#like i don't think he's a cartoon caricature of abusive parenting | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

randomsnakesimp · 3 years

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Okay. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna take the leap and say: Phobos is the victim (sorta).

Quick disclaimer: I am going to abuse plot holes and cartoon logic for my cause in a very nitpicky way. If you dislike that, I can completely understand, and I hope this warning will save you a lot of reading.

Also, this won't go into just headcanon territory, I'll put those in a separate post. Everything here I'll try to keep based on actual information from the comics and what I made of them.

That said...

Let's take a look at this scene:

(for a quick translation of the important part, the mother says: "No, Phobos, Meridian is meant for your sister. That's the law. The crown is hers.)

What we can see here are a few very important things:

1. Phobos is at most 5 years older than Elyon.

2. The name "Phobos" is not an edgy nickname he gave himself. Five-year-olds don't go around calling themselves Phobos. So his parents, for some reason, gave him that name.

3. His mother is very adamant about him not even touching the crown and reminding him of his sisters' birthright.

So, after establishing what I would call more or less facts, what else can, relatively savely, be deduced here?

- Since Elyon never noticed anything weird about herself, she can't have aged slower than earth children. So neither can Phobos. This would mean that, as she was kidnapped after her mothers death as a baby, he would have been five. So, he either tried his best to rule at age five, or the council we see as Elyon rules stepped in for him for a while

- this would then mean two things: we need an explanation as to why Miriadel, Alborn and Galgheita fled explicitly from Phobos (I'll give my explanation a bit further down) and second, Phobos' reign of terror wasn't even thirteen years, and a lot of that time he was a child/teen and could not even have been mature enough to rule.

- This also means that Kandrakar pulled up the veil when Phobos was at most five, likely younger, and that the so called "Seal of Phobos" also existed at that time, as both the veil and the seal are seen in the flashback depicting Elyons abduction. For Kandrakar, this, too, I will try to explain soon, but as for the seal, I find it most plausible that the theory @ror-witch used in their fanfiction, of the seal being a royal heirloom and named after each ruler, is true.

- His and his mother's relationship was neither as bad as some assumptions go, but neither was it that good, probably, or at least it wasn't in his perception. See how his memory is of her cradling the baby the entire time and talking more about his sisters birthright than about what he has/can do? Yes, it's only a short memory, but I think it's clear that it's a summary of what he remembers of his mother.

- Phobos desire to rule Meridian does not stem from something deeply sinister, but rather from a childish spite. Five year old Phobos probably just wanted the crown cause it looked nice and shiny, and he was fabulous even back then, but after his mothers words, he sulked and decided to show her. That's his motivation.

So, now let's go a bit further and look at some other things we can deduce from the rest of the comics:

- Phobos has a huge dungeon, a wall of roses that turn people into more roses if they touch it and his plan for the annihilation of Meridian is "Well, Cedric and I hide in the castle and...we'll see". He hates the people of Meridian, but he doesn't seem to have it in him to directly attack anyone until Elyon is there and even here, when he has her knocked out in their duel or locked up as Endarno, he isn't unnecessarily cruel. He's not evil in nature, he's more of a very dangerous child throwing tantrums. ( Cedric is kinda similar, and they both start losing it toward the coronation, but I sincerely believe that before that, there would have been a chance for them to come around )

- The only person he ever tortures or even hurts directly is Cedric. Because one, he likes Cedric and so gets more extreme emotions around him, and two, Cedric never says anything, and just plays it of afterwards, so I don't know if he even fully realizes what he's doing, like a child hitting someone. If Cedric ever just said "Stop it, you're hurting me", Phobos would probably need an entire week to process that input.

- Phobos is VERY reclusive, and he doesn't want anyone to have even pictures of him, and while that could be a God complex, I get some highly insecure vibes out of it, in a vulnerable narcissist kinda way, in that he is massively overcompensating. I gotta admit, though, that I cannot put my finger on why, so maybe take this with a grain of salt and decide for yourself if you agree.

- Kandrakar never orders the guardians to help Meridian in any way, just to make sure nothing oozes out. They likely pulled up the veil for their own protection, so Phobos wouldn't be able to spread far enough to become a real danger, rather than to protect innocent people, as clearly the Meridian people mean shit to them

- while the guards are widely feared in Meridian, Cedric seems to be viewed as... not very frightening or important, as some random merchant feels comfortable clinging to his cape (and rightfully so, apparently, as Cedric just tells him to piss off and doesn't care any further). This further leads me to believe that Cedric is rather unhealthy devoted to Phobos and his tantrums while their shitty ass reign leaves a lot of free space for unsuited people to become guards and tyranize the people.

- the King and Queen seem to have died in rapid succession, and shortly after the scene shown above, yet she looks perfectly healthy in that scene.

Now, what do I make of all this?

I believe the line of events to be as follows:

I don't think Phobos traveling back in time is a viable theory for mainly two reasons: I think his mother would be less chill around him if she saw/heard about his reign herself, and I believe that it would have been mentioned somewhere along the way if that were the case. Instead, what I believe happened is that the oracle had a vague vision of Phobos nearly taking over Kandrakar. Deciding in their random mood swings that today was a day of action, they had the people of Meridian informed that the next male born to a queen would become a dangerous tyrant, pulled up a veil and set their guardians to make sure nothing oozed out.

The veil, of course, made the people of Meridian feel trapped and a horror of the unborn prince who would ruin their lives spread.

So, when Weira gave birth to that prince, a full blown panic spread, so much so that she, in a fit of hysterical emotion, named him after that boust of panic. Of course, people tried to kill the prince basically from the moment he was born, and he was met with barely concealed resentment.

Soon after, Weira and her husband died - whether they were killed, or fell ill, or died in an accident, I have no idea, but I wouldn't completely rule out an assassination either aimed at Phobos and accidentally hitting them or the strain making at least one of them fall terminally ill.

Either the people rioted and Phobos' magic panic reaction or the leftover loyal guard was enough to fight them back, or the people succumbed to their fate at this point, slumping into the state of despair seen throughout the comics. But in the end, five year old Phobos had to be handed the throne. I assume the council still had some say at this point, but he did manage to get all pictures of him destroyed - this order was likely due to the fact that they were mostly caricatures.

So he grew up with the very volatile combination of a shitton of power and no one able to tell him if he was being stupid on one hand, and feeling unloved and unwanted on the other. He withdrew, likely also due to countless assassination attempts or things he perceived as such, and went into a negative feedback loop of being unable to mature and take responsibility, therefore being a shit ruler, therefore being hated, therefore having no one to help him, therefore being unable to face and grow from his mistakes, rinse and repeat.

So, Meridian was plunged into chaos, yet he seemed fine more or less just sitting in the new playroom he made for himself in the gardens, sporadically giving out an order or two and having generally no idea about anything that didn't directly concern him.

Enter Elyon. Now, she send him of the rails, as she was a danger to his lifestyle AND a reminder of all the sentiments he'd be drowning in alcohol if he wasn't too much of a recluse and education denier to know of that option. He doesn't even try. He just lets Cedric, the one person he trusts, handle her, like everything else, and somewhat plays along sometimes, when he feels like it. This is where he passes the point of no return and starts actually trying to kill people, culminating in him creating an army to wipe out Meridian. I still believe that even at this point, in his head, what he's doing is just throwing a nice toy out the window just so his sister won't have it.

#w.i.t.c.h. comics #w.i.t.c.h.#w.i.t.c.h. theory #prince phobos #Kandrakar is a shitshow

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xtruss · 4 years

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Fascist India

Meet Kashmiri Cartoonist Taking a Dig At Indian Rule

A Year After India Revoked Kashmir's Limited Autonomy and Imposed Security Lockdown — This Young Kashmiri Artist Has Continued to Amplify the Voices of Kashmiris Through His Provocative Cartoons.

Mir Suhail speaks to Al Jazeera one year after India revoked region's limited autonomy and imposed security lockdown.

— by Usaid Siddiqui | August 13, 2020 | Al Jazeera English

Meet Kashmiri cartoonist taking a dig at Indian rule Suhail is currently based in New York City (Mir Suhail)

Last August, India stripped Kashmir of its special status and imposed a communication blackout cutting off the Muslim-majority region from the outside world, but a young Kashmiri artist has continued to amplify the voices of Kashmiris through his provocative cartoons.

Around the first anniversary of abrogation of Article 370, which granted a measure of autonomy to the Himalayan region of nearly 12 million people, Mir Suhail - a Kashmiri cartoonist based in New York - was preoccupied with thoughts about his native place.

He sketched a cartoon depicting an Indian soldier shooting saffron-coloured bullets at the feet of a Kashmiri man, forcing him to celebrate the August 5 decision by India's Hindu nationalist government.

There is an air of despondency as last year saw tourism and trade devastated, school and college classes washed out with tens of thousands of troops guarding every corner of Kashmir. The outbreak of coronavirus further added to the economic woes of the people.

"Before there was some hope, that something might work out for our people," the 31-year-old Kashmiri cartoonist told Al Jazeera from New York City - but after August 5 last year, he said Kashmiris "were in maatam [mourning]".

As like other artists from the region, Suhail's provocative and hard-hitting cartoons and illustrations on Indian rule has earned him online accolades, as well as a flurry of abuse.

His large body of work, done both on paper and digitally, includes depicting the torture of Kashmiris by security forces; satirising Indian Prime Minister Modi and other Indian media personalities and lampooning Kashmir's pro-India leadership.

For over a decade now, his work has been published widely in both Kashmiri and Indian media outlets.

While his animations are praised by fellow Kashmiris, they have received trenchant criticism and abuse online mostly from supporters of India's Hindu nationalist government.

"Having people insult my mother and sister online is a daily occurrence," Suhail said.

Some of the most vicious online campaigns against Suhail were in the wake of a sketch he posted satirising Indian media's portrayal of a July incident in Kashmir's Sapore district - where security forces killed a civilian while he was travelling with his grandchild.

Images of the three-year-old boy sitting and crying on top of his grandfather's lifeless body, brought worldwide condemnation, including from the United Nations.

The cartoon mocks the media for only showing its viewers an Indian soldier carrying the kid in his arms to safety while ignoring the dead grandfather, who was caring for the child in the first place.

The cartoon went viral with more than 11,000 likes on Instagram and shared thousands of times on Twitter.

But he was accused of being a "Pakistani" and a " Muslim fake journalist" among other insults by supporters of the Indian government.

Several of his cartoons in the past 12 months have been censored by Instagram after his posts were reported by online users for alleged inappropriate content.

His sketches at times also landed him into trouble at previous news outlets in Indian-administered Kashmir, where he worked between 2006 and 2016 before moving to India's capital New Delhi.

His former bosses often expressed discomfort with his depictions of life back home - many times persuading him not to draw on political matters and pick other less-charged topics.

In the wake of Pulwama attacks in February 2019, in which 40 Indian soldiers were killed, his then-editor asked him to remove a cartoon that caused outrage online.

One of Suhail's satirical cartoon removed by Instagram for 'hate speech' [Mir Suhail]

In that cartoon, he had drawn a Kashmiri boy inserting a rose into the gun of an Indian soldier, as the thorns of the flower pierce his body and weapon.

Suhail said he scaled back on his cartoon work concerning Kashmir, and largely stayed off social media - until he had left for the US in December last year.

However, for many Kashmiris, his work is a true representation of the hardships the people in the region face on a daily basis.

"Mir Suhail's work brings you face-to-face with the stark reality of Kashmir's brutal military occupation," Kashmiri poet and professor at the University of Northern Colorado Greeley Ather Zia told Al Jazeera.

"He leaves nothing to the imagination ... his honest takes on minute-by-minute events happening in Kashmir, acts of violence that occur on Kashmiri body all ooze out from the images he offers the world, if only the world pays attention," Zia added.

'They Will Build Settlements'

India's revocation of Article 370 has been the main focus of Suhail's caricatures in the past one year.

In one sketch, he depicts Indian military boots topped with houses marching into Kashmir, in a pool of blood - illustrating the new domicile laws announced in April, which will now allow Indian citizens to buy land in the Muslim-majority region.

"They will start building settlements there soon ... they will colonise us just like Palestine," Suhail said.

Earlier, Indians from other states were not allowed to buy land in Kashmir to safeguard the region's demography.

Suhail's sketches also depict the internet blackout across the region, and its subsequent, yet unsatisfactory, restoration in the form of 2G services.

"In today's world, many people travel and live elsewhere away from their families and friends ... communication is very important," he said, noting this was not the first time internet and telephone services were suspended in the Kashmir Valley.

In 2016, internet services were suspended for more than four months after the killing of popular Kashmiri resistance fighter Burhan Wani.

Suhail, who was living and working for a Kashmiri publication at the time, said the whole experience was "very suffocating".

“It felt like someone had cut off your tongue, arms and legs and all you could do was watch what was happening around you without the ability to respond."

He has particularly highlighted the Indian media's coverage of Kashmir.

"When I came back to New Delhi on August 11 after my wedding, it was like nothing had happened ... people [at work] were acting like normal," Suhail lamented.

Prime Minister Modi's decision was well received in India's journalist circles - with primetime anchors like Arnab Goswami, saying: for "every Indian, there is an overwhelming, unbelievable sense of pride at the integration of Jammu and Kashmir."

Modi government has said that removal of Kashmir's special status was meant to integrate the region with the rest of the country and bring development.

"They (the Indian media) did not care to show our (Kashmiris) suffering. I could not stand it any more there."

In November last year, Suhail decided to resign from his post as senior art director at a New Delhi-based media organisation and a month later moved to New York to join his wife - a recent law graduate.

'Never felt peaceful'

Suhail said he has been sketching cartoons and illustrations as a teenager.

"Almost every day since I was like maybe 14, I have been drawing cartoons," he said, noting that his parents had always encouraged his passion.

"My grandfather on my mother's side was a musician - and so my family has always been supportive of my work, especially my mother," he added.

Raised in a working-class family in Srinagar, Suhail experienced first-hand the decades-long violence and militarisation of the region.

At the age of eight or nine, Suhail witnessed his childhood friend, a disabled kid, lying dead on the floor - a memory that gives him nightmares today.

"I don't think there was one day in Kashmir that ever felt peaceful," Suhail said, recalling the times his mother would come to school crying, forcibly take him out of school and rushing home after a major crackdown in the valley.

"You can just imagine the psychological effect that has on a kid, soldiers with guns everywhere."

India has deployed more than half a million troops in the region. New Delhi has said that its military is fighting rebels, most of whom want independence or merger with Pakistan.

Pakistan and India both claim Kashmir in full since the partition of the region in 1947 but control parts of it.

Suhail says there is no elaborate thought-process behind his sketches depicting the political upheaval that has come to define the region in the past three decades.

"There is no need for me to imagine, it just flashes in front of my eyes," he said

"Much of what is happening today, I have seen it all before."

'Will Always Draw For Kashmir'

Since moving to the US, Suhail has been unrelenting in his critique of the Modi-led government.

Now free from any institutional pressure, and working as a freelancer, the cartoonist has pledged to continue drawing his sketches as he deems fit.

"In New York, there is certainly more freedom to do as I please," he said.

However, Suhail's increasing popularity through his work means he is unsure when he is likely to go back to Srinagar, saying it is getting less safe for him.

"I feel like that door is closing for me," he said, adding it was becoming more difficult for Kashmiri journalists to express their opinions on the political situation in the Himalayan region.

During the past few months, at least four local journalists in Kashmir had investigations opened on, detained or arrested, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Qazi Shibli, a journalist based in Srinagar was detained in July 2019, and later arrested for nine months by Indian security forces without trial, for his tweets.

Last month, Shibli was arrested again by Indian security forces on unknown charges.

Photojournalist and Srinagar resident Masrat Zahra was detained in April by police under anti-terror laws for posting a photo online of a Kashmiri protester with a banner displaying the now-deceased fighter Wani.

Suhail, however, remains undeterred.

"No matter where I live in the world, I will always draw for Kashmir. That is my place."

— SOURCE: AL JAZEERA English

— Usaid Siddiqui is a producer at Al Jazeera English Online based in Doha.

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