#mainstream narratives

[in-sightpublishing]

Conversation with Ginger Coy on Psychology of Conspiracy Theorists in America: Independent Journalist

                      Publisher: In-Sight Publishing Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014 Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal Journal Founding: August 2, 2012 Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed Access: Electronic/Digital & Open…

[yoroshiu]

Kingdom Hearts and the Cost of Empathy

While making yesterday's post I was reminded of this other topic that had been giving me brainworms lately. And I was going to do this on another day but the thought bugged me constantly so I'm just gonna let this out now.

Part ??? of Yoroshiu just reiterating obvious points that have been chewed on a billion times

Kingdom Hearts presents empathy as a means to have characters connect with each other in both the emotional sense and as a literal ability of sorts. If someone is happy, that joy is shared, and if someone is sad, then it's felt on a visceral level.

We've had three characters be confirmed literal empaths:

Sora, Xehanort, and Baldr

And if you know, you know.

It says a lot that 2/3 ended up being antagonists and when we look at the events that shaped them, we see how Kingdom Hearts handles the negative effects of being that exposed to others emotions, especially when put it certain circumstances.

(I didn't really want to use screenshots I used in my last post but these two shots and the following one are important here, even moreso than in the previous one LOL)

In Dark Road, Baldr was shown to be attached to his sister, Hoder, because she being a heart of pure light made him feel safe as, the screenshot shows, he was sensitive to others' hearts. That's part of why it makes Hoder's death so devestating for him.

And for Xehanort, he was able to take in his caretaker's memories and felt a personal and genuine connection with Player and their friends. It's partly why the events of Dark Road hit him so hard. Baldr states that Xehanort shares the same dynamic with Eraqs.

And even for Sora, our current hero, we've seen this Empathy be harmful to him as well. He's felt echoes of the heartache of his Heart Hotel residents (KH2, BBS, etc.) and you can assume how difficult it is to have to handle multiple people's most intense emotions.

And what happens when these characters hit their lowest? Especially when it's in tandem to this Empathy?

They break down, they fall apart, their hearts get wrapped in Darkness.

And what's the factor that turns empathy, the means to bring people together in understanding, into a force that drives people into despair?

Isolation.

If there's one consistent pattern with these characters is that being alone ends up contributing to the downfall.

Baldr falls apart because he's completely isolated from his friends in a completely white room with no windows for SEVEN DAYS. How did Odin think this was a good idea?????

(Day 1 vs Day 7)

Xehanort is a person who prefers doing things on his own. This is what makes him use others and even other versions of himself as tools for his plan. He gets wrapped up in all his plans and essentially becomes a more refined Baldr by the end.

Sora is someone who's tied to a lot of different people and their hearts. This contributes to his heart being broken down and made vulnerable to Darkness, especially with how he was kept alone in his dreams, led further and further away from Riku trying to wake him up.

(Sora being mostly alone in the new saga is going to be interesting. Strel is there but there's probably going to be an effort to isolate him again.)

Being left alone with all these emotions, with no proper way to process it—empathy becomes the most destructive force.

Despite what the mainstream might think, Kingdom Hearts has always believed in the proper balance between Light and Dark, Good and Bad. Empathy is good, it connects hearts together, but at its most extreme, it poses a danger. It can overwhelm a person and make them expel it to the world in the worst way possible.

Being completely alone with no forms of support turns compassion into despair.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Making Kingdom Hearts Stuff Until KH4 Comes Out (Day 66)

[generalelectionmusings]

[blood-orange-juice]

Do you think Adventurers' Guild was in fact established by Sandrone?

It would be such a lovely way to gather intel across the seven nations. She keeps it low-key, of course, so no one knows.

[finalgirlsamwinchester]

realised. dean is the perfect viewer avatar for a horror show. he gets to be both the action hero and the quippy, self-aware wiseguy who knows he's in a horror show. he provides a safe point; a comfortable power fantasy for you to experience a story through. he's ash in the evil dead. he's a gunslinging tough guy, and you get to see those moments where heroism sits on his shoulders like an ill-fitting leather jacket. and even when he gets his turn at being captured and victimised by the narrative, it's filtered through this mythic lens first. he's the tormented hero; tortured by villains, tortured by the constraints of his role. yeah he gets bruised, beaten bloody to a pulp, torn to shreds and killed, but his perception of reality never gets thrown into serious doubt (unless it's played out as a gag). the narrative valorises his sense of right and wrong, because that's what heroic stories do. their heroes provide moral center, regardless of how we might judge them. the lines dividing hero, anti-hero, and villian are paper thin, and dean isn't truly ever allowed to be ambiguous. and the hero always wins in the end, even when he dies.

meanwhile sam is the abject object of the horror show, a character who gets trussed up, chased, tied up, ripped apart, cut into, possessed, exploited, manipulated and psychologically hounded. he's carrie covered in pig's blood. he's the marginal person people are cheering on either to die - or to live past it all. he gets his turn at playing both movie monster and victim, always occupying the liminal space between both. abject horror lives within him. he's violated with demon blood, he consumes demon blood. he hates halloween because he vomited his guts up in front of a room of normal children. he will never get to be normal, he's designated the freak on multiple levels, but most significantly, by the way his narrative frames him. he's living inside a world that is at its core, fundamentally frightening and horrifying - full control over himself and his surroundings is always slipping away, just beyond his reach. his grip on reality and the world around him gets thrown into question by the story consistently. what's right? what's wrong? what's real? what isnt? the narrative punishes him - because that's what happens to you when you're living in a horror. he can never run away from his nightmare reality, it catches up to him like a curse nipping at his heels. the only way out for him is through the punishing fire. in order to survive, he's required to be pushed to the absolute brink of instability; emotionally, physically and mentally. he emerges out the other end, barely holding it together but somehow alive - like the bloody final girl, changed irrevocably by what she's experienced.

[princemick]

the difference in what gets popular on f1blr compared to hockeyblr will never not shock me. like f1 is alllllllll gifsets while for hockey its all about poetry n graphics its SO intresting

[kwisatzworld]

vale might be the biggest camera flirting man in sports history, but he’s just as cautious about filmed records as i am. from what i remember, any vale docu was either made by dorna or tv networks or just promo stuff from sponsors like monster energy. refusing to compromise with any external visual narrative… he definitely has his own logic when it comes to filming, so i’ll wait

[nadekofannumber1]

I’m pretty convinced the way they’re gonna break up the episodes for next season is that they’re gonna sprinkle the rest of the waza episodes around for the sake of keeping up the feeling of an ongoing narrative abt Shinobu and deathtopia via consistant character appearance to have the feeling of buildup maintained. In the sense that yoimono has decent amount of Shinobu appearance but Amari and ougimono have less and if they wanted to engage in the flow of Shinobu posting to be constant for the build to shinomono in the way Nadeko’s appearances would be, they’d probably put them around there for the sake of hype.

However that is subject to change depending on how they do musubi which I can see them do a direct run through, sprinkling it next shinomono, putting individual episodes next to the 3 arcs b4 shinomono specifically to max them out for the vibe (most evil option) or doing an ova.

I think that for the rest of oraka putting sodachi fiasco as an opener to the next season and putting suruga bonehead some point after but before ougimono (I’d say that between yoi and Amari is likely bc of digestion time but also the fact we don’t have that second resolution and if you put it directly next to ougimono its gonna feel like they’re hyping towards a plot that isn’t actually gonna be resolved soon but doing that is nisio core so I’d accept it. But realistically because of the overarching Gaen izuko subplot that comes to a head by shinomono it makes sense to perform that same build up as a parallel. Really I think the best time to look at those arcs is in novel order but we can’t do that now, big signs that say look at Gaen plot will probably be successionally happening bc of this. So I think getting it in early has its merits esp if they’re going with buildup)

[deathofherreputation]

I tried to send a friend of mine the taychappell pics because I love Taylor and she loves Chappell and the first thing she sent back to me was a snarky-ass "chappell looks so uninterested" followed by a bunch of laugh emojis and I'm just.....am I thin-skinned or is that an obnoxious thing to say lmfao

[fellhellion]

looking up video essays analysing the queer themes of persona 4 has been such an Experience. You will ping pong between white men condescending to u that there’s absolutely no way to read queer subtext (LET ALONE TEXT!) and tiny channels made by queer fans passionately explaining their readings of this game.

[laurelwinchester]

okay so after watching countdown and reading all the criticism i've come to the conclusion that people these days are not only boring as fuck but depressing as all hell. i knew this already but goddamn. why are so many people so eager to view fun as worthless?

[thorniest-rose]

find it really fascinating that modern shows about queer characters and queer desire & romance are all very sweet and twee and funny (Heartstopper, Good Omens, OFMD, also that Red, White & Royal Blue movie)... where are the shows about queer desire that are violent and messy and hard-hitting? I want stories where queer desire is something carnal and complicated,,, these other examples all feel so safe and antiseptic.

[maliro-t]

i'm pretty sure it was some josh sawyer interview i watched ages ago where he said something about knowing that pentiment 'isn't for everyone' and talked about that framing in general since it's such a niche project, and he was like, well yeah, it's not for everyone. neither is call of duty.

and it truly gave me so much peace lol. like ohhhh. yeah. 'objective' media assessment is nothing to me

[cassatine]

torn between dev patel as a 1300s shepherd doing a revenge run against mercenary knights sounds rad and wow i sure wonder why individual revenge quest films outnumber peasant uprisings movies

[tavtime]

headcanoning monogamous characters as polyamorous is free, fun, and easy to do! additionally, it is always both cool and sexy 😎

[vaniliens]

Oh yeah i watched another video defending ft again last night . i have remembered my roots 🫡 Not like i ever lost it but ive gained a deeper perspective....