#which has got to mark a regression in character

[hotdaemondtargaryen]

TOM GLYNN-CARNEY INTERVIEWED BY AV CLUB MAGAZINE.

KNOWING WHAT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN TO AEGON IN EPISODES FOUR AND FIVE, HOW DID YOU WANT TO PLAY UP HIS STATE OF MIND BEFORE HE DECIDES TO RIDE ON SUNFYRE STRAIGHT INTO BATTLE? WHAT WERE THE CONFLICTING EMOTIONS YOU WANTED TO TAKE THE TIME TO DEPICT?

"I think the focus was to show he’s pushed to the limit in a way he hasn’t before."

"He’d just been painfully reminded about his biggest insecurity of being seen as weak and useless."

"Alicent said that to him in no uncertain terms."

"So I think he felt like he was backed into a corner and felt this was the only thing he could do."

"At least that’s how I justified his actions."

"And in doing so he realizes he’s not naturally a warrior."

"He doesn’t have that sort of brave, fearless mentality of some of the other characters."

"So he needs something to numb his fear and gets absolutely blind drunk and gets around to it."

HOW MUCH DO YOU THINI IT WEIGHS ON AEGON THAT HE HAS TO FOLLOW IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF HIS FATHER?

"Viserys [Paddy Considine] was the only sort of positive male figure on the show."

"Not positive to Aegon necessarily, but at least to the masses, so that’s his experience."

"I think seeing the way the small folk responded to Viserys while he was growing up showed Aegon his father was a good king who was liked and well-respected."

"He’s forged good and healthy relationships with people, so I definitely think it’s an element Aegon wants to replicate."

"You see that in episode one."

"But there’s a very, very quick realization that Aegon isn’t Viserys."

"He’s a completely different beast who has to play to his strengths."

IN EPISODE FOUR, AEGON IS FIGHTING MELEYS AND RHAENYS, THEN FEELS RELIEF WHEN AEMOND SHOWS UP, AND IT QUICKLY TURNS TO FEAR. WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO PORTRAY THIS RANGE IN SO LITTLE TIME? WHAT TALKS DID YOU HAVE WITH ALAN TAYLOR ABOUT YOUR PERFORMANCE IN IT?

"Yeah, as you said there wasn’t much time."

"We did like bullet points of moments we wanted to bring to life and what needs to be a priority."

"Yes, he sees his brother coming on Vhagar and the goal is to show that Aegon thinks it’s to rescue him."

"But the melee continues because that’s how the dragons are and that’s how the fight is going."

"There’s no escaping that fire and whatever else is coming Aegon’s way."

"Of course, people can make their own decisions on what Aemond’s intentions are, that bit is up for grabs."

"We didn’t want to fully spoon-feed that either."

"We spoke at length about these moments, especially seeing fear in Aegon’s eyes but also showing that he’s driven to prove himself."

EPISODE FIVE REVEALS THAT HE'S ALIVE BUT BADLY BURNED. THERE'S ONLY ONE LINE OF DIALOGUE YOU GET, WHICH IS "MUMMY." IT FEELS VERY VULNERABLE AND UNDERSTANDABLE THAT HE REGRESSES TO THIS CHILD-LIKE STATE AND CALLS AFTER HIS MOTHER.

"Exactly."

"He’s completely disfigured."

"He can’t breathe or see or talk. talk."

"I’m sure we all would regress to a child-like state."

WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO PLAY THIS VERSION OF AEGON NOW AND HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO GET INTO CHARACTER IN TERMS OF THE MAKEUP AND PROSTHETICS?

"There’s less acting required of course but it didn’t feel too different or that I was doing less work."

"Getting the makeup done took a long time though, especially in the early stages."

"It was taking seven hours and we gradually got that down to fewer hours."

"It’s still a long time, and I was also in that armor for the full day."

"Luckily, I was surrounded by a gorgeous team who were so accommodating, helpful, and encouraging."

"It was great when it could have been more difficult, let’s put it that way."

A KEY SCENE FOR AEGON IS WHEN HE FIRES OTTO HIGHTOWER (RHYS IFANS) AS HIS HAND. DO YOU FEEL LIKE IT MARKED A TURNING POINT IN HOW HE SAW HIMSELF OPERATING AS A RULER? WILL HE REGRET DOING IT NOW?

"I don’t think he regrets it because Otto was restricting and filtering Aegon."

"He was slamming the brakes the entire time, he was like a handbrake."

"And as soon as that happened, he sort of snapped free."

"He felt like he could make progress even if it wasn’t an immediate success."

"So no, I don’t think he regrets it."

"It’s for sure a turning point as well because I think finds strength in it."

"You really see him step into being the king and using his power."

"He’s been in the same room as Otto many times and knows he’s one of the most powerful people."

"That status shifts at that moment for Aegon."

"I find it so stimulating because here’s this person who is the patriarch of the family and is just being reduced to a little boy who has to take his badge off and give it to someone else."

WHAT'S IT LIKE TO WORK WITH EWAN MITCHELL, ESPECIALLY AS AEGON AND AEMOND'S BROTHERLY RIVALRY COMES TO A HEAD THIS SEASON?

"Oh, yeah, I love Ewan."

"He’s great, it’s always a joy to scare scenes with him."

"We both dive in and take it seriously when we’re living in these characters, but it’s a lot of fun."

"As for the brotherly bond, everyone thinks Aegon is ripping Aemond, but then he calls him out too at the small council meeting [in Valyrian]."

"It’s the same thing. It’s bullying as well."

"So what happens in that brothel scene."

For example, if you walk in and find your brother there, you’re not going to go: — 'Sorry guys, I’ll leave you alone.'

"You’ll make fun of him, too."

YOU'VE SAID BEFORE YOU WATCHED THE ENTIRETY OF GAME OF THRONES IN THREE WEEKS ONCE YOU GOT THE HOTD ROLE. DID WATCHING IT INFLUENCE YOUR PERFORMANCE IN THIS SHOW AT ALL?

"No, I find that dangerous, in that you can start to try and replicate a template that’s already been set for some by someone else."

"The beauty of a show like ours is that we’ve got a lot of actors jumping into it with fresh ideas."

"And we’re not making Game Of Thrones even if it’s part of the same world."

"It’s a different show entirely."

"What has been great to see this season is the newer characters and people working on it come in with their own opinions and brave, bold choices."

"It’s multi-layered and colorful."

YOU'RE ABLE TO BRING MORE LAYERS TO AEGON THIS SEASON, AND IT'S EASY TO FEEL BAD FOR HIM AT TIMES. WHAT'S IT LIKE TO BE ABLE FLESH OUT HIS COMPLEXITIES SO HE'S NOT A ONE-NOTE VILLAIN?

"It’s great to be able to spend longer with a character because you end up getting to know them more and your choices become more informed."

"Aegon feels more lived in now because I’m coming at it from a greater depth and investigation."

"A lot of that work has been done."

"So yeah, it’s great because the character becomes a part of you in a way."

"After all, you’ve played them for so long."

"Aegon has increased responsibility this time so I like riding the wave of where they’re going with it."

"It’s brilliant that he’s a pivotal character in the story even now after episode five."

[toomanythoughts2]

Dethklok Agere HCs: Skwisgaar Edition

🎸🐺🦅❄️💃👯‍♀️🌕🥇🎰🩲🎼⚖️🧴🚬⬜💋🍆💦🦴🍒🍑🍌

We're almost at the end, woohoo! The next one up is Skwisgaar 🎸! Him and Nathan will be my hardest challenge because I think they embody a type of regression that is very neutral but also very personalized. Anyway, this Skwisgaar 🎸! I hope to get Nathan's out soon to finish them all off.

Everything is below the Keep Reading tab.

(My blonde, tall guitar god, how I love you so. You did not deserve the shit you got.)

🎸 With Pickles being the oldest out of the bunch regression-wise, Skwisgaar's age range is most similar to Murderface's. He's definitely 5 to 9, usually hanging around the 7 mark. I like to think that a lot of his regression is around the same age from when we see him as a kid in "Fatherklok." which I think is either 7 or 8. Possibly older but still very young.

🎸 Skwisgaar's regression is voluntary, so it's Age Dreaming.

🎸 I like to think that a lot of his regression is about missing childhood experiences, much like Pickles, but less extreme. Instead of being antagonized or willfully ignored like Pickles, Skwisgaar was neglected and forgotten about. Pickles' regression is about redo-ing certain parts of his childhood that were ruined or never explored. Skwisgaar is about filling in those gaps in his childhood with those activities that he never got to do in the first place.

🎸 From a DVD Special, we know a few things about Skwisgaar's childhood. 1. He was so impoverished that he would eat snow for dinner. 2. He worked a regular job at one point in his life before he went into bands, most likely either as a legal working child or a teenager. (I'm saying before because Skwisgaar has a long history of being in other bands before Dethklok. Pickles is the oldest and had a career in Snakes' N' Barrels around the '80's - 90's starting at age 16. Brendon says that Nathan and Skwisgaar are the same age, youngest only to Pickles. That doesn't give us too much room to work with when discussing the time between Skwisgaar joins his first band and him having this regular job. So it makes sense that Skwisgaar would have this job as a minor.) With that understanding, I believe that Skwisgaar had to give up a lot of normal childhood activities that someone with more money and/or free time would experience. Along with his mothers promiscuity, I also believe that Skwisgaar had a very unhealthy living situation in terms of inappropriate sexual behavior and abuse. (I will argue that having sex in your living room with the knowledge that your son would be coming home soon and then not reacting or stopping the men when he walks in, is child abuse. Also, the things in Skwisgaar's in-character interviews scream neglect.) Skwisgaar had to grow up fast in order to survive and disassociated via his guitar.

🎸 The person to first figure out Skwisgaar's regression is Toki. Toki spends a lot of time with Skwisgaar, both regressed and not, and is very observant of his character. He notices the shift in Skwisgaar when Pickles is being particularly "motherly" around Toki. Almost like he's expecting Pickles to wipe his face at dinner or put his hair in a ponytail so it's out of the way.

🎸 Toki doesn't bring up his findings at first. He sits and watches for these shifts in his character to gather the evidence that he is regressing. After a while of watching and confirming his suspicions, he decides to put his last piece of his plan into motion. While not regressed, he copies some of Pickles' caregiver movements on Skwisgaar. They're really subtle but so is Skwisgaar's shift. Afterwards, Toki does confront Skwisgaar about it alone.

🎸 This is where Skwisgaar is different from Toki, Pickles, and Murderface. Skwisgaar did not start regressing until he started being around Toki, Murderface, and Pickles as regressors. Skwisgaar is making the conscious choice of regressing and letting himself relax under the ministrations of his bandmates. He is choosing to regress as a way to cope with his trauma and stress. Before this, he did not use regressing. He mostly used sex and playing guitar before, both coping mechanisms that he still utilizes even after he starts regressing. One could argue that Skwisgaar is experimenting with regressing and has found favor in the method.

🎸 I'm going to just say that I'm using the way these posts are published as the timeline for when each member comes out. So it would go Toki, Murderface, Pickles, Skwisgaar, Nathan. With these being said, when Skwisgaar does tell the band, they are all very supportive of him, and were already expecting it. This, of course, elicits a trip to Dr. Twinkletits by Charles since Skwisgaar decided on his own that he was going to use regression to cope. Charles has everyone's best interest in heart and wants Skwisgaar to utilize this approach the best way possible.

🎸 Skwisgaar's regression is weather based. Most of his regression happens when it's winter time, especially if it snows. I wouldn't say it's a trigger for him, but more so, a relaxer. It's easier for him to regress when it's cold and snowy and reminds him of his childhood.

🎸 Skwisgaar does not have tantrums like Pickles, Toki, or Murderface. He learned from a young age that tantrums never got him anywhere, in fact, it took the few things he had away. So he is very quiet. When he's upset with something, he goes almost completely mute. He tries to focus on his guitar playing ("Dethmas" "Dethfam") instead of the thing that made him upset. Pickles and Nathan try to work Skwisgaar through those emotions and get him to talk about what made him so upset. The point of regressing is to convey emotions that otherwise wouldn't come out. They want to know what's wrong, or at least convince him that it's ok to tell them what has made him upset. He is allowed to be upset by things and show that emotion. Skwisgaar is still very unsure about this and hasn't opened too much.

🎸 Recognizing when Skwisgaar is regressed is very hard because of his vast age range and the personalities of these ages. He emulates the type of person he was at the age when he regresses because he doesn't know exactly how else to regress to those ages "normally" (I say that in the context that he grew up very fast, thus skewing his perception of childhood.) The only one that can clock it is Toki. He's spends most of his time watching Skwisgaar and copying him that he's able to notice when something changes, like his demeanor or his stance or even his playing.

🎸 When Skwisgaar regresses, so does his guitar playing. His fingers know the cords, but they become looser, freer. Like someone who hasn't disciplined themselves on correct finger placements yet or someone who is still struggling with sweeping. Skwisgaar doesn't notice the change, and if he does, he doesn't change it. The music and the way he plays helps him regress, if he wants to willfully regress.

🎸 Skwisgaar has some thoughts on what he missed out on as a child but most of it is very vague. Unlike Pickles who wanted re-dos of birthdays, Skwisgaar wants not-so memorable activities. The band has been able to find a few of these activities, like playing in the snow, having a movie night, or having a family dinner. But there are looser activities like someone brushing his hair after a shower, someone reading his original works and giving him feedback, or someone holding him when he's sick. In regards, Skwisgaar's regression is very similar to Toki in terms of wanting "normal" activities. The band works hard to fulfil these requests as often as they can.

🎸 Sometimes Skwisgaar regresses in hopes of doing one of these activities and other times he regresses while he's already doing the activity. For example, sometimes he will regress before going outside in the cold in hopes that someone will force him into warmer clothes and help him put on his jacket and hat and gloves. However, sometimes he's not regressed and wants to go outside when it's cold but is forced into warmer clothes, causing him to regress.

🎸 Do not bring up his mother when he is regressed. It's banned.

🎸 Skwisgaar is very conflicted about caregivers. When he regresses, a lot of it is about wanting to be cared for by someone, particularly a parental figure. He does want a parental-role caregiver however, he is scared of parental role figures. He is also very angry at caregivers. His own experiences with parents and would-be parents have made him apprehensive and dismissive of them. But the want to please, to be seen, to be acknowledge is all still there. He fights it all the time.

Sometimes the want for a caregiver wins and other times the apprehensive side wins. The band tries to give him the space to make that decision on his own. They consider the apprehensive side as another portion of his regression, one that calls for how Skwisgaar wanted to act toward his parental figures and would-be parental figures as a child. It's like being able to finally get back at your parents for when they hurt you. So sometimes, the band acts like caregivers to give Skwisgaar the freedom to "tell them off" like how he wanted to as a kid. His regression is complex in that way that the band as caregivers are acting as their own, individualized caregivers and "roleplaying" as past parental figures. They conceptualize different type of adults in Skwisgaar's life, ones that he wants approval from and ones he wants to completely ignore.

🎸 Skwisgaar was an only child growing up but always longed for a sibling. Regression grants him that wish. He loves to regress when the others are regressed, and loves having them act as his siblings, as either older or younger siblings. He likes being around Pickles when they're regressed because it feels like he has a cool older brother that he look up to and hang out with. He likes being around Murderface because he always has the coolest toys that he never got growing up, and (surprisingly) Murderface shares very well with his toys. Skwisgaar likes being around Toki because Toki still looks up to Skwisgaar and likes to ask him questions about his guitar, and Skwisgaar loves talking about his passion. He loves having siblings to be a child around.

🎸 Skwisgaar doesn't want discipline initially because his regression is so controlled and experimental. However, the longer he does it for and the less conscious it becomes, he does warm up to the idea of discipline. Granted, it's usually just a verbal warning but he did get popped on the back of the head once by Pickles for being a little mean to Toki when he was really small. Skwisgaar decided he probably deserved it because he was being a bit meaner than normal. They are not allowed, otherwise, to do anything else. There are no timeouts or physical punishments, just verbal warnings and scolding's.

🎸 Skwisgaar is open to utilizing regression supplies, he's just very hesitant. A part of him still feels a little silly for being a grown man acting like a child, but the others try to encourage his curiosity. Toki is always willing to talk to him about his supplies and tools, and how they make him feel or how he uses them. He tests out different clothing too to help get him in the right headspace. So far, he's alright using child-friendly cutlery meant for children not toddlers. They make him feel special because nothing in his own house was dedicated or bought specifically with a child in mind. He used all grown up stuff, not the child friendly versions. So things that are made with a child-friendly version, he likes, such as CF! Toothbrushes and toothpaste, CF! Tablets, and CF! guitars. He likes sippy cups with the lids or straws, especially bendy straws (His mom never let him get bendy straws). He likes the graphic tees with his special interest on it, which becomes his biggest signal that he wants to regress. He doesn't like bottles or things meant for toddlers, like Toki. But he will play with a few of his toys simply out of curiosity, like wooden matching puzzles or rings. He won't use a pacifier but has been found sucking his thumb when he's deep in his regression.

🎸 Skwisgaar parallel plays the most out of the band. Sometimes he just likes doing his own thing while the others are doing their own thing. The problem is that Toki always wants to do what Skwisgaar is doing, especially if he's regressed. Skwisgaar has learned to call over Pickles, Nathan, or Charles to get Toki when he wants to be alone. Toki has learned to sneak better. They can come to a truce if Toki gives Skwisgaar two feet of space and is quietly observing Skwisgaar.

🎸 There is no sex allowed in Mordhaus when Skwisgaar is regressed. This goes for all of them but it's especially true for Skwisgaar. Because Skwisgaar grew up in a house that was so sexually inappropriate, those sounds or visuals are serious triggers for him. The band made this a rule when Toki started regressing involuntarily. But when Skwisgaar started regressing, they realized that even the mention of sex would trigger him or it would take him out of his regression. The only time where the rule was broken (accidental) Skwisgaar freaked out so bad and hid in a closet with his guitar. He would have completely ran out of the house if the door to outside was closer. He doesn't want to be back inside that house as a child, he wants to be in HIS house as a child.

🎸 Skwisgaar has found comfort in cartoons from his childhood and will watch them when regressed. He loves Moomins, Tintin, and Babar! Toki will often join in and watch with him. Pickles thinks that maybe Tintin is a little too advance for Toki but Skwisgaar tells him that Toki isn't even really paying attention. He just likes to snuggle up with Skwisgaar and watch the TV with him, regressed or not. Nathan gifts him a Moomins plush as a surprise one day to help him regress. Nathan gifted Toki Snufkin as his companion piece.

🎸 Skwisgaar is experimenting with how much help he wants with his regression. For example, he doesn't know if he wants Pickles to cut up his food for him, feed it to him, wipe his hands, clean his face, ect. Or if he wants more independence where he gets his plate and eats by himself and cleans himself off but Pickles comes by to do "touch ups" or reminders. It's like direct help vs. indirect help. He likes to do things independently but enjoys being dotting one from time to time. But he doesn't like everything being taken over for him, he likes do things independently. But he likes encouragement and observation to things he cares about. He also likes "advice" where someone will tweak something he's already doing to be more effective, like helping him with finger placement on his guitar or showing him to brush at the bottom of his hair, not the middle. He likes the idea of someone checking up on him and making sure he's alright when he's playing by himself. He's not too sure about bathing help. Murderface did bathe him once before ("Fatherklok") and it wasn't a bad feeling, but he wasn't in the right mindset to really dissect his feelings about it. He's working all of these out in real time so the band is constantly succeeding and failing at it.

🎸 Nathan has had both guitarists regressed before one either side of him, cuddling up watching a movie. Toki is a quiet babbler and was talking to himself through most of it. Skwisgaar was quiet through most of it because he was busy sucking his thumb. Nathan just wanted to eat his chips but if he tried to move his hands off either of their backs, it would cause a chorus of negative noises. They ended up falling asleep like that. Pickles has a photo on this on his phone and refuses to delete it.

🎸 Skwisgaar loves playing Rock Band guitar. He makes Toki sing and Murderface play drums. Skwisgaar will not let either of them play bass guitar. He is the only guitarist.

🎸 Skwisgaar has accidently regressed after a concert before. He as busy taking off his corpse paint when Pickles came over and helped him remove some of it that got in his hair line. It sent him reeling with how good it felt to be cared for like that and spent the rest of the night glued to Pickles.

🎸 Speaking of Pickles, because Pickles is the "mother" of the band, Skwisgaar has an affinity toward him. He's got a really shitty relationship with his mom and he's aware of it. He does not like his mom, not one bit. He wants another person to be his mom or be motherly to him. So, it's only logical that Pickles would take that role. Skwisgaar does not use different names for people when he's small, but he has, from time to time, called Pickles "Mom" and, on rarer occasions, Nathan "Dad".

🎸 When it snows, Skwisgaar loves to play outside. He gets everyone out there to build snowmen and have snow ball fights and make snow angels. Pickles, being from the midwest, and Toki, being from Norway, handle the snow very well and can play the longest. Nathan and Murderface, both southern American boys, don't. They can handle it for a little while but need to go back inside when things get too cold for them. Skwisgaar also has a nasty habit of sneaking snow down people's shirts. But it's ok, Pickles is known for grabbing his sides with his cold hands as punishment. By the end of it, Skwisgaar is very regressed, happily, and will be for the rest of the day. It usually ends with a warm shower, soup, and a good movie.

🎸 Skwisgaar is insanely jealous that Toki gets read to at night because he wants to be read to. Murderface has more or less the same feeling, not because he wants anyone to put him to bed and read to him, but because he wasn't offered it. Skwisgaar used to see other kids on TV get read to by their parents and wanted that for himself. His mom hardly ever knew where he was at "bed time" let alone put him there. But Pickles is observant and so now they have group bed time story time for everyone. Murderface comes and goes when he wants, but Skwisgaar likes it because it matches up to the idealized version of childhood from his mind. Toki is ok with it but likes it better when it's just him and Nathan.

🎸 Skwisgaar and Toki have gotten into a yelling fight over Pickles before being their "Mom". It's just a regressed version of "Stops Copies Me" but about who had Pickles as his mom first. Skwisgaar said it was him first because he joined the band first, so Pickles was his mom first, but Toki says that Pickles is his mom first because Toki is the first person Pickles acted "motherly" too and the person Pickles is a legit caregiver too. Pickles had to separate them and give the "I love you both equally and are both of your moms" talk. Toki and Skwisgaar don't buy it.

🎸 Skwisgaar finds school supplies and busy work to be soothing. He likes the idea of sitting down and doing homework as a part of his regression. He remembers the calmness of doing homework at his kitchen table or sitting in class, and he misses it. Charles has a desk in his office just for Skwisgaar to do elementary level assignments. Sometimes it's math problems, sometimes it's history "fill-in" work sheets, sometimes it's science. He likes the repetitiveness of it. Charles even found some basic-level music class worksheets for him to do about tempo and the scales. Charles always grades them as well and gives them back to Skwisgaar. He's a steady A/B student.

🎸 The further Skwisgaar gets with his regression, the more likely he will let himself slip without noticing it. Which is usually fine, until he realizes that he's slipping when others slip, especially Toki. And since Toki is a involuntary regressor, that means that sometimes he finds himself slipping in public. In these cases, Skwisgaar has been recorded by the public doing non-typical adult-minded Skwisgaar things. Though, a lot of it revolves around being a "big brother" to Toki, or sometimes Murderface.

🎸 Skwisgaar and Murderface will sneak off to watch scary movies and eat junk food when they're regressed and then cry to Pickles when they get scared or have tummy aches. Nathan finds this hilarious that they both do that both regressed and not. Pickles finds it incredibly annoying but also endearing that they find him a safe space.

🎸 Skwisgaar gets scared easily when regressed. He's flung multiple things out of his hands and jumped more time then he can count. This isn't a trauma thing, he just gets easily spooked.

🎸 Murderface and him will read comic books together in silence or while listening to music. Skwisgaar has a preference for The Crow, Sandman, Thor, Tintin, and Asterix. He also likes the Smurfs but feels silly reading them so he'll only read them in private.

🎸 A memorable time while regressed was when he got really sick with the flu. He thought he would just lay in bed for a few days, take some medicine, eat, and sleep until he got better. However, Pickles wasn't having it. Skwisgaar was looked over and pampered by his band mates so much that he doesn't ever remembered consciously regressing, he just let it happen. They all took turns looked out for him. Pickles would rub his head while laying down to help him sleep and measure out his medicine for him. Toki made sure to bring bendy straws for his drinks and help him eat his soup. Nathan helped him get clean sheets on his bed so they wouldn't smell "sick" and religiously checked his temperature. Murderface would help clean him up and wash his face and hair. He was so regressed during this time that he hardly spoke and only requested his bandmates to take care of him, not the klokateers. Pickles held his hand when he went back to the doctor to do a check up.

🎸 He practices doing hair on Toki and Nathan. Sometimes it's good. Most of the time, it's not. But he does like to brush hair so it's at least brushed really well when he plays.

🎸 Because he is experimenting with regressing, he's also experimenting with ages. He has tried regressing as low at Toki, so there have been days where he tried being bottle fed or used a pacifier or act like a toddler. But those never felt right to him. The opposite is also true. He's tried being like Pickles, a bit more "grown up" but that doesn't work either. He doesn't want to be in that age range because it reminds him too much of having to grow up fast.

🎸 He needs help restringing his guitar when he's regressed. He always manages to snap his fingers.

🎸 He doesn't like having his hair down when he's small, he needs it up. So he usually puts it in a pony tail or Nathan puts it up in a claw clip or a bun. Claw clip isn't the favorite method though because Skwisgaar has fallen backwards and hurt himself on the clip.

🎸 Skwisgaar and Pickles have sleep overs in Skwisgaar's room. Both of them are usually regressed with Skwisgaar looking at Pickles like he's the coolest dude in the world. They also practice guitars a lot when they're regressed, so it feels like he's able to connect with someone.

🎸 Skwisgaar always wants fish or soup when he's small. Something about it just reminds him of home. Jean Pierre has become an expert on Swedish dishes, and even Toki has said that some of his dishes are better than the Norwegian version.

🎸 The guitarcicles in the freezer are for Skwisgaar only and he will throw a fit if one of them are gone. (They are never gone, no one likes them but him.)

🎸 He gets shy if you compliment his guitar playing. He doesn't know why persay but it makes him get butterflys.

🎸 He has used his height for evil and will hold things above Toki, Murderface, Pickles reach when he doesn't want them to have it. Nathan usually comes by and takes it from him.

🎸🐺🦅❄️💃👯‍♀️🌕🥇🎰🩲🎼⚖️🧴🚬⬜💋🍆💦🦴🍒🍑🍌

🎸 Toki and Skwisgaar will take outside naps together when they are small. If it's winter time, they will snuggle in one sleeping bag to conserve heat.

🎸 Car rides put Skwisgaar to sleep. The movement reminds him of moving all the time with his mom and the calmness before the shit storm.

Here we are once again! I hoped you enjoyed, Skwisgaar was a challenge. I do love him though :) If you have any other HCs, don't hesitate to tell me!

[seriousbrat]

Honestly I’ve always viewed the wizarding world as being very behind when it comes to women’s rights. Yeah there are career options for women but it only seems like the norm for unmarried women (which isn’t too far off from the muggle world at that time. You get to have a job but once you start your family that becomes your (unpaid) job). And other than the careers, they seem to adopt a very regressive approach to sexuality when it comes to women specifically. I imagine muggleborn girls like Lily and Hermione come into the world very taken aback by the Victorian pureblood standards of gender expectations

I mean I think it's a complex question! There have been have been several female Ministers for Magic like Millicent Bagnold, the first being Artemisia Lufkin in 1798. 1798 is crazy, when compared to real world suffragist history. There are notable women like Amelia Bones and (unfortunately) Umbridge who hold positions of power in the Ministry. Quidditch teams are made up of men and women, and the women are written as being very good-- I think two of the Irish chasers that win the world cup are women and almost all of the Gryffindor chasers that appear in the series are girls.

It's definitely a misogynistic society even so, but I do think objectively the fact that women are equally as talented with magic or more so means that the great thing that men generally have over women in the Muggle (our) world, physical strength, simply doesn't matter as much. In many ways, magical power is an equaliser. So for this reason I don't see the wizarding world as being as misogynistic as the real world, but obviously misogyny still exists and is expressed by pureblood characters like Ron. I think JKR was writing largely from her own experience which, objectively speaking, has been heavily marked by misogyny, so it simply leaks through into the world she created.

All that being said, I don't see it as being behind the Muggle world. At most on the same level, but honestly the way I see the wizarding world, they're better in this regard. For example, it seems unlikely that witches were denied the vote after Muggle women, given that the first female Minister for Magic was elected in 1798 and in real life no women got the vote in the UK until 1918.

The wizarding world has a big element of nepotism but also is in many ways a meritocracy, and witches are equally as talented therefore equally as useful to the Ministry as wizards. Not that this isn't true in real life, because women are equally as talented and intelligent as men, but it's the fact that magical talent is generally what is MOST prized in wizarding society. I do see it as something of an equaliser, and I think in general a pureblood witch would be valued higher than a muggleborn wizard.

To be fair, I do believe that more conservative elements in the wizarding world like the Death Eaters probably tend to be more misogynistic within their own circles (again I think they'd rather accept a pureblood witch than a muggleborn wizard, but would value a pureblood wizard over a pureblood witch.) Ultimately, though, I think that simply the fact that a woman can kill a man with minimal effort does probably have an effect on the way misogyny works LMAO.

I feel like I'm not explaining myself properly with this lol. But also I don't want to fully get into the origins of patriarchy and the agricultural revolution etc. An interesting read about the origins of patriarchy is Simone De Beauvoir's The Second Sex..... anyway.... Basically, I see wizarding society as absolutely being misogynistic, but a bit less so than Muggle/real world society.

Everyone please feel free to respond to this with your own thoughts!

[babyvillkas]

The Snake and the Wolf

Summary: Prompt: Character B buying Character A their first stuffed animal

Pairing: Destiel

Warnings: angst, impure regression

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dean didn’t ask for a lot things, which made it very hard to buy for him. Sam concluded that he was just selfless like that, to a fault even. Zephyr had remarked that he did not let himself want, for fear of losing it and it seemed like Cas was the first thing he let himself have. Bobby had confirmed as much.

Unfortunately, none of this gave Cas a clue on what to buy Dean, so he bided his time in pool game hustles until he felt he had enough to spoil him silly. Then he announced to Dean that they were going shopping and dragged him to the Continental Mark V that he always teased him about.

When they got to the store, Cas told him that this trip was all about him, and could have anything he wanted. Dean’s mouth dropped open a little, as he stared at Cas with wide green eyes. He stayed like that until Cas grabbed his hand and dragged him down one of the aisles. The first thing that Dean chose was a comforter that has green plaid on one side and blue on the other. Cas simply smiled at him reassuringly when he looked at him while he slowly put it in the cart like expected him to refuse. (He’d never.) Dean seemed to relax a bit after that, and it made him wonder if John Winchester never took Dean shopping. The thought made him want to resurrect John so he could smite him.

After that, Dean chose a few more practical things, then picked a few more indulgent things, like soft clothes because while his skin is tougher, it it’s still sensitive at times. A humidifier, that’ll keep his skin and scales from drying out. And a small cat tree that he said nothing about, so Cas didn’t ask. Honestly, he’s enjoying this shopping trip. Spoiling Dean made him incredibly happy, and despite Dean’s overall quietness, he could tell that he was having a good time too. It’s nice, not having to worry about anything other than making his boyfriend happy, even if it's just for a few moments. Of course, the peaceful moment was stolen away when Dean saw it. And at first, Cas had no idea what he’s looking at until he followed his line of sight to a large stuffed wolf. It’s black, with blue plastic eyes, and roughly half the size of Dean. Unlike with everything else he picked out, he just stared at it, immobile. So Cas grabbed it for him, and put it in the cart.

There’s a choked sound, and he found Dean staring at him with wide, teary eyes and a clenched jaw. Anguish was etched into the way his body tensed, and Cas? Cas nearly fell apart because for his boyfriend to have this sort of reaction means something- something bad happened and his poor heart breaks.

“Can’t- can’t have t-that,” Dean’s voice was rough and small, and it scraped at Cas’s ribcage viscerally.

“Why not?” He whispered, because speaking is too loud for this moment that feels like walking on hot coals and glass.

“I’m n-not allowed,”

“Says who?” But he knows. He knows who it is because who else could it be? He has to ask; as much as it pains them he knows that Dean would never otherwise and he has to tell him that he’ll be ok no matter what he wants.

“D-John.”

“He’s not here is he? It’s just me and you hon and I’m telling you if you want it, you can have it,”

“But s’weak…. I’m weak..”

Dean was trembling, like he might fall out of his skin and Cas grabbed his hands as he stared him dead in the eyes. “Dean Winchester, you are the strongest man I know. Nothing, and I mean nothing will change that. I love you with all of my being and that won’t change either no matter what,”

“I-I-“

Cas let go of one of his hands to grab the wolf and gently handed it him. Dean gave him a searching glance before looking at the stuffed animal. His empty hand clenched open and closed for a few seconds before he took it, hugging it tightly to his body with both of his arms.

“I’m so proud of you Dean,”

The shopping trip is pretty much over after that, so Cas took them over to a cashier with no line and paid for everything. Anyone who so much as looked at Dean was met with an angel powered glare, which worked out in their favor as they’re able to get out pretty quickly. Dean didn’t speak a single word after that, he just clutched onto the wolf like a lifeline. Cas let him have his silence for moment, since he needed to focus on getting them back to their hotel room. It’s no sooner than Castiel is setting the stuff down on his bed that he he turned around to find Dean quietly sobbing into the wolf.

“Oh Dean baby, what’s wrong?” He asked, pulling him into a much deserved hug. A few tears of his own leaked out at seeing his boyfriend in such a state.

“M’sad, m’happy, m’scared Cas. Head feels all fuzzy and small and I dunno w’ats happening’! M’sorry!” Dean wailed.

This was the first time he’s ever seen him openly cry and he can’t help but be terrified. He’s afraid of saying or doing the wrong thing, but right now he doesn’t have the time to agonize. Right Now Dean needs him.

“We can figure this out together. I’m not mad at you, and I think it’s very good that you’re telling me how you feel so I can help you,”

“S’good?” Dean’s cries tapered off, waiting for Cas’s reply.

“So good baby, I’m so proud of you,”

“Cas’s p’oud of De?”

“Of course,” And it’s true. Dean doesn’t open up very often, and every time it happens he’s so proud of him. He wished it didn’t come to tears this time, but he’s glad that Dean trusts him enough to be vulnerable.

“E’en tho’ De’s head’s all fuzzy and small?”

“We’ll figure it out together,” As long as Dean’s happy, it doesn’t matter why he’s acting like a child, but he’ll help him figure what exactly this is.

“M’kay,” Dean rubbed his eye with a fist, looking around the room as he took in a shuddery breath in through his nose and blew it out through his mouth. “Wanna cuddle with Cas. And take a nap.”

“Ok, we can do that,” Cas walked over to the bed, and Dean followed. He watched Cas get comfortable first, then crawled into the bed with him, gripping his wolf tightly. “Is this good?”

Dean nodded, closing his eyes. He felt Cas shift a little underneath him as he grabbed something. Then there was a soft tapping noise, which made his eyes open as he squirmed.

“What’s wrong baby?”

“Nap with De,”

And how could Cas say no to that? Tossing his phone aside, he hugged Dean close as he closed his eyes.

[adhdbisexualramblings]

🍼What’s their favourite age regression accessory/gear?

for any House MD character(s) you prefer

(for the agere ask game)

*happy stims happy stims happy stims happy stims* ahhHHH House agere ask!!!

As much as I like caregiver!House I’m going with little!House cuz it’s cooler and I can make Wilson his cg instead!

🍼 House does regress (older ages like 5-13) , but it’s involuntary. However, he’s very good at picking and choosing when and where he slips. He knows himself and his triggers (usually negative) very well. He’s not a very happy regressor, like, at all. But Wilson does find out somehow. Some conversation later and he has a new caregiver. OK context is over. Onto the other stuff:

It’s not explicitly a “littlespace” thing, but Greg does have one of those motorized cars that you can drive with a controller in monster truck form. He loves it, and it’s frequently found under beds or couches. Wilson bought it for him, mostly because House told him he was scared to be too loud when he was younger. Wilson’s trying to slowly break those habits to make them both more comfortable.

The monster truck is stored, very carefully, at the bottom of House’s closet. He’ll still use it even when not little, just driving it around absently.

And that’s it! I wish I could write a little more but that’s all I have for now. I still haven’t fleshed out regressor House yet. Maybe I will! Thank you for the question! I had fun answering it.

(also side note for Chase as a little - House got him a silicone pacifier clip which has so many bite marks on it. So that’s his favorite thing.)

[vacantgodling]

For the Pride asks:

5. & 9. for an OC of your choice

and 20. & 21. for in general <3

this took me forever to answer but we’re here now 👀 let’s do some… tcol generally

5. How did you figure out your oc's identity?

i’ll talk about clear for this but when tcol initially came into being clear and san were supposed to end up together — which in retrospect and hindsight literal just PFFFFF WHAT. terrible. but san’s character was kind of different back then and i hadn’t quite developed the skill of nuanced character personalities and backstory yet. but when i started to write the very old version of tcol (in notebooks) whenever i wrote clear and forte interacting there was just… something there, yknow? the first person that forte talked or laughed around was clear. they naturally hung out and stuck with one another and while i wasn’t quite sure what was going on with forte i felt like something was up with clear

(this isn’t necessarily unique to clear this whole… i notice you gravitating towards a dude because if i take ANY of my older ocs who are dudes: toph, clear and darren specifically, they all started in their initial concepts in relationships with femmes but then i realized that like… yeah no that’s not it).

when i started deciding to take tcol more seriously and started worldbuilding/fleshing shit out, i then realized why clear ran away from home and his sexuality was part of the reason why. there’s something to be said about why i do make this many of my characters struggle with sex and sexuality and it’s because of so. much. xtian upbringing repression. cough. but i ended up realizing that clear liked forte more than just a friend which was enlightening (wow, he’s gay!) but then also created the: oh. there’s kind of a love angle now.

but realistically me growing more comfortable in my own sexuality and attitude towards sex helped me peel back the layers of clear to discover that he’s a gay boy with mad repression and trauma lmao. basically.

9. Are there cultural or lore specific aspects to their identity? If applicable, does their species affect it?

gender and sexuality are pretty fluid in tcol; there are some bigots who exist or people with slightly idk regressive viewpoints however: two of their deities in tcol are genderqueer (YUTARA, deity of medicine is also androgynous/nb and goes by they/them. they’re also the god of gender expression & MARTH the god of blacksmithing and alchemy is a trans man. got a whole city named after his origin story of becoming a man -> marthveil). the war goddess YLENE and YUTARA have an ages long slow burn going on (YLENE literally has a seared into her skin kiss mark on her body because she wanted to immortalize the time that YUTARA gave her a kiss on the cheek. however they aren’t “together yet” in the traditional sense because YUTARA can’t help but tease YLENE). the second king of lathsbury anele of kairos is a he/she butch and was married in a literal war enemies to lovers rival dawn nightwillow… etc etc. there’s a lot of lore of queerness in tcol basically

20. Have your ocs helped you in self discovery? How?

my preference for writing male characters and finding it easier to relate to them and get into their heads was kind of a big giveaway for me growing up. making a lot of mlm ocs also helped me kinda discover that yeah mood me too. and vice versa; the more i discovered about myself the more i was able to imbue those discoveries into my ocs

21. Free ramble card wee

i haven’t talked much about anele of kairos and dawn nightwillow bc i adore the first age of tcol quite a bit and these two only come around during the end and into the second era but their love story is supremely funny to me. basically the only time terrae had a civil war happened while these two were leaders and in part of the peace treaty they married each other. the funniest parts of their eventual romance is (1) that there was a romance at all bc the two of them were so set on just tolerating each other (2) the god of love MIRANKA was literally born out of their union and if that doesn’t say something idk what will and (3) the reason MIRANKA was born, isn’t bc love didn’t exist in terrae before them it’s because he’s also the god of relationships in general and his oracles act as magic relationship counselors LMAO. so he really was born out of hmm. y’all need relationship therapy and it’s funny to me

real enemies to lovers vibes yknow

[insane-mane]

what is your favorite and LEAST favorite element of each era? (OG, UAF, OV, and the reboot). if you don't care to do them all, feel free to just choose a specific era.

Favorite:

OS- Of course the vast alien/creature designs made by Dave Johnson and Tom Perkins. The eerie, weird vibe the show has with odd things always going on in the background, something that makes you feel like the world is more expanded. Always something bubbling under the surface. Fun villains, arcs, and finale that just blew me away as a kid.

UAF- Pretty strong start, wanting to introduce "darker" elements to the world around (both figuratively and literally) and inject different perspectives both on the characters and the story as a whole, asking what would happen to these characters when they're older and how they've changed (for better or worse). Very neat work done by Glenn Murakami and Glen Wong. Undeniably gave the franchise as a whole its mark.

OV- A fun return to form that also isn't afraid to go weird, both in terms of writing and art. Genuinely funny at times. Lots of great character designs from Derrick J. Wyatt. Appreciative of bringing back tons of old characters/aliens when they were allowed to. really great Voice Acting as well!

Reboot- More tolerable version of Ben and Gwen. Neat design choices here and there. Honestly has a really great interpretation of Vilgax! Honestly happy that a younger generation got to experience anything Ben 10 related despite it not being the version I grew up with.

Least Favorite:

OS- Needless bickering between Ben and Gwen. Small things that don't exactly add up story-wise unless you look into pop up trivia that are partially just lost to time or crew statements after the fact. Very dated dialogue/insults.

UAF- Setting is WAY too dark or way too bland. Too many humanoid aliens that should DEFINIETLY be clothed to some degree. Completely bizarre character rewrites or "expansions" that either didn't need them or were just presented poorly for arcs that abruptly end. Weird, wooden acting and odd voice direction. Some lien abilities that are just total ass-pulls. Clunky gimmick that they don't even use that much. Fluctuating regression of the main protagonist awful to deal with at best or borderlines character assassination at worst.

OV- Too reliant on comedy that either runs too long, undercuts emotional moments, or just isn't that funny. Attempts to rectify their past mistakes from previous show but unfortunately makes a larger mess than need be. Certain character designs sacrifice too many original details in favor of references to other media, which can be fun but almost too distracting at times. Much like the other shows, introduces neat concepts that could be very deep and earnest but either don't follow through or just aren't executed well.

Reboot- Shorter runtime makes it feel too rushed and makes their overarching stories suffer. Toy mandates making needless gimmicks part of the story to sell action figures makes for boring character designs and less engaging stories (not blaming the crew itself for that). Attempts to separate itself from old continuity yet still tries to satiate older fans by loosely putting in references/specific characters for making a crossover special that the younger generation wouldn't know about. Inconsistent character design choices by ripping from old model sheets rather than making new designs that fit within the show's style. Not the best take on Grandpa Max. Overall just not my cup of tea, but hey it's not meant for me so Eh

[barbariccia]

got asked to clarify some commentary i had on a certain something ramza says in the necrohol; slapping it here for posterity:

this was the original screenshot of the final entry in my live(ish?)blog of tactics, with the accompanying text:

I saw this and I wanted to raise you:

I have to wonder if Ramza’s dialogue here is a translation error, or just poorly worded. My own interpretation of this line was that people “earned” them in the sense that they had to fight tooth and nail for them; not because that is the single or correct way one is allowed their rights, but because the powers that be, who often strip away what is inherently owed for personal gain, make it the only method one is given, or “earns”, their rights — a consistent theme throughout the story. It doesn’t make sense for Ramza not to understand this by this point, he even acknowledges several times that this way is wrong, unless he suddenly took a lesson in character regression. Which! I’m not saying isn’t possible, but it doesn’t really add up to what’s come before, unless I’ve been misinterpreting or forgotten the context myself, which is absolutely possible, haha.

This is yet another reason why I tend to prefer the PSX translation over the overly flowery PSP version more often than not lol. I would definitely love to see a follow-up comparison of this particular line when you guys reach that point through the PSX version, if only to satisfy my own curiosity.

and, you know, completely fair! there’s a lot of bulletpoints that i never really elaborated on but sure had thoughts and feelings about, and a lot of them have to do with... well, this sort of theme. a lot of my notes straight up never made it into my entries at all! so, having said that, this was the response:

no, i agree to about the halfway mark - there were a lot of thoughts in my initial notes that plain didn't make it to the posts i made (and in the beginning were severely lacking, even), and i was writing them a couple days after experiencing them, so i was definitely losing some flavour as opposed to a full-scale liveblog. also i didn't want to split them up anymore than they already were (they were so long by the end........) and the more i yammered on the smaller that scrollwheel got hahah 

ANYWAY i absolutely agree with you in that freedom is certainly something that's earned within the constraints of ivalice and given by those in the position of power. i suppose looking at it through my personal eyes changes the way i experience and absorb things? i don't think it's a case of ramza regressing as a character or forgetting whatever's happened around him, but he's a product of his own environment and experiences wwhich have shaped him in turn, and that leads to some interesting views like "rights are inherent to a person but you still need to fight for them" (mood) "you cannot trade for freedom, only take it by force" (also mood) and "because of these things you need to do to obtain freedom, it inherently has a value" and it's the last one that i... not take issue with, but makes me raise my eyebrows a bit? mostly cuz like, it's interesting to frame an abstract like "freedom" as something that can be obtained and has value, like a material object. and it's not even strictly wrong, i know that! my commentary i suppose overlooks the playing field of ivalice, where things aren't just given for free and for no reason. 

i do also think it's... not hypocritical per se of ramza to espouse this, but freedom has never been something he's been particularly involved in. it's a little strange to see ramza start talking about freedom when that's never been his fight - initially as a beoulve he HAS his freedom that other people are dying for and doesn't understand the minutae of the brigade et al, which, he's a squire and a highborn, i'd be surprised if he DID - but then as he grows as a person he never loses that freedom to do... whatever he wants, really. sure, the church is hampering his movements, and he's branded a heretic, but it feels like a natural conclusion, and most importantly it doesn't stop ramza - he has no concept of living without freedom and continues the way he's always done, because he is a product of his experience and history! and that carries on to who he becomes, which is... less naive and more plain hopeful at face value, i suppose, willing to fight for his views and the chance to be heard... but like, idk, something about him talking about Things You Need To Fight For rings not hollow but a little strangely tasting when his hands are rated e for everyone and the reason he can do whatever he wants, i guess. 

something also strange about the recipients of those words. it's in the necrohol talking to the remnants of the templars, yes? they're so entrenched in their views and they will never, ever change even on pain of death, so a good chunk of it also feels like... why are you trying to tell these men who are never going to change what to do? it's such a hopeless thing to even attempt because look where we are, what they're doing, ramza! they aren't going to listen to you and your hopeful ideals when their whole modus operandi is "i want to oppress people but like, a bit more" 

so like, i don't think it's a translation error, i think it's just my interpretation and not wanting to drop a full miniessay in an already long post AND also probably not even thinking a lot of those thinks until literally right now

we have been going through the psx version slower when we get the chance and i haven't been making posts like this because i feel like it'd just be a rehash of stuff i've already said. i am also a product of "the first one i experience is The One and fuck all yall" haha (sweats in og vii) but like... something i've talked about with them a lot has been how the psx translation really strongly tastes like a mid-90s translation. that's not to say it's good or bad, just that as a longtime nerd there's been a lot of lines that i'm like. oh, i can see exactly why they've translated it that way, i can almost hear the og jp lines. we're only at the start of chapter 2 so i can't talk for like, the majority of the script, but there's been places where i've found it to be too simplistic or... 90s, for lack of a better term! it's a lot of fun as a linguistics nerd to compare the two and know the history around both of them abd i can see why people would prefer either/or, there's definitely arguments for and against, but i don't think the wotl version is too flowery, personally. here i go being a product of the one i saw first is favoured, lol.

tbh, and this is something i've mentioned like a million times to neeb during playthroughs, but i would love to have a third option and marry the two together and consolidate translations fully. i really, really think the high and flowery prose works for the ivalice setting - i guess xii was my first ivalice game (though i didn't experience it til like 10 years after it came out) so that'll be where that comes from - but i do think it works for the setting... but i think it would really, really benefit from dropping it in places, or demonstrating that the world isn't entirely as clearcut(?) as a single style of prose. but then i also wish the portraits were vastly different because they are SO similar so much of the time. for something presented as an excellent piece of, well, theatre! it doesn't actually stand out the way theatre does for visual ease. but that's a personal nitpick and i don't expect everyone to agree with that either haha

response:

I absolutely agree that the best case scenario would be the marry the simplicity and the prose, because both have value and each are superior in specific moments (the directness of “Blame yourself or God” will never not be iconic, while a lot of Ramza’s dialogue in WotL just feels more…him, etc; this is kinda subjective in of itself tho, I recognize). Not to mention how variety of that nature can only serve the world building better, I mean this is the game about classism for crying out loud, haha. But yeah, I’m definitely not so attached to the 90s translation that I won’t/can’t accept anything else. It’s more nuanced than that, as it so often is on the subject of localization.

Also for clarity, I def understand that a bullet point list isn’t gonna fully reflect your actual thoughts and opinions in full, and did not mean to imply any sense of ‘failure’ on your part, or that it was wrong interpretation outright. :0c My instinct after all was, “is this the failing of the localization?”

After reading what you have to say tho, no, it’s not a failure of the localization. I think it’s actually a failing of Chapter 4, and how it loses interest in Ramza being as a part of the political aspects of the story (for better and worse, I have a lot of mixed feelings about it myself) completely by, I wanna say, mid-Chapter 4? Chapter 4 also feels generally rushed and incomplete, despite also being long and packed with content, somehow. It’s possible Ramza’s dialogue is a holdover from events that never got to see the light of day, but I can’t prove that.  I personally often leave Chapter 4 with the feeling that there were blanks spots, and I figure that must play a part in the occasional inconsistency. I will pose, though, that just because he isn’t a part of the politics and the freedom fighting, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have opinions or even a stance on it. He just…isn’t really allowed to be involved in it, because the story shifts gears for him in that regard from about Chapter 3 on.

That said, he absolutely has internalized things (cough propaganda cough) that will take more than a a handful of years to unpack, and he’s doing his best to make the most of what he knows, and doing well by others to the best of his limited capacity, in spite of that. But that naturally means things are gonna slip out sometimes that are a bit uhhh questionable. Tho, I’m not gonna pretend I was any better by his age, good intentions be damned; baby boy is barely in his early 20s by the end of the story, ain’t no way he’s gonna have it all that figured out, bless his dumb, idealistic heart

[ ... ] Tbh, the points you made about FFT’s question of “does Freedom have value? Should it? Is it not valueless by virtue of it being owed to all?” is gonna probably stick with me.

stares mournfully at my old textbooks on my shelf. i will not learn japanese just to retranslate tactics the way I Want It To Be. (or just sit through the two scripts and consolidate things until i like the finished product) i will not i will Not---

[cooledtured]

Generational Change

There are few characters as iconic as Sonic the Hedgehog. This blue hedgehog is known across the world for going fast and loving chili dogs. Well, that and having a lot of hit or miss games (*cough* Sonic 06 *cough*). Even so, his popularity has decreased at all with him getting two movies and a third one on its way. And, even after all of these years, he’s still mostly the same old Sonic.

If I had to describe Sonic, the first three words that come to mind would be ‘snarky’, ‘cool’ and sometimes ‘excitable’. While the first two have been true since the beginning, that last one only really started to take over in recent years. For the most part, Sonic has just switched between the other two depending on adaptations. It all began with the Snarky era.

The Snarky era is the very first way that Sonic was shown in media outside of the games. In the early 90s, Sonic got his very own tv show which brought the blue blur to screens across the nation. Here, he was the type of person who’d play pranks on friends and foes. He is also very prideful in his speed and being quick to anger should anyone insult it or just annoys him in general. This depiction acts a lot like a child at times. However, at the end of the day, he will do his best to help those that he feels are in trouble, always running head first into danger and never thinking about the consequences.

Towards the end of the 90s, Sega would release the widely acclaimed Sonic Adventure, a game that marked the end of Sonic’s Snarky era and the beginning of his Cool era. This depiction of Sonic is the one widely known by fans and the one still depicted in games. This one is a lot less mischievous than his previous self, but still isn’t above playing around with his enemies. What really makes them different though is that this version is actually willing to slow down sometimes in order to figure out what’s going on. He’ll still jump head first into things, but not without also being aware of what’s going on around him. He really came into his role as a type of leader figure. The best way to describe him would be a guy who’s finally grown up.

The final and current era - the Excitable era - basically regresses him. To put it another way, the depictions of this era are versions who have grown up from the Snarky era but haven’t quite reached the maturity of the Cool era. In other words, he’s a teenager. These versions have the need to constantly move around doing who knows what. One moment they could be playing baseball. The next they could be reading comics. The next they could be on the roof because they thought they saw something shiny. There’s really no telling with them. However, when the chips are down and they need to get serious, they’ll show why they’re the hero of this story. After all, at the end of the day, Sonic the Hedgehog is a character who will always protect his friends.

What’s interesting about these eras is that there is a clear view of how Sonic has grown as a person. We see in the Snarky era that Sonic is still learning how to be responsible while also having fun. In the Excitable era, we see him start to mature and become more aware of his responsibilities but still keep a lot of his fun loving personality. And, finally in the Cool era we see the end of his journey where he is fully aware of what he needs to do, but still finds time to be that free, chili-dog eating hedgehog we know and love. Even if it wasn’t in a linear way, it’s still fun to see this character grow along with us.

Logan Floyd-Mcgee | Writer POP-COOLEDTURED SPECIALIST cooledtured.com |  GROW YOUR COLLECTION

[number1villainstan]

episode 15:

so was kozue just talking with that guy doing the kabedon to make miki jealous? and then the fckn. dude putting his hand on miki's ass, tf is up with that--how many sexual predators live in ohtori's halls-- and oh god is that protectiveness or jealousy on kozue's face. this episode is gonna be fun

damn touga's like...legit depressed. and nanami's wearing her dueling suit! she's got yellow as a main color and purple as a main accent...yellow is--happiness? pride? sunshine? gold? gold makes the most sense with purple, cuz purple's a royalty color

wdym "few people unable to freely use their hearts", that is such a strange line. is it referring to the constrictions of societal norms on true emotion inside or outside the person? both? neither? maybe it's about not truly understanding oneself instead? and including the "especially young people" line, damn--

so they're gonna seek out people who can "grasp [the student council members'] hearts" and that's why kozue is here, huh? does that mean no more weird zombie/mind-control shit?

miki walks into the room and immediately chu-chu finds itself extremely bothered with a fly that's flying around its head. if chu-chu is a representation of anthy's subconscious then that does not spell good things for how she views miki lmaoooooo--except right after chu-chu is looking up at him and nodding, which sends a very different message, hmmm---

"we have very similar tastes" you've only agreed about a name variant that's not grounds to claim "very similar tastes". at least he acknowledged it was weird tho

also i'm sure the wind-chime sound is marking Important Sentences with Double Meanings like the stopwatch did

hhhhh and the scene with kozue freaking the music teacher out. and implying that the teacher had hurt miki. is it protectiveness or does she actually mean something else besides 'hurt'--

blue and pink cups with the milkshake--gender roles? switched gender roles?

wait so what did utena see in kozue's face/ear/earring that i'm missing? is it like..vengefulness? i'm not good at reading faces, especially ones in side profile--

ELEVATOR SCENE CHANGE! different background music! more melancholy and also higher in pitch! "if it cannot break its eggs shell, a chick will die without being born. the chamber of freedom and the cage of freedom, without revealing the vastness of the sky, both care for the chick. smash the world's cage! for the revolution of the world!" the replacement of touga's shadow with nanami's, and the fact that someone else (not touga) is saying it--but who's saying it! not miki or juri, not nanami, definitely not saionji, i think it's a young boy or a girl saying it but i can't place the voice-- what does it all mean--

...okay so it was nanami saying this? did i just misremember her voice actor? did it change? idk man

and the fan changing with where nanami's facing, and the fact that both juri and miki are facing away from her, and the pinwheels behind juri--

"[the moon] doesn't serve any purpose" yes it DO it makes the TIDES happen! and it TAKES HITS FROM ASTEROIDS SO THAT EARTH DOESN'T! THE MOON ABSOLUTELY HAS A PURPOSE FUCK YOU AKIO

the way it switches to miki's stopwatch but he doesn't stop it this time--is it that he's missing something's significance?

also milkshakes and butterflies as symbolism. also tf did kozue do

oh nvm anthy's fine

OH WAIT THE BUTTERFLIES IN THE FLASHBACK WERE THE SAME AS IN THE ELEVATOR OMFG

this is like the third time mikage has said "your only choice is to revolutionize the world" to someone. tf. why is that your line. also the fact that the music sheets are scattered when kozue was holding them close--

also was it a cocoon instead of a leaf in the last part of the elevator scene? so did kozue not regress as far as others? that says something about her character

why the rose in the corner? nothing was happening in the hall, did they just reuse the shot?

i genuinely thought the shadow was gonna be revealed to look like anthy and not kozue, like i thought the similarity between their silhouettes was meant to like. point out how miki's projecting his view of his sister onto anthy. but nope it's legit kozue, who has apparently improved her piano playing by leaps and bounds within less than 10 episodes

oh and she's wearing the black rose ring...and making a weirdly strong move on miki...is she actually mind-controlled like kanae was? hooo boy that's gonna be fun

OH AND THE BUTTERFLIES ARE BACK. and oh man is miki the one getting mind-controlled?? or at least his body's getting controlled with the fuckin sword...jesus christ kozue (or mikage if she's being mind-controlled too)

hold on there's a rose on the ceiling of the tunnel to the dueling forest, i never noticed that, huh. oh wait actually multiple roses. a painted-on graphic or something that was carved into the ceiling? i wanna say painted on

shadow girl play is weird af, "so ignore her" and then the guy immediately stands up and orders coffee and a sandwich lmao. right after saying s/he didn't want anything to eat/drink

oh so it's milkshakes instead of lilies on the desks this time? (and kozue said she "couldn't drink something that sweet" about the milkshakes...what's the symbolism here...childhood nostalgia? the way memory holds onto the good parts and discards the mundanities or even annoyances? so it becomes saccharine and therefore unpleasant to someone like kozue--)

aaaand kozue said and did practically the exact same things as kanae did, so she's definitely being mind-controlled--except apparently her stance is the same as miki's so that's miki's influence there?

"Time machine! Back to when I was a precious young child" i WONDER how this could apply to kozue. such a mystery. such a mystery, really.

wait hold on the handle and guard of the sword are both black--

"anthy must die!" *anthy does not visibly react*

"miki and I are the only ones worth of existence" alright girl you need to back off the homicide. also anthy just picking up a milkshake and drinking it cuz no one's paying attention to her

...did none of the milkshakes spill when the desks were clanging together? that's kind of impressive. also is that not the same position kanae fell into when she was defeated?

the rose appearing when miki gets up to kiss his sister. mmm definitely not about weird incest vibes nope. although the 'hey will you make me a milkshake' line was kinda cute

aaaaand akio being creepy as always. gross. "i will comfort you" I DON'T THINK COMFORT IS THE RIGHT WORD HERE

oh god is that ending scene gonna be another Repeating Scene. oh god please no

Oh also, along with writing the December 2023 Monthly Short Piece today, I finally watched the first episode of Revolutionary Girl Utena after days of seeing a moot post about it and--

"I am the Rose Bride. From this day forward, I belong to you."

i am going to murder everyone in this damn school for anthy

[zenarcade]

3000 characters is just not enough for a personal statement 😔

[dollsome-does-tumblr]

rewatched ofmd 1.09 and 1.10, and here are some random thoughts!

MAN, 1.10 is such a great episode of television. so funny, so poignant, so upsetting, and the way it allows us to hang out in mary’s point of view for awhile is so refreshing and enjoyable. it’s SUCH a great close to the season. i wish it could win awards. it SHOULD win awards!

i am obsessed with the widow evelyn and that post that said she and spanish jackie should meet will haunt me forever now. i’m not saying i WANT mary and her widow squad to turn to a life of piracy, but if for crazy plot reasons they wound up temporarily drawn into pirate adventures, i would be so, so happy. i also feel like mary is just too great a character to not see again.

it’s so striking how mary plays the same role in stede’s life that izzy does in ed’s in this ep, to completely opposite effects. (a spouse and a first mate aren’t so different, in a way!) i think the reason stede is able to forgive himself and move forward is because mary has the grace to be happy for him, embrace him as he is, and sincerely wish him growth and good things even after he’s hurt and bitterly disappointed her in the past by not being able to be the man she needed him to be (a proper, loyal husband). meanwhile, we have that scene with izzy and ed where izzy basically has the same grievances with ed -- he was promised one thing (blackbeard!), he devoted his life to one thing (and in a subordinate position, similar to a wife in a marriage of centuries past), and when ed couldn’t hold up his end of the bargain because ed wants to be ed, he got beyond pissed because the whole foundation of his life is therefore shattered. stede had support from the person who knew him best as his old self and ed didn’t and that made all the difference. mary said, “you don’t have to try to be this anymore since it’s not working” and izzy said, “if you’re not what you were, it would be better if you were dead.” (which is extra disturbing for a character who we see with some degree of suicidal ideation when we first meet him.)

i just can’t unsee izzy as an echo of ed’s abusive father, which is why i think his words cut so deep. he is SUCH a vile and disturbing character, aaaaaaaaah. great job making me hate you, con o’neill!

i was also struck by the visual parallel of ed putting the kohl on his face to become ~the kraken~ with stede smearing the pig’s blood all over his face while faking his death, and how those moments mark them going in completely opposite directions (ack, my heart!): stede’s doing it to be able to kill off his old self who he never felt right being, where ed is totally regressing and trying to completely cover up his new self with his old one.

i continue to feel like ed’s descent into mad-bad-dangerous-to-know-ness is less about stede ghosting him alone, and more about how badly he yearns to be his true self and how completely unacceptable he feels it is when stede isn’t there to give him the confidence, now that izzy has planted the idea that his real self is something completely shameful.

god DAMN the writing on this show is so smart and layered and psychological and interesting. it feels so good to watch!! my brain is happy! and my heart is suffering. come onnnn, hbo max!

[kerink]

im so full of coconut shrimp and ready to be friends

1. Is there a climax event in wtse — if so what is it? If not, what is the general progression of each character? How is it marked? Is it more character driven, plot driven or balanced? Like are they propelling events or are the events propelling them?

2. Is Night Vale a place of healing in wtse, or a place of enabling? Can it be both? Should it be?

3. What do Jon and Martin do in town when they’re not vibing in the Palmer household?

4. Who are they drawn to in Night Vale (excluding carlos and cecil) and why? Friends? Neighbors? How long does it take for them to be accepted by the town?

5. How do you characterize each main character — since there are varying ways people interpret them all — like if they were all presented with the same dilemma how would they react?

6. What is the thing jon and martin struggle with the most in Night Vale? What do they excel at there?

7. Are Cecil and Carlos a positive, neutral or negative example for them (ie. they’ve been together longer and jon and martin are a newer relationship at the end of tma etc etc)

8. How does Esteban respond to Jon and Martin? When do they have their baby if they have one in wtse?

9. What’s their living situation like? Do they all share the house — do they divvy up space? Id imagine living dynamics btwn them are crazy and hard.

10. What do Jon Martin Cecil and Carlos think about eachother at the beginning of your story and what do they think abt each other by the time the plot (main dilemma, moral etc) is concluded?

obvi u dont gotta answer all of them hehe but here u go kiss kiss

ok here we go

1. Is there a climax event in wtse — if so what is it? If not, what is the general progression of each character? How is it marked? Is it more character driven, plot driven or balanced? Like are they propelling events or are the events propelling them?

there's no climax because there's no narrative end. wtse is over when we get bored with it. however, each act has it's own main conflict that divides the story:

jmart settling down in night vale

cecil going missing and getting reeducated

jmart getting engaged and the four of them getting into a relationship

jon in desert bluffs too

having kids

reconnecting with tma's universe

there is, however, a primary narrative theme which is "do you need to be human to be a person?" can entities be held to the same morals, laws, and standards as humans? should they be? do they need to be in order to be worthy of respect and dignity?

for character progression: jon goes from starving to satiated and martin goes from clouded to opaque. cecil goes from permeable to aware and carlos goes from unmoored to grounded

plot driven i guess, we explore the ideas we think are interesting

2. Is Night Vale a place of healing in wtse, or a place of enabling? Can it be both? Should it be?

it's both

jon works to shake off his guilt and self-blame and is able to settle into a peaceful identity. martin really, really hates this because the crux of that is that jon stops being human. jon gets to a place of accepting himself and in accepting himself he accepts that he is a part of the beholding above everything else, and that in being a new animal he has a new nature. a lot of jon's regressing comes from fear of how martin will perceive and potentially reject him. jon still doesn't trust his own judgement and relies heavily on cecil's input, and unfortunately cecil isn't a good north to set your compass to.

martin is still a being of the lonely, but he sees himself as an avatar very differently. whereas jon got leitner's lecture about how an ant may perceive a person (e80) to help him understand himself vs the beholding vs cecil, martin never got any such insight. he sees himself as a person with powers, and he uses those powers sure, but he sees them as a tool not a part of his personhood. this is the main reason why martin struggles to understand what jon and cecil have going on, he doesn't see himself as the lonely manifest. he feeds his god and it gives him abilities, that's it.

i have a dedicated post for martin's healing

i don't think martin really gets "enabled" in any sense. the confrontational aspect of his personality that was blossoming at the end of tma really takes root here, but that's really it beyond the typical way night vale drives people a little insane. it's not until basira, melanie, and georgie show back up that how martin has changed for the worse becomes apparent. martin plays the straight man role in wtse, until he's compared to the girls who are not only untouched by night vale's madness but are free of fear entities entirely.

3. What do Jon and Martin do in town when they’re not vibing in the Palmer household?

we've only just really started exploring this. we've been more interested in the 4-way dynamic. the only concrete thing is that martin becomes friends with earl and steve and they hang out and do guy things.

jove's input:

Martin joins Carlos for a while as a scientist aid, and proves himself to be competent in the face of a nonsense world. He’s a beloved member of the town, I think we have him going to the hipster joints around?? Martin goes… around. Like average amounts around, he knows people and they know him by face, not just name, and he formulates relationships with people. Jon, outside of the polycule, doesn’t have very many relationships. Like Cecil, Jon has sort of lost his personal identity to instead dwell on his own personhood in relation to what he is. He was never a people person in the first place, and doesn’t like meeting people if it’s not necessary. If he goes out, it’s generally to stores, out to eat, or he was invited out by one of the other members of the relationship. For a while Carlos studied Jon at his lab, so that’s a place I guess. I think if you can imagine Cecil doing something, you can imagine Jon tagging along, unless it takes more spoons than he’s got stored up. Benny has mentioned that occasionally Jon will go hunting on his own, but I don’t imagine he does that very often. Jon is a group creature, so he’s usually a pair character, not a standalone.

4. Who are they drawn to in Night Vale (excluding carlos and cecil) and why? Friends? Neighbors? How long does it take for them to be accepted by the town?

we've touched on the friends thing a little here and here. the problem is, most of the side characters in wtnv are so underdeveloped that we just don't really think about them very much. there are more than who are mention we're INTERESTED in discussing, but time will tell

it takes a long time for them to be anything close to accepted. they get interlopered hard until cecil publicizes they're dating. martin gets it worse because he's out on his own more, and once jon starts unlatching from cecil he's starting to hunt and that makes people scared of him. jon hunting in wtse is nothing compared to jon hunting in tma, because there's enough latent fear that jon doesn't have to tear it out of people. that being said, he still does have victims whose nightmares he haunts. it's not enough to ostracize him but it's enough that he's considered dangerous if he focuses his attention on you too specifically.

the closest they come to being night valean is after the kids are born.

5. How do you characterize each main character — since there are varying ways people interpret them all — like if they were all presented with the same dilemma how would they react? / 6. What is the thing jon and martin struggle with the most in Night Vale? What do they excel at there?

i outsourced these to jove

Cecil struggles with vices. I affectionately call him the king of vices, because Cecil himself has lost his grip on things pretty thoroughly. He feels like his only reason for being here is to be of use to someone, and he has for a long time now. He loves his job as the voice, but uses that to erase his own personal identity; preferring to reference himself in third person or just hint on the fact that the story is his own. Cecil has too many lifetimes of things to remember, and too willingly forgets things he finds inconvenient or difficult. The downside of this is that when you get rid of the bad you tend to lose the good with it. With very shallow grasp of reality, self importance, memory, and personhood, Cecil tends to play up his role of voice, often losing himself in the role. He's become a gawky exaggeration of a persona. He's the outlandish version of what he always wanted as a child, several hundred times removed from itself. His entire being is a Statement. Something he wanted to hear, when he was saddled with guilt for looking at football boys in their uniforms from his bedroom window as a child. But, in the time of disposal and replacement of his identity, that's what's left. He's a statement. And we can all hear it. It leads to manic mood swings, and a deep need for approval. He is willing to hurt himself to reach expectations of him and doesn't know when to just Stop. He's an unmitigated force, and doesn't know when to slow down. He, rightfully, thinks he's the only thing keeping this town together, and it's a lot of pressure to put on a guy who really is very tired. Carlos is much beloved by the entire town, and is meant to be a stabilizing force to the chaotic force of the radio. When nothing makes sense, and Cecil is scared, he knows he always has someone a phone call away who will hear him, reassure him, and provide a solution. Carlos is a child's idea of a scientist, but that's what Cecil needs. Where Cecil's world has exaggerated into comical nonsense, Carlos has become a comic scientist, who mimes his profession enough, that he's become a safety net to Cecil in times of chaos. The down side to this is the fact that Carlos is very curious about a lot of things. He forgets to be there if he has a project he's working on, and it leaves Cecil neglected. While Cecil and Carlos fill in the missing spots in each other, he gets so wrapped up in his work that he forgets to actually be there. He forgets to come home, and neglects his position if there are conflicting interests while he's focusing on his own projects, and when he finds something he's curious about the lack of common sense in the town drives him to go further than is acceptable. The flipside to this is how Carlos is a private person who hates how Cecil discusses their personal life on air. He has a rule against it in place, to protect his and Esteban's privacy. He holds a lot of secrets in his coat, he's terrified of getting out. It's not uncommon for Carlos to sit in his lab waiting for the other shoe to drop and all the things he's covered up over the years to come out. He's scared of the things he's done coming out, and scared of failing Cecil, and disappointing him. He's always been his idealized perfect Carlos and he just... doesn't know how to be that for him. Not entirely. He's not perfect, and he's scared that one day Cecil will realize that, and everything that has become reality for him will unravel as easily as every other nonsense thing in this town.

Jon struggles with restraint in night vale; he gets caught up in Cecil's pace, and tends to lose himself in it. He doesn't restrain himself if he doesn't have to, and when he's faced with something he wants to do, and everyone else is opposed to it, Jon is very likely to do it anyways but this time ~in secret~. So when faced with the renowned vice king, Jon tends to lose track of morality and humanity, to let his monster loose. That's not who Jon is, though, and he faces severe regret when he realizes his actions still have consequences, even in this dreamlike almost unreal world he's found himself in. Jon's tendency towards accidentally hurting others with unwitting selfishness, means that Jon suffers in relationships and bonds, when he thinks he's doing the right thing. That said, Jon thrives in self identity, and exploration. Jon very literally is the one who just fits in with the town. He joins in, and feels like a cohesive member who..... may have always been there? With the town supporting his more monster side, Jon thrives. He has a great support system, and almost always has several eyes open. He's comfortable, and happy, with what he has become. Jon very much enjoys not being othered for who he is, and spends his time in Night Vale exploring himself, and his desires, in a way he never considered before. He's really come into himself. Martin struggles to find the town palatable. Martin has always been the guy who asks people to talk things out but never really wanted to discuss things; he's not willing to relent to the more monstrous side of things. Martin has a black and white view of things, and resents that he feels like the bad guy for wanting things that he feels SHOULD be common sense. Martin doesn't meld into Night Vale, and feels alienated for it, and feels like he's being forced to accept and to be a lot of things that he's not. Martin feels rejected and abandoned by Jon, when he spent so long pining after him, only for him to suddenly get wrapped up in so many things. There is a huge communication gap, and Martin's own suspicion of things monstrous makes him feel like he's stranded on his own while his boyfriend is unraveling his humanity faster than he can grasp ahold of that driving rope to not be left alone. Classic lonely. Martin also becomes the reliable figure for the town. Jon melds in as someone who has always been there, but in a way that exasperates the entity in him. Jon fits in like a dragon, and Martin won't just sit down and accept every unfair thing. It makes things hard for him for a while, but in clinging to his morals and humanity he ends up with a lot of real friendships with substance for it. He's made a niche for himself in the community, and is respected for it. If there is something going on in Night Vale that doesn't make sense, or you need to vent, or you need comfort, it will be Martin you go to. He's respected for the things he knows, and the sincerity in him that you so rarely see in Night Vale. Martin somehow ends up filling in that neurotic illegal space old woman Josie once held.

7. Are Cecil and Carlos a positive, neutral or negative example for them (ie. they’ve been together longer and jon and martin are a newer relationship at the end of tma etc etc)

cecil and carlos are overall a positive influence on them. they're not ENTIRELY positive, but mostly positive.

sadly, both couples struggle with communication and boundaries so they're not really corrective for one another.

8. How does Esteban respond to Jon and Martin? When do they have their baby if they have one in wtse?

esteban and avery are born at the same time in wtse and they see all four of them as equally their parent

9. What’s their living situation like? Do they all share the house — do they divvy up space? Id imagine living dynamics btwn them are crazy and hard.

carlos and cecil already have a house when jon and martin come to town and jon and martin end up moving into their guest room. as jon and martin stop being guests and start being boyfriends, the house becomes equally their space, including decorating and rules.

before avery and esteban are born, they buy a new house. jon and martin are equally involved in the process and martin even helps hunt down the real estate agent! when they move into the second house they share the master bedroom in an alaskan king bed

10. What do Jon Martin Cecil and Carlos think about eachother at the beginning of your story and what do they think abt each other by the time the plot (main dilemma, moral etc) is concluded?

jon and cecil see themselves as one being. once they meet things sort of snap into place and they feel truly complete. the first struggle in wtse is cecil and jon having peel apart from each other and return to having separate identities. even afterwards, cecil still relies on jon, as the archivist, to be his memory bank* and jon relies on cecil, as the voice, to speak for him. once they're back to being two people, it opens the door for them to bicker over things they disagree on, but they have ways to work around their misunderstandings and disagreements before it becomes an actual fight. usually that involves a lot of interference from the beholding.

*this is both metaphorical, in terms of their roles for the beholding, and literal. before cecil gets reeducated he dumps everything into jon, so at least someone will know it and see it and remember it. cecil knows he's not equipped to do it for himself and trusts jon enough to do it for him. the part of cecil that needed to die in order for him to become the voice, jon can hold that and file it away. like a piece of lost media finally found. the one remaining copy under lock and key so the knowledge will never be forgotten again.

jon and carlos butt heads a lot because they're both know-it-all control freaks. it never really escalates, they just rub up against each other. eventually their similarities go from weaknesses to strengths, as jon begins trusting carlos to, well, basically handle him. as jon becomes more comfortable being a monster, he trusts that carlos will be able to wrangle him, to keep him from getting too out of control. and that's comforting, to know that even if he can't trust himself he can trust carlos. additionally, jon is carlos' secret keeper. while there are things carlos is either not ready to or is unwilling to tell cecil, jon Knows them. so they get to unpack that as much as carlos is willing to engage with it.

martin really distrusted cecil at first, and i would honestly say there was a time he hated him. martin saw cecil as another avatar here to hurt and manipulate jon. once martin and carlos talked about jon and cecil's bond, how long cecil's been alive, and how long hes been the voice, martin saw him as jonah magnus 2. martin fully believed that cecil wanted to break up their relationship, push martin out, take jon over, and use him. eventually that opinion changes and martin and cecil form one of the most genuine and most secure bonds of the group, which i've discussed more here

martin sees carlos as an older brother figure and becomes very shocked pikachu the first time carlos hits on him. especially in the beginning, martin idolizes the control carlos has on all the fucked up shit happening in night vale. he's afraid, yes, but he's knowledgeable and is able to stop things before they get out of hand. he isn't an avatar, he has no special abilities, he's just a regular man but all the horrible beasts that call night vale home know that carlos the scientist can and will stop them from engaging in any bullshit or tomfoolery. either the avatars in their world were complete morons or carlos is some kind of super human force to be reckoned with. martin gets veeery disillusioned with carlos as they start working together, realizing he's closer to a mad scientist than the man he's built up in his head. but martin still respects him because, well, he is brilliant and talented and the town's hero, but martin sees all the places he has flexible ethics and uses questionable science. their dynamic is complicated because of that, with martin still seeing him as a mentor, and martin identifying them as the humans in the house, someone he should be able to relate to and lean on. but martin has guilt about that because he doesn't want to engage or encourage carlos' more questionable behaviors. carlos thinks martin's deep moral conflict is just the cutest and playfully bullies him a lot, which does not help with martins perception of him as an older brother.

[natsu-tte-noodle]

Thanks Icha for letting me pop in with my own observations |・ω・)づ (Like three days later but that’s how the cookie crumbles I guess lol)

Ngl I have tried to read all the reblogs but my attention span isn’t too good right now so I might be reiterating stuff

In terms of who’s popular and who’s not, I think everything that I could think of has already been said tbh.  Tho I think it’s worth mentioning that with Masumi, at least by my observations, on top of his archetype not being popular here it can also feel like he overcomes the same arc over and over again and then regresses back the moment a joke can call for it.  For that reason he can fall victim to feeling static.

I’d say that the three characters who suffer the most in terms of popularity in the EN fandom OVERALL from what I’ve seen are Tasuku, Hisoka, and Guy.

Tasuku has the problem that most of his major development is very gradual and over the course of event stories, so if you’re only reading the main story and haven’t touched Nocturnality and the like, it’s going to feel like a lukewarm arc at best.  The movie actually does a great job of making him likable with just Act 1 tho!

Hisoka’s problem was that he was kind of just a walking question mark for half of the server’s runtime I think?  Which can be a turn-off for some.  Though tbh I think there’s a disconnect between Hisoka’s popularity as part of [group] and as part of HisoHoma and his popularity by himself, and I’m not sure how big the gap is.  And Guy’s issue was that he was introduced at the very end of Act 2 and then the server closed with really only Die by the Sword to his name in terms of events.  Kumon has the same “one event only” problem (Apartment), but he has the benefit of being introduced earlier and also Hyodo privilege

Overall I’d say Citron is the biggest victim of “the devs have given me nothing to care about” outside of Winter since you have to wait so long to get to anything about him that’s not just a punchline.  I think I even mentioned myself ages ago somewhere that, as the biggest comic relief character, he sometimes does things that don’t make sense even for his own character.  Citron can very much be a “do your own work” kind of character to stan.  And while going full theorist on side characters is one thing, a lot of people are turned off by do your own work characters that by all means shouldn’t be.  Maybe it has something to do with the fear that your whole interpretation will be rendered incorrect at any update.

And while I’m very firmly on the side that it’s not unreasonable for his Japanese to still have mistakes (I myself just accidentally taught my students to say “he likes himself” instead of “he likes” and I’ve been speaking Italian to some extent for 10 years now lol), I do agree that the EXTENT to which he still makes mistakes is a problem, and that there’s been no real sign of improvement in his skills outside of his voiced lines in the plays.

(Tho I do also want to point out the scene in Kniroun where Citron is giving Itaru advice.  He makes mistakes in that conversation, but iirc Itaru doesn’t bother to correct him because he understood what he meant and it wasn’t the time to point it out.  I really like that.  I felt like that’s the best interpretation of his relationship with the language that we’ve seen in canon.  Or at least that I’ve gotten to lol since I’m not caught up with JP yet)

Anyway, fun fact to fully, FULLY articulate just how huge Itaru is in Japan, he won the first anniversary poll.  By 20 million points.  He got 55.8 million points.  Second place, Banri, got 35.9 million.  (Side note I’m still bitter we didn’t even get to find out the results in EN)

I remember the anti-[act 2 character] posts pretty well, though tbh the only part of the Banri slander I remember was the posts on the side of people saying “hey y’all I know some of you are joking but even as a joke it really hurts to see our favorite character hated on so constantly”.  Maybe it’s bc I didn’t join until July 2020 or maybe I just followed the right people, but I’m glad I was able to avoid the “Banri sucks” bad takes for the most part!

I’m curious about if the difference between Banri’s reception and Tenma’s was that Tenma was more obviously going to get development?  Or maybe that Tenma’s came faster?  I’m not sure, both of them start off as complete assholes, but I think Tenma’s assholery might have been more noticeably temporary from the start, where on top of the difference in the main target’s reception, Banri keeps his up long enough for it to still be some people’s only impression of him.  Or maybe his being in Autumn made it more reasonable to believe that’s just how he was gonna be.  Every now and then I still see fics where he never grew out of it

I have never considered Taichi to be an unpopular character, so I’m kind of surprised by that ngl, but it could be about who I follow here.  If we’re being honest the one character whose popularity I can’t get a grasp of is definitely Omi, though.  I can’t tell if he’s super popular, or if his fans are just very active about it.

Also yeah, as a Kazunari stan it’s true that following the incident with his VA, it sort of felt like you weren’t allowed to say anything about him.  I understand the character being tainted for people, but I’m glad that for the most part people were able to disconnect the character from the voice after said voice was officially removed.

Anyway!  I do want to make one clarification about Two-Faced Teacher: the cast was decided by the most popular character from each troupe, not overall.  Tsumugi actually placed 6th, after Sakyo and Masumi.  Of course, that’s Japan’s thoughts in year 1, so at least Masumi would have been nowhere near that high in EN.

In terms of ranking, I think it’s also important to keep in mind that in EN, we knew what events were coming up.  So if a big oshi event was coming up, people may have opted to not participate in the events around it.  Part of what made Sky Pirates considerably easy (tho my sister remembers it being kinda hard) might have been that Into the Night was right after (and ItN was relatively easy for an Itaru event most likely bc Ginji was after that).  I remember banking my sleep schedule during Halloween 2 on the fact that Two-Faced Teacher was next.  I myself was prepared to save up a billion gems for Last Runway

I think that’s all I can think of?  I think this reblog is all over the place but it’s fun to share and discuss this sort of thing!

was having banri thoughts lately just bc like. why not right. and then i suddenly remember u mentioning that some ppl... did not like banri at the start? which is wild to me bc in my mind ive always been ride or die for him. like i love juza so much but i feel like. that doesnt rly oppose liking banris character as well? banri is such fun character drama at the beginning of autumn and then his and itarus dynamic is fun from the start... gosh and the acting in the final bits of the autumn troupe between him and juza! suchhh fun tension. like. idk. it just started making me think like wow. digging thru a3 on my own with mostly the influence of like, just you has probably skewed my opinion of what the common perception of a3 is like. for example in my head winter is the most popular troupe which... it maybe isnt? i feel like recently i saw u mention summer might be the most popular(? this couldve been a dream) and i didnt realize itaru was super popular until like. last month. i mean if i had to pick a character i thought was the most popular i'd pick. misumi.

LKFJDLKFJD god what an ask

yeah i doubt i'm exactly the "common a3 experience" but to be perfectly honest i haven’t really kept tabs on the fandom per se since hh mid-2020 when i started to dig into some tags and saw so much negativity i was just :/ and stopped doing so (the curse to liking rascals </3).

Nowadays my knowledge of the a3 fandom is mostly the people interreacting with me, which already generally means that they vibe with what i post, so it gives me a skewed vision of the fandom like, are we all like that? or are the loud voices that made me go avoid the tag still here yaknow?

More stuff under cut

For Banri, i'll admit i wasn't too hot about him when i started the game, which now i regret so bad because he's my precious little meow meow hands down. He has such a good arc!!!! I know in my case i just had a hard time because i cared for Juza right away and i was still so high on Summer's development i kept comparing Banri to Tenma and going "here's why Tenma is amazing and Banri is cringefail". But it lasted me until a bit before Banri sees the portraits, when he starts to be conflicted, after that i was all, oh wait i like that guy. And then the more content i saw of him the more i loved him and he became my fav Autumn Chara. (so if you want to ramble about him more you’re free to do so because i’m team i adore this guy. please do. you’re so right in what you say of him.)

But so i did expect people to have my experience - hard time in the beginning, then mellowing on him before the end of the Autumn Chapter. And it wasn't the case 😭😭😭😭 At least at the time, the Banri's takes were rancid. Like it was genuinely annoying at a point, you couldn't go anywhere without some Banri bashing fuckery, even after his initial arc, people just. really hated him. My most hated takes were that i saw so many people say Banri would bully Yuki or stuff implying they would have an antagonistic relationship and it's probably why i cling to Into the Night so much, like HELL you're going to twist one of my fav crosstroupe dynamic!!! I legit saw so many things reducing Banri to a menace and a bully, and if not that, talking about how much everyone in the dorm hated him, and it was really driving me insane then.

I remember once making a post about how i was so close to blacklist "Banri" because people didn't filter this bashing with tags so i was just ready to just, not see Banri anymore, but it was breaking my heart. But somehow after this post i got a few people coming back at me about how it annoyed them too and i saw some of those people make their own posts in a more. direct way. and after that i never saw Banri bashing again. My power (< absolutely not, coincidence at best i'm sure).

A lot of Banri bashing i saw back then were from "newcomers" in the sense that it was after the anime aired, and a lot of people were just coming in without knowing about the events. imo i think the events do help giving a better feel to Banri in general so the fact people were fresh from the anime might have skewed things. I remember a friend who was in that case, newcomer and all, only read the main story, didn't like Banri after reading the main story. Then, Main story act 2 came out and while they didn't read the events, they read the main story and they started liking Banri there (because he did develop so much since then)

And as a whole i'd say, by act 2 it must have died out a bit.

There's another chara who gets bashed a lot but. Act 2 stuff 😔. Unfortunately a chara i like a lot so this was my breaking point of "i'm not checking the tags anymore none of you know how to behave". I think it mellowed since then? and i know the chara is popular in the JPN fandom meanwhile.

else i've seen like, Tasuku having very little content from fans and a few people being mean to him when they talked about him, but it was a long time ago and i sure hope it died out. I don't think i'd say he's bashed, more that most folks don't have strong feelings about him and stopped just with a bitter taste over his anger toward Tsumugi in the first winter chap.

Now. About popularity, Winter is DEF NOT the most popular troupe. Pretty sure it plays between Autumn and Summer in term of popularity. That said it's not like any of the troupes are unpopular so any ramblings about each Troupe would be meet with pleased reactions from the fandom, so it is harder to gauge that but yeah.

Troupewise something i noticed is that i think Summer is the most popular in term of GROUP, while Autumn is the most popular in term of Individuals. So a lot of people liked Summer specifically for their dynamic and how each of those charas played out each other more than individually liking each of them, while for Autumn it was, they liked all of them strongly! not specifically for their dynamic, though of course it plays a part, but as individuals. I mention it because i think it was the key difference in rank up in why i think Summer plays were okay to rank up to while Autumn were a nightmare. (that said that can also be "blamed" on "fans gravitate around characters that have elements they have as well" or something which means Autumn fans were more likely to be competitive and stubborn in a way Summer were more mellow.)

Itaru is definitely the most popular character of the whole game, period. It's not even a competition at this point it's so funny. when the EN server was live, anytime Itaru had a rank up card was a bloodbath (< survivor of Kniroun ranking up at 0.2%. Didn't sleep normally for the whole duration of the event it was so much.).

By the end of the server things were dying out a bit but still in general you could get a vague idea of popularity by how wild the rankings could be. For instance the fact Tasuku's ranking was a breeze without even trying was indicative of how he's not that popular.

In general i've noticed, at the time at least, that Winter ranks up were rather easy. I've ranked up for a few of Summer and i didn't see much of a problem otherwise*. Spring was really chill unless Itaru was in rank up. Autumn was THE Bloodbath. There were Autumn Stans organziation all over, the appp SYSTEMATICALLY broke EVERYTIME Autumn was around, it was always much more challenging, so yeah man.

Misumi* is probably the one i'd consider the second most popular character of the game, pretty much.

(*The funny thing is that Misumi got his lead play very early in the server's history, and i know i ranked up for him then and i didn't think it was too hard. In retrospect i'm sure it has more to do with the fact the game didn't have as many people playing it, than it had to do with popularity, so my word on Summer not being a problem is based on weird stats)

A while ago, for the Taiwanese server, there was a special set of cards in term of popularity on this server. Itaru got a SSR, Masumi got a SR, and Misumi got a R.

Masumi is in a weird position because i'd say he's fairly unpopular in the EN server, while he's popular in the JPN and Taiwanese server. Honestly i'm assuming he's especially popular with the teen audience.

AND THE MOST TELLING PART:

The first Cross-troupe's play was involving the most popular character of each troupe, by a poll being made by the JPN server. The leads were Itaru and Banri, then Misumi as a secondary character and Tsumugi as a more support character.

Meaning at the time, this was the order of the 4 most popular characters of the game.

When the mixed troupe event came to the English server, i remember a poll circulating on tumblr and likely twitter as well, trying to see if the EN Server had different favorites. Itaru still came on top, Misumi followed closely afterward. For Autumn, it was Juza and Taichi that were on the top of the Autumn poll, not Banri, and for Winter, i think it was still Tsumugi but Homare was very close behind.

So that was the popularity at least back then, god knows opinions now.

I've seen Homare be extremely popular on tumblr for sure. I have no doubt in Juza's popularity as well.

I saw a lot of Taichi fan going "Taichi is underappreciated" but i saw so many of them i was kinda just thinking "bro i'm pretty sure Taichi is in the popular character squad by now" But i'm also on the other hand as i've once seen a post saying Hisoka was popular and it stunned me a moment going ????? because as a huge Hisoka stan i don't see it???? There's a few devoted fans, and he has a better fanbase in JPN server, but in EN server??? (I'm comparing the last rank up for Hisoka VS the last rank up for Taichi in my mind and i genuinely don't see it for instance) so i also think it's likely i have a "fav blindspot" where i just don't think people are vibing with the charas the way i'm vibing, just. exactly like what i'm talking about with the Taichi stans so.... (that said i also once was tagged in a post that was going "i don't think i've ever seen a Hisoka or Tasuku stan" and a friend just went @ icha come here. Schrodinger Hisoka who's both popular and unpopular depending on who you're asking. And Tasuku IS MY UNDERRATED MEOW MEOW)

I think i recall Tenma being popular for a time, and Yuki is well appreciated by everyone around here. Kazunari has a loud fanbase but i'm pretty sure the seiyuu thing was a huge blow to them and a lot of them got more quiet at the time.

And for what it's worth i do think there's a sizeable portion of the fandom that really like Tsuzuru, but i think it's just, something you get to see a lot when a huge part of the fandom is creatives. And to be completely fair, Clockwork Heart is the one event i had a massive burn out at and didn't pay attention to the rankings at all, so i can't tell if people went really wild about it. And the next Tsuzuru rank up event was literally the last event of the EN server and i'm sure it's not indicative of anything since a lot of folks just didn't want to bother. So unlike the others were i'm using rank up as a gauge of popularity i can't tell how Tsuzuru's might influence his.

SO YEAH that's for what i could pick up BACK THEN, as i remind, i didn't really look deeply into the fandom itself. I'm really good in my corner so it might not actually be indicative of the fandom trends and i'm maybe completely off base.

Then about how, i, personally, don't represent the fandom, unless the fandom changed since then: When i first liveblogged a3, it was when the server was new and no one was on tumblr about it, so i was a little unfiltered from people's opinions. when i came back about a year later to comment on act 2, getting all worked up, and running then into the growing fanbase on this website, is when i started to run into fan takes and everything.

And, let's be clear, i came back because i was crying very hard over Hisoka and Azuma and the full Winter Troupe, and Chikage, so i really came here with my Big Winter Boots only talking about Winter and then Spring.

I ended up getting a feel of what people were talking about a lot at that time, and kinda ended up talking more about what i considered my Underrated Gems.

For instance, i absolutely adore Itaru. I ranked up for him, i've bleed for him, i love the dude. But he's so popular i figured i legit had nothing to say about him that a hundred people wouldn't have been able to say before. So i've mostly didn't really talk about him much despite loving him a LOT because i just didn't think i had anything to say. (now in my current reread i'm doing it so disconnected from what i know of the fandom that i indulged in talking more about how much i like him LMAO)

Meanwhile, there's characters i love that i know the fandom don't talk about much so i end up talking about them more, and it's the case of Tasuku. I wouldn't be surprised Tasuku is really low on most people's popular list. I'm just Not Most People and you're going to hear me ramble about that hunk of a man every few days or so.

I've made my niche in the Winter Troupe appreciation gang and i'm pretty sure by now a lot of other Winter people follow me as a result because i couldn't shut the fuck up, so then my perception of the fanbase gets skewed because i just think of Them ahah.

And there is the fact i adore the rookies, mainly Chikage and Guy, but don't talk about them so much mostly because they came out later in the main story and i've been rereading act 1 so many times instead,,, and didn't talk much about act 2 in case some people managed to save themselves from being spoiled (like you!!)

So my personal perception of a3 is probably not reflecting the whole a3 fanbase really much. God the amount of times i talked my friends's ears off about Winter, that they kinda just humored me without thinking much about it, until they found out one of the More Popular Chara (Itaru, Tenma and the whole Autumn Troupe mostly) and suddenly they're like *twirls hair* heeyy Icha tell us more about a3. It's genuinely so funny to me.

and again i don't know perhaps i'm full of shit, and it's not like i've kept tabs on the fandom recently either!

But that is at least a bit of what i remember in term of popularity and what i can say is that i shouldn't be taken as an example of the fanbase's views in general.

I'm vibing in my corner, and by experience, it usually meant i ended up talking about more niche things, but since i'm disconnected from the fandom i'm pretty sure i still have opinions that are popular opinions. So who knows! not me!

So yeah that's all i can say about the popularity of the a3 fandom. Def not an indication of it by me.

and it must be funny for you since you only really have me as your fandom gateaway because well. *waves at post* yeah.

The more you know!

[aspoonofsugar]

Jaune: Zero to Hero

Pyrrha: It's not about why; it's about knowing. Understanding dark and light helps us manifest our Aura. Everyone has some of both.

Knowledge, Creation and Destruction all lead up to Aura. This is just another way to say that they lead up to individuality, which is something Grimms lack:

Pyrrha: They are creatures of Grimm, the manifestation of anonymity.

Individuality is conveyed through Choice. This is why Choice is the most important and final gift. It is symbolic of self-actualization, which is what our characters are pursuing in their coming of age story.

Jaune’s personal arc comments the group’s collective journey and marks each stage very clearly.

In which way does it happen? And what do these stages mean for Jaune’s growth as an individual?

THE IGNORANT WARRIOR

Pyrrha: Jaune, do you... know what Aura is?

Jaune: Psch! Of course I do! Do you know what Aura is?

Jaune is introduced as inexperienced and ignorant. He lacks combat experience and knows nothing about key concepts like Aura, Landing Strategy or Semblances.

His journey starts because Pyrrha shares her knowledge with him:

She awakens his aura, his very soul and later on trains him, so she helps his body get stronger:

In other words, Pyrrha is the one who puts Jaune on the right path to become a true “hero” and a “warrior”.

This is Jaune’s objective since the beginning, but he initially pursues it in the wrong way:

Jaune: I don't want help! I don't want to be the damsel in distress! I want to be the hero!

He is fixated on an idea of hero which is outdated and has its root in toxic masculinity:

Jaune: Cause this is always what I've wanted to be! My father, my grandfather, and his father before him were all warriors! They were all heroes! I wanted to be one, too. I was just never good enough.

This is why symbolically Jaune wants to be like his male ancestors. He wants to grow into “a real man”:

Cardin: Let's see how much of a man you really are...

And this is conveyed also through his Weapon:

Jaune: It's a hand-me-down. My great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the war.

Jaune did not forge his own Weapon, but he inherited it. Crocea Mors initially represents the legacy he wants to live up to. However, this legacy, instead of driving him, slows him down because he can’t grow until he remains in his ancestors’ shadow. Jaune needs to develop his own individuality instead.

In order to do so, he needs to grow not only as a figther, but as a person too.

As a matter of fact, Jaune’s ignorance is not only limited to the world he has stepped into, but also to the people around him:

Jaune: That's easy for you to say. You've probably got guys clamoring over each other just to ask you out.

Pyrrha: You'd be surprised.

He is so self-focused that he does not notice others’ feelings and hurts them unintentionally.

However, Pyrrha teaches him once again:

Pyrrha:Tell her exactly what you said. No ridiculous schemes, no pick-up lines. Just... be honest.

 It is thanks to her that Jaune manages to become a better man:

He is even able to call Neptune out the way Pyrrha did with him:

Jaune: Then just go talk to her. No pickup lines, no suave moves, just be yourself. I've heard that's the way to go.

And as a result, even Jaune’s relationship with Weiss gets better:

Weiss: You said you were embarrassed at first. What made you come talk to me?

Neptune: You're looking at him.  You got some good friends looking out for ya.

Because the girl realizes Jaune is not only after her money or her romantic attention:

Weiss: All my life, boys have only cared about the perks of my last name.

But wants to genuinely be a good friend to her.

In short, Jaune starts the story as immature both as a fighter and as a person to the point that he is considered unfit and annoying by other characters:

Glynda: I don't care what his transcripts say. That Jaune fellow is not ready for this level of combat.

However, thanks to Pyrrha, he is given the chance to mature.

Not only that, but while other characters see a weakness and a nuisance in Jaune’s ignorance and inexperience, Pyrrha sees it as a possibility:

Weiss: Jaune, is it? Do you have any idea who you're talking to?

Jaune: Not in the slightest, snow angel.

Weiss: This is Pyrrha.

It is specifically because Jaune is new to Pyrrha’s world that he is free from bias:

Pyrrha:  That's what I like about you. When we met, you didn't even know my name. You treated me just like anyone else. And thanks to you, I've made friendships that will last a lifetime. I guess, you're the kind of guy I wish I was here with. Someone who just saw me for me.

This is why Pyrrha feels she can forge a genuine bond with Jaune. What is more, the girl has faith in his potential:

Pyrrha: It's all right. I used my Aura to unlock yours, but the energy that protects you now is your own. You have a lot of it.

She sees in him what others do not and helps him develop both as a man and as a warrior.

This is well highlighted by the metal motif the two characters share.

As @hamliet explains here Rwby has several characters linked to the seven metals of alchemy.

The goal of alchemy is to create gold thanks to a process of refiniment that purifies the metal and has it go through several transformations. 

The seven metals are nothing, but a scale that goes from the heaviest and most raw metal (lead) to the most purified (gold) passing through the others (tin, iron, copper, mercury, silver).

For a story, it simply means that a character goes through a process of change that leads to self-actualization.

In Rwby this idea is conveyed through specific characters embodying a metal (Ironwood, Penny, Mercury) or even thanks to metal motifs commenting a specific part of a character arc.

For example, Yang is associated with gold:

I am the golden one Who burns just like the sun

But Adam takes her arm away and has her regress in the scale of metals to iron. This regression is not simply physical, but psychological as well:

However, Yang re-affirms herself and moves forward. The first step of this process is to symbolically make her new arm “gold” again:

When it comes to Jaune, I think that he may be the character associated with lead aka the “prima materia” that needs to be molded into gold. Even if this is not true, metal is at least definately still a motif in his arc, as it is in Pyrrha’s. This is why both characters wear metal armors, differently from others.

Pyrrha is already close to her self-actualization and she reaches it in the climax of the Vale arc, where she completes her (tragic) arc and dies a Maiden.

This is why her armor is gold, while Jaune’s is white and gray. Pyrrha is at the top of the metal scale and close to the end of her journey, while Jaune is respectively at the very bottom and at the very beginning.

He is the embodyment of the prima materia that has potential for greatness, but only if he is rightly guided and if he himself works hard.

Pyrrha takes over herself the duty to help Jaune mold himself.

This is underlined also by Pyrrha’s semblance:

Pyrrha: Well, Ruby has her speed, you have your glyphs. My Semblance is polarity.

Pyrrha can control and bend metals and she shows her power for the first time when she helps Jaune against the Ursa, so that he can overcome his self-issues.

So, Jaune starts the story as the lead and is going through a path of self-refinement which will lead him to become gold, so more similar to Pyrrha herself.

Pyrrha offers him the basic knowledge to start this journey, but unluckily leaves him too soon and now Jaune has to move forward on his own.

THE CREATIVE AVENGER

Pyrrha: I want you to know that I'm just happy to be a part of your life. I'll always be here for you, Jaune.

Even after Pyrrha’s death, this stays true:

Blacksmith: That was some fine metal you brought me. Accents the white nicely. Where'd you get it from?

Pyrrha has become a part of Jaune.

This is a recurring motif in Rwby:

Penny: I won’t be gone, I’ll be part of you.

It is the idea that grieving is a process that leads to acceptance, but also to integration with a lost one. It is a way to have the deceased keep on living through the survivors.

In Jaune and Pyrrha’s case, this is conveyed through Pyrrha’s metal being used to enrich Jaune’s Weapon.

As stated by Ruby:

Ruby: Just weapons? They're an extension of ourselves! They're a part of us! Oh, they're so cool.

Weapons are symbolic of the self, just like Semblances.

What is more, Weapons and Semblances are also a declination of the dychotomy of body and soul, presented by the series.

Weapons are wielded by bodies, while Semblances are a materialization of the soul.

In other words, Pyrrha’s gold becoming a part of Jaune’s Weapon is symbolic of Jaune’s first step in a painful process that will lead him to overcome his partner’s death and to inherit Pyrrha’s legacy.

Jaune must keep on learning from Pyrrha and become more like her. As noted by @hamliet​, this is symbolized also by Jaune’s design aquiring more golden details as he goes on in his journey:

Jaune: Guess I was going to grow out of it eventually.

Ren: A sign of progress.

Jaune: Progress.

That said, grieving is not easy and Jaune must struggle with much pain and negative feelings.

This is why the changes he makes to Crocea Mors are finalized to increase its attack power:

It is because Jaune feels anger over Pyrrha’s death and wants revenge.

In the Battle of Haven he gives in to his fury and tries to kill Cinder. He is trying to superficially imitate Pyrrha’s sacrifice:

Jaune: If I die buying them time, then it's worth it. They're the ones that matter.

However, he is not doing it out of bravery or necessity, but out of recklessness and self-hate. This is why his actions lead to this:

Once again, Jaune risks to lose another loved one:

Jaune: No, no, no, no, not again! Weiss, c'mon, please!!

However, this time he is able to save Weiss thanks to his Semblance:

Jaune: My Semblance?

Nora: How else do you think you're healing her, dummy?

Jaune gives up on using his Weapon to fight and chooses to use his Semblance to cure. He chooses soul over body and Creation over Destruction.

At the same time, Jaune’s activation of his Semblance is meaningful on two levels:

Jaune: No. I don't think I'm healing her. Our Aura heals our bodies. It feels... it feels more like I'm using my Aura to amplify hers!

Nora: Wait, aren't you worried about running out?

Jaune: Pyrrha once told me I've got a lot of it. I still believe her.

First of all, Jaune’s Semblance is rooted in the idea that people heal themselves. His power is not to cure others, but to amplify others’ auras, so that they can become stronger and can heal. It is about bringing out the best in others. It is a power fit for a leader, but also an ability symbolic of Jaune’s own process of healing. He can heal himself through helping others to heal.

Secondly, Jaune’s Semblance is in itself a nod to Pyrrha. Pyrrha used her own aura to awake his and Aura Amp is simply an evolution of this idea. It is not about activating others’ auras, but it is a power that lets Jaune share his. It also makes good use of something Pyrrha noticed immediately aka Jaune’s huge quantity of aura.

In other words, Jaune ends up acting like Pyrrha in the Battle of Haven, but not because he fights Cinder, but because he shares his gift with others, just like Pyrrha did with hers.

Pyrrha is a part of Jaune both in body (Crocea Mors) and soul (Aura Amp), but Jaune must still truly understand what this means.

He makes progress in Lost:

Red-Haired Woman: She understood that she had a responsibility... to try. I don't think she would regret her choice, because a Huntress would understand that there really wasn't a choice to make. And a Huntress is what she always wanted to be.

This is the essence of Pyrrha’s sacrifice. Jaune comes to understand it and chooses to make a similar choice together with his team:

Jaune: I think... I think she knew she wasn't going to win. That she might not come out alive. But... she also knew she was the only one that could try.

Ren: So she did.

Nora: Maybe we should too.

Jaune: Yeah, we should.

In this way, it will be as if Pyrrha were fighting together with them:

Nora: Pyrrha may not be by our side anymore, but we can fight like she is.

Jaune: And in a way... she will be.

Jaune tries to overcome his anger and his sadness for Pyrrha’s death in order to keep fighting like she did.

So, once again he chooses this:

Ruby: I wanted to protect my friends.

Maria: Precisely! It is the desire to preserve life which fuels the light inside you. And to make no mistake, it is light. Preservation is an extension of creation, or, at the very least, an enemy of destruction. The Creatures of Grimm were made by the God of Darkness, but your light comes from his brother.

He chooses to protect life and this is the essence of Creation.

Once he confirms this choice, he is free to explore Creation’s potential and he does so in the land of Creation itself, Atlas.

He strengthens his shield instead of his sword:

And he trains his Semblance:

Oscar: Nice, your recovery is getting faster.

This all leads him to become stronger psychologically:

Ren: Him on the other hand... There's no fear at all. I can see it, he believes we're going to get this done.

That said, Jaune starts meeting limits to his new found strength rooted in Creation:

Jaune: Ah, sorry. No matter how much I boost you, they won’t go away.

Jaune: Did... I stop the virus?

Penny: No. It’s still there.

Jaune’s way to move forward is to heal himself through healing others. Still, what to do when this is not possible?

THE DESTRUCTIVE HEALER

Penny: No… there’s not enough time to heal me…

Penny: But there is something you can do…

What happens in Atlas is an inversion of Haven.

Penny pushes Jaune’s Semblance away and touches Crocea Mors.

Jaune is asked to give up on healing her and to speed up her death instead. He is asked to choose his Weapon (body) over his Semblance (soul) and Destruction over Creation.

This marks the characters entering the Destruction phase:

Leaving Creation (Penny) behind.

For Jaune, this means that his own self image that he has worked so much to build and to make his own:

And that has been enriched in Anima thanks to Pyrrha...is shattered:

At the same time, he is once again put in a similar spot as Pyrrha:

They both become unwilling agents of Penny’s death because of Cinder (and Emerald and Mercury in the first case):

Pyrrha: Ruby, I... I'm so sorry.

Ruby: Me too. But it wasn't your fault.

Jaune: She's right. Whoever was on that microphone... they're the ones that did this. And we have to make sure they don't take anyone else.

So Jaune’s journey to integrate with Pyrrha, to understand her and her struggle continues.

What now?

It is too soon to say because we have yet to properly start our journey through Destruction and what it is about.

That said, there are two things that are worth highlighting. The first is a motif Rwby is following, while the second is a general theme found in many stories.

1) As @hamliet​ has stated in many metas and as I have written here, Rwby is an alchemical story. Alchemical stories are usually marked by three important deaths. Each death is symbolically linked to a color. They are usually black, white and red. However, sometimes there can be yellow instead of the white or the red. This is the case here, where a resonant death is the yellow death aka Penny’s.

It is a death that happens while the characters are surrounded by yellow:

And it happens through a weapon called “Yellow Death” (Crocea Mors’s meaning). So, it is really not subtle. Penny’s death is meant to mark an important passage for our protagonists, just like Pyrrha’s one (the black death).

2) It is common in stories that deal with healers to explore the concept of death as well.

The basic idea is that a healer is a person meant to cure. That said, they will meet people impossible to cure and that will die on their watch. This is an unescapable truth a true healer must live with.

Let’s highlight this theme is found in works very different for genre and culture.

Let’s have two examples.

Scrubs aka an American comedy about doctors deals with this theme multiple times. In many episodes the characters must simply accept they can’t save a life, but must still not lose hope and keep on living themselves.

Yosano from the manga BSD says so:

Her backstory explores the link bewteen life and death further since it is shown that a power that cures fatal wounds can be used to cheapen life itself:

It is too soon to say if Rwby will explore a similar theme, but the fact that Jaune, (the healer) is the one that has to speed up Penny’s death might be a very powerful and poignant choice. This is true especially because Rwby does not refuse Destruction (and so does not refuse death), but presents it as a principle equal to Creation (so as a part of life).

THE CHOOSING HERO

Jaune’s arc is about living Pyrrha’s death over and over again with different scenarios and outcomes. This happens so that in the end he can finally overcome it.

So far, it has happened three times and each time has been in the climax of an important battle.

The Battle of Beacon has him witness powerlessly to Pyrrha’s death (lack of knowledge and passivity).

The Battle of Haven has him saving Weiss (creation).

The Battle of Atlas has him killing Penny (destruction).

What is more, every time Jaune becomes more proactive and conscious of what he is doing.

In Beacon he has no idea of what is happening. He works with little information and things happen to him without him being able to do anything.

In Haven his actions lead to Weiss being in danger, but he manages to save her. That said, he does not do it consciously. He unlocks his Semblance because of emotional stress. It is an unconscious choice and not a conscious one.

In Atlas he makes a specific conscious choice, but it is a choice that is forced on him because of external circumstances. It is also a choice that is meant to challenge and temporally break him.

In other words, he is slowly and painfully approaching Choice aka self-actualization. Right now, he has to face the consequences of Penny’s death, but this will probably lead him to finally enter the Choice stage and to complete his arc by becoming a “hero” aka gold (probably).

At the same time, this final choice will also be about healing and overcoming grief. It will be the final integration with Pyrrha and him being able to honor her legacy.

After all, we have been told from the beginning what Pyrrha’s fate would have been. We’ve just failed to notice:

Pyrrha: For it is in passing that we achieve immortality. Through this, we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. I release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee.

June and Pyrrha’s bond is eternal and she is meant to be the key character in Jaune’s arc. It is only through confronting and finally overcoming her loss that Jaune can finally self actualize and become the person Pyrrha has always known he could be. Pyrrha will symbolically be with him in this struggle. Her memory will protect and inspire him. 

[axvoter]

Blatantly Partisan Party Review I (Victoria 2022): Angry Victorians Party

Prior review: federal 2022 (as the Australian Values Party)

What I said before: “such is the character of a man who has decided to call his party Australian Values, which I can only conclude is either a piss-take or a reflection of a very warped idea of ‘values’.”

What I think this election: Heston Russell—the ex-military controversy magnet mentioned in the quote above—founded the Australian Values Party to contest the federal election back in May. The state branch is the Angry Victorians Party. Someone somewhere is very pleased with themselves that these both abbreviate to AVP.

If this off-putting name immediately made you assume this party is for the most cantankerous and disagreeable people in the state, then you're on the right track. Its members include Catherine Cumming, a regressive bigot and anti-vax protester who was elected to the Legislative Council for Derryn Hinch’s Justice Party in 2018 and got disendorsed before she was even sworn in.

You won’t have much trouble guessing what the Angry Victorians Party is angry about. Yup, this is an anti-lockdowns party. They want legislation to restrict emergency powers but at no point indicate how they would have approached the pandemic or what general framework they think is appropriate for government responses to crises. They want politicians to be personally liable for their actions which is obviously code for “jail Daniel Andrews”. Politicians are accountable for their actions at the ballot box and can be prosecuted for offences in office; what these angry idiots want is to expand liability in ways that are implausible or dysfunctional in terms of cabinet government or parliamentary democracy and to have their vexatious legal demands legitimised.

The AVP’s small business policy is also really about lockdowns. They want business owners to be able to “assess and accept the relative risks for their own business, staff and families”. Yes, that’s right, bosses will make decisions for their workers. Got a shithead angry boss who wants to force you to work during a pandemic before there are vaccines or effective treatments? The AVP thinks this is fine and they would have risked your health during 2020. This is a contemptuous policy.

Even the AVP’s policies that have good aspects are flawed. They want to decriminalise marijuana and invest in suicide prevention, but this is as part of “broader alternative and natural mental health treatments”. Given the company they keep, it simply makes me wonder what snake oil they are happy to swallow.

The name is apt: this is just kneejerk anger without solutions.

My recommendation: Give the Angry Victorians Party a weak or no preference. Remember to vote below the line on the large ballot for the Legislative Council so that your preference goes where you want it to go; all ballots with 5 or more preferences marked below the line are valid votes.

Website: https://australianvalues.org.au/angryvictorians