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mae-i-scribble · 6 months

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Since I am entirely too unwell about Ancient Magus Bride at all times of the day I have decided to break down the latest opening because I cannot do so for the friend I am watching season 2 with since she hasn't read the manga. Hands down this latest opening, Nemurasareta Lineage by Junna, is the best in the series to me. And I don't make that claim lightly, the first opening is iconic on so many levels from the visual to the lyrics, we ignore the 2nd opening bc it sucked (sorry to the fans out there I just do my best to pretend this one doesn't exist, no i have not moved on from my bitterness at its reused animation since 2016 next question), and season 2's first opening is also incredible.

However, what this latest opening brings to the table is some of the most spectacular visuals I've seen in a hot minute- and I don't mean from purely visual, I mean thematically, this opening is fucking spectacular. Every single moment has purpose and meaning behind it.

I will be putting the rest under a read more as to not clog anyone's dash bc this is gonna be l o n g

Starting off from the very first shot we already have so much thematic meaning crammed into this.

Firstly, the shot of Elias opening the book has many connotations, alluding to how he has read the Testament of Carnamagos while also alluding to the fact that him reading that book is ultimately what lead to this story happening at all. If Elias had never read it to try and transfer Chise's curse, Chise would not have done what she did and Elias wouldn't have learned how to let Chise be independent, and then Chise never would have gone to the college. In that respect it's a perfect opener for this "play," as it was the prelude to this act.

Then we have the next shot of Elias hanging like a puppet, showing us an empty vessel-like appearance before being pulled upwards. There are a lot of different ways to interpret this, personally it drew me back to how the Wil O' Wisp described a magus as "someone bound to their fate." Elias, a tried and true magus, is bound to his fate like a puppet on a string while Chise, someone who is not yet fully a magus is free to walk around the stage as herself. Elias' removal from the set, and subsequently the way he claps to bring forth the next "acts" in the show, I think speaks to the way he is largely removed from this arc. Of course he is there, watching over Chise and pushing her along as best he can, but he has very much taken more of a spectator role in this arc. He guides his pupil the best he can but lets her make her own choices.

Now, onto Chise's entrance.

With the college/the sorcerer's society as our stage, the protagonist enters. Chise walks in and looks around confused, just as she did when first entering the college and when she first learned of the dark politics lying underneath it. She is the only one not a part of the performance, the one factor that ultimately destroys the narrative the Sargent and the Rickenbacker families were trying to create.

At first, I thought these cardboard figures were a representation of the 7 powerful sorcerer families we are introduced to, but then I realized there were actually 8 figures so that theory is thrown out the window. This is something I'm not actually that confident in so if anyone else has interpretations I am so down to hear it. Obviously the woman in red holding the spider alludes to Lucy. The wolf next to her is most likely then the werewolf mother. The hooded man with the hammer I think can reasonably represent Isaac. While the knight beside him I honestly see as Rian (his sort of knight in shining armor attitude when it comes to Philomela, his very straight-laced straightforward view of things). The nun-like figure with the owl is mostly likely representing Philomela/Lizabeth Sargent. I can see the jester with the snake wrapped around him to be Zoey. For the last two figures though, I am absolutely stumped. The two women with the songbird remind me of Veronica, from the way she was raised up by her family to be a bird in a cage while simultaneously holding Philomela in an even smaller cage. For the family on the far right though I have absolutely nothing. However, I know there is some meaning behidn it, this opening is too packed with symbolism for it not to.

Speaking of symbolism, the sequence that follows is chalked full of it.

Elias ushers in the entrance of Philomela, trapped in her cage. The design of the cage and the flowers around it make it seem extravagant, exactly what Philomela's life might look like to someone not aware of what's really going on. But a cage is still a cage, and this one comes with a guardian owl, keeping watch over Philomela in place of actually showing Lizabeth. The toys lining the bottom are representative of one of the key moments that made Philomela realize just how tight the bars around her were- that she would never have her grandmother's love, no matter what she did.

Then we cut to moments of Philomela's childhood, again deceptively happy with what we know of Veronica and how she treated Philomela. The baby bird hatching from the egg, Philomela when she was still young and innocent and far too fragile. This association of the baby bird with Philomela also comes back later in a heartbreaking way so :')

Then Chise reaches out with the potpourri, and Philomela becomes alive. It's so fitting, in that Chise's kindness to Philomela, the understanding she has to exactly the pain Philomela is going through, is what touches Philomela so deeply, reminds her of the time where her life was not structured in this way. Chise gives her hope that it doesn't have to be, Chise pulls her out of it and gives her a perch to stand on, and it all began with one fateful meeting.

The shot we get of Chise smiling and swaying in the breeze is all too perfect, in showing that this desire for connection is mutual.

Fittingly, we then see Chise reach out to her friends one by one. Lucy and Zoe's each have a bit more meaning behind them, as we're still somewhat in the dark when it comes to Rian and Isaac's histories, but it still examplifies the ways in which Chise tries to help those around her as best she can. It also makes it abundantly clear why Philomela, and subsequently everyone else, are presented as children in this sequence: a direct reference to chapters 86-87 in which they all are mixed up due to Chise's influence and Chise goes around helping them regain themselves. It marks the turning point in which Philomela tries to take a stand against her grandmother and start believing in the people who have come to try and save her.

There is one gaping hole in this in that Zoey is in fact, not present at all in the whole mind melding thing, but I'm taking that as the animators/directors wanting to include him in this sequence as another main player. Plus the shot we get of him is very cheeking in showing a broken shell- in the way Chise figurative helped him break out of his shell and very literally revealed him to be a gorgon/human mix by accident.

In that interpretation it is also crucial to think about why Chise was kept as her teenage self and not also scaled down to baby form as in the original chapter. But overall keeping her as a teenager flows with the story of the opening itself better while still keeping those same allusions and thematics.

The next big shot to talk about is this one right here.

Many have already pointed out how it is an homage to the classical painting "The School in Athens." Which is very fitting for the college setting of this arc. More so than the reference itself, the way in which the characters are placed is so meaningful.

We have Chise in the center of it all as the catalyst of course. But we once more get that repetition of Elias as a bystander, observing the situation while remaining more in the background when it comes to Chise. Parallel to him is Lizabeth, who is similarly an outsider but with none of Elias' good nature, she is an outsider in that she wants to watch this scene burn to the ground (and probably why the choice was to then introduce a werewolf who leaps forwards on the attack, still under Lizabeth's control.)

Ruth and Alcyone are also parallel to one another, highlighted in a shot mirroring the two of them. This is interesting in that Alcyone is far more often paired with Elias when being given a point of comparison. While she is quite literally an artificial familiar, her presence is what sparks the idea that Elias might be something similar to her, and yet here she is paired with Ruth. They do have their similarities in the way they would do anything for the person they live for. A thought that struck me was in this mirroring there is also a contrast, Ruth shares his life with Chise, if he dies she is to die as well. However Alcyone's death was meant to be a way for Philomela to live- it was crucial in ensuring Philomela's freedom from her grandmother.

Also notably, Veronica is given a long, lingering shot. As a child, she is far more innocent looking, but the shot stays just a moment too long, as if trying to confirm the suspicions surrounding her (which manga readers will know are true). We also have Jasmine and Violet prominently featured, a very interesting choice considering how little a role they play in this arc, but I feel that current suspicions about how they will have a large role in the upcoming arc might be supported by their presence here. There actually isn't much to say about the shots with the werewolf and our first glimpse of how the show portrays the Testament as it gains a physical form.

While gorgeous there's just not much to say about them from an analytical standpoint. Besides for the way in which everyone is turned back into their play forms upon being killed, as if that was their original fate before Chise's interference with the story.

We then see Chise look devastated, the carnage of her dead friends behind her on the stage. It truly captures just how terrified she is of losing people she cares for. But then she looks at the thorn rune- plot relevant in the way her rune charms protected her friends from being killed. But it's also Elias' symbol, and yet another reminder of how he is still watching over and protecting her throughout all of this. It's only after she activates the magic that she looks up, determined to carry on and change this fate.

The start of our final action sequence for this opening is a bang, giving us this chaotic shot.

We see both bits of the classical painting and of our original stage figures being tossed around in the background referencing how the Testament literally rips its way through both the college itself and the students/teachers there. It also, notably, is not contained within the story, instead existing on the same plane as Chise. It's a being far too powerful to be contained in such a way, so it makes perfect sense for it not to be confined to the theatrical setting of this opening.

The next flash of shots is perhaps one of the most hearbreaking ones in this entire opening. First we're shown Philomela and her grandmother, then we cut to this:

Y'all the layers to this, the l a y e r s. We've already seen this bird represent Philomela in the opening itself as a hatchling. However the adult form of this bird is exactly the same as what Alcyone's base is, it is the only thing remaining once Alcyone dies. However we see all 3 stages of life here, lying dead on the ground. The Sargent family is a family of abusive cycles. Lizabeth passes down her abuse to her son, having been doomed to this path from the moment she was born. It's Adam who tries to break the cycle but ultimately fails, choosing to end his own life rather than return. This dooms his baby daughter to the same fate, nearly killing her as well. It's Alcyone, the last remaining gift Philomela has from her father and the one way he thought of to keep her safe even if he was gone. It's both about the cycles and about how they are broken and how Philomela will never truly escape the violence of the family she was born into, even after her grandmother is gone. This is then followed by the 1 picture of her parents that Philomela tries so hard to remember but cannot. Anyways I am going to be physically ill, next.

While the last sequence is just a build up to the final fight (cool as fuck but again, not much to say analytically), I do want to point out that when the Testament pulls in all the surrounding settings, it pulls in both the theatrical characters and the actual representations of Chise's friends with them. Which is such a cool little detail my jaw in on the fucking floor.

And after a brilliantly animated scene of Chise running to try and save Philomela from the jaws of this monster, everything abruptly comes to a close. Leaving us unsure of whether or not Philomela was truly saved, as the last set piece to fall away is that gilded cage, the angle making it unclear if Philomela is still inside before our title card appears. The quiet, peaceful shot of the classroom the title lingers over in favor of the chilling set pieces of the opening before it is an excellent place to end, leaving that sense of urgency and notions of the sinister lying in wait at the college.

All of this, and I haven't even touched on the lyrics- which I won't do so here. I am not a qualified translator and frankly this post is long enough as it is. It isn't as if this opening needs anything else to explain how fucking fantastic it is- the visuals themselves are stunning on a level few openings are these days. Not only does it tie into already existing thematics of the show, not only does it go through plot points we have seen and those yet to come in unique and engaging ways, the opening *itself* brings forth its own thematic reading of the college arc and Chise's place in it while telling its own story of events. Truly a masterclass piece of animation all around.

#ancient magus bride #mahoutsukai no yome #chise hatori #elias ainsworth #philomela sargant #lucy webster #anyways this has been your episode of mae is going feral(tm)#thank you for coming to my ted talk #this is the opening of the season everyone else sit down and come back when you are on its level #<- has only watched like 3 animes this season

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resplendent-chungus · 2 years

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This image appeared to me in a dream. It is correct, and could not possible require any elaboration.

#worm #this is what happens when you write a story where #the power system is actually given out by aliens who don't understand emotions so they can harvest the powered people to avoid entropy #resulting in the protagonist sacrificing herself and basically becoming God to stop them #and the protagonist working for the big bad but them both being too paranoid and controlling to co-exist for long despite the benefits #and the protagonist (despite their ruthlessness and ability to rationalize doing anything) gets wigged out when they fuck up a kid #because they have just sliiiiightly more morals #anyways congrats to wildbow for writing Breaking Bad and Madoka Magica at the same time #ALSO i find it fascinating that despite all existing in the same time there was never a time when they were happening concurrently #Worm aligned pretty neatly with Breaking Bad seasons 4 and 5 (both starting in the summer of 2011 and ending in fall 2013)#but Madoka Magica started in January 2011 and ended in April. Worm started just over a month later #and that was right in the period between seasons 3 and 4 of Breaking Bad #thanks for coming to my ted talk

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dungeons-and-dragon-age · 1 month

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DA2 is the best DA game actually because not only you are are a refugee, but your whole friend group except one (1) guy are also all refugees in some way or at the very least foreigners in the city, and you get to see all the different ways they do and don't struggle to adapt and fit in and make a new home

#i love that the fact that hawke isnt native to kirkwall is always present in some way even after they climb ranks #i love that you get to talk with aveline about your shared home country and shared refugee experience and how it affects you #(not in Great Detail but your feelings towards it get addressed and idk. that means a lot to me)#i love that (almost) all of the companions deal with making a new home in a new place differently #and i love the contrast of varric who has never been anywhere but kirkwall #who knows it inside and outside. whose whole heart lies in this city.#anyways. i care about this aspect of da2 lots thank u for coming to my ted talk #and also shoutout to ali for making me have feels about it again <3

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lighthouseas · 11 months

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whenever will has a bad day at work (or just a bad day in general), and he's just sitting on the couch and sulking, mike will put on will's current favorite song and ask him to dance really stupidly formally like they do at weddings. will always rolls his eyes and pouts and refuses at first - until he sees mike, his wonderful amazing beautiful boyfriend, busting out his absolute cringiest dance moves to their favorite the cure song or whatever else and singing along to said song horrifically off key in the middle of their living room. and then mike extends his hands to will and forcefully pulls him up off the couch and twirls him around and dips him down to kiss him like he's the most special boy in the world (because he is. Obviously) and will can't pout anymore because mike's hands are so big and warm in his own and it's just them, being stupid and silly and crazy together in their tiny little one bedroom apartment and dancing along to all of their favorites. before the first song even finishes, though, will finds himself singing and dancing along too and twirling mike back because mike's dopey little grin is so damn infectious that he just. can't help it.

and this is how mike develops the Tried And True Method To Turn Will's Frown Upside Down (pun not intended) that he still continues even when they're older and married, because they're still stupid kids at heart and love each other so much that it needs to be shared in every way possible ❤️

#YES I KNOW I AM SUPPOSED TO BE OFFLINE SHHHHHH #this came to me in a vision while listening to the cure and i needed to share it. ok #i DID get a lot of writing and watching done though!!!!! i promise <3 #god anyways. can u tell how much they mean 2 me.#will will be like mike im not in the mood and then mike will grab a hairbrush for a microphone and shred on an air guitar and be like #-are u sure. are u sure you aren't in the mood. and will will be like. oh my god you're so stupid. make out w me #reminder that mike is canonically goofy as hell yall. i hate when people make him emo and sad like GOD NO HE IS NOT THAT BOY IS A GOOFBALL #HE IS SAD YES BUT HE HAS THE CAPACITY TO BE AN ABSOLUTE GOOF AND WE NEED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT.#thank you for coming to my ted talk. xx #stranger things #mike wheeler #will byers #byler #st.txt

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creative-hanyou-girl · 5 months

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I don't know if anyone else feels this way but I think a big reason why I'm so chill about the changes made to the PJO show from the books is because I kind of look at each other as their own seperate canon.

Like, I read a lot of anime and manga, and anime adaptations have a huge habit for changing plot points for various reasons, and as a fan of said anime and manga, I've found that I can enjoy both versions of the same story even with the differences when I look at them as their own universe or canon. That's not to say I don't want them to be faithful or true to the source material, but if a scene or situation plays out differently for a logical or entertaining reason, than I can still appreciate that deviation from the manga even if I still like the other original version of that part more. And I can even like the reversal way if I feel an anime does something better than even the manga. But if I want to, I can look at certain moments as more canon than others because I got 2 different versions of that same scene or moment.

And, I don't know, I kind of apply that reasoning to the PJO series as well, mainly with the books, the show, and even the musical (not the movies put that right back where it came from). So far I'm loving the TV show, and while I miss some of the things they changed (like the pink poodle), this adaptation really is doing a great job with staying true to the heart and spirit of the original book that I personally am not even really bothered by the changes, especially when I remember that the books will always still be there with it's own version, or canon, of events.

Like, I will say 1 thing I adore in the books that isn't really in the show is the fact that a lot of Percy and Annabeth's "rivalry" during TLT has more to do with the rivalry between Poseidon and Athena. I just really like on how this adds a level of "forbidden friendship/love" to their relationship 'cause I personally eat the forbidden relationship trope up, especially when it's done well like with Percabeth.

Yet, even if this isn't really the reason percabeth have beef with each other in the show, I can still appreciate and enjoy that according to the show's canon, they have issues because they genuinely have problems with each other as actual people rather than their parents' rivalry, because at the end of the day, that's the PJO TV show canon, and I can always turn to the books for that version of Percabeth's "rivalry", as that is the PJO book canon.

Same goes for the characters too. I will always have and love my dark haired Percy and blond haired Annabeth in the books, but I can also welcome and love Walker's Percy and Leah's Annabeth from the show. And so far, they along with Aryan are KILLING IT as those characters.

I can love both versions of the characters.

I can love both versions of the same story.

I can look at both versions as they own seperate canon or mix them together if I so wish too (especially since both versions of PJO are written by the same guy)

And that's ok. The adaptation doesn't have to be a complete copy of the books. It doesn't have to have things play out eactly the same way. The characters don't have to look exactly the way they are described as in the books. And that's ok. I will still always have the books to love and appreciate, but I can also start to love and appreciate the new adaptation for it's new spin and twists to the same story that sets it apart as it's own canon while still staying true to the spirit of its predecessor.

Anyway, sorry if I'm not making a lot of sense. I just think the people complaining about the changes in the show are looking at it all the wrong way. The show has it's own canon just as the books have their own canon, or even the musical. At the end of the day, isn't that kind of cool to have different versions of the same story and characters? Doesn't it give you so many more options to look at the story in different ways that you can prefer or choose from? Doesn't it give you new versions of canon that you choose from? And really, as long as the PJO adaptation, or any adaptation for that matter, stays true to the heart and spirit of the original story and characters, do the changes made really matter?

#anyway sorry for the long post #I've just been seeing a lot of people complaining about the PJO making changes from the books and I thought I give my 2 cents #& I thought about how the show dies make enough changes to certain events or plotpoints that you could look at it as its own seperate canon #and how that actually is kind of cool as it gives us another version of the same story and characters #it's actually really neat to have different versions of the same story ya know #its like. if I ever want the Percabeth that has more of a 'forbidden relationship' thing going on. there's always the book canon to fall on #likewise if I want the percabeth where they're rivals because they have genuine issues w/ eachother. there's the TV show. ya know?#and if I want the Athena that I can at least somewhat believe might actually care for Annabeth. there's the book canon #whereas if I want the Athena I straight up wanna strangle from the getgo. I now got the TV show for that😊#same with the characters descriptions #I personally still imagine Percy and Annabeth as they are described in the books #but I am positvely loving Leah and Walker's portrayal of TV Percy and Annabeth so much. especially in these last few episodes.#and don't get me started on how much I love Aryan as Grover. he's the GOAT (literally🤭)#anyway thanks for coming to my ted talk #I just think its neat that Ive now got 2. even 3 versions of PJO canon that I can love together and individually at my disposal now #and I just think the people who are complaining about the show aren't seeing it that way and that's why they're whining about changes #like. chill guys. we still have the books. but now we also the show and musical to give us new versions of the same story and characters #and is that not amazing when you think about it?#percy jackson series #percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackson tv show #percy jackson #percy and annabeth #athena #annabeth chase #grover underwood #book vs show #percy jackson books #percy jackson musical #percabeth

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spearxwind · 1 year

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Some silly Hadesposting ft. @silvaerial's oc Asil >:]

#windyart #hades #shitpost #just a scribble #dan #well more like #shran #cooking that little beast <3 goodbye #i havent been able to draw anything in a hot second so you get these shitposts #i have been thinking of hades so much the past few days i love him #mostly because i have been playing hades (game) and its making me think about hades (fish)#anyways hades (both) is good #thanks for coming to my ted talk

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jonasiegenthaler · 1 year

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"86 [rating] Nico are you kidding me [...] This guy should be higher than 86 too"

Are you gonna lose sleep tonight because of the rating, be honest.

No, I'll be okay, my head will hit the pillow and I'll be okay but—. Like, Nico, more than 86."

#jack hughes #devils #youtube kept recommending this video they know their audience #several things #1) jack being mad about his rating across multiple videos #2) scoring a hughes to hischier goal #3) v accurate in-game celly #4) pivoting to getting mad about nico's rating #5) nico having an 86 rating #6) taking a breather and circling back to nico only to get cut off #i just think its great how consistently he insists that nico's underrated #(just like me fr)#anyway thank you for coming to my ted talk #.avi #1386

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polyphonial-old · 1 year

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how nobara would look if gege wasn't a COWARD ‼️ / inspired by @/nibeul's nobara design and star earring nobara drawing

[id: a digital drawing of nobara kugisaki from jujutsu kaisen. her legs are in profile, but her torso is turned towards the viewer. she is grinning confidently. she has medium brown skin and dark brown hair with a bleached streak. she steps forward with her right foot, bending her left behind it, and holds up her hammer and three nails in between her fingers close to her head with her left hand. her right is leaning on a dark blue cane. it has a cyan star pattern, a light blue handle and wristband, and two pride flag stickers: a trans flag and a heart-shaped lesbian one. the last difference from canon is her clothes. her dress shirt is partially unbuttoned, and her jacket is fully unbuttoned, with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. she wears a studded hole black belt and her skirt is pleated and shorter, halfway to her knees, but it has shorts beneath it. she wears white knee high ribbed socks and white sneakers with pink stars, as well as black fingerless gloves, pink nail polish and silver wire star earrings. the background is pink with stars and exclamation marks. end id.]

#olly scribbles #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #nobara kugisaki #jjk fanart #jjk redesign #nobara jjk #digital art #HII IT IS FINALLY DONE !!!#HUGE ty to vera and corey for supporting the creative process and even huger ty to corey for helping me come up w fnd cane user nobara <333 #anyway. like 70% of my mutuals are from jjk and i don't draw anything for it ever so i hope y'all enjoy 👍#also potential yuki thing in the works tee hee #going to dump some info abt the design here #so her bleached streak + gloves are an inspo from yuki bc. i think nobara would rlly like her if they met #stars are her thing and she likes fashion <3 #and the stud holes also function as places she hangs up her bag + hammer + cane when she's out n about #ok that is all thank you for coming to my ted talk *autism voice*

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mossy-paws · 2 months

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my summer vacation is gonna be WILDDDDD this year oh my god. First I have 2 week and a half long vacations with my dad because my brother is getting married. THEN. I’m going on a cruise with my mom and THEN at the end of summer I’m getting knee surgery because apparently I have like 3 different somewhat serious conditions going on all at once IN 1 SINGLE KNEE what the HELL MAN 😭😭😭

anyways yeah art is probably gonna be slowing down a LOT over summer and I don’t think I’ll be able to participate in artfight this year. Maybe a little but if I do then I’m gonna be focusing on close friends only really LMFAO

#Yeah #so about my knee #APPARENTLY #i have a displaced kneecap. Joint dysplasia. AND hypertension caused by the displaced kneecap which means I’m gonna be needing knee surgery #Me when my genetics are FUCKED WAAAAAAAH #I’m also gonna be volunteering at a marine center for some extra service hours for school at the beginning of summer so yeah my summer #Is gonna have no room for art LMAOOOOO #I’ll try to do a good chunk of stuff though so :3!#I got a bunch of projects planned and I’ll probably slowly work on those as summer goes on #And artfight I’ll just have to find room through my vacations!#I shouldn’t be TOO inactive but I know I will be after I get surgery so yeah! I’m gonna get as much work done in advance so I’ll have stuff #To post throughout summer :3!#Anyways yeah was just feeling silly and wanted to talk I’m relatively okay and I’m not in too much pain rn as I just got my knee brace in s #Yall don’t gotta worry about me too much HEHEHE #Anyways thank you for coming to my ted talk I got a psychiatrist appointment tomorrow so bye bye :3 #Cro chatter

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altruistic-meme · 2 months

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If wille is king there is no Wilmon that’s why there aren’t many. I love Simon so much that I don’t want him near wille if he is king

i think this is one of those times where we will have to agree to disagree on certain things! i believe that there is definitely still a way forward for Wilmon even if Wilhelm doesn't abdicate, but that's my own personal opinion and thoughts <3

besides, being royal isn't what is causing Wilhelm to act the way he does; the issues with his behavior would still need to be addressed even if he DID abdicate. it's not like abdication would magically fix every issue he has, every problem between him and Simon, between him and his family, or between him and himself. there is a lot of work that he needs to put in to become better.

and further, I truly doubt Wilhelm will be king any time soon anyway, which gives him the time to figure all of this out and to become a better person. which is what he really needs.

#thank you for coming to my ted talk <3 #i love wilhelm so much too he's an amazing and complicated character who's family relations hit a bit too close to home for me #in case anyone thought this was wilhelm hate it's not. i will NOT tolerate wilhelm hate on this blog #but criticism is not hate nor is acknowledging character flaws #anyway #understood and acknowledged. i am still a king wille truther.#and a wilmon endgame truther though i have never once doubted that lmao #young royals #yr3 #yr3 spoilers #askers #anon #shh ac

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summerfevers · 2 months

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if you’re up to it i would very much like to know your white collar neal timeline🎤🎤

this turned out to have many asides and be very long so the tl;dr is: peter have you considered that he's just a twenty-something teenage girl :( ?

timeline:

neal born 1984 ish. he's an aries and a millennial

neal, ellen, and neal's mom go into witsec 1987, neal age 3

2003 adler scandal i fucking guess. neal age 19

neal arrested probably mid 2005, 21

neal goes to jail for the first time, i want to say early 2006, age almost 22

pilot is set late summer 2009, age 25

same-sex marriage legalized in new york june 24th 2011, they talk about this in season 3 episode 14 which is soon after. neal's 27

more or less a year later–let's go with less–neal tells sam that he has spent the last decade running from the truth he learned at 18. taking him literally that it was 10 years ago he is now 28 it is the end of season 4 and 2012

the end of season 4 to the series finale is less than a year. he is 29 its 2013.

when we see him in paris he might be 30 but that doesn't count To Me

i present my evidence:

i don't know where we got "neal is 35" from i cant make it work. neal and co. went into witsec (which i have actually since learned is not available to people living in dc, they have their own version but it is not overseen by the federal marshalls, i don't think they can give you as many legal documents like a ssn, and they don't help you set up your new life as much? something about neal's life that would be interesting to explore.) when he was three and ellen says in season 4 that she's been in witsec for Nearly three decades. confirmed 33 or under in season 4

he also says to "sam" more than once that he's spent the last decade running from the truth he learned at 18–he very well could be rounding down here and mean like 12-13 years but i am Choosing to Believe he meant that literally. we are now at youngest 28, it is the last episode of season 4.

now due to the way the show is structured and the fact that it is never really winter. ok maybe winter 1 time because i can see in my mind neal in his little wool coat and earmuffs but largely it is summer and we never have a christmas episode. anyway due to All That our only real anchor in the timeline is that the episode where diana is Grappling with her engagement to Christie happens immediately following june 24th 2011, when same-sex marriage was legalized in new york. and also that later that season in the commutation hearing they say that neal has served 2 years of his sentence. so the pilot was set in 2009 when it aired we are at one year/season. but as the series goes on the episodes and even seasons have increasingly shorter gaps between them, and by season 6 we haven't even finished our four years. by the end of season 4 i want to say we are three years into his sentence and he's 28. between the end of season 4 and when neal dies in season 6 there has got to be less than a year that passes. actually deadass why was neal so obsessed with the pink panther case ending his sentence early we are like months out king. i get the injustice the system is broken they'd keep him forever but to people outside his circle he must have looked sooo silly for that. but whatever. he is 29 when he dies and 30 when we see him again in paris, his roaring 20s of crime and incarceration over.

Anyway where the "neal is 35 or at least claims to be much older than this timeline would say he is" probably came from in-universe is that the adler scandal takes place SEVEN years before s2 when peter confronts neal about it. 2003?????? guys the thing we have to understand, to embrace, about neal's personal timeline is that i do not think anyone in that writers room was really grasping how much they had neal do in so short a time. 2003 he is like 19 guys. maybe by the time peter says it was 7 years ago it was 2011 ? and the adler thing was 2004? but no that couldn't work because it's mid 2011 like a year later in s3. so basically neal walks out of st louis and has a magical girl transformation through which he immediately becomes a great conman and criminal. and he meets mozzie basically straight away. he should still be in like calculus and ap lit at this juncture. and then they go right into the adler con ??? and neal is obviously lying through his teeth to everyone saying he is at least 21 but probably more along the lines of 23. and while most of his aliases are eventually found out by peter if no one else, no one ever goes "wait IS HE a teenager?" no one is guessing this.

so we spend a couple months fucking around and fucking UP with adler, kate probably doesn't know how old we actually are, this relationship cannot actually last very long at all because we are truly on a time crunch right now. we have less than three years for neals entire criminal career before he goes to jail. i know i said on the bullet list he went to jail early 2006 he has got to have been arrested like summer 2005 at the latest to be tried and sentenced by then and i feel like even that might be tight because he was suspected of so many other things they wanted to get evidence for. but how is neal teaching kate to be a criminal less than a year into his own career. i think neal must have been a hardcore improv kid for this to work honestly. i bet he competed. so our golden days of mozzie neal and kate against the world lasts maybe a year at best before neal and kate fight and she leaves and he spends months trying to get her back and get her attention and commits a truly breathtaking amount of crimes in this time.

also i'm skipping through forging bonds right now trying to flesh out this timeline and it was incredibly shady of peter and co to see that kate is doing so much to stay hidden from her ex boyfriend and then to reveal her to neal in order to catch him. like that was fucked up they didn't know neal yet he hadn't been suspected of violent crimes but they didn't know why kate was working so hard to escape him. like it worked out ok (arguably, but that could be a different post) but they had no reason to trust neal not to hurt her like this. she could have been running from an abusive situation he's known to be a talented criminal with no fears about escalating his crimes he could have killed her. one thing about the fbi is that they never once care about kate's safety and it does indeed get her killed one day.

in conclusion neal is known as one of the best forgers in the world when he is arrested in 2005 at age 21 maybe 2 years into his criminal career. here i am 21 what have i accomplished

#hiiiiiii LOVE your wc fic explorations of neals childhood are everything To Me and really your characterization of danny brooks is exactly #the kind of child neal would have to be for him to have been essentially a child prodigy at white collar crime #truly hes gotta be canon #also one more thing why is james in that flashback like have a good day at school 🥰 or whatever. neal is 2 or 3 and his mom didnt seem #to work so he didnt have daycare. where tf is he going #anyway thank you for coming to my ted talk future talks will discuss my conflicting opinions on how neal and kates relationship is treated #in canon and how neal was obviously not an early 2000s emo kid but frankly? maybe he should have been. good night #white collar #poplars.txt #just put this throufh a word counter 1200??? sorry.#this post is nearly twice the word count of the assignment i was procrastinating while i wrote it 🧍

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