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#analysis tag
sneakerdoodle · 9 months
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it's about how... Ballister had to be the one who betrayed Nimona, let her down, cast her aside, however briefly; how in the movie, her core trauma is rejection, and how it had to come from the closest person to her. it's about how he changes, first reluctantly, then with full commitment - then goes back on it - but eventually chooses change for good. how true strength and vulnerability is in admitting that you were wrong. how the boldest thing one can do is witness the result of the hurt they've dealt to another and not flinch away from responsibility, because it would be so easy to see Nimona's shadow form barrelling through the Kingdom and say it's her fault, that's her nature, she's wrong, she's dangerous, she's a threat - but through vulnerability and readiness to face his mistakes, and through deep, unbridled care for her, Ballister can see the truth, and the truth is that she's hurting, and he was the one to hurt her.
how change is about loosening the constraints enough to shift into something new, how Nimona's always changing, never one thing for too long - but that doesn't change the core truth of her, how she's Nimona, always, however fluid, in whatever form. how to stay the same for too long is to stop living. how change and fluidity are vulnerable and scary and not always understood by others - and how they're also liberating, free. how the conservative urge is to preserve - but whatever is truly worth preserving, the heart, can never be lost in transformation either way; how constraints wound it, how the rejection of fluidity breaks it.
how it may hurt and it's worth it, how to hold onto the familiar at the cost of your truth is to lose it, change, shapeshifting, reflection, changing your mind, admitting your faults. how, no, there's no excuse, no good reason to make someone's life an isolated, inescapable hell, but how what truly matters is change, reconciliation; how you never had to be perfect from the start to make a difference, to be someone's home. you only needed to open your heart and feel the searing sting of regret - and that's what they will remember. you hurting on their behalf. you allowing your heart to get wounded, so that theirs won't have to be run through
you know???
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pristina-nomine · 10 months
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Like Amelia in Lovers' Vows, Fanny is unmoved by the temptations of wealth, status and sexual conquest. When she is given the rare opportunity to express her feelings, she does not hold back, as is shown in her gentle, but spirited, defence of her right to her 'negative’:
I should have thought …. that every woman must have felt the possibility of a man's not being approved, not being loved by some one of her sex, at least, let him be ever so generally agreeable. Let him have all the perfections in the world, I think it ought not to be set down as certain, that a man must be acceptable to every woman he may happen to like himself…. In my situation, it would have been the extreme of vanity to be forming expectation on Mr Crawford… How then was I to be - to be in love with him the moment he said he was with me? How was I to have an attachment at his service, as soon as it was asked for?"' (MP, p. 353)
This speech is remarkable for its encapsulation of the paradoxes of courship conduct for women, particularly those of a low status. Fanny's ‘settled dislike' of Crawford is not enough for Sir Thomas, or indeed Edmund, because Crawford is perceived as a socially acceptable ‘catch'; yet, paradoxically, it is precisely Fanny's lowly social status which precludes her from forming any expectations of Henry in the first place. Furthermore, when she is condescended to be noticed by a man of means, a man whom she has no right to consider in the first place, she is immediately expected to switch on her feelings, 'as soon as it was asked for’. […] Fanny, of course, is not in Amelia’s position of choosing her own husband, but she nevertheless exercises her right to refusal, as do most of Jane Austen's heroines. […] Austen has Henry Tilney advocating ‘women's power of refusal' in Northanger Abbey, but in Pride and Prejudice she conveys the limitations of a woman's 'no' in Mr Collins's and Darcy's refusal to accept Elizabeth's refusal. […] In Mansfield Park, Henry's reluctance to accept Fanny's refusal is proof of his gross selfishness. Even when she is softened by his conduct at Portsmouth, she still hopes to be released from his attentions: 'might not it be fairly supposed, that he would not much longer persevere in a suit so distressing to her?' (MP, p. 414).
- Paula Byrne, The Genius of Jane Austen. Her Love of Theatre and Why She Is a Hit in Hollywood
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violeaes · 9 months
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[id: a digital illustration of mizuki akiyama and mafuyu asahina. they are standing in place, looking at the viewer, wearing a black dress. part of the dress is see through, specifically the sleeves, that are also decorated with black flowers. mizuki is smiling whilst mafuyu has a surprised look on her face. The background behind them is white with brown splotches and sticks with fruit on them. end id].
hello everyone !! this is prolly one of my first analysis posts, at least on this acc. I’ll be using screenshots from the game to illustrate my points, and separate the post into sections, as well as providing image descriptions and plain text for low vision ppl!! I will also be using she/they for mizuki and he/she for mafuyu, so if u dont like that then shoo. they r transfem (mizuki) and transmasc (mfy) respectively. Also spoilers for most of the events so uhh u shouldnt be reading this if u didnt read all of the mfy or mizu focused events. without furtho ado, let’s start!
Hiding One’s True Self
[plain text: hiding one’s true self. end plain text].
this is kind of an obvious observation, and it’s ofc for diff reasons, but both mafuyu and mizuki hide aspects of themselves to both niigo and the world. mafuyu’s is more subconscious, while mizuki is (for the most part) aware that she hides herself, esp from niigo. they’re both in a situation where it’s difficult to get out of, mfy with her abusive mother, and how her mother pressures her to conform and mold to how everyone, including her classmates, wants her to be. he’s seen as the perfect daughter, the perfect student, with no interests, opinions, anything of his own. mizuki, on the other hand, is very clearly transfem which i am not accepting critique on, and because she goes to great lengths to express her gender identity, even going so far as to change from the male school uniform to the female school uniform, ppl ridicule them, which causes them to not have many friends, esp not ones to freely talk abt their gender with. mizu’s relationship to ena mirrors mafuyu’s relationship with kanade, and they both serve as support to mfy and mizuki respectively. they specifically focus on wanting mfy and mizu to become their true selves, with kanade going so far to try to “save” mafuyu (which i have a Lot of opinions on but thats another analysis for another day). in the song samsa, from the event immiscible discord, there are lines sung by mizuki and mfy at the same time which further highlight these similarities, and go into what’s going on in the narrative.
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[id: a screenshot of lyrics, several color coded text in front of a black background. Kaito’s lines are outlined in blue, mafuyu’s in purple, ena’s in beige, mizuki’s in pink, kanade’s in red. some colors are combined, such as mafuyu and mizuki, kanade and ena, and kaito, kanade and ena. The lyrics read: It throbs, throbs, throbs (I throb in pain)
It aches, aches, aches (it aches, aches)
It throbs, throbs, throbs (I throb in pain)
It throbs, throbs, it aches
Change...
Throbbing, throbbing, throbbing painfully
Everyone barely escapes with their souls
It throbs, throbs, throbs
Eaten away by all the pain and the wranglers–taratta
But even so, I wonder why it still
Throbs, throbs, throbs (throbbing painfully)
It's as if you're biting into the apple, Sa-sa-Samsa
end id].
as u can see, mizuki and mfy are the only ones who sing the lines “i throb in pain,” “it throbs, it throbs, it throbs,” and “but even so, i wonder why it still.” kaito also joins in with singing the line, “it’s as if you’re biting the apple, sa-sa-samsa.” kaito is a manifestation of someone who’s trying to tell mafuyu the truth of his mother’s intentions, which mirrors meiko’s role in the event my footprints, your destination. while this event was a kanade and mfy focus, i have every reason to believe the song also parallels mizuki’s issues. while mfy and mizuki have sought refuge in niigo, they still are unable to fully open up. mfy feels she’s unable to become her true self and stand up to her mother, while mizuki is unable to disclose her trans identity. which brings me to my next point. 
Refuge
[plain text: refuge. Plain text]. 
after a while of working with niigo, both mfy and mizu find a safe haven with kanade and ena, enough to be able to open up to them slightly. this is indicated in the videos of two events–and now, the ribbon is tied, and secret distance, two mizuki centric stories–that i’m about to share. it also shows how in a way, she relates to mfy’s struggle and feelings re: niigo. 
[ENG] And Now, the Ribbon is Tied - chapter 1 [Project Sekai event story]
when mfy mentions she feels at ease when working with niigo, mizuki takes note of it. she later says, near the end of the chapter, that they feel like they’re the same as mfy and think abt their past self. 
[Project Sekai] Event Story - Secret Distance [ENG Sub]
in this event, mizuki realizes that while they make music together, they don’t rlly know each other. so they set up an outing for the group to bond whilst stepping outside their comfort zone. after the outing, mizuki realizes how important they are to her, and how she finally feels like she’s found friends she feels comfortable with, enough to say she wants to do this next year. 
Relationship w/ School
[plain text: relationship with school. end plain text].
it’s said now and then that because of mizuki’s trauma, they consistently skip school. while mafuyu consistently goes to school unlike the rest of niigo, it’s clear he doesn’t like it and would rather make music with his friends and forge his own career path. when he had to go to cram school, he instead skipped school to be with her friends at fenilan. 
[ENG] Guiding a Lost Child to What Lies Beyond - chapter 5: The lost heart
Running From One’s Problems
[plain text: running from one’s problems. End plain text].
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[video description: the music video for kitty by niigo. Mizuki is wearing a black hat as well as an entirely black outfit, her hair down. Her fingers are curled like a cat’s claws. The layout looks like a camera on one’s phone, the options being mizuki, mafuyu, ena, len, and kanade. The video switches to mizuki’s current self and middle school self. Mizuki’s past self wears a red male school uniform, a pink ribbon, and her hands are on her cheeks, staring in horror. Mafuyu wears a ponytail with her bangs swayed, wearing a blue and red sweatshirt. Her child self has longer hair and holds a stuffed bunny. The video ends with len, who wears a sweatshirt and makes the same pose as mizuki. end video description].
before i get into that… lets take a break to see THIS part in kitty bc???? Oh my god??? 
okay anyway lets get into the most recent-ish (bc saying goodbye to my masked self has recently come out) event, our escape for survival. in this event, niigo is trying to find a way to help mfy and reach her as her laptop and synthesizer has been confiscated. throughout the story, mizuki compares her situation to mafuyu’s, and while it’s not the same, they still have similar while also having opposite issues. when they have a conversation with luka, she comes up with an idea to help mafuyu, as she does smth similar. during the hangout with mafuyu the next day, she tells him that it’s okay to run away, which ends up happening in goodbye to my masked self. while mizuki says that it doesn’t solve problems, i do feel like it mirrors mizuki’s situation, albeit in a different way. mizuki skips school and refuses to tell niigo abt their transness, just like mafuyu who initially couldn’t accept her mother being abusive, and chose to live in denial until kaito and the rest call her out. mizuki can’t accept the fact that others are able to love her for who she is, and so hides that aspect of herself. 
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[id: mizuki akiyama’s “the words i can only convey” untrained card, from the event our escape for survival. They look at the viewer, smiling whilst surrounded by lights and a crowd of people. End id].
Conclusion
[plain text: conclusion]. 
so yeah!! I feel like their dynamic is severely underappreciated and underwritten, and i’m so glad our escape for survival highlighted their parallels even more. i rlly hope that the game and the fandom thought abt them more, and not just in a ship sense, bc theyre a lot similar than u think. also purple and pink go so well together LMFAO also i love their area/side story convos. Like:
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[id: screenshot of “a moment of jest” second side story that reads: 
Mafuyu – “Amia. Why do you care so much about me? K promised to compose a song that will save me. But neither you nor Enanan have any reason to care about me that much. So... why?”
Mizuki – “Why, huh...? Don't be such a stranger. We're friends, aren't we?”
Mafuyu – “Friends? I thought we were only members of the same songmaking group?”
Mizuki – “Don't worry about it. I'm doing this because I want to. So you don't have to think too deeply into it.”
Mafuyu – “I see. I'll take your word for it, then.”
— "A Moment of Jest" second side story
End id].
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[id: screenshot of an area conversation in the empty sekai that reads: 
Mizuki – “Huh? What are you doing here in the afternoon? Don't you have school?”
Mafuyu – “We have tests all week, so we only have half days. What about you? Are you skipping class again?”
Mizuki – “No, I actually came to school today. Class was just super boring, so I decided to come here♪”
Mafuyu – “Hehe. In other words, you're skipping. Maybe I should let Miku know so she'll send you back.”
Mizuki – “Huh?! Oh, hey! How about we write some music together?! What do you think? Sounds fun, right?”
— Area Conversation in Empty SEKAI
 end id].
Yes i got this from the mizumafu shipping wiki don’t judge me fhdjkghfhj but yeah!! Lemme know what u think in the replies, i love discussion esp discussion of these characters. And if i missed anything pls let me know, i’m willing to correct/edit some things!! anyway byebye stan mafuyu and mizuki they r . transmasc transfem solidarity <3 (heart)
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bowlofmeat · 1 year
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“I’ve been in that thing’s head,” or: how does Marcy view the Core?
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In the last episode of Amphibia the Core decides to ram the moon into Amphibia and kill everyone on the planet because it is such a sore loser.
Ramming the moon into Amphibia is sort of an extreme action to me, so I do wonder what would lead it to do that. How lucky is it that Marcy says it for me, then: "Fear. I've been in that thing's head. I know that more than anything, it's afraid of being destroyed. Of being irrelevant. It will do whatever it takes to defeat us and claim the stones as its own. If that means destroying an entire civilization, then so be it."
You don't know how much this line means to me. Marcy of all people saying that the Core is scared, just, wow. But why? Why her? She's been in its mind but how does she know? The Core would never admit this, the Core would never tell her that, so how does she know that it is scared? (And why does her voice go flat? Why does she look so tired when she says that?)
Well, there's this word that Marcy uses. "Irrelevant." "Irrelevant" is an interesting word considering it applies to both Marcy and the Core: "I am scared of being irrelevant."
And, I gotta say, getting your friend to steal a music box for her birthday present and riding on the pipe dream that it might send you to a place where you'll never have to grow apart is. Sort of an extreme action to me? You'd have to be really desperate to do that.
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Marcy: "I'm sorry. I was so scared about moving away. The thought of losing you was just so big. I was afraid that if we weren't together, we wouldn't be friends anymore."
Do you understand? The Core has Marcy's actions and thoughts blasted up to eleven, pushed to extremes. "I am scared of being irrelevant. I am desperate. I will do whatever it takes to keep us together, even if it means sending us to another world."
Because if Anne defeats Andrias the pushover and Sasha defeats Darcy the control freak then does Marcy defeat the Core? Does Marcy understand? She's been in its mindscape, she's been in its fantasyland. She's rejected its fantasy adventure, she knows she's not it, but does she look at the Core and does she understand, viscerally, what she's looking at?
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Marcy: "You know I bet I can fit in your pocket."
There's something to be said about Marcy going "boundaries, Marcy" and then immediately climbing into Andrias' pocket. Ignoring boundaries like that, like the Core does all the time.
(Edit: Okay I just rewatched "the Beginning of the End" and in the flashback in the beginning Marcy spoils the movie they are watching. And Sasha goes: "Whoa! Spoiler alert!" Then Marcy apologizes, and, notice this, opens her mouth to spoil the other twisty twist right after apologizing.
Again, "boundaries, Marcy," she thinks. The thought is fresh on her mind she literally said it out loud - and then she gets the bright idea to climb into Andrias' pocket. No hesitation, no delay.
The Core is a thousand times worse in its actions, make no mistake about that, but on a base level they are the same! And Marcy would recognize that!)
There's something to be said about Darcy going for the mind pain thing when Andrias is being pissy about his long-dead friend, forcing him to follow its orders.
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Marcy: "But forcing them to follow my dreams is wrong. I learned that the hard way."
There's something to be said about Marcy using her own selfish wish as Anne's birthday present and Andrias going "Yes ... it's ... everything I've ever wanted," because Mars & Dars both have a tendency to not consider what other people want in favor of what they want.
There's something to be said about immortality and lasting forever.
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Marcy: "What an amazing adventure. Makes you wish it could last forever, huh?"
Actually, let's go on a tangent. In s3e22 (episode 13a) Mother Olm says this: "These conquerors, with their arrogance and greed, created an unnatural thing that does not sleep and will not die."
Mother Olm really is hyping the Core up as the spookiest and scariest villain of all time, and for me as an individual I know that's not true. I don't view villains as scary, I don't tend to buy the hype.
Crucially, I don't think Marcy buys into the hype either. Does she hate it for what it has done to her? To everyone? Sure! Why not. But I don't think Marcy finds the Core scary, she doesn't buy into its hype, because 'scary' is a word used for things you don't know and she's literally been in its mind. (And also did slap away Aldrich's hand and reject the Core's sick fantasy that was so cool btw.)
Anyway, tangent over, back to "the Hardest Thing".
Something interesting happens right after Andrias betrays the Core, and the interesting thing in question is that the Core-as-Aldrich says this: "Fools! You cannot stop ... a god!"
Considering the Core canonically feels emotions, I'd imagine that it feels quite upset, because in the previous scene Andrias betrayed it and it failed the invasion so epically. (Rest in piss buddy.)
So if we take it saying the above in the context of the Core being upset, there is a certain interpretation I can and will make.
That is, do you think it wants to be a god?
Do you think it wants to be "an unnatural thing that does not sleep and will not die"?
Do you think it wants to be a machine computer? Do you think it wants to be anything but a bunch of losers in a trenchcoat that don't know everything, that aren't gods but pitiful mortals like the rest of us, that get scared and frustrated and make mistakes?
Because I am sure it would love to be an emotionless machine and god-emperor. I am sure it would love to be a thing, a machine computer that doesn't feel fear or uncertainty, only here to conquer and control and restore Amphibia to its former glory. I am sure it would love to be a god, far above mortal things, soaring the skies instead. But the Core isn't a god. The Core isn't even a computer. It is very, painfully mortal, and capable of being destroyed.
I am sure it would love Mother Olm hyping it up as a villain like that, cuz it makes it big and it makes it relevant. I am sure it would love to be an object, a great and terrifying thing instead of a person (people?), because why be made of flesh and blood when you could rather be a machine computer?
Now, this analysis is about what Marcy thinks of the Core, so let's bring it back to Marcy, shall we?
Marcy is an escapist.
Canon gives very little information about her home life which is honestly such a shame, but I can't imagine that it was the greatest, considering she did what she did.
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Marcy: "I started this whole mess because I wanted to escape that reality. But I won't run away from it anymore!"
In Amphibia Marcy is the chief ranger of the Newtopian Knight Guard, because why be the clumsy klutzy Marcy of Earth, the place where your pain comes from, when you could rather be a super cool ranger/artificer?
Because if Anne defeats Andrias the pushover and Sasha defeats Darcy the control freak then does Marcy defeat the Core the escapist?
...
I guess the Core would be sort of unnerved by Marcy because she can cut through its hype and see it for what it is: A bunch of old amphibians long past their expiration dates, still trying to bring back the nonexistent greatness of a millennia ago. It's honestly sort of pathetic, that they can't freakin' let go. That's what you get for being the antithesis of change, I guess.
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a-staphaios · 3 months
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Screw it I realised something about From The Red Fog and Ruwanda’s reactions to his trauma from sa and I needed to do some analysis stuff again
cw for csa. spoilers for the entire manga.
so of course in chapter 1, Ruwanda is raped, and he ends up killing his rapist. afterwards, he’s taken into an orphanage. and in one scene he says this,
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this isn’t a one off for the 12 year old Ruwanda either. in chapter 14, he acts like this again
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clearly his way of thinking is specifically tied to his own experiences, as this is very unusual for someone his age or even his background - considering how for the first 12 years of his life he was in a basement, it is extremely unlikely that anything other than this trauma could have caused him to act like this.
Ruwanda himself clearly is triggered by the event - way later on in his adult life, he has a flashback when fighting a man who’s strangling him, and has a further flashback at the murder of Kathy, when he ends up reliving every major traumatic event of his life.
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what is also interesting is that Ruwanda has an absolute hatred of perverts, and whenever one appears to appear, he’s always there.
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he has a clear morality - despite his mostly apathetic nature, he is absolutely determined to stick a knife into anyone who’s committed sexual assault. while murder is the way he copes with emotions, it’s also the way he copes with trauma. in a way it’s poetic in a twisted way. he sees murder is perfectly fine - but sexual assault is something else.
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cartmanseyes · 1 year
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Clip collection from when Cartman was missed, from Cartman’s Silly Hate Crime (4.02). Putting aside the politics of this episode, I always loved the bit where they show Clyde gradually becoming Cartman-like as the class bullies him for his weight- any episode with a hint to Cartman’s psychology always enthralls me.
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colorcodedbeanies · 1 year
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S2 E5-"Breakage
Sorry about the long posting gaps, new job+sick+RDR2+L+ratio etc. Favorite line from this episode is "why don't you stop being such a freak about everything" I think I should be paid to say that to Walt once an hour.
TW: Racism, police brutality, addiction, alcoholism
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So I've always been really unsure what to make of the cold opening of the two illegal immigrants crossing the Rio Grande. With the analytic frameworks I've applied until this point I think I'm choosing to understand it as complicating the idea that violence is sneaking up into the US across the Mexican border. Two scared, shivering men cross the river, and on the other end find an artifact of state-sanctioned violence. It never had to be imported from "lawless Mexican hell", as Marie describes it. We grow it just fine right here.
The cigarettes Walt finds jammed in the toilet act in visual parallel to Jesse's meth that he tried to flush down the toilet last season. The scene where he confronts Skyler about them is chockful of hypocrisy. Smoking while pregnant is bad for the baby's health. So is being a meth dealer trading with people who will shoot your whole family. Beyond that, though, there's one line from Skyler that stands out to me: "I'm sure you'll be very glad to hear that yes, I feel ashamed." She's accurately calling out what Walt's actual priority is. It's not determining the health of their child, or trying to help her so she doesn't feel the need to seek out a narcotic to cope. It's punishing her for needing an escape in the first place. Exactly the attitude he spends all of last season directing at Jesse.
Speaking of more socially acceptable addictions. I have never once seen anyone draw a connection between the fact that Walt cooks meth and Hank brews beer. Both manufacture substances that have heavy ties with addiction, and that can destroy lives. Both seem to seek out the crafting process as an escape from their day to day stress (Hank taking a day off to try and self-therapize with it). Only difference is Hank operates under the banner of legality, something the two of them talk about indirectly in 1x07.
We're getting in this episode to how Walt tends to mythologize the brown men around him into figures of ultimate violence, but also ultimate power. His disdain for Tuco is pretty explicitly racialized when he disparagingly asks Jesse if "you['re] gonna beat your 'homies' to death when they 'diss' you?" However, later in this episode he criticizes Jesse for not being ENOUGH like Tuco. "You think Tuco had 'breakage'? I guess that's true. He broke bones." This is of course, factually inaccurate. Beyond what we see in BCS that establishes Tuco had some clear problems in his organization that went way beyond some product theft, it's also just actually impossible to run any kind of business without experiencing any kind of skimming. Like Jesse says, J.C. Penney's gets breakage. How much more so when you're dealing with a substance that inherently manufactures dependence? None of those realities matter to Walt, though, who is chasing after his idea of what a kingpin is like. Tuco doesn't live on in his memories as a unstable guy with an uncle he looks after and poor long-term planning. Instead, he's transformed into an unstoppable killing machine, brutal and (you should read the full racial implications into this word) savage, but also untouchable. The kind of man Walt secretly longs to be and is currently using Jesse as a proxy to try to achieve
This is further doubled down on when, after an argument with Skyler where Walt feels unmanned by his inability to control his wife's behavior, he goes right to Jesse's house and demands he take care of business. Its him trying to imitate Tuco again, though this time not by his own hands.
Jesse is also doing some imitation here. It's not Tuco he acts like at the meeting though. It's Walt.
Hank can't glorify the Tuco fight with his usual bravado. He can, however, provide unique insight into a cop's view of a criminal when he describes them as functionally subhuman. Cockroaches. Your first instinct is to step on them. Drug dealers, addicts, gangsters, Mexicans they aren't people like you and me. If you saw one, you would immediately know you had to crush it to preserve yourself. This is going to get sooooo beautifully subverted next episode.
The Skyler-Marie conflict continues to act in parallel to the Skyler-Walt conflict, with Skyler refusing to proceed until Marie does her the basic service of respecting her with the truth. Marie tantrums like Walt does, asking "why are you punishing me" and seemingly frustrated that the consequences can't just evaporate because she doesn't want to deal with them. At the end of the day though. The distinction is that Marie loves her sister more than her pride. Walt...remains to be seen.
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ceriseisland · 1 year
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I think the reason why Emerald is disliked doesn't come down to his character but the way he was added to the story. Emerald's character arc is really good on paper: it hits all the right beats, and Emerald fits into the hoenn trio better than Wally in my opinion. But it's rushed due to the fact that a) 3/4ths of the emerald arc is just a tutorial on how to use the battle frontier and b) Emerald is literally being shoehorned into the trio to replace an already established character. Ruby and Sapphire just set up camp in Emerald's life, and while that's good for Emerald it's not really in character for the other two. All three of them are bad at interpersonal things so realistically there would be conflict between them until they learn to break down each other's barriers and work as a team, but Kusaka only gave himself a volume and a half to put them together and write every other dexholder into the story so instead they just announce that they're Rald's new best friends and gloss over getting to know each other, and it feels really weird.
It probably doesn't help either that after being added to the story to replace a beloved character, Kusaka then proceeds to do nothing with Emerald again, since he does basically nothing is ORAS. I get that hoenn arcs are primarily about Ruby, but then why would you go through the effort to replace Wally if you're not going to do anything with his replacement. It just feels like a waste. There's also the fact that RS and FRLG felt like major shifts in tone for the series, with RS being dark and FRLG being about the characters we love growing up and realizing the world is more complicated than they thought, so you'd think the emerald arc would follow through with that, but instead we go back to a GSC-like tone and all the development of the past two arcs feels minimized. It really isn't Emerald's fault that people hate him, since he really is a good character. It's just that everything about the way he was implemented is a regression from what was previously set up, and I have no idea why Kusaka did that.
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trioxidewastaken · 2 years
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"You'll eventually go back to the human realm, I know how it works! I've read your Azura books, [and] you even promised your mom!"
I know that look. That's the look of someone who was under the rightful assumption that something that they're really stressed and worried about (specifically Camila having Luz promise that she would return home) or a special interest (the Azura books) would not be used against them in an emotionally tense situation. And it fuckin Hurts.
Obviously, I'm not implying that King brought up the books' plot and Luz's promise out of malice or that he intended to hurt her feelings, but I have a feeling that Luz is not gonna easily trust people just as she was starting to open up again.
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genebelcher · 1 year
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i think one of the funniest things about gene as a character is that he can be kind of amoral and mischievous. like, louise regularly has crises of conscience and goes back on her misdeeds or decides not to carry out a scheme at the last moment but gene never seems to have any moral objections when he's acting as her minion. he's completely fine with causing chaos or tricking people or stealing shit as long as he gets to have fun doing it and i think that's EXTREMELY entertaining.
OBVIOUSLY that's not to say he lacks a moral compass, he definitely has a sense of justice and he's VERY caring and sweet natured. but he definitely prioritizes fun a lot of the time and that's part of why he's such a great character. and i honestly feel like it makes him more complex and interesting, even though this complexity is kind of understated and almost flies under the radar if you're not completely obsessed with bob's burgers like i am
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Might be a bit longer of a post but I think a lot about Mysticat's backstory. It's very simple on the surface (it's quite literally a Chosen One backstory), but there's so many things that I feel could or should be elaborated on that it catches my attention.
Such as the fact he himself is stated to have "guarded the Enchanted Desert for centuries" and yet only recently got curious about what was in there. You'd think they'd at least tell their guards what exactly they were protecting, especially since the Elders knew about the desert's ability to tell the future but not the ones guarding it. It's the implications here that are screwing with me.
Do any of the other sphinxes even know? Was he just brainwashed into fulfilling this one duty without question for over a hundred years until he finally looked back and realized he didn't know what he was working for?
Cause if the implications are correct, it could mean the Elder sphinxes simply never told him what about the desert made it worth guarding. Just to do his job and not ask questions. And he did, for hundreds of years, until the questions became too much and he went searching for them himself, because he already knew they wouldn't give him any answers.
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sneakerdoodle · 9 months
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the thing that makes Nimona the most vulnerable up until the very ending of the movie is that she is alone, in a way no one else truly is. Ballister ends up ostracized and almost universally hunted - but like in the graphic novel, what leads to the climactic conflict of his and Nimona's joined arc is that very "almost": the fact that despite everything, Ambrosius still cares about him, and he still cares about Ambrosius. even at his lowest, Ballister still comes from the past where he had been loved, and even with the prejudice he faced his entire life, for the largest portion of it, he was lucky enough to have his baseline state of existence be - supported, celebrated, cared for, if only by just two people. having no one in his corner is new to him, is terrifying, is horribly vulnerable and surreal.
but for Nimona that's her entire life, that's where she comes from. and that's what leads to her being rejected and hurt both of the times we see her actually make a meaningful connection. i see people analyzing Gloreth's character and implying that she was more or less oblivious to prejudice up until the very tragic end of things - but i think it's important to notice that when Nimona shapeshifts in front of her for the first time, before accepting her, Gloreth looks over her shoulder. she considers the village. perhaps she checks that no one else saw.
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[id: cropped screenshot from the movie, showing Nimona from the back, holding an apple in her hands, and Gloreth looking away from her, at the roofs of the village down the hill. end id]
Gloreth is aware of shapeshifting as something that her community will not favor, whether that awareness is fully concsious or intuitive. Gloreth knows that aligning herself with Nimona is in some way "bad" and "wrong" in others' eyes, and chooses to do so regardless - but in secret.
when the rest of the village finds out about Nimona, Gloreth ends up caught between her parents, calling out to her from beyond the line of fire - and Nimona, on the same side of it as her, reaching out. Gloreth has to make a choice between staying in the light of being known and accepted or lose everything to remain with someone who seemingly has no choice but to resign to the shadows.
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[id: a cropped screenshot from the move, showing child Nimona on left side and Gloreth on the right, Nimona in shadows, Gloreth backlit by the fire. end id]
Gloreth might have genuinely started seeing Nimona as a monster in that moment - but it seems much more likely to me that that was simply the story she told herself in the understandable, self-protective childhood need to save herself from the same devastating rejection. Nimona had to be something bad and vile for Gloreth to justify severing herself from her and rejoining her family, the only community she's ever known
the very same thing happens with Ballister - and the reason why it all even can happen is because both Ballister and Gloreth had all these people who knew them and cared about them before Nimona found them, before Nimona made them "worse" in others' eyes. she's a challenge, she's unapologetic, she's a catalyst for authenticity, she exposes the lies and reveals the uncomfortable truth - and for everyone who can no longer recognize a once-beloved person transformed by their bond with her, it is easy to see Nimona as the problem. the person they cared about was good up until now, so they must be good still, just deceived, manipulated. Nimona is the tainting, dangerous influence that can and should be washed off and separated from the uncompromised wholesomeness of the person they love
and for Nimona - no one was there to treat her the same way, however misguided and ultimately unkind this sort of mindset is. she was never precious to someone, never unconditionally good to someone, never a child, never a life-long friend. no one knew her before they saw her as the newcomer, the disrupter, the trouble, the other. no one is in her corner, seeing her as a person and believing her to be fundamentally good and thus deserving of protection. she is always the monster, the corrupting influence, the evil lurking in the shadows. in terms of the metaphor, she is always the obviously queer person "tempting" others into her ways. her loneliness is cyclical, self-sustainig, as if since no one is there to protect her, it just affirms she must not deserve it.
Ballister choosing to trust her even though he has the liberty to adopt any interpretation of her, disregard the little girl as a disguise, the teenager as a mask, him choosing to see her pain instead of shielding himself from his own - that's the weight of him saying "You are not alone". it's been Nimona against the rest of the world for as much of her life as we see it, and the world treated everyone else but her as deserving of protection, sheltering, forgiveness - worst of all, protection from her, sheltering from her, forgiveness for their guillible trust of her. when the movie tells us Nimona is treated as the monster of the story, it's not an exaggeration, not a shallow plot formula: she is, quite literally, the one and only wicked principle of creation everyone else is to be redeemed from.
until someone chooses to take her side. until she's not alone. until she's precious, good, smart, kind, sophisticated, loved, vulnerable, important, deserving of care, protection and life, like everybody else is.
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[id: cropped screenshot from the movie, showing Ballister holding the battered Nimona in a hug. end id]
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pristina-nomine · 10 months
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During the confrontation, Lady Catherine accuses Elizabeth of being ‘lost to every feeling of propriety and delicacy’, a charge that she equates with her refusal to accept the distinctions of social class. But, as Elizabeth demonstrates, true propriety and delicacy are indicative of manners rather than rank. Furthermore, although Elizabeth refuses to be bullied by authority and exhibits courage and frankness in her private encounter with Lady Catherine, she also has a heightened awareness of the importance of observing social forms in public. […]
It is striking that no such decorum is necessary for the union between Elizabeth and Darcy. Indeed, their relationship is defined by their mutual candour, and their unwillingness to dissemble, which is perhaps what Darcy implies in his remark that ‘neither of us performs to strangers’. […] Elizabeth shows her grasp of the particular dynamic of their relationship when she assesses the qualities with which Darcy fell in love:
‘My beauty you had early withstood, and as for my manners - my behaviour to you was at least always bordering on the uncivil…. Now be sincere; did you admire me for my impertinence?’ ‘For the liveliness of your mind, I did' ‘You may as well call it impertinence at once. It was very little less. The fact is, that you were sick of civility, of deference, of officious attention. You were disgusted with the women who were always speaking and looking, and thinking for your approbation alone. I roused, and interested you, because I was so unlike them" (PP, p. 380)
It is precisely Elizabeth’s irreverence and frankness that make possible a private language between them that transcends a society dependent upon conformity to social mores.
- Paula Byrne, The Genius of Jane Austen. Her Love of Theatre and Why She Is a Hit in Hollywood
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violeaes · 8 months
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Hello i am back for five seconds to talk abt that welcome home update bc WHAT !!! i have .. so many thoughts and the current speculation isnt rlly doing it or the source material justice. im not gonna add any links here, u can find those urself, ill just be going thru my very unorganized thoughts. anyway!
so while i cant make any confident speculation as we're so early into the project, however i think the new update confirmed my suspicion that wally Is the one sending the restoration project these letters. specifically in the staff only page, where on one of the emails, there's smth in white highlighted marker that reads "-wally darling" like a signature of some sort. i could be wrong but idk who else would be doing this yk? esp in the damaged state the restored materials are in? its also indicated by one of the staff having a dream abt wally lookng at them as a phone rings. its also clear bc of the many eye and spiral imagery throughout the page.
another thing i found interesting was in the 1-14 pages, how near the end, the characters look to wally for input. i think its bc in the show ur supposed to follow wally around as he's technically a narrator/observer of some sort, indicated by one of the scripts in an earlier update, with wally speaking to the viewer. but i wonder why it cut off so abruptly?? idk
so far my "theory" is that smth happened in the neighborhood that caused wally to lose his friends hence in the guestbook he mentions he cant find them or has no memories of them, that or ppl's lack of memories of the show causes his world (or the show itself) to fall apart, which would make sense. idk if they died or anything but idk smth happened. i also saw someone say that what could be happening is that two worlds exist, one where welcome home was a real show that existed in the 70s, and one without. we're seeing the world without.
i don't think wally or home is evil, or that home is behind anything or that smth is happening in home OR that wally is stuck in home. i dont think that clown would make smth so cliche, and while cliches r fine since everyone has a diff spin on it, i feel like itd be narratively unsatisfying. its clear that wally is desperate, he wants to be seen, remembered in some way. maybe its why he's always facing the camera, symbolizing that desire? idk maybe im delving too deep LMFAO dont blame me i literally spent Hours looking for clues and refreshing twitter. its also clear that wally isnt evil bc i believe its him apologizing for the letters/materials looking so fucked up and taking a toll on ppl. maybe it isnt him but itd make sense
wally can also see us. through our fan art, through our support, he can see whats going on in the outside world hence how he's able to break the fourth wall and send the restoration project the envelopes (specifically eddie's envelopes). i say this bc of this line if u type "/a" on the website.
“I have more eyes than I did before. You know how to draw eyes. You draw mine many times. I know it is thanks to you, neighbor, that I can see. But it is still… I can’t… See."
now that he doesnt have access to the guestbook, he's desperate for diff ways to connect to us and the restoration project. he just wants to be remembered. i dont think him breaking the fourth wall is too out of the ordinary considering he appeared in an interview, signifying he must know of the outside world, that his world isnt real, he's played by a voice actor, and so on.
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bowlofmeat · 1 year
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(hint: it doesn't want you to see that it's hurt)
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seaswalllow · 11 months
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<- brain chemistry permanently altered by the theme of being able to love someone and be unable to see them for who they are + be unable to coexist with them
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