#one day I will make a post analyzing her speech patterns | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lady-charinette · 4 years

Text

Adrien Agreste =/= Sociopath - About Adrien Salt

I've seen a lot of posts going around about Adrien being a sociopath or the other (harasser, abuser...etc.)

What I find most of those posts lacking is looking at the big picture, or just zeroing in on certain moments of the show and even disregarding the context of those selected moments to unfairly rule judgement on a child (in canon) no less.

Definition of sociopath: A sociopath is a term used to describe someone who has antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). People with ASPD can’t understand others’ feelings. They’ll often break rules or make impulsive decisions without feeling guilty for the harm they cause.

People with ASPD may also use “mind games” to control friends, family members, co-workers, and even strangers. They may also be perceived as charismatic or charming.

We have to analyze the context and the surroundings Adrien is in.

Family, social life, relationships (platonic and romantic), personality, age, environment...etc.

Family:

We know Adrien has a father who is controlling, preferring to micro-manage every aspect of his son's life to continue to have a semblance of control at all times. We assume (heavily implied in the show), that his mother was kind, warm and emotional (whether that emotional is the "out-there" kind her twin sister has, it remains to be seen.)

According to a snippet from "Simon Says", Adrien also has "Quite a temper, you remind me of someone" according to Gabriel's own words, we can assume the "someone" is Emilie, Gabriel says this when Chat Noir refused to follow his orders and told him to basically "get off his high horse". In this context, anyone who defies Gabriel in such a way would either be branded as "disobedient" or to "have quite a temper".

According to Adrien himself in "Adrien's Double Life" (from Miraculous Secrets) he describes being Chat Noir as "...I can finally do whatever I want to do, say whatever comes to mind." He doesnt feel as restricted and controlled since that's the one aspect of his life his father has no knowledge of.

Social life:

Adrien has had no or very little interaction with peers.

Evidence: Chloe being his childhood friend. Felix commenting on Chloe's appearance in the video she sent for Adrien's birthday, saying "Chloe. Just as annoying as usual." suggests he knows her from before, maybe even as early on as their childhood days.

This makes Felix and Chloe the only kids, of spoiled and rich background, with whom Adrien interacted.

Felix is shown to be good at manipulating people and keeping up appearances (potentially connected to insecurities within the family? Not confirmed), Chloe is openly mean and bullies others (with underlying insecurities also connected to her parents).

The only positive adult (if Gorilla isn't as involved and Nathalie had been solely Gabriel's secretary and not Adrien's caretaker since there was Emilie) in Adrien's life would be his mother, who also fell into a coma during Adrien's formative years (and still during a time where he's figuring himself and his emotions out: puberty), leaving him with his father.

Moving on, even if the writer's sometimes may not always successfully show Adrien being awkward in social interactions, it doesnt mean they dont exist.

This interaction between him and Marinette, asking for her autograph, very formal in his question, awkward in posture:

He's picked up on some speech patterns from his frequent interactions with Nino ("dude", "Hey man." "Totally dude.") showing he's, like many people, mimicking his friend's behavior and speech to grow more favorably in their eyes.

The same pattern can be observed with Gabriel and Adrien: Adrien adopts his father's formal speech whenever talking to him, since that appeases him.

Adrien has had very limited friendly interactions with his peers, romantic interactions are basically non-existent. The scenes where Adrien is being chased by his fans, who obsessively adore him, cant be linked to Adrien experiencing healthy romantic contact (Lila doesn't count since she only uses Adrien to further her goals). Marinette doesn't count since Adrien's isn't even aware of her romantic feelings for him. (Again, difficulties picking up social cues due to only ever being homeschooled > limited social contact with peers)

So no, in my humble opinion, Adrien sometimes doesn't understand other people's feelings not because he's a sociopath, but because he's an awkward kid with very little experience about making friends and having healthy relationships with them.

Relationships:

Let's be direct here: Gabriel is an abusive as*hole.

If the writer's wanted to show Gabriel struggling or having remorse for his actions being Hawkmoth and putting his son through danger, well... They blew it. "Gorizilla" was a 5 second reaction of Hawkmoth showing concern after letting Adrien fall from a skyscraper. Applause. After that? Not much.

Nathalie: Adrien likes, she takes care of him, his schedule, was the one to convince Gabriel to let him attend public school. There are moments in the show where she softens up towards Adrien, but always carries that air of professionalism on her to (possibly, assumption) not grow too close. Gorilla is...Gorilla, but at least the man tries with his nonverbal support and affectionate grunts. Lol.

Gabriel: He loves his father. It's his parent, after all. However, Adrien's reactions to him are vastly different than to how he reacts when thinking of his mother. He shows signs of fear (tensing up, growing obedient...etc.), he excuses his father's excessive controlling tendencies to just be "he's just worried about me", "that's the way he always was", "father cares and protects me". Adrien shows to be frequently disappointed with Gabriel, one of the first scenes being that Gabriel couldn't attend parent's day at school, Adrien was talking on the phone alone in the school hallway. He was genuinely surprised by the blue scarf his father gifted him (not knowing it was Marinette), since all he used to get were pens (again, not even from Gabriel, but Nathalie). This is my assumption but: Adrien has previously begged his father to go outside more or attend public school, but this time it worked only because Nathalie managed to convince him.

Friends from school: Nino is his best friend, Adrien seems to be good friends with Alya too, basically everyone in class, with varying degrees of closeness. Chloe is a childhood friend whom Adrien is fond of but also grows exasperated with and corrects her behavior if she's too harsh.

Marinette: likes and respects her, but can't read her well or at least when he thinks he's got her figured out, she claims the opposite. Marinette has been sending mixed signals, on one hand even making Adrien believe (and fear) they weren't friends. "Chat Blanc" contrary to popular belief, showed that Adrien is delighted at the prospect of Marinette being Ladybug (he'd severe doubts when Chloe or anyone else was brought up as a possible option).

Kagami: likes her, respects her, admires her fencing skills, learned to have fun hanging out with her and playing as kids usually do since she also has a controlling parent and they both know some ways/tricks around their boundaries to sneak off and meet their friends. Adrien and Kagami have similarities in that respect, Gabriel pushing Adrien to be a model, Mrs. Tsurugi pushing Kagami to be a master fencer.

Lila: At first defended her, was friendly towards her since she was a new student from overseas he sympathized because surely it would be lonely? The new girl would need a friend who supported her through all this things that were new for him too. However, as soon as he caught wind of Lila's schemes, he changes his tune. He feels uncomfortable around her overstepping his boundaries, expresses anger when Lila accused Marinette of crimes she didn't commit and even makes a deal with her to not bother Marinette again (but use him instead, doing photoshoots together...etc.) to keep her safe.

Age:

A 14-15 year old, having lost his mother, the only positive, healthy relationship in his life. Surrounded by a controlling father, not much free time, many extracurricular activities and being a superhero alongside Ladybug.

Some of the signs of being a sociopath include: Breaking rules and being impulsive.... Didn't Ladybug do those too?

Breaking the rules: (since LB and Marinette are the same) stealing phones, sneaking into places where she shouldn't, using the miraculous for personal gain (latest example: getting Kagami away from Adrien), giving Adrien the snake miraculous due to personal preference instead of drawing logical conclusions. Sneaked into the Agreste mansion.

Impulsiveness: Marinette's daily fantasies (sharing a future life with Adrien and their hamster-who-must-not-be-named), when Lila's "precious family heirloom necklace" was "stolen", Marinette was quick to include her classmates in the list of potential perpetrators for it (without ill intent, but still..)

You know who the real potential sociopath in the show is?

Gabriel

Some of you might include Lila too (since she fits all the criteria for being a sociopath), but the key difference is: Lila is still just a kid.

We don't know much about her family life. Just that her mother is busy with work, we don't know where her father is, who her friends were/if she even had them. She might be lying and manipulating people to follow her own agenda, but she thrives in attention, when people notice and praise her. In some aspects, that could've been Adrien. With one neglectful parent, a missing parent, no friends (prior to going to school)...etc. There is also a lot we don't know about her.

167 notes · View notes

malachi-walker · 4 years

Text

Catra and the Performative Nature of Villainy and Abuse Survival

(Yeah, with a title like that you can tell I earned that English lit masters. -.-)

Ok, so I have a lot of She-ra meta bouncing around my skull I need to get to one day, but let’s start with the big one post s4: the psychological and symbolic implications that are made explicit in DT’s epic call out of Catra (please note that I specified “made explicit” not revealed, because a lot of the stuff I wanna talk about was already there if you knew where to look.)

1. Catra’s villainy is inherently performative.

Yeah, pretty obvious but I’m going somewhere with this. If you pay close attention to Catra throughout the series, her words (the stuff on the surface) and her underlying actions don’t match up. Not entirely. No tsundere jokes, please, because it ultimately leads back to a very common pattern among abuse victims and some very interesting implications for Catra herself.

Basically it’s not horribly uncommon for abuse victims, especially those in domestic or child abuse situations, to end up performing on multiple levels. Level one: performing for the abuser in the hopes that this will minimize or stop the abuse. (Check.) Level two: performing for loved ones so as not to either worry them or risk them leaving if the abuse becomes obvious.

Oh, double check.

And lastly, Level Three: the act of performing as a method of keeping people on the outside away from you, either out of fear of more pain or fear of further judgment, which is a huge bulk of what we see Catra spiralling through this entire series.

Like, I myself was a child abuse victim for the first twelve years of my life (I’m fine now after about a decade of therapy) and I operated on all these different levels; alternating between placating my abuser to avoid punishment or rebelling to take back some form of control, deflecting from my other loved ones so as not to worry them, and being absolutely resistant to outside forces coming in, because at that point I had so little control over my life that I was more comfortable with embracing the hell I knew as a way to give myself some measure of control and stability than have someone save me from that situation but take that control away from me. Fucked up, but true. Which brings me into my second point:

2. Words have no inherent value for Catra except as weapons.

Which again, makes perfect sense considering her upbringing. Unlike Adora, Catra never had the luxury of buying into the Horde propaganda. She knew they hurt innocent people because she’d already been enduring torture from the time she was a small child–as other people have pointed out before. Moreover, she grew up in an environment that treated words with varying levels of consistency, where Shadow Weaver can praise Adora for doing one thing and then mercilessly put down Catra for doing the exact same thing equally.

This not only teaches someone about lying, this teaches someone that words are weapons, and Catra took that lesson and ran with it. Even when she and Adora were on good terms, she would still lightly drag her or put her down, but I don’t think it was from any inherent malice at that point. Good example: in episode one she’s perfectly content to mock Adora while she’s stuck in the pit, but immediately after she reached down and helped pull her out. “Actions speak louder than words” is an old clichè, but it’s super important to keep in mind when analyzing Catra’s character. Out of all the characters on Spop, she is the last one who can be analyzed from surface words alone, because so much of it is an act.

In fact, I can think of probably only one instance in which Catra did actually wholeheartedly believe in words…

Yeah, y'all know what I’m talking about.

And again, that makes perfect sense. Because Adora wasn’t just Catra’s best friend, she was explicitly her lifeline. Shadow Weaver’s exact words to little Catra were: “I’ve kept you around this long because Adora was fond of you. But if you ever do anything to jeopardize her future, I will dispose of you myself.” On top of that, the other cadets show clear signs of having sensed the blood in the water, so to speak: it’s an open secret to everyone but Adora that Shadow Weaver hates Catra’s guts, and therefore it stands to reason that in a cutthroat culture like the Horde’s, Catra was probably seen as easy prey until she learned to defend herself. Because it wasn’t like Shadow Weaver would do anything about it.

So Adora was the only person Catra could count on, but that also leads into the double edged aspect of words I’ve been talking about: Catra could let herself believe in their promise, but not enough to actually reveal to her what was going on. In the same way Shadow Weaver lightens up on the abuse when Adora’s around (just compare her use of lightning on Catra in Promise vs the Sword pt 2–the former is very subdued and looks almost like a simple hold, while the latter makes it very obvious this is painful torture) Catra deflects away from the subject around Adora, and the few times she does approach it “Why does she hate me so much” she tends not to get the reassurance she wants because Adora isn’t as clued in on the situation.

I mean, it’s pretty telling that Catra’s first leap off the slippery slope after being more of a nuisance than anything else up to that point came after Light Hope deliberately pushed her buttons by basically taunting her with the one thing that Catra had ever allowed herself to believe in.

I mean, her younger self looks at her as if to drive in the point of “you were a fool to believe in it!” After what we found out in S4, you cannot make me believe that wasn’t Light Hope deliberately twisting the knife to make sure they didn’t reconcile. And immediately after Catra pitches Adora off a cliff. Good times.

Ok, that was a big fucking lead in to my main point, but here we are:

3. Pretty much everything Catra says from that point onward is an act.

And it’s an obvious one, all things considered. Because that’s when Catra gets vicious. That’s when all her verbal barbs start cutting deep. That’s when combat between her and Adora goes from almost playful to outright brutal. And that’s when we start seeing Catra using her words as weapons against herself in addition to everyone else.

Because that’s the point when Catra starts feeding into her constructed persona of being this smug, confident, in-control villain who most definitely isn’t capable of being hurt like that ever again, no siree. We get to see several times across s4 in particular where her feelings clearly aren’t in line with her actions, and what does she do? She forces herself to say something cruel or hard-hearted as a way to essentially drag her actions and internal feelings back into line with that constructed person. Good example is the locker room scene with the Horde Trio: Catra very clearly wants to reach out to them and experience a little of their camaraderie, but she forces herself back into “I’m the boss” mode. And when it’s misinterpreted as her simply being a bitch, she goes into a rage because it’s one thing for her to want to reach out and deny herself that, but another for someone else to try to force their way in.

And all of this ties back into my main point, and why I think DT’s speech is particularly brilliant from a symbolic and psychological standpoint.

Actor vs Actor: Fight!

I’ve already established that Catra is somebody who is a performer and has been all her life in order to survive. That’s part of why Catra is such a tough nut to crack in terms of getting through to her: it’s hard to make accurate hits on someone who is putting on a persona. It’s damn near impossible to get a point through when you don’t have a clear idea of what you should be aiming at in the first place. So how do you beat a consummate actor?

You bring in a better performer.

Now, I do have my problems with DT’s speech: as others have pointed out, tossing Shadow Weaver and Hordak into the guilt trip is severely messed up and victim-blamey, though I do believe that has more to do with the fact that DT themself is not omniscient and therefore doesn’t have all the facts there (though given their sadistic streak, I’m also not sure they wouldn’t still cross that line even if they did know.)

But here’s what made that scene rock me to my fucking core: Catra almost pulled it off. Think about it: she has spent three seasons up until that point convincing her former friends, allies, boss and even the viewers–remember the post Portal moral panic–that she was this completely villainous monster. That she didn’t care, that she wasn’t worth saving, that everything she does is ultimately self-serving and terrible… Only for DT to see right through the disguise.

Adora couldn’t get through to Catra when she couldn’t even pinpoint the real problem. Scorpia couldn’t get through because by that point the defenses were fully up and Catra was going all in on her mask of villainy.

What finally got through? Being outclassed by a much better actor. By someone who is both a world class actor but also in touch enough with their own personality and wants that they don’t interfere with their own performance.

Because that’s the difference between DT and Catra: for Catra, acting the villain has been a matter of psychological survival up until that point. DT, meanwhile, acts for fun, work, and a certain level of sadistic pleasure. They have no moral dilemmas about what they do and thus they experience zero cognitive dissonance, whereas Catra may as well be the poster child. And it’s not too much of a stretch to think that once they figured out Catra’s deal, they probably found it quite amusing to completely demolish the act that had practically everyone else on the planet completely fooled.

That’s also part of the reason why Catra was so suicidal and lifeless after: the crutch she’d been using just to keep herself upright for four seasons just got yanked out from under her along with all chances of ever getting to double back down on that villainy again. Nowhere to go, and not even a mask to hide behind any more.

And honestly, I could keep talking on and on about just… The amazing amount of narrative complexity and precision and psychological depth that went into pulling this moment off. It’s amazing. But I’ve also spent like two and a half hours working on this post, so that’s that. If you read this far, get yourself a cookie or the snack of your choice. You earned it.

#spop #spop spoilers #catra #double trouble #spop meta #my meta #child abuse #and probably #ptsd #if we're being honest #abuse survival psychology

2K notes · View notes

tsukikento · 4 years

Text

Empathetic Ch. 4

Pairing: Bakugou Katsuki x Reader

Summary: After your mom, the number 1 hero in America, gets offered a teaching position at U.A., you two pack up your things and head to Musutafu, Japan to start a new life. Pressure for you in America was at an all-time high, and now you're in Japan, where almost no one knows you, or your family's past.

This tale starts on your first day of class where your new teacher decides the best way for you to fit in is to fight against the strongest person in your class: Bakugou Katsuki.

Warnings/Genre: This piece will feature some angst and reference to an abusive parent, if you are ever worried about other tw’s feel free to send me an ask and I will let you know. There will also be fluff, slight angst, pining, and slowburn

A/N: This is also posted on ao3 under @allie_win. I’m transferring it over here, pls let me know if you like it! I love your comments! Just a note that any italics means thoughts.

(series masterlist)

“You will divide into three groups of your choosing. Although you don’t always get to choose who you work with, I would like to see how you young students create your own best possible team.” All Might continued to explain.

A couple of students already grouped together. You saw Uraraka, Midoriya, and Iida smile at each other as if already thinking about possible strategies in their head.

“For this game, your team will have 10 minutes to hide your flag on your part of the city. We have played this game before with only two groups, but adding a third team will help create confusion and randomness to the game.”

You looked toward the large city, wondering how you would be able to navigate something so big. You didn’t see any street signs, which meant you had to purely go off of image memory.

“After 10 minutes, an alarm will ring, and the game will begin. If a team collects all three flags and hold them for over 10 minutes, then the game ends. If this class struggles to finish the challenge, we will end the game early and determine a winner based on the strategies and abilities used.” All Might finished his speech and smiled at the class again. “So, please arrange your teams.”

You gulped. There was no way people would want to team up with you. They already knew everyone and you were the outsider. Not only that, but your power was not very offensive and wasn’t the best option for a game like this. You stood there, watching as groups formed. Your heart raced, wondering what team would have to take you after everyone decided.

Iida, Midriya, and Uraraka were practically attached at the hip as they joined Tsu and Tokoyami. You also saw Sero, Kirishima, and Kaminari walk up to Bakugou as if the team was destined from the beginning. Jirou and Mineta followed Momo onto a team with Shouto.

Everyone was forming teams so quickly and you stood, sweating and anxious. A few people smiled kindly at you, but you couldn’t get your nerves up to actually walk over and join them. Ashido had joined with Kirishima and Toru was finding a team with Orjirou which meant you couldn’t even cling to them considering they were so willing to separate.

However, just as you were about to give up hope on actually being chosen, Mina smiled at you and waved you over. “Y/N! Over here!”

You found the courage to walk over to her, surprised she actually called you over.

When you arrived, Mina began talking to the boys again. “Like I was saying, with Y/N being able to hear our thoughts, she can help us communicate. Bakugou always runs off on his own, not talking to anyone, but with Y/N, Bakugou can run around all he wants without fear of screwing us over.”

You were surprised how technical she was, seeing as she had always been more cheerful and almost ditzy in everyday activities.

“On top of that, if Y/N were to go after a flag, she could make all the opposing people just fall asleep!” Ashido added, getting excited at the idea.

Kaminari, Sero, and Kirishima all smiled and nodded to each other, also getting excited at the idea.

You smiled down to your feet, happy that Ashido was able to add you to a group. You looked up to see Ashido grabbing Aoyama and the boys smiling at you.

“Nice to see you again,” Kirishima greeted.

“Yeah,” You mumbled back.

Kaminari was next to greet you. He grabbed his hand, “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Kaminari Denki,” Kaminari kissed your hand and winked at you.

“I know.”

Everyone looked at you as the words slipped through your mouth. So far, the only people who knew you watched the sports festival were Mina and Toru. You didn’t know why it made you so nervous to tell the group of men surrounding you. Maybe it’s because Sero and Kaminari did so badly during their sparring rounds. I don’t want to embarrass them.

“I saw you at the sports festival. It’s pretty popular in America,” You mumbled a response to the confused looks. “But it’s nice to meet you too, Kaminari-san.” You responded, taking back your hand that was still holding. You weren’t one to touch people often because it was hard not to get a glimpse into their emotions and it felt invasive when they didn’t know.

And you were right, he did get embarrassed knowing you saw his fight against that girl.

Finally, Sero greeted you. He smiled brightly and waved. “Hi, Y/L/N-kun, I’m Sero Hanta, but I guess you know that from my horrible fight against Todoroki.” Sero chuckled at himself and scratched the back of his head, similarly to Kirishima from that morning.

“Hi, Sero-san,” You replied. “And don’t feel bad, Todoroki is very strong.”

Behind the three boys was Bakugou, who looked at you briefly before turning his head away to look into the sky. He was analyzing the city, trying to memorize every turn and any possible pattern.

With Aoyama, your team made seven. So, you and Ashido walked over to All Might where he had orange, green, and blue armbands and headbands, made to differentiate between the teams. You carried the orange bands back to the team, everyone put on a headband and an armband onto their left arm.

Orange meant that you would be in section three. Tape outlined the three sectors, so it was easy to make your way to the sector. Once you arrived, your flag was front and center. It was orange and placed in a stand that you could move.

“I think we should put the flag on top of the highest building. That way no one can surprise the people guarding it.” Kaminari spoke. Sero and Aoyama nodded in agreement

“If we put it up high, it will be easier to see from the other sectors,” Kirishima responded, looking up to which building would be the tallest.

“Hmm, well, where else could we put it?” Kaminari responded.

“Can we move the flag as we go?” You asked, looking at the city around you.

“I guess so,” Ashido responded. “All Might had never said anything about not being able to move it once you place it.”

“I think we should have a couple of people guard the flag towards the back, keeping it low to grab the least attention. Like, literally lay it on the ground and don’t even keep the stand because it’s useless if we are mobile. If it gets too crowded, you can call me for reinforcements. While waiting for us, go up to the skies and I’ll make my way back with whoever I can,” You spoke, looking around to see where to hide it initially. “Back there would be good.” You pointed at a spot with a wall and two buildings surrounding it.

“I like that idea,” Sero responded.

“Me too,” Kaminari added.

“Let’s do it, then,” Ashido commented. “How should we split up?”

“I can guard,” Kirishima said.

“So can I,” Sero started. “I can set up traps to catch people.”

“Mineta might have the same idea, so we need to watch out for him,” Bakugou mumbled, finally joining the group. “Aoyama, you should stay with them, guarding. Kirishima can block, and Sero can trap people so we need someone more offensive to stay behind. The rest of us will go together.”

“Who should we target first? Midoriya, right?” Kirishima asked.

“Let me think,” Bakugou mumbled. “Who is with Deku and who is with Half-and-Half?”

"Midoriya, Uraraka, Iida, Tsu, Tokoyami, Kota, and Sato are on a team. Shouto, Momo, Jirou, Hagakure, Ojirou, Mineta, and Shoji are on the other,” Aoyama responded.

Bakugou gave a confused look to Aoyama.

“Deku is with big eyes, speedy, frog girl, dark shadow, rock head, and sugar rush. Todoroki is with tall girl, earphones, invisible girl, tail guy, purple weirdo, and arm guy,” Kirishima responded with a sigh.

“Ahh,” Bakugou mumbled as he thought.

“Does he seriously not know anyone’s names?” You whispered to Ashido.

“He still calls me Pinky because he thinks Ashido Mina is too hard to remember,” She responded, rolling her black eyes in his direction.

When Bakugou started speaking again, you looked back at the temperamental blond. “I think Midoriya’s team will be harder to beat, depending on who is guarding. I think we could outsmart most people on Shouto’s team that would guard. I want to fight Deku, but I think he is gonna be going after flags. And it might be easier to take the flag from Shouto first. After we have his flag, we are going to be a bigger target and will need more people guarding.” Bakugou wasn’t really going anywhere with his analysis and he was more talking to himself than anyone else, but it was all incredibly well thought out. Everyone paid attention to him, waiting to see if he would create the perfect plan.

“So, we attack the blue team first then? Because it’s easier?” You asked, tired of waiting for Bakugou to come to a conclusion. You only had so much time before the game would start and you would hate to not even have a plan made up.

“No,” Kirishima responded. “Shouto’s Blue Team will be easier to defeat. With fewer people to attack, we can still defeat them. We will need more people defending against our flags once we have Deku’s.”

“Exactly,” Bakugou added. “It doesn’t really matter anyway though. We are going to win regardless because we have someone as great as me.” He smirked towards his team.

You could almost hear the crickets echoing in response to Bakugou’s confidence. It seemed like everyone was used to Bakugou acting like this in games and completely ignored it.

“Okay! Sero and Aoyama, let’s go get set up,” Kirishima spoke, disregarding Bakgou’s ego. Kirishima grabbed the flag and walked toward where you had originally pointed.

You, Ashido, Kaminari, and Bakugou made your way towards the Green Sector. Bakugou flew up to fly across the buildings and get a better look. Ashido slid around, leaving slippery acid in her wake. You and Kaminari casually walked and chatted up a plan on how to split up as you made your way to the line. You pulled out your earbuds and placed them into a secure pocket on your belt.

You wished you could use your knives and swords, but tried to forget about it. You needed to learn how to only use your quirk anyways. The weapons helped, but they didn’t help you and your quirk get better. Maybe I should remove the sword from my costume and just keep the daggers and boots for now. That way I can’t just rely on it during my fights.

You four hung out around the barrier for a few minutes until the round started. Ashido and Kaminari chatted with each other while Bakugou perched himself onto a building to get a better look at the city. You kept to yourself during this time, instead of listening to Bakugou’s thoughts. You were sure he was going to run off as soon as the timer went off and knew you needed to listen to his thoughts to keep your team together.

Bakugou jumped down from the building and landed in front of you. Can you hear me? He asked you.

You nodded in response.

Honestly, you were shocked and trying your best not to look scared at his sudden appearance. You still weren’t over what happened a couple of days ago and it made you even more nervous than he seemed to not even remember, or maybe care.

Good. You need to trust me in this battle, okay? You can’t talk back to me if we are far away so I may just need you to do as I say.

“What if your plan isn’t good?” You responded. Bakugou may make you nervous, but you still wanted to win.

“Hey! Shut up, idiot! Of course, I’m going to have a good plan!” Bakugou glared at you. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair as he saw your skeptical face. “I want to win just as much as you. If not more. I’m not going to sabotage us.”

“Fine, but I’m not just going to blindly trust you. Don’t run off too far, okay?” You responded.

Bakugou didn’t respond, he just grunted at you, turned away and used his explosions to push himself back up the building.

When the buzzer went off, Bakugou and Mina pushed ahead, going in opposite directions to look for the Green Teams flag. They were much faster and could cover more ground than you and Kaminari who followed behind, running together. Once the flag was located, presumably by Ashido or Bakugou, they would tell you and you and Kaminari would follow them. Then you would use Kaminari to create a big enough reaction to attract whoever was missing.

You and Kaminari ran through the city, staying towards the middle to cover as much ground as possible. You looked down each street, trying your best to see anything that seemed off or weird.

The first thing you saw was Iida running down a few streets down towards the Blue Team’s sector. It was only for a second, but you knew it was him and you were relieved to know that they weren’t targeting your team. Unless they were splitting up.

You focused your mind to hear the thoughts of those close to you. Mina and Bakugou hadn’t seen anything yet. You heard Uraraka, Tsu, Koda, and Sato thinking about their flag and realized they must be guarding it. They have more guards than you guys set up. Worst of all, you didn’t know that much about anyone’s quirks, excluding Uraraka who you saw fight in the sports festival.

“Kaminari, I think the flag is in the sky. Uraraka is guarding it, she probably put it all the way in the sky. Even if we find them, we might not be able to find the flag,” You spoke, regulating your breath while running through the streets.

“You serious? You could at least use your quirk to hear their thoughts if they think about where they put it.” Kaminari responded.

“Yeah, hopefully.” You both went silent again. You tried to focus harder to hear others' thoughts. Your suspicions about Midoriya’s team targeting Shouto’s team first were right. You heard them thinking about how to beat certain people on the Blue Team. However, something that confused you was when you heard Ojirou.

Ojirou was on the Blue Team, but your radar of thoughts only went to the Green Sector and Kirishima in the Orange Sector. That meant that Shouto’s team was also going for Midoriya’s team.

Shit. You really wished you could share your own thoughts with others.

“The Blue Team is also targeting the Green Team,” You told Kaminari. He looked towards you and nodded, noticeably more panicked than before.

“Can you tell who from the Blue Team is here?” He asked you.

“Gimme a second,” You mumbled, concentrating on distinguishing all the voices you were hearing. Although the voices flowed naturally into your mind, it was more work to keep certain voices out, create ranges, and distinguish voices when you couldn’t currently see them. “It’s Ojirou, Hagakure, Todoroki, and Shoji.”

“So they are probably going to use Ojirou and Hagakure’s quietness to try and sneak it away while Shoji’s and Todoroki’s power distracts everyone,” Kaminari responded.

Honestly, you were quite surprised by his analysis, especially considering he didn’t come across as very intelligent. Nevertheless, he knew these people better than you and probably learned their strategies from other Hero Course Days.

“I can use my hearing to locate Ojirou and Hagakure to take them out, but this fight may come down to just pure power,” You mumbled. Fear started coursing through your veins, worried that Todoroki’s power might take you out. He was so strong and his long-range attacks in the festival were faster than you could predict. Fighting him head-on might ruin you. You couldn’t get close to him at all. There wasn’t anyone else who could refrain from close combat.

Just then, a green blur hopped across the street a block down from you. Both you and Kaminari stopped in your tracks, worried that the green blur might attack.

Just as we predicted, ribbit. Both the Blue and Orange Teams are targeting us. It will be difficult to defeat two teams. I should go get Midoriya or Tokoyami.

You couldn’t let her get more people. No way. You needed the Green Team to be as weak as possible. “We have to stop her,” You told Kaminari. “Follow me.” You ran after her as fast as you could. She wasn’t too far, but she was faster than you. “Kaminari, can you electrocute her?” You asked, as you both rounded the corner and her green image came into view.

He nodded and sped up just slightly. “My aim isn’t as good when I’m moving, but maybe I can trap her .” Kaminari bent down and glided his hands across the ground as he continued to run towards Tsu.

Tsu was completely unaware that you and Kaminari were following behind her. She wasn’t even hopping as fast as she could, making it easy for you to catch up. Maybe this would actually work.

“Electro-Trap!” Kaminari shouted. Sparks of electricity traveled through the ground towards Tsu. Once they caught up to her, the sparks shot up and surrounded Tsu at all angles. Kaminari stopped moving at this point but kept his hands on the ground. He couldn’t stabilize the move and had to constantly be producing electricity in order to keep her trapped.

Tsu stopped hopping just before she would have run into the electricity and stopped. Uh-oh, Tsu thought as she watched the moving electricity that surrounded her. Maybe I could shoot my tongue out to him. No, he’ll probably shock me if I shoot my tongue out.

You walked towards Tsu and stood just far enough away that you could dodge an attack from her. Her thoughts rushed over all her possible moves. Alas, she knew the moves would be fruitless considering you knew exactly what she would do.

As Tsu contemplated her next move, you debated how to finish Tsu off. Eventually, you decided it would be best for you to put her to sleep and for Kaminari to shock her, ensuring she would stay asleep.

You turned your back to the girl encased in electricity to make you way back to Kaminari and tell him your plan. “Listen, I’m gonna get closer and make her shoot her tongue at me. If I can grab it, I can make her fall asleep. Once she is defenseless, you need to shock her so she passes out,” You whispered, kneeling close to Kaminari, so Tsu couldn’t hear you.

Kaminari nodded in response. You stood back up and made your way towards Tsu. You stayed as focused as you could, knowing she might take this opportunity to attack, and her actions could be fast enough to catch you off-guard.

Her tongue shot at you when you were 10 meters away. It was quick and you only had a chance to dodge before she had to retract her tongue in fear that the cage would shock her. You walked closer to her and she shot again just a few seconds later. This time, you grabbed her tongue, but it slipped from your hand just before you could get a strong hold.

She’s trying to grab my tongue, Tsu thought as she stared at you. Should I stop shooting it at her? No, I need to grab her, it’s the only way to get Kaminari to release his trap.

At that moment, you realized that your powers would still work if she grabbed you with her tongue. Just as before, her tongue shot at you and you let the slimy muscle grab you, smirking to yourself. She purposefully didn’t bring you into the cage, too afraid to shock you, but the cage’s power stuttered for a moment and you looked back at Kaminari.

Oh my god, what do I do? I need to help her!

You winked at Kaminari.

What? What was that? God, I should just trust her.

“Tsu-chan,” You looked back at the girl who finally looked you in the face. “Sleep.” Her grip on you immediately faltered and she let you go. You only had a moment to get over to her and make sure to keep her sleeping. “Drop the trap!” You yelled to Kaminari as you rushed over to her sleeping form. Just as her eyes opened, you grabbed onto her shoulder and made her sleep once again. You waited as Kaminari rushed to your side. “Can you shock her just enough to make her pass out?” You asked him.

“Uh, yeah, I can. But you can’t be holding her or else I will shock you too,” Kaminari responded.

“Okay, I’ll let go and you shock her right after. Then we should put her in one of the buildings just to make sure she doesn’t wake up to a battle going on around her,” You said. Kaminari nodded and you let go of Tsu.

Kaminari touched Tsu and sent a shock through her body. She shook for a moment but then stilled. When Kaminari let go, you grabbed Tsu’s wrist and checked her pulse. It was slow, and she was already sleeping soundly. You motioned to Kaminari to pick her up by her feet. Right before you were going to pick up the small girl, a sound shocked you.

Towards your right, you heard the echo of Bakugou’s thoughts ringing in your ear.

Y/L/N! Get over here! I need back up.

Just then, an explosion rang out from the same direction you heard Bakugou’s thoughts coming from. A wall of ice shot up into the air right after the explosion.

“We need to hurry and get over there,” You told Kaminari. You both grabbed Tsu and moved her into the closest building, setting her down gently on the floor. Without speaking, you both began running towards the sound of explosions.

Where the fuck are you? Todoroki’s team is here and they teamed up with Deku’s team against me. That’s some fucking bullshit!

“Kaminari,” You spoke, grabbing his attention. “Bakugou says the two other groups are teaming up against him. Are you ready to fight?”

“Yeah,” He responded. He smirked at you and you heard his excited thoughts run through his head as a few sparks flew from his palms.

Within your head, you focused as hard as you could to locate Mina. She had noticed the explosions but wasn’t heading that way.

Y/L/N-kun, I’m not sure if you can hear me right now, so I will keep repeating myself. I found Uraraka and the flag. I’m sure Bakugou is in a fight right now. I don’t need help so just help him and I will let you know when I have the flag.

You stopped running just before you would have run into the battle. Your head hurt immensely after locating Mina. You never spent this much time focusing on using your telepathy to locate people and exclusively listen to only a few. Kaminari, who was trailing behind you, stopped next to you and looked at you with a questioning appearance.

You took a deep breath in and ignored the ache of your head. You moved in close to him, worried someone might hear, “Ashido found the flag, and she is nowhere near us. She just has to beat Uraraka.”

“What? That's amazing. Should we go kick some ass then?” Kaminari responded.

“Yeah,” You breathed out. Your tenfold emotions rushed through your body, tiredness, and excitement battling against each other. You tried to use the excitement to push you farther as you started running again, ready to face anything in your way. Your headache was no longer something you needed to focus on, this battle was more important.

You turned the corner to be greeted by the scene of an ice wall being exploded through only for the person exploding through the wall, Bakugou, to be greeted with a punch to the face.

He looked beat up.

Very beat up.

His hair was messier than usual and he had scratches littered across his body.

Most obvious though was the fact that some of his clothes were burned away. The sides of his pants were no longer there, something that probably happened when he used his explosions to fly up. His jacket was completely gone and there were burn marks that trailed from his wrist to shoulder. Most likely given to him by Todoroki.

He looked horrible.

And yet what you found most noticeable was the sweat dripping down the curves of his muscles. He was still standing even after being pounded on by multiple people. If anything, his thoughts showed you that he was more awake and more determined than ever.

That was something anyone could find incredibly attractive.

Goddamn . This guy is gonna be the end of me.

You spent a moment admiring his muscles and the way the black tank top clung to his sweaty skin. He looked past the people attacking him to see you. He smirked and wiped some blood from his split lip.

Finally, he thought. You grinned back at him, ready to pounce on the competitors.

However, instead of fighting the other teams, you watched as Bakugou’s eyes widened. He started sprinting towards you.

Move, move! You heard him. “Move you, idiot!” He said aloud, but you didn’t have enough time to process his words.

Your headache came rushing back, you presumed from all the thoughts surrounding you. You quickly realized that the headache wasn’t because of your quirk when everything went black and your body was slammed against a concrete building.

#boku no hero academia #boku no hero headcanons #my hero academia #my hero academy #bakugou #bakugo #bakugou katsuki #bakugo katsuki #katsuki #bakugo x reader #bakugou x reader #katsuki x reader #bnha bakugou #bnha

151 notes · View notes

aspiestvmusings · 4 years

Text

ZEP: MY ISSUES WITH “ZOEY”

Here’s a new long analysis post for ZEP S1. This one is focused on Zoey, and the things that I have issues with...about the writing & the character:

Just me...dissecting & analyzing the storyline...with focus on Zoey & Team Max. But since the stories are so intertwined, there’s Zoey/dad & Zoey/Simon talk, too. Cause the so-called “love triangle” [the relationships between those three characters that they try to market as a love triangle] is one of my issues with the show.

WARNING: Very long post & possibly full of unpopular opinions.

I HAVE ISSUES...WITH “ZOEY” (READ: WRITING & CONTINUITY...)

****************************************************

IMO Zoey is “unfair” with both men. She’s in such deep denial & even now that she’s learning empathy & be emotionally more available she’s still running from her feelings, cause she just doesn’t wanna deal with them (the truth). Every time when the three of them interact, she always claims that there’s nothing going on. She tells Simon that there’s nothing between her & Max, and they’re just friends. She tells Max that there’s nothing between her & Simon, and he’s just helping him with grief. She tries to belittle the other man’s part in her life.

****************************************************

She actually knows how she feels about both. She actually knows it all. (we’ve seen her reveal the truth to her mom & to Mo...in some scenes...so we know that what she tells the men is half-truths..at best) But she is doing everything in her power to deny it, and so she “denies” it also to the two men. But...in doing so she’s been unfair to both men, kinda leading them on. I understand that that’s done intentionally... and is supposed to be one of her “character flaws”. That she was (and still is) emotionally challenged, and the new superpower is here to help her learn empathy & make her understand others (and her own) emotions. But while I know what the intent of the writers is... I get a bit of different impression from the actual storyline...as I watch it. Cause...there is some “inconsistency” here.

****************************************************

I did not get “Zoey sees Max in a new light, cause unlike Simon, who is stuck in the past, he’s now looking into future, and she needs that kind of “positivity” right now”. Instead I got the feeling that she’s not into him and how he’s become more confident and has a new outlook on life (all started with those peer reviews...), but his position of power. That she’s into the fact that he’s the boss. Cause she’s been fighting against “the universe” this whole time (however many days/months the events between the MRI & the Bad Moon Rising...took in their universe). And suddenly... (and it doesn’t feel like it’s cause she’s started to see the powers as something positive, or because she is accepting her loss, or dealing with her grief...it just feels like she’s being “superficial”) she finds him attractive.

****************************************************

I mean... in 1x05, when she sees Max shirtless, she can’t stop staring. She wants that body. Then in 1x06, when Max goes after what he wants [this all started with the peer reviews] - the scooter, she finds that ”action” hot. Same in the finale, when he says he enjoyed being the boss, she finds him attractive. Drawn to “power figure, manly man stereotype”. It’s like Zoeys “Button’s moment”. She seems to lean toards the man, who shows...at the time...”confidence” & muscles.

****************************************************

The other thing that makes her lean towards one of them is...”we’re just friends”. She wants what she can’t have. She wants more than the other person wants/offers. She starts really going after Simon..strong (obsessing over him) when he stays true to it not being ok to be more than friends, cause he’s engaged. After Simon says they should stay friends, she does not like that, and complains (to Mo) that the man doesn’t want to be more than friends. And she goes after him... to the point where she tries to hook up with him. Then when she & Max make up, and agree to start a fresh... and Max is all for friendship, she suddenly wants more, and goes after him... tries to hook up with him. When one of the two says that they should just be friends, she suddenly starts finding them irresistible & wanting more. That’s another sttange (planned or accidental) thing I noticed about S1...

****************************************************

There is a very clear pattern in her behaviour throughout the season. And these are just a few of the “parallels” & patterns. And while very “human” & “real”, and “believable”...from someone grieving, emotionally challenged & “a mess”, none of this is “healthy behaviour”, or anything she should remain stuck in. Which is why they need to let it go... let the “triangle drama” rest.

****************************************************

And I’ve kinda started questioning if the girl is just frustrated, and perhaps she just needs some, cause this time she came onto Max (who was all in for the “let’s be just friends for now” thing movie nights and stuff...), and she REALLY could not wait... no more...for him to finish the singing... It kinda made me question if she truly sees him a new light as she says, or is this her “Buttons” moment, and nothing else. I mean..we saw her try to use similar tactic with Simon... on her “anger phase day”. She was trying to use se* as a tool to deal with her anger. And this time it seemed like she was trying to use se* as a tool to deal with loneliness or frustration. However “real” and “human” that is... it’s not “good”. At times I truly think, based on her behaviour, that she just wants to get some...cause she seems to be unable to deal with..anything.. until she’s gotten that out of her system.

****************************************************

She also does not seem to learn the lessons she gets. I mean.. Mo told her already in 1x04 that “You’ll get better at using your superpower. As long as you see every failure not as defeat, but as a stepping stone on the road to success.”...yet she only got it & admitted it [in her speech to her dad] in the finale, 1x12. And also...she seems to not be so blind, and can help apply the lessons to others (giving Tobin the advice she got from Mo...about hard conversations between friends; helping Mo with Eddie...when her situation with Max is the same...as Mo points out). It does not seem “believable”...even if we apply the “she’s a grieving mess & emotionally challenged & running from her feelings & avoiding her own emotions” filter to her behaviour. It still doesn’t “fit”... she just goes back & forth...too much... and that makes it feel like it’s inconsistency in the writing [artificially created...delays & conflict], instead of it feeling as the writing probably means it to be - that its due to her “being a mess”.

****************************************************

What I need from S2: for Zoey to be honest with both men. Stop being in denial, and admit her feelings to herself, and to them. How she feels abut each. Telling Max about her kisses with Simon. Telling Simon about her history with Max. And...unless they all agree that it doesn’t have to be two, but it could be three (polygamy), then she has to make a choice, and stop leading them both on. And I want the men to bond, and “demand” honesty from her....if the show really does intend to keep the “love triangle” going...as they claim in their S2 plans interviews. This is why I like both actors (and based on the finale scenes..both of their characters) take on the whole thing (they’re Team Zoey), and I don’t support what seems to be the showrunners & the networks take on the thing (that it’s a competition between the two & that love triangles are the greatest device in writing...)

****************************************************

Cause right now the S1 finale actually put that to rest...during the last song (as we saw Simon admit he saw them together, and knows she's into Max, and shook his hand...cause he knows what he did...calling him to let him know about her dad.... and how selfless that was, and we saw how Max was there next to her throughout the last song... just a shoulder to lean on...without any pressure or anything. So...on screen the triangle thing was actually put to rest. (except for Zoey’s last talk with her dad...which happened before the funeral, but still gave them the out to leave things open... to keep the non-existent competition between teams alive...cause network/showrunner love the idea of TS vs TM...to the level that I feel is dloing disservice to the characters and story)

****************************************************

I’ve said it before... I know what their intent is (cause network TV is easy to read... even the best written shows still follow the same simple formula & rules), but I don’t get that on screen. But most of the “love triangle” thing does not feel to me like it being because Zoey is grieving or because she has low EQ. It just feels like she’s almost intentionally playing with the mens feelings. And I don’t appreciate that. Even if it comes from her only learning to empathize, and not being in touch with her feelings. From her not being able to handle feelings, and hence denying the feelings she has...fighting against feeling... It comes off as like her not just being unfair, but downright playing with Simon’s & Max’s feelings. Cause by now she knows how both of them feel. She has absolute clarity about their feelings...and they have no real clarity about hers.

They both had their moment(s) with her, but she has to have “hard conversations” with both of them...where she is completely honest with them. Yet she keeps telling Simon that there’s no need to be jealous of Max & her (and then goes and kisses him). And she keeps telling Max that she had no idea she had those feelings for Simon (and Max). When we know that there are two people who know...more of the truth... Maggie & Mo. Everyone else gets the tweaked truth.

****************************************************

So yeah...while the intent most likely was that Zoey was clinging to Simon, and in the process of doing so (holding on to the past... cause she was not ready to let go of her dad, so she tried to keep the status quo by creating that grief bond with Simon), I haven’t truly sensed that from the season as a whole. And even though we & Zoey saw that while Simon was still clinging to the past in 1x10, while she has been slowly starting to let go, he seems to have started to move on, slowly, too, in 1x12 (or has he? Maybe it’s all one of his great pretender tactics...like being too cheery outside on a Tuesday morning...while singing “mad world” inside) . But...he still probably represents the past to Zoey. And Max represents the future. That was most likely their intent with the S1 finale Max and his optimistic outlook.

This all comes back to what Zoey told her mom in 1x04 about her connection with Simon: “He’s the only person who I can talk to about what I’m going through with dad. No one else understands, and I guess I'm worried that if I let it go, or let him go, then I... won’t ever feel this way again.” And interestingly enough for her, Max represents the opposite in the finale (especially). While her outlook so far has been - “how do I live without my dad?”, her best friends speech gave her a new outlook “one can experience failure or something bad happening, but still look forward to what’s to come”. The finales intent was most likely to say that she doesn’t feel like letting her dad go or letting the grief go means she won’t ever feel this way again. She can live without her dad, she will find love again...if she just opens up to the possibilities.

****************************************************

In S2 I want the two men to bond, and ask her to make a choice. To stop being dishonest with them (and mostly herself). And since we saw the men talk to each other (when Max called Simon), and then saw them shake hands... we can hope that they kinda become “kinda friends”. They should both take a step back, and remove themselves from potential love interest roles...until she’s figured things out. Which can only happen after she’s had time to deal with her grief. Cause I’m not certain she’ll be able to stop playing her games even at this time, when her focus should (finally...after she ran from it all...during the whole time when her dad was still with them) be only on grief & family. I don’t “trust” Zoey, but I believe in the two men. I see them being her friend at this time. But when she has gone through all the grief stages, they should have a talk...the three of them. And either they agree that “it could be three, not two” or they ask her to make a choice, and stop with her games. Finally be honest with herself, and them. Stop avoiding & running from her feelings.

****************************************************

So... that is what I hope from the future. I mean...we didn’t get enough focus on her grief story, cause so much of the screentime was devoted to her dilemma about the two men that it took away so much focus from dad/daughter, and those stories and dynamics. And that was a shame. That she (the story) didn’t focus so much on how she deals (or doesn’t really deal) with the fact that she’s about to lose No 1 man in her life, her dad... and instead of focusing on herself, and her dad...the story almost seemed to evolve around her “choosing between the two men” (the so-called love triangle storyline)

****************************************************

In the S1 finale we saw how Zoey saw Simon sing he’s jealous of her & her best friend. And she kept that to herself. Then we saw her come on to her best friend, who was there for thier friends movie night. And all that barely days/weeks after...her fights with both of them (all events between 107 & 111). And then we hear her tell her dad that she likes that her hot new co-worker likes her back, and she’s also proud that at the same time she “hooked up” with her best friend. And how that complicates things. When it’s her who is complicating things...which are really uncomplicated. She still has no clarity. She still hides from her feelings. She is still in denial. She still tries to pursue both. And she needs to stop that. She needs to tell her best friend about her relationship & feelings for the engaged man (tell him about the kisses etc) & she needs to tell the grieving & newly single man about her long history with her best friend, and what (almost) happened... the night the music died. She “owes” it to them.

****************************************************

We all know what the shows endgame is, and it’s been clear since the start. To everyone...no matter which team you support or root for. And they’ve written the characters and the relationships differently enough to prove the point. Even with the heart song choices. And from the finale alone we see Simon sing that he’s jealous (of her taking her best friend to each cheesequakes...which he thinks is something only they did...that one time), while Max sang that she has all of him. One song puts the feelings of the person first, the other puts the feelings of the person they sing to first. And we’ve seen that throughout the season, when Max’s songs have been love songs to her, while Simon’s songs have been more about his grief and his “inappropriate” (cause he was engaged) feelings for her. The songs alone reveal it all. Max songs and behaviour always put Zoey, his best friend, first (even during the times/episodes...when they were “taking a break”). His actions are selfless, and full of unconditional love. While Simon’s songs are more or less about his feelings, and what he needs from her (should he stay or go...considering he’s engaged; he’s jealous...of the other man who gets her attention..too).

****************************************************

And I’ve said this before...many times, but it’s worth to repeat: the two men in her lives, and their stories, and her relationship with them are written differently..on purpose. Both represent ...something...to her. I’ve compared Simons & Zoey’s grief before, and said how she is taking the same steps he did, making the same mistake he did, walking the same path..without learning from his mistakes. But..hopefully the s1 finale finally put an end to that. Because it did showcase how he is stuck, and she has been stuck in the same way. By clinging to him, she tried to keep things as they were, but at the same time things were changing... as her dad’d health was chaning..and no matter how much she tried to deny it, avoid it... life happens.

I’ve said how she projects, and she definitely did that with Simon. And...unless they want to have her character stuck, and not have character growth, and be on the path to move on...there is no way they can keep up the love triangle or keep her relationship with Simon the same. Cause that means she’s going backwards, not forwads. And the S1 finale seemed to establish that she’s starting to see the world in new colours. And interstingly enough it took for her best friend, Max, to get through to her (Mo, Maggie, and others have tried...before..but it hasn’t clicked with her...til now), and so I think that they need to continue developing their friendship in S2. His optimistic outlook is what Zoey needs right now. (also... cannot wait for the episode when we hear Max sing “True Colours” to Zoey...oh the parallels...)

Choosing Simon now, after S1 end would mean that Zoey is going down Simon’s path - being stuck in grief, & that’s not what the intention is. To quote Simon from 1x10: “he’s jealous of his mom, cause she was able to move past the pain of loss & grief and she fond the joy...in life...again”. And since Z/S dialogue/story always kinda “parallels” the Z/M storyline, then her words can be applied to herself & Max, too, here. She tells him to go after that joy then...to realize it’s not as far as one might think. If she’d apply that to her own situation with Max, then she’d realize that for her (finding) the joy...again...is to realize it’s not as far as she thinks, cause for her her best friend reprsents that joy.

****************************************************

So she either chooses Simon (grief, being stuck, past...cause even though they were making Simon start to move past ...all...that), then as a choice he represents clinging to the past for her. Or she chooses Max (joy, moving past the grief, not making the same mistakes again, and choosing to go the other way/seeing things from other perspective from now on). And we saw her admit that shes “going the other way” with her look on her powers...during her speech to her dad. Yet, she still didn’t apply the same logic to her situation with the two men... cause Simon = choosing grief & Max = choosing joy.

But...the love triangle can only remain exising if she’ll choose Simon for now. If she’ll be not taking the advice she has gotten, and if she will “wallow in her grief" instead of focusing on “healing”. So...the only question is...how much in denial is she? How scared of the truth, and her own feelings/emotions is she? Will she cling to the past & we’ll see her repeat every mistake she saw Simon make (and she didn’t like... based on snapping at him “you’re still stuck” in 1x10). So...based on these lines alone (bits of dialogue from 1x10 & 1x12 especially: which way she chooses...like which way she chooses to look at her powers), and the lines each sang during the final number... the road back to joy is choosing Max. And yet that choice would (thankfully) end the so-called love-triangle. And I’m not sure the showrunner wants to choose that options. I think their intent is to focus on the LONG grief process, and milk it to the max. ;)

****************************************************

What I also need from S2: Seeing Simon really start working on his grief - seeing a therapist, continue on the path we saw starting in 1x11 & 1x12. Seeing Zoey take the time to actually grieve, and take time for herself (what Max told her to do...for now)..before she even starts thinking of dealing with her “complicated love triangle issues”. Seeing her stop being in denial, and admit her feelings to herself, and be honest with each man. And ending this love triangle thing. Instead we need more focus on Mitch impact on Zoey. (via “flashbacks” & “dreams”...where we see her spend time with her dad).

We need to see her relationships with each man, but without any romantic context. And she needs to apologize to both men...for her behaviour...even if they understand it was her grief anger. She really needs to acknowledge her behaviour, and she can do that best if she starts being honest with them. With her speech to her dad she took the first step... and as I predicted it’ll take losing her dad for real for her to start seeing the power as something positive, not negative. (but she also tries to be in a three-person relationship with both men..without admitting this to herself or them...and that’s not good)

****************************************************

I’m not sure if it’s just the network or does the showrunner himself truly like the love triangle. Because it’s the one aspect of the show that turns me away & makes me dislike the main character...and hence the show. It doesn’t feel “organic” anymore, it doesn’t feel like a growing story...it feels like the storyline is telling us one thing, but then someone comes in and adds a bit that doesn’t fit into the storyline. That’s how the love triangle thing feels by now. It’s like the writer has one idea, but then the network adds notes, and demand they be added...and they don’t fit...THAT’S what I think & feel when they have “Zoey debate between the two”.

****************************************************

This is why I love the actors (Skylar & John) take so much. They both want to respect the character, and dare I say...they don’t seem to be into the idea of Zooey being “the prize” that their character have to “fight for”. She is not that. They also all seem to acknowledge that each charater still needs to grow individually, and then and only then is Zoey gonna be ready to make her decision (after S & Z have gone through phases of grief, and done some therapy & after Max has figured out his new place in the world...), and I have mad respect for the two men. And I hope the message gets through also to the writers, showrunner & network. That they need to shift the focus, and let Zoey grieve...until they add the “love triangle drama” to the story. Only...unless it’s an actual agreement between all three that they’ll choose poly, there needs to be no actual “love triangle” & she has to choose - does she want the “for now = S.” or does she need the “forever = M.” Will she repeat her past mistakes & go for the overly complicated choice, or do as she planned...and take it slow & go for the right... “forever” guy.

****************************************************

The other thing that I need from S2 is something I have complained was missing from S1: team work. In the sense that Zoey needs to trust people more, and let them help her & learn to lean on others. This “character flaw” was introduced already in ep 2, when Joan told Zoey: “Listen...as talented as you are, you can't take on these projects all by yourself. It's unsustainable.” The same applies to her personal life/storyline. She needs to trust her team (friends: Max, Mo & family: mom) more. So while S1 was mostly about each characters individual growth...as little as we sadly saw it (amidst the drama-lama), then S2 needs to shift focus on her support system, and show how she has learned to lean on others, and how she doesn’t try to go through it all alone. So..friendship (and romance) with Max, with Simon (I wish he wasn’t in the picture & they’d bring in someone else/new... but I know he’s gonna be there for the grief-bond, so...), with Mo...

****************************************************

We saw her have moments with Max (the advice he gave to her about going & talking to her dad..at the end on 1x08) & Joan (the advice she gave her in 1x11, when she told her about her own mom & her story). And surprise-surprise... there was no need for the other person to have gone through what she was/has gone through (dad dying) to be able to understand her, talk to her, give good advice, be there for her.

****************************************************

And I want to see her bond more with others... even if they don’t have the same experience as she does. Because one of the things I don’t understand about the shows claims is... how they seem to claim (the show, the character) that no one else besides the people, who have lost their dad (or are losing the same person..her dad...their husband...) would understand. That one has to have gone through the exact esperience to be able to understand them. This is why I never undrstood what they were trying to tell with Zoey/Simon grief-bond. Because... even if both lost their dads, their experiences are different, so neither can truly understand the others experience...no better than anyone else (who hasn’t had the same loss) would. But...also-...most adults have experienced loss (grandparent, friend, parent...), so to assume that no-one else would understand... is strange to me. Yet...they kept it up til the finale. And in my own exprience the best support system is not the person, who has had the same experience, but the person who is simply there for you, who wants to help. It does not require similar experience for others to understand you/get you. You don’t need a mirror to look at, you need just someone who cares, and is simply present.

I have examples from my own life. I have examples from people I know. For example my childhood friend, who helped her then boyfriend (now husband) though a hard time. They met in HS, and they’ve been together since then (we’re all over 35 now). Her man lost both of his parents very young...with just a few months apart..when they were in Uni & had been together just a few years. And she had not yet been though such close loss yet (by now she is...her dad died before mine did), yet... you could say that she was his rock, and helped him through the time...the most. And they are one of the strongest couples I know. So it has been so strange for me to watch the season & interviews where it’s constantly mentioned that no-one else would understand Zoey...when I don’t think that’s true. When I know, for a fact, that that’s not true.

****************************************************

Team Max or Team Simon:

Now.. I’ve come to realize that the answer to the question “Team Max or Team Simon” depends on a persons take on certain..things. And sometimes even depending on how peope view the actors that portay the characters. And everyone can have their own opinion on this, and they should. And I know many of us agree (on both sides) that the season should’ve focused more on Team Zoey & that next season needs more focus on each characters growth individually...

But...there is one thing I do not agree with from people who are not Team Max. And those are claims that Max is selfish, and rude towards Zoey. That how he acted after the flash mob rejection...and until they made up at the end of 1x11, was “acting out”....unfairly. That is the one thing I don’t agree with at all.

Yes, just like Zoey (and Simon, and everyone else) Max has his character flaws. And we certainly saw them in S1. But... unlike so many, I don’t think that he was OOC during the middle/end of the season (eps 7-11), which many have mentioned. Even Max fans. I find these POVs...interesting. Cause I interestingly did not find his behaviour such..

****************************************************

25 notes · View notes

highkey-lowkey-as-hell · 4 years

Text

WATT/Six

This turned into more of a series of drabbles tbh. Disclaimer: I have no fucking idea how theater works. @thatoneroboticskid

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

Chess could see the exact moment Kate no longer regretted trying out for the North American tour of Six.

Her best friend hadn’t expected to actually make it in. She’d only come to auditions because Chess was, and she was free and bored that day. Then she’d been called back, and then they told her they wanted her to be the first cover for Boleyn and Parr, and Chess had convinced her to accept.

Kate was dragging her feet the entire way to the studio for their first read-through, and Chess had given up telling her it would be fun and was ignoring her by the time they got there. Kate immediately shut up once they entered the room, and Chess glanced over to see her staring at someone - a girl with shoulder-length brown hair, leaning against the far wall on her phone - with a rainbow pin on her jacket.

“Shit, she’s cute,” Kate whispered to Chess.

“Then go talk to her.”

“What? No! Chess-” Kate tried to protest, but Chess was already shoving her forward and the mystery girl had noticed and it was too late to turn back now.

Chess watched Kate stumble haphazardly through a conversation with the mystery girl until someone tapped her on the shoulder and she turned to see an over-eager redhead.

“Hi! I’m Riley, I’m Anne Boleyn! Who do you play- OH MY GOD THAT’S EVA SANCHEZ!” The redhead - Riley - left as quickly as she had come, leaving Chess more than a little bewildered. She was replaced by a tall, dark-skinned girl who was rolling her eyes.

“I’m Cairo. Sorry about Riley, she’s a big fan of Eva’s.”

“Chess.” They shook hands. “Just so you know, I think my best friend’s about to slit your friend’s throat for interrupting that trainwreck of a conversation.” Kate was, in fact, glowering at Riley, who was fawning over Eva and squealing about how big a fan she was.

“She's a fan, too?”

“More like she thinks she’s cute.” Chess managed not to laugh as Kate returned to her.

“That went horribly,” she grumbled.

“I noticed. Kate, this is Cairo. Cairo, Kate.”

“Hey. I’m Catherine of Aragon, you?” Cairo held out her hand for Kate to shake.

Kate shook it, looking like she was analyzing Cairo. “I'm the first cover for Boleyn and Parr.”

“Riley’s the principle Boleyn,” Cairo commented.

“She’s also getting on my nerves,” Kate grumbled. “I was this close to getting her number, Chess! This close!” She held up her thumb and pointer finger, which were basically touching. “And then Riley came out of nowhere and ruined my shot!”

“There will be other chances,” Chess soothed.

“But am I going to have the guts to talk to her again? No!”

“She’s watching us,” Cairo commented.

“She is?” Kate froze, looked back at Eva, and then turned accusing eyes on Cairo. “No, she isn’t.”

“You’re right, she isn’t, but it was fun watching you panic.”

Chess decided that was a good time to remove Kate from that conversation before they had to track down a new Catherine of Aragon, so she excused them and pulled Kate over to the side of the room, where Chess could study their fellow cast members and Kate could continue to stare at Eva.

When she counted nine women (including her and Kate), their director entered the room and started passing around their scripts, and Kate had to pay attention, which she clearly was sour about.

They walked home together after that rehearsal, and Chess listened to Kate whine about being interrupted by Riley while she highlighted her lines, already looking forward to this new role.

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

Mattie was nervous.

Yeah, that was the word for it.

She was the youngest of the cast, apparently, and she’d listened to the studio cast recording of her solo and wow, it sounded hard. She was frankly starting to have second thoughts about this. And the other cast members… some of them looked so mean. Especially the girl who introduced herself as the actress for Catherine of Aragon, and the one who said she was the first cover for Boleyn and Parr.

But that night, as she read the script with a cup of hot cocoa and her favorite fuzzy blanket, she started to warm up to the idea of Katherine Howard.

Several weeks later, when they were off-script, they started to meet with the choreographer and learn the dances, and they met with the costume designers to get their sizes for their costumes, and one night, practicing her choreography for Don’t Lose Ur Head, Mattie started to get really, really excited.

One day, all nine of them met at the costume designers’ studio to try their costumes on for the first time, and Mattie could barely contain her excitement. Even Cairo and Kate, the mean-looking ones she’d noticed the first day, were grinning as they inspected their new costumes.

Mattie, personally, loved hers. She loved the clear plastic skirt and the spiky ponytail and she could barely wait until she got her hair dyed pink next week so she could see her entire K Howard look.

And she started to make some friends in the cast, too. Obviously, they all became a big group of friends, but she got really close with Reese and Farrah, the other two swings.

Opening night, in San Francisco, was in three weeks now, and Mattie was now very, very excited.

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

Reese knew she wasn’t supposed to be there, but she was going to take what she could get. She was going to wear her black swing costume and she was going to sing Heart of Stone and Get Down and she was going to be adored by the queendom.

She volunteered for their cast’s first Instagram takeover. Didn’t get it. Didn’t get the second one, either. The third one was the first week or so of June, so they gave it to Kate and Eva, the most openly LGBTQ+ members of their cast. In fact, she didn’t get it until the seventh takeover, but she milked every second of it that she could.

She went on as Cleves for their last performance of their first week, and there was surely no better thrill than this. No better thrill than saying “Divorced,” in a dramatic voice, no better thrill than joking “it was just so… tragic,” no better thrill than shouting “Get your phones out, you’re gonna wanna film this!”

As exhausted as she was when they all walked offstage, she would’ve given anything to go back onstage again. She took her makeup off and thought while Kate, who had been on for Boleyn that night, ranted about something cute Eva had done during Megasix and Farrah, who hadn’t been on that night but watched from the lighting booth, yelled at her for being stupidly in love. She thought about how many people had been cheering for her, how many people adored her for being their black-costumed alternate.

That night, before heading back to their hotel, the whole cast met onstage for a big group hug, and Reese walked on a cloud all the way to her room.

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

Eva had done so much research so she could accurately portray Catherine Parr that it made her head hurt. But those hours poring over books and Wikipedia and other shit were all worth it when she held her fist in the air among a downfall of confetti and heard those cheers.

It was also worth it to get to hang out with Kate, of course.

She could barely sleep the night before their first performance, so she scrolled through the Six tag on Tumblr and grinned into her pillow every time someone posted about how excited they were for this new cast, or posted about how they were looking forward to seeing it, or posted an edit that included her cast. She paused at one post, her heart hammering as she wondered how many people had seen it.

When the hell are Kate Dalton and Eva Sanchez from the new Six cast going to start dating?

All of the replies and reblogs agreed, and Eva found herself scrolling down the notes, wondering if Kate had seen this and kind of hoping she had.

The first time she carried on the Catherine Parr tradition of taking someone’s phone during the Megasix, the smile from the lucky fan made her grin even more, and she didn’t stop smiling the rest of the night (especially when Kate dropped by her dressing room to say “you guys did really great tonight,” which she knew referred to her and Mattie and Annleigh, but Kate was staring at her while she said it, and holy shit Eva was gay).

On the bus to Seattle for their next set of shows, Kate sat herself down next to Eva, and by the time they reached their new hotel, Eva was updating her relationship status on social media. Kate was on as Parr that night and Eva had that show off, so she watched next to the sound booth and cheered on her castmates and also gave out a few hugs to a couple fans that noticed her and came up to say hi.

She also heard shouting from the swings’ dressing room, and then Kate and Annleigh switched because “Farrah’s getting on my nerves, and Annleigh handles her best.” Eva didn’t mind, because now she could shamelessly flirt with Kate while they got ready.

The queendom freaked out that day.

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

Farrah saw right through what Kate was planning, but if it meant she didn’t have to hear another word about how pretty Eva’s eyes were, she’d willingly go along with it.

Now that she’d gone on for both of her roles, she could say pretty fairly that she preferred Howard. She loved the roast speech and she loved her song and she loved that high ponytail, to the point where she almost wished she was principle Howard. Almost.

Now that she didn’t have to listen to Kate’s holy-shit-I’m-extremely-gay-for-Eva-Sanchez rants, she could turn her focus to her stepsister, who clearly had a crush on their lighting expert, the guy who followed them around to every lighting booth to lead their specific lighting patterns and Farrah needed to stop using the word lighting.

So she locked them in the lighting booth together.

She got a little bit yelled at by her cast members (except for Kate and Eva, who were suspiciously absent), but it was worth it when she unlocked the door and found them making out.

“Heyo,” she said calmly, barely restraining herself from laughing when they jumped apart.

“Farrah!” Annleigh scolded.

“What? I locked you in here, now I’m letting you out. Chess, you said this was what I was supposed to do, right?”

“Yeah, it was. Annleigh, we’ve got to go get ready, and Clark, can you track down Kate and Eva? We need both of them and nobody knows where they are.”

“In a closet,” Farrah snickered.

“Farrah.”

“What?”

#we are the tigers #six #wow this is shitty #maybe i'll add to it later

16 notes · View notes

afeef49160 · 3 years

Text

Movies that will inspire Acting students

Needless to say, observing other actors working at the top of their game is both an enjoyable and potentially inspirational activity, one which can provide insights that students may use to inform and improve their own acting skills. As actors, we are trained to observe carefully, to analyze every choice a fellow actor makes with meticulous attention.

But notice, too, that truly great performances inexorably draw you in. Ideally, they make you forget that you are watching a performance at all. When watching a powerhouse actor at work, we aren’t focused on their performance as an assemblage of conscious choices, but feel rather that we are witnessing a genuine person engaging in their private struggles and experiencing their own unique triumphs.

At its best, a superior performance will offer us a view of seemingly private moments, of spontaneous actions and reactions, of raw and unfiltered emotions. As an actor, of course, you know well that such performances are not in fact completely spontaneous and unfiltered. Rather, the accomplished actor makes specific choices and calls upon their past experiences, creating the illusion of true spontaneity. Here, I have assembled ten must-watch Hollywood movies out of the many thousands.

1. Dog Day Afternoon — Al Pacino

While his unforgettable role in 1971’s The Godfather arguably put Al Pacino’s star on the map, this riveting and tense film solidified his reputation as one of the greatest young actors of his generation.

Directed by the legendary Sidney Lumet, Dog Day Afternoon has been called one of the best bank robbery films in history. Pacino – who trained with Lee at the Actors Studio – tackles the challenging role of Sonny, an anti-establishment bank robber trying to save money for his partner’s gender reassignment surgery. In so doing, Pacino successfully delivers one of the most complex and compelling performances of his career.

2. Steel Magnolias — Sally Field

his classic hit from the ‘80s featured a stellar cast of new stars and acting veterans alike, including Daryl Hannah, Olympia Dukakis, Shirley MacClaine and Sally Field. Field, who trained with Lee Strasberg himself, received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress for her role as the matriarch at the center of an endearing and steely group of women.

Field has received countless awards for her work on screen – including two Academy Awards, three Primetime Emmys, and two Golden Globes – but her grief-stricken “I Wanna Know Why” speech in Steel Magnolias has been called one of the greatest film monologues of all time.

3. Marriage Story — Scarlett Johansson

This story of a marriage or rather, the dissolution of one feature powerhouse actor Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver as a couple coming undone. At the 2020 Academy Awards, Johansson was recognized for her work in both Marriage Story and JoJo Rabbit.

She made history by becoming the eleventh actor in history to receive two nominations in the same year. If one Method Actor wasn’t enough, Marriage Story also stars Strasberg aluma Laura Dern, who walked away from the 2020 awards season with both the Oscar and the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress.

4. Blue Velvet — Laura Dern

If you finished Marriage Story wanting more from Laura Dern, you’re in luck. Dern has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in Hollywood with nearly sixty films under her belt and continues to delight audiences with ongoing projects.

With recent hits including Little Women and Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Blue Velvet is largely considered her breakthrough performance. While the film initially received a divided response due to its objectionable and violent content, it ultimately won David Lynch a nomination for Best Director at the Academy Awards. Since, Blue Velvet has become an American cult classic.

5. The Social Network — Armie Hammer

Born the year Blue Velvet premiered, Armie Hammer is an accomplished young actor who holds dozens of works on screen and two Broadway credits to his name. Of his many notable hits, The Social Network is the film that put Hammer on the map. In the film, a biographical drama about the invention of Facebook and subsequent lawsuits, Hammer plays not one but two characters – Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, a pair of identical twins.

According to the Washington Post, “for 10 months of production, [Hammer] enlisted in twin boot camp, working with acting coach Cameron Thor to drill the subtle movements and speech patterns that the Winklevosses would have developed over two decades of genetic equality.” Now that’s dedication!

6. Pulp Fiction — Uma Thurman

Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is yet another cult classic, starring John Travolta and LSTFI alumna Uma Thurman.

Thurman’s performance as Mia Wallace, an aspiring young actress, earned her a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the 1994 Academy Awards – just one of the film’s 48 nominations from 11 different award shows. Film critics, fans and professionals alike have praised Thurman for her performance. A riveting and complex femma fatale, Mia Wallace is now considered one of the most iconic female film roles of all time.

7. Carrie — Sissy Spacek

Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, Carrie follows a young woman struggling to come to grips with her untested supernatural powers. Now considered one of the greatest horror movies ever made, Carrie shocked audiences and brought Sissy Spacek wide acclaim.

Although she first received attention for her performance in Terrence Malick’s Badlands, Carrie – and its unforgettable bucket of blood – put Spacek on the proverbial map and earned her first nomination for Best Actress at the Academy Awards.

8. A Star Is Born — Lady Gaga

With three successful versions since the original A Star is Born in 1937, many accomplished actresses have tackled this film’s challenging leading role. Joining the ranks of Judy Garland and Barbra Steisand, Lady Gaga stars in the 2018 remake as Ally, a struggling singer who reaches stardom as her famous boyfriend loses his own place in the firmament.

The film made excellent use of Gaga’s powerful vocal abilities and touching vulnerability. Aside from her incredible career as a singer and performer, Lady Gaga studied at LSTFI and has made a name for herself as a successful actress in recent years as well.

9. Taxi Driver — Harvey Keitel

This gritty drama from the mid-‘70s featured a young Robert DeNiro and an even younger Jodie Foster. But it also starred Strasberg alum, Harvey Keitel. Keitel plays a ruthless pimp to Foster’s underage prostitute, and DeNiro’s character, Travis Bickle, ultimately engages in a gun battle with Keitel’s character.

Although his screen time is limited, Keitel has riveted audiences for decades since, in projects ranging from The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) to The Irishman (2019). For more than two decades, Keitel served as co-president of the Actor’s Studio.

10. Some Like It Hot — Marilyn Monroe

Considered one of the greatest comedies of all time, Some Like it Hot film features two men on the run, forced by circumstances to pose as young women in a traveling band. While the men do get their fair share of laughs, it was Marilyn Monroe, as a sweet singer named Sugar, who undoubtedly stole the show.

The men are caught in an intense competition for Sugar’s affection, all the while attempting to maintain their disguises as female band members. The 1959 comedy highlighted Monroe’s legendary charms, showcasing her not only as a “blonde bombshell” but as a skilled and technical comedic actress. The film was both a critical and commercial success – and won Monroe a Golden Globe for Best Actress!

3 notes · View notes

lazybirdxd · 5 years

Text

Kaylor: The hidden true timeline

Sometimes reality exceeds our expectations, and oftentimes we are not aware that such reality exists. Until we take a deeper look.

I recently finished reading a (controversial) fanfic by a certain writer (If you’re an old Kaylor you know which fanfic, if you’re new, it’s called “Kaylor: The timeline”) and what stood out for me the most about that fanfic is that it is incredibly accurate in the way it tells the story, a story that is well thought of, it has a chronological coherence and character construction that is very difficult to surpass. The amazing thing about it is not the story in itself, but rather the level of insight it gives about the characters, behavior analysis, recognition of complex emotions and its roots in the characters, as well as a constant foreshadowing of the aesthetics of the coming era (reputation era). I think that because of this complexity and the level of details included, both Karlie and Taylor wrote it. How did I arrive to that conclusion (that many of you older Kaylors also suspect to be true)? -I'll be focusing only on the authorship of the fanfic, if you want me to analyze the story, leave a comment!-

Taylor discussing Karlie’s inability to communicate any uncomfortable situation to Taylor in the 12th chapter of part two.

Well, let’s see. The fanfic has an element of entertainment to it (no, that’s not my strongest argument, but hold on), it’s as if the writer knew which parts of the story to highlight in order for the readers to be engaged with the story from the beginning. But it doesn’t JUST take a good story for a book to be read (or in this case, a Wattpad book), you need to have the right characters in your story for people to feel identified with and represented by them. In essence, the story needs to make sense, needs to remain just a story (that means having the right amount of fantasy and the right amount of truth so that it still feels real), it needs to have complex yet relatable characters that appeal to the essential parts of human nature, and a relatively simple vocabulary (unless your expected audience is very educated) along with descriptive (visual) language, because the public has to imagine the situations the characters are going through, as well as their very environment. Also, your use of your chosen lexicon has to convey all the meaning of your story in its simplicity. I don’t know about you, but these requirements feel like the abilities of a very advanced writer, and not one that just posts random stories that they created in their head after reading a tabloid in the line of the supermarket.

The writer of the fanfic saying he/she had never written anything personal before the fanfic (I cut the screenshot on this one, but I will put the full picture later on)

Anyway, as seen above, our “fanfic” writer claims to have never had any experience at personal writing before this fanfic, which is very suspicious, given the amount of reads that this fanfic has (1.7 Million at the moment of writing this post) as well as the good reviews and people commenting on Wattpad how that is their 4th or 5th time reading the entire fanfic all over again, meaning that for the reads to be this high, the writing has to be at least really good.

I cut the screenshot here, but if you go to the first chapter of the fanfic you’ll see more people commenting similar things.

Now, with regards to the foreshadowing I talked about earlier, the fanfic was written in early 2016, and the reputation era began in late 2017, plus we know Taylor plans her tours and eras one year ahead, therefore she needed to plan the reputation era and tour one year ahead (see section Event promoters), despite her saying in a GMA interview from Lover era that she only plans 6 months in advance (which is just impossible due to recording dates, negotiations, hiring booking agents for the countries she will perform in, meetings to discuss marketing strategies, aesthetics of every era, etc…), therefore by 2016 she had at least some idea of how the 6th era was going to look like. This fanfic weirdly coincides with the aesthetics of reputation long before reputation was released. Hmmm…

This fanfic AU was last updated on February 2016.

“Interesting… Tell me more about this writer”.

Alright. Also, It’s a she and she has a Tumblr account that I took time to carefully read.

Our writer turns out to be a she.

But before I go into really heavy stalking further detail, read this disclaimer: I am no behavioral analysis expert, I do not possess any type of psychology major or minor, I’m not even doing an undergraduate course of psychology, this is me applying all the books I’ve read about human psychology as it is my hobby. I’m a Computer Science student. Having said that, let’s dive right in!

Now, this is what I observed when looking through KaylorFanfiction’s profile:

1. The writer doesn’t share, reblog, post pictures frequently or makes her personal opinion known in topics outside the fanfic(s) or writing in general. (I observed this after spending a significant amount of time scrolling down her blog and just noticing her behavioral patterns).

2. Assertive (short answers to asks on Tumblr).

3. Usually writes in caps to highlight important things (just like Taylor), words or phrases might be uppercase.

If you’re wondering about the numbers, they are questions.

Okay, let’s see Taylor now:

4. The writer is 6 feet tall (like our favorite supermodel).

The link to the questions.

5. The writer is enthusiastic about feedback (like Taylor).

6. Has one female dog named Phoebe Buffay (A pet named after a well-known tv show character.)

Interesting to note that in the second ask, the writer tells that she has only had one puppy, which reminds me of a certain someone who also has only one puppy:

7. Is in college. Or was.

I say was because, although we have pictures of Karlie on her first day of school at NYU, it isn’t completely believable due to a lack of attendance later on if you google “Karlie Kloss attending NYU”, therefore my conclusion is that her proximity to a college environment comes actually from her brother, who truly attended Notre Dame University. An interesting observation that may back my induction is that if you go to KaylorFanfiction’s profile you’ll find that when she talks about college she never specifies which one she’s attending, for that same reason, if it was true that Karlie attended, then she would have no other choice than to be proud of her wife girlfriend through her secret alternative account for her achievements (I mean, it’s NYU, who wouldn’t be proud?). Taylor The writer might have wanted to tell the narrative of a broke college student (the exact opposite of what Taylor is) to go unnoticed on social media, but the quality of the story and the richness of it made it unbelievable that the story came from an inexperienced writer (more on that later on).

In other words, this account was Taylor’s escape bubble where she could talk freely and give her opinions without dealing with the consequences. I was afraid I could be breaking that bubble with this post, but considering that she said she no longer uses the account, I figure that It was safe for me to post this.

8. Has been making connections with literary agents and small publishing presses (as detailed above).

Guess who also makes connections with certain agents and publishing agencies… (See the manager and booking agents)

9. Has a passion for music and wanted to learn how to play guitar on her own as a teenager but stopped.

The full screenshot above, as promised.

Also, doesn’t she being obsessed with music and learning from a young age reminds you of someone else?

Link to the interview.

Link to a compilation of homemade videos of Taylor singing as well as an interview where she says she learned to play the guitar at a young age (minute 1:29).

10. Reads books about music (detailed above) and learns about music in general, from a very young age.

11. Writes original content outside fanfic.

Interesting, given that she never had written something personal before (personal as in of her own making, not as in the fanfic is her life), that makes me question what did she write about before this fanfic? Journalism? But she is obsessed with music, she told us that herself. Could that original content possibly be… songs?

So far we know she is obsessed with music, she discovered she liked to write novels (I’d rather say books) through writing this fanfic, even though she doesn’t read fanfic at all, wonder where she got the inspiration and experience to make it the most read fanfic of that topic on Wattpad if she also never did anything personal, which makes me now believe that by personal she meant her life, because there is no way you can never have done anything of your own creation while having original work. Therefore, the original work she refers to, are songs (as detailed above when saying she wanted to do something with songs). She could have meant anything by saying she wanted to do something with songs, but so far, these are many many coincidences pointing to Taylor the authorship of a particular individual, and as BBC’s Sherlock said: “The universe is rarely so lazy”.

12. The author never reads fanfic stories.

The picture speaks for itself

13. The writer doesn’t like speculation. Compare to Taylor’s 25th birthday tweet.

Interesting…the author is not into speculating, yet she wrote an entire fanfic on a relationship she claims is not real to her. Basically, she ignored the definition of “speculation”.

Thus, if we wanted to make sense of the reasons for her particular fanfic creation writing taking into account that she doesn’t like speculating and that this is just a creative outlet, we would have to assume that what she writes in her story is based on an objective truth, her speech again (not liking speculation) is contradicted by the mere fact that Wattpad is for aspiring writers looking to share their work with the world (usually a fictitious work). So, if our writer doesn’t like speculation, yet creates a “fictional” story on a site dedicated to that purpose, she’s either lying about not liking speculation or she’s hiding the truth in a platform dominated by fiction in the hopes no one will see (through) it. Okay, maybe she’s lying about not liking speculation (after all, people lie all the time), but given the continuous similarities of our writer’s personality with Taylor’s, and the fact that in the universe everything is interconnected, this can’t be a coincidence. But why would Taylor go to such lengths to tell mostly the truth? Well, given Taylor’s character and the way she rose to fame (through what she called “Opening up her diaries for the world to see”) there is an inherent need in her for self-expression, but she can’t express herself freely all the time (remember the behind-the-scenes interview where she’s filming Lover video and she says her life is like a fishbowl) because her career is image-based, and one picture will outspeak any word or explanation she might have. Thus, she might have to go to these or more lengths to truly express herself and her beliefs in order to keep her mental health and creativity flowing.

14. The writer loves to add drama to her writing.

Do I have to remind you of Taylor’s lyrics to Endgame?

“I swear I don’t love the drama, it loves me “

15. The writer has an inclination toward social justice (similar to that of Taylor).

And comparing to Taylor…

Also, the fanfic is very very detail-oriented, and the writer said in a note on one of her chapters:

Finally, to top the icing…

Our writer got knee surgery. The very word surgery sounds to me as a lot of stitches being made. Where have I heard about stitches before? Maybe Out Of The Woods can be a good beginning…

“Twenty stitches in a hospital room”

My dissertation is now over. I hope you enjoyed it without thinking I’m going insane, because that’s what I’m thinking right now. Have a good night/day.

#kaylor:the timeline #deep research #kaylor

10 notes · View notes

night-filled-mountain · 5 years

Note

For the Hozier ask thing: No Plan, Be, Talk

- No Plan - Do you believe in a pre-determined purpose in life?

No, but I think it can be helpful–for some people!–to think and act like you have a pre-determined purpose, as long as you’re not too rigid about it. Sometimes the random twists and turns of life just get overwhelming, you know? And you need to weave them into some sort of pattern–“A, B, and C all happened in order to lead me to D,” or “Despite X obstacle, I know I’m meant to accomplish Y.” Humans are pattern-finding creatures–that’s why we like stories so much. I can’t imagine getting through life without periodically making it into a story, whether you actually believe in some divine Plan and Author or not. (This is reminding me once again of that Brian W. Foster lyric I’ve become obsessed with: “And if it wasn’t designed, then I’ll be damned if I ever know why.”)

Though honestly, for me? The opposite is true. I’ve faced, and continue to face, so many mental-health barriers to having the kind of life I’d like to have, and I’ve fought (and continue to fight!) such a harrowing, hard-scrabble fight to make that life happen anyway. It’s a massive struggle, it’s ongoing, it’s every day. It’s exhausting and humiliating and entirely without dignity. So the thing that I like to tell myself about the life I want? Is that I wasn’t meant to have it. Some particularly nasty gods have played a trick on me since birth, crafting a person for whom friends/romance/productive work/artistic fulfillment/Happiness are impossible–and day after day, I’m fighting them, trying to prove them wrong. Clawing and biting at them with everything I have in me. Forcing my way out of their boxes, grasping at what I want, and spitting in their eye for good measure.

I’m sure my preference for this narrative says something about me as a person, but I leave that up to you, anon!

- Be - Have you changed much as a person in the last year?

…I literally don’t know where to start.

In August 2018, I wasn’t married yet. I lived in a small town in New Jersey with my parents and sister, and was desperately terrified of moving (permanently) anywhere else. I had completed two master’s degrees just a few months before, but I’d never had a full-time job, and I was 250% convinced (for the aforementioned mental-health reasons, and a chronic physical illness to boot!) that I could never, ever have one. Oh, and I’d just gotten back from a visit to my former roommate (which remains the last time I saw her, not counting Skype), and I was suffering constant agony over the intense, passionate, mutually pining, emotionally needy, co-dependent mess that was that relationship.

And now?

I’m married. I live in Boston, in an apartment where I’ve paid 100% of the rent for the past six months (though that will soon be changing!). I have a full-time job that has challenged and transformed me in ways that I could not possibly have imagined six months ago. Like…literally could not have fathomed. Outside the scope of my brainpower. Beyond my wildest dreams.

I’m the head of my department…because I’m the entire department. I do heavy-duty customer service. I interact with dozens of strangers every day–children, teens, and adults–and I usually do it without a whisper of social anxiety. I pick up my desk phone when it rings. I make phone calls when I have to. I send and receive dozens of e-mails a week. I manage a budget! I place orders! I schedule programs! I answer reference questions! I operate and troubleshoot various forms of technology constantly, and teach others how to use them. I reason with, joke with, assist, educate, entertain, chastise, and discipline 20+ rowdy teenagers ON A DAILY BASIS. There have been many days, and once an entire week, when I was literally in charge of my entire workplace and everyone in it. And it was all still functioning when my boss got back.

…And it’s actually really timely that I should write about all this now, because I’m smack-dab in the middle of an extremely daunting work task, one that’s causing my ADD to kick my ass to hell and back. And I’ve spent the past few days wondering just how fucking desperate this place must have been to hire someone who’s been wretchedly sobbing over her utter lack of focus and organizational skills for almost 30 years. So it’s…quite the morale-booster to look at these paragraphs about just how goddamn far I’ve come in a year.

…Also, Ex-Roommate and I have gone no-contact, and most days, I don’t think about her. And if I do, it doesn’t hurt so much.

- Talk - What’s your best friend like?

I have three (3) best friends, and they are MY WORLD, so get ready for this.

(1.) My husband. We’ll call him Kit, which is, in fact, a name he often goes by. He is a Gemini, which I mention only because he’s a very classic Gemini: bursting with curiosity, interested in everything, with a dizzying array of hobbies and interests that seem to change and shift by the moment. He teaches science, and used to teach history. He loves camping, sea shanties, Lawrence of Arabia, board games, and tabletop RPGs. Being a teacher, he’s had the summer off, and he’s spent it being a house-husband: cleaning our apartment, buying all the groceries, doing my laundry an embarrassing number of times, and cooking me dinner every single night. He loves being useful to people and making people happy. He’s terrific at long-term planning, but has no sense of time, and he’d be late to everything without my intervention. We have separate bedrooms, and mine is obsessively neat, and his is…not. He was once bitten by a squirrel that he was hand-feeding on the Boston Common. A few days later, he received a serious electric shock from a string of Christmas lights, and the bandage he’d placed over the squirrel bite was burned black instead of his hand. This perfect balance of cursed and blessed is, in a way, all you really need to know about Kit.

We love to watch movies and TV shows together and discuss/analyze them obsessively. We love to have looong philosophical discussions and/or debates. We take walks, we get Italian food and/or ice cream far too often, we go on jolly road-trip adventures, and we read out loud to each other. He’s currently reading me Charles Dickens’ Our Mutual Friend, which I have read before (twice) and he has not, because I love it so intensely, and I know that he will too. He’s the best person on earth to discuss virtually anything with, to be honest. He’s my DM in the best D&D campaign I’ve ever been part of. I’ve just made a new D&D character, although I don’t have a campaign for her yet, and Kit cannot stop lavishing praise on her and getting excited about her…even though she’s a hobgoblin, and he spent a significant portion of a recent car ride passionately arguing with me about the viability of hobgoblins as player characters.

He is absolutely extraordinary at admitting when he’s wrong, owning it fully, changing his opinions, pursuing personal growth, and just becoming a better and better person all the time. And I’m so damn honored that I get to be here for it.

(2.) We’ll call my second best friend Unicorn, which is a multilayered inside joke.

I met Unicorn during my freshman year of college. We lived on the same floor. I was the odd woman out among my suitemates because I had crippling social anxiety; he was the odd man out among his because he was gay. Somehow we started watching movies and TV shows together, and it became our Thing; I think our current marathon record is six or seven movies in a row. We’re both from New Jersey, and he still lives there, and there are few places in the world I feel safer than on his giant couch, in front of his giant TV, with snacks and glasses of Limeade close at hand, and his neurotic little dog nosing about. He has a pool, a massive movie collection, and an encyclopedic knowledge of state politics, because he works as a full-time environmental canvasser. His hours are absolutely terrifying, as are the physical and social demands of his job, but he still finds time to run a D&D campaign for his coworkers, and to visit the rest of us in Boston at every possible opportunity.

Unicorn is barely a month older than I am (a fellow Leo, though I think it suits him a hell of a lot better than it suits me), and he understands me in specific ways that the other two members of our little quartet just can’t. We get each other’s humor, we have similar tastes in men, we both love to swim. When the four members of our found family are all together, he is invariably the only person who notices all my little puns and innuendos, and laughs every time. He listens to me, and asks me questions, in a way that no one else in the world quite seems to do. He made a speech at my wedding that reduced me to a blubbering mess. And, most importantly of all: He started inviting me to our college’s LGBT group when we were juniors (right after Kit and I started dating), which was how I met my third best friend, and how we all became a family.

(3.) I’m going to refer to Best Friend #3 as “Dragon,” because…he loves dragons, and because he was Unicorn’s roommate when I first met him, and it keeps the mythological-creature theme going. …And once again, I don’t know where to start, so I’m going to go dig up an old post I made about Dragon, copy and paste it below, and then figure out how to elaborate on someone who both my husband and I have identified as the best human being we have ever met.

This is a friend who invites the whole gang of us to his apartment for entire long weekends, and cooks for us, repeatedly. Who hosts “fake Christmas” every year, complete with a tree decorated with blue and silver ornaments because he is Jewish, and made all of us hand-stitched, personalized stockings, and fills them with gifts and sweets purchased specially for each of us. Who once baked me a cake just because I was coming to visit him. Who organized and directed my entire move from New Jersey to Boston because his Tetris-like car-packing skills and his utter laidback unshakable calm in the face of any task are absolutely unparalleled. Who is a goddamn wizard at literally everything, from cooking and baking and sewing to Photoshop and graphic design to painting D&D miniatures to putting together elaborate cosplays to theater tech to writing and research to courageous and tireless activism to law (did I mention he’s a lawyer?).

…That was my old paragraph, so let me add a few things. I can’t emphasize enough how much he carries that aura of calm and kindness and competence about him at all times. Never in my life had I had a cooking/baking experience that didn’t stress me out until Dragon let me help him make an entire dinner and various desserts for our friend group, and it was just…so chill. So well-organized and perfectly timed, but without ever feeling like those things took any effort whatsoever. He was so kind and patient with me, demonstrating each task step by step, then being entirely confident in my ability to perform said tasks, and never trying to nitpick at the way I did them or take them over himself. Part of his job involves teaching, and I know he must be fantastic at it, because no one else has ever been such a soothing balm and a stimulant (both at once, somehow!) to my poor, tormented ADD brain. Someday (maybe soonish!), our whole found family is going to live together, and the thought of being around Dragon all the time just makes me weep with joy. And did I mention his sweet, child-like enthusiasm for holiday celebrations and ghost tours and spooky TV shows and musicals and fantasy novels and text RP and all other Best Things? (Ok, he also loves dogs and Marvel movies, and I love neither, but I forgive him for this.)

Oh, he also officiated my wedding. And he also had top surgery today, and I have maybe never been this happy about anything ever, what an auspicious day to finish this post!

#asks from the askbox #personal #long post #she's just about to close up the library!#dungeons & dragons #d&d #dnd #this got RIDICULOUSLY long holy moly #i have a lot of feelings about my job and my friends guys

10 notes · View notes

echoheart0324 · 5 years

Text

*deep sigh* So...uh...about the November story update...*deep breath*. Damnitallholyshitwhatthefuckisallofthisinformation. I’ll provide my insight into this topic, along with the traitor talk once more (featuring ‘Darkness’ and their bullshit). I’ve been putting this off for so long, so...RIP I suppose.

Warning: Heavy KHUX spoilers will be discussed, featuring my thoughts and speculation. You have been warned. (Also there’s a lot of stretches and lousy evidence, but I wanted to bring this into light...)

Here’s my general opinion right now:

*yells loudly* I don’t think Lauriam’s on our suspect list!!!

Before y’all get a pitchfork and stab me to death until I bleed out or something (I dunno either), hear me out.

I’ll lend you what I got gathered here. It’s a mess, but it’s something, better than nothing.

()()()

For the KHUX story update that occurred during October, a mysterious figure approached the scenes, going by the name ‘Darkness’ (which is stupid. Who thought that name would be a great addition to the game???).

Although I have no experience with the Japanese language, a few Twitter accounts who I was able to stumble across by, were able to provide valuable information. I won’t be providing names, just in case the info’s false.

Anyways, ’Darkness’ has a specific speech pattern that is apparent, exclusively to the JP version. The figure uses the pronoun of ‘ore’, which Marluxia/Lauriam don’t seem to use, where instead they use ‘boku’? Though I think the other guys use ‘ore’. (So in all honesty, I had Lauriam crossed off my list for a while now, but today let it rest to bed.)

Even though I probably look like a Blaine stan (...I never thought I’d say that out loud...I’m never going to say that again...), I’m going to point the finger of blame, as the traitor and murderer of Strelitzia, at...*looks at smudged hand*...Brain. (Wow, what sort of timeline is this where I use his ‘official name’...oh well one step a time to sever bonds I suppose to spare myself the pain) It’s odd, I know, but hear me out.

()()()

*lifts up glasses* So, this is where I get into the nitty gritty, what-the-fuck are you on Echo, speculation things. This is more of a personal-level thing and I know Nomura’s going to do something to catch us off guard with the element of surprise. That’s why we’re going to think like him for a minute.

In all honesty, it could be Ven as the traitor right? I know a lot of people jumped onto this, as soon as Lauriam brought up the whole ‘sister’ thing (with the translations being all iffy. Maybe in a year we’ll find out, who knows). I can definitely see this happening, but I find it quite odd...

I’m aware of the fact that Ven didn’t seem to know what ‘Shift Pride’ was (and his reaction to it was kinda...unnerving). I’ve also already brought this up in the past, but:

(The Union Leaders all come in order, except for Brain and Ven.)

I don’t understand why they’d have everyone else in order, but huh. Something's off.

However, Ven does bring up meeting Master Ava (and I really hope it isn't him) and he was against 'Shift Pride', so I trust him.

()()()

Next up on our list, we have Lauriam. Since the story update for November introduced Elrena/Erlena (oh gosh it’s the Blaine/Brain situation all over again. I dunno what the official team’s gonna go for, but I have a bad habit of sticking with the ‘l’ names, so fuck y’all), we have...quite a batch here. Since the script was being vague and everything, we don’t know exactly who Strelitzia’s older sibling is.

I mean...if it was his own sibling, then Lauriam has to go to the time-out corner for murdering your own family member (if he did do it). If it was Elrena’s relation to Strelitzia, then that’s a different story.

Based off the subtle interactions we got, Lauriam seems to have some sort of relationship to Strelitzia, going to the extent of interacting with another fellow Keyblade wielder for the sake of it. I know it’s probably a far too gap to reach for, but I want to believe that these two are partners working behind the scenes to crack down who the traitor/murderer is.

()()()

This is where I bring up the official art (y’know, like an idiot who analyzes everything).

Interestingly, Ephemera (if you flip the image, he’s leaning to their direction and his eyes are focused over to their direction so shhh it counts), Skuld, Ven, and Lauriam are all looking the same way to the left! Meanwhile, Brain and the hooded figure (which I assume is Elrena) are facing the opposite direction. (I dunno how Chirithy fits in this honestly...so uh...)

This is the stretch of the century (and I’m 99.99% sure I’m wrong), but notice how the hooded figure is slightly looking downwards, their chin down. We can’t see what their eyes are focusing on too well (and I might as well be blind), but it’s possible that Elrena is looking down upon Brain (damn it. Or onto the flower...eh...). Maybe she knows that Brain has something to do with her/Lauriam’s sister’s ‘disappearance’.

To add onto the above further, it’s possible that the others do learn of a traitor in their midst. However, they’re all blinded by their own doubts and beliefs, making them face the wrong culprit. Meanwhile Brain faces the other direction and smiles widely (...I just noticed he's the only one with his mouth open), knowing they’ll assume it’s someone other than himself. (And then Elrena kicks his ass. I dunno.)

()()()

And just for fun, the other day (sometime back in filler hell) I scrambled up Brain’s name and got ‘Binar’. I was curious so I looked it up to see if it meant anything or if there was anything at least related. Well, *slides in* it’s possible that it could also mean ‘binary’ (just remove the ‘y’, just like Ephemer with the word ‘ephemeral’). ‘What the fuck does binary have to do with anything???’ you may ask. Heh...so it was recently confirmed that the Keykids are all linked to the data world, and y’all know what codes for data? Binary numbers...binary code to be more precise! (Maybe he has some sort of extra knowledge of the data in the worlds??? Or he could just be in complete control???)

I really dunno what else to add here, since it’s odd, but it may as well be a coincidence that I picked up on by mistake. Maybe we’ll bring this up again another day, once we have more information at our disposal.

()()()

Read up on this.

If you already read my little mess of speculation on nobility at the bottom of that post, then we’re good!

Anyways, if we follow the idea that Brain is the traitor, then what were his motives in the first place? For crying out loud, he really doesn't seem like he gives a shit about the meetings (as seen below).

Books, huh? Based off of this phrase alone, it's possible that he's looking for something, something related to information and possibly exclusive to the chambers. He's also seen being impatient and hurries to leave once he believes the case is settled, only to be stopped. (Or he just wants to read and avoid social interaction...mood.)

Maybe he wants something more than that. So what is 'nobility'? By definition it's: "the quality of being noble in character, mind, birth, or rank."

I already went over this in the previous post and I brought up that he could be of noble blood, but something most likely went wrong, horribly. Adding to the fact, that his name also means 'son of the judge' and/or 'high/noble'. So why would he have killed Strelitzia off? What could he have gained from that???

*tips hat* I...I'm not too sure either. There's countless possibilities (and we're dealing with Nomura for crying out loud). Besides information, I really don't see what else he can gain.

So how does 'Darkness' fit into this? I'm also not sure either, since we know barely anything of them in the first place. Maybe some undercover...

(I'm too tired and I keep forgetting where I'm trying to go with this...it's driving me nuts.)

()()()

Feel free to add anything, I was kinda in a rush while writing this, so I'm all over the place!

85 notes · View notes

psychovigilantewrites · 6 years

Note

Hi! Your writing is so amazing i love how you integrate the reader character so seamlessly and describe things and develop the story I absolutely am in love with your writing do you have any tips or methods from an aspiring and struggling author 🙏 thanks! ❤️

Thank you!! Well, my first advise would be to read, read and read! And then once you've picked your favorite writers and works, you analyze why do you like their writing so much and try to make it yours. It's not copying entirely, but more like Being influenced by them. For example, once I discovered @thegirlwiththebambooblade or Morveren on ao3, I fell in love with her writing style so much that I made it a point to change it up a bit. I noticed that she kept her paragraphs short, and I didn't realise that it was acceptable to have one sentence paragraphs scattered throughout your chapters. I liked it because I'm an easily distracted reader, so I find myself easily lost in long and descriptive paragraphs. Her sentences were straight to the point, yet still very impactful and descriptive. After finding out, as a reader, what I liked about reading her works, I took that part of her style and integrated it into my work. From that point on, I write my work in a sort of "reader" perspective, in which I write what I want to read. Of course I'm nowhere near Morveren's captivating and skillful writing, I do aspire to be like her one day. Another tip would be to make conversations as natural as possible. I noticed a lot of fanfic writers, or hell even published authors like John Green even, tend to write conversational exchanges so formally... I don't know about John Green, but the teenagers I know do NOT speak like that lmao. Conversations are hard to write, because sometimes it might come out as forced or stiff or formal. So my advise would be to close your eyes and put yourself in your characters situation. Give yourself the topic of your intended conversation and imagine you having that conversation with a friend. How you would respond, how would they respond. From then, you can twist your own words to make it sound more like the characters speech pattern but still maintain that air of natural, laid-back, colloquial speech. I have been thinking about making a post about how I write. I know I'm not the best out there, but I do find analyzing and sharing my own writing style helps me to improve and refine my writing. And hopefully, sharing some tips here and there would be helpful for others as well. Hope you get something from this long ramble of mine hahahaha good luck and never stop trying! I really appreciate people like you who stop and think about my writing style, it really gives me a boost. xx

17 notes · View notes

jam2289 · 5 years

Text

I Went to a Writing Group Today - February 27th, 2019

The writing group was a full table today, and great as always.

The prompt today was to write a story about a door. There were six pictures given, along with descriptions at the bottom. It's amazing what people come up with, but I'll go into that after my story.

It's so hard to capture what I'm thinking while I'm writing fiction. So much is occurring subconsciously that it's hard to be aware of it. I thought it would be cool to have an observer looking out of a window and something mysterious about the door. Then, I thought it might be interesting if he was watching a kid kick around a ball, and then involve a door somehow. Then I thought it might be interesting to move through character viewpoints throughout the story. It's risky, it could go bad, but writing exercises are a place to experiment. That experiment didn't work out. I was thinking about writing that way, but it just wouldn't go that way for me. So, it turned out differently. Here it is, I shall call it "The Boy, the Ball, and the Door".

- - - - - -

Jack looked out of the window. In the courtyard between the buildings there was a boy kicking a ball. He played by himself every day that it wasn't raining.

If the boy happened to be playing on Thursday at 2 o'clock he would stop when a woman walked by. The woman wore a red hat and always walked with purpose. She always went directly to the same place. A door across the courtyard from Jack's apartment.

The woman would walk up to the door. The boy would run to get a good angle to watch. The woman would linger at the door for a moment, then go in. The door would shut and the boy would go back to kicking his soccer ball around the courtyard.

On other days the boy would go up to the door too. There was no handle, but he would touch the squares on the pattern of the door. Nothing would happen, and then he would go back to playing with his ball.

This went on for months. Theories lept to the front of Jack's mind, only to be discarded moments later. Jack wanted to go to the door himself, to go talk to the boy, to stop the woman and ask her... something. But, he couldn't. He was limited to his view from the window.

On Thursday, May 16th at 2 o'clock, the woman in the red hat walked through the courtyard and entered the door. On Friday, May 17th at 1 o'clock, the boy walked up to the door and touched some of the squares. The door opened. He entered. Jack never saw the boy again. His soccer ball lays stained and flat in the grass on the side of the courtyard.

- - - - - - -

Some people noticeably reacted to the story when I was done, so that's good. I've been editing a lot of horror stories for the project I'm working on with my friend Oleg from Russian, "Horror Without Borders". I think that's why it took that darker twist near the end.

The idea for the next paragraph came from the paragraph that preceded it. I didn't really have much of a plan. It's amazing how that works. I added one "the" when I was typing this, otherwise this story isn't edited at all. This is exactly how I wrote it down at the meeting, other than it being written in pen in my notebook.

There are so many decisions to be made that you can only make them intuitively. You can analyze after you have something down, but it's dangerous when you're writing to try to analyze it when you're putting it down, it can stop the whole process. For instance, in my last paragraph I said the ball was flat. I could have said deflated. Why didn't I? I don't know. That's just the way it came out. I can make up a reason now, but I didn't have one at the time. There are so many decisions that it has to be done intuitively.

I needed our observer to only be able to observe for some reason. I realized that I didn't have a good reason, so I didn't put one in. When you read it you just assume the answer. I call that closure. When you leave the appropriate gaps in writing the reader fills in the rest, if done right it can make the story much better than explaining every detail.

There were many other good stories. Several people tried to lower expectations for their stories before they read them. But, then they were good. I'm split on whether that's good or bad, so I don't give anyone advice about it either way. I don't qualify my stories, or at least I try not to. I also have a tendency to lack confidence and I haven't found that very useful for myself.

It was mentioned how different all of the stories were. It was also mentioned how similar all of the stories are. I think that's because a door is a powerful symbol. It's the archetype of the unknown, of crossing a threshold, and of mystery. Someone mentioned that that's why there shouldn't be glass doors, lol. So, the stories are all about that archetypal idea, but they all do it in different ways.

One story was talking about the slow death of magic. It was strong enough that one woman almost cried about it. I think it's curious that epic fantasy often deals with the death or potential death of magic, but I've never read a story about the birth of magic. That might be worth considering.

I was happy to see my friend Jon at the meeting. He read one of these posts from my blog and decided to stop by. I know him from a Toastmasters public speaking group. He is a decent speaker, but he is an excellent writer. He wrote from a woman's perspective, which I struggle with, covering a huge portion of her life in a tiny story and it had solitude as a personified male antagonist. It was somber, and great. There's also a woman in the writing group that I took a reading tutor class with before who has good insights. It's nice to be surprised by showing up to places and knowing people there when you aren't expecting it.

One of the most interesting things about the meeting was the personal introduction portion. We didn't do separate introductions this time. You could just introduce yourself however you wanted before you read your story. I liked this format better, I think it works better. Most people don't really say anything about themselves. Many people just state their name. That's fine. I can even see why it may be better. But, I decided to say something about myself.

I wanted to keep it writing related so I said something like this: "Hi, I'm Jeff Martin. I write a chaotic blog at JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com. I'm also editing two horror story anthologies for a publishing house in Russia. I was recently recruited to write a comic book by an illustrator in Muskegon. And, I'm writing a series of speeches for the Harry Potter festival in Sparta this summer. I guess that's about it."

That last line got a little laugh because people thought that was a lot of stuff. I cut my activities way short though, otherwise the intro feels too long for people. I didn't mention that I'm writing a play, a series of philosophy essays for the International Society For Philosophers, and that I write a weekly article analyzing lyrics for 88.9 Hey Radio out of North Muskegon. Even if I mentioned all of that it would be cutting my writing activities way short. I'm keeping extensive notes on a whole bunch of things ranging from various fiction projects to philosophy articles to memoirs. I have notes for over 100 articles on my blog that I haven't written yet. I have dozens of good story ideas. But, I seem to need time to let these ideas germinate. I know many other writers have had this same need. Writers from Mark Twain to Michael Crichton have thought about story ideas for years before beginning to write them. It still seems odd though.

The session was great as always. The reason it works so well is that it's just a fun exercise to push yourself and see what happens, you only write for twenty minutes, it's always a pretty open subject, there is little feedback and it is wholly supportive, we jump right into the writing exercise at first and then go around reading them, and the whole thing is done in an hour. It's highly enjoyable and really helps me to open up my perspective.

Here are my articles on the last two sessions I went to:

I Went to a Writing Group Yesterday - January 23rd, 2019

http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2019/01/i-went-to-writing-group-yesterday.html

I Went to a Writing Group Today - January 9th, 2019

http://www.jeffreyalexandermartin.com/2019/01/i-went-to-writing-group-today.html

________________________________________________

You can find more of what I'm doing at http://www.JeffreyAlexanderMartin.com

#writing

1 note · View note

the-e4b · 6 years

Text

Illogical comments by Lilly: Part 3: Statement 2: A defense mechanism revelead

This is part 3 of my post, of Illogical comments by Lilly, for more information go part 1 & 2 here:

Part 1: https://the-e4b.tumblr.com/post/171454275835/illogical-comments-by-lilly-part-1-statement-1

Part 2: https://the-e4b.tumblr.com/post/171603354360/illogical-comments-by-lilly-part-2-statement-2

Also here is the screenshot again for the conversation:

The same as before I am doing this Ace Attorney style.

Lily clearly loves to be called a she because she identify herself as a women, but because of the evidence, I have seen so far. She does not deserve to be called that, I will be referring to Lily, just Lily or just as an it. Yes she does not deserve to be called a human until she acknowledges her disorder.

Argument 1:

9:18 - Spam. See 4:45 10:00 –

HOLD IT!

He just gave you an compliment, so how is that spam? This confirms that again Lily does not know what Spam is. Refer back to part 1.

Argument 2:

You seem like the kind of fellow that has an easy way with words, but a hard time at the same time. This is a self-contradicting statement. Please think about what you're saying BEFORE you're saying. If the best explanation you can give is that you aren't very eloquent, then just don't leave comments instead of running your mouth for the sake of running your mouth.

HOLD IT!

I have to ask here again, why is Lilly putting effort and time here? If she really does not want to invest time and effort here correcting him? And that in Lily’s eyes is well wasted time? Clearly it just wants other people to shut up. Refer to part 2 conclusion to know what I am talking about.

Argument 3:

“Big problem with any kind of discourse is people who have opinions who have no idea WHY they even have their opinions.”

OBJECTION!

If one person isn't as good as the other at expressing themselves clearly, the more advanced person should help them by asking questions about their feelings. Lily, however, seems unwilling to help anyone and give them a chance, and would rather just dismiss the opposition completely.

When Lily said that we needed to be confident with our opinions, Lily didn't seem to understand what confidence actually meant.

TAKE THAT!

Definition of confidence: “the quality of being certain of your abilities.”

Source: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/confidence

If Lilly claims it is certain of its abilities why is it not trying to understand the other side here and do its best here to prove this person wrong? Well it tells us this:

That she clearly was missing this was the point of the MLP Episode Stranger than Fanfiction --> The conclusion of the episode reflects what I have said.

She does not understand what confidence means (again another sign of ignorance).

Lily is actually running it's mouth, while she wants other people that are running their mouth to shut up.

She is actually uncertain about itsself and this is a defence mechanism

“They seemingly chose them randomly and don't question or develop them any further. And in a discussion where "In my opinion" isn't a viable excuse (which outside the internet is ALL OF THEM) you will hit a wall immediately. “

“Disabling Likes and Dislikes is not contradicting myself. “The Like and Dislike system has been worthless since its implementation, it's only use being for idiots to rank their opinions on a video without having to think.”

OBJECTION!

This will be a repeat of another comment I made here, where I noticed a contradiction in my questioning of Lily.

Go here: https://the-e4b.tumblr.com/post/171355559580/a-contradiction-i-noticed-in-my-questioning-of

Lilly you are still implying that shallow opinions on entertainment are automatically insignificant or wrong and that people who make them are arrogant and lazy. You actually said it yourself:

“The Like and Dislike system has been worthless since its implementation, it's only use being for idiots to rank their opinions on a video without having to think.”

The only people who care about it being disabled are the people who are too lazy or too stupid to leave a comment worth reading, yet want to pretend their opinion matters anyway. And I don't make content for those people.”

I am gonna say the following here:

People may make shallow opinions not because they're lazy or stupid, but because they want to take a break from the outside world and not have to think deeply. This may be after they've had a long day at work or school or college, or things have been troubling them recently.

The important factor to consider is Time. For many people, constructing a nuanced, thought-out opinion takes up considerable time, given that they may have to watch the source material several times over, as well as to work out how to communicate the most effectively.

Drafting lengthy, nuanced opinions may be enjoyable for some, but not so fun for others. Nuanced opinions aren't necessarily more correct, they're instead more flashy - likely to attract more attention.”

By denying the like or dislike system, you still took that right of opinion away! No matter how much you claim you did not.

“Compared to Audience Retention, which uses data from 100% of viewers to show what people actually liked and disliked about the video by showing what they skipped and what they replayed, the Like/Dislike meter has long since outlived it's usefulness.”

OBJECTION!

The like/dislike bar can tell you a lot about how your video is perceived, but a disproportionate amount doesn’t necessarily mean that this particular video is “worse” than any others. It certainly can mean that, but sometimes, people dislike a video for something completely outrageous.

Yes you can argue because of that last one that it is useless for the content creator. However Audience Retention: Has one Big flaw!

I watch Lilly’s videos and go back to certain points in a video. Not because I personally like it but because I want to analyze some certain points Lilly made.

Granted, I might be the only doing such a thing but to be honest, I do not have the insight on how many people that watch Lilly's youtube videos and that do the things like I do.

It could be 1%,5%,10% of Lily's audience that does this, I just cannot say because I am lacking a metric unit I cannot see here. The Like/Dislike system.

I can compare how many Likes and Dislikes the videos has in comparison to the on how many times it was viewed. Not everyone leaves a like and dislike after all.

It might be useless as a content creator. But not for the audience.

And again this is evidence, and what she really thinks of her audience.

Argument 4:

“The only people who care about it being disabled are the people who are too lazy or too stupid to leave a comment worth reading, yet want to pretend their opinion matters anyway. And I don't make content for those people”

Then I am asking to you, who are you making content for then? Lilly clearly has one kind of audience in mind. Considering what I have said in Part 1 and Part 2 it is obvious! Another sign of Narcissism.

There was a certain other conversation going above here and oh boy…it is juicy evidence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wns_5c03JcM&lc=UgisrLWD3gJZ33gCoAEC

Going to the following response that Lilly made:

“In reality, nobody worth their salt as an intellectual thinker would believe the Youtube comments section to be anything other than a cesspit of horrible people precisely BECAUSE most Youtubers refuse to moderate their comments sections. The fact that this very comment chain exists and that I'm wasting my time trying to explain an obvious situation to people who aren't going to listen anyway is itself proof. People who believe "moderation = censorship" are the reason Youtube's comments section are garbage. If you still believe that this is nothing more than a circle jerk after reading through all the examples of me engaging with people in the comments, you're just an idiot. Plain and simple. You're a fucking idiot believing whatever makes them feel more comfortable.”

Yeah…Lily clearly shot itself in the foot here. I have gone through the comment section and I clearly see some arguments, that Lilly is still being a jerk. Does this make me an idiot or is Lily the Idiot here?

You know what People, do what I did, take screenshots of the conversations Lilly is in and post them here. Prove Lilly wrong here, dig in the comment section of her video’s, take screenshots. REBLOG all my three posts.

CONCLUSSION!

Part 1: Sings of Ignorance and Bias

Signs of ignorance, also clearly a Bias of who it wants to listen to or not. This is understandable somewhat, but I am questioning this, because it does not want to admit this.

Clearly people who agree with her get priority, or at least too stupid so that they go on their knees and "worship her” by saying Lilly is 100% right.

Part 2: Further evidence for Part 1 and the mindset she has

Lilly has a mindset that should not be surprised that it would not only be interpreted as arrogant, ignorant, hypocritical, illogical but also and here is the kicker (Ironically) disrespectful to that person’s opinion and even more insulting to the right of Freedom of Speech. Even though Lilly is claiming you are not against it, you actually mean the opposite.

Part 3: Further evidence for part 2 and singns of defense mechanism.

Clear signs of a defense mechanism, and only seeing things from here side and not ignoring the flaws in her reasoning.

MAIN CONCLUSSION!

DeathlyTaco already made analysis of Lily so I am gonna quote him here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcGcKh7hQWI&lc=Ugy8Ima7OcxcSKSqm8l4AaABAg

Patterns:

Black-and-white thinking

Extremes of idealization and Emotional abuse

Mood swings/depression

Refusal to take responsibility for own actions

Projecting faults onto others

Possible Diagnosis: an actual personality disorder along the lines of Borderline Personality or Narcicisstic Personality. The fact that she still has that charming/funny/artistic/creative side that draws people in is further characteristic of such a disorder.

Actual Psychology guess of what is going on in Lily's mind:

"My emotional life is completely fucked up, so I'm gonna develop malignant coping/defense mechanisms that drag everyone down with me."

Kind of sad an pity-full. Too bad it will be Lilly's downfall in the end.

#screencap #link #Peet Post #submission

22 notes · View notes

oumakokichi · 7 years

Note

Hey!! I was wondering if you could talk a little about the similarities between Ouma and Chiaki? Thank you for your hard work!

Now there’s a fun question! I’ve talked pretty at lengthabout Ouma’s similarities (and his differences) to a number of characters, butnow that I think about it, I’m not sure I’ve ever really gone super in-depthwith comparing him to Nanami before.

Even now, many people are still inclined to think that Oumais meant to parallel Komaeda or Junko due to his surface-level similarities withthem. But I’m still firmly of the opinion that those similarities are there todraw a more striking contrast with them further down the road, and thatanalyzing his character in more depth reveals a lot more deliberate parallelswith characters like Nanami instead, as surprising as that might sound.

I think it’s necessary to write a post comparing the two ofthem, considering the fact that those parallels are so intentional. It’s nocoincidence that they share a number of sprite similarities, or that theirphysical appearance overall is so similar. While Ouma is the most strongly paralleledwith Kirigiri in terms of trying to actively stop the killing game byundermining the mastermind from behind the scenes, I would say he’s even morestrongly paralleled with Nanami in terms of their roles within the groups oftheir respective games.

The easiest place to start is by expanding on those physicalsimilarities I mentioned earlier. Not only are their heights and hairstylesextremely similar to one another (far more similar than Ouma’s physicalresemblance to any other DR character), but there’s also the fact that some oftheir sprites are nearly identical. The excited sprite, as well as the onewhere he falls asleep in the middle of conversations, are pretty obviousthrowbacks.

I don’t think there’s anyone who could deny that thosesprites were clearly meant to be reminiscent of Nanami—moreso considering howmuch emphasis is put on Ouma’s “childish quality that makes him hard to hate,”in spite of how annoying he can be. Even some of their voiced lines in-gamebear striking resemblances to one another; they share quite a few of the samechildish “What a bummer… (がっかり)” and “Huh? (あれれ？) “lines for their sprite changes. Again, I feel the similarities are 100%deliberate there.

Another thing I think is particularly striking about the twoof them is their interest in games. Nanami, of course, is the SHSL Gamer, butwe also know that Ouma is someone who treats anything and everything around himas a game. Kodaka himself admitted that Ouma is the first character in theseries who treats the trials themselves like a game, and it’s hard not to lookat Ouma’s long-winded speech about “playing in hard mode” and “never using the ‘runaway’ option in an RPG” without remembering all of Nanami’s video game talk.

Games provide so many different opportunities for fun andentertainment. Considering how childish and immature Ouma is, it’s obvious thathe uses games as a distraction from the boredom that he feels. It’s not aboutwinning—it’s about achieving an unexpected or interesting outcome. Almost allof his FTEs with Saihara are about playing games together, including many ofwhich he either ties or loses on purpose simply to see what Saihara will donext. This culminates in his final FTE, where he basically all but flat-outtells Saihara word-for-word that he was losing on purpose, and advises him thatthere are “games that can be won without playing.”

If we take into account all of the chess imagery associatedwith Ouma, both in the kanji for his last name, his checkered scarf pattern,and the fact that he quite literally strategizes and calculates like a masterchess player throughout the game, then it would be extremely interesting if hisactual SHSL talent was something along the lines of “SHSL Chessmaster,” or even“SHSL Gamer” in a different sense. This would, of course, help to perfectlyexplain why he views things in termsof games, and would mesh with his claim in Chapter 5 that he had to view the killinggame through these terms or else he wouldn’t have been able to push himself tomove forward.

The similarities don’t stop there, however. While Ouma andNanami are already considerably similar in terms of how they look and theirchildish association with gaming, there are a lot more parallels between thetwo of them than I think most people would consider at a first glance. Dr3 didsuch a huge disservice to Nanami’s character that it’s hard sometimes toremember what she was like back in sdr2, but she was considerably cheekier andmore of a brat than she gets credit for. In fact, whenever Ouma isn’t doing hisvillain routine, a lot of their lines read quite similarly.

I’ve actually been doing an sdr2 reread recently, now that I’vefinished my dr1 reread, and I was highly amused to notice the other day that Nanamiherself often pulls pranks or lies in order to relieve the tension, much likeOuma. In Chapter 2, when both she and Hinata visit Mahiru’s cottage to searchfor clues during the investigation, there’s a point in which she flat-out jokesabout looking for a porn stash, which startles Hinata for a few seconds beforehe realizes she did it to alleviate the tension in the room.

In Chapter 3, she also gets so fed up with Hinata and theothers doubting her ability to investigate that she goes off to the conferenceroom in the hospital by herself. When Hinata follows, all the lights are offand the blackout curtain is pulled over the window, and she ominously tells himthat she’s “fully exposed,” and says for him to “poke out his eyes” if he wantsher to turn the lights back on.

Hinata, of course, freaks out and says he won’t do it, andshe responds with another “…Aww, bummer.” When Hinata asks her afterwards whyshe did that in the first place, she cheerfully explained that it “just seemedfun.” It was so incredibly similar to Ouma that you could’ve swapped Hinata andNanami’s names with Ouma’s and Saihara’s and it would’ve read pretty much thesame.

My point is that while Ouma is undeniably the brattier andmore ominous-seeming one of the two of them, Nanami is still quite sly when she wants to be, and doesenjoy her share of childish pranks and tricks. I think part of her AI programming in sdr2 inparticular means that she enjoys trying to do things on her own and playingfun, harmless pranks for the fun of it, just to see what’ll happen. She andOuma both are people who quite like teasing others, as long as no one’sactually getting hurt out of it.

The most important parallel between the two of them though,in my opinion, is the fact that they are perhaps two of the characters who are the most morally against murder in theentire Danganronpa franchise. While both of them are perfectly capable ofunderstanding why people are driven to commit murder, and while they certainlydon’t hate murderers necessarily, both Ouma and Nanami emphasize again andagain that murder is something which should never be forgiven or brushed underthe rug.

Both of them strive to stop the killing game in theirrespective games because of their moral aversion to murder and death. This iswhat sets Ouma apart from Kirigiri on some level. Kirigiri does try to end thekilling game in dr1, but mostly because it’s her role as a detective to solveany mystery thrust at her, and this is something she follows rigorously evenwhen she doesn’t actually remember that she’s a detective. Ouma and Nanami,meanwhile, are much more empathetic. Overall, it’s their distaste for humansuffering and death that drives them to end the killing game.

Nanami has an entire speech in Chapter 2 of sdr2 about how “murderis something that should never, ever be forgiven.” She says it’s important thatthey keep all of their deceased classmates in their heart, but also that it’sequally important to not forgive murder or say that it’s excusable. Each time anew murder occurs, she often becomes quiet and withdrawn, and even wondersaloud in Chapter 4 if it’s “something she can’t stop, no matter how hard shetries.”

While one could argue that she only wants to stop thekilling because it’s “part of her programming,” I think it’s much more likelythat her empathy is genuine. As an AI who has never actually had an opportunityto connect with her classmates or had friends before, and who is decidedly differentfrom her real-life counterpart of dr3 Nanami, her desire to stop the killinggame reads as an AI taking it upon herself and into her own hands to try andstop a horrible situation that keeps escalating out of control.

Ouma’s distaste for murder isn’t outright confirmed until latein Chapter 5 and Chapter 6, but is still hinted at throughout the gamenonetheless. In Chapter 1, he’s one of the only characters to still openlyclaim that Kaede was wrong for attempting to take someone’s life, and heoutright calls himself a pacifist who “keeps the peace from the shadows” in hisFTEs with Saihara. All of these things, and particularly his motive video withDICE in Chapter 6 which confirms that their motto was “we don’t kill people,” confirmthat he was absolutely telling the truth in Chapter 5 when he said he hated thekilling game and resented the ringleader and audience alike for putting themthrough it.

It’s quite striking to me how similar the two of them are,even though they seem so drastically different at a first glance. Both of themessentially play the same role within the group, but go about their goals throughcompletely different methods. Both want to stop the killing game, both want tokeep the group from completely falling apart and, if possible, stop any moredeaths from happening.

But while Nanami plays the role of a reassuring, soothing presence,Ouma intentionally builds himself up to look bigger and badder than he actuallyis. Nanami embraces her classmates with warmth and reassurance, and often takesthe lead in investigations and other crises in order to give them a leg tostand on. Ouma, meanwhile, tries to intimidate his classmates out of theircomplacency, challenging them to think critically about the situation that they’reall in and to stop putting blind trust in one another when it’s so clearlydangerous. He gives them an easy target to hate, by setting himself up to bethe ringleader, and tries to push and prod them into stopping the murders fromthe shadows.

Basically, Nanami’s role is one of an outsider trying toplay an inclusive role in a group that she can’t quite actually be a part of.Even though she’s an AI, and more specifically, the “traitor,” she still placesherself within the group to be a leader and a protective figure for the rest ofthem. Ouma, on the other hand, is someone who could’ve been a part of the groupfrom the start but who intentionally made himself into an outcast in order totry and “draw the old maid,” so to speak. By othering himself from the group,he tried to teach the rest of them to doubt and suspect one another again andagain, while also attempting to steal control of the killing game away from thereal ringleader.

Interestingly enough, Nanami herself is far more inagreement with Ouma’s opinion than with the rest of the ndrv3 characters’though, when it comes to “truth,” “lies,” and “belief.” Again on my sdr2 reread,I was somewhat blown away during the Chapter 3 trial, when Mikan was attemptingto manipulate the group into stopping their accusations by crying and insistingthat there was no way someone as “weak” or “stupid” as her could’ve pulled offsuch horrible murders. While everyone else became clearly uncomfortable withaccusing a seemingly timid, meek girl who they thought of as their friend,Nanami was the first character to speak up about the need for doubt andsuspicion.

She chimes in assertively, stating that “belief” and “doubt”aren’t necessarily opposites of one another. Like Ouma and Kirigiri both, sheclaims that in order to actually, fully trust someone, you have to doubt andsuspect them first. Without having doubted them and gotten to know them, thenthere’s no real reason to trust or believe them. And, word for word, she saysthat “Belief without doubt is simply a lie.”

Given ndrv3’s themes of “truth vs. lies,” and its attemptsto subvert expectations from the previous two games, I wouldn’t be surprised atall if Nanami and Ouma seemed so different on the surface in order to maketheir underlying parallels all the more striking. At a first glance, he seemsto have much more in common with characters like Komaeda or Junko—and he oftenencourages both the other characters and the player themselves to think of himas an openly antagonistic figure. But upon examining his actual mindset andmotivations, it’s quite clear that he and Nanami actually have far more incommon with one another, which isn’t something I think anyone expected prior tothe game’s release.

To put it more simply: both Ouma and Nanami wanted to endtheir respective killing games, both of them are liars of a sort, and both ofthem are extremely childish but empathetic people who can’t forgive or condonemurder. While both of them certainly exhibit understanding for and evensympathy towards the killers in their groups, they also always strive to makesure that the act of killing itself isn’t brushed under the rug or thought ofas something excusable or without consequences.

I hope this answered your question, anon! Thank you so muchfor giving me the chance to talk about them both in more detail, it was a lotof fun! I can’t believe I waited this long to do a comparison like this,actually.

#ndrv3 #new danganronpa v3 #sdr2 #kokichi ouma #chiaki nanami #ndrv3 spoilers //#my meta #okay to reblog #i'm really happy with how this particular piece of meta came out #i haven't had a lot of time to write lately what with all the translating #but this one was a lot of fun and i hope people enjoy it #anonymous

247 notes · View notes