#who in the game were lacking

[mxdotpng]

like i think part of edna's side quest in the game thats the most interesting is sorey being in denial that he cant dave eizen and edna fully believing him because she doesnt want to accept that hes dead. which is why the grief hits her all at once at the end after hes gone.

[dykedvonte]

You ever just see a Mouthwashing take that makes you want to bang your head into a wall? I literally just saw someone claim Curly couldn't have been emotionally abused by Jimmy before the crash because he was in a higher position of power than Jimmy.

-Shrimp Anon

The mouthwashing fandom has shown me that people genuinely do believe that certain types of abuse are not as detrimental as other types especially when they deem those immune/resistant, ergo, believing one is objectively worse no matter how it affects the person nor the intersections of power, history and dynamics at play.

Get ready cause this is a yap session:

Cause like it's heavily implied that Curly and Jimmy's friendship was toxic and abusive, pointedly in the direction of how Jimmy uses Curly's belief/comfort in him. Curly wasn't forced to enable Jimmy but he was emotional and mentally on edge around him in almost every scene in some way. Mental and emotional abuse are not contingent on what positions you have at work. Yeah, he's Jimmy's boss but he was Jimmy's friend first and it's like getting into Psych discussion to talk about how social power tends to overshadow any perceived organizational power in the human mind. People are concerned about their jobs ofc but they tend to hang onto and put more value/investment into their personal relationships, hence why there tends to be laws and restrictions around mixing the two.

I always see the sentiments that "Curly is a grown ass man", "Curly is bigger than Jimmy", "Curly is Jimmy's boss", "He just needed a backbone" as criticisms of Curly and while I do agree that on the surface level all of these to be true and viable ways Curly could've taken more control of the situation, I often look at the parallels of Anya and Curly as victims of Jimmy pre/post crash.

The way Jimmy talks to Anya post crash is how he talked to Curly in the pre-crash segments. It's hard to pin-point mainly because we know he hates and wants nothing to do with Anya compared to his contrary but similarly handled obsessions with Curly. It's a weird sort of "honey-moon" effect of abuse Jimmy does in terms of emotional and mental victimization. He is always horrid to Anya, always talking down or questioning her abilities and thoughts in a situation, this of course includes the harassment and assault. However, he has a moment of attempted gentleness/conditioning when he question her about the mouthwash when she's contemplating drinking it at the table. The key difference is he has no personal investment in Jimmy outside wanting nothing to do with him, meaning there is no sort of romanticized version of him that he can condition her off of. He knows this, hence, why he always reverts to trying to make her to scared to oppose him.

This sort of give and take of "kindness" doesn't work on her because she knows he is just doing it to take more from her than whatever he could possibly give but it reflects even the "softer" scenes between him and Curly where he always rewords or rephrases Curly's sentiments and concerns to sound more shallow. He is feigning a deeper understanding by reworking Curly's emotions into something bad and needing to be hidden. Everything is laced with envy and resentment, an outburst just around the corner, I mean he even slams the table in the birthday party scene, a tactic in emotional manipulation to set the victim on edge and cloud their ability to respond. Even if Curly knows Jimmy won't get physical in that moment, the physical actions is intended to make him back down in the confrontation in case it does. This is something that is just not person specific. It ingrains itself into how you interact with the world and life and it shows in major and minor ways with Curly.

Post-crash, the abusive nature is more in tandem to the physical victimization Anya went through and the stripping of voice and autonomy we see take place. Like the parasite in HFIM, Jimmy speaks for Curly most of the time and puts words in his mouth, similarly to how he takes Anya's plans as his own. He very commonly, with the both of them mind you, supplements the worst aspects of himself into them; pettiness, selfishness, lack of understanding... And tries to cover himself with their best qualities; kindness, planning, initiative, etc...

These parallel are just to say that positional power has little to do with if a person can be abused and how it can even be flipped to further the abuse. There is no doubt that Curly could've picked up on Jimmy's envy of his position hence another reason he never confronted him as a Captain but as a friend as doing so would immediately put Jimmy in a space to be confrontational/combative.

I think the disdain some people have when they talk about the heavily implied if not implicitly stated emotional/mental abuse Curly experienced being Jimmy's friend is when treating it as an excuse to why he didn't do more. I can understand that completely because it is not an excuse to why he didn't do more but is a very real reason people in his position in these scenarios can experience whether in the context of a work or social environment. However, I also think the way people talk about it really does demonstrate a bigger problem when talking about abuse when somehow who is/was abused is either part of the issue or enabled it.

Harkening back to the sentiments about Curly's inaction regarding Jimmy, I think the exact phrases I used/have seen show how there is an inherent belief that it is easier to overpower the effects of emotional/mental abuse that go in tandem with the perception of Curly as someone who should be able to. There is not an age you suddenly stop being susceptible to abuse nor a set point or low where you realize how it has affected you. You don't suddenly know to stand up or put a face on to face your abuser nor admit that you inadvertently enabled them to subjugate someone else to the same treatment. Maybe it's my psych brain but their is this growing belief that direct action is somehow easy or always the best method with the game shows you instances where it is not always the case. In real life that rings true too. He should have done more, but it's not impossible to see why he struggled to find a way or didn't even if it makes us mad.

It's not easy to suddenly gain a "back-bone". You don't immediately want to resort to aggression, especially if it mirrors the type you were a victim to. You don't want to believe you allowed yourself to be treated this bad, let it get that bad or allowed something bad to happen to someone else. It is easy to be in denial, to retreat to your thoughts or make excuses to avoid the painful truth. It's frustrating but in a way we know is relatable. It why we both hate and love Curly for it. We know we'd be better, we think we'd be better, we like to think we wouldn't falter in the same ways but it's always easier to say that from the outside looking in. It's easy to see what he was doing wrong because we are seeing it, not him, but the game really does make you picture what you would do if this was your raw reality and it's why this debate about Curly seems so never ending/contradictory. We can all say what we'd do but bottom line is that's much different when you're in the moment with all the emotions and human feelings attached.

I personally think Mouthwashing tackles the themes of rape culture, enabling, toxic masculinity, types of abuse and patriarchy in ways that are meant to deconstruct the typical straightforward views we mostly have of these concepts and how little subtilities of them are just as, if not more, detrimental than the overt/obvious parts. The game deals with the idea of little details and bigger picture in a way to show that sometimes the bigger picture is not the issue but the little details that make it up. It's why I have a personal dislike of depictions of Jimmy as the typical horrible person who would of course do something like this because the game is about noticing the little warning signs, the foreshadowing and foresight.

It's why I dislike the typical discussion of "bro code" and "boys will be boys" for the game because the game makes a point to avoid the standard depictions of such. It is about the type of men who still enable despite not condoning, agreeing or even perpetuating harmful beliefs because they can't see the little details or the ways it seeps into their everyday. The severity is not obvious to them as it was not obvious to Curly, Swansea or even Daisuke the way it was to a woman like Anya. There are little details about Jimmy that should ring alarms but if you are too naive like Daisuke, too distant like Swansea or too conditioned like Curly, they are just off markers.

There is 100% more constructive/concise ways to say "Curly was a victim of Jimmy's abuse on an emotional and mental aspect that clouded his judgements and perceptions in the scenario" while also critiquing on the side of "Curly still had a responsibility to protect Anya as a crew mate and Captain that he failed to do due to biases and stigma's he failed to surpass" without the weird condemnation people give him about should've knowing better than to let himself be manipulated by a person he considered a close, if not family/best-friend and had his own reasons to trust initially. Also stop being weird about victims of abuse in general with this fandom, like sorry not everyone has a like social epiphany the moment someone's nasty to them. People are treating it like you immediately know when you are in a toxic relationship immediately or comprehend when a person is actively dangerous and either it's your fault for not knowing how to leave/cut them off or you deserve it. Like the hypocrisy of people believing how certain fans treat the story reflect their irl views but not their own is crazy.

End statement is: I honestly don't even know man, I've been writing this too long and just like no man on that ship was perfect or really helped Anya when it mattered and I feel like pitting them against each other in discussion on who did the least or most or how it was justified sucks cause in the end Anya always did the most and best thing for herself.

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts Union χ - Dwarf Woodlands

[lunarharp]

just tiresome scribblings today...a Slug

[housederiva]

I just beat Veilguard for the first time after about 100 hours, I give it a 5.7/10. I would’ve enjoyed it more if I hadn’t loved Dragon Age since 2009 and had this story not been one of the cornerstones of my life since I was a child

[rachelamberish]

okay pause. I’m right with y’all on the disappointment over lack of decision carryover and heavy solas focus *to the exclusion of all else* but i have to laugh:

“why is solas and the inquisitor’s relationship at the foreground of veilguard. why are solavellans being given special treatment. This is just like astarion baldurs gate. boo i hate it here. I am an intellectual by the way”

no you are not. You are very stupid and miserable. Hope that helps

[soullessseraphim]

!!! Blood !!!

Wake up babe, the Nile turned red

Just an idea that wouldn't leave my mind and that I had to execute in some way. Don't be shy, join them :>

It's their birthday apparently? or like today's Valdemar day, like the 5th of May? idk-

[bisexualcroissant]

Thinking about Jean and Elodie Moreau again. Thinking about doomed siblings, and the unspeakable tragedy of it all; Jean’s hopeless despair and his need to know why, why hadn’t they saved her, because Elodie hadn’t deserved it—not like he did, right? They weren’t the same, they couldn’t be.

Jean remembering France, remembering blackberries and the little ducks of Elodie’s dress and the salty breeze off the Mediterranean. She’d been ten when he left home, just ten when he’d stopped protecting her from their mother’s temper and father’s violent business. Did she know he hadn’t gone by choice? Did she blame him or forgive him?

Jean wondering, but not being sure if he wanted to know what had really happened, because as long as he didn’t he could remember Elodie as she had been in his memory, as safe: So long as she existed as fractured memories, she was safe and small and sheltered. The long, terrible silence after Jean asked about her, and Stuart’s awful, “Did you think you were special?”

Jean’s disbelief at the unfathomable, because it was, it couldn’t be true—a single question shattering his deep-rooted belief that he had deserved everything he got, so nothing bad could have happened to Elodie, because unlike him she didn’t deserve it, right? Right? “Elodie,” Jean said, and just hearing her name aloud almost snapped him in half. “She was only ten when I left home. Ten! Why didn’t they love her enough to keep her safe? Why didn’t they–” love me?

Neil quietly saying, “I didn’t know you had a sister.” Jean’s spiral, his despair, everything breaking in an instant: They sold us both to monsters and slammed the door on our screams. Why? Why? Why?

The photograph outside the Moreau childhood home. All that mattered were the two kids sitting in the backyard: Jean at nine or ten, with a tiny Elodie buried against his side. He remembered that dress of hers, with its little yellow ducks. He’d clumsily patched up the hem a half-dozen times when she tore it on the blackberry bushes taking over their backyard. How much Jean had loved her. But in the end it wasn’t enough, not to change his fate, nor hers.

Jean and Elodie as children, as they had been. Jean the older brother who had protected her, sent away at the age of fourteen to never come home again. Jean’s unspeakable loss knowing Elodie was gone. Realising that nothing either of them ever did would have been enough to make their parents protect them; to love them enough to keep them safe. Jean’s heart, knocking holes in his ribcage, his quickly fracturing control, the escalating, violent grief. Endure. Endure. Endure.

“I am just a Moreau,” Jean said, flat and fierce. “I am not—”

“So was Elodie,” Neil reminded him, and Jean stopped breathing. “Remember that the next time you think you aren’t worth saving.”

[taffywabbit]

i just woke up so i haven't actually watched the pokemon direct thingy yet, but i heard they mentioned they aren't pushing out another console release at all for 2024 and if that's true then frankly THAT news is way more hype than any actual game announcement could ever be. go girl let us wait!! this is genuinely what i've been begging for for years now

like, oh a new Legends game? that's neat i guess. oh wait it's being given literally ANY time to cook and they aren't crunching Game Freak to hell and back in order to pump out a bunch of half-baked annual releases for the first time in ages?? NOW we're fuckin talking. LOVE to see the torturous cycle broken

[m4ggotm0ld]

Natlan is literally the worst thing Hoyoverse has ever created, and for so many reasons, but they somehow made it worse by k!lling off the only good character from it

[trans-leek-cookie]

listen I'm not gonna be a Curly apologist he did Fucked Up as captain but I genuinely recommend ppl watch a playthru that goes thru the game in chronological order. It kinda helps clear up the events and gaps between them, bc even tho u See the times, you still experience it out of order.

The stuff Anya says definitely sets off alarm bells but it doesn't seem like he Fully Understands what she means, and I'm going to be 100% honest I think she was trying to repress it herself. This isn't to say that she is AT ALL "at fault" for what happened after and she should've gotten help even if she wasn't ready to fully discuss the issue but I genuinely think she herself was still coming to terms with things, so she didn't necessarily process the full impact before talking to Curly, and a lot of what happens occurs after they're laid off- like this delves into personal interpretation but I genuinely think Anya only registered Jimmy as a serious danger after his outburst towards Curly. Ofc my interpretation is limited bc of the limited pov in game and not having gone through what she has, but it personally reads more akin to coercion over time than a singular Obviously Violent incident (like. Not to say that Sexual Assault isnt violent in nature, just that coercion often specifically works to obfuscate the fact it is a form of violence.) The layoff is a Massive catalyst for her bc of Jimmy, in that she now has a very clear understanding of his capacity for aggression.

To extrapolate a little from the "Dead Pixel" conversation, she starts by saying she Likes The Screen (even though it's fake). While Curly has his quotes about the pixel "not ruining the illusion" which. Y'know is Symbolic Of His Flaws. She doesn't say the pixel ruins it, just that she can't get it out of her mind.

If we take the pixel to represent her Or jimmy, either way the way she talks about it kind of downplays things, like it's a Minor Thing that's Slightly Upsetting, but she's still okay with the big picture. Idk I could be 100% wrong but that is my take

Besides that, Anya tells curly she's pregnant 2 days before the crash, and it isn't until she outright states it that he starts Putting The Pieces Together. I want to note, he says "I'd do anything" and "this doesn't have to go on our performance evals" 1. Before he knows shes pregnant 2. Under the assumption she might attempt suicide, and I doubt he even thought about her using the gun on anyone else before she brings that up. He says literally before the line where she tells him she's pregnant that "being laid off isnt a reason to hurt [herself]". Like I've seen ppl talk about the performance evaluation thing like it's about her and jimmy, but I think he's referring to (his belief) that she might attempt suicide or similar which might genuinely be a consistent thing he's seen her struggle with, given she's able to go through with it. Also just to note: assuming their society is like ours (hellish) reassuring her he won't blab Abt her mental health is like. Genuine reassurance- lots of mentally ill ppl will Not Open Up bc it could have long term consequences (like. For example. On employment) ANYWAYS I hope it doesn't come off like "Curly never failed Anya" but rather "Curly approached this specific situation without the context of why Anya is panicking and (possibly validly) assuming she's dealing with a very different issue"

Also let me say again the time frame is 2 days. We don't Really see what happens, but we know Anya tells Jimmy without Curly knowing. I genuinely believe he maybe didn't do a Great Job in those two days (the fact he says Anya should've talked to Him before telling Jimmy is uhhh. Mm. 1. Your job to create an environment where she comes to you my man 2. Weird to tell her what she should do with HER OWN PERSONAL INFORMATION) but like.

I get a lot of ppl want immediate consequences but consider that they can't really get rid of Jimmy (co pilot. Which is. Y'know it's Own Problems) but also like. Curly knows Jimmy, and we know that Jimmy tends to lash out. Curly should probably Not Confront Jimmy Unless He Knows Exactly How To Keep Him From Hurting Anya. Like I'm not an expert but this is something genuinely important- when confronting an abuser you NEED to take into account the impact it can have on their victim, and sometimes for the victims safety you need to wait until you have a Solid Plan. It sucks but it's important.

And theres discussion to be had about Curly kinda going along with Jimmy saying "well what if we all died" and like. I do believe he Didn't Realize What Jimmy Said. Like he was just processing/trying to keep the situation under control (and failing because he underestimated how willing Jimmy was to hurt everyone including himself).

Like he's definitely an enabler but I would say his problems are mostly before he understands the gravity of the situation, in that he's friends with Jimmy and assumes the best of a man with abusive tendencies, and fails to create an environment that can keep Anya and the others safe. Like, he definitely doesn't handle in game events perfectly (psych evaluation for one- he does do it instead of Anya which is actually helpful, but he still treats it like. Weirdly.)

Idk I have a lot of thoughts about this game and I don't necessarily want to defend Curly but more like. Anya's situation is very delicate (and light on details) so sometimes the way ppl talk Abt it feels like they aren't actually focused on what she wants and what it means to prioritize her safety y'know?

Edit bc I just now figured out kinda how I want to word it: curly is an enabler and making things worse bc he doesn't put a stop to Jimmy's BS, but in the specific scenario we see in game I think he's trying to use his Skillset of like, people pleasing not for Jimmy's sake but for the crews (like "if I nod my head and say I sympathize he won't lash out and hurt them") which like. There are situations which that is unfortunately the safest option (on an individual level yes, but sometimes it's also necessary to prevent abusers lashing out in response toward ppl who are more vulnerable) but it was the Wrong Choice.

It's like. I think Curly was trying and had good intentions, and understood that he needed to protect the crew, but he didn't have the toolset/experience to realize he can't Just go along with things and that he needs to be able to set hard limits, even for ppl he likes and trusts. Like he failed but the failure was "for want of a nail", where it began way before what we see (for want of an understanding of power dynamics I guess.) Again, don't think this makes curly more forgivable or whatever, I just think he's a good example of trying to make the right choices when you never realized you'd have to make these kinds of decisions and therefore are unprepared and/or unaware

Second edit: personally I don't think you can really incapacitate jimmy without there being serious risk (again he's the copilot) but curly should've given Anya the gun when she told him Abt the pregnancy

[st6rly]

i this one dude who thinks we're friends (we arent) is mad at me for bashing the natlan plot now like im sorry the big corp sucks man like 😹😹 im a writer im going to criticize a flipping in-your-face power of friendship ahh plot

[ieidolon]

now that i'm playing dragon age: veilguard i understand hbomberguy so much better. think i could probably do a 3.5 hours long video called "dragon age: the veilguard is FINE and here's why"

[tonyfinale]

second best damn fire emblem I ever played

[cupophrogs]

Updated Ami's dress a little :p

[randomnameless]

The fun thing about the Crest system argument is that before Hopes, myself and others were pointing out how Edelgard's claims make no sense when held up to the various nobles we have in game. The Alliance was a big sticking point in this regard, it was only in the Kingdom where it seemed to exist but it was also tied to defending their lands. Then Hopes came out where Sylvain explained that yes, there is a Crest system… that the nobles ignore and do their own thing. Fodlan itself basically says no one follows the Crest system, so is it really that important that Edelgard removes it while consolidating power on herself?

Where in Nopes does Sylvain mention the Crust system?

Crust system is basically the Fodlan equivalent of inheritence laws, and not that different from a male/female/klingon primogeniture rule, legitimacy rule, or picking the most able "person" to inherit...

Especially since the "most able" notion is as variable as the contents of a teaspoon and Fodlan refuses to elaborate what kind of magical superpower each crest gives.

The Nabateans using hair dye in the War of Heroes make more sense than the crust "system"!

I remember Houses thought trying to push the "wah wah inheritence based on crusts bad" with Sylvain (or was it Dimitri?) saying that the crested heir inherits, and the others are disinherited or something? I haven't checked the jp version and if it is worded differently, but, come on.

We see Rufus and Gilbert, sure they don't inherit the ancestral seat/throne of the house (Gilbert's bro is the baron, and Rufus is salty bcs Lambert got the throne), and yet they're not left in the boonies, are we really supposed to believe that both Rufus and Gilbert didn't get a penny, a house, titles (Gilbert became a knight) or anything for inheritance? Disinherited Rufus would never have became a grand duke (unless Dimitri's grandma was from Itha so Rufus took the inheritance from his mom?) or have lived a relatively more privileged life than Ashe and be free to "seduce around".

Jury's out about whether Glenn had a crust or not, and yet, Glenn got a fiancée and is always highly spoken of by his dad - not something you'd do for a kid you disinherit!

So, what were Sylvain (or Dimitri?) talking about in Houses?

Or were they full of shit to pretend there is a "system" that exists but isn't applied anywhere in the land, so it's totes important to get rid of it and make "ReFoRmS" and in the end, Supreme Leader wasn't totally in the wrong and had some good ideas, but please don't ask more about those ideas or what the "most competent" means to her, especially since Bernie in her solo ending in CF (just like in the other routes) can rule her territory ?

We don't see Hector crying a river because Uther is the Lord and not him, or Eirika doing the same (even if it would have been better for Magvel lol) just like Tana, hell, Elincia's dad didn't want to create an inheritence feud between his daughter and Renning so he hid her, and when Renning returns in FE10, he's not throwing a fit because he should have become King instead of his niece, and what not.

Hell, Desmond wanting to make Guinivere Queen wasn't a move to empower her or to shit on Zeph, but ultimately, a move he pulled off because of his own insecurities at being a worthless King compared to his son.

In Fodlan? Tana - after Innes' death at the hands of her accomplices - starts a war to conquer Magvel to get rid of male primogeniture.

And to make this less stupid than it sounds, the devs insist that Magvel's primogeniture laws are very bad and ruin a ton of lives in the continent which would justify killing Ross and Garcia because they're sacrifices to be made for the greater good.

Yeah :/

I'm not playing this version of FE8.