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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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The Bad Batch: A Crosshair Analysis

Hello, Star Wars fandom! I have just completed watching—and loving—The Bad Batch, which you know means I now need to dump all my thoughts about the first season into the tumblr void. Specifically, thoughts on the complicated drama that is Crosshair. I have no doubt that the majority of what I’m about to say will be old news to anyone who watched the show when it came out (I’m slow...), but I’m writing it all out anyway. Largely for my own sanity enjoyment :D

I want to preface all of this by saying that the above is not an exaggeration. I love the show and I love the entire cast. My enjoyment in each of the characters is directly connected to my enjoyment of the season as a whole, which I say because I’m about to get pretty critical towards some of the characters’ choices and, to a lesser extent, the writing choices that surround those. Does this mean I secretly hate The Bad Batch? Quite the opposite. I’m invested, which is presumably just what Filoni wants. I’m just hoping that investment pays off.

But enough of the disclaimers. Let’s start with the matter of the inhibitor chip. I’ve seen fans take some pretty hard stances on both sides: Crosshair is completely innocent because he’s definitely been under the chip’s control this whole time, no matter what he might say. Crosshair is completely guilty because he said the chip was removed a long time ago and he chose to do all this, no moral wiggle room allowed. However, the reality is that we don’t know enough to make a clear call either way. The audience, simply put, does not have all the necessary information. What we have instead is a couple of facts combined with claims that may or may not be reliable. Let’s lay them out:

Crosshair was definitely under the chip’s control at the start of the series.

He was able to resist it to a certain extent, resulting in a pressure to obey orders coupled with a primary loyalty to his squad. See: telling Hunter to follow the Empire’s commands—which includes killing kid Padawans—but not turning his team in as traitors when they did not. It’s an in-between space.

Crosshair’s chip was then amplified to an unknown extent. I’m never going to claim I’m a Star Wars aficionado—I’m a casual fan, friends. Please don’t yell at me over obscure lore lol—but within TBB’s canon, no one else is undergoing that experimentation. The effects of this are entirely unknown, which includes Crosshair’s free will, or lack thereof.

Crosshair then becomes a clear tool of the Empire, hunting down innocents, killing on a whim, the whole, evil shebang.

In “Reunion” he’s caught by the engine and suffers severe burns to his face. One leaves a scar that covers precisely the place where the chip would have been extracted.

Removing the chip leaves its own scar behind. If Crosshair’s was removed, we can’t see that scar due to the burn.

After these events Crosshair seems to mellow a bit. He does horrible things under the Empire’s orders—like shooting the senator—but is still loyal to his squad—killing his non-clone teammates to give TBB a chance, saving AZ and Omega, etc.

Crosshair claims that his chip has already been removed. However, Crosshair is arguably an unreliable source if he’s been lied to or if the chip is still there, encouraging him to manipulate the team.

Crosshair claims it was removed a long time ago, which is incredibly imprecise. As we can see from just some of the events listed above, precisely when the chip came out—if it came out—makes a huge difference.

Hunter realizes this and presses for clarification, but Crosshair dodges giving it. Again, a legitimate belief that it doesn’t matter, or evidence that he can’t say because something else is going on? We don’t know.

Hunter checks Crosshair’s head and finds the burn scar which proves… nothing. As stated above, they wouldn’t be able to see the surgery scar one way or another: its existence or its absence. It’s useless data, as Tech might say. I’ve seen a few fans claim that Hunter was also feeling for the chip with his enhanced senses, but 1. I didn’t catch any evidence of that in the scene and 2. Even if we assume Hunter did that anyway, the chips are notoriously hard to spot. Fives and AZ couldn’t find the chip at first when examining Tup. Ahsoka had to use the force to find it in Rex. TBB themselves couldn’t find it at first in Wrecker. If machinery consistently fails to find the chip on the first couple of tries—it’s meant to be a hidden implant, after all—why would we believe Hunter’s senses could pick it up instantly? Maybe he missed it, or maybe it wasn’t there at all.

Crosshair appears to be struggling with a headache in the finale, just as he was at the beginning of the season and just like Wrecker was for the first half.

The point of listing all this out is to emphasize how ambiguous this whole situation is. I don’t want to use this post to argue one way or another about whether Crosshair’s chip is really out. I have my preferred theory (the chip’s still in, but only partially functional), but at the end of the day none of this is conclusive. The writing takes us in what I hope is deliberate circles. Crosshair says the chip is out? Crosshair is not a reliable source of information until we know if the chip is out. What other evidence is there that the chip is gone? A scar? We can’t see if there’s a scar. Hunter’s abilities? He only checked once for a canonically hard to find implant—if he actually checked at all. And why would the Empire want the chip out? Well, maybe it has to do with that push towards willing soldiers, but if that were the case, why leave Crosshair behind and have the “clones die together”? By that point he was one of the most willing, chip or not. Did they have to take it out because of the engine accident? Pure speculation. We just don’t know and THAT is the point I want to make.

Because it means the rest of the Bad Batch didn’t know either.

The core issue I have here is not whether the chip is in or out, or even how long it may have been in if it is out now. The issue is that TBB spent 99% of the first season believing that Crosshair was under the chip’s influence… and they didn’t try to do anything about that. They abandoned him. They left a man behind. Does this make them all horrible monsters? Of course not! This shit is complicated as hell, but I do think they made a very large mistake and that Crosshair has every right to be furious about it.

“But, Clyde, they couldn’t have gone back. It was too dangerous! Hunter had a duty to his whole team, not just Crosshair.” True enough and I’d buy this argument 100% if Hunter hadn’t spent the entire season throwing his team into dangerous, seemingly impossible situations to save other people. Crosshair became the exception, not a hard rule of something they had to avoid. They went back to Kamino for Omega, a kid they’d only had one lunch with, despite knowing how dangerous the Empire was. They went into the heart of an occupied planet to rescue not just a stranger, but one belonging to the Separatist government. They helped Sid when she asked and there was plenty of compassion for the criminal trying to take her place. Most significantly, there wasn’t the slightest hesitation to go rescue Hunter when he was under the Empire’s control, in precisely the same place. Every explanation I’ve seen fans come up with—Kamino is too fortified, they don’t know where Crosshair is, they can’t risk Omega being captured, etc.—also holds true for Hunter, yet there wasn’t a second of doubt about needing to at least try to help him. And his rescue was arguably far more dangerous given that TBB knew they were walking into a trap. Going after Crosshair would have at least had some element of surprise.

I think the problem with these justifications is most easily seen in “Rescue on Ryloth” and, later, “War-Mantle.” In the former, we do watch Hunter decide that going on a rescue mission is too much of a risk, only for Omega to talk him into considering it.

Hunter: “It’s a big galaxy. We can’t put ourselves on the line every time someone’s in trouble.”

Omega: “Why not? Isn’t that what soldiers do?”

Hunter: “It’s not worth the risk.”

Omega: “She’s trying to save her family, Hunter. I’d do the same for you.”

The arguments that sway him are ‘Soldiers should help people’ and ‘Soldiers should specifically help their family.’ So… what does that say about their feelings for Crosshair? They’re willing to put themselves on the line for the parents of a girl they met once at a drop site, but not their own brother? That’s the message the writing sends. “But, Clyde, the difference is that they had an advantage here. Hera’s knowledge of her home planet tipped the odds in their favor.” Yeah… and Crosshair is stationed on TBB’s home planet. Even more than them collectively having the same knowledge that Hera does, “Return to Kamino” reveals that Omega always had additional, insider knowledge of the base: she has access to a secret landing pad and the tunnels leading up into the city. That knowledge was given and used the second Hunter’s freedom was on the line, but it never once came up to use for Crosshair’s benefit.

“War-Mantle’s” mission puts this problem in even sharper relief. Another claim I’ve seen a lot is that TBB only took risky rescue missions because they needed to be paid. The guys have got to eat after all. Yet Tech makes it clear that going after Gregor will lose them money. They’re meant to be on a mission for Sid and deviating for that won’t result in a payment. He explicitly says that if they decide to do this, they won’t eat. They do it anyway. No money, no intel, a huge risk “on a clone we don’t even know.” But that’s not what’s important, the show says. All that matters is that a brother is in trouble. This time it’s Echo pushing that message instead of Omega. When Hunter realizes that they’re about to try and infiltrate an entire facility and they don’t even know if this clone is still alive, Echo points out that they took that risk once before: for him. “If there’s a chance that trooper is being held against his will, we have to try and get him out.”

Yes! Exactly right! So why doesn’t that apply to Crosshair?

“Because he tried to kill them, Clyde!” No, that’s the easy, dismissive answer. A chipped Crosshair tried to kill them. AKA, a Crosshair entirely under the Empire’s control. The only difference between his enslavement and Gregor’s is that Gregor’s chains were physical while Crosshair’s were mental. And again, the point of everything at the start of this post is to show that no one knows when or even if that chip was removed. TBB definitely didn’t have any reason to suspect that Crosshair was working under his own power until Crosshair himself said as much. We might have been able to make that case at the start of the season, but “Battle Scars” removes any possible confusion. The entire team watched Rex reach for his blaster when he learned their chips were still in. The entire team watched Wrecker become a totally different person and attack them, just like Crosshair did. The entire team forgave him instantly and had their own chips removed. So why in the world didn’t anyone go, “Wow, Crosshair has a chip too. He was no more responsible for attacking us than Wrecker was. We need to try to get him out, no matter how hard that might be, just like we had to try for all these other people we’ve helped.”

But they didn’t. No one even considered rescuing Crosshair. They only went back for Hunter and, when they realized Crosshair was there too, they didn’t change their plans to try and rescue him as well. He’s treated as a particularly threatening inconvenience, not another team member in need of their help.

The problem I have with how this all went down is that the team treated Crosshair like an enemy despite all evidence to the contrary. Despite Omega outright saying that this isn’t his fault, it’s the chip, the group seems to decide that he’s gone crazy or something and that there’s nothing they can do. “It’s fine,” I thought. “They don’t really get what the chip is like yet. They don’t understand how thoroughly it controls someone.” But then “Battle Scars” arrives and Wrecker is treated with such compassion (which he deserves!) only for the group to continue acting like Crosshair is somehow different. It’s easy to say, “But Crosshair shot Wrecker” and ignore the easy pushback of, “and Wrecker nearly shot Omega.” Up until Crosshair’s own accusations and Omega’s ignored comments, TBB’s understanding of the chip’s influence and the lack of responsibility that accompanies mysteriously disappears when the show’s antagonist becomes the subject of conversation. This is seen most clearly in how Hunter tries to frame things during his talk with Crosshair:

“You tried to kill us. We didn’t have a choice.”

“Can’t you see that they’re using you? It’s that inhibitor chip in your head.”

“You really don’t get who we are, do you?”

Hunter mentions the chip, but he acts as if it’s Crosshair’s responsibility to overcome it: “Can’t you see…” Of course he can’t see, that’s the entire point of the chip, the thing he currently believes Crosshair still has stuck in his head. But Hunter and the others—with Omega as a wonderful exception—never seem to have accepted this like they did for Wrecker. When Crosshair “tried to kill us” it’s seen as a deliberate act that he chose, not something forced on him like with Wrecker. When Hunter talks about their ethics, he subconsciously separates the team from Crosshair: “You really don’t get who we are, do you?”, revealing a pretty ingrained divide between them. Even Wrecker gets in on the action, the one brother who truly understands how much the chip controls someone: “All that time, you didn’t even try to come back.” What part of he couldn’t try is not hitting home here? Again, for the purposes of this conversation it doesn’t matter whether Crosshair was chipped this whole time or not. The point is that TBB believed he was chipped… and yet still expected him to somehow, magically overcome that programming, writing him off when he failed to do that. He’s consistently held responsible for actions that they were told (and, through Wrecker, saw) were completely outside of his control. Even when we factor in his claim that the chip was removed, TBB has ignored all the evidence I listed at the start. No one, not even Omega, challenges this super vague and strange claim, or seeks out proof because they don’t want to believe that their brother could willingly do this. There’s just this... acceptance that of course Crosshair went bad. Why? Because he was an asshole sometimes? Taking it all as written, it doesn’t feel like the batch considered him a true part of the team. Certainly not like Wrecker or Hunter. As shown, the batch will go out of their way, risk anything, forgive anything, for them. They have a level of faith that was never shown to Crosshair.

“Severe and unyielding,” Tech says and he’s absolutely right, but I’d seriously challenge this idea that any of the others would have automatically done better if the situations were reversed. It stood out to me that each batch member has a moment of doubt throughout the series, a brief glimpse into how they think the Empire isn’t that bad, at least when it comes to this particular thing. Basically, a moment that could lead to a very dangerous line of thinking without others to stomp it down. Wrecker announces that he’s happy working for whoever, provided they give him food and let him blow things up. Tech finds the chain codes to be an ingenious strategy and is clearly fascinated with their development. Hunter initially wants Omega to stay on Kamino, despite knowing that this Empire has already, systematically killed an entire group of people: the Jedi. Doesn’t matter. She’s still (supposedly) safer there than she would be running with the likes of them.

There’s absolutely no doubt that those three made the correct choice in defying the Empire, but I believe that their ability to make that choice is largely dependent on them having each other. They survive together, not apart, and it’s their unity that allows them to make the really hard calls, like setting out on their own and opposing such a formidable force. But if Tech’s chip had activated and he’d been left behind, would he have muscled through to escape somehow...or would he have gotten caught up in all the new technology the Empire offered him, succumbing to both his chip and the inevitability that if his squad no longer wanted him, why not stay? Would Wrecker have escaped, or been easily manipulated into a new life of exploding things? Would Hunter have been able to push through without his brothers, or would he have become devoted to a new team to lead? Obviously there’s no way to ever know, but it’s always easier to make the right decisions when you have support in doing so. Crosshair had no support. His team left him and yes, they had to in that specific moment, but the point is that they never came back. As far as we saw throughout the season, they never planned to come back. They all talk about loving the Crosshair who existed when life was easier, but they weren’t willing to fight for the Crosshair that most needed their help. When he says “You weren’t loyal to me,” he’s absolutely right. The same episode, “Return to Kamino,” gives Omega two powerful lines that the group rallies behind:

Omega: “[The danger] doesn’t matter. Saving Hunter is what matters.”

AZ: “You must leave.”

Omega: “Not without Hunter.”

The key word there is “Hunter.” Danger, stakes, risk, probability… none of that matters when Hunter needs help. Crosshair did not receive that same level of devotion.

Which creates a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. The group is upset that Crosshair isn’t rejoining them, but they fail to realize that he has no reason to trust them anymore. He’s not joining the Empire because he’s inherently evil and that’s that, end of discussion. He’s joining it because above all Crosshair wants a place to belong… and TBB has made it clear—unintentionally—that he does not belong with them. The horrible actions that Crosshair took under his own free will (theoretically) came after he realized that doing bad things while under the Empire’s control was, apparently, unforgivable. If it wasn’t, his team would have come back to rescue him. They could have at least tried. But they didn’t, so Crosshair is left with the conclusion that either what he did under the Empire’s control is something the group can’t forgive him for, or they can forgive that (like with Wrecker) and he’s the problem here. He’s the one not worth that effort.

“The Empire will be fazing out clones next,” Hunter says. To which Crosshair responds, “Not the ones that matter.”

He wants to matter to someone and events show he no longer matters to his brothers. So why not stay with the Empire? I mean, we as the audience ABSOLUTELY know why not. Self-doubt and feelings of isolation aren’t excuses for joining the Super Evil Organization. Crosshair, if he is under his own control, is still 100% in the wrong for supporting them, no matter his reasons. So it’s not an excuse, but rather an explanation of that very human, flawed, fallible thinking. He needs to be useful. He needs to be wanted. Crosshair is an absolute dick to the regs and I have no doubt that a lot of that stems from the harassment TBB has experienced from them (with a side of his inflated ego), but I’d bet it’s also due to Crosshair’s intense desire to be valuable to someone. He keeps pointing out the regs’ supposed deficiencies because it highlights his own usefulness. When Crosshair fails to find Hera, the Admiral says that soon he’ll get someone who can, looking straight at Howzer at the door. It makes Crosshair seethe because his entire identity is based on being useful, yet no one seems to need him anymore. TBB seems to no longer want him. The Empire no longer wants clones. Now even regs are considered a better option than him, the “superior” soldier. Everywhere Crosshair turns he’s getting the message that he’s not wanted, but he’ll keep fighting to at least be needed in some capacity, no matter how small. Even if that means overlooking all the horrors the Empire commits.

“All you’ll ever be to [the Empire] is a number,” Hunter says and he’s absolutely right. But to TBB recently, Crosshair hasn’t even been that. He’s been nothing. Nobody worth coming back for. To his mind, at least being a number is something.

I hope that all of this resolves itself into a conclusion that is kind to each side (preferably without a Vader-style death redemption), especially given the still ambiguous state of the chip, but from a writing standpoint I’m admittedly a bit wary. We’re obviously meant to believe that the batch all love each other, but as established throughout this entirely too long post, this season did a terrible job imo of proving that they love Crosshair. Or, at least, proving that they love him as much as the others. If this was really meant to be just a matter of miscommunication, with Crosshair making terrible life choices because he only thinks he was abandoned, then we as the audience would have seen the batch trying and failing to get him out. Or at least establishing a very good reason why they couldn’t take that risk, hopefully with entirely different side-missions so the audience isn’t constantly going, “So you can risk everything for Gregor... but not Crosshair?” I’m VERY glad that Crosshair was allowed to air his grievances to the extent he did, but the end result of that—Hunter continually denying this, Omega walking away from him in their rooms, neither Tech nor Wrecker actually sticking up for him and acknowledging the chip’s influence during at least some of all this—is making things feel rather one-sided. It’s like we’re meant to take Crosshair at his word and accept that he’s this garden-variety antagonist who joins the Empire because yay being on the winning side… despite all these complications that clearly have a huge impact on how we read the situation. It doesn’t help that the show has already embraced an inconsistent manner of portraying chipped-clones. We know every clone has one, we know only a couple clones are aware of the chip’s existence (and can thus try to get it out), we know they enter a “Good soldiers follow orders” mindlessness once activated… yet towards the end we see a lot of side character clones thinking for themselves. Howzer decides that he’s no longer loyal to the Empire, giving a speech where a couple other clones throw down their weapons too. Gregor was arrested because he likewise realized how wrong this all was. But how is that possible? Do the chips completely control the clones, or not? Are these clones somehow exceptions? Are the chips beginning to fail? All of that has a bearing on how we read Crosshair—what were his own decisions, how much he was capable of overcoming the chip, whether that changed at all during certain points—but right now that remains really unclear.

It’s details like that which make me wonder if all these other questions will be answered. Will the story resolve all those ambiguous moments surrounding the chip, or brush them off with the belief that we should have just taken Crosshair at his equally ambiguous word? Will the story acknowledge Crosshair’s points through someone other than Crosshair, allowing it to exist as a legitimate criticism, rather than the presumed excuses of an antagonist? I’m… not sure. On the whole I’m very happy with TBB’s writing—despite what all this might imply lol. Until my brain picks over the season and discovers something else, my only other gripe is not allowing Omega to form a solid bond with Tech and Echo, instead putting all the focus on big brother!Wrecker and dad!Hunter. I think it’s a solid show that does a lot right, but I’m worried that, unless there’s a brilliant answer to all these questions and an intent to unpack both sides of the Hunter vs. Crosshair debate with respect—not just falling back on, “Well, Crosshair is with the Empire so everything he says is automatically bad and wrong” take—we’ve just gotten the setup for a somewhat messy, ethical story. For anyone here who also reads my RWBY metas, I’m pretty sure you’re not at all surprised that I’m invested in going, “Hey, you had one of the heroes suddenly become/join a dictatorship and do a lot of horrific things, but within a pretty complicated context. Can we please work through that carefully and with an acknowledgement of the nuance here, rather than throwing the ‘evil’ character to the proverbial wolves?”

God knows TBB is leagues ahead of RWBY, but I hope things continue on in not just a good direction, but one that tackles the aspects of this situation that many fans—and Crosshair—have already pointed out. As much as I adore the cast—and I really, really do—it was discomforting to watch a found family show where 4/5th of that family so completely wrote off one of the members and crucially have, at least so far, refused to acknowledge that. I want complicated, flawed characters, but that’s only compelling when the storytelling admits to and grapples with those flaws. We have quite firmly established Crosshair’s flaws in Season One. I hope Season Two delves into the rest of the team’s too.

Aaaand with that meta-dump out of my system, I’m off to write TBB fic. Thanks for reading! :D

#The Bad Batch #TBB #Crosshair #Star Wars #SW #mymetas #do I take my life in my hands #by posting SW meta?#probably lol

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puppy-moved · 3 years

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Why did Mikan Tsumiki’s execution fail?

breakdown + analysis

NOTE/WARNING: This is not an official explanation of her execution, this is just the info I gathered and my own/friends theories! If you are not comfortable with the talk of s3xu4l abu5e and n33dl3s then I do not recommend reading! And of course spoilers for all of SDR2!!

Breakdown

https://youtu.be/WCUDK80m8q8

youtube

Mikan is lying down in a hospital room, Monokuma dressed as a nurse suddenly appears with a large needle. It is noted in Mikan’s report card that she does not like “oversized things.” This is most likely why the needle and other things in her execution, like the hand and being flown into space (the largest thing in human existence), are over sized than their normal size, to play into her dislike.

Monokuma runs towards Mikan with the needle in hand and drives it into the ground. The walls then fall down revealing a much bigger area the execution is taking place in. A giant arm then comes up from the ground, it flings the bed off to the side and Mikan can be seen sitting on it. Monokuma injects the needle in and out continuously in a fast pace. This makes Mikan react to it in a,, certain way.. This scene is noted as a infamous fan service scene in Mikan’s execution, along with a small clip of her being nude right after. While many think it is fan service, there is also the possibility of Monokuma making fun of Mikan for her sexual trauma and humiliating her in front of her other classmates before she dies. (Why they made her naked in one scene though for no reason? Beats me, that was probably for fan service.) With one final pump the arm takes off with Monokuma and Mikan on it. The phrase “reach for the stars” is repeated multiple times from this point. From Teruteru’s and Chiaki’s execution the same phrase is repeated, this phrase is used in the executions of a character who wasn’t a killer or killed someone by accident. This alludes to how Mikan never meant to kill Ibuki or Hiyoko. The elbow and up of the arm detaches and falls back to the Earth with Monokuma. Mikan continues to fly into space. In the end of her execution we see the sky shine, alluding that she is now most likely suffocating in space. Monokuma falls from the sky and smashes into the ground. The execution then ends. This execution is by one of the stranger ones, a head canon, and one that makes more sense to me personally, was that Mikan was actually given lethal poison (hence the needle) and died while in a hallucination. But in the end this is neither confirmed or denied to my knowledge, hence why it is a head canon.

Why it failed

I believe there are two reasons why her execution failed, the obvious one is it being rushed. It is apparent in her trial that is wasn’t necessarily thought all the way through and that the creators just tried to wing it. This (to my knowledge) is because Fuyuhiko was supposed to be in Hiyoko’s place. But since this made Peko’s sacrifice useless, they decided to switch the characters. I suppose for each chapter they are put on a strict dead line schedule, this is why things were so rushed. I’m not saying this is the exact reason why it was but to me it is the one that makes most sense. The second reason why it failed was because there is a lack of context. What I mean by this is info beforehand that makes the execution more complex and heart wrenching to watch. For example here is a list of all of the SDR2 executions and the context we get from their trial.

Teruteru - Teruteru has a terminally ill mother, we also learn that his original plan was to kill Nagito. This gives us context as to why he tried to murder. We also know he is a chef, this is why Teruteru was cooked alive in his execution.

Peko - Peko murdered Mahiru to protect Fuyuhiko, she wanted to fulfill her duty as his tool until her dying breath. Fuyuhiko originally planned to kill Mahiru to avenge his younger sister. But knowing Fuyuhiko would later die in execution Peko acted first to protect his life. Their bond is also something that Monokuma toys with, which is why he put Fuyuhiko in her execution. With her final wish being to protect him she slashes his eye with her katana instead and in her final moments is unsure if her young master, the she sworn to protect from childhood, would live or not because of her.

Gundham - Gundham murdered Nekomaru in a valiant fight to save his friends from starving in the fun house. This shows that even though through his god act it shows that he truly does care for the ones around him and his heart is not “pure ice” as he claims in game. In his execution we are quick to discover that the spell he used wasn’t to save himself from getting trampled, but his dark devas instead. And when he gets flown up into the sky to heaven, it shows in the end he had a good and kind heart.

Chiaki - Nagito’s plan was to out the traitor and Chiaki outed herself by accidentally murdering him. Her reveal is upsetting as we have grown to love her and the students are desperate to try and prove her wrong. Of course they fail and we find out she did all of this to protect everyone from the very beginning. In her execution Chiaki is giving a the false hope of escaping, of course it is a trap and she gets crushed under a tetris block a long with Usami.

In each of these executions we learn important context clues that are the heart of the execution, Teruteru’s whole motive being his mother, Peko wanting to always protect Fuyuhiko, Gundham wanting to save the ones around him and not let them starve, and Chiaki wanting to protect her classmates from the very beginning. With Mikan however there seems to be a lack of context, with her big reveal of Junko being her “beloved” it had no reference to her execution, even her own ultimate really had no meaning either other than a possible drug over dose. The only context clues we get is from the game and not the trial, and this is where it falls apart. Mikan’s sexual trauma is not that prevalent to the main plot line. Her actions are often seen as fan service instead of reacting to trauma. We only learn about this in her optional free time events. And also the big part of the execution is her dislike of oversized things, which to the average fan is almost instantly forgettable in most cases as it’ll be regarded as non-important. With these two reasons going hand in hand, this is what I believe causes the execution to flop completely.

Well if you made it to the end than thank you for reading all the way through! I hope you enjoyed my little analysis on Mikan and her execution! If you have anything you’d like to add on or critique reblogs would be super appreciated!! Have a nice day/night!

#sdr2 spoilers #Youtube #mikan tsumiki #sdr2 mikan #anaylsis #super danganronpa goodbye despair #sdr2 #danganronpa #dr

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atlantisaurum · 3 years

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Lifetime

At 11pm he was digging up a hole in his own garden. Raindrops shattered on his face, mixing themselves under the tears, not to be distinguished here in the rain some February night in a year preceded by restless hours of isolation and pens in his hands, writing unspoken eulogies whenever he could not sleep. It´s hard to keep track of the order of all the deaths that happened throughout the last decade, all of his life.

Roots as thick as his forearms tormented his way down to a depth to lower the casket in, which he built, hoping it would make him feel less helpless, now, that another soul passed his still young being by. A flash light and an umbrella, held by his only remaining relative, kept him company next to a raging emptiness subsided by inner cries and screams. He had to keep digging otherwise it would be to late to do something, to help, to have a positive part in this inconvenient event in a row of even more inconvenient months.

Hope, first a stranger then a part of his family for 16 years, gone. Wryly and bitterly, he thought: “At least he doesn´t have to endure this anymore.” She cried night and day, crying for someone to give her love and company. His father gave it to her. Is there a place for humans and dogs next to the gods somewhere, anywhere that is not this place? Eternal solace and purity after one injection of sleep? Maybe they will find themselves together at a heavenly equivalent of north shore beaches of Germany in Spring and Autumn. “It doesn´t matter.” Nothing could sooth this loss, this last connection to his father. Sure, there still was the house, three times as old as him, built by his father blood, sweat and tears. It´s just not the same – empty, lonelier even more after his grandmother´s passing. Occupying her old room simply made him colder and his heart more cynical.

Hours passed before he was done digging this testimony of a lost cause, a withered away duo of a family. They lowered the baby-sized casket into the hole. He was silent, only muttering abbreviations of sentences and words as answers in the general direction of his blabbering mother. There are more than two ways to cope with situations like these. He and his mother lingered on opposite sites of the spectrum. One either turns into their parents or into the complete opposite. Both of his parents, marvellous in their own ways, imperfect as every other being as well. He feared to turn out like either of them. Where does one find the balance between obnoxiously loud and forever shut inside ones own head?

Fear and a promise urged his life forward for an unbearable amount of time. Stretched so thin he wasn´t even a person anymore. If one isn´t a person one will forget how to cry.

But he cried, at least he thought so or hoped so. Not crying meant it would kill him at some other point further in the future. He couldn´t bear it. When does it ever stop?

Continuously, every other week or month, he asked himself why he was the person he turned out to be. For these questions, bitter and melancholy answers are at hand but never satisfying enough to keep the doubts and hate from lurking back into his mind. Why couldn´t he accept a shoulder to cry on? It is simply easier to be quite than to explain anything at all. Every book, every last poem, piece of prose has its origins and its far fetched interpretations and general analysis but nothing that is not an exact copy of the authors mind can never fully explain the words felt and written.

Nothing ever will have enough matter to fill a black hole. It will suck in everything surrounding it, turning it into lifeless, non-existent, meaningless and fleeting occurrences. “It doesn´t matter”, he thought again. “My body is real, so is this soon to be covered in unwanted weeds and white wild flowers now filled up hole.” This existentialistic thought scratched at the walls of his head, ripping the wallpaper off and leaving behind but a white space once touched but now an unlovable place for non-permanent acquaintances of his life. Nothing stays, nothing lasts. `This too shall pass.´ But it never really seems that way in these awfully long lasting moments. Tomorrow he would still be existing and had to live the life given to him unasked for and unwillingly lead from crisis to crisis.

Soon, he knows, he would forget the tone of his dogs voice and the vibrancy of her fur in winter. So many memories repressed so he was able to breathe.

At 3am he opened the door of his car, leather gloves on his hands, but he knew his knuckles turned white by the way his hands started cramping after uncountable minutes of just holding onto the steering wheel, not even driving, just sitting, trying not to break down into even smaller pieces. His life was spread all over the globe, one chipped piece at a time. America, France, Spain, Italy, Germany - an endless list of places covered in blood only he could see. There was nowhere to go.

He turned the key around and starting driving. No specific aim, goal or place to end up at – driving simply so he wouldn´t be anywhere any time at all. Constantly moving in order not to linger.

A lightning struck above his head, enlightening the hardened lines of his face. He knew the roads, where they would eventually lead him. Every path has its end, every turn he made unconsciously brought him closer to where his heart needed to be in that very moment, after all of this morbid digging and the cries of his mother still ringing in his ears. A trip he had taken one too many times that led him to the grim realisation that he made a crucial mistake at being a person befriending another one. Taking anything, anyone in particular, for granted. Nothing ever is granted. Everything is temporary, time is fleeting and the air passing every single being by is only a recollection of what had been, could have been and something of what may never be.

The car seemed to shiver as he turned left and drove up the agricultural road, opening the scenery up to see a horizon waiting for the sun to touch its colours and tint it with its warm beams. He turned off the car. The breath he took did not help his lungs to steady themselves. Heavy was the weight sitting on his chest as the tried to open the door and begged his legs and feet to move him out of the car, onto the mushy and dirty field, awaiting the light of the new day to come.

His feet sunk into the dirt, covering his shoes in mud and torn off grass. “It doesn´t matter”, he thought again. “No one ever profited off of Nihilism.” He moved to the front of the car and leaned again the it, feet still on the ground. He needed to feel the ground beneath him, needed to feel the connection to something that wouldn´t die on him. “We´re killing this planet.” But the earth always had the remarkable ability to recover from any form of human interference. Chernobyl, only 30 years later nature recovered, animals repopulated themselves and it is now a fully functional and living place for nature and its inhabitants. But who is a boy compared to the wonders of the earth? Everyone can only ever endure and hope the pain eases. What is the last straw?

Miserable to his core, sinking deeper into the mud, the sun started to rise. Fog appeared at the horizon behind the trees in the forest that was before him. He couldn´t even count anymore how many girls he had taken to this place. He didn´t even know why he had taken them in the first place. To impress, to share, to show sparks of depth that he usually would not let anyone see? He was fooling himself. He took them them just so didn´t feel as lonely as he did now seeing this astonishing view all by himself, wondering why no one stayed long enough to see the sun set again with him. He could never to honest with himself. Lies followed lies followed lies followed by a dead end. So many things had ended when he had tried to fix them. “You cannot keep lying to everyone just because it seems like it is more convenient for you. If you keep lying, you´ll get lost in your lies and might never find your way back to the truth and to those who are sincere”, she had said to him once. “I´m sick of being treated like a secret. Stand for what you do, whom you´re with and why.” How was he supposed to tell the truth if he did not even knew it himself?

Truth is simple once one acknowledges that anything that differs from its pure form will ultimately lead one into a false perception of reality. Reality, just as time, is relative. Factual reality and emotional reality are two completely different things. “I cannot stay here”, he muttered, got back into his car and took off.

#z #mine #short story #m #death #tw

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siren-theories · 4 years

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The question of children

Note: ICYMI here is an updated post with all my analysis/thoughts so far. DIsclaimer: The following includes spoilers of up to and Including Episode 309 “A voice in the dark”. This post was prompted by the following question:

Thank you very much for sending that one in. I have to admit that this is a question I have asked myself many times, mainly driven by the parallels of Ben, Ryn and the story of the Pownall massacre. And Episode 308 has given those thoughts new form as they exchanged vows at the end of Episode 308. After all, children quite often follow such vows in human relationships. But children are quite a hassle for a TV show. Child actors are problematic to work with and once they exist, they often only waste screentime while bringing very little to the plot. And as they grow up, there is the question of time - having child actors more or less forces the show to use time in a linear manner as the child actors grow up. Though Siren already left itself a loophole with Hope and her growth spurts, this is still problematic for a show that has covered a period as short as a few months in three seasons. (I really need to update the timeline post soonish).

A). Can they actually have a child together?

We know that Sirens and humans can have children together as evidenced by the whole existence of Helen and the hybrid cult.

However, we do know that Ryn has struggled with fertility issues before, which was a major plot point of the later half of Season 2. I do believe however that the fertility problems were mostly related to the males of her species. As the tests showed in Episode 213 “The Outpost” there was nothing wrong with Ryn herself

(Leave it to the always body-positive Ryn to be proud of such a fact).

And as soon as they could isolate viable sperm from the male, fertilization of her eggs was no issue at all in Episode 215. Biologically, there should be nothing preventing her and Ben having a Baby.

B). Will they have a child together?

With Ryn was not being in her mating drive during the recent episodes, we probably can rule out any pregnancy as a result of those scenes OP mentioned (unless her change into a human has progressed much further in those episodes, which is possible but IMO very unlikely). However, what happens when her next mating drive occurs? I think this can be safely answered within the context of the previous scenes in the show. There were multiple scenes in Episode 213 where both Ben and Ryn clearly exhibited signs of wanting to have children with each other and one scene in particular where they both had to force themselves not to do so within that episode.

And in 308 Ryn clearly states her wish for having a family with him, during the kitchen table discussion.

Ryn: “I will live on Land. With you.” Ben: “On land. You mean, stay human?” Ryn: “Yes. Here. Together. Human.” Ben: “What about Hope?” Ryn: “She can be with us. As a family.” Ben: “I can’t ask you to do that.” Ryn: “It is my choice. When it is time, I will be human with you.”

After figuring IVF works there is also no reason for Ryn to have more pureblood children just for the sake of her species considering there are plenty of willing alternative candidates (this would also be much better for the future genepool of her tribe).

So therefore, I do believe there is a high chance of them having more children, possibly as soon as Ryns mating drive kicks in again. By now you probably already figured out what the persistent qualifier “more” is referring to. I believe that for all intents and purposes they already have a child together - Hope.

C) Hope as their first child

While Ben is not the biological father, this is no hindrance to Hope being their first child. After all, under the law of many first-world nations Ryn would also not be considered the biological mother since she did not conceive Hope, nor did she carry or give birth to Hope.

Siren is no stranger to these constellations - after all, the best father figure in the whole series, Dale Bishop, is Maddie’s stepfather.

(Sidenote: Contrast how awesome Dale is as a father with Ben’s parents and Maddie’s mother. The show makes the point very early and very often that biological relations are not what determines who your “real” parents are,)

And for all intents and story-telling purposes, Ryn intends for Ben to be Hope’s father. This was signalled multiple times this season, even as early as Episode 305 and seems to be a role Ben wants to take up as well.

In Episode 305, Ryn returns with Hope to land after her first transformation. And the very first thing she does onscreen is to hand Hope over to Ben in a manner very reminiscient of a mother handing over her child to its father.

(They look very much like a family in that scene, don’t they?) Then, we had Ben saying that he already views her like his own daughter in the same Episode. (Sidenote: rushing into things is a steeple of their whole relationship so this was in character for them).

Ben: “It’s weird man. Feels like she’s mine. I*m going to help raise her.” Ryn of course also expressed the wish for Hope, Ben and herself to be a family in Episode 308:

Ben: “What about Hope?” Ryn: “She can be with us. As a family.”

And with Hope’s reintroduction in Episode 9, this dynamic was reinforced multiple times - especially and crucially from Hope’s side. And even more important was that Hope’s actions were completely unprompted by Ryn.

1. Despite Ryn saying in Episode 305 that Hope will not remember her time as a baby, it is shown in Episode 309 that she does remember Ben, signifying the close bond the two already have

Episode 305:

Ryn: “When we meet again, you will be grown. You will not remember this time with me. So I will remember for us both.”

309:

Hope keeps glancing at Ryn and Ben Ryn: “She remembers you. From when she was a baby.”

2. And of course, later in the same episode Hope seeks physical contact with Ben - the image projected here is one of Family again.

And Ryn is again very happy about her daughter doing this. For whatever reason there seems to exist a strong, reciprocal bond between Hope and Ben already.

So as it stands right now, Hope already is their (first) child in my opinion. The writers IMO could not have made that any more clear, especially not with those scenes in 309.

Assuming she survives the finale (which I very much wish for), I would argue that any other children during the run of the show will be unlikely from a storytelling and logistics perspective. Even should Hope not survive (or have another prolonged period of absence for whatever reason) I do not think there will be another child shown onscreen. In addition to the usual problem with children in tv there is another one in play here: As strapped for screentime as Siren is, I would assume the writers do not intend to introduce further children unless they serve a dramatic purpose.

D) Children and the Pownall family arc

One such arc where a Baby might prove beneficial for dramatic reasons however is the Pownall family arc.

As I have written at length before, there are parallels between Ryn/Ben and Charles Pownall/his unnamed siren. And the Pownall massacre happened in part because Ben’s ancestor and his siren failed to raise their child together.

("Seperated from her child, his mermaid lost her mind and went back to the water, never to return. Infected by the song and her abscence, Charles lost his senses. He gathered his crew, trapped the mermaids in a cove and slaughtered them.”)

As such, from a storytelling perspective, It would be very dramatic and enjoyable for Ben to have a child with a Siren and hopefully not mess up raising her. Therefore, should Hope not survive the season the odds of them having (another) child onscreen would increase dramatically in my opinion.

If Hope should indeed die, maybe it will not only be Ben repudiating the mistakes of his ancestor, but maybe also Ryn showing that she is stronger than the unnamed Siren. Maybe she would survive and heal after the loss of a child precisely because she has humans standing by to help her?

(And yes, I would think that would include Maddie). However, I do think Hope will survive. Anything else would be just too cruel to Ryn and also a bit odd considering how much screentime was invested in Hope’s “creation” in Season 2.

Either way, while a child would add drama, it is also not necessarily a conditio sine qua non for the story of the Pownall family. And IMO Ben’s attachment to Ryn is already strong enough (cf their "wedding vows” in 308). Therefore, a child would not be needed to prompt him to chose Ryn over his family (a choice he also already made in Episode 215 and which you can read more in detail about in the previously linked post).

Conclusion:

Do I expect them to have more children onscreen, over the course of the series? Probably not, given the above arguments.

Do I expect them to have more children in the future (including a hypothetical time period after the series finale)?

After the series ends (and assuming some kind of happy end for them) they would probably increase their family as early (or as often) as Ryn’s mating drive and other factors permit. At this point in the story, they clearly want to have a family together and there would be nothing to stop them from enlargening their already existing family should they so choose.

So I would tentatively argue that yes, they eventually will have more children.

#Freeform Siren #Siren #Ben #Ryn #Ben/Ryn #siren freeform

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captainpikeachu · 5 years

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DISCO S3 NYCC TRAILER ANALYSIS!!!!!!!

sMESA BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And boy oh boy was Saturday, October 5 such a good Trek news day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so....let’s get back to some good ole analysis of the teaser trailer for Discovery Season 3, still likely to be about a year away before we officially see it

Trailer begins with our queen Michael landing in the future

that is a lot of dirt you might say, it’s like she landed near volcano or something

ohhhhh a look into her gear - so it looks like her science division badge, a phaser, and a communicator maybe, the black one that looks like a phone and has the Starfleet delta decal on it, and there’s some other equipment that I don’t know what they are

then we hear Michael’s voice saying “I’ve spent a year searching for that domino that tipped over and started all of this”

and by this, I think she means she spent a year trying to find the cause of why the Federation has “fallen” in a sense, as this would tie into what looks to be the theme of the season by the looks of the rest of the trailer

accompanying her voiceover, we see the following images

we not only see Michael’s changing hairstyle, but also how her mood has changed, going from worry and fear to almost resigned and ready for whatever that’s coming - also we see that she did seem to pick up more equipment or other objects throughout this one year period as indicated by the growing piles behind her

it is confirmed that Michael and the Disco crew did not land in the future together, so it looks like Michael arrived first, and the Disco crew lands one year after Michael’s arrival

here we see Michael with our new series regular David Ajala who is playing a character named Cleveland “Book” Booker, from the looks of this scene, Michael runs into him at some point and they seem to be avoiding someone else or being chased by someone else and are trying to run away and hide

and it seems Michael and Book are running away from some Andorians with very interesting weapons, we also see some humans behind the Andorians - could this be some remnant of a Starfleet/Federation?

some sort of pulse weapon is released and Michael and Book are knocked flying and glass is breaking

Michael and Book are walking across some landscape and we got two planets in the sky - I’m not sure what this planet is or if this is even the same planet where Michael landed, but we do know from the panels and interviews that Michael and the crew did not land at Terralysium as they had hoped

Book asks Michael, “You believe in ghosts?”

Michael replies, “What does that mean?”

Book: “That badge on your shirt.”

the look on Michael’s face says it all - she realizes what he means - the Federation, Starfleet...they’re basically ghosts, something that doesn’t exist anymore

Saru and Tilly are the next shot that we see, the doors look to be the Disco bay area? Maybe they are getting ready to take a shuttle and go somewhere? They certainly looked to be dressed for it.

next we hear a man’s voiceover saying “I watch this office everyday, believing that my hope was not in vain...”

so Michael and Book are at this office and meeting the man speaking the voiceover, I don’t know if Book brought Michael there or if something else brought them there - like perhaps the people that were chasing them got them here?

and this man, I don’t know if he’s a Federation government member? or maybe this is a museum? or a believer of Federation ideals? or perhaps he is someone who is the descendant of a character we know from Season 1 and 2 (maybe like Ash Tyler) who has been told to wait for Michael and find her if she does appear in the future? that might be a bit of a stretch but it could be an easy way to explain his devotion and belief?

we see the flag of the Federation, interestingly this one has only 6 stars

just to compare it with, this is the usual flag of the Federation that we see

so at this point, it is looking like something caused the Federation to break up and become fractured? those 6 stars perhaps represents the 6 species/planets that are still standing together?

the man’s voiceover contines in this next scene, “...and that hope is you, Commander Burnham”

the fact that he knows her name is why I am inclined to believe that he is the descendant of someone who knows Michael and has been told to one day expect her

this next reaction shot of Michael’s face is not related to the scene before, as we see by the change in Michael’s hair, this shot is a year after the scene of Michael meeting the man above - this shot is likely Michael’s reaction to finding out that the Discovery crew has finally made it through

explicit confirmation of how many years we jumped into the future - so since Disco Season 2 mostly took place in 2257, this means that Michael lands in 3187 and one year later is 3188, when the Discovery arrives

at the panel, it was confirmed also that we would explore more of the Trill, and we see that in the trailer - the two people in red are likely Trills, the person in the foreground doesn’t look to be Michael, but it might be her, and the pool is where the symbionts are

this could be Michael in the pool? or it could perhaps be another character who becomes a host? we have heard rumors that Disco Season 3 is possibly bringing in a nonbinary character, so this may be that person as this looks like the actor I was informed they had cast

now these are definitely Trills, though it might be unlikely we will see the Dax symbiont from DS9 around in season 3, since I’m not sure the symbiont would be able to live into the 32nd century

and there’s Discovery!!!!!

REUNIONS!!!?!???!?!!

Michael has found her Disco family!

A shot of Detmer and Owosekun.

Culber looks rather concerned

some sort of confrontation is happening in the spore drive room, there is at least one person holding weapons, some non-Disco crew people, maybe someone after the spore drive? it was noted that the drive may become a target

we do see Stamets and Tilly in the top right corner, but the person to their left kinda looks like Stamets?

Stamets and Tilly both look very unhappy and alarmed at the same time.

Book and Michael are fighting on that planet we saw them walking across earlier, and it looks like those Andorians or whoever was chasing them has caught up to them

the person Michael is fighting doesn’t look like an Andorian, but Book is definitely fighting an Andorian

and here we see Georgiou getting into some fights as well, and we see Saru behind her - it looks like wherever Saru and Tilly were going, Georgiou went with them as well

this character here I believe is the nonbinary character they had rumored to have cast, and this might also be the same character we see go into the Trill pool and possibly be joined with a symbiont?

now this shot....ohhhhhhh

so from left to right, we got Andorian, a species that I cannot really be sure of, Human, Cardassian(?), Lurian, and another Andorian

they are part of the same group that we saw earlier in the trailer chasing Book and Michael

Book and Michael are booking it (sorry I couldn’t resist)

so through the last few scenes, we have been hearing Saru’s voice saying “This ship bears the name Discovery. She has carried us into the future, and it will be our privilege to make that future bright.”

Book and Michael are sure not skipping leg day in this trailer - this looks like some sort of science facility?

next shot is an interesting one - this could either be a flashback to Prime Georgiou, or this is Mirror Georgiou pretending to be Prime for some undercover sort of mission?

either way, she says “Let’s see how this plays out, shall we?”

Michael pointing a phaser at someone, now judging by her hair, this is one year after she landed in the future, and the person behind her is likely that nonbinary character (who I really need to know the name of so I can use their name properly)

also interesting to note about her uniform - the color stripes don’t look silver

and a close up look on her badge....that’s the command division badge

now Michael’s uniform is missing the stripes across the shoulders that indicate a captain, but the change in color and badge looks like Michael is officially moving from science division into the command track and she will be wearing gold and not silver anymore

something is happening on Discovery and Owosekun is getting shaken around

Georgiou killing some folks

Discovery flying

and finally, we hear the man say “Where will you go?”

to which Michael answers, “Wherever the answers are.”

but look at the way they are holding hands, you do not hold hands with strangers like that, I mean, short of this guy being a fan, this sort of familiarity speaks to a deeper connection, which just goes to further add to my suspicion that this character is likely a Ash Tyler descendant of some sort, or a descendant of someone who once knew Michael and has been waiting for her to appear in the future because they were told to wait for her by someone who had knowledge that Discovery went into the future

this logo color feels happier and brighter somehow

so there it is! the trailer giving us the first look into season 3! SO MANY POSSIBILITIES!!!!!

and I’m sure before its 2020 release, we will see at least one or two more trailers so we can have more of an idea, but I am so excited to see Discovery boldly go off into the future!!!!!!!!

whatever is happening this season, it’s looking like Discovery is going to be leading the way to rebuild a possibly fallen or broken Federation and restore it to the ideals that it once stood for! this is an interesting narrative, especially when compared to some of the themes we are seeing with Picard’s story and going rogue because the Federation won’t do the right thing to help.

I’ve said in other places already but it looks like Disco and Picard are both telling this overarching Federation narrative but going at it from two opposite ends with Picard detailing the gradual decline of the Federation while Disco is giving it a rebirth.

BRING ON SEASON 3!!!!! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!

#star trek discovery #star trek discovery season 3 #disco spoilers #discovery spoilers #star trek #star trek discovery speculations #michael burnham #saru #sylvia tilly #paul stamets #hugh culber #cleveland booker #mirror georgiou #joann owosekun #keyla detmer

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laughing-with-god · 5 years

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Pen Pal 1.5

Summary- As a lonely person, the idea of exchanging letters with someone apart from society was actually quite appealing to you. In a random act of charity and desperation, you sign up for a pen pal and get paired up with an inmate named Jungkook. The letters were meant to help him cope with prison life, but little did anyone know it was actually driving him more mad.

Warnings- Yandere/Prisoner Jungkook x Reader. Mature themes. Mention of mental disorder.

Words; 5.4k

“Have you ever felt so connected to someone that you didn’t understand why they were inside another skin and inhabiting a different body than you?”

He supposed that he should’ve been more displeased with where he landed himself.

A cage of a jail cell that was six by eight feet and enclosed with brick walls that were so old, the paint was chipping off more and more each day. The only entrance and exit being the harsh bars of the metal doors where a police officer could always be seen patrolling the passage ways, eyeing inmates with a judgmental glare as if he knew each and every one of their stories and how they were menaces to society.

But if Jungkook was being true to himself, he couldn’t find any need to relate to his fellow prisoners fantasies of being in the outside world once again.

He had no desire to integrate back into society.

He hated the world for a long time.

He hated how obnoxious and fake people were in the modern era. He hated how capitalistic and money hungry the economy was. He hated how surface level and crude the general community was.

From the time he was born, his peers would only approach him because they had hopes of being friends with the son of a rich power-broker.

They would smile to his face and claimed to like him, but behind his back they would complain about how ‘boring and weird’ he was.

Indeed, as a youngster Jungkook had been very introverted.

He loved drawing, and this caused looks of confusion as most boys his age would enjoy a game of football or soccer more than doodling. The only reason he got invites to playdates or birthday parties was due to his family’s social status. He was quick to catch on when his ‘friends’ would always push to go to his house, to play with his toys and to drop the Jeon name when bragging to other people about the ‘friendship’.

However as Jungkook got older, the less he cared about such trivial matters. As an insecure little boy, it bruised him quite a bit. But as an older teen, he accepted it as a harsh reality. No one liked him for him, yet it wasn’t as tragic as it sounded. Because, he didn’t accept them for who they were either. The world and Jungkook had a mutual understanding for each other. He despised them for it used him.

So when he went and got himself locked up, he really didn’t have that much remorse for what he would miss of the outside world. The criminal psychologist said he had a problem with feelings in general; having a low emotional capacity for settings or situations but a heightened one for certain people in his life. But Jungkook paid this analysis no mind. After all, how many different settings, situations or people can he encounter while serving a life-time sentence at one of the most highly guarded prisons in the country?

He did what he had done, and he was at peace with everything concerning the matter.

When other inmates would rant about how they missed very basic things of life; non-cafeteria food, going to parks, having your own home and schedule, Jungkook didn’t care for the sentiment at all. In fact, he thought they were weak to not even be able to handle prison. Really, how bad was it? You got a bed to sleep on, a toilet to shit in and was fed three time a day. With the way these fuckers ranted, you would’ve thought they were world war soldiers talking about home life whilst serving in the trenches. Pathetic, really.

One day, Jungkook walked into his cell after a decent work out only to spot a pristine and angelic white envelope on his bed (more like a slab of metal with a cheap blanket on top but what did you expect of a cell?). This caused Jungkook to quirk a brow at the odd sight, he was pretty particular with boundaries and it annoyed him to see his roommate not respect his space.

“Joon, I told you not to leave shit in my area.” Jungkook motonously commented to his cell mate that was currently on the top bunk, book in hand. This caused the older to peek from his spot above and glance down at the lower bunk.

“Uh...that’s not mine. Plus it has your name on it and everything, bro.”

Jungkook sighed and pressed his tongue against his cheek in an angry tick that he had adopted years ago. He really just wanted to head to the showers and he couldn’t imagine who would be writing to him. His family having disowned him for his crimes and everyone else having forgotten him or shunning his existence like he had the plague. Not that he was too disappointed with these developments, he could spend the rest of his days without a word from anyone from the outside and he would still die content.

With a huff, he snatched the envelope and opened it with very little grace.

‘Dear Mr. or Miss. Prisoner…..’

Jungkook’s doe eyes skimmed passed the delicate but noticeably rushed handwriting, soaking in the words with hesitance at such unexpected vulnerability from an utter stranger. It wasn’t a long letter (Jungkook was finished reading it after 30 seconds or so) but he plopped himself on his bed to re-read the letter when he was done, showers somehow forgotten.

Said person who wrote to him managed to sound very weak and tired through diction alone. However, this moment of weakness from the stranger was somehow not at all judged by Jungkook. This revelation startled the prisoner himself, given that he had always made it a habit to look down on those whom lacked the mental strength that he did. A fucked up social darwinism philosophy that was only heightened by being around meager sheep while he was a full on ruthless psycho. But why? Why did he feel pity this time instead of the usual disgust whenever someone was so bare and raw to him?

The answer was simple.

He related to you.

He felt as though you had put it best into words exactly what he felt when he was living out there in the public. The world was scary and he didn’t blame you for being paranoid or locking yourself up. He could practically feel your fear from where he was; locked in a tiny cell and miles upon miles away from civilization. He got the sense that you were different, like him. Most people he had encountered in his lifetime have always been okay with how the world was, not acknowledging the sinister characteristics that came along with it. Authenticity was oozing from your writing as you did way more than just acknowledge the bad; you did your best to stay away from it all together. In a weird way, Jungkook found this cute. You were like a frightened child that hid under your bed to avoid the evil babysitter, escaping was your pure and innocent plan of action. Which was different from Jungkook’s more violent actions….but he concluded he liked the contrast between you two. While you decided to take it out on yourself and starve yourself from stimulation just to keep away from the barbaric world, Jungkook took it upon himself to make everyone else pay.

“It it that stupid Pen Pal program?”

Jungkook glanced up from the paper to see his cellmate hang his head from the bed above, watching Jungkook with questioning orbs. Jungkook just scoffed at the upside down face and nodded.

“I just threw my letter away. I heard they put all of us in that program because it’s a tax-write off for them. It’s bullshit.” Namjoon told the younger.

Jungkook didn’t supply the other with an answer. Instead he carefully folded the letter and placed it smoothly under his pillow. Then, he headed out to the showers while thoughts of what to write back to you filled his mind.

‘Dear Y/n,

Well I would feel rather….accepting.

I think you must be a very wise person to keep yourself far from the wretched claws of society…..’

Jungkook tapped the capped pen against his chin, looking over his writing for any errors or mishaps before he signed off entirely.

His letter was more in response to yours, after all you hadn’t given him that much to reply back to. But still, some communication was better than none at all. Jungkook wanted to let you know that he understood your fears. Hell, he even shared them with you. He hoped that you believed him when he told you that he also harbored disdain for your enemy. And he also wanted to learn more about such a like-minded individual. Surely, you both had to have other similarities too, right?

He added the request for an image of you toward the end of his letter, just out of sheer curiosity for his long-lost twin. He didn’t care what you looked like but he wanted to scratch the itch of placing a face with the writing, knowing the urge to know would never go away until he saw your face.

Other prisoners watched shocked as they witnessed Jungkook make his way to the mail room to drop off a letter to be sent off, knowing that he never made contact with the outside world.

Jungkook found himself pacing his cell in an anxious manner, arms crossed and brows furrowed. His stomach was tied into knots and his palms were clammy, hinting at one of the first times that he’s ever been nervous.

He really was hoping for a response from you.

He knew that it was very childish and sad to be so giddy for a letter, but he couldn’t help but get excited at the prospect of another note. It was refreshing to be able to talk to someone who wasn’t a felon. Someone who wasn’t there in person yet still reached out to connect with a corrupt scanderal such as himself.

Which is why when the usual mail carrier came down the cells, cart in hand with envelopes, pictures, money and presents for inmates, Jungkook found himself holding his breath and wishing for the first time ever that the carrier would stop at his cell.

He had never been on the receiving end of such transactions, he had no one on the outside to look out for him. But the faceless recluse that had reached out to him in a cry for companionship had fogged his mind, leaving hims restless and jittery.

Could it be that he found a genuine friend?

One that didn’t use him for his reputation (unlike his former childhood friends) and accepted him as the fuck up he was.

“Letter for a Jeon Jungkook?” The middle-aged man paused in front of the barren cell, sticking a pristine white envelope through the metal bars. It was almost comical the joy that bursted through his chest and the way he leaped to attrive the holy piece of material. As if it glowed bright in the grim and grey limbo that he was stuck in.

Not being able to withhold the anticipation, Jungkook quickly took the letter to his bunk and carefully slit it open.

‘Dear Jungkook,

Words cannot express how thankful I am that you answered my pathetic call for help…’

The writing was noticeably neater than the first letter. Jungkook noted with a smile how much longer this one was prior to the last. The inmate forced himself to pore over every detail at a slower pace, not wanting to accidently skim past any vital information yet also wishing to savor the ritual.

You seemed very blindly kind to someone who was a wretched crook. In fact, you claimed to be very grateful to hear from little old him. The feeling was utterly foreign, the idea that someone was out there that genuinely wanted his friendship, someone who genuinely wanted to know his most bland personal preferences, who was practically pleading for his written company. It made him feel wanted. After some thought he decided that he quite liked the new feeling. Even at his worst; locked up for a lifetime sentence, you went out of your way to kill his loneliness. He almost giggled when you told him of the disorder that the world had labelled you with, it was awfully funny to him that you both were called mentally unstable. You two now had that in common as well. He felt a sudden stab in the gut when you mentioned your sister. He guessed if he had to identify the emotion it would be closest to sympathy or guilt. He supposed he felt...bad for your loss. Jungkook smiled widely.

Yes! That’s it! He felt bad for you!

God if the psychologist who said he had no emotions could see him now...

Towards the end of your writing, you mentioned not being a ‘looker’. As if the paper itself burned him, Jungkook dropped the object with great haste to dig through the envelope. You had sent the picture! He almost forgot that he even asked for such thing.

And there it was, a small 4x6 printed image of a lovely face smiling shyly at the camera.

Your face was small and round, skin serene and creamy with its (porcelain/olive/honey/amber/cinnamon) hued pores that was the canvas for your darling features. Your nose was benevolent and perched regally as well as perfectly centered amidst the sculpture that was your appearance. The bridge of the blessed feature dipped discreetly and softly, complimenting the luminous orbs that were vividly painted with a the crispest shade of (color) that he’s ever had the pleasure of witnessing. The enchanting irises were artistically framed by magnetizing dark eyelashes that were as long as they were seductive. Somehow he just knew that the colors supplied by whatever commercial printer didn’t do the color-pads of your eyes justice, imagining the shiver that will go down his spine when he could be bare to them in their full and unfiltered glory. They held a humane gentleness but still….a simmering witt was also bubbling under the surface. Overhead the eyes were carefully groomed eyebrows that were neat and shapely, one was elegantly arched in a expression of somber joy.

Underneath your nose was a pair of nectarous ruby red (or flowery pink) lips that looked perfectly cushioning to any lucky man who would have the chance to collide theirs with yours. Your pristine and snow-white teeth were barely poking out, show casting your shyness even when plastering on a friendly smile. It’s as if you were unable to let yourself be one-hundred percent bare even in something as basic as a grin. He wondered what kind of mellifluous sound would erupt from such a devine cavern. Your (color) hair was sadly put up, unable to flow freely in the still-frame image. Even though he had very little to study, he still knew that he would want to (straight hair; run his hands through your silken strands) (curly hair; bounce the fluid swirls of your playful mane). An odd urge to inhale the scent of your shampoo was what Jungkook felt next.

Lost in his own self-induced trance, he didn’t realize that he had been staring for so long until he felt a shadow loom over his figure.

It was his cellmate and suddenly the infatuated man became all too aware of his slightly ajar mouth and his widened eyes that were stuck on the flimsy printed picture that was tightly held in his grasp (as if terrified that someone would steal the chef d'oeuvre...in an abode of criminals, this fear was somewhat relevant). Quickly, he masked his expression to that of usual indifference.

“You’ve been sitting there staring for like eleven minutes. You good?”

He just nodded, not a fan of frivolous speech or furthering conversation with people he cared none for. Still, the fucker persisted.

“You sure? Your girl didn’t send you something naughty or something, right?” This was said in a matter of humor, an attempt to relieve the dark aura that Jungkook seemed to exude in every social interaction. However, the serious face that Jungkook had on gave the other the impression that he had hit the mark precisely. Joon’s jaw dropped and an eager grin formed at the corners of his lips.

“Really?! No way! Can I see?” The over-sized goon attempted to stride forward, hands already out-reached to grasp at the first smut he would’ve seen in a long time. Out of primal instinct to keep what was his away from the snubby hands of others, Jungkook pulled back. But the fool had enlarged limbs and this meant his lengthy arms were very capable of plucking the picture off of Jungkook’s safe grip.

Greedy, Namjoon ran his eyes over the photo. His grin slowly slid off as he realised that it was indeed nothing sexual. Nonetheless, his eyes lingered far longer than Jungkook cared for….before promptly returning the image to it’s rightful owner, whose jaw was clenched and teeth now grinding at the recent events.

“Who is she?”

“My pen-pal.” Jungkook promptly answered whilst hiding both the letter and photo under his pillow before placing his head on it, staring up at the bunk above him.

“Damn, if I’d know that I could’ve gotten someone like that….” A brief pause as Joon climbed up his bed as well. “I definitely wouldn’t have thrown mine away.”

Jungkook felt the familiar agitation hit him, tongue pressing against his cheek and he wondered if it was too late to request a cell change.

The lights went out and ponderings of what to write back filled Jungkook’s mind along with the bewitching photo that was just directly under his head…

Opting not to go to breakfast, Jungkook stayed within his cell.

He elaborately printed his response back to you.

‘Dear Y/n,

I thought you were a very smart person but obviously not…’

The inmate was sure to make you aware of how breathtaking you were, but also very careful in tip-toeing around just how gorgeous you were to him. He could have written a dozen novels about your exquisite appearance alone, but obviously he was unable to do such thing. He didn’t want you to think he was a creep and halt all communication with him. In an effort to get closer to you, Jungkook added some sentiment in regards to your loss, adding an anecdote about his mother for dramatic effect.

Now, it was time to fulfill your wish to see him as he had seen you.

He had no problem with such request. Not that he ever paid attention to such pointless gossip, but he had always heard whispers of how handsome he was. Jungkook didn’t consider himself to be a little Fabio on any scale, but he knew he wasn’t hard on the eyes of the opposite sex. The trouble was, how exactly would he be able to send a photo?

After a year in prison, you get to learn that there are two ways you can survive in such element. You either adapt or you crumble.

The fittest of the inmates learned real quick how to make prison into their home. Some men have been here so long that they grew connections and were able to bring some things from the outside world in.

Jungkook made plans to visit one the older inmates, knowing that he could trade a candybar for a favor of sneaking a photo out to you. For now, he folded his letter and placed it in the envelope, awaiting his picture before being shipped off to the mailroom.

‘Dear Jungkook,

…..I guess you’re not the worst face I’ve seen….’

Jungkook smiled as he fondly traced the words that you have written onto the paper only days prior. He imagined your endearing face scrunching up into a thoughtful expression as you scribbled your response back to him. You were funny and he couldn’t deny the sense of pride he felt when you admitted to his attractiveness. In the past, he never gave a fuck if people thought he was the next Ryan Gosling or the ugliest mug they’ve ever seen. But he felt a weird sense of relief behold him when you said that you indeed thought he was good-looking. He didn’t want to imagine what he might’ve felt if you called him ugly or stopped talking to him after seeing his face.

But that was not the best aspect to be seen within your writing.

The best thing that caused his chest to erupt in a warm and fuzzy feeling was when you agreed that you also felt a connection between you two. That you found him to be ‘marvelous company’ and you enjoyed his letters. This just confirmed his suspicion that you were somehow tied together. That you two were meant to stumble upon each other in the most unconventional way. Jungkook was sure of it, that you two have defied the odds that cruel reality set against you ‘mentally unstable’ pair and found peace along with understanding within each other.

Jungkook didn’t know how to describe you. Surely a ‘pal’ wasn’t it.

You were like another half of him.

Like you both have fallen from the same star and were unfortunate to fall on this damned earth. Surrounded by the bizzare ‘humans’ and called odd for not being one of their species. Jungkook decided then and there that you two were mates.

And yes, Jungkook meant it in the primal and borderline barbaric ways that animals did. He would prove his worthiness as a male specimen, he would shelter and feed you, he would breed and produce offspring with you. Regular people would look at this plan and consider it cave-man like, but he thought it was considerably more romantic this way. Animals mated for life and were not afraid to get murderous when someone threatened this sacred bond. What was so wrong with such animalistic viewpoint? Humans were the worst type of creature and he was not at all interested in their fake way of obtaining a lover. And he got the sense that you weren’t either. Dates, chocolates, flowers? How is it that those things were put on a pedestal as a grand show of affection but having a genuine connection with a person was not? Jungkook couldn’t strain his brain to understand such mindset.

This all left the forefront of his mind when he read to the last parts of your letter. Eyebrows going up in surprise at the ‘P.S’ adage that was never before seen from you. His smile slipped off his face when he saw what you wished.

You wanted to know how he landed himself in prison.

Now….that was a touchy subject.

He really didn’t want to scare you away.

You were too understanding, too alike to him for Jungkook to ever want you to run away. He knew that no matter how much he could try, his crimes were inexcusable. Even the holiest of saints would hinder their forgiveness.

Jungkook came to the conclusion that it would be best to tell a white lie until he had more of a connection with you to reveal the truth.

Sure, he was utterly enthralled by you but he didn’t know how deep your affections lied with him. He just needed more time to spin a perspective to fill your ear with, he needed to get his claws deep within you, he needed you to be as dependent on him as he was with you. Jungkook decided to create a fake story to keep you close to him.

Jungkook smirked and grabbed a pen and paper for the next letter.

‘Dear Jk,

My day to day is also lifeless, I’m afraid…’

It was lunch time and Jungkook sat alone in his usual corner of the table, mystery meat forgotten in favor of absorbing the new letter that you had produced for his addiction.

The first paragraph had the psycho inmate smiling as he pictured you in your tiny apartment, dressed in comfy clothes doing the most mundane things. He liked to spend his free time just imagining what your comfy ‘nest’ was like, picturing your tiny frame skipping around it. You sitting on a sofa, bundled up in blankets and one of his oversized sweaters, book in hand and steaming hot cup of hot chocolate in the other. You in the kitchen, humming some tune in your dulcet voice as you attempted to make him a home cooked meal, frowning when you realized that you had not followed a certain step correctly like the cook book said. You laughing at the movie that played on the television screen while you both reach into the popcorn bowl at the same time. What Jungkook wouldn’t give to live in the little nest with you. To occupy the same cocoon that you created.

He often found himself fantasizing about being the brave one for you.

The one who would go to the outside world on your behalf. He would get you groceries, get a 9 to 5 to pay the bills, go out at 3 am to get you lady products or any random craving. Wouldn’t that be nice? It would be similar to a caregiver role. Him taking care of you so you just had to stay your pretty self at home, keeping it warm and pillowy for his return. You would be so thankful for his willingness to go out into your worst fear for the sake of your happiness.

But then, as the letter continued, Jungkook’s mood soured.

Your mother had violated your space and made you feel awful.

Jungkook felt rage in that moment.

He never held so much hatred for someone he had never met before.

He instantly knew that he didn’t like your mother.

A piercing sensation thundered upon his chest. The cursed image of your sweet face covered in tears fogged his mind’s eye.

God helped anyone who fucked with you.

Jungkook folded the letter and put it in his pocket, shoveling some tasteless cafeteria food to distract him the familiar hellish itch that screamed at him from underneath his skin.

Later that day, Jungkook responded with a letter of his own.

He attached the drawings that he had mentioned to you, somewhat bashful that for the past weeks all he had been able to draw was you. But he brushed the feelings off and focused on another task; getting you to start calling.

He would often see inmates taking up phone booths, talking and laughing with loved ones from the outside for a couple minutes at a time. Jungkook wanted that for you two. He wanted to hear the blessed voice that he knew you had, and he wanted you to become familiar with his as well. After all, you would be hearing it a lot in your lifetime.

‘My Dearest Y/n,

I’m sure you must’ve gotten busy, why else haven’t you written in a week?’

Jungkook was slowly becoming irritated at the lack of mail he has been receiving. It had been five days since you had responded and Jungkook felt anxious at your sudden silence. You were a sweetheart and would never abandon him. You weren’t like those other wretched people, right? No! You couldn’t be.

Jungkook shook his head and mentally cursed himself for even thinking that for a moment.

You must have gotten busy.

Maybe your mom didn’t give up on pestering you.

‘My Dearest Y/n,

Where have you gone? You haven’t forgotten about me have you?’

Jungkook couldn’t bear the silence. He was slowly growing restless. He needed the stimulation that was your communication. Without it, he had no new material to fill his mind. No new scenarios to daydream about. NOTHING to get him through the day in the colorless cell that began to taunt him. He attempted to distract himself with the picture of you as well as your

former letters that now had tear stains because of his new habit of crying over them, knowing they might be the last he ever gets from you.

‘Y/n,

This isn’t funny anymore….’

Jungkook was not only uneased, but now he was worried. Thoughts of what could’ve possibly caused your silence now haunted his mind at night when he attempted to get what little rest he could. Time was only worsening his growing paranoia each day that he didn’t receive a letter.

He knew you lived alone and had very little outside communication with anyone. The main ones being him and your mother. Jungkook could only assume that your mother and you would be taking a break due to your mother’s mental breakdown. And that left him. Stuck in a penitentiary with no way to reach you. He nearly punched the brick wall of his cell when he came to the realization that something could’ve happened to you and no one would’ve known. If you didn’t answer this letter, he didn’t know what he’d do.

‘Dear Jungkook (or should I say Easter Bunny?)

I know what you did.

I know that you lied to me.

I know you’re a murderer.

Friends don’t lie to each other, Jungkook.

I think it’s best if we find different Pen Pals.

All my best wishes, Y/n.

The letter fell to the ground as Jungkook stared in shock at the absurdly short and cold answer he got from you.

He underestimated you.

You found out.

Jungkook felt his temper flare as well as his breathing.

He’d be damned to let you go.

You were soulmates….couldn’t you see that?

Jungkook never thought he’d have to rely on this but he had no choice.

In the cell block, there were some people whom have been there for 30 years, and other for 30 days. Prison 101 is to not fuck with the guys who had time under their belts. It was best to respect them and acknowledge that they have connections. But respect was the last thing on his mind as he stormed into the tiny cell room of an old geezer whose been committing crimes since before Jungkook was even born.

The older man was used to people coming to his cell, usually asking about how to get hands on a cell phone or how to get the precious kitchen duty to sneak food. Over time, the man humored many childish inmates with some insider tricks. Almost everyone had talked to him at some point, but Jungkook was one of the very few whom did not approach him seeking an easier ride. Thus, he was shocked to see the young and deadly figure swoop into the area, eyes dead and jaw clenched.

“You’re going to do something for me.” Jungkook said this monotonously while maintaining eye contact. The older man couldn’t ignore the shivers that went down his spine but he still acted calm, knowing you couldn’t show weaknesses to the younger and violent inmates.

“Is that so?” The older quirked a brow at Jungkook though the rusty mirror and went back to shaving his face. The younger was behind him and just tilted his head and stepped forward, still staring at the man through the reflection of the glass.

“You are going to sneak me out of this joint.”

This caused the older to laugh, not believing his ears at such a ludicrous request.

Jungkook came up behind the older, mouth close to his ear and eyes lifeless and inky as they held the older’s through the mirror.

“Listen here you senile fuck, I know that you know who I am and what I did. It’s your best interest to listen to what I tell you. Would you like to hear a secret?” The petrified and frozen man nodded, not having the balls to disobey or look away. “I never told the jury that I didn’t murder those people on my own….I had a partner. A partner who is still out there and would surely take care of your pretty little daughter I hear you talking on the phone to.”

Jungkook smiled as the man grimly agreed to do whatever he wished.

Now, he just had to inform you of his upcoming arrival.

‘My Dearest Y/n,

I see you found out about the nickname the hideous press gave me.

Well….this type of revelation is best talked over in person.

I’ll see you soon.’

Author’s note; so....both JK and Y/n have mental problems, just to clarify. Also, this wasn’t part two bc I think of this as just the other half of part one. There will still be a part two and three. Please let me know what you thought bc a full inbox makes for a happy writer. It’s challenging to write for a Y/n character bc the point is for you guys to identify with her in the story and I wanted you guys to feel like you truly are her so when I did the part where Jk becomes very obsessed with the pic, I wanted to add details but obvi not everyone has the same characteristics so I added diff options...pls let me know what you thought of this.

#yandere bts #bts yandere #yandere jungkook #jeon jungkook #BTS jungkook #jungkook #kim namjoon #namjoon #yandere kpop #bts #bangtan boys #love #pen pal #kpop #my writing #yandere

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vixxscifiwritings · 3 years

Text

reflections in wisps

Length - 2457 words

Characters - Seokjin x Jaehwan, BTS Ensemble

Rating - Teen and Up

Summary - Seokjin knows he won’t have Jaehwan for long. The illusion of their love is a false reflection in the fading wisps of feelings they once harboured for each other.

Series

Tag List - @tomatoholmes @merlionmen @seraphistols @k-craze-97 @blossomtearsleo

“You’re smoking again”

“I was wondering when you would notice it and ask me to stop”

“I don’t think asking would have actually made you stop.”

“I guess not”

When Jaehwan returns, he apologises to Seokjin.

Jaehwan apologises but makes no excuses. It’s part of what Seokjin likes about Jaehwan. He has no lies or cover ups or excuses. He comes down to the fancy apartment they share in the ‘right side’ of town after disappearing for days and tells him he is sorry.

He doesn’t tell Seokjin what he is sorry for and Seokjin doesn’t ask because there are things he should be sorry for and he doesn’t tell Jaehwan about them either.

Instead they kiss. It’s easier to be lost in the way Jaehwan’s lips on his skin give him goosebumps and how the warmth of someone else feels just right when he has been deprived for so long. Sex doesn’t require thinking. Sex doesn’t even require feelings if you are doing it right.

And so he kisses Jaehwan back and let’s the thoughts in his head be drowned out behind white noise.

Seokjin grows up in a house in the posh suburbs to the east of the city. He grows up in a small two storeyed house with a flower bed in the front yard and a white picket fence all around. He even had a sugar glider briefly but he forgets the name.

His life changes drastically when his father decides to run for the local government body. Suddenly his family is thrust into the limelight and his father’s PR team decides to use the opportunity to broadcast how virtuous and well behaved they are.

His mother and brother fare better under the scrutiny. His mother is traditional and believes in supporting her husband and hence has no problem playing the part of the loving partner. His brother is ambitious. He studies business in a prestigious business school and starts his own business, riding on his father’s fame. He humbly attributes his success to the values his parents instilled in him at any public event and even marries the daughter of their father’s biggest sponsor for campaigns.

Seokjin does what any sensible young adult would when faced with life changing events out of their control.

Seokjin rebels.

He goes to the local art college to study filmmaking. Despite his gorgeous face, he becomes an assistant director with a non-profit organization that works to raise awareness about issues plaguing modern society through films. And as the last nail in the proverbial coffin of his good boy image, he starts to date Lee Jaehwan. A good for nothing who brings no addition to their family’s social status, his grandmother announces over a family dinner and Seokjin kisses Jaehwan in front of everyone to “console him”.

“Try not to give someone an aneurysm” Hoseok pleads, adjusting Seokjin’s wonky bow tie.

“I make no promises,” Seokjin says with a devilish smile.

“Okay. I’ll treat you to coffee for a month if you can wait till after the auction has concluded before offending someone with a witty remark” Hoseok says.

“Of course I am not gay, I am merely waiting for the right girl to make an honest man out of me. Of course my parents are doing well, I called them just the other day. Yes my brother’s business is doing great, I am very proud. If only I was more like him” Seokjin says in a shrill voice and Hoseok gives up on any hopes he has.

Seokjin follows his friend who navigates through the crowd and talks to the crowd attending the art exhibition he has curated. It has the most ostentatious, the creme de la creme of society in attendance and Hoseok has high hopes to earn the profits he needs to keep the museum running tonight. And Seokjin is many things but not a bad friend so he sticks to the flutes of champagne supplied helpfully by the servers and makes a polite comment here and there but says nothing more.

“Isn’t she a beauty?” Hoseok asks, when he finds Seokjin looking at one of the modern art pieces on display. It’s a realist painting of a diner in a small town. The diner has large glass panels that lets the onlooker see inside and note the people sitting down by it and a waiter serving them from behind the counter.

“What’s the story behind this?” Seokjin asks. The diner is dreary to look at and inspires no strong emotions but that is how real life is. Nothing interesting ever happens and Seokjin can hardly blame the artist for depicting the truth of the world. It’s also surprisingly devoid of people and meaningful interaction, like it is an image of a lonely time, sliced out of the flow of time and captured on canvas. It’s how most of his nights look now but Seokjin quickly squashes the depressing reminder.

“Nighthawks by Edward Hopper. A classic modern art piece” Hoseok tells him. “It’s supposed to be a comment about loneliness in the urban lifestyle of the 1940s America.”

“Still holds,” Seokjin says, taking a sip of his champagne. His cheeks burn with warmth but he ignores it.

“Is it already bid for?”

“Not very high if you’re thinking about buying it. Everyone is going for the more well known modern art pieces or the fancier classics” Hoseok says. Seokjin takes a cheque book out of his jacket. He didn’t intend on using it tonight but life has never gone the way he intended it at any time.

“What do you think?” Seokjin asks once the crew from the museum installs the painting in the living room and leaves.

Jaehwan looks at the painting and says nothing. Seokjin knows he hates it. But it is magnanimous of him not to voice it immediately. The painting has grown on Seokjin and he can’t bring himself to regret the small fortune he has spent on it.

“I like it” Seokjin responds when Jaehwan doesn’t. He reaches out and adjusts the painting so that it is perfectly parallel to the edges of the wall.

“Why this specific painting?” Jaehwan asks.

“I liked the irony of a social place being used to depict loneliness. It spoke to me spiritually” Seokjin says. He goes on to add the analysis of the painting that Hoseok gave him about loneliness and despair and how the want of company and comfort is a thing that hasn't changed over decades and continents.

"You could add a funky neon sign with a few letters blinking or not lit up and it would be any themed diner here in South Korea" Seokjin jokes before admiring the way the painting looks on the light cream coloured walls of the apartment.

Jaehwan stares at the painting and never looks at it again for the remainder of the night.

Things almost go back to normal but they really don’t.

Jaehwan takes Seokjin on pretty dates to pretty places during the day and whispers dirty things into his ear as he kisses him at night. It’s almost like the days he disappeared and the fights they had didn’t exist.

But he also dazes out in the middle and never really pays attention to whatever Seokjin is talking about. He hums and responds at all the right places in a conversation but never really means any of it. Jaehwan also takes to his old habit of smoking in the balcony after every night they spend together. It’s like whatever happened in those days has changed everything between them.

Seokjin knows that the ground beneath his feet has shifted. He’s no stranger to that feeling of the world changing overnight. Only this time, it happens so quietly that Seokjin really doesn’t know how to deal with it.

How do you hold onto smoke that lies within your reach but cannot be held? It only shifts out of his grasp, just far enough to never truly be held and just near enough to suffocate him slowly.

“I have news for you” Jaehwan says, looking at Seokjin. “Taehyung liked the manuscript I sent in. He’s suggested minor changes and decided to forward it to Namjoon. If Namjoon likes it, I will get a publishing deal.”

“That’s amazing,” Seokjin says and finds that he really means it. “I didn’t even know you were planning on sending it in.”

Jaehwan and Taehyung have an awkward history. Taehyung is a book critic and editor for Namjoon’s publishing house and someone very familiar with Jaehwan’s writing from his newspaper columnist days. Taehyung always claims to have fallen in love with Jaehwan’s writing way back then. But Seokjin knows that Jaehwan wants nothing to do with his old life and so he usually diverts Taehyung's attention away from it.

“It’s nerve wrecking as fuck. I hope this becomes popular as hell so I never have to write ever again” Jaehwan swears. Seokjin laughs.

“Let’s open up a new wine bottle. Yoongi recommended this new brand of red wine that I got a bottle of and you can tell me what your new book is about” Seokjin says. It’s a little too early to celebrate anything but a little cheer will be good for them.

“It’s just a story about… people. Places and things. Nothing and everything” Jaehwan says vaguely as he gestures to the air around him.

“What a thrilling description. I’ll ask Namjoon to put it on the book cover” Seokjin says wryly. For the first time in a very long time, Jaehwan laughs and Seokjin laughs with him.

What Seokjin does ask of Namjoon is a copy of the finalized manuscript that is approved for printing.

Namjoon loves the book and gives it a raving review. The publishing deal is finalized quickly because Taehyung does not want to give Jaehwan the chance to change his mind. Before Seokjin knows it, a thick bundle of papers tied together with a large gaudy paper clip and sealed in tacky brown packaging arrives at his doorstep.

Seokjin keeps the manuscript a secret. He wants to let Jaehwan offer a signed personal copy for keepsake. But he is also a curious soul and this trait always gets the best of him.

Jaehwan is out for the night. (He is always out for some reason or the other.) So Seokjin pours himself a glass of cheap store bought red wine and puts the manuscript on his lap and begins to read.

It's a story of a lost man. A man who feels lost even though he is loved by all and a man who doesn't know himself though everyone around him is quick to label their relationship with him and by extension to label him. The protagonist spends half the novel wandering and pitying himself till he meets someone and falls in love. It's a forbidden sort of love and sucks both men in till their feelings overwhelm them. The protagonist leaves by the end because the protagonist always does but he leaves his heart in the tiny dingy motel they met in and even that admission is a guilty confession to the wide vacuum of an uncaring world and not to the object of his affection.

Seokjin reads through the manuscript in one setting. Jaehwan is just that good with his words and Seokjin knows this is a rare glimpse into his mind that no one else is afforded just yet. Jaehwan will make it big. No wonder Taehyung is anxious to have the deal under his publishing house. Jaehwan writes about true love and heartbreak in a magnificent way that anyone can understand but can only hope to experience in their lifetime. At once the grandeur of heartbreak is within your grasp and just out of your reach.

When he finishes the manuscript, he looks at the painting hanging in the gallery and understands Jaehwan's surprise. He rereads the last confession and understands Jaehwan's disdain too.

"I don't have excuses" Jaehwan says, when Seokjin finds him smoking on their bedroom's balcony.

"You never do" Seokjin says, sitting down next to him.

"I'm a shit liar for a writer" Jaehwan admits. Seokjin scoffs and rubs his nose. He is resigned to the situation but he doesn't find the smell pleasant. Nothing will endear him to smoking, he thinks. Not even the oncoming heartbreak.

"You're much better than you think you are" Seokjin says. Jaehwan gives him a searching look. How much does Seokjin already know, Jaehwan wonders. The painting from the living room is gone and Jaehwan has seen the copy of his book on Seokjin's nightstand.

"How much did you read?" he ventures to ask. Some band-aids are better ripped off as soon as the wound stops bleeding.

"All of it" Seokjin replies honestly.

"I didn't mean to break your heart" Jaehwan tells him.

"You don't get to decide what hurts me and what doesn't" Seokjin says sharply. He doesn't like the way Jaehwan genuinely sounds apologetic and guilty. He hates how it isn't motivated by love and merely by concern over a relationship that should have died much earlier.

"Why did you come back if you thought you really loved the one you left behind?" Seokjin asks.

"Because that ending is… a white lie. A romantic ending to make the book sellable. I didn't fall in love when I was at the motel. I didn't fall in love with someone else" Jaehwan explains.

"You only fell out of love with me" Seokjin summarizes breezily. Jaehwan draws a deep breath of his cigarette and turns away to let the smoke out. This hurts more than Seokjin thought it would.

The two men sit in the balcony and avoid looking at each other. The air between them is thick with tension, stuffy from the remains of what once was and will never be again.

Seokjin watches the tendrils of smoke rise from the last of Jaehwan's cigarette through its reflection in the window glass. The ember glows till it dims and fades out, leaving only smoke in its wake.

He wonders if the disappearance of the carbon means he can pretend that the smoke never existed once sufficient time has passed. Or if the smell will taint his memories forever like heartbreak threatens to taint the rose hued past blue. He wonders if he can lean forward and catch the smoke as it twists in and out of the air current to rise up and disappear into nothingness. He wonders if the smoke was always meant to escape and if the paper was always meant to burn to give it the freedom it so runs after.

In the end, all the smoke does is suffocate him and make his eyes water.

#kenjin #vixx fanfiction #vixx ken #bts fanfiction #bts seokjin #angst #series: small town faded dreams

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ma9l · 4 years

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Research Project: Instagram Use and Depression

It’s fascinating. Isn’t it fascinating? What our world has become? The world is so different now compared to even a couple hundred years ago. It has advanced--especially when it comes to technology and the internet. Think about it. Social media used to be non-existent. Now it is booming with billions of users. This is proof that people are entertained by these types of platforms. However, aside from all their pros, they also hold many faults. For example, a survey (#StatusOfMind survey) was published in 2017 by the Royal Society for Public Health. They discovered that “Out of five social networks included in the survey, YouTube received the highest marks for health and well being and was the only site that received a net positive score by respondents. Twitter came in second, followed by Facebook and then Snapchat—with Instagram bringing up the rear.” Basically, Instagram was ranked as the worst social media for mental health. Although some may believe that Instagram doesn’t pose any issues, depression and Instagram actually share correlations. I believe the way Instagram is used plays a role in one’s well being and that symptoms of depression can arise if users are not careful. The world has enough issues, mental health being one of the most serious with the increase in suicides over more recent years. If we determine whether or not social media (particularly Instagram) is a contributor to depression, we could potentially end the epidemic, or at least avoid making things worse.

In the past, I would normally go about my research by googling and trying to find reliable sources that way. Usually this would present decent info, but hardly ever would it be in-depth. When I took ENGL 1010 last year, I was informed that my school’s library had a website full of databases holding a plethora of scholarly articles. My mind was blown. It was a bit overwhelming at first, but as I became familiar with the tools and resources, I learned how to properly navigate and refine my searches to produce the results I was looking for. I didn’t use the databases as effectively as I could have, but this year in ENGL 2010, I was encouraged to and I learned a lot more about how to read and interpret the articles to find relevant information. I did this by closely studying the abstract, methods, and results sections. Google searches aren’t necessarily bad. In fact, they can be used to compare and contrast with scholarly articles in order to find similarities and differences. I have also been told to use outside sources like physical books and newspapers or to try and perform my own research by creating a survey or poll. Overall, I am pleased with my education in research and feel that it has been and will be very beneficial for assisting me in my writing.

Before doing any research, I had a preconceived idea that Instagram was bad, but the more I looked into it, the more my opinion shifted from believing Instagram itself is unhealthy to believing the users of Instagram are the ones creating unhealthy habits. I came to this conclusion by reading various articles in relation to this topic and assessing my personal Instagram use.

One of the articles I read was “Instagram: Friend or Foe”. It revolves around a study from 2017 where 204 participants ages 18-48 were recruited through social media where the study was advertised. They were asked to complete an online survey regardless of whether or not they had an Instagram account. Authors actually hoped some wouldn’t so they could compare results between users and nonusers. Throughout the survey, participants (users only) were measured on seven things: anxiety, depression, loneliness, self-esteem, body image, social comparison, and time spent on Instagram. Using number scales, they would rank how they felt based on each category. In short, the authors’ hypotheses were correct for all but two of these categories: body image and social comparison where there was no significant difference between users and nonusers of Instagram. What surprised me most from the results was that those who had an Instagram account were less depressed than those who did not. I thought it would be the opposite, but I guess a reason for this could be because Instagram allows you to feel included and not so lonely with all the social interaction that goes on. “Contrary to expectation, Instagram anxiety was significantly, negatively associated with depression in this analysis. In addition, time spent , self-esteem, and anxiety were significant predictors of depression. Of note, social comparison was marginally associated with depression in the expected direction”.

The article “Instagram #Instasad?: Exploring Associations Among Instagram Use, Depressive Symptoms, Negative Social Comparison, and Strangers Followed”, held a set of online questionnaires for 117 individuals ages 18-29 who, like the previous study, were also voluntarily recruited through an online post that was shared. The questions asked were based on Instagram use, the number of strangers followed, social comparison, and depressive symptoms. Authors sought to identify the relationship between the different aspects of Instagram use. After completing the questionnaire, the following results were observed: the more one uses Instagram, the more depressed they are, but only if they follow a large number of strangers, otherwise Instagram and depression were not related. As far as social comparison goes, it was positively associated with greater instagram use meaning social comparison on Instagram is inevitable. Results demonstrated that the social comparison was more positive when users didn’t follow strangers. In conclusion, “people using Instagram or other SNS to keep in touch solely with people they know personally are not at risk for negative consequences. However, following strangers may lead to or reinforce already existing negative feelings about the self by triggering negative social comparisons.”

“Why Social Comparison on Instagram Matters: Its Impact on Depression” by Ha Sung Hwang is all about the relationship between various types of activities on social media that motivate one to participate in social comparisons and how those influence college students’ moods. It specifically focuses on Instagram for the social platform and depression for the mental illness which is exactly what I was looking for in my research. The study was carried out as 245 college students were surveyed on the types of activities they take part in on Instagram and how they felt in doing each of those. Instagram usage, activity, social comparison, and depression were individually measured. Demographics of the participants were also taken into account. The author seemed to be interested in the social comparison theory where there are three different kinds of comparisons: upward, downward, and horizontal. Upward is comparing yourself to someone who appears to be superior to you, downward is comparing yourself to someone who is inferior to you, and horizontal comparison is relating yourself to someone who is equal to you. The results presented three outcomes: “(1) looking at other people's status updates and commenting on other people's photos influences upward social comparison, (2) frequency of Instagram use predicts upward/downward/horizontal social comparison, and (3) upward social comparison was positively associated with depression, while downward social comparison was negatively associated with depression.”

One of the biggest similarities between these three sources is that the participants in each experiment were all college aged. That’s because according to “Instagram: Friend or Foe? The application’s association with psychological well-being”, “Approximately 90% of young adults use social media.” This is significant because you are college-aged and an adult, so these effects couldn’t apply to you more! Each article also agreed that users of Instagram deal with social comparison to some degree each time they interact with the app. Social comparison was measured in every case. The first article confirms that it took place-but they also expected that to happen. Many of us could probably assume the same. Article #2 concludes that social comparisons only have an effect on depression when you follow strangers. Now, because the author in article #3 performed a more specific measurement with her participants, she found that social comparison does contribute to depression, but only when it falls into the upward comparison category. A final similarity amongst these reports is support in the idea that the activities you do on Instagram will determine how depressed you become along with the amount of time you take part in them. Those activities combined include: looking at or commenting on other people’s photos and following strangers. The main difference in the studies was that they each took at least one more thing into account when analyzing what aspects of Instagram play a role in depressed moods. #1 compares users with non users. #2 wonders if gender makes a difference. #3 again, implements the social comparison theory. Limitations inevitably happened which could have hindered results, like how in the third article, the survey only took place at a Korean University. How would the results differ if UVU students took the survey? For the most part, the results were in sync. In summary, all the studies are on the same page when it comes to social comparison and activities on Instagram-believing that they tend to elevate depression. The authors also all realized that college students are most at risk for developing depressive symptoms due to their population’s heavy usage of the network.

I strongly believe that the way individuals use social media has an impact on how they feel. Instagram seems to be a culprit for influencing the rise of many negative feelings with depressive symptoms being some of many. Coincidentally, depression correlates with more frequent Instagram use which presents a predicament we ought to be concerned with because if we don’t pinpoint the epicenter of this relationship, it’s only going to get worse… and depression is going to become even more common than it already is.

According to an NBC article, Harvard University and the University of Vermont designed a computer program for spotting depressed individuals on Instagram with 70% accuracy. It was programmed to search for certain qualities of their photos in order to determine if someone was depressed or not. “Researchers found depressed individuals posted photos that were bluer, darker and grayer than images posted by others.” (Pawlowski). This demonstrates Instagram being used as an outlet for expressing one’s emotions. Elyse Fox struggled with depression and found relief in sharing her state of mind through this outlet because it helped her get things out of her system. This represents Instagram as a helpful tool. Others might not do it for relief, but simply because they are at an all time low. That’s when it becomes unhealthy and when you would need to reach out to someone you trust for help.

“In several recent studies, teenage and young adult users who spend the most time on Instagram, Facebook and other platforms were shown to have a substantially (from 13 to 66 percent) higher rate of reported depression than those who spent the least time.” This is proof of the correlation taking place.

Some may claim that it’s social media’s fault that people are suffering from mental illnesses. More specifically, that it’s Instagram’s fault if someone that uses it gets depressed. They might say it has nothing to do with the users actions because all of the potential negatives are automatically accessible before them and say that whatever happens is directly caused by the app. The blame is put on a non-living, non-physical, inanimate thing. To our knowledge, Instagram itself is not capable of causing anything. Studies show a correlation, not a causation. However, “One reason the correlation seems more than coincidental is that an increase in depression occurred in tandem with the rise in smartphone use.” (Miller). “By 2015,... 92 percent of teens and young adults owned a smartphone. The rise in depressive symptoms correlates with smartphone adoption during that period.” (Miller). The author of this write-up also mentions that there was a rise in the number of college students visiting counselors for anxiety and depression. Just so you know, UVU has counseling services available on campus if you are seeking further assistance with your mental health. (Student Health Services |(801) 863-8876| Room SC-221).

What should we do about it? What can we do about it? Personally? As a student body? I think it is a very personal issue because everyone has their agency and freedom to do what they want and really, it is up to them to decide how they will spend their time on Instagram. But we can suggest tips for those who are seeking help or for those who don’t realize what’s affecting them and want to change.

In a Ted Talk by Bailey Parnell, she suggests four tips for obtaining social media wellness. These are presented in four steps: 1. Recognize the problem. 2. Audit your social media diet. 3. Create a better online experience. 4. Model good behavior. It’s all about our awareness. If we don’t realize something’s wrong, then we aren’t going to do anything about it. After that, we are able to make adjustments based on our unique needs. For example, we could spend less time on Instagram, unfollow strangers, or make our posts more real and sincere. I, personally, need to work on all of those because I notice a difference between when my time spent on Instagram has been a waste, leaving me drained vs when it’s been productive and I’ve come away feeling enlightened or pleased with my online experience. What I consider to be a waste of time is viewing my followers profiles and engaging in social comparison where I degrade myself and wish my life was like theirs. A more productive way to spend my time would be sharing an uplifting message on my story or reach out to friends I haven’t talked to in a while to see how they are doing.

The United Kingdom’s RSPH had the great idea of teaching safe social media use in schools. (Macmillan). Because of the prevalence of social media today, it needs to be acknowledged and taught proper use. I think all schools should provide a class solely dedicated to teaching social media safety and another for teaching about mental health awareness. Instagram and depression each fall into one of those categories, so it’s perfect. These classes could be held in middle schools, high schools, and colleges since most age groups use some form of social media. I feel like a lot of students would benefit from taking these courses.

Fellow friends (A.K.A. UVU students) if you have been guilty of spending too much time on Instagram, comparing yourself to others, or following celebrities/strangers you hardly know, it’s okay!! So have I. That doesn’t mean you are a bad person, it just means that you are human. Now that you know more about what types of interactions on Instagram can make you depressed, you can choose to be more proactive and reap the rewards of “social media wellness” and obtain the happiness that comes from practicing “safe social.”

To restate my stance one more time, I will just remind you that all the research I have done and knowledge I have gained has led me to believe that Instagram use and depression correlate. Depression isn’t caused by the app, rather depression results from using the app excessively or from comparing oneself to others. I strongly believe that we have a responsibility to monitor and reflect on our Instagram behaviors in order to decrease our chances of being at risk for depression. Making simple changes can alter your perspective on life and bring you more joy. Bailey Parnell says it best: “Is social media hurting your mental health? The answer is: it does not have to.”

Google Slides (in progress): https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1jJ-aIcZZW0qCJpfWv0-SGCyrAFu7O_eLq34oCXVNsBo/edit?usp=sharing

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drdougdouglass · 4 years

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Religious Bigotry in Presidential Politics: 8 Things Every Voter Should Know about the Intolerance of a Leading Democrat Candidate for President [Video and Poll]

Craig Huey May 1, 2019 Government, Congress, and Politics, Politics Leave a Comment

Religious intolerance and bigotry are increasing in America…

Faith-bashing and shaming is becoming popular among leading candidates for president.

The latest is Democrat Pete Buttigieg (pronounced Budda-judge) – who has already raised $7 million and is polling in 3rd place behind former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Here are 8 things you should know about what he has already said – what his lies and distortions are … and what the truth really is:

Pete Buttigieg viciously attacked Christians as hypocrites.

In a “Meet the Press” interview, Buttigieg criticized evangelicals who support President Trump by saying, “Here you have somebody who not only acts in a way that is not consistent with anything that I hear in Scripture or in church, where it’s about lifting up the least among us and taking care of strangers, which is another word for immigrants, and making sure that you’re focusing your efforts on the poor.”

“We see the diametric opposite of that in this presidency … Even on the version of Christianity that you hear on the religious right, which is about sexual ethics – I can’t believe that somebody who was writing hush money checks to adult film actresses is somebody they should be lifting up as the kind of person you want to be leading this nation.”

He viciously attacked Vice President Mike Pence for his Christian faith.

At an LGBT fundraising event, Buttigieg attacked Vice President Mike Pence – an evangelical Christian – for signing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 2015 while he was Governor of Indiana. The law protects the freedom of religious expression and conscience of businesses and employees.

Buttigieg believes Pence’s support of President Trump can only be explained in one of two ways: “Either he abandoned his religious principles in order to be part of this campaign and administration,” he said, “Or he has some very strange sense of destiny, that God somehow wants this in order to get somewhere better, which I think does very little credit to God…”

In a further frontal attack against the Vice President, Buttigieg proclaimed this about his same-sex marriage: “My marriage to Chasten has made me a better man – and yes, Mr. Vice President, it has moved me closer to God. And that’s the thing I wish the Mike Pences of the world would understand, that if you’ve got a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me. Your quarrel, sir is with my creator.”

Pete Buttigieg twists the truth about religious freedom … freedom of conscience … and the rights guaranteed in the First Amendment.

He said, “I hope that teachings about inclusion and love win out over what I personally consider to be a handful of scriptures that reflect the moral expectations of the era in which they were recorded…”

“Our right to practice our faith freely is respected up to the point where doing so involves harming others,” he continued, “One of the problems with RFRA [the Religious Freedom Restoration Act] was it authorized harming others so long as you remembered to use your religion as an excuse.”

Of course, he doesn’t specify how he believes the Religious Freedom Restoration Act harms members of the LBGT community. Certainly he’s not talking about physical harm – which is the type of harm prohibited by scripture against those practicing an immoral lifestyle.

Buttigieg preaches a lie about God, homosexuality and Scripture.

He twists truth and scripture to suit his own opinions – as do socialist and progressive Christians…

He criticizes Trump’s past. He decries his talk and tweets. But he ignores the clear teaching of scriptures he doesn’t like. For example:

The scripture that says marriage is between a man and a woman (Matthew 19:3-8)

The scripture that teaches homosexual behavior – like other sexual sins – is wrong (Romans 1:18-32; 1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

He believes in killing the unborn – even children born alive, if they were meant to be killed before birth.

He believes in denying freedom of conscience and freedom of religious expression to Christians who oppose celebrating sexual immorality of any type.

Pete Buttigieg proclaims he is a Christian – and a better one than most.

During a recent Q&A at an event in Austin, Texas, Buttigieg said, “…I try to live a life that is consistent with Christian teachings. I know that it is my responsibility not to ever do anything that would in public life, not be equally beneficial or make as much sense to people of another faith or people of no faith. But in my life I believe in that Christian ethic, the idea that was drilled into me in Catholic school even though I’m no Catholic, I’m Episcopalian.”

At the same event he questioned whether Vice President Mike Pence truly believes in Scripture.

Pete Buttigieg knows Scripture and theology.

He studied Catholic liberation theology doctrine in high school and college. Developed mainly by Latin American Roman Catholics, liberation theology emphasizes liberation from social, political and economic oppression as the essence of Christian salvation rather than worship of God, confession of sin, and trust in the redemptive death of Jesus Christ on the cross coupled with His bodily resurrection.

At Harvard, he wrote a thesis on the Puritans. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford.

His father attended seminary in the 1960s, intending to become a Jesuit Priest … but instead became a secular intellectual.

His mother was “attached to the Episcopal faith,” but didn’t attend very many services.

At Harvard, Buttigieg was influenced by a prominent scholar who traced American exceptionalism to the Puritans of New England. “You can’t understand America without understanding the Puritans,” Buttigieg says. “In many ways, we’re still living out their legacy in ways that are good and bad.”

He says he looks for inspiration from people who have put their faith into action, such as the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. “As we talk of the need for a religious left, we should remember that the black church has been [putting faith into action] for quite some time,” Buttigieg reminds.

When he speaks to a Christian audience, he selectively quotes Bible verses about caring for the poor and the sick.

Buttigieg isn’t looking for tolerance of his homosexuality or homosexual marriage. He is looking for total acceptance.

He wants to use the power of government edict to force acceptance of his lifestyle – whether people like it or not.

If elected, he would be the first homosexual president … and his same-sex marriage partner would be the first same-sex spouse in the White House.

Pete Buttigieg is trying to lead the Democrat Party to include Christians – and be the Party that’s anti-Christian, anti-family and anti-First Amendment rights.

“I think it’s unfortunate [the Democratic Party] has lost touch with a religious tradition that I think can help explain and relate our values,” Buttigieg says. “At least in my interpretation, it helps to root [in religion] a lot of what it is we do believe in when it comes to protecting the sick and the stranger and the poor, as well as skepticism of the wealthy and the powerful and the established.”

Watch this analysis of Pete Buttigieg’s far-left beliefs and policies by news commentator Laura Ingraham (about 7 ½ minutes).

youtube

Finally, let’s be clear about Evangelicals and support for Trump/Pence….

As I said in “Are Christians Hypocrites? 10 Surprising Realities About Christians and President Trump“, Evangelical support for Trump is based on policy only.

It’s not based on his rhetoric. It’s not based on his past – or even present – behavior. It’s not based on anything about Trump as a flawed person – or on whether or not he’s a real Christian.

It’s based on his policies that reflect Biblical truth … and non-negotiable Christian values:

He is the most pro-Israel president ever.

He is revolutionizing the Judicial branch with strict constructionist judges … not judicial activists – including 2 new Supreme Court Justices … and over 100 lower court appellate judges.

He is the most pro-life president ever.

He has done more to protect religious liberty than any other president ever.

He has done more to protect the persecuted church around the world than any other president ever.

In addition, he has restored our economy, increased employment – especially among minority groups – increased wages … and promoted entrepreneurship and innovation with massive deregulation and business tax cuts.

When he needs to be called out, we will call him out.

But when he enacts good policies, we rejoice and should say thanks without apology.

We choose policy over personality.

We choose key non-negotiable issues over articulate platitudes and talking points.

We choose action over empty promises.

This is not hypocrisy. This is respecting promises made, promises kept.

As president of an ad agency, I like taglines…

I suggest the following tagline for President Trump:

“He’s a doer, not a dreamer.”

What do you think? Email me at [email protected]

Mayor Pete is NOT at the Top of my list of favorite candidates.

Both his vaulting ambition and shocking low standards concern me greatly.

But if he gets the nomination, he's got my vote.

The thing I like about him the MOST is how he seems to be terrifying all the Right People.

#pete buttigieg

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saltybiowarefantears · 5 years

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A Clash of Pride and Loss

Here I am, about to write a character analysis of a divisive character using a rather extreme feeling analogy. Now, I’m not here to condemn nor condone anything, rather explain what I feel is a general misconception of behavior on part of said divisive character: Solas. This is not meant to change anyone’s mind about his general character - good, bad, or otherwise. I’m not here to tell someone is right or wrong in their personal preference of character traits. It’s not meant to stir up discourse or drama; this is merely allowing me to air some thoughts and feelings on the matter. Honestly, this probably won’t add anything to the general meta database on him. Would not be a bad gamble to guess someone else has already discussed this and in better detail.

So now after a much unnecessarily lengthy opening paragraph, if you still wish to proceed, on to the topic at hand: Solas and the Dalish.

Ah yes, the situation and attitude even Solas positive fans tend to agree is a rather unattractive trait for their favorite egg man. In the Dragon Age universe we’re shown this group of people who have lost nearly everything - lives, culture, history, a home. They’re continuously oppressed as a race and scattered to the wind. Then there’s the Dalish fighting tooth and nail to maintain the last scraps of their old world. Over two games we’re conditioned to (hopefully) emphasize with their plight.

So when Solas comes along and seems to sneer at the mere mention of the Dalish, well that’s bound raise some hackles, especially those playing as a Lavellan. Gut reaction to someone insulting something we as a player treasure, i.e. the Dalish, is to return the favor and insult back. How dare he be such a condescending jerk about them? What gives him the right?

Well... he does. He gave himself the right. Let me explain the layers to this before anyone throws a fit over the use of “right” in his view and behavior towards an oppressed fictional people. Keep in mind as well that this analysis is coming from a context of knowing about Solas, his identity, and his past. This is a 20/20 hindsight discussion. In the beginning, innocent to any knowledge of him, yeah he can definitely come across as a condescending jerk when asking him about his opinions on the Dalish.

Anyway in order to fully understand why Solas reacts the way that he does, we have to take a look at his past. Even further than that, we need to put ourselves in Solas’ shoes. People tend to forget small things with him when confronting him in the game (unless it’s Trespasser). We need to remember these small things and empathize with his position to understand his behavior. To do that, we’re going to take a hypothetical journey and where this piece might get Problematic™.

A Real World Analog (Sort Of)

Ok, for this bit I ask for everyone to relax. Sit back, stretch even. Remember that at no point I am positing this to be offensive or sensationalize for the pay off of some knee-jerk emotional response. This is a hypothetical framework to analyse a fictional character, ok? There’s better analogs I am sure as this doesn’t quite fit, but it’s the one where my mind went when brainstorming this piece over the course of many days and many showers.

Let’s start this journey. Pretend we’re on an alternate Earth in an alternate timeline. It’s World War II. You are part of one of the groups of people hunted and oppressed by the Nazis. I know, I know... deep breaths. We are going there. You lived through the horrors and atrocities committed by them. You become a figurehead of a resistance to fight the Nazis. You try freeing your people. You do an unspeakable thing in the merest hopes that it will lead to a better future for your people. You are willing to bear that burden, gamble it all, if it means your people have a future. You go to sleep, leave, whatever and wake up in the present.

Here’s where the alternate timeline kicks in. Upon waking/returning you find the consequences of your actions. The people you were trying to save have lost everything - lives, culture, history, a home. During your slumber, your people have suffered a cultural genocide. The past and their history have warped. Instead, these new people perform a cultural rite of tattooing numbers on their arms; not to remember the past, but to revere the very people responsible for their oppression unbeknownst to them.

So here you are, face-to-face, with the people you once tried to save; their actions a twisted, corrupted farce of their true culture. And you’re responsible.

Pride

Can you imagine the shock and horror of such a discovery? The blame and strife curdling inside you, swallowing it down lest anyone discover your secret. Wouldn’t you want to shake someone and scream “No! This is wrong! You can’t do this!” This is what Solas has to face.

To Solas, the Dalish represent all of his failures. He failed to protect his people. He failed to free them of the evanuris’ grasp. His gambit failed. They may have gained their freedom because of him, but at the cost of their identity and culture. As someone who values truth, wisdom, history, compassion, how would it feel to be the catalyst to a cultural genocide? And for not one soul willing to listen to him about it.

All of this negativity and reflection of his worst deed, he confronts it, not with his warmth no, but with his other side, his character flaw, his pride. He shields himself in his conviction of truth. How could they not listen to him? Easily. The answer is extremely easily.

The Dalish’s recalcitrance feels like a slap across the face. It wounds him, both his pride as a perceived font of wisdom and his burden of past deeds. He is rejected from the closest thing he can find to home and people. I honestly posit that this was the start of him believing the Dalish are not his people, only shadows of them. All of that self-sacrifice only for these people to be ungrateful for him trying to show them the truth and error of their ways. He denounces them as childish for it, further aggravating their beliefs towards each other. Miscommunication of intent leading to contention. Essentially, Solas’ bias towards the Dalish is because they are a bleeding, festering reminder of the consequence of his actions and their snappish response to him (I’ll get to this in a bit. I promise this isn’t just an attack on the Dalish.)

Change, however, is also integral to Solas’ character. You meet him only after some unpleasant run ins with Dalish clans. You meet him, honestly, at his most guarded. He doesn’t know what to make of you, especially if your Inquisitor is Dalish. He’s quick to reply to questions of the Fade or magic, but hesitant of your possible malicious intent in asking personal questions. I believe the Dalish fall under this category as well for him, aka personal and tightly held opinions on things that might crack his performance mask. Unfortunate for Solas, he’s also a self-declared hot head. The Dalish, quite frankly, pissed him off. So when you ask him for his opinion on the matter, rather than cool and calculated reluctance, he fires off about them.

This is the core of his belief, i.e. Dalish have lost their history/culture/magic/etc., met with disbelief of him of all people, bare faced, knowing something important on anything Dalish. However you can appeal to part of his pride and ask what can be done.

To me, I believe this catches him slightly off-guard. You don’t ask sarcastically; there’s a lot of sincerity to the question. No longer are you immediately rejecting anything he says, but in fact questioning things (another favorite of his).

If you listen to him, he apologizes for his behavior. While the first part might come across arrogant, especially given the tone, but really, to me, it shows him confronting his own biases and distortions. It is not fair for him to punish the Dalish for not knowing what they don’t know. And thus starts your actions and openness with him in turn opening him. You can begin his turn of pride back into wisdom and seeking of knowledge. It is a bit tangential in the grand scheme of this analysis, but I feel like it’s an important detail to remember. Most people tend to remember his constant disapproval of anything you say about the Dalish while ignoring this bit of conversation.

Seeing Suffering vs Living It

For Solas, he cannot understand why the Dalish refuse to listen to his correct truth and knowledge of their history. If their entire purpose is to collect and never forget their past, why refuse arguably the most important pieces of information on the matter? Just as many tend to not put themselves in Solas’ shoes when examining his bias towards the Dalish, Solas himself does not walk in the shoes of the Dalish (I know there’s a joke in there somewhere given their lack of shoes.) He believes because he lived at the height of the elves, he can judge the poverty of culture in which they now dwell.

What Solas does not have, however, is the experience of living through said poverty of culture. He wasn’t there to experience the plight they suffered. He lacks understanding of how possessive the Dalish are over their remnants of history and culture. In reality, the Dalish are truly only concerned with adding to their database of ancient elven history. Solas asks them to rewrite and take away. To them, that’s unthinkable.

The Dalish also mirror real-world cultures in terms of societal and self-imposed ostracizing. The world was cold and cruel to them, stopping at nothing to strip them of everything they are as a people. Thus, the Dalish turn on the world as a means of security and comfort. Anyone not Dalish is to be treated wearily. Right or wrong, there is no denying the Dalish are harsh when it comes to their view and treatment of non-Dalish, and almost more so when it comes to non-Dalish elves. It’s how they protect themselves. It’s how they protect their culture.

So when Solas, no clan and marked as stranger, wanders up to a Dalish clan, of course they automatically guard themselves. When he then seems to snatch the last scraps of history from their hands because he says it pales in comparison to what actually was, you bet they’ll go on the defense. No one takes things from the Dalish. And more importantly, no one takes their history from them any longer. Never again shall they submit. To them, he’s telling a starving man not to eat scraps because it used to be a feast. Why should they believe him on it as well? The catch all reply of “the Fade” doesn’t suffice when applied to asking them to completely rethink their entire current culture.

Sigh of Relief, It’s the End

Now, I think I’m going to cut it shorter than I initially planned. There was some banter between Solas and Varric that reminded me of Solas’ last-of-my-kind-syndrome (I got very excited about this “new” dialogue because I have the memory of a goldfish.) I wanted to tie all of this into that plus his plans for the Veil. Because, let’s face it, everything is all connected when it comes to him. He’s a giant yarn ball of past wrapping around threads of the present. Pull at one string and you find a Celtic knot of past grief, anguish, regret at the core. That might be another post for another day though.

Getting back on track, this confrontation between Solas and the Dalish can be boiled down to a sentence from earlier: “Miscommunication of intent leading to contention.” Solas sees the horrors of his past in the Dalish. All he can see is a twisted, shadow version of the people he thought he saved. And the heart stopping ramifications that what he did indeed did not save them. He wants to fix his past mistakes. He doesn’t want there to be strife of innocents, especially not strife caused by him personally. The Dalish, on the other hand, see another person grasping greedily at their culture and history. Solas is another person with no right to their history trying to tell them what is “true” and “right”.

In the end, is Solas right? Yes. Is he wrong? Yes. How about the Dalish? Yes to both. It’s not a matter of right or wrong or who started it. This is a matter of explaining how this bias came to be by examination of both parties. Some matters can be solved, in my firm belief, by taking a deep breath, and walking in the other person’s shoes for understanding. Or in this case, foot wraps.

#solas #dragon age inquisition #dalish #meta #character analysis #hey look at that i have no clue how to tag this #again to reiterate this is not meant to start up drama #if you try arguing with me in the comments or my inbox i will most likely ignore it #unless it's good/constructive criticism or something i hadn't considered #this whole thing was an exercise to get it off my mind and chest

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scripttorture · 5 years

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CULT WIP Hi there~! So I'm working on a cult WIP and I know a common way to control people in a cult is sleep deprivation. I've looked through your sleep related tags and the cult one, but right now I'm wondering about the long con of sleep deprivation. My idea is that to keep people controlled they get less sleep than they should (your posts have made me up it from three hours per night to five per night) and the higher ups in the cult are allowed the full amount of sleep they need; (1/2)

CULT WIP (2/3) that way they operate better than others. I've jotted down a bunch of effects you've brought up but here's the thing. What if that sleep deprivation lasts forever? Like it's just a normal part of life once you hit adulthood? (I don't think kids could withstand it so I figured just not to do it). I know the Heaven's Gate cult used a lot of sleep deprivation and they lasted for ~three years so there must be some way to/balance to keep people functional, I just can't think of how.CULT WIP (3/3) Not actually part of the question but I just wanted to say THANK YOU for this blog!! It's fascinating, especially for me since I'm in grad school to be a therapist so that aspect is really interesting, and you put an incredible amount of work into all this. ~Jessica

Thankyou, it’s always nice to hear I’ve been helpful. :)

I’mgoing to go into this one with the caveat that so far as I know, noone has done this experiment. There isn’t a studied group of peoplewho have been restricted (or restricted themselves) to five hours ofsleep a night every day for their entire adult life. There are peoplewho’ve done this for a number of years and people who do this 5-6nights a week and then sleep more on the weekend for decades at atime. Now all three situations are bad for someone, but a thoroughstatistical analysis on a decent sample size might show differencesbetween them.

Sopart of this is what we know happens to the first two groups and partof it is extrapolating based on that.

Thefirst thing we knowhappens (based on the two studied groups) is a shorter, unhealthierlife.

Ihesitate to put a figure on how much shorter because it seems to varyquite a bit between individuals and I don’t know of any statisticalstudies that have put a number on it. But I think you can safely takeat least ten years off every character’s life expectancy based onthis alone.

Therates of a lotof different diseases and conditions increase. Cancer rates rise, formultiple forms of cancer. Rates of strokes and heart attacks rise.Dementia rates rise.

Nowall of those conditions are usually diseases of age. You canhave a heart attack or a cancer diagnosis as a young person, but thechances of it happening are much more likely after you hit about40-50.Lack of sleep doesn’t seem to effect the age these conditionsmanifest. It doeseffect the chances of them happening in vulnerable ages though.

Essentiallyif you take a group of 40-50 year old non-cultists from your valleysetting (I hope you don’t mind me looking at your blog? Lovelypictures by the way) less of them will have or have had cancer,strokes, heart attacks and early signs of dementia. As the populationages further the gap will become starker. Less of the cultists willsurvive to their 70-80s and those that do will be less healthy thenthe non-cultists.

Diabetesrates also increase with lack of sleep. This doesn’t appear to beage related. It is however unclear whether it’s because of theeffect lack of sleep has on the immune system or because of theeffect it has on our appetites. People who sleep less eat more andtheir bodies drive them towards more high fat and high sugar foods.

Idon’t understand the link between weight and diabetes very well, soI’m not going to talk about it in any depth. The general point I’mdriving at is that if your cult tightly controls diet that mightcounteract the rise in predisposition to diabetes. But the data isn’tentirely clear on that point.

There’salso a general rise in illness and infections. That contributes todecreased life expectancy but also means more sick days. Less timewhen any one individual can productively work.

Partof what this is gearing towards is this: I’m not sure it would bepossible to consistently keep someone on five hours sleep a nightonly for their entire life without a huge death rate.

It’sthe illnesses. I think if cult members were denied sleep while sick(especially if they’re also forced to work or their diet iscontrolled) then- well I think there’d be a lot more people dyingfrom common, preventable illnesses. Not instantly. Not within thefirst decade. But in the longer term or thirty or so years.

Onthe other hand if the cultists who are ill aregetting enough sleep then you don’t strictly have five hours sleepa night for the rest of their lives. What you’ve got instead issomething more like ‘five hours sleep a night until you reachphysical collapse, then you can rest’.

That’sextremely unhealthy, painful and harmful. But it’s less likely tokill so many people so quickly.

Partof the issue is how ‘functional’ the characters need to be. Atfive hours, it would be dangerous to drive or operate other heavymachinery. Accidents would be more likely. Mistakes would be morelikely.

Butthat doesn’t mean these characters couldn’t do most of the day today tasks required to keep a small community going.

It’snot that the cooking couldn’t get done, it’s that the chances ofdropping a pan full of boiling water on someone’s foot is a lothigher. Less that complex tasks can’t get done and more that they’dtake longer, be completed less well, less effectively and there’dbe a higher chance of accidents on the way.

Incidentallyif a big part of this story is the standard tactic of elite membersof the group making other members feel less confident in themselves-usethis effect of sleep deprivation to help accomplish that.Because people who are sleep deprived thinkthey are physically and mentally capable of more than they are.

Youcan sit them down and say ‘Listen S, the low amount of work you’vegotten through this month is unacceptable. We agreed that you couldfinish this project in a week and it’s taken two. You’re just nottrying hard enough’

Andtheywill agree.Because they don’t know how impaired they are. It’sone of the stranger effects that consistently shows up in testing andI feel like it’s very relevant here.

Theincrease in workplace accidents is also affected by the decrease inimmune function. Accidents are more likely andrecovery from them takes longer.

Theother thing that stands out to me is the effect this would have onthe living environment generally.

Sleepdeprived people are emotionally volatile. They also tend towardsbeing distrustful of others and paranoia. Again this isn’tsomething they necessarily recognise.

Whichmakes for a pretty horrendous environment when you think about alarge group of people living in fairly close quarters andunable to really avoid each other.

Thinkabout how this meshes with the rise in accidents, forgetfulness andgeneral tiredness that go along with sleep deprivation and you’llsee what I mean. Someone drops the hot pan and it just misses someoneelse’s foot- was it deliberate? Someone forgets where they putsomething- obviously it was stolen. There was a stray shoe left outin the hall and a character almost tripped over it- clearly whoeverleft it there knew thatcharacter could/would trip.

Andso forth.

Fromthe point of view of your cult leaders this sort of misery andemotional upheaval is a positive. It makes it harder for people toorganise or relate in an authentic way to each other in the longterm. It couldmake it especially hard for parents and children to keep up apositive relationship, comparedto the relationship the children could have with the cult leaders.

Becausethe parents will always be too tired, too grumpy, too unpredictable,to relate well to a young child. Whereas the well rested cult leaderscould appear calmer, kinder andseem to have more time.

There’svariation within all of this obviously. Despite damagingcircumstances some people do live to a ripe old age and don’tdevelop cancer more than ‘normal’ people would (chemistryprofessors over 80 are an interesting breed). Some people may stillbe able to show some patience and kindness despite the effects sleepdeprivation has on emotional regulation.

Moneyand treatment can also extend the life of someone who is routinelysleep deprived and suffers from multiple health problems as a result.

Ifyou’ve read my previous posts then I think you’ll have an idea ofindividual symptoms and how they get progressively worse. A lot ofthis ask was me- not just trying to map out what the indefinite timeframe you have would look like but the effect it would have on agroup and the relationships within that group.

Ihope that helps. :)

Availableon Wordpress.

Disclaimer

#tw torture #tw cults #cults #sleep deprivation #effects of sleep deprivation #effects of torture on organisations #scripturient-manipulator

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drexodthegunslinger · 5 years

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Why is it only Cayde you focus on? What about other destiny characters?

Okay, that’s a fair point. Let’s go shall we?

1: The Speaker.

Said literally three things in the entire franchise. He told you to fight but that we can’t win, he gave a speech nobody listened to because we were all thinking “is this it? Really?”, and then he told Ghaul to kill himself. Yeah the Speaker dies but who really gives a shit? We’re not given any reason to care are we?

2: Zavalla.

Apparently this boy does not understand promotions. “We killed all the Cabal leaders, why are they not gone?” Idk mate, maybe because that’s not how that works. “We stepped into a war with the cabal” yeah and you’re doing pretty shit mate. Sure he’s supposedly busy managing and planning shit, but really it doesn’t translate well in game. He might as well have two lines in the entire game where he alternates between “mah walls” and “we stepped into a war with the cabal” and he’d be the same.

3: Ikora.

Good in the crucible apparently? All she does these days is stand around looking stern and running an intelligence group that can be brought to a grinding halt by a fucking storm. Ikora, listen, if your satellites can’t withstand a storm they’re not much use are they?

4: Cayde.

TLDR, Bungie killed your fave.

5: Eris.

Creepy Hive lady. Very convenient for her to turn up in time for the Hive DLC’s and then disappear when they weren’t at the forefront. Will admit, I was mildly surprised she wasn’t brought back for the Warmind DLC because it has Hive. What did she really do though? She gave us some advice on Hive, had her shit stolen, and was looked down on by pretty much everyone. Only redeemable feature I can thing of is the rule 34 fan art of her which is great if you like generic rule 34 art where the woman’s chest and ass are exaggerated to shit.

Speaking of which, Bungie, I know the Destiny Franchise takes place in a period where food shortages are probably frequent, but mix it up with your fucking character designs. Not everyone is the same height and build you cowards.

6: At this point my mind went blank and I had to google “destiny characters”

7: Ghost.

Look at what the Speaker did. It took a multitool and gave it sentience.

The Ghost is really inconsistent, let’s be real. You want me to hack a lazer grid on earth, sure but that’s going to take precisely three waves of enemies and you’d better not miss one. You want me to access Cabal consoles on our very first time accessing the computer shit of an alien that likely has a numerical system that works off of base 3? Easy shit, no waiting involved.

Yeah, the “talk to your ghost” thing was great and honestly, I liked that. It was a moment for you to sit down ant talk to your Ghost, the one constant companion you have. It was a good moment.

And then they go right back to alternating between being a torch and a lockpick.

Bungie really fucked up with the Ghost-Guardian interaction in vanilla D2. The two of them nearly died, Light was lost, and the two don’t sit down and have a “talk to ghost” moment at any point? That’s theft of a possibly great emotional moment.

8: Crota

He is bad because he kills people

9: Oryx

He is also bad because he kills people and he’s mad you killed his son who he can bring back because We didn’t destroy Crota’s soul or something?

10: The EXO Stranger

In going to find the tweet I wanted I found something worse. Luke Smith had said he felt they had wrapped up her arc and quite frankly I haven’t heard a more objectively wrong thing come out of a human beings mouth with regards to games in a long time.

But it gets worse. Because 4 fucking years later, bungie dropped clues to who she might be if you paid enough attention to the shitshow of the Warmind DLC. According to lore from the dlc and the rasputin arg, there are hints that the EXO Stranger is Ana Bray’s sister who went back in time from the future as an exo to?

No, you know what. That’s bullshit. Bungie thought they finished the exo stranger arc, which was a shambling corpse of writing itself, then learnt actually they were wrong and tried to wrap it up.

Except none of it’s confirmed and explains nothing. Fuck the stranger, and fuck everyone involved in the creation of her character and her arc, learn how to write a story.

11: While we’re here, Ana bray.

Bungie’s first confirmed non-straight woman. I don’t know if it was confirmed if she’s a lesbian, bi, pan, or what so I’m using non-straight until I get confirmation otherwise. Had her girlfriend introduced on the fourth day of pride in a comic where she died. Great start.

But what about Ana herself?

Honestly, I couldn’t tell you. I tried to play Warminds but the Hive ruined it because Bungie is quite frankly not great at writing their own game are they?

12: Ghaul

Quite frankly, my favourite character. I dropped enough money on D2 to get the collectors edition cabal book which gave quite a lot of backstory to the campaign, however I’ll keep this to what Bungie actually make accessible in their game.

He’s an arsehole. He’s just the antagonist of the day, let’s be real. To understand that his behaviours and attitudes might somewhat stem from how he was shunned in mainstream cabal society and how this loneliness and bitterness from being an orphan as well as a runt was used to manipulate him into being how he is today, is completely lost on anyone who didn’t read his lore.

The game doesn’t put any significant thought into him on the actual disc that you play because, like Crota, like Oryx, like Skolas, he’s just an episodic villain.

13: Osiris.

Local Man Who Says He Doesn’t Need Help, Actually Needs Help.

How bad was this dlc? I mean, sure, we ran through the same area repeatedly, killed a Vex reskin of Oryx, and watched a Cabal jump on a vex. Twice. Once in a mission and again in a strike.

I can’t think of what Osiris did in this DLC except think he was able to do this himself, and then be the only reason we could damage Oryx- I mean, uh Panoptes.

Wait. Did they give a Vex guy that tries to simulate all the universes a name after an ancient Greek figure who was the source of the “eyes of Argus” stuff? I think they did.

14: Panoptes.

Bungie aren’t even trying at this point. He’s just Vex Oryx.

15: Amanda Holiday.

She has a robotic leg, an american(?) accent, and didn’t stop Cayde from doing his stupid bullshit plan that she knew was illegal. She also had a quest for an exotic shotgun that makes her different from other vendors. I get that as a vendor she doesn’t need an in depth backstory but Bungie, come on. If you’re going to make her important to parts of the story, give us reason to care about her.

16: Tess Eververse

Is there an actual ingame reason for her to be there? Is Silver explained? Is Bright Dust? As far as I can tell, no. Literally bolted on because Activision couldn’t let EA one-up them in microtransaction bullshittery.

17: Mara Sov

Cold, aloof, had fallen as pets. Was it confirmed how dead she is?

18: Uldren Sov

The only episodic villain I like aside from Ghaul. Uldren is great once you realise that he is how he is because of a bitterness towards Guardians. I mean, we turned up in his house demanding stuff, and the City on at least one occasion, let the Reef take a big loss for us with no acknowledgement. I can understand why he’d be pissed off in the first place and if he was somewhat possessed then sure that’s not going to help.

Most people are just pissed with him because he killed Cayde, but now he’s back as a Guardian that anger seems to have calmed. I’ve stopped playing the game since Warminds and I can’t say for anything that happened since, and while I hope Uldren as a Guardian grows as a character I won’t hold my breath.

19: Variks.

He stayed loyal to the reef and was helpful for a brief stint before we all shamed him for his mine dismantling kink.

20: Is that it?

I can’t think of anyone else. Sure, there are vendors and other side characters, but honestly, those are cardboard cutouts of a character with no depth of anything to them.

Sure, you could say “but drexmun, what about The Drifter, or the Spider, or Obb the Soulcarver?”

And I would say “yes, but two of those are from after I stopped playing the game and I can’t make an analysis on characters I know nothing about, and also you leave Obb out of this.”

#destiny criticism #I guess #I mostly rant about how shit the characters are #also fuck luke smith for that stranger tweet #he's full of bullshit and he knows it #Anonymous

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harmonic-psyche · 6 years

Text

The Finalysis: Ask The Dreadnought Crew

Hellooo again, everyone!

I apologize that it took so long to finish this, compared to my previous Finalysis post of @askgoopi characters. But now that I did, let’s dive right in! Here are the Myers-Briggs personality types of 14 original characters from @askthedreadnoughtcrew:

If the terminology is confusing, see my MBTI Basics tag. Maybe I should have included that in past personality analysis posts. Also, I have not managed to make the pictures show up in high-res on my blog... Anyway, as in the previous Finalysis posts, I explain my reasoning for giving each character the type that I did below the break:

Atlas: Probably INTP.

Since Atlas "is pretty lazy and likes doing nothing," he is probably not a Te- or Fe-dominant, and probably lacks high Si. Te and Fe are known for leadership and motivating action, while Si is generally known for consistency and hard work. His high patience level makes Se unlikely — especially since he does not react to his surroundings, even when they are on fire. Se characteristically is very quick in reacting to the outside environment, whereas iNtuitors are often too stuck in their heads. On that note, his "most appropriate TV Tropes" include "Beware the Silly Ones" and "Brilliant But Lazy," which are both linked to Ne's eccentric cleverness.

Atlas’s dominant function is less clear than his tertiary. On the one hand, he is "The Anti-Nihilist," which shows exactly the kind of positive, hopeful individualist existentialism that often flows from Fi. On the other, his totally apathetic and non-reactive demeanor suggests Ti, whereas INFPs are often far more emotional and reactive.

Breeze: Probably ENTP.

Ever since childhood, this neon yellow "nerd" programmer "[a]lways tried to bend the rules and find loopholes," showing Ne's nonconformism and Ti's love of logically deconstructing socially accepted rules. Both of those traits have continued and only increased through her love of hacking. NTPs are probably disproportionately common to programmers like her and hackers in particular. As a "Playful Hacker," Breeze shows mischievous Ne instead of serious Ni. Her "weaknesses" include that she "[e]xpects everything to go perfectly and doesn't have a backup plan in case something fails," showing her tendency to think in theoretical (N) instead of practical (S) terms. It also shows that she prefers logic (Ti) to logistics (Te). The "pride," love of "learning new things," and "[s]omewhat high" patience level that Breeze displays further support a Ne-dominant typing: _NTPs in particular show high pride, N-types are generally more fond of learning, and Se-types tend to have lower patience.

I first considered that Breeze could be an INTP because her Charahub calls her "sometimes gloomy," "[s]uspicious of anyone who she's never met," and "sometimes The Cracker," i.e., a "computer criminal." However, she smiles in most of the posts she appears in (as of 2018-08-09; contrast Ti-dominants like Ayjo and Malik), so she is an extraverted edgelord. Also, @askthedreadnoughtcrew said that "I don't think that The Cracker really describes her well - she's more of a Playful Hacker (she only hacks for fun, and almost never with malicious intents)" (PMs 2018-07-27). Even when I thought her an INTP, I noticed that Breeze is surprisingly social and optimistic: the glass is "half full," she is "close friends" with "everyone except for Weldon and Davan," and she "want[s] to get married[,] ... have kids, [and] raise a family." While the half-full/half-empty distinction probably shows a weak connection to personality type at most, an INTP typing cannot easily explain it or Breeze's wide friendship circle.

I next considered that Breeze could be an ENFP, since she seemed to show Fi when explaining that her crew is not under Giegue's authority: "I’ve heard that Giegue is a huge jerk. And we don’t take orders from jerks, hell no." However, this could stem from Ne's nonconformity and the influence of tertiary Fe. But the most powerful evidence against ENFP is her distrust of strangers (PMs 07-27):

"Breeze can be suspicious of strangers or others that she doesn't know well or at all, but once she feels close enough to someone and knows that they aren't a threat, she becomes a lot more relaxed and trusting of that person. She just takes a while to warm up to others."

E_F_ types are generally cheerful, friendly, and trusting even to strangers (see Iso and Manjula), and ENFPs are particularly infamous for over-trusting. I could not even try to explain Breeze's suspicion of strangers using an ENFP typing, since I have said that other characters (e.g. Spooks and Static) are ENFP largely because they are not suspicious of strangers (based on Bayesian logic). I apologize for the length of this explanation, but of all the @askthedreadnoughtcrew characters, Breeze confused me the most. Still, an ENTP typing can reconcile the ostensibly contradictory traits which confused me before.

CJ: Seems like an ISTP.

When an anon asked what he was planning to pick up at the post office, CJ said "that's none of your business." That reply shows the independence, suspicion of others, and blunt rudeness common to ISTPs. The same blunt rudeness characterized his reply when Ryn asked for help finding Clay and Jaxter. After CJ said that he did not know and criticized Ryn's search strategy, CJ abruptly left without offering to help, which was "pretty rude." Both of these show the inferior Fe apathy for social norms. So does CJ's lack of concern that his loud music bothers his neighbor Lyra. All of these seem to indicate inferior Fe.

CJ's lack of eccentric, mischievous, or overtly intellectual tendencies shows no evidence for Ne, whereas his bluntness seems to indicate auxiliary Se. However, I have not seen a general description of CJ. I am inferring his personality only from his demeanor in a few scenes, so I have low confidence in calling him an ISTP.

Clay: Probably ISTJ.

Since Clay is "constantly, but not always, emotionless," he is almost certainly not a Feeling type. Usually he comes across as calm, quiet, and indifferent, indicating I_T_. His cynical pessimism (the "glass" is "100% empty") indicates the same. As a "Bookworm" whose favorite activity is reading and whose "favorite book" is "[a]ll of them," Clay is a nerd prefers to spend his time on calm (I__J) instead of more exciting (E__P) activities — although he does consider life "boring." Yet fear may be one of his most often-felt emotions (a common problem of inferior Ne), as he is "[u]sually too scared to stand up for anything" and would "have a panic attack" if he suddenly transitioned to our world.

That leaves ISTJ or INTJ, with his fear making the former more likely. As Ni-dominants, INTJs are generally driven by some kind of grand plan for the future. However, "Clay really doesn't know what he's going to do with his life, and he doesn't particularly care that much, either. He just prefers to travel around with his crew and not have to think about the future" (PMs with @askthedreadnoughtcrew 2018-07-29). Clay is then an ISTJ which, although an unsurprising type for a gieeg who is commanding a crew, is ironic since he initially set off into space to escape from the gieeg leadership.

Davan: Almost certainly ESTP.

Davan "dislikes boring stuff, [and] people who boss him around," which shows stereotypical Se impatience and rebelliousness. He is a "very irresponsible mook with a mysterious past that likes to party a lot." It is very unlikely for Te-dominants to be irresponsible as a trait, and even less likely for them to be indifferent about it. The hardest part of Clay's daily rituals is "keeping Davan under control" since the mook is an impulsive pyromaniac. Davan "likes Partying, Clay, [and] annoying Clay." When asked whether he likes parties, Davan was not available to answer — because he was at a party. Parties provide the intense sensory and social stimulation that Se craves, which is why Se-dominants are often stereotyped as party animals. Crude language and crude humor are common to Se-dominants, and Davan is so crude that others try to keep him away from Ryn. The "coolest people he knows" are "me, myself, and I," displaying the flippant narcissism common to stereotypical E_TPs.

However, Davan's Se-dominance is not always a burden to the crew. It once saved all of their lives. When the Dreadnought was about to crash into a huge asteroid, all of the Starmen froze — but Davan jumped in and steered the ship to safety. Heroism may seem unlikely from someone so narcissistic and "very irresponsible." But when an unexpected emergency happens and needs someone to act fast, impulsive and down-to-earth Se-dominants can be counted on to save the day. Maybe "heroism" is too strong a word, since Davan may have only acted to save his own skin. But the fact remains that without his action, the ship and its crew would not have survived.

Deimos: Probably ISTJ.

This poor fellow is "usually gloomy all the time and doesn't like talking to people," showing introversion. His attitude towards life and love is "*shrug,*" showing an indifference to idealism and to relationships which suggests low iNtuition and Feeling functions. Similarly, the "most appropriate TV Tropes" to describe Deimos are "Sour Outside, Sad Inside [and] The Eeyore" (although only "sometimes"). All of those show the cynicism common to I_T_ types. "He can somehow always find the exact supplies that the crew of the Dreadnought need," which either shows the apparent instinct that ISTPs have for being a mechanic (compare Ayjo and Beams) or the ISTJ's excellent memory for practical details.

Indifference seems more likely among ISTPs than ISTJs, but besides that, his traits primarily show ISTJ. Since he "dislikes Nova's short temper" as well as "Atlas' laziness and bad jokes," he seems to prefer to keep others in line. The "kind of student" he would be if he "were to attend school" is a constantly sad kid who "doesn't try and somehow still gets straight A's." ISTPs, unlike ISTJs are not known for academic success because of the impatient, non-systematic high Se. Most importantly, Deimos is "a hard worker" because he "is usually the one who keeps the other starmen in check and makes sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing" (PMs with @askthedreadnoughtcrew 2018-07-27). Enforcing (J) rather than resisting (P) the rules, and a strong work ethic, are probably the most significant noticeable difference between ISTJ and ISTP.

Gemini: Seems like an ISFP.

"Everyone on the Dreadnought is just a little scared of" this badass noodle "tough fighter" who "wouldn't hesitate to beat someone up" even as a child. Even then, she wanted to become a fighter later in life. Since she cultivates a persona of fear, she is probably neither E_F_ nor __FJ. Those types usually try to befriend — or at least act friendly towards — everyone (contrast Ryn).

Outwardly, she has a cold demeanor, smiling in only 1 out of the 9 posts she appeared in (as of 2018-08-04; contrast Ryn's 12 out of 21). A colder outward demeanor is more common among introverts and those without high Fe. From that and her toughness, "other people assume" that "she's rude."Yet she has a few things in common with Ryn: the thing that "brings [her] the most joy" is "[k]nowing that she's being helpful," she "usually" acts "kind to others," and she considers "[e]veryone except Davan" important to her. Kindness and the desire to help others, without Fe's warmth, show strong Fi. Her toughness shows strong Se — especially her kind of toughness. She likes fighting, but not from a desire to harm others. In fact, her favorite sparring partner is Jaxter, who is her partner if ya know what I mean the most important person in her life. Those strongly support ISFP.

It is a bit harder to explain why she is "a bit self-centered" and enjoys "boasting" with an ISFP typing, since narcissism is linked most closely to _NTP types. Maybe Fi sometimes makes her focus too much on herself, and boasting comes from Se's competitive instinct? Although her pride and occasional self-centeredness lowers my confidence in ISFP, that still seems like the most likely type.

Jaxter: Probably INFP, maybe INTP.

Perhaps the most eccentric and quirky member of the crew, Jaxter "Likes [q]uiet places, video games, [and] fixing things." Those completely solitary places/activities strongly suggest that Jaxter is an introvert. An eccentric and quirky yet muted personality usually shows auxiliary Ne (compare Loris, Niiue, and Origen). Also, Jaxter "panics a lot and is very clumsy and awkward." Clumsiness suggests a low Sensing function (contrast Gemini's physical competence), and social awkwardness suggests low/no Fe, although those are both weak associations. "Sloth" is the "deadly sin that best represents" him, which shows that he does not have high Si because that usually produces a strong work ethic (contrast Deimos and Saral). These all suggest IN_P.

While it is not stated explicitly, Jaxter is emotionally sensitive. His tendencies to panic show a high reactivity to stressful stimuli, ones that may not affect less sensitive others. Contrast his screaming, horrified reaction to the engine almost exploding with Atlas (INTP) not reacting at all to the engine actually exploding. Hair-trigger stress and fear reactions usually imply low Ne, a high Feeling function, or both. This fear combines with his shyness and social awkwardness to produce social sensitivity: he withdraws from social situations more often than others out of fear. For example, Jaxter "used to be pretty intimidated by Gemini," probably even more than is normal for the crew. I_T_ types disproportionately withdraw from social situations too, but usually because of apathy and annoyance (contrast Calliope, Malik, and Marie). Therefore, while I thought him an _NTP at first partially from his resemblance to Doc Brown, he is more likely an INFP.

Jett: Seems like an ISTP.

This bug flying a badass, maximally edgy, spike-covered Lil UFO shows apathy to the concerns of others — especially his neighbor Lyra, who he said "is SO annoying" because she complained about him blasting loud music for the "eleventh" time. His dismissive apathy shows low Fe: even if a high-Fe-user did not care, they would probably at least act as if they cared. Also, when Jett's roommate CJ said that he was going to the post office, Jett's comment showed the blunt tone and independence-focused mindset common to ISTPs: "Well, go for it. It’s not like I’m gonna try to stop you or something." While I cannot type Jett with confidence since he has no Charahub entry and so few posts (as of 2018-08-09), current evidence suggests ISTP.

Lyra: Seems like an _STP.

Lyra is extremely straightforward about her motives for working as Morgandy's assistant: "I do it for the money." The concise and blunt (Se), honest description of focusing on rational self-interest (Ti) supports _STP, as she later shows by often complaining about insufficient pay. Lyra has no patience for Morgandy's language humor, whereas N-types are more likely to enjoy that kind of humor and high Fe-types would hesitate to be so rude. She is also very annoyed, and evidently pissed off, by her neighbors' loud music. If not for Morgandy insisting on asking "POLITELY," Lyra might tell her neighbors "to shove their speakers up their asses," showing the _STP's irritability, crudeness, and lack of concern for politeness or social norms. Even with Morgandy's insistence, Lyra angrily yelled at the neighbors who proceeded not to care.

I have not seen clear evidence of introversion or extraversion, unfortunately, so I cannot assign Lyra a specific type. All of Lyra's posts suggest _STP, but since I have not seen very many of them (or a Charahub entry), I cannot claim high confidence in that conclusion.

Morgandy: Probably ENFP.

As the only "[h]yperactive, cheerful, and childish" gieeg from her blog, Morgandy is a bit unusual. Ever since she was a child, Morgandy was "[u]ltra-hyper and very eager to do everything." Her "annoyingly childish and hyper" tendencies suggest E__P (compare Vivek), and so does her chosen profession as an entertainer. Extraverts are usually more energetic, and Perceivers more spontaneous. Both traits are important in entertainment. The fact that Morgandy "dislikes nothing really" rules out E_TP, matching the stereotype that ENFPs love everything and everyone (compare Spooks). However, Morgandy is not afraid to trash-talk her assistant or brag about her own superiority, unlike many Fe-types who hate to ever be rude.

Morgandy "doesn't like to fight," which is more common for F-types (with notable exceptions including Gemini and other badass SFPs). Morgandy prefers non-confrontational solutions to problems, whereas T-types are more direct and confrontational. Like many iNtuitors, she enjoys making incredibly dumb jokes by playing with language (compare Static). While I have not seen much of her on the blog, what I have seen makes ENFP very likely.

Nova: Seems like an ESTJ.

This "Final Starman who ... always tries to be the best that he can, but usually ends up making a mess ... is determined and will not stop at achieving a goal." That kind of strong-willed focus and determination are most common to high Te and Si users. He has low patience, especially for Atlas's laziness and Deimos's moping. STJs have the least tolerance for laziness: Te values hard work on a practical level, Si does on a moral level, and Te is the least afraid of confrontation. His dislike of "glum Deimos" shows the difference between his extraversion and Deimos' introversion. Extraverts gain energy and motivation from the social environment, so E_T_ types are usually more affected by others' moods. His "bad habits" include "[y]elling" (especially at Atlas), a common one for EST_ types (compare Goopi). That makes ESFJ unlikely: ESFJs usually try to act friendly, and even when they are aggressive, they are almost always passive-aggressive instead of straightforward.

Even though he does not eat, he enjoys cooking. The sensory, detail-oriented, highly formulaic activity is probably enjoyed more by strong Si-users (compare Saral). Also, he has a strong respect for authority. More specifically, Clay is his "role model" and "most important person in [his] life." Strong Si-users are more likely than any other type to intuitively trust authority figures (compare Pia).

An ESTJ typing admittedly has a hard time explaining why Nova has a "fear of nobody liking him," since that is seems more closely linked to Feeling types. Maybe it has to do with his extraversion? Also, it seems odd that he would "never" "dare to kill someone," but perhaps that comes from his Si principles. While ESTJ still explains most of his personality as shown in his Charahub and his posts so far, I do not think that I have seen enough posts to type him with high confidence.

Rynault ("Ryn"): Almost certainly ENFJ.

This "cheerful and optimistic" gieeg "likes helping others" since it "brings him the most joy" out of any activity. Altruism is most common, or at least most explicit, among Fe-dominants. From childhood, he has been "[v]ery eager and optimistic." As mentioned above while discussing Gemini, he smiles a lot. All of that shows the cheery demeanor and upbeat attitude most common to E_F_ types (compare Iso, Spooks, and Static). He stands up for his beliefs, but would never dare to kill anyone, showing Fe's claim to the moral high ground but also its squeamishness. The "most important person in [his] life" is "[e]veryone on the Dreadnought," showing the indiscriminate caring for everyone common to high-Fe types (compare Gabe, Manjula, Penini, Saral, and of course Iso). In contrast, many others (especially T-types) only care about those close to them, but care strongly about those people (contrast Gemini, Giegue, and J).

A natural leader who thinks quickly to do what is best for everyone, Ryn has taken the initiative as the "leader of the group" far more than me than one would expect for an introvert — especially considering that he is only "a 12 [!] year old." One of the main differences between ENFJs and INFJs is that the former are more likely to take the initiative and publicly lead. Ryn shows this tendency in the extreme. He is "smart but not nerdy" which completely rules out the IN__ types, although others often assume that he is a nerd. He has a "very high" patience level, suggesting high Ni or maybe high Si, and conversely "is kind of a klutz when it comes to sharp objects." Physical clumsiness is more common in N-types. While the evidence for his auxiliary Ni may not seem as strong as the evidence for his dominant Fe, Ryn's exceptional charisma is far more common among ENFJs than ESFJs. There is a reason that some people call ENFJs "The Cult Leader" type. While I do not expect Ryn to start a cult anytime soon, he arguably has the right skill set for it.

Weldon: Almost certainly ESTP.

Straight outta the 90s comes this hip dude with, like, a totally rad backwards hat and shades, bro. (Yes, that is how he talks, man.) He is a "huge jerk" (according to Davan and to Weldon's own Charahub) and a "douche" who "likes bragging about himself" and claims to be "too cool to ask for asks, dude." All of those show the callous narcissism associated with immature E_TP types whose Fe is not developed. He also "dislikes when people are better than him" and is "too competitive," combining his narcissism with the impulsive, competitive tendencies of high Se. I considered him an introvert at first because of his "laid-back" and "relaxed" voice and demeanor, but he "doesn't like being alone," which may be the clearest possible evidence of extraversion other than wearing a sign that says “I AM AN EXTRAVERT.”

Concluding Thoughts

That took me longer than I expected. But on the bright side, I realized that I have now completed 89 character analyses — of which I still have many to post. My goal of analyzing 100 characters, which I previously thought unrealistic, suddenly appears within striking distance.

Speaking of "within striking distance," I will probably publish my next Finalysis post in much less time than this one. Part of the reason this one took so long is that I could not make up my mind on whose to post next. Since posting the last one, I have spent time typing characters from this blog, @asktheapplechasers, @only-our-regrets (i.e. ComDis), and @take-a-melody. One of those will probably be featured in my next Finalysis post. If you have a preference for one of them — or a different blog — please feel free to shoot me a message! (Especially because I sometimes have questions about characters' personalities!)

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science-of-logical-reasoning · 6 years

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Guide to Body Language and Human Behavior Part 4:

The Gazing Triangle:

You will see below 3 types of gazing triangles. They are used when people look at each other. The triangles represent the area on which people tend to look.

Type A - The Stranger Gaze: Type A is used when we encounter strangers or rather new people. We tend to look them into the face and onto the forehead. Its used for example when we meet new people, talk to people that aren’t close to us like our boss from the work or at people that have dominance like police officers.

Type B - The Friends Gaze: We humans tend to switch fast from Type A to Type B after only some minutes with a new person. This is due to the effect that the Type A gaze is often considered uncomfortable for the other person or is seen as cold. We used this by people we see daily and with which we feel comfortable, like friends at school or co-workers.

Type C - The Intimacy Gaze: Humans will use Type C if they are really comfortable in the presents of a person and at a person they genuinely like, this involves close friends, family and obviously the partner in a relationship.

The Body/Leg Triangle:

The Non Triangle:

The Non-Triangle is used by people that have a one on one conversation and who don’t want to get disturb by others. As you will see in the picture above the whole body is facing the other person this involves legs , feet , hips , face and the upper body. This “triangle” is often seen by people who have a serious conversation or who are flirting. This type of triangle can be seen as aggressive because you will “attack” the other person with you full body.

The Closed Triangle:

As you can see the body’s form a closed triangle. People in this type of group setting know each other for a bit longer most of the times because they build like a sort of closed system. The body’s are all facing inwards into the conversation as well as the legs which build the actually triangle. In some country’s its not good to push as a new person in such a triangle because it will be seen as intimidating or even rude. To open up the triangle you can try to talk to one of the persons and see if he is opening it up to invite you into the group.

The Open Triangle:

In the open triangle the people build a shape with their body’s. As you can see in the picture the body’s are facing not the middle directly and the feet build a sort of “open triangle” where the last line is missing. This is used when people are new to each others because they try to build a escape route. Also this is used when people are willing to invite new people to a group. You would mostly be accepted if you would walk up to the group.

All these Body Triangles can differ in count of people, except the first and they can all differ in different position. All people can sit and build these triangle with chairs or some sit and some stand.

Analysis of different body languages:

I will put my attention here on the handshake because I wanna talk also a bit about handshakes. As you can see the hand of Trump is above the one of Obama. This is a clear sign of domination. In this case it was a force one because Trump started the handshake and Obama needed to react to it. To go to some other parts of the body language we can take for example the body triangle. The sit in a open triangle which is reasonable because they sit like that for the cameras. You can also see a emotion of contempt in the face of Obama. He is lifting from the viewer the right corner of the lip up. Both have similar arm positions. I guess the are used as a sort of barrier to. Also the whole situation is overall really stiff from the body’s. Generally speaking are politicians are harder to read at their body language because they where trained how to used it. Coming back to the handshakes you can say that the person who has its hand on top, which probably say enough, has control. If the handshake is straight it is neutral.

Here as a example you see that there is like a more open handshake. Its still not a straight one but the touch each others wrist which is a more friendly handshake because the wrist has a good amount of arteries and veins. Also you can see on both faces a genuinely smiling as there are the wrinkles around the eyes. Overall a more relaxed and friendly environment.

Here you can see 4 different body languages. The first one is thinking or boredom which are pretty similar. the person is putting is legs out crossing them probably because of the boredom. Maybe he even starts to jiggle with them. He has his hands in a sort of neutral to protective position which is ok. He looks up which indicated again boredom or thinking because he is searching for something, a thought or a thing which takes the boredom away. The second body language is a protective to nervous type. He is spreading his legs which is not that often used by protective people. So i guess its nervousness as he puts his legs back a bit also. He sits straight and protects himself the the folder and his arms which is probably because he feel uncomfortable because of the nervous situation. The third body language also thinking, not willing to speak, protective. He is using his leg as a barrier. The folder also as a sort of barrier and he covers his mouth which can indicate that he is not willing to speak or he is thinking. In both cases he is not speaking for the next couple of seconds maybe minutes. The last body language is fearful or desperate. He makes himself small because he want to have less space usage which is a submissive language. He crosses his legs and pulls them slightly in which is a barrier he is creating. He has one hand on his head in a position which is mostly desperate or not nothing what to do, “he is out of ideas” and in a bad position.

The Chin: For my last part I wanna talk a bit about the position of the chin. The chin functions as a pointer of the head. With this in mind we can see with the chin if the person is dominant , submissive or neutral. He dominant person with great ego and a big self esteem will have his chin up in the air. “He is looking down on the normal people” because he is over them. A person that is submissive will have his chin down and will look up to people. “Please do not harm me I turn my head away”. He tries to use up less space and he does not want to intimidate other people with a dominant head position. I can happend that these people also will have a low self esteem. The last pointer is the neutral chin. I think it is sort of self explanatory that when you have the middle state so the head / chin straight that this is not dominant nor submissive but rather neutral. So this is everything for this lesson. I hope I can get some more things about group behavior for my next part of the lesson and so I hope all of you which read it enjoyed it. I know it took me now a long time since my last post, which is due to time problems which I have and the rest of the time I spend with the people that I love. See please keep this in mind, but be sure that I will not end this series without any comment of it. So that now everything has been said I wish all of you a nice evening , day , morning or whenever you are reading it.

-Sol

PS: I am a bit sorry that I went a bit away of deduction. Body language is just my passion which I love. I am not totally away from deduction not at all. Its just that I am not posting much or anything about it anymore because most thing I know all of you know by now. I really would recommend other good learning sites if you still wanna learn more deduction stuff e.g. @theartoftheconsultingdetective or @l0oking-glass. If will go on with more body language and behavior stuff, but from time to time there will be deduction related content.

#Sol #deduction #sherlock #body langu

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