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kingmagnificoofrosas · 1 year ago

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Ok, it's time to deep talk even more about Magnifico! Part 1.

Since my analyses have gotten so much love, support and agreement, I feel motivated to continue 💙

In my first analysis I've touched up on many things, but something I want to deepen a little more is his trauma and his responses to it. Next to his character all in one of course.

After watching and rewatching and studying while making screencaps, I found myslef being heart broken for Magnifico even more. He's so horribly misunderstood it blows my mind. People are so freaking mean and ignorant it's insane!

We know that Magnifico was deeply traumatized as a young boy. Most people focus on themselves, their pain and their healing, but Magnifico instead wanted to make sure others will never suffer like he did. Please, let that sink in for a moment. His first response isn't to look at himself but to look at others. He lost everything and what does he want to do? Give! His first impulse was - I need to learn magic, so I can be strong enough to build a place where I can make sure people will never have to endure what I had to. Not "I gotta build myself a safe place so I can never be hurt again" like a little hermit crab hiding in a new house. No, he always looked what he could do for others!

This is one of the most selfless things a human being can do! It's not happening often but it's happening. People with trauma using their trauma as a motivation to help others.

Magnifico's determination to build a save haven for others despite his situation is freaking honarable!

He loves deeply! I did explain that the trauma Magnifico suffered heavily influenced and altered his thinking, his feeling, his actions and decission making.

He loves deeply but his paranoia and fear cloud it. What I mean is, some of his decissons aren't right but this doesn't make him evil! He's like a helicopter parent! His motivation to fiercly protect and keep save is purely love driven and initially right but because of his immense fear and paranoia it's becoming overprotectiveness and that is not the right way.

He never meant harm, he never meant to hurt. He was being too selfless in way. I heard another Magnifico defender say, he did too well.

And it's true.

Magnifico has given so much in his life. Matter of fact, he was absolutely right when he said he gives and gives and gives and yet people still aren't satisfied. And I totally get it! It's real life. People are greedy beings. Give them your little finger and they soon want your whole hand.

The people of Rosas live in total peace. They get everything they could ask for and more. Enough food, good homes they don't even need to pay rent for, enough money ... they get wishes granted every month. Sometimes even more! Magnifico mentioned in the past year he's granted 14 wishes, which means he did grant more than just one every month from time to time.

Magnifico is so much more than his handsome looks and his abilities. Yet, all people saw him as was that. A very handsome genie. Not the benevolent ruler that even made this flourishing life possible in the first place!

And I mean yeah, he said "I'd love to see you try and do my job!" And he's right again. I've never ruled a whole kingdom before and successfully at that! But I can imagine it must be darn hard! Certainly not a piece of cake.

People loved and celebrated him for what he could give and do! But what if he'd been just a regular king without any magic powers to grant wishes?

We see how the people of Rosas reacted after he told them about a threat. In the end they ask for another wish ceremony. And Magnifico snaps at them. He's clearly in distress even though he tries to appear collected and sovereign, and the only thing they care about is getting more wishes granted? Dude, give this poor man a break!

I can totally understand Magnifico having a nervous, emotional breakdown. Add it all up. He's constantly on edge because of his trauma, he always means well but the pressure of his ambitions and his duties as king are weighing him down further, he's constantly triggered, constantly irritable, no one gives a toot (Amaya included) which is like fuel to the fire in his soul, he feels threatened, he's terrified, he feels not understoond, valued and respected and furthermore used and exploited.

See how he make's the wishes spin around him faster and faster here? It's literally symbolic of what's going on in his soul at that moment.

Same as this one does.

The mirror is cracking, meaning his soul is cracking further. He's starting to break.

It's no wonder he loses his cool, really. Everyone would eventually break in such a situation.

Now, back to the whole wishes situation

Stop a moment and look how Magnifico looks at this wish/dream. He adores it, he appreciates it. (It's a happy family btw.) and someone who's as good in reading emotions as I am will see the ever so slight pain swimming along.

As king, it's Magnifico's duty anyway to make sure his kingdom runs well. That his people are safe and content, that there is order. And the whole decission making rests upon his shoulders as well.

Should he be in the leading position he is in? No. No, a person as deeply traumatized as he is, shouldn't. But the fact that he still tries is admirable! He's not in power because he's a power hungry, cruel, cold-hearted, selfish, narcissistic psychopath, like a villian is! He is in power and wants to stay in it, because he wants to protect others! He cares so much more about others, that he stresses himself to the peak of breaking mentally!

His trauma keeps him in this spiral. Trauma driven motivation > stress/trigger > trauma response > desire> action > trauma result/success or failure

Yes, he doesn't grant every wish because his trauma blurrs his judgement. He's so deeply into it that he cannot judge properly. Does this make him evil? Nope. It would be laughable how rediculous the hater's arguements are if it weren't so sad.

The arguement "Magnifico sees the dreams of people as a threat to his power so he steals them and makes people forget them."

🤨 huh?

I could slam my forehead even harder against something other than my hand. 🤦🏻‍♀️ The ignorance hurts!!! Like, have this people even paid any attention? Clearly not.

He never stole anything! Neither did he manipulate, play or lie to people. He left the decission to them. It was an open fact "If you want, you can give me your wish and I will keep it save and eventually grant it." And even if one doesn't give their wish, they are more than welcome to stay in his kingdoom and live a happy life!

Now listen. Magnifico's desire to keep the wishes in the first place isn't out of any bad or ill will! To say he keeps the wishes because he simply likes to be in control over people because of selfish, cruel reasons is a big mount of bullcrap. Look at how this man treats the wishes! Which by the way, to him, resemble his people!

Ah, yes, sooo evil and selfish and ill willed!

If someone sees this, the pure love in his whole bodylanguage, and still claims that this man is evil, actually doesn't give a damn about his people, and takes the wishes just because "powerhungry" has something really wrong!

Should he decide over other peoples dreams and wishes? Not really! This is a grey area. Back to his duty as a king. A king needs to care for his people. Magnifico takes this very seriously. Thanks to his trauma, a bit too much. This might be "not ok" but it doesn't make him evil. Good grief! Urgh!

He loves his people! He keeps the wishes because he thinks that it gives him a better opportunity to keep watch over them! Why does he want to watch over them and have the control? Out of fun? To satisfy his selfish urge to rule over others? No, because -

"Everything, everyhing I do is to make sure that never happens again!"

It's the very same stupid reason people have been villainizing Abuela Alma from Encanto. It makes me fuming mad that people ignor deep trauma and the mental issues that come with it and make such people out to be villains. Abuela treated her whole family unfairly, yes. She was harsh, inconsiderate, cold, stern, overprotective, insensible etc. But why did she act like that? Because she was hecking traumatized!

After she and Mirabel reconcile, she tells her family this :

"I'm so sorry I held on to tight, just so afraid I'd lose you too!"

Aha! Now taken in consideration that she is also deeply traumatized and I mean, pfff, she saw her home town getting burned, had to flee with her 3 newborns and see her soulmate get stabbed to death or even beheaded (we don't know) right in front of her eyes.

Her desire to keep safe was always good but her trauma blinded her to a degree.

A similar case were people have been villainizing a character for having trauma would be the case of Imelda from Coco. Her trauma of losing her husband and having to raise their daughter on her own caused her to forbid music for 2 generations! She was harsh too, and even though her actions concering this might have been wrong, she meant well. Everything she did came from the good motivation to keep her family from experiencing the crushing hurt she had.

Yet another example I've seen Magnifico defenders bring up would be Elsa! Elsa has been born with ice-powers because she's actually part spirit as we've learned in the 2 movie. She got traumatized as a child when she accidentally hurt her little sister Anna. Her response to trauma brings her whole kingdom in danger, even threatens to kill them by freezing them to death, and when Hans and his guards go to find and kill her, she defends herself and almost kills one of the guards. Yet, despite everything, Elsa isn't made to be a villain! She was supposed to be but in the end recieved love and appreciation, while Magnifico didn't?

It makes absolutely no sense.

Does trauma justify wrong actions? No! But it explains them and it certainly doesn't make someone a villain! Goodness gracious! 😩🤌🏼

Alma was obsessed with having the "miracle" controlled because she was terrified if she would lose that control, her past would repeat. She would lose her family.

Elsa abandoned her kingdom because she didn't want to hurt anyone anymore.

Imelda forbade music because she didn't want her family to experience the hurt she did.

All of this Sounds similar, right?

Magnifico obsessivly wanted to stay in control because he was terrified that if he would lose that control, his past would repeat. People will get hurt and lose everything like he did.

He panicked as an unknown light flooded his kingdom and made the wishes rattle.

The very first thing that came to his mind was "threat." And this was ONLY because of his trauma.

More in part 2 ⬇️

#king magnifico #disney wish #wish 2023 #team magnifico #magnifico defenders #king magnifico isn't a villain

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beehiveofblorbos · 6 months ago

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It’s August 15th! Happy Birthday, Tsumugi Shirogane!

Tsumugi is such a conflicting character for me! She’s the character I like that I think I could be the closest friends with off the drop, and a character I would push off a cliff without any hesitation. Overall, I would say she’s one of my favorite characters in fiction. I’ll drop an analysis I did of why I love her so much and what she means to me below, but for now, today is just to celebrate and make happy the Queen herself, Tsumugi Shirogane!

(lol sorry for all these copy-paste analyses I just am never prepared and it’s a good excuse to share stuff I already had written)

Analysis

The biggest crime, imo, that a character can commit… is being boring. Be rude, be evil, be sappy, be a loyal dog, be anything except uninteresting, unobtrusive, uninvolved.

So by the start of the ch6 investigation, I plain disliked Tsumugi Shirogane. Particularly as she was such a waste of the Cosplayer talent, which was something I was really excited for as someone who loves fan communities. I was super disappointed with the portrayal fans had had so far in Hifumi exactly falling in to assumptions people make about fans, and now Tsumugi seemed to be in line to be Sonia 2.0. All she’d really had as far as plot impact was be Gonta’s only true friend. She wasn’t really comic relief either; she had moments paused and timed for comedic effect, but they weren’t funny. She was just… weird.

And then. My god, when we pulled that shot put out of the trash, and Shuichi remarked about the pink fiber on it? When I realized Tsumugi was the mastermind? The one who’d been living among us all this time??? Instantly rose to become one of my top favorite Danganronpa characters. To this day I use her “oops, I let my hobbies slip in again” and other quotable lines as stock phrases XD I just can’t help myself, she’s so cute

She is absurdly intelligent; if you go back through and pay attention, Tsumugi is constantly generating conflict in subtle ways. She joins Angie’s cult to give them a significant enough percent of the class to be a real threat, in the trial she keeps diverting the topic back around to ghosts to keep Kaito scared and keep Shuichi off track, it goes on. You literally can’t help but see what she’s doing once you know that she’s actually being intentional about it, because it’s all a perfectly reasonable “role”: that of the sweet, naive Ultimate Cosplayer. And yeah, that’s why there’s a pause and focus for all of those jokes I didn’t get earlier - they’re horrifying AND funny in the light of the truth of the game

She is supremely arrogant; she spends her entire time in a killing game winking at the camera and making veiled references. Can you imagine the audacity involved in writing Kokichi? She wrote in an insanely intelligent character, gave him a motive video telling him to end the killing game, and had him survive almost till the end? She was so confident - and she was almost right to be so, because he never caught her. But he did manage to force her into stalemate so XD

She gives them sooo much leeway. She gives them Miu, she gives them Keebo, she gives Rantaro the Survivor Perk. What does she care? She’s perfectly designed everything to lead them to entrap themselves and keep killing each other. No mind control necessary - just suffering. And she considers this essential to be called the Ultimate Cosplayer.

She’s an actress. It’s part of her talent, but the entire world is essentially a stage, she’s the director and one of the main characters, and all the other characters are her props to move as she pleases. Isn’t that wild? I love her to bits for it.

#tsumugi shirogane

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theendofuno · 16 days ago

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feeling like shit. wanna yap.

tldr sieghart sucks

dont get me wrong. im literally in love with the idea of Uno being a whole ass cult leader on his S version. its AMAZING and from what we saw so far (4 chapters event totally not leaked) its pretty well written

but heres the thing. Uno wasn't supposed to be on the T universe. he was brought there by someone else (which. i like to think its Heitaros and they have father and son bonding time but lets get real lmao).

from what kog has made, so far, Uno is still the same SR character, or at least an 1:1 replica of him. which makes him 3-4 years old, considering the timeskip between the pc and mobile lore. Uno still lost his whole family, his beloved sister, which loved him more than anything, and to "help" things be worst, it was confirmed that, he, in fact, hallucinates.

Uno doesn't know any better. he doesn't get love, he didn't had time to comprehend what feelings mean, he only had that voice on his brain, telling him to murder, telling him to destroy everything. he's just a child, suffering from a cult-like-indulged psychosis that lives on his mind and he CAN NOT get rid of. and now?

now he got throw in the middle of a bunch of adults, who are dead scared of another adult who CAN and WANTS to kill them. his presence there, the fact that he was forced to exist in the middle of so many corrupted highlanders just. fed his internal voice wish for power. power is the only feeling he knows. is the only thing going on on his mind. he needs power. he wants power. he WILL GET power. he'll be better than anyone. he can kill anyone and become an divine entity, if everything goes right

and here comes Ercnard Sieghart, in the same side of uno's coin.

at first, he's a good guy. he wants to protect and save everyone he loves, and even everyone he doesn't know, because, you know! serotonin from being a good guy is on his brain!

then, he meets Graham, who turns him into an highlander. and then, everything changes. now, everyone who is different from him fucking SUCKS and NEEDS TO DIE. everything that exists on Sieghart mind is...having power over others. over weaker souls. destroying what is unnatural, and becoming an praised entity.

but heres the catch that differ Sieghart from Uno!

Sieghart is over 600 years old. he mentions, with all words, that he had 600 years to think about everything. he had 600 years to consider. he had 600 years to think, analyse, interact, talk, imagine, living his best life, and he still chooses to be a killing machine. he still chooses to destroy someone's life just because he doesn't agree with it. he don't try to talk with the corrupted highlanders, he don't try to understand their feelings, their motivations. all he does is, based on a singular interaction, act like every single highlander alive is a nasty human being. except for him. he's the human race saver. he'll make the world a better place

meanwhile, for Uno...

at best, he had 4 years. 4 years in pure isolation, completely alone at god knows where, only listening to that annoying monster that lives on his body. he never had a choice. he never chose to be alive. he never chose to murder the only precious thing that he ever had on his life. he never chose to be him. but he's afraid of killing himself, of destroying this nasty voice on his brain. because that's all he have. that's the only thing that, at the same time, makes him insane...and sane

to, suddenly, be considered an savior, an divine entity, a thing from another universe, made to save some poor souls...can you imagine what this would do on a child brain? can you imagine what he is feeling?

the difference between them is that. Sieghart is aware of his actions, and he doesn't plan to stop. he doesn't want to. he is a killing machine and is happy with that.

Uno is aware of his actions, but he wanted to stop, at the very start of things, he didn't want to murder his family, the only thing he ever had on his life. but he literally has no control over his body, nor his mind. he's almost an empty shell that's controlled by a monster that shares a body with him. he just wanted to live forever by Reina's side and be a normal kid, a normal teen, then grow to be an adult.

but now, he was forced into being a leader. the leader of the miserables. the only thing, the only souless killing machine that can save the highlanders from the terrible killing machine called Sieghart, that can and still feels, but chose to ignore all of it.

Uno is a disabled child that lost his entire childhood because of it. he couldn't control it, and he didn't had anyone in his surroundings that could understand him.

Sieghart is a grown +600 years old man that knows very well what he is doing, and doesn't plan to stop because of his ego.

also an final edit that was on my mind while writing and i somehow managed to forget to add this to the text itself:

im literally so proud of how Uno's acting after 4 years. he wanted to kill the corrupted highlanders aswell, but he managed to shush down the feelings for a second and actually listen to their pleas, which, again, proves that he's not a killing machine "just because i was born this way", he wants to help people which makes him better than sieg but you didnt heard this from me

#daily-uno #grand chase

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skaruresonic · 1 year ago

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Everytime I catch a glimpse of discussion within the Sonic fandom I feel like I'm going insane.

Speaking purely from my own experience, not too long ago practically every Sonic fan firmly believed that Sonic was an unfeeling hard boiled soldier/action man/dude bro who had zero concern for anything other than his personal amusement. Back then Sonic was "supposed to be" an unthinking action drone that only blows stuff up and runs around doing poses. And if you ever dared to imply that he'd do something sappy, than you would get labeled as a baby who can't handle "hardcore material" or something.

Flash forward to now and it seems like majority is convinced Sonic is a fluffy soft boy who would never hurt a fly and he sincerely prays every night that everyone gets a happy ending. including the people who've done nothing but cause pain. Also he's extremely emotional over everything and hurting on the inside or something. And if you think he should snap back at his enemies you're just an edgelord who doesn't understand anything.

What happened??? How did we go from one extreme to the other??? Why is it so hard for sonic fans to see the characters for what they are instead of making up nonsense???

And if you think he should snap back at his enemies you're just an edgelord who doesn't understand anything.

"So you want Sonic to murder his enemies in cold blood?"

"Where the hell did you get that from? I said Sonic doesn't care about Eggman's welfare and that his attitude seems to be 'if he dies, he dies.' Where did you get 'I want Punisher!Sonic' out of that lol"

Fandoms be fandoming. I personally saw a forum thread back in the day likening Modern Sonic to a soulless vehicle designed to get you from Point A to Point B, in contrast to Classic Sonic who had more "soul." There are always going to be people who think the new shift in direction is soulless, whatever that means.

The irony is, the reason the Adventure games were as comparatively dark as they were (YMMV on that, obviously) was because ST didn't like how cute and Mickey Mouse-ish Classic Sonic was becoming in the late '90s; they wanted to reintroduce, or rather retain, the rough-edged, "bad boy" side of his personality. Hence why they had Maekawa write for those games.

Cultural differences exacerbate these... well... differences in how we perceive Sonic as well. What the West sees as a "bad boy" and what Japan sees as a "bad boy" can be based on very divergent concepts. Kanemaru!Sonic's tendency to sprinkle Engrish sounds silly to Anglophones, for example, but in Japan it's a sign of his worldliness and his overall coolness.

Likewise, SoA!Sonic tends to use harsher language than SoJ!Sonic might use, such as saying strawberry shortcake "sucks" in a Twitter Takeover.

While I can't vouch for how Japanese Sonic fans view SoA!Sonic, to Anglophones, Games!Sonic seems like a squeaky-clean goodie two-shoes Gary-Stu. Which, again, ignores the cultural framework against which his character exists.

All that being said, Sonic is still quite a multifaceted character, even if he isn't the deepest or most fleshed-out in the cast. As a static character who represents an ideal and inspires positive change in others, he doesn't exactly need to be.

Lately I've been seeing a lot of overreductive takes with Shadow which attempt to boil him down to one or two traits at the expense of others, but I imagine it happens to Sonic quite a bit also. Despite being a static character, Sonic, like Shadow, has multiplicity of character. People really struggle with contending with that kind of variability. How he reacts to any given situation will change based on circumstance. Truth resists simplicity, which is antithetical to the kind of Declarations(tm) social media likes to make about the cast. Adding asterisks and footnotes risks diluting the impact of the message. So naturally, people are going to forgo context and nuance in favor of more digestible analyses, in addition to ignoring the games and just plain making shit up.

For instance: "Sonic's selfish" or "Sonic's selfless" is a false dichotomy. The answer is the Schroedinger's cat, both selfish and selfless until someone opens the box, maybe in a quantum state of both. To say one or the other is true ignores the spectrum and the circumstances in which Sonic expresses selfishness vs. selflessness. Sonic can be selfish sometimes, just as he can be selfless, but whether he is or is not depends on what he's doing at the moment and what provokes this reaction.

So on and so forth.

#asks #sonic

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i-love-your-shades-of-wrong · 2 months ago

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Yeah I agree with all of that - and honestly, I want to add a bit.

Many people justify a lot of this (quite frankly) vile behaviour with the tired excuse that he's a teenage boy and many teenage boys make terrible mistakes all the time.

(oddly enough, it's really difficult to analyse Snape's character without bringing up James or the Marauders - it's a mutually antagonistic relationship that brings out the worst in all of them, so while I try to avoid mentioning them you sort of have to sometimes)

But the way he treats his students is probably worse. He sees a teenage boy who was raised the same way he was - in a perfect world, he'd have seen that child and thought 'oh, I remember being that child', but no. He sees not the situation Harry is in, rather he sees James Potter's face and immediately decides that Harry must deserve all of that because Snape didn't like his father.

He isn't equally harsh to everyone - if he'd really loved Lily the way he thinks he does, he would have despised the children he taught that reminded him of himself with her - he should have hated the way many Slytherin students threw around slurs so casually - the same slurs that cost him a friendship that he supposedly treasured.

He didn't need to show them preference - no, he does that because he wants to, because he wants to belittle a child that has been abused and harmed even further so he can get revenge on James Potter's ghost - in turn, probably hurting Lily's as well.

Then there's the other students. Snape felt powerless for most of his life, a fact I can acknowledge - with his father, at school, but not the way many people do. He thought he deserved praise and glory and it's one of the reasons he despised James - he perceived him as arrogant and privileged (which is true, but the conclusions Snape draws are not) and this drives Snape towards joining an organisation where he feels that his worth is recognised - regardless of what they really stood for.

Snape becoming a teacher and misusing the power given to him is another consequence of that feeling - he is 'taking back' the power he never had. And there's many things to support this conclusion - as a teenager, he called himself the half-blood 'prince' - there's a double meaning to that. He makes up a nickname for himself that links to royalty because he thought it was what he deserved - a lot like a certain Lord Voldemort.

He doesn't just hurt Harry - for whom there is at least a misguided reason for the hatred. He hurts anyone that isn't a Slytherin, anyone he perceives as lesser than him. He bullies and hurts Neville simply for not understanding a subject well - if a teacher did that to me, I doubt I'd be able to stomach the subject any longer. Neville fears him more than he fears the woman that tortured his parents into insanity - and yet, there isn't any sort of repent that Snape feels for his actions that so terribly damaged a teenage boy.

Other notable examples are his treatment of Hermione and Ron - Hermione, who, from what we can tell is similar enough to Lily (muggle-born, intelligent) that it shouldn't be blind hatred that he feels to her and Ron just because they're Harry's friends.

To be a double agent, he didn't need to show preference to the Slytherin students. It'd be really easy to have him tell people that he's equally awful to all students so that Dumbledore isn't ever suspicious, or he could just not be awful - but no.

The trump card in his favour is always that despite all, he was on Dumbledore's side. But even then, this is for Lily. He still seems to be a genuine bigot, no matter that Lily herself was a muggleborn. When he called her a slur as a teenager, it wasn't the first time he's used that word.

“I can’t pretend anymore. You’ve chosen your way, I’ve chosen mine.” “No — listen, I didn’t mean — ” “ — to call me Mudblood? But you call everyone of my birth Mudblood, Severus. Why should I be any different?”

And when he begs for Lily's life, he doesn't care about the life of her husband or son. Forget James - he was willing to let Lily's innocent son die if it meant that he could let her live.

“You disgust me,” said Dumbledore, and Harry had never heard so much contempt in his voice. Snape seemed to shrink a little, “You do not care, then, about the deaths of her husband and child? They can die, as long as you have what you want?” Snape said nothing, but merely looked up at Dumbledore.

Personally, I don't think he really cared for her at all, but she was one of the first people to really show him affection, and for that he was somewhat grateful. They were in a deeply toxic friendship, and for that, he is willing to protect her, and only her. He'd never have defected to the light if Lily weren't in danger - if Voldemort chose Neville, he'd have died the Lord's right hand man.

I suppose there is a small defence for Snape. He also says:

“Do not use that word!” when Phineas Nigellus calls Hermione a slur. But it's too little, too late. Like I said, if Voldemort chose Neville as the chosen one, he'd have died the Lord's right hand man. And for that, there is no manner of retribution. He made his choice the day he began to allow his friends to bully other muggleborns, the day he started using the slur - long before his friendship with Lily ended.

In the end, it's not about Lily, and yet, it sort of is. He chose to join a Nazi-esque organisation because he thought it gave him power. And he'd have gladly given his life for the cause, if Lily weren't threatened. and that's not right. he also bullied her son.

JKR, who wrote HP on tissues and the like, is a woman who people love to characterise as 'the underdog', and much like Snape, she grew up to be a transphobic bigot. I guess it makes sense that she'd love for her audience to root for a character like that. She believes the ends justify the means - that's why Dumbledore letting Harry be raised in an abusive household is okay, that's why Snape's 'redemption' is earned. But it isn't. The ends don't justify the means.

However. People always bring up the Marauders - specifically James - when we talk about Snape, so to save them some time, I'll do it myself. Sure, I'm a little biased, but I'll give it my best go.

From what I can tell, the simplest way to put the canon!James is that he is wonderful to the people he loves, and awful to those he hates. If the author were more intelligent, I'd say that she was attempting to write a nuanced character, but from what I can tell, this was probably an accident. He is everything that the dark lord wants from his followers - he's dedicated, he's talented, he's pureblooded.

He may have hurt people for fun - we don't know. He and Sirius hexed Bertram Aubrey earning themselves double detention - the reason why they hexed him is unknown. He also saved Snape's life - once again, motivations unknown. With Snape, we do know his motivations for most of what he does, or we can make educated guesses.

A guess I've heard on the internet is that SWM happens after the Prank (SWM takes place after OWLs, so June, and the Prank takes place sometime during fifth year, more likely to be before June) - this interaction is particularly hatred-fuelled, because Snape was so obsessed with finding out why Remus left every month. I don't know. But, we know that this rivalry was so bitter that even after James stopped hexing Snape, Snape continued to seek him out.

‘And stopped hexing people just for the fun of it,’ said Lupin. ‘Even Snape?’ said Harry. ‘Well,’ said Lupin slowly, ‘Snape was a special case. I mean, he never lost an opportunity to curse James so you couldn’t really expect James to take that lying down, could you?’

The point I'm trying to make is that it is murky, yeah. I know. But when talking about Snape's actions, at the end of the day, he made the choice to join the Death Eaters. James didn't make that decision for him. Rather, he was actively against them.

It says that one of the reasons James hated Snape so much was because Snape was very interested in the Dark arts, which James hated. Maybe it's why he continued to hex Snape, after it was clear that Snape was a DE.

I'm brown, and many of my friends are poc. So, I don't say this lightly when I say that if someone called my friends slurs, or even if it weren't my friends they were insulting but just another poc, I wouldn't be taking the high road. If that makes me a bad person, so be it I guess.

(the point of this section was that

people love to say that 'James is just as bad' and 'you can't insult snape without talking about James' well, James became an animagus for his best friend, took his other friend in after his bigot parents kicked him out, gave them money, joined an organisation that was the antithesis to the DEs.

Snape's actions to join the DEs are his own. His and James's incredibly mutually antagonistic, toxic, relationship, or his relationship with his father aren't to blame. He is. He could have done a lot with his time but no.

Not even just the DEs. He could've been nicer to his students ig. At least there'd be some nuance there. But no. So, yeah, i hate him too. )

Snape's Full Character Analysis

Okay, so I’ve already made this kind of post in my previous account (licorice-lips) but since it got deleted, here I go again because I think the world should hear more about this.

I do hate Severus Snape — and I have little to no patience for those who do and try to justify his actions with whatever. But unlike many people, my dislike for Snape doesn’t stem from “oh, he’s a child abuser” or “oh, he didn’t love Lily” but from a mix of many factors involving among other things, the way R*wling portrays supremacist ideology and its followers, the way the fandom often downplays supremacist ideology and its followers, and Snape as a character himself.

Now, I’m going to extend this essay into a full character analysis instead of just commenting on how Snape’s redemption arc sucks like I did previously because I’m feeling like it. To begin, I need you to understand how… biased R*wling’s portray of supremacist ideology really is:

J.K. Rowling is European and English (duh), which means she descends from a people who benefited (a lot and still do) from colonialism and imperialism, and both things are the basis for modern day fascism. As an author myself, it’s painfully clear to me how intrinsically close my characters and works are from myself and my own personal values. As such, it’s not such a hardship — especially if we remember how the elves and goblins are portrayed in HP — to understand how Rowling views political issues such as colonialism, imperialism and fascism.

She may not realize it but the way she does talk about the matter is such a right-wing way of tolerance to fascist thinking: as it’s very clear in Harry Potter just because of the story, the problem for the author isn’t a system of prejudice and bigotry, it’s those very few people who have become corrupted. Rowling does not identify the problem as the tree being bad when most apples — save one of two — have turn out bad. And that’s the core problem of so many things in Harry Potter but it also shows in the core problem I have with Snape’s portrayal: the way she absolutely downplays the fact that the man was a death eater for years of his life by pure and absolute conviction.

As someone who lived through a fascistic government, I’ll say it with all certainty: even the slightest support to fascistic views will propel further an agenda that will end up killing innocent people by the dozens. The truth is, even with all the undeniable good Snape did as he worked as a spy, he was a Death Eater for his conviction and at the end of the day it doesn’t matter why he chose to become one.

At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter that he was neglected and abused by his parents, or that he was bullied in school, or that his crush didn’t reciprocated his feelings: he still became a Death Eater, he chose to become one. And that is unforgivable. It unforgivable because it means he supported and actively worked for a system of thinking that ridiculed, persecuted, tortured and murdered hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent people. He advocated for a political view that has no regard for human life, that perpetuates the abuse he suffered firsthand — just in a slightly different direction. He didn’t just not break his cycle of abuse, he actively perpetuated it. Advocated for it.

And don’t get me wrong: I’m not saying here that the abuse Snape went through isn’t important at all: there is definitely something to be said about the preying of supremacist groups for young isolated men who feel left out and emasculated. But that doesn’t mean Snape gets to be absolved for his own choices because that’s what they were: his choices. He chose to become a Death Eater, he chose to uphold the cycles of abuse he had been a victim to not long before, he chose to protect it even in the face of people — good people — telling him that it wasn’t a good thing.

That’s my point, actually: Snape may have been preyed upon by the blood supremacy ideology as a teen but at some point, he chose to be influenced by it more than by millions of other influences around him. He wasn’t completely isolated or ignorant of the world to the point that the only influence he could possibly choose was the blood supremacy one, no: he had people telling him the contrary and still chose to follow blood supremacy. So, no, it’s not forgivable that he chose to become a Death Eater because he did know better than that, his very friendship with Lily proved it.

But because Rowling sees the system — a system whose very roots are prejudice and bigotry — as not actually the problem, we see these problems sliding down the hill of “oh, he was just a misguided boy” even if that’s not what she herself says: it’s what her work says.

The truth is, as much as some supremacist’s core reason for their beliefs are a deep feeling of inadequacy, that’s not enough simply because they’ll cause as much damage with their actions than any other supremacist that’ll become a supremacist for the hatred alone. Snape, who (for some) was propelled into supremacy for his isolation in his teenage years, persecuted and tortured and killed as many people as Lucius or Bellatrix did, the result is the same. And at the end of the day, the reason why you did something doesn’t matter as much as the fact that you did do something.

We can cry a river about how our intentions were good but that doesn’t mean that what we did was. Between our intentions and our actions, there’s an abyss, and it’s not until we crossed it that we can see whether or not they are alike. In Snape’s case, considering he genuinely believed the supremacist ideology he upheld would turn the wizarding world better, it doesn’t really matter: he still caused damage.

And he has never been redeemed because for a redemption arc to work properly, you need to

Acknowledge what happened — there’s not much Snape is liable to deny it happened because, of course, he’s always caught on the scenes we are privy to.

Take accountability for what you’ve done — which Snape doesn’t do, as it’s exemplified perfectly many times throughout The Prince’s Tale in Deathly Hollows. He deflects, he lies, he declares he had no intentions of doing what he did, but he never, not once, takes accountability for what he has done and what ended up hurting other people:

“There was a crack. A branch over Petunia’s head had fallen. Lily screamed. The branch caught Petunia on the shoulder, and she staggered backward and burst into tears.

“Tuney!” But Petunia was running away. Lily rounded on Snape. “Did you make that happen?” “No.” He looked both defiant and scared. “You did!” She was backing away from him. “You did! You hurt her!” “No – no, I didn’t!” But the lie did not convince Lily.”

““…thought we were supposed to be friends?” Snape was saying, “Best friends?” “We are, Sev, but I don’t like some of the people you’re hanging round with! I’m sorry, but I detest Avery and Mulciber! Mulciber! What do you see in him, Sev, he’s creepy! D’you know what he tried to do to Mary Macdonald the other day?” Lily had reached a pillar and leaned against it, looking up into the thin, sallow face. “That was nothing,” said Snape. “It was a laugh, that’s all –” “It was Dark Magic, and if you think that’s funny –” “What about the stuff Potter and his mates get up to?” demanded Snape.”

“It was nighttime. Lily, who was wearing a dressing gown, stood with her arms folded in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady, at the entrance to Gryffindor Tower. “I only came out because Mary told me you were threatening to sleep here.” “I was. I would have done. I never meant to call you Mudblood, it just –” “Slipped out?” There was no pity in Lily’s voice.”

To make amends for what you did — I’m not even going to deepen my argument on this one, it’s clear he didn’t. Not when he hurt Petunia, not when he hurt Lily, not when he hurt anyone really, the only exception being him protection Harry after telling Voldemort about the prophecy, but that’s not overcoming any patterns here, which brings me to my next point:

To accept the boundaries that you put in place as they’re on the path to earn forgiveness — which Snape also doesn’t, as exemplified in this excerpt of The Prince’s Tale:

The scene changed… “I’m sorry.” “I’m not interested.” “I’m sorry!” “Save your breath” It was nighttime. Lily, who was wearing a dressing gown, stood with her arms folded in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady, at the entrance to Gryffindor Tower. “I only came out because Mary told me you were threatening to sleep here.” “I was. I would have done. I never meant to call you Mudblood, it just –”

It’s very important to understand here that Snape doesn’t respect Lily’s boundaries of not wanting to talk to him after he called her a slur, which is also a sign of not being in a path to earn forgiveness. And forgiveness must be earned: no amount of trauma explaining our actions actually counts as an excuse for our behavior. It can explain it and thus, making forgiveness easier to achieve, but trauma doesn’t change the fact that we are responsible for our own choices and acts throughout our lives, and if we hurt someone, we have a responsibility to be accountable and make amends.

So okay, we’ve stablished that Snape has some heavy trauma to work through but that doesn’t mean he’s not liable for his own actions. Now, what we need to understand is his relationship with the Marauders. That’s a much more complicated theme, which will bring me back to Rowling and her point of view of things and how they impact her narrative and the way things are portrayed in the books.

The first thing we need to notice is that Rowling doesn’t seem much preoccupied with portraying bullying in a responsible way throughout the series. It’s clear that many of the comedic reliefs we have — especially in the form of Fred and George — are bullies in the modern, more “strict” way of seeing children’s behavior: their acts not only can be considered humiliating for some (such as Neville and other side characters in the books) but also downright cruel or dangerous. So it’s clear by her account on other similar relationships portrayed in the books that Rowling didn’t consider what Snape and the Marauders had as a bully/victim relationship.

That can be because of her age, or because of the character’s age even (they were in the 90s after all), or even a mix of both reasons, but the fact remains that she didn’t view it as bullying, so anything she writes about it will be a gross exaggeration of what she considers child rivalry. It’s one of the reasons I have the icks when anyone starts asking her for a book on the Marauders because I just know she’d butcher her way into their stories, to be completely honest.

Unfortunately, this also means it’s how Snape views it all — as something that happens between children (not saying that it didn’t cause trauma, just that he doesn’t see it as a trauma) which makes him even back up the people who do the same when he becomes a teacher, such as Malfoy and his friends. My point is that, in the building of Snape’s character, his problem with what the Marauders used to do to him wasn’t what they did but rather that they did it with him, someone Snape viewed as undeserving of it, as opposed to when someone who did deserve — such as muggleborns — were the target of said treatment:

“We are, Sev, but I don’t like some of the people you’re hanging round with! I’m sorry, but I detest Avery and Mulciber! Mulciber! What do you see in him, Sev, he’s creepy! D’you know what he tried to do to Mary Macdonald the other day?” Lily had reached a pillar and leaned against it, looking up into the thin, sallow face. “That was nothing,” said Snape. “It was a laugh, that’s all –” “It was Dark Magic, and if you think that’s funny –”

So the problem in the end wasn’t the Marauder’s behavior but their target — which, of course, was him.

But the origin of the Marauder’s dislike for Snape at that point ran deep and very intricately: there was a lot of reason why we could attribute to their hatred for each other, such as house rivalry, Snape’s fixation on Remus’ secret, James’ jealousy for Lily and Snape’s friendship, Snape’s inclination for dark magic and supremacist views, Sirius overcompensation for being raised in such a prejudiced environment and as such becoming a little too aggressive about it, and many other reasons. The point is, there was a meddle of everything by the time we reach SWM.

So their relationship is just as intricate and difficult to entangle. I’m not saying here that any of my analysis exempts the Marauders from what they did — it was serious and bad and something that shouldn’t have happened at all regardless of how I feel about Snape. But as I try to analyze Snape’s character in the books, I need to be very careful on how to approach this: my morals and interpretations of what happened shouldn’t come first to what Snape’s viewed at the moment and what he took from this. So at last, what I’m saying is: as much as I know that was some hard bullying going on there, Snape didn’t see it that way, either because Rowling herself couldn’t see it that way and because the time and the time’s belief’s system wouldn’t allow him to.

Anyway, if we take any only the facts, we have — James attacked Snape sometime after Snape tried to catch Remus in the Shrieking Shack, Snape also instigated fights with James, Snape and his friends also bullied muggleborns and blood traitor — it becomes very clear that we need to balance power relations very carefully here:

On the very top, we have supremacist purebloods, which are the most privileged social group at the time, which would include people like Lucius, Bellatrix, the Lestrange brothers, most of the Blacks, and others. Then, right below, we’d have purebloods who didn’t believe in blood purity, such as Sirius, the Potters (James specially), the Weasleys, the Prewetts, the Longbottoms and others. Plus, the more I consider the wizarding world of that time, the more I realize how close halfbloods who adhered to the purist cause had a place in society that rivaled the same importance with purebloods who were considered blood traitors, sometimes ranking even higher depending on the environment or situation.

Just to be entirely clear: when I say halfbloods, I’m not only talking about those whose heritage are certain (children of muggleborns or muggles with purebloods) but also to those whose heritage couldn’t be drawn back. For example, the Sacred Twenty-Eight, the account of all pureblooded families in Great Britain, is admittedly an incomplete and slightly biased and unreliable source. They didn’t list the Potters as purebloods, for example, solely on the account of, whilst the family didn’t have any muggle relatives, there were enough muggles with the last name Potter that they weren’t sure about the family’s heritage. So it’s fair to assume a lot of people we’d been presented to as halfbloods could be pureblood familys whose heritage was slightly questioned. So yes, I’d put halfbloods who stood with blood supremacy as just as privileged as a pureblood who sided against it because of all this background. Then, we have halfbloods who didn’t approve of pureblood supremacy, muggleborns, then muggles.

It’s quite understandable by the books that, while in SWM, Snape was in a clear place of power imbalance in relation to the Marauders, the truth wasn’t always this. Mulciber and Avery are quoted as the closest to Snape (and we know very well what they’ve become after school), and although I found nothing in regards to the Mulciber family, the Averys were purebloods, so I have to place Snape as being just as privileged as the Marauders within normal (normal, not exceptional) school social dynamics in relation to blood. Of course that wasn’t truth to every power dynamic presented within the Harry Potter world, such as the Slytherin conundrum for example.

Okay, I’ll be honest with you guys here: I feel like the imbalance people accuse the adults of Harry Potter of having is grossly exaggerated sometimes. Yes, Slytherin was in disadvantage in relation to other houses, and it was looked upon by them, but the point is: ancient pureblooded families, especially the ones who were knee deep in supremacist ideology, often favored Slytherin, that is a fact.

Regardless of it been productive or not, the most blood supremacists within the house, the more we’d get comments and actions against muggleborns within school grounds that would inevitably be punished by the taking of points (and by the way, Snape was not helping congratulating Draco for his own bigotry instead of rewarding Slytherins who were actually interested in studying and working hard on their grades).

Plus, Gryffindor is the house of the protagonist — of course it’ll gain some privileges for that. If it was Ravenclawn, we’d be discussing this issue with Slytherin versus Ravenclawn points. It makes no sense accusing other of having biases like that because it’s obvious we’d have this kind of biases exactly for the plain reason it’s the protagonist’s house.

Anyway, I digress: because of the points I just made about it, the Slytherin versus Gryffindor rivalry is not enough to grant James and the others such a significative upper hand on their privilege in relation to Snape, although I would argue that Snape’s pre-existing bigotry did him no favors in the adults’ eyes on that matter, so it may have.

Now, why am I focusing on that? Because it’s clear to me that, while James and the others had a clear upper hand on their treatment of Snape in Snape’s Worst Memory, it’s not so clear as people seem to believe what the picture looked like the rest of the time. And of course, I do understand that it seems very much cemented on everyone’s minds that the configuration of the Marauders and Snape relationship was always the one we see in Snape’s Worst Memory, but that’s not completely truth and there are hints of it since the fifth book:

When Sirius said James wasn’t the only one to initiate fights, when he said Snape was always trying to sneak up on James, when we learn of the spells Snape had invented as a teenager (we can half-confidently say they were for the Marauders considering Snape’s trying to use Sectumsempra on James, but not limited to them, of course), when we get to know that Snape was “always trying” to prove that Remus was a werewolf to get him expelled, among other moments. The truth is, as much as I would like to point out the Marauders were not so bad, I can’t say this with certainty, but Snape apologists can’t say for certain they know fully the dynamics of their relationship either because even when the Marauders weren’t good people, they can’t say Snape was only a victim as well.

Or at least, they can’t say that he was the kind of victim who didn’t victimized people just like he was victimized too. And that’s probably even more reason why I dislike him, but I’ll get there. What I do know is that Snape, for his supremacist views alone, was doing a lot worse than what the Marauders were doing as teens. I’m sorry, it’s true: as much as I despise bullying, I can’t get over the fact that Snape was the equivalent of a Hitler youth child soldier in the wizarding world when he was a teenager. I’d punch him myself if I was his classmate, to be honest. Hatred aside, however, I do understand that what the Marauders did had little to nothing to do with supremacist views and all to do with being idiots, so yeah, fuck them. I’m not here to defend the Marauders anyway, just to condemn Snape (which, surprise, surprise, it’s actually possible).

Now, I dread having to go there, to be honest, but I want to talk to you guys about Snapes’ feelings for Lily. I’ve read the most grotesque and misogynistic things I’ve ever read in my life scrolling through Snape stans posts and let’s be honest here: Lily and Snape’s relationship was so toxic I would come back healthier if I went to Chernobyl than going anywhere near them together — because of Severus — and it’s actually appalling that some people doesn’t seem to think so. I’m sorry, but all the signs of classical emotional abuse signs are right there, just in the Prince’s Tale:

Belittling and constant criticism — I’m sorry, but his behavior alone says everything: you can’t treat muggleborns like they’re trash and then try to convince your muggleborn best-friend they she’s not. The belittling is in his actions. And then there’s the fact that Snape brings up accusations of Lily liking James more than once as a form of criticism as well (because neither have a good opinion of James, which is fair, but it’s still veiled criticism of Lily). Plus, his belittling of Lily’s feeling over Petunia’s hatred of her is obvious:

“I don’t want to talk to you,” she said in a constricted voice. “Why not?” “Tuney h-hates me. Because we saw that letter from Dumbledore.” “So what?” She threw him a look of deep dislike. “So she’s my sister!” “She’s only a – ” He caught himself quickly; Lily, too busy trying to wipe her eyes without being noticed, did not hear him.”

Gaslighting and controlling tendencies — when he tries to convince Lily he didn’t use magic to hurt Petunia with the tree branch, or when he questions their friendship because she’s trying to make a constructive critic of his life choices (“I thought we’re supposed to be friends?... Best friends?”), or when he tries to dictate who she’ll be friends with (when they’re discussing his own friends by the way). Even if Lily doesn’t let him, doesn’t mean it’s not abusive.

Isolation of loved ones — Constantly belittling Petunia, setting Lily and himself as above her because of their magic, convincing Lily to invade Petunia’s privacy thus isolating her further, causing rifts between Lily’s friends in Gryffindor and her because of his supremacist tendencies…

Jealousy and Possessiveness — I do think this one is self-explanatory.

Humiliation and Shaming — I also believe this one is also self-explanatory.

Unpredictable or Inconsistent Behavior — This is perfectly exemplified by their conversation when Lily is pointing out about his friends’ bad influence on him. We can see perfectly how inconsistent Snape’s behavior is, jumping from deflecting his accountability, downplaying his own bad deeds, to possessiveness and jealousy over absolutely nothing Lily has ever referenced to (try not to read what they’re saying but instead just concentrate at how abruptly Snape goes from one to the other):

“…thought we were supposed to be friends?” Snape was saying, “Best friends?” “We are, Sev, but I don’t like some of the people you’re hanging round with! I’m sorry, but I detest Avery and Mulciber! Mulciber! What do you see in him, Sev, ’s creepy! D’you know what he tried to do to Mary Macdonald the other day?” Lily had reached a pillar and leaned against it, looking up into the thin, sallow face. “That was nothing,” said Snape. “It was a laugh, that’s all – ” “It was Dark Magic, and if you think that’s funny – ” “What about the stuff Potter and his mates get up to?” demanded Snape. His color rose again as he said it, unable, it seemed, to hold in his resentment. “What’s Potter got to do with anything?” said Lily. “They sneak out at night. There’s something weird about that Lupin. Where does he keep going?” “He’s ill,” said Lily. “They say he’s ill – ” “Every month at the full moon?” said Snape. “I know your theory,” said Lily, and she sounded cold. “Why are you so obsessed with them anyway? Why do you care what they’re doing at night?” “I’m just trying to show you they’re not as wonderful as everyone seems to think they are.” The intensity of his gaze made her blush. “They don’t use Dark Magic, though.” She dropped her voice. “And you’re being really ungrateful. I heard what happened the other night. You went sneaking down that tunnel by the Whomping Willow, and James Potter saved you from whatever’s down there – ” Snape’s whole face contorted and he spluttered, “Saved? Saved? You think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friends’ too! You’re not going to – I won’t let you – ” “Let me? Let me?” Lily’s bright green eyes were slits. Snape backtracked at once. “I didn’t m ean – I just don’t want to see you made a fool of – He fancies you, James Potter fancies you!” The words seemed wrenched from him against his will. “And he’s not…everyone thinks…big Quidditch hero – ” Snape’s bitterness and dislike were rendering him incoherent, and Lily’s eyebrows were traveling farther and farther up her forehead. “I know James Potter’s an arrogant toerag,” she said, cutting across Snape. “I don’t need you to tell me that. But Mulciber’s and Avery’s idea of humor is just evil. Evil, Sev. I don’t understand how you can be friends with them.” Harry doubted that Snape had even heard her strictures on Mulciber and Avery. The moment she had insulted James Potter, his whole body had relaxed, and as they walked away there was a new spring in Snape’s step…

There’s also the fact that their friendship began in a relation of power that met its inevitable demise once those specific conditions tumbled down: when Snape met Lily, he was all the source she had about the wizarding world, he was her only link to that part of herself she felt was so different from anyone else. Once Lily arrived at Hogwarts, this dependance quickly came to an end with Lily spreading her wings, which probably also took a heavy tool on their relationship because its foundation was already fragile to begin with.

However, I’m not saying here that Snape was this evil mastermind at nine years old he managed to consciously ensnare Lily into this emotionally abusive relationship all by his astute manipulation. Snape was a child of abuse and neglect and, as such, he never learned how to properly bond and stablish healthy relationships. Much like the child starved by love he was, Snape probably saw every and any other relationship Lily had as a threat to their own relationship, because he doesn’t know love is not finite — he doesn’t know love stretches to accommodate other people with the time. It’s not unreasonable for me to read their relationship as such, although I’m sure that wasn’t JK Rowling’s intentions when she wrote HP, in fact it’s more than possible to admit their friendship sucked even when Snape remembered it so fondly.

As a person who actually went through an emotionally abusive relationship, I can tell how exhausting it is to carry this person along and make up excuses for everyone around you who can clearly see that this friendship sucks but doesn’t want to tell you because it might make things worse. Specially if I’m talking about someone who believes the way you were born makes you inferior in some way, that shit really hurts even when they say you’re different because deep down, you know you’re not. Deep down, you know that you’re the exception over some crooked perception you somehow beat the odds of an inferior condition and that’s what makes you “special”. And it’s gross just to think about it.

Okay, so now I think I analyzed everything about Snape I’ve wanted to analyze, so I’ll end here my enormous rant about him and if there’s anything else I want to talk about when this starts to get hate, I’ll probably post a part two.

Bye, guys!

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maybenotmei · 2 years ago

Note

hi mei <33 if possible can i req masuki satou or riddle rosehearts w a very sarcastic reader ? thank you very much and feel free to deny (≧▽≦) !!

— bittersweet tea !

please answer loud and clear.

— (*'ω'*) —

notes: me when i can't find a suitable title so i get poetic /j hope u dont mind me choosing riddle hehe ALSO HELLO???? I LOVE YOUR WORKS BTW

sorry for mischaracterizations as well as this being short if ever i havent done character analyses in a while (for anything but enst <—— stuck in hell + exams)

probably fed up with you.

imagine being sarcastic towards him during chapter 1/ prologue before all the insane stuff happened or before he had even just a small amount of patience for rule-breakers... i'll ask octavinelle to handle funeral payments for you

but all of that has ended now so i think it's safe to say you're Somewhat fine. i think.

now if you're deliberately breaking rules While being sarcastic it wouldn't end well, riddle doesn't tolerate rule breakers after all. and when you sarcastically respond back to his scolding? funeral costs are Not on me btw

but if you're not doing so (you probably just like to sarcastically respond to orders in a little silly lighthearted fashion) then i think it's all good. he'll definitely throw something back at you and it'd be a back-and-forth conversation with your sarcasm and riddle's responses. he stops when he appears to be getting late. he still very much follows his schedule, thank you very much.

don't let it go too far, alright? he'll apologize if a response actually did hurt. he doesn't mean to actually hurt your feelings as he replies to your sarcasm (which i hope isnt to hurt his feelings either)

at this point, your back-and-forths with riddle are quite a known thing in heartslabyul, in most of NRC even. i think your dynamic is somewhat like azul and riddle's, except you're much more direct and you get on riddle's nerves easier. poor guy probably had to re-arrange his schedule because he'd deliberately try to avoid you on the way to important events (no offense)

you've probably been collared at least thrice for mimicking his words. two out of three of them were times you thought he wasn't there,

OH ace joins in sometimes and you two become a power duo against riddle. if ace alone was bad enough, just imagine the both of you. you're lucky he has some patience since none of you seem to be breaking any of heartslabyul's rules, so he's willing to not instantly punish you both.

his head hurts from you. but can he even deny he has a soft spot for you? why do you think he has some patience for you..?? he genuinely appreciates your cooperation despite your sarcasm and when the timing is right, he gets a good laugh from you.

he does enjoy civil talk with you over some good tea together. whether it'd be about school or just a general day, he appreciates it when these little conversations happen.

oh, but he's always ready to reply to any sarcasm you decide to add to the conversation. and there goes your "civil" talk...

#not sure if this can help clear things up on my perspective #but i think your relationship would be like you: 'siyempre kaya ko yan. magrereklamo muna ako'#whenever riddle asks you of something n u reply sarcastically with 'no'#twisted wonderland riddle #twisted wonderland scenario #twisted wonderland headcanons #twisted wonderland x reader #twisted wonderland #request #riddle rosehearts x reader

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altades · 3 years ago

Text

Analysis on Dsmp analyses and why they are inherently biased

When reading or watching a story every person tends to come to their own conclusions. That should mean that whatever takes you see on any media would be nothing but someone's personal opinion. That means there is no right answer, right? Not exactly.

The closest thing to an "right" opinion we have is the author's. The intend with which the story was written in the first place. Of course there still would be different views on the topic the story explores in the real world, but within the narrative of it the author's point of view would be definitive.

For example your most basic fairytale about a Prince saving a Princess from a Dragon. There is a simple message being conveyed: when you (Prince) overcome an obstacle (Dragon) you get a reward ( Princess).

That is the story's lesson. As times changed, people started to view things differently. Nowadays we see more and more Princesses saving themselves, since the message of "alpha chad save woman get married" is no longer appropriate. That however doesn't change the original story's message being inherently right within it.

At this point you should be thinking: how the fuck does this all relate to Dream SMP?

Well, in DSMP there are many authors with many different narratives, some of which directly contradict each other. Because of that, even if you try and understand the intend of the author, it will only be one POV.

This only becomes more prominent because we like the creators. The more you like them, the more likely you are to take their side and disregard other points of view.

And that is exactly what happens whenever you analyse a character. You either take their side and excuse some of their behaviour, or you look at them through other character's POV disregarding the character's you are analysing POV.

So, is it impossible to make unbiased takes on characters? No, but to do so someone has to watch all of the POVs ( which would take... soooooooooooooo long) and then make not ONE analysis on a character, but an analysis from their POV, and then analyses from ALL of the other character's POVs, while trying to covey the thought of the CCs.

Since I don't think anyone is that insane, let's just chill. None of the takes ppl have are neither right or wrong, but all of them are biased ;^)

#dream smp #dsmp #dream smp analysis #dsmp analysis

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goldenkamuyhunting · 3 years ago

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Hello hello! I LOVE your summaries and chapter & character analyses! I just wanted to ask...what is the significance of the bottom panel with little Ogata and his mom plus that text? Maybe I'm reading his expression wrong, but little Ogata seems to be looking lovingly at his mom (looks like a slight smile on his face)? It's interesting that this was shown near the final battle...

Sorry, I placed these three asks together because they deal with a similar topic.

Now, as I mentioned more than once I'm in the group that believes that Ogata is indeed feeling emotions like any human being but he's used to suppress them so that not only he often doesn't show them but he manages to keep his conscious side not even aware of them.

I've a by now ancient meta dealing with how characters in the story cope with guilt trying to suppress it, as this is a recurring theme through GK.

Noda seems to remark on how Ogata is so good at ignoring his guilt yet he's feeling it by giving to said guilt a manifestation in form of Ogata hallucinating Yuusaku.

Basically, unless we assume Yuusaku is a real wandering ghost tormenting Ogata, the fact Ogata keeps on hallucinating Yuusaku tells us he feels guilty, that murdering Yuusaku wasn't like stepping on a leaf for him, an act he did without thinking about it and forgot short after.

The memory of Yuusaku torments Ogata each time his psychological defences are at their weakest point, we see it happening when he was lying in a hospital after having been injuried by Sugimoto but also when in Karafuto he get feverish and, in this case, Yuusaku's image superimpose with Asirpa, creating in his mind a subconscious connection.

Later, in fact Yuusaku's hallucination will 'stop' him each time he'll try to shoot Asirpa.

We see something similar happening to Asirpa as well, as, when she consider killing Ostrog, she can't because she's reminded of when her arrow hit Ogata.

In Asirpa the whole thing is more natural as, although she too is prone to suppress negative emotions, she's not really doing it as much as Ogata, who's a lot more psychologically damaged than Asirpa will ever be.

Ogata has likely felt affection for his mother.

He remembers her, he dreams her as she sung him a lullaby, he used to love the anglerfish nabe she made, when he realized she was going insane, he tried to 'heal' her by providing her other things to cook.

When he lies about Sugimoto's last words in his mind he basically imagines Sugimoto's last minutes were what he wanted his father's last minutes to be, him thinking at his mother, him wanting to provide to her, him wanting to eat her anglerfish nabe again.

He had genuine attachment for his mother.

I don't know how he came up with the idea that, if she were to die, his father would finally come for her.

I know back then insane people weren't entrusted to a mental asylum but left in the family's 'care' the family either keeping trapped in a room that would work as a cell or disposing of them as discreetly as possible (a common way was to bring them to a trip on the mountains and 'forget' them there).

This social background could have influenced him but I don't know if we'll ever know why he came up with such an idea.

But that act likely impacted deeply on his psyche because Hanazawa never came and he lost his mother.

Possibly it's from that act Ogata learnt to bury guilt. So as not to feel pain for his own actions, for his own loss, he learnt to bury it, to disconnect from it and grew up with the idea he felt none when instead he continued to repress it... which is encouraged because Ogata becomes a soldier when he's really young and soldiers are actively encouraged and brainwashed into not feeling guilt for killing people.

And so Ogata ends up on meeting Yuusaku who latches on him like a lost puppy, without any care for how Ogata, as politely as he could, told him to let him be.

As far as Ogata knows, Yuusaku is the reason due to why Hanazawa stopped visiting his mother.

Ogata doesn't want to play the role of the 'Ani-sama' (兄様 "older brother") to the guy who, according to what he knows, caused his mother's abandonment... and Tsurumi feeds this feeling by suggesting if Yuusaku were out of the picture Hanazawa would love Ogata.

All this eventually leads to Yuusaku's demise, which, again, gives Ogata nothing. Hanazawa doesn't care for Ogata all the same. When Ogata goes and talk with him there's the implication his mother was already starting to lose her mind and that's why Hanazawa rejected her.

My speculation is Tome was a bit like Usami, obsessed with Hanazawa, thinking he would eventually dump his wife and marry her.

She, as far as we know, differently from Usami didn't get to the point she murdered someone to get Hanazawa, but he probably saw her obsession as insanity, he likely never planned to leave his wife, which is from the upper class, and marry a geisha and this is possibly why he left her, because she wouldn't content herself with being just his lover but had the 'insane' fantasy she could become more.

Anyway, while Ogata probably managed to bury deep enough the guilt for his mother's death, he just can't work out in the same way the guilt for Yuusaku's death, which haunts him even though he tries to deny it even to this day.

It's meaningful how in chap 253, when he tries to aim at Asirpa, he senses Yuusaku in the same way as he has sensed it in chap 246, when he was trying to aim at her again but, despite Ogata being usually intelligent, he doesn't manage to make the connection between those two happenings.

Actually in chap 253 the fact he got distracted by Yuusaku's presence even saved his life, yet he interprets it as Yuusaku's ghost trying to get in his way.

He lives in denial, his father, with his dying breath, cursed him so of course Yuusaku would be there to get in his way.

Either there's really a ghost in this story or Ogata is just not ready to accept he feels guilty.

And in all this mess he stumbles into Asirpa who we can see presents parallels with both his mother (she feeds him but she also loves someone who loves another) and Yuusaku.

And so at this point we've to wonder where Noda is going to lead him.

Since there was all this big build up between him and Asirpa, we can wonder if he'll face her again and this will force him to face the emotions he repressed for such a long time.

Will this cause him to be more open with his emotions and not suprress them? Will this cause him to accept he feels guilty? Will it make him cry? Will it make him show affection for someone again?

It's hard to say.

Unless Noda radically changed his plans, as I've said many times, I don't think he plans to kill Ogata... but this doesn't necessarily mean he'll make a 180° turn from how he is.

We've seen how Tsukishima tried to face what he kept inside... only to go back on square 1 and return on being a loyal Tsurumi follower.

We've seen Koito trying to be different... but then he let doubt catch him and he didn't dare to confront Tsurumi when he understood the latter knew they were there.

Changing is difficult.

We saw Shiraishi... slowly growing attached to Sugimoto and Asirpa to the point he went into the brewery despite the fire to save Sugimoto (and we've heard Boutarou saying through his whole permanence into the group how Shiraishi changed from how he was even though Shiraishi himself denied it).

Changing is possible... but it requires time... and, often, it requires help, a reason to do so. Shiraishi changed because he formed an emotional bond with Sugimoto and Asirpa due to the GOOD time they spent together. They had bad times as well, but the good ones just won.

So, back to Ogata... even if he finally were to face what he keeps inside... how much this would change him?

Hard to say but this is not a shonen so I doubt we'll have a drastical change in a short amount of time.

The story is ending, my guess, according to what Noda did, is Ogata isn't going to die but, all the bets are open on how he's going to live.

Tears when he were to face his buried feelings would be a good release of bottled up emotions but again, it depends on how he faces them. If he does it the bare minimum to realize he actually can feel guilt, we might not get them.

There's no time for him to develop emotional attachment/affection. Either he already has it, and he is in denial for it, or this is something that will require time. So it's a bit like a videogame. Will Noda unlock this event or not?

As Noda showed a flashback with his mother of whome we hadn't seen the face yet, I expect we'll get more about her... and possibly about his grandparents.

So yeah, we could get to see a more emotional Ogata, but it can also be this won't be the case... or Noda will save the best scenes for the volume version because sometimes Noda is like that.

Long story short, I've no idea what will be of Ogata beyond that I think that Noda won't kill him and that he has been building him up to have him face 'the ghosts of his pasts' and it's possible he's meant to do it while facing Asirpa but I think we should prepare ourselves for an interesting ride because Noda so far still seems to have plans for him.

We'll see... thank you all for your asks and sorry if I put them together!

#Ogata Hyakunosuke #Asirpa #Ogata Tome #Hanazawa Koujirou #Hanazawa Yuusaku #Hanazawa Hiro #Usami Tokishige #Sugimoto Saichi #Tsukishima Hajime #Koito Otonoshin #Ask

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hellsbellschime · 4 years ago

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Do you think Jon hold some love and affection for Dany? It's hard to analyse as in s7 Jon suddenly started to fall for her after she came to rescue him when in previous episode he tell her they were strangers. In s8 there was scene after dragon ride their first kiss was romantic before he got scared. In ep4 when Dany says she loves him the kiss was romantic. But otherwise the framing and chemistry was awful.

Honestly? No, not really. Jon’s character in the later seasons somehow managed to be both a clusterfuck and a snoozefest, but ultimately falling in love with Dany is just not something I think Jon would have ever been capable of.

I mean, the massively consistent aspects of Jon’s character that have always existed within him no matter what are that A. he loves his family more than anything, B. he has literally devoted his life to protecting the North, and C. he idolizes, wants to be like, and is more similar to Ned than any of the Stark children. So let’s think about that in the context of Jon’s meeting with Dany and his entire relationship with Dany.

So Jon does something astoundingly stupid that no other king or queen would do, he goes to Dragonstone with zero information about Dany aside from the fact that she is incredibly powerful and about to invade Westeros/destroy the Lannisters. Taking down the Lannisters would be plus in Jon’s book, but I don’t know that that’s enough for him to not be massively concerned about her being an insanely powerful invader. He takes a horrible risk on the complete long shot that he can convince Dany to come North and save his family and his people, because that is how important it is to him.

And what is Dany’s reaction to that? She not only says she won’t help unless he submits to her, someone who he literally just met who appears to be the most dangerous person on the planet in terms of raw power, but she literally takes him hostage despite the fact that Jon is so comparatively powerless. She immediately makes it clear that he’s a rebel and essentially that she’s probably not going to even let him leave until he bends the knee. And what’s worse (which is actually Tyrion’s fault but is something they never clarify and I can’t imagine Jon not loathing her for) is that he was brought there under false pretenses. The letter that Dany sent him inviting him to Dragonstone asked him to “join her to end Cersei’s tyranny,” he didn’t hear shit about bending the knee immediately until he met Dany and literally five seconds after he walked into the room she demanded that he bend the knee.

At this point it’s not as if Jon doesn’t understand political theater at this point, but right off the bat Dany breaks every rule of Westerosi custom and imprisons a literal king to demand that he submit to her or let EVERYTHING HE LOVES DIE while he’s a helpless prisoner. This is the FIRST thing Jon ever learns about Dany. And while Tyrion says that he’s being unreasonable for expecting immediate help and expecting to be believed, it’s like yeah except LITERALLY THE WHOLE ASS REASON HE’S HERE is because Melisandre showed up and was like yo you gotta talk to this kid Jon Snow he’s seen some wild shit and then when he shows up and is like “I’ve seen some wild shit” everyone’s like well clearly you’re insane so we’re putting you in a time out until you return to sanity and bend the knee to a complete stranger. Also not to fucking mention, unless nobody on the island ever brings this shit up, Jon also immediately learns what kind of an ally Dany is because every one of Dany’s other allies is either killed or CAPTURED and she’s just like well bummer for them guess I have to accept that as a loss or wait for them to rescue themselves even though I have three dragons and the biggest army in the world and instead of saving them I can just try to force this new guy to become my “ally” instead (and if the whole political motivation for Jon’s relationship with her stems from this it would make complete sense because he should already know that even those who submit to Dany don’t get her protection or assistance if it doesn’t serve her purpose, so he HAS to get her to feel like he’s more than just her ally).

And despite being obsessed with his bastardy, Jon values nothing more than he values his family, and Dany constantly undervalues, insults, or completely writes off Jon’s family. I actually think that’s understandable from Dany’s perspective because she only knows of familial abuse, but there is no world in which I can believe Jon would take her ignoring the fact that Robb literally died to free his people, or implying that Ned was cool with goddamn child murder, or accusing Sansa of being an evil schemer because she’s angling to keep the North free very well, and two of those three things are things she does the first time she ever speaks to Jon.

And finally, Jon wants to BE Ned. That is literally the person he has admired and emulated more than anyone, to the point where it’s almost an unhealthy obsession for him. Jon knows that Ned would choose to do the right thing over pretty much everything else. Jon knows that Ned is the type of person who would die saving the children of his enemies. I cannot fathom a world in which he would even consider loving anyone who let thousands of innocent people die for their own political gains. But again, Daenerys makes it clear the very first time that he meets her that that’s what is happening right now. She’s willing to use “her kingdom” as a political pawn that she won’t have a second thought about sacrificing in order to gain Jon’s submission. I think there was a chance that he could have truly liked her or even loved her if she just hadn’t come in so insanely hot the very first time that they met, but frankly the very first moment that they meet she shows Jon that she is exactly like Cersei, she will literally use an existential threat to all life as a tool to her political advantage regardless of the fact that it is a fucking EXISTENTIAL THREAT TO ALL LIFE.

So I think no, there is zero chance that Jon could ever love a person like that, and I think that legit the minute that he met her he put himself in a completely political mindset and was willing to do whatever he had to do to get Dany to actually help him. I just cannot imagine a world in which Jon freaking Snow would even feel a shred of respect or non-dislike towards someone who would do that, let alone liking them or loving them, and I sincerely think that within their first conversation Dany ensured that Jon would never have any real feelings for her. I understand why so many people are confused by their relationship because it is confusing as fuck, but I actually feel like D&D very absurdly overtly put so much shit that Jon would absolutely loathe into their relationship straight off the bat that regardless of anything that happened afterwards I just cannot fathom Jon Snow essentially overlooking every single thing he hates or has no respect for in this world to realize that Dany is actually the one true benevolent queen, or even a halfway likable person in his eyes.

#Anonymous #anti jonerys #jon snow #anti daenerys targaryen #anti jonerys meta #jon snow meta #anti daenerys targaryen meta #got #got meta #political!jon

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haissitall · 4 years ago

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Season 2 of DSMP as a wonder tale

So I’ve read Morphology of the Tale and Historical Roots of the Wonder Tale by Propp and thought, hey, why not analyse DSMP S2 as one would analyse a wonder tale based on the theories of this author? The results are under the cut.

Disclaimer: Read this through an ironic lens. I know that season 2 was (probably) not intended to be a wonder tale. However, connecting dots which weren’t meant to be connected is my passion.

1. THE BEGINNING

The tale begins with the introduction of the hero (Tommy) and his home (L’manburg and its’ inhabitants). Tommy goes out (a function of absentation, he leaves his home) and goes against an interdiction, a rule of. Uh. Not burning other people’s houses. Which, coincidentally, is exactly what the villain lurking in the shadows, Dream, needs. Dream applies trickery with the purpose of kidnapping Tommy. What happens is, quote, “He [the villain] demands or lures out his victim. Sometimes this form is a consequence of a deceptive contract.” As we all remember, the contract is exactly what took place.

This leads to Dream taking Tommy with him, or a departure.

2. THE EXILE

Here we have to talk a bit about Historical Roots. Propp suggests that the root of such a tale lies in the ritual of initiation, which in itself is based on the idea that the initiated goes through death, being in the world of the dead and returning, resurrecting, being born anew. Such rituals were practiced in secret, children were taken to a small hut, usually in the woods, and had to go through some trials, sometimes purely ceremonial, sometimes actually quite cruel, to make them believe that they are going through death. After such a ritual they were meant to become adults and receive some kind of magic powers, usually connected to the powers of talking/luring/becoming like the animals. In fairytales it is represented by the hero encountering some kind of a small structure and meeting a character, a donor, who puts the hero through some kind of a trial (sometimes just giving them a question and waiting for the correct answer) and, after that, giving the hero a magical object/entity/ability, the helper. But, as the rituals became more and more obsolete, people’s opinions of them started to change, they stopped seeing them as necessary, as good. Thus the witch in the hut becomes stricktly evil, a hostile donor, the trial with fire - burning in the stove, and the children are meant to escape and punish her.

With all that said, let’s look at the exile and its attributes.

1) Dream takes Tommy on a long journey by water. Only Ghostbur, a dead man, can come with him. It is obviously meant to represent that Tommy starts crossing the line between the world of the dead and the living. The forest is replaced by an ocean, not an unusual occurance in tales. 2) They settle on a shore. Tommy is not completely in the land of the dead yet - he is at the entrance. Dream only guards this land. 3) As the first order of business, Dream builds a small dirt hut. Nuff said. 4) Dream tortures Tommy, positioning himself as a hostile donor who wants to destroy the hero. So far Dream played both the role of The Villain and The (hostile) Donor (guardian of the land of the dead), which, while unusual in the actual fairytales, is possible. 5) Dream wears a mask. Clear indication of this being picked up from a ritual. 6) Dream turns into a woman (mamacita). While it is a weird episode, with the help of The Historical Roots it is easy to explain - sometimes men who performed the ritual dressed as women. 7) Tommy goes through temporary insanity (doubting if he sees Tubbo or not) - another aspect of this stage sometimes seen in tales, connected to the mental distress children went through because of the violence and/or drugs during the ritual. 8) Dream gifts him a trident. Sadly, only temporarily. It would’ve been a perfect fit if Tommy kept it - a magic method of flying, something a donor like Dream gifts/is stolen from very often in tales. 9) Tommy “dies”. At the end of the exile Tommy actually performs a ritual, metaphorical death by jumping of off the pillar into the water. It is worthy to note that everyone thinks he is actually dead after that, which we will see come into play later. 10) Tommy leaves dirty, in rags. Usually it happens when a character returns to the land of the living, but here it can be considered as a metaphor of learning how to turn into an animal and escape Dream via such means. Quote: “In a tale, it is hard to distinguish between a dirty and an animal-like character.” Tommy, of course, calls himself a racoon. It is possible to assume that Dream somehow gave him this ability unknowingly, by giving him/making him wear dirty clothes, although there is no proof of this in the text. 11) Tommy has difficulty talking about the exile. A hero not being able to talk, especially about what happened in the magical forest, is a common occurance in tales, connected to the secrecy of the rituals. 12) Dream chases Tommy. Not immediately, but there definetely is an element of the chase. Usually this trope happens closer to the end of the tale, but it is possible to see it this early too.

3. TECHNOBLADE

We turn our gaze to Historical Roots again. Besides the witch’s hut, there is another structure a hero can see in the woods - a big house. Its attributes are usually: large size, riches/a lot of food inside, no one is home at the moment, is inhabited by men (usually several who are like brothers to each other), a secret basement. Propp explains this as reminiscent of men’s houses, somewhere where men usually lived as brothers after the ritual described above. They were still in this forbidden territory, not quite “alive”, only doing hunting. The newcomers were to serve the rest of men at first.

Now let’s look at the encounter.

1) Tommy finds Techno’s house empty. Inside, he sees riches, particularly food. He proceeds to hide there. 2) Tommy finds golden apples and golden blocks. Gold always indicates things from the beyond, and sometimes it indicates the object the hero searches for. 3) Technoblade is half-man half-pig. Being an animal/having animalistic traits is very common for all inhabitants of the land of the dead, the owners of the big house included (in some tales they are bears, for example). 4) Technoblade finds Tommy and asks to serve him for a certain amount of time. A classic trope, where Techno is clearly The Donor asking for a favor in return to which the hero should get The Helper. 5) After Tommy agrees, Techno shows him the secret basement. In tales, the basement usually contains one or both of these things: a magical object (The Helper) and dead, dismembered bodies (think Bluebeard). In our case, it’s both: the magic armour which Tommy shortly gets and the skulls. The skulls are, of course, of the people Techno’s killed, and, since he big house’s inhabitants in certain cases can be associated with cannibalism (and since Techno is a pig, a gluttonous animal), he’s probably eaten his victims as well. That’s why Tommy is so horrified when he sees them. 6) Techno hides Tommy from Dream chasing him. In this case he takes on the role of the Helper. We can also make an assumption that he grants Tommy invisibility (another very common fairytale gift). Now, was the armor Tommy got from the basement making him invisible? There is no proof in the text, but it seems logical. 7) Tommy performs Techno’s tasks, all very fairytale-like. Get him a pack of wolves, get him lost magical objects. 8) In gratitude, Techno gives the final gift - the magical axe, fulfilling his duty as The Grateful Donor. 9) Tommy returns home invisible, unrecognisable, everyone thinks that he is dead. This completely fits the trope which stems from the original meaning of the ritual - the initiated died and returned a new person. Him being invisible means him still belonging to the world of the dead.

4. TWO PHASES

This is the point where we start facing complications. After Tommy runs away from Dream and seemingly returns home, the cycle begins anew - Tommy’s home gets destroyed, he gets helpers, has to seek Dream out etc. The fairytale having two “phases” is not uncommon. Propp: “Development from Villany or Lacking to Wedding or any other resolution can be called a tale. The resolution can be <...> escape from a pursuer. Such a development can be called an act (a phase). Each new Villainy, each new Lacking creates a new phase. One tale can have several phases. <...> One phase can follow another, but they can intertwine as well, the first phase can halt, a new phase gets inserted.” I presume that this is what we’re dealing with here. While there is not a lot of connecting tissue between the phases in our fairytale, there is proof that they are parts of the whole. For example, a tale can be considered whole if “a magical object, received in the first phase, gets used in the second”, which, in our case, is the axe.

So let’s look at how the second phase begins.

1) Tommy gets accused of something he hasn’t done. In tales the second phase usually begins with the hero being unrecognised while a false hero claims the reward. Here we see a very different form, but the motif of a certain substitution and of the hero having to prove himself again is still here. 2) Dream is, again, the Villain, tricking Tubbo into giving away a magic object, the discs. The discs are seemingly a talisman, providing the city of L’Manburg with protection. Without them, the city is open for an attack.

5. THE DRAGON

The dragon, according to Propp, is a very complex character with a lot of meanings. Firstly, it needs to be said that the dragon can be any animal. Usually it is, of course, a serpent, but in a lot of cases it is a fish or something else. So, the dragon is someone who swallows, thus, in come cases, taking the hero to the land of the dead in his belly or having the land of the dead right inside of him. Inside, the hero can find riches/magical objects. This is, again, connected to the initiation ritual, with the hut sometimes being seen as an animal, swallowing the initiated. As the public opinion about such rituals changed, the dragon morphed: a good guy who gratiously spits you out > you have to make him spit you out > having to cut your way out > someone else cutting you out > just killing him with the threat of swallowing being only a threat. The dragon has a lot of attributes, sometimes all of them at the same time. The dragon is associated with water (he’s a fish or controls the rivers or the rain etc), with mountains (caves), fire (breathes fire, guards a river of fire) and being able to fly. The dragon sometimes has a lot of heads, multiplying his ability to swallow.

With this said, let’s look at who destroys L’Manburg.

- Technoblade can fire rockets. He wears red. He has a golden crown and an intrinsic connection to gold with his simularity to a piglin (gold, according to Propp, is a metal of the sun, of fire). In addition to that, Propp has an example of a fairytale where the serpent turns into a giant pig. Also, let’s not forget that Techno can float while firing rockets. - Philza has a flying element to him. - Dream has a connection to water (took Tommy to exile by water), has a connection to the land of the dead (see exile), and mountains (first met Techno on the cliff near the sea, again, water). In the first season, Wilbur called him a lizard. Later you will, of course, see that Dream has even more simularities with the dragon.

But who is the dragon? The answer is simple: all of them are part of the same creature. Three heads of one body, all representing certain aspects of the dragon. Usually the dragon is a hybrid between a serpent and a bird, but here we see an addition of a pig. I don’t see why not.

6. THE SECOND JOURNEY

After an act of villainy (the destruction of L’Manburg), thus, another exile, Tommy has to embark on another journey to the beyond to prove himself. Now he has more of a purpose, he has to search for the magical disks, a very fairytale motivation, and, supposedly, slay the dragon as revenge. Tubbo also somehow plays into all of this. I would say that Tubbo is very close to being The Princess. Dream doesn’t kidnap Tubbo, but he later holds him hostage and threatens his life. It is not accidental that the season ends with Tommy and Tubbo sitting on the bench together - not like Tubbo was the second main character; Tubbo is Tommy’s prize along with the discs.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. With typical for the second phase swifteness, we go through:

1) Tommy getting a crossbow from Ghostbur. Ghostbur is a classic Donor, he is the grateful dead realtive, a very common trope for Donors. 2) Tommy acquires Punz as his Helper by bribing him.

7. THE FINAL BATTLE

During the final, we see all the previous elements, repeating in perfect harmony.

1) Tommy has to get to Dream by boat. See getting to the place of the exile. He’s returning to the land of the dead. 2) He has to have a magical object, a compass, to lead him there. Dream again becomes a Hostile Donor when giving it to Tommy. 3) Dream is on the giant mountain, guarding the entrance to where the discs, the searched object, are. A classic place for a dragon to be. 4) Tommy uses the axe and the crossbow to fight Dream, utilizing his Helpers. 5) However, he wins with neither: Dream leads him to the cave deep underground. I would suggest that this can be interpreted as dragon Dream swallowing him. 6) Inside Tommy finds himself deeper in the afterlife. Here he sees the disks on the golden blocks (remember what gold means? the beyond and the searched object) and dead animals, Henry and Friend, just in case you still haven’t realised that this place is where the dead go. 7) Only the third (three - a magic number in tales) Helper, Punz, cuts Tommy out of the beast’s belly in complete compliance to tales’ canon. Usually the one to win is not even the hero, but his helpers. However, the helpers act on the hero’s will, are continuations of him and his virtues, are him in a way. 8) Tommy hears dead Wilbur afterwards. Why? Because Tommy himself just returned from the land of the dead, of course. 9) Tommy slayed the dragon, got the searched objects and Tubbo. And they lived happily every after. Or, at least, in this fairytale.

8. THE CONCLUSION

There is none. Make of this mess what you will.

It is interesting, however, that season 2 so heavily foreshadowed: Dream standing between the lands of the dead and the living (driving the boat, guarding the cave, later - conducting the train and literally resurrecting people); Tommy dying and being ressurected.

Tommy’s prison visit is a perfect miniature of the initiation/the tale actually. 1) The Prison stands on water, but to get there you have to get into a small house on the land. You have to go through the portal, wait, and then get through it again - a very magic-esque procedure. 2) The Prison is massive, much like all the castles in the beyond. 3) The guard has to let you inside. The guard is not human. The guard wears a golden crown. 4) You have to go through trials to get inside, including the trial by water (swimming through the tube) and fire (walking through lava). 5) In the end, Tommy dies, gets resurrected and walks out. Everyone looks at him differently now. The only thing in this which doesn’t fit the unsual tale format, is that Tommy gets nothing out of this. No rewards, no money, no princess :(

Cheers, thanks for reading! uwu

#dream smp analysis #tommyinnit #dreamwastaken #dream smp #long post

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