Think about it. Ava is the only one who knows his name. He told her on her way down, after she told him hers— which is such a beautiful, wonderful, human moment in a literal sea of blood and tragedy. No one else heard what his name was. Everyone back at base or whatever it’s called fought against Ava going down, or at least that one guy argued with her did, and we really only see three people there. I’m sure there are more, but we only see Jack (rip in radiation brother), Ava, and one other person in the xray, which I just assume was the guy who argued with her.

That guy certainly won’t celebrate Simon when the black box is retrieved. He believed Simon a liar. He won’t acknowledge his mistake. He exploded because Simon told him to shut up when he was gettin to depth, and he said some truly vile stuff. He will blame Simon for Ava’s loss. Ava will be celebrated for her sacrifice to get that black box, and Simon will be forgotten. Everything he tied to that black box will be tossed aside just like he was.

Simon gave his life for hope and he likely won’t even be recognized for how brave he was because no one is there to remember him as anything other than the Butcher anymore.

Continuing Thoughts: Simon and the Sub SM-13 Is Alive pt 1 SM-13 Is Alive pt 2

anyway im literally shaking i need to lie down. yangtting is The Blueprint for korean minecraft youtube as we know it. she was the first korean youtuber to hit a million subscribers. not kmcyt - FIRST KOREAN YOUTUBER. PERIOD. i cant believe this is real

im entirely unfamiliar w kongkong, but after a quick namuwiki skim i found that hes a yangtting crew member! the youngest yangtting crew member as a matter of fact. which makes sense given the precedent of a crew leader coming on w a crew member (acau & jungryeok). and is getting my hopes horribly up for maybe seeing some of my scrungklies (which will not happen a) because jamtteul tv is genuinely just. too busy and b) mapple is pg13).

I’ve talked about how the SM-13 and Simon are united in the fact that they are each other’s execution. The SM-13 was always meant to be Simon’s coffin. And Simon was always meant to be the SM-13’s last passenger. The last time it was put in the blood. But Simon wasn’t the first. The SM-13 has been down at least once before, with whatever Eden person left the note and the pendant, right?

So… What if the SM-13 was already alive when Simon was welded into it? What if it had already been infected by the blood? What if the blood had already seeped into the metal and the bolts and between and through pipes? Spreading veins and flesh and rot and those sickly tendrils we see snake around Simon? And the ending was only the blood fully tryin to subsume it for the purpose of absorbing Simon?

What if the SM-13 was there? Listening, breathing, watching Simon’s anguish? Unable to do anything to help because it already belongs to the blood? Why if It knows this is a mutual execution, that there is no hope? But somehow… it sees Simon’s hope? Absorbs it? Maybe it isn’t a fully conscious mind, but what if it’s still alive? What if it chooses hope with Simon?

I’ve postured that the explosion at the end is the seed blossoming and growing into a tree. Turning Simon into a new beacon of hope. But what if it is also the SM-13 rallying with him? Choosing hope with him? Destroying itself with him for the sake of that hope?

I need to stop I need to stop i need to stop I am turning the submarine into its own character and I’m going to sound insane and start shipping it with Simon

Like when he hits the console and the pats where he hits and apologizes to the sub. When he gives a little thank you pat to it when he’s able to restart the engine. It’s such a small gesture, but who wouldn’t do the same? You’re trapped at the bottom of a blood ocean and all you have is a barely working speaker and a rust bucket. This isn’t the rust bucket’s first Time being down there. It knows the ocean better than Simon. It knows the blood. It knows the horror. It knows what’s down there. Why wouldn’t he show kindness and respect to it? And conversely, knowing that it has just been given another convict to execute, why wouldn’t it be kind in turn to Simon?

Not just that. This may not be the rust bucket’s first time down there. But it will be its last. This is intended to be its last. Simon’s last. It is as much undergoing an execution as he is. It knows this. They are to execute each other, mutual damnation.

So why wouldn’t he be kind to it? Why wouldn’t it be kind to him? They are friends born of necessity. Prisoners damned to die together, why wouldn’t a brotherhood spawn from that?

No wonder the blood made the sub start breathing. No wonder the monster asked Simon if he could feel that this ship was alive. Hell, maybe it already was. Maybe it's been alive the whole movie, desperately trying to help and protect Simon.

I can’t stop thinking about the idea of the SM-13 being alive the entire time. How many corpses has it known? How many times has it been under? And how long has it been alive?

I think there is horror inherent to that. Because it is a being that is alive that cannot control anything about its situation. It can’t control where it goes, when it is and is not in the blood, who is or is not put in it. It cannot do anything to save those who ARE put in it. It’s given another convict, another corpse. The Eden person before Simon? It knew they were meant to die, and it could do nothing about it. Nothing except go where the convict inside it piloted it to go, take pictures when it was told to take pictures, if the SM-13 WAS alive, it had very little agency.

And still… it used that agency to help Simon, didn’t it? It did everything it could to get him out. Exercised every ounce of choice it has. It didnt take it personally when he struck the console, or the speaker, it turned back on for him, it told him where the eel was. It helped him out of the tunnels. It told him where to go to fix it when it was off in the caves. Sure, a lot of that was just… the hardware of the ship doing its job, but all things considered, an inanimate SM-13 should NOT have been able to manage those things. Simon should have been dead the moment he got dragged down into the tunnels by Eli. That ship should not have been able to turn back on, and the oxygen should not have lasted for as long as it did.

And yet, against all odds, both of those things happened, and I don’t think it was the Eel or the Blood or whatever god is watching that moon that made those things happen. I think it was the SM-13, protecting Simon. Doing everything in its goddamned power to ensure that another convict did not die on its watch.

And then I think about the inherent horror of it being alive beforehand, exercising every ounce of agency it has to keep Simon alive, and then losing that agency to the blood at the end. An alive, conscious being feeling itself being corrupted and overcome by it. Watching it attach itself to Simon, rip his arm off— that kid that it tried so fucking hard to save, and that fuckin eel and the goddamned blood tore it all apart in moments.

Simon as a character is hope incarnate. At every turn, he chooses hope. By taking the deal, he hopes for freedom. He hopes he will be free, he chooses to trust and hope that the deal will be upheld, even as he's sent down a second time. He navigates and maps and entire underwater (underblood???) cave system for the hope of getting out, of being retrieved because of that sample. Briefly, he loses hope, but then he catches a SLIVER when he mentioned the SM-8, and he CLINGS! He fights! He begs! Even when he realizes that he and Ava are going to die, he chooses hope! "keep this safe for me mom, it's bigger than me" because he is choosing hope! if not for himself, then for humanity!

So is there hope for him? For humanity? Does the box have hope, or is it just another false promise? Is it the answer? Does it lead to one? Was Simon's sacrifice worth it? Was his hope worth it? Does he finally know freedom in death? Does he even die? Does he become a new tree, blossomed with new life from tragedy? Does he put an end to the monster for good, freeing those it and the blood has assimilated? Is his ending hopeful?

or does he become a new monster? Is the fight for the box worth nothing? What if it doesn't lead anywhere, what if its a dead end? Or worse, what if it IS the answer, and its an answer the surviving humans can do nothing about? What if they die before they can? What if the answer itself is hopeless? Is Simon assimilated, does he know freedom is death, or is he absorbed by the blood, trading one prison for another and another and another? Does he know peace? Do the other people in the blood know peace? Does the monster know peace? Is there any peace to be had in this world, or is it just misery?

The ending is so simultaneously hopeful and so miserable and I'M CHEWING ON IT MARKIPLIER THE MAN THAT YOU ARE

However…. Sometimes it feels like certain people, and I’ve noticed it usually be women who do not necessarily identify as lesbian (bi and pan women) but it’s def smth I see sometimes within the lesbian community as well, will use “femme” and “butch” to actually mean “sub” and “dom” or “bottom” and “top” strictly from the sense of a heteronormative lens of one being the “woman”, ie the “one who is dominated” and the other is the man, ie the “one who dominates”. Or they exclusively view Butchfemme as a kink/sex dynamic and consider absolutely nothing else about butch or femme as an identity external to sex

The people who view Butchfemme that way often view Butches as Men Lite(TM) who are exclusively daddy doms and femmes are women who are exclusively princess subs and in both cases, when talking about butches or femmes, extremely misogynistic language is used to put both of them down. And when I see people talk about them like that, i ALMOST understand how people come to the “butchfemme is heteronormative” conclusion, even if it’s still stupid as fuck.

But then like the solution is to actually talk to ACTUAL lesbians, actual butches and actual femmes, and understand that Butchfemme is NOT describing top/bottom dynamics, and that both are actually closer to gender and political identity than they are anything else