#Question 111 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

its-your-mind · 8 months

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*deep breath in*

the fears 👏 have always 👏 been (in one way or another) 👏 parallel 👏 to 👏 desire 👏

let me explain.

so many of the statements given by actual avatars center around some sort of need that was met by their entity. Lots of them even had a positive relationship with the fear that drove them.

Jane Prentiss is an excellent example - the Corruption has always been about a form of toxic and possessive love, but she personally has a deep desire to be “fully consumed by what loves her,” and finds a perverse joy and relief at allowing herself to be a home

Jude Perry is another - she fucking loved watching people’s lives be utterly destroyed. The Desolation only offered her a power of destruction on a grander scale, and then gave her a more intense rush of joy as she did its work. When she tells Jon that he needs to feed the Eye before it feeds on him, it’s almost as an afterthought; she was happily feeding the Desolation long before it burned her into a new existence.

Simon Fairchild. Every time that old loose bag of bones wanders into the picture, he is having a fucking EXCELLENT time playing with the Vast. He loves showing people their own insignificance, and he loves luring them into situations where he can throw them into the void as he smiles and waves.

Peter Lukas (hell, the whole Lukas family (except Evan. RIP Evan.)) hated. people. all he wanted was for them all to go away, to leave him alone. The Lonely only fulfilled that desire.

Daisy, Trevor, and Julia, all devoted to hunting those things they deemed monstrous.

Melanie, holding tight to that bullet in her leg because on some level, she wanted it. It felt good, it felt right, it felt like it fit right alongside the anger and spite that drove her to success.

Annabelle Cane first encountered the Web when she was a child, running away from home in order to tug on her parents’ heartstrings in just the right way to have them wrapped around her little finger. Later on she volunteered to be the subject of an ESP study. Hell, she’s the one who dangled the “Is it really You that wants this?” question over Jon’s head in S4.

And that brings us to Jon, beloved Jarchivist, the Voice that Opened the Door. Ever since he was a child targeted by the Web, he was looking for answers. He joined the Magnus Institute’s Research Department looking for them, he stalked his coworkers in search for them, he broke into Gertrude’s flat and laptop out of desperation for them. And when he realized that all he had to do was Ask to get truthful answers to his questions? It was only natural for him to jump at that opportunity.

Elias told S3 Jon that he did want this, that he chose it, that at every crossroads he kept pushing onwards, and the inner turmoil that caused was one of the focal points for Jon’s character through the rest of the podcast.

There’s a certain line of thinking in many circles about the power of the Devil: he’s not able to create anything new. All he’s able to do is twist and warp that which was already present, making it something ugly and profane while still maintaining the facade of something desirable.

Jon didn’t choose the Eye. But he did wander into its realm of power, exhibiting exactly the qualities it was most capable of hijacking and warping to its own ends. Jon didn’t choose the Apocalypse. But Jonah picked at him little by little, pointing him towards each Fear individually. Jon didn’t want to release the Fears. But the Web tugged on his strings just so and laid a pretty trail for him to follow until he reached its desired conclusion.

Jon didn’t choose ultimate power, or omniscience, or even his own role as Head Archivist. But he said “yes” to the right (wrong?) orders and kept on pushing for the right (wrong?) answers. He wanted to succeed at the work he had been assigned. He wanted to protect his friends. He wanted to rescue them when they were lost. He wanted to prevent the apocalypse, to save the world. He wanted to know why he was still alive, when so many had died right in front of him.

The Great Wheel of Evil Color that is the Entities might not fit as neatly into categories in this universe - maybe there was no Robert Smirke trying to impose strict categories on emotional experiences, or maybe the ways they manifest in the world has turned on its head (goodness knows many of them have been showcased and blended in some very fun and new and horrifying ways so far) - but their fundamental foundations seem to be the same. Hell, in episode one we learned that there had been enough individual incidents to create a distinction between “dolls, watching” and “dolls, human skin.”

Smirke’s Fourteen isn’t going to be relevant as common parlance, RQ said that already, but I don’t think that means the Fears themselves (and their Dream Logic-based rules) are different - I think it means that the levels of understanding, language used, and personal connections among people “in the know” are going to be entirely unfamiliar

#tma #tmagp #the magnus protocol #tmagp meta #tmagp analysis #the entities #robert smirke #smirke's fourteen #mind write a meta post that doesn’t turn into a fucking essay challenge #I literally thought about citing my episode sources here but decided that would get too FUCKING long.#anyway I’m pulling mostly from Gerry’s statement (111) and #and the Big Elias Group Confrontation (92)#and Annabelle’s statement (147)#and then finale - 196 / 197 / 200 #there are other little lines that I grabbed - tbh feel free to ask about anything I’ve said bc I feel like I’m ready to defend a thesis #I’ve been thinking about this on and off for a few weeks since the desire thing started going around #I have an obsession with Themes as they relate to Worldbuilding and now I have subjected you all to it as well #I am serious tho if anyone wants me to pull the specific parts I’m talking about (whether cuz you have Questions or you wanna ref them too)#lmk #my hyperfocus on silly media brain might as well come in useful somehow #aight peace ✌️

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fullscoreshenanigans · 1 year

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Okay, since you're asking for, well, asks:

What would you change to make Andrew a more compelling villain? How should his arc have been dealt so we, as the fandom, would be more fond of him, despite Andrew killing of at least two fandom favourites?

Swap him out with Isabella and give me the Isabella pursues the kids AU that S2 teased to facilitate the Grace Field escapees having a talk about the trauma she put them through that I crave or have him take Phil to Lambda.

Joking aside, almost anything that makes his conflict more personal with characters as individual characters rather than them as a monolithic group of cattle children would work for me, or giving him a personality beyond "Peter's lackey from the Ratri branch family with a one-dimensional hater boner for the cattle children."

I'd like him to stick around longer to simultaneously build up a greater antagonistic dynamic with the kids and show them strategizing how they'll neutralize him in an environment they aren't as familiar with, but are still knowledgeable enough about so the reader is privy to most of the elements in play and can deduct how at least some of them factor into the plan ahead of time, and then look back on any they missed without feeling cheated because they were introduced earlier rather than in the moment. Something along the lines of the kids luring him to a location the search party visited while looking for the Seven Walls.

Alternatively, an area they actively avoided because of rumors, like what evanescent puts forth here in always a riddle inside my head (aesop’s kin).

Comes with the potential bonus of providing more insight into demon world culture on top of adding a factor of risk of both sides trying to utilize the area to their advantage while trying to avoid succumbing to it themselves, especially if they ultimately decide to keep the group together as opposed to splitting up until the threat is dealt with.

I'd also like to see Andrew deducing Phil is a child of interest, either before he arrives at Grace Field due to his score and whatever else might be in his file or while he's at Grace Field and picks up on any odd behavior. Something for the reader to follow along with to build up tension and give us insight into both his personality and reasoning in a more lowkey setting to build anticipation for when he's in a higher energy one like confronting the escapees. It was most likely to save on page space, but him showing up at Grace Field only to do nothing with the encounter but use the fact he talked to Phil to taunt the Grace Field escapees in chapter 111 was such a letdown. Him doing something to Phil besides killing him offscreen makes for a more immediate threat than one of the many kids at Grace Field the audience might be aware of but doesn't have nearly as strong of an attachment to maybe getting shipped out at the two-year deadline. It also shows him taking some initiative on his own prior to the escapee confrontation when up until that point we just see him following Peter's lead.

Him following along the escapees' trail from Grace Field and stumbling across the coordinates to B06-32 Ray left carved in the tree would also be something deliciously angsty to taunt them with in their first encounter, chiding them for being sloppy. There's no guarantee they wouldn't have eventually been found anyway and no one really blames Ray for it given the circumstances, but still, the guilt of leading them to the location sooner rather than after they were long gone and putting Yuugo and Lucas into the position where they had to sacrifice their lives for them, oof.

Further rambling under the cut that turned into a semi-tangent:

Isabella is my favorite villain for, among other things, how intertwined she was in the children's lives. Very high personal stakes with a betrayal from someone who almost all of them believed was a normal, loving mother, to say nothing of the anguish Ray's biological connection to her brought him.

Leuvis made things more personal with Emma by going after children she saved earlier in the day to taunt her and affirmed to her face they were fundamentally opposed in their goals, making conflict unavoidable. He also killed Lucas and Yuugo's friends, forcing them to live separately with that guilt for over a decade.

Legravalima forced Mujika into hiding for 700 years after having her entire clan slaughtered, and she had an interest in the full score trio as the most delicious meat that was forbidden to her, making her one of the two key figures responsible for Norman ending up in Lambda that leads to a dramatically charged meeting between them in the imperial capital. It's a bit more distant of a connection, but it's workable for me when combined with her acting as a vehicle for criticism of systemic exploitation to maintain centuries of hegemony and how it inevitably implodes on itself. I half count Sonju here because their confrontation is also charged when they finally do meet, but it's never alluded to at all prior to this so there's zero build-up, and even in the "Two Destinies" story from the third light novel we don't see them interact.

Peter is the thirty-sixth Ratri to uphold the promise, giving some twisted credence to his assertion he is the father of the current generation of cattle children. He took advantage of Legravalima's greed to become the other key figure in Norman ending up at Lambda (though we don't get to see them interact much. We knew he was in conflict with his brother, the man who sought to end the Neverland despite knowing how critical it was to maintain the balance between the two worlds and how he should view it as an honor, since he was introduced. Again I have to fall back on the symbolism of what his defeat represented—his entire identity founded on a purposefully manufactured hierarchy and how he couldn't comprehend existence outside of that rigid mindset, of there not being an inherent inferiority to the cattle children that made their fate as food deserved—since on its surface his suicide is highly unsatisfying. Roughly a hundred chapters of build-up, and he just conveniently offs himself. No final stand, pathetic or grand, that pushes the characters to act or challenge something about themselves (yet again giving a shoutout to @salsae's vowsverse for having Emma shoot Peter and how for better, not only explores the toll that takes on her, but also how it affects the people around her).

Andrew's mindset is essentially the same as Peter's, so there's some symbolism in his wrath consuming him and contributing to his demise, but it's devoid of Peter's familial conflict. His meeting with Phil is framed in a sinister light that makes it reasonable to worry about his safety, but Shirai states in the mystic code book he never intended to do anything with it beyond using the meeting taking place as a way to briefly taunt Emma.

He also lacks the long history Leuvis had with Yuugo and Lucas. You could argue this speaks to how there's a disconnect between the upper echelons who profit off the exploitation of those at the bottom and the banal mundanity of it all, and how his death in the jaws of a wild demon was indicative of the indifference of the universe, but to me it feels empty when earlier villains gave us conflict that was simultaneously symbolic and personal.

(Mystic Code Book Chapter 4 | December 2020 Exhibition Interview)

The children maintaining their "whiteness"/innocence would have been fine by itself if it was preceded by a more prolonged pursuit that would at least give us a peek into Andrew's past and personality while also showing the children carefully crafting plans ahead of time like they did in previous arcs so we could follow along with them and build up anticipation due to being provided with all the potential elements in play.

Instead, he shows up at the bunker when we as an audience have spent very little time in it and only learned about its intricate tunnel system during the raid, he blows it up, and then he shows up again instigating a hostage situation. After the enormous blow of losing Yuugo and Lucas interspersed with the deaths of children who were meant to stress the gravity of the situation (but with their lack of focus it's frustratingly obvious they're cheap canon fodder; we don't even get their names until the chapter 119 bonus sketch) on top of all ten members of the Goldy Pond crew surviving Goldy Pond despite some suffering injuries that could have justifiably killed them, there's a lack of tension for seasoned readers when Alicia and Dominic are on the chopping block.

Such a frustratingly disappointing character who doesn't even have a fun personality to make up for it.

#you: *asks a simple question* / me: *takes forever to get to an answer*#sorry for all the ranting in there but fuck Andrew Ratri this is an Andrew Ratri hate zone #officersnickers #The Promised Neverland #Yakusoku no Neverland #TPN #YnN #FSS Asks #FSS Chatter #TPN Andrew #Andrew Ratri #Mystic Code Book #2020 Exhibition Interview #Cuvitidala Arc #TPN 100 #TPN 111 #TPN 112 #𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑎 𝑟𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑙𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑚𝑦 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑑 (𝑎𝑒𝑠𝑜𝑝’𝑠 𝑘𝑖𝑛)#Long Post #Read More #also for me part of the issue is that it feels like Shirai was trying to have his cake and eat it too #we had six cannon fodder kids die #after every single member of the main Goldy Pond crew survived the previous arc despite some experiencing horrific injuries #like how tf are both Paula and Sandy alive dkjskl #just feels like he was trying so hard to ramp up the tension with them and it ended up failing for me after what happened at Goldy Pond #as well as being so disoriented by the timeskip taking us from the start of the kids' escape #to the month before the deadline #thought we we going to get more into demon geopolitics or smth as the vehicle for how they change the world but nah #sae let me know if you want me to stop tagging you every time I feel the need to mention/gush over vowsverse #the promised queueland

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