#the characters you chose are so true

[heybiji]

double life

[that-fish-who-writes]

hello.

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*deep inhale*

KEEFITZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

...uhhhmm.

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what's a keefitz...?

I don't think I've ever heard of such a thing :( sorrryyyy /j

anyways wanna see this cool drawing I made of a certain two characters? :3 !!

[villainvirus]

turn your back / hello world

[softpine]

i like how we all collectively agreed that covid does not exist in any of our sims stories

[erytherion]

Reading the webtoon and…

Does this imply that Kim Dokja also tried to write a questionnaire for her to fill in since she wouldn’t speak to him, that either he 1) never gave her in the end (especially if he couldn’t find her after she was released) or 2) gave it to her and she STILL refused to answer?

Because that is so so so so awful. It was already bad but if he tried so many ways to get her to speak and she still gave him no response, regardless of her reasoning… isn’t that still directly choosing to cut herself fully out of his life? Why in the hell did she lie for his sake and allow him to visit her if she wanted to never speak to him again?

I know everyone claims Kim Dokja is just like her in sacrificing himself for loved ones, but at least he tries his best to stay with them and to keep them in his life. He still chooses sacrifice, but it’s not because he intends to never return. He always returns (even if much later than planned).

The only time this differs is with 51%, when he STILL tried his best to stay with them - at least as much as he could.

I sometimes like Lee Sookyung, but I am mostly still SO mad at her for completely ignoring her child since he was 8 years old. Especially when he must have looked like shit any number of times from being mistreated and bullied by family, friends, army, employers.

But maybe that’s just the fragment in me being eternally pissed with her. She DOES love him, but like he says in the webtoon in this chapter - maybe such truths are painful enough to be false anyways, because they’re just SUCH bullshit. That’s not how affection should work, if you actually care about someone and want them to be happy.

[dreadful-luck]

GGS TEAM PAST!!!

[cluepoke-archive]

Don't underestimate the power of an aroace autistic ignoring whole pieces of plot and story in books as a kid

[slayerdurge]

Just started a full renegade play through and god some of these choices remind me why I normally play renegon. It’s not the immoral choices that bother me, it’s the inconsistency. Sometimes you come off as a no-nonsense hardass willing to do whatever it takes to get a job done and other times you just come off like a raging psychopath. Full paragon is generally way more consistent with their characterization but full renegade can’t decide if they’re willing to make harsh decisions for a greater principle or if they’re sadistic, if they’re reckless or if they have a stick up their butt, if they’re strong and silent or whiny and accusatory, etc. And this could potentially work if the hypocrisy was acknowledged and incorporated into the story as a character flaw, but half the scenes feel like you’re just terrorizing people and they’re just laying down and taking it. To be fair, they get a lot better about this in later games, but I wish the characterization was more consistent and I wish there were more realistic reactions to renegade behavior. Maybe it’s because game designers know most people don’t do those kinds of routes and they’re worried that if they had genuine consequences for bad behavior, even less people would do it, but in my opinion, that type of narrative works a lot better when it feels like there’s actual stakes and also rationale for the behavior. There’s several distinct times where renegade choices could have easily been presented as “sacrifice for the greater good” or something along those lines, but for whatever reason they put in dialogue where you’re just being an asshole instead. Killing the rachni queen, for example. The base idea is good. You’re unsure if you can truly trust her. Are you mercifully saving a benevolent creature or is it fooling you and you’re unleashing a terror onto the world? That’s a great idea, but the dialogue doesn’t present it right. And then there’s too many times where the renegade decision just seems completely illogical. Like on Feros, what reason do you have to kill the colonists instead of incapacitate them? It’s just as easy to incapacitate them, there is no loss to it, so if you still chose to kill them, you just come off as irrational and totally careless.  The narrative as a whole pushes the whole “renegade shep is ruthless but gets the job done” depiction, but they just don’t actually present it consistently. Which, again, could work if it was played off as Shepard making excuses for their behavior or believing they’re doing the right thing but just going too far due to losing sight of the bigger picture or something like that, but the inconsistency doesn’t come off as an intentional character flaw of hypocrisy, it just comes off as inconsistent writing. I know they’re less motivated to write that story well because it is so much less popular for the average player, but maybe it would be more popular if they wrote it better. Don’t get me wrong, I love renegade Shepard, just... the one that I’ve created in my head and pieced together from the well-written parts of renegade dialogue. Or more like the one that the narrative promises but doesn’t consistently deliver.

[exuberantoctopus]

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[magicalkoalaphantom]

hundred line sure is a game that exists

[sakuraswordly]

Punch: I'm still learning about a lot of things. From you too. When I'm with you, you bring out a part of me that I didn't even know existed, Tsubasa. You made me who I am today, and finally found the true answer I'm looking for. Gilgamesh: I want to make you smile, not only for you to make me smile. If you're happy, I'm happy. If you sad, I'm sad. If you're angry, I'm angry too. You gave me so much. You taught me so much. You made me feel emotions when I forgot.

As you see in #Tsofph Season 11(Chapter3 The beginning of the miracle) And compare with #tsofph season 11(chapter1 secret truth of the past) when he fakes his emotions. His emotionless eyes when smiles......

Punch: Like our home.....and everything else.....even you, PUNCH....PUNCH will vanish. PUNCH's now no longer laugh, cry or get angry……What about me…..what are WE going to do if we fail again? What about my pain from PUNCH? They took everything from us again.......!

From hint; By far, Punch Whalen did heal him by little by little until when he lost Enkidu....he finally shed a tear since he hadn't shed a tear since he became King Gilgamesh.....he's now finally able feel laugh, cry or get angry.

Gilgamesh can't feel emotions, but because of Punch, he's still able to feel like a human, even if fake. Because Punch has existed as long as Punch exists, he remembers, he can feel "normal". Because of Punch, he wasn't able to be perfect. Because of Punch, he became 2/3 god. Gilgamesh is more divine than human but not perfect. Because of Punch, he became friends with Enkidu and everyone. That's why he got 1/3 human(Selfish and arrogant, or childish and immature). Gilgamesh chose to love humans because of Punch, and Punch chose to hate humans because of what they had done to Gilgamesh. If Gilgamesh choose to save the entire universe, Punch will gladly do it for him. The feeling Gilgamesh felt can change to destroy the entire universe if his judgment is already settled, so if Gilgamesh chose to destroy the entire universe, Punch would do it for him too.

Note from hint: Punch is nether-earth the darkness, the one who is darkness, Selfish and arrogant, but will be Gilgamesh's guide, his light.

[kurp-stuff]

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[11kit-maim-rue11]

FUCkiNg FUCK TEDROs RIghTS!l!!!1!1!1!!1 (that was meant to be read with multiple teenage boy voice cracks)

When Hort said “I’ve been waiting to do this all semester” after physically fighting Tedros I felt that, me too king I’ll drink to that fuck Tedros rights

[voyaging-too]

The most interesting and most important thing about Lord of the Rings is that Frodo fails the quest. He fails the quest, he can’t destroy the ring, he claims the ring for himself, only for it to be taken and accidentally destroyed by Gollum. There are so many ways to interpret that moment!

You can say: evil always defeats itself. The ring destroyed Smeagol, and Gollum destroyed the ring.

You can say: it’s divine providence. Fallible mortals cannot attain grace by their own power. No matter how they try, they will fail unless providence lifts them up. But providence will lift them up. Very Romans 9:16. It depends not upon man’s will or exertion, but upon God’s mercy.

You can say: actions have unpredictable consequences, and here, a series of unrewarded acts of compassion finally gained their reward. There is such a thing as fate, and it is, in its own way, fair. Multiple characters had the chance to kill Gollum, and a good reason to do it too, since he tried to kill them first, and was still a threat. But Bilbo chose to spare him, Frodo chose to spare him, (during the Council of Elrond it’s briefly mentioned that Aragorn and Gandalf and a serious number of elves chose to spare him), and a few minutes before he attacked Frodo, Sam very reluctantly chose to spare him for a final time. If any of them had chosen to kill Gollum, even in reasonable self-defence, he could not have played his part in destroying the ring. But in the decisive moment, the world showed compassion to Frodo as a reflection of the compassion he had shown.

You can say what LeGuin said: Frodo and Gollum are essentially two halves of the same person. Of course the hero can only complete his goal after a violent struggle with himself, only it’s the good half of him that fails, and the evil half that in the end achieves the quest.

You can say: the last time Frodo and Gollum met, Frodo forbade him from ever laying a hand on him, and cursed him to fall into the flames if he tries. The power of the ring, or the power of Frodo wearing the ring, actually caused this to come true. (See this post about Frodo laying a geas.)

What I myself feel and say is this: Gollum thought he was attacking Frodo and taking the ring for himself. What he was actually doing is saving Frodo and saving the world. He saved Frodo from the Ring, from Sauron, from the failure of his quest, from something far worse than mere death. And he’s the only one who could do it: Sam had carried Frodo, he had fought Shelob for Frodo and would gladly die for Frodo, but he could never have hurt him, or taken the ring by force. Gollum could, but only because he didn’t know why he was doing it. He was a sleeper agent of Good. He thought he was attacking Frodo and grabbing the ring for himself, when in fact he was giving his own life, to save his Master whom he loved.

[prncssguya]

on hwang in-ho/front man, seong gi-hun and their dynamic.

first, idk why people are getting so upset at other people calling gi-hun dumb, we were told that in the first season. lol being bright is not his strongest trait but he has a good heart and we love that about him. however, he is still an idealistic gullible idiot with a gambling problem. except this time his gambling addiction is backed by a sense of justice and righteousness and he no longer gambles with money, he’s gambling with people’s lives. front man asked a good question at the end of the season, “did you have fun playing the hero?” can we even call gi-hun the hero of the story anymore? he gambled with people’s lives and front man showed him the consequences of his moral heroics.

front man only agreed to help gi-hun with his revolution when he mentioned about "small sacrifices for the greater good". i think he reveled in the fact that the “good guy” was willing to allow a few innocent people to die for the greater good to stop the games, which is exactly what the entire VIP theory is to rid the world of 'trash' to improve the world. notice how gi-hun's moral code and belief also changed, from being "nobody should die" into "yeah small sacrifice is okay as long it's for the greater good" at this point, he just proved that front man's belief is actually valid. AND he gets more of his own people killed in the pointless battle with the soldiers that they had no chance of winning. now he gets to feel responsible for all those deaths and the death of his friend and for whatever additional torture they cook up in the next games (as punishment for the escape attempt).

now on hwang in-ho, i believe he was once a good man and the story he told gi-hun was the truth. but in the end he lost a kidney, lost a wife, a baby, lost his money, got fucked over by the wrong people and got into serious debt and had to play this game to help his wife and probably it was too late to save her. he might have played the games like gi-hun but saw how ruthless and greedy people are and resolved that they don't deserve help

i don’t think in-ho wants/will kill gi-hun, but he wants him to understand things from his perspective and show him that his compassion for the people in the games is foolish. you can tell the frontmen (the old man and in-ho) are extremely fond of gi hun. not only did he protect their original front man when nobody else did, he then won the games and thus their respect as he is now as rich as them. he's no longer "trash", he’s an elite like them. i think they both actually kept tabs on him after he won (i wonder if they do that for all winners? inserting them with gps chips?) because they knew he had not used his reward money and in-ho wanted gi-hun to get on the plane and be happy with his daughter

there’s one interesting aspect of the games that makes front man such a complex character. the fact that they’re operating a organ transplant trafficking network. in a way, he’s creating some good to come from a really fucked up situation. but is it really for the good of others who desperately need it, people like his wife, like his brother? or is it just a money making scheme?

either way, i don’t think there is going to be a redemption arc for in-ho, he’s too far gone. we may get to see more of his human side if he manages to see jun-ho again. the only time we’ve seen genuine emotions from him was when he shot his brother like he seemed distraught

the real cliffhanger for me, is will gi-hun stay true to his belief that people can be good, or will he be forever changed into a villain and become the next front man…? after the events of this season i don’t see how his will doesn’t shatter. he’s witnessed how humanity consistently chose money over survival, he’s lost two close friends, his mother, abandoned his daughter. he has gained nothing from wanting to stop the games and this clearly feels like an origin story for the next front man. it’s clear the front man has won this round and i think squid game will either die with 001 or continue with gi-hun as game master

another thing i find funny that i don’t see many mention is how gi-hun is like the luckiest guy in the fucking world. but i don’t think him being alive this long is plot armor, it makes sense. the games exist for the entertainment of rich sadists who have so much money they don't know what to do with it (remember what old 001 said in s1 about life being no fun for both people with no money and people with too much money). and i’d imagine killing hundreds of poor debt-ridden fools year after year gets boring. especially when said fools are desperate enough to gamble with their lives because they think they can beat the system by playing better than everyone else and surviving and getting the money.

gihun is different because he got the money, got out, and still came back. not because he's unfeeling or because he wants more money, but because he's still convinced he can beat the system.

if you're a rich bored gazillionaire, would you rather watch some randos die or would you rather watch this exceptional idiot fail again and again until he learns that his ideals are meaningless and people are inherently greedy and equality is a myth and people at the bottom of the barrel don't get to question the system?

if you're an asshole gazillionaire, you don't want someone to challenge you and just get away with it. you want to hand them 45.6 billion won and make them go away quietly, traumatized, after breaking them psychologically by making them do horrible things until they understand they're just powerless "horses". if they insist on challenging you and your system and your beliefs (money = boundless power), you teach them a lesson and show them their place in the most manipulative and cruel way possible. if gihun dies right away, that's boring. so he can't die, he needs to suffer. he needs to concede defeat.

also, i find it funny how people are comparing hwang inho and gihun dynamic to hannibal and will graham. makes sense, their whole cat and mouse game, front man hiding his true nature from gi-hun the same way hannibal does, trying to corrupt the righteous protagonist, sowing chaos, testing him and observing his behavior like a lab rat, the crazy tension and staring contests, the gaslighting and manipulation. and with the fact that they think lee byung-hun looks like mads mikkelsen. i never put the two of them together but now i can’t unsee it lol

[sleepynegress]

Okay... So I'm in a way right now with the red tide and hormones..... But I did want to say some things about SINNERS while I have a little bit of mental energy.

Stack and Smoke are two sides of the same coin, yin and yang, red and blue, Italian and Irish gang clothing style... etc.

Some people are getting carried away with analysis and it's giving more projection of what you want it to be vs. what is.... Coogler himself has cited great fun tropey horror films and pop culture touchstones like Salem's Lot (the book not the movie) and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (which I love that that's a reference) he has said his most important takeaway is "ownership of art."

The act structure that gave us that classic "caper" set-up of all kinds of characters listening to the plan and then going "you sonavabitch, I'm in." for the juke joint was my favorite part of this TBH.

It is NOT a Christian "Come to Jesus" movie and I LOVE that about it. In fact, it's the opposite.

It's a "be true to self and your gifts in the face of any god or devil", movie.

BOTH women love interests (white presenting and full-figured and unambiguously Black ,--back to that yin and yang of the twins) were beloved by a twin, both fit the elemental nature of said twin, and both had to traverse death to be with their love.

As an aside.... loved hearing a southern accent from our Asian cousins, seeing the "not my problem" energy from the Choctaw hunters, and the reminder that there was actual ancestral cultural community before "whiteness" for white people too, and why many no longer have it...

LOVED LOVED LOVED the cultural details in the character work, setting, energy, etc.... ESPECIALLY Delroy Lindo's vocal cadence.

I loved what Coogler chose to NOT show to make the energy more impactful and palpable in both sensuality and scares.

I'll be the weirdo who prefers the pure blues vs. the remix but I LOVED seeing all the ancestors and descendents come and vibe with the music...I used to have recurring dreams of a multicultural ancestral world jam session, so "that scene" hit me hard.

Remmick just follows in the tradition of Coogler villains being compelling af, but ultimately WRONG because of an essential flaw in their logic (i.e. Killmonger's misogynoir and colonizing techniques and funnily enough Remmick's colonizing techniques, klan and black using vampire telepathy for a faux community peace)

I have seen no one else mention this, but I chuckled at Saul "List of Demands" Williams playing the preacher, aka Sammie's dad

the vampire nerd part of me absolutely rejoiced at all the "traditional" vampire warding aspects, ESPECIALLY the silver, something that is often wrongly asserted as being just for werewolves

loved how filthy and raunchy the language was when it came to desire... because that's real (and I hate purity culture which is very much now tied to the alt-right white Christo-fascist pipeline right now) AND centering women's pleasure and, in many cases audacious initiative. (ahem, I see you Ryan and I see how Zinzi's in the current state she's in, congrats!! *cough* this is the healthiest type of straight man sexual energy BTW)

BE WARY of the takes out there that are overly-projecting. It's neither religious nor hotepy. It's a Southern Gothic fable/folktale about a musician with a gift surviving a magical night....

YES it's full of ancestral energy, but ultimately the central message is about being true to self when it comes to ancestral gifts and community