#an extremely traumatizing life event that ended in tragedy

[enemy-to-the-state]

i am only slightly ashamed to admit that i borderline hate my dad’s gf

[blueraith]

Vi Analysis Pt 2 S2 Act 1

Alright, let's continue this Vi analysis. Here's the link to the first one if you're interested in reading it.

https://www.tumblr.com/blueraith/770117290888986624/its-wild-to-me-just-how-badly-vis-arc-is?source=share

I'm sure this will end up very long, so here's the obligatory cut:

One of the things I very rarely see anyone mention in any post or analysis about anyone in this show, not just Vi, is that Viktor's whole speech about there being two sides to the coin of humanity is that that entire theme encompasses the show from the very start.

S1 shows every character at their arguable best. Despite all the tragedy present even in S1, this is. You see this most starkly with Caitlyn, she starts out naive, sweet, and determined to uphold real justice, only for her to lose those aspects about herself once her grief, rage, and drive for vengeance replaces those traits until Act 3.

Well, Vi's very similar in that regard. We see her in S1 as someone who is strong, tenacious, and fierce. But in S2, she really starts to lose those parts of herself.

Act 1 is where it starts. Post rocket attack, Vi is a little lost. She's wandering about Piltover, only really staying in one place long enough to be there for Caitlyn. She doesn't know what to do with herself beyond that. I think this is where we really start to see the results of Vi's incarceration. She has nowhere to go besides the Kiramman mansion. No home. No family besides her sister. Only Caitlyn.

And we can debate until we're blue in the face as to whether or not that's a good thing, but I don't know what the alternative really is for her realistically. Every member of her family besides Jinx is dead, and Vi is grappling with the idea that maybe the sister she loved is dead as well and replaced by this monster.

I want to really dig into the notion that Vi was indeed just as traumatized as Caitlyn was by the kidnapping and tea party. Seemingly so few people want to even admit that Caitlyn suffered trauma from that event, but as if this hole in the fandom's grace or awareness or even empathy—I don't know—couldn't get any worse, virtually no one ever talks about Vi's trauma from that night.

Like, she's also kidnapped, she bears her soul out to Jinx about thinking about her every night in Stillwater as she suffered in there, and Jinx—who I am not condemning or at least not in a manner that reader should assume I dislike her character—I enjoy her character and see her trauma too—returns that moment of vulnerability with blame and accusations. That Vi created Jinx, that she put her own sister on this path of madness and violence.

When, of course, in reality their relationship and the tragedy within it is the result of the cycle of violence that Vision-Silco and Jinx finally voice aloud verbatim. Again, this is yet another theme in S2 that can be traced all the way back to S1. The seasons were written one after another, after all, and I just really wish more harsh critics would think about what that actually means for the entire show and every character's entire arc.

Then after that, Jinx further twists the knife by frightening Vi with the idea that she's about to serve the severed head of her not-yet-girlfriend demanding Vi murder Caitlyn herself so they can finally be alone with one another.

I mean, do I really have to spell out just how messed up that is? Evidently I do, because I occasionally see extremely unreasonable Jinx hyperstans insist that Vi is a bad sister, that she causes or caused all the toxicity in their relationship, and that Jinx deserves better.

No, Vi should not have hit Powder and called her a Jinx that night. But some of you are condemning a teenager who just survived something almost indescribably horrific for the rest of her fucking life. It's insane.

But again, I know why Jinx feels abandoned and betrayed, she did suffer—if not more admittedly seeing as she set off the bomb—from losing Vander, Mylo, and Claggor that night.

This is why violence is a cycle. She did not have to chose the way she responded with the tea party. Yes, she's high on Shimmer, but there's some rationality there when she cheekily states "I'm not that crazy" after tormenting Vi with the cupcake.

And I know I'm rehashing more of S1 when this is supposed to be a post about S2, but I'm finally getting there. Jinx perpetuated the cycle of violence herself that night by creating a monster in Caitlyn.

Vi doesn't quite realize this yet, but all that trauma she suffered at the tea party does make her temporarily give up on Jinx. What is she supposed to do with all that, after all? How does she look at her sister the same way after going through all the fear, terror, and pain that Jinx inflicted?

But that blame Jinx put on her sticks in at least some way. Vi feels responsible for creating Jinx, for not doing enough, for placing Jinx in Caitlyn's life, for Jinx killing Caitlyn's mother. These things are not directly stated literally, but I think we can safely assume these are thoughts going through her mind.

The aimless wandering, her expression after Tobias angrily asks what she's still doing at the manor, accepting that badge Caitlyn gives her at all.

And we start to see the beginning of Vi's spiral in Act 1 when she starts drinking and meets Loris for the first time. I don't know how many of you have struggled with alcohol, but the portrayal of Vi's drinking at this point in the season is almost comical. But for those of us with experience in either alcoholism or flirting with that point, there's a bit of a sinister undertone to it. Like, you don't start drinking like that unless you want to take the edge off something. Guilt, grief, trauma, Vi has plenty of that in spades.

She turns to alcohol primarily because Vi does not know how to ask for help. The oh so enduring and traditional fatal flaw of all parentified elder sisters. You take care of everyone. You make sure they're alright. You are supposed to be there for them.

Who is there for you, in the end?

Caitlyn, in Vi's case. I mean, at this point in Act 1, I do think Caitlyn had a lot of her empathy remaining to try and help Vi with her own issues. But Vi, of course, is going to take one look at Caitlyn's own grief, decide she deserves to be comforted more, and buries all of her own suffering.

And that results in Vi losing one of the most important tools she would have had to counter a lot of Caitlyn's own spiraling. One of the reasons their relationship worked so well in S1 is that Vi could challenge Caitlyn's biases and preconceived notions and force her to see issues and people from a perspective she did not previously consider. She's able to push, prod, tease, and taunt Caitlyn so easily out of her comfort zone. And in return, Caitlyn's empathetic nature allows herself to be open for changes to her opinions and an ability to see Vi's pain.

Both of those things disappear from each of them in S2 Act 1. It's basically the kick that snaps the back of their relationship at this time.

Vi feels she can no longer push Caitlyn to think about what she's doing and thus goes along with Caitlyn's plans to use the Gray, to become an Enforcer, to hunt down her sister who she will—in reality—never be able to kill.

And Caitlyn slowly loses her ability to empathize with what Vi's feeling. Their first kiss, I honestly do not watch very often because it has that tragic element to it. Caitlyn is trying very hard to give Vi what she thinks she needs in that moment. Reassurance that she's not changing, that she'll always be there. But she's already changed by Ep3. She's already unable to realize that Vi will never be able to truly harm Jinx. She cannot see that Vi is only in this strike team to soothe her own guilt.

Vi's "I'm done blaming myself for your mistakes" is a lie. Just like her telling Caitlyn to take the shot if she had an opening is a lie. She's not consciously lying, of course, just like Caitlyn wasn't when she promised she wouldn't change, but S2 is aaaaallll about these characters completely losing themselves.

(Although, Jinx is a parallel and exception in that she spends so much of S2 finding herself.)

Then the Jinx/Vi fight happens. They start out fairly brutal, but around the time when Jinx hits one of the pillars and Vi catches her before she can land, the emotion and violence of their fight changes. Like... they're full on sibling squabbling after that, not even realizing it. Vi starts to hesitate in landing a killing blow on Jinx even before Isha steps in.

Once Isha does jump on top of Jinx, it completely snaps Vi out of it all. She and Jinx share that loaded as fuck stare down as they each realize their sister is still there.

But Caitlyn does not see this. She's twisted in her rage and grief. She's an only child. She has Jayce in her life, but the show itself never makes an argument that her and Jayce's relationship hits a level of intimacy that would help her empathize with what Vi's going through right now. (I'm not saying that Caitlyn and Jayce don't care for one another, they very much do, and I'm not trying to argue that their relationship is not valid, but it is very different than what Vi and Jinx have.)

So the breakup happens. Vi realizes she cannot kill Jinx or allow her to be killed—perhaps not fully consciously at that point, but she latches onto the excuse Isha's presence gives her and she does not let go.

We can argue that Caitlyn would not have missed, I find that debatable, she's stumbling about, her breathing is rough when it was previously controlled in every shot she takes before this, and I mean... look at how wild her eyes are. One even gets magnified for us lol.

But I think the greater point and the one that Vi was more concerned about is that Caitlyn of S1 would have never taken the risk of hitting a child. This situation would not have gotten so bad if this was Cait of S1, Vi is looking at Caitlyn and realizing that the one person she trusted to stay the same has completely changed. Right in front of her, and seemingly without her realizing it or perhaps not wanting to admit it.

They get into their fight, Caitlyn snaps completely for a variety of reasons that do not excuse her actions—and I am honestly really annoyed that I have to say this here because I can speak on Jinx all day long and most of you will assume that myself and many others are automatically sympathetic towards the horrible things Jinx has done due to her trauma, and yet very little of that same grace is ever given to Caitlyn.

Whatever.

Anyway. Caitlyn hits Vi, it's a parallel to Vi hitting Powder, one that's so obviously framed visually that we all clocked it the moment it happened. I don't know if Vi realized the parallel herself in character, but we are meant to.

What's it mean?

Well, let's look at them both.

Vi had just watched Vander die right in front of her. She saw Mylo and Claggor's bodies. She's just lost over half of her family and was orphaned. Again. Powder running up and joyfully exclaiming that her bomb finally worked was simply too much. The anger, the fear, the desperation, and the failure hit all at once and she lashes out.

Caitlyn has been blown up twice, kidnapped naked out of her own shower, forcibly dressed in some way, likely tormented to get the Cupcake nickname out of her—

I mean, do y'all wonder how Jinx even learned about 'Cupcake?' Vi does not call Caitlyn Cupcake in any scene in which Jinx is in earshot for throughout all of S1. She got it from somewhere and it was probably Caitlyn. Caitlyn whose pride and tenacity likely loathed submitting to Jinx and suffered quite a bit of humiliation if that is indeed what happened.

Caitlyn also suffered through a mock execution, Jinx holds her gun up to Caitlyn's head for quite some time and looks eager to shoot her. Like, go back and look at the tears and terror in Caitlyn's eyes throughout this entire scene. She probably thought she was going to die. Cherry on top, she fails to take the shot she had at Jinx to prevent her own mother's death.

She also lashes out. Especially after Vi accuses her of acting like Jinx. In her mind this is inconceivable, this is the highest of insults, how dare Vi compare her to that monster, right?

I don't know how as audience we can claim that Caitlyn was acting from a place of police brutality, but whatever.

Domestic violence? Maybe. I don't know. I frankly don't think that was the intention the writers were going for, or if they were they're no more saying it was okay than they were when Vi hit Powder. Both hits had severe consequences for the characters involved all around, nothing about either scene is glorified. It's intentionally depicted as horrifying and uncomfortable. There is nothing in either scene with Vi and Powder and Vi and Caitlyn that suggests that these hits were justified or proper reactions to what happened.

What they are meant to be is shorthand for human suffering and the violence that so often happens when we are pushed to our limits.

Again, the Cycle of Violence and humanity and our emotions being capable of our greatest good and greatest evil as Two Sides of the Same Coin are themes that are littered throughout the entire show. Not just when they're brought up in the moment. We are meant to take these themes in and attempt to spot each way they are used throughout the work.

Okay. Yeah, this post is also turning into a Jinx and Cait analysis, but Vi is to intertwined with them that you really can't properly discuss one without all three. Especially in this season.

Alright. That's Act 1.

Actually, you know what, let's leave it here. It looks like I'm going to be writing a fucking book over Vi and the characters around her. I'll pick up next post with an Act 2 breakdown.

[mr-walkingrainbow]

Okay yall! People seem to be posting some hella awesome fanfic ideas and as someone who hopes to in the future run for king of bridgella angst, I’d like to throw my fanfic idea into the mix!

A tragedy in the making:

THE CHOICE

~———————————~

What if?

Red returns to the present. Only to not be able to find Chloe in the crowd.

She spots her mother, who now looks radically different, similar in appearance but bursting with color and joy (picture the reformed queen we see at the end of the movie)

Only when she goes to ask her where Chloe is, she is introduced to three dramatic changes

1. Chloe seems to have never existed in this world

2. their is a very large and menacing looking RING on her mothers finger

Cinderella is walking over, and Bridget’s referencing too her as her WIFE!

So not only does Chloe and Chad not exist in this world. But Red now has TWO passionately loving moms. Bridget and Ella.

And in Reds eyes. This world is a dream come true. There was no coup. Wonderland is a peaceful world. Her mom was never a tyrant. AND was never put through the traumatic psychological breaking event. And Red gets two loving moms. Which is a huge step up from having one extremely manipulative one.

in all seriousness, she should be overjoyed.

but Chloe. Isn’t. Here.

And for all Red knows. There is no way for Chloe to exist, and for the Queens coup to never happen. This Red never saw another result. This is the only other one she’s seen.

So she has to make probably the hardest decision in her entire life. Because going back to the past to change this would not only in her mind be sentancing Auradon to a mad takeover. But Retraumatize her mother, rip her away from a life where she gets to live with her deepest love. AND sentence Cinderella to certain doom.

But doing so would mean Chad and Chloe would get to live.

Would mean Chloe could still be there. Would mean the only person and friend who’s ever believed in Red would still be there. Even in a dystopian world.

What choice does Red make? Well that’s for you to find out!

lol I’m still ironing out a lot of kinks and i definitely haven’t written much. But this has been an au that’s been growing in me head for the last week or so!! Let me know if any of yall are interested!!!

@c-rose2081 @somedudenamedanthony @strugglingsapphic do tell if you think this is a fic worth writing. I love the idea but if you don’t think it’s worth a read I’d definitely take that into account

Also who’s the king and queen of glass heart lol? Who do I go to to throw my hat in for running of King of Bridgella angst

[kimkhimhant]

perhaps the biggest tragedy of aftg is that neil in particular is always going to be in survival mode, as long as the moriyama's are around. if he cannot play exy, the threat of death – his own and his loved ones – hangs over his head. in a way, he's never going to reach "post-trauma" for this. obviously, he has ptsd from everything he's survived up until now, but how much of it can be called "ptsd" when he's still in an on-going traumatic crisis?

for most people, the healing comes after the traumatizing events have ended (although it's more complicated for cptsd, which is what neil and andrew both suffer from due to ongoing, repeated trauma), but for neil post-canon, he has to try to cope with post-trauma symptoms from life on the run, the nest, his father, all while being unable to truly exit survival mode.

in trauma recovery, there is typically a very very low period a survivor experiences once they are safe and able to let their guard down, where the overload of constant stress-hormones and vigilance and all that fun stuff finally catches up to someone (often involves extreme fatigue, depression, increase in ptsd symptoms & illness), and this period precedes "recovery"

but will neil ever be able to reach that point? it makes me really devastated to think that he might never actually be able to let his guard down, that he might never be able to experience true safety and the catharsis that comes with it

[toadletthethird]

Can we have cage for that ask game? :3

Ohhh thanks for the question! but I might be the bad person to ask this, because I love to talk about her wayyy too much

Send me a character and I'll list:

1) favourite thing about them

I love her so much from narrative standpoint for things she can represent. Her chapter can be a great statement about trauma response that is often overlooked. Fight or flight are great, of course, but freeze just hits home.

In prisoner's chapter her one resort of hope was lost. She made a plead to be saved in the act of decapitation and was unheard. Such a wish broken. To put everything into something to not work out is so painful. Especially the second time. And new attempts would just remind about the helplessness - disappointment is not an easy wound to heal - so it's easier to embrace it. To find meaning in your pain. It is cruel and absurd and undeserved, but it is yours. You can find beauty in its horrors. And it makes it significant. It gives it at least some little sense it needs to not be so painfully pointless. To her, at least. It's her way to survive. (Oh how I love overrationalisation as a way to cope)

And I like how it's shown that it's hurtful not only to her but to people around too. She is not violent herself, but by not rejecting this harmful behaviour she lets the circle of violence to continue. And it what happens when you fall into a mindset like this. You get so focused on endurance that you fail to see the aftermath of your actions. It can manifest as neglect, direct danger or, most often, the suffering your close ones feel watching you. And there's no exit from the cycle but to acknowledge how harmful your coping is. It's not her fault, but it is so. (Interestingly, while the Allegory of the cage ending is exactly like that, No Exit is about bringing someone on the same level as you.... Becoming the same danger you were afraid of..... and to project that fearful worldview onto someone, subconsciously.....I think it can have interesting connotations to real life)

I believe her story can be beautiful allegory to withstanding any traumatic event that gives you no other choice than to accept it. You know: grief, chronic illness, abuse, depression, etc. You name it

Also, there is a reading of prisoner-cage as an allegory to self harming behaviour in my main account. I can't say if it's as good as I remember it to be (I physically can't take a second look at anything I do until a decade passes - yeah, it's a curse thing. never trust fairies), but it's still very dear to me.

2) the least favourite thing about them

I'm a simple girl...... The only complaint I have is deleted dialogue from prisoner........

3) Favourite line

Of course it's "Look at us go. Aren't we beautiful?"

But honourable mention is her head pun because.......I love puns. And "What? Like the answer's obvisous? Like it's staring me right in the face? Just like you?" because it was so funny to find

4)brotp

Cage and HEA would find a lot in common. I like to make all damsel and prisoner based vessels friends. And I love parallels

Also with thorn and PATD because of the "were in terrible situations and survived" similarity. I just like to imagine them all happy together, you know

5) OTP

I....I might like her with broken........I just really like broken in this chapter

6) notp

Nothing there

7) random headcanon

She and Prisoner give me insane Antiquity vibes for no particular reason. So I like to imagine Cage speaking ancient Greek (a lot of linker words make this language sound extremely cycle like. And sometimes prepositions start somewhere and stretch a looooong way only to remind of themselves again in the end of the sentence - very chain like) and Prisoner speaking Latin (very clear to use intellectual language). Just for fun.

8) unpopular opinion

My hierarchy for cage's endings is: No Exit, The Riddle of Steel, Allegory of the Cage

Yeah, I'm so shameful about that, but.... I love tragedies..... And I don't like when the solution to the puzzle is beyond the puzzle....... I'm so glad happy ending for her exists, but it's not for me

Oh and I like the possibility of free will ending. It's horrendous, no doubt, but I'm glad that there is such a choice available. After the horror of withdrawal we can experience the horror of freedom. Absurd of selfexpression. There is something about it

9) Song I associate with them

"I bet on losing dogs" by mitski simply because she is my baby :(

10) favourite image

Oh I love every shot from this chapter. But the dance sequence particularly

(Also there is a very particular shot when you strike her in the heart and her body, while still standing, holds the blade so firmly but I'm afraid it's too risky for tumblr and I'm not in a risky mood hahah)

That's all!

[karin-gespenst]

mental health and maternity

Arlene Brewer has been left alone by the institutions that were supposed to help her. Someone else can math out how many days were between her discharge from Lynchmere until she gave birth. It can't have been more than two weeks. She managed well enough until the very doctors that were supposed to educate her scared her instead and she was afraid to keep taking the medication. Afraid to ask for help from the district midwives that tried to form a trusting relationship and failed because they lacked crucial information. Her relapse was preventable. With proper support she may have been able to go through labour and birth in a stable mental state and care for her baby. Instead she had no partner, no family, improvised living conditions and too little time to prepare. What is there to look forward to for her? With her child in foster care there is a small chance left that they can be reunited.

Other mothers didn't even have that. Remember Mary from s1e2? The poor girl who didn't even get a surname. We don't know how her mental state was before at age 15 she was raped, displaced, exploited, raped again and completely talked out of her own perception by adult men who knew very well that she had little in her defense. By the time she met Jenny, she was already somewhat detatched from reality. The church took away her baby, and triggered her mental breakdown that she never recovered from and she was left alone again, with no support from anyone.

Remember Shirley Redmond? depressed after losing her firstborn baby, finally better through the care of her family and the midwives during her second pregnancy, and then happy with her daughter, briefly. then faced with tragedy again when her baby was kidnapped, by the teenaged girl from two episodes ago. Agony for days, and very much understandable anger at the person who caused that. Shirley could find compassion for Mary and was well again after the return of her baby. But Mary only lost again and got no help.

Season 1 was dark like that sometimes. Season two had a mental health story that ended well. Ruby Roberts had a son, and her son had spina bifida, and she did not know how to cope. For weeks she was unable to care for him or her other children. Only when her husband got through to her with his reverse psychology and pretended to want to send their baby to a Home, she snapped out of it and found her old self again. Helpful husbands, they exist!

Sarita Gupta has one. Her traumatic experiences as a child during partition made her extremely anxious and she developed symptoms of obsessive behaviour. Over time she got better because the midwives learned how to help her, and they could try because her husband alarmed them.

Roseanne Dawley also has support in her family, she even has a cleaning lady helping in the home. But even the gentlest of husbands wasn't able to reassure Rosanne that she is capable of being a good mother, when the experience of trauma in childhood and violence as a young adult made her doubt her abilities. Giving birth alone unprepared was a massive shock for her, and I'm glad she went to stay at her friend's when she was overwhelmed. Phyllis was finally able to reassure her and she stabilized again.

Pamela Saint was not so lucky. She needed weeks in the hospital to help her get well from puerperal psychosis. Remember the shock treatment? Her getting unwell was portrayed in a way that haunts me until today, because nobody expected it and when people started to react they were almost too late. Many people have heard about postpartum depression but not about psychosis. We see Pamela getting better but her baby had to stay with a relative and her husband was thoroughly out of his depth.

Season 5 with the thalidomide storylines gives us Ruby Cottingham. Losing a child is I'd say the most horrifying event in a parent's life. We saw how happy she was expecting her baby. Then the difficult labour and cesarean and no baby. not even a chance to say goodbye. Depression, alcohol abuse and drug abuse are clearly shown when we see her next. it's unclear if she ever got any closure from learning why her baby died. if she got any help from a doctor or support group it is not shown.

Nadifa Ghedi Jama had an episode of triggered trauma during labour. Valerie was able to help her a bit, and the birth was traumatic anyway, as was the recovery. Her husband at sea, her sister sent away, I don't know who was there for her after her discharge from the hospital.

Call the midwife shows us the factors that help mothers with mental health problems: proper medical care including of course contraception, suitable housing, understanding family members, friends, education and the chance to make their own decisions. and that's not going into social factors like discrimination, displacement, war, organized violence and gendered violence. that's a whole other essay but someone's got to make dinner.

[camprell-art]

Hii! Really love your art! Your designs for the mario characters are super lovely. I was wondering tho, what drives your dimentio? Why does he, like, destroy nearly every kingdom he comes across? Why does he want to become king of all worlds when he doesn't seem to mind the 'subservient' role?

Hope you're having a wonderful day!

Okay so, this probably will get extremely long ksajhd

Dimentio is unconsciously reenacting what the Pixl Queen, or his sister Shadoo, did. After getting driven to madness by being resurrected in a vessel with the Dark Prognosticus, she brainwashed every Pixl, formed an army and tried to destroy the Ancients for their selfishness and supposed egocentrism, so she is technically destroying a kingdom.

I never worked much in the time-line of events, but before all of that happened, Dimentio and his mother Illuminata died, because Merloo, the father and great magician, was researching the Dark Prognosticus and one day he tries a spell and everything goes wrong.

A recurring theme in the family story is how everyone of them had a tragedy, the father gets obsessed with the Dark Prognosticus and kills both his wife and son in an accident, the mother dies protecting the son, the son is cursed with immortality by being bound to the book, and the sister gets ill because of the dark energy the house had, dies, is brought back, dies again, now by her brother's own hands, gets cursed and also locked away in the Pits.

You can say that Shadoo and Dimentio are the ones who suffered the most, and depending on how you see it, yeah they are, but imagine living the rest of your life thinking that you ruined everything, like, EVERYTHING, because a book was "that" important. That's why Merloo ends up helping with the Light Prognosticus, but also completely alone, as if you see in the game, he's the only sage who, apparently, has no descendants.

Before I forget, Pixl Queen Shadoo had the DP, when Dimentio "kills" her, he takes it, tries to protect it from evil, but reads it in morbid curiosity of what is written there, people steal it from him and then he starts getting insane, just like Bleck. ^v^

In conclusion, Dimentio is traumatized, but instead of having a chance to really think about his past and not commit any crimes, he has the DP talking in his head and leaving every other memory to the side, which is why he has kind of an amnesia and why he knows roughly where the thing is. In other words, the book makes you go crazy, and after living so many years and so many deaths I think that the person is very likely to just go apeshit after some point.

Ah, and about the thing with being a servant and wanting to be king at the same time, I don't take what he said in that part too literally, because I do believe that his motivation was to make a perfect world without all the rotten evil people in it, that would explain why he doesn't like the Count, Dimentio may know he's bad too, but he's being bad for a greater or purer reason. The role of servant is mostly just a strategy to be seen as someone who is vulnerable and eager to please, a perfect lie to hide the strings he's holding.

I hope this is a good answer to your question! As always I think that I gave more useless information than a direct response. akjsdh

Have a nice day, or night, wherever you are! :)

Edit: Thank you so much for all the compliments!!! Dumb Camprell was so focused on trying to explain the shitshow that is his fanlore that he forgot completely about what you said first!! But know that it's always one of the best things to see in an ask! :3

[misrepresentedmorallygrey]

PROPAGANDA

Basil

In Omori, Basil used to be your best friend up until the tragic events 4 years ago, where Sunny accidentally pushed his sister Mari down the stairs. Basil was the one who found Sunny action-paralyzed, realising that his sister was dead because of him. Basil panicked, thinking the police would take his best friend away forever. Thus, he orchestrated making it look like Mari hung herself, worsening the events of the game. Pretty fucked up stuff. Did I mention both Sunny and Basil were 12 years old at the time? Basil is often portrayed as either irrevocably evil or a pure soul who did nothing wrong. Both of these interpretations ignore the central issue that he COVERED UP A POTENTIAL MURDER because he was 12 AND DID NOT KNOW WHAT ELSE TO DO. Prior to meeting Sunny and his group of friends, Basil was said to be isolated and alone. Finally creating this connection with others seemed to have made him terrified to lose these connections, and he's portrayed throughout the game to be haunted by guilt and characterized by his loneliness and fear of losing his friends, but especially his best friend, Sunny. He seems to understand now that he's older that the whole situation was incredibly wrong, and lives in denial mostly about his friend's hand in the events. Nothing seems to suggest that he doesn't realize what he himself did was wrong by the time of the game. He doesn't speak up, though, for the player's sake. After all, Basil has no idea that Mari's death was an accident, and Sunny has retracted into himself and refused to communicate on the issue. The creator themselves descriped the character like this: "OMOCAT describes BASIL as caring and thoughtful in regards to the friends he so deeply cherishes. However, his loneliness and insecurities are what make him dependent on others, sometimes to a dangerous extent." "In fact, OMOCAT adds that BASIL feels deep emotions for those he cares about, and this sometimes places him in situations where he unintentionally hurts others and himself." An additional moment that occassionally garners criticism, is that sometime in the course of those 4 years, Basil marked out Mari's face from his photo album, which he kept of him and all of his friends. This creates conflict between him and another character in-universe. What many fans seem to miss about this issue is that Basil himself is engaging in the same destructive tendency that most of the other characters also are - trying to deal with overwhelming pain with some form of denial and alienation of his old relationships. At no point is there shown any sort of hostility towards Mari from him as a character. Basil is overall a character who used to be a pure small bean but ended up doing something incredibly serious because he was a scared child, unable to deal with the situation at hand rationally. The horrendous guilt and consequences of the tragedy that happened when everyone were too young to process it make up the central themes of the game. By trying to morally simplify Basil's actions, we're also ignoring the overall point of the story; The deeprooted consequences of something extremely traumatic happening to children at an age where they're not able to handle it, and the permanent consequences it's going to have on their lives going forwards.

There's definitely a chunk of the fandom that likes to over-villianize Basil, I suspect to make the main character seem better. A lot of them say Basil forced Sunny into doing something bad, which given what we know about Basil's character seems highly unlikely. And they also give him a lot of flack for (admittedly bad) actions he takes during a mental health crisis.

Yuno Kashiki

She's far more morally grey than folks want to admit. She's not evil, not by a long shot, but she's not exactly innocent either. She's innocent of her (perceived) crime in her media, but in terms of her attitude and outlook on life, I feel people downplay her incredibly grey actions. She uses / used compensated dating as a way to feel "warm" without forming emotional attachments. She hasn't killed anyone, nor has she manipulated anyone into killing for her, but that's why she's a good representative of a more everyday morally grey person. Her actions aren't outlandish or extreme, and if anything she can fade into the background with relative ease, yet I still firmly believe she's morally grey. tldr; Yuno has far more depth than the (general) fandom sees her as having. She gets misrepresented and her voice as a character is often unheard.

Yuno Kashiki is an 18 year old rental girlfriend and sexworker in Japan. She was incarcerated in Milgram for murder at the start of the series in 2020. Since then she has been repeatedly dehumanized by the fandom. Having her agency and statements on her own life overwhelmingly ignored in order to give her a sob story she has consistently rebuked at every turn. Stating from the beginning even if she had to beg for forgiveness like her life depended on it she would. However, it's simply been handed to her as the audience continually goes she was too young and stupid to actually be held accountable for her actions. The same audience that later tries to vote a 12 year old child abuse victim guilty because she has to learn her lesson and she knew what she was doing. Yes the fandom interprets the eighteen year old who chose to work in the profession they did simply because they wanted to something they have no qualms admitting as having less agency than the twelve year old. They treat her like a stupid baby who's only error was not knowing how a condom worked as a sexworker. They say her only crime is an abortion despite her overtly getting upset at other individuals alluded to be clients throughout her songs. Having the literal lyrics of her second song go, ""Poor naive little girl"? So off the mark, what's it to you? It's absurd. Like really who do you think you are? Don't weigh me meassure me against your morality. Just shut it, will you? You know it all." And "Carrssing me with your "good girl". Who needs your self-righteous pardon?" They're so committed to the abortion equating to the murder she's in here for idea that fans got mad at the writer for even writing it that way when at least several other very not fetuses are alluded to throughout her songs and at points literally shown. Her first song even highlighting her clients belongings throughout it with inverted coloring. But instead of thinking she may have just killed a client who was bothering her they've convinced themselves that she's just a silly little outlier who's not meant to be here because abortion isn't murder her body her choice which fair if it wasn't for the fact the only people putting it on the table to compare to murder is the audience themselves. Despite everyone else in here very literally killing actual people with lives, professions, etc as they frame her case as a feminism issue and say if you vote her guilty you just hate women or are anti-abortion. In response to the framing of her situation as she can hear the audiences thoughts on her she's only gotten more depressed and closed off as tge series has progressed blatantly stating to hurry all this up so she can go home. Because it doesn't matter what she says about her situation the audience and the guard by proxy will just end up creating whatever story they want about her so it doesn't matter she's over it. Which in all honesty fucking fair- Wouldn't anyone be after getting treated like that for going on four years.

[thataddylady]

Analysis: Phillip Crane 'To Sir Phillip with Love' Pt. 1

So I was asked to do a fleshed out analysis of Phillip Crane as a character and what on earth is so appealing about his romance with Eloise for those of us who loved not only her character but her book as well. It was meant to be one post but honestly it turned into a novella so I'm gonna do this in sections. His book with Eloise was my favorite in the Bridgerton series. Phillip Crane is a very complex character. He isn't charming or dashing, he isn't setting off fireworks anywhere. The ones who aren't a fan think he is a toxic rapist at worst or a boring nerd at best. I am not here to argue against that case. I'm just gonna make mine.

Regarding Sir Phillip

Before I can get into why I loved him with Eloise, I thought I'd do a breakdown of Phillip and his back story as presented in the books. So much of his character and mannerisms are informed by his history so to miss it is to misunderstand him IMHO.

Phillip Crane as a character, is a deeply emotionally scared man. He has so much compounded trauma it's not funny, starting from his father's abuse from childhood onwards, his brother's death, his marriage to Marina and ultimately her death which was both tragic and traumatic. Now I know many of you who are familiar will go "She was depressed for ten years and ultimately committed suicide, how is this HIS tragedy?" This is a fair point to bring up. #man pain. I will get to that, I promise.

The book however only has Phillip's POV and when it opens he is six months out from her funeral so not much time has passed. A snapshot of Phillip's life as presented in the book is he and his brother suffered from horrific abuse at the hands of their father. He has visible scars on his back as an adult from the beatings he endured as a child. His escape was two things, his brother George and attending school. He's a plant nerd, and he comes into his own through academic scholarship. His brother, who was a real paragon by all accounts dies at Waterloo, and Phillip is yanked out of school by his father for more abuse to whip him into shape as his heir. Part of this is forcing Phillip to marry Marina. They are both still mourning his brother. His father as some point drops dead of a heart attack right in front of Phillip mid abusive diatribe and Phillip inherits the baronet.

From Phillip's recollections he and Marina were had a decent marriage until her depression becomes extremely bad after the birth of the twins. There is an unfortunate scene (not the first in the Bridgerton series) where Phillip visits Marina at night after receiving permission from her. The sex is horrible because she is not in a good place and he doesn't clock it until it is too late. Going off of their previous times having sex he assumes he is doing something wrong which is why she is not responding. He doesn't realize that she is in fact legitimately not in the mood and her consent in her current mindset is not reliable.

Is it well written? We can debate it. But what it is meant to convey is a tricky situation where sexual consent used to mean something and now it does not. This experience ends up being scaring for both of them because even though he received consent which used to be reliable, this time it was not and he feels like he raped his wife. Marina is upset because the whole experience was probably demeaning for her and she isn't in a place where she can understand or communicate her wants or needs. There are those who argue that Phillip is a rapist but to me seeking consent and receiving it moves this more into really bad or traumatic sex. The consent is never rescinded.

At worst he should have noticed sooner, but at best he's better than Daphne.

Either way this event sets the tone for the next decade of Phillip and Marina's marriage. He swears off sex with her because he realizes that she isn't in a place to consent to it, and instead spends the years raising their two children and trying to help her out of her depression. With what is available to him he does his best but a modern audience knows that this is a losing battle for both of them once Marina's depression becomes what we would classify as clinical. In the end after a decade long struggle on both their parts, Marina tries to drown herself. Phillip stops her and she succumbs to 'lung fever' or some related illness shortly after.

About Marina

Marina Crane is a tragic character; she loses George (Phillip's older brother) the love of her life and is forced to marry his brother with little ceremony or time to grieve. She is written as already having issues with depression before the death of her fiancé, and develops what seems to be postpartum depression after the birth of her two children with Phillip which is left untreated (cause it's 1800') and it devolves over her marriage with Phillip. Because this is set in the 1800's there is no real help for the level of depression Marina suffers from for a decade. She is unable to connect with her children or live well, her husband is unable to help her and in the end she dies from the effects of a su**ide attempt locked inside her own personal hell. It is rough going.

Now while it is true that Marina is a tragic figure, I feel that it is too easily ignored that Phillip is as well. He is someone who has compounded trauma, who also had no escape from his situation and is doing his best to help someone who cannot be helped without any proper tools or assistance at all. He's not Mr. Rochester in Jane Eyre who's annoyed about his mentally ill wife and locks her in the attic and denies her existence. He actively tries to help Marina any way he knows how. He seeks advice from neighbors or health professionals, tries every approach and nothing is effective.

Just as Marina was trapped in a marriage with a man she didn't love with an illness she couldn't win against, Phillip was also trapped in a marriage with someone who couldn't communicate, who was a ghost of themselves and everything he does is ineffective.

In this day and age with the medicine and knowledge we have the awareness around mental illness is still sorely lacking, but it is a better understanding than the 19th Century.

All of this is to say both can be and are true. They are both victims of a series of tragic and unfortunate events and circumstances.

There is a reason there are support groups not only for those with depression but the caretakers of those with clinical depression and those who have lost loved ones to it. It is deeply traumatic to feel that you are the reason someone cannot get out of bed in the morning, that if you just tried harder they would be able to pull themselves out of it. If you have been in close to someone who is depressed clinically or otherwise, you know it takes a toll watching it. The longer you are witness to it the harder it is to stay 'logical' about the truth of what is happening. That it isn't personal, the individual isn't "not trying" because of self pity or laziness, they simply cannot control their thoughts or emotions.

If you are a person who encounters it upon occasion it is a bummer but you can shake it off. If you are living with someone suffering from it, it is mental and emotional torture, especially when you feel responsible and ARE responsible for the person's health and wellbeing. The feelings it engenders are dark and complicated. It leaves you twisting between bitterness that they won't try harder, shame that you didn't try harder or be better to help them and are blaming them for your incompetency and grief over the fact that they are slipping away and you cannot help. There is also a 50/50 shot between anger and numb resignation about the entire situation.

These are Phillip's actual feelings when it comes to Marina. Phillip does not see himself as a victim of her depression. He's not just 'pissed that he couldn't get laid by his sad wife'. He's someone who is trying to cope with the result of being handed a series of increasingly bad cards with no room or space or help to manage it all.

He has been second choice his whole life and by all appearances (to his mind) has failed to be the person he was meant to be. Namely, his brother George. George dies because he's serving his country while his baby brother gets to go to learn about plants. His father is abusive and dies because Phillip wasn't good enough to match George. Marina took her life because Phillip wasn't George.

He cannot separate his marriage from his grief over his brother that he never got to process, his feelings about watching his parent drop dead and the life he's been enduring since birth. It has been blow after blow by the time we meet him in the first chapter and it is probably the first time in over a decade that he has time to begin to process his life.

Only he can't because he has two children who are used to having their father around and don't understand why he locks himself away in his green house all day and cannot play with them.

Ok I think that's enough about Phillip, Part 2 will tackle him and Eloise in the book.

Feel free to leave your thoughts but I am not gonna tolerate attacks. If you have beef keep scrolling please.

@whatsaweekend here's the first part of what you inflicted on yourself LOL.

[springtimesdaughter]

Another PJO Timetravel AU - Nico Edition

Figured out a time travel AU for max character study between Percy and Nico. So I'll explain my thoughts below on the character study and then get to the time travel aspect.

So Percy and Nico, as I understand their characters (at least in the PJO series context, not later books), Percy sees a lot of his younger self in Nico or a similar aproximate. Younger Nico was introduced to Camp Half-Blood and the Greek world in a traumatizing way. Nico, in a similar fashion, lost his one family connection, not to perceive death like Percy, but Percy still felt like he failed to keep the two together, so to Percy, it is similar. To Nico, his sister has left him behind. So Percy, in a way, wants to preserve Nico's innocence in the tragedy of demigod life in any way he can. He wants to give this kid something he doesn't have anymore. Then the quest happens, and Percy is now (in his eyes and Nico's at least at this time) the reason the tragedy set in. Percy so despritely wants to help this kid but realizes that he must take on the highest burden and tragedy to do so and doesn't hesitate. Percy spends a whole year looking for him, and even when faced in person with the undeniable truth that Nico isn't the same and there isn't that childhood innocence left, Percy still wants to help, and it's almost a fools errand but Percy wants one kid, just one not to feel the tragedy. He wants to fix an error he believes is his fault.

But the thing is that Nico is also trying to save Percy all the time because when it comes down to it, even when angry and having extremely complicated feelings, Nico tries to help save Percy too. He goes out of his way to find a way to give Percy a better advantage in the war as well as a great number of other help.

Percy is trying to save Nico, and Nico is trying to save Percy. And they kept hurting each other and making mistakes.

I have a lot more thoughts, but I would want to make a separate post on it, so let's move to the timetravel.

-

Nico gets timetraveled back right after BoO. [Rick Nico can't be 14 in HoO because he was 12 in TLO. Rick, he's 13 at the end of HoO. Rick, he's 14 by the second ToA book. Rick, do you hear me. (Check this post for the age issue)] I digress. He's fourteen in this AU.

Nico wakes up in the hotel it's the spring before when TLT would take place, except it seems he has replaced his younger self. He's back in the Lotus casino, and he's aware he's in the Lotus Casino, so he sprints out of there as quick as he can. [Not even thinking about Bianca because for him she's been dead for a while]. He looks at a newspaper or something and realizes that he is in the past and comes to the realization that Bianca is alive. He leaves Bianca in the Lotus Casino because she is alive there, and safe there, and last time they talked, she told him to let her go. He's a bit resentful of that, but mainly, she will stay alive there. He soon after will come to the realization that the prophecy is still in effect at this time and that technically, he's the eldest of the Big three.

[I will operate this story on the idea that Nico knows broad strokes of what happened but doesn't have the full story and was not informed enough about parts of it.]

So Nico is in the past, he's fourteen, and Kronos has just tried to contact him through a demigod dream (he's on the west side of the States, Kronos could sense him or some general immortal BS)

Through a series of events of accidently running into a younger half-blood to a monster attack, he's now entering Camp Half-Blood. He doesn't want to be there, but the other halfblood won't be safe if Nico leaves the younger kid.

Also, Luke is alive. He will become a bigger problem in a bit.

Nico doesn't get claimed quite yet because 1. Hades never properly claimed him originally, and Nico doesn't want to be claimed yet.

Kickstart Nico had to bring Percy to camp, and before Percy leaves his mom said she would be fine. It's will not be fine. In the couple of days Percy is at camp, he gets shown around by Nico, who is trying to keep Luke away, Percy gets shown a newspaper clippings of his mom being reported missing, Nico gets claimed this time, and a quest gets issued.

Somehow, plot convenience brings Nico into Manhatten during spring break (he's doing a supply run or something), and unfortunately, he runs into Percy. Unfortunately, this attracts monsters.

Except now it's worse because Hades thinks Poseidon took the Helm, Poseidon knows Sally was taken as a bargaining chip, and Zeus sees two children that shouldn't exist being alive. It's more tense this time.

Nico is sent on the quest because he's older and more trained, plus the quest is going westward, and Nico might be able to pull some strings because camp still thinks it was his father who is causing the problem. Percy begs Nico to bring his mom back (because he thinks she might be dead).

Percy can't leave because 1. He's been there for only a few days. 2. He's being watched over by Chiron 3. Plot.

The quest gets completed, but Luke, who snuck out of Camp because he needs one of the big 3 children to switch sides, fails at getting Nico to switch sides, kills Sally to try and blame it on Nico or just make Percy distressed enough to side with Luke.

Nico now sees the mirror moments from both perspectives but not being able to track down Percy at all.

Nico, who doesn't tell Percy it but discovers Luke trying to tell Percy what happens overhears Percy saying Nico wouldn't fail and that Luke is wrong. Percy notices Nico and realizes that his mom is gone. [Perseptive Percy is canon, and he would read the guilty look.]. Luke tries to attack both of them, and while Nico is busy, Percy runs off.

[Percy, who in canon contemplated running off and joining the military because he didn't want to live with Gabe]

Modified Labyrinth/Sea of Monsters storyline happening soon after. Because Luke poisoned Thalia's tree on his way out of camp as a distraction to trying to find the fleece through the tunnels because there is no boat yet that they could take, and the tunnels have more uses than the boat would at the moment.

It's still late spring for the record.

Now, because Nico is 14, and the prophecy says 16, not only has the timeline become unpredictable, but it's also been pushed up.

Percy, who finds out about the fleece, is gunning for it under the assumption that it could bring his mom back. [His loyalty flaw going on overdrive]. Nico once again is being recruited for the quest because he might have an advantage in the underground, and he's the one who figures out the secret to navigating it.

Percy is ultimately the one who finds the fleece and is trying to rush back to where his mom's body would be, while Nico is trying to tell him that it won't work.

They all end up in a situation where Kronos has had a little bit of time under the fleece (and thus will come back a bit earlier), and Percy ends up having to hand the fleece over and gets separated from everyone by doing it.

[Because Percy has to suffer some more.]

The fleece gets brought back, and Thalia is deemed alive.

Titan's Curse storyline, because the war is even closer to happening now than ever.

[Bianca who recognized Nico as her brother, but now, as her older brother is less burdened by responsibility and, as such, doesn't give in to any promises on joining the Titan army.]

Hades releases Bianca from the Lotus Hotel for whatever his motivations may be. She has several big monsters after her, and so when Nico and Thalia show up to get her to safety, Bianca ends up being taken as bait for Artemis.

Nico freaking out, and all but demanding that he has to go on this quest because that is his sister. (He would have gone off on his own anyway, but he recognizes that he doesn't know how the quest exactly went last time and that he has changed the timeline enough as is to jot be able to predict anything.

One of the hunters dies in the desert still because this is a war, and not everyone will survive.

Nico is taking the burden of the Sky because 1. He knows Artemis is needed to take down Atlas and 2. It's the best bet of keeping his sister alive who has picked up a weapon to fight with.

It's the winter solstice meeting, and Hades is there this time (unlike in canon). Thalia is asked to take over the Hunters like in canon, and Bianca gets asked if she would like to join.

[Something about Nico getting to keep his close family connection while Percy lost his.]

She does still join them, and Nico is a bit angry about that, but 1. Thalia will be there and 2. He wouldn't be able to stop his sister even if he wanted to. He knows that.

It's also in this moment that he realizes he has become the prophecy child.

[Also, that was Bianca's choice, and it won't be taken from her.]

Because Percy didn't save Bessie, Bessie wasn't part of the storyline in the same way it was originally.

Percy is still out on his own, and no one has been able to find him yet.

Bianca, Thalia, and Nico end up running into a mini quest where they encounter Percy, who has just found Bessie and has been trying to keep Bessie safe but some rogue demigods and a Titan are after it.

Nico is the only one in this timeline who knows Perxy having to act as the bridge between everyone.

The quest is a success, and they end up getting to save Bessie and keep her hidden when Percy, for the first time, reaches out properly to his father.

But Nico knows that they need every major god to make an appearance in this fight in order to win. He doesn't have to worry about his father this time because Nico is the prophecy child, so both Hades and Demeter are in the fight as well.

So it's a couple of months later. A mix of Kronos actually getting to experience the Fleece for a bit and other plot situations means that the war is coming now. It's two years earlier than it would have been, and while that means that there are more people there, it also means that people are younger. Nico, who is now the leader, is left in a weird position of trust with camp that he didn't have before and having halfway predictable unpredictable knowledge on the situation.

But he needs Percy to convince Poseidon. [And oh, is this not another painful parallel because Percy still just wants his mom back]

Anyway, the Battle of Manhatten still takes place, and the day is still won. It goes slightly better with slightly fewer deaths, but it's still a hard fight.

Round of applause. Nico, who luckily for everyone was aware of what promise was exacted from Olympus originally, is able to make them promise a better one, and Underworld children are now seen as the biggest heroes in this fight.

----

Basic Timeline if needed to track for this AU (using year stamps for simplicity)

Late Winter/Early Spring 2006 - Nico gets sent back in time at age 14.

Late Spring - The Lightning Theif Quest.

Summer 2006 - Battle of the Labyrinth/Sea of Monsters Quest. Nico 'turns' 15 somewhere during this time.

Winter 2006 - The Titan's Curse quest.

Spring 2007 - Bessie Sidequest.

Summer 2007 - The Battle of Manhantten.

[clreria]

Ria is cool! Is she an oc or an existing character? Also what’s her lore? :)

Thank you so much for your kind words and interest! (I was extremely happy to receive your question though it took me a while to prepare the answer... sorry for that!! ;_; )

(I hope the quality of the image is acceptable for comfortable reading but just in case I'll copy the text in the very end of the post )

Ria is an original character inspired mostly by asian popular culture origins: games/anime/music (e.g., FGO, Honkai Impact 3rd, Madoka Magica, OkameP's songs) and world mythology/philosophy/history, as well as classical literature/music/paintings (e.g., characters like the Count of Monte Cristo and Irene Adler in particular) As for Marvel lore, I was hugely expired by Matt's story and Illyana Rasputina's story Overall, the most charming ideas I personally find in Ria are:

Healing through art that captures the beauty of the world around us.

A human's yearning to find warmth, a sense of home, and connection with others.

The duality within humans—their ability to embody kindness and tenderness while making harsh (and even cruel) decisions for a greater purpose.

________________________________________________________

The text from the image: REAL NAME: Angelina Mikhailovna Sokolova (birth name), Alleria Betskaya (current legal name) OCCUPATION: Senior ML Researcher at VECTOR Inc., RnD Department; VECTOR’S co-founder and CTO (classified) LEGAL STATUS: Deceased (Angelina), Finnish citizen (Alleria) OTHER ALIASES: Angel\Princess (coined by Matt Murdock), Ri PLACE OF BIRTH: Saint Petersburg, Russia MARITAL\RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single KNOWN RELATIVES: Maria Yuriyevna Sokolova (mother, deceased), Mikhail Alexandrovich Sokolov (father), Victoria Betskaya (aunt, deceased) GROUP AFFILIATION: VECTOR Inc., The Collegium (former) BASE OF OPERATIONS: Worldwide, the Primordial Realm (former)

HISTORY: Ria's childhood was blissfully ignorant of her family's true nature until she and her mother were kidnapped by a rival gang targeting her father, a notorious crime lord in Saint Petersburg. This event changed Ria’s life dramatically. Though the traumatic incident is mostly a blur, she vividly recalls her mother being shot and her last words: "Inherit my eyes." The next thing she remembers is her father's men arriving to find her standing amidst a chaotic bloodbath, with all the rival gang members dead around her. To ensure Ria’s safety and future, her father transferred the guardianship to Ria’s aunt, who ran an elite girls' boarding school. This institution, rooted in the Russian Empire and relocated to Finland post-October Revolution, trained individuals to influence high society from behind the scenes. A harsh upbringing with rigorous training and high expectations instilled in Ria an unwavering commitment to her principles, driven by the doctrine that the end justifies the means. This environment has also fostered a sense of perfectionism and a hidden feeling of inadequacy, well-covered by the perfect facade expected in high society. Ria's excellent education allowed her to successfully enroll in Oxford's School of International Relations, Diplomacy, and Law. Moving to the UK, she became one of the most diligent students while finally enjoying a normal life with friends and hobbies. However, after two years of studying, her aunt urgently called her back home.

Over these two years, Ria's aunt's mind deteriorated, leading to delusions. Mistaking Ria for her mother, Maria, she attacked her in a jealous rage, leaving Ria's body in a coma. Ria’s consciousness was transported to the Primordial Realm, where she survived against dangerous entities, developed new abilities, and joined the Collegium, a group fighting the Corruption that turns beings into monsters. There, she formed a deep bond with Haruko, a medic from a war-torn future. While they eventually found a way to return Ria to the human world and even founded a tech company “Vector”, tragedy struck when Haruko sacrificed herself to save Ria from a primordial entity consumed by Corruption. As the Collegium members began succumbing to Corruption, losing their humanity and being erased from existence, Ria discovered that the Judge, their leader, had orchestrated these betrayals. In the end, she executed the Judge and took his place, leading a centuries-long purge of the Primordial Realm. To prevent herself from falling to Corruption, she sealed herself within her own consciousness, using the isolation to recover and reflect on the devastating events, including Haruko's sacrifice. Upon returning to the human world after a 10000 mental years long exile, where only three months had passed, Ria moved to New York to reclaim her company and finish her friends' unfinished business, trying to retire from her heroic past. But her quiet life was disrupted by a subway mob raid, where Ria stepped in to help Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer, showing him a rare kindness he had never known.

HEIGHT: 160 CM WEIGHT: 47 KG EYES: VIOLET (WEARS GREEN LENSES) HAIR: DARK (DEEP MAGENTA) SKILLS\TALENTS: Ria has extensive knowledge in humanities and technical subjects. She also excels in fine arts (drawing, piano, and violin), and speaks multiple languages. Her strong analytical skills and inductive reasoning enhance her observation abilities, while genetic recombination boosts her cognitive capacities, including nervous system resilience and information processing speed. WEAPONS\EQUIPMENT: Despite her enhanced sight, which could rival Hawkeye's precision and Bullseye's deadliness, Ria is a civilian who does not wield any weapons. Due to a heart condition, she lacks endurance and physical strength, and her childhood trauma makes her uncomfortable with guns and sensitive to blood. Instead, she values information and knowledge as her greatest assets — her iPhone and MacBook are her essential tools and her greatest shield. FUN FACT: Ria has a deep appreciation for the arts, with a particular passion for Gesamtkunstwerk, or total art forms like theater. Unfortunately, her favorite ballet, "Swan Lake," which she saw in New York, deeply disappointed Ria due to Odile's overly flashy and inaccurate portrayal.

[silversiren1101]

1, 15, and 20 for the KC ask game. Only if you want to! -Yunessa

Hi Yunessa❤️ ~ Thanks for the asks!

[Asks are from this ask list]

Questions are all answered from Minovae's perspective

1. Do they think they're going to make it out alive?

Lmao absolutely not.

Well, I suppose it's complicated?

When she's an amnesiac in the beginning of the game, she's headstrong and determined to keep going and get through this nightmare, even with that latent feeling of dread (with no rhyme or reason why) she feels in moments of quiet.

When her memories come back shortly after the start of Act 3 thanks to the Aeon, her entire disposition changes. She pretty much becomes a dead woman walking, only surviving and pressing on because she knows she's the only one that can do this. To stop would be to damn so many others to the fiends, and so she lives only for their sake. She does not believe for a second she will actually survive to the end, though.

Everything changes in Act 5 of course, after her soul shatters and is delicately put back together, letting her begin to heal and re-person herself. All of her emotional and psychological callouses are torn off and she can no longer hide or push on keeping it all buried. She's forced to accept that she is loved and cared for, and so she is forced to fight not just to end this war, but for her life.

15. Which companion do they hate/really don't like?

Minovae doesn't hate any of the companions by the end of the game. She started off hating Daeran and Camellia because of how they flaunt their nobility and use it to get their way by harming others. By the end though, Daeran is one of her best friends and Camellia is... a tragedy. In game, Camellia is killed in her final quest, but in Mino's canon she has her committed and given the chance to be helped.

It doesn't go well. It haunts her for a long, long time.

Otherwise, Nenio is probably the companion she has the most tenuous 'friendship' with. Mino tends to side with Regill's sentiment (though not nearly as extreme) with regards to her: her curiosity and lack of principles could be catastrophic for society and countless innocents.

20. Which event of the crusade traumatized them?

All of it.

She came pre-traumatized, but it's more like a marinade before being thrown onto the pan.

If I had to pick any singular one, it would be Galfrey's 'betrayal.' Minovae idolized and respected her so very much. The sudden banishment to the Abyss after working tirelessly, after all the suffering and pain she'd endured to that point, all of the countless impossible victories... it's the first of the 'final' wedges driven into her soul that leads to its eventual shattering.

[doctor-badadvice]

You know, I often make fun of Bishop, as one does. I call him a man of strong fashion opinions, a nerd and a wretched little gremlin. It’s all part of the process and it’s necessary when you end up liking an idiot of his caliber.

I’ve talked about his personality before. Yes, it’s very black and white (and red) under many aspects. I made a whole post about how that affects his outfits throughout the show.

Though when it comes to relationships, it isn't all so straightforward. Bishop has obviously invested all his charisma points in intimidation. This definitely helps him work as a villain, but his short temper and ingrained need to feel in control of the situation often get in the way of his objective.

Having to deal with people isn’t easy for him. Almost impossible, even. He can spit some raw lines but it also took some real effort to stop himself from strangling the president, which may not be the best course of action, you know?

The only situations in which we see him succeed to some extent are whatever concerns his organization since there is standardization. Times change and so do people. Keeping up with new costumes over the decades is time consuming but military practices? Those rarely change.

Bishop is obviously a good leader. His men execute his orders without questioning and with the highest professionalism, despite the occasional threat of being subjected to unspeakable experiments in case of failure. He also historically enjoyed the respect of at least one president, where again he just has to act like a good agent to get what he wants. Yes, the fake invasion counts in this regard since it proved to the president just what a good investment EPF was.

He even keeps Baxter in line for the most part since they have a very clear deal they both surprisingly stick to (though Baxter has a major hand in this since he knows what’s the amount of snark he can afford on the workplace).

Anything else is a disaster. Romance would be a tragedy from the very first moment. Friendship? We know how that went. Becoming a good person?

Yes, about that.

Bishop’s presidential outfit is extremely accurate. He’s not the man he once was. He has changed his methods and he sees aliens as people he can negotiate with and manipulate when fit. His work has fundamentally changed, as in he at least tries to create something which not only Earth will benefit from.

But he also has a whole room dedicated to spying on everyone through satellites and he personally leads the rescue mission at the Moonbase. The agent never really left, he just comes out whenever Earth is directly threatened.

Do I think that Bishop is still evil in FF then? Not quite.

Having done my fair share of writing for this nerd, I'd say it's somewhere in the middle. Specifically it's a mix of an opportunistic person seeing the chance for a different approach and most importantly, accepting that's actually possible, and a character who was born in part as a critique to real life events that were happening at the time of the show.

At the time of FF, the bigger picture kind of guy has started down a path of good but he still only relatively cares about other people. The public is obviously up there on the list since he has a public image to curate now. Aliens are more or less people. Turtles and random rich teenagers can pick fights with evil (very stupid) shapeshifting aliens if they can make themselves useful. Baxter deserves a second chance despite the little dissection prank he tried to pull.

Still, I can't say it's all Bishop's fault because when you think about it, his two most formative life experiences were both very traumatic events. The alien abducting him right after he got wounded on the battlefield set him off on a path of paranoia and blind revenge. The lab experiment that almost killed both him and Baxter and a symbolic act of kindness diverted him on a more open-minded path, even if the paranoia is still very much there.

Add that Bishop spent like 65% of his life under the military and it's no wonder even when he's genuinely making an effort, he still comes off as manipulative.

Head of State specifically deserves a whole analysis of its own that I might just do at some point because it's a fun episode. But in brief, I think Bishop, in his heavily skewed perception, genuinely considers Baxter as an old friend. He feels remorse for leaving him to die and he actually wants to make up for it.

But again, agent and president are still the same person, even if they may be one clone away from each other. Bishop both resents Baxter for chasing him and the dissection thing (you bet that brought a lot of trauma back. I wouldn't be surprised if people were left wondering what could have possibly prompted the president to take a short period of rest for the first time since ever), and cherishes that the scientist is still alive.

He's just not the best at showing it. But what can you do. Even the most peaceful person will be a bit messed up after living for so long. Bishop has been through really traumatic stuff and definitely wasn't encouraged to be anything but an efficient sadistic bastard for a good while. Even when relearning how to behave around people, he couldn't exactly explain what he has been through so at best, Bishop had to sit on his own and design new procedures like “smile, bring a gift, write a nice speech about friendship and respect”, or “introduce a problem and make it so the one in front of you will suggest the solution you want while thinking they came up with it to ensure they will care”. Or even, “traumatized people need reassurance and physical comfort. I guess I'll have to pet the talking brain and offer him a job”.

If anything, 2105 might be a bit too early. Bishop is still consolidating the PGA, there's no way to get him to work on himself some more.

Perhaps, in a better timeline, FF would have received a second season with a real seasonal arc all about redemption. There's a certain other set of clones who could have benefited from it as well.

[jedivoodoochile]

Martha Wayne’s Joker - In a handful of Elseworlds publications and Batman comics, the reader has experienced if that fateful night in Crime Alley was reversed, if Thomas and Martha Wayne witness the death of their young son, Bruce, and how life in the Wayne Family and Gotham City would exist. Observing a handful of Martha’s presence in modern Batman stories, Bruce Wayne is traumatized by his mother and father's death, creating a vigilante persona to avenge this horrific crime, the Batman. Yet as years passed, Martha has been the sensible voice Bruce needs to continue on his crusade, discovering this was his chosen fate.

In 2011, Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert published the core crossover event "Flashpoint", where, in an effort to save his mother's life from the Reverse Flash, Barry Allen aka The Flash discovers he has changed reality and the life of his allies, which was adapted into 2013's DC animated film "Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox" and inspiration for Andy Muschietti’s live action film “The Flash” (2023). Brian Azzarello expands the Dark Knight's new fate in the 3 issue tie in arc "Flashpoint: Batman - Knight of Vengeance", illustrated by Dave Johnson, Eduardo Risso, Patricia Mulvihill, and Clem Robins. In this timeline, Joe Chill kills Bruce Wayne in front of his parents. His mother, Martha, becomes insane due to witnessing this tragedy, creates a bloody smile by cutting open her cheeks and runs the streets of Gotham as "the Joker". Her husband and Bruce's father, Thomas Wayne, wants vengeance for his son's death and becomes the lethal vigilante Batman.

Within this tie-in, Martha Wayne's Joker kills both Commissioner Gordon and his daughter, ending with Thomas Wayne's Batman chasing her back to Wayne Manor. Trying to calm her, Thomas informs Martha of his encounter with this timeline's Barry Allen, telling her there is a time where Bruce lives a life, yet his life is of a shadowy figure in the night. Knowing her son, in life and death, will suffer, Martha is driven mad and jumps off of a cliff off of the manor grounds. As Bruce Wayne's extreme response to the death of his parents was to be the Dark Knight, Martha's extreme grief brought a fate even worse than her original death. No matter which version we view of Martha Wayne, her life and death have made a large impact on Batman's 84 years in DC. #MothersDay 🦇💐📚

[azathothweirdo]

Izumo and Tsukumo 💔 Izumo hugging a figment of her and telling herself she must protect her always makes me so sad. Like, right as she is going to be made into a lab rat.

That arc made me so sad, especially how there was tragedy for Izumo for so long and at the end, it was made somewhat... trivial... at least, by the involvement of the Illuminati and Mephisto.

The laboratory at Inari was eventually abandoned, but so many victims were made from its actions. Years of work to take care of, in terms of land-water pollution and drug-affected people. I think it was explicitly mentioned that this laboratory was always meant to be temporary?

Same with Izumo's sister being under protection after being adopted and Mephisto withholding information; she was always safe, and Izumo was martyring herself for nothing (I think she assumed her mother was dead, because she seemed extremely shocked to see her).

I wonder if Izumo ever plans to return to Inari and if she will ever reunite with Tsukumo? Even though Inari is where she's from, she's had so many traumatic events there. Recently, and also from long ago. With Tsukumo, I hope she will reunite with her, even though she said something like she has no family waiting for her, so she can die fighting against Satan and his allies.

It's funny you bring up her dream because I was just re-reading this last night lol. But I personally don't think she thought her mother was dead, I think she was shocked at what her physical state was in. She didn't recognize her until she asked her to help her because she deteriorated so much. Which says a lot about how much physical abuse Tamamo went through at the hands of Gedouin's experiments. She didn't expect her to be that bad that fast considering things.

I don't think Izumo's going to return to her home town considering things. There's nothing left for her there. Her mother has passed on, her sister is living with different people under a different name. The whole point of her family existing is now gone, so there's nothing there. Add in the locals treated her like she was a freak, so there's really no point to go back. That's not even getting into if there's going to be a town left after what the Illuminati did to the place.

As for reuniting with Tsukumo, I'm honestly not to sure. I'd like to think they'll re-meet. As she gets older I'm pretty sure Tsukumo will have questions about where she came from considering she looks nothing like her adoptive parents. If she wants to meet Izumo is more up to her I imagine. She's the type to back off and let her sister have a happy life without having the weight of her experiences to hold her back.

[cafeleningrad]

Okay, one last thing, then I will shut-up. (Says woman who voluntarily joins Lang-movie-remaster-theater-events, and dragged friends in the 100th anniversary exhibit of Nosferatu (1922).)

So, the reason why interpretations trying to follow a British literary tradition, especially considering the British literary vampire* falls extremely flat to me is the following: The 2024 movie is a remake of a 1920s German horror movie who's plot was transformed in logic and theme in order to talk about many fears which don't lie in the typical domestic and romantic horror of anglo British litterature. That's to say, every change Henrik Galeen, the Jewish script author, made from Dracula were partly out of necessity to not get sued for copyright because producers Albin Grau and Enrico Dieckmann couldn't afford the copyrights - partly the alteration later served the themes of facing the horror of social collapse. 1838 was chosen as fictional setting time as it was a year of sickness outbreak. The Biedermeier setting and it's idealisation of domesticity and retreat in the domestic sphere got actively subverted for the purpose so showcase how no imagined escape was ever safe from the forces of the world barging in.

Fundamentally the horror in the 1922 version was in representing the shock towards the Willhelminian social structures having collapsed after the first World War, although before the war the belief in the certainty of Modernity being able to triumph only forward, life would be orderly was strong. All social promises, all certainty in daily life exaporated. Then the shock of having survived a pandemic just a year prior to filming. The movie recreates heightened imagery of the parade of coffins carried in countless numbers the creative team had witnesses just recently. Then everyone living in highly troubled times in which inflation was skyrocketing beyond the stratosphere, and just another armed conflict with the French was barely kept out of proportion. Acute awareness how fragile any social stability is, how easily disorder can make the once glorious "modernity" collapse all at once reigns all over the movie. In 1922 the human characters represent various ways in which people react to such traumatic events happening. The masses, the people aren’t necessarily seen with sympathy, as angry mobs roam around trying to slaughter a scapegoat. Nosferatu, harbinger of chaos and force of nature in form of unstoppable illness encapsulates all of these fears. And what a single monster can’t contain in body, is then expressed in it’s effect. The men try to act heroically but how heroic can one be in trying to fight a pandemic? So their attempts at fighting the monster is futile. Even Ellen’s self-sacrifice remains a tragedy in the end. With horror movie in which the horror embodies so many social-structural fears, active societal collapse, trying to survive, and actual fear of a pandemic, we have a monster which comes as dark force from outside.

This is what the 1922 expresses and hence why, in spite of similar plot beats Nosferatu and Dracula aren't interchangeable as monster. They encapsulate different fears from different cultures at different times. Robert Eggers remade Nosferatu, not Dracula. Hence why he used the Nosferatu title. Yeah, there is something to be said, how Eggers erased the Biedermeier-Romanticism (NOT Georgian/Viktorian age Romanticism) theme Orlock once embodied, reducing the external force threat orlock represents and relocates him as well as personal threat.

But my point remains: The 2024 movie remakes a movie who's story structure is primarily about survival of social collapse, pandemic, the panic of what people do in face of traumatic events. And while not the same story, the events and Orlock's monsterhood remained intact, how people react at the shattering of the normalcy they once trusted in. Ellen in the 2024 never lived in this normalcy. The British literary lense of intimate gothic horror is hard to adjust to that landscape.

*I mean homosexual repression was among the the figure of Dracula's too. But Stoker used a Central/Eastern European revenant monster, remodeled it in order to carry other then contemporary fears like nobility decaying in modernity, wasting sicknesses (this one is in congruence with the folkloric monster), and inner-European xenophobia presenting Britain as enlightened in contrast to a fabricated continental Europe where unenlightened practices and horrors still roamed. Dracula's brides are supposed to present as immoral in contrast to the British women like Mina or Lucy (pre-transformation). Dracula's appearence with stark body hair is supposed to contrast unfavorably to the opposing British gentlemen (and one Texan). Dracula is a pretty xenophobic monster variation, weird how these themes aren't what many gothic lit fans take as "traditional Vampire" canon. I mean, at least Polidori and LeFanu made their vampires British monsters.

reading eloquent, well-thought analysis of Nosferatu 2024 but grinding my teeth every time someone calls the cast "Victorian". They're Biedermeier characters. And that fine distinction, connected to certain lack of interest of the German background informing the fictional setting as well as the main inspiration form the 1922 leads to a lot of readings of the plot from the frame that would've been appropriate for a British story. Not a Weimar German post WWI, post-pandemic movie... which Eggers is remarking first and foremost. (The movie was intentionally set in 1838 because it was a sickness year...)

There's a reason Noseratu and Dracula aren't used as interachangeable names. The 1922 movie was distinct enough in themes and identity that one gains more by evaluating the differences to Stoker's novel than what they've in common. Which is only one source for interpretation along with the time, circumstances, and thoughts of the creative team.