"Everyone loves to tell me just how wrong I was. They point out every little thing that I did that was immoral. They do this as if I do not have the capacity to understand it was morally wrong."
"But I find it so funny that not a single person has told me what exactly I should have done differently. Not in a way that wasn't debunked by facts of the situation. So I suggest a little game. It'll be like a play~! I'll give you ALL the details you need to know, and you get to be me and choose exactly what to do."
"Picture it—" He says, holding his servos up dramatically, as if to portray a camera. "— The setting is Delphi, on Messatine. Right near DJD territory. The building lacks proper recourses, and all you have is yourself and two other medics as help. The DJD shows up at your doorstep and is demanding you hand over one of those medics who's on their list." He seems to grow more heated and upset the further he goes.
"Your communications are cut down. You can't contact a soul. There's no one here to help you. That's your situation. The DJD is heavily monitoring the clinic, and its a frozen wasteland with no where to run, no where to hide, no evacuation plan— and certainly not for the terminally ill. They come once every few weeks demanding more and more T-Cogs in exchange for that medic's life to temporarily be spared. No one's here to help you. That's your situation. Any attempts to fight back or get away leads to you being beaten senselessly. No one's here to help you. That's your situation. You're running out of time. You're running out of T-Cogs. You have to go further. The entire clinic is depending on your decisions. If you don't do what you have to, the DJD will gladly give them a fate worse than death." He grows louder with each sentence.
"THERE'S NO ONE COMING TO HELP YOU. THAT'S YOUR SITUATION. NOW TELL ME— WHAT IS YOUR SOLUTION?"
theo is the first chimera. he was so young when the dread doctors kidnapped him. it was probably too easy for them to manipulate and deceive theo. if we can see him being easily manipulated by the dread doctors as a teenager, and by deucalion in 5b, can you imagine how easy it must have been when he was a child?
because even though theo has his own plans to get what he craves so much, which was power, he's still stuck with the dread doctors. and they made theo believe he would get a pack if theo did everything according to the dread doctors' plan. and the way he reacts when the dread doctors reject him, raising his voice and getting angry, gives the feeling that, behind this narcissistic persona that the dread doctors built on top of the younger version of theo, he still hasn't grown up since that time. he is still that same child from years ago. and regardless of whether or not theo calls or even believes in the dread doctors as his parents, the dread doctors are the parental figures he has. it's how an involuntary part of theo's mind sees them. because the dread doctors created him. they were the ones who gave theo false hope with chimera powers. they were the ones who taught theo his distorted view of the real world and turned him into a project, making theo believe he had some kind of importance because they kept him there when all other experiments turned out to be failures. so, naturally, theo would seek the attention and approval of the dread doctors. because, even though theo is not allowed to see and interact with the other dread doctors' experiments, when they say that an experiment is a failure, they don't just mean words. means they are useless. and if they are useless. they will die. and that was probably something theo knew. so he couldn't be a failure. and he forced himself to believe that he wasn't a failure.
and that makes perfect sense with his obsession with being a real werewolf, and why it hurts him so much that he is (in his words) a cheap knock-off, weaker, and a failure. because, deep down, i feel like theo feels like he's a failure because of this. which also ends up making sense of his obsession with power. because i feel that, in theo's mind, the more powerful he is, the farther from failure he becomes. i think just as he sees a real werewolf as perfection, he also sees power in that same way. and all this because of all the dread doctor upbringing. theo is this bitter and angry child because he sees himself as impotent. it's how he deals with it.
going back to that scene where theo explodes with the dread doctors, we see that theo is, yes, very angry. but we also see how scared and broken he is. as soon as he realizes that the dread doctors have stopped what they were doing to pay attention to his outburst, theo takes a fearful step back. and his eyes are watering even with all the anger he is feeling. which shows, again, how powerless he is in the face of the dread doctors. this also leads me to think, that if theo was scared by just the dread doctors' attention on him there, at that moment, how much physical abuse (because psychological abuse is already a fact about theo) he must not have suffered at their hands of the dread doctors for all these years (not counting the surgeries he underwent). because, at that moment, theo is already a teenager. and if he was acting this stubborn, explosive, childish way with the dread doctors as a teenager, imagine what it must have been like when he was actually a kid? and how much did it cost his mental health? the dread doctors aren't human. they're psychopaths who do illegal experiments on children. and in 5a, and when liam and hayden are kidnapped by the dread doctors, we see that they don't hesitate to use violence against anyone. so it's very likely that theo has had some bad experiences like that.
theo's obsession with control is a defense mechanism, because losing control (or making it visible to others that he has lost control) would lead to the feeling of helplessness he is so familiar with. and because, at the end of the day, he is alone. because theo was always alone. he had to survive that way. he was excluded because of the dread doctors. and that mindset would always put him ahead of anyone else, no matter what the circumstances. because theo doesn't know how to care about anyone other than his own survival. because that's what he's been doing his whole life. he knows nothing else. and he only comes to understand these things a little better after liam gets him out of hell.
also, i've seen several people with the headcanon that liam's biological father was abusive, and that because of that, he developed i.e.d. that makes sense. and what also makes sense is that this happened to theo. he took a lot of abuse from the dread doctors, and he has this angry behavior that we see more than once during the season (as well as liam) when things get out of hand for him. theo's response is anger and outburst. which is the same thing that happens with liam. so that's one more thing to add.
and, imagine, theo in his younger version, buried alive, forgetting who he is and everything, losing control, and getting violent (which is how we see the other chimeras react during 5a). everything this kid had to go through…fuck. he really is a survivor!
theo is a very interesting character to analyze bc he has so many layers and interpretations. i honestly could rant about it for hours. but after this huge text, i think i've said more than enough sjajsksjs
My Broken Mariko is a poignantly raw story. Shiino loves Mariko and always did her best to protect her best friend since childhood, but there were times she could come off disinterested and at one point lashed out at Mariko frustrated thinking her friend was fucked up in the head for going back to her abusive ex.
They weren’t always perfect but make no mistake. Shiino and Mariko were intensely devoted to each other. They love each other deeply.
So when Mariko committed suicide it left Shiina devastated and angry. Her only friend took her life and she had to learn it from the news at some bar tv first. Their last conversation had Shiina thinking Mariko was fine. Shiino was angry at the world, at all the abusive adults that made Mariko’s life a living hell, at Mariko for leaving her behind without warning.
Shiino was prepared to jump to the sea to follow Mariko and the comical interruption by Makio did nothing to persuade her away from this action until they saw a girl running from the robber shouting for help. In that moment, Shiino saw Mariko.
I nearly wept when Shiino’s came down hard on that robber. Was it impulsive? Yes. Was it awesome? Yes. Was using Mariko’s urn as an improbable weapon necessary? Kind of.
I think Shiino stopping the robber and saving the girl was her trying to make up for what she believed was her being too late to stop Mariko from being abused and not doing enough about it.
This was Shiino stepping up to be the adult the girls were supposed to have watching over them early in life to keep them safe and yeah using her friend’s urn was kind of inappropriate but it was awesome in its own way. It was like Mariko in a way helping her friend prevent a girl suffer the same fate she suffered.
also can I just say, how the fuck does Bethany know those topics are 'profitable course ideas' like, have you done that market research bethy??? you can't just say definitive statements like that about things you THINK might be true ya know, that's not being helpful that's just fucking lying.
im not a hater to the point that im going to deny that Girl Defined *seems* like an at least sort of profitable business venture. I'm certain that they try very hard to make it seem more successful than it is, but they've developed a core following that trusts them enough to buy pretty much anything they tell them too which I consider somewhat successful at worst.
and that would almost be impressive if following them for like a month or however long i have been hadn't taught me how much they just........... straight up fucking lie. And not the kind where they're just regurgitating lies they've been told that they don't know are lies like Christian influencers often do like straight up, telling me the sky is purple when I can see it with my own eyes kinda lying that I just know they KNOW are lies.
And is it uncommon for businesses and brands and influencers to lie to make money, no, of course it isn't. But the framing of it all as 'sisterhood' 'mentorships' 'community' like they're preying on vulnerable young girls by selling them this promise of extended family and support, when they really are just trying to sell them branded bullshit................... and shoving it all under the umbrella of 'growing your spirituality' or becoming closer to God like.............. it's very fucking insidious.
I know none of these are super hot takes bc people have been following GD for years but I was sitting here trying to explain why exactly they pissed me off so much and this little light bulb went off.
I feel like you've given most spn related things some lil spice but I always love the spice on this : hot spicy take on the "Dean is the most horrible character and ruins everyone's life and Sam and Cas are poor little meow meows who only do bad things sometimes because tyran Dean farted in their direction" takes that are not really only said by anti-Dean peeps ? Obsessed with that incredible thesis and would love the added spice ❤
SPICY HOT HOT GHOST PEPPERS CAROLINA REAPERS HELP I'M BURNING
I really try to respect other people’s opinions, and I believe there are a wealth of ways to interpret a story, and I think that’s a deeply beautiful thing. This applies to interpretations I don't agree with and outright dislike as well. That said, some opinions are simply and objectively bad, dishonest, and/or demonstrably false, and I truly do not believe you can sit down and honestly watch through the show with an open mind about all the characters, truly pay attention to what they do, say, and believe, and come to the conclusion that this show is about an evil manipulative abusive man terrorizing his pure and sinless brother and friend. It is an interpretation built from cherry picking facts to suit an ugly, miserable theory, making Mount Everest out of a bunch of the tiny mole hills, making the worst possible presumptions of feelings and intentions, and holding characters to completely different standards in order to neatly divide them into "abused" and "abuser" in a way that, frankly, fetishizes the abused person. I despise this interpretation of the story with every fiber of my being, and I have absolutely no respect for the opinion of anyone who peddles it, regardless of who they cast as villain/victim (because people have also done this with the others—it’s just more “popular” to do it with Dean... I mean... does anyone else remember how people were shitting on Sam after his emotional reaction in 14.12? Calling him an evil abuser? Because I do).
The thing that always gets me about this take isn't just how dishonest, unfair, mean-spirited, and compassionless it is in its treatment of Dean’s feelings, circumstances, and intentions... but how deeply reductive and offensive it is toward Sam and Castiel, sucking away their identities to turn them into effigies to mourn for their sad, Stockholm syndrome-esque attachment to their "abuser". Further, it grips the heart of the show—the relationship between Sam and Dean, and then the relationship among TFW as a whole—in a tight, uncompromising fist and pulverizes it. It literally rips out the heart of the show (the RELATIONSHIPS) and replaces it with something unprepossessing of any merit: A miserable, 15 years long story about a malicious abuser getting away with terrorizing those closest to him for his entire life, while his poor abuse victims suffer through until they die for him/happy to be reunited with him because they “don’t know any better” and never ever learned better, I guess. What a stupid, sad sack of a story.
Castiel is a thousands of years old celestial being who has literally beaten Dean into the pavement under no form of mind control, and has shown over and over again that he will do whatever the hell he wants, regardless of whatever Dean thinks about being sidelined. If he thinks whatever he is doing is in Dean's best interest, he literally does not care how Dean feels about it. He will nod and smile and then fly off and swallow thousands of souls with Dean begging him not to, shove Dean out of the way to attack the big bad, leave Dean alone in Purgatory, refuse to come out of Purgatory so he can self-flagellate, fly off with the angel tablet, help Sam with the Book of the Damned, let Lucifer possess him without anyone's knowledge or agreement, come into Dean's room under the guise of apologizing for ghosting him so that he can steal The Colt out from under his pillow and murder someone, decide not to murder that person and still prevent Sam and Dean from helping by knocking them both unconscious, get himself killed, make a deal to trade his life for Jack's and never tell anyone, hide information and worries and ignore phone calls, ghost Sam and Dean, and bicker and fight with Dean as if they are a married couple. Love sickness and feelings of worthlessness (which Cas has a wealth of reasons to feel—many of which aren’t even related to Dean but to his heavenly family) are reinterpreted as the result of some sort of constant, terrorizing emotional abuse. Power and authority that Dean does not actually have is forced into his hands by these fans. Maybe listen when Cas says, “Hey—not everything is your fault.” Maybe listen when he says “I loved the whole world because of you”, calls Dean a role model, says he enjoys their conversations, offers to die with him and dies for him multiple times. Maybe treat these feelings as genuine and valid and HIS and not as the delusions of some poor manipulated baby.
Sam is framed this way even more often than Cas, and it's a damn shame, because what I typically see is this: Sam’s development into a mediator and peacemaker is twisted and reinterpreted as coming from a place of weakness and/or fear. Rationality, maturity, wisdom, and compassion are not the traits of a scared, powerless child. They are the traits of a mature adult, who has been beaten down by life, and fought and raged against his circumstances, and somehow come out of it with more kindness and understanding and strength instead of less. He has made his own decisions whenever it was possible, within the set of circumstances doled out to him. From telling his dad to go fuck himself and going to college, to getting back into hunting to avenge Jess (NOT because of Dean—Dean took him home without complaint at the end of the woman in white case), to continuing to hunt after their father died because he wanted to feel close to him (Dean was actually weirded out and sort of disgusted by this), raging and fighting to save Dean from his deal against Dean’s wishes, continuing to hunt and working with Ruby (directly against Dean’s dying wish), drinking demon blood, jumping in the cage, leaving hunting to go be with Amelia, coming back to hunting to save Kevin, fighting with Dean over what he had with Amelia and threatening to leave if Dean didn't shut his mouth, leaving Amelia to go back to hunting (Dean ultimately suggests he go back to her—Sam chooses to stay), trying to kill Benny, demanding to be the one to do The Trials and saying he is going to SURVIVE them—that being the ENTIRE POINT, losing that resolve in a fit of depression but choosing to drop the knife, demanding space from Dean (and being given it), fighting to save Demon Dean who didn’t want to be found or saved, using the Book of the Damned against Dean’s wishes, telling Charlie that this is what he wants—that he used to want normal but now all he wants is to hunt with Dean and that he doesn’t know what he’ll do if he can’t have that, unleashing the Darkness in his desperation to keep Dean with him and even saying, “I would do it again” in the aftermath, saving the town being destroyed by Amara, getting into The Cage with Lucifer, leading a team against the British Men of Letters, nurturing Jack, punching Dean in the face when he was going to sacrifice himself, leading more hunters, wielding a gun against Chuck... and that’s just some highlights. Sam Fucking Winchester does not need your bullshit about him being some sad, scared, helpless baby lorded over by mean old Dean who has never let him do anything he wants.
Yes, in the text itself, there is jealousy and resentment at times, and there is legitimate and righteous anger on Sam’s part on a few occasions. There is blame cast on Dean by Sam for some of these choices/circumstances. Some of those moments where Dean is blamed are legitimate, and some of them... frankly, are not. Within the framework of the fucked up dynamics of the way they were raised, Sam and some fans bristle when they feel Dean is casting himself as the parent he is not, but Sam also has been guilty in the past of trying to reframe himself as Dean’s child when things got tough. Neither of them is responsible for the origin of that dynamic, but they BOTH have responsibility to change it, and they both, ultimately, succeed in doing so. For Sam, his part comes in recognizing and learning to fully own his own choices. Recognizing that he is not a child, and he is certainly not Dean’s child, and it isn’t just “Mummy—loosen the grip”, but Sam has to too—not claim independence only to blame Dean for his choices when his own decisions have an ultimate outcome he is unhappy with. That is a legitimate arc that Sam goes through imo, but he comes out the other side of it, and he and Dean relate to each other much better as peers from then on—and I’d like to note that throughout the entire series, when they don’t relate as perfect peers and teammates, it isn’t always Dean “bossing Sam around”, but Sam also trying to sideline Dean and yes—boss him around. And when they lied and hurt each other and yes, even manipulated each other, Dean most certainly wasn't always the one doing the lying and hurting and manipulating. Always, always, ALWAYS, they both had an understandable point of view, and it was complex, and you could understand why they made the choices they did, even if you thought of those choices as being wrong ones.
I also would like to point out (because this is basically what I see all of the time) that Dean being hurt by someone or simply voicing his feelings or opinion is in no way abusive or manipulative. Dean is certainly charismatic and loved and his returning love and respect is often deeply desired, but he is not an actual siren, who bends people to his will simply by speaking or being. People are, in fact, able to tell him “no”, and frequently FREQUENTLY do. Further more, no one is owed his affection, his unwavering loyalty, or his trust. He has a right to his boundaries, regardless of if it makes some poor sad sap feel deprived of the “wellspring of coveted love” while he works through things. He can be hurt and angry, and he can wear his heart on his sleeve at times, and he can be flawed, and broken. [Insert Castiel's speech from 15.18 here]. So can Sam. So can Cas. None of them are manipulating each other by virtue of getting angry, feeling hurt, being traumatized, needing space, or having differing opinions or feelings. Sam didn’t punch Dean in the face in 14.12 because he's a cruel, manipulative abuser trying to force Dean under his thumb. He didn’t work behind Dean’s back with Ruby, insist on doing The Trials, beg Dean to use Doc Benton’s alchemy, use the Book of the Damned to cure Dean, pump him full of blood to cure him of being a demon despite the fact that it might kill him, or scream at him and fight him for wanting to get in the Ma’lak box because he “doesn’t respect his autonomy” and “wants to control him” and “doesn’t respect his right to his own body”. He did it because he loves him desperately, and Dean could stand to fucking hate himself less, and he fiercely wanted Dean to live even when Dean didn’t want to or couldn’t picture what that could be like. He didn’t force Dean to do anything simply by opening his mouth to voice disagreement and swaying Dean when he did so. Now reverse that.
Cas didn't beat Dean into the ground in season 5 because he wanted to terrorize him into never going against Castiel ever again. He didn’t go behind his back dozens of times, sideline him, go MIA, all because he wanted to manipulate and control Dean and punish him. He didn’t throw sassy remarks at him to shatter his self-esteem. Now reverse that.
watching liam get kidnapped and hurt by the dread doctors breaks my heart. i wonder how traumatized he was by the whole thing.
i think looking at it from that point of view, might help liam understand theo better later on, when they're together (bc they're a couple, yes. did you hear me, j*ff?). bc if liam went through this in such a short time, what theo hasn't gone through basically his whole life?
i think liam would understand. he would understand and hug theo to calm him down
mason is so sweet! and i love him so much. i love how he cares, and how he acts with people, all smart and interested in the supernatural world. like, all research and curiosity. kinda reminds me of me, years before i started psychology school, researching a billion things about everything.
mason helping kira in the library when she told him she couldn't read the dread doctors' book, making her realize why she couldn't read it. mason helping liam and scott in s4, not even knowing what was going on.
mason cares so much!!!! and i love this. i love how he never judges and how he always wants to help. in s4, seeing liam act all weird and kinda rude, still, he didn't care what the problem was. he just wanted to help his best friend. and that's the cutest and most beautiful thing in the world.
all the research, all the time he spends on things related to the supernatural, it's because he wants to help. all he ever wants is to help.
mason is so sweet and kind and caring. and definitely 100% good. and this makes perfect sense in the plot of 5b, because mason really is the person with a good soul that the dread doctors needed to revive the beast.
and, by the way, i'm very upset that there wasn't a greater friendship between mason and brett. wtf, they would make a perfect pair of friends based on the scenes they have together.
