[ SECRET POST #4969 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4969 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



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02.
[Gank Your Heart]


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03.
[final fantasy xiv]


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04.
[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]


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05.
(Final Fantasy XIV)


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06.
[Harry Styles, "Watermelon Sugar"]


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07.
[The Untamed/MZDS]


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08.























Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 12 secrets from Secret Submission Post #711.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Hey Gaius-stan, I see you there. I'm here to explain a few things. Like why people don't like Gaius! And why people have harsh criticisms of the WEAPON storyline!

See, there's an NPC I want to introduce you to. You've met him, actually. His name is Glaumunt. He's an NPC you run into in 2.0. At one point, he reveals something fun. Which is, his reason for helping you break into the castrum to rescue your friends. Why he hates Garlemald.

You see, he, his mother and his sister were put into a work camp in Ala Mhigo. You know, the place Gaius van Baelsar was in charge of when Glaumunt was a boy. Here's his own words on the matter: " We were poor folk livin' simple lives, but we knew happiness just the same.
An' then the imperials came an' took it all away. When Ala Mhigo fell, they put my family in a camp. Bein' a lad, I was made to do hard labor, while my mother an' sister were forced to do far worse... They hid their sufferin' from me as best they could, but I knew, an' the thought of it drove me mad."

They attempted an escape, and got caught. but rather than be raped day in and out again, his mother and sister threw themselves to their deaths.

Then there's Arenvald. His mother was raped by an imperial soldier under Gaius' command. Arenvald is the result, and his mother spent the rest of their time living together terrified her son would grow a third eye.

We run into a few of the towns in Ala Mhigo, and most of them aren't cowed because of Zenos--but because of Gaius. Because Gaius took part in forced conscription, because he took part in suppressing all culture, he took part in tearing down their sense of self. Because they weren't, in his eyes, worthy of that. Because they're just savages.

There's the case of Fordola, who lost her father because of Ala Mhigans not tolerating loyalists to people raping them and tearing down their culture. Was it fucked up? Sure. But let's be real--Fordola was treated as a second-class citizen by her fucking beloved Garlemald, including by Gaius.

And yes, there's Livia and Lucia. Lucia even outright says she wasn't taken in by Gaius because she wasn't useful.

So then comes the Shadowhunter. And suddenly, all of that in the WEAPON questline is ignored and swept under the rug. All the fascism, all the work camps, all the forced conscription, all the erasing culture, all of it. Because Gaius feels sad over a bunch of kids he took in because of their use to him. All of the black to him is suddenly erased so we get a much more cleaned up Gaius who is sad and sorry for things coming back to bite him. Which is 100% on the writers here!

These kids you go on about, the kids that people like me must be sooooo happy are dying? I'm pissed they exist. Because they only exist to give Gaius manpain. And since I'm in my 30s, I'm so, so tired of characters existing to give a man some manpain instead of an actual character arc with real growth. Because growth is not what he has. The only growth he has is, "I'm going to kill Ascians because one fucked me over. Otherwise Empire's fine!"

It's not. He can't have been ignorant to the comfort women, the rape, etc. He definitely knew about the forced conscription. He 100% knew about non-Garleans being treated like absolute shit. But it's also not a coincidence that Gaius surrounded himself by people he could manipulate. Rhitatyn was fiercely loyal. Gaius doesn't even spare him much of a thought when he dies. Nero wanted to be recognized. Gaius took advantage of that because Nero could replace Cid, who is who Gaius really wanted working for him. Livia. Livia doesn't need much saying, but he raised her. He raised her. And look how she turned out. He is not a blind or stupid man. She wasn't subtle. He 100% knew she had the hots for him, and he used it. Because it ensured she was loyal and he could get her to do whatever he wanted.

And now, suddenly, I'm supposed to believe that he's not that person? A good redemption arc requires he recognize his sins--all of them--and he actually grow from them. He hasn't done this yet. And given the way things are going, it's not going to. So sorry, but I'm never going to be interested in his arc. Because it's never going to address all of those things above. It's already sweeping it under the rug--and that is on the writers. And boy am I not happy with them.