#I want to analyze it like I had to analyze some of the questionable literature I read

[neopuppy]

preview: rush

pairing. professor step-dad Jeno x step-daughter female reader

･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆ ･ ⋆ ･ ⠄⠂⋆

‘I’d prefer we keep our at-home relationship disassociated from—‘ Professor Lee waved his hands around awkwardly, very different from the confident instructor you’d become familiar with for the past 6 months. ‘You know what I mean, I’m still your teacher, and you can come to me with any of your questions, concerns. But at home, I’m your step-dad.’

The conversation over dinner had been more uncomfortable than necessary, namely when your professor smiled at you and proceeded to pat your shoulder.

‘I mean, you’re like a daughter to me already, we don’t really need those pesky titles. Don’t ever feel bad about thinking of me as your dad now.’

Jeno’s lip twitched to contain a large smile from stretching his cheeks, mindful of your mother’s dreamy sigh as he reached over to pat and rub her thigh under the table.

Professor Lee, Dad.. Step-dad, or the one you had no idea he preferred best, daddy.

When your mother ranted about her new hot beau she connected with on Hinge, you couldn’t have expected it to be your Classic Literature Professor of all the men in the world. No, not your favorite instructor.

They were only dating anyway. Until they weren’t and suddenly your Professor was staying over a few times a week, even offering to drop you off near school.

‘It could look questionable to have a student exiting my vehicle on campus grounds, you understand right?’

The thing about Professor Lee is, he’s a good guy, a really smart and friendly guy. That teacher with a huge waitlist to join his class because everyone knows he grades on a curve and isn’t a hard ass about turning in assignments on time. He’s the ‘cool’ Professor, which could attest to the amount of female student body that fight to earn a space in his course, that or the fact that Professor Lee is, frankly, hot.

‘Kind of insane if you think about it.’ Your friend whispered in your ear, leaning over behind a book to discreetly gossip. ‘That he’s fucking your mom.’

‘Don’t be disgusting.’

‘I mean, you’re a dead ringer for her, you know? You guys could pass more as sisters than mother and daughter.’

You really hated hearing that, mostly because it’s true. Oftentimes strangers have often mistaken your mother as your older sister. As much as the reminder bothers you, you can’t say Professor Lee has shown indication of being a creep.

There are times you find yourself lingering on him longer than you should. Mindlessly taking in how tight his pants fit some days more than others, or how broad and muscular his back looks when he peels off one of his suit blazers and loosens the tie around his neck when getting heated up during a lecture.

Sure, Professor Lee is a very attractive man, there’s no denying that, but between work and trying to keep up with your studies, time for ogling men is hardly a matter of importance for you at the moment.

“Professor, I wanted to discuss my last thesis with you.” It’s taken a while to not address your step-father at home about school work, even when he passes by the living room and sees you scribbling notes, marking different pages to analyze and come back to. He’ll nod, smile, wave for you to carry on and not bother him about assignments unless you’re in class or visiting his office.

“Oh of course, pull up a seat.” Jeno motions to a desk chair nearby, waving off the last students to exit his classroom before settling back with raised eyebrows. “What’s up?”

“Well, the grading,” you draw free the folder, first visible page marked with a C-. “I worked so hard on this, and now my average has gone down so much.”

Professor Lee hums, thumbing open the pages and nodding as he rereads his notes and markings. “You worked hard on this?”

Your mouth parts, prepared for combat only to find his unconvinced gaze focused on you. “Well, yes! Of course I did, you—you saw!”

“What have I told you about home life?” He sighs, head shaking as he opens up to recite part of the breakdown you typed out. “This is so lazy, I was being generous with my grading. I hate to say this but you’ve really slacked off since, well..” he trails off, tossing your assignment back on his desk.

“Slacked off?? I stayed up all night working on this!” You stammer, sitting up straight more annoyed. It’s not as if he didn’t see you hunched over your laptop in the living room at 3am when he passed by to the kitchen for a glass of water and grinned while saying ‘don’t work too hard.’

“Listen, between you and me,” he leans closer, as if a soul could hear your conversation in this empty lecture hall. “You’re a procrastinator, I don’t see you studying half as much as you should be and when you do it’s at the crack of dawn when you should be asleep. Proper rest is integral to your education, I want to see you excel and put the effort in that your classmates do. I can only be so fair, I know my reputation around here, but as a trusted Professor, I simply cannot let you fly by and put my integrity at risk because you’d rather lay out by the pool and spend hours online shopping.”

“Professor! That’s—that’s not fair! You’re judging what I do at home! I—“ speechless, you gasp, doing your best to control your temper as your teacher's handsome features droop to a disappointed frown. “I’m not just lazing around the house! I work! Mr. Lee, I’m always working when, I..” you pause, internally cursing trying to come up with a way to defend yourself without giving out more detail.

“Ah, yes, your mother has mentioned your job.” He nods, cheek lifted as he reaches to rub the back of his neck and block a smile out of your view with his arm. “You assist professional writers by proofing and editing their work? That keeps you real busy, does it?”

He sounds apprehensive, picking up your thesis again. “Listen, this deserved a lower score, but I’m willing to work with you here Lana. Perhaps you need to consider prioritizing school over work for now though—“

“What—” between your frenzy and coining up an excuse, you’re sure you misheard Professor Lee just now. “What did you call me?”

A wide gaze lifts to your eyes, pursing together his lips tightly with a casual shrug. “I didn’t call you anything sweetie.” He smiles, reaching to press the back of his hand on your forehead. “You sure that you’re not overworking yourself?”

His smile softens, stroking down your cheek to pinch your chin. “If you’re pressed for cash, you can always come to me. It’ll be our secret if you don’t want your mother to know. I don’t mind helping you out if it means you’ll be less stressed and prioritize your school work.”

You can’t find it in you to reply again, because you know you heard it.

“Now, I’ll rethink my grading if you promise to work harder on your next thesis. Sound good?” He pats your back, moving to gather his things. “Shall I drive you back home?”

His casual relaxed manner throws you off even more, exiting in a zombie-like state after declining his offer to pick you up from a coffee shop off campus.

Lana.

There’s no way you imagined that.

Why the fuck did your step-father call you by your online pseudonym only ever used for your Only Fans account.

#WIP

[gabrielsbubblegumbitch]

I just wanted to say that I am really envious of the way you write the Vees. As someone who struggles with making characters woobiefying and with characterization in general, I appreciate how you can write these characters perfectly that the show didn’t have time to portray. I didn’t have a specific request, but now I was wondering if you could give me some advice on how to analyze and write a character, even if you have a personal bias towards them?

Awww thank you so much ❤️ I don't have like any degree in literature or anything that would give me credibility in giving writing advice, usually I just go with the flow. But I'll do my best!

Imo the most fundamental thing is the way you think about characters. In fandom spaces, we very often see them as "people we like" - hence all the discourses like in Valentino's case "if you like him it means you are a bad person". I think that woobification is influenced by this cognitive dissonance caused by liking characters that should be unlikeable. For me the way out of it was giving up "characters as people" mindset and changing it for "characters as tools". Bacause that's what they are - tools you use to build your narrative. When I say I love Valentino I don't mean I would shake his hand - I mean he's my favourite toy I can do multiple things with. And it's his flaws that make him so much fun. Because outside of the comedy genre, narrative cannot exist without conflict. The more flaws a character has, the more conflict it causes. That's why villains are such a powerful driving force for stories (here are some great essays about it: 1, 2). Put any character in the room with Val and you have an interesting bit not only because of the usual character differences that could happen between eg. Vaggie and Husk but also because stakes suddenly become high. What will he do? Will he hurt them? We saw what he's capable of. Will he be nice? Man, that's even worse because it means he has his own motive to be nice. What might it be? That's what keeps the audience engaged with your writing. Extra points if you give him some human weaknesses or conflicting desires. When it comes to characterization, nuance is the key. That's why I love VoxVal so much - two characters that are absolutely awful but they are fiercely in love. How could Valentino be capable of simply caring about someone but himself? What kind of human is buried underneath all this evil? So much to unpack here. Nothing I'd like to experience but everything I'd like to see from a safe distance. Consider: would you even like the Vees so much in the beginning if they were just other guests at the hotel? In the show, neither of them has a single redeemable quality. And yet, here we are.

When it comes to writing characteristics it's also important to watch characters from different perspectives - that helps with giving them nuance. Let's take Vox. People seem to like and respect him, he's obviously an influential figure (he has a lot of social power). But from Alastor's perspective, he's just a pathetic little attention-seeking looser (he has a fragile ego and lowe self-esteem). Yet his assistant seemed to be scared shitless while talking to him (he had done things that made people from his closer look aware that he's dangerous). Angel knows he watches his abuse and hangs out with Valentino (at best he's indifferent to other's suffering, at worst he enjoys it). Carmilla doesn't respect him but they are on terms good enough, Vox wants to do business with her (he's a competent business partner). For the rest of Vees he's smart enough to listen to him but at the same time he's their cringefail naurospicy bestie. Add all of those perspectives together and you have yourself a multidimensional character that can interact with other elements of the narrative in vastly different ways. Also, from that point you can build up, asking yourself other questions "What would they think/do/say?".

Also, the last thing: every character needs a clear goal that influences all their decision. Choose it and always keep it in mind. Bonus points: a character has two main goals that are contradictory. When I write Vox he has two goal: power and adoration. He always has to choose which one is more important to him because while he has measures to achieve great power, some things that he would want to do are socially undesirable. In Valentino's case: hedonistic pleasure and immediate gratification vs love for Vox that demands sacrifices and compromises.

So anyway I hope that will be helpful to you <3 And don't be too hard on yourself when it comes to writing, not everything must be Game of Thrones. Especially in fandom spaces, sometimes we all want to indulge in some simple fluff or crack.

#hazbin hotel #vox #valentino #voxval #ask #vox hazbin #headcanon #valentino hazbin #writing

[cowgurrrl]

yay you‘re an aries, too 💕

ugh i‘ve gotta write my term paper and i‘m sooo annoyed because i really hate one of the the authors whose work i‘m analyzing (it‘s about 16th century art literature) but i gotta do it because i‘m only two assignments away from my masters thesis and i‘m sooo exhausted ;_;

okay sorry for the rant. i was just wondering if maybeee you‘d like to write a cute lil’ drabble or hc about joel supporting a reader that’s struggling with their assignment for uni? >_<

anyhow, love you & your writing. keep up the good work & take care of yourself 💕

Congratulations on your master’s thesis!! You’re going to do amazing things! I took this in a little more of preoutbreak!Joel hc so I hope you enjoy 💓

Joel as your study buddy headcanons

Pairing: preoutbreak!Joel Miller x fem!reader

Author’s note: the lovely Joel “fractions” Miller gif is by @loregifs also I am slowly working through requests!! Thank you for sending me so many fun ones! 🫶

Warnings: school stress, fluff!!

I don’t think Joel would’ve gone to college and if he did, I don’t think he would’ve finished it out because of Sarah but when he meets you while you’re in the midst of your grad courses, he’s in awe of your work ethic and determination

He likes to look over your shoulder when you're transcribing notes or reading for class

Definitely would stop by campus to have lunch with you if he had a job nearby

One time Sarah had an early release day on the same day Joel had a rural site forty five minutes away so you picked her up and had to take her to lecture with you

She loved every minute of it. She liked roaming the campus and listening to your professor, even if she didn’t fully understand what she was talking about, and asked you a million different questions about college

Will literally listen to you ramble about the newest thing you’re learning because he likes seeing you get so excited/engaged

When finals roll around, he’s not quite sure what he can do to help the blanket-covered, ink-stained, stressed heap of grad student in his living room but he’ll occasionally walk by and kiss your temple, saying praises into your skin

“You’re so smart.” “You can do this.” “D’you need anything?” “You’re gonna do great.” “I love you.”

He’d definitely be the type of guy who would cut up fruit and wordlessly leave it on the table in front of you with a glass of water

When you’re crying because of the stress, deadlines, readings, he’s always there to soothe your anxiety and offer you a break

Sometimes you two will sit and watch some mindless reality show or talk to Sarah about her day or go for a drive, pointing out the wildflowers on the side of the highway. He’ll do anything to get your mind to reset so you can come back to your studying

He’d help you run through your flashcards so you can study but not before trying to make a stripping game out of it

“Joel, I need to pass!” “That’s why it’s effective!”

When you eventually do pass all your finals, he takes you and Sarah out to dinner and tells the waiter about how smart his girlfriend is when the poor guy asks if you’re celebrating anything

Joel takes any opportunity to gush about you

When you graduate, he makes the BIGGEST DEAL

He’s the loudest person at graduation and showers you with flowers, kisses, and attention. You and Sarah just laugh at his theatrics but love him for it anyways

He would definitely splurge and buy you the nice frame for your diploma and you very quickly tell him he doesn’t have to because they’re so expensive but he just kisses you to shut you up

“I wanted to. ‘M proud of you and I want everyone to know,” he mumbles against you. “Besides, when you make me a trophy husband, it’ll balance out.”

#the last of us #joel miller fluff #joel miller x female reader #joel miller headcanon #joel miller the last of us #joel miller x reader #joel miller drabble #tlou requests #preoutbreak! joel miller

[mindmeltonabun-blog]

My Demon: Theories and Analysis for Eps 1-6

Hi Readers!

Let me start this post by saying what I originally wrote was just deleted after I hit the "save draft" button on Tumblr. I'm so pissed because I had spent hours working on this post!! For those who have followed my blog for a very long time, you know I usually provide a very in-depth analysis of dramas. 

Given what just happened and time constraints, I will keep this post very short. I may make mini posts next week to further elaborate on some points discussed here, but it just depends on if I have the time.

If you have any questions, please feel free to hit the "ask me anything" button and I will try my best to answer them promptly. I hope "My Demon" fandom won't be as toxic as the "Alchemy of Souls" fandom and misuse the "ask me anything" button to send me death threats or insults. If you don't like what I write, you can simply scroll along. The end. Also, don't plagiarize my shit. This was a huge issue during AOS and I really didn't appreciate it at all. If you want to use my ideas, give me credit for them.

Ok, let’s put on our thinking caps. Time to analyze and theorize!

Demons

In the context of this show, “demons” are individuals who used to be human but are now forced to fulfill human wishes in order to keep on living forever. The terms are simple: humans get their deepest desires fulfilled but will die in 10 years and go to hell. For demons, as long as they sign new contracts and collect souls, they won’t combust and be wiped from existence. It remains unknown how often demons must sign contracts/collect souls before they start to combust. Before demons were loan sharks, they were guardians of humans. 

We start this drama with Jeong Gu Won, who has lived happily for the last 200 yrs as a demon. Gu Won has no recollection of his human life. We don’t know if this aspect of Gu Won is something present in all demons or just him. Gu Won’s perfect little world is turned upside down after he saves Do Do Hee from Rash Dude aka Jeffrey Dahmer. Now, we don’t know why his tattoo was transferred to Do Hee but it’s implied the full moon and water had something to do with it. If you have read other posts of mine, you will know that when there’s a full moon it usually means a transformation and a new start. The whole falling into the water could be viewed as a sort of baptism, symbolizing the end of an old life and the beginning of a new life. I feel like before this show ends, Gu Won and Do Hee will end up in the water under the full moon again to symbolize Gu Won’s full transformation into a human. Like right now he’s like a quasi-demon haha. His transformation into a full human is currently ongoing. I think that as he starts to develop more human emotions/remember his human memories, his powers as a demon will begin to decline. 

Gu Won’s Past Life…A Story of Crime and Punishment

One thing I’ve learned from analyzing many dramas over the years is when a writer shows us a book or mentions a movie, we should look into them if we want a glimpse into what will happen in a drama. Now in Ep 1, you see #2 Wild Dog reading, “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Dostoevsky which was hilarious because he didn’t strike me as the type to read such a dense piece of literature. Seeing this book took me back to my high school days when we had to read and analyze this book. For those who don’t know, Russian works tend to be very long and are usually about suffering haha.

For the sake of time, I’ll you a very brief overview of what happened in “Crime and Punishment”. The story begins with a law student, Rodion Raskolnikov, who quits school because he can’t afford it anymore. The guy then has a mental breakdown of sorts and decides to kill the elderly owner of the pawnshop and her half-sister. He justifies his actions by rationalizing that by killing the pawnshop owner, he could take the valuables within her pawn shop and use them to fund his education which would eventually earn him a well-paying job. In turn, he would use the money earned to benefit the greater good. 

Raskolnikov saw himself as an Ubermensch (if you don’t know that means, I had briefly talked about it in my DAYS posts). He believed that since he was above everyone else, he was allowed to cross all societal, ethical, and moral lines because his success would help the greatest amount of people. The rest of the novel is about Raskolnikov’s internal struggles with what he did. He goes back and forth between confessing or not confessing to the murders. Eventually, the love interest in the story, Sonia, a devout Christian and source of morality for Raskolnikov, convinces him to turn himself in and confess. Raskolnikov ends up only having to serve a total of 8 years in a labor camp for the murders. While there, he finally realizes the errors of his ways and feels guilt for his past actions. He then was like “Sonia’s love saved me and I feel bad for making her suffer so when I get out, I’m going to repay her with infinite love for all she has done for me”. And bam! That’s where the story ends…with the start of his journey toward redemption haha. 

Gu Won is Raskolnikov in the sense that he thinks he’s better than everyone else and can therefore cross any line he so chooses. Based on a flashback in Ep 6, it seemed Gu Won had this kind of mindset even before he became a demon. So, what crime did Gu Won commit that landed him in Hell in the first place? I wouldn’t label it so much as an actual crime like murder but Gu Won probably got Do Hee’s past self killed. The guilt he felt after her death is probably what led to him become essentially trapped in a mental Hell, much like Madam Ju. Eventually, this guilt prevented him from entering heaven after he died. God/Lady probably took pity on him and offered him salvation in the form of becoming a demon; alternatively, it could be that God/Lady offered him a "sweet" contract where he could work as a demon in exchange for a second chance and a happier life with Do Hee in the future. Regardless of whatever the case may be, the important thing is that Gu Won needs to remember what happened in his past so he can seek forgiveness from Do Hee in the present and start his path toward redemption much like Raskolnikov. The truth sets you free haha. Gu Won is taking a step in the right direction though by protecting Do Hee. He could be like Raskolnikov and choose to give Do Hee infinite love for the rest of his life to make up for the horrible things he did to her in the past haha. Oh, one more thing for this section, the tattoo being on Do Hee’s wrist could symbolize that she was the reason why he became a demon in the first place. 

Murders of Do Hee’s Parents and Madam Ju/Who Is Abraxas

In my original post, this section was long, but as I previously mentioned, the stuff I wrote was deleted. I’m just going to give you the overall gist of it. I still think the person who killed Madam Ju was Ju Seok Hun and that the person who killed Do Hee’s parents was Madam Ju’s little brother/Seok Hun’s father. I don’t think Madam Ju directly killed Do Hee’s parents, but she felt guilty for their deaths because she covered up the incident to protect her little brother. After which, she cut him off and exiled him to Peru to live a hippie life haha. This is completely speculative though. Like we have two choices for who murdered Do Hee’s parents and Madam Ju. Choice #1 is Noh Suk Min and Noh Do Gyeong and Choice #2 Seok Hun’s father and Seok Hun. One argument I made for choice #2 is that if Suk Min and Do Gyeong were the real killers, wouldn’t the actor who played Do Gyeong be a main lead instead of a supporting character? Another argument was that Seok Hun has too many conflicting qualities about him. For example, he is a hippie who works in the corporate world and despite portraying a goody-two-shoes image, he suggests Do Hee should engage in some ethically questionable business practices like letting Mirae Investments buy shares of Mirae F&B to offset the losses. 

It’s also important to remember what Do Hee said about “sweet” things and how they’re always fake (except for Gu Won haha). Seok Hun is faker than acrylic nails. He puts on an act that he cares about her well-being when in reality, he hopes she dies. He must continue with this nice guy act because he doesn’t want her death to lead back to him. Just think about some things for a moment, if Do Hee died, who would the police suspect killed her? Would it be the people who openly voiced their disdain for her or the person whom she had a loving relationship with? It would be the former. The scene with Do Gyeong at the lockers is essentially Seok Hun setting him up to take the fall for Do Hee’s murder. At the end of the day, human greed is what drove Seok Hun to do what he did. Who knows, maybe his greed stems from being subjected to a frugal lifestyle while growing up. 

Crosses, Numerology, and Tarot

Amen, we are nearing the end. Ok, let’s keep going at record speed. So, crosses and Catholicism/Christianity are heavily present in this show. The same goes for numbers and tarot. They’re all connected. Some religious crosses can look like an “X” which looks like the Roman numeral 10. The number 10 is everywhere in this show. For example, the little girl was celebrating her 10th birthday and the Wheel of Fortune is the 10th tarot card in the Rider Waite Tarot Deck. Connecting numerology with tarot, the wheel of fortune represents the end of one journey and the beginning of another…1 + 0 = 1, where 1 symbolizes completion.

The clock in the promotional poster has a hand pointing at 10, which is different than the clocks seen at Gu Won’s place that only go from 0-9. While we are on the subject of 9, “Gu” means nine. Every time Gu Won started a new life, he named himself the next number following his current one. For example, he was Il (1) Won, then I (2) Won, and so forth. Now in his 9th life, he is called Gu Won. Get it? Ok, cool. What comes after 9? 10. After Gu Won completes his transformation into a human, he will be called Sip (10) Won haha. Additionally, did anyone notice the number 91 on the cake Do Hee baked for him? What’s 9+1? 10. 

Pay attention to the numbers in this show people! Always ask yourself what each number means and what it's connected to haha. When God/the Lady said, "I’m betting on all the odd numbers", many were like what does that mean? She’s referring to the numbers on tarot cards (Rider Waite Deck), which represent Gu Won and Do Hee. For example, which cards represent them? For starters, the 15th card aka the devil. 1+5=6 which is the lovers card. Another odd-numbered tarot card that is representative of Do Hee and Gu Won is the 9th card which is “The Hermit” because let’s be real here, they both were hermits before they met each other. The last major arcana tarot card in the deck is #21…THE WORLD aka GUARANTEED SUCCESS. So this is what God/Lady meant when she said she’s betting on all the odd numbers. It’s the writer’s way of telling us we are going to get a happy ending after all the chaos that will occur. 

One more intriguing number is 17. If you sniff around, you’ll notice that 17 is the number of years that have passed since Do Hee’s parents died. 17 is also the number of the coin locker where Jeffrey and Seok Hun exchange stuff. Hilariously, Gu Won’s passcode to his safe is “666”, which is the number of the beast/devil haha. In the newspaper clipping about the Sunwol Foundation, it said the theater was completed on June 7, 1977 and Gu Won’s name during that time was Chil (7) Won haha. The number 7 is seen as lucky in Korean and many Western cultures. 

MISC

The cross necklace Gu Won wears probably belonged to Do Hee’s past self or was given to Gu Won by Do Hee…..OH I just made another connection…..In “Crime and Punishment”, Sonia gave Raskolnikov a cross necklace. Also, in Crime and Punishment, Sonia was a prostitute and Do Hee was essentially one during the Joseon dynasty…. Kisaeng and prostitutes are basically the same thing haha. It’s also interesting that both Gu Won and Do Hee wear two necklaces, one silver and one gold. I wonder if there’s any meaning behind that.

In the newspaper clipping about Sunwol Foundation, the term 'Sun/Seon' is written in hanja and translates to 'to return/come back.' This element was part of Gu Won's original name, Yi Sun/Seon. Additionally, 'wol' means moon. Therefore, I interpreted 'Sunwol' to mean 'Sun and Moon' or 'Moon That Returns.' In a broader sense, Sunwol can be likened to the Taj Mahal—a building or monument constructed in memory of a beloved. One could also view Sunwol as a place that narrates the love story of the Sun (Gu Won) and the Moon (Do Hee) or as a place built with the hope that Gu Won’s beloved moon would return one day.

Ok, folks, that concludes this very brief TA post. WOOHOO! Sorry if there were any grammatical mistakes or typos, and if this post seemed a bit disorganized. I really have to get to bed and didn't have time to edit this haha. See you all next week maybe!

#my demon

[comradekatara]

if this comes off as a really weird and pretentious ask please just delete it but since iirc you've been in this fandom since 2019 or before 2019 i need to know . how do you deal with such in bad faith takes ??? i scroll & move on & filter tags as much as i can but it's astounding how anybody from any corner of this fandom will have piss poor takes whether they support canon or fanon

lmao not a bad question at all. some background context feels necessary: i’ve been very into atla since i was a kid, and before i used this blog i talked about it (and lok, because korrasami melted my brain) a lot on my primary blogs. in november 2018 i convinced my friend to start watching atla, and she got extremely into it. we talked about atla every day for months. eventually, my friend started this blog in summer of 2019 to talk about atla and invited me to join. it was mostly a repository for our inside jokes and for me to post the fanart i had been drawing on my phone. it was really just a space for our circle of mutuals to have some laffs.

the atla fandom was very small at the time so we were really one of the only blogs actively talking about the show. by complete accident, however, some of our posts got popular, and we accrued quite a bit of a following. we didn’t really know what to do with all the attention (some of it extremely negative and unhinged at that), and it would only get worse after “the atla renaissance.” we got more followers than we knew what to do with, at which we considered just abandoning the blog. my friend did, and handed over the reins to me.

for her, atla was a recent interest that had soured after the fandom became too much to handle, but for me it was an interest that had endured since childhood, and i found that despite all the negative attention, i still really enjoyed having a space where i could unpack my feelings towards this thing that felt like such a significant cultural touchstone, feelings towards characters i had been so deeply moved by for so long, and i enjoyed making art on a consistent basis for an actively receptive audience who praised my skills as an (extremely amateur) artist.

i’ve been drawing atla characters for a very long time, long before i had this blog, but it feels like the incentive to draw for an audience is what motivated me to improve my art over the years, so that’s genuinely been a really nice thing. and i enjoy analyzing art, literature, and media, so trying to pick apart one single text (or multiple connected texts if you wanna bring in lok, the comics, and the novels) for so long is very fun for me.

however, as much as i’ve tried to avoid engaging with bad faith takes, i am nonetheless aware that there is a not insignificant contingent of the fandom who viscerally hate my guts for whatever reason. it’s definitely less prevalent in my daily life now that the fandom is less active (cannot begin to emphasize enough how much the atlassaince ruined my life), but at the time a lot of people wanted to make their hatred of this blog known, loudly. which, especially when you’re in the middle of a lockdown and you cannot leave your room for fear of possibly dying, is not a great feeling.

that’s not really what you’re asking, but since i have had to deal with “bad faith takes” in the most personal possible way, my advice would simply be to try to shut it out. i follow maybe two or three atla blogs, and they are blogs that do not interact with the larger fandom. i do not seek out what other blogs have to say, and confine my scope to my friends and responding to my inbox.

for some reason, atla does seem to be a bad opinions factory, but actively seeking out those opinions is simply not conducive to one’s mental health or a productive use of time, which is why i keep to myself and try to mind my own business. i cannot control how i am perceived, which i am viscerally reminded of every time i see someone reblog an older post from this blog that i didn’t even make (and sometimes straight up do not agree with), but i try to remind myself that this literally has no bearing on my material existence whatsoever, and bad posts aren’t real they can’t hurt you <3

#making this nonrebloggable for obvious reasons #dogsinspaces #asks #housekeeping #running this blog has been such a strange surreal experience #but also. i am just minding my own business it’s fine. this is fine.

[scoobydoodean]

Just wanted to send a random positive ask to say you literally make my day better and I really love what you bring to the fandom (as you might have noticed by me liking everything you post after 0.5 secs if the notifications alert you lol). Also I love that you describe yourself as genuine in your bio, that’s the vibe I get from you 100% and it’s so nice to see, even in the few things in which we diverge or I just haven’t considered. Lastly, may I ask (and it’s a bit of a tall order) how you became so interested/invested/knowledgeable in media analysis? I find it such a fascinating skill to have.

This is very sweet. Thank you <3

As to your question—I've never really thought about it before! I don't have any formal education in any of this tbqh. I was an avid reader in my childhood and performed well in English classes through college, and I was involved in public speaking and debate from middle school upward, so there are some communication skills I started to develop pretty early with that, but my field of study is not related to literature. I started talking to other people about a piece of media I really liked on reddit when I was about 19 (that'd be 10 years ago now), and I think because the fandom for that piece of media was on the whole just extremely eager to discuss the story in great depth and explore the characters and themes and symbolism, I was able to work on explaining myself and forming my thoughts about stories I like within a fandom that was very small and encouraging and very positive about the story we were all invested in and the fact that it was a something worth analyzing in great detail. By reading the thoughts of other people who had interesting things to say or who challenged my perceptions and wanted to have conversations about what we agreed and disagreed on and why, I think I probably was able to learn a lot.

There are very few pieces of media I've become even remotely as interested in as Supernatural though, and I have definitely noticed that when I really like something, I tend to get extremely invested in rewatching/rereading it and trying to pick up new things to analyze just because I enjoy it, and there's something about Supernatural in that regard that is just endlessly appealing to me.

#spn is an adhd hyperfixation for me also it's probably not hard to tell sjdhbfjhsbdhfd #mail

[bamdelune]

Genshin boys as uni students + content creators 🎧🎬🗯 (Sumeru edition) headcanons!

— this took a while to post because I saved the draft the moment my wifi cut off and I had to rewrite the whole thing.

— these are my personal headcanons, you may feel free to disagree with me ! little wonky when it comes to talking about what they do in uni because a high school student wrote this 🔥

Al Haitham ★ Law Major + Day in My Life

As much as I want to assign him to being a literature major, I believe he would choose law over it because he believes in practicality and plans WAY ahead into the future. It's not that he was forced into it, he chose it himself to survive in society and he's somewhat fine with that.

He's passionate about his course to a certain/decent degree but I image it's not even measurable to his interest in books & analyzing literature.

Naturally excels in his class and is commended for majority of his thesis papers and projects.

Adding to the last bullet: Whenever the professor assigns those scenario based requirements, the teacher will always get shocked from reading his works because he finds the most unexpected ways (and uses the most unexpected constitutional statements) to answer the question and somehow they always turn up reasonable.

In terms of content creating, he doesn't upload on a schedule but gets irked when the date between today and his last upload is a little too far so he uploads one when he feels today is gonna be a productive one.

Doesn't talk a lot in videos and just shows himself going about his business (mostly studying in the silence of the library or in the bustling environment of the nearest cafe, he still manages to concentrate either way)

When he reads new books with really good plots, he somehow incorporates them into short videos along with his usual routine and talks about what he thinks of it so far (which prompted a few not so pleasant comments on some of his videos because of his unbiased opinion)

Absolutely despises bullshit and problematic authors and problematic plot points and he makes no effort to hide that.

He likes silence. he finds the silence of his room with only the sound of his mouse and keyboard clicking and clacking as he edits his videos. he finds both the lack of sound and the activity very theraputic.

Posts study with me videos — believes in the power of the body doubling study method and it's a win-win for both him and his followers.

Examples of his videos would be something like what saranghoe or kai notebook would post on their channels (check them out! they're so cool omg)

Kaveh ★ Architecture Major + GRWMs & DIML

Be honest were you really expecting another major for him...

Okay, maybe he would fit as a fashion/art student.

If it's not obvious enough, his blueprints and structure plans are immaculate. Whatever the prompt is, he would ALWAYS find a way to make it fit into both the theme + his distinct architectural style or draw it even better. This man is so full of ideas and genuinely loves his major.

Affinity to classical and dainty architecture styles.

Enjoys doing interior designing as well — he tries to include them in his initial exterior designs if he has the time but majority of the time, he doesn't.

He's a self-care babe. Already has an estsblished skincare, haircare, nailcare, and even makeup routine by the time he starts content creating.

Trust me, if his course didn't entail straining his hands a lot from sketching and nails getting accidentally cracked (to his dismay), he would've painted them a LONG time ago. Instead, he paints his friends' nails for fun.

Is the type to upload anytime without a schedule like he genuinely enjoys making videos and such. Even if those updates last for about 30 seconds or a minute, he uploads them.

His videos are motivation to get your life togjether just because his looks like it.

It's not. He lives off of lattes and convenience store snacks on his off time. (He also films himself even when he doesn't look as put together as he does in his usual videos).

Examples of his videos would be the content Song Jia (free지아) would post. Drops effective tips, recommendations, and even advice from time to time.

Cyno ★ Criminal Justice Major & Tighnari ★ Med Student + Vlogging & Mukbang

Cyno

I decided to write these two as a duo because I headcanon them as roommates as well in a modern au.

Cyno despite his kind of intimidating course takes it very well and has always been a fan of solving stuff related to criminology. In serious moments, he's able to give his two cents on social topics.

The fastest in his class to answer and solve scenario-based questions.

He's a fucking pain in the ass (said in a loving tone) to watch action/thriller movies with because on top of the puns and jokes he makes, he ends up spoiling the plot because he's already deduced what's going to happen.

Tighnari

Tighnari is a tired medical student, taking up a pre-med course in either biology or medical devices.

He's the type to have the messy-neat room, papers neatly but at the same messily sprawled on areas in his room but it adds to his personality so it's alright.

The one med student who makes his notes as neat as possible because he believes that it's better to understand during his first year and the one who relies on a distant memory to decode what he wrote in his notebook that looked like it went through 7 failed situationships, 3 divorces, and lost the custody of 3 children in the later phases of his academic career.

Despite that, he remembers the names and uses of medical treatments and supplements at the top of his head.

Tighnari likes to be precise in practice operations during the later years in med school after pre-med.

-

Cyno introduced the idea of content creating to his roommate.

Tighnari agreed because he's drowning in student debt.

They would mostly do vlogs when they go out with friends or play board games (Tighnari cheats his way to the top whilst Cyno is left to wonder how he, the master at card games and alike, is losing to someone who just learned the mechanics 5 minutes ago).

Their viewers enjoy that bit very much.

When the weekend pulls closer, they like to plan the food they want to eat at home for a video or the restaurant/food fair hopping they'll be doing on a random Friday. It's a routine they do to unwind from the stress of academics.

They also gossip together while filming and eating.

The type of content they would post would be like the videos Stephanie Soo posts.

Scaramouche/Wanderer ★ Performing Arts + Gaming & Covers

He's so K-pop idol coded, did we as a society forget one of his hobbies was dancing in canon

He has a background in contemporary dancing/ballet and hip-hop dancing.

His voice is angelic and his professor really likes his vocal color (probably would have TXT's Soobin / SVT's Minghao's tone).

Scara ensures that dance moves are always clean when he performs and makes sure that there isn't any idle part of his body when he dances. His right hand is up? His left arm has to be placed somewhere at the same time. He hates it when he looks awkward on stage.

A really wide vocal range and can comfortably shift vocal tiers. He only strains his voice when the following note is unbelievably high for his pitch.

Shines the most in slow and r&b type performances, and is extremely flexible physically and in terms of genres.

When he posts content, Scaramouche takes interest in horror games as well as fixed-world (I'm not sure about the word) RPG games (ones like Persona 5, Honkai Stsr Rail). He screams (much more than he likes to admit).

He posts dance covers and song covers as well and gets a lot of praise for it online, urging him to become an idol (little do they know that he's studying to do just that).

Books really nice dance studios for covers and goes all-out for outfits.

Examples of his videos would be what Tuonto/Jake and Antony Chen would post.

© bamdelune may 2023. do not repost or plagiarize any of my works, thank you so much! reblogs, notes, and comments are always appreciated!

(main masterlist)

#bamdelune #bamdelune's bookstore #genshin impact #genshin #alhaitham #kaveh #cyno #tighnari #scaramouche #wanderer #sumeru #headcanons

[plantwithoutplot]

Hi you've mention before you had to study fanfiction in college and had to write two essays on Howl's Moving Castle, if it's not to personal, can you tell us what did you study in college?

Hey!! No problem at all, I loved my studies in university so it's always a pleasure to talk about it 👐

I have a Double Degree in French Modern Literature & English literature (+ culture/some history, but mostly focused on the UK and US), as well as a Master Degree in Fiction (studied most of its forms + how it is produced in an industrial world like ours, through creative and more theoretical classes, though my focus was more on literature/tv shows/movies/video games) (*´▽`*)❀

About the fan fiction thing, well, I've had three thesis to write during my last 3 years of college?

1) A 25 pages only thesis where I attempted to understand how Fan Fiction might be a renewal of the XIXth's Roman Feuilleton (serial literature that appeared thanks to the industrialization and that was published weekly/monthly in popular journals, think of Dickens, Victor Hugo, etc)

2) A 50 pages only thesis about Fan Fiction as an obscure genre in the literary world, where I question not why or who creates fan fictions (something that has already been studied for 30 years) but HOW. Whichs means questions how people write? How do they select what to write about? How do so many communities can identify a fic's content in one glance through its tags, even when they are quite obscure? What about the story structures of fan fictions? Why the repetitiveness? For what purpose? So... Yeah. 50 pages of picking literary analysis techniques we already have to study fan fiction as a genre, the same way we do we literally any other genre, with one less theorical part by analysis an actual fan fiction

3) A 50 pages only thesis about a creative project + 50 pages of presemtation of the project itself. I am... A huge horror fan, ok? SO as a creator who also loves fantastic and fantasy I wondered about something. Would it be possible to create AND make last a possible world based/centered around the horror genre? You know how in fantasy you explore a world where EVERYTHING is a consequence of the magic/fantasy elements? Ehat if we did that with horror? Where EVERYTHING, at its core, is a product of the horror genre? Where everything, everyone, every element of the universe is out to get you ― how do you survive? CAN you do more than just survive in such a world? Can it expand and keep growing through fan headcanons and ideas and grow more and more, like fantasy's possible worlds do??

Okay that was already a lot, congrats if you read so far 🫡🫡

About Howl's Moving Castle!

During my 3rd year in university, I had a class about Gender Studies and we had to pick a Ghibli movie to study and analyze. I picked Howl's Moving Castle, and tried to explain how the movie reverses gender expectations through the use of stereotypical fairy tales tropes.

Then during my 5th year in university, I had a class on Road Movies. Don't ask me why but my high-off-of-allergy-meds ass had a weird af epiphany and picked this movie.

The first essay is in french but i recently summed its main points for @newbieineverything so I can share it if you want! And the second essay was in english so I do have the whole thing, or just the bullet points if you'd rather have a summed up version 🤔🤔

If you want more info on those, don't hesitate to say it in comments/reblogs/dm and I will share it on the post! ٩(๑˃́ꇴ˂̀๑)و🪇

#Aslinn answers #aslinn rambles #howl's moving castle #Fan fiction #Lots of words i'm sorry 🤣🤣🤣 #I loved research and honestly had i actually been good at it i'd have loved to go for a PhD

[flowerandblood]

How did you get so good at writing? Were you born that amazing or did you practice? I’m trying to become a writer but I seem to suck at it. Loooove all your work btw 🥰

This is actually a very difficult question, but I'm glad you think I'm a good writer. That so kind of you. 💐

I have always liked Polish language and literature lessons, especially text analysis, during our classes we also have to write something like an "rozprawka". In other countries it is most often called an "essay", but in our case this form has clearly defined rules and is not an argument purely with your thoughts, only arguments for and against, analysis of fragments of texts, a bit as if you were a prosecutor.

Rozprawka comes from the Polish word rozprawa, which means dissertation in English.

By analyzing works of literature from all over the world in this way, you begin to analyze them very deeply, and it seems to me that nothing helps me in writing more than my experiences with other classical writers that I have read.

I love Edgar Allan Poe, I love Jane Austen, I love Molière, I love Sophocles, I love Shakespeare, Tolkien, Dostoyevsky, but also many outstanding Polish writers and artists, Gombrowicz, Mickiewicz, Wyspiański.

I have their books at home and they had a huge impact on me, but what impressed me the most was the analysis of these texts, because without it you don't fully understand what you're reading.

I have always liked creating my stories, but I usually presented them naturally to me, in the form of drawings and comics. It turned out that it was easier for me to present and describe something with words than with drawings, even though I am an artist (hehe). So I didn't write before I created this fanfic account, with maybe two exceptions, but only with my friend, and before that all my texts were serious comparative analyzes of other books.

So I don't know if I was born with it, probably not, but the words just come to me. First I come up with scenes and then I write them down, but sometimes I just write and the plot takes care of itself. I never plan my stories, I usually have no idea what will happen in them, I come up with ideas on the fly. I never know how it will end, it's always a guess. I admire writers who plan everything step by step, I would die halfway through, I try to write whenever I feel inspired.

Yesterday and today, for example, I wrote 8 chapters of The Prince and The Fox and I will probably write a few more, because I have inspiration, I feel this story now and I want to go further.

I will add that I write in my native language: Polish, because it is the language in which I think and in which words come naturally to me, and only then I translate them into English.

I don't know if it will help you, but my advice, for the despair of some people, is this: read the classics of literature!

#kisses 😚 #love you anon #read and write!

[fourovcups]

I am planning on doing some more posts critically analyzing and discussing ecofascism, since a lot of people seem interested and it's something I want to better understand myself.

I want to start out talking about fascist desire and microfascisms, however, as a baseline for understanding what fascism is. For such a well-known subject, there is no definitive, universal consensus in political science regarding how we can define fascism at all, and in my opinion that is because the psychological and libidinal aspects of fascism are critical to understanding it. It would be wrong to say fascism can be described as a personality disorder, as Adorno claimed (measure how fascist you are on this very scientific "F-scale" test here; I got an average of 17% fascist). Even so, many fascist themselves explicitly reject reason and affirm concepts like will, struggle, or instinct as fundamental elements of fascist "consciousness". This sanctification of irrationality not only suggests an explanation of why fascism is so inconsistent across groups, but also begs the question of why and how such irrationalism comes to be in the first place. After that, I want to investigate the early roots of ecofascism, especially in France and Germany in the late 19th century. My goal is to go from the earliest reactionary fetishizations of nature and authentic ties with the "soil" of the father land, and progress up to the present day ecofascist movements influenced by the climate crisis and concepts like deep ecology. I would like to answer the following questions, among others: - Why has ecofascism become more popular in recent years? - How is the ecofascist understanding of ecology and human-environment relations different from other ecological movements? - What have been the most significant reactions to ecofascism in ecological and political discourses, and has the movement significantly changed these discourses in any way?

To put my cards on the table, I know more about the psychoanalytical aspects of studying fascism and less about ecofascist movements. I will be figuring out a lot of what I write about as I write it, and I'd invite anyone who disagrees to comment and let me know what you think. I studied English in college, and though I had some classes in political science and critical theory-related subjects on the side, this is mostly just a topic I'm interested in and read up on for fun. This also won't be a comprehensive survey of ecofascist history and texts; I don't have time to read every giant tractatus out there at the moment, so I'll be doing my best with the theory and history I already have under my belt and the literature I have time to read. I will also try to keep these posts relatively short for what they are (maybe like 1,000 words each if I can) because I do not have a lot of free time these days, and I don't want to bore you guys to sleep.

If you're also interested in this increasingly common and very unlikely fringe movement, I hope you'll get something out of it too. More to come soon, thanks for reading :)

#fascism #critical theory #politics #ecofascism #ecocriticism

[malevolentcast]

Hey Harlan, hope you had/have a good day!

I wanted thank you for making the content you do and putting in the to interact with fans. I could go on and on about all the details of Malevolent I find truly amazing, but I’ll spare you the essay and just mention some more general things.

The characters feel so real; their development and how it’s shown is done so well. I know this was discussed a bit ago, but it means a lot that Arthur’s and John’s relationship is canonically platonic. I’ve struggled with the idea platonic vs romantic relationships, and I think it was mainly due to the way media and social culture represents both and seems to be constantly pushing romantic relationships. Not that there needs to be a reason for the decision, though. Speaking of ways Malevolent has affected me personally, I’ve always had a rocky relationship with the phrase “this too shall past” and viewed it mainly in a negative light, but the use of it in the show enabled me to see it positively which has really helped me.

The music and literature included are absolutely gorgeous and I love how its tied into the story. Malevolent has been a big inspiration for me to pick back up writing and playing violin. I may have went on a tangent to my former lit teacher about the show since we studied two of the poems read in it in her class. 😅

The story itself never fails to be gripping. The symbolism, themes, ect. are great and are always a joy to analyze. Plus, the choose-your-own-adventure like aspect is such a creative idea, and is integrated into the story so well. Then there is your voice acting?! You are really talented!

I’m not able to catch streams very often, but when I do (or when watching the vod), they never fail to make me smile. When I have the time, I plan to start Dice Shame as well!

Well, I guess this ended up being long anyways. I apologize for taking up your time. I do have two questions, I tried to make sure they weren’t answered previously but sorry if they have been asked before.

If you could change the outcome of one of the Malevolent votes, which would you change? and/or Do you you have a favorite poem (doesn’t have to be Malevolent related), and if so, what is it?

Well that's about the nicest anyone has been. Thank you so much. Means the world. 1. If I could change a vote? Head to the police station in Harper's Hill. Honestly cause it just cut out so much of the story. 2. invictus.

[demonslayedher]

Hello hello, Senpai!! How are you doing? I hope everything is going well for you! ^^ <3

I just have one question for you (though it might be a bit long for you to answer, so I apologize in advance 😅): could you please analyze the names of all my babies the Lower Moons (+ Kyōgai)? I tried doing that myself to potentially find out more about their powers or what the origin of their namesake is, but since I'm still a beginner in Japanese and I don't have/know of that many resources yet, I felt like asking you would be the best option.

We don't know anything about the Lower Moons that Muzan himself killed, except for their appearance, their names, and their order in the Lower ranks, but despite this I grew attached to them (especially Mukago 💝) and would like to be able to bring more love and attention to them in the fandom. Because everyone always talks about the Upper Moons and they forget about my poor children in the Lower ranks 💔

I'm sorry for the lengthy ask, I got a bit carried away 😅 But thank you in advance if you decide to answer this!! Take all the time you need with this and all your other asks, and I hope you have a wonderful day/night!! 💖

I feel like Muzan would follow that old meme and be like, “I love all my Lower Moons,” and check the handwritten notes in his palm and just be like, “…Rui.”

But let’s do it! Let’s give each of these Lower Moons, as well as some honorable mentions (we love you, Kyougaaaaiiii) some love and dive into their names! Yahaba: 矢琶羽 Dart-Lute-Feathers, I love how catchy this name is (with 矢 clearly being the operative “arrow” meaning, though I wonder if Nakime dislikes him edging in on her lute thing). It often goes forgotten that Yahaba had tastes for staying clean and tidy, which goes to show that the demons were all possessed of their own complex personalities and had richly detailed lives of their own before those demon hunters came in and chopped their heads off. Like how he and Susamaru chatted and became friends while on the way to finding the boy with the Hanafuda earrings? That’s adorable. Also, in Kimetsu Academy, he famous runs a tofu shop and I love tofu so I hope his family’s business is going well. It’s so innocuous and I feel like the innocuous sides of Yahaba should be appreciated.

Susamaru:  朱紗丸 Vermilion-Gauze-Round/Ball, another catchy and wonderful collection of good name kanji.  The color reference starts her off with name full of vitality without crossing quite into the glowing reds associated with Red Blades. That 紗 is one that does get used in real life as a gentle complement to rest of the name when parents are looking for a ‘sa’ sound with an auspicious number of strokes to write it (though it’s the stroke order of the entire name typically taken into account), but concluding a name with 丸has distinctly old-timey masculine feel to it. As she presents very feminine, even on the hot edge of Taisho fashion, I love the juxtaposition. That said, in Kimetsu Academy, Susa become her very refreshing sounding last name while 丸 becomes a very cute, feminine personal name when left on its own. It’s also cute because it's the part of her name that has the most personal significance for her, as when she was a human, her father bought a toy ball for her and it remained important to her when she was a demon.

Kyougai: 響凱 Sound/Reverberation-Victory Song. A name that big goes to show how high Muzan’s hopes were for you, Kyougai! And seeing as he was inspired by the epic “Satomi Hakken-den,” Kyougai wanted to write a story that was just as big, with expansive world-building and deep allegory. That being said, Kyougai was totally more of a sensitive Hans Christian Andersen at heart, huh? Being so absorbed in his idealistic dreams for his literature, Kyougai even used a literary personal pronoun often reserved for written form (Literature, gotta be one of my favorite genders), and with his perpetual pouty-face, I can totally see him laying face down in a more successful demon’s yard to cry about how Muzan only likes him for his drum skills instead of his writing skills. (That demon was probably Nakime, and she was probably just as peeved as Charles Dickens.) Kyougai is so sensitive and deep in his literary fantasies that he was ultimately defeated by how moved he was by the literary symbolism of Tanjirou avoiding stepping on his written works, a kind demon slayer who takes heads because he must but will not trample on a demon’s heart. Also, might I say how sad it is that he’s the music teacher in Kimetsu Academy, probably because he still can’t make it as an author!? Kyoooouggaaaaaiiiii!!

Nakime: 鳴女 Sound (anything from an echo to birds chirping to a ringing noise to a honk)-Woman, doesn’t seem very creative on the surface because clearly she is a woman who works with sound (and is clearly more talented at it that Kyougai, get wrecked, is what she’d probably say to him if she bothered saying any more than necessary to the other demons). Muzan might had thought he was clever for this one, though, because ‘me’ is also the same sound as ‘eye’ (目). Maybe he even called her that at first, until she gave him stone-silent response, so instead of being embarrassed for being overly basic he chose to say it was written with the character 女 instead, because duh, she’s a woman. The name had nothing to do with her face. EDIT: HOLD IT, WAIT UP. @lalunaticscribe rightly pointed out that this was the name a pheasant in Shinto mythology, which totally forgot about. Although it can be writing in different ways for "crying out woman," this was a messenger sent by the heavens to Amewakahiko, who was supposed to be doing the heavens' bidding but had put them on read, essentially. The pheasant was supposed to check up on him, and he literally shot the messenger with an arrow. The arrow went all the way to the heavens, the heavens were alarmed, but still wanted to give Amewakahiko the benefit of the doubt, so they threw it back saying, "well, if he's guilty, it'll strike him, if not, it'll miss" and it struck him and he died.

Hairou: 佩狼 Wear (a sword)-Wolf. Muzan must had known he was a Shinsengumi, as they were called the ‘Wolves of Mibu’ (an area of Kyoto they policed). Hairou had a complicated relationship with swords and how ultimately they lost out to more powerful guns, which he relies on after that. He can’t totally forget his affection for swords, though, as the Taisho Secrets Hirano-sensei wrote into the Rengoku Gaiden state that he collects things like handguards from defeated enemies’ swords. Tokens of his victories, nothing more!! He doesn’t admire swords, okay, he’s fine with guns!! Gunpowder is way more effective that silly swords! Nevermind that his name still implies he’d wear one!

Kamanue: 釜鵺 Iron Pot/Kettle-Nue (a Chimera sort of ghastly beast). Given that name, fresh new Lower-Moon-Six might have had the most interesting potential for a stand-off with Kamado Tanjirou, as the hearth (kamado 竈) and iron pot/kettle heated over it (kama 釜) are closely associated. Perhaps he could had been yet another character foil to Tanjirou, another former humans with family ties to working with fire and heat? If he had those orange streaks at the ends of his hair as a human, could he also had been a Kakushaku-no-Ko, but not auspicious ever happened to him and he was forced to take the path of a demon? What’s even more interesting is the ‘Nue’ part of his name, as these were fantastical creatures who plagued the nobles of Kyoto, cursing them with illness by their presence and requiring Heian era demons slayers to go hunt them down. It’s classic and I would had loved to see how that might play into Blood Technique. Was he a shape-shifter, perhaps?

Rui: 累 Continuity/Involvement. This was a name given to him by his parents, who probably wished to keep a healthy baby boy involved in their lives for a very long time. Ouch.

Mukago: 零余子 Nothing-Surplus-Child. Mukago really does leave the most impact for her character design, doesn’t she? It’s the classy symmetrical horns that do it for me, but it’s the feather/fur boa that totally seals the deal. As Muzan called her out for always avoiding strong demon hunters, I get the sense she could be pretty wily with who she choose to target or how she chose to slip away. As for this name, though, the jarring juxtaposition makes me think she’d have had very strange and unusual Blood Techniques, perhaps flirting with the divide between ‘existence’ and ‘non-existence.’ I have no idea how that would work, and her victims probably all regretting finding out.

Wakuraba: 病葉 Sick-Leaves. This one makes me curious, as Muzan probably didn’t like associations with illness. However, taken as a whole, perhaps it was in reference to blight. Were his abilities something that could spread and kill a large number of people in a given area, or did his Blood Technique spread through trees to slowly poison people through the water or attack directly with poison leaves and an evil root system throughout the forest (I wrote that into a fanfic, haaa)? He’s got a pretty unassuming appearance, wearing a kimono pattern used a few times throughout the manga, and only one simple scarf for accessory, but the scars on his face keep him from being able to blend into a crowd. How’d you get those scars, man? What is your story? Did they remain from your human life, something that no amount of demon regeneration can ever erase from you?

Rokuro: 轆轤 Potter’s Wheel/Pulley. Now this is an assuming character design. That’s totally a craftsman’s attire for working in his studio, crouched over a spinning pottery wheel all day. What was your Blood Technique, sir? Did it astound victims for how they never would have suspected you of anything, much less noticed you? Is it like a spinning mechanism, full of potential for a truly horrendous death, or do you trap victims under giant interdimensional tea cups? Does Gyokko hate you for this and want you to stop stealing his shtick? Also, the facial hair makes me think he was a Meiji era human, as it was back in style then. That would make him not a terribly old demon, at his oldest, a bit younger than Hairou (whom he replaced as Lower Moon Two) and the Hand Demon.

Enmu: 魘夢 (To have a) Nightmare-Dream. Muzan wasn’t feeling very creative that night but it does have a nice ring to it. Had he been promoted to an Upper Moon role like he hoped, maybe a name change would had been in order, like “The Enmu Express.”

And good luck with your studies! While a language cannot be learned with dictionaries alone as all languages are contextual (Japanese especially), I do use a collection of different dictionaries when I do translations (even if they pull from similar sources), as they may present slightly different nuances or methods of look-up or examples. ALC (aimed at Japanese speakers, extensive specialized vocab and examples, albeit not well explained) Tangorin (my favorite for overall user-friendliness) Weblio (aimed at Japanese speakers, has more of a human touch than some of ALC's weird examples)WWWJDIC (the handwriting tool usually works well) JapanDict (when Tangorin fails me due to slow loading)

#yahaba #susamaru #kyogai #nakime #hairou #kamanue #rui #mukago #wakuraba #rokuro #enmu #kny nerdery #kny fandom theories and meta

[seelestia]

YEEE NPNP!! college was nervewracking ngl (still is), at least when i started last year august iirc? but yeah! do you know what major you want? alas i cannot chill as much as i used to smh

heheh fr tho >:3 i think the fontaine arc was really well written and went into more depth (get it? depth? waters? ok i'll stop now) and because of how much lore we were given since it seems to be more complex ngl. as for myself, i'm sticking albedo and lyney under the microscope so i can understand them both better

especially albedo. i'd very much like to pick his brain the same way i wanna pick my boyfriend's- coughs

HEJSJD THE WAY I STARTED SMILING AFTER READING THE HCS,,needed that ngl cuz i've been stressed a lot. but i think bedo would be the kind of person who'd do that and create an artificial flower and then name it after me hehehe

but hey, who's to say wanderer wouldn't leave you a flower someplace where you can find it? just a small and sweet gesture and will very most likely deny it (and fails) when you tease him for it mwehehhe i can be devious too ya know or maybe even ayato leaves you a little present like a bracelet or hair accessory after a long day of work

AND NOO ITS OK I LOVE LISTENING TO UR RAMBLES TOO /gen /pos

actually yea i do have some new vibedo trivia! we've officially become engaged and he was the one who proposed first <3 that and he has a tendency to call me "sweet violet" since its an actual flower as well hehe. and tysm!! i'm honestly just doing my best to stay happy since my irl bedo is like very complementary to my personality if that makes sense? like he tends to wear darker clothing, i tend to wear a lot of pastels kinda thing. and so far, we're doing rlly good! sure there are some challenges we're dealing with now but im doing my best to stay positive ^^

also me being 20 ew. somehow i'm still being referred as old sheesh

ok im done rambling now im passing the mic to u hehe /lh

ah, truly. the price of education = freedom to chill !!! 😔 but alas, life is a ongoing journey with hurdles (and i happen to not be an athlete /j). currently, i have my eyes on a social science major atm! so i can hopefully pursue psychology :3 but my second choice is english bcs i cannot stray from the path of linguistics and literature no matter how much i tried /pos. ALSOSOSO if you don't mind, can you tell me more abt what you do in your course? i did my research on google but i think it cannot compare to someone with the actual experience™ ++ i'm just a curious cat and want to enable your rambles hehe <3 /lh

THE PUN, HELP. i agree, the fontaine quest deffo made some waves when it ended. OH I SEE!!! at first glance, i thought i could find a similarity between albedo and lyney (finding vi's type: a reality show jkjk we all already know it's albedo /hj) but the longer i looked, the more i questioned myself 😭 i do think that both of them are deeper than what people credit them for tho! albedo with his knowledge of khemia.... and lyney with his burdens as the next 'father'..... ooOOooO. some emphasis for now on lyney bcs of the 4.6 trailer that just dropped! DID YOU SEE IT YET VI 👁️ (but dw, i understand if you had no time / busy with college!) { the comment abt picking your bf's brain LMAO would he let you?? oh, truly, love is blind 🤭 /lh }

always happy to provide you with hcs!!! my brain buzzes with possibilities all the time && one of the things i love most abt selfships is analyzing how different personalities come together to form habits / idiosyncrasies / love languages of their own. like how albedo conjures up an artificial flower bcs he is simply reminded of his sweet violet — that is special and unique to you in a way. it's vv beautiful, i think!!

AND HSHDHWHSH. THE HCS??? vi, i cannot convey how much i appreciate you. i haven't indulged in my selfships for some time since i didn't have time to be active - so this made me SOSOSO happy aaaaaa!!! but wanderer definitely has left some flowers for me before bcs who else? i suggested the possibility of another suitor and he knocked me on the head (softly) YOWCHHH but hey, at least he admitted it was him! :3c and 'yato.... aghhhhh this man. he leaves a hairpin out in the open but tells me “not to touch it until he gets home” just so he can put it on me himself. he derives joy from seeing me hold back from snatching that thing up myself. meanie /j

AWWW THAT'S SO CUTE!! you two are the apt presentation of “opposites attract”. and i'm glad! i only have average experience with relationships but i think everyone agrees that a relationship isn't sunshine and rainbows all the time. that's as natural as our having good days and bad days in a week. i think what matters is how you both deal with them - and i believe in you & your bf! you're a good egg and ik your bf is too, so do what you both know is best <3 (forgive me if i sound like a grandma here /j BUT hooray to vi and irl albedo! my new fav couple yesyesyes)

#not sure why people think 20 is old... that's like the prime of your life!! #who cares abt them!!! live your life like you're forever young i say 🫂🫂 #ask box! 📬 #visitor: dearest vi! 🍡 #selfships! 🧸 #<- a new tag bcs selfships deserve a tag of its own <33

[henrywintersdearestgirl]

Prologue

Hello, my darling doves

Suprise! The fanfiction began.

Before you dig into it… Yes, it is in a different timeline than the actual book, and not all things are same as in the book, but you will find out eventually:)

I hope you will like it and I’m always open to hear your opinions on it!

xoxo, Rosemary<3

warnings: none:) maybe alcohol use, but this is tsh so nobody really cares

summary: just some warming up

word count: 1.3k

Richard Papen, 1953

Some nights, I am still at that hotel. We all are. Charles with a gun in his hand, Camilla sobbing, Francis and I frozen, and Henry… Nearly smiling at the gun. The next events happened barely in a mere second. The screaming, the gunshots, the warm feeling in my stomach, the red wine and blood splashing. Henry lay dead on the floor, his pale face covered in blood. He was pronounced dead on the scene when the police arrived, while they were on their way Francis put a blanket on him, I don’t remember those moments very well. I only remember the blood on his face and his closed eyes. Francis was the only one who attended the funeral, I would have gone with him to Missouri, where he was getting buried, but I was laying in the hospital with a gunshot.

I never saw the twins ever again. Charles ran away and Camilla went silent. We nearly couldn’t care less about Charles after what he had done, but Camilla was a hard pill to swallow.

Me and Francis tried everything we could for a good while, brought her to the best psychiatrist, and we stayed with her patiently. Until she finally spoke to us again. But only a few words, she kindly asked us to leave her alone to deal with her grief, Henry or Charles, we never knew. We understood and left her alone like she asked. We tried our best to get our friend back and figured that she would contact us if she wanted to.

—

Me and Francis kept in touch over the years, calls and visits were engraved in our daily routines. He visited me in Chicago and I visited him in Boston. I analyzed literature and sometimes gave lessons in big named schools. Francis wrote detective books, he started writing them as a distraction and they blew up, people loved him. In the end, both of us were steady on our feet. I wasn’t in possession of a family fortune, but I became a bit wealthy myself.

However, there was one name we never dared to speak. Until today.

We were at Francis’s huge apartment, on the couch, whiskey in hand. We already drank a bottle of Irish whiskey. Suddenly he laughed to himself in a drunken manner. “What is it?” I laughed to myself too at his odd manner, the whiskey really managed to get in my head, I felt dizzy and floaty.

His laughing slowly went away and he stared at the maroon wall dreamily. “You know what I think about sometimes?” He looked at me with a sly foxy smile. “What if Henry never died?” I suddenly sat up and a little part of me was relieved that he said Henry’s name, he might have been drunk out of his mind but still. He knew Henry for a longer time than I did and his death was harder for him, he is also a sensitive fellow so that was not the greatest mix. I started snickering at his foolish question, but I stopped it when I saw his serious face, he was lost in thought.

“Francis? Where did this come from? We both watched him fall to the floor.” I tried studying his face, he wouldn’t look in my eyes.

“I know, I know. But those parts are so blurry, I barely remember how we got out of there. What do you remember from it?” He finally looked at me.

“Oh yeah, I remember every single little detail that happened. Especially the gunshot wound in my stomach and the blood oozing out of it!” He angered me a bit, the alcohol made the moment more dramatic than it actually was.

“Okay, I see your point…” He bit his lip, as if he was in distress. “What if he didn’t actually die? That was the last time we saw him and we got ushered out so quickly that we didn’t even register what hap—“

“Aren’t you a detective murder mystery writing novelist? Your mind is more creative day by day.” I point to his shelf, where he displayed the awards his books and stories won, in a joking manner. He was really good at what he was doing, no wonder everyone always begged for the new novel of his, even my students who I eventually taught from time to time.

He was not laughing, not appreciating my joke. I could see it in his eyes that he really was thinking. “Richard, have you ever seen him after that?”

“Weren’t you the one who sat through his whole funeral?!”

“It was a closed casket.” He shrugged.

“Closed casket?” I straightened up at the new information. “Didn’t he always say that he was going to have an open casket funeral?”

Francis’s eyes widened. “He did, because he wanted people to really see that all of us end up in the same way.” It was silent for a few minutes, until Francis turned to me. “Richard, if he could write his car to your name, then he could have had an open casket funeral. He wrote what he wanted for it when he was like sixteen, and the way he was looking at the gun?” We turned more serious by the second.

“Maybe he had a closed casket to spare Camilla?” I brought up my only explanation, but even I barely believed it.

“Camilla is not as weak as you think, and Henry was or is not that soft to change what he always believed in for a girl.” My biggest problem was that he actually made some sense, there was something about what he had said.

“So, let me get this straight. Henry may be alive and we didn’t think of this for five years?” I scoffed and turned to Francis. I put my hands on both of his shoulders and sighed deeply, as if I was a father who is about to tell a life lesson to his child. “Look Francis, I know that this Henry being alive and well alternative is way more sweeter, but it is not the truth and not the one we live in.”

“I know, but what if—“ He tried to interrupt me.

“No, no more what if’s… Henry is dead. We watched him shoot himself in the head and drop to the floor. You sat through his funeral, closed casket or not, he was in there. He is gone, Francis. Fuck… I wish he wasn’t, I wish we found a better way to deal with everything going on without anyone dying. I wish that Charles never came in with a gun in hand…” He had tears in his eyes from my little speech, maybe I did too, but I needed him to open up his eyes and see our sad truth.

He smiled sadly, a fat tear running down his freckled cheek. “I wish for anything that could have kept our group together…” he said as he stared into the crunching fire in the fireplace. I believe that in that moment he tried really hard for the first time to accept what we came to.

“We’re here now. Maybe up there, Bunny could give that goddamn slap back to Henry and even bang him in the head with his stupid latin diary.” I nudged his shoulder, trying to ease the tension. What I didn’t expect was a proper laugh from him. Half a genuine laugh, half a grieving sob.

“Yeah, you’re right… Thank you, Richard. For everything.” He lifted his glass and we clicked them together.

“To new beginnings.”

“To new fucking beginnings.”

#henrywinter #thesecrethistory #richardpapen #henry winter #francis abernathy #francisabernathy #bunny corcoran #bunnycorcoran #charles macaulay #charlesmacauley #the secret history #the secret history fanfic #tsh #tshfanfic #tshfanfiction #the secret history fanfiction #henry winter smut #henrywintersmut #henrywinterimagine #henrywinterfanfic #henry winter fanfic #henrymarchbankswinter #henry winter fanfiction

[nicosraf]

I do have to ask. What was the thought process behind the orgy scene? Was there some kind of symbolism there that I simply missed? I feel like there is a maybe I'm just not looking deeply enough.

I understand that Baal liked Lucifer and was jealous of Micheal, that's very clear by his little internal monologue but I think there's something more that I'm missing.

I don't mean to bother you with all my stupid little questions. My hyperfixation is this rn and I'm tryna study it and over analyze the hell out of it because autism is super sick and fun👍but seriously, I love it so much and I'm trying to understand as much as possible so I can make my book as great as it can be.

At this point I'll have to put you in the dedication or give special thanks to you at the end of the book

Ohoho I'm kind of embarrassed to answer this because I'm actually sorta shy about the meaning of sex/sensuality/eroticism in the book so my answer will be a bit curt but!! CW: SA, selfharm, spoilers

I can go on and on about the queer coding that demons and fallen angels have always had, but some scholars have also literally described the behavior of sinning, falling together, and worshiping Lucifer to be "orgiastic". Generally, orgies among demons or in hell have been mentioned in passing in literature, poetry, and etc., forever. The orgy scene was actually one of the first scenes I came up with, since this has somewhat always been implied in so many texts, and I decided "alright, let's make it happen then !!!"

Thematically/in-story, there's a lot to that scene also (which you might be able to gather from Lucifer's confusing internal monolgue). A part of it is Lucifer's struggle to regain control of his body, another part is Lucifer's anger at Michael (a whole other complicated topic), but maybe the biggest is Lucifer's hatred of himself. Lucifer is deeply traumatized and lashing out and fantasizing of hurting himself — more precisely, he's imagining sexually assaulting his younger self (his more innocent self; Lucifer is also exaggerating his youthful innocence, but of course he is, because that's trauma for you), thereby taking on the role of God. Or a more benevolent God, not because his actions are any different, but because he's hurting himself, rather than others:

'...youll be happy it was me who did it. it’s better if it’s you. tending this garden and sniping the weeds and deflowering it. it is better like this. you will thank me. it is better like this than how it was. you’ll say you love me...’

It's worth noting that Lucifer wouldn't understand sex the way we/humans might. And what Lucifer might've understood as an act of love (the Interlude!!!) is turned into a dirty act of dominion. Lucifer wants to hurt himself, but he's also trying to turn it around and use sexuality as a tool of control (like God has done to him). And he wields it to bring Baal and the other angels to his side.

Notably, God "leaves" after the orgy, before the war and violence has even started.

#theres a LOT to that scene but also #im not super comfy talking about it #angels before man #mine #ask #Sorry if im not making a ton of sense rn but im a bit sleepy aaaa

[ur-frndly-neighborhood-memer1]

Alicent Hightower: Villain or Victim?

(part 1)

While we're all waiting for season 2, I thought an essay about Alicent Hightower would be nice to understand her character and her motives better. Is she really a villain or a victim? Let's analyze!

Before I start analyzing, I wanna start with asking a question: what is character development?

If we go by the definition, it's "In literature, character development is the craft of giving a character a personality, depth, and motivations that propel them through a story. Character development is also defined as how a character evolves throughout the course of a story."

The point of a character development isn't about making the character a better person. It can be though; such as what we've seen with Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and of course with Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire... These are the characters who eventually became better people and actually put an effort to redeem themselves.

Yet, there are also characters who started off bad but only became worse in the process instead of being good. Zuko's sister Azula, or Jaime's sister Cersei are good examples for this. They didn't get any better as the series continued. Just the opposite, they were bad and they only became worse. Which is a good thing, at least for me, because I don't think all villains should be redeemed. They're not any better than their irredeemably megalomaniac and tyrannical fathers after all. And speaking of the fathers, Ozai and Tywin are also good examples for this character archetype.

However, there's another character archetype... Not only the characters who became good from bad, or went from bad to worse, but also characters who were good but eventually ended up being bad... Yes, I'm talking about Alicent Hightower.

I know many people in fandom, especially Black supporters collectively hate Alicent. And I understand this hatred. After all, she made her son usurp Rhaenyra's throne even though she was the King's true heir... And yes, Alicent is definitely a villain in the book. She comes across as a pretty Cersei-ish bad guy. Vain, cold, self-centered, manipulative, hostile... It's easy to imagine her like Cersei Lannister. Which is why many fans often compare her to Cersei.

However, Alicent in the show is a very different song. The showrunners clearly intended to make her more sympathetic and relatable to the audience. Because Alicent doesn't start off villainous. Just the opposite; we see a courteous, understanding but also overly anxious and shy teenage girl. She literally picks her fingernails and make them bleed whenever she's uneasy or stressed. Do I even need to explain how sad this is? She was tearing apart her fingernails during the tourney, and Rhaenyra had to stop her friend from hurting herself... And that's just sad.

(Couldn't find the exact image, but them holding hands is still cute)

When the series starts, we don't see an ambitious Alicent who is actively scheming to become the Queen. In fact, she didn't have any personal ambitions of her own but was only used by her father Otto as a pawn.

Because even if some people disagrees with me, I never believed Alicent was trying to seduce the King in the first place. We've seen that she was only doing what her father was telling her to do. And at this point, she had no power to object to him, she wasn't Queen at this point. But yes, Alicent was indeed being close and "friendly" towards Viserys. However, I wouldn't say she was trying to manipulate him at all. I think she was being empathetic. Because she also lost her mother at such a young age, and she was alone with no one there to comfort her and allow her too feel the agony. As she said, everyone told her to move on. So, Alicent knows better now. She knows this is not how you should treat people who just lost someone they loved. And she knows Viserys is feeling lonely. And she genuinely wants to make him feel better. Not because she really wants to seduce him though. She is trying to help him, because she is an empathetic person, just like when she comforted and helped Rhaenyra.

So far, Alicent isn't a power-hungry b!tch who is plotting to steal the throne. But just a teenage girl who has no choice but obey her father's commands. Yes, she actually ended up marrying Viserys, much to Rhaenyra's shock and disappointment. And she technically betrayed her best friend. But again, I wouldn't say it's Alicent that we should blame here. It was Viserys who didn't tell his daughter about his marriage plan. He should have informed Rhaenyra about the whole thing, and he should have done it in privacy, not announcing it in front of a public.

Even Tywin Lannister was informing his children about his marriage plans before announcing it. Because things need to go accordingly. That's how you set up political marriages. Yes, Cersei and Tyrion hated it, but they weren't taken by surprise at least.

But Viserys really took Rhaenyra by surprise there in front of the whole council, which wasn't professional at all.

But this is where most of the fandom started to hate Alicent even more. Because they say Alicent was so blind with her ambitions that she didn't hesitate to betray her best friend. But that's not even true. Yes, Alicent shouldn't have been visiting Viserys, and even if she was, she should have told Rhaenyra about this marriage. But as I said, she didn't have much choices due to her father's orders and King's wishes. If you want to blame anyone, then blame Otto for using his daughter like a sex object instead of treating her like a human-being. And let's not forget, it was totally Otto who literally said "Go and sleep with your bff's dad after he lost his wife. Oh, and make sure you wear your dead mom's dress too!" So yeah, we all know who is actually the guilty one here...

But let's not forget, even after marrying Viserys and getting pregnant with Aegon, Alicent still made attempts to keep her friendship with Rhaenyra. She genuinely cared about Rhaenyra and valued their friendship. So, she isn't a heartless b!tch that some people in fandom are trying to make her.

And even after Aegon's birth, Alicent still had no personal intention to make him the King. Let's take a look at her interaction with Otto about this topic:

Instead of directly saying she wants her son to be King, Alicent replies that "What mother wouldn't?" Again, it's not her personal wish. But in that political system, mothers/fathers would want their sons to be Kings. Remember when Catelyn wanted Sansa to be Queen? Or how proud she was when Northerns followed Robb as their leader? Or how eager Cersei was to crown Joffrey? Or Mace Tyrell repeatedly trying to set up marriages for Margaery to make her the Queen? Anyone with political ambitions would want to make their child a King/Queen.

But Alicent had no such interest. Because she really loved Rhaenyra and was supporting her right. Also, she saw the heavy burden of being a King. She is living with Viserys, she sees all its conflicts and struggles, she sees how the pressure of the throne slowly destroys him. She wouldn't want her own child to go through what her husband was. So, the answer of this "What mother wouldn't?" question should be no mother who knows what it's like. But then, why does she want it for Rhaenyra? Mainly because she wants to keep her own son away from bearing this burden. And also because she really thinks Rhaenyra is strong enough to deal with it. As she told Otto, Rhaenyra would be a good Queen.

________________________

I don't want to make this post any longer. So I will continue writing in part 2. If you agree or disagree with me, let me know it!

#alicent hightower #hotd #aegon the second #aegon ii #Aegon Targaryen #Viserys Targaryen #Rhaenyra Targaryen #otto hightower #house of the dragon #character analysis #Alicent #team black #team green