#And I like to apply realistic theories to this fictional world because that is the good thing about three-dimensional characters
Text
The mentally stable Dimitri Fire emblem 3 hopes.
It surprises me that there's still ppl claiming so, but then I remember we're talking about 3h interpretations and I have to make peace with it.
But that doesn't stop me from venting a little bit in this little space I have lol. Actually, it dries me and makes me feel bad to bring this up because I will have to talk bad about Dedue, and I don't want to talk Bad about Dedue. He's a genuinely good boy. But "Human" nonetheless, which means Flaws.
I like Felix too but he's become some sort of a clown that doesn't make me feel too bad. I like Felix tho, In a different way.
Mostly talking about these two because the take that "Dimitri has better support system" baffles me because, technically, these two are his support system in HopesVerse. The persons who Dimitri relays on and seek solace/advice/support. The rest doesn't really tackle any of his personal struggles (aside from the Mage!Mitri frustrated dream, but that's out of the bad equation in our 'mentally unwell' set of pixels, and Shez only has a glimpse). Contrary, to Houses verse where the whole blue lions cast knew about his shit, didn't know what to do, but didn't leave either.
I tackled this topic with other person on Twitter who was (or still is) on board with this take and the phrase they used was They contained him better, which of course I agree and remarked that was exactly the problem.
Contain him is gonna be contra productive. I used a water dam analogy, where the structure of such dam is damaged, and the pressure of water keeps accumulating. Causing a foreseeable damage for the dam itself and the surroundings. You don't need to be a genius to understand it, you need experience or knowledge for mental ill topics tho.
I really don't want to extend so much on here because it's mostly just, rant format more than a proper analysis so I just want to point out these two things in their support conversations.
First, Dedue.
Encourage him to keep on the vengeful path. Which we know was the final goal of Azure Moon and if you payed attention to 3 houses message. The whole Vengeful argument was something Bad, to keep it simple.
Despite Dimitri actively looking for answers/guidance for something that, in a rational state he can see clearly like vengeance will consume his life (also Shez and Felix called out this behavior). Dedue answer only encourage him to keep on that path, because he would do that 💔. Presenting 2 oposite views is a great formula for confusion and disorientation.
Now, Dedue's role is primary SUPPORT, not guidance nor orientation. He will support his shit no matter what, and we are quite aware of that if played Houses.
Second, Felix.
Felix is a special case. He is smart but also an idiot lacks A LOT of soft skills to actually be of help.
He's the only one who knows in this verse about Dimitri having a mental issue. In their A support to say the least, so they don't close or solve anything. What makes it more worrisome is the fact that Felix conceals the issue as a secret.
"So try to keep that whole "removing their heads" thing in check, yeah? We can just call it our little secret."
this extract here makes me feel so unwell 😭help
The whole burden falls over him and his lack of skills and wisdom on the matter will be too much for him later on. He at least, will be able to recognize that the problem is beyond of his capabilities and will look for help. Felix himself has his own issues and journey where he needs to learn. He's forced to get pass beyond some of his angry teen behavior but hasn't completely get over it.
There is a lot more to tackle, but that requires more work and time.
What are the topics some of you think is important to cover around understanding the Hopes verse resolution?
Dimitri's route? something?
Do you think the route without Byleth is better?
With that being said, I would like to delve deeper into character analysis, and the role each played for the Lords too. That also requires to talk about the Byleth and needs a whole analysis on their own, which requires time (which i don't have much lol)
To end this vent, I would like to encourage people to do a little research for the terminology they're using like "Support System". Who makes it up and how it operates successfully.
The fact that ppl saying "he has better support system" only because he didn't go feral on the run alone is not entirely valid. A reminder that people can feel alone with or without people around them. And containing the issue within doesn't solve any problem. At best, it's presented later. At worse, it gets worse.
#dimitri alexandre blaiddyd#my lil blorbo with mental health issues#few3hopes#fire emblem warriors 3 hopes#Today I woke up and felt like venting#BUT Just to make myself clear#this has nothing to do with ships#you can ship whatever you want#You do you#Just in case someone has that feeling#This is an analysis from a mental health point of view#because it is one of the strong points of this character and with which many of us connect/relate#So I like to apply psychological and neurological (even psychiatric if necessary) perspectives#And I like to apply realistic theories to this fictional world because that is the good thing about three-dimensional characters#They feel so human that all these hypotheses can be applied#If some of you don't. That's cool too. You do you#Enjoy the game as you please lil fella#ALSO ALSO I'm taking into account what the intention of the developers was#(that would be tricky considering the inconsistency withing the developers' team >___>)
191 notes
·
View notes
Text
A trend I’ve noticed out of Japanese series involving war, which primarily have a strongly anti-war approach is like... It is a lot more rare to depict a realistic conflict
You have a lot of series about futuristic, sci-fi wars. You have a lot of alternative World Wars with added magic or a blatantly unrealistic vibe. You have a lot of fantasy wars. But once you start getting into the realistic war machines? You very often start getting stuff cut with other forms of ridiculousness.
Girl Und Panzer is a series that loves war machines and military history openly. But it feels the need to place this in a setting and genre which can never be mistaken for a realistic setting, despite the blatant love of history and war machines. Metal Gear is deep into politics and theories... But still feels the need to have men who control swarms of bees, open elements of comedy and camp, and of course, giant robots. Valkyria Chronocles 4 and Fuga both contain a metaphor where children are fed into a literal war machine in order to achieve victory - but the settings themselves are best described as “Outwardly Anime.” Even the Ace Combat series, about cool fighter pilots in a rather realistic setting, feels the need to not just push technology to unrealistic levels, but to set the world in an entire parallel earth with a different history
Meanwhile, those series I can think of which are historical and which DO delve into the realistic trauma of war? It’s usually aimed at civilians, far away from the conflict... Barefoot Gen, Grave of the Fireflies, etc
I’ve heard this old quote; “There is no such thing as an anti-war film.” It’s about this idea where, by presenting a war as something we see on screen, we will always have this detachment about what is happening. We cannot, truly, experience a horror of war, and so the battles we see will always be spectacle no matter how horrific.
Most western series depicting war attempt to push the idea that was is hell and show a realistic display of it. War is presented as gritty, and realistically.
But, with a lot of media out of Japan, what I notice is the opposite - War is usually not even depicted as a realistic thing. War, thus, is not glamourized, because what you are seeing is unmistakably NOT how war is. You understand that war is not fought with magic-users and mecha, or ancient battle tanks - These things are fun fiction to hook you. But the underlying ideas will still comment on war, as it applies to reality, albeit often in an allegorical fashion.
You end up with a juxtaposition that can feel weird if you are not used to it, where a lot of these series are simultaneously about the short-skirted anime girl antics, but also about how the machinations of countries are totally willing to use young people as utterly disposable pawns if it means even small victories.
6 notes
·
View notes
Note
Open for movie speculation? :) The new key visual was released today and if you don't want miniscule spoilers then I'll gladly spend the time asking how you're doing in these times and how you light up my saturday with your posts that never cease to make me laugh haha. I do hope you're doing well :) So here's the wee spoiler (or should I call it a spoiler?) the antagonist(?) is called "Flect Turn", hope you have a nice week :)
so as usual, I'm late in responding to this, but I just wanted to clarify that my "no spoilers, please" policy pretty much only applies to the new BnHA manga chapters, and that's specifically because of the weekly reaction posts. I know part of the appeal of a liveblog is watching someone else's reactions to all of the surprises and twists and wtf moments, and so I try to preserve those each week. if I wasn't liveblogging the series I would probably be reading the leaks along with everybody else to tell the truth lol.
so that said, feel free to send me spoilers about the upcoming movie! out of respect for those who do want to avoid being spoiled, I'll tag those posts (and this one) with "bnha world heroes' mission spoilers" and "bnha movie 3 spoilers" so people can blacklist those tags if desired. but I personally have no objection to them; back when Heroes Rising came out I already knew all of the plot points and had read detailed spoiler summaries well before I finally got the chance to watch it myself. it definitely did not take away from the experience at all, and in fact I'm kind of glad I knew about the end twist ahead of time because I was able to devote more mental energy to analyzing and appreciating it rather than still being all "!!!!" from the shock lol.
so yeah, I've been trying to stay up to date with the news about WHM as well. here's everything I think we know so far:
the movie will take place during the Endeavor Agency internship, as expected.
the bad guys are a terrorist organization called "Humanize", who believe in the Quirk Singularity Doomsday Theory we first learned about during the Remedial arc. as a refresher, basically the idea is that as quirks continue to evolve with each new generation, they'll eventually grow too powerful for humans to control and will destroy the world or something lol.
anyway so Humanize hears about this, and they're either like, "man that sucks, we should just kill everyone with a quirk so it doesn't happen", OR they're like "man that sounds awesome, we should totally expedite that." like, I'm really not clear on this part lol. but either way, they apparently come up with a plan to cleanse the world of quirk users by planting magical plot bombs called Ideo Trigger Bombs, which make people lose control of their quirks.
as mentioned, the bad guys' leader is named Flect Turn for god knows what reason lmao. I'm guessing it's some kind of weird play on the word "reflect" (especially given his character design), and based on that, as well as the Ideo Triggers, I suspect this guy has the ability to somehow turn people's own quirks against them. you can see him at the bottom of the key visual anon mentioned, here.
anyway so the heroes are all "hmm, pretty sure the end of world = bad" and so they all decide to band together under this "W.H.A." umbrella (which I'm still assuming stands for either World Hero Agency or World Hero Association or something like that) to deal with the bombs.
as shown on the key visual, in addition to the Endeavor Agency trio, the movie will also feature the kids from Ryuukyuu, Fat Gum, Gang Orca (who has Jirou and Shouji interning under him for anyone who lost track), and Hawks's agencies.
the movie will also feature a new character named Rody Soul, who's this weird steampunk Dickensian urchin-looking guy with a ponytail lol. he apparently teams up with the trio following one of the bomb incidents.
most of the movie will apparently take place in a fictional country called Oceon (this is why nobody could quite place where that bridge in the trailer was from lol).
at some point Deku gets framed for murder idk. just Deku things.
and last but not least, as usual there will be a special manga tie-in release, in this case titled "Volume W(orld Heroes)". looks like the initial release will be exclusive to theater-goers in Japan, but I'm sure someone will get their hands on it and post it online, and Viz will eventually release it in English as well (they did the same with the previous two tie-ins). it'll include behind-the-scenes sketches, a new Horikoshi interview (probably the part I'm most looking forward to), and of course, the new movie tie-in chapter. as with the previous tie-ins (Volume Origin and Volume Rising), this will be written and drawn by Horikoshi himself. I'm hoping that it will feature the trio, but the other movie tie-ins featured All Might and Nine, respectively, so it's probably more realistic to assume this one will focus on Rody. ah well.
I think that's it. I haven't really done much speculating about the plot either tbh, though what we've learned seems pretty straightforward. Deku probably either gets framed for one of the bombs, or gets caught up in one of the blasts and loses control of OFA. or maybe they'll save that part for his fight with Flect at the end. god, if we get a scene where he goes on a Blackwhip rampage with a big screen budget I will lose my whole damn mind. especially if Kacchan and Shouto have to work together to stop him. can you imagine omg. but I should really rein myself in before I start getting way too hyped up over a bunch of wild hypotheticals. this is why I try not to speculate lol.
#bnha#bnha world heroes' mission#bnha movie 3#bnha world heroes' mission spoilers#bnha movie 3 spoilers#boku no hero academia#bnha spoilers#makeste reads bnha#asks#anon asks#also thank you very much anon; I'm doing well and I hope you are too!
49 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Devil Judge, Ep.1 Meta
(On the re-imagined justice process, imageries, parallels in South Korea and our world today)
As with all dystopian fiction, it is not exactly a far-fetched imagining of our world. Instead, it is a critique of our society which seeks to amplify the inequalities and suffering of society through some exaggeration.
The Devil Judge is that: it "re-imagines" South Korea today with a sprinkle of cyberpunk aesthetics (a little too much bluish green tint) and dystopian imagery (of homeless people, a very dirty subway and dingy backalleys on a rainy night).
I kept thinking it was a dystopian "future" but was wondering why they were using only Samsung Note 20 instead of some Samsung futuristic prototype phone. So, those phones do keep audiences grounded in the reality it is portraying -- this is the alternative South Korea of today.
We are barely halfway into the first episode and we've got this extremely charismatic, anti-hero male lead strutting red carpets and making verbose declarations like "I am the power. By the judicial authority delegated to me by the people of Korea, I will run this court. And it is the people who hold this power." (Not verbatim but that's the gist).
Then, meet associate judge Kim Ga-On who seems to be against how the system is running. He seems to be the outlier who rose to his ranks from the bottom class of society (which his colleague Oh Jin-joo says, he looks like he's from the shanty town of Seoul). We start off, barely into the drama at this point, with a dramatic scene of a kindergarten bus ramming down barricades and charging towards the Court building. A group of kindergarten children crossing the road there (I've just no clue what businses kids would have near the court building tbh). A little girl tripping as they were rushed across the road, Ga-On jumping to the rescue, and unable to pick her up in time, shields her with his own body. Kang Yo Han is just there, taking a heavy gun from the guard and unhesitantly opened fire at the bus driver who was flooring the pedal. He misses the driver's head and hits the headrest before firing again. The bus swerves and flips. The driver loses consciousness and Ga On (again!) jumps to the rescue. So, here the tone is set. We've got this "devil judge" who seems to be the ultimate modern day anti-hero who's given immense amount of power.
Much more interesting is that in this dystopian South Korea, we've got what seems like a publicly elected judiciary (or Kang Yo Han is perhaps the first?) and that has always been something that has been discussed in legal academic. Not the idea of electing the judiciary but that the argument of the judiciary not being publicly elected can be seen as slightly out of tune with democracy. (In legal academic, however, this is theoretically seen as being balanced by the separation of powers; ie. the executive branch (=government) and elected members of Parliament/Congress are supposed to be fully separated from the judiciary and should therefore never interfere with the judiciary. But, of course, these are all theoretical stuff. They look good on paper and when discussed in legal essays but in reality, it can often be different (if not, the exact opposite). This series takes things to yet another level by imagining the inception of a publicly televised and publicly voted trial.
This goes against the nature of trials in general because in our world today, the judiciary (wherever it may be) typically have mechanisms (ie. laws and codes) to prevent manipulation by media. The principle of fair trial requires that no external influence affects the process of adjudication (ie. the judgement by judges). There also tends to be avoidance of trial by public opinion because the way the law is interpreted and applied can be rather technical and different from what people may say or think about a certain trials, the decision delivered and also sentencing. Trial by jury is the nearest it gets but that too can be a fairly technical process which do also include considerations like avoiding a two-day trial to prevent influence by the media or other agents on a jury member's decision. (A recent drama mentioning this is Law School). The thing about this idea of trial by the public is that standards of morality can be very subjective and varies from person to person. Judgement by judges are not entirely free from the influence of morality, but the process is a litle more stable through the processes of interpretative practices, case precedents and legal theories. Previously in another Kdrama, Miss Hammurabi (2018), Judge Lim Ba-reun became slightly frustrated by his friend's comment that having a jury trial is like "true democracy" because the "people gets to decide" and he even thinks the judiciary should be elected too. Lim Ba-reun sarcastically said he must have loved every elected politican since they were elected by the public. He tells him grimly that no jury has ever found a policeman who had beaten up a Black man to be guilty. He also pointed out that Nazi, the Holocaust and Hitler were all supported by the public.
In this series, the premise allows all of these imaginings to be realised and played out. It is peak criticism, I think, when they portray the scenes of the TV producer being excited about the real-time ratings and viewer ratings. And also the scene of the broadcasting channel's chairman dancing in joy when he received realtime report of the ratings (vowing to treat his equally wealthy friends to a meal). Even when his other friend seemed appalled by the decision delivered by Judge Kang, the Chairman could not hide his joy in the skyrocketing viewership ratings. This really reminded me of the entire Produce 101 franchise which also heralded the shows for putting the decision in "The Nation's Producers" (ie. voters) and emphasised how it is the Nation Producers who put together ("produce") the National Kpop group that is bound for success and set to receive national love. All of this illusion collapsed (and the Korean franchise died along with it) when the court finds its producers guilty of voting manipulation. The Devil Judge seemed to have a similarly dramatic flair in its emphasis of TV production gimmicks, camera angles, cuts of a person's reaction, etc. The President of South Korea (who has a very light voice, a penchant for orotund speeches and a lack of concern for national policies) and all these top 1% of people tuned in were on the edge of their seats watching Judge Kang orchestrate this theatre of public trial. Kim Ga-On watched him closely and was sure that Judge Kang had something up his sleeves and was definitely up to no good, yet he couldn't tell. When he finally delivers a verdict (that yes, this was a case of professional negligence and not negligent homicide), Ga-On was crestfallen and frustrated because it carries a mere 5 year imprisonment maximum. But Kang turns the table and brings up the newly passed legislation which allows accumulative sentence which then resulted in 235 years of imprisonment.
This sounded very much like how some Korean netizens had previously wondered (online) why Korea couldn't have a sentencing system like the US where the years of imprisonment can go up to 100 years or 500 years. Again, this was like realising an alternative South Korea that many have perhaps tried imagining. Episode 1 ends with Judge Kang stepping down from his high seat when a victim's family member bowed deeply with her hands clasped, as though in prayer, and even kneeled to him. This corresponded well and tied perfectly into the religious/godlike imagery represented in the justice's robes which is reminiscent of the pope's robes and resembles a priest's robe, and the app they named DIKE or Diety of Justice (正義의 神). When Judge Kang hugs the old woman with a compassionate smile, teary eyed and full of empathy, he ends up yawning barely a minute into consoling the weeping woman. Ga-On witnesses this and realises, all of this must have been a gimmick after all. He had his hopes up when Judge Kang serves the sentence of 235 years. The episode ends.
I think this series is set to be a great one. (Just as Law School was amazing too!) It has tons of stuff to unpack, lots that goes into the cinematography and camerawork. While characters do seem a little more like caricatures rather than realistic people that are properly fleshed out in the narrative, there is still promise to push beyond these caricatures. I think there is also a lot in the imagery of dystopia and the constant bombardment of messages from the government (which is often the mainstay of dystopian fiction) which emphasises a certain narrative which they want the people to believe. For example, Kim Ga-On is travelling up the escalator when there were ads of the DIKE app, ads on electronic billboards on the justice system, paper posters plastered in the dark backalley where a high school girl is being dragged away by two men saying "The government will now create a safe South Korea". That last one is perhaps the most glaring one to me because when I was in Korea, it was repeated to me by different Korean individuals: "Your things are safe. No Korean will steal it. (Not sure about foreigners though!) You are safe. Crimes don't happen. I checked and there are no sexual offenders living in this neighbourhood." But... spycams can be anywhere. Men secretly follow women to their homes and try to break into them. Sexual harassment can happen anywhere. Robbery and theft can happen.
Personally, my paranoia and anxiety won't ever let me believe such words. No narrative, self-made or otherwise, can convince me enough to think that I am in a safe place. I would always have a nagging thought at the back of my mind telling me danger can be lurking just about anywhere. I think Koreans today do have high levels of confidence in their country. Most people do think it is safe to be walking around in the dead of night without any worry. (Again, I do not quite share the sentiment.) But this is a kind of self-made narrative because I also know my countrymen who travel to other countries like the UK and say "I feel absolutely safe walking the streets in the dead of night while I won't feel the same in my own country" when those are simply ideas they've planted into themselves through the mindset that [This country is better than my country and therefore safer.] There is absolutely no correlation between a "better" country and crime rates (or potential of becoming a victim of crime). Not to mention, being an Asian in a Western country sets you up as a likelier victim of hate crime...
So, I was saying.... This narrative of "safe Korea" is already existing in South Korea today. The need for mass surveillance or a spycam detecting task force in public toilets don't add up with a "safe country" image but the sentiment planted into the people seems to be strong despite all of this. However, Koreans do call South Korea "Hell Joseon". Youth unemployment can be a concern is a country like South Korea and a graying population, increasinly empty gray towns like the one mentioned in the series are all concerns which are ever-present in the public conscious. The mention of plauge and unemployment too must be a major concern now. In a rather similar vein, this narrative of DIKE or trial by the public through app voting creates a sentiment that people can take into their own hands and deliver justice. But what about the people at the margins of society who are homeless and do not own smartphones? What is this concept of democracy that places power in the hands of people? Is it a mere illusion or is power really in the hands of people?
..................................................................................................
(A side note on how the indicted chairman of the company responsible for mass poisoning of an entire town had brushed off concerns about a failing filtration system and the move of industrial plants to Southeast Asia. As a Southeast Asian, it is also something on my mind how South Korea has moved out of China and moved most of its plants to Southeast Asia for cheap labour. But what about the pollution here, the appallingly low wages they pay Southeast Asians (both white and blue collars!) in comparison to the few Korean expat managerial staff or engineers they station out here? I remember how I was at the hospital at 2 am and a small group of blue collar workers in their work uniform came in with their injured colleague; this can only mean they were at work past midnight due to some accident and we are still in the midst of the pandemic. What kinds of welfare and benefits are these blue collars provided with?)
14 notes
·
View notes
Text
Beastars and Chromosomes
Due to my previous post on animal breeding (more so on how two different species could produce offspring) I decided to do my own person deep dive into which animals could theoretically produce a viable offspring with one another.
It depends how scientific and realistic you want to get but in this instance, if we’re allowing all species to breed together BUT we are still including the law of chromosomes than get buckled up for some crazy conclusions.
As some of you know, a horse and a donkey can produce an offspring ( a mule) but that child cannot breed itself. This is due to the different amount of chromosomes that was passed down to the mule. A horse has 64 chromosomes and gives 32 to its offspring. A donkey has 62 chromosomes and gives 31 to it’s offspring. The mule has 63 chromosomes and is unable to split it’s own chromosomes to give half to it’s own offspring thus making it sterile.
Now, I decided to apply this logic to Beastar’s to see which hybrid relationships would actually work based on the previously discussed basis. Spoiler warning for ahead.
Melon
As anyone who has read past chapter 124 of the manga would know, Melon is hybrid character with a father who was a gazelle and a mother who was a leopard.
Leopards like many other cats have 38 chromosomes meaning they give 19 to their offspring. Gazelles, on the other hand, have wildly differing chromosomes numbers based on the select subspecies. Going off of what little info we have on Melon’s dad and features, I would guess he’s an Arabic gazelle which can have anywhere from 33, 32, or 31 chromosomes. If Melon’s father had had 33 or 31 chromosomes himself he wouldn’t have been able to produce Melon so we’ll go with him having 32 which means he passed on 16 chromosomes to Melon.
With a combined total of 35 chromosomes, this would, in theory, make Melon sterile. He would be unable to produce an offspring as much as he wanted to which, considering him, would probably be the best but, what about our two lovebirds? Legosi and Haru.
Legosi and Haru
Let’s start with Legosi who is a grey wolf. Grey wolves have 78 chromosomes and give 39 to their offspring.
Haru, on the other hand, is a domestic rabbit which has 44 chromosomes and gives 22 to her offspring.
Combined, the two would create offspring with 61 chromosomes. If you’ve been paying attention at all you’d know that that sadly means any children the two would have would be sterile, just like Melon. It’s unfortunate but- HEY WAIT A MOMENT.
LEGOSI ISN’T A GREY WOLF! I know, pulled the rug right under your legs. Legosi is actually a quarter Komodo dragon thanks to his grandfather. So, that begs the question, could Legosi’s Komodo dragon side allow Haru and him to produce a fertile offspring or could it imply something else?
Let’s look at the facts.
Grey wolves, as we have already gone over, give their offspring 39 of their 78 chromosomes to pass on.
Komodo dragons, on the other hand, have a total of 40 chromosomes, 20 of which they donate to their offspring. That, unfortunately, means their offspring would have 59 chromosomes and be sterile which suddenly raises a whole load of flags and concerns such as: HOW THE HELL DOES LEGOSI EVEN EXIST. His mother is sterile. It doesn’t matter if she mated or whatever, Legosi isn’t a possibility. Based on chromosomes, he wouldn’t exist. He is but a thought. A theory in himself if his mother could produce a child. Which he can’t.
Thankfully, this is a fictional series. Two different species can suddenly produce a child and chromosomes just don’t matter in this way. This post is just here to satisfy my own curiosity and maybe educate some people on how such a situation could work. Maybe if you ever plan a similar series you could to ponder these ideas.
Maybe in another world where hybrids are still a thing but chromosomes are imperative to decided whether your child is sterile or not, everyone is given a list of acceptable breeds to mate with. Maybe forcibly having a sterile child just because you fell in love with someone with the wrong amount of chromosomes is seen as sinful or possibly even a crime. How would someone who was born sterile due to their chromosomes in this world react? Would they hate their parents or not? Just some things to think about.
8 notes
·
View notes
Note
I would love to hear your rant about your hatred for the concept of literature
Okay. So here’s the thing about literature and why I hate the concept of Literature with a capital L. Bear in mind this is an American perspective.
Generally speaking, when your average Joe talks about “literature”, they’re referring to the material that was taught in high school: old, dry, pretentious, written by middle-aged white men, etc. Now, that’s not always the case anymore (for instance, we read The Hunger Games and The Book Thief in a couple of my English classes, both modern), but even so, the general cultural understanding of literature derives from what people are taught, which tends towards that type of content.
When you get into higher academic circles, the concept is even more solidified. There is so much criticism and theory out there about what Literature is, and what qualifies as Literature, and there’s an incredible amount of shame leveraged towards people who argue against what’s been normative over the past century. Think about how much vitriol the Twilight fans got, or the embarrassment at admitting you read fanfiction in non-online circles. A lot of that is sexism and homophobia, since society in general really doesn’t like it when media is aimed at women or queer people, but those societal pressures are part and parcel with how we define Real Literature.
Academia overall is a male-dominated and male-created field. What is canonized as Real Literature by the literary field is largely material that appeals to that demographic. Books written by straight white men about straight white men are the most prominent (i.e. Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby). Works predating 1900 come next (i.e. Jane Austen). Following that come works by marginalized groups about being marginalized (Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, etc).
That’s not even getting into genre; it’s very rare to see anything other than realistic or historical fiction considered Literature, unless it’s suitably old. Aasimov and Heinlein count, Tolkein sometimes counts, Dracula and Frankenstein count, but modern scifi and fantasy rarely enter the conversation when you talk about Literature. “Genre fiction” is a derogatory term in academic circles, or at least a disrespectful one.
Now this is not to say that books considered Real Literature are inherently bad, or that you shouldn’t read them. There are things to gain from Austen and Salinger. The issue is that in mainstream academic circles and cultural consciousness, we don’t look beyond these Officially Canonized works when discussing literature. (Incidentally, this is why I studied Comparative Literature instead of English Literature; the body of work that’s looked at is much broader, and allows for more nuance, plus the focus is on examining the interplay of culture and literature. A lot of what we read in CompLit classes would not have counted as Literature by mainstream academic standards.)
So why is this a problem? Well to start with, it limits the lens through which people see literature, and thereby the lens through which people see the world. There’s a pretty common response teachers will give when asked why students have to read all this stuff, which is that literature helps us understand culture. This is true. However, if your window into culture is the pen of a straight white man from the 1960s, you’re not actually getting an accurate fix on the culture of wherever the book is from. If the point of literature is to learn about the rest of the world, you need to be able to access multiple perspectives, not just the perspectives deemed acceptable by high academia.
But accessing those perspectives is hard, because they’re not respected by high academia. Works that fall outside of the Literature definition are less likely to be considered important enough to distribute across language lines. Now, there’s a bit of an exception for English literature here, since that’s what dominates the market; there are plenty of translations of English YA and scifi/fantasy and romance novels etc. It’s the other way where it suffers. Non-English literature is just as important to the world as English literature, but because the market is dominated by English, they don’t get as much traction. I have no idea what, say, a teenager in France reads, let alone China or Saudi Arabia - countries the English-speaking world has less of a boner for. The to-English translation market is more geared towards the classics and Literature than it is towards popular fiction.
The other big issue with the perception of literature forwarded by academia is format. Throughout this I’ve been talking about books and the written word, which is an incredibly Western perspective. Literature encompasses so much more than that. Typically literature is defined as “written works”, but that eliminates a great body of work that by all rights should count. I would say that a better broad definition would be “composed works”. A folktale doesn’t become literature when it’s put to paper; it was already part of the literary canon of its culture before it was validated by ink.
This focus on the written word stems largely from colonialism: the counterpoint of “civilized” vs. “uncivilized”, with written tradition being seen as one of the signs of civilization. There is a lot of classism and racism inherent in the academic definition of literature, since it tends to rely on the novel, the short story, the essay, and the poem as its main components. Any type of media or method of storytelling or conveying information that isn’t one of those four aforementioned formats has a hell of a time being seen as anything but “popular literature,” if the word “literature” is appended to it at all. This especially applies to methods of storytelling that do not jibe well with being written down; oral storytelling traditions are usually not considered Literature, or often considered sophisticated. Hell, songs are barely considered literature; there was a big controversy over Bob Dylan winning the Nobel Prize For Literature back in 2016 because people weren’t sure his works should count.
But under the paradigm of literature as “composed works”, a lot of media that isn’t typically considered literature becomes so. It gives us that broader perspective on the world. It’s incredibly damaging to discount pieces of a culture’s history or storytelling simply because they don’t fit into the narrow definition of Literature as put forth by Western academia. And that’s why I hate the idea of Literature as a concept: it asks us to set guidelines for what should be respected, and what should be discarded. Capital-L Literature inherently sets itself as superior to everything else, and defines itself as What Should Be Focused On. Anything not included in that is derided and disrespected, and because of what doesn’t fit, it contributes to the derision and disrespect of marginalized groups and the devaluing of their narratives and experiences.
#hi welcome to my blog have some literary criticism essays#seriously though the whole idea of literature vs non-literature is pointless and meaningless and makes us all the worse#my words#literature#discourse#original post#MAN it feels good to write about lit again though i have missed essays#never thought i'd see the day but here we are i guess
30 notes
·
View notes
Note
I'm writing a human character in sci-fi setting who has been betrayed by his friend and is then kidnapped and phycologically tortured by the friend to the point after he escapes he has severe PTSD. I'm struggling to write it though as I'm not sure what kind of mental torture he could be put through without going over the top. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks
I’m going to start off with a possibly obvious point: kidnapping is traumatic. If the main thing you want from this sub-plot is to give a character PTSD you don’t need to go any further then that. Not everyone who is kidnapped will develop PTSD but it’s a realistic outcome.
So…. Phycology is the study of algae, I’m assuming that’s not what’s meant here. But if it is then please correct me and I will happily spend some time reading up on algae to help you out. (That is not sarcasm, teach me about algae.) :)
I am guessing that this is a misspelling of ‘psychologically’ and this is someone new to the blog who hasn’t heard The Talk about ‘psychological torture’ yet.
So going forward: Anon it’s OK to make mistakes. I’m here because I understand how hard it is to find good quality information on torture. And because I understand how much misinformation is popularised in both fictional and allegedly-factual media.
I strongly advise that you don’t use the phrase ‘psychological torture’ in your writing.
Torture isn’t psychological. There’s nothing clever or psychological about hitting someone’s feet with a stick.
And the phrase ‘psychological torture’ has been used for years by torture apologists. They use it as a way to dismiss survivors and belittle their experience. They do that by declaring that some types of torture are ‘just’ psychological; using this term to suggest particular tortures don’t cause physical harm and that survivors are faking their responses.
This is bullshit. Don’t buy into it. Don’t support it.
Torture is physical abuse and physical harm. The lasting psychological symptoms and effects are due to underlying changes in the structure of the brain which happen in response to extreme pain and stress.
O’Mara, the neuroscientist who wrote about torture, likened it to brain damage. He also went so far as to argue that it’s deliberately inflicted organ failure. And you know what, I’m not a neuroscientist, so I’m not gonna argue with that assessment.
I don’t know what you’re picturing when you say ‘psychological torture’. You haven’t given me a time frame for how long this character is held or information on the kind of culture this fictional world has. Which makes it hard for me to suggest specific things.
What I can do is give you an idea of what torture looks like now and what sort of effects you’d expect in survivors. You can then consider whether torture is right for your story.
Most torture nowadays is ‘clean’. Now different researchers use different terms for this (I use Rejali’s term) but what it essentially means is: a form of physical abuse that is extremely unlikely to leave obvious physical marks on the victim’s body.
Lest you get the idea that is represents ‘advancement’ most of the clean torture techniques currently used are hundreds of years old. Some of them are thousands of years old.
There’s been quite a bit of debate in the field about why clean torture is currently so common and why so many organisations have abandoned scarring torture. You can read more about that over here. Or if you feel you have a wealth of time on your hands you can try tackling all 800 pages of Rejali’s Torture and Democracy (highly recommended, also very large).
The theory Rejali puts forward is that the shift is about evidence. Obvious physical injuries make it easier to build up cases against torturers.
And a lack of obvious physical injuries can be used to discredit survivors.
These are the sort of torture techniques that get labelled ‘psychological’ as a way to dismiss them: the ones that are being used around the world today.
If you’re wondering what sort of thing I’m talking about things like sleep deprivation, beatings (yes this can be done without leaving obvious marks), near-drowning, forcing someone to exercise until they collapse, Tasers.
I have a post here on typical torture practices in different countries in the modern era.
While the physical effects of clean tortures are hard to definitively prove we’re still taking about incredibly dangerous things.
Tasers, used according to the instructions, leave no mark on the skin. They can also cause heart attacks, seizures (in vulnerable individuals) and often cause death by falling injuries. Forced exercise, beatings and stress positions all cause kidney failure. In the case of stress positions that’s after the swelling in extremities that gets to the point of popping the skin open in massive ulcers.
Sleep deprivation causes a whole slew of interestingly awful physical and psychological effects before (according to studies in mice) leading to death from multiple organ failure as the microbes in the gut take over the entire body.
What I’m trying to say here is that if you’re looking for something dignified, without the vomit and pus and shit, then torture probably doesn’t fit the bill.
And clean tortures can still cause physically disabling injuries.
Drowning and choking tortures (such as water boarding) can cause brain damage. Incorrectly applied restraints can lead to a limb needing to be amputated.
On top of all this are the long term psychological effects which I have a post on here. Memory problems are discussed in more detail here.
PTSD is a possible symptom but it’s not guaranteed. The truth is that while we know the possible symptoms different individual survivors develop different symptoms and we don’t know why.
If you’ve thought about it and you want to use PTSD because it adds something to your story then by all means do so. But don’t feel that it is your only option.
Survivors do recover. They are not ‘broken’ and unable to live or enjoy life. They’re mentally ill and often disabled and recovery is a process of learning to live with their conditions.
Wrapping this up: think about what you’re writing.
I am not saying that you shouldn’t write torture. I am not saying that you should. I’m asking that you, and every other writer who comes here, consider what you’re committing to.
If you don’t want a character to be dealing with multiple complex mental health problems for the rest of every story you use them in, it’s probably not a good fit.
If you want something that doesn’t have even a chance of causing lasting physical damage, torture is probably not a good fit.
Picture where the story is going. If you think the narrative could be the same without torture then you’re probably not capturing the scale of the impact torture has.
I have a post on common inaccurate tropes here. I have a post on researching torture here. I have a list of sources over here. I also have a lot of asks tagged as sci fi.
Consider why you want to write torture in this story. What is it adding to your narrative? What is it doing?
If the main thing you want is this character to have PTSD afterwards that is possible with kidnapping alone. Physical attacks make PTSD more likely but they’re not necessary for its development.
Kidnap and imprisonment is betrayal enough. It is reason enough for all the big, powerful emotions you want to put into this relationship. Ask yourself if torture really does add any more to that.
I hope that helps. :)
Available on Wordpress.
Disclaimer
#writing advice#tw torture#torture apologia#torture does not work#torture survivors are not broken#torture is not safe#clean torture#scarring torture#modern torture#writing torture#writing survivors#ptsd#effects of torture#sci fi ask#educate me about algae
122 notes
·
View notes
Photo
STAR WARS: REBELS MBTI [Part I]
Ezra Bridger: ESTP “The Doer”
The ESTP is open to situations, able to improvise to bring about desired results. They are active people who want to solve their problems rather than simply discuss them. An ESTP will be open to new situations, and they are often the first to volunteer to demonstrate or learn a new skill whenever the opportunity arises. Due to their desire to follow their own moral compass, ESTPs will sometimes encounter challenges when dealing with authority figures.An ESTP may find it difficult to work in highly organized environments that require a great deal of focused discussions.
Kanan Jarrus: INFJ “The Empath”
Using their intuitive skills, they develop a clear and confident vision, which they then set out to execute, aiming to better the lives of others. Like their INTJ counterparts, INFJs regard problems as opportunities to design and implement creative solutions. Although very independent, INFJs are intensely interested in the well-being of others. INFJs prefer one-on-one relationships to large groups. INFJs have a rich, vivid inner life, which they may be reluctant to share with those around them. Nevertheless, they are congenial in their interactions, and perceptive of the emotions of others.
Hera Syndulla: ESFJ “The Supporter”
ESFJ’s are literal and concrete, trusting the specific, factual information gathered through their physiological senses. ESFJ’s project warmth through a genuine interest in the well-being of others.They are often skilled at bringing out the best in people, and they want to understand other points of view. They are serious about their responsibilities, seeing what needs to be done and then doing it. Generally proficient at detailed tasks, they enjoy doing little things that make life easier for others. They value tradition and the security it offers.
Sabine Wren: ISFP “The Artist”
Although quiet, they are pleasant, considerate, caring, and devoted to the people in their lives. Introverted and quiet, ISFPs are difficult to build a close relationship with. They usually have a small circle of friends and family who they have had relationships with over long periods of time. ISFPs tend to examine the world with all five of their senses. This can make them incredibly talented artists who are able to breath life into their art. They excel in positions where they can follow their own personal value system while also expressing themselves creatively.
Garazeb Orrelios: ESFP “The Performer”
ESFP’s are excellent team players, focused on completing the task at hand with maximum fun and minimum discord. ESFP’s take a hands-on approach in most things. Because they learn more by doing than by studying or reading, they tend to rush into things, learning by interacting with their environment.They usually dislike theory and written explanations. Observant, practical, realistic, and specific, ESFP’s make decisions according to their own personal standards. While very practical, they generally despise routines, instead desiring to “go with the flow.”
Grand Admiral Thrawn: INTJ “The Mastermind”
INTJs are analytical. Like INTPs, they are most comfortable working alone and tend to be less sociable than other types. Nevertheless, INTJs are prepared to lead if no one else seems up to the task, or if they see a major weakness in the current leadership. They tend to be pragmatic, logical, and creative. They have a low tolerance for spin or rampant emotionalism. They are not generally susceptible to catchphrases and do not recognize authority based on tradition, rank, or title. They harbor an innate desire to express themselves by conceptualizing their own intellectual designs. They have a talent for analyzing and formulating complex theories.
Governor Pryce: ESTJ “The Guardian”
ESTJ’s are practical, realistic, and matter-of-fact, with a natural head for business or mechanics. Though they are not interested in subjects they see no use for, they can apply themselves when necessary. They like to organize and run activities. ESTJ’s make good administrators, especially if they remember to consider others’ feelings and points of view, which they often miss. ESTJ’s take a practical approach to life that is guided by their matter-of-fact attitudes and focus on realism. They recognize tradition and prefer order which makes them strong leaders within their families and communities.
Alexsandr Kallus: ISTJ “The Inspector”
ISTJs thrive on organization. They keep their lives and environments well-regulated. They bring painstaking attention to detail in their work and will not rest until a job is well completed. They are often dissatisfied with unresolved issues, whether in life or in fiction. Shutting out distractions, they take a practical, logical approach to their endeavors. Realistic and responsible, they work steadily toward their goals. Despite their focus on their internal world, ISTJs prefer dealing with the present and the factual. Keen observers of life, they weigh various options when making decisions.
Descriptions from Personality Club
#star wars#rebels#mbti#ezra bridger#ESTP#kanan jarrus#INFJ#hera syndulla#ESFJ#sabine wren#ISFP#garazeb orrelios#ESFP#grand admiral thrawn#INTJ#governor pryce#ESTJ#alexsandr kallus#ISTJ
127 notes
·
View notes
Text
Name: Megan
Writing Blog URL(s): @yunocity
What fandom(s) do you write for? NCT (127, Dream, Wayv, U)
Age: 20
Nationality: Asian American
Languages: English, Hmong with limited knowledge in Chinese and Korean
Star Sign: Sun: Scorpio, Moon: Taurus, Rising: Aquarius
MBTI: ESTJ-A
Favorite color: Black, red, white
Favorite food: Spring rolls
Favorite movie: Miracles in Cell No.7, Love Rosie
Favorite ice cream flavor: Mango
Favorite animal: Baby pandas
Coffee or tea? What are you ordering?: Tea!
Dream job (whether you have a job or not): Marketer for a luxury fashion company or a high-end makeup brand
Go-to karaoke song: Video Games- Lana Del Ray
If you could have one superpower, what would you choose?: Mind Reading!
If you could visit a historical era, which would you choose?: Roaring 20s
If you could restart your life, knowing what you do now, would you?: No, I think the way my life is laid out is how it’s supposed to be. I’ve made mistakes and I’ve learned from them. I think if I were to restart my life, I’d not be who I am at this moment and I like who I am right now, I like who I’ve grown to be!
Would you rather fight 100 chicken-sized horses or one horse-sized chicken?: 100 chicken-sized horses
If you were a trope in a teen high school movie, what would you have been?: The dancers/athletes!
Do you believe in aliens/supernatural creatures?: I’m skeptical about them so yes
Fun fact about yourself that not everyone would know?: If you look closely, my eyes are different shades of brown!
When did you post your first piece?: May 11, 2020
Why did you decide to write for Tumblr?: I’ve been on Tumblr for a long time, but I’ve only gotten into reading other accounts’ works 2-3 years ago. Eventually, they inspired me into wanting to make my own writing account and share my stories and ideas!
Are there any times when you regret joining Tumblr?: Nope!
What inspires you to write?: My emotions and ideas. Also reading old texts from people I love or used to be in my life, tv shows/movies/kdramas, vision boards, and aesthetics of different countries around the world. Most of the time, my mind just comes up with wild random scenarios.
What do you do when you hit a rough spot creatively?: I take a break! I’d close my laptop and usually go dance (it’s a way for myself to take a break, yet still feel physically inspired), spend time with family, grab a snack, do some digital art, or research a conspiracy theory!
Do you write fluff/angst/crack/general/smut, combo, etc? Why?: Yes, I write smut (legal members only ofc), angst, and general. I write those kinds of genres because those are the most common and there’s so much that you can do with them! You can write them however you want and write whatever kind of plot you see fit, there’s so much flexibility.
Do you write OCs, X Readers, Ships...etc?: As of right now, I have been writing for “X Readers” because I want to be really inclusive of everyone! I don’t think I’ll go into OCs or ships (assuming idol and another idol?) because I don’t see that as inclusive. I most likely will stick to “X Readers”.
Who is your favorite person to write about?: Jaehyun from NCT
What genres/AUs do you enjoy writing the most?: I’ve only gotten to post one kind of au (arranged marriage au), but some that I have in my drafts that I absolutely enjoy are idol au, friends to lovers au, enemies to lovers au, mafia au, fwb au, and mythology au. A genre I also love writing is angst!
What is your writing process like?: I usually write at night after I shower and do my night routine. I plug in some headphones, play some music that fits the mood of the story presently, and start writing! If I have writer’s block, I’ll usually watch some old mvs that bring back old memories!
What is your favorite work and why? Your most successful?: I haven’t published it yet, because it’s still under the wraps and I want to post about other members too, but I have a mythology au with Jaehyun and it’s my absolute favorite right now! I can’t wait to post it!!
Do you think there’s a difference between writing fanfiction vs. completely original prose?: Yes and no! Yes, because whenever I think of (original) prose I think of a technique of writing that flows naturally with speech and has grammatical structure, so as long as stories have those skills, I would consider them as so. We as humans actually speak, write, and think in prose because it’s seen as a straightforward language and conversational speech. No, because at the same time prose consists of many things. There are several types of prose (non-fictional, fictional, heroic, poetic), so if a story states that it is a specific prose, I would say there is a difference!
What do you think makes a good story?: Emotion 100%. The ability to write with emotions without straightforwardly telling the readers what kind of emotion is felt within a character. Also description of an environment, again, having the ability to describe a moment without stating it like it’s supposed to be obvious.
What do you hope your readers take away from your work?: The emotion that my writing invokes from them. I want them to read my work and feel the emotion that I’m trying to provoke! Also the fact that I work hard and put a lot of thought while being realistic as I can with the plot!
Would you ever repurpose a fic into a completely original story?: Not yet!
What tropes do you love, and what tropes can’t you stand?: Ones that I love are enemies to lovers, friends with benefits to lovers, friends to lovers, different worlds (metaphorically), and I have some more that I can’t think of! Ones that I cannot stand are, stuck together to lovers, secret billionaire, childhood marriage promises, amnesia, and “If i can’t have you, no one will!!”
What has been one of the biggest factors of your success (of any size)?: Definitely my process/planning; on how I think of a story and plan it out on my iPad with a bunch of side notes and idea webs.
How much would you say audience feedback/engagement means to you?: Oh, it means so much, I can’t even explain. I love it when I get asks that tell me about how mad they are, how much they cried, or how happy they are about something that happened in the story. It means a lot because it means that they actually read through my work and enjoyed it. I love it when my followers and anons talk to me in general!
Do you think fanfic writers get unfairly judged?: Yes, I definitely think that we get judged for being too much in our head or having too many unrealistic fantasies. Fanfic writing is just another way of expressing our ideas simply with the person we adore from a group, it doesn’t necessarily mean we fantasize it to happen.
Do you think art can be a medium for change?: Yes! I think that any idea from the mind that expresses emotion and inspiration visually or not, is considered an art. There’s a lot that goes into writing than what people think! Such as finding the creativity for metaphors in a story that will not only bring out emotion from the character and reader, but also a visual representation to symbolize the emotion.
Do you ever feel there are times when you’re writing for others, rather than yourself?: Yes, I always get asks asking me when I’ll update, but it’s not too much of a bother because I know they’re just really excited for the next part or another set of work.
Do you ever feel like people have misunderstood you or your writing at times?: Not at all, I think I do a fairly good job at writing to the point where there’d be no misunderstandings.
Do your offline friends/loved ones know you write for Tumblr?: No, I like to keep it private because I’d rather have them not tease or make fun of me for what I genuinely like to do.
What is one thing you wish you could tell your followers?: That I literally love them all so much and I appreciate each and every one of them. I mean it from the bottom of my heart, they’re all so nice, welcoming, and supportive. It encourages me to write more!
Do you have any advice for aspiring writers who might be too scared to put themselves out there?: Definitely go for it! You’ll never know until you try! There will be people who don’t like it, but those who truly love your writing will support you forever, will stick around, encourage you, and lift you up. Be confident in your writing, be confident that your brain came up with such an amazing plot/story and has woven so many things together to create it!
Do you have any mutuals who have been particularly formative/supportive in your Tumblr journey?: I do have a few mutuals that I talk to. One of them has read my story and given such good feedback, which I loved because I’m always looking for opportunities to grow as a writer.
Pick a quote to end your interview with: “Throughout life people will make you mad, disrespect you and treat you bad. Let God deal with the things they do, cause hate in your heart will consume you too.” -Will Smith
BONUS K-POP CONFIDENTIAL
Interested in your very own episode of The Sunny Show? Find out how to apply HERE.
8 notes
·
View notes
Note
I just read your post about shipping and energy and I finished it with an interesting question in mind. A los of the examples you use to defend the theory the "tension" Or energy beetwen the characters have some Interactions that could be consider "Toxic" Así a relationship, but because of that tensión that just make more fans ship it. Emotions of jelaously, hate, self worth bla bla. I would like to know your opinión on Toxic relationships on shipping and the difference (1/2?)
And the difference of how people Accept it depending if the ship is Slash or het. Dont get me wrong. What I try to exploin in My crappy English is that sometimes I have seen shippers calling Toxic and unhealthy het ships (I can give you plenty of examples) but at the same time drowning in feelings about the exact same concept on Slash. It can be domination, bickering, power dinamics etc. Please a dont send this ina negative context its just something I have notice (2/2)
No worries, I got you. I think your point is really valid and there are a lot of discrepancies in how people ship when it comes to het versus slash.
In this case, my answer to this has three different parts to it:
1) I am always very, very cautious about applying the term “toxic” to a fictional relationship because--and I am aware this is not a popular opinion to have on tumblr--I do see a clear distinction between fiction and reality. Can systemic, widespread efforts in media to normalize something have impacts on public perception? Sure. Japan’s thing for twelve-year-old girls in anime is fucked up, my dudes. But in terms of fictional relationships, would any sane person look at things like, say, a psychopathic villain and hero ship and go “Oh man, Sephiroth/Cloud is such relationship goals; can’t wait to find me a serial killer!”? “Yeah dude, I really hope my next girlfriend is a yandere who will stab me sixteen times in non-vital places for fun!” “I can’t wait to engage in armed combat with my evil boyfriend who has enslaved my best friends and won’t give them back unless I let the rest of the world perish!” ...said no real person ever. Lots of things happen in fiction that we--as readers and viewers--can fully appreciate would never be okay in the real world. (And yes, this does extend even to more realistic things like jealousy, bickering, bullying--I like Bakugou as a character, but I’d never be able to tolerate a person who acted like him in real life.)
I wholeheartedly believe that, outside of illegal things which should obviously be reported, each person has responsibility only for their own fandom experience, and I highly encourage people to make full use of the blocking and filtering features available in fandom spaces to avoid any content that makes them feel uncomfortable or any ships they find to be unhealthy.
So: My opinion on toxic ships is that virtually any ship in this world could be perceived as toxic by someone, and that the alternative--a world in which the ONLY ships we’re allowed to write about or draw or even just like are those which are perfectly healthy pure pure love-fests--sounds horrible to me.
2) Very few people ship without an endgame in mind. I can’t think of anyone who looks at two characters who absolutely hate each other and thinks “Wow, I can’t wait to write a 100,000 word fic in which their relationship does not evolve in the slightest and they end the story hating each other exactly as much as they did on Day 1!” JK, maybe I can, I was in the Durarara fandom, after all. When people ship “toxic” relationships, it is almost always with the idea of character growth and change in mind--the idea is “They are not healthy for each other now, but the whole point of my story or art is that they’ll become healthy for each other over time.” The power of love can heallll peopleeee.
Are the characters jealous of each other now, aggressive toward each other now, enemies right now? Obviously in the shipper’s mind, these are challenges that can be overcome in time by the characters learning and developing into better versions of themselves. Perhaps this is an overly optimistic worldview that leads people to make bad choices in real life--awful people in real life rarely change as much for the better as characters in fiction are capable of changing, but that’s the beauty of fiction: it doesn’t show us people as they are, but people as we wish they could be. We want to believe that the toxic pair of characters can find common ground and heal each other. That the people who are jealous of each other will instead come to appreciate each other by the end. That the misunderstandings will be cleared up. That mistakes will be forgiven. People typically aren’t shipping a toxic ship because they love toxicity--they’re shipping that relationship specifically because they see potential beyond that tension.
We typically ship with “happily ever after” in mind, with the understanding that the life is too hard and people too flawed for that road to always be an easy one.
3) I think you are right that there is a discrepancy in the way that people view het ships and slash ships; namely, there is a discrepancy between the way het ships and mlm ships are viewed.
There are probably a lot of long and complicated sociological explanations for this that someone with more research in the field could explain better, but my first thought on this is that the discrepancy is based primarily on how fans understand male and female dynamics versus male and male dynamics.
For example, society is coded strongly to view a man who hits, dominates, or is aggressive to a woman as a very, very bad guy. (Perhaps this is something widespread media depictions have normalized?) Whereas “dude kicks another guy’s ass” has a whole different connotation in modern views. It is certainly a double standard, and part of the reason that so many male victims of abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence, etc. go ignored. Men are viewed as “too strong” to be victims; therefore, even many of the “wokest” fans can accept two male characters having a violent dynamic, when they would never accept that scenario between a male and female character.
That said, I think we also need to recognize that the way female characters are portrayed in media contributes to this problem. A preponderance of female characters in media are limited in what they can do and the situations they are allowed to engage in. As with BNHA, for example, “good” women are not allowed to be violent, jealous (other than over boys), aggressive, etc. Women are simply treated as not eligible for a wide variety of the dynamics that fictional men are written with. A male character having a superiority-inferiority complex over his also-male rival? Not surprising in the least. A male character having a superiority-inferiority complex over a female rival? Pshhh, yeah right. A female character bitterly jealous over a male character’s power, leadership, or skill? Surely she just admires his ability. Through a combination of misogyny and toxic masculinity, the stories themselves tell readers that unhealthy dynamics are commonplace and acceptable when they happen between two males, while “good” female characters should only be a source of healthy, supportive dynamics.
If we’re talking about unintended messages that writers send readers/viewers when it comes to character dynamics, this is definitely one of them!
tl;dr: Writers train their readers to expect and want certain things, but often do so carelessly or while unaware of the ways their own stereotypical societal views and cliche genre conventions will be taken and transformed by fandoms.
178 notes
·
View notes
Text
Why C+B=R doesn’t work...
*rubs hands*
This is going to be fun…
I’ll start with busting the evidences that the theorist gave to make their theory believable (I’m not trying to mock them here btw don’t get me wrong) and continue with other factors why they simply do not work.
1)Follies done for love.
So the first thing the theorist talks about is Catelyn’s Tully morals and stuff, then they give Catelyn’s thoughts when she learns of Robb and Jeyne’s marriage as one of the evidences.
Only then came her belated remembrance. Follies done for love? He has bagged me neat as a hare in a snare. I seem to have already forgiven him.
-A Storm of Swords, Catelyn II.
They claim that the “follies done for love” is actually about Robb’s parentage.
“Brandon knew how to take what he wanted. Seems like he begged some,
(We will wed on my return he vowed) and she agreed,
hence the follies done for love.”
This could have been a good comment of the paragraph if we didn’t have a much better and realistic cause for her thoughts which is Jaime. Catelyn freed Jaime to get back her daughters, the daughters she loved fiercely, and she believes they are under Cersei’s claws, who she also blames for her husband’s death, and I don’t think I have to talk about the love Catelyn bears to Ned, for I never shut up about it. (Mind that Catelyn was unaware that Arya had escaped from the capital when she freed Jaime.) So no, passing off Brandon’s bastard as Ned’s isn’t the follies done for love, but freeing Jaime Lannister.
2)I did so gladly.
Here, the other evidence is that she marries Ned gladly and in a haste, because she’ll pass the child as his own, and she shouldn’t be far along or showing by the time they marry.
“When Brandon died shortly before they were to wed, Catelyn now having realized she is pregnant does not want her baby to grow up a bastard, so when told she must marry Ned in a haste, she does so gladly, planning to tell him that the child is his own.”
The problem here is how they interpret the word “gladly”.
Highborns rarely have the chance to choose whom they marry, especially if they are a woman and it’s their lord father who had arranged the marriage for them. (The Queen of Thorns, we all know she’s just another level.) Keep in mind that Catelyn is the favored child of Tully, (I love the Tullys but sorry Hoster that’s bad parenting 101) she is probably even more loved than Edmure, the heir to the Riverlands, and being his precious child, he wants Catelyn to be happy, for she deserves the world (FACTS!). But the man is also ambitious as fuck, she wants both daughters to be the wifes of high lords, and mother high lordlings. This is a great chance at hand, probably that comes very rarely too, considering the heir to the North has always had a Northern marriage. But Catelyn, being the dutiful daughter she is (Family, Duty, Honor) answers the way it would please her lord father.
And when Lord Hoster promised her to Brandon Stark, she had thanked him for making her such a splendid match.
-A Clash of Kings, Catelyn IV.
And when Brandon was murdered and Father told me I must wed his brother, I did so gladly, though I never saw Ned’s face until our wedding day. I gave my maidenhood to this solemn stranger and sent him off to his war and his king and the woman who bore him his bastard, because I always did my duty.
-A Clash of Kings, Catelyn IV.
She marries off Ned “gladly” because she has always done her duty, not because she wants to pass Brandon’s bastard as Ned’s.
3)Jon Snow…
“Another issue is the way that Catelyn treats Jon. Jealousy is understandable, but it's very uncommon for a woman and a mother, with maternal instincts, to treat a small child so badly.”
The whole Jon Snow/Catelyn relationship is severely misunderstood, and I think that is why this is mentioned in the theory.
The thing is… Catelyn rarely even treats Jon. She simply ignores him to at least make his presence bearable. Jealousy comes a long while after Jon is born and brought to Winterfell, and that never makes a change to Catelyn’s behaviour.
She might have overlooked a dozen bastards for Ned’s sake, so long as they were out of sight. Jon was never out of sight, and as he grew, he looked more like Ned than any of the trueborn sons she bore him.
-A Game of Thrones, Catelyn II.
Her problem is not Ned banging another woman in wartime, it’s that this child is in her home, where her trueborn children lives. He lives pretty much in the same luxuries with her own children. This might be bold of me, but there is no other ACKNOWLEDGED (The Baratheon (!) children are out) bastard in the Seven Kingdoms who lives in much luxury under such conditions (like Ned lacking a true born heir, etc.). As their marriage and relationship progresses, my parents (Ned & Cat) fall in love and this is where you can assume the jealousy comes in. She loves Ned dearly, fiercely, and it not only breaks her heart but makes herself feel as if she’s not enough to see that Jon remains in Winterfell, no matter how many sons she had bore him. Aye, she is aware that Ned is bestotted with her, but just like everyone, she has her dark moments where she wonders if she could never fill the hole that the bastard’s mother had left behind (Let’s not forget to mention that she doesn’t even know if she had ever left his heart at all). Despite being a fictional character, Catelyn is still human, and no one can ever blame her for being a human. That is what makes her a greatly rounded and complex character in the first place.
It is also confirmed by George R. R. Martin that Catelyn has never abused or mistreated Jon in any way, other than the time she snapped at him when Jon came to bid Bran farewell.
“Mistreatment” is a loaded word. did Catelyn beat Jon bloody? No. Did she distance herself from him? Yes. Did she verbally abuse and attack him? No. (The instance in Bran’s bedroom was obviously a very special case.) But I am sure she was very protective of the rights of her own children, and in that sense always drew the line sharply between bastard and trueborn where issues like seating on the high table for the king’s visit were at issue. And Jon surely knew that she would have preferred to have him elsewhere.
-George R. R. Martin.
“Keep in mind that the only way a bastard can threaten a trueborn 1st son is if the trueborn son is actually a bastard.”
Umm, no? The kid is a danger to all, especially if something were to happen to Robb. After all, Catelyn’s other children are also a part of the line of succession after Robb.
“In the show Catelyn says:
“All this horror that's come to our family,
It's all because I couldn't love a motherless child”.”
I think I have talked enough about how this scene totally ruins Catelyn’s character, and my opinions on this matter can be understood pretty clearly from the explanation I made about Catelyn and Jon’s relationship. The show is full of bullshit, and this is just one of them. (see my twitter account for this)
4)EvEn CeRsEi?!
“When Catelyn discovers Cersei's children are bastards who are not Robert's, she thinks:
"Would even Cersei be so mad? Catelyn was speechless."
Why EVEN Cersei? Why not simply say Cersei?
She can't believe another woman did the same thing she did, which is to let her husband raise another man's child, as his own.”
LMAO, she is talking about the freaking Targaryens!!! Cersei is literally the queen of the man who dethroned the mad incest supporters and she finds out that his wife is doing the same exact thing! Don’t you guys think it’s ironic? Well, I wonder what makes Catelyn so shocked...
(Oh and by the way, Cersei, baby you were so right..)
5)16,20,50 & Some Height Issues
“This is what Catelyn thinks about Robb:
“Let him grow taller, she asked the gods. Let him know sixteen, and twenty, and fifty. Let him grow as tall as his father, and hold his own son in his arms. ”
So let’s ask ourselves Why these numbers?
Does Catelyn just pick them out at random or is there meaning behind them?
They certainly don’t seem to apply to Ned and yet they fit perfectly when applied to Brandon Stark
-Brandon was 16 when he met Catelyn and they fell in “love”
-And was 20 when he died.
-Although Rickard Starks exact age is unknown,
I believe this is who Catelyn is thinking of when she says 50, Robbs Grandfather who died with Brandon.
So here we have Catelyn's thinking of Robb's life:
may he live to meet a girl and fall in love,
may he not die at 20 like his father
or die at 50 like his grandfather.
may he hold his own son in his arms, something Brandon was never able to do.”
This is one of the most well-thought evidences, but it’s wrong nonetheless.
Brandon Stark was born in 262 AC, and Catelyn was born in either 264 or 265 AC, we do not know the exact year.
So yes, he died at 20, but Catelyn was 12 when her father promised him to Brandon. That makes Brandon 14 or 15 when they met and “fell in love”.
Oh and the mention of “tall”:
““ Catelyn watched a breeze stir his auburn hair, so like her own, and wondered when her son had grown so big.
Fifteen , and near as tall as she was. ... Let him grow as tall as his father"
Catelyn specifically noted how disappointed she was with Ned's height, compared to Brandon who was tall.
So how DID Robb get so tall if Ned is short?
And if Ned is so short, who does she mean when wanting Robb to grow, as tall as him?
Again this sounds like Brandon to us.”
Brandon being taller than Ned doesn’t mean Ned is short. Considering the average height for men is 5’9 today, someone who is 6’3 is tall. A man who is 6’1 is tall as well, but shorter than other. This is the same case. Ned is never mentioned to be short, he is just shorter than Brandon, who is mentioned to be tall.
5.1)Fall in love
Oh, and just fyi, Catelyn was never in love with Brandon. Yes she might have liked or even loved the idea of him and their live together, but never really loved him.
6)When possessive pronouns confuse the f out of you
“"She had brought him forth in blood and pain, not knowing whether Ned would ever see him. Her son.”
so Why say HER son?
This is how the sentence should have been like,
Given the premise that Ned is Robb's father:
"not knowing whether Ned would ever see him. His son.”
Or:
"not knowing whether Ned would ever see him. Their son.””
So ok, I’ll admit that this is the best one by far. There’s nothing I can say to deny them, though Catelyn does mention the children as “our” and as Ned’s son as well. And while might imply, it does not give the theory %100 accuracy.
7)Nine moons
Catelyn thinking about Robb:
““Brandon Stark had bid her wait as well.
“I shall not be long, my lady,” he had vowed.
“We will be wed on my return.”
"Yet when the day came at last, it was his brother Eddard who stood beside her in the sept. Ned had lingered scarcely a fortnight with his new bride before he too had ridden off to war with promises on his lips. At least he had left her with more than words; he had given her a son.
Nine moons had waxed and waned, and Robb had been born in Riverrun while his father still warred in the south.
Nine moons since when? This paragraph started with Brandon, not with Ned.”
Nine moons since ‘Ned had lingered scarcely a fortnight with his new bride before he too had ridden off to war with promises on his lips.’ I think this was pretty clear but okay. Considering the huge hate towards Catelyn, I’ve come to a conclusion that Martin’s works are very open for misinterpretation.
8)A son
““he had given her a son.” He did give her a son, instead of a bastard.
By marrying Catelyn,
Ned has effectively turned her Bastard into a son.”
I think this would have been again one of the best well thought, if Catelyn mentioned more than words to Brandon as well. She basically said that Brandon just left her with words while Ned gave her more. If Brandon gave her bastard, she wouldn’t have just said “words”. Yes, she might not have mentioned it as “a son” but there would be more than that.
9)Lord Dustin is Actually GRRM in a nutshell
““On Catelyn’s own wedding night ...
When Lord Dustin had beheld her naked, he’d told Ned that her breasts were enough to make him wish he’d never been weaned”
Breasts are the very first to expose a pregnancy, way before the belly shows.
Why would GRRM make the effort to give us this little tidbit of information about how her breasts reminded men of nursing?”
I think this is just a way of GRRM describing his type. Quoting grrmartin from Tumblr:
“Catelyn’s descriptions make her seem like the most attractive woman in Westeros. And people comment on her beauty frequently. Unlike Dany or Cersei, people do not fear or need to compliment Cat in the same way. GRRM, the author, married 2 redheads. He clearly has a type. And based on your logic on what makes somebody the most beautiful, LF started the War of the Five Kings because he loved the beautiful Catelyn Stark, even after over a decade of not seeing her.”
see the original post here
GRRM’s like of hot women is known, and “hot women” by classic standards are big breasts, a slim waist and wide hips. They are big guys. Ned Stark is a lucky man. Don’t overread. Not to mention that Catelyn tells herself that she’s given her maidenhood to Ned. Yes, maidenhood does mean an unwed woman, but it is also the synonym of “maidenhood”.
9)First time
This is, again, a controversial remark, I personally believe that it’s her instinct. She felt it. Though, the way it could work is very simple.
Her moon blood might have been early due to stress or coming after a few days they wed anyway. This was a time of war and they didn’t wait till women were most “available”.
10)Timeline…
Ok so I was going to continue with the other stuff that the theorist had mentioned but this is getting too long and I’m getting bored. So let’s bust this theory with the simplest thing: Timeline!!!
“Age: Brandon died in 282AL , Rob was born in 283AL. Time wise, it's plausible.”
“they had spent that year apart, Ned off at war in the south”
This way, because she gave birth at Riverrun without Ned, Ned would not know exactly how long after he left Robb was born.
Robert's Rebellion timeline is speculative, at best.
This is how I think it went, in chronological order:
1. Catelyn and Brandon Conceived Robb at Riverrun.
2.Brandon left for KL, and died.
3.Ned married Catelyn BEFORE calling his banners, to make sure he has the Riverland's support. Riding all the way North from the Vale, only to go all the way back in times of war seems unlikely. Ned probably sent someone in his name to call his banners, while he went to wed Catelyn. This would place their marriage likely far less than 3 months after Brandon left Riverrun, probably around 6-8 weeks after Robb's conecption.
4.Ned goes to war.
5.Jon is born.
6.Robb is born.
Brandon dies In the early-mid of 282 AC (With the words arriving, Rickard coming to Kl) since Lyanna’s abduction happens early in the year. Then Aerys demands Ned and Robert’s heads so Jon Arryn calls the banners and Ned returns to the North and Robert leaves for Stormlands to call the banners. Then, The Battles of Summerhall happens, followed by Robert’s defeat in the Battle of Ashford. Having retreated to the Riverlands, The Siege of Storm’s End starts and we know that the defenders were already in bad shape “by year’s end.” Ned and Catelyn marry after the Battle of the Bells, since it is a double wedding and we know that Jon Arryn loses gallant cousin and heir, Ser Denys Arryn, so he needs a young wife to produce an heir. This means that Catelyn and Ned married in the early 283 AC.
If Brandon had impregnated Catelyn, she would have been heavy with child by the time they married, and Robb would have been big enough to know he’s not Ned’s by the time he meets Robb. I think this is the biggest evidence that this theory simply does not work.
11)Significance of Parentage
Robb getting in the list of the secret parentage reduces the significance of parentage. There are way more believable parentage theories (and canon ones like the Baratheon (!) children) out there that concerns other families, and they have much more evidence other than the crumbs here. Everyone being a secret bastard takes the excitement of the better ones like R+L=J or A+J=CJ (love this one, don’t think it’s true but love it anyways).
In conclusion, even if I’m wrong, and Robb is actually Catelyn’s son (though I know Catelyn to be better than that, there’s a reason why I stan her) it makes literally no impact to the storyline. Robb is dead, Ned is dead, Brandon is long dead, Catelyn is dead, at least the part of her that made her Catelyn is. How other people will be aware of this is a dilemma as well. There has to be a good reason for Bran to look from the eyes of the Godswood of Riverrun. The only way this can have an importance is Jeyne being pregnant, (The chances are quite low on this one.) though not much would come of it anyway.
#catelyn stark#ned stark#ned x cat#catelyn tully#catelynstark#robb stark#brandon stark#brandon x catelyn#tbh c+b=r is pure bs but i tried my best to remain respectful#catelyn is baby and people think she's a heartless cold bitch#honour people...#cat has it you know
5 notes
·
View notes
Note
[question] why do you like giorno’s mom even though she’s neglectful and a horrible parent?
G’day mate, thanks for your question.
I personally not sure how to explain this well but I really hope it makes sense. At least a little bit.
Disclaimer: Before starting anything I want to say that I, by no means condone any child negligence, assault, abuse, etc. in real life that obviously involving real-life children. If you ever encounter any suspicious parents that might harm their children, please quickly contact your local child protection service if possible.
Please take my SUPER LONG answer here with a pinch of salt (you might wanna bookmark it for later reading just saying). You also feel free to disagree and so do I, alright? Let’s keep everything in peace here ehe hee. :)
Sorry for the digression, now let’s start focusing on the question.
*Cracking my fingers.*
Okay so umm let’s start with when my first time seeing her the anime (because I’m not so much of a reader :/)
My first thought on her is “Gosh, she’s so pretty! I wanna draw her!” like I attracted to her aesthetically and it’s very surface-level kind of attraction and I find a little weird thinking about it consciously aha haa.
The more I look at her, the more my mind able to capture her distinctive physical appearance features or what I sometimes call “shape” (this make more sense if you look at my chibi Shiobana art lol yea.)
After procrastinating to draw fan art of her for quite some time oops haha, I suddenly have this thought “What if Giorno actually having great childhood? What if Shiobana is a good mom to Giorno? How am I gonna draw Giorno as a happy child? What kind of scenario of an amazing childhood that I want to apply for both Shiobana as a great mother and Giorno as a happy child. ” and this happens the very same time my thoughts went to “What if Dio and Shiobana is a couple and be great parents to Giorno oho hoo.” but that’s for another day.
The more I draw Shiobana with Giorno or Dio or both or just herself, I start building up entire new AUs (yes, so many AUs but I don’t think I can develop all of them oops, too much for my not-so-much writer brain). So for this ask, I’m gonna pick the AU that correlates with canon storyline the most.
———————————————————————————————————-
In this particular AU, it is set at the post-Vento Aureo time.
Mr Giovanna is one of the biggest drug dealers after Diavolo. I made this overthinking theory because in the anime he was shown calculating some money.
Like… what exactly he’s counting? I know it’s money but where in the world the money comes from and what kind of business or work he’s involved in that made him gets such amount of money? (If you’re from Italy or anyone reading this is, please tell me if that quantity of money is average or suspiciously rich level, thanks.)
The other reasoning is I’m very curious that some bad fathers in JoJo usually associated with some sort of obsession to some extent. So if it’s not drug addiction and drug dealing, I don’t know what else it is. Plus, what’s up with the smirk tho? So suspiciousssss… (Again, this is a theory, not a fact. So… *shrugs* but it makes sense to me anyway aha haa.)
Long story medium, Shiobana becomes more guilty of her being negligent towards Giorno for so many years as time goes. She got abused by Mr Giovanna after she found out that he’s dealing drugs and declines his offer to be his crime accessory. She also starting to work for herself, taking odd jobs maybe to set herself free one day which she did in the end.
She tries to find Giorno back by, of course, starting with contacting his boarding school administrator. As we know that Giorno knows technically skips or quits school but for Shiobana he’s just disappeared from thin air.
Fast forward, one day one the remaining Passione member excluding Giorno (not sure who to pick, maybe Trish?) found a flyer that Shiobana made in search of Giorno. (The police declined to take his disappearance case as he was considered as a runaway). They take the flyer and show it to Giorno.
Giorno, of course, was so shocked that his mom now suddenly try to find him back. It takes a lot for him to command the member to contact her.
Fast forward again, Shiobana and Giorno meet after years passing by. After numerous consideration, Giorno forgives his mom which takes him a ton of time for thinking in loops.
Legally, she could be jailed but with her helping him to catch and dominate over Mr Giovanna fortune (he doesn’t really need to but he likely to be mad at him as Mr Giovanna’s clients potentially be children). Giorno sort of doesn’t press charge on her but demanding her to work with him under specialized tasks. (I don’t plan what is it yet as I’m writing this but probably as some sort of spy with normal presence).
TLDR: This AU is Shiobana’s “Redemption Arc” or at least what I think it is hmm because there’s little to no canon story to work with plus her role as a real negative character really make it tough for me to made continuing situation for her. That’s why I tend to make numbers of AU like good mum au, one mom au, and whole other AU with less canon connection.
*Cracking my fingers again. This is truly wearing me out a little but I’m fine no worry.*
———————————————————————————————————-
Now to the highlight point of the question.
Another reason for me to like Shiobana is I can learn how a fictional character stirring humans’ mind just by their sheer existence.
I think the huge reason many people have a fixed view on her is that she is indeed a realistic character. By that, I mean people like her exist. People like her is unfortunately common in our society. She was too real to the point that people less likely to think otherwise about her.
Her character has very low exposure throughout the whole part (about two panels in manga and a couple seconds to a minute in anime). She extremely lacks her own story like who she is, where is she from, where and why in the world she met Dio in the first place, why she becomes like this and that, and many more.
The similar (but opposite) kind of energy goes to Jonathan mainly because he has a lot of character development going on in both manga and anime. The fandom itself truly shows that I’m telling the truth so yeah and I mean it in a neutral way as favouritism on specific characters are subjective. Look at how I look Mr Giovanna, he could be repenting man in the future but I choose not to do so lol.
Anyway, I headcanon her to be the kind of young adult who is not ready for the responsibilities as a parent and a partner or no commitment for short. Yes, I don’t deny that she’s indeed not a good mom at some point.
———————————————————————————————————-
So for the conclusion, I could say that Shiobana is like an experimental character for my art progress including storytelling which is extremely entertaining for me as I have a lot of ideas I can put on her no matter how easy or hard the ideas work for her as a character.
I hope you like this answer, anon. Sorry that I take so many time as I need to give as much as possible of my view on Shiobana, just like what you’re asking and I hope it’s worth the wait. ;u;”
#jjba#JoJo's Bizzare Adventure#JoJo no Kimyō na Bōken#Vento Aureo#Golden Wind#Shio Shiobana#Giorno Giovanna#Dio Brando#Giorno's mom#giorno's mother#giorno giovanna's mother#Ougon no Kaze#Jojo Part 5#jjba part 5#ジョジョの奇妙な冒険#シオ・シオバアーナ#シオバアーナ#ジョルノの母#ジョルノ・ジョバァーナ#デイオ・ブランド#黄金の風#anon askie waskie#anon ask#syahaz#I'm so dedicated to answer this thankies for the great question anon yay!
13 notes
·
View notes
Text
My Interpretation of Daganronpa V3′s ending (plus extra goodies)
Hey everyone! Long time no see, but I think I may finally have time to do things regularly now. I’m gonna try and split this blog across Writblr/Fic, Danganronpa, and Edits so we’ll see how this goes, lol. I’ll have a new intro out sooooon!
Anyways onto what you clicked for:
This is a compilation theory of my interpretation of DRV3’s ending. I can justify why I think anything I say here if you want me to, but if I wrote down evidence for everything here it’d literally be 100 pages long so if you wanna discuss just ask me! Some of these things are just straight up indulgent but that’s the fun of interpretations!
1 | The Beginning of Team Danganronpa
After the events of DR3, and I mean LONG after the events of DR3--like at least a century--Hope’s Peak Academy has been diluted into a small and insignificant government program, totally out of the way of society. Talent isn’t as much of a big deal anymore and everyone’s chill now. The concepts of hope and despair, Junko and company are reduced to stories and paragraphs in history text-books.
Eventually, and slowly, the stories of the killing games entered into the world of fiction. The idea of the ultimate clash between Hope and Despair was quite enticing, and so Team Danganronpa was created to make these ideas come to life on the screen.. Reenactments, roleplays, museums, you name it and Team Danganronpa had a part in it. The hardships of the past lead to inspiration for the people of the present. Hope and despair became little aesthetics and concepts for people to attach themselves too, like coping mechanisms.
However, as society grew to appreciate this, it grew more and more perverse. The reenactments became more and more realistic, and the people consuming it cared less and less about the specifics. All they cared for was the mindless and constant clash between Hope and Despair. Good or bad. It wasn’t even despair that society was experiencing, more like a perverted sense of sentimentality. If it sounds like I copied that I did, that quote was from Undertale.
2 | The New Killing Game
Anyways, at the rate things were going, it was inevitable that Team Danganronpa would eventually start recreating killing games using actual students, probably a combination of scouted out individuals and volunteers with actual murders. Remember that this is a society that bounced back from a near-end of the world decision, they’re all recovering, even the kids that were raised by the survivors.
And please note that when I’m talking about the society in the Danganronpa world I don’t think that it applies to the fandom AT AL. In fact I think the society in DR is the exact opposite of the fandom, but let’s keep going.
3 | Rantaro’s Plan
We really don’t know the amount of ‘Seasons’ there’s been, but we’ll just call this one ‘Season 52’. Season 52 stares a whole new story continuing from the ‘fictional’ stories of Hope’s Peak. The only two members of this group that we know are Rantaro Amami...and Kaede Akamatsu, the two that chose to sacrifice themselves at the end of the 52nd killing game. Rantaro and Kaede both get survivor perks for their troubles, and the other two survivors are allowed to have their memories replaced so they can return to society with their sanity. Rantaro and Kaede can leave to the real world too, but they will be brought back for the next season, which is planned to be a sequel featuring them as the fan favorites.
Luckily for Rantaro, this is the perfect situation for his plan to destroy Team Danganronpa for good. Everyone else in the world is generally repulsed by Team DR’s actions, but their reliance on them is too great for them to break away or do much of anything.
He starts out by getting in contact with Kaede’s twin sister, we’ll just call her Haru as a temporary name. Rantaro needs to pitch a good plot for the next season, since it’s a sequel he’ll have the advantage in knowing where everything is, including the one weakness of the seasons mastermind. Because Kaede, being positive and bright, and Maru, being cynical and rude, are polar opposites, a twin vs. twin plot seems like the perfect thing to pitch to Team Danganronpa.
In addition Rantaro also adds Shuichi Saihara and Tsumugi Shirogane to his little squad. Shuichi’s mind is analytical, but he lacks confidence. Rantaro knows Team DR enough to predict what they’ll do with him, so he becomes Rantaro’s backup. He adds Tsumugi only because she and Kaede were dating-A and he thinks she’ll make a good first victim, letting Rantaro get a bit more time to find the mastermind and convince the world to fight against Team DR.
4 | Scouting of the other members
Before any of this, back when he was recording his Survivor Perk, he made sure to structure it in a way that would motivate a Rantaro in a killing game to get out and survive another game so he could try again. He really wanted to cover all of his bases, he was dealing with a huge corporation by now after all.
In another sect, Kaito Momota and Maki Harukawa, who are both dating, join in with Rantaro’s idea. And, somewhere entirely different, a prince by the name of Kokichi Oma, and his personal maid, Kirumi Tojo, are both scouted and kidnapped by Team Danganronpa for the next killing game. A shy but sweet mechanic whose father is friends with the Queen of the kingdom, Miu Iruma, decides to volunteer.
After much planning from Rantaro’s group, they strategically get everyone in the 53rd killing game, lying on their audition tapes...well-everyone except for Maru. Team DR accepts the whole twin vs. twin plot, and they start modification of the sets, making them seem dilapidated and old to show a passage of time. Right on the cusp of the plans success, Kaede succumbs to her guilt. After seeing the horrors of the killing game her spirit is broken, and soon before the game’s beginning, she commits suicide. The final note she leaves to her sister asks her to end the killing games, despite their differences.
Without a twin to complete the plot, Team DR is forced to improvise. They bring out a beta for a project they were planning, a robot named K1-B0, or Keebo. Keebo’s purpose was to be the audience's eyes, something suggested by Miu to give her friends an advantage in ending the game.
5 | The Start of Season 53
Finally, the killing game starts.
The 16 students are brought to Team DR one way or another. Maru is especially shocked, as she’s never participated in a killing game before, but is treated like she did. Everyone’s memory is replaced, save for Rantaro who’s allowed to keep a set few memories that would’ve worked well for the sequel plan. Everyone wakes up in the lockers, with Maru waking up next to Shuichi, now forced to take the identity of Kaede. She tries to get the hang of her sister’s personality, as we see in pregame, but eventually her entire identity is replaced with a Flashback light when she receives her talent. You could also describe it as an Ultimate Revival if you wanted to. Maru becomes Kaede Akamatsu, now able to fulfill the role that her sister is now unable to.
After the events of the prologue (Which is called Ultimate Revival by the way, I don’t want you to miss that wordplay) Tsumugi wakes up in a locker, right next to Keebo. Something not even Rantaro accounted for happened, Tsumugi was chosen to be the mastermind. Not Kokichi or even himself like he was expecting. However, Team DR saw Tsumugi as a perfect candidate for a mastermind, as her obsession with fiction was seen as relatable. She was a perfect reflection of what society had become.
Tsumugi’s mind was barely touched by the Flashback lights, but all of her relationships with her friends and girlfriend were replaced. Upon waking up and seeing Keebo, he explains to her that they’re currently in a spaceship that was supposed to take off ages ago and the outside world is inhospitable. Panicking, she sets K1-B0 into it’s ‘friendly’ mode and lets him go off and talk with the others, entirely forgetting about his set role as a future traitor, as well as the Flashback Light machine.
However, K1-B0 was set to teach the mastermind how to do their job, and now without that information in their memory, Tsumugi doesn’t know what she’s supposed to do. All she knows right now is that she has some involvement with the mastermind. As a result, the Monokubs, another set of helpers, also have no idea what they’re doing and have to rely on Monokuma, an AI the mastermind can’t control, for instruction.
6 | Tsumugi as the Mastermind
Tsumugi ends up wandering around, stopping and staring at an odd dragon statue. That’s when Shuichi and Kaede find her in-game. Tsumugi can’t explain why, but Kaede touching her cheeks made her feel all fluttery inside. After their ‘first’ interaction together, Tsumugi takes note of the big round ball in the dragon’s hand.
The first motive, The First Blood Perk, comes around, along with the time limit soon after. The pressure of this definitely scares Tsumugi, but she wants to see Kaede get out okay, especially since she feels inspired by her.
At some point Tsumugi goes to the bathroom and discovers the hidden room entirely by accident. Once into the room with Motherkuma, she asks about the whereabouts of Kaede, and Motherkuma gives her details about her and Shuichi’s plan. Wanting to help out, but not wanting to seem suspicious, she gets about the bathroom a.s.a.p and goes back to blending in. She’s planning to get Kaede out as soon as she can, but she doesn’t know if she can do it.
Time goes on, and eventually that really loud music starts playing. Tsumugi knows Kaede’s gonna make a move, so she rushes to the hidden room in the library again and starts her own little plan. After stealing a shot put ball from the warehouse, something she did out of inspiration from the dragon, Tsumugi opens up the hidden door in the library to see Rantaro lying crumpled on the floor by the bookshelf.
Without thinking, she smashed the ball into Rantaro’s head and finished him off. She initially thought him to be the mastermind, but after checking his survivor perk she realizes that there’s a lot more to Rantaro, and this game, than she realizes. Desperate for more time to solve the mystery, she rushed back with everyone else to get on with the investigation.
7 | The First Trial
As the investigation rolled around, she started panicking. She formed a quick alibi in the form of her cospox, but planned to explain herself more in the class trial. She wasn’t quite ready to face reality yet. She knew Monokuma was supposed to punish her, so she let herself act like she was innocent until the time came.
Once the class trial DID come around, she realized what Kaede was doing. Once Monokuma declared the voting right, she was confused, but took it as an opportunity to defeat the Mastermind. Her death made her distraught, but she bit her tongue and promised to solve it for Kaede’s sake.
The night of the Class Trial, she went back into her secret room when she was greeted by a Flashback Light. This one, on top of the one everyone else received, was built to make her be a more efficient mastermind.
8 | The Trials After…
Trials 2-4 were largely the same. Just after each Class Trial, Tsumugi was given a different special Flashback Light to get her to question everything around her more, specifically targeting the idea that everything Danganronpa, including Hope’s Peak, isn’t actually real. Monokuma had been no help, fully content holding the truth over her and making her dance around to find it. I don’t have any idea what those Flashback Lights could’ve been, but I DO know that one of the ones meant for Tsumugi was nabbed by Angie in chapter 3. Tsumugi planned for her to find it, but didn’t expect her to destroy it.
By Chapter 4, Tsumugi asked Monokuma to show the “outside world” for the first time, confirming what Keebo said. During this time, she fully believed the scene outside to be real, mostly because she had no other evidence to disprove it. After this, Tsumugi decided to start a plan of her own that she’d enact by herself.
9 | Tsumugi’s Plan
Before getting a look at the Neo World Program in Chapter 4, Tsumugi used a Flashback light on herself to replace the memory of her seeing the outside world with her doing something else. This was because she needed a fresh reaction to seeing the outside world, but also because she needed to avoid Kokichi, who was definitely the closest to being able to figure her out and expose her.The other one she needed to keep an eye on was Shuichi, who could also figure her out if he ever caught his suspicions. In her desperation she never noticed the secret of the Flashback Lights, which lead to her replacing memories instead of erasing them like she was excepting.
The next step of her plan involved her overhearing Kokichi and Miu’s plan to create the Electro hammers. She knew they’d be used to escape the ship at some point, and with a fresh reaction everything would be in place for the next step, which was getting Oma killed to give herself time to figure everything else out so she could finally come clean. Of course, since she really believed the world outside was destroyed, she really just wanted to trick everyone into not committing any murders. That just happened to mean getting rid of Kokichi.
With all of this in mind, she wrote down her plan and used the Flashback light on herself. After having her memories erased, she went through the game as normal until trial 4 passed. Luckily for her, it gave her just the motivation she needed to want to kill Kokichi. She wasn’t quite able to see through Kokichi’s mask, she was blinded by a mix of power, confusion, and rage by then.
Immediately after trial 4, she was hit with her usual mastermind Flashback Light, however this one made her remember something extra important, the script of season 53.
Tsumugi actually wrote herself a fake set of plans as part of her plans. That was the whole ‘script’ thing she was talking about in chapter 6. She set the plans up so that way she truly believed she was the mastermind. She was taking the risk of Kokichi finding her, but she figured the confusion would throw off any secretive actions she could’ve done. The reason why she did this was to give herself confidence. If she made herself think that everything in her plan was already set to happen, she’d believe in herself enough to make it so.
Going into Chapter 5 now, after seeing the outside world for the ‘first time’ she blended in with everyone else, but she did know that Kokichi wasn’t actually the Mastermind as she read the script she made for herself. Tsumugi didn’t plan for this, but it did help her out because it got everyone to go again Kokichi.
After trial 5, and his sacrifice, Tsumugi was hit with her final flashback light. This one made her ‘remember’ her time as a part of Team Danganronpa. This didn’t mess with her plan too much, as she already knew that something would happen to her head before she made herself forget the secret of the outside world. However, after all of those lights..her head couldn’t take much more. There was too much stuff going on in her head, too many confusing contradictions for her to process. She ignored this originally because she thought that the Flashback Lights erased and created memories instead of replacing them, but it was too late. Keebo started destroying the academy, something she DEFINITELY didn’t plan for.
10 | The Final Trial
Without any way of solving the mystery of Team DR, she scrambled around and put together a class trial of her own, leaving the shot-put ball Kaede used in the trash for Shuichi to find later. All of her attempts came crashing down, but she was able to convince Monokuma to shamble together something to make season 53 end with a ‘good climax’.
Trial 6 starts, and after Tsumugi’s found out as the mastermind, she uses a series of Nanokumas to help her cosplay. By now she believes that the stories of Hope’s Peak are fiction, so she’s able to cosplay them...and only them...all she wants. She doesn’t know anything about Team DR’s history, so she makes it all up, including the titles of the seasons, which she shambles together from her favorite fandoms. Monokuma plays along, and even adds in a huge audience set to make it look like everyone’s watching. In fact he’s so wrapped up in how good everything’s doing that he doesn’t realize Tsumugi’s baiting Shuichi into helping her.
During trial 6, she even brings up the motive that no one had a chance to see in chapter 5, the Pre-Game tapes they did when they were together ages ago.
By presenting herself as an ultimate evil, Tsumugi took Shuichi’s will to find the truth and twisted it so that he’d end up finding what she wanted him to. She wanted Shuichi to discover the truth, that fiction can change the world.
At the end of it all, Tsumugi allowed herself to be killed, succumbing to the after effects of the Flashback Lights and letting herself be consumed by the lies. Believing herself now to be some kind of replacement to Junko Enoshima, and thus a ‘cosplay-cat killer’, she allows herself to be killed and finally rest. She wanted to admit what she did more carefully, to say a final goodbye or at least hint to the fact that she meant to help them, but she couldn’t.
Shuchi, Maki, and Himiko all survive, finally able to leave Danganronpa together. Team DR allows it, as it feels satisfying, but they do look forwards to seeing the 3 of them try to truly end Danganronpa for good. Tsumugi doesn’t know what’s on the other side of the End-Wall, but she trusts in her friends to face that truth.
11 | Conclusion
And that’s it! I hope you enjoyed this read/arrangement of evidence for what I think happened behind the scenes of Danganronpa V3! This took sooo much thinking it’s not even funny. Seriously I spent at least 4 full school periods doing nothing but thinking and taking notes. A lot of this is indulgent, specifically the parts with Kokichi being a prince and the whole Kaede + Kaede Twin Sister switch, I just thought those were neat.
I didn’t say it there but I think that The Ultimate Talent Development Plan was actually two things. The first was a board game released alongside Season 53 featuring all the characters, and the second was actually a real program, sorta like the Izuru project. I don’t really wanna consider the implications of what this could do to my interpretation though, lol.
But yeah, V3’s ending is really important to me. It upsets me wayy more than it should when people consider it to be stupid or lazy or insulting to the audience of the games. I think what they were trying to do with the ending was both stupid ambitious and super cool. Killing Harmony is like...my 2nd favorite piece of media ever. It’s so important to me, and as a storyteller I totally respect them for what they did with the ending. The idea of using the enjoyment of the franchise against the player was so brutal and effective for me. Danganronpa helped me grow as a person, and being undermined and told the emotional connection I had with everyone was all just bullshit hurt. Buuuut then Tsumugi and Shuichi helped me realize that even if it is just a bunch of silly bullshit, the emotional response that it gave me...and all the happiness I got from it, that’s all real. Ain’t no black and white bear taking that from me.
So yeah, thanks for reading.
Thanks for everything, Danganronpa.
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
Could Five realistically be autistic based solely on what we see on the show?
I stumbled across the theory that Five is autistic, and as someone with autism I find that very interesting. I’m not yet convinced he does have autism, but I’m not convinced he doesn’t either.
So let’s take this apart. :cracks knuckles:
First off, a couple things to keep in mind:
-No two autistic people are exactly the same.
-I am drawing on my own experience living with autism, and what I’ve witnessed from my sister and the kids I work with.
-Disabilities that affect the brain overlap. Many different things can affect the same areas of the brain, and we just categorize things for ease of assigning coping mechanisms. For example, if you were to take a brain scan of my brother who has PTSD, my sister who has brain damage from childhood trauma, and myself with autism, the scans would look very similar.
-Whether or not Five has autism, he most definitely has PTSD.
-Please chime in with your own theories and experiences, I’d love to open this TED talk up.
Ok here we go:
Klaus calls Five addicted to the apocalypse and he’s not wrong. Through an autistic lens, obsessing and hyper-fixating is like our bread and butter. My hyper-fixations have driven me to all sorts of extremes, like staying up for 24 hours, and giving myself heatstroke by hyper-fixating while outside. Whether Five is autistic or not he can obviously relate. His obsession with stopping the apocalypse drives him for 40+ years. He carries an eyeball around the entire time. His fixation on returning to his family keeps him going through his career as a hitman, something he makes clear he didn’t enjoy. On that note, he spent an episode walking around with a goddamn bullet wound. Talk about mind over matter, and also another tick in the hyper-fixation column. Again, when he checks on Klaus after he time travels to the Vietnam War, he’s clearly concerned for him, but gets sidetracked once again by his need to stop the apocalypse. Which is honestly valid, I mean, it’s the apocalypse.
Dolores. Anybody whose seen a decent therapist will probably have been told “yeah I know it sounds crazy, but try talking to yourself.” Being your own sounding board is a very healthy thing believe it or not, and Five uses Dolores for this purpose. Those with autism in my experience have crazy good imaginations. If I try hard enough I can fabricate fake memories to the point where I can’t quite remember it’s not true. I think this has a lot to do with the way autism thinks in pictures. Imaginary friend anyone? So Five finding Dolores and talking with her as if she were real for so long that he actually sees and hears her as a person? Totally believable and something I could see having happened to myself under the right circumstances. That being said, I feel he’s probably perfectly aware that she is, in fact, a mannequin. Dolores can be seen as a sign of Five having snapped or as a brilliant way of keeping his sanity while isolated for decades.
Coffee. Five’s caffeine addiction is probably not related to autism in anyway whatsoever, but boy can I relate. Coffee is my holy grail because it calms my personal blend of brain chemicals down enough for me to focus on things like driving. Of course that’s my ADHD talking. It’s not uncommon for those with autism to also have ADHD, but that’s a whole other post. So let’s just say Five’s relatable and leave it at that.
Sarcasm and Snark. Possibly the most common coping mechanism ever for any problem in existence. Probably just a part of Five’s glorious personality, but let’s say he developed it the way I did. As a way of taking on the world, sarcasm makes everything more bearable. It’s also a form of humor and nothing is as good as humor to cover social missteps. It takes you from being a weird outcast to being the Funny/Sarcastic Friend™️.
Five and routine. The first thing Five does when returning to the past is make his signature sandwich. Here he is, back with his family after all this time, and he doesn’t allow himself to bask in that, because the count down to the apocalypse has started. There’s no way he isn’t thrown off though, come on. 13 years old again with his family alive. When feeling shaken, most people with autism will absolutely fall back into routines even if they’re old ones. And who wants to bet he drove past at least one other perfectly serviceable shop with coffee on his way to Griddy’s and ignored them in favour of familiarity? And of course he works to get Dolores back right off the bat. When upset over the lab getting blown up he returns to what we can assume was home during the apocalypse; the library.
Five and his ability to take people at face value despite his overactive paranoia. From my experience working with those with autism, autistic people are some of the most forgiving people you will ever meet. This doesn’t have to come from a place of kindness. It’s more our black and white nature. Something used to be this way, and now it’s that way. We tend to just accept it where others might have a million questions. This goes hand in hand with our people sense. Oh we suck at reading social cues, but our instincts in regards to a persons trustworthiness are generally bang on. You see this in Five’s chat with Hazel. He doesn’t seem to have a problem buying what Hazel’s selling. Same with Klaus, who he acknowledges more then his other siblings even if it’s in a snarky manner. (He didn’t shoot Klaus down when he talked about conjuring their dad unlike Luther, and despite his angry reaction he took Klaus’ point about being addicted to the apocalypse seriously.) He gets angry when Vanya doesn’t believe him about the apocalypse but when it becomes clear that her disbelief is not malicious he doesn’t take it out on her. In contrast he doesn’t buy the Handler’s bullshit. To sum it up, Five is a practical people person, with good instincts but an outdated copy of Social Cues for Dummies. Is this autism or an effect of 40+ years alone? Both?
Five, the pragmatist. As the Handler says, Five is a first rate pragmatist which fits how a lot of those on the spectrum are very blunt, black and white thinkers. Where my family can debate politics for hours, my opinion is always the straightest path to whatever outcome I’m arguing for.
Five and clothes. Those on the spectrum tend to be hypersensitive, and clothing can be a Thing™️ for us. Certain materials feel like they're made of needles as opposed to just itchy, jeans are too tight, turtlenecks feel like a noose, etc. This is common, but sometimes it’s less about comfy sweatpants and more about familiarity. I have an undercut and if I don’t have time to get it shaved at the usual point, I get panicky. My hair feels slightly different, it looks slightly different, and it all just doesn't feel right. Five grew up wearing the academy uniform, and while he didn’t have the luxury of a suit and tie in the apocalypse, wearing a suit was clearly important to him during his time with the Commission. Even the Handler took notice, and gifted him a suit. And the second thing he does after making a sandwich in the past is find a suit that fits him. Ok, he didn’t have any options, but he didn’t have to wear the whole outfit. He could have mixed and matched. He could have stolen something from the department store. But no, he’s got to wear a suit jacket and tie. He even grabbed his tie off the guy he strangled at Griddy’s before he took care of the last dude. (Badass power move btw.) So I find it believable that the uniform was partially about appearances and partially about Five’s comfort zone, physically speaking.
(But wait, I hear you say, how can you throw in hypersensitivity when back up this post you claimed Five could have ignored his bullet wound via hyper-fixation? Here’s the thing, hyper-fixation basically mutes the notifications our bodies send us. We can be uncontrollably hypersensitive and still not clue into our bodies screaming at us while we fixate on something. But boy, we sure notice when we snap out of it.)
Five is all or nothing, ride or die. Oh boy is he ever. And most autistic people are too. We put our all into everything we do. Doesn’t always translate to doing it well, but we definitely give it our all. (In fact, we tend to over do things and need some serious recouping time after.) This can cover things already in the hyper-fixation section, like his obsession with the apocalypse. But going all in for something is different from the magnetic pull of hyper-fixation. It’s a conscious decision for one thing. The biggest example for Five is his commitment to his family. The Hargreeves are a dysfunctional family, and Five didn’t escape this by jumping to the future. He’s hardly the perfect brother but he’s the most invested in his siblings nonetheless. He became a killer for them, threw morals out the window for the slim chance he might be able to save them. And as is established pretty quickly, he put his all into being a hitman, becoming the best there ever was. That fight scene in the diner speaks for itself. And slicing up his own arm to get at the tracker? Well, it’s pretty clear that when Five commits to something he doesn’t mess around.
Five and math. Here we hit a stereotype about autistic people and their ‘special interests.’ Yeah, it’s really common, but what most people don’t know is that the majority of those on the spectrum are not math geniuses, or geniuses of any other kind. My sister’s ‘special interest’ is still relatively useful, being science, but she’s not a genius. Mine is ‘stories.’ Books, movies, theatre, music, etc. I can devour fiction forever. It’s basically useless to society though, because I’m picky af. But okay, Five fits the stereotype and is a math genius, or at least where it applies to time travel. We see this in the flashback already. Ok, time travelling didn’t work out as he’d hoped, but he managed it at 13 when even Reginald didn’t think he could. This makes me think that his tendency to spend hours working out equations didn’t start in the apocalypse.
Does Five stim? If so, we don’t really see it. That doesn’t rule out autism though, because, well, it’s a spectrum. I only stimmed as a toddler. Some people don’t stim at all.
Vanya. Another theory I’ve seen thrown around is that Vanya is autistic. I’m not going to address that here, but I do want to say that if she is, that wouldn't affect whether or not Five is autistic. Autism is not personality after all, and they are very different people. Again, autism is a spectrum and nobody displays all the same traits. If you’re thinking it would be unrealistic for Reginald. To have adopted two kids with autism, think again. That one autistic sister of mine? Adopted as a baby before we had any idea that she was a mini me.
Five doesn’t appear obviously autistic. What most people don’t realize is that autism is at the end of the day an invisible disability. Most people will know someone at some point on the spectrum and never even realize it. Because sure, sometimes you’ll see us rocking under the table or otherwise displaying what movies have stereotyped as autistic behaviour, but most of the time you won’t notice. We’re the slightly overly bright cashier at Walmart, the quiet bookworm at school, your favourite author that writes emotions so well, the person at comic con who can recite their favourite movie line for line, that kid that gets along best with those older or younger then them. If Five is autistic we may never know, because he’s perfectly functional, but that's hardly and argument against autism either.
And finally; people relate. Nobody knows autism better then those with autism themselves, so I’m inclined to take all the posts I’ve seen about Autistic!Five as a pretty big point on the autism column.
To summarize; none of these points taken alone indicate autism, but together well.... it’s an option at least.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk, I will now open the stage to audience input before this monster grows any longer.
#my asshole husband#five hargreeves#tua#umbrella academy#the umbrella academy#autistic!five#autistic!5#number five#number 5#five#the boy#netflix#autism#autistic#ua#the hargreeves#ted talk#fandom#musings#luther hargreeves#diego hargreeves#alison hargreeves#klaus hargreeves#ben hargreeves#vanya hargreeves#autistic!vanya
41 notes
·
View notes
Note
Antis make me, a minor csa and abuse survivor with pure ocd, feel threatened and scared at every turn
I’m sorry you are forced to feel this way by them.
I really just hope you are not part of their circles, and if so, find a way to escape.
That’s the thing - I know there are people out there with pure ocd, and its subset pedophile ocd, just like you, and I know antis can really harm these types of people. (Click for info on Pedophile OCD - intended for others to be kept in the picture)
This is why I would love to find a way to prove them, what they are doing is wrong, incorrect, pointless, and just hurts people, and I keep winning arguments, but they just don’t listen, and instead block me! So I just gave up and started blocking them.
I have very high standards on what pedophilia entails. But I work with realistic things, not fictional. Though, I suppose I should say this - friendly reminder, I’m an adult. If you have POCD, other type of Pure-OCD, have dated a minor in the past and regret it, you can follow me. The only reason why I put that up is because I’ve met a pedophile before and I’ve developed these standards to protect others. And if you are unsure - shoot an ask off-anon. I don’t slander folk and I will answer privately. Fiction does not directly correlate to reality is the thing. I know I sometimes say “doesn’t affect at all” but that was me being pissed and salty, it has some effect, but in a completely different manner.In my opinion, thinking ‘if you watch/ship x you turn into a nasty pedophile’ is either a symptom of a type of Pure-O, or just foolish to think. It is not correct, and exposing yourself to small doses of that can actually help with healing, I’ve seen antis believe that fictional character feelings are equal to real life people feelings, which is a horribly delusional thing to think. Fictional characters are fictional characters. They are not real. They were one day created by a artist, or a team of producers, just like a OC. They weren’t suddenly born, in some far away world, that day. They are generally fragments of an artist’s mind. They can represent their personality, their friend’s personality, a mixture, they can represent intrusive thoughts, some are just personified plot elements, their fantasies, etc. You as a writer or artist work with your extension of that. You add your ideas, your plot, your fun. And then you write/draw something wonderful, it might be dark, it might be rough, but maybe deep down, it helps you free some of the intrusive thoughts. It helps you alleviate fears. It helps you become a better person.So what about the cases where “fiction DOES affect reality” ? One word: “Romanticization”. This generally only applies to fiction targetted at masses, such as Hollywood movies, bestseller books, etc. If rape/abuse/pedophilia is romanticized, aka made appear as good while it really isn’t, a small portion of the audience, generally younger audience, can now think “huh, maybe something like this is ok” And someone can abuse that.* But what is the best course of action? “Don’t watch said movie” is actually not. Giving critique toward the movie, saying it romanticizes elements it shouldn’t, is good, it also lowers the movie/book’s rating. Informing people who have watched that movie that this isn’t actually a good thing but a bad thing to do in real life can help. There are many ways. I will return to this later.But what if you enjoy a wicked fetish, want to write for adult audience but some of them might just be dumb bitches? Add a disclaimer on start! And that’s that. You know, on dangerous videos it’s that “don’t try this at home”. Exactly that. Generally I only see romanticization of bad things done in fanfiction by younger writers, like 13yos who should have no business in NSFW areas by US law. Everyone older generally understood what they were writing about, sadly still got backlash for it by people who only read the tags. Their work was always good, and they were great people, they just quickly jumped to conclusions.*Now let me return to the starred area.Fanfiction is a thing. An item. It’s a tool used to express the writer. It harms no one as a stand alone. Imagine a knife. Good utility, can cut vegetables, can help you with survival in wild areas. As a stand alone, a great asset.Now imagine a malicious person coming along and using said knife to murder someone, hurt someone.Now you have 1 case in a billion where a knife has been used to harm. And Antis want to ban knifes, and say everyone manufacturing and using knives is a bad person. Even if they used it to cut vegetables for chicken noodle soup for their loved ones.Even if they used it to not freeze in the forest overnight. Even if they used it harmlessly.This is exactly what fanfiction is. And this applies to ALL fanfiction, regardless if morally “good” or “bad”. If a teenage girl dreams of a tall muscular 20yo hot boyfriend, as a stand alone, nothing wrong. If someone 20yo comes along, and knows how to twist words very well, starts dating said teenage girl because she’s “easy to get” and then starts abusing her, is it really the teenage girl’s fault for dreaming? Is it really the fiction’s fault for grooming her? No! It’s the man’s fault. And we should never forget that, otherwise we engage in victim blaming, or blaming-a-person-that-has-nothing-to-do-with-this instead of the perpetrator, who should by all means be blamed.Another sample, a 25yo on forums. He can take the safest fanfiction out there, of a 16 and 17 yo, send it to a 13yo, equate the characters to their personality (the characters being general enough to match) and then saying yeah, we would make a nice couple.There was nothing wrong with this fanfiction, but still we have a poor 13yo groomed to a gross bastard? Really makes you think.Now, actually, if a groomer like this just were to read the tags like antis do, and sends fanfic to a young’un and it’s not romanticized, like really not romanticized, and the young’un can understand this is bad, this can actually soil his plans. Which is why a lot of this “bad fanfiction” could turn out actually excellent, although this is theory as I don’t know of any case to confirm of deny this. Sorry I just wanted to say what was on my mind. I really just wanted to clarify to you that you’re never wrong for liking anything “fucked up” and if you have POCD, I know you might have intrusive thoughts so I just wanted to help you a bit. Again I’m an adult, you can write to me off-anon, say you want this private, I won’t publish. I’ll try my best to help you, as much as my time allows me to.I hope none of this was triggering to you. Apologies if it was. I too have some trauma, not csa per-se but there were some nasty elements to it, so I kinda understand.
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
EMH and House of Leaves Pt.1: References/Details/Parallels
WARNING: If you haven’t at least seen the Night Mind summaries of EMH or read HoL, and don’t want spoilers, then please stop reading now. I won’t be spending a lot of time explaining HoL either (too long), so it would be best if you already read HoL.
************MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD**************
(I’m probably just reading too deep into it. If I sound like I’m talking nonsense, that’s probably true.)
Not a lot of people have touched on the many, many references to House of Leaves (HoL) within the series, so I’m going to just point out all the connections I can catch.
And just to clarify, while I do think there are connections and parallels, I think the parallels only apply to a degree: just to some characters, some aspects. When you look at them both as a whole and try to compare them, then it doesn’t really make sense.
Meaning of House:
It’s pretty well established now that the “Leaves” in the title of HoL can refer to paper, making the “House” the book itself. In “Bridge to Nowhere” (Tribetwelve), HABIT’s sarcastic “let’s run from him (HABIT) in his own house” can very well be interpreted the same way, but with this “house” being the EMH show. However, I do not think the “house” here is truly his, and I will come back to this later.
The Growing and Shifting of the House/ Impossible Geometry:
In HoL, the House on Ash Tree Lane contains an impossible dark maze that changes its layout constantly (presumably based on the changing mindset of the person trapped within). In EMH we experience this first hand in the video “The property”, where Vinny goes to different houses just by walking through them, as if the house was changing its own layout and appearances.
The METAness of “Authorship”:
Self-explanatory. Either way you look at the theories in HoL, they all theorize that Zampano, Johnny Truant, or Pelafina is the author of the entire book, when in fact it is Mark Z. Danielewski who is the actual author in the real world. EMH is the same, except as of the latest video, the possibility that HABIT is the editor and director in-universe is being called into question.
Iterations and Mazes:
Everyone knows how the iterations work in EMH so I’ll skip to HoL. In HoL, there’s no iterations, but there are mazes. And what’s more, the maze IS the house. Remember that the book is the house? “a=b=c, therefore a=c”. The book is also the maze. The entire fiction is the maze where the characters wander about, progressing their story. EMH is the same. The iterations repeat, always ending in Hamlet-esque tragedy (“everyone dies, the end”), like a tragic play production performing over and over again, with small bits tweaked here and there each time, except the characters are trapped inside. The EMH series, the EMH “house”, is a maze. It’s also a maze with ash-colored walls. Which brings us to………..
Ashes, Ashes everywhere:
Oh boy is it everywhere. In EMH there's Ashen wasteland (presumed to be Centralia after the mine fire disaster), Ashland (an actual town just south of Centralia), and “half acre of ash” (first brought up by Stephanie and now the title of a video).
In HoL there's Ashtree lane (where the house is), there's the ash-colored hallways of the ever-changing maze within the house, and there's the Yggdrasil mentioned at the very end, which is an ash tree. Personally, I believe the “ashes” in EMH is more of a clue that we should look to HoL for direction, but nothing more, since it does not have the connections to ash trees like HoL does.
Found Footage/ Cinema Vérité:
Page 4 of The Navidson Record (TNR) in HoL:
“The Navidson Record did not first appear as it does today. Nearly seven years ago what surfaced was ‘The Five and a Half Minute Hallway’--a five and a half minute optical illusion barely exceeding the abilities of any NYU film school graduate. The problem, of course, was the accompanying statement that claimed all of it was true.”
That is basically a description of the found footage horror genre. Read the beginning of House of Leaves and you will find that its description of TNR is stunningly similar to EMH. To quote bits from the first chapter:
“Where one might expect horror, the supernatural, or traditional paroxysms of dread and fear, one discovers disturbing sadness, a sequence of radioactive isotopes, or even laughter over a Simpsons episode” (HoL page 3)
“The structure of ‘Exploration #4’ is highly discontinuous, jarring, and as evidenced by many poor edits, even hurried. The first shot catches Navidson mid-phrase.” (HoL page 5)
“There are several more shots. Trees in winter. Blood on the kitchen floor. One shot of a child (Daisy) crying.” (HoL page 5)
So, jarring structure. Sometimes continuous shots. Sometimes all jump cuts. Very documentary-like to give a realistic quality. Home video-esque feel. Disregarding the different plot/story, stylistically EMH is practically TNR brought to life. And when you add in the ARG element of EMH, it becomes more interesting: perhaps EMH is just like TNR of the book. And I will be expanding on this idea in my theory.
Fictional Sources
This is more of a META aspect thing. The Navidson Record in the HoL world was said to be nonexistent, 100% fiction. The characters, the interviews of the characters in TNR…...also pure fiction in the HoL world. Now think about the Corenthal papers, the articles…...they are a part of the ARG, and therefore also 100% fiction.
Unreliable Narrators
Also self-explanatory. In EMH, neither HABIT nor Vinny are completely honest with the audience in their videos. And in HoL there are three: Johnny (lies, mental illness), Zampano (if he’s the author), and Pelafina (mental illness, and if she’s the author).
L’esprit de L’escalier
It’s a French phrase for “spirit of the staircase”, meaning thinking of the perfect response but it’s already too late. In the EMH episode titled with this phrase, Evan met Vinny as himself (temporarily released by HABIT) for the first time after the killing spree happened. In HoL, the phrase comes in page 72 of TNR, in Johnny’s footnotes:
“Now though, I realize what I should of said--in the spirit of the dark; in the spirit of the staircase--
‘Known some call is air am’
Which is to say --
‘I am not what I used to be’”
This quote comes right after Johnny’s account of his first major panic attack from fear, where he accidentally made a mess at the tattoo shop he worked at because of his panic episode. Curiously, something (presumably the monster whose presence he felt) also put a long bloody scratch on the back of his neck. When asked, he said nothing, but the above quote was what he think he should have said, in retrospect. This matches up exactly with the meaning of the phrase.
The phrase also appeared in page 618 in original French, but I can't see any connection there in terms of plot or meaning.
And although the phrase didn’t make a lot of sense to me as the title of the EMH episode, it does now. The connection here is the line “I am not what I used to be”. That was the whole gist of what Evan wanted to tell Vinny. At the time of the episode, Evan has now become the “danger” due to being HABIT’s favorite human puppet, has already committed atrocities under HABIT’s control, and received the healing factor that made him unable to die. Evan is not what he used to be.
Guns, Rifles, and Insanity
I don't think I've seen HABIT actually use a gun except that clip where he pointed one at the back of Vinny's neck. HABIT’s thing has always been about blades: knives, saws, chainsaws, etc. But now a gun is becoming relevant. Two characters in HoL also resorted to guns as their sanity deteriorated: Holloway and Johnny. The former accidentally shot and killed one of his two companions before he killed himself with it, and the latter’s fate is unknown. There are two theories: Johnny died, though not by the gun; and Johnny lived because he’s finally freed from the burden of putting the book together.
The North Star.
North Star has become prominent in the latest videos of EMH. And it is also present in the book. The cover of the book has a red and yellow symbol (probably a compass rose) that looks like a North Star. Page 29 mentions the North Star by name, calling the lamp in the children's room the North Star. Vinny found the North Star drawing within Fairmount, where the Mining Town Four spent their iteration as kids.
Page 545 of the book has a more alarming message, however:
“Stars to live by. Stars to steer by. Stars to die by.”
And by “all good things”, this has been confirmed. HABIT and Vinny both died in this iteration by the knife and gun with the North Star branded on them.
So is it a coincidence that the EverymanHYBRID symbol looks like a North Star? I don’t think so. The EMH story was meant to end in tragedy all along.
The Radiation Detector
Yes, in TNR, Navidson also had a radiation detector that ticked . And the following quote:
“Navidson turns to the time telling tick of radioactive isotopes to deny the darkness eviscerating him from within” (HoL page 381)
Evan doesn’t really try to “deny” the darkness (HABIT) within him in “Sigma”, but of course, there’s still purple duct tape on his bandage.
The Quote Jeff Circled
“Why did god create a dual universe?
So he might say,
‘Be not like me, I am alone.’
And it might be heard” (HoL page 45)
This quote, by itself, is confusing as hell. One has to put it in context of the chapter to make any sense of it, just for the book alone. The chapter it appears in, nicknamed the “Echoes chapter”, is one of the most important chapters of HoL. Basically it explores the concept of echoes, what it is, what it implies, in various different aspects. Echoing is indicative of a closed, finite space, and there are no echoes in infinite space. Echoing can also create a sort of illusion that someone is there, repeating your words. So the quote above can mean the loneliness of god, the duality that comes with echoes, the universal need for social interaction, the universal need to be individuals,.........etc etc.
The “be not like me, I am alone” part also came up on Steph’s blog.
This quote, I haven’t quite figured out what it really means in the context of EMH, but I have a guess.
Leaning Against a Tree
Just an interesting bit I’ve noticed that might have some significance. In the end of HoL, if you believe Johnny died, then he died leaning against an ash tree. Holloway also died leaning against the ash-en walls of the maze, by gun, although it was suicide (the book also talks about Holloway suffering for a minute after he shot himself). Both HABIT and Vinny died leaning against a tree in “All good things”. Hmm.
Apartment 3103 and the abyss
In the climax of TNR, Navidson is trapped within the endless abyss of the maze, where the ashen walls and floor disappear gradually until he’s on a small platform, with only a book to keep him company. Navidson was literally in an endless isolation chamber. Sounds very much like Vinny when he was trapped in Apartment 3103 for two years.
Can You See The Words
This one has been covered by the EMH wikia. CYSTW does have a formatting style similar to HoL.
Water, Drowning, and Insanity
In earlier videos (hidden videos), Evan has been shown to be drowning in water. There were also clips of flooding. In HoL, the person who talks about drowning and the hopelessness of it is Johnny. As Johnny spirals downward mentally, both the number of times he mentions drowning go up, each time with greater detail. Water here is symbolic of madness.
Interestingly, water is also crossed out in CYSTW, similar to passages about the Minotaur in HoL. The Minotaur is the imaginary monster in the house/maze. This gives weight to the theory that HABIT was just Evan’s insane alter ego.
Falsity of Images
Page 527 of HoL has the following quote:
“they (images) may be heartwarming but what they imply rings false.”
As of “All good things”, this quote becomes very interesting when applied to Vinny.
CYSTW and The Whalestoe Letters
Steph’s blog is very reminiscent of The Whalestoe Letters section in HoL. The cryptic messages, the way her character feels like Pelafina.
Finding Fairmount/ Finding Whalestoe
Johnny’s journey to find Whalestoe (HoL pages 503-504) is very similar to Vinny’s journey to find Fairmount. Whalestoe was a mental institute, where Johnny’s mother, Pelafina, use to live. When Johnny got there, however, the institute has long been abandoned, with graffiti on the walls. Just like Fairmount.
“This is no longer their game. Consider yourself marked.”
This message could only be found by tilting the screen while looking at Steph’s blog. In HoL, at least one of Pelafina’s letters are entirely in code, and one letter leaves decoding instructions.
And finally, a note on the META aspect
In HoL, TNR is discussed among scholars who wrote works after works arguing over details in the film. Taking into account that EMH is like TNR…..and everyone who took part in the ARG or discussed EMH theories, including me and this post, also becomes part of the story. It’s pretty crazy.
22 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
anh4k
Anh4k.com
sexyjyotisworld
Untitled
sassymentalitylover
Untitled
spirits-of-bitchcraft
Just a non-binary witch
ultdev
Chungular Scrungular Bingular Bungular