#like he ends up being more disillusioned with the military bc he sees how it effects his family

[wildflowercryptid]

i know people who marry shane get pegged with having a "i can fix him" mentality when romancing him, but let's be real... that really should apply to sam lovers instead, considering all the military kid deprogramming you'd have to go through with him.

[notthatalex]

I have been thinking about [REDACTED], Sarah Christ, Conspiracy and how it interplays between them.

The consensus of why people believe in conspiracies often boils down to them needing the world to be simpler. To have simple answers to complex problems. On first glance most of them are disgusting complex and contradictory of course, but that is just dress up. The simplicity lies in that there is one "THEM" that is behind it all. One convenient bad group that does evil because they are evil and you can blame for everything.

[REDACTED] obviously falls under that, he is a "conspiracy theorist, the caricature" the character.

But Sarah operates on a very similar mindset sometimes. It is just much more contained and doesn't bleed into other parts of the world for her. And yeah I am talking about the Creekside Killer. He is everyone and everything she needs him to be. A convenient bad guy that does all evil because he is evil and you can blame. So she has a tangible enemy and doesn't have to jump into the complexities. She clearly has a brain that lends into self to conspiracy. Even her motivations and drive is similar. "Pretty women with their hair down are getting killed left and right by "THEM" and of i can just get rid of "THEM" it will all be fixed." THEM in her case is literally just one guy but of you swap it out with the THEM conspiracy theorists talk about it is the same. Also the "pretty women with their hair down" can be replaced with any group the particular conspiracy theorists sees as vulnerable victims. A lot of the time in reality it is ofcourse children and and sex crimes.

The only important point is that they are just stand ins, that isn't really about helping those groups. Even when they tell themselves (and they have to tell themselves) they are. They are just tropes in their story to justify their actions. And this is exactly the case for Sarah. Chasing this one killer, that every information we are getting on him is widely contradictory, is not helping the group she is claiming to do all of what she does for.

I think the biggest reasons she is way more grounded in reality than [REDACTED] is her social political statues. On top of also being more mentally stable (low bar tbf, bc she is very fucked up)

She is an cop. And that fact hurts and helps her at the same time. On one hand, being an American cop makes you actually more likely to sink into right-wing conspiracy theories (the right wing is kinda redundant). On the other hand, she is also a woman and an Ex-Detective, which probably causes some interplay there. I think she is disillusioned with the system while still clinging to some parts of it for stability. Which you would think would actually push her more into conspiracies, but I think it actually has the opposite effect. Most conspiracy theorists love the cops and military while distrusting the government and especially central agencies. It's contradictory, but what do you want from conspiracy? It has to be.

A couple of right (wrong) expirences, and she could fully lose herself in conspiracy, too.

She is the archetype of Cop, that has a drinking/smoking problem, with a bit of a power fantasy that's divorced and not allowed to see their kid anymore. She is a women on top of that, and only that identity change influences her character way more than it may seems. And like it should. Being a women, being in that social political class shapes you A LOT. Even when you have all these other forces pulling you in other directions.

On top of that I also think having a relationship with [REDACTED] keeps her from falling deeper. It may seem like the opposite should be the fact, but I think seeing the other side so intimately... repels you from it. She knows what the end point of ot all looks like, and it's not pretty. If she was blind to it the chances of falling deeper would be more likely for her.

Feel free to disagree. Would love to hear. If anyone even read this.

[rockshortage]

You know, I actually wonder if, at any point, the bos might've tried to recruit Hector. Or if he's had any run-ins with them during the years on his own, whether bc both he and them were interested in the tech to be scavenged somewhere, bc they found/heard about stuff he had and wanted it for themselves, if he just ran into some randomly, or anything else

Also imagining a patrol finding one of his hideouts and trying to convince him to go work for them, but ends up killing them bc they make it clear they intend to steal all of his stuff whether he agrees or not

Nsdgjds I’m so sorry I didn’t reply to this earlier

You’re absolutely right that some sort of confrontation is extremely likely to happen. I’m still speaking about this in relative terms because I’m not so sure about making a decision about what exactly happened, but I have some ideas at least that we might be able to build up on.

I kinda figure multiple of the things you listed could have happened since there’s a lot of available time. But for the sake of there still being a progression that makes some sense, I’m leaning towards something like this:

The BOS recruiting Hector sometime in the earlier years after the bombs dropped when preservation of technology was a more pressing issue (and more accessible than after 200 years of scavengers). And there’s also the factor of the BOS as a military structure offering aimless people some kind of purpose in life and this false hope of ‘restoring the world to its former glory’. It’d make sense for Hector that this is how he tried to deal with the war and its aftermath, by trying to help ‘fix’ it.

Could be that Wandering Doctor Hector ended up giving treatment to some BOS guys that were having a battle over yonder and they decided he’s good actually, he should work for them. And for the aforementioned reasons that seems like a pretty sweet deal and he joins up (falling right back into the trap of government work, in a sense). Maybe first working as a doctor, but when he demonstrates some in-depth knowledge of technology he gets to change branches and work as a scribe instead. in which we make the science scribe outfit canon 👍

And maybe things were fine for a while, maybe the particular branch he was in wasn’t so bad, he just didn’t know the things going on in the field as a scribe / was in denial about it, or the BOS as a whole was a little more willing to actually help people back then (idk I didn’t check my facts). Or Hector actually believes they’re doing the right thing, having gotten brainwashed a little and being full on in the ol’ Ad Victoriam mindset? Because after all, he’s pretty easy to influence.

Then something happens that gets him disillusioned with the bos’ methods. Maybe something big and dramatic that gets him into trouble, or just quiet realizations that he can’t do this anymore. and in true hector fashion he probably ends up stealing some shit while he takes his leave

That ends the first chapter of his business with the bos and leaves him a bit wary to deal with them from then on (as far as he remembers anyway).

Of course the BOS doesn’t quit or care about leaving people alone, and with Hector being as interested in technology as he is, it’s only a matter of time until their paths cross again. And y’know, why not multiple times? Hector out on a scavenging run after getting some intel about useful technology that he wants, runs into the bos who’s there for the same thing and is forced to back down from his treasure even though he was there first >:((( and another case in which he’s just late and sees guards out front and BOS insignia plastered all over the building he was gonna explore and it’s very >:((

Last but not least, I’m definitely into your idea of Hector having a well-established hideout someplace and having his day ruined by a bos patrol. I imagine that happening a lot later on, maybe it was even the one place he’s lived in for the longest in all his wasteland adventures. Then a patrol shows up, acts all friendly at first but it gets progressively more tense when Hector refuses to budge. Or he pretends to agree, invites some people to come again the next day so he has time to pack his things, but actually uses that time to set up traps and shit to ambush them. Depends a bit on how well armed that first patrol was I guess.

Whatever way it goes exactly, Hector defends his home and the bos suffers some casualties. Except the problem with that is that now the bos has an even better reason to come after him. It’s not just about confiscating important technology anymore, now it’s about getting justice for their fallen brothers and sisters. So……. Home defense failed either way.

Then there’s an option of getting more dramatic and having Hector captured by the bos and escaping later or facing his punishment and he’s okay but he died or some shit who knows. Or a more sensible thing and Hector realizing early enough that him just killing some bos dudes was actually a bad idea and having to leave his home behind after all if he doesn’t want to end up captured or worse. Either way, he is now an Official Criminal according to the bos (if he wasn't already from the first time). Which is bad in terms of Hector having to deal with them but it’s also not like most of the wastelanders care about their crusade, nor would he be on a ‘most wanted’ level or anything. Also, I’m just imagining some scribe trying to make a new entry in the database for Hector to mark him as hostile or whatever, only to find there already is one from wayyy back when. They just figure it’s a mistake but huh that was weird.

Anyway. Hector has to leave [location] to get away from the bos, is like ‘fuck you guys I’m going to the commonwealth’ only for some giant airship to show up after he got settled in don’t know if that works with the timeline but I thought it was funny so here we are

[moonchopsticks-old]

just finished aa4 and really liked it! quick thoughts:

-apollo has quickly become one of my favorite characters in aa! he really struck that sweet spot between admirable and endearing for me--a hardworking, quick-thinking young man, who grew up as an orphan and clawed his way up to success and a new family in the wrights, and who’s also unrelentingly snarky, can’t whisper for his life, is terrified of heights, and cries over people that he hardly knows. what a dork, i love him. i think they leaned a little heavily on the ‘greenhorn’ aspect of his personality-- quite a few moments where there were things i had figured out but wasn’t allowed to do anything with until another character jumped in and was like “apollo u sweet summer child THIS is the answer”. also i spoiled myself a little and i know that the next two games have “traumatize apollo” as a running theme so a little apprehensive and hoping they at least develop his character well or smth

-mixed feelings about the ‘perceive’ mechanic bc narratively it’s cool as hell but  it was frustrating to crawl through the text looking around for a very slight change in the zoomed-in sprite, especially if it wasn’t clear what they’re fibbing about which is very often. had to use a guide on those parts pretty often. also it’s just like “hey you were twitching! you’re obviously hiding something!” “oh gee you caught me i’ll spill the beans” like i feel like it could’ve been a little more subtle or gradual, idk.

- love apollo and trucy’s relationship so much!! their banter is so cute and funny and they pull off the straight man/funny man routine really well. ik nick and maya have a similar thing but the vibes were just different, for some reason. they had very strong sibling vibes (even before the reveal), which i loved. them being half-siblings was pretty contrived (like a lot of things in this game and this series lmao) but i dont really mind too much

-on a related note, why can’t they know that they’re siblings. when’s the “right time” to tell them. why can’t they just reunite with their mother who has her memories back and loves them. phoenix wh

-on another related note i can understand how jaded and disillusioned phoenix got after he got disbarred but i honestly didn’t like the whole “mysterious cryptic mentor playing 4d chess” schtick that the game pulled. it feels ooc, especially considering you briefly play as present-day him in the final case and his internal monologue doesn’t seem too different from original trilogy phoenix, or at least the phoenix you see before disbarment in the final case (although i was rly invested in finishing up the case and wasn’t paying that much attention to phoenix’s characterization specifically, so i might’ve missed stuff). phoenix’s arc of growth was great and complete in t&t and it feels like they just...gave him a whole new personality. also phoenix goes back to being a lawyer in the next two games...does he just revert back to being regular ol phoenix? idk, maybe i’m missing some stuff right after my first playthrough but it just felt weird.

-plot was really convoluted and contrived even for ace attorney (havent played aa5 or 6 yet, so idk if it gets worse). lamiroir just happened to be apollo and trucy’s mom, if zak had just been frank with phoenix and given the original diary page to him OR valant hadn’t tampered with the crime scene this whole thing could’ve been avoided. why did zak want to take down phoenix in poker to the extent of planting cards on him to make it look like he cheated when phoenix was the one who defended him in court and he’s the one taking care of his daughter??

-way too many flashbacks to things that happened 5 real life minutes ago

-g u i t a r ‘ s  s e r e n a d e

-kind of wish they had done more with trucy. i liked her but i feel like there was potential, especially since the game implies that she’s putting on a brave front for apollo, and i wish they had expanded on that a little more. like....her birth father who had been presumed dead for years ends up being alive right up until mere months before the reveal. she’s the one that ends up delivering the forged evidence into phoenix’s hands as a child, even though she was completely unaware of it at the time. she and phoenix latch onto each other pretty quickly, which was very cute, but we get little insight to how she thinks of her biological father, who we can tell she loved and misses but not much else. maybe i’m just digging for angst, idk, but it still felt like there could’ve been more. (also i really wanted more phoenix-being-a-dad content!! be a dad to ur daughter sir!!)

-klavier was pretty good! it was refreshing to have a prosecutor that wasn’t after ‘perfection’ or had a vendetta against defense attorneys/the protag, but he still managed to come off as a competent opponent. his whole rockstar persona was very cheesy but i liked it lol. (also really hilarious to me that the third case starts with him giving discounted tickets to trucy and apollo, his opponents in actual legal court) also i knew people shipped him and apollo but i wasn’t expected the game to be so forthright with it. like how else are you supposed to interpret klavier saying “i’m used to being inspected by the ladies but this is the first time ive felt like this with a man”????

-ema skye!!! loved her and glad to see her in a spotlight role but it was just kind of sad seeing her perpetually grumpy. ik people didn’t like that there were so many forensic touchpad/mic minigames but i didn’t really mind it, they were kinda fun if sometimes a little tedious

-i for sure thought that valant had been directly involved with the murder in turnabout serenade (my initial theory was that valant was masquerading as daryan during set 3 while daryan shot letouse, which was why 2nd guitar was off during the recording). also i hated daryan’s hair, why does he have a military grade skunk torpedo on his head,

-wright anything agency adopt vera challenge

-this has already gone on long enough so tl;dr solid 7.5/10 would play again once i forget what happens a little bit

[scholarhect]

2 3 15 babey

HI BRO ILY

2. what’s your taco bell order

crunchwrap supreme. maybe a burrito, idk. i had a bean burrito today but i thought it was gross. plus the red freezy thing (starburst flavored, i think). except today i had baja blast and it was pretty good

i want you to know that this question is the entire reason i made this post. this was the germ, the mustard seed. “ask game: what’s your taco bell order”. and the rest was history

3. tell me about that one thing you wish someone would ask you about

(spoilers for tma if anybody’s gonna listen someday, i guess. literally major spoilers for seasons 1-4. turns out i don’t know how to shut up. thanks for indulging me)

okay. okay i’m gonna talk to you specifically. listen to me, i am talking directly into your ear now. i wish for the opportunity to tell you about ms melanie king. you’ve already heard about her as the inspiration for my haircut and also my fishnet outfit from that time i dragged you to that thrift thing, but she is such an icon. first of all she’s a YOUTUBER. (not like a vlogger, i guess, she hosts a show on youtube. but a youtuber nonetheless.) she hunts GHOSTS. on YOUTUBE. so, she shows up at The Magnus Institute, London, to tell them about that time she saw a ghost (but it was like ... a weird ghost. not a normal ghost. you know). immediately she insults the guy’s shitty old tape recorder that she is expected to speak into, in the year 2016. so they get snippy with each other and end up in a full-blown “The Girls Are Fightinggg” passive aggressive argument because they both view each other as pathetic, fake, not-respectable paranormal investigators. (and they both have A Thing about being respected & taken seriously.) like it turns out that the institute has a fucking laughable reputation in The Academic Community because they’ll just take a statement from anybody about their supposed supernatural experience. meanwhile jon thinks the people on ghost hunt shows are charlatans because their goal is entertainment and, yes, they “do ham it up a bit for the cameras.” ANYWAY. she’s all dragging the magnus institute and he’s like. “but you’re here.” it’s very funny. turns out she can’t tell the Serious Academic Community about her experience because it’s so wild that they’d laugh her out of her career. so she’s here. so she’s got no choice but to tell her story. so the episode continues, and ends, okay, and you’re like, “wow that was a fun and iconic one-off character. right?” WRONG.

season two... she’s BACK baby! after her experience at the military hospital, she wants to do research on War Ghosts, but the magnus institute wouldn’t let her in bc she didn’t have the Academic Clout for it, so the only way is to get an employee to vouch for her. so. she goes to jon like “please you’re the only friend i have here i need help” and they DO fight again but he does agree to help her (because they’re the same person. they are *spiderman pointing meme*). so, later, she’s back. she did some research on War Ghosts and broke into an old train graveyard (which is a thing apparently) and got stabbed by the ghost of an army medic and she got caught and arrested and she was screaming about how She Got Stabbed By A Ghost and somebody took a video and posted it online and then she BECAME A MEME for a couple days and nobody wanted to associate with her anymore. rip. but now she likes jon and she’s here to say goodbye (because she’s going to india) (she also sets off the climax of the season because she just happens to be that one person who can see that the monster pretending to be a major character is not, in fact, that character. she’s like “oh, which sasha? the new one? or the old one?” and jon’s like “what the fuck” and she’s like “there’s definitely two sashas. are you trying to gaslight me.” but whatever)

ok this is literally less than half her arc (i’ve covered. three episodes.) but this is long as fuck so i’ll wrap it up. “what a cool reoccurring character,” you may think! “i hope i get to see more of her!” well GUESS WHAT. she comes back from india (she’s been SHOT BY A GHOST) she wants to talk to jon but he’s not there (he was unfortunately in very close proximity to a murder and he’s on the run so he doesn’t get framed. double traumatic experience, very fun. anyway he’s staying at melanie’s friend’s house, whom she has conveniently namedropped a couple times so far (in the last episode she was like “she actually has nice things to say about you, why didn’t you tell me you knew her” and he’s like “we didn’t part on the best of terms”) because she is his ex-girlfriend, so, though he literally was just pretending that he didn’t know her, he now knows that she doesn’t hate him so he shows up at her place and she hides him from the cops because she’s literally the only person he knows outside work. but this isn’t about him.) so melanie has no job so elias is like “you want a job” and she’s like “sure?” so now she’s an archival assistant at the magnus institute (i realized i had to explain that. i don’t think you even know who elias is. head of the institute, everybody’s secretly evil boss, currently lowkey framing jon for the murder he committed. but lowkey) her coworkers don’t want her there because they’ve realized that their job is evil and they Physically Cannot Quit so they’re like “great now she’s stuck here too” but she doesn’t know that so she’s just like “why does everybody hate me. are you misogynists” because her Disrespect Alarm is going off in her head. and then they have a Department Meeting where jon comes back with an open knife wound on his neck and demands elias tell everyone about the TWO murders and then there’s a standoff situation where somebody wants to shoot elias but he’s “knife cat”ing at her and very dramatically forces her codependent friend slash partner (in the cop way not the gay way) to sign a contract as an archival assistant so that daisy (the cop with the gun) can’t hurt elias because, oh yeah, if he dies supposedly they all do too. so melanie is ... thoroughly disillusioned. and she becomes sullen, too, kind of. and she begins to try to murder elias. queen

things get worse (in a supernatural way. she gets Angry Knife Powers. there’s a Ghost Bullet from India lodged in her leg pumping murderous energy through her body and while she’s asleep jon removes it, it’s all very terrible.) but then she starts going to therapy because she wants to get better and she ends up making the difficult journey to Being Okay. (she also literally blinds herself to escape the institute, and that doesn’t really sound analogous to therapy out of context but it is, okay) and her arc is over and she’s the only character in the story who is currently Okay. we’re proud of her. her last appearance (so far. who knows what s5 has in store. hopefully not much) jon, who is in some deeeeep shit by this point, shows up asking for help, and she’s like “i can’t help you bc i can’t get dragged back into all that, but you’re always welcome in my life as a friend” which is not great for him at that point because he is kind of having a breakdown, but it’s still <3. much better than the beginning part of s4 when she wanted to kill him on sight. also she’s dating jon’s ex now lol

15. if somebody irl you didn’t know asked you how you feel about mcr what would you say (this question isn’t quite asking you how you feel about mcr, but it’s not not asking that)

i’d be like “yeah they’re pretty cool. i like them”

[inquisitorsnappy]

jotaro? also hmm bastila if you want!!

JOTARO KUJO

how I feel about this character:I LOVE HIM!!!! MY BOY!!! i just love how much he constantly tries to do the right thing and to protect those he loves even when it causes problems for him and his relationship. and like sure he makes some Mistakes (his relationship with jolyne in particular) but he fucking Tries so damn hard!! he just wants to keep his loved ones safe!! seriously though, jotaro is easily one of my favourite characters in jjba!

all the people I ship romantically with this character:kakyoin, his wife and @vaguelyillegal​‘s oc, armani! i think him and kak just Work very well together. whilst i wish we actually know what his wife was like since araki kinda basically made her a non-character, i figure that there must be a Reason that they got married and had jolyne. i have an idea in my mind about what she’s like so a lot of my feelings on the matter of their relationship is built from that but still! and then armani and jotaro also just go really well together. and also i love armani and want them both to be happy and together!

my non-romantic OTP for this character:polnareff! i love their friendship so much!! like they’re total opposites in personality and yet they actually get along really well! just. i love both of these boys and they’re friendship a lot. i don’t even really have words for it.also just gonna throw mention of ira in there bc i find her friendship with jotaro very important too.

my unpopular opinion about this character:idk if this counts as an unpopular opinion bc tbf a lot of people share my opinion on this?? but i see a lot of people say that jotaro is boring and doesn’t care about anything/anyone and i couldn’t disagree more!! i think he’s probably one of the most (if not The most) complex characters in jjba! he has a lot of feelings that he’s bad at dealing with and hides behind his stoicism, he tries so hard and has done everything he can to keep his family safe as soon as found about stands when he was only 17, he has pretty clear ptsd symptoms (his fight with kira in part 4 comes to mind) and he just so very clearly cares about his friends and family So Much!! i never get why some people think he’s a flat character just bc of his stoicism when he’s clearly a lot more behind that!

one thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:okay so it IS something that happens in canon but we don’t get to see it; give me jotaro and polnareff’s adventures in europe in the 90s!! we know it happened!! part 5 told us that!!! i wanna see it!!! also i wish we got to see a conversation between jotaro and jolyne in which they just Talk about the state of things regarding their strained relationship and jotaro’s Absence and stuff bc they didn’t get the chance for it in part 6??? and it’s something that they both probably need now that jolyne knows Why he was so distant

BASTILA SHAN

how I feel about this character:whilst she’s not my favourite character, i still really love her! i also feel really bad for her in terms of what the jedi threw her into. she’s like 19 or 20??? barely and adult and the jedi just kinda throw her out into a high position within the military during the jedi civil war bc of her battle meditation which ends up with her fighting darth fucking revan. and then bc of the bond that comes of that, she’s made to try and keep them from falling to the dark side again whilst ALSO going out to find the star maps which are Very Important to ending the war and it’s like....SHE’S BARELY AN ADULT. she doesn’t need all these Responsibilities and the council just dump All of these Responsibilities on her in very quick succession and just...give her a fucking break Please! 

all the people I ship romantically with this character:uuuhhh i don’t really ship her with anyone tbh. 

my non-romantic OTP for this character:revan! obviously i’m mainly thinking dana here but i like the idea of the two of them developing a sibling kinda relationship! they’re both Exasperated with each others bullshit but they really care about the other’s safety and they try to be each other’s reason to stay away from the dark side. and then after kotor 1 they can bond over how full of shit the jedi council are.

my unpopular opinion about this character:i don’t think i really have one?? 

one thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:i mean kotor is a game series where i ignore canon bc drew karpyshyn completely fucked it entirely with the existence of the revan novel. and bastila is a character who particularly suffered bc of it since she was reduced to Pregnant Wife Who Must Stay At Home and barely anything else. so all that should’ve Not Happened. the main thing is i wish we got to see her develop a critical perspective of the jedi whilst still being on the side of good. like it’d make sense for her to not return to the council after kotor 1 bc she probably will have a much more critical perspective of them, their treatment of her and revan (and also probably others like juhani). i just want more force-users to Not be jedi and in fact be very disillusioned with them an their bullshit and bastila is a character that could very easily be that!

send me a character and i’ll break them down!! (askbox)

[soap-brain]

alright! i guess it’s time for the big jurassic world meta post that nobody asked me for or is interested in!! i have far more important things to do and i’m running on five hours of sleep but i guess it’s whatever.

@bottomkirk @trappist-1p @tari101190 lookie it’s the j-world meta post!

~major spoilers ahead~

so the thing i found so interesting about jurassic world was that it looks completely ordinary and boring, fourth in a series that was once spectacular and breathtaking, a spielberg movie that continues to beat a horse that’s at least dying, if not already dead. the storyline is almost completely unoriginal, the accompanying moral questions the same as in jurassic park (further described as j-park) - “have big monster for money” vs “maybe we actually Shouldn’t and it is Bad”. jurassic world (further described as j-world) add a teeny tiny spin with “maybe use big monster for military”. it’s an american action movie, what do you expect? j-world also keeps the storyline of “someone wants to steal the research”

so, storyline? unoriginal. the actual ‘monsters’, especially the indominus rex? kind of pale against the sheer magnificence and terror of the t rex in j-park. 0 awe effect. it looked ... boring and made up and not primitively terrifying like the t rex. it had some spikes though, and it could camouflage itself even though that was used as a plot device and then dropped like a hot potato. then there were lots of other plot holes that i’ll come back to later.

now towards what makes it surprisingly interesting: the characters.  they look basic, at first. surprisingly, we have a woman in charge of things even though it’s a hollywood movie, but that’s where representation ends. we have two boys of regular medium age as protagonists so that a larger audience feels included, and they do come across as “boys will be boys” at first. but there’s actually quite a lot more to that, as well as to most other major characters, so i’ll be looking at each of them.

(disclaimer: i’m horribly bad with names, so i’m just not gonna use any names bc i already forgot them tbh)

let’s start with the first character we see: the mom. she seems normal at first, but if you look closer see she’s immature, emotionally distant and decidedly emotionally abusive of the older son, while also having some serious issues with herself. we first see her packing the car. kind of weird that the younger son doesn’t bring his own luggage, seeing how he’s allegedly so excited to go to j-world. instead, he’s looking through dias of dinosaur drawings in his room, decidedly unexcited to go somewhere where he later can barely stand still. almost as though he’d rather stay away from the mom. then the older boy says goodbye to his girlfriend, and the parents’ reaction really shocked me. because i understand gentle teasing; my family does that a lot. but the boy’s parents’ reaction is not teasing. it’s belittling and shaming, absolutely not taking him serious as a person and laughing about him. and they drag the younger boy into doing the same. next, the airport scene: the mother makes a huge deal out of letting the boys fly on their own, flapping around the younger one, being exaggeratedly tearful and scared. watch the scene and look at her facial expressions. completely exaggerated. all her attention is focused on the younger boy and she practically ignores the older one. shouldn’t she at least hug him? next, her phonecall with her sister, the aunt. it turns out that the aunt doesn’t actually spend time with the boys. the mother then starts crying - bear in mind she’s in a public setting just having stepped outside of a meeting. and yet she starts to actually bawl over the fact that her sister isn’t spending time with her nephews. now, we know they aren’t particularly close - the sister hasn’t seen the boys for seven years, which is one hell of a long time. meaning, the two of them have very likely not met up at all during that time. the mom then begins saying some things that the sister doesn’t want to hear; we’ll get to that later. the call ends. we see the mother again, briefly. she’s panicking over why her boys won’t pick up the phone, even though she doesn’t have a reason to assume they are in any danger. dinos are already so implemented into regular life that j-world is like a zoo resort. the mother has no reason to think anything is wrong, and usually when kids don’t pick up during an activity that you specifically believe is lots of fun, it means that they are having lots of fun. but from the way she stresses over that, we can assume she’s very controlling of her children (also they have to call her every day. in the age of texting and whatsapp, that’s maybe a bit much). also: if she stresses that much about her boys technically being with her sister, she obviously doesn’t trust the sister much; yet she sends her children to stay with her for a while week. the last time we see her it’s during the reunion scene, where she’s crying again and also for the first time showing some warmth towards her older son.

now to the father. he’s clearly emotionally completely uninvolved and uninterested. while the mother loads up the car and gets the sons, he sits at the steering wheel, already completely ready to go away and get the kids gone as soon as possible, being annoyed when they take too long. and not annoyed in the “you’re gonna miss your flight”-way. he also participates in belittling the older son. then we see him during the reunion scene (which i generally have problems with). all of a sudden, he’s warm and amicable and hugs both his sons, even ‘allowing’ his older son the ‘emotional vulnerability’ of hugging.

so let’s look at the boys. the older one is completely emotionally numb and only physically present when with his parents. he’s completely given up and withdrawn into his shell - listening to music, being on his phone when spoken to, exclusively interested in girls, especially his girlfriend.  the way he says goodbye to his girlfriend is a bit much, too. he’s only going away for a week, yet they make such a huge thing out of it. so either “kids will be kids” and “he’s in that age, you know” apply here, or there’s something else, and man, if my parents treated me the way his parents treat him, i’d be fleeing into every direction i could, too. he’s completely disillusioned in regards to his parents’ love for him - he can’t wait to get out of the household (see his conversation with his brother about their parents possibly divorcing each other. to paraphrase “who cares? i’ll be out of there in two years anyways”). it’s all he can think about, getting away from home. he also does his best to be uninterested in his surroundings, completely shutting himself off from the outside world, including his brother. they’re obviously not very close, and it’s very likely the older boy thinks his brother is in on the familial bullying towards him, even though the younger boy probably just doesn’t know better.

but the younger one isn’t as illusioned as the older one thinks. he realizes his parents’ abuse / emotional neglectment as well, and he flees into his world of dinosaurs. i know that his character is a play on the dinosaur phase that’s allegedly a big part in all boys’ childhoods, but my cousin went through his dino phase, and he sure as hell couldn’t talk about all the topics the younger one knows stuff about. the kid is around twelve, yet he’s talking about dna, genetech, can correctly sort complicated chemical structures - there’s some serious hyperfixiation with a hint of academic brilliance there. add to that his almost non-stop talking about his special interest and inability to pick up on social cues (see especially the scene where he greets his aunt, who he hasn’t seen for seven years, who he probably has no actual memory of, yet he runs to hug her), and you have a pretty good possibility of him having a form of asperger’s. considering the family, it’s likely undiagnosed, ignored and even ridiculed.

then let’s consider the aunt. she’s the slightly unscrupulous business woman, her life perfected to a t, everything punctual and perfect. listen to the speech she gives to the investors during the lab tour: it sounds like a power point presentation. the epitome of someone who’s pretending to be the “strong woman who don’t need no man”. she also obviously doesn’t hold her family ties in high regard - her work is far more important and she has no active desire to interact with the boys, hence why they run around with her assistant. she does hold some kind of misplaced affection / misunderstood sisterly duty for her sister though, but they obviously don’t have the best relationship, if you consider their phonecall. the aunt doesn’t want kids, probably doesn’t like them, either. she has definitely been teased harshly about that, in the way of “oh, you don’t know real work until you’ve had kids, but it’s so worth it :))” of the middle-aged white soccer moms on facebook. but the aunt doesn’t want kids. she doesn’t want a family, she doesn’t want a boyfriend, and, depending on how you read her phonecall with her sister and her conversation with owen at his cabin, she might even be asexual and have been heavily teased about that and ridiculed by her family. the phonecall ends when the boys’ mother begins using the same arguments her mother has used towards the sister. normally, that wouldn’t be cause to end a call, but the j-world sister is suddenly very interested in doing just so, and instead of asking her sister how work is, or whether she’s alright or any other meaningless platitudes, she just says bye and is gone. please also consider that the boys’ mother clearly (subconsciously or consciously) tries to manipulate j-world sister into spending time with her children by starting to cry on a phonecall during a meeting about how she wanted this to be “family time” with an aunt who was never interested. and then j-world sister later says “now you’re beginning to sound like mom” and ends the call. there seems to be some kind of correlation between that.

next we have owen. ex soldier with probably a lot more baggage than is good for him, living some kind of dream of being a gun-slingin’ raptor cowboy. he certainly considers himself to be an expert and like he’s some kind of super ranger and savior in need of a damsel in distress.

and that’s the point.

you have all these different people living in their dream worlds:

the mother lives in her dream world of being a highranking business woman who fabulously manages to juggle jobs and kids

the father lives in his dream of being a serious adult and a proper man without all the emotion-showing.

the older brother lives in his dream world of “soon i’ll be out of here” and “i don’t care about my family anyways”.

the younger brother lives in his dream world of dinosaurs.

the aunt lives in her dream world of being 100% in control of the situation, managing the huge theme park perfectly.

owen lives in his dream world of being the cool gunslingin’ raptor whisperer, some kind of cowboy fantasy where he has pet monsters instead of pet horses. major delusions of grandeur here.

the multimillionaire investor (purple shirt) lives in his dream world of the world being his oyster and everything being exciting and a game.

the military guy lives in his dream world of soon establishing some kind of übermilitary with intelligent dino-soldiers.

the one controller dude (the one in the j-park shirt) is living in his dream world of rebuilding the glory of the first park.

and they all fail horrifically.

the mother has some kind of emotional breakdown, hopefully realizing she’s an abusive shit, but at least realizing that her children mean something to her other than just being trophies.

the dad (hopefully) realizes that he should love his children and it’s not cool at all to be distant and cold.

the older brother realizes that he can’t be some kind of lone wolf and that he does need his brother, his family.

the younger brother realizes that his idolized dinos are actually monsters.

the aunt realizes that she isn’t in control and that she went too far, and that she can’t do everything on their own.

owen realizes that when worst come to worst, all he can do is try to survive. the dinos aren’t as trainable as he thought. he isn’t some kind of dino-alpha.

the multimillionaire investor hopefully realizes that life isn’t a game.

the military guy, who thought raptors were the next super soldiers, tries to reason with one of them and gets eaten.

the controller dude realizes that no matter how hard he idolizes j-park, genetically engineering monsters actually leads to genetically engineered monsters that aren’t family friendly.

and all the protagonists realize they need other people in their lives. not necessarily each other, that’s bullshit (please dear god, tell me where this weird-ass owen+aunt romance subplot came from, and why they say they’ll “stick together”. it makes 0 sense - they have nothing in common and why should their relationship magically work just because they survived a raptor attack?), but they realize that on their own, they’re not as invincible as they once thought.

but all that doesn’t meant that the movie isn’t still not precisely good and lacking quite some good sense, so let’s take a quick look at that.

the events of j-park are canon, so we can assume that the events of j-park 2 and 3 are canon as well, meaning dinosaurs (ie the ‘cool’ dinos people want to see, aka the one with many teeth and all) have already proved themselves to be actual monsters; nevertheless, a park opens with the same objective and it’s not like, idk, illegal. also it opens on the same island as the first one was set to open on. their idea on how to make it safe so that the dinos don’t hurt anyone? uhhh idk make more and more dangerous dinos i guess.

that being said: cloning / genetic manipulation / bioengineering / whatever the fuck they call it is apparently legal and ok and completely fine and there’s no problems with that whatsoever in that world.

two boys (16 and 12) know how to fix up a car all by themselves, even though i sincerely doubt they’ve ever been shown how to.

convenient loss of signals. possibly due to .... *spins wheel* the signal bocking capacities of the dinos. i get that it’s a dramaturgic effect, but please, at least make it make sense!

she prances over grass and sticks and stones in pumps. she outruns a fucking t rex in HEELS. stiletto heels!! have you worn heels before? do you know how much you’ll break your ankle?? no matter how “trained” or whatever you are ... you do not do that in heels wtf. it’s pretty damn impossible.

a highly trained team of swat-esque personnel. *shoots rocket launcher at bigass dino* *misses by like ten meters* *shoots rocket launcher at far smaller target that’s fare more agile* *bullseye*

i’m not too sure the indominus rex could’ve actually, y’know, reached the place where the implant was.

*raptor attack* people run screeching in circles for half an hour, not trying and definitely failing to get cover.

how is the indominus rex so super strong that it can break through steel and concrete walls, but a meagre t rex can fuck it up that badly. you’d think the strength would also be in its jaws, but ... apparently not.

why did they try to get the pig out of the raptor cage??????

why did the younger boy photograph uuuuhh like that? also, why did he have such an ancient camera? they’re clearly in the age of holograms and glass computer screens, and his camera almost looks like it’s using film, while his brother has a smartphone (that also looks pretty old but whatever)??

owen: “o shit there’s a bigass dino monstrosity loose that i know can’t be killed by bullets!! better grab my mediocre rifle, i’m sure that’ll help”

owen: “oh heck there’s this poor dino here that’s dying (from three and a half scratches). man, me and my mediocre rifle wonder whether there’s something we can do to put it out of its misery. man, better pet its head.”

raptor: “o shit a new alpha in town!!! better than the human!!” *two hours later* “oh man i sure love my human alpha. i’ll now turn on the new alpha, the one i obeyed for the past hours, for my human man”

and lastly i’d like to give a shoutout to the product placement team. good job guys, i really understood now that i have to buy starbucks, mercedes and coca cola. appreciate the heads up.  (aka this was worse product placement than in i, robot and what did they do that for? also i think i may have missed the odd brand that i don’t know)

also i’d like to point out that they didn’t even get themselves a higher-ranking chris :(

tl;dr: fuckign j-world, man

please remember to rb my indominus rex pastel edit of “cool girls don’t look at explosions” or whatever, it’s a good post