#real talk: how many people think he was LYING about that whole story

[bb-eb-db-bb-eb-b-ab-f-b-ab]

more TDP season 6 finale spoilers under the cut!!!

never in my fucking LIFE never in my wildest DREAMS did i think i’d be an aaravos apologizer. but now??????? well,,

[ladyloveandjustice]

To give my Real Opinion on the whole Clark vs Lois issue (since people are giving me theirs), I'm surprised it is an issue, since it's very clearly supposed to be an conflict where both people made decisions that made sense from their point of view but still hurt each other. It makes sense that Clark would be insecure about telling Lois this when she's acting distrustful of Superman, and it makes sense he'd freak out and not handle a situation where she was putting a lot of pressure on him well. It also makes sense that Lois would be angry (and probably humiliated) and upset that Clark not only lied to her face when she was begging him to tell her the truth, but left her where she couldn't help him when she was worried sick about him.

Honestly, I think a lot of you aren't being honest about how you'd feel if you had a friend who disappeared every time something dangerous happened, you spent a lot of time frantically searching and worrying about that friend each time, only to find out oh hey, your friend was well aware of how worried you were and was actually right there but they were pretending to be someone else instead of letting you in on what was happening. You'd feel played with.

And Clark also KEPT lying when she was basically saying "hey stop lying to me. I know." He did it instinctively. She was begging him to tell her, and he didn't. That's going to hurt, and that's going to be galling. She definitely felt she had no other choice than to do something drastic, because she can't enter a relationship with someone she knows is lying to her and here he is, refusing to come clean. She's a reporter, the need to know drives her.

"Lois isn't entitled to Clark's private information, they haven't known each other that long", sure, but Clark vanishes in dangerous situations and causes real distress, Clark has been discussing Superman with Lois and unconsciously trying to manipulate her feelings on him while not telling her the whole truth, and you'd feel weird if someone did that, you'd feel kinda violated! And even if someone told you they weren't doing that to laugh at you, wouldn't you be hurt and humiliated?!

When exactly IS Lois entitled to Clark's info? When they start dating? How many months is it okay for him to date her without him telling her he's actually the guy she spends every waking minute trying to interview? Would he have told her as their relationship got serious? Not knowing that is probably scary and if I was Lois I'd think twice about if I wanted this either!

And what's especially scary is that yeah, he did leave her behind to so he could possibly go get killed when she was begging him not to. That's terrifying. She was probably terrified the entire time she waited. He was able to take her choice away from her, and Lois does not like feeling helpless. Clark was scared of her getting hurt, so he enforced his will and so shewas scared for HIM. and then he refused to talk about those worries!

It's also pretty galling when she's already helped him out in several fights- she's proven she can be useful and helpful! I'd be mad too! I'm sure there was a little vindictiveness in her actions- you see how you like it when someone takes your choice away too.

At the same time, Clark is clearly not comfortable showing people his whole self. He still doesn't know who he is, and he goes into panic mode about it. He's very scared of people being hurt because of him. What he did made sense from his point of view. And I'm sure he's not happy to be forced to reveal his secret.

It doesn't matter 'who's more right'. It's not a game they get to win! They both violated each other's boundaries. Their feelings both make sense from their perspective, and interesting conflicts are complicated. And I like it when characters don't just react to everything flawlessly. There's a lot of drama in secret identities, and sometimes stories have conflict.

I do agree this should have happened later in the season or as a season 2 thing, but that's sadly just life in this streaming hell era. They didn't know if they'd get a season 2 to tell the story they wanted. We have to take the conflict as it is. And let's face it, if Lois had taken longer to figure out, y'all would be making fun of her for being dumb. Lois is for some reason always the butt of that joke even though nobody else can see Clark is Superman either- and when she does figure it out (as she usually does!) and has anything other than positive feelings about it she still gets blamed. Just enjoy having a character who can have complex feelings.

If you hate relationship conflict, there's stuff for you out there! Read Superman Family Adventures by Art Baltazar, it's very cute low stakes low conflict stuff and has an actual Himbo Clark.

[waterloggedsoliloquy]

protag johnny truant talks a lot abt his sex life and the girls he fucks, seemingly without a direct relation to what he footnotes. but theres always this weird dissociative vibe to it and a lot of ppl think he's lying to sound better than he is (smth he admits to having done, telling insane stories abt how he got his disfigurements is part of his (often unsuccesful) pickup routine), but i ask what does he have to lie about in footnotes no one is ever going to see? my theory is that they are things he thinks happened, or things he is afraid of happening, and writing them out is his way of assuaging the anxiety brought on by delusion or ocd

notably these alleged fantasies are not particularly flattering or satisfying. they are under bizarre or unideal circumstances, involve him feeling deeply ambivalent and lonely, and explicitly mentions not finishing. a woman he doesnt remember becoming friends with uses him as revenge sex on her fiancé. so i find it hard to believe hes doing it to bolster an image or even an ego. if they do happen, even in part, these are not healthy or even necessarily coping mechanisms that make him feel better. often they make him feel worse, lost, alone.

I won't deny that Johnny's parts can be hard to get through. He can be crass, misogynistic, uncomfortable, unhygenic, dissociative, painful, ugly, and sometimes there's just plain bad sex. But I think it's unfair to discount these sections as entirely discrete from and unrelated to Zampano's paper on The Navidson Record. Johnny's story is included in House of Leaves for a reason. It's a part of the whole. There's a lot to be said about Johnny, whose life has never had any security to begin with, whose life is a series of winding pathways that leave him substance reliant and unsure of his place in anything-- in space in time in other people's lives-- reading a book about a movie where this upper middle class nuclear family moves into a new house and immediately have their own sense of domestic safety completely and totally shattered.

Here he is, speaking about his disfigurements (the things he has to tell ludicrous, pulpy stories about in order for people to not recoil away from him):

"All of it true too, though of course scars are much harder to read. Their complex inflections do not resemble the reductive ease of any tattoo, no matter how extensive, colorful or elaborate the design. Scars are the paler pain of survival, received unwillingly and displayed in the language of injury."

Here's him talking about that lady who has him as revenge sex:

"Before I left she told me our story: where we'd met-Texas- kissed, but never made love and this had confused her and haunted her and she had needed to do it before she got married which was in four months to a man she loved who made a living manufacturing TNT exclusively for a highway construction firm up in Colorado where he frequently went on business trips and where one night, drunk, angry and disappointed he had invited a hooker back to his motel room and so on and who cared and what was I doing there anyway? I left, considered jerking off, finally got around to it back at my place though in order to pop I had to think of Thumper. It didn't help. I was still hurting, abandoned, drank three glasses of bourbon and fumed on some weed, then came here, thinking of voices, real and imagined, of ghosts, my ghost, of her, at long last, in this idiotic footnote, when she gently pushed me out her door and I said quietly "Ashley" causing her to stop pushing me and ask "yes?" her eyes bright with something she saw that I could never see though what she saw was me, and me not caring though now at least knowing the truth and telling her the truth: "I've never been to Texas.""

I don't know. I just have a profound compassion for this guy. Maybe it's my own history with abuse and neglect and dissociation and unreality but it kind of shocks me to see how many people respond to this guy who desperately needs help and isn't going to get it, who is deeply terrified of other people and wanting them and hurting them or himself... as an imposition and annoying. It's such a fundamentally different read, one I hadn't even considered.

[utilitycaster]

Ok I'm probably going to regret reinventing 17th century European religious philosophy here but:

Ludinus's issue with the gods as stated to Imogen and Fearne (and I will state right now that we know he was lying or deliberately misleading at points in that conversation so I don't exactly take him at his word, but let's assume he does mean this) is that they did not prevent the Calamity. I have the following questions.

Does he have any loyalty/feelings about the Titans given that they would have killed all the people in the era of the Schism, ie, the gods averted that Calamity? My guess is no, which means that whole avenue of discussing the Titans was something of a dead end.

How should Calamity have been averted? The Prime Deities during the Age of Arcanum largely let people do what they wanted, which is what led to one of those mortals releasing the Betrayer Gods. Should the gods have struck down Vespin Chloras before he actually did anything, Minority Report style? Can the gods even predict based on the actions of a single individual or small group, because my guess is they can't, particularly since within the current stream of gameplay they absolutely cannot [ie, the reason the Changebringer can't tell FCG to stay or run is because Matt Mercer is the Changebringer and he doesn't know how people will roll; you do need to consider the medium here]. But if they could: so you think they should strike down mortals on the basis of thoughtcrimes? Or control them? In that case, why is Aeor a problem? There's a lot you can argue is justified once you permit the gods to override free will and kill people over mere potential for catastrophe.

On that note, Laerryn both was an unwitting architect of the Calamity (shorted on energy and then killed the Tree of Names, which served as a core planar defense system) but also averted the worst of it. Did the lives she saved by preventing the rise of Rau'shan and Ka'Mort outweigh the lives she took by destroying the Tree of Names? How should the gods have reacted?

Should, perhaps, the gods have all sealed themselves away earlier - perhaps post-Schism? If so, then the issue isn't the Divine Gate, now is it? Should the gods intervene or not intervene? Should they remove themselves or no? It feels like the issue isn't that they distanced themselves so that they can do less in the world, particularly if you wish to kill them, but that you really want to fucking kill them and they made that somewhat more difficult.

How do we know the gods (for example) didn't save Laudna? She was hanged and she's still alive; Morri would probably count this as saving her and I don't see the same desire to wipe out all Archfey. [real talk I find most discussion of Laudna specifically to be...incomprehensibly ignorant in its refusal to acknowledge that everything about it is player agency related, whether it's the story that the cast played out for Vox Machina or the decisions Marisha specifically made in creating the character, ie, do you think Matt should have said "well you can't play a Hollow One because that would mean the gods didn't save you" not to mention the fact that again, we are playing this within a game system where the existence Deus Ex Machina would in fact fucking suck ass; but even setting aside those reasons why this argument is stupid, it's still stupid. It's like a layer cake of stupid.] Again: do you want more intervention or less? Killing them guarantees less.

I'm assuming the problem with the Calamity is the vast loss of life, in which case, what's the math on how many people have been killed by the Vanguard or Imperium in the pursuit of unleashing Predathos? How many more will die?

If the release of Predathos doesn't result in the immediate demise of all the gods, and the Divine Gate is down, why isn't this a recipe for Calamity 2? What was the motivation for killing the gods again?

Should we kill mortal diviners who do not do all within their power to stop terrible things that may come to pass? If the issue is that some people have power without working for it, why haven't we killed all the sorcerers?

Should we be listening to a single word from someone who consumes random fey to live longer, and that's just the start of the CVS receipt of atrocities?

Is there a point where one's deeply held beliefs due to one's own personal trauma become invalidated due to one's actions as a result of that trauma? If so, why is the limit for Orym "is okay with killing people who are trying, directly, to kill you (which, frankly, isn't even a trauma response, that's just called not wanting to die, which I highly recommend as a personal philosophy), and gets upset when people defend those knowingly collaborating with his family's murderers" and the limit for Vanguard generals "family abandonment/just. buckets of murder of innocents./child soldier recruitment in multiple different contexts/eating fey as biohacking/destroying an entire city and the surrounding forest for hundreds of years (ongoing)/imperialism in multiple different contexts/I was going to make a gallows humor joke about how while neither exist in-world they've violated the Geneva Convention AND the IRB for testing on human subjects multiple times over but actually those both are in fact written in a lot of the same blood/probably some others that I'm forgetting"

[kdrama-mama]

Just sitting here thinking about how I don’t understand why Wedding Plan wasn’t more popular. The story was sweet, chemistry was excellent between the couples, it highlighted a real world issue many queer folks have to navigate, the NC scenes were sexy as hell - it was up there with one of the best BLs I’ve watched honestly.

I find it so weird how people shit on Mame so often for being “problematic” and yet they didn’t want to watch a series she put out that was totally unproblematic? The worst thing is Lom misleading Nuea and his mother, but if you listen, you realize he was very carefully *not* lying, and simply skirting the truth because he was in a very difficult situation. (Do they really love the “problematic” content but feel the need to publicly loudly pretend otherwise? Maybe)

Or they wrote it off completely because they didn’t like the kiss between the GL couple? It makes zero sense to me, and I have seen many people say that. There was a whole discussion on one Reddit thread I saw. And yeah, I agree that Katheryn did not do a good job with the kissing - Aya was clearly trying, but wasn’t given much to work with. But they weren’t the main couple, the main couple had excellent kisses, and they were so freaking adorable in all their other scenes. I really want to see Aya in a GL where she’s the lead.

Whenever I tried to engage on Twitter or a bit on here, it was like nobody was talking about it. Aya liked some of my tweets, and I honestly think she saw it just because so few people were tweeting about the episodes!

Or there’s people who wouldn’t watch it bc they thought Mame was using Boss, Noeul, Fort, and Peat for “clout,” when their cameos made perfect sense and were incredibly sweet moments for two of my favorite BL couples! I was so happy to have those sweet moments of closure for their stories.

Anyway, if you didn’t watch Wedding Plan for whatever reason, I highly encourage you to watch it! I’m sad I can’t get the special episode legally in the US, I would have bought it. I suspect she didn’t have it available in as many countries as Love in the Air because it was less popular.

[highfantasy-soul]

I'm really glad they went the route where Sol never apologized for what he did or admitted any fault.

It would have been nice and clean and feel-good for him to have realized what he did was so incredibly wrong, but the thing is, a lot of people don't get that closure. The person who hurt them genuinely will not entertain the idea that they were wrong.

They will use their 'love' for the other person as justification for any and all of their actions, they will refuse to accept blame, they will ignore the person they hurt crying and screaming at them that what they've done hurt them yet still look that person in the eye and say 'no, you're wrong to be upset at me over this - I did this because I love you, what you're telling me now about the real effects of my actions, I am refusing to listen to - you must be wrong to feel the way you do'.

With the Jedi as a whole, they're held to such a high standard. They're told they must be perfect, yet also the fact that they are Jedi makes them perfect and so provides no leeway for falling short of that standard. For many people, that leads to a disconnect in their mind where they cannot accept that they might have done something wrong because if they didn't live up to the perfect standard, in their eyes, the entirety of themselves and the system will crumble under that.

Of course WE know that's not true, people are going to make mistakes no matter what organization they're a part of - but if you aren't given the space to make small mistakes and learn from them - and talk about how that made you feel and learn to work with your emotions in a healthy way, then the pressure compounds and compounds and suddenly, a BIG mistake happens and you're unable to face it. So you justify, you rationalize, you make every excuse in the book - many times being enabled by others in the group to keep silent about your failure and coming up with twisted logic to make it 'ok'.

I think if Sol had been allowed to admit what happened on Brendok to the council and if the Jedi actually cared about their people, hopefully gotten him the therapy he needed, the events of the story would never have taken place. Osha being trained as a Jedi wasn't worth the cost - and she would have agreed. If you keep refusing to address the issue and try to just cover up and cover up the mistake, it's going to explode at some point.

The one who was lied to will snap and the one who did the lying will have lied to themselves for so long that they won't be able to admit any fault or it might snap them.

They've GOT to hold onto the idea that they can still be a good person and if they admit they messed up, in their mind, they won't be a good person anymore. And if that's what your entire self-worth is based on, it's almost impossible to admit any fault.

Allowing people to admit their mistakes and get help for them is healthy and good and helps people actually be good people rather than just put up the appearance of being a good person.

[beanghostprincess]

You know, One Piece is all fun and happyness untill you learn that the world and themes are actually some of the darkest and most depressing things that were ever put on paper. The biggest potrayal of this tho is the fact that many characters have different running gags and quirks that are actually products of their horrible past trauma and messed up life.

Luffy- Wants to befriends literally everybody because of his fear of being alone and picks fights with all the people he doesn't like because he wants to protect his friends.

Nami- Her greed and kleptomania were developed because her mom literally died because sge was poor and was never able to give her and Nojiko all they wanted/needed.

Usopp- Makes absurd lies about everything because as a kid he had to keep lying to keep his mother happy and when she died he kept on doing so to keep himself safe.

Sanji- Puts all women on a super high pedestal because growing up women like his mom and sister wrre the only good people in his life and men like his Judge and his brothers were fucking awful.

Brook and Robin- Super S tier dark humor to cope with S tier dark trauma.

In other words, One Piece is just a comedy passing drmatic anime, but I think we all already knew that.

Ah, yes, I love this topic so much.

But I wouldn't say One Piece is a "comedy passing dramatic anime". One Piece is both comedy and drama. The drama doesn't hide behind comedy at any moment. You don't have to actively look for it or read between the lines to understand the characters. I think Oda is an amazing writer because he manages to just tell us/show us about his characters in the clearest and most obvious of ways. He throws hints at us over the episodes to then explaining it to us very carefully how his characters are built. This is why I find so difficult to understand why people (mainly from the general audience or, y'know, dudebros) don't get the characters in the first watch/read. An example of a comedy passing dramatic show would probably be just any sort of satiric comedic show in which they don't actually address the drama but instead make jokes about it. Like It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (God I love that sitcom).

I know what you mean, though. You're talking about the whole "making jokes/running gags about something when the reason behind them is actually way deeper". And I agree wholeheartedly.

Luffy has abandonment issues and that's why he keeps wanting to protect his friends and hates being alone, Nami sees money as safety and comfort because her mom died because they lacked money, Usopp's lies come from trying to make her mom happy because his dad left them, Sanji has an obsession with women because they're the only ones who never hurt him, Brook and Robin have no filter when it comes to dark humor because they've been alone for so long that the only way they have to cope is jokes and nobody gets them except them... And also:

We treat Zoro's relationship with Tashigi as comedic at some points but he has so much trauma regarding his best friend dying that he can't be close to someone who looks like her.

We make fun of and exaggerate Sabo's love for Luffy to the point of brocon/possessiveness because he literally spent most of his life having forgotten him and when he remembers his brothers, one of them dies, so of course he wants to look after the little one.

Boa's love for Luffy exists exclusively because she feels safe around him and it's the first man who has never seen her as a sexual object.

And a lot more of these but, basically, Oda is great at character building and writing because these are not things that you have to read between the lines. These are not exaggerations for the reader to understand what's going on with the characters. These are just trauma responses that constantly happen in real life. It's just a well-written story with awesome, realistic characters, and I absolutely love it.

[disasterarea-podcast]

Okay, I know I probably don’t need to explain this to all of you, but also I want to talk to *somebody* about how I wish I had the sort of pull that would let me see “Society of the Snow” before it ends up on @netflix on January 4th.

“Alive” came out when I was in high school. I was a sophomore, I think? I just know I watched it a bunch for historical reasons (disaster! Survival! Struggle!) and superficial reasons (I was sixteen and Ethan Hawke was in danger!). It was on HBO a lot back then. Or it felt that way, because I watched it every time it came on.

As per usual, I watched the movie, so I went and got the book. (I have an Audible credit, so I’m preordering the audiobook of “Society of the Snow” for work. It comes out in a couple of days, FYI.) The movie is … sanitized, to say the least. They can’t avoid the eating of the dead, or showing it on occasion. But in real life, the situation was more blatant, because … well, who are you going to hide it from? They ate everything else, or at least tried to, before resorting to the dead. And then when they did resort to the dead, they ate it ALL.

The thing is, Uruguayan culture was heavy on beef. “Alive” (the book) describes it the way the Irish depended on potatoes. Eating the dead was difficult, but as Catholics they were able to talk it out and tie it into the rosary and taking the body and blood of Christ into their own. I’m not even a Catholic anymore, but I think even my latent Catholic training might kick in just a tad to help reassure me in a situation like that if I had doubts. (Note: I have been doing this podcast for WAY too long. Survival cannibalism wouldn’t even make me bat an eye at this point.)

My point is that in the real situation, the survivors used everything. And I mean everything. There were only three or four parts of the body they couldn’t eat - I think the genitals were on that list, but don’t quote me on it - but the rest? They picked the bodies clean. They needed to. There’s a photo of the survivors sitting outside the plane, hanging out, smiling for the camera. It’s usually edited. Everything else is kept, but what is usually clipped or blurred is a very clear shot of a human spine, not a spot of meat left on it, just … lying there. It might as well be an airplane seat, or a discarded jacket, or any of the other items scattered about.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for every single one of the people who went through that ordeal. The details are traumatizing enough without having lived through it. Every time somebody makes a “rugby players eat their dead” joke, I cringe.

So here I am sitting watching “Alive” again, because fuck it. The thing is, I have a fondness for this movie based a lot on high school and watching it lots and it introducing me to a survival story I’d never heard of. But I would always be the first to point out I’d love a redo. It’s not as accurate as it could be, it’s in English, it misses out on things like Carlitos Paez’s father searching for him and the others the whole damn time and the reception after they came back.

I’m hoping “Society of the Snow” has all of the things the first movie lacked. I want to see the reception when they came back. I can’t wait to see Carlitos playing his dad, and I hope we get that moment where he reads the list of survivors over the radio and his voice breaks when he gets to his son’s name. I hope we get the reality of survival cannibalism — that it’s not murder, that it’s not pretty, that you might get a little blinded to the horror of the reality.

The trailers for “Society of the Snow” gives me hope it does the story the justice it deserves. There are so many disaster stories that, while they may have gotten TV movies, I would love to see done for the big screen. Hillsborough. The Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire. The Galveston Hurricane. The Johnstown flood. But honestly, the trailers for “Society of the Snow” look gorgeous and respectful. Let’s do more movies like this for more disasters.

[monstersinthecosmos]

Okay I don’t want this to be like an obnoxious millennial assumption because I’m positive that every generation has things like this, but the way autism and ADHD was treated for us in the 90’s and how it affects adult diagnoses is like, imo, so integral to our coming of age and the stories we tell and the way we’ve gotten to know ourselves, even the way it relates to our job market and economy and how we operate inside it, and especially the way a pandemic uncovered it for so many people and exposed the cracks and revealed that we were all just barely functioning and held together with popsicle sticks and anyway

I say that because maybe it’s the un-diagnosed 90’s child in me but I feel particularly emotional about Keith’s arc in learning that he’s part Galra, and the way even the creators said they made him sort of prickly because of his biology, and I just !! Think so much about Keith’s neurotype as a part Galra!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cause something about being diagnosed later in life is like, looking back at all the other ways you tried to handle yourself, all the missteps, maybe even misdiagnoses. Like, how many times did you try to treat ANXIETY without realizing you didn’t have an anxiety disorder, you just can’t deal with your family blaring the TV from the next room? How many times were you told you were lazy, or lying, when you didn’t know what executive dysfunction is? 

Keith is such a lovely rich character because his prickliness is EARNED—we know what happened to him, we know he’s traumatized, we know he’s been treated poorly by many people in his life. We know that he grew up thinking that he’d been abandoned by one of the people who should’ve loved him the most, in the whole world. He even questions that in his vlog—he makes the connection that he has trouble with people because of his mom. 

But I just wonder like, how much of it is just his biology. Not understanding the body he’s in, being completely ignorant of one whole half of his culture. Had he ever mutated before the TBP fight? Did it take him by surprise, did it frighten him? ((* This is head canon territory LMAO there’s no way to really know—like, is he able to do this because he just spent so much time with Krolia, or does Shiro going That’s the Keith I remember mean they used to have really primal sex that turned his eyes yellow? Lol)) 

Like when we talk about even the most broad generic terms of saying someone is neurodivergent, we don't even need to put a real life label on Keith. Like he's literally not human! Of course his brain looks different! Of course he functions differently! And I wonder how much is nature v nurture -- if he knew the truth about his mom, if his dad had lived, if he'd been allowed a normal childhood, would he still have been a weird kid?

Cause like, even seeing the way Shiro is able to get through to him, we see ways that he allowed for thrill seeking, and he didn't judge Keith for stealing his car. It reminds me of like, what we know now about asking children to sit still in school, and how perhaps some children would do better with standing desks. Shiro wants him to behave and succeed, and doesn't judge him for being a car thief, and gets through to him by bringing him cliff diving. And it just feels like this clue, you know, that nothing is wrong with Keith, he's just living in a weird place where people don't get him.

It’s just really special to me, because there’s so many pieces in the sequence of events of Keith’s character arc, and I know I’ve said this a handful of times now, but I really sincerely believe it’s the only thing the show really nailed. Accepting himself during the BOM Trial -> MOMENTS later learning something very important about his biology -> spending time with Krolia -> coming back to pilot Black when he’s READY and WANTS to (unlike the first time, when he resisted) -> becoming a pragmatic strong leader by the end.

Gosh idk. 

I don’t really have anywhere to go with this, it’s just something I was thinking about today and it gets me real emotional. Like, Keith must have had these moments, re-evaluating who he’d been before he’d known, finally understanding why he was Like That, and it’s so healing to imagine him accepting his past self and forgiving it because he understands now. 

[aspoonofsugar]

Alyx - The Protagonist

Yang: But she was kind of a mean person, right? She lied and cheated her way through most of the book. Weiss: She was trying to survive. The morals of those old stories are so simplistic.

This exchange is interesting, especially because it is not the first time characters interpret Alyx in opposite ways.

Oscar sees her as a child who goes on an adventure, is changed by it and struggles to go home:

Oscar: I thought the idea of falling through Remnant into a new world was exciting. I never understood why she was so sad when she finally made it back home. But now it makes more sense.

Ozpin sees her as a girl, who runs away from her problems in a fantastical dimension:

Ozpin: I was recently reminded of an old fairy tale. A young girl flees the consequences of a choice, to a magical place. But, having never learned from her initial failure, she only succeeds in spreading it.

All of these characters project parts of themselves on Alyx:

Oscar sees her as lost, because he himself feels lost and away from home.

Ozpin describes her as a coward because he himself has run away into Oscar's subconscious.

Yang criticizes Alyx's tendency to lie and cheat because she sees these 2 attributes as the worst of the worst. She is conveniently ignoring she herself has been omitting information about Raven. Not to count that lie, cheat, survive are ideas that apply to Raven specifically. This means there is a part of Yang she herself is not confronting.

Weiss sympathizes with Alyx and refuses the moral of the story as too childish. Which kind of adult would truly believe that lying and cheating to survive is wrong? Except that Weiss's whole arc revolves around her embracing childishness once again and finding the hope and wonder that was stolen from her as a child.

So, everyone sees Alyx as a part of herself, but who is Alyx really?

ALYX - THE CHARACTER

Alyx is no-one, just a shadow:

Just an empty silhouette that can be filled by anyone:

This is what characters are, especially protagonists that are meant to carry a whole story on their shoulders:

Blake: I've read so many stories... I never thought I'll be the moral of one.

Characters are in stories to teach people morals and to convey messages. Basically, they all have purposes:

Blake: Have you ever heard the namy Alyx? Little: Alyx... Is that a purpose?

Maybe this is the real reason why names equals purposes in the Ever After. It is because characters are their purposes in a story... and yet, people are much more. So, what happens when a person ends up making their sense of identity overlap with their purpose?

Little: And is to Ruby Rose your purpose?

They lose themselves. Like it is happening to Ruby and like it has most likely happened to Alyx.

Weiss: What did Jinxy want from Alyx? Blake: Her saddest memories and her happiest.

Jinxy wanted Alyx's saddest and happiest memories. If a person loses both, they lose their past self. They lose who they are. It is probable Alyx chooses to leave the previous "her" behind, but can't forge any new identity, trapped forever to be a character. A protagonist. A fairy tale.

RWBY - THE LEGENDS

Blake: We are doing the same thing Alyx did. We are ruining everything!

Here, Blake is talking about RWBY's predicament in Ever After. She thinks that since they know how the story goes, they should be able to avoid Alyx's mistakes. She is frustrated they can't and overreacts. Why is she so emotional about it?

Because Blake is not talking about the Ever After. She probably means this:

Weiss: Maybe Jaune and Winter were able to get them out. Despite everything. Despite us.

RWBY has seen the adults fail at Beacon, so they strived to be better. They learnt from their mentors' mistakes, grew stronger and chose a different approach. Only to fail in the exact same way.

Blake and Weiss are having opposite reactions to the Ever After, but deep down they are dealing with the same sense of failure.

Blake is filtering it through a fairy tale. They must do everything perfectly here in Ever After, because if they can't, what good are even they?

Weiss is dealing with it by refusing the fairy tale. They messed up so royally in Remnant, that who cares what happens in this bizzarre world, which isn't theirs?

What about Yang and Ruby?

Yang is reacting the same as ever. She is going with the flaw and cracking jokes:

Ren: It's okay to be afraid, you know. You don't always have to hide it with a joke.

Ruby is choosing to push forward:

Ruby: We may not know exactly what's going on, but for whatever reason, this place is putting us on a similar path as a book we all read as kids. I say we follow it and stop pretending we know what we are doing.

She is given the role of Alyx and she is determined to fulfill it. She is stepping once again in the role of a protagonist. And yet, to keep on following an already pre-established script without putting that much mind to it isn't the right answer.

The fairy tale should be a chance for Ruby to face heself: who she was, who she is and who she wants to become.

What if you could leave Ruby Rose behind, shed like an old coat? What might happen, if you don't?

Isn't it interesting that the metaphor of an old coat is used? What is a little red hood if not something similar to a coat? A mantle (similar to that of a superhero for that matter) that Ruby chooses to wear? Who is she outside it? Outside her allusion? Outside her fairy tale?

The same goes for RWBY as a whole. They aren't in training anymore. They are Huntresses and are slowly growing into legends. They saved Haven, protected an ancient Relic, decided the fate of a Kingdom. Ruby is famous worldwide as the young Huntress who is challenging Salem. They are growing into more than just themselves. And yet, this is extremely dangerous, because losing one-self in a bigger tale is rather easy:

Pyrrha: For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all.

This is why they are in a fairy tale they all know deep down, even if they have forgotten. It is so they can reconnect with whom they are. Metaphorically, they are going back to The Girl Who Fell Through The World, so that they can look at it from a different perspective. What teachings would they learn that they missed as kids? What will they discover?

What's sure is that they won't get anything if they keep refusing it (Weiss), not taking it seriously (Yang), being too worried about doing everything perfectly (Blake), following the script without thinking too much about it (Ruby).

ALYX - THE PERSON

RWBY must find themselves again and it would be interesting if they succeed by finding Alyx, as well.

In general, I think Neo, Jaune and Alyx are all characters the protagonists must "find" if they really want to figure out the world and their current situation. It is easy to see how this may work out for Neo, an enemy mad with grief, and Jaune, a friend traumatized and lonely.

What about Alyx?

It is possible she might stay in the background as a symbol. However, some hints suggest there might be more to it:

Weiss: He's adorable! Blake: And a lot older than I remember from the book

The world they are in isn't exactly the same of the fairy tale. Jinxy is much older and Little isn't in the original fairy tale. This is why they have no idea who Alyx is. How can they? They are too little to remember. They are in the Ever After, but in a future version of it. This ties with the idea they are confronting their childhoods as adults. It might also be there is a reason for it plot-wise.

Everyone seems to have their own idea of what happened to Alyx. Maybe the whole point is that they will have listen to Alyx's own version of the story.

THE GODS - THE WRITERS

These meta-themes are important outside this volume and for the story, as a whole. After all, let's not forget the Gods allude to the Brother Grimms. This means they are symbolically "the writers" of the characters. Through this lens, then, the whole conflict between the God of Light especially and Salem can be summarized as a writer not being able to write a character.

The God of Light wants Salem to learn an important lesson, so he comes up with a punishment and an obstacle for her to grow. This is how usually a writer approaches a character arc. However, Salem refuses to change, as the God of Light wants. She refuses to learn the theme he desires. If anything, the result is the opposite of what the God of Light expects. Why is that so?

Because the God of Light is dumb and not such a great writer on his own :P To write humans well he needs his brother's help. That is because humans are a mix of light and darkness, of selflessness and selfishness, of logic and emotions, of mind and heart. He approaches Salem as if she were to function exactly like him, but she is much more similar to his brother. Emotional and driven by her personal wishes.

So, the Gods are the writers and RWBY and the others are characters in their hands. When is it that a character overcomes their author? When they end up communicating something their author did not see coming. In this way, they surprise the writers and help them grow. This is probably how RWBY is gonna solve its conflict.

The girls will end up embodying a theme and a teaching the Gods and Salem did not account for. In this way, they will defeat them, symbolically.

At the same time, a meta-reading can very well apply to RWBY's most existentialist themes.

Let's consider these 2 lines:

Weiss: We are not in a book and even if we were we know how it ends, right over there.

Cinder: Oh, come now. Even if you know how the story ends, that doesn't make it any less fun to watch.

Even if all lives end in the same way (death), it doesn't mean they are not beautiful and worthy to be lived. Even if you know how the story ends, it doesn't mean you should not live it fully. You should dive deep into it, embrace wonder and go through it to the very end. Skipping pages means you are just giving up on new opportunities to grow and bloom.

[thetopichot]

•°♧ Auron Fluff Alphabet ♧°•

2/7 of the Yuuriboys. I'm working hard over here with these. These fluff alphabets are quite a creative workout for my writer's brain. However, this one was easy to write since I don't stop talking about this motherfucker. He's just too fine.

Anyway, enjoy!

CW: Suggestive

A = Abundance Of Love (Are they a loud lover that loves to express their love in many ways or are they a quiet lover that loves those quiet, intimate moments?)

This man is absolutely a quiet lover. As much as he wants to show everyone that you are his, the distance must remain between you two during office hours. However, when he does have you all to himself, you KNOW that man is gonna treat you right. He's more romantic than he says. He says that he's not a romantic type, but bro is holding you & telling how beautiful you are. Like, STOP LYING.

B = Brave (Were they the first to confess? If so, how did the confession go?)

Yes, he was & he genuinely thought that the confession would go worse. Maybe he was worried that you wouldn't like him. He does stay in his ivory tower alone, so he never got the chance to take an interest in anyone. When he saw you, though, he switched up real fast. Luckily, the confession went well & he was honest to god RELIEVED. I guess his ivory tower will be less lonely now.

C = Control (Do they take the wheel of the relationship or do they let someone else do the driving?)

I feel like he takes the wheel of the relationship. His whole story is basically about how one loses control & gets back on their feet afterwards, so expect him to take the wheel. Another thing is that he has this huge thing with taking care of problems without being asked to. If anything gets in the way of him or you, he will handle it accordingly. That is what he is supposed to do as his role in almost everything. Well, that's how he put it.

D = Dreamboat (What do they find attractive in their partner(s)?)

People would say that confidence is quite an attractive trait & they are right but listen, consider this; optimism. I feel like this is quite a controversial answer, but I feel like he likes more than just confidence. He likes a different kind of confidence. It's the fact that no matter the situation or who they are. You always find the best in things & the best in people. You believe that there is something more than meets the eye & he admires that. You see him more than just a cruel crime boss. You see him as him & he loves you for that.

E = Empathetic (If their partner(s) was in a not so good mood, how would they cheer them up?)

He's not really good at comforting people since he comes off as extremely blunt. However, that doesn't mean he isn't willing to try. He can try to comfort you with his words, but I feel like he would rather just hold you & listen to your rant. You ranting about your feelings & him holding you while you do that makes him feel like he's pretty decent at comforting. He's much more of a listener in rants.

F = Forgiving (If they had a fight with their partner(s), how would they apologize? Or would they be petty about it?)

Naturally, Auron would push people out of the way if they got in the way. However, you're not just people. You're his darling & the one thing he hates more than anything is to lose you, someone he cares about deeply. He probably was the one who initiated the fight since I know that man is stubborn & he will hold his ground, but there are more important things than pride. He is the first to apologize & he genuinely feels real fucking bad about it. He hates getting in arguments with you, but please reassure him that it's normal to get into arguments & that he doesn't have to push people away afterwards.

G = General (Random Fluff Headcanon)

Okay, I've been talking about this ALOT because it's important to me that I have this concept imprinted inside your hippocampus. I keep thinking about that one ATSV scene where Miles has this art page of Gwen. Are you seeing where I'm going with this? Auron just looks through your sketchbook to see an art page of him in there. He just looks at you & smiles. "I missed you, too." This is a bit self-indulgent jahqniajaiai

H = Home (How would they feel living with their partner(s)?)

HELL YEAH BROTHERRR 🦅🦅

He loves the idea of it. As much as he enjoys being alone, it's nice to wake up next to someone you love dearly. He's not safe from being domesticated & to be honest, he would let that shit happen. It could be your idea or his. It's up to you. In the end, just hearing your voice every morning is just soothing. LET HIM BE HAPPY GODDAMN IT 😤

I = Idealistic (What's their personal preference in a special someone?)

He doesn't take interest in timid people. He wants someone who knows exactly what they're doing rather than someone who isn't sure about their decisions. He wants someone who gets the job done. At the same time, he just wants someone a little more than that. Someone that just understands him. So throw that shit all into one quality & you get someone that is preceptive.

J = Jealousy (Do they get protective of their partner(s) when someone flirts with them?)

You bet your bottom quarter, except he doesn't really show it. He's cool, sorta calm, & collected. He's not gonna shout at them as maybe simple as a harmless flirt such as compliments like "Hey, you look very nice today." If they made you uncomfortable, on the other hand, he will be handling it. He ain't fucking around. If he gets jealous, it really depends on when we are talking about. If it's before you got together, then yes. VERY. If it is after you got together, not as much. You belong to him & he will prove the whole office if he has to.

K = Key To The Heart (What is something that will make them fall in love instantly?)

Bro fell in love the first time he saw you. He noticed that you dressed nice & how you were confident about getting the job. WHAT DO YOU MEAN?? He was HOOKED. It was love at first sight. I WISH I WAS MAKING THIS SHIT UP & I thought that I was DOWN BAD.

L = Luxurious (Do they spoil their partner(s) rotten? If they do, how do they spoil them?)

He is rich. You already know. However, I'm not gonna leave ya guys hanging with just that.

He likes to make his gifts very personalized for you. It's why he asks for your measurements, such as your fingers for getting rings or your ahem ahem NECK for uh suggestive reasons that I shall not disclose because we don't do NSFW here. So, I'm leaving that up to your imagination. Anyway, he does enjoy spoiling you mostly for him, though. There are some outfits that he wants to see you in. 😳

M = Marriage (How would they feel about getting married?)

I feel like he would like the idea of it. Of course, like anybody else, he would be a bit nervous about it. He's nervous because of how important this feels. It's something he HAS to get right in his eyes. So expect that man to plan this shit for MONTHS. This man might even rehearse before purposing to you. When everything falls in line, he does all of this fancy ass shit. He has this personal driver prepared to drive to a special location. I'm talking about a red carpet to the limo, then it takes you out of the city to a cliff that has a gazebo. You can see that fine ass man waiting for you & then you hop out of the limo. You see a trail of red roses & red candles lit.

You follow it & you meet your man all dressed up to the NINES. Like bro is dripped the FUCK out. Then he goes on to this speech on how much he adores you & how much you mean to him. Of course, the fine ass man gets on one knee & goes:

"Will you marry me?"

Bitch, YES.

N = Nobility (How honest are they to their partner(s)? Do they hide anything?)

As much as he trusts you, he does hide things. However, that doesn't mean he lies to you. He's unmoved by truth, but this truth is truly moving his ass. He did tell you that he is a criminal who killed more than one guy, but I feel like that as much he can tell you. The more you know, the more in danger you will be. He doesn't want you involved. He would rather you be unaware & safe than to be knowledgeable & in danger.

O = Overwhelmed (If they were in a not so good mood, how can their partner(s) help them out?)

Honestly. When he is stressed, he's definitely telling you not to worry about him. He always says that "I'm fine, rook. You don't need to worry about me." but in reality, this man needs comfort more than anything. During office hours, you could check in on him. Trish might find you suspicious for constantly going into his office, say, 6 times within the same 2 hours. Or a better, less suspicious way is taking care of him at home. Tell him to cancel whatever he's doing for the night & take a break with him. Of course, it's not gonna be that easy. However, persistence is key. He'll give in & just put his head in your lap. He enjoys the warmth that comes from your thighs, especially when you play with his hair. He might even fall asleep.

P = Passionate (What is something to them that means a lot to them that only their partner(s) knows about it?)

His writing. That's something he almost never shares with anyone. The only people he has shared it to were Charlie & of course, you. He finds his writings very important to him since they reveal ALOT about him, especially how he feels. Most of his writing recently has been about you, so he wants to keep his writing private. Bro is like me fr because I'm nervous when I show people my headcanons, so he's not alone.

Q = Quirky (Something silly that they do.)

On Auron's character design stream, Yuuri mentioned that Auron would own a multipen & I'm going add onto that. Auron owning a multipen reminds me of that kid in class who would write in a pretty font & make it cute when literally the topic is the most disturbing thing ever. That was Auron & still is.

R = Romantic (What is their love language?)

Call this man the Pokémon master because this bitch caught them all but if I had to pick a one, this might be controversial answer, acts of service. Just hear me out.

Auron does things for people without being asked to & never complains about it. He fully accepts the responsibility of taking care of everything & everyone, which leads to his love language being acts of service. He does go a bit too far & neglects his own needs because I believe that he doesn't see himself as a priority & there are other matters that are more important than himself right now. Please take care of that man because he needs someone to see him as a priority rather than something that can be pushed to the side for later.

S = Sublime (What is the best gift that their partner(s) can give them?)

He doesn't really ask for much besides your time & all of your love in return. He's not interested in getting gifts & he probably wouldn't want you to get him one since he's rich. Plus you do just fine as a present but you say fuck it & get him a gift anyway. The first idea was to get him a book, but that would be too obvious. You want something little more meaningful. You decided to somewhat write a half decent poem about how much you appreciate him. It's not the best writing in history, but he's enjoys that you put love & thought into it. That's enough for him.

T = Touching (How do they feel about PDA?)

Yeahhhh, probably not. He isn't really too fond of PDA, especially during office hours. He doesn't wanna look like he plays favorites, in my opinion. After hours is a different story because you two are alone & he has you all to himself, so he would rather that.

U = Undeniable (Did everyone know about their crush on their partner(s)?)

Nope. He is quite phenomenal at being discreet, plus who would anyone in their right mind would take interest in the boss? IT'S US ACTUALLY SUAJNAAUJA

V = Visionary (What do they want their future to look like with their partner(s)?)

My first initial thought was "Maybe, he might give the crime thing." but oh sweet Louie from 5 minutes ago, there is no fixing this man.

Although, I think he would want to move away from the city & go into this warm, cozy setting he's been writing about. I doubt he would give up the crime thing since that's his responsibility & a thing that was passed down from Faust's dad to him, but who knows, maybe he might pass it down to someone he trusts. Maybe he might become a writer & just enjoy his life with you. We may never know.

W = Wacky (General Fluff Headcanon. Again.)

I like to think the way he sleeps is just wrapping himself in a blanket burrito. I dunno I think it's funny. Crime boss in a blanket burrito is the most fire thing ever.

X = Xaroncharoo (Yes, that's a word. Look it up. In a domestic sense, what are they exceptional at in the home?)

Cleaning. He's making sure this house is fucking NEAT. Everytime I think about him cleaning, I think about those moms that clean the houses like hell because company is coming.

"I don't care if we have to throw everything out, rook. I want this place to look like a new mediterranean fusion restaurant by noon."

Y = Yearning (If their partner(s) went out to get something without them/went off to work, how would they feel about it?)

Z = Zonked (How do they cuddle?)

Jokes on you, you goober. You guys already work together as it is. So it's not a problem because he can just watch you from the cameras. However, if you went by yourself without him? He's probably getting you an escort to take to where you need to be. You insist on like, "Hey, I'm totally fine. I can just drive there & when I get there, I can just call you." or "My friend can pick me up, " & all of that. In the end, you have an escort to take you to Weis. He may not look like it, but he does miss you when you're gone.

Head first in his boobs. That's exactly what we're doing. He would probably hold you on top of him while you just enjoy the warm comfort of his boobs.

☆ミ Author's Notes Underneath ☆ミ

🩷 - Let's fucking go. 2 down & 5 more to go. This shit is definitely gonna take all of November & maybe December, too. This is probably one of the most biggest writing challenges I have worked on yet. However, it's good to get my writers brain going.

Another good news, I'm a sibling again! I have another sibling now & she is so silly. I'm happy to have another one, even though being the eldest sibling is such a pain in the ass. You just gotta do what ya gotta do sometimes.

[eddiediazismyhusband]

i really want a fic of eddie realising him and buck have been falling in love the entire time.

I keep seeing posts (and even had someone tell me) that it’d be unrealistic for Eddie to be in love with Buck and not realise. Like not even think of him as an option. 

But that’s such a real queer person thing- i’ve lived that experience. I’m a women and despite all the times I admired other women it took forever for it to click for me.

I mean I grew up with accepting parents and kind friends and even queer people on tv. I remember looking at girls as much as I looked at boys. And yet I still had the reoccurring thought “I could be gay, I mean i’m not- but I could be. But most people aren’t gay and i’m most people”. (gay being used here in my head to mean “not straight”) AND YET despite it all I didn’t realise i was Bi until I was much older.

And even then, I’d had at least two long term crushes without realising they were crushes before it clicked. 

(I kid you not- it took a drag queen talking to me like i was a toddler for it to click, but that’s a whole other story SO-) 

Whether or not Eddie already knows he’s gay (or demi or whatever) doesn’t really make a difference, cause it’s that same sort of heteronormative internalising that causes these feeling to not be understood. 

Especially for Eddies character who’s had this messy norm with Shannon for so long, a stable thing to grasp (even when their relationship was a mess) and then her death and him chasing to find that weak grasp to SOMETHING again- something that can be another excuse to not go looking for himself. 

Like he’s internalised this behaviour of, “if i’m in a relationship, I don’t have to look deep and figure out why it’s not working” and never quite realising that maybe the reason it’s not working is cause he’s trying to replace something that was never really real.

(Speaking of, Eddie and Shannon are the epitome of loml by taylor swift. I mean- “we were just kids babe” “from one kiss to getting married” “something counterfeits dead” “what a valiant roar, what a bland goodbye” “i’m combing through the band of lies- “i’ll never leave” never mind”) 

babe you are speaking to the POSTER CHILD of raised in a religious household and convinced themselves they weren’t queer until it was staring them in the face

the biggest issue is that most (again i said most before yall try to jump down my throat) of the people who are against buddie are either straight people who don’t understand the nuances of queerness, or queer people who didn’t grow up in environments of oppression and have never felt the need to hide themselves

i used to tell my parents i had crushes on girls only to later realize that it was because i just had a genuine platonic connection with them (two of whom are my best friends and are also queer women) and i used to get confused about what the difference between attraction and admiration was— something a LOT of queer people go through without realizing.

comphet is literally such a widespread phenomenon that people truly don’t realize just how common it is— like even queer people don’t realize they probably know several “straight” people who are still lying to themselves bc sexuality isn’t black and white— it exists on a spectrum. I’m not saying that to invalidate anyone’s straightness, im just saying i know multiple men who are my dads age (60s +) who only recently came to the realization that they were gay.

it’s genuinely so disappointing to see some of the people in this fandom pushing homophobic talking points from history just to disprove a character’s implied queerness bc they view that character’s queerness as a threat to their ship.

anyway, i agree eddie and shannon’s relationship is soooooo unconscious lavender marriage coded to me and there are SO MANY beautiful TS lyrics that apply to that… another song that i really feel like captures Eddie’s pov of the relationship is Home by One Direction… especially these lyrics:

[groupielove21]

God, there really are so many people who don't understand Eddie Diaz in this fandom and I find it hilarious after this last episode.

Up to this point, Eddie Diaz only knows that he loved one person in his life: Shannon.

Are you going to tell me that if you lost the love of your life completely unexpectedly and found someone EXACTLY LIKE them on the street, you wouldn't stop to talk to them, ask them for a date?

Eddie is human, he's not thinking this, he's following his instinct (something he himself said last episode always ends badly for him) and he doesn't care what others think because he already knows this is a mistake.

Lying to Buck is just one example of that because lying to Buck is Eddie lying to himself, still trying, even in part of his life, to remain the perfect person he thinks he should be.

And the saddest thing of all is that this whole situation with Kim is not going to go well on their date because she is not Shannon.

Kim probably drinks a different wine, is allergic to some food Shannon loved, doesn't want kids, and Eddie is going to freak out, because he cheated on his girlfriend by going on a date with his ex-wife's ghost for no reason.

And that is going to lead him to question everything, how although this did not work for him to replace Shannon, it served him to close his story, he is going to question why he feels so ashamed for having failed all the teachings he received throughout his life (Catholic guilt arc), how he probably made Buck angry by lying to him and now he has to fix it because he hates Buck walking away (and he's going to think about why exactly that bothers him so much), how he's going to have to leave Marisol and with that go back to alter Christopher's life.

So yeah, Eddie cheating is pretty out of character, but it makes him even more real than anything else could have and brings him closer to becoming that version of himself that he's been trying to be all his life.

[sapphire-weapon]

I'd also like to know your thoughts on the mind control part where Ashley actively fought Saddler and suprisingly managed not to kill Leon. For Leon not to be able to move a muscle except his face, that scene speaks so much about Ashley's strength and will. Literally, Leon owes his life to her as well - and twice, in the whole game (the other being removing the parasite) but like you said before, Ashley never kept score.

There's a subtle hint of "Ashley is mentally stronger than Leon" running through a lot of the game, and it's a shame that the game itself didn't do more with it. In RE4, she's a year younger than he was in RE2, and she ends up thriving by the end of her journey, whereas he ended up with thoughts of putting a gun to his head.

I think that that was really supposed to be the point conveyed in the "Keep this up, and I'll be out of a job" scene, but idk I feel like it didn't really go far enough. And the only reason I say that is because we know that Ashley disappears from the series after RE4, so RE4 itself is the only opportunity to explore that parallel.

Because, like. I think, in many ways, Ashley is a reflection of what Leon could have been if Ada had never come into his life. And while that might sound harsh, it's also... true? Ashley ends up as strong and confident as she does because she had Leon at her back, keeping her steady the whole time.

But in RE2, just as Leon himself was reaching that point, the rug got pulled out from under him and it all came crashing down once it came out that Ada had been lying to him and was, in many ways, no better than the people who'd caused this mess in the first place. It's really hard to overstate what that kind of deception and betrayal does to a person, and it was really refreshing to have RE4make actually show the fallout of that (whereas OG just kind of ignored it). RE4make Leon is cold and closed off and, for a significant chunk of the game (basically from the start all the way up to about the aftermath of the cabin sequence), he has complete tunnel vision and relies strictly on his training to get him through -- very likely because he has a hard time trusting his own judgment anymore. (Which is why I love that they added in Krauser saying 'You always had poor judgment' in the scene leading into his boss fight, where the goal is to get under Leon's skin as much as possible.)

Like. Leon didn't end up suicidal for no reason -- and he's the only one out of all of the Raccoon City survivors to turn out that way. Imagine how much more he would've flourished if Ada really had been FBI -- if that betrayal had never happened, and Leon had been able to walk out of Raccoon City feeling good about the role that he played there.

It would've been a completely different ballgame. He would've been a completely different character.

And yet, despite all of that, there's probably something to really be said about the fact that Leon still manages to inspire Ashley to move forward despite the fact that he, himself, has spent the last six years just running in place. It goes back to the whole "Ashley is Leon's legacy" thing that I've talked about before, but.

It just sucks that Ashley drops out of the story and there's no real follow-up to it.

[lonecapybara]

furniture mystery

I think the most interesting part of this whole furniture mystery that I haven't seen many people talking about is the amount of conflicting lines richas has said, First he tells PAC that he's almost sure he knows who it was, And says "I wasn't here last night" referring to the castle so he couldn't be sure of who It was, But he says to cellbit later he was half awake in his tower in the castle so he was sure he knew the real culprit. (he already contradicted himself twice, In the second story he was in the castle at night and he was sure who was the thief).

A few minutes later he says he is 100% sure they are blaming the right thief, but that it all had a specific and funny reason, At this point I started to think that richas and bbh had planned something together. However, when cellbit tells bbh that richas had seen him stealing furniture richas denies it and says he lied about it just to cause chaos( making Cellbit angry) After that, the two talk outside the museum and Richarlyson CHANGES HIS STORY AGAIN saying that he encouraged Bbh to steal all the furniture because he deserved to do that, since he was suffering because of the law against him.

But so far Bbh swears he has nothing to do with it even when he's alone, Which could indicate that richas is telling lots of lies, maybe trying to hide something. But it does open up the question of how much richas is involved and if he's trying to put the blame on Bbh and a little bit on himself to hide the real culprit. What's weird is that richas loves Bbh and had chose to side with him even against his own parents before, so why would he do all that?

Summary

First Richas says he wasn't in the castle at the time everything happened, but he was pretty sure he knew who was the culprit.

Second he says he was in the tower in the castle where he has his computer and he was sure he knew who the culprit was ( Badboyhalo ). ( But they stole the gaming chair from his room so how didn't they see him in the room???)

Third he says who they were accusing was the culprit, but everything had a specific and funny reason

Fourth he says to Cellbit and Bbh it was all a lie because he wanted to cause chaos

Fifth He tells cellbit that not only did he know Badboyhalo was the culprit, but he was the one who encouraged Bbh to do it.

Edit: Like some already pointed out richas avoids lying to his parents a lot even more to cellbit so everything he is doing is very suspicious, so I believe he has some participation in that, being Purposeful or not.

[angelofthepage]

Memory Joey - What is your source?

Hi I did not get my full eight hours of sleep, and I am chomping at the bit with a new thought, so prepare for a slightly unhinged Kat theory about Joey.

Last night I was chatting with my partner in crime Beth about a number of Bendy things, but one of my many takeaways from that conversation was a new angle of looking at Memory Joey. So, recently I shared that I was frustrated with the narrative shift of Henry and Allison being ink copies, because it feels like it cheapens the original BATIM and doesn't do anything to serve the Joey Drew Redemption Arc (tm) narrative. We as the player know the man has a body count. Even if you take these two characters out of the mix, he's still responsible for the deaths of multiple other characters, mostly in the books, but like, come on, the whole "I own thousands of them" comment about souls in BATIM? The coffins with secret names on them? Joey you ain't slick. We spent too long establishing that Joey used his employees for their souls across MULTIPLE MEDIUMS to suddenly throw all of that out the window, and I don't entirely buy the idea that these two aren't the real deal. Granted, it still leaves us with questions about how the ink demon works given, there was also time dedicated to establishing that he was imperfect because he's soulless, but that's for another day.

But then, last night we talked about how none of these characters know Audrey is the daughter of Drew. And if they did know that, would their reactions be different? Would they still try to help her? I'm not sure. But it got me thinking about how there's a lot of things we the player know/believe that the characters don't. And that's when it hit me.

Memory Joey's story wasn't for us. It was for Audrey.

Now, that sounds obvious, like no duh, he's talking to Audrey for the whole scene, of course it's for her. Memory Joey doesn't know we as the players exist, he's got nothing to prove to us. But hear me out: that sequence wasn't meant to give us as players new information or prove he's a changed man, we weren't the ones who were supposed to believe in it. Audrey was. He has EVERYTHING to prove to Audrey. That's the daughter of the man he came from, his precious little girl, the first time he made something with the ink machine out of love, and she doesn't even remember that he's her father. Joey Drew, throughout his lifetime, cared a lot about how people saw him. Having shoes and a suit that didn't make him look poor, appearing financially stable to investors, the nasty things he had to say when he thought he wasn't being recorded, acting like he had control when everything he knew was falling apart, Joey was always trying to keep up appearances. And while I'll believe that he can mostly let go of that with time and growth, I don't think he could deal with Audrey, his daughter, seeing him as the bad guy. Especially when she doesn't remember Joey? Trying to make a good impression, sharing that yes, he did bad things, but he wasn't all bad? That he changed? That's covering Joey's ass something fierce.

Audrey isn't aware of Joey's body count. She doesn't know what happened to his employees. How Sammy became a cultist, how Susie was mistreated and manipulated to be desperate to be Alice. The entire story of Buddy Lewek and Norman Polk. She knows NONE of it! She doesn't know what he did. She doesn't know there were so many teenagers, just a little younger than her, that DIED because of his machine. And until you get the note about the kids that came before her, she has no idea she's not the first.

I often give Memory Joey a pass, he doesn't strike me as someone who would want to lie, especially to Audrey since he clearly cares about her. He delivers his slideshow presentation so earnestly, it feels like he truly believes this is what's true. But then I'm left questioning, what is his source? Why does he believe that they're clones? But maybe...maybe he is lying on purpose. I think it could be an equal opportunity for both. Joey was a liar in life, he lied about so many things (which is frustrating when he's the one giving us most of the information we look to to figure out how the heck ink works, Gent can you please give us some notes to cross reference?). Why wouldn't he lie to appear better to his own daughter? Memory Joey making that distinction for himself, that he himself cares for how Audrey sees him and Joey, would be a really valuable detail for his character, but him not knowing and believing all the information that someone like Joey left behind for him (since I'm assuming that's where his understanding of the cycle comes from) would also be interesting for his characterization.

But here's the kicker: by introducing the idea that Henry and Allison are not truly their human counterparts, if that turns out to be untrue, you've made a grave mistake Memory Joey. Audrey doesn't know any of these people were human before they became ink. I mean maybe she can deduce that other humans are in here given Allison's whole "I remember my first day" speech, but then Memory Joey throwing this at her, Allison is a creation rather than someone who was once alive? Who's to say she'd think twice about it? Wilson treats everyone like they're just ink and not worth caring for after all. But if she finds out about the sacrifices? That many of these ink creatures were once human? Oh Broseph my dude, you are gonna have a lot to answer for, more ways in which her trust in you will be utterly broken. That is a very messy, delicate balance. I kind of want to see that. I want to see him have his world view turned on its head, learning that he was wrong about Henry, and have him genuinely not know that he was fed bad information. Let him process that, let him struggle, and let Audrey grapple with the truth too.

Yeah, I don't necessarily think Henry and Allison are clones. Inhuman, yes, but clones? I think we need more than Memory Joey's word to know that for sure. So I ask again, sir, what is your source?