#Apologies for the long rant

[my-name-is-bunnyfoxy]

~ TMNT February Day 20: Dream ~

Rant time: Raph thinking he will become Shredder and be just like him is the biggest wasted potential in the show.

Context: In the episode "The Darkness Within", the turtles go to help their friend Angel get her brother back. Stuff happens and they are suddenly trapped in their worst nightmares. And you wanna know what Raph's nightmare is? That Raphael, a guy who has done nothing but has been saving people, doing his best to protect his brothers and care for them, literally saved the entire world, thinks he is anywhere near Shredder. Shredder. Yeah that guy who has done nothing but terrorize and is the reason so many horrible things have happened in the show. He genuinely thinks he is a monster. A cruel heartless monster.

That concept is to me, the most interesting thing ever. Admit it, you wanted to know why Raph would have thought himself in that way and think he would become Shredder. But why do I call this wasted potential? That's because it's LITERALLY only mentioned ONE TIME. It only happened in that episode. And that episode only. We don't get details as to why he thinks that way or what made him think he shared even the slightest in common with Shredder. Also remember those dimension episodes? As much as I enjoyed Raph's episode, I wish now, he was sent in a universe where he was Shredder. Also also, he is the only turtle to have never defeated any version of Shredder. So I feel like this would have been his chance to finally defeat one.

I really hope that in a future iteration of TMNT, this sort of idea is brought back and we get to explore it a bit more.

Now this isn't related to 2003 but, I did actually learn later down the line that Raph actually did become the Shredder in the image comics. Damn.

[technicallyweepingmentality]

I'm currently studying nursing, was at uni for a different course last year (long story short I quit a year in and moved back home) and yeah. There's a girl in my class who is generally shitty to everyone, has cheated on tests, steals peoples answers and wouldn't you know it? Uses chatgpt on every assignment. The rest of us kinda thought we were independently disliking her and making a mountain out of a molehill, till a group of us talked and realised that yeah. She is that shitty.

This girl has the gall to call out answers over the rest of us, is useless in the (very rare) group assignments and generally acts as tho she is better than all of us.

Yet she cannot string together a properly cited paragraph on, say, the importance of practicing ethically, or one on why taking obs is so important.

Other part is, she has a job in disability work. All fine and good, except that she has admitted that she doesn't do right by her clients. Multiple times, she has talked about how her job is "so easy" because she just sits people in front of the telly. WHAT. First week, we were damn told to act ethically and treat people as, hmm I don't know, FUCKING PEOPLE.

Another example, last year I got caught up with some tanky politics students (🤮). One guy was using chatgpt to "summarise" all of the papers he was sposed to read. This was with all of the stuff coming out about how AI hallucinates quite strongly mind, yet when I said to him are you sure you can trust it, his response was that it didn't matter because he wasn't copy-pasting the text it spat out. A week later I watched him do exactly that.

I am currently struggling with my academic progress, I won't lie. But I know that what I read and write is worth its damn salt because I am using sources from other human beings, and using my own damn brain.

Scary part (imo) is that these 2 people, one who will have greater responsibility over vulnerable people's lives (and already [self reportedly] doesn't do that properly) and one who wants power over my country, and last I saw was climbin some rungs, further than most would ever get. I'm terrified of just how many people are going to get hurt by this.

ur future nurse is using chapgpt to glide thru school u better take care of urself

[linkcharacter]

Oh I have so many thoughts on aroace Curly, I think it brings so much on the table when analyzing the game's story.

Amanormativity ties in with the reoccurring mentions of the nuclear family, from Wrong Organ making 1950s mock advert posters, to Swansea talking about how getting a wife and kids didn't bring him any fulfillment in life.

In the cake cutting nightmare sequence, where Jimmy talks with Dream Curly about the mediocre cake, Dream Curly begins to talk about how sometimes you can only get the subpar stuff in live. Sometimes he'll get promoted, buy a house, fall in love. But other times he'll just have some awful fucking cake with his friend.

I think there is that subtle implication that Jimmy does buy into Amanormativity, with him projecting his beliefs on Dream Curly that a platonic relationship is lesser then a romantic one. But we never see Curly suggesting that he wants such a thing in the pre-crash.

With Jimmy thinking that Curly has everything in life, except for the desire (although I think Jimmy would view it as Curly not having the skills for it) to get a romantic partner, he would heavily lean into getting the one thing that Curly couldn't get in life to one up him.

THATS EXACTLY WHAT IM THINKING!!! AMATONORMATIVITY BE DAMNED!!!!

Looking at Mouthwashing through an aroace lens is interesting

"Jimmy thinking that Curly has everything in life, except for the desire", well said, well said! And references to the nuclear family fit in very cleanly thematically for Mouthwashing.

Jimmy leaning into amatonormativity is a smart observation. Jim internalizes all the social norms and standards on what you have to do to have a normal and desirable life, who sees everything Curly has and what Jimmy wishes he had, and is offended that Curly isn't satisfied, that he has the "audacity" to be unhappy. Curly meanwhile only wishes for his life to be something he doesn't have to run from, because by all means, he has already reached a point where he should feel accomplished, but isn't. Curly doesn't want to be a freighter captain his whole life, he doesn't want to settle with his sustainable position, he just wants to be happy. Like Swansea who has reached the "ideal" outcome of his life, having a wife, kids and a good career, it will never feel as good as embracing all what society deems undesirable yet right for you.

Jimmy does imply to seeing himself as lesser as a friend, "fall in love" being a goal and a "cake with a friend" being something he "has to settle for", it's all in the subtleties with underlying themes of "what you're "supposed to want" by society's expectations" against "what feels right for you". Jimmy is frustrated that Curly is going to "leave the dirt behind him", when in actuality, letting the crew and him go is the last thing Curly wants. Curly wants to be with his friends, he deeply cares about his crew, and about his close friend.

Mouthwashing as a whole reads to me as platonic through and through. Swansea and Daisuke having such a meaningful familial bond, Curly and Anya being sweet, playful and caring without romance, Anya and Daisuke having something of a siblings dynamic are dear to me. Also it's really rare to get to see representations of "toxic friendship" in media. Its always toxic romance this, toxic yaoi that, toxic family there, however in reality, friendships aren't excluded from being as rotten and abusive as the others, yet they're often overlooked. Jim and Curly are especially unique in this way. It's very impressive how they managed to showcase Jimmy's mistreatment of Curly in such a platonic way (at least that how I read it). Jim too, like Curly, in general avoids hints at romance and attraction explicitly related to him during his gameplay, not with Curly, nor with Anya (dear god thanks for that at least). It's all spite, annoyance and parasitizing off of these two. (That man's dry and lowkey hates everyone and everything) No attraction attached, no desires except hoping it hurts.

Curly to me is very much aroace, or at least on the spectrum. Like, the trivia fact that one of Curly's fondest memories is that of his friends putting in effort to make a shitty awful cake, tells us all we need to know on how dear his friends are to him. Platonic relationships mean so much to Curly, even when it's Jimmy fucking Mouthwashing, the worst friend ever imaginable.

[therandomfandomme]

We're all going feral over the whole "Mercy? Mercy?" which is so valid of us, but the way mercy comes back as a theme in this final saga is really interesting to me, because before this, Odysseus is asked for mercy, for forgiveness:

"Old king, our leader is dead

You've destroyed the serpent's head

Now the rest of us are no longer a threat

Old king, forgive us instead

So that no more blood is shed

Let's have open arms instead"

"No"

He has become Poseidon, the one that first forced him into believing that mercy isn't something he can afford ("Look what you turned me into"), which is made doubly poignant with Eurymachus echoing the open arms of Polites ("Greet the world with open arms"). Now I'm not saying he should have forgiven the suitors for what they were planning on doing, however, this interaction directly informs this one later:

"Throw down those weapons

And I ensure you'll be spared"

"After seeing what the king will do to us

We wouldn't dare"

Because Odysseus doesn't show mercy to Eurymachus, Melanthius doesn't want to take the risk when Telemachus extends mercy to them, which then leads to the starting interaction.

When extending mercy and creating a kinder world is discussed again, it's by Athena. She is the original god, who pushed him towards a lack of mercy, who found that a warrior of the mind is one that showed not mercy and Odysseus believed her during the war, even threw a baby of a roof about it, and it wasn't until after that he rebelled her teachings only to be forced into it by other gods (Poseidon and Zeus most specifically). To which this is said:

"If that world exists, it's far away from here

It's one I'll have to miss, for it's far beyond my years

You might live forever, so you can make it be

But I've got one endeavor, there's a girl I have to see"

"Very well"

"Father, she's waiting for you"

I especially want to highlight that Odysseus says it is beyond his years. He has become that monster and he can't undo that in the years he still has. If this is to happen, then it must be the future generations that Athena has to influence to make that world. Having her reply to that getting interrupted by Telemachus is very purposeful to me. Because he does still extend mercy, he is the new warrior she trained and she trained him differently because her belief changed.

But I also think having her show Odysseus her face with the lightning scar as she agrees is very telling. When she pushed Odysseus to be ruthless she had not been on the other end of no mercy, which is what makes Odysseus turn against her ("Unlikе you, every time someone dies I'm left to deal with the strain"). She now has been on the other side of it by the hands of someone Odysseus also faced and they were both shown the same lack of mercy. For Odysseus that was his final turning point where he chose no mercy, while Athena did chose mercy.

And in the end, she did get some mercy from Zeus in response from it. Zeus also learned from her, from the lesson Odysseus taught her, which was taught to him by Polites. And that mercy gets paid forward allowing Odysseus to get home (yes, I'm emotional about Polites helping Odysseus get home in the end). Almost every time mercy is shown, his journey progresses (Lotus eaters, Aeolous, Circe, Zeus).

Athena has been through not receiving mercy, but she still believes, is still working towards that future. And while she accepts Odysseus words about him being beyond such a world, she doesn't agree with him. Her reply feels more like accepting a dismissal rather than an agreement. And Telemachus shows up as a reminder that she is more correct than Odysseus in this, and he leads them into Penelope.

God, I love Penelope. With her, Odysseus tells someone yet again that he has changed ("I am not your kind and gentle husband") and that he would understand if she did not love him anymore. And then we get this banger:

"Only my husband knew that

So I guess that makes him you"

Penelope shows him mercy in this. She has asked him what he has done and she is given the option to not want him anymore after hearing about the monster he's turned into, but she doesn't. She forgives him. He asks for forgiveness and she grants it. That is mercy.

Not only that, but she also affirms that he is still him. The usage of husband here is important to me, because he says he's not her husband, who was gentle and kind, and she tells him that he is. He believes him beyond that world where people are empathetic and kind, but the roots of that world he created in Ithaca and with Athena allow him to come home. He isn't a monster beyond redemption, he is also a part of that kinder world, regardless of what he has done.

And then you have the music echo the Just a Man melody when Odysseus sings:

"I'm just a man who's trying to go home

Even after all the years away from what I’ve known

I'm just a man who's fighting for his life

Deep down I would trade the world to see my son and wife

I'm just a man"

He is brought back to who he was when he was still just a man, before he became a monster. He did trade the world to see his son and wife and that makes him just a man.

The whole musical asks the question when a man becomes a monster and I think while it is never explicitly answered, that the answer is: when he isn't shown mercy. And that by showing someone mercy, you can reverse that. That it isn't permanent. I really love the moral question of mercy vs. ruthlessness in that Epic has, so it was really interesting to see how it came back in the end :D

[tsukasalover]

it’s kinda stupid to call rui “sassy” or say he was acting “mean” for simply doing what any person would do realistically after tsukasa humiliated nene in the main story. i swear this fandom has gone over this a thousand times and yet for some reason it’s still so hard for people to accept that tsukasa was being a self centered asshole. that’s not even exaggerating anything that’s just the truth.

btw (if im wrong correct me) but rui has never gotten angry at someone unreasonably he’s actually quite mature and doesn’t just?? explode over things so i dont know why him refusing to work with tsukasa even after nene forgave him is seen as a “mean” thing… let’s not forget he still believed tsukasa hadnt changed at all and only wanted to be in shows for selfish purposes. it’s not bad to admit that tsukasa is egotistical and has acted much more mean in unacceptable ways than rui + has had to own up to this and work hard to grow as a person over time

[ohno-the-sun]

Oh uh forgot to ask in the previous ask (the one with the digital piece of candy and scurrying and stuff)

How do you draw art so good

Like

Is there a method you use or is that just the style you've gotten over time?

you've activated my trap card

I'm just gonna preface that this tutorial is from someone who was not professionally trained and didn't have a lot of free time for art, so a lot of the tips I have is short cuts I use to get the best results quickly

If you genuinely want to get better at art then please look at references and practice that is always the best

However if you are like me and only really do art for fun but want to go faster then these are for you pfppt

Overall I'd say my style is influenced by speedpaints I would watch when I was younger, I like analyzing how people do things and what makes something look "good" to me

I always recommend watching them because they will often have techniques you've never seen before or do things a certain way that you can try out yourself

I consume good art, it feeds me

but seriously it can be super helpful when developing your own methodology, or just generally trying something new

Usually it starts with me pulling some references from artists I really admire and sort of sketching out how they do the things I like

For example 8um8le has like super good anatomy and poses so I focused on trying to replicate how they do that

venemous-qwille is super good at color and pulling focus so that's what I focused on in my study of them

In general I'd say my process is sketch -> silhouette -> color -> shading -> render

I really don't like doing lineart lol

I'd say for the sketch the most important part is using references and just kind of fudging it until it looks correct anatomically/physically

General rule of thumb is spend time on areas of interest, and keep non important areas light (like the stitching on his pants)

I don't do lineart because I think its unnecessary for most paintings I do

I naturally tend to put more time and focus on areas of interest (like hands and feet) and if you use a brush with opacity for the sketch, those areas are naturally going to be darker in the final sketch

Of course this is gonna be different for everyone but it's what works for me

Sometimes I do a really really sketchy layer underneath my sketch/lineart, just so I know where everything is going

Use thumbnails! They are great to help figure out the general layout of things and what pose I wanna do

Next is what I call the "silhouette" layer

This is super important for me cause it helps me refine the figure and make sure the pose/anatomy looks correct, also depending on what color I choose for the silhouette helps guide what colors I'm going to use on top

This piece is a good example of how it works. The silhouette shows me how the figure interacts with the background, how the pose looks and if its any good

The silhouette layer doesn't have to be super clean, as long as it follows the sketch decently well and shows where the figure is then its fine

I also sometimes make the silhouette layer multiple colors to help guide shading and vibe

Next is the coloring layer. I usually make this a clipping layer on top of the silhouette layer, or I change the silhouette layer to alpha lock, either way it saves me time on coloring everything in

Sometimes I am super rough with the coloring too, using like an airbrush or my fav watercolor brush just to generically block in color where I want it

Works out cause most objects have like a bounce light to them from surrounding objects, so this is sort of a cheat I use to get that effect without all the work lol

Also don't be afraid to have the lower silhouette layer shining through, having multiple colors sort of subtly shining through the piece helps lots

Next is the shading layer, this is usually another clipping layer, usually set to "multiply"

The colors I pick here is usually within this range, any color works, just depends on the piece and vibes.

Since this piece is set in a sunset forest I choose a more desaturated orange for the shading layer

I know there's a whole thing about multiply layer being a crutch (and it kind of it) but it is a useful tool when you just want some darker values across the piece but don't want to go through the process of color picking every single darker shade

Also in my opinion it looks better than picking a darker color and setting it to a lower opacity, idk I just think the color has more "depth"

Next is the hardest to explain, sort of the vibes layer

Usually its just a layer of more concentrated color on top of the normal color and I fudge with the settings and values until I get a result I like

Next is the longest step, is the "extra" or the render stage.

Usually I add a background before this step so that if I need to merge the figure better with the background I can

If I render with a white background but he's supposed to be in a dark forest, its going to mess with the lighting severely

Also this is when I add more "vibe" layers on top to get the figure to match the background better

Backgrounds in general I recommend checking out @/derekdomnicdsouza on instagram he's got lots of great tutorials for breaking down backgrounds simply

I'd say general rule for the rendering layer is to focus on the areas of interest and spend less time on areas you don't care about

I even blur stuff out on the edges I don't want people to see, partially to save time on fixing mistakes in areas I dont care about (oop), but mainly to help draw the eye to the areas I do want people to focus on

Theoretically parts of the background should like mesh with the characters, parrallel lines are a no no unless they are directing a viewer to look somewhere, things that are perpendicular help bring things together

tbh I'm still not the best at layout and probably need more practice, but overall this is what I like doing

Overall this is what my layer set up ends up being

Sort of a sandwich with the lineart/sketch as the "meat" lol

Color and basic shading below the sketch, clean-up and rendering on top

I like this method cause it's super flexible if I ever want to try something different or try to replicate someone's style

I can make each step less or more messy depending on the end result and can add a lineart layer if need be. Also if there's a part that is straight up not working or needs to be removed its super easy to do cause I can just paint over it on the "extras" layer, color picking from the surrounding area to get the same vibe

Generally rule of thumb for my style is: get the initial layout of colors, form and shading to look good, then the rendering should be smooth sailing

Really the best advice I can give to get better at art is to enjoy what you're doing and become very very obsessed with drawing a silly little guy

You'll eventually get very good at drawing them pfptpf

[buubonita]

Post truce Dreamtale twins where Nightmare tells his brother "Happy birthday, Dream. You and I are finally seven" because their lives have resumed despite all these years of loneliness and confrontation and now they can start healing together.

Dream just cries and holds his brother's hand but not for too long because prolonged contact is impossible. But it's a start!

[rivkae-winters]

You Will Rot

I adore this entire scene and their entire exchange and there are plenty of other posts out there on it but I’ve never come across the points I wanted to make hence why I'm writing this. Specifically on the implications of exactly what rots since that latched into my brain and would not let me go.

As always: this is only my interpretation of canon, there is no one true analysis to take as gospel. In fact please interact with your thoughts if you have any! I enjoy talking to other people about this sort of thing, fandom is all about discussion after all!

My stance on this line is one of nuance. I tend to think Sephiroth chose the worst words he could think of without fully considering the full implications.  He said the thing he knew that would hurt Genesis the most after the entire conversation beforehand.

What does it mean to be told to rot? Or even so told you will rot. 

In the FF7 universe, most explicitly displayed in CC, bodies dissolve. Corpses, both monster and human, are depicted as dissolving to return to the Lifestream. This is re-confirmed in the remake. 

Rot is not a term for humans, it’s not a cultural concept the same way it is for us in the real world. To decay and decompose are not processes that sentient beings undergo.

Rot is something for objects- things that live but aren’t alive enough or connected enough quote-un-quote to return to the Lifestream in the same dramatic manner. Rot is for things like food and flowers and things that are below the level of humans or animals or anything with general sentience. 

Sephiroth is telling Genesis here, he is not just a monster: he is insignificant. He is telling Genesis that he is not enough of a sentient being to return to the Lifestream and he’ll continue falling apart in real time just like a piece of fruit left forgotten and rotting on the kitchen counter. He is telling Genesis that at the end of the day he’s already dead in every way that matters and is no longer a person. Sephiroth is telling Genesis that he will have no mercy given to him at the end of the day: he will rot and waste like an object lacking sentience and then he will be left there.

Sephiroth is digging into Genesis’s own deepest insecurities here. Genesis fears not just being irrelevant but being rendered a non-entity, to be kept or out of control. Genesis has defined his entire life as a journey to be someone to be enough to be someone worthy of love and praise and being seen. Objects aren’t people, and Genesis is an object to Sephiroth with that statement. 

The only person who could help him no longer considers him a person- nor a thing with sentience. 

Obviously this is all over analyzing Sephiroth’s dialogue. This line was said with calculation, yes, but it was also somewhat reflexive. Sephiroth is under a lot of stress in this scene and Genesis has been slinging everything he never wanted to be told at him in a single conversation. Genesis then has the audacity to try to act as if he did something good. While Sephiroth’s world is collapsing around him and his other defected friend acts like he did him a favor. Sephiroth is angry, who wouldn’t be angry. Sephiroth thought the world of Genesis prior to his defection, he thought the world of both of them and those illusions have been crashing down around him.

So he uses Genesis’s own grief over his former friend’s tattered life that manifests as self deprecation and self dehumanization against him. He confirms the de-humanizing rhetoric that Genesis has been attaching to his own existence. Sephiroth in his pain and anger pushes past the fears that Genesis has been externalizing to what he knows Genesis is truly afraid of. 

If Genesis considers himself a monster than by the standards of the person Sephiroth thought he knew he is already living out his worst fears. He is nothing, he is nothing without his mind. If Genesis wants to be what he once considered a non-entity: wants to wallow in the rot and non-personhood so much then he can. 

Sephiroth turns his back on, in his mind, the moving corpse of the long dead Genesis Rhapsodos and walks away. 

You will Rot You are Nothing

There is also something to be said here for the Kanji used in the original!

I’m not touching on this as much as I would have liked to but it would be criminal if I didn’t at least pull out a Kanji dictionary.

I pulled Sephiroth’s line from here; warning the website is not in English at all but easy enough to navigate via context/knowledge of story events and the characters' Japanese names. 

Sephiroth’s line is: 朽ち果てろ kuchihatero

This is translated in the official English release as “You will rot” and in a pre-US release fan translation from May of 2007 roughly the same way as “Go decay”

朽  Decay; Rot; Remain in Seclusion

果  Fruit; Reward; carry out; achieve; complete; end; finish; succeed

[1][2] [3 specifically for 朽][4 specifically for 果]

Thanks for reading!

[residentialsinyomakai]

Drew some people' yokai ocs,,, I love this community sm ‼️😋💕 anyways FANART JUMPSCARE GO 🍌💬💜‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

Whimsiclaw and Ravenyan by @magicalmyu

Mystic + co. by @mystic-warriors

Starce by @mkmikunasu

Silli-Squirm (and,,,,Belputar,,,cookie,,z,,) by @strange0-0storm

and Kalamarity by @analog-smiles !!

I won't yap for too long but y'all have some CREATIVE and AWESOME SAUCE designs, i love these sm and thank you for sharing them on hit website tumblr dot com :)

[sanderssideswriting]

Yeah the ts crit community really is mostly on tumblr. If any crit on twitter is brave enough to call out thomas or even just ask a SIMPLE INNOCUOUS question like ‘hey whens the next sanders sides coming out’ they get dog-piled by his followers. Just now my twitter tl algorithm made some posts pop up from ppl I don’t even follow and they’re just defending thomas + his patreon and saying that we’re just angry jealous ppl who don’t understand what goes on behind the scenes for him (as if THEY do?).

I swear, the die-hard fans that are still left, I’m sorry, they’re not a fandom. They’re a cult. A cult of personality centered around one man, purely there to keep stroking and defending his fragile ego. They’re no better than the sw*fties or any other group of ppl driven by blind devotion, obsession and white knighthood.

Oh 100%, there's next to no ts crit community on twitter, I got curious and checked a few days ago, searching stuff like Thomas Sanders Critisism, TSS Criticism, TSS critical, stuff that's used over here and the only thing that got anything was the first, but then it was just showing stuff with "Thomas Sanders" or even just "Sanders" in the post. So it's hard to organize that kind of community, plus the die hards and Thomas being on there.

I'd say the only place the fandom is pretty active is on Twitter, and that's soley because of Thomas, because he interacts with the fans and makes it so that there's motivation to make tss stuff. You know there's a community on there for it and if you're lucky Thomas will see it and retweet it. Otherwise it's kind of a joke that the fandom is dead until it's breifly revived whenever a new episode comes out. Which then leads to parasocial relationships and the idea that somehow continues to persist that Thomas is a poor boy who can do no wrong and if he did do wrong he didn't actually know any better. Never mind he's thirty-fucking-4. And his fans are half his age.

One this I do kinda disagree with is the idea that all his die hards and current fans are like 14, which I just don't think is true, I think they were like 14 when the last proper episode came out, and are now more along the lines of like 18 or around there. He's got a lot of patrons, including 17 people who paying $125 a month, that money has to come from somewhere and I doubt it's all from allowances.

[aroaceleovaldez]

hey! hope this isn't weird but i wanted to know why you think artemis wasn't up to standards even in the original pjo series. you reblogged from me and so i had front row to your tags on the post about zeus jaja i've not seen people talk a lot about her and it got me interested as i'm a classics student!

- @zoebelladona 🌙

HELLO OH BOY okay so I have half a rant already about Artemis in terms of Rick and general aphobic tropes in the series. see: that open letter on twitter. i still need to transfer that to tumblr. fun fact: Rick replied to that post but deleted his reply at some point. probably because two replies after he replied to my post and word-of-god confirmed Reyna to be ace-coded he left social media for a bit.

Fun times! Anyways.

The thing I dislike about Artemis as she's depicted in the series, besides her constantly appearing as a teenager and the aphobic tropes with that [see: open letter linked above] - which on some level is slightly more excusable than other examples given she's a goddess of young women, but given how he writes Athena, Hestia, and the Hunt instead leaves a bad taste in my mouth - and other similar aphobic tropes with her, is her whole weird anti-men thing (which is also, in itself, also an aphobic trope in this particular circumstance). I understand TTC was written in 2007 so that flavor of radical feminism that Artemis and the Hunt is clearly supposed to be was only just coming into major public awareness and the flaws in the ideology (and the inherent bigotry, particularly transphobia and racism that often comes with it) weren't as well recognized at the time. But in hindsight it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth for obvious reasons and is one of the things from the first series that severely aged poorly in my opinion, and I greatly dislike that in every subsequent retcon of the Hunt for other reasons Rick more or less retains that aspect.

Secondly... it doesn't make sense from a mythological standpoint? Because there are multiple examples of men being Hunters in Artemis' retinue. Even ignoring Orion, no matter how you go about shaking that stick (which for the record I really dislike how Rick retconned him in the series/wrote him in HoO), Hippolytus is a very notable example. Literally his big whole original shtick was he joined the Hunt because he didn't like romance and Aphrodite got so pissed about him not needing her (romance) that she killed him. And even when Aphrodite was trying to ruin his life he held on to his virtues and vow to Artemis (refusing advances even when his life was on the line). He is otherwise totally chill and devoted to Artemis. Some versions of his myth has Artemis have him resurrected after he dies (by Asclepius, which is why Asclepius is punished for reviving the dead). This also obviously doesn't address the major glaring logical flaw in Artemis hating all men which is... Apollo. Especially within the series he seems to be an exception for no reason, despite Artemis also very overtly having a "brothers are not an exception to the no-men rule." And from a modern queer standpoint, it obviously begs the question of stuff like gender identity within the Hunt and if you bring back the radfem stuff it gets real bad vibes real fast. Which also sucks when you particularly look at historical/mythological descriptions of Apollo and Artemis and how they very poignantly encompass defying gender roles and expectations particularly within their cultural contexts.

And every time Rick tries to retcon the Hunt, he somehow manages to make it kind of worse, particularly with the oath. I have a whole personal thing for how I think to best rectify all that nonsense in a way that isn't horrible and is related to some of Artemis' aspects in a more sensible way (buried somewhere in this monster of a post. Honestly i'd just recommend ctrl + f search "Hunters" on that post and it should be somewhere near the first ping there). In there I also go into some of my other thoughts for the general meh way the Hunt is written in the series, mostly being aphobic tropes and random death fodder.

So yeah. Basically, tl;dr: I am personally not a huge fan of how Artemis in the series is halfway to being a terf and chock-full of aphobic tropes. And I need Rick to stop retconning things into the ground.

[dragonseeds]

what are your thoughts on rhaegar and lyanna?

oh i love them! there’s all this talk of them haunting the narrative and they do, but i’d take it further and say they are the black hole at the center of the story. the choices that they made, starting with lyanna’s decision to defend howland reed and what that meant to both him and rhaegar, who was very likely at his lowest point at harrenhal after the ruination of his careful plans, touched or changed the lives of every character and plot line in the series. the story itself is such a fun mashup of tristan and iseult, lancelot and guinevere, helen and paris, the fall of camelot and all of arthuriana really, the classic trope of the princess in the tower and the dragon and the knight: all of that in one couple and we don’t get to experience any of it with them. we can guess and speculate, but we can never truly know them. we experience their story only through the memories the people who survived the war they ostensibly kicked off, and those memories are all heavily colored by trauma, guilt, nostalgia—alternately faded and sharpened by time. it’s this incredibly fun and brilliant reconstruction of some of the most enduring tragedies in folklore and mythology and i adore it.

hate beyond articulation the way asoiaf.tumblr.edu approaches their relationship and the individual characterizations of both of them, though. just absolutely some of the most insufferably sanctimonious disingenuous decontextualized analysis i’ve ever experienced—much of that coming from people viewing this through a historical lense instead of a thematic one. like, imagine approaching the battle of the trident as “rhaegar is a bad person for fighting for his father who was evil! he lost the moral high ground with that one” as opposed to “rhaegar as a character exists to fail and die; he was the last dragon, carrying the unbearable weight of his family’s legacy and the burden of the prophecy for which they conquered westeros: the end of his life is the end of the targaryen dynasty. he must fail and he must die, so that dany and jon can grow up free of that weight and that power. daenerys gets to redefine what it means to be targaryen on her own terms. she and jon separately and unknowingly do the things that he thought he had to do—the things he was conceived and born to do—but never knew how: they do it because of their circumstances, because of the people that they have grown into, because they believe it is their duty, because they have the power to do it.” also, like, re: interpretations of battle of the trident, is there maybe another battle that occurs later in the series that is exactly the same thematically and contextually? where perhaps a character who was missing for a while shows up on the eve of battle, knowing that the opposition is right and their cause is just but that his family will die if he doesn’t fight with them? anything that adds an extra layer of meaning to what happens, aside from dany’s own connection—which is not as thematically similar but is still incredibly meaningful. like i certainly don’t think there’s any one interpretation of a character or story, but the worst ones are consistently applied to rhaegar.

and then with lyanna in particular, it’s like people cannot stomach her or find her sympathetic as a character unless they’re wallowing in her eternal victimhood. the constant dismissal of the importance of lyanna’s actions and what they meant to rhaegar is pure misogyny, by the way. her choices and her agency, the inherent meaningfulness of the struggle for both of those things in a system that seeks to reduce her to her body and the use men can make of it—all of that is important. the person she was and what that meant to people was important, but from the way i most often see her discussed, it’s like her gendered death is the only thing that matters. it’s okay to lament her because she got crushed by the wheel. if she hadn’t, if she wasn’t a victim to write flagellatory meta about, she would be a hypocrite, someone who needed to learn a lesson—as difficult for some of these people to relate to as dany or rhaenyra apparently are.

like, it’s just wild to me because her kindness to howland reed and her choice to defend him, to disguise herself as the knight of the laughing tree and risk her life and reputation to fight for him—is the answer to and the embodiment of one of the most thematically significant questions in the series. we see it most prominently in dany’s chapters because she asks it directly: why do the gods make kings and queens if not to protect the ones who can’t protect themselves? that’s what lyanna did, when no one else was doing it: she had more honor than any knight at that tourney or any man sitting on the small council, and it meant something to rhaegar. like what about this is hard to understand? i think he must have idealized her immediately: she must have seemed like something out of a song or a story to him, and rhaegar was a singer, a songwriter, a bard: he knows how stories are supposed to go—how to finish a song, or at least he thought he did.

bran, who also loves stories, says it himself: “and the mystery knight should win the tourney, defeating every challenger, and name the wolf maid the queen of love and beauty.” like obviously bran has some critiques i cut out, but he has the ending right—only the wolf maid was the knight, and she couldn’t have won. in the feudal gender prison, women are rewarded for being beautiful and their worth is derived from that and from what their bodies provide. she should’ve won the whole thing, but the system doesn’t allow that, so rhaegar—in a fit of single-minded capital r romantic hero idiocy—dedicates himself to winning the tourney to honor her in the only way he can: the only way the system allows him to recognize her. it was the worst possible move he could make at that time because of the romantic connotations, but i love him for doing it, as stupid as it was and even though there is no way it didn’t hurt and humiliate elia, or make him look terrible when he desperately needed to make a good impression on the lords of the realm—it’s just such a Moment. being reminded that there’s good in the world—feeling hope in the face of endless abject overwhelming despair—how do you express gratitude for that? the idea that he could only doing it by hurting someone who didn’t deserve it and making himself look like an ass is fucking awesome. i’m genuinely so sorry for people are incapable of enjoying that. could not be me!

but that’s just my interpretation of what happened at harrenhal. like i said, part of why i like them so much is that we truly don’t know. while i love darker relationships in general, the idea that he crowned her at harrenhal because he wanted to impregnate her then does not work for me. it’s a popular theory, but it renders some of the very few contextual clues we are given about what happened meaningless. for one, he didn’t know that elia wouldn’t be able to have more children at that time. this was discovered after she gave birth to aegon, and that is the point at which the question of the third child appears to have become a motivating factor for him. i personally think he left for the riverlands to consult with the ghost of high heart—the one whose prophecy is the reason he was born, the reason is parents were forced to marry, the reason his family burned alive the night he came into the world—and ran into lyanna somewhere near harrenhal. it’s possible he had been in contact with her prior to this (how? without her family knowing? what are the logistics of that?) but i think it’s just as likely it was pure chance. i really like the idea that his crowning her queen of love and beauty caused lyanna’s father to set a date for her wedding to robert or talk of moving it up, maybe even suggest a double wedding at riverrun, which would have almost certainly caused her to balk. either way, high heart is located between harrenhal and riverrun. arya also stops there while she’s kidnapped by the brotherhood without banners on the way to ransom her to her family at riverrun, and they trade songs to the ghost for her dreams and prophecies. i think it’s worth noting because arya’s journey in the riverlands mirrors lyanna’s right down to her “death” as arya stark when she leaves for braavos, paying the ferryman’s fee with the coin jaqen h’ghar gave her—just as jon’s journey at the wall mirrors rhaegar’s in many ways right up until his own death.

i also don’t think rhaegar and lyanna eloped because they were in love—this is implied by lyanna’s famous quote—but that they did come to love each other deeply, which is suggested by the way they died: her roses and him saying her name. notably, rhaegar did not leave the tower of his own volition—someone had to come and get him with news of war, which is hilarious because i think the tower of joy is right in the middle of like three major battles of the rebellion? like quite frankly, if he didn’t love her or care for anything beyond the prophecy and if she didn’t love him despite how badly things went wrong, then where in their story is the heart in conflict with itself?

i do want to clarify that i love the tower entrapment and the power imbalance aspects of their relationship as much as i love (what i interpret as) the genuine respect for each other that grew into love: it’s really the tension of those disparate elements that interests me. a dragon can love the maiden, but he’s only ever a dragon—still liable to hoard her like treasure or burn her up and rip her open trying to be gentle, to protect. that FUCKS, sorry! love is sweet and hopeful, but it’s also at exactly the same time horror, consumption, destruction.

idk it’s myopic to act like the beginning or the ending of their relationship—of their lives—is the summation of it. i think people want their story to be easy when it’s not: a clear case of a villain and his victims where everyone knows who to root for and no one has to think too much about things that are difficult or uncomfortable, questions where there probably isn’t an answer that doesn’t hurt someone. what a sad, tedious way to approach any text, but specifically this one. i’ve sometimes seen it suggested that if their story is romantic then it’s an endorsement or justification of all the “bad” things that happened because of it, and that’s also stupid. grrm as an author is never going to be someone who tells us how to feel about anything: he presents these characters and situations, often as a means of exploring certain facets of the human condition, and each of us has to come up with our own answers and find our own meaning. i don’t think he always knows what he means, or what those answers are, you know? but for me rhaegar and lyanna are one of the most fascinating parts of story, and whatever the truth is—if we ever find out—i can’t imagine a scenario where i don’t love them or find them really interesting and wonderfully sad.

[michaelsgavey]

i do have a lot to say. for those who are unaware , emma d’arcy was recently nominated for a golden globe for their performance of rhaenyra targaryen in house of the dragon. despite my feelings on the season , i can say that its well deserved. they put so much hard work for rhaenyra and i am so proud of them. they were the only one in the cast & crew that were nominated. not even the show itself was nominated (i mean it has its poor writing this season. i don’t blame them). but many have decided to be so nasty towards emma and be openly transphobic.

the transphobia that they have received because of this is not okay. its horrifying to see people be so horrible to emma and say that they don’t deserve the nomination. they truly did work hard and deserve it. and to say ‘but [insert cast member here] should’ve gotten one instead of them!’ is really weird. the cast did such a wonderful job don’t get me wrong but to use their work to bring down emma is so wrong.

the people behind the golden globes chose emma and that’s final. there is no need to be so horrible towards them. leave them alone. there will be more award shows that will happen. just PLEASE be normal and be happy for them. that award was truly deserved. especially with the mistreatment and sidelining that HBO has been doing with them.

another thing i will ask is that why are y’all blaming olivia cooke for what HBO is doing?? the company are the ones who are sidelining their main star from interviews , merch , the official podcast and other opportunities that the other actors had. why is only olivia getting the lashings when that energy should be given to HBO and what they are doing?

especially when they recently decided to platform jk rowling despite her horrible transphobia. we cannot blame olivia for HBO’s actions. what we need to do is direct our frustrations to the company who are responsible for the mistreatment and transphobia.

with that being said , i am sending all of my love and support to emma. i do hope that they win and i do hope they continue to get nominated for more awards.

[trashogram]

It's even worse for Crimson as being a villain, he's completely wasted. Given how Moxxie acts, personality wise and the like, he has the ruthless side of him(with killing) yet he's intelligent and caring. You'd think these would come about due to his upbringing by both of his parents.

But then we finally get around to it and we see Moxxie's mom is dead and not recently either and Crimson....is a complete dumbass and also an asshole.

This would have been a good side story, to showcase that Moxxie comes from a grey morality family, which is why his personality is the way it is.

His mother is that kind and sweet caring figure, his father is that ruthless and hardass figure, yet somehow, someway the two still love eachother. I feel this also would actually add to Hell as far as the daily life goes and struggles between morality.

The Mafia/Mob, while obviously there's a bunch of assholes within it, that doesn't mean that's all there is to these guys. They wouldn't have gotten anywhere near the power that they had in the 20th Century, if they weren't smart about what they were doing, if they didn't have some sort of code or honor system. As ruthless as Mobsters can be, not all of them are assholes...for the sake of being assholes.

There are laws that had to be followed(different from policies that each Family may have had, so those varied between). Michael Franzese is a huge, good source on the Mafia life and it's a lot more complicated than one might realize.

Crimson comes across as a dumbass, because he didn't check Chaz' finances...when they were in his car, unlocked....on the property. He's head of the Mob and doesn't do the most common sense thing ever, checking someone out before you take their word at face value.

It also comes across as such, that this is somehow the ONLY way to get money. ...Crimson...my guy, HOW are you head of anything in Greed?

No one becomes the Head of the Mafia, if they are so stupid that they don't have fingers in the pockets of...just about everyone they come across, if they don't strategize and have many, many, many different ways of making money.

They introduce us to Crimson as if he's some big shot, with the huge house, the helicopter and all the goons....and yet all that is thrown away when we learn that he's in heavy debt. So how are you paying all your men? How are you paying for any of your supplies? But then they take it a step further with Crimson being a dumbass, by forcing his son to marry Chaz(who he hates) and is just taking the latter's word that he's rich....so you're not going to check the guy who you HATE and make sure he's telling the truth? Crimson you have no right to be pissed at Moxxie, for you being an idiot.

Didn't mean to go on this long spiel I guess, I'm just now worried for when we get into Hazbin...in how Angel's Mafia Family is going to be portrayed, especially when we know it'd at least be early 20th Century of when they were alive. Which means, they should be well organized and have significant power.

....Also Moxxie's mother deserved way better than being killed. I wanted her alive, there was so much potential to have this contrast between Millie's parents and Moxxie's parents and....we didn't get that. ...Also I WANT HER OFFICIAL NAME!

GIVE MOXXIE'S MOM AN OFFICIAL NAME!

Crimson is so deep in debt that he had to take out his brain and put it up for collateral.

It’s the only way to explain why he’s such an audacious idiot that I have to assume failed upward. Or we could blame it on the real problem, which is that Vivienne Medrano decided one day that she wanted to turn a gay wattpad fanfic into an episode of Helluva Boss regardless of how dumb the idea was and no one stopped her.

Exes and Oohs hurts my brain with how preposterous it is, dude. How does marriage work in Hell?? Why the fuck are there priests in Hell that can officiate marriages?!

As for Angel Dust — God, is being from a mafia family even part of his character anymore? Oy vey we’ll probably find out before we spend anymore time on Charlie in Hazbin Hotel.

(I’m gonna call Moxxie’s mom Marzia. It’s cute. Not holding out for the show to actually give her a name.)

[tehcherrya]

I watched Umbrella Academy Season 4-- Let me talk about the finale. (And my writer's interpretation of how it should have ended)

As much as I love a 'doomed by the narrative martyr-dom' tragedy, that is not how you go about it.

I love stories with bittersweet "not everyone will make it out perfectly fine" endings. TMA. The Sandman. The Haunting of Bly Manor. Arcane. LotR. Not everything has a happy ending, and often it can be fairly satisfying in its own way. But for someone who likes tragedies, I am sorely disappointed in The Umbrella Academy.

Not in a 'oh I wished they lived happily ever after' sense-- no. No, it makes sense that the ending is sort of bittersweet because that's how the narrative was built to be. It was never going to be their perfect ending. Every season is just another apocalypse, another world-end scenario. In fact I appreciate the way they go out of their way to say it's just a vicious cycle every time they try to go back to being the same, there is no escaping the fates their destinies clearly have written for them, even if everything was quote unquote "normal". They were left without their powers. With a timeline where they are essentially human. And still-- the end of the world happened. Obviously something needs to be done, but it can't be all the way it was.

Here, is, personally, how I would have written the ending. Keeping the same tone, same aspects. But differently formatted.

Five goes through the same motions of realizing that he and his family are the one causing the apocalypses. Over and over and over. Not necessarily their existence itself breaking the timeline, but it's their existence as these marigold-fueled beings. Marigold was never supposed to go out into the world, let alone unto living beings. Timelines collide, and nothing ends well, as the universe can't handle its own essence being fused within living and breathing beings. It never has. So, it needs to be neutralized, so everything can fuse into one perfect timeline.

Five then goes back to the others. As a sort of veteran to the ideas of apocalypses, gives them their solution. And it's something that everyone doesn't expect. Do nothing. Let the apocalypse happen. Every time they've tried to stop it, it's only split the timeline into more apocalypses. So they need to let it neutralize itself.

But everyone is in disarray by this result, "Five, how can we just do nothing? We'll all die!"

And Five simply states that no. They might not. In fact there is a very likely change they won't. But they won't be the same. And everyone is silent as Five explains the situation. The Marigold, their father, the existence of the academy. It's all put them in these horrible timelines. Each one showing no resolve. If they neutralize the Marigold, they will restore the original timeline.

They won't die. More than likely their souls will still exist within this whole, original timeline. But those versions of themselves won't remember anything of each other. Living vastly different lives in different parts of the world, they might live their whole lives without ever meeting. They won't remember the times they've shared, their powers, their father, none of it. They will spend their whole lives not even knowing the words "The Umbrella Academy". They won't even remember there was ever any other timelines in the first place, nor that they were the ones who saved them. They would be no more special than any other ordinary people living their lives. No more apocalypses. No more despair.

And as the scene comes to a close and they all say their possible last goodbyes, and we have the sequence of all of the other timelines disappearing-- We are then met with our original timeline. We see all of the different endings for every character, living out their lives as they would have been if they hadn't ever been born with their powers. Each happy in their own individual way but the important part is that none of them have stories together. They are all living different stories, and have no memory of anything else. Obviously with "I Think We're Alone Now" playing over this montage.

And after our montage song ends with everyone else, there is one more person we haven't seen from-- bear with me on this last shot because it's a little cheesy, but in classic Umbrella Academy fashion. Our final shot is of a grown man in a suit, and it's not exactly said who it is, it's not a face we've seen before. Perhaps in a diner, as a call back to the famous seen from Season 1. The waitress with the name tag "Dolores" asks this man what he's to order. And with the snarky yet cool demeanor this man has always had he says 'I'll have the No. 5'.

And it is Five. Finally not trapped in the body he was. Finally no longer a slave to the apocalypses he's had to deal with ever since he was a boy. He gets to grow up. He gets to live. Once this man exits the diner, he takes his briefcase with him. Opens his umbrella to shield himself from the rain. Smiles. And walks away.

SCENE!

Am I a writer or am I a writer? Bittersweet, yet not horribly executed. Thank you for staying. I'd like to thank Umbrella Academy fans for taking your time to read this. I would also like to thank my regular followers who are wondering what the hell an Umbrella Academy even is. And if that is you, I promise you we will get back to our regularly scheduled program soon! But thanks everyone for sticking around this writers rant of a post!

[0heartangel0]

PERSONA 5 TACTICA IS NOT GREAT: A VERY ODDLY-CONSTRUCTED RANT

Okay, if you thought I was being controversial before, these last few parts are when I'm gonna lose some people. But bear with me!

I keep saying it, but there's a reason I do. I don't want people to get the wrong idea and that I'm not judging them for liking something, because a LOT of people on the internet tend to take an opinion way too personally. As a result, I keep having to tap the same sign over and over just to be safe, and right now is no different:

I just want to get my opinion out there to maybe get people to understand why I do feel the way I do about certain media and characters. So please keep that in mind for these last few parts, because I know for a fact that the last things I'm going to cover are actually stuff people liked about the game.

So, with that in mind:

Pt. 7: Erina/Eri/Ernesto Is A Nothing Character

NONONONO! DON'T GO, YET!! LET ME EXPLAIN!!

Just keep in mind what I said at the beginning of this post, and at least hear me out for a sec, okay? Okay.

To ease us into this, I'll get one positive out of the way, aside from her voice acting, which I talked about back in Part 1. I do really like her design. There, I said it.

The balancing of the colors red, black, and silver/grey is nothing short of phenomenal. Her outfit being ripped and tattered to show her history in battle is smart. The metal leg and hair covering her right eye alluding to her real life counterpart's injuries from her accident is genius.

And they seemed to have put a lot of thought into her design, because she has, like, 10 different concepts! I'll only show a couple that stuck out to me:

This first one actually has a neat idea behind it; since she's the leader of the Rebel Corp, why not make her look similar to them? They did something similar with Luca in the DLC, so why not in the main game? Would've made the hat people feel a bit more cohesive.

This one's just Yoshizawa, but made her into a cafe waitress(?). Maybe she was supposed to be a worker at the SafeHouse version of LeBlanc in an original draft of the game, but scrapped it (would add to the idea that the thought of Eri gives Toshiro comfort, much like LeBlanc)? It's a neat concept, and I do like her casual attire, but I would understand why they'd change it for story reasons.

This one just looks like if Mitsuru and Ann did a fusion dance. I do like the look, it just feels way too close to Ann and gives the impression that Eri was originally supposed to be a foreigner. Also, those feet! Dang!

This one's my favorite, mainly because of how funny the concept is. We have this cute little girl handling firearms and bazookas, painting herself in camouflage and wearing combat gear. I especially love the bush covering she wears at the top left; it's too adorable and funny.

Okay, okay! No more indulging in what could've been! Let's get into the meat and potatoes of what we got: her personality and role in the story.

And this is where my issues with Erina start to arise.

We'll start with her personality. I don't think everyone's gonna agree with me on this take, and you're free to refute me if you can, but simply put: she's very one-note.

I can only really name ONE personality trait that she exhibits: REVOLUTION.

No, that's it.

She is all about revolution. She eats it, she sleeps it, she bloody BREATHES it. She's like this at the beginning of the game, and she's like this at the end, making her feel very static.

Okay, she's also really reckless, but that comes with the revolution trait. In short, very basic.

Also, the game sometimes portrays her recklessness as more of a quirky thing about her, like when she shouts while sneaking into Marie's dungeons, forcing you into another battle (out of 22 in this Kingdom - still not over it). But, to me, it translates to her being kind of stupid, because who the Hell does that in the middle of a stealth mission?

And aside from Toshiro, no one really reprimands her for this trait, nor is she really punished for it, aside from the final flag scene.

SPEAKING OF THE FLAG SCENE, I have many issues with it, but among them is just how nothing really changes with either Erina OR Toshiro after this scene ends. Apart from us getting Makoto and Yusuke back, nothing exactly comes of it. She's still running headfirst into things without reconsidering, while Toshiro is still a wuss. There's not even a subtle change of their characters going forward that would indicate that this event affected them that would warrant a conversation and self-reflection later. The only commentary they have regarding it afterwards is them just bullying Toshiro by stating it wasn't really him that did anything, but simply, the flag itself.

And with that in mind, I know she's supposed to be Toshiro's foil, as in, she's more gung-ho to charge into battle, while he's more gung-ho to run away from battle. The issue is how the game never really gives any nuance to this opposition of personalities, or even commentary that would get you to consider both sides. Toshiro is always painted in the wrong for his mindset, while Erina is congratulated for hers. Once again, only Toshiro is against her mindset, but he never has any good comebacks to her argument, other than it's the safest option. And then she proceeds to destroy him.

Literally their first interaction is her giving him a grand speech on why it's wrong to run away, and is rewarded with a flag that automatically makes her win the fight once she plants it.

They're obviously supposed to have conflict with one another, but there's nothing challenging the conflict on equal parts, because we have to know Toshiro is the wrong one in the conflict.

I have more to go into here, but that would just be me slipping into talking about mainly Toshiro, so I'll leave it for now.

As I've mentioned before, she kind of comes across as stupid in some of her actions, and it's not just through her recklessness (although, that is a major part of it). After saving Joker and Morgana from Marie at the very beginning of the game, she makes an odd assumption that they're working for Marie and asks if they're even trustworthy, which....why would you think that?

You saw them getting dragged around the courtyard by their necks chained to Marie's bloody CAR! Marie herself even complains on how neither Morgana or Joker are submitting to her! You jump down from a roof soon after, implying you were there for quite some time to witness this!

Is this what being a pawn looks like to you?

She then does the EXACT SAME THING with Toshiro after they save him!

Erina's point of contention here is that he has no memory, other than his name and occupation, but that doesn't warrant you to think that he's a suspicious individual!

You found him in Marie's dungeons, being visually and verbally scared of the situation. He's obviously too confused to even understand what's going on. How is that evidence of him being untrustworthy?? Or even him being a potential pawn of Marie??? That makes no sense!

You could make the argument that she's just being very cautious, but A) Caution doesn't make you throw logic out the window, and B) I thought caution was Toshiro's trait, not Erina's! Aren't they supposed to be polar opposites? Erina is supposed to be the character that throws caution to the wind?? It's what leads her to getting shot???

Ugh!

....regardless, this is very dumb...

Now, the game tries to give her some form of a character arc by having her be very adamant on wanting a Persona like the thieves, and later question her very existence after finding out the Kingdoms are of Toshiro's cognition.

Here's my issues with this arc:

The Persona thing only lasts for about two scenes in the whole game, and they both happen at the very beginning. So when it's (technically) paid off at the end, you kind of forget this was even an arc. They could've expanded this to more scenes to really land it home. Speaking of,

The game never uses the irony of 'Person That Really Wanted A Persona Becomes A Persona Themselves' to its advantage. Not even in a joke! It was right there, but they never do anything with this!

Her questioning her existence never really comes up all that much until Kingdom 3, where at that point, it should be very obvious who she's supposed to be in context to this world, especially since they know they're in Toshiro's cognition.

Why isn't she more hung up on being someone's Persona? Their other self? There should at least be some form of questioning or bewilderment to this realization, but she's weirdly calm about this. Once again, they do nothing with this concept, despite how unique it is! We've gotten people's Personas fusing into one, thanks to the power of LUV~♡, a Shadow gaining a Persona, someone else's Shadow having a Persona of their own, separate from their counterpart's (I'm still trying to wrap my head around how Labrys works), but not someone just, BECOMING someone else's Persona! Bloody DO something with this!

And while I'm on the topic of her Persona identity, dear GOD, does it hurt my brain....

Actually, no. Before I discuss her Persona identity, let's discuss her real-world counterpart identity in order for the Persona argument to make sense.

Let's start by talking about the thing that peeved me off the moment I read it: her name......

Eri Natsuhara.

ERI NAtsuhara.....

ERI NAtsuhara................

.......I hate this game.......

Here's a clip of me realizing the name in real-time just to let you know how dumb I found/find this:

Game, why?

Anyway, back on topic. Eri was a transfer student who joined the student council, and became immediate friends with its president, Toshiro, after having witnessed him standing up to a bunch of bullies for a kid (why she just stood and watched him get beat up, only to later give him a measly bandage, I'll never know). They spent their school year basically trying to make their school a better place, with Eri rushing in to every situation with reckless abandon (sound familiar?).

One day, a girl by the name of Yuri Kurano came in, telling them that their Vice Principal, Nakabachi, had found out about her job working at a nightclub. He used this info to blackmail her into digging up information from students for him. He'd been apparently doing this with other students and staff once she got said information. Yuri then requested that Toshiro and Eri help her take down Nakabachi, to which Eri was obviously all in, while Toshiro was initially hesitant.

They later tried to confront Nakabachi, who instead taunted the two, explaining that if there were victims, why hasn't anyone come forward? They have no evidence! Eri was about to get physical, until Toshiro had to stop her. Nakabachi pointed out Toshiro's daddy issues, and he proceeded to flip off.

Going back to the student council room, Eri was still peeved, and Toshiro asked why she cared so much about this. She explained that back in her old school, she was accused of stealing something, and everyone shunned her for it. Her teacher then tried to motivate her by saying that you shouldn’t confront injustice through silence, which inspired Eri to be more active. This convinced Toshiro to help Eri with taking Nakabachi down once and for all.

They round up all of the students who were blackmailed, and confronted Nakabachi on the rooftop, where they recorded a confession out of him. This worked, and Nakabachi was finished.

One fateful day, though, as Eri and Toshiro were waiting for the train to arrive to take them home, Nakabachi, in an insane stupor thanks to the harassment he had to deal with following the fallout, tried to grab Eri, only for her to fall back and onto the tracks, getting hit by an oncoming train. This landed her in the hospital, having lost her eye and made her crippled, while Toshiro gained a scar on his right hand from his attempt at trying to pull her away from the train (which is why he wears a glove on that hand).

They stopped talking after that, with Eri moving away soon after, never seeing Toshiro again (until the ending, but SHHHHHH), while Toshiro got blamed for what happened with Nakabachi going insane, constantly getting bullied at school, until his dear ol' daddy put a stop to it.

At some point in his life (don't really know), Eri turned into an inspiration for Toshiro, becoming a representation of his rebellion in his cognition, thus creating Erina.

His Shadow, though, goes on to blame Eri for everything that went wrong in Toshiro's life, and thus, should kill off Erina once and for all to quash this "curse".

After some motivational speech from Erina and a flashback reminding him of Eri telling him to not lose his rebellion, or something, Toshiro finally stands up to his Shadow, leading to Erina remembering her purpose as his 'rebellion', and Toshiro to awaken to his Persona, Ernesto, who is just Erina.

......OKAY!! There' a LOT to unpack here, so let's do this step-by-step!

Why did they think it was a good idea to confront Nakabachi the first time 'round? Did they really expect him to stand down after just pointing out his wrongdoings? Even he points out how dumb that is! When Ryuji did it with Kamoshida, not only was said wrongdoing MUCH more concerning, but it was more or less the straw that broke the camel's back after having failed to gather information on Kamoshida. Also, Ryuji - being Ryuji - rushed in to the situation as he let his emotions get the better of him, while Joker and Mishima had to chase him down and physically stop him from throwing a punch. Meanwhile, both Eri AND Toshiro agreed upon confronting him. I get Eri, but why Toshiro? He's supposed to be the voice of reason, here!

I had to actively look back at footage to even remember Eri's dumb backstory, which doesn't exactly amount to anything, other than explaining why she's a transfer student and why she's all in for justice. What kind of Phoenix Wright bullcrap backstory is this? At least that was gay! The teacher chick never really comes back despite her supposed inspiration that's important for Eri's change here, nor does the backstory in general! Like, Nakabachi could've used that to threaten blackmail on her, possibly giving better foreshadowing to this reveal, as well as connect back to why he's even being confronted to begin with, making him much more of a threat to not just Toshiro! Also, that's why your parents transferred you? Because you allegedly stole something? And then they did it again after she was hit by a train?? Her parents must be getting sick and tired of this transferring at this point, and possibly concerned about their daughter's wellbeing if she keeps getting into stuff like this, to the point where it leaves her CRIPPLED!

How did the students agree to this uprising? We're never shown them being rounded up and convinced to do this, making it feel kind of out of nowhere! I guess it's in perspective of the numbers, and possibly the plan laid out to them, but once again, they should've showed this than imply it! Especially considering how EASY this was!

This one arguably baffles me the most-

How in the Flying Dutchman Hell did Eri survive getting hit point-blank by a TRAIN?? The cutscene showing it cuts off to when she's hit, implying to us the audience that she died. But then a cutscene later, we're immediately shown that she actually LIVED that crap, only losing an eye and ability to walk!

Bloody HOW???

Between this and the train accident in the opening to the original P5, trains must be made of cardboard in this universe! Meanwhile, tons of people are dying to cars left and right! Wakaba, Kasumi, Kobayakawa, and Aoi are probably doing cartwheels in their graves as we speak!

Wouldn't it have been more impactful if Eri just died, giving Toshiro more of a reason to feel guilt and regret over what happened? Would've made more sense then her LIVING THAT!

AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN TOSHIRO STILL HAS HIS HAND AFTER THAT-

Why were the kids bullying Nakabachi punished for what happened? While it's implied that they're responsible for him going insane, the fact that HE made the decision to attempt to kill Eri shouldn't be put on those kids! And how did the teachers know about this bullying to even warrant a punishment?

And on them blaming it on Toshiro as a "scapegoat", why didn’t they just go blame it on Nakabachi for making the choice of killing a CHILD?? And the fact that Nakabachi was clearly targeting both Eri and Toshiro should be punishment enough for what they supposedly did to Nakabachi! I just-

It doesn't make sense!

And how the Hell did Yoshiki get the kids at Toshiro's school to stop bullying him? What, did he slip them all twenties? I get the 'why', but not the 'how'!

Why is Shadow Toshiro blaming Eri for all the bad that happened to Toshiro? The only bad thing that happened was that Eri got ran over, leading to Toshiro getting bullied at school!

She didn't cause Toshiro's mom to die!

She didn't make Yoshiki into an abusive father!

She didn't set him up with Marie!

She didn't get him into politics!

What is his Shadow on about?

Apart from the previous point, Shadow Toshiro kind of has a point.

Why DOES Toshiro harp on Eri for so long, to the point where she becomes a whole bloody representation of his rebellion? It implies he's just been obsessively thinking about some random chick he met all the way back in high-school, but never bothered to get back into contact with her?

ALSO!

She becomes his Persona? Y'know, his other self? "I am thou, thou art I"? Does this imply he KINS Eri???? This makes people who ship Toshiro with this particular version of Eri kind of weird, especially since she takes on the appearance of her high-school self?

I can't with this!

Speaking of which, why does his COGNITION become his Persona, and not his SHADOW??? That's not how that works! In Persona, it's always the SHADOW that becomes the Persona! That's the BASIC RULE!

That'd be like if instead of Futaba's Shadow becoming Necronomicon, it was instead her cognition of WAKABA! It would make zero sense!!

And even then, once Erina becomes Ernesto, HIS SHADOW IS STILL THERE!!! A Shadow shouldn't be able to exist if he also has a Persona!

Flippin'-

Yu.....explain it for me.....

Thank you, Yu! This is why you're my favorite Persona protag!

This has always irked me, right from the beginning.....

And while I'm on Ernesto.......

ERNESTO "CHE" GUEVARA AS A PERSONA??????

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????????????

A REAL DUDE????????????????????

THAT'S GOT TO BE ONE OF THE DUMBEST PICKS FOR A PERSONA I'VE EVER SEEN IN THIS FRANCHISE SO FAR!!!!

Every other Persona we've gotten has been based off of characters/creatures that are either from myth, folktale, novels, or just people that were known from so long ago, that there's room for them to not even be real! Guevara was literally born in the 30s!! I don't know about you, but that's pretty recent! And everyone knows he was an actual existing person!

Why couldn't they have just picked someone from FICTION that still represents revolution?

I just-

It just baffles me....

Even if we were to ignore ALL of that,

They just made Guevara into an animoo waifu-

I'M DONE!!!!!!!!

The design is....fine, but it doesn't change how I feel about Ernesto as a whole.

I'm not gonna go into her moveset, because I'm actually gonna save that for when I talk about Toshiro, since it actually links back to something that I've been thinking about in regards to him since he was first introduced in the trailers. And....hoo boy.........that has not changed....

I'll just end things off by stating a pretty ironic thing about Erina:

She's actually pretty similar to that of Chidori from Persona 3; they both exist SOLELY for the more important male character and their development, and NOTHING MORE! Also, they become said male character's Personas, which doesn't exactly help with challenging that idea. It's even more ironic in Erina's case, since she is a character all about revolution and rebellion, only to realize at the end that she only exists to serve a man.

wow.

I'll.....just end it there, out of fear that people will attack me for this......

(Update: I just realized when Erina was manifested into Toshiro's brain. According to the Wiki, she was born on December 17th. Based on a Reddit post I found, the Thieves canonically changed Shido's heart (send the calling card) on the 17th. The calling card was supposed to be what ignited Toshiro's rebellion, which is what Erina is supposed to represent. I'll give the game that, not gonna lie. I just feel dumb for not realizing that.)

Pt. 1

Pt. 2

Pt. 3

Pt. 4

Pt. 4.5

Pt. 5

Pt. 6

(We're finally gonna get into what I've been waiting for!)