just listen to what he says, he admires those that stand up for themselves, those who can have a good balance of compassion and apathy. Although the latter pisses him off the most if it interferes with him. He approaches things more head on, back then he would be right there when everything would go down. But after the accident he had regarding some of Ivan’s soldiers nearly killing him, he now controls from the sidelines. He likes to be there as much as he can, but he’s not going to risk his life like that ever again. He will control from the comfort of his own master bed or office. When it comes to people he cares about, he becomes very possessive of them, while also trusting they can care for themselves, sometimes trusting them a little too much. As long as they will remain forever in his life, they can do as they please. He doesn’t like when people rely on him so much emotionally. It’s a good ego boost but he can’t stand when people look to him for mental help and guidance. He’s not their damn therapist. He expects everyone to leave him, and he’s tried mentally preparing himself for that. Key word: try. Luckily for him he cares about very little. But the things he cares about, he cares about so, so much.

Anahii: the world is filled with selfish people, and a lot of evil. She’s lost complete faith in humanity, seeing how the public turns such a blind eye to the problems in the world, how they act like they care, or just how many truly evil people work for evil things. Sometimes it still comes as a surprise to her. But she knows she’s no different. She’s selfish too, a cold, gold digger. For those she cares about, deep down she wishes they would just change. Fit the mold that she wants, but she’s never going to admit that, never going to admit that she cares. For now she will bury herself in meaningless items, and meaningless sex. She used to be afraid of who she grew up as, and who she’s become. But she no longer cares about how violent she is, the people she’s killed, the things she’s said. It doesn’t affect her life ultimately since she knows (thought) she will never be caught. She keeps everyone at a distance, and has a cautious mind. Her moral standpoint is also more or less non existent. Whatever doesn’t affect her won’t concern her. She can’t think of any personality preferences she cares for, but she likes stability. A rock to lean on. She will handle problems head on, hating having to rely on anyone to do it themselves. If she can do it by herself, she will. She will use whatever she needs to, mental force or physical force. A job is like a mission to her.

Jason: the world blurs by him. If he’s honest he can’t remember much from the last 20 or so years. He can’t remember the peoples he’s slept with, talked to, killed. He never bothers learning names, their interests, anything of the sort. Not much in life matters to him long term. He likes the high, the insane amounts of money, the power he’s gotten alongside Peter. But in the end life to him is lonely. He feels empty, and he feels like the world has nothing more to provide him. He contemplates why he doesn’t just kill himself, seeing how much time he feels he’s wasted, but he’s got that hope that maybe things will change, he will get that pit filled. He doesn’t regret his life, or many of his choices. He doesn’t care about the countless heartbroken women he’s shunned away and used, doesn’t care about the scared people he’s killed, ones that were just doing their jobs, because in his eyes they could provide him nothing that he wants in his life. They’re just a body. He doesn’t bother to know them because he doesn’t want to care. He already knows what happens when he cares about people. He doesn’t want to feel that kind of desperation ever again. For now he will sit in his giant mansion alone, sipping some bourbon, and ignore the empty feeling. He handles problems from the side,not liking to get completely involved. He snipes, staying away from the action, and silently stalks. He walks away with blood free hands, but they aren’t clean.

Cooper: he’s very involved with his surroundings, likes to know everything that’s going on in the world. He hates ignorance, would rather know everything that could hurt him or those he cares for. He’s invested in his job, his tasks. He likes to be completely hands on, knowing every detail, know every one. If he has to sell something to a new face, he likes to know everything about them, down to their family and hometown. He gets involved, rather then keeping people at a distance. Sometimes this leads to him feeling remorse over what he has to do, but his mind is robotic when in a job, especially when it goes wrong. He feels more like a cars sales man using someone’s financial status to sell them an overly priced car. He can switch his facade on and off. He doesn’t care about the world, he knows how awful everyone is, and chooses not to think about all the good people he’s had a hand in hurting. He only cares about his world. His Wife and Husband. He will put anyone on the line to keep them safe. He’s already lost someone dear to him because of his own mistakes and he’s dammed if it will happen again. So if him fucking over thousands of innocent keeps his family under the protection of the Durantes and with financial stability, then so be it.

Plethora: he’s a good balance of untrustworthiness and hopefull to the world. He understands how awful the world can be, how much people don’t know. But he understands that there’s a lot of good people out there, people that he doesn’t want to hurt. He justifies his actions based on what kind of person he’s killing. He, like cooper, learns everything about who he is assassinating, to see all the evil this does. He doesn’t like being in the unknown if he just did a horrific thing or not. But with him knowing, he may also know he just killed an innocent man. Those thoughts keep him up at night. He tells himself it’s just a part of his job, that the people he’s killed ultimately deserved it, were awful people. Sometimes he even boasts about it, how good of a kill it was. But it doesn’t stop him from being eaten up at night, the thoughts of how many families he’s destroyed. He desperately hopes he doesn’t end up like them, losing a member of his family. So he becomes protective, keeping his husband and wife at arms reach. He knows there’s more people like him out there, many worse people out there, but he will protect them just fine. Seeing them alive and happy is enough to push his worries to the back of his mind, at least for a while.

Cassandra: she views the world in statistics and numbers. She doesn’t see the life a person has lived, the fear they felt as they were hurt or died, but sees them as a number. She’s constantly dealing with numbers, working in stocks and money. So she thinks with more logic, ponders more on what she’s going to do, thinks of the consequences. She doesn’t want her or those she cares about to become a statistic. Her life is filled with exceptions. Those who become close to her no longer just become a blank face or a number, but they become a real person. She becomes invested in them, wanting them to be happy and healthy. She likes those with outgoing attitudes, and those that can help themselves and stand up for themselves. It’s what’s drawn her to her husbands. She enjoys that’s she’s not heavily relied on for help, and is cared for while also being able to care for them. She loves the balance. She’s willing to do what’s necessary for those she cares for, but will also do what she feels will work and what is right. Still, family above all.

Michelle: she knows there’s good on Earth. She knows that there’s so many people out there who have loved, had cared for others, who have had dreams, aspirations, interests. She knows everyone that she has hurt or killed has had those things. And now they’re nothing, they’re rotting in the ground, if they were lucky enough to even be buried. She doesn’t care about how the evil outweighs the good, she cares about those who didn’t deserve the pain they go through. She regrets getting herself involved into this shit, she despises those who are so unbearably selfish and care only about something so mundane and insignificant as power. She admires compassion, and admires the good. She values herself as a person, and is constantly on the journey to whatever personal growth she needs, but feels like she’s constantly being set back. She wants to help herself before she can be ready to help others, and knows that’s the right choice. She will fix this, what she’s contributed to. For everyone’s sake.

Gwen: she doesn’t know better. She was raised into this, raised to not question what she’s doing or the right and wrong. So she doesn’t know why she feels the pang of what she assumes is guilt when something she does hurts another. It’s not crippling, but nagging. She likes making people happy, making them laugh. But also likes seeing the fear in ones eyes when she does something she’d like to call “hella badass”. She doesn’t know what she wants, because she doesn’t know what else there is. This life is all she’s ever known, but once she gets the taste of a different world, she begins to learn what she feels and what she really wants in life.

Aj: unlike Gwen, she got the vision of a better life. One with kids playing in the street, a mother playing with her daughters, car rides past the school she would soon go to. It’s faint, a blur of colors and feelings, but she remembers it. She despises those she’s surrounded by, wishes that she could meet new people that are different, less selfish. She was young, too. When she was taken with her sister. She barely has an idea of what someone her age should be doing, what she should want. Instead she’s adopted the professional and agitated persona. It’s safe. But she finds solace in the little things, and if she can’t help herself she will help her sister, Gwen. She enjoys being around people that let her lean on their shoulder, one that makes her life feel less like work. Someone else that gives her something to fight for, even though she should fight for herself.

Ivan: humans are insignificant. They’re nothing, nothing in the grand scheme of things. But he, he is so much more. He’s survived more then any human could, done more then even the richest billionaire could desire. He’s gotten away with so much, can make people drop dead at the snap of his fingers. He despises competition, men like Peter, but deals with the chronic boredom. What can a man like himself do when he can do anything? He doesn’t consider the things that could go wrong, because nothing can go wrong. It never does, not in his eyes. But when it does he’s enraged. He feels a personal attack, someone who defies against him, the prophet- no, the god. The all seeing eye, big brother. He controls, because that’s his power. To control and to see. To manipulate, and to decimate. He will... accommodate. If it benefits him. He chooses not to see it as him being controlled, but more people falling into his trap. If one is unlucky to be hated by him, you might as well live in a bunker. But if you’re unlucky enough to be loved by him, have fun being his marionette, his trophy. You’re better off not knowing him at all.

[sandersspectrum]

Which Side is Most Likely to Go Dark - Analysis

We’ve all heard the story - The hero, disheartened by his failures or seduced by the wins of the villain, leaves their life of honor and instead joins the morally-corrupt side, leaving behind their friends who must then fight to get them back. It’s not an uncommon plot, and it’s a favorite one of mine to theorize over. So the question is, if Thomas was to decide to take the plot in this direction, which side would he choose? 

When I first started this analysis, I set off with two main suspects. But as I dug deeper, I ran across a unique phenomenon that throws a wrench into pretty much any Sanders Sides analysis... The characters aren’t just characters, they’re representations of experiences and mental states, and therefore their character arcs will tie back into what they represent. As an example, we see a beat in Patton’s story that he holds a morally high standard to those around him, including Thomas, to a level that can be harmful to Thomas’s mental state. This isn’t a beat that I would normally expect to see in a character who is as bright and accepting as Patton normally is, but it is a beat I would expect to see from a character that represents the concept of “morality”, of being a good person and having good values and purity. Therefore, analyzing them the way I would a normal character is doing a disservice to the concept of the show, so I started over, and I found an unlikely angle on this analysis - they’re all likely suspects, but for different reasons. Let me explain. 

Logan - The Characterization Angle 

From the point of view of a character build, Logan is yards beyond any of the others in his natural pull towards The Dark Side. As a core part of his character, Logan rejects the notion of emotion and sentiment, and this leads him to very often being harsh or dismissive towards the other sides’ issues, including Thomas’s. This already gives him a darker tone as a base; he’s willing to ignore important parts of Thomas simply for the Most Efficient Path, and this could even be true from day one. Logan doesn’t need a character arc to convince him to be a dark side - Logic, if too heavily relied upon, could easily have been a dark side from day one. All he needed was Patton to be a little less vocal and just like that he’s the side suppressing the others in the name of Productivity. However, Logan has another, directly contradicting trait that gives makes a dark side twist a possibility: He doesn’t only dismiss others emotions, he dismisses his own. 

In Learning New Things About Ourselves, we see Logan lash out in anger. Roman calls his need to always state “literal” or “figurative” stupid, and Logan screams and throws a wad of paper at him. The other sides seem slightly concerned, but Logan himself seems taken completely aback, as if the reaction was so far out of the realm of possibility that he wouldn’t have considered himself capable of it until he did it, which very much reflects what we see from Logan throughout the series. He’s consistently denying that he experiences any emotion, saying that he is “fearless, therefore powerful” in Phases and flat out that he “doesn’t feel anything” in Selflessness vs. Selfishness. However, both of these occurrences are pointed up in universe, first with skepticism from Thomas and then with patronizing reassurance from Deceit, to be untrue. This could foreshadow a huge twist in Logan’s character, one where Deceit reveals to Logan that he’s been lying to himself this whole time and Logan is, in fact, suppressing a lot of Thomas’s “negative” reactions by claiming that they’re irrational. In much a similar way to Remus, however, ignoring Anger doesn’t make it go away, and it’s possible that in devastation that logic can’t get rid of these irrational feelings, Logan becomes consumed by these emotions and turns evil in that manner. Instead of being the voice of reason for the group, he becomes aggressive and emotional, forcing the other sides to be the level-headed ones for once and encouraging him to stop trying to paint anger as a Bad Thing that only Illogical People experience and instead accepting it as a natural part of human nature, a feeling that All People Have and there are Healthy, Logical ways to deal with it. Of course, this could also be something that is explored through the side that contrasts Logan - Anger would certainly be a good fit for the color Orange, don’t you think? 

As it stands, Logan is probably the most likely side to go dark from just Character Arcs alone. However, he’s not the side who is most likely to go dark from a storytelling perspective. 

Roman - The Story Angle 

At the core of who Roman is, he is a Fairytale Hero. He almost has his own world he lives in where he’s a prince and his brother is an evil duke, he fights Dragon Witches and has a Sworn Duty to one day raise Thomas up to the status he deserves in this world. And this fact makes the concept that if Roman were to turn dark it would be almost Cinematic in nature so, so sweet. Unlike Logan, Roman’s fall from grace would be just that - a fall. Instead of being shown the darkness in him all along, Roman would have to be broken to be pulled to the dark side. Deceit would finally have to wear him down, convince him that being Honest and Honorable isn’t how the world works, and that no one has ever become famous by being honest. It would be one of the hardest falls for the character themselves to handle as well. Roman’s personality has always been easily wrapped up in the fact that he’s idealistic. He lives in a world of Heroes and Villains, where people are Good and Evil, and while Deceit is a master of exploiting this weakness by twisting words and stringing Roman along on lines of compliments and subtle jabs, Patton is also very good at using this to keep Roman on the straight and narrow. It would take a pretty big setback for Roman to lose his faith. But... They’re certainly not moving away from that direction in the story, are they? 

Let’s look at some of Roman’s story beats so far, shall we? Firstly, his pride is wounded by messing up during an audition to the point of not being able to show his face in a video. Secondly, the side that represents what he considers “the one big thing that gets in the way” of his job is suddenly starting to be listened to, heeded, worked with. And while that’s a good thing, and Virgil stops being a massive stumbling block and instead just a voice of caution, it certainly can’t help Roman’s pride much. Thirdly, Roman is consistently shut down and berated for his desire to rekindle an old romance of Thomas’s, then soon after he’s knocked down by Logan calling him delusional and unrealistic, then THE NEXT EPISODE Logan gets recognition for a passion that Roman himself shares, and then two episodes after that Roman gives up on the biggest opportunity that Character Thomas has ever received and then spends the next episode out cold while his evil twin corrupts the very idea of creativity for Thomas. That’s... A lot, you guys. You can’t ignore that out of all the characters, Roman probably takes the roughest plot beats and throughout all of it he’s played for an upbeat, idealistic dreamer. But dreamers and hopers tend to be fragile, and I can’t imagine that Roman can take too much more of this until he cracks. And like I said, the character arc would be almost cinematic. Thomas’s creativity, the side that controls his livelihood and his passions and his drive, finally breaks under the pressure and gives up his naive and idealistic worldview in order to side with Deceit, saying that the only way Thomas will ever succeed is by sacrificing being “a good person” in order to accomplish. Maybe Thomas even goes in for this for a bit, and it works, but he finds that he hates life at the top if it means that he has to shut his empathy and hope down and become distrusting of everyone and deceitful. 

So now we’ve covered the two sides that I started this analysis for... But what about Patton and Virgil? What about that Conceptual Factor I mentioned earlier? Well. 

Patton and Virgil - The Concept Angle 

Sanders Sides is a story about emotions, about understanding aspects of personalities. These aspects themselves can’t be treated like normal characters, because they’re not really people. They’re representations of metaphysical ideas, and that brings its own ideas to consider, the first idea being that what Patton and Virgil represent would both be served well by being represented in a dark light. 

If you’ve been in the fandom for more than about a month, you’ve likely heard the phrase “unsympathetic Patton”. This is a headcanon/AU that centers around Patton being manipulative and controlling, although it can be extended much further than the story itself shows, what I found interesting about this view on Patton is that it’s actually a legitimate criticism of Patton as a character and even for what his basis is - Morality. You see, from almost the start of the series we see Patton holding Thomas to a high standard and throughout we see it continually damage Thomas. Heck, we even got in-universe confirmation through Remus that Patton freaks out whenever Thomas so much as considers something that Patton considers “morally unacceptable” that he’s willing to ignore and shut off entire sides of Thomas he doesn’t wish to acknowledge. This could be indicative that they’re planning on taking Patton’s character in a bit more of a darker direction, in fact one thing I’ve found interesting is that the other sides seem to be able to forcefully influence the others when they grow too strong such as Deceit keeping their mouths shut or Anxiety driving them to panic in his room, and we see Patton himself use this power on Roman a few times via stern glance that makes Roman immediately walk back whatever morally grey suggestion he makes. In the narrative Patton’s intentions are good, he wants Thomas to be A Good Person, but the lesson that viewing your understanding of morality as hard and fast rules and any deviation from it automatically makes you Bad can be severely damaging. It’s a lesson that isn’t represented much in fiction and I honestly think Patton could be a good conduit for exploring that.

However... there is a huge negative that I feel necessary to address with that analysis and it’s that turning Patton, even temporarily, into a dark side would be a massive base breaker. A Base Breaker is a character or an event that is so controversial to an established fanbase that it ends up driving away some of the fans, and I honestly believe that this would break the base of the Sanders Sides fandom. See, the fandom is made up of a decently diverse spread of personalities and the idea of Unsympathetic Patton is an established AU, but a good amount of Fanders consider Patton to be a character they can relate to or admire. He represents something warm and friendly, a father figure from day one who accepts Anxiety and encourages the sides to fight for what’s right and I honestly believe that taking him in a direction that is darker would corrupt that concept for a lot of fans and it would be a controversial move that would be hard to accept. I think that the best way to handle this story arc would be to keep it as a B-side arc, where it’s developed quietly through episodes like Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts where other sides take center stage and Patton merely acknowledges and learns from being too strict instead of turning him into the center of an arc and causing him to go Full Dark Side even if it is an important lesson. 

Virgil’s a similar case - as a character, Virgil has already been redeemed once and it would make sense to keep his character as a reactionary character where he reacts to Deceit turning up and he interacts with the light sides based on his experiences as a dark side like he has been. However, Virgil represents Anxiety, and it would be a similarly important lesson to get across that recovery from anything, be it anxiety or depression or intrusive thoughts, isn’t a straight line. Accepting that you have anxiety isn’t always the end-all-be-all, and situations can catapult you right back into a state where anxiety might be working against you again and you need to deal with those issues. 

This has the downside of the fact that it’s hard to have the same antagonist twice. It’s hard to redeem a character and have them relapse without making the audience tired and feel cheated. There’s some pretty decent groundwork laid out for it, such as the fact that Virgil was much more laid back as an antagonist and seems much more out of his element when he’s with the light sides as well as the others refusing to say the word “paranoid” as if Virgil has some sort of symbolic “final form” dark side, however much like Patton I’m not so sure that this is the direction Thomas and Friends will take this series, although less because it would be a controversial move and more that it would just be a little bit harder to pull off from a storytelling perspective than, say, Roman. 

Your TL;DR is that all the sides hav e a possibility to go dark, although my personal favorite would be finally seeing Roman break and turn evil. Of course, it’s entirely possible that none of the sides will “go dark”, after all we have a perfectly presentable sympathetic antagonist in Deceit and there’s still the possibility of one or more sides cropping up in the future, this is simply just a fun analysis about some possible directions the series could take. However, if you can think of any more fun reasons the sides might go dark, leave them in the notes or send me an ask! For now, take it easy, fanders, see you next time! ^_^ 

[ruffoverthinksthings]

There's something I have to ask you that has some of its roots far before Descendants, but seriously....wtf is up with Frollo?! I'm interested in his character because of his deep complexities for a Disney Villian (never mind the Hugo novel), but why cant he get a grip on raising children and building a healthy family? Even as a product of the medieval era , that can't be an excuse for his dysfunctional relationships with others(progressive people like Esmeralda and Phoebus existed back then 1/2

Mymain question to you is ,what do you think it is about him that cantsee the pain he causes to claudine/ not esme and the entire HONDcast? What ever happened to him in his childhood ( nature vsnurture), that makes him nearly impossible to reach past his veil ofdarkness. Even in his attempt to redeem himself in the eyes of hisLord, with Claudine, is he forever delusional? Can he change in thisuniverse and what would it take? 2/2

There’sthree key concepts that explain why Frollo still can’t redeemhimself, see the pain, the suffering, the wrongdoing he’s causingin the name of God and his ideas of what is “Good.” These are:

CognitiveDissonance

TheMyth of Redemptive Violence by Walter Wink, and

SexualSuppression in the Catholic Church, and the ideas of ReligiousLeaders being beyond the common man

Allof these are actually easily explainable using the lyrics ofHellfire:

BeataMariaYou know I am a righteous manOf my virtue I amjustly proud

BeataMariaYou know I'm so much purer thanThe common, vulgar,weak, licentious crowd

Thentell me, MariaWhy I see her dancing thereWhy hersmold'ring eyes still scorch my soulI feel her, I seeherThe sun caught in her raven hairIs blazing in me outof all control

Here,we see what Frollo thinks of himself: a saint among sinners, a man ofstrong faith in a land of unbelievers, someone who does Good whereasthe rest fall into Temptation and Sin.

Likemajority of the leaders of the Catholic Church, and especiallybecause it’s in the Medieval Era, he is seen as someone who isinherently above his fellow man, better, purer, more virtuous, whichis why he deserves to hold his position, and use all the power andinfluence that affords him.

Butthen, Esmeralda comes along, he is tempted by her beauty, and herealizes that he is not as invulnerable and incorruptible as hethought he was.

Unfortunatelyfor all of us, he refuses to take responsibility for it.

It'snot my faultI'm not to blameIt is the gypsy girlThewitch who sent this flameIt's not my faultIf in God'splanHe made the devil so muchStronger than a man

Here,he refuses to believe that there’s any fault in him, that he isstill prone to temptation despite his beliefs; rather, he engages inwhat is called “Scapegoating,” putting all the blame inEsmeralda, going so far as to irrationally cast her as some wickedenchantress with powers that he doesn’t stand a chance ofresisting, than just a woman he is fully capable of getting over.

However,that involves him admitting that he was wrong about his belief thathe is incorruptible and “holier than thou,” and he wants toprotect that idea, more than he actually wants to be it, simplybecause it’s less distressing for him.

Thisis called Cognitive Dissonance, the stress someone experiencesfrom having a belief or more than directly oppose their actions andbehaviours.

Otherexamples of Cognitive Dissonance are:

Someonewho believes themselves a healthy person despite having a pack-a-daycigarette habit;

Someonewho buys a product or a service and it doesn’t turn out nearly asgood as they thought it would, so they make all manner of excuses andjustifications to make it better (in their minds); and

Someonewho stays in a relationship that has long past its expiration date,because they don’t believe themselves to be someone who gets it“wrong” with something as important as romantic relationships.

Peoplesuffering from cognitive dissonance often find ways to “spin”things and defend their original beliefs, rather than reevaluate whatthey thought was true and their identity. Rationality, logic, orconsistency ceases to matter to them; sparing themselves from thedistress that they were wrong or are acting against their beliefstakes priority above everything else.

Withthe above examples:

Thesmoker convinces themselves that cigarette smoking isn’t reallythat bad for their health (it’s actually worse);

Thatthe price, the manufacturer, or some other quality of the product orservice automatically makes it better despite the reality of it, likewith the exploding Samsung phones incident, and people refusing toreturn them in spite of the danger to themselves and everyone else;and

Thatthey can still salvage the relationship, that all the problems andissues are not nearly as bad as they are, and that they simply haveto try harder.

WithFrollo, he chooses the Myth of Redemptive Violence.

Inits essence, it’s “Good Vs Evil,” “The Final Clash,” theBook of Revelations where the forces of the Righteous do battle withthe Wicked, purging all that is unholy and ushering in a new, betterworld, or bringing all those deserving into heaven.

It’sinteresting because you see this constantly with all of Disney’sfilms with a classic “Villain” antagonist: there’s PrincePhilip slaying Maleficent; Tiana and Naveen outsmarting Dr. Facillierand letting his Friends from the Other Side do their thing; andTarzan doing battle with Clayton.

Theymay or may not have a direct hand in bringing about theirdoom—Clayton accidentally hung himself because of his refusal toaccept Tarzan’s help, for example—but it’s always VERY clear tothe audience that A) the protagonists are “good” people, B) theantagonists are “evil” people, and C) there is no redeeming the“villains,” there’s only killing, jailing, or trapping them inan enchanted lamp, because they will never turn to good.

Asstated above, Frollo believes himself to be a righteous man, theepitome of goodness, the Holy Servant of God, and people that don’tfit into his worldview are declared “Wicked” and must beslain. He has killed numerous gypsies, has been responsiblefor the death and/or suffering of numerous innocent civilians, andalmost drowned Quasimodo in a well, if it weren’t for the ArchDeacon warning him of his hypocrisy.

Inhis views, there is no salvation, no forgiveness of the sinner, noramending for your wicked ways—there is only judgment, and yoursentence is death.

Protectme, MariaDon't let the siren cast her spellDon't let herfire sear my flesh and boneDestroy EsmeraldaAnd let hertaste the fires of Hell!Or else let her be mine and mine alone

Here,Frollo shows just how extreme and devoid of nuance his sense ofmorality is—either you live, or you die. He also shows more of hisCognitive Dissonance and Redemptive Violence once more, where hepleads that—against the customs and the traditions of the church,and the scandal that would erupt— Esmeralda be “given” to him.

Thisis especially poignant as the Catholic Church has a massive,well-known history of suppressing sexuality and policing the sexualbehaviour of their followers and especially their ordained leaders,usually to disastrous results.

Insteadof giving them a chance to it in healthy ways, or to treat havingsexual urges as a natural thing, the Catholic church paints it asweakness, a flaw in you, a sign that you have failed and that you areshameful, awful, and a sinner for having them in the first place.

“Shaming”someone is the BEST way to get someone to do the thing you’reshaming them for—as you cut their self-esteem, and make thembelieve that they are weak and deficit in some manner, the morelikely they will be to do the vice or the crime because they want tofeel better, and the more likely they will accept that they truly AREbeyond saving, that there’s no hope for salvation, so fuck it,let’s do the thing.

Itgets even worse in the ending of Hellfire:

HellfireDarkfireNow gypsy, it's your turnChoose me orYourpyreBe mine or you will burnGod have mercy on herGodhave mercy on meBut she will be mineOr she will burn!

Here,Frollo shows the depths of his hypocrisy and the amazing mentalacrobatics he’s performing, saying “God have mercy” whilstpromising the opposite of mercy: death, or enslavement.

Here,Frollo shows that he’s no longer following the doctrines, the laws,or the traditions of the church, what God decreed or Jesus relayed tohis followers.

Here,Frollo shows that all he truly follows is what he believes to beRight—what is Right for him.

Iassumed that this behaviour follows him onto the Isle, where he has avery warped sense of religious morality that is really just hisselfish desires, being justified in his eyes by tacking the name ofGod onto it, much like Richard “Rick” Ratcliffe.

Whycan’t he get a grip on a loving marriage, relating in healthymanners to people, and building a loving family life for Claudine?

Because,like the rest of the Villains, he wasn’t marrying and having kidsfor unselfish reasons, he was using his ex-wife Salome to satisfy hissexual needs, is still using Claudine as a means to fulfillhis broken dreams and ambitions, and is unconsciously using them bothto serve himself first and foremost.

Thesexuality that was Frollo’s downfall has not disappeared—it’sstill there, and I’d argue it’s actually stronger consideringthe constant state of stress and despair in the Isle that forcespeople to resort to their basest instincts, and engage in whateverwill give them some measure of relief.

However,instead of going the healthy route of acknowledging that he isflawed, and that he should return to attempting celibacy in spite oftemptation, Frollo merely twists his lustful desires into somethingthat would be acceptable in his beliefs, and that of hiscongregation.

Howdoes he achieve this? Marriage, with all the intercourse for thepurpose of reproduction, and reproduction only.

I’dimagine that, after becoming the only Catholicreligious leader alive or not yet renouncing his faith, and thedeplorable state of everything and the VKsbeing raised, he sees himselfas some kind of New Adam,meant to be the progenitor of anew race of “Good, Christian People” who would eventually becomethe inheritors of this wretched hell, take it away from the hands ofthe Demon Queen that rules it (Maleficent), and rebirth it as aparadise.

Beforeyou ask, yes, he could be the CELIBATE steward of this new world,taking care of his non-ordained congregation’s children, but thatwouldn’t let him satisfy his sexual needs, and is thus not anoption in his mind.

Andbefore you ask why he doesn’t get flack about this, all of thepeople on the Isle are criminals, and if you weren’t living in thedeplorable conditions they were BGU, you learn to loosen yourstandards right quick here.

That,and they can be manipulated easily and lead to believe that undercertain circumstances, marriage and sexual intercourse with Judgesare possible—a lot of these people can’t read, and have noconcept of critical thinking.

Whyis he like this with Claudine, raising her up to be an ideal ratherthan a person?

Becausehe know he’s old, he knows he’s weak, and he’s essentiallytrapped in his church and a small area around it in Temple Way—he’sunable to bring the fight to the Islanders (not including hiscongregation, because they’re obviously theexception), be it ideologically or especially physically, so he hasto raise an army to do it for him.

Claudineis not just his daughter to him, or his Flock—she is a Messiahfigure to them, the “child that will lead them” as the actualJesus Christ was, the true successor to Frollo’s church when heinevitably passes away.

Sowhenever she starts to deviate from his ideals (i.e. growing up to beher own person, independent of her father’s desires), he doesn’tsee it as cruel and manipulative to mess with her emotions likethis—he sees himself as a sculptor making sure that this livingclay does not end up malformed, that she is completely, absolutelyperfect in every waypossible.

I’dalso be remiss not to mention that poor nutrition, dementia, and oldage have taken a serious tollon him.

Ishis being a product of the Medieval Era an excuse for hisdysfunctional socialinteractions?

Itis, actually!

Phoebusand Esmeralda are shown to be progressives in the movie, but theproblem is, they’re still the exception,not the rule; the world ofFrance in 1482 is nowhere NEAR the level of multiculturalism anddiversity we see today.

Mostpeople of that erawill never even leave the towns they live in, let alone be able tohave the means to travel vast continents and entire oceans to meetpeople unlike themselves—and as European Spice Expeditions haveshown, the interaction is more likely to be lethalto the natives than friendly, let alone romantic.

There’salso the fact that if a foreigner lives in France, it’s usuallyfrom a slave trade of some sort or as part of a roving band of apersecuted minority, like Esmeralda and the rest of the Romanipeople.

Thetimes they live in are very xenophobic, with very black and whitemorality—there are only sinners and the faithful, and again, withFrollo, there is no room for outsiders like Esmeralda and the Romanipeople, whom he believes only deserve death.

Andagain, there’s also the fact that Frollo is a Judge, and alongsidehis religion and his authority, believes himself to be inherentlyabove and better than people, and that he cannot do anything wrongbecause he is of that high position, as only a “Good” person canhold that office.

Tohave a wicked, sinful man capable of cruelty and madness would beparadoxical, and would absolutely never happen! (/sarcasm)

Thisis why he can’t see the pain and the suffering he inflicts onothers with his actions—he simply believes himself to be BEYOND andincapable of doingevil.

Withthe question of nature and nurture, I won’t headcanon aboutFrollo’s childhood, since the Nurture has the lion’s share ofblame here.

He’svery old, he’s obviously a very senior member of the church, andhas a lot of respect—he has spent almost all of his life beingtreated as higher and better than his fellow man, he has massivepower other people, and the beliefs of his church (and consequently,himself) is that he is a reliable, infallible authority for what is“Good” and what is “Evil.”

Andas the saying goes, power corrupts.

Mostpeople behave in fear of some higher authority, be they the police,their parents, or that of your superior at work. Unfortunately forall of us, Frollo only really fears two people: the Arch-Deacon, andGod.

Thewords of the “commoners” matter not to him. Maleficent has longknown that these people are beyond reason or are not worth it, sodoesn’t exercise her authority. And even within hiscongregation—more of a cult, at this point, really—dissent isimmediately silenced, murmurs that “Father Frollo” might not beas virtuous and holy as they think he is shushed like a motherreprimanding her child during Sunday mass.

Toend this rather long, lengthy tirade, can he ever break free of thedelusion, and can he truly change his ways?

Realistically,no, and no.

Unlikeactual dogs, you can’t teach Frollo new tricks, especially onesthat contradict his worldview, and he’s already shown time andagain that he won’t accept any objective evidence that he’swrong—every action of his is justified to him, and that subjectivedecision is what makes it “Right.”

Itdoesn’t help that, as I’ve said in other headcanons and mentionedabove, the people of the Isle of the Lost tend to be the ones whohave lost all hope, and are desperately clinging onto whatever it isthey can for comfort.

Ifyou bring him to Auradon, and have him meet up with the (much sanerand reasonable, but not entirely) congregations of Auradon, it’dlikely end in shouting and claims of heresy and going against God.

Havingyour everything pulled out from under you and getting throwninto the great big unknown is terrifying and painful.

Andfor many people, they’d rather be wrong and not realize it, thansuffer that—thus, Cognitive dissonance, and belief in RedemptiveViolence, with both exacerbated by the Catholic Church’s stance on“deviant” sexual behaviour.

[myjackiejackie01]

“Thwarted” Chapter 49 Review

@perrydowning the day is rainy and stormy because it too has read chapter 49 and is crying with me

MONDAY!!! *happily hops onto laptop and spends 45 minutes refreshing Thwarted* *gets notification a chapter has been added* *reads through chapter* *heart bursts into flames and crumbles into ash* *spends the rest of the morning in tears*

Oh, so it's one of THOSE chapters. Dunno why I hoped for rainbows and hugs and kisses. Probably denial xD

ANYWAYS.

We continue our story with Galactic Idiot as he continues to make more poor questionable decisions.

Oh, poor Kressin-Vryn. I mean, I'm definitely not crying or losing any sleep over him. I don't agree with what he did and now learning that his motivations were mainly selfish (save for the genuine love he had for his husband) and had wished to continue to have the influence and financial stability he had before, I still don't feel anything for him. But damn. Even I wouldn't wish for having his mind shredded and his physical state reduced to a shell of his former self. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. But it wasn't like he... had a good HEAD on his shoulders. Am I right?! Too soon? *gets tomato thrown at me*

Ahem. Moving on.

Captain Phasma, it's been so long!! *waves* Haven't seen you in a hot minute, but I do see that even she doesn't approve of Supreme Fuck-Up's recent questionable decisions. No doubt she was rooting for him (given the changes he's been making for her troopers) before Eshara.

I could hear the precise moment my heart cracked into a billion pieces and it was the exact moment Kylo hit Vitok. First, I CANNOT BELIEVE HE DID THAT. Even if she pushed The Rey button, totally NO excuse to hit the lady that has watched over your questionable ass, Galactic Idiot. YOUR MOMMA RAISED YOU BETTER THAN THAT. Though I AM glad that action pretty much shocked him out of his madness. He clearly hadn't meant to do it, but like I said last chapter, he's passionate by nature and doesn't have healthy ways to cope with all those emotions so he tends to lash out at everything physically. Unfortunately, Vitok was in the line of fire this time around and suffered because of his poor control over his anger. However, it was more than enough to stop Kylo from executing innocent people and let him see just what he was doing and realize that Rey wouldn't like it. He took large gaping strides backwards with his actions on Eshara and his striking out at Vitok, but I do believe it will help him in the long-run if he wants his redemption and happy ending. Again, he hasn't had that "Eureka!" moment that has him questioning himself and his actions, but I do believe this is the first major step towards that, and I look forward to Kylo facing up to all he's done because it will help him to the end goal that he wants and hopes for.

Vitok Ren was definitely the star and my favourite part of this chapter. She really loves and cares for Kylo like he was her own, and even though she doesn't have NEARLY as much influence or sway over his actions like Rey does, she has been doing her best to try and steer him into going overboard and from doing anything rash. I applaud her for standing up to Kylo before he went past the point of no return. She's clearly outmatched in the Force compared to Kylo, but she makes up for it in her caring nature and determination to make sure Kylo does the right thing and doesn't do any more damage. She's followed Kylo's orders, whether she agreed with them and their methods or not, but she does have a limit and a strong sense of moral standing when she is faced with something she doesn't agree with. And when that happens, she sticks to her gut and doesn't back down. Kylo is very much her superior, but she isn't afraid to let him have it when she knows he's in the wrong, and tells him so. No doubts that she was disappointed in his violent act towards her and just overall pities him, but I applaud her for taking that blow without backing down and still holding her head up high. She's the first step towards Kylo's journey through self reflection, I think. He clearly cares about her, and was shocked and horrified with himself that he had even stuck out at her, but I do think it will help him see how far he's fallen.

I'd watch out if I were you, Kylo. Even if you've come out of your delusional, paranoid state of madness and Hux has been (somewhat) understanding, I doubt he'll be so understanding once he hears of what happened and sees the damage done to his lady. I don't think he'd be afraid to stun you again. Several times. Or punch you. Whichever, I don't mind. I'd prefer either, actually.

Kylo's now come down from his killing spree and reduced to a crying little boy, lost and desperately in need for love. Rey, I hope you wake up soon!! And knock some sense into this poor, misguided boy's head!! He has a lot to answer for and you need to scold him and put him in the dog house!!!

Perry, is this Pain Train almost over?!?! I know I said I enjoyed it but I think I'm done now because Pain Train ride through Hell isn't fun anymore ;-; (just kidding, I'M LOVING THE ANGST) But really Perry, you've done a tremendous job in bringing on the hurt and emotion and I'm just gonna be a mess for the rest of the day. Just phenomenal. This chapter was absolutely gut-wrenching and beautiful and you're just so amazing and I loved it. *gives you all the applause and hugs*

See you in chapter 50!!

Happy writing!!

xx