#ollie and li ling my sillies

[interstate35south]

back on my bullshit (it’s been an hour)

thought that’s been clanking around my brain for a bit abt how the open ended information in dislyte events has the POTENTIAL to be great plot points if treated with just an OUNCE more of consideration

like i think about the event stories all the time (shocker) and what really gets me is just a specific pair of examples of “open ended” going wrong and right

lone star. if i’m being real, half of why i like it so much is nostalgia BUT bias aside, i think lone star was overall a good event, if a little simple compared to later events (but no surprise there). the thing is though, there’s this missed opportunity for SUCH a good parallel in the last act. following her parents’ -and later ray’s- deaths, anita does not waste ANY time, she was up and “i need to find the bastard who did this and put him in the ground” which, while real and valid, garners the equally real and valid response of “no, you’re like eleven, take it down a notch” from ollie. the thing is, that’s EXACTLY what ollie did. there’s no confirmed timeline on gray dust and whatnot (more house ramses lore pretty please) but based on the timeline of the shadow decree forming and drew and laura at the union, it’s safe to assume ollie was like 11-17 ish when his dad was killed. my point being, he was young, he was a kid, he probably had the exact same conversation with drew that he has with anita, except he’s now on the other side of it. the entire point of lone star (as i understood it) was that there may be evil in the world, but that makes it all the more necessary to rely on others and let them rely on you. ollie immediately protesting anita holding the EXACT same mentality that he had should’ve been some kind of realization, however momentary, that just maybe, he was setting himself up to fail by isolating himself in his pursuit of leon. but no. they just kinda like. move on?? anyways i think the main reason anita didn’t become ollie is bc laura was there (go laura!)

anyways, truth unveiled. to this day one of my favorite events, definitely one of the ones that could’ve stood to be 4 or 5 chapters. one of the things i loved so much about it though was that it unintentionally recontextualized basically, why li ling is the way he is. he was a leash kid off the leash until he met yun chuan, who instilled in him the idea of strength and moral responsibility, pretty much changing the course of his life (to the person on here who said mateo is li ling if he never met yun chuan, know that never leaves my head). anyways, he’s learned these important truths of life and his responsibility to other people and literally as SOON as he goes off on his own, BAM yun chuan arrested (vine boom), killed in jail (vine boom). for a crime that?? no one seemed to tell him?? like no wonder he has no trust in authority, it was the justice system’s responsibility to uncover the truth, but instead, an innocent man died for a lie. it’s interesting though, that yun chuan’s guidance was still so influential that it manifested in a li ling with a strong moral code regardless of rules. anyways i am BEGGING on my knees for more information abt the li family and li xiao bc like li xiao advancing in society for the ten years following the incident and then intentionally impeding the investigation continued to reinforce li ling’s idea of authority and justice backed by strength instead of general regulation

teehee those are my thoughts