now that ave mujica has finished, here are my final thoughts on the...

now that ave mujica has finished, here are my final thoughts on the series' DID representation! one last thread about mutsumi and mortis by a DID system:

as per usual, here's the link to the master thread with links to the other threads i have done:
x.com/__digitaldream…

first off, i want to say that i am really, really happy with the way this turned out. when i first heard mutsumi had DID, i was very anxious about the ways the writers could mess it up. i've been burned a lot with these things because of other bad representation in the past

but that didn't happen this time! things went really well. there are a lot of really subtle things about mutsumi and mortis' system that i appreciated. i can really tell the writing team did their research into DID before they started working on the script

early on, i know there were a lot of people who were anxious about mortis being portrayed as something scary both in the opening and in episode four. looking back now, this is a very clear narrative framing device that bases itself on the biases most people have against DID

mortis is only seen as scary to people who do not make an effort to know her. she is unsettling in episode four because it is from sakiko's perspective. when everyone gets to know her better, they realize that mortis is not only harmless but also a girl just like them

by the time episode six arrives, there is no fear around mortis. she's just a hurt, scared, and confused girl who wants to be helped. mygo doesn't find mortis scary, and the show goes out of its way to humanize not only mutsumi but mortis as well, something i loved

i'm very used to media that talks about DID treating the alters as evil beings that need to be contained, but that's not the case at all here. mutsumi and mortis are both people who deserve to be respected, and they are humanized in their own ways by the narrative and characters

mortis is a person in her own right, and she is given the chance to develop friendships of her own with soyo, raana, and nyamu. she and mutsumi are two sides of the same coin, and yet, they are given agency as their own characters too. it's genuinely great

mortis' conflict in general is a very realistic one. it's common for protectors in systems to stake their entire existences on keeping the system safe, and when that is no longer needed, they begin to struggle because they feel like they have to justify being alive

mortis doesn't want mutsumi to constantly suffer, but she wants a reason to be. she wants a reason to exist. they end up fighting so much for control because they both want the chance to live their own lives, and they struggle to do that with the other hogging front

speaking of hogging front, both mutsumi and mortis do this a lot, and it's also very realistic. we have come to call it "host syndrome" where the main fronters of a system start to front all the time and don't really leave all that much space for others to be present

mutsumi and mortis both do this. mutsumi has been a bit of a front hog ever since she found the guitar, and this is what led to the "disappearance" of the other alters (called mutsulings in this thread because i greatly enjoy that nickname). they didn't really die

so much as they disappeared from front, no longer having an active role in the system's life. mortis didn't want to lose that, and that's why she pushed so hard for ave mujica to stay together. she and mutsumi both wanted to live so they could be together

in that way, i think the idea of all of this being a form of "death" to be slightly inaccurate. it's not that they die when they disappear from front; it is that they stop living. they stop living in their physical life, and that is why they fear disappearing so deeply

no one wants to be made obsolete, so mutsumi and mortis stake everything on crychic and ave mujica to have a reason to be. in the end, they come to understand each other when they accept that they don't have to be at war in order to justify being alive

umiri said that it was possible for them both to live, and that's what they do in imprisoned xii. mutsumi and mortis accept each other, and they also accept stepping back so that they are not as present in their shared life from then on

which i think is a good choice for them! fronting too much will burn anyone out, and that's true for these two also. mortis fronting for a month made her actively break down. no alter is meant to handle everything, and mutsumi and mortis need to take breaks like everyone else

i really like the way their system is framed and structured here too. their system is meant to be polyfragmented, or a system with a low split tolerance and a lot of alters. polyfrag systems often come with a lot of fragments, or alters who only fill small, specific duties

polyfragmentation leads to a lot of switching around, and that's what i think is happening in the last few episodes. mutsumi and mortis have both let go of front, and they're willing to let the others in their mind have a turn from then on, therefore giving new life to them

like i said, the mutsulings didn't really "die" so much as they "stopped living," and i think that's an important distinction to make here. everyone is sharing now, and it is doing wonders for them, making them much happier as a collective unit in the finale

i also want to praise the series for its portrayal of dissociation. mutsumi's dissociative moments in episode two are haunting, and they're a very accurate depiction of what real dissociation is like. they really captured the hollow, glassy-eyed stare perfectly

the show also did a great job with portraying the specific type of abuse and neglect mutsumortis went through. DID is formed as a result of trauma, and it is very clear in the way minami talks about them that she was part of the cause of it. this struck me really deeply

because to be honest with you? that's very similar to our system's origin story, and we see a lot of our own abusive mother in minami. minami sees herself as perfectly justified, so it is up to the audience to see just how horribly she speaks about her own child

it's very easy to see how mutsumortis wound up the way that they did. they were being neglected and hated from a young age, so they masked to conform to what others asked of them. and in doing so, minami decided that they were monsters to be feared and hated

this entire show really felt like having our life plastered onto the screen. it's revealing and honest in a way that we never thought something could be. mutsumi and mortis are so dear to our heart because they're just like us, and we don't get to see stories like that often

we got used to seeing DID only ever portrayed as something out of horror movies. the evil split personality hurts and kills people, and that's it. ave mujica has shown so much more nuance to it than that. mutsumi and mortis are both flawed, but they love each other

they might struggle to share their life, but they are still trying. life with DID is hard, and it all feels like it was shown perfectly here. ave mujica revealed a lot more about me than i care to admit, and it has made talking about our plurality so much easier

representation like this is so, so important. it's not often we see explicit representation that does so much good since the vast majority of DID portrayals in media are awful. seeing mutsumi and mortis portrayed so realistically is genuinely an incredible thing to witness

their story has also helped a lot of people to understand their own plurality. sometimes, all an unaware system needs is to see their experiences portrayed on the screen, and they can finally understand what is going on with them. representation is so, so important

and we are so glad that we have been able to share this journey with all of you. to everyone who has discovered something about themselves because of this show: we see you. to everyone who has learned something about DID because of this who: we see you.

thank you all so much for being with us on this journey. ave mujica has changed the way we engage with the world significantly, and we feel so much more comfortable in our own skin now. this show and its representation of DID really are incredible in so many ways

this is the last DID analysis thread we're going to be doing on ave mujica for a while. we'll probably be back in the sequel if there's more to chew on there. until then, i hope you all have enjoyed this series of threads and the show of ave mujica too!

we'll be doing other analysis stuff here eventually. we have a huge analysis project in the works right now, and hopefully that will be releasing at some point in may. so if you want to hear more analysis stuff from us, keep an eye out for that when it comes out

if you want to support us in other ways, we have our ask box opened in our bio. we write on ao3 also (digitaldreams), and we've got a few ave mujica fics in the works. if you want to support us monetarily, you can follow our professional writing account @crescent_zephyr.

thank you all so much for being here. thank you, ave mujica. thank you, mutsumi and mortis.