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#this is all so morally ambiguous

starry-bi-sky · 2 months

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Stuck in the middle of a forest made of

Flesh and bones and they're all scared of

A lost little boy who has lost his heart

Fear's not enough, they have to

Tear him apart —-------

There are two things Daniel Fenton knows that his family knows as well:

He’s adopted.

He can’t remember anything else before that.

‘Adoption’ is a loose term, implying that they went through the official legal processes and troubles of adopting a child into their home willingly, and with the full intention of doing so going into it. That is not what happened. What happened is that Jasmine Fenton found a half-dead child, in strange clothing, in the middle of the woods at her Aunt Alicia’s cabin, and then she went and got her parents.

What happened is that a twelve year old Danny woke up in the same cabin, wearing clothes much too big on him that didn’t belong to him, and with very little memory of before that moment. He wakes up like a spring being set loose, sitting up so fast he scares the daylights out of Jasmine Fenton sitting next to him. He wakes up, reaching for his sleeve for something that isn’t there, and when it isn’t his mind stutters, like he’s tripped at the top of a steep hill.

When they ask him for his name, he tells them, clearing muddled thoughts from his mind; Danny. He’s twelve.

(He thinks that’s his name, at least. It sounds right; it feels right. If he thinks really hard about it, he thinks he can remember someone calling him that, utter adoration in their voice. So it must be his name.)

The Jasmine girl convinces her parents to take him home with them, and they give him the spare guest room upstairs. He has nothing to fill it with.

It’s… a strange experience, to go to a ‘new’ home when he doesn’t even remember his old one.

The official adoption process… happens. He can’t say it’s easy, or difficult. He’s oblivious for the most of it, Jasmine intends on helping him settle in and Danny can’t say he enjoys the smothering. He learns that he is stubbornly self-independent, that’s one new thing he knows about himself.

His adoption papers say ‘Daniel J. Fenton’. Danny remembers staring at the name ‘Daniel’ for a long, long moment, something curdling sour in his sternum. His name is Danny, that he knows. But it’s not Daniel. But he doesn’t know any other way of saying it, so he keeps his complaints to himself.

(Jack Fenton boisterously claps his hand on Danny’s shoulder and jerks him around, grinning wide as he welcomes him into the Fenton Family. Danny’s mind blanches at the touch on his shoulder, an instinct snapping like the maw of a snake, telling him to cut off the man’s fingers for daring to touch him.)

(He keeps the thought to himself, tension rising up his shoulders the longer Jack Fenton’s heavy hand stays on him.)

They found Danny in the summer. It’s a perfect coincidence, Maddie Fenton says before she goes back into her lab with Jack Fenton. She says it’s enough time to allow Danny to adjust; that they’ll enroll him into the school year in the fall. Then she stuffs a canister of ectoplasm onto the top shelf, and disappears like the ghosts she studies back down the stairs.

(There’s something eerily familiar about the ectoplasm sitting in the fridge, something unsettlingly so. Danny knows what that stuff is, but he doesn’t know where. When the house is empty, he takes a can from the fridge and inspects it.)

Jazz wants him to leave the house. Danny doesn’t want to step foot outside of the FentonWorks building until he has something that quells the feeling of vulnerability he gets whenever he does. He tried to once, and he felt exposed. Unsafe.

He turned back around and went inside.

—-------

Where do we go

When the river's running slow

Where do we run

When the cats kill one by one

—------

One day, when the house is empty — or, as empty as it can be; the Fenton parents down in the lab, and jazz out with friends. Danny is making a sandwich, and he caves into the urge to flip the knife in his hands between his fingers. A childish impulse, but one he falls for nonetheless. It comes to him easily, like second nature, in fact. The slip of the blade between his fingers is seamless, flowing with an ease like water running down the wall.

He’s almost startled by it; his body holds memories that his mind does not. Muscles that know which way to move and twist, limbs that know how to hold and how to throw. He continues twirling it, fascinated, as if he were a scientist discovering a new species of animal.

It’s not for a handful of minutes when a new thought hits him; an impulsive thought that pops in the back of his mind like a firecracker; Danny moves without thinking.

He turns, and throws the knife. The pull of his shoulder, the flick of his elbow, is familiar like a hug. He knows when to let go, and the blade flies through the air in impressive speed, embedding itself into the wall with a hearty, loud thunk. Sinking into the drywall like butter.

Danny stares at it in shock, he feels relieved — about what? — before he feels the guilt. He scrambles across the kitchen to pull it out, heart racing in his chest at being caught, and prays no one notices the hole it left behind.

(He runs up the stairs before anyone can find him, food forgotten, and hides the knife beneath his mattress like a guilty murder weapon.)

After that, he leaves the house more. It’s more out of fear of being caught than the desire to leave. But Danny is quickly learning that among all things, he is someone who was dangerous, before he lost his memory. Even with his mind in fractures, he is still dangerous.

He’s not sure how to feel about that — he thinks he should be scared. He feels a little proud, instead.

—------

Hazel beneath our claws

While we wait for cerulean to cry

Unsettled ticks run through time

Enough for the hunt to go awry

—-----

There’s another thing he learns about himself. That he knows about since he woke up. He knows that he left someone behind. He doesn’t know who, but he knows they must have been close; he’s always looking down and finding himself surprised when the only shadow he sees is his own.

He thinks that he must have sung to them a lot; he finds himself humming familiar melodies when he’s lost in thought. Lullabies lingering at the tip of his tongue, an instinct to turn and sing them to someone beside him. He can’t remember the lyrics, but his mouth does, it tries to get him to say them when he’s not thinking. He can’t.

Danny’s found himself humming under his breath more times than he can count, trying to recall whatever it is his mind is trying to claw forward.

(“That’s a pretty song, Danny.” Jazz tells him at breakfast one day, Danny screws his mouth shut. He hadn’t realized he was humming. “What is it?”)

(Something mean and possessive rears its head on instinct, uncoiling like a snake from its ball. His shoulders hunch defensively, he bites his cheek to prevent himself from baring his teeth. He doesn’t know what song it is, but it’s not for her. “I don’t know.”)

He misses his person. Dearly. He knows, the longer he is without them, that they must have been close. Otherwise, he wouldn’t feel like he’s missing a chunk from himself. He wouldn’t be turning to someone who's not there; reaching for a hand that’s missing, birdsong on his tongue, a story to tell.

A dream haunts him one night. Warm and familiar, he’s holding onto someone smaller than him, they’re tucked into his side like a puzzle piece. He’s humming one of his songs that is always playing in the back of his mind, an unfinished tale of a harpy and a hare. Danny can’t remember their face, not all of it. He remembers green eyes, hair dark like his own, skin brown like his.

He loves them more than anything else in the world, a fact he knows down to his soul. He loves them so much it fills his heart with sunlight. Danny squeezes them tight, nuzzling into their hair; he makes them laugh. Then, he proudly boasts something. That when he takes something of their father’s, that his person — a sibling? That feels right — will be… the word fades from Danny’s mind before he can make sense of it.

His person hugs him tight, his… brother? And their mother — a woman whose face he can’t remember either, but who he loves like a limb nonetheless — appears, smiling. Her hands reach for them both, voice calling them, ‘her sons’. There’s ticking in the distance, it sounds like the fastening of chains.

Danny wakes up cold, tears streaming down his face. The details of the dream already fading from his mind like the cold pull of a corpse.

—-------

Harpy hare

Where have you buried all your children?

Tell me so I say

—-------

When school starts that Fall, Danny joins the sixth grade class, and quickly learns more things about himself. One of those things being that he’s smarter than the rest of his grade, whatever education he had before, it was better than the one he’s getting now.

Everyone knows he’s adopted right off the bat. He tells them when the teacher forces himself to introduce himself, but it’s not like they needed him to tell them for them to know; he never existed in their little world before now, and the Fentons are pale as they come. Danny is not.

He befriends Sam Manson and Tucker Foley; they ask him about the scars fading up and down his arms, they ask him about the scar carved diagonal across his face.

Danny, as politely as he can, tells them he doesn’t remember. He thought kindness would come second nature to him, his dream burned into his mind where he hugged his brother so sweetly. Apparently, his sweetness is only second nature to people he considers his own.

(It becomes even more apparent when Dash Baxter tries to bully him later that day, and Danny ruffles like an eagle threatened. His mind whispers, hissy and agitated, sinking like a shadow at his shoulder, several different ways Danny could kill him for talking to him like that, and fifteen more ways he could cripple him.)

(Danny ignores those thoughts, up until Dash Baxter tries to grab him. Then he breaks his nose on the wood of his desk. It’s easy how quickly the rest of his grade sinks him down to the status of social pariah.)

(At least Sam and Tucker still talk to him after that. When Danny goes to the principal’s office later, he wisely doesn’t mention the worse things he could’ve done than break Dash Baxter’s nose.)

—--------------

It clicks and it clatters in corners and borders

And they will never

Hear me here listen to croons and a calling

I'll tell them all the

Story, the sun, and the swallow, her sorrow

Singing me the tale of the Harpy and the Hare

—-------

More dreams come, of course they do. Each one halfway to forgotten whenever he wakes up, ticking faint in his ears. He is many different ages. He is young, shorter than a table. He is older, holding onto his little brother. He is singing in almost every single one. He is singing to his brother.

Danny can barely remember the lyrics, he’s begun leaving a journal by his bedside so that it’s the first thing he can write down when he wakes up. He’s a storyteller, he learns. He feels like a historian, trying to piece together a culture long dead and forgotten.

His most vivid dream-like memory is not a happy one, and for once he’s almost relieved he barely recalls it. He is somewhere that isn’t home, but his mother and brother are there. He is dressed in black, blades keen in his hands.

They are atop a moving train. They are fleeing something. His brother is struggling to keep up, he is small, and young. It’s beautifully sunny, they are somewhere green and lovely.

It is a fast dream.

His brother stumbles on something, and Danny, fast as a whip, snatches him by the back of his shirt and hoists him up to his feet before he can fall. “Watch your feet, habibi.” He murmurs low, a hand on his back. It’s hard to hear, there is wind in their ears.

His brother, face obscured in all but his eyes, which are green as emeralds, nods.

The dream blurs, but Danny falls behind. His foot catches on air — impossible, it should’ve been, at least. He never trips. — and he lands against the roof with a thud and a grunt. His mother and brother stop, and turn for him.

The train hits a turn before Danny can get up, and he shouldn’t have, something pulls on him, he swears, but he slips. He can’t find the purchase to pull himself up, cold fear hits him as his nails scrape against the metal.

His mother and brother’s horrified faces are the last thing he sees before he disappears off the side of the train.

(The ticking is at its loudest when he wakes up, pounding against his inner skull. He only manages to write down ‘train fall’ in his journal, before he’s flipping over to press his head into his pillow to get the pain to stop.)

—---

She can't keep them all safe

They will die and be afraid

Mother, tell me so I say

(Mother, tell me so I say)

—-------

When Danny is fourteen he is still humming songs he can’t remember, his mind still in a broken puzzle. But his room is now decorated with stars and plants in every corner. He has a guitar he keeps in the corner of his room, and he plays the lullabies in his head on the strings over and over again.

The ectoplasm in the fridge still unsettles him, still reminds him of a past he can’t recall. The knife beneath his mattress has returned to the kitchen — he doesn’t need it. He found a box in the attic last year, it had his name on it, and inside he found familiar, strange clothes, and more weapons than he thought was possible to carry on one person.

(Even without knowing that the Fentons prefer guns to blades, Danny knows, instinctively, that they were his weapons. He was — was? Is — a dangerous person. He takes the box down to his room to sort through. The weapons all fit into his callused hands almost perfectly — the grooves worn to fit his palm. They’re just a little small.)

(He tentatively takes a small blade with him to school one day, and feels much more comfortable with it sheathed beneath his shirt. He’s kept it on him ever since, like he’s reunited a lost limb to himself.)

Danny doesn’t have a name for his person, his little brother, nor does he have a name for his beloved mother. He’s haunted by dreams every few weeks, many of them repeating. He’s ingrained the words he can remember to memory, and the ones he doesn’t, he writes down in his journal. His little brother; Danny calls him a bird, he can’t figure out what kind. His little bird of some kind; when Danny takes something from their father — what, he can’t remember what — then his little brother will be a little bird.

(He doesn’t have a name for his brother, yet, but he’s calling his birdie in his head. It’s better than nothing.)

—------

Seeker, do you ever come to wonder

If what you're looking for is within where you hold

Will you leave a trail for them to follow a path

You'll soon forget

Home

—---------

When he’s fourteen, Danny dies. It does nothing to fix his fractured memories, much to his consternation. It just confirms something he already knows; that he was someone dangerous, and that he still is.

When the shock of death has worn off, Danny inspects his ghost in the metal reflection of the closest table. It’s blurry, hard to see, but shock green eyes pierce back at him, green like the portal. Lazarus, Danny’s mind whispers, and he blinks rapidly.

‘Lazarus,’ he mouths to himself. It’s familiar. Sam shows him with her phone what he looks like, joking that he looks like an assassin. Danny doesn’t think she’s that too far off.

He doesn’t tell her that. He tucks the thought away with the rest of his secrets, and fiddles with the hood gathering at his neck, attached to a cape with torn edges swinging down to his ankles. He pulls it over his shock white hair. It shadows over his face impossibly so, until all you can see are his green-green eyes peering out like a wolf hiding in the brush.

He ends up calling himself Phantom.

(Maybe now he can start putting lyrics to his lullabies; his memories may not have returned, locked away with the sound of a clock, but the dead can talk. One of them may just have answers.)

----------

Home is where we are

Home is where you are

Home is where I am

-----------------

Dedicated to @gascansposts for being the one who introduced me to the band Yaelokre, and thus being the whole reason I was inspired to write this in the first place >:] Those lyrics at the line breaks are all from their album Hayfields.

#dpxdc #dp x dc #danny fenton is not the ghost king #dp x dc crossover #dpxdc crossover #dpdc #danyal al ghul au #amnesiac danyal al ghul au #songs in order of the album: the hartebeest / harpy hare / and the hound / neath the grove is a heart #musician danny has my heart and soul #yes this danyal IS an alternative danny from the other au. an au where things were a little better :) but still sucks #implied good mom talia al ghul #danyal is a momma's boy send tweet #dpxdc ficlet #dpxdc prompts #dp x dc au #dp x dc fanfic #danyal is sTILL five years older than damian in this au #no beta no edits we die like danny fenton #poc danny fentons #i didnt know where to end this :(( i was gonna go on but i blanked. i thought about going into his relationships with his rogues and so on.#but that felt too much like trying to just increase the word count rather than actually writing?? if that makes sense #ugh im gonna have forgotten to include things and im gonna be kicking myself later #morally ambiguous danny whoo! we love to see it #since this was just for fun it doesnt really go into it all that much other than like. it happens. and that danny realizes he's dangerous #phantom in a hazmat suit? nah phantom looking like an assassin >:].#danyal al ghul with damian and his mom: 🥰🌸✨#danyal al ghul with everyone else: 👹🔪#am i heavily implying that clockwork had smth to do with Danyal’s amnesia and appearance by the cabin? 👀 maybe #not enough danyal al ghul aus where him being an assassin actually. has some kind of affect on him

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prideprejudce · 10 months

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the more i think about Oppenheimer the more disappointed i get because at its core it’s such an interesting story to tell. like the whole manhattan project catapulted the entire world into a new atomic era that we could never go back from whether we were ready for it or not. and the fallout from the project not only changed and devastated the lives of hundreds of thousands of people (including of course the victims in hiroshima and nagasaki + the people living in new mexico where they tested the bomb) and the continued generational trauma of the bombs. also just the general mass panic and fear that the Cold War instilled into every citizen in the states who were literally waiting to one day be just annihilated by a nuclear attack. the whole creation of the atomic bomb had so much impact on the world. so doing a deep character study of both oppenheimer and his colleagues on the moral ambiguity of their work in the project and the outcome of it is such a great movie concept. but the film didn’t feel like that at all. instead Nolan gave us the watered down story that he’s best at and spent almost three hours forcing us to watch whether oppenheimer had to lose his disneyland government fast-pass due to his communist ties or not (spoiler: he does) and how strauss doesn’t like him because he got his feewlings hurt once. all the other scientists and physicists were given one or two minutes of screen time and were really just names to a face. the actual bombs creation was given a sidelong glance and trivial explanation at best. and of course to tie it all off the main female side characters were either naked/having sex for 80% of their screen time or was given the character depth of a piece of tissue paper

#oppenheimer #oppenheimer spoilers #oppenheimer negativity #I’ve had all day to think on this and the more i do the sadder i get #i wanted to like this film so much #i thought we were gonna be given a deep dive into this character and the bomb #but the result felt shallow and contrived #the movie focuses so much on fitting as much info as possible in three hours that the story just couldn’t breathe #scenes between characters lasted all of two minutes before we were launched into another scene to two new characters #and oppenheimers personal motivation/desires just felt ambiguous the entire time #like he busts his ass to build this bomb but then all the sudden develops a moral compass when it’s done?#where’s the character depth?? what makes him so passive about some things then suddenly driven for others?#and Florence and Emily Blunt were ripped off and characters were reduced to common tropes #it’s just so disappointing….i waited all year for this movie too

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infernalurge · 6 days

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aright so this is what I'm talking about

guys there's literally no reason to put stuff like this in the tags lol!

for those who may not understand tumblr culture: character specific tags are utilized mostly by FANS of the character to discuss the character, search out meta, or look for art and fic.

it's considered bad etiquette to post character hate into the tag for the character. but with characters who have a lot of people who hate them (like Emp), this is very hard for us to self-police. it's especially annoying because it can lead to the tumblr algorithm placing these posts directly into our timelines because of how they're tagged.

literally every day we see a handful of the exact same post:

[screenshots of Emp with someone's character.]

caption: god I fucking hate him I'm going to kill him soon grrr!!

even ignoring the bad-etiquette part of it, you're basically just spamming the tags with a post that's been made 1000s of times?

it's not at all conductive to building discussion or community.

squidfuckers are gently requesting you all stop doing this lol.

#fandom #fandom etiquette #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 emperor #the emperor #even if you hate the emp or think he's evil this is just childish and creating a crappy environment for his fans #other morally ambiguous or straight up evil characters have more welcoming tags than this #I'm gonna need you guys to start thinking about the fandom environment you are fostering by excessively hating a bunch of pixels #this post showed up on my timeline btw #I wasn't even in the tags #stop tagging these as the emp's tags we are begging you lmao #this goes for all the hate and snark you think you're so super original and edgy and cool for #keep it on your blogs/personal tags #and out of the community

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antianakin · 2 months

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It's really depressing that the only real Jedi centric and Jedi positive show in existence is written for preschoolers, while many of the more "adult" shows are edgy and about morally ambiguous or straight-up evil characters. As if lessons about being kind and selfless are somehow not important or relevant to adults just as much if not more than they are to children.

It feels like characters who are unambiguously good are seen as only enjoyable by the very young and adult viewers will only actually appreciate characters who are cruel and selfish (and the requisite "tragic backstory" that always goes with it to help excuse their cruel and selfish choices).

It's just really sad and disappointing.

#star wars #listen i love andor #i really do #but i'm seeing a pattern of shows aimed at older audiences always always ALWAYS having moral ambiguity as a central theme #the good ones like andor always keep in mind that these people are doing awful things #they're not necessarily heroes even tho they're on the right side #the bad ones like ahsoka and acolyte find ways to send the message that being selfish is actually the right thing to do sometimes #i'm just so tired of the jedi getting relegated to the side because no one can see nuance in unambiguously good people #like at best they are just not there at all #at worst they are turned into the villains specifically for refusing to stop practicing their culture even in the face of persecution #give me my adult jedi show #GIVE ME THE REVA SPIN-OFF I DESERVE #STOP GIVING ME THIS JEDI CRITICAL BULLSHIT #IT'S ALL HORRIFICALLY BAD #I DON'T CARE HOW GOOD YOUR CGI IS THE STORY IS NO LONGER STAR WARS IF YOU HATE THE JEDI #GO MAKE YOUR OWN SCI FI IF YOU CAN'T RESPECT THE JEDI

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idkaguyorsomething · 7 months

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it’s quite fascinating how, up until this point, despite being framed as the traditional protagonist, jodio is given mostly traits that are associated with previous villains in other parts. think about it, he demonstrates greed, ambition, and a tendency towards excessive violence and short-sighted decisions. he’s even explicitly diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder and calls himself a sociopath, traits that are often associated with villains due to the lack of empathy it causes (which is a whole can of worms about the stigmatization of mental health in popular fiction, but i’m willing to give araki the benefit of the doubt and wait to see which direction he takes the story and that trait in particular in).

on the other hand, dragona is given the most traits we associate with classic heroism, being the leader and mediator of their group who advocates for holding back when jodio gets out of hand and the one that gets to experiment with the macguffin, as well as being nicer and having almost as much focus dedicated to them as their brother. the fact that, as a dark skinned person of color with an ambiguous gender identity, they’re also a rather nontraditional hero, especially in a japanese piece of media, adds another interesting layer to this.

there are two main parallels we can draw to these two: giorno and bruno, and dio and jonathan

jodio and giorno both obviously embody a lot of dio’s traits, being ruthless and power-hungry, although jodio is certainly more emotionally open and driven by personal gain than reserved and idealistic, more like a young dio than most of his sons were. whereas dragona, as a calmer team leader who follows the rules but still needs the protagonist to bail them out of a tight spot, has tons of parallels to bruno, but the fact that they’re set up as the underdog brother with more traits the story associates with heroism when their brother is a clear reference to dio brando of all characters should not go unnoticed

what i’m trying to say is that upcoming emotional drama is inevitable and it will HURT

#ARAKI YOU BETTER NOT FUCK UP THIS RARE DEPICTION OF A PROTAGONIST WITH ANTISOCIAL PERSONALITY DISORDER #YOU CAN IMPROVE YOUR WRITING OF MARGINALIZED CHARACTERS WE’VE ALL SEEN IT HAPPEN #IF THE SIBLINGS START CLASHING LET IT BE A MORALLY AMBIGUOUS CONFLICT #THIS STORY IS FILLED WITH SO MUCH POTENTIAL I DON’T WANT TO FEEL LIKE SHIT BY THE END OF IT #jjba #jojo’s bizarre adventure #jojolands #the jojolands #jodio joestar #dragona joestar #giorno giovanna #bruno bucciarati #dio brando #jonathan joestar

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raayllum · 9 months

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And my favourite - the human mage, already tainted by darkness, and destined to play right into my hands. / Seems to me love's got a tighter grip on you than those chains round your wrists. So I'll do you a favour and set you free. / They said that, sometimes, we make sacrifices so that the ones we love don’t have to. It’s part of protecting them—part of protecting you. Taking on hard choices and going to dark places is an act of love. It’s a gift. So, please let me give you this gift, Callum. Stay safe, and stay in the light. / In the name of love, you may perform acts so unforgivable... you can never forgive yourself.

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kiwisandpearls · 4 months

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adding onto my last post (linked here), and maybe this is a hot take, but honestly:

homura taking madoka’s powers and rewriting the universe was a morally gray action. Not totally justifiable but also not totally irredeemable. She’s justified in the fact that if she hadn’t, kyubey probably would’ve used madoka in order to bring back the old magical girl system with witches. It’s not totally justifiable though because she goes against madoka’s wishes and desires.

“But madoka was lonely being a god.”

that’s correct. She was lonely and wasn’t fully happy being a god (displayed in the lyrics of the first ending). Even then though, she weighed her options and chose this one knowing what she would sacrifice. And objectively (key word being objectively. It does not matter how you view this scene this is what homura is objectively doing by taking Madoka’s powers) homura kinda invalidates that.

this isn’t something irredeemable on homura’s part but it does mean homura’s action is a very complex and a morally gray one that can’t just be boiled down to being a good thing or a bad thing. It’s a mix of both.

and even if homura’s action was an entirely good thing, homura’s action does nothing but prolong the inevitable. Her world is kinda falling at the seems, with how easy it was for madoka to nearly gain her memories back.

that doesn’t mean her actions are totally evil either. She didn’t do what she did to “have madoka for herself”. Frankly anyone who believes that that was any part of her motive to do what she did didn’t pay attention when watching the anime and movie. She does strongly (and I use strongly very heavily here lol) love madoka but she’s not a yandere who isolated madoka from those she loves to have her all to herself like some people act like she is.

It’s just…I really do wish people would understand that her actions as a whole and specifically in rebellion don’t need to be seen as exclusively a good or bad thing. In the some way as how I said in my previous post that homura just wanting to protect her loved but also doing some morally questionable actions aren’t as mutually exclusive as the pmmm fandom pretends they are.

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i-see-wonders · 5 months

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i started the EDA’s and thought, “the doctor’s eyes change color every other chapter. my comfort novels. so so good” and then got to the point in the second novel where you realize the color thing was actually by design. a running joke. a bit!! my comfort novels. so so good

#can’t believe I’ve been sleeping on all this More Eight Content #eighth doctor #mmmmm delicious #so so good #paul mcgann the magic man #it’s amazing that someone took all the moral ambiguity and complexity that is the doctor-companion relationship #and then just Wrote It Down #so right for that #eda #vampire science

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strawberrytalia · 8 months

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once again i am mourning dc’s inability to promote their own characters (besides batman) and stories outside of the comic media because i just KNOW people who don’t even read comics would go crazy for a show about the mystics

like we live in a day and age where shit like JJK and black clover is trending nonstop, and soooo many people eat up the idea of found family + messy magical bitches + genuinely bone-chilling horror

also the mystics in DC are like very known in-universe for not being a dependable resource, and so many of them don’t abide by a strict morality code. their storylines are more depraved and dark in comparison to popular dc superheroes, and if you read older stuff like Hellblazer, very much political and touches on real issues.

and they’re just such a fun colorful group of beings, like you got a stage magician who needs therapy, a british con artist, a demon that only speaks in rhymes, extremely sassy spirit that possesses ppl, a girl who has her devil father trapped inside of her, a talking chimp with a sword, a giant swamp monster who would sooner protect a flower over you, wonder woman except she’s slightly in over her head, a 20-something medical student who becomes the most powerful lord of order ever, and soooo many more.

ugh i genuinely feel there’s a huge crowd outside of comics who would just eat this up, and then dc would make more comic stories for them (esp my underrated favs like Khalid or Amy). and there’d be more posts and content 🥺 also justice league dark was like the only dcau movie i truly enjoyed lmao, and it’s literally what got me into them.

#dc comics #dc #dc mystics #justice league dark #jld #they’re all morally ambiguous except for like zee and khalid and raven #but they’re sooooo fun #and get genuinely cool storylines #AND IM SO MAD THAT PRINCESS AMETHYST SHOW GOT CANCELLED #AMY IS SUCH A COOL AND AWESOME CHARACTER #and i admit i’m biased bc i do EAT UP shows like black clover and csm #BUT STILLLLL #mystics

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merrysithmas · 2 years

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STAR WARS without the force just feels like WAR WARS to me but in this series im here for it bc of the ripe-for-picking political exploration of the universe which has been overdue bc the prequels were over 20 years ago! and little subtle nods to the Force like "The Eye" of aldhani... beautiful!!

a star wars story without a force presence truly is muted in darkness and andor does a great great job at displaying that both narratively and visually with its somber colors, mist, shadow, pallid light and stretches of silence...

all those spaces? that dullness? that's the absense of the force and the light. no color, no sound, no happiness, no life.

& moral ambiguity for all (as the sith/empire is at peak power) and suppressing the light. so well done and not outright stated or obvious.

i think when ppl watch this show and cheer that there's "no lightsabers" they are missing the point of that decision. that the down-to-earthness, the War Wars of it, feels that way because the magic is, literally, gone. the force is gone.

which also reflects our own world.

#andor #also im def here for the lightsabers lol #in mando we have grogu #in rogue one we had chirrut #i miss when the force isnt there as the spiritualism is why i enjoy sw #but this series is so good that the lens turned to a diff aspect of the saga for a little while is dope #i really hoped in the new movies they were going to disband the jedi and sith and start smth new #but alas #like the bardottans and nightsisters and whills all understand the force #there's so much to explore there but in the spiritual realm of sw the Order has to remain as an achor of sorts in SOME fashion even in the #background #there's sooo much to say about andor and the absense of a formal force narrative and the moral ambiguity therein #but the ultimate struggle for freedom and justice #very cool #the absence of a force narrative IS a force narrative #(and obv the empire/sith at full power and this is purge era)#so anyway just talking myself into more ideas haha #a sw universe without a strong force presence is truly muted in darkness and andor does a great job at displaying that

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brittlebutch · 4 months

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Desperately trying to make sense of Alex's motivations in Season Two and you know, I do eventually have to wonder if maybe Alex wasn't actually lying in the majority of those tapes.

Like, we tend to assume that Alex's motivations have been a consistent throughline since the college years, but do we actually know that that's the case? Do we know for sure that Alex was acting in deliberate, calculated ways in 2006; or could it be that he's telling the Truth on those olds tapes when he says he's blacking out and can't remember what's happening to anyone? After all, if we're assuming that Season 2 Alex's motivations are the exact same as his motives in Season 3, then it doesn't make any sense at all that he spend months working with Jay to try to find Amy; Season 3 Alex would have attempted to kill Jay like, on sight just to get things over with as quickly as possible and contain the spread of contamination as best as he could.

But, maybe, if Alex really had been separated from Amy after the events of the 04-04-10 tape, and if he really doesn't know where she is, then maybe that could make things start to make more sense. Maybe he really had been watching Jay's channel, and seeing Jay start going through the same things he went through in college without things devolving into violence and disappearances, and wondered if things maybe could play out differently this time. Maybe he really did send that tape to Jay to ask him for help, maybe he really was just trying to find Amy.

But then, instead of actually being helpful, Jay makes it extremely clear that he's a lot more interested in stalking Alex than he is in finding Amy. Alex asked for help, and instead there's a bunch of masked dudes on Jay's heels that keep attacking him, Jay is breaking into his house, stealing his things, leading the Operator right to him all over again, keeps trying to get other people (namely: Jessica -- if Alex is being honest when he says that his call reassuring her that Amy had been found was an effort to make Sure she stayed away from everything that was happening) involved; and instead of anything getting better, instead of anyone finding Amy, things are just getting worse all over again.

It's not until after the incident at the tunnel that things seem to start rapidly devolving. Rather than a calculated attempt to finally follow through with his need to curb the spread of contamination, this is very clearly an outburst of rage and terror. Alex's "I told you not to follow me" line in conjunction with Jay speculating that Alex didn't know who that guy was, to me, pretty firmly seems to speak to Alex having mistaken that stranger for Jay. From his point of view, Alex knows that Jay and totheark know where he live, have broken in before, he suspects that Jay stole a key to make it easier to get into his house, and he's been followed on the daily for months -- Alex is sitting at the tunnel because he doesn't know where else he can go without being constantly surveilled, hunted, and assaulted. And instead of getting a moment by himself to breathe, Jay followed him out there all over again (it feels like Alex looks directly at the camera in Jay's footage of him from this day; he knew for a fact that Jay was there), and then to make matters worse now 'Jay' won't even keep his distance anymore.

So Alex lashes out. And it's not until afterwards that he looks down and finally recognizes that this wasn't Jay -- it was someone completely innocent. Things have finally reached the low point he was at in college all over again; maybe even worse this time. If Alex doesn't remember attacking anyone in college, but he was at least partially conscious of it this time, then things have reached an entirely new rock bottom, they've reached an absolute point of no return.

He has no idea what happened to Amy, and he's spent months trying to find her with no hint of where she could be; he doesn't know where Jay actually is or what additional trouble he could be causing at this point; he does know that now innocent people are getting caught in the crossfire (in regards to the stranger in the tunnel, and also Jessica now that Jay has her phone number, and the untold number of people Jay got involved when he started posting videos to the Marble Hornets channel); things are spiraling out of control and there's no one left to ask for help. The situation isn't getting better, it's getting worse; things aren't getting easier to handle, they're just getting more out of hand; the negative impact is spreading and who knows how much further it can still go?

So, Alex decides to go scorched earth. He disfigures the body with the rock either to hide evidence or to make sure the guy would actually stay dead and not just get back up to start his own cycle of contamination in a few years. He tries to give Jay one last chance to back off, and Jay instead admits he's been talking to Jessica, acts obstinate and lies about not having Alex's spare key, and then breaks into Alex's house a second time (minimum). If Alex doesn't stop him now, who will? Alex met with Jay planning to kill the others, and then himself, so he could put a stop to this once and for all and keep things from getting any worse than they already were.

Maybe it makes a lot more sense if, rather than being a strangely incomprehensible detour on what should have been a straight path, the events of Season Two were the breaking point that put Alex on that path to begin with.

#N posts stuff #idk!!! I've been thinking a lot lately about the tendency to take Characters at Face Value; when they tell us things we tend to #automatically believe them despite what evidence we might have to the contrary. & like when it comes to deciphering what #went down during the college film project it's mostly totheark that posits that Alex was Definitely Lying and Definitely Acting on Purpose #(even Jay is largely ambivalent - wondering which way it leans and basically saying it could go either way)#but. do we KNOW that they know that? Do we Know that they're Right when they claim that? Or are they just Assuming based off #of their own rage and animosity towards Alex due to what happened? Do we Know for Sure that Alex Was Lying in s1?#i don't know if we do!! And so without Knowing that for sure; how can we speak to Alex's motivations in season one OR season two?#now TO BE CLEAR: I am not saying this in an attempt to claim that Alex is somehow completely innocent of all guilt and that like.#Jay is the 'Real Antagonist' of the series - not at all my intention. this is just More of my usual 'look. Everyone in this series is #all kinds of Morally Grey; no recurring character in this series is free of guilt they ALL have unique fatal flaws & trends towards #antagonism that makes things worse and dooms them all' shtick - a la 'everyone Thinks they're doing the Right Thing but No One Is'#BUT i Am wondering if this Does help to like. clear up some of the ambiguity/uncertainty of Season Two - and even Season One - and #lets the series as a whole read a little bit clearer? idk i know that Jay does Claim to think that Alex was bullshitting him #the whole time & was Actually planning on tying up loose ends the whole time but AGAIN it doesn't make Sense he'd wait so long #idk - Am i making sense? does any of this track? i'm trying to figure it out; i am open to comments on the subject to help #i haven't rewatched season 3 yet today and so maybe there's stuff in there that contradicts this whole theory lmao but i'm taking a break #and just posting this anyway; we'll see what happens lol #marble hornets #mh lb

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