American Arcadia - Tumblr Posts
No but I find it really interesting how you can very clearly see a woman with Vivian's glasses within the Arcadian Six photograph and I didn't figure out Vivian was one of the Six until the reveal. Like she isn't even in the background or obsured in any way. She's right there, plain as day, the woman with long hair. But all those times that picture showed up throughout the game, I never noticed the long haired woman had glasses or y'know looked like Vivian. The first time it was shown, I even thought 'ha, bet a detail in this will be relevant later as a clue' yet never actually looked deeper.
And in short, I think that fits with the theme of not caring enough to notice mundane things until you are given a sufficient reason to look their way. I mean, I still couldn't tell you what anyone else in that photograph looked like. Why should I, they don't matter to the narrative so I have no need to pay attention to them.
It’s probably an indicator of my mental state how much I freaked out over learning Trevor’s middle name in my rewatch of American Arcadia. Though it’s not so much the actual name itself (Clarence) and more like Trevor’s comment on it
“Like the angel from Its a Wonderful Life”
For those of you who somehow haven’t seen it, It’s a Wonderful Life is a Christmas movie about a man who fails to achieve his lifelong dream and decides that the world is better off without him living in it, only for an angel to save him by showing him all the ways in which he improved the world around him and all the people whose lives he’s touched
It’s a movie about a lot of things, but one of those things is that you don’t have to be rich or successful to justify your existence. The average person leaves a beautiful mark in the world simply by choosing to keep going and choosing to be kind.
In American Arcadia and in the eyes of Walton Media, there is nothing worse than an average person. Because average people are boring and no one gives a shit about them unless some piece of them can be used and monetized.
Success and exceptionalism is everything to them.
And Trevor is the epitome of average and boring and worthless to them
But he also plays piano and writes his own music. He had a pet turtle that he won’t shut up about. He’s held the top score on a public arcade game for years. He’s clever and steadfast and remains kind even when the world turns against him. He is wholly and unapologetically himself, and he’s never needed success or a spotlight to find joy in his pursuits.
And his middle name is Clarence, like the angel from Its a Wonderful Life
I am praying, if American Arcadia does get a big fandom, that we dont do to Vivian what the undertale Fandom did to Chara and put the entire villain role and blame onto her.
Of course, she is a lot more responsible and reprehensible than Chara ever was. She is actively perpetuating the cycle and represents the monetary greed of content like the American Arcadia show.
But we cant forget that the AUDIENCE and by extension WE are also the villains here, not just Vivian. We are what give her power and consume without considering the lives of those locked in the content cage.
a small secret most people don't know...
apparently, in the control room by the end of the game that angela uploads the edited video, there's an open vent entrance that you can crawl through that reveals another room, where angela finds vivian and discovers that everything that had happened was part of her plan.
...this had me thinking it would be interesting if that lead to an alternate ending where angela beats the shit out of vivian--
i wanted to add the hd picture under here
i was going to refrain from posting on tumblr but now that i know a huge part of the american arcadia fandom is in here i gotta post stuff because damn i am so hyperfixated in this game.
have my art for now, i will also post silly stuff.
the drawing of angela with her hair long is referenced from this picture from the game:
This is an absolutely off the wall AU but I was listening to the Spirited Away soundtrack and started wondering what would happen if I shoved my darling blorbos into a similar plot and here we are.
So I figure the premise would be Trevor moving a fair distance for work—the company he works for (probably something pretty similar to INAC) has opened a new headquarters somewhere and is relocating a significant number of its’ staff. Trevor, not having much to tie him down to his previous home, is pretty ambivalent towards uprooting himself to go somewhere else.
He’s giving his work friend Gus a ride to Gus’ new apartment (idk why Gus doesn’t have his own car, I just need someone to function as the same catalyst that Chihiro’s parents were because tbh I can see no way that Trevor would enter a creepy abandoned theme park of his own volition and Gus seems to fit the bill pretty well). Gus is helping Trevor navigate with a big ol’ road atlas and he’s doing a pretty good job of it up until he misreads the atlas and accidentally sends them up a remote country lane. Just like the movie, they wind up in front of a crumbling facade—the entrance to an abandoned theme park. Trevor is immediately ready to turn around and try to recalculate their route, but Gus is tired of driving and lobbies to take the opportunity to stretch their legs. Trevor isn’t so sure—something feels off to him—but Gus announces that he’s going to go explore with or without him and there’s no way Trevor’s going to let him go in there *alone.* So he grabs Kovacs, because he doesn’t know how long they’re gonna be out and he doesn’t want to leave his beloved turtle alone in the car, and reluctantly follows Gus inside.
They have a look around, but it starts getting dark and Trevor is more than ready to head back. Gus says he can smell food and wants to find out what it is. Now beginning to feel that something is seriously amiss, Trevor argues that whatever food they find here probably won’t be that great because the place is abandoned, to which Gus teasingly responds that maybe if Trevor had stopped at that McDonald’s he’d pointed out an hour back instead of forging on, he wouldn’t be forced to take such extreme measures. Naturally, they find the spirit restaurant and Gus tucks in. Trevor, seriously spooked, wanders off to wait for Gus with Kovacs. Then the spirits start coming out. Trevor freaks out, rushes back to find Gus and get the hell out of there, and promptly finds that Gus has been transformed into an animal (I’m not sure which kind—it feels sort of mean to turn him into a pig but maybe that’s just me). Trevor attempts to go back only to find a massive ocean has appeared where the exit once was. So all in all Trevor is having a bad time of it. Enter Angela!
She guides Trevor into a secluded spot away from the chaos of the emerging spirits and explains that the theme park is actually a theatre meant to entertain the residents of the Spirit Realm, run by the witch Vivian. Angela herself is a permanent employee of the theatre, as she can no longer remember her true name and is thus eternally at Vivian’s service. Trevor is terribly confused about everything and still quite frightened, but Angela manages to get through to him that the only way to remain safe here is to secure employment under Vivian, and Trevor decides to trust her. She sends him to seek out her colleague Gene, who might have work for Trevor or otherwise be able to help him get a meeting with Vivian. Trevor sets off with Kovacs in hand, determined to at least try his best to get out of this insane situation.
Gene has no work for Trevor to do, and instead guides him through the Theatre to have an audience with Vivian. Initially insulting Trevor by stating he’s too boring and untalented to be part of any of the actual performances, Vivian assigns him work as a stagehand in exchange for his name, which she replaces with the number 10-3-92.
That’s all I’ve got so far. I know Angela probably spends most of the plot trying to thwart Vivian and find a way to get Trevor back to the human world, but I haven’t thought up all the details of how that works out yet. Does Vivian have some kind of master plot here like in the original game? I have no idea. Possibly Angela decides to leave with Trevor after he helps her remember her real name (which I figured in this AU would be Àngela Guardiana)? Idk there’s a lot of loose ends here I just had to get the brainworm out.
Trevor’s first snow experience!! Well a nicer one technically. Let them be mischievous in the snow, as a treat.
Plus the hot coco and christmas movies afterward :] happy holidays everyone!
Heyyyy Its everyones favourite fugitive!! I wanted to mess around with lighting in this new style.
Also uh that hidden one really does a number on the eyes so I’ll put it under the cut. Along with some close ups!
Jingle moment!!!
merry christmas everybawdy!
have a cozy angela and trevor hug, as a treat!
And of course a bunch of silly memes and comics because it wouldn’t be a whiteboard without one!
Upsetting that the screenshot of this lowered in quality… here are some zoomed in screenshots that have better quality:
Anyways whiteboard yippie!! Im gonna post these in parts
I made a whiteboard for American Arcadia artists!
Anyone can come in and draw! Will be lasting for two weeks.
she's had enough
Thanks to @alsolucakairomi for the suggestion!!
Running with @octopus-in-disguise 's idea of Solano Hills productions making their own architects of tomorrow inspired show :)
Emily Garland is bitter. She had a chance at freedom and she traded it away for the comfort of a gilded cage. She’s trapped within the confines of the persona she’s created for herself, and I think on some level she knows that most if not all of the joy brought on by her success as Vivian Walton is purely artificial. She and the rest of the six wanted the power to decide their own lives, but in the end she wound up performing for the cameras all over again—except for this time it was her own choices that put her there.
She’s trapped and unhappy—and yeah, I think the whole Trevor thing was definitely a ploy to improve the ratings, but I also think it was Emily trying to prove to herself that the choices she made after escaping Arcadia were inevitable: that it was impossible not to wind up in her position. That it’s not her fault she’s trapped as the face of the corporation that once exploited her. She puts this guy through hell, manipulates him and taunts him and wears down his resolve, and then she makes him pretty much the same offer Walton Media did to her all those years ago. And he’d be insane not to accept, right? Because Emily did everything right when it was her in this situation; there’s no other way this could possibly end.
I think Trevor rejecting her and leaving to live a happy, successful life outside Arcadia is the biggest slap in the face Emily could’ve received. He did what she couldn’t. It sends her into a spiral of what-ifs; if she’d had a friend on the outside, or a stronger conviction, or maybe even if she’d stayed closer with the rest of the six, would she still be stuck performing for the American Arcadia audiences? But I think ultimately it proves that she took the easy way out, that yeah the outside world is harsh and frightening, but there’s absolutely a life waiting out there for anyone willing to reach for it.
Vivian thought she had it all figured out and she got proved wrong by an account manager and one of her own stage technicians. Tbh I think she’s the most tragic character in AA.
this ones for all the people who are simping for Swap!Trevor. More squishy marshmallow people because I can't be asked to draw actual humans at the moment
Hello!! This is my first art post on here hshshss
I drew Angela and Trevor from American Arcadia! Hopefully i can meet other fans of it on here 🥲
where IS that gif from its awesome
It's from a game called American Arcadia!!
Well, it's specifically from a folder within the game files. It's from what it looks like the concept for a scene that happens in the game. But the way it plays out feels so much like a shitpost 😭 I love it so much...
American Arcadia is rlly good 👍 Me recommends