#What remains and what doesn't
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I really love that gale can actually Do It. He can actually become a god. Mortals seeking to become gods usually fail which makes it easy to write them off as over ambitious and consumed by hubris, to say that of course they were never going to succeed, they never had a chance. Icarus flying too close to the sun and all that. But Gale does it. He succeeds. And how do we interpret that? How do we read icarus's story without the fall? Can we really call it hubris, call it excessive pride and self confidence, when it works in the end? After all, it's not bragging if you can back it up
#gale dekarios#bg3#Idk god gale is such an interesting ending#What remains and what doesn't#I think its presence and his success reshapes the narrative even if you choose a different ending#I just think there's something fascinating about a human clawing their way into the divine with grit and talent#“It's arrogance to think you can challenge the gods and their laws you'll never succeed!” well he just did so now what#Mortals have clawed their way into heaven and there's no putting that genie back in the bottle#(a little bit of a gortash parallel there I think)
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This was going to be a panel of a little comic but I got too invested in drawing minute background details so, here.
#They are having an argument over 1) whether crops can be grown on the moons 2) what - if any - impact does this have on the feasibility#of an afterlife being located on the moons#Brakul is a partial convert to the Imperial Wardi faith but this mostly entails having adopted the seven faced God (and some#other elements of the belief system) into his worldview and participating in expected rites while retaining his central#ancestor veneration practices completely unchanged and mostly prioritized.#This doesn't actually cause much friction in of itself with the big exception being disagreements on the afterlife#Wardi practices surrounding death prioritize proper handling of the corpse and funerary rites in order to get the dead where they#need to be- death is a fraught transition from one state to another. analogous to birth. The role of the living is to get the dead through#this transition (preventing them from being stuck earthbound as earthbound ghosts - which is the Bad afterlife). Once the dead#make it to the moons that's it. They don't really interact with the living. There's plenty of conceptualization of what it's Like#in the lunar lands but the cultural priority is not even slightly on the Logistics of existence there.#Whereas the CORE of religious practice among the Hill Tribes is ancestor veneration - ancestors remain interactive with the living#and require/desire their continual support. They are conceptualized as having earthlike 'lives' where they eat and drink#and grow crops and herd livestock and they need the support of the living (in prayers and offerings) to do so prosperously.#There is a HIGH cultural priority on the logistics of their afterlife and it's self-apparent that the world of the dead needs fertile earth#to support them.#So like bottom line Brakul thinks there's no goddamn way that the moons could support an afterlife (they are described as#barren rock that was flung into the sky during creation and certainly Look that way)#and that the Wardi are just wrong about their afterlife's location. They probably go to the celestial fields (which are located#behind the moons and stars) like everyone else#And Janeys finds this aggravating and doesn't see his fucking point but has developed a nagging concern that Brakul Could be#partly right in that the celestial fields could Maybe exist in addition to the lunar lands.#So like maybe they aren't going to go to the same place when they die?#He's already terrified that he'll be stuck as an earthbound ghost and really doesn't want to be even further separated so#he figures he should make sure he gets himself dead and cremated at the same time as Brakul so they can navigate the#transitional period together.#Brakul is unconcerned because he figures that if Janeys actually does get stuck on those barren ass moons he can just kinda#Go Get Him#Ancestor spirits fly to the earth all the time and the moons would be a much shorter distance. Probably wouldn't be an issue.#Long story short these disagreements and underlying anxieties result in fights over whether you can grow corn on the moons or nah
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We are alive. And we will continue living. So long as you remain by my side.
#dead dead demon's dededededestruction#dddd#dededede#ddddedit#anime gif#anime#animeedit#animangahive#fyanimegifs#animangaladies#shoujoaiedit#allanimations#anisource#usericybtch#userinahochi#userartless#userlysandra#usersophies#userkyaa#*gifs#man this anime is insaneeeee the brutality of how it depicts humanity??#the spectrum of different reactions society has in the face of disaster#the political conflict and misinformation and the backlash in polar extremes#the war and endless violence and othering of those we deem different#but also the apathy. the fatigue. turning a blind eye to disaster. how in the midst of it all life goes on in all of its mundanity#insane how this was written in 2014 bc it feels more relevant now than ever. but humanity remains the same despite the passage of time ig#and my favorite trope of all time. dooming the world just to save one person YESSSS#also the yuri! what a pleasant surprise! and i love how queer and gnc charas just exist. no big deal#it's crazy how it's so underrated??? sure it has some uh. questionable things but i don't think they're painted in a good light at all imo#the way this show doesn't even have an edit tag LMAO i loooove giffing the most obscure niche shows of all time it's my fav hobby <33
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In light of how grossly disrespectful and dismissive some (not all) DC voters have been, here is something for a lovely lady who deserved better. [X]
#cheez rambles#cheez design#warrior cats#bumble dotc#bumble wc#vote bumble#bumblesweep#// I thank DC voters who have still acknowledged Bumble's injustice and have remained respectful towards her.#// this is in no way to slander Alex. What happened to her was disgusting and horrible. Voting for her is absolutely understandable.#// but extend the same courtesy to Bumble- yeah?#// Maybe dont fucking disregard heinous misogynistic writing as ''just cats so it doesn't matter''#// something ironic with how disgustingly closed-minded you're acting in a MISOGYNY POLL?? fucking reflect on yourself#// learn some media literacy and read the opponent's propaganda before dropping the most willfully ignorant bullshit statements- mkay??
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the worst day of their lives so far, but the night is quiet
#dounart#this case is so special to me like. can you imagine what they went through#it's phoenix's first trial on his own and hus second ever. he just lost his beloved mentor. she's been brutally murdered#and now somehow he has to defend her little sister in trial and going up against the only reason he became a lawyer#he wanted to see him again but this is the worst timing and he has to hold on for everybody#and maya just lost her remaining close family and discovered her body covered in blood#and now she's in a strange place where she doesn't know anybody and she could be executed for murdering the person she loved the most#and her only hope is this strange 24-years old rookie attorney who has no idea what he's doing#yeah...#aadoodles23#ace attorney#aa#ace attorney fanart#phoenix wright#mia fey#maia fey#doodle#art
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Clown to Equine communication failed; They are separate species.
[First] Prev <--> Next
#poorly drawn mdzs#mdzs#season 1#bonus comic#wei wuxian#little apple#lan jingyi#lan sizhui#This bonus comic is for all my fellow little apple lovers#she doesn't show up for quite a while after this so I need to wring out every bit of screen time for her#That's what feminism is about. Equine visibility.#Women need to remain mysterious + unknowable + untethered by rules#Women need to canter across the plains and sleep standing up#Women need to be hand fed apple slices 4 times a day#joking aside I do love the co-chaos of lil apple and wwx#though the new duo dynamic that follows (with LWJ and WWX getting way more time together) its *obviously* iconic#god...to be two cultivation partners following directions from a severed arm...#anyhow. I think this might be one of the jokes that is only funny to me#my realism studies are still in that uncanny/awkward phase but I love the 'detailed version of a very stylized character' visual gag a lot#Taps my blog name again. Don't forget the name on the tin#oh wait lwj should be in this scene too...let's retcon it and say he's bending down to pet his bunnies goodbye
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silly little Malevolent theory
(just fyi I'm only up to part 33 so no spoilers beyond that thnx)
I was just thinking about the question of whether or not it's cheesy for a character in a piece of media to say the title of that piece of media (hypothetical example: Steve Harrington saying "come on guys, we've been through stranger things"). I'm hyperfixating on Malevolent atm so naturally that's where my brain went, and while it's innocuous enough of a title and the characters saying it would make perfect sense, I realised that only two characters (thus far) have actually said the word "malevolent".
One of them was Frank (or at least a voice claiming to be Frank, more on that in a minute) in Part 18.
He showed up in Arthur's right ear and started contradicting everything John said, yet was never wrong, as John was evidently still struggling with being truthful after spending so long as the eldritch embodiment of lying. But we never really had confirmation that that voice was or was not Frank. Who was the only other character to use the word "malevolent"?
Kayne. In Coda.
Kayne whose voice is closer to Harlan's natural voice than any other character. Kayne who doesn't believe in a fourth wall. Kayne who's clearly supposed to represent the fans. Kayne who literally sat on the sidelines loudly chewing popcorn while John sobbed and tried to save Arthur's life.
So all that to say...what if the voice in Part 18 wasn't Frank at all, but Kayne trying to drive even more of a wedge between John and Arthur because he thought it would be funny? Bearing in mind that Arthur and John don't meet Kayne until Part 20, meaning they'd have no reason to suspect him here.
#garden of eden#god between the post the tags and the alt text I've had to type the word malevolent 11 TIMES#I'll tell ya what it gets harder to spell every time and now it doesn't look like a real word#anyway just a silly goofy theory that will either remain silly and goofy or prove to be horrifyingly prophetic <3#malevolent#malevolent podcast#arthur lester#john doe malevolent#kayne malevolent
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I love this scene a lot and it lives in my head rent-free. I can't really think of another way to interpret it other than that this is elle telling reid that the reason he can't get a date isn't because of something wrong with him that he needs to change but simply because he doesn't ask people out (or, more broadly, lacks confidence).
I have seen some spencelle shippers read this as elle saying "hey. ask me out" but i disagree, not because i don't ship spencelle (i sort of do, elaboration in the notes) but for the following reasons:
I think elle would have realised very early on that if she was going to wait for reid to ask her out, she would be waiting years
i don't think she gives enough of a fuck about gender roles to wait for The Man to ask her out
she generally seems confident
i lean more towards her being very new to the BAU in the early episodes. I don't recall right now if there's an official anti-fraternization policy or if that's a fanfiction trope, but even if there isn't, entering a relationship with a coworker that early on is an easy way to mess up her career.
i think she was waiting until she was more established to start anything, but then, well, everything happened, and she left before becoming established enough to feel comfortable taking a risk like that
#anyway: i do ship spencelle#but not as a relationship exactly#if that makes sense#i think there were mutual feelings and i think something may have happened in that hotel room#i like to think that they remained friends after elle left and i flipflop on whether that friendship has any “benefits”#as for something possibly happening in that hotel room: reid thinks it's the start of something#but elle is only doing it because she knows deep down she's leaving soon and so it doesn't matter if she jeopardizes her career#reid only realises what really happened when elle quits and feels guilty he didn't realise something was wrong for a long time#*punches spencelle shippers in the gut* you're welcome! <3#spencelle#spencer reid#elle greenaway#character analysis#scene analysis#sort of?#criminal minds#not fic#criminal minds rewatch#criminal minds s01e04#plain sight#criminal minds 1x4
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you know, i can handle a little bit of fun "Nandor is dumb" talk, but i have a net-zero tolerance for any implication that Nandor is not educated.
Nandor would have been incredibly educated in his lifetime.
even (or especially) as a soldier in the Islamic World. being a soldier was more like getting sent to boarding school that's also a military camp. they weren't just concerned with creating loyal fodder for war. they were building the next government officials, generals, accountants, advisors, etc. it was important that young men knew how to read, write, speak multiple languages, learn philosophy...sometimes even studying art and music was mandatory.
if he was nobility (and its most likely he was), take all that shit and multiply it exponentially. Nandor would have been reading Plato at the same age most people are still potty training. he would have been specifically groomed in such a way to not be just a brilliant strategist and warrior, but also diplomate and ambassador of literally the center of scientific and cultural excellence of the age.
so like yeah, he can be a big dummy sometimes, sure. but that bitch is probably more educated than any of us will ever be.
#wwdits#nandor the relentless#Nandor#what we do in the shadows#i think its obvious by how much Nandor loves to read that he grew up educated#it's one of my favorite character traits of his#anyways#this was just your local psa abt the depth of Nandor's character and intelligence#and how the medieval islamic world was like - so much more advanced than it's western counterpart it's hilarious how ppl mischaracterize it#(by hilarious i mean it makes me want to break something)#this was in my drafts lolol what did i read that made me vent this? idk#also 'islamic world' is just a term some historians use to describe a specific geographical location and historical age#kind of how 'western world' is used today#it doesn't mean it's specific to one religion or nation but the broader time and location#meaning that Al Qolindar or Persia or Ilkhanate or w/e you want to call where Nandor came from#the same expectations of education and it's vibrant social/cultural world remain an accurate image of the middle east in the medieval age#if you come from the west like me#think The Forum + The Library of Alexandria + Paris/Florence + and idk anything else u think of when u think of 'Western Excellence'#and then imagine of all of that in one place at one time and then u might get close to what the world Nandor was living in as a human
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“That doesn’t really answer either of those questions,” Dark points out, tentatively sitting down next to his weird wild friend. He folds his legs under himself, safely not hanging over the abyss.
Something for the latest chapter of A Dark Among the Lights by LuckyLectio on AO3! Dark finally gets a well deserved break, visits a new old friend, and tries to get spoilers for the ending of the fic.
Oh, and here's a link to the post where I tried to find an island in totk that could fit the one described in the fic.
#my art#adatl#dark link#lu wild#file name: a remote island with a hero and an entitled god#i might have gone a bit overboard on the background but that's what happens when you go on a quest to find an in-game location#courage island shall remain my headcanon until lectio says otherwise#the bottles were a last minute panic addition because i kept forgetting to add them#the funny thing about drawing dark is that he has a tendency to pick up the color of the background#shoutout to the person irl who--whenever i showed them that i was working on this--said that it looked like the erdtree#which. yes. but just because it's true doesn't mean you have to say it like that
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what do you do when it's 1600, you just gained independence a few years ago and now you're at war with this guy but you end up going to bed with him half of the time?
if tumblr deletes this!! oopsies??? anyways
#hetalia#hws netherlands#hws portugal#nedport#didi art#i'm gonna ramble in the tags#i think during the dutch-portuguese war while they were doing nation stuff they also ended up getting involved#and i can't blame abel... meu puto joão is beautiful#but i do think that abel is quite inexperienced with almost everything#he just gained independence from spain a few years ago. left his sister with a guy he despises and basically has the world in his hands#but he has barely any experience for stuff not related to being a nation#and joão is tied to antonio still and will remain like that for a few decades more#he already has the world but he doesn't have the same freedom he had before the iberian union#idk .. idk.... they're crazy#aph netherlands#aph portugal#cw suggestive#??#i mean it's quite clear what's going on i'm not suggesting anything
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Marigold before and after her November shearing
Including a fancy lil plate of chopped bell pepper for bribery purposes.
#Marigold#guinea pig#guinea pigs#she doesn't look much different because most of the hair comes off from underneath#so her little leggies can move freely#her left cowlick remains#it's a feature#what's missing from these pictures is my destroyed shirt. Absolutely plastered in hair
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what I was talking abt earlier. we have fully looped back around and away from feminism, societally, whereas before it was very Feminism 101 to acknowledge that many parts of existing as a woman in a misogynistic society are painful and upsetting. not that being a woman is Inherently Negative in a bubble. but that living on this earth, in the conditions we're living in, is hostile to women. and that gender is a performance. that many of the Staples Of Femininity as accepted by society are things that you have to create and perform and mold artificially and aren't inherent, that COMPLAINING about day to day difficulties of existing as a woman is something that you're allowed to do. acknowledging these basic, again, feminism 101 things, that something tied to womanhood is more time consuming or more expensive or more dangerous Because Of The Problems. does not CREATE the problems. that when women complain about having to perform femininity, they are not, in fact, oppressing themselves. the call does not come from inside the fucking house. saying that you HAVE suffered does not fucking equate that you believe you SHOULD have suffered.
like I could talk about this for hours. how braindead and one-dimensional the Takes are getting. "being a woman is looking in the mirror and going fuck yeah i'm a woman" damn. I guess any negative experiences you have by living in a misogynistic world... are your fault if you are anything but positive? "you don't actually want liberation" we've fully gone back to telling feminists "you WANT to be oppressed" when anything negative about our society is pointed out. it's not real until I say it out loud, I guess, and then I'm actually the one who caused it. if anybody expresses any unhappiness with how they're treated or the status quo or the language and culture surrounding womanhood and femininity. they've created it, right that second. they invented it just now. it wasn't a problem before somebody complained, right? also trans women aren't braindead zombies who just follow the flow of whatever cis women around them say. I am pretty fucking sure they are very much aware of pain, and are MORE than aware of the swirling torrent of misogyny and standards of femininity than anybody else. actually. and I am pretty sure someone complaining on tumblr that being a woman means always putting on a performance is going to make someone change their mind about transitioning. also "performing femininity" as a necessity to being treated well as a woman is not fucking NEWS to your Local Trans Woman. I AM PRETTY SURE SHE GETS THE CONCEPT. using trans women as a scapegoat for this braindead perspective on gender politics is spineless, meritless, and pathetic.
#how I feel about my gender is not the same as how I feel about the living conditions of my gender#when I saw that post I screenshotted here I literally sat w my mouth open for a minute#sent it to my friends and was like am I fucking crazy. is this what we're doing now#Forced Positivity and that there is no war in ba sing se and actually#you're ruining children's lives if you complain about misogyny on twitter#I don't HAVE to tell little girls about the downsides because they are already being mistreated#before they have even heard the word 'misogyny' let alone know what it means#you do not have to be fucking happy all the time about the cards you're dealt.#you don't live in a bubble where it's just you and your mirror and your pretty dress and nothing bad has ever happened to you#unfortunately bitch. we will have negative experiences that are in fact. part of the package of being a woman#and IGNORING them doesn't make them not exist. actually they will continue to remain status quo unless acknowledged#sergle.txt#I see so much rhetoric that is JUST old-fashioned gender ideals being presented with liberal language on tiktok#that is just telling women that womanhood is just being a girllll and loving pretty things and being kind and gentleeeee and nurturing#and not working and just like being wholesome and being happy and being a light in ppl's lives and just LOVING LOVING LOVING being a woman#so if for even one second. you don't love it. you are actually failing at being a woman#if you complain about the standards for shaving or putting on makeup. which used to be Baby's First Feminism online#that's actually just you creating problems. you're not supposed to acknowledge it. you're supposed to shut up and smile into the mirror.
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Puts the “plates” in “Fellplates” (Patreon)
#Doodles#Handplates#UT#Fellplates#Gaster#Papyrus#Hurt Gaster! Do it! Maybe classic will get a shiver down the infiniteness of the multiverse!#I wonder if he'd actually do it to himself or if he'd get it put on him by someone else for the full dramatic twist haha#Who even would? Asgore from sheer force? Alphys?? Idk lol#It's just the irony for me for now ♪#Although to completely cover them there'd have to be four rather than two :0 Hmm#Alphys' gift of fingerless gloves was a lot less invasive hm ♪ But that's part of the fun#I don't mean to keep doing crossovers - quite anyway lol - but hmm could that be 2-P from Fellplates with so much empathy in his eyes?#I guess it's the question of if Monsters Are or if they are Made ♪ Personally I'm partial to the latter but I do still fall into the former#Well either way - the important part is a Papyrus that doesn't like what he sees! He knows how much those hurt first (or 2nd? pfft) hand#And then just some errant thoughts about the Lost Soul head style and Gaster's void scars - give 'em to this version why not#Does any Gaster remain unscathed? Would he even be Gaster in that case? :)#A smile behind the white glow and tired eyes ringed by dark scars ♪ Fellplates is fun because he always looks good when he's suffering#The void smoke is still quite fun to draw hehe
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many many problems within crystal and edwin's friendship could have been avoided if she took one long, hard look at him and said relax, i'm not jolene, you don't have to compete with me. not gonna take your man just because i can
#good ending???#of course edwin doesn't get the reference. of course charles doesn't either#it probably flies over charles' head like a paper airplane#✌🏻🤠#the sentiment remains the same#dead boy detectives#crystal palace#payneland#edwin payne#charles rowland#marcela watches dbda#ik what she's tried to talk into charles with “you know you can think things without saying them. edwin's cleary jealous”
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What are your headcanons about Marcille's mom if you have any? It's interesting that what drew Donato to her was cause she lived the history he studied, or that was said somewhere at least. She must've had an interesting life.
so this was going to be just a normal answer but then I realized I have a Lot of Things To Say. so here goes, a compilation of what we know for a fact from the canon, what I've extrapolated from the visual cues and details, and my theories based on all of that.
Things we know for a fact about Marcille's mother because they were explicitly stated in the manga and supplemental materials:
She was a court mage for a Tall-man kingdom at the southern part of the Northern Continent
Donato, a court historian, fell in love with her because she had lived through the history he was studying, and he courted her for 17 years (age 15 to 32) before getting married
She was a cheerful person who rarely showed extreme emotion and took things as they came
She always cooked a huge meal for Marcille on her birthdays
She remarried a gnome after Donato's death and a short distance away from Marcille's childhood home
Pipi, Marcille's pet bird, was actually older than Marcille and originally belonged to her mother (bird died at 62)
She was extremely heartbroken when Donato died and ultimately ended up instilling a deep fear of mortality in Marcille with her words
the only time she showed extreme emotion in front of her family was when Donato could no longer eat his favourite dish near the end of his life.
She scolded Marcille for being cruel to ants (implying she can have a stern side when needed)
Things that are explicitly shown but mostly through visual cues
She has a very distinctive style of dress always involving a ribbon choker (mirroring Marcille's habit of always wearing a matching choker with any of her outfits that don't cover her neck)
She was almost stereotypically good at housekeeping and traditionally "wifely" things (very frequently depicted wearing an apron or doing some domestic chore when not at work, seems to have been an avid cook).
She knits? (also, note the affectionate smile as she's looking at Donato and Marcille reading a book together in the full panel)
She was as excited for Marcille's milestones as Donato was.
She didn't tell Marcille much about elven food
(there are a couple things that this panel in particular implies:
She lived a good deal of her life (if not being born and raised) in a mainly elven country in the West, implied by her knowing enough of an elven region's cuisine to prefer Tall-man food over it
seems to have a pretty carefree and casual demeanour overall, if this is how she replied to Marcille asking her about it (sounds like she never gave her culinary preferences that much thought to begin with)
slightly related to number 2, it seems like she and Marcille had a fairly casual parent-child dynamic (especially in comparison to the Toudens' memory of their father)
(local elf tastes Italian food once and never goes back))
However, she seems a lot more... serious in most of the other times we see her? Almost like the very stereotypical archetype of a graceful elf.
Subsequent conclusions about her personality:
Usually pretty carefree and cheerful at home, has been a loving and attentive parent throughout Marcille's childhood (while not being so doting that she didn't discipline Marcille).
Slightly more conjectural theories on her personality:
Had a much more graceful and professional personality at work, which would explain the more serious portraits we see of her.
Given that both she and Donato had positions at the royal court, it seems a little odd that she'd go out of her way to do all the housework herself, so maybe she just enjoyed doing it?
Now taping all the evidence together and toeing the line between analysis and fanfiction:
It's clear that she loved Donato very much and was utterly devastated by losing him. But there's one thing that really stuck out to me in what little we see of her:
Doesn't she seem... angry? The way she's gritting her teeth, clutching the tablecloth, and how this is the first and only time we see her eyes opened that wide. In the following panel, you see her being quiet and dejected after her initial outburst. She's still crying very intensely, but her brows are furrowed, and she's not really responding to Donato's affection in her body language.
We're not told the details of how she felt about losing Donato other than that it upset her. But this, to me, implies that she was angry and resented that he was aging, that the end of his life was approaching. An "it's not fair" type of preemptive grief. And if this was the first and last time she cried like this in front of her family, she was either very good at coping in private... or very bad at letting herself feel unpleasant emotions until they become unavoidable and end up overwhelming her.
It's not too remarkable a detail on the surface. It's even reminiscent of what the audience has seen of Marcille. But... when it comes to the big picture, you'd think an elf who voluntarily chose to marry a tall-man and have a half-elf child would have been better prepared for this.
It kind of recontextualizes her cheerfulness to me.
"I'm sure everything's gonna be okay!" (or some variation thereof, depending on what translation you have).
And this is stated to contrast her extreme grief when finally confronting Donato's failing body and eventual death. But I'm wondering if... maybe this optimism was why she was so upset. What if she went into all of it thinking "everything's gonna be okay"? What if she was a little young by elven standards, and just followed her heart thinking that her own resilience would get her through anything?
Of course, only to get completely overwhelmed when she actually loses Donato. She turns into a completely different person. And that's heartbreaking on its own-- but what the audience sees is the effect it had on Marcille. Can you imagine being her, watching your invincible and upbeat mother suddenly lose all the light in her eyes in one go?
I've already made a huge post about how I think Marcille models her "work persona" off her mother, but another thing that stuck with me as I was looking for more details in the manga was this:
copy pasting from the other post i made about it lmao it's like... the second she resigns herself to lifelong pain and terror, there's another portrait of her mother facing her like this. with their heads bowed, in mirrored body language of resignation and despair and sorrow. Except it's posed like Marcille is still looking at her mother but her mother is looking away.
It took me a second to realize, but I think that it's a visual metaphor for the fact that Marcille's mother was the only long-lived role model she had-- and she failed to model healthy grief for her daughter. I don't say this as an accusation or to disparage her as a character, but just as a matter of fact. In her, Marcille was seeing herself older and losing a short-lived spouse or loved one of her own, and all she saw was hopelessness.
But her mother didn't mean to instill hopelessness and terror in her. She wasn't really thinking of how it would truly affect Marcille at all (at least, that's how I'm interpreting her looking down and away from Marcille in the metaphor), she was just sad. And she, in her own way, was trying to protect her daughter and help her prepare for future losses.
What she meant was "loss is inevitable, and you have to learn how to be in pain but live on anyway." What Marcille heard was "loss is inevitable, and you will be scared and hurt for the rest of your life."
Again. Marcille's mother doesn't feature explicitly in the story the way her father does -- but in so many ways, her shadow, her silhouette, her reflection is always hanging over Marcille.
All that to say... headcanon-wise (everything from here on is 100% without evidence lmao), I'd like to think that she matured and realized that she failed Marcille. I imagine her being regretful about it, wanting a chance to fix it but never finding a way to insert herself back into Marcille's life when Marcille is so so so busy becoming the most accomplished mage possible. I imagine her being herself again, now, so many years after her loss and after remarrying -- but with her cheerfulness tempered with a lot more wisdom and the pain of having gone through loss like that. I think the second Marcille actually tells her what happened in the dungeon, she'd want to go running to her daughter again -- if Marcille tells her the full truth instead of just being embarrassed she let things get that far. (oh, the tragedy of her wanting to be more like her mother and an accomplished adult who doesn't need to be babied... being embarrassed to actually tell her mother how much she fucked up...)
There's also the tension of her having remarried -- I know that there's at least a little bit of resentment that Marcille harbours about that, because she's childish like that at heart even if she makes an effort not to externalize it. I think that her mother would be aware of that, potentially adding to her sense of guilt and apprehension at trying to reappear/intrude on Marcille's life. I honestly don't think Marcille has met her stepfather -- or even considers him a stepfather rather than "mama's new husband" and kind of a total stranger. I think she and her mother actively don't talk about it in their correspondence, like an elephant in the room.
but, ultimately, I think her mother is on her side no matter what. Ancient magic? Dark necromancy? Sure, she'll feel guilty and like she was partially responsible for setting Marcille down such a painful path, but she wouldn't care. that's her daughter!! she would've moved back west and been petitioning for her at the court, buying a house right next to the Canaries barracks and visiting her every day that she wasn't on a mission. And if her husband had opinions on Marcille becoming a "dark arts user," he either gets over it or it's divorce with him. Yes, she might have had her optimism completely humbled by losing Donato like that -- but she's still headstrong and self-assured and she doesn't care what people think of her. It's her way or the highway and she's always going to be in Marcille's corner.
(She also needs a name lol. I went with Juno, just to be cute about "Marcille"s closest real life equivalent being Marcella, which is the female version of Marcellus, which in turn is a diminutive of Marcus, which was derived from Mars. Absolutely in love with Marcille potentially being named after Ares/Mars the fucking god of war btw)
#asks#she could easily be interpreted as distant or neglectful after Donato's death too#with how little involvement she has in Marcille's life/the fact that Marcille doesn't even mention her when talking about her life prospect#and that's fair! I will argue to hell and back that she was a loving parent when Donato was alive#but there's nothing that suggests she remained a loving parent afterwards#I just think that like... parental relationships are so complicated in dungeon meshi#you cannot deny that the toudens' mother loved them dearly but that she failed them both miserably as a parent#and i think it'd be more compelling if Marcille's mother was a little like that too#not a totally and easily dismissable deadbeat#but someone who truly loves her daughter but was only human herself and couldn't be what Marcille needed at a crucial moment#and regrets it deeply#and that the distance between them is mutually self-imposed by complicated feelings of guilt and fear#and a little resentment from Marcille's side that she hasn't really properly processed#I don't know if I'll ever get around to writing it but i had this idea where Marcille does finally spill the beans to her mom and she just#immediately arrives in Melini#and its awkward for a bit but they do finally have a heart to heart and air it all out#and marcille starts freaking out that her marriage is rocky rn bc her new husband wants her to distance herself from marcille#on account of the crimes and all#marcille's like no you can't blow up your marriage for me and her mother just shuts that shit down#'you didn't choose to be born. i was the one who made that choice for you'#'i brought you into this world and i'll be damned if i don't take responsibility for that the entire way'#'you are entitled to *nothing less* than my unconditional love.'#and obviously that's not a sentiment that's exactly healthy as a universal statement about parenthood#but i think its what her mother would believe and what marcille needs to hear#and dungeon meshi does such a fantastic job at just... letting imperfect things just *be* without having to justify it immediately#it expects the audience to do their own critical thinking#and know that its not trying to make sweeping universal statements in every instance#marcilleposting#marcille donato#junoposting
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