#foil characters

[shaylogic]

Trauma Trigger Response Mask Up Babes

[tookishcombeferre]

Sofia the First: The Use of Foils and What It Teaches

This is going to be what I like to call an “ensemble” analysis. I’m not honing in on any one character in particular, but instead want to talk about most of the characters as a cast/ whole.

This may end up being a multi part post, but I’ve had the idea for this since hitting the mid-point of Season 2 in my rewatch?

Maybe a little earlier or later?

I’m not sure.

But, anyway, I realized that, once again, something I really like about Craig’s direction/ the writing in the show is that he presents high level literary concepts at a manageable level for kids.

I think I talked once about The Hero’s Journey? I know I’ve talked about specific literary concepts: foreshadowing, asides & dramatic irony, flashback, and other more specific things like that.

However, I’m starting, on a full rewatch, to notice the number of *foils* there are in the show.

Foils are simply a character, or characters, who contrast another character, though usually the protagonist, to highlight particular traits about them.

I’m going to pick apart some of my favorites in detail even if I’ve alluded to a few of these things in past posts. I just want a space to get into the gritty details of some of them.

Winifred and Goodwyn vs. Roland and Miranda: How Parents Affect the Relationships Between Their Children as Well as the Well Being and Saftey of Their Children into Adolescence and Adulthood

I mentioned this briefly in a post about Winifred specifically, but I want to go deeper into the dynamics of these two relationships and how they impact their kids, and who those kids become/ became.

In many ways, Winifred and Miranda are quite similar. They both challenge their husbands. They’re both feisty. They’re both undeterred by their husbands, in some ways, having more literal or physical power.

However, the contrast comes both in Goodwyn’s response to Winifred vs. Roland’s to Miranda AND Winifred’s having been sort of forced into a place of, perhaps, seeing rebellion, wrongdoing, and/or pranks as the only way of extracting an edge.

We see this in the way she subtly (and at times often explicitly) encourages Cedric to “do the wrong thing” and just go his own way.

All the while, she still is trying to pull strings to make Goodwyn and Cedric see reason through “normal channels” - as in Mystic Meadows.

She’s split down the middle, at least in part, because Goodwyn won’t listen and is so ridged. He won’t forgive Cedric for a mistake, he didn’t make, when he was a child, and he is unyielding in his “justice.”

There is no “mercy.”

To the degree there is, it is only brought out of Goodwyn by a person of “status.” Sofia, at the time she confronts Goodwyn, is a princess.

She is his sovereign.

He has to obey her.

Therefore, while Winifred, unlike Miranda, acts out and falls into petty antics of pranks and wrongdoing after being spurned for years by her husband, the contrast and foiling between Roland and Goodwyn is even more stark and apparent.

Roland chooses a village woman as his second bride.

Not only that, but he listens to her advice CONSTANTLY.

He also allows other people around him who are “beneath his rank” to participate in making choices with him. - Baileywick, his children, etc.

(Part of the lore I’ve developed for Ulster comes out of this pattern in Roland’s behavior. After their reconciliation, it’s Cedric’s advice and understanding of Arielf’s culture that helps permanently resolve the “Elf Situation.” This, obviously, in addition to the diplomacy Amber, Sofia, and James already helped with through their child-like perspectives. But, that said, Roland readily takes Cedric’s advice on things once that relationship has been reestablished because such would be his way.)

But, that is SUCH a stark contrast to Goodwyn who will only listen to Sofia. It’s only at her instance that he does what Winifred has been asking him to do for years.

Even retired, Goodwyn sits “at the side of the king/ throne” not at the side of his family.

Whereas, even on the throne, Roland sits at the side of his family & subjects first before sitting on the side of “what the throne asks” / out of propriety/ purely external “Goodness.”

(This being where a lot of the tension in my writing is built out of when I have Roland act somewhat OOC for magical related, world building, reasons based on some of his less than consistent moods in some of the S4 episodes.)

However, in the show, and to a greater or lesser extent what I’ve written, especially once she has all the facts presented to her, Miranda tempers Roland, and/ or with confidence acts in his stead.

But, truly, as with canon, he, generally, listens.

So, where you have one couple who has remained married for years and another who, through terrible accidents, have come together, there is this sharp contrast in their relationships.

Goodwyn and Winifred cannot agree on much, and Roland and Miranda come together to advise each other on how to handle most things.

Realistically, would things look as bad or as perfect as they do?

No. No way.

But, on the whole and average is it pretty accurate to the sum total?

Yeah. As someone who grew up in a household with a Goodwyn and Winifred - yeah. That’s accurate to what it feels like, and my grandparents were a lot more like Roland and Miranda.

(Though, my grandmother was more like Roland and my grandfather more like Miranda - except my grandmother was a baker so … never mind not important- dynamics wise that was the dynamic.)

But, the secondary question is how does that affect their kids?

When the “dominant” parent is as perfectionistic as Goodwyn and the only encouragement to not be that way comes from a softer voice that cannot over power the dominant voice it leads to a lot of problems.

The children in that household, again speaking from experience, often end up seeking both the approval of AND comparing themselves to the parent who holds that standard. It’s worse still if that’s what the parent models by holding that standard and expectation for themselves outwardly.

What Cedric and Cordelia likely learned was that the only thing worth being was perfect, great, and powerful. Without those traits, nothing was good enough.

They had to be the best, or they were nothing at all.

Worse still, for Cedric, being told by most everyone except his mother that he was effectively doomed for life, he would have been left to internalize that there was nothing of value in him, there was nothing good in him, and that he was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

How young he was when he made this choice is left for speculation.

Cordelia, by contrast, having been publicly disfigured, would have likely internalized that she had to compensate for such a thing by being practically perfect in every other way.

Neither of them would have leaned on one another, having been taught to see each other as “the enemy.”

I actually wonder if Cedric may have tried to make amends at some point shortly after because he was the youngest and may have needed help with something only to find himself rebuffed, thus sealing the grudge.

But, that’s purely speculation.

I also don’t believe that Roland and Cedric had much of a choice in the matter surrounding the end of their friendship. I think that was forced. But, eventually the strains of that forced decision lingered, and they had trouble repairing it into adulthood no matter how much both of them wished to reconcile.

Therefore, due to Goodwyn’s lack of ability to see past external “goodness,” his lack of humility, his lack of willingness to listen to all of the facts, and his lack of willingness to hear the pleas of his wife and children, his family is severed down the middle, his children grow up in constant consternation with one another, and his children also grow up hating themselves - one physically and the other internally.

One of them was truly coddled by receiving everything she ever wanted, being allowed to steal from her brother, and being able to get away with nearly everything because of what was done to her.

The other was allowed to be spurned by the world, leading him to become untrusting, conniving, and cold-hearted because, in having to fend for himself against the cruelty of the world’s judgement and insults, he was forced to take on an adult positon in the world too young with very, very few people to support or help him.

One was pardoned. The other was blamed.

Goodwyn in not listening to Winifred, or anyone outside of rank higher than him, destroyed his family.

This contrasts what Roland and Miranda built out of tragedy.

Roland’s wife dies very shortly after the birth of their twins. They were 9 when Roland remarried.

Sofia was somewhere between 5 & 6 when her father died, and she was 8 when her mother remarried.

They had to come together, in love, to create something new.

And, they do.

They build a family in which their children are allowed to flourish in their gifts despite struggles.

They build a family in which their children are allowed to ask questions, push back, challenge them, and fail without being written off as failures.

While there are consequences for active wrongdoing, there is also mercy and forgiveness - stemming from Roland especially.

Nowhere is this more apparent than with what Amber does to Sofia with the Well.

Roland would have been somewhat justified to just GO OFF.

But, he doesn’t.

He helps her fix her mistake based on what he knows about his, and he gives her what he knows she needs. Yet, he does this all while teaching her why what she did was wrong.

The amount of control needed in that situation is … a lot.

I have PTSD.

Trust me.

A lot of f-ing control would have been needed to stop whatever response was going to come out of that moment.

Roland has control where Goodwyn has none.

He listens and internalizes where Goodwyn lacks the capability to do so.

And, this is present in the fact that Roland’s children flourish where Goodwyn’s languish.

Miranda is able to do what she does, in no small part, because Roland listens to and respects her.

Miranda would be and is great on her own.

However, in many ways, so is Winifred.

Winifred, when she’s alone, says things like “She’s the best friend you’ve ever had. Come to think of it, she’s the only friend you’ve ever had.”

I’m also not completely unconvinced, the more times I watch it, that “Cedric Be Good” wasn’t just Winifred’s lesson in #the-natural-consequences-of-our-actions-coming-to-bite-us or something similar.

But, I can also just see that episode being part of her bitterness towards never being heard/ listened to.

There’s a part of me that likes both reads for different reasons.

Either way, without mutual agreements, without working together, without mutual respect, so much hangs in the balance.

And these two couples really show that.

Roland does so much for his kids simply by listening both to Miranda and to them in ways Goodwyn never does to anyone, really.

In this way, Sofia, Amber, and James are also foils of Cedric and Cordelia.

Siblings: Definitions of Success, Rivalry vs. Support, and Growth vs. Self-Deprecation and Depression

One of the biggest foils in the relationship between Amber, James, and Sofia vs. Cordelia and Cedric is the idea of supporting each other in growth, in the case of the former group, and dragging each other towards depression or struggle, in the case of the latter.

(I’ll also get into a few specific character comparisons in a sec.)

Despite being children and occasionally having their moments of sibling rivalry, on the whole, Amber, James, and Sofia usually work throughout the series to help each other solve problems and make things easier for each other.

Even when one has wronged the other, such as in the case of Princess Ivy, Sofia still works to help Amber break the curse.

James, from the moment Sofia steps into the castle, seeks to welcome her.

When James is King for a Day, Sofia ceaselessly assists him in trying to solve problems as his advisor.

When Amber discovers she’s heir to the throne, and James is in his feelings about it, Sofia helps James realize the error of his ways and helps Amber reach her full potential.

By contrast, Cordelia completely ignores Cedric the first time they’re shown on screen together. Cordelia’s daughter is shown to listen better, and to cling more, to him than to her - despite Calista clearly wanting the two of them to reconcile.

(Trust me when I say that the way Calista treats Cedric is how my biological child treats me, and how Calista acts around her mom is how my kid treats their aunts/uncle/teacher. It’s … something happened there, whether Cedric took Calista in for a time when she was an infant - but not for so long that it affects her active memory - or he lived with them for a time to help out when she was a baby/ young child. Something happened that caused her to imprint on him like the “nanny” or primary caregiver.)

Additionally, Cedric and Cordelia literally get into a fight so epic at one point they shrink a building - as adults.

It’s not until they learn the truth about their childhood, and are able to go back FOR THEMSELVES, and make choices FOR THEMSELVES, with that new information that they are able to undo the cause of their fighting and make meaningful reparations.

Cedric to the accident that was caused, and Cordelia to the blame that she has heaped on Cedric for years.

Yet, that is something the two of them do on their own, with the assistance of the new information presented to them.

It’s only after years of being at each other’s throats, due to what they’ve been told about a single event, that they are able to receive enough information to reconcile and work together.

And, how many nights did Cedric spend in torment over what he knew to be true vs what he had been taught and told was true?

How painful was it to learn that the truth that he had known all those years was the actual truth?

How painful was it to learn that all this time, he had been right about what he knew and everyone else had been asking him to believe a lie?

For Cordelia, how painful must it have been to sit with the reality of knowing Cedric hadn’t been lying?

And, how much would she want to offer comfort without ever knowing what to say?

Meanwhile, just a few, maybe like 2(?), episodes prior, we saw Amber commit perhaps the greatest screw up of her life when dealing with Prisma. She chose not to listen to Sofia. She got manipulated by Prisma’s words. She ended up almost destroying the entire Mystic Isles.

But, instead of giving up on her and calling her a failure, despite Amber trying to go to that place herself, Sofia reminds Amber of her brilliance. She reminds her of all the times she’s done things for others.

This leads to one of the most beautiful songs in the series.

As much as I wish the Protector/ Mystic Isles arc was longer (because to me it feels rushed), I do really love this moment between Sofia and Amber because it sets up the perfect parallel between what Goodwyn and Winifred failed in and how Roland and Miranda have succeeded.

Imagine a world in which, Cedric was able and allowed to say “that’s not who I am” instead of “my evil is inevitable and is all that comforts me.”

What DotS sets up is this moment, AMBER’S moment, Amber is going to have this final failure.

But, instead of allowing her to fail, Sofia is going to lift her to be the best “Queen-Queen.” She’s going to reach her fullest potential instead of remaining stuck.

Now, what I’ve chosen to do with this in my own writing is what I’ve chosen to do with it because I like using Cedric and Amber as foils.

I do think they’re funny when used to highlight how useless they can be together.

But, when they’re actually trying?

When they have the same goal?

They would be one formidable team, and Lord help whomever crosses them.

Therefore, in this one particular way, Amber acts as Cedric’s foil.

However, Amber, as the older sister, also acts as a foil for Cordelia, particularly when she interacts with James and Sofia in the capacity OF (older) sister.

In “King for a Day,” we see her trying to ensnare James in a failure. However, she quickly concedes her defeat when she notices that he has been successful in completing his tasks. Additionally, Sofia acts as a foil to Cordelia in this episode when she SUPPORTS James instead of trying to beat him or cause his failure. Even Cedric’s successes, at James’ command, can show how these parallels are meant to play out.

In “Two Princesses and A Baby,” the episode I have arguably seen more than any other episode and the thing I am most looking forward to having a new show to replace because dear Lord Above I need new content to watch with this child or I will go clinically INSANE, we see Amber and James’ reconciliation through, though caused by Cedric, a magical accident at a birthday. And, yes in part because he doesn’t remember it, James forgives her almost instantly.

But, deeper than that, James and Amber’s relationship is built on stability even through the rivalry. Despite trying to one up each other, at the end of the day, they love each other, and they will each other’s good and success as opposed to failures.

The same is true of the way Sofia slots into the family.

Amber, though at times misguided, does try to help Sofia fit into Royal life and feel included. In “A Tale of Two Teams” the twins both want Sofia to play “with family” and, in the end, support her choice to play with her fiends instead of them.

Amber also comes to have a decent, if not close, relationship with Sofia’s friends Ruby and Jade.

Amber is also the one who stands up to Hildegard’s narrow view of “what makes a family.”

(Aside, but: That episode is very much where I got Amber’s views on Cedric’s informal adoption by his sorcery master in my fics and her drive to get him “home.”)

But, the aside aside, all of the connections Amber, James, and Sofia have are driven from Roland and Miranda’s love for each other and their ability to connect their children in friendship.

They don’t push their children to be people they’re not.

They don’t push their children to be perfect.

They don’t push their children to be “great.”

Instead, they ask them to love one another and to help each other when one of them is struggling. However, it is through that ask, the three of them achieve greatness.

It is also through that ask that the three of them inspire greatness in others.

Again, it is through their simplicity and humility- true humility NOT self-deprecation disguised as humility, that Roland and Miranda bring this out of their children. They are servant leaders.

Goodwyn makes a show of “being at the king’s side” and doing just about anything for that king. His humility is both prideful, in that he’s capable of doing great works, and coated in self-depreciation, in the sense that he’s lesser and lower than those in power, and thus, not deserving of as much respect.

He has taught his children to think the same of themselves.

Be both powerful and prideful, while thinking of yourself as lower than dirt.

And, that is a recipe for disaster when you also pair it with one of your children being labeled a failure from a young age.

Especially in a world that seems to associate failure with evil.

Sofia and Cedric: Expectations, Sidekicks, and Plots

These two are ones I wanted to call out as foils mostly because, if I do, I get to nab two more in with them.

I get to talk about Clover and Wormwood too.

Also, I wanted to end on the “obvious.”

So, let’s talk about what’s expected of them/ has been since their childhood.

In so many ways, Sofia has been expected to be able to do everything.

As far as kids go, and I’ve seen many kids after having a kid, she’s just about as sweet and good a kid as you could ever want.

Sure, she makes her share of small mistakes.

But, trust me, she’s also pretty saintly.

She is asked to be a lot of things for a lot of people and/ or she volunteers herself to be in that place.

Conversely, from the time he was about the same age or younger than Sofia appears in the beginning of the series, Cedric was told he was going to be a failure with NO prospects, with NO hope of goodness, and with NO hope of being like his father.

There was no hope of finding forgiveness for something that, even if in the end Cedric was right, was not his fault.

Therefore, even if Cedric had wanted to offer his “goodness,” would it have been received?

Who would have taken it?

Why would they want it?

He was doomed to fail anyway.

Therefore, where Sofia blossoms in kindness and ability throughout the series, we’re left to infer/ are given glimpses of how Cedric had/ has diminished in villainy and depreciates in his successes throughout his life in his isolation and depression since his youth on the day of The Incident.

However, what would bring them together in some degree of understanding is that both of them have been asked to face the world from a rather “lonely” perspective at a young age.

Despite having several friends, and eventually coming to understandings with her siblings and peers, Sofia, because of the standing to which she is both held and holds herself, is sometimes shown to be the most “grown up person” in her peer group.

In fact, she often gets along better with her parents and the other adults in her life than she does with her peers.

In a similar way, the only person from his youth Cedric ever mentions with any degree of fondness is a single teacher from Hexley during “The Sorcerer’s Secret” episode.

Both of them are living in different forms of isolation.

Sofia’s isolation/ potential for isolation is just a lot more subtle, and she, thankfully, has parents, mentors, and friends who are observant and seem to know how to take care of those things. Such that she can flourish out of it/ despite her tendency to try to overburden herself.

(See point 1.)

This can also be observed in how their sidekicks foil each other.

Clover is constantly pressing Sofia to take breaks. He’s asking her to slow down and take her foot off the gas. In part, this is just Clover’s personality.

However, it also foils the type of support systems the two characters have around them.

Clover is the microcosm for Sofia’s macrocosm.

Sofia has a team that will rally around her. She has a friend group that she can fall back on in her time of need. (We see this in the finale.)

She also has people who can and do encourage her to be more herself, as she also encourages them to do the same.

The ebb and flow of Sofia and Clover’s relationship illustrates this on a small level.

His “Type B” personality to her “Type A” personality helps her to learn when to calm down and slow down. He’s also contrasted nicely with Minimus who foils a different side of Sofia’s personality - the side that, at times, lacks caution.

The one place where Sofia is still clearly a small child is in her lack of caution. She’ll try anything or do anything. She doesn’t spare a whole lot of thought for thinking things through, especially when things are dangerous.

So, Minimus is there to provide that voice of reason where Clover helps her not to burn out.

Between the two of them, they are two physical representations of Sofia’s wider community/ the desires of that community.

Conversely, though Wormwood may often believe that he understands what Cedric wants/ may even believe he has Cedric’s best interest at heart, he doesn’t.

He contributes more than he may even understand or know to Cedric’s isolation. He is a large part of the reason why Cedric decides to go through with Grimtrix’s plot, and he does not encourage Cedric to anything.

Now, the reasons Wormwood does this could be many. Personally, I think that Wormwood just has a lot of somewhat valid trust issues, and he makes some rather poor choices because he’s a bird who has trust issues.

But, there could be a million different valid reasons as to why this happens.

The point is that because Cedric and Wormwood have come to rely more on each other than anyone else - for whatever reason - it leads to isolation as opposed to community.

Where Minimus and Clover represent Sofia’s community in the EverRealm (and I suppose to a greater or lesser extent it could also be argued that Skye represents Sofia’s newness to the Isles as well.)

Wormwood foils all of those characters and illustrates isolation.

Finally, the times when Clover and Wormwood interact are interesting. There is one moment, and it’s my favorite, where Clover teaches Wormwood to have fun.

Wormwood beats himself up for enjoying community because it leaves Sofia to discover the Amulet “isn’t working.”

However, when Wormwood tries to train Clover as a familiar, Clover thinks he has failed. Yet, he comes to discover that he hasn’t. He ends up being exactly the familiar Sofia needs.

In part, this is because he gives her not only what Sofia needs but what she needs.

Because, for all the times Clover “leaves” and does something weird, it’s usually because Sofia has bitten off too much. She needs to slow down and make time for something that’s not duty, and Clover is her reminder to do that.

Whereas, when Wormwood leaves, he LEAVES. Quite simply, it’s the end of isolation.

Finally, the way their plots resolve highlight how they are foils as well.

Sofia fights Vor directly from WITHIN the Amulet.

It’s her turn to experience and interact with physical isolation.

By contrast, from OUTSIDE the Amulet, Cedric has to gather the forces of others and act as a conduit for their magic in communion.

Yet, how did this all come to be?

Through mercy and love.

In so many ways, this all comes full circle.

What Goodwyn denied Cedric in mercy, Roland and Cedric found between DotS and “In Cedric we Trust.” They found true forgiveness and true mercy. They repaired what so many others had broken in both them AND those around them.

What Cordelia never showed Cedric, he was able to witness in his progressive interactions with Amber, Sofia, and James.

What the world denied Cedric, Sofia showed him the world was, in fact, ready to give.

By contrast, in observing, Sofia was prepared to learn how to face isolation by:

watching how her mother dealt with her father’s death,

by learning about how Roland grieved Lorelei from the Story Tree she learned how to hold fast to love, even when love was far away,

by experiencing friendships with Gwen, Baileywick, and other members of the staff she learned about the power resilience,

by learning from her friendships with James, Tilly, and knights like Bartleby she learned about chivalry, protection, and honor,

by growing alongside Amber, Sofia discovered her capacity for leadership and love,

and, finally, in her friendship with Cedric she learned never to give up on herself - even and especially in physical isolation.

Both of them succeed, in the end, because of community. However, the application of what they’ve learned had to be different.

Cedric had to succeed because he acted in communion, and Sofia had to succeed because she applied the lessons that she observed in community on her own.

It was the perfect ending to how they foil each other.

There are probably like a million more things I could talk about in regards to foils.

One I was thinking about but didn’t discuss much is Tilly and James and Amber and Roland, particularly as heirs to the throne. In many ways, James and Roland are very similar, on the surface, but Amber and Roland actually do share a lot in common and so do James and Tilly. So, it’s just an interesting parallel to draw that, in many ways, Tilly and Amber are foils to James and Roland. Tilly who rejected the throne for Roland taking it, and Amber, who thought she’d never become Queen, eventually taking up her place as ruler instead of James.

But, I dunno those points just seemed harder for me to work into this one. So, I might make a part two about those four if people are interested.

This post just seemed like an extension of one I just wrote about Winifred, who is my favorite, and I will take any excuse to talk more about her.

[catsushinyakajima]

Arcane spoilers below the cut

Something about jinx losing her shooting finger and cait losing her shooting eye…hmmm….parallels…PARALLELS

They both have the ability to pick up the gun again, to shoot with the other hand or the other eye, but they are forced to momentarily put down the gun. Which I think could symbolize how they had to stop their fight against each other to work against medarda and viktor

[ashtun]

Macduff | Macbeth

The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021) dir. Joel Coen

[siriusly-the-best-bi]

Ok guys listen up! King and the collector are parallel characters, otherwise known as Foils! King was alone and isolated, parentless but adopted and loved by Eda, the collector was alone and isolated and then manipulated and hurt by Philip. You know what else they have in common? They are both absent of parent/figures that were HUGE fucking deals. And i hear you, but Jester! The Collector is a God! Born of the Stars! They didn’t have anyone to look up to or a “parent”!

Well buckle up folks for my theory! I’m coming at you with screenshots and my own funky analysis! More under the cut cause I fear this will be a doosy!

Alrighty let’s go

I’m going to bring your attention to Knock Knock Knockin on Hooty’s Door where we were first introduced to The Collector!

Here they are! And with a Heavy Moon motif which I will drag your attention back to later! This version of the collector is cloaked and Never Removes Themselves from this cloak! Not to do evil bidding, which we see first hand through Eda’s eyes as the owl beast is captured.

I would like to point out again here, that the collector is shown via their Moon Side. In turn with the visuals of the setting sun, and the moon in place of a face, as well as the moon clips seen on the clips of the cloak, I find this very interesting.

Also, again this screenshot emphasizes the setting sun as well as showing the Moon Side of the collector, but also the more obvious visual shown here is that the collector is Huge! Tall Guy! We know after seeing the shit that they are capable of, they are not bound to any form they don’t like. But why here are they choosing to be so tall?

Moving on to the most recent episode King’s Tide where we Officially meet the collector as a character, there’s a lot I have to compare.

I first would like to point out the cloak! There it is! The same cloak with that same hooded face that is meant to be Oh So Recognizable!

But then we meet him and the cloak is gone. He’s just a little guy, contrary to the tall imposing character we were introduced to before. I would also like to say that upon seeing the collectors face, the portion of the left side of his face and clothes is represented by the sun! Which is the opposite of what we saw in the previously mentioned episode.

Also, the symbolism we’re given throughout the portion of the episode is with the collector backed by an extreme light source, illuminating the rest of the scene.

The collector also Removes the Moon in order to expose the sun. Therefore, to follow my interpretation so far, show him as a character who has a theme focused around the Sun.

Now to bring me to my final point in the differences of this (dare I say These) character! As I pointed out earlier, the previous Moon Emphasized Collector doesn’t use motion or any physical action in order to do its bidding and will, doing things almost calmly which also falls heavily into the themes associated with the moon.

This collector however, has a motion for Every whim he acts upon! It’s even done with a certain level of Flair and Dramatics that falls heavily into the themes associated with the Sun!

There are other examples of this found in the screenshots I’ve used above, but I chose these specifically to emphasize these points because of how child like and even fun they are. The boop action, the swirling of the finger, they’re all things that children do especially when playing.

This leads me to the closing statement of this long ass theory: This Collector is New. A baby god if you will, a regeneration, a reset, whatever theory you might apply to this to make it fit. This collector is new and they don’t have Any of the control we saw displayed in the past episode. That’s why they are manic and excited and full of energy. Just like King, he is a child that needs to learn and be taught about who they are and what they can do but for whatever reason that learning curve was cut short.

If you’ve made it this far, please comment or like or something cause I’m not sure how many of you will give this the time of day lmao but it was an itch i just had to properly flesh out and get posted cause I haven’t seen anyone else point out these differences before. I’d love to see your thoughts on this if you have any! I know this has a lot of holes in it so let me know what you guys noticed too!

[aardvaark]

if you have trauma and you’re gay your favourite ship is probably just - character A: character who is traumatised/in a shit situation/has overwhelming responsibility/etc and is troubled by their world and the choices they have to make, but ultimately strives to do good. (maybe a little snarky while doing it) character B: foil character to A, who is or has been in a similar situation (emotionally) and chose the bad side instead, but has a chance at redemption nonetheless, even if the writers didn’t take that chance.

[thelemoncoffee]

Ever think about Kokichi and Shuichi's foil character dynamic? i sure as hell do-

it's almost 5am and i've been up all night, so i'm not going to go into detail, but allow me to give you a brief list of a few foil things they have going that i can think of off the top of my head

truth and lies, but set up like yin and yang; the truth must have lies to work and vice versa

same outfit base patten, but one is black and neatly tailored and the other is white and looks makeshift

tall and short (hA)

emotional Detective who hides his frets behind seriousness, and calcualted leader who uses a childish mask to cover up his plans

Same motive/goal, opposite means of achiveing it

There's more, but i'll do more character study and make a proper attempt at an analyse when i'm not dead on my feet

also fun fact; alot of this stuff is why i enjoy them as a ship so much, their foil dynamic allows a good platform for a cute romance to bud

[diddles-for-days]

and they were narrative foils (oh my god they were narrative foils)