romenthenoodle

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Mouthwashing

[romenthenoodle]

Hey mouthwashing peeps.

Y’know how Anya stole and hid the gun when she realized she was pregnant? Straight up refused to tell Curly where it was bc she didn’t want Jimmy to know where it was and get a hold of it if/when he found out?

Remember how Jimmy stormed out of the med bay when Anya told him and Curly went to find him?

Remember where Curly found him?

He was outside of the cockpit doors.

He was either on his way to the utility cabinet to get the gun or already searched it and was about to go look for it when Curly found him.

So he knew the gun was gone and that Swansea had the axe, meaning the only two weapons on the ship were out of his reach.

He crashed the ship *after* he realized he couldn’t just kill Anya, he had to kill the whole crew. We know he crashed the ship so he wouldn’t deal with the repercussions of his actions, but holy shit.

Anya was scared he’d go ballistic and she was fucking right.

[romenthenoodle]

Gimme all the Mouthwashing content you have

[romenthenoodle]

went into the mouthwashing tag kind of hoping that at least one person would be interested in discussing daisuke's character under the lens of the game's overt themes of misogyny and rape culture and complicity but ofc it's just infantilization and "omg my baby boy" drawings with hearts and flowers and found family edits but tbh idk what i expected from thee whitest website on earth

[romenthenoodle]

My own Curly analysis because his character is one of the deepest in the game and I find him really interesting.

Warning: Spoilers for Mouthwashing

Curly isn’t a terrible person, truly But we know he isn’t a very good person either. We see him as relatable, with the conversation he has with Jimmy, how he feels like yes, he reached a really high point in his life, maybe the highest… but is it really where he wants be? Could he try other things? And if he did, would he have to abandon this life and job that he’s not even sure is fit for him but does really well? The way he’s portrayed like this makes him someone we can empathize with, for the most part.

He also has fairly good intentions. He cares about his crew, about their well being and also respects them as people. He wants to do a good job as a freighter captain, even if he’s unsure if this is right for him. He checks up on his crew, is responsible, and genuinely cares.

The problem arises mostly when he puts more value in friendship than making sure Jimmy is held accountable for his actions, mainly against Anya of course. He knows, to some extent at least, what happened to her, and he does care to an extent, he does check up on Anya, making sure she’s okay. But that’s pretty much where the acknowledgment/sympathy ends. He’s known Jimmy for years, and he doesn’t want to break that friendship (which is somewhat reasonable, okay, that conflict of knowing and caring for someone for so long and finding out they did something horrible, having some sort of conflicted feeling doesn’t automatically make him evil or a monster) even though he knows he SA’d her.

He mostly ignored the problem for his own sake, maybe told himself that if he’s helping Anya herself then it’s enough (but can’t be entirely sure about that). He couldn’t have done much about Jimmy, realistically even if he did confront him. It’s not like he can throw the man out the ship (although that would be ideal) or anything, but he should have confronted him, at the very least. His want to believe that his best friend isn’t really that bad of a person, or that there’s good in him and he can be reasoned with, takes over his duty and responsibility to hold him accountable and ensure everyone on the ship is and feels comfortable and safe.

I think he has other flaws too, but that’s the main one we see during the game. And really, if he had taken responsibility and confronted Jimmy about it directly or at least didn’t pretend to him mostly like nothing happened, than I feel Jimmy wouldn’t have felt as compelled to crash the ship and try to fucking kill everyone. At least it would’ve deterred him a little bit.

Curly also trusted Jimmy too much. He didn’t really anticipate him crashing the ship, because well, what kind of lunatic would do that (Jimmy because he is a fucking lunatic), and because he put too much faith in him despite knowing what kind of person he can be, he wound up in the front if the ship trying to save them. And likely, if he hadn’t been there, they would’ve died.

And though he did even up taking responsibility for himself and his actions (much more than Jimmy anyway), it was too late. The damage had been done, Jimmy had won. And perhaps that’s one of the most tragic parts of it, too.

Of course, there is more to his character I could have mentioned, and this doesn’t touch on post-crash curly much, which warrants an analysis of some sort in itself, in my opinion. But this is my take and opinion on the situation and his character.

I’m tired of people going to the extreme, saying he’s “only a victim” and nothing else, or he’s “just as bad as Jimmy.” Neither of those are true, he made some fatal mistakes that hurt people, and made him human, but not as bad as Jimmy. Obviously nothing like that excuses his actions, but sometimes humans make terrible mistakes. Sometimes our judgement and reason is clouded. It isn’t good, of course, but it doesn’t make him as bad as a literal sexual abuser.

Jimmy never cared about anybody but himself, and especially not Anya, didn’t even try. At least Curly took some action in attempting to console Anya, even if it was less than he could and should have.

[romenthenoodle]

Daisuke, Anya, and Swansea Mouthwashing (wip)

[romenthenoodle]

some things from mouthwashing that i think need more attention:

UPDATED version because I've been corrected on some things

jimmy, as co-captain, was unfortunately needed and couldn't be disposed of

pony express should carry the brunt of the blame - sending people into space and THEN telling them they're fired; not installing locks in the sleeping quarters; etc.

anya said "i have to believe our worst moments don't define us", implying she forgave curly, at least to an extent

every moment seen through jimmy's eyes could and should be questioned. he's an unreliable narrator

jimmy wanted curly to take the blame. he wanted the crew to blame him. the game wanted us to blame him for the crash (until the reveal)

curly got burned because he faced the explosion head-on; trying to fix things

anya died first; she did it with the last remaining painkillers which could've been used for curly; she even did it in front of him

jimmy shamed and attacked curly during the birthday scene and curly didn't react; implying their relationship was never smooth and truly friendly

it was never explicitly shown what anya said to curly. perhaps she never specified jimmy raped her. curly was shocked when she said she was pregnant, he didn't connect it with anything

anya telling jimmy she was pregnant is what made him crash the ship

it's implied anya told swansea about jimmy and he did nothing. he only attacked jimmy a while later, as revenge for daisuke

it's possible curly was only ever visited by jimmy, aside from anya

jimmy crashed the ship 147/365 days into the trip; the same day anya told him she's pregnant. assuming she found out a bit before that, and women find out they're pregnant when they're two weeks in (by "default", it could be later), by the time they got off the ship she would've been about 7 months pregnant - she would NOT have given birth on the ship

swansea had been 15 years sober

curly most likely wouldn't survive the cryopod. entirely skinless and then frozen? hell

curly was the only one to have clearance for the sweetener

curly very pointedly looks at jimmy ALL the time after the crash

after curly's conversation with jimmy (the "feet in cement" one), right before jimmy crashed the ship, the screen goes black and there's heavy breathing, implying curly was left panicking

jimmy gives curly medicine 3 times - first, with anya relatively nearby, a fairly normal intervention; second, with no one nearby, where jimmy assaults curly; third, alone again, he doesn't assault curly but he still cries, he's permanently scared of jimmy

curly was already struggling with insomnia before the crash

while anya was locked in medical, jimmy told daisuke she might do something to curly

anya said the mouthwash couldn't be used as disinfectant and jimmy still did it

jimmy drugged swansea; he convinced daisuke to go in the vent by saying swansea would be proud of him

curly and anya and jimmy all talk of "handling things"

jimmy says curly receives praise all the time; implying he was a good captain (he was also the only one to get exceptional references)

swansea had a wife and kids; daisuke mentions his mother, the creators of the game said curly loved spending time with friends and family. they had people waiting for them

jimmy said cartoon horses excite him and anya's baby is presented as a horse

[romenthenoodle]

[romenthenoodle]

useless ray of goddamn sunshine

[romenthenoodle]

i need everyone to understand the poetry of curly turning a blind eye to anya’s suffering only to be robbed of his autonomy and voice as she was and then forced to observe jimmy’s crimes and the abuse of his own body

[romenthenoodle]

Late night doodlin

[romenthenoodle]

Oh, what a waste...

[romenthenoodle]

Take a slice

[romenthenoodle]

take responsibility

[romenthenoodle]

"Useless ray of goddamn sunshine. You could have taught an old fool like me a lot."

Referenced Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan (1885)

[romenthenoodle]

always everyone else’s fault

[romenthenoodle]

anya my beloved