#character ever

[pyrrhicpoison]

[epiphainie]

sorry but buck being like "my straight friend eddie who's straight please go sleep with that woman" and then swiping her away like "oops sorry" is the funniest thing to me

[timetobeaghost]

Mike Wheeler Vol 2

People complain that Mike didn't do much these 3 eps, but as a Mike stan I'm pretty happy. I think it's clear that they wanted to give everyone a moment to shine, the Sinclair sibs coming up with these plans, that both worked, Steve coming up with the magic bean - So no one can say these characters were useless for the plot. Mike will of course shine tremendously in the finale.

I liked how it was clear it was him who inspired Holly gave her her strength and they mention him constantly in that plot line. The Max/Holly conflict was even framed as "Do we just wait that El saves us or do we do it the Mike way?" Mike way won.

Then Kali zeros in on the famous Mike and makes the whole conflict of El living or dying about him. "You listen to Mike, you watch him die!" (Hey, does this count as another death omen? WILL SOMETHING STILL COME OF THESE DEATH OMENS)

(Also, also, did anyone notice how the old Mileven proof of Mike saying "This is our story" again turned out to be about the whole party?)

It's just really positioned to be all about Mike. Mike, Will and El and their whole mess.

Oh and Mike was literally everywhere and had scenes/dialogue with everyone about everything - funny, heartfelt, tactical - just kinda lowkey. He is the fabric of the story.

[naydralikessoup]

uh oh deltarune's deconstruction of The Silent Hero and specifically link legend of zelda was a little too effective and now i'm starting to feel disgust at the concept

for context link legend of zelda is a character who's meant a lot to me since i was like 13. there was something about him that i was so drawn to, that i saw myself in, that i wanted to become, so i did. held on to an ideal of courage and kindness and being a little too careful to avoid the impulsivity that so often plagued bravery. i found the idea of being a wandering hero very romantic; i fantasized about running away from home, leaving everyone behind, becoming someone nobody knew. that way, i could be free of the expectations for who i was supposed to be. and, since i'd be a hero of course, who helps people, everyone would like me. they'd like me, and help me out, and i'd be gone before i could be anything less than perfect in their eyes. (i have changed a lot since then, but this is relevant to my points i promise)

this is what i saw in the character of link. not somebody who was me per se, but somebody i wanted to become and learn from. i guess it's not the worst choice of character, but that's not really who he's supposed to be, i think. what he was meant to be is a blank slate, with personality and backstory just vague and subtle enough that you can make him whatever you want. as much as i like to pretend he's not, and think of him on his own as a character, he was designed to be relatable and inoffensive.

'why isn't link nonbinary or gender ambiguous?' is an age old question. at least i've been thinking about it for a while and some others in sorta niche circles. it would balance out the gender ratio of the three triforce weilders and make him measurably more 'neutral,' so why not do it? because male is seen as the default. maleness is the optimally inoffensive option because neutrality or ambiguity or even femaleness are seen as 'special' or 'other.'

you can follow this line of thinking in other ways too: why is his skin the color it is? why is his role usually as a violent enforcer or protector? why must he do so much alone?

'zelda has some issues with racism, misogyny, and transphobia' is a cold take that other people have made much better than me, but the point i'm making is that, link, as a character designed to be relatable and inoffensive, plainly shows what's considered to be normal and the biases contained in that. (and this is despite everything that makes him special and important to people outside the norm; i'm not saying he's meant to be 100% The Most Normal Guy, just that he embodies out expectations of a fantasy hero and a video game protagonist quite directly)

all of this is because he's a blank slate, meant to be relatable and projected onto. because of his role as a silent protagonist, he'll never be allowed to express a real personality---nothing deeper than a nose for mischief or love of animals. a backstory and some character relations if you're lucky.

to me, link is emblematic of a wish to never have to be known as weird or flawed or vulnerable. it doesn't really matter who he is because his sole purpose is to play the role of hero. he embodies courage by foregoing himself and all other aspects of his identity in order to play that role. the world wants him to be someone else, and he willingly obliges.

kris does the opposite of this, increasingly as the chapters go on. they're bursting with personality, because unlike link, they're free to push the boundaries of our expectations. they get to be someone not everyone likes or relates to---they go out of their way to show that they're anything but what you expect. they're still our silent protagonist, barely, bearing classic markers like quiet tendencies, odd habits, and general mystique, but now these things are built to be questioned, with threads woven throughout the game giving hints as to what they might mean. ultimately, they paint a picture of a character with a rich and complicated and controversial personality. the finer details are subtle, but their more extreme actions make it impossible to deny.

my favorite reading of kris is one where they are choosing, early on, to restrain themself, in an attempt to fit into the more classic silent protagonist box. so as the game goes on and they express themself more openly, it can be thought of as an active choice. that has become what courage means to me---the choice to be vulnerable, despite all the expectations and obligations and misunderstandings. kris is who they are, and i like to think they're slowly learning that that's okay. i want them to get a happy ending because i think the desire to be someone else they feel in this reading is wrong about them.

everyone deserves to exist and express themself. everything that makes you weird or vulnerable is breathtakingly beautiful. i want to see it, and i want to live in a world where people feel safe to be themselves. i believe it truly makes the world better to be yourself unabashedly, and i think the concept of kris deltarune agrees with me. the concept of link does not.

[janiedean]

it’s always nice to see that whatever adaptation existing wanting to kick victor frankenstein in the teeth is a constant always

[purplecladmerchant]

I love Cyberpunk2077. I love its unfulfilling world. I love Jhonny Silverhand. I love his unreliability of narration. I love his hypocrecy. I love his self fulfilment dressed as good intentios. I love his extremist point of view that is clearly so so pretentious and ill intended and wrong. I love this man who never did his part in any of his relationships and fell by his own weight. I love how he is the tower.

[aroace-nut-case]

CONSIDER

Jonah keeping and preserving the eyes of his past hosts and keeping them in the same place as the bones