#bambijo

[irl-selkie5023]

Peeta Mellark being so good at working/manipulating the media and the populace of the Capitol during the events of the 74th Hunger Games and the Quarter Quell was partially because of childhood trauma.

Peeta grew up in a very toxic household. With a mother who was abusive towards him physically/emotionally/mentally and a father who, while very loving and kind, did little to dissuade his wife's treatment of him and their other sons. So he would have learned to be quick to say the right things, do his best to mask any mistakes in order to avoid punishment. And slowly but surely it grew to be one of his best strengths, which he immediately capitalised on when given the go ahead to.

It may not have been viewed favourably at first by others, particularly Katniss, but it is in and of itself a very valid survival technique that saved their skin multiple times throughout the series.

[irl-selkie5023]

Already seeing a lot of people generalise the cultural influences of the new Metkayina clan as "Polynesian" and/or "Hawaiian" and I just want to put out a gentle reminder that they have been repeatedly and more than explicitly stated to be influenced by Māori.

Let me also add that this post isn't meant to be a show of gatekeeping or trying to deny any similarities to other indigenous cultures, as I am fully aware that many indigenous individuals feel a deep connection to the Na'vi and their way of life. And that I understand that Polynesian is a more than acceptable way to describe the new Na'vi clan. I'm just wanting to clarify WHICH specific Polynesian culture influenced these characters as each are so distinct with incredibly complex cultural intricacies and shouldn't just be lumped together as one, as 'Polynesian' is more often than not used as a blanket term, regardless of how deeply connected we are across the board.

[irl-selkie5023]

Okay, so some people got a bit uppity with me and tried pulling the; "WeLl iN tHe COMICS-" bullshit about how Despair is portrayed in said comics and how her character "is actually fatphobic" because it "reinforces the stereotype that depressed people let themselves go-"

I just have one thing to say.

It seems you guys are the ones who don't know the comics well enough to know that the Despair we predominantly see in said comics? She isn't the first incarnation for Despair of the Endless. Despair, in her original form, before meeting an undescribed demise (heavily implied to be murder), was just as confident, self assured and captivating as Desire. Hell, she orchestrated the destruction of KRYPTON with EASE for crying out loud. Commandeered it without hesitation and reaped what she'd sown with gusto.

And guess what? Guess what is explicitly stated and shown when discussing her former self? SHE LOOKED EXACTLY THE SAME AS SHE CURRENTLY DOES NOW. THE ONLY REAL DIFFERENCE TO HER PHYSICALLY IS THE FACT THAT SHE IS NOW MONOCHROMATIC, SLIGHTLY SHORTER AND SHE DOESN'T HAVE THE BRIGHT RED TATTOOS THAT SHE FORMERLY HAD. THE ONLY SIGNIFICANT CHANGE OF WHO SHE IS AFTER HER FIRST DEMISE IS HER PERSONALITY AND THAT IS MORE THAN LIKELY A SIDE EFFECT OF THE TRAUMA BROUGHT ON BY HER MURDER.

So, in summary, I personally feel that Despair is meant to be an analogy for what a traumatic experience can do to a person. How it can change them and cause them to withdraw/change. And we do see that physically with her becoming dark and gray, losing her striking tattoos etc. But those are the only changes we see. Nothing else about her is a drastic change, there are no big shocks to any characters (particularly her family) that she looks the way she does and neither is it made out to be a bad thing. There are no doubts of her ability, her strength, no instances of the others viewing her as a burden for the way she looks or treating her with kiddy gloves.They just see her as a fully realised and capable member of their family.

And frankly, those making it all about fatphobia are truly taking away from the complexity and duality of who Despair is as a member of the Endless, the power she innately wields and as a character.

[irl-selkie5023]

I've been seeing people comment about how Despair's design is apparently aimed to be insulting to plus size individuals and as a plus sized woman myself, I'm just like? Bitch where?

But really though. There is nothing in Despair's appearance or the way she is played that has anything to do with fat shaming or disdain towards plus size individuals. Her weight is not made a major factor of who she is as a character, nor is it commented upon or treated as a bad thing. It is just a part of her. This is especially prevalent in the scene where she is interacting with Desire, her twin. The show could have easily made it so she was compared unfavourably to them due to their appearance being more societally attractive but no. She was welcomed lovingly and allowed to be herself and be comfortable as herself within that space.

Another issue people seem to be having is the fact that Despair is an antagonist. While there is a trend of a lot of antagonists being made plus size in order to alienate them and make them unseemly to audiences, that simply isn't the case here. There are many skinny or physically attractive villains within the canon of the series and Despair is far from the worst the series had to offer. Everybody is capable of doing some very terrible things. And I like that the show isn't shying away from that.

Not to mention that this discourse takes away from how amazingly her actress, Donna Preston, did with such a brief appearance in her episode. She played Despair with such a quietly sinister undertone and I LOVED it so much-

[irl-selkie5023]

The amount of people hyperfixating only the 'apparent lack' of physical beauty (which is frankly bullshit because so many of them are fucking gorgeous) of the actors playing the members of the Targaryen family in HOTD are really showing that they have no real sense of what makes a person TRULY attractive.

Take Cleopatra for example. Contrary to what pop culture osmosis would have you believe, Cleopatra was no great beauty by the standards for physical appearance during that time. But she has gone down in history as one of the most beautiful women in memoriam. Why? Because of her charisma, cunning and wit. And most if not all of the people portraying the characters in the show have that in fucking SPADES. Who tf would want to just look at overwhelmingly pretty people all the time anyway? Being exposed to that for too long just makes you lose interest so quickly and it makes all the characters feel the same/one note.

So frankly, y'all are just really outing yourselves as having basic and bland taste. Not everything can be like Twilight, where every single person is an otherworldly beauty with little to no personality to their name. Sorry for being so blunt but it's true.

[irl-selkie5023]

Gotta love that Glass Onion dragged Duke Cody's men rights spouting ass self with the fact that all of his real successes within the storyline of the film only came about as a result of him relying on/using the two women in his life (his mother and his long-time girlfriend Whiskey) as well as turning Andi into a prop for blackmail against Miles.

This is given even more irony when we see just how smart and capable Whiskey actually is during her interactions with Helen and we see just how heavily Duke pushes her down to suit his needs-

[irl-selkie5023]

Playing Coffee Talk: Episode 2 and MY GOD ALL THE HINTS FROM NEIL/SILVER ABOUT US BEING HIS CHILD OR DESCENDANT IS MAKING ME FEEL ALL THE THINGS-

[irl-selkie5023]

Something I have noticed about Hickey, is how he is so intent on forcing himself into the stories of others and trying to take their legacies as his own.

This is in the sense that he himself is an unknown, with little to no history (particularly when his true nature is revealed-) and with little hope of leaving behind a legacy. His obsession with the power that comes from authority/status also indicative of this. Because often in society, power is considered to be an essential when carving a place for yourself within history.

That's why he so desperately wished to have control of Tuunbaq, to be able to command it. So at least he could go down in legend, good or bad, and have a legacy to leave behind when it becomes clear they have landed in a place where status is so easily stripped and rendered down into nothing.

And even then? Hickey is an unaccounted for variable, someone who will leave nothing more than a name. One that isn't even truly his, one that he stole from a man whose own legacy will forever be tainted by someone who took it away from him for his own gains.