You do get the sense that the fallout of Roger's death and the Roger pirates disbanding not so much traumatized Buggy and Shanks indifferent ways but instead generated such drastically different reactions to the trauma.
While the trauma of everything seemed to push Shanks into the future, always constantly waiting for something, putting plans on hold and then later in place, for this great moment, this great coming that he sees on the Horizon. For Buggy it rooted him firmly in the past keeping him trapped in this grief masquerading as anger.
While Roger's death forced Shanks to grow up fast, it kind of arrested Buggy's development keeping him stuck in those same feelings, rooted int that same place.
You get the sense that Buggy's whole east blue schtick is just one long overdue rebellious phase one big fuck you to Roger and his ideals. He's rebelling against Roger's principles. One of their rules was don't steal from innocent people and Buggy was keeping a whole town in poverty. If Roger and Luffy's pirating styles are diametrically opposed to someone like Blackbeard, who might be the most literal pirate in the entire series, then buggy is the parody of that Blackbeard piratism. He is playing up cruelty, being the most piratey pirate possible, hell he's literally a clown on a stage. It's all a show! It's his own special way of trying to "get back at Roger" of trying to discard everything Roger taught him for this overacted, over exaggerated clownish cruelty. Mentally he never left that execution square. He is still 15, alone and scared.
Hell he literally never left either, while I'm pretty sure Shanks' booked it out of the east blue as fast as he could, Buggy never lef, might have never left, if not for Luffy. It's part of why Luffy bothers him so much, he's just like Roger everything that Buggy is trying hard to forget and here comes this kid, whose never even met the Captain but is wearing his hat, shoving it right back in his face.
It makes sense that he never leaves the east blue till Luffy literally forces him out of it (fucking with Luffy gets him captured and imprisoned) and it makes sense that it's Luffy that literally breaks him out of prison, literally sets him free, and on the path to greatness that maybe he was always meant to achieve (even if he trips his way into it). This boy that is tragically so much like his old captain but so beautifully unabashedly himself, is what Buggy needs to start letting go off the past, to start trying to move forward.
Maybe that's why Buggy, at what could arguably be described as his lowest moment, gets the strength to free himself from his own self imprisonment, realizing that even back then he was locking himself away and pinning his own dreams on Shanks. And, maybe for the first time ever, Buggy really own his dream. He declares to his tormentors and his crew and the entire world that; actually He wants to find the one piece, him, as captain of his own crew, this crew, not just a part of someone else's. That's his dream and he's willing to turn the world upside down to do it.
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i was having a chuckle to myself last night about Gristol, and how his plans are basically:
Restore Ford Cruller's memory
Find Maligula
???
Profit
but then... of course they are, right? this is Gristol we're talking about. Fatherland Follies drives home again and again that he's still operating on a child's logic, a warped and reductive version of the world that he never bothered to grow out of. both of his memory vaults center on the images of his childhood, this idealized version of the past that he clings to no matter what. and that's still how he remembers Maligula, too - as this saviour figure, who rushes in to help him when he's in trouble.
[ID: Two slides from Gristol's memory vault, Glory to Grulovia! Left: Gristol clings to Maligula's back as she summons waves to sweep away his assailants. Right: Gristol and Maligula waving from a balcony as the people cheer. Gzar Theodore brandishes a dagger in the background.]
like so much else, Maligula represents a return to this idyllic childhood - to the peace and simplicity of his youth, when he was free from worries and responsibilities. in his mind, he doesn't need to make any further plans - once Maligula's back, everything will go back to normal. Maligula will make everything better.
...is what i thought, but then i remembered this line:
[Screenshot source. ID: Gristol, in Truman's body, bows on his hands and knees in front of the newly-awaked Maligula. The caption reads: "Yes, High Priestess! I am here to correct the mistakes made by my father!"]
and that's kind of interesting, right?
to be clear: this happens directly after Maligula sees Helmut-in-Gristol's-body, and recognises him. her line before this is:
"Little Gzesaravich! Have you come to pay for your father's sins?"
my first thought was that Gristol hadn't expected to still be in Truman's body by the time he managed to find Maligula, and this was him trying to placate her and buy some time until he could explain the situation. but watching the cutscene back, that's clearly not what's happening here. Gristol is answering as himself, and his response of throwing himself to his knees before her is, as far as i can tell, genuine.
so what is going on here?
in Fatherland Follies, there's this line in the ride narration that stuck out to me:
"Why didn't the Gzar help Maligula in her time of need? No one knows, but historians agree - it is Gzar Theodore's biggest failure."
other lines mention Gzar Theodore's "mistake", and it's wording Gristol himself echoes in the screencap above. evidently, he believes that his father abandoned Maligula, leaving her to her fate at the hands of the Psychonauts, and it was that mistake that lead to them being driven out of the country - that mistake which he seeks to correct. maybe he even feels like he has a debt to repay to her for his family turning their backs on her all those years ago.
the 'High Priestess' thing, though - that's kinda weird, and threw me for a loop the first time i played the game. it took me until my second playthrough to connect the dots, and remember how the room in the Lady Luctopus - Gristol's room - was full of Delugionist scribblings and symbols.
[Screenshot source. ID: left, the walls of the hidden backroom in Gristol's hotel suite, covered in scrawlings of eyeballs and Maligula's name. Right, the pinboard from the hidden backroom. On its surface are photographs and newspaper clippings connected by pieces of string.]
i mean, look at this stuff! he had a whole conspiracy board and everything!
we learn very little about the Delugionists and their beliefs as a whole during the game, but i think drawing the connection here suggests two important things. one: that Gristol was in deep with this stuff. i don't know how he linked up with them - maybe via old family connections, or just good old-fashioned digging (we know he's skilled at worming his way into peoples' good graces, after all) - but it seems likely that he's begun to internalise their ideas, maybe even warping his own memories of events. and two: the Delugionists themselves are, if you'll pardon the pun, pretty far off the deep end.
like... i understand why PN2 didn't go heavy on the "mass-murderer cult worship" aspect of things, in the end, but man this is such a tantalising glimpse into the wider mythos around Maligula. Gristol is proud and haughty and thinks himself above everyone else; the fact that his first reaction seeing Maligula is to throw himself to the ground at her feet says so much about the way he's come to see her. he's not just trying to bring back Maligula, his childhood bodyguard. he's trying to bring back Maligula, the High Priestess of the deluge, the semi-mythical figure whose supporters believe even death couldn't stop. he doesn't even flinch at the way she confronts him, and maybe it's because he's bought in so completely to this deified figurehead, this idea of Maligula; more a living force of nature than a person. and it all comes back to the same place: an abdication of responsibility, not just to the person who protected him when he was little but to this avatar of floods and destruction. Maligula will make everything better.
i'd write more about my thoughts on the Delugionists but that'd be taking a hard turn into speculation, and this is already kind of long and rambling so i'd better end it here. but what an unexpected and evocative line, right? it's some of the only stuff we have to go off of regarding the Delugionists as a whole, but i think it does such a good job of hinting at the wider story - at teasing another layer to the mythos surrounding Maligula, one whose ripples we see throughout the game but which never quite breaches the surface.
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Today's thing I'm turning over in my brain: resisting the urge to go "this person whose insights I respect does this thing x way so if I do it y way I'm Wrong and Bad" because like. That's not true? At all? Obviously there are limits but the limit is, like, being a folkist, not conceptualizing incredibly individual aspects of worship in slightly different ways.
Offerings, for example. I tend to offer steam in place of burning offerings for meals because I don't have a good way to burn food at the moment and it feels wasteful. If applicable, I'll also set aside what seems to be the best portion and eat it last in recognition of the offering. This is because I:
1) have makeshift altar spaces atm that don't leave much space for more involved meal offerings
2) conceptualize food offerings to ouranic deities as something you share in thanks (even w/ libations, you drink what you don't pour out). Offering the steam (analogous to smoke imo) and eating the meal/drinking the beverage is in that category to me. It's also a way to actively remember the gods, because I'm consciously leaving a portion for last, have dedicated something I can physically see, etc.
3) live in a house that bugs get into easily and have no intention of drawing the little fuckers towards my room or altar spaces b/c I left too much food out for too long. This is also why I eat unwrapped food offerings after a certain point (usually the end of the day) on top of wanting to avoid waste.
On top of that, any sort of prayer or offering takes effort because everything takes conscious effort for me. Regardless of whether it's a food or meal offering, or a libation, or a devotional/dedicatory activity, I'm not only managing to actively remember it and the gods but am also taking the requisite time and energy to complete it.
Engaging with the Hellenic community has really helped me stretch my "doing things differently is okay" muscles which has been nice. Call that character development lol
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Wish we could turn back time to when things were still okay.
Wish Techno was still here, and I wish Wilbur wasn't a shitty person.
I miss when there were four SBI. Permanently stuck at 2/4 now.
I'd rather say 2/3, actually. Wilbur doesn't deserve to be there.
Fuck Wilbur. I hope nothing else falls apart, I may not watch this side of mcyt anymore, but every time something happens, another piece of my inner child dies.
Condolences to everyone who grieves for Techno, to everyone that Wilbur hurt, and to everyone who feels like their world is crumbling because of all of this.
I miss when the dsmp was my comfort space. Sometimes, I wish I never got into the dsmp at all because of how all the recent incidents have affected me, but I ultimately don't think I regret it. The good memories are now tainted by bad, but that doesn't mean there's no good to be found. You're allowed to feel sad that it's over and a big mess now, but remember to be happy for the good it gave you then. Not all is bad, and you are not alone. I hope everyone, no matter who they are, remembers that.
You're allowed to feel sad about missing Wilbur, but remember that the person you are missing is who you thought he was, not really him. Wilbur Soot was a facade, and behind it was William Gold, who is a horrible person. This isn't about him, though. It is about Shelby and everyone else that he hurt and manipulated. To all of his ex-friends and family. He won't truly apologize for what he did, but I'm sorry he did it. I'm sorry for supporting a liar, I hope to never make that mistake again, but you can never know anymore who's real. I'm sorry that I still hear his songs in my head, I wish I could hear something else.
I still don't really know what to do with myself, and that's okay. I need to remember that one day I will. This isn't the end, and this is ultimately an enlightenment. I'd rather know about it than not, even if it makes me feel gross. This is only the end for Wilbur, which makes me glad. It's also a new beginning for everyone he hurt. It doesn't feel okay now, but recovery doesn't start off good, nor is it linear. It may not be okay right now, and it will never always be okay, but it will be okay again one day. I'm not ready to let go yet, but I will anyway, because that's the first step to learning to be okay. I'm sorry to Shubble, and everyone he lied to, including his fans. None of them deserved that. The people that he built his career off of didn't deserve that.
I don't know how to end this. I don't know how I started this. I just need to put this somewhere, or I'm going to lose my mind. I know logically I shouldn't've been this attached to him, but that doesn't change the fact that I was and that it hurts. I don't know how to feel. I don't know what to do. All I know is fuck Wilbur and support Shelby and his other victims.
I hope you can have a good day/night despite all of this, but if not, that's okay. Remind yourself that you will have good days again. Just have to wait for them.
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