#and the patterns responding

[pvtpunsart]

people who care need people who care

[chimerafeathers]

when i was initially playing isat, there were a number of things that pinged on my “overused/shallowly used storytelling tropes” radar (specifically, the version of that radar built from reading too many tumblr posts complaining about or otherwise criticizing “tumblry” tropes—regardless of how much or how little i agree in some cases, my Awareness of them has increased).

then i finished the game, and decided that pretty much everything i had been side-eyeing had been more than earned, given weight and depth beyond my expectations.

and then i got my friend to play the game, and he ended up having a lot of similar initial reactions. specifically, when he got to the “family” scene in the full friendquest run through the house.

my friend had a stronger reaction than i did, but what Odile says here is something that both of us fundamentally disagree with. we ended up talking about the value and importance that intergenerational friendships can have—passing on history, providing frameworks for a range of healthy relationships beyond “family” and “peers” (including what respectful boundaries look like when interacting with safe adults), sharing skills and knowledge, forming a supportive network of people that you can turn to if your blood/legal family fails you. humans are a community-based, highly social species; it’s literally fine and good for an old lady to be friends with a preteen.

but it’s a very Odile thing to say, and tbh i’m more similar to her viewpoint in my personal life in that it takes a very specific level of comfort and intimacy before i will truly consider someone a “friend” rather than “someone i know (/friendly).” but he worried that having it said like that, point blank, would reinforce the concept of “you can Only be friends with people your own age, and the only valid relationships outside of that are Family and Romance (aka precursor to Family).” on top of that, there’s the idea that friendships can’t be “enough” on their own, that they always have to be labeled as something else to be meaningful.

which is a fair concern, in my opinion! but in the full context of the game, and in combination with other elements (ex. the Daydreaming One and Bonnie fitting the party into specific family dynamic labels), what Odile says there is kind of a misdirect. because they ARE friends, whatever else they call each other—and because Siffrin’s unique circumstances mean the idea of “friendship” feels so much more terrifyingly fragile and transient than it might to anyone else.

so following that conversation, unable to properly defend the heavy-handedness without delving into major spoilers but still wanting to get my thoughts about it out, i wrote my train of thought into my notes. (for the record, the “defense” i wrote out was no longer necessary whatsoever once my friend finished the game. he Gets It.)

so here’s what i had, hot off the “AGGHHHH I NEED TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT THIS BUT I CAN'T BECAUSE SPOILERS” presses of several months ago (with a couple edits for clarity/more public presentation and to wrap up the end point):

YES friendships can be deep and intense and consuming. that is objectively What Siffrin Is Feeling. HOWEVER. with all due respect, Siffrin’s perspective of interpersonal relationships is fucked and he needs maximum assurance that things aren’t just going to go away.

there are a LOT of levels of friendship. they are relationships that, theoretically, can come and go easily for a lot of people. “we used to be friends.” “someone i used to know.” “an old classmate.” people drop out of contact, change interests and hobbies and lifestyles, move away, get jobs or partners, and suddenly someone who was so important to you becomes a distant thought. someone you might remember on occasion, if you’re reminded they exist somehow.

there are lifelong friendships, too, that can be no less intense or even deeper than the bonds of blood. but how can you know that the person who calls you “friend” means it like that? if the feeling runs deep for you, but the bond is untested by time or distance? what if this is all a friendship of necessity, of convenience, and it will all fall apart as soon as you have no common goal forcing you together?

of course it will! they all say it will, every time they smile and talk about going home to their friends and families and jobs and say I hope you visit! instead of stay, stay, stay with us, we want to stay with you.

it feels like a promise waiting to be broken, when you believe that “this journey meant so much more to me than it did to any of you.”

when your greatest fear is forgetting and being forgotten. (how long until they forget you?)

but the idealized promise of “family” is that the bond does not degrade, that it can persist invisibly in the face of time and distance and change. something that no longer takes persistence to maintain lest you drift apart, because you can survive drifting apart—you will remember, you will be remembered, you will remain connected. something that would instead demand great force or neglect to truly sever.

it does not matter if this is true. Siffrin needs it to be true. they need a bedrock instead of shifting sand, always slipping away from them before they can grasp it. he craves routine, stability, permanence.

there is no guaranteed permanence when it comes to life, to human connection, of course. Siffrin knows this—that everyone they once knew and loved, every bond that might have once shaped them, has been erased, with no means to reclaim what he lost. family included. and Loop acknowledges this, too, at the end—that one day, Siffrin will have to be okay with letting go. he can’t keep them all glued to his side for their entire lives. they know this.

even so, “family” is as permanent as it can get, right? at least, if their friends become family, some of the uncertainty eases. if they all agree on this, it means they aren’t content to let each other fade from memory, to become “someone they traveled with, once upon a time.” so once it’s introduced as a possibility, Siffrin clings, clings, clings to that thought, drawing comfort from the idea that maybe they all feel as much for him as he does for them.

but we know that just saying the word isn’t enough. the loops didn’t break just because they called each other something different. the fear and loneliness run too deep.

even when being called some form of “family,” the bonds seemed so much more thin and fragile than what Siffrin craves.

they were all still going to leave.

Siffrin is trying so goddamn hard to be okay with that. they fool themself into thinking they’re okay with that. because they have to be! everyone else has something to return to, it’s normal for them to have lives beyond journey’s end, it’s just him who will have nothing left once it’s all over, and they’re. fine. it’s fine.

if they hadn’t made that wish (and if somehow they beat the king first try), they would have parted ways, maybe visited each other from time to time, and Siffrin would have done his best to cope while loneliness and fear continued to dissolve them from the inside. because that’s the normal friendly thing to do. it’s what all of them expected the others to want, and were all afraid to vocalize otherwise.

i get the pushback against everything being “found family” these days. i get that sometimes people are ““just”” friends, or mentors, or coworkers, or something that defies labeling, and that those relationships are rich and varied and don’t have to have the “family” label slapped on top to be important, pigeonholed into rigid set roles, because a lot of the time it doesn’t fit and only serves to undervalue and warp the nuances of the relationships that they actually are. i LOVE when friendship is treated as something that can drive someone just as insane with love as romance or family. in the real world, people should be encouraged to cultivate a huge range of different types of friendships and relationships to broaden our understanding of the world, each other, and ourselves, and prioritizing family over all else can be actively harmful.

i also think that if Siffrin could conceptualize that fact as something that could be anything but agonizingly one-sided, maaayyyybe the time loops would not have happened! i think that if after All That, the rest of the party had gone “you’re important to us, but like, we still do have other shit to do. we’ll keep in touch though!” Siffrin might have just imploded. actually, sorry, scratch that, that literally happened in the game and the world nearly ended.

this story has to be “found family.” maybe they’ll get there one day, but Siffrin is simply not well-adjusted enough (or at all) to trust that any other kind of relationship is real enough to last. and it takes NEARLY BREAKING REALITY for them to accept even that much! that it’s possible for him, specifically! that the words aren’t empty dreams, that they’ve found something that they’re allowed to keep, that it’s not as one-sided as he’d convinced himself out of fear and self-loathing. that they won’t forget or be forgotten.

if Siffrin didn’t have the exact fears and insecurities and traumas that he has, i might still be looking at all those heavy-handed family conversations and going “urgh, okay, we get it, this is a bit much.”

but now i kinda appreciate those convos way more??? because it feels more like a conversation, a point of contrast with what this story means when it invokes “found family.”

it's not about the rigid roles or cozy aesthetics of family. Siffrin is not looking for a mom or a cousin or a sister or a little sibling. they want a home. somewhere to go, people to return to instead of just “visit.” roots, connection, permanence, safety. that is what “family” means to him. why his sadness is Mal du Pays—homesickness.

that’s also why just saying it isn’t enough! that’s why the final loop had to be ugly and broken. Siffrin needed to see that these people wouldn’t abandon them, even at their worst. that they could see him lashing out and bitter and needy and hurtful and still see someone worth loving. and that they would do this all before the word “family” is ever spoken, and would still do it even if it was never said.

the heavy emphasis on family and labels is, in some ways, a misdirect from the actual problems and the actual solution. the full friendquest run is a fakeout for Siffrin in that "the power of friendship" isn't enough to save them—at least, the one-sided, shiny veneer of it isn't. it takes raw, painful, soul-baring vulnerability—no masks to hide the ugliness, no "i'm fine, tell me how i can help you," no running away. the solution is ultimately "the power of friendship" and/or "found family," whatever you want to call it, as long as by those things you mean something messy and stubborn and mutual in its earnest devotion, riddled with misunderstandings and mistakes and the ever-present capacity to hurt each other, and still, always, bursting with love.

[biblically-accurate-dca]

day 16: object head !

[walkingstackofbooks]

Tag game! What are 5 Julian things you can't write enough of?

Fidgeting with his hands so anxiously that he's scratching or hurting himself, and one of his friends noticing and holding his hands gently to stop him.

Falling asleep on a friend after he's had Too Many Emotions (and getting hair kisses from them ofc :3 )

Fear and hurt and distress working its way out of him in a burst of uncontrollable anger - and then suddenly stopping as he realises he's lost control, and either turning completely slack, or getting panicky about what just happened.

Feeling a lot, but not understanding what he's feeling enough to explain it to anyone else. (And dissociating when it becomes Far Too Much to even try to figure it out.)

Fumbling around the subject but completely avoiding the point until one of his friends figures out what he's trying to say/ asks him a direct enough question that he can't put off saying it any longer.

Tagging @dreamerdrop @ectogeo-rebubbles @the-last-dillpickle @hellostuffedtiger @idonotbitemythumbatyou @lady-lazarus-13 — if you'd like to make your own posts, I'd love to know what your favourite "personal tropes'', as it were, are 🥰 And if anyone else wants to join in, you're very much invited, please count yourself as tagged!

[thelaststranding]

Gay Fragile or Thot Higgs?

probably twink sam,, if im being completely honest with you.

[calypsolemon]

A question for the Pen & Ink AU (since I find it so very facsinating)! How do you think Thespius interacts with both Sweater and Ink Click respectively? Is it any different to how he normally is around Click Clack? How does Sweater Click's arrogance and Ink Click's self-isolation affect their dynamic? That kind of thing!

Overall, Thespius does interact with Sweater and Ink Click different than he does Click normally, though initially that isn't due to their split nature, but rather because Thespius understands what he is essentially dealing with is Click Clack in the middle of a mental health crisis. In the same way that you might act differently around a loved one who is having a breakdown or going through a hard time, Thespius is being very patient and cautious as to what he says and does around both Clicks. Especially at first, when they're all just trying to figure out what even happened, and all they can tell is that Click Clack is clearly distressed.

That being said, as the situation stretches on, the differences between the two halves settle in a bit more, it gets a lot harder for Thespius to treat these two parts of Click Clack as just... Click Clack. This is, in part, because most of his interactions are with Sweater Click, whose stubbornness, self-negativity, and complete refusal to listen to reason push the limits of Thespius's patience. Sweater Click embodies a lot of the hard-headed behaviors that hurt Thespius the worst during his over-a-century of pining for the fellow god, and so soon after their confession to each other, its increasingly difficult for Thespius to continue holding back his negative emotions. And keep in mind, those negative emotions are something Click Clack was previously helping hold back with his overzealous editing, preventing any potential conflict from breaking out between them before.

Feelings only get further muddled when he gets the chance to interact with Ink Click too. Ink Click is... difficult for him to wrap his head around, in many ways. He's still Click Clack, but disconnected from much of the personality quirks that make him recognizable as such. Less capable of communicating properly as well, as he can't speak directly, and the narrative he desires to tell is gradually buried by the cacophony of the world's story. Thespius can tell he's gripped by an existential guilt he can't even begin to fathom, and the primary feeling he evokes in Thespius is pity, which is not a great thing to feel about someone you're supposed to love. In many ways, he's a reminder to Thesp that, despite knowing and loving Click Clack for so long, there's still aspects of his partner he has yet to learn about, let alone understand.

All this to say, both halves of Click Clack are a bit of a confusing and upsetting mess for him to be around, and this really puts a strain on their relationship! He tries to act calm and collected around both of them, FOR their sake, but even a god of love can only keep face for so long.

[ms-hells-bells]

what's with the increase in focally harsh criticism of women over men posting? apart from a select few, i know that most of them do not have malicious intentions, but there's a level of higher and more frequent criticism to a sort of purist degree that feels to me like 'men are men, no point, but women should know better'.

100% get how one gets to that mindset, but also....socialisation impacts everyone and the vast majority will go about their lives never hearing about radical feminism, or only hearing vague telephone information about radical feminism. it feels like somewhat of a magnification of the already existing societal belief that 'women are supposed to be the good, obedient ones and be perfect if i just tell them what they are doing wrongTM, if they are not right in the box where we want them of what i consider to be their acceptable behaviour, they have broken that fundamental rule and are no longer worthy of sympathy'. it seems like this mindset permeates every single political and social group no matter where on the left to right scale it is.

most other oppressed groups also have very large amounts of them that assimilate to the societies of their oppressors in order to live what feels to them the best possible life in the current system. and that is treated as understandable but a tragedy, and information and support being the biggest factors in class collectivisation and independence from the oppressors. it feels like a lot of that drains very quickly from any women's movement that forms. i

don't think there's a primary point i am trying to make, but i hope others can either understand my internal conflict (i don't think criticising women is wrong or something that can't be completely justified) with the above or maybe self reflect to see if they are balancing what's just with what's fair. if it was that easy, women would have been free the second guns and other weapons were invented and raw strength no longer meant anything. people can understand why factory workers will vote against their own interests by being anti union due to propaganda, we can only keep trying and being vocal.

[chillinglikeashilling]

Five episodes is the end of my patience with constant/repetitive 'Oh but I think they're so good as platonic/Not everything has to be romantic' and considering there are still several of these posts after every episode in Sam's tags from people who literally never talk or post about Sam except for in relation to Evan anyway, I'm just going to start blocking people on first offense.

And again...this show is finished filming! Some people shipping SamxEvan while they watch the show now has absolutely no bearing on what happens in canon. So what is the point of all these posts? Go write an email to Dropout if you're so concerned about the sanctity of platonic relationships in this show.

Sincerely,

A black ace woman

[bellaaldamas]

Hurt/Comfort parallels

inspired by a conversation with @stupidrant

[robo-milky]

I guess I do have a type(s)…? [Male Edition]

Like I see patterns but it’s not like all of them have something in common- You now all have grounds to flame me for my shit taste ig- You’re lucky I didn’t put Bill Cipher up there- /hj (I swear my fem edition will be my redemption arc)

[wrenhavenriver]

took the risk of annoying the shit out of everyone who actually sleeps at night but hasn't turned off their notifications by asking the group.me for my cohort at 2 am if they'd also experienced a weird grading glitch and one of my classmates responded "i'm drunk on a street somewhere but i'll check in the morning" 🫡🫡🫡

[faaun]

me when i find someone i like so so much who is eerily and wonderfully compatible w what i look for in a partner and i kinda sabotage it the day before leaving and end up being harsh and sharp towards him while hes just patient and lovely and anyway i kiss him goodbye and tell him to take care and cannot for one moment stop thinking abt things and regretting things and im afraid upon reflection he will think i am too much to deal w so i send him a text essentially apologising for being insane for a few hrs and clarifying that i value him sm but hes literally on the alps skiing w his very cool best friend having fun and im on a train home trying not 2 have a panic attack . genuinely so nauseous ♡

[tixdixl]

Ever since I noticed the different ways Vil signals her gender identity and gender presentation in the original Japanese, the more and more I wish that there was a way for us to get a complete revision of Book 5 where the nuances of Epel's cultural identity, Vil's gender presentation, and the ways the two clash in cultural understandings and ideals are ACTUALLY demonstrated in the localization for English only readers. Because they aren't. Vil's gender presentation and Epel's cultural rootedness are both watered down and erased from the English. And what's worse is watching both turn into superficial charicatures of their intended design, in order to accommodate an uninformed Western audience.

With Epel's very specific rural understanding of masculinity and feminity, and Vil's urban, gender-nonconforming understanding of masculinity and feminity, we have an incredibly nuanced and intersectional conversation about self-realization. And English only fans get to see none of it.

Of COURSE Epel is rejective of Vil's expectation of embracing feminitiy. He's a cis male who grew up likely in the rural country side, with hints of rural, possibly rural Osakan dialect in his dialogue. Of COURSE his expectations of masculinity and feminity clash with Vil, a femme non-binary person who is both an idol/celebrity and who has lived her entire life in urban settings. He likely has deep seated misogyny that he has to contend with. He likely has deep seated transphobia that he has to contend with. It's not that he himself is dysphoric; it's that his expectations of masculinity, his tate shakai, and his understanding of collectivism reject and clash with a sub-culture that permits and encourages the exploration of self expression, and views those forms of self realization AS maintaining the collectivist status quo, rather than violating it. When his understanding of self-realization dictates he must be and act a certain way as to not break the collectivist status quo, of course, Epel looks at Vil and thinks that what she is asking him to do is uncomfortable.

Of COURSE Vil sees Epel's rural world view and wishes to challenge him on it. Of COURSE she also FAILS to understand his perspective and find it irritating and uncouthed. She ALSO has biases against rural cultures, as indicative by her dialogue and Tokyo dialect. It's not that she wants Epel to "become girly", but rather that she wants to see him fit in and join the mold of Pomefiore. Because in Pomefiore and in the idol world, ruralisms and a rooted rural identity clash with the status quo. Her understanding of the collectivist culture and mindset within the dorm and within her culture dictate that HE is the one stepping out of line... all while he believes SHE is the one stepping out of line.

There are just so many layers here, and without any help from the localization, nor cultural understandings of the values and norms that inform the writing of this game.... of course. Of course Book 5 is watered down.

[ilovedthestars]

just hit two milestones on the "centering platonic relationships is queer" post. one is 3k notes and the other is someone tagging it with the ship that I was thinking about when i made it

[skrunksthatwunk]

ok insanely niche yyh post incoming but if you don't know what simon trickster is just think of it like simon says and you'll be fine

also:

if hiei ACTUALLY competed he'd like simon surprise best. he feels like it doesn't pity him and likes being able to hone in on a single thing (directional input) rather than a bundle of things (color, sound)

hiei's reaction time is great but he'd get so wrapped up in doing it as fast as possible for ego reasons that he'd hit the wrong thing (<- just like me fr). is otherwise very good at it

wide gap in skill between these rankings. but with training i think kuwa and hiei would be pretty evenly matched, if not kuwa being a little better, since speed doesn't matter. depends on how different their attention spans are vs spirit awareness

hiei thinks games are stupid but gets roped in at least occasionally because again. ego. but would largely disregard it as a waste of his time

[sergle]

Do you really wanna bang an old guy or is this just committing to the bit? If so, tuck a Werther's Original behind your ear, become irresistible to Pappy.

It really depends on the old guy of choice- I personally love the knitting guy's energy but have a deep respect for those who wanna fuck him, and there's like an 75% chance I'd let him hit