#it doesn't invalidate her intentions
Note
Guys guys guys ! Remember Crests are dying out? Dimitri confirms its fading away in his support with sylvain! Ingrid is the ONLY one in house Galatea with a crest . Holst judith edmund are all leaders in the alliance without a crest. And Of emperor Ionius's children Edelgard was one of the only kids (if not the only one) with a MINOR crest of seiros . You know what this means? This means that fodlan , even without edelgards war, was ALREADY CHANGING LMFAO. They have no choice but to accept being crestless because soon enough they will all be crestless 😂! (the humans anyway)
Honestly all this just confirms how edelgards one true goal is the total conquest of the continent under adrestia, which she says is "superior" to the other 2 "mere offshoots" (Her words not mine).
You're exactly right about her wording -- she really does not think the Kingdom and Alliance legitimately wanted to be independent, despite any and all evidence to the contrary. But I also think that it's not fair to boil down her motives solely to conquest.
So this got touched on somewhat in the Crest Virus discussion quite a while back, but Crest inheritance is a gamble and has been for generations. The only guaranteed way to get a major Crest is to receive blood directly from a dragon; after that, the usual genetic lottery goes into play, meaning that a rare few people win the jackpot, some get lucky, and most come away flat broke.
While Crests were undoubtedly more prevalent in the past when the genome wasn't so scattered, after a thousand years it's getting to a dire point where families are getting desperate for Crests. We meet a grand total of 9 Major Crestbearers during the course of Three Houses (14 if you include the DLC characters):
Catherine (Major Charon)
Felix (Major Fraldarius)
Anna (Major Ernst, DLC exclusive)
Hapi (Major Timotheos, DLC exclusive)
Balthus (Major Chevalier, DLC exclusive)
Constance (Major Noa, DLC exclusive)
Yuri (Major Aubin, likely a first-generation Crestbearer; DLC exclusive)
Jeralt (Major Seiros, first-generation Crestbearer)
Rhea (Major Seiros due to being Seiros herself)
Seteth (Major Cichol due to being Cichol himself)
Flayn (Major Cethleann due to being Cethleann herself)
Byleth (Major Flames due to bearing the Creststone of Flames)
Lysithea (Major Gloucester, product of Twisted experimentation)
Edelgard (Major Flames, product of Twisted experimentation)
Of that list 2 are first generation Crestbearers who received their Crest directly from a Child of the Goddess (one of whom is DLC exclusive); 3 are themselves Children of the Goddess; 2 are the direct products of experimental procedures by the Twisted; and 1 has a Creststone implanted in them as the source of their Crest. This means that at most, playing without the DLC, there are only 2 Major Crestbearers in the entire game whose Crests don't arise from special circumstances; if the DLC is factored in, that number rises to 6.
I've mentioned in other rambles that I tend to think the Insurrection of the Seven arose because Ionius was attempting to consolidate power with the intention of changing the inheritance laws. He saw the writing on the wall, that the Crest-bearing bloodline was fading to the point where very soon there would be no heirs who inherited Cress; though it failed in the end and led to untold suffering for his children, he may well have been trying to address this very issue with his power play. And Edelgard, once she emerged from the Twisted experiments, set her eyes specifically on taking down the Church specifically because she believed (wrongly) that they were responsible for the Crest System, and that eliminating them would allow her to rebuild the system from the ground up without the existing bias toward Crestbearers.
Yes, it's true the world was already changing before she set her plans in motion -- but that in no way changes the fact that she was trying to do good, even if her means were flawed.
#answered#anonymous#fire emblem: three houses#i know i am often critical of edelgard#but i do think she believed in her cause#that she was going to abolish the crest system#and make a better world#so while the world was already changing#which led to that terrible system as crests grew more scarce#it doesn't invalidate her intentions
25 notes
·
View notes
Note
oh btw
WHAT DID THE MOM DO TO MY GIRL....
not to spoil but Mafuyu's mom is very.
Bad.
I'VE BEEN SLOWLY PICKING UP ON THAT YEA. From what I know rn idk if I'd say she's a bad mom, but she definitely doesn't seem like a good mom 😭
#asks#marroon-i-think#it seems like she Might be coming from a place of actual love for Mafuyu#but the way she handles it makes Mafuyu feel like her own interests are invalid/irrelevant and now she doesn't know how-#to have her own identity and interests#to what i know rn she has good intentions but acts them out badly. yk?#granted i don't have the full picture rn but that's just what i think Right Now HDJABSJD
1 note
·
View note
Text
I think Luz's trauma due to being an abuse victim gets ignored a lot in favor of other characters. Luz has an odd role in the fandom as this character who other characters rely on, or who isn't an abuse victim but is supportive of her friends who are, and I think that ends up missing a huge part of her story.
Belos compliments her a lot, which is partially because he wants to reach out to her and mostly because he thinks he can manipulate her. He does some backhanded compliments, telling her she's improved but she still has work to do to catch up to him. He also thanks her quite a few times. The way he thanks her intentionally triggers her guilt, especially when he thanks her for helping him with Hunter. He also compliments her to put other people down, like when he tells her she's "better than this" (implying their race makes them morally superior).
He also uses the same manipulation tactic on Luz that he does on Hunter, although it doesn't work as well on her. He tries to remove his own agency for his physical violence by blaming the Curse. The biggest example is in King's Tide, when he pretends he can't hear her as he's racing after her to try and kill her. He ends up cutting her face while pretending to be out of control and then in the same sequence has full control and clarity to talk to Hunter and the Collector. He gaslights Luz by trying to make it seem like it was The Curse causing him to act in the way he did.
He refers to Luz as "crazy" to invalidate her emotions and harming Hunter in front of her also is a form of abuse. He's obviously aware that hurting Hunter traumatizes Luz (and everyone else) but as his focus transfers from Hunter to Luz in Hollow Mind, he starts targeting her specifically by harming Hunter to hurt her (especially in TTT). Belos shifts the blame for events from himself to Luz and also attempts to make her feel guilty. Hunter seems to understand that Luz is also being abused and tries to reassure her that Belos is an abuser and she shouldn't take what he says at face value. Luz ends up taking that advice to heart after she's able to forgive herself and face Belos. She doesn't speak to him but is able to hear his manipulation tactics and just. stare at him bc he's full of bullshit.
Just because he 'only' hits her a few times and isn't her guardian doesn't mean he can't abuse her or that he didn't. It's not really a protagonist-antagonist relationship as much as it is "adult man nuking 14 year old repeatedly until she becomes god and kills him". The idea that child abuse can only come from parents and not role models or other adults in your life is odd, because he distinctly holds a position of power over her (literally an Emperor and an adult who intentionally isolates her and the other kids alone to abuse them) and uses it to emotionally and physically harm her.
Papa Titan has to reassure her that she's okay to kill Belos because he's literally a serial killer who's lying about his intentions. Luz still slightly falls for Belos's sympathetic line until that moment because he very intentionally tried to get her to feel bad for him and also feel guilt about herself.
This is also why I really detest any fandom takes where Belos canonically is supposed to care about her, or Luz owes him anything. Manipulation is not sympathetic. Belos committed premeditated murder and then used the remains of his murder victim to try to make a "Better Version" of his murder victim which was actually just a way to punish him repeatedly and keep taking out revenge on kids who had nothing to do with the original conflict. Belos is Luz's abuser also, and Luz doesn't owe him any sort of kindness or consideration and her anger is valid.
Luz is an abuse victim of Belos's in addition to Hunter and the Collector (and Vee/Lilith by extension), and she should be considered as such rather than her trauma being invalidated in favor of other characters.
#the owl house#toh#long post#tw abuse#tw child abuse#luz noceda#explanation under cut#looooong post#it's kinda hard to tell if Darius and Raine would be also by extension#bc ultimately we have no idea wtf happened with Darius and Belos#but Terra for Raine for sure.#That place of employment was. not rated top 100 places to work in the Boiling Isles#much less for Darius who was connected to Belos when he was younger and then grew up and worked for him as an adult...#and there's 10000000% no way Belos wasn't awful to him bc Belos would've considered him similar to Evelyn#and like. it's hard to say who Belos hates most in the universe but it seems like Evelyn's in the top 3
186 notes
·
View notes
Text
This might be a bit long but the Gwynriel Reddit thread inspired me to let my thoughts flow about Gwyn and Azriel.
P.s. this will include some HOFAS spoilers.
I've said this before but SJM choosing to end Azriel's chapter with Gwyn is a choice. It's the beginnings and the endings of a chapter that authors tend to put a lot of thought into—so her ending the chapter which felt like her nudging readers' to Gwyn's direction is intentional.
Gwyn was not just a random addition, given their interactions throughout ACOSF their scene in the bonus chapter didn't feel out of place (even if readers' didn't expect to see her in it).
People try to invalidate the bonus chapter as much as they can but HOFAS had proved once again that they are important and canon (though I do think SJM and her publisher need to include these in the main books because they are crucial).
"You depend so much on a bonus chapter that a lot of readers don't have access to"
True but that doesn't mean the next book can't fill in the blanks because Azriel and Gwyn were already interacting in ACOSF, so having that romantic development in the next book (and the possible reveal that they're mates) + ON PAGE will still make it up for the readers that never read the bonus chapter. Like, CC4 will definitely bring up the fact that Ruhn and Lidia got married (despite it happening in a bonus).
I always considered the bonus chapter as a teaser for what will happen in the next book, Sarah confirmed she sprinkled little crumbs and I quote "I want to hear all your theories after you read the book and his [Azriel's] bonus scene, the crumbs have all been scattered, little bread crumbs everywhere" and it will keep readers guessing until the next book is out. So you won't know for sure how relevant or significant the bonus chapter is and the crumbs she scattered until you read the next book.
With that being said, Gwyn's cameo in the bonus chapter didn't come without some interesting clues: Azriel's shadows didn't warn him she was around, they were curious about her and she smiled at them, they danced and sang around her, Azriel revealed he sings because she asked, she thanked him with a smile and he felt settled even his shadows calmed.
We never saw his shadows react to anyone the way they did with Gwyn. They seem drawn to her, they danced, they sang, and while there are many theories about it but I absolutely do think if the shadows would be drawn to someone it would be Azriel's mate.
"Azriel and Gwyn had no romantic development and he didn't think about kissing her and all that"
But did every SJM couple start that way? No. And someone expressing the desire to kiss and hook up with someone is not always an indication of endgame (I can count multiple couples who kissed but weren't endgame).
The crumbs we had of them in ACOSF sets the groundwork for a romantic relationship to build in the next book—because who doesn't want to read about them both falling in love on page?
And yes, Sarah is capable of writing a love story from scratch in a single book (e.g., Tower of Dawn). Another example is how ACOMAF started with Feyre being in love with Tamlin and halfway through she started to really fall in love with Rhys.
The whole Azriel/Elain/Lucien triangle is messy as it is, so I don't think SJM would turn it into a square by inserting Gwyn. SJM could've chose not to give Gwyn and Azriel any ties in any way whether it was him rescuing her, him training the Valkyries, and again, including her in his own bonus chapter (hell even her boss:guardian Clotho made an appearance).
But she did and based on her pattern with her male love interests in particular, she doesn't really insert a new female or have females fight over the male love interest. I don't ever see Elain and Gwyn fight over Az, each might have an issue with Az on their own but do I see them argue with each other over Azriel? Absolutely not.
And if you look at the sequence of the scenes in his chapter, it gives a better idea of how it was planned:
1. Starts with Azriel reflecting on his loneliness while everyone left.
2. Elain shows up and they interact, Azriel gives her the necklace and they almost kiss.
3. Rhysand interferes and Az stops the kiss and tells Elain it was a mistake.
4. Az and Rhys argue and ends with Rhys ordering him to stay away from Elain and dismissing him.
5. Az leaves to the House of Wind wanting to work off the frustration but finds that Gwyn already occupied the training ring.
6. Gwyn and Az interact and he leaves the scene feeling settled down and his shadows calmed.
7. He wakes up, goes to the River House and finds Elain's necklace, he pockets it with the intention of returning it to the shop after the snowball fight.
8. Instead of the shop, he goes to the library to ask Clotho to give the gift to Gwyn and refuses to leave with it.
9. Going back and forth, Clotho eventually agrees and said she will tell Gwyn a friend gave it to her and she thanks Az for the joy it will bring to Gwyn.
10. Az leaves but the mention of Gwyn's joy sparked something in him that it brought a slight smile to his face, he buried the image in his chest where it glows quietly.
Both interactions with Elain and Rhys ended with him feeling miserable, but both interactions with Gwyn and Clotho ended with him feeling lighter and better—and to me that shows me how intentional SJM was with creating these parallels (including the shadows skittered back vs the shadows danced and sang).
Instead of Gwyn and Clotho we could've had Mor or Nesta or Amren, but SJM chose Gwyn and Clotho. Like, it could've ended after Rhys's argument but again, it's a writer's choice.
That's why no matter how many times I reread ACOSF my mind doesn't change much because SJM is not that subtle.
248 notes
·
View notes
Text
"Bo-Katan isn't mean"
Okay because I'm so tired of hearing this:
[/mēn/] adjective: unkind, spiteful, or unfair. vicious or aggressive in behaviour.
Not mean?
Okay definitely not vicious or aggressive in behavior
Like her first appearance where she's part of Death Watch, a terrorist group and slaps Ahsoka's ass without consent to demean her?
Or when she shoves Ahsoka to the ground and *laughs* in a tent where Death Watch (including Bo-Katan) has stolen women from the local village on Carlac and put them into forced servitude?
OR when she helps slaughter the village and burn down said village for asking Death Watch to leave them alone? (that's her on top of the roof)?
Or after when she tried to kill Ahsoka and Lux for trying to help the villagers and leave?
Or when she aided in a plot to cause intentional destruction and fear to manipulate the people of Mandalore into deposing her own sister and overturn Satine's very successful government that ended the clan wars (the Traditionalists then were given the lush moon of Concordia and their own political agency and government in which Pre Vizsla was the governor)? Then forcefully deposed Satine at gunpoint after she had abdicated because of the will of the people who no longer accepted her rule due to the manipulation of public perception by Death Watch.
While Bo-Katan was likely traumatized by the Mandalorian Civil War/Clan Wars at a young age and there's no solid canon evidence but It's widely believed by fans that Bo-Katan was groomed and/or radicalized by Pre into DW from a young age--even if you believe this, IT DOES NOT EXCUSE HER HORRIFIC ACTIONS. None of it justifies her wrongdoing. She still had agency.
Okay so what about unkind or unfair?
Surely that can't apply to her sarcastic comment to Ahsoka when approaching her after she had watched her struggle on Kessel and made no move to assister her, only watching her to use her to fight back against Maul and reclaim Mandalore. While she does respect and befriend Ahsoka by the end of the Siege, she still initially saw her as someone to be used for her agenda.
Or when she uses Obi-Wan's guilt over his relationship with Satine to convince him to aid her forces in retaking Mandalore, which Republic intervention would disintegrate treaties over a hundred years old and start another war on top of the ongoing Clone Wars. Which to her was a legitimate, even desperate method to reclaim her planet from Maul who was only serving his own agenda, but it wasn't a very nice way to do it. In some ways Bo-Katan is justified in how she is mean, but it doesn't make her not mean.
Then there's her anger towards Sabine after she discovering what the Duchess does and that Sabine created it (after hearing how guilt ridden she is and how she already destroyed it.) Was her anger valid, oh yeah. Was it kind and and fair? No.
What about in The Mandalorian you ask? She's not a literal terrorist anymore in the Mandalorian.
She's surely not still spiteful or unkind.
Definitely not when she insulted Din's religious beliefs and way of life and called the COTW a cult.
Or when she took credit for killing that one guy's brother without any remorse.
Or when she changed the terms of her agreement with Din and forced him into helping her by withholding the agreed upon information after Din upheld his side of the deal. Which was her plan all along. And then on top of that, mocks him by using his own mantra.
And then there's the disdainful opinion she has of Din and her own superiority.
Only agreeing to help Din save his kid when he has something to offer her to serve her own agenda. Which again, valid but not something she does out of the kindness of her heart.
Oh and then she's so direct and straightforward to Boba, not mean at all.
Then in season 3 when Din shows up to help her reclaim Mandalore the first thing she does is take out her anger on him and once again insult his religion/COTW and invalidate his belief that the Mines will restore his place in his religion. All unnecessary.
TO BE EXTREMELY CLEAR: I'm not discrediting Bo-Katan's personal progress into a better person or when she does do good--a hero even by the end of Mando season 3--that's the whole point of a redemption arc, you have to be redeemed from something. And at her core is a commitment to Mandalore, but you can't ignore the cruelty and ego and dare I say it meanness that has gone with it, that's the beauty of her complexity is that she can be a character that grows and evolves and becomes honorable and also still be bitchy. Bo-Katan doesn't have to be morally squeaky clean or a victim to enjoy her character and her sometimes ruthless determination for Mandalore or appreciate her compassionate aspects and letting go of her ego. She's not an easily consumable or morally black and white character. This is in fact, what I love about her.
Thank you @armoralor for assistance with the screenshots from The Mandalorian!
#If you think Bo-Katan is “not mean” after this man I don't know what to say media literacy is at a historic low#i'm so tired of people saying she's this uwu soft victim Bo-Katan like who the fuck is that woman#SHE WAS A LITERAL TERRORIST#she has experienced horrors but she has also committed them#bo-katan kryze#bo katan kryze#tcw#the clone wars#the mandalorian#din djarin#sabine wren#pre vizsla#satine kryze#star wars#this is my magnum opus
377 notes
·
View notes
Note
ngl as an abuse survivor the whole “micro trauma” thing makes me roll my eyes back into my head like that’s life babe sometimes we have a negative experience it’s not trauma 💀💀💀 i really feel like so many folks live soft lives that any negative feeling becomes “traumatic” and something to avoid. i don’t think it’s good to conflate times your ego was tested or times that didn’t go exactly your way with genuine trauma. you’re more resilient than that. (obviously this isn’t about day to day trauma living as a bipoc in a racist white society etc but i don’t think you were talking about that either)
Welp, there's a lot to unpack here.
First of all, I'm an abuse survivor with my own share of trauma. I was raised in a form of conservative apocalyptic Christianity where beatings were considered an acceptable form of punishment. Because my parents believed that parental authority was never wrong, and anything a child did or even felt that seemed to challenge that authority (whether intentional or not), I was constantly told that I was wrong for having my own feelings, punished for having my own feelings if I dared to to express them. In addition to this, my family thought I needed to be very aware that the Mark of the Beast was coming and I needed to emotionally prepare myself for beheading once the Antichrist took over and started killing anyone who refused the Mark of the Beast.
In addition to this, I was subject to all of the day-to-day trauma that comes from growing up with ADHD and autism in an ableist society, as well as the trauma that comes from growing up with ADHD and autism in an environment where people think children must be obedient at all times. (My parents believed spanking and slapping was fine, by the way. So, that happened often enough. And when it wasn't spanking or slapping, it was my mother screaming and yelling.)
Now with all of this context established, I'm going to tell you: You don't get to decide who does and doesn't get to have trauma. Trauma doesn't work according to some abstract notion of what should and shouldn't constitute "trauma." People can, in fact, be genuinely traumatized over things that seem totally ridiculous to you.
Also? You don't know what other people are living through. You don't know what goes on behind closed doors. You don't know how people are being traumatized by economic circumstances, by bullshit at the workplace, by knowing that Christofascists want to subjugate them or kill them. You don't know how many people are being slowly traumatized by partners who invalidate and mock them in countless tiny ways every day. You don't know how many people are being traumatized by thinking they should be able to meet certain expectations that they don't realize are based in ableist standards or impossible capitalist ideals.
You've also evidently never had a conversation with someone who can't figure out how they're such a mess because they "don't have a reason to be traumatized," but the more you talk to them the more it comes out that they lived a profoundly messed up life, and were profoundly mistreated in a thousand ways that they didn't even recognize as mistreatment at the time. (No, it's not normal for your mother to call you ableist slurs if you can't tend to her every whim in five seconds.)
You also say "obviously this isn’t about day to day trauma living as a bipoc in a racist white society etc but i don’t think you were talking about that either." And you know what? You wanna know what? I absolutely was, because my post was meant to be inclusive of all forms of microtrauma.
Anyway, I hope you can recognize that suffering and trauma aren't a contest, and trying to decide who does and doesn't "deserve" to have trauma based on your own personal abstract ideals and limited comprehension of their lives doesn't help anyone.
337 notes
·
View notes
Text
I think the biggest issue with Naoto discussion is that there are so many intersecting perspectives with very strong feelings involved, and if a Persona 4 remake does happen, I fully suspect that Atlus is going to have their hands full figuring out how to handle the character in the modern day.
First there's the cultural context of misogyny in the workplace and especially in the legal and justice systems in Japan, which informs Naoto's character a lot. It is important to consider this, as this was a Japanese game made in 2008 at a time where queer visibility wasn't nearly as prominent, but that alone doesn't invalidate criticism to the arc's execution, regardless of creator intention.
A big point of contention is how the arc was handled. Specifically the way it uses talk of body alteration procedures, surgical equipment, and treats the idea of transition as scary. If you consider how draconian the laws behind legally transitioning in Japan are, you can perhaps make a case for why it might cause Naoto internal conflict as complete surgical transition/sterilization/diagnosis were all requirements at the time of the game's development and only recently were declared unconstitutional.
Though, as this excellent video pointed out, it's possible this was meant to be a reference to the story Flowers for Algernon, given the weapon you get if you return there later. However, even if that was the intent, transgender people exist in Japan and have since well before Persona 4, and anime such as The Dirty Pair aired in the 80's with very progressive takes on transness. It's very unlikely that the team behind Persona 4 was completely unaware of queer issues and symbolism, given that Persona 3 had that infamous transphobic joke in the original version's babe hunt.
The Dirty Pair, a 1985 anime that was surprisingly progressive.
I think the issue, more than anything, is that the tropes at play don't exist in a vacuum and what comes after Naoto's dungeon raises a lot more red flags. Jokes about Naoto's chest size, the narrative framing Kanji's crush as only acceptable after the reveal, on top of the uncomfortable execution of the romance route in Naoto's Social Link. You get so much "Naoto is actually a girl" in a way where it's other characters talking about/over Naoto, which is what really makes the framing off putting to a lot of people, myself included.
And it's not even that you can't do an arc about a female character fighting against prejudiced preconceptions in the criminal justice field without controversy, because Persona 5 pulled this off far less contentiously.
Sae Niijima deals with many similar themes but doesn't seem nearly as contentious, and I think a large part of that is due to Sae openly presenting as a woman from the start. The game openly depicts the misogyny from Sae's superiors and coworkers, such as how she's unmarried and fighting an uphill battle for success in a male-dominated field. Persona has toyed with these ideas in the aftermath of Persona 4 and even when revisiting older titles.
Persona 2 went back and added the character of Shiori Miyashiro in the PSP release, a lady detective who has a lot in common with Naoto (e.g. knowingly endangering oneself to get the truth behind a supernatural case).
It's also astonishing that we have Lala Escargot in Persona 5, which also had that infamous gay couple that played into horrible stereotypes that were only slightly fixed in royal's international release. Lala, whether trans or a drag queen, is given surprising respect, and her identity is never called into question. A Persona 4 remake could learn from this and cut back on the characters asserting what Naoto feels, what Naoto "really is," etc, and let Naoto and Naoto alone decide.
Ultimately, Naoto means different things to different people, and these things can carry great personal weight and importance. Many trans and nonbinary Persona fans see themselves in Naoto. Others favor Naoto as some flavor of gnc or find Naoto embracing femininity and detective work empowering.
I think the problem is that when this topic comes up, there's a lot of hostility. Trans fans and people who favor trans Naoto get told to shut up at best, and at worst get hit with shit tons of transphobia and gross conduct. On the other hand, I don't think people who prefer more canon-compliant depictions of Naoto are inherently malicious. It's how they approach these discussions and treat people that makes a difference. Just because someone uses she/her for Naoto doesn't mean they're being intentionally transphobic, but I totally get people wanting to avoid material that uses those pronouns all the same.
I also don't think people are wrong to be uncomfortable with the resolution of Naoto's arc in canon. I think people who get upset when fanworks go with trans or NB interpretations of Naoto could stand to be more empathetic, as a lot of those fanworks come from people who connected to Naoto and want to explore what could've been. I don't think more canon-compliant fanworks are inherently malicious either, but no one is obligated to stick around works or spaces that make them feel uncomfortable.
Tbh, I'm just wondering what Atlus will do. Persona 3 Reload removed that one transphobic joke during the babe hunt in all languages. Persona 5 Tactica had male marriage fantasies for Joker. I think Atlus is trying to be more inclusive, but Persona 3 Reload also kept Toriumi's crush on the protagonist and Chihiro defending student-teacher romances, so it's really unclear how much of Persona 4's more divisive aspects will be retooled.
Because it's not just Naoto. Persona 4 has a lot of aspects that haven't aged well, like all the jokes about Kanji being predatory if he's attracted to guys, or Kashiwagi being creepy toward students, or the fatphobia with Hanako while Ebihara's past of being overweight is treated with more sympathy. I love Naoto and Persona 4, but I also think it's important to be able to criticize elements of the game that could be executed better.
#naoto shirogane#persona 4#persona discourse#discourse#persona#tw: transphobia mention#meta#can add additional tags if necessary!#tbh i wasn't sure what all i needed to tw for#sae niijima#long post
97 notes
·
View notes
Text
Hate that my form of hyperfixation is consuming and not creating.
I think I've been falling in love with ideas my whole life. I see colors and concepts and characters, and I want every part of the illusion to play around my body and immerse my mind and soul. I thought growing up I would be an artist. When that mentally shattered, I moved on to thinking I would become an author. Now, however, I don't know what or who I'll be. All I know is that my brain never stops coming up with ideas.
Yet, with all these ideas comes the possibility of creation. It's what I want, isn't it? I want to create these pictures and stories and share them with the world. So, why am I motionless in my pursuit to bring my mind to life? I have a library in my head. There's a girl in there. Her favorite color is blue. She doesn't know if life is worth living. I have an art museum there too. There's a portrait of a dying renegade, and a demon alter ego desiring joy. Then there's the realm of fandoms. The endless multiverse of continuations and alternatives.
There's a lot going on inside my brain and imagination. Chemicals I do not understand and signals I cannot control. An abundance of beauty only an individual can conjure with their subjectivity. With no outlet for these thoughts and images, I find it all to be too much at times. Wings heavy on my back and flightless under the pressure. The ability to soar is there, but the weight within is burdensome.
Every day I come up with something new. Some ideas are fresh while others are another line on the loom, but that is all they are. Thoughts. Ideas. Invisible whisps, webs, and wishes. It's as if the only part of my frontal lobe that works is that of imagination and complex thinking. I attempt short stories, painting, studying, chores, school projects, craft projects and I never get them done. Planning, time management, logical reasoning, and decision-making have all taken a backseat. I can't get any of them done, so I turn to what has already been done.
I rewatch a favorite show. I read another fanfic. I click on a YouTube video and another. I scroll Tumblr. I read character analysis. I try on the clothes in my closet. I add shit to my wish list. I post photos from two months ago on my Instagram. I relate to autistic ADHD tiktokers. I pretend Pinterest will help me get my life together. I think about the MCU. I watch another comfort, crime, haunted, mythical series. I visit my AO3 bookmarks. I doom scroll whatever app I can get my eyes on. I turn thirteen again and either spiral into a depressive state or become infatuated with the Hunger Games--again.
The point is, I can't force my brain to work on the original ideas. Sitting at a desk with supplies doesn't get my hands moving. I fall numb waiting for my body and mind to comply with my intentions. So, I end up here again. Hitting a heart button to let other people know that their commentary and hard work have reached me, and I liked it.
I don’t want all my ideas and universes to end where they are. I don’t want to minimize or invalidate my existence, or the experiences of others like me, by remaining artistically stagnant. I want my mind to be a visual tangible galaxy free to be roamed and explored. I want to have my heart in my hands, and I want to give it to every single person that I can. I want these thoughts, these precious ideas out of my head and into yours, dear reader. I don't want to consume; I want to create. If I'm going to go down the rabbit hole, I want to be the rabbit. The entrance maker. Not the lost girl I am right now.
#angelina's notebooks#audhd#hyperfixation#executive dysfunction#writeblr#creative writing#writers and poets#writers on tumblr#adhd#adhd inattentive#adhd in women#adhd in adults#audhd in women#audhd in adults#task initiation#task paralysis#pathological demand avoidance#persistent drive for autonomy#mental health#neurodiversity#nuerodivergent#adhd artist#audhd artist#wonderland#under ongoing editing
113 notes
·
View notes
Text
replaceable (part iv)
jacaerys velaryon x reader
summary: after your twin sister decides to run away weeks from her wedding to the prince and heir to the throne, Jacaerys Velaryon, you are left with no choice but to step in her place
warning: making out (?), grief, mentions of death.
a/n; thank you for the love on this series! I cherish all the kind words you've left<3
taglist: @highexpectationsgurl
@lilithskywalker
@lady-ashfade
@m4nd0l0r
@fallingwallsh
@icarusignite
@literishdegree99
@but-i-never-loved-me
@powellssaturn
@writer-lee5
@sha-aesthic
@hanabbrmpg
@cassiopeia-black-brenda
@simrah1012
@green-lxght
@omg-sol-s-dreamland
@theamuz
@astarborntowrite
@novazoldyck
@jcpenneyyy
@solacestyles
@happinessinthebeing
°°°
The funeral was held three days after the siege.
Jace was already awake by then, and though the maesters had advised strongly he stayed in bed, he pulled himself out right with his bandaged arm and injured foot to limp through the whole evening of gruesome evening.
Lady [name] herself, the last remainding member of her house and the succesor of it, had not attended her parents own funeral.
He had yearn to see her face, to hold it in his hand and to read her eyes for any meaning he could interpret. But he doesn't blame her for not willing to go through the night after everything's that happened.
the past days has been an absolute chaos, in the palace and in his own mind. He couldn't seem to get her alone with him, and if being alone is what she needed than that is what he'd give her. But he so truly needed to tell her the words he held back the same day the tragedy hit them.
The betrothal was never broken. Nor was it his idea. It was Daemon's.
His stepfather had claimed the alliance of the house shaky and untrustworthy, suggesting they break it off now before it's too late.
The suggestion now, being forced towards him stronger now that the head of the houses has passed, making [name] lady of the house and sole surviving family member, not counting her missing twin of course.
But his mother saw the look on his face and understood then, He'd rather jump himself off Vermax than let them throw her out like some disposable trash.
He knows she's more strong willed than she seems. Her loyalty to her house and family and her mind always so logical yet ingenious. She had fought her best during the attack and she had fought for him.
She saved his life. He doesn't need a so called better alliance for not only is she stronger than she knows herself, but she's worth given the same amount of love and loyalty she gives to others.
She's worth more than a thousand men.
His night was spent giving condolences to half families of the house, brushing off the praises of how generous it is to attend the event despite his injuries.
What the fuck is so generous about doing his job? It would not only be indecent but outrightly insulting if he didn't attend. His wounds were healing faster than expected and he wasn't an invalid, he didn't even need a crutch, soreness was all there is, really.
He was itching to leave the grounds to find his betrothed, if there's anyone who needs the most condolences, it's her. And yes he made himself promise he'd give her space but he needed to know if she was okay, he needs her to know that he's here for her if she wasn't.
He walked off to his mother telling her of his intentions to go and fine you and she nods in sympathetic understanding, giving him her blessing to leave.
°°°°
You were numb. it's funny really. Everyone else was the one who bled yet you were the one holding on tight to invisible scars and wounds.
The maesters had to sedate you when you heard of your parents' murder. You were hysterical screaming and crying for them to come back. They had pulled you by force forcing milk of the poppy and a needled medication to your neck to make sure you remained unconscious and relaxed.
relaxed. that's an absolutely hilarious word for such situation.
No, you were empty. you mind was blank, unwilling and too tired to try and understand what's to become of your life now. All the work being put in to ensure of the survival of your house had died with your mother and father.
And now a new seed must be planted for it to be rebirthed around all of the already existing weeds overgrown.
And it's you who must be dirty your hands with soil and dirt for it.
A knock was heard on your door. You didn't reply, you couldn't. The door opens slowly, appearing by the tip of the door was your estranged prince, Jace.
A few days ago you wouldn't know if his face would've brought rage or sadness to your heart, but right now all you feel is nothingness. Your eyes blank, you'd hope he's not expecting some sort of proper greeting after all the shit you've been through.
He opens his mouth to say something and closes it back.
"It just ended." he whispers, meaning the funeral. finally. The door closes and he leans againts it.
You look at him unmoving yet with no meaning either, and then a slow nod made it's way to you.
He walks towards you slowly as if stalkimg towards a frightened deer and sits by the opposite side of your bed.
You look down at your folded palms situated in your lap bunching the covers higher to fight off chills coming from your open window.
He notices this, of course he does. "D'you want me to close it?" He asks referring to the windows. "Mm, no-need the air." you croaked out. He sits back down, obedient.
"Is it helping? the tea- or sedative-whatever" He attempts again.
You were silent at first, and then you raised your eyes to meet his unwavering gaze, so lovingly, so full of pity, towards you. You nod and look down again.
You didn't want his sympathy, not 3 days ago he was ready to humiliate you and your house and now he's trying to play Knight, as if his sweet looks and obliged care towards you could undo his insults and your parents' death.
It was too late to try to make it work now, the damage was done.
She lets him pull her hand off her lap and fold into this own. He looks at you with such tenderness like you'd break. And you hate it. The sympathy in his eyes were a constant reminder of everything that had happened that night and a reminder of what vows you now need to renew alone.
You sighed looking at him with tired doe eyes. "I'm fine Jacaerys, as fine as one who's parents just died can be." You answer his unasked question that lingers brightly in his gaze.
He squeezes you hand and nods. "I'm absolutely sorry my- [name]. No one deserves to lose so much in such little time, I can't even begin to imagine your grief. But I wish you to know, sincerely, I will always be ready to drop everything if you need me. My arm and shoulders are yours to bare tears on and my ears will hear relentlessly for anything your heart wishes to speak of."
His rambling had broken off the dozy spell the sedation has put you on. You feel your eyes well at his words.
words are words, even oaths and vows are being broken here and there, what are empty promises? They all say they'd never leave, but you can't remember the last time you didn't feel lonely even when you weren't alone.
You've known that for a long time. But for tonight you've decided to let yourself trust.
You head falls to his chest and his arms was quick to pull you on too of him as you burrmy your head on his chest.
He holds you like a key to his heart, safely tucked in.
"-won't fail you again, I promise" his voice heard but blurring out as you feel the sedation kicking in and from the tiredness of the salty ocean waves crashing over the sand of your eyelids, you fall asleep againts him.
°°°°
"They've sworn their loyalty to us before they died, it's only logical we have the right to command their troops-"
"You've no right to anything under the name of my house, Prince Daemon." Your voice boomer through the room as the guards push the doors open.
They announce your name and titles aloud as you walk straight to the round table. The servants rush to bring a chair over but you did not sit on it.
Your eyes level with the older prince. "I was informed that my troops were to be sent into war without my command. You all would do well to remember that I am the only valid heir and successor to my house. For you to assume such actions isn't only insulting as it is also a betrayal from your side of the deal. I can command my men to walk out back right now and none of you can stop us." Your voice did not waver as his gaze meeting yours didn't either.
"The power of command might be yours rightfully, but under your vulnerable position and inexperience in battles it is only fair and logical, The command falls to a more stable and knowing voice." His words was stern but not angry, but it was your blood that was boiling hearing them.
"Your Queen was given her rightful respect and title in her station right after she lost her daughter in childbirth and father days before. For you to conclude I wouldn't be able seperate my emotions with my duty is offensive from your part, my prince. And do not assume to know my knowledge on anything." You were clenching your fist tightly under the table trying to gain control over your anger.
He stares at you for a moment with a look you couldn't decipher it's meaning. The intensity in the Battle room was loud in its own silence. You feel everyone's eyes moving from you to Daemon's.
All except your Prince, who never once looked away from the sight of you.
Daemon let out an understanding sigh almost too low for you to hear and nodded. "You are right. I apologize for the lack of consultant in handling your house's own support. The troops are yours, your voice and opinions are open to our ears, my lady."
You were ready to release a heavy sigh of relief but held your composure nodding thankfully and saying your thanks to him.
As you slide your eyes across the room you meet Jacaerys' own, a look of pride written in his face and he gives a nod of acknowledgement to you and you return the gesture.
The queen wasn't anywhere to be seen, you assume she must be attending some other matters, but the order to continue planning the next move of the blacks continue for the day. As armies placed in borders and spies added to the scheme, The strategy would be finalized by midnight.
°°°°
"If half of our troops were to guard the borders, we'd lose half power in the battlefield itself and backup for our insiders." You had raise your doubts.
"True, but If we don't retaliate before this moon ends, they will detect our weak position and re-attack faster. It's no secret we've lost too much men since the siege, but a smart attack from the inside might be able to make up for it." Lord Corlys, ever the insightful, suggests.
"Both valid concerns and good suggestions, though a risk is still a risk, if out insiders fail and get outnumbered, the ones placed outside won't stand a chan-"
Daemon's words were cut off as the door slung wide. Rhaenyra's kingsguard enters and walks to his side whispering something.
Suprise flicker in Daemon's expression and he turns to look at you as a small smirk forms at his lips.
"The gods provide." He mutters and walks off to leave. He halts to a stop and looks back at you, beckoning you to follow him.
Confused as you are, you rise from your chair and walk behind him.
The both of you alongside some guards were met with darkness at first, as you reach closer to the bridge, your breath quickens as you were met with someone you were sure is a figment of your imagination.
Your twin sister shrugs off the guards around her to close the gap between the two of you.
Your arm reciprocate her own actions, wrapping around eachothers neck and waist.
You feel your heart stop as the warmth of her hold engulfs you
It is unreal, She was back. Your other half, The missing piece of your heart, The right side to your left, had coke back. For you.
You took a deep breath as you pull away from her scanning her face trying to see through any trick of light that might be. There isn't any, she was really here.
Both your gaze soften as you took eachother in. She looks from you to the prince consort, Daemon.
"I apologize for the hassle I've caused both our houses. But I am here now. To pledge my allegiance to the rightful heir to the throne Queen Rhaenyra. And to offer an alliance with house Targaryen, and house Tyrell."
Confusion sinks in my face and Daemon's himself.
"House Tyrell? And how do you propose that to happen?" The prince questions.
"During my absence, I've taken the liberty to present myself to house Tyrell to form a marriage alliance. An agreement was reach with the lady of House Tyrell, Lady Marisa Tyrell who has been widowed for a year and a half. We offer our loyalty, and our troops."
Your sister speaks with such reverence in her voice, and such strong look in her gaze.
Daemon seems to be taken a back by such opportunity laid upon him but quickly pulls himself together.
"Your support is much appreciated, lady [twins' name], and the allegiance with house Tyrell is much welcomed, please, come in, aka your men to gather themselves, I will have the servants prepare a place for your House...lady Tyrell."
You huffed out, still shocked. As Daemon walks in, you look back at her eyes wide, head still spinning with too much to process.
She holds your hand raising to her lips and kisses your knuckles. "Come sister, I've much to tell you."
°°°
After many more shared hugs and introductions, you rushed your sister to her room to rest with her wife, assuring whatever needs to be said can be told tomorrow.
Tiredness was draining you as well and the idea of sleeping until noon sounded absolutely genius to you right now.
But as usual, what you ask for, the gods give the opposite.
You entered your chambers and was met with the view of the prince Jacaerys' sitting on the edge of your bed. It seems he had been waiting for you.
He immediately rises as you enter and walks towards you.
Before you can protest againts whatever conversation he wish to start, He pulls you to him and seal his lips with yours, taking the words from your mouth and mind.
As if on instinct, your hand reaches behind his neck and pull him down by his hair making him groan into your lips.
He has you pushed on the wall now, alone hand gripping your waist and the other cupping the right side of your face as his tongue thrusts into your mouth and dance with yours.
You were craning your neck towards him pretty high you're sure you're going to break it at this point.
Gods damn this giraffe built man.
As if reading your mind, your neck was given a break as he lifts you up to wrap your legs againts him and he continues his assault with his lips, now continuing them down your neck , sucking behind your ear making you whine out loud and grind againts him.
Your reaction has him pushing you deeper on the wall and gripping your hips tighter. You could feel his need for you and your own couldn't be hidden at this point.
You made out for what felt like an eternity before both breaths start to run out, slowly letting you down on your feet, You steady your breath leaning on the wall as he leans forwards with his forehead in yours, hot air blowing in eachothers face.
His hands come up to your face and his finger lightly brushes your lip and the urge to push him down on the bed there and then clouds your mind.
After a few minutes of staring in silence, you couldn't help it.
You burst out laughing.
He looks at you confused at first before his face twists and he joins you. Though his laughter sounds humourous, his gaze on your face was loving. You wish you could live through tht gaze.
You can't tell why exactly you were laughing but you couldn't stop until your chest hurts and your banging your fist weakly on his chest, choking out giggles.
These last few days has been so insane for you it was actually hilarious.
You could tell he was starting to get worried, but his soft smile remains as his eyes never leaves you.
His hand moves place them over yours that were splayed on his chest as you start to calm down. You swallow down another laugh smiling up at him, Your bunny teeth making an appearance. He kisses your forehead softly and pulls you with him to sit on the bed.
"I'm sorry about that" He starts.
"I'm not." you countered and he lets out a breathy laugh shaking his head. "You know I came here to check on you, to apologize an to make sure you were alright but here we are I guess".
"I guess so" You repeated.
Was it cliche to say that you were speechless? anyways, you were.
You attempted to speak again before he stops you, again. This time without the fun part.
"I want to make my intentions clear." He tells you slowly and you just nod stupid.
"The wedding, is not off. It never was. The suggestion was made by Daemon, not me." He says this words by words without breaking eye contact, wanting to make sure you understood him clearly. "oh."
"I- I also think I'm in love with you."
"oh. okay"
You both stared at eachother blinking before he pulls you in his lap and your lips mould with his again, running your fingers in his hair to bring him even closer as if it's possible.
-
That night he spent it in your chambers with you caged in his arms, face buried in his chest, like the same evening he came to comfort you during your parents' funeral.
but this time the dread that has been growing in your chest was replaced by the feeling of safety and assurance, wrapping around you like a sun ray in afternoon rain.
#jacaerys velaryon#jacaerys velaryon x reader#jace targaryen x reader#jace targaryen#jace velaryon#jace velaryon x reader#hotd x reader#hotd season 1#house of the dragon x reader#house of the dragon#hotd
796 notes
·
View notes
Text
On Narratives, Victim Dichotomies and Amane’s Voting
(Also Known as: I'm sick of not being opinionated on my blog about opinions, lets talk about narratives)
(CW: Child Abuse, Cults, Child Death)
(Disclaimer: As I can imagine there’s probably going to be a lot of people reacting defensively to this so what I'm stating Right Now is that I Do Not Believe that most people voting Amane Guilty is doing it because they believe her abuse was justified. This is not, at all, designed to be an accusatory post.)
So a few days ago I read the “MILGRAM” x “Clock over ORQUESTA” interview which you can read right here.
It’s a really interesting interview and I recommend reading the whole thing but the one that caught my attention was this part.
Yamanaka: That's a difficult question... I'm always conscious of emotional control in my work, but in “MILGRAM”, the content has more live feeling to it. So the story progresses realistically based on the presence of the audience. I think I used a different brain than I have been using to create works up until now, I see it as necessary to think very three-dimensionally. I'm currently trying to turn the audience into characters in my work.
This was really interesting to read and made me immediately think of Amane’s voting.
So Amane’s voting situation is currently trending downwards, even with the initial boost from Double she's been going down slowly recently. This is in stark contrast to the large amount of innocent votes she originally got when Purge March released the first time.
Now the reason I connected the two is that I've noted a narrative being formed between the audience and Amane, specifically, an abuse narrative.
The Text
Let's take a step back to the T1 voting landscape, one that I was admittedly was not apart but I do however know what happened. Amane was voted guilty to make her better and to help her realize that the cult was bad and hurting her. Jackalope acknowledges this intent in the T2 and is dismissive about that idea.
Jackalope: It doesn’t matter whether it’s a child or whatever, when you commit a crime… what?
Jackalope: ...Why are you making that face?
Jackalope: Are you thinking “I want her to realize her sins"
Jackalope: No no, no way…
This verdict comes right after Es Restraining her in the T1 VD. Something Physically Violent that causes her an intense amount of Distress. You can hear her struggle during it, with her breathing heavily and her tone of voice becoming panicked and scared.
In this part she's even surprised that Es would be violent like this.
(Translation)
Amane: What is it? Are you resorting to violence?
Now most people in general would become panicked and scared when restrained. But considering Amane most likely has Experience in being restrained to be harmed, something that we have evidence for in Magic due to the punishment sequences. There is a good chance that Amane was Triggered during this moment.
Amane is in a noticeably worse mood after this, wanting to start a fight with Mikoto.
21/04/16
Amane: …………
Mikoto: Oh, welcome back Amane!
……what’s with the grim face?
Ah, right, the guard summoned you!
How was it? Did you cry?
I bet you were so scared you cried, right!?
Amane: ……alright then.
If it’s a fight you want, it’s a fight you’ll get.
Mikoto: Huh? Oooi!
Hey, are you listening?? Ooooi!
Now this is a T1 Amane, and no matter how blunt or even "bratty" T1 Amane could get, she is never outright aggressive except for this moment. Even when she feels threatened and patronized by Shidou she doesn't react with aggression but frustration, first trying to explain to him why it feels bad when he does that and when he ignores that, saying she'll find someone else to teach her.
Plus, due to information from T2 we can assume aggression is not approved of in her cult. This is the only moment in T1 we see her be outright aggressive towards someone. Right after being physically restrained by Es, and Mikoto antagonizing her by invalidating her feelings.
When Amane got that guilty verdict she was confirmed something, that Es was Willing and Able to Physically Hurt Her. When the restraints from the T2 Guilty Verdict came it also meant that Es and the other prisoners who were innocent are in a position to harm her with her being unable to fight back.
Not only that but the ideal we were denying when that verdict came down was not her cult...it's her "sin" that sin being her Will To Live.
It's easy to believe that what we deny in T1 and T2 is her cult, that's the most obvious thing after all and that's what Amane brings up in her T1 VD.
Amane: Ah, I am looking forward to it! Seeing whether your judgement will align with that of these higher standards! If that is the case, maybe Milgram would be the right world for us to live in, rather than the outside world! Milgram relies on your judgement, isn’t that right? In that case, you could become the mediator for a far more righteous world!!
And to some extent we are denying her cult by giving her this verdict! However, that isn't the main thing Amane is asking us.
In the T1 VD the main thing Amane is concerned about is the concept of "free will" and how "seriously" her feelings are being taken.
A: I see. Then, are the things that I as a twelve-year-old think irrelevant? Are you going to cast aside the feelings that I know I have in this very moment, purely based on the fact that I have not yet lived for a very long time? Judging these things based on someone’s age will not take you very far. Do I, at age twelve, not have my own will? Does Muu-san, at age 16, have more of a free will than I do? Does Yuno-san, at age 18, have more of a free will? Does Fuuta-san, at age 20, have an entirely free will?
If we're breaking this down to the basic concept, this is the question Amane is asking us.
"Do my wants and feelings matter even if I'm a child?"
Magic gives us one response to this.
No.
Magic treats Amane's pain as "comedic." With Amane being portrayed as childish for reacting so negatively to it. Her wants and feelings Don't Matter. It isn't a big deal. Why are you being so sensitive about it? We're just trying to help you.
This is important to consider when it comes to the questions Amane asks her god, and the Audience.
Dear wise one, Is this ok?
Is it ok to be weak sometimes?
I promise! A good girl that keeps a promise is like, mwah!
I won’t say “I’ve had enough”
Will you laugh with me and forgive me?I take an oath! I can only become a better girl!
Is it alright to be weak? Can you forgive me for being weak? Is it alright that I Did This?
Amane never stops singing this, and she never declares herself a "good girl" In Magic and not only that, she rejects the Idea She Could Be One in the Fist Place.
Only if, only if, only if I could be a good girl
I hope, I hope everyone can be happy and smile
Forever, forever together would be a dream
"Only if" a condition, the requirement being Amane be good. And yet she's treating it like a dream, something unachievable and unreachable.
Now where did I get "will to live" from? It's not something super noticeable in Magic but if we go to the interrogations...
T1 Q12: What is the meaning of life?
A: I think it is something you learn for the first time
when you look behind yourself when it ends.
I do not want to have regrets then, so I live on with all my might.
There it is!
As we know, Amane was been waterboarded
beaten
sleep deprived
electrocuted.
And also has No Medicine or Vaccinations, and is possibly malnourished since her vegetarian diet might not be Planned Properly and thus can't provide her with the nutrients she needs (though that's speculation on my part.)
She most likely has a weak immune system due to the amount of Stress she's been under for most of her life, and lack of sleep can also weaken your immune system. Not to mention she isn't immunized against diseases...like the flu. Which Can Kill You, especially if you have a comprised immune system and No Vaccines.
Not only that, waterboarding, physical beatings and electrocution aren't exactly things your body is designed to survive, especially with no Medical Care. Waterboarding can kill since it's Simulating Drowning and if there's no oxygen in the lungs you Suffocate, Beating...beats you, electrocution sends electricity Through Your Body, and even if the voltage is Low it can and has Killed People.
These are all very dangerous things to go through, especially without any sort of medical care. So when Amane says that, she says that with the knowledge that she could have died, many, many ways, and many, many times.
These we're all done to "save her" to" purify her sinful soul" and Amane has gone on record to describe this as "Love"
T2 Q2: Do you believe you were loved?
A: Very much deeply.
And has also gone on to define love as "mercy"
T2 Q9: What does love mean to you?
A: To spread mercy with no limits.
To spread mercy with no limits...like being a child perhaps? Even if your a child, you can be granted "mercy" and "salvation?"
(Jackalope: It doesn’t matter whether it’s a child or whatever, when you commit a crime… what?)
These actions were done to "help her" and would have Killed her.
Now, we didn't know about Amane's mother in T1 and admittedly there was not much evidence of her being the victim before T2. However we Do have evidence it was life or death...because Amane was horrifically punished before committing the crime in ways that could have actually killed.
The implication here is clear. If Amane doesn't Do Something she is going to die. It's not a question of If, it's a question of When.
When she asks god if its okay to be weak, when she asks the Audience if its okay to be weak. She is asking if it was alright to Choose Herself over "What is Right."
And we said No.
The Audience
Now, you might be feeling some dread now. I am at least and I'm writing this damn thing. The intention of the T1 Guilty Verdict was to "help her" and yet through that it has repeated a pattern of abuse. In our actions we have punished her so she can "learn" and pushed her closer towards a possible death (the death penalty.)
So when T2 Amane rolls around she's aggressive, unwilling to listen, has doubled down on methods of self-punishment and her cult's world view, is physically restrained and presumably punished in other ways, hears voices telling her she's wrong, and is Self Isolating.
This is Really Bad. We've put her in a state that resembles how she acted in her abusive environment, and it is Our Fault. Let's not weasel our way out of this, this entire series is built on that idea that the actions of the audience have consequences.
As Barfsunny even pointed out, The T2 Amane Cover art resembles the scene in Magic where she "punishes her Mother."
And since she's facing the Audience, we are being put in the Role of Her Mother.
The same person who did this to her:
We are, to her, reminiscent of her abusers.
If we go back to how Amane reacts to Threats, she is notably only aggressive when she's being Threatened and Cornered.
We can see this with Es and how they restrain and have authority over her. We can see this when Mikoto antagonizes her and her feelings, we can see this in Shidou when he patronizes and invalidates her feelings.
22/10/24 (Shidou’s Birthday)
Amane: I warned you.
I can no longer turn a blind eye to this wickedness taking place right in front of us. You’re bringing ruin unto yourself.
Do you understand?
Shidou: No, I don’t understand.
It’s my job as an adult to teach you that throwing a temper tantrum isn’t going to make everything go your way.
If it’s a test of endurance you want, I’m happy to oblige, Amane.
And we can see this in the Audience in how we voted her guilty and decided that she should Be Hurt.
Now that we've established our connection to her abusers...let's talk about that Dichotomy I mentioned in the title and how Purge March (and Milgram as a whole) purposefully plays into it.
Victim Dichotomies.
So what do I mean by this? Well it's very common in fiction and audience reactions to categorizes victims as either "good" or "bad." With good victims often being appealing, pitiful and a naturally "good person", while bad victims are aggressive, unappealing and tend to do "Bad Things."
Now these are subjective terms, since...morality is subjective. But it is a trend in both fiction and fan spaces to categorize victims using a sense of what's morally justifiable or not. I was in the Steven Universe Fandom, that was/is a Thing There.
Now, let be clear here, there are absolutely destructive, harmful, maladaptive, ways of coping with trauma. However Moral Catagorization of it is neither productive nor constructive, it just makes it easier to demonize people for not "handling" their trauma properly.
This is relevant to Amane because she is repeatedly portrayed as "scary" in her MV.
Look at the use of lighting and framing, the camera being positioned slightly lower to make the audience feel smaller, a constant shadow on the band members faces that makes them feel...well...cast in shadow. The bright light of the eyes feeling inhuman and unnatural, the dark lighting of the room feeling ominous. With a white figure standing in front of a dead body.
This is what you do when your trying to portray something as "scary" or even "evil."
Amane: Both pain and illness are trials. According to our teachings, those who run from them are the worst evil there is. That’s one of the four great principles. No matter who you are, that cannot be forgiven.
Amane: Oh – speaking of which, there is one among the prisoners right now. An evil existence that’s trying to steal people’s trials away from them.
Running away from pain, Amane? Stealing away people's trails for them, Amane? Like choosing to save yourself from being punished again? Like choosing to help a cat?
Not only that but the lyrics of Purge March is this:
The “It can’t be helped”, from the scum who can’t be helped
That makes them doubtlessly, clearly, absolutely, unequivocally, beyond any doubt, GUILTY
I disavow you, eyes corrupted must be crushed
So nary a sound can be uttered a second time, I’ll crush your throat too
This is undeniably a revenge song. This is Amane Momose's Revenge Song. Her fantasies about being able to be the one punishing this time and not having to be in pain again are at full front here. She Wants to hurt her mother.
You are supposed to be Scared of Amane Momose. This is the Expected Audience Reaction.
Shidou is brought up in her VD, both for foreshadowing purposes and to make you Anxious. Amane wants to hurt Shidou, Amane wants to hurt Shidou. A constant reminder of the possible consequences of Letting Her Go Unpunished. If you don't punish her Now she could hurt someone Later.
Once again, we are being put in the position of her abuser. Only this time there really is a few things at stake.
Though I will like to mention, most likely the only reason why Amane was able to kill her mother in the first place is because she had two weapons, the umbrella and the taser.
Something that was brought to my attention by deerlydreaming is that you can actually hear the Buzzing and crackling of the taser throughout Purge March. Most notably it becomes A Constant Part of the Instrumental at the end. That Taser is most likely what Amane used to prevent her mother from escaping her before continuing to murder her. This makes sense because Amane is probably physically weak and twelve years old.
And while Amane Can catch Shidou off-guard. Shidou not only wants to live because he needs to Help People, the rest of the prisoners are aware of her hostile intentions towards him. He is not Safe by any means, and Mahiru is still being threatened, but he is Not In As Much Danger as you might think at first.
And, Notably, characters like Yuno and Fuuta, who are involved in the medicine, are treated patiently by Amane. Even if she's a bit rude or unwilling to talk, Amane is willing to answer their questions and give them advice. This is not Just About the medicine.
I mentioned that Shidou makes Amane feel threatened already, but the anxiety from Mahiru is probably because she and Shidou parallel her parents. I talk about it a bit more over here but the jist is not only does Mahiru have notable lyrical parallels with Amane and similarities in world view (Love = Pain.) Mahiru has also asked Amane about her parents.
20/07/06
Amane: You want to know about my family……? My father is a truly wonderful person. He’s honest, values fairness and justice above all else, and will work himself to the bone for other people’s sake……. Why do you want to know?
Mahiru: Oh, I was just wondering what sort of parents you must have for them to have raised such a good child like you. Fufu, I’ll keep it in mind for the future when I raise my own family.
Amane: I see. If it will be of use to you, I’ll tell you more. It’s still a long way off for me, but for someone your age the prospect of finding a partner and having a family must be feeling a lot more real.
Now that I think about it, I recall my mother was around your age when she gave birth to me……
Mahiru is both around the age her mother gave birth to Amane And thinks of her as a good child and wants to use them as examples for how to raise "good children."
This is why Amane wants her dead but also wants her to be apart of her family, she's less condescending and hurtful so Amane has some positive feelings towards her but she still reminds her of someone that Hurt Her, badly. Muddying it a bit.
My overall point though is, Amane plays into the good victim/bad victim dichotomy. She's a bad victim, a bad kid, not good enough. She's scary and bad and childish. She's not an "ideal" victim.
This connects back into her cat imagery. Where Amane is portrayed as the Cat.
(Purge March Cat having Different Injuries gets to me)
Let's all note that the bow and medal are two consistent parts of her costuming and they are her collar, and that she also has a collar in her prison uniform.
The cat is repeatedly conflated with sin and impurity, both here and in other instances of the cat. There's another cat in Magic and that cat is Collared, implying that cats Need to be collared or else they'll do something "bad" unlike all the other animals who can walk without them.
Cats need to be Restrained and Domesticated.
Or else they will do "sinful actions."
(Don't we all love the dehumanization of the vulnerable? Im personally fond of it, please let her become an actual monster in T3 Milgram Im begging you-)
This isn't the first time Milgram has done this! They did this with both Haruka and Muu!
Haruka is portrayed notably creepier in AKAA than Weakness. While Muu is portrayed so pitiful in After Pain and then In It's Not My Fault...well...
I told you I’m queen, and it’s always the same
God gave me everything, everything is as I wish
(Using MV translation for the sake of clarity)
And again, not to say these behaviors aren't destructive, harmful and maladapative. I'd for one say Muu is Very self-destructive in her behavior and shoots good things for herself in the foot. But the point is that these characters Also play with the concept of being a "good victim" and a "bad victim."
And of course, if your not good enough, you will be punished.
Conclusion
I'd say something about voting here but I think its really obvious what I want people to vote Amane as.
But more importantly I think its important to consider what narrative the story is trying to tell. What is trying to make you Feel and Why. There is a meta-commentary here about the way society treats vulnerable people. Especially ones who are considered "unappealing."
It's...remarkably easier, to punish someone that's been hurt once it's been decided they aren't "good" enough. And I think that's important to consider when voting.
#milgram#amane momose#008#milgram amane#milgram analysis#milgram meta#cw child abuse#cw cults#holy fucking shit is this long#everyone enjoy the post!
108 notes
·
View notes
Note
How do you reason if taylor doesnt speak up about palestine in the near future? Because there’s an air of finality in her silence about this cause. Especially now that we know an israeli supporter (capital one) sponsored her US leg of tour, even her eras tour seems dirty. She is so quick to release new versions of ttpd (31 versions as of now), after billie indirectly called her out.
(Sidebar— yes billie may be a hypocrite to talk about wasteful variants of albums to be produced one after another to supplement chart topping. BUT she wasn’t wrong and not only was taylor in a position to set an example of reducing waste in music industry because of her titan status, she used that position to punch down further on billie’s release week, despite it not affecting ttpd’s #1 rank. Talk about stepping on her gown and taking her crown. Olivia creating a distance from taylor since the royalties incident has left a bad taste in my mouth.)
Also, its not helpful that she dated and defended a racist last year, wrote an album about him.
small tangent before i get to the main point: i've said this before billie isn't a hypocrite for the vinyl thing. i think y'all really need to start looking into the actual articles instead of just reading headlines or hearing out-of-context quotes. the entire article with billie was about sustainability and how she works hard to make her variants out of 100% recycled material so they're less wasteful. she wasn't saying she was against all vinyl variants in general, she was saying she's against people who make a bunch of variants and not put the effort in to make sure it's not wasteful like she does. she was just asking people to be more sustainable with their variants.
now to the main point: i've already made peace a long time ago that she's not a good person. when she doubled down on dating a vocal bigot who says slurs for fun and gets off to black women getting brutalized and tried to make it look empowering for her, releasing a song about anyone who doesn't like bigotry as 'vipers dressed in empath's clothing', and just becoming the embodiment of true white feminism and being a huge hypocrite, fully abandoning her activism and regressing to the generic apolitical 'remember to register to vote' posts that she made before she promised to do more, all that plus she's also been openly ableist with parts of ttpd in terms of using problematic displays of mental hospitals/breakdowns and using them as an 'aesthetic', mocking/invalidating other peoples addiction/depression but then asking for empathy with her own mental issues, working with and befriending multiple abusers, zionists, etc all while remaining silent on a genocide that is dependent on gaining traction and attention so people can raise money to help (also releasing the eras tour movie in Israel actively during the genocide, then later selling it to disney+ which is on the boycott list) but making sure she's still the biggest star in the world, maintaining her platform but never using it for anything important or good, asking for more money for herself and fully showing that charts are more important to her than injustice or helping fellow humans, and showing all the causes she once said she cared about don't really matter to her.
i've fully accepted that she's not gonna talk about the genocide she can easily help. and if by a shocking turn of events she does, we'll all know it's because she was losing fans not because she actually cares (which i know isn't the point, it's not about her, and her speaking up will help the cause so much so she still should; but i'm speaking in terms of how it reflects on her and her intentions). none of this should be surprising, i've seen a lot of people say this might be their last straw with her and that's completely valid, but my last straw was used up about a year ago. none of her new behavior is causing frustration to me because i was already frustrated to begin with. i don't need to reason with it because i did a long time ago.
24 notes
·
View notes
Note
I think the best argument against "He didnt have a choice" ( i think this is why choice is rhysands favorite word 🥴) is you're right, he didn't. The AUTHOR did. Sjm had a choice and still she went for the worst and more illogical one. She still decides to put the women in her series under awful situations without further consequences. I really dislike phrases like "my characters wanted me to write them that way" or "my characters lead the story". Im always yes this is a romantic way to see the writing process but ill never forget this author who said "my characters do whatever the hell I want them to do".
hi anon!!!! (sorry this is a super old anon that i actually finished writing a while ago sorry nonny💙. can’t think of anything to say so im just posting old stuff in my drafts today 🫶🏾)
i agree! its a problem on multiple different levels. for one, sjm often relies on telling the audience what we should get out of a scene, instead of what allowing us to form our own takeaways. its a very hand-holding type of storytelling; in consequence, the 'evidence' being derived is often contradictory to actual events. like the story can argue that "change is slow," and thats why illyria and the con persist, but that statement is consistently proven to be incorrect.
lets look at how invalid the idea of 'change is slow is'
in one year - feyre is able to become high lady, effectively creating an entirely new governing system, in which, a high lord can give a person absolute power of the court (remember - what feyre and rhysand say is 'law'). there is no process, no objection, or any fear of reprimand. rhys doesn't even have to consult his second-in-command. not only that - but feyre is also allowed power over the court of nightmares, which politically, is supposedly an entirely different governing state. again - keir and devlon are not consulted about this.
it took six months to produce to first illyrian female warrior to complete the rite in history. in the span of six months - emerie completes the rite. thats more illyrian women than rhys, az, and cass's entire 300-400 year reign.
it takes feyre less than a month to completely cause an entire court to fall - yet regimes such as tam's father, beron, and amarantha somehow persisted as long as they despite them being canonically worse rulers. even - and i mean even - if tamlin was the worst leader to have ever walked this earth, it would still take more than three to four weeks. and factoring in that this is a population of immortal, canonically 'slow-to-change' individuals.......
like - how slow can the change actually be? how can the book possibly explain how such drastic changes happen from book to book but not in 400 years? how come there have been no illyrian women in the army or in the rite if cassian and rhys have earnestly been working with the females in illyria? even the few moments we see them at illyria, they still seem to be at a rudimentary level; there's no established female training areas, no veteran trainees, no consequences for breaking the law in regards to the females...there's nothing that suggests any actual measures have been taken.
that's just one example of 'canon' statements acting in contradiction the previously established pieces of information. more - its a consistent pattern of contradiction in regards to certain characters. its their natural characterization acting against the forced narrative voice.
and this makes it problem on mulitiple fronts.
and even more, off the point you made about the women in her stories - i think there needs to be a larger conversation had about the patterns of female violence in these books; specifically the role that female violence plays in establishing sexual tension and relationships in general. or...the amount of times the female protagonist has to undergo some extreme form of humiliation at the behest of future love interest; there's an utter lack of this with the men.
sjm is a very intentional author - these problems exist because of how intentional she is as a writer. i know exactly the function of each scene, exactly what emotion the she wants me to feel. this is not because these characters are written well, but because we are often just told it. feyre can 'express' disdain for rhysand'a actions, but she often undermines her own inner thoughts about the issue. feyre’s inner thoughts are often abuse apologist 101 and in retrospect it’s kind of painful the way she consistently makes excuses for rhys, even when it’s her well-being being threatened and undermined. and that’s honestly bc sjm’s narrative voice supersedes the natural characterization of her characters. sjm doesn’t know how to organically create conflict between characters she actually likes bc she doesn’t know how to write conflict. it’s a consistent pattern in her series and it’s why all the villains suck and all battles ultimately fall flat.
but the problem becomes a bit broader (i.e. this is a larger issue in publishing and literary crit). some of the arguments that i see often, and that i referenced in my last post are these:
"why read this this book if you don't like the characters?"
"why continue to read the book if you don't like it?"
"this is a book about fairy porn - why are you analyzing it."
"i read for fun." (this is not a bad statement, but it becomes troublesome in the context i will explain)
the commonality between these statements is that they are avoidant. often, they are employed when people can't explain away the amounting problems in the series, so they avoid the conversation.
because for one, you should never (and I means NEVER) say that a piece of literature should not be analyzed. or that fantasy negates interrogation into harmful themes. that’s just anti intellectual nonsense. second, if we’re arguing about real world issues bc of the book; of if your argument is that tamlin is abusive bc he did abusive things, then you literally can’t make this argument. the whole point of moving from tam is bc he was…abusive. abuse is not a fantasy. regardless of what the author intends, if a character is abusive or does absuive things, we should be looking at that.
look…if you are defending rhys using the logic the book establishes please have it. but the moment you implicate real-world values into this story, you’ve got to see it to the end. the same goes for the series as a whole: the second maf decided to integrate a ‘domestic violence plot lines’ specifically referring to behaviors as ‘red flags’ it immediately kind of gave up the kind of distance the fantasy romance genre usually gives to such issues.
67 notes
·
View notes
Note
Just a question. I want to make a fic about the first Jedi and his disciples before Disney gets the drop on me. I'm only familar with disney canon. What miracles are associated with the buddha and the bodhissatva and what way can I characterize the philosophy of the force in buddhist terms?
The basic idea was that the first Jedi is basically a wandering Gautama Buddha and his disciples were basically the Eight Bodhisattva. Manjushri is known for his kindness and wisdom. Guanyin is kind and compassionate. Vajrapani is strength and protection incarnate. Maitreya is prophesized to bring balance to the force. Ksitigarbha swore to save everyone in the galaxy no matter how evil and no matter what it costs her and I don't really know much about the rest. Might even toss some characters like Sun Wukong and other buddhist associated characters.
The intent is to make the first jedi a real larger than life figure. God's amongst mortals who would make any other force user look like a joke. Yet also make them suprisingly human in that the first jedi just wants to help people and comfort them and doesn't want to use such powers in the first place for violence.
I also want to play around with the first sith and portray them as Eldritch abominations and monsters who feed of the weak and oppressed. Maybe they would be the Mara analogue in this telling.
Oh, this is intriguing! I love this concept!
Buddhism and Miracles
The Buddhist view on miracles, wonders, magic, superhuman powers is a quite complex one. There is a threefold distinction of Buddhism: the Buddhist science of the mind, Buddhist philosophy and Buddhist religion. The miracles of Gautama Buddha are belonging to the realm of Buddhist religion: it is proposed that through mental training one can achieve miraculous powers, as the basis of "miracles" is perfect control over one's own mind, like goldsmiths making the gold pure and workable, so they can use it to create wonderous things. The Buddha was reportedly manifested the ability to walk on water, to read other people's minds, to fly through air, to heal the wounded with his will, or growing a tree full of flowers and jewels out of his toothpick, calming down a raging elephant that attacked the village he visited, and so on. However, such miracles are all subordinate to the one true, genuinely miraculous power that one must strive for: the ability to guide people according to their mental development, for their own good, using suitable methods to fit these people.
It must be noted that in Buddhist mythology, miraculous powers are regarded as potential off-shoots of practice. Through mental training, one can develop the capacity to concentrate the power of the mind. But it's crucial to understand that in Buddhist thought, these abilities aren't dependent on the cultivation of wisdom and compassion: in stories, it's not just possible, but actually quite common for someone to gain such powers without any significant, or even meaningful spiritual and psychological progress. For this reason, the Buddhist view on these miraculous powers - should they exist at all - is that if you have them, that's a sign that you're making progress, but you mustn't brag about or reveal them, unless it's absolutely necessary. And unless you're fully awakened, these supernormal powers have a way of engendering supernormal defilements. The Buddha, like most most spiritual or religious teachers of the East, warned against those individuals who display miracles to attract people to their traditions, because there is a good chance that they're tricksters led by greed, or that their holiness is on shaky grounds.
The wholesome and unwholesome use of miracles
There is a story about the fifteen days of the miracles demonstrated by the Buddha, all performed in response to the relentless claims of six ascetics who claimed, the teachings of the Buddha are invalid, as they possess mystic powers far grater than him. The Buddha outdid every single miracles the ascetics were able to produce. Since such display of special powers was done in order to arouse or strengthen faith - which is, in Buddhism, refers to trust or confidence in the Buddha's path of practice and one's own potential for enlightenment - the performance of the fifteen miracles was a wholesome act. And likewise, there's the story of Khema: she was a young, extraordinarily beautiful queen, who was clinging on physical beauty. When she met the Buddha, he was able to read her mind, and he manifested a time-lapse of a young and even more beautiful woman, aging it to middle age, old age, very old age, then to dust. As a result, Khema realized the true, impermanent nature of the object of her attachment. This is another example for the wholesome use of miracles.
In Star Wars, this can be likened to Master Yoda using the Force in Episode V to rise Luke Skywalker's x-wing out of the swamp: this "miracle" was demonstrated to arouse trust and confidence in Jedi teachings and in his apprentice's own potential to become a Jedi. You can see that Jedi Knights are demonstrating their abilities only "for knowledge and defense" as Yoda said.
When it comes to unwholesome uses of miracles, we have the story of Pindola Bharadwaja, who was one of the Buddha's first disciples. It's said that one day, a wealthy merchant, who didn't believe in the existence of the extraordinary powers of holy men, challenged them: he suspended a beautiful and expensive sandalwood alms bowl from the top of a really high bamboo pole, and said, the master who can get it down, can keep it. Pindola Bharadwaja, who progressed very fast in his mental training, and attained several miraculous powers as a result, stepped forward. He rose into the air easily and took the bowl. The people were in awe, but their excitement alerted the Buddha who arrived to the scene. He broke the bowl into pieces and said, he is very displeased by the public display of such miracles, likening it to prostitution that is done for the sake of cheap delights.
That's because this miracle wasn't performed to benefit others, it didn't arouse trust or confidence in the Buddhist path and in one's own potential for enlightenment. It was done to impress and to show off, thus, it was distasteful. In Star Wars, this can be compared to Anakin Skywalker using the Force in Episode II to fly a fruit through air in order to impress Padmé - he even admits, "If Master Obi-Wan caught me doing this, he'd be very grumpy."
Bodhisattvas
Bodhisattva can mean anyone who vows to become enlightened in order to relieve the suffering of all beings, but there are also celestial Bodhisattvas, who are realized beings, inspired by the wish to attain complete enlightenment, and have vowed to be reborn in the world to help all living beings. They're deity-like beings, however, it should be noted that these Bodhisattvas are representing our potentials.
Guanyin - or Avalokitesvara or Chenrezig - is enlightened compassion, Vajrapani is the powerful energy of enlightenment that can be utilized to do many good things, Manjushri is the enlightened wisdom. I think the most important ability that these Bodhisattvas are said to possess, is that they're able manifest themselves in hundreds or even thousands of bodies simultaneously.
In this essay of mine, I examined Jedi teachings and how the Force works - these are, on the fundamental level, identical to Buddhist philosophy. I hope it will help:
Māra and the Dark Side of the Force
In Buddhism, although Māra is depicted as a god or demon, he is an aspect of the mind and the heart: the inner experience of all forms of attachment, greed, hatred, and delusion, everything that interferes with and puts to an end our spiritual practice. His "armies" are sensual desire, discontent, hunger and thirst, craving, laziness, fear, indecisive wavering (doubt), restlessness, longing for the transitory things in life (gain, praise, honor, and fame), and praising oneself and belittling others. His three "daughters" are thirst, delight and desire.
When Māra is discussed as an external being, he is said to reside in the highest heavenly realms of cyclic existence, thus, he enjoys long life, power, privileges and pleasures. But it must be noted that he is, like any other being, subjected to Karma, birth and death, and there are stories that gave a closure to him as an external entity: he ends up being a Buddhist himself. So, if you wish to draw an analogy with Māra in a complex and intriguing story you draw up, I suggest to use the Son as his Star Wars counterpart. He embodies the dark side of the Force, but he is also the mosaic of the light side and the dark side just like all living beings in George Lucas' Star Wars universe.
The story of Devadatta as a potential inspiration
If you would like to use Buddhist stories as inspiration for the Sith, I recommend you the story of Devadatta, the Buddha's enemy. In the Theravada tradition, Devadatta, who was one of the disciples of the Buddha, attained several miraculous powers through mental training, but no wisdom and compassion. His miracles convinced a crown prince, Ajatasattu, that he is a great teacher. But Devadatta became obsessed with his own skills and sought fame and power, declaring, he should be the one who leads the Order of Buddhists and not the Buddha. Even though his miraculous powers began to fade as his mind became clouded by such afflictions, he started to preach his own teachings, claiming, they're from the Buddha himself.
The Buddha warned him that he is on the path of self-destruction but Devadatta was relentless. Long story short, he was so consumed by greed that he eventually convinced prince Ajatasattu to kill his father, the king, and usurp the throne, while he assassinates the Buddha. As an attempt, he unleashed a raging elephant, but it was calmed by the loving-kindness of the Buddha, and his other attempts failed as well. Although Ajatasattu took the throne, the public was so resented of Devadatta that he was forced to withdraw his support. After this, he tried to cause a schism in the Order, but his followers were won over by the Buddha. Devadatta eventually died of sickness, his bad mental state supposedly ate into his physical health, however, in his final moments, he realized his mistakes.
The story of Devadatta, in my opinion, is an ideal inspiration for the first Sith, if we go with the notion that the Sith were Force-sensitives who left the Jedi Order. This is in Disney canon, I think. If we go with the fact that according to George Lucas, the Sith ruled the known universe before they destroyed themselves, we have a more complex situation, because that would imply that the first Jedi started out as a Sith apprentice or a Sith Lord, like Gautama Buddha started out as a prince living in luxury, and not a great spiritual teacher, or that the Sith were able to gain control over the galaxy, like Darth Sidious did, with the difference that there wasn't an Emperor, but many warring Sith Lords who all sought to rule the whole galaxy.
44 notes
·
View notes
Text
Forgive me if this is something that's been talked about a lot, but I haven't seen this specific take about OG Top Gun:
Ice is the only person in that entire movie to express sympathy to Maverick regarding Goose's death without an implied "suck it up and get back on the horse" attached.
The scene in the locker room where Ice says he's sorry, everyone liked him. And then he looks like he's gearing up to say something else, and he kind of lets out this breath through his nose and then just says I'm sorry again, and then he walks away. And he doesn't invalidate Mav's grief and he doesn't ask him to stay. And maybe some people would think that's bad, or whatever, because he's not trying to keep Mav at Top Gun, but he just acknowledges that Mav lost something.
Contrast that to Charlie, who calls him a coward for not being able or willing to just jump back in a plane and fly exactly the way he used to, the way he feels, however inaccurately, got his best friend and quote, only family, killed. (side note: every time I watch this movie, the less healthy that relationship seems. Kind of glad they didn't bring her back for the sequel, even if some of the reasons re: not bringing back the actress were gross)
Or Viper, who basically tells him that he's lost more people than Mav has and he's still flying and this is how it works, kid. And then responds to Jester's concern with just "keep sending him up." Admittedly, his second conversation with Mav at his house goes better, but there's still an implied "time to move on already" in there, which, it's been less than a week at this point and he's taken basically no time to mourn him.
Even Carole, with her "he would have flown without you, he'd have hated it but he'd have done it" which I genuinely believe was an attempt on her part to mitigate some of his guilt and I am not trying to ascribe any negative intentions to Carole at all, but it kind of comes across as "you have to keep flying, because Goose would have if he was the one who went down."
But Ice just says he's sorry. And maybe that's why Mav can't leave his wingman.
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
There are two things that really piss me off about the archeron's sisters and it is not because of them. I found it crazy that the three sisters are always compared. With their trauma or their personalities whereas the bat boys never are. I never see someone say that Rhys' trauma is truer than Azriel's. That Rhysand is traumatized because it was his fault but not Cassian's. But this kind of comment, I see it with the Archeron's sisters.
And I'm not talking about the fact that you may prefer one sister more than the other. It's really: I hate one (or two) sister(s), so I have to insult her and compare her to the others to prove that the one I love is better and we've been through worse than the one I hate. Those who hate Nesta invalidate her trauma and compare it to Feyre's one to prove it. And some others can't figure out that the king of hybern is dead thanks to Nesta AND Elain. BOTH killed him. But it must be the war to prove who killed him more than the other. Tf?!
The second thing that annoys me is that they're never going to be able to really say what they really think because that can sometimes (often) make the IC look bad and that the author can't afford it (especially not with her precious Rhysand).
Exemples :
‣ Nesta insults Rhysand in her head, but must absolutely say afterwards that despite everything he is such a good man and a good leader who would do everything for his people. How can Nesta know if he is good or not with his people, firstly and secondly why would she think that? Rhysand has threatens her and leads her badly with the IC since her arrival in NC. She has the right to insult him, that's normal. But no, it is absolutely necessary to show that it is good despite of everything. So we can't have Nesta's true thoughts.
‣ Feyre can't actually say what she thinks about what Rhysand did to her utm. She also can't think that the IC hiding from her that her pregnancy is dangerous and that she was going to die was wrong. the intention is good, so we forget. Even though Feyre has said several times that she hates being lied to and hiding things from her. Imagine learning that for 9 months, your so-called family is near you and mentally preparing that you are going to die while letting you believe that everything is going to be fine and that the future is going to be magnificent. Are you going to tell me that Feyre - FEYRE - let it go?! It's not Feyre really, it's the author. So we can't have Feyre's true way of thinking. Because the IC (Rhysand) must look better above all.
And it's sad because never one of the three sisters ( or other characters) will point the finger at the IC that what they did to Feyre is terribly wrong. Nesta has even been PUNISHED for revealing it.
When Elain's book comes out, we'll never really know what she thinks. She never gonna said that locking Nesta in a house was wrong because that would mean that the IC did something bad. She will never admit that she maybe does not like living or being in NC or that she would rather live somewhere else. That she doesn't like the way the IC infantilizes her. She's never gonna think what the IC did to Feyre was really wrong. Because all that would make the IC look bad and the author cannot accept it.
the Archeron sisters deserve an author who will let them be their own characters and let them have their real thought.
And the fact that the three sisters will never have a real relationship. A good one because every time they get close the author has to erase everything and make things worse is my nemesis.
#the sisters archeron deserves better#anti sjm : feyre archeron#anti sjm : nesta archeron#anti sjm : elain archeron#anti sjm#sjm critical
87 notes
·
View notes
Text
I wrote a bit long ass post about this but basically, I just find it so odd that people are acting like they can no longer like Taylor Swift's music because she isn't gay bcs like....y'all know you can like whatever you want, right? As a certified raging queer I am here to tell you that you can do a queer reading of fucking anything regardless of who made it. Like the guy who wrote Ender's Game is a raging homophobe but lots of gay people saw themselves in the book he wrote. In most cases, authorial intent doesn't matter all that much. She could be straight enough that you could use her to level a table and that doesn't mean you have to stop enjoying her music.
Just like....idk I'm losing my mind here why does it matter if she's gay or not!! Like if you really want to listen to queer artists then go do that, and if you just really wanna listen to her music you can do that too. You're not invalid or whatever. Just enjoy her music.
#ask to tag#sorry I'm stalling while waiting to go in for an extremely unpleasant medical procedure and this is on my mind#I'm going to go back to hiding under a rock now
41 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
