#with no acknowledgement of possible failure is setting yourself up for crushing disappointment
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I know I need to work on the fact that blind confidence in me pisses me off. I try not to react that way but my immediate thought to someone saying âI knew youâd pass/get the job/be fineâ is to be annoyed that theyâre not âconsidering all the variablesâ and thinking through the situation with enough depth and realism. I fully realize itâs me wanting the real possibility of failure to be acknowledged and for the actual positives and negatives to be considered (which can be one of my more annoying traits) when the other person is just trying to be supportive in a conversation. Iâm making a mostly successful effort to stop myself and think âtheyâre using a stock phrase in this conversation-think about the intention not the wordsâ. Which sometimes works but sometimes Iâm in a bad mood and donât want platitudes that feel as if my in-depth analysis of the reality of the situation is being ignored.
Like I have confidence in my ability to handle situations and succeed in things itâs just analyzed and measured confidence and I am always braced for the small possibility of failure.
#my classmate who always says shit like this to me and it pisses me off bc heâs dismissive of my analysis of the possibility of failure did#thsi again to me and it made me so mad I had to write a post BUT I didnât say anything snarky to him nc heâs just trying to be supportive#this is one of those oh I am my motherâs daughter bc with her when Iâm facing something stressful we talk through what the variables are#and what the possible outcomes are and how we could handle them and itâs very practical and logistical#and thatâs what makes me feel better when Iâm anxious#like things turn out fine because you actively make them fine OR they are beyond your control and assuming variables will work in your favo#with no acknowledgement of possible failure is setting yourself up for crushing disappointment
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Catraâs refusal to admit mistakes
Something that seems to baffle much of the SPOP fandom is why Catra canât just admit her mistakes and try to do better instead of continuing to dig herself a deeper and deeper hole. To be fair, the situation is very baffling. Itâs complex. There are a ton of psychological issues in play, and when they interact things can get very messy. Iâm going to do my best to explain Catraâs thought processes and hang ups and hopefully not write a fucking novel in the process. (But if you do want a novel that analyzes these concepts in a lot of depth, go check out my fanfic Demons. Shameless self-promotion, whaaaaat?)
I have already gone into how Catraâs external locus of control comes into play, so Iâm not going to break it down in as much detail here. To sum it up, though, Catra has an internalized belief that she canât really control anything and isnât responsible for her behavior since itâs not her fault she was put in a shitty situation in the first place. She doesnât believe she had any choice but to be the villain. This is deeply rooted in her fearful and abusive upbringing where she had little to no control over what happened to her. A large part of that is how consequences didnât match behavior, i.e. she wasnât rewarded for being good and her punishments were overly harsh as well as inconsistent, affected by external factors.
Thereâs also the sunk cost fallacy to consider. Thatâs the idea that you have to get something out of your investments (of time, money, effort, etc.), even if the costs keep piling up. (In terms of money, think of people who gamble larger and larger sums of money out of determination to win back their initial bet.) For Catra, this fallacy has convinced her that if she changes course and gives up on her goals, then everything she suffered in the Horde and all the effort she put into moving up in the ranks would be for nothing. She thinks getting to the top and proving her worth/winning respect would be the ulitmate triumph. Of course, we see her struggle with disillusionment over this in season 4, which helps set the table for what we hope will be a redemption arc.
These are only two examples of the ways Catraâs abusive upbringing affected her ability to admit her mistakes. The effects of abuse (especially in oneâs childhood) are pervasive, affecting your thought processes and perception of the world in a million little ways that are hard to undo. Iâm going to dig deeper now into some of the other reasons Catra struggles with this. They include an authoritarian environment, scapegoating, toxic leadership, poor behavioral modelling, an exaggerated fear of punishment, and the resentment of injustice.
(Please note: in this meta Iâm not trying to make excuses for Catra and say she should not have to accept responsibility for her mistakes because she was abused. My aim here is to explain why itâs so difficult for her to shoulder blame in hopes that people will better understand her.)
Also under the cut, Iâm going to finish this meta by examining how Angella and Glimmer are foils to Shadow Weaver and Catra, how Glimmer had a better example set for her and has now set an example for Catra.
Authoritarianism, injustice, and fear
Itâs important to understand that Catra was raised to believe that apologizing or changing course makes someone a weak person or, worse, a bad leader. As Adora says, displays of weakness are strongly discouraged in the Horde. And in an authoritarian, militarized environment like the Horde, admitting mistakes is seen as a sign of weakness. You will very rarely, if ever, see authority figures admit they were wrong, let alone try to make amends for it. And since rank/pecking order is so important in these environments, that behavior filters down because no one wants to be at the bottom.
Fact is, no one who was raised in the Horde is good at admitting they were wrong (except maybe Scorpia, but sheâs Scorpia). Even Adora is bad at this. She takes on responsibility for everything and blames herself when things go wrong, but that self-flaggellating catastrophizing is not the same as critically evaluating oneâs actions and their effects on other people. That in particular is something she struggles with.
This may be a problem in the Horde at large, but itâs even harder for Catra to admit her mistakes because she has been blamed for a lot of things unjustly, as well as bullied by her peers and abused by her superiors. Accepting blame for anything feels unfair because she has already suffered the consequences of many things she did not do. In her mind, hasnât the world punished her enough already without humiliating her over the mistakes she has made? Her defensiveness makes sense, in this regard.
Not only do abuse survivors tend to be defensive and angry at the world for the unfair lot it gave us, we have a very hard time being vulnerable with anyone. Because what if they hurt us too? Admitting mistakes and accepting their consequences puts you in a very vulnerable position, and when you are used to being punished unnecessarily harshly and/or undeservingly, submitting yourself to someone elseâs judgment is terrifying. These experiences (especially when they occur at a young age) wire people a certain way, make you constantly afraid even when there is no need.
Toxic leadership and poor behavioral modelling
Returning to the environment factor, where do you think Catra learned this behavior of shirking responsibility for her actions? Fact is, Catra never had anyone model to her how to say, âI was wrong, Iâm sorry, and I will try to fix it.â Militarized environment or not, Shadow Weaver and Hordak arenât the type of people who are willing to admit their own mistakes and failures. They come up with excuses or pass the blame off to other people, usually Catra. Whenever something goes wrong, Hordak blames it on Catra and all her âfailings.â Whenever Adora disappointed, Shadow Weaver assumed it was because Catra was holding her back. Catra is their scapegoat. They do not apologize to her, acknowledge any harm theyâve done to her, or make any attempt to fix it.
This is especially true of Shadow Weaver, who raised Catra and was the main adult in her life throughout her childhood. Even when confronted with the damage she has done to Catra, she refuses to accept responsibility or acknowledge any wrongdoing. We have seen this in literally every season in which they interact. Catra is rightfully salty about her unjust treatment but Shadow Weaver brushes off her anger, making excuses or sidestepping the accusations.
In 1x10, Catra throws Shadow Weaver a bit of shade while comforting her after Hordak gives her a scathing lecture. Shadow Weaver immediately deflects with an insult before acknowledging her own behavior but not its detrimental effects or her responsibility for it.
Catra: Donât worry about that thing with Hordak. I've got loads of experience being yelled at. Mostly by you, actually. You get used to it.
SW: I will not get used to mediocrity like you, and I certainly donât need your pity! ...I was hard on you, I won't deny it, and I won't apologize. I just wanted to prepare you for the world. I wanted you to be strong.
In 2x06, Catra flat out confronts her about it, and she offers a justification for her behavior, still refusing to show any remorse. When Catra persists, she sidesteps it by responding to another part of her outburst.
Catra: Why did you treat me the way you did? Why was I never good enough for you? Really, I wanna know.
SW: Because you remind me of myself. You always have. Nothing was ever easy for me, either. I wasnât born to power like Adora and... others. I had to earn my power, fight for it. Why should it be any different for you?
Catra: I was a child when you took me in! What could I have possibly done to deserve the way you treated me? I am nothing like you! You are old, and bitter, and weak!
SW: Ah, but you are like me. And just like me, youâre losing your position with Hordak, I can see that even from my cell.
In 3x04, Catra has all but lost hope, throwing shade and heavy accusations at Shadow Weaver. But she does make one last desperate plea for acknowledgment of the harm done to her, right before sheâs hit by the crushing realization that she has once again been pushed aside for Adora. Here, Shadow Weaver doesnât even react to the emotional content of Catraâs statement.
SW: Catra, thereâs no need for us to be enemies. I can help you. I can offer you a way out.
Catra: So, what? Youâre on the side of good now? You made me this way, and you get to be the good guy? Do you know what happened to me after you escaped? Do you even care? You couldnât wait to get away from here, from me! ...But you came back for Adora.
SW: I came back to stop Hordak. I will make sure heâs destroyed. Donât make me destroy you too.
Saying she came back to stop Hordak is sort of an excuse, but Shadow Weaver doesnât say it like sheâs trying to appeal to Catra, unlike the two earlier conversations. Once Catra rejects her offer (which we know is disengenuous, to boot) she doesnât even bother pretending to care. Catraâs resisting her manipulation and is no longer someone she can use, so why bother?
Notably, this is right before Catra learns about the dangers of the portal (i.e. that she made a mistake when she resolved to open it) and tasers Entrapta for trying to stop her, then immediately doubles down on that mistake by sending her to Beast Island. She got one more example of refusing to acknowledge her mistakes or accept accountability right before she does it herself. The statement âAdora was rightâ definitely gets to her too, but she was already in an unhinged state after being tortured by Shadow Weaver, once again with no apologies. Just something to consider.
So, Catra came from this environment where she got blamed unfairly all the time yet never got any sign of remorse from the people who hurt her. As I alluded to above, in this kind of situation itâs really easy to slip into the mindset of âwhy should I apologize when no one ever apologized to me?â (Especially if youâve been through a lot of forced apologies, which are always humiliating, but particularly so when you are being unfairly blamed.) This is not an easy cycle to break. When you have this constant sense of injustice weighing on you, itâs easy to fall into the trap of thinking the world owes you something as payback and therefore you shouldnât have to try to better yourself or move past it.
This also ties into Catraâs obsession with getting a win when she is someone who seems fated to always lose, no matter what she does. Itâs not just about getting back at Adora, itâs about settling her score with an unjust universe that has always given her the short end of the stick. Itâs pride and indignation and pain all mixed up in one toxic soup that pollutes the minds of the abused, and it is not easy to get over. Watching Catra hopefully start to do that in the final 13 episodes is going to be incredibly cathartic.
Glimmer and Angella as foils and examples
Full disclosure, I am writing this meta partly in response to people shitting on Catra and acting like Glimmer is so much better than her after I made a gifset contrasting their reactions to realizing their mistakes. So, I want to finish by comparing all of these observations about Catraâs upbringing with Glimmerâs upbringing. Angella is by no means a perfect parent, but she loves her daughter and tries to do whatâs best for her. Most relevant to this discussion, sheâs willing to admit her mistakes or change her mind when presented with new information.
For instance, Angella flips at Glimmer over the invasion by the Horde soldier in 1x03, but once she learns said soldier is She-Ra she listens and puts faith in Glimmerâs judgment, despite her misgivings. In 1x10 (in a great parallel scene to the Catra/SW one mentioned above), Angella surprises Glimmer by caring more about her well-being than her mistakes, and she admits some of her own: she ordered the battle that got Micah âkilledâ, and she gave up on the first alliance. She literally says, âI am the one who failed.â And in 3x06, she sacrifices herself in an attempt to make up for all the times she failed to act and protect people she loves.
Angella has enough humility to admit her own flaws and consider other viewpoints, and sheâs not afraid to change her mind or say sheâs sorry. That set a much better example for Glimmer growing up than Shadow Weaver did for Catra and Adora. And now, Glimmer has set an example for Catra. When Catra is at her lowest in 4x13, drowning in her mistakes and self-hatred and wanting to die, Glimmer shows her that she too can change course and try to correct her mistakes.
Like, did you all see the look on Catraâs face when Glimmer says she canât use the weapon and needs to try and stop it? When Glimmer gets up Catra follows her, because this is such a compelling sight to her, something sheâs never seen before. It was almost like she was thinking, âWait, you can do that? You donât have to double down on your mistakes?â
This is something Catra has to see, not only for its novelty but because it could give her guidance, and hope. If Glimmer can change course and atone, maybe she can too.
#spop#she ra#catra#child abuse#meta#she-ra#catra and shadow weaver#catra and hordak#locus of control#sunk cost fallacy
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âWhen slaying a god, Always start at their heartâ
Tsukasaâs downfall was focusing - obsessing - on one Ishigami Senkuu. He saw his enemyâs intellect and ingenuity and considered them a threat-- and they were, Hyouga acknowledges that. Ishigami Senkuu was impressive right from the start, clever and charismatic and resilient... but he was also just one man, and one man can create nothing without the people around him.
One of Senkuuâs goals was the build a Kingdom of Science. Tsukasa decided that science would be his greatest obstacle and fought his war by trying to chip away at it, bit by bit, but ultimately too slow to do any real damage.
Hyouga decided that the kingdom would be his greatest obstacle, and so he set out to remove it.
It was easy, in the end. For all of Tsukasaâs paranoia, stabbing him in the back - figuratively and literally - was simple. Tsukasa was never fit to rule anyway; Hyouga was simply better, stronger, wiser in the ways of warfare. Likewise, taking over Tsukasaâs Empire of Might wasnât difficult either; weak people flock to the strong, bleating for salvation, and since Hyouga needed the numbers, he allowed them to live, for the time being.
Then he marched on Ishigami Village and razed it to the ground, because a king without his people was utterly powerless. Ishigami Senkuuâs kingdom falls, and Hyouga is the one left standing on its ashes, as he should be, looming triumphant over Senkuuâs defeated form, the corpses of his friends and allies scattered all around him.
The pièce de rĂŠsistance of course is this: the bodies of Senkuuâs rat spies - throats slit and expressions frozen in eternal fear - tossed at their lord and masterâs feet, and Hyouga gets the pleasure of watching the smartest man in the world break.
Ishigami Senkuu is not a fighter. His shriek of rage and grief cuts through the crackling fires around them but his wild attempt at taking Hyougaâs head is fended off as easily as if he hadnât tried at all. Hyouga throws him back, and Senkuu stays where he lands, crumpled on the ground and gasping for breath through tears that Hyouga unfortunately canât see from this angle.
He could kill him now. But Ishigami Senkuu is nothing without his kingdom, his spirit crushed, his heart destroyed, and who knows? Leaving him alive and surrounded by his failure might even... soften him. Enough for him to decide that a place under Hyougaâs reign in this Stone World would be better than remaining alone and helpless. Hyouga could always use a mind like Senkuuâs, broken but brilliant, and under his command.
âYour one fatal flaw was surrounding yourself with so many weaknesses, Senkuu-kun,â Hyouga smiles beneath his mask as he crouches down next to Senkuuâs prone figure. âPawns should never become more important than their worth. Your mistake was caring about them. If you cannot discard them at your leisure, then they are just another noose around your neck. Kings canât rule with dead weight, Senkuu-kun.â
He reaches out and pats the manâs head, pleased when Senkuu doesnât have enough fight left in him to even slap his hand away. If Senkuu pulls through this and offers himself to Hyouga, Hyouga will have a place for him at his side.
If not, well. In the end, Senkuu is just another pawn.
Hyouga rises, surveys the devastating results of his handiwork with satisfaction, and then turns to leave.
When slaying a god, always start at their heart.
Tsukasa was wrong - Senkuuâs heart belonged not to science but to his people, and without it, without them, of course Hyouga would emerge the victor. He leaves Ishigami Senkuu broken and beaten and shattered on the ground, his whole kingdom conquered and in ruins.
(He leaves Ishigami Senkuu alive, and maybe that was his fated downfall all along.
When slaying a god, always start at their heart.
But what is left, after their heart is gone?)
-0-
Senkuu buries every last body with his own two hands. It takes days. Days and days of broken fingernails and bleeding flesh as he lines the once village with rows upon rows of crudely dug graves.
He cries himself out after the third day, and then he never cries again. He erects tombstones - vaguely round-shaped rocks - to mark the graves, and does his best to carve at least a name on each. He does his friends last, old and new, a family in this era that he hadnât expected to find. He buries Francois next to Ryuusui, and Ryuusui with a blackened piece of the Perseus, never to be finished now. He buries Gen with as many black nightshades as he can find, along with a bottle of cola that had survived Hyougaâs massacre. He buries Chrome on one side of Ruri and Kohaku on the other, tucks diamond in with Chrome and the remains of Kohakuâs shield with her and wildflowers in with Ruri, who had so little time to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air and freedom after her sickness was cured. He thinks cradling Suikaâs tiny limp body and lowering her into a grave next to Kohakuâs, along with her pet dog Chalk, is somehow harder than all the rest combined.
Kaseki gets his tools - whatâs left of them - and Kinrou and Ginrou go together of course, buried with their broken spears, fixed as much as Senkuu can manage with the leftover material on hand. Ukyou, Senkuu knew the least, but he finds an intact arrow - handmade, expertly crafted - along with his hat, and buries those with the archer. Taiju and Yuzu are last. He buries them in one grave and tucks a fur blanket around them, and it takes more effort than heâll ever admit to finally close up their eternal resting place as well.
And then.
And then he spends the next seventy-two hours with a sharpened piece of stone in his hands, and he wonders if it makes him a coward when he puts it down again in the end.
Byakuya would be disappointed though. His friends too, maybe. Or far more likely, they wouldnât consider a simple suicide enough to make up for their deaths and sacrifices.
They died because of Senkuu, because he wanted to bring science back, because heâd made enemies he hadnât been able to afford to make and hadnât been able to protect his friends when it had counted.
For all his talk of science, of his certainty in his own genius, of a future bright with possibilities, at the end of the day, Senkuu is... weak. Weak and alone with no reasons left to keep going.
Ryuusui would call him ten kinds of pathetic.
No reasons left...
...except one.
Senkuu stares at the rows upon rows of graves. They are not petrified. They are dead. And Senkuu is just a man. Even he canât rewind death.
But maybe he doesnât have to.
Maybe he can rewind time instead.
He has nothing left to lose. Hyouga saw to that.
So Senkuu is going to make him regret ever thinking it was a good idea to leave a scientist without a heart.
#dr stone#ishigami senkuu#hyouga#cross writes#when slaying a god au#beware of wonky timelines#cross is obsessed with time travel as per usual#part 1
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Fixing Incredibles 2: stuff I would do
Hey wanna hear some thoughts on what Iâd do to tune up a movie I found slightly disappointing? Thereâs three main aspects I want to deal with which are
1. badly utilised new supers 2. iffy villain motivation 3. third act was a mess
So hereâs a few things Iâd wanna do to rework some of that
So first off, thatâs a lie, thereâs really 5 things that bothered me. this should not have been an immediate sequel where no time had passed. they actually had to backtrack on the character development from the first movie to have them do the same character arcs again. Helenâs back on wanting her kids to stay away from dangerous heroics. Violetâs reward for learning to assert herself, a date with Tony, is erased and she has to win him all over again. Bob, in a weird 180 from his first portrayal where he adored spending time with Violet and Dash during his training montage... suddenly struggles with caring for them, though thatâs mostly the fault of Jack-Jackâs powers manifesting.Â
So firstly, Iâd do what I always imagined the sequel would be and push it a few years forward. Allow it room to change. Have Violet be a college student with Tony as her longterm boyfriend. Have Dash be a teen whoâs still eager to save the world, but needing to learn that no danger is better than stopping danger. And make Jack-Jack a child, still in need of supervision but not a total cartoonish liability who necessitates long sequences of adjustment to discovering his powers, again, a retread we already saw last time. Every character arc was a re-do and the constant burden of dealing with Jack-Jack really slowed stuff down. (this was my 5th thing) Fix this by skipping forward. (Also, Violetâs hero moment being... learning that she has to set personal glory aside and babysit Jack-Jack while everyone else does stuff? Are you kidding me?)
We now have a different angle on Helenâs worries - sheâs not just concerned about putting her kids in danger. She acts like it, she tells them not to start jumping at the chance to get into heroism. She tells them to apply themselves in school and get normal lives too, in case it doesnât pan out. But this feels familiar, because itâs what she said in the first movie, and itâs a front. Sheâs worried about her kids growing up, becoming adults - Violet basically is one - and how she canât protect them if they move out. She pretends itâs about their powers to cover this. This also refocuses the movieâs main character arc onto Helen like itâs... supposed to be, instead of putting it on Bobâs learning to parent and accept his wifeâs super- importance, because despite being framed as Elastigirlâs time to shine, itâs not her story when she doesnât embody a change of character. Itâs still Bob.Â
So, those things established:
1. Better villain ideology
Revenge because supers failed to save your parents? Basic. Also not that believable, because the reason the heroes failed to answer Daddy Businessâs call is that theyâd been outlawed and given new lives as normal people. They could not have come to the rescue; it was illegal. And a superhero enthusiast would have known that. And, hey, âcriminals shot our dad and then our mother died afterwards of a broken heartâ? Are you kidding me? Just have them both get shot, fuck it. Stop this âwomen dying because their man tragically diedâ shit. Itâs getting melodramatic at that point.Â
No criminals, no revenge stuff. Have the Deavorâs parents die when they were in early teens. The brother and sister had to support each other as they started to navigate adulthood. This instilled in them the philosophy thatâs common to the type of silicon valley startup wizards they parody - that anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps and be hugely successful if they try hard, having come from orphans near poverty to multimillionaires.Â
I want both of them, brother and sister, to be the villains together. You donât really need to twist that. They both come off as helpful fans who want to put their money to use helping supers get back in the game. After all the biggest complaint keeping supers illegal is the property damage and lawsuits, and what fixes that? Money. They also both believe, as is Evelynâs motivation for real, that superheroes are actually causing the public to develop dependency on them.Â
I would set up the siblings as advocates of Randian objectivism in how they work. They think everyone can go from nothing to having everything. They think itâs a personal imperitive to be hard working, to contribute and make yourself a success, without relying on others. They think needing a safety net - superheroes, as a metaphor for social facilities - is a weakness that stops people from taking responsibility for themselves. I want to downplay the âtech company who makes tiny camerasâ thing, because that was far too modern day to fit in the 60s, and make it more about sheer money generation and the ability for the siblings to pay off debts and influence public opinion; essentially, that money can get you anything, glossing over the corrupt nature of that by claiming itâs doing the right thing to help the heroes.Â
Winston still had a childlike adoration for supers as a kid, but it was killed when he grew up without parents who couldnât BE saved, followed by extremely hard work in the financial sector, dealing with stress, and realising that he worked just as hard, but got no media acclaim, as people who just happen to have been born with powers. Both siblings invest in personal security solutions, aiming to eventually reveal a plan to put superheroes out of business by outpacing them with technology. To use the free market to provide ways that normal people can protect themselves, without becoming complacent, relying on dubious, flawed heroes, without becoming blind to danger because they expect to be saved. Their evil motto is basically âdonât expect anyone to save youâ, putting the burden of responsibility on the individual to take care of themselves and be solely in charge of their success or failure.Â
The superheroes, of course, represent altruism, saving people just because they can, just because they were given an ability and can use it to help anyone and anyone they wish. Making no judgements between rich or poor, personal backgrounds, social class... everyone can be saved just the same.Â
The villains intend to gain the trust of the three main heroes - Mr Incredible, Elastigirl and Frozone - and push them into good public opinion by funding everything they do or break. Destruction is paid for, claims are settled. Heroes shouldnât have to worry about it, they say. What they actually intend is for the heroes to become dependent on their company for money, just as they see the public growing dependent on supers instead of taking steps to protect themselves. They will set up a huge, climactic battle in the most expensive part of the city, after the heroes have been encouraged to ignore the financial cost to their feats. Then theyâll withdraw support, burying the trio in horrific debt to a level they cannot recover from, while also pushing a new line of tech solutions to make money off peopleâs protection. Technically, they want to help people, but they need to make sure the legal battle for supers will finally crush them out of work so they can get the maximum profit from their products.Â
2. More cohesive new super team
Itâs not that they were bad, I just felt it was jarring after the profiles Syndrome kept on his targets - all supers were completely normal people who happened to have abilities. The new guys were okay, but felt like oddball ideas and out-of-place mutants (the whole point is that supers are being pushed into normal lives and hiding their innate abilities. I dunno how you do that as an owl-man). I would make all the new guys young adults and teenagers.Â
One, to point out the reality of the situation with supers. The new blood is going to be young. After what Syndrome did, nearly all adult heroes have been killed. I want to point out that, in order to bring back the idea of superheroism, we have to acknowledge that the ones who are going to do that are a generation down. Elastigirl meets them (weâre keeping Voyd obviously, but theyâre all nervous youngsters like her, 15-22 ish). Elastigirl get confronted by her protective instinct - legalising supers means all of these kids going into danger. But, through talking with them, she realises how much it means to them, not having to hide who they are. Theyâre all like Voyd is. They were all shunned, pushed away, and ultimately hid their powers while feeling like absolute shit for being abnormal. There is a very clear real life allegory here. Helen realises that legalising supers isnât just about throwing yourself into danger. Itâs about allowing people to be who they are, and not shame them for something out of their control. Theyâre unpractised, theyâre ashamed of showing their powers to her, and Helen mentally adopts every single one of them instantly.Â
Helen gets a montage of training her super team to understand their powers better. She sees them become more at home with themselves after an early life full of restriction and even self-hatred. Itâs not just about being cool, itâs about your identity, and Helen gets that and stops having reservations about legalising supers again. Itâs bigger than her family. And the Deavors arrange and fund this, because they want as many heroes implicated as possible, they want both generations of supers wiped out and to never be able to return. Dependency is a crutch they would say, and humanity needs to learn to survive without it. We can keep Screenslaver as the fake villain setting up the big final battle, and we can keep his monologue about dependency on screens as a metaphor, but devolving into a diatribe against the nature of neglecting your personal success by vicariously watching someone elseâs.Â
3. The third act didnât fitÂ
We already donât have the dead weight of baby JJ crashing the pace of the story. Heâs a young child, and weâre going to have Edna watch him (she can love it like she does in the movie, Jack-Jack can find her research enriching too). This time itâs Frozone, Elastigirl and Mr Incredible who get taken by mind control. The siblings are going to stage a fight between all three, pretending that superheroes are unstable, liable to turn on each other at the cost of civilian lives. That should turn the public against them for good, while causing massive amounts of damage. They use the Screenslaver persona to set up a showdown in the city, only to capture the three supers and turn them on each other.Â
Not mind controlled? Elastigirlâs recruits. They just barely manage to escape it. They go to get help from their mentor, only to find the supers gone, and Violet and Dash seeing the carnage on TV and getting suited up to find out whatâs going on. The kids get an introduction and team up together, heading off to stop their teacher and parents, new blood vs old guard.Â
That results in six or seven barely trained supers going up against three extremely experienced ones, while they also have to try to minimise loss of life and property damage. While dealing with the trauma, for Violet and Dash, of being attacked by their own parents and not knowing why. Also, they get backup from Honey. Frozoneâs wife. SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN THIS MOVIE. She was designed and then cut and thatâs a TRAVESTY. Sheâs already popular, she was a breakout hit, let her be in this. She steps forward, no powers, regular civilian clothes, and helps the kids out with advice from the ground, picking them up when they fall, and huge vocal encouragement. She kicks ass because thatâs what she fucking does. She helps direct the crowds to safety, she tells these kids to look at their super suits and believe in what theyâre capable of. And itâs her who snags Frozone after his powers get strategically rebuffed, she grabs him and grabs his goggles off and fixes it herself.Â
With another adult on their side and better confidence the new supers manage to pull Elastigirl and Mr Incredible back to reality too, which concludes Helenâs anxiety about their capability and the passing of the torch. They did it, they were responsible - thereâs no casualties and with all their powers combined, they managed to avert damage better than Helen and Bob ever did. The adults realise that the kids can be trusted to handle heroism and Helen is super proud of her trainees-slash-children.Â
That leaves the actual capture of the villains, which comes down to running from the combined might of all the supers who gradually cut down their ability to escape, culminating in Winston stopping Evelyn from getting away, and having a personal realisation. A resurgence of the boyish glee he once had for heroes stopping the villains. He foils his sister and turns both of them in, willingly, in a weird way fulfilling his dream of saving the day like his idols did.Â
To round off, thanks to the rehabilitated (and not sabotaged) hero image, and the display of capability the young supers put on, supers are legalised again. Helen and Bob now work as teachers to the kids as part of a new government program to make sure kids with powers learn how to responsibly control them, Helen of course continuing her role as mentor to her massive new family, and Bob finally able to work without restraining himself. The government agrees that encouraging kids to train properly and learn how to avoid risk and costly situations is worth endorsing. Dash befriends some of the other teens in the supergroup and has friends he can push his abilities with, without it being unfair.Â
Finally, itâs time for Violet to move out, because things must move on. Helen, Bob and Frozone (who gets an updated suit because come on) are accepting that theyâll eventually theyâll have to let others take their place. Violetâs going to move in with Tony and get a normal job, because she still yearns for a normal lifestyle underneath it all, but she wonât be far away and can always answer the call to join the family in the field. They all bid her farewell (âFinally maybe I can get some peace without Dash bursting into my room-â âI can run to your apartment in one minute 28 seconds, I checked!!â) but Helen isnât worried any more, because she has renewed faith in how well her children have grown up and is accepting they donât need has as much any more. And besides, she has tons more children who need her too and itâs up to her to help them find their true potential.Â
Thanks for reading this way too long exercise in figuring out what I wanted from the sequel to one of my favourite films in the world... the original Incredibles was centred around heroes also just being human, who make mistakes and have to grow up and change, and the villainâs fanboy mentality was the antithesis to that. I wouldâve wanted a sequel that understood the message of its predecessor in that people have to develop and grow, one aspect of which is letting go, but what we actually got seemed too static and unwilling to move away from what we had already resolved in the first one.
#the incredibles#some creative bogus analysis I guess#this is VERY long I'm sorry??#yeah this is like.. 2.5k words what the fuck
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