At long last, a nuanced take on S3 Allison. I'm so happy đ
The growing in popularity theory that Allison's actions in S3 are because she rumored herself to be happy just doesn't sit right with me. I loved her anti-hero arc, adored it actually, but that doesn't mean I also don't find those actions abhorrent. She's made horrible decisions as a person, but as a character, she's as fantastic as she is fascinating.
The idea that Allison went off the rails because she rumored herself is an understandable attempt to reconcile with some of the bad things she's done, and I get that. It sucks when characters you love disappoint you and do something shocking and horrible. But it's a solution that's far too simple and does a complete disservice to her character by cancelling all accountability for her actions and ignoring her depth as a damaged, struggling human being.
Allison has always, always been accustomed to using her power for personal gain. It's how she got what she wanted as a child and later as an adult. Besides rumoring Claire which resulted in her losing custody, she rumored her first husband, Patrick, into loving her, which is no different than what she did to Luther, we just don't see it first hand. To say that her behavior in S3 is only in-character through taking away her own agency by rumoring herself is canonically untrue, and flattens her into something boring and perfect which Allison is anything but.
She's compassionate, she's spiteful. She's gentle, she's cruel. She's understanding, she's selfish. She's put-together, she's a trainwreck. She's a great mom friend, she's the worst enemy you could ever have.
Allison Hargreeves isn't all good or all bad, she's both in varying, shifting shades just like all of the other Hargreeves or any well-written character. She's faceted, incredible, and in a lot of pain. And pain isn't always pretty; often times it's ugly, and occasionally it brings out our very worst.
Our goal was survival, but now survival defines our existence! đ”đžđ
We are living in extremely harsh conditions, where our tent has been severely damaged and no longer provides the necessary protection.
The cost of building a new tent right now is about 1000 euros, and it is an essential shelter for our family, which is suffering from difficult living conditions.
We also face a severe shortage of food, especially basic items like flour, which has now reached 100 euros. Securing daily food would help improve these conditions.
My brother Samer is suffering from the absence of essential medications for stabilizing his health, and their cost is extremely high.
Campaign Link
@dlxxv-vetted-donations & @a-shade-of-blue vetted
@gazavetters , my number on the list is (#75)
paliliberation, my number on the list is (#171)
Our important links are here
It's with a heavy but hopeful heart that I watch Palestinian families fundraiser on here, slowly accumulating the precious little money to go around that they need to survive. However, not everyone is so lucky. A lot of Palestinians that have not had that kind of luck, that did not get early verification, that did not get massive platforms behind them from large bloggers, have approached me in my inbox, asking me kindly to do what I can for them. It kills me that I have so little to give myself, but I've seen this platform collectively raise enough to change someone's life. I've made a list of Palestinian fundraisers that are extremely low on funds, in the hope that drawing attention to people who have not been lucky at all can help turn that luck around. I know most of us can't possibly give enough to get all of these families safe in one go. But please, reblog this list. Pick one or two fundraisers, give what you can, and then keep track of it. Slowly, collectively, we can make a difference in these people's lives. Share and donate as much as you can. https://docs.google.com/document/d/178EGDFKkHlh3y4TMVX82kqgITHsqtoMdNccI2f_94Os/edit?usp=sharing
If you feel this way, here are some Gofundmes you can donate to
Abu Shammalah Family (âŹ953/100,000)
Moment Alostaz family (âŹ7,539/70,000)
Youssef family (âŹ9,395/50,000)
Renad & Her Family (ÂŁ9,696/25,000)
Alia's Family (âŹ7,870/30,000)
Mohamed Hamad and his family (ÂŁ3,872/50,000)
Safaa and her family (âŹ9,757/20,000)
Maliha Family (âŹ23,446/32,000)
Mahmoud Abu Hamam (CAD $5,348/10,000)
Eman Abuhayya Family (AUD $40,455/85,684)
Ezzideen & his Family (âŹ26,314/75,000)
Ahmed's family (âŹ4,658/70,000)
Let's do our part to help the people of Gaza!!!!
With the announcement of a ceasefire and plans to reopen a safe route back to north Gaza, the Al-Habil family are getting ready to go back home!
But the way ahead is still very difficult. Ibtisam's son Mohammed needs an urgent surgery to try to save his leg, and her daughter Nour needs ongoing medical care and a nutritious diet to live with her heart condition. Ibtisam herself is also still trying to treat severe back pain after a herniated disc.
In addition to all of this, the costs to travel back to their home in the north of Gaza are extremely high. Due to having multiple disabled individuals in their party, traveling by foot is impossible. This means they will have to hire a transport, which will cost thousands. The fact that disabled people are being exploited with such exorbitant prices is disappointing, but there is nothing we can do right now.
To meet the family's needs and arrange safe and accessible transportation, we will need about $6000 USD (about $8,619) CAD. We will raise it increments of $1,000 USD or $1,440 CAD.
Without your support, Ibtisam and her family are stranded in central Gaza, with no way to get home. They still have no income, and likely will not for some time. They should not be forced to remain in displacement, living in limbo on the streets of central Gaza, because of disability.
Current: $51,925 CAD
Goal: $60,544 CAD
An aspect of 2-2 that I think a lot of Danganronpa fans get wrong is Mahiruâs last words to Fuyuhiko. Iâd go so far as to call them the most misunderstood last words in the series.
Mahiru's role in the second case is often overlooked in favor of Peko and Fuyuhiko's, and this line encapsulates said role, so I figured I'd try to dispel the misconceptions that surround it. Cool? Cool.
---
First thingâs first, my thesis statement (lol): in response to the well-worn criticism that Mahiruâs last words to Fuyuhiko were hypocritical, Iâll grant fans this much: her words were shortsighted and poorly-timed. They werenât, however, hypocritical.
More often than not when I see people refer to Mahiruâs last words as hypocritical, they mean that she's condemning Fuyuhiko for avenging his sister, meanwhile her friend who committed an act of revenge received her protection. My issue with this? Satoâs murder of Natsumi wasnât revenge. The third day of Twilight Syndrome Murder Case (which Mahiru played) has Sato explain in depth why she did what she did. She didnât confront Natsumi with the intent to kill her; she only wanted to talk at first. But when Natsumi began making threats, she saw red and accidentally knocked her out. Knowing how dire the consequences would be if Natsumi woke up and tattled to her family, Sato killed her and pinned the crime on a rumored pervert. This is further highlighted in the trial.
Now, donât get me wrong, Sato is still to blame here. No matter how much shit Natsumi was talking, she shouldnât have responded with violence, and she found herself in that situation through every fault of her own. The key thing is that it wasnât revenge; it was desperation. By the time Natsumi fell unconscious, it was Sato who was trying to avoid becoming the victim of yakuza âjustice.â
Recall that the incriminating evidence Mahiru got rid of was a picture of a broken vase. To anyone who wasnât there the day of the incident, a photo of this nature would prove basically nothing. Sure, one could surmise that it means the killer didnât actually escape through the window, but figuring out what they did do, and by extension who they are, would require having run into Sato in the hall (given it isnât brought up at any point, itâs unlikely there was security footage.) It might arouse suspicion, seeing as there were rumors going around that Sato was with Natsumi the day of the latter's murder, but it wouldn't be able to substantiate anything. Either way, the only people who would have any use for it were the police and the yakuza.
Mahiru protecting Sato from the police wouldn't make much sense at all. Blind loyalty toward her friends â to the point of helping them escape consequences for their actions â isnât a trait she showcases in the main game. There are a few classmates she shows extra care toward (sheâs particularly concerned for Mikan, she sticks up for Peko and she offers to help Hiyoko when the latter is struggling with her kimono), sure, but unraveling the mysteries of the killing game takes first priority for her at the end of the day. Moreover, in Twilight Syndrome, before she realizes that Sato is the killer, she takes pictures of Natsumi's body in the hopes that they'll be useful to the police (this obviously isn't the smartest move, but it's in-character: Mahiru is someone who's always trying to do the right thing despite her lack of self-confidence. She feels guilty about agreeing with the other girls not to report Natsumiâs body, and so she figures that utilizing her talent is the next best thing. We see her do something similar in 2-1.) Going from âI need to help the police find the culpritâ to âmy friend is the culprit; time to destroy the evidenceâ is a dramatic shift â one that doesn't line up with anything else we know about Mahiru.
What's a trait she does showcase in the main game? Distaste for cruel and unusual punishment. She sympathizes with Teruteruâs motive, heavily implying that Monokuma shouldn't have executed him, and she criticizes Nekomaru and Kazuichi for hogtying and isolating Nagito, before eventually bringing him food. The second example is especially noteworthy. Nagito got both the Imposter and Teruteru killed â he's an unstable individual, no two ways about it. Mahiru doesn't object to his being restrained; she objects to the over-the-top, vigilante-style methods used by Nekomaru and Kazuichi to do so. There's a clear parallel to be drawn between this and Twilight Syndrome. If she's so against Nagito â a murderer who isn't her friend â receiving inhumane treatment, then there's no question she'd be against it for Sato, a murderer who is.
It's only reasonable to assume that, when Mahiru realized the truth of the incident, she destroyed the evidence for the same reason Sato committed murder in the first place: she knew that, if it got into yakuza hands, there would be hell to pay. She wasnât too far off the mark, either. The rumors in mind, all it took for Fuyuhiko to connect the dots was witnessing Satoâs failed attempt to discard the sole intact copy of the photo (Mahiru needed at least one if she wanted to corner Sato and coax a confession from her; she couldn't have anticipated that it would be absconded with.) And even if he didn't, say someone else found it: they might report it to the police, yes, but more likely (given the lack of solid evidence) they would start another, more potent rumor â one that would eventually reach the wrong ears, inciting action. All told, Sato was lucky to have only been killed, as the yakuza are capable of much, much worse.
Mahiru didnât think what Sato did was right. Far from it; she was shocked and horrified when her suspicions turned out to be true. Furthermore, even outside of the TSMC, she believes her covering for Sato is something to atone for, which automatically requires thinking Sato was wrong. But if it was within her power to throw the mafia off Satoâs trail, she absolutely would, including by decidedly immoral means. You donât have to condone murder to not want your friend to be kidnapped and tortured.
When Mahiru tells Fuyuhiko during their final confrontation that ânobody has the right to judge others for their crimes,â âjudgeâ is another way of saying âtake revenge on.â Think the phrase âplaying judge, jury and executioner.â Fuyuhiko judged Sato as deserving of death for her crime, and carried out that judgment by murdering her. Thatâs what Mahiru is condemning. Sheâs not dismissing his loss â she acknowledges that his sisterâs murder was terrible. Sheâs saying it didnât give him the right to become a murderer in turn. This isnât hypocritical; itâs entirely consistent with her actions in the TSMC. She never sought revenge, nor did she enable anyone elseâs. She was trying to prevent revenge from the start.
That said, Mahiru isnât above reproach (if she were, none of this would be happening to begin with.) Though I stand firm that she had every right to be angry here, I can appreciate that Fuyuhiko did, too.
Mahiru went into the beach house intending to figure out how to atone for a sin she couldnât remember committing. Fuyuhiko went into the beach house intending to kill Mahiru as further revenge for Natsumi. Thing is, Fuyuhiko isnât a cold-blooded killer. He thinks he's supposed to be, but deep down heâs conflicted. And so, to cope, he has an out: if Mahiru denies the game's reality, he'll call off the plan. Heâll spare her. More than anything, he just wants to believe that none of it happened; his sister isn't dead and Mahiru didn't cover for her killer. But it's too late to hope for denial. He'd already accused Mahiru of the cover-up and sent her the photos as proof, and sheâd been taking it very seriously ever since. The threatening letter he left her, combined with her knowledge of the gameâs true ending, would have been more than enough to convince the others to apprehend him like Kazuichi wanted â not to mention the most obvious thing to do for her own protection. And yet from the moment she received the letter, the only thing on her mind was making amends. There was no going back.
These conflicting goals are a recipe for disaster. Fuyuhiko, who had initially compelled Mahiru to face her sin, is now wanting her to deny that the events of the game ever took place. Mahiru, who came for help collecting her thoughts, is now face-to-face with the very person she needed to prepare to talk to. Keyword: prepare. Again, the important thing to understand about Mahiru is that, despite her headstrong attitude and emphasis on âdoing the right thing,â she doesnât always know what the right thing is. She lacks the confidence necessary to support her levelheadedness, and so she agonizes and deliberates. Instances of this include:
When she stays quiet as Hiyoko berates Teruteru, claiming he deserved to die, only to come to terms with the issue later (main game).
When sheâs implied to spend the night awake pondering what to do about the Twilight Syndrome motive (main game).
When she waits several days before getting rid of the vase picture, showing that she didn't take the decision lightly (TSMC).
When she ruminates over how best to make amends with Fuyuhiko, leading him to think sheâs avoiding him (main game).
The fact that, in the TSMC, Mahiru finds herself in a situation that tests her moral compass is what makes her involvement in the case compelling. Sheâs not someone who believes the ends justify the means, and yet all of a sudden sheâs thrust into a scenario where they have to â where âthe right thingâ (not destroying the evidence) and âthe wrong thingâ (letting Sato suffer and/or die) intersect. No wonder she handles the entire thing so clumsily; itâs completely foreign to her.
Now consider this situation. Mahiru has been lured to a secluded area. She never got the chance to talk things through with the other girls and hasnât the first clue about how to make amends. Fuyuhiko has proven that he isnât all bark and no bite and could actually hurt her if provoked. Hiyoko is nowhere to be found; whoâs to say Fuyuhiko hasnât killed or severely harmed her? Itâs a perfect storm of stress. Needless to say, the interaction is already doomed.
Said interaction starts when Mahiru, treating the game as though it were real, asks if Fuyuhiko killed Girl E (Sato). At this, Fuyuhiko is furious. But wait⊠this whole thing started because Fuyuhiko accused her of being an accomplice to his sister's murder, and yet now, when she's asking about what he did in the game, he says he doesn't want to hear it? When she says he shouldnât have killed Girl E, he replies that nobody cares? How does this sound to Mahiru? A man who doesn't think he did anything wrong, refusing to accept responsibility? Only at this point does she get angry.
On the other hand, from Fuyuhiko's perspective, Mahiru had been avoiding him ever since he left her that letter, and so the fact that she isn't answering his questions is insulting. Even though he'd already decided on revenge, heâs giving her a chance to avoid the fate he had planned for her altogether, simply by saying she doesnât remember anything from the game or believe that it happened. Yet not only is she doing the opposite of that, the girl who supposedly tried to protect his sister's killer is claiming that he was also wrong. His anger skyrockets.
All in all, itâs pretty easy to understand where both of them were coming from. In Mahiruâs efforts to protect her friend from revenge, she prevented Fuyuhiko from getting justice for Natsumi in any capacity. There was no way the authorities would believe him, a member of the criminal underworld, over a seemingly normal high school girl â not without evidence. Sure, a picture of a vase wasnât substantial, but it was something, and she got rid of it. Meanwhile, if Fuyuhiko hadnât been out for blood, Mahiru wouldnât have felt the need to destroy the evidence to begin with. In other words, they both felt they had no choice but to do what they did â Mahiru to cover things up, Fuyuhiko to kill. Their goals clashed at nearly every turn, right up to the end.
Mahiru messed up â that I wonât deny. She lost her cool and chastised Fuyuhiko while he was in the middle of interrogating her about his sister. She shouldn't have done that â not because she didn't have a point, but because it wasn't the right time to make it. Chances are if sheâd kept treating the game as real, she still would have angered him enough to convince Peko it was necessary to step in, but straight-up condemning his actions more or less sealed her fate. Itâs almost ironic how her go-to method of yelling at people to do better led to her death in this instance. Keep in mind, though, it was Fuyuhiko who put her in that position to begin with. He backed her into a corner, deprived her of the chance to think things through and expected her to simply⊠read his mind and say what he wanted her to say so that he could find an excuse not to kill her. Thatâs why I donât think itâs fair to claim she brought her death entirely on herself.
Moreover, her last words in and of themselves werenât off-target. Fuyuhiko spends nearly the rest of the game trying to atone for rushing into revenge. He realizes that Mahiru was right; âan eye for an eyeâ is a flawed credo, and itâs through this that he manages to earn the forgiveness of all of his classmates, even Hiyoko. Losing Peko might have been what springboarded his development, but Mahiruâs contribution shouldnât be understated. Hell, the scenario of Mahiru's death echoes some of Goodbye Despairâs most important themes, namely restoration over retribution and being punished for a forgotten sin. The mindset that certain people deserve to die for their crimes is what leads to much of the castâs misery, and ultimately the opposite philosophy is what saves them.
Thanks for reading :)
đ Imagine losing everything overnight. Thatâs what happened to me.
My name is Naser, and war shattered my world. In a single moment, I lost my mother and sister. Our family home was destroyed. My three brothers and I were forced to flee with nothing. No safety, no home, no certainty of what tomorrow would bring.
But even after losing everything, I refuse to lose hope.
đĄ We Still Have Dreams đč I dream of going to university. đč My brother dreams of becoming a doctor. đč Another wants to be an engineer. đč The youngest? He just wants a normal childhood.
The war took our past, but I refuse to let it take our future.
đ Will You Help Us Rebuild? Your kindness, your support, your voiceâcan be the reason we get a second chance. Even sharing this post can help.
đ Thank you for believing in us.
Banana day đ§Ą
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IT'S THEM đ„°
Cowboy Red Guy, Cowboy Red Guy. I wasnât the one who started dis