#it's turtle time

[thatcryptidinthesea]

IRON LUNG SPOILERS BELOW!!! Don't look if you haven't seen the movie.

I had an epiphany and I haven't seen anyone else talk about it so I'm putting it out there.

It's been about a week since I saw the movie, so I could be misremembering, but I conferred with a friend and they agreed (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong though!).

Throughout the whole movie, Simon wears the Eden religious symbol around his left hand/wrist. Then at the end of the film, when he's stuck to the sub and being consumed by the blood ocean, he rips himself down from the walls and in doing so loses his LEFT ARM.

That's such a fantastic bit of symbolism, especially when paired with the other prominent symbolism in that scene. As other people have pointed out, Simon's pose when being stuck to the sub resembles a crucifixion, which I absolutely love because it represents two juxtaposing ideas simultaneuosly.

The first idea is this: In Christianity, the crucifixion is the symbol for when Jesus died on the cross to save humanity from our sins. When Simon rips himself down from his crucifixion, he is rejecting that role of savior. He will not just give up his life, even to save humanity. He will keep fighting for his humanity and freedom until the very end.

And the second idea is this: The crucifixion is the blood ocean destroying the last shot humanity has at hope, which is represented by the Black Box, by preventing him from reaching it. Simon rips himself down from his crucifixion so he can find and protect the Black Box while the submarine leaks. He fights tooth and claw for the sake of saving humanity, of giving them hope and a future.

Simon is no savior, he does not want to be a savior, but he still does everything in his power to save humanity anyways.

And in making this choice, he loses his left arm, the arm that has carried the symbol of Eden the whole time. Eden, which has plagued him with guilt and grief throughout the whole movie. Eden, who seem to believe that there's nothing worth saving anymore, and so worship death. Simon tears himself down from his own crucixifion, choosing to not give up his life in sacrifice and to fight for the sake of humanity's future at the same time, and in doing so he severs his connection to Eden. He is no longer responsible for their sins, he is no longer controlled by their ideas.

He's the middle ground between Eden and the C.O.I.. This is bigger than him, and he will fight for that, but he's not their sacrificial savior, so he's gonna fight for himself the whole time as well.

I hope this makes sense. Good God, do I love this movie.

[old-type-40]

I snuck back in here and I turned on one single computer station. I just left it running, like a SETI program that's searching for aliens, except I was scanning for a mild-mannered physicist. - Ian describing how they found Ben in Quantum Leap S2E2 "Ben and Teller"

[sarcasm10101]

🐢

[thatcryptidinthesea]

*double-checks my pronouns* yes

[thatcryptidinthesea]

So I've been thinking way too hard about the ISAT role!swap aus by @anxiousapplepie (hi! hope you don't mind the tag :]), especially the Housemaiden!Siffrin AU, and I was planning to draw fanart with my ideas but my university assignments have been looming over me *head in hands*. So in the mean time here's all my thoughts rambled out onto paper so maybe they'll stop haunting me while I'm trying to do work.

Starting with some HCs:

• Having depression is an inherently Siffrin trait, the different Sifs just deal with it differently. HM!Sif was able to get access to antidepressants due to being in the House of Dormont, but wasn't able to take them with him when he had to flee from the King's curse. So like OG!Mira, they had to go through their journey unmedicated. Isabeu and Odile's ractions to finding this out was something like

• All Miras are medicated for their anxiety, and most of them were able to have access to their meds throughout their journeys (OG!Mira and T!Mira I'm so sorry but you had to do it scared). F!Mira made double sure she brought her's knowing HM!Siffrin didn't have their's.

• Once T!Bonnie started warming up to and trusting the party, they'd hide behind the others' legs when they didn't want to be seen. Hiding behind Siffrin had the added bonus of being able to hide under his cape.

• When T!Bonnie has had a particularly rough night, they'll go sleep next to Siffrin because they know Sif WILL end up cuddling them in his sleep and it makes them feel safe. <- I imagine a lot of their sibling relationship was built on Bonnie going to Sif and just silently clinging and Sif just letting them and not forcing them to talk.

• C!Odile is the best fusion cook ever. This woman can take any two cuisines and mix them together flawlessly. Even things that arguably should never go together.

Ok now for a character ramble under the cut because Housemaiden!Siffrin is that one character I want to put under the microscope like a beetle. Argh. The angst of being the Universe's walking talking religious contradiction...

There's so much potential for HM!Siffrin's inner struggle with the Change belief. For one thing he doesn't really get to choose how he Changes much, he doesn't really have control over it. You can't decide how you'll be a different person if you have no idea who you originally were. Yet the Change belief has this whole thing about choosing to Change yourself and choosing to leave your past self behind. Can you imagine being Siffrin and being told you have to decide to be a completely different person when the only info you have about yourself are the clothes on your back, your accent and a love for malanga fritters? Meanwhile everyone else can choose to Change however they like because they know who they are and how they can be different, and they get to choose to get rid of the mementos of their past because they still ultimately have the memories if they ever want to go back for whatever reason.

And the fact Sif can't really choose to Change kinda shows in the ways he does decide to change because they're all physical changes. They recut their cloak into a cape, they dyed their hair and then let it regrow, they trade weapons or headgear with Mira. Those are all things that he can actually control, and thus can actually make choices about.

Which also makes me think about how he got the "worst/laziest Housemaiden ever" title. It probably felt to any outside perspective who knew the Change belief that Siffrin wasn't putting in any effort to Change and was instead skirting around the rules by just physically changing. So people started to say he's lazy and not following the belief right, and because Siffrin didn't have an identity he internalised being the Worst Housemaiden Ever as his identity and kind of stopped trying because why bother? Which SUCKS because can you imagine losing literally everything about your home/culture/language/family and then trying to make a new home and identity with another community only to be told by that community "hey you're terrible at this actually"? That's awful. Siffrin can probably never really feel truly, confidently part of the Change belief because they were alienated from it from the start.

And then to finally top it all off when Euphrasie chose him to save Vaugarde it's likely no one believed that Sif was the saviour because he's known across the Houses as the Worst Housemaiden Ever, why would the Head Housemaiden of Dormont choose him?!? Which probably only cranked up Sif's self-esteem issues because they'd also think Euphrasie could've picked better.

So yeah *head in hands* Housemaiden!Siffrin feels like a character locked in a constant feedback loop of "can't be part of the community despite their efforts because the system is inherently flawed for them" and "doesn't bother trying so the community disregards them".

[thatcryptidinthesea]

IRON LUNG SPOILERS BELOW!!! Was thinking about some stuff in the movie and had a realisation.

So the blood ocean is an organic, sentient creature that lives and breathes. Which means it needs sustenance, which we know it gets through parasiticing/assimulating the people who dive down in the subs.

The main monster pursuing you looks like an angler fish. Deep sea angler fish use luminescent lures to attract prey to them for ambush. And in the movie, we have a bright, blinding light which speaks to Simon, giving him coordinates and telling him to come find it.

I think it's possible that the blood ocean, the angler fish and the light are all part of the same entity. The light is used as a lure to draw humans down into the blood ocean, with promises of salvation and answers. While a person is trying to find the light, the angler fish hunts them down and breaks their sub open to let the blood ocean in and assimulate the person.

This also explains why the angler fish is so determined to have Simon fail in bringing the black box to the surface. The black box holds the answers, and once other people have it, they'll no longer need to keep sending down dive expeditions to explore the blood ocean. If there's no more dive expeditions, then the angler fish and the blood ocean no longer have a continuous source of food.

[thatcryptidinthesea]

Heeeeeeeeeey, can we talk about how both times Green (m) risked his life to rescue his grandfather from Team Rocket, Professor Oak never asked him if he was okay, or checked if he was hurt, or did... literally anything to help his grandson?

In RGB Arc, Green almost collapsed after his fight with Koga. He was clearly hurt and overall not okay - to the point where Red is very visibly concerned about him.

And when he finds and rescues Oak, the first thing he does is ask if his grandfather is hurt; he immediately checks if his grandfather is okay. But Oak never asks him back, instead he sends Green straight on to the next dangerous task (rescuing the people of Pallet Town).

Which, alright, fine. People were in danger and they needed to act fast. But even once the danger is over, we never see Oak show any concern for Green's wellbeing.

Then in FRLG Arc, the same thing happens. Green risks his life to save his grandfather, and when he finds him the first thing he does is check if he's okay. Oak doesn't return the favour and instead tells Green to go rescue more people (this time, Blue (f)'s parents).

Later, after Mewtwo destroys the Trainer Tower, Green literally collapses right in front of his grandfather. And Oak does absolutely nothing to try and help him.

Green clearly isn't okay here - just like Red was in RGB, Blue is very visibly concerned over Green's wellbeing. Meanwhile, Oak just stands there. Doesn't ask if Green's okay, doesn't reach for him to try and catch him or check for injuries. He just stands there (partially out of frame) and watches.

And keep in mind, Team Rocket and the Deoxys clones have left at this point. The immediate danger has passed. There is literally no reason why Oak couldn't or shouldn't make Green his top priority in that moment.

Now compare that to Giovanni's behaviour; despite having only just been reunited with Silver, who is basically a stranger to him, he is 100% willing and prepared to sacrifice his life if it means even the slightest chance of saving his son's life. In the middle of a fire, with airship wreckage raining down around them, Giovanni does literally everything within his power to make sure Silver remains safe and unhurt.

Giovanni, the main Big Bad Villain of the RGB and FRLG Arcs, shows more love and care for his son in the span of a few minutes than Professor Oak, who is treated as a hero by Kanto, has shown his grandson in at least 10 years.

[thatcryptidinthesea]

I think about this moment a lot.

It's a little moment. Only 5 panels long. Barely an interaction, really. But the implications it has on Green (m)'s character are so important.

This moment is the first time Green and Giovanni meet face-to-face. Up until now, they've only met/interacted through second-hand contact (mostly through Red). Green is upset with himself because he looked up to Giovanni as a role model, because Giovanni was his predecessor as the Viridian City gym leader and wrote Secrets of the Land, and he's taking that out somewhat on Giovanni.

Green is pretty emotional and high-strung throughout all of FRLG, because his grandfather's been kidnapped and he's under a lot of stress in general, but there's something about him being upset over this in particular that feels strange.

I believe it has to do with the fact that Green looked up to Giovanni as a paternal role model specifically.

When you look at the line-up of Green's other paternal role models, it's really not a great list. His actual father died before/when he was five years old, his grandfather lowkey neglected him and his childhood mentor, Chuck, actively abused him. So he's left with very little in terms of a good paternal support figure.

Because Green and Gio had never met face-to-face up until this point, Green was able to seperate the "previous Viridian gym leader and author of Secrets of the Land" from "the leader of Team Rocket". And with all of his other options - put lightly - absolute shit, Green chose to cling to the former as a role model - someone he could look up to and lean on - while opposing the latter.

But now in FRLG he and Gio have met, and Green is being forced to consolidate the fact that his enemy and his last remaining role model are one and the same, leaving him with no viable paternal figure to cling to.

And then, to add salt to the wound, Giovanni disregards Green's upset and throws him into a wall. So Green's not only lost his final potential paternal figure, he's been brushed off and (quite literally) tossed aside just as he was by his grandfather and Chuck.