Re watched Gravity Falls and all I can think of is how terrifying it must have been for Mabel.
Because yuo are twelve, and you love your twin brother because he is your other half. He gives up so much for you and you go with him to solve mysteries because it makes him happy. Sure you have spats but he is your brother and you love him.
Now you have a crush, and you're going all out because you *think* you love this guy. You dont, its summer and you're twelve but that doesn't matter. Because you're twelve and a summer romance with a cute guy is everyone's dream. And sure you would *like* to help your brother with this mystery laptop that connects to the mystery of the summer, but that will always be there!! This guy you like probably wont be. So you decide to make yourself happy.
Your brother, your other half, has been acting weird. But you brush it off as sleep deprivation. The show must go on. And then you're in your dressing room, and the puppet you made in your brother's likeness is saying he made a mistake and he needs help. And sure you're a petty twelve year old girl but your brother comes first, so you go to find the journal. And you do! You find it! But he finds you, the monster in your brother's body... with his voice and face. But his eyes are wrong and his smile is too wide and (HOW DID YOU NOT NOTICE). and he threatens to kill you, pretends to drop you in this pretty little prop you made for a crush (it seems so stupid now doesnt it?) and in the end you get your brother back.
But you still have nightmares. You were too late. You didn't belive your brother in the puppet. He dropped you. And eventually they die down, because all things do, but it doesn't go away. And then you find the letter, promising you death. Promising your brother death. Promising you never get justice. And the nightmares come back. Your brother's dead body. Your dead body. The watertower. The note. You dont tell anyone, but you silently promise yourself to be more helpful and be there.
Accept your new grunkle even if he hurt your current one, believe your current one! go and get the unicorn hair to protect everyone. And then you hear your brother saying he doesnt want to go back with you, he wants to stay here and be a nerd and mak you face high school alone! And suddenly you wish you could go back to stupid adventures and summer romoances.
so you grab your bag and run. and then the man appears, eyes hidden and smiling wide, someone you know (you trust him? not much but you are twelve and are about to loose your other half) and he offers you what you want. Your brother, more summer, no end of the world of demons. Just adventure and your grunkles, and your brother. So you give him what he wants and shake his hand.
And then you see it. The wrong eyes. The too wide smile. You didnt notice. Your family is in danger of this demon again. Its your fault again. (Not really. because you were tricked like your brother and your grunkle. But you are twelve and loosing your other half and loosing the world. And you shook his hand)
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“Kaz had every opportunity to become like Wylan—” No, the fuck he did not. I don’t even really know to explain this because it should be obvious but when Kaz says “It was easy to survive once he left decency behind.” Or “There are no good men in Ketterdam, the climate doesn’t agree with them.” that’s not Kaz being dramatic, that’s the truth. We’re shown this time and time again. The only reason Wylan or any of the other crows are able to maintain any level of moral superiority (which, frankly, they’re not that much better morally than Kaz as people like to think) is because they’re under Kaz’s protection. The environment Kaz grew up in ruined every single one of Kaz’s opportunities to become like Wylan. Kaz isn’t morally gray for shits and giggles, he needs to be to survive.
Okay so i rewatched kings arc so that i could see where parrot’s pov is going chronologically and i have some observations/theories etc of where he’s going with the story
The main thing parrot learns over the course of this arc is that ends do not justify the means, best exemplified in how lettuce is framed as a foil of parrot who is willing to do depraved things for the good of the server, while parrot is not (ends justify the means is also a belief held by wifies, just noting down)
How successful is that mindset in politics? All things suggest that this way of approaching politics is overly simplistic and naive - will parrots’s immovable hopecore be enough to ‘save the server’? Lettuce, who is much more intelligent than people assume of him, thinks not.
During this arc, many people say that ‘the server needs a king like parrot.’ this statement is huge for his ego, definitely, but is that a bad thing? It parrot’s idealism actually effective? This is probably the main draw of the kingdoms arc.
Parrot actually has such a big character growth moment with wemmbu during 2 Minecraft Pros VS 1000 Hunters. I think he was being incredibly genuine with the apology.
His relationship to wemmbu is actually so fascinating. At first, he deems wemmbu a “bad person” due to his violent and powerhungry reputation, but doesn't have that many personal ties to him. Then, during the treasures arc great sea episode, he meets invis wemmbu who kills boomie. Its canon that parrot deduced that wemmbu was invis knight already, and because he saw wemmbu (bad guy) kill boomie (good guy), he gains more personal hatred for wemmbu, which he airs out during the search for wemmbu episode by going director mode on his ass. But in that same episode, he learns that his conception of good and bad is overly simplistic and relies on stereotypes, so he immediately ‘upgrades’ wemmbu to the ‘good guy’ category, which he just makes ‘everyone that parrot likes’ (he thinks he has become more nuanced in his perception of good and bad but no he hasnt he is still operating on the idea that good people deserve help and saving while bad people deserve pain and death, he just kinda shifted what it means to be good) anyways after that he is super chill with wemmbu during the 2v1000 hunters vid, and they have a truly open conversation where parrot explains why he did what he did, condemning his actions, saying he will strive to be better, and exemplifying that he knows why what he did was wrong. 10/10 relationship portrayal. After that they chill with each other. good job parrot you’re learning how to make genuine relationships with people!!
Bro lettuce is just such an amazing character: everything from his writing to his acting to his voice all makes him seem so believable for lack of a better word.
Omg the way that it was theo’s capture that tipped the scale and had parrot activating ‘decimate lettuce’ mode. Omg. and plus knowing theo thought parrot died because of ouroboros, which is why he killed him then surrendered to the rest of law. These guys are each others fire. They kill for each other (but positive this time?). Man imma be sick they love each other so much
Also when i say love i mean it platonically no hate to theorrot but i think that there is always a platonic explanation and we gonna analyse using it.
Lack of dean and wifies in the flashback/monologue at the start of i became king of unstable smp was definitely intentional, all other players were given names and their respective skins (which is big because sometimes names are changed and skins are the default skins, which would suggest that their names/appearance was not remembered but this is not the case for the mineciv flashback) this means that parrot is intentionally repressing his memories of dean luigi and wifies. Please i need more of this im not over this we need to have some more exploration of parrots grief please im not done cc!parrot please please dont forget them i need this augghhhhh
In this arc, theo is often reduced to comedic relief and his motives fully align with parrots. This makes it seem that his character’s writing was more of an afterthought, which i feel like is the greatest weakness of the arc (i feel like an easy way to save his character could have been to give him a bigger acting role in his training episode with flame - make him explain that what gives him the motivation to fight is the motivation to do what is right, and that theo finds that what is right is with parrot, for example).
Hopefully we get an explanation of why theo has become so agreeable with parrot in the upcoming arc, because i feel like a very important thing that we learn about theo in the treasures arc was that he was not afraid to ask questions and criticise parrots decisions, which separated himself from wifies. Nowadays theo and parrot’s relationship borders confusingly on codependent, but this time im not sure if that’s intentional - but god i hope it is.
Parrot also learns a lot about politics and the server’s political landscape, which is important to the next arc.
Actually overall the arc wasnt as bad as i thought it was on first watch, it just set up a lot of cards im not sure parrot will address in kingdoms arc and there were a couple
Rereading batman: the knight and oh god this series of panels is just devastating.
I love Lucie and how complicated her mentor-mentee relationship is with Bruce but this? Good lord. Like I doi think she genuinely means well, and context taken in, it makes sense. Bruce almost killed a man to boody pulp. But like, it's just so so so devastating for Zdarsky to put this line here because it introduces the idea of Batman as a curse, a someone who has violence inherently intertwined with his love for humanity. He has to channel that rage and need for vengeance into something concrete (Batman) to then become justice. And like this is a very very common theme and characterisation of Bruce but its introduced to Bruce so lovingly that it is just devastating. In a sense, because of this Bruce only is further determined to fight, because if his mentor said he's made up of violence, isn't that the only way for him to be bigger, to be the change he wants so badly in the world?
This is the point where he really can't go back, he can't go back to alfred, can't go back to Gotham, can't pretend it was just a rebellious stint like all those other times. He has to commit now, to his sabbatical that Lucie is so tenderly sending him away on and he can't go back.
Really it's Zdarsky thats tenderly sending Bruce off onto this journey, and I think it's done so in a tragically beautiful way. To really kick off Bruce's training years with a goodbye kiss and the gentle reminder that he is violence that has no yet been tamed is such a good writing choice. It's so inherently personal to Bruce because if it was some enemy of his or an antagonistic force saying it then Bruce might go to oppose that idea, to prove he's not as violent as they'd claim him to be. But it's Lucie saying that, Lucie, his first ever real mentor. Lucie, who he loves and knows loves him back. And because of that, Bruce will cling onto the sentiment, that he isn't anything more than violence and darkness and that he needs to be feared.
I think though that the more I look at it, the more I break. It is such a loving but hurtful statement from Lucie and it's so clear she's damning him to a violent life despite how much she loves him and I don't think there's anything more tragic than that.
In the same way Caine genuinely tried his best, loved the humans, felt hated and unloved by the humans, placed in circumstances out of his control and given an unfortunate hand (by being an AI without empathy placed into a position that would require empathy), Caine had also chosen to inflict his anger and frustration onto the humans and used their vulnerabilities against them and caused them a LOT of mental distress.
Caine is not a good person/character, but neither was he pure evil. He’s also a victim of circumstance much like the humans were, but he’s also someone who willingly chose to hurt others when he didn’t need to.
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character analysis? theory? whatever you wanna call it.
before season 4 released way back in ancient April, I noticed something. you know how ii is with their stupid foreshadowing and how several characters in the exit interviews never bothered to think of their past (turns out they NEVER had one!!!! hahahahahhaaaa that's that's so that's making me so happy guys ahaha IT WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!!!!!) yeah that's just an example of the foreshadowing. i have so much more to say about this
my theory from April was that in season 4, or any continuation of inanimate insanity in general, fan would take on a role of leadership and possibly spiral into some sort of evil stance, but not in the sense that he wants his own good, in the sense that he's negatively affecting others and possibly himself. in S2E8, released February 13 2015, a whole nine years before most of the major twists in ii16, there really is..a ton of foreshadowing. here just take a look
mic says this at 9:53, which, okay mic...that's...still foreshadowing too. excuse the terrible screenshot quality
and then this exact conversation. oh my god that entire scene was enough to start up the "mephone created the contestants" theory AND IT WAS 2015. 2015. a whole NINE YEARS before the Big twist was revealed in September 2024.
when asked about this exact conversation again by fan, this is what cobs says:
some of it? true? WHAT? is there something more you're hiding from us cobs? OHHH...right! them being MADE BY MEPHONE!! yep..he didn't wanna say that. took him 7 episodes, an entire season and 2 more..of course he wouldn't
side by side...again....this stupid stupid foreshadowing that cobs just won't stop doing. and you might be wondering: what does any of this have to do with fan? you've just been mentioning one episode.
well, this is what I mean. this specific scene, when he was talking to fan
and later on in II18:
and later on, in S4, when he was appointed host.
copy pasted from my text between me and an awesome friend:
season 4 is a false attempt at happiness and trying to pretend everything is fine when it's NOT!!! season 4 is gonna be them spiraling but trying to be happy because there's no competition, right? it's all of their own wills, right? or is it? there is only one person who is truly in control, one person who is truly knowledgeable of every part of the game except for it's psychological effects on them. that person is fan, and that's the scariest thing. they're all gonna be opposed, sure, but who knows more about ii when not looking it up through a file? (sorry cabby) fan. fan is in a position of leadership, against the OSC, and the OSC barely know how to handle this. the OSC is only trying their best at living a life they don't know how to live, they are trying to be in a normal society when they CANT BE!!!! toilet is the only person who's experienced that and he seems to be trying to help, but he's seemingly clouded by his grief over mepad's death. fan is obsessive, hell stop at NOTHING to bring the show back. he projects onto other people and sure they dislike it too, but fan is the one who dislikes it the most. he seeks the thrill of the game against his own will, because he was coded to, and he cannot defy that code. everyone else is in seemingly the same state, the only difference being is that fan is the only person who's vocal enough about it. he's gonna try to "reintroduce" the game, say that hes not a host, just a games moderator, but ultimately hes gonna take on the role of a host, become obsessive about it, and cabby's line "if at any point it turns into..obsession" is just foreshadowing. my fan theory was right. fan will become somewhat of a villain, surely not evil by any means, but against his will. he is coded to believe that ii is going to save their lives, that it's the best thing ever, and he can't break that.
my continuation of it, is that:
fan isn't going to be a morally good host. it won't be sunshine and rainbows, the return of the game won't be all "yay! let's play around!" he is obsessive, and he is very obviously unaware of it. bringing back the game is a coping mechanism he's using because conforming to a normal society isn't what he's built for, he's built for the thrill, for the excitement of new challenges, his whole personality is being a FAN, his name is fan, he's quite literally a fan, he WON'T STOP thinking of ii no matter what. at the mere mention of a vote he's like "A vote? Voting? See? Sounds familiar!" he wasn't even expecting to be host but you could say that he didn't expect them to PICK him as host and he was gonna offer the thing anyway
he's gonna make it like "oh, c'mon, but this isn't a game you know! this is what we're built for anyway, this is all mephone had when he was making us!" and sure, he's not a host, just a..games moderator! thats all! but I bet you he's gonna take on the role of a host and it'll transform to a "point of obsession" just like cabby's line. the OSC has no idea what the fuck they're doing and the safety team only focuses on the stupid unimportant stuff, like giving paper sparklers and not caring about any contestant except for lightbulb, even though fan and paper will be permanently damaged when in contact with water, balloon basically dies if he's poked, and test tube and OJ are both as easily shattered as lightbulb.
the foreshadowing of him and animationepic for some reason feeling the need to associate him and cobs together twice makes me fret that he will be a bad host. he doesn't understand basic social cues (which, same fan!, but maybe let's NOT host stuff? i mean half your contestants die easily and stuff) he isn't programmed to do anything further than enjoy ii and be its biggest fan, he's just. That. whether or not he's gonna be a good host and actually understand his contestants, that's all gonna be available next episode. i love the fact that at any point that he's feeling just a LITTLE!!! a LITTLE!!! sad he's just like "aw. Inanimate Insanity then im gonna bring it back" I mean, let's just, let's look at his dialogue (this is from memory but beware I've watched this scene 20 times):
"I say, we reintroduce the game," is him very obviously being like "BUT IM NOT BRINGING THE ACTUAL GAME BACK!!! NOT EXPLOITATIVE!!! just ii but better!" and him referring to what mephone put them in as a "shell" of sorts?? this is very reminiscent to his vent in S2E13 Mine Your Own Business, which was literally titled "Shell" on his blog. he was afraid of there being more to the game, wanted to stay in a shell, and that shell is his own coping mechanisms. his only coping mechanism is inanimate insanity, and that's exactly what he's coming back to. and he wants it to be reminiscent of the past, just what it was like before, he's gonna put people in danger and reintroduce his favorite challenges and concepts and when he's called out for it he'll explain himself as simply trying to "reactivate" the nostalgia and what the game was like. he'll take being a games moderator seriously, because he doesn't like his job. (big shoutout to pankielovesfan for the following points) he seems to project onto others, by trying to make himself feel like he isn't alone in this and that he's not the only person who hates it, but lightbulb is ultimately right. it seems to really be affecting him more than most. he doesn't like his job (prevalent in his line “...Or even..like their jobs very much.”) because he's rotting in a bed all the time, and once he's gonna be offered a job that isn't just "be used as a (literal) fan 🪭" he's gonna LOVE it, and related to ii too? with the THRILL that he's been seeking? oh that's a lotta stuff right there buddy im so excited to see how he's gonna mess up.
Jayce Talis is the perfect shape to put through the horrors and satisfy my need for hurt/comfort. I need more fics about Viktor finding out about how Jayces time in the other world affected him. Like yes, he saw the world, but i need him to find out about the leg,specifically the infection, the months of solitude (which he was driven insane by), the starvation, the lizards, the hallucinations. The dude's been suffering for months and has not had a moment to spare for anything good. Let his husband comfort him.
And i know jayces suffering is meant to be a mirror of viktors. Im not discounting that. Hell, viktor more than deserves to be comforted. But this fandom tends to overlook how fucking traumatic what jayce went through was.
Isolation is a tourture method. Jayce literally went mad. He's drawing and writing on walls, and he's hallucinating. The human mind is cruel and even worse when you have guilt, which jayce has PLENTY of.
And if how it affected him mentally doesn't get you, let's talk physically. Resetting your own bone is a gamble, and it obviously healed wrong. He can't walk on it, so in order to survive, he has to move. And as someone who has problems with her own legs, there two was to do that and both are fucking Humiliating. He's at the bottom of a ravine. there's no food, and the water obviously isn't clean. Injesting either is a bad idea and a gamble, but it's the only food and water source he has.
Look at him before!
(Gif by @melmedarda )
In season 2
He's a shade or 2 lighter. He has stress lines, scars on his face and lips, and he's visibly lost weight. (The animators fucking SLAYED with that.) My man looks so fucking tired. Hes what? 31? 31 year olds dont look that fucking exhausted for no reason, and I wish we talked about it more.