I'm A Firm Believer In The Idea That Pyro Doesn't Naturally See In "Pyrovision," But That It's A Side

I'm a firm believer in the idea that Pyro doesn't naturally see in "Pyrovision," but that it's a side effect of their mask/the optics inside it. I feel like they still know what they're doing, though. The rest of the mercs very much know the reality of their job, although some of them see it in a slightly different perspective.

Sniper sees his job as assassinating those who deserve it — only killing people who are "rotten" (as described by his adoptive mother.)

He says himself in the Meet The Sniper short that he isn't a "crazed gunman." He doesn't kill for the sake of killing, he only kills who he thinks should be killed. He's an assassin, it's an occupation. He does it for his job, and states that as a professional, he has standards.

Heavy sees his job as getting rid of "evil men." When discussing taking back his job, he emphasizes that specifically. He isn't just killing anyone, he's killing those who are deemed the bad guys.

We also know he does all he can to protect his family, and his family knows this just as well. He only attacks when it is necessary for him and his family's safety, and/or will benefit them in some capacity. (He's gone through a lot and I feel like we as a fandom don't discuss that enough. I did an analysis over Heavy's past one time in a Discord server and I might post it here if anyone is interested.)

In the Meet The Pyro video, we see how they allegedly view the world. A fairytale-like place full of rainbows, bubbles, sparkles, and almost cherub-esque versions of the enemy mercs.

While it is very easy to just assume this is how they view everything naturally, I don't think it's ever been 100% confirmed that this is the case.

The biggest thing for me is the Pyrovision Goggles in-game. The fact that they can be worn by any class, and it effects all of the mercs the same way, makes me believe that it truly is a result of the optical mask/the lenses within them that makes Pyro see what they do. It would've been so easy to make this cosmetic only available to Pyro, but it isn't.

The fact the goggles includes the "optical mask" text in the center, much like Pyro's mask itself, just pushes the idea that Pyroland is all an optical illusion. Obviously it was never real in the first place, but I don't think it's how Pyro sees everything naturally.

Tying back to the beginning of this post, I believe Pyro knows what they're doing. They know that they're spreading fire and not bubbles and rainbows. But perhaps they keep the mask on for the sake of their own psyche, to make it easier for them to do their job. Much like how Heavy and Sniper justify their jobs by seeing it as killing "evil men," or killing those who are "rotten," maybe Pyro uses their mask and goggles to tune out the dark truth of what they do. It could be yet another reason as to why Pyro never removes their mask.

the addams family 🤝 scooby doo : being adapted into mean spirited versions of themselves by writers that don’t understand the characters

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).

with sans it's like... he works by bugs bunny rules, as in his sexuality is whoever it's funniest to kiss at any given moment, except god didn't give him lips so now he's just doing whatever.

i think Puss in Boots and Sun Wukong would be friends

that’s it, that’s the post

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.