#character study

[lunarjaguar]

Your Dreams | Kid Icarus: Uprising

[patchwork-crow-writes]

Holy WOW.

Like, you think you know how badly Kris's life sucks. Divorced parents, brother off to college, no friends, some strange higher power hijacking their body and going off on adventures without them... but hey, at least they're able to take some control back from us sometimes! At least they can go off and eat all the pie in peace! At least they can open a dark fountain in their home so they can spend more time with their cool friend Susie! Yay! I'm sure they're just leaving the door open for the cops to get in so they can save the day!

And then. AND THEN. Chapter 4... happens. And everything we thought we knew about Kris crumbles to dust before our very eyes.

Those snatched moments from the player? They weren't the triumphant grasp at freedom we thought, but another, yet more insidious layer of control that has been exerted upon them. Because for the end of Chapter 3 to have happened, a few things had to be prepared - the TV had to be plugged in, Susie had to come over, the tires had to be slashed so the police would be called, and the door had to be left open so that the Knight could gain entry - not the police, but The Roaring Knight. The Enemy.

And make no mistake - they didn't want to do ANY of it. Drinking in the Holidays' kitchen... the way their head turns whenever Susie or Noelle mentions them... Carol's ice-cold hand on their shoulder ("in the shadow of the Knight's hand")... do any of these things indicate Kris as a willing co-conspirator? Or rather, a child who has fallen into the clutches of a very manipulative - and very real - authority figure, who is being groomed and coerced into performing dangerous acts that threaten the lives of not just their friends, but their family, their town, and quite possibly the whole world?

We knew that Kris Dreemurr's life sucked before this. But we could never have anticipated just how badly it sucked, just how little control and agency they truly have, in any aspect of their life. This situation has been going on for MUCH longer than we've been around - you can tell that much from the birdcage. Their situation is so utterly, catastrophically FUCKED that death seems the most preferable outcome for them.

Remember Susie noting how Kris responds to Queen's offer to "Perish" with enthusiasm?

Remember the way they crumple onto the floor when Spamton NEO is about to kill them and take their SOUL, not even attempting to fight back?

Remember them whispering in Susie's ear in "the_newest_girl_girl"?

...yeah. It's THAT bad.

And you have to wonder... if we were never shunted into Kris's body... if we didn't literally FORCE Kris to move, to go to the dark world, to Fight and Spare enemies - to FORCE them to play at being a hero, in spite of their situation... What would have happened?

Would Kris even be alive now, if not for us?

[starshideurfics]

#waynewednesday

Wayne is 26 when his kid brother becomes a father. When he holds Eddie for the first time and promises to do better by him than he managed for Al.

At 32, he steps in to keep Eddie from breaking to pieces after Liz died. Only for Al to get territorial and send him away.

He’s 37 when Eddie shows up on his doorstep with his things shoved in a black trash bag, now Al’s got his third strike. It takes nearly a whole year for Eddie to get comfortable, only for it all to be undone two years later when Al makes parole and acts like nothing changed.

When Eddie’s 17, Wayne finally gets his boy back. It means he’s there to hold him as he rages and cries his heart out over being held back. There to tell him that sticking it out and really trying is what matters, even if he needs more time.

Wayne cries his own eyes out two years later when he nearly loses Eddie for good.

Later that year, his close eye on Eddie even closer as he heals, Wayne sees just how close the Harrington boy has gotten. Sees how protective Steve is of Eddie. How he looks at him like he’s precious.

He sees how Eddie reaches for him like he knows he’ll be there.

He sees that Steve always is.

Wayne is 50 when he spots one of Eddie’s rings on Steve’s finger. When he asks, Eddie mumbles, “We made it as official as we can.”

They hug and Wayne tells him how happy he is for them. “You chose well,” he says softly against his hair.

At 55, Wayne’s knees hurt and his back hurts, his body tired after years at the plant. But it doesn’t bother him. He still gets down on the floor to play with his granddaughter, the adoption paperwork finally complete now Rosie’s three.

She’s gonna keep him young, he can tell.

[androsartstuff]

Mike sketches. Lineart wasn't working

[thedigital-dumbcircus]

“I was right?”

Episode 7 of The Amazing Digital Circus is out. Let’s talk.

In episode 6, Jax explains his worldview. “What’s the point in pretending we’re not [cartoon characters]?”

The most recent adventure just confirmed everything for him.

He clearly didn’t want to get his hopes up about leaving. After all, that’s what drives them to abstract in the first place.

He tried deflecting. Pointing out that Abel was obviously a twist villain or that the whole escape plan was meant to be one of Caine’s secret adventures. He called it. But inexplicably, he hoped that maybe there really was an exist. He hoped he was wrong.

“I can’t believe I was right!”

His belief in the possibility of an exits existence was strong enough that even he thought that his own performative disbelief of one was simply coping gone overkill. He did not want to be right.

But he wasn’t wrong.

His twisted view on their situation, his view defined completely by being a desperate coping strategy — it was just confirmed.

Because this whole plan, this situation, this escape, it was all fake. A plot. They really were just… characters in a skit.

Jax felt betrayed that everything was a lie.

Pomni said they were all real, too. Zooble said the same thing to Gangle.

So imagine his surprise when Jax, outnumbered, was right about their whole situation. Not only was the escape plan a phony, but on a basic fundamental level, his mentality — realizing that they’re all characters in the focus — is the only way.

The circus doesn’t let them escape. It doesn’t let them be real. Neither did the adventure, which rewarded playing along. Because the characters in Caine’s circus would never choose to leave.

He refused to hold Pomni’s hand, to show vulnerability or be a friend, especially after their recent fight.

This would’ve been his last act of vulnerability before coming back to the real world, had their plan been true. His last chance to be good to her before they were ripped back into the world.

They couldn’t leave, though.

He was right again. Would’ve just regretted his actions even more if he did choose to hold her hand. Because why act so serious anyway? What are they preparing for?

Nothing. So no need to abandon their established roles!

Jax never wanted to be right. He was self aware enough to know that his logic was fallible. He didn’t like his conclusion either. So when it was confirmed?

…

He was horrified when he realized he chose to stay.

While they were all trying to figure out how to make sure what the correct choice would be to allow them to leave, he forced everyone to stay. Whether it was guilt, terror, or confusion at himself, this expression shows that it wasn’t just play.

He pushed that button because he wanted to stay.

He didn’t “jokingly” choose to stay.

Wasn’t following a script or a skit.

Wasn’t just deflecting, either.

He thought that blue button would bring him home — and he refused to hit it.

Whatever was out there, he didn’t wanna go. Caine was right! He really would just rather stay in the circus.

This begs the question; what is out there?

“What’s the rush, you got someone waiting for you outside?”

“Don’t you?”

“Y-yeah…”

He asked that so flippantly. As if it’d be ridiculous to assume that someone would be out there waiting for any of than.

Maybe he’s the one who did something. Maybe he can’t face his mistake. There’s no one out there waiting for him. That’s might be the thing he really can’t face.

Or it has something to do with this. To put it bluntly: it looks like a little girls room.

Now, was it just made to match his avatar? Or was his avatar and his room meant to represent something about himself? Something he doesn’t want to share with anyone? A secret.

How bad could his secret be?

Jax deflects in the bar when he’s asked about his life, but so did Zooble.

Refused to show what happens when he holds his breathe, too, but that’s such a minor thing.

It’s clear that no one else in the circus knows. Or they do, but they’re down in the cellar.

Looks like his only friends are stuck here anyway. Why would he want to leave them?

[evyltalks]

Portrait 1 out of 4 – Neil Josten

[greentrickster]

One of the things I like about Parker from Leverage is that, not only did the writers very much see her as being somewhere on the autism spectrum, the show makes it very clear that the autism isn't why she's like that.

That she spent formative years getting the brunt of the foster system, lived on the streets, got taken in by a well-meaning but flawed master thief and taught how to make her own way in the world.

That she learned very few social skills along the way, but is completely capable of and willing to learn them if given the correct situations and motivation. And is more than able to form strong, positive bonds with people how are willing to meet her where she is (and like, Parker/Hardison FOREVER, but also the episode where Elliot's posing as a chef and his and Parker's friendship is given a moment to shine).

That she's got lingering issues from her rough past that talking about with a therapist can help with, and which can help her understand, empathize with, and aid other people or kids who are in bad situations like the ones she went through.

She's not weird and quirky and goofy because she's autistic, she's weird and quirky and goofy because she has been through so much, with so little outside help, and this is how she became at least in part to deal with it all.

And no one tries to 'fix her' over the course of the series, she's just given a chance to learn some new skill sets while the rest of the cast simultaneously is given the chance to get to know her as a person.

I love how, in the first episode, Nate's reaction to the first mention of Parker being on the team is, "Parker's insane," and in the last episode she is the one he believes to be most capable of succeeding him as the head of Leverage.

She never needed fixing; she too, like every person they help, just needed a little leverage against the rough hand life dealt her.