#Thinking about also doing one with the villains but idk

[tubbytarchia]

I’ve recently rewatched dl and I wanted to find out if you had any thoughts on Pearl and Scott’s dynamic.. (double life or general idm)

BOY DO I. SIT DOWN

I've talked lots about Scott before, of how he twists the narrative the most and treats most relationships more as transactional. I will now immediately follow that sentence up with dear god please don't assume I hate Scott he's so interesting and compelling PLEASE don't think I hate him I beg of you I LIKE HIM I don't think he's evil and a villain he's just a bit fucked up like everyone else PLEASE just. believe me

Me ^

Anyway now that that's out of the way. Scott I think has an innate need for connection but denies it in favor of weaving his own narrative that he is in control of, especially so in Third Life where to me, it feels like he sought out to find a tragic love story and he got exactly that, from his perspective anyway, what with the final sequence of him meeting Jimmy again in some imagined afterlife, the one part that was scripted and it shows. Love is a variable that he can't afford the risk of. I think the story with Jimmy that he weaved was more important to him than genuine affection. In Double Life he admits to having whittled Jimmy down to nothing in order to get something from him. But then along comes Last Life

In Last Life, whatever it was, something about Pearl really appealed to him if even subconsciously and he very genuinely cared about her imo. And that was a relationship that oddly enough started as purely transactional yet quickly developed into the most meaningful one I think Scott has had. Even when he faltered in returning Pearl's affection fully, Pearl didn't care and stood by him. Well exemplified by the time he kind of froze when Pearl was boogey killed by Lizzie, but Pearl didn't even think to hold his inaction against him. (Especially fun contrasted with Pearl accidentally breaking the rules in killing boogey Joel for killing Scott lol)

But all of that was the variable that Scott sought to avoid, so in Double Life he immediately uses what he can as an excuse to ostracize Pearl, almost as if to punish her for the crime of. loving? And I'm not about to claim that Pearl is wholly innocent but I'd argue that was unwarranted. Cleo and Scott are a great dynamic in a vacuum but unfortunately Cleo is also quite terrible (but then who isn't. It's a death game, they all are. Sorry I have to keep making these remarks because otherwise I get labelled a hater) and unfortunately fuels all the worst traits in Scott while Scott very readily sticks to her. They remain an encouraging pillar to Scott, it's just that the things being encouraged are like. Their ritual to slice each other with axes at full force just to stick it to Martyn and Pearl. Pearl often gets compared to Scott as equally physically harmful but idk personally I don't think the snow bucket compares to start-of-every-session-near-death-axe-crit routine. That's again not to say that she's innocent

Upon Scott spreading completely unfounded claims about her being crazy and malicious, she starts to adopt those claims. What else is she to do to get by? She has been nice to most players and nearly none of them want her around because of rumors despite her causing harm on accident at worst. She comes close to finally finding friends in Jimmy (Tango as well but mostly Jimmy), but ruins her chances by briefly playing into Martyn's "prank" and giving him Jimmy's horn without realizing it's importance to Jimmy, after which Jimmy tells her that she's no longer welcome on the ranch. She's effectively lost everyone and it is 90% due to Scott, not due to her actually acting the way she's claimed to as she only starts to go down that path after repeated rejection (sure she let herself be physically hurt to get at Scott, but it wasn't because of malice or having lost her mind, her doing so was reasonable anyhow but got twisted into something it wasn't. It's still wrong on her part and I do think she goes at least a bit insane as Scarlet Pearl surfaces, but the point is that she wasn't that when Scott started painting her that way)

Even in the very end, Scott retains control. He retained control of not only his narrative but contributed to most others' as well, painting Pearl as the exact character he wanted her to be known as in every POV outside of her own. And as they stand face to face as the last two survivors, Scott denies her any chance to change things, taking his own life instead whilst painting himself as noble in doing so

Scott is incredibly self-sacrificial but only when he gets something out of it, and because it allows him yet more control. He wants to be able to control when he dies, and he also gets to turn it into utmost grandiose statements of nobleness when he does, which then changes others' perception of him accordingly and directly or indirectly allows Scott to get something in exchange. His suicide in DL is no different, it was for him, not for Pearl

In Secret Life Scott also instils the idea of Pearl being untrustworthy in Gem

Wild Life. grrrr. Wild Life.............clenches fist. Pearl's personal hell

I think you can infer I was. scared to say the least about Pearl upon seeing her alliance in Wild Life. In the end though I ended up just being immensely sad and disappointed. Just about nothing worked out for Pearl, only for her trauma to be mocked repeatedly by Scott and Cleo

Pearl imo shows so many signs of regression, and she holds onto Impulse as the one member of her team that isn't actively taunting her, making it a goal for herself to see Impulse win, and it is that: for her, for anything to go her way, not so much for Impulse as much as she does genuinely care for him. She really doesn't spend that much time with him, she just needs a goal to work towards for her own sake. Pearl being unstable, untrustworthy and especially pathetic are all things that continue to get enforced within the alliance, where she's often spoken to like a ticking time bomb and the team's destructiveness gets relegated to her specifically. She recognizes not feeling good about it but she doesn't recognize everything that's at play in the social dynamics of their alliance or the extent of it

She becomes scared of people becoming resentful of her were she to make mistakes all the while Scott and Cleo start enabling her worst tendencies, aka Scarlet Pearl. They don't do this a large degree but they do make an explicit point of it, or at least Cleo does. Cleo is also however, if even vaguely, trying to mend the relationship between her and Pearl, where they occasionally encourage and defend her although it's not to a significant enough degree for Pearl to really realize. After Gem's death, Cleo is also there to help although Pearl is too distraught to appreciate it

While Gem's largely the catalyst for the "pathetic" notion that Pearl adopts to her detriment over the course of Wild Life, it only affects Pearl as strongly as it does due to her having gone through what she has, and because she's in a largely unloving alliance that fuels and reminds her of her wrongdoing. Just compare her mental state here to the one in Secret Life with the Mounders. Although it does have importance to her because she seeks reconciliation, she isn't allowed to forget about Double Life, she's not allowed to heal and grow around the grief of what's happened to her

And the final two notable incidents in her and Scott's relationship are 1. Her being made to feel like she needs to kill Scott, which she doesn't and ends up picking her own method of killing him to retain any semblance of choice, and 2. best summarized by my friend's Pearl POV analysis: "Scott is wearing my clothes. instead of villainizing me, our “reconciliation” has encouraged him to embrace the qualities he thinks I represent. he matches me, and we don’t talk about our past"

I state again that I like Scott, I like Cleo, I don't think they're evil or villains, at the very least in no cut-and-dry way. They're flawed and compelling and although I feel sad for Pearl and see Scott as largely at fault for what's happened to her, I care about Scott too and he's easily in the top 5 of most intricate Life characters to me that I enjoy dissecting

You know like. enjoying any character in any other fandom that is morally reprehensible in any way. I don't know why that's such a wild concept in traffic but sigh. I have to disclaim this unfortunately

[pricechecktranslations]

This is really not important at all but as an Elluka fan, I'd like to know how you feel about the (SPOILER LOOK AWAY FOR READERS) fact that she's Levia? I don't really know how to feel aside from mild discontent and it feeling a bit... Like a cheap plot twist

Really? I thought it was an exceptional twist.

There were things about Elluka that didn't 100% make sense to me that were explained by the reveal (like the actual mechanics of how she was brought back to life and made immortal), and it served as a solid demonstration of a lot of lore that was only vaguely expounded on previously (mostly the reincarnation mechanics and the concept of a body having residual memories in it separate from the soul inside it). It's also something that is interesting to reflect on when looking back at prior character interactions (such as Held and Gumillia), and adds a layer of complexity to them that we didn't have before (like Gumillia asserting that even though she took on the position of apprentice as a front, she has embraced it for real). Not to mention--Levia at that point was largely an unknown for the readers, other than being an "evil god" alluded to in the religious lore of the setting. So the reveal that Elluka is Levia was a strong introduction that overcame the prejudicing portrayal that previous content had.

I think probably my favorite part about it is the reveal that the "seven deadly sins" quest was literally just a waste of time. Held sent Elluka to do it because he knew it would keep her busy, not because he expected her to actually succeed. Hence why it doesn't really matter that she fails to collect the vessels in almost every novel.

I don't want to go into it too much, I'm not trying to convert you to liking the twist or anything, but it's something that feels, to me, like it was very obviously intended from the start. There's so many things that make sense in hindsight. Like how Elluka named herself after Kiril in honor of him and yet she doesn't seem to mourn his loss much (she reacts strongly to Kaspar's corpse because it reminds her of Kyle, but not Keel who looks exactly like Kiril)? She doesn't seem to have any emotional reaction to Irina having been her sister in law? When would she have developed a friendship with a "heretic" god, as a priest of a temple to LeviaBehemo (and how can she hear him speak in the first place when no other human can)? By all accounts Elluka Chirclatia was loving and supportive but Elluka Clockworker is vain, overdramatic, and rude?

The scene itself is well executed too, that it comes with an element of tragedy--this is the "death" of the Elluka we knew (for now at least), framed from the POV of someone who loves her (Gumillia), after an entire novel of shifty behavior and foreshadowing on her end.

The thing I really like about it is that it changes nothing about her actual character--she's a callous do-gooder who doesn't take things seriously at first, and then as she begins to accumulate more suffering in her life she starts to care more, but maintains a facade of nonchalance to hide from that pain. The twist just re-contextualizes why she's like that and where she stands in the broader story. And it's interesting to think about a character who was a "villain" but develops into a hero after getting amnesia.

Also I like the thought that her obsession with looking pretty and being surrounded by pretty women might have been a bit of Behemo peeking through, idk (since she doesn't seem to do that much as Levia).

There are a lot of twists mothy's made that can feel "cheap" but this isn't one of them, not to me.

[cumplane-forever]

dad aeroplane!'s not getting out of my head. so here's some notes that kinda pick up after the ending of this post.

later that evening, luo binghe is summoned to the bamboo house. the rumor has spread over the 12 peaks, so even the bullies give him pitying looks. lbh panics because he's certain sqq is going to take the opportunity to finish him off.

LBH stares at Shen Qingqiu. . "You want me to sleep here?" "If you ever take that tone with me again, I will cut your tongue out. And I won't repeat myself."

or maybe:

"You're actually my father?" SQQ curses the chain of events that lead him here. "What did I say about your tongue. I have only said that it might be so," he lies. "Your face looks identical to your mothers." Lbhs stony expression twists at that. His next question might have been whether he knew his mother, but the implications of what exactly sqq might have to say about his mother apparently help him keep his mouth shut.

SQQ decides that even if the protagonist hates the father who abused him, he can balance the abuse with help. an abundance of it.

maybe he starts out by arranging weekly teaching sessions in the bamboo house. the convenient little side room is converted into a study hall and he relentlessly grills luo binghe on whatever he's set him to learn by the end of a shichen.

luo binghe does not appreciate this. he's not allowed to do anything else in the house except cook for himself on the times he'll be late to dinner.

if he's allowed to stay in the bamboo house it is the same deal.

sqq forgets to consider how much he's come to think of the bamboo house as a sanctuary, he doesn't realise that Luo Binghe is learning his bad habits and tells, and he especially doesn't notice when he takes a bite of Luo binghes congee and mutters that it needs more flavour.

by this time it's been an year. lbh's revenge planning does not withstand in the face of his pettiness. the comment on his cooking is the last straw and LBH pesters shizun about exactly how his recipes and cooking.

this somehow leads to binghe realising his shizun's loser side and being deeply unimpressedTM with it.

my thoughts on how aeroplane would be as sqq are that on one hand he could fix pidw so well! but on the other hand.

(yk before i read the aeroplane extras i was convinced that aeroplane was sent early into pidw to repent or whatever. narratively you could argue that he's paying for sacrificing integrity for money.

but what about repentance for being evil? that villainous shit? idk i expected a plot twist where he knew that pidw was real all along and was paying for having written such an ending. so i'm just saying. maybe a recently dead aeroplane acted way more like bingge than would be good for anybody.)

anyways in this au he's just also anxiety, but overworked anxiety.

aeroplane pov:

on the other side of this there's a somewhat panicked 20-something year old who died alone and without closure. the only improvement in his life so far has been fresh food? clothes? the ability to touch grass maybe? if he isn't kept busy with strategising and scheming and fixing the shitty body the original shen qingqiu left behind he's having a crashout on a weekly schedule. so being nice to Luo Binghe isnt exactly easy, but being a deadbeat dad is out of the question when he's this close to changing his fate. Something he's learnt from his father's step children is that teenagers just want space and to be heard. So he. . does that. It's also convenient that the system has unlocked OOC, but only for luo binghe he's fine with that, as long asthe system lets him death glare back at the an ding peak lord when the man glares at him. oh yeah, and good food! kids like that right? cooking is a hobby he's always loved but never been able to indulge in. It's something of a learning curve to understand the mechanics of the xianxia kitchen, but there's only one hurriedly covered up(from the other peak lords) burning incident before SQQ proves to LBH he can in fact be trusted with a hearth.

any thoughts?

[aiza-luna]

Watch Dogs Headcanons - Animal Quirks/ Symbolisms.

By Aiza Luna :D

Feels like I'm writting a newspaper but nah, just more delulu Aiza journal 😭

Anyways!! Remember when I said I had Headcanons of giving my fav characters animal refs/ symbolisms? Well... Decided to do that today! 🥳

So lemme start with the list! First gonna do with some of the characters from WD1 that got most of my attention/ are more well-known. ( PS: trigger warning for people with Arachnophobia when arriving at Clara's part? Is right under Aiden's, skip if you so wish)

Aiden Pearce - Gray Fox. (Urocyon cinereoargenteus)

Ok, this one is basically common knowledge since we all know that's where his damn nickname comes from lol.

Aiden has a lot of paralels with Gray Foxes, from the round faces, to climbing skills to hunting abilities!

Foxes in general represents Cunniness, Witt, a Sharp Mind and a Dubious Morality with it's Trickstery Nature. However, Gray Foxes represent neutrality, a symbol of maturity, but also sadness and indecisiveness... That sounds familiar, does it? It fits Aiden's description awfully well!

For my HC of his mannerism:

- When Aiden was younger, he used to climb trees all the time back at Belfast. His mom used to yell at him afraid he would fall. ( Wich he did. A lot actually.)

- Like a fox, he has great hearing, detecting easily when people are approaching by.

- He loves fruit (He likes Strawberry Shortcake and Banana Cake) and meat! Although he rarely has time to cook for himself and relies heavily on fast food, he is an enjoyer of chicken and hare meats!

- When Aiden manages to sleep without stress (in very rare occasions), he tend to sleep curled up under his sheets without noticing.

- He has a strong smell. When not because of his constant exercises running after criminals, is because of his wooden deodorant + his trench coat of leather. lol

(Like even after showering, his smell is not bad, just strong than usual.)

- His face is secretly very sensible. If he shaves his face and gets touched their somehow, he'll shiver and recoil bc that's a VERY sensitive face. Even with his stubbles, he can easily feel the texture and touch of someone on his cheeks, like a fox with it's whiskers. 🥺

Clara Lille - Trapdoor Spider! (Liphistius malayanus)

This one is also, once again, common knowledge! I mean, she's called like that in game- lol

Our dear Badboy17, the tattoo girlboss herself, it's pretty obvious where the spider parallels go with Clara: Her lethality, how she work in the dark, carefully using the web in her favor... But is there more to it? 🤔

Spiders represent the Resilience, Unseen Danger and the Connectedness.

All those meanings fit Clara perfect: She's connected to many things, Aiden, the Club, Dedsec... She works in the dark corners, weaving her web of connections and the benefits she can get of it. Similarly, she is an unseen danger, a person that can discover everything about others without them even suspecting, and using that against them... But she's also Resilient. Despite her connections and actions, she weaved her own path to redemption on helping Aiden, to try to fix her mistake and make amends for her past actions... And much like a spider, she was easily killed, because while Spiders are easy to disappear from our sight, people won't think twice about killing them if they're considered a "threat" to them...

For my HC of her mannerisms:

- Clara is excelent with handscraft: Eletronics, Art, Sewing... She's great at anything that requires hand work since she's very precise and perfectionist.

- She's into Urban Exploration! She loves to find dark, abandoned and hidden places left in urban areas, specially if they have some connection to Blume as a bonus.

- One of her favorite foods is Sushi! Is quick, pratical and she just like fishes. (One of Trapdoor Spiders prey 🥰)

- Is not afraid of insects but doesn't like them at all, will either kill or try to take them away from the place, if the insect is harmless.

- Clara has pretty good instinct, mostly reflex in near-body combat, but she rarely displays them since she rarely needs to fight someone nowdays or is caught offguard by gunned opponents.

- She is a solitary person, in the sense that she stays hidden in her little corner and rarely gets out with others, aside for working at the tatto studio she works on. :')

Jordi Chin - Korat Cat. (Felis Catus)

This one was suggested by @paul-poppy-art but I think everyone here agrees Jordi gives major cat energy. XD

Our favorite Fixer is funny, odd and sarcastic lovable sociopathic asshole and we all know it, but saying out loud, that does fit the description of a cat! 😂

Cats are hunters, and their symbolism is mostly tied to Indenpendence, Inteligence and Mystery, this fits Jordi perfect.

A man that works indenpendely, his only criteria is who pays more, wich will be more advanteging to him. An Inteligent and calculative killer that always has a plan in mind and a mysterious person whose' past we know nothing about! Still, he stays by Aiden's side and display his affection in a more non-verbal way (like a cat lol)

For my HC of his mannerisms:

- He has a pretty light walking, you can't hear him comming behind you... Wich is either very dangerous or annoying, depending on your situation.

- Jordi is incredibly sensitive to his surroundings and always knows what is happening around him. You can't surprise him, you simply can't.

- When not working, he tends to stay layed down or sit a lot, like a "big lazy cat". lol

- Is a clean freak. Likes to keep all his work and himself the most well-presented her can. He absolutely despite Aiden's lack of self-care. 😭

- Has extremily good reflexes and flexibility, if he gets to you, you're Fcked. (proof is at WD2)

- Is not a verbal type of guy to express his feelings, but more of the type of doing small gestures to the people he cares for. He brings them food as one of his love languages.

(Kinda like when a cat brings a bird at home to "feed their human". lol)

T-Bone Grady - Bearded Collie Dog. (Canis Lupus Familiaris)

Now is turn for the legendary Hacker Dilf himself!! 🥳

Honestly T-Bone was both easy and hard because well... His name. XD

I struggled a Lot with what race he could be, but looking a bit up, I think Bearded Collie would fit like a glove! For his character design, mostly. 😂

Dogs symbolism is tied to Loyalty, Fidelity, Alertness and Protection.

We see this a lot on T-Bone, he won't hesitate to attack to defend himself, although to his friend's he's loyal and always watch over them and their safety.

(Him trying to reach Aiden to alert him in the Bad Blood DLC) and of course, him always being in alert for Fixers after him.

My personal HCs for his mannerisms:

- Will occasionally pace around or throw/ destruct somethings if too stressed.

- Spend a lot of time on his hair and beared, and tends to let some hair strings behind.

(like a true big furred dog lol)

- Like the Bearded Collie breed, T-Bone doesn't usually "bark", he bites first.

(See his meeting with Aiden-)

- Can't really stay inside for too long, gets easily bored and just generally hates being idly by.

- Is curious and enjoys a challenge, this old a-hole will take anything to unlock areas/ information that no one else has access to.

(See his Wiki)

- Will always be around the people he cares for, like, physically. He follows/ stays around his friends like a dog with his owner. 😭

(Shows much more Physical Display of Affection out of the main Trio tbh)

Nicole Anne Pearce - Bumblebee. (Bombus)

HEAR ME OUT OK? The patterns on her shirt and her color palette reminded me so much of a Bumblebee! 😭

They're so chonky and floofy! Tell me Nicky ain't cute like them? 🥺🥹

Bumblebees symbolises Hardwork, Productivity, New Beginings and the Importance of a Community! I think those describes Nicole very well!

She's a hard-working single mother providing for her child(ren), her job as an Event Planner reminds me of the systematic work system of bees! Her community (family) is extremily important to her and she fought for their best... Unfortunetly, she had to re-start her life after everything that happened in WD, so all the animal symbolisms fit her character very well. :')

My personal HC for her mannerisms:

- She has the habit of "hum" while working, doing chores or running errands.

(Like the buzz of a bee lol)

-Nicky loves flowers but she doesn't have a garden since she rarely has time to dedicate to it. :')

-She loves honey! And she used to eat a lot of honey-made when she was a kid! 🥰

- Woman can't stay still, she's always moving around trying to do things: Chores, return calls, etc. Aiden used o joke she was "too much of a busy bee".

- She has a pretty characteristic floral smell. Almost all her house smell likes a garden, always with a floral hint in the air.

(Aiden used to find it comforting whenever he visited her and the kids.)

And that's it for today!! There are still missing some other characters from WD1 I still wanted to correlate to animal symbolisms, but this already long af 🥲

I'll (MAYBE) post a part II about the other characters I wanted to associate + another part talking about WD2 characters and their animal symbolisms I Headcanon them with 🥰

Anyways, thank you all so much for reading my delulu ramble, love you all 🙏🏽🩵

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

main take aways from Halloween (1978) rewatch:

michael myers is canonically 21??? this bitch should be at the club

*sees tiddies* ***MURDEROUS RAMPAGE NOISES***

that's it that's the movie

outside of the fact that everyone who has sex is murdered by the narrative, this is a surprisingly chill portrayal of female sexuality? these teen girls are horny and actively enjoying Getting It On with their boytoys. no pushy boyfriends sneaking in through their bedroom windows--these ladies are taking the initiative to sneak out and GET SOME. one of them gets laid and then immediately orders her boyfriend to get her a beer. (yes she gets Slashered soon afterward, but so does the boyfriend so honestly, gender equality.) yes the Final Girl is the only one not having sex, but she's not bullied for that, nor are her friends slut shamed except possibly by being murdered by the narrative

actually the only character who is shown being morally condemned on-screen is michael myers. specifically FOR his violent overreaction to other people's sex lives. (people he is spying on). metaphorically, the villain is American Puritanism sticking its judgy nose into other people's business.

aka Michael Myers Is A Republican

but actually the real villain is the doctor. guy's a judgemental, shaming, pathologizing asshole. and he's been in charge of michael's care since he was SIX YEARS OLD? kid never had a chance. i'd go on a killing spree too

also the parents. where are the parents? it's halloween night and all the teenage girls are home babysitting their younger siblings? come to think of it, michael's first victim was his own older sister, whom he killed while she was babysitting him. teen girls are really shouldering a labour burden here. maybe parentification is the true villain

side note: mike commits his first murder wearing a clown costume...which is never referenced again? his 'iconic' costume is a generic mask and wig and jumpsuit, when we coulda had a Killer Clown Michael Myers??? travesty

i like how the Final Girl and her friend casually smoke weed in her car. yeah she's an honor student and her friend is the sheriff's daughter. yeah they smoke weed. so what it's 1978

(to reiterate, mike is 21 and should be at the club. im not saying he shouldn't be rampaging, im saying it's sad that he broke out, tasted freedom for the first time in his life, and immediately snuck back into his childhood home to go rampaging. let's have a remake where he goes to a nightclub and has a few beers. maybe some slutty dancing. then rampage)

oh no he's hot

[novadreii]

netflix's the dragon prince: hey, we're here to ride the nostalgia wave from those of you who never emotionally recovered from avatar: the last airbender. we're gonna give you 7 seasons of a similar but insanely watered down formula depicting 4-5 different factions forced to work together for the fate of their world, while grappling with familiar moral quandaries such as:

growing up means not seeing things as black or white; they are actually shades of grey! every other theme in this show however, will contradict this. don't worry about it.

don't let the pain you endure turn you into a bitter old bitch. it's actually infinitely cooler of you to always, without fail, take the high road and be the Bigger Person.

since hatred and bitterness can't undo the wrongs committed against you, they are functionally useless emotions and you shouldn't have them. dummy.

we are all made up of Good and Bad, but only the actually Good Guys who tell the Bad parts of themselves to F off deserve to be happy.

retribution and revenge and violence are always Bad, and committed by Bad People only.

you can save everyone!

everyone is capable of change, they just gotta make the right Choices. Easy peezy.

everyone deserves to live, even killers.

also, there will be so many quips written into the dialogue that you'll risk breaking a tooth from cringing so hard. and lots of gay so we don't get shit from you all like the last time we had to bend over backwards to network TV LGBT restrictions. enjoy feeling good about being doormats, nerds!

[tubbytarchia]

what is it, do you think, about the smallidarity dynamic that allows jimmy the freedom to "poke back" and have that sense of reciprocity, compared to the FH dynamic where he didnt feel like an equal.

a lot of the time joel does posit himself as the "competant" one out of the two of them, just like scott did, so what do you think is the thing that makes jimmy confident in one relationship but not so much in the other.

my guess would be joels turn around in how he treats jimmy, but scott wasnt necessarily always like that either (?) (i think, i havent watched third life in a while) . especially with how fandom interprets scott as somehow being nicer to jimmy compared to others (which i dont think is true at all)

idk just the dynamic between those 3 is rly interesting to me (i also like that you point out that joel and scotts rivalry isnt as one sided as people make it out to be, scott is just better at optics)

You could boil it down to being as simple as Joel letting himself be hit back

Granted, I'm pretty sure in ESMP1 at least Scott and Jimmy are very cute, but a trend in Jimmy's dynamics with many other characters is him being enforced as the runt and denied any control, where if he tries to take any, in relationships or otherwise, he gets punished. Think of ESMP2 where he was continuously mocked and never allowed to take on the leadership he sought, instead being labelled a tyrant as an excuse to knock him down. Even on Jimmy's villain arc he wasn't taken seriously whatsoever and came out of it even more pathetic than before. Something I think exemplifies this well is the kiss fWhip gave him in the middle of Jimmy telling him that he was upset about him going behind his back (upon Sosig's encouragement too)

ESMP2 is arguably the worst of it, but that kind of treatment of Jimmy is not at all exclusive to it. He's treated as inherently worse and even corrupt in Evo, both by Martyn and the others, even though there's nothing really to support that and Jimmy goes out of his way repeatedly to prove himself to no avail. In Legacy he frequently puts himself down and is further misjudged by the others. Eg him being blamed by Joel and fWhip for mistakes in their business alliance, and Scott telling Jimmy he hadn't contributed much to a build they did together, even though in the timelapse you can see him doing close as much, not even mentioning the fact that Scott just took the design from someone else (which there's nothing wrong with but in context of him getting at Jimmy in his contribution? Hmm)

In Third Life, Jimmy trusts Scott, naturally, so he goes along with and to him, all the while Scott instils his incompetence, especially if he's being remotely challenged. Eg the whole sugarcane scene, the time Scott put down a cake for Jimmy and Jimmy (probably at least partially because of being shaken up by having triggered an explosion that killed 3 people previously), being scared, gets Scott to check it out, to which Scott basically laughs and teases him about it, in a way that makes fun of and dismisses his worry. Speaking of that explosion, when Jimmy was blaming himself afterward, Scott basically told him "yeah it was your fault" instead of comforting him. Jimmy even becomes fearful of Scott, eg when he says "what if he starts hitting me?". It's all him being punished and being played down. It's not until LimL that Jimmy really opposes him and even then he's clearly still affected

Joel also plays Jimmy down frequently, treating him horribly in ESMP2 before his sudden change of heart. Although Jimmy is already much more successful in opposing Joel than most others, he's still more often than not the loser at the end of their confrontations. The biggest example imo being when Joel kept killing him and stealing his hat and wings repeatedly while Sosig (who's supposed to be helping him there) doesn't really do much of anything to stop it and rather laughs along with it and I swear Jimmy sounds so legitemately distraught and hopeless by the end of it

Post Joel's change of heart though, all that basically stops and Jimmy usually gets teased at most instead. With each SMP and everything in between, Joel has started looking out fot Jimmy and become more comfortable being affectionate with him, which is already very different from the way Jimmy is usually treated. Joel opposes Jimmy's self depracation and the image others paint of him on multiple occasions, despite he himself also often making similar remarks. This is where his masculinity complex and homophobia come into play lol and I've spoken plenty about that before, but what I'm trying to say is that he sees Jimmy for more than most others and cares to the point of going against them whilst battling his own demons that get in the way

When he has a flirtatious exchange with Jimmy, he's stopped being vocally adamant about it being a joke instead of dismissing it. In the same way he doesn't usually dismiss Jimmy's competence and successes despite frequently joking about it. He's gone from calling Jimmy broken to telling him to not be so hard on himself. And when he does mock, Jimmy has started much more confidently mocking him right back, because he doesn't get punished for it anymore, not with Joel. It's mutual to the point of Joel just letting Jimmy hit him around if he so wishes to get back at him. Jimmy showcases his competence too when he's not being pushed down, well exemplified by his and Joel's fight in the Impossible SMP finale

I think it's evident how much Jimmy cares about Joel and values his opinion above anyone else's as a result. Because he's comfortable around him, so comfortable that he can't go one session together with Joel without making some affectionate remark or getting into some flirtatious exchange with him. Think of how readily and comfortably he engages with Joel, and then think about the 3 or more times Scott has brought up FH for Jimmy to usually not respond in the same vein (in RL, WL and an SOS stream I think). Jimmy's not stopped or discouraged or being used for someone else's benefit with Joel, and that applies to more than just the weird homoerotic energy between them, so they become something at least resemblent of equals

[izzystizzys]

does anyone else find the idea of a 00q ‘i’m a celebrity’ au really fucking funny or is it just brainrot again

[autumnoakes]

hyperfixations really will have you imagining a 2 hour video essay on some white guy video game character huh 😪

[kareenvorbarra]

doomed to always be the only nahuseresh fan in the chat

[driftingballoons]

I hope you don't mind me asking two thing back to back, but for the reverse unpopular opinion ask game.

What piece of PMD lore/story just doesn't sit right / doesn't make sense with you?

Not at all! Love getting asks, thank you! :3

The one piece of lore that’s always bothered me a bit is how they handle humans in the series. Imo it’s just a little confusing and odd. Now for the positive! By leaving it vague, it really hands over the lore to the fans—how do humans live in this world? Are they common, or are you one of/the only one left? Do they tend to live side by side with pokemon, or are they more separate than in the main series? Where did Hero come from? What happened to their family? Etc etc. Plus, in Explorers, the idea of there being humans around, but you not seeing ANY in the Dark Future really adds to the oppressive and heavy nature. It helps show it’s such a harsh world that only the most feral of pokemon can truly thrive. 

[saturnsorbits]

Okay, so I know we all hate him, but Mahito is a legitimately brilliant villain...

[allsortzofcrap]

i feel like for the rest of my life i will be walking around totally normal and then periodically, i will be absolutely brained with a metaphorical anvil falling off the side of a building that represents the absolute bafflement i have towards modern adaptations of sherlock holmes and their treatment of irene adler. bbc's most recent adaptation in particular.

im so sorry. please repeat. she was stupid u say??? and i'm sorry, IN LOVE with him u say??????

i'm a feminist so i think women are capable of being in love and also of being stupid. they can do anything they put their minds to ofc ❤️. but this is too far even for me.

it's just that i can't understand why you would choose to write a narrative that is more mysoginistic than the source material when the source material was written in 1891.

was it intentional? did they somehow not pick up on the implications? was it random?

i can't fathom it. it keeps me awake.

[onthevirgooftears]

i think that hu is abelist/her behaviour is abelist (unintentionally of course)

i want to paraphrase this by saying that im autistic and have personal experience with casual ableism + ableism that very clearly wasn't intentional but still harmful.

the thing about hu is that she wants to be important and she wants to be a part of people's lives. she doesn't want to be someone you say hello to and never see again, she wants to insert herself into the lives of people she cares about which isn't necessarily wrong but i think that her relationship with nico is where it shows how misguided it can get.

in my opinion, i think nico is autistic and i think that hu sees these autistic traits as innocence rather than for what it actually is. there have been countless times where nico has shown that they aren't stupid and that they don't need to be coddled and even if they hadn't i still don't think it's right to treat someone like they simply don't understand what they're doing.

i think that's the problem with their relationship, hu treats nico like they don't know what they're doing or saying or talking about and tries to save face for things that nico is deliberately doing and/or saying. that's kind of the point, hu doesn't treat anyone else in the cast like that, she's protective, yes, but she isn't overbearing. she talks to the rest of the cast like they're her friends even during the moments when she's defending them.

it comes down to the fact that she acts like nicos mother rather than their friend (which is what she should be doing btw 💀 during the nico-ace situation what they needed was a friend, as i said, they don't need to be coddled and treated like a child.)

anyways, i don't think people who aren't autistic should be saying she isn't abelist 😭 I'm always up for hearing the opinions of other autistic people because maybe my view of things is skewed. but i do think that abelism isn't just like, blatantly calling someone the r slur, it can be (and is in this case) acting like we're stupid and like we don't understand basic things, defending us as though we don't have the mental capacity to do it ourselves.

i also don't think hu is doing it intentionally (i cannot stress this enough!!!) she is trying to help, she isn't being dehumanising on purpose and i think twisting it into something it's not is such a deterrent to her character. she's a good person but as i said, i just think she's misguided when it comes to this specifically.