#above is one of the bits where he's like(paraphrasing)

[gendrsoup]

i love the way george rexstrew was so committed to edwin as a character and full representing him onscreen send tweet

#"oh when they direct us in this scene to be scared and i think about all the pain #and suffering edwin has seen in hell is say 'no actually i don't think edwin would be surprised or freaked out by this' #yes this is about one of the new interviews that dropped #above is one of the bits where he's like(paraphrasing) #i strive to be half the actor he is #dead boy detectives #edwin payne #edwin paine #george rexstrew

[linkspooky]

Are You Satisfied?

As you might have heard chapter 236 of Jujutsu Kaisen ends with the death of Gojo Satoru. The fandom is making a pretty big deal about it. As someone who predicted from the beginning that Gojo was going to lose against Sukuna, the reaction is fascinating to me. This is perhaps the most controversial chapter of Jujutsu Kaisen I've ever seen. So I've decided to throw my hat into the ring.

The central theme of Jujutsu Kaisen is death, so the death of one of the main characters isn't too surprising, but what does Gojo's death mean for the story? What does it say about his character?

As I said above I am a little bit shocked by the extreme controversy over Gojo's death. Gojo was never going to win the fight in the first place, because Jujutsu Kaisen is a story and the story would be over if he defeated Sukuna. He'd easily be able to take care of Kenjaku afterwards and the main conflcit would be resolved. Would it really be an interesting story if Gojo one shotted the villains while the kids just wathced on Television?

The story is also not about Gojo, it's about the students. Gojo may think he's the protagonist of reality but he's not the protagonist of the story.

Once again, Jujutsu Kaisen is a story and stories have themes. We may grow personally attached to characters, but characters are just narrative tools to convey the themes of a story, no different from prose, dialogue, and art. Characters are a tool to be used well or used poorly, and sometimes yes that means killing them. Whether Gojo's death was naratively satisfying though isn't the purpose of this post though we're only asking what does it mean?

Finally, Jujutsu Kaisen is not only a fictional story, it's specifically a tragedy. Full disclosure, it's a manga about death.

The Protagonist of a Tragedy

So, number one shout out to me for making this post 4 months ago where I called the way Gojo would end the fight.

Excuse me while I fist pump for calling it!

The question on everyone's minds is why does one of the most powerful characters in the manga die offscreen in a pretty humiliating way, cut in half and helpless on the ground just like Kaneki. The reason Gojo didn't get a more heroic (or cooler) death is because we're not reading My Hero Academia, this is not a story about heroes or even a typical Shonen manga it is a tragedy.

In poetics Aristotle defines tragedy as:

"an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions" (51).

To paraphrase a tragedy is about human action, actions characters make in a tragedy often have dire consequences. One of the most common consequences if the reversal of a hero's fortune, a hero of a tragedy usually starts out on top and ends up on the bottom because of the bad choices they make. If in normal shonen manga characters overcome their flaws through effort and persistence, in Jujutsu Kaisen we see characters more often than not lose to their flaws.

The reason I posted that Kaneki panel specifically is because it was a brilliant moment of narrative punishment for Kaneki's central character flaw. Kaneki the hero's main flaw is that he always fights alone, and he constantly makes that same choice over and over again to fight alone. One of the characters helpfully explains it as well.

Stories are primarily about change. If a character doesn't change they're not serving the plot, unless that specifically is the point. People have pointed out how abrupt it is for Gojo to get sealed in Shibuya, get let out, and then immediately die afterwards but that's kind of the point. Gojo made more or less the exact same choice (he asked for Utahime's help for a buff but otherwise fought the entire battle himself). The definition of insanity and what not, why would doing the same thing over and over again net him a different result?

Not only did Gojo choose to fight alone, but as I've been hammering on and on about in previous meta the entire fight Gojo cared more about fighting a strong opponent then he did saving Megumi, the child he was responsible for.

Jujutsu Kaisen is not a typical shonen manga where everything is resolved by beating a strong villain in a fight. That's specifically why I used the Tokyo Ghoul reference, because the reason Kaneki is defeated offscreen like that is because he thought the world worked like a shonen manga. He has a fantasy sequence where he's fighting Juzo in a shonen battle tournament like this is Yu Yu Hakusho right before it snaps back to reality and he's limbless on the ground.

Gojo is a major character in the manga Jujutsu Kaisen, literally "Sorcery Fight" and he is the best sorcerer in the whole world. His entire identity revolves around being a sorcerer. Since he is so good and beloved at what he does, he thinks that everything is resolved by exorcising a curse or defeating a strong opponent. He has basically no identity outside of that. Which is why when he's fighting the possessed body of his student, a person he's been mentoring since childhood his priority is not to save Megumi but to beat a strong opponent. Gojo is a sorcerer, before a human being. That's who he is, that's who he always has been since day one.

I think part of the negative fan reaction comes from fans being really attached to this scene in the manga and deciding Gojo's entire character revolves around being a good mentor figure to children.

Which is just incorrect, Gojo's entire character revolves around being the strongest. On top of that though, Gojo can care about children and also care about being the strongest he can care about multiple things at once and have those things contradict each other because humans are complicated. I'd point out even in this panel where he's stating motivation he's not trying to raise these kids up into being healthy adults, he wants them to be strong Jujutsu Sorcerers. Even when he's raising kids, his intention is to turn them into Jujutsu Sorcerers because everything in Gojo's mind revolves around Jujutsu Sorcery. Gojo does not exist outside of the world of sorcerers. Gojo may be the chosen one but he'd never be able to hold down a job at Mcdonalds.

I think in general readers put more investment in the things characters say out loud, rather than their actions. You can say one thing and do another. I can say "I should never eat sweets again I'm going to improve my diet", and then go and eat ice cream five hours later. Gojo can state out loud his intention to foster children and protect their youths, but then fail to properly do that in the story. Characters are not always what they say they are, that's why they're interesting to interpret. This isn't me calling the readers stupid, just pointing out that Gojo is made up of contradictions. He wants to get rid of the old guard and replace them with something new, but Gojo IS THE OLD GUARD.

If the culling games arc has shown us one thing, it's that ancient sorcerers brought to the modern age do not care that much about human life on an individual level, they are all of them egoists. There's a reason Gojo resembles someone like Sukuna more than he does any other character in the manga. I'm not saying Gojo is exactly like Sukuna, he's far more altruistic and uses his genuinely noble ideals but at the same time Sukuna is a shadow archetype to Gojo he represents Gojo's flaws. The flaws that Gojo succumbs to in tragic fashion.

Which if you believe that Gojo genuinely does love his students, and the ideal he's fighting for is to raise up a better generation and allow them to live out their youths, then Gojo throughout the entire Sukuna fight is acting against those ideals. He cares far more about fighting Sukuna then he does saving Megumi, it's shown over and over again in the battle, Megumi is an afterthought to him. If Gojo care moredefeating the big bad and saving the world is more important than helping a child that Gojo is responsible for then Gojo is acting against his stated principles. Why should Gojo win the fight when he's fighting for all the wrong reasons?

Tragedies are like visual novels, if you make the wrong choice the novel will give you a red flag. If you ignore the red flag then you get locked into the route with the bad ending. Gojo always fights alone. Gojo only ever fights for himself, even if he's using that selfishness in support of a more noble ideal like creating a better generation of sorcerers. If Gojo consecutively makes the same changes then in a tragedy he's not going to be rewarded for it.

Gojo wants the old generation out and the new generation in, but Gojo resembles the old generation too much. Old sorcerers like Hajime and Sukuna respect him, Hajime argues that Gojo being able to fight for his pride is far more important than him living to the end of the battle when Yuta wanted to interfere and help him.

Gojo's death isn't a surprise curve ball that Gege is throwing us for shock value, it's a result of his choices throughout the manga. A manga about change, and the change between generations is not going to punish a character for remaining roughly the same. Of course you might find it disappointing that Gege didn't give Gojo the chance to grow and change and experience a character arc like Megumi or Yuji, but Jujutsu Kaisen is a tragedy, and the way Gojo's arc ended is consistent with what Gege wrote.

Jujutsu Kaisen is not just a tragedy though, it's a manga about death. The manga begins with Yuji's grandfather warning him not to die alone the way that he did. His grandfather's dying words are what motivate Yuji throughout the beginning of the manga as he's searching for a "proper" death.

One of the major themes of Yuji's character is a contemplation of death. He accepts that death is inevitable, so he wants to save them from the gruesome deaths they'd experience if they became victims to curses and allow them to have a more satisfying death. Yuji's grandpa died an unsatisfying death because he died alone in a hospital room. Yuji even tries to make his own death a satisfying one because he believes by dying to seal away Sukuna he'll reduce the total number of casualties to curses.

Jujutsu Kaisen keeps investigating the theme of death and what exactly would make for a satisfying death. At one point it's all but stated that death is the mirror that makes humans analyze their lives.

When Yuji fails to save Junpei from the "unnatural death" it calls into question whether or not his goal of saving people from unsatisfying deaths and the gruesome deaths caused by curses is even feasible. Nanami even says that Yuji might not be able to accomplish his goal and warns him away from the path.

We see repeated unsatifying deaths in the manga, each time someone reflecting on their deaths that they weren't able to get what they wanted out of life. This list comes via @kaibutsushidousha by the way I'm quoting them.

Nanami's a character who chose to work as a sorcerer because he didn't want to evade the responsibility of doing all you can to help people, he wanted to believe he's somewhere where he's needed. He never runs away from responsibility like Mei Mei does so he quite literally works himself to death, living and dying as a sorcerer. Nanami or Gojo's dying hallucination of Nanami even says as much, his death is the result of him choosing to go south and returning to be a sorcerer.

Maki chose revenge against the Zen'in over her sister, and as a result Mai is dead. Maki has all the power in the world now, her revenge complete but she's left with a sense of "now what?" She's as strong as Toji now but she failed to protect her sister, and it's the result of the choices she made. Maki's reflection isn't triumph, it's "I should have chosen to die with her."

Even Yuji himself is robbed of his narrative purpose. The manga began with Yuji saying he wants to choose how he's going to die and he'll die taking out Sukuna with him so he can reduce the number of people killed by curses in the world. Both of those things are thrown in Sukuna's face. Number one the amount of people Yuji can save by permanently killing Sukuna is now a moot point because he let Sukuna rampage in Shibuya.

Number two, Sukuna isn't even in Yuji anymore. To build on what Comun said though, this repeated tragedy has a purpose to it and understanding requires understanding that Jujutsu Kaisen is an existentialist manga. Existentialism is basically a school of philosophy centered around the question of "Why do I exist?"

There's nothing about the invetability of death to make you question why you're alive in the first place. In the myth of Sispyhus, Albert Camus boils down all of philosophy to one question.

"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. "

All of philosophy is should I shoot myself in the head or should I keep living? Everything comes after that question, which is why in Jujutsu Kaisen a lot of the characters motivations revolve around them contemplating death. Sorcerers exist in a world where they can die any moment, and as Gojo says most of them die alone. It might be the nature of sorcery itself that causes so many people to die, not only are they dying because they are trapped in an uncaring system, but the characters themselves aren't really attempting to live outside of it. They live and die as sorcerers, replaceable cogs in the machine.

All of these unsatisfying deaths may just be the result of all these characters making one choice, to live as sorcerers rather than people. Because to exist means to live in the world.

Even in Mechamaru's case, his goal is deeply existentialist by what I defined, all he wants to do is live in the world with everyone else rather than be stuck in his hospital room but his actions contradict that goal. Instead of letting his friends come and visit he's obsessed with the idea of getting a normal body because he feels that's the only way he can exist with everyone else, he makes a deal with the devil, he lies and goes behind their backs. He wasn't living with everyone else in the world and he could have chosen to, he chose wrong and his death is the result of that choice.

Jujutsu Sorcerers aren't living in the world. They're living in a little snowglobe far removed from the world with its own rules, most of them regressive and disconnected from the rest of society. If you define existentialism as just "living in the world' then a lot of these characters aren't, because they only exist in the world of sorcery.

INVISIBLE BUFFY: What are you talking ab- SPIKE: The only reason you're here, is that you're not here. (drinking) INVISIBLE BUFFY: Right. Of course, as usual there's something wrong with Buffy. She came back all wrong. (moving around on the bed) You know, I didn't ask for this to happen to me. SPIKE: Not too put off by it though, are you? (drinking) INVISIBLE BUFFY: No! Maybe because for the first time since ... I'm free. She tosses the sheet aside. Spike looks around, trying to figure out where she's going. INVISIBLE BUFFY: Free of rules and reports ... free of this life. SPIKE: Free of life? Got another name for that. Dead.

Not living in the world with everyone else is the same as being dead.

A lot of these characters either make the choice to act alone, or be a jujutsu sorcerer rather than a person and because of that they die as sorcerers, b/c sorcerers die that's what they do. Mai didn't want to keep living as a hindrance to Maki so she kills herself. Maki didn't want to be anything other than a sorcerer, so her little sister dies and she's not a big sister anymore. Nanami chose to leave his job behind and become a sorcerer again, he dies as one.

Of course I don't think the manga is punishing characters for being too egotistical, but rather too unbalanced. If anything Mai is too selfless and that is why she died, she didn't want to live for herself and chooses self sacrifice for her sister. An unbalance between selfishness or selflessness results in an underdeveloped ego. Jujutsu Kaisen doesn't punish individualism per se, moreso if you're not a fully developed individual you won't last long. Because it's also a manga about growing up in the world, and a person who doesn't have a healthy, mature, well-balanced sense of self is not a grown up.

This twitter user det_critics points out that Gojo (and also Yuki + Yuji's) failures in the manga can be attributed to the fact they don't have real senses of self.

Gojo has an identity crisis as outlined by Geto, "are you Satoru Gojo because you're the strongest, or are you the strongest because you're Satoru Gojo?"

It's a challenge for him to find some reason to live outside of being the strongest, and in tragic fashion Gojo just doesn't find it in time. Gojo lived for fighting others, and proving to himself that he's the strongest, and that's how he dies.

There's something I like to say about narrative punishment in stories. There are two ways to punish a character, you either don't give them what they want, or you give them exactly what they want. This is the latter, Gojo wanted to find someone stronger than him because deep down he believed that nobody could understand him unless they were on his level. He wanted to be surpassed, and that's why he focused on creating stronger young sorcerers, but he never shook himself of the belief that only someone as strong or even stronger than he was could ever be emotionally attached to him so he made a deliberate choice to draw a line between himself and others.

Gojo's essentially gotten what he wanted from that choice in the worst way possible. The student he picked to succeed him Megumi, has his body stolen and kills him. Gojo is surpassed, but it's not by one of his own students it's by an enemy that's not only trying to kill Gojo but is going to massacre his students afterwards.

Gojo's spent his entire life believing that because he's more powerful that makes him inherently different and above others, and being lonely because he himself believed he couldn't relate to ordinary people and he dies like an ordinary person, an unsatisfying death where he wasn't able to bring out Sukuna's best, where he gets unceremoniously cut in half offscreen but yay he's no longer the strongest. He's gotten exactly what he wanted. Megumi is still not saved, Sukuna's probably going to kill more people because Gojo failed to stop him here, but hey at least he stopped to compliment Gojo.

It's empty, but it's empty because of the choices Gojo made in life to just not bother connecting to people or develop any kind of identity besides being a sorcerer. Gojo lives and dies as a sorcerer, and his dying dream is returning to a teenager being surrounded by everyone he was with during his school days, because that's the happiest time in his life. Ironically he was happier before he became the strongest, because that was the only time in his life that he allowed himself to connect to people.

However in the eyes of others, he is someone who has it all. That's why he is always alone. There was no one who could hold the same sentiments and mutually understand him. Geto was the only one who could understand what he was trying to say, and the only one who could communicate well with him.

It's no coincidence Gojo and Geto die exactly a year apart on the same day, if anything I'd say the reasons they die are similiar to at least thematically. They both die because they don't want to live in the world. Geto thinks the world is too corrupt and GOjo doesn't want to be anything other than a sorcerer, both of them fail to adapt.

「 'It's just. . .' It's just that it was what Geto had to do. [...] To someone like him, the reality that the world of sorcerers presented to him was just too cruel. '. . .that in a world like this, I couldn't truly be happy from the bottom of my heart.'」

They can't be happy in a world like this from the bottom of their hearts, so narratively they both die. The things they chose to live for at the end of their life they fail to accomplish, Gojo is no longer the stronget, Geto fails to wipe out mankind or make major changes to the world and they die as normal people unsatisfied because they weren't trying to live in the world and make connections to others. They die almost karmically a year apart because their main connection for both of them, the thing which made them feel connected to the world and other people was each other.

Which is why this panel breaks my heart and is so narratively satisfying because of how unsatisfying it is...

"If you were among those patting my back... then I might've been satisfied."

Gojo reflects that he's not satisfied dying against Sukuna, not because he failed to give him a good enough challenge but because Geto wasn't there to pat him on the back. The one thing that would have satisfied him he couldn't have, because he didn't live to connect to people he lived to be the strongest and he died alone as the strongest. There's just something deeply upsetting about Gojo's dying dream fantasy just him being there talking with all of his dead friends who he never appreciated or connected to properly when he was alive. Knowing that if something had just gone a little differently, that even if he had to die no matter what he could have died happier if Geto was among the people saying goodbye to him because that connection with Geto is what gave his life meaning.

Dazai Osamu: "A life with someone you can say good-bye to is a good life, especially when it hurts so much to say it to them. Am I wrong?" -Bungou Stray Dogs Beast

#gojo satoru #jjk spoilers #jjk meta #jujutsu kaisen 236 spoilers #jjk 236 #jujutsu kaisen 236 #jjk 236 spoilers #jujutsu kaisen #jujustu kaisen meta #jujutsu kaisen theory #jujutsu kaisen manga #satoru gojo #geto suguru #suguru geto #satosugu

[mesmir-ized]

*flipping through cue cards

ponysona…no……..my little persona……..no…………

(elaboratig on cutie marks below BC i thought about them a lot !!! ahhh so long)

(not spoiler free !!!!!!!!!!!!)(corn get outta here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

i wanted to keep these as simple as possible , and not cram too much imagery in to them , so they wouldnt look out of place in the show &c ! fun little challenge i gave myself , just for context :D

akechi: a white pawn chess piece ! my friend actually came up with this ! and its kinda genius ! to paraphrase what she said: white chess pieces move first ; akechi is always the one to (attempt to be) one step ahead of the thieves , having everything lined up for himself to succeed . 

     her words: “akechi sets the first gambit, the tone, and gets to begin laying out the chess board how he sees fit, and joker is the reactionary. but heres the thing. strategists differ on how you should play as black, like if you should automatically be on defense from white's offensive move. but the most famous black player of all time is magnus carlsen, who is WILDLY an offensive player and absolutely goes for it every time, to the point where white has been INTIMIDATED by him and played poorer statistically against him because of it . like thats CRAZY!! hes one of the boldest chess players in existence and he prefers to go SECOND! it was pretty much unheard of before him.”

    plus , (my words now) theres the idea of not only him manipulating others (the pawn) , but he himself becoming a pawn in a plan much grander than him . the p5 wildcards and their games of strategy a nd all !

joker: joker card(+mask !) i was actually trying to come up with something “better” , but the joker card really , really fits him . not only literally being a wildcard in the metaverse/persona sense , but also IRL , how he’s adaptable to every situation ! canon pretty much explains it , LOL ! but again bringing in the theme of classic games of strategy , joker with his joker card !

ryuji: EPIC awesome skull (literally his na,me...) , but i liked it with the idea of delinquency/pirates(YIPPY !) , as well as the lightning not only for power , but symbolizing speed~  hes just cool

ann: lipstick kiss mark ! this one actually came to me really quick , LOL ! it symbolizes her role as a model (makeup !) , but also has to do with how she reclaims her sexuality and looks for herself ! that , as well as her caring nature , especially to the little guys(like a mother’s kiss goodbye on your forehead..)

yusuke: ink brush + swirls !!! funny enough this one took me the longest to come up with . i wanted to avoid giving him a palette , since i wanted to focus on traditional japanese art forms above all else (since thats basically his whole tyhing !) and ended up going with an ink brush ! it’s not exclusively japanese by any means , but its recognizable , and we see him work with ink many times ! the little swirls are meant to be the golden ratio (beauty ?)LOL , but just kinda look like swirls.......maybe shapes found in his art ?

makoto: gavel and books ! also took me a weirdly lomg time to come up with , but i figured it out ! the gavel is obviously meant to represent justice/the justice system , but also wanted it to represent power as well (since makoto can often act like a secondary “boss” LOL , and her role as a leader at school !) . the books are for her intelligence (perhaps legal books) ? yippy !!!!

haru: a coffee cup with a plant growing out of it ! this is a bit on the nose , but i had fun figuring it out ! keeping her goal of opening a cafe (and coming up with new coffee blends throughout the game) in mind , as well as her love for plants and gardening ! the plant is meant to form a sort of heart (which can also look like steam coming fromt he cup).. , to also show her nurturing side !

futaba: computer and medjed eyes !!!!!! also a bit on the nose , LOL ! for this 1 , the computer is obviously tied to her skill as a hacker/her computer-focused life , but the eyes carry a bit more weight ! theyre literally the eyes of the deity medjed , who is known for those two eyes that look directly at you ! we dont see any medjed logo with graphics like this in game IIRC , but i added it for the double(triple?) meaning ! medjed in game carries the weight of being a part of the book of the dead , and connected to futaba’s palace themed around egyptian tombs , but i also felt the eyes could be tied to how she monitors everyone , and interacts with the world through her computer (almost as if shes looking out from it !) yippy !!!!!!!!! :D

sumire: magic wand/gymnastics ribbon ! as explained by my description , LOL , this mark is meant to look both like a magic wand (cinderella/fairy gdmother ...) as well as a gymnastics ribbon ! we see her with these in game , which made my job much easier ! the ribbon forms sort of an “s” for her name , and also looks kind of like a shooting star , to symbolize how she is always shooting for the top ! (and on a darker note , how shooting stars can often be meteors that fall apart)... kasumi’s mark is hers but reversed , and has an additional sparkle/star on it , for “3 stars”, 1st place ! the absence of this sparkle for sumire can represent how she lost her sister , and how she feels lesser (even if just as wonderful !)

okay yayyayy thats all bye bye !!!!!!!!!

#goro akechi #akira kurusu #ren amamiya #joker p5 #ryuji sakamoto #ann takamaki #yusuke kitagawa #makoto niijima #haru okumura #futaba sakura #sumire yoshizawa #kasumi yoshizawa #persona 5 #p5 #p5r #mlp #p5 x mlp #my little pony #mir.art #long post #i loooove coming up with pony designs i made a bunch of mlp ocs too :3 #will post later~!

[strangertheories]

Quantum Entanglement and Stranger Things 5

I'll tag @ven0moir and @strawberrybyers because their posts were the first I'd seen talking about this. This is based off of the theory that the tweet and poster as seen below are referring to quantum entanglement (two particles that depend on the other one, no matter how far apart they are).

When looking at quantum entanglement, Mike and Will were not the first pair to pop into my head. I get why it would, as they're framed in front of a poster of it, there's a pair from a love triangle above it and also it would be adorable of them to do that. I think that's a very valid theory. However, does anyone think that this could apply to Vecna and El or, more interestingly in my opinion, Will and Vecna? Or even Hawkins and the Upside Down?

Here's a description of quantum entanglement via this article:

"Quantum entanglement is a bizarre, counterintuitive phenomenon that explains how two subatomic particles can be intimately linked to each other even if separated by billions of light-years of space. Despite their vast separation, a change induced in one will affect the other."

Maybe this is foreshadowing that Will has an entwined link with Vecna so no matter how far he runs or hides, he will be linked to him forever. Especially since Will has his mental link to the mind flayer; they are literally entangled for life and that's why Will can sense him. A change in the mind flayer is a change in Will. This could help explain the seasons long mental link Will has to Vecna; they were doomed to meet the second Will became the flee and not the acrobat.

Alternatively, it could be talking about El in a sort of Harry Poster esque way (not trying to promote HP, just acknowledging similarities) where one cannot exist without the other. This could help to explain the similarities between the Deathly Hallows Part II poster and the volume 2 one.

This could mean that you cannot have Hawkins without the Upside Down; they are too linked, hence why the Russians went to build there. I have a post with a bit about this theory amongst other things that I'll link here. But the gist is that Hawkins is intertwined with the Upside Down and has been for longer than Henry's time.

The example the article used also drew my attention with the Upside Down parallels. I'm paraphrasing here, but they explained it like a coin; there are both a heads and a tails side, which you know without needing to look, but you cannot determine whether it is heads or tails until you look. Hawkins is kind of like a coin, with the main universe and the Upside Down, so even if you shut the gate and break the link, it'll still be linked forever. Maybe to fix it, you have to destroy not just Vecna or the Upside Down, but Hawkins altogether.

I'm mostly spiralling here but this is a really interesting tweet and I think it's worth discussing whether this will be a theme in S5. Personally, I lean more towards Will and Vecna being entwined with each other over a Byler romantic version, but I'm very open to lots of theories.

#stranger things #byler #will byers #stranger things theory #stranger theories #st theory #st5 #st5 theory #st5 speculation #stranger things five #vecna #henry creel #001

[acourtofthought]

regarding your previous anon I just wanted to say that in a fairly recent livestream/interview deal she did in the last few years she said 'not much has changed since my initial drunken ramblings in the beginning' I'm paraphrasing there, but I don't think she's gonna make any big ship changes when she's close to wrapping up the series (also it was so funny to see e/riel's being all over that like it was ever planned from the beginning lololol)

YESSSS!!!!

If you ever find out exactly which one that was, I would love to know because I remember hearing that but have since forgotten where so I was never able to include a screenshot or link in my posts. She said "not much has changed from that initial pitch but the world has now expanded".

If we think back to that drunken rambling and when she pitched her ideas to her then editor, we were told a few things.

She said she knew who the first two spin-off books would be about but she was keeping the third open. For the third, she was debating between 5 possible ships and was considering a book set Pre ACOTAR.

That particular drunk lunch took place in 2016 (I'm guessing) as she was still drafting ACOWAR.

If, in 2016, she knew who the first two spin-off books would be about then logically, who did that mean?

Nesta and Elain. Especially when she says in multiple interviews she would love to tell the sisters stories one day and we know she had already done research for Elain's book while pregnant with her first child who was born in June of 2018.

Who also had the most buildup as a possible love interest for the sisters in ACOMAF / ACOWAR? (around the same time she said she knew who she wanted the first two books to be about?).

Cassian and Lucien hands down. Lucien's ENTIRE story in ACOWAR was based around worrying for Elain's safety, fighting his way to be by her side, helping her through her depression, going after an army based on her vision, giving her time to deal with her engagement to Graysen, running all the way from the shore to find her after battle, his having met her father, her inviting him back to Velaris, him standing beside her during the meeting at the end of the book.

Az and Elain might have had a few "moments" in ACOWAR that E/riels use for their proof of endgame but Az was still 100% in love with Mor when you consider that he still looked at her with hunger in ACOFAS while Elain was sitting in the room with him. The question at the end of ACOWAR was not "will Elain and Az get together" but "what will Elain and Lucien do about her mating bond now that she invited him back to Velaris". When the author wasn't sure who was getting the third book and everything suggests Elain was getting the second, all signs pointed to Elain and Lucien as the main POV especially when you consider that as an individual Lucien also had way more buildup than Az in ACOWAR. He was SA by Ianthe, chased out of his home in Spring, was feeling sadness over not having a home when Feyre slipped into his head, guilt over Jesminda, the pull to Elain, the reader (but not Lucien himself) finding out Helion is his actual father, and he fought in his first war. SJM left us with too many unresolved plots for Lucien to not give him a book.

It wasn't until after the release of SF and she was discussing it that she made the comment above "my plan for the intial spin-offs didn't change but the world expanded."

And you know what expanded?

Az suddenly got a bit more of a mysterious background, he got a bonus with hints of a possible mating bond, and SJM introduced the possibility of time-travel what with Merrill's research and the Trove's ability to open doors between worlds. Az ended up connected to the crossover.

THEN it was later announced that she was contracted for additional books (and maybe a new series).

If her intial plan didn't change then Nessian and Elucien were always going to be resolved first and now Az's romantic arc / journey is the direction she decided to take things after finishing the main story of the Archern sisters.

Yes, Az and Elain nearly kissed and had a harmless flirtation going on but it never got off the ground did it?

Ever since the Elucien bond snapped into place, the real question has not been "will Elain and Az end up together" but "will Elain and Lucien end up accepting their mating bond?" And just as SJM had Nesta share experiences with others before ending up with Cassian, she had Elain attempt to have an experience with Az but I don't think he was ever meant to be more than a slight detour in the Elucien journey so as to make their path to one another a bit more tension filled. And I think the reason SJM introduced Az's possible mate in his bonus is that she didn't want readers to feel bad for him for too long because even though she's on track for an Elucien endgame, we know that Az isn't going to be sad for very long as he's got his own mate waiting in the wings.

#elucien #pro elucien #elain archeron #lucien vanserra #anti e/riel #pro lucien vanserra #elain x lucien #lucien and elain #pro elain archeron #sarah j maas #acotar 5

[masha-nikita]

How strong is his Mars?- Erich von Manstein

The following entry is not Tarot related so I decided to leave my Tarot side blog alone with this series. I want to make a series on “How strong is his Mars?” to test a theory in Astrology community- you’ve got to have a strong Mars to be competent in the military.

Is that theory true?

Our first gentleman is Erich von Manstein.

First thing to remember- my philosophy on reading charts is the same with my post about Fedor von Bock. Highly recommend you check it out.

The strongest planet in Erich von Manstein’s chart is not Mars, it is his Moon. Von Manstein has incredible intuition where his enemy may land, as if he could REALLY enter their minds and intuit how the enemy force was really thinking and moving. The power of a 12th House Pisces Moon is that it knows no “interpersonal boundaries”, could see a whole division of soldiers move like one single mass, in the same time penetrates the soldiers’ minds individually. It is pretty magical and hard to explain.

This moon is powerfully psychic. Plus, there’s a sextile Neptune supporting this Moon- Neptune dissolves any materiality and drops you straight to the unknown plane, where your subconscious is apt to gather information from that channel. You give him a good team for reconnaissance—it is important, if I should give him anything, I’d prioritize military intelligence over fire power. He could wipe out any enemy forces with soldiers equipped with broom sticks.

If most other Tarot readers have Manstein’s Moon, I’d quit this career very quickly. I don’t fuck with that moon.

However, this moon is one reason why he receives quite a criticism from the YT channel TIK- to paraphrase Thersites the Historian- “one moment he has the most brilliant of strategies, the next moment you’d be like… bro, what are you smoking? THAT SHIT DUMB.” He is bound to get this problem if he wasn’t able to comprehend- BRO, IT IS NOT YOUR SUN SIGN ORIENTED BRAIN DOING YOUR JOB, KNOCK IT OFF; stop pretending you are rational and all!

And yeah, his Virgo Mars is going to like to play rational and perfectionist.

Here, how about his Mars? If Manstein’s Moon is a 10, his Mars falls at about 3 or 4, in my opinion. Any score above 5 is beneficial, below five is “this is doing the native dirty”. Oh this Mars is not strong, it is kinda… really not good.

One reason the Mars is not good, is that it opposites Moon, so this shitty Mars is playing this really unnecessary and petty internal struggles with the best Moon possible. It is like an extraterrestrial civilization drops you an advanced weapon, and somehow you insist on modifying it into a stupid BB gun.

This Mars is too detail-oriented for its own good, and tends to pick apart and tear down the Moon’s wisdom- because “haha I am in an opposition aspect to you so I’m gonna be a bitch, what you’re gonna do about it?”

Manstein’s Virgo Mars is going to be picky and whiny on the battlefield, and it is going to be felt by his staff and war historians more than his sun sign- after all, this Mars is in an adversarial aspect with his strongest planet. The staff who do endless organization works for him probably want to die; he’d frown be like “dude it is easy”, and proceed to fix every detail with 2 mm precision scissors. When he was Von Rundstedt’s chief of staff, it seems Rundstedt liked his staff work.

Well, it is understandable…

All earth sign Mars has poor ability to move fast and improvise, and that includes Virgo. Virgo has delicate hands to handle smaller things, like rifle-size weapons; but bigger Panzers, sorry, this Virgo Mars would pass. Any imperfections would get on this Mars’ nerves and Manstein would hold back a bit to fix some annoying details, all the while his Panzer groups taking losses from Vatutin.

As to why this Mars is not a zero out of 10, is because this Mars receives the same support with the Moon from other beneficial planets like Jupiter and Mercury. He’s got some really annoying decision making process on a fast-pace battlefield, this Mars would make him distrust his Moon, but at least he does everything elegantly, like a sir.

In conclusion, Erich von Manstein, extraterrestrial psychic super power Moon, annoying Mars, an outstanding field marshal.

#wwii germany #3rd reich #wwii #moon #mars #astrology #horoscope #erich von manstein #reichblr #feldmarschall #heer #wehrmacht #How strong is his Mars #astrology community #astrology chart

[muninnhuginn]

Ohh, I really like your analysis of the last skip&loafer chapter. It's not shown in the scanlation, but in the japanese version there is also a little comment at the end which reads something a long the lines of "there is nothing wrong with these feelings" and i love how it reflects the idea that there is nothing wrong with enjoying your interests, no matter how silly they may seem, but also that there is nothing wrong with feeling angry about not being treated well. Kazakami wasn't ungrateful for being upset over his possessions being thrown away, it's an understandable reaction... I am really looking forward the school festival arc and how it will expand on kazakami, takamine and kanechika trio! I wonder if we will get some shima, yasaka and kazakami parallels too

Thank you! And aww, that's so sweet with the end note. I guess it's something that's threaded throughout the series in general in terms of people enforcing roles and not needing to fit them, but there's just something nice about it being said "outright", you know?

But yeah, I think the whole thing with his hobbies being dismissed is wildly relatable. The fact that he'd still been trying his hardest to study for third year and abandoning everything else just makes it worse. Because he'd kept this one hobby for himself and he couldn't even have that. And his parents clearly didn't comprehend that his hobby *was* important to him. The bit where his mum referred to the figures as "dolls" just rubbed it in, because if you spend any time whatsoever with anyone into that side of things, you would not be mucking up on basic terminology? It's not any kind of obscure trivia like the handedness. It's super basic, but his mum couldn't be bothered to even learn that.

Same @ the final year trio. If there's going to be any kind of breakthrough with them, it pretty much has to be during the culture festival, I think. Just because timing-wise, that's the big opportunity that's left before they leave. And getting the Kazakami chapter has made me more sure of that, because now we have some solid pieces of info on all three of them. (Though ngl, I'd love a Kanechika focus chapter during/before that. We've received plenty of pieces on him breadcrumbed throughout the series (too forceful, genuinely passionate about stage not just acting, but he puts himself out there in a way none of the other characters are really able to and he has had to work to reach a semblance of "cringe is free" - it's not effortless), but I don't think we've had a chapter that full-on focuses on him in the same way as we have the other two?)

I hadn't been thinking of Yasaka but yee definitely. She has parallels with both Mitsumi (as a contrast. that line about "never having to worry about being loved" (paraphrasing) still rings in my head) and Mika and Shima (as a compare) and I'm sort of guessing her thread may appear more with the Ujie subplot. But Yasaka basically takes Shima and inverts his approach in a lot of ways (appeasing other people, not trusting in being liked for oneself, but she's more active than passive in her manipulation of social situations), so given Shima and Kazakami are now shown to be remarkably similar, it follows that Yasaka would also be an interesting comparison point.

Sorry, most of this is just rambling, but tl;dr yes to all the above. The series truly is parallels all the way down and the way that societal roles colours everything, but the series itself says you don't have to conform to that is so reassuring. I know personally, Nao-chan's worries about having missed the boat on experiencing life really hit

#asks #anonymous #stl manga spoilers #thanks for sending the ask btw! I know I apologised for the rambling but I do enjoy the opportunity to do so tbh #skip to loafer

[the-jester-doc]

If you would allow me to talk about dumb shit:

Hyaline.exe, as a ship, kinda shows off things... I'm not sure what but I feel like I'm onto something. Please note each bit is completely unrelated

First: the disbelief phrases.

Writer above.

The writer is the god above gods. And in a culture where gods walk among men, he obviously ends up being the closest thing to a capital G God. He is the WRITER the god ABOVE gods. There is a linguistic evolution of them shortening it.

Meanwhile, from what I can tell, peaks.... Is just a place. It's probably important, but... It's replacing god. How important can a mountain be? This is a genuine question please help me make my mini essays this little bit easier.

Second: the two idiots scenes together

The easiest one.

The ghost wrote his experiences into thinly veiled fanfic. You could read him like a book (Literally)

Meanwhile, hyaline basically tells nothing, other than who they hate, and who they don't.

And, of course, the most important scenes, the kisses, and the "I love you"s.

The ghost has been, possibly, my most changed character who still stays in their own logic. His redemption was never planned. I just thought it would be funny, and now he is genuinely one of my nicest characters. This is not a joke. He wears his heart on his sleeves around those he trusts. And he trusts hyaline WITH HIS LIFE.

Him leaving his pocket dimension for anything could spell years of agony for him, followed by Being un-existed. Yet he left repeatedly to go hang out with... Well, let's be frank, a mean weirdo loser who everyone hates.

And that's who he is risking his literal existence on.

Because he sees something.

Someone who has made the same mistakes as him.

But hyaline stood up for him too. When the ghosts of the past (or, let's be frank, the shittiest co-worker imaginable) came knocking, they were also ready to risk life and limb just to help him. If they know it or not is up to you.

And three: they both really need therapy

Oughhhhh I love your thoughts btw— and here’s a little Evershock lore rundown to explain the Peaks thing!!

Evershock (the game Hyaline and Hyper are from) is centered around three heroes who all fit the criteria to a prophesy to save the world. Basically,, waaay in the past, a bunch of wizards and sorcerers created the Great Peaks (physically, it’s literally just a mountain range) to purify the evil monsters into beasts docile enough to benifit the world. (Basically, they invented animals by making a magic mountain) Well,,, the wizards prophesied that the mountains wouldn’t always work and a hero would wield the sacred weapon, the Evershock, and save the world forever. One day, the largest of the Great Peaks cracks in half and the spell is undone, spurring the prophecy.

The Peaks are effectively god: a higher power that protects and gives. Saying “Great Cracked Peaks” is like saying “Jesus fucking Christ” etc etc. Hyaline says it more than Hyper does because Hyper has been exposed to the internet.

And the thing about Hyaline only saying who it hates and who it doesn’t— VERY intentional. Hyaline is a textureless faceless shadow of Hyper, and sees itself as such. Hyaline doesn’t think it’s anything more than it’s hatred for Hyper, and so Hyaline’s opinions on people become the only thing it thinks it is. Hyaline wants to make Hyper pay for what he did to it, and wants to do it without help.

And BRO. Hyaline would ABSOLUTELY endure torture specifically to piss off someone who tried to boss it around— even more willing for Apples.exe. Because ‘he’s different’— I said that was just gayness but it’s really true because no one treats Hyaline the way Apples.exe does, and Hyaline notices it even if it can’t fathom why. (Everyone hating on it is totally deserved btw— hyaline is a jackass) Also let me just paraphrase the “[[ I don’t feel anything. I wonder if I’d prefer constant pain…]]” line here cause uh- yeah.

And yeah. Get these mother fuckers a therapy session. Like, yesterday.

#long post #important hyaline lore #hyaline.exe #side note ablut the trust thing #hyalines only other ‘friend’ is jay/Jota who both hate it #and hyaline would throw them under the bus immediately if it furthered it’s goals #apples.exe on the other hand…

[lizhly-writes]

Where is Asmyung? ಥ⌣ಥ They're already having child together

ngl my first instinct is to go "oh you are FUCKING with me HOW ROOD" but upon further thought this is exactly the reason why i wrote an indeterminate amount of words shilling kdj/bihyung, so if i can do that, there is really not much stopping me from doing this.

in regards to your question, i seeee... one nsfw fic on ao3 where that's the main ship. oh man. do you ship this? because if you do, you are one deprived motherfucker. my condolences.

But anyway. Back to it. Disclaimer, I haven’t read orv in the longest time, so bear with me.

Here is what I remember from the fun and exciting possible romance arc of Han Myungoh. He runs off after getting hit with Asmodeus's curse… and then 3 years later, we see him in the demon realm. As a demon. With a kid.

...You know, I squinted so hard at this that you've actually forced me to reread the chapter that explains this shit. Good job.

It turns out it is strikingly similar to the formulae that otome isekai and similar stories I read use. Let's, for the sake of convenience, call Han Myungoh 'FL' and Asmodeus 'ML'.

Our brave FL, after experiencing certain dealings with our ML, gets knocked up. She runs away, but in the process, gives birth to a child, who she loves with all her heart. But, at a certain point, she realizes she can no longer protect her child, so she turns to the only person who would have interest in doing the same thing: the other parent. Indeed, the other parent is interested in their child, and they form a contract: the FL is rewarded handsomely with status and protection in exchange for the child. The FL, in a weak position and having little other choice, accepts the contract, but resents it. She would do anything to get the child back, and does, in fact, do anything that the ML tells her to do, and...

And that's Han Myungoh. I fudged a little, but that's actually the canon plot for this guy in orv. I really didn't think much of this ship, but seriously, when I look at this way, it really does look like a standard otome isekai romance with a bastard male lead. I'm crying, this is hilarious. Is this what you saw, anon? This is so funny, I'm dying.

See, here's the thing, if this was an otome isekai, I could then tell you how this would go, which is this: while the FL resentfully does tasks for the ML, the ML grows to have a certain respect for the FL due to competence reasons, and the FL grows to appreciate ML for dispensing certain kindnesses (hey, stockholm syndrome!). Eventually, we get to a point where they're probably resentfully attracted to each other, but they both refuse to admit it, because FL still thinks ML is evil and ML thinks FL is beneath him. But then! But then something dramatic happens. Either FL's life or ML's life is threatened. Perhaps the child's life is threatened. Maybe all of the above. But anyway, there's some lifesaving going on, where FL/ML is so touched that the other saved them/had such concern for the child and then they declare their love for each other and then they officially get married and then it's a happily ever after and then I hurl my book across the room, probably.

I'm paraphrasing, there would probably be a bit more room between the lifesaving and getting married bit. Probably self awareness into the fact that they're in love and then an awkward "sorry I took your kid or whatever, let's go on a date" kind of dealio.

But I digress. Here's the thing. Here's the thing.

You could totally just write a canon divergence fic where everything I've just said happens, and it wouldn't even be hard. Sure, you'd have to nudge a few things over, but Han Myungoh does actually save Asmodeus's life once, even if is, you know, mostly related to Asmodeus being in his daughter's body, and Asmodeus briefly contemplates "is this what love is like?" or, you know, something like that. That actually does fit into the structure I've outlined above and I am banging my head onto my desk because of it.

This is so funny anon I am dying.

#liz rants #asks #anon #han myungoh #asmodeus #han myungoh/asmodeus #asmyung #squinting at that shipname but i guess if no one else ships this you get to name the ship #orv #no i'm seriously giggling rn this is just SO FUNNY to me #this SHOULD NOT WORK #everything

[foxybananaaaz]

PEOPLE OF EVERYONE (who like the sjmverse) I HAVE A THEORY!!!!

So I was watching different theory videos on TikTok, and came across THIS ONE HERE (press the red bold words).

And it makes sense, except I'd like to tweak it just a little.

For those who did not click the link to go to the TikTok video, or do not want to, let me summarize the theory in the video.

Erewan stole the King of Adarlans name. How? Possibly some Valg King powers. But he did. He also has two brothers.

Maeve had the ability to world walk, you know, before Dorian took it away.

So what if, Erewan, and his two brothers also had the world walking ability, and the two brothers went to different worlds. What if they too also stole names?

Whose nameless, who would they steal names from?

King of Hybern has no name given too him.

But then there's a character in Crescent City, who still has a name, but rarely is it used. Perhaps the Autumn King is in the process of having his name stolen.

I obviously paraphrased, but that basically what the video says.

Now, as I said above, I would like to tweak it a little, because while I can get behind the King of Hybern, it's harder to believe the Autumn King, just because he does still have a name right?

Also because there is another character who has remained nameless, and only referred to by their title, which has endlessly annoyed, to infuriated fans.

Sarah doesn't do coincidences. What if this character is only referred to by her title, because they literally cannot be called by their name anymore?

I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's jump back a little bit and set my theory tweak up some more okay?

In Throne of Glass, we all(or at least I) thought it was the King of Adarlan who was possessed by Erewan. Only to get to the twist later, finding out it was Lord Perrington.

This in itself shows that you do not have to be the one possessed by the Valg King, to have your name stolen.

Back to where I was.

So there is one character, living with someone so cruel. Could this third Valg King prefer to have her suffer? Could he have stolen this characters name, with no ring or collar to plant a lower Valg.

Does he do all he does, to this character, purely to be cruel, because that's how he is?

I should probably mention that the nameless character I am talking about is... actually, let me wait just a little longer, make sure I've really laid the ground work for it to be more believable.

This character possibly possessed by the third Valg King, have we seen how, or who they truly are? Perhaps not.

This character is still needlessly cruel, and not just to the nameless character. But their children as well.

Have you guessed the possessed character, and by extension, the character whose name they stole, yet?

When it came time to bring Feyre back to life.. oh yeah! This character is also in ACOTAR world. But when bringing Feyre, and then Rhys back to life, yes this character possessed by the Valg King did so, perhaps to conceal the possession.

Perrington did well to hide the fact that he was possessed, but still did things to make people actively dislike him at the same time. So would it not make sense for this character to also do the same?

Brutally murdering his one son's first love, forcing him to watch.

Seemingly torturing his other son, for any reason.

Doing who knows what to make his other sons become so needlessly cruel as well.

Doing unthinkable things to his wife, for what reason?

Could Beron be possessed by a Valg King? And if so, did he steal the Lady of Autumns name?

If you think about it, even Helion does not speak her name, when telling the story of his past with her. And a man who loves someone so much? Should that not have been the moment we learned her name if we had not yet?

Perhaps Helion physically could not speak her name.

The question though, would Beron have been possessed Before marrying LoA, or After. My guess is before. The Valg King within, perhaps seeing the dear Lady as his possession, and then learning of this affair of Helion, could this be why he stole her name? So the male who truly loves her cannot even speak her name?

I don't know, I've gotten ahead of myself.

Basically I'm saying, Sarah doesn't do coincidences. If the Lady of Autumn still had a name, we would know it by now. Was her name stolen from her?

#sjmaas #sjm theory #throne of glass spoilers #throne of glass #acotar spoilers #acotar #a court of thorns and roses #king of adarlan #valg kings #a court of thorns and roses theory #a court of mist and fury #a court of wings and ruin #a court of frost and starlight #a court of silver flames #acotar theory

[ectonurites]

No hate meant towards him at all, but ngl I really kinda didn’t think Tim and Bernard would make it this far as a couple or like, last this long? I’m not even sure Meghan Fitzmartin thought they would, because I remember an interview or something where she was asked why she chose Bernard and rather than it being something about his character or relationship with Tim, she said it was because he was from the time period in comics she wanted to evoke, iirc. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Ah yes, so first of all I do know exactly which interview you're talking about, I had gone and transcribed the section you're referencing myself a while back! I'm not gonna copy & paste all of that, but here is a link to the post where I did it so you can see her exact phrasing.

One thing I do want to note is that Bernard's relationship to Tim was at least kind of part of her reasoning—specifically that Bernard was a friend of Tim's who existed outside of the hero life: "[...] it really was important for it to be like, ya know, not in a superhero space but like in a- in a very Tim personal space. Like, this is who Tim Drake is and this is a person who knows Tim Drake."

Also, funnily enough your paraphrasing ("because he was from the time period in comics she wanted to evoke") actually kind of... sounds more like it's based on a line in the commentary I made where I was explaining how I interpreted what she said ("A seemingly big factor in why Bernard was chosen was to evoke feelings of that specific time") rather than her actual words ("I, um, I really sort of wanted to get back to that particular emotional space for Tim.") Maybe we just make similar word choices though lmao.

But anyways: I did specifically link the version of that post where I had made that additional commentary talking through my thoughts on the reasoning behind picking Bernard—tldr being that imo the story of Sum of Our Parts was about 'Tim figuring out his identity' above 'Tim finding the ultimate romance', so picking Bernard as a supporting character from Tim's old solo run to solidify and support the theme [rather than an extensive history with Tim being the deciding factor] made plenty of sense for the story being told and worked effectively.

Now, that post was written in 2021 so obviously things are in a different place now—but I do say something there that I wanna bring up, because I think it captures what my opinion on the future of the relationship had been back when it was new:

"From here on they could either further develop the relationship to be something with a lot of romance, or maybe Bernard just serves his purpose as the guy Tim realizes he likes guys with and they part ways to go on to date other people, either thing could work and make sense depending on what stories future writers (either Fitzmartin if she gets to continue with Tim after Urban Legends #10, or anyone else who picks him up for content focused on him in the future) are trying to tell."

I was always in a 'this could go several different ways' camp! Kept an open mind, lmao. And I do think that like, from the ending point of Sum of Our Parts, that was probably the intent—while having one bit to continue the story in Urban Legends #10 was obviously secured by the time of publication for #6, the vague end note of #10 (which just states the fact that Tim would get content in 2022, not specifying what) definitely implies that beyond that/at that point in time things were less certain about his upcoming direction. Having things end in an open enough way where if Meghan didn't get to continue with Tim there would be a complete story, but that if things did get to continue with her she'd have a plan/path to go down, yk?

And I think it's clear now that they did end up going down the 'further developing it' path since Meghan stayed on as Tim's writer for a while (between Tim Drake: Robin and Dark Crisis: Young Justice). And frankly, despite the reasoning behind Bernard being chosen seeming more theme-related than anything else, I think it's also clear Meghan just had a fondness for him/that timeframe he came from, hence why she took the opportunity to explore things further with them when she was given it. Like, idk maybe this is just based on Vibes™ but I feel like Meghan's intent was always to keep going with the Tim/Bernard thing as long as she was the one writing Tim.

I do feel like if anyone else had ended up as Tim's primary writer after the Urban Legends story, things may have turned out differently and the relationship may not have lasted the way it has—but it's hard to truly say since that's not what happened.

Now that she's not currently slated for anything upcoming with Tim (at least not that I'm aware of, frankly Tim doesn't have much coming up at all aside from a general 'he'll likely be showing up in some capacity in batbooks' sentiment) I think the future of the two of them is a bit less steady. Not that I think they're immediately doomed or anything, but just that next time Tim gets solo content it could easily be from someone who doesn't want to deal with a civilian boyfriend element, who knows. But now that they actually do have some content under their belt in Tim Drake: Robin, it could be something someone else wants to pick up and explore even more, too. It's simply... hard to say!

But basically: I definitely understand being surprised they've lasted this long, because a part of me is surprised about that too/didn't expect it to last this long—but another part of me is less surprised based on some factors of the situation (namely just: who has been doing the majority of writing of Tim).

[ponds-of-ink]

Thoughts on that one Midnight Motorist section that I need to get out

So, it seems that a post on Freddit was right about some of the cars driving on the “wrong” side of the road. “Wrong” for the U.S., that is.

But for England?

Nope. To anyone from Britain, it’d be the “right” side of the road.

Which means, all things considered, some bloke is disobeying all the traffic laws somewhere in Britain— not Hurricane, Utah. Which also means that we can eliminate Jr’s being a Freddy’s location, since Freddy’s hasn’t gone international by this point. Or just Freddy’s Pizzeria/Fredbear’s Diner being a thing to even consider here.

So, uh… What’s the point of this game if it’s got nothing to do with Freddy’s? Or Fredbear’s?

Welll, there is a theory that one YouTube comment introduced in some Midnight Motorist videos, and I’m here to relay it to y’all… Kind of. I actually do have some thoughts of my own.

Paraphrasing TL;DR: The Orange/Mustard Guy is William’s Father coming home from… somewhere… and he stops by JR’s, a local bar he’s been kicked out of. A Green Dude basically tells him “My guy, you know you can’t be here. Please go”. So, Mr. Mustard Afton comes home in a rage and leaves The Gray Person alone. But his own son? Nope. Bang, bang, bang goes the locked door and thump, thump, thump goes the unseen boy’s heart as he runs for his life with some mysterious figure. Mr. Mustard Afton realizes that his son’s gone back to “that place”, vows that “he’ll be sorry when he gets home”, and ends the hidden part of that mini-game.

Now that we’ve got the basics, I’d like to add some more headcanon/speculative stuff. Yes, even more than the above. Because at least OP could back up stuff better than I can right now.

Anyway… If I combine the potential backstory we might’ve learned in Security Breach’s therapy CDs, I think I can infer even more context into this. First of all, I’m pretty sure this would take sometime after the infamous custody case Lil’ William had to deal with. His father’s going out more often and coming back way, way too ornery and trigger-tempered to deal with. A sick, tired, and mourning Lil’ William decides enough is enough. Through some miraculous feat of strength, he shatters the window and hobbled over to someone in huge, rabbit-like shoes. They flee the scene together, with Lil’ William hoping The Grey Person doesn’t take the blame for him.

Of course, he came back to that house. He’s always had that habit to return— for better or for worse.

Where did he go, though? Well, I have a guess.

There are two things that are his trademarks in this franchise that’s not his purple-colored sprite: Circus-themed animatronics and rabbits. So… What if this place was where it all started for him? What if it was a circus starring some rabbit mascot as a ringmaster? Maybe even a precursor to Frebear’s and Freddy’s, thanks to the Circus Animatronics and Freddy’s Singin’ Show being confirmed to exist.

I know the last part’s a bit out there, but it might be a bit better than William putting on some rabbit shoes and sneaking off to his mom’s grave at a nearby graveyard for solitude.

Obviously, I’m just spitballing here. Until Ruin or the movie comes out, we’re not gonna actually know anything about William’s past.

Oh and uh… Not sure about The Gray Person’s identity. Definitely has long legs, though, so it’s probably an adult. William’s Uncle who’s come to visit, maybe? William’s brother? Cousin? Huh.

#midnight motorist #william afton #mustard man #fnaf theory #just spitballing here #pond rambles #hope I’m onto something though

[wikkerwisp]

Heyyyy so...whos your favorite character from atlantis

Honestly; All the *OG* crew who helped Milo in the end are bits of my favorites— I loved Vinny's depressive but witty humor and love of fire. I love Mole's quirky dirt keeping and clearly particular essence. Audrey was a gd sweetie but also strong, right minded, and clever. Packard was the embodiment of (who she was), a goddamn chain smoking gossiping communicator who acted as a (clearly) witty bourbon grandma to the others. Sweets is just fucking iconic as hell and the only one other than Milo and Kida with gumption to protect life (and is thoroughly the dad of the group actually)— but also— goddamn as a 'anti-hero' or even adversary, *Helga* was goddamn epic, sly, smart as hell and could've done better than Rourke.. However.

Kida, there's always her too, always I was inspired by her empathy, courage, curiosity, and even innocence to rely on the first outsider to plead for her people at large—even with the risks attached.

However, furthermore.

Bold faced truth—

My biggest favorite is obviously, because as a very malnutritioned bean pole nerd ass historian and being fascinated by linguistics and ancient cultures of *all* types— Milo fucking Thatch.

His obvious and outright interest and love (let alone mastery) of the many ancient languages, history, social norms, and his ***willingness to learn***—

I aspired to be an 'ally' /guy like him, even being born as an AFAB because as much as this movie (inherently as it is a white savior trope)— *Milo isn't going to talk over Kida, nor the king*- he sadly, let's Mr. Jughead Mercenary Commander do all the talking (I always hated Rourke, I could tell even as a kid at the beginning of the movie how much of a shady shithead capitalist he was).

Milo. For lack of better terms, is what I aspired to be as a kid— from the moment I saw him?

Kind, curious, factual, strong willed (albeit an awkward ass lonely guy with no friends initially and only his cat)— and above all— Willing to try, learn, and understand— let alone with the utmost empathy to Kida, and his fellow crew members.

The third to last finale scene— (the truck scene where they are hauling Kida away for profit and Rourke punches Milo)—

Was such a powerful scene- of bystanders who were powerless seeing this white bean pole of a man be socked in the nose by this giant Jughead bitch- only for his crewmates to realize.... Milo was not only right, but catering to their truths. As people. And the *adversity* all of the other crew had likely faced before.. and reflected the shitty things they did.

Milo standing up for not just Kida, but the late-Atlantian king— as well as the people themselves— as a complete outsider— against (arguably) "his own people"— to show their ignorance and sheer greed ... let alone what they were truly committing to— genocide of an entire race/ancient culture/entire lineage of families who were already dying out.

My biggest note to take from Atlantis, was not just Milo's defense and argue for an entire race, but seeing the same kindof hopelessness to feel he could change anything that Vinny, Mole, Packard, Cookie, Sweets, or even — FUCKIN FIRST OF THEM TO ACT WAS THE CLEARLY LATIN CODED GIRL, OUR HOMELASS AUDREY.

Audrey's scene, Milo's pleas, and the whole gd scene of her glaring at everyone and *each of them* knowing full fucking well where Milo is right, and not only that— but them realizing three main things then and there:

1. Rourke would likely also betray them the same, and realizing how Milo truly considered them friends.

2. Not only what they were doing is wrong, but *Vinny* of all people making the case that (paraphrased) "(other times) Someone got hurt, but not someone we knew." Detailing that he considered not just Milo a friend, but that they had only *lived* because of Milo's guidance and help. And that Rourke was abandoning him.

3. Notice, other than fuckin Packard and Milo, (including Sweets, but he was busy back at the palace)— all the main crew was either non-white or POC, or Mole (who is French).

Meaning, they *knew* intrinsically what it was like to be almost eradicated, loss of their livelyhood/cultures, hell— taken advantage of by not just imperialism, at large— but now Rourke.

And Milo stood not just with the Atlantian people, Kida, and her father— but because he was (albeit white)— used and maltreatment and not taken seriously as a person too— he understood not just the facts, but the deep deep guttural empathy of even his crew mates.

Pleading their hearts, to make the right choice— because he knew they had too, taken him in, albeit fucking with him.. and that they had meant something to him— whether they cared or not.

And the moment Audrey, Mole, Vinny, Packard and Cookie (sans Sweets)— all realized (with Rourke punching Milo and fucking him up/over personally breaking the photo + damning him to rot along with the Atlantian people—

As soon as they realized #1-#3— Specifically Audrey (we see the buildup of her looking at Milo in the mirror and trying to keep her mouth shut—

The others followed, seeing not just the fact that Rourke was fucking up an entire civilization— but now too— one of their own.

And despite their prior attitudes, proved that they were guilt ridden to some degree- and only stayed because they considered eachother ' a broken family'— much like what Milo also went through, losing his (both?) parents and then Thaddeus (his grandfather).

...

I rambled.

But yeah, Milo inspired me a lot, and his sheer willingness to try new food, new religion, mystical nonsense and even using ancient knowledge to save a civilization knowing damn well he might fail?

And not just doing it for only Kida and *her* people, but stood up (again, even after being hurt, and fighting) because it was ***right***.

#wisp answers #ask #milo thatch #atlantis the lost empire #// Thank you for coming to my bs ted talk about how neat Milo is.

[margridarnauds]

morleans but specifically the german one

I had hoped to answer this when I was in the Gaeltacht and had the excuse to respond in Irish, dammit

Honestly, the German version of Orléans' song was the very first one I watched -- when I first tried to watch the German MA, I actually didn't make it that far, I made it about as far as the Brothel Scene™, literally JUST BEFORE Weil Ich Besser Bin, but when the Toho version was announced, I watched the curtain calls, and when Orléans came out to the instrumental of it, I was like "VILLAIN SONG? Okay I need to listen to this." And I did. I went back to the German production and listened to it. (Under a readmore because (1) long and (2) ...we're going to go into some dubcon territory.)

Unlike the Toho/Korean/Hungarian, which sometimes includes some subtext between Orléans and Margrid here, but which depends on the actors, the German is EXPLICITLY sexual, with lyrics like "And I want you just for myself/and I won't accept a no."

It's creepy! It's undoubtedly creepy!

Margrid is not in a place where she can easily say no, because he's the highest paid customer in the brothel. This is her first job. I'm not going to sugarcoat that aspect of this one.

That being said, despite the weirdness, there are some signs that Margrid is...confused around him. I do think, on his end, he is actually TRYING for a seduction, which is interesting in and of itself.

The choreography in this scene is very strange, honestly -- I wish I knew what they were trying to do.

Because you sometimes have Margrid more or less unresponsive, you sometimes have her doing things like above, where she puts her hand over his, and it doesn't seem like it's to remove it , you sometimes have her looking confused or unsure about herself, but then...as the song progresses...

She seems to steel herself, and then she strokes his shoulder.

From that point until the end of the song, she starts to become more assertive.

She isn't cowering so much as taking him head on.

And then we end by it turning out that Orléans wants her to go to an opera ball with him, mainly to troll Antoinette and Fersen.

Again, I'm going to emphasize! There's a lot of creepiness here! For Margrid, the implication appears to very much be that this is her first time having sex at all, Orléans is older (even though he wouldn't be that much older historically, especially since the age gap between the two of them is even LESS in this production since Margrid's the older sister, not the younger, giving them only about a 7 year gap, for anyone counting), he's more experienced, and he's more powerful.

But I do think there are some interesting things going on as well, including Margrid not flinching by the end, her starting to take the initiative in seducing HIM, and, from the very beginning of the song, him actually supporting her ambitions, telling her "You're standing here where you don't belong/It would be dumb for you to stay there" (paraphrasing). (Of course, because in the world of the OG MA, ambition = evil, not staying in your place = evil.) There's even an interesting bit in the Tecklenburg production where he tells her, outright, "Take an example from me." (In that production, Margrid also dances to it, which is adorable.)

Despite this being the most outwardly canon that Morléans ever went, we get very little on what...actually...HAPPENS after that? He takes her to the ball, she runs away, but they seem to be on good terms afterwards, she's wearing a better dress than she'd been wearing before and is still attached to the Madame of the brothel, so I'm GUESSING that she's still working there/specifically servicing Orléans, because he's already made it clear he's not going to share, but it's never said directly. (Again, strange, because you think that would be something that would be...mentioned.)

He does hire her for the Diamond Necklace Affair and then cackle maniacally when Margrid tosses a bloody rag at Marie (...not that kind of bloody rag) and accuses her of being a murderer, so...still encouraging Margrid's dreams and ambitions? He then gets her freed from the Bastille when she's thrown in there, mainly as an excuse (once again, for Agnés to preach at us while showing how Margrid Is Going Down a Dangerous Path.)

He hits on her briefly during the March to Versailles, just before he bribes the women to go. But one of the most interesting moments for them, and the thing that imo gives us the most insight on their relationship, happens several years later, during the September Massacres. Orléans, leading a mob, has Agnés cornered, accusing her of not being a nun, but an aristocratic woman in disguise, and Margrid rushes up to them.

He starts off teasing/taunting her: "Is this Margrid Arnaud, the darling of the convents? The heroine of the March of Versailles?"

They go back and forth a little bit, Orléans calling Agnés a "filthy aristocrat" (Orléans...Philippe...sweetie...look in the mirror.)

But Margrid stands firm.

"She was my teacher."

Orléans holds her gaze for FIVE SECONDS or so and then makes the decision to let Agnés go. He doesn't gain anything from this -- the mob doesn't care one way or another, he could be accused of sympathizing with an aristocrat in disguise, which in his current situation, is DANGEROUS...but he lets her go because Margrid gave him the puppy dog eyes and wouldn't take no for an answer.

I think it's interesting that the last thing we see is Philippe getting arrested at the end while Margrid flees into Agnés'....loving...arms, because...the show wants us to believe that this is Orléans getting he deserves -- Michael Kunze has made that VERY CLEAR. But, then again, I think Kunze is a sexist hack, so I don't care. Is Orléans arrested because it's what he deserves and because the audience expects it, or is he arrested to show that Sinners Will Be Punished? And, more to the point, is he arrested because, if he HADN'T been arrested, Margrid running back to Agnés, while she had at least ONE OTHER potential protector, wouldn't make sense? And because I'd have written a fic where she breaks out of the convent and goes back to him? Margrid can't have any connections left but Agnés, she has to flee to the one person she has left.

Tl;dr: I think that he actually does care for her in some capacity, even if it's not love. I think that he has a soft spot for her that he's not willing to acknowledge. Her feelings on him are more complex, I don't think it's reciprocated, definitely, but I think that the dynamic suffered from the aggressive conservatism of the script, which said that Margrid had to be a Good Girl who goes down a Bad Path because of an Evil, Bitchy Goth Atheist who likes SEX and, as a result, that means that MARGRID can't like sex, she can't like him, she has to be driven by some higher calling and never be willing to, say, offer bribes to protestors. Because she's a Good Girl™ whose good ending is to end up in a convent, sobbing, while the woman who's continuously shamed her for trying to SURVIVE graciously accepts her penitence. I have been intrigued with it since then, since I think there's a lot of potential, I'd be interested in reading/writing fic with the dynamic since I think it's under-explored, I went into the Toho production thinking this WAS the dynamic we were going to get, but I do like the more mutual respect from the Toho/Korean productions.

#long post #marie antoinette das musical

[bogusavathepit]

House of the Dragon: Episode 10 “War, ‘Restraint’, and Disillusionment”

!!!SPOILER ALERT!!!

Quotes from the Post-Episode Interviews

Emma D’Arcy on Rhaenyra and motherhood (first part direct quote; second & third parts paraphrasing): 

It think it’s quite heartrending for Rhaenyra because she had to look at her boys and she has to start seeing them as men for the first time. I think despite her questions about motherhood, what she discovers in having children is that she gets to build a tribe of her own and actually finds a space she feels free to be herself....sending her sons away is the start of the end of that stability. 

Rhaeynra becoming the “feted mother” and “house-ridden” while the most important decisions of her life are happening around her without her being there when most of her life she’s waited for a letter saying she will become the next ruler since her father will have died. A deep sense of injustice. 

Rhaenyra finds out she knows nothing about grief until she’s lost a child and it completely changes her outlook on things.

Greg Yaitanes (on Rhaenyra and motherhood versus waging war): This is really the theme that Miguel wanted, was war, battlefield. And so she’s at war with herself, with her own body. There’s a lot of emotional complexity in terms of this war that’s starting without her. And it’s tearing her apart, literally tearing her apart.

Greg Yaitanes ( co-executive producer and the main director, on Daemon & Rhaenyra): Really, once the war is coming, you see Daemon preparing for war. And this is really where the domestic split in ten is, is that Daemon wants war and Rhaenyra wants to hold the realm together art whatever cost. That is what she was charged with. That power struggle is alive and well, all inside of a marriage.

What Ryan Condal says of this episode concerning Daemyra (as some call the ship): This episode is largely about Matt and Emma and their performances and bringing Daemon and Rhaenyra to life. The crux of this argument here is the different way in which Daemon sees the world from other people in his family. and Rhaenyra is very much her father’s daughter. She has a bit of the punk rock of Daemon Targaryen, but the way she approaches her duty as sovereign I think is much more in line with Viserys....I think he’s willing to go through a good bit of bloodshed to see the Hightower’s line probably ended and them removed from power.

Ewan Mitchell (actor for Aemond Targaryen): I think anyone who was wronged like Aemond was and had his eye taken out, you’re gonna feel some sort of hatred, whether it’s subconciously or conciously, towards the person who did it. But what Aemond ends up doing in the skies above Storm’s End ultimatle starts the domino effect of the Dance of the Dragons.

My [Current] Issues with the Episode. Subject to Change

A)

Daemon and Rhaenyra, rather than being in more or less perfect harmony in the plans for how they shall proceed in Fire and Blood with full-on dialogue proving it during the discussion they have with their councillers, have now literally become a picture of domestic abuse. How the heck are they okay after that chokehold, when Daemon delivers the news of Lucerys’ death?! We’re just skipping that?

Daemon is a person more resentful and guilty for not being in the loop for the dragon dream, and thus having less “restraint“ because his poor feelings were hurt. 

Daemon may be more tempermental, but I don’t know if he’s supposed to be stupid and adolescent-like (or what older people think adolescents are like)?

Rhaenyra also constantly gives him orders that he willingly follows, never tries to ignore, or express disagreement with....Daemon actually agreed with Rhaenyra to not use the dragons at least until there was no other choice in Fire and Blood (406):

Rhaenyra agreed to use the dragons in general, but she protests against to Lord Celtigar’s, one of the council members,  suggestion to fly to King’s Landing herself with all the other dragonriders on deck at that very moment to intimidate and/or kill the greens.

The words: 

“At what cost?“ Princess Rhaenyra wondered. “My sons would be riding three of those dragons, I remind you. and it would not be nine against four. I will not be strong enough to fly for some time yet. And who is to ride Silverwing, Vermithor, and Seasmoke? You, my lord? I hardly think so. It will be five against four, and one of their four will be Vhagar. That is no advantage.”

Surprisingly, Prince Daemon agreed with his wife. “In the Stepstones, my enemies learned to run and hide when they saw Caraxes’ wings or heard his roar...but they had no dragons of their own. It is no easy thing for a man to be a dragonslayer. But dragons can kill dragons, and have. Any maester who has ever studied the history of Valyria can tell you that. I will not throw our dragons against the usurper’s unless I have no other choice. There are other ways to use them, better ways.” Then the prince laid his own strategies before the black council (406).

TV Daemon, unlike the Book Daemon, is making imperative moves without Rhaenyra’s lease, coming off of his own hatred and suspicion of Viserys’ death. And it stems from the major plot change of Rhaenyra and Alicent aged closer and being close friends before Alicent marries Viserys and Aemma dies, which really determined everything’s tone, meaning and allowed the creators to create an entirely new story from George R.R. Martin’s original one. Because, again, Alicent and Rhaenyra were never friends in the original lore.

Some will claim that:

he’s running on the love/guilt he has displayed toward Viserys in episode 8

that the writers wanted to have Daemon display a more emotional motivation to destroy the greens and be eager for a “senseless war”

he wants war not due to his verbal claims of taking back what is Rhenayra’s, or for him being angry at the fact that he’d be the farthest from the throne than ever 

his way to it (Rhaenyra) is no longer serving that main interest

Daemon proved how unfit he was as a potential King through all of this

Daemon already showed violence against women through his killing of Rhea Royce, his first wife, and some may refer to how they see his ignoring Laena in Pentos for his disregard

So all this is why he suggests violence and lashes out against Rhaenyra in that chokehold. I say that the writers are pushing a story where the gender politics are portrayed so simplistically that the characters might as well be cousins of CW characters. 

Another example of where Daemon does an act by Rhaenyra’s orders and not deciding things for her in open ways is when Rhaneyra ordered him to kill Vaemond Velayron (in the books, a more distant relative of Corlys) for calling Lucerys, Jace, and Joffrey bastards (Fire and Blood, 386). . Coming after Rhaenyra encourages the feverish Corlys to name Lucerys as his heir, since Viserys actually never made that term before he betrothed Rhaenyra to Laenor. Daemon never approached Vaemond until Rhaenyra said to do so, and there’s no indication he definitely wanted to before then.

It’s like the writers wish to over-moralize every character there is here, and....that’s not the point! It’s not just, oh this person acted out and mocked his brother during a feast meant to assuage the rift between two former childhood friends. Everyone is snide and performative while praing for each other’s downfall with fervent enthusiasm, but they are also level-headed enough (excpet maybe Criston Cole) enough to not sound or look helpless while they scheme & calculate.

B)

Corlys somehow has decided to no longer pursue the Iron Throne and blames Rhaneyra for his house burning down after hearing of Vaemond’s death. That V’s actions were of Velayrons reaching too far for power (not meant to be). Meanwhile Corlys never lets go of his ambitions until arguably the very end, and was very willing to be at Rhaenyra’s side.

Other than that, Corlys also swore to her, and oathbreaking is a taboo with just as much capacity for inducing anger and hatred as killing a guest/host in this society, so why would he, seemingly so easily, even consider not declaring for Rhaenyra? Shows a lack of committment in light of how gun-ho he was about furthering his house. 

It also seemed like him deciding to abandon the blacks’ “cause” was to highlight Rhaenyra’s isolated philiosphical state of being the peacekeeper above all. Again, mirroring how every one’s own portrayals and development only developed so far as to highlight Viserys’ ascendant one before he finally dies. 

C) 

Rhaneyra says to her sons to not fight based on the reasoning of the Targaryens having to “answer” to the gods of Westeros and not just because she wanted them out of harm’s way, like in the books. Suddenly makes her a conformist rather than an ambitious woman who also happens to love her kids while also believing in their capability to step up. SMDH.

D)

The black council actually had the participants all sharing what each could do and what they all might be able to do together as a collective...yet we see three gatherings where there’s more discord and emphasis on the men wanting to go to war and Rhaenyra, again, overburdened with the weight of this conflict. A picture of someone helpless, it’s too woe-is-me to even function.

E) 

Alicent daring to send Rhaenys a page from their youth expecting anyone to call off antagonism based on one night of superficial reconciliation after years of enmity. And we can't even believe in those years because of the time jumps, so is there a true political conflict between the greens and the black s at all, when everything is about how everyone hurts someone else’s feelings more than everyone having ambitions?!!!!

F) 

Rhaenyra tells Lucerys that going to Borros Baratheon is because he would be very proud to have a prince, rather than allowing us to know that she only sent him because she thought it was the safer option (Fire and Blood, 408)...boy were they all wrong.

G)

Borros Baratheon is actually a vacillating bitch who would have just picked someone who presented themselves as the better option for his personal needs. Wish the episode did more of that instead of the unvacillating look-alike we got. Could be nitpicking, but my disappointment with these last 5 episodes knows no bounds. 

H)

Aemond was a lot more talkative and mocking during Lucerys’ address to Borros Baratheon, too. We also don’t get to see him talk to Borros and become compelled to goad Lucerys when one of Borros’ less pretty daughters essentially goads him into showing how powerful he is in front of everyone. So now Aemond is obviously going to decide to “own it'', as Condal says, because we all know that even if he tried to say it no one would believe that he didn’t fly into the sky to kill his own nephew when his nephew is a contender against Aegon II. This event really flattens implication and makes it more emotive than political.

I)

Why would Rhaenyra, or anyone, believe that Viserys told Daemon about the dragon dream and only bring it up during a possible crisis. Of all the time they have spent together as a married couple, now Rhaenyra brings it up for the first time?

Aside from that, why would she ever assume that Daemon did have that information? While she was a child to 18 years old and more focused on her own stuff, she had years to think about how Daemon being literally barred for being Hand by Viserys would let her know that Viserys had no notion to give Daemon that information. And its not entirely because he didn't think Daemon wasup to he task of being one of the few who knows about this prophecy, eve after Rhaenyra becomes the official heir. Because Viserys definitely could have told Daemon...except the show has us think that kings only pass on Argon's dream to the one who is definitely the heir. Daemon was never the official heir, only the expected heir and the placeholder for Viserys' never-to-exist son. So no, Viserys would never tell Daemon this dream and Rhaenyra should have been able to logically assume as such with these reasons after all these years.

I)

Why didn’t Otto ever mention that Viserys supposedly chose to name Aegon as heir on his deathbed? I would imagine that Otto would have loved to rub that in Rhaenyra’s face, even in the most subtlest of ways. Why didn’t Alicent’s note do something similar?

J) 

Aemond losing control of Vhagar because Arrax (Luke’s dragon) spit a tongue of flame at Vhagar’s cheek and Vhagar got mad and went munch, munch, crunch, crunch.

That he only wanted to scare Lucerys and bully him. Dude, he pursued Lucerys into stormy-assed weather on a big ass dragon and made the kid think he was about to die. And if he and other riders know that dragons tend to try to kill each other (which why put them in separate rooms in the Dragonpit otherwise), the would he not realize that danger?

Aemond already showed how little he actually cared about any of his nephews and nieces long ago when he beat them up and claimed Vhagar. Older now, we see him in episodes 8 and 9 not even liking his older brother and willing to incitr violence against the Lucerys and Jace. He’s been surrounded by his grandfather and mother’s, maybe even Criston’s constant dismissals of Rhaenyra and her little group of “illegitimate” kids. The show itself set it up that way.

Yes, he absolutely should have felt bloodthirsty and irreverent of their familial bond to want to and go through with killing Luke when he had the chance. And Luke had every reason to believe that he’d kill him.

It would serve the story more to have Aemond just want to kill Luke in revenge, especially after he has grown up riding the biggest and most fearsome dragon existing. If he’s taking the incoming war, or prospect of it seriously, would he not consider all this and still pursue to kill, even though it’s kinslaying?

The stakes are simply way too high and the relations are just so void of actual regard for there not be intentional murder. 

On the whole though much of episode 10′s issues comes from how the entire show was written as well as from the events from the 8th episode, it was still shot better and held more tension than the 8th. 

In these specific ways (rather than its lack of logic and consistency even within its own lore different from the books), it was “better” than the 8th episode as I hoped. 

#house of the dragon #house of dragon #HotD #HoD #house of dragon episode 10 #house of the dragon episode 10 #hod epi 10 #hotd epi 10 #rhaenyra targaryen #daemon targaryen #not twilight

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 11x22: Analysis, Part 3 - Peter, Passover, RxR Spikes

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Tbh, I’m not sure we’ve entirely nailed down the point of the Peter symbolism. Beth clearly isn’t Peter. She’s Christ. So why go out of their to add in Peter symbolism? Of course Edwards = Peter. This is has been discussed extensively in the past, but him having Beth kill Trevitt was a betrayal, especially when he claimed he didn’t do it, so that was the equivalent of Peter denying Christ. But if they went out of their way to put it into Slabtown, you know there will be an equivalent when Beth returns.

So, as you mentioned above, the idea of them going to the Louvre in the spinoff is interesting and I’m sure it will have at least some symbolic relevance here, if not literal.

All your words about the 22 and the 12 made me think about them a bit differently than I have before. We’ve always said 22 was related to the return/Sirius stuff, and I’m sure that’s still true. But more specifically, I kinda feel like 22 is symbolic of something negative. Maybe the negative side of things. Shane wore the 22 necklace, and while he was friends with Rick, he was also the epitome of everything we don’t want our characters to be. He displayed cowardice, selfishness, deviousness, lack of loyalty, etc. 

In terms of situations, it’s clear from some of your pics (the Grady cop car, the sailboat with Michonne) that they represent Grady/the CRM, which are kind of the ultimate Bad Situation where things go wrong. Hence 22 = bad side of things. Perhaps the A side, which is the bad side, where in the B side Beth will live and things will be put right. Just spit balling here, of course.

Now, they’re calling Alexandria Outpost 22. It went from a free, loving place to one of violence and slavery under the CW. (Even though now Daryl and co have essentially liberated it.) You mentioned the two episodes that were number 22. In each, the person (Negan) either lost someone (Lucille) or became a sacrifice. But both times, he was becoming a better person. After Lucille, he went and helped some people who needed it. And of course, after Here’s Negan, he became Negan of the Saviors, which was a negative thing. But you could also see that as his first time through. His A side. The first time, he did something negative with it. This time, he won’t.

I really love the stuff about the railroad spikes being indicative of crucifixion. That makes a lot of sense, and I know with Daryl and Leah, we saw three of them pounded into a tree not far from her cabin. But it also makes me want to go back and re-analyze how they might have been functioning in each instance. 

Weirdly specific question: did we ever see Leah in the same shot with the RxR spikes? They’re entangled with her either way, since it was her cabin and her storyline, but we also know she’s a proxy for Beth. So, just wondering if we ever saw her in the same shot with them? Anyone remember?

Empty tomb/empty trunk/empty chair. 

I really love these phrases, both as images and also for what they mean in both a religious and fiction sense. I sat and thought about this for a while and had a bit of an epiphany, but it’s very nerdy and meandering.

I was thinking about these symbols and something I heard a long time ago in some Sunday class or other. I don’t remember the exact wording or who said it, so I’m definitely paraphrasing. But it was something along the lines of, “the real symbol for the triumph of Easter was that of an empty tomb.” So, the idea is, how can something empty, or something not being there, be a triumph? It’s a little counterintuitive. But the answer is that what was supposed to be there was a dead body. And the fact that it wasn’t meant he’d been resurrected. So the empty tomb symbolized the miracle of resurrection and that life had triumphed over death. I always thought that was a cool way to think about it.

I know I mentioned this next part before, back when you first pointed out the chair on the train platform when Daryl and Carol and everyone was debating whether to take Pamela’s deal. In the Jewish religion, during Passover, they leave an open chair for Elijah, who is supposed to be a forerunner of Christ’s second coming. So, from a religious perspective, the chair definitely foreshadows a return of the person who was believed to be dead. I can’t help but wonder if we’re seeing them in this storyline to show that this arc is the forerunner of Beth’s return.

So, you also mentioned empty trunks. That put the image in my head of Maggie opening the trunk in 5x10 and seeing the Beth walker inside. And I had this thought that Maggie had not actually seen an empty trunk. She’d seen one that was full of death. And that REINFORCED her belief in Beth’s death.

Okay, so this is where I stray from TWD for a minute to nerd out. I’m a fiction coach. Meaning I teach others about writing great fiction. My teaching technique focuses on the internal conflict. Many people don’t understand (and I don’t include anyone here in that) that while plot and external story events are important (vital actually) the story itself is built on the internal character change.

My favorite definition of story comes from Vogler. “A story is a metaphor for a journey that leads to change.” So, the foundation of the story is the character change. The events in the plot are how that change is brought about. There’s a misguided belief that you keep the audience’s attention through high action. Like fight or car chase scenes. And while those are cool, it’s really the emotion of a scene that keeps the audience invested.

The audience doesn’t care that the cars are driving really fast. The reason they like the chase scene is because the hero is chasing the villain, who has kidnapped his wife and child, and he’s trying to get his family back. Sure, the adrenaline affects us too, but adrenaline alone won’t sustain a story. Without the internal or emotional, you end up with B action movies a la Van Damme or Steven Segal. (Sorry if anyone is a fan of those, but they’re known for being all action and no substance.) No one cared about Rocky Balboa’s boxing scenes because he can punch really good. They cared because he was fighting for his family, his way of life, and his self-respect. Incidentally, all things that can be said about Daryl. While he isn’t a boxer, he can still punch pretty good. ;D

ANYway. So, when I’m helping people figure out their stories, I tell them to craft a misguided belief for the character. And this can literally be anything. Just something they believe that isn’t true. So, it can be literal/external (I’m not strong enough to win that competition) or internal (I’m not worthy of love). It can be very generic (love conquers all) or very story specific (If I just provide for my family and mind my own business, the Capitol will leave me alone – Katniss Everdeen). You get the idea. Any belief, depending on the story you’re telling, that is negative, misguided, and disempowering.

Once they have the character’s misguided belief, the next thing they need to understand is that every event that happens in the plot will affect the character in one of two ways. It will either reinforce their misguided belief, or cast doubt on it. The character will waffle back and forth throughout the story, but overall, they cling to the belief mostly through the first half of the story, but really tend to move away from it and toward a higher truth in the second half. The character’s transformation is them letting go of that misguided belief and embracing the truth, which leads to a higher enlightenment and a better quality of life overall. This is the basic internal arc for all stories.

Okay, so what’s this got to do with the whole Maggie and Beth walker in the trunk situation? As I said, it suddenly occurred to me that Maggie seeing the Beth walker in the trunk is what she believes happened with Beth. So it was REINFORCING HER MISGUIDED BELIEF. And that’s when it all clicked for me. This is nothing we didn’t already know, but it’s another way to look at it that makes a lot of the stuff going on in 11c make a lot more sense from a story structure standpoint.

Gimple took this notion of the misguided belief, which is usually internal and about an individual person, and made it external and literal. The group, as a whole, has a misguided belief that Beth died in Coda. She didn’t, but they believe she did. It’s negative, misguided, and disempowering. Everything that happened in 5b—Maggie and the trunk, Daryl seeing the blond walker on the tree, the abusive dynamic between Pete and Jessie, which mirrored Grady—all reinforced TF’s misguided belief.

Which is that the world is brutal, people die, you can’t always save them except through extreme violence, and things are always going to be bleak. It’s very similar to what Hershel tried to teach Rick in 4a. The empowering truth is that we get to come back from the things we’ve done. But there are times when Rick has had the misguided belief that that isn’t true. And now that is literal as well, because Rick is physically gone, but he’s gonna get to come back.

Now, let’s talk about Daryl. (Cuz we always get there eventually, right? ;D) We didn’t see much dynamic change from Daryl between Coda and Rick’s departure. He was always sad, surly, and bleak, but not much more than that. He went through a rage phase and a few other things, but again, not much positive change. Logistically, I think that’s just because the writers wanted to go through most of the comic book stuff before bringing Beth back.

I was also thinking that it’s actually kind of weird that Daryl hung around. We know, from all the way back in S2 after Sophia, that Daryl tends to self-isolate when he’s wounded. Especially when he’s grieving. And given what Beth meant to him, it really would have been more in character to take off on his own.

Why didn’t he? In a word: Rick. In fact, that may have been the whole reason for the “you’re my brother” scene. (Well, other than establishing a sweet and loyal relationship between these two BFFS. ;D) To give Daryl a reason to hang around. And of course he still self-isolates in other ways. Going into the woods to “look for water” or leaving Alexandria to hunt, even when it’s not necessary. He emotionally withdraws, even if he physically stays. But of course, when he loses Rick, that’s when he physically leaves.

So, my point, I guess, is that everything between Coda and Rick’s departure in Daryl’s arc reinforced his negative beliefs. Ever since Carol brought him back to civilization a la Henry, Daryl has started to move away from those misguided beliefs and toward higher truths. That family and civilization are better than isolation. That even if it’s not perfect, things are still worth fighting for. That he can be a conscientious and thoughtful friend (ie Connie and Kelly). He’s come into his own in terms of leadership. He’s become a guardian and father figure to children. Etc. This is probably why he was okay with the CW and even willing to join their army. In past years, I don’t think he would have been open to that at all, but he’s changed. He’s willing to fight for something even if it’s not perfect.

I also think this is why we keep seeing him observing other romantic couples. Let’s talk about the romance angle. Because I think this might be the over-arching answer to why the Leah arc. There are lots of reasons we’ve discussed at length, but from a Daryl’s-character-development standpoint, this will explain it.

Daryl’s misguided belief when it comes to romance is that he is either unworthy or incapable of sustaining a fulfilling romantic relationship. Based on past-Daryl, it’s safe to say that if he engaged in a relationship, as he did with Leah, and it went south, as it did with her, he would throw up his hands and swear it off. Something like, “see? This is why I’m a loner. I can’t do romance.” He would then isolate himself, not from everyone necessarily but from romantic relationships in general.

And maybe that is what he did after Leah first took off. Because, in his mind, before he understood who Leah really was, he probably thought it was his fault; that he screwed it up by not choosing her. 

That’s probably also why he went back and wrote her the note. None of us liked that because we didn’t like her and thought she was toxic, and we were right, but Daryl didn’t know that. He probably thought he needed to try harder and fight for the relationship. Which, if it’s a healthy relationship, is true. He was simply mistaken about it being a healthy relationship for him. And again, given the extent to which Leah misrepresented herself, that’s not entirely his fault.

But I think Daryl learning who Leah really was probably helped him gain back some confidence about what happened and his judgement of people. Clearly, he wasn’t the only one at fault there. When it came down to Maggie or Leah, he made a choice, didn’t hesitate, and wasn’t even really conflicted about it. That shows how much he’s grown. But my point is, he’s moving away from his misguided beliefs about himself and romance. And him observing other couples is part of that, I think. He sees others he respects not only willing to engage in relationships, though they might have doubts, but willing to fight for their own happiness. And that will greatly effect events when Beth returns.

Okay, sorry. Told you I was gonna geek out. The only other thing I wanted to mention goes hand in hand with this. It’s the A/B storyline stuff. And I’ve mentioned some of it before, but Carol keeps having dialogue that really jumps out at me.

In ep 21, she talks to Maggie about how if not for the Fall, they wouldn’t have known one another, but were forced to become family. She then says, “we’re not alone anymore and we’re going to figure this out.” (Paraphrasing.) That struck me as really significant. Even if you want to reach all the way back to S4 when we had the Alone episode, everyone ended up alone. Daryl was alone. Beth was taken to Grady alone. The rest of the group was in small pods, but they certainly weren’t together as a unified group.

And we’ve seen this other places on the show and talked about it a lot. The group has to be together in order to survive and make things work. Blair and Gina had to work together. All three communities had to work together to bring down Negan. Etc. But I wanted to specifically talk about the fact that Daryl says they can’t go get Connie. It will compromise the others, including the kids, that they are trying to get back. I can’t help but think that he’s thinking specifically about Beth there. He insisted on going into Grady to get her and Carol, and things went south.

So, I feel like he’s rebelling against his natural instinct here, which would be to go get Connie, because he’s afraid it will get her or others killed. But then, when Carol tells him to sit tight, he says he can’t do that. Despite his resolve to do the opposite of what he did in S5, he’s just not built that way. He can’t sit still when someone he cares about is in danger. Especially when they’re in the hands of an enemy who might hurt or exploit them. When the dying trooper says those marked as designation 2 are taken far away and never seen again, Daryl kinda freaks out. Of course it’s in that silent-urgency way he has, but he still kinda flips out.

Again, I can’t help but think that something in his head is screaming, “Beth! Beth was taken far away and never came back!” So naturally, he’s like, nope. Done with this shit! Outside, Rosita again says they can’t risk the troopers radioing ahead to warn the others they’re coming. D

Daryl argues that they can’t just leave Connie on the train. And then come the next line from Carol that demonstrates the theme: “I think there’s a way to do both.” So, we’ve always talked about how Rick’s plan at Grady was to go in with guns blazing. But Daryl was afraid of Beth or Carol getting hurt, so he talked Rick into the prisoner exchange. And of course, that REALLY didn’t go well either.

So, we’ve always thought maybe Rick’s first instinct, while it seems to be the riskier of the two, really would have been the better solution. But I don’t think that’s the case either. I think the point is that they have to have a little of both. They have to find a compromise that will work for everyone. Here, when they went to get Connie, guns were definitely used and they definitely had to kill people. But they also didn’t stand in front of the oncoming train and just start firing willy-nilly. There had to be a little of both. They had to be stealthy and minimize risk to themselves and their group, but they also had to use force where necessary.

I was thinking that at Grady, there was no show of force at all. Sure, they had prisoners to exchange, but clearly, they didn’t show enough force for Dawn to fear them. This is evidenced by her suddenly demanding Noah stay after the exchange was done. If they’d shown more force, maybe she wouldn’t have tried that because she’d have been too fearful of what they’d do.

Just throwing out some of my spinning thoughts on this. But we see this other places too. Blair and Gina come to mind again. They thought the solution was to let Gina go off by herself from the gas station, and they tried that. It didn’t’ work. They both still died and started the day over. So, if you think of Blair as A and Gina as B, it wasn’t an either/or situation that would lead to success. It was both. Which is exactly what Carol said. And I think the either/or IS the misguided belief we’re trying to get away from in the show as a whole. They need to learn to do both so everyone gets the happy ending they want.

You could argue this same thing with when Rick disappeared. Rick wanted to lead the walkers away. Daryl thought it was too risky and wanted Rick to come with him back to Alexandria. Rick led the walkers away, and it led to his disappearance. But I kind of think that if they’d gone with Daryl’s plan, maybe the walkers would have taken down the communities. So, it wasn’t either/or. They needed a little of both. But Rick went off on his own, ALONE, and then was taken, alone, to another place, just like Beth was.

Now, with this whole CW arc, we’re seeing the characters work together very seamlessly, and they’re having a lot of success. So anyway. I really will stop now. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Forgive the nerdy ramblings of us fiction coaches. We’re a rare breed and often can’t help ourselves.  😊

@wdway:

I really enjoyed reading this. You know how I love long post that has a lot of meat to it. You asked above if anyone remembered seeing Leah in the same frame as any of the railroad spikes. For myself the answer is no. I can't remember ever seeing her and the spikes together. We only saw her at the front door from inside of the shack. For that matter in FM we never saw Daryl going into the shack using the front door except with Carol, years after Leah.

I did a hand palm to the face when I read where you wrote of Elijah and the empty chair at Passover. When Aaron (my son, not Moses brother)was little I and a friend did a Hebrew study for the elementary and middle school kids. For the Passover meal we actually cooked all the authentic foods, lamb and made unleavened bread. The kids made eat their meal using clay cups and plates that they made. I'm rambling, that was a little side tunnel, sorry.

So this fits so well into the railroad spikes because as I mentioned about the ones at Leah's shack door it reminded me of Passover and how blood was placed above the door. 

Another episode with blood around the door was WHWGO Noah's front door. You know that silly old episode where we actually see Tyrese's hallucination of Beth. Great connection on the empty chair.

@galadrieljones:

Like @wdway, I’m also face-palming with the empty chair thing. Every year we do a Seder and leave the empty chair for Elijah. We also leave the door open for Elijah, and we pour him a glass of wine. Elijah is a prophet who performed miracles, including resurrection, and his return is a harbinger of the messiah.

I have noted before that Gimple is Jewish. He’s practicing. His wife converted to Judaism to marry him. So, all of these things are layered into his consciousness as he crafts these stories. I remember a long time ago mentioning the mezuzah and its relationship to 30 Days Without an Accident. Daryl goes to Beth’s cell, and it is the 30th day without an accident. The number 30 has special meaning in Judaism. You have 30 days to affix a protective mezuzah to your door when you move into a new home. After a loved one dies, unless it is a child, you sit shiva for seven days and for 23 days after that you continue life in a reduced but certain mourning period—a total of 30 days.

All of this is just to say that there is evidence that the author’s point of view here is very important, and that evidence pointing to Jewish tradition and Old Testament symbolism is especially potent here. I think this makes Beth even more special, since Gimple chose to make her in the Christian tradition, a Christ figure.

This would signal the coming of a new era. Christianity also upholds a more forgiving image of God than Judaism, in which God is like a very stern, punishing father. I think Gimple is very interested in the notion of the messiah. In Christianity, we view Jesus as the messiah, and the Jewish belief in the messiah is what gave way to Christian beliefs in the birth of Christ. In Judaism, the messiah will one day return to lead the Jewish people back to the Promised Land. He will be born of the Davidic Line and rule as King of the Jewish (chosen) people.

Leaning into the number 12, as it is not only the number of Jesus’s disciples. In Jewish belief there is something called the 13 Principles of Faith, the twelfth of which is in the coming of the messiah. Elijah is the harbinger of the messiah.

I suppose it’s not then coincidence that there is currently a character named Elijah, who entered the story with Maggie, Beth’s big sister. I don’t think Elijah is himself an Elijah figure. I just think that when a Biblical name is used, that’s meant to conjure a Biblical theme in the given context. See: Gabriel, Leah. Now, as of 11.22, we actually have Luke returning to the storyline. In Christianity, it’s the Gospel of Luke that tells the story of the birth, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Christian messiah. Lots and lots of connections here!

Recalling now the empty chair beside Leah in Daryl’s first flashback in Find Me. The chair is shaped like a heart, waiting for Elijah to return, a sign that the “messiah,” or Beth, his true love may return soon thereafter.

@wdway:

Broken record but I love when we all play off of each other. After reading your response Tarah I feel even more confident that if blood above a door represents a Jewish theme then three spikes is the Christian equivalent. I too thought of Maggie's friend Elijah as a reminder of a biblical figure. In talking about Luke reappearing I'm sure is part of bringing all the living characters together for the end of the series but it does feel that it's also a reminder with a Galadriel, Luke and Elijah of a Bible theme of good vs evil. A beginning and an end and a Resurrection for a new beginning.

Acts of God. Two spikes near Leah's camp. Did anyone ever have any ideas on the strange box like object?

@twdmusicboxmystery:

No idea what the box is or what they’re doing for. But it reminds me of the Blair Witch Project.

@galadrieljones:

Me too lol. That’s like the first thing I thought. Is it some sort of trap? Like you step on a wire or something and it stabs you, or…????

But Daryl knows immediately it’s Leah based on the look of it. She clearly has some sort of thing for railroad spikes.

@wdway:

You're implying that Leah's responsible for the railroad tracks in the tree. I don't know at this point if I truly think that or if it is a writing direction that wants to make the connection. Has she simply camped near them, that they could be found all over the territory? I don't know what I'm talking about, just that I don't know that it's a isolated Leah symbol. It could also be a recognizable trigger for Daryl about Leah. I think it was Gabriel that asked something about the box, but they didn't say anything about the spikes. Ignore me I do not know what I'm talking about.

@galadrieljones:

I guess you’re right that we don’t know that Leah put them there. They seem to be “prelude” to Leah, like Daryl seeing them sort of leads to Leah, but there’s no way to know how they got there. Hmm.

Another mystery from Find Me.

Like how does Daryl know they mean Leah? Is it just a hunch? Or does he know how she loves railroad spikes? Or did he mark these places long ago that Leah is now returning to? Is this some sort of mind game? I’m confused lol

I know I initially thought Daryl put those spikes in the trees to control his delusions. I’m not sure about that anymore. But they do seem navigational, somehow. Idk!!!!

@wdway​:

What came to my mind was when they first met in FM she said, "what are you doing on my land." I kind of had wondered if Daryl had somehow marked the territory in which he had been searching. ???????

@galadrieljones​:

That’s a pretty good estimation. Idk?? Yeah, maybe they are meant to mark her “property lines,” or something? They do end up in the woods that lead to her house. But that’s still insane. Like she just decided one day “this is my land stay out no trespassing beware of DOG!”

Hard to defend land when it’s just one lady but then again she was a bit nuts so idk?

@wdway:

One thing seen certain, that we're not going to get any of these answers by the end of the series with only a couple of episodes left. For me this series isn't ending it's just moving on. So many questions left unanswered. 

@twdmusicboxmystery:

I totally agree with @wdway on that last point. The series isn’t ending, just moving on. It’s expanding. And there are plenty of unanswered questions still that are good fodder for the spinoffs. Thoughts? 

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl