#and resorts to control

[anyataylorjoys]

POOR THINGS (2023) dir. Yorgos Lanthimos

[honeysticksz]

Henry Jekyll and Victor Frankenstein are either hardcore rivals that hate each others guts and always claim their science is better than the others. OR. Henry can see this 20-something year old with issues and take him under his wing immediately.

[starcurtain]

Hey! I apologize if this question has been asked before since it seems like a pretty obvious one, but where do you think the idea of Aventurine being a sex slave came from? Other than the obvious factor of it being something fun for the fandom to mess around with, I mean.

It's something I kind of took for granted as being true before playing his quest, but after finishing it I realized there wasn't really any indication. The only thing I can really think of is his master's comments about him having a good body. Is there anything in his behavior you can think of that would lead to this conclusion if it wasn't a popular fan interpretation already/kind of just an easy conclusion to reach with a slave character?

(also kind of related but what do you think of the idea that he sleeps around/with his clients to make deals? he's obviously willing to sexualize himself with the boob window, but that doesn't necessarily mean he goes further.)

As far as I can tell, the idea that Aventurine was involved in sexual slavery comes from three (maybe four) places:

First, the comment from the master about Aventurine's appearance. People were holding this comment up as refutable proof that Aventurine was used in sexual slavery on top of being tossed into the Hunger Games; however, the response from other players on this interpretation, especially the Chinese side of the fandom, was very mixed, with a lot of people pointing out that the context in the game probably meant the slave master was talking about Aventurine's ability to attract attention from fans watching the literal Sigonian Hunger Games, rather than having a direct sexual-slavery connotation.

Second, the comment from Sparkle about stripping naked and getting on his knees for Sunday. This one has way more implication in English than I think it might for an Eastern audience, actually. In English, this pretty much sounds like Sparkle saying Aventurine trades sexual favors for success in his gambles. However, I suspect the original intention in Chinese was more about humiliation. Western audiences don't have as much history with honor-based prostration, i.e. accepting corporal humiliation as a form of reconciliation that Eastern audiences might be more familiar with. And in any case, Sparkle is Sparkle. She probably just went for the lowest blow she could think of here.

Third, the general assumption that if Sigonian slaves were being chained, branded, beaten, sent to death matches, etc., it seems logical that they would also be taken advantage of in other ways. I honestly think this is probably the fairest take--many, many real slaves around the world faced (and still face!) sexual abuse, so if slaves from Sigonia were treated so poorly you could make them fight to the death for entertainment, it stands to reason they were probably also not safe from other forms of assault. We also have no idea what happened to Kakavasha in any of the years between his being a tiny child fleeing the massacre and then being purchased as a slave as a late-teens-early-twenties person. That's a very long time for a child to have to survive on their own on an extremely hostile planet and not face risks of all kinds or end up needing to do unspeakable things to survive. So I think this is at least not that far-fetched, although it's important to say there's nothing in the game that directly confirms this.

And fourth: I read a tweet semi-recently that stated that one of the Chinese (or maybe it was Japanese) names for a quest Aventurine was involved in was actually a reference to a book about a teenage sexual assault survivor. However, when I tried to verify this myself, I couldn't find any quest Aventurine was in that was based on a book about sexual assault in either English, Chinese, or Japanese. It's possible I just missed something, but I'm taking this one with a bit of a grain of salt currently, since I can't confirm it personally.

Regarding your other question, about whether I think Aventurine sleeps around to make deals...

I definitely think he does not, for one major reason.

First, I will admit that Aventurine is definitely willing to use his appearance to his advantage. This is pretty obvious. He wears incredibly flashy clothes, baths himself in cologne, overloads on glittering golden jewels, and absolutely calls attention to his appearance when working with clients.

We see him actively doing this in his Moment Among the Stars video, where he is clearly using his looks as an equal tool (to his wealth), to daze his target.

It's not an accident that he says things like "Use me as you wish," with all the explicit connotations preserved. The implication is there. However, unless he was absolutely backed into a corner, I think that implication is all it will ever be.

The reason I think this is that the devs go out of their way to give Aventurine three fairly noticeable physical behaviors in his in-game scenes:

For one, he has some of the most closed off body language of any character in the game.

Aventurine's default conversation pose is arms crossed directly and tightly in front of himself. This is like "Defensive Body Language 101." By crossing your arms, you put a symbolic barrier between yourself and the person you're speaking to, and also ensure that your hands are up and available in case you actually need to physically defend yourself.

Virtually all of Aventurine's conversations take place from this stance, no matter who he is speaking to (from the Trailblazer all the way to Topaz). He deliberately closes his pose off and tightens up his silhouette, which just sends a glaring "Don't touch me" message.

This closing off is also blatantly apparent when you compare it to the deliberately open poses he strikes while trying to make himself seem accessible to others (like tempting clients) or seem powerful (to intimidate):

Complementing this habit of closing himself off is a second noticeable aspect of his body language: He frequently avoids eye contact to the point that he even holds conversations while entirely facing away from the person he's speaking to.

I might be a bit lenient and say maybe he's doing this to on purpose to be mysterious, whoo~~ But... in all honestly, he just does this with everyone, even with Ratio while trying to talk about an actual important issue (wanting to look into Acheron's real identity). Hell, even the fake Aventurine does it to himself!

We can even say that wearing the rose-tinted glasses in the first place is another intentional barrier, one Aventurine deliberately removes in specific moments to give people the (false) impression that he's "letting them in" to his circle:

Now, this might be a bit more complicated in Aventurine's case, because eye contact has a whole extra meaning when eyes are the defining trait of your species and come with particularly challenging racial stereotypes. So it may be that Aventurine is simply used to conducting conversation while looking away to minimize racial prejudice against his eyes' unique appearance.

However, I'd also argue that the devs deliberately turned his entire model away in cutscene after cutscene to create a clear sense of being inaccessible, unapproachable, and unwilling to engage in the physical intimacy of standing closely, directly facing, and staring at his conversation partners.

While he faces away, he controls both the figurative and the literal direction of conversation, forcing people to keep their eyes on him while he is free to move as he pleases. Over and over again, it just says "I want to be the one in control. I'm not afraid to show my back to you, but you are not welcome to come near me."

And, in fact, that's a third aspect of his character's body language that I am sure the devs did not include accidentally: More so than other characters, many of Aventurine's conversations are conducted from weirdly far distances. Like, half the time he's talking, he's standing all the way on the opposite side of the room!

This habit of speaking from a-larger-than-normal distance is apparent in the first scene with Himeko...

And then in just about every other conversation too:

The bubble is twenty feet in every direction.

Like yes, he does approach and have conversations like a normal person... sometimes... But it is significantly more noticeable with Aventurine than with other characters that he often conducts whole conversations--even with his allies--from a distance. Just genuinely weirdly far apart.

Leaving space for Gaiathra, I guess.

And it's because these significant decisions were made with Aventurine's in-game body language that, when he deliberately alters his own behavior, it is instantaneously noticeable.

In 2.0, he closes the distance, the glasses come off, and he gets directly up in the Trailblazer's face.

It's uncomfortable not just because the player is suddenly being loomed over, but because this behavior has already been subconsciously established for the player as out of character for Aventurine.

The barriers the character himself was putting up are deliberately stripped away so that he can use physicality and demanding eye contact to intimidate his target. He has to reverse his own normal body language in order to come across as domineering (and, I guess if you're into that, appealing in a domineering manner).

And ummmm, just a tiny aside here because I can't resist:

This does mean that when the game goes out of its way to demonstrate Aventurine altering his own normal habit of distant and defensive body language, it is absolutely intentional.

Yes, this is a Ratiorine post in disguise. There literally isn't any other character in the game that Aventurine is shown being comfortable standing so close to and interacting with in this manner. This doesn't occur in every one of their scenes, but Ratio is the only character that this happens with repeatedly. It's not an accident that the devs literally added "They were walking side-by-side" as flavor text.

But look, I'll be fair: There's a great example of this in Aventurine's scene with Acheron too, where he closes the distance and attempts to make eye contact with her--seeking her guidance and closeness--and she is actually the one stepping away, speaking with her back turned, demonstrating her power and control (and issues with connection!) in that scene.

Anyway, this was a whole longggg tangent into analyzing Aventurine's body language, but my point is that, overall, the devs deliberately adjusted his model's actions in-game to give the impression of a person who clearly wants to be in control of every interaction he has with other people, who insists on distance over intimacy, and whose stances and habits suggest that he is significantly less accessible and open than his "Use me as you wish" motto might suggest.

Long story longer, I think that there is almost zero chance Aventurine is willingly ceding control over himself or the actions expected of him to anyone he isn't 100% comfortable with, and I think that using physical intimacy of any kind would be an absolute last resort for him. Frankly, he comes across as more likely to shoot himself in the foot than let someone he doesn't trust lay hands on him.

To me, he reads very much as "You may look, but you may not touch."

[wisteriawater]

bleh. something something, biker jacket for Malik Ishtar.

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 3 - Rage Form

[shallowseeker]

soul-fisting is great bc they can technically play it off as strategic as necessary bc cas has had to do it to plenty of folks and dean is no different from them, really… honest…

and like

thx to the little quirk of dean not feeling the same pain that others do

that just makes it even more strategic, right? they dean should be the one to—to—

[vorbarrsultana]

moiraine when playing stupid games (knowingly pushing rand for the same thing lanfear does, isolating him from his friends, so he doesn't have anyone but her to lean on, ignoring him when he doesn't do what she tells him to) wins her stupid prizes (rand starts to believe anything she does is the elaborate attempt to gain more control of him and doubts her motives)

[crystalrose043]

Yeah so i had an idea that bill would have to fix all the damage he did on Earth as a last trial to be freed from the Theraprism... and also i am bad at drawing cartoons and it always ends up looking like adventure time 😭 i think my dialogue/characterization is always so cringe and ooc so thats why i almost never upload fanart anymore 💀

[starrytoya]

seeing people be proud of being so overly dependent on chatgpt genuinely fucks me up because... the whole point of being human is to think for oneself, to enjoy creating and to have original thoughts. why would you be proud to outsource the one thing that ties us to our ancestors generations ago? why would you be proud to use something that causes so much ethical and environmental harm? are we collectively losing the things that make us human?

[cha-lii]

viktor: fuses mind and body with the hexcore and becomes near-emotionless god-like cult leader that takes over other people’s mind and body to achieve his mystery goals

jayce: disappears on unknown adventure and returns very clearly scarred and traumatised to complete a very clearly emotionally taxing task

arcane fans: wow can’t believe jayce let the arcane control him like that what a dick

[justalittleguest]

Why is the spiciest, vilest, sinisterest take on Horror him being a cannibal. Girl that’s NOT his toxic trait. He’s so much worse.

[atalante241]

Batman’s no kill rule works for Batman when Batman is Bruce Wayne because that man’s impulse control is held together by spite. Every single time that he’s gotten superpowers of some sort he’s just become a straight up supervillain. If he started killing people intentionally and with drive his first meeting with the Justice League would be them arresting him and throwing him into supervillain-prison.

[butwhatifidothis]

edelgards fans never minimize the stuff she has actual responsibility for they don't take away her agency ( saying that she chose war with fodlan as a last resort to stop Rhea because there was no other way isn't taking away her agency this idea that there is no in between to evil or has no agency is nonsensical) if anything its Rhea or Dimitri's fans who minimize their actions and try to go but Rhea was a victim of genocide being able to explain her actions isnt taking away her agency

"there was no other way" literally what other way was even attempted for her to think there was no other way lmao this is literally what I mean

[atlasblue85]

ok i haven't made a person post in 5000 years but im losing my mind thinking about this and i can't contain it and i haven't seen anyone else talking about it

in the most recent episode when Armand and Louis are talking in Louis's apartment and Louis gets frustrated about only being able to make fire when he's angry, Armand tells him "I try and find the vulnerability within the object" and like that's just it, isn't it? that's his whole fucking character right there in one kind of throw away line.

And if you take that and apply it to his observation from earlier in the season, "that boy we met in San Francisco, he's still in there and we can find him" like!!!!! it's the same fucking picture your honor

All Armand does is look for the vulnerability and exploit it. He's had the thoughts of changing the coven but he could never say them himself so he lets Lestat come in and do it. "You brought him there so he could destroy it." Armand never gets his hands dirty, he just finds the vulnerability and exploits it by letting something else do the dirty work for him whether it be Lestat or Louis or fire. When the coven goes on the hunt he finds this party full of wealthy people living in luxury while the majority of the country is in post war poverty and he uses that to justify them being killed but also exploits the sentiments of the coven, knowing they'll do the work for him. He doesn't even go inside, barely even glances as they destroy the place.

But ALSO in this scene, he and Louis smoke their cigarettes outside and they both use lighters to light them. Armand isn't showing his full hand yet, he's drawn to Louis but doesn't fully trust him. He doesn't show him that until later, when he's more sure Louis feels the same about him. I think there's another scene then when Louis uses a lighter but Armand doesn't.

Then later we see that scene with Louis struggling with the candle and he says the thing about only being able to do it when he's angry, and then we only see him do it when he's angry. There he's angry because Lestat is invading again, but also angry that he's still being pressured about the coven. When he sets his pictures on fire he's angry about the rejection from the art dealer and then angry at Claudia.

Then there's the final scene on the bench in the rain. He's just allowed Lestat to disappear as Armand approaches, after telling Lestat he's going to break things off with Armand. Maybe it's a lie just for Lestat but I think there's at least some truth to it, some part of him that's going to, but then Armand starts confiding in him, and he realizes he has him completely.

"I used to be real good at running things" followed immediately by "I'm a little wet" he doesn't even ask Armand to put up the umbrella Armand just does it because he told Louis about his past and now Louis has found his vulnerable point and knows how to use it. So then he hands Armand a cigarette and Armand tells him he wants him and Louis calls him Arun and Armans calls him Maitre. He knows it's over now, he's not angry he's in complete and total control so he lights Armand's cigarette first and then his own, and then throws his lighter away.

THAT is the moment so far, to me, where Louis comes into his own as a vampire. Here's this 500 year old master manipulator and Louis has him wrapped around his finger. Find the vulnerability within the fucking object. God.

[mangotelevision]

au where at the end of season one before the big battle, katelyn is the one that burnt meteli down. katelyns last act as a member of the jury was the destruction of meteli- the last order she fulfilled to the letter under zane romeave was to burn meteli to the ground and katelyn always followed orders, shes a dog of ok'hasis to the end

she won't say, she won't admit it, but everyone knows. who else on the jury could do such a complete job, who else could leave nothing but ashes? They don't blame her, she was following orders, but cadenza does.

Katedenza angst 🗣️🗣️🗣️

cadenza blames her and yet she loves her, it's what intrigued her about katelyn in the beginning. she needed to know what was going through this woman's head, she needed to know who could burn someone's home to the ground. the traitor. she thought she'd find a soldier, someone proud of their strength- instead she found regret, a deep thing that she loathes more than anything.

to cadenza, the destruction of her home was a casualty of katelyn's cowardice, of her inability to find a solution other than violence

[nobuverse]

( Small Rant:

While I do think one tumblr's biggest strength as an rp platform is the presence of its rp starter memes, I can get pretty annoyed at times that so many of them are ship / romance orientated

I have absolutely nothing against people who ship much more freely than I do, but it's such a shame that any other type of relationship between characters is not as well represented in general )