#also i think people latch on to the we can both be heros things too much when analyzing Curly because Curly very much is not happy being th

[dykedvonte]

wanted to say I appreciate your nuanced takes on MW and especially Curly. i don't get the claim that the fandom is full of Curly apologists when majority (esp yt and tiktok) say he's worse than Jimmy. Yes there's commentary about bro culture defending people, he def messed up in trying to placate Jimmy (tbh "we'll fix this" sounded more like trying to keep someone prone to outbursts like Jim calm and not hurt Anya/himself) but I don't think he did nothing to help Anya, since she continued to confide in him and he had less than a week to resolve it before the crash (I also don't get everyone saying he knew for ages when it seems like Anya told him that same week). I get Jimmy's a pos but saying stuff like Curly should've known he'd crash the ship or that Jim had a criminal record he ignored, reducing them to obviously horrible villain and willfully ignorant sidekick feels like a disservice to the game. If your best friend turned out to be horrible, what would you do in a confined space in the span of a few days to respond? I'd say some of the horror comes from trying to do good but ultimately failing, Curly's state after the crash is meant to be tragic horror not revenge/punishment

Thank you and this is what I want to get across.

A lot of information we have to supplement when it comes to how long things have been happening on this current ship. I think people try to add on to the horror and negligence by making things more obvious so it can feel like it was easier to avoid when, true to life, its not. Jimmy clearly didn't deserve or appreciate what Curly did for him in getting him the job, but do you think if Jimmy was that big of a menace on Earth he would've given him a position where he could have that level of power over people's lives? There's something in the fact he specifically chose to pick a position so close to himself where he could watch Jimmy.

I hate the bro code argument because that is a whole can of worms people really don't get. That sort of mentality is born from the general respect and preference of male matter over female ones. Curly is clearly not that guy, he is absent minded about the issue and inadvertently dismissive but he clearly believes Anya, he just can't understand what she's going through. It's an onslaught of information that no one really reacts right to. Additonally, the entire discussion of her assualt plays to heavy into the idea that there is fault outside of the perpertratior when it comes to SA. It's too close if she only did this or if Curly had protected her better but the fact of the matter is Jimmy did what he did. He did it before any of the conversations with Anya about it and it's why her behavior seemed to change so drastically in those last two days.

He has other conflicting thought and while his role as a Captain should've taken over, people act like it's not a very human thing to have such a toxic presence cloud your judgement. It is never easy to separate friend from coworker once that connection is formed, you want to help them, especially if they were friend first and for a long while like in this case. It's not right, but people act like it would be easy when the game clearly points out that no choice is easy to make, especially when you have to make it for more than one person. You have the weigh the consequences, look at all the options and make a plan. People can headcanon and decide how long things where happening, but if we look at what we were presented through the characters eyes, the only person given time to do that was Jimmy.

He waited two months after the crash to appoint himself Captain. Every time a problem was brought up he immediately took action and refused to sit on it and find a better solution. I think it's important to look at the warped way Jimmy takes initiative where Curly didn't as it works as a good contrast of why you don't just run in to "fix" things. The quickest and easiest option may not be the safest or most beneficial. I think some thoughts on the game suffer from the black and white thinking the game doesn't operate on along with us being voyeurs. We see what exactly led to what but the characters don't. They don't have the hindsight and foresight we do and even ours is scrambled by the non-linear story telling.

Like it's hard to talk abuou those grey zones without sounding like an apologist because you're explaining why taking responsibility isn't easy. It's not and it's weird to act like it would be in a scenerio that led up to the events of the game knowing what we know. We see all these characters in such isolated moments with various things before, in between, after and even during we aren't privy too. The idea that Jimmy is worse than Curly heavily banks on the words Jimmy was saying to Jimmy before he crashed the ship. That whatever happened on the ship was his responsibility to bare, which is true due to his position. But, are they not still not responsible for taking the actions Curly then must bare?

Like i feel like people think that these are situation that become easier with age or when you are in a postion of authority and they aren't. You don't lose your biases or gain some sudden knowledge that makes it easier. It just becomes more tiring as you keep dealing with it. I would be first in line to say Curly fucked up and should've done more but the idea he knew how bad it could get or he really saw the worst in the people around him and ignored it pretty much ignores a huge aspect of his character and the game.

[sepublic]

No but the way Pucci being Christian is so intertwined with his motives as a villain... He’s every story I’ve heard of the Christian convert who suffered something horrible and senseless, and after drifting through life lost and without a sense of purpose, found hope by believing in God. He’s so many stories of tragedy I’ve seen where people managed to cope by finding peace in the idea that this is all part of God’s divine, incomprehensible plan; It’s fate, it’s his will, and by accepting it they can move on. It’s for a reason, even if they’ll never understand what they’re looking at.

That’s what Heaven is for Pucci; His core trauma is a series of horrific coincidences with no rhyme or reason, and so he latches onto the idea that it’s all part of “his” plan, God and/or DIO’s. That’s why he finds comfort in knowing the future, knowing it’s all in the hands of Fate and removing his own blame and agency, which is why the narrator asks the viewer to judge for ourselves who did wrong, when we see the backstory of Wes, Enrico, and Perla. Pucci made a decision and it backfired horribly, so he doesn’t want to choose anymore.

It’s the way Pucci’s desire to be the messianic hero screws him over and causes tragedy; He’s so devoted to his position as a priest that rather than sabotaging it in order to just tell Perla the truth to her face (thus breaking the rules of the confessional), Pucci relies on this roundabout method so he can have it both ways, only to cause heartbreak and death. Pucci is so desperate to save humanity to make up for his own guilt and failure that he resets the universe, making him the worst kind of evil in his brother’s eyes; One totally oblivious to its nature. Pucci begs to die a martyr from Weather Report and Emporio, rather than just dying here and now.

Ungalo and Rikiel are prepared to die for Pucci once he gives them a sense of purpose to all of the inexplicable misfortune in their lives; Versus is also emboldened by this realization, but chooses to weaponize it for himself. The sons of DIO are people who all went through misfortune their whole lives, they’re ‘children of God’ who find comfort in devoting themselves to something they can actually believe in, that they believe will take care of them in some way; Like many Christians following the path of God, believing Heaven is waiting for them at the end of the tribulation and that it will all be worth it, that it all meant something and mattered and served a cause, like them. 

Pucci and the sons of DIO can no longer bear the pain and uncertainty of moving forward, so they aspire, Pucci especially, for a world where fate will move things along for them. They don’t have to take the first step, especially not Pucci, when Made in Heaven’s reset will compel him and everyone else to do what’s fated, regardless of what they try. 

Pucci fears and admires the courage of the Joestars who are able to step forward and face fate, engage and grapple with it, rather than just blindly accept and surrender in despair. If Diavolo precedes Pucci as someone too resistant of fate, Pucci is the opposite; Someone too resigned to it. Unlike the Joestars who know their fate but can work with what’s written in stone to change the other details. 

It’s why Pucci admires the first human to try a mushroom despite knowing it could kill them; But rather than put in the effort to get up to their level, Pucci would rather everyone stoop to his own, and claims he’s just sparing people noble yet needless pain (He’s only sparing himself by avoiding the reminder that he could and should be braver than this). He says he pities the human who tried a mushroom, adding that they were probably only motivated by hunger and desperation, and had no choice anyway.

I think Pucci is secretly envious of that courage, and that’s why he always downplays it afterwards by suggesting it’s foolishness rather than bravery. Pride, Envy, Wrath... Sloth given his despair, and a bit of Greed with the $800 dollar pants. Then there’s the BDSM vibes of Whitesnake for Lust, all that’s missing is Gluttony, which I guess the cherries and being devoured by the Green Baby account for...?

In all seriousness, Pucci wants guidance; He surrenders himself to God, follows the instructions led by DIO, and relies on Fate to tell him what to do when Made in Heaven resets the universe. Remember that time Pucci got around his brother’s Heavy Weather by removing his sight, and forcing Anasui to guide him? Yeah.

There’s a reason why Whitesnake obsesses with preserving the past, and I think part of it boils down to Pucci being afraid of its counterpart the Future; Which Made in Heaven, not entirely unlike King Crimson, allows Pucci to speed through and glimpse, to get through the worst of it ASAP and lessen the pain. He doesn’t want to accept that sometimes things just… happen.

[jonathanrogersartist]

Anyone else irritated by how both the lovers and haters of The Last Jedi seem to totally miss the point of the ending of Luke's storyline in that film? Haters ignore that Luke redeems himself for his mistakes and goes out with an epic final act that reaffirms the value of mythic stories and why we need heroes, and thus is an explicitly pro-Jedi moral. So Luke's whole story is about him rejecting the cynicism of old age and failure, and snaps out of that insufferable attitude that tries to paint all sides as equally bastardly. It's a story about WHY the fundamental ethos of Star Wars, the dichotomy of genuine good vs absolute evil represented by the Jedi as avatars of ultimate love, and the Sith/Snoke/Whatever as avatars of ultimate hate, is eternally relevant and something we need for spiritual nourishment during dark times. And.... the lovers ignore this too. They tend to latch onto Luke's bitter words from earlier in the movie about how the Jedi were a corrupt and hypocritical institution that needs to end. These kinds of people are passionately anti-Jedi, and LOOOOOOOOOOVE that for a few minutes, a canon SW movie was saying that they all suck. They also unironically take Kylo Ren's 'let the past die' mantra at face value and think that THIS is the moral of that movie. They look at the messages of past Star Wars with a kind of preening disgust, seeing it as childish and one-note at best, damaging and corrupting for society at large, at worst. It is what I'm going to call 'Knight Templar Syndrome.' I speculate that they think old things are automatically dumb or ignorant or worthless, and can only see it through the lens of 'how can I make this so irredeemably problematic in my brain, so that my rejection of it is therefore morally right, and makes me feel like a great person?' So of course, the Jedi as a representation of the wisdom and value of certain 'traditions' were doomed to be targeted by such transparently performative people. And for the first two hours of TLJ, these fans were having the time of their fuckin life. I am also pretty sure I've seen some posts where they take Yoda's words at the burning tree extremely literally, and think that entire scene is also about the need to destroy the past (the literal burning imagery does kinda give this impression at face-value, to be fair), and that Yoda's advice to Luke is "Move forward and never look back," when he is ACTUALLY saying "Move forward with all that you have learned, the good and bad, and make sure the good parts live on." It's little wonder then, that TLJ diehards are completely convinced that Rise of Skywalker ignored/insulted/changed everything about their darling. If they thought Last Jedi was about the need for an ideological scorched-earth, only to then watch Rise be about the reconciliation of the past with the future, then yup, their vicious reaction to it, rife with conspiracy theories, demonization of JJ and Terrio, etc. makes sense.

[boonasaurusrex]

Hhhh I have oc brainrot and this is my house so I'm going to say things about it

(Long post below)

So, I've posted before about Anna and Juni and the thing about them is that they have no cannon. I made Anna to fight off the monsters from horror shows I was too young to watch and Juni because I was uncomfortable putting Anna through any horrors.

What I posted last week on sts was my ongoing attempt to force them into a coherent canon but I almost don't like it? It's a little hollow and almost doesn't fit the underlying core of the characters I have in my brain.

Why not use the progression they went through as I grew up? I insert them into *everything*, that's why I struggle to obsess over fandom characters, because my special-est guys are already there.

To make it short, I was obsessed with Oblivion growing up and Anna was part of the Dark Brotherhood.

(Juni is still nebulous at this point so we're focusing on her)

(If anyone has not played through the DB quest of Oblivion and would like a rundown, I would be so happy to talk about my favorite part of my favorite video game)

I like to think that she still watched her bio-dad (Matthew) "die" and then teleported to Cyrodil, where she immediately stumbles upon/is contacted by/interacts with somehow Lucien and latches onto him like a baby duckling.

She THRIVES in the Dark Brotherhood. This is why the solider story doesn't fit for me, because as much as she and I both want her to be a good person, a *hero*, she is not. She is someone who gleefully decapitates a guy in an alley and then goes home to brag about it to her buddies.

She is not the player in this AU. I like to think she and the player have a mirrored track, joining at the same time and being spared from the Cheydinal masacre.

(I like to think she was sent off to Skyrim or just the other side of the map for a contract, all happy (LEGITIMATELY the happiest she has ever been or will be again) and then comes home to nearly her entire family in pieces on the ground, and she CANT BE MAD AT THE GUY WHO DID IT)

She latches on even harder to Lucien at that point. One thing that's been constant is that she is someone who leaves claw marks in things. Never letting them go.

She and the player are both put on the dead drop system, and I like to imagine she notices that the higher ups are getting murdered, but Lucien is already off trying to solve that problem so she's on her own.

(Also PLEASE ask me my thoughts on how Obsidian handled that quest/reveal, I love it so much)

She's always one step behind both the player and Lucien, though she's in the players spot when she busts into Applewatch.

Just in time to see the remaining leaders deliver the final blow to Lucien's mutilated, nearly unrecognizable body.

"Hey! We found the traitor! Isn't that wonderful? Aren't you happy!"

I feel like describing it takes away the impact, so let's say that she locks the door behind them and emerged several hours later, coat a darker shade of black.

(At least two of those hours were dedicated to sobbing over Luciens' corpse and then stabbing the player's several hundred more times)

Technically the Brotherhood limps on from Applewatch, slowly growing into what it is in Skyrim, but for me it ended there. She killed it. The Final Listener.

I remember crying about this to my sister and her going "well that's what happens when you join the murder cult".

I think Anna internalized that. This happened because of the darkness. This happened because you weren't good enough to save them.

Maybe if I am good.

Maybe if I save people.

Maybe if I'm a hero.

Maybe I can save them all.

~~~

I have more but this post is long enough lmao. Send me a message if you want to talk about your ocs with mine (or just want to talk, I'm very friendly)

[quiet-longing]

with apologies

i figure I've now posted enough unhinged shit for people to no longer wonder about my humanity. my sanity, on the other hand...

anyway, this is my vampire blog. for amc's adaption of interview with the vampire, specifically. i will refer to it as iwtv from here on out because i'm too lazy to type all that out. but that's what i'm here for.

to cry about and post increasingly deranged iwtv stuff.

notes: i am ride or die for devil's minion, armandaniel, armand x daniel, etc. i will always tag it with some variation of that. they're my heart and the amc version with old maniel and assad!armand is especially precious to me. like, i will fight you in the walmart parking lot about them. i just love them a lot, okay?

i also love - LOVE - the other characters. all of them. every. single. one. they are all (including all versions of daniel and armand) fucked up, toxic monsters capable of great love and pain (both feeling it and inflicting it). they're petty, they're romantic, they're mean, they're sweet, and despite what they would have you believe, they are incredibly human. i think of them as humans turned up to eleven. sometimes twelve. frequently fifteen. way past what that 1-10 dial was ever meant to handle. they began life as humans and no matter how alien(ated) they become with age, they will never completely lose that part of themselves whether they believe it or not.

that means i will cry over all of them and insist they've done nothing wrong ever while still yelling at them for being the cruelest monsters, the very worst of assholes in the same post. i'll love them and i'll hate them, but i'll always love them more than i could ever hate them. and that's as it should be with characters as complex as these.

other stuff:

have read the books. have blocked out some of them because i won't have it. i just won't have it. not in my vampire books. have pitched some of them across my room. frequently ignore later canon. my canon is pretty solidly based in the original trilogy and parts of totbt. the rest, i cherry-pick from to suit my purposes. canon and i have a combative relationship.

in this house, we multi-ship and we don't get mad at other people for preferring different ships or liking different characters than we do or interpreting things differently than we do. these are complicated characters and you won't find a singular villain; likewise, you won't find a singular interpretation that lines up perfectly with your own.

some things i always try to keep in mind when i analyse any piece of media or text (and things i just think are generally helpful for anyone to keep in mind) is that everyone is the hero of their own story and that an explanation is not an excuse.

an explanation is not an excuse.

that's for the people in the back who conflate the two.

that's pretty much it, i think. old maniel 4eva, devil's minion, assad!armand also 4eva, we love all the characters, we hate all the characters, they are all monsters and victims, no ship is better than another (except devil's minion ;) ), all the characters are rendered in shades of grey, you can have more than one interpretation; they can even be conflicting, no one's the villain, explaining why a character does something is not an excuse for whatever bad thing they've done, but understanding motivation is critical if you want to interrogate the text honestly and anchor your interpretation in something solid. of course, that's just my opinion and you don't have to like or listen to that, either. (i majored in lit and philosophy with a minor in psychology. you can imagine the intensity i approach this with; i think it's probably off-putting to some people, but i can't help it. this is literally how i learned to think about things. honestly, i am mostly just here to post goofy shit and have fun, but when i accidentally latch onto a thing, i get really into it is what i'm saying.)

anyway, welcome to my disaster blog, everyone. i'm sorry for everything.

[hatosaur]

tlou hbo ep.4 & ep.5 thoughts.

more analyze-y than the others ones because i’m talkin thru my damn feelings >:,(

getting ep. 4 outta the way real quick because it was mostly setting up for ep. 5 but also i didn’t get to rewatch it since last sunday so memory’s fuzzy.

i’ve seen people have mixed reactions to ep.4 and i get it, because it was so different to how it played out in the game. biggest breaking point from game-joel was a) him talking about tess (which i felt broke a rule for his character) and b) him being openly kind to ellie. being soft with her when she shoots the hunter. laughing at her joke. these aren’t the end of the world. i can see how it was all to show he’s warming up to ellie but it did still feel odd.

i do kinda get the sense that him being mean old joel would wreck the momentum and tone, since we’re not watching pre-rendered cutscenes sandwiched between gameplay segments. you can’t have the danger happening and THEN joel’s yelling at ellie. that’s just TENSION TENSION TENSION; him being nice and open was a good way to balance things out and give us (and ellie) a breather.

so ep. 5. i have to fuckin take deep breaths.

once again, i can’t fucking believe that i can know exactly what’s going to happen and this show will still floor me. i’m broken over the immediacy that henry killed sam with, different from henry talking out his thoughts in the game. his scared, stammered “what did i do?” as he looks to joel, because he can’t believe what he just did.

when i look back to game-henry, it wasn’t emphasized all that much that he was pretty much still a kid, taking care of a kid. show-henry had plenty of those moments. both versions are cocky but the cockiness show-henry has was more kid-like, especially in his interactions with joel, and it only made it hit harder when he looked at him in those last moments, as if for help, and when joel tried to gently get the gun away from him. i’m very glad for them amping up the connection between joel and henry.

the choices they made with sam were amazing. the kid was a great actor and i love seeing all the extra bits that came with him being deaf. i knew it wouldn’t matter all that much that he was younger and deaf; what mattered at the end of the day was his connection with ellie and they fuckin knocked it out of the park. i love that even without them being close in age, they latched onto each other anyway.

the bit with ellie’s blood was such an interesting change. because that was a stellar way of showing despite her maturity, she’s still a kid too. you can tell she really believed she could save him.

this coupled with sam’s superhero fixation...god. the thought of him thinking of her as a hero because of that.

another big change was showing ellie’s reaction to henry’s suicide, instead of joel’s like the game. in the game, i think it was to remind joel about the fragility and impermanence of good things. the show’s not really joel city, they can’t really keep it on him the whole time because that’s boring. not to mention, it’s about more than him. in the show, you can tell it’s to show the impact it’s going to have on ellie’s journey.

i wasn’t a big fan of kathleen initially -- felt she wasn’t intimidating enough as a leader -- but as we saw her more in ep. 5, i was disgusted with her, which is good! i do like the complexity of her, how she’s the leader of this big resistance movement but also seemed unsure and grasping in a lot of moments (of which surprisingly did not include the moments where she ordered people to be killed or argued that ellie and sam should die because “kids die”).

brief note, the child clicker was cool but like...a bit farfetched right?? i mean unless she was bit as a baby and has just been turning since then? aside from that, i do like that she foreshadowed sam’s turning in a way. kid infected is such a gutpunch.

another thing i liked were the parts ripped straight from the gameplay. just watching joel reach the house with the sniper in it caused a lotta moments where i was like “OH YEA THAT HAPPENED.”

WHEN THE INFECTED CAME OUTTA THE GROUND??? i was like “OH YEA THAT WAS PART OF IT.” this show’s great. i love seeing the funny ways they tie back to the game.

all the episodes have been good so far but it really seems like the odd-numbered ones have consistently been bangers.

NEXT ONE THO. JACKSON TIME. TOMMY. MARIA. LET’S GOOO >:)

[neverchecking]

The merging of the two Hyrules is a fantastic idea because it solves so many problems for both.

Like Tia's Hyrule has already gone through TotK so while they have Light Shrines, Sweetpea already used them up. But maybe some things start looking different, ruins are more numerous, Shrines reactivate (which Sweetpea kinda gets annoyed about because 152 SHRINES! HE DID THEM ALL! HE HAS THE OUTFIT TO PROVE IT!), some people start getting their counterparts' memories. Temples start causing problems again. Flickers of Gloom reappear.

So over the course of this whole kerfuffle, the two Hyrules are merging partially due to Ganon, partially due to the Big Three essentially writing off Sage's Hyrule as a failure and this is the alternative to just... wiping it out of existence.

(Also the idea of Tia's Hyrule just rolling up at the Final Battle being like "How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, Old Man?!" is hilarious to me)

Meanwhile, Sage's Hyrule gets what's essentially a reality check that puts everything into perspective. Like they were so starved for hope and stability that they just latched onto the closest thing which was Natura which just conflated everything. Then they are shown a Hyrule where things were better. Not just because of the different Princess but because Hyrule gave itself hope. They pushed themselves to protect themselves and each other. They were kinder to each other and that made all the difference.

I think people who were similar enough to their counterparts (like Cece, Beedle, Koko etc) got merged together and now have two sets of memories while people who were too different (Sweetpea and Sage) or were dead in one Hyrule and aren't in the other (The Champions) or didn't exist (Aaliyah) are still separate people.

Natura would be saved but she gets put on house arrest in the castle to make sure she doesn't start a rebellion (or is the figurehead of one) before being put into Urbosa's custody. Tia doesn't like Natura but she knows it wouldn't be healthy for her to be so close to a so-called 'better' version of herself. Natura becomes a princess only in name while Tia becomes the Queen.

Thunderhead Islands is where the merging starts to happen so everyone is getting rightfully concerned about the implications of what is going on when Sweetpea and Aaliyah are effecting the reality of Tia and Sage's location.

I can't explain how excited I get to see you in my inbox :)

I imagine after they combine the shrines like...reboot in a way? Like, surprise! Now you have to do them all over again! Good news! There are now two more people who can help you out! Bad news! There are now 152 shrines to re-find!

Ruins are certainly popping up more, but there are also a lot more flourishing! New fauna and animals are popping up that were once thought to be extinct. It's like going forward four steps only to jump back thirteen miles. Rito is freezing over once more, the marbled rock roasts are back, the Zora domain is polluted and even the Gerudo are having trouble again (I haven't finished that temple yet ;-;) Sage and Aaliyah even start getting sick again.

Which sucks because not only are they dealing with the switch, but they're dealing with Ganon and now this whole merging business. People are reporting two sets of memories, those thought dead are no longer dead, etc. etc.

The big three just writing off Sage's Hyrule is both so heartbreaking and so in character for them. If they don't like something, they just...get rid of it.

(No bc that is so funny. They're just ready to rumble and Aaliyah's own hyrule is just 'I'm sorry we have to what now?')

Natura definitely was only a symbol of hope because that was the only one they had. The champions had been picked off, one by one, the hero had been downed, she was all they had left. When offered a different alternative, they're probably a bit resistant. However, it doesn't last long since Tia's own Hryule is just >:( We ain't doing that.

Those who were prominent enough people in the journeys were probably just merged, and like you said, now have two sets of memories. Unless of course they had two incredibly different scenarios. Like Sage and Sweetpea. Or if they never existed at all. Imagine half of Hyrule is just 'Who's the Sheikah Champion?' and the other half is "How tf do you not know? Her and Link are attached at the hip."

Natura is the only bit I cannot quite place. But I like the idea of putting her on house arrest. Because if we go with the idea that she's attached to this throne that people have given her, even if her real throne has fallen. Her starting a rebellion is probably not out of the frame as some people still blame the champions. And how can they trust their own memories when their standing right there? The only thing that's remained the same is Natura. SO that's the only reason I can see people following her until she's placed with Urbosa.

Thunderhead Islands being the starting place of this all is perfect because I can only imagine a Secret stone has that kind of power. So when Aaliyah takes up her own, it reflects her own desires and wants. And her biggest want is to see Sage again. Hence the starting of the merge.

It only worsens the worry when people start being like 'Weren't you just here?" and Sage is like 'wtf do you mean?' and they're all 'You and the Sheikah Champion were just here?"

Tipping them off to the merging.

[mrultra100]

I dunno about you folks, but given the recent news about Adult Swim’s new Checkered Past block (them broadcasting old Cartoon Network shows), along with today being 810nicle Day, it’s got me thinking about my childhood.

This is something I normally don’t bring up, as I usually don’t discuss my personal experiences, but I wanna get it off my chest. As far back as the mid to late 2000s, 3 big things were a factor of my childhood; LEGO, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, and, believe it or not, the city of Atlanta, Georgia.

The LEGO bit is rather obvious, given how I’m a huge Mixels fan, but I also recall liking Bionicle alot when it was being sold. While I don’t really remember alot of my past with that particular franchise myself, I do remember seeing the commercials for it back in the day. And to this day, I often find myself rewatching old promotional material for Bionicle on Youtube for nostalgia reasons. Why, I even dabbled around with the G2 sets back when they came out during the mid 2010’s. I guess my love for LEGO back in my early years was a huge reason why I latched onto Mixels from the very start. Like with alot of people that I know, Mixels and Bionicle are the two LEGO franchises I love the most, both as a kid, and even now as a young adult. Obviously, a few other themes from that time like Power Miners, Atlantis, and Hero Factory were sets that I liked alot, but for the sake of discussion, Mixels and Bionicle are what come to my head first whenever I think about LEGO.

Speaking of Mixels, the series that it got on Cartoon Network was, and still is, one of my favorite shows on the channel. I guess that serves as a nice segway into the CN portion, eh? Getting back into the topic at hand, given how I was born in 2002, I would eventually grow up with many of the shows from the CN eras of not only the mid-to-late 2000s, but also the early 2010s; Yes! Noods, and even a bit of the Check It era are when I had some pretty good memories with Cartoon Network, and the shows airing throughout all of that time stuck with me. Obviously, Mixels comes up again when I talk about this sorta thing, but shows like Chowder, Flapjack, the original continuity of Ben 10, Billy and Mandy, Adventure Time Regular Show, and plenty more are what I saw and loved back then. I even dabbled in a bit of Adult Swim too, as not only does Aqua Teen Hunger Force come to mind, me and my family even watched late-night broadcasts of King of the Hill. And I’m not sure if I’m remembering this right, but I might have even seen a tiny bit of Toonami as well. I dunno, it’s been a long time since that all happened

Lastly, the last thing of this 3 layered cake of nostalgia is me and my family visiting the city of Atlanta, more specifically, the Georgia Aquarium. My mind’s a bit fuzzy on when my first visit exactly was, but I’m guessing that was around in 2008. I was 6 back then, so it happened long ago. Even back at that age, I was a lover of marine life, sharks especially. I think the Georgia Aquarium was my first ever time seeing these beautiful creatures alive. Unlike a good chunk of people, I’ve always been fascinated by sharks and other marine animals, so you can probably imagine the sheer awe that I had when I saw a whale shark swimming around Ocean Voyager. Moments like that tend to stick with you for life. And ever since, I’ve had the pleasure of coming back again and again all throughout my late childhood and teen years. Even to this day, me and my family go to the aquarium for sleepovers every once and a while. No joke, I even teared up a little bit when the lights went off in the massive viewing window in Ocean Voyager, where me, my dad, and the sleepover group that we were a part of, when it got late. Seeing shadows dance, cruise, and flicker inside the inky depths was one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen in my life, mainly due to how it struck a chord with my nostalgia. While the Georgia Aquarium itself has changed to add in renovations, new galleries and animals, and other such things, my love and appreciation for the place has only grown within years, and I’ll always treasure it and the memories that I’ve had. Also, while we’re on the topic of Atlanta, did you know that Williams Street, one of the teams behind Adult Swim, is set within Atlanta? Things like that bring everything together.

Now, with all of that said, what’s the point of me going off on a discussion like this? It’s just me wanting to talk about certain things from my childhood that I, along with many other people, have had happy childhood memories. Given the state of the world right now, I feel like thinking about simpler times helps with feeling better. Adult Swim’s Checkered Past feels like the team in charge of the channel wants to not only bring back memories of the old CN shows that we all loved as children (along with introducing any kids today to said shows), but to also give these beloved classics the love and respect that they deserve. Cartoon Network, as it stands now, is in desperate need of repair, and it’s all Discovery’s fault. Given how he ruined both Discovery and Warner Bros with the WB Discovery merger, along with canceling certain films and shows before they could come out, filing Discovery and ruining Shark Week with pseudoscience nonsense designed to appeal to the lowest common denominator (I.E. braindead morons who spread conspiracies that aren’t true in the slightest) and reality show garbage that no sane person would willingly watch, David Zaslav is one of the few people out there that I unironically despise with all of my heart. I really hope someone in the near future comes out and finds a way to fire his ass for good. That bastard needs to go. Only then, things for WB and CN can find a way to improve for the better, along with many other studios going through similar situations.

Until that happens, things like Checkered Past serve as a way to rediscover the magic felt by all of us, and it’s a magic that I can attend to especially. Even with how I’ve grown and changed as a person, along with my tastes in media being refined and expanded on, I’ll always harken back to simpler times. I think we could all have a trip down memory lane.

[eldritch-queern-magicat]

Luci was, as I think we should have guessed, tied to Joshua and Ash. That said, Ash isn't their original kid, or even just the identity said kid latched onto. That's Zero, who inevitably over time became obsessed with being the hero.

Not all kids were paired with both a demon and a holy figure. But they were always paired with at least one of them. The layout of our subsystems is confusing, and we don't even have half of our various parts organized correctly. There are a lot of gaps and parts placed wherever out of sheer frustration. We also know we're still missing parts, whether they're just not easily noticed or they're totally dormant. It's a bit hard to say for many cases.

We ARE Legion.

Take the text document of subsystems as we believe they are, and press enter on each individual name. There literally are hundreds of us. The last part to do that was John, and at the time, the list was a good bit smaller.

And the reason for it? Why the actual fuck is it so extreme? Because even before we were taken by child protective services, we were already a terrified four year old kid. We lived with unpredictable, unimaginable pain, and had been for years already. When would the trigeminal neuralgia strike? Who knows! How bad would it be when it did? Your guess is as good as mine.

We were already experiencing dissociative states, undefined as they were. So it's not like we weren't primed to accept the answer given to us with the most conviction, no matter how bad it was. And unfortunately, the Pentecostals had the most conviction in their bullshit. Of course I accepted what they said about us being full of demons (I've been fixated on the gospel story about Jesus and Legion and the drowning pigs my whole life; yes it's got an explanation).

Again, whether they were really following Jesus' teachings or not, the people around me in foster care still considered themselves Christians. I'm not diving into the theological arguments, simply because I'm not educated enough about them and it would be too exhausting right now to dig into them just to do so.

But, uh... Yeah. Since we can't really get rid of a lot of things we were brainwashed with at this point, we might as well twist what we can and have a good laugh about it. There will be a fuckton of Christianity jokes all along the way. It's called coping with humor.

We're Legion, hi.

-Kite 🪆😺

[not-wholly-unheroic]

(Adding this from the comments section because it also makes some good points.)

Okay, this may cause me to lose some followers but YES to all of the above. While I don’t ship Disney’s Hook with Wendy (because she’s already happily married with kids by the time of the sequel), in many other versions, I do really love the idea of them ending up together. Just…hear me out.

Yes, if he’s hitting on her when she’s all of maybe 12, it’s super icky and messed up…BUT Wendy having a crush on HIM at that age? Totally reasonable. Heck, I’m sure there are a lot of us—myself included—who had a crush on Hook at that age. The man is said to be so handsome it’s a little bit disgusting. He has the manners and charm of an aristocrat. He’s also got that bit of danger and “bad boy” thing going on as a pirate. And while he IS a villain, he has redeemable characteristics. He’s not entirely without morals—though he doesn’t always choose to act on them—and enjoys more stereotypically feminine things like flowers and music. It’s hard not to have crush on the guy. Plus, whether we like it or not, the saying about women falling for men reminiscent of their own fathers isn’t entirely just a stereotype. We latch onto that which is familiar in other people—physically and emotionally—because it feels like home.

Now, imagine they meet again when Wendy is an adult… Yes, there is technically a huge age gap that in real life would be concerning, but in a fictional story where the man doesn’t age but Wendy DOES… It’s no different in my mind than, say, shipping a mortal character with an immortal (like a vampire who is hundreds of years old) or something like in The Time Traveler’s Wife where the guy meets his wife at different points throughout her life, including her childhood, because he can move through time in a way that she can’t. Of course, none of these situations would be possible in real life and in most actual cases, age gaps over maybe 10 years can get a little weird and creepy…but again, this is fiction, people! We can bend the rules a little here.

The other thing is that Wendy is actually probably THE most grown-up person on the island. Not physically, no…but mentally…she makes better decisions and is more level-headed and less petty than just about anyone else in the story. Hook is an ironic villain in part because although he is physically an adult who hates kids, emotionally (and I say this with love) he is very immature most of the time. He’s what happens when a kid grows up too fast without proper affection and structure…which is probably the same kind of adult Peter would be if he grew up in his current trajectory (that is, without a family to guide him). Wendy is the one who sees through both Peter and Hook’s BS and isn’t afraid to call them out on it when everyone else just keeps quiet. She asks Peter questions nobody else will ask because they all know it upsets him. She pushes him to grow. She also catches Hook so off-guard with her fierce accusatory Mama Bear look when the boys are about to walk the plank that he literally almost faints. Wendy’s motto in life is, “Do no harm, take no crap.” She is gentle and loving but also bold and fierce. And if she keeps growing up into that sort of woman, I think that’s exactly the sort of person who could reach the goodness in Hook, someone who could hold their own against him, match wits with him, and bring out the hero in this “not wholly unheroic” man. That’s why I ship them.

To some degree, asking me why I ship Hook and Wendy is like asking me why I ship Jane and Rochester, or Gil and Anne.  I’ve shipped them for decades; it’s a bit like trying to figure out how to take a breath, when it’s something that is just always there.

The thing that fascinates me the most about Peter Pan is that it’s not traditional hero versus villain.  Peter’s not any better or worse than Hook. They are, in fact, virtually the same person; you might say that they are each other’s shadows.  The villain, in both their stories, is time.  Peter is afraid of growing up.  Hook is literally chased by time (the clock in the croc’s belly.)  If anyone is the hero of this story it’s Wendy, who gracefully accepts growing up.

In Neverland, everyone wants Wendy to be their mother.  Peter.  The Lost Boys. Her own brothers. Even Smee promises to free her if she’ll be his mother.  The only person to refer to her as a woman, not a mother, is Hook.  It’s not a positive reference (a woman on board a ship is bad luck) but Wendy’s story is about being on the brink of childhood and fearing adulthood, and Hook is the one person who sees her as a woman.  In a strange way, they are the only real adults in Neverland.  The pirates are really just large Lost Boys (in fact one wonders if that’s where lost boys go after Peter culls them out) and the Indians/mermaids etc are used more for storyline than as characters.

In some movie versions there’s amazing chemistry between Hook and Wendy.  And Hook, in his own way, has an off charm to him.  There’s a line, right before he poisons Peter, about if he’d only listened to his better self.  It has the potential of being something like a Beauty and the Beast story.

[darkshrimpemotions]

I don't disagree with anything specifically (except maybe a bit with your tag that Dany started out mad from the beginning). I think I also didn't clarify a lot of the context of my thoughts, given this was mostly a 3am thought jot prompted by Youtube Shorts throwing me so many Dany clips lately.

I mention GRRM's love of undercutting heroes not because I feel he fumbled Dany's ending (as you said, we don't know yet), but because that's a bludgeon levied against fans of Dany a lot: that we should know better than to latch onto heroes in GRRM's work. But this doesn't work when we're talking about the show and Dany's ending specifically, IMO, because of the difference in how GRRM handles the material vs. how D&D handled it. And I contrasted Ned and Dany because I feel they're great examples of that difference.

Back in season 1, D&D were still striving to be somewhat faithful to the books. GRRM was consulting, the characters were layered and nuanced, the writing was smart. Ned's death works in the show as in the books, because show!Ned is quite similar to book!Ned in all the ways that matter most to supporting his arc and ending. However shocking it might have been for audiences on first watch, Ned's death isn't purely for shock value or to "subvert expectations." It's rooted in the character and the world he inhabits. When you're new to the world of GoT, it feels like an indicator of what kind of story you're in. On rewatch, it feels like the natural, inevitable end for his character as you watch him make mistake after honorable mistake.

Not so with Dany. As you said, her characterization is somewhat different in the show than the books. We get less of her inner thoughts, and not only are the people she does the most brutal things to abusers and slavers and worse. Often when she does listen to her advisors and take the more merciful path, it ends badly for her, for her cause, and/or for those she seeks to protect. Dany is not written with the same level of nuance as the other characters in the show, almost from the very beginning. And when her ending comes, it doesn't play out like a well-crafted result of her hubris or any other flaw. It plays out as a series of decisions that feel inconsistent and out of character for her, coupled with a sudden unwillingness to listen to her advisors that feels justified, given how many times those very people's advice has gone poorly for her. If anything, there are several instances where Dany listening to her brutal impulses would have likely resulted in less carnage in the long run, for everyone involved. Which reads almost as the narrative both vindicating and punishing her at the same time in a way that just feels pointlessly frustrating and cruel to its audience. Her ending isn't satisfying, or even particularly shocking. It isn't the natural or inevitable conclusion of anything. It doesn't feel rooted in her arc or in the world of GoT. It doesn't sink in on rewatch to enhance her arc or the story. It's just pointless and stupid.

I don't know how GRRM will end the books (or even IF he will end the books--personally if something of mine got that screen treatment I, too, would struggle to work on it). But if he does I'll be interested to see whether a similar ending can be made satisfying with better build-up and execution.

I know GRRM likes to undercut fantasy heroes, but I think the reason Ned Stark's death works so well while Dany's doesn't is because Ned's death is only shocking on first watch, while you're still in the mindset of the traditional high fantasy plot and tropes. In retrospect, familiarity with both the world of ASOIAF/GoT and Ned's character make his death feel entirely earned. You can see each mistake and character flaw that lead to his end.

Dany, on the other hand, suddenly behaves in ways that are inconsistent with her character...as do many of those around her. She is repeatedly rebuffed, gaslit, and betrayed by everyone around her, and keeps giving them second and third chances only to suddenly act without cause or mercy and unleash a deluge of unspeakable violence against civilians she has never met.

In the end, she goes mad and dies more than anything because she's a woman, not because there was any significant or meaningful build-up that points in that direction (and no, other characters making comments worrying she might go mad do not constitute build up). It just feels so shallow and unearned.