#it’s a different kind of dehumanizing :/ | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

secret-bug-pain-blog · 10 months ago

Text

@febuwhump Day 4 - Obedience

World's Most Dysfunctional Vessel Gets Ass Kicked By A God(?), Deals With It Extremely Normally And Functionally, More At 5.

The Hollow Knight was not made to have a mind.

Of Void, Root, and King, it was crafted. To serve, to protect, to seal the Old Light. With its sacrifice, the kingdom would be made safe. With its death, the Light would be fully extinguished.

A duty it has already failed.

Its body is broken and pock-pitted with the effort of containing Her wrath. It has faced its purpose, and it has failed- and even the merciful princess of Hallownest, as kind as she has been, cannot fully repair it.

And then she had left, and left it to decay and ponder on its own shortcomings.

It was made to obey its Father- to obey the King, the Ruler of Hallownest- and yet, it cannot even serve to fulfil a purpose that is all that it has.

Hallownest is fallen. Its inhabitants are gone. Its father is dead. The Old Light is gone from its captivity, the cage at the back of its mind gone empty. It is alone, or so close to alone that it is indistinguishable from true loneliness.

It does not feel lonely, no matter how much the idea might cross a lesser bug's mind.

It has no thought. It has no voice. It was made for its purpose, never to stray, never to deviate. It was crafted with no mind and no soul, divine purpose bestowed upon it for a reason- and now, that purpose is gone, and only the husk of a divine beast remains.

It is a failure. The only question that remains is who will repurpose its body, once it has spent all that it is.

It sits. It waits. It remains obedient.

Its sister, gods-knows-how-long ago, had ordered it to guard Hallownest in her stead. It had obeyed best it can, but it was difficult even then - its body was worn and decayed from its time in the Black Egg, and had only rotted further since, the strain taking a toll on its slowly-breaking shell.

Being of void granted it durability. Far beyond that of a normal bug, yes, beyond even that of most demigods - but not an unlimited amount.

It had bowed at the claws of the Old Light. It had nearly broken at the claws of the many intruders, warded by its scarred muzzle. Now, it threatens to shatter in the face of the wear of time.

It is aging. It is tired. Its shell is worn and splintered, threatening to break at the mere touch of an intruder. It struggles to stand straight-backed, weight of its horns dragging it right back down again. It is so, so, very exhausted, and all it wishes to do is rest.

It is not so tired as to disobey the Princess's last orders. But it is worn enough to fear it will break, should it stand for much longer.

Or that it will break, should it dare stand against this visitor.

The moth standing before it is familiar. A pale cream color, shot through with gleaming goldenrod where Her fur is shortest. The shade of Her fluff strikes a familiar bell, the look of disdain She levels towards it even more so. The wasteland beast at Her side is unfamiliar, but it supposes it would be foolish to assume She would not garner new followers, once unleashed.

It should have known She did not die.

When it proved resilient against Her, it should have only been common sense to realize that She would have been much the same. If it had not suffocated Her light, then an impure Vessel taking a child's form would have no chance.

The moth levels a glare at it and barks something sharp, clapping Her hands - it does not know the language, but it knows a command when it hears it.

She is expecting to be obeyed, no doubt. Expecting it to bow to Her, as it did during their imprisonment. It should disobey.

It... is not certain it can disobey.

It should not listen, it knows, not to her, but it is tired, it is worn, it is-It wants, so very badly, to finally have some drive more than to guard, set to this eternal post until its body finally gives out.

She turns to address Her companion, disdain and dismissal clear on Her face. The wasteland beast tilts its head at the Hollow Knight, clearly inquisitive. It does not understand what it is that it is looking at.

It is listening. Even if it does not understand.

She turns to address Her companion, and it begins the slow, painful process of dragging itself to its feet. Its claws scrape on the stone, aggravating pains it did not know it had. Its shoulders burn with the exertion as it pulls itself up by the nail, its claws straining on the hilt as it forces itself to stand. Injuries nearly forgotten make themselves known, burning across its shoulders, its arms, its claws. It leans on the blade far more than it would want, putting weight on its still-broken tip as it struggles to straighten its back under the weight of its own body, of the broken metal that remains from its bonds, of the many battles it has fought since being instated as guardian.

It stands at attention, no more than a single second before gravity gets the better of it. The Moth's conversation with Her attention stalls for a single second as She watches it rise, her claw frozen mid-gesture.

This new body of Hers is so terribly small, compared to it. It wonders, for a brief moment, if it could overpower Her - but it has tasted Her dream-blades before, and it knows all too well how deadly the residents of the Waste have proven, bug and beast alike.

It knows it will lose, if it moves against Her. It know it will die, if it is to lose a fight.

It raises its blade.

It will make an effort. It will prove that it tried. Perhaps then, it may hope to claim some greater dignity than that of a fallen husk.

Her new incarnation is not as hasty to use magic as it expects. It has fought a thousand battles with Her over the course of Her imprisonment, and this form of Her follows nothing it is used to- it has grown presumptuous, battling the same handful of bodies, and this one takes it by surprise.

Her diminutive size conceals strength far beyond its expectations. It makes its first blunder when it attempts to get close enough to force Her on the defensive, and She simply allows its blade to sink into Her ruff, kicking it in the chest with enough force that it feels its shell waver when it overbalances in surprise.

This form, it seems, is a physical fighter. It is too late to correct its mistake when it realizes the blunder. The wastelands beast makes up for Her lack of range, fluttering around its attacks with ease and sticking daggers through any gap in its guard that it can find as She punishes its attempts to disengage, weaponizing Her cries into an ear-rattling pitch that would surely tear the auditory membranes of a mortal bug and threatens to rattle apart its Void with no regard for structure of shell.

It lasts longer than it had expected. But it cannot stand against a god.

It collapses with a wheeze, the frail shell over its Void threatening to split apart. She kicks it a last time, a heavy impact in the middle of its thorax, staring down on its broken body as she sneers. The language she speaks down to it in is incoherent, but it still understands the idea of what she says.

It has lost.

Her tone turns sickly sweet as she addresses it, beckoning it away from its post. Her claws hook, hook in the back of its mind, entirely too persuasive for what it knows her to be.

It knows it should not obey. It knows it should guard its kingdom.

…it has been ever so long since it has seen anyone that it could not fight, and Hornet has been away so long it fears she will never return.

It moves its head to Her hand, baring its throat for Her to take Her tribute. It has failed again. She will take Her right of conquest, and it will die, as it already should have when She broke her prison. It knows it should not think, but something of it thinks it would be happy with that ending, were it a thing with emotions.

The expected blade does not come.

Her hand cups around its face, pulling its head up ever so softly. Her voice grows more insistent, Her demands repeated over as She looks it in the ink-black eyes of its mask. She pets along its mandibles, clucking Her tongue as She attempts to pull it away from its post.

It doesn't understand.

The wasteland beast curls around Her shoulder, speaking something in that unknown tongue, and She brushes it off, continuing to coo to it as if it is a stray pet.

It doesn't understand.

Why would She keep it alive? Why would She not kill it on the spot - it is the prison that contained Her for years, the thing that She voiced her malcontent and tested her blades against for centuries - why would She spare it now, after however long trapped together? Why would She wish to keep it around?

She beckons it away from its post again, and it leans where She guides, this time. She cooes as if it were a hunting-beast praised for bringing back Mosscreep, stroking its splintered horns and beckoning again.

It obeys. It realizes, perhaps too late, that it has allowed Her passage, moving its bulk from the path She was trying to access. Perhaps this is only more evidence of its impurity. Perhaps She simply wished to see it bend to Her one more time, before killing it.

But She does not strike again. She does not unsheathe claws to carve into its softened underbelly, She does not call Light to pierce through its fragile void-shell, She does not command her waste-beast companion rip it asunder. She simply pets it on the horns, her head turning off into the ruins of Hallownest as if it does not even warrant her gaze.

It...

Perhaps She simply wishes to humiliate it. Perhaps this is all that it was ever worth to Her - a momentary battle, a step along her road, an inconvenience soon to be dealt with.

A pained wheeze escapes its throat, air whistling through broken anatomy. The wasteland beast stares at it as if it is a beast in a zoo, as if its body is something wholly alien to it. To a wasteland beast, it supposes, it would be.

It says something to the Moth, and She pauses, if momentarily, in Her attentions to it, speaking to Her beast without regard for the Knight dying in her claws, one hand absently cupped about where its mandibles connect to its muzzle, and it sits, silent as it is meant to be, as She converses with Her creature.

Finally, she stops. She beckons it upwards, heedless of its pain. It takes several long moments for it to garner the energy to raise its head, even when it is commanded.

She gestures to the Wastes. To the long way out of Hallownest. And it...

It knows it should not be obeying. It knows that it should not be listening to the Old Light.

But it is not worthy for the duty that it has been set to. Not anymore.

It is Her right of conquest, it reasons to itself. And it is not the place of a vessel to question what a god would ask of it.

A trickle of Void flows from its failing body as it drags itself to its feet once more, nearly every part of itself straining in a threat to fall apart. It holds itself together through will and nothing more, receiving an approving coo from Her. The wasteland beast moves to support it as She gestures it towards the exit - out of Hallownest, out into the mind-killing wastes.

It is so tired. It wants to rest.

She guides it towards the wastes, just the slightest bit more insistent this time, and it moves, regardless.

The Hollow Knight was not made to have a mind. It will not attempt to fight against the choices of its betters.

12 notes · View notes

yellowocaballero · 1 year ago

Text

#miguel o'hara#i reblog a lot of miguel slander but hes actually a really well written character#miguel thinks about the greater good of the collective multiverse#and not just one kid#but at the same time#that kinda goes against spiderman's whole deal of fighting for the little guy (friendly neighboorhood spiderman)#idk if any of this makes any sense ive never read the comics#spiderverse @kitzels

Sorry for putting you on blast, but I definitely wanted to point this out! I actually intended to talk about this in the post, but the post was long enough already and it would have been off-topic lmfao. But this is really important. It's why Miguel is the antagonist in the story, and it's why he's pulling some real dick moves right now.

Miguel lacks compassion. He knows what defines Spider-Man, but he forgets what Spidey is about. Peter puts himself last, but I don't think he's ever thought about the bigger picture in his life lmfao. He's the most selfless person alive, but that's because he has a tendency to be selfish. Because his inability to let people die is a psychological guilt-based complex and not, like, a legitimate philosophical stance, he impulsively prioritizes saving the person in front of him and typically doesn't worry about the consequences. This is protagonist behavior that is true of the majority of protags.

But beyond dunking on the guy, it's also just because he's never cared about the bigger picture. That's not important to him. Peter doesn't care about politics or ego or the gears of the universe. He's in this game to save the guy in front of him, and he doesn't let it get more complicated than that. He's the friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, and a Spider-Man story that forgets how Peter just wanted to help the people on his block isn't really a Spider-Man story. Spidey's about NYC, and NYC is what he cares about. Leave the drama to the Avengers. Peter's here to help people, and he won't complicate that.

Peter's a compassionate person. He cares for every life. No one person is more important than another. He's also a normal person who doesn't enjoy murder. Daredevil will talk for two hours about the philosophical, legal, and spiritual reasons why he will never take a life and how difficult it is not to murder people all day, and Peter will stand there going, "Of course I don't kill people, that's a freak thing to do. Like 97% of the time it does not occur to me to kill a human person. That's a human person. Do you actively struggle not to kill people? Who who raised you." King.

Miguel lost that thread of Spider-Man, and it's what's making him the antagonist today. Spider-Man doesn't put the good of the many above the lives of the few. And Spider-Man doesn't BEEF WITH TEENAGERS -

Miguel is Fine, Actually (Being Spider-Man's Just Toxic As Hell)

Before I watched ATSV I said that I would defend my man Miguel O'Hara's actions no matter what, because he's always valid and I support women's wrongs. I was joking, and I did not actually expect to start defending him on Tumblr.edu. But I'm seeing a lot of commentary that's super reductive, so I do want to bring up another perspective on his character.

Miguel wasn't acting against the spirit of Spider-Man, or what being Spider-Man means. Miguel isn't meant to represent the antithesis of Spider-Man. Miles is the antithesis of Spider-Man. Miguel represents Spider-Man taken to its extreme.

Think about Miguel's actions from his perspective. If you were a hero who genuinely, legitimately, 100%, no doubt about it, believed that somebody is going to make a selfish decision that will destroy an entire universe and put the entire multiverse at severe risk - if you had an over-burdened sense of responsibility and believed in doing the right thing no matter what - you would also chase down the kid and put him in baby jail to try and prevent it. He believed that he was saving the multiverse, and that Miles was putting it in danger for selfish reasons. Which is completely unforgivable to him, because selfishness is what he hates the most. And then he goes completely out of pocket and starts beefing with a 15yo lmfaooo he's such a dick.

But why did Miguel believe that? Why did he believe that Miles choosing himself and his own happiness over the well-being of others was the worst possible thing? Why did he believe that tragedy was inevitable in their lives, and that without tragedy Spider-Man can't exist?

Because he's Spider-Man.

Peter Parker was once a fifteen year old who chose his own happiness over protecting others. It was the greatest regret of his life and he never forgave himself. Peter's ethos means that he will put himself last every time, and that he will sacrifice anything and everything in his life - his relationships, his health, his future - to protecting and helping others. Peter dropped out of college because it interfered with Spider-Man. He destroyed his own future for Spider-Man. He ruins friendships and romantic relationships because Spider-Man was more important. If Peter ever tries to protect himself and his own happiness, then he's a bad person.

That is intrinsic to Peter. Peter would not be Peter without it. A story that is not defined by Peter's unhappiness is not a Spider-Man story. If Peter doesn't make himself miserable, then he's just not Peter.

That is a Spider-Man story: that not only is tragedy inevitable, that if you don't allow yourself to be defined by your tragedy then you're a bad person. If you don't suffer, then you're a bad person. If you ever put anything above Spider-Man, then you're killing Uncle Ben all over again. Miguel isn't the only one that believes this - as we saw, every Spider-Man buys into what he's saying. There's no Spider-Man without these beliefs.

Miguel attempted to find his own happiness, and he was punished in the most extreme way. He got Uncle Ben'd x10000. He tried to be happy, and it literally destroyed his entire universe. It's the Spider-narrative taken to the extreme. Of course Miguel believes all of this. Of course he believes this so firmly. He's Spider-Man. That's his story. And the one time Miguel tried to fight against that story, he was punished. And like any Spider-Man, he'll slavishly obey that narrative no matter the evil it creates and perpetuates. Because if he doesn't, the narrative will punish him. The narrative will always punish him. It's a Spider-Man story.

I don't think the universal constant between Spider-Mans, the thing that makes them Spider-Man, is tragedy. I think it's the fact that they never forgive themselves. And Miguel is what that viewpoint creates. He doesn't believe this things because he's an awful, mean person. He believes them because he's a hero. He's a good person who hates himself.

Across the Spider-verse isn't really a Spider-Man story. It's a story about Spider-Man stories. Miguel's right: if this was a Spider-Man story, then Miles acting selfishly really would destroy the universe. But Miles' story isn't interested in punishing him. It pushes back against Peter's narrative that unhappiness is inevitable and that you have to suffer to be a good person. It says that sometimes we do the right thing from love and not fear, and that Peter's way of thinking is ultimately super toxic and unhappy. ITSV was about Miles deciding that he didn't need to be Peter Parker, that all he needed to be was Miles, and ATSV is about how being Peter Parker isn't such a good thing. Miguel shows that. Whatever toxic and unhealthy beliefs he holds - they're the exact same beliefs that any Spider-Man holds. He's a dick, but I don't think he's any more awful a person than Peter is.

TL;DR: Miguel isn't a bad person, he just has Spider-Man brainrot.

#atsv #across the spiderverse #across the spider verse #across the spider-verse #miguel o'hara #peter parker #disclaimer I love DD #it's just funny how a character aimed towards little kids and a character aimed for older people #worry SO much about SUCH different things lmfao #ive been watching a lot of trigun so ive been a little more critical of the #'there's always a third option and you never have to make the difficult choice' narrative #but also this is a comic book and thats not the story that the movie wants to or should tell #Miguel in the comics also is the least compassionate person alive #but it's because he was fed into the capitalist meat grinder as a child and was taught to dehumanize everybody around him #because they didn't contribute as much to society as he did #he lives in a dystopia that places 0 value on human life and miguel's so cynical and jaded and selfish he never fought that #ill always love heroes with no empathy and i enjoy how miguel #has to make the active choice to care about people because it's hard as fuck for him #bc he grew up in an environment that punished alturism and love #i like that kind of thing theres just so much to unpack

3K notes · View notes