Interesting How Everyone Talks About How The Rise Crew Intended To Make Leo Grow Into The Leadership

Interesting how everyone talks about how the Rise crew intended to make Leo grow into the leadership role but nobody mentions how Raph as the leader grew on them and they genuinely wanted to keep it that way but Nick forced them to make Leo the leader anyways 🤔

Here’s the comment, the blogger wishes to remain anonymous due to prior harassment:

Like, the fact that they liked Raph being in charge this much speaks volumes about how they truly thought he was a good leader - like, why would they want to keep him as leader unless he was actually good at it, which he was? And this doesn’t even go into how they gave him a wonderful character arc in Anatawa Hitorijanai that tied to him being a leader, which just goes to show how much they adore him in such a role.

Anyways, this gives me all the validation for Raph still being in charge and him co-leading with Leo, plus the movie kept things intentionally ambiguous (I like to think that the Rise writers fought for Raph to remain in charge because they really love him that much considering there was a planned and explicit change of leadership in the movie’s deleted final scene which the Rise crew likely went ‘no <3′ to just like Nick did to them lol).

As always, fuck Nickelodeon for not letting the writers have creative freedom and for being total scumbags.

Shout-out to my fellow weirdo makers out there that create thousands of parallel universes that their OCs simultaneously exist in, where they are, at their core, the same character, but each have subtle differences that make it difficult to fully express what is perfectly consistent across all of them.

✨SPOILERS FOR PUSS IN BOOTS THE LAST WISH✨

i really wanted to draw attention to this scene here. puss has quite a few panic attacks in this movie, which are undeniably relatable for so many, but in this particular instance, he has perrito to help him calm down and breathe and i think that's so great.

i just love the way it's not made into a joke, or brushed aside as though it's not something that's important to show - especially for someone as confident as puss in boots! the story actually takes a moment for puss to reflect and breathe and talk to someone about his fear. he's made very real and that was a huge deal for me. (இ﹏இ`｡)

Ghost texting Soap: saw a snail today…. effervescent.

Soap texting Ghost: RISE💤😴AND GRIND😢👔💼THAT PAPER🤑💵💵AINT GON MAKE ITSELF👌💯DONT MATTER IF YOU GOT KIDS👪👶IF YOU BY YOURSELF👤😳IF U FRESH OUTTA HIGH SCHOOL🏆😥OR JAIL🙌👮🏻🚓OR EVEN OLD AS FUCK😂😂👴🏻👵🏼ITS MONDAY MORNING⏰✔️✔️GET YO ASS UP⬆️⬆️😣AND GET IT IN😹🙂FUCK ALL THE HATERS😖🔫👌💯💯YOU CAN FIND ME👀🔍🏃🏽AT THE MF BANK🏛👍🏼😂😂😂😂💯💯💯

hello my hand is gonna fall off

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Can we actually talk about how insane it is that Simon removed his mask for the 141? Everything he’s been through has caused him to disassociate entirely from the person he is. He cannot bear to BE himself; to have Simon Riley be someone who exists and is acknowledged by others. He uses the mask to create his nonexistence; to become a weapon only focused on finishing his mission. With the mask, Simon Riley is dead. The only thing left is his “Ghost.”

By creating this barrier, he distances himself from his teammates emotionally and can convince himself that only the objective matters (see: abandoning Soap after Graves betrays them and calling it “a force of habit”).

Simon is not good with expressing his feelings. For example, he’s extremely worried about Soap during “Alone,” but shows it through jokes and talking to keep Soap calm. Any time Soap insists Ghost cares, the man immediately deflects and insists they are only “teammates” and that Soap needs to focus on his own self-preservation.

But we see afterwards that Ghost wants to make an effort to connect emotionally to his team; to show the 141 who “Simon” is, not just Ghost. For example, after Rodolfo assumes that Ghost would wait for his men and Soap begins to express his doubt, Ghost immediately jumps in and asserts that, yes, he would wait for them. He lets Soap know with his own words that he is there for his team. This is a rare instance where Ghost allows himself to be emotionally vulnerable and open, and it sticks out immediately to the player.

And finally, the ultimate showcase of trust: the removal of the mask. Simon rips away that last barrier of distance between himself and the 141. He affirms HIS existence and allows his teammates to see the true person underneath the mask. Price’s “Good to see you again, Simon,” only adds to the fact that this is “Simon” standing with them. In that moment, there is no “Ghost.”

Anyway, I just thought it was really touching. Simon is a deeply traumatized character, but he’s also someone who has bottled up that trauma so well that it can be hard to separate his two identities and their wants. I really hope his backstory gets touched on more in the next game (and please don’t fucking kill him right after that Activision lmao).