an interesting lens to analyze pathologic would be through the ways it references commedia dell'arte. part of it is that the conventions of commedia have left a lasting imprint on theatre, puppetry, and performance in general, but i think there are some very specific nods as well.
for an obvious point, farcical character archetypes represented by masks were an essential aspect of the art form. pathologic not only uses that concept in mark immortell's masked plays, it also uses the same two types of masks: a flat mask that covers the face with holes for eyes and mouth (also comparable to ancient greek theatre masks), and a mask featuring an exaggerated, beak-like nose.
i'd say there are also references to the commedia archetypes in the actual characters themselves. for example, i'd be surprised if "vulgar comedies" wasn't an intentional reference:
(i don't have a clear translation of "пНОŃĐ°Đ´Đ˝ŃŃ ĐşĐžĐźĐľĐ´Đ¸Đš", the term that clara uses for "vulgar comedies" in russian, but the russian wikipedia page for commedia dell'arte is the first thing to come up when I google it.)
that's not to say i think the game is trying to completely frame dankovsky as il dottore, the laughable caricature of a psuedointellectual. but clara certainly sees him as one! and arguably his characterization is closer to this archetype in her route, as well as in the pathologic 2 haruspex route (mister "i was blessed with a naturally high intelligence", among other hits). these differences are possibly an indication of unreliable narrator.
after all, changeling's route is from the POV of a religiously-fixated teenager who sees the world in terms of stark good and evil, and whose character is bifurcated between pure good and pure evil herself. arguably the NPCs in her route act as elevated, exaggerated versions of themselves due to her perspective. and pathologic 2 leans harder on the "it's all a play" framing device than the original game did, giving the player a role to embody and making NPCs feel more like characters who exist for the purpose of the play (and for artemy as the protagonist) than as fully realized people. hence how in p2!artemy's first and last confrontation with the bachelor, you find him staged dramatically in a room cast in mood lighting as though his sole purpose is to wait there for you to enter. (well, either that or it's just that he's a drama queen.)
at least, that's one interpretation of why he comes off as more of a pompous twit depending on the route. another aspect of commedia dell'arte is that the protagonists often go unmasked, and relatively unexaggerated, compared to the masked villains and comic relief characters. bachelor is the protagonist of his own story, and arguably the deuteragonist of the haruspex route. but in changeling route and p2 his role is more of a bit player among many, cranked up into the role of learned fool.
I was thinking about Under the Red Hood again and this scene:
[ID: four panels of the Under the Red Hood comic. Jason Toddâs monologue, as he holds the Joker at gunpoint and confronts Batman: "Iâm not talking about killing Cobblepot or Scarecrow or Clayface. Not Riddler or Dent⌠Iâm talking about him. Just him. And doing it because⌠because he took me away from youâ. End ID]
The real heartbreak of the comic is this scene. I have seen people take Jasonâs monologue and run a marathon with it arguing that Batman should kill the joker because otherwise heâs responsible for all the deaths caused by the Joker yada yada. My brother in the DC comics, thatâs not the point. Jason knows Batman doesnât kill. Jason knows that Batman wonât ever kill as a way to stop crime. He knows that. This is not Jason asking Batman to kill the Joker in order to become a better or more efficient vigilante. This is a son asking his dad to prove that he loves him by avenging him. The âJust himâ is important. Thatâs why when Batman says he canât cross that line because it would be too easy and that he would never come back from that, Jason is so furious. Because heâs not talking about Batman changing his way to fight crime. Heâs not expecting Batman to kill anyone else. For Jason there shouldnât be a line to be crossed, because the Joker already exploded that line when he killed Bruceâs son. Jason is asking for one thing, and Batmanâs answer is about something else entirely - the big picture that Jason canât even consider, because nothing should be more important than your son. Nothing. The heartbreak of this conversation is that Jason and Bruce couldnât understand each other until the very end.
Back at it again to talk about just how much I hate the very concept of Jason 'giving up' on the Joker to return to the batfam.
Like, I see so many people who write meta and fics that claim that the one true solution to the current conflict between Bruce and Jason is for Jason to have a come to Jesus moment about why killing is wrong and to just accept that the Joker will continue to live, doing so for the sole reason of reconciling with Bruce. To me, it just reeks.
I cannot say this enough, but their conflict is not about whether killing is moral or not!!! That is not why Jason just cannot make up with Bruce as things are! Jason was considered one of the only comic book characters to be permanently dead for a reason, his death continues to mean something even after his resurrection for a reason!! The conflict starts in that the man who was supposed to protect him failed to and Jason DIED! The conflict continues because Jason was not avenged at all! His death was meaningless! Completely, utterly, meaningless!
The whole reason Jason goes on his murderquest in Gotham is because he saw newspaper clippings of the Joker, still alive and well, escaping Arkham! He must have thought of all the times Joker escaped while he was just a little kid, how they were constantly rounding the guy up and putting him back, watching the body count that this man has personally caused go up and up and up while they were functionally powerless to stop it. Jason himself says so, directly asking Bruce why he's let the Joker fill entire graveyards with innocent lives!
Under the Red Hood is a well thought out story. It never meant to make the case for whether murder is morally justifiable or not, that was Batman's trauma filled excuse. The reality, as outlined in samiralula01's post, is that Jason's death killed Bruce. He lost his ability to be compassionate, loving, merciful, and more. His little boy was dead. Clinging onto his belief that murder is wrong was just a means to justify to himself why Jason's death would have to go unavenged, and as a direct consequence of this delusion and trauma, which is explicitly said in UTRH, most of Batman's sidekicks have left him! Oracle, Tim, Steph, Cass, everyone except Dick! He's pushed them all away because of this crippling fear of losing them like how he lost Jason, this fear that has made him a colder, less loving man. The fear that turned him from a bringer of justice and hope into a dark shadow.
Jason is right, at the end of the day. He knows the Joker cannot be rehabilitated nor contained, he knows that Bats is just making excuses for himself, and his point of view is further justified by two events: 1, the fact that Barbara was brutalized by the Joker even after Jason died, and 2, that Bludhaven and supposedly Dick was literally NUKED right before Jason went to kill the Joker and instead of running to see if his son was okay, Batman went after Jason.
Batman chose the Joker over his kids not once, not twice, not thrice, but four times.
Jason dying and the Joker living on was the first.
Barbara being tortured to the point of disability was the second.
Dick being nuked and Bats not running to save him was the third.
and Jason having his throat slit by a batarang so Bats could save Joker was the fourth.
UTRH is the story of how Batman does not actually have a solid moral ground to stand on anymore. It displays not only what a broken and defeated man Bruce is, but also implies several times, most notably through the coffin maker's story, that even Bruce believes that Jason is right. He believes that his precious second son deserved to be avenged, not even through bureaucratic or judicial means, but through death. UTRH is a story about Batman, all alone, making huge mistake after huge mistake.
Jason asks Batman to choose: him or me. The Joker or Jason. Your kids or a villain.
Batman chooses.
The Joker puts it the best, after Batman upholds his no-killing rule for the Joker by killing Jason.
"You managed to find a way to win... and everybody still loses!"
[image id: a four-page comic. it is titled âimmortalityâ after the poem by clare harner (more popularly known as âdo not stand at my grave and weepâ). the first page shows paleontologists digging up fossils at a dig. it reads, âdo not stand at my grave and weep. i am not there. i do not sleep.â page two features several prehistoric creatures living in the wild. not featured but notable, each have modern descendants: horses, cetaceans, horsetail plants, and crocodilians. it reads, âi am a thousand winds that blow. i am the diamond glints on snow. i am the sunlight on ripened grain. i am the gentle autumn rain.â the third page shows archaeopteryx in the treetops and the skies, then a modern museum-goer reading the placard on a fossil display. it reads, âwhen you awaken in the morningâs hush, i am the swift uplifting rush, of quiet birds in circled flight. i am the soft stars that shine at night. do not stand at my grave and cry.â the fourth page shows a chicken in a field. it reads, âi am not there. i did not dieâ / end id]
a comic i made in about 15 hours for my schoolâs comic anthology. the theme was âevolutionâ
The Physique skill set for today in all their glory, it is nice at least to put a name to all of them so theyâre easier to identify. Longer ID under the cut:
[ID: 12 images depicting the Physique skills from Disco Elysium as bigger monsters that interact with Harry. In order, thereâs Physical Instrument, Shivers, Endurance, Pain Threshold, Electrochemistry, and Half Light. /End ID]
i dont care how corny iris by the goo goo dolls is bc i love iris by the goo goo dolls and i will continue screaming iris by the goo goo dolls from the top of my lungs every time i hear iris by the goo goo dolls for the rest of my miserable lifeÂ
i hate it when i cant even write a poem about something because its too obvious. like in the airbnb i was at i guess it used to be a kids room cause you could see the imprint of one little glow in the dark star that had been missed and painted over in landlord white. like that's a poem already what's the point
These pins are the perfect gift for your friends, family or your loved one that is a Pokemon lover! These pins are perfect to be in your backpack or tote bag! Enjoy free worldwide shipping during the next 24 hours!!
Got a backlog I could post, spent my time creating this over the last few days instead.
Probably one of my favorite conversations of theirs - I know itâs not the full conversation, but the number of images you can upload is limited and so are the capabilities of my wristâŚ! So I had to cut it off somewhere and this seemed like an appropriate place to do so. Went with the Classic look for a Classic dialogue :3c
On Pathogenesis [Meta? I guess? Listen I'm just talking to talk in this one.]
So, I did a series of word-vomit reblogs last night while I was waiting for my melatonin to kick in about how, essentially, Pathologic -but especially Patho 2- got the "Humans are really the virus" thing right. By really focusing less on humans being the "virus" and more on the relationship between pathogens and a host as a whole. And the whole thing just... really comes together quite beautifully, especially if you use some of the details about the Plague from P1 to add details to it in P2.
This meta isn't to justify the stance, as P2... literally says it in its base text. The "town" is a living entity, the "earth" is actually Boddho. the "plague" is boddho's suffering made manifest, w/e. Really the "plague" is the immune system taking out anything that isn't self. Or, in the case of Boddho, anything that isn't earth. Including her own children.
What the humans of the town fail to acknowledge about themselves is that they are the bacterial culture in this case, for good or ill. They liken themselves instead to blood cells. (Though the Plague does call them out on this with her "you would slay a worm in your body, why am I wrong to slay the worms in mine" or whatever it is she actually says. I'm kinda winging it here.)
The rep of how pathogens work in harmony with the body or against it, how the immune system doesn't fuck around and take names, how drugs can sometimes be useless and evolution of a disease is sometimes a crapshoot, works... so well that I'm gonna put a cut here and just gush about it as a microbiologist that loves Bacteriology and was subjected to... so goddamn much immunology throughout undergrad/grad school.
Bear with me.
I wrote in my post that it's less about Kin vs the Town and more about Autochthonous vs Allochthonous. The Kin in this case being Auto, the Town/Colonizers being Allo.
Autochthonous bacteria are those native to a given system. In this case, the Kin, Native to the Steppe and Boddho. They're usually commensal; in a symbiotic relationship with the host. Which is repped most obviously in the herb brides and the butchers.
The Brides "help Boddho split open" and spill forth the herbs, which P1 tells us are associated with varying degrees of negative emotion or suffering. So they're the organisms that help process and purge toxins/waste products.
The Butchers opening up the lines on Bulls, feeding their blood into her system; arguably gut bacteria that assist with the breakdown and processing of macronutrients.
Then there are the Gatherers/Worms "churning the soil to make it soft" that often work to assist butchers and brides.
A whole microbiome that focuses primarily on the functions of the gut and, arguably, the skin. (If one considers the skin to be the Steppe/Herbs; and thus when the sickness really kicks in/ the stress of the sickness begins taking its toll, the herbs are more in bloom. Like breaking out in an autoimmune rash. And the lower gut, of course, revolving around the Abattoir; Dankovsky's assessment of its purpose wasn't super far off, he just derisively undermined its importance.)
Then, there are the allochthonous bacteria. The non-native. I won't necessarily call them "invasive" as even those that aren't native can be beneficial to the body as a whole (probiotics and cultured dairy come to mind immediately.) or otherwise harmless, (the edible things; the molds, the bacteria, that go into foodstuffs.) The infections that pass a system by because they don't come in in large enough numbers to do harm.
So the system lives symbiotically with these allochthonous organisms, these potential colonizers. Benefits from them and benefits them. Grows and matures alongside them.
But then, they start to overwhelm the system. Start to usurp the native flora. Start to destroy healthy sections of tissue in search of resources to serve its growing numbers.
So the immune system kicks in.
Enter: the sandpest.
The first plague is a primary immune response. A bit of a delayed reaction. Clumsy and uncertain. It curbs the infection for a while.
The second plague though.
That's a secondary response. Sudden. Quick. And Highly Specific but detrimental to the body.
Like mild chickenpox in childhood vs shingles in adulthood.
Simon and Isidor, knowing that their little bacterial system won't survive in its current form, do what many invasive pathogen systems do when they really want to root themselves:
They make a biofilm.
The two of them gathered 7 different strains of Person from varying backgrounds with their own skills, unique resource needs, and unique contributions to the system as a whole and convinced them to coexist. To work as a unit. To function together and survive even if everything else around them burns to ash.
Enter: Artemy. The Plasmid Carrier. The Mutagen.
His dream sequences (really his whole Day 1 across both games) could arguably, be the different phases of the innate immune system trying to keep him out. The body he is trying to invade warning him that no he is not welcome here. but he gets in anyway. Weasels his way in on an open wound. Triggering the secondary immune response (the plague) with his presence but also being responsible for the preservation of the growing biofilm.
And the final choice he makes comes down to what he wants that biofilm to accomplish. Does he want it to be latent? To withstand the immune response and continue to feed off the living system as the two kill each other slowly (the nocturnal ending) or to be instantly lethal and flourish on the necrotizing corpse until it runs out of resources to give them (the diurnal ending.)
The biofilm, the invasive bacteria, cannot live harmoniously with the system. It is a pathogen. A septicemia. It will, ultimately, kill its host or be killed by it. The question then becomes a matter of when. "Do you survive to nightfall"
Also, the issue of both the theater, the polyhedron and Artemy's deaths play into this. The theater is the heart of the town and P1 establishes that the "Plague Bacteria" collects on the heart. The gathering of the living and the dead there makes sense in that context. The Polyhedron, if Dankovsky is right, represents the brain. The fact that only the smallest -the children- can go in there, the fact that the Plague (the immune system in this discussion) can't get to it, is pretty obviously a blood/brain barrier.
Artemy's deaths representing a mitosis; each division causing a genetic change (the decrease to health, the player surviving whatever killed him last time) but too many deaths results in a tumor/abscess forming.
Then there are the emissaries, who, like I mention in my rambling reblogs, represent various kinds of drugs given to help combat infection. Daniil's the mild antibiotic that has to build up in the system over time; he's abrasive with everyone around him because they're the thing he's trying to fight without being overwhelmed. His wanting to save the Polyhedron, and thus the system as a whole lines up with that. Then Aglaya, who's the stronger, bactericidal meds, but is useless in treating the disease and instead has severe/potentially deadly side effects. And Block, the bacteriostatic antibiotic, working in tandem with the immune system (repped by Clara) to hold the infection at a manageable level until it can be destroyed by the system itself.
And Clara, representing the immune system of Boddho, the white blood cell that floats around the system trying to signal what needs repair while also destroying what causes harm, but being too few in number and too actively fought against by both sides to be effective in a benign way. She could, arguably, represent how it's the immune system that causes the symptoms of a disease; the fevers and rashes and pain and multiorgan distress, in greater capacities than the invasive flora themselves. She is inflammation made manifest; a process that both hurts and heals, if given enough time and if enough of the infection is dealt with. And is often considered a symptom in need of treatment instead of a necessary part of the healing process.
Idk where I was going with this. I just wanted to ramble/get all my thoughts in one singular post instead of just a series of increasingly inane reblogs.
(I donât support scott, please donât think that I do, I just like fnaf, the same way I like harry potter but not jk bitchface)
So, nobody really knows why William started killing kids, right?
Well I think I may have come up with a reason and a timeline of events to fit with it
So, when he started Fredbears and Freddys, he had no ill intentions. He just wanted to make some money. However, after his son was murdered⌠he wanted revenge. He wouldnât kill Michael of course, he was now his only son. The other kids involved, however⌠werenât so lucky
When he found out that the kids started haunting the animatronics that he used to hide the bodies, he started thinkingâŚ
Could this be used to bring his son back?
So, he started experimenting with remnant. He also made plans and blueprints for a new location, Circus Babyâs Pizza World. The animatronics here were designed to lure and kidnap kids. He modeled Ballora after his wife, who had left him by now. Things were going smoothly, and it was opening day. He made sure Elizabeth stayed away from Baby, and was never alone in that room. However, he looked away for one minute, which was more than long enough for her to get chopped. The place was shut down the next day, and he decided that the animatronics could be rented out for parties.
Two kids gone, one to go
Now then, Michael, who had some major survivors guilt from his little bros birthday, and really regretted how he had treated him, was now almost an adult, and was starting to catch on to what his dad was doing. He couldnât do much about it though. He eventually moved out at eighteen, but kept in touch. Soon after, William died in the suit he used to lure and kill his friends. Ironic. This was when his quest to make things right began. Starting with the rentals. And we all know how that goes
Now for why I think this theory makes some semblance of sense in the context of current fnaf lore
As many of yâall probably know, the âgregory is actually a robot being haunted by the crying childâ theory is pretty popular, and honestly makes a lot of sense. However, while it fits the narrative, it isnât very satisfying. This theory, however, makes it make some more sense, given the fact that it puts more weight on the âI will put you back togetherâ line, as well as just making the robochild theory fit the story even better.
Also, just a little added note here at the end, the fazbear company is known to cut corners, and it may be safe to say that things from the burnt down pizzeria may have been salvaged and used in the glamrocks. So it wouldnât be too hard to believe that Michael haunts Glamrock Freddy. Which makes his and gregoryâs dynamic like ten times more wholesome.
And in case it was a bit hard to understand, Iâm putting crying child actually dying in the hospital after Michealâs friends getting moidered, and the âI will put you back togetherâ line right before he flatlined.
Critiques are welcomed and encouraged. Please try to fill any holes in the âPurple guy is actually morally greyâ theory, because I am pretty proud of this
I like it. Itâs actually very interesting and way different to how I view William as. I guess some of his voice lines towards Michael, like, âYou may not recognize me at first, but I assure you, it's still me.â could be interpreted as less aggressive and all âI know this body is ugly as hell and it might not seem like I, of all people, is stuck in this body, but yes it is me and Iâm here to fuck you upâ, and more âMichael itâs me, itâs me your fatherâ hoo hoo hoo, to support that he loves his children but itâs really twisted and gone about it all wrong way.
I think personally though, after binging all of game theory which I love, Iâm more leaning towards Afton just being fucked up. Some people just be like that. Man just wanted to kill some children, realised after the the animatronics were made that yo, what better way to lure the kiddies in? and then went ham on them. And idk learnt about souls and remnant etc.
Im really do like yours tho but I think I need to re-examine the timeline n stuff again first đ binging all of GT vids is fun and I can follow along as I go but I doubt Iâve retained any of it other than some strong impressions that I wouldnât be able to back up myself. I think Iâll come back to thisâŚ
Dustin was a good kid. Sure, sometimes he let a dirty word slip. And maybe on occasion he stayed out too long at Mike Wheelerâs house for a session of whatever game those kids were into. But as a whole, most parents would give an arm, a leg, and an eyeball to have a kid like him!
These were the thoughts Steve Harrington repeated to himself over and over again as he sat outside of the drama teacherâs classroom. Well, that, and also some not so pleasant gripes about the seating options. Apparently, Hawkins Middle had no adult-sized chairs to spare, as evidenced by the only offers being small, plastic, navy blue chairs that obviously had been swiped from some classroom elsewhere. If he could, Steve wouldâve opted to just stand and wait. Unfortunately, the sensibility of his sensible shoes had worn away, leaving behind a pain in his soles that threatened to fuck him up if he dared to stand any longer than what was necessary. But then again, it did have more dignity to it; there was something a bit humiliating about struggling to fit one adult-sized butt cheek into the dip of the little stool.Â
