Do you have any thoughts on what Henry would think if he heard about Ronan's ecoterrorism spree/Declan's everything while on the sarchengsey road trip
i have MANY thoughts on this since i think about it a lot, but every time i start i get really angry because it genuinely is absurd to not have updates from the Human Battery, Very Involved Magic Black Market Participant, and Resurrected Dream Forest during the course of TD3. so i'll divide my thoughts into what i want and what is likely. i realise in hindsight that i answered thoughts AFTER he returns but, same diff (i do think he/everyone else HAS to be super unconnected and iphone-less during the road trip, just to keep up my sanity).
i want Henry to be absolutely furious at best, disgusted at worst. i think declan's thing is more reasonable for him to be upset at, both because of their family's connection at the markets and also because hey dude what the hell how did you not receive a single consequence from shooting up an entire ecosystem of allegorical gang violence?! white privilege at its finest. but i also want him to rip ronan a new one because like. you've seen this guy's father and brother go to insane lengths to keep him safe and he's just being so unbelievably stupid and also undoubtedly harming so many innocent workers/individuals in such a strange campaign its like duuuuude. why not patent an oil-eating amoeba to combat pollution instead of continuing to do the hardest and most useless route. again, in my head I think Henry being resentful/hateful toward Dreamers + admitting aloud that it's a shame i wasn't here to aid the moderators adds something VERY VERY interesting to the dynamics at play because of how one-degree-of-separation he is to several dreamers, esp considering bc he'd still be civil despite it. but yeah declan gets scolded like a child and ronan gets the worst stinkeye on the planet and declan has to just pay off niall's debt in pure cash now, which, good luck!
what is more likely to happen with Henry's thoughts IF margie ever writes it: Absolutely Nothing. at best he's going to have a 3 second passing thought about how "edgy" and "cool" ronan was for "sticking it to the man" (henry is The Man, fiscally speaking, margie has forgotten that ronan is also a millionaire somehow) . with declan henry probably says "i heard! that's so fire and caucasian of you, mister lynch. skibidi!" and then they never talk about it again
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babe, i know that it's your soul (could you bottle it up?)
Five times Van and Tai hooked up without talking about it (and one time they actually used their words).
T, 10.3k words
The ease with which it begins is startling. The ease with which anything begins when you’re sixteen tends to feel that way. One day, it hasn’t even crossed your mind; the next, you’re waist-deep, swimming further out with every passing moment.
The team is lounging around the Taylors’ backyard, an early summer slumber party fully in swing. Natalie has produced an empty bottle—just Pepsi, though already she itches to add liquor whenever possible—and is flailing it around like a swashbuckler. Bopping people over the head. Laughing uproariously at her own jackassery. The usual.
“That is not what a bottle is for,” Laura Lee complains after her requisite bonking. Her blonde hair is static-kissed, drifting up off the crown of her head. Van reaches over to clumsily pat it back into place.
“Yeah,” teases Jackie. “I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to spin it, slacker.”
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i fear that i don’t acknowledge enough the fact that i KNOW rhinedottir's evil !!! and she's horrible !!! and that she's wholly ireedamable !!! i know and love and respect that fact !!! i'd shoot myself in the frontal lobe if hoyo made her out to NOT be wholly evil !!!! but the reason i always go on and on and on about her humanity and complexity is because. SHE IS ALWAYS DUMBED DOWN !!!! TO JUST THAT !!!!
it's literally the greatest and most moving theme (IN MY OPINION!!!) in genshin, that human beings are COMPLEX !!!! and they're MORE than just evil or bad or wtv. we see this through every character to almost ever be introduced to us
-> literally just take arlecchino as an example. if anyone was at all paying attention to the discourse around her when the fontaine teaser dropped (and. 4.0 in general) it was the BIGGEST thing to watch people argue between "she's a harbinger, so she's clearly the most evil and the big antagonist of fontaine because of these accounts we have right now !!" versus the argument of "we've only seen ONE perspective of her so far, and it's no duh that all this stuff sucks -- but there's no way she's JUST gonna be all these horrible things,, because literally nobody to exist is just horrible and cruel with zero to no good in them. and also that'd make a shit narrative by hoyo in a story driven game" AND LOOK WHAT HAPPENED !!!! we saw !!! in REAL time !!! that while arlecchino was rightfully cruel and horrible and, yes the things she did were fucked up beyond belief and she should absolutely not be excused for any of it - she is NOT just evil ! she's shown to care, albeit in a fucked up way that only shows she's even more deranged ; but what's so incredibly important about her is the way that her being "evil" doesn't mean she's incapable of anything else. She is evil, yes— but so many of those evil actions have *motives* and *reasons* that explain them (but not excuse or condone!) and, although they don’t save her grace or anything of the sort, they DO show her true character. AND YHATS SO IMPORTANT!!!! She’s capable of being an antagonist while still being justified in some form, and given nuance and backstory and redeemable traits
I am !!! NEVER !!! going to say rhinedottir is a good person. she isn't! no shit sherlock ! how the fuck do you think im gonna go on and ignore the fact she sent both her kids to their deaths, and also fed one to another. dare i say, that is NOT anything good !!! suprise of the century !! woah !!! -- but what i AM gonna say is that she's much beyond that? hello !!
not only has the point of her having not a zero good trait or will in her body been. proven false over and over and over again. but it's such ! Sad and not compelling is character choice for her *not* to be nuanced and complex and justified in a fucked up !! — like do you REALLY think hoyoverse (who is clearly capable of, and likes to make) complex characters, who are horrible, while not being *only* those horrible things, would pass up a golden (haha) opportunity to make a characters whose entire existence is JUST that??!,!2????
believe what you want! Do what you want! This is a silly video game that will be eroded along with time in a hundred in so years ! But god so help me, please don’t be willfully ignorant to the complexity and nuance of characters, just because you want a villain. No villain , real or not, is entirely evil. People are complex and multi faceted and people really, really need to hop off this cart of going “okay but stop saying she’s multifaceted because it takes away from her being evil” because it DOESNT! If anything, it makes her so much more compelling . Which is something some people can apparently. Not handle.
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People saying that those who think The Stranger has a point are dumb women who only can think with their sex drives just make me want to make a shit ton of thirst content defending him just out of spite.
Like, my actual view is that he's a super interesting character and we haven't seen enough of his philosophy/reasoning/full actions enough for me to have come to a decision about whether one might call him 'justified' or not. I think it's very purposeful that we HAVEN'T been given all that info about him, we've just been left to sit with our preconceived notions about what he MIGHT believe and I'm more than willing to ride this train to the end to see what the narrative is going for.
But just to spite what feels like super misogynistic takes about dumb women just forgiving a guy (for fighting back against an oppressor?) because he's hot, and we're just dumb dumb dummies who are so stupid and can't think critically about media at all, we just see pretty man and go googly eyes and ignore (imagined) sins of the character that apparently only the smarty smarts can see, I do kinda want to just go whole hog on "The Stranger has done nothing wrong, will do nothing wrong, and I'm going to woobify the shit out of him".
Even the comments trying to keep in the misogynistic takes' good graces by saying 'Look, we know he's evil! We're just having goof-ums!!' are a bit annoying because....it's again not showing a lot of openness to storytelling that doesn't follow the 'norms' or the 'tropes' you expect to see.
Genuinely, (as of episode 6), I don't think we've been shown enough about The Stranger to be able to decide if he's a justified dissenter of the Jedi Order or if he's against the order for more nefarious reasons - and I think that was purposeful on the part of the writers! Maybe he is a sith who wants to subjugate the galaxy!! Maybe!! But maybe he's not! The point is, we don't know yet and just because he wears black and is a bad ass who killed your faves doesn't mean you know everything there is to know about the character! Might I point you in the direction of Cassian Andor and Luthen as examples of ppl who kill not-always-evil ppl but we don't label them evil or fascists!
But red lightsaber always means evil, right? That's good media literacy, right?!?!
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Kris & Anthy - The Violence of the 4th Wall
A big thing for both Deltarune and Utena is a light-hearted simplistic 'Episode' (Chapter) structure, in which an adventure happens within the confines of the narrative. Throughout the events of the 'Episode', Kris & Anthy's behavior is highly regulated & controlled.
(Not without flashes of personality and fun, but they lack enough autonomy that 1) others' illusions of them cannot be shut down, 2) they cannot pull away from coercive/abusive situations.)
The 'inside' of the Episodic structure is symbolized by either the school-in-daylight or the surrealistic 'otherworld' - the 'outside' of the Episodic structure is symbolized by nightime and the presence of the credits. The 'inside', while oppressive, is 'safe': Kris & Anthy are accompanied by friends, and most, if not all, violence is confined to the 'Game'.
Of course, the structure necessitates that Kris & Anthy venture outside of its confines; the Episode, by its very name, is episodic, and can only last for bursts of time. What happens next is outside our ability to analyze: we only get hints at what is happening, we viewers are tied to the 4th wall.
We know this: 1) Kris & Anthy set up the preparations needed for the next episode, behaving erratically but with purpose (we've seen how the coincidences line up), 2) Kris & Anthy face a ritualistic amount of violence outside the scope of the Episode - with Kris painfully ripping away their soul, and with Anthy having to come back to her abusive (bigger, older) brother.
It is this violence from 'outside' the Episode that characterizes both Kris & Anthy - dissociation from their bodies and the people around them - they have minimal ability to participate throughout the Episode, as the conflicts and quirks are mostly driven by everyone (untouched) around them.
In both Deltarune and Utena, the presence of the 4th wall is strongly associated with the influence of a pivotal character. In Utena, this is Akio, Anthy's brother, whose gaze/beliefs shapes the 4th wall, who tries to maintain in stasis the prince-princess myth; In Deltarune, this is *Us, for whom the 4th Wall and the Episodic Structure contain and maintain, to seemingly line up with the existence of the Angel (whatever that means).
To Kris & Anthy, and their journeys of staying true to themselves while surviving, the scrutiny of the 4th wall is an obstacle in its own right.
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