#ITS ABOUT THE TURNING POINT
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i love normal guys doomed by the narrative
#either that or hilariously dysfunctional or both#tf one#orion pax#d 16#megop#megatron#optimus prime#my art#saw one post pointing out in the trailer that a like5 frame shot of megatrons cannon that was snuck between their mahoushoujo type transfor#mations and like.messed up deeply messed up u see how goofy best friends orion and megsy are theyre just silly guys but in every telling of#their story they always end up enemies ok like in a meta multiverse hopping way think about it.like oh my god prewar tfp megop was already j#juicy and earthspark divorced-remarried megop is like.RGHFH tf one is going to destroy me bc this is what they had Before do u get me#before the war before they fell apart before friends became enemies and hands were stained before the beginning of the end im so so normal#like ok.this silly tight goofy buddy dynamic thats shown in tf one so far is.is what they had before. its what they could have kept if only#if only things turned out differently. but in every world optimus prime and megatron end up leading opposite sides of the bloodiest war ever#ok.its a universal fact and everyone who knows any transformers knows this BUT THE CHARACTERS DONT THEYRE POWERLESS TO PREVENT IT#ill clean up these tags in the morning but like im so.so normal about fictional robot guys#anyway i was intending to draw a background for this but i got lazy and also spent too long on the hands!!!!so whatever
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system wardrobe malfunctions and small scenario pushers: exteme edition au
after his qi deviation, shen qingqiu starts working on slowly building up relations with his fellow peak lords and disciples; saving liu qingge in the caves, spoiling luo binghe rotten, freely praising his students, inviting the sect leader over for tea, he's a whole new person!
and yet... his friendliness levels aren't going up.
he knows it's a bit icky to judge his relations with other people based on numbers an alien entity is giving him, but he needs them to survive, and he swears that once he's above a certain threshold (somewhere between "civil" and "friendly", he figures), he will mute every and all notifications regarding it.
but they're just not going up. since his deviation he's at least managed to claw his way from "hostile" to "tolerant" with most of them, but some are somehow still stuck in the "aloof" section! they wouldn't even care if he died!
he just doesn't know what he's doing wrong; he understands these things take time, but it feels so bad when people refuse to sit next to him or sigh when they're assigned a mission with him, especially since it's not his fault.
now, it so happens that, one day, the system hears his woes and takes pity on him.
ă user seems to experience difficulty increasing character favor levels ă
you could say that
ă would host like to utilize our special deluxe package to activate 'The Path of Blossoming Hearts and Unspoken Affections' free of charge? âËâč⥠ă
though shen qingqiu isn't trustful of the system's antics, he can't deny that so far they have helped him well enough, and since it's free of charge with no penalties, wouldn't it be a waste not to use it? the title is a bit dubious, but was the original shen qingqiu not known for his frozen heart? for never sparing a single nice word to anyone? this could be his chance to let it blossom without the system nagging on his characterization.
ă accept optional mission? [yes]/[no] ă
he picks [yes].
two weeks later, he wishes he hadn't.
the package is devided into small scenarios that mostly appear at random, ranging from small dialogue challenges where he has to pick the right option (he really doesn't like those, the dehumanization of it makes his skin crawl), to the equivalent of two rivals getting locked in a room together.
the first few scenarios are minor and not very impactful, to the point where he's finished three of them and his favor count with qi qingqi has increased a whopping +2 (still "aloof") and that of wei qingwei +5 (still "tolerant").
his fourth scenario, however, reminds him of exactly why he should never accept gifts from strange screens floating in the sky.
he's on a nighthunt with liu qingge to slay a mirebeast that's been terrorizing travelersâan amphibious creature with thick, slimy skin, a crocodile tail and a leech-like mouth that shoots mucus when threatened... and shooting mucus it did.
while his clothes can easily be cleaned with a cleaning talisman, he never feels truly clean himself unless he actually bathes. luckily, there's a beautiful, glass-like pond nearby that's surrounded by natural demonic-repellent vegetation, a win! he's just draped his clothes over a nearby branch and submerged himself in the water, when the system rings out.
ă heads up! small scenario "Stolen Silks and Sunlit Waters" is about to begin! penalty: none. wishing user good luck (Ë¶Ë á” Ë˶) ă
hold upâstolen what.
stolen silks. his silks. stolen by a mossy-jade stag that happens to scratch its huge antles on the exact tree he hung his clothes on, which rattles the branch and causes his robes to fall exactly onto its head, spooking it into a gallop as it disappears into the forest.
how. how does that even happen.
shen qingqiu is just about to get out of the water when of course liu qingge chooses that exact moment to stomp into the glade looking for him, even though he should have been miles away to the village to ensure the people the beast is dead.
for anyone looking in from the outside, it's not a bad picture: shen qingqiu, with his hair pulled up and away from his slender neck, submerged to his (very bare!) pale shoulders in golden sunlit waters, surrounded by lotus flowers and lily pads. to liu qingge, this must be a terrible view, apparentlyâshen qingqiu can think of no other reason that would cause his face to flush so bright red.
liu qingge tosses his outer robe on the grass between them and turns resolutely around. it's only a bit insultingâis shen qingqiu not pretty enough to try and sneak a look at? even just a glimpse? meanwhile liu qingge is trying really hard to mentally recite the ethics sutra to not fixate on the sound of shen qingqiu getting out of the water (naked!!) or the rustle of fabrics as he wraps liu qingge's robe around his (naked!!!!) body. when liu qingge turns around he flushes an even darker shade as he sees shen qingqiu's bare legs and feet sticking out from under the robes.
"thanking shidi," says shen qingqiu, who notices none of this, as he pulls the robe a little closer around him, "for coming to this one's untimely rescue."
liu qingge grunts, turns, and walks away.
ă congratulations! liu qingge's favor increased. character satisfaction points +50. please continue to work hard! ă
shut up
ă à«ź(˶â„ïžżâ„)á ă
they return to the sect victorious, but very embarrassed. the mirebeast gets all the blame. where his clothes are? wellâuh, gone. the mucus dissolved them. yes he knows that's not how mucus works but it did this time okay?!!
yue qingyuan acts a bit strange seeing shen qingqiu wearing liu qingge's outer robes. he almost qi deviates when he finds out his shidi is wearing absolutely nothing under it. it's all very dramatic. apparently the sect is made up of people who shower with their clothes on or something.
ă âșâ§âËbonus scenario!!Ëââ§âșË interactive dialog quest: pick the best suited options to win additional favor points! ă
i don't like where this is going
"shidi?" yue qingyuan asks, looking at him with those big worried puppy eyes.
ă choice A: (demure) this shidi is cold. will you not invite me in at least?
choice B: what are you looking at?! mind your own business stupid old man!
choice C: i'm in love with liu qingge ă
WHAT
if he was drinking tea he would have spat it out, and then coughed himself to death. what the hell kind of options are these!!
ă system has based these options on what will earn (or lose!) user the most points. please pick one. ă
[ admin notes: option A will earn +60 points. option B will neither increase nor decrease points. option C will decrease -100 satisfaction points and increase +200 heartbreak points ]
shen qingqiu silently curses the system. option B is way out of line, even for the original shen qingqiu, who probably would insult yue qingyuan, but not with so little class. he doesn't even consider option C an actual option. and, well, he is cold. and wet. and almost naked. he would like a warm bath and some clothes. A it is then.
he doesn't like the way yue qingyuan's face light up when he grits out the dialog.
ă congratulations! yue qingyuan's favor increased. character satisfaction points +60! keep up the good work! ă
he can't keep doing this much longer.
unfortunately, he does have to keep doing this for much longer.
he's just about to go to bed when someone knocks on the door. luo binghe is already sleeping so he goes himself. just as he's about to open the door the system rings outâbut it's too late.
shen yuan is used to wearing old tshirts to bed and no pants (he hates the feeling of his legs being restricted while he sleeps), so he doesn't really care when the only equivalent of this in pidw is a silk nightgown. his mother wore them, his sister wore them. hell, one of his brothers once bought one for fun and ended up using it for months. it's florally embroidered with puffy sleeves and reaches to his knees, that's decent enough, right?
ă heads up! small scenario "Dreamy Encounters at Dusk" is about to begin! good luck! ă
he has no idea what that's supposed to mean and he doesn't care. he opens the door, and it's mu qingfang. not... that unusual, but still.
"can this master help you?"
it takes mu qingfang a moment to remember what he's here for, it seems, because he stares at shen qingqiu for a good few seconds before raising an eyebrow like he's caught him doing something wrong.
"does shen-shixiong always answer the door like this?"
shen qingqiu glares back. "only when unsolicited guests come stumbling around my porch in the middle of the night."
"fair enough."
apparently he's here on behalf of yue qingyuan, who had asked him to do a post mission check up as soon as he was available, which is now. which yue qingyuan had apparently forgotten to relay to shen qingqiu himself. awesome.
he invites mu qingfang in (he can hardly close the door on him, it's late for him too!), and sits through the usual poking and prodding.
the system is prodding, too.
ă would user like some advice on how to maximize point earning? ă
no
ă ( âąÌÌŻ ^ âąÌÌŻ) system is only trying to help!! ă
i really don't need your help with this, thanks. i can keep a conversation on my own.
ă optional system booster: not mandatory. user may choose to decline this quest.
option 1: this one appreciates your care. the hardship is... unexpected. (look away shyly). i find it difficult to accept help sometimes, even when i need it.
option 2: i'm in love with you.
option 3: stand up and pretend to faint into his arms ă
shen qingqiu is about to spit bloodâwhat the HELL is this!!! why do all your options make you look bipolar HUH??? and what's this about professing my love to people?!! why is that always an option??! this isn't a dating simulator, stupid system, they'll think i'm crazy!
ă all these options result in an increase of character satisfaction points (˶ᔠᔠá”˶) ă
HOW
ă (ĂłïčĂČïœĄ) user seems misinformed about character preferences. [mu qingfang] likes to take care of people! ă
... i decline the quest. booster. whatever. i'll figure it out myself. and stop talking about him like he's some one dimensional character!
they hear stumbling coming from the little side room, then the creaking of floorboards. binghe peeks through the door, hair sleep-ruffled and his robes pulled on over his sleeping clothes.
"shizun?" he asks, worried, "what's wrong? why is mu-shishu here?"
ă âșâ§âËbonus scenario!!Ëââ§âșË interactive dialog quest: pick the best suited options to win additional favor points! ă
oh god, not again.
ă option A: (gently) nothing is wrong, binghe. this master is alright. go back to sleep.
option B: (gently) nothing is wrong, binghe. this master is alright. (invite him to sit next to you during the examination)
option C: (gently) nothing is wrong, binghe. this master is alright. mu-shidi is just keeping me company tonight. ă
huh. so you can give meaningful options that i would actually consider picking?
ă â(á”á”á”)â ă
[admin notes: option A will decrease -100 points for luo binghe. option B will increase +20 points for luo binghe. option C will decrease -300 points for luo binghe, and increase +20 points for mu qingfang. option A & C increase luo binghe jealousy levels with 400 points].
#okay this about turned into a fic im so sorry#or am i...?đ#i liked this idea more than i originally thought skdjsksks#its just so GOOD#basically shen qingqiu upping points by getting into cliche romance novel maiden situations#and some more input from the system#might continue this#svsss#shen qingqiu#luo binghe#mu qingfang#liu qingge#yue qingyuan#scum villain#system svsss#svsss au#svsss romance simulator au#or something like that#my writing#scum villianâs self saving system#shen yuan
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Something incredibly annoying when dealing with non-pnf stans when discussing with PnF is discussion of Candace being accidentally gaslit by her mother. In that they assume everyone is in on the fact to make Candace feel like she's crazy. NOBODY ELSE is doing that. In fact, nobody BUT Candace seems to understand the whole brunt of the situation.
The backyard gang are not "bullying" Candace or keeping her from telling her mom. In fact, they tell Linda about it themselves MULTIPLE TIMES. They talk about it off handedly a bunch of times too. Theyre just also 10, and Linda thinks it's part of the "games". She thinks theyre being imaginative. Theyre NOT. The backyard gang is NOT lying to her, and they are NOT perpetuating the assumption that Candace is crazy. Linda just doesnt believe them. The backyard gang doesn't KNOW this. THEY ALL THINK LINDA KNOWS.
LAWRENCE is not perpetuating the idea that Candace is crazy. He ALSO thinks Linda knows. HE HAS SEEN the backyard projects a bunch of times, and HE TELLS Linda about them TOO. However, and this is important, he only ever sees the cute, relaxed and sweet projects, and never the potentially dangerous or fatal ones, so he thinks Candace is being anxious and overprotective. Which she is, but that's a separate issue. LAWRENCE is not lying. HE thinks Linda knows.
JEREMY has seen the projects and parties. He talks about them at length, and how cool Phineas and Ferb are! He's never lied. He thinks Linda knows.
STACY has seen the projects and parties. She FREQUENTLY vouches for Candace. But shes Candace's best friend, so of course Linda doesnt believe her.
EVERYBODY EITHER THINKS LINDA ALREADY KNOWS, OR HAVE CLOSE ATTACHMENTS TO CANDACE SO LINDA DOESNT BELIEVE THEM ANYWAY.
Linda isnt doing it on purpose. NOBODY is lying.
DO i think Linda should believe her daughter now and then? And should Lawrence stick up for her more? Of course I do. But it's not malicious. Just....a bit neglectful. But Candace's assumption that everyone is against her is largely perpetuated in her own head and anxieties and miseries. She ISN'T alone. People ARE on her side, and she has more allies than she thinks. There are MULTIPLE episodes where Phineas and Ferb try to bust THEMSELVES (AKA attempt to show Linda their project with her own eyes) when she simply asks them to. A lot of people think she's really cool, and caring, and her brothers think shes unironically, absolutely AWESOME. Which has been the point of many episodes, AS WELL AS Candace against the Universe.
#all the memes about ah how the turn tablea#when someone has a story for Candace that Candace doesnt believe so its frustrating and all#is funny#but it ticks me off the wrong way#yeah Candace is being gaslit Cassandra of Troy style#but nobody's doing it to bully her or make her feel crazy or small#at least not on purpose#her vendetta against the Strange Universal Force seems silly in universe canon#but shes RIGHT#and the audience knows it#because the force has another name. called a plot point#it HAS to happen#Candace is doomed by the narrative#Candace Flynn#Candace Flynn Fletcher
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Drew a little comic today!
Viz, let Blake be a little shit to Raven in v10 and my life is yours.
Per usual, do not reupload without credit/permission. Thanks folks!
(My ko-fi, should you wish!)
#This whole page spawned from the idea of Blake as that one cat with a knife pointed at it#And real ones know that I would sell my fucking soul for Blake to tell Raven off in v10#ESPECIALLY after what we learn about Raven and Summer in v9#You're telling me Yang's NOT gonna be a bit of a mess when she's forced to be around Raven?#Plus you fucking know Raven would say some shit about how she and Blake aren't that different#âI don't care what you think of me - but you and I are more alike than you'd care to admit girl.â#Raven means that Blake leaves people she loves too#Blake decides it means its time to turn on the terrorist#That's it that's the comic#Blake would probably lose - with Raven's maiden powers and all - but she'd put up a damn good fight to prove her point#God I cannot wait to see the dynamics between Blake Yang and Raven#rwby#rwby fanart#bumbleby#blake belladonna#raven branwen#yang xiao long#temp tats art
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feast (ID in alt)
#vashwood#vash the stampede#nicholas d wolfwood#trigun#trigun maximum#tw blood#im posting this so late because october escaped me Suddenly.. hello....#i wanted to make it a photoset with this other vampire vw wip but i don't think i'm finishing it any time soon and the mood of it is#completely different anyway. also i don't think i ever shared anything about my vampire au on here !!! it's all old art by now so im shy lo#but maybe i'll do a photodump of it. long story short vash is a vampire since birth and ww is a human vampire hunter that turns during thei#travels together due to EoM experiments + getting vash to drink from him at some point.#humans turn once they get bitten but bc ww has been experimented on#& got bitten by a bunch of human turned vampires thruout his hunts he thought it wouldn't be a problem for vash to drink from him but alas.#theyre both ok though theyre traveling together definitely not hating themselves for what theyve become and feeling guilty for what theyve#done to each other. theyre completely normal about it. the biting part is really appealing to me in vampire aus so i draw it a lot but#in reality vash only drank from ww once and ww mightve done it twice under the realization he might actually die otherwise#since he wont drink from humans after being turned.... he's combatting the 5 stages of grief at all times#if this is all nonsense im sorry DMGKSDF I'M NOT good at explaining and this au came from nowhere in the depths of my mind its a mess#ruporas art
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yknow that thing where becoming obsessed with a character makes you a better artist? i am feeling it tonight boys
#art#my art#digital art#doodle#undertale#sans#sans undertale#classic sans#thinking about what it must've been like to learn that#everything you've ever known is turned on its head but nothing changes#you go about your day and everything is normal but you KNOW something now you know something you would've been better off not knowing#timelines jumping all over the place stopping and starting#what if thats you? what if its your timeline next?#how many yous have been bought back to zero without knowing?#how many times has it happened to you?#you get up and you make your brother oatmeal for breakfast and you think âwhats the point?â#sorry just having a long think about silly skeleton man you know how it is
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I imagine barnaby trying to be all cool and flirting with howyd subtly but his smoke gives him away fjsns
he thinks he's smooth smh...
#cracking up thinking about this ngl#like howdy continues on with work#and whoever's at the table with barn - lets say uhhhh idk julie#is like 'awww your smoke turns pink when you talk to him'#and barn just freezes a la 'excusemeitfuckingWHAT'#aaaand Slam that panic button#bbg didnt know....#rambles from the bog#wh fantasy au#anyway i think ill never draw a better howdy#i squandered my Him points on an au scribble- AN AU SCRIBBLE#ive peaked ill never get any better!#< lie. there's always room for improvement and reaching new heights#on the flip side i had such a rough time with barn#its always an exchange - i can either draw a good howdy or a good barn Never both smh#still though idk How this came out as good as it has i have not drawn in days#nary a line nor doodle to be found...#but covid is wearing off and babey i am BACK!#slowly. it beat me up pretty good ngl#it took me tf out im gonna be extra tired for a while...#but since my congestion has cleared up and im not Hacking and Sniffling anymore#stream soon probably! Normal Stream To Get Back In The Swing Of Things#it feels like ive been sick for a thousand years but i think its been like#three days??? i really dont know...#i hope everyone is doing well and Not getting covid. wear your mask#i wore mine but my stepdad didnt and Look What Fuckin Happened
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Lae'zel: *as shown*
Gg: "yes, it hurts. I don't regret it now, but I wouldn't recommend it"
Emps: "Collage first"
#bg3 spoilers#the emperor bg3#greygold#I lolled; very on point yes exactly#No idea if those fancy astral tadpoles are still alive#No idea how to go about safely procuring more available tadpoles#but if the kid wants to be a squid; Emps would sure as hell go out of its way to make the opportunity possible.#Very business expansion supportive; but like willing and fully aware peeps only. Turn that business partnership into a business squad.#can't find the time to install a cat door for Us but blink and there's already a brine pool installed into the base.
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me when my meteor-powered robot gf attempts to murder me đłđł
#context:#after Bortom city recognized Beatrix as a threat and began persecuting herâ she became widely known#A great reward would be given to those who captured the runaway androidâ and most people feared her.#To sum it upâ she was alone in her journey and refusing to trust anyone so easily.#The persecutions got worse when more cities allied themselves with Bortom. This attracted robot hunters.#At some pointâ Beatrix met this golden-eyedâ humanoid shadow that always seemed to watch her from afar#It wouldn't stop following herâ until it was close enough to initiate a confrontation#Beatrix was basically FED UP with the persecutions and so she fought using her fists... while he had a gun.#The bullets couldn't cause great damageâ and were actually microchips designed to stunt robotic enemies#Beatrix barely resisted the effects and managed to take down the other... who raised its hands in defeat.#Imagine the situation: She's literally got him on the groundâ fist raised to deliver a powerful blow while he's SHAKING IN HIS BOOTS#Turns out the microchips take effectâ and Beatrix attempts to escape before it's too late... But her systems go off abruptly#...Then she wakes up in this cozy workshop of sorts. She goes outside and BOOM!!!#A ship moved by machinery? Robots living peacefully? People walking past her without batting an eye? This must be a dream!#She's finally found Fusionsprunt (or was found but it). The city built for and by rebells like her.#and about the golden-eyed enemy? yeah uh. that's Hunter. of course that was Hunter. he could NOT resist making a dramatic appearance.#the mysterious enemy is actually just some silly guy w workaholic tendencies father of a prodigy and who also enjoys piloting his spaceship#fusionsprunt#fusionsprunt hunter#fusionsprunt beatrix
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all the tme intersex people i used to know suddenly jumping on the newest transmisogynistic bandwagon and immediately spewing all the same âur just overreacting, you call everything transmisogyny, stop being hysterical!!!â bullshit really puts into perspective how the intersex community on here gained any traction to begin with, yâall are not immune to pulling the same bullshit perisex people do and youâre calling the intersex transfems arguing against you perisex??? just to let afabs pretend to be us so you have that idealized quiet trans woman again, like iâm sorry but this is a strawman on par with âwhite trans womanâ nothing has changed and at some point you need to realize that your conception of what these terms mean just doesnât reflect their actual rhetorical use in real conversations about queerness
#itâs just so fucking gross to get called perisex by someone i used to think i was in community with#the moment i was outspoken as a transfem#they hide me in one of their boxes and tell me i talk about transmisogyny too much#and like i donât want pity i shouldnât have trusted tme people further than i can throw them but like#i didnât get the confidence and pride to put intersex in my url from nowhere#and yeah i had their same misconceptions at some point i understand how you get there#but i just canât feel anything but devastatingly sad about yet another community turning on us just cuz a few transmisogynists#made an argument that flattered their egos#intersex transfems never mattered to these people#cuz the only intersex transfems they like are the afab ones that steal our culture and history and strip it of any of its meaning#and then stay quiet so they can be pointed to as âproofâ#as if dressing up your friend as a made up animal makes it real as long as the costume stays on
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Double Indemnity, Veritas Ratio and Aventurine
This was originally a part of my compilation post as a short analysis on the Double Indemnity references, linking to this great thread by Manya on Twitter. However, I've recently watched the movie and found that the parallels run much deeper than just the mission name and the light cone itself, plus as the short synopsis I've read online. Since there isn't really an in-depth attempt at an analysis on the film in relation to the way Aventurine and Ratio present themselves throughout Penacony, I thought I'd take a stab at doing just that. I will also be bringing up things from Manya's thread as well as another thread that has some extra points.
Disclaimer that I... don't do analyses very often. Or write, in general â I'm someone who likes to illustrate their thoughts (in the artistic sense) more than write. There's just something about these two that makes me want to rip into them so badly, so here we are. If there's anything you'd like to add or correct me on, feel free to let me know in the replies or reblogs, or asks. This ended up being a rather extensive deep dive into the movie and its influences on the pairing, so please keep that in mind when pressing Read More.
There are two distinct layers on display in Ratio and Aventurine's relationship throughout Penacony, which are references to the two most important relationships in the movie â where they act like they hate/donât know each other, and where they trust each other.
SPOILER WARNING for the entire movie, by the way. You can watch the film for free here on archive.org, as well as follow along with the screenplay here. I will also be taking dialogue and such from the screenplay, and cite quotes from the original novel in its own dedicated section. SPOILER WARNING for the Cat Among Pigeons Trailblaze mission, as well.
CONTENT WARNING FOR MENTIONS OF SUICIDE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
To start, Double Indemnity (1944) is a film noir by Billy Wilder (and co-written by Raymond Chandler) based on the novel of the same name by James M. Cain (1927). There are stark differences between the movie adaptation and the original novel which I will get into later on in this post, albeit in a smaller section, as this analysis is mainly focused on the movie adaptation. I will talk about the basics (summaries for the movie and the game, specifically the Penacony mission in tandem with Ratio and Aventurine) before diving into the character and scene parallels, among other things.
â
[THE NAME]
The term "double indemnity" is a clause in which if thereâs a case of accidental death of a statistically rare variety, the insurance company has to pay out multiple of the original amount. This excludes deaths by murder, suicide, gross negligence, and natural causes.
The part of the mission in Cat Among Pigeons where Ratio and Aventurine meet with Sunday is named after the movie. And before we get further into things, let's get this part out of the way: The Chinese name used in the mission is the CN title of the movie, so there's no liberties taken with the localization â this makes it clear that itâs a nod to the movie and not localization doing its own thing like with the mission name for Heaven Is A Place On Earth (EN) / This Side of Paradise (äșșéŽć€©ć ) (CN).
â
[SUMMARY OF THE 1944 MOVIE]
Here I summarised the important parts that will eventually be relevant in the analysis related to the game.
Insurance salesman Walter Neff, wounded from a gunshot, enters his office and confesses his crime on a dictaphone to his boss Barton Keyes, the claims manager. Much earlier, he had met Phyllis Dietrichson, the wife of Mr. Dietrichson and former nurse. Neff had initially wanted to meet Mr. Dietrichson because of car insurance. Phyllis claims her husband is mean to her and that his life insurance goes to his daughter Lola. With Neff seduced by Phyllis, they eventually brew up a scheme to murder Mr. Dietrichson in such a way that they activate the "double indemnity" clause, and the plan goes off almost perfectly. Initially, the death is labeled a suicide by the president of the company, Norton.Â
Keyes finds the whole situation suspicious, and starts to suspect Phyllis may have had an accomplice. The label on the death goes from accidental, to suicide, to then murder. When itâs ruled that the husband had no idea of the accidental policy, the company refuses to pay. Neff befriends Phyllisâ stepdaughter Lola, and after finding out Phyllis may have played a part in the death of her fatherâs previous wife, Neff begins to fear for Lola and himself, as the life insurance would go all towards her, not Phyllis.
After the plan begins to unravel as a witness is found, it comes out that Lolaâs boyfriend Nino Zachette has been visiting Phyllis every night after the murder. Neff goes to confront Phyllis, intending to kill her. Phyllis has her own plans, and ends up shooting him, but is unable to fire any more shots once she realises she did love him. Neff kills her in two shots. Soon after telling Zachette not to go inside the house, Neff drives to his office to record the confession. When Keyes arrives, Neff tells him he will go to Mexico, but he collapses before he could get out of the building.
â
[THE PENACONY MISSION TIMELINE]
I wonât be summarising the entirety of Aventurine and Ratioâs endeavours from the beginning of their relationship to their final conversation in Heaven Is A Place On Earth the same way as I summarised the plot of the movie, so I will instead present a timeline. Bolded parts means they are important and have clear parallels, and texts that are in [brackets] and italics stand for the names of either the light cone, or the mission names.
[Final Victor] Their first meeting. Ratioâs ideals are turned on its head as he finally meets his match.
Several missions happen in-between their first encounter and the Penacony project. They come to grow so close and trusting with each other that they can guess, understand each otherâs thoughts, way of thinking and minds even in high stakes missions. Enough to pull off the Prisonerâs Dilemma (Aventurineâs E1) and Stag Hunt Game (Aventurineâs E6) and come out on top.
Aventurine turns towards Ratio for assisting him in the Penacony project. Ratio's involvement in the project is implied to be done without the knowledge of Jade, Topaz, and the IPC in general, as he was only sent to Penacony to represent the Intelligentsia Guild, and the two other Stonehearts never mention Ratio.
Aventurine and Ratio cook up the plan to deceive Sunday before ever setting foot on Penacony. Aventurine does not tell Ratio the entirety of his plan.
Aventurine convinces Topaz and Jade to trust him with their Cornerstones. Aventurine also breaks his own Cornerstone and hides it along with the jade within a bag of gift money.
[The Youth Who Chase Dreams] They enter Penacony in the Reverie Hotel. Aventurine is taken to the side by Sunday and has all his valuables taken, which includes the gift money that contains the broken aventurine stone, the jade, and the case containing the topaz.
Aventurine and Ratio speak in a âprivateâ room about how Aventurine messed up the plan. After faking an argument to the all-seeing eyes of Sunday, Ratio leaves in a huff.
Ratio, wearing his alabaster head, is seen around Golden Hour in the (Dusk) Auction House by March 7th.
[Double Indemnity] Ratio meets up with Sunday and âexposesâ Aventurine to him. Sunday buys his âbetrayalâ, and is now in possession of the topaz and jade. Note that this is in truth Ratio betraying Sunday all along.
Ratio meets up with Aventurine again at the bar. Ratio tells Aventurine Sunday wants to see him again.
They go to Dewlight Pavilion and solve a bunch of puzzles to prove their worth to Sunday.
They meet up with Sunday. Sunday forces Aventurine to tell the truth using his Harmony powers. Ratio cannot watch on. It ends with Aventurine taking the gift money with his Cornerstone.
[Heaven Is A Place On Earth] They are in Golden Hour. Ratio tries to pry Aventurine about his plan, but Aventurine reins him in to stop breaking character. Ratio gives him the Mundaniteâs Insight before leaving. This is their final conversation before Aventurineâs grandest death.
Now how exactly does the word âdouble indemnityâ relate to their mission in-game? What is their payout? For the IPC, this would be Penacony itself â Aventurine, as the IPC ambassador, handing in the Jade Cornerstone as well as orchestrating a huge show for everybody to witness his death, means the IPC have a reason to reclaim the former prison frontier. As for Ratio, his payout would be information on Penaconyâs Stellaron, although whether or not this was actually something he sought out is debatable. And Aventurine? Itâs highly implied that he seeks an audience with Diamond, and breaking the Aventurine Cornerstone is a one way trip to getting into hot water with Diamond. With Aventurineâs self-destructive behaviour, however, it would also make sense to say that death would be his potential payout, had he taken that path in the realm of IX.
Compared to the movie, the timeline happens in reverse and opposite in some aspects. I will get into it later. As for the intended parallels, these are pretty clear and cut:
Veritas Ratio - Walter Neff
Aventurine - Phyllis Dietrichson
Sunday - Mr. Dietrichson
There is one other character who I feel also is represented in Ratio, but I wonât bring them up until later down the line.
For the sake of this analysis, I wonât be exploring Sundayâs parallel to Mr. Dietrichson, as there isnât much on Dietrichsonâs character in the first place in both the movie and the novel. He just kind of exists to be a bastard that is killed off at the halfway point. Plus, the analysis is specifically hyper focused on the other two.
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[SO, WHATâS THE PLAN?]
To make things less confusing in the long run whenever I mention the words âschemeâ and âplanâ, I will be going through the details of Phyllis and Neffâs scheme, and Aventurine and Ratioâs plan respectively. Anything that happens after either pair separate from another isnât going to be included. Written in a way for the plans to have gone perfectly with no outside problems.
Phyllis and Neff â> Mr. Dietrichson
Goal: Activate the double indemnity clause by killing Mr. Dietrichson and making it look like a freak train accident
Payout: Twice or more of the face value of the life insurance ($100,000)
Main Actor: Walter Neff  |  Accomplice: Phyllis Dietrichson
During the entire time until the payout, Phyllis and Neff have to make sure to any outsiders that they look like complete strangers instead of lovers in an affair.
Step-by-step:
Neff convinces Mr. Dietrichson to sign the policy with the clause without him suspecting foul play, preferably with a third party to act as an alibi. This is done discreetly, making Mr. Dietrichson not read the policy closely and being told to just sign.
Neff and Phyllis talk to each other about small details through the phone (specified to be never at Phyllisâ own house and never when Neff was in his office) and in the marketplace only, to make their meetings look accidental. They shouldnât be seen nor tracked together, after all.
Phyllis asks Mr. Dietrichson to take the train. She will be the one driving him to the train station.
On the night of the murder, after making sure his alibi is airtight, Neff sneaks into their residence and hides in their car in the second row seating, behind the front row passenger seat. He wears the same colour of clothes as Mr. Dietrichson.
Phyllis and Mr. Dietrichson get inside the car â Phyllis in the driverâs seat and Mr. Dietrichson in the passenger seat. Phyllis drives. On the way to the train station, she makes a detour into an alley. She honks the horn three times.
After the third honk, Neff breaks Mr. Dietrichsonâs neck. The body is then hidden in the second row seating under a rug.
They drive to the train station. Phyllis helps Neff, now posing as Mr. Dietrichson, onto the train. The train leaves the station.
Neff makes it to the observation platform of the parlour car and drops onto the train tracks when nobody else is there.
Phyllis is at the dump beside the tracks. She makes the car blink twice as a signal.
The two drag Mr. Dietrichsonâs corpse onto the tracks.
They leave.
When Phyllis eventually gets questioned by the insurance company, she pretends she has no idea what they are talking about and eventually storms off.
Phyllis and Neff continue to lay low until the insurance company pays out.
Profit!
Actual Result: The actual murder plan goes almost smoothly, with a bonus of Mr. Dietrichson having broken a leg. But with him not filing a claim for the broken leg, a witness at the observation platform, and Zachette visiting Phyllis every night after the murder, Keyes works out the murder scheme on his own, but pins the blame on Phyllis and Zachette, not Neff.
Now for Aventurine and Ratio. You can skip this section if you understand how deep their act goes, but to those who need a refresher, hereâs a thorough explanation:
Aventurine and Ratio â> Sunday
Goal: Collect the aventurine stone without Sunday knowing, ruin the dream (and create the grandest death)
Payout: Penacony for the IPC, information on the Stellaron for Ratio, a meeting with Diamond / death for Aventurine
Main Actor: Aventurine  |  Accomplice: Veritas Ratio
From the moment they step onto Penacony, they are under Sundayâs ever present and watchful eyes. âPrivacyâ is a foreign word to The Family. They have to act like they donât like each otherâs company the entire time and feed Sunday information through indirect means so that the eventual âbetrayalâ by Ratio seems truthful to Sunday. Despite what it looks like, they are closer than one would ever think, and Ratio would never sell out a person purely for information.
Step-by-step:
After Sunday takes away the bag of gift money and box, Aventurine and Ratio talk in a room in the Reverie Hotel.
Aventurine establishes the Cornerstonesâ importance, and how he lost the gift money and the case containing the Cornerstones to Sunday. Ratio turns to leave, saying âsome idiot ruined everythingâ, meaning the Cornerstones were vital to their plan. (Note that Ratio is not wearing his alabaster head while saying it to said âidiotâ.)
Aventurine then proceeds to downplay the importance of the Cornerstones, stating they are ânothing more than a few rocksâ and âwho cares if they are goneâ. This lets Sunday know that something suspicious may be going on for him to act like itâs nothing, and the mention of multiple stones, and leaves him to look up what a Cornerstone is to the Ten Stonehearts of the IPC.
Ratio points out his absurd choice of outfit, mentioning the Attini Peacock and their song.
Ratio implies that without the aventurine stone, he is useless to the IPC. He also establishes that Aventurine is from Sigonia(-IV), and points out the mark on his neck. To Sunday, this means that Aventurine is shackled to the IPC, and how Aventurine may possibly go through extreme lengths to get the stone back, because a death sentence always looms above him.
Aventurine claims Ratio had done his homework on his background, which can be taken that this is their very first time working together. (It isnât, and it only takes one look to know that Aventurine is an Avgin because of his unique eyes, so this comment does not make sense even in a âsincereâ way, a running theme for the interaction.)
Ratio mentions how the true goal is to reclaim Penacony for the IPC, establishing their ulterior motive for attending the banquet.
Ratio asks if Aventurine went to pre-school in Sigonia after saying trust was reliant on cooperation. Aventurine mentions how he didnât go to school and how he doesnât have any parents. He even brings up how friends are weapons of the Avgins. This tells Sunday that the Avgins supposedly are good at manipulation and potentially sees Ratio possibly betraying Aventurine due to his carelessness with his âfriendsâ. Sunday would also then research about the Avgins in general (and research about Sigonia-IV comes straight from the Intelligentsia Guild.)
Ratio goes to Dewlight Pavilion in Sundayâs Mansion and exposes a part of Aventurineâs âplanâ. When being handed the suitcase, Ratio opens it up due to his apparent high status in the IPC. He tells Sunday that the Cornerstone in the suitcase is a topaz, not an aventurine, and that the real aventurine stone is in the bag of gift money. This is a double betrayal â on Aventurine (who knows) and Sunday (who doesnât). Note that while Ratio is not officially an IPC member in name â the Intelligentsia Guild (which is run by the IPC head of the Technology Department Yabuli) frequently collaborates with the IPC. Either Aventurine had given him access to the box, or Ratioâs status in general is ambiguous enough for Sunday not to question him further. He then explains parts of Aventurineâs gamble to Sunday in order to sell the betrayal. Note that Ratio does not ever mention Aventurineâs race to Sunday.
Ratio brings Aventurine to Sunday. Aventurine offers help in the investigation of Robin's death, requesting the gift money and the box in return.
Sunday objects to the trade offer. Aventurine then asks for just the bag. A classic car insurance sales tactic. Sunday then interrogates Aventurine, and uses everything Ratio and Aventurine brought up in the Reverie Hotel conversation and their interactions in the Mansion, as well as aspects that Ratio had brought up to Sunday himself.
Aventurine feigns defeat and ignorance enough so that Sunday willingly lets him go with the gift bag. After all is said and done, Aventurine leaves with the gift money, where the Aventurine Cornerstone is stored all along.
Ratio and Aventurine continue to pretend they dislike each other until they go their separate ways for their respective goals and plans. Aventurine would go on to orchestrate his own demise at the hands of Acheron, and Ratio⊠lurks in the shadows like the owl he is.
Profit!
Actual Result: The plan goes perfectly, even with minor hiccups like Ratio coming close to breaking character several times and Aventurine being sentenced to execution by Sunday.
This is how Sunday uses the information he gathered against Aventurine:
âą Sunday going on a tirade about the way Aventurine dresses and how heâs not one to take risks â Ratioâs comment about Aventurineâs outfit being peacock-esque and how heâs âshort of a feather or twoâ. âą âDo you own a Cornerstone?â â Ratio talked about the aventurine stone. âą âDid you hand over the Cornerstone to The Family when you entered Penacony?â â Aventurine mentioned the box containing the Cornerstones. âą âDoes the Cornerstone you handed over to The Family belong to you?â â Aventurine specifically pluralized the word Cornerstone and âa bunch of rocksâ when talking to Ratio. âą âIs your Cornerstone in this room right now?â â The box in the room supposedly contained Aventurineâs own cornerstone, when Aventurine mentioned multiple stones. âą âAre you an Avgin from Sigonia?â âAventurine mentioned that heâs an Avgin, and Ratio brought up Sigonia. âą âDo the Avgins have any ability to read, control, and manipulate oneâs own or anotherâs minds?â â Aventurineâs comment on how friends are weapons, as well as Sundayâs own research on the Avgins, leading him to find out about the negative stereotypes associated with them. âą âDo you love your family more than yourself?â â His lost parents. âAll the Avgins were killed in a massacre. Am I right?â â Based on Sundayâs research into his background. âą âAre you your clanâs sole survivor?â â Same as the last point. âDo you hate and wish to destroy this world with your own hands?â â Ratio mentioned the IPCâs goal to regain Penacony, and Aventurineâs whole shtick is âall or nothingâ. âą âCan you swear that at this very moment, the aventurine stone is safe and sound in this box?â â Repeat.
As seen here, both duos have convoluted plans that involve the deception of one or more parties while also pretending that the relationship between each other isnât as close as in reality. Unless you knew both of them personally and their histories, there was no way you could tell that they have something else going on.Â
On to the next point: Comparing Aventurine and Ratio with Phyllis and Neff.
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[NEFF & PHYLLIS â RATIO & AVENTURINE]
With the short summaries of the movie and the mission out of the way, letâs look at Phyllis and Neff as characters and how Aventurine and Ratio are similar or opposite to them.
Starting off with Aventurine and Phyllis. Here is where they are the most similar:
Phyllis is blonde and described as a provocative woman. Aventurine is also a blond and eyes Ratio provocatively in the Final Victor light cone.
Phyllis was put under surveillance after Keyes starts figuring out that the so-called accidental death/suicide may have been a murder after all. Similarly, Aventurine was watched by Sunday the entire time in Penacony.
Phyllis never tells Neff how she's seeing another man on the side to possibly kill him too (as well as how she was responsible for the death of her husbandâs previous wife). Aventurine also didn't tell Ratio the entirety of his plan of his own death.
Phyllis puts on a somewhat helpless act at first but is incredibly capable of making things go her way, having everything seemingly wrapped around her finger. Aventurine â even when putting on a facade that masks his true motives â always comes out at the top.
Now the differences between Aventurine and Phyllis:
Phyllis does not care about her family and has no issue with killing her husband, his previous wife, and possibly her daughter Lola. Opposite of that, Aventurine is a family man⊠with no family left, as well as feeling an insane level of survivorâs guilt.
Really, Phyllis just⊠does not care at all about anyone but herself and the money. Aventurine, while he uses every trick in the book to get out on top, does care about the way Jade and Topaz had entrusted him with their Cornerstones, in spite of the stones being worth their lives.Â
Phyllis also uses other people to her advantage to get what she wants, often behind other people's backs, with the way she treats Neff and Zachette. Aventurine does as well (what with him making deals with the Trailblazer while also making a deal with Black Swan that involves the Trailblazer). The difference here is Phyllis uses her allure deliberately to seduce men while Aventurine simply uses others as pawns while also allowing others to do the same to himself.
Phyllis makes no attempt at compromising the policy when questioned by Norton. Aventurine ends up compromising by only taking the gift money (which is exactly what he needs).
The wig that Barbara Stanwyck (the actress of Phyllis) wore was chosen to make her look as âsleazyâ as possible, make her look insincere and a fraud, a manipulator. A sort of cheapness. Aventurineâs flashy peacock-esque outfit can be sort of seen as something similar, except the outfit isnât cheap.
Moving on to Ratioâs similarities to Neff⊠There isnât much to extrapolate here as Ratio is more of a side character in the grand scheme of Penacony, however this is what Iâve figured out.
Neff has dark hair. Ratio has dark purple hair.
Neff almost never refers to Phyllis by her name when speaking with her, only as âbabyâ. The few times he refers to her as Phyllis or Mrs. Dietrichson is during their first conversations and when he has to act like he doesnât know her. Ratio never calls Aventurine by his name when heâs around him â only as âgamblerâ, sometimes âdamnedâ or âdearâ (EN-only) gambler. Only in the Aventurine's Keeping Up With Star Rail episode does Ratio repeatedly say his name, and yet he still calls him by monikers like âgamblerâ or, bafflingly, a âsystem of chaos devoid of logicâ.
Both Neff and Ratio committed two betrayals: Neff on Mr. Dietrichson and Keyes, and Ratio on Sunday and Aventurine. With the former cases it was to reach the end of the trolley line, and with the latter it was on a man who had put his trust in him.
As for the differencesâŠ
Neff is described as someone whoâs not smart by his peers. Ratio is someone who is repeatedly idolised and put on a pedestal by other people.
Neff is excellent at pretending to not know nor care for Phyllis whenever he speaks about her with Keyes or when he and she are in a place that could land them in hot water (the office, the mansion when there are witnesses). His acting is on the same level as Phyllis. With Ratio itâs⊠complicated. While he does pull off the hater act well, he straight up isnât great at pretending not to care about Aventurineâs wellbeing.
Instead of getting his gunshot wound treated in the hospital like a normal person, Neff makes the absolutely brilliant decision of driving to his office and talking to a dictaphone for hours. Needless to say, this is something a medical doctor like Ratio would never do.
Now here's the thing. Though it's very easy to just look at Phyllis and Neff in the movie and go "okay, Aventurine is Phyllis and Ratio is Neff â end of story" and leave it at that, I find that they both take from the two leads in different ways. Let me explain. Beginning with Aventurine and NeffâŠ
Neff is the one who hatches the plan and encourages Phyllis to go through and claim the double indemnity clause in the first place. He is also the key player of his own risky plan, having to fake being the husband to enter the train as well as fake the death. Aventurine puts himself at great risk just by being in Sundayâs presence, and hoping that Sunday wouldnât figure out that the green stone he had uncovered wasnât the aventurine stone.
Adding onto the last point, Neff had fantasised about pulling off the perfect murder for a long time â the catalyst was simply him meeting Phyllis. Aventurine presumably sought out Ratio alone for his plan against Sunday.
Neff makes a roulette wheel analogy and talks about a pile of blue and yellow poker chips (the latter in the script only). I donât even have to explain why this is relevant here. (Aventurineâs Ultimate features a roulette wheel and the motif is on his belt, thigh strap, and back, too. And of course, Aventurine is all about his chips.)
Neff has certain ways to hide when heâs nervous, which include hiding his hands in his pockets when they were shaking, putting on glasses so people couldnât see his eyes. Aventurine hides his left hand behind his back when heâs nervous: Future Aventurine says that "they don't know the other hand is below the table, clutching [his] chips for dear life", and in multiple occasions such as the Final Victor LC, his character trailer, and even in his boss form in the overworld you can see that Aventurine hides his left hand behind his back. And he is also seen with his glasses on sometimes.
Neff says a bunch of stuff to make sure that Phyllis acts her part and does not act out of character (i.e. during their interactions at the market), like how Aventurine repeatedly tries to get Ratio back on track from his subpar acting.
Neff is always one step ahead of the game, and the only reason the plan blows up in his face is due to outside forces that he could not have foreseen (a witness, Keyes figuring out the plan, the broken leg). Aventurine meanwhile plays 5D chess and even with the odds against him, he uses everything he can to come out on the top (i. e. getting Acheron to kill him in the dream).
Even after coming home on the night of the murder, Neff still felt that everything could have gone wrong. Aventurine, with his blessed luck, occasionally wavers and fears everything could go wrong whenever he takes a gamble.
Neff was not put under surveillance by Keyes due to him being extensive with his alibi. After witnessing Robinâs death with eyewitnesses at the scene, the Family had accepted Aventurineâs alibi, though he would be under watch from the Bloodhounds according to Ratio.
Neff talks about the entire murder scheme to the dictaphone. Aventurine during Cat Among Pigeons also retells his plan, albeit in a more convoluted manner, what with his future self and all.
Continuing with Ratio and Phyllis, even with their personalities and motivations being quite different, they do have a few commonalities.
Phyllis was a nurse. Ratio is a medical doctor.
Her name is Greek of origin. Veritas Ratio, though his name is Latin, has Greco-Roman influences throughout his entire character.
The very first scene Phyllis appears in has her wearing a bath towel around her torso. Ratio loves to take baths to clear his mind.
Phyllis was instructed by Neff to be at the market every morning at eleven buying things. Ratio is seen in an auction house with his alabaster head on so no one could recognize him.
Phyllis mostly acts as an accomplice to the scheme, being the one to convince her husband to take the train instead. She is also generally seen only when Neff is involved. Ratio plays the same role as well, only really appearing in the story in relation to Aventurine as well as being the accomplice in Aventurineâs own death. Even him standing in the auction house randomly can be explained by the theory that he and Aventurine had attempted to destabilise Penaconyâs economy through a pump and dump scheme.
With these pointers out of the way, letâs take a closer look at select scenes from the film and their relation to the mission and the pair.Â
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[THE PHONE CALL â THE REVERIE HOTEL]
Before the murder, there is a scene with a phone call between Phyllis and Neff discussing the plan while Keyes is in the same room as Neff. Neff has to make sure that Keyes doesnât think of anything of the phone call, so he acts like heâs calling a âMargieâ, and says a bunch of stuff that sounds innocent out of context (âCanât I call you back, âMargieâ?â âWhat color did you pick out?â âNavy blue. I like that fineâ), but are actually hinting at the real plan all along (the suit that Mr. Dietrichson wears.)
In a roundabout way, the conversation between Ratio and Aventurine in the Reverie Hotel can be seen as the opposite of that scene â with the two talking about their supposed plan out loud on Penacony ground, a place where the Family (and in turn, Sunday) has eyes everywhere. Despite being in a âprivateâ room, they still act like they hate each other while airing out details that really do not make sense to air out if they really did meet the first time in Penacony (which they didnât â theyâve been on several missions beforehand). Itâs almost like they want a secret third person to know what they were doing, instead of trying to be hushed up about it. The TVs in the room that Sunday can look through based on Inherently Unjust Destiny â A Moment Among The Stars, the Bloodhound statue that disappears upon being inspected, the owl clock on the left which side eyes Ratio and Aventurine, all point to that Sunday is watching their every move, listening to every word.
Rewinding back to before the phone call, in one of the encounters at the marketplace where they âaccidentallyâ run into each other, Phyllis talks about how the trip was off. How her husband wouldnât get on the train, which was vital for their plan, because of a broken leg. All this, while pretending to be strangers by the passersby. You could say that the part where Ratio almost leaves because Aventurine had âruined the planâ is the opposite of this, as the husband breaking his leg was something they couldnât account for, while Aventurine âbeing short of a few feathersâ was entirely part of the plan.
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[QUESTIONING PHYLLIS â THE INTERROGATION]
This section is going to be a little longer as I will cover two scenes in the movie in a more detailed manner â Mr. Dietrichson signing the policy, and Phyllis being questioned â and how they are represented in the Sunday-Aventurine interrogation and the prior conversation between Ratio and Sunday in multitudes of ways.
Going about their plan, Neff has to make sure that Mr. Dietrichson signs the policy with the double indemnity clause without him knowing the details, all the while having Phyllis (and Lola) in the same room. He and Phyllis have to pretend that they donât know each other, and that this is just the standard accidental insurance process, instead of signing what would be his downfall. To sell it, he gets Mr. Dietrichson to sign two âcopiesâ of the form, except with Mr. Dietrichsonâs second signature, heâs duped into signing the accident insurance policy with the respective clause.
You can tie this to how Ratio goes to Sunday in order to âexposeâ the lie that the suitcase didnât actually contain the Aventurine Cornerstone, as well as there being more than one Cornerstone involved in the scheme. Ratio must make sure that Sunday truly believes that he dislikes Aventurineâs company, while also making sure that Sunday doesnât figure out the actual aventurine stone is broken and hidden in the gift bag. The scheme turns out to be successful, as Sunday retrieves the two Cornerstones, but not the aventurine stone, and truly does think that the green stone he has in his possession is the aventurine.
This whole scene with Sunday is also reminiscent of the interrogation scene in the middle of the movie, where Phyllis was questioned by the boss (Norton) who was deducing that Mr. Dietrichson's death was a suicide, not accidental death. Neff, Phyllis, Keyes and Norton were all in the same room, and Neff and Phyllis had to act like they never knew the other. Phyllis acts like she knows nothing about what Norton insinuates about her husband and eventually, Phyllis explodes in anger and storms out the room, even slamming the door. Her act is very believable to any outsider.
Now back to the Ratio and Sunday conversation. One glaring difference between the movie and here is that his acting isnât great compared to either Phyllis nor Neff. It never was throughout the Penacony mission. He even comes very close to breaking character several times, and is even defending Aventurine in a somewhat aggressive manner during his one-on-one conversation with Sunday, as in he literally tells Sunday to see a shrink. Itâs very different from the way he was acting in Herta Space Station â like Ratio cares about Aventurine too much to keep his hands off.
It's also worth pointing out that Neff doesn't speak a word when Phyllis was being interrogated. Similarly, Ratio is silent throughout the entire scene with Sunday and Aventurine, with his only âlineâ being a âhmâ. When Aventurine calls him a wretch to his face, all he does is look to the side. In fact, he can only look at Aventurine when the other isnât staring back. Almost like him uttering a single word would give them away. Or his acting is terrible when it has to do with Aventurine, as he has no issue doing the same thing in Crown of the Mundane and Divine (Mundane Troubles).
So, Sunday finds out about the Cornerstones and reveals them to Aventurine, and reasons that he cannot give them back to him because Aventurine had lied. Note that in that same scene, Aventurine attempted to use the two murders that had occurred beforehand against Sunday to retrieve his own cornerstone. Similarly, when it was revealed that Mr. Dietrichson did not know about the accident policy and that the so-called âaccidental deathâ was not, in fact, accidental, the insurance company refused to pay out the money.
Unlike the movie, this was all planned, however. The double-crossing by Ratio, the gift money being the only thing required for Aventurineâs real plan. All of it was an act of betrayal against Sunday, in the same manner as the meticulous planning as Mr. Dietrichsonâs murder â To sign the policy, get him to take the train, kill him on the way, and to have Neff pose as the husband on the train until the time is right to get off and lay the body on the tracks. A key difference is that they could not have expected their scheme to be busted wide open due to forces outside of their control, while Ratio and Aventurine went straight down the line for the both of them no matter what.
From here on out, we can conclude that the way Ratio and Aventurine present themselves in Penacony to onlookers is in line with Neff and Phyllis.
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[âGOODBYE, BABYâ â FINAL VICTOR]
And now for the (in)famous light cone, Final Victor. The thing that truly kickstarted the Ratio and Aventurine ship in the fanbase, and the partnership between the two in general. Itâs a direct reference to the final confrontation between Neff and Phyllis in the movie.
Iâll fire through all the similarities between the two scenes.
During the respective scenes, Aventurine and Phyllis both outsmart their partner one way or the other: Aventurine with his one-sided game of Russian Roulette, and Phyllis hiding her gun underneath the cushions until Neff turned away.
The guns are owned by Phyllis and Aventurine, not Neff and Ratio.
Phyllis couldnât bring herself to fire any more shots after she realised she truly did love Neff. Ratio could do nothing but watch as Aventurine did what he did â he couldnât even pull away if the LC animation is anything to go by him struggling as Aventurine firmly keeps the gun to his chest.
Neff says he doesnât buy (believe) that Phyllis loved him. She then goes âIâm not asking you to buy [âŠ]â. The LC description has Aventurine ask Ratio âYou donât believe me?â, while in the LC animation Ratio straight up says âYou expect me to believe you?â and Aventurine answering âWhy not, doctor/professor?â
The visual composition of the LC and the scene are nearly identical, from the lighting to the posing to the way Aventurine looks at Ratio â Aventurine and Ratio are even wearing different outfits to fit the scene better. The background in the LC is also like the blinders in the movie, just horizontal.
In the shot where Phyllisâ face is more visible, the way she looks at Neff is strikingly like the way provocatively looks at Ratio. Even their eyes have a visible shine â Phyllisâ eyes brightly shining the moment she realised she really fell in love with Neff, and Aventurine having just a little light return to his eyes in that specific moment.
And now the differences!
Neff holds the gun in his right hand. Aventurine makes Ratio hold his gun in his left.
Neff is the one who takes the gun from Phyllisâ hand. Aventurine is the one who places the gun in Ratioâs hand and fires it.
Three gunshots are fired. In the movie, Phyllis shoots the first shot and Neff the second and third. Aventurine unloads the gun and leaves only one bullet for this game of Russian Roulette. He pulls the trigger three times, but they all turn out to be blanks.
Phyllis does not break her façade of not smiling until the very last moment where she gets shot. Aventurine is smiling the entire time according to the light cone description, whilst in the animation, itâs only when he guides the gun to his chest that he puts it on.
So, you know how Neff meets Phyllis and it all goes off the rails from there. The way Neff goes from a decent guy to willingly involve himself in a murder scheme, having his morals corrupted by Phyllis. His world having been turned upside down the moment he lays eyes on Phyllis in that first meeting. Doesnât that sound like something that happened with the Final Victor LC? Ratio, a man all about logic and rationality â a scholar with eight PhDs to his name â all of that is flipped on its head the moment Aventurine pulls out his gun in their first meeting and forces Ratio to play a game of Russian roulette with him. Aventurine casually gambles using his own life like itâs nothing and seemingly without fear (barring his hidden left hand). All or nothing â and yet Aventurine comes out alive after three blanks. Poetic, considering thereâs a consumable in the game called âAll or Nothingâ which features a broken chess piece and a poker chip bound together by a tie. The poker chip obviously represents the gambler, but the chess piece specifically stands for Ratio because he plays chess in his character trailer, his Keeping Up With Star Rail episode and his introduction is centred around him playing chess with himself. Plus, the design of the chess piece has golden accents, similar to his own chess set. In the end, Aventurine will always be the final victor.
Furthermore, Neff had deduced that Phyllis wanted to kill her husband and initially wanted no part in it, but in a subsequent visit it was his own idea that they trigger the double indemnity clause for more money. As the movie progresses though, he starts to have his doubts (thanks in part to him befriending Lola) and makes the move to kill Phyllis when everything starts to come to light. Itâs strikingly similar to how Ratio initially wanted no part in whatever Aventurine had in mind when they first met, but in the subsequent missions where they were paired up, he willingly goes along with Aventurine's risky plans, and they come to trust each other. Enough so that Aventurine and Ratio can go to Penacony all on their own and put on an act, knowing that nobody in the IPC other than them can enter the Dreamscape. The mutual respect grew over time, instead of burning passionately before quickly fizzling out like in the movie.
Basically, in one scene, three shots (blanks) start a relationship, and in the other, it ends a relationship. In the anan magazine interview with Aventurine, he says himself that âform[ing] an alliance with just one bulletâ with Ratio was one of his personal achievements. The moment itself was so impactful for both parties that it was immortalised and turned into a light cone.
â
[THE ENDING â GOLDEN HOUR]
The ending of Double Indemnity that made it into the final cut has Neff continue his confession on the dictaphone until he realised that he wasnât alone in the room. Keyes had come inside at some point, but none had said a thing, only listening to a dead man speak of his crime. When Neff sees Keyes, they talk for a moment, Neff says he plans on fleeing to Mexico. Keyes does not think he will make it. He tries to leave, only to collapse at the front of the elevator, Keyes following just behind him. Neff attempts to light a cigar but is too weak to do so, so Keyes does it for him.
Parts of the ending can still be attributed to the interrogation scene between Sunday and Aventurine, so Iâll make this quick before moving on to the conversation in Heaven Is A Place On Earth, Ratio and Aventurineâs final conversation together. Once Sunday mentions how quickly Aventurine gave up the suitcase, he inflicts the Harmonyâs consecration on him, which forces Aventurine to confess everything that Sunday asks of. In a way, itâs the opposite of what happens in the movie â where Neff willingly tells the truth about the murder to his coworker. Aventurine does not like Sunday, and Neff is close to Keyes. Ratio also does not speak, similarly to how Keyes didnât speak and stood silently off to the side.
Post-interrogation in Golden Hour, Ratio worriedly prods at Aventurine and asks him about his plan. He then gives him the Mundaniteâs Insight with the Doctorâs Advice inside when Aventurine tells him to leave. Throughout Heaven Is A Place On Earth, Aventurine gets weaker and his head starts to buzz, until he falls to the ground before he can hand in the final gems. Similarly, Neff progressively grows weaker as he records his confession. Keyes says heâs going to call a doctor and Neff says heâs planning to go to Mexico. And when Neff collapses near the elevator, they talk one final time and Keyes lights Neffâs cigar as the other was too weak to do so himself.
â
[OPPOSITE TIMELINES AND DEVELOPMENTS]
Remember how I said the way certain events happen in the movie and the game are mostly opposite and reverse of one another?Â
The Final Victor LC is the first meeting of Ratio and Aventurine, and Neff killing Phyllis is their final meeting.
Between that first and last meeting between Phyllis and Neffâs whirlwind romance, their relationship becomes strained which ultimately leads to Neff not trusting whatever Phyllis has to say at the end point of the movie. As for Ratio and Aventurine, the exact opposite had happened, to the point where Ratio trusts Aventurine enough to go along with his plans even if they went against his own ideals. The basis of the mission involved Veritas Ratio, whose full name includes the Latin word for âtruthâ, lying the entire time on Penacony.
Aventurine is sentenced to the gallows by Sunday after his unwilling interrogation. The movie starts and ends with Neff willingly confessing everything to Keyes.
It bears repeating, but I have to make it so clear that the trust between Ratio and Aventurine runs incredibly deep. Being able to predict what your partner says and thinks and plans in a mission as critical as the Penacony project is not something first-time co-workers can pull off flawlessly. All the while having to put on masks that prevent you from speaking sincerely towards one another lest you rat yourselves out. You have no way of contacting outside reinforcements from within Penacony, as the rest of the IPC are barred from entering. To be able to play everybody for fools while said fools believe you yourselves have handed your case on a silver platter requires a lot â trust, knowledge of the other, past experience, and so on. With Phyllis and Neff, the trust they had had been snuffed out when Neff grew closer to Lola and found out what kind of person Phyllis truly was on the inside. Phyllis did not trust nor love Neff enough and was going behind his back to meet with Zachette to possibly take Neff and Lola out. And the whole reason Neff wanted to perpetrate the murder was due to him being initially taken by Phyllis' appearance, which single handedly got the ball rolling on the crime.
Now then, how come trust is one of the defining aspects of Aventurine and Ratioâs relationship, when Phyllis and Neffâs trust eventually lead to both their deaths at the hands of the other? Sure, this can be explained away with the opposite theory, but thereâs one other relationship involving Neff which I havenât brought up in excruciating detail yet. The other side of Ratio and Aventurineâs relationship.
â
[NEFF & KEYES â AVENTURINE & RATIO]
Here is where it gets more interesting â while Phyllis and Neff are at the centre point of the movie, there is another character to whom Neff has a close relationship with â Keyes. Itâs also the only relationship with no pretences, at least, until the whole murder thing happened and Neff had to hide his involvement from Keyes. Watching the movie, I couldn't help but feel there was something more to the two than meets the eye. I knew that queer readings of the film existed, but I didn't think too much of them until now. And though Aventurine and Ratio parallel Phyllis and Neff respectively, the fact that they also have traits of their opposite means that it wouldnât be completely out of the question if parts of their relationship were also influenced by Keyes and Neff on a deeper and personal level. Let me explain.
Keyes and Neff were intimate friends for eleven years and have shown mutual respect and trust towards one another. They understood each other on a level not seen with Phyllis and Neff. Even after hearing Neff confess his crimes through the dictaphone (and eventually standing in the same room while Neff confessed), he still cared for the other man, and stayed with him when Neff collapsed at the front door. The only reason Keyes hadnât deduced that it was Neff who was behind the murder was because he had his absolute trust in him. Keyes is also Neffâs boss, and they are always seen exchanging playful banter when they are on screen together. Neff even says the words âI love you, tooâ twice in the movie â first at the beginning and second at the end, as the final line. Thereâs also the persistent theme of Neff lighting Keyesâ cigarettes (which happens in every scene where they are face-to-face), except in the end where itâs Keyes who lights Neffâs.
Doesnât that sound familiar? Mutual respect, caring too much about the other person, the immense amount of trust⊠Ratio says heâs even the manager of the Penacony project (which may or may not be a lie), and despite their banter being laced with them acting as âenemiesâ, you can tell that in Dewlight Pavilion pre-Sunday confrontation that Aventurine genuinely likes Ratioâs company and believes him to be a reliable person. From the way he acts carefree in his words to the thoughts in his head, as seen in the mission descriptions for Double Indemnity. Their interactions in that specific mission are possibly the closest thing to their normal way of speaking that we get to see on Penacony.
Not to mention, this is the way Neff describes Keyes. He even says (not in the script) âyou never fooled me with your song and dance, not for a second.â Apart from the line about the cigar ashes, doesnât this ring a bell to a certain doctor? âJerkâ with a heart of gold?
After solving the puzzle with the statues, Ratio jokingly offers Aventurine to join the Genius Society. Aventurine then goes "Really? I thought youâve given up on that already", and then Ratio says it was, in fact, a joke. Solving the puzzle through brute force has Ratio telling Aventurine that the Council of Mundanites (which Ratio himself is a part of) should consider him a member. In the movie, where the scene with the phone call with Neff and Phyllis reiterating details of their plan happens, Keyes actually offered Neff a better job (specifically a desk job, as Keyesâ assistant). The two pairs saw the other as smart, equals, and were invested in each otherâs careers one way or another.
Because of all this, the character parallels for this side of the relationship are as follows:
Aventurine - Walter Neff
Veritas Ratio - Barton Keyes
With the way Iâve talked about how Aventurine and Ratio take from both leads in terms, it does fit to say that Aventurine is Neff, and Ratio is Keyes in this layer of their relationship. Since weâre on the topic of Keyes, let me also go through some similarities with him and Ratio specifically.
Keyes says the words âdimwitted amateursâ in his first on-screen conversation with Neff. You canât have Dr. Ratio without him talking about idiocy in some way.
Keyes almost only appears in the movie in relation to Neff, and barring a single interaction in Neffâs house, is also only seen in the office. Same with Phyllis, Ratio also only ever appears regarding Aventurine.
Keyes genuinely wanted the best for Neff, even offering to celebrate with him when he thought the case truly had been busted wide open by forces when Zachette entered the picture. You could say the same for Ratio, as he hoped that Aventurine wouldnât dwell on the past according to his response on Aventurineâs Interview, as well as telling him to âstay alive/live on (CN)â and wishing him the best of luck in his Doctorâs Advice note.
Whether or not you believe that there was more going on with Neff and Keyes is up to you, but what matters is that the two were very close. Just like Ratio and Aventurine.
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[THE ORIGINAL FILM ENDING]
Something that I hadnât seen brought up is the original ending of Double Indemnity, where Neff is executed in a gas chamber while Keyes watches on, shocked, and afterwards leaves somberly. The ending was taken out because they were worried about the Hays Code, but I felt it was important to bring it up, because in a way, you can kind of see the Sunday interrogation scene as Sunday sending Aventurine to his death in seventeen system hours. And Ratio doesnât speak at all in that scene, and Keyes doesnât either according to the script.
Another thing thatâs noteworthy is that Wilder himself said âthe story was about the two guysâ in Conversations with Wilder. The two guys in question are Keyes and Neff.
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[THE NOVEL]
With the original film ending covered, now it is time to bring up the novel by James M. Cain. I bought the book just to read about the differences between the adaptation and the original source material, and to list a few more similarities and opposites I could gather. For this section alone, due to the changes in the (last) names of certain characters, I will be referring to Walter Huff (Neff in the movie) as Walter, and Mr. Dietrichson as Nirdlinger. The plot is pretty much the same as the movieâs apart from a couple of changes so there isnât a need to recount everything.
From my two read-throughs of the novel, these are the following passages that stood out to me the most. Starting with Aventurine:
Walter, as a top businessman of the company, knows how to sway a deal and to get what he truly wants with what the other gives him. Aventurine is the same, reliant on his intuition, experience and whatever information he has on the table to claim the win. Him luring out Sparkle in Heaven Is A Place On Earth and his conversation with Acheron in the Nihility is indicative of that.
âą "But you sell as many people as I do, you don't go by what they say. You feel it, how the deal is going. And after a while I knew this woman didn't care anything about the Automobile Club. Maybe the husband did, but she didn't. There was something else, and this was nothing but a stall. I figured it would be some kind of a proposition to split the commission, maybe so she could get a ten-spot out of it without the husband knowing. There's plenty of that going on. And I was just wondering what I would say to her."Â
Phyllis, like in the movie, had been hiding her true intentions of talking to Walter in their first conversations, always saying things that she didnât actually mean. In a similar vein, Aventurine consistently says stuff but almost never truly means any of it, which is all part of his façade.
âą "And I could feel it again, that she wasn't saying what she meant. It was the same as it was the first afternoon I met her, that there was something else, besides what she was telling me. And I couldn't shake it off, that I had to call it on her."
When discussing the murder plan with Phyllis, Walter makes this comment, kind of like how Aventurine seems to operate in a way where he has a plan, but is ready to improvise and think fast when needed.
âą "And then it's one of those things where you've got to watch for your chance, and you can't plan it in advance, and know where you're going to come out to the last decimal point."
Remember the roulette wheel line from the movie? In the novel, the gambling metaphor that Walter makes about the insurance business goes on for two paragraphs, mentioning a gambling wheel, stack of chips, a place with a big casino and the little ivory ball, even about a bet on the table. Walter also talks about how he thinks of tricks at night after being in the business for so long, and how he could game the system. Needless to say, insanely reminiscent of Aventurine.
âą "You think Iâm nuts? All right, maybe I am. But you spend fifteen years in the business Iâm in, and maybe a little better than that, itâs the friend of the widow, the orphan, and the needy in time of trouble? Itâs not. Itâs the biggest gambling wheel in the world. It donât look like it, but it is, from the way they figure the percentage on the oo to the look on their face when they cash your chips. You bet that your house will burn down, they bet it wonât, thatâs all. What fools you is that you didnât want your house to burn down when you made the bet, and so you forget itâs a bet. To them, a bet is a bet, and a hedge bet donât look any different than any other bet. But there comes a time, maybe, when you do want your house to burn down, when the money is worth more than the house. And right there is where the trouble starts." âą "Alright, Iâm an agent. Iâm a croupier in that game. I know all their tricks, I lie awake thinking up tricks, so Iâll be ready for them when they come at me. And then one night I think up a trick, and get to thinking I could crook the wheel myself if I could only put a plant out there to put down my bet." âą "I had seen so many houses burned down, so many cars wrecked, so many corpses with blue holes in their temples, so many awful things that people had pulled to crook the wheel, that that stuff didnât seem real to me anymore. If you donât understand that, go to Monte Carlo or some other place where thereâs a big casino, sit at a table, and watch the face of the man that spins the little ivory ball. After youâve watched it a while, ask yourself how much he would care if you went out and plugged yourself in the head. His eyes might drop when he heard the shot, but it wouldnât be from the worry whether you lived or died. It would be to make sure you didnât leave a bet on the table, that he would have to cash for your estate. No, he wouldnât care."
Returning home from the murder, Walter attempted to pray, but was unable to do it. Some time passed and after speaking to Phyllis, he prayed. Aventurine presumably hadnât done the prayer ever since the day of the massacre, and the first time he does it again, he does it with his child self.
âą "I went to the dining room and took a drink. I took another drink. I started mumbling to myself, trying to get so I could talk. I had to have something to mumble. I thought of the Lord's Prayer. I mumbled that, a couple of times. I tried to mumble it another time, and couldn't remember how it went." âą "That night I did something I hadnât done in years. I prayed."
Phyllis in the book is much more inclined towards death than her movie version, even thinking of herself as a personification of death. Sheâs killed ten other people (including infants) prior to the events of the novel. Something to keep in mind as Aventurine had mentioned several times that he attempted to kill himself in the dream, plus his leadup to his âgrandest deathâ. Just like Phyllis, heâs even killed at least a few people before, though the circumstances of that were less on his own volition and more so for the sake of his survival (i.e. the death game in the maze involving the 34 other slaves where he was the winner and another time where he murdered his own master). Instead of Phyllis playing the active role of Death towards everybody else, Aventurine himself dances with Death with every gamble, every time his luck comes into play. Danse Macabre.
âą "But thereâs something in me, I donât know what. Maybe Iâm crazy. But thereâs something in me that loves Death. I think of myself as Death, sometimes." âą "Walter, The time has come. For me to meet my bridegroom [Death]. The only one I ever loved."
Moving on to Ratio:
Walter says several times that itâs hard to get along with Keyes, and how he says nice things after getting you all worked up. A hard-headed man to get along with, but damn good at his job. Sound like someone familiar?
âą "That would be like Keyes, that even when he wanted to say something nice to you, he had to make you sore first."Â âą "It makes your head ache to be around him, but heâs the best claim man on the Coast, and he was the one I was afraid of."
Keyes sees Walter as smarter than half the fools in the company. Ratio can only stand the company of Aventurine in regards to the IPC.
âą "Walter, I'm not beefing with you. I know you said he ought to be investigated. I've got your memo right here on my desk. That's what I wanted to tell you. If other departments of this company would show half the sense that you showâ" âą "Oh, he confessed. He's taking a plea tomorrow morning, and that ends it. But my point is, that if you, just by looking at that man, could have your suspicions, why couldn't theyâ! Oh well, what's the use? I just wanted you to know it."
After going on a rant about the H.S. Nirdlinger case (Phyllisâ husband) and how Norton is doing a horrible job, he ends it by saying that itâs sheer stupidity. âSupreme idiocyâ, anybody?
âą "You canât take many body blows like this and last. Holy smoke. Fifty thousand bucks, and all from dumbness. Just sheer, willful, stupidity!"
Phyllisâ former occupation as a nurse is more elaborated on, including her specialization â pulmonary diseases. One of Ratioâs crowning achievements is curing lithogenesis, the âKing of Diseasesâ.
âą "Sheâs one of the best nurses in the city of Los Angeles. [âŠ] Sheâs a nurse, and she specialized in pulmonary diseases. She would know the time of crisis, almost to a minute, as well as any doctor would."
As for the murder scheme, they talk about it a lot more explicitly in the novel. Specifically, Walter mentions how a single person cannot get away with it and that it requires more people to be involved. How everything is known to the party committing the crime, but not the victim. And most importantly: Audacity.
"Say, this is a beauty, if I do say it myself. I didn't spend all this time in the business for nothing, did I? Listen, he knows all about this policy, and yet he don't know a thing about it. He applies for it, in writing, and yet he don't apply for it. He pays me for it with his own check, and yet he don't pay me. He has an accident happen to him and yet he don't have an accident happen to him. He gets on the train, and yet he don't get on it."
"The first is, help. One person can't get away with it, that is unless they're going to admit it and plead the unwritten law or something. It takes more than one. The second is, the time, the place, the way, all known in advanceâto us, but not him. The third is, audacity. That's the one that all amateur murderers forget. They know the first two, sometimes, but that third, only a professional knows. There comes a time in any murder when the only thing that can see you through is audacity, and I can't tell you why."
"And if we want to get away with it, we've got to do it the way they do it, [âŠ]" "Be bold?" "Be bold. It's the only way."
"I still don't knowâwhat we're going to do." "You'll know. You'll know in plenty of time."
"We were right up with it, the moment of audacity that has to be be part of any successful murder."
It fits the situation that Aventurine and Ratio find themselves in extremely well: For the first pointâ Aventurine would not be able to get away with simply airing out details by himself, as that would immediately cast suspicion on him. Having another person accompany him who not only isnât really a part of the IPC in name (as the IPC and The Family have a strenuous relationship) but would probably be able to get closer to Sunday because of that means they can simply bounce off each other without risking as much suspicion with a one-man army. Which is exactly what Ratio and Aventurine do in the conversations they have on Penacony. Secondly â they knew how Sunday operates: as a control freak, he leaves no stone unturned, which is how he became Head of the Oak Family, so their acting required them to give off the impression that a. they hated each other, b. Ratio would go against Aventurineâs wishes and expose him in return for knowledge, c. there were only the two Cornerstones that were hidden. This would give Sunday the illusion of control, and lead to Sunday to lower his guard long enough for Aventurine to take the gift money in the end. The pair knew this in advance, but not Sunday. And thirdly â the plan hinged on a high-level of risk. From breaking the Aventurine Cornerstone, to hoping that Sunday wouldnât find it in the gift bag, to not telling Ratio what the true plan is (meaning Ratio had to figure it out on his own later on), to Sunday even buying Ratioâs story, it was practically the only way they could go about it. âCharming audacityâ, indeed.
An interesting aspect about the novel is that the ending of the novel is divergent from the movieâs final cut and the original ending: Phyllis and Walter commit suicide during a ferry ride to Mexico. The main reason this was changed for the movie was because of the Hays Code, and they wouldnât allow a double suicide to be screened without reprecussions for criminals. Thereâs also a bunch of other aspects that differentiate the novel from the movie (no narration-confession as the confession happens in a hospital, less characterization for Keyes and instead a bigger focus on Lola and her boyfriend, the focus on the murderous aspect of Walter and Phyllisâ relationship instead of actual romance, Walter falling in love with Lola (with an unfortunately large age gap attached), etc.)
As for the ending, this wouldnât even be the first romance media reference related to Aventurine and Ratio where both the leads die, with the other being The Happy Prince and San Junipero (in relation to the EN-only Heaven Is A Place On Earth reference), which I normally would chalk up as a coincidence, though with the opposite line-of-thought I have going on here (and the fact that itâs three out of four media references where the couple die at the endâŠ), I think itâs reasonable to say that Ratio and Aventurine will get that happy ending. Subverting expectations, hopefully.
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[THE HAYS CODE â LGBT CENSORSHIP IN CHINA]
Iâve brought up the Hays code twice now in the previous two sections, but I havenât actually explained what exactly it entails.
The Hays Code (also known as the Motion Picture Production Code) is a set of rules and guidelines imposed on all American films from around 1934 to 1968, intended to make films less scandalous, morally acceptable and more âsafeâ for the general audiences. Some of the âDonâtsâ and âBe Carefulsâ include but are not limited toâŠ
(Donât) Pointed profanity
(Donât) Inference of sex perversion (which includes homosexuality)
(Donât) Nudity
(Be Careful) Sympathy for criminals
(Be Careful) Use of firearms
(Be Careful) Man and woman in bed together
What does this have to do with a Chinese gacha game released in 2023? If you know a little bit about miHoYoâs past, you would know that pre-censorship laws being upheld to a much stronger and stricter degree, they had no problem showcasing their gay couples in Guns Girl Z (Honkai Gakuen 2/GGZ) and Honkai Impact 3rd, with the main three being Bronya/Seele, Kiana/Mei (admittedly the latter one is a more recent example, from 2023), and Sakura/Kallen. Ever since the Bronya and Seele kiss, censorship in regards to LGBT content ramped up, causing the kiss to be removed on the CN side, and they had to lay low with the way they present two same-sex characters who are meant to be together. They canât explicitly say that two female or male characters are romantically involved, but they can lace their dynamics with references for those âin the knowâ â Subtext. Just enough to imply something more but not too much that they get censored to hell and back.
So what Iâm getting at is this: The trouble that Double Indemnity had to go through in order to be made while also keeping the dialogue of Phyllis and Neff as flirtatious as they could under the Hays Code among other things is quite similar to the way Ratio and Aventurine are presented as of now. We never see them interact outside of Penacony (at least up until 2.2, when this post was drafted), so we can only infer those interactions specifically until they actually talk without the fear of being found out by Sunday. But, thereâs still some small moments scattered here and there, such as when Aventurine goes near Ratio in the Dewlight Pavilion Sandpit, he exclaims that âthe view here is breathtakingâ (he can only see Ratioâs chest from that distance) and that Ratio could âeasily squash [him] with just a pinchâ. Ratio then goes âIf that is your wish, I will do so without a momentâs hesitation.â Not to mention the (in)famous âDoctor, youâre huge!â quote.
Itâs not a coincidence that Ratio and Aventurine have three explicit references to romance media (Double Indemnity, Spellbound, Oscar Wildeâs The Happy Prince), possibly even four if you take the EN-only Heaven Is A Place On Earth as a reference to Black Mirrorâs San Junipero. Itâs not a coincidence that the storylines or characters of said references parallel the pairing, from surface-level to deep cuts. Itâs not a coincidence that the CN voice actors were asked to âtone it downâ by the voice director when it came to their chemistry. Itâs not a coincidence that Aventurine has only flirted with (three) men throughout Penacony, even referring to a Bloodhound NPC as a âhunk of a manâ inside his thoughts, all the while ignoring Himeko and Robin when it came to their looks â women who are known across the cosmos with a myriad of adoring fans. There are so many other so-called âcoincidencesâ related to the two that you could make an iceberg just based on versions 2.0-2.2 as well as content miHoYo themselves have put out on social media. They absolutely knew what they were doing, and were trying to get their point across through subtle means â the extent they went to with the Double Indemnity reference while also keeping it under wraps from a âsurfaceâ level point of view is proof of this â the implications are there if you take the time to look for them, and are simply hard to ignore or deny once you do find them.
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[CONCLUSION]
This was supposed to be short considering the other analyses Iâve seen were also pretty short in comparison, but I couldnât get the movie out of my head and ended up getting carried away in the brainrot. I hope you could follow along with my line of thinking, even with the absurd length of this post, and the thirty-image limit. I tried to supplement context with some links to videos and wiki pages among other sources wherever I can to get around it.
I will end it with this though â the love in the movie turned out to be fake and a farce, going off track from what was a passionate romance in the beginning because of the murder scheme. Meanwhile, the whole reason why Ratio and Aventurine can pull off whatever they want is because of their immense trust in one another. What was initially shown to be distrust in the Final Victor LC grew into something more, for Ratio, someone who would have never put faith into mere chance and probability before this, put his trust in Aventurine, of all people.
TL;DR â (I get it, itâs over ten thousand words.)
Not only is the relationship between Neff and Phyllis represented in the deception and acting side of Ratio and Aventurine, but the real and trusting side is shown in Neff and Keyes. They have a fascinating, multi-layered dynamic that is extremely fun to pick apart once you realise whatâs going on underneath the bickering and âhatredâ they display.
Many thanks to Manya again for making the original thread on the movie. I wouldnât be here comparing the game and movie myself if it werenât for that.
By the way, I really do believe that Shaoji totally watched this movie at least once and really wanted that Double Indemnity AU for his OCs. I know exactly how it feels.
â
Other points I'd like to mention that didn't fit anywhere else in the main analysis and/or donât hold much significance, have nothing to do with the Penacony mission, or may even be considered reaching (...if some of the other points werenât). Just some potentially interesting side bits.
Phyllis honks three times to signal Neff to go for the kill. That, and the three gunshots in the confrontation. Aventurine is all about the number three.
The height difference Aventurine and Ratio have going on is close to Phyllis and Neffâs.
Phyllis had killed her husbandâs previous wife and went on to marry Mr. Dietrichson, pretty much taking the wifeâs place. Aventurine killed his previous master, and had taken certain attributes from him like his wristwatch and the rings on his hand and the âall or nothingâ mantra.
When calling Ratio a wretch (bastard), Aventurine smiles for a moment. This is exclusive to the EN, KR and JP voiceovers, as in CN, he does not smile at all. (Most definitely a quirk from the AI they use for lip syncing, but the smile is something thatâs been pointed out quite a few times so I thought Iâd mention it here.)
Sunday specifically says in the CN version that he knew of Aventurine's plans the moment Aventurine left the mansion, meaning that he realized he had been played the fool the moment Ratio and Aventurine talked in Golden Hour
In the description for the "All or Nothing" consumable, teenage Aventurine says this specific line: "Temptation is a virtue for mortals, whereas hesitation proves to be a fatal flaw for gamblers." According to Ratio, this is Aventurine's motto - he says as such in Aventurine's Keeping Up With Star Rail episode. Note that in the anan interview he explicitly says he does not have a motto, and yet Ratio in the video says otherwise. They definitely have to know each other for a while for Ratio to even know this.
A big reason why Neff even pulled off the murder scheme in the first place was because he wanted to see if his good friend Keyes could figure it out, the Mundane Troubles Trailblaze Continuance showcases Ratio attempting to teach the Herta Space Station researches a lesson to not trust the Genius society as much as they did.
In Keyesâ first scene heâs exposing a worker for writing a policy on his truck that he claimed had burnt down on its own, when he was the one who burnt it down. Ratio gets into an Ace Attorney-style argument with the Trailblazer in Mundane Troubles.
Neff talks repeatedly about how it wonât be sloppy. Nothing weak. And how itâll be perfect to Phyllis, and how sheâs going to do it and heâs going to help her. Doing it right â âstraight down the lineâ. Beautifully ironic, considering what happens in the movie, and even more ironic as Ratio and Aventurineâs scheme went exactly the way they wanted to in the end. Straight down the line.
#honkai star rail#double indemnity#veritas ratio#aventurine#golden ratio#ratiorine#an attempt at analysis by one a-u#relationship analysis#you know whatâ i guess i can tag the other names of this ship#aventio#raturine#you could make a fucking tierlist of these names#umâ dynamics (yk what i mean) dont really matter here in the analysis just fyi if youre wondering its general enough#also if you're wondering about the compilation thread - its not done. it'll take a while (a long while.)#this post was so long it was initially just a tumblr draft that i then put into google docs. and it ended up being over 2k+ words long#is this a research paperâ thesisâ or essay? who knows! this just started as just a short analysis after watching the movie on may 5#final word count according to docs (excluding alt text): 13013 - 43 pages with formatting#i wish i could have added more images to thisâ 10k words vs 30 images really is not doing me any favoursâŠ#plusâ i hit the character limit for alt text for one of the images.#if you see me mixing up british and american spellingâ you probably have!#oh yeah. if any of the links happen to break at some point. do tell. i have everything backed up#there also may be multiple links strung togetherâ just so you know.#I link videos using the EN and CN voiceovers. Just keep that in mind if the jump between two languages seems sudden.#I had to copy and paste this thing from the original tumblr draft onto a new post because tumblr wouldn't let me edit the old one anymore.#Feels just like when I was finalising my song comicâŠ#(Note: I had to do this three times.)#I started this at May 5 as a way to pass the time before 2.2. You can probably tell how that turned out.#Did you know there is a limit to the amount of links you can add to a single tumblr post? It's 100. I hit that limit as well.#So if you want context for some of these parts... just ask.#I'm gonna stop here before I hit the tag limit (30) as well LMAOO (never mind I just did.)
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rewatching with the benefit of distance from the actual viewing - it really is so loud at how much tommy treats buck like a child - like literally every single interaction they have in 805 is like a parent talking to a child.
Combined with the shows decision to have Tommy call Buck 'Evan' all the time, feels like they're really trying to convey that this is the relationship equivalent of Buck's childhood and young adulthood - before he became Buck. When he was figuring out his place in the world and who he wanted to be. Its very much feeling like in combination its leading up to him getting to the same place in his bisexuality as when he started at the LAFD academy and changed his name to Buck - that he will make the choice from a bisexual perspective to become Buck and leave Evan behind once more.
#the way he talks to Buck is just super jarring and at this point its getting very loud and feels like its increasing in frequency#theres something about people pleaser Buck - in his first queer relationship not fully understanding that he's being treated like a child#plus there is the metaphor of tommy being a parental figure in queer terms (not being derogatory at all I just mean in terms of buck being#a baby queer and being 'brought up' in the same way a baby is brought up and parented)#it plays rather nicely into the way we might get Bucks feelings realisation about Eddie as well#that he'll dump tommy as he becomes Buck - then spend his 'probie year' being single and exploring (Buck out on the town at gay bars etc)#and then when we get to the point when Eddie turns up - we get a whatta man redux and the feelings realisation clicks into place#911 spoilers#eddie diaz#evan buckley#911 abc#buddie#anti bucktommy#anti tommy kinard
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The TTPD Deep Dive (Part ?)
Itâs no secret that I have a lot of Thoughts about The Tortured Poets Department and it has lived rent-free in my head since it came out earlier this year. Iâm absolutely blown away by how underneath the chaos, itâs actually an exceptionally cohesive story and is probably the closest to a concept album Taylor has ever done.
There are so many themes that have stood out to me over the last five months, and thereâs one in particular that I think not only drives the entire album, but ties into previous albums to help deepen understanding of it.
This is it, my fangirl magnum opus, my months of posts consolidated into one place. This is also my disclaimer that this is just my interpretation of the album, and my summary of the story it tells, and I donât pretend to have any special insight or authority. Iâm not saying Iâm correct at all, do not take any of this as fact, itâs just what it sounds like to me, and these are my silly not-so-little thoughts about it.
(Under a cut because itâs way too long and involves discussion many may not care for or be sick of.)
Come one, come all, it's happening again (I'm thinking too hard about Taylor music)
The overarching theme in TTPD to me is: Grief. If youâre looking at TTPD as a story being told (instead of just as someoneâs real life), the inciting incident of TTPD is loss, and the grief from that loss is what drives the narratorâs actions and the fallout, as well as unpacks those complicated feelings and how they apply to the her life in general. By the end of the standard album, itâs also about recovering from that pain, moving on from it and learning from it.
The loss specifically is the loss of the dream of having a family (with oneâs partner). One thing that is abundantly clear both on the top line and under the surface in TTPD is how Taylor (as a person and as narrator) longed not only to for marriage but specifically parenthood, and the fear and then realization of losing that chance absolutely wrecked herâ which is why the next loverâs (the conman's) wooing worked so well, because it preyed on that yearning. Yet that loss also dovetails into the grief of many things: of youth, of idealism, of relationships, of ideas, even of self, which causes almost a deconstruction of a belief system to piece oneâs life back together by the end.
THE CONTEXT
TTPD weaves in the topics of marriage and motherhood both explicitly and in the subtext, in various forms and scenarios. The cheating husband in âFortnight.â The wedding ring line in âTTPDâ the song. âHe saw forever so he smashed it upâ in âMy Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys.â All of âSo Long, London.â Running away with her wild boy in âBut Daddy I Love Him,â fantasizing about weddings and joking about babies. The imaginary rings in âFresh Out The Slammer.â The cheating husband (again) and the friends who smell like weed or âlittle babiesâ in âFlorida!!!â âYou and I go from one kiss to getting married,â âTalking rings and talking cradles,â and âour field of dreams engulfed in fireâ in âloml.â (And arguably: âI wish I could un-recall how we almost had it all.â) âHe said heâd love me all his life, but that life was too short,â in âI Can Do It With A Broken Heart.â They may not sound like much on their own, but they paint a picture about how the topics pervaded her thoughts and her writing, and in many cases express her desires, and her pain.
Itâs something that goes back several albums when you pick up on context clues. You get the first hints on Reputation with âNew Yearâs Day,â and âyou and me forevermore.â Then Lover is very forward with it: âLoverâ is basically wedding vows, âPaper Ringsâ is very engagement-coded, âI Think He Knowsâ is cheeky but low-key âyou better put a ring on it,â âItâs Nice To Have A Friendâ has wedding/marriage imagery in the last verse. As a self-professed diaristic writer, itâs the type of stuff one presumably doesnât put out there unless those conversations have already happened, and she was very excited about it at the time it was released.
Then the pandemic happens and folklore comes out, and while there is still happy love there (âinvisible stringâ), there are also the first indications that something has happened to put a halt to whatever future she once dreamed of (âhoax,â âthe lakesâ) and that sheâs trying to reassure herself and him that it can still happen even if sheâs scared it might not (âpeaceâ). Notably, as far as I can remember itâs the first time Taylor explicitly brings up the idea of family (with her partner) with âyou know that Iâd give you my wild, give you a child,â which stood out at the time because itâs so incredibly vulnerable, but itâs even more poignant when you really take in that the whole song is like a confession of her deepest worries, and this is her vowing to give him these things that she holds most sacred if heâll let her. These are what she cherishes most dearly and wants to return in kind: her youth and commitment (my wild), the family she craves (a child), unconditional support (swing for the fences/sit in the trenches) and understanding/compassion (silence that only comes when two people know each other).
Evermore follows an even darker path, and suddenly the album explores relationships that end and grappling with loss. There are toxic relationships (âtolerate itâ), dangerous marriages (âno body, no crime,â âivyâ), failing/broken relationships (âConey Island,â âchampagne problems,â âhappiness,â ââtis the damn seasonâ), as well as grief (âMarjorie,â âevermoreâ). Even some of the happy songs have uncertainty in them: in âwillowâ sheâs begging for him to take her lead, like sheâs still trying to decipher him and ask him to commit; in âcowboy like me,â still a beautiful love song, sheâs thinking, âthis wasnât supposed to work and we were supposed to bail on each other but we fell in love insteadâ; âevermoreâ is about the depths of severe depression (and more) with the love story being the one saving grace in her darkest hour. And itâs also notable that after all the âfictionâ writing, shortly after this album she writes âRenegadeâ where sheâs telling the subject: Iâm ready to start the next phase of our life now, why arenât you? Is it me you donât want after all? Itâs like thereâs something telling her that this stall might not just be a stall.
Midnights is a jumble (in a good, but in hindsight, also sad way) with the âsleepless nightsâ concept, but it seems pretty clear now that the themes and events and relationships she was revisiting tied into a lot of what she was feeling in her present life. I wrote the cliff notes version awhile back, but sheâs questioning so much of her life thatâs reflected in past events and relationships. Am I actually always the problem? How did we lose sight of each other and what we had? We only seem to work when we block out everyone and everything else. Can we ever go back to when things were good? Why are you neglecting me? I once thought I was going to lose everything but you saved me in the nick of time, can that happen again? I chased my career, but did I give up my chance at having a family in the process? Nobody knows what I really suffer from behind closed doors and Iâm all alone.
And so on, which in retrospect now that we have TTPD, is very much what she was grappling with in private while writing and releasing the album. The inspiration behind the songs may have been different events and muses, but regardless of their origins they all end up feeling too familiar, like she's seen this film before (ahem). Weâre seeing her view of commitment change too, or rather how she writes about it: sheâs not making the outright declarations of it like on Lover, or even the implied ones on folklore, nor is she talking of the dark side of it like evermore. For the most part itâs a return to the early days of some relationships, before things got hard, or the end of them when there was nothing left, and also pushing away the discussion of it altogether by the outside world. âSweet Nothingâ is a sweet slice of life, but even at that, itâs the peace of the home in conflict with the pressure of the outside world. Now that we have âYouâre Losing Me,â which was written at the same time as the rest of the album, we can probably deduce that she was going back to the start because something happened that made her doubt the future.
THE SETUP
So much of Midnights directly ties into TTPD, and I said in the post I linked that itâs like Midnights is asking the questions that TTPD answers. But thereâs one song in particular on Midnights that sticks out to me as being key in the broadest sense to understanding the state of mind that led to the events of TTPD, and thatâs âBigger Than The Whole Sky,â because the way it expresses grief is reflected in the theme of mourning a life built and the dreams along with it that are never realized in TTPD. There are several instances in TTPD that are basically variations of: âevery single thing to come has turned into ashes,â and thatâs what makes her snap, and leaves her vulnerable to someone who promises her those things when sheâs bereaved at losing them in the first place. (In other words: âthe deflation of our dreaming leaving me bereft and reeling.â) The song tells a story about how that loss of hope colours oneâs entire mindset, and in some ways is a bridge to TTPD to understand what such a low point feels like.
I think that that grief, and most importantly losing hope for an imagined future in its wake, is fundamental to understanding TTPD on so many levels: both the decline with one partner that kept her hanging on then led her such a dark path, and why she fell for the conman's apparent bullshitting because it offered an express pass to what she was losing with her partner. And I also feel like it plays a part into the ruminating sheâs doing all over Midnights, trying to make sense of where she finds herself when sheâs writing the album, which directly leads to âYouâre Losing Me.â Loss permeates so many of the stories on Midnights: of lovers, of innocence, of youth, of faith, of control, of lifeâs work, etc. âBTTWSâ is just one of the ways in which it is expressed so fully, capturing that deep depression and subsequent extinction of faith in something that once felt assured and very much wanted. (Which is also mentioned in her writing process in the âDepressionâ playlist on Apple Music.)
If you understand why that feeling of loss in general across so many parts of life is so important to Midnights, then it illuminates so much about the ânarrativeâ in TTPD too. If on Midnights sheâs wrestling with the seeds of grief and loss (on multiple fronts), TTPD is her reckoning with it in its full form. âSo Long, Londonâ is the song that is the most explicit about it: How much sad did you think I had in me? How much tragedy? Just how low did you think Iâd go before Iâd have to go be free? You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues? I died on the altar waiting for the proof. Itâs the sequel to âYouâre Losing Me.â Itâs, the air is thick with loss and indecision, I know my pain is such an imposition, Iâm getting tired even for a phoenix, all I did was bleed as I tried to be the bravest soldier, Iâve got nothing left to believe unless youâre choosing me, my heart wonât start anymore, but from the other side of the break.
This is highly speculative, but if you follow the thread about the topic and the relationship as told from Rep through TTPD, in broad strokes it goes: young love with a serious connection (Rep) -> growing up and making life plans (Lover) -> something happens that delays those plans or makes them grind to a halt (folklore) -> serious doubts arise and cause a loss of faith in their future (evermore) -> struggling with the loss of that future and trying to make sense of the problems in a last ditch attempt to save the relationship (Midnights) -> fallout from that grief after the blowup of the relationship (TTPD). Understanding that progression of events (through the music) explains not only the storytelling side of TTPD (e.g. the jump from the partner to the conman) but also how the experiences/muses blend in the music, and how the music that on the surface is about the short-term relationship is really driven by the destruction of the long-term one.
Following the music, itâs IMO implied that Taylor (the narrator) was holding out for marriage and family with her partner, for years, and it seems like it was at one point a shared dream until something happened to pump the brakes, and seemingly on her partnerâs end. And extrapolating further, given how the sorrow expressed in former albums bleeds into TTPD, it sounds like a plan that had been concrete in some form before it had fallen apart, and losing something that once felt so tangible is what drives her in her grief to find any kind of respite from the pain. Which is why the situation with the conman becomes so appealing as the one with the partner splinters further and further.
(If everything youâve once touched is sick with sadness and you donât want to be sad anymore, what are you left to do?)
THE STORY
So (one part of) the story kind of sounds like this from the standard album: the relationship with her partner as well as his mental health slowly deteriorate and he withdraws emotionally (âLondon,â âFresh Out The Slammerâ) and physically (again, âLondon,â and âGuilty As Sin?â) and takes his resentment out on her (âLondonâ and arguably âMy Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toysâ even though I don't want to get into muse speculation here). As she sinks deeper into her own depression as a result, the weight of the failing relationship starts feeling like a cageâ or a noose (âLondon,â âGuiltyâ), but coming to terms with the loss of their life together and the future theyâd dreamed of was killing her (again, âLondon,â but also âI Can Do It With A Broken Heartâ).
Enter the conman who she reconnects with at the very point where this is coming to a head (knowing that IRL she reconnected with him around the time Midnights was being worked on) , and if you read between the lines, she confides some deeply personal things to him (âDown Badâ and âhostile takes oversâ/âencounters closer and closer,â âSmallest Manâ and the entire sleeper cell spy imagery which is one of my favourite things and I could write a whole essay about the meaning of it, âlomlâ and âA con man sells a fool a get-love-quick schemeâ). Then after sheâs confided these secrets to him, he insinuates himself back into her life (âGuilty,â âDown Bad,â âSmallest Manâ) and sells her a dream that HE can give her all these things she hopes for (again, âDown Bad,â âSmallest Man,â âloml,â song âTTPD,â âBroken Heartâ).
But the thing is, he only knows these are the things she wants because sheâs revealed it to him, and presumably, told him that was what she was losing by staying with her partner. And instead of the normal response of, âthat is really sad that your partner is not supporting you and you deserve to be treated better,â to a friend in growing distress, it seems like it was, âwell I can give you all those things!!!! Right now!!!! Trust me!!!!â And worked on her until she believed it, and jumped at the chance at a precarious time in her life. And one thing I want to underscore is: Taylor has agency in the situation always, itâs not like sheâs been kidnapped and brainwashed. (In fact, she implores on songs like âBut Daddyâ that SHE is in charge of her own choices, good or bad.) She chose to rekindle the friendship and then relationship, and she chose to eventually leave her long term relationship for another man, and she reiterates on the album that she owns this all. But itâs also: nothing exists in a vacuum, and she makes choices based on emotions and information she has at the time, which is why it gives so much whiplash.
THE ALBUM
When you look at it as, the situation with the conman only happens because of what happened with the partner first and that the appeal of the conman and the fantasy he sells her is a direct reaction to that, it makes the âswirlinessâ of the music make so much more sense. And for much of it, even many of the âconmanâ songs on the surface are really âpartnerâ songs underneath.
Fortnight
A suburban gothic allegory about a broken marriage with a distant husband with a wandering eye, which makes the rekindled romance with the neighbor so appealing. Sheâs miserable caged in her stifling house because sheâs been abandoned by her spouse, so the reappearance of this past love reignites the passion thatâs dead at home.
TTPD
âSo tell me, who else is gonna know me?â âI chose this cyclone with you.â Iâm gonna kill myself if you ever leave. Everyone knows weâre crazy. Sheâs laying it out there that sheâs already in a dangerous state of mind, and sheâs actively putting herself in more danger by pursuing the conman. âAt dinner you take my ring off my middle finger and put it on the one people put wedding rings on, and thatâs the closest Iâve come to my heart exploding,â spells this whole thing out so clearly: whether itâs an actual event (likely) or a metaphor for the promise he makes to her, the reason why it makes her heart explode is because itâs the thing sheâs been waiting for forever with no movement, and here this person comes in and slips it on her finger in an instant like itâs nothing. (And eventually, as weâll come to know, it is absolutely nothing to him.) You mean it could have been this easy this whole time?! (Well, no. Not until a certain other suitor makes his appearance later.) It feels like sheâs finally getting everything she wanted in the blink of an eye! How lucky! How convenient! What was that about the get-love-quick scheme you say? (Unsaid: the reason why this feels so urgent is because thereâs a sense that time is running out in so many aspects of her life and not just the obvious. Which reappears later on.)
Down Bad
âDid you really beam me up in a cloud of sparkling dust just to do experiments on?â sets the scene for this euphoric experience in the moment that starts to feel violating once the dust settles (which is then followed up in âSmallest Manâ and the spy mission on her). The bridge spells out how he weaselled his way into her life, preyed upon (intentionally or not) her emotional state, sold her a dream and then vanished, without the benefit of hindsight yet we see later in the album.
The alien abduction metaphor is pretty brilliant, because it shows both how she was desperate to escape the place she found herself in, and how much it screwed her brain to then be left stranded when the affair was over. â[I loved your] hostile takeovers, encounters closer and closer,â is so evocative because it details how the situation came to be: his overtures under the guise of friendship blurred lines until he made her an offer that she eventually couldnât refuse (hostile takeovers) as he infiltrated her life more and more intimately. The sad thing is that the song has parallels to how her relationship with the partner started too in earlier albums, in that they ran away to live in their own bubble (or planet) only for him to metaphorically abandon her as the years went on. (Oven, meet microwave.)
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
Being continually emotionally broken down by a person who knows heâs hurting you but still acts the way he does. (The original voice memo version makes this even clearer and itâs rather heartbreaking.) âHe saw forever so he smashed it up,â speaks to the loss of a future the person became scared of, and the original lyrics (âhe saw forever so he blew it upâ) somehow cut even deeper to me because it feels so much more intentional.
Also in the original version, âhe was my best friend and that was the worst part,â also speaks not only to the loss of an entire partnership in the wake of this hurt, but also to the feelings of betrayal that the person you trust so deeply has the ability to hurt you in this way too, and how itâs a one-two punch of not only losing the relationship but also your closest confidant. (Itâs like the sequel to âRenegadeâ and the missiles firing to me.) Again, there are shades of both/many situations in the song, pointing to an unfortunate pattern in some ways. The situation in âMy Boyâ is part of why she was so low, and why the âget love quick schemeâ was so appealing later on. And it dovetails nicely intoâŠ
So Long, London
The most explicitly âpartnerâ song that puts a coda on âYouâre Losing Me,â and is Track 5 because itâs the emotional underpinning of how she got to where she was, and drives the events of the rest of the album. It spells everything out: He withdrew, she tried to fix it for both of them, eventually even that stopped working, he was oblivious to or minimized how badly she was suffering and his (in)actions couldnât reassure her, he wouldnât move forward on their future plans and stewed in his own struggles, she was spiralling out of control trying to hang on and ultimately felt like she was going to die if she didnât leave.
But Daddy I Love Him
Like a direct reaction to âSo Long, Londonâ in that she breaks free from the death of one relationship and throws herself with reckless abandon to the next, fuck the haters. How dare you judge me, when the relationship you think I should have stayed in was killing me? (Dutiful daughter all the plans were laid. All you want is gray for me.) Fuck all of you, Iâm going to choose whoever I want! (So what if I have a baby with HIM, huh?! I tried doing it the proper way and look where that got me so now we're back to square one) Itâs again her imagining how wonderful and freeing this âwild boyâ is going to be for her, and how wrong sheâll prove everyone. THIS TIME she definitely got it right. So what if she has to run away! So what if she scandalizes the whole town! They donât know what she really wants or needs anyway! Sheâs the only one of her (hee-hee-hee) and sheâs the only who gets to decides how this goes. (Because: she longs for control in a situation sheâll eventually realize she has little of it in, which weâll find out is a recurring theme in her life.)
Fresh Out The Slammer
Also spells out what happened with the partner in the first verse and the pre-choruses, which is what makes the conman so appealing as the imagined jailbreak. The bitter loneliness vs. the sultry passion she builds up in her head as she awaits her release from prison is key to understanding the two sides of the story in the album. Thereâs this whole outlaw imagery (which is also carried through in âI Can Fix Himâ), but itâs contrasted in the end with her and her reunited lover sitting on park swings like children with âimaginary ringsâ â because âAin't no way I'm gonna screw up now that I know what's at stake.â Whatâs at stake is lasting love and the promises that come with it (marriage/family) that are precious and time-sensitive. The imaginary rings are both a nod to the youthful dreams of her and her new/old lover, but also has a double meaning to me because those promises arenât built on anything together; they're made up, intangible. (Theyâre no more concrete than the plans that went up in smoke with the partner.) Like with most of the conman situation, itâs all a fantasy in her head that has yet to happen, and as we find out later in the album, reality ends up leaving much to be desired.
Florida!!!
Broadly speaking, itâs running away from your problems and wanting to disappear from your life. (But again: the life sheâs disappearing from is the cheating husband she may or may not be feeding to the swamp-- another miserable marriage.) What kind of flies under the radar though is the âI donât want to exist,â line, which points to her dire state of mind that led her to fleeing to that metaphorical timeshare down in Destin. In many ways about cheating death.
Guilty As Sin
Yes itâs the âmasturbation song,â but again the nuance is that sheâs left to pleasure herself because her partner has abandoned her emotionally and even physically, i.e. âmy boredomâs bone deep.â To be blunt: they arenât even intimate anymore, so she starts fantasizing about the guy she used to have chemistry with whoâs reentered her life and is making moves on her. And realizing that sheâs now finding release in another man (albeit imaginary) breaks her even as it reinvigorates her because she finally understands that the relationship sheâs in is effectively dead. (âAm I allowed to cry?â)
Whoâs Afraid of Little Old Me
This isnât about relationships, but about society and its reaction to them in a general sense. But again, sheâs left to stew in all this anger and hurt as sheâs been abandoned at home, then abandoned by public opinion, and the public attack on her is part of the origin as well as the end of that story. The trauma inflicted upon her detailed in the song is the reason why she felt trapped in the first place, which led to the decisions sheâs made and habits sheâs leaned on ever since.
I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
This is one of the few songs that is the most completely conman-coded, and shows when the delusion finally breaks at the end of the song. She spends the whole song being like, âno really, I alone can make him better! Youâll see! I know heâs gross, but heâs mine! Itâll be fine I swear! You donât know anything! Uuuuuum hmm wait actually what the fuckââ
Loml
Oof. THE song. Again the surface reading is about the âconmanâ who comes in and sells her the lie, but the pain is because all the dreams she writes about are HER dreams and implied that they were the dreams she built with her partner that the conman sold back to her. I could do a deeper dive on this but most of the song is applicable to both relationships, which not only shows the âswirlinessâ of her writing, but also how they both ultimately did the same thing to her in different shades.
The bridge and the last chorus are kind of fundamental to understanding it all, and her ending it with âyouâre the loss of my lifeâ is about, among other things, how falling for this trap blew up the life she built and dreamed of for good. (I could talk about this one forever.) âYou shit-talked me under the table, talking rings and talking cradlesâ to âOur field of dreams engulfed in fireâ is a hell of a line and progression, and again, indicative of what the real driving force behind the whole album is. The shit-talking is because he took her dreams (of marriage and children) and hyped it back up to her tenfold whether in a moment of his own delusion or for more nefarious reasons â much like how the man prior kept promising these things but never followed through, which left her vulnerable to someone who appeared to offer them enthusiastically. The field of dreams isnât just the one with the conman, itâs the one with the longterm relationship sheâd built the dream with in the first place, because the conmanâs actions are part of the reason the LTR went up in smoke. (Not the reason for the rift, but the consequence of the final break.) And THAT is why itâs the loss of her life, so completely.
When she says âI wish I could un-recall how we almost had it all,â IMO itâs not just the fake future that the conman lures her into, but also (and perhaps mainly) the once-real one she had with her partner and the loss of which that made her susceptible to falling for the con in the first place. Thereâs honestly so much between the lines in this song that covers every theme and speaks to the grief of seeing the life she imagined slip away, slowly by the first man then annihilated by the second.
I Can Do It With a Broken Heart
The juxtaposition of âHe said heâd love me all his life, but that life was too shortâ and âHe said heâd love me for all time, but that time was quite shortâ sums it up to me (and parallels âlomlâ), because they are two different situations, but they cut her just the same. In the first, âthat lifeâ IMO was the life theyâd built with the dreams that went along with it and it was too short because he never followed through, and in the second, the âtimeâ was quite short because it was the frenzy of the whirlwind romance that fizzled as quickly as it began. The life that was too short led to the time that was quite short.
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
This is definitely THE conman song. The rage, the shame, the violation, itâs all in there. But the key to it is the bridge and the espionage imagery woven through it. A honeypot scheme is when spies target a mark and seduce them to gain their trust and their privileged information for their homeland. So her likening him to a sleeper cell spy who set her up just to mine her deepest secrets and use them against her is a heavy, loaded statement. And implied: that valuable information she unknowingly held were her longings of marriage and family (the aforementioned shit-talking about rings and cradles she never got to have), and more importantly, those dreams preceded him reentering her life and then beginning his mission on her.
The insinuation then is: she confesses these are her deepest wishes which are now seemingly unattainable in her current situation (e.g. with her partner) -> he convinces her HE will give them to her and make the dreams she pines for come true -> she falls for him and blows up her life to make it happen -> he gets what he wants (thrill of the chase/sex/the idea of her/whatever his intent was) -> he abandons her when he gets what he wants, or rather it isnât what he wants or can handle -> sheâs left a) all alone b) with dreams unfulfilled c) with no answers d) feeling used at having her most sacred wishes used against her.
Again, the song is unquestionably about the way the conman absolutely destroyed her, but he was able to do that because there was this thing she wanted more than anything, that was dying in her previous relationship, that he was able to prey upon to seduce her, then discarded her and her dreams as soon as it was inconvenient for him while absolutely hollowing her inside out. (And again: the devastating thing is that this also applies to other relationships sheâs written about, in different ways.)
The Alchemy
Not about either the partner or the conman directly, but it (loosely) touches on her finding herself after the whole oven-to-microwave experience and opening herself up to life and love again. #GoodForHer
Clara Bow
This isnât about the romantic relationships on the surface, but it is about how damaging the entertainment industry and public life are on women, and how women are only valued for their beauty as commodities until they can be discarded and destroyed in the process. Which I think plays into the circumstances that led her to make the decisions that she did years ago, and why she makes the ones she does now. (But also, being valued for physical traits and appeal for the male gaze brings us toâŠ)
The Manuscript
The âoriginal sinâ that kicks off all of this. Again, at first light this isnât about the partner or the conman, but the person it is about is the reason why she has made all the decisions she has ever since in relationships (and thatâs Mr. Plaid Shirt Days from âAll Too Wellâ). The realization that her first serious adult relationship is what cemented these patterns, and this view of herself and her worthiness in relationships, is profoundly sad. An older man who valued her for being so mature for her age and implying that the mature activities ahem associated with that were the performance benchmarks in her ability to carry a relationship, only to leave her, was earth shattering. She placed her faith in this person, but then the way he treated her changed her view of love and of herself.
She took his innuendo about âpushing strollersâ as a sign of potential commitment, whereas he ultimately meant it as foreplay, and she was too young and naive to know the difference. So not only did she learn from that that this man (and men) didnât view commitment and family the way she did and that it was something to be toyed with, but she also learned that her value to them among other things was sex. Imagine being an idealistic 20 year old and your boyfriend ten years your senior tells you, âif the sex is anywhere near as good as our dates have been, weâre going to be making babies before you know it,â (e.g. this is relationship is serious) and then he dumps you: does that imply that the sex was not in fact that good? (E.g. that youâre not worthy after all?)
No, obviously from this side of life, itâs because he was a commitment-phobic playboy, even if he did love her, but she couldnât have known that at 20 and instead internalized that shame. But, it did send her on a path of how she approached sex and love and relationships for over a decade afterwards. And her coming to the realization that that first act of (perhaps unintentional) manipulation is what informed her actions thereafter helped her break the pattern. Her worth to men is not just sex, she has value and her hopes and dreams have value, she doesnât have to change into a different person to please anyone, because if that is what they want, they wonât ever want her anyway.
Itâs been described here on Tumblr by people more eloquent and astute than I as a song that encapsulates the album as this: one did it slow (partner), one did it fast (conman), and one did it first (first love)â and that is haunting. After years of men minimizing her dreams and desires, if not outright using them against her, sheâs finally at the point where she can let it all go and move on for good. (Thereâs a whole other tangent about consent and shame and manipulation, but thatâs an entirely different kind of discussion. But it is so devastatingly contrasted with âyou said if we had been closer in age maybe it would have been fine, and that made me want to die.â)
THE SUMMATION
This is just my interpretation of it, but in going through the standard album, it feels pretty clear how cohesive the album is about a story of love and loss and grief, then reckoning with what caused it all in the first place that set a person on this path. Itâs a formative experience at a young age that was traumatic and led to certain coping mechanisms and a shaping of oneâs self-perception, as well as the reaction to external pressures that try to dictate behaviours and influence how one feels one deserves out of love which makes it harder to know when one absolutely deserves more and better. And leaves one struggling to cope with loss when there isnât anything else to hold onto. Then in light of oneâs life blowing up, learning to find oneself in the aftermath all over again.
On another tangent that is somewhat related to the theme of loss, the way she writes about the two main muses on the standard album also ties into how the situations converged to create absolute carnage on her emotional and mental well-being. With one situation, sheâs talking about a concrete life that crumbles under the weight of their struggles; with the other, the entire thing is a fantasy that she builds up in her head, and when it comes to fruition it falls far, far short.
If you look at the âmicrowaveâ (conman) relationship, you realize that almost everything she writes about it happens before it actually becomes reality, and itâs mostly her imagining how great itâll be, but with few exceptions, when she writes about what actually occurred, it doesnât even come close to living up to her expectations. âFortnightâ is an imagined future where she escapes to Florida and his touch finally starts her stalled engine (ahem). âTTPDâ is perhaps the most positive retelling of their time together, but even that implies he was better off stoned and when he sobered up he succumbed to his demons all over again, and more importantly she conveys how she also is in extreme distress, barely concealed by the veneer of being infatuated with him. (E.g. saying to that sheâll kill herself if he ever leaves her â the implication is that she is absolutely serious about it when she âfelt seen.â) And that the warning bells are going off in her head, but she feels like this person is the only one she can be with (because theyâre equally fucked up and the chaos he brings into her life makes her feel alive when she felt so close to death).
âDown Badâ is the most explicit about being in love, but sheâs also left completely confused and disoriented by him disappearing, wondering if any of it was real and the seeds of violation creep into her consciousness (âdid you really beam me up in a cloud of sparkling dust just to do experiments on?â âWaking up in blood.â). âBut Daddyâ is her imagining she can tell everyone to fuck off for telling her what to do with her life. âFresh Out The Slammerâ is her fantasizing about this man while feeling trapped in her relationship â but never in the song is she actually reunited with him; sheâs using him as the projection of all the things sheâll make right after being wronged by her partner. âGuilty As Sin?â Is very obviously about her fantasizing about sleeping with him, but again itâs such a minefield for her because it hasnât happened yet; theyâve only just reconnected. âI Can Fix Himâ is the only song other than âTTPDâ that shows them actually together, and itâs the one where she keeps saying, essentially, âI know heâs gross but I can rehabilitate him into an upstanding person, trust me,â until the mic drop at the end of the song where it finally hits her that no, she canât, because this is who he is, not the person sheâs built him up to be.
âLomlâ is when it all comes crashing down, and the song emphasizes everything he did and told her, e.g. that sheâs the love of his life, but she doesnât return the sentiment in the song about their time together. Because now that itâs past tense, she knows it wasnât actually love. (And says as much in the album epilogue poem.) âBroken Heartâ is her reeling in the aftermath, but again, itâs âhe said,â not âI loved.â And then thereâs âThe Smallest Man,â where she eviscerates him: he also pursued an idea of her but didnât care much for the real her in front of him (who else is gonna know me?), he love bombed her only to hurt her (crushing her dreams), he was constantly stoned (and not just in the funny munchies kind of way), and he wasnât even a good lover (despite the fantasy sheâd created before). That last point is especially striking because she spent albums singing about the importance of and pleasure in (sexual) intimacy in the relationship with her partner (sometimes to both their own detriment) and how it was at times the only way they could connect, but in this case, the idea she hyped up and acted on in her head about this lover never panned out in practice. She spells it out in the epilogue: it wasnât a love affair, it was a mutual manic phase.
In contrast, thereâs a lot more tangible action in the âovenâ (partner) parts of the album, showing how hard she tried to make the relationship work in real life instead of just in her head. All of âSo Long, Londonâ is her detailing how she tried to break through to him and support him, even when he rejected it and pushed her away, thinking she could carry them both until they ultimately sank, but she did it because she âloved this place for so long.â (The place? Not just the city, but the home and perhaps most importantly, him.) In âSlammerâ she stayed with him even as things disintegrated for âone hour of sunshine.â (E.g. holding onto the rarer good times even as they were fewer and further between, hoping things would eventually turn around.) And like in âLondon,â she held on despite people in her life pleading with her that it was hurting her. (Which is also echoed in âSlammer.â) In âGuiltyâ her boredom is âbone deepâ because the passion that once drove their relationship (and papered over their problems) has finally gone out too, so thereâs nothing left to hold onto, leading to her fantasizing about the new suitor, which makes her realize her relationship has passed the point of no return. âLomlâ is about the conman on the surface, but the undercurrent of all the things she says about him is that he was co-opting the dreams that she was clinging onto for dear life in the previous relationship, which is why the con is so painful; the field of dreams he sets ablaze isnât just the fake painting he sold to her, but the original artifact (her life with her partner) too.
All the physical and emotional labour she puts into the relationship with her partner ends up reflected in the fantasizing she does in the one with the conman, which is why it is so confusing in the moment and so lethal when he leaves her without any answers. She wants to get married and start a family with her partner which keeps getting stalled; the conman mock-proposes which makes her think heâs immediately serious (âTTPD,â âlomlâ). She feels caged by having to hide with her partner and shrink herself; the conman promises heâll stand by her side publicly and let her shine (âSmallest Manâ). She sinks into a deep depression in her loneliness as the relationship with her partner careens off a cliff; the conman convinces her theyâre meant for each other in a them-against-the-world way (âDown Badâ). The intimacy (in all senses of the word) in her relationship with her partner fizzles; the conman stokes the fire by sending her secret messages and reigniting passion (âGuiltyâ). She spent years trying to help her partner to no avail; the conman makes her think she has the power to reform him (âlomlâ). She feels misunderstood by her partner; the conman acts like heâs the (only) one who truly gets her (âTTPD,â âlomlâ).
In short: thereâs nothing that the conman does or says that isnât a direct response to what her partner did first, and itâs even worse because the conman knew how much her partnerâs actions hurt her and he used that privileged information to paint a picture of what he could give her, but in doing so in some ways aimed at her heart with even deadlier accuracy. (Iâve likened it to him borrowing someone elseâs life for his own joyride, until he crashes the rental car and flees the scene.) Itâs why in the aftermath, the difference in emotions are so different: she feels nothing but rage and violation towards the conman for getting in her head and using her, whereas her feelings towards her partner are more complicated. Thereâs anger (at her lost youth and being taken for granted), but thereâs also sorrow (at their lost life and future), disappointment (that he never could step up the way heâd promised or sheâd needed), even compassion (towards his struggles) and a tiny measure of appreciation (for the good times they did share).
When you look at the bigger picture, the story the album paints is just so painfully normal. You have two people (Taylor and her partner) who once loved each other deeply, and despite warning signs early on telling them they have fundamentally different needs and ways of living their lives they fight like hell to make it work (the epilogue) until those warning signs become grenades that destroy their home (âMy Boy,â âLondon,â âSlammer,â arguably âlomlâ). Having already been through at least one rough patch/break/breakup that she felt almost destroyed her (harkening back to Midnights on âYouâre Losing Me,â âThe Great Warâ and âHits Differentâ), the final and fatal downward spiral of the relationship (âYLM,â âLondonâ) and the grief over losing that future sends her into a tailspin, just at the time where a flame from the past (the conman) reenters her life and tells her all the things sheâs been longing to hear and feel (âTTPD,â âDown Bad,â âGuilty,â âlomlâ) and, crucially, missing from the relationship that was once her entire life.
So in her panic, she falls prey to the (empty) promises of the past lover (âloml,â âSmallest Manâ) and decides heâs actually what will save her from the free fall, because the alternative (that she will end up in a situation she doesnât think she can survive) is too painful to bear. When she finally acts on these circumstances (leaves her partner/runs to the conman), she snaps, acting on pure emotion and adrenaline (âBut Daddyâ), but before she knows it, the new lover abandons her, and sheâs left to reckon with the fallout of the episode and process everything that has happened (âDown Bad,â âlomlâ) â with the conman, with her partner, with the choices made in her adult life personally and professionally which leads her back to the moment she feels set her down that road at the start.
The TL;DR of this unintentionally long essay is that the reason the conman affair was so serious was precisely because it was meant to fulfill the promise of what was her life with her partner. To me, a large part of the story is that she projected that life onto the conman (or he projected her life back to her for his own purposes) because she wasnât ready to deal with that massive grief and the life raft he offered felt like the only alternative to an even darker end. Whether the conman actually believed what he told her, or he went along with it or encouraged it because it served his purpose, weâll never know, just like weâll never know the finer details of what went on (nor should we). But no matter what, the album is just an extreme deep dive into all the ways grief can consume us, and whether itâs a long, drawn-out death or a sudden, inexplicable one, it can turn a personâs life into such a trainwreck that they act in ways unfathomable to even them, let alone the people around them. It can also unleash repressed trauma and mental illness that can crater your sense of self. And when those situations are compounded? It makes for a nearly impossible type of breakdown to unpack. (Which is why you might need a 31 song album to process it.)
#What if i told you Iâm back lol#Time for me to finally just post the thing after itâs been sitting in my drafts for so long so I can rid myself of it lol#Writing letters addressed to the fire#the tortured poets department#Consider this a treat before Eras comes back for its swan song leg idk#Would you believe that as long as this is#i deleted quite a few chunks of it from the original draft i sent to a friend(s) in the interest of ~propriety~#Because they were a little too rambly and umâ ~speculative~/personal/etc and we are flying too close to the sun#And i tried to be as tactful and more or less stick to things we can point to in the music and such#So hope people catch my drift lmao but also iykyk i guess#I have so many other themes I want to talk about but I never have any time#I have so much more i want to say and yet#wavesoutbeingtossed: The Anthology#Also if things get weird i will turn off reblogs/delete the post tbd#This is not an invitation to get into muse ranting or debate in my inbox and I ask that you please respect my boundaries :)#Midnights#lover#folklore#evermore
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[ cw: violence mention / death mention / ]
Will never stop thinking about how Leo, all alone in an endless void and being beaten again and again and again by the only other living thing around, still finds comfort in that space. The situation he was in was completely hopeless, and in any other circumstances he would not have escaped, at least not fast enough to save him from permanent (or even fatal) damage, be it physical or mental.
And yet, despite the bleakness of his situation, despite the agony and helplessness, all he needs is one glance at a crumbled photograph, one glance to remember his family, and thatâs enough of a reason for him to smile.
Maybe thatâs why his powers center around manipulating space - because no matter how much space is between them, no matter how dire his own situation may be, just the thought of his family, alive and okay, is enough to give Leo hope.
#rottmnt#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles#rottmnt leo#rise leo#the prison dimension is horrifying on its own#add in a monstrous being that towers over you and has vowed to ensure your suffering?#god I canât imagine how scary that is#Mikey opening the portal was a miracle because if he hadnât managed it there#itâs really up in the air what could have become of Leo#personally I subscribe by the theory that you straight up canât die in the prison dimension#so itâs a prison in all ways#but the thought of a Leo who manages anyway who adapts and continues to have hope despite it allâŠ#Leo saying heâs nothing without his family is a double edged sword really#because the thought of his family alone is all he needs to live. to hope.#to smile#nothing without themâŠbut theyâre EVERYTHING to him#and maybe he doesnât realize it butâŠthe feeling is mutual#one thing too is that hope that comforts Leo so much is not just that#should he think his family needs help - that hope can turn into determination#Iâm unwell about this family#actually on my point of their powers - I truly do think the abilities tie in not only to their personalities#but to their relationship to family and love in general#kinda like love languages in a way#Mikey with his chains and time abilities values being around his family the most - he wants them to experience living in the moment togethe#Donnie is someone who is 100% a gift giver to show his love - his constructs are exactly that arenât they? gifts of his mind#Raph is someone who willingly bears the weight of the shield - he protects his family like the best big brother possible#and Leo - he goes off on his own a lot but his mind is constantly on his family anyway#like a sailor at sea no matter how far he travels the compass always point in one direction - and for him that compass points home#even if he canât make it back - itâs still there#and thatâs enough
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HOHOHO IT GOES DEEPER THAN THAT THOUGH BECAUSE ITS IN LADY ETHEREAL AND THE FENGâS THEMES AS WELL. HOHOHO
Iâm trying to prove a point. Does anyone else hear Yiâs theme in Jiâs boss theme.
#nine sols#ITS NOT JUST ABOUT IMMORTALITY AND THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN CHARACTERS >:)#ITS ABOUT THE TURNING POINT#IT ONLY SHOWS UP AFTER YOI REACH LADY ETHEREAL#jiequan yanlao Goumang and yingzhao donât have that motif
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soft (and some bittersweet)
#trigun stampede#trigun#vashwood#vash the stampede#nicholas d wolfwood#i think they both spent majority of their lives in solitude and ofc vash went town to town and made friendships promises and etc along the w#way + he had his home and whatnot in the long years he's been alive but he still just seemed so lonely.#in prior versions of trimax he had friends at home at least and maybe he mightv made some but luida and brad are basically just his#guardians in this adaption. like brad used to be a homie.... vash watched that little dude grow up.... and jessica too.... but he doesn't#have that in this adaption. nor a town like july where he had grown close to the townspeople and shaped that tragedy to be closer to his#heart. and wolfwood spent years fighting under the eom and doing shit under their jurisdiction when we saw him so adamantly try to reject#and fight back against that fate. i dont think he had a second at all to get familiar with townspeople or even care to#so its just these two lonely ass souls and vash immediately seeing the good in ww and points it out#ww who is under orders again to be involved in vash's business but he's also SO touchy about it bc vash is so careless and lack that self#regard and also just is not seeing the world that ww is seeing. but then vash helps him and saves him by sharing a piece of what /he/ sees#and it fucking. rescrambled ww's brain for a sec. HE GAVE HIM HOPE!!! he gave him hope!!!! and in turn ww gave vash hope too and its#all done in like 3-4 eps. there's so much fervent attachment in what they managed to give each other in such a short time#but theyre limited to the contract to the inevitable confrontation with knives - so while theyd want to give into that chance to love this#person who managed to give them smth special they just can't at all#ruporas art
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