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wrenthemoralfander · 1 year

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Married Characters: Should you ship them?

My opinion on married characters in video games.

Hello Class.

Today we will be discussing married characters and my opinions on them being shipped with others. I will be mentioning ships.

The video games characters we will be discussing in our first lesson are as followed:

Felix Richter

Waylon Park

Lee Everett

We will also be discussing the video games that they are in. (These will come in separate post. So we’ll be discussing two for the first one, three for the second one, and we’ll see about the third one.)

•Dead By Daylight (Parts One and Three)

•Outlast (Whistleblower DLC) (Part one)

•Resident Evil Biohazard/Village. (Part Two)

•God of War (Part Two)

•Bloodborne (Part Two or Three)

•Dark Deception (Parts Two and Three)

•Silent Hill (Part Two)

•Telltale The Walking Dead (Parts One and Three)

Now, have I played these games? I have for dead by daylight and the Walking dead. I have not played outlast.

My opinion will be revealed at the end. Please note, my opinion will not be based on as a whole but will be based on case-by-case basis.

Warning: spoilers ahead.

Let’s start off with Felix Ritcher.

Game: Dead By Daylight

In Felix’s case, time is irrelevant, he doesn’t know where the fuck he is, nor if time has passed. He lives in a world where he is playing cat and mouse with killers trying to sacrifice him.

Death is not an escape and in the real world, nobody knows where the fuck Felix went. No survivor knows when they are getting out, let alone if they will get out.

Felix doesn’t know if he’ll ever see his wife or unborn kid again. He has hope but the entity’s gradually feeding off that hope, as the entity feeds off the emotions of the survivors.

The answer for Felix is: You can ship him if you want, it’s fine if you don’t. With Felix, I really don’t care if he gets shipped or if he doesn’t.

Next, Let’s look at Waylon Park

Game: Outlast (Whistleblower)

Now, I have not played the game Outlast but I know enough about Waylon to discuss him.

Waylon is an interesting case.

In his case, he is married to a woman named Lisa park. I do not know anything about Lisa, but I do know Waylon’s relationship with her seems to be very loving. They have two kids and have a very loving marriage.

I know enough about fandom’s to know that people will ship whatever the fuck they want. However in Waylon’s case, that should probably be avoided. For the reason of, every other character, for the most part, is outlast is insane and tries to kill him.

A lot of ppl ship Weddie, which is the ship between Waylon Park and Eddie Gluskin. However, I have watched a lot of people play Outlast Whistleblower and I can safely say.

Do not ship Waylon with Eddie.

The reason I say this… It’s mainly because of what he does in canon.

He misgenders us, degrades Waylon, kidnaps Waylon, drugs him with sleeping spray, tries to cut off Waylon’s genitals, tries to force him to marry Eddie, and as he’s trying to Murder Waylon, bodyshames him.

Eddie literally says after Waylon hurts his foot from falling off a ladder, “You’d rather die than be with me? Then die.”

He literally tells him that if he doesn’t wanna be with him then he can die.

The answer for Waylon is this: You could but you probably shouldn’t. I say this because in his case, shipping him with anyone that is in Mount Massive Asylum is probably a bad idea.

Finally, let us look at Lee Everett.

Game: Telltale’s: The Walking Dead

Lee Everett is a complicated case.

He technically is married so he is getting put on the list.

Now, he loved his wife, he did. They had a good marriage or at least Lee thought so. He thought that his wife genuinely cared about him.

Unfortunately, he came home to his wife cheating on him with a senator. Love cannot exist without trust. And the fact is, his wife didn’t really love him. He came home and caught his wife cheating on him with a senator, causing Lee to lose it, and kill the senator.

Now, is that OK to do? Absolutely not but it is not OK to murder in response to cheating however, Lee did show regret, and remorse for his actions, not because of plot armor, but because he’s human. And in the game, spoiler ahead, he starts to fall for someone.

To answer the question of whether we should ship him or not, the answer is: you can if you want, and it’s OK if you do. Just as long as it’s healthy.

My opinion in general:

I’m pretty neutral on it.

I look at the characters and the stories/gameplay. SoIt’s that sometimes I don’t ship these characters, sometimes I do, but overall? I don’t care. As long as the relationship is healthy.

#dead by daylight #outlast #outlast whistleblower #felix richter #waylon park #twd telltale #lee everett #my opinion #ship analysis #part one

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inbarfink · 1 year

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Any analysis of how Undertale deals with Pacifism and how it tries to guide the Player towards it has to take a deep look at Papyrus. Because Papyrus is the one character in the game who will never kill, the one actual ‘True Pacifist’ in the game’s main cast.

I mean, the Player can be an even bigger Pacifist. Papyrus does still FIGHT, and the Player can get through an entire run without draining a single sliver of HP. But… they can also be the world’s biggest murderbastard and literally stab reality to death.

Toriel would very much like to not kill, but she is also fully capable of doing so.

Same with Asgore, but he has a lot more actual blood on his hands. Undyne and Mettaton are both fully 100% willing to kill to accomplish their goals. Sans is non-violent in most runs because he’s too lazy and depressed to do anything, and when he is motivated into actions - it is in the form of a FIGHT to the death. Alphys… the timeline is a bit fuzzy cause both she and Mettaton love lying so much, but it seems like she did sincerely add deadly weapons to Mettaton cause killing humans would make him more 'useful' and then had second thoughts once she developed a parasocial relationship with the Human Child and THEN she and Mettaton started hatching their little play-acting plan. I think??

With Papyrus there is NONE of this ambiguity, we know for sure - no matter what timeline or what may come - The Great Papyrus will always choose MERCY.

And the interesting thing about that is on a Meta-Sense, Papyrus is a very rare example of the game giving MERCY towards the Player.

Because the game starts out being really obtuse with the Sparing mechanic and how it works. If you want to be a Pacifist in Undertale from the get-go, you’re gonna have to work for it. You're gonna have to figure it out on your own and commit to it and believe that it's possible. It's basically a test of your own belief in non-violence and your moral integrity. Then, the RUINS end with the Toriel boss battle - in a way, that’s probably the hardest Sparing puzzle in the whole game. And it’s very very easy to accidentally kill her. (I’d almost say that’s the intention of the battle, to try to goad the Player into Resetting so they can see how the game remembers across RESETs)

And then we have Papyrus, and it’s not just that his ‘Sparing Puzzle’ is something as simple as outlasting him and letting him run out of dialogue - and it’s not just that he’s the only boss that will just give up and let you continue if you lose to him enough times. it’s also that, just as Papyrus is the only boss incapable of accidentally killing the Player - he’s also the only boss that the player is incapable of accidentally killing.

(Okay, fine, to be pedantic, there’s also Asgore)

I mean, the Player can certainly kill him if they want to - but draining Papyrus’s HP just makes him skip through his battle dialogue right to the end of it. It’s designed in such a way that, no matter what Route you're on and no matter what approach you take with Papyrus - you will always end up on this screen.

Unlike basically any other Monster in this game, including the major boss battle just before him - you can’t kill Papyrus accidently. You can't kill him without also having Sparing him as an option. The game kinda treats killing Papyrus as one of the Worst Things You Can Do because killing Papyrus will always be a deliberate, considered action done to a person who will not kill you and who has stopped wanting to FIGHT and has extended a hand of Mercy. With the game clearly communicating what you need to do to Spare him at that moment.

And that means that - even if you killed before, even if you don’t have the patience of a True Pacifist, even if you spent all this time in the game without even trying to engage with the Sparing mechanic… as long as you don’t want to be a Huge Rat Bastard, the game is basically gifting you with the very very easy option to not be. Being a Pacifist in Undertale is usually a challenge - a puzzle to be solved, a test to pass. But as long as you aren’t intentionally trying to be the Worst Person - the game is basically giving you Papyrus.

If you accept his Mercy, you are accepting the game’s Mercy. That sort of benefit-of-the-doubt assumption that maybe all of the LOVE you might have accumulated so far was all due to honest mistakes or panic or an attempt in self-defense. That you still deserve this one chance to prove that you are not intentionally, maliciously cruel - or at least not like the Worst Person in the World. Even if you did kill before, you still deserve at least one friend.

And Sparing Papyrus leads you to his wonderful Hangout/Dating Sequence and to his Phone Calls and they all add so much wholesome charm to the Undertale experience and no matter what happens Papyrus will always think the best of the Player and he will always trust them and it also makes Sans also kinda your buddy by default. And more than just adding a little bit of wholesome charm into even the more LOVE-filled Playthroughs, I think this is meant to try and incentivize these players into trying out the Mercy mechanic a bit more.

Whatever it’s, like, for future playthroughs or Resetting the game right there to try a True Pacifist Run right there and then or just trying to be a little kinder for the rest of this current playthrough - especially since there’s an emphasis about the close friendship Papyrus has with the upcoming boss Undyne, and to a lesser extent with his idol and next-next boss battle Mettaton. It’s like “well, if you didn’t figure out how to spare before, this is how you do it? And isn’t it nice to have a friend? Isn’t it nice to not have to kill this lovable skeleton man? You should do this more often wink wink nudge nudge!”

And it’s like… all of Papyrus’ loved ones care about him so much but they also look down on his pacifism. They see his inability to kill and desire to make friends as simple naivete and that’s why all tend to hide the truth from him all the time. About what will happen to the Human he will capture, about what his new Human friend might’ve done, about the fact that they view him as so naïve.

They admire it on some level, that’s why they want to protect it, but they also see it as a weakness which is why they want to protect it by lying to him all the time. But, you know, Undyne says that if Papyrus goes into battle he’ll be ‘ripped into little smiling shreds’ and that is certainly what happens every time a Player chooses to refuse Papyrus’ Mercy and the game’s Mercy and press that FIGHT button…

But have you thought about all the times that doesn’t happen? All the careless or violent players who were offered that skeletal hand of friendship, accepted it and then carried that offered kindness forward for the rest of the game? All the players motivated to do good for the sake of their buddy Papyrus? All the Murder Routes stopped because the player just didn’t have it in them to kill someone who believes in them so earnestly?

Like, no, it’s not a surefire thing - especially since Papyrus has so much less narrative power than the Actual Unkillable Time God that is the Player. But it happened, and it happened many many times to many players. Papyrus offered Mercy, the game offered Mercy. And much like Frisk’s Pacifism, it comes from a place of seeing the honest goodness in your ‘enemy’ and can inspire them to become a better person - this little sparkle of goodness being passed forwards.

And I think that’s beautiful, even if it didn’t happen in every timeline. Any potential future where Papyrus’ kindness can have such an effect on the Player and thus the entire trajectory of the Underground validates his kindness and pacifism on some level - even if there are also always the potential worlds that it backfires completely.

And there’s also one other way in which the Great Papyrus Proves Pacifism Pays. One that is a bit more practical, perhaps. And one that Papyrus himself is not even aware of.

Papyrus’ boss battle can be a surprisingly challenging one specifically because he is the only one who doesn’t kill the Player.

Like there is a reason why Papyrus will just offer you to skip his Fight after you lose to him three times, because if he didn’t do that - there’s an honest risk that the Player can get stuck in a much stuckier way than anywhere else in the game.

Because, like, for basically any other character in the game, being killed is the Worst Thing that could ever happen to them. For everyone except the actual Player Character because we are an Actual Unkillable Time God and dying is nothing more than a minor annoyance that sets you back to your last SAVE Point. So, leaving aside Papyrus’ admirably kind intentions - there is not much material difference from the Player’s perspective between getting Captured and getting a more traditional GAME OVER. Except…

Except getting Captured does not undo everything that happened in your inventory during the battle. In every other Undertale battle, if you use all of your items but still lose - the GAME OVER at least means you get your stuff back. But because Papyrus doesn’t kill you, any healing item you’ve used during the battle is still used. I have watched so many Undertale Let’s Players waste all of their valuable items on their first Papyrus battle and then have to face him again without them and thus do even worse in their second go… and then their third go... and thankfully then Papyrus offers them to skip the fight.

And while that technically can be circumvented by just manually closing the game and opening it back again on their pre-battle SAVE Point, a lot of players are gonna reflexively Save over it if they pop over to the Shop or the Snowed Inn before their second attempt at the battle. If Papyrus didn’t offer that chance to skip his battle, it could’ve easily become a softlock situation for a huge chunk of players - because he doesn’t kill the Player.

Most of Undertale deals with the value of non-violence from a standpoint of morality and kindness and personal connections. Since most people do die when they get killed. But when dealing with an Unkillable Time God like the Player, Papyrus proves that not-killing might actually be the most practical solution.

Of course, it doesn’t seem like Papyrus is aware of any of this. From his perspective, he is just offering genuine mercy to a being just as ephemeral as he is. But it accidentally turned into one of the most effective methods of blocking the Player’s way… at least he didn’t offer us an opt out so soon after that.

And it’s interesting when comparing him to how his brother Sans - one of the few people actually aware of the existence of SAVEs and RESETs - deals with the Player. Because the Sans boss battle at the end of the Murder Route is entirely based on the concept that death is nothing but an annoyance to the Player. Sans is less trying to kill the Player (the way Undyne the Undying did), he is simply trying to annoy the Player into a ragequit. But he is still killing the Player.

Now imagine a Sans battle where he has all of his usual annoying tricks, but also instead of killing you - he captures you just like his brother would’ve in a happier timeline. And while it’s not a fool-proof plan to stop the Player in their tracks - he could very easily stick them in that sort of softlock situation where they have to battle him again and again without any Healing Items. Forcing them to either abandon the game or RESET the whole world back the way it was - just like Sans wants them too.

But instead, by killing the Player, he is just allowing that perfect second-third-fourth-fifth-sixth-try where they get all of their Stuff back. And he does actually knows that. And why doesn’t he do that? (Speaking here from an in-universe character study perspective. Obviously the Doylist answer is that the game doesn’t want to Softlock you even in the most deliberately-frustrating part of the game).

Maybe, even though he intellectually knows that killing the Player will be of no help - he still does it because he wants to. Because he just wants to get back at the evil murderous monster that took his brother from him and destroyed his entire world even if he knows it’s actually ineffective. And this thirst for bloodshed is, ironically, blinding him from a new exciting way to actually practically stop that murderous bastard who is themself motivated entirely by bloodshed.

Maybe he just can’t do something like that. Reducing an enemy to exactly one HP and then stopping is not a feat anyone else in the game is capable of pulling off - even the ones who would obviously use such a thing (like Toriel or a Player with a Pacifist intentions). Maybe it’s something that requires a lot of hard practice and discipline and carefulness, that Sans never thought to put in because he didn’t see it as a useful skill the way Papyrus did.

Maybe that wouldn’t have worked anyways. After all, and that’s something I kinda touched on in a previous Overly Long Rambly Hot Take - Sans’ War of Attrition against the Player is greatly helped by the fact he can’t remember every single previous try and so he can’t get exhausted the way the Player can get. Obviously, without a GAME OVER induced RESET that will not apply. Which is especially notable because… Sans’ laziness is literally what brings him down at the end of that Boss Battle.

So maybe, while Papyrus, as long as you decline his offer to skip the battle, is capable of offering just the same Battle as before over and over and over again.... It’s possible that Sans just won’t be able to pull off two or three or more battles of the same intensity and difficulty in a row without a RESET to undo his own exhaustion.

But I think it’s at least worth considering the option, y’know? That after all this time of viewing Papyrus’ kindness as sweet-and-yet-kinda-foolish-naïveté - that exact viewpoint made Sans overlook the perfect solution to dealing with his little Murderous Time God problem. Cause he just never considered that while killing might be fully morally justifiable in this situation and very very satisfying, that does not necessarily mean it is actually the most practical solution. And that maybe, in a weirdly twisted way, Pacifism WAS the answer.

#undertale #ut #utdr #under tale #papyrus #the great papyrus #papyrus undertale #papyrus ut #sans #sans undertale #sans ut #sans the skeleton #papyrus the skeleton #undertale analysis #undertale meta #genocide route #genocide run

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emmg · 20 days

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Male gamers: This female character doesn't tickle my pickle :(

The girlies: Based on the subtle arch of Emmrich's left eyebrow - scientifically measured at a precise 27-degree lift - and the immaculate symmetry of his sideburns, which might as well be a masterclass in facial geometry, it's abundantly clear that he's a Scorpio who has perfected the art of tying not just Rook's cravat but also their hands, likely using a double Windsor knot, because anything less would be an insult to his Tevinter pedigree. His moustache, with its exact 43.5-degree downward curvature, practically screams 'Tevinter patriarch' (henceforth referred to as daddy), the kind who probably has a full drawer full of necromantic accessories ready for when the mood strikes.

I've also conducted a thorough color analysis of his chest hairs, which align perfectly with Pantone 430C - a shade that exudes a distinguished air of 'I've outlasted a few blood rituals, and I'm here for more.'

The final point of this analysis focuses on the way light interacts with the subject's trousers, casting subtle shadows that - upon closer inspection - strongly suggest that his cock, henceforth referred to in this study as the "Necromancer's Scepter," measures exactly...

#dragon age #dragon age veilguard #emmrich volkarin #da4 emmrich #da4 #it's me i'm the girlies #so ready for this thirst trap #i am regrettably drunk so details may be wrong

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r-is-typing · 2 months

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peter | s.r

summary: in which love didn't outlast the challenges of time

requested?: no!

pairing: spencer reid x fem!reader

category: angst

content warnings: honestly just hardcore angst (sorry)

word count: 1k

based on 'peter' by taylor swift

The year was 1994. The sweltering heat in Las Vegas beat down on the quiet neighborhood. Two children stood in front of a white picket fence.

"Do you really have to go?" The young girl looked at her best friend with a frown. The pair was twelve, having to say goodbye. "I'll come back." The boy said, voice full of promises. The girl's breath hitched, looking towards their mother's who watched the childrens exchange.

"You'll keep in touch." Another promise. Y/N nods, the naivety of it all not dawning on her. She knew Spencer had to go. Caltech wanted him. He'd be stupid to turn down such an amazing opportunity and Spencer Reid was anything but stupid.

I thought it was just goodbye for now.

Y/N sighed, hugging her best friend tightly as they whispered promises to eachother. "This isn't goodbye. I'll be back. We'll write each other. It only takes 6 days approximately for letters to go from here in Las Vegas to Caltech." Her friend was too smart for his own good. No wonder he was starting college at the ripe age of thirteen.

You said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me.

Y/N stood with her mother, tears swimming in her eyes. "I'll come back, okay?" Spencer comforted the girl one last time. "Okay." The girl nods, hugging him tightly, memorizing everything about him she can before it's too late.

Words from the mouths of babes; promises, oceans deep.

Before his mother and father pack his entire life into a car and drive to Caltech. Before he starts a new life. Before Spencer Reid forgot about her. Before promises were broken.

But never to keep. Oh, never to keep.

"Happy birthday to you!" The voices of her friends droned on like background noise as Y/N stared at her cake. The '22' candle staring at her. Here she was, working two jobs to pay for community college all while her childhood best friend had just joied the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit.

The next few years go by quick, but somehow slow at the same time. She thinks often of him and what he's doing as the time goes on. Did he think of her like she thinks of him? Does he even remember her?

Are you still a mind reader? A natural scene stealer.

Now, Y/N turns 25. Spencer is now a well-known agent in the FBI, numerous PhD's. Again, she isn't surprised. She knew from the moment she met him at seven that he'd be brilliant.

I've heard great things, Peter.

One day, while working a shift at the diner she worked nights at, the bell rings. Her eyes dart up, ready to welcome the customers. She freezes. She hasn't seen him in years, but *she knew.*

"Hi."

You said you were gonna grow up

Spencer stood in front of her, of course looking older than she had seen him last at thirteen. Her eyes studied him, unable to move from her position. She studied the outfit he wore. The button up, the watch turned inwards, the gun in the holster at his hip. It was her Spencer, but grown.

Then, you were gonna come find me.

"I, uh, got this address from your mom." He says. She looks up at him, snapping out of the trance she was in. "I promised I'd come back, didn't I? I know it's been a long-"

"Twelve years."

Her abruptness makes Spencer cringe. He knew exactly how long it had been, but hearing her say it was a huge slap to the face. "I'm sorry." He pleads, but it's no use.

"I love you."

Twelve years ago, those words coming out of his mouth would've made the girl giddy inside, but now? She sets the coffee pot down and looks back at him.

And I won't confess that I've waited.

She scoffs softly. "You can't be serious." Y/N shakes her head, averting her eyes. "It's true." Spencer swears. Y/N steps closer to him. "You seriously think after twelve years I'm just going to let you swoop in like nothing ever happened?"

But I let the lamp burn.

"I waited for you. Days, weeks, months, years." Y/N says. She shakes her head, thinking about what to say to him next. She thinks about her past relationships, how they weren't him. Every person, Y/N pictured him, compared them to him. Y/N wished Spencer would come back, taking her away from it all like he promised all those years ago.

As the men masqueraded, I'd hope you'd return.

"And, finally, I got it through my head you weren't coming back." She spoke, her voice on the verge of breaking down at any moment. Y/N looked at him. "I stopped planning that fairytale reunion a long time ago, Spencer. I gave up hope that you'd ever come back."

And the shelf life of those fantasies has expired.

"I'm sorry that you came all this way, Spencer." Y/N says, standing in front of him now, her hands resting in the pockets of her sweater. "And I'm sorry that I couldn't wait thirteen years for you to realize you loved me like I loved you."

Forgive me, Peter. Please know that I tried to hold on to the days where you were mine.

"I'm not a naive little girl anymore, Spencer." Y/N says. She lifts her hands out of her pockets to grab a cup from the counter and that's when he sees it. The glimmering rock shines in his eyes as it hits the light. How could someone so smart miss something so obvious?

But the woman who sits by the window has turned out the light.

Spencer stares at the ring on her finger. "You're..." His head nods down in front of him and her eyes follow. She nods. "I am." She mutters. "I couldn't keep waiting. I had to move on sometime."

Spencer nods, understanding but upset. "I'm sorry." was all he could say. She looked at him with a tight-lipped smile. "I know." If only Spencer didn't make her a bunch of empty promises when they were younger, maybe it would've ended differently.

Promises, oceans deep; but never to keep.

r is typing...

so, yeah! i haven't written in months so hopefully this is my redemption! i hope you all enjoyed. sorry about my hiatus! i nearly cried writing this haha. i've been obsessed with this song for ages so it oly seemed necessary to make my first post back something based off of this song!

as always, check my masterlist here, leave me a request or say hello here, and join the taglist here!

all the love!

r is signing off...

taglist: @liltimmyst @elsiebishh @psychosociogentleman @louderfortheback @conniesanchor @cynbx

#spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid x fem!reader #spencer reid x reader #criminal minds #spencer reid #spencer reid angst #criminal minds x reader #r is typing #reqs open #requests open #r-is-typing

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19burstraat · 6 months

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queering futurity in crooked kingdom

if I had any real time for this (I do not) I'd be tempted to write a real essay about it, but I have a dissertation and two other real essays for my actual degree, so let's do a bad tunglr bullet point analysis. I'm... largely generalising and paraphrasing here, and I suspect this has a billion things to iron out or that I forgot about, but I hope this might be a bit interesting regardless of how much you may or may not know abt queer literary theory lmao.

in extreme short, there is a subset of queer theory around what is, in essence, queer time. there is a heteronormative future/'futurity', and it is marriage, children, a good job, a nice house, and dying at a good age after a fulfilling life. queer* and trans people both reject and often cannot access this: plenty couldn't/cannot get married or have children, or had to surpass lots of obstacles to do so, many queer and trans people were or are killed young, or died prematurely in the aids crisis. and so we get queer temporality; a resistance to the heteronormative future that is refused or inaccessible, and to reproductive futurism; the concept that people value the future over the present... and this manifests in kicking back against things like the symbolic 'child' as a representative of futurity. not real children, but empty platitudes like think of the children! think of the future for your children! there can also be a development of a death drive, which is sometimes literal and sometimes metaphorical, which is, again, basically a rejection of 'the future'.

while the grishaverse doesn't have homophobia as such, you can still do queer readings, bc it is ofc influenced by our world, by virtue of being Written By A Person From Our World. and especially in kerch, there's still stuff like patrilineal inheritance... buuuut reproductive futurity & friends are very deliberately destroyed by the end of crooked kingdom. mostly by the usual culprit (taps sign that says IT'S KAZ AGAIN LOL) but by the narrative and the other characters as well. walk w me! I don't think this is a real analysis more just a lot of Thoughts but... nvm

*used here as an umbrella term since the theory I'm pulling from is the field of queer theory

the two men (van eck and rollins) who are most concerned with reproductive futurism (having heirs and a legacy, 'building something that will outlast them'), are promptly buried under the rubble of their building efforts by our usual culprit. kaz uses the mentality of legacy and lineage against them both; he kidnaps van eck's pregnant wife to use as a bargaining chip, and he uses rollins's son and heir against him, because he knows what's most important to these men is their line, their work being handed down. he deduces that rollins has a son through rollins' vanity around building something to 'last', and his naming of the kaelish prince. rollins is literally themed around monarchy and descent; the king of the barrel, the kaelish prince, the emerald palace. kaz, for his part, is the bastard of the barrel. the illegitimate son, not produced by any conventional family structure, ketterdam his mother and profit his father... and therefore he is the perfect person to blow up this imagined monarchy

wylan is rejected by van eck for his disability, for being supposedly incapable of continuing his father's legacy; and so we gather that the actual child doesn't matter to van eck, it's what The Child represented to him, which was the future of the van eck company. the illegitimate kaz restores van eck's disowned son to the succession through sheer trickery, and jan van eck's trading empire is succeeded by his son he attempted to reject, and his farm-boy barrel-tough boyfriend. they bring home the first wife that van eck had committed, for failing to produce the 'perfect' heir. no perfect heteronormative future here!

(also by virtue of wylan and jesper being a mlm couple, there is now way less emphasis that can be put on the idea of biological children 'continuing' the line, and it somewhat stops the expectation that ruined wylan's life from being passed down)

the two m/f couples are also very distant from this idealised reproductive futurity. matthias dies, ruining any idea of a 'conventional' future he could have had with nina, and while his death is generally more about the extremist brainwashing stuff explored w the drüskelle, it does blow to shreds that futurity even more, and nina's power is also a very literal HEY GUYS. LET'S THINK ABOUT DEATH... plus she leaves ketterdam to take matthias to be buried at the end of the book.

kaz and inej both do very dangerous jobs and separate for long periods of time. they may marry or they may not, they may have children or they may not, they may be physical with one another or they may not. it doesn't really matter; they'll try, but we don't get to find out how far they may or may not get, which honestly I kinda like. their future is open, the river running carrying inej to the sea. also, inej makes an explicit rejection of this kind of 'normal' future:

So he wasn’t fit for a normal life. Was she meant to find a kindhearted husband, have his children, then sharpen her knives after they’d gone to sleep? How would she explain the nightmares she still had from the Menagerie? Or the blood on her hands?

we don't really know whether or not kaz as a character is queer (I do not think kaz knows either lol) but it doesn't really matter, you can still read him as a queer figure both a) just if you want to! and b) in this sense of queer temporality, bc he's the crux of a lot of it. we already covered the bastard thing and his happy habit of kicking reproductive futurism when it's down, and as Edelman says: 'If the fate of the queer is to figure the fate that cuts the thread of futurity...' well, kaz 'build something new. watch it burn' 'he knew exactly what he was going to leave behind: damage' brekker is our man!

he does not give a single flying fuck about the future. he destroyed van eck and rollins' legacies, and he'll do that shit again. he doesn't have enough of an ego to consider a 'legacy' for himself besides destruction, which is a rejection of a legacy in itself. his plans for the future amount to fucking shit up and making a bunch of money to use to do more damage, until he gets shot/stabbed/hanged/drowned/whatever, which he constantly anticipates.

kaz also has a massive distrust and disdain for traditional family structures, because he's seen them crumble twice; his actual family are all dead, and the hertzoon con was built on creating a convincing family mode to lure them in. "my mother is ketterdam, she birthed me in the harbour; my father is profit, I honour him daily" is a sneer at paterfamilias type families where the mother is there to just give birth and the father is the head of the family, to be honoured and served, rather than loved. he also has zero sympathy for the 'think of the children!' thing, bc he knows it's disingenuous; who thought of him? no one. rollins was happy to con kids with the false promise of family and safety, and all the people he paid off were happy to turn the other way. was there no one to look after you? no, there wasn't. his mother is ketterdam: filthy, feral ketterdam. no nurturing mother has he!

So he threatens Alby and Hanna with no qualms, because while he doesn't actually ever intend to hurt children (...not physically anyway, apparently upsetting them is fair game FJJFJD), he knows the power of the threat— the idea of the child— is often more impactful than the actual act itself. ("Inej, I could only kill Pekka’s son once. He can imagine his death a thousand times.") it certainly works on rollins and van eck! he'll make you think of the damn children alright!

inej takes direct action to defend actual children, not just the idea of them, and then we hear in rule of wolves she's hated by the kerch government for it because she's fucking with their profits. (look also to how they flapped about searching for wylan, one rich man's kid, and are completely useless about hundreds of forced indentures. what a surprise...)

she reunites with her parents, but she worries persistently about whether or not they will accept her for who she has become, and we are never quite told whether or not they do. we like to think so, but we don't actually know. and although she gets to see her parents again, her future is on the wraith, not with them.

most people have dead or splintered families, actually. only inej has both parents, and for three - four years, they didn't have a daughter.

The general proximity to death in general is very potent; nina's power, kaz's whole backstory, the camping out in a graveyard. jesper's recklessness and love for fights, inej being ready to die rather than be a captiver again and kaz's response to that being 'not just yet', rather than not at all...

all following into the whole no mourners, no funerals thing!!! the fact that they know they won't be remembered or cared about if they die!!!

Edelman: 'Choosing to stand, as many of us do, outside the cycles of reproduction, choosing to stand, as we also do, by the side of those living and dying each day with the complications of AIDS, we know the deception of the societal lie that endlessly looks toward a future whose promise is always a day away.'

SOC:

Inej's mother and father might still shed tears for the daughter they'd lost, but if Inej died tonight, there would be no one to grieve for the girl she was now.

“No mourners, no funerals. Another way of saying good luck. But it was something more. A dark wink to the fact that there would be no expensive burials for people like them, no marble markers to remember their names, no wreaths of myrtle and rose.”

pick up what I'm putting down guys please please I don't have time to tease this out properly but like. I think kaz and wylan are the linchpins here. (again)

#this is for / the fault of the people who encouraged this full post on the meme lmao #six of crows #crooked kingdom #kaz brekker #wylan van eck #inej ghafa #soc meta #soc duology #my post

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brybryby · 1 year

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I completely agree that Miles Upshore is queer, and Waylon is on the spectrum as well! If you have your friends analysis still plzzzzz link! I crave the content!!!

HI HI THANK YOU FOR THE ASK! 💜

I wish I had his analysis still!!! aarrrrgh it's been so long ;-; But I can try to relay some of the points he made (and add some of my own)!

This gets pretty lengthy so be prepared :')

I also added external links but they’re only there if you want to read more about the point I’m making! Feel free to skip them!

also // TW for mentions of SA

Miles

Story-wise, my friend found it interesting that Miles was the perfect host for the Walrider. Wernicke and Alan Turing were friends/lovers who worked on the technology that culminated into Project Walrider, so there's already a sense that the Walrider was founded on Wernicke and Turing's love for each other.

So, before I move on, I'll talk a bit about Alan Turing. In college, I had professors praise him for being the “Founder of Modern Computing”, cracking Nazi code, and also for being an advocate for gay rights.

More details here:

Out of every prominent scientist during the Cold War Era, Alan Turing was selected to play a role in Outlast's stories. And he didn't just happen to be openly gay—JT Petty purposefully made this significant to Wernicke's character. Not to mention, Wernicke made allusions to Frankenstein, allowing us to inspect the parallels between Wernicke & the Walrider with Frankenstein & Frankenstein's monster. When it comes to gothic & queer literature, Frankenstein is on the forefront of it, and I'm confident that JT Petty would be familiar with that (since he's a writer who's well-versed in horror/gothic art).

With Frankenstein, there's this idea to create life without heterosexual means (under the impression of cis-heteronormativity). Frankenstein's monster was also a sexualized creature—supposedly a representation of the “ideal man”—described as “beautiful”. Additionally, the novel was a critique of patriarchal norms through elements of sexualities. These aren't too different from Wernicke & the Walrider. The Walrider is arguably created through homosexual means in its abstract (Wernicke & Turing). This particular version of the Walrider that possesses Billy & Miles is stated to be the “masterpiece” by Simon Peacock—its appearance is also fairly sexual. And similarly, Outlast critiques patriarchal norms through its grotesque visuals of “masculinity”.

Frankenstein queer analysis:

Frankenstein sexual suppression analysis:

With all these story elements, there's certainly a queerness about the Walrider AND Outlast, which the devs openly embrace.

There's also many parallels between Frankenstein's monster and Miles. In the United States (and westernized countries in general), there are societal standards that function around cis-heteronormativity. Think of the traditional American nuclear family: A husband/father who's the breadwinner and patriarch, a loving wife/mother who cooks and stays at home to take care of the kids—they're mostly white, Christian, and American citizens. [WARNING: TRIALS SPOILERS AHEAD] The ideal American man is further illustrated in Officer Coyle's dialogue: “If only they were upstanding citizens like myself. Pay your taxes, do your job, fuck your wife, put a little something in the plate at service. America don't ask much.” Miles is arguably the antithesis of this, which is likely the reason he doesn't have any close friends/family—he was likely rejected by society. Frankenstein's monster follows a similar arc: he is also rejected by society and seeks refuge in seclusion. (The concept of “rejection by society” is inherent in queerness.)

With these parallels, it makes sense for Miles to be the ideal host for the Walrider. Additionally, Miles embodies queerness that isn't strictly homosexual—I mean his whole background/lifestyle is already, by definition, “queer”—but questions regarding his sexuality arise when inspecting other details of his character.

My friend pointed out the whole “Manhandler Hairspray for the Active Man” detail in Miles' apartment. There are a lot of homosexual undertones in the label, and it's hard not to think otherwise. “Manhandler” and “Active” are terms which indicate the “top” role in gay culture. I mean, it's possible that Miles is just embodying the “metrosexual” identity (basically straight men who embody characteristics associated with homosexuality) but metrosexuality is rooted in consumerism, which doesn't exactly align with Miles' character since he is openly critical of capitalism. I think the hairspray hints at queerness (or at least gender non-conformity).

Article on “metrosexuality”:

https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/22/style/metrosexuals-come-out.html

The most revolutionary detail that my friend pointed out was the fact that Miles went out of his way to roast the ever-living shit out of everyone he came across at Mount Massive, begging the question: why is he so fixated on the appearances of other men? This could stem from his own insecurities of being rejected by society or insecurities of his own vanity (considering the hairspray he uses and the fact that he goes jogging…and if he's just trying to be healthy through exercise then he needs to explain his self-destructive alcoholism…idk…jogging for mental health? It’s open to interpretation…WAIT I mean he could just be keep up his physical fitness also with all the investigating he has to do anyways fjshshkdhd). It was just interesting that Miles was so fixated on physical appearances that it makes me wonder if he'd make similar comments about women—I don't believe he would and I'll explain below.

I know that we need to take Red Barrels' tweets with a grain of salt—they're known for deleting tweets that detail misinformation about the protagonists—but I find this tweet particularly interesting. I may be looking too much into it, especially since it's just a tweet and not presented in the games/comics, but it certainly is reflective of Red Barrels' values of respecting women and not viewing women as sexual objects, along with the notion of dismantling cis-heteropatriarchy/chivalry. It certainly doesn't mean he's not straight, but he doesn't particularly view women as sexual objects either (and I know that straight men are capable of not viewing women as sexual objects). Food for thought.

Some extra stuff:

Anti-conservatism and punk ideology (which Miles explicitly embodies) are pillars of queer culture in the political sphere.

The Germanic folklore, which the Walrider is based off of, exhibits notions of sexuality (though, probably not in the best light).

[TRIALS SPOILER] Wernicke’s dream therapy is associated with Dr. Easterman’s queerness—Easterman would be distracted by Wernicke’s handsomeness (and they both explicitly critique heterosexual relationships). Again, this supports the Walrider’s themes of sexuality.

Waylon

As for WAYLON, even though there isn't concrete evidence in the games to intentionally indicate queerness, that isn't to say he is entirely heterosexual (because assuming he's heterosexual is yet another product of the “ideal American man” image in a cis-heteronormative society, and Outlast's narratives are about dismantling this notion). In fact, now that you bring it up, I agree that Waylon can be considered on the queer spectrum/under the queer umbrella.

Regarding the “dismantling the ideal American man in a cis-heteronormative society” concept…the devs, artists, writer(s), actors, and contributors to the games' development are not only open/accepting of things outside of society's norms/expectations, but many are social activists. Chimwemwe Miller (VA for Chris Walker) is outspoken about being Black, Black history, and racism—he also narrated an audiobook which discussed racism, colonialism, & imperialism. Erika Rosenbaum (VA for Lynn Langermann) organized provisions for refugees and is active in environmental causes and feminism—she also spoke out during the #MeToo movement. Shawn Baichoo (VA for Miles, Waylon, & Blake) is also vocal about feminism/racism and was a huge advocate for his character Wrench's bisexuality from Watch Dogs 2, which became confirmed in a later installment of the Watch Dogs franchise.

I bring this up because Red Barrels actually entertains the idea of Waylon x Eddie (in the hypothetical that Eddie wasn't an antagonist like he was in the game…so like, erasing his problematic features baha…this deserves an analysis of its own) without mentioning sexuality or anything like that. Obviously, this can be seen as a way to entertain the fanbase, but I think it's worth mentioning that Waylon isn't opposed to homosexuality. After all, Waylon never makes homophobic remarks in his notes nor comments on male sexuality—he's just fearful of being assaulted (as anyone would be, regardless of gender/sexuality). He would, in fact, engage in a homosexual relationship according to this hypothetical.

(Note: the term “insane” is a harmful descriptor in this context, which is why I wrote “wasn’t an antagonist like he was in the game”)

So yea! I definitely think there's queerness with Waylon's character. And I don't exactly mean this to be “representation” because there's a lot of responsibility that comes with that, but ultimately I think it adds to what the franchise and the devs are trying to do—normalize queerness and dismantle the notion of the “ideal American man in a cis-heteronormative society” (and if you've studied socioeconomics/social theory, you know that this notion is a product of capitalism, which is another important theme in the franchise).

Here are some resources about the intersectionalities of cis-heteropatriarchy, capitalism, & queerness if you'd like to read more about it :)

(this one below is quite lengthy, but goes VERY DEEP)

All in all, my interpretation is that the franchise operates on the idea that “queerness” is normal or innate, but social structures are what label it otherwise. I've seen a lot of discussion surrounding Outlast characters' queerness, and it's interesting to me that the antagonists' sexualities get more attention amongst casual players than the protagonists' sexualities (and I think I can understand why, it's just a lot to unpack).

Just as many of the antagonists can be read as queer, the protagonists should arguably be read through the same lens. I truly do think Miles and Waylon (and even Lynn and Blake!) deserve to be inspected under queer lens. Doing so aligns with the franchise's philosophy/narratives. Also the idea of “queer characters taking down capitalism” is super empowering (and actually very identifiable hehe).

(Sorry, I think I projected a lot of my own personal values and biases into this post LOL hhhjdsfh feel free to critique anything I've written!)

This is my first time inspecting Waylon through a queer lens, so thank you for the ask!! I had a lot of fun writing this up :D

#miles upshur #waylon park #outlast #outlast analysis #queer analysis #brybryby #brybryby text

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grantmentis · 4 months

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I wrote a video analysis on the PWHL Boston defensive system that helped them beat Montreal, and how both those systems and player deployment philosophies helped Boston outlast PWHL Montreal in each of their overtime playoff games

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cilasbestos · 7 months

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My autistic rambling about Cassandra from Tangled.

I refuse to use Gothel as her last name…

Anyways,

Saying that Cassandra was “angry at Rapunzel for getting kidnapped” is such a grossly incorrect representation of what was actually going on and I am tired of people pushing that that was all that upset her, instead of the seasons long conflict that was building up that culminated in her taking her anger about something only partially related out on Rapunzel because she was ALREADY upset with her.

Cass’ issues with Raps did not start when she took the moonstone, hell it didn’t even start when she went into the room in the house of yesterday’s tomorrow. It started in season one when Rapunzel was constantly, even if unintentionally, finding ways to overshadow her. It was worsened when Raps stopped valuing her opinion, which was a problem for Cass because she felt she had outlasted her usefulness, even though Cass is shown as a character who feels like she always needs a purpose or a duty to follow (which is likely a trauma response from being abandoned tbh???). Everything builds through seasons one and two, and Cassandra consistently finds herself overshadowed and ignored by Rapunzel and the people around her.

And THEN, Cass is given earth shattering news. Everyone else already chooses Rapunzel over her, of course her own mother did too. This particular instance wasn’t Rapunzel’s fault, but it pushed the same idea and feeling that all these other instances did; Cass isn’t important, and will always be outshined by Rapunzel. Something she had felt and experienced over and over, but this time the information was just big enough to be what sent her over the edge.

Yes, Cassandra overreacts, but she also is CONSTANTLY shown to be seeing whats wrong with her actions and rethinking everything. The first time, during Crossing The Line, she only doesn’t back down because Rapunzel triggers her by telling her to “wait”, the one thing she had been doing her entire life.

After that, every single major conflict with Cass throughout season 3 involves her realizing her error or questioning her path in some way, but people love to forget that she was actively being manipulated by Zhan Tiri at this point, leading her to being convinced to stay on the path Zhan Tiri wants her to be on. Yeah Cass is acting terrible, because an actual warlock found her when she was at her lowest and used her negative emotions to manipulate things in their favor. Eventually, when she is freed from that relationship with Zhan Tiri, everything resolves rather quickly, her having noticed the errors of her ways for a while now, but being constantly assured she was right.

In a way, Zhan Tiri plays a very similar role for Cassandra to that of what Gothel was to Rapunzel in the original movie.

I can probably do a more coherent, not-written-at-almost-midnight analysis of Cassandra eventually, because I have a lot to say and this is all over the place, but to conclude: Cassandra’s anger is not directly at Rapunzel for being kidnapped by Gothel. That simply happened to be the straw that broke the camels back after other events causes Cass similar feelings. This reveal was just the biggest, held the most weight. Even though Cass calmed down and again and again realized her wrong doings, the wrong person had influence over her when she was extremely vulnerable, leading the conflict to continue when it could have easily been avoided without the warlock’s influence.

#tangled #rapunzel’s tangled adventure #tangled the series #cassandra tangled #tts cassandra #rapunzel #tts rapunzel #mother gothel #zhan tiri #i hate that damn victorian ghost child #also hot take #Cass had a more valid reason for her anger than Varian did #Like #Varian sweetie #she is in charge of literally the entire kindom rn and theres a possibility her parents are literally dead #sorry she cant stop everything to help you ily

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ardienothesieno · 6 months

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SPECULATING ABOUT THE WATCHER

Wanted to make my own analysis post, as I've seen some comments on other sites pointing out things but nothing here so far... AND I AM TOO DEEP IN THE BRAINROT TO NOT ANALYZE THIS EVEN JUST A LITTLE BIT. SO.

I would like to mention that I have not played any modded regions! So if there are certain details that I make note of in the screenshots that have explanation in their original mods, please feel free to correct me!!

STARTING OFF WITH THE TRAILER:

youtube

Rot tendrils. Rot tendrils on the ceiling... just casually... that's totally not concerning...

The blue lizard only has two toes on each foot!

The background of this first shot looks like it might be on an iterator structure? There are some support beams but other then that it's just clouds.

The spears that the scavenger is carrying are kind of weird... for one, they're white. And one of them has a large, almost pinecone-shaped tip.

Also they have a crack in their face/mask.

what the pole plant doin

The Watcher doesn't seem to have a nose? That's probably just an art style thing, but I thought I'd mention it. Also their eyes are glowing.

Even the title font has implications. whoa.

For one, more rot. The rot has now made a double appearance and that probably guarantees its significance here...

And plants... Leaves and some vines.

The way that the black screen transitions to a white one is very rot-esce to me. Rot triple appearance...

There seems to be some graffiti on the right side of the final shot? It's obstructed by the visual effects in the foreground, however.

Once again Watcher is depicted without a nose BUT THAT'S NOT IMPORTANT BECAUSE THIS SCREEN HAS IMPLICATIONS

Watcher is floating. Normally I'd mark this off as "cool title screen choice" but they're also surrounded by ECHO PARTICLES.

And the warping around the Watcher and the title? THE OUTMOST RIPPLES HAVE GOLD VEINS RUNNING THROUGH THEM. THE VOID IMPLICATIONS...

And this might be a stretch but the palette of this final image is black and gold... void colors...

OKAY THATS MOST OF THE TRAILER

ONTO THE STEAM DESCRIPTION:

Rain World: The Watcher is a DLC expansion of Rain World. Journey beyond to something, somewhere only ever glimpsed. When the world beneath your feet cracks and crumbles, will you hold on to all you once knew? Or dive into the unknown? The wilds that await will be unlike all that's come before. Unknown creatures stalk and climb and dive and hunt. New breeds rip and pluck and burrow and hide. Predator and prey redefined. And through the middle of it all, a lonely lost slugcat trying their best to outlast the ravages of a warped world.

Do... do I even have to say anything?

THE VOID IMPLICATIONS!! HOLY MOTHER OF SCUGS THE *VOID IMPLICATIONS!!!!*

"Journey beyond to something, somewhere only ever glimpsed. When the world beneath your feet cracks and crumbles, will you hold on to all you once knew? Or dive into the unknown?" YOU READ THIS AND TELL ME THIS DOESN'T HAVE VOID SEA VIBES. Journey BEYOND to something, somewhere only ever glimpsed... it feels very void-y to me. And the talk about the world beneath you crumbling-- holding on to what you once knew or diving into the unknown?? If this somehow ISN'T related to ascension I would be shocked

"And through the middle of it all, a lonely lost slugcat trying their best to outlast the ravages of a warped world." This line about the world being warped, as well... I'm thinking this DLC might either have to do with Rubicon, or have to do with the encroach of the void sea consuming the world from below.

Other then the void implications, it sounds like we'll be seeing some new creatures that could completely redefine the game. I'm excited to see where that goes.

OKAY. SCREENSHOTS. LETS GO.

I know these are from pre-existing mods, but I'm completely unfamiliar with said mods and don't know if any of this means anything. Just wild speculation, pretty much.

Gonna start with these two because they're kinda visually similar. On the left we have desert!!!! Cacti!! Cactuses!!!!! I've seen lots of people calling the image on the right snow, but that doesnt feel right to me. We saw snow in Saint and I do not remember it looking like... that. The first thing that comes to mind for me is Kingdom's Edge from Hollow Knight, and the drifts of ash that pile up there? If this is the case then it confirms several of my lore theories and I would so love that to be the case. There's also a collapsed structure in the back of the "snowy" image, which looks to me a bit like a train car?

Also I've now seen several people calling these milk... and I can't unsee it now...

I've been told by several sources that these screens are from preexisting mods! I think these are from Stormy Coast, Coral Caves, and Aether Ridge? At least that's what I've picked up from searching through other discussions. I don't have too much to comment on here! I think these rooms are cool, and I really like the fans in the Aether Ridge room!

...oh no... acid region..? I don't know why, but this room gives me Shoreline vibes. Also I do not think bubble fruit are supposed to grow that perfectly--

And finally... what I think has the possibility of either being a huge lore thing, or a complete false alarm. Well for starters it's purple

But there are no iterator cans in the background. We're above the clouds here; in every above-the-clouds show from the base game and Downpour, you can see iterators and communication towers off in the distance. There's nothing here. And I don't think this takes place near or after Saint, because there's no confirmed snow. And I think a lot of these structures would be far worse for wear if this were so far in the future that the planet has warmed again. So. Uh. That's pretty odd.

Again, these all might be from mods that I am unfamiliar with, so please correct me if I'm misinterpreting anything!!

AND THAT CONCLUDES MY ANALYSIS FOR NOW!

tl,dr-- This DLC is gonna be crazy. Also void

#rain world #rw nightcat #rw watcher #rw the watcher #rw nightwatcher #rain world the watcher #rw slugcat #rain world theory #I'm sure I missed a ton of stuff so feel free to add on!!#might make a separate post theorizing on some of this...#ramblings #brain rot #oc

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thekingofwinterblog · 2 months

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Why Izuku FEELS like a Failure Hero

So, it's no secret by now that the final chapter of My Hero Academia ended on a less than universally loved ending.

There is a small host of reason why this is, but one i see thrown around a lot withouth any analysis really going into it, is the idea that Izuku was a failure hero.

He wasnt of course, Izuku though he could not save Tenko... But he did defeat both Shigaraki and All For One.

He saved the world, he restored peace and order to Japan and stopped a rampage that would have seen the entire island sunk beneath the waves and everyone on it except for Shigaraki's personal inner circle dead.

He saved millions, upon millions of lives and ended the life and times of AFO, the great evil of over a hundred years.

He was also instrumental in stopping the third movie's villain, and was one of the people of saved billions of lives by doing so.

He is withouth any doubt, the MHA World's greatest hero, bar none.

So with that in mind... why does izuku FEEL like an utter failure in the end? He might not logically be one, but he sure as hell FEELS like one.

Why?

Well, to put it bluntly, this particular problem stems from 2 overarching parts.

The first is of course that Izuku had a bad ending. He returned to being Quirkless, didnt get to live his dream, he seemingly begun to be the one guy that Class A begun to leave behind(Even with the surprise at the end, it doesnt change the fact that we get nothing to suggest he remained particularily close with any of them, and the fact they kept this plan a secret for 5 years just makes everything worse), and has been forgotten.

That is a full on bad ending, and the fact the narrative refuses to focus on that and acknowledge the fact that this is a horrible outcome for izuku, is one of it's mayor problems.

However, that is only the first big problem of the final chapter, and it's the more obvious one that pisses so many people off.

But just because he had a bad ending, does not mean that Izuku had to feel like a failure hero. After all, plenty of Heroes had bad endings, and did not feel like failure Heroes.

Batman both in the DCAU and in the Dark Knight Returns stopped being Batman, and yet i dont think you would find many people who would say either felt like failures at the end of the day in their stories.(well unless you count the terrible sequels Miller wrote after he went off the deep end, but that's a subject for another day).

I could pull out a lot of examples of similar heroes who in the end quit or died and who very much doesnt FEEL like failures, but i want to continue to focus on DCAU Batman in particular for one, very specific reason that illustrates so well why Izuku feels like a failure, even if he ultimately isnt one.

Batman Beyond opens on an old Bruce Wayne's last night as batman, when he decides to finally quit after a heart attack forces him to threaten a man with a gun.

In his own mind, he is a failure, and it is this action that finally breaks his spirit.

But most fans dont consider this Bruce a Failure at all. Why?

Well it certainly helps that he has so many other amazing feats and accomplishments across the rest of the DCAU, so it's hard to blame him for this one, single moment, but there is a bigger reason.

Bruce Wayne's big mission in life, was to clean up gotham city.

He did a lot of things outside of that, such as saving the world multiple times, but this was his great mission, his goal, the thing that truly drove him.

And you know what?

He suceeded.

Crime would return both big and small scale, but Bruce Wayne's choice to keep going for years and years, ending up outlasting all the traditional supervillains and street criminals of his age, allowed Gotham to flourish, and become an incredibly advanced and developed futuristic city.

For All that Batman Beyond is about deconstructing Bruce and his personal relationships and how they fell to pieces, He WON the war.

It might not have been a total victory, but every single episode of Batman Beyond that showcases Gotham showcases that The Dark Knight's Crusade was NOT in vain. He gave EVERYTHING for this cause, and he won.

Bruce might never be able to mentally appreciate it, because it was not a total victory that led to no more crime forever, but we the reader can.

We can see the change in Gotham from before he started, into his early years, his prime, the later years, and finally where it is now in Beyond.

It was a long, and bumpy road, but Gotham's number one son succeeded in his great goal of cleaning up his city and making it prosperous and reaching the heights his parents dreamed for it.

His legacy is clear and lives on, long, long past the days when he stalked the night.

He was not a failure, neither on the logical level, nor in that he feels like one.

And you know what? The DCAU crew managed to make that clear, even though I dont think there wasnt a single statue in all of Gotham dedicated to the Dark Knight.

Now, lets compare this to Izuku.

Izuku also gave EVERYTHING for his cause.

His body is a scarred and deformed mess, because time and again, wheter it be to defeat villains, or just helping people, he was always willing to sacrifice every bit of himself to do it.

Izuku gave away his quirk, and with his future.

and though it was reversed, he gave away his arms just to TRY to help Tenko.

He more than anyone else, gave EVERYTHING for this fight. He gave away his body, dreams, future, EVERYTHING for the cause, and he pulled it off!

He beat All For One, he saved the world and countless lives.

So, why then does he feel like a loser at the end?

Is the fact that he ended up alone and forgotten by society at large really why?

That's what happened to DCAU Bruce Wayne after all... But that's not really it.

The Reason Izuku Feels like a loser at the very end, is that the last chapter does not in any way feel like he contributed anything to help usher in this new age, nevermind that HE above ANYONE ELSE was the one that made it happen!

The idea of having a final chapter showcasing the successfull futures of everyone else EXCEPT for Izuku who ultimately didnt get to live his dream is NOT a bad idea at all.

It might not be how i would have ended it, but even taking away the idea of a reversal at the end, you could make that sort of ending satifsying.... IF you spent that chapter showcasing what a difference Izuku made in everyone else's life.

Because that would have hammered in the point that HE was the one that made it all happen. HE was the catalyst for all of these people to continue on and grow into great Heroes.

Shoto is a great example.

What we get of how he ended up is a really sweet thing... But you know what would have been way, way better?

If we had a scene of him being interviewed, and he talked about how it was IZUKU who was HIS great hero, and inspired him to become the hero he ultimately became.

But we dont. For anyone.

Not one time, amongst all of Izuku's friends and acquaintances are we reminded or shown in this final chapter how much he inspired and motivated them forward.

Not ONCE.

The closest we get, is Kota asking Izuku a question while blushing, and the only thing that tells us is that Kota is still a bit shy in his teenage years.

The ONLY character in this ENTIRE chapter who actually feels inspired by Izuku is Dai, and even is untientionally backhanded, when it's clear that it's not that Izuku really inspired him, the way All Might Inspired Izuku, but rather that this kid is a Hero Otaku like Izuku himself who just so happens to recognize Izuku amongst a lineup of heroes.

He's not even the first Hero the kid Thinks of after All Might!

ENDEAVOR IS!

THE GUY WHO IS PUBLIC KNOW TO HAVE ABUSED HIS KIDS, RAPED HIS WIFE, AND WHO'S OLDEST SON WAS AN INFAMOUS SERIAL KILLER THAT ENDEAVOR BROUGHT ABOUT!!!

THIS is the problem with this chapter.

This chapter elevates EVERYONE else, EXCEPT for Izuku.

When people complain that Izuku didnt even get a statue for saving the world, when monoma did, and it's shut down as "it was never about fame for izuku", they are missing the forest for the trees.

The Problem is not that Izuku didnt even get a statue. The fact he didnt get a statue, is part of a greater problem that new age does not in ANY WAY fell like something that Izuku was the main driver in bringing into being.

---Edit---

So apparently there was a statue after all... And the fact it's so inconsequential that at first point you'd be forgiven for thinking it was actually Kirishima, as I thought at first.

That said, the fact it is so tiny a detail actually hammers in my point that Izuku feels completely inconsequential to this chapter even more.

---

Even the whole class A getting Izuku back into the game feels like it completely shits all over Izuku, like he did not matter at all in making this new age, the age where this class is able to shine.

We are not in ANY WAY given a SINGLE insight into their thoughts about all this! The reason why so many people shit ALL OVER their stupid plan to NOT tell Izuku ANYTHING is that this is the ONLY THING we actually know about how they felt about all of this!

And because this is the only insight we get into their thoughts, the only thing we can say for sure, is that whatever their feelings were, they did NOT RESPECT Izuku at all, despite everything they went through together.

They decided his future for him withouth ever asking, and let him continue for over half a decade resigned to his new job that despite everything he says, he clearly was not happy with.

This moment could have been the culmination of their bonds with Izuku, where they finally repaid him for everything... But instead it just hammers in the point that Izuku FEELS like a huge loser that DID NOT MATTER in the slightest in the end.

That's not true, but that IS how it feels.

Izuku could not achieve anything by his own power, and the people who helped him achieve his goals? Well they clearly did not respect Izuku, and they did not seem to care to go out of their way to keep their relationship with him going strong through the years.

what it FEELS like, is that a bunch of school buddies throwing one of their former friends a bone now that they have all made it big, rather than an actual long term motivation because they really loved Midoriya.

honestly, this entire chapter feels like Hori took it for granted that the reader would just think "See all these people Izuku was aquainted with succeed? Remember how strong his bonds with them are?" and make us immediatly just take the most charitable reading possible at face value.

It clearly WANTS us to think that way, that all of this was only possible thanks to Izuku, but it doesnt actually do ANY attempt at selling this idea.

This world, and the people in it, does not in any way feel like Izuku was the one who brought it and them about. That might be the logical truth, but it does not feel like it at all.

Instead, at the very end, when all is said and done... Izuku feels like a complete loser, a side character in his own story who never amounted to anything, and does not inspire love, admiration, and respect from anyone he actually knows.

That is why, even though he saved the world, he FEELS like a total loser.

#my hero academia #izuku midoriya #class 1-A #batman #dcau #bruce wayne #gotham city #meta #loser #legacy #chapter 430 #mha #mha 430

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