I've recently realized just how much bs I know about this series, so I've decided to try and shed light on the more unknown aspects that I've never seen people talk about. Might as well put this knowledge to good use, eh?
So, traveler, if you'd like to accompany me on this journey, buckle in, and let's have some fun! First off on our trek is....
THIS FREAKING CG IN CHAPTER 6 OF SDR2
Looks normal, right? RIGHT?
At first, I thought it was just some kind of stock text. Think, lorem lipsum. But nah, I'm almost completely sure that they had used a real-life newspaper, likely from Sydney, Australia.
If you piece the text together, you can basically gather its about economic tensions between North Korea, South Korea and the United States, or something along those lines. With all the missing letters and difficult font, it's hard to fully grasp what it came from; which was obviously intentional. Maybe it's a few different articles, but I doubt that partially due to how often it repeats.
I tried my best to see if I could find the real article, but from my ten minute search, I came up empty-handed. I don't have time or the motivation to continue that investigation, but either way, it's an interesting detail. I just can't help but wonder why they chose THAT out of all the things they could've, instead of like... something medical related.
Okay, but what the hell was that??? I think I need a thesaurus and a dictionary to find the right words to describe how that ending made me feel...
It's almost... Arcane.
hey did you guys know its the pines twins’ 23rd birthday today? I had no idea.
anyway, here’s a thing I’ve been working on for a while. This was originally supposed to be for the show’s 10th anniversary back in June, but I definitely didn’t anticipate how long it’d take and had to push it back to the end of August. It feels like an appropriate way to send off the summer :]
ps: as per gf tradition, there’s a hidden message along the first 10 pages
stay weird etc etc
Here's a silly little comic I did in whiteboard >:) enjoy!
bonus whiteboard art below!
matching not-a-tattoo ideas for you and your twin!
so that mention of brands in the new book huh
Rewatching gravity falls rn and this is one of my favorite jokes in the entire show
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?
The fact that this is 80 fucking years ago but still just as relevant is terrifying.
I'm so tired of hearing that Phoenix saved Miles without hearing about any of its implications.
Because Phoenix's savior complex is a major problem not a solution. Because Wrightworth is not about Phoenix saving Miles, it's about them saving each other. Because in Farewell My Turnabout, Miles Edgeworth said "We aren't some sort of heroes. We're only human." and he was right.
Desirée: I feel in love with my Ronnie at first sight because he came to defend me and he saved me even though he was a stranger.
Phoenix: