I think this is a really valuable take, and it definitely did feel a little strange for that to be the final test. There's definitely a little underlying misogyny there, and whether it was intentionally written to show Lumons values or incidental on the show-writers part, I think it should be analyzed. I really hope next season they're able to develop all of the female characters more- especially Gemma. But, with the direction the story is going into, I really do think the female characters will carry the next season. I see a lot of Checkovs guns being loaded, so I can only hope.
However, I think the reason why the (disassembled) cradle was her final test was because her miscarriage had been the reason she came to Lumon in the first place. And, if I remember correctly, wasn't her fight with Mark over the broken cradle what caused her to seek help from Lumon? Having her take apart something that had meant enough to her to take part in Lumon's experiments (until it no longer was a choice) was the final way of destroying her will to leave. This was something that had been a source of so much of Gemma's pain, anger, fear, and, well, hope- all four tempers- yet it was something else that caused her to fail the test. Maybe, too, her taking it apart could be framed as a form of empowerment? No longer is her greatest worry or concern tied to motherhood - she has something else to fight for. Her own freedom and happiness.
And hell, if my theories are right, I think girlie is gonna take down Lumon with Cobel or Devon. Like, stick her in the birthing cabin, get all the details from each separate Gemma, reintergrate that girl, and she'll destroy that whole company. Do I know how that'll work? A different Gemma per room??? Who knows. Tldr- I think we've only seen a fraction (haha) of Gemma so far, and that season 3 will focus a lot more on who she really is.
Cause it's not like you can't do a story involving miscarriage without it being sexist. That's a real and traumatic experience that many people go through that can and should be thoughtfully explored in fiction.
The thing that makes it feel sexist with Gemma is that it's the only new thing we learn about her as a person in Chikhai Bardo. There's all the plot stuff happening to modern Gemma of course, but that's stuff happening to her, it's not who she is. Everything we see about her outside of Lumon in that episode is either stuff that Mark has already told us about her and the miscarriage, which was also already alluded to. Which makes it feel like prior to Lumon kidnapping her, she didn't exist as her own person but rather as Mark's Wife who wanted to be The Mother of Mark's Children. Which, would suck as a way to write any woman, but feels like a particularly egregious way to write an Asian woman given the whole submissive China Doll stereotype (I know she's not Chinese, that's just what the trope is called).
And it's reinforced in Cold Harbor with the revelation that what Cold Harbor is is a test to see if her strongest, most fundamental memories can break through severance. And what Lumon has determined to be her core self that they're so worried about whether or not they can separate her from it, is maternity. And yes, you can argue that that is Lumon's perspective of her, not the show's, and that Lumon viewing her that way is meant to be viewed critically as more of the Eagan's patriarchal, white supremacist bullshit. But if it's just Lumon's view of her and not the show itself, then why didn't we learn anything else about her in the episode ostensibly about her?
in the mansion. straight up “blanching it”. and by “it”. haha, well. let’s justr say. girl we blanchin.
The fact that this is 80 fucking years ago but still just as relevant is terrifying.
I'm sure this has been said before, but I don't care. While I was working on a little bit of planning and world building for my future TOH/Gravity Falls- Post Timeskip Fic; I noticed something hilarious.
Seems... Uh... a little familiar. Doesn't it?
Okay, maybe I'm just overthinking. Surely, it's impossible that there's a direct connection. I mean, that's like saying all magical amulets that glow and look a little like a bolo tie are the same! They have different powers, clearly. And-
Oh...
If I had a penny for every time a Disney capitalist antagonist clutched their magic glowing gem necklace angrily at the protagonists; I'd have two pennies. Which definitely isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. (Or more pennies, who knows at this point.)
I hope Odalia received a worse fate than Gideon, though lmao.
really weird that I think this is my first time drawing gravity falls fan art
Ultimately it's a beautiful thing~
Husbands with hats <3
I watched the epilogue episode and it was beautiful I felt the doomed yaoi from the very beginning of the series so glad it's canon
Reblog In 5 seconds for good luck
Lying just because it's April Fools' is so dull. Honestly painful to watch. Lying in general doesn't do you any good. In my younger days, I told every lie I could, saying some genuinely insane stuff about being a supreme leader of evil and whatnot, and thanks to that, now that I'm in my thirties, I got famous for all the wrong reasons and can't find a stable job because people think I'm associated with the yakuza... Sigh, I wanna deck my cringe younger self's face. Quit lying for fun while you can.
My classmates aren't doing great either. Thinking you're hot shit during your school days always comes back to bite you... My advice to my past self: slow and steady effort is worth more than any talent. Also, the part of life you spent larping with that silly horse laugh is not going to be one you'll want to remember later. I wish I could make that clear to him. White lies aren't a thing. Talent is never enough. My class is proof of that. Wanna know what my classmates are like now that we're in our thirties?
Akamatsu became a piano teacher. Her player skills capped off in her teens, it seems. But she's not that good at teaching so she's considered kinda mid at her job. And now she's struggling with the father of a student incessantly hitting on her. Tough world to live in.
Toujou opened a housekeeping company but she was too strict with her employees so everyone quit. And now she's doing everything on her own. Sucks to be in your thirties without any successors or employees. She's a prime example of how being so much better than anyone else doesn't do you any good. Well, she's always working for celebrities, so she's doing well financially, but I heard about some major court fight about a missing item under suspicion of theft from one of her clients. That can't be nice.
Yumeno got to her thirties still saying magic is real, so she's past the point of no return. She agrees that's an unhinged way to live, but she's too old to suddenly change gimmicks. Work takes her all over the country, but her gimmick doesn't allow her to publicly drink, so she has to get plastered alone in her hotel room after shows. I wish she could fix her life with real magic.
Harukawa? ...Haven't heard that name in a long time. Now she was a living edgy fantasy. The past tense was because I hadn't heard of her in a long time. I don't know the details, but apparently, she went to some war zone outside of Japan because her first love didn't want to date her. Takes some real edgelord to react to a broken heart like that, but if she's still alive, I have no idea how her thirties are treating her. My personal guess is that she's a mother of many.
Chabashira opened her Aikido school but is having a hard time attracting students. So she had the idea of starting an anti-sexual-harassment campaign that could double as advertisement, but thanks to her cluelessness when it comes to romance, she got canceled for mistakenly tossing men in regular couples. She's still doing the "degenerate males" bit in her thirties. Girl really needs to get on with the times. Rumor goes that she still downs huge packs of tequila bottles with Yumeno every now and then. Really don't think there's any salvaging her reputation.
Shirogane is an office lady still continuing her cosplay hobby on the side. She could be doing well if she knew how to keep her mouth shut but frequently rambles about cosplay history and etiquette, so no one likes having her around. Stay emotionally dependent on a single hobby long enough and your passion starts to close you off to others. That's her problem.
Angie was the most successful in the class! She made big money both on the art and the religion fronts. However, there were some controversies about her devotees selling counterfeits of her paintings at exorbitant prices and one magazine made a huge news coverage of it, which resulted in her catching the police's attention. She's been recently untraceable, with the rumors saying that she'll never be back to Japan.
Oh, and Iruma... Up until some point, she had the best life of all of us. She made big money off of her inventions' patents. So far so good. Things only started going off-rails after she married an ex-stripper. The two started a YouTube channel together. And later, her husband ran in last year's elections and lost big time. They got an awful debt from his election campaign and she had to get into side jobs to pay it off. And her husband? Disappeared. No word from Iruma herself about what happened. Tough world to live in.
No further updates from Kodaka in the past 3 hours, so I assume he went to sleep and will come back to tweet about the 7 remaining boys in the morning.
Do you think Bill Cipher ever wishes to douse the flames that he invokes when making a deal?
Do his hands ache from muscle memory? Does his vision darken as they land on the flames? Those bright blue flames?
"What?! Your ENTIRE home dimention? But how? By what?"
Bill looked distant, more than distant than I'd ever seen him.
"By a monster."
And as those blue flames that burned down his universe surrounded him in the Mindscape, do you think for a moment he missed home?
Hey MOM, this is BILLY. I want you to [incomprehensible]
Stan? The flames? His past?
Where did you all go? WHERE DID-
Who am I kidding?
What's the use in asking questions if you already know the answer?
✿ so i am a complete vanderwood trashpit, and this is my attempt to write a detailed fan-route about our favorite confused spy. if you enjoy my work and want a vanderwood route as desperately as I do, please feel free to sell your soul to cheritz in the interests of giving our leopard-print love a little more limelight.
In celebration of 1,000 followers and 100 posts… on with the show!
W A R N I N G
This is not spoiler free, and it assumes that you have played - or are at least aware of - many elements of 707′s route.
There are some mentions of suicide, abusive childhoods, and other potentially triggering topics in this route. They are not described in depth though. If you can handle the game, you can probable handle this.
General Notes
After completing 707′s route, new options will be unlocked in the deep route prologue that allow dark purple hearts to be gained. Accumulation of enough of these hearts will, much like all the other routes, cause the player to get Vanderwood’s Route on Day 5.
Calling and texting Vanderwood will not be available from the beginning of the route, but after a certain point it will be unlocked.
In the interests of making this accessible, I use ‘they’ for Vanderwood. Please, feel free to insert whatever headcanoned pronoun and gender identity you wish for them.
I have also done a little work to create a more detailed backstory for them. It felt necessary, since we know so little about them in comparison to the others. I hope this only enhances your enjoyment!
D1 - D4
The new options in the deep route initially seem to focus on 707. Much like accessing his route, you joke around with him, but the topics focus more on embellished stories from his secret agent life and his relationship to his “maid”, Mary Vanderwood the III.
This gives the player a lot of background into 707′s life as a secret agent, providing more stories like the potato chip incident. All of them are told humorously, of course. Through them, the chat begins to get a sense that Mary Vanderwood the III is actually a dear friend to Seven, who has saved his life on multiple occasions and whose life has been saved by him in return. However, Seven does not admit this, instead saying that they simply work in the same spaces, and ‘their relationship does not go beyond maid and master.’
The good options include asking about Vanderwood’s habits, hobbies, and personality, and also telling Seven that Vanderwood sounds like a very loyal friend who will go out of their way to take care of him. The other members will agree with this - (particularly Jaehee and Yoosung) - saying that Vanderwood goes above-and-beyond what would be expected for a ‘maid’, given they help him with his work, bring him tea and coffee when he’s having a hard time, and they’ve put themselves in significant danger to ensure his safety.
MC: Wow… It sounds like she really cares for you! (+1 Dark Purple Heart)
Zen: Yeah! She’s totally in love with you! I’m so jealous!!!
707: i guess we know that Zen’s into maids lololol
On Day 3, if you select an option that gets 707 to talk more about Vanderwood, he’ll send one of the first Vanderwood CGs - a picture of 707 cross-dressing accompanied by Vanderwood in a suit. It’s a surprise selfie taken by 707, and Vanderwood clearly doesn’t look happy about it.
(Seven says that the person in a dress is Vanderwood, and Zen predictably believes him.)
Seven is veeeery slowly starting to accept that Vanderwood is actually his friend by the evening of the fourth day, and he’s becoming extremely comforting pal-ing around with MC. In Vanderwood’s route, Seven is basically your bestie.
The route proper is underneath the read more due to length!
Keep reading
AND BABY FINN TOO!!! WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN TO THAT BABY!!! I NEED TO KNOW!!! SOMEONE KEEP HIM SAFE!!!
I'm goin through it