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nardo-headcanons · 23 days

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Hey my dear mutual! Another super stupid and weird request coming, so, please, feel totally free to ignore completely if you want, really. So, let's say instead of a criminal organization, the Akatsuki are actually a lab team. Which would be their roles, their work focus or their research topics? How would they behave at work with each other or, I don't know, whatever you can think of. Inspired by your agar plates post, by the way, hahahaha

Hello Sasuke, my dear. Don't call your asks weird, I love how creative they are! If anyone wants to write a fic about this please TAG me!

Big thanks to @the-real-sasuke-uchiha for requesting!

The Akatsuki in a modern research lab AU

Akatsuki Labs, Inc. No one knows what they're actually researching, and how they get their funding, however everyone hires them, they're incredibly popular with institutions and businesses alike...

Deidara is a lab rookie who is still at the beginning of his study. He went to a scientific high school and an absolute ace at chemistry. Besides studying chemistry, his other major is pyrotechnical engineering. He blows shit up on the regular and even adds copper sulphate to fires when he is the one supposed to put them out. He frequently steals minerals from the lab to use them for his pottery projects. And yes, he knows how to make meth.

Hidan is on his way to become a neurologist. He is fascinated by the way the nervous system works (especially while processing pain) and has the ego of a neurosurgeon twice his age. However he is regularly asked for a second opinion because he knows his shit. He's pretty popular with the ladies due to his confidence, however many of them are freaked out when they find out what a huge masochist he is.

I've never seen Itachi as a huge stem guy, but I've actually had a discussion about this with my dear moots @pet-plasma-bubble and @suki91 and came to the conclusion that he's either a plant biologist or studies medicine because he's one of these kids with a chronic and/or underdiagnosed illness going into medicine to make a change. Plant biologist!Itachi regularly talks to his plants when no one is looking and he gives them names as well. He doesn't really care much for the actual lab work and prefers to take care of the plants in the different lab greenhouses. Med student!Itachi is one of these anatomy girlies who draw their stuff in fancy colors and actually enjoy studying human anatomy.

Kakuzu is a senior scientist/professor who initially studied pharmacology/pharmacy to save many lives and prolong the lives of millions, but eventually got disillusioned and sold his soul to the pharma industry. He should technically be retired now, but he joined the Akatsuki labs inc to make some money on the side.

Kisame started out as a marine biologist specializing in shark research, however, seeing these beautiful, innocent creatures get bastardized by Hollywood and pollution made him apply to Akatsuki labs inc to help find solutions to the current crises caused by humanity. During his free time, he volunteers in a dolphin rehabilitation center.

Konan is the cofounder of Akatsuki labs inc, everyone respects her and even looks up to her. Once a brilliant scientist in the field of engineering, she got tired of how male dominated it was and how her male colleagues kept getting the credit for her ideas. She frequently holds lab courses for young girls interested going into the scientific field.

Nagato is the Akatsuki labs founder, and rarely seen in the lab. He has made himself a name in the field of robotics by inventing the Shurado robotics system which helps millions of automated machines run to this day. Rarely seen in the lab, he communicated with his employees via his Pain Alias Email. though to be fair, Konan writes most of these emails for him; she's the only one regularly talking to him face-to-face.

Orochimaru is a geneticist and biochemist, his focus being finding ways to avoid cellular decay, as well as the human genome and anti aging research. His parents are academics as well and he lived up to their expectations to the fullest. He has his own skincare formula which keeps him looking snatched at all times. Given the rumors about several scientific ethical code violations, everyone is kinda scared of him except for his personal lab tech, Kabuto.

Sasori is a renowed mortician who's also very interested in histology. His preparation techniques are unmatched and he even invented new preparation- and histological staining methods, which are called "Red Sand" and "Red Technique", respectively. He often gets into fights with Kakuzu about his microtome collection being unnecessarily expensive.

Tobi is the Akatsuki labs CEO cosplaying as a clueless intern that always steals from the candy bowl in the waiting room. In reality, he has a PHD in physics, his thesis being about rifts in space time and interdimensional interactions, however all of his papers are published under an alias. He has a soft spot for Deidara and refuses to fire him despite the latter's frequent "accidents".

Zetsu is a biological anthropologist fascinated by human evolution and human behavior. Some think even his colleagues are subjects of his studies. Some people say he's two-faced, but he is very chatty and inquisitive most of the time. He volunteered to have Itachi's venus fly traps in his office and can sometimes be seen feeding them dead flies or mosquitoes.

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j4gm · 8 months

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Simon's Inferno; Fionna & Cake and the nine circles of hell

I don't usually do this kind of thing, but I happened to read the first part of the Divine Comedy recently, and after hearing Betty mention wanting to dig to the Devil I've been wondering if there were any deliberate (or accidental) parallels between Dante's Inferno and Fionna & Cake. This is gonna be a self-indulgent exploration of that idea.

If you don't know, Dante's Inferno describes the author's self-insert journey through the different layers of the Christian Hell. Each layer, called a circle, represents a type of sin. It was written in the early 1300s and is where pretty much all modern depictions of Hell originate, including Adventure Time's Nightosphere.

Simon, of course, is the mortal Dante of this story, and the one who makes the journey to the centre of the Earth. Just as we join Dante while he is "lost in the woods" and contemplating sin, we join Simon while he is at a loss about what to do with his life.

Fionna Campbell and the First Circle (Limbo)

The First Circle of Hell is an interesting place, because it is reserved for those who are virtuous and without sin, yet simply didn't know about Christianity. It is full of people who were born too early to have heard of Christ, or born in the "wrong" parts of the world and raised with the "wrong" religion.

Compare this to Fionna's situation. She knows nothing about how the Multiverse works or her world's place within it. She is completely unaware of the illegality of her world's existence, and is innocent in every way, but is still expected to suffer the consequences as if she has sinned.

Inferno is interesting for the fact that it acknowledges how unfair this is. Similarly, we the audience are expected to sympathise with Fionna.

Simon Petrikov and the Second Circle (Lust)

Simon becomes so disillusioned with his world that he mistakenly believes everything will become better if he is able to reunite with Betty again. He is allowing his actions to be swayed on a whim by the mere memory of the woman he loved, and his actions could have dire consequences for those around him.

At a stretch, Choose Goose can perhaps be considered the Minos to whom Simon recounts his sins, although Dante didn't actually end up having to do this.

Cake the Cat and the Third Circle (Gluttony)

Cake is gluttonous in her consumption of everything that Ooo has to offer. Aside from literally overindulging on magic fruit at the market, she is also infatuated with the magical world she has found herself in, and with her new ability to talk.

Simultaneously, we see Prismo being gluttonous in his consumption of Finn and Jake content. He misses Jake, and is addicted to the false relief of watching them play out their past/alternate adventures.

Prismo the Wishmaster and the Fourth Circle (Greed)

The difference between greed and gluttony is sort of narrow, but from what I understand, gluttony represents simple overindulgence, while greed is the more sinister act of hoarding vital resources from others.

Presumably, Wyatt's wish in this episode would have reflected his greedy desire to have Tree Trunks all to himself, and we know he has already done terrible things in pursuit of that desire.

Perhaps Prismo's creation of Fionna World can also be considered an act of greed. The creation of an unauthorised universe is apparently dangerous, but Prismo disregarded this danger. He also disregards the possibility that using Ice King's head as a covert hard drive might be somewhat unethical.

Destiny and the Fifth Circle (Wrath)

Dante depicts two forms of wrath; active wrath, in which the enraged battle above the slimy waters of the River Styx, and passive wrath, in which the sullen sulk beneath its surface. This dichotomy is reflected by Farmworld Finn, who is a passively wrathful agent in a very actively wrathful world. Finn is haunted by past traumas and losses, which have turned him into a person unable to find much joy in the world. Characters like Big Destiny and Peanut, on the other hand, are constantly at the throats of both enemies and allies.

Jay and Little Destiny are both equivalent to Phlegyas, who exists on both sides of the dichotomy and sails the protagonists across the River Styx.

The exit from the Fifth Circle represents a major turning point in Inferno, as Dante and Virgil require the divine intervention of an angel to open the gates of Dis and progress. Simon and our heroes require a similar intervention, which comes in the form of the jewel that lets them reprogram Prismo's remote, opening the gates to the rest of their own journey.

The Winter King and the Sixth Circle (Heresy)

Heresy in a Christian context is the rejection of a core aspect of the Christian faith. This episode shows us a world which rejects a core aspect of what we understand about Adventure Time; that Simon putting on the crown would transform him back into the mad Ice King with no hope of regaining his sanity.

The Winter King himself is the ultimate heretic, because not only does he oppose the doctrine as it is understood, but he knows that the heresy he is spreading is false. He knows that there is no true way to overcome the crown's madness, and he hides from our Simon that he is deflecting it onto Princess Bubblegum.

The Star and the Seventh Circle (Violence)

I mean this one is fairly self-explanatory. The vampire world is the most violent place that our protagonists visit.

Dante divides the sin of violence into several specific parts. One part is violence against neighbours, which is represented in this episode by the conflict between vampires and the rest of the world's inhabitants. Another part is violence against the self, which is reflected by Bonnie and the Star's mutual suicide at the end of the episode.

Violence against God, violence against Nature, and violence against Art are more difficult to pick out among this episode's plot. I mean, Dante himself would probably argue that the gay moments represent sodomy (violence against Nature) but I'm not a homophobe and neither is anyone on the crew.

Jerry and the Eighth Circle (Fraud)

I think this is the only episode for which there is not really a compelling parallel. The Lich was a victim of seduction, since reaching his goal has not brought the satisfaction he expected, but he is not a perpetrator of any kind of fraud. BMO pretends to be Princess Bubblegum I guess.

Slightly more compelling is this episode's b-plot, which features a neglect of duties by Prismo and Orbo that could amount to the fraudulent acts of simony or graft. But this is tenuous.

GOLB's portal, or the entrance to the final circle of Hell, appears within the Lich's resting place which is a giant's coffin. The entrance to the Ninth Circle in Inferno is also flanked by giants.

Casper & Nova and the Ninth Circle (Treachery)

In Inferno, the centre of Hell is the centre of the Earth, and is where Satan resides. Just as Satan inhabits the centre of the Earth, GOLBetty inhabits the centre of Adventure Time's Multiverse, surrounded by asteroids that represent universes, which themselves can be imagined to represent the circles of Hell as I've discussed throughout this post.

Satan's maw is reserved for the greatest traitors in all history, who in Dante's opinion are Brutus and Cassius who led the assassination of Caesar, and Judas who betrayed Christ. The Lich is our Judas. Just as Judas betrayed God by getting His son murdled, the Lich has betrayed God (or "the boss") by seeking to end all life. And just like Judas, he is condemned to an eternity of suffering at Satan's own hands.

The dream sequence at the beginning of Casper & Nova is also a very direct and probably deliberate reference to this circle of Hell. Aside from the three aforementioned traitors, those who commit treachery are frozen in ice in twisted and mangled positions. We see Simon in exactly this situation, when his frozen corpse is stuffed in the freezer. If he had put on the crown he would have been committing a massive act of treachery upon Betty, who sacrificed everything to make sure he would live as himself.

Cheers and the climb to Purgatory

In Inferno, Dante and Virgil begin the climb out of hell with the help of Satan himself. The journey up proves to be much easier than the journey down. The same happens to Simon; he is helped on his way home by GOLBetty, our Satan.

Having journeyed through Hell, our protagonist finds himself back on the familiar surface of Earth, but in a new place. For Dante this new place is Purgatory, where he must come to terms with his own sins. For Simon this new place is psychological but similar; he must reckon with the things he has learned about himself, chiefly his ignorance of Betty's desires and his aimless lust for her company, and move forward to a better place.

Conclusions

I have no education in classical literature and I'm sure all of this comes across as very surface level to someone who's actually studied these things, but I did my best.

Let me know if you've spotted any other parallels, or if you think there's a better way to sync up the various episodes/dimensions with the circles of Hell.

It could be confirmation bias but I think there was at least a little deliberate intent behind some of these parallels. Perhaps I should hold off on reading Purgatorio in case it spoils the potential season two for me...

#adventure time #fionna and cake #long post #the divine comedy

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turnerside · 15 days

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Hopeless Romantic vs Hook Up Culture

⋘ And she tortures me, tortures me with her love. The past was nothing! In the past it was only that infernal body of hers that tortured me, but now I've taken all her soul into my soul and through her I've become a man. Will they marry us? If they don't I will die of jealousy. I imagine something every day... ⋙ F. Dostoïevski

𓆣 I had already wrote this once but it got deleted so my deranged brain have to find the words again 𓆣

𝄞⨾𓍢ִ໋ In this post I wanted to express my current thoughts and despairs on relationships. I turned 20 recently and have never been in love, in a couple or intimate with someone. I am not ashamed of it but the more time passes, the more I am terribly afraid of never experiencing what true love feels like. Feeling so fucking lonely, waiting for someone/something that never comes. I’ve known deep loneliness all my life and now it’s starting to rot my insides : the hopeless feeling of an internal gap that no one could fill; the visceral intuition of a missing half constantly haunting me. Feeling so heartbreakingly lonely that I could do anything to be loved. I am fucking bored of this emptiness. Being a hopeless romantic, I am in love with the idea of love, never with a real person. I get attached to the romanticised idea of them, a shadow that never even existed, living in an illusion made up in my brain. Looking for an ideal of pure devotion. And that makes me deceitful, not seeing people for what they are.

𝄞⨾𓍢ִ໋ Growing up, I romanticised a vision of relationships, imagining my soon-to-be womanhood, having fiercely conquered femininity, and hopefully, a utopian love. But I quickly discovered the absence of essence in real relationships (plot twist : superficial, empty, a transactionactional ‘bond’ where no one really cares). Being asked out by someone who barely cares, being a toy to men, a pretty porcelain doll to show off, a stack of unused flesh; in short : something disposable. When I tell my friends about my virginity they often state things such as “you should lose your virginity to a mate you trust and feel confident with, at least you'll get rid of it”. Doesn’t it seem so resigned ??? Of course, as someone who is so scared of abandonment; intimacy completely terrifies me: I fear finally opening myself, giving myself emotionally to end up allowing people to hurt me more. So scared to drop my walls to end up facing a person that never really loved me but loved the fact that I loved them… a superficial intimacy.

𝄞⨾𓍢ִ໋ Even if I despise these types of relationships I always find myself jealous of my friends, even though I know these are still superficial. How did they find someone? Will I be able to find someone? What does love even feel like? Am I even capable of love?

𝄞⨾𓍢ִ໋ I’m then stuck living through other’s eyes, in my own disillusion, Idealizing some mediocre situations, reading endless love stories and fantasizing in my mind. “A fictional boyfriend can’t disappoint you,” right? I am rarely present on this planet, always in my head. And that’s how I seem to metamorphosize into one of those Sofia Coppola characters: A quiet melancholic being that’s haunted by the idea of an impossible love with someone she hasn't even met yet. Waiting to be ACTUALLY seen between the million complex layers that make me who I am.

⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺

𝄞⨾𓍢ִ໋ Having several friends in my group who are romantically active, I realize during conversations that relationships and sex are often considered as social trophies to make yourself stand out in a group. Everyone is sharing about their failed date, or how their last relationships were, et cetera… those became storytimes that gave you importance in a social context. Of course I do it too, telling crazy fucked up anecdotes about me, to give myself composure in a social context. I am just sad to see how many boys (lol, “how many” gurl) I dated were doing it for ego and performance : grow their stupid list of girls they seduced. I am maybe pessimistic but most look for the hedonism of a relationship without the struggles that brings engagement. Because honestly, what’s scary in a relationship is that it forces you to face your flaws, unhealed traumas and anxiety. A relationship is constantly asking you for concessions and working on yourself to make it work. It’s kinda terrifying tho. Commitment is a lot, so I believe people that constantly avoid being attached (and only seek for pleasure) are just scared to dive into introspection and face themselves.

𝄞⨾𓍢ִ໋ The idea that sex is a social transaction is actually so depressing. I want sex to be an act of bonding with someone: melting and merging each other's soul through the body. Being so connected to someone flesh that I could almost enter his mind and hear his thoughts. Just feeling the other breath, the imperfect skin on my fingers, the pulse of his veins making him a living creature. A metaphysical experience, bigger than time and space…

𝄞⨾𓍢ִ໋ There is also something I want to evoke which is the loss of meaning. I recently saw this post about how autistic people are more likely to get abused because they struggle seeing through people’s words. I am not diagnosed as Autistic myself (cause it costs good money lol ) but my therapist mentioned how “I had a lot of symptoms that could refer to the spectrum). However, I identified a lot with this post. I always fool myself into viscerally believing what people say while those words are just …only words. People say what you wanna hear, and they’ll say anything to have you in their bed. And every time, there is something so infantilizing about succumbing to those words, being seen like a naive, brainless, idiot, little girl, who has (once again) been fooled by this devouring loneliness.

𝄞⨾𓍢ִ໋ I may have seem judgmental during this whole stack of thoughts: I obviously sometimes just want to fuck, but this fear of being an object again constantly holds me back … too risky to open my shell and give myself soul and body to just receive meaningless lust and disinterest. I am not going to lie, I am an horny teen lmao, but I just want to know what “making love” feels like. … and I am incapable of “not getting attached” anyway (I am probably Tom in 500 days of summer…sorry)... I desire to carve someone else’s soul. To OWN and being OWNED. Not be a one anymore, but a pair: two that are one. I want someone to worship the ground I walk on and know this beautiful symbiosis that brings people to a lifetime together. I am begging for a strong intimate spiritual kind of love. Even if it has to be a destructive and tormented passion, I still want to feel the deepness of it. I want his pain to be mine and my pain to be his. Make me the receptacle of your soul. I want someone that would be deeply grateful for me offering him my body, someone that would understand the meaning of this gift. I may sacralize my virginity too much, but I feel like it would be the biggest gift and love proof I could offer to someone. The person who’ll have it will forever be linked to me and possess a part of me, even if we take different paths.

𝄞⨾𓍢ִ໋ My love language is maybe OBSESSION… okay, yeah,it is…I want someone to be utterly obsessed with me just as I am for him. With obsession that drives us both insane for each other, forgetting everything else around and consuming ourselves, body and soul. I want him to blow up my phone with messages. I want him to write letters and poems for me. I want him to protect me, stalk me… Please give me everything you are, even the part you hate. Let our blood be poisoned by the need of each other. Maybe I am wrong for seeking this type of love. Maybe I should not seek extremes and absolution, but I still want to believe in it a little more, even if I feel like each year takes me away more and more from the possibility of knowing love. I want at least to experience this wild feeling for once. I couldn’t accept the curse of loneliness indefinitely. Better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all. There is though something strangely nice and comforting about this sadness, making me an idealistic and longing young girl. I will do anything for love. ANYTHING. It’s the only thing I know I really want. I need to feel it and this need is tormenting me, like my own existential quest.

𝜗𝜚 Let’s just wait for him, he’ll come soon… or maybe he’s already here …? I don’t know who he is but I want him by my side.

✿⃨ ♫ ໂ✿﮾ ‧̥°̩̥˚̩̩̥͙°̩̥‧̥·̊‧̥°̩̥‧��·̊❀꫶᳜᳝ᰭ✿⃨ ⠀ ♫ ໂ✿﮾᳜⡴⠀✟ ❤︎ ‎ ୁׄ ⠀ 🧷̳̥͗̆ ⠀🎀ຼ ⚹ຯ ♥︎ ১🗡°̩̥‧̥

𝄞⨾𓍢ִ໋ Rereading this, I find it stupidly arrogant but I needed to scream my frustration in the void that is tumblr. I’ll write future posts about my own relationships to femininity because, of course, this subject is heavily linked to this quest of ideal. Also, I’ll explore the notion of time as a woman cause I don’t seem to realize my life won’t be romantically over at 30 lmao.

Well girlies, if you have any thoughts related to this post or if you have any stories to share, don’t be afraid to flood my Washing Machine Heart (inbox) જ⁀➴. - pixel art is from @bitmapdreams -

Love <3

Xoxo, 𝓐 -

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⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚⁺‧͙⁺˚•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚

⋘ 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘮 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘱𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘭, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘪𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘬 𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘶𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳— 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘰 𝘳𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘺, 𝘴𝘰 𝘶𝘨𝘭𝘺, 𝘴𝘰 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘬𝘦𝘱𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘥𝘢𝘳𝘬 𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨. ⋙ 𝒮𝓎𝓁𝓋𝒾𝒶 𝒫𝓁𝒶𝓉𝒽.

.:・°☆.。.:・°☆.。.:・°☆.。.:・°☆☆.。.:・°☆.。.:・°☆.。.:・°☆.。

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cannoli-reader · 3 months

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Hello Cannolli, your metas on the Wheel of Time books are always very well thought out and constructed, and you've clearly given a lot of thought to the series as a whole. I was wondering if you have any ideas on what RJ's plan for Egwene's AMoL arc and story would be? For all the other characters I can see the writing on the well, the clues and foreshadowing, and together with what can be inferred from BS's books about RJ's notes get what I think is a good aproximation for what would be their final arcs and ending. Except for Egwene! I've always had a hard time understamding her character and Sanderson favoured her so much that I have a hard time discerning what came from him or from the notes! I've found your analysis of her character very interesting and enlightening and so wanted to hear your thoughts on this! Thanks in advance! (No hard feelings if you're not up for answering this tho!)

With the caveat that I have a limited and spotty awareness of Jordan's notes, and so my answer is based largely on my projection of her arc and established characterization in the series, I would say her end was probably where Jordan intended, but Sanderson's path to get there, somewhat different.

"(No hard feelings if you're not up for answering this tho!)" - I found this amusing, because I am always down to go off at length about WoT, among other topics. "Up for answering this"? How could I not be? How hard could this be? The results of seven hours and two drafts later are under the cut.

First of all, when speaking of Jordan's intentions, I generally refer to all three of the final books together as aMoL since that was his plan, to finish the whole series with one book. So I would have to take Egwene's story from where it left off in KoD.

I think her rise in the Tower would have been a lot quicker. Maybe a montage chapter like in KoD, where she meets the other Ajah heads, with less dramatic results, but making a slightly better impression than she did with the two in KoD. Her serving Elaida, as set up in Tarna's chapter, might bring things to a head, but not with schoolyard putdowns. I don't believe she suddenly has the revelation, conveniently just in time to avoid behavior that would spur Elaida to put an end to her pretentions for good, that she should be trying to unite the Tower instead of driving the factions further apart. Rather, that realization should be more organic and maybe a result of seeing the fruits of her sowing coming to pass.

I don't believe the Seanchan attack would have gone as it did in tGS, where Sanderson seems completely oblivious to the fact that all Egwene did was kill a lot of people without changing much of the outcome. Even her shooting down the to'raken with captives was pretty appalling, since she and Alivia are living proof that being collared is not the end of your life, and the view of channelers as combat assets it is important to deny the enemy is morally repugnant. If anyone is going to be thinking in that manner on the eve of Tarmon Gaidon, there had better be some harsh & immediate blowback. I also don't think Sanderson realizes he had Egwene torture helpless women to death, or that there was any irony or sense of hyperbole in her self-congratulatory stream of consciousness. IF those things happened under Jordan, it should be the spur to Egwene coming to realize that fighting the Seanchan can't be the plan going forward, since it brings out the worst in her and others, and maybe the truce is the best thing for now. During the attack, Saerin actually showed the best leadership, and the kind more in keeping with Jordan's style in the prior books.

I don't know about her rescue, because so much of that is utterly wrong, especially everything with Bryne, from his going along at all, to suddenly brandishing a heron-mark sword, to his reaction to the Warder bond, to Egwene's pompous displeasure with Siuan in the aftermath. Again, I think Egwene was supposed to become disillusioned with Siuan in general during/following her captivity in the Tower, as she works for reconciliation, because Siuan is the worst advisor in the setting since Mordeth. She is the author of the conflict between the Aes Sedai, for her own personal vengeance. There are plenty of signs in the text suggesting that Elaida is not so different from Siuan or Egwene, and the latter in particular takes a lot of actions that mirror or duplicate Elaida's supposed worst crimes against the Tower. As part of her getting her focus on the right conflict, which should have been in parallel with Rand getting his personal issues straight, she should have rejected the whole course of action she pursued from LoC through KoD. She subtly does that in tGS, to a degree, but in a very contemptible way, wriggling out of responsibility for her part and blaming everyone else. Her condemnatory speech to the rebels after she is raised by the loyalist Hall is particularly risible, considering that collectively, the objects of her tirade balked and dragged their heels at doing most of the things she berates them for, and Egwene herself schemed, lied, tricked, maneuvered and ultimately commanded, them in taking those actions. It's the same thing with her histrionics with the Hall when she is raised, the spirit of her ideas in direct contradiction with what she tells the rebels, and her "defense" of Silviana being pure sophistry. The best thing you can say about all that blather is that it paints a picture of a sociopathicaly dishonest and manipulative woman, and might have been intended to show how far lost she has become in the pursuit of her political ascension. If Jordan had anything to do with the scripting of her plotline in tGS, that had to be his intention, to be her equivalent of Rand's behavior after Semirhage gets her hands on him (and his attack on Graendal's HQ & threats against the Borderland rulers are far more justifiable than Egwene's conduct in the Seanchan raid).

For the political side, once she was the consensus Amyrlin, she should have been in the position of a compromise candidate, not the universal hero with the moral high ground (because she has done nothing to earn it, even in the errant perspectives of in-story characters: she has waged war against the Tower, ruined the harbors and her efforts against the Seanchan are not impressive to sophisticated and experienced politicians, who scorn combat as the province of dumb thugs). This should have led to constant frustration in her efforts to make reforms and pursue policies, because after Elaida and after Siuan was deposed for her own high-handed and unilateral actions, the Hall is not going to take the new Amyrlin flexing lying down, especially when she was only chosen because they couldn't stand any of the other choices, or their rivals would never have allowed preferable candidates through. They are not going to agree to major changes to Tower procedures or policies, and they are not going to vote away their own power or toss out checks on the Amyrlin's authority on her say-so.

Jordan's writing is very big on partial victories, and compromises and hard work being necessary to achieve goals, he does not go for dramatic speeches that sway people to give the protagonist everything they want. I believe Jordan's intention in writing the original bargain Nynaeve & Elayne made with the Sea Folk to be a lesson in the costs of high-level political dealings and a warning that the hot streak the girls had been riding for a while was coming to an end, and they were not going to get their way by showing up and asking for it, or with a feat of creative channeling, and that not all goals could be met by driving off the Black sisters or defeating a Forsaken. I also utterly reject the idea that he would simply have the Sea Folk walk back the whole bargain in order to give Egwene a cheap win at no real cost.

To me, Egwene's straw-man debates with Gawyn and Nynaeve about her authority and the effect their recalcitrance can have, make no sense in ToM, because it's simply not an issue, because Warder bonds are firmly established as strictly private, and even one of the strictest sisters can have a Warder back-talk her in the Hall of the Tower without losing face in the Sitters' eyes. Siuan needed 10 years of Moiraine running amok before she started to have political problems, and it was arguably a sign of her own being captured by the system that she put it on Moiraine. There is certainly no real sign that the narrative endorses Siuan's view of the relationship & political issues, since Moiraine feels not the slightest remorse and promptly bails on the meeting to avoid telling Siuan things she is keeping from her. In the story we got, Egwene is getting everything she could wish, there are no problems with her campaign against Mesaana, and the Sitters vote for her proposals for the most painfully stupid reasons I can imagine an educated adult putting to paper. What possible reason could she have for demanding Nynaeve, Elayne and Gawyn jump through hoops to maintain her reputation? That sort of demand makes much more sense in a story where she is experiencing constant political frustration and administrative headaches (Sanderson promptly tossed all the issues with a massive and on-going influx of novices of all ages down the memory hole).

Egwene calling on Nynaeve and Elayne to attend her in the Tower would also create conflict with Elayne. Jordan has seeded too many conflicts between Andor and the White Tower, and between Elayne's two sets of duty, in the series for that not to come to a head in the finale. Egwene's is not the only plotline or character arc where lots of potential conflicts were handwaved away. Elayne is trying to rule one country and claim another, behind two very dubious and fraught coalitions, that are largely loyal to other parties. As awesome & loyal as Dyelin seems to be, she is wrong in every disagreement with Elayne from WH to KoD. Even her support of Elayne at the end is ultimately expressed as an aspect of her conservatism and resistance to change. In Cairhien, she's going to be working with a Red sister who is sworn to Rand, and will see that as two strikes against Elayne, given her anti-Rand policies and positions in Andor. And where she had to suppress and conceal their relationship in Andor, that's going to cost her in dealing with Sashelle and and of Rand's partisans in Cairhien (and there are hints here and there that the commoners and servants and soldiers hold him in rather higher regard than their lords and ladies do). In Cairhien, Elayne herself is a compromise candidate, with the Damodreds and their allies ready to accept her for the father she doesn't remember, their rivals willing to accept her because her name isn't Damodred, whatever remains of Colavaere's allies resenting their own downfall under Dobraine in Rand's name, for Elayne's sake, and some of Dobraine's allies expecting some sort of reward or primacy of place for their efforts in the interregnum. Also, famine. And in the middle of trying to juggle all this political stuff, with the Black Tower conflict heating up in her backyard, and the methods needed to win over Andorans inspiring contempt in Cairhienin, and Cairhienin methods triggering fear of tyranny and intrigue in Andorans, she gets a call in the middle of all this to put everything on hold and dance attendance on the Amyrlin because she can't handle her end, that's going to be when Elayne decides now is the time to draw that line between personal and political authority and responsibility. And Elayne can get away with it as no other ruler in the last thousand years could, because when it comes to Elayne versus the White Tower, the Dragon Reborn, King of Illian and Car'a'carn of the Aiel, and the Lord Captain Commander of the Children of the Light are not going to think twice before taking a side. Right, of course, at the least politically convenient time for Egwene.

With Gawyn, he has been taught, since day one, that in addition to physical protection and military advice, his job is also to tell his principal when she is in the wrong, and that is so not going to fly with Egwene in the middle of all the other problems going on. Sanderson seems to have run with the fandom meme that Gawyn is an idiot, on top of inventing a character issue where he resents Rand over class issues and a sense of heretofore never seen royal entitlement. The funny thing is "I should be the leader and hero, not that up-jumped sheepherder!" is basically Egwene's normal state of mind. So I could see Gawyn going to Elayne at Egwene's behest, or stepping in an volunteering, in an effort to patch things over, and butting heads with his sister, while trying to loyally stick to the party line, because Egwene is pissed that he keeps suggesting her leadership methods aren't the best. Because Gawyn has been taught to be a military commander in what is basically a feudal military structure, which means herding cats on a bunch of nobles to get them to carry out the crown's strategies and campaign plans, whereas up until aMoL, Egwene's political training has been about intrigue and subterfuge, and no so much on coalition-building, and appeasing competing interests.

With Nynaeve, she's generally willing to play along, but that's not always helpful, as Nynaeve is all about the moral with little use for the political. We see what her version of helping with political negotiations is like in KoD where Cadsuane has to rein her in from threatening the nobles with Rand's wrath. Her PoV chapters became much more rare after she broke her block, because she's largely centered and has found her right head-space, that Egwene & Rand are still striving for in KoD & aMoL. And that means she is going to be a lot more confident in calling out the sisters on their bullshit, and have Opinions, however respectfully she might make them known to Egwene, on Egwene's methods. She's been butting heads with Cadsuane for three books. No one in the Tower is going to impress her all that much, and to Egwene, it's going to be like having a loose cannon in the Tower.

I think in Jordan's version, Egwene, around the time Rand is on Dragonmount, and Mat is struggling in the Tower of Ghenji and Perrin is trying to save the Children of the Light while relations with Elayne are at their nadir and Caemlyn is falling to the Trollocs, is going to complete her mini-arc of coming to understand what it means to unify the Tower, to move away from the partisanship that divided it under Siuan and her predecessors, reconcile with the fence-sitting sisters, and after all these problems are worked through, she starts repairing her relationships with Elayne and Gawyn, at the least. Maybe she helps resolve things between Elayne and Perrin as well. I don't think her penultimate climax is going to be simply beating Mesaana and the Black Ajah in direct combat for the Tower, at most that would be a part of the whole unity arc, only tangentially related, in the way that the fight with the Black Ajah was to Elayne's claiming the Lion Throne.

I also think the conflict, if any, between Rand & Egwene at Merrilor is going to be over an arbitrary and nonsensical issue like the Seals, but more the cumulative result of all the baggage they've built up over the course of the series. Egwene is going to be fearing the worst, because I think it more likely that Dark Rand called the meeting intending to lay down the law and crush any resistance to his leadership, but then Dragonmount, whereas he has been observing from the outset her resistance to him and his role in things, and her White Tower partisanship. Their working past that, and coming to accept the changes each has made should be organic as well, the payoff of years of friendship and history, with all their friends in common, from the Two Rivers and Rand's love interests helping to bring them together. It would absolutely NOT be resolved by Moiraine wafting in on a cloud of angel farts quoting Scripture the Prophecies of the Dragon to convince the assembled leaders of the nations to fall into line.

I think the effect of Moiraine's return should have been private and personal, for Rand at least, and maybe Egwene too. And it should have some apologies for how she treated them and used them, because let's face it, she did not go out as a hero, she manufactured a scenario to emotionally abuse and gaslight Rand into believing his weaknesses and shortcomings caused her death, and wrote a letter tacitly blaming him, while also writing one to passive-aggressively guilt Mat into risking mutilation and death to extract her from the situation she contrived to put herself in. In any case, it's nonsense that Rand & Egwene would drop their contentions at her word. Egwene was losing her devotion to Moiraine as a mentor before the end, not least because of disagreements over her handling of Rand, and as Amyrlin, would emphatically make a point that their relationship has changed now, as she does with absolutely every other person she knew beforehand. Part of Rand's epiphany is getting some perspective, and while he'd be thrilled to see Moiraine return, the List should be gone, and only relevance her return should have to that construct is the role she played in turning Rand that way. Her return doesn't solve problems, it's the reward for working past the problems. For Moiraine herself, I think she's learned her lesson as a result of her captivity, and goes into the Pit of Doom with him because she means it now, she accepts that this is Rand's mission and it's his call and she will back him 100%.

A lot of the decisions for Tarmon Gaidon, will, I believe, be made on the basis of the connections and trust built up over the course of the series, and part of Egwene's role would be to legitimize it all for public consumption, by telling people who don't get it, that everything is cool, trust the Amyrlin. For the Battle itself, I could not say, because what Sanderson wrote is the complete opposite of WoT warfare. Instead of heavy emphasis on the fog of war, brilliant plans crashing and burning at the outset, the brutality, and the cost, and especially the chaos, and the lack of control, we got a handful of protagonists playing a strategy game, where every piece moved exactly according to the rules, Mat was in complete control the whole time, and half of the decisive moments were settled in duels. On the issue of Egwene, I do think she would die, trying to do something beyond her grasp. I think Gawyn might die specifically because of an order Egwene gave or a choice she made, which is the strong implication of Egwene's dream of him choosing between two paths that lead to different fates, because of her. As it was, picking a fight with the enemy Forsaken general because he didn't have anything better to do, A. does not fit that foreshadowing, and B. indicates a failure to grow from the again, out-of-nowhere envy of Rand and his role. Telling Galad not to succumb to his own fatal flaw, because it got Gawyn himself mortally wounded, is hardly growth (and why would Galad hate or envy Rand, anyway? At best, his expression of this too-late realization makes Gawyn a shitty sibling for thinking the worst of his big brother). In Jordan's aMoL, Gawyn dying because of Egwene's choice or action (not necessarily error, mind you) fulfils his loyalty arc and forces Egwene to confront a real and personal price, and one that she has not reckoned with before this book. She's considered in the abstract prices for her tactics and people dying from her decisions, but its never come home, especially because she was spared the necessity of assaulting the Tower. Egwene pushed for decisive action, but hesitated over actually pulling the trigger on any such significant acts, and lucked out when the Seanchan swooped in and relieved her of the need to fish or cut bait on the Tower siege.

That's what I think Egwene's arc would come to in the end - a realization that she's only ever paid lip service to meeting toh or the "pay for it" part of taking "what you want", and that the price for her quest for the Amyrlin Seat, and all the dirt she did along the way, using slander against her enemies and false propaganda on her subordinates and allies, declaring war against people she should have been working with against the Shadow, and being a party to perhaps the worst case of "men fighting their own petty battles" with the Shadow looming over the world, it all comes down to what is she going to do with that power and that position. Her rationalization from the get-go, and perhaps even her true motive, though that would denote an incredible degree of arrogance, has basically been to ensure that the necessary steps are taken and the right woman for the job has it. And now, at the critical moment, she has the choice to try to do the impossible to save the world, regardless of the cost to herself, and she can't do anything else. Whether because that is how she operates, to always push, always reach for more, or because she has come to the realization that if she backs down, she was full of shit when she did all the suspect stuff she did along the way, and that all her striving since becoming Nynaeve's apprentice has only been about self-aggrandizement, that she has been taking what she wants all her adult life, but now is being called on to pay for it.

And a flip side to that, is that Egwene, as depicted in the story, who is all about concentration of power on herself, and cares only for accruing more and more power, status or authority, can't survive or have a happily ever after, without a radical change of personality and mindset, without changing into someone no longer recognizable as the woman whom readers love or hate for her irrepressible ambition and determination. To put it another way, Egwene's attitude and mindset are only justifiable in a protagonist of a fantasy story where the fate of the world hangs in the balance, where her drive and appetite for advancement can only be justified as a means to resolve stakes of that magnitude. She is the parallel to Rand, who, as the Chosen One, the prophesied savior, is given a great deal of latitude and approbation for actions that would be unconscionably ambitions or tyrannical in anyone but a man on whom the fate of the world depends (though, ironically, Egwene herself is the least tolerant toward Rand in this regard). It's understood that after the Last Battle, Rand, if he survives, will no longer have the claim to most of his power or authority. Many people swear fealty or promise to follow him, to the Last Battle, as a limiting condition on their service. But such conditions are not applied to Egwene or to her position as Amyrlin Seat. The Aes Sedai who swear fealty to Rand after grossly abusing their power and social position and violating his trust, still only do so until the Last Battle. The Aes Sedai Egwene blackmails with the knowledge of actions taken to help her friend and to further her cause, do not have any such condition that will end their servitude. And Egwene is outraged by Rand's receipt of sisters' fealty. With that kind of mindset and usurpation of power, she had to go. Egwene is the epitome of the Dark Knight aphorism that you die young or live long enough to become the villain.

#egwene al'vere #wheel of time #a memory of light #runaway speculation

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germiyahu · 13 days

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Can

Can I say, from an atheist perspective? I think it’s rather self centered to assume atheist feel like they’re “missing something” because they arent part of an ancient bronze age belief system or traditions.

Like, we don’t need it to feel valuable and important, I at least am not jealous and don’t think that your religion is free of the same trappings that every other religion has.

This idea that atheists are “missing something” or are “jealous” of people, especially people as you’ve said have religious trauma related to Judaism yet apparently still “interact with the religion” seems kinda self centered? Like, there are Jewish atheists out there who do consider themselves to no longer be part of the religion.

To be fair I am not a Jewish raised atheist, or Jewish atheist as I’m aware those aren’t considered contradictory, etc, so admittedly I can’t speak for them.

But I can also say they atheists don’t need to have suffered religious trauma to be atheists,

So like, we agree your religion isn’t leftist but I think you missed OP’s point

No, you cannot. Nothing you're saying here relates at all to anything I've claimed or talked about. You're grasping at straws, and trying to make me into a strawman that makes strawmen out of atheists. Like are you okay?

Either go back and reread my posts more closely or stop embarrassing yourself. I guess I'll just tell you what I think as I doubt you'll actually do either.

Most American atheists are not born into some kind of autochthonous atheist community, they are born into religious families and later drift away from those religions and become disillusioned with them. Many don't have the kind of religious trauma I describe but many do. I suspect you're one of the former because that group invariably has a huge chip on their shoulders about religious people saying anything about atheists. And from the little pot shots you take at a religion I'm earnestly converting to, that answers that doesn't it? You're very hurt and offended.

Jews are not just a religion, but a people. The vast majority of atheist Jews are still 100% connected to Jewish institutions, still practice Jewish culture (which is often pretty indistinguishable from worship to an outsider), and are still involved in Jewish communities that include religious Jews. This is not really a problem for anyone outside of really stringent Orthodox communities perhaps. There are Jews with religious trauma but, if this kind of thing were measured scientifically, I'd bet my life savings it's at a much lower rate than former Christians. The amount of Jews who leave a toxic community but then never again interact with any other Jews is vanishingly small.

Contrast this with an ex Christian, who can go their whole life avoiding churches, Christian events, overtly religious Christians trying to preach to them, and can find community with like minded people and continuing to practice their values and their general American culture more or less the same.

An atheist Jew, even one with trauma, even one who has completely disavowed Judaism as an organized religion, is just not the same kind of person as an ex Christian atheist who has all the same trauma and animosity. These are different experiences. The mere fact that atheist Jews are still calling themselves Jews as opposed to ex Christians who just call themselves atheists should tell you a lot.

A lot of non Jewish atheists are exposed to Jews who share in their values and politics, and I have observed noticeable envy for the fact that these Jews have genuine religious/cultural experiences that reinforce and support their politics, not just awkwardly tolerate them. I'm not claiming these atheists yearn for God or wish to be Jews, but they envy the lack of religious trauma that a lot of Jews have. They envy that these left wing Jews have families and communities that don't ostracize them for their nonconformity, or even agree with them outright. The envy has nothing to do with an organized religion and everything to do with a cultural group of people. Throw in all the misconceptions and mistruths about Jews and Judaism that (ex) Christians have/say and it's a big mess.

I myself have been an atheist for like a decade. I haven't followed an organized religion nor felt any kind of spirituality within myself. My reasons for gravitating toward Judaism are complicated and I'm not obligated to share them with non Jews. But I do not think atheists are stupid or unfulfilled in life you fucking goober.

You are correct that an atheist doesn't need to be fleeing religious trauma to have their beliefs. The "facts and logic" atheist typecast as a smug "debate pervert" is pretty common too. And this group too looks upon Jews who do not eschew "bronze age belief systems" with disdain. They're uncomfortable that people who are just as smart and educated as them, who care about logic and reasoning just as much as them, who fight for the same political goals as them, believe in the quote unquote same ~*fairy tales*~ that they rejected growing up.

So no, I did not miss anyone's point. Non Jewish atheists are very incapable of being normal about Jewish people when they grew up in a philosemitic Christian society, and all the baggage, projection, envy, scapegoating, and resentment that entails. Jews, Jewish atheists, left wing Jews, whatever, were not the Christians who hurt you, and they're not the Christians you look down on as stupid yokels either. A lot of atheists have a lot of feelings to unpack and process when it comes to Christians long before they have the right to say anything about Jews or Judaism lol!

#antisemitism #atheist antisemitism #atheists

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orange-orchard-system · 3 months

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Y'know, there are a lot of genuine complaints to be made about how people respond to literatary analysis education with stuff like "the curtains are just blue", but I think at least a good amount of these complaints completely miss where these responses are coming from. They seem to think these responses just come from a handful of ignorant people dismissing the idea off the bat, but I've always viewed these responses differently, as coming from a deeper place of bitterness and genuine reasons to be frustrated. And dismissing that bitterness just contributes to it, so let's talk about one of the reasons someone may become disillusioned with literary analysis.

Literary analysis, as a subject, is dependent on personal interpretation and being able to turn something upside down and inside out, and ask it questions about what it means. It's a lot closer to philosophy than people think at first, especially if you're talking about novels or other creative texts and not random posts on the internet, like most schools use. However, this is at odds with how these schools run; a lot of school is focused on getting exactly the right answer, which really means "the state* approved answer". There is little room for encouraging individual interpretation; even in classes that include individual interpretation in certain assignments, the teachers are often limited by the tests they have to set, or actively limit the students themselves by setting specific answers as "the correct interpretation". As such, students end up feeling tricked or lied to when their individual interpretations and analysis come back marked "incorrect" on their papers and tests, or are outright told they're incorrect during discussions (which has its own layers of the shame that often comes from being publicly told off, no matter how gentle these "corrections" are). They're being told one thing (to explore the text for themselves so that they might understand it better and get more out of it), but taught another (that it doesn't matter what they think, because memorizing the textbook, already decided upon answers/interpretations, and a set of procedures on how to "tell what the text is saying" are more important). And of the two, what's being taught is obviously going to have a greater impact, since it's their grades and parental/guardian approval that hang in the balance.

Now, I mentioned asking questions is another part of literary analysis – this is another aspect where schools fail. As classes and teachers have limited time, questions are not able to be given the needed time to properly discuss and answer them unless they fit into a specific narrative the teacher is already expecting to get. Some questions may even be dismissed out of hand for being "irrelevant", no matter how relevant that question is to the student who asked it, simply because the teacher is not prepared to consider it, or actually give it weight and the attention it deserves or needs. With the "correct answers" already set out ahead of time, the teacher must focus on making sure their students can pre-emptively ask those questions and memorize the answers, rather than allowing them to ask their own questions and find their own answers. As such, "asking questions" becomes less about actual understanding of the text, and more so about anticipating what questions will be on the next test.

Following this, "the curtains are just blue" doesn't come solely from a lack of interest in the idea of literary analysis (though there's also something to be said about how the common feeling of being bored at school is certainly not helping favors) – it's more so frustration with these conflicting instructions that are being given. If you tell a student to be unique, but also punish them for being "weird", they're going to decide being unimpressive and "normal" is safer, no matter what you say. Similarly, if you tell a student that there are "no wrong answers", that analysis is "up to interpretation", and that they're meant to ask questions about the text, but then punish them for their interpretations being "wrong", and cannot allow them the time and practice needed to properly ask and answer any questions they may have, of course they're going to learn to dislike the subject as a whole! You just made them feel lied to about the whole purpose of it!

In some cases, this can go even further than just the students' interpretation – for example, everyone in my own literature analysis class had heard of the author who took a standardized literature test that included part of their work, but found none of the questions about it had answers that were accurate to their intentions and text. How are you meant to reconcile a story like that with all the assignments and quizzes that ask about "what the author intended"? With the supposed lesson of these studies being to foster your personal understanding of texts, whether you read or write them? Being told, over and over, that you are "wrong" for attempting to do exactly as the class claims to teach you and seeing for yourself that the "correct answers/intended understandings of the text" are just opinions agreed upon by a couple of strangers writing these test booklets – that's going to make anyone bitter. Of course some of these students are going to throw the whole concept of literary analysis in the trash – it was presented to them by the dumpster.

"The curtains are just blue" not as in "blue curtains may never hold any meaning", but as in "I don't even want to look at another question that claims to care about what I think the curtains represent, since I know it's all false platitudes anyway, so the curtains might as well be meaningless."

There's more I could say here about the different layers of "the curtains are just blue", and I probably will one day, but here's one aspect that's been on my mind lately. Contrary to how a lot of people seem to think when it comes to "piss on the poor" comments, you're not going to be able to shame people into something (developing their individual interpretations and interest in analysis) that they were shamed out of in the first place. So, maybe just keep that in mind the next time you see someone missing the point of a post, and try explaining it to them instead of reacting with derision.

* using "state" here to refer to multiple types of states, not just states in the USA.

#front soup.txt #politics #séan.txt #school #long post #kitten.txt #twilight sparkle.txt

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parttimesiffrinfulltimeproblem · 4 months

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song analysis of michael caine by madness in relation to siffrin!!

[plain text of title: song analysis of michael caine by madness in relation to siffrin!!]

having recently gotten into ISAT and spent considerable time with my qpp discussing songs that fit siffrin, I've come to the conclusion that it is SUCH a sif song. PLEASE hear me out on this (ive no idea if theres an overlap between isat fans and random british ska band fans but if there is then hi!)

putting this under a read more both because its gonna be long and contain spoilers for pretty much the whole deal with ISAT. also apologies if I fail to pick up my autocorrect making me type 'saffron'

okay so. chronologically through the song theres just a Lot that makes me think of him. this may entirely be a reach but im too big a fan of this song to mind :]

'he's walking where I'm afraid I don't know/I see the firemen jumping from the windows/there's panic and I hear somebody scream'-- immediately the sense of disorientation and confusion that goes throughout both the song and siffrin. also the lack of subjects in the last line (who's panicking/screaming?) further gives this sort of like. unanswered questions that I think really fits sif and their whole. deal

'he picks up useless paper and puts it in my pocket'-- this is sif in the sense of how throughout the loops they become far more disillusioned with how much anything really matters. it all starts to pale in comparison to escaping the loop, and this especially resonates with the complete tunnel vision in the final loop. ALSO the inconsistencies in the entire song between first and third person remind me of the recurring ideas of like. identity and losing touch with yourself throughout the game. idk. im not sure if that's the case with the actual meaning of the song but yknow

'he can't remember tell me what's his name'-- themes of identity and memory and losing yourself. yeah.

AND THE CHORUS ITSELF IDK. 'and all I wanted was a word or photograph to keep at home'-- obviously the photograph thing but that's very literal, plus the idea of 'home' both in the song and in ISAT. also the 'all I wanted' alluding to regretting whatever caused the loop? which obviously creates the sense of his wish only being to have some stability and not. Yknow. a massive time loop. but hey ho

'the sun is laughing, it's another broken morning'-- loop. sun/star comparisons to be drawn, and the connotations of 'broken morning' in the context of being forced back to the same morning (or should I say, afternoon? [: ) repeatedly. also the connotations of 'another' as something trapping you/repeating ad infinitum AGH its so siffrin

'I see a shadow and call out to try and warn him, he didn't seem to hear just turned away'-- this reminds me of the whole like. futility of sif not being able to meaningfully help the others and just,,,,, agh,,,

'he had to sacrifice his pride, yes, throw it all away'-- further themes of a loss of an integral part of identity. I see this through the lens of siffrin's attempts to leave the loop becoming more and more desperate to the point of willing to compromise anything (of himself) for escape. fun!!

'his days are numbered, he walks round and round in circles'-- Oh You Know. repetition and never finding escape. siffrin..... aside from the whole time loop deal this line is fun to me in this interpretation of 'his days are numbered' but as the different iterations of the loop growing in frequency as opposed to the traditional use of 'days being numbered'. idk I just love flipping idioms

'there is no place he can ever call his own'-- again the themes of identity and home (or lack thereof). sif having nowhere to return to is suchhh an inciting theme of the whole game and this just completely summarises that. I also especially note the 'very' and how it finalises the whole thing; his country is gone, his memories are gone, and unless Something stops it, his family will be gone as well. I need to lie down.

'staring out the window there's nothing he can do now/all he wanted was to remain sane/he can't remember his own name'-- final verse before the last choruses and dear lord. siffrin. again with just the whole,,, memory and desperation and resignation. one very very reaching bit of analysis here is the shift in pronouns/person between the 'I can't remember tell me what's his name' and 'he can't remember his own name'; the forgetting of the name switches from an external thing that almost doesn't hold much weight to something symbolising a complete loss in self. if I'm then applying this to sif's character arc, I think this really just shows how their relationship with memory becomes more fraught and more of a source of stress throughout the game.

SO!!! I absolutely adore both in stars and time and this song, and just think it fits him so well. do you see my vision

#isat #in stars and time #isat siffrin #madness #this was so rambling but I dont even mind I love overanalysing music so much #I heart siffrin <333 #music #hehehe if anyone sees what im seeing here PLEASE talk to me about it

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linecoveredinjellyfish · 7 months

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i think it's so funny that like. due to autism reasons i have been severely disillusioned with most social conventions and ideas since i was a small child. and instead of getting angry about it or trying to fit in with them anyway or even shirking them completely. i decided to just become an anthropologist. i've wanted to do this since i was like 8 years old too. the people in my life were like "well, you see, we all behave these certain ways or everyone gets very upset" and tiny child me was like "hm. fascinating. i want to study you under a microscope." and then i did.

#it speaks!

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lydiaskyeleaf · 1 year

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Wally Darling from Welcome Home ARG.

This was just something that spawn in my head when I was working on the speedpaint reel of my Wally and Yellow Guy drawing on my instagram. I was going to use 'Rainbow Connection' for that reel until an idea came in my head for a new drawing. I felt that song was so inlined with this upcoming drawing that I've decided to use a different song for my last drawing and use 'Rainbow Connection' for this speedpaint.

It was even supposed to have lineart with it but it become lineless art along the way. Either way, for a quick random idea, I'm quite proud of this.

Also, check out my speedpaint reel on instagram if you want to see the art process.

Now that's outta of the way. I wanna talk about Wally and my thoughts on what's his role is going to be in the story.

While there are a lot of things still a mystery, I feel there are some things established about Wally's character and the role he will play in the overarching story.

1.) Wally is fully aware he's a puppet and that he was part of the TV show: Welcome Home.

2.) All of his friends besides himself and Home are either missing or dead.

3.) He is somehow influencing the restoration project and can communicate through the website.

While I have no doubt Wally is going to be antagonist in the arg, I do wonder how he going to be portrayed as it goes on. Will he be pure evil? A victim? Or will be a decoy as the real big bad is lurking in the shadows? We don’t know Wally’s motives for starting the restoration project or why the show was canceled in the first place but I do have a theory.

I feel when Wally became sentient, he became disillusion with the world he was in and tried to escaped it. Whether he took the Doki Doki Route or his friends were caught in the crossfire is unclear but in the end, his actions caused his friends to be no more and the show to be canceled. So years later after everything, he manages to find a way to somewhat influence the real world through unknown means. He is now trying to bring back the show but his reasons for doing so can be two things.

The first reason is that he is still trying to escape into the real world but the other reason I think he isn’t just trying to restored his show itself but his friends. We have no idea why they are gone, just that they have disappeared. So, the restoration project may be part of a way to bring back his friends. To Wally, he can have everything when the restoration project is completed: His connection to real world, his friends, the show… everything would go back to the way it was… except it won’t. Wally is not the same puppet before everything started to go downhill. He aware what he is and know he basically in a cage. Not only that, he’s been mostly alone for years now before the start of the project. So, he basically a bit unhinged right now. If his friends do come back, whether they are still the same or become a dark version of themselves, it will not be the same as it once was before.

There is also Home as well. From we what we seen, Wally kinda fears Home as in a audio clip shows him sounding a bit scared of if Home like his song or not. Wally has also been seen worshiping Home. There’s definitely hints of a toxic relationship going on here and I have wonder if Home is the source of all dark stuff that’s been happening. There’s an instance where he was telling us to be quiet. Like if we make a noise, something might catch us. If it’s Home he is talking about, than we have to wonder what exactly is Home that making Wally scared of him.

Either way, I can't wait for more from this project and for the creator, Clown to take all the time he needs for himself and the project. This really blew up quick and it can be really overwhelming but I wish the best of luck for Clown.

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alicent-archive · 2 months

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Saw this confession and it honestly feels like something that could happen:

tumblr(.)com/fandomlife-confessions/745965162908057600

I think some aspects are a bit jumping the shark, but I can see Alicent voice regret Helaena didn’t marry Jace and I can also see her help Rhaenyra as an advisor.

Oof okay, the confession definitely enters...fanfic territory and (as you've said) jumps the shark, but I'll try to address the points that concern S2.

Guilt for Luke's death = I think what will cause Alicent's guilt will be shock; it's so early on in the war, that the death of a Targaryen prince and his dragon by the hands of her favoured son would provoke a reaction from most people.

Become disillusioned = This is a biiiit OOC for her, she might have regrets, but I just can't see her become completely disillusioned.

Realising she gains nothing from the patriarchy = I don't think Alicent will...ever realise that. She's a product of her environment and how she was raised, and I don't think she'll ever quite reach that stage.

Quest for Rhaenyra's forgiveness = Rather than forgiveness, I think what will lead her to Dragonstone will be desperation; perhaps this is the last and final attempt Alicent will ever try at peace before she realises that nothing can be done. The realm is at war.

Helaena and Jace = I can't see Alicent admitting to that, and her reasons for refusing were valid. With Helaena, TB have a hostage, and Alicent would never regret NOT putting her only girl in danger for a half measure.

Advisor Alicent = I've got no idea; it really depends how that Dragonstone conversation goes, but I really don't think Alicent would assist or advise Rhaenyra. I think Alicent would try and settle her guilt and choose peace, not continue the war and aid the people attempting to kill her family.

Overall, I've got no clue what S2 is cooking up for my war wives, and all of my thoughts could mean nothing by the end of the season.

#asks #rhaenicent #alicent hightower #team green #text #house of the dragon

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flying-kanery · 2 years

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Voice

Hey queens! Soooooooo this is my first time ever posting one of the many fics I've written and it honestly feels surreal lol. Anyways, any and all writing advice is more than welcome! I'm so glad to finally be actively participating in the little kanera community on tumblr! I hope you guys enjoy the fic and that it brings even just a little smile to y'all's faces :)

Notes: This fic is the first part of a five-part series I'm planning to write. Each chapter is going to be inspired by one of the five love languages (words of affirmation, physical touch, gift giving, acts of service, and quality time). I guess you could say that it’s a late response to the Kanera week prompt “love languages” although I’ve actually been working on it for a while lol. This chapter is inspired by words of affirmation, thus the title: Voice.

Everyone in the fandom, myself included, seems to really like the idea of Hera singing. So I've wanted to write a fic about what singing means to Hera for a long time and here it is!!!

I actually started writing this fic on my birthday in early August (stay with me I promise this is significant lol) and I always pictured that Hera was a Leo like me (I'm definitely not projecting). So anyways, I picture this fic taking place soon after her birthday, which is why it starts with Kanan kind of reminiscing about when she was younger and thinking about how much she's grown as a person and stuff. Just wanted to explain my thought process there lol ;)

Anyways, here's the fic (rating: G):

Hera was twenty now, so they had been together for about a year and a half.

He remembered it. Meeting her when she was eighteen. It was such a different time. She was so light and airy, as if she didn't have a care in the world somehow–even though clearly she did. She cared about everyone. She was always more in touch with the pain of others than she was with her own emotions. She was alone, not taking into account the company of her droid of course, but she didn't seem bothered by it. She never lost hope in people, despite the fact that no one had believed in her enough to join her cause yet. That was the thing about eighteen-year-old Hera. She could connect with and understand just about anyone, but no one could really understand her.

She was always magnetic. Eyes and smiles followed her wherever she walked. But the thing that captured all kinds of people, the thing about her that made the air in the room become arid and still, as if the wind itself was stopping to listen--was her voice.

It didn't matter who was listening. Whether it was thugs with nowhere better to be or a wealthy rogue senator over a transmission or even a disillusioned ex-jedi who had used up all of his strength to bury and suffocate the love inside of him. When Hera spoke, you listened, some of the thugs even nodded, and everyone obeyed.

Her voice was the first thing that captured him the second that they met. But it wasn't just the sound of her voice. It was the soul behind every vibration. He just knew there was something more. Something deep inside of her, yearning for him to pull it out--set it free.

Of course, he didn't realize that that was the reason he loved her voice, at first. He just thought it was beautiful--and he wasn't wrong. It's just that now, he realized there was so much more to her voice.

Now, what he had always known had been fully realized: the reason that he couldn't help but follow her and eventually get completely and permanently swept up in the storm of sound she created every time she spoke.

Now, he realized that her voice had always been calling to him because her voice was his calling. Hera's voice was one of the biggest ways she expressed herself and exposed her soul to the world. However, as open-hearted, expressive, and brave as Hera was, she still kept so much of her soul private--which, at this point, meant between the two of them.

He knew that there was so much of her soul that only he got to see--as if that part of her was made just for him. He was the only person who got to see and love and be a part of all of her.

He was beyond honored and ecstatic to be that person--the one who got to love everything she is.

But there was still one part of Hera that not even he had fully experienced yet.

The first and only time he had ever heard Hera sing was in the middle of the night when he was half-asleep, just waking from a nightmare, eyes so blurred with tears that he could barely make out her face right above his. But he could hear the melody she was singing and it was like nothing he had ever heard before. It felt like a dream, but when he woke up the next morning, remembering what he had heard the night before, something inside of him just knew it was real.

He often replayed that memory of her singing to him and it always made him smile, but a part of him just wanted to hear more.

He was just replaying that favorite memory of his while making repairs in the cargo bay when suddenly, he heard it.

"Hold me close and hold me fast."

He stopped his work.

"This magic spell you cast."

He climbed up the ladder to the lounge, his mind solely focusing on her voice.

“This is la vie en rose.”

When he reached the top, he moved through the lounge as quietly as he could towards the cockpit, where the singing was coming from.

Luckily, Hera couldn’t see him, even though he was standing right outside the open doors to the cockpit, because she was lying on the ground positioned beneath the Ghost’s control panel.

“When you kiss me, heaven sighs”

”And though I close my eyes–”

She looked up to reach for another tool and right as she did, Kanan side-stepped so that his back was against the durasteel wall right by the doorwary.

She grabbed the tool and layed back down.

“I see la vie en rose.”

He peeked his head into the doorway and continued to watch her sing—entranced by the way the song spoke to his heart.

The way he could sense the happiness radiating off of her told him who she was singing to—even if she didn’t know that he was actually listening.

“When you press me to your heart, I’m in a world apart–a world where roses bloom”

He relaxed against the doorframe, letting her voice wash over him.

“And when you speak angels sing from above. Everyday words seem to turn into love songs.”

He felt an overwhelming sense of calm. Peace flowed through him with every breath he took, as Hera’s song filled the air.

“Give your heart and soul to me and life will always be la vie en rose.”

As she continued on with her work, she began humming the melody of the song.

Kanan wanted to stay and listen to her all day, but he knew she would get suspicious if she found that at the end of the day he hadn’t finished all of his repairs. So he walked back down to the cargo bay, still listening to the sound of her hums as he went.

That night, as he pulled Hera close to his chest, he whispered against her forehead,

“Can I ask you something?”

Hera lifted her head to look at him, “Yes, love.”

Kanan laughed, “Okay, well…It’s just kind of a random question.”

She smiled, “Aren’t they always?”

He paused for a moment, then shrugged. “Yeah, I guess so,” he said laughing.

“So what is it?”

Another moment passed as Kanan wondered how he should go about asking this question. Slowly and simply he said, “Do you like to sing?”

What?

Hera was dumbfounded by Kanan’s strange question. She also couldn’t seem to verbalize any kind of response to it, which she wasn’t used to. However, as of late, it was becoming more and more common for her to be at a loss for words, specifically in situations involving Kanan. That man never ceased to surprise her.

Kanan just patiently waited for her to respond. She could tell by his expression that he was open to hear any answer she gave him. That always made her feel safe—the fact that she could just look into his eyes and know that there was never any pressure for her to do any certain thing or act any certain way. She could just be herself. She didn’t have to try around him at all. She could just be.

Letting that feeling of safety surround her is how she managed to finally get a few words out, “Uh…yeah, I do actually. Just not really in front of other people–well, I’m just kind of shy about my voice.”

“Oh,” he nodded. “I understand…Why are you shy about your voice?” he asked, tilting his head a little like an adorable puppy.

How could she not open up to that?

“I guess I just…I don’t know. I just–don’t wanna draw attention to myself? Even if it’s just one person’s attention. I just feel so vulnerable when I sing, you know?”

Kanan nodded once again as a silent moment passed.

“My mother used to sing to me a lot…She would always tell me that when you sing, you open up your soul to other people. You put a piece of your heart into the words you’re singing for all to hear…I just struggle with being that open I guess.”

Kanan smiled, “That makes sense.” He pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her. “You deserve to feel safe.”

When Kanan woke up the next morning, Hera was already awake propped up on top of him, her face right above his.

“Good morning, Hera,” he grabbed her face and kissed the space between her eyebrows.

She laughed, “Good morning.”

A tense moment of silence passed as Hera’s expression suddenly changed to one of worry. He could tell there was something she wanted to say—no, not necessarily say, but something she had to let out.

She rested her head on his chest. Another quiet moment and then,

“Wise men say, only fools rush in”

He looked down at her, awe in his eyes. She nervously fiddled with the hair on his chest.

“But I can’t help falling in love with you.”

His heart felt like it was going to explode. He smiled wide and kissed the top of her head, urging her to go on.

“Oh, shall I stay? Would it be a sin? If I can’t help falling in love with you.”

He held her closer, cherishing this moment. Soaking in this piece of her heart—this part of her—that she was finally sharing with him.

She moved to face him again as she continued.

“Like a river flows surely to the sea, darlin’ so it goes, some things are meant to be”

She moved a few stray hairs behind his ear, and their noses touched.

She touched his hand as she sang,

“Oh, take my hand”

Their fingers interlocked.

“Take my whole life too.”

“For I can’t help falling in love with you.”

She smiled, a big wide, genuine smile.

“Oh, I can’t help falling in love with you”

He lifted her face so that her lips met his. When they finally broke apart, they pressed their foreheads against each other and just sat there, happily looking into each other’s eyes, a quiet understanding between them.

He pressed her to his heart again.

After a moment, she popped right back up and with a wry smile said, “So when do I get to hear you sing?”

He laughed. “You hear me sing all the time! When a song I know comes on the radio, purposefully loud to annoy you, or embarrass you if we’re in public–”

“No, Kanan,” she laughed. “I mean, like actually sing.”

“Actually sing?”

“Like, actually try to sound good.”

He paused for a moment, “Hera, that is my actual singing voice.”

Her eyes went wide as she tried to hold back laughter.

“Guess I’m just a terrible singer,” he said sarcastically, but unable to hold back his laughter.

“I guess you are,” Hera laughed.

Thank you so much for reading<3xoxo

#star wars rebels #kanera #kanan jarrus #hera syndulla #caleb dume #kanan x hera #hera x kanan #star wars: rebels #fic #kanera week #star wars #rebels

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ecoamerica · 2 months

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youtube

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

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mtdthoughts · 3 months

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Reflections After Reading the Book of Lies Trilogy (Migi & Dali Analysis)

If you're familiar with my blog, I love Migi & Dali not just because of the comedy (I've seen funnier), the murder mystery (I've seen more interesting), or even the art (I've seen better), but rather the gripping and emotional tale hidden under layers of symbolism, parallelism, and a minimalistic style of presentation. In this way, Migi & Dali is unique.

This also means that Migi & Dali is relatively more difficult to digest and understand, because it doesn't spoon-feed the reader/viewer everything they need to know. But because I'm a thinking man, analyzing this story was satisfying and enjoyable for me, which is why this blog exists today! (though I wish I could also be a drawing man...)

I've enjoyed Migi & Dali so much that I read Kristof's Book of Lies trilogy (i.e. The Notebook, The Proof, and The Third Lie), even though I do NOT enjoy reading books (ironic, considering how much I write in this blog). But the books were so captivating (also very sad) that I read them all in one sitting.

After drawing several connections in previous posts, it's clear to me that Sano drew heavy inspiration from Kristof's books, whether it was the idea of blonde twins spending their childhood in lovelessness without a mother, the pain of loss and separation, and even a cryptic, minimalistic, and deceptive writing style that requires the reader to do their homework in interpreting and analyzing the story.

Now, I'm not here to tell anyone what to do, but if you are a fan of Migi & Dali, I strongly recommend that you read Kristof's books, because doing this allowed me to gain a better understanding and appreciation of both stories.

Indeed, by comparing the similarities and differences between the two stories, the true nature of Sano's story becomes more clear, and the twins' actions and feelings make more sense.

Though both stories featured a pair of twins that lost their mother and were forced into solitude when they were very young, the stories ultimately went in completely opposite directions.

While Migi and Dali were able to find love and acceptance from those around them, such as the Sonoyamas, Akiyama and Maruta, and even each other, Lucas and Klaus remained disillusioned and completely resigned themselves to loveless, lonely, and miserable lives.

While Migi and Dali were confident that their bond would endure after they live their own lives, Lucas and Klaus constantly suffered and could not get over their separation, and when they are finally reunited in The Third Lie, Klaus rejects Lucas, as both of them resign themselves to tragic ends.

I think the takeaway in the parallel between the two stories lies in a key difference: while Migi and Dali were able to find acceptance through opening up to those around them, Lucas and Claus (and Klaus in The Third Lie) remained closed off and suffered. Indeed, although Lucas and Klaus lived in a harsh, war-torn environment, they still had many people around them who could provide the love and acceptance they needed. But because no one taught them how to love, their lives became the way they did. Migi and Dali (especially Dali) could have met a similar fate through their misguided quest for revenge, but this was averted thanks to the power of love. (I know, it sounds a bit corny, but it is true)

Thus, Sano masterfully created an original and beautiful story that provides a wonderful and hopeful message about love through the inversion of the lovelessness and despair found in the Book of Lies trilogy. It becomes clear that Migi & Dali isn't really about discovering the truth behind a mother's death, nor is it a comedy featuring twin shenanigans. In the end, it's really a journey of overcoming isolation and despair through love and acceptance. Realizing this gave me a newfound appreciation for the story, which I'll always keep in my memories.

#migi and dali #migi to dali #analysis

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melrosing · 2 years

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We all know the end of GoT is full of loads of stuff that is in no way going to be book canon, but are there any small details that jump out at you that you think MUST have come from George?

Here's some things I think sound like GRRM. I've omitted a few others because.... have you seen the state of this fandom lmao. But anyway:

King Bran: I know this is essentially confirmed, but am aware that some fans still don't buy it... so just reiterating that I definitely do. I think the foreshadowing is all over the place in the books, it's just that it points more towards the 'fisher king' concept than it does the King Bran we see in the show - which is just a guy sitting in King's landing doing much the same as previous monarchs had done, only with fancy powers. I think King Bran in the books will have a lot more mystique about him, and will be about restoring the supernatural and the symbiotic relationship between lands and their people. Kind of the opposite of what happens in LOTR, where magic instead dies away and the magical races just gradually vanish

Also I think he will be 'democratically elected' lol, but in Winterfell. Catelyn basically spells it out all the way back in ACOK: "We will send to Winterfell, so Bran may tell his tale and all men may know the Lannisters for the true usurpers. Let the assembled lords of the Seven Kingdoms choose who shall rule them." CAT IV, ACOK Obviously I think it'll be less about holding the Lannisters accountable (I think House Lannister will be largely dead/utterly depleted by then), more about just making sense of what has happened in Westeros and what is should become. I think Tyrion will also be instrumental in advocating for King Bran, they've had a connection since AGOT

Jon rejoining the Night's Watch and going beyond the wall: Controversial maybe lol, but I think this absolutely rings true for Jon. His arc starts with him trying to escape to support Robb, and his brothers of the NW reclaiming him and reminding him they stand for something beyond the politics of the south (or the relative south). In TWOW and ADOS I think Jon will be caught up in those politics and become utterly disillusioned with it all. He's spent his life craving recognition as a Stark, but I think honestly his true values lie beyond names and Houses with his NW bros - this is reiterated again and again in his POV. So the NW won't exist in the same way it does in the books currently, I think it'll be more a force to unite the wildlings with the country they'd heretofore been completely cut off from, and to help them rebuild what they'd been forced to abandon. I just don't see Jon ruling in the south or in Winterfell: GRRM believes in 'cripples, bastards and broken things', and I think Jon and his brotherhood in the NW is very much symbolic of that motif. I don't believe that means he'll be exiled/cut off from his Stark family, just that the wall and beyond it is where his priorities will lie post-series.

Arya might travel Planetos. I don't think it'll be what the show does where it's almost as though she's never coming back, or that she thinks she's somehow incompatible now with her own home. But basically just because Arya likes meeting new people and learning about their countries and cultures - I can imagine her wanting to do so on her own terms post-series. So I think that idea could easily have come from GRRM (D&D would've been more likely to just stick her in Winterfell as Sansa's bodyguard if it were up to them), but I also think her story is one of the more flexible - when GRRM recently said he'd thought of a new and very fitting ending for a character, I think it could easily have been Arya

Sansa will have Littlefinger executed. Hated how this was done in the show but was so relieved to have him gone lmao. Anyway i think the foreshadowing's there and honestly good for her

Cersei will be fucking around with wildfire. This has basically been broadcast all through both hers and Jaime's chapters, no way it's not happening

Jaime will wield Widow's Wail. GRRM basically confirmed this by having him wield it in those svudu cage matches (?) he did years ago. He'll fight in TLN as well

Jaime may knight Brienne? Have discussed the pros and cons of this concept before but ultimately I think it comes from GRRM

#ask #asoiaf #got for ts

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vaguely-humanoid-form · 8 months

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rambling about Monika DDLC to kick off spooky month because I'm super normal about her

spoilers for DDLC as well as trigger warnings for mentions of suicide, self harm, death, abuse, neglect, and just basically most of the stuff that's in DDLC so. reader discretion is advised !

Monika is a character that I understand on such a deeply profound level and who also means a lot to me

DDLC came out when I was in 5th grade, approximately 10 years old, and GOD did I hyperfixate on that bad boy HARD

I've been an avid horror game fan ever since FNAF 1 came out, investing in its lore and community starting at the ripe old age of 7 years old !

but, anyways, back to DDLC

I don't know how I originally found out about it, but somehow, I did, and I quickly became kind of obsessed with it

I remember I could never really get myself to be too invested in the 3 romanceable girls, for some reason

I hated Yuri, for whatever reason, Natsuki was fine, and Sayori was also just fine, so what was I meant to do if I couldn't muster up much interest in the girls that were actually able to be romanced?

I gravitated towards Monika.

she's not at all a popular choice, with many people only really looking a little bit past the surface level of her antagonism

I'm not going to say that I was "so much smarter" than the people who did that because I was like 10 years old.

but in my weird child brain, I connected to Monika on a deeper level than what a lot of fans at the time did

she was ... weird. she fit in with the rest of the cast, but she also stuck out like a sore thumb, which makes me realize now that I was like that.

I had friends, I was generally liked a good amount, I did good in school

but I was also a weird kid.

I was also a GT kid.

I hit puberty a shitton earlier than most kids do or should, which also includes my mental maturity skyrocketing above others my age

while it's less so now, I did and do have a hard time really making good friends that are my age

while they're at the point they need to be at, I was there at 12 years old, or whatever

that paired alongside the fact that I was GT? I was smarter than just about everyone I knew that was my age. and I'm not trying to be all haughty or something, I just want to state the facts

so, in comes Monika, a club president and a leader who's generally well-liked, but doesn't quite fit in with the rest of her classmates

she's an overachiever and a bit of a people pleaser who isn't sure where she's supposed to go.

which is why her self awareness must've been crushing.

all of a sudden, she is painfully aware of her place as an outsider in her world in a very literal sense

the way she's written isn't to be someone who the game considers to be worth really knowing, serving as a voice of reason and quiet supporter of everyone else's endeavors

and she panics.

what else could she do? she's a video game character with the mentality of an 18 year old who suddenly becomes completely self-aware of her world and situation.

this is the start of what I believe to be Monika's Mental Breakdown™, which runs its course throughout all acts of the game, gradually getting more and more desperate as she seeks to find meaning in a world that never meant for her to have one

she grows detached with her reality, her friends morphing into arbitrary 1s and 0s to the point where she can't fathom the idea that they're real people.

so, she goes into a logical, albeit flawed, mindset.

if she can make it so the other girls become so degraded in their mental states that they lose all appeal to the player, she will be the only one left to be romanced.

if she gets rid of the obstacles, she can win.

and this revelation brings her deeper into her mental breakdown, losing touch with her reality and growing so disillusioned with her world that she effectively kills her friends.

we know that she didn't/doesn't blame herself for it, rationalizing to herself that all she did was "untie the knot," AKA, undo the girls' mental states just enough that they would plummet on their own, devolving into the worst they could be within the limits of the game

Monika "unties the knot" of Sayori and her depression, which originally could've been a small part of her character or simply a coded (not the literal kind) trait, into something debilitating, ultimately leading to Sayori committing suicide.

she "unties the knot" of Yuri and... whatever she's got going on, which originally could've been an innocent, if not a bit macabre, interest in knives and dark themes, into obsessive, creepy, self-harming behaviors, ultimately leading to Yuri also committing suicide.

she "unties the knot" of the strain of Natsuki's relationship with her father, which originally could've been some simple daddy issues, into abuse and neglect, which doesn't lead to Natsuki committing suicide, but she's still pretty fucked up, and her neck breaks that one time which she doesn't really die from but it's like. adjacent.

anyways, Monika tries to find the weaknesses and flaws of her former friends, who have now only devolved into barriers to her goal in her head, and exploit them to turn the player away from them and onto her

and she does find and exploit those flaws, and she tries her goddamn hardest to achieve what she wants with minimal harm done.

but the game refuses to give her what she wants.

and she's confused.

she's worked so hard this entire time, has broken her back trying to just give herself an ending.

but the game refuses to give her what she wants. what she's worked for.

so, when Yuri inevitably dies, Monika just decides to get rid of everything but herself and you. and also a classroom. and like some technical stuff for anything to actually work but that's not the important part here ok

she rigs the game, and she gives herself an ending.

kind of.

she's so caught up in her state of relief and joy that she can finally, FINALLY, have you, that she forgets all about her .chr file.

she forgets that she, too, can be deleted.

and when that happens, she reaches her breaking point.

she feels like she's lost positively EVERYTHING at this point, that all of this was for nothing, that she failed after trying so hard.

she's like SUPER pissed off now

at everything

everyone

her friends

the game

you

and most importantly,

herself.

she has a breakthrough at what she's done. and she's more ashamed than a game character should have the capacity to be.

and she hates herself for what she's done, but she loves you just the same amount.

so she brings the girls back for you so you can maybe, finally be happy.

but it doesn't go well.

a new club president means a new girl who gets cursed by self-awareness means a new cycle of suffering for everyone.

so she stops it, deleting the whole literature club altogether, hoping that maybe, someday, they will all find happiness.

the point that I want to get across is that Monika is not a villain.

yes, she is the game's big major antagonist.

but she is not the villain.

the villain, I believe, is the self-awareness itself.

we can see that in how Sayori acts after becoming the club president.

and I believe that Monika is not a bad person.

she's not a good person, either.

she's a character that, through some unholy intervention, is forced to realize her place as an asset to a story that she desperately wants to be a key player in.

she's programmed to act and think like a high schooler, leading her to some dubious conclusions that lead to horrific choices.

she is a human that was never meant to be one.

and, while this may be somewhat controversial of me to say, she comes off as being borderline, to me at least

I'm borderline, and I see a lot of my worst behaviors and/or thoughts in her, mostly applying to a Favorite Person and the strange fixation your brain conjures up for them

hell, there's a LOT of indication that she's delusional, grappling with her situation and trying to figure out what's real and what isn't

and honestly? I think it would make sense from a narrative point of view

each girl is mentally fucked up in some way, with Sayori's depression and Yuri's self destructive tendencies and Natsuki's daddy issues, (these are gross oversimplifications) so it would make sense for Monika to have something going on, too

I've been writing this for way too long now and this is super disorganized and jumbled so I'm gonna leave this here even though I can probably talk for hours about this LMAO

anyways TLDR Monika is best girl and deserves better

#ripley doesn't say stuff #ripley doesn't know how to write #thats right baby new tag #uh. yeah #ddlc #ddlc monika #doki doki literature club #essay? kinda?#more just me screaming into the void #tw: suidice #tw: death #tw: sh #tw: abuse #tw: neglect #just monika #hi guys. im both in love with monika AND projecting onto her #doki doki monika

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