#LONG BOI RESPONSE

[stressfulsloth]

I've seen a couple of takes about Disco Elysium being copaganda going around recently, and beyond the fact that DE is relentlessly critical of the police force in general and makes explicit reference to the failures of the system that allow the officers in game to abuse their power, I also think it's important to note that there very literally is an in-world version of copaganda that the writers of the game use to parody that romanticised view of the brutality of policing. The RCM at their inception were structurally inspired by in-world copaganda- their culture, their "fashions, even weapon preferences, borrow heavily from classic Vespertine cop shows." Every investigation is it's own little drama, every officer imagining themselves to be the bad-ass hero of their own crime serial. Detectives name their cases like they're naming episodes of a TV series in a "robust but literary system"; a title that "draws inspiration from snoop fiction and Vespertine cop show staples". They give themselves nicknames to sound like cool, suave fictional officers- Ace, Dick Mullen, etc.- from the cool, suave world of copaganda.

The legend of the RCM's inception, the "point of contention" over its uncertain origins, is even an extention of that; the whole organisation is shrouded in this self-fictionalising mythos that allows for distance that in turn obfuscates much of its violence to the officers that participate in it. They get to convince themselves that they're not abusing their power; they're the hero of the story! The dichotomy of "good guy" taking out the "baddies," a manifestation of the libertarian fantasy of the "good guy with a gun" who does what it takes, just like in Annette's detective novels, and at the same time who rails against oversight bodies like Internal Affairs/'the rat squad' because due process slows down the immediate satisfaction of Swift Justice, despite Internal Affairs existing to protect the citizens from overreach on behalf of the police. "Wanton brutality" from police in their real world is a cold bitter reality but Dick Mullen was "made to crack skulls," "bend the rules and solve cases no one else can," and which version of that story is more comforting to the overworked, underfunded officers of the RCM?

The level of fantasy and detachment required for the cops to still see themselves as the good guys after everything that they do in the line of duty mimics The Pigs and her breakdown too; she parallels Harry so clearly. Both "did right by the kids" in the past, hoping for a better future- Marianne (The Pigs) by looking out for Titus and the Hardy boys when they were young, Harry in his role as a gym teacher. Both abandoned and left behind by the system that the RCM uphold- a brutal capitalist landscape with no safety nets. Both turning the source of their trauma into a costume, a performance, a shield, shaped by "radio waves and cop shows." The Pigs uses RCM items scavenged from the Esperance where they'd been thrown away, while Harry uses the Dick Mullen hat that Annette gives him but both are essentially in costume.

Harry identifies himself with the fictional detective as a kind of wish fulfilment; Dick Mullen is "wicked smart." He doesn't fuck up his cases and when he's sad it's not pathetic; it's effortlessly cool brooding and everyone sympathises. Everyone loves him. His violence- "skull crack[ing]"- is justified because he's a "good guy" enacting that violence against the victims of police brutality sorry "bad guys". He doesn't ever face repercussions; "Dick Mullen won't be sent to the clink for the sake of some legal niceties!" So if Harry is Dick Mullen then his failures, his breakdown, they're all just a part of being a "bad-ass, on-the-edge disco cop." He's not wrong, he's a hero! This idealised fictionalised idea of the police force, this "new, sadly better, reality" that both Harry and The Pigs cling to is "escapist stuff," "receed[ing] into a ludicrous fantasy world," so far removed from the brutal material reality that they're in.

My point is, idk. Disco Elysium is so far from being copaganda. It is a multi-million word long dissection of it, of the purpose of policing, of state sanctioned violence and its interaction with capital and the fallout experienced within the wider community as well as the trauma cycle created for individual officers. A dissection of how copaganda interacts with RCM culture and perception, and by extension how we interact with irl perceptions of police through that lens.

[forgetful-nerd]

Sometimes I get just a tiny bit sick of the whole “the team had a falling out and now they can’t stand the sight of each other, but now they have to come together to face off against a new big bad” trope.

I need a healthy dose of overly-attached, traumatized turtles bros to balance it out

[shannonsketches]

thinking about gohan and vegeta and how their bond is underrated

the difference in their reactions to each other 😭

Gohan being the first one to step between Vegeta and Certain Death, twice, without an ounce of hesitation, and Vegeta saving him back despite his feelings about battle intervention.

Vegeta knowing Gohan's the best of all of them

Vegeta and Gohan both born prodigies assigned an unfair amount of responsibility to be Great and be a Saiyan Messiah(tm) way too young by a stubborn and proud if not (relatively) well-meaning father who didn't see any other option and I just think Gohan doesn't get enough credit as like. The first serious muscle behind Geets' personal growth.

[vaguely-concerned]

kremy being so patient with twig even though she very nearly had them pulling one of those moves that get you doomed to eternal torment in greek mythology (i.e. secretly feeding people their own young)...... his is the voice of the most soul-tired man in the world when he says 'twig... I've done a lot of fucked up shit in my time, but I'm not gonna feed them people'. he's not angry he's not even disappointed he's just resigned. he's a person who has to draw the line somewhere and he's drawing it

[dukeofthomas]

"Angry robin" "violent robin" "misbehaving robin" shut up and accept my alternative; spunky Robin. Determined and head strong, can out-stubborn the Batman, has a strong moral-backbone and does what he thinks is right regardless of what anybody else says, Robin. Jason who was sassy and quippy and made crude jokes with a smile on his face. Jason who hid in Bruce's cape and whispered gossip to him. Jason who, if Bruce refused him something, could keep bothering endlessly until Bruce caved. And also dramatic Jason. If Bruce tells him no, it becomes a whole theatrical show; a monologue, a narration, embellishments, and falling onto the floor in his grief upon the fact his cruel father has denied him once again.

(Jason who has suffered through abuse and homelessness and poverty and starvation, who is the Fight out of Fight or Flight, who's built up defenses and walls and when pushed and triggered responds with the thing that's always protected him; anger. He's sweet and kind and funny, and when he sees a pimp hitting a prostitute he gets furious and responds with violence.)

[knockknockitsnickels]

Thoughts about Prison3r bc she's making me go insane

Spoilers under the cut (also minor spoilers - chapter name & brief discussion of other routes - in the tags, so don't read those lol)

I have a feeling the Cage is going to get overshadowed by Sp3ctre & Happily Ever After, but I was really surprised by the direction they took her in, and I think she makes Pris all the more tragic as a character.

IMO, the Prisoner route kind of functions as a giant trust fall. You've established in the previous chapter that you're skeptical of this whole setup (hence voice of the skeptic, lmao) and willing to help the Princess, and this route puts that to the test. Can you focus on what's important without getting caught up in questioning irrelevant details (the empty shackle)? Can you trust the Princess enough to give her your weapon? And on the other side of that, can she trust you to understand her plan?

Part of what makes the Prisoner compelling to me is the unspoken trust she has in the player (part of why I've never understood the take that she doesn't actually care about you? Maybe we've got some Autism2Autism telepathy going on though). Her lines in the Shifting Mound fight (if you free her) talks about how "shared skepticism blossomed into trust", and the Drowned Grey further implies that she put a lot of trust and hope in the player which they ended up betraying.

I was expecting Prison3r to play with that betrayal of trust - she showed we could trust her, but her trust in us was misplaced. It doesn't really matter if you leaving the head was an honest mistake or not, we still let her down. I was expecting a scenario where we'd be stuck apologizing to a Princess who couldn't bring herself to trust us again, no matter how sincere we were being. I was expecting her to be angry. I didn't expect her to just... give up.

If the Drowned Grey is meant to represent the Prisoner (metaphorically) letting go of the tight control she has of her emotions, (literally) drowning you in her (metaphorical) grief and rage, then the Cage is the opposite, locking her emotions even deeper away. Shifty describes her as (paraphrasing here, emphasis mine) "someone who wishes she could be just a set of eyes and ears." The Cage isn't angry with you for leaving her behind. Why should she be? It was her mistake, after all. She shouldn't have been so stupid to think she could break the cycle and actually be freed.

The route also plays with the contrast between the Princess and the Player (via the voices) in fun ways. While the Cage is already resigned to repeating the cycle, skeptic (and paranoid, if you get him) are panicking for the whole route, trying desperately to find a way out of it while unintentionally forcing you to into the same patterns as before (by forcing us to take the knife. Thanks guys, very cool).

It honestly feels like the perfect response to the common fan complaint of "Why is the Prisoner mad at you for leaving her head behind? It was an accident!". Well, here you go. She's not mad at you. It would honestly feel better if she was.

[manygreetingsfriend]

i’m sooooooo normal about the god of war series. so incredibly normal i liked it a normal amount and would be so chill talking about it. don’t worry about the sign

[tervaneula]

POB Bitty would like to offer you some nice eggs in this trying time

(Don’t worry, the hens at base are laying more than enough to share and Uncle Raph is holding 90% of the weight for him, Bitty just wants to feel strong)

(This is just for funsies, no pressure to reply <3)

“Ohmigosh,” Michelangelo breathes out and crouches in front of the tiny red-eared slider, eyes practically sparkling with adoration. 

“You’re so strong! All of these eggs, just for us? That’s so kind of you!” 

Bitty chirps at him, trying to push the basket higher and toward the orange-scarved turtle, the snapper behind him obligingly moving half a step forward. Michelangelo giggles and takes the gift, pressing it against his chest. 

“Thank you so much! Oh, you know what?” he asks the kid, winking and offering him a chirp of his own. “We just bought fresh produce and a few dozen eggs the other day. Now I can make the biggest omelette New York has ever seen! It’ll be amazingly delicious!” 

He then looks up at Uncle Raph, eyes softening as he takes in the hulking form of his not-older-brother older brother. His smile is equally soft when he shifts to look down again, reaching to gently hold Bitty’s hand in between his thumb and index finger. 

“Your family is obviously invited, too. Please, join us for lunch? It’s the least I can do in return for such a lovely gift.” 

(WAAAAA @beeceit you're so lovely, Bitty is so lovely, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS 😭😭😭🧡🧡🧡)

[veinsfullofstars]

"Now can we please get on with the meeting already? The monarchy isn't gonna overthrow itself, y'know."

(ID: Kirby series fanart comic of Dark Meta Knight stuck in a mission debriefing, clearly bored and letting his thoughts wander towards a certain rat thief, much to the frustration of his old friend/begrudging henchperson, Mirror Sailor Dee. Transcript below the cut. END ID.)

Me: wants rarepair shenanigans. Also me: wants compelling plotlines. Also me: compromises by making an absurd amount of notes for yet another highly-detailed and overcomplicated AU. Also me: tired of my nonsense.

Started 03/09/24, finished 03/10/24, updated for color correction 11/02/24. | Kintsugi AU Masterpost

---

Transcript:

Panel 1

*A dimly-lit, nondescript room, the plain walls tacked with papers and sticky notes depicting scribbled writing and various images, such as the Dimension Mirror, Dark Matter, the sword Master, a crossed-out headshot of Shadow Dedede, and the symbol for anarchy. DMK sits at a simple table looking off to our left with lidded eyes, leaning his head on one hand, the other tapping idly against the tabletop (SFX: tmp tmp). Three thought bubbles float over his head, each showing a different physical feature of Daroach - his sharp-toothed smile, his long claws, and his big ears respectively. A faint blush can be seen just behind the knight's mask.*

Panel 2

M!Sailor: (from off-screen, depicted as a simplified Waddle Dee head with two slash scars on their right cheek, wearing a white sailor cap with a blue-and-periwinkle ribbon, a blue bill, and two fishing hooks embedded in the top, yelling with their eyes squeezed shut) Hey, scarface! Quit daydreaming about your boyfriend for five seconds and pay attention!

*DMK startles, eyes shrunk to little gold lines, the arm holding up his head slipping out from under him, nearly bumping his chin on the table.*

Panel 3

*DMK turns sharply to our right to point and glare at M!Sailor off-screen, slamming his fist down on the table (SFX: THUD!).*

DMK: (angrily) Hey, shut up, he's not my-

Panel 4

*DMK pauses, his eyes once more shrunk to points, his pointing hand dropping a bit as he realizes what he just said (shown by an ellipses over his head). A tiny bit of blush can be seen through the mask.*

Panel 5

DMK: (glaring and pointing once more, the blush in his face more noticeable, visibly sweating) I mean, I am paying attention!

M!Sailor: (from off-screen, looking unimpressed with half-lidded eyes) Nice cover, Boss. Very convincing.

[lillybearrie]

"Child soldiers are bad" this "batdad supremacy" that

I wanna talk about how the Robins are expected to be responsible for Bruce's emotions

"Batman needs a robin" no Bruce Wayne needs to stop making his inability to cope with the life he chooses to live his kids problem and stop taking it out on gotham when they aren't there to regulate his emotions

Thank you for coming to my Tedtalk

[hajihiko]

Who do u think copes with being a remnant the best/worst during. Despair times?

Best:

Peko- she is only doing the bidding she deems necessary, it's out of her hands. She will do bad things for the sake of her own duty.

Fuyuhiko- he always knew what he was capable of and how he would turn out. It's about time he becomes the man he was supposed to be and embraces it without remorse, there was never any other path for him.

Mikan: she's not so helpless and frail anymore, is she? Her turn to have the power. People need her when she wants them to need her.

Hiyoko: People are really just large ants when you think about it. She could've been one of them but she rose above it. Squish.

Nagito: just a means to an end.

50/50:

Mahiru- she hasn't done anything wrong. It's just photography and documentation without getting involved. She hasn't actually done *anything*.

Souda- all he does is make the machines. Other people tell him when and where to deploy. He's too weak to stand up for himself.

Teruteru: No wasting food, even if it's unethically sourced! It's less slaughter, more scavenging. Ethical.

Akane: the strong prey on the weak. That's what they did to me and no one stopped them, so this is just how it goes, right?

Sonia: a Princess knows what's best and does not doubt or go back on her decisions. A Princess knows pawns don't matter compared to a queen. A Princess doesn't feel remorse or guilt or uncertainty.

Worst:

Nekomaru- he's supposed to be helping people be their best and come together.

Impostor: no matter how many people they are, they know what's right, deep down.

Ibuki: she knows who she is and no one will make her into anyone else! ... right?

Gundham: humans are the ones who mistreat animals, but they behave the same in extreme distress. He forgets which he is, but there's no difference in the end.

Izuru: The absolute total absence of Feeling is worse than being miserable, actually. Countless lives are a featherweight against their own moment of humanity however brief. Anything to feel anything.

[potatobugz]

i feel as if im going mad so im going to just put this out here. real quick. movieunleashers starters ramble.

i cant stop thinking about how mudkip broke down in that one scene in "Typomaniac," when Chespin called him mean. for a second he lets his mask slip a little bit and to me he just... acts his age. he starts crying and calls chespin mean back. maybe im just hyperfocusing on this one detail but mudkip is about 12 years old.

and that just makes me wonder what happened in this guys life that brought him to where he is now. and it makes it all the more tragic how his whole world revolves around chespin, but he is the one bringing him the most pain. and how young he was when he died.

there is a large theme of growing up in "Rare Candy." the characters ages are emphasized in that particular episode, and one of the main conflicts is fennekin wanting to evolve faster.

the thing about characters in these stories is that they're not allowed to just be kids, to have a childhood. so many bad things happen to them. like. mudkips whole, Everything. fennekin when she was famous in typomaniac, or dealing with her own insecurities/pressure from society about her relationship w chespin. and chespin always having to shoulder his friends problems & always somehow managing to stay positive despite everything.

why cant they just. play video games. eat ice cream or something. go to the movies

at the end of the day, i think both mudkip and fennekin are characters who grew up too fast. by distancing himself from them, chespin refused to follow in their footsteps and just wanted to stay a kid.

good for him.

[gutfaced]

i need to know your effie thoughts for the ask game actually i literally can’t stand her and ik u can’t either. lets hate together

ooohhh... the primal, primal hatred within me has been unlocked. this post gets the fancy layout out of my disdain. my stance on effie is utter hatred, and that's not just because of hayffie (and if you ask me about them, i'll give you another response,) but because of *who* she is.

effie to me is a character who is unmulti-faceted, and uncomplex. she's a capitol-born woman who goes into the work of an escort in order to reap district children and prepare them for the brutality of the hunger games. this, she takes pride in. she revels in her role, finding pleasure in the possibility of moving up the ranks to a “better district,” and only sees twelve as a breeding ground of “barbarism” and “savages.” (her words.) when faced with the role of a responsible adult, she fails. she fails to firstly, assure the safety of katniss and peeta in a situation where their mentor is checked out and totally inebriated and not in a state where his well-being is at its best. he in slavered in his own vomit and bile, barely able to get up without assistance. in response to this, she hops over his doubled-down body and walks away.

doesn't call for assistance from a capitol hospitality member, doesn't attempt to help haymitch herself. she leaves two kids being sent to the slaughter to divide responsibility that *she* should've taken up, to then carry their mentor to the bathroom in order to help him clean up, because as aforementioned, he's in no state to take care of himself. she neglects to be of any assistance, and priss or clean-freak aside, she *failed* to be the reliable adult in that situation.

she then goes on to tell katniss, a girl who comes from the poorest part of her district and is a girl of color, who is HEAVILY if not canonically hinted to be a native american (judging appalachian history and heritage and her description,) that the two seam children who came before her circa to the 74th games ate like “savages," a well-known word that discriminates against the indigenous and is a violent stereotype based on cruel assumptions of a minority. with the context of the seam children being impoverished, skinny and malnourished, effie discriminates against children who usually have no winning chance. they die in the bloodbath every year. she assumes the most heinous thing of this tributes, who are *children.*

as an escort, she plays the role of an oppressor. she is open and willing and a participant in the death of district children, and it is of her liberated autonomy to do so. despite then realising how she's been indoctrinated by the capitol when it comes to the games, and finding sympathy for the rebels and partly having an understanding of the political uproar relating to this, she's never been likeable to me. she acts as a reaper in both the escort sense and the symbolic sense as she is constantly choosing who is for the butcher — who will die at the hands of the games.

the movies twist her into something more sympathetic and rebellious when it doesn't really lie with her persona, doesn't really appeal to me that she would get her hands dirty for the cause and be so collaborative with the people (the rebels) who are against her and her very being. adding to this lightly, effie and haymitch are a contrasting pair. she is the enemy, and she is (like any escort and any capitolite who isn't a full-blown rebel like plutarch,) the oppressor, while haymitch is an example of the opressed.

the tributes are murdered by panem out of a penance for the prior rebellions, and yknow. being complict in all of that, effie *is* a second-hand murderer. that's how i spin it, anyway.

[ferronickel]

Thinking bout the time someone yelled at me because they didn't understand butches.

[sharknark]

⬇️rant about a really good hengren (reverse renheng) fic i read. link at the bottom give it a whirl

i've never read a fic so well-catered to my tastes before in my life and the best part is that i was so caught off guard by how good it was cuz the tags and summary had me like "right this is some omegaverse-esque, rawr XD mating shit"

but from the very first paragraph i realized it wasn't just ao3-typical possessive mating shit it was (dare i say) IN CHARACTER possessive mating shit. underappreciated dan feng lore is the two hearts shit, duty expects him to smother his own empathy and perform cruelty obediently (and that being in his dragon form literally numbs his empathy towards mortals) but then it's flipped around and he's criticized for being too heartless

there aren't a great many english fics that take advantage of the 'numbed empathy' thing, so this fic using that to explore the toxic codependency that drove dan feng to making yingxing immortal in the first place is so!

dan feng's dragon heart prioritizing it's own indulgence and power, his human heart screaming against it for empathy and restraint, but both hearts united in this possessive adoration of yingxing... dan feng is possessive to the point of harming his partner, forcing them to take his affection, inherently contradictive to the protective impulse to see the other unhurt.

dan feng makes yingxing immortal in a really sketchy operation, despite knowing that yingxing is literally defined by his pride in being a short-life. he wants yingxing to be with him so badly that he does the one thing that would hurt yingxing the most, too blinded by possession, this sickly overbearing affection, to empathetically respect yingxing's death.

yingxing lived cramming every second he could into his craft and his goals precisely because he has so much less time than all the immortal species around him, but when he's forced into immortality, his hands are scarred and ruined past the point of ever crafting again. he suddenly has so much time, all this time he would've cherished as a mortal, but is totally useless to him now that his purpose for living and passion is gone.

so there being a scene in this fic where dan feng is moping "yingxing doesn't wanna fuck because he's glued to his workshop", being followed up with a scene of dan heng fucking blade while kissing his scarred hand and crying that he's "so sorry", yeah no shit asshole, his dragon heart got what it wanted, blade has all the time in the world to fuck and nothing competing for his now limitless attention and no one's happy about it.

as arrogant about being a short-life as yingxing was, it really is compensation for the discrimination he faced for it. other immortals looked down on him, so having dan feng, THE top dog, be so deeply enamored with him stirred his own toxic codependent urges. he was so desperate to have dan feng's eternal regard that he's willing to die for him (as in the sedition), his death being the force cementing his place in dan feng's heart forever.

so the fic having yingxing ruminate on this, that he had hoped for dan feng to love him even centuries after he inevitably died, only for the fic to end with:

yeah yingxing... you left an impression... he made you immortal.... everyone's upset by this

(that's what makes dan heng forgetting blade was ever yingxing to begin with all the more painful because, you went and turned him immortal and when it backfired horrifically you went on and fucking forgot, bitch i'd be pissed to the point of centuries long bloody pursuit of vengeance too.)

here's the fic go read it and leave kudos and a comment, technically porn but i got so invested in the character study that part barely registered. also yeah if you hadn't realized already super dead-dove:

blah blah "renheng is toxic" sorry that's why i like it

[rukafais]

Sometimes seeing incredibly long discourse posts about DnD is fascinating because nine times out of ten it's the iceberg effect, where there's clearly some deeply held resentment/massive shard of Bullshit that's been going on for a very long time in OP's view and it's treated as if it's a universal happenstance and a plague upon every house and something unique to DnD ONLY and its like, this is a fascinating glimpse into another universe that i would not ever want to visit, goodbye