#it's a conclusion to an arc of destruction that she started the moment she was turned

[creetchure]

one thing i really dislike about "claudia was fridged" is the fundamental lack of understanding of what fridging even means. ignoring entirely why iwtv was written.

fridging is a very specific thing, that denotes a lack of agency in the death (and in general). that death is wholly about someone else (a man), and not something she could have done anything about. It comes from a green lantern, where kyle rayner heads back to his place and finds his girlfriend murdered for the sole purpose of hurting him. It' also often offscreen and irrelevant to the narrative in an of itself, apart from "i need to find my wife's killer".

claudia's death isn't that. if there is one thing to remember about her, one trait about her character, is that she has a will to move, a will to do things, that drags louis forward. Her agency is the main driving force for leaving lestat, her wanting to be able to make her choices for herself. she's the one who makes them go to paris, she's the one who wants to join the coven, she's the one who wants to turn madeleine. claudia's death is something that she's earned, brought upon by enemies she has made. lestat goes along because she's the reason louis left him. the coven goes along and cheers because she's a cog in the machine, someone who wont let them turn her into something she's not. she won't settle for anything less than absolute freedom as a vampire, and that is the reason she dies. it's also an incredibly graphic scene. there is nothing forgettable about her death, about the very image of it. claudia goes out in a blaze of rage and fire.

to call it fridging is removing her agency, and her very active role as a driving force in the story. claudia's death cannot be fridging, because she's never been passive a day in her life, from the very moment we see her on screen to the very last. she's earned her death as a character, rather than as a woman

[alicent-vi-britannia]

12 characters, 12 story arcs, 1 theme

A few days ago, I tried to synthesize in a single word the narrative arcs of the Code Geass characters (at least, the ones I know they have) with the intention of extracting the theme of each one. I will briefly explain my conclusions. Or, put another way, what each theme means for each character. I'll leave Lelouch for last because he's the main character and his theme is supposed to be that of the series. We go from bottom to top.

Self-fidelity / Milly: "the girl who learned to be in touch with her own desires and chose to be true to herself to bring out her best version." I think the phrase explains it perfectly. Milly found happiness and she became more mature once she decided to stop serving her family's wishes and focus on herself and what she wanted to be and do.

Confidence / Ohgi: "the man who learned to trust himself to become the leader his organization and his country needed." Ohgi's arc is inspiring, if you take off your toxic fandom glasses and take his journey seriously. It is true that he made certain mistakes, but he always thought of the welfare of his people and his comrades. That was his main motivation and what led him to overcome his personal insecurities. I was going to make a comparison, but you guys won't like it and you'll attack me.

Happiness / Euphemia: "the girl who dreamed of a world in which all people were happy." This is the only arc that was cut short and did not come to fruition for reasons that I don't need to detail. Euphemia was a selfless princess without a purpose until she met her brother again and wanted to restore happiness to him, Nunnally and the rest of the Japanese.

Truth / Nunnally: "the girl who had to discover the truth to grow up to become the empress who could rebuild a new Britannia." She is literally blind and cannot see the world as it is, but as it should be (hence her idealism). She also can't see through her brother's and her friend's lies, until her determination and her circumstances push her to do so. It doesn't seem strange to me that the breaking of the seal coincides with the moment in which she learns the truth and decides to face it.

Justice / Nina: "the girl who had to seek justice for the murder of her beloved and her own acts and thus be a better person." Nina's arc is a revenge arc. Obviously. But the anime gives it a negative treatment, as Nina only gets worse with each new chapter. It's not until she understands all the destruction that her revenge can cause (in a literal sense) that she stops and reconsiders. The Zero Requiem gives Nina the opportunity to redeem herself and give justice to her beloved since the culprit pays for her crime. It's at this point that she begins to heal.

Honor / Jeremiah: "the man who managed to win back his honor after offering his loyalty to his enemy." The entire arc of Jeremiah revolved around honor. He believed that he had failed his empress and his prince, made a fool of himself on a live broadcast, was demoted and fell to the bottom. From there, he only lived to seek revenge. But then again, it wasn't the way. He only redeemed himself by putting himself at the service of a lord worthy of his loyalty: his enemy.

Humanity / Rolo: "the murder weapon that regained humanity from him through love." Another phrase that explains itself. Rolo had been used and manipulated his entire life as a tool. But when he created good memories and a sincere bond with Lelouch, he started to make decisions, think and feel like a human being.

Forgiveness / Shirley: "the girl who learned to forgive thanks to love." We find another arc of revenge. Like Nina, Jeremiah, Suzaku, and Lelouch, Shirley lost someone important to her, was overcome with grief and rage, and was tempted by revenge until she discovered that the killer was the man she loved. In the end, her noble feelings prevail and her love gives her the strength she needs to forgive.

Freedom / Kallen: "the girl who embraced her freedom became a hero who fought to liberate her country and the world." This is going to sound strange, but I barely realized that Kallen is who she is because she is free due to a fanfic that featured an anti-Kallen who was in many ways trapped. Kallen is a free spirit and performs as an autonomous individual. She chooses the friends she wants (be it Britannian or Japanese), she loves the man she wants, she champions the cause she wants, she has the value system she wants. However, there can be no freedom without equality, and Kallen and her people live in a society that promotes inequality. The freedom of some (the Britannians) cannot coerce that of others (the Japanese and even half-blood like her). So Kallen works to change the world to a place where everyone has full freedom. That's her motivation to grow up and become the hero her people and the world need.

Love / CC: "the girl who only until she received love from others was able to love herself." CC's arc ties directly to Lelouch's because they both express a nihilistic philosophy. In short, CC wishes to end herself and the world (through the Ragnarök Connection) because she considers her immortal existence to be meaningless and thus unimportant. Worse still, an immortal life implies eternal pain. Something she can't live with. But she wants to be loved, because all human beings cannot live without love. It is in the nature of the human being to give and receive love. Therefore, love will always prevail in the darkest moments. So, when Lelouch offers his affection to CC, she becomes more human and renews her will to live (see how her arc connects to Rolo's arc). Let's say that she transitions from a negative nihilism to an agathonism (that philosophy that it proposes that you have to enjoy life and help to live a pleasant life).

Peace / Suzaku: "the boy who was able to find peace of mind by creating a peaceful world." Without going any further, the lever that moves Suzaku throughout the series is "guilt". Suzaku feels guilty that he killed his father, he feels guilty that the Japanese are oppressed by the Britannians, he feels guilty that he failed Euphemia in his duty as a knight, he feels guilty that he can't protect everyone… Guilt, guilt, guilt. What is the opposite of guilt? We may all think of different things, but I'm leaving for peace because Suzaku didn't make peace with himself until he got the punishment from him and when did that happen? When he made sure to create a new world with Lelouch with the Zero Requiem, in which all his loved ones could live. No wars, no racism, no terrorism, no hate. In peace.

Will / Lelouch: "the boy who twisted the will of others found the value of the will of the human being and began to dream of tomorrow." It's very ironic. Lelouch's Geass is described as the power capable of bending the wills of others to the mercy of his own. As he progresses on his journey and interacts with other characters, he realizes that human beings actively seek happiness and persist despite adversity. They doesn't give up when they falls, but gets up and continues to fight. That is what it is to be human. Arthur Schopenhauer, in fact, said that the will was the essence of the human being. But I think that the approach of Lelouch and Code Geass goes more for nihilism in its most positive aspect. The one who proposes the destruction of everything to establish new values that allow the übermensch to live in freedom. "Emperor Charles searched for the past, you search for the present. But I search for the future. […]. Because no matter how much time passes, people will continue to search for happiness. People who struggle with sadness, those who seek the future. How everyone keeps wishing for happiness. Human nature is the reason I chose Geass and wearing a mask." This is the key to human survival. This is the meaning of life and what this series wants to teach you.

If you start to examine each of the arcs, you will see that they are all connected in one way or another (after all, they are concepts that appeal to the human condition). And, if you reflect carefully, you'll realize that the arcs of our two main heroes (Lelouch and Suzaku) correlate with the extremist views of Charles and Schneizel respectively (this was something I was planning to address in a discussion on CG antagonistic figures).

I hope you have learned something or found something interesting in this post. If you liked it, don't forget to support me with a comment and/or a reaction. I would really appreciate it as that will help the algorithm.

PS: Don't ask me to come up with an exhaustive analysis of the philosophies raised in this series. Although it may not seem like it, I have a hard time handling philosophy (I don't mind going overboard like I did here).

[oceanofsoup]

Figure I'd throw out my thoughts about the finale, right out the gate I fucking loved it and could not have asked for a better way to end their story. Tech not being cx 2 hurts, especially considering he's the only member of the batch that didn't get that happy ending, but something I have been seeing less of in media is actual sacrifices. It becomes much more meaningful to think back on that scene with the confirmation that he did indeed use his last moments ensuring that his family was able to get away, however I will be constantly making myself cry thinking about what could have been with him and phee.

The whole escape was amazing to watch, I particularly loved emerie and echo following the kids' path of destruction and just being like, ah yes classic omega. Everyone's roles were great conclusions to what we've been seeing the whole series, and one of the best character arcs in all of star wars with crosshair. The deaths of both rampart and hemlock were perfect, with rampart finding out the consequences of his actions and the boys getting revenge for all the pain that hemlock has caused. I also think is interesting that they didn't have omega try to do anything with the force, even connecting with the zillo beast (not in a negative way, i love moving on from needing a force user as a main character). For me it just confirms/backs up my own theory, it's not the she had a significant m-count, but because she's almost entirely unmodified she was able to keep whatever Jangos m-count was while the modifications on all other clones rendered m-count null or at least super low.

They more than deserved their life on Pabu, being able to live quietly and let omega grow up the way they never got to. And omega getting the chance to chose to get back into the fight, wanting to help people cause she knows all to well what the empire is capable of and what they'll do to get what they want. I wonder if those clone cadets joined the rebellion as well. Old man hunter is everything I could have ever hoped for, I was gonna point out hunters new bandanna to my dad but then I saw that omega had his old one and started crying a bit. Him calling omega their kid broke me and I don't think I'll be able to recover from this, he was able to fully embrace being a father and I couldn't be happier.

All in all this was so fucking good and I hope that zillo beast is having the time of his life on a planet all by himself and no one tries to hurt him again. Cannot wait to read the incoming horde of omega and hera reunion fics.

[sonic-love-island-official]

Rouge (Bio/Character design ramble)

Want to have a ramble about Rouge because I'm feeling particularly obsessed with her character design at the moment. So, might as well do a little bio and a ramble on choices made for her Love Island AU counterpart !

More under the cut x

Rouge is a 28 year old jewellery specialist from an unspecified location (for the moment). She joins the fray with the intention of stirring the pot, potentially finding a summer fling and the allure of the cash prize.

She's your girl that has a specific 'type' and sticks to it to a tee. She is loud and flirtatious, but can also be quietly cunning. Rouge is a girl who thrives off drama and does anything to get her way. She disguises many of her true feelings beneath flirting or angry outbursts. Despite being one of the older girls in the series, Rouge doesn't have a very mature attitude (or sense of humour 🤭), which plays a part in her character arc on the Island. Along with this, she is learning to unlearn her pre-established self-destructive behaviours in order to become a better person, friend and partner... Eventually.

External design choices !! (visual appearance - incl. formation of base sim, references taken, makeup choices, fashion style... etc.)

Rouge's translation into The Sims 3 was a hugely enjoyable trial and error process. She was one of a few handful of characters that ended up getting a minor overhaul to their designs, as we eventually came to the conclusion that they no longer fitted the vibe of the AU. But. She looks stunning now, so Rouge Version 1 can be forgotten. Not really, Rouge v1 actually became a meme so we kind of have to keep her 'round hehe.

Forming the base for Rouge's sim was quite easy, as I was already inspired from the get-go. She was made the same day I made Shadow's sim, as the intention was for them to enter as bombshells (as they rightfully should). A lot (but not all) of inspiration was taken from her Sonic Adventure 2 character model because I immediately fell in love with it the first time I saw her ! Her exaggerated bust and hips made her look so short and adorable in gameplay and I know her design was not intended to be perceived that way, but here I am. I don't remember if I made her before or after I was aware of and joined the 'Rouge is Latina' bandwagon (I do believe this is canon ??) due to the fact I made this sim over a year ago when newly into the fandom, but I thought it'd be worthy mentioning here that she is and it's something we wanted to keep as part of her character.

I kept a ton of reference Rouge's core features, such as her big blue-green eyes, her wispy white hair, her slightly more voluptuous figure (to the best of my ability, ts3 is piss poor at creating differing body types grr. Don't even get me started on how I wanted to give Rouge more of a tummy) and her warmer skin tone. She actually used to look more on the orange side of tan before we kitted our game with a mod that gave sims less 'potato'-like features, so her skin tone seems more natural and even and less Fake Tan than what she was originally, making her look a little more like her counterparts in later titles, but she looks far more stunning than she used to. A sacrifice had to be made and perhaps that was for the best. Additionally, I put in some of my own creative choices as well, such as Rouge naturally having dark hair, as seen through the regrowth in her bleach-blonde hair (I thought it was white but I checked in CAS and it turns out there's the tiniest yellow hint in there. Even I didn't realise the level of detail I went into). Her face and her features are quite slender, accentuating her big eyes and her lips (which we decided was cause of Botox later into the development process, because that just seemed like something she would do and it was very in-line with characters seen on Love Island).

The miscellaneous parts of her appearance are very one way or the other. As seen in her default outfit (2nd & 3rd images), Rouge's makeup is accurate to the tacky colours seen on her reference designs. The blue cut-crease eyeshadow, the pink lip colour... But alternatively, she is also seen wearing more Love Island appropriate makeup - more neutral, blended shadows, highlighter, winged liner, false lashes, lip glosses. Her outfits normally match whichever angle she's leaning towards during that particular episode and a few outfits of hers are actually inspired by (or are near replicas of) pre-made designs from various games/official artworks ! It's all in the little things 😉

*Did I,, did I forget to talk about her piercings ? Yes, I did </3 Beneath her hair is tons of little sparkly earrings she's adorned herself with over the years, because it's Rouge and she can't resist a bit of sparkle. She also has a belly piercing :)

Internal design choices !! (personality, characteristics, psychology etc.)

Rouge does not get nearly enough credit for any of the internal workings of her character and having her in this AU gave us the perfect excuse to delve into Rouge's psychology a bit more in-depth. We decided to expand on pre-existing traits and add a few of our own in the mix, as to not take away from any of the brilliance Rouge already has as a character at least, in some of the earlier games she does... I've noticed that even though Rouge in this AU presents herself a little more immature, the way we've treated her character is far from that. Instead of being reduced down to what is essentially eye-candy, Rouge is shown to be a complex character of her own. She's witty, flirty, manipulative, materialistic, confident... all the common traits associated with her character, but she is also VERY guarded with her feelings. She struggles with vulnerability, commitment and the concept of actually being in love. It is possible she feels undeserving of good people in her life, hence why she seeks to ruin her positive relationships at any given opportunity. Alas... It is something for her to work out throughout the course of the series :) Like most of the main characters in the series, Rouge means well (some of the time) but is a right mess, and I like to think that adds to the relatability of her character 👍

Other fun little titbits I thought were worth a mention !!

Following a fairly popular headcanon (at least, from what I've seen, this is kind of the general consensus ??), Rouge is bisexual in this AU. She cracks on with the boys and has flirty banter with some of them, but also she expresses interest in some of the girls, too. Rouge being Rouge though, a lot of her genuine advances are dismissed for her 'joking', when in fact, that is not entirely the case. And Love Island being the show that it is, often prevents Rouge from fully pursuing any of the girls that caught her attention. Still doesn't stop her from trying though :)

Exaggerating one of Rouge's features, Love Island AU Rouge uses every pet name under the sun to refer to people by. She also loves making endearing nicknames for all the Islanders

[mathamaniac]

Worlds Beyond Number E26

Spoilers for Arc 3 [thoughts from the Suvirin Kedberiket defense squad]

In this week's episode, Suvi is consciously giving a cold shoulder to her True Friends Ame and Eursalon. Her Horse Girl instincts and her relief that Eursalon is alive both caused cracks in the facade, but she doubled down on the intra-party conflict when she asked Eursalon about the "cataclysm of his own design".

It was a character beat that I found to be extremely familiar because there are lots of situations where social inertia can carry a group right on past a moment of hurt that never gets addressed. If you go with the flow, you might have a good time, and certainly the tension will pass. But swallowing your hurt at a betrayal only disguises the natural consequence that hurting you affects your relationship. Performing a cold shoulder is one way to communicate those consequences in a way that will be heard and considered before they design their next "cataclysm".

On the other hand, punishing your friends also punishes yourself. Suvi's conflict-resolution skills seem to be lagging way behind her other abilities. Now that the gang is back together, and presumably working to prevent Ame's destruction, Suvi had the opportunity to clear the air. It was childish to run away back to her private quarters. That childish instinct is reinforcing the learned (performative?) helplessness that we saw during the start of the Port Talon crisis.

In conclusion: Suvi is a mess and i love her

[dr-lizortecho]

I'm a delena lover too and wanted to know any delena UOs you have? A few of mine if you promise not to make fun of me - 1. I honestly don't think delena is nearly as "toxic" as it's made out to be? I mean, context matters, and this is a show about screwed up monstrous vampires, so no ship is going to be the epitome of 'healthy' lol. But I actually find delena a lot more honest and real than stelena was and a lot less toxic than klaroline. They communicate and adapt much more than antis give them credit for and are genuinely loving and supportive. I'm dying on that unpopular hill :) 2. I actually think s5 is my favorite delena season? It leaned in to the "but they're not healthy!" stuff too much, but it also showed them at their best, most loyal and passionate and adoring, without the icky shadow of the 'sire bond' crap that ruined s4 for me. And Elena is so...free that season? I don't know, I just love it. S6 has great domestic moments but yet another unpopular opinion is that something about the 'falling in love all over again with no memories' storyline felt really inauthentic and rushed to me. I like it in theory, just not the execution. 3. Delena is NOT just about physical attraction. At all. Like I truly believe that even if they could never have sex again they'd be very happy together. They connect on a much deeper level imo, seeing each other for who they truly are. 4. I do not in any way buy Elena as a doctor or even a science person---in my mind she became a teacher or a counselor :) 5. Elena is thought to be similar to Stefan but imo in actuality she's more like Damon imo---super passionate, follows her heart and instincts to a degree that some see as selfish, reacts in the moment rather than focusing on the past or future etc. 6. I actually think Damon has a better, softer heart than Stefan. He's crazy and impulsive and self-destructive and a whole bunch of other things, but he's also a lot softer and more willing to acknowledge his flaws and try to change than Stefan is. Again, these are all just my very UOs! Can't wait to read yours too!!

Hi anon! I adore them- like there’s three ships that I really feel encapsulate romantic love for me, that taught me what it is and how it works, and Delena was the second of those ships so it means a lot to me personally

So I am so far removed from fandom I barely know what counts as popular opinions and unpopular opinions, but feel free to ask me specific questions at any time! Though my two fav characters are Tyler and Bonnie if that counts <3 I’ll start by kinda saying my thoughts on the things you mentioned as your unpopular opinions- which I fully understand even when we slightly disagree! Below the cut so it’s easier for my non-tvd followers

On Delena being called toxic- I talked about it in part before (but alas I can’t find the post) and contrary to popular belief I think they’re not toxic (granted after they get together) outside of the regular amount you should expect in all teen dramas regardless of supernatural elements or not. Unlike a lot of the other relationships they have a lot of communication and consent involved from the start, because they have to with the precarious Stefan ties and the sire bond. On top of that they both acknowledge the parts of their relationship that aren’t the best and actively work towards making them better, however, with the flaws and missteps afforded for drama ✨

I can’t be impartial about s5- definitely not enough to be able to decide about Delena in it. I wasn’t a fan of that brand of angst tbh (sorry anon I do get the appeal) and the racism throughout just hurt my heart too much- but they definitely had some top tier sexy moments. Personally, I loved season six because of the approach of them sharing a best friend and all the little moments and musical beats. Like- watching Damon want to live became something so important to me and really felt like the conclusion for his character arc.

As for the sexual aspect- I do think it plays a part (as with every relationship that involves sex) but it definitely isn’t the peak of it or the draw, it’s a perk. Because if it was the sex they’d have been done with each other after that long hot summer. But there is a tendency in fandom to try and remove all romance and depth to relationships they don’t like- because if it’s shallow they can be rude and dismissive to shippers.

In regards to Elena- I don’t think she’s too similar to either Salvatore, I think she shares common traits with both. But at the end of the day it wa she’d similarities to Stefan that drew them together and her differences to Damon that drew them together. Which is why Stefan was a relationship that let her heal and come back to herself and Damon was the relationship that pushed her out of her comfort zone and helped her grow.

As for Stefan and Damon I don’t think there’s anything to be gained from claiming any one character is “softer” or more “moral” than another. It’s all about action and reaction and growth. However, I think you might be catching onto the sensitivity of their triggers, which Damon’s trauma responses are way more easily triggered throughout the series because unlike Stefan he hasn’t sat with them and worked through near as much of his traumatic experiences. Which is why his healing process through Elena learning of and reminding him to be kind to himself you watch him heal and grow. Which isn’t to be confused with him being “defanged” for a romance- because it was happening regardless of if he and Elena stayed friends or not.

[jupiter049]

Yesterday I finished reading The 9th Doctor's run in Titan Comics by Cavan Scott.

It starts pretty strong, covering some very creative adventures that couldn't be pulled off as well in tv (specially during Eccleston's run). A Slitheen impersonates The Doctor and becomes a famous tv star in a soap opera called "Doctor Who", Rose gets superpowers, they face off against gargoyles, a kid starts summoning kaiju monsters from Japanese movies, a clone from The Doctor is created but who only has all his anger and fear, etc.

We also get the introduction of Tara Mishra, a nurse working at unit in the 70s/80s who joins the Tardis team for a bit (although sadly she doesn't get to do much ).

Sadly I thought it kinda fell off in the last couple issues. The adventures aren't as fun or creative and it starts dding storylines and themes that don't really anywhere or to a satisfying conclusion. Jack looking for his erased memories, Rose feeling like the team is getting separated, and Tara criticizing The Doctor for not doing anything about all the destruction he lefts behind.

The biggest offender is The War Doctor. The most interesting about this run is that it could now explore Nine's grief and past now with the revelation of The War Doctor. There are some good moments and ideas here and there, but for the most part it didn't felt like we got to know anything more about Nine.

We even get a quick flashback to The War Doctor and he is weirdly out of character? Tbf, because we saw so little of him he is more open to exploration but his core trait is being a cold blooded soldier, and here he is shown having mercy for the Daleks? He acted more like The 8th Doctor. Wanting desperetly to bring peace to the war while not directly participating on it but being unable to do so.

My favorite story was quite easily Weapons Of Past Destruction, which isn't technically part of the run but a mini-series that leads into it. It plays with a lot of fun sci-fi concepts, has quick pacing that never makes things feel boring, and it's the story that most properly explores Nine's grief and the impact of the time war. It really helped make Nine's arc stronger.

It also gives us these killer last few panels that absolutely killed me.

[josephsaber]

The Attack On Titan ending has ruined the series and How Isayama can still save it Update 1.0.

How Attack On Titan ending has ruined the series.

This is going to be a spoiler heavy review on how the ending of AoT has ruined the entire series and rendered all previous scenes meaningless

first of all we need to get a glimpse of what happened behind the scenes of AoT to actually understand what's going on.

It all started years ago when Isayama stated in interviews that he changed his ending to avoid a traumatic conclusion source

"Although I'm progressing towards the ending that had been set before, my approach towards the ending itself has changed from the original plans. Because now I feel responsible towards the reader. I originally wanted to illustrate something similar to the film "The Mist,"

so basically the aiming for the current ending is to be happy

what's the mist movie it's a movie where the original main members of the cast were killed at the end of the movie go read about it on the internet.

How was the ending happy ?

the author decided here that in order for the story to be happy, all characters must be redeemed and forgiven for their evil doing, the author implemented a strong DEUX EX machine in order to force all characters to forgive each other out of nowhere 🤡🤡🤡

of course only a hypocrite writer will write such a thing because if you don't hate anyone in your life then you are a hypocrite and if your characters don't hate each other then they are hypocrites and have no principles and with no principles you can't build a good meaninfull story the conflict is pretty much meaningless.

Isayama tried to be deep but this made him a hypocrite with no principles

we can see Armin easily forgiving Eren for his atrocites and we can see Eren to be regarded as a hero as the alliance were mourning his death and that was the first step towards a happy finale. 🤡🤡🤡🤡

Awful characters like Annie who brutally murdered the scouts soldiers and was toying with their lives, contributed to the destruction of wall Maria and stated that she would commit what she did again in order to see her father, Annie despite all her crimes didn't suffer any consequences and that's another big reason why people hate the ending

Also AoT was a realistic story about sacrifice and hard decision but in the end the author implemented a strong plot armor to protect the main cast in the final battle with no one dying which completely makes no sense in order to give the path for a happy finale

this lead to another point why the end was trash which is the assassination of Eren's character.

In order to give the path for a happy finale the author decided to redeem Eren in the last moment in order to be forgiven and loved by the readers and the alliance, you can't of course redeem a character in a single chapter not to mention that you can't redeem a character who killed billions around the world Eren is just unable to be redeemed the author is so sick to think in such a hideous way, the redemption arc of Eren Yeager became a terrible character assassination that ruined his character and left him with no principles or free will

The Assassination of Eren Yeager

In Order to understand how Eren's character was ruined we need to understand how he was developed in the first place

The development of Eren Yeager

Eren was developed to trust in himself and have faith and strong will.

that was evident in the chase of the female titan in the forest where Eren having conflicting thoughts whether or not should he transform into titan or follow the orders of his military leaders.

Eren deciding to follow the orders of his friends in the military led to their deaths, Eren regretted his lack of faith and realized his decision matters a lot.

another scene is during the collapse of the cave of the king of the walls the cave was collapsing and Eren had the choice to either surrender to death or have faith in himself and take the necessary action to save his friends this time Eren decided to follow himself and believe in himself and saved his friends by titan hardening

In S4 we can see the full development of Eren Yeager to come into fruition where Eren secretly organized a coup to take control of the island and execute his own plans !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another part of Eren's development is the death of his mother, Eren is motivated in many scenes by his mother's death during his secret meeting with Reiner in Marley, when he arrived at the Marley port

Eren was developed to have faith

The assassination of Eren Yeager

In order to redeem Eren the author forced Eren to follow a predetermined path where he's a mere puppet to Ymir and there is no possible and other outcome, the author tried to justify the evil actions of Eren by fate and that nothing can't change fate, but actually fate doesn't justify evil, nothing can't change fate indeed that's why you need to choose what's right regardless of the outcome so fate actually condemns Eren's actions and not justify it, the story that presents fate in an accurate way is Cyberpunk 2077 go watch the game and its multiple endings.

Eren in the ending is just a puppet who blindly follows Ymir regardless of the outcome of his choice, Eren doesn't have any determination in the finale he dies in an undignified way unable to accept his fate and unable to stay true to his principles actually one of the most pathetic conclusions to a character.

Choice was an important element of AoT that made it a living breathing world where characters are offered multiple choices throughout the story, but the ending and its wrong demonstration of fate reduced it to a linear flat story where there is no other multiple solutions or outcomes.

also another important element that ruined Eren is the shocking reveal of him to be the one behind the death of his mother, which completely makes the tragic scene of her death to be a complete joke a horrible writing by Isayama, Isayama maybe made that move in order to somehow redeem Reiner and to think that he wasn't the one who's responsible for the death of Eren' mother a complete trash writing

No Build up or Preparations

but before we dive deep into this, we need to understand what's attack on titan and what it isn't

AoT is a story about responsibility, duty, hard decisions and sacrifice.

S4 is filled with heavy politics and backstabbing

AoT isn't a story about romance nor friendship.

There are multiple points where things happen instantly with no build up or preparations and doesn't tie to the story in any way, it looks like that Isayama changed his ending in the last minute.

Ymir's love for king Fritz

No one was expecting for Ymir to love her rapist that wasn't anticipated at all or hinted at all

Also away from this this is a disgusting plot that doesn't make any sense, people justify it by Stockholm syndrome, but this doesn't make any sense it's just a cheap way to justify an illogical plot

Eren's love for Mikasa and his friends

On the table scene Eren insulted Mikasa and stabbed her in the back calling her a slave no one was expecting that Eren was lying Eren's lying gives a negative reaction to the readers as this isn't a buildup, you can't make your character lying in order to build up for your story the character must always tell the truth and doesn't lie under any circumstances

What is Isayama-sensei's ideal character like?

Isayama: "Someone who does not lie." From the story's circumstances, to "lie" means the character twisted his or her original will/resolve. I find the most appealing are those who operate according to their resolve, as well as those who, as metafiction would say, rise up against the entire world. on the contrary, I feel that characters who become pawns of the storyline are unattractive. Often, the main character will give up on their original goals due to the story's development, so those who stand opposite of him or her can become more fascinating.

source

Lying ruins, the story builds up completely and makes previous scenes meaningless the table scene is now completely ruined

Of course, the author assassinated Eren's character and implemented a DEUX Ex machine to force him to lie to love Mikasa and contradicts previous scenes of his in order to once again conclude the story happily but that wasn't supposed to happen at all

why did Eren lie about him accusing Armin of failure why did he change his resolve again the author ruined his character in order to conclude the story happily

Historia's love for the farmer

It was hinted in the story that the farmer was bulling Historia in her childhood why did she marry him why did she had a baby with him, Zeke had the spinal fluid to protect himself there was no need for the pregnancy, also in a meeting between the mps , one of them stated that he had no problem killing the baby in order to kill Zeke

it was theorized that the baby was Eren's, and that Eren loves Historia, that explains why he insulted Mikasa and pushed her away from him and Eren's love for Historia ties and builds upon his hate for Mikasa The 80% plan Eren has always stated that he'll do a full rumbling where it was mentioned that he would stop at 80 nobody knows

Unanswered questions and plot holes.

There are multiple plot holes in the story.

Zeke's plan would have secured Eren's friends a long live, spared future generations of Eldians and the world a painful death why did Eren reject this plan nobody knows Zeke's plan is much better than the outcome of the story.

Why Ymir wasn't inspired by Historia to be free when her love of King Fritz despite Historia killing her father whom she once respected for a moment it was answered by (Only Known by Ymir)

Meaningless sacrifices

All the sacrifices in the story didn't amount to anything as the island got destroyed in the end.

Eren left 20 to survive, sparked more hate towards the island by destroying the planet, and left the Eldians with no titan powers to protect them.

once the world recovered from the rumbling, they decided to wage war against the island that was complicit to the biggest genocide in the history of man king the world would have never given a blind eye to the island complicit to the biggest genocide in history

Ending defenders state the island would have destroyed itself had Eren made a full rumbling and peace wasn't an option but that isn't true

Prophet Noah's followers didn't exterminate each other after God destroyed the planet with the global flood

Ending defenders are just making random excuses to justify the trash finale

Had Eren completed the rumbling Eldians would have lived peacefully till they abandon the island and settle on other continents then they would divide into different people and nations

Eren is 100% responsible for the island's destruction which completely ruins his character even further.

millions of contradictions

Eren stated that he'll do a full rumbling to save the island not leaving it to chance then he gives up then the island is destroyed🤡🤡🤡🤡

Eren stated that he hates Mikasa then he stated he loved Mikasa 🤡🤡🤡🤡

Eren stated that Armin is useless then stated that Armin is the only hope for Paradise 🤡🤡🤡🤡 Eren stated that he'll do a full rumbling but stopped at 80% Eren stated that he'll avenge his mother then it turned out that he killed his mother 🤡🤡🤡🤡

A sequel

The end prepares for a sequel where a kid enters the titan tree to restart the ages of darkness which indicates that Isayama may have been forced by his editor to ruin the series for money and continuation instead of writing a satisfying ending, any good stories like Breaking Bad should have a beginning and ending, make no mistake the only reason for a sequel to exist is money 💰💰💰

The interference of the editor

in one interviews, the editor stated that he prevented the death of Levi because he thought it would be meaningless but after his survival Levi was done so dirty he's obsessed with killing Zeke which doesn't add any value to the people who sacrificed their lives for the island only the survival of Paradise makes a value to the sacrifices of the story which didn't happen in the story, also Annie is just as bad as Zeke and she didn't suffer any consequences whatsoever.

The original ending

according to story analysis the original ending would have been so dark and tragic

With no plot armor in sight, Eren would have stayed true to his motives, shocking all his friends with his love for Historia, killing all the alliance including Mikasa, destroying the entire world and returning to Eldia to rule it as its new king, Eldians then would have lived peacefully till they abandon the island and migrate to other continents before they divide into different people and nations

this ending is so much better and secures the development of Eren's character as a supervillain but unfortunately Isayama wasn't brave enough to tell the story he wanted to tell also to get a glimpse of what I'm talking about you must read more about the Eternal Champion novel, it's believed that AoT was inspired by that story because Eren shares a similar quote from this story

"You will spare none?" "None! None! I want it to be over. And the only way I can finish it is to kill them all. Then it will be over—only then!" "Including Prince Arjavh and his sister?" "Including them!" "You swear this? You swear it?" "I swear it. And when the last Eldren dies, when the whole world is ours, then I will bring it to you and we shall be married".

sounds familier, the story tells a conflict about the humans and another race called the Eldrians (notice the similarity between Eldians and Eldrians) in the finales the main character is shocked with the true brutal history of his race against the Elderians, upon knowing that he was fighting based on lies and false ideas this flipped his personality and then decided to kill all his entire own kind instead every last innocent human that's on this Earth !!!!!!!! Wasted Potential

Eren had the potential to be the best well written villain much better than Thanos, Walter White or Health Ledger the Joker with heavy policial agenda and development but all that was wasted. Eren isn't a hero nor a villian, a villian should be true to his princibles acting in a full dignity and pride, Eren is just a simp clown with no character, no development no goals no princibles. Go see Thanos in Avengers Endgame, Big Smoke from GTA San Andreas, or Kraven from the recent released Spiderman 2, or Alaa from Utopia written by Ahmed Khaled Tawfik to see some well written villians.

Messy interviews

Isayama contradicted himself claiming that he didn't change his ending but with I don't know answers to a lot of unanswered questions and plot holes it's impossible to believe that Isayama was preparing don't know answers for 10 years !!!!!!

AoT horrible legacy

AoT left a horrible example of terrible and bad story telling other writers should take some important notes on how not to repeat the same mistakes of AoT and GoT ever again

It looks like that Isayama compromised the themes and morals of his story in order to deliver a happy illogical hideous finale that doesn't make any sense.

Most good stories like Eternal Champion, the mist, Utopia by Ahmed Khaled Tawfik and the Breaking Bad all of them had tragic finales but they were logical, meaningful and satisfying

The last hope for AoT

The only way to fix the story of AoT is for Isayama to partner with a video game publisher to develop a brand new AoT video game focusing on adapting S4 based on branched storytelling through which Isayama can tell multiple different endings there should be different three endings at least

no rumbling where Eren parts away with Mikasa

partial 80% Rumbling

Full Rumbling (AnR theory) and Eren and Historia finale

The most important thing is that these ideas must be executed well just like Cyberpunk 2077

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Reacting to Other People's Theories 3/?

I found this theory on Pinterest but I think it's a screenshot of Twitter (I don't have Twitter so I don't know for sure, sorry). The source is ShivamChatak.

Theory: Sylvie's nexus event was that she had a good heart.

So the theory is that Sylvie was a good person at heart from a very early age. And in the Sacred Timeline, Loki is meant to be a villain, so if she has a good heart, she can't be a villain and so she's not meant to be on the timeline.

The evidence OP pulls for this is that when she was taken in, she was playing Save Asgard with her toys. Also, similar to Loki, in the TVA she witnessed another variant being pruned. However, unlike Loki, she told the agents that were arresting her to help the variant because she didn't know what was happening but could see that the person was in pain. (Juxtaposed to Loki's reaction to a similar situation where he was more like, 'What the hell was that? You better not try to do that to me.' Rather than try to help the other variant.)

OP also adds that she already knew she was adopted. I'm not sure if that really factors in to her nexus event personally.

I agree with the main part of the theory, though. I think it makes a lot of sense. Loki is supposed to be a villain on the timeline, or at the very least is supposed be a villain for most of his life on the timeline. The arc of his story is supposed to be that his one heroic act is to essentially be the distraction to keep Thor alive by trying to keep Thanos from getting the Tesseract. And while Thanos does end up with the Tesseract, he leaves the ship without killing Thor directly, thereby allowing Thor to live to help destroy him eventually. And in order to get to this point, Loki has to be evil, apparently, in this arc. (I don't know if that's necessarily the only way we can get to that point, but I guess that's how the TVA or Kang or whoever sees it.)

And so, if a Loki is seemingly not going to do that, and is not sowing the seeds of their own destruction at such a young age-- even the age Sylvie was when she was arrested-- and starting to build that resentment for Thor at that point, then essentially, they need to be pruned and the timeline needs to be reset. Because that Loki is not going to become evil, in the eyes of the TVA.

Sylvie herself doesn't come to the conclusion that this is her nexus event because this moment changes her profoundly on a developmental level. She has to make questionable moral decisions for the rest of her life because she's homeless and on the run and a fugitive from a group that (for all she knows at this point) is going to kill her as soon as arrest her. She has to make decisions she likely wouldn't have made if she didn't have to survive all alone while trying to hide from a very powerful group of people who can be anywhere, anytime and who want to kill her. I don't think, from very shortly after escaping the TVA right up to now, she would agree that she is a good person, because of the decisions she has been forced to make.

The other thing that convinces me of this theory is that every other nexus event we see is a conscious choice made by someone. Kid Loki consciously decides to kill Thor. He may not have known this was going against his timeline, but he chooses to kill him. (Even if, as per my theory, his decision was more to get Thor killed for the safety of their people.) Our Loki makes a conscious choice to grab the Tesseract and run, when he sees that the second Tony Stark in the room drops it. (I can't remember what Boastful Loki does.) Classic Loki makes a conscious choice to leave the planet he's hiding out on to go see Thor, despite the fact that he had faked his death, come to the conclusion that he only brings pain and suffering wherever he goes, and so therefore risked bringing pain and suffering to Thor once again by going to see him, but still makes a conscious choice to do that. Croki makes a conscious choice to "eat the wrong neighbor's cat." He may not have realized it was the wrong neighbor's cat, but he makes a conscious choice to eat a neighbor's cat!

Sylvie didn't choose to be born. Sylvie wasn't in the womb like "All right, give me a vagina." (Because my trans girl Sylvie probably would have been like "Please. So I don't have to do any magic to give myself this shit. Or lie to some surgeon so I can get some bottom surgery at some point.") So whether Sylvie is cis or trans, she did not make a conscious choice to be a girl. (TERFS piss off. Being trans is not a choice.) (Unless you ARE trans and feel like you chose to be trans, that's your opinion and you're valid and correct for you. Most trans people, including me, don't think they chose to be trans, which is why I'm using this statement, but if you disagree for yourself, that's fine.)

So her nexus event cannot be that she was born a woman (whether she was born a cis woman or a trans woman). She didn't choose to be born and she didn't choose to be a woman.

(However, and this doesn't really have to do with this theory which is why it's in parentheses. It's also unlikely, given the way the writers chose to word her explanation of what happened to her, but I don't care. Anyway. My girl is smart. Maybe this would come after she meets the other variants or better understands how the TVA works, but I feel like eventually she'd work out that nexus events are conscious choices. And she's like, 'Yeah, I'm trans, I wasn't assigned female at birth, but I still didn't choose this. I was born a woman, just no one knew that when I was born.' But like I said, given who she's had to grow up to be, I don't think it would ever occur to her that her nexus event was having a good heart (which I know doesn't sound like a conscious choice, but I'm thinking that as a child she showed she had a good heart by choosing to be kind or choosing to do right by others, which are choices). But it might occur to her that she did choose something related to her gender. Something that happened very shortly before the TVA came to get her. Something it seems (to her observation) none of the other Loki variants have ever done (thanks, you shitty, shitty writers). She chose to come out. Sure, maybe this doesn't seem like it should have any impact on her ability to fulfill the expectations of the timeline, but it's (to her) a clear divergence from the Story of Loki. And the TVA doesn't like changes to the story.)

[justanothersxf]

Oh thank goodness, Spy x Family chapter 99 was way better than the previous two.

All because Endo finally added something new to the story that can be carried into the present day setting.

I was worried because in 97 and 98 he was repeating a lot of what he'd already shown/done in the older chapters, but in this chapter contrasting both the warfront and the "untouched" homeland against each other was finally a fresh depiction, as normally he focused on only one or the other. To put it another way, the story was weak when Martha and Henry were in the same place together and only started to find its footing once they were finally apart. Ironic.

Though I'll be honest, while the trenches being depicted under the narration was well put together, I could hardly focus on it because the fact that there's finally a more honest appeal from Donovan's own mouth is the uncontested highlight of the chapter. This is exactly what's needed to make this story relevant to the main cast in the current story (although there's a snag with that too, but I'll save that for later).

I did like a few other character moments, like how Martha was sniveling instead of brave when she volunteered since she thought to make her expected death count for something, and Henderson pressing his pen into the letter to depict what he was saying between the lines. But it's also very clear that Endo loves to portray scenes of war and brutality from the care put into the page layout of those combat and destruction scenes.

He's still a great visual artist, too. He illustrates everything neglected by Henderson just using a few panels of a jarringly disheveled appearance.

I really don't want to talk too much about Henry and Martha themselves though because I'd be a real nag about it. Their feelings for each other were depicted strongly, but man...when I really think about it Martha really messed them both up. At the very least they've reached a better point in the present, but so many things could've been avoided if she hadn't jumped the gun and enlisted. This is also kind of a retread from Twilight's past, where losing what was important to them and their future is what pushed them to enlist, but Martha had even less reason to do so here which is what makes it the more frustrating version to read. I wonder if Endo is trying to use it to further Donovan's arguments about pre-emptive fear of loss leading to conflicts no matter what, but I'll have to wait until the conclusion to see. Which is kind of crazy to think about since this "arc" is about as long as one of the earliest ones (i.e. dog, tennis).

But then when I see comments about how this flashback feels like a different story, I become disappointed again as the chapter being "good" doesn't really address the one sore ongoing issue the manga has. But that's a whole other discussion to talk about, I guess. It just depends on whether Endo will finally work on the family's relationships with each other and give them the same level of care he's done with the side characters, or if they'll just have more silly times together when we're finally through with this flashback...

[the-art-in-arthesia-is-loud]

RGverse Story Summary (Season 1: Part 1)

i was too lazy to continue on so have the summary from arc 1 to arc 7

———

i have......a lot to say before we start, actually.

and it's about the post title. you see the "season 1" thing? yeah. the main storyline is split into seasons.

season 1 is supposed to focus on ars and the more earlier characters i've made more i think. it's also supposed to go in depth with ars' conflict with dark ars, and maybe some destonio-fate lore too.

season 2 is more focused on the severed eden gang, mainly abstruse tho. it's also more focused on the rest of team destruction as a whole, and this season is overall the one that ends the story completely.

now.......there's a third season. "oh! season 3?!" WRONG! season 1.5

it serves as a bridge between season 1 and 2. it has two arcs, with the first arc focusing on one objective and also on the conclusion of two specific characters, while the second arc focuses a little more on ana, primeval, and technicolour.

OKAY DONE FINALLY. LET US START NOW. THERE'S ARCS HERE TOO BTW. OK LET'S START FOR REAL THIS TIME. NO PROCRASTINATING ONCE AGAIN. FUCK IT WE BALL.

———

• arc 1: starting arc

i don't have names for these arcs so just take random words/sentences that have smth to do with the story of the arc itself ok thanx

anyways, i think it's safe to say arc 1 focuses on introducing some of the characters here first. i think the characters introduced are ars, lucas, ana, aresi (she only appears for like a brief moment sorry aresi 😔), the thunderriders members, fate, and destonio. that's abt it

this arc also focuses on introducing the conflict in hand; team destruction and a weird reoccuring dream ars keeps having for some reason.

as for the dream, the premise is always the same; the sky for some reason is pink and there's a weird gateway to god knows where that sucks in everything in the world and ultimately causes destruction and shit. some guy (supposed to be abstruse) is just watching some girl (supposed to be arghena) cause everything and be the bad bitch she is. also in the dream ars just watches some randos (supposed to be the rest of severed eden) die one by one in the same ways every single goddamn time (like the lore related art i posted like. so so long ago).

the dreams always ends up in both abstruse and arghena being consumed by a rlly bright light and them boom. ars wakes up. how odd.

timeskip to like. awhile after he got the dreams. he constantly get those dreams and then finally he got tired so he consulted to aresi abt it. "dude maybe you're going insane how abt you go on a morning stroll to keep yourself sane" she said.

and he fucking did that (idiot).

during that walk he met lucas who just got to the cantate kingdom. lucas was like, looking for a place to stay ig so ars was like, "oh you can stay at my place!!!!" like the fuckinh IDIOT HE IS. lucas agreedeither way bc he"$ greedy as hell at the time. i'm not even gonna bother fixing the typos but you get it right

anywayzzzzz after awhile ars told lucas abt that dream bc lucas was like "yo why do you look like you're gonna lose your sanity 💀💀💀💀💀" and uh yea. lucas did NOT suggested that ars should go to a therapist but instead told him that he should actually find the answer himself. and then boom. actual shit begins

they went to the astra kingdom first bc ars wanted to visit ana first. ars tells her abt the dream, and then she agrees to come with him and lucas. and then whoooooshhhhhh to modelista city they go

they nearly got killed once they stepped foot into it btw.

DON'T WORRY THO!!!!!! TROJAN IS HERE TO SAVE THE DAY!1!1!1!11!1!1

trojan then offers to take the trio to the thunderriders base and then foosh. they meet the rest of the thunderriders :)

also i never rlly mentioned who the thunderriders members are so lemme just list it here uhhhh:

- tempo

- shifta

- trojan

- galactic

- satellite

- terabyte

- glaciaxion

- pamolia

- pupa (tho at the time he didn't appeared yet lol)

- aleph-0

yeah.

anyways

moving on

tempo told ars, lucas, and ana abt their goal in defeating team destruction, and how if team destruction successfully carries out their plan to destroy the entirety of planet earth (LMAO AORRU CALLING IT PLANET EARTH IS FUNNY TO ME), then everyone is doomed (and they'll probs die obv)

i think the best way to kick off this arc was to have them be in a bit of danger facing the thunderriders' enemies; team destruction.

well. it's just their minions that came to fucking obliterate them but THATS BESIDES THE POINT. THEVPOIMT ISSSSSS. FATE CAME TO SAVE RHEM BC THEY NEARLY DIED.

FATEEEEEEEE THE FIRST BEST GIRL HERE (i still ly primeval i prommy)

also the arc rlly ends when destonio first appears. he would say smth abt lumine ig. and abt how he hates everything. based destonio moment

from here, pls keep in mind that their objectives are:

1. defeating team destruction and their plan to destroy the world, and

2. find out an answer to ars' dream

———

• arc 2: oh god things get a lil tricky arc

THE ARC NAMR YOODBYE.

anyways, in this arc we get to know more abt fate. the Sillies™ find out that she's a fucking goddess and nearly everyone freaked out. ars might look like he's calm abt this when he is screaming on the inside.

^ visual presentation

moving on from that, fate was like "oh i'm just visitinf here ykyk hot girl stuff" and lucas was like "okay bozo" wow soooo misogynistic /j

suddenly some guy comes into the base. fate was shockex enough to seehim BC IT TURNS OUT IT'S DESTONIO⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️

anyways convo between fate and destonio in a nutshell ig:

fate: what the FUCK

destonio: HELLO LUMINE.

fate: NO SHUT THE FUCK UP GET AWAY FOM ME I'? NOT LUMINE

destonio: oh. i get it now. so you decidsd to go by a new fucking identity

destonio: ok fine whatever idgaf anymore.

destonio: anyways hello everyone

ars: What The Fuck.

things went normal after that for some reason. fate, despite her horror of reuniting with destonio, decided to bother him either way. "dEsTo ThIs, DeStO tHaT, WHEN EILL SHE LESVE ME ALONE??????" my guy you fucking asked for this yk 💀

anyways after so much filler stuff we finally get to the part things get interesting. dark ars starts invading ars in his sleep instead of the reoccuring dream he always has every night. dark ars is like "hey ars can i. can i take over." and ars would be like "NO??????? LEAVE ME ALONE????"

ok ok uhhh after so much tormenting and even more filler stuff, the Sillies™ start to realize Something Is Wrong with ars. trojan decided to interrogate ars alone on that matter

Worst mistake possible.

because dark ars was annoyed enough by this to the point where he actually makes ars suffer and feel so much physical pain during the interrogation, which honestly sounds like a shitty premise, but i'm writing this on the spot, so that's why it's shitty. trojan was fucking concerned, let me tell you that.

he was all like, "ars!!!!!!!! are you fucking ok??????!!!!!!!!!!!!" and ars is like "NO I'M NOT." and then after so long dark ars finally takes over and nearly kills trojan. ouch.

lucas managed to confront dark ars abt this and was like "ars?? what the fuck man????" and dark ars was like "shut the fuck up human. i'm seriously going to kill each and everyone of you lowly idiots."

"OUCH??????" — fate, probably.

anyways they managed to defeat ars, but fate accidentally summons a portal that takes ars to a whole different place. probs far away from modelista city. "ms. fate....what the hell???" tempo asked.......this isn't a fic.

the arc ends with ars just....waking up elsewhere. as for where it is.....we'll find out in a little bit.

———

• arc 3: aegle city arc

uwogh

i....originally didn't exactly want to put aegleseeker as a main character in the story, but now that i think abt it, he can be a supporting character in a sense.

anyways ars turns out to have woken up in aegle city, a city that.......is currently trapped in an eternal night.

heh. mlp moment /j

ars woke up in some house ig, so he quickly realized someone found him unconscious and took him in. turns out that someone is- OH MY GOD THE AEGLESEEKER HIMSELF??????!!!!!!

yea. it could get weirder and nonsensical from here /j again

i don't have much to say abt this arc, other than the fact that ars and aegleseeker just.....help each other in a sense ykyk? it's just them bonding and becoming besties somewhat.

at one point tessi gets mentioned. aegleseeker criticised her for making this world somewhat odd. he also criticised amazing mighty at the same time. this guy is rlly bold.

not much to say abt this arc. it's...really boring compared to the other two ones i think.

IT ACTUALLY DOESN'T END THERE THO.

ars has to get tormented by dark ars again,,,,,,,,,

after that, ars decided to distance himself from aegleseeker, which obviously made him confused. like i would be confused too if my friend started distancing themself from me and talked to me less. he just didn't know that ars is doing that for his safety.

eventually, ars ran away from aegle city, not even telling aegleseeker first. that...definitely made the latter felt a bit hurt in some way, but he's good at hiding things, so that's not obvious enough from the outside.

in the end, we shift focuses...

———

• arc 4: lucid traveler arc

huh? lucid traveler? could this mean.....oh! lucas is the main focus here now!

it turns out, during ars' time in aegle city, the rest of the thunderriders were trying to find him. fate didn't talked to them that much out of guilt. destonio just went along i guess.

ig throughout this arc lucas reminisces on his time with ars. it's short, but he ended up feeling a lot of things because of his time with ars LMAO.

oh god,,,,feelings?

also at one point pamolia takes the spotlight, which definitely teases something for a future arc lol

god this is all going so slow i hate this AHAHSHDBUDDBF

in the end, one day, lucas decided to find ars all by himself when one can least expect it. after some finding and even more reminiscing, he ended up finding ars in the end. they're not in modelista city anymore btw. they're kind of nearly back in the cantate kingdom, but not exactly there either.

ars was literally trying to avoid lucas so dark ars doesn't hurt him, but lucas just kept on coming to him even more. it can't be helped when dark ars decided to take over eventually. they both then had a super intense fight (real) and despite all of dark ars' efforts, he actually lost Again. he ended up falling unconscious again, and because he felt pity for ars, lucas decided to jusf LEAVE HIM LIKR THAT WHAT THE UFCK MENA.

uh. anyways.

———

• arc 5: malware arc

oh wow. it's trojan time besties

the main character here is still lucas honestly lmao, but the real main focus here is trojan

lucas got back to the thunderriders base after some time, and the first thing he saw was trojan and terabyte watching the fucking news.

yeah, apparently, the deal with ars and dark ars got a bit out of control, huh?

the whole first part of this arc is pretty normal.......until we get to the second bit. tempo and shifta start to notice something wrong with trojan. trojan starts to say...really weird stuff, like "haha guys what if someone here betrays us or something?" or "y'know, a traitor could be among us (SUS???? /J), right?" OR "[insert name of anyone near him right now], don't you think acting is a strange thing to be made into a profession?"

they both didn't exactly mind this at first, but then the questions and what-if scenarios get even weirder and that certainly made tempo a bit suspicious. so, he decided to confront trojan abt it.

tempo, being dumb for once, tried to force an answer out of trojan bc for some reason he isn't giving any answers???? dawg what are you hiding m8.

WELL.

TURNS OUT.

HE IS INDEED HIDING SOMETHING.

.......

..

.KDCNFK

um

he.

he"$.

he's a spy from team destruction.

HE HAD TO EXPLAIN THIS TO TEMPO SO THAT HE DOESN'T GET KILLED OR WHATEVER BUT BASICALLY the reason why he became a spy for team destruction was because they offered him a good enough deal and they thought he'd make a good enough spy considering how close he is with tempo, the leader.

he was like "oh yea sure i hate the mfs here anyways lmaoooo" at first but then he got attached. that's how you know things got bad for him.

tempo was a bit disappointed at first, but then he was like "alright fine." trojan was relieved that he was forgiv—

"but what about that time you asked me about something related to acting?"

shit.

he doesn't trust him yet.

and now he thinks trojan is acting all of this time when he is NOT acting.

"it's just something related to this...whole ordeal. sorry."

this is really shitty ngl /hsrs

anyways trojan felt a bit bad after that, because tempo started avoiding him a lil more, and that's when the conflict between them started.

oh dw abt them, they'll solve things once.....uhhhhhhh season 2 comes in /hj

———

• arc 6: confrontation arc

WE'RE BACK WITH ARSI CANT ATE BABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

uh. so!

ars is actually back in the cantate kingdom! with aresi and his parents! how peaceful!

......ok not rlly actually lmfao

dark ars continues to torment him every night in his sleep. it irritates ars a lot, honestly, so yikes. BUT THAT ALL CHANGED ON ONE FATE(oh hi girly /j)FUL NIGHT.

ars meets dark ars in the dream world AGAIN. BUT THIS TIME......ARS HAS HAD ENOUGH OF HIS SHIT‼️

ars and dark ars have a lil duel and shit, but then, for some reason, dark ars got defeated again for some reason. what a bitch (affectionate). the two then have a lil talk! like a heart to heart, bc that's all dark ars is capable of at this rate.

basically, their conversation was abt how dark ars is a personification of ars' self hatred and perfectionism. it's hard to explain without his backstory post bc i haven't posted his yet (i wanna finish up on the worldbuilding ones first lol), but yeah, that's the gist here.

if ars learns to accept himself more, then dark ars will disappear and stop bothering him. as a little extra, dark ars will become one with ars. ars then decided to just accept himself for who he is and then boom! he wakes up with dark ars now being an actual part of him that he'll appreciate a little more!

also he gets a new look that i actually used for his proseka stamp redraw, but i haven't made a ref sheet yet lmaoooo

ars tells his whole family abt this and they all hug and cry in joy <3333

ars then decided to get back to modelista city to find the thunderriders, lucas, ana, fate, and destonio again.

———

• arc 7: OH GOD THE GANG IS BACK TOGETHER BUT. BUT LUMINE AND DESTONIO LORE ARC??????

OH GOD FINALLY THE FOCUS IS ON DESTONIO LETS FUCKING GO.

but for a small half of this arc lucars is the focus (yay)

ars gets back to the thunderriders base and literally crushes lucas and ana with the most biggest bear hug ever. what a silly guy. "if we started this together, then we might as well end this together too." he told the two of them.....haa......i love tjem....

anywayzzzzzz the focus is finally on destonio after that. basically he keeps talking about this lumine girl, and how he misses her, even if he hates to admit it sometimes. that obviously made fate a lil frowny lol

ars tries to get an answer from destonio regarding who lumine is, but destonio refuses to answer.

howeverrrr pov switch to destonio just for the sake of flashbacks happen.

throughout the arc, random flashbacks pop up here and there. uhhh the premise of each flashback goes like this:

1. flashback 1: lumine and destonio's first meeting basically. rlly basic shit.

2. flashback 2: the two of them finding out one is older than the other and vice versa when they saw each other at high school, followed by lumine teasing destonio abt his short height that fits his age. destonio Does Not like this at all.

3. flashback 3: The Besties™ hanging out at an amusement park. they got ice cream too and destonio jokes abt how lumine would be a messy eater when HE'S THE ONE WHO HAS ICE CREAM ALL OVER HIS MOUTH LMAO

4. flashback 4: this is where things get...concerning. i think. lumine rants abt how much she hates this world and how she'd rather be dead then see The Horrors™. needless to say destonio was fucking confused.

5. flashback 5: basically what one of my vent arts reference. "i wanna die, and when i die, i'm going to ascend to heaven and be god's most special angel ever! haha- eh? why are you looking at me like that, desto?"

6. flashback 6: lumine tells destonio abt an upcoming summer festival that they both should go to. this is foreshadowing Very Bad Events.

7. flashback 7 (THE LAST ONE BTW GOD BLESS): lumine and destonio are near the edge of a cliff. lumine tells destonio stuff that are muffled out for some reason (to add to that mysteriousness frfr) and then the firework show happened and then—

ah.

that's all.

———

yea this is all i can write for now. i'll probs continue either today, tonight, or tmrw. depends rlly lol

uhhh if you have any questions feel free to ask me! i love getting asks :)

also this is indeed very shitty-ly put together i apologize in advance. maybe one day future me will look back at this and go "oh god this is bad i need to rewrite this" but for now! this.

[inkwell33]

Tangled the Series spoilers and ranting about Varian

One reason I think Varian’s redemption worked so much better than Cassandra’s is that he actually HAD a redemption. Cass just kinda… stopped? But Varian showed that this did affect him in deeper ways than just his own city suddenly hating him even more than they did before. His emotional turmoil was evident in the writing of the show, as shown in Nothing Left to Lose and even beyond, with the events of the finale. He went through so much trying to make up for what he did wrong, and the entire time his character plays on the sympathy of the fans, showing that he really was just a desperate kid lashing out because of what seemed like a hopeless situation. 

Cassandra however, just sort of… became a villain? Like yes, I know, she was tired of being in Rapunzel’s shadow for so many years, and I know, she hates her because she blames Rapunzel for Gothel’s neglect and abandonment, but it just didn’t seem valid. Raps was KIDNAPPED. And I’m aware that Cass was manipulated by the Zhan Tiri, but even after she found out the truth, she didn’t start down the right path again. She just… kept pushing. And it didn’t help that Cassandra’s moonstone arc wasn’t exactly the greatest pairing to an already subpar twist. Also she kidnaps a child and drugs him? What the hell? I’m not gonna even BEGIN to go into how she did SO MUCH MORE DESTRUCTION THAN VARIAN and yet HE, WHO IS A CHILD, WENT TO JAIL WHILE CASSANDRA WENT ON AN ADVENTURE??? But anyways-

With Varian, you get to see how torn up he really is. I mean, Ready as I’ll Ever Be is pretty much him singing about how resorting to villainy was his only option. Nothing Left to Lose is him telling Cass about how much his actions scarred him and the people he loves. There’s buildup, there’s emotion, there’s the moment where he snaps, there’s grief and trauma and sympathy and all the things that makes a redemption successful. Cassandra was not portrayed in a way that allowed for much oomph. In my opinion the only redeeming quality about her arc was the initial betrayal, because you could feel the emotion in the air. The electricity. And tension. Also loved the scenes with the mindtrap.

In conclusion instead of doing homework I choose to explain why Varian is my favorite character and is superior to Cass in every way thank you 

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

Criminy, is THAT what happened to Clara? I stopped watching shortly into Capaldi's run, which is unfortunate because I like Capaldi but I couldn't stand any more moffat

yeah so basically. Clara was supposed to leave after season 8, and then right at the last moment- like literally as they were filming her final episode- Jenna Coleman decided she wanted to do another season, so her planned ending (the doctor meeting up with her as an old woman and she tells him all about her long happy life) got tossed in the trash, so then they had to come up with a whole new character arc and shit for her in season 9, and it got messy. in season 9 she's still mourning the death of her boyfriend, but in a very self-destructive non healthy way, and they keep talking about how she's becoming 'too much like the doctor', until they get into a situation where, had the doctor been in it, he could've regenerated, but Clara's human so she just dies. then the doctor goes 'no❤', is held hostage and tortured by the time lords for 4.5 BILLION YEARS, all to get Clara back to life, and he's using time lord tech so like...she was pulled out of time the moment before her death, but she's frozen like that, she can't age or have a heartbeat it's a whole Thing, and she has to eventually return to her death but she could theoretically live forever as a girl without a heartbeat, again it's a whole Thing, then the doctor ends up wiping his memory of Clara??? except he still essentially remembers her? he can 'remember the holes where she's supposed to be' so he basically just doesn't know what she looks like? and then she steals a tardis with Maisie Willaims (who is also immortal but for different reasons) and they're like 'guess we should go back to Gallifrey so I can die....maybe we can make some pit stops tho ;)'. so like. it's heavily implied Clara and Maisie Willaims from game of thrones are just gonna be forever Out There having gay sex and saving the universe and avoiding the doctor for truly no clear reason. and while I love that moffat ended two seasons in a row with 'immortal girlfriends ditch the doctor to travel space together', like, it was just a WEIRD ending for Clara!!!!

it left open a lot of plot holes! the biggest being the time traveler who's supposed to be her grandson that looks exactly like her now dead boyfriend! I think, using that episode, plus the weird moon abortion episode, plus danny's foster care past, PLUS Clara's admiration of her mother, it would have made a lot of sense to do a plotline after Danny's death where Clara finds out she's pregnant. And then she has to come to a conclusion about what to do because obviously the tardis life style isn't safe for a newborn- and it would contend with how self-destructive she's acting. I think it would make sense for her as a character to decide to keep the baby and stop time traveling, then she can have her long happy earth-adventured filled life she was originally supposed to, and not, you now, be dead at 29 years old. the second Jenna Coleman starts getting wrinkles they're not gonna be able to bring her back for a cameo anymore 😭. Just, like? it would've been a happier ending for her? it would tie her story neatly together with a bow instead of leaving paradoxes and open ends all over the space time continuum

[jeanandthedreamofhorses]

SNK’s Original Ending

Looking over the 2017 Bessatsu Shonen interview with Isayama again, it came as a slap to the face. While we always knew Isayama was considering changing his original, darker ending to a happier one, it was unclear until now what the original ending entailed. 

But given the way Isayama describes it, it’s abundantly clear that the original ending was exactly what we had been made to expect since the moment the Rumbling began. The plan Eren told Floch was the real deal.

Isayama claims that he ‘originally wanted to illustrate something similar to the film “The Mist”’. 

From the perspective of that film’s main characters, it’s hard to say that it has happy ending. The original ending for Shingeki no Kyojin originally went in that direction?

By the middle of the film, the story of The Mist is at the typical level of a B-list movie. But at its conclusion, it used the main character’s deep, intrinsic beliefs of what’s right to corrupt the main character himself, leading him to act in contrary ways. What the audience believed to be correct is also flipped upside-down. In the beginning, I spent a while analyzing how to imitate this style for Shingeki no Kyojin.

This is exactly what Isayama did with Eren in the Final Arc. His ‘deep, intrinsic beliefs of what’s right’ corrupt him and make him act in contrary ways. To ensure the freedom of him and his own, he steals freedom away from others.

Every character has to reassess what they once thought about Eren as their perspective is ‘flipped upside-down’. It is the same for the reader, as we are forced to question whether freedom is worth such a terrible cost.

Then, in the final chapter, we are told that all this characterisation of Eren was a ruse and that his friends had been right about him all along, soothing our consciences and, in the process, killing the moral complexity of the story dead. But judging from this interview, it really seems that Isayama had originally intended that to be the real Eren, with the Full Rumbling as his real goal.

What’s especially interesting about ‘The Mist’ is its ending.

SPOILERS BELOW

The protagonist, his son, and his friends are in a car surrounded by monsters. The protagonist decides to kill the other passengers in order to save them from an even worse fate. But after leaving the car, the protagonist realises that a rescue team had arrived and were exterminating the monsters. He had killed his loved ones for nothing.

I assume the ending of SNK would be similar in that regard. Although Eren did everything he did to protect his friends, he would ultimately wind up killing them when they try to stop him. He would have caused mass destruction for no reason at all. That’s how I expected the narrative to proceed for a very long time, and I’m almost certain that’s what Isayama was originally angling for. It already happened to some extent with Sasha.

What Isayama has to say about the movie ‘In This Corner of the World’ is also interesting:

The story starts prior to when combat began, but at some point even the main character, whose livelihood is opposite from a battlefield, also became someone who heeded the calling “fight on!” And then, she was defeated by such a development. The movie doesn’t explicitly answer the question of “Is war a bad thing?” - and I think that’s quite innovative.

The main character being defeated by their decision to ‘fight on’ is very reminiscent of Eren’s famous ‘Tatakae’.

If he winds up killing his friends because of that determination, it’s fair to say that he too would have been ‘defeated’ by it.

Likewise, Isayama’s admiration of how the movie doesn’t try to provide a clear moral answer to a difficult question suggests that the original ending would have also possessed this ambiguity. He confirms this later in the interview.

But considering the root of the issue, rather than evaluating “what is right”…to be influenced by various other works and their philosophies, and to truthfully illustrate my exact feelings during those moments - I think that’s what Shingeki no Kyojin’s ending will resemble.

It would have been unclear whether Armin’s justice or Eren’s liberty was more important; whereas in the ending we got, Eren received the praise and admiration of everyone. 

Although Isayama later claimed he didn’t mean to give the impression that Armin approved of Eren’s actions, that is certainly the impression which is given. The hero-worship of Eren in the final chapter is quite unambiguous.

Evidently, Isayama decided to change course. He writes:

At first I explored emulating The Mist, but now you could say that I’m moving in a more peaceful direction, similar to Guardians of the Galaxy. I’m not talking about whether Shingeki no Kyojin will have a good or bad ending - I only speak of my own attitude as the creator, as well as differences in my methods of ensuring that the readers enjoy the series.

Certainly, the ending we got resembled ‘Guardians’ more than ‘Mist’: a happy ending with a clear moral message where everyone gets along. And I have no problem with ‘Guardians’-style stories. The problem is that you don’t write a story meant to emulate one extreme only to suddenly pivot to the other extreme at the very end. Can you imagine if ‘Guardians’ ended with a ‘Mist’-style conclusion? It would be awful, and that’s exactly what happened here.

Because the last chapter was so jarring, I suspected a last-minute change, and I reckon some elements of it probably are last-minute. However, there are some things that were set up earlier - Mikasa’s conversation with Eren in 123, for instance.

But there are also a lot of plot threads that never go anywhere, like Mikasa’s relations with Hizuru and Historia’s parallels with Ymir. So, what gives?

This interview’s confirmed it for me. Around the Marley Arc when the interview took place, Isayama thought up an alternate ending (way too late in the story). From there, Isayama wrote the series with two different possible endings in mind and it was only in the last couple chapters - hell, maybe even in the last chapter itself - that he actually settled on one. This explains the ending’s inconsistencies, as well as why only half its plot threads paid off. Chase two rabbits, catch neither.

The worst part is that the reason he gives for changing it is because ‘now I feel responsible towards the reader’; whereas in The Final Exhibition interview he tells us:

I think I wanted to attack something. Like betraying people or hurting people. And, well, it's not exactly nice, but hurting the readers too... In all honestly, I feel that's what I really wanted to do. For me, as a reader, when I think, "this manga will remain in my heart," it means, for example, it phenomenally hurt me: It's those kinds of experiences I'm after.

These are the ‘differences in my methods of ensuring that the readers enjoy the series’ that Isayama talked about. His priority shifted from the *irresponsible* desire to ‘phenomenally hurt’ us to the *responsible* desire to make us happy. It became more important that we merely ‘enjoy the series’ than for it to ‘remain in [our] heart[s]’.

In other words, fanservice over themes. Would to God that Isayama had, like Eren in his original ending, been totally *irresponsible* with his creative freedom. Instead, his desire to be responsible ironically meant betraying the story’s themes, and, in turn, betraying a very large portion of the fanbase who were reading the story for something other than straightforward escapism. 

The story can no longer remain in our hearts, because Isayama didn’t put his weight into the final punch. Ironically, it is the point at which SNK abandons Nietzschean themes that it proves Nietzsche the most right: ‘Pity is an infection’.

[thewhitefluffyhat]

Let’s Talk About Satoko

A lot went wrong in Sotsu, but I think the biggest problem was this: it failed to make its main character sympathetic.

.

When I consider the strengths of the When They Cry series, one of the major aspects that stands out to me is its tragic and sympathetic antagonists. In both Higurashi and Umineko, despite the monstrous actions of the culprits, I still found myself rooting for them. Not to succeed at their self-destructive goals, of course, but for someone to finally reach out to them and stop them.

So I’m still kind of reeling in shock and confusion at how badly SotsuGou failed on that front, when I had previously considered this area to be one of the highlights of Ryukishi’s writing. I’d spent this whole season valiantly hoping and trying to theorize otherwise, but I now have to conclude that Satoko was a one-dimensional villain. One who doesn’t show a shred of remorse or even appear to be affected by all the violence she inflicts to the very end.

Indeed, the finale has Rika be the one to apologize, with Satoko even saying her actions were worth it!

How did this go so wrong? Especially when compared to original Higurashi or Umineko, a tragic Satoko should have been easy mode! She starts off as a pre-existing character the audience has sympathy for, she has the instant feels backstory of looping to try to change something and failing, and she even got 13 whole episodes of Sotsu to focus on her and show her perspective!

But despite all of that, the writing seemed determined to make her as dislikeable as possible. There were plenty of ways to add nuance and complexity to her motives (see: all the fan analysis and even some Ryukishi interviews), but instead it doubled down on her selfishness, her possessiveness, and her just... not wanting to study. And on top of that, during the first few -akashi arcs, Satoko commits her murders gleefully, barely facing the slightest setback or twinge of conscience. So aside from the (too little, too late, and never touched on again until a blink and you’ll miss it line in the finale) fight between two Satokos in Episode 10, there’s no reason to care about the ostensible protagonist. Instead of building to a conclusion where you want Satoko to be forgiven, she just becomes increasingly uncomfortable to watch and her relationship with Rika increasingly hard to root for.

I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for this Satoko to finally get some character development. I even wrote fanfic predicated on that development. Given the patterns of past WTC works, it seemed so obvious that it had to happen for the story to work!

But then it just… didn’t happen.

And thus, the story as a whole didn’t work either. Because the emotional foundation of the anime was resting on the audience being invested in Satoko and Rika’s relationship, with their separation being framed as bittersweet. Because again, the finale has Rika be the one to apologize, implying the audience was supposed to be on Satoko’s side this whole time. Because everything around the anime - the music and visuals of the OP/ED, the promotional art, etc. - were emphasizing the beauty and pathos of a tragedy, not a one-sided yandere rampage.

(Seriously, what happened to this Satoko? There’s nothing like her or the symbolism of this moment from the OP in the show!)

All I can conclude is that this unsympathetic Satoko was somehow a failure in execution, because it makes no sense for the tone or themes of the rest of the narrative. According to Ryukishi himself, this wasn’t meant to be the story of Rika escaping her abusive, toxic friend! It was supposed to be the story of two mistaken friends both learning to understand each other better!

But as Sotsu wore on, fewer and fewer people saw it that way, and I can’t blame them.

And unfortunately, this massive tonal dissonance casts a cloud that overshadows everything else about the anime. Had the character beats landed strongly, I could probably have forgiven the poor pacing, structural problems, and over-the-top gore. But when the fundamental emotional center is off, then even an otherwise stellar story would be in deep trouble. And this show did not recover from it - indeed, the other problems just compounded with it.

Indeed, I think even fanfiction is going to struggle to recover from it. Now every SatoRika fic, every LambdaBern fic is going to have to grapple with Satoko/Lambda’s odd lack of remorse or trauma. 

So what got us to this point? Well… I think at least one big component of it is that the writers - Ryukishi or Passione or both - failed to flesh out the actual character arcs.

Looking back on Sotsu (and even Gou’s!) plot beats in hindsight, it’s all just so janky. Satoko shows zero internal conflict, until suddenly she gets in a fight between her witch and human halves. Hanyuu is completely absent from the plot, until she’s suddenly half the focus of the finale. Eua is an enigma whose only purpose is to laugh about being entertained, even to the very end. And Rika gets it perhaps worst of all, completely clueless and passive until miraculously she understands everything just in time for a final battle.

There's no sense of build up, of progression. There were several raw ideas and character interactions that could have been interesting, but they never actually went anywhere.

In some cases it even feels like there were plot beats that were outright dropped or missing. Eua threatening Satoko with a world without Rika should she fail? Satoko’s conflict between her witch and her human self? Anything dealing with the other club members?

None of those ideas actually go anywhere, so I’m left scratching my head at their inclusion.

But regardless of how it happened, the result is clear: none of the characters ultimately important to the plot - Satoko, Rika, Eua, or Hanyuu - had any meaningful development during Sotsu. The characters literally froze in place for 13 episodes while the audience’s patience slowly ran out. Sure, the reused footage didn’t help either, but I think it was this lack of development that truly sealed the show’s fate - including that of Satoko in the eyes of the fandom.

[s0ym1lk]

I finished Disco Elysium last night and have come to the conclusion that it is, ironically, about learning how to honor history while also letting it go.

Disco Elysium is set in a world drowning in history. You spend the whole time walking through a bombed-out city, exploring walls where people were lined up and shot, bunkers filled with propaganda, and monuments that were put up and torn down and put up again. The layers upon layers of history that you dig through in every encounter just overwhelms you.

Harry Du Bois is likewise drowning in his own personal history. When you start the game, you literally wake up in the 'ruins' of Harry's own personal country - the room he'd wrecked on his multi-day bender prior to starting the game. He clings to an outdated music style and an outdated celebrity that he models himself after. He worships his ex so much that his brain turns her into a god.

It's no surprise that the most joyful parts of the game are ones in which history is erased or made irrelevant. Harry's relationship with Kim, for example, has no history to it at all. While Kim knows that Harry is a self-destructive asshole, based on the aftermath of Harry's bender that he's able to witness, Kim also begins his relationship with Harry from a point where he's fundamentally a different person, who can and does make different choices than old Harry would havea. Every time Harry's past comes up, Kim is able to relate to him in a different and more positive way, simply because the old Harry and the new Harry are different people. Contrast this with Harry's interactions with his old partner Jean. Those interactions are really depressing, because they're so one-sided - Jean is left to shoulder all of the pain Harry caused to him, but when he tries to lash out, Harry doesn't understand. For example, when Jean tries to pull a mean prank by dressing up as the reporter Harry drove away, the joke goes completely over Harry's head, because Harry doesn't remember his past OR his old partner. Jean is stuck in a cycle of trauma and abuse that he's trying to perpetuate with his actions. Harry literally can't remember enough about himself to be a part of that anymore. That's why his relationship with Kim works so well in comparison - he can leave his past behind and become a better person who has healthier relationships.

Another place you see this quite well is in the storyline for the dance club at the church. The church itself reeks of history, and not in a good way. It's abandoned, worn-out, broken, and it has a giant stained-glass window of a woman who blanketed Elysium in terrible history and destroyed it, then convinced everyone that she was a saint. The history in that stained glass literally towers over you and forces you to cower beneath it. When you help the teens turn the church into a dance club, you disrupt all that. The power and sanctity of the church's history doesn't totally disappear, because the church is still there, but it fades into the background as it's overtaken by a new history. That new history extends to everyone present. It covers the teens, all of whom are either running from a bad past or leaving the people they were behind(you'll notice Disco Elysium has a lot of characters who have become different people than they used to be). It covers Harry, who has struggled to let go of the cool person he was in the days of disco, but ends up not just writing the new anodic music but busting a move to it. It covers Soona the programmer, who's trying to essentially come to terms with her history at Fortress Accident and move on from it. It's a really powerful image, to find the seed of the world's destruction in the church and to be concerned about that, but to then turn it into a bass track and dance to it joyfully anyway. Sure, the end of the world is coming. That kind of sucks. But in this joyful moment, who cares?

Look at Harry's former relationship with Dora. You spend all this time being triggered by things related to her, like chewing gum, the Dolores Dei references, and near the very end of the game finally have a dream where she turns into a god and leaves you. Harry is obviously an obsessive person. He obsesses about Dora and turns her into something larger than life, even though she tells him frankly that she's just a regular woman. Harry tries to cling to that history by getting her back. He gives her figurines that he remembered she would like. He tells her he's a better person and that they can make it work. He can try to kiss her. He can beg her not to go. She leaves anyway. Despite Harry's desperation, you can tell as the player that this is an unhealthy relationship, and that it's good that Dora left him. You can also see how her leaving triggered Harry's descent into brokenness, and how he never truly recovered from it because he couldn't let go. I don't think it's a coincidence that Harry only manages to face this history after he loses his memory. Some of that past had to be scraped away before he could face the truth and overcome it.

Finally, the reveal of the killer absolutely drives this point home. The whole game follows the traditional detective novel arc, where every detail is a Chekhov's gun leading to one big conclusion. The footprints, the eighth Hardie boy, the drugs, the smoker on the balcony, all of it. And the kicker is that it does all come together - but not in the way you want it to. Because most of the clues are smoke and mirrors. The killer is a sad old man you've never met before hiding on an island, clinging to (you guessed it!) the past. He's drowning in history and can't let go of it. If he feels totally irrelevant to the rest of the game, that's because he is. He doesn't matter! The world let go and moved on without him. The game strongly implies that it was this moving on, and not the old man's politics, that cause him to commit the murder. When he pulled the trigger, he wasn't really thinking about moralintern supremacy or being loyal to the communist revolution. He simply couldn't watch two people steeped in history choose to let it go and find happiness together in moving on. So he killed the merc in a fit of jealousy. Everything else you track down in the game is just people trying to mitigate the consequences of that murder by protecting each other.

History is important, and paying attention to it is how we learn from our mistakes. But what Disco Elysium doesn't want people to do is to get so obsessed with the past that we get stuck in it. You can't live in a bombed-out city or a trashed hotel room forever. You have to let it go.

You may ask, what about the pale, and the end of the world? To me, the game is literally manifesting existential dread as a parallel to the player's own understanding of our world and our limited existence. We know the world will end at some point. Elysium knows it literally - it's being slowly swallowed up bit by bit. We as the players know it metaphorically. We know that we get 100 years, give or take, to live. We know that the planet is slowly being destroyed. In a way, that's our history too. And so the game says to you, it doesn't matter. You should care, but don't get so caught up in caring that you forget to live. Ultimately it doesn't really matter that the world is ending. What matters is something smaller and more personal - that you care about the people around you, that you try to help where you can, and that you dance to anodic dance music while you have the chance.