viomaation - Tumblr blog

[viomaation]

rare animal

[viomaation]

i am once again reminded of the fact that toby fox is a genius at comedic pacing

[viomaation]

some art

[viomaation]

davekat 2020: jokes on us they’re both disasters

[viomaation]

ah shit. here we go again

[viomaation]

still fuckin hate that “bee-free honey” that’s made from……… apples. bitch who you think sexed up those apples

[viomaation]

I always like to think that Marceline found Mitski’s records in the wreckage

[viomaation]

Grasshopper's Dream Cafe Located: Jeongseon, South Korea

[viomaation]

Finally finished! Please enjoy this commission made for a friend ^^

[viomaation]

I think what makes gildedguy and the dragon of mar such an interesting and wonderful story to me is the intense emotional depth within it. It is, without a doubt, a tragedy - the main antagonist is tragic, he's a character you connect to personally before the end of the animation. He's a character you want to help, but is doomed by his existence and his past.

[spoilers and lots of disconnected thoughts below]

And he's a character who our MC tries to help - but gets refused every single time, from the day they meet to moments before Mar dies. Mar is a sympathetic character but has lost himself in his own evil, and refuses to accept that he could change for the better.

He isolates himself - and seems to accept Gildedguy into his life as a potential new friend. Maybe the only friend he's had in decades. The amount of time they spend together, and the amount of time Gildedguy spends trying to help this man, is really what makes Mar's end such a huge gut punch.

A lot of people are criticizing the ending of story 8 as Sable killing Mar "for no reason", which is not only tone deaf but also completely misreading the entire story presented to them. This story was never going to have a good ending, but with the story being told from Gildedguy's perspective, we were given a twinge of hope that maybe just maybe he could send Mar on the path to self-improvement.

Mar has been evil, and has been pillaging and killing people for probably decades at this point, what with how huge his gold hoard and skeleton collection is. He is too far gone, in the sense that he has resigned himself to the idea that he could never improve. Us, the viewers, having an idealistic approach at a story that could only end in pain and suffering for at least some individuals involved, gives us more expectation and more pain when the realization hits you:

You can't save everyone.

Some crimes are just too severe to be forgiven, and even if they aren't, some people are just too lost in their own self-hate to accept your help. Mar's crimes have overtaken him to the point that he can hardly exist, or even look at himself, without retreating inside the dragon that protects him and is his vessel of violence.

Having such little things - such tiny twinges of hope and beauty - set off such a deep evil in you that you resort to lashing out and violence, is a sign of someone filled with hurt, pain, and tragedy. It's a sign of someone who is past saving, despite how much you want to save them.

Gildedguy was the knight in shining armor, he spent four months building this massive machine to protect the people he cares about - Mar included. He opened himself up to this man, he tried to connect with him on a personal level in a moment of vulnerability, showing his face and trying to make himself seem like less of a threat.

And yet, even to the end, Mar still refused him, which led to his demise.

Gildedguy is a hopeful, whimsical person who wants to befriend and help just about everybody he comes across. He connected to Mar on a personal level the day they met, spending time together and sharing food. He could see a little of himself in Mar, they shared laughs and smiles, and a deep-seated regret and pain.

And he feared a little bit, for who and what Mar is.

But even still, he was willing to look past what he saw in himself, and continued being kind to Mar, in a rare act of genuine kindness that I doubt Mar has ever seen.

This leads well into how much Gildedguy tries to help his new friend throughout the story, and how tragic it is that Mar had to die. Gildedguy related to him, but not in a way that could save his friend. And despite how Gildedguy saw himself in Mar, the same could not be said for Mar seeing himself in Gildedguy.

Ultimately, that is why Mar could not and would not accept the help. He couldn't think of anyone else who'd really, truly be able to handle the evil and pain that he goes through and inflicts upon others. He has no hope for himself. He has no life or color.

He is just a broken, tired, dead-inside man who knows nothing else aside from the dragon he hides inside.

And Gildedguy slowly came to this realization as the story went on. He didn't know what Mar had done when first meeting him. But he came across the hoards of gold, the skeletons, the stolen treasure, and the people he's stolen away and doomed to death and saw just how much harm Mar has done to the world around him.

In the end, he resigned himself to the fact that Mar did not want to be saved, as much as Gildedguy wanted to save Mar.

He accepted his death, as painful as it was in the moment.

[viomaation]

Gildedguy and the Dragon of Mar - Mar character thoughts

First off, what a HELL of a goddamn story. Easily my new favorite Gildedguy animation. it's much more emotionally grounded and serious than all of his previous ones have been, combined, even with that absolute gut punch of a third act.

So, go watch it first.

That being said, I have a lot of thoughts on Mar as a character and what he means to me. They'll be under the cut, so SPOILERS BELOW if you haven't watched the animation.

Starting off, I have to say a lot of these thoughts have been kickstarted by my buddy @malelovemail. Conversation with others in the sense of this story has helped build up my own thoughts on the animation and of this character.

That being said,

This guy. This fucking man.

To put it shortly, he is an allegory for abuse, isolation, and resignation.

Throughout the animation, you can see him refusing help - you can see him keeping to himself, even with him inviting gildedguy into his home. He recoils from the sight of himself in reflections. That, for one, is a sign of someone who has done something horrible- and knows what he's done.

And that leads into the Dragon, which so delightfully mislead us into believing it was something he was trying to hide. No, it's something much more nuanced than that. The dragon is a defense mechanism.

Not once does Mar try to hide the dragon, he doesn't keep it away from Gildedguy or anyone else. The first thing his body goes to when he feels stressed- when he is in pain- is to turn into the dragon. It's a relapse into horrible and violent behaviors because he can't be forced to come to terms with who or what he is.

Throughout the entire story, Gildedguy tries to help mar. he tries to pull him out of the abuse cycle. He hides the stellapen when he sees it brings mar pain, he tries to help him out of the nerve throne inside of the dragon. Even when it comes time to fight the dragon in Gilded Mecha form, he is trying to HELP HIM. After the dragon is dead, he tries to help him. But every time, he gets turned away. Mar sees what he is in the eyes of the people, he refuses to attempt to overcome it. He refuses to accept what he's done. He just falls further into his violence and lets his dragon hurt more and more people.

In the end, gildedguy resigns himself to the fact that he cannot save this man, because Mar does not want to be saved. When Mar dies, he just watches it happen. He doesn't stop Sable. He doesn't help him up.

He just watches.

Something I find very interesting is that the first thing mar does when the dragon dies and the fight is over is mourn it, and pay respects. he pays no attention to anybody else. he doesn't care about them. To him the dragon, his defense mechanism and his output for violence, has been his only companion in life for as long as he can remember.

This was never going to be a story with a happy ending, because Mar refused to accept one for himself. And the people he's hurt refused to accept that too.

Sable is an interesting character in the context of both the story, and the allegory that Mar represents. She is shown worshiping the dragon at the start of the story, playing in gold while inside the dragon, and overall being disconnected from the plot. But she's a good representation of what you can ignore in someone you admire while they hurt other people, until you come face to face with what it is they've done.

And in the end, she becomes disillusioned from all that has happened, because of the sight of everything the dragon has done to everyone else.

Sable was the best choice to end Mar's life as opposed to Gildedguy. She had much more direct contact with him, she had been directly hurt by him for who knows how long.

And I feel like she's an allegory for the people that Barthimo has hurt. A sort of retribution and catharsis, seeing the one that has hurt her for so long be taken down and killed by her own hands. She was the one who could finally end Mar's reign of terror, not just the dragon he hid behind.

[viomaation]

[viomaation]

laios’ shirt fighting for it’s life

[viomaation]

sobbing and crying at the woman who stole a meth addicted kitten from her dealer and then she and the kitten got clean together

[viomaation]

Young overlords ready to paint the neighborhood red.

[viomaation]

Kitchen - Janette Hayhoe

Canadian, b. 1962 -

Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 in.

[viomaation]