Dark Girls in Art/Entertainment / Identity VS Nature

What does hiding, disguising and performing all have in common? They’re all about putting on a show of being someone you’re not. Someone you don’t want to be for whatever reason that may be. Perhaps you’re ashamed of or insecure about your true face - true self - and so want to cover it up and hide yourself behind a blank slate. Or maybe you feel like hiding yourself isn’t enough. You have to fashion yourself a whole new persona - a character to play and perform as to distract your perceivers - your audience - from the real deal. And so your disguise - your costume - if you wear it long enough eventually becomes your identity. It’s all people ever see of you now and so it’s more natural to you than authentically being who or what you are.

The only thing is - just how long can you keep it up? And if you can’t keep in character - how is that going to effect you when you’re so desperate to disappear and crawl out of your own skin? How are you going to react when you realize it’s over and there’s no fooling them anymore? They can’t be convinced of your act and you no longer have control over their perception.

Dark girls (or guys I guess) are all about this. It’s what makes them such compelling characters. Because they’re so unpredictable. You don’t know what they’re going to do next or who they’re going to be next. They keep you guessing and therefore keep you enthralled. They never show up authentically. May not even be aware of who they authentically are in the first place. Yet they play the part as if they know who they are. And perhaps it’s because they’ve played it too long why they aren’t aware of their authentic selves. And so they go on an existential journey of discovery as if who and what they are already isn’t them and isn’t enough. As if parts of them are missing and they have to search those parts out and retrieve them. It’s like a dog trying to play fetch with its own tail in a way. At some point they will stop circling around themselves and catch whatever it is that they believe they’ve lost.

But I think the thing that’s most intriguing about this characterization is that the person they are and want to be is always one in the same anyway, and so there was never really any need to go looking for it. But it’s always in the looking for it that is what shows this to be true. That is what tells that character that it is true. And that’s always more compelling if that character happens to be a dark girl (or guy) because it often comes with a shift in tone as well as perspective. Hence the term “dark” as the adjective for them. You’re not merely watching some character development of consciousness. You’re getting the whole fucking package all in one. All their evolution emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually at once. And that’s why they’re constantly changing identity. Because they’re the embodiment for CHANGE itself.

They’re not ever authentically who they are precisely because they’re ALWAYS authentically who they are. And I know that’s contradictory. But somehow - when it comes to art/entertainment - it just fucking works! To have a character who’s entire characterization is essentially identity vs nature hot potato - in a constant fluctuation that they never settle on any one solitary specific identity in their entire character arc - that’s honestly the most authentic a person can be because what it represents is that identity isn’t solid or isn’t a permanence. It’s just a costume that we wear for the time being until we find something else that is more appropriate or better fits us. And sometimes that “something” doesn’t even exist and therefore has to be created. What we eventually come to realize through the journey is that what we believe is “missing” or “lost” in us is always with us as part of us. But you can’t ever come to that realization without going on the journey and believing that it isn’t and never will be. Thus the journey is important to go on even if pointless because the journey of going missing or getting lost is what brings us the realization that nothing was ever missing or lost in the first place.

When characters in art/entertainment go on that journey either out of their own volition or they’re forced into it - there’s something profound to be learned from it that’s akin to that old but effective method of spiritual masters advising you to seek enlightenment. All ways are the right way always.

Even if they’re wrong. Especially if they’re wrong.

people upset mizu isnt gay enough but have you Seen how she acts around women vs coming within 10 feet of any man ever

What do you mean by twins?

Star and Stephanie are twins. They were raised quite normally, until their father was revealed on the news to be a villain and not just a normal prisoner. Although their mother was aware of it, the rest of the city was not, and suddenly her daughters were in danger.

The families of those Cluemaster had attacked became enraged and sought revenge on those closest to him: his family. Unfortunately, their mother could not take care of both of them and when the press revealed the identity of one of the twins, she made a risky decision.

She asked her brother to take care of Star, to hide her, and she stayed with Stephanie. They were both too young to remember, and over the years they lost touch. The twins' mother did not want to risk her brother who was now living in Amity Park. So she didn't call frequently.

On one occasion where a football match between Amity and Gotham was held, Star participated as a cheerleader. Not noticing Stephanie's frightened look from the stands. Had someone cloned her? Why?

The bat family got paranoid and tried to initiate contact with "the clone" to get a sample, but the Amity Parkers were too cautious. And the bats swore they felt eyes on the back of their necks every time they tried to get close.

Of course, the Amity Parkers wouldn't let them get close, which made the vigilantes even more frustrated. The worst part is that it was all a misunderstanding, but that didn't stop the battle between the two sides.

what a whiplash going to see my 2016 tumblr dash (as linked in that last post) and getting slapped in the face w full blown ace discourse 😭😭😭

Monoma doesn’t know who he is…

While all the kids where busy getting their quirks and discovering things about themselves, Monoma found out that he’d only ever be as good as what he could steal… Learned that his quirk, quite literally, was to become something else, someone else: someone better.

It’s hard, learning that you’re not really you, but always part something more. He never really understood it, but life was always there to teach him not to question it.

He was taught this on the playground when he could only overcome a bully by stealing his levitation quirk. Had it beaten into him when new friends would ask to see his quirk and he just… Couldn’t, because he hadn’t copied anything for a while. At first he made excuses and tried to explain, but no-one is interested in being stolen from in theory or in practice.

So, screw him if he learned to deal with the fact that on his own he is nothing more than his ability to steal. Fuck him, for becoming harsh, for beginning to transform into the thing everyone else had already decided he would be…

Thinking about how like. Hal has dirks memories of existing as an actual, physical person before he was created, but they're *Dirk's* memories. They're inherently human memories, which means they aren't super clear + don't really capture the full picture of what it wouldve been like existing as a person (because our brain filters out a ton of unimportant sensory info all the time + memories tend to degrade over time)

So I'm just thinking like. Lil Hal thinking that since he *has* those memories there's still a part of him that's inherently human + prepared to handle being in an actual physical body, but then when he actually does end up in a physical body he can't handle it At All (because obviously he doesn't have the benefit of his mind learning to ignore all that unnecessary sensory info + being a computer he'd probably be trying to process everything at once like he usually does with information, but since it's so different he just. Can't) and that's like. The thing that makes him realise/begin to think that those memories really aren't his, and whatever he inherited from Dirk's mind, he didn't get whatever made him inherently *human*

(Obviously that's bullshit because that's like saying babies aren't human because their minds haven't learnt to process everything yet but I think it's Inchresting)

I was planning on writing today but part of my research led me down another rabbit hole that has me now searching for more information on my birth parents...

weird how this stuff sometimes comes about

like that baru cormorant is exploring such questions through fantastical worldbuilding as 'what if you were the first person in feudalism to do futures contracts' and 'what if operant conditioning was real'

Excerpt:

Their extraordinary tale, which unfolded in the late 1970s, serves as a living testament to the profound impact of genetics on our lives and the intricate interplay between nature and nurture. 

__________

Also:

⬆️https://twitter.com/timecaptales/status/1752012561866702969

twitter discourse is on another planet right now. there are people bring back the whole "you're not trans if you don't x, y, and z" shit

me thinking about how freud and karl jung had a very strong academic and regular friendship but they got into a huge fight with eachother over academic and philosophical differences and couldnt reconcile their differences because one believed that human identity was inmutable and decided before birth while the other believed that human identity was collective and more fluid. and im like maybe yall could have mixed your ideas to make them either 1. less insane or possibly 2. 10x as insane and hilarious

yeah that podcast idea i had is now a diary lmao

If you make ME2 deeper than they likely intended, you can read Morinth and Samara as two sides as of the same person, and killing one will always kill the other in some way.

This is why I love TV shows that don’t explain everything. Leaves room for interpretation or at least leaves things open-ended long enough to inspire discourse on whatever people think is going on in it.

Because BRILLIANT insight like this comes from it.

Now hopefully people who read these comments will be able to understand Calliope’s character a lot better.

👏👏👏👏

To add to what has been said here: Both Calliope and Juliette are fighting a war within themselves when it comes to nature VS nurture and spirit VS identity. The difference is though that Juliette has already chosen her path: she’s chosen the path of the heart. Cal thinks she has chosen her path but actually she hasn’t because her chosen path does not match up with what her gut instinct tells her. That was the main theme of episode 3 remember. Gut instinct. Cal’s gut should guide her and it would if expectation of ‘self’ wasn’t in the way of it. She has to choose HER path. And if her chosen path truly was to be the best monster hunter there ever was - Juliette wouldn’t be the “monster” that continuously pulls her away from that chosen path by simply following her chosen path. Cal’s challenge is overcoming self-expectation and gratification. She needs to start listening to her gut. Juliette’s challenge is overcoming her naivety that everyone has her best interests at heart. They don’t. And unfortunately that also includes Calliope but only because Calliope is also quite lost herself in who she is. I would imagine their reconciliation would include overcoming these individual and personal challenges. I cannot see a future for them together if they don’t.

Are we who we are or who we choose/want to be? It is nature vs nurture on a new level.  

If we are our choices, is it because we are the person making that choice to change opposed to another? Or are we now caught in an act, constantly in jeparody of reverting back to our “true” self.

If I admire something in someone else and try to emanate that, is that me, or part of them that I have now adopted? It’s the same with routines. Am I really a morning person, or am I choosing to be? Are those two things separate from one another? Or is it the point at which that choice becomes second nature, where we are no longer pretending, that it is now our identity.

I FOUND IT THIS IS THE TRIGUN SCENE THAT MAKES ME THINK OF CAMEMBERT