IMO One Of The Most Oversimplified Parts Of Bioshock Discussion I've Seen Online Is The Difference Between

IMO one of the most oversimplified parts of bioshock discussion i've seen online is the difference between suchong and tenenbaum re: treatment of the little sisters. yeah suchong hates children and tenenbaum eventually redeems herself, but i wish more people talked about them within the context of the cycle of violence as a whole.

suchong and tenenbaum came of age during the second world war. both were victimized by the axis powers, losing their entire families. both were spared only by a combination of blind luck and their own wits, and both survived by collaborating with the enemy and experimenting on their own people. the cycle of violence is the literal structure of their lives. it's how they learned the world.

tenenbaum is only able to change because she understands her own place within this cycle. the little girls force her to see that you're not free from it simply by no longer being the one that's being hurt. it occurs to her after seeing jack's actions that there might be a chance at a life outside the language of violence. the effort of helping jack fills the chasm that abandoning your whole worldview might leave you with. it gives her a something to do with her own pain.

suchong cannot come to grips with this possibility, even when tenenbaum writes him a letter begging him to, because to acknowledge an alternative way of existence would require acknowledging the depths to which he has been hurt. in order to survive the war years he forms a theory of mankind that moving to rapture does not disprove at all: everyone is only in it for themselves. cruelty is the engine the world runs on, and you, in order to make it, must strike first, establish dominance, and become the mask. if the world is not "just like that", if everyone is not in on some kind of con, then what happened during the war was cruel, and abnormal, and there was no reason why.

the children freak both of them out because kids can tell when you're hiding something, even if they don't know the nature of what that something is. brigid eventually allows herself to crack before the innocent gaze of the children, but to suchong it's unbearable. it's a reminder of his own history of being trapped and powerless. as scientists, they do a lot of looking, but the girls look back.

Goro Akechi in chapter 5 of ex machina:

My brain:

OH NO! They're melting...

(Been reading @hhaeyeun's character swap au fic. It's a very fun time and this is the closest I am ever gonna get to making fanart. I do not draw much.)

Me tomorrow morning, reading all the think pieces from angry gamers screaming how gay people shouldn’t exist in their game where a lesbian teenager is the embodiment of hope

Post rank 8 be like-

Thank Christ,,,,,,,Fucking Vital Mins,,,,,

Based off this text post <3

+Bonus alt ending based on the actual post

swap au thieves shenanigans

MY FIC FOR SWAP AU IS OUT!! check it out here:

askbox is open as always!