#(no i havent finished playing it lol)

[puppyeared]

abogagos……..

[bluuscreen]

gonna tell my future niece/nephew that this was the shape of water

[butchvamp]

i already said it but it does really frustrate me how little agency Taash has and the more i think about it the more insidious it gets. again their entire story revolves around Rook making choices for them, and they're also consistently talked down to by other characters, even if those characters are depicted as being friendly or nice. Isabela treats them like a child despite Taash being a very accomplished dragon hunter with the lords (which we see, repeatedly, when fighting the blighted dragons! Taash is not a child), and of course there's their mother (at least this is intentional) and both her and Isabela go behind Taash's back to throw them in with Rook, without asking for their input. Isabela just assumes without even trying to discuss it with Taash separate from their mother, despite seemingly being aware of the two's strained relationship... and from there Isabela continues to make unnecessary comments to Taash whenever you visit the hall of valor with them.

even Flynn, the nonbinary grey warden you meet in the wetlands, condescends to them about the Qun when discussing their gender, and Taash isn't allowed to disagree with them (apparently they give Flynn a Look but ultimately don't press the issue) and Flynn is depicted as being helpful in this discussion. Rook lectures them about gender and their own culture; their entire narrative revolves around Other People telling them what to do and how to feel-- it's obviously meant to be Bad when Taash's mother does it, because she (the Qun) is oppressive, but otherwise the game seems to be fine when it's Rook or literally anyone else doing it, because we're the enlightened Good Guys, and Taash is just helpless and confused and so oppressed. of course, i don't think it's bad for Rook to discuss these things with Taash or give them gentle suggestions, and i don't even hate the potential gender discussion you can have with a trans Rook; and for the record, their mother does treat them poorly. but we can't ignore the way Taash's repeated infantilization culminates in the player being the one to choose their culture for them in the end, because..?

well, the game clearly doesn't think Taash is capable of doing it themselves. at one point Taash links the ropes they wear for the Qun to the ones the antaam used to tie down a dragon and "blight" them. even if i'm feeling gracious and say that Weekes really meant that womanhood & their mother's expectations are restricting, they actively chose to use the ropes of the Qun to make this comparison, and so are also implying here that their mother teaching them the Qun has tied them down and "blighted" them-- that the Qun has "infected" their thinking and is as bad as the blight (this is also implied in the previous discussion with Flynn). this is.... really racist. it takes Rook and their, again, "enlightened" (white) ideas about gender to get through to Taash, nevermind that the Qun has its own ideas around gender that just get shouted down or completely ignored. the racism here results in the narrative contradicting itself, considering one of the first things Taash says is "you don't get to tell me who i am" but... Rook does, in the end, because intentional or not the game is clearly convinced that a person like Taash needs someone from outside of their and their mother's culture (aka free of "blight") to come tell them what's best for them.... 🤔 hm! and while it's true you can choose for them to align with the qunari in the end, that doesn't mitigate all of the heinous and racist writing that leads up to that choice (and that the choice itself is racist. and you have to make it twice!)

of course we can say that Rook makes choices for all of the companions, this is true, but it's obvious that none of the other companions' choices are in the same ballpark, we aren't directly deciding something about their identity, and none of them lack agency to the same extent as Taash. we can even argue that they need Rook to explain gender to them, no one else ever has-- well, sure. the thing with Taash is that some parts of their story, when removed from context, are perfectly fine. i'm not criticizing the way Taash talks or acts or "does gender," all of which are things some people may connect to for various reasons (all of our experiences are different) but unfortunately we cannot discuss any of this without addressing the racism that is so thoroughly baked into every aspect of their character.

i criticized Taash for being "childlike" previously and that really wasn't the right phrasing-- i don't think that Taash themselves is childlike, it has nothing to do with them-- it's the way the narrative treats them, the way other characters talk down to them, how it takes away their autonomy & forces us to go along with it, and ultimately educate them and "save" them, and i think it's worth interrogating why Taash, of all the companions, is specifically depicted this way (it's racism).

[y-allium]

SIFFRIN <3333

[khianavy]

We have always had enough time

[harbingersecho]

neath dark waters

[mizukkay]

[v-toast]

domesticated (changed my mind lol not finishing this)

[cupcakerias]

blank room scoop

redraw of this video lol

[averysmolkirbo]

its been like 3ish weeks anyway new year new memes, one fresh batch of (permanently borrowed) meme soup.

bone apple tea!!

[gatertots]

lionblaze

[captainshyguy]

an enderman wandered into my minecraft base and lives with me now his name is frienderman

[minrathousrain]

starting a new inquisitor cadash for my current canon world state (tabris + warrior hawke). huge for me

[killuabutgayer]

bloofer lady🩸🗡️🇬🇧

[good-beansdraws]

I do love a red knight...

[catgirlsp0ck]

still playing persona 3 for the first time (im playing reload). im on nov 9 and i wanna make some predictions !! so under the cut is me speculating on some shit thats going on so far :D i don't expect to be right about it all but i just wanna be able to come back to this post and see if i was right about some of it or if i was totally wrong lol (also, this has spoilers for some major stuff leading up to november !!)

ok, so im on nov 9 and just met a new character named ryoji. now, ryoji looks suspiciously like pharos (the little boy who we met during the dark hour before each boss basically).

like, they have the same mole, eyes, eyebrows and same VA. i think its kinda obvious that they're the same person, especially when ryoji is saying shit like this:

but that isn't what i wanted to make this post about. im thinking that because pharos' social link was the death tarot, maybe him becoming ryoji is what ikutski was trying to do. idk how to explain it that well but hear me out lol. i think that ryoji is what's going to bring about "the fall." i think that defeating the 12 shadows (and maybe also the "sacrifice" of ikutski and mitsuru's father) is what transformed pharos into ryoji. everytime we see pharos, hes wearing an outfit that looks like something a prisoner would wear. maybe the existence of the 12 shadows was making it so he couldn't use his full powers or some shit, akin to being imprisoned and them being defeated unleashed him. the last time we see him, he says he remembers what he has to do and that he has a duty to fulfill. not chained back by the shadows anymore, he was able to become ryoji and possibly try to bring about the fall? im not sure if im getting this right lol but thats what im thinking. and i think that while she might not fully remember it, aigis might have some kind of knowledge about this bc of how she reacts to ryoji when he first joins the class:

she knows something about him but i don't think she fully remembers what it is. an interesting thing i saw in the dictionary tab is this:

"it's birth was already intended to happen once, ten years ago." aigis was made 10 years ago and also maybe im reaching for this but pharos looks to be around 10 years old or so when we meet him. he is the death tarot, and this dictionary thing is under the term "death." aigis being made around that time could be why she thinks that ryoji is dangerous, maybe she sees the resemblance between pharos and ryoji? idk if im right or if im grasping at straws but i just had to rant about what im thinking so far !! im really excited to see where this all leads. (pls if anyone actually is reading this shitty post, no spoilers 🙏🙏)