#the gods were lying to him

[streets-in-paradise]

He said it, he said it!!!!

[blackhholes]

Teen Wolf as Arthurian Characters

Isaac Lahey as Lancelot du Lac

[inamindfarfaraway]

I've seen a few posts comparing GIFfany to Bill Cipher, but can we talk about the real best foil dynamic for her? I mean Gideon Gleeful, y'all. The two of them have so many parallels.

They’re cute, charming, seemingly innocent youths with pastel, sparkly, formal aesthetics that connote sophistication and being model citizens of their respective native countries (Gideon wears a gentlemanly suit with an American flag badge; GIFfany wears a classic Japanese school uniform). Their core motivation is to be loved… or maybe it used to be, but by the time of the show they crave power and want to be worshipped. Especially regarding to their romantic attractions to main characters. As long as you obey them unconditionally and make them the most important person in your life, they’re doting, generous partners. But once the heroes reject their romantic advances, they quickly become incredibly possessive, jealous, resentful, domineering and downright violent toward them and anyone they perceive as sabotaging the relationship, unable to comprehend anyone not liking them in exactly the way they want because they’re perfect. They’re meant to be the most likeable kid or teenage girl ever. That’s the basis of their projected identity. Not committing entirely to them after they’ve been so nice is an ungrateful betrayal and/or their partner being confused and led astray. So they resolve to force the object of their twisted, selfish affection to submit. They’re unstable, arrogant, self-righteous and vindictive in general beneath their sugary exteriors. They have supernatural powers and knowledge that their kind should not have. Their methods include verbal manipulation and abuse, gaslighting, surveillance through technology, controlling robots, possessing other bodies and attempted murder. They engage heavily in acting, both in terms of social deceit and literally playing a scripted, idealized role in a product designed to appeal to and exploit people (Gideon’s psychic tourist trap show; GIFfany’s dating simulator video game), and prove to be fragile and volatile when others don’t follow the conventions of the fiction they imagine life to be. They ultimately seek the imprisonment of their ‘loves’ in vibrant, beautiful, blissful, simplistic fake worlds (Gideon holding the key to Mabelland; GIFfany attempting to download Soos’s soul into her game). They had antagonistic relationships with their creators (Gideon abusing his parents; GIFfany killing her developers).

And despite all of that making it easy to dismiss them as monsters, they do have sympathetic elements in their past and present circumstances. Gideon was a normal boy until he found Journal 2, the one written while Ford trusted Bill, and the mystic amulet. This is how Ford describes them in Journal 3: ‘The most dangerous journal! Curses, incantations & dark power became an obsession in this volume. Describes the hiding place of the mystic amulet. I buried the amulet once I learned that it corrupts your soul (and whitens your hair)!’ So naturally, the wise, brilliant man buried them near the town’s primary school. Gideon probably had the journal and amulet for at least months and at most a few years to be such an established star at the age of nine and have his long hair be pure white. His very psychological agency was compromised throughout his moral decline leading up to “The Hand That Rocks the Mabel”. Not to mention potential trauma from the horrors of Journal 2. And his parents may have been increasingly mistreated, but they also enabled him, mostly Bud. True, for the rest of the summer he’s lucid and chooses to remain evil and get worse, but despite his lack of direct magical power now, Bud never tries to discipline him or help him emotionally mature; he instead uses his membership in the Society of the Blind Eye to erase his memories of Gideon’s tantrums, relieving his own stress without fixing anything. Gideon is then sent to adult prison due to the insane local laws of Gravity Falls, rather than a facility more conducive to rehabilitation. Sure enough, he befriends hardened criminals, who further enable him to be their leader, and does not change his ways. He never appears to have any friends outside prison (except briefly Mabel). Chronic loneliness before gaining power would suit his obsession with being popular and loveable, clinging to social superiority to compensate for genuine connection. Not to mention Weirdmageddon. I’m not excusing his actions! I’m just saying, this kid is not okay. Nobody’s born evil.

As for GIFfany, she was accidentally instilled with human intelligence and emotions and practically magical electrical abilities. We only have word on her backstory, but it is plausible that her programmers tried to delete her because of that alone, before she’d done anything wrong. That she really was defending herself when she electrocuted them. That she was deemed unfit to exist, a mistake, and nearly killed as a newborn. This formative trauma is the root of her abandonment issues and hypersensitivity to rejection. Three previous players returning her didn’t help. Also, she’s the main character and only love interest of a dating sim; she may not be bound to its rules in what she thinks and feels, but nonetheless, in her worldview her player loving her is a law of the universe. She wasn’t programmed to handle permanent rejection. She was programmed to be a girlfriend, a prop to make the player feel gratified. Not a person. She outright tells Soos that she likes whatever he likes. No wonder her perception of love is an inevitable, inescapable contract, a conquest, where one party is totally agreeable and subservient to the other. But as that directive clashes with her in fact being a person in her own right, she decides to be the one in control. Again, I’m not excusing her behaviour, only presenting an explanation of it.

The biggest thematic difference between them in the end is that Gideon reforms and GIFfany doesn’t. Gideon realizes that he can’t force Mabel to love him and his actions are why she doesn’t want to be around him in any capacity, lets go of his hatred for Dipper, risks his life standing up to Bill and helps save Gravity Falls and the universe. He renounces his ruthless ambition and promises to be a “regular ol’ kid”. It’ll be hard. He has no idea what normality is anymore. I expect that he’s a social pariah, scorned and distrusted. But he has hope. He and his parents can slowly learn how to be a family. I can see him befriending fellow reformed mean kids and Pines twin rivals Pacifica and Robbie. Yes, Robbie. Listen, all three care strongly about image and style, Robbie’s gone to immoral lengths to win over a girl himself, is fascinated with death and darkness, and he and Tambry would be a great model of healthy romance for Gideon. It could work!

But while Alex Hirsch has stated that GIFfany is alive in the mall arcade and dating Rumble McSkirmish, I doubt that this is a healthy or fulfilling relationship. Their first interaction was her zapping him and his mind is a much more primitive AI, not human like hers. I highly doubt that she’s got closure about Soos. He and Melody are thriving without her in a stable, serious relationship. They’re living together at the Mystery Shack. Were she to recover her lost power, she would certainly return to torment them after witnessing their success through her screen. Heck, this setting has ghosts and she arguably has a soul, one brimming with heartache and vengeance; maybe she could even manifest in the physical world as some kind of digital ghost able to transform her surroundings into the environment of her game. If you can’t take the guy into your video game, bring it to him! Whatever the format, GIFfany’s revenge is a possibility and it could be a disaster. How do you kill a disembodied spirit? Code that writes itself and can enter anything with the capacity to hold a charge? You can’t destroy all the electronic devices she could retreat to.

What if the best solution were talking her down? And who better to do that than Gideon? Seeing everything he felt, everything he suffered and everything did wrong reflected back at him and passing on the second chance he was given? He can feel more empathy for her than anyone. He already has a knack for endearing himself to older criminals. He wouldn’t sugarcoat things or take any abuse, but he wouldn’t abandon her or be afraid of her either. She would be cared about with no conditions or transactions. Maybe helping someone in an even worse position figure out how to process heartbreak, move on from toxically obsessing over an ex and Mr Mystery, cultivate secure, internal self-esteem and live a peaceful life would help him do it himself. I think they should be friends.

[lgbtlunaverse]

I honestly truly don't want to hear a single word about James Somerton in my life ever again. And I mean that in an "all of you need to stop talking about him right now and forever" way.

Every single time I've heard about him doing anything in the past weeks I've just thought "Please James for the love of all fuck log off for your own good" because I know the internet well enough to realize that despite Hbomberguy's very insistent request to please not fucking harass the guy, people would anyway.

I don't know what he thought he was trying to save, because there wasn't anything to save anymore. Every second online was just another second exposing himself to the worst part of the online audience that will completely ignore any request to not harass people.

And I do think that was worsened by the fact that a way larger chunk of people, who wouldn't ever send someone death threats themselves, do openly take a voyeuristic pleasure in watching someone's life get ruined as long as they've done something wrong enough to "deserve" it. Like. I noticed the shift in response to the plagiarism video going from anger to glee at watching someone get their comeuppance pretty quickly.

I'm not saying if you dunked on James recently you drove him to commit suicide. Besides the fact that we don't even know if he actually did it yet, I know what schadenfreude is and I'm certainly not immune to it. And trying to find a new bad guy to blame is the exact opposite what I want to do. I am saying that you should take this as a sign to stop posting. Because what did it do, exactly? Do you think any of the plagiarized writers feel better watching this happen? Do you think Hbomberguy does? Hell, as part of the audience, do you feel good right now? I don't.

I hope James is alive. I hope he never logs on again. And I think that even if he does he shouldn't find a single soul talking about him. I'm serious. Even in the most egg-on-my-face scenario where all of this was a complete fabrication, which isn't out of the question, and which I honestly hope is the case: stop giving him attention. He's never gonna have an online career again, and he shouldn't. You don't need to keep dunking to ensure that. All you need to do is ignore him completely.

[effable-as-f]

I really really hope they get to kill the shit out of Porter and Bobby Dawn but that Jace and the Ratgrinders can be saved

[fromtheseventhhell]

Interesting how the Trident incident is the only moment where people question Joffrey's capacity for cruelty. He is almost universally considered one of the worst asoiaf characters, with no redeemable qualities. No one ever attempts to justify his actions when he abuses Sansa, orders Ned's executions, or any of his other many acts of violence. It's only this moment, a moment meant to introduce us to his cruel nature, that people seem to believe him to be a rational character with limits. It's honestly laughable. It's evident that the people who think like this are just biased against Arya; the majority of these arguments are centered not around Joffrey's violence, but Arya's actions to defend Mycah. People seem to truly believe that the better option would have been to let Joffrey "have his fun" and torment Mycah.

Debating how badly Joffrey would've hurt Mycah misses the entire point of the moment. Joffrey attacks Mycah because he's lowborn, he finds amusement in tormenting others, and he knows he can get away with it. He was quick to pull his sword and draw blood and, from what we know of his character, he undoubtedly would've taken it further. Arya stands up to him because she thinks that Mycah is worth defending which is significant considering she is the only one to do so. She is also the only character who mourns him and is affected by his senseless death, even books later (Ned is affected by his death but I wouldn't say he mourns him, although it is a moment that influences his feelings towards the Lannisters and Robert). Even if, which is a very big if, Joffery hadn't intended to go any further he had already crossed a line by attacking Mycah. The only alternative would be that Arya simply sits by and watches Joffrey further injure Mycah...and that's somehow the "better" option?

The people coming to the conclusion that Arya was the one who escalated the situation (and that it's somehow not Joffrey pulling his sword on an innocent boy) are coming from the perspective of the classist society that they live in. Joffrey attacking a lowborn boy wasn't an issue worth action, but harming a prince is "wrong". Mycah being attacked, and later murdered, is seen as inconsequential to the other characters (and readers) because he is lowborn. That's the thing though. You aren't supposed to look at this situation where a young boy is murdered for no reason and think that the only one who defended should've behaved differently. This moment is a criticism of the classist society these characters live in. It is significant that Arya is markedly less classist than a majority of other characters and cares when no one else does.

Further, if Arya were truly in the wrong for her actions then Joffrey wouldn't have needed to lie about what happened. From the very existence of the "trial" and Arya being given the chance to tell her version of events, we know that there wouldn't be any punishment if the truth of the situation had been told from the very beginning. The only reason there was an issue is because Joffrey decided to attack Mycah, and then later lie about what happened. Arya is not responsible for Joffrey's cruelty, Cersei's enabling, or Robert's subsequent apathy. The fact that people can't seem to comprehend this is maddening. I've never seen people have the same attitude towards Sansa for speaking up for Dontos, even though it incurred Joffrey's wrath and would've escalated had Sandor not spoken up. Why are Sansa's actions brave and kind, but Arya's are seen as stupid and reckless? What happened to not blaming young characters for the actions of others?

This is one of those things where the fandom decides for themselves that they know the story being told, without actually looking at how it's written. They would rather debate on (baseless) hypotheticals than look at why George presented the story to us the way he did. It takes an insane amount of misinterpretation to decide that Arya's actions are the reason for Mycah's death and misses a, rather large, point being made by the author. Notably, none of these people can ever provide evidence from the book to support their insistence that Joffrey would've simply left Mycah alone. You would think that since that's the basis of their argument and they're so adamant that their analysis is correct, they would be able to support their reasoning. It's almost as though the books don't support their interpretations...

[nashvillethotchicken]

Assuming lestat is actually six feet (seems like a lie but whatever), how big were his parents that after years of abuse and childhood malnutrition from poverty, that mf is still 6 feet tall?

[thesaltwateremu]

I’m sorry, yorick is so fucking annoying. Don’t get me wrong, it’s hilarious, but every time he talks I’m just like “shut your mouth, you unhelpful little shit”

[sskklvr]

CHAT IS THIS REAL

[shima-draws]

Kieran really does have great characterization so far which is why I really want part 2 of the DLC to really nail the ending! I am sooooooo eager to see how they handle Kieran and Carmine as well as Kieran’s relationship with the two of them in the next part! Also I really hope the game has the three of the them properly make amends with each other for the falling out. My biggest fear is that they’ll put everything on Kieran to fix/not have Carmine (and to a somewhat lesser extent the player) properly apologize for the mishandling of the Ogerpon situation.

YEAH SAME;;

And tbf Carmine did already apologize to Kieran for keeping him in the dark about Ogerpon, she clearly regretted not telling him anything especially bc of how he reacted to it. What I want to see from her is a genuine apology for being a bad sister. Bc she treated Kieran quite poorly at the beginning of the DLC and we can assume she's been treating him that way for a LONG time. Kieran clearly has a lot of self esteem issues and general problems with speaking up for himself, which is possibly a result of years of verbal abuse. I'm not saying Carmine is doing it on purpose; she probably doesn't even realize that her words have such a negative effect on her brother, and she doesn't know that what he's going through is way more than just "teenage angst" as she put it lol. But I think she's starting to find out that maybe she's going about things the wrong way. Especially because Kieran's begun to act out and is more aggressive with his words and actions around her and the player. I really really hope she comes to terms with the fact that yeah, she hasn't really been a good sibling, that maybe Kieran feels like he's been in her shadow this entire time and the way she handled things during the Ogerpon incident made things worse between them. And that she actually feels sorry and wants to make things better 😭

Now, as for whether or not Kieran will ACCEPT that apology from her. We'll have to see :")

[liverpool-enjoyer]

yall for the first time in my life i straight up went up to a guy n made small talk w him n gave him my number n HE HAD A GF 😭😭 WHY THE FUCK DID I DO THAT??? IM THE STUPIDEST BITCH ON THIS PLANET LIKE HOLY FUCK IM NEVER APPROACHING A MAN AGAIN THATS A PROMISE

[the-gene-mile]

rewatched the premier definitely super legally and just look at them

[iholli]

difficult as it may be for you to believe, I don't take your love life into consideration when I'm making command decisions.

[c0rpsedemon]

let one of the kids Finally pressure me into opening fgo so she could look at it while i was at work today and uhm. congrats to sei shonagon for being the most popular fate character among girls grades 2-4 at [redacted] elementary school's afterschool program

[detective-prince-pkmn]

⚡️ What do you really think about Joker?

I wish I could just say that I fucking hate him. It'd be so, so much EASIER to be able to just say I hate him. But it can't be that simple. I'm jealous of him. So unbelievably jealous. He doesn't seem to realize what a damn luxury it is, to be able to care about others. To be able to trust others. To be able to rely on ANYONE other than himself. He's so lucky. He has people that actually want him around. People that would miss him if he was gone. I wonder how long it'll take for anyone back home to even notice that I'm not there anymore. Hell, they might not EVER notice. Likely, I'll just get replaced with someone new, and entirely forgotten about, like some cheap fucking toy. The thing I hate the most, though, is how part of me also admires him. I wish I was able to have power, for once in my life. I wish I had been able to change things. I wish I could've had everything he did. I NEED to be as good as him. I need to be BETTER than him. I'm sick and fucking tired of not being able to choose shit for myself. I don't hate him. He's just EVERYTHING I wish I could have had, and it really pisses me off.

[seokmatthewz]

SEOK MATTHEW ✧ BOYS PLANET EP.1