#i just think the parallels are interesting

[hexhomos]

Jayce/Silco mirroring & other stuff Ive noticed

Starting with the big season 2 opener as pointed out by sage-nebula:

Zaun/Piltover figureheads rushing to save a loved one with their respective creations (Shimmer/Hextech); said creations leading to corruption and a loss of control. Silco frequently referred to as the Industrialist, leading Zaun into a new age, Jayce is posited as the Innovator, making Piltover more profitable than it's ever been. Misery following both choices.

Jayce's endgame look shares a lot of visual aspects with Silco's main coat, incl. the red gilded lapels and all those straps. His body is also being corrupted by hextech into unnatural scar tissue. Scars are more prominent in the wild rift model even if the colors are a bit off from the show itself (2nd pic)

(Text referring to Jayce's new legendary skin, dealing with arcane act3)

And if you remember, these two actually had a pretty big scene in season 1, which echoes the above sentiments and has Jayce pushing a negotiation for Zaun's independence - at this point in time, it's the closest we got to Silco's dream being realized before the big meltdown:

This feels like a really interesting scene now in the context of how he was asked to sacrifice jinx. And now jayce's entire world outlook is shaped by constant sacrifices to avoid impending doom.

There are a few more twisted parallels to this too; silco killing vander, jayce killing viktor in the name of preserving their ideals - vander being mutated by singed, again singed mixing viktor's blood with vanderwick in the act 3 teaser.

Previously I had compared the ep6 jayvik kill circumstances with vander's blinding rage leading him to try and drown silco in the river but I don't think the parallels are so clear anymore. It's looking like the further we go into the story, the more jayce/viktor change into a blur that mixes vander/silco's motivations together - viktor's weird, corrupted peacekeeper front inside the cult and how he connects to vander's memories admiring the man that he was in life. Jayce feeling in the flesh that the only way forward demands firsthand pain and power and sacrifice, not placidity.

Interested to see where act3 viktor goes. Vander working with enforcers = Viktor working with noxus I guess 😭😭 well I just hope they beat eachother 1v1 style. and I hope he ends up following through with his pledge for Zaun's independence

[goldenbunniesxo]

sorry for how long what I add here is but i really liked this post and wanted to add more of my thoughts of how light differs from akechi signficantly - but also how they have a few interesting similarities. I do agree with practically all of this honestly, I do think goro akechi and light yagami are fundamentally very different characters. however, as a big fan of both, i definitely think there's something very interesting about the way masks/personas play different roles in their lives, and how they both have this persona of being a gifted, perfect student. in light's case its a lot more effortless, to the point of it being boring. whereas although i think akechi is very intelligent, i believe that due to his background he needs to put a lot more effort into maintaining that appearance (and juggling being the detective prince + an assasin while light is just doing school like a normal kid - again, privilged.) however, i think the way they both put so much stock into the way they are percieved and crave being Seen so desperately, and navigate social interactions as games to be won in which their natural charisma makes them very adept at is super interesting. ultimately akechi is like, dripping with the desire to be seen but is terrified of it (the horror of being known yadda yadda) and so he gives pieces of himself with every conversation despite his best acting but also contradicts his character at every turn because he's a fractal of masks and persons and never got the space to fully figure out who he *is* (which on a different note is another way that he's such a good contrast and parallel to joker - but i digress). light on the other hand, has a pretty stable sense of self, even though that self signifcantly warps throughout the course of the series, you get the sense that you never lose the fundamentals of what light yagami is (unlike how you are constantly puzzling out akechi's "true nature" altho part of that is bcs we never get to directly be inside his head). light meeting L is the only time he ever gets truly "seen" in death note imo, but the tragedy kind of is that he will literally die if he shows part of his true self (kira - i say part because i dont think kira IS light's true self but just a part of it), so then L is still confronted with light's many masks and his obsession with kira makes you wonder if he could ever see light for all that he was. and like. as @casuistor 's yotsuba light analysis showed, light was also still pretending/acting during the yotsuba arc, that wasn't his whole genuine self, so yk. light is very much an icarian protagonist - a tragedy, a victim of his own making, if you will. things would have always ended up this way for light imo because of the nature of who he is and what he grew up around, and he honestly would have been genuinenly unfillfiled and unhappy in a no death note universe too. light is obsessed with proving to himself that he is a Good Person, and that he did not fail, because when Light accidentally killed two people it freaked him out so bad that he decided he'd become god because god decides what's good or bad, and cannot be judged. the mental gymastics he does to justify his actions to himself is quite frankly hilarious. light is aware althroughout that murder is wrong and bad and that what he's doing is evil but he believes himself a martyr, and justifes bloodying his hands for the sake of Greater Good.

goro akechi never fancies himself a good person. i think even though he doesn't regret killing any of his victims, i think he fundamentally believes that he is a bad person, and goes to great lengths to never excuse or justify his behaviour - which also means just omitting his reasons for it too. akechi doesn't want to be percieved as a victim at all because he hates his agency being taken from his actions. which loops back around to their main difference - akechi's desire for agency, which trumps his desire to be seen, and light's desire to be good, which trumps his desire to be seen.

I feel like when people compare Akechi to Light Yagami, they fundamentally misunderstand his character. Their similarities really end at their designs, and Light is the kind of person Akechi would despise. Light Yagami lives a pretty privileged life at the start of Death Note. He has a stable home, with two parents and a sister who care about him. He's a successful student. There isn't really inherent tragedy to his life. The whole reason he starts using the Death Note is a mix of curiosity and a jaded worldview, and when it works it empowers him, very quickly goes to his head, as he believes he is one who can be a god of a "new world" once the shock of his initial kills wears off. While his first kill was to help someone, that altruism didn't last. He is in charge of his choices, while Ryuk mostly vibes and maybe eggs him on a little. Fundamentally, Light has something Akechi lacks: agency, and a comfortable life he took for granted. Meanwhile, Akechi is someone who lived on the bottom rung of Japanese society. His very existence is shameful there, between his mother being a sex worker, his status as an illegitimate/"throw away" child, and his mother's suicide. Years languishing in a foster system that is notoriously inhumane, in a country where 90% of the adoptions are grown men for inheritance and patriarchal reasons, while very few children in the system find permanent homes. When Akechi awakens his power, he approaches Shido not because he wants to kill people but for a stupid revenge plan cooked up by a traumatized child who's been nudged along by a malevolent god. He wants to build Shido up so that at the height of his power, he can expose him for the monster he really is, while another part of him genuinely wants to be useful to Shido, as Cogkechi later calls out. His feelings are a mess of contradictions, and so it's no surprise that Shido was able to mold him into his assassin at only 15 years old. It's also worth noting that Akechi only approaches Shido with his ability to cause psychotic breakdowns. Shido is the one who teaches and instructs him to do shutdowns. He's still complicit, very sunk cost with his revenge plan, but as I spoke of here, even if he wanted to quit, he couldn't alone. Shido's cleaner and control of the law and ability to effortlessly turn him in would render the Metaverse his only safe haven. I think people look at 11/20 Akechi and Akechi in the early parts of the engine room and assume that's just his "true self," when in reality it's another mask. Royal makes it very clear because in Rank 7, he outright warns Joker of what's to come via a pool metaphor and offers an out (though he's MUCH happier if you don't take it/stick to your principles), and in Rank 8, he goes on that big "I hate you" speech... while Sunset Bridge is playing. Y'know, the song that plays at the end of most confidants to reaffirm bonds. So when he smiles as he shoots what he assumes to be Joker, that doesn't mean he's genuinely happy. More likely, he's an emotional clusterfuck, given he also is disoriented enough to namedrop "Shido-san" over the phone, and in the subsequent meeting with Shido, tells him not to kill the Phantom Thieves and that Morgana is "just a cat." Yes, he says they'll make them fear for the rest of their lives, but remember, he's talking to Shido. The things he says are likely all incredibly calculated to sound appealing to Shido. And when you consider that he planned to utterly destroy Shido's reputation after the election, the "delay" makes even more sense.

Later, Akechi goes on about how the people he induced shutdowns on were deserving of their fates, but I don't think he believes it so much as it's the only way he could convince himself that it was worth it, and given how much society failed him, and given how many of the people he targeted were likely rivals/competitors or rich fucks, I think he'd be less inclined to assume good faith. Kunikazu Okumura was not an innocent little victim, after all. He was one of the people who requested breakdowns and shutdowns the most. I think Akechi enjoyed killing him not because of how it'd hurt Haru, but because of catharsis. Because Okumura is just as monstrous as Shido, so why should he feel remorse? However, I don't believe he feels the same about Wakaba, as when he discusses her with Shido, he mentions how her fate was because she refused to willingly work for him. It's another justification, but I personally think Wakaba's death was the most painful for him because he was effectively making Futaba just like him. That's why I think his reaction to Sae threatening Sojiro's custody was genuine. Anyway, evil grinning Akechi is just another mask, as I said. Keep in mind, this is someone who laments not meeting Joker years ago, someone who Morgana outright points out is lying about his hatred. And that's the thing. Light Yagami, while a really fascinating character, is not someone who had all this childhood suffering or lack of agency. He does not regret his actions in the slightest and goes down due to his own hubris in both the anime and the manga. While you can argue that Ryuk set him up by dropping the Death Note, Light was the one who picked it up and chose to use it. Any nudging from Ryuk didn't coerce Light into doing it because Light seized the opportunity. No, if Light Yagami is like anyone in Persona 5, it's Masayoshi Shido, not Goro Akechi. Both believe they are god/god's chosen, that they are the ones who will reshape the world to their ideals, and to be frank, both use and abuse women to serve their own purposes. Goro Akechi goes down sacrificing himself for the Thieves and pleading with them to stop his father and again in Maruki's reality when he refuses to let Joker accept a gilded prison of a world for his sake when he knows better than anyone what it's like to have no true freedom. If you max his confidant, you see him in the postcredits, leaving his survival entirely possible, and I think it works because at the end of the day, Akechi was meant to be a victim and a foil. Light is a villain protagonist and a cautionary tale. Though its his POV we follow, he isn't someone we're meant to root for, but I definitely don't think enjoying the character is a bad thing at all. He's really interesting! I just think that a lot of the Akechi and Light comparisons are surface level at best.

[rootspiral]

Agatha All Along deep dive: episode 3 part 2

(Wandavision entries: [1][2][3])

(AAA entries: ep1 [1][2][3][4] ep2 [1][2][3][4] ep3 [1][2][3] ep4 [1][2])

alice panics and checks if she still has her mom's amulets, lilia says, you still got them! in a sweet reassuring way. agatha also panics and checks if she has her brooch, but she does it quietly. when she finds the brooch she gives a sigh that no one notices.

I just love the parallels between agatha and alice, a daughter who lost her mother and a mother who lost her son, both grieving, both connected to the Road. but while alice, despite her shyness, is able to express her feelings and find strength and reassurance within her coven, agatha keeps her pain quiet and close to the chest.

checking her exit strategies while the others are still looking around in awe, because she's a) always a step ahead everybody else and b) a huge fucking coward. agatha is never as confident as she seems. was she hoping to bolt the moment billy wasn't looking and leave the others to deal with his mess?

ooh alice is the second to check. that's so interesting, they parallel each other but agatha does things secretly, alice does them openly.

NOT FUNNY, writers

yeah this is not a confident woman. she is terrified

not because babies make her cry or anything. in fact she eats babies, haven't you heard?

agatha is always real mature, but there's something about jen in particular that makes her regress into toddlerdom - and yeah it's funny, but we know agatha does this kind of stuff to mask and deflect, and I think she's especially defensive around jen because she actually respects her and values her opinion! so she has to rebel to that feeling like the true kindergartener she is

sharon dives for the wine, agatha rises a hand to warn her but hesitates. a moment later alice rises a hand and stops her. I'm only seeing this because I'm looking so closely but I'm not dreaming it, am I? this has to be on purpose? and oh my god alice was a cop. what did agatha choose to be under the spell, when she didn't bottle her emotions and guard herself so closely?????

okay okay okay now I'm thinking about moon phases and elements. alice is Fire, agatha is Spirit, would there be a connection? or maybe agatha as Spirit is like the Avatar and has to learn something from each element. from Alice she would learn to listen to her protective instincts - or rather to use them to protect others and not only herself, and that's what would ultimately make her choose to save Billy. I'll keep an eye out for this, maybe I'm on to something? this is Water and Jen's trial tho, so what does she learn from jen?

so jen despite her sarcastic exterior has been very vocal about both billy and sharon not belonging here. now she takes billy to the side and openly warns him. she's very pragmatic and not particularly emotional, she had to grow a lot of armor too, which makes her breaking down and crying in the finale all the more meaningful. the obvious lesson aside (agatha being responsible for jen's trauma), another thing that agatha has to learn from her is moral values. if jen were in agatha's shoes and saw the truth behind the Road you know she would have stopped this whole thing immediately. agatha needs to learn to be the bigger person for once and take things seriously, instead of running away.

we know agatha tolerates and even encourages the rumors about nicky, because the truth is too awful. is that why she's always yapping about hating children and eating babies? dear lord, it's so funny that she's so immature, and at the same time it's not funny at all

no one's judging you honey. you get drunk all you want, you earned it. and fuck these bitches and agatha especially for letting her drink poison - billy gets a pass because he's underage, why doesn't sharon get a pass for being magicless? I'll tell you why, because deep down no one takes her seriously. she's a joke to them.

lol billy's empty hand

agatha you will be ready to tackle him the moment he tries to drink for real. the clowning! all for show. and sharon is already pouring herself a third glass, nothing funnier than self medicating with alcohol, am I right gang?

I adore adore adore adore alice bonding with billy. she tries to do the agatha "i'm too damaged to open up" thing but one sad puppy look and she melts away. because he's just a kid (and a emo hot topic kid at that) and she WILL make him feel accepted no matter how sad inside she is. she's such a good person leave me alone

"so you guys evil, am I right?"

"no no no we have reclaimed that term, that's no longer a slur"

what's your favorite donatella versace impression? mine's alice's

can you guys please stop deadnaming this poor woman?? (spellnaming? magicnaming? wandanaming?)

agatha you are a humongous asshole for only pretending to drink and kathryn hahn you are so funny and so hot and talented

dying future!lilia jumps back in time to tell her coven she loves them and that's the moment she lands on lmaooooo with her face all swollen and everyone panicking and agatha pounding on the door. you don't deserve her love anyway agatha. she will give it to you because she's the better person, but you don't deserve shit

so yeah agatha we've been poisoned and Death's gonna come any minut....

BWAHAHAAHAHAHAAHHAH

that's taking 'deadbeat wife' to a whole other level

bit creepy there, billy. it's like Jigsaw being upset at people not participating in his games

billy: fine I'LL DRINK

agatha running in slowmo: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

you miiight be projecting your issues on that kid a lil bit there, buddy

she might drink the wine to save billy but she'll be an ABSOLUTE TEENY-WEENY BABY about it

such a fun episode

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that would be her last words, folks! aren't we HAVING SO MUCH FUN????

alice always being the first one to run and help and trying to save everyone. just... alice

shoutout to @idkbroletssee and their billy's commentary!

go to episode 3 part 3

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Given we have finally gotten news regarding the anime what do you think about it being an adaptation of the manga?

I have some mixed opinions since we'll be seeing the same story for the 4th time at this point (game/manga/novel/anime) but there does appear to be some differences with each especially with each unique Yuu. I do think the OBs and fight choreography is best animated over a slice of life show.

I'm not expecting any major changes from the manga if any at all but I'm happy to see it animated at all. I do hope it is successful so that the other books get animated. I feel like we are in a purgatory of early TWST with how often we go back to the earlier books in different mediums.

[Referencing this news!]

Gonna be honest with you, I’m kinda numb to getting yet another adaptation of the main story (a story that, mind you, we've already heard ad nauseum). At this point, it really does feel like a never-ending purgatory where we are forced to relive Heartslabyul over and over and over 😅 Of course, I'm still looking forward to seeing the anime and watching some of the more complicated scenes play out (fights, flashback sequences, playing magift/spelldrive, etc.). However, I think I would have preferred something new...? For example, vignettes, the event stories, etc.

The anime being an adaptation of the manga is... fine? But that means the anime may also have the same issues that I have with the manga. Those would be:

We will never really be able to fully bond with or know Yuu on a deeper level since Yuu is constantly changing between books/seasons. We won't get to see how the Yuu of Heartslabyul interacts with characters in later books, we won't get to see how the Yuu of Octavinelle handled the Heartslabyul and Savanaclaw conflicts, etc. We won't see any of them grow or change as a result of interacting with the NRC cast. This sucks particularly because if you really love a particular Yuu, you know they won’t be sticking around.

Despite the Yuus being designed as foils for the OB boys of each respective arc, no special meaningful interactions come out of it. The reader/viewer is just left to draw the parallels but there is never a moment where Yuu and the OB boy reconcile about their similarities/differences, which would actually justify the frequent changing of the POV character.

Barely any alterations are made from the game's story, since the manga isn't allowed to deviate in significant ways. No matter how different the Yuu is, they cannot ever make a decision or even have dialogue that would actually change the story in interesting ways.

General time constraints (manga arcs are 20 chapters, seasons have a limited number of episodes).

Limited showing/screen time of some characters. Because the adaptation will be of the main story, some characters that make very bad first impressions (hi, book 2 Leona… hi, Sebek without the vignettes…) will maintain those bad first impressions and won’t have a chance to redeem themselves simply because the bonus content (vignettes, event stories, etc.) aren’t adapted. Other characters won’t get as much focus simply because they aren’t the OB boys. The former would mainly be a concern for anime/manga-only fans.

Most of my disappointment comes not from reliving the same story, but that we are reliving the same story with minimal changes. I would enjoy adaptations more if they actually played around with the source material and explored new avenues! It feels like a missed opportunity, you know??

As I said earlier in this post, this is NOT meant to be overly negative; this is healthy skepticism. I'd describe myself as still excited, but not as excited as I would be if the anime were about something else set in the Twst world. Hope that makes sense 🙏

I would also caution readers to take my concerns with a grain of salt; for all we know, maybe the anime will add new scenes or fix some of the issues I pointed out. We should wait until the anime is out to judge its content and quality for ourselves.

On a positive note though 🤡 M-Maybe we will see. Shirtless L*ona animated… because… y’know… Episode of Savanaclaw technically canonized it… HAHAHAh JK… unless…? 🥺 👉👈

[legendary-lunatic]

I absolutely love that insight because you’re so right. Magnus is really interesting in that it’s a blend of first person accounts from a largely outsider perspective through statements, and it really does require that the source of the information does have the chance to get away at least long enough to tell the story- which gives us a sense of security but also is rather disturbing when it comes to finding that MANY of them fail to ultimately escape anyways and disappear after the fact.

I think that’s one of the things that makes Jonathan’s role as the Archivist and the Eye so terrifying; Because even after these people get away there is something feeding off of their experience, lingering in the corner of their mind and drawing them back to some of the most disturbing moments of their lives so they can’t move on from it. Jon could have easily been the scariest Avatar of them all had he not fought to maintain his humanity to the degree he did, and the moments where he slipped and we find out what an eldritch horror he is to those living who talked to him personally are creepy as hell.

In a way it’s the Fear to feed off all other fears, and I think it’s fun that that parallel also applies to the listener- we ourselves are voyeurs to all of the bizarre happenings and deriving amusement from their suffering.

But there is certainly a whole toss up regarding choice and inevitability in the Magnus Archives as well. Sometimes we get people who recognize the situation for what it is and have either the opportunity or the character circumstances to survive out of either mental fortitude or luck, but by and large the majority were seemingly picked and doomed to fail for no other reason than they were unlucky. And thats the scary part, as much as I love to champion those that managed to resist. Sometimes you see a spider when you’re a toddler and it comes back to kill you as an adult because F*ck You, that’s why.

The ones like this are thought provoking though, because we wonder if you can just not care enough if it’s possible to avoid the horrors….. But then there’s also the Homophobic Vase-

‘Do Not Open’ is still one of my favorite episodes because of this absolute legend. He’s at the top of my list of badass people who survived encounters because they just ain’t with that shit.

An icon.

[homeofhousechickens]

Arctic Eggs and CHICKENS ramble

There is a ton of themes and stuff and different interpretations going on in this game but Im going to just talk about the chickens an the stuff i noticed.

To start off, the chickens are modeled after a red sex link production hens a type of hen bred for egg production at the cost of their lifespan. Battery hens rarely make it past their second birthday. Im not sure if the devs chose this breed on purpose or if it was just what a generic chicken looked like in their mind. Maybe they chose this breed because a white chicken would be washed out in the arctic environment.

The game starts with the player looking at the chickens in the cages and it brings up a lot of questions. Why are there so many chickens? Why are we the player character here? After you walk through this poultry prison you are tasked with the job of a poultry prepper meaning you cook eggs. It doesn't matter how many eggs you drop there is always more to fall into your pan. Its interesting to me that there is a surplus of chickens and eggs but their is apparently a food shortage going on in the game.

I think the player character has much more in common with the battery hens then they realize. It doesn't matter though you are greeted with the first line in the game, "Can you fry eggs ontop of Mount Everest?" It seems like and irrelevant question and in a way it is.

This game is quick to show you that you have very little freedom, same with the people you are cooking for. A lot of people are hungry and its not really for food is it? You cook cigs, bullets, beer, sardine cans and cockroaches. Eggs are not the only thing on the menu.

As you play the game multiple people tell you they are caring for the chickens but they are worried about what happens to them when they get taken away. Many seem quite distraught that they aren't being told what is happening to them especially since eating poultry has been banned (but not eggs). Some people still think about eating the chickens but are quickly disgusted by it soon after. One person even said they all "taste like tomatos now"

We can almost see this worry about caring for something and having it be taken away paralleled to the robot prisoners and their cockroaches, one of them weeping over the roaches you cooked for them like they were their own children. We can assume people also get taken away in this game, we see the prisons and the discarded brain in the garbage after all. Maybe this isnt about losing the chickens or the roaches? Maybe the poeple raising the chickens wish to know if they are being eaten?

There is no privacy in this game, people squat over toilets full of feces in front of everyone and the prisoners do the same as the guards watch. It reminds me of the conditions of a chicken battery cage, cramped and full of feces. These people are living very similar lives to the chickens with little freedom to choose how they live.

After feeding the necessary amount of people you go and meet the Saint of Six Stomachs, the supposed ruler/dictator of this place. He is an amalgam of organs and.. chickens? To me It is implied 3 of his stomachs are hens. You see these trapped chickens right before you see his face. Perhaps this is why chickens are banned because the Saint is made up of chickens, maybe this is where the chickens who are taken away go. This part of the Saint's anatomy fascinates me. You go and cook the hens 6 eggs.

Afterwards you are met with the Saint's head eerily making eye contact from their glass container. After cooking his egg he asks "Can you fry eggs ontop of Mount Everest?" He says he never thought about it since it was irrelevant to him. He is right about that, how would someone in his situation even think about doing that, like you and the chickens he is trapped. Just like to the player character it is a nonsense question that is irrelevant.

The credits roll after you grasp the saints hand, you pilot some kind of fighter plane to a mountain where you have a serious crash landing. As you and your friend look over the wreckage (where you may have died in tbh) you ignore your objective of frying eggs since you abandoned your pan at the Saint's and climb the mountain finding a chicken out of her cage perched on a rock. Maybe the chicken is here because you need an egg or maybe she is here because she made the choice to be. It is quite likely the player character will die on the mountain or is already dead.

The game ends after you slowly reach out and pet the chicken.

This game is absurd and challenging. The surreal vibes can kind of make it easy to not take it seriously especially with all the silly dialog but there is something very special about this game and what it is saying. I think it really "gets" chickens as a symbol as well and it was nice to see a game really use them for its story.

[ropebunnykant]

you know, i have reason to believe that bison is not as naive about kant as we’re being led to believe right now.

in neither 10 things or taming of the shrew is bianca ever unaware of lucentio/cameron’s intentions and motivation. in 10 things, cameron is never pretending to be anyone else to begin with and is very open about the fact that he’s interested in her and it’s bianca that uses and manipulates him. whereas in taming, lucentio disguises himself as a tutor for bianca so that way he can woo her without her father knowing, but even still he tells her immediately in their first lesson who he is and what his intentions are. even with that, though, she still has a line about not knowing or trusting him.

in the heart killers, kant isn’t being forward about part of the reason he wants to get close to bison, and we’re sort of being led to believe that bison is taking kant at face value about wanting to be with him. however, immediately when kant walks into the burger shop, bison is suspicious. yes, he drops that rather quickly, but if the ost is anything to go by, maybe he’s just playing along.

which kind of brings me to the main evidence i have at this point - the lyrics of the ost very bluntly lays out the fact that the singer (bison) knows their love interest (kant) is up to something but that he’s willing to play along while continuing to question their motives the whole time. plus, we already know bison is perfectly capable of acting sweet and trusting when he’s actually not - we see that in the first five minutes.

additionally, i was thinking about kant’s “if i be waspish, best beware my sting” tattoo, which is a direct line from taming that katherine says. out of context it obviously foreshadows that bison needs to be careful of him, but in context, petruchio replies with “my remedy is then to pluck it out.” aka, he is aware she might sting but he’ll pull out the stinger entirely. if we look at that in parallel to kant and bison, it implies that bison again may likely be aware of kant’s true nature and his goal is subdue him in some way - to tame him, despite them not being based on those characters.

honestly i don’t think the betrayal and broken trust of it all is gonna be as big of a reveal as we may be thinking - i think bison already knows kant isn’t being 100% truthful and will probably figure it out himself what he’s hiding somewhere along the way

[lais-a-ramos]

one thing that got my attention in the sneak peak/season 3 premiere date reveal about that scene of lottie being choked is that courtney's expression seems a bit serene, almost defiant

and, of course, it's just a frame and we can't know the entire context yet

but, based on the comment @periwinklekryptonite (thank you, chris <3) made on discord about how, if it's travis, there's a parallel with the scene of travis' death and lottie accidentaly letting him die bc she saw laura lee's ghost, i have the theory that maybe this is how the idea that you have to almost die to contact the wilderness comes from

like, maybe teen lottie is desperate to contact the wilderness again, especially after how last season ended, in which, according to director karyn kusama's interview for harpers bazaar, lottie may have realized the others will do what they feel like doing and lottie might not matter much in this scenario

so, desperate to find a purpose, maybe teen lottie realizes that she was able to have visions when she was on the brink of death -- the food court vision when she almost died of hypothermia, and also her visions of javi's death when she was literally fighting for her life after being brutally beaten down by shauna

and, so, she asks travis for help, bc maybe he might be easier to convince than the others due to feeling lost after his brother javi died

anyways, this is just a theory, and definetely not the only possible scenario

we don't even know if it's travis, and it might as well be ben!!!!

but, i think it'd be an interesting parallel with adult timeline

it would also help to explain why travis asked for lottie's help of all ppl in adult timeline

and, most of all, it would be a way to flesh lottie's character out by showing how she feels about the wilderness and her faith during a faith crisis of sorts

(disclaimer.: i don't ship travlot neither romantically or sexually, but i think their dynamic is too intriguing, especially bc lottie is one of the girls who, in courtney eaton's own words for vulture magazine post-1x09, sexually assaulted travis.

and yet he not only became one of her most loyal and enthusiastic acolytes -- he literally spilled his own blood with no hesitation after lottie asked him to, in that offering to save shauna's and the baby's lives --, but also is seemingly the only wilderness survivor who knew where lottie was before the events of adult timeline in season 2

the showrunners already confirmed during paley fest panel last year that there's no love triangle thing and there is no romance

but, that's the thing, platonic bonds are worthy of talking about as well

especially one as mysterious as this one)

[rootspiral]

Agatha All Along deep dive: episode 4 part 1

(Wandavision entries: [1][2][3])

(AAA entries: ep1 [1][2][3][4] ep2 [1][2][3][4] ep3 [1][2][3] ep4 [1][2])

It's episode 4 If I Can't Reach You / Let My Song Teach You, time for two of my favorite things: glam rock and homosexuals. which are basically the same thing if you think about it.

she's like damn, billy, that was ruthless. honestly this is going to make her care about billy even more, not only he's powerful, not only he reminds her of nicky. now he's a murderer too?? perfect son is perfect. I love how she's studying sharon's body with her detective Agnes face, her mind is going a million miles a minute

her third-wall-break winks destroy me. and that poor hairdo. all gone expect for the giant turd on top.

alice being truly and genuinely sorry about sharon. lilia and jen being gossiping hags

agatha honey you're so dainty and feminine, look at you. and that's an interesting and not at all painful tree shape you picked. (I would have never noticed any of this without brightening the scene, it's outrageous. everyone involved in this show is amazing except the lighting department. shame on you lighting department)

whatever alice does openly and sincerely, agatha does secretly or as a joke. parallels, parallels

jen is like, can you believe this bitch

without being asked, alice goes to help digging the grave

that is the idiot I fell in love with and I'm way past regretting my choices at this point!! I know how rio feels now

"coven two" is one of those lines that make you laugh on first view and shred your heart in a million tiny pieces at every following rewatch. this show HAS to be watched at least twice, don't ever trust reviews or complaints by ppl who didn't, because they missed at least half of what makes it great.

a clown running from the tragic truth that her son wrote the Ballad, making sad clown noises all over the Road

when alice is called to referee as the Resident Ballad Expert and agatha looks at her expectantly hands in pockets, somehow extremely obnoxious, extremely gay and extremely sad at the same time

alice is SO above bickering. jen is being a baby because she's mad at agatha, lilia is being a baby cause she's grumpy and a contrarian, billy is sixteen, agatha is, well, agatha. alice is the only adult in the building

just one, huh? that's fine. that's fine. who needs a heart anyway.

the common gypsophila or baby's breath symbolizes sincerity, purity, innocence. does it symbolizes sharon? or is billy leaving it on her grave a metaphor for his naivety and good intentions gone wrong?

billy's romantic ideals of what it means to be in a coven have just been shattered. he set out, consciously or not, to teach something to these witches and of course it didn't work. he is the one who needs guidance, he is the one who's making a mess of things. he's just a kid.

agatha going !! when billy says he wishes he could go home. agatha covertly pointing out that he has a replacement body and she would really like to know how. she's observing him so closely, trying to puzzle out the mystery. exactly like she did with wanda inside the Hex. not revealing her cards just yet, testing and manipulating him. when that strategy blew up in her face so spectacularly the first time! she's so smart and so reckless it makes her practically an idiot

case in point: she's making up stupid rules trying to manipulate billy into shaping the Road the way she wants. that's right, agatha. let's summon another poor victim you can siphon, wonder who's gonna show up! (and she KNEW sharon was laying dead ten feet away and SOMEONE was bound to be in the neighborhood. dumbass.)

aww he's so proud of himself for having brought the spellbook. he's being helpful! he's made his four moms happy!

check, debatable, check

debatable and debatable

I'm gonna give that one a BIG check

yes I know advil spells "vidal", thank you tumblr for letting me know that one. also same, alice.

'esse viridis non es facile' IT'S NOT EASY BEING GREEN?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! oh I knew my high school latin was bound to come in handy at least once in my life

(by the way the set + costumes combo is giving me such hocus pocus vibes, but you could never tell because the SCENE IS SO FUCKING DARK) (NO I WON'T SHUT UP ABOUT IT)

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH

I mean girls, you chose to follow the head clown, you have to travel in the clown car. that's on you.

WHY IS THE PRINT SO SMALL???? I LOVE YOU PATTI LUPONE

admit it we all wished it was sharon for a moment

oh?? is that mayhaps someone you know, agatha???

and that's a wrap, see you guys tomorrow!

no, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm doing another one tonight. I need to shove all the rio scenes in my eyeballs NOW

go to episode 4 part 2

[imaginable-horror]

Thinking about the Long Quiet and his voices. They're a reflection of the Shifting Mound's vessels in a really interesting way -- not in the way that each voice mirrors the princess they occur with, though that is fascinating and has its own share of implications, but in how they serve a similar function to us as the Long Quiet as the vessels do to the Shifting Mound. Each voice offers different perspectives, different views, different opinions, but they do not define us in our entirety and they ultimately do not have control over our decisions. When we acquire a new voice our limits expand but we are no more significantly different than we one were, just slightly more infinite. The same way the Shifting Mound's vessels inform her views and perspectives but are not her. They are an extreme faucet of personality and emotion, but not a complete person. We needed to deliver different aspects of the Princess to her in order to expand the Shifting Mound and bring about her ascention but it doesn't entirely make sense that we need her for our own. We have the choice to fight her ascention and can go back to the beginning, slaying her with the help of our voices, ascending on our own in a world without her which proves our independence to some degree. The fact that we can achieve godhood without her means that we likely do not need her. (Obviously I think the world needs her, slaying the Shifting Mound is probably the worst ending for everyone, death and change needed to truly exist and be happy. Even the narrator realises this in the little microcosm of a world without the Shifting Mound that is Happily Ever After, but technically we do not need her to ascend ourselves.) If this is the case and we do not need her for our own ascention, it is interesting that we are unable to break free of the construct before she is brought to completion. Perhaps, then, as we explore the perspectives of the Princess we are exploring the perspectives of ourselves. We cannot reach godhood without all the voices, all the aspects of us. When we enter the Long Quiet they disappear, integrated into the whole of us. The Narrator fades away because he is not a part of our system, doesn't belong here. When a Princess becomes a part of the Shifting Mound, a voice (or a shallow selection of a few) become a part of us, and we expand together. Each of the voices are our own Princess, only less obvious due to the more active and less introspective role of the Long Quiet. We are, perhaps ironically being a god of stasis, never given a moment of stasis to reflect on what we are. Not until we are completed. It also makes an amount of sense as to why the voices return to us when we decide to slay the Shifting Mound, rejecting the concept of change. With her death we are, although together enough to ascend, forever partially incomplete. We have all the pieces of us, but they are not fused into a single whole. Broken pieces of glass on the floor, as she describes at one point. Our ascention is completed but we will never be a singular whole despite destroying the only other thing like us, whereas when we leave with her, accepting all that we are, we can be a fully realised set of perspectives, integrated and meshed together, forming a view in totality. The vessels we unconsciously collect exist in parallel with the experiences we bring her, and together we understand all with the objectivity of every possible perspective. All this to say, I forget how alike we truly are. The Shifting Mound and the Long Quiet are one and the same, not only connected through godhood or a relation to the vessels.

[mac-ann-cheese]

Again with fur coats

I'm sorry for irregular posting, I've been snowed under with my uni work lately ( Ó⁠╭⁠╮⁠Ò )

Nevertheless I'm always grateful for your support!!!!! ( ⁠＾⁠ω⁠＾)

Under the cut lots of thoughts on current manga arc (I've got no one to talk about it,...)

I like to imagine that in gangsta au they still use flip phones. But it got me thinking about how that universe works,... Are there any transnational corporations? Is history in general the same just with criminal elements?? Like there should be some sort of grand gang bang I and II if the United Districts organization exists (the analogy to the UN, of course). And the Big five is just the security council.

Moreover, in the same strip, the fall of the USSR is brought up as the permanent members of UD discuss whatever they should keep or kick out newly formed Russia (or district 7. It's cute that they call each other after the first number of the nation's phone code. One thing bothers me with this fact. What were the districts called before the invention of telephones? Countries received permanent telephone codes only in the mid-20th century. Or in terms of au the actual number of the district isn't connected with phones and just a number?? Another bit of useless info: Kazakhstan also uses +7; will they be [I doubt that they would make an appearance in au, but let me DREAM!!!] also a part of the whole district 7 like NA bros with district 1???). Buttttt I was talking from the perspective of our history being pulled over on the lore of gangstatalia, cause we don't have those events described in canon, which IS interesting!!!!!

Also, the sputnik was mentioned, which means the whole cold war (or at least the space race period) had happened... Um. Do districts own nuclear weapons? It's just a theory. a MANGA theory!

Considering in that the characters aren't probably immortal anymore (well, I can make that conclusion only from the panel with young Alfred literally saying, "oh so you're the representative of the 86th district? I'm the new representative of the 1!", it means... that there was someone before him ruling the district.............), the timeline of parallel events shortens.

Therefore, the events are closely packed together; there aren't gaps of decades between them, but more likely a couple of years.

How does this world work? Judging from the map, the districts are on a Pangaea-like continent. Or are they districts of some bigger country...?

Is there a ruler over all districts? Who is it then? Flying mint bunny? Tony? GRANPA RO-

Was there always the gangster's paradise in the regions, or was the government more authoritarian before??????? WHY IS CRIME THE NORM? Why did they decide to regulate everything with the help of playing cards?

And lastly. The electric collars. How? How did the idea even cross Alfred's mind? If I'm not mistaken he is, well, not the creater, but the person who suggested wearing them. "Let's fry our brains to crispy nuggets!!!" Haha. Fun.

And others in the big five agreed to it. Like that isn't totally bucknutty. Not at all. Electric chairs would be much better...

Oof my head hurts just thinking of it

Maybe I'm not the first one to ask these kinds of questions, but still. I need answers.

[tiredassmage]

veilguard thoughts!

rook + solas parallels edition

spoilery ofc because my head's not full of cotton balls today and i haven't stopped chewing on it all since i finished the game! so! this is a little endgame heavy; you've been warned for what's below the cut <3

the final first playthrough counter has come in just over 67 hours and i am all but physically holding myself back from launching right into another one with another rook because i had a blast. i'll concede it was a bit heavy on the exposition in the first several hours, but what followed has certainly won my heart, and i think the game is visually beautiful.

but i'm not even looking to do a full review here, but i think one of the most fascinating things this game did was set up rook and solas. so, two parts of preface then: one, i was a little determined to love this game and hoped it would at least perform decent. that's my spite about it, lol, but that's not the point, so we're not here about that. two, one of my admitted concerns when they had first announced this game having its own protagonist was... that i wasn't sure there was another person to finish solas's story other than the inquisitor, and this isn't a solavellan thing for me, though my beloved canon inquisitor is a lavellan. solas's friendship wasn't the biggest hitch in inquisition for me, but it was important to my inquisitor. he wanted to prove his friend wrong.

i don't believe hallaren had a plan at the time for how to achieve that. he wasn't sure it was actually possible to convince solas the dalish were not as lost a cause as he seemed to believe, but he had to try.

and when i started veilguard, i wouldn't say i'd have anticipated the parallels of solas and rook, nor how well they ended up working for me. i admit: they got me. i didn't see that twist coming. and the hindsight of losing varric from the beginning makes a lot hurt (i say that as a compliment). i think it's easy enough to explain why i didn't see it, why (my, at least) rook didn't puzzle it out, but i also readily admit i'm historically bad at seeing these kinds of things, so you're free to be amused on your own time, lol.

anyway. regret. not becoming what you hate, what you claim to fight against. not being beholden to what you were or what you've lost. the game hits these beats several times, and i think its a real beautiful repeating thing they've done if you hammer all the companion's stories with the main deal, and i did the memories of the dread wolf as well. rook and the inquisitor have a conversation about it that about touches on all of it way more eloquently than i could summarize.

and, of course, part of the reveal is solas did dabble with blood magic on the matter of varric's death, did set rook up for the level of regret and grief they must settle with to trap them in the fade - a prison fit for gods, a prison fit for a god's regrets.

and this is where i transition into blorbo-specific thoughts. because i think part of what fascinates and delights me so much about the rook and solas, potentially two sides of the same coin deal is how tyr's relationship with solas starts and then develops.

tyr does not trust solas from the outset. which i think is where a very interesting presentation of similar (at their roots) choices begins, as varric says: in a bar, as all good stories. one of the first story notifications we get is how rook chooses to handle the bar owner: charm your way out, or a more direct approach, and we're told varric takes note of this.

varric's own plan is an appeal to solas's nature. to talk his way out. as is varric's way.

normally, i'd call tyr the kind of character (having played with him as an oc in various medias for oh... going on 2 years, is it? maybe 3? time's fake, different post) to also prefer talking his way out. but he doesn't believe solas will listen. so he rebukes varric's plan of just waltzing up and charming him with his babygirl eyes.

then at d'meta's crossing, he spares the mayor. not because he doesn't hear the concern that the greedy bastard will fall to said greed again, and not out of an entirely conscious mandate for live with the consequences of your actions, but... in hindsight with other choices, i'd argue it's... from at least a little of that kind of place.

he tries and fails to reason with the first warden. several times. in the heat of weisshaupt, and with the recent conversation with solas about whatever it takes on his mind, he ends up decking the man. the stakes are too high for risking the first warden staying on his high horse again if another attempt at reason fails, is the driver of the decision.

i'd chewed for a while on how that would seem to make tyr's commitment to "talking things through" indicated by that first choice in the bar inconsistent. it all seems justifiable at the time, and he didn't get to the place with the first warden he was out of intentional malice, but he still wound up there.

much of that is natural by the circumstances he was presented. by making calls with the information and under the conditions that were present at the time, as anyone, not just rook, would have to do under such circumstances, if they traded places. sure, some of it is also by solas's engineering of his conversations with rook. by setting them up to be a leader asked to make those hard calls. maybe even for arguably goading them a bit into a situation where whatever it takes was their only feasible option. which neve has a great comment on:

this is, i think, most directly about varric's death, but also, personally, i have to say is applicable for solas's intervention during blood of arlathan.

so, back to blorbo for a moment. tyr begins from a place that mistrusts solas's motives. the I'm quoting you here, "lies, treachery, and rebellion" kind of mistrust. and then, as things progress, as the team unveils more about solas's past in the crossroads and through the murals, it circles back to what I think motivated much of his comment to varric that talking with solas wouldn't work: that even if solas has any regret for what's happened, he's too stubborn to concede, too trapped by the mistakes of that past to ever admit fault, to hear himself sound like the 'gods' he claims to despise. tyr continues to take solas's advice into consideration the whole time, true, because it's... hard to discount the only potentially close to the problem kind of advice and knowledge they don't... exactly otherwise have themselves. he's not sure what the other shoe dropping in that equation is going to look like, but he's more convinced it'll happen than he is entirely happy with the situation.

the murals create... a hunch. or develop it. that rather than just being too prideful about the harm he'll cause by tearing down the veil, that solas is trapped in this plan by his regrets and guilt for actions of the past. at that point, tyr... has a better understanding about how they got to this point, but it kind of only solidifies his reservations that solas might actually be reasoned with.

the one moment this is changed, then, is during blood of arlathan. because frankly i think that was one of the worst experiences tyr has in the entire game. elgar'nan's influence in their minds, and an incident where they're trapped with no conceivable way out and potentially facing down an archdemon again, not so long after weisshaupt that the losses have stopped aching.

whatever his reasons or motivations and whatever else happens, solas saves their lives. tyr can't find a way around that one, and he's not even certain he wants to. because it's one of the definitive moments where he didn't have a plan, and he was terrified the tables had finally turned against them, and they'd fail.

it's not... trust. but tyr's also spent all this time working with his team on this concept that change shouldn't exactly be beyond anyone if there's a little effort put in. and whatever his own feelings are, varric wanted to believe in his old friend, and so does the inquisitor - both people he respects greatly, and he's constantly calculating their desire for a better outcome into the rubix cube that is trying to figure out how to stop the gods.

the problem then, is that solas all but instantly takes advantage of this... lapse. this faint relaxation of tyr's guard against his manipulations. that whole little incident with the fade after ghilan'nain's fall is all but immediately after, and its a betrayal nearly thrice or so over in rapid succession: that varric's been dead this whole time, that solas has manipulated him and how he feels responsibility for the team and the regrets that arise out of having to make hard choices, especially in times like these, and then on the other side of the fade, that solas has gone to minrathous, solas is playing "hero" about it all in tyr's and the shadow dragons' backyard. and to add salt to the wound, in minrathous, it's been blood magic all along.

and, y'know. solas says sorry, says he won't tear down the veil by his own hand, but hands rook the weapon to do it for him. sets them up again. so maybe that's more like... four or five times, depending on your count and categorization of it all.

and rook has a choice about all of this to make, a certain level of peace they have to make with it all to even get out of the fade. and how much to follow varric's advice about don't become what you hate - what you were fighting all along, or trapped by what you lost.

here's tyr's opinion that solas has more than likely been beyond reason because he's too far gone on his own path to even see that he's done exactly that: that he talks like elgar'nan's control, he's just dressing it up in a different way. that he's trapped by what he's lost and sacrificed and admitting that will be too much.

and here's tyr's inescapable bitterness of having been betrayed, of having spent so long trying to be careful with the god of trickery only to have danced right to his tune the whole time. a fiery emotional response for a threat to his home, to minrathous that he's tried very hard to protect and leave a smidgen better than he found it in this whole fight.

by circumstance... and by a little of solas's own design then, rook and solas confront the same trouble of what sacrifice being a leader demands. what cost is too high? how much is too much?

i had the pieces at that point for the ending with mythal, but now i had tyr bitter and a bit more resentful about solas - in a kind of pain about betrayal that was still asking why? about it rather than worried about if regret was present or meaningful. which is where this came from in my head akdfnas;dfnsadf

you're both thinking it. and the endings directly focus on whether or not solas succeeds in tearing down the veil, but the thematic part of it, to me, was... do rook and solas recognize where they might be held back? does tyr act on the pain and resentment of betrayal and swing blindly at solas as repayment? or is it bigger than both of them? is it about posing the question to solas about regret? how much is it like what drove solas to this point to act on that resentment? is it just retaliation? or did either of them learn anything from that prison in the fade?

and that's what makes the parallel, and it's what sets them apart.

and that's how, still, in the end, i have tyr who is willing to choose trying to reason one last time. for the sake of the advice of an old friend. for the people that brought them this far, the ones who chose to believe against the odds. and maybe, even, a little bit for himself. a choice against letting regret and resentment rule.

for the sake of it and because i couldn't get this game out of my head, i checked out the other endings, just to see, and i... think i like sticking with convincing him the best for both of them.

the trick with the dagger swap i think is the only other fitting course of action tyr might've taken from that point, and i think some of its elements reflect similar beats here about... learning from the past, if you will.

the accusation of likeness to the gods is still there. the banter about wits. i am a fool who finally met his match. one might argue that's for underestimating rook, which... fair enough, but i think... it also falls in line with solas's regrets, the appeal to be made to his nature, the... want, in the end, to be proven wrong. to find a 'better' way, as once he suggested to the inquisitor, and as mythal's release from debt and rook and the inquisitor's forgiveness, if you will, finally allows.

and that is... very satisfying to have said between them, when it's been on tyr's mind the whole time. and... they can both be proven wrong this way: for tyr, that solas wasn't beyond listening, and for solas, that there was another way.

for both of them that they could move on from what these trials have made of them, what they have done, and what they endured.

and man... man that was good. and so, so satisfying. it worked, veilguard. you sold me on these two as parallels to each other.

and that's just... one of many things in this game that gave me a lot of emotions, but this has already been. a helluva ramble, so if you've made it this far, congratulations and i salute you, lol.

i'm sure i'll do it all over again and have even more thoughts about even more rooks to throw around and chew on with this and what it'll reflect about each of them and that's. MMM. that's delicious. i loved this game. if my brain and time cooperates, i'm sure i'll have more thoughts and maybe even some writings for it in the future, we'll see where the blorbos take me. xD

[ropebunnykant]

after watching the first episode, there are a loooot of things that stand out to me in terms of characterization in parallel to taming and i think i’m coming to the conclusion that actually all of them are katherine

wild thing to say i know, and obviously fadel fits the storytelling role (character needing to be tied down in order for sibling to be able to have a partner) but weirdly enough, he is the least like katherine in personality

style actually mimics petruchio’s personality quite a lot - he’s loud and unabashed and stubborn. but those are also traits of katherine. part of the reason petruchio is able to “tame” katherine is because he matches her wits and isn’t afraid to stand toe to toe with her - they’re a lot alike at the end of the day.

and with bison, he is being portrayed to be the wildcard between him and fadel when katherine is meant to be the wildcard. she’s unpredictable and violent and is the cause of a lot of bianca’s grief and that’s exactly the case with bison for fadel. he gets drunk, shoots wildly at karaoke, and then they have to move and fadel is pissed about it! and like bison also has bianca traits as well, but their dynamic seems totally switched from the play

as for kant, his personality seems less like katherine’s, but he is also another instance of needing to be “tamed.” a reformed criminal trying to get his record scrubbed. not to mention he literally has katherine’s line tattooed on his back - “if i be waspish, best beware my sting,” which i find fascinating in its own right. especially because it’s written on a tattoo of what appear to be angel wings when he actually has a bee tattoo on his chest. and like the line itself makes sense out of context because it implies people need to be weary of him - ie bison needs to be weary of trusting him - but in context it’s even more interesting because petruchio’s response is “my remedy is then to pluck it out.” he will pluck out her stinger - he will tame her. bison will tame him!

and with fadel i’m honestly kind of fascinated by the fact that despite being the katherine, the shrew, the one that needs to be tamed - he is arguably the calmest among the bunch, with the most patience? like yes, he physically dragged style out of the restaurant, but that was after style was the worst customer ever and if this was a true katherine, he would have thrown him out immediately. i do wonder if it’s because jojo is leaning into the idea of katherine being misunderstood, which is a very popular idea. that for some reason everyone thinks of fadel as this wild card, this shrew, but he’s actually just kind of a guy that will flip if his patience is really tested. it’s a little early to really tell but it’s interesting either way!

[arcane-ish]

I think that is a really interesting speculation and it doesn't seem to me that unlikely, especially since Amanda loves Caitlyn and I presume she was heavily involved in the culmination of their relationship. I can easily picture her making time for that.

It would also make a lot of sense with the themes of the show, especially for those of us who see some visual parallels between Caitlyn and Silco this season and Silco was a character heavily shaped by trauma.

That said, irregardless of what happened between Jinx and Caitlyn, I doubt it will change the critique of people who critique her from the "systemic" POV. Who approach it as "everybody has trauma, but because Caitlyn is in such an exalted and oppressor position, she just has completely different levers to pull, ways to make other people suffer for it than Jinx or Vi have". Because Caitlyn can just terrorize an entire city without even having to put in much personal effort. (and just because the show might not be about political issues doesn't change that certain people will insist that it should be understood that way, regardless of whether the characters or the writers understand it like that. ie just because maybe the writers didn't mean a save the damsel or fridge the girlfriend story to be sexist doesn't mean that people will see it as being part of a larger sexist narrative)

I feel like in the end, the people who already sympathize with her will sympathize even more deeply with her and the ones who don't likely won't be impressed just because Caitlyn's trauma was slightly worse than just losing her mother.

(which in the end is maybe another parallel to Silco, having had genuine trauma in his past and genuinely loving Jinx doesn't magically make him not a bad person anymore, so why would it be different for Caitlyn if she had genuine trauma and genuinely loves Vi)

The more interesting aspect is probably the character level. If Vi hears about it and she loves Cait and she sympathizes, does that mean that Vi will never forgive Jinx or never feel comfortable around her again?

From a shippy point of view I just don't think that it can work for Caitlyn to tell her story and for Vi and stand up and make excuses for Jinx. So the only thing that could work would be if Caitlyn got to a point where she learned to sympathize with Jinx (ie no longer blame Jinx because she sees it as Jinx having a mental illness).

I just have a hard time picturing that on a show as violent as this they can really do much to "impress" people. I just think that there's a low chance that they would go for something like rape. I guess Caitlyn could reveal that she has scars on her body that are underneath her clothes (which certainly would be a good setup for CaitVi in my ways), though I personally that doesn't seem like Jinx's typical modus operandi? I guess there could have been something related to drowning (to parallel Silco) or gas (as this is something that has been done by several characters on the show by now). But just Jinx saying cruel things to her and dragging her around is not going to impress the Cait-dislikers.

Even if it's still going to be a powerful moment for Caitlyn and Vi, less for how what Jinx did was particularly awful, but for how Caitlyn kept it bottled up (with the timeskip at least a couple of weeks, maybe months) and is finally opening up about it to Vi. (could maybe fit nicely into Cait having issues being emotional with Vi/always pulling back, back in s2Act1)

Basically, I assume the emotional performance will be excellent and it's going to be serve as a great and satisfying explanation for Caitlyn x Vi shippers as to why Caitlyn broke up with Vi in Act 1 (and pacifiy the people whose main anger against Cait was that she hurt Vi). But it might not move the needle for people who think Caitlyn sucks for using The Grey on Zaunites.

In this interview Amanda said something that caught my attention. Do you think that in ep 8 Caitlyn will talk about what Jinx did to her when she kidnapped her? Bc Amanda said that in ep8 there's a Caitlyn line that will make us say "Oh so that's why"

Amanda means this line that Cait is going to say will let us know why she was so mad at Jinx in ep 3 and how Caitlyn went completely blind when she saw Jinx in her target and bc of her anger and also her fear and terror of Jinx, Cait has completely lost control of herself in this moment. (there is someone who made a post on this topic @loycos and talked about what happened to Cait in ep3 and how Cait didn't see Vi or Isha in front of her bc of her anger and her deeply terrified of Jinx) I mean look at her eyes and the expression on her face, yes she looks angry but she is also terrified.

This is a natural reaction. I mean for example, imagine that you see something that scares you so much. There are two reactions, either flight or fight, and these reactions always come without a person thinking. At this moment the person is only thinking about getting rid of the thing that scares him, and he does not focus on what is around him bc these strong feelings control him.

Anyway, what makes me sure that this scene might happen in ep 8 (Caitlyn talking about what happened to her when Jinx kidnapped her) is Reed Shannon (Ekko VA) comment when he saw the drawing and said "I thought this was a leak" Reed might be joking as usually, but why this particular drawing and why he chose this word "leak".

But honestly if this scene actually happened and we knew what happened to Caitlyn, it would make us understand more why she was so angry and scared of Jinx when she saw her in front of her and it would also explain why she literally went blind and didn't see anything around her at that moment, neither the child nor Vi, all Cait saw was Jinx, she just wants to bring down Jinx. I mean look at these pictures she is so terrified of her

Again Caitlyn's insistence on killing Jinx in the scene in ep 3 was not only motivated by revenge on Jinx, but also out of fear and terror of her.

And not like those idiots who say that Caitlyn wanted to kill the child on purpose to get to Jinx or even say that she wanted to kill Vi too, or bc she's a cop and the cops kill children and blah blah... That's really ridiculous and annoying!! Bc if we focus a little bit on the period that Caitlyn went through we will see that Cait didn't have time to process all these things that happened to her, from the torture that happened to her when Jinx kidnapped her, then the killing of her mother, then the attack on the memorial ceremony. (I know that Jinx is not the reason, but from Caitlyn's perspective she thinks that Jinx and the Silco followers are the reason)

And in the end I hope that no one comes who doesn't like the post bc I am defending Caitlyn's character. If you don't like this character I don't care, there is no need for you to write a stupid comments. Please don't tire your little fingers if you don't like my post block me this is better for you and me. I will not waste my time responding to you, I will delete your comment and block you immediately.

I am a student at the Faculty of Psychology, and when I talk about trauma and the interpretation of human behavior and reactions, I know well what I am talking about. Bc most of the characters' reactions in this show are very realistic and need to explanation, writers do not want to explain everything in the show, they want viewers to occupy their mind and explain the events themselves (And I still repeat the point that the show focuses on the development and complexity of the characters more than anything else, and does not focus on solving political issues, the show is not about politics, okay)

And btw some people ask me about my opinion of Jinx's character, I have no problem with her character at all, I like her and I understand her condition, when I criticize her actions, it doesn't mean I hate her.

One day I may do a post about her character development and her condition, but I see that there are many posts about her and her actions, and I feel like I won't say anything new about her. Unlike the rest of the characters like Vi and Caitlyn, there are not many people talking about them. And maybe I will make a Viktor post bc I really like the development of his character. When the show ends, maybe I will.

[eerna]

Just finished episode three of Arcane's arc two and yeah I'm feeling a lot of what's been talked about here. That last scene with Isha's sacrifice with all the flashbacks I was like...this is nice and all but I'm not feeling like anything lol. It really did feel like her and Jinx's relationship just happened and didn't really grow to what those flashbacks wanted it to be. Also tiny nitpick but why was she the one bringing food and water to Vander while Victor was helping him?? Like why weren't his two literal daughters who were also there doing that?? It just felt like it was trying to force a bond between the two right before they both went out. So yeah it's very true that a lot of emotional beats and resolutions just kind of happened?? Because the plot needed them to??

On a more vague but interesting note, I've been watching this show with my family and when we all were watching season one, we literally couldn't stop talking about it. My brother and I could go on and on about the character relations and the themes and all the deeper meanings going on but with season two that just...hasn't happened. The most we usually say at the end of an episode is "wow that was crazy" and I literally can't think of anything else to talk about. Which is really sad to me. But there's just not much to talk about when things are just kind of happening or being established off screen or in a montage. Idk man the show still looks incredible and I have had some emotional reactions but it's just been interesting to see the differences even in just the reactions of the people around me

Welcome :((( Yeah, when Isha's song started up my reaction was like "Oh there she goes, finally dying, what a shocker that the boring kid was only written into the show to traumatize one of the main characters". And I am a crybaby!!!! I cried at ep 5 ending despite my complicated feelings!!!!! If they gave me anything properly written to hold onto, I would have cried like a river!!!!!!! And yeah good catch on the Warwick-Isha thing.

Your note about the lack of comments while watching is so so so true! I see the same thing happening in the fandom. People discussed arc 1 it in detail bc it was payoff for s1 and there was a ton of parallels and analysis to be made. But the only things people are saying about arc 2 is that the deaths were sad and surprising, how hot characters are, and a bunch of memes. Because there's nothing more there! No proper payoffs, no new setups!! They wrote such a straightforward story with only surface level meaning! The show is visually insane, so of course you still have reactions, I do too, but yeah it is sad that it used to have its cake and eat it too and now it no longer does :(

[gl1tchr]

Literally though and that’s what I worry in reeves verse with joker and riddler. Joker is just gonna get the “better treatment” which feels so unfair…?

Like obviously Batman has reasons to hate this riddler lol…but I hope he has a moment of clarity or something, he understands (maybe not consciously) the riddler and his motives, hell their parallels are endless

I hope it’ll evolve into Batman feeling guilty almost for basically creating riddler? I think in general he would, but specifically thinking in terms of “I’m sorry Edward”

Oh friend while I understand you, you Misunderstand me - I LIKE that Batman has that blindspot. It makes him a layered character. You're supposed to be BETTER, believe in GOOD and CHANGE, but for this man you don't? Why do you hold such contempt for this man in particular? And Ohhh how much better than hits in Reevesverse because Edward has DIRECTLY impacted his life in so many ways. I think Battinson will TRY to be better and treat Edward the same way he treats other criminals, with the expectation that they can heal and change, but I don't think he will ever be able to completely quell his contempt for Edward. I think he DOES see the parallels, I think he saw them well before like Joker said he did. And I think that's the thing that often *disgusts* Batman - Riddler is so much like him and is enrages him because he has the drive and ability to be good but doesn't, so even when he does try to get better, Batman still has this anger that he hurt so many people for so long, for what? So NOW you can decide to be good? You're too smart for that. You could've decided a LONG time ago. I LIKE Bruce having that blind rage, it makes him so interesting