#ghoul meta | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bokatan · 1 year

Note

What are some of your fav ghoul headcannon? Or bits of "noncannon" lore?

aaaa thank you @alder-berry! I’m going to yell about ghouls now.

FEV Involvement

So for starters: low level FEV exposure is needed in order for humans to be able to ghoulify(along with some unknown genetic components), otherwise they’d just flat out die from radiation poisoning.

There’s so many prewar ghouls with military/corporate ties due to a modified strain of FEV being trialed as a vaccine for the new plague before project's focus was completely shifted over into weaponizing it.

The majority of wastelanders have had some form of low level FEV exposure. This plays into wastelanders generally having a higher level of radiation resistance compared to vault dwellers - they’re just more likely to have the genetic components involved in radiation resistance, and the prior exposure to FEV means they have the potential to adapt to various conditions and even develop minor mutations in response to extreme conditions.

Ghoulification

There’s no standard timeline for ghoulification and it’s highly dependent on the individual + the amount of radiation they’ve been exposed to, how long they were exposed for, and other factors like genetics. Some people ghoulify extremely quickly while others never get to a point where they’d be considered a ‘full’ ghoul.

The way that ghoulification presents is also highly variable and dependent on individual + radiation, exposure time, and other factors such as genetics. Some people can gain the radiation & disease resistance, healing from radiation, extended lifespan, potential mutations, etc without getting much of a typical ghoul-like appearance, while there’s others that are pretty much fully human but have scarring that makes them physically appear to be fully ghoulified.

Due to how much variation goes into it, there’s not really any one factor that indicates if someone’s ghoulifying. It’s not unheard of for people to survive radiation poisoning without ghoulifying because of wastelanders having increased radiation resistance, so recovering from radiation poisoning doesn’t automatically mean they’re going to become a ghoul.

The damage and scars that typically present when ghoulification starts are commonly mistaken for chemical or radiation burns, especially if the individual is ghoulifying at a slow rate.

People with very high radiation resistance that become ghouls are much more likely to get additional mutations.

It’s common for people that are in the earlier stages of ghoulifying to bleed and bruise for no clear reason. Radiation causes mass cell death and hemorrhage + would cause clotting issues due to low cell volume, and that’s something that would likely persist until the majority of a person’s cells are mutated.

Ferals

I’m going to link to another post rather than copy and paste everything since it’s a long post, but here’s my theory on how and why ghouls become feral.

Miscellaneous

Ghouls typically don’t have as much tactile sensation due to all of the nerve damage and scarring from their skin sloughing off. They also tend to have poor circulation and lower body temperatures(hence the disease resistance - yes, I’m implying that ghouls are immune to rabies and other diseases in the same manner that opossums are).

It’s very common for ghouls to have bone + dental issues due to a combination of damage from frequent vomiting from radiation poisoning, and from the way that radiaton pretty much leeches calcium and other minerals from bones and other tissues.

Ghouls can smell radiation. (Not a headcanon that I came up with, but one that I’m 100% running with- I interpreted it more as an extra 'sense' rather than a legitimate smell, but that's just me)

Ghouls age at an extremely slow rate like lobsters rather than just being frozen at the age they were when they ghoulified.

#thank you!!💖#I should make a headcanons tag one of these days #yes that one about bleeding is 100% so I can draw Reed covered in blood regularly #and yes I’m implying that Reed was given experimental vaccines while in the army lmao #sometimes you just gotta let your guy have random nosebleeds and cough up blood with no warning. as a fun little treat #and he’s up to date on all of his shots. here’s his vaccine certificate. he’s allowed to go to the dog park now #fallout #fallout ghouls #ghoul meta #fallout meta #(pspsps hi y’all should check out the two meta tags above - I use those for similar posts)

37 notes · View notes

twosides--samecoin · 2 months

Text

Can we talk about how beautifully Lucy's character represents someone picking up Fallout for the first time?

She has all the perks she thinks she needs to have and is prepared as she thinks she needs to be until she barely survives her first fight against a raider. Dr. Siggi tells her if she insists upon being here, she must adapt. Lucy tells The Ghoul "I won't ever be like you" but has no idea what he had to do (or what she will need to do) to survive. She wants to be kind and fair to solve problems but utterly fails speech checks. She gets lost in side quests. She's shocked to learn her privilege when she sees a family of skeletons sat around a table who took poison together, and is forced to encounter it again when she says the "I recognize my privilege" line to Ma June and Ma June rejects her for it - getting by in the Wasteland is a life hard lived, one she can't understand.

And in the end she encounters a painful truth she couldn't have imagined. She finds what she's looking for and it's all fucked up. And her last move is still choosing kindness. She is faced with some bullshit "choose between two factions" decision that feels like it has no meaning in the face of war and cruelty. But when one door closes for her, another door opens for The Ghoul. So she chooses to follow him; to give back instead of take. And the world moves on. There's a billion more quests to follow. Lucy isn't done with the Wasteland yet, and the Wasteland is not yet done teaching her the game.

#I've said what I've said about how people are acting/reacting and I'm gonna focus on what I like instead of what others are saying/doing :)#fallout show #fallout #fallout amazon #lucy maclean #the ghoul #fallout meta

844 notes · View notes

artbyblastweave · 1 month

Text

Choosing to interpret The Ghoul starting the show by getting exhumed after a multi-year stint buried alive only to immediately jump back into action seemingly psychologically unhindered, all while professing his "love of the game," to be a metatextual reference to the phenomenon of returning Fallout players booting up an old save file upon the release of new content and launching back into the swing of things like no time has passed at all

#fallout #fotv #fallout tv #cooper howard #the ghoul #thoughts #meta

311 notes · View notes

ghouly-boiiiii · 25 days

Text

Does Max give anyone else major twist villain vibes???

Okay I haven't talked about Max much yet, but I think it's kinda wild to see people talking about him like he's just this sweet innocent cinnamon roll when my read on his character was the COMPLETE opposite.

I mean yes, he does seem very sweet. He's very soft spoken. Naive in a way like Lucy, but not as much. Kinda vulnerable. Got a killer smile. And some of the moments with him and Lucy are super cute and adorable. But damn if he doesn't have a DARK side!

Like I've heard people say that Max is stupid or that Aaron Moten's acting is bad, but hell no. Aaron Moten sold me on his acting during the interrogation scene. Max was scared shitless and I FELT that. I think Max was meant to be played as a character who lacks understanding about certain things and seems disconnected from people due to both being brought up in basically a cult and having an inherent lack of empathy.

You think about the fact that he admitted he wanted Dane to get hurt, someone who's supposed to be his best friend. How he coldly sat there and watched Titus die. And before that stood there and watched him get mauled by a bear, almost like he was fascinated by it and wanted to see what was gonna happen. The fact that he tried to kill Thaddeus the moment he became a threat, even though the two of them had appeared to have bonded and developed a genuine friendship. And let's not forget he was willing to let all of Vault 4 get plunged into darkness just so he could keep playing with his power armor.

Max wants to be a knight, he wants to be a hero. And I think he tells himself he wants it for the right reasons, but I think what he REALLY wants is power and recognition. Which is really what every (okay maybe not every, but a lot) good villain wants, right? Because at the end of the day Max wants what Max wants. He's selfish, even though he doesn't think he is.

And sure, he's nice to Lucy. And he went balls to the wall to save her when he thought Vault 4 was gonna execute her. But she's a pretty girl who helped him and offered him a safe home. When she gave him the proposition that if she helped him bring back the head, he would have the Brotherhood lend her some knights to save her dad, he KNEW he couldn't make that promise. But he made the deal anyway. So he doesn't REALLY care about her or what she wants.

And that blank stare he gets when he gets mad? ACTUALLY terrifying. The guy's got serious psychopath vibes. Literal anti-social personality disorder, if you ask me. In fact the first thing I thought about when Max let Titus die is this kids going to end up going to the dark side lol.

And I think that would work really well thematically if they plan on giving The Ghoul a redemption arc beside it. There are so many parallels between Lucy and The Ghoul, and they have such a strong connection to the beginning when the bombs dropped. I get that Max is there to represent the Brotherhood and he's from Shady Sands, the town Hank destroyed, but it felt weird that he didn't seem to be AS important in the grand scheme of things compared to Cooper and Lucy.

But if Max turned out to be a badass twist villain to thematically contrast Cooper's redemption arc, while Lucy remains steadfast to her commitment to goodness and the golden rule I feel like that would really round it out. It would make sense if you consider a lot of people have pointed out that Lucy, Cooper and Max all seem to represent different play styles and different moral alignments. And I think it'd be pretty crazy if the writers of the show set out to make it seem like Ghoul is a bad guy and Max is a good guy, but then it ended up being the opposite.

I mean, there are definitely hints all over the show that The Ghoul isn't as bad as he may seem. And Max has already done some pretty messed up stuff, so I'd say the possibility is totally there, and I'd be here for it!

Who's with me???

226 notes · View notes

starofhisheart · 27 days

Text

We talk a lot about him seeing his old self in Lucy, and their journeys mirroring each other, but let's talk about the function of dogs in relation to Cooper and the Ghoul.

Dogs are an important way of showing the Ghoul's humanity

Seeing how one of the things that got human Cooper to change his mind about listening in on his wife we know how deeply he cared for his dog

Dogmeat may not be the same dog

But through him we see glimpses of his humanity

Because even after the dog's usefulness has run out (tracking the head is no longer needed) he STILL keeps him around. And damn, if that ain't proof there's a heart in there I don't know what is.

#fallout #the ghoul #cooper howard #fallout ghoul #fallout meta #fallout tv series #feel free to add on cause there's a lot more I dont have the energy to write

230 notes · View notes

kyanitedragon · 5 months

Text

It's sooooo interesting to me that Kaneki is the only (named) human we see that enjoys Sen Takatsuki's works.

Everyone else we see is a ghoul.

Knowing that she wrote them about ghouls. Writing ghoul themes into each one, starting subtle and seemingly growing more and more obvious each book, until it was explicit in her final book.

Kaneki loved those books. Related to them.

Even if he was in denial about it for a long time, once he became a ghoul he realized that he related to ghouls more than he ever had with humans.

No wonder he related to those books.

And really, that's probably what her goal was writing them - to get humans to empathize with ghouls, even if they didn't yet know that's what they were doing.

#tg #tokyo ghoul #tg reread #tg meta

250 notes · View notes

emmcarstairs · 26 days

Text

From Gloves to Fingers: The Ghoul and Lucy MacLean

Despite their mostly practical usage nowadays, gloves used to be a powerful tool in society. There were rules about how and when a person should wear them, and what messages they relayed to others. Gloves were more than a fashion accessory; they had symbolic functions. Across various sources, such as visual media, art, and literature, gloves are associated with notions about power, protection, purity, as well as sexuality.

In the following analysis, I will examine the Ghoul’s gloves in Fallout (2024) as a visual key to understanding his character, motivations, and relationship with Lucy.

What if I told you that the first thing we see about the Ghoul, his introduction to us, is his gloved hand?

His character is shrouded in mystery, and his gloves facilitate this impression. When a character hides their hands, we assume they have secret or evil intentions. That’s why gloves have come to be associated with villains. And at first glance at this character, this assumption would not be far from the truth. But in the Ghoul’s case, it’s more complicated than that. Let’s roll back to the beginning!

As soon as we learn that the Ghoul used to be the famous Hollywood actor Cooper Howard, and the face of Vault-Tec, we start to make the connections. For instance, we know he refuses to do the thumbs-up for the photo during the birthday party. The thumbs-up, his thumbs-up in particular, is a symbol for Vault-Tec, a company he has grown to despise. So it isn’t surprising that he would try to conceal his relation to the company, figuratively and physically.

Two hundred years later, we learn about the nature of ghouls. Radiation has ravaged their skin and appearance. In this case, the gloves might serve the cosmetic purpose of hiding most of his scarred body.

However, it all comes down to the image he presents to the world around him. His gloves, and his hat, are accessories for the costume he’s chosen to wear. He doesn’t go around by the name of Cooper Howard anymore; he has built himself a new identity, using props just like an actor would. He is recognizable by these attributes and they are a makeshift armor for the real man underneath it. I’d even argue that his gloves act as a physical and psychological shield between him and the atrocities he’d committed to survive.

Now that we’ve discussed the symbolism of him wearing gloves, it’s time to ask the important question. Do we see the Ghoul’s ungloved hands? We do. Two times. And both of them are connected to Lucy: one in her presence, one in the presence of her finger.

The first time we see the Ghoul’s ungloved hands is after the significant scene of him mercy killing Roger and feeding on him in front of Lucy. The fact that Lucy witnessed him eat, not just any food but human flesh, is extremely important. In that scene, he reveals his animalistic nature. It’s an intimate scene because he begins her initiation into the Wasteland by offering her his knife to cut off some pieces herself. In a way, he shares his meal with her. Her repulsion is clear but she relents. It’s important to keep this scene in mind.

Cut to the scene with him with no gloves. At this point, he’s shown her a part of himself. In the past, the removal of gloves was a sign of closeness, and even inferiority. He has shed his skin, literally in the form of his gloves. He has allowed himself to be vulnerable in her presence. He’s naked in a way we haven’t seen before. It’s no wonder what happens next has so many sexual undertones.

To put it plainly, in this scene we see the Ghoul relishing the taste of irradiated water while Lucy is right next to him… thirsty. It’s an interesting juxtaposition to a previous scene when Lucy politely asked for water but he denied her (with his gloves on, retaining a metaphorical barrier, an air of superiority). She then saw the pool of water but resisted drinking from it while he taunted her. Now, it seems different. He watches her with a silent challenge in his eyes, tempting. She isn’t asking him anything this time. All she sees is the water, the means to quench her thirst, and… his ungloved hand.

Personally, I find the choice to include his hand here very interesting. What happens next, even more so; Lucy succumbs to her thirst. In contrast to her hesitation and revulsion with slicing pieces off Roger for food, she eagerly drinks the irradiated water the Ghoul drank moments ago. It’s a desperate physical need, and it’s out of her own volition. If you don’t see anything sexual about this frame, I don’t know what to tell you:

It’s worth mentioning the way the Ghoul stoops to her level here which enables the iconic “Oh, I’m you, sweetie.” She’s almost his equal here, as they stare after she’s drunk the water, their hands ungloved.

Lucy, being ever the opportunist, sees his weakness and tries to run away. Her attempt is short-lived because he catches her in his lasso. And all the build-up ends in one of the most memorable scenes in the show; and for a good reason!

In their struggle, Lucy takes advantage of his exposed hand, his weakness, and bites his finger off. It’s almost like she’s turned into him: an animal tearing flesh. The gloves would have protected him against harm but he’s taken them off, he has allowed himself to be vulnerable around her. Perhaps, he underestimated her.

In a violent imitation of a lover's touch, he cuts her finger off. This is the first time they touch hands. In the past, a woman had to be wary of a man’s ungloved hand because it signified danger and the loss of her chastity.

In Lucy's case, chastity refers to her naivety about navigating the world around her. The Ghoul opened her eyes about the surrounding world, but she dared to go one step further and stole something of his, a part of him. For two centuries, he's managed to keep his ten fingers intact, a sign of his competence, and it's none other than Lucy who overpowers him this way. So he feels obliged to take a part of her to replace his missing one. It's very much an exchange of rings/vows type of situation. But I digress.

After the finger exchange and the visual replacement of Lucy's finger, which for a second looked to me like adding a band/ring, we see the most significant scene for her character yet. She survives alone in the Super Duper Mart and despite it all, retains her principles, by saving his life. She emerges the victor, both in terms of survival and morals. But how does the exchange affect him?

In a rare scene of self-reflection, the Ghoul watches his old human self on film. The gloves are back on and he mimics pulling the trigger, nothing unusual.

But as we watch him rub the leather of his missing finger, we know that something has shifted. Beneath the seemingly intact glove, there is a missing piece. Try as he might to conceal it, and even if it's unnoticeable to others, he’s aware of its absence. Despite the external armor, the damage is internal.

Which brings us to the second scene with his ungloved hands: the scene of him sewing Lucy’s finger on his hand.

The Ghoul is held responsible for the thrashing of the Super Duper Mart. While they question him, he asks for the needle and thread (red thread of fate, anybody?) in his bag. As he unrolls the piece of cloth, we see Lucy’s finger.

Here I want to make an important note: In the past, gloves were considered an extension of the wearer’s body; another symbolic body part. In the classic novel Little Women, Meg loses one of her gloves and it turns out that the man who is interested in her romantically – Mr. Brooke – has hidden it in his pocket. Later, characters would consider this act a declaration of his intentions toward her. The Ghoul has neatly packed away Lucy’s finger in his bag. The subtext is definitely there.

In the first scene when he was ungloved, it was in Lucy’s active presence. In this scene, she’s not here but her presence is felt, and not only because it’s her finger he’s sewing. While he is attaching the finger, he takes the blame for what she did in the Super Duper Mart. He throws away the act for a moment, his hands are ungloved and unprotected, as he surrenders himself in her name. The intimacy of the mere image of him sewing a part of Lucy’s body on his own, literally tying the knot, deserves its own analysis.

You could say it fits him like a glove. ;)

This is the last scene we see him without gloves in S1. But every time we see his gloved hand afterward, we are reminded that he carries Lucy’s finger. It’s a symbol of what Lucy reminded him of: his lost dignity. It’s his trigger finger, a moral compass. It led to him shooting her dad when she herself wavered, but also letting him go alive. And it’s her replaced necrotic finger which pulls the trigger when she mercy kills her mother, a lesson she learned from him. Their fates have intertwined and their fingers are the perfect representation of that.

With the focus on hands and fingers we saw in S1, I expect this symbolic storytelling to continue and expand in S2.

#vaultghoul #ghoulcy #the ghoul #cooper howard #lucy maclean #fallout #fallout tv #fallout meta

136 notes · View notes

unsatisfiedgourmet · 5 months

Text

Are the, (checks notepad) five alive Tokyo Ghoul fans still accepting metaposting in 2024.

#I have a lot on my mind #can't promise it it makes sense or isnt flawed but hey that's what makes discussion so fun am I right #tokyo ghoul #tokyo ghoul re #tg meta #captain's log

176 notes · View notes

marbat · 2 months

Text

Interesting note about Cooper, back in the past his voice is a lot more neutral american. The western draw as the Ghoul is an affected thing. He's playing up his character! He is literally playing the villainous cowboy.

#fallout Tv #fallout tv spoilers #cooper howard #the ghoul #fallout meta

116 notes · View notes

greenleaf4stuff · 19 days

Text

I saw lot of posts about Hancock and The Ghoul/Cooper Howard meeting which is a cool scenario to think about for sure, but may I present you this:

Hancock and *Norm* meeting

Those two have a surprising amount of similarities in the character arcs/backstories.

[Spoilers for FO4 and the Fallout TV show up ahead!]

Like. They are both guys who knew that something *wrong* was going on around them; Hancock knew that McDonough’s campaign against the ghouls and how Diamond City exiled them was wrong, and later on he disliked how things were going in Goodneighbor before he became mayor. Norm knew there was something up with the ‚vaulties‘ from Vault 32 and later on knew that Vault 33 wouldn’t send out ppl to get his and Lucy’s father back, and that something was going on with vault 32 (or, actually, all the three vaults).

They both felt as if they were cowards when faced with great danger and injustice; Hancock didn’t oppose McDonough’s actions as much as he (felt he) could have and also felt like a coward when thugs beat up ppl in Goodneighbor. Norm felt like a coward for hiding during the attack of the raiders and didn’t follow Lucy into the wasteland, saying he is ‚too chicken‘ to do so.

And then? As a consequence to these injustices, to their own cowardice, they both decided to say ‚fuck that‘ and do the right thing, even in the face of massive opposition and everything stacked against them. Instead of backing down or being intimidated, they turned around and used their skills to try and make a change.

Hancock tried to help the exiled ghouls, and later on became a ghoul himself, got inspired by the historical John Hancock, found himself a group of people and took out the thugs in Goodneighbor. And then became mayor of the town – not quite turning it around 180 degrees, but still making the town a safe haven for all the ‚misfits‘ of the wasteland; fellow ghouls, assaultrons, ppl who didn’t think they belonged anywhere else. „Everybody ’s welcome“. An anti-thesis to what his brother stood for in Diamond City.

And Norm, he asks uncomfortable questions. He needles people for information. He finds a temporary ally in Chet, who despite his own cowardice promised to protect Norm for Lucy and helps him to get into vault 32. Norm puts clues together, hacks into terminals, reads, asks further questions – even causes some unrest, especially when it comes to dealing with the imprisoned raiders. He has managed to outsmart everyone around him and find out the secret of vault 31, an act that required courage especially considering Norm cannot just up and leave the vaults. Even if he makes it back to vault 33. He had to know that getting caught would have dire consequences one way or another, and still he persisted in his quest.

And (extra warning – heavy spoilers here!) they both can make some very horrible discoveries about their family members. John Hancock – originally John McDonough – can find out that his older brother, who exiled all the ghouls from Diamond City, has gotten replaced with a synth doppelganger. Probably even before he drove that hate campaign against the ghouls, making Hancock question whether he even hated the ‚right‘ person aka whether he had hated his brother for the wrong reasons all these years.

And Norm finds out that Hank Maclean has been alive before the bombs fell, and got thawed out of cryogenic slumber. That his own father lied to him and Lucy, is part of an ‚elite‘ class of people who manage vaults 32 and 33 while keeping their inhabitants in the dark about their true purpose – to be breeding stock in an attempt to create the perfect managers and re-populate America in their vision. The vision of Vault-Tec.

The person they saw as their family might have just been someone they didn’t truly know.

They share a lot of similiarities, and I think they would get on like a house on fire.

This is just headcanons from this point onwards, but I can see Hancock appreciating and valuing Norm’s perception and intelligence, as well as his subtle way of communicating that he knows more than he lets on. And I can see Norm understanding Hancock’s approach to his town and how he leads it, how he makes sure that his people are safe. (Remember, Norm made the suggestion to kill the captive raiders because they killed his fellow vault dwellers and kidnapped his father – his and Hancock’s brand of justice might not be that much different.)

I also think they could have epic verbal spats and very, very witty banter together.

If Norm had Hancock in the vault and voiced his suspicions to him, Hancock would have followed him and helped. No questions asked. He likely would have been pissed on Norm’s behalf too.

And if Norm had been there when Hancock planned to overthrow the mayor in Goodneighbor, Norm might not have taken up arms, but he would have used his skills to take care of turrets, terminals or locked doors/safes. And he wouldn’t be afraid to give Hancock a piece of his mind if he felt the mayor was too far up his own supply of chems.

Tl;dr – I think there are a bunch of parallels when it comes to Hancock and Norm Maclean and therefore them meeting could turn out incredibly interesting. Also I think both characters are really neat.

#fallout #fallout tv #fallout 4 #spoilers #fallout spoilers #fallout 4 spoilers #fallout tv spoilers #the ghoul #cooper howard #norm maclean #norman maclean #john hancock #fallout hancock #meta #mine

68 notes · View notes

bokatan · 1 year

Note

Saw that poll you rbed and now I really want to know your take on feral ghouls 👀

OKAY. SO!!

TL;DR: ghouls have to go through additional radioactive, ghoul-specific processes in order to become feral, and it isn't inevitable that every ghoul will eventually become feral.

I'm putting this under a read more since it's a lot.

My take on feral ghouls is that it’s a combination of genetic factors + FEV involvement, and that ghouls don’t become feral just from cognitive degeneration over time. I absolutely refuse to believe that every ghoul will inevitably become feral, but everyone has a limit to how much radiation they can actually handle before things start getting weird. This limit is heavily dependent on the person - many people have a low natural tolerance and just die from radiation poisoning. Some people, specifically those who have previously been exposed to low amounts of FEV along with having various genetic factors that increase their ability to tolerate radiation, are able to survive the initial radiation poisoning and become ghouls. The whole ghoulification process varies based on overall radiation exposure - the people that took significant radiation damage in one instance(like what you’d see with a nuclear blast, for example) will go through ghoulification quickly and will become full ghouls without requiring additional radiation, while those that have low dose exposure will progress through it slower and require additional radiation exposure in order to become full ghouls.

So ghouls obviously are resistant to rad damage, but there’s a limit to how much radiation they can handle before it overtakes their ability to heal from it. This varies widely by individual and it’s more of a per-exposure or multiple instances of exposure in a very short period of time rather than just a set amount that they could hit at any time. Some ghouls have a low tolerance and will go feral while going through ghoulification or shortly afterwards, while others have extremely high tolerances and can develop various mutations(glowing ones, F76-type mutations, etc) while retaining cognition. The amount and type of FEV exposure that they’ve had comes into play here, with some strains + exposure methods making them more predisposed to becoming feral while others can increase their ability to process radiation making them less likely to become feral.

When they do eventually hit their limit, the radiation affects them pretty much like it does with non-mutated humans; skin damage and burns, cell degeneration, widespread hemorrhage, etc. If we’re getting into specifics, I personally think that it’d be a combination of myelin sheath degeneration + severe frontal and temporal lobe damage that’d result in ghouls becoming feral. Obviously the whole brain + spinal cord would be affected but that specific combination from my unprofessional medical viewpoint would probably result in the kind of behaviors typically seen in feral ghouls. This would also explain the various types of feral ghouls, and specifically the leveled ones with more extreme damage/mutations like charred, bloated, rotting, putrid, withered, etc.

I do also think that the “ghouls/people who died and came back worse, possibly revived by radiation” option from that post is a really interesting take and that’s something I’m probably going to be tossing around for a while. Bethesda did establish in that some leveled feral ghouls are capable of reviving other feral ghouls with radiation blasts, so why wouldn’t that apply to dead non-feral ghouls as well? I don’t think this would be a common method just due to the fact that it’d require a leveled feral ghoul to put out a radiation blast within range of a viable non-feral corpse, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t be possible. At the very least it’d be some really interesting storytelling if, per say, you’re working with someone going through ghoulification and still coming to terms with it and they just happen to witness that scenario and it unlocks a brand new fear that they had no idea even existed up until that moment.

#thank you!! sorry this took forever i had a Lot of thoughts and i tried to make them coherent lmao #buthappysoverrated #asks #fallout meta #ghoul meta #*waves hands* pretend FEV works like this i know i'm definitely ignoring and contradicting established lore with this take #regarding the last paragraph- i am definitely NOT pinging that idea around in my head like a bouncy ball right now #definitely not using that concept on my OC. Reed definitely doesn't need to be tormented more as a treat #(i'm 100% using that on Reed. he'd have a WHOLE crisis over that. like that'd probably break him more than anything else ive dumped on him)

43 notes · View notes

ipsen · 11 months

Text

ch63 and re63

These images side by side are great at capturing how the original series and its sequel are different using the same line.

Tokyo Ghoul is bloody and gross and tragic, because ultimately Kaneki's plight here is pointless, as Aogiri, as we know, is not the real enemy, and yet, starting with this line, he begins his attempt to destroy them. He seizes control of the narrative-- we'll use a boat metaphor here (trust me)-- and he steers it toward Tragedy. Because tragedy is just 'doing a pointless thing' but like, if it was interesting.

Tokyo Ghoul: re is hopeful and about breaking cycles of tragedy, and Eto here, as a constant boat rocker, is now attempting to divert the boat's direction away from Tragedy and toward actual change and Hope. Because from chapter 63 onward (except for the things post-143, which is a whole other bag of worms), the relevant information about V and the Washuu is revealed, and the true villains of the narrative are finally placed on the board.

But there's another thing to talk about: the purpose of the characters saying the line. This line signifies Change. It denotes that the story has shifted in a different direction from where it used to be going. And that change is being driven by the character saying it in both instances. And, though that change is different for both of them, there is one commonality:

They are throwing away their human half. Their 'safe' half. They throw all of their cards into their identity as a ghoul in the hopes of pursuing their ideals.

They're the same.

#tg #tokyo ghoul #tg meta #eto yoshimura #ken kaneki #characters that are parallels (and should kiss) continues to plague my existence #fuck it i'm tagging the ship #etoken

306 notes · View notes

ghouljams · 21 days

Note

König definitely deserved a punch to the face for insulting Goose, but then for her to continue by tackling him and dislocating his arm? Then for Ghost to restrain Bee, and Johnny having to intervene by tripping König even though Goose started the physical fight? As you said, Bee doesn’t like power imbalances (i.e. her stance on the government, and being a DA victim) so wouldn’t she end up more upset about being forcefully restrained by a man and watching someone she loves get excessively hurt? It’s not like König punched Goose randomly :( He tried restraining her until she dislocated his arm

here's how I view it and how I wrote it. König instigated the fight by insulting Goose and Goose retaliated with the tackle and then the elbow. The fight absolutely could have ended there. König got what was coming to him for picking a fight with the wrong person, it happens, the smart thing to do is to cut his losses, say uncle, put up his arms on the defensive. Goose wouldn't have dislocated his arm or kept fighting if he was clearly not going to fight back. He did in fact fight back.

König is a violent man. He is a man that relishes in violence, that is trained on brutality and more importantly, has never lost. König is always the biggest threat in a room, and he's made it clear in this fic that he doesn't respect Goose as an adversary. So, he continues the fight. He grabs Goose by the neck and attempts to strangle her. Goose's dislocation of his shoulder is not just a senseless violence against König, it is a response to his attempt at harm. She doesn't have the strength to get herself out of his grip, she even says that she doesn't have the reach to hit him. Would you prefer that she let him choke her? Does she deserve it for lashing out against a man that called her a dog? A whore?

Does Goose's reaction to a man continuing a physical fight with her make you uncomfortable? Why?

At no point did I say Ghost forcefully restrained Bee, he pulled her out of range:

"Simon's on his feet, quick to grab the city girl when she tries to intervene"

Bee tries to get involved in the fight, and Ghost (rightfully) pulls her out of the line of fire. His entire role in this fight has been one of moderation, and restraint. Trying to keep the fight from happening up until the moment that he decides it's not worth it anymore. Then his job is to keep civvies out of harms way.

I'm not going to defend Soap's presence in the fight because he was wrong to get involved. On the other hand, König is a 6'6" retired battering ram that could still hold his own against most active duty military, Goose is a civilian. Granted Goose is a well trained civilian from a military family, but at the end of the day she's an accountant.

Here's my question to you: do you think König would have stopped just at restraining Goose?

Bee watched the man she loves openly insult a woman who had only ever been friendly to her. She was stopped from intervening when said woman attacked König(very scary! She did not like this), she then watch the man that she loves, trusts with her own safety, retaliate and continue the fight. She watched him punch Goose in the face despite having an injury that would make a normal person stop fighting. She watched him attempt to go after Goose again despite her removing herself from the fight(rolling away). The fight could have been over at that point, but König continued to insult Goose, continued to go after her, and would have hurt her without a second thought if he'd been allowed to.

I ask again: is Goose not allowed to defend herself? Does it make you uncomfortable? I don't think either of them is the victim here, but the label on the can was clear that this was a fic about Goose beating up König. I don't think it's fair to be upset with her for doing what it says on the tin.

#ghoul speaks #long post #fanfic meta #god forbid a woman do anything #everyone loves morally grey characters until they're a woman #Is it more scary for Bee who had been actively hurt by a man for years to see König hurting a woman #or to see a woman hurting König #do you think she put herself in Goose's shoes for a second #and wondered if one day he might turn on her as well?#oc: goose #cowboy au

54 notes · View notes

artbyblastweave · 28 days

Text

Now the fun thing about The Ghoul, right, is that he's called that at least in part because he's going to serve as an introduction to the concept of ghouls for much of the viewing public. And you can tell that this was a consideration from his introductory scene, where the Monte Cristo reenactors establish through dialogue that a "ghoul" is a "mutant" and that it's specifically feral ghouls that can't abide chickens, and so on and so forth- they're trying to rapidly counteract the marketing blitz that treated "The Ghoul" as a singular title that one guy had. But from an in-universe perspective it's funny that everyone started calling him that because it's analogous to calling a particularly brutal mobster "The Sicilian" or something, no need to specify further than that, we all know which guy from Sicily you mean. Which actually kind of slaps aesthetically, and now I think I've talked myself out of whatever I was originally complaining about

#cooper howard #the ghoul #fallout tv series #fallout #thoughts #meta

112 notes · View notes

ghouly-boiiiii · 1 month

Text

THE GHOUL: WHY HE'S HOT - (A SCIENCE!)

࣪⊹°˖✧ Welcome to a Powerpoint Presentation by Some Ghoul-Loving Freak ✧˖° ⊹

Why is The Ghoul hot? I think many of us who find ourselves swooning over this necrotic, murdering cowboy have been asking ourselves that very question lately. Is there something wrong with me? Do I need therapy? Will my friends ever look at me the same way again? Well my fellow ghoul lovers, you are not alone. And I am here to explain to you the exact reasons why this gun-slingin’, ass bitin’ baked potato with teeth has captured the hearts of so many... with science! (sort of) 🤠

------(Spoiler warning... lots and lots of spoilers below the cut!)------

1. Walton Goggins… just Walton Goggins

I think we can all agree that the man behind the makeup and prosthetics is a large reason as to what makes The Ghoul so attractive. Walton himself is a very nice looking fellow, and he absolutely oozes charisma, both on the set and off. And for some reason decided to amp that up to 100 while playing The Ghoul. He managed to make Ghouly Boi likable and endearing, even when he's doing murdery things. So yeah, the dude's mad talented.

"Strong enough to keep out the rads... and the reds." - Cooper Howard shooting a Vault-Tec commercial in episode 6.

2. The makeup artists knew what they were doing

Attempting to make The Ghoul “kind of hot” was absolutely intentional. There was serious discussion behind the scenes about how they could make The Ghoul attractive to viewers, despite him being… well… a ghoul. (So yeah, it is 100% the creators fault. They did this to us on purpose!) When creating The Ghoul’s design, they deliberately ghoulified features that weren’t that important for attraction and left the rest alone, or made them more accentuated.

For example, when it comes to the attractiveness of a male, specifically in the face, most people focus in on the eyes, lips, jaw and cheekbones, which they emphasized and brought out with the makeup. Things like the nose, hair and even skin can be safely tinkered with, and even with those they went pretty easy on. Many ghouls have cloudy or discolored eyes, but not Ghouly. (in fact, bro’s still got his eyelashes, lol) They also kept his ears, despite most ghouls’ tending to fall off just like the nose. His teeth are still intact, despite being rather discolored. And they even made his skin relatively smooth compared to most ghouls. (I’m willing to bet he gets made fun of in a lot of ghoul circles for being such a baby smooth smoothskin)

If the creators had made him any uglier - messed up his eyes, took away the ears, rotted out some teeth, or made his skin a lot more torn up - we might not be here right now. But the character designers and makeup artists were very intentional in his appearance, making him look rotten enough to be recognized as a ghoul, but not so nasty he’d be hard to look at. By keeping and even accentuating Walton’s eyes and bone structure, while giving the ghoulishness to other features, they managed to balance out the ‘yuk’ with the ‘hmmm… wait what?’ just right.

"Sometimes a fella's gotta eat a fella." - The Ghoul to Lucy while munchin' on Roger in episode 4.

3. His charisma, charm and sense of humor

Look, Ghouly is charming as FUCK, okay? There’s no getting around it, so let’s just get that out of the way right now. He exudes confidence and beats you in the face with his overwhelming swag. He also has these… looks. Which I can only describe as “sexy” looks. I’m not really sure how to explain, but if you’re reading this, you probably know what I mean.

As mentioned before, a lot of this is just Goggins being Goggins, but the writing is brilliant as well. He definitely embodies that sort of hot badboy/outlaw/pirate sort of archetype that is often found in romantic settings/stories, so yeah. And also, who doesn't love a man with a great sense of humor? He's got all the best lines in the show and is just a joy to watch, even if it's just for the funny. Really, whoever wrote for Ghouly was a comedic genius, a gentleman, and a scholar. They should be commended.

"I'd offer you one a' these cherreh tomaydas, but you got a hole on yo neck." - The Ghoul to some guy he just shot in episode 2.

4. He loves dogs

Okay, so yes, we all know he stabs Dogmeat in order to keep her from ripping his face off, which ALMOST ruined his character for me, but then he brought her back with a Stimpak and all was forgiven. I’m willing to bet he probably also tried to stab her in a place that he knew wouldn’t be fatal, and also his choice to stab instead when he could have easily just shot her, letting her get right up on top of him before doing anything to defend himself, shows his hesitation in harming a dog.

It’s clear that Coop has a lot of affection for dogs, especially when we see the flashbacks of him with his OG dog and how pissed he gets about not being able to bring him into the vaults. The way he handles Dogmeat with such loving care, and smiles with genuine joy as she leaps up off the table was one of the first moments to show that, underneath that hardened exterior, he’s still got a soft, squishy, gooey center (other than the rotting flesh, I mean).

"Who decided that there were no dogs in the vault?" - Cooper to his wife upon finding out their dog Roosevelt wouldn't be able to go to the vault with them in episode 6.

5. He's a genuinely good person, deep down...

Not only does he save the dog (twice), but Ghouly also did other things that were surprisingly unselfish and not awful. Does that make up for the bad shit he did? Well, no. But again, it shows that he’s at least not ALL bad, and that the man he use to be is still in there somewhere.

For example, he could have easily ratted out Lucy for busting up the Super Duper Mart, but he took the heat for it instead. And despite the fact that he shoots (and eats) Roger, he does seem to have genuine empathy for the turning ghoul. So his choice to kill him wasn’t completely selfish, but also an act of mercy. Roger was essentially dying anyway, and Cooper saved him from an arguably worse fate than death. He even took a moment to remind Roger of a happy memory before doing the deed, a scenario reminiscent of the book Of Mice And Men, when George shoots Lenny at the end after reminding him of their dream in order to save him from a worse fate as well.

And let's not forget that before the bombs dropped, Cooper struggled to even fake kill a man on screen while shooting a film, not wanting his character to go down such a dark path. This shows that he was once a man who lived by a code of morals and principals, so much so that just the idea of stepping outside of that made him deeply uncomfortable, even if it was just pretend. This is why Cooper gives Lucy the line, "Oh, I'm you, sweetie. Just... give it a little time." Because he sees himself in her, or rather the person he used to be.

One of the things I love about how Cooper’s story is told is that we get to see his present and past self right away, juxtaposed against each other. His backstory isn’t revealed as a surprise later on. Instead we really get to see up front the complexities of his character that make him so compelling. He’s not just some heartless killer. He’s like this because he’s been through so much pain, and pushed to the point where he was forced to become something he's not in order to survive and carry on. Because of this, it makes The Ghoul a lot more likable and relatable than he would have been otherwise. It also kinda lets you put yourself in his shoes and ask yourself what you would do if you found yourself in his position. Actually brilliant writing, in my opinion.

"Do I have to kill him?" - Cooper to the director of the film he's shooting in Episode 3.

6. That tragic backstory

This is where the character of Cooper Howard really got me in the feels. Not only does Ghouly love dogs, but he loves his family too. And it’s revealed at the end of the season that even after 200+ years, they are still on his mind. He’s spent over two centuries looking for them, and putting himself through absolute hell, because he loves them that much. And not just his daughter, but his wife as well. Even though they had gotten divorced, presumably because of what he learned at the end of the season. Maybe he’s even hoping his old dog is still alive somehow, although that’s admittedly very unlikely...

So... you know what that means... Although he’s done horrible things, Cooper is a man driven by LOVE. He's stayed alive because of LOVE. He does these bad things because of LOVE. He’s become a monster IN THE NAME OF LOVE!!! It’s all about the power of LOVE, you guys. Call it cliché, but if that isn’t romantic as hell, I donno what the fuck is, ladies.

"Now, I've waited over 200 years to ask somebody one question... Where's my fuckin' family?" - Cooper to Hank in Episode 8

In Conclusion

So yes. He's ugly. He's mean. He's murdery. Kinda toxic AF. But that doesn't mean he can't also be a sexy motherfucker as well. 👍

He's a fictional character. It's a fantasy, and fantasies are allowed to be kinda fucked up. 😃 Hey, don't ask me why humans human the way we do. I didn't make us, so I don't know. It's all in good fun though, so let's just enjoy ourselves and try not to think too hard about it, eh? 😆 (So says the person who literally just wrote a fucking essay on the subject)

Alright, well... I guess that's about it. Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk. I hope this helped anyone who was feeling their sanity slip a little bit (like me 😃). Refreshments and resources are at the back. Exits to your left. Have a lovely evening and please excuse me while I drop my mic and go find myself a fuckin' gin martini. Team Ghoul Forever, baby! 🤠

#i did the meme fr y'all #i have no fucking life lol #ghoul lovers unite #this has been an essay about stupid shit #but thanks for reading #hope it helps xD #cooper howard #the ghoul #fallout prime #fallout amazon #fallout series #fallout tv series #meta #just had to get this out of my system bc i overanalyze everything lol #also bc people who think he's just a one dimensional baddie they don't get it #ok now i can go to bed k thx byeeee #my posts #ghouly-boi

83 notes · View notes