#so untrustworthy

[urbestestwindgod]

my sixteenth century epic au where everything is pretty vague on the details except the piles and piles of aeolus sixteenth century epic au lore bc its my au and i can do whatever if like

(warning for a 30 tag yap in the tags but i can go on trust)

[somewhereincairparavel]

"jason is a knockoff watered down percy" NO hear me out, jason actually parallels annabeth immensely, sharing SO many similarities with her personality, not percy, in this essay I will-

edit: my full analysis is out now! here

[raticalshoez]

Was thinking of my post about dream teams and got really invested in whatever Unrequited Hate has going on

[clowndensation]

favorite thing in the world is when game mechanics reflect character powers. like. haha oh nooooo i got too uppity and now my boss has used his mind control powers on me and taken my free will away which is reflected in my dialogue options being revoked, free choice is an illusion oh nooooooo

[baileyondemand]

I see so many Locked Tomb posts about people saying they just realized Jod was lying in this or that scene, and this is where I realized that I interact with these books fundamentally differently from the rest of y’all. The moment I found out Jod set G1deon on Harrow everything he had ever and would ever say was considered null and void. To me he is a pathological liar and nothing he says is ever to be trusted. I’m obsessed with him.

[revvethasmythh]

You know, I think there's something so, so insidious to the idea that Orym's perspective of the Vanguard is "flawed/human" or that him repeatedly reminding his friends what the Vanguard does (kill innocents to achieve their means) "blocks nuance" in the conversation, etc, because it implies that, in this mythical "objective" perspective that apparently exists, the Vanguard aren't so bad. If only Orym could put aside his petty grievances, such as the murder of his father and husband, and let people be nuanced about this situation, he'd see there's two sides to this story. And why discount the Vanguard's perspective just because *checks notes* they're a massive, manipulative cult that preys on vulnerable people to join their ranks and turns them to violence, or that they work with a centuries-old fascist eugenicist literally mind-controlling psychic government with the goal of freeing a creature that could very well destroy the world as we know it and even if it doesn't, will leave an enormous power vacuum for that fascist government to potentially occupy when they invade Exandria?

I think there's some misconception people have that they think war shouldn't ever be personal and if it does become personal for someone then their logic is too clouded by their feelings to see the situation clearly, just automatically. And perhaps sometimes, in some contexts, this can be true! But not here. It's actually quite cut and dried that Orym's "flawed, human" perspective is the one reminding everyone of the human cost to Ludinus' grand plans, all in the name of so called "progress"

[detectiveneve]

sorry but again. what is this. why is this a dialogue. dalish elves are not trusted nor wanted in human society. they are actively hunted and oppressed and enslaved specifically in tevinter. elves are treated horribly. how in the world did this become elves worrying if other people like them or not.

[blacklegsanjienthusiast]

the scene in wano when sanji calls out for robin asking her to help him means so much to me. this is a man whose father looked him in the eyes when he was just a child asking for help when he was hurt and asked him “why should i?”, a man who had it ingrained in him that he didn’t deserve help and when he asked for it wouldn’t come, a lesson learnt the hard way in that dungeon. needing help is a sign of weakness and the last thing he was allowed to be was weak. sanji allowing himself to ask for help when he needs it really is a testimony to how far he has come, both since his childhood and since whole cake island. he knows it isn’t weak to ask for help and he knows, with absolute certainty, that when he calls his crew will answer. he goes from a child whose pleas were ignored to a man whose family will be there for him in a heartbeat. and on robins end, the fact that sanji trusts her so whole heartedly means so much to her and god they mean so much to me as a duo

[tetras-stuff]

I literally cannot stop thinking about the way solas literally ENVELOPS lavellan every time he kisses her, that man is HUNGRY

[forecast0ctopus]

if mordred has one hater its me

[wttcsms]

arranged marriage au but both you and character don't want to get married. however, in order to receive your inheritance, you have to agree to try your best to make this relationship work + because of similar familial pressure, character is also compelled to see this marriage through. however, your family does understand that if it's character that breaks off the engagement, they'll understand that you tried your best and you get full access to your trust fund and you don't have to tie the knot. for character, if you break off the engagement, he's in the clear, too.

so now, it's a competition between you two. unbeknownst to the other, y'all are both actively trying to get the other to get so frustrated that you'll send the loser running for the hills, crying to get the engagement broken.

[joogios]

Anyways, Zeke Jaeger had to sit down and realise that because of his decision at seven to turn in his parents as Eldian spies his dad essentially replaced him and Dina, went back to Paradis and had another wife and another son and on top of that he had to realise that after raising Zeke to be nothing but a pawn for Eldia, Grisha had gone and named his new son after Eren Kruger, the leader of the Eldian Restorationists, AND IF THAT WASNT BAD ENOUGH Zeke was probably aware enough to know that Grisha did that whilst being married to a woman who probably had no clue whatsoever as to who/what Grisha was and what the name symbolised.

[prettysweetprettysweet]

Achi getting off on being one man's obsession

"a beautiful parallel between achi from cherry magic and kao from dark blue kiss is that both of those characters have a deep need for their boyfriends to be insane and obsessed with them to the point of being sad at the concept of this insane obsessiveness being absent" - inspired by this post by @katemagic!

[Cherry Magic (Thailand, 2023)]

[scientistkisser]

It’s so weird when people judge others based on their favorite character. “i don’t trust hu fans because they all harass people about misogyny!” “i don’t trust david fans because they’re weird!” Do you guys hear yourselves rn? Liking a fictional character is in no way indicative of someone’s morals and it’s a very odd prejudice to have. That’s a weird thing to judge someone you do not know on.

[hinalatte]

A Thematic Analysis of Chapter 2’s Killer

Drdt spoilers. Obviously

There’s a lot of people who have started liking Ace more since this episode. I am not one of those people. He’s always been my favorite character. I’ve suffered from paranoia as well, and it sucks when people don’t take that shit seriously. Just because it’s irrational doesn’t mean it’s not harmful, and just because it’s stupid doesn’t mean the person suffering from it is stupid. I related to him a lot because of that. His issues are constantly downplayed by the people around him. Either that, or they think he’s irreversibly crazy for fears he can’t really control.

But besides that, I like him because his brain is fun to pick apart. He has so many problems. It’s a genuine shame he’ll never be able to get over them. It’s not the direction I expected his character to go, but it makes a lot of sense.

All that glitters is not gold.

The title made me think that a “good person” would be the killer, but it was Ace, a “bad person.” And his victim was Arei, another “bad person.” The people who died this chapter were the cast’s “worst people,” people who were outcast by everyone else for being bullied. But this chapter also shows their human sides—maybe they were only bad people because they were never given a chance to be good, like Arei. Maybe they were pushed to extremes because nobody treated their problems seriously, like Ace. Meanwhile, the cast’s “good people” are all revealed to be worse than they seemed. That was the thematic reason behind the motive secrets. Some of the others have done things far worse than Arei or Ace.

Nico was someone most of the cast liked. They were never mean to anyone, and they were constantly the victim of Ace’s bullying. They were easy to like, or at least easy to not hate. They quickly formed a bond with Hu (because Hu seeks out people she thinks need her protection). But in this chapter, they tried to kill someone. They admit themselves that it was reprehensible. Nico is a “bad person”.

Hu was supportive of everyone in chapter 1, positioning herself as a motherly figure. She was kind, caring, and helpful. But in chapter 2, she infantilized Nico to the point that she thought they can’t speak for themselves during the trial. She let biases cloud her judgement. She derailed the trial without good reason, because she wanted to be helpful to Nico, even when they weren’t asking for her help. Hu is a “bad person”.

Levi was called a good person by Eden at the start. He’s polite, takes care of other people, and reached out to Ace of all people. But in this chapter, it’s revealed that he did all of that for his own convenience. He doesn’t care about other people. He’s a murderer. He’s a “bad person”.

Levi threatened Ace, making Ace’s paranoia worse. Nico tried to kill Ace, confirming Ace’s idea that he was going to die if he didn’t get himself out of the killing game. Hu defended Nico, confirming Ace’s idea that everyone was against him.

The so-called “bad people” are cursed to die, while the so-called “good people” are shown to have been bad all along.

And isn’t that far more interesting than showing that good people can do bad things, and ending it like that? Now all the so-called “good people” have to live with the fact that their actions led to Arei’s death, without having been Arei’s actual killer. Arei was killed by the cast’s mistreatment, negligence, and trivialization of Ace Markey.

Thematically. Not literally, of course. Ace did that.

But their culpability in Arei and Ace’s deaths, even tangentially, shows in full color the consequences of letting their flaws go unchecked.

And in the context of Nico and Hu specifically, I can’t wait to see how that impacts them in the long run. Chapter 2 was all about facing the darkest sides of some of these characters. So wouldn’t it stand to reason that Ace’s death would influence some of them (like Nico) to examine their actions more closely and try to grow from them?

I can see Nico cutting off their friendship with Hu after this. She refused to acknowledge their fault in the situation. Since Nico is an objective person, I think they’ll understand the part they played in the Ace/Arei situation, and want other people to understand it as well. They won’t want Hu’s misplaced protection anymore.

And for Hu, I have no idea where she’s going after this. After her performance in this trial, where her flaws were pointed out to her by all the other characters, is she going to reflect and change? Or is she going to regress first, especially now that Ace, who she believed to be a villain, actually snapped and killed someone?

A big theme of chapter 2 has been growth. Ace shows the consequences of not growing. He was pushed to murder because of the rest of the cast not confronting their flaws, and he himself committed the murder because he didn’t know how to change.

It’s a bit of a hopeful spin on his death, but I’ll be honest—I’m still majorly bummed out about it. His life has just been terrible and will be terrible until it ends. He’s a horrible person with blood on his hands. He’s a coward and a bully who is hated by everyone. It’s all he’ll ever be, because he’ll die before having the chance to be someone else. Nico, through the sheer coincidence of having their murder interrupted, will be able to grow and change. Ace never will. A terrible life and a terrible death for a terrible person. And he won’t be missed. Not like Arei. Not like Min. Not like Xander. People like Nico, Rose, and Eden may feel bad about it, but no one will miss Ace specifically, because no one likes him.

If you were able to change and become a better person, it only means you were a good person to begin with.

If you weren’t able to change, it means you were doomed from the start. There’s no use trying.

There’s another world where people took Ace’s fears seriously. Where they didn’t dismiss him as a joke at the start and a volatile dog at the end. He might’ve survived if that happened. No matter what David says, bad people can change, if they know how to do it.

When this chapter finishes, I might make a full thematic analysis of it. There are still a bunch of things to say. I’ll just leave this post off with: Nico survivor stocks going up! Invest now!

[in-asterism]

always one step ahead of you- or watching from behindA