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celluloidbroomcloset · 4 months

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I want to talk about Ed's "I loved you, best I could" and Lucius's "maybe the time he spent with you is the best it's ever going to get for him."

We see how clearly Ed fears he's unlovable, but there's another facet that is just as important to how he responds and the way in which he tries to push people, including Stede, away: the fear that he's unable to love someone else in a way that doesn't hurt them.

From what we know of Ed's past, we see that he's not had many real, nontoxic friendships—"pirates don't have friends"—and though he considers Calico Jack and Annie and Mary friends of a certain type, the damage they do each other as a matter of course means that he's never been safe with them. Izzy may be one of the first people in Ed's adult life to even try to say that he loves him—and even that is qualified: "I...have love for you." That love is tainted and toxic, by piracy itself, and by the abuse that Izzy has tried to claim as love. None of the people in Ed's pirate life prior to the Revenge have been able to unequivocally say that they love him, and I think we can infer that he's not been able to say that he loves them. The closest he manages what he says to Izzy, after Izzy is supposedly dead: "I loved you, best I could."

And it's this line that indicates, more than anything, that Ed may believe at this point (his lowest point, where he is already dedicated to killing himself) that he's actually incapable of loving someone properly. He has indeed experienced real friendship and love, not just with Stede but with the crew. It seems clear that he thinks he's done something, or been something, to make Stede leave him, and he's trying very hard to make the crew hate and fear him enough to kill him. His other friends that we've met—Jack and Izzy—are dead (or he thinks they are). He's truly isolated, and it seems he believes that that isolation is entirely because of who he is, not just being unlovable, but being a "bad person" unable to love someone else.

We see this at work already in Season 1, in Ed's inability to do anything to stop Izzy from harming Stede. Stede is related to Ed's mother, the other person in Ed's life whom he loved without toxicity. Ed's murder of his father was to protect his mother and himself, but it ultimately (it's implied) leads to him running away to become a pirate. Having had a person who loved him, he fled to avoid his violence poisoning her further. The duel between Stede and Izzy repeats the process, but Ed is unable, here, to stop the abusive father from harming the person Ed truly loves and who has shown him genuine love. Ed's love for Stede brings Stede into danger and nearly gets him killed.

The second time, Ed brings Calico Jack onto Stede's ship. Ed's reason for leaving the Revenge with Jack is his fear that Stede will eventually see him for what he is, and reject him: "This is who I am, Stede. Can you see me now? You were always going to realize what I am." This comes after Jack has killed Karl and harmed other people in Stede's crew. The undercurrent is that Ed himself has brought violence on the people that he loves, purely by his association with Jack. Again, Ed's love for others is not just a weakness in the eyes of Jack and other pirates, but a danger to the very people he wants to protect.

Which is why Stede's rejection of Lucius's statement—that the time Ed has already spent with Stede is the best it will ever be for him—and his continued hope and expression of love for Ed is so important, not just to Stede's characterization, but to Ed's. Because it isn't just that Stede loves Ed, but Stede's conviction that Ed loves Stede. Stede firmly believes that Ed is capable of love, that the love they experienced wasn't a whim or something that could easily be discarded ("a love like ours doesn't vanish in an instant"), and that Stede himself is not going to accept the idea that Ed's love for him in Season 1 is the best it's going to get. He knows that Ed is capable of love, and that Ed's love is not poisonous or dangerous.

Season 2 isn't just about Ed learning that he's loved, but also about him learning that he is indeed capable of love. He tries to help heal the damage that he has done, not just as Kraken, but as Blackbeard. He tries to give the crew joy, what there is within his power, and to express his love for them through turning "poison into positivity." He learns to love Stede better by becoming a better man himself. Most of all, though, he begins to understand that he is not poisonous but has been poisoned, and he has to let the poison bleed out.

I have more to say about how this works in Season 2, but that's enough for now.

Side note: I do think this is another narrative reason why Izzy has to die. He is one of the last connections to the poisonous past, a major player in Ed's inability to recognize his own capacity for love, and a stumbling block to Ed being able to both accept Stede and the crew's love, and to understanding that his love is not the cause of violence.

#ofmd #our flag means death #edward teach #ed teach #stede bonnet #ofmd meta #ofmd season 1 #ofmd season 2 #izzy hands #calico jack #revenge crew #the crew of the revenge #ofmd s2 #gif

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venuscnjunctpluto · 1 year

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Astro pt. 8

Credits: @venuscnjunctpluto

* libra placement rappers have very high profiled relationships (ex: nba youngboy, lil durk, nle choppa)

*ginnifer goodwin killed her role as Snow White/Mary Margaret and I found out she has mercury conjunct chiron like me. She has a very soft caring voice and her character was also a teacher who helped cared deeply for her students (and one of them turned out to be her grandson lol)

*this placements does well on podcasts because we once we learn to understand our pain and develop the ability to speak freely about it which a lot of people can’t do (Miley Cyrus also has mercury-Chiron and hearing her talk about her divorce was therapeutic)

* Taurus placements take their time in love and can turn people off by moving so slowwww. Kanye West (taurus Venus and mars conjunct) was friends w Kim for years before they began dating. And in his song “Stronger” he repeatedly says “you know how long I’ve been on you since prince was on Apollonia.” They’re also very persistent lol

*rihanna and beyoncé have a lot of opposites. Their risings, suns, and venuses. They are good examples at the differences between libra and Aries. Beyoncé has a more polished and controlled image for the masses while rihanna has had a “bad girl” who does what she wants persona. Both work hard and are respected big cardinal energy

*my sister has mars in 3rd and I’m a Aries rising. My cousin has Saturn in 3rd and his brother is a Capricorn rising. Your third house placements could signal what your siblings placements are. I also have cancer on 3rd and my sister is a cancer rising. She has libra in 3rd and im a libra moon.

*mars in 3rd is the worst person to argue with because they say the most terrible things in a heartbeat.

*leo risings babies either have alot of thick hair or their hair took longer to grow.

* Taurus risings are noticeable w their thick brows and prominent noses (plus some sort of jewelry) , Aries risings have huge heads and usually look somewhat fit, Virgo risings have the most doll like eyes that make them look soft, Gemini risings are very talkative and like bold bright colors esp nail polish, Sagittarius rising come across as wise but also smile a lot (they have slender faces as well), cancer rising have a shy aura and round cheeks (plus dimples), Leo risings usually have chubby cheeks and cute smiles w buttonish noses.

*also I notice Aries risings tend to like neutral colors. Our complexions can be so reddish or vibrant that sometimes bold colors are too much.

*i instantly know when I have Venus in 1st synastry w someone. The Venus person will try to get your attention at some point and want to talk to you. When they do, they’ll stand very close with you and mirror your posture. And they look at you like “😍”

*the ppl who bully their crushes are sag risings (Aries in 5th), Aries venuses, Scorpio venuses, Venus/Mars in 8th. It has to be the Martian energy. They can be hostile but I think it’s because they’re have such strong feelings so when their crush does anything they view as a slight…they’re in a bad mood.

*cancer + taurus placements might have an issues with alcohol

*Jhene Aiko is a perfect example of sag + Pisces placements. These people can be deeply spiritual or religious. They take their belief systems very seriously and it’s shown in their appearance. (Cross necklaces, tattoos, crystal bracelets, etc…)

*Big sean has moon-pluto and i notice straight men are attracted to women w aspects similar to their moon aspects. Jhene and Ariana (who he also dated) both have Venus opposition pluto so they’re behavior towards him probably reminds him of his relationship with his mom. I talked to a guy w moon square pluto and his mom was completely overbearing and I have Venus conjunct pluto. Or a straight guy with moon-square Uranus would be attracted to a woman w Uranus/ Aquarius energy.

#astro observations #astro notes #astro community #jhene aiko #ariana grande #cancer #rihanna #beyoncé #libra #aries #taurus venus

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miwhotep · 3 months

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THE PROBLEMS WITH MILVERTON’S WRITING IN TWO CRIMINALS

This post didn’t mean to hate on the Two Criminals Arc, since there were great aspects of the story I really enjoyed, too: the Sherlock and John parts or the Sherlock-William face-off. I just want to talk about what are my problems with it when it comes to the writing of Milverton, because from his viewpoint, most of the things just don’t make sense.

Let’s start with Milverton’s visit to Sherlock’s office. I used to hate this part, too, for being so heavily based on BBC Sherlock, where Milverton also claims Sherlock’s office as his and makes a disgusting scene, including pissing. When I first read the story, I was angry since copying the scene didn’t make sense: in BBC, Milverton is a foreigner who wants to demonstrate how domesticated English people are with pissing and being able to get away with it – but YuuMori’s Milverton is an Englishman, who even likes to act like someone from the high-class: he is evil, but shown before being generally moderate when it comes to interacting with people. I was also angry because I felt that the scene is literally pissing on the meaning of a character like Milverton: he doesn’t need to act petty or threatening, he is a blackmailer, his whole existence is a threat. He is scary because he tortures people wearing a mask of a smooth-talker, even polite gentleman.

BUT! What if his tendency to make scenes like this is a strategy on his part? With his behavior, he pushed Sherlock to the point where he didn’t find breaking in to his house a problematic thing – he wanted Sherlock to surely break in to him, after all. Milverton angered Sherlock and his companion to make sure none of them, neither the more moral John nor Mary finds anything bad in the break-in, so Sherlock will do as he expected.

Before we move to the second part of the arc, let’s take a look at Milverton’s personality, methods and the conclusions he made about the Lord of Crime while investigating him.

Milverton more than once mentions that he always does a thorough research when it comes to his “cases”, and we also see proofs to this statement beside the Lord of Crime case: Sherlock mentions that he seems to know how much money exactly the people he want to blackmail have or their past and present relationships, he got Mary’s secrets and even the list with her name – so recovering any documents he wish for is not a problem for him either, - or during the White Knight arc, he knew the pressure points of both that police guy who killed Whiteley’s assassin or Sturridge and he was able to use them for his advantage. Milverton also mentions that he knows everything about everyone in London – because he is a control freak who just NEEDS to know everything. Getting information on someone is an everyday job for him – he is not just a blackmailer; he is also the King of Media.

Beside researching, Milverton’s method also includes analyzing people’s psychology and their weak points – as we see in the White Knight arc – to help him decide what actions he needs to take to make his victims act like he wants: whether it’s about forcing them to do crime or just make them act like catalysts to others.

When it comes to Milverton’s research regarding the Lord of Crime / William James Moriarty, he mentions that he spends every hour getting information on him: he knows fully the childhood of the original William, his relationships with other people, what type of person he was while he also researched everything about the present William. He notices the inconsistency between his personality before and after the fire happened, and able to deduce from getting through the court case of the fake-William who the William James Moriarty now is. He also researched Albert and Louis carefully and knows how much the three brothers are caring about each other. He also knows that the Lord of Crime is a Robin Hood figure, that’s why he foiled his Jack the Ripper agenda or took up Whiteley’s crimes to preserve the equality movement. The Lord of Crime’s good nature is how he deduced William James Moriarty being the Lord of Crime.

Before Two Criminals, Milverton is shown as a smart and competent villain who was able to outwit Sherlock more than once and didn’t make any bigger mistake.

Let’s finally move to the second part of Two Criminals where everything what got previously build up regarding his character falls to pieces.

First, Milverton not knowing the relationship between Sherlock and William despite the research he did – it seems so impossible since Sherlock and William met at least three times and he could’ve easily gotten to know about all of them.

The Noahtic incident: this was especially a big thing, Moriarty’s staged crime to expose Enders – and Milverton is a media mogul, a news like this surely caught his eye either looking into what really happened onboard just for his curiosity – don’t forget, he NEEDS to know about everything – or later connecting it to the Lord of Crime when he started doing his research. (And there was already a rumor among the common people about the Lord of Crime’s existence who helps the good – if I think it through, it seems so unbelievable that Milverton only started researching the Lord of Crime after the Jack the Ripper thing: Milverton is the Big Bad of the city, he should’ve feared that the Lord of Crime coming after him once, too). And when he researches the guest list of the ship to find Moriarty’s name on it, he could’ve noticed that Sherlock Holmes was aboard, too.

The train incident: well, that was a more isolated case, but it surely ended in the news – so how no journalists knew that the one who solved the murder case was a noble, alongside the famous Sherlock Holmes? The people aboard surely started gossiping about it, it should’ve been breaking news and Milverton could’ve easily gotten know who was the noble. And this would be also an example of a noble and detective’s social spheres colliding – what he was so surprised about in Two Criminals. (Adding to this point: Milverton, as a blackmailer, deals with all kinds of people: he loves ruining both nobles and commoners, why would he think that colliding of the social spheres of a noble and a detective is impossible? Milverton himself was an example that all kinds of people can meet, after all.)

Durham: no, I don’t start theorizing on that one of the students appearing in that exam looked exactly like Ruskin – but Milverton looked up William’s professor life, too. How could he not know that once the famous Sherlock Holmes went to Durham, too? Students surely started gossiping about their math teacher meeting the famous detective.

Second, Milverton miscalculating William’s pressure point – Milverton always knows the pressure points of his “cases” and he did such a wide research of William’s personal life, he knows the strong bond between the three brothers. He also knows that William is a Robin Hood figure and noticed his method in action: during the Jack the Ripper case, Liam united the police and the commoners against the fake Ripper, how hard would have been for a person like Milverton (who more than once outwitted Sherlock and has a good grasp on people’s personalities) figuring out William’s true plan: uniting the nobles and commoners against the Lord of Crime? He should’ve known that William’s pressure point is not his name published, but his family. Here, I also want to add that Milverton's usual method of blackmailing someone into doing something tend to happen with the use of his blackmailee's family - just remember the police officer whom he made murder Whiteley's assasin or Sturridge whose family got kidnapped to make Sturridge murder Whiteley's family - so Milverton would totally go for Liam's family, too, even if it's just looking at his tendencies. This just doesn't make sense.

Third, miscalculating Sherlock as a person. Milverton faced off Sherlock more than once in the past and surely expected to face him again at other blackmailing cases, he must’ve done enough research on Sherlock Holmes, too – he likes being fully armed when he goes to battle after all. So Milverton knows that Sherlock has his own type of morality – he even relied on that when he calculated that Sherlock will break in to him for the greater good. Milverton also knows that William is a Robin Hood figure who does crimes for the greater good and he surely suspected that Sherlock figured this out, too – so why was he so sure that Sherlock will arrest William when they meet?

Fourth, the safety of Milverton. He always travels with bodyguards and a shielded carriage – if he is doing something so dangerous like facing the Lord of Crime who murders evil people like him, wouldn’t it make sense to make some arrangements providing his safety? Like Sherlock once pointed out, he is a coward – why was he so stupidly brave in such a dangerous situation like this? It doesn’t make sense at all.

And the last one I’m most mad about: he was killed off so easily, despite that he meant to be a formidable foe to the Moriarties. Killing him was no effort to them. He was originally built up as a cunning villain in the acts before: defeating him should’ve required more brains than brawn. Milverton became a totally wasted character who had so many possibilities to explore but ended up being just a way to make Sherlock and William face off. Even if it’s about Milverton’s hubris of being overconfident – one big mistake is tolerable, but four at once? To a person who barely made any mistakes before? Now it’s just a total inconsistent character writing.

I thought a lot about how Milverton could’ve gotten defeated without totally massacring his character and I came up with an idea. First, Milverton threatens William to publish Albert and Louis’ identities as the helpers to the Lord of Crime – Liam would never let anything to happen to his brothers - to make him let Sherlock arrest him, while blackmailing Mary. Sherlock ending up arresting William and Milverton doesn’t get killed on that night. But Albert lets William out so he can escape and do his purge as the Lord of Crime and continue with the Moriarty plan. During the revolution Liam causes, Milverton’s crimes get to the light, too, so the people whom he toyed with finally take their revenge and cause his downfall like he did with so many others – society casts him out as a human trash. Milverton either get killed, brought to court or get chased away from London.

This was a really long essay, but I wanted to show my viewpoint about the story and why I am so angry about it when it comes to Milverton: a competent and smart character getting turned into an idiot. It was a really disappointing ending to his arc.

#moriarty the patriot #yuukoku no moriarty #charles augustus milverton #ynm sherlock #william james moriarty #two criminals

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willemdafinky · 2 months

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I have completed Spider-Man 2 twice now and I have very conflicting feelings on the game’s story, mostly towards its Venom/Symbiote storyline. On my first playthrough my problem was how little screen time and characterization Venom had in the story despite all the build up and prioritizing him over anything else and while I still have a problem with that aspect of the story, upon my second playthrough I realized that my real biggest issue with the narrative is Peter’s time in the black suit and being corrupted by the Symbiote. I felt it was rushed and forced but I didn’t have any deeper and meaningful critiques of it…that is until I looked back on other adaptations of the Black Suit storyline and a review of Spider-Man 2 by Youtuber Dorito God which I recommend watching that made it click as to why Peter and the Black Suit doesn’t work.

Insomniac's Peter Parker is the nicest version of the character.

An aspect of Peter Parker that I feel has been downplayed in many adaptations is that he was, at many points, a jerk. He had an incredibly short temper, tends to be cocky for the worst, and outright selfish at points. This does not inherently mean he was unlikable, I actually believe this makes him more interesting and even sympathetic. His negative traits aren’t there just because but are present of numerous factors, most of them because of his double life as Spider-Man. The sheer responsibility that is required of being Spider-Man would naturally cause high level of stress which as we all know can easily lead into losing your cool: not to mention other elements such as J Jonah Jameson’s constant slander of his name which influenced his public perception amongst New York, the grief and guilt of losing loved ones such as Uncle Ben, his struggles of keeping good relationships due to wanting to keep his identity a secret out of fear of his loved ones getting hurt, and how this all started when he was 16 it is completely understandable that Peter can be frankly a jerk.

I don’t think Peter Parker’s defining characteristic is a jerkass who underneath is a good person but I feel that his jerkiness is an important factor of the character that doesn’t get much attention in adaptations outside of Peter B Parker in the Spider-Verse movies. That being said, I would be arguing in bad faith if I said this has been completely left out of Spider-Man adaptations: Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, The Amazing Spider-Man duology, and even the MCU have this aspect of Peter’s personality intact. In the Raimi Trilogy Peter is shown to be a very flawed boyfriend to Mary Jane with Spider-Man 3 being the most prominent example where he just doesn’t understand Mary Jane’s own struggles and subconsciously brushes them off not just because of his own struggles but also from the outright celebration he is getting from New York as Spider-Man. The Amazing Spider-Man duology gave Peter a new motivation for becoming Spider-Man as originally purely being revenge only to later take up the role of hero, not to mention also breaking a dying man’s promise of staying away from Gwen. The MCU had Peter initially refuse to help Norman and the other inter dimensional visitors despite the fact that it was his fault they were brought to the MCU and it’s only because of Aunt May that he does try to help.

Now, I have to ask a question: can you honestly name a scene with Insomniac’s Peter where he has any of these traits? I genuinely can’t think of one. Spider-Man 2 tries with the boss fight against Scream where while under the Symbiote, Mary Jane tells Peter how much he made her feel like she was nothing more than emotional support for his struggles while not doing anything for her and I don’t think that lines up with how Peter was written in the game. Peter is very supportive of Mary Jane throughout the story for her job and does listen to her when she vents about it so this interaction where the story suggests otherwise in the Scream boss fight doesn’t work for me. Peter in these games is just a really nice guy, does this mean he doesn’t have moments where he crosses his limit? No of course not, the climax against Otto disproves but that’s more of an example of the “pissing off the good guy is a bad move” trope than Peter’s more abrasive side. I don’t think this inherently means that Insomniac Peter is a bad character, I very much liked him in the first game and Miles Morales after and one of my other favorite versions of the character is the one from the 90s cartoon who is also a kinder interpretation of Peter Parker. So what is my problem?

I don’t think this overly nice version of Peter Parker works with the Black Suit story. Ever since the 90s cartoon, every version of the Black Suit story has the Symbiote amplifies Peter’s more negatives traits (most notably his temper) and we’ve established that Peter doesn’t have of any these traits so seeing him lash out at other characters and being more aggressive feels extremely out of character and not in the way that I think the writers intended.

Okay so, the amplification of negative emotions doesn’t work but maybe they went through a different approach. Maybe in this version the Symbiote instead brings out the host’s intrusive thoughts and inner frustrations, like they did with Mary Jane. The story suggests this: first in the Spider-Men fight where Peter hints that he has a sense of insecurity in his role as Spider-Man because of how good Miles is in the role, that he might not be needed anymore and how the Symbiote is the only way he could keep and be greater. Second when Miles and Martin Li go into Peter’s subconscious it is outward stated that Peter supposedly may secretly want to kill his foes just so he could end the cycle, which the Symbiote feeds on. This all sounds great, what’s the problem?

Neither of these are even hinted at beforehand. Peter never shows any resentment towards Miles, not helped by how little screen presence Miles has in the story but that’s its own can of worms, and there is nothing to suggest that Peter even entertained the idea of defeating his rogues gallery permanently. So there is nothing in this story that gives any reason as to why Peter acts the way he does while under the Symbiote. Now this might sound weird for me to say since “isn’t that what the Symbiote does” but hear me out:

Harry does not act anywhere similar to Peter when he is using the Symbiote. His personality is the same which gives the idea that perhaps in this continuity the Symbiote might not have the same negative energy it does in most adaptations and is more like in the original comics where its only negative thing is that it takes control over the host while they’re asleep. But I don’t think that was ever the intention, it always felt like that the Symbiote is supposed to be what it usually is in most adaptations. So why was Peter affected by it but Harry wasn't?

There’s also the problem that Peter himself never has the big moment of realizing what the Symbiote is doing to him, he doesn’t have his own self reflection. Compare to other adaptations:

•The 90s cartoon: He almost kills Shocker after the latter had already given up and even after he stops, the Symbiote still tries to kill Shocker.

•Spider-Man 3: Him slapping Mary Jane is the moment where Peter finally sees that he had changed for the worst.

•The Spectacular Spider-Man: Getting called out by Flash Thompson for how he’s been treating his friend is what plants the doubts in Peter’s head that something might be wrong with the Symbiote which only gets confirmed when it tries to convince him that they don’t need anyone.

In Spider-Man 2, we don’t get that. I don’t consider Miles telling Peter that the Symbiote is changing him to be a moment of self realization, it doesn’t work for me. I never got the idea that in this game Peter did something so awful, an action that he wouldn’t act out doing, that would break him free from the hold the Symbiote hivemind has on him and to be better. I don’t get that.

Combine all that and you have what has ended up being one of my least favorite versions of the Black Suit storyline, even more than Spider-Man 3. Note that I hate Spider-Man 3, it’s my least favorite of the Spider-Man movies not counting the Sonyverse movies, but with that I can see how it could work with that version of Peter. Spider-Man 2’s version of the story doesn’t work fundamentally to me because of their Peter unless you change Peter’s characterization, the narrative or how the Symbiote works.

#spider-man #peter parker #venom symbiote #spider man 2 #spider man 2 ps5 #insomniac spider man #insomniac Spider-Man 2 #critique #rant #both are good

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waldensblog · 1 year

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Alright, I’m doing it. I am reading Shadow and Bone.

For context, I watched the show, but have never read the series before. Now, without further ado...

Alina: I found Alina a bit irritating at the beginning, because she just seemed to be absolutely obsessed with Mal. Ana in the first few pages says the two are “too attached” to each other, and I felt that way watching the show, with these feelings amplified here. He seemed to have a life, identity, friends, outside of her, but she just kind of waited for him to come back. I loved seeing her grow at the Little Palace when she finally let go of Mal, and embraced who she is as a Grisha, started to have genuine friendships with Genya, Marie, Nadia, and hang around other Grisha. I loved her friendship with Genya so much. It was excellent growth in her, and I loved seeing it. I was a bit frustrated at the end, the way she kind of abandons everyone and runs off with Mal - on the one hand I get it - she doesn’t have the power to stop anything, and she’s saving Mal, but on the other hand, she abandoned a bunch of people to the Volcra, it’s not that heroic, but in a way, that makes it more interesting. I definitely think Alina’s major character flaw is her obsession with Mal, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she kind of regresses in the second book while with him. I generally like Alina, but at times she frustrates me.

Mal / Malina: Mal’s character is... not my favourite, but I don’t hate him at this point. At the start he’s a friend who has a life outside his friendship with Alina - he has other friends, an identity of his own, hobbies, etc. He gets pissed at Alina at the Little Palace for getting a boyfriend, basically, and makes his jealousy her problem. It’s fine that he didn’t initially have feelings for her - which probably has a lot to do with the fact that she was a sickly girl with no sense of self - but he made it her problem and was rude. He does at least apologize later and own up to it, but it’s obvious that her past with the Darkling is not a subject to discuss, which is really a shame, because... she should be able to discuss her feelings with her friend, but apparently, cannot.

I know she’s supposed to have a crush on Mal, but I just don’t ship it. Normally a friends-to-lovers trope is one I can vibe with, in this case, I don’t. They grew up in an orphanage together, in the same household, so it really gives me brother/sister vibes. In fact, the first time I watched the show, I assumed that was how I was supposed to view them. I also can’t help but feel like... her crush on Mal is almost more told than shown. When Mal is introduced, I am told he has blue eyes. This was the extent of the description I had for a while, but as soon as the Darkling showed up... that was another description altogether. I don’t hate Mal at this point, and I don’t ship Malina.

The Darkling / Darklina:

The Darkling has survived centuries and seen Grisha persecution, endless wars fought on behalf of the monarchy, and he wants to liberate Ravka. His methods? I don’t agree with, but his mission isn’t a bad one, so I understand why some Grisha and soldiers were cheering at the end for him. As I was reading, I was thinking “damn I wish these soldiers would get class consciousness and stop hating Grisha, realizing the King is really the enemy, as he makes them all fight for him!”. The Darkling tries to do just that here. He’s a villain from Alina’s POV (”Fine, make me your villain”), which I think is mostly an effect of 1st person POV - imagine reading these events from his POV. He isn’t a hero, he isn’t a good guy - I’d say antagonist yes, and morally grey.

As soon as Alina meets the Darkling, we get quite the description. His silky black hair, grey quartz eyes, sharp jaw. His strong arm catches her after the initial touch which she feels an immediate connection with (I know, I know, it’s because he’s a living amplifier - but still, all the “literally turns you on” jokes are too easy here!) Later we hear he has a soft voice, a laugh she loves, and she’s eager to impress him. She’s very actively thirsting for him in a way she didn’t really seem to do for Mal. When they kiss for the first time after months of dancing around it all, she noted that she’s been kissed before, but this was something else. There’s a major spark here. I think the feelings are mutual too. When Ivan turns a corner, he has a knowing smile. As a heartrender, Ivan would know if the Darkling seriously had 0 feelings, and in that moment with Ivan, it reads to me like Ivan knew. Later, of course, he gifts her the black Kefta, with his symbol necklace, which is like the Grishaverse equivalent of wearing your boyfriend’s sweater. He wants everyone to know they’re a thing. I think he was really sincerely hurt (and probably surprised by the hurt) when she ran off. She was growing, becoming comfortable as a Grisha, everything going well, and then she just left, no explanation, because his mother said some stuff. Yeah I’d be in pain too. I don’t condone his behaviour when he finds her again, not at all. I think his feelings are still there, as evidenced by the tent kiss, and they are mutual. Despite everything, there is still feelings, still a connection. Things aren’t over. I find myself still ultimately shipping it - even if there’s obviously problematic elements, because of what they initially had, what things can be - basically I just want Aleks to get some therapy, but I know that ain’t gonna happen lol.

Also, when the Darkling said “Can I come to you tonight”, Alina hesitated but my thirsty ass would have been like “Fuck yeah” in a heartbeat. Ben’s performance gave me a crush on his character (and actor) and is isn’t dissuaded here (though I dig show Darkling more as he’s more obviously grounded in humanity - again, probably a consequence of the show being 3rd person POV vs the book being 1st person POV). I am definitely pro Darkling and Darklina.

Baghra:

Baghra is also morally grey to me. I neither hate nor love her. On the bad, she is an abusive instructor, hitting her students when they fail to perform, and she definitely chooses what information to give in a manipulative way. She does, however, ultimately help Alina, or in her mind she does, and Alina’s perspective too. She warns Alina about the Darkling, and helps her escape, saying she loves her son and doesn’t think he’s past redemption yet. On the other hand, by imparting this information here, now, Alina doesn’t get the chance to confront the Darkling and ask his side (which I find weird - she didn’t like Baghra, but immediately trusts her over her new boyfriend who has been by this point in the story only been shown to help her). It’s also rather frustrating when she calls Alina a “foolish girl” for being involved with the Darkling... like what the hell, it’s not like YOU SAID ANYTHING, FOR WEEKS/MONTHS!!!!! So yes, my feelings are neither pro or anti, just... she’s grey to me. I’ll need to see how she develops in future books to know where I stand.

Next Up: I will wait for season 2 to read the next one, so that I am thoroughly surprised by the show!

#shadow and bone #captain's log #alina starkov #pro alina #anti mal oretsev #sort of #anti malina #technically #darklina #for sure #anti baghra #not really but for tagging purposes i suppose i am critical in some ways of her

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sixstepsaway · 2 years

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okay but mary and izzy parallels? i have a hunch about how they're supposed to -- well, be parallels. but no one's talking about it. thoughts? - ripple

hi ripple!! hope you're doing well!

There has been discussion of Mary/Izzy parallels but I haven't found a lot of meta about it. If you'd like to really be agonized, check out this gifset. Izzy and Ed with Mary's quotes over them. Mm. Pain.

But, as for my own thoughts on this:

Izzy and Mary are deeply paralleled throughout the show, both narratively (similar journeys) and contextually (the way the show is edited).

The first time this is really shown, as far as I can tell, is in 1x04. Stede is dreaming of Mary, remembering his highly failed marriage. He's dreaming of when he showed her the model ship of the Revenge, how passionate he was about it, how much he loved the idea of going away to sea. Mary's response is... not great, as she doesn't like the ocean and doesn't hate their lives, at least not as much as Stede does.

She doesn't get it.

The show immediately swaps to Ed rummaging through the Revenge while Izzy trails around after him trying to get him to focus on their lives. Ed produces the model ship and gushes about how cute it is.

Izzy doesn't get it.

The model ship is purposefully used to draw the two scenes together, to show Stede and Ed in their respective relationships (Stede with his rapidly failing and then abandoned marriage, Ed with his rapidly degenerating and soon to be abandoned work marriage (see: Izzy leaving in 1x06 and Ed leaving in 1x09)).

It's a fascinating parallel that I especially enjoy because Ed and Izzy aren't, in canon right now at least, in a sexual or romantic relationship, nor do we think right now they've ever been (I doubt they've ever been, truly. I don't think that's in their past at all), so the framing of Stede's marriage (lacking love and affection) against Izzy and Ed's platonic* relationship (full of love and affection but it's diminishing faster and faster every day) is gorgeous, because it shows that relationships aren't always the standard Person A + Person B in love and married and then they fell out of it and it was Bad because of that.

(*Yes, David Jenkins says Izzy is in love with Ed, and we all agree with him, but for the sake of the framing, the fact they're not doing anything with those feelings makes the relationship itself platonic)

I find in a lot of media, relationships are shown only as participating in the relationship escalator and no other relationships "count", and queer relationships are pushed into that same relationship escalator because enforcing heteronormativity even on queer relationships is essential (blah blah purity culture blah blah making being queer palatable to corporations blah blah sanitizing the queer movement blah blah)

(I remember when Chicago Fire did a storyline where Severide lost his best friend (who I'm pretty sure he was in love with, but she was a lesbian, and i digress) to an accident that took her life and he was absolutely destroyed by it. He ran off for a weekend in Vegas, where he met a woman who had recently lost her husband suddenly. They got drunk, got married, and he brought her home as his new wife and everyone flipped out because it seemed so stupid and she was surely not good and was playing him for a fool or something.

But in the end, they were married for a few months, never in love, but their brief relationship helped them both heal and they ended up going their separate ways. And I loved that, because not all break-ups or divorces have to be "failures", and not all relationships have to march up the endless escalator.)

It's nice to see a relationship posed in a way that isn't just the escalator and isn't just "oh yeah we dated once" or whatever. This is beside the point though lmao.

The contextual framing continues when Ed returns to the Revenge as well. Stede goes back to Mary, Ed goes back to Izzy. They go back to the familiar, the safe, and they're not greeted the way they'd like.

Mary makes sure Stede knows he's unwelcome now, though it's not because he's changed (although he has: drinking, attacking Doug etc) so much as that he left a gap and she filled it with someone else (someone better, in fact, for her, someone who can give her what she wants and needs and love her) in his absence (as she should).

Izzy meanwhile welcomes Ed back with open arms, but can't cope with his changes. Ed is softer, more vulnerable and open, and maybe if that had been how he was when they first met, that might have been okay. Izzy might have wormed his way into that vulnerability and made a nest there, a safe place for himself and a bit of armor for Ed, but as it stands right now he can't do that, because he doesn't know how and nor does Ed, and so instead he wants Ed to go back to how things were in the past.

But you can never go home again, can you?

That's sort of the base message of 1x10 imo: you can never go home again. Stede can't pursue his life of piracy and expect his family to welcome him home with open arms, and Ed can't soften up and abandon his life of piracy and expect Izzy to just adapt overnight and accept that new version of him.

(And it's unreasonable of either of them to expect those things from the other person. Izzy didn't sign up for a life with soft-n-squishy Ed, and Mary didn't sign up to be the woman waiting at port for her wayward husband to come home whenever he chooses.)

Narratively, Mary and Izzy are mirrored throughout the first season, primarily with Izzy and Mary being fully committed to the lives they've signed up for. Mary may be unhappy, but she tells Stede as much: she doesn't hate their lives, not enough to yeet them into the abyss, but they're the only lives they're going to get and this is their lot, so shouldn't they make the best of it?

Izzy might be struggling too, but he clings to Ed like a lifeline at all times, refusing to budge even when Ed's mental state gets so rickety he puts everyone around him in danger.

The difference is that when Stede leaves Mary, she flourishes. She finds someone better for her, she takes up painting, she loves her children without hesitation, she makes friends and extends her social circle. When Izzy is forced to leave Ed, he stagnates and his entire focus is on getting Ed back and keeping that promise he made, even if Ed doesn't want it kept anymore.

Mary and Izzy are on the same path, but Mary is miles ahead of him. Since I don't think we'll get Steddyhands or Blackhands in canon, I hope Izzy gets to reach the end of the path like Mary did, with someone who loves and deserves him, and a social circle that supports him.

Then, you have the main issue with Ed and Stede: lack of real communication, and massive failure whenever they try.

Stede tried when he told Mary he wanted to run away to sea, but she shot him down (fairly so, in my eyes), and so he never tried again.

Ed tries when he tells Izzy how bored he is, but Izzy is focused on the fact Ed's boredom is going to get them killed (fairly so, again), so Ed doesn't talk to him about how he's feeling about Stede in relation to that boredom.

Both of them talk around what they're actually feeling and considering doing, neither of them really talk about the problem and try to find a solution they just wildly yank the other person around like a dog with a toy, because they've always been there, so won't they continue to always be there?

I read Stede as having had a certain level of reliance on Mary. I believe they could be really good friends now their marriage is over, though I don't think they were before lmao. But the way wives were expected to act and be treated in 1717 implies she was likely doing most of the household work, raising the children etc. We don't ever see any servants I don't think, even in the background of the current day scenes in 1x10, and that makes me think Mary does most of it.

Which explains a lot about why Stede is a fucking mess when he first breaks free of that life and it reframes how he is as honestly how well he adapts and changes to fit in his new life! Assuming we go by Ed's, "these last few weeks" and assume the show to be about 10 weeks because of the season length (which I hate, thanks), he managed to stop being a complete mess in about five weeks and that's damn impressive. Kudos and cookies to Stede Bonnet.

I read Stede as autistic with some social deficits, which is why he's so... blunt, I suppose? It's also why he takes everyone around him at face value (if they say something is a way, he believes them, no matter whether they might be lying). I can imagine that during his marriage, Mary - who I do not read as autistic - was the one gingerly keeping him from being scammed or robbed or overtly lied to by people around him, and now he doesn't have her so he just has to learn for himself! And he does really well actually at that.

See also: him believing Pete about his prior time serving under Blackbeard. I too believe Pete, but let's not act like his stories don't sound like utter fabrications. Stede just... believing him, that Blackbeard has a head made of smoke and his eyes glow and that Pete served under him and was dubbed Black Pete for serving so well.

(Also, I know there's a running fandom joke about Pete calling himself Black Pete considering he's pasty white, but you've all realized it's a direct reference to Blackbeard right? He's saying Ed gave him the moniker of Black to echo his own!)

Meanwhile, as we've said before, Izzy has been shackled with being Ed's SSRIs, adderall and bullet journal for god knows how long, frankly, and without him Ed... does struggle. We don't see a lot of it because he has the Revenge crew filling the blanks and his fixation on Stede is also keeping him from sinking back into depression, but it's definitely there. He's supposedly acting as a co-captain in 1x07, but they run out of oranges. Calico Jack shows up and he just attaches to him like a barnacle and doesn't track that maybe he's being insensitive. It takes Lucius giving him a stern talking to twice for him to figure his shit out, and that's without any real dire consequences going on around him.

He also jumps right to running away to China which is objectively not a great plan for him or Stede, and Izzy absolutely would have said, "The fuck? You don't even speak Mandarin, Edward." to it.

He does okay without Izzy, likely because he's had more practice, but he definitely misses something that he's been reliant on Izzy for: a steadying hand and someone who spots the details he misses (like not knowing Mandarin and it being a leap year).

But whereas Mary gets loose of those shackles, Izzy desperately tries to get back into them because he doesn't know how to function without Edward and, frankly, Edward doesn't know how to function without Izzy either, not now his dopamine fix has run away.

When Mary tries to kill Stede when he comes back and ruins her life, Stede and Mary instead come up with a plan together to fix things, to set both of them free. They communicate, which allows them to work together, in a rather perfect harmony actually, and understand each other's needs and learn to care for one another outside of the shackles.

When Izzy tries to 'kill' this new version of Edward that's ruining his life (literally trying to un-pirate them all), Ed strikes out in return. Instead of working together, they break apart and fracture, two forces with differing needs that can't find a middle ground because the communication has broken down.

Like I say: Izzy and Mary are on the same road, but Mary is far further down than Izzy is.

The parallels truly kill me but they also give me some hope for the future when it comes to Izzy.

Currently Mary is 'best case scenario' and Izzy is 'oh my god what the fuck WORST CASE WORST CASE??? PUT THE SCISSORS DOWN EDWARD' but hey, maybe we can get there!

#ripple anon #ask #honestly i feel like i'm missing a lot of parallels #i need to rewatch again #izzy hands #mary allamby bonnet #stede bonnet #izzy hands meta #stede bonnet meta #mary allamby bonnet meta #edward teach #edward teach meta #ofmd #ofmd meta #our flag means death

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acourtofthought · 1 year

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I'm reading J.R. Ward which SJM is outwardly a fan of, and has many identical things that the author took from Ward.

Even a part of the interview when asked if anything significant had changed and the author said that the story expanded and other things were told before, but that about the bonded couples she already knew all along.

Even though she's suffered from a part of the fandom, she's made the couple she's been planning ever since she linked the two.

And while the books have sad moments, there's the whole issue of fighting mate bonding. The characters fight to the end, but they can't because their destiny has been traced since forever.

And there are bad bonds with warriors that are disgusting monsters, but this is told in the form of couples that did not work out because vampires did not make that bond work due to violence, betrayal with mates and tyranny (the parents of Rhysand and Tamlin).

what we have in Ward's books are hot, powerful vampires fighting the bond. We have women struggling with bonding because they don't want to give themselves away for the attraction, but in the end they make the best couples.

SJM is pro-mates and they always win. And those who are love interests in a part of someone's life find their place in the sun too.

I'm looking forward to Azriel discovering what the power of bonding is without forcing an unhealthy crush on women he poses as virgin maries. I want him to heal first before he bonds with anyone.

Thank you for pointing all of that out! Fated Mates is a trope and it's absolutely fine if you prefer not to read that trope. But it's like reading an author of Bully Romance and getting irritated that every MMC bully's every FMC. I guess maybe first time readers don't always know what they're getting into but once you realize what the authors trope preference is, it's pointless to keep arguing against it. And yes, I realize that some wish that not every main character was getting Mated up (I don't think Amren and Varian are mates, right? There's one!) but it's difficult when an author states that Mate is the ultimate in romance of a specific world and only one or two of the couples in the same circle receive it (especially human turned Fae sisters, Amren wasn't even of their world so I'm not sure if she'd even have a mate). It really doesn't strike some as odd to give Nesta and Feyre and Cassian and Rhys a love that trumps all others while then seeing that Elain and Az were given terrible bonds? That doesn't seem logical to me. We want the best of the best for our main characters. It's not a big deal seeing poorly matched mating bond for characters we have no connection to but seeing them for our favorites is a depressing thought. I'd like to see Az as a person outside his fixation of females for awhile. Personally, I'd find it a turn off to have him jump from pining over Mor for 500 years to instantly fixating on Elain (to the point of not caring whether he kills Lucien and destroys the safety of their court in the process) to finding his own Mate and getting his HEA before Lucien gets his. Lucien's suffering is not of his own doing while Azriel has basically dug his own hole and I feel like him finding his Mate first would always be rewarding bad behavior. Taking out his jealousy and animosity on Lucien who has done no wrong only to reduce Lucien's Mate (who Lucien has shown nothing but respect for) to an object of sexual desire only to call her a mistake because he wasn't honest with her to then turn around and find his own Mate, securing his happily ever after while Lucien is pretty much an innocent bystander who continually gets the short end of the stick in all of this and has to wait even longer for his HEA? It would feel a bit cruel.

#elucien #lucien vanserra supremacy #anti e/riel

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iagreewithlilithsrightsnwrongs · 1 year

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What do you think was / is Lilith's greatest fear?

being useless. not having some greater purpose. being unlovable.

her whole life she has a purpose (become warrior nun) that is pretty clear cut yknow? but then someone else takes that purpose. someone who doesnt even understand it, doesnt appreciate it. n it frustrates her n angers her, sure. but it also hurts her. because if ava can have the halo just like that, what was the point of her legacy? if she was supposed to be the warrior nun, why isnt she?

so. no warrior nun. no greater purpose. okay sure. but she can still be of use. she can still fight, be a sister warrior, n begrudgingly help ava be the warrior nun lilith cant be. duretti wants the halo back, any means necessary? yes ofc on it. ava needs training to become the warrior nun n fight alongside her n the others? she's there, resentfully, but shes there, n even almost helps ava when she is stuck in the wall in that one scene. she needs to protect the halo n prevent it from getting taken by the tarasks into hell? she'll sacrifice herself. n thats what fucked her up. because now shes different. now shes *something*. she doesnt understand herself, her new powers, her new abilities. n if she cant help herself, how can she help others? even in s2, where we see her more in her skin in the first ep, it takes one hit to make her go back. she needs help, she needs to understand, she doesnt want to be a mystery, because she might be a dangerous one, n all she wants is to help. to be of use.

n under all that? all that emotional mess, that feeling of having to be doing smth to be worthy of anything? whats that under all that-? ah yes, a want to be loved. its in everything she does, yet she hides/masks it so well. she just wants to do good, she just wants to be loved. she tried to be the warrior nun, knowing or thinking it would earn her her parents love. didnt work, they dont love her. she keeps trying, keeps chasing that goal, keeps moving. but that part of her personality, that ambition above everything else. it drives ppl away. her friends hold her back, mary is fighting her. ava is afraid of her. n even after coming back all lilith can do is try. try to accept her new nature, try n accept this love shes given, but its hard. its hard to be loved when u think u need to earn it. its hard to be loved when u think u havent earned it *yet*. or that u shouldnt be loved. she wants it so bad, but will she believe it when she finally gets what she wants? when she has never gotten it before, not truly or purely?

she thinks love is this bargain almost. if lilith does smth agreeable to that person, they will love her. it makes perfect sense. so even with adriel it was like that. even with all he gave her or whatever, she still gave her loyalty to him. that was smth given, smth taken. only then it makes sense for her i think. she wants so badly to just. *be loved*. but she doesnt get it!! she doesnt get love because she never had it unconditionally from her fucking parents, who should've given her love just for being her parents n lilith their child, they never did that, always held that fucking warrior nun legacy over her, always pushed her into their agendas and NOW?? its all lilith knows. its what she was taught n shown in her formative, growing years, n trying to detangle that while: fighting demons, handling angels, training, meeting expectations that didnt even matter in the end, dying n coming back monstrous, NO ONE including her knowing how to deal with that, etc etc, we all watched the show. trying to make lilith see what love IS or what it SHOULD or COULD be, would be so fucking hard!! AND YET. ITS ALL SHE TRULY FUCKING WANTS!!! FUCK!!!!

#warrior nun #sister lilith #lilith villaumbrosia #an ask? for me???#as you can see i have a lot of Feelings abt lilith. n anything involving her rly so. yeah-#shes just. she. yknow????? yeah

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mouseratz · 5 months

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of course I'm reading the SH2 novel with an English fan translation.

it decides to frame Laura & Eddie's entrance to the town and confirms they entered together (though, I am considering this novel canon/still only a distinct interpretation as opposed to word of God confirmation, unless like, the developers were like oh yeah the book just says exactly everything we thought and meant), which is interesting. I'd heard others say that's what happened but I am wondering how they know each other, as in the game it's implied Eddie and Laura just met (there's a line from James like, how did you know her name? And Eddie's like, well, she told me it) as well.

also just because Laura's an orphan doesn't mean she can just. fuck off and leave wherever she wants. HOW did she get here for real who drove her here did she take a bus....whoever was watching her Fucked Up.....(although I think if the game took time to answer these questions it would be boring. but like. I still have them.)

I do like how this particular version emphasizes James' utter disgust with the monsters, and how instinctually he would like to run, but in actuality reacts with violence (and anger! he viciously hates them because they're disgusting!). which. idk if they'll go there. but almost parallels his relationship with Mary's illness- how he still loved her as a person & wanted to treat her well, but some part of him did find her disgusting as she feared, and it may have increased his resentment of her and led to him violently ending her life (the book also notes how the monsters deserve to die, despite James having little to base that assessment on other than his emotions. he's right, in this case, but if you carry that perspective over to anything else....)

and also once again yes this is an incredibly fucked up way to view someone who's sick but I do feel that's kind of the crucial point of James' character- he knows it's wrong, but instead of being able to properly grapple with that idea, why he's so disgusted and angry, the guilt makes him afraid to do anything but deny it until it comes to a head. the guilt is what makes him come to silent hill, but honestly in some way, I think could also be why he repressed these feelings until he did something terrible, didn't have the courage to acknowledge them, to properly handle them, to accept them as part of a complicated grieving process, instead shoving them away because they're ugly, too, until he couldn't handle it anymore, reaching that terrible solution.

....I also think that's why SH2 resonates so deeply with me- guilt is something I feel a lot. about everything. because my brains just built funny and I've been through an awful lot of bad things on a relatively short period of time on this earth. the game can absolutely be read as a cautionary tale around what happens when guilt guides all of your actions and how you interact with your own thoughts and feelings and your perception of the world. guilt breeds repression and this entire hell is one of repressed feelings and desires and memories.....you felt you had to protect yourself from these feelings because they were ugly, because they were frightening, and now you must harvest what you've sowed.....either face them or let them consume you.

and I absolutely love the concept that, really, the answer to this guilt is not punishment. guilt wants you to be punished, but that punishment achieves very little. your suffering will not change what you've done (but refusing to own up to it, continuing to deny, is still dangerous, as shown in Eddie's story.) you still have to choose what to do with yourself. can you live with it?

it doesn't tell you either way is right. maybe James dying is more peaceful, maybe it is the best choice for him. maybe James can live with it, though, too- he'll still have to carry it, but there could be something outside of this, maybe he will be a good friend or caretaker to Laura. We don't know. it doesn't really matter what he deserves....it only really matters what he does, because no amount of punishment will change what he did, even if you decide he is indeed 100% irredeemable and evil (which I just don't think is what you should walk away with, though- it's undeniable he did something deeply wrong, but the character is fairly nuanced imo).

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viraltitta · 2 years

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Dreams in the bible

It seems to you like they don’t care about you anymore and that they wouldn’t even flinch if they lost you. If you are married or in a relationship for a long time, it is possible that your relationship with a partner is not great. This dream symbolizes the need for attention and affection. Close friends will teach you to appreciate what you have and to make an effort, every dan, to be a better person to yourself and others. You will stop blaming yourself and other people for bad things that you have survived and challenges that you have managed to overcome. If you dream of getting the Bible as a gift, it means that you will finally realize that many things have happened for a reason. There are things in your life that you don’t share with anyone, because the only person you trust completely is you. Sometimes, you are not completely honest even with people who you love. You distance yourself from people who are just entering your life, until they prove that they deserve your attention. If, however, you dream of other people writing the Bible, it means that you have burned yourself many times because you were naïve, but now you are a very careful and intuitive person. Because of it, you are having a hard time with making the decision and transforming your plan into action. This change will be radical and it could affect many dear people of yours. You will have to show enormous mental strength, in order to resist something that attracts you greatly, because it is forbidden and bad for you.ĭreaming of writing the Bible implies that you want to change something in your life. Someone will try to test you in order to do you wrong. Other people will think that your life is perfect and that you have it all, but only you will know the cost of your success.ĭreaming of bestowing the Bible to a priest warns you to be careful of snakes, both in animal and human form. You will often feel like you are betraying yourself and like you are not acting according to your own principles that you respected in the past. You will get a better position and a higher salary by agreeing to various compromises. In the absence of a place in a sequence, inscribed text, a title, or decor showing a setting in Egypt, the third and fourth dreams can generally be ruled out where there is uncertainty.If you dream of selling a bible, that symbolizes progress in your career. The presence of the ox or ass from the Nativity scene suggests the second dream. The tools of his carpentry workshop are often shown around him, probably indicating the second dream, although logically there seems to be no reason why these should not be present for the first and third dreams as well. An outside setting may suggest the second dream, as does the angel pointing outside the picture space, urging Joseph to leave. If the Virgin Mary is present (but no infant Jesus), especially if visibly pregnant or shown spinning, this suggests the first dream, which tends to be shown in an indoor setting. The second dream is probably most often depicted, and if there is no other indication it can be assumed that is the subject. It is often unclear which dream is intended. The dreams have sometimes been depicted in art, though they have never been among the most common subjects from the Life of Jesus in art or the Life of the Virgin. Learn, hence, not to choose for yourself, but receive everything in the ordinary way of God's providence, and as coming from His hands, in regard to place, employment, prosperity, and adversity." In art He assigns them the place of their banishment. Oh that Jesus and Mary were your only care! 5. He tells him to take the Child and His mother, without mentioning anything else. He appeared to him in sleep, by which we learn, that even while we sleep the care of God is exerted over us, and He is continually watching for our good. He delivers the command not to Mary, though she was the more worthy but to Joseph, because he was the head of the family, and its ordinary superior. The angel commands in the name of God, who is the supreme Lord. Roger Baxter, in his Meditations reflects on the second dream, writing: "Ponder the particulars of this command. Fourth dream: In Matthew 2:22, because he had been warned in a dream, Joseph awakens to depart for the region of Galilee instead of going to Judea.Third dream: In Matthew 2:19–20, while in Egypt, Joseph is told that it is safe to go back to Israel.Second dream: In Matthew 2:13, Joseph is warned to leave Bethlehem and flee to Egypt.(See also the Annunciation in Luke 1:26–38, when an angel visits Mary and she agrees to conceive "through the power of the Most High".) First dream: In Matthew 1:20–21, Joseph is told not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, because she has conceived by the Holy Spirit.

#Dreams in the bible

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melohax · 3 years

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Why Basil isn’t “evil” or knowingly manipulative:

Warning: Major MAJOR Omori Spoilers Ahead

When people aren’t saying Sunny is a psychopath who deserves to be in jail, they’re saying Basil is an evil obsessive mastermind who tricked poor dissociating Sunny into defacing his sister’s corpse.

I’ve already explained before why I disagree with either interpretation but I haven’t gone in depth with Basil’s character. I’ll write about why I don’t think Basil is this dark yandere intentionally manipulating Sunny into dependance on him.

Basil is a tragic character with bad abandonment issues who legitimately wants to help the people he loves most. Unfortunately he also happens to have a broken “normalcy compass” (common in abused and/or neglected children). This means his well intentioned actions are often more harmful than helpful.

Aubrey says during a part of the real world segment that outside our main friend group, she’s always been an outcast. I think it’s no accident that we see in Sunny’s memories that she was the one who introduced Basil to the friend group, implying he’s also always been an outcast like her.

With Aubrey though, we can attribute her outcast status to things like living in the poorest neighborhood in Faraway town while also living in the visibly most worn-down house of said poor neighborhood.

Aubrey has a hoarding alcoholic mother that neglects her and a strict father (Aubrey casually mentions as a kid that her father is weirdly strict about her appearance) who ends up abandoning her anyway. Aubrey’s hot temper doesn’t help either and so even though she manages to be popular and well-loved among her hooligan friends, the rest of the town judges her harshly as if she’s at fault for her horrible life circumstances.

Then we have Basil. Basil’s economic circumstances are visibly better than Aubrey’s and he lives in a nice house surrounded by pretty flowers. Yet even with everything around him (even his appearance) looking so prim and cute, he’s still treated as an outcast.

We know that mentally ill children are way too often shunned by their peers and the adults surrounding them for being “weird” even though it’s not their fault that they have different brain chemistry. Without counting the bullying Aubrey carried out with her friends, Basil was already being ostracized by people outside the main friend group. In one of Sunny’s memories, Basil tells them that he’d always been alone before meeting them.

This lets us know that there’s always been “something” that’s made Basil unpopular with almost everyone. We see hints of why in the contrast between Dreamworld Basil and Real Basil. Whereas Dreamworld Basil is well-spoken, charismatic and cheerful, Real Basil is a nervous wreck that is prone to panic attacks and bouts of screaming. We could say he’s this way cus of what he did to Mari but from knowing Basil’s always been an unliked outcast, I get the feeling he’s not like this only from the Mari situation.

Then we have the probable root of his very obvious abandonment issues: Basil’s parents’ are completely absent save for some pictures in his home. Sunny himself has never seen Basil’s parents in person. Datamining apparently suggests his parents abandoned him when he was a toddler. To top it off, having a constantly ill and mostly unresponsive grandma as his only remaining family doesn’t help with his mental health issues at all, either. No wonder the kid’s clingy.

There’s also the caretaker at his house, who is introduced as Basil’s caretaker, not his sick grandmothers. Basil is at the age where he can legally emancipate himself yet we’re shown he still needs a caretaker to look after him. That Basil needs looking after kinda says to me that he has issues he can’t be left alone with.

So all these paragraphs were to explain the evidence that point to Basil likely being mentally ill since before Mari’s death. Now we get to the parts that make me think he’s been suffering from psychosis even as a kid.

12 year old Basil doesn’t seem capable of understanding the concept of Sunny being angry and accidentally shoving Mari down the stairs. He seems unable to consider the possibility that it was an argument between siblings just at the wrong place at the wrong time, as if that just can’t happen. To Basil, it HAS to be “Something” maliciously causing the incident and/or forcing Sunny to do it.

About the Mari incident and Basil’s fucked up idea: I think a lot of fans forget that first, not only was Basil a 12 year old kid back then (not even a teen yet) but also a lot of the reasoning behind many of Basil’s most important actions seems to be rooted in delusions he genuinely believes.

The same thing happens when the photo album was scribbled over: in his mind, there was no way any of his friends (*cough* Sunny) could have done this. It had to be the same “Something” attached both to him and Sunny that decided to ruin the photos. Basil doesn’t seem to remember doing anything to the album at all.

We could say all of this isn’t psychosis but metaphors for extreme denial instead, like the way Sunny decides things that remind him of The Truth don’t exist (like the closet door).

I don’t think this is all there is to it, tho.

Basil throughout the game tries to guide Sunny to the truth both in Headspace and that the time in his bathroom where he tries to talk to Sunny about the Something following them. Too afraid to hear him out, Sunny runs away instead while Basil screams for Sunny not to leave him again.

This shows imo that Basil’s brand of denial isn’t the same as Sunny’s. Sunny escapes into his own head and pretends everything involving the incident is either perpetually frozen in a time before anything bad happened or that it simply does not exist. He’s all about repression and suppression.

Basil on the other hand, acknowledges that the incident happened but he saw a Something committing the act instead of Sunny himself.

Then, the final battle against Basil confirms to me that Basil’s delusions and hallucinations go beyond denial of Sunny’s guilt.

Even when the truth is finally out in the open for the both of them, Basil still insists it’s “Something” that did everything. He attacks Sunny because he genuinely believes he is attacking Something evil and that this will protect Sunny from it. The most important detail to me: Basil slashes or gouges Sunny’s eye out specifically on the side where Somethings eye peeks out from Mari’s hair.

Saddest of all, we’re never shown if Basil ever managed to realize that there was never a monster doing everything. Although we are shown the burden of the secret is gone in that last scene between Sunny and Basil, we don’t know if Basil ever understood that Sunny wasn’t forced by any monster to kill Mari.

There’s more that can be said but this post already got long af lol. My conclusion is that Basil isn’t some evil yandere mastermind. He’s a sad wreck of a teenager who’s always struggled with mental illness, trying to do the best he can for those he loves while being plagued by nearly constant delusions and hallucinations.

Tricking his best friend/love interest isn’t part of Basil’s modus operandi when a lot of times he can barely tell what’s real and what isn’t.

#omori spoilers #omori #omori game #basil omori #omori basil #mari omori #omori mari #aubrey omori #omori aubrey #mental illness #cw mental illness

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velvethopewrites · 3 years

Text

Ginny Weasley and The Case of Daring to be a Girl in this Fandom *that isn’t Hermione*

From the start, we are told that Ginny is shy, but only around Harry - Some fans ask why - well, because she likes him, you dolt. Have you never felt self-conscious around a person you liked? Wow, props to you if you haven’t. The rest of us mere mortals will be over here. Empathizing.

Some fans also believe her liking Harry makes her a fan girl. Well, duh. What are we all except fan girls and boys here? I mean, really, when you get right down to it. I fell in love with Harry from the very first page - why do you hold Ginny’s liking of Harry against her? The point is that she learns her lesson and doesn’t let her interest in him define her OR him. She gets to know him as a person. Indeed, she already has a natural inclination for this from early on in the series - the scene in COS where she tells off Malfoy. In this one scene Ginny shows us that she “gets” Harry.

Ginny spends an entire year fighting off the essence of Tom Riddle and yet instead of being impressed with this, most fans just... I don’t know. Forget about it? Don’t care? Or maybe it’s more misogynistic than that - maybe they just think it’s what she deserves as a “fan girl”.

Imagine the strength of character a little girl must have to fight off a charming snake such as Riddle. I’ll wait. Go ahead, do it. Harry doesn’t hold Ginny responsible. As far as I can tell, no one in-world holds Ginny responsible. So why does the fandom? She poured her heart out to a book that responded back - how many of us would be able to resist that? Again, you’re supposed to empathize.

So Ginny is good at Quidditch. Why does this get thrown around as a bad thing? Harry’s good at Quidditch. Oh, wait, there we go. How dare two people like the same thing and both excel at it. I mean, she’s only been playing it since the age of 5, or at least, learning to fly. But sure, let’s add that as a reason to dislike her. Personally, to me, it shows her dedication to hard work and her determination to succeed without her family to help or hinder her.

So Ginny is popular by the time we get to the 6th book. God, the nerve of her for bouncing back. Do we ever see Ginny use her popularity to get her things? In fact, does Ginny even consider herself popular? This is Harry’s perception of her, after all - but overall, I’d say she probably is. She’s funny, for one thing, and dead good at impersonations. People like that. She’s good at the school sport, again, people like that. She’s got red hair, she stands out. She’s nice. So she makes fun of her sister-in-law to be. I hate to break it to people, but Fleur IS annoying when we first meet her. Imagine your favorite brother marrying her; wouldn’t you take the mickey occasionally? By the end of it, both the reader AND Ginny have come to change their view of her. But does Ginny ever get credit for this growth? No. She just gets called a bitch.

I swear it seems like half the fandom doesn’t Iike Ginny because she’s a Mary Sue and the other half don’t like her because she’s “mean”. We can’t have it both ways - first off, she’s not the Mary Sue - the world does not warp around her. She is not shown to have the answers to everything (ahem, ie movie Hermione). She has flaws, she has strengths and she is remarkably well developed for a side character, if you’re paying attention. As for being mean, we’ll have to agree to disagree. If you think she is, enjoy your quiet tea over there with the non-humorous people.

Ginny is friends with Hermione. This is canon. Hermione ships Ginny with Harry. This is also canon. And yet somehow, people still ship Hermione with Harry. Even though Harry has never once, in the entire series indicated he feels anything for Hermione other than sisterly affection and friendship. A boy noticing a girl is pretty (after she doesn’t even look like herself, he doesn’t even recognize her at the Yule Ball, wow, what a compliment (yeah, that’s sarcasm)) is not anything other than that. I see pretty girls every day. Doesn’t mean I’m ditching my bf any time soon.

Ginny makes his heart beat faster. This is canon. He has sexual feelings for her masquerading as a chest monster. He can’t keep his eyes off of her. Canon, canon, canon. Harry, never the most comfortable of sorts with feelings and emotions, kisses her without thinking about it. In front of the whole Gryffindor common room. Doesn’t bat an eye when they are together that everyone is talking about him. She makes him happier than he has ever felt. So why does fandom deny him this happiness?

If you don’t ship it, that’s fine, you can be wrong and I can be right (tongue in cheek) but don’t bash Ginny for existing. Don’t bash her for doing things that your preferred person with Harry probably does on a daily basis. That doesn’t make your ship strong, it makes it sad and rather pathetic, actually.

This fandom is full of a lot of women. And maybe that’s the issue here - aren’t we taught as girls to dislike the popular, pretty ones? Aren’t we taught to backstab and become joyless minions of patriarchy? (Okay, more tongue in cheek) but honestly, I can’t wrap my head around the fact that people are out here hating on my girl just because she dares to be clever, funny, lovely, stubborn, and (most importantly) damn beloved by one Harry James Potter.

#Ginny Weasley #Harry Potter #character bashing is the weakest weak sauce you can do for your ship and you know it #Meta #canon

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sokayisaidiot · 3 years

Text

Why Tommy is one of THE BEST written characters in existence.

Alright, that’s it

Here I give you my fuckin Take on why Tommy is one of the best written characters out there and can easily compete with best-selling Novels like Percy Jackson and Harry Potter. I’m sick of a trashing that doesn’t even make sense. So buckle up. Here I will tell you why Tommy has one of the best written characters in history of Books and Movies. Remember, I write this all in my perspective and take many examples of other character books as well

Before this all starts, I will also talk about the main characters of some series, since Tommy has the reputation of being a “main” character.

When I look at the books I’ve read, I see a large range of characters and there way of making the story interesting.

Now, to establish a good character, we need key points of motivations, to make them relatable and bla bla blub:

Personality

Part of the story

Their Powers

Flaws

Relationships

Prized Possessions

History/the backstory

The moral and story the character tells

First tho, I want to explain some words I’m going to use here!

Mary Sue/Gary Stu:

Those are characters who are flawless, have missing chunks of personality and mostly one way written. They are easy to achieve when you are trying to make your character look badass.

Examples in some Fandoms are

· Rey Skywalker (Star Wars Sequels 7-9)

· Hermione Granger (Harry Potter Movies)

· Bella Swan (Twilight)

Tree-System:

Imagine a tree. You plant something small and soon you have something giant with many branches, roots and connections. You have the seed you plant and with caring and care you let it grow. Then you have somewhat a sapling. The tree grows with the care and soon you have a tree with many branches.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Personality

Negative:

Tommy’s personality is very brash and out of control = He’s barely containable in fights, going off to do his own risky plans and starting two or so fights. He can’t forgive a person very easily like Eret, who took it a long time to get forgiveness and Techno, as he shot Tubbo at the Festival. He makes decision that also cost his life like the duel because he hates losing

Tommy can be very lazy, giving the thought he wouldn’t have to do the hard work = Shown when he tries to steal the hearts of seas from Eret or potions from Techno, bargain with “drugs” by Puffy and Ponk or gives other people the work he doesn’t want to do like he did with getting cobblestone

Like a child, he often clings to close people and annoys others for attention = His desperate attempts to have company or someone praising him shows, when he tries to get Philza’s approval (or a pat on the back), constantly looking out, if Tubbo’s either okay or where his is,

He doesn’t like to wait or doing things in the long run = He constantly asks when something is finished, when they could go or in his exile, when he was allowed to go back to L’Manburg

He doesn’t show often his cooled down, scared and vulnerable side = He often overshadows his trauma with a facade of jokes and bad hidden hurt he brings out. When he talks about something bad, he’s clearly confused, not really knowing on how to understand it. Also he runs away from things he can’t control a panic attack like visiting the final control room or looking away from the holes in Logstedshire

He runs without head into a battle so often as possible = Only when they had their final showdown for the disc, Tommy was seen preparing in story, thinking it would be his last fight

---

Positive:

But as he has negative traits, his positive shows to many people clearly.

His unwavering loyalty to the closest of people = His loyalty to Tubbo, Wilbur And L’Manburg are, were and always will be a part of him. He stands against anyone who goes against that, even if it means pain in many ways.

Passionate about dear projects of his = You can see Tommy talking about his discs or see an video where he would spent days getting different discs. Those things are very known to be rare things, so for Tommy to possess it gives him somewhat power. L’Manburg was the same passion, even a bit more, as you can see he was ready to give up his most prized disk. The last and in the moment is his hotel

Bravery like no one makes him as one of the dangerous person on peoples hitlist = He stands up for others. He stood up to L’Manburg. He in the end didn’t care that he lost a life. When he sees a foe, he won’t stand down and submit, he will fight against the oppression and tell them that in the face. During the mission to get a visa, he stood against Schlatt, even if they were clearly in the loose of people and disadvantage. Or getting an apology of Sapnap for killing Niki’s fox. Fighting against 5 people with just one ally while the other is a hostage.

His leadership = There are not many people who can take it up, but Tommy is an exception. He can coordinate people with his loud voice and somewhat thought plans. He is charismatic, even if he’s not so good at it like Wilbur, he still can motivate people to fight for themselves or others. He’s seen to lead others into battle and taking in the fighting part a leading role

Unselfish. That’s one of the most arguable things about Tommy`s character = You can´t look at a kid and say he is selfish because he wants to get something dearly back. Especially Tommy, after he gave the things up, he cared about. But if something is happening again, he will lay it down to do the other thing. As seen by the egg, he had a hard time thinking what to do. He, in a long time, didn’t want to be catalyst for something to happen. Not when he in the moment could have stopped it. So doing this act for himself ones, was a good decisions, since they clearly weren’t ready for war

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part of the Story

Outside of the story:

Let’s all just get something “straight”. What would Dream SMP without Tommyinnit. Now. Don’t get me wrong. All the creators on the SMP are amazing. They are all wonderful and deserve every bit of Attention and fame they get. But just imagine.

We heard from Tubbo, he was the one, who got him into the SMP. Schlatt and Wilbur came because of a “visit”. Quackity was added because TOMMY said he was bored. And from that, we got somewhat of a tree system. As Tommy was invited and drawn into conflict by Sapnap (shoutout to best boy!), he got more people.

He also has the highest viewership and kind of shortest streams, since he is doing college next to Youtube and Streaming. He can’t give up his high viewers since all of those 200.000 (average) – closing 650.000 People (doing something like a big lore stream in prison or the disc final), choose to watch him.

Also a reminder again, Tommy has his storyline as does everyone else. When we saw Tommy and Techno during the partner up arc doing something with the dogs, they saw the start of the red vines arc BUT said they were on the wrong storyline. Tommy was asked by the eggpire writers if he wanted to be a part of the story and he said yes. Why do you think he nearly says nothing about the egg. He leaves it to the writers. Also, it was said by one of Wilbur’s Character descriptions, that Tommy was okay with others doing something with his character, while Techno was more reluctant with his.

Let me say it again, every creator is awesome and individual! Nobody should be compared to others. But with Tommy coming to the Dream SMP, there really was a change in the game.

Remember, that’s because we also have a BT (before Tommy) and AT (after Tommy) Timestamp in the wiki!

Inside of the story:

Now, with Sapnap, Alyssa, Ponk and Tommy in the first ever big conflict its shown the importance. People assume Tommy is one of the conflict bringers, even though he was dragged in it by having something stolen by Sapnap and then forced to fight with him, to get it back.

The Consequences he’s got where having his discs get stolen. This is what Tommy’s biggest character motivation was the first two seasons. Those discs are known on the server and when you think about gifting something to C!Tommy, it would be a disc.

Techno = Disc Wait

Badboyhalo = Disc Pigstep, Chirp

HBomb = Disc Pigstep, Wait

Tubbo = Stal

LazarBeam = Far

Tommy is a openminded boy who longs for funny little adventures and pranks, since he is just a young person. It’s in his nature.

So why, when he does something, are people looking on him?

Because the things he was and is a part of some of the biggest events. And him being so loud and brave and rash lets him stand out. If you look at the old (hah) Revolution of L’Manburg, who can you hear talking the most and the loudest? Tommy and Dream. They were the most outgoing about the war with Sapnap, Tubbo and Wilbur following. Fundy was more quieter (thankfully he has so much more lore now).

Tommy’s character is known to fall or be dragged head first in almost every conflict. He has connections to who? Mostly everybody. So of course he’s connected big parts to the stories.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Powers

Okay. Every “main” character or character with huge importance to the story has some kind of power. Looking at Dream, who is a “demigod” or Ranboo who I don’t even have to talk about. So what about Tommy?

Well. He doesn’t have any. Tommyinnit is one of the people, we get to have as an “human” character

Hannah = nature “Spirit”

Karl Jacobs = Timetraveller

Antfrost, Technoblade, Ranboo, Fundy = Hybrids

Dream = Something something green blob

Awesamdude, Puffy, Philza, Sapnap, Eret, Schlatt = Adding Features (wings, eyes, body parts)

Badboyhalo, Skeppy = completely different species apparently

Tommy has, as we know of the moment, a not confirmed power. The assumptions of the egg are not clear, since we haven’t seen those interact in a while. All we know is, Tommy didn’t get hurt, destroying a part and not feeling anything, while being in contact. That in canon considered.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Flaws

As talked before in personality and also in an assumption, we see the pattern of loyalty and brashness repeating.

Flaws are the most important parts of a character. It shows the struggle of their adventure and learning how to live with it.

Percy Jackson learned loyalty is nothing, if you don’t have someone to project it on.

Harry Potter and Luke Skywalker learned being a hot head didn’t really bring him forward and it’s important to have a plan

Frodo Beutlin learned that it is okay taking care of yourself and what attachment means

Anakin Skywalker learned fear is controllable and it shouldn’t be a remaining part of your life

Tommy learned over the time that his rashness could hurt others, loyalty couldn’t come back to him like he gave it out and he learns even more in the coming future.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Relationships

Tommy’s relationships is a mess of strings. Some are badly knotted and some are very clear.

A characters connections is an important part for the character himself.

Relationships in life are

· Enemies(-figure)

· Rivals(-figure)

· Friends(-figure)

· Family(-figure)

· Lover(-figure)

· Complicated family(-figure)

· Complicated friend (-figure)

Relationships are a part of everyone’s life. Not with everybody is a good relationship holdable. Either it’s because their hurting each other or another person. People change and that’s a part of life.

Tommy realized, even tho it hurt, that Techno wasn’t good for his mental state and health. It went against everything Tommy ever stood for.

And Tommy and Tubbo’s relationship wasn’t really that broken. It’s normal for friends to fight. Normal for them hit their heads in. Tommy and Tubbo were surrounded with people who were, at the time, a terrible addition to their mental life.

The Dream SMP doesn’t talk it out, hell the talking club was just destroyed because they preferred fists over words. So why do you think everything is going out with a fight, if it’s all they learned.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Priced Possessions

Every character has to something a connection.

Might it be Percy Jackson and his sword

Might it be Harry with his glasses, broomstick and wand

Frodo and his stupid ring

For Tommy we all know it’s his ender chest inside and secret chest. He keeps many belongings in his chests and always has been one for those things. He kept flowers, compasses, Friendship signs and most importantly, his discs.

The care for something of items are important. Might it be a teddy, old photo or jewelry. People get protective over it, because it holds sentimental value to the person.

If you ask me, to let go of my teddy bear, I will show you my middle finger. Probably beat you up too.

You can’t just throw out your memories into a fire or pit of lava. This is just showing you never had a care and everything you had a memory with it before would have been gone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

History/Backstory

We don’t have much here, but still something to work with.

A Hero doesn’t have an easy live. And it’s an said thing that every Hero needs an origin Story.

Tommy, said not really anything about his past.

All we know is that Tommy didn’t have anyone, presumably an Orphan, he knew the sleepy bois already a long time ago and he never learned on how to ride a bike, saying he never really had a family.

Signs that he didn’t even leave half a good life are:

· his knowledge on stealing and preferring this over working for it

· Liking to live in weird spaces like carved out holes in sides of hills (his hobbit hole or the basement by Techno) or living in his tent over a hole house

· His liking of cobblestone and dirt, which are easy gettable blocks

· Holding his goodies and friends close to him

· Craving for attention or contact in general

And now for the part with the dream SMP.

We saw how it changed him. We saw his trauma and all the bad things that happened to him.

And that’s why we say his actions came from those past experiences and things. We are NOT excusing them, but showing. Past trauma CHANGES a person. It brings experience and a heavy amount of pain and anger. ESPECIALLY at a young age, you will change due to your experience in life. You will grow worried and anxious. Tommy did that. He grew more anxious, angry, scared and also experienced.

Stop saying trauma doesn’t explain it. Yes. It does. His lashing out came from his past and negative experience. Imagine growing up in a world where this is the norm. War and banishing. As well as death. Tommy has reasons why he is acting and does stuff.

Understand it. You don’t have to forgive him or anything. But understand it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The moral and the story the character tells us

When we see Tommy, we see a boy who went nearly through it all. Mental/Physical Abuse, Abandonment, War, Suicidal thoughts, betrayal, Death, etc…

He doesn’t show forgiveness for his abuser. Still has signs, that he fights with the past abuse, but he tells us a story of learning from past mistakes, that even in the darkest hours, there’s a way out. Things will, can and be ugly and those are dark hours, but in no way should you think that it’s over. Life is more than one way and can always turn into a new direction.

Life takes something old away from you. Life gives you something new. You lose someone, you find someone new. Friends can turn into enemies. Enemies can turn into friends. You can meet the weirdest people. You can meet the most amazing people. You can be alone and in the next second, you’re not. You will often lose, but you also can win if you give everything.

Life can be weird and that’s okay.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Fazit (that’s german)

The thing is, he is very real for many viewers such as myself. He acts like how many teenagers his age reacts.

He doesn’t be “baby”, because he shows the “ugly” sides of trauma. He shows that attachments are good and you shouldn’t forgive your abuser. In no way. He shows that acting out and lashing out are two things that happen, when you have been in wars for many times and nearly just know that.

He has many flaws and mistakes but those make him even more real. He is showing how he is growing.

As a person, friend, (pseudo-)family.

He is real to many of the viewer since he doesn’t have any powers that are existing in our world to solve their problems. He knows that nobody would have helped him and Tubbo against Dream if he didn’t pay others.

Also that you can’t be friends with everyone and that it’s okay that not everybody likes you.

Tommy´s character is the most human and realistic character in a way of how we would react. We are humans who are lashing out and who are having ugly sides.

And also please stop saying that, since I really can relate to Tommy and I don’t want to be feeling like a “bad-written Character”…

And Don’t even get me started on Tommy’s acting dude!

He is one of the best actors and that one livestreams! In from off 200.000 – 600.000 People!

On the face cam alone is so much to see…

· You can see his face with each emotion shifting,

· when something funnily weird happens, he looks dead eyes in the camera

The voice acting…

· His breathing,

· the stuttering in his voice,

· THE GODDAMN EMOTIONS IN HIS FACE

HIS MUSIC CHOICE!

· He changes the music fitting for the situations as in fighting scenes or funny moments.

· He also has some funny bits with his music.

· Like a goddam DJ!

The ingame character

· His movements and head stares

· The jumping around when he gets overactive

· Long stops when he thinks or is sad!

You can see, I am a person from Tumblr and saw way too much bullshit around tommys character.

Stop critiquing him so badly.

You could say, I woke up and chose violence

>:D

#tommyinnit #mcyt #dream smp #character analysis #dream smp character analysis

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perpetual-help · 3 years

Note

If I might ask, how did you return to Holy Mother Church?

Well, the short answer would be by the graces won for me by The Blessed Mother. I owe everything to her intercession.

I was a cradle Catholic who fell away from the Church during my later teenage years. I abandoned God out of anger and also out of a growing curiosity in the occult. I studied and practiced (and eventually mentored in) witchcraft for about six years. Towards the end of the six years, my pursuits into witchcraft grew darker and more sinister. To give you an example of the mindset I was spiraling towards - back then, I was becoming more acquainted with groups who condoned human sacrifice / cannibalistic rituals / cursing for the pleasure of causing chaos and misery / knowingly working with demons. I thank God that I was spared from going any further in these groups than simply learning what they do or what they encourage to be done through text, and nothing more.

I met someone I will call “H” through a mutual friend (in person.) My first impression of H wasn’t a very good one, given that I could tell from our first interaction that H was a Christian. Back then, I could differentiate between Christians and non-Christians by the feeling of the air that would surround them, and if I found them to be Christian, there would be an immediate swelling of hatred towards them. I had a tarot reading done for H and I to see whether it would be worthwhile to humor a friendship with a Christian, and the person who gave the reading claimed that H and I were actually soulmates. I took this seriously and decided that, since H and I were apparently connected in such a way, I had to make an effort towards H’s wellbeing, even if it never led to anything romantic. H attended a small Pentecostal church that would post its service online, and I would occasionally watch some of the sermons in order to mock and laugh at the ridiculousness of it. They would “speak in tongues,” give “words” to people, run around in “the spirit,” and do other things that I found stupid but thoroughly amusing. My interest was especially piqued by the idea of “speaking in tongues” - because, when some of them would “speak in tongues,” I could understand what they were saying. (More on my present thoughts about this later)

H suffered from depression, which I considered a blight to the both of us, given that we were allegedly soulmates. One Sunday, H said they did not want to go to church because of the depression, and so I offered to go with them, knowing that they would leap at the opportunity to drag a heathen to church. On my way to the church, the voices I recognized as my “spirit guides” at the time were leaving me with strong internal impressions such as: “He is going to say that your chains are breaking, ignore him.” And “he is going to single you out, don’t fall for it.” My answer to these impressions was “fine.”

When I entered the Church, I felt an immediate repulsion. People were dancing and singing pop worship songs, and I internally questioned why I had chosen to do this. Sure enough, the pastor did single me out. Most of what he said to me could be attributed to cold reading, but it was entertaining. I was told “Your chains are breaking. You wear your past bad relationship like a scarlet letter on your forehead.” and “You’re going to meet a Godly man and your relationship will be like out of movie. When you do, cling to him.” I’m not sure how to describe some of the sensations I felt during parts of the service. At times, I felt like my skin was crawling, or like my skin was burning, and other times as though my throat were closing and I was being choked. I initially brushed these feelings off and tried to convince myself that it was social anxiety, but that experience lingered with me even after the service. H and I talked a lot after church, mostly about the Bible and different parts in the scripture. I had a lot of questions and H was kind enough to offer loving and well-thought-out answers. I went home and cried, and it was the first time I had properly cried in several years. I wasn’t sure why I cried at first, but the day’s events recurred in my mind’s eye and I recalled how horrible I’d felt while people worshipped around me. At that moment, I genuinely wanted to know the truth - I wanted to know whether God was real. And, if He was real, I wanted to know whether He would help me. So, I prayed. I asked God this: “If you are real, please touch my heart so that I know.” Immediately, I enveloped by this warmth and peace, and something I can only think to describe as perfect love and tranquility. My heart felt this so intensely that it seemed to be overflowing in and through me, and I wept. I only then was able to realize how absolutely miserable and exhausted and anxious and depressed and wrathful I had been for so long. I wept, and I promised to give myself entirely to God. In return, I asked Him to help me to become a servant pleasing to Him - to love Him more, always. The demons I once considered my “spiritual guides” and “deities” showed their true colors after this experience. I would say, for the first year of my conversion, I was tormented a lot in different ways - but especially in my dreams, and by feelings of intense anxiety and despair that would be thrown upon me out of nowhere and that coupled with the sensation that the walls were closing in. The voices and impressions I once recognized as “friends” started to say things like “you can’t be saved, you’ve already given yourself to us.” among other lies. These torments continue today, and in other ways, but they aren’t as constant as they were towards the beginning.

I threw away six years worth of junk I had acquired which left my room essentially empty, but it was a liberating feeling. I started to attend the Pentecostal church, but my time there didn’t last. They hosted a woman who called herself a prophetess who spoke in tongues, but what she would say would be blasphemies. People would shout “amen” and “alleluia” to these utterances, and I began to understand that this group didn’t know how to discern the spirit. The breaking point for me was when the pastor claimed that Jesus had to learn how to perform miracles - that, and, the glaringly obvious inconsistencies between his sermons and scripture. There was an unhealthy focus on titles of ministries and “what God can do for your health and wealth.”

I lasted three months at that church before it clicked in my head that the Catholics were right. This, was also in part due to my rediscovery of the Bible verses that referred to Jesus’ command to eat His flesh and drink His blood, and a dream that followed. So, I went to confession for the first time in probably 8 or more years. It was a frightening experience and I cried during the entire confession like the wimp I am, but the liberation I felt afterwards far outweighed it all. A couple of days after my confession, I attended Mass with my mother. During the Transubstantiation, while the Priest held up The Body and Blood of Our Lord, I smelled a strong incense. I only noticed the smell because I normally disliked Church incense for how strong it is, but this one, while it was strong and impossible to ignore, it was the most beautiful smell I’ve ever encountered. (There was more crying) After Mass, I asked my mom whether she knew what kind of incense they used, and she deadpanned “They didn’t burn incense.”

Now that I have had more time to process the beginnings of my conversion and especially my encounters at the Pentecostal church, I am of the impression that I was able to understand their “tongues” because it was demons speaking through them. I’m aware that there’s a Charismatic Movement of Catholics who also claim to speak “in the tongues” but I am always wary of such claims, and I avoid such practices like the plague.

God is so merciful and so loving, and my entire life is a testament to this. I did nothing but offend Our Lord and hate all things good and Holy, but still, He called out to me and saved me from the miserable state of death I hadn’t realized I was in. All Glory to God.

As St. Germanus of Constantinople said: ”There is no one, O Most Holy Mary, who can know God except through thee; no one who can be saved or redeemed but through thee, O Mother of God; no one who can be delivered from dangers but through thee, O Virgin Mother; no one who obtains mercy but through thee, O Filled-With-All-Grace!”

For this reason, I also attribute these great graces given to me by the intercession of Our Blessed Mother, and I owe her nothing less than my life in return for this favor she has shown me.

I hope my answer has satisfied the question without being too tedious.

God bless you, and keep you.

#catholic #roman catholic #catholic witch #christian witch #christian #witchcraft #conversion #ask

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 3 years

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IOTA Reviews: Sole Crusher

Well... It's finally here... the episode introducing the new bee hero. And what do you know? It looks like I was right about how the new character would be portrayed.

It's kind of funny how I made predictions exaggerating what could happen, and they were surprisingly accurate. Isn't that funny?

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Let's just get into the seventh (chronologically the seventh and the seventh episode in the season to air after “Mr. Pigeon 72”) episode of Miraculous Ladybug's fourth season: Sole Crusher. Damn, I hate that a pun this clever was used for the title.

We get to the point pretty quickly with the first scene being Zoe arriving in Paris and getting a tour of the city. She asks to stop at the Dupain-Cheng bakery, where she meets Marinette through some brief Unfunny Marinette Slapstick. The two quickly strike up a conversation.

I mean, it's not like Zoe is the sister of the absolute worst human being in existence, right?

Marinette compliments Zoe's shoes, and she points out that she designed them herself, and wrote every good thing anyone has ever said to her on them. But because she only has one friend, there's only a standard “I <3 U” on the left shoe.

So Zoe leaves the bakery and heads to Le Grand Paris where she meets her mother, Audrey. Unlike how she talked with Marinette, Zoe pretends to be just as snobby as Audrey in order to fit in. She then meets up with Chloe, who criticizes her for having poor person things like a phone without any diamonds embedded in it. And then she sees Zoe's shoes.

Look, that meme was already dated when it was referenced in Black Panther three years ago. Please don't try to reference memes in 2021, Miraculous Ladybug.

Chloe offers some golden heels while saying that those kind of shoes are for winners to wear and crush the losers underneath. This is the only episode to mention this kind of ideology, and believe me, it gets worse when Chloe decides to teach Zoe how to be like her.

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Get used to this. This episode is all about demolishing any semblance of likability in Chloe's character. Now that Astruc doesn't have to bother with writing Chloe with decency since she's not Queen Bee, watch as he turns her into an absolute caricature of her former self.

Yes, Chloe has ordered her father to give her a lot of frivolous things in the past, but she has been shown to care about him, like immediately rushing to hug him after she was safe in “Origins” and showing concern for when he was akumatized into Malediktator while apologizing for causing it. For the love of God, one of the first things she did when she allied with Hawkmoth at the end of Season 3 was to have him unto her parents' akumatization. I guess she only cared about her rich parents for their status and not because she actually loved them right?

Next up on the list of Chloe's positive qualities to ruin is her friendship with Sabrina.

🎶It's seven o'clock in the morning🎶 🎶I can't believe they made this scene🎶 🎶With the writing Astruc's enforcing🎶 🎶It's like he's trying to piss off me🎶

Yep, Chloe doesn't view Sabrina in a twisted view of friendship anymore. Now she's a slave. I'm not exaggerating by the way, he actually said that in a tweet.

THIS IS WHAT THOMAS ASTRUC ACTUALLY BELIEVES

Okay, so I guess all those times we saw Chloe playing superheroes with Sabrina in “Antibug” and “Miraculer” were just a slave driver playing with their property. Actually apologizing to Sabrina for getting her akumatized in those episodes? Protecting her from the Scarlet Akumas in “Ladybug”? She was just interested in keeping her slave around. I think Astruc may have slept through the slavery unit in his history class. Yes, Sabrina was mostly used as a joke to show how controlling Chloe could be, but there were still semblances of an actual friendship between the two.

Chloe arrives at school and introduces Zoe as her half-sister, despite being the same age and having the same mother. Because I guess we can add basic biology to the list of things the writers don't understand. Now that we're at school, Chloe's friendship with Adrien is next up on the chopping block.

Yep, despite being Adrien's only friend and making a big deal about valuing his friendship to the point where she threw a big party just to make sure he wouldn't leave her and risked cooperating with an Akuma to save him, now Chloe just sees Adrien as a rich meal ticket. Two of the earliest episodes to show Chloe had a more compassionate side to her, and they just undid them. Even as much as I hated the episode, “Felix” showed Chloe was willing to cooperate with Marinette and her friends just to find a way to cheer Adrien up on the anniversary of his mother's not-death.

For the love of God, Astruc, 1984 was supposed to warn people about what could happen if they rewrote the past, not encourage people to rewrite the past. He probably finished Animal Farm thinking Snowball really did work alongside the humans, didn't he?

Marinette comes up and Zoe pretends to hate her, leading Marinette to wonder why she did that. She texts Zoe (she gave her number to her earlier) and invites her to a concert on the Liberty, but Chloe finds out. Zoe thinks fast and pretends it's just so she can torment her more. Chloe then takes out a book listing all the ways she can torture Marinette. I wonder if this is a metaphor for the writing process behind most of the episodes last season.

Zoe decides to go outside for some fresh air, and Andre comforts her. Funny how Andre bends over backwards to give Chloe whatever she wants, yet he's willing to actually talk to Zoe like an actual parent. Andre tries to cheer Zoe up, but she talks about her past where she had to put on an act so she would be liked, but (bet you've never heard this before) she just wants to be accepted for who she truly is. The surge of emotions is enough for Shadowmoth to akumatize her into Sole Crusher.

In addition to having one of the most clever puns for an Akuma name, I actually like Sole Crusher's design. Not only is it a good excuse to reuse Chloe's character design, it makes sense thematically, as Chloe was trying to mold Zoe into a copy of herself. The gold and diamonds also make sense given Chloe's love for shiny things. Her powers tie into the bizarre belief Chloe has about stepping on the winners. Whenever Sole Crusher kicks or steps on someone, she absorbs them and gets progressively bigger, making it easier to do so. While it's not cracking my top ten anytime soon, it's still an interesting character design.

Sole Crusher heads to the hotel to get Chloe, and she manages to get away pretty quickly. Maybe in an alternate universe, she's a track star? For some reason, she runs to the Dupain-Cheng bakery and then... Oh my God... pushes Marinette's parents so they get absorbed by Sole Crusher, before trying to do the same with Marinette.

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When has Chloe ever done something like that? Whenever she endangered someone during an Akuma attack, it was unintentional or a result of her naivety. She was only trapped in Pixelator's dimension because Adrien tried diving to save her, she only alerted Rogercop to Ladybug's presence because she eagerly called out for her, and during “Zombizou” she only tried to throw Sabrina towards the horde of kissing zombies once, and that was meant to highlight her growth. The only person to actually do stuff like this consistently is Lila, but I guess she got vaporized by Big Brother offscreen.

This episode is determined to make the audience hate Chloe by retconning everything about her character while portraying her as a complete monster. As bad as Chloe could get, she was never selfish enough to use anyone as a human shield. This kind of behavior honestly could be explained by saying Chloe was lashing out as a result of losing the Bee Miraculous permanently, but the events of the Season 3 finale aren't mentioned ONCE, not even in the next episode that introduces Queen Bee's replacement! How the hell can you set up the next Bee hero without explaining why the original needs to be replaced in the first place?! And trust me, I'm going to talk about Zoe replacing Chloe later.

Sole Crusher grabs Marinette in her hand, so the Horse Kwami, Kaalki, uses her power to teleport over to Adrien's house and inform him Ladybug needs help, meaning once again Adrien did nothing in this episode before becoming Cat Noir.

At the Liberty, Chloe offers more victims to Sole Crusher in the form of the band Kitty Section (consisting of Luka, Juleka, Rose, Ivan, and Mylene) and theatens the giant golden supervillain she can send her back to Paris, even though she's really not in a position to bargain right now. And she STILL continues to insult her. Do you hate Chloe yet? Come on, do you? The writers won't stop until you do.

After we see Sole Crusher's conflicted emotions, Marinette is set free by Cat Noir and transforms into Ladybug, immediately summoning her Lucky Charm, a shoehorn. They only learn Zoe's sneakers were where she were akumatized thanks to Chloe's ranting, so the episode unintentionally made Chloe save the day. Ladybug breaks into Le Grand Paris and breaks the sneakers where Zoe hid them, using the shoehorn to open a door. So Sole Crusher is de-evilized, Ladybug fixes the damage, and gives yet another charm to Zoe.

Afterwards, Zoe goes to the Liberty, apologizes for the act she put on, all while divulging to the audience her “tragic backstory”.

Of course, everyone welcomes her with open arms.

And right here is where the biggest problem I have with Zoe as a character. I normally hesitate to use this term given how often it gets thrown around when criticizing characters these days, but I really can't say anything else.

Zoe... is a Mary Sue.

For those who don't know, the term Mary Sue originated in a Star Trek fanfiction from 1973 satirizing several self-insert stories at the time. Most of these stories showed a beautiful young woman joining the crew of the Enterprise and immediately gaining the attention of the crew. Mary Sue parodied this character archetype by showing how much she was appreciated by Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, the latter being driven to tears at her funeral despite his species being emotionless normally.

What does this have to do with Zoe? She has the exact same storyline as Mary Sue in the parody fanfiction. Her mere presence is enough to make Chloe act extremely out of character in an attempt to make her look better, and as soon as she apologizes while giving a frankly vague backstory, everyone just accepts her as their friend, and I mean everyone in the entire class. I'm sorry, but it just doesn't feel earned. Why was she bullied at her old school? What did her bullies have against her? What caused her to stop going along with her peers, and why did everyone turn against her? How the hell did the bullies who put cockroaches in another student's locker get no punishment while the victim was forced to transfer schools? It's an intentionally unclear backstory designed to make the audience feel sympathetic towards Zoe without actually doing anything else.

I want to ask anyone reading this who watched the episode a question: Outside of her backstory, what do we actually know about Zoe?

What is her personality like? She's nice? Socially awkward? We've never had a character like that in Miraculous Ladybug before! Sorry Marinette, Adrien, Juleka, Nathaniel, Mylene, and Marc, there's a new character with more personality than all of you combined!

What are her goals? She wants to be an actress? Great, but why? Even though there's no clear answer for why Marinette loves fashion, or why Alya loves journalism, or why Nino loves DJing, you can still see the passion in their lives when they do something related to their goals. Zoe only says she wants to be an actress, connecting it to her people pleaser backstory (and given how it ended, she must be a terrible actress), and in the next episode, she immediately gets the lead role in a student film.

When Mylene got the starring role in the movie in “Horrificator”, we at least got snippets of her acting skills in the same episode that established her desire to be an actress, which is also implied to be because she was inspired by her father in “The Mime”. She didn't just say she wanted to be an actress and got the leading role. She still had problems to overcome like her cowardice, which threw her own self-confidence into doubt. Here, Zoe just says she wants to be an actress, and is rewarded for no reason the very next episode.

Zoe basically exists only to be a foil to Chloe, and the writers had no idea what to do in terms of a personality, so they just dumped a bunch of extremely likable character traits onto her without thinking of how her character could come off. And like I said, she's a Mary Sue.

I'm not the only one who thinks this. I've seen a handful of posts on this very site calling Zoe a Mary Sue. In fact, I even asked another Tumblr user @anxresi to quote their take on Zoe being a Mary Sue, which I couldn't even top in terms of accuracy. They basically listed off five things that made Zoe a Mary Sue.

She has to have a ‘tragic backstory’ so all the other characters will fall in love with her. Usually within minutes, in the very first episode they’re introduced.

She has to have a supercute design so that the audience at home will fall in love with her. And if they don’t, they’re automatically dismissed as ‘haterz’ even if their objections are purely from a writing POV.

Her only flaw will be thinking too little of herself. “What, lil ol’ me as the Bee Miraculous holder? With my shyness, colorful shoes, chic beret and personalized pink strip in my hair? Gosh, who’d have thought it?”

The contrast to her half-sister will be a constant plot point, with Chloe always getting dumped on. “You see, kids? Bad things happen to bad people. But you see this super-sweet girl over here? She gets a free DAD. Instant FRIENDS. To star in her own MOVIE. The chance to be a SUPERHERO, even though she only arrived last week. Who cares if she has no depth, no personality and barely any reason for being in the show, apart from being a massive ‘Up Yours’ to all the Chloe fans out there?”

What about character development, Mr Generic Zag Guy? “Development? What’s that?! Zoe is already perfect as she is. The only ‘development’ she’ll receive is having her hair done in the first episode she’s introduced. Besides, That‘d’ word is banned here at Zag studios. Why do you think we abandoned Chloe’s stillborn arc so quickly? This is a KIDS show, why bother trying to create a complex character with more than one dimension?”

This is essentially who Zoe is. She's perfect, has no character flaws, has a cute design so the audience will love her already, and was designed only to replace Chloe as Queen Bee. That's all she is.

So the episode ends with Zoe feeling happy at all the new friends she made while we get one of the most blatant attempts of symbolism in the ending card I've ever seen.

See, look. While Marinette is happily talking with Zoe with the image of Ladybug next to them, Chloe is to the far left with an EVIL purple aura, showing how bad she is compared to how great Zoe is. Only a braindead moron would actually like Chloe over the super awesome and pretty Zoe!

I'll give my final thoughts on the episode in the next part where I analyze this plotline as a whole.

LINK TO “QUEEN BANANA” REVIEW

#immaturity of thomas astruc #iota #thomas astruc #thomas astruc salt #miraculous ladybug #miraculous ladybug salt #marinette dupain cheng #ladybug #adrien agreste #cat noir #chat noir #chloe bourgeois #queen bee #queen b #zoe lee #vesperia #sabrina raincomprix #andre bourgeois

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