#mentopolis ambition

[comicdez]

@clownjacket ty very much for that mental image, hope i did your vision justice !

[flamingfoxninja]

So theory of the Meta Plot that's been going on:

New Fresh 20 something out of university is just overworked and stressed on this project so isn't dating or doing anything fun other than energy drinks. But finally after months on working on his project, with his ambition and logic all worked out and finalized, he's ready to submit his work

Except! There's one little thing nagging him, so he's just gonna double check his work just in case.

This is the problem of his inner project. Whatever he worked on, it's going against his small sense of conscience. Maybe it goes against labor unions, or it's actually using a poisoness chemical whatever. Point is, if he submits it the company can rake in a lot of money and he'll be rewarded, BUT at the cost of a lot of people

And his hard-driven Ambition can't let some little sense of Morality ruin their life choices

[sarcasticsra]

HE COULDN’T THINK OF ANY FACTS.

Hyperfixation and passion got married and are taking care of all of the interests! Elias’ brain is just absolutely flooded with dopamine right now, it’s the BEST.

“A strong sense of pleasure slightly tempered by conscience sounds pretty fun.” Trapp is always 100% correct. My god this man is so quick and talented. More Trapp on D20 2kforever.

Conscience understanding the place self-loathing can come from and shrinking it back into more helpful “you fucked up but you’re going to fix it” guilt, accountability. Goddamn seriously self-loathing evolving from guilt Brennan you’re a goddamn genius.

Impulse and hyper vigilance have gotten divorced and remarried 17 times at least already, you can’t convince me otherwise.

Way to go, Elias. I knew you could do it, buddy.

[r3dvlvet]

I love how M Bition is trying to argue that he should be the mayor because he’s the reason that Elias got where he is now…as if Elias isn’t currently having the worst day of his life because of said ambition

[canonicallyanxious]

i'm stupid so i absolutely did not put together Conrad Schintz as "conscience" until i saw someone in the tag point this out but now that it's in my dumb brain i can't stop thinking about it. Alex's choice to portray Conrad as this softspoken never speaks up but still has to do Something boy who is kind and thoughtful to a fault. pitch perfect character choices!!! but also this tiny quiet boy somehow being pegged by the heads of the city as the BIGGEST DISTRACTION to the big guy's goals and ambitions!! and then his choice of the important article to pay attention to being the culmination of Elias' months and months of research - specifically for the goal of, as Conrad put it, getting it before the "big wigs" could get to it. WHAT is Elias Hodge DOING for Gobstopper Industries??????

[spiritb0x]

To quote Brennan, we talked about balls so much this season, and I almost wept

[throwntotheair]

There's something about Ambition's desire for Pleasure, but only through the "correct" channels - only through great strife that strikes me as interesting

It's almost as if Ambition requires Justification for Pleasure because to acquire Pleasure without Justification - without earning it, without deserving it....

That kinda reeks of a guilty conscience...

[weesalikesmilktea]

im sure everyone else caught onto this a long time ago but. elias' hyperfixation working for his ambition. damn

[clownjacket]

MARK BITION RESOLUTION!!!!!

[comicdez]

and then he got a school as an apology yay !

[bardinthezone]

Me: I'm so glad to be done with my schoolwork!!

Some interesting reads, but it'll be nice to kick back and unwind with my silly little RPG show :)

The silly little RPG show in question:

[adaines-furious-feast]

There's something about the Freeze emergency response being in control of the entire brain for years maybe even decades that explains everything. But also jesus christ can this season stop reminding me I need to get my head checked out for like five seconds?

[paradoxikaa]

hey. elias hodge autistic headcanon, hm?

more in the tags, mild spoilers of ep 2

[swiss-army-wifes]

what’s that post about a piece of media coming into your life at the exact right time to do critical damage

That’s how I feel about mentopolis

[plant-ago]

I just really want to shout out @quiddie and Brennan for creating the running theme of Suvi's "justification machine," because this is such a critically useful concept. The fact that when Steel approaches her about the memory wipe/sleeper agent deal, she explains that Suvi is a perfect (manchurian) candidate precisely because she is so smart, that she can come up with a reason for any impulse.

As someone who is in my own right probably too smart for my own good, this resonates with me to a frightening degree. My own people-pleasing mechanism, all the imposed desires and motivations and shitty habits I have accumulated over the years that are not really my own and do not really serve me -- my justification machine can always leap into action to defend them. Brennan said this in Mentopolis when he made Justin Fication a hound dog. If he's loyal to your conscience, you're in decent shape, but if he could just as easily do the same job for ambition, self-doubt, or even a sense of comfort or a fear of change.

Everyone does everything for a reason. Any action, anywhere, anytime, can be justified, if you're clever enough. That doesn't make it right.

[throwntotheair]

Truly I think, the most poetic way to end this series is for Conrad to go from writing notes on Fuck's door to finally realizing, a clear conscience is its own source of relief