#Parenting Insights
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Why I stand behind banning smartphones (and social media) for children under 16
As a parent, I have always been concerned about the impact of technology on my daughter’s development, mental health and wellbeing. In today’s digital age, smartphones have become an integral part of our lives, but are they really suitable for children under 16? We eventually succumbed to giving our daughter a smartphone when she turned 10 – mainly because she was walking back from school by…
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Watch ""Empowering Kids: Strategies for Handling Peer Pressure and Making Informed Choices"" on YouTube
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#Empower Choices#Navigating Peer Pressure#Informed Decision-Making#Raising Resilient Kids#Parenting Strategies#Positive Friendships#Building Self-Esteem#Communication with Kids#Values and Ethics#empowering youth#Peer Influence#Parenting Insights#Developing Confidence#family values#Critical Thinking Skills#Teaching Resilience#Wise Choices#parenting tips#emotional well being#Strengthening Character#joyfuldaddy#Youtube
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as soon as riz mentioned that thumbs up this was all i could envision for that scene
#BYE GIRLIEE#imagine throwing your parents for such a fucking loop that they have disadvantage on insight checks against you for the REST OF YOUR LIFE#fantasy high#fhjy#dimension 20#riz gukgak#kristen applebees
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Monetization On - Now We're YouTube Partners! | Triplet Parenting Stories Episode - 29
#youtube#Tanu And The Triplets Vlogs#Milestone Celebration#Triplet Parenting Stories#Episode 29#Tanu And The Triplets#Monetized YouTube Channel#YouTube Partner Program#Monetized Facebook Page#Heartfelt Thanks#Subscribers#Tanu And The Triplets Family#Small Milestone#Informative Videos#Entertaining Videos#Parenting Insights#Growth Celebration#Constant Motivation
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Making and Remaking Memories
[First] Prev <–-> Next
#poorly drawn mdzs#mdzs#wei wuxian#lan wangji#little apple#cangse sanren#wei changze#Once again: CSSR's design is hugely inspired by Qourmet's design!#Ah...to be able to recreate a faint memory of childhood. To be able to hold it once more.#To feel just as safe and loved as you were when you were a child and both your parents were alive.#The love his parents had is one where there is trust and respite...#Lan Zhan really is written to be his romantic ideal. He's like...*the* guy who trusts and indulges his lover.#WWX doesn't really know himself very well and has a rather poor insight.#but this is the point where it is genuinely undeniable that he loves LWJ.#I think the brilliance of this romantic plot is that there *isn't* a single point of realization. It's multitudes of moments.#I say 'this is the point' because it's when WWX really and truly puts LWJ in his future.#That's huge for a guy who's been 99% living in the moment.
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one of the things that continues to strike me on reread is how much the character of Darcy, and Austen through him, finds Mr. Bennet dead. And how much Elizabeth, in growing and changing and discarding her past blindness, has to move past her way of seeing her father and thus of seeing reality, because the two are connected! Darcy’s letter exposes her father’s flaws to Elizabeth in a way she’d never been able to see before. Most especially the way his laziness and neglect of his own gifts have hurt his family and that ultimately he doesn’t. care. Not enough to change. It literally says that she comes home from Hunsford and tries to laugh at her sisters’ and mother’s folly (the way she used to; the way her father has taught her to by example for her whole life) and she can’t anymore! It sticks in her throat. She is grieved by the failures that she sees in him, all the more so because she IS his favorite and she loves him! And the thing about Mr. Bennet is he never changes. The Lydia/wickham situation exposes to him sharply his own conduct and the consequences and he feels it! Because he is neither stupid nor unfeeling. But he, like everyone, has free will. And he chooses not to change when the opportunity presents itself. He even jokes about how quickly his feeling bad will pass and how soon everything will go back to normal, to his laziness and his selfishness. He is set in his ways and he serves as a contrast to Elizabeth’s personal journey because he embodies a version of a person she could have become and was in danger of becoming if her only goal at all times was to laugh at and judge people from the sidelines.
#pride and prejudice#I’ve always loved his character because he IS funny and he is iconic!!! and his love for Lizzy is touching!#he’s not faking it.#but he is so flawed. a man of taste a man of ability a man of judgment.#a man who could and SHOULD have set a different tone for his children and chose not to!#and they SUFFER FOR IT#their house is a divided one. and every child feels the pain of living in a house where the parents neither respect each other#nor are on the same team#there is a crack running through their house for this reason and it’s how Lydia (and Kitty) came to be so neglected!#who is going to discipline them or guide them? certainly not Mr. Bennet!#he’s so important to teach too. because the boys LOVE HIM. of course!#and are always very struck by his failures and laziness once I point it out#and yeah Darcy one of the only people who can expose him. because Darcy is putting in the work a man should be doing#Darcy’s house IS in order. his love is active and protective. he is fulfilling his role!#Mr. Bennet’s gifts are so extraordinary—the wit. the insight into human nature. honestly the capacity for wisdom#but he likes his library. he likes enjoying himself more than he likes doing his duty#as either a father or a husband#he does fail Mrs. Bennet! I have compassion for her there#anyway I love to think about this: something no version I have ever seen has ever fully explored#but man is it on the page#yeah yeah sorry for all the words. teacher off duty etc.
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just had the thought 'in the end the most important thing varric taught rook was how to make a home for, with, and in other people' and then I had to go lie down on the floor and clutch at my head in unceasing agony for a few hours, as you may well imagine. hawke and the kirkwall crew........ in the end you kind of saved the world a bit in the most characteristically indirect and chaotic of ways. not by anything in particular that you did or achieved or accomplished (lmao imagine!), but just by -- having existed, and by the love that was always there, despite it all, in all its imperfections, even when no one was saved by it in the end. you're not here right now and you're not quite haunting the narrative but I hear your voices bickering and arguing and laughing from the other room. (and so, I think, does varric. all the time.)
'did you think you mattered, hawke? did you think anything you ever did mattered?' yeah actually, varric says with da2 and keeps saying through the series. you were here. and I loved you. and as it turns out that mattered more than almost anything in the world, no matter how long it lasted or how fucked up it was at the time or what else happens, because varric manages to pass that feeling, that intangible... home, that echo of you all as you were together, that love, hopefully the best parts of it, on to someone else for them to bring with them on their journey, with their family. and maybe the world will be kinder this time. you never know. merrill's line of 'Everything affects everything. We were born, a bunch of things happened, and now we're in a mess with our friends.' varric's greatest fear of becoming his parents. even through the wreck and the ruin of the world, ghosts upon ghosts upon ghosts of love -- malcolm hawke, who we never even see, but his life touched hawke's and hawke's touched varric's and varric's touched rook's and rook is passing it on to the family they're creating. the unbroken legacy of love shines through in ways that are stronger and stranger than any magic. help
#I woke up. I opened my eyes. this insight hit me over the head like the fist of god. what the fuck. what the FUCK#dragon age#dragon age: the veilguard#dragon age: the veilguard spoilers#dragon age spoilers#hawke#varric tethras#dragon age 2#dragon age meta#let me live please I've barely reached consciousness I can't deal with this#the kirkwall gang.#what if they were secretly the most important people who ever existed. just because they existed. and for the love that was there#yeah you know what? that's not the worst legacy in the world is it.#da:tv really is da2 2 in some key ways. to me. one of the most da2 lovers or all time#also extremely da2 and also varric core for varric to adopt a kid (as a full adult) completely alone with hawke possibly dead#and STILL somehow manage to make it a varrichawke lovechild on some level. not romantic not platonic but something even more insane#every day varric is unbearably intimate with hawke through the narrative in ways he simply Cannot be with anyone in real life#(in ways you perhaps Should not be in real life. also. lol)#he keeps moving on no matter what b/c that's what you do. but I think varric's real home isn't even kirkwall or a place at all#it's a time. and that time is da2. or at least the story of da2 that he tells himself.#also also what about them themes around parenthood huh. I think varric in the end at least did not become his parents. thank god#trauma gets passed down. but so do other things and you have choices about what you want to leave behind#for those who come after you.#*tears streaming down my face* guess I have to go make breakfast and pretend everything is normal then. sick and twisted
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“Cesare wanted his brother dead. He waited for the moment when he felt it was right. He knows that it will change him forever and it will never be the same. A part of him thought it was the right thing, and part of him did it out of jealousy and envy. Once he made up his mind, it was set. He didn’t want to talk anymore, because he knew Juan could change his mind. But I think there was something chemical in his hatred for his brother as well that's always been there.” — FRANÇOIS ARNAUD explains Cesare's dark turn. "The final confession is his one chance to unburden his soul and he’s nice. He forgives people. He says he’s been in pain all this time, he notices when everyone else is concerned about him and their own hurting and their own pain. It proves that he’s sort of self-aware and probably hasn’t had the best life, so it kind of makes it even worse that he gets killed." — DAVID OAKES on Juan's finale moments.
SPECIAL FEATURES || BEHIND THE BORGIAS: Juan's demise
#can't you tell this is my roman empire?#rodrigo i love you but how does it feel to be the worst parent ever?#he underestimated cesare's determination and twistedness ohhh how it backfired. if only cesare knew he was the true heir from the beginning#“something chemical in his hatred for his brother[..]that's always been there” he has always seen juan as an obstacle rather than a brother#i just love their insights they provied...the borgias cast you will always be famous#the borgias#theborgiasedit#francois arnaud#cesare borgia#juan borgia#jeremy irons#perioddramaedit#david oakes#cinemapix#tvedit#tvarchive#filmtvsource#perioddramasource#weloveperioddrama#by jen
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Julien's parents: Janice and Malcom (feat. Implications as to why Julien is the way he is)
#trolls#trolls 3#trolls band together#trolls oc#trolls oc janice#trolls oc malcom#not the best parents ......#maybe ill provide more insight soon
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5 things I wish I knew before becoming a parent: 2024 edition
Becoming a parent is a beautiful and life-changing experience. The latter is probably a massive understatement! From the moment you hold your little one in your arms, you are filled with overwhelming love and a desire to give them the world. It’s amazing, it’s wonderful, and it’s a little bit frightening too! However, as the days turn into weeks and the weeks into months, you quickly realize…
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Here is a drawing of one of my favourite changes in choreography in the Australian deh production :)
During Good For You, after Alana and Jared have their little solos, Alana comes to the front of the stage and crouches down with her hands over her head, completely still. At the same time, Jared goes upstage and paces back and forth very quickly - every time he has to turn around he makes stilted and frustrated gestures as if he doesn’t know what to do with himself. I was very excited by this, as it is so unlike the broadway version of this scene where they stand symmetrically on opposite sides of the stage. Instead, Alana and Jared’s reaction to their feelings are clearly contrasted against each other. It seemed so natural too; while they move in formation for a lot of gfy, here it was like they had to take a break from the song because of how overwhelmed they were! Which only made it easier to empathise with them. The whole song was spectacular of course but this particular decision I think was very successful. I have always been intrigued by the contrast between Alana and Jared and it was really brought to the forefront in this moment.
#dear evan hansen#my art#jared kleinman#alana beck#jacob rozario#carmel rodrigues#I lost my mind when this happened it was so perfect to me#another thing that hit me hard in gfy was during jared and evan’s fight#when they do the ‘I thought the only reason you talked to me was because of your car insurance’ ‘so??’ (always been a fav moment of mine)#obviously there are tonnes of ways to do the ‘so??’ but I was expecting the indignant and kinda sputtering lashing out ‘so’#instead jared totally shrunk in on himself grabbed onto his bag strap in his hands and said it so softly#and he was really up in evan’s personal space earlier so here it was like oh wow that really struck him#like for another one of my favourite lines (‘heyy so my parents are out of town this weekend-’) he did a little bouncy dance up to evan and#-touched him as he spoke - including booping his nose. he said out loud ‘we. can. drink- boop! whatever we want!’#very silly#anyway just a few fun moments that my fellow jared enjoyers may be happy to hear about#also carmel’s alana was Far on the overwhelmingly high energy / bouncy / big facial expressions side of the alana scale - which I Love#and jacob was a more drawling / condescending jared - less frantic and more subtle in his amusement/indignation#I loved it - I think there are so many ways to play these characters that offers a slightly different insight into their internal state#god I have so many things to say about this showww
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Emotionally, 23.5 (episode 10) is like a cheaply made puzzle, where like, the edges are cut roughly, so like, you THINK that you have the right pieces next to each other, but when you smush them in, and they don't fit QUITE smoothly enough, you're like, oh maybe there's another piece, but like, you CAN'T find another piece that works, because like, the piece you have in your hand IS the piece that is the right one for the picture you're making, or like, you THINK it is, so like, you keep smushing the pieces together, and you THINK the puzzle makes sense, but you kinda feel like you have the wrong piece, or worse, you're MISSING A BETTER PIECE, because everything's NOT QUITE JIVING.
I hope this post made as much sense as the emotional journey we attempted to take with the script in this last episode. What the FUCK is this script doing to Ongsa? A little more context, some smoother edges, would be really helpful here!
#what the fuck#all of a sudden ongsa's unexplained shit comes back#are we gonna get another i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry for the next episode?#and wave away all the need for more explanation again?#you can't really write this stuff away#we need to know why we need to cheer for these characters hello!#23.5 degrees#23.5#23.5 degrees the series#23.5 the series#milklove#milk pansa#love pattranite#ongsasun#ongsa x sun#sun x ongsa#i'm gonna fucking say it because it's friday and i know it's not related but#i miss inkpa.#so lame but true to what i'm feeling right now#we got like maybe what 15 minutes of inkpa total? 10 MINUTES?#maybe 20 total including our skyy 2 if we were lucky?#and we got way more a story with inkpa including tons of insight into pa's dumbass parents#come on#by episode 11 we need to know why ongsa would be fearful of being out in front of her family#it's too late in the series to find out about this#because a point of the story would be that we'd go through her journey of confronting her insecurities duh!!!#wow i'm mad
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“Looks like we got a situation, here.”
#king ohger spoilers#king ohger#kingohger#ohsama sentai kingohger#ohsama sentai king ohger#super sentai#jeremy brasieri#jerami brasieri#rita kaniska#papillion ohger#spider kumonos#tokuedit#please do not repost#umbrella.edits#umbrella.gifs#umbrella.posts#subtitles added by me#translation: over-time#just giffed these bc i feel like it gives a bit of insight into jeremy#like we know his parents fled to a snowy region which we're theorizing was within gokkan#so i think it says something that he goes to gokkan first when he is injured and needs rest#it's like he's returning home/a place he feels most comfortable#i really think that jeremy and rita could be a really great duo esp since there's a lot of loneliness within them and they both seem to be#different from the others#i think they could have a great friendship and mutual respect between them#plus jeremy has moffun info which is super important
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Something about "maybe the poison drips through" | Sports Night | S1E8 (top) and S1E23 (bottom)
#sports night#sportsnightedit#casey mccall#charlie mccall#peter krause#mine: edits#tvedit#i don't think this was a specific parallel they were going for in the actual show#but i was rewatching some episodes. making some gifs#and i was struck by this word appearing in both scenes#made me think a little about casey's character and about children carrying their parents' baggage#and about how much it sucks that this show had to be cancelled before we got more insight into casey's character the way we got into dan's#sports night (1998)#tv shows
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[MK1] Bi-Han & Kuai Liang. Good brother? Evil brother? Nah, just different reactions to trauma, part 4
part 1, part 2, part 3
Sources provided a clear difference how brothers felt about their father. For Kuai Liang, the man was a cherished parent AND authority figure he built his life around. For Bi-Han, father (and mimicking him grieving Scorpion) was a source of frustration and limitation he did not agree with. Bi-Han and Tomas definitely had a more complex relationship with their father than Kuai Liang did.
So far, we got only little bits in regard to mother and her influences on brothers and Lin Kuei politics but enough to see how Sub-Zero and Scorpion’s relationship with her differ from how they felt about father.
Before I will dwell on those relationships I would like to point out a small detail noticed during my research: so far there is no direct mention that the mother was in fact a wife of Grandmaster. She is either referred to as a mother or parent - which makes sense, because her importance is related to the brothers, not to their father, so it would be weird if Bi-Han, Tomas or Kuai Liang talked about her as the “wife of Grandmaster”. At the same time, the lack of implication of marriage bond between mother and father[1] and how she is refered feels similar to the obscure reference from original timeline:
Born in America, Sub-Zero was the oldest of three children, which included a brother and sister. Their mother wanted a normal life for her sons, who had already been chosen by the Lin Kuei to become warriors for the clan. She tried in vein to hide them from their father whose own life in America was only a cover for his true identity and purpose. Eventually they were found and their father returned with them to his homeland. Their mother and sister were never seen or heard from again. (x)
Due to this, I decided to not describe her as the wife or supposed wife of Grandmaster and stick just to provided by sources terms of mother, parent and Lin Kuei fighter - so in advance sorry for repetition of those words. At the same time, this specific way of including the mother in Bi-Han, Tomas and Kuai Liang’s story creates a possibility of a more complicated family relationship, both between brothers and their parents or between the mother and father alone. And as a result the whole Lin Kuei inner politics, as we already have a hint of its complexity due to Cyrax and Sektor's loyalty to Sub-Zero threatening Kuai Liang’s birthright to the title of Grandmaster. Keeping it in mind, here are some of my thoughts and conclusions about the mother and her sons.
Let’s start with Kuai Liang. There is no doubt he respected and deeply cared for father’s teaching. As I hopefully proved in the previous part, there is a solid reason to think that the loss of a cherished parent affected Scorpion to the point that grief influenced his behavior (mimicking father) and in result, relationship with brothers (barely talking with them if it didn’t involve father or tradition up to Sub-Zero’s betrayal). He expressed a burning anger at Bi-Han for letting their father die.
Kuai Liang doesn’t seem to have the same emotional bond with mother.
Sindel: Both your parents were excellent fighters. Scorpion: I can only hope to live up to their example.
Like yes, he will acknowledge Sindel’s opinion and hope to be good as his parents but that is like the only one time we hear him saying anything about mother - and even then, she is mentioned alongside the cherished father.
Mind you, this is solely my impression, but this intro reminds me of film scenes in which a character is told by others about a parent they had never had the chance to meet or know too well. It may be a wrong impression, but there is something about Kuai Liang’s response that makes me wonder how old he was when mother died and if he lost a parent at a young age, did it fuel his deep dedication to father as there was no other authority figure to influence him as a person?
Granted, both Kuai Liang and Bi-Han never bring mother first in their intro dialogues - what A) says a lot about their upbringing and B) differs from some mentions of father. But in Scorpion’s intro there is hardly anything truly personal about his bond with mother, or her personal feelings on Lin Kuei duty, especially when compared to those focused on the previous Grandmaster.
In contrast, we have interaction between Tomas and Bi-Han:
Smoke: If Mother were alive -- Sub-Zero: She would applaud my actions.
Tomas and Bi-Han may have a different idea of how mother would react to their brotherly conflict, but both talk about her in a more personal way. Tomas invokes her the same way he brings father into discussion:
story mode: "Were he here, Father would advise us to wait without protest."
or
Sub-Zero: You were never truly one of us. Smoke: Were Father here, he would disagree.
So we can assume mother had an impact on Tomas as he respected her as an authority figure similar to father. Alternatively, he thinks Bi-Han is more likely to listen about mother than anything he will say about their father.
The letter part would be an interesting parallel between Tomas and Bi-Han, because Smoke himself is implied to grow up without a father or not being close to his biological parent - when talking about his original family Smoke directly mentioned so far only mother and his twin sister.
Also, the same as happened with father in intro dialogues, Kuai Liang and Tomas do not talk about their Lin Kuei mother. Scorpion claimed that Tomas never mention his biological mother and sister:
Scorpion: You never speak of your mother and sister. Smoke: Their ghosts no longer haunt me, Kuai Liang.
but as the other intro dialogues proved, Tomas does talk about them directly and indirectly with some characters,
like Kitana,
Smoke: My sister was my twin. Kitana: How it must have hurt to lose her.
Tanya (priestess warrior)
Smoke: After losing my family, I lost my faith. Tanya: It's the only thing that can sustain you, Tomas.
and Liu Kang (Fire Lord who may be responsible for their death)
Liu Kang: I cannot bring back your family, Tomas. Smoke: You can't or you won't?
Like I said before, it is impossible to tell for sure about which mother, biological or adoptive, Smoke was speaking, but as he claimed Li Mei resemble him mother
Li Mei: I remind you of your mother? Smoke: No-nonsense and tough as nails, just like her.
I personally assume he meant the adoptive one, as according to Smoke’s ending he lived with the Lin Kuei family for around 15 years. Logically thinking he would have more clear memories of her than about the biological parent he lost in childhood. We of course have no idea when - and how - his Lin Kuei mother died, but if I’m right in my assumption, then Tomas is providing vital insight into what kind of person she was. As Tomas said, a tough and no-nonsense woman and that fits perfectly the image of an excellent Lin Kuei fighter, because frankly, Bi-Han and Kuai Liang easily fit that description too. As presumably, the majority of Lin Kuei warriors.
Another thing to note, the adoptive mother is not identified by Tomas with kindness, comfort or warmth or anything most people usually associate mothers with. This of course does not mean his adoptive mother didn’t love him or was a bad parent but may give us an idea what it felt to grow up in a clan primarily focused on training warriors. A purpose that definitely affected how people interacted with each other and what was expected from children.
However the most interesting thing about Tomas considering Li Mei to be similar to adoptive mother is the fact that from all possible female fighters, he identifies mother with a woman forced into and shaped by Umgadi system of servitude but who found her true purpose outside said system.
Kitana: Resuming your old role is a waste of material. Li Mei: Being First Constable is my first, best destiny.
or
Liu Kang: I hear the Umgadi want you back. Li Mei: I prefer to remain First Constable.
And this finally led me to the eldest brother and Sub-Zero’s statement that mother “would applaud me”.
Bi-Han outright claims mother would be proud of him and logically thinking, supportive of his choices. Which is a drastic contrast to how he perceives father as he did call the man a fool that doomed Lin Kuei.
And here comes an important thing: though sources barely provide us an idea who Bi-Han’s mother was in original timeline - a Lin Kuei herself who knew what lay ahead of her sons already chosen by the clan or just a woman that was unlucky to meet and have three children with an assassin working undercover in America - she was literally the only person that tried to give Bi-Han and Kuai Liang a normal, safe life. This woman, whoever she was, challenged a powerful assassin clan to save her two sons and daughter and was presumably killed alongside the daughter by Bi-Han’s father. This definitely affected Bi-Han’s worldview and interestingly, the sources have never implied Sub-Zero had any strong emotional ties with his father.
Mythologies Sub-Zero’s backstory mentions only Bi-Han and Kuai Liang being kidnapped against mother’s will, that cryomancy was passed down to Bi-Han from father, that he took his place and mantle when the man died and that is basically all we know about their relationship.
Between brothers, it is always Kuai Liang to mention other male members of their family with respect, as can be seen with new timeline Scorpion and alternative timeline Kuai Liang:
Sub-Zero: I disown you in every way. Noob Saibot: Then disown my name, 'Sub-Zero'. Sub-Zero: The name was Grandfather's first.
and
Sub-Zero: Grandfather? Sub-Zero: Defeat me to earn my mantle. Sub-Zero: You honor me with your kombat.
despite the possibility that said Grandfather may be the one that kidnapped brothers to enroll them into the Lin Kuei clan, while Bi-Han as a Noob Saibot was the one bringing their mother, even if just to be sarcastic/ironic:
Noob Saibot: You disappoint me. Sub-Zero: The feeling is mutual, brother. Noob Saibot: Mother would be so proud.
and on two separate occasions talked to Jacqui about her mom that passed shortly before MK11’s events:
Noob Saibot: Vera's soul calls you. Jacqui: Keep mama's name out your mouth, Revenant! Noob Saibot: Revenant? I am Wraith!
and
Noob Saibot: Return to your mother's arms. Jacqui: She's dead, asshole. Noob Saibot: And her soul is mine.
and isn’t it a surprisingly similar thing to current timeline Bi-Han talking to Kitana and Mileena about their dead mother?
And yes, Liu Kang’s timeline is a fresh start and a lot of things have changed but some elements seem to repeat themselves, whether the Keeper of Time agrees with it or not. Which is why I think mother - and her fate - again deeply influenced Bi-Han, the same as he was influenced in the original timeline by her desperate attempt to save him and Kuai Liang from Lin Kuei bondage.
Bi-Han claimed mother would applaud his action, so she may herself feel resentment for Grandmaster’s idea of tradition and duty to Earthrealm and that resentment was passed down to her eldest son. Alternatively, it was her death that made Sub-Zero question both the nature of the relationship between Lin Kuei and Fire Lord and his father’s wisdom.
This leads me to another detail that may not be intentional on NRS’s part but it is repeated through the sources. The same as mother is never said to be the wife of Grandmaster - what admittedly is the most logical assumption for a traditional (patriarchal) clan as a way to secure the line of legal heir from proper marriage - the decision of adopting Tomas was made solely by Grandmaster. And so we have:
Smoke’s bio: As a boy, Smoke lived to hunt with his family. Their final hunt, however, ended in tragedy. Having accidentally trespassed onto Lin Kuei lands, they were attacked. Smoke was orphaned. Ashamed by his warriors' actions, the Lin Kuei's Grandmaster adopted Smoke. He raised him alongside his sons, Sub-Zero and Scorpion.
and
Kitana: You are Kuai Liang's adopted brother? Smoke: His father's honor demanded that he take me in.
and
Reptile: Lucky for you, Kuai Liang's father took you in. Smoke: It didn't feel that way at the time.
or
Bi-Han, story mode: Mind your place, Tomas. Father may have taken you in, made you one of us… but your blood will never be Lin Kuei.
As I talked before about Bi-Han and Tomas forced brotherhood on different occasion it struck me how the adoption resolved mainly around father’s selfish reasons like saving his honor and erasing the feeling of guilt rather the boy’s safety and emotional health. There is something truly disturbing about forcing a child to be part of clan that murdered his family over a trivial matter. But there is also something disturbing about how the mother had no say in the adoption of Tomas, as there isn’t any hint the man consulted that with her. Now, it is understandable that in a very traditional (patriarchy) clan the father, as the Grandmaster and head of his family, could make decisions without consultation with others, including his own wife or children. But usually people who love or at least mutually respect each other discuss the vital matters before making decisions whose consequences will have such a great impact on their and their children’s life. Adopting a child, so greatly traumatized and from totally foreign culture, is something that should be a joint decision of father and mother if both were supposed to raise said kid alongside their own. In that regard the father comes off badly, not only by how sources made his reasoning selfish (“his honor demanded”, “Ashamed by his warriors' actions”, “father wanted us to be brothers”) but also how uncaring he was toward the mother of his children, especially compared to Sindel and Jerrord.
We have no idea if Bi-Han’s father and mother were in love or were forced into a relationship by demands of tradition, maybe even through arranged marriage. But we have Sindel that though married Jerrord as a means to ensure peace,
Sindel's Bio: When Sindel ascended to Outworld's throne, she worried that she was ill-prepared. Adding to her stress: her impending arranged marriage to Jerrod, an Outworld noble. Forced into it to placate a rebellious region, Sindel could only pray that he was worthy. To Sindel’s delight, Jerrod proved an ideal partner.
she was loved, respected and supported by her husband and the feeling was mutual.
So far there is little suggesting Bi-Han’s mother had any real influence over Lin Kuei’s politics or that Grandmaster sought out her advice. She is not called the wife of Grandmaster, a title suggesting some high social position and so far only Sindel's remark gives us any idea what her role in clan could be. Liu Kang and Scorpion do not bring her dedication to Earthrealm and duty as a counterargument to Bi-Han’s resentment the way they talk about previous Grandmaster’s teaching and wisdom. She is pretty much removed from the picture and only Sindel and Tomas bothered to mention her at all. Sindel by praising Kuai Liang’s both parents as excellent fighters and Tomas by recalling her authority - the only one that Bi-Han seems to agree with, as according to him reclaiming Lin Kuei independence is what would please his mother.
If Tomas and Bi-Han have such a different idea of mother, the first question coming to mind is which brother speaks truth and which one is delusional. However I think that is not right question, because mother could not to speak about her desire to gain independence for Lin Kuei with Tomas - not because she didn’t love or accept the boy as her own, but because the orphan, as not born into clan, could not understand fully the Lin Kuei situation. Especially not when little Tomas was mourning the killed family and not when it became clear he and adoptive father became close.
Another thing worth to examine is the possibility that Bi-Han, consciously or not, also associates Li Mei with his mother, as
he clearly respect her, a former Umgadi turned into First Constable, more than Tanya, the current leader of priestess warriors:
Sub-Zero: No one in your order can defeat a Lin Kuei. Tanya: A nescient boast which is easily disproven.
or
Sub-Zero: Mileena sends a bodyguard, not a warrior? Tanya: Underestimate me at your peril, Sub-Zero.
vs
Sub-Zero: I hear your skills are formidable. Li Mei: As are those of all who have been Umgadi.
he encourages Li Mei to stop serve Royal Family and govern themselves
Sub-Zero: Your constables could also govern. Li Mei: We are sworn only to protect and serve.
something he usually does not do, as Sub-Zero has no interest in people outside Lin Kuei.
I’m painfully aware there is not enough source material to have clear conclusions and many of my thoughts are based on guesswork and comparative analysis. That said, I do think that as death of father deeply influenced Kuai Liang, the same happened with Bi-Han when their mother presumably was killed on duty. We have no idea what is the age gap between brothers, however I do think that Kuai Liang, as the younger brother, could not have a chance to know their mother well so all his devotion was focused on the living parent that raised him. If the mother personally wished for or actively supported Lin Kuei independence, she could do so as a way to ensure her children will have a better life than endless servitude, the same way the original timeline incarnation tried to save her sons from servitude to the assassin clan. In that case, Bi-Han was raised with an additional influence that shaped his mindset about his duty to clan above duty to Liu Kang and Earthrealm. If mother’s death was somehow the fault of Grandmaster and/or Fire Lord, as in, they sent her on ill-fated mission, it could be the origin of Bi-Han’s resentment against both men.
There is much more to say about the conflict between tradition vs independence and I for sure will talk about that soon, but the next part will be focused on POWER.
SIDENOTES:
[1] Alternative timeline seems the closest to presenting Bi-Han and Kuai Liang’s parents as the “normal family” as both look devastated when their children were kidnapped by Lin Kuei.
At the same time, MK11’s intro dialogues of Sub-Zero and Noob suggests their grandfather was once a Sub-Zero himself, with raises a question how much their parents were aware of danger from the assassin clan and if any of them were a Lin Kuei themselves.
#mortal kombat#bi han#sub zero#smoke#kuai liang#scorpion#tomas vrbada#li mei#bi han and kuai liang's mother#deserves so much better#the weirdest conclusion so far is how tomas provides more insight into kuai liang and bi han's mom than kuai liang alone#and how intros use smoke to compare female characters sidetracked by narrative (lin kuei mother and harumi) to women from game#also i don't wanna see bi han tomas and kuai liang's father as an abusive and/or despotic parent#but the sources doesn't paint him much in good light when there is jarrod to compare#i did not talk about the possibility that mom could be cryomancer herself and have this special bond with bi han due to shared ice powers#because there is barely anything how ice powers works in this timeline ;/
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