#character analysis sort of

[pjpantsu]

mild spoilers for invincible s2-3

horrified to realize my blog doesn’t even pass a bechdel test. this will change NOW.

debbie grayson is one of the coolest characters in the invincible tv show, and is a serious upgrade from her character in the comics. she had nolan, this incredibly powerful, planet-destroying alien, going grocery shopping for her across the atlantic ocean. dude was whipped. she wrangled 2 of the top 5 contenders in the power-scaling verse (this grayson father-son duo), and never once failed at it. nolan was missing her from a viltrumite prison before he died. mark’s entire shell-shock at nolan’s “hey bud, you should help me rule the world or something” shot into anger the MOMENT he said he saw debbie as a pet. this woman just yells cecil’s head off and denies his orders, mandates, offers for help — sees right through him, too, and can tell he’s playing her for leverage whenever he can. clocked angstrom so hard that he broke her damn hand. such an incredible lady that even confessing everything about her life to paul didn’t keep bro from wanting her. haven’t even broached the subject of oliver.

beyond her interactions with the men of the invincible show… she is an incredible character on her own. uniquely fearless and compassionate. encourages everyone around her to be a good person, donates all of nolan’s book money to survivors of his atrocity, bears her burdens with a strength that is beyond just motherhood. consumes enough wine to kill an army of viltrumites. clearly intelligent enough to calculate nolan’s top speed and figure out exactly where to send him so she had enough time to search the house for evidence of his murderous acts. figured this guy out pretty much on her own, had the gall to lie to his face and act like everything was fine and pretty much get away with it. takes nolan’s child from his (basically) affair and raises him as her own with no resentment in sight; got mark AND nolan to look past their power-strength-fight-fight-might-makes-right mentality and listen to her, more than once!

tells mark to follow his heart even when nolan disagrees (regarding titan’s request for help in s1); she is quite literally the reason that our mark is a good person, when so many other variants fail to be. mark is debbie’s son before he’s nolan’s. nolan is debbie’s spouse before he’s a viltrumite, try as he might to convince himself otherwise.

she is the axis on which the morality of those around her is precariously balanced. she provides incredible emotional depth to the show and while she has every reason to lose it, she holds together.

and that’s why she’s the goat.

[hereonthenightcloud]

So I’ve noticed that Victoria and Samira this season seem to be on synchronous journeys, in that both are dealing with moms who are weighing on their careers plans in one way or another, right? And we’ve seen that play out differently for each.

Victoria had a small breakdown because her mom didn’t get her, while Samira had a full on panic attack. I do think there’s a lot to unpack here in regards to the central conflict for both- Victoria just wants to know her mom will love her no matter what, and Samira just wants to know that her own mom still loves her at all- but actually what I want to focus on is where I think they’re headed.

So, in most Western media, in a fight/battle, the winner or protagonist is almost always positioned moving left from right on screen. Note who’s on the left, and who’s on the right?

My prediction for the end of this season is that Victoria will find a way to stand firm in what she wants, and force her mother to accept her decision. Samira, on the other hand, will choose to walk away from PTMC. One thing emphasized this season and last is how Samira hasn’t taken the time to build a life for herself, but also crucially she hasn’t taken the time to think about what she really wants. I think in order for her to feel fulfilled in the career decisions she’ll end up making, she’ll have to take a step away from it all. And perhaps! Because she is starting to see things from her mother’s POV, maybe that inspires her to take some time off and take a trip of her own.

(I don’t necessarily think this means we’ll never see Samira again, just that she needs a break to find herself, and maybe this ends up being a fun tidbit of info we get when we see her next season, as an explanation of what happened in the in between.)

[fumifooms]

Thinking about Despair!Kimblee where he’s the homunculus of the 8th sin bc of this post…

All homunculi have a full title/name like "Envy the Jealous" and "Pride the Arrogant" etc etc, what if Despair’s was "Despair the Miserable"? Since despair and misery are pretty similar and comorbid. Plus, misery loves company. Y’know, like how Kimblee loves having screams of the agonizing playing in the background 24/7 as his life’s soundtrack.

There’s something to say too about despair apparently being the greatest sin, the unforgivable one, with how Kimblee’s storyline touches on the notion of guilt and atonement. Would kinda be cool if his arc came to comment on the whole notion of war, despair that breeds despair He can be rather nihilistic and overconfident in a reckless way, giddy and focuses on conversing eagerly when in danger, it would be interesting if it was due to constant despair and misery: his apathy and lack of self-preservation due to a warped and ravaged mental state. One’s gotta start laughing at it all and taking the shots they can at that point.

This concept is super fun to think about!!

[hereonthenightcloud]

Alrighty! Now that every girl’s first solo chapter has posted in Where You Going, Sunshine? I can talk moodboards and character analysis!

So, because Victoria is mentally in a very different place from everyone else, I wanted her moodboard to stand out as well. See how Trinity, Emma, Samira are warm colored while Victoria is cool?

While all of the other girls are having a warm, yellow sort of summer, Victoria is lost in a stormy blue. I wanted her to stand out visually from the girls in the moodboards just as much as she’s standing out emotionally in the fic, because she’s not in sync with them anymore. So one of the questions we’re seeking to answer in this fic is: will Victoria find her way back to the sun of her friends? Or will she end up forever lost in the sea of her grief?

[neurodivergent-fangirling]

Katsan Brundt is a really interesting character. She’s one of the antagonists in The Raven Scholar but she’s not a bad person. That’s one of the brilliant things about this book—most of the people aren’t really good people or bad people, they’re just people—flawed, complicated, and acting in their own interests and often against each other. From her perspective, everything she does is right and makes sense. She has some very glaring blind spots but she eventually listens and when she realizes she was wrong she does something about it. I mean, I definitely don’t agree with her choice, but it probably was the only way out she could see.

[mc-critical]

Now time for a slightly different post: Am I the only one that likes Afife Hatun more than Daye? I realise that their role in the narrative is kinda similar but to me, Afife was somewhat.. more sympathetic??

Daye felt more like a woman with a tough exterior who cares for justice and has an almost unconditional loyalty to Valide Sultan to the point she killed herself. She has vulnerability and she's shown it but she's more of a tragic figure rather than anything.

Afife's first impression is similar- a woman with a tough exterior that has a soft side. But to me, Afife somehow felt more real, more fleshed-out, wiser, more reasonable.. She was shown to be tough but later, we found out that this tough exterior wasn't her main characteristic at all, her character took a different and way more interesting direction... and the thing that truly stood out in her was the fact that by episode 72, aside from that her tough exterior she was loyal to everyone- she was listening to Mahi, Hatice and Gülfem at first but then she put two and two together and started to respect Hürrem. And since then, even though Hürrem was the one that stood by her side, Afife respected the others too and stood strong till her life was forcefully taken away. She was indeed a better and more sympathetic Daye.

And with that in mind, I like Daye (well, not really in season 1 but then I warmed up to her) but I just find Afife more sympathetic somehow and I wanted to state my opinion.

Case closed.