#episode 4 related

[spacebugarts]

Just finished the new TADC episode and had an interesting thought; when the show first came out we were all thinking one of the main characters might abstract, but what if it isn't one of the humans? It seems like they're remembering bits and pieces from their real lives, like Gangle being a shift manager with dreams of becoming an artist and Ragatha missing her horses and full-on quoting Raggedy Ann & Andy in the new episode, while Caine has seemingly been getting more unstable as he realizes his adventures aren't fun for the others. If a main PC abstracts Caine can judt throw them in the basement, but if he abstracts, how will the others be able to stop him from wreaking havoc, and how would his corruption effect the world he created? I think that'd be pretty neat, and im super excited to see what happens next!

[saint-miroir]

Yu☆Gi☆Oh!-- Animedia Magazine (05/1998)

[coffin-ramblings]

Ashley is "very not good" and "in fact very bad". That is what the promo card tells us.

The flippant attitude to cannibalism and murder, the abuse and manipulation of Andrew, and constant death threats to Julia prove that, so why do they need to say that? Isn't that enough to prove that she's a bad person? On the same promo, we are told Andrew "exists" and is a "doormat extraordinaire", which while true, is a lot more complicated than it looks. He does not just "exists", he was the one who raised Ashley thus one of her "creators", and he is not that much of (if he ever was) a doormat extraordinaire, he lets Ashley make the choices because it's what he wants, and has asserted power several times throughout the game for his and Ashley's benefit. So is what the promo says about Ashley completely true in light of that? Is the truth perhaps a lot more complicated, as it was with Andrew?

Furthermore, it's quite odd how Ashley is quick to accept being called a "tar soul" and how she implies she's a bad person too when she and Andy buried Nina's body.

And in Decay vision, if she kills Andrew, she goes on a rant about how she's glad he's dead, despite it clearly being the worst thing she has ever experienced.

While it's easy to think that she's having a mental breakdown and saying stuff out of madness, I have seen someone (can't find the post though) argue that this is Ashley's attempt to continue her self-narrative that she is a "bad person". She believes no one likes her because she's a bad person. She thinks not even Andrew likes her, and she "has to" drag him the "good person" to be her level of the "bad person" to keep him stuck with her. And when she kills her brother, her parent, her best friend, her soulmate, her everything, she immediately jumps to the justification that she is glad that he died instead of being devastated that he tried to kill her, because bad people can't feel remorse and heartbreak from having to kill someone they love, right?

And I'm inclined to agree with them. Ashley's thought process of pranking Nina is that she'll have her back as a friend after she learns her "lesson", even though she isn't happy being constantly left out or avoided by her.

She didn't hate Nina then, she was afraid of being even more lonely than before if Nina takes Andrew's attention away from her. And her initial reactions to Nina's death was to go "oops", try to justify why she died, cover it up by burying her, and after she's buried, Ashley says that she can just forget about her by not thinking about her for a long time.

That is not the reaction of someone "bad" reveling in their victory of an innocent person's death and trying to get away with it, that is the reaction of a kid who went through something traumatic, not want to get in trouble for it, and trying to rationalize it with something that sounds like an adult in their life (Renee?) would say. Then their brain triggers dissociative amnesia because remembering it would cause great stress and PTSD. Given how stressful Leyley's life was and still is, it makes sense that's her brain's main coping method, and Nina's death was just another instance of it shunting trauma away in an attempt to keep PTSD from happening. It is likely that amnesia made Ashley quite forgetful, as dissociative amnesia does not affect just one singular event, it also affects other memories as an overprotective measure. This also may be why she develops such a flippant attitude to their crimes: joking about them helps her not have to confront the weight of what they just did. Thus, even that attitude being a marker of her being a "bad person" is more questionable. Really, her actions that have the intent to directly harm people are what her make a bad person, but I digress.

The idea that her flippant attitude is perhaps not a good marker of her being a "bad person" is best shown in Episode 1 after they eat the neighbor. Ashley is made aware that her devil-may-care attitude is quite abnormal and worrying for Andrew, which worries her. If she talks before going to bed, she gets visibly confused and worried at Andrew saying she needs to see a professional.

When he later asks how she's so unbothered by the cannibalism, she replies she says she compartmentalizes nervously, which she then follows up afterwards with a joke to not have to dwell on it.

That specific coping method of compartmentalization is the same thing Andrew's brain does in his dream in Episode 2, where it ends with him having a flashback of burying Nina.

In fact, it's interesting how we never get to see adult Ashley's every day psyche. This is not the same as seeing her thoughts and perspectives in the waking world, nor is it the same as the Burial vision where it's Ashley's self-narrative of her life from childhood to adulthood and how she potentially changes it. We never get to see her dream without it being a vision, a glimpse of what her mind looks like in the present processing her experiences in the every day and the past.

This is particularly crucial because while Nina appears while Andrew's brain is doing its standard compartmentalizing of Andrew's current stresses, the only times Nina appears in Ashley's head (outside of Burial vision) were flashbacks of when she is doing this as a child. While it's framed as the moment when Andrew "proves" his devotion to her, flashbacks similar to PTSD ones can happen alongside dissociative amnesia, and they do occur in dreams. Even though Ashley has forgotten Nina's name and eyes, she is always there, haunting her dreams.

This all suggests that the plot twist of our perceptions of the characters in episode 3 is that when we finally get to play Ashley in her normal dreams or see her mental breakdown (maybe if she kills Andrew?), we find out that she feels some sort of guilt for Nina's death and perhaps their other crimes. Even though she insists to herself she doesn't feel guilt about that because she is a "bad person", it is all a lie that she manages to convince to herself and the audience. This would be very shocking as we're in her head a lot of the time, so we'd assume she can't lie to us. But she has all along, just like how Andrew has to us.

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

[anotherferalrat]

Has this been done yet?

[oyeixcher]

[an-theduckin]

The stage is empty; no one will notice your mistakes

[ashersbraincell]

Felt this alot

[dead-inside-demiboy]

Damn was not expecting to see a really accurate reflection of my Manic Episodes, including being scared when it lasts too long, feeling not yourself, accidently hurting others around you, heavy dissociation, feeling like the mania is its own constricting mask you're forcing up, impulsive and self destructive behavior, guilt, and the belief that everyone hates you afterwards THANKS GLITCH

[secriden]

so beer has become my favourite basically instantly. boy is the only voice of reason and logic in this friend group and holds 95% of the braincells (the remaining 5% is shared between god, bew, and wan) but also i love how he kind of has the air of fond exasperation for them and just accepts the shenanigans whilst doing his best to keep them on task.

i love how intuitive he seems, and how he notices when diew is feeling overwhelmed or when god has a serious reason for acting strange so he kind of tries to get wan and/or bew to back off. just the natural way the actor portrays the character Noticing Stuff and Reacting in emotionally intelligent ways is very pleasing to me.

also i'm loving the bestfriends to lovers trajectory that is happening (i hope!!) with beer and wan!! they're clearly so comfortable around each other and are genuinely good friends and know and accept each other, foibles and all. but there's just this very deep, calm affection between them although its more obvious from beer to wan because they show us the tiny little sweet things he does. *gets emotional about laundry and chopsticks*

but its not like wan oblivious either~ there's definitely some reciprocation, even if it's teasing and playful at this point. like i get the sense that wan doesn't quite know what he wants either at this point.

i'm excited to see where this show goes! the characters seem compelling so far and the story is simple but there's hints of there being more depth which i'm intrigued by.

[littlespoonevan]

i know s7 is effectively a chess board in which tim minear is moving all of his pieces right where he wants them so he can get Back To Business™ in s8 but oh what i would give right now for an episode a la stuck or pinned or future tense with 3-4 low stakes calls that all somehow tie in with the name of the ep and link thematically with the main characters' individual plot lines

[fine-nephrit]

🥏 TXF Fic Rec #46: "Ouroboros" by neednot

The final scene of “Never Again” in the basement office is loaded. “This is my life.” “But it’s …” Then, a tense silence falls, begging for further exploration. Today’s rec is that cathartic, NSFW post-ep we know we want—raw, angsty, unadulterated smut.

---

🥏 on AO3

author: @neednottoneed length: short, 1700+ words season: season 4, 4x13 Never Again pairing(s): M/S first-time tags: episode-related, smut, angst rating: explicit/NC-17

Tagging @today-in-fic

[amandamadeathing]

Happy anniversary to Star Wars! (And coincidentally Return of the Jedi).

This Barbie Movie image reminds me of what happened back on the Millennium Falcon. I think I'll draw them like this.

[kmesons]

dakkar echoing margaret's words from margaret and the moon in arrival part 2? to her?? to reassure her??? as her brother??? I'm going insane

[thegalaxytraveler]

you know, it feels kinda ironic to have watched that episode while on the clock.

[thebest-medicine]

(I’m watching mha for the first time through) and ok so like…. Hawks’ quirk is literally controlling every feather in his wings individually????????…. how ler of you sir