#and no i did not miSuNdErStAnD tHe sToRy

[daisybell-on-a-carousel]

Being someone who read Under The Red Hood and came out with the firm belief that, for Jason, it's not about killing Joker, it's about Jason wanting proof Batman would choose him over the Joker (bc shelia chose the joker). Makes seeing any other media where it's all about just wanting the Joker dead is a teeny bit frustrating. to be honest

Jason could've killed the Joker himself, really, really easily. Jason kidnaps the Joker before the confrontation. I can't open my comic for a reference right now, but it felt like he had the Joker for quite a bit before the confrontation. He had him. He beat him up with a crowbar. He had every single opportunity to kill the Joker himself, but he didn't because that wasn't his goal. Make no mistake, he did plan for the Joker to be dead by the end of it, but do you see what im trying to say here

Edit: If I knew this post was gonna get 1000+ notes I would've tried to word it better or something, this was a rant I made on the way to the grocery store 😭

It's not about making Batman kill either. When Batman says he won't kill, Jason adjusts and goes, 'Let ME kill the Joker or kill me to stop me' instead. The test is all about Batman choosing him. The whole final confrontation is Jason's first death again. The parent, The Joker, and the explosives. It even ends with Jason unable to move as a bomb goes off right next to him again because the parent didn't choose Jason. And instead tried finding an option that'd benefit them and (consequencely) letting the Joker walk, again, lol, lmao <-in agony

[ciderjacks]

despite Laios low self esteem making him think that if he’d been eaten, Chilchuck and Marcille wouldn’t have helped Falin,

theres a small part of me that thinks the reason Chilchuck stayed with the party and went back in the dungeon in the first place was because he didn’t want to leave Laios alone. That Laios was moreso the reason he stayed.

[bullseyelover]

i’ve been thinking about dex’s story in born again.

how, in universe, the world saw dex after the events of josies, and after his trial. how quick everyone was to believe he just snapped and went on a revenge fueled rampage at josies. and the sad thing is, that makes sense in the worst possible way. because the world is always going to be more comfortable writing someone like dex off as just another mentally ill guy who lost control. that’s the story people are used to. it’s easier, simpler, and it doesn’t require any deep thought or empathy. it doesn’t ask them to look at who failed him, who used him, who broke him down. it doesn’t ask them to understand the difference between someone being dangerous and someone being made into a weapon. and most people just don’t care enough to look closer.

and what gets me is how many people refuse to hold both truths about dex at the same time. that he’s a victim and a perpetrator. that he did horrific things and was still deeply, painfully used. i hate how often people online will reduce it to “oh you just like him because he’s hot” when you try to talk about him with nuance. like no. dex is complex. he’s the wound and the knife. he is someone who’s suffered, been manipulated, abandoned, used like a tool, but that doesn’t erase what he’s done. it doesn’t mean people weren’t hurt, or that his violence didn’t matter. you can see his pain and still hold him accountable. you can understand where it came from and still be horrified by the outcome. none of that is contradictory. it’s just real. he’s a character full of contradictions, and that’s part of what makes him so compelling. reducing him to one thing, victim, villain, psycho, it just flattens him into a version of himself that isn’t true.

and even in the show, it’s like no one really wants to see the whole truth of who dex is. it’s easier for them to believe “crazy guy goes violent” than to admit that someone vulnerable was groomed and turned into a weapon by someone with more power. for example in episode 8 where matt slams dex’s head into the table, and when the guard walks in, matt lies and says dex did it to himself. and the guard doesn’t even hesitate to believe it. he just immediately goes, “you crazy asshole.” he doesn’t even question it. because that’s already the version of dex they’ve decided is true. they don’t need proof, they don’t need context. they hear “he hurt himself” and go “of course he did.” and that’s what’s so brutal about it. even matt bought into that narrative at first. even though he knew dex had worked for fisk after the events of season three. and he listened to dex’s tapes. he believed that dex was a man who woke up one day on impulse and decided to kill foggy eight years after the events of season three. because he believed dex to be a violent and disturbed psychopath. because that’s the story society already believes. many people believe that mentally ill people are inherently dangerous. quiet violence is scarier than loud chaos. so people don’t ask questions. they just assume the worst. so dex being quiet and restrained in his rage in the trial scene just confirmed what they already thought about him. and that kind of widespread erasure makes dex’s story even more tragic. not just what happened to him, but how no one really sees it. not fully.

and that invisibility messes with him too. dex already struggles with identity. he barely knows who he is when no one’s giving him a script to follow. so when the whole world reduces him to nothing but a monster, a rampage shooter, it probably confirms the worst things he already fears about himself. even if he knows deep down it’s not the whole truth, it gets in his head. like maybe they’re right. maybe he really is just broken and dangerous and beyond saving. that he is an animal and nothing more. and that’s what hurts him. because he tried. he tried to be good. he tried to follow the rules. for so many years because he genuinely wanted to be a better version of himself. he tried to be useful, to matter, to be someone. and in the end, none of it mattered. no one remembers that he tried. they only see the end result. they only see the damage.

and that weight, the failure, the guilt, the grief of never being seen clearly, that’s something he has to carry alone. it’s what makes his story so heavy to sit with. and none of this is to say that dex isn’t still responsible for what he’s done. evidently he knew what he was doing. even if he was manipulated into it. he made choices, and those choices hurt people. he’s not innocent. he’s not good. he’s a villain. that’s who he is, that’s who he’s becoming, and he’s also someone with borderline personality disorder. someone who was manipulated, used, pushed to the edge, and weaponized. those things can all exist at once. he’s not either a tragic victim or an evil monster. he’s both. and when people act like empathizing with him or understanding where he came from is the same as excusing what he did, it’s just dishonest. like no one’s out here saying ��my poor baby” and pretending he didn’t kill people. it’s just acknowledging that there’s more to him than what most are willing to see. that doesn’t absolve him. it just complicates him. and if that makes people uncomfortable, maybe they should ask why it’s so much easier to believe someone like dex is just a psycho killer than to accept that he’s human. flawed, dangerous, and human.

if people are saying that about comic bullseye, then yeah, it makes sense. that version of him is literally written to be an unstable psychopath who kills people for fun. he’s meant to be scary and empty and cruel, and that’s it. that’s what makes his character so fun to read. the needless violence, the grin on his face while he commits it. but dex isn’t only that. dex is bullseye, but he’s a version with so much more nuance and humanity. he is capable of everything that comic bullseye is capable of. but he has more contradictions, more depth. he’s not just evil for the sake of it. he’s broken and angry and used and spiraling, and all of that is still his responsibility, but it’s layered. he’s not just a killer. he’s a person. comic bullseye is the foundation, but dex was built on top of that. same character, same legacy, just finally given complexity. he has all the traits of his comic self, but there’s pain behind it now. there’s grief, there’s loneliness, there’s a desperate want to be seen and loved. he’s bullseye in every way, but now he’s also human and real.

[simcardiac-arrested]

i’ve been browsing the watcher tag, reading different opinions—both criticisms and defenses of the game. and this is my conclusion of the last few days:

some of you act Very Bizarre about people who dare criticize the thing you like. i think pointing out the broken storytelling of watcher and its other flaws, gameplay or lore related, doesn’t actually mean that you missed the point of the base game or that you never actually liked it and hurr durr, you must be a fakeass downpour fan who only cares about linear storytelling with characters you can help.

some of you are extremely biased against not even people who exclusively only enjoy downpour, but people who enjoy both base game and downpour. some of you are treating these people unfairly because (checks hand) uhh, they don’t enjoy the thing the way you enjoy it so they must’ve been fake fans all along and are probably just here for downpour! clearly you guys don’t even like rain world if you don’t think watcher is like the second coming of jesus christ!

does this sound familiar? if you were here in 2023, it does. if you have been a fan of rain world for a while, and you were here for the release of downpour and witnessed the fandom growing in real time, then boy does this attitude sound familiar. today’s “if you didn’t enjoy watcher it’s because you’re a fake fan who’s only here for downpour” is yesterday’s “if you got into the game through downpour and didn’t enjoy base game then you’re a fake fan”

to understate it—this attitude is fucking exhausting, especially coming from people who are grown ass adults and should be able to handle criticism of their favorite things without instantly jumping to “you guys like this thing in a surface-level, unenlightened way, while i, an intj, like this thing in the proper way that the writers intended”. it’s fucking exhausting and i cannot believe we are still doing this shit 2 years later, with a new dlc, and just switching the word order.

i really want the rain world fandom to be a place where many different opinions coexist, a place of discussion and constructive arguments. i want to be able to talk about the elements watcher succeeded in, and the many elements it could’ve done better—without people implying that one of my favorite games, one of the most important games in my life, actually means nothing to me and i missed the point of it. i want this fandom to be a place where i can listen to differing opinions, where people can try to prove me wrong and i can try to prove them wrong in a way that gives me—or them—a new light to see The Thing in. because that is what criticism is about—letting people change your vision of the thing you’re criticizing, letting them give you new things to consider, and vice versa. it’s about listening to each other, and respecting each other.

disappointingly, this is not what the rain world fandom is, and maybe never will be—just by nature of how much each story contrasts with each other (no, i do not think that watcher captures the base game perfectly, i think it’s pretty damn removed from base game the same way downpour is, but i digress), but, still. what i’m seeing is just…upsetting. i am not seeing respect. i’m not seeing any constructive discussion. i’m seeing people invent yet another echo chamber where They’re the True Fans and Everyone Else just doesn’t get it. i’m seeing people once again dividing themselves into factions of basegame vs downpour vs watcher vs basegame & watcher vs downpour again (because there’s never enough treating downpour like it is some kind of black sheep of the family). i’m seeing people literally say that if you want the watcher to be 0.2% clearer or 0.2% more accommodating, the game is not for you. and much, much more that i won’t list here, because you can literally see it for yourself if you just go in the tag.

all of it feels very dissonant in relation to the game—the game where you have to think, to consider different perspectives and interpretations to fully piece the story together, and even then you might not get all of it…it seems like the fans refuse to do just that. to me, at least.

i’m sorry if you saw yourself in this post and my words hurt or offended you—this was not my intention. i am not trying to go after anyone, call anyone out, or make anyone think like i have a personal vendetta against them because they have a different opinion. i tend to use hyperbole and strong language, so i understand if people misinterpret that, but the main point of this post was to just bring light to the issue and, i don’t know…feel less insane? feel less like i’m living in a separate reality, because most people i’m seeing seem to think this is just normal behavior that should be supported?

and, well, to let my emotions out. because as much as i am angry, annoyed and tired of this, i am also just profoundly sad that we’ve managed to cultivate such an environment that is antithetical to everything the game was trying to say. i am sad, because i am itching to share all of my thoughts and hear others’ thoughts, i am itching to understand what people take away from this dlc and how it differs from my experience. i am itching to just…post, to just talk about it. to put my own thoughts on my own blog.

i am sad, because i don’t feel like these thoughts are welcome.

so, yeah. this post turned out pretty emotional and kind of vague, so here’s a pretty emotional and kind of vague conclusion to it:

i did not enjoy the watcher as much as i wish i did, as much as i hoped i would. and it is not because i’ve actually been misunderstanding the game all along and never truly liked it for what it is, it’s not because i’ve constructed some personal version of rain world in my head that i expected the watcher to 100% adhere to.

i really wanted to enjoy it. i wanted to like it as much as everyone else did, wanted to be blown away by what it meant for the story and the characters and the worldbuilding. i wanted to look at it and see what everyone else sees in it.

but the reality of the situation is this: i did not enjoy the watcher as much as i wish i did, precisely because of how much i love rain world.

and that is not a mutually exclusive statement.

[muchmossymess]

Like they just did that and moved on

[inksandpensblog]

Still fascinated by how much hate Mitsi gets for the whole "dead fem-coded loved one backstory" thing and all the hangups surrounding that when Purple's mom is arguably a much more egregious instance of the thing everyone is upset about Mitsi for but she ultimately got a pass because...idk, she was The First?

[bunnygibson]

the way her smile drops lmaooo

[francesderwent]

it’s crazy how for years I took for granted that my every romantic partner would be ambivalent. I had so romanticized The ReturnTM as a moment at the end of a love story, had so internalized the story beats of rom com conflict, that I assumed every romance would have a breakup in it somewhere. every “yes I want you” would be intensified by being a change of mind after a previously issued “no I don’t”. the possibility never occurred to me that someone could love me and choose me and never stop or pause or reconsider.

[tbartss]

wait wait wait wait wait. GYATSO is the one telling Aang that he's the Avatar?? GYATSO?? Gyatso who pleaded with the airbending elders to let Aang live in ignorance until he was 16 like normal?? Gyatso begging to let Aang have his childhood fully realised? GYATSO WHO FOUGHT TO KEEP AANG BY HIS SIDE TO ENSURE THAT HE HAD FUN AND COULD STILL BE A KID?? THAT GYATSO??? what were they THINKING

[thebirchtrees]

okay i'm still pissed off and barely able to put it into words but anyways.

i'm wondering. what part of this made this ostark's favourite episode of the season huh. what part of this absolute shitshow made him go "yeah that one. if anyone asks, i'm gonna tell them that's my favourite one."

[the-voldsoy]

Listened to the Ethics Town finale yesterday and oh my god!! Artemis!! Everyone becomes mayor because they think they can do better, but they never can, because it's not the person in charge that's the problem, it's the system itself!! It's a violent cycle, what's seen as old and outdated and wrong is pushed out and replaced by what is seen as new and positive and right!!! But without a drastic change to the fundamentals of the system, nothing can change in any way that matters!!!! It's an ouroboros of politics and morality and ethics!!!!! You've got to bite off your own tail to make things better!!!!!! Oh my god they can't hear me, they're all just characters in a story and they know it!!!!!!

[javierduffy]

kieran and javier finding moments or even seconds of domestic bliss in canon pls

my friend i have scoured, deep sea dived, deep cleaned, poker all-inned and i have never once in my rdr2 career ever been able to find a positive interaction between them in canon. i didn’t think they even had ANY for the longest time until someone found one and its literally javier threatening kieran … which i would personally not categorize as “domestic bliss”. i think our best bet for canon content is crossing our fingers and praying that the ai for them in camp has them sit next to each other momentarily

[lilacerull0]

i haven't even seen the episode yet, but learning about the fact that they didn't include such an essential aspect of the story is making me feel so irrationally sad

[alchemiclee]

I used to always hide what I like and dislike. never share my opinions. try to align myself with other people to make them happy. try to like what they like or pretend to. but I decided to stop doing that at some point because it was exhausting. it did work for a while. it made people happy and like me more for s short time. but never lasted. especially since I can't keel.up the charade forever. so was kind of pointless in the end....

but then sometimes i remember why I did it. so many times that I don't do it it leads to bad interactions that really affect me negatively. sometimes when I state my opinion or likes/dislikes and it contrasts with someone else, it makes them lash out at me????? they act like i'm trying to personally attack them??? even if i'm not saying it directly to them or it has nothing to do with them?? they get so offended or upset and start lecturing me or getting really angry in my replies or dms. and i'm internally like. can you shut up and leave me alone lmao. but of course I hate conflict and stuff so I go back into "pleasing" mode and try to "explain" and find an explanation that calms them the fuck down because I don't want to deal with their offended asses. they cant accept that I have my own options and preferences and it isnt meant to offend them. and sometimes they'll even try to twist my words to mean something bad in general so they can justify their offense and it makes no sense to me. ugh. leave me alone 😭

[ourlordapollo]

I have like mental spellcheck but it's just a mean SJW from 2015 Tumblr who helpfully tells me whenever anything I've ever said thought or reblogged could possibly in any way be construed as "problematic"

[glitchfang]

might look into joining a book club…. need more incentive to read and also i wanna chat about the stuff i read