My idea is that, after Wendy leaves, Spear and Fang would try to cheer Dipper up a bit. Fang looks annoyed (she couldn't care less about kids' dramas).
Blaming Jack's parents for turning their son into a weapon is to negate the right of self-defense and to dehumanize the victims of Aku.
Jack "found his purpose in life" not because he was brainwashed, but because he knows the difference between the world before Aku and the world after him.
Do not worship misanthropes, the proponents of social darwinism and totalitarianism.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth." — C. S. Lewis
Do you think the reson some people live peacefully under Aku in the future, is because being an inherently malignant being whose evil is integrated in his existence might have had his cruelty somewhat satiated by how easy victory was ?
I mean he is a funnier and more laid back being in the future. He runs on Anarcho-tyranny and knows he is an evil abomination.
That quote is from an essay where Lewis argues that switching from using punishment for justice to using punishment for therapy/reform infantilizes & disenfranches criminals because it treats them like powerless children who aren't responsible for their own actions, rather than reasoning moral agents who chose to do wrong. I don't think it applies to Aku's government.
But if it did, though? Aku's not the robber baron; he's the omnipotent moral busybody. The two positions here are not "good vs evil (the moral busybody is good, the robber baron is evil)"; the two positions here are "motivated by moral beliefs vs motivated by material desires (the moral busybody is motivated by moral beliefs, the robber baron is motivated by material desires)," and the fact that the busybody aligns with what WE consider "good" and the robber baron aligns with what WE consider "evil" is a coincidence.
Aku isn't evil because he's greedy and selfish and sadistic; he's evil because he IS evilness itself. His cupidity may one day be satiated (although if he's already run out of treasure to loot from Earth and is turning toward the stars, it probably won't be for a while) but he will still torment people without end for the good of evil, because that's what his conscience drives him to do.
Aku's is not a tyranny exercised for the "good" of its victims; but it IS a tyranny exercised for the [forcibly correcting the behavior until it aligns with his personal morals] of his victims, which is really what "good" means in this context:
he rewards loyalty and obedience—Scaramouche bringing news of Jack's lost sword is the only person we see him reward on screen.
he punishes defiance (the emperor singled out from his people to perform extra hard labor as they watch) and disrespect (the Vadaquian who calls him a monster in episode 2 is sent to the Pit of Hate, not for eternal punishment, but to "learn proper respect for Aku" and then return.)
He rewards cruelty and punishes love—even if punishing "good" subordinates puts himself in a worse position.
He's set up government programs to attract criminals and promote brutality, and there appear to be government-endorsed operations to encourage teen delinquency.
He burned down an an entire forest but left one tree just to remind people they can't have nice things.
When he gripes about Jack's effect on his world, he doesn't talk about riches lost and territories freed; he talks about how he was once feared and darkness and despair covered the land, but now the people are hopeful and defiant. He's bemoaning the moral decay of his empire.
He's regularly trying to teach his subjects how they should feel (hopeless), think (obediently), and behave (submissively):
"To all those fools who dare oppose me, your hero is dead! Your hope is dead! I am the one true master! Let this be a lesson to all!"
"Human fool. I see that I must show your world who is master."
"But I will cure the world of this plague of hope. I will unleash such evil that even the most innocent soul will be consumed by terror!"
Right after the quote you sent from The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment, Lewis says, "To be 'cured' against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level with those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals."
Aku's regularly trying to "correct" the way his citizens/victims think. He's motivated by right and wrong just as powerfully as Jack is. It just so happens that his right is evil and his wrong is good.
Do you think the reson some people live peacefully under Aku in the future, is because being an inherently malignant being whose evil is integrated in his existence might have had his cruelty somewhat satiated by how easy victory was ?
I think it's much more mundane than that; some people live peacefully because one guy and his shadows and drones can't oppress everybody everywhere at the same time.
I mean he is a funnier and more laid back being in the future.
I don't think Aku's funnier and more laid back in the future; I think Aku's funnier after season 1 episode 13, and this is a reflection of how the writers are willing to frame Aku's character rather than a change in Aku's behavior.
We only see Aku in the past in four episodes:
Episode I: Aku spends all his screen time conquering Japan or fighting for his fucking life
Birth of Evil 1: Aku isn't born until the end of the episode; he thanks his creator, laughs at his creator for trying to stop him, then decides to conquer Japan
Birth of Evil 2: Aku spends all his screen time conquering Japan or fighting for his fucking life
Episode C: Aku spends all his screen time fighting for his fucking life. Loses.
We don't get to see him hanging out in his throne room, scheming, spying on Jack, taking visitors, making phone calls, mingling with the populace in disguise, doing his morning stretches, reading fairy tales to children, etc, because we barely see him in the past—and when we do see him, it's during pivotal scenes in pivotal episodes where nobody gets enough leisure time to be funny.
But what was Aku doing during the 17 years Jack was training? Probably hanging out in his throne room, scheming, taking visitors, spying on his slaves, doing morning stretches, learning the fairy tales he will someday read to children, etc.
Although I'd argue that Aku's bright-eyed surprise over being told the emperor was trying to destroy him, followed by giggling over melting the emperor's sword, is about the most laid back we ever see him. Compare that to, say, the start of Jack and the Zombies. Or the start of Jack vs Aku. Or Jack vs Mad Jack. "Aku is in a funny and laid-back low-tension scene" correlates pretty highly with "Aku himself is stressed and tense."
At any rate, I don't think we have any evidence that Aku's behavior has significantly changed between the past and the future.
What do JoJo fans and Mabel haters have in common? They don't watch their “favorite” show.
If that jerk on reddit claimed that Mabel's defenders are the real hypocrites, then I say that Mabel's haters approve and condone gaslighting and victimblaming.
What if Jotaro jumped to Pucci instead of throwing a harpoon?
This "comic", as you may have noticed, is copied from the manga panels (Stone Ocean - chapters 12, 140, 146, 147 and 152) and screenshots from the anime (Stone Ocean - episodes 35 and 36).
All the credit goes to Araki, his assistants and the animators of the series.
I spent a week messing around with this "art". First, I drew a sketch, then I decided to color it. The art turned out unprofessional and... unfinished? I colored it in Paint and have no idea how to imitate brush textures and shadows on the background, so the fill turned out flat.
Yes, the girl in the chair is Wendy. Her look is based on that photo with her brothers where she has pigtails and braces.
casual reminder that gravity falls brilliantly said “fuck you” to the whole “i’m the hero because i exposed how douchey your boyfriend is” cliche’
too often do tv shows and movies and the media in general portray dipper’s behavior in “boyz crazy” as appropriate and worthy of some sort of gratitude or “reward” (usually in the form of a kiss or a hug by the person they’re in love with) when really this behavior is actually kind of manipulative and shitty
dipper didn’t expose robbie’s secret for wendy’s sake—he did it for his own sake, because he wanted the couple broken up in order to increase his chances of wendy rebounding to him. he didn’t think about the fact that wendy would be heartbroken and hurt from finding out her boyfriend is a controlling fraud, and that she maybe wouldn’t want to immediately jump into someone else’s arms for comfort. yes, it’s wrong that robbie was manipulating wendy into staying with him, but dipper was being just as manipulative in trying to “rescue” her, because his motives were selfish, insensitive, and careless.
i congratulate gravity falls for trying to teach kids that dipper is no hero here, that ruining a relationship for the sole purpose of wanting someone to use you as a shoulder to cry on, while having absolutely no consideration for the person’s feelings as a result of your meddling, is still not okay.
There’s so much wonderful commentary in the OP’s comment.
I was really proud of Gravity Falls several times of not taking the common tropes and running with them. Not every time, but several important times.
This message stood out though. It’s something everyone needs to hear. Because acting like (or even genuinely being) the ‘nice guy’ doesn’t entitle you to ANYTHING.
This was one of my favorite realizations when researching for my big post about Dipper. I’ll admit I didn’t catch the significance of Wendy being pissed at Dipper the first time I saw this scene, though I suspect it’s because I’m male. When I saw it recently though I thought it was brilliant of the Gravity Falls writing staff to defy the trope, especially because it highlighted how an otherwise good person like Dipper can easily rationalize such manipulative behavior. Good on you OP for seeing this way before I did.
Yeah, it's Wendy. In this sketch, she's younger than in the show and I was referencing a photo of her with her brothers. She was a tall kid with braces.
It's convenient when you have model sheets, screenshots from the show, drawing tutorials, and a lack of imagination. Without all that, I would never have been able to do it myself, well, maybe except for Stan's head.
So, we have: a creepily smiling Stan, Soos and Wendy looking awkward.
I can't get the scene from season 1 episode 19 out of my head, where Stan is in a Colombian prison, happy to be with his "best friends".
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theartofmadeline
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kaledo-art
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