#ramses o'flaherty

[hearts401]

comparing sasha ramses and juno is actually so fun because they all have a different motive for the same thing: helping people so much it literally ruins them

Juno has constant guilt and this feeling that he needs to prove something he needs to do good. he needs to fix things and do good things because he's just a bad shitty no good guy. He's got this idea that everything's his fault and everythings about him so its his if he wins and his if he loses and he drags people down with it

Ramses has this idea that people cannot be trusted with their own lives. They need to be helped and fixed because they wont do it themselves. He believes they need to be steered right like children because they don't know what's best for themselves. A very controlling and idealized mindset where he's doing a good thing by taking people's free will because they can't be trusted with it

and Sasha doesn't believe that it's her fault or that people can't help themselves but instead she feels like this is just Her Job. She should do this because it's her job. Less "they CAN'T do it" and more "They shouldn't" because it's her job. and we see that a lot. I mean aside from her literally telling Juno it's her job instead of his. She feels like she needs to consider everyone and everything at once. Which is what leads to her wanting to stop all progress and get to the root of all these issues. Because that's overwhelming to look at an entire galaxy and think that you need to focus on every single outcome. She wants to do things one at a time, bit by bit, but with an entire galaxy, things will change and some progress will constantly be lost.

I made a diagram

more simplified than I'd like it to be but does this make sense

[asterius-exists]

penumbra s2ep31:

very spoilers so under the cut

ramses is such a good villain because he actually believes he's doing good and he does do good, but he does it too far to the point where it's awful.

he wants to keep kids media that helped educate: but he fucked over a co-worker and that ended badly

build new, affordable housing in the poor sector: but he destroyed the city.

gave people a device to help them with their afflictions (I firmly believe theas could be used for chronic conditions to help people): but it brainwashed and destroyed people.

cut police corruption: but at the expense of people's will.

he believed it was good, and at first glance it was. but it wasn't.

his whole schema of evil, evil it was in its excess, was from the heart--- which killed him.

and yeah unsatisfying death but also it's as unsatisfying as his magnum opus of newtown

[thetruecthulhu9]

There's something special about Juno steel loving someone who can't keep their identity straight and coming out of it hurt, whether he did it to herself or if they hurt her directly.

[jamieontheroof]

JUNO KNEW RAMSES AS A CHILD?? HOLY SHIT

[geisterzeit-art]

"He keeps pushing. And pushing.

And pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing."

Aaaaaaa!!! I had the honor of working with @melonoverlord for their fic When The World Stops Turning, a TPP 1920's Anastasia au! Please go read it, it's absolutely amazing and full of intrigue and delicious drama and there was clearly so much love, care and passion put into the whole fic. I'll be putting a link to it in the reblogs shortly!

IMAGE DESCRIPTION: A digital drawing entirely done in shades of red. Juno Steel is pressing his hands on the chest of Ramses O'Flaherty, who is bleeding out. Juno is drawn sobbing and wearing a blood-stained dress. The background is a stylized, ornately designed theater stage. It looms over the both of them and looks a bit like a cathedral. END ID.

[ceaseless-rambler]

I don't normally tag spoilers and there have certainly been worse spoilers on my blog, but they're generally somewhat vague and this literally states what happened at the end of the penumbra podcast s2 (junoverse) so proceed at your own risk. I don't know how to cut the post so just scroll past

Junoverse s2 was actually so funny. Like, they built up their antagonist, made his actions feel super personal, gave us and Juno every reason to want and expect a final confrontation. And then he died offscreen of a heart attack, surrounded by drafts of his "I was right all along" speech. This has its merits thematically, but out of context? Fucking hilarious.

[mykelneedssleep]

This TikTok but The Penumbra Podcast

Transcribed for those that either can't or don't want to watch the whole thing:

"Your Honor, my client was simply standing on business" - Juno Steel "Your Honor, my client didn't know that was illegal" - Rita "Your Honor, my client was rapping the lyrics as the artist intended" - Mick Mercury "Your Honor, respectfully, you weren't fucking there" - Vespa Ilkay "Your Honor, my client was hitting them folks" - M'tendere "Your Honor, my client did not do that shit!" - Sasha Wire "Your Honor, my client's the powerhouse of the cell" - The Cure Mother Prime "Your Honor, my client would like to plead Gemini" - Buddy Aurinko "Your Honor, my client was thinking of that one girl from 2019" - Peter Nureyev (for the entirety of season 2) "Your Honor, my client was simply going goblin mode" - Jet Sikuliaq "Your Honor, my client's Mexican, he can say it" - [I literally can't think of one so this one doesn't have one] "Your Honor, my client turned himself into a fucking pickle" - The Ruby 7 "Your Honor, my client thought the Xbox mic was muted" - Cecil Kanagawa "Your Honor, if drinking bathwater is illegal you can lock me up too" - Julian DiMaggio "Your Honor, my client would've gotten away with it too if it wasn't for these meddling kids" - Ramses O'Flaherty "Your Honor, who am I? "Oh, guilty! Guilty!" dumb fuck" - Brock Engstrom "Your Honor, what does convict mean?" - Peter Nureyev *Donald Trump impression* "Your Honor, my client is the most innocent client" "Your Honor, you're a great Honor. You're the best Honor." "Some would say the most innocent. I walked in here and I said "wow, he looks innocent."" - *Former Hyperion City Mayor, Mx. Pilot Pereyra's PR team* [Seriously these people really had their jobs cut out for them cause wtf? homie did so much illegal shit during their candidacy and the whole city just went "that's our mayor"] "Your Honor, that's cap" - Slip Jackson "Your Honor, you're kinda being a d-bag right now" - Alessandra Strong "Uh, Your Honor, what the fuck!?" - Miasma "Your Honor, my client was hittin' the dougie" - Nova Zolotovna

When I tell you making this took me so long, I mean that incredibly literally (fr in the time it took me to write the whole thing and caption the sections on the actual video I listened to an entire TAZ: Balance episode) but I think it's funny so it's worth it

[dinnerthyme]

not to be dramatic but oh my god. oh my god. oh my fucking god. the thea soul. oh my god. oh my god. mick mercury????? the thea FUCKING SOUL???????? OH MY FUCKING GOD

[annabelle--cane]

podcast characters who would hold on to the amulet for dear life

jonathan sims

ramses o'flaherty

gwen bouchard

brother faulkner

renee minkowski

rudyard funn

bryony halbech

peter janusdescending (forgor if he had a last name)

ava maddox

[quartzthequat]

I swear to god, I am going to loose it. Ramses O'Flaherty you piece of shit.

[skayafair]

Damn. It really hits different and much more the 2nd time.

Juno's VA is just. Unparalleled.

Upd. Gods, I have so many thoughts on Ramses O'Flaherty. Those episodes were INTENSE and so complicated, truly complicated and tangled in terms of morals. Humans are messy. There's never only good or bad, and they can be put together in such whimsical ways.

Also I understood what the harpies' tale was about. This podcast was certainly made to be listened to more than once.

Upd. The way Juno is talking with O'Flaherty is. Oh, I've had such types of conversations before - when the other party is saying things that sound right, but you just KNOW they are wrong, but there's no time to think it over to reach for the reason why they are wrong, so it gets really confusing and difficult to keep one's mind straight. It's rhethorics vs. the truth, only you never know what your truth is until you think it over properly and compare it to the 'common' truth. I am amazed with the writing of this conversation because it must have been a hell of a task to write both parts convincingly. And the fact that Ramses wrote all the routes this conversation could go and couldn't convince eveen himself in the end. Brilliand and tragic. Ramses disgusts me as someone in decades of contact with a self-proclaimed "martyr" with narcissistic tendencies but also I can't help feeling sympathy for him. He really wanted and tried to make things better, despite... oh I don't have time to elaborate now but hopefully will later.

It's so unfair of him to fuck up and tell Juno to figure out how to fix it. Manipulative jerk. Y'know what, while listening to this conversation further I lose more and more sympathy.

Actually, no, I'm not goung to elaborate later. Because I made the same mistake as a few years ago. Ramses is very conffusing and seems self-contradicting until you find the answer in his core: he's a fucking narcissist. Then all of his behaviour becomes crystal clear. Really, I want to give applause to the creative team because they nailed everything. The tendency to never say the important things straight, going in rounds around those, to confuse the opponent, to suddenly shout and lash out when something is going not as they please, bleeding their true colours, the mythical idea of themselves that has nothing to do with the real thing, the constant performance for the sake of performance... all of it. Ramses is using every damn tactic I've been through in that conversation with Juno, it's painfully familiar and makes me indignant. A+ for the portrayal, truly. And Juno's doing so well, never budging, no matter what webs O'Flaherty is spinning. Fascinating. Y'know what, I'll count it as the catharsis I never had.

Upd. a) Mick Mercury is pure gold.

b) It's so telling how Juno could go toe to toe with O'Flaherty, never letting to fool himself, but he failed with Mick because of his personal emotional attachment. It was complicated with Ramses but very simple with Mick who's just a friend, his best friend. (An obligatory reminder that Rita is a national treasure and where would they all be without her.) I didn't expect this 2nd listen to hit so hard :')

[hearts401]

coolest loser and lamest winner

[glitterpricked]

listened to juno steel and the man of the future this morning and wow i have thoughts. i feel like it affirmed everything i said about heroes in my last post, but it also made me think a lot about the free dome.

there are a lot of obvious parallels between ramses o'flaherty in this episode and erin d'arc in juno steel and the promised land. for one, they both present themselves as people of the future. however, d'arc sees what the past and present have done to her world and her people, and she wants better; she is moving towards the future. in contrast, i would argue that ramses is running from the past. he is a man characterised by desperation and guilt and shame, and he has spent his whole life trying to assuage those feelings. as juno says, he is "self-righteous": he has his own stubborn view of what hyperion city ought to be, and he will carve out that idea regardless of what others think. d'arc, on the other hand, does not carve out a new world from what already exists, but creates one where she thinks no harm can be done.

for this reason, i think you can argue that ramses is more similar to marshall d'arc. marshall's work in the free dome was done partly out of obligation; his mother began the work, so of course he would continue it. but he sees his mother's idealism as flawed, and rejects the idea that anyone and everyone can find a home in the free dome. his sense of value is based on greatness, and he will only accept the greatest. while marshall is very open about this, ramses shares the same values in a more conniving way: he uses the theia, in its multiple incarnations, to mould Goodness in his image. marshall will take in only the best of the best, and that is partly why the free dome could never succeed (although of course there are a lot more reasons, like literal radioactive madness, but i digress). ramses, however, will carve out greatness no matter the cost. he argues insistently that he has always wanted what was best for juno and his mother and for everyone in hyperion city, but his idea of "best" is selfish and flawed.

while the free dome's biggest issue was its very location, newtown doesn't have that problem. but newtown will fail (i haven't finished the season yet so i guess i'll see) because ramses doesn't care to understand the very people he claims to want to save. another parallel between the d'arcs and ramses is that they're ostensibly very intelligent. but this season highlights that idealism and selfishness and self-righteousness can make that intelligence crumble to nothing. erin d'arc leaves spaces in her code for the future generations, but she and her free dome succumb to their inevitable mortality. ramses o'flaherty plans out every possible conversation with juno to win a single debate, but he succumbs to his own inevitable mortality.

his stubborn need to be right pushes him to persist and persist and persist, despite knowing his heart condition has weakened him. his guilt pushes him to places juno steel wouldn't go with a gun, the same juno steel who fights his own guilt in this episode when he talks to mick and rita about his selfishness. ramses has the audacity to accuse juno of being an idealist, but i think this episode shows that juno is no longer fleeing from his past the way he was before. nor is he desperately grappling for some great distant future. if ramses and juno are on different sides of "Good", it is because juno is living in the present, not in some twisted fantasy where a statue of andromeda in an aesthetically pleasing park is an attempt at an apology to a dead woman.

[felixcosm]

Puck Falco would've sucked Ramses O'Flaherty good if they ever saw him

[veryeyecoded]

Statement of Juno Steel

Horroreyecollective

Fandoms:The Penumbra Podcast, The Magnus Archives (Podcast)

Teen And Up Audiences

Major Character Death

Other

Complete Work

22 Aug 2024

Tags

Major Character Death Rita & Juno Steel Peter Nureyev/Juno Steel Benzaiten Steel & Juno Steel Benzaiten Steel & Sarah SteelJuno Steel & Sarah Steel Diamond Hijikata/Juno Steel Ramses O'Flaherty & Juno Steel Juno Steel Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist Peter Nureyev Benzaiten Steel Rita (Penumbra Podcast)Sarah Steel Diamond Hijikata Jack Takano Captain Hijikata (Penumbra Podcast) Miasma (Penumbra Podcast) Canonical Character Death Canon-Typical Violence Canon-Typical The Lonely Content (The Magnus Archives) Canonical Child Abuse Child Neglect Child Abuse Canon Non-Binary Character Statement Fic (The Magnus Archives) Abandonment Nonbinary Juno Steel Juno Steel Needs a Hug Hurt Juno Steel Post-Episode: s01e18 Juno Steel and the Final Resting Place Emotional Hurt Manipulation The Lonely Fear Entity (The Magnus Archives) LonelinessSuicidal Thoughts Not A Fix-It Lonely!Juno Eye Trauma Prompt Fic Angstober 2024 Episode: s01e01-02 Juno Steel and the Case of the Murderous MaskImplied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism

Summary

Statement of Juno Steel about how he only hurts people so it ends here, statement begins.

Day 31: It Ends Here

Series

Part 1 of Angstober

Language: English Words: 1,344 Chapters: 1/1 Collections: 1 Kudos

[bigtiddyhoe]

Re-listening to old eps of The Penumbra Podcast for the first time in years and I forgot how clever and good the build up to the Ramses O'Flaherty arc was in season 2!