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Therapist REACTS
Therapist REACTS

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Any one else notice this?

Ending of episode 3 - where Powder actually says 'mom' and not Violet. if that is the case there is a bit to unpack there about what is going on in her mind. I'm going to go back and listen to it today.

Any one else notice this?

Comments

It is interesting the first time I watched that part, I interpreted the same, that Powder in her confusion called Vi: mom. It was strange but I thought in her stress she mumbled that. The second time I paid extra attention and figured it was just unintengible mumble. I talked to my actress friend and she told me it was all of those things, actors take liberties when performing intense scenes, and probably the actress felt her character saw Vi as her mother. It can go either way and I don’t think it changes anything because Vi is clearly a motherly figure for Powder, who doesn’t remember as much her childhood. I would add, Vi is more relevant as anchor to Powder compared to Vander as a parental figure.

Jehan Sandra@sandrasalem

Personally, I don't think she was trying to say 'mom'. When I was a child, if I became overwhelmed emotionally, I tended to lose verbal ability. Not entirely, but I would develop a stutter and lose the ability to speak coherently, words coming out slurred if I forced it. To me, that ‘mmhmm!’ noise Powder made before saying ‘Violet’ was incoherent noise from trying to force words out when emotionally overwhelmed. Feel free to explore the idea more if you want. Violet and Powder aren’t that far apart in age (roughly 4ish years), but Powder doesn’t seem to have a maternal figure in her life either. No cannon ages were ever given for characters, it’s left up to viewer interpretation. According to Amanda Overton, one of the show’s script writers, Powder is 11-12, while Vi is 14-16.

Francis Sun

I’ve watched the docuseries about the behind the scenes of season 1 and that was never brought up, it definitely would have been if it was intentional lol. It’s almost certainly just a coincidence. It’s not weird for kids to be unable to communicate 100% clearly when they’re being extremely traumatized. But if you want to talk about the psychological implications of something like that be my guest, looking deeply into things is part of the fun

Chelly

I’ve listened to it about 18 times now lol there’s definitely a hint of a ‘ma’ which doesn’t fit the subtitle. Going to have a play with it on the stream later if I can get it to play.

StuBoy

I definitely do not hear anything other than Violet, this is the first I’ve ever even heard of people thinking otherwise. It wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense to most people watching anyway (reminder that people really deep into the psychological aspects of things are the minority) so I don’t think they would have included something like that right then.

Chelly

It reminds me of how we can mis-hear the lyrics to songs; once you've internalised the incorrect lyrics, it can be difficult to hear the "actual" lyrics, even once you've learnt them.

Matt Sturgeon

She’s almost certainly saying violet. I think people are reading too much into a garbled line. A bit of audio pareidolia, perhaps, given how unintelligible the line is being delivered.

PickettsChargingPort

i can’t include the screenshot here apparently, so i’ll find another way to get it to you

James Anderson

Yeah I think that's it too

Kabidu

You’re not alone in this thought (see screenshot below). I’ve thought about this quite a bit in the past. And I’ve done some digging to find other thoughts on the topic. Here’s my conclusion: Since this is heard just after Vi says “Milo was right…” i assume Powder’s response is a conflation of “Milo” and “Vi, please” — a discombobulated, muffled, and stifled response to Vi’s verbal and literal assault. That said, enough people have heard this that it must be recognized as a real part of the Voice Actor’s performance whether intended or not. I’ve screenshotted one reddit post where this is discussed to give a sense of the community consensus so far as i can tell via my research. i’ve taken care to choose a screenshot that’s spoiler free, and i’ve even edited it to remove any hint of spoilers or information that doesn’t appear in the episodes you’ve seen so far. also, Amanda Overton is active on Twitter (she’s the writer for Arcane) and this might be a question you can run by her after you’ve complete the entire show (her feed is full of spoilers of course). Apparently her mother was a Psychologist so she might enjoy engaging with professionals like yourself — that would be amazing to watch, fyi

James Anderson

I think there's a chance that we're biased unconsciously to hear "mum" instead of Violet in that moment. It's very muffled and is open to interpretation but Vi did step into the role of a parent for Powder. I think that's called transference in this case. It hits home for me when I hear a character crying for their mum because it reminds me of Saving Private Ryan, where soldiers are being blown limb from limb, crying to go home to their mum. It's just very visceral and raw because your bond with your mum growing up is one of the strongest that could ever be. (I know there are some people who haven't experienced that bond and my heart goes out to them).

Craig

If you mean dubbing as in the subtitle is wrong, then it’s massively meaningful ff she is in fact saying ‘mom’ and not violet.

StuBoy

I don’t think it’s something meaningful, It’s just a dubbing “error”

Carol Grein Ericson

I definitely hear the beginning of "Vi-" cut off by her exhaling so i don't think she's saying mom. As a kinda tangential addition to this particular scene, there is something to the fact that it's here in this gut wrenching moment that we learn Vi's "real name", or i guess full name, from Powder crying it out. I don't know why in particularly but it's something that has always stood out to me and feels like a quite evocative moment. For what reason, im not sure. It's like, Violet is a lovely name, a pretty, delicate, flowery, more girly name that is easy to see why Vi might have wanted to distance herself from, particularly when she lives in a world where you have to be tough, and calloused, and put up airs of "don't fuck with me or else". And so she takes on the nickname of Vi cause it's more stark and sharp sounding, or like "Vi-olence" but then us the audience are only allowed to finally know the truth of her name on this horrible, macabre, soul-crushing night from Powder's crying out in this shared darkest moment of their lives. I remember when i was first watching this totally absolutely devastated but when Powder called her Violet i had a brief fleeting thought in between the heart pangs of "that's a lovely name" before being consumed by the despair again. I think it's an interesting detail to her overall character that she grew distant from her birth name and seems more comfortable identifying with Vi, which i also think is definitely intentional by the writers as they seem to be putting a lot of focus on the things we call ourselves and are called by others, what with Vander's notorious moniker of "hound of the underground", or "little-man" at Benzo's, or even Mylo calling Powder "jinx". All that to say i was surprised and liked that you briefly commented on Powder's "Violet" during that scene. I've seen quite a few people react/breakdown the show and it's not a detail basically anyone talks about or catches, even briefly. Understandably so cause that scene is a lot and this is probably a weirdly niche detail to focus on.

Git

i remember that yelp and have heard it in my sleep. it's definitely a "no viol-(voice crack yelp)-ET PLEASE" but maybe it's one of those auditory things for some perceptions, like the Laurel thing

Cyber

It's for sure a violet to my ears. I think it's a case of the brain hearing what it wants. On top of that I believe that this is the first time the characters full name was revealed adding further credence to it being "no violet please"

Last Thing

I've just went back to confirm myself (36:00 on the nose), played it with the volume up to max and heard a muffled "Violet".

David Demma

Listening to it now, its sounds more like shes saying Vi but cutting it off

Gunny

Theres another scene later in the show where people hear Mum where it isn't there (admittedly it makes more sense there), i find this quite interesting, that people literally percieve the exact same audio and video differently, not even just interpretation, the literal facts are reported as different. Gives credence to the low value placed in 'eye witness' accounts unless they can be cross-referenced.

Patrick Dawson


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