#Meta Apes

[dailymetanaito]

Day 261 🦭

[dandelionjack]

already seen people calling the marti subplot “unnecessary”. because ruby didn’t turn to the camera and proclaim Abuse And Harassment Are Bad apparently that makes her a moral failure. also seeing the argument “this is a childrens show so it’s inappropriate” okay miss Hays Code, you think a 12 year old will be corrupted or something if they notice a realistic scene of a politician exercising his absolute power to control and manipulate women in his entourage? even when it’s subtext, not stated outright? tfw got so woke you accidentally looped right back to being a conservative pearl-clutcher.

needless to say that even from a story perspective marti’s presence fleshes out what would have been quite a cartoonish villain (teehee wouldn’t it be cool to nuke the world!) into a genuine 3-dimensional representation of evil. the media literacy crisis is getting dire

[veveisveryuncool]

new copy ability: burnt out AP student kirby

[eatsbooks]

so what do you think the autumn court’s political system actually looks like?

feudalism !! i think that system fits well for a few different reasons:

canonically, we already know that beron parcels out the land for his sons to rule over in his stead. a feudalistic system would explain why he decided to have so many children to begin with — more sons = more vassals to swear fealty to him, ones that he can better ensure the loyalty of than those of other bloodlines. this further helps to cement vanserra reign. with seven! sons!! he can effectively bump all the other non-vanserra nobles who oversaw parcels of land down the hierarchy, ensuring all are beneath not only him as high lord but also beneath another vanserra lord to boot. it also explains why the younger vanserra boys are so antagonistic towards one another, even knowing the unlikelihood that they will actually become heir — with their brothers out of the picture or just out of their father's favor, they have the opportunity to accrue more power by expanding their provinces or even taking over one another's.

we also know the common folk are suffering while the aristocracy is flourishing. if none of the land they tend actually belongs to them and all of their profits eventually find their way to beron, whether it's coin for rent or the crops they harvest that will ultimately be sold, in exchange for protections that are rarely actually received, this lends more credence to a discomfited autumn court population that is too disenfranchised to do anything about it.

plus there's more fun political drama amongst the vassals and nobles this way! everything has to move up and through this chain of command, which means the corruption can be systemic and spread beyond beron's rule. makes it even harder for eris to enact widespread reform. yummy.

autumn land is always fertile. i guess that's a personal hc more than anything canon, but i feel like that makes sense. anything can be grown, no matter the season, and the soil is always rich, even after a harvest. feudalism is the easiest way to ensure all of the land is being utilized to its fullest, most profitable extent without beron having to overextend himself as a ruler.

while this makes it more difficult for widespread reform, feudalism would give eris more room to maneuver in his own province. in the same way that there's more opportunity for corruption, there is also more opportunity for him to enact positive change — as long as he is coming up with enough coin / crops / what have you to meet quota, he can largely rule as he sees fit without beron's scrutiny. plus, with the land parceled and an isolated sect of nobility beneath him, it's easier to keep any differences in the way he rules compared to his father or his brothers contained. it even fits in with the respect and loyalty he has for his own guard / soldiers versus those of his father — they come from his province, they are his people.

a feudalistic system also gives beron an even better reason beyond just being power-hungry to want to expand his territory in acosf by allying with briallyn. he needs more land to make more profit! and spring might not function exactly like autumn, but it is no doubt the closest when it comes to fertile and bountiful land.

[ambafaerie]

Noa and Mae Parallels

• Noa and Mae are young adults who are let outside the comforts of their home to prove themselves to their society. Noa with the Eagle clan and Mae with the underground humans.

• They were born in the planet of the apes. Where Noa has barely much knowledge of the past, especially human history whereas Mae was raised on stories of when humans used to rule over apes.

• Until they met each other, they only knew of the other’s species as either mute primitives animals or violent apes.

• They both work to save their respective people from Proximus, though where Noa frees his clan from him, Mae steals a device from Proximus’ domain that will help her people contact with other human settlements.

• The elders of their respective species try to tell them to accept the current reality of their situation, but both refuse. Mae rejects Trevathan’s insistence that the world now belongs to the apes and try to coexist with them. Their scene is followed by Dar telling Noa they are now part of Proximus’ kingdom and not anymore the Eagle clan, which Noa refuses to accept.

• They both kill someone of the same species. Noa killed Silva and Proximus out of self defense without really putting his hands on them. Mae choked Trevathan to death with her bare hands.

• Noa and Mae are wearing something blue when they meet again in the ending. Noa has a band of blue feathers on his arm while Mae has a blue poncho. They both also ride horses through a field.

• Noa and Mae reject the current state of the world and seek a radical change of the status quo. Mae wants to see humanity on top again, running back to the past, while Noa is open to coexistence between apes and humans, running towards the future.

[shorthaltsjester]

the mighty nein will always be that bitch (a party with a consistent (and coherent) moral stance, who even if they dismiss alternative perspectives take seriously what others have to say, and who are met with and accept the consequences of choices (good and bad) they decide upon with their eyes wide open)

[dabigothic]

໒꒰ྀིっ˕ -｡꒱ྀི১

sleepy rainy morning before work

[potakingdom]

This is probably obvious but I just comprehended on my third watch that Mae wasn't allowed inside the base. Presumably considered too contaminated to allow in. Like I'm hoping she was allowed in offscreen later but god can you imagine that

Literally. imagine that. Most likely weeks if not months on her own after her group was killed with no one to talk to until some random chimp and orangutan takes pity on you & adopts you into their group but you know it cant last so you shouldn't get attached but you do anyway because holy fuck. they're showing you,,,kindness??? feeding you talking to you keeping you warm rescuing you. Taking care of you. after all that time alone. For no reason. So you get attached to them anyway. Then one fucking dies saving you. Then the first human you meet after months on your own you have to fucking murder. Literally kill with your bare fucking hands. Then the last person you can call a friend on this planet you have to betray horrifically, and not just him but everyone he calls family. And you just have to walk away because it's for the greater good and youve already come this far and you cant let all those sacrifices (human & ape) be in vain. Then you go back to his camp and realize...woah...he survived. And he forgives you. And you walk away. Then ride to a human camp. And then you can't even go inside and talk to them and be with them to see if what you did all that for actually works. Her life fucking sucks

[timebones]

Love the dual imagery of the old woman. How she represents both the previous generations that dealt with Mad Jack the first time, and the current generation worrying what their future will be. Will the older version of me look on me kindly? Is that even the older version of me, does that person even survive? Or is it only the past, silently watching us walk into destruction?

The old woman appeared after the the circle was broken, yes, but also after Ruby became aware of her own mortality due to the Doctor’s slip of the tongue.

As a representation of the previous generations, the woman is distant and offputting. Not even the oldest folks in the pub are worried about Mad Jack anymore, and when Ruby tries to bring other people in, tries to let those now-dead generations speak, Ruby becomes the problem.

She’s left to embark on this (in retrospect) decades-long mission virtually alone, getting involved in politics, taking calls, holding coats, pulling every strategic lever available to her even if it means working for this terrible man. She has to, because she’s one of the few people who fully recognize the danger he poses.

And both the past and herself-from-the-future are watching.

[roxannepolice]

I think if Harold Saxon was pointing out post-politics, Roger ap Gwilliam is pointing out a desire for simple solution. The interview kinda nails it: there's inflation and inflation is a messy, complicated and above all boring issue that isn't caused either by rich people being greedy or poor people wanting handouts alone, but you know what - NUKES. Nukes are simple, nukes you understand!

And people gobble it up, without hypnosis.

[dandelionjack]

@shivorceeratom pointed something out in my tags which i just had to bring to light. “jack of all trades i was, mad jack they called me” — the full expression is ‘jack of all trades, master of none’. say the line folks: which could mean nothing!!

the master’s #1 narrative haunter agenda

[ittybittyremy]

imagine how dorian felt during that whole kerfuffle

Two days ago, his brother died and the Crown Keepers separated, all because of the Spider Queen.

A couple of hours ago, he and Orym reminisced about how Orym put a blade to his chest and told him not to put the crown on his head. Something that Dorian is clearly grateful for now. ("Otherwise, I wouldn't be here right now")

Now, he woke up to two of his friends fighting. Then, Laudna claims that the blade on Orym's back will corrupt him "just like it corrupted Otohan." He's still catching up on everything, but he knows that's the name of the person who killed Orym's husband and father. To put it simply, he just heard that Orym may become corrupt like his family's killer was because of a sword.

And here's the thing: He's seen a real cursed item before. He's felt the lure of one and has seen/experienced the consequences of holding onto one. His brother's death was one of those consequences 2 days ago! And now there's apparently another cursed item that's on his "very good friend's" back. The same "very good friend" who he just talked about the crown with. The same "very good friend" who put a blade to his chest so long ago.

Then later, it turns out that the item Laudna was so insistent on being cursed (to the point of injuring another party member [be it unintentional]) is actually not cursed.

Now he's listening to Laudna talk about how she wants to take the blade in energy while belittling Orym for taking it in hand. (Yes, I am aware that this is very simplified)

After all this, Dorian finally gives his opinion.

I think [Orym] should keep it. It's just a thing. I'm so tired of things having control over us. You two are friends. It was his to possess and you tried to steal it from him... It is just a thing. Its history doesn't shape us. Our actions do. [Laudna's] actions tell me that [she did] not have enough trust in [her] friends... What would it have mattered if [Otohon] cut him down with a handaxe or a stick from the street? It was not the thing that did the action. It was the person. It does not matter.

I believe that there are two routes to Dorian's mindset

Gilmore's Wisdom: When the Crown Keepers discuss the circlet with Gilmore, he says something very interesting. "The Spider Queen herself is dark, is evil, but the vestige is simply power, and it is whatever you make it into. Power simply is." (E1x03).

Orym's Threat: Orym confronted him when he saw that he could hold the circlet without issue. He put a sword to his chest and told him to put it down. Dorian did so, saying, "I care about you more than this" (E1x05).

Dorian's point is a combination of those two things. To put it simply, Dorian's point was that friends are more important than objects because objects are just things.

And before I see anyone else blabbering about how Dorian is a hypocrite because of how Cyrus died, Opal didn't kill him, and neither did the circlet itself. It was the Spider Queen that killed him.

During all this, he discovered that Orym, Fearne, Laudna, and Chetney had died due to the blade. He also discovered that Orym made a deal with Fearne's grandmother "to help [them] do the things that [they] have to do. Hopefully in the next episode, Dorian is able to fully process all that information

Side Note: In between those words, Dorian admits that he doesn't fully understand the situation ("You do not know what you speak." "I do not"). Apparently, this is a hot take, but I think that him being the outsider of the situation made him the most clear-headed of the group. He wasn't hurt by Ottahan like the rest of Bells Hells had been. So, he has the least biased view of the bunch (still biased but not as biased as the others).

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk!

[verathena14]

[tgaa spoilers under the cut (both games)]

so during my time in the aa fandom ive noticed that ive become very VERY attached to the tgaa duology in particular. now dgmw, i love all of ace attorney (at least what ive played so far) but theres something about tgaa that just Activates the Neurons and i couldnt quite put my finger on it until literally today

it's The Cycle.

now if you don't know me, i'm a big big fan of the trope of Perpetuating The Cycle Of Violence (it's part of why kingdom hearts dark road was so intriguing to me) but also Breaking The Cycle Of Violence

and luckily for me, tgaa (specifically 2, which is why it's currently my fave aa game) is chock FULL of Cycle of Violence shit! and i fucking love it!

it's the parallels between klint killing on stronghart's orders, then genshin killing him in the duel, then barok sentencing genshin to death (even if it was jigoku who killed genshin in the end), and then kazuma trying to sentence barok to death

but kazuma doesn't break the cycle alone; he does it with the help of ryunosuke. ryunosuke, who wasn't even supposed to be here. he was never supposed to be part of this story, but yet he WAS. and it was ryunosuke who broke the cycle. he showed compassion for the man that hated him, and he used what he'd learned from both kazuma and his time in london, and he broke the cycle.

and that's just so... good, to me.

im just a sucker for this trope, where the main character is kind of just an ordinary person? who through unfortunate circumstances has to carry on the wants and wishes of their best friend who by all means should have been the main character. ...but they're not. and the main character has to create an identity for themself, fight through all kinds of challenges, some even posed by their best friend themself, and they can step in and break the cycle. it's precisely because of their supposed insignificance that they can step in and stop the cycle.

and i just. idk i really like it. that's part of why ryunosuke's one of my favorite characters. (also can you tell that i was also talking about sora kingdom hearts in the last paragraph- //shot)

(also the narrative parallels [esp between barok & kazuma] make for some banger animatic ideas- //double shot)

[damnflirtyape]

Forgive me because I'm going to ramble, I've been thinking about parallels and character arcs that echo or mirror one another. And I've been thinking about some of the similarities between Mae in Kingdom and Caesar in War (and I might be completely wrong this is just my own interpretation lol).

They're not exactly mirrors of one another, but they certainly hold similarities. We see both characters dealing with the aftermath of a violent loss, see them battle with the trauma and anger and grief of those losses. They both withdraw from others around them emotionally and we then see their grief and fury explode from them in outbursts.

They're both plunged into dire hostage situations which require patience and strategic negotiation. And neither of them are in the right kind of mental space to navigate them. For Caesar, he's never encountered someone like the Colonel; this man cannot be reasoned with, cannot be intimidated, is as brutal with humans as he is with apes. Even if he could be reasoned with, Caesar is completely consumed by his rage and need for vengeance, he cannot and will not back down. And when the Colonel pushes him, taunting him about the death of his own son, he understandably lashes out.

With Mae, in her eyes negotiation isn't an option. Mae's been instilled with the belief that her mission is an integral key to potentially saving the human race and that nothing can come between that. We know so little about her and her past, but if a human is knowledgeable about technology and a government that disappeared 300 years ago, one can only suppose this has been deliberately taught to them. Like Caesar, Mae won't back down, because she knows Proximus cannot have the weapons inside the Vault and because her life hangs in the balance. She's the only one left alive to retrieve the decryption key and deliver it (her usefulness to Proximus arguably ends once she reveals a way to enter the Vault). She's also angry and scared and lashes out when he pushes her, reminding her how she's at his mercy.

Then the parallels of killing in desperation. Caesar arguably doesn't mean to kill Winter, he's blinded by his rage and doesn't seem to even realize he's choking the gorilla... And then he realizes how limp the other ape is, feels him slump lifeless in his arms and we see his horror. He hasn't fully realized how far gone he is yet, though his friends certainly see it. This is a harrowing scene. Unlike with Koba, there is no hesitance and thoughts of Winter do not haunt him after.

And then Mae's killing of Trevathan... this is a deliberate act but a purely desperate one. This is the moment Mae realizes how far she has to go in order to complete her mission. She doesn't want to kill this man, kill another human, I think it's likely (given her shock after she shoots Lightning later) that Mae has never killed anyone and hadn't thought she would ever need to. She's terrified, from the moment she's desperately trying to negotiate with him to the moment she shakily gets to her hands and knees in the sand next to his corpse.

Oh and about the parallels.... Caesar causing an explosion to destroy the military base and that explosion causing a devastating avalanche to tear down the mountain and almost wipe out his own apes.

And Mae causing an explosion to destroy the Vault and prevent human weapons from ending up in Proximus' hands... that also almost wipes out Noa and his clan?

And finally, the seeking of forgiveness. I genuinely think Mae felt guilt for doing what she did to the clan. I can see that as the only reason she would seek out the Eagle Clan's village, a sense of guilt and concern for their welfare. She should be well on her way to complete her mission, but she follows them. Her learned fear of apes has her hiding a gun behind her back, she's expecting Noa's anger. She's not expecting him to still be open to the idea that perhaps one day humans and apes could live side by side. She won't apologize, she still sees her actions as unavoidable, the 'right' thing. But she feels guilt, and the fact he seems to not hate her is far more than she expects.

And Caesar, oh Caesar. He's done so much, far far more than any one person should. And he almost lost himself completely, there were moments Maurice barely recognized his old friend. Caesar almost killed them all through his anger and grief, and he saved them all again. He doesn't need to ask for forgiveness, but Maurice offers it still, reassures him and lets him finally rest.

[deramin2]

It feels like people were wanting the trust exercises in Critical Role c3 E79 and E80 to be research-supported therapy from a licensed practitioner where they all work together to get a good grade in therapy, a thing that's normal to want and possible to achieve.

Not A HAG fucking with them per her nature feeding off juicy drama and cringe who wants to shake them around until all their secrets come out for her to watch and realize that they're so scared of failure they're locking into the sort of inaction that will actually make them fail. (I love Nana Mori. She was exactly the sort of fucked up punk rock street wise woman they needed.)

It's BORING if they just talk about all their problems. It's BORING if they just jump to trusting each other (when the exercise was started that they can't trust each other). It's BORING if they're like "actually that power that's been set in front of me could possibly have a bad effect so I'm just going to keep ignoring it. It's BORING to be safe. Go back to your coffee shop AUs if you want everything to be soft and safe. That's not the point of the source material.

The CR cast have REPEATEDLY said they have more fun pushing the big red button than playing it safe because you spend all of real life trying to avoid the consequences of risky decisions and it's FUN to get to explore what can go wrong.

Bell's Hells succeeded because they concluded they are in a moment were inaction and hesitation will get everyone killed and they just need to push all the big red buttons and take the risks because it's now or never. They need to check in enough to keep each other in line, but they also need to imagine a scenario where none of them are traitors. (Like they had to restrain FCG from murder-bot mode, but they risked getting to murder-bot mode because the benefit outweighed the personal risk.)

This party is not OSHA approved. They literally couldn't do the job if they were. People like Allura and Keyleth are relying on them to take monumentally stupid risks while holding on by their fingernails so that other people can be safe.

Fearne came to the conclusion that she wasn't taking the shard because she was afraid of Dark!Fearne. But her friends will pull her out of that if she drifts. She also wasn't taking it because she thought Ashton was supposed to have it and that didn't work out well. If she'd put her hoof down her friends would probably have accepted her decision even if they disagreed with it. (It's actually like normal and healthy to disagree with your friends choices and not yes-man them all the time.) But she decided with her own free will that she was just being scared and actually she did want to try. (But also if they hadn't gone through the shard hurting and rejecting Ashton, Fearne might have thought her taking damage meant she wasn't supposed to have it, not just part of the trial of absorbing it.)

There's no binary where pressuring your friends is always bad. Sometimes your friends pressure you into doing things they believe will benefit you that you're reluctant to do and then you do it and are like "no actually that was the right call and I needed that." Or you conclude "No actually that was bad and I wish I didn't listen." There's actually no way to know ahead of time. My relationship with one of my best friends of like 20 years consists heavily of us battling each other's depression by pressuring each other into things we don't want to do but need to and that's healthy for us. But also other people in our lives pressured us into things we didn't want to do and should not have done and it turned out bad. It turns out that life is made up of shades of grey and not hard and fast rules. There's no way of knowing if you're fucking up ahead of time.

Imogen admitted in the Truth or Die session that she was upset that Fearne didn't take the shard. She probably would not have told Fearne that in normal circumstances. And she was probably feeling that way because part of her was upset at herself for not giving into the Predothos powers. Admitting that to Fearne gave her the courage to talk about the possibility of doing that. Which like, could be a terrible idea. But also this is a D&D game with predetermined character class powers that grow as you level and there has to be an in-game justification for getting powers like Revelation in Flesh at 14th level. Like, either she leans into these powers or they're forced on her or she stops leveling and goes home. Leaning in is way more fun. Don't you want to see what batshit thing Matt has planned for that? That's FUN. Ignoring the dark powers is boring.

Like first and foremost this is A GAME that involves yes-anding and taking risks. It's about characters who have spent their entire lives burying and ignoring their problems and getting worse because of it. It isn't REAL for them to have one revelation and be like, "Whelp I'm fixed now and will fall into none of my old patterns and just bare my soul to everyone forever now." People aren't actually like that and if that's what they need to do to be measurably better for you you'll have a lifetime of disappointments. This is an adult story for adults about how adults really behave.

Anyway I can't wait for them to schlep all their baggage and new fucked up powers to the moon with them where they're make irresponsible decisions based on a martyr complex while their friends yell at them to stop being stupid and selfish and let them help. It's going to be a disaster but hopefully they snatch victory from the jaws of defeat (or defeat from the jaws of victory) and tell an entertaining story about the fuckups who tried to stop the next Calamity. Maybe they will and they get to be heroes. Maybe it comes at a terrible cost. Maybe they totally fuck it up and it's a Ring of Brass situation. But it'll be FUN.

[nest-being]

and thus another international lolita day occurs with me staying inside and doing nothing except for thinking very, very deeply about lolita lmao