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saoney · 2 months ago

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Skyfall .𖥔 ݁ ˖

⭑ Satoru Gojo + [Fem! Reader] .ᐟ

𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬 Eldoria was built on lies and blood. [Y/N], the sheltered princess, lived her life unaware of the sins her parents committed to secure their kingdom’s golden age. But the ghosts of the past do not rest. Satoru Gojo, the last survivor of a kingdom destroyed by Eldoria’s greed, returns with a vengeance. When the night of his conquest leaves [Y/N] orphaned and her kingdom in ruins, Satoru spares her life—but only to make her his captive bride. In a world of betrayal, power, and obsession, can love bloom in the shadow of vengeance? Or will the weight of their broken kingdoms destroy them both?

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞 Dark Romance, Drama, Historical Fantasy, Revenge, Tragedy, Slow Burn

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 Graphic Violence, Death of Loved Ones, Emotional and Physical Abuse Themes, Forced Marriage, Power Imbalance, Themes of Revenge and Obsession, Psychological Manipulation, Trauma and PTSD Representation, Mature Themes

🔖 masterlist

Prologue: The Fall of Two Kingdoms

The Kingdom of Eldoria was once a place of beauty and prosperity. Nestled in the heart of a fertile valley, it flourished under the reign of King Takeshi and Queen Sakura. The land was rich with emerald fields and glistening rivers. Its people lived in harmony, their bellies full, their hearts light. The castle—grand and serene—stood at the center of it all, a testament to the wisdom and care of its rulers. Princess [Y/N], the crown jewel of the kingdom, had known nothing but peace, sheltered by the soft glow of love from her parents. She was a fairy tale princess in every sense of the word, with her laughter filling the halls, and her days spent in the sunlight.

But in the shadows, unseen by the innocent eyes of [Y/N], there was a darker story—a story that would unravel her world in a single night.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

Satoru Gojo’s Kingdom, now a ruin, had once been a jewel of power and wealth. The Kingdom of Icaris, vast and majestic, was ruled by Satoru’s parents: King Hiroshi and Queen Aiko. They were known for their strength, their wisdom, and the prosperity they commanded. But their kindness had blinded them to the greedy ambitions of their neighbors, and their enemies had grown ever more numerous.

In secret, the Kingdom of Eldoria had waged a war against Icaris, one that would tear the heart from Satoru’s world. Led by the ambition of the Eldorian rulers, it was a war disguised as diplomacy. Eldoria, hidden behind a veil of peace talks, attacked in the dead of night, burning the lands of Icaris to ash, leaving nothing but the ruins of a once-great kingdom. The reason behind the attack was simple: wealth. Eldoria had taken what was rightfully Icaris’s—gold, jewels, resources, everything that had kept Icaris flourishing for centuries. With the treasures from Icaris, Eldoria’s kingdom soared even higher, while Satoru’s people were reduced to ghosts.

But even in the aftermath, no one knew the full extent of the devastation. The royal family of Icaris—Satoru’s parents—were slain without mercy. Satoru, a mere child of ten, watched as his world crumbled around him. His parents, his kingdom, his legacy—all reduced to nothing in a single night.

Satoru was left alone, wandering the ashes of his homeland with nothing but the cold wind and the ghosts of his fallen people. Only Suguru Geto, his right-hand man, remained by his side. Together, they swore vengeance. They would burn down the kingdom that had done this. And they would claim the riches that had been stolen from his people.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

Years passed.

Satoru grew from a child filled with rage into a man forged in the fires of loss and vengeance. His heart hardened, but his mind remained sharp. Suguru was always by his side, an unyielding force, his right hand in every battle, every plan. Together, they grew their army, an unstoppable force driven by hatred for the royal family of Eldoria and the destruction they had wrought upon Icaris and its people.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

It was a night like any other when Eldoria’s peaceful world was torn apart.

The kingdom had grown soft, the people lulled into a false sense of security. Princess [Y/N], now a woman of [Y/N’s Age], had inherited the beauty and grace of her mother, Queen Sakura. She had never known a day of hardship. Her life was filled with courtly dances, lovely dresses, and the adoration of her people. Her heart was light, full of laughter, filled with hopes for a future of love and peace.

Until, one fateful night, when the sky above the kingdom cracked with the sound of thunder. War had come for Eldoria’s kingdom, but not in the form of an army, not in the traditional sense. No, it came from the sea, from the air, from the very heart of the storm.

Ships—vast and black—emerged from the horizon, cutting through the waters with eerie precision. They were not of this world. They were foreign, strange, the flags raised upon their masts bearing a symbol of an unknown kingdom—a symbol that struck fear into the hearts of Eldoria’s court. Pirates, they called them. But [Y/N] knew, even before the first arrow was fired, that these were no mere raiders. They were soldiers on a mission of vengeance. They were coming for the blood of her people.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

In the span of a single night, the kingdom fell.

The gates of the castle were breached with terrifying ease. Guards were slaughtered in the halls. Fires broke out in the kitchens, the stables, the towers. The castle that had once gleamed with the light of peace was now consumed by smoke and flames. The royal family, in their final moments, tried to flee—but it was too late.

[Y/N] was the last to see her parents alive. King Takeshi and Queen Sakura were dragged from their chambers, their faces pale with fear, their hands trembling as they pleaded for their lives. [Y/N] could hear their screams as the invaders dragged them through the corridors. And then, they were gone.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

And then, Satoru Gojo entered her world.

He was not a man. Not in the way she thought. He was a force, a presence that tore through the remnants of her kingdom like a storm, burning everything in his path. His eyes, cold as ice, locked onto her the moment he saw her. The woman who had once been his enemy’s daughter. His only living witness to the greed and destruction that had annihilated his world.

[Y/N] had never seen anything like him. He was a prince, yes, but he was no longer one of the regal kind. He was a killer. A man bent on revenge, dressed in the blood of his enemies. But when his eyes fell on her, there was something else there. Something darker.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

“You are mine now.”

He said it as if it were a decree. A promise. An act of ownership. As if her life—her soul—belonged to him. And for a moment, [Y/N] couldn’t even comprehend it. She was too numb with the loss of her parents, too broken by the horrors she’d witnessed. But then, as he raised his hand to claim her, something in her snapped. Her voice, so fragile yet defiant, finally broke through the terror.

“No…” she whispered, her eyes filled with unshed tears.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

Satoru’s laugh was like ice scraping against metal.

“You think you have a choice?” His voice was smooth, calculating, yet there was a fire in his gaze. “You’re the last of your royal line. There’s nothing left for you but me.”

The darkness in his eyes told her everything. This was not just revenge. This was ownership. This was power.

The castle crumbled beneath them, and [Y/N]’s life as she knew it ended.

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lesbomination · 22 days ago

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In the minority here but I personally think “Wolf Man” did their werewolves perfectly, at least in accordance to its lore & allegory (at least, how I initially read it); werewolves as representation of trauma responses, werewolves as representation of abusers, those who inflict trauma.

For Blake, his transformation occurs in the act of being forced to remember & relive his past, as well as being attacked in a particularly traumatic way that impacted his whole family; an uncontrollable change one may undergo after a traumatic event. The shift from human to beast mirrors how survivors can feel disconnected from their former selves, grappling with emotions & reactions that feel alien, new, & beyond their control. Blake’s lycanthropy is invasive not just for his family, but for Blake himself — much like the very nature of trauma, which can distort one’s identity & sense of self. Blake was “infected”; “[Grady] gave [Blake] his sickness”.

For Grady especially, his transformation is a representation of abusers & abusive behavior, externalizing the complexity of human behavior. A more humanoid werewolf form suggests that an abusive individual in reality remains human alongside their harmful actions. There isn’t a dramatic, visible transformation that clearly marks someone as an abuser, just as a person doesn’t grow fangs or claws when they inflict emotional or physical pain on others. An abusive human is still a human, just more gruesome to look at. Grady is an isolated former Marine, living in the woods with a young son, off the grid. They hunt & plant their own food. He treats his farm & house like a boot camp. His only connection to the outside world is through a damn radio, and he disproves of Blake being near it. Hunting is what killed him in the end, but so was his way of seeking control.

#wolf man #wolf man 2025 #blake lovell #abuse cw #update. reiterating again how i INITIALLY read the theme differently than what Whannell was trying to sell. not inherently a bad thing imo

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artofhazbinhotel · 9 months ago

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Hazbin hotel headcannons

I think Valentino is genderfluid and just doesn't know it

Vox is autistic and stims by jumping up and down or picking people up, his hyperfixation is sharks (I'm autistic)

Vox isn't a picky eater but his favorite thing to eat is burgers, he isn't a good cook though so he makes others do it for him

The reason Adam always folds his wings at his sides is to make himself look skinnier

Charlie has hyper empathy and that's why she struggles so much with accepting some people just can't be helped (I understand this)

Alastor has ASPD, not because he's a serial killer, that's a horrible stereotype, but because his emotions are limited and he has trouble understanding others so even if someone is his friend he might unintentionally hurt their feelings, his sadism has absolutely nothing to do with the not caring about most, maybe it's because he likes seeing so clearly what the other person feels? Rosie is one of the only people he genuinely cares about (my boyfriend has this and agrees)

Vox has NPD, it can cause extreme jealousy when your ego feels attacked, and the reason he humiliated himself on TV was that exact reason, feeling worse, Alastor has probably sent him into a narc crash several times but most of it as spent on a high, it stems from low self esteem masked with pride and indifference (my boyfriend has NPD and agrees)

Now for the controversial one that I still agree with, I think Valentino has BPD, people have said that Bipolar or NPD is also an option but saying NPD feels like just feeding into narc abuse claims. As for bipolar, the difference between BPD and bipolar is the length of episodes, BPD has rapid mood swings while bipolar ups and downs can last months, we see Valentino switch up his emotions within seconds constantly. BPD can also cause anger, jealousy, and obsession, I think angel is his FP and that's why he immediately assumed he's abandoned the second he moves out and flies into a rage and why he has the need to always have control over him (I have BPD)

Angel is hypersexual as a result of his trauma and I know people shit on the portrayal of how he acts but not every single SA survivor becomes sex repulsed, some have the opposite reaction where they intentionally sexualize themselves because they think that's all they're good for or that if they aren't doing that they're doing something wrong, I like that there's finally representation for that, characters who are overly sexual flirts don't usually have a psychological explanation

Lucifer is autistic and bad at social cues, his hyperfixation is ducks. He also has depression that stemmed from his divorce

Velvette is bisexual

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel valentino #hazbin hotel vox #hazbin hotel headcanon #hazbin hotel velvette #hazbin hotel alastor #hazbin hotel the vees #rosie hazbin hotel #charlie morningstar #hazbin hotel angel dust #hazbin hotel lucifer #valentino headcanons #vox hazbin hotel #charlie hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel charlie #alastor hazbin hotel #valentino hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel rosie

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bbcphile · 1 year ago

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Mysterious Lotus Casebook and Complex PTSD Representations: Part I

One of my favorite things about Mysterious Lotus Casebook is how surprisingly nuanced and unusual its portrayal of complex PTSD is. So many shows either introduce character trauma to make the character Sad and Brooding, Angry and Violent (if they’re a villain) or Hesitant to Start a Relationship (if it’s a romance), and that’s usually as in-depth as it gets. If they address the unique after effects of child abuse that lead to complex PTSD at all, it’s usually either explain why a character is a homicidal monster (which is all sorts of problematic) or it’s limited to a single phobia, which can be overcome by the Power of Love, or it’s just something that crops up occasionally for Plot and then forgotten about the rest of the time.

Mysterious Lotus Casebook gives us two deeply traumatized characters–Li Lianhua and Di Feisheng–who each have clear symptoms of complex PTSD, and yet, their cPTSD manifests completely differently because of the types of traumas that caused it and their relationships to the people causing the traumas. And their manifestations of cPTSD affect just about every level of their being, including their sense of self, their decision-making, and their relationships with others, and it includes some of the incredibly important manifestations of cPTSD that are almost never shown in media while avoiding the most insulting stereotypes!

PTSD vs cPTSD

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is an anxiety disorder caused by experiencing a single (or short lived) traumatic event (an accident, assault, medical emergency, fighting in a war, etc), where the symptoms last for longer than a month. Symptoms include things like reexperiencing the event (flashbacks), avoidance (of things related to the event), changes in mood (depression, anger, fear, etc), and issues with emotional regulation (hypervigilance–being constantly on the lookout for threats–irritability/angry outbursts, etc.).

Complex PTSD happens if someone has experienced long term, chronic/repeated trauma that induces hopelessness and no chance of escape (survivors of extended child abuse, human trafficking, domestic violence, prisoners of war, slavery, etc.). It’s also often interpersonal in ways a car crash or medical emergency is not, and is particularly linked with chronic trauma during childhood: chronic stress hormones introduce literal physical changes in a growing brain, particularly the amygdala (which processes fear), hippocampus (which is responsible for learning/memory), and the prefrontal cortex (which is responsible for executive function), so it can affect every aspect of life and also affect a child’s progression through developmental stages. In addition to these physical changes to the brain, the prolonged trauma–particularly the helplessness–distorts a child’s sense of self, the perpetrator, and the world in ways that alter their decision making, their memory, and their future relationships.

For instance, whereas a traumatic event that caused PTSD might make you depressed or not trust the person who harmed you (or to fear driving), the trauma from cPTSD might make you suicidal, blame yourself for your victimization, decide to isolate to avoid interpersonal relationships to keep from getting hurt, or become obsessed with never being harmed again.

Basically, cPTSD has the core symptoms from PTSD with some extra challenges, including issues with emotional regulation, self-concept, interruptions in consciousness, difficulties with relationships, perceptions of the perpetrator, and systems of meaning.

DFS and LLH: CPTSD Symptoms

There’s so much more to say about this than I can cover in this superficial introduction, so this will be the first of a series of metas; I’m hoping to go into more depth about some of these categories in future posts (the DFS and emotional regulation/violence one is already drafted, so stay tuned).

Difficulties with Relationships (problems with trust, communication, missing red flags): Both DFS and LLH have a history of trusting the wrong people and not trusting the right people, both in the past and in the present of the show: in the past, LLH missed the fact that SGD hated him and DFS missed the fact that JLQ was obsessed with him, and as a result, both sects were destroyed, many people died, and the two almost destroyed each other. If they had communicated with each other instead of fighting at the donghai battle, they might have realized they were being set up and could have worked together, but their difficulties with trust after perceived betrayal made that impossible for them. They both have a history of overlooking red flags in the present–DFS in particular, keeping the red-flag-personified-JLQ around despite her history of poisoning people, including himself–and they both tend to struggle with relationships in the present: LLH runs away from and/or drugs the people who care about him, and DFS sends endless mixed messages by not telling Li Lianhua most of his plans to help him.

Self-Concept (Self-hatred and self-fragmentation): Li Lianhua is basically the poster child for having a negative self concept: he has an overdeveloped sense of self-blame and responsibility, even believing he deserves to die for leading his men to their deaths, and once he learns he was manipulated and SGD was behind it all, he seems to think it’s his own fault that he was manipulated, lied to, and abused. His self-loathing is so extreme that he imagines his earlier self, Li Xiangyi, to have died, and tries as much as possible to be nothing like that earlier persona. His repeated insistence that Li Xiangyi and Li Lianhua are NOT the same person is reminiscent of the fragmentary sense of self that comes with more extreme trauma, like Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) or Other-Specified Dissociative Disorder (OSDD), where traumatic experiences are so painful that people form different alters, or differentiated self-states, that can have different names and skills and memories and identities.

Di Feisheng doesn’t have the self-hatred or guilt that LLH does, and it seems like he tries to skip over questions of self worth, blame, or hatred by focusing exclusively on staying true to his code of ethics he’s developed for himself and focusing on gaining the strength necessary to fight for his freedom from mind control and the Di Fortress. But even though he’s kept his Di name, kept his goals the same since escaping Di Fortress, and hasn’t tried to separate himself from his trauma the way LLH did with LXY, he’s even more willing than LLH to take on different identities: it’s literally one of his martial arts skills. The Bone Constriction Skill lets him become someone else for a time, whether that’s a child or Shi Hun. It fits well with his willingness to be whoever he needs to be to accomplish his goals: he’s perfectly willing to be seen as a heartless villain if it lets him protect LLH, and he’s willing to flirt with and pretend to be jealous of JLQ to get information from her, and he’s willing to be LLH’s a-Fei, both with and without his memories.

Interruptions in Consciousness (Amnesia and nightmares for Everyone): LLH and DFS both have nightmares and flashbacks/memories of traumatic events, and as mentioned above, both have interesting hints of having fragmented/fluid senses of self. They both also dissociate, or separate themselves from the present when dealing with traumatic things: LLH spaces out and gets stuck in his past memories about SGD when talking to FDB after burying SGD, and DFS dissociates from physical pain so as not to make noise both after he’s been stabbed and poisoned with Wuxin Huai and again when JLQ is torturing him in her water dungeon.

They both also have dissociative amnesia that takes away trauma memories, although one is from a poisonous incense plus the magic of qi macgyvering: LLH forgot the existence of his older brother who died in front of him, and DFS as a-Fei had just about all of his memories (except a few of killing as a child) taken away. Amnesia is a huge part of cPTSD, because it’s the brain’s way of trying to protect you from truths that you might not survive. It can manifest as blocking out one single traumatic event, a bunch of thematically or temporally linked traumatic events, a skill set related to the trauma, or, in the case of something like DID or OSDD, just about everything. It’s endlessly fascinating to me that the show gives us one example of definite traumatic amnesia through LLH, and then seems to almost transform the experience of having DID and being a new part and finding yourself with a new name and very little else into an exaggerated fantasy setting (interestingly, people often report experiencing debilitating headaches when they try to regain memories behind the amnesia barrier). I doubt this is what they were actually going for, since DID is almost universally portrayed incorrectly and offensively in media (one of the alters is almost always portrayed as a serial killer, but that’s a rant for another day), but the different names and the presence of amnesia with LLH made it a fascinating enough parallel that I had to mention it.

Problems with Emotional Regulation (Lashing in vs. lashing out): Li Xiangyi and Di Feisheng are polar opposites when it comes to struggles with emotional regulation: whereas LXY turns his anger inward, directing it all toward self-hate in what’s often called a “toxic shame spiral,” both after the donghai battle and after he finds out about SGD’s role in his shifu’s death, DFS lashes out physically at those who have harmed him, usually via choking people, although he is usually exerting an impressive amount of control over his emotions and strength. To put in perspective just how different their emotional strategies are and how much effort DFS puts into emotional regulation, compare how much more calm he is than LLH during any revelation of past betrayal or painful information, any scene where they confront the people who have abused them, or any scene where they learn they’ve been wrong about something big; LLH is most likely having an emotional flashback (re-experiencing the emotions from the earlier traumas) and DFS is probably compartmentalizing them or dissociating from them to process later/never so he can stay semi-functional and not show a potential opponent a weak spot.

NOTE: This means that DFS is loooong overdue for a very dramatic breakdown when it eventually all catches up to him and he can’t distract himself from it anymore.

Perceptions of Perpetrators: In this way only, Di Feisheng has one advantage: he knows the head of Di Fortress is a cruel, abusive tyrant. While he clearly still fears him, even as a physically strong adult (he has nightmares, flashbacks, and dedicates his life to being free from him, which means he still to some extent feels young, small, and helpless when he thinks of him), DFS knows that he hates him and wants to be free of him. This is probably part of why he’s spared some of the self-hatred LLH experiences: he knows he didn’t deserve the abuse because seeing it happen to other children means he knows the abuse wasn’t a personal reflection on him. It does, however, motivate him to want to be stronger and invulnerable so as to never be helpless again, and that obsession is what drives him to have a single-minded focus on reaching the pinnacle of the jianghu.

It’s so much more complicated for Li Lianhua (and for a more detailed analysis, check out this meta): the childhood perpetrators were manifold–a slew of bandits, whichever children and adults on the street would abuse him for existing and being poor–it probably felt like life itself was to blame. It’s no wonder that when his shifu and shiniang took him in, they were the ultimate rescuers whom he hero-worshipped, so when he felt he made a mistake and his life fell apart, he blamed himself: at least there would be someone to blame that way and something he could do about it (try to kill his past self and hate everything about him). It’s also very telling that LLH doesn’t blame JLQ or YBQ all that much when he learns they poisoned him, and that he’s more angry that SGD murdered their shifu than he is that SGD set him up, hated him, and was the real mastermind behind everything he had blamed himself for; he struggles to stay angry at people who harm him, and would rather blame and hate himself for being tricked than hate the person who tricked him. So, whereas DFS tries to destroy the people who abused him, LLH tries to destroy himself.

If you read this far, thanks! I’m probably going to be posting the DFS and emotional regulation/violence against perpetrator meta next, because it’s drafted, but if there are any of these you desperately want me to talk about more sooner rather than later, let me know! :D

#mysterious lotus casebook #mlc meta #di feisheng #li lianhua #Li Xiangyi #complex PTSD #child abuse #sorry it's so long! This is the short version #The original version was 2700 words #dissociation #trauma #I am so here for non-monolithic representations of mental illnesses #PTSD #In case you can't tell I am very invested in depictions of PTSD and cPTSD #I'm always up for talking about fictional portrayals of trauma #so feel free to message if you have questions about any of this and don't want it to be in the notes for some reason

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hangingslothcentral · 3 months ago

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Today is the fourth anniversary of the day I launched Spirit Box Radio, and it's also the last day of trans awareness week.

I have a lot of big feelings about SBR. If you've listened to the show, you'll know that I was medically transitioning through its release. I went on T at the show's midpoint, in the middle of S2, and my voice was changing throughout the rest of the show's run. I got top surgery two months after the show ended, almost exactly to the day.

Now. We're all big enough and daft enough to be able to have a grown up conversation about this, I think. So here's some stuff about that experience I haven't really talked about before.

1. I wish there had been media which had trans creators transitioning alongside a character who is transitioning when I was younger. The main reason for this is that it would have been representation of trans people, but honestly? The main thing I wanted was to see someone transitioning over a long period of time. So often, transition seems to happen behind closed doors. Unless you are lucky enough to have lots of trans people around you (I grew up in semi-rural Wales so no luck for me there) you just do not see it happening. People, understandably, want to hide the length of the process, the messy in between stages.

2. Transitioning and playing Sam transitioning simultaneous to me was one of the most mentally challenging and emotionally vulnerable things I've ever done. I do not say this lightly; I'm a survivor of abuse and I've seen a lot of shit in my life. I've come out as nonbinary at a corporate job and argued with a university about changing my name on my graduation certificate. As much as I loved it, and still love it, and I'm intensely proud of it and SO glad it exists, making SBR was fucking brutal. Hours of editing my own voice through a period where it sounded different on a near-weekly basis. Having no idea how I sounded anymore and posting episodes anyway. Dealing with the emotional fallout of people responding weirdly to me in my real, actual life whilst portraying a character who is outcast, isolated, and terrified of himself? Challenging as fuck.

3. Many people need to examine the way they're talking about trans men. The conversations around Sam shifted very violently as my voice dropped. This is in part due to the arc this character follows, but it's hard not to notice a shift in language as dramatic as this. It started as soon as the show came back from its S2 midseason break and my voice had shifted down a bit. People talked less about Sam being cute, and for the first time, I started to see people talking about him like he was sexy. These things aren't mutually exclusive, but it was very noticeable to me, especially in contrast to conversations about Oliver, Sam's hot, cis gender, florist boyfriend, who was categorised as sexy from the off. Before my voice dropped, even though they were using the right pronouns for them, people talked about Sam with very feminine, infantilising language, and this almost entirely stopped when my voice dropped.

4. I am so fucking glad I did this. Yes, it was brutal, emotional, and I really struggled through a lot of this process, and I am so glad I did this. I will have the immense privilege of medically transitioning in the way I have over the last few years exactly once in my life. I am glad I took that vulnerable moment and made art with it. I'm glad that my transition is captured and mirrored by this thing I was making at the time it was happening. I'm glad that thousands of other trans people have listened to the show and have heard me doing this as they are doing it, or before they do it, or after, or as they're deciding not to, or finding out they can't, or realising they'll never have the chance, or any one of the myriad experiences of transness that exist. I am, frankly, honoured to have been a part of such a vulnerable aspect in the lives of so many people.

Thank you for reading this. Thank you for listening to the show, if indeed you already have. If you enjoy my work, I would love to be able to pay my bills and be able to keep making it. I have never made even minimum wage for the work I do on my shows. Please consider becoming a member.

#audio drama #spirit box radio #spirit box radio podcast #sbr #podcast #horror podcast #audiodrama #audio fiction #eira speaks #trans masc #trans pride #transgender #trans awareness

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misscammiedawn · 10 months ago

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Ange Ushiromiya's Recontextualized Memory and Unprocessed Trauma in Umineko No Naku Kori Ni

CW: Full spoilers for Umineko, a mystery visual novel game which is best enjoyed without knowing spoilers in advance. The game and thus this essay will feature discussion of child abuse and suicide.

For those unfamiliar with my blog I have a tag called Media, Myself and I where I talk about positive/accurate representation of dissociative disorders in media.

Today I want to talk about Umineko No Naku Kori Ni the third and fourth titles in 07th Expansion's "When They Cry" franchise. The game is a multi-layered fiction that starts off as an Agatha Christie inspired closed circle murder mystery taking place during the weekend of October 4th 1986. The murder mystery displayed has no more than 18 humans stranded on an island in the middle of a storm and the audience is invited to try to work out the mystery of what happened.

As the story progresses the audience are presented with a number of different possibilities, each an in-universe attempt to rationalize the tragedy that took place and killed all but two members of the Ushiromiya family.

It is eventually revealed that to the eyes of the world, no more than 18 humans were on the island that weekend and only one returned to their life afterwards. Some in the world have been quite focused on working out what happened during that weekend.

It's a complicated narrative that has multiple layers and each layer communicates not only with the audience reading the game but an audience of people in-universe trying to solve the mystery as well. When we first experienced the game we had joked that it was sold to us as Anime Homestuck but it ended up being Anime House of Leaves.

The easiest way to describe the narrative structure is that the first 7 episodes of the game, each containing about 20 hours of narrative, have within them a fictionalized version of events written in-universe by people who may or may not have been present at the event with episode 8 is mostly its own thing. To explain in further detail would distract. The point is Umineko is a complicated narrative and there is too much to cover a play-by-play.

The narrative is intentionally convoluted and contradictory with part of the fun of playing the game being to work out what events are true and what the rules are for discerning "magic" from "truth".

Even with a concept as seemingly opaque as Truth, there is the often quoted "Without love it cannot be seen" motif, that our emotional connection to events will always color how we interpret events.

The story is remarkably long. How Long To Beat puts each half of the game up at about 60 hours. So that's 120 hours of pure reading with very little gameplay.

There are multiple plural characters ("Oh, I am one yet many", indeed) and we shall discuss them in due course, but for clarity I wish to focus my discussion today upon the relationship between a survivor and their histories. The novel has much to say on the topic.

The above image discussing the nature of truth is from Episode 4, the chapter where the protagonist is Ange Ushiromiya. Younger sister of the protagonist of the first Episodes, Battler Ushiromiya.

Ange, 6 years old at the time, was sick on the weekend of October 4th 1986 and was not present on the island for the massacre. One weekend she had a full and lively family and then in the span of a single week everyone she had a connection to was killed in unknowable circumstances, she was whisked away to live with her aunt, the sole survivor of the tragedy, and would live the life of a cursed child, forever haunted by the tragedy that stole away her life.

Ange's story takes place in "The World of 1998" where she seeks The Truth. She states multiple times how she is incapable of going on with her life until she knows The Truth.

The events of 1986 are presented via "forgeries", published stories which tell the story of the 1986 tragedy utilizing facts that are known about the family. Ange pours through them, attempting to uncover the truth. She suspects her aunt may be responsible. Why wouldn't she harbor suspicions? Aunt Eva was the only one of the no more than 18 humans to leave the island and became the sole inheritor of the Ushiromiya family fortune.

Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is formed when an individual endures long-lasting and repeated bouts of ongoing trauma, typically in childhood. Survivors often find themselves caught in an inescapable cycle of grieving that lasts months and years beyond the loss and remains fresh and raw in spite of the time and changes that have occurred since the event. The individual is tethered to the past by an inability to move on from their loss. In psychology this is referred to as Complicated Grief and though it is most commonly discussed with death, it can present itself for grieving lost time, stolen youth and lives unlived.

Ange is riddled with Complicated Grief. Her story takes place 12 years after the events on the island of Rokkenjima and yet she constantly tells those around her that she is unable to live without knowing the truth. Ange's unprocessed grief is unearthed when her aunt, the only survivor of the massacre, passes away while maliciously refusing to give Ange any insight into the truth that she alone knew, twisting the knife as she turned over the family fortune to a child that was not her own beloved George.

Ange's sole reason for existing is to make peace with the tragedy of her past and Eva's final act was to tell her she would never have it and would instead live a cursed life of a victim in the public's eye. Eternally scrutinized and criticized.

Ange, now knowing that the only chance she had to be given the truth and still feeling that she needs it in order to live her life, runs away and starts a journey to either make peace with her tortured past or end her own life.

Ange's suicidal tendencies are played up dramatically and much of the final episode is the conflict between Ange's inability to live with her grief being played out in hyperbolic fiction. The stakes of the story amounting to "will she be able to live after learning The Truth."

But what is Truth? Would learning who is responsible for her family's death truly give her peace or would it only serve to trap her further in her endless cycle of grief?

Trauma therapy tends not to focus on Talk Therapy for the most part as such therapy indulges a survivor to dwell on their unprocessed traumas and will only serve to retraumatize the client. In many cases it is detrimental to perform Motivational Interviewing (reflective statements designed to display to a client that the clinician is listening and interpreting their words without offering direct guidance or intervention) or Rogerian "person centered" (a similar tactic designed to keep a client talking without engaging in a back-and-forth, every reply should be a prompt that inspires the client to continue sharing without boundaries and reach their own conclusions) techniques.

The reason why is that these forms of therapy have a belief that "the client holds all of the answers" and the clinician's job is to let the client get out of their own way and walk towards the answer. It is a solutions based therapy where the client is trusted to clear cognitive distortions and navigate around mental blocks between themselves and what they need.

Ange's stated goals are far from healthy.

In survivors their Core Beliefs are informed by their trauma. Those who were raised in a house of neglect may have an unresolved core belief that they are unworthy of love, those who feel shame and guilt for what happened/how they were treated may have a belief that "I should have..." - A helpful list of common negative core beliefs and positive beliefs that can be instilled, click here.

Trauma therapy contains an element of identifying these beliefs and where they originated and working to overcome them. There are many different therapies in the world that attempt to do this but they all include some element of processing trauma, accepting trauma and committing to the future.

In Ange's case she does not need to know what happened in order to live. She has to accept what happened and live.

To make this clear, should Ange learn what is presented to be The Truth it will break her and she will be unable to accept it and in doing so ends up unable to live.

All of this is a prologue to talk about acceptance and our emotional connection to memory.

Prior to Eva's death, Ange was raised in a boarding school where she was ruthlessly bullied by the other students. Both Ange and her aunt are in the public eye for the scandal associated with the Rokkenjima massacre and Eva actively despises Ange and refuses to give her the care, nurture and privilege that the other students of the rich academy enjoy.

She lives a lonely and cursed life. Her one solace is getting to find time alone to sit and read her cousin Maria's "Grimoire", her journal. When she reads the journal she can clearly picture her cousin in her mind and interact with her. A form of "magic" that Maria taught Ange back when the two of them were friends, prior to the massacre in which Maria lost her life. In the past Maria had created a magical society called Mariage Sorciere and Ange was one of the members before being excommunicated.

We'll discuss it further in a while however while introducing Maria I wish to note that she was most likely forming a dissociative disorder prior to the massacre. The series writer Ryukishi07 was a social worker prior to his career in visual novels. He does a remarkably good job of displaying how abusive and neglectful family dynamics can impact a young mind. Maria, despite being 9 years old, has speech patterns linked to an infant's maturity, she often switches into a "witch" persona and she will hold up her stuffed animals and voice out their speech, treating them like separate individuals. She is bullied at school and her mother hits her when she does this but she is incapable of acting any other way. It's who she is.

A small portion of the second chapter even having some of the cousins stop to discuss the possibility that her overactive imagination and play-acting may contain elements of dissociative identity disorder. It's never fully confirmed and she dies at age 9, but Ryukishi07 displays a convincing depiction of extreme childhood neglect that would lead to a severe dissociative disorder had she have grown up.

We learn throughout the story that her journal contains sketches of many magical entities impressed upon the servants of the island and toys that Maria has. These entities becoming the magical cast of the "Gameboard".

Though not the focus of this particular essay, each episode of the game is depicted as a chess match between a game master (representing the author of a murder mystery) and an opponent (representing the reader trying to solve the mystery) and these matches take place in a world of purgatory. This world is populated by a magical cast of characters each of whom is paired with a member of the mundane cast on the island.

The game often repeats that it takes "two to create a universe". There needs to be one to imagine it and one to perceive it and mark it as real. This is displayed on the gameboard but it is also displayed with the way that for every imagined character who exists as part of the magical cast, there is the one who imagines and then there is one who their imagination is displayed onto.

Maria is a child of extreme neglect, as we will discuss soon, she had no one to displace her imagination upon (spare for her mother who she imagined as being possessed by an evil witch when she became violently abusive) and so she imbued life into her toys. Bringing Sakutarou, her stuffed lion doll, and her band of toy rabbits to life. This earned her the title "Witch of origins".

The magic in the game's universe operates on a rule that "it takes two to create a universe" logic. The concepts of Magic and Love being intertwined. "Without love it cannot be seen" has many meanings but in terms of creation it means that anyone can apply "the anti-magic toxin" of mistrust/disbelief by simply rejecting another person's reality.

So much of the magic and love in this world is built on trust and being able to believe in that which is shared. The concept is explored from many angles throughout the game, Episode 6 focusing on love in the form of trust between a writer and a reader and the contract between them requiring a murder mystery to be solvable and for a reader to earnestly engage with the fiction and accept it as it is written.

Within Mariage Sorciere, this love is to accept that the characters and imaginings of its members. To be a member is to accept all as it is presented. Sakutarou is a magical lion boy who speaks. To doubt this is to be excommunicated from the order, which is why Ange was kicked out of the witches alliance. To say Sakutarou wasn't real was tantamount to trying to kill him.

Maria's love is without doubt. In Episode 7 we learn that she is not capable of viewing people as anything more than how they present to the world. Her imagination paints how she perceives the world. When her mother's behavior drastically shifts when she enters a violent and abusive rage she firmly believes that her mother has been possessed by a cruel witch.

When a familiar adult approaches her speaking as the Golden Witch Beatrice, she does not see the adult. She only sees Beato. This is vital to her testimony throughout the game regarding the murder mysteries.

One last thing I wish to go over during this analysis of Ange and Maria and their relationship to their traumatic childhoods. That is the title of witch.

By now I hope it's been made clear that magic is imagination and love is trust. Whether it be testimony being believed, the contract between author and reader or the inner reality of one being seen and regarded and acknowledged by another.

As someone with DID, I like this concept a lot. It would be so easy to simply dismiss our condition and the presentations. But with love it can be seen.

The game shows a number of different types of witch. From the witch of origins who can make new imaginings that do not require another person to validate them to the Golden witch who has enough money to make reality via sheer financial coercion or the witch of truth who can make reality by asserting it to be so or witch of resurrection who can keep those who died alive in their memory.

Each witch is using their magical ability to "create" by taking their imagination and moving it out into the world. The Witch of Truth is a detective whose deductions are believed to be fact even if the accused disagrees. The Golden Witch can take any scheme or desire and pay people to make it a reality.

And Ange, the Witch of Resurrections, can bring back the dead by remembering them and keeping their voices in her heart. They live on in her writing. In her words. In her memory. So when she reads Maria's journal she can bring the Maria of 1986 into the world of 1998. When she reads of Maria's magical companions they can accompany her.

With this context, we return to Ange in her teen years.

Lonely and consumed by grief she is only able to find solace in imagining Maria with her, imagining Maria having forgiven her for saying Sakutarou wasn't real.

As she accepts the role of apprentice witch she is allowed to perceive Maria and her menagerie of imaginary friends.

Though there's a certain amount of strain and physical discomfort in maintaining the thought process of so many at once. Maria is able to do it remarkably easy but Ange has to struggle.

It's okay, Ange, dissociation headaches are an absolute bitch. They get better after a certain amount of stabilizing and communication work.

All the while she reads about Maria's home life.

To break the essay structure and be real for a moment. This segment hit me hard. I choked up crying and needed to take a break from the game for a while. The depiction of child neglect and abuse was too real and I feel it serves the fiction to depict it as such but it is a hard read. Please be kind to yourself as you read on.

Rosa Ushiromiya is the youngest of the Ushiromiya children, furthest from the inheritance and least respected of Kinzo's progeny. She likely suffered a large amount of abuse and neglect in her own childhood both physical from the eldest sibling, Kraus, emotional/psychological from her sister Eva and a combination of both from her other brother Rudolf.

Children raised in abusive households are more likely to develop personality disorders born from attachment trauma. A typical display of this is dichotomous thinking, praising and devaluing the same subject in waves based on stimulus. Within Borderline Personality Disorder, for instance, this is where the concept of Splitting and Black and White Thinking come from.

For Rosa, this manifests with her mood swings that have her violently scream and hit her daughter before lavishing her with apologies, affection and attention.

Every character in Umineko is burdened with a painful past. Each character feels the need to displace that pain outwards and project it onto other people. For instance Rosa displaces her pain onto Maria. Both of Ange's aunts displace theirs onto her. Kyrie displaces hers onto Battler.

Generational trauma is a heavy theme of this game.

Rosa makes her way as the head of a small fashion design label though she does not see a lot of success in her role. Early in adulthood she had a relationship that ended with her pregnant with Maria. Maria's father, upon learning of the pregnancy, left.

Rosa is young, lonely and feels that having a child makes it difficult for her to find love; in the time and culture of 1980s Japan being a single mother was seen as shameful. She finds that the best way she is able to date is to act like she does not have a daughter and take extended vacations across the country on weekends with her dates.

Leaving her daughter home alone.

Rosa has a number of hang-ups about the optics of leaving Maria in someone else's care, she is shown on multiple occasions in the story to fly into a rage when her ability to be a parent is put into question and she has massive cognitive dissonance in that she cannot bare to be seen as a bad mother and so she acts like a horrible mother to avoid looking bad.

I have seen a lot of debate on the logic here and first off, anyone who approaches this story with a view of "it does not make sense that a character acted this way" lacks the Love required to enjoy this story in full. The author enters a firm agreement with the audience to work within the confines of the fiction and not to disrespect the fiction by rejecting that which is offered. He will deceive us but never lie. In that we have to believe in the story.

But it's also a sign of those who have grown up with a proud optics obsessed parent and those who did not. Sad to say, I have experienced a few of the things which happen in this chapter and I have no doubt that Ryukishi07 saw some of it in his social worker career.

When Rosa leaves Maria alone at home, for days at a time, she orders her to never make anyone aware of her situation. More important than anything else never speak to the police about what goes on in this house.

That. I have lived that one.

What Ange reads and what Maria shows us in this episode is a weekend where Maria is home alone, her mother having forgotten a promise that was made to her and Maria is locked out of her house. She spends an entire evening searching for the lost key and eventually needs to seek a friendly store worker who recognizes her to get help.

This leads to police intervention, a social worker showing up at Rosa's house and...

I glossed over a lot. This is a dense book and this story takes up much of Episode 4. Suffice to say, Maria's friend Sakutarou was murdered in retaliation for Maria summoning attention of Rosa's bad parenting. Rosa abandoned her daughter for a full weekend after breaking a promise and when she was locked out and defenseless she asked for help and was violently punished for doing so.

Another function of the witch of origins is the ability to break the cycle of generational abuse. She does not take her pain and push it into someone else, she creates an imagined evil mother to hate and fear while continuing to love her 'real' mother. This way she never has to doubt the love she has for the mother who she has happy memories of and who custom crafted a lovely plush lion just for her.

Which leads to the discussion of trauma, memory and processing.

Ange, upon reading this story is crestfallen. She views Maria as a pitiable child, only to be confronted by MARIA who defends Rosa. Arguing that she legitimately forgot her promise, rather than deciding that her daughter was not worth the time or effort.

She claims constantly that Rosa is a good mother and that she is happy.

Maria, a being who can only view the world with love, despite being abused and hurt; chose to be happy and so through her magic it was so. She was happy.

There's a misconception I have seen and I will admit I held for myself upon reading Episode 4 that Maria was preaching to deceive ones own self in order to be happy. That it was enabling and accepting of her own abuse.

But this is actually one of the deepest things Umineko has to say about generational trauma...

Chapter 8 revisits the idea with a version of the gameboard where the Ange of 1986 is allowed to be on the island, something which was impossible because in truth she was not. Not even the witch of miracles could change that which is certain.

In this game, set by Ange's older brother BATTLER, the 6 year old Ange is treated to a fun halloween party with her aunt Eva run by her loving family. Throughout the entire story Grandfather Kinzo was made out to be the source of all evil and in this episode he is displayed as a kind and loving grandfather.

The entire reason I wanted to write this post and include it in my Media, Myself and I series (in lieu of discussing the overt plurality in the game, even) was due to a conversation Ange has with Battler about this deception.

Source: LP Archives - The full conversation can be found on this page for anyone who wants the full breakdown.

The entire story of Umineko is a struggle for those who experienced horrors to be able to come to terms with their memories and process them. This is true for Ange, it is true for Maria and it is true for the other members of the cast also.

Memory is malleable and uncertain and can and does become distorted due to understandings and contexts gained at a later stage, particularly when bias is in play.

For a graphic of how this works please look at this:

Source

The more a memory is reactivated the more it is eroded of its initial context and additional contexts bleed in. For Ange's circumstance she remembers her parents through the lens of knowing that her father was embroiled in legal troubles from his womanizing behavior. It is unlikely a 6 year old Ange remembers Rudolf in this light but her view of her father is painted through this lens and thus when she retrieves these memories the present context forces itself into the past.

This is just how the human mind works.

EMDR and other trauma treatments are focused on hijacking this system. When a traumatic memory plays out the amygdala processes the emotions and sense of danger which activates the nervous system. This process does not even require a conscious recollection; should a trauma memory be associated with a certain scent the nervous system will activate upon smelling it even if the survivor does not recall the event attached to the stimulus, the amygdala most certainly does.

I have spent too much of my life considering which of our memories had lavender scenting…

For EMDR the process involves retrieving the traumatic memory without allowing the client to reexperience it while ensuring they do so within the context of the present while highlighting safety and security. This allows the memory to be filtered through without the activating the nervous system. In some therapies this can be a process of re-parenting in which the emotional absence is provided either by the self or via a proxy. The idea is to allow the memory to break association with the trauma and be decontextualize until the memory no longer has negative associations.

Where I had assumed Maria's choice to be happy and think the best of her abuser was an act of enabling and self-deception, I now see was an attempt to stop dwelling on the negatives of the situation and allowing the past trauma to become a defining point within the present.

Maria cannot choose what happened to her. She can choose how she intends to live with what happened with her. She cannot know for certain what Rosa's motivation was in her actions. In fact as we go through the game the audience comes to be given some sympathetic information which though can never redeem Rosa's terrible parenting, can allow one inclined to feel sympathy for her. Like everyone else in the game, she's a victim too. Quite literally in 1986.

There's no way of knowing if she maliciously lied to her child and went off on vacation abandoning her or if she legitimately forgot her promise. No one is arguing that what Rosa did was forgivable. But it helps Maria continue living a happy existence knowing that she was loved and that the good memories she has of her mother are true, even if the bad ones are also true.

Maria, filled with love as she is, elected to see The Good Mommy and The Bad Mommy. Is this right or wrong? It's unimportant. What matters is if Maria can be happy.

Sakutarou was a stuffed lion said to be handcrafted by Rosa. Given as a gift and beloved above all things for Maria. When Rosa destroyed the Sakutarou doll the lion cub boy died and could not be resurrected by Beatrice because it was a unique item created by Rosa.

In Chapter 4's conclusion, Ange does the impossible and resurrects Sakutarou. She does this because Sakutarou was never a custom made doll crafed with love. He was a mass produced toy sold in travel gift stores that Rosa happened to pick up on her way home. She lied. Ange never tells Maria this. The miracle of Sakutarou's rebirth is enough. Knowing that the beloved handmade toy was not hand-crafted would not make Maria's life any better. Sometimes believing in magic is the best thing for someone living in a world painted by despair.

Funny that Ange understood that much for Maria and yet still sought after the One Truth up until the very end.

The finale of the game comes down to presenting this option to the player and by proxy Ange herself.

In a world where you cannot change the past and you cannot fully accept what happened, is it better to continue digging up the past and re-experiencing the trauma in hopes that there lays a truth that will make it all finally make sense or to try to make peace with the past and find moments of peace to hold onto. Holding to hate and pain only serves to bring the pain of the past into the present.

Ange, the witch of resurrection, has the ability to keep her family with her long after their death. Should she be haunted by the family that she was deprived or be happy for the limited memories she had and not be tethered to a world of the past she could never have possibly been part of.

Healing in Umineko is accepting love and making peace with loss. It is learning to live unburdened by tragedy and do the best with what was done to us.

If we cannot let go then we'll continue living in the world of the past turning over the events over and over trying to make sense of it and even if we are somehow granted the magical context, the one and only shining truth... it will only serve to make things worse. You can keep the past alive without letting the past control your future.

And Umineko does a remarkably good job of showing that.

Gosh... that took far longer than I'd hoped. Umineko is a difficult piece of fiction to type about because so much of it is subjective and hard to present to a broad audience without providing ample context.

I'd hoped to talk about Yasu's DID but I suppose that shall have to await another update. My original draft for this discussion was to discuss the different forms of dissociative amnesia with Ange's story serving as an example of how recontextualizing memory works. I may yet go back and do a full amnesia based ramble in the coming months. I just needed to get at least one aspect of Umineko drafted as it's been living rent free in my brain since December.

If you enjoyed this breakdown and found it interesting, please check out some of my other Media, Myself and I essays.

Derealization in Night in the Woods and Metal gear Solid 2 - Describing the sensation of derealization where the brain stops connecting associations between the self and the things one perceives in their surroundings. One example displaying how this impacts a person living with DPDR and the other showing an example of a game attempting to make a player share the experience with the player character.

DID and the healing process in Mr. Robot - A run down of the experiences of discovery, exploration, rejection and healing within DID as displayed in each season of Mr. Robot, along with a disappointed rundown of why the final episode fumbled the ball.

Bruce Banner and the roles of his alters - A breakdown of the formation of The Incredible Hulk's DID and what roles his many alters play.

Romantic relationships with systems - A look at the marriage between Bruce Banner and Betty Talbot-Ross Banner in Hulk comics and a frank discussion between Betty and one of Bruce's alters about how relationships function in a system.

Personality Play in Penlight - A review of one of the routes for a hypnokink visual novel called Penlight in which the protagonist hypnotizes a woman to have an alter personality, along with some descriptions of how dangerous play like that works in real life and what the consequences could be.

#dawn posting #umineko #ange ushiromiya #maria ushiromiya #ahaha.wav #media myself and i #media essays

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ninadove · 1 year ago

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As a (very niche portion of the) fandom, our collective attention has been captured by how much Felix adores Kagami — which is true and good and beautiful and pure. But we’ve been sleeping on how much she loves him, and today, I want to shine a spotlight on her side of the most beautiful love story ever written.

Before we begin, let me get the obvious out of the way: yes, she did try to crush his skull with a chair in Pretension, and she was iconic for that.

HOWEVER.

This is only how their relationship started. What truly matters is how the story unfolds from then on.

And boy does it unfold fast. By the end of the episode, Felix has shaken Kagami’s worldview so much that she:

Stands up to her own friends and fellow heroes in an effort to not only protect him, but also ensure that he can keep the Peacock Miraculous;

Actively challenges her mother’s teaching that emotions (in this context, romantic love) are a weakness that should be eradicated from the face of the Earth;

Is planning secret dates with Felix, even though as far as she knows Tomoe has her amok (because you can’t tell me this little genius didn’t figure out the entire Sentilore in the sewers);

Trusts Felix with said amok despite his extensive criminal record, as illustrated by how quickly and firmly she takes his hand — with a little sigh if happiness, might I add. This is especially significant compared to previous instances of hand holding between the two, when he had to make all the effort while she remained completely limp.

And then Representation rolls around. And oh, boy.

Kagami instantly calms down from her TV-induced rage upon seeing her boyfriend on her balcony — a major improvement when you consider how big of a role anger and frustration play in her akumatisations.

Tangent 1:

Something similar happened in Ikari Gozen, when Mari protected Kagami from her mother, causing her to narrowly escape Hawkmoth’s influence. More on the Marigami-to-Feligami pipeline in another post, coming to your dash someday in the not-so-distant future.

Not only does Kagami instantly relax in Felix’s presence, but she laughs — something that previously only happened in the context of Adrigaminette, and we all know how that ended. Felix is the one to mend her heart and make her laugh again, for the second time since the dance.

Our two lovebirds proceed to straight up RUN AWAY INTO THE SUNSET. Kagami presumably spent the following 350 km (300 miles) cuddled up in Argos’ arms, admiring how handsome he looks in his glittery cosmic suit which we don’t get to see because budget.

Later on, they casually discuss Ladybug’s identity, while fireworks go off in the background. Let me rephrase this: Kagami trusted the person who stole the Miraculous with her best friend’s most burning secret, not because she wants to defeat Hawkmoth per say, but because Gabriel has been getting in the way of their make out sessions and she can’t have that.

Tangent 2:

Also coming to your dash in the not-so-distant future: an analysis of Kagami’s relationship to the concepts of truth and lies, and how dependent it is on what serves her and her loved ones in the moment.

Then, of course, the core of the episode: Kagami actively participates in the play, helping Felix tell his story in a way he feels comfortable with.

Tangent 3 (lots of ‘em today):

This part is extremely important to me, because I’ve seen So. Many. People. complain that the play could have been boiled down to two lines of conversation.

And like.

No???

Firstly, this is a show, not real life: we as an audience needed the confirmation to be as climactic as possible. If it hadn’t been, I can guarantee the exact same salters would be crying about the story’s “WaStEd PoTeNtIaL”.

But let’s delve into the real life implications of the Sentiplot for a second.

Abuse survivors do not owe you a brief, comfortable explanation of what they went through, neatly wrapped up with a pretty little bow.

The play is a beautiful illustration of how art can be cathartic and therapeutic, and I need you guys to understand that this sequence means something to many, many viewers — most of them children in similarly terrible situations. If I were to bet, I would say it very likely speaks to one or more members of the writing team on a personal level as well.

So you can pry these scenes from my cold, dead hands.

The kisses… All of them… During the firework show. As the sun rises to signify a new beginning. Disguised as Adrien’s parents. For context, this is the same girl who previously found a hand kiss to be too much for her broken heart to bear.

And of course, there’s the way she looks at him like he is her entire world, like she cannot understand how anyone could ever call him monstruous. Because Felix doesn’t get the monopoly of heart eyes.

Finally, in Recreation:

THE LIES CALLBACK. THE MIRACULOUS TEAM TOOK THE TIME AND MADE THE EFFORT TO PUT A LIES CALLBACK IN THE FREAKING FINALE. You guys know I’m insane about this scene already.

So what’s my point.

Because yes, I do have a point, apart from “KSSGDJDKSS Feligami SGDHDKLS 🥰🥰🥰🥰” (which, by the way, is a completely valid meta post in itself).

While we joke that Kagami is so far out of Felix’s league in every aspect — she doesn’t perceive him that way in the slightest. As far as she’s concerned, she has achieved every fourteen year old’s dream: dating the perfect cursed prince, tortured artist, evil-genius-on-a-redemption-arc combo.

She is just as enamoured with him as he is with her, and I think it’s beautiful. 🦚🐉

#In case you’re wondering if I’ll ever stop being insane about these two #The answer is: of course not. You guys should know me better than that by now #miraculous ladybug #felix graham de vanily #argos #kagami tsurugi #feligami #mlb spoilers #mlb recreation #random ramblings

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trans-axolotl · 7 months ago

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ID: [A 1997 flyer made by Riki Anne Wilchins that reads: Jocelyn Elders supports Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM). Hermaphrodite; someone whose genitals are not clearly male or female. US Hospitals genitally cut 8 intersexed kids every day just so their genitals will look "normal." Most will lose genital sensation. Many are cut so they won't "become lesbians." Jocelyn Elders supports this practice! Did you know: The vast majority of children diagnosed as intersexed by American doctors and genitally cut are otherwise unremarkable infants who simply have clitorises more than 3/8” long. Many are genitally cut in the mistaken belief that otherwise they may grow up to be masculinized, lesbian women or have difficulty functioning as “normal, heterosexual adults” later in life. Did you know: According to noted Brown University medical researcher Dr. Anne Fausto Sterling, 2,000 intersex infants are genitally cut for cosmetic reasons in US hospitals annually: that’s 8 infants from 3 weeks to 3 years old cut every working day. Yet the American Academy of Pediatricians’ own statement on IGM says these infants are genitally cut to minimize “emotional, cognitive, and body image” problems and not for any medical reason. Did you know: Jocelyn Elders on intersexed infants and “correcting” queer genitals: "…just take out everything and make a good vaginal pouch and the child can function very well as a female." "I always told my students, 'I can make a good female, but it's very hard to make a male.'" Ever hear of informed consent? Dr. Elders refuses to even meet with the intersexed community or IGM survivors. Intersex kids need counseling, not cutting! Hey Dr. Elders: Get Your Scalpels Off our Bodies! We're not quiet. We're not well behaved. And we're not going away. Hermaphrodites with attitude.]

Although it can be very upsetting to see the way that interphobia and medical abuse existed in incredibly similar ways 30 years ago, this protest flyer and associated newsletter showcase the incredible history of intersex and trans solidarity between Transexual Menace and Hermaphrodites with attitude. This newsletter includes multiple updates on trans and intersex news, including protests, discrimination, and media representation.

"Herm-Protest Jocelyn Elders at Lesbian Event.

Washington, DC: 20 Sep 97. The activist groups Hermaphrodites with Attitude (HWA) and Transexual Menace today protested Dr. Jocelyn Elders' keynote address to a Mautner Lesbians With Cancer Project fundraiser, held in the Washington Hilton. Dr. Elders, a former US Surgeon General, is an outspoken advocate of Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM), a cosmetic surgery performed on the genitals of intersexed infants so they will look like "normal" males and females.

Eight demonstrators carried banners saying "Dr. Elders: Keep Your Scalpels OFF Our Bodies" and "Intersex Kids Need Counseling NOT Cutting", and distributed IGM leaflets to attendees as they arrived for the $100-a-plate dinner. Several attendees expressed shock and dismay upon learning of Dr. Elders' position, noting that she is generally considered a supporter of lesbian and feminist causes, and enlightened on most matters of adolescent sexuality. However, the flier noted that on "correcting" queer genitals, Dr. Elders has written: "…just take out everything and make a good vaginal pouch and the child can function very well as a female," and "I always told my students, I can make a good female, but it's very hard to make a male."

"We're not protesting the Mautner Project," explained HWA founder, Cheryl Chase, "we're calling attention to Dr. Elders' support of IGM and her continued refusal to meet with us on an issue that affects our lives. One reason IGM is performed is the fear that girls born with clitorises considered ‘too large’ will grow up to be masculine or lesbian. We want to bring awareness to the Lesbian and Gay community that IGM is a queer issue."

Although intersexuality was once considered rare, according to noted Brown University medical researcher Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling, about 8 intersex children are genitally cut in US hospitals every working day for cosmetic reasons. Stated Chase, "We will continue to seek a meeting with Dr. Elders, and anticipate that once she takes IGM seriously, she will support out position."

Following the demonstration, HWA and the Menace donated a $100 to the Mautner Project in the name of intersexed infants."

-In Your Face No. 5, Spring 1998.

#personal #igm tw #intersex #actuallyintersex #intersex history #intersex surgery tw #intersexism #hwa #transexual menace #i think that this history is important bc it's so important to know that there has been protests for years and years against medical abuse #and igm. and that transexual menace was such an important early ally to HWA/ISNA #medical abuse tw

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caramel-ribbons · 2 years ago

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Huntlow is such a great dynamic. Like, they don’t have the pacing and icon status of Lumity or the history and angst of Raeda, but what they share in common with all these ships is their payoff.

Huntlow pays tribute to the character development of both Hunter and Willow in a way no other relationship in the Owl House does. When Luz and Amity meet, they’re still flawed. Luz is still oblivious and naive. Amity is still perfectionistic and cruel. They spend so much time together, recognizing their own shortcomings as well as each others, and this acknowledgment of who they used to be and who they became through each other, is the foundation of their relationship. Luz learns to accept herself and be vulnerable and Amity learns to express herself, quirks and all, and accept unconditional love from another person.

Raeda is, in many ways, the perfect relationship dynamic. Two characters who’ve been together for so long, they know the other better than they know themselves. They have all these memories from when they were kids, and despite experiencing so many ups and downs in their relationship, they still care for each other. Even after Raine breaks up with Eda and begins distancing themselves from Eda during season 2B, Eda still knows how much Raine cares for her. They know each other on a deeper level than most ever will.

But Huntlow? They didn’t meet the other when they were at their lowest. Willow didn’t meet Hunter when he was the Golden Guard, and Hunter didn’t meet Willow when she was “half-a-witch”. They only know each other for who they are now, not the labels people projected onto them or the expectations assigned to them.

Hunter was forced to be stoic and strong, but around Willow, he can be awkward. He can be sweet. Willow became shy and insecure because she was bullied for her abomination magic. But now, she’s a plant witch, an athlete. One of the best plant witches, actually, as well as the captain of a sports team she created. Hunter has only ever know Willow for her strength, her fortitude, and her self-assurance.

Thankfully, this part of the fandom has shrunk considerably, in fact, it was never big to begin with, but I do still see people who dislike Huntlow because they feel it’s rushed, and they’re allowed to feel this way. But Huntlow only feels rushed in part because of Disney’s cancellation of the Owl House, but mostly because of how their relationship begins. When they first meet each other, Willow is a “captain” and Hunter is just Hunter. Luz is the one who sees most of Hunter’s unfavorable moments. His obedience to his abusive uncle and loyalty to the coven system, and every other character besides Hunter remembers when Willow was the meek and timid witch who had no voice and could barely do magic. Seeing two characters who meet after they’ve overcome so much and after they’ve discovered so much about themselves feels antithetical to most relationships in this show.

There’s also detractors specifically because of Hunter’s trauma. They don’t feel comfortable seeing him enter a relationship when he’s still unpacking Belos’ physical and emotional abuse. It’s fair, but what people don’t seem to understand is that traumatized people have partners. Victims and survivors of abuse enter relationships. If Owl House has taught anyone anything about love, it’s that love doesn’t cure, but it does change, even heal. Trauma shouldn’t prevent people from having healthy relationships, in fact, they need healthy relationships just as much as anyone else, if not more. Support helps the recovery process. Yes, the media has enforced toxic portrayals of romantic relationships, and yeah, many stories, particularly made for movies and for television, present love as this magical force that melts cold hearts and purifies dark souls. But, there is still a place in media for the representation Huntlow offers of abuse victims and their journey to recovery.

#the owl house #hunter noceda #willow park #huntlow #toh season 3 #i love them so much #why are they so cute

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saoney · 26 days ago

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Skyfall .𖥔 ݁ ˖

⭑ Satoru Gojo + [Fem! Reader] .ᐟ

𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞𝐬 Dark Romance, Drama, Historical Fantasy, Revenge, Tragedy, Slow Burn

🔖 masterlist

Chapter 1: An Eye for an Eye

The kingdom of Eldoria shimmered beneath the midday sun, its white stone walls gleaming like polished pearls. Golden banners bearing the royal crest fluttered in the gentle breeze, announcing to all that this was no ordinary day. It was a day of celebration—the [Y/N Age] birthday of Princess [Y/N], the beloved jewel of Eldoria.

The marketplace buzzed with excitement. Merchants called out their wares, offering trinkets and sweets crafted in honor of the princess’s special day. Children ran through the cobblestone streets, their laughter mingling with the music played by wandering minstrels. Flowers of every hue adorned the archways, filling the air with a heady perfume that seemed to embody the joy of the kingdom.

In the grand palace atop the hill, the King and Queen were a picture of regal pride. King Takeshi, with his imposing stature and kind, weathered face, stood at the head of the banquet hall, overseeing the preparations for the evening’s feast. Beside him, Queen Sakura, her emerald-green gown flowing like liquid silk, directed the servants with the grace of someone who had long mastered the art of ruling a kingdom with both strength and compassion.

“More lilies on the table,” Sakura said to a nearby servant, her tone gentle but firm. “They’re her favorite.”

Takeshi chuckled, placing a hand on his wife’s shoulder. “If we keep going like this, the entire palace will be a garden by the time she arrives.”

Sakura turned to him with a smile that spoke of decades of partnership. “Our daughter deserves the very best, Takeshi. Let her have her garden for today.”

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

In her chamber, [Y/N] stood before a tall mirror, her reflection framed by the soft glow of sunlight streaming through the window. She wore a gown of pale gold, the fabric catching the light with every movement. Her long, dark hair was braided intricately, studded with tiny pearls that shimmered like stars.

Her handmaiden, Mira, fussed over the final touches, adjusting the delicate necklace that rested on [Y/N]’s collarbone. “You look like a dream, Your Highness,” Mira said, her eyes sparkling with admiration.

[Y/N]’s cheeks flushed, and she let out a soft laugh. “It’s just another birthday, Mira.”

“Not just any birthday,” Mira corrected. “The whole kingdom is celebrating you today. They love you, Princess. We all do.”

[Y/N] turned to the window, gazing out at the bustling city below. Her heart swelled at the sight of her people’s joy, the very same joy her parents had worked tirelessly to protect and nurture.

“I only hope I can live up to their expectations,” she murmured.

“You will,” Mira said with certainty, not once her admiration towards the princess waver. “You already have.”

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

As the sun dipped below the horizon, the palace courtyard transformed into a wonderland of light and sound. Lanterns hung from every tree, their golden glow casting a magical ambiance over the gathering. Long tables were laden with an array of dishes—roasted meats, honey-glazed pastries, and fruits so vibrant they seemed plucked from a dream. Goblets of sparkling cider clinked together as laughter filled the air.

[Y/N] sat at the head of the grand table beside her parents, her face radiant with happiness. Her father raised a toast, his voice booming with pride.

“To Princess [Y/N],” Takeshi declared, “the light of our lives and the future of Eldoria!”

The crowd erupted into cheers, their voices echoing through the courtyard. [Y/N] felt a blush rise to her cheeks as she raised her own goblet, smiling at the faces that had gathered to celebrate her.

Midway through the feast, a group of children approached the royal table, their tiny hands clutching garlands of flowers they had woven themselves. The youngest, a girl no older than seven, stepped forward hesitantly, her wide eyes fixed on [Y/N].

“Princess [Y/N],” the girl said, her voice trembling with both fear and excitement, “happy birthday. We made these for you.”

[Y/N] knelt to their level, her smile warm and genuine. “Thank you,” she said, accepting the garlands with care. “They’re beautiful. Just like all of you.”

The children beamed, their nervousness fading. Another girl, slightly older, spoke up. “When we grow up, we want to be just like you, Princess. Kind and beautiful.”

[Y/N]’s heart swelled with emotion. “You are already beautiful,” she said, her voice soft but firm. “And if you keep kindness in your hearts, you’ll be even more than you dream of.”

The children giggled, their faces alight with joy, before running back into the crowd. [Y/N] watched them go, her chest tight with a mix of love and responsibility.

As the night wore on, the celebration showed no signs of slowing. Music played, couples danced, and laughter rang out into the cool night air. [Y/N] felt as though the world was wrapped in a cocoon of light and warmth, untouched by anything dark or cruel.

But beyond the glow of the lanterns, the shadows of the night stretched long and deep. And far away, an army marched under the cover of darkness, their purpose as unyielding as the steel of their blades.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

The peace of Eldoria shattered like fragile glass under the weight of a nightmare. While the kingdom celebrated, unaware of the looming threat, shadows crept closer—an army of vengeance cloaked in the night.

The attack began with terrifying precision. Arrows lit with fire streaked across the sky, igniting the city’s gates and towers. Explosions rocked the walls of the once-impenetrable fortress, and screams of panic replaced the joyful music of the festivities.

Satoru Gojo’s forces swept through Eldoria like a relentless storm, sparing no one in their path. The guards, caught off guard and drunk from the celebrations, scrambled to organize a defense, but it was futile. Satoru had planned every detail, exploiting the kingdom’s arrogance and overconfidence.

In the throne room, King Takeshi and Queen Sakura received the news with dread. The royal guards burst into the hall, their faces pale and weapons drawn.

“My King, the city is under attack!” one guard shouted.

Takeshi rose from his seat, his commanding presence faltering for the first time in years. “How is this possible? Eldoria’s walls have never been breached!”

“It’s… it’s an army, Your Majesty,” the guard stammered. “Led by… by Satoru Gojo.”

Sakura gasped, her hand flying to her chest. The name was a ghost from their past, a shadow of the sins they thought buried.

Takeshi turned to his wife, his face grim. “Take [Y/N] to safety. Now.”

“No,” Sakura said firmly, tears pooling in her eyes. “Not without you.”

“We don’t have time to argue,” Takeshi snapped. “She’s our daughter, Sakura. If we fall, she must survive.”

The queen nodded, swallowing her grief. She summoned two trusted servants and gripped her daughter’s shoulders, her emerald eyes searching [Y/N]’s face.

“You must go,” Sakura said, her voice trembling but resolute. “Do not look back, no matter what happens.”

“Mother, Father—what’s happening?” [Y/N]’s voice quivered with fear, her gaze darting between them. “I don’t understand!”

“There’s no time to explain,” Takeshi said, pulling her into a brief but fierce embrace. “Just know that we love you more than anything.”

The throne room doors burst open with a thunderous crash, shards of wood scattering across the marble floor. Satoru Gojo entered, flanked by his soldiers, his presence a storm that sucked all warmth from the room. The gilded splendor of Eldoria’s throne room now felt suffocating, as if even the air recoiled from his fury.

Takeshi rose to his full height, his sword in hand, his face a mask of grim determination. “Satoru Gojo,” he said, his voice steady despite the tremor in his hand. “You dare invade my kingdom?”

“Your kingdom,” Satoru echoed, his tone a venomous mockery. His piercing blue eyes locked onto Takeshi with an intensity that made even the guards falter. “You speak as though you’ve forgotten the blood spilled to build it. My people’s blood.”

Sakura stepped forward, her voice trembling but firm. “We gave you mercy, Satoru. We could have done worse.”

“Mercy?” Satoru barked, his laughter sharp and bitter. “You razed my home, butchered my family, and called it mercy? No, Queen Sakura. Tonight, I show you what true mercy looks like.”

With that, he unsheathed his blade, the sound like a serpent’s hiss.

The clash was immediate and brutal. Takeshi charged first, his sword aimed straight for Satoru’s heart. Satoru sidestepped effortlessly, his movements fluid, almost graceful. Their blades met in a violent symphony of steel, sparks flying with every strike.

“You’ve grown old, Takeshi,” Satoru sneered, his voice laced with disdain. “And weak.”

Takeshi’s strikes grew desperate, his swings fueled by fury and fear. Sakura joined the fray, her dagger slicing through the air as she aimed for Satoru’s side. He caught her wrist mid-thrust, his grip ironclad.

“You fight well for a queen,” he said mockingly, his voice low. “But not well enough.”

With a savage twist, he disarmed her, sending the dagger clattering across the floor. Takeshi lunged again, but Satoru parried with a brutal counterstrike that sent the king stumbling.

“You stole everything from me!” Satoru roared, his voice cracking with raw emotion. “My family. My home. My future!”

With one final, devastating blow, he drove his blade through Takeshi’s chest. The king’s gasp was a guttural sound, his body collapsing to the floor. Sakura let out a piercing scream, her grief palpable as she knelt beside her fallen husband.

Tears streaked her face as she turned to Satoru, her voice breaking. “You monster… You’ll pay for this.”

Satoru’s gaze softened for a fleeting moment—a flicker of hesitation, almost imperceptible. Then it hardened again. “Not before you do.”

With a cold, calculated strike, he ended her life. The queen fell beside her king, their blood pooling together on the marble floor.

“Find the princess,” Satoru commanded, his voice cutting through the silence like a blade. “Bring her to me.”

Suguru Geto nodded, his loyalty unwavering. But deep down, he feels and immense satisfaction as Eldoria falls into shamble. “It will be done.”

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

The echoes of battle still roared outside the palace walls as [Y/N] stumbled through the labyrinthine passages beneath the throne room. Her breath came in ragged gasps, her legs trembling with every step. The distant sound of screams and clashing steel filled her ears, a horrifying symphony of chaos.

“Why?” she whispered to herself, her voice choked with tears. “What is happening?”

The once-familiar corridors now felt like a maze, every shadow a potential threat. Her mind raced, her thoughts a whirlwind of terror and confusion. She clutched the edges of her gown, lifting it as she ran, the hem already stained with soot and blood.

She thought of her parents, of her mother’s trembling hands as she pushed her toward the secret passage. “Go, [Y/N]. Don’t look back.” But she had looked back. She had seen the terror in her father’s eyes, the way he gripped his sword as if it were the only thing keeping him upright.

The guards found her before she could escape. Their heavy footsteps echoed like drumbeats, and their shadows loomed over her before their hands did. She screamed, her voice raw and hoarse, thrashing against their grip.

“Let me go!” she cried, her nails clawing at their arms. “Please, let me go!”

Her pleas fell on deaf ears. They dragged her back to the throne room, her heels scraping against the marble, leaving faint streaks behind.

The throne room was drenched in the stench of death and fire. The once-grand marble floor, now smeared with blood and ash, bore the marks of a kingdom’s final battle. Flames danced along the shredded remains of Eldoria’s banners, casting eerie shadows on the ruined walls.

Satoru Gojo stood at the center of the devastation, his piercing blue eyes cold and unyielding. In his hand, he gripped the bloodied hilt of his sword, its tip resting against the cracked crest of Eldoria carved into the marble. The bodies of King Takeshi and Queen Sakura lay crumpled before the throne, their faces frozen in expressions of defiance even in death.

“Bring her here,” Satoru commanded, his voice a sharp, merciless blade.

[Y/N] was dragged into the room, her delicate frame barely able to hold itself upright as the soldiers flung her onto the bloodstained floor. Her golden hair spilled across her face as she gasped, her body trembling from the cold reality sinking into her bones.

Her wide emerald eyes darted around, desperate to make sense of the chaos. Then they found them—her parents.

“No,” she choked out, her voice barely above a whisper. She scrambled forward on her hands and knees, her fingers trembling as they reached for the lifeless forms of her mother and father.

“No! Mama! Papa!” she screamed, the sound raw and piercing as it echoed through the ruined hall.

Satoru stepped closer, his boots crushing glass and debris beneath their weight. He grabbed her by the arm, yanking her to her feet with little regard for her struggle.

“Look at them,” he ordered, his voice a venomous snarl. He twisted her toward the lifeless bodies. “Look at the price they’ve paid for their sins.”

“No!” [Y/N] shrieked, trying to turn away, to shut out the sight. But Satoru’s iron grip held her firm, forcing her to confront the horror before her.

“They loved you, didn’t they?” he hissed, his voice dripping with scorn. “So much that they thought their lies and their tyranny wouldn’t catch up to them. But love doesn’t erase blood spilled in greed.”

Her knees buckled, but he held her upright, dragging her closer to the throne where their blood pooled. “You think they were heroes,” he spat, his fury unrelenting. “They weren’t. They were thieves, murderers who cloaked themselves in righteousness. They stole everything from me—my family, my home, my people.”

Tears streamed down her face as she shook her head vehemently. “They weren’t like that! You’re lying! They were good—”

“Good?” Satoru cut her off, his laugh harsh and bitter. He leaned closer, his face mere inches from hers. “Do you know what it feels like to watch your parents die while your home burns around you? To hear the screams of your people as they’re slaughtered?”

Her sobs grew louder, her breaths coming in shallow gasps as she trembled in his grip. “I didn’t know,” she whispered, her voice barely audible. “I didn’t know any of it…”

“And that makes you innocent?” he growled, shaking her slightly as his rage flared. “You were their legacy. Their pride. Their perfect little princess. And now you’ll carry their sins.”

He shoved her down with brutal force, and she collapsed onto the marble floor, her cries echoing through the room.

[Y/N] raised her tear-streaked face, her eyes blazing despite her fear. “Then kill me,” she said, her voice breaking but filled with defiance. “Kill me and let this end.”

Satoru stared at her, his jaw tightening. “You think death is the end?” he said coldly, his lips curling into a sneer. “No. Death is a release you don’t deserve.”

He straightened, towering over her trembling form. His voice boomed through the hall, leaving no room for doubt.

“You will live,” he declared, his tone filled with ruthless finality. “You will suffer. You will know what it means to lose everything. You will be my wife—not as a queen, but as a prisoner. A tool for my revenge.”

[Y/N]’s breath caught, her eyes widening in horror. “No… you can’t…”

“I can. And I will,” Satoru said, his gaze icy and unrelenting. “Take her to the dungeons. Prepare for the wedding.”

As she was dragged away, her desperate cries filled the air, but Satoru didn’t flinch. His resolve was ironclad, his vengeance complete. Yet, as he turned to the throne, the ache in his chest deepened. The throne was his, the kingdom had fallen, but the weight of his fury burned hotter than ever.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Satoru muttered the ancient proverb under his breath as he starred at the downfall of Eldoria yet his mind was elsewhere. Replaying the events of that fateful night over and over. The crack of gunfire. His parents’ cry, cut short. The spray of blood, shockingly bright against the moonlit snow.

He had made a vow then, kneeling in that crimson slush. A promise sealed in blood and grief. And now, after years of meticulous planning, the time had finally come to fulfill it.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪ ˖

[Y/N]’s cries echoed down the dim, narrow corridor as she was dragged away, her steps faltering as the weight of her despair crushed her spirit. The iron grip of Satoru’s men was unyielding, and the golden hem of her once-pristine gown trailed behind her, smeared with soot and blood.

Back in the shattered throne room, silence lingered like a curse over the court of Eldoria. The remaining nobles—those who had survived the massacre—stood frozen, their faces pale with fear. Among them were aging advisors, loyal knights stripped of their swords, and trembling maids clutching the remnants of their courage.

Satoru, towering over them, his icy gaze sharp as a blade, raised his hand to command their attention. His voice was calm, yet the power it carried was absolute. “Eldoria is mine,” he began, each word falling like a hammer blow. “Its throne, its lands, and its people—all belong to me now. Your king and queen have paid the price for their sins.”

He paused, letting the weight of his words sink in. Then, with a cruel smirk tugging at his lips, he turned to Suguru, who stood nearby with a confident and unwavering demeanor. “But there remains one final stain on this land that must be cleansed. Atonement requires sacrifice.”

The nobles exchanged wary glances, the growing tension almost unbearable. Whispers of rebellion flared among the younger knights, but an icy glare from Suguru silenced them all.

Satoru continued, his tone laced with venom. “Princess [Y/N], the last of Eldoria’s wretched lineage, will atone for the sins of her bloodline in the only way fitting.” His voice grew louder, carrying authority and cruelty in equal measure. “She will marry me.”

Gasps rippled through the room like a storm, horror etched onto every face. The princess—their beloved [Y/N]—forced to marry the man who had torn their world apart?

One noble, braver—or perhaps more foolish—than the rest, stepped forward, his trembling voice barely audible. “My lord, surely… surely you do not mean this. The princess is innocent—”

“Innocent?” Satoru’s laughter rang out, sharp and biting, as he descended the steps of the dais. His piercing gaze locked onto the man, who visibly withered under the weight of it. “Innocence does not absolve her of the blood in her veins. She bears the mark of her parents’ greed. Their sins will be her burden to carry.”

Satoru’s hand clenched into a fist as his tone grew colder. “And through her suffering, the stain they left on this world will be erased.”

Suguru stepped forward then, his voice calm but lethal. “She is no longer your princess,” he declared, his hand resting purposefully on the hilt of his sword. “She is the bride of your king. Speak against this, and you speak against your ruler.”

The murmurs of protest died instantly. Fear gripped the room like a vice, choking out any hope of rebellion.

Satoru turned back to the trembling crowd, his next words cutting through the air like ice. “The wedding will be held under the crimson moon—an omen befitting the union of blood and vengeance. Eldoria will bear witness to its new queen's sacrifice.”

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softpine · 1 year ago

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ALL THE DIFFERENT GRIFFINS. IM SO. I NEED INFO. SPECIFICALLY ON GRIFFIN WITH A DAUGHTER??? DO U HAVE ANY ACTUAL THOUGHTS ABT THESE DIFFERENT AUS BC IM SO,,,,,

yesssss i would be happy to share each of the griffins lives!! i'll just run through them in order:

[major trigger warning for child abuse, attempted murder, etc. all the typical finn things]

1- inmate: he... did something... that i can't tell you yet... as a kid that got him sent to juvy for a few years. by the time he was released at 18, he had practically no life skills, no formal education, and the only people left in his life were other juvy kids. he tried to make the best of a shitty situation by changing his name, moving states, and starting over, but it wasn't long before he resorted to petty theft to make it by. his crimes escalated until he was eventually caught for armed robbery and sentenced to 25 to life. it was almost a relief to know that he wouldn't have to worry about making decisions anymore. he doesn't feel like he's ever been in charge of his own life, so being in prison is just more of the same.

2- drifter: he's still a teenager here. he successfully ran away from home as a kid, never got attacked, but instead of going to live with his aunt in new york, he's been living mostly on the road and in shelters ever since. he sticks to smaller towns, keeps a low profile, and makes a living doing odd jobs. he's safe, but lonely. asa knowing his name was a huge shock to him, because no one ever cares to ask his name.

3- kid: he hasn't hit the turning point in his life where every tiny decision can have life-altering consequences, so this is just a representation of almost every version of griffin at age 12. in this particular moment, he'd just gotten into a fight at school which he will be suspended for. i just think it's funny how he calls asa an old man lmao

4- survivor: he was obviously attacked. when he was found many days later, he was barely clinging to life. he suffered the most severe brain damage of all the versions of griffin we've seen, lost his eye, and has never quite recovered from the emotional and physical trauma. he has frequent seizures that leave him unable to work. it's rare that he even goes outside alone, so asa approaching him on the one day when he did choose to go for a walk by himself was not great timing. where this griffin differs is that he was adopted by his aunt after the attack, because his parents were actually charged with child abuse and neglect for their actions on the night of his attack (many people believe they were directly responsible, but it was never proven. they pled guilty to lesser charges to avoid an attempted murder trial). so griffin is actually in new york in that picture.

5- dad: he was attacked and left for dead, but in this universe, he was rescued within a few hours. his attacker had stabbed him in the arm with a broken beer bottle (this happened to all the versions of griffin who were attacked. it's why he wasn't able to fight back as hard). while he was being treated in the hospital, the wound got infected and his arm had to be amputated. the long healing process meant he had to rely on his parents for a ton of assistance and support. they were even more desperate to prove that they can be good parents and that they would never hurt their son, so the 3 of them all became pretty codependent. he lived at home with them until he was in his 30s, but then his dad died of a sudden heart attack (brought on by alcoholism, because he never quit drinking) and griffin realized it was time to move on. he married the daughter of one of his mom's friends, the first person he's ever dated, but their marriage dissolved a few years later for... a lot of reasons. they got a divorce before the baby was even born, but griffin tries to be the best father he possibly can be. he absolutely spoils her (you can see that based on the excessive playground equipment he bought for his yard lol) and she's his entire reason for living now, even though he only gets to see her every other week. he hopes she can stay for longer when she's older.

6- mechanic: griffin (and our finn, for that matter) was a huge nascar fan and his dream was to be a professional driver. that didn't exactly pan out for him, but he does enjoy being a mechanic. he's about 40 in that picture. he was never attacked, never ran away from home, and instead he endured the increasingly horrific abuse until he turned 18, moved out, and never talked to anyone in his family ever again. he prefers to be mostly solitary; never married, no kids, not even any friends, but he gets along with his coworkers well enough. he has an extremely hard time trusting that anyone has good intentions. in his free time, he restores & sells old furniture. his dream is to retire and move to the countryside.

7- sex worker: honestly, probably the most mentally stable griffin on this list... like don't get me wrong, he's still traumatized from the same childhood that every version of griffin shares, and i'm not saying his job is easy by any means, but he has a ton of friends who actually understand him and who he doesn't have to pretend with, he lives with his cousin liz who he's really close to, he keeps in contact with his parents but hardly ever sees them in person (which is exactly how he likes it), and he has a real sense of community. he was never attacked. he didn't run away from home when he was 12 like he planned, but instead waited until he was 14 and his parents allowed him to go live with his aunt with everyone's agreement. when liz, who is older than him, moved out to go to college, griffin followed her and they've been living together for years now. she's the only family member who knows what he does for work, so she makes sure to look out for him. oh also he's the only version of griffin we've seen that has a boyfriend?? he was supposed to say something about him in response to asa saying "i have a partner", but i cut it because i don't actually think griffin would offer that info up to a stranger, no matter how strangely trustworthy asa appears to be.

#if you only knew how many hundredsssss of versions of griffin that i could invent at the drop of a hat lmao #i don't even have to think about them they just float into my brain with no warning #bitchyybabyy400 #asks #nonsims #brandi answers

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charalysis · 2 years ago

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Alice Liddle: American McGee's Alice

MASSIVE TRIGGER WARNING: THESE GAMES AND THIS POST WILL BE DISCUSSING THEMES OF S.A, PEDOPHILIA, MURDER, MENTAL ILLNESS, SELF HARM, PROSTITUTION, AND MEDICAL ABUSE.

Alice Liddle of American McGee's Alice and its sequel, Madness Returns, is a severely mentally ill character in the games she stars in. She endures trauma after trauma, with next to no assistance, alone. In this post we will break down what happened to her, her reactions, and how she developed.

Disclaimer: Despite mental illness being the main theme here, I will not be attempting to diagnose Alice, as I am not professionally trained and she does not have an official, canon diagnosis of any kind. I will however make inferences.

For those unaware, American McGee's Alice is a horror twist on Alice in Wonderland, following the protagonist Alice. In this first game, you play as 18 year old Alice Liddle, who from eight years old to that point has been living in Rutledge Asylum in England. The game begins with the player introduced to the catalyst of Alice being in the asylum: a house fire.

In this fire, Alice is the only one to survive from her family, with her parents and sister, Lizzie, dying in the fire. This causes a massive snap in Alice's mind as she watches the house burn and townspeople surround her.

In this scene we are also introduced to the idea that Alice was likely already mentally ill, as when the fire begins, what wakes her isn't the smoke or screams, its Hatter and March Hare screaming in her dreams about the fire, begging her to wake up. (However, its likely it was just a framing device, but we do see its what woke her.)

From then on, Alice spent her time in the asylum, nearly comatose. She was catatonic and would only speak in shrieks and shrill screams. She'd have seizures and episodes of hysteria before falling unresponsive and mute again. Her doctor's notes also describe an incident where she "wielded a spoon like a knife and the orderlies, then turned the makeshift weapon in her own arms".

Needless to say, the fire that killed her family severely traumatized Alice, and she struggles heavily with possible PTSD and survivors guilt.

Alice in the first game also expresses suicidal ideation, or at the very least a passive desire to die. She's heard saying, "Save myself? From death, is that it? Is that why I've come here? I'm not afraid to die! At times I've welcomed death..."

And, "Everyone I love dies violently; unnaturally. I'm cursed! Why go on? I'll just hurt others."

The latter of these quotes is indicative of her guilt; it shows she blames herself for not just her her family's deaths, but others, and believes those she grows close to will also die horribly if they stay around her. She expresses she thinks people are better off without her.

In regards to Wonderlands occupants and how they relate to her fragile and broken psyche... American McGee has stated that all in some way represent her fragments mind and emotions. How, I don't think is explicitly stated beyond the Queen, but I have theories:

Cheshire: Her subconscious and manifestation of Dinah in her mind. Dinah lead her to safety in the fire, showing the way out. Chesh is guide that knows more than Alice consciously knows, but things she's got hidden in her mind. He tells her the clues she's seeing and picking up on subtleties she can't. That's why he uses riddles.

Hatter: Hatter is obsessive and rambling. He's a sort of representation of her doctor in the asylum, after all he runs one himself. He's paranoid and obsessed with time and loathes mechanical malfunctions. He may very well be a sort of ego aspect, where the Queen is super-ego. He could also likely be the manifestation of Alice's own paranoia and frustration surrounding her own "malfunctioning" mind.

Queen of Red Heart: She is Alice. She is the part of Alice that causes her the most grief and torment. She is what keeps Alice locked in her psychosis; a malevolent manifestation of super-ego. Cheshire compares her to a cancer in the body, which must be excised or Alice would die.

Jabberwock: A creature who taunts Alice and accuses her of not caring about her family. He is what taunts her about their deaths and says that she was, "in dream land taking tea with friends", and she, "couldn't be bothered". He is her guilt and self anger and he is there to remind her of this guilt constantly.

Caterpillar: He provides her wisdom giver. He takes things she sees and can help her recontexualize them. He is similar to Cheshire, but more to the forefront. He is also seemingly the calm part of her mind.

Tweedles: looking identical to the orderlies in Rutlidge, the Tweedles are cruel to Alice and lack any higher intelligence beyond orders. They are childishly cruel and likely have something to do with Alice's self punishment.

Rabbit: More obsessed with time than Hatter, Rabbit is a mostly absent guide who rushes ahead of Alice and he's very, very fidgety. He likely represents her conflict between anxiety and comfort. The comfort being from him being based on her favorite toy, and his face being easing to her. But he's very paranoid about time and danger.

Duchess: Initially a manifestation of the cruel nurse in charge of her, Nurse D, Duchess is a violent cannibal. It could be argued her outfit initially resembles a nurses outfit too. Later in the second game, she is seen in more revealing clothes and no longer eats people, and prefers pig now. Her "overbearing goodwill" and appearance now more represents her nanny, Nan Sharp.

While I do not believe these games are a 100% accurate depiction of mental illness and trauma, they do a good job showing the struggle between one's self and the inner machinations of their mind as they struggle with their mental health, and struggle to learn to cope on their own.

The second game is much better about the direct correlation between Alice's real struggles and Wonderland falling apart.

In Madness returns, we see an older Alice struggling in therapy as her doctor, Angus Bumby, tries to make her forget her past. She wants to forget everything rather than continue to struggle with it. We see she's still being abused and exploited by Nurse Witless, who's blackmailing her.

In Wonderland, we see the Corruption and the pollution destroying Wonderland piece by piece as the Dollmaker (Bumby's influence and brainwashing) takes over her mind bit by bit. We see her remembering her childhood and the past Bumby tried to erase, and we see her piece the truth together as she slowly banishes the Dollmaker.

By the end of MR, we see a confident Alice, the pieces of her fragmented life and mind put back together as Wonderland blossoms and Bumby dies via a train after Alice confronts him with his crimes.

Tl;Dr: While imperfect in their portrayal of mental illness, PTSD, and more, American McGees Alice And A:MR depict the grittiness, the despair, and the pain that can come with these things fairly well. It also depicts a woman struggling but succeeding in helping herself and bettering herself. These games revolve around facing your issues head on and healing. Their use of symbology is fantastic in my opinion.

#character analysis #american mcgee's alice #alice madness returns #alice liddell #american mcgee #long post

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