#but due to some internal fucked up logic she doesn't go through with it

[direwombat]

jacob in the damaged (the slasher au) is so funny. he coerces syb into letting him kidnap help her after he finds out she's a spree killer on the run from the feds because he's just. intrigued by the shit she's got going on and then later, in the same moment he fully intends on killng her (after she tries to escape from him) he falls in love because instead of pleading for her life (as all his previous victims had) she just laughs in his face <3

[jesteriajunovix]

(Spoilers) Just a Reminder to Curly Sympathizers

Jimmy and Curly are not "Problematic Favs". They're literally thematic vessels for THE problem.

CW: Mentions of SA, and Abuse

Curly (And Pony Express as a Company) Never Cared to give Anya Pysche Evals. Curly only started to care for that when it doubled as an occupational hazard to him and his image.

Curly actively vouches for Jimmy as a crew member despite his "struggle" on earth. I don't see how it'd be far-fetched to assume that involves some form of Misconduct with the fact Curly literally says

"You've gotten through difficult situations before" RIGHT AFTER talking to Anya the actual Victim.

Curly doesn't understand why Anya was talking about the locks on the sleeping quarters and moves past it to reinforce the company's logic. [The Company and Curly can not be bothered to consider or provide actual safety for women. It is an afterthought that resembles a cruel apathy towards women's perspectives in a corporate work environment.]

Would Curly have given the gun to Anya if she asked? Probably not. While that is somewhat debatable It rings to the shitty isolated environment where Anya would have to take up such a mindset. Not to mention Curly is clearly super pals with Jimmy, so if that was a concern he'd probably take Jimmy's (and the rest of the guys) side considering he later took jimmy's side under the fact he sexually assaulted a woman.

The first thing Curly says to Jimmy after trying to consolidate Anya is "I Can Fix This". Curly enables Jimmy to find ways to get out of taking responsibility for the harm he did to Anya.

Curly buckles to the fact his mind is more focused on his position and reputation as a Captain rather than the personal impact Jimmy's harm has caused Anya. This issue is an occupational obstacle to him first and foremost.

Jimmy: "This can be remembered as a tragedy".

Jimmy: "The Tuplar crew was never found."

Jimmy: "You're standing at the top. Feet in cement. Right?"

Curly: "...Right."

And his complacency and dissonance of that truth leads him to do absolutely nothing.

I have seen so much art, and discourse treating him like he wasn't an active enabler. You know what. Fuck it. Half of this is going to double as an Anya Post. thinking about how people disgustingly twist her character to redeem two shitty men who are completely at fault irks me so much.

Anya

The fact that Anya doesn't really get to build herself as a character outside of the scenes that reinforce her tragedy, and antagonist environment feels super sucky.

The purpose of such a narrative direction is of course meant to feed into Jimmy's resentful apathetic attitude towards her, and emphasize the cold unfeeling corporate entity that hired her to be on the tulpar, but as a narrative choice, it still feels rather cruel to take in. Jimmy literally erases her personhood from his mind and only internalizes her presence as a threatening womb while taking the rest of the games runtime to focus on himself and the other men on board.

I see many renditions of Anya in fanart. Adding to her character in ways people weren't really given the time to appreciate or take in during the actual game due to how little she's left with.

I find her canon resolution both annoying and interesting due to this type of interaction where the fans are being pushed towards an interpretive play pen where they are motivated to give Anya more characteristics, quirks, and perspectives than she was allowed to have or emphasize within the game.

Using such field of creative deliberation to redeem the men that actively harmed her is such a gross way to use that play pen.

To get into some interpretations

A pretty important moment occurs after Anya runs out of the medical room during the painkiller scene with the thought:

"I have to believe that our worst moments don't make us monsters"

I think there are quite a few different ways to take this line in this moment, but to share my own perspective I believe it most likely stems from these potential factors:

Anya is trying to maintain a metric of empathy and trust to continue to control herself in the current conditions and stresses she's under at this moment. The needs of the crew can not be upheld without this kind of thinking while under the orders of her abuser.

Anya still cares for Curly and is disconnecting the harm he caused from the rest of his humanity as a person who is also suffering.

Anya is reflecting on her own legitimacy while the internalized trauma she went through makes her feel alienated from herself. Accepting the actual piece of shit that is Curly allows her to hold faith in herself as a person through the shared correlation of pain and "mistakes" as she percieves it bonding her with Curly.

While somewhat ambigous I think its important to generally understand these types of potential layers when interacting with the themes and subjects presented by Anya as a character. Ideas which are critical and dissective of Anya as an actual Subject above a simple generalized understanding of her peripherally as a victim.

also Idea 2 doesn't make Curly vindicated. Curly was the only member that Gave Anya some sense of care (As ingenuine as that care was). That dependency is toxic and was unfortuately potentially of mental necessity to Her. To reframe it as a point for Curly to show he was better than what he presented himself to be so deeply annoys me with how uncritical that reframing is when addressing the actual faults and mentality that led him to his bedridden state. With how little Anya is already focused on, it feels like that interpretation and dynamic hands Curly the position of "Subject" while Anya still remains an "Event" to some people.

That kind of thinking not only significantly reeks of a lack of indulgence in actually trying to further interpret the facets presented in Anya's character, position, and mental state, but also dilutes the meaning to be had in analyzing Curly as an enabler. The framing of Curly as an "Enabler in Rehab" or "Tragic Casualty" feels so utterly ignorant, redundant, and enigmatic to my senses when he is so utterly undeserving compared to Anya who barely gets any other elaboration or analysis from the community outside of "awww wasn't that sad" or sensationalization around "The Event".

I WOULD go into Anya's logic leading up to her death, but thats a post and analysis for a different tumblr user to take care of. I honestly just gradually have developed new ways to hate the Mouthwashing fandom, so I really needed this to make mental space for the next few horrible bizarre takes i'll inevitably see about this game.

[maddiemuu]

🌻🌻🌻🌻🌻 W BERNADETTE. PLS.

HI HELLO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG!!!! i had a Week. putting this under a cut bc it is soo long LMAO

cw for mention of miscarriage + fatphobia/negative body image stuff + some descriptions of like. emotional abuse/shitty family dynamics. mom and dad berkshire suck real bad.

ummmm in short. itsa very bad. in long. bernadette has Many issues. here r some of her most defining ones (to me):

ok so first r her anger issues lol. bernadette is fucking MEAN which is extra bad bc she is very easily pissed off and does not rly bother controlling most of her impulses re:anger. she's fully aware of how unlikely she is to face consequences for her actions, so she can't really internally justify doing anything differently. like why bother lol.

NEXT r her wacko relationships with her siblings + by extension their horrible horrible parents. she especially has a MAJOR inferiority complex centered around her relationship w/ her younger sister beatrice. she HHHHATES beatrice, which is very funny to me bc beatrice is 16. bernadette has insane one sided beef with her despite being a full decade older. she fully views beatrice as like. the kid her parents had to spite her for not being "good enough" as a daughter which like. ok not an entirely inaccurate read on why beatrice exists. their parents should definitely not have had even one child, much less three. but here we are. bernadette blames beatrice for a lot of her mistreatment/role as the scapegoat as the family (the logic being that without beatrice around, there wouldn't be anyone around to make her look worse by comparison lol) even though that is entirely illogical + her parents DEF would have just found someone else to pit her against. bernadette is a lot closer with bentley due to a lot of diff factors, but she does still resent him a fair bit lol. they look very similar, and it especially makes her pretty upset that he doesn't get the same shit for being fat that she does. she just generally thinks he gets things pretty easy for being a man and being the oldest. he is oblivious to this 👍. bernadette also resents her parents, and has been made VERY aware she is the least favorite child, but instead of choosing to reject the inherently unfairly stacked system they have built, she's managed to convince herself that there's a chance she can earn their approval and love by just Proving how much better she is than her siblings. she is wrong about this ! on some level, she is aware she is wrong. but she's spent most of her life with that bootstrap mentality and is too afraid of what will happen if she gives it up. some fun "spoilers" related to bernadette + her fam's future: she does soooort of get a taste of being the favorite daughter (by default) again when beatrice is 20 and gets disowned for being gay (she is fine. she has her own money + a career by that point), but it's more like... she gets to be the second least favorite LOL. bernadette does also eventually get married but i have been too lazy to design her husband. maybe somedayyy. she really wanted kids and was pregnant twice but ended up miscarrying both times, and then decided she didn't ever want to try again or become a parent through other means. her marriage ends in a MEGA DIVORCE bc she and her husband can never come to an agreement about where to go from there. she never remarries but she can have one or two boytoys i think. a little treat from me to her. (one idea i've tossed around is a childhood friend/child of her parents' friends who has been singularly OBSESSED with her since they were like 12. she was his first kiss. she has forgotten this. He Has Not. she strings him along for her entertainment and he is aware of it but also totally fine with the situation) bentley on the other hand has two daughters and while he and bernadette remain somewhat close for the rest of his life (he dies first lol. in 2034 iirc? clock's a tickin bentley. better get to work on that bucket list) he is definitely (unintentionally) sort of insensitive about this.

related, she's just also generally pretty insecure at her core. the ice queen persona isn't a Lie, it's more of like. an idealized version of herself (to her at least lol). nothing can hurt her that way!!!! she's in control! she is also a major control freak which is really unfortunate bc at the end of the day she really does not control much at all <3. she's especially insecure about her body, which once again was MAJORLY exacerbated by seeing how beatrice was rewarded for being the Pretty, Thin Daughter, while she was the Ugly and Fat one. also did not help that she used to be much thinner and her family will not let her forget that.

ok i am going to cut myself off here i think bc otherwise u will be getting a whole thesis on bernadette. i love her i love talking about her. there is so much wrong with her. thank you SO much for the ask