also am I interpreting Shamura as a follower correctly Have they almost completely lost their memories? With only brief glimpses coming through here and there?
because that is Devastating, right. Like, all around. Surely someone else has realized this right.
how is Kallamar going to reconcile for asking Shamura be killed first. how is Nari going to have any conversation about anything at all
Does Shamura even remember who any of them are?? I mean they remember Narinder to some extent (referring to him when Aym and Baal are revived) but what of the youngest like Leshy? Who they had the least time to know when they were still a Bishop?
and again with Nari . He definitely seemed to respect Shamura the most (as in his opinions on the rest of his siblings are not all that high), even going silent when brought silk from their domain rather than making any sort of snarky comment . Asking if they wept when they were slaughtered
and now they're here. But they don't remember anything. Or perhaps only remember small things for brief moments
and it was THEM who influenced Nari, it was THEM who asked for him to be chained, it was THEM who led to ALL OF THIS.
and now. Now what. Now there's nothing that CAN be said. There's no forgiveness that can be shared. There's no explanations to be given. Narinder is furious for the betrayal they cast upon him but what can he do. How can he express that when the Shamura he knew is barely there
(and not to mention HE was the one to PUT THEM into that state)
Like on one hand they now get to exist in an almost blissful ignorance, no longer weighed down by grief and regret for all they'd done, but on the other. like
They must be so confused. And to some extent maybe frustrated. They appeared in the middle of nowhere, dragged out of an eternal torment that they only remember through brief horrible flashes compounded with a tidal wave of guilt and sorrow that they can't. Remember the source of. and what?
They just live here. They work here. They worship a Lamb. They don't know why, but they suppose that's what they're meant to be doing. That's what everyone's telling them.
Save for these four strangers who keep approaching them and telling them otherwise. Claiming to be their siblings, begging for them to remember them, when all they can do is stare back because. Who are these people? Why can I vaguely feel a sense of comfort and warmth around them, as though they should mean something to me?
And sometimes they do remember. Sometimes a moment of clarity hits them and they laugh in fond remembrance of Heket's fierce temper, and how she was SO upset to no longer be the spoiled youngest when... someone else arrived, whomever that might've been. But then it's strange... Why can't they remember Heket's voice?
They swear they remember her so clearly. If they squint, the silent frog sat next to them looks a lot like her, but she would never sit in silence like this, surely. And she'd been so small back then; just a feisty little child.
Maybe they're mistaken. Maybe it's been a long time since Heket existed.
They're not all that certain. But they do know that they keep getting very obviously glanced at by a squid across the way. One who needs them to speak up, or else he can't seem to hear them.
They're not sure why they knew that innately upon meeting him. Perhaps it was the sight of his tattered ears that gave it away. Of course, that must be it.
Regardless, his wary side-eyes are nothing compared to the bright red ones in the dark.
The ones that bore into them with such ferocity that they feel they should be burning beneath the gaze. But they can't tell with what emotion they're being perceived with.
All they know is that, when those three eyes cut through the veil of night to stare at them.
I really really like the Wyldfyre shorts, they're a great way to explore Wyldfyre's grief without having to dedicate screentime from the main show.
At the same time, excuse me Wyldfyre, what did you just say he told you?
I am annoyed more so at the writers and not the character, tho his character is a close second.
The ONLY good thing about his character from Crystalized just got thrown out and into the garbage for... No reason?
And this isn't like, Wyldfyre being an unreliable narrator, because she's literally quoting him, even if it's in condensding manner, and you can't tell me Zane doesn't know the difference between Humans and Nindroids... Like- ugh...
I'm just upset, S1 of DR had his character pretty well I'd say, but S2 has just NOT BEEN IT in the slightest, they seen to be doubling down repeatedly on his robot self and not his human self, and I'm sorry but there's not even any comparison between the two when it comes to which one I like more...
Zane's whole thing was that he was a very very VERY human machine, a person even, and it seemed like he could function as a machine while still maintaining his humanity and personality.
Now, with what we've had since SotFS and now this line, it feels like that balance has completely gone out of whack, it feels like he's favouring his robot self over his human one, and there's nothing inherently wrong that.
Unless... You repeatedly literally don't do anything with his character and just keep building up on the fact that he's "Silly nice robot man :p", and especially when you use his 'Cardboard Cutout' character during the Wildbrain Era as a sort of justification for his current character state.
Mind you, that Cardboard Cutout didn't go through a single character arc up until Crystalized to justify making him feel so much more robotic, and it's hella infuriating when you remember they TRIED to give him an arc after SotFS (Tommy said that they previously wanted to have a Zane PTSD/Depression arc for Prime Empire that was scrapped).
If you can't tell, I'm not happy with his current currently in the slightest...
ruthlessly deleting old 2021/2022 posts (not by me) from my dean studies tag like *click* un-incorporating that from my beliefs system! also the way SO many posts have me like ok uh-huh good aaand then say one completely wrong thing that loses me. it's so many posts.
this might sound a bit dumb and out of no where but hmmm. how do i say this... there are a lot of posts and a general consensus about quote unquote media literacy on tumblr and how we feel about it, as well as the things that go hand in hand with all that (discussion of mischaracterisation, symbolism, analysis, etc) and i think people (generally) need to be more open about their thoughts or findings and less i don't know... harsh isn't the word but like, just less assumptive that people are inherently out to be willfully ignorant when it comes to dissecting media thematically or discussing characterisation & the narrative, esp things where the outside factor of the consumer/creator changes things drastically if you do or do not know or experience something (and therefore would have no reason to be like, somehow maliciously interpreting something). i guess?
like i get it and i absolutely understand and also hate when people seem to go out of their way to say all the wrong things and stubbornly cling onto things that are WRONG, and confronting someone's opinion and it being SO wrong that you can comfortably think of a rebuttal is ultimately very satisfying and scratches a certain itch and can lead to a lot of thoughtful discussion despite being essentially a big "get a look at THIS guy". but i do think there is a vast difference between like, a) someone masquerading behind being knowing buzzwords and being able to say the right words in the right order, b) someone who isn't familiar with certain concepts and DOESN'T know the right words to say but is happily open to learning, and c) someone using the guise of talking about "media literacy" to be ignorant, bigoted or willfully misinterpreting something in a biased way who refuses to concede if confronted or goes out of their way to pick arguments. whilst the first two aren't malicious, both could turn out to be, just like the last category tends to be rejects of the first two who dug their heels in about it.
whilst there is a DIFFERENCE if someone was being say bigoted and prejudiced with hateful intent, not being "media literate" is not actually a moral failing as much as it is made out to be in moments of sweeping generalisation, and i think punishing people for not knowing how to hold thoughtful discussion is obviously cruel and dumb and unnecessarily othering. you don't want people to learn things out of a sense of shame or guilt. i know it's not the INTENT, and i don't like, interpret even 99% of discussion about this whole thing that way, but that doesn't change that discussing people very broadly who just Don't Know something is always going to leave the 1% of a LOT of harshness thrown against someone who doesn't deserve that. even if they're the stupidest twitterina known to man or something.
media literacy itself is not inherent and it is HARD, as much as people try to pretend it isn't. personally i am someone who has always and probably always WILL struggle to understand complex themes and often do need someone else to guide me towards thinking a certain way, thinking in these ways don't come naturally to me as much as i try my best to and i often think the "wrong" thing as my natural conclusion. and every Damn time that happens i see someone going "if you didn't realise this you're a fucking idiot" like woah man 😭 calm down. i dunno i feel like people just forget that this stuff is something you have to train like a muscle, esp things like vocabulary or a more complex academic way of speaking, and to some of us that is always going to be inherently inaccessible or it's going to take twice as long for us to grasp, for whatever reason. i just wish people were more fair is all.
how do you get yourself to write about such upsetting topics (mainly the fascism/bigotry) without getting upset yourself?
Oh, but I do get upset. I don't write like a detached, passive observer. The trick isn't to not get angry at all, it's to channel it into something constructive.
Fucking around in Vault 3, helping those guys escape- I come back with the key and two of them are outside the cage and one of the Fiends is inside it instead. I'm like "wow okay," move on, unlock the cage.
And then I just. Get to watch them all crouch and "sneak" out of the cage, pushing up against and stopping in front of Fiends the whole way.
I genuinely don't know if they're supposed to just be fine once you open the cage? So like maybe that last bit is par for the course. But coming back to two of them just wandering that room, chillin with the captors? Incredible. 10/10 I recommend this game to everyone.
i am almost done with season one of the boys and it’s so good i want hughie and butcher to make each other go worse. come on hughie i know it’s in there somewhere. go insane little white man. go nuts.
i will always say that the oscars don’t matter because historically they were (and one could strongly argue still are) racist, sexist, and homophobic but i will still celebrate the oscar wins of my favorite people bc imagine what that must feel like, especially as someone who had to overcome a lot of adversity to get where they were. that walk up to that stage and that moment means so much to so many people, because its a look into the eye of society on a grand scale. the oscars are the w o r s t but they are important
I adore a good person gradually becoming corrupted, not becoming evil necessarily, but their choices stepping further and further away from anything good, their sense of morality bending until it's so distorted that they don't know who they are anymore, grasping tightly to that one thing that justifies it all to themselves and gives their continued existence purpose, until maybe they lose even that and are just left a shell, aimless.
I adore a bad person being tempted out of the darkness that they'd grown accustomed to and comfortable with. Some situation arises, forcing them to confront the fact that they are in fact a complex multi-faceted human and not an inhuman evil force, that despite everything they've done, they still have capacity to feel, to love, they have the ability to choose to do the right thing, and here they find themselves doing just that, whether motivated by circumstance, self serving, or for someone that they care about. And the more they find themselves doing good things, the more they question the foundations of their existence, of everything they've done, and is it too late for them to be good?
And I mean, what is more devastating: being a good person, but that pillar of identity fading to exist the more bad things that are done? Or being convinced that there is no point to goodness and even relishing living in that way, only to realise that despite it all, capacity for goodness existed this whole time, but it that every bad thing you did will always exist no matter how much good you do afterwards.