#reductive rambling

[rambyol]

Analysis - The Joker’s cards for Bruce and what they suggest:

We shouldn’t take Handwriting psychology literally as it’s very subjective but it’s definitely fascinating what we can learn or pull from a characters penmanship.

1. The Card from the Church

Between the two cards, this one is my favourite because it has the most personality in it.

This card shows up after the events at Wayne Tower where Joker and Harley unleash the Virus (Gas Bomb) and during Batman, Iman, and Tiffany’s search for the next Bomb.

Right off the bat, the penmanship on this card is messy. The letters are jagged, some misaligned, and some have varying degrees of pressure to them.

Writing with a lot of pressure can be a sign of attention seeking behaviour and Joker is trying to get Batman’s attention, obviously, but more notably the pressure on the letters mimic Johns/Jokers speech. John has a habit of subverting and exaggerating certain words in his speech. For instance when talking about Harley potentially setting off the bombs on the bridge (if you choose to trust John), John describes that hypothetical as ‘exciting’. It’s no surprise that writing can reflect our speech but as I mention below it’s a sign of being unfiltered.

It’s evident that Joker isn’t dwelling on presentation here, much like his fashion sense, there’s a disheveled appearance to his writing.

The scribble in the bottom left corner where you can see Joker was checking to see if the pen was still working is kind of endearing since this letter was intended for Batman and the scribble indicated a lack of filter, as is observed through Villain Jokers personality. V Joker is arguably the least filtered out of all 3 in my opinion and naturally that would reflect in every facet of him down to his writing. I mean even his attempt to scribble out the joke at the end seems half hearted, because we can still see it clearly.

In addition we’ve got the doodles of a heart and a mystery doodle which Batman has his thumb covering (I wonder what it is 0_o). Doodles display playfulness and of course that childish is pretty consistent to Johns character regardless if he goes down the Vigilante or Villain route.

Jokers handwriting here is relatively ‘bad’ but without going into detail (I want to wrap this one up) we can see that theres a struggle for consistency in his lettering and strokes, which mirrors his personality in way. John was/and Joker is very muddled at times because his motives are all over place and it’s hard to determine what he wants. Now sometimes I think people see inconsistency in characters as ‘bad writing’ but I see it as making them more believable/complex. So yes, ‘unstable’ writing comes as no surprise.

2. The Card from Joker’s Funhouse

Now this one’s shorter but it’s much more presentable. The lettering is mostly level and although there’s the mix between capital and lower case letters within the same word it’s overall more thought out. Even the doodles of the diamonds (?) on top of the ‘i’ are consistent. There’s a bluntness to this that otherwise isn’t seen in the first letter, the sentence are short and concise almost as if Joker has more control here. And he does, Bruce sees this letter after being shocked unconscious by Joker. He’s not in his Batsuit and he’s being led towards the games that Joker is going to force him to play before ‘dinner’.

I know this is written with a different pen, clearly a marker and that can effect penmanship, I know I write better with a certain type of pen (thicker ball points) but I like to think there’s more certainty in Joker at this point in the story about what he’s doing, since before this, John was a part of other peoples plans.

Also this one reads more intimately than the other for obvious reasons like with the use of the term ‘our secret’ and the domestic connotations of ‘dinner’ but that of course goes into the bigger scheme of this being presented as a dinner party. What I think is most important in this letter is how the heart ❤️ has no arrow in it. Unlike the first card which did;

According to Google:

A heart symbol pierced with an arrow, symbolizing romantic love (being lovestruck, or the pain of lovesickness) A typical depiction of the Sacred Heart (often shown with other attributes, e.g. surmounted by a cross, pierced by nails or swords, etc.)

Okay maybe the first one was more intimate?

But from what I could find about a plain heart and what it could potentially mean, the closest I could really find was ‘unromantic but sincere love’. And with what we know about Joker’s determination and certainty that he is the ‘villain’ of Batmans/Bruces dreams (a term could definitely be a stand in for other things) I think that certainty comes off here too. Bruce never questions or entertains the thought that Joker would have taken his suit off in front of others or had his henchmen do it, it’s clearly implied with how committed Joker is to not exposing Batmans identity that it was HIM who removed the batsuit off Bruce’s unconscious body. Point is, there’s this mutual/unspoken assuredness between them that this is in fact THEIR secret.

End!

Phew! Idk if this made sense or even coherent but I just found the letters really cool and wanted to talk about them. Let me know if I should go into more detail or pls add to this in the notes I’d love to hear your ideas!

[turtleblogatlast]

AU where Leo is trapped in the Prison Dimension for months instead of minutes and the only way he gets by with his sanity intact is through recording himself talking to his wrist comm.

When they finally manage to get Leo back and make him rest up to heal, Donnie can’t help but listen to the recordings left behind.

He’s not sure what exactly he’s expecting, only that his subconscious is screaming at him that it has to be heartbreaking, that it has to be torturous.

Instead, what Donnie is subject to is a full thousand hours’ worth of Jupiter Jim and Lou Jitsu crossover fanfiction. More than one part in the series. Spanning well over a million words.

(The worst part is that it’s actually good.)

[tonydaddingham]

aziraphale constantly expresses his admiration and adoration for crowley by telling him he's nice, and good, and thanks him for what he does for him, calls him all the time to tell him things, "our car" and "our bookshop". and then dear, sweet crowley, who cannot go a single minute without doing something for aziraphale, driving him around everywhere, looking after and tidying the bookshop, indulging him in his earthly pleasures and quaint little hobbies, saving him even when he doesn't necessarily ask to be saved, "little demonic miracle of my own" and "alright, I'll do that one, my treat."

their methods of communicating their - friendship, affection, love - are set.

let's look at the bandstand, where crowley offers to magic them away, away from earth and the loom of armageddon, and aziraphale retaliates with stating that they're not friends and he's doesn't even like him. let's look at the So Did I argument, where crowley offers to whisk gabriel away and dump him on the moors so aziraphale doesnt have to deal with it and is no longer under threat from the former archangel, and aziraphale practically begs crowley to stay, that he'd "love [him] to help [him]".

their methods of communicating their - friendship, affection, love - are being rejected; they're not working.

let's look at 1967, where aziraphale gives in to giving crowley the holy water, but refuses the lift to anywhere he wants to go, and crowley offers to thank aziraphale, but refuses to hear aziraphale's verbal concerns about the danger it poses to him, "you told me what you think - 105 years ago." let's look at the final fifteen, where aziraphale offers to restore crowley to what he thinks crowley has always been yearning for, and crowley tries to tell aziraphale exactly what he means to him, put it into words what he hopes aziraphale will see through and understand.

their methods of communicating their - friendship, affection, love - are swapped, and break them apart altogether.

swapping those methods, in a guesswork effort to reach the other person better, isn't the answer. the action, and what is being said, is what needs to change. crowley offers things that aziraphale doesn't want, or goes against who he is fundamentally, and aziraphale says things that wound crowley deeply, reducing what they are to nothing in a few sharp words. so instead crowley tries to use words, and aziraphale tries to offer an act of devotion; but this doesn't work either - arguably, it's worse!

what they communicate needs to be clearer, not how. crowley needs to stay with aziraphale when he promises that he will, and not attempt to solve problems by running from what he doesn't want to face, threatening to abandon him in the process. aziraphale needs to express outright, plainly, what crowley needs to hear; that exactly as he is, everything that he is, is everything that aziraphale wants and respects and loves. and to be able to do that, they need start by giving each other the respect of acknowledging their respective boundaries, their fears, and what principles are important to them.

they've had their methods right all along, but what they're currently saying with them doesn't make sense. it's the french all over again; the words can be translated, "but you understood me!", but that doesn't mean that it makes any sense.

[moiraimyths]

Before we call anon rude because let’s see it from their perspective, imagine getting an entire feast to eat. That can be pretty hard to start with so much that’s going on, but if they start with one thing they know they’ll like (aka one character they like) that can be the start for them leaping to other characters to finish the story and the bigger story. I struggle the same way to start book series if I don’t have at least one character that drives me to read it, it’s all about what can be the hook to push them through. Sounds like the anon is neurodivergent (just a guess) so they might genuinely not see it as rude and see it as a solution to even play the game to start with.

Btw absolutely adore the game, the complex and rich characters making them all so unique is amazing. The art is so pleasing to the eyes I love it!! I’m waiting for it all to get out at once so I don’t get too impatient. Shae however interests me the most, which routes will have the most lore for them? Will there be routes that give more lore in general based on decisions you make or do they all share the same amount? (I mean general lore not just Shae lore)

Apologies; we are not trying to accuse any asker of being rude! We are simply explaining our perspective as the developers / are trying to broadly encourage folks to dip their toes into other areas of the story outside of the main route(s) they're interested in, especially considering some routes will be made available sooner than others, and these other routes will likely contain additional scenes/lore of everyone's fave(s) regardless! We want to give each main cast member an equal amount of love (and lore) regardless of their overall popularity, so our goal is not to tut-tut anyone for having strong preferences for one character over the others, but rather to explain that you may be surprised by how much *more* you learn about your preferred characters in the other routes. That's all!

For Shae... Well, they were a foot soldier for one of the worst periods of the War. Lore wise, any other story that touches on the War will likely have content relevant to them and their experiences. ^^

[gaylactic-fire]

Not to talk about these posts again, but I've had a pretty big chunk of people reblog and equate Link and Zelda's height difference as being "Because they're T4T" or "Because Link is trans." And maybe uh... don't do that??

It's not that I dislike T4T Zelink (the exact opposite, actually) But you simply can't waggle your finger at people increasing Link's height to fit a cisnormative stereotype WHILE also suggesting Link's smallness is caused by an entirely different stereotype. To suggest the only possible reason Link is smaller / Zelda is taller is due to one or both of them being trans is hardly any better than "Man must be taller than woman because he is man."

I was genuinely happy seeing transmasc Link HCs in my notifs at first, since it’s a huge comfort HC of mine, but it's just bothered me more as time's gone on. Can we like... stop associating height and gender as being interconnected? Be it in a cis way or a trans way. It's weird and only enforces gender stereotypes. Thanks ✌️

[argentoau]

what's the stupidest and most reductive way of describing each batkid's morality?

like tim not wanting to be evil gun batman but for the others

[vampierium]

Rambling about the most recent reductive audio video!

This is a sad day for yancaller nation…

WE DIDNT GET A SILLY FACT ABOUT OUR FREAKY CREEP THIS IS AN OUTRAGE /j

Anyways, learning about small things like the process and production of the audios and story was super interesting. Like how Hush had been in the works for 2 years, how David was going to be named Oliver, how Porter was supposed to show up around the inversion. Ah! It was so cool.

Plus the more “personal” character facts were just as interesting. Stuff like Milo doesn’t drink alcohol, Anton likes noir horror, Lasko is afraid of heights. It’s so interesting!! Erik could tell us that Milo likes the Jurassic Park movies and I’d go crazy.

Last thing I wanna mention, the fact that Camelopardalis has been in therapy because of the memories he had to see after the (yandere) Ivan arc, makes so much sense but also baffles me. Like yeah! That stuff is pretty hard to handle, and who wouldn’t go to therapy.

I just finished the video so tbh I might’ve heard some things wrong but I digress, thanks for reading my inane rambles. You didn’t have to read all this but you did!!

[selfmedblves]

Yes I believe all drug use should be decriminalized.

Yes even the drugs you think are scary.

Yes even intravenous drugs.

Yes even what you consider "hard drugs".

Yes even street drugs.

Yes even opioids.

Criminalization has never worked.

It never will work.

[wereh0gz]

A take I've seen a couple times is that Sonic is supposed to be fairy-like and like an embodiment of good itself, not a character who should feel "human" (as human as anthro hedgehogs can get ig)

And like. I'm sorry but that's a really boring interpretation of his character that diminishes a lot of his most appealing traits imo

Bc one of his biggest appeals for me is that he's flawed. And it's not a question whether he is or isn't, he IS flawed in canon

You CAN say that Sonic is more "fairy-like" in the earlier classic era, but by the time the modern era rolls around (pun not intended) he started to shift to a more shonen protag-esque character, with a side of late 90's early 2000's cool radical attitude (that part starts to mellow out as the games progress but he'll always have a little bit of that specific kind of cool factor in my eyes)

But, like I said, he's flawed. He's impulsive and reckless, and can sometimes be just as selfish as he is selfless. He does what he believes is right, no matter what others think and even if he's actually in the wrong. And sometimes, rarely, he lets his emotions get the better of him. He also has a disregard for authority, and can be pretty rude and sometimes a bit arrogant, too

The only reason he's considered a hero is bc in spite of his flaws, he's still kind at heart (and, usually, what he believes is right still aligns with what is considered good). He doesn't even consider himself a hero, that's a title mostly put on him by other people. He doesn't think of himself as anything special, just "a guy who loves adventure"

THAT'S what's appealing to me about Sonic. He's just a guy. He's a person, idealized as he may be, who still has flaws and still makes mistakes, but is generally still really fucking cool. I think humanizing him a little more by exploring his flaws isn't a bad thing either and makes for more interesting stories

Anyway, I don't think Sonic could be described as an embodiment of good itself. Hell he'd probably tell you to cut it out if you told him that to his face (he's got an ego but he's not THAT bad). He'd say something like "I just do what I gotta do, that's all" before moving on to kick Eggman's ass again, or something

That's just my take, anyway

[rambyol]

BEAR WITH ME HERE!

Maybe it’s just me but Bruce Wayne in the Telltale games has a very ‘feminine’ look to him and I mean that in the broadest sense.

(I’m sort of struggling with how to go about this because masculinity and femininity are vague terms that carry a lot of nuance with them so take this with a grain of salt.)

Other iterations of Bruce have always made him masculine and he is still in this game but idk, there’s this feminine aura to him, mainly his facial expressions, and how comfortable he is expressing emotion (when safe to do so). Masculinity and stoicism are associated with each other the same way femininity and emotional expressiveness are. And now I don’t mean to say a man being expressive with his face automatically makes him feminine.

In Bruce’s case, when you play him as a good, compassionate, and curious person rather than a cruel, cold, and calculated one, he (naturally) has this softness to him.

In this Universe, like in many, he’s the billionaire playboy and wealth is at times associated with innocence because of how it can protect you from the cruel reality of the world.

This might be a dumb/cringe comparison but you know whenever a female character comes from wealth/royalty their mostly, if not always, portrayed as innocent, naive, ‘must be shielded at all costs’ etc., (like Disney Princesses if we’re really trying to stretch this) but with male characters it’s their arrogant, pretentious, have a superiority complex (that is if they’re intended to be portrayed badly); Bruce is sort of treated with that ‘must be protected’ mentality—we see how Alfred shields him from the reality of his family, and how Bruce naively assumes he isn’t “corrupted” by money. And upon learning such a devastating truth he, IN SPITE OF IT chooses to continue his DUTY as Batman and I think that drive born out of compassion and atonement reaffirms that feminine aura for me.

[sergle]

I'm so glad the all might nut post brought me to your blog in 2019(or 2020? idfk, so much has Happened i forgor) getting to see your reduction journey while scrounging for my own top surgery has been an absolute treat

THAT IS SUCH A DEEP CUT.... THAT'S HOW YOU FOLLOWED ME?

[lessnearthesun]

I just read a really good article (linked here) about the recent trend of "sad girl" books (and music). And while I've had an issue with this idea for a while, I think this article made me realize why. It's not because I think there's something wrong with a piece of art connecting especially with teenage girls—there are some emotions only felt by teen girls and god etc—but that we don't do this with books about introspective men. We don't call them "sad boy" books. We acknowledge how fascinating they are and encompassing of the human experience. It's not insulting to call a book (or music) "sad girl" because teenage girls like it—it's insulting (and sexist!) because it reduces these wide-ranging, complicated books to one easily commercialized facet.

[lavampira]

speaking my truth but if I have any notp in this game it’s the portrayal of romantic fraysid ngl

[biocrafthero]

Sorry it's literally 4am and I just woke up from sleep but some of y'all's political stances seem to be "voting in a system you cannot opt out of is worse than pretending like non-participation is activism" and "not wanting to die is selfish" and it's kinda starting to piss me off. Can anyone hear me

[that-wildwolf]

getting boobs measured and finding out you have an H cup..... I hate it here

[radioroxx]

yargh. complicated characters save me complicated characters…