#ditto analysis

[efplanning]

eon and garchomp fuck w me bc on the surface its. oh bitter old men haha. then under that its oh. youre kind of gay for each other and youre weird about it. then under tht its oh. you two used to be extremely close friends until one bad move. one selfish "mistake" on garchomps part, trying to be something he couldnt for eon. something eon wasnt ready to embrace for himself. that resulted in eon pushing him away. and now years later. Years after not talking. No contact. Nothing...Eons wife hires garchomp at the family business. And now that garchomps back in his life. eon feels like he has to put walls between them, that grachomp responds to w his own...even if they still ease into each other just after talking for a few minutes. Even when those walls crumble so easily... Eon was willing to push garchomp away once bc he didn't think he deserved that kind of happiness. And i think eons unsure if he could push garchomp away again if he needed to...

#AND THIS ISNT EVEN FACTORING IN DITTOS SHIT NEARLY AS MUCH AS IT SHOULD BUT. YEAH. #analysis post #+others

[dittomander]

What are your thoughts on Isabel becoming Royal Inventor? I know inventing is Isabel’s hobby, but when somebody is titled as “Royal” then that implies that they work for the Royal family. But Isabel is not only part of the royal family, but she is heir presumptive. If Elena dies or abdicates without children, then the throne will pass to Isabel. Isabel’s arc was about learning to become a ruler like Elena. So why make her Royal Inventor, if she could potentially become ruler of Avalor one day?

Narratively speaking, I think it actually makes perfect sense. For starters, while there are certainly themes of leadership in some of Isabel's episodes, I'd argue that her arc is less about becoming a "ruler like Elena" and more about her becoming a leader unlike Elena.

(True to form, long-winded essay below the cut.)

Isabel starts the show as a clingy little kid - from her perspective, she just lost her parents, and she doesn't understand that her sister's new responsibilities mean that she can't spend as much time with her as she used to. A lot of her episodes involve her learning to act independently of Elena. She must develop and defend her own identity, even as she reckons with the limitations of her age.

She goes to school for the first time in "Crystal in the Rough" and struggles to make friends her own age, so she smothers her own identity and tries to just fit in instead. She has to learn to be herself and rely on her own strengths - her skills with math, science, and invention. This episode also gives Isabel her own friend group, independent from Elena and the other amigos. Later, in "Science Unfair", she has to learn to rely on those friends for help. Her sister gives her some advice, but ultimately, she and her new friends finish their project themselves.

Later still in "Class Act", Isabel has to learn to recover from her own mistakes and work with even more people outside of her family, to the point where she's able to teach Elena a lesson about working with difficult personalities in "Norberg Peace Prize". By "Shooting Stars", she's totally confident in her role as a scientist and her ability to give directions related to that role. And in Isa's final focus episode, "Heart of the Jaguar", Elena is literally taken from her, and she must learn to stand up for herself and solve her problems entirely alone.

But even as she learns to become a more independent and confident leader in her own right, she has to deal with the fact that she is still fundamentally Different from her sister. At first, this is largely framed as a function of her age. In "Blockheads" and "Three Jaquins and Princess", she is ignored and doubted because of her youth, though it's her knowledge and ingenuity that solve the problems of the day.

Still, she tries to be one of the "big kids", and in "Sister of Invention", she makes her plea again to be treated as an adult and seen as part of the team. She's ultimately allowed to join the amigos, but it's not because they see her as being like them. In fact, they explicitly say that Isabel can't do what they do... but that they can't do what she does, either. She's allowed to work with them because of her inventions and mathematical skills - that is, because of her differences.

(Arguably, "Science Unfair" has a similar conclusion. Isabel is invited to go to college - that is, invited to join a group of adults - specifically because of her skills with science. Beyond just being her hobby, those skills are at the core of her identity, and they are what tie her to being recognized as a grown-up.)

The point is hammered in further in "Team Isa", where Cristina outright tells her that "you're not Elena and you never will be." Isabel was trying to be a "leader like Elena" and failed, only succeeding when she utilized her and her friends' own unique skills instead of trying to just be like her sister. Isabel and Elena have distinct skill sets, and episodes like "A Gecko's Tale" and "The Family Treasure" emphasize this. Their differing skills allow them to complement each other and give them opportunities to learn, but throughout the show, it's made clear that they are not each other and cannot fully fill each other's roles.

Because again, it's not just that Isa can't do exactly what Elena does. It's also that Elena can't do what Isa does. She tries to handle invention plans in "Sugar Rush", but it only adds to her anxieties, and at the end of the episode, she hands the responsibility off to Isabel, the expert. Elena has to learn to delegate what she can't handle herself.

That's what the Royal Inventor title means. It's respect for Isabel's unique skills. It's an acknowledgement that she's a part of the team. And it's not an act of subordination, but rather a delegation of authority.

So the narrative comes together there. Isabel has gone from a clingy little kid that would hide her interests to fit in to a confident young lady that knows where her skills lie and can be trusted with the responsibility to use them for the kingdom's benefit.

The promotion scene at the end of "Coronation Day" exists primarily for these narrative reasons rather than for making perfect logical sense in-universe. It's meant to showcase how the character arcs have developed - most of them fall apart if you put them under the slightest bit of realistic scrutiny - but if we do want to look at them through that logical, in-universe lens, then frankly, Isabel's promotion probably makes the most sense.

There is a precedent of members of the royal family still working for the royal family. Esteban was chancellor for most of the show and both he and the abuelos were on the Grand Council. None of those three may have had a claim to the throne like Isabel could, but even her claim is pretty meaningless at this point in the timeline.

The only reason Elena had any governing authority as Crown Princess was because there was Literally No Other Ruler at the time. Current heir or not, Isabel won't actually be expected to lead the kingdom unless something happens to Elena, and if Elena ever has kids, then Isa's practically off the roster entirely. So... what's a princess to do in the meantime? Being named Royal Inventor gives her a degree of authority within Elena's court that she may never have otherwise and gives her something to do for the kingdom other than wait around until Elena dies. It's even a job that's in her wheelhouse.

Besides, if Elena does die or abdicate, it's not like being Royal Inventor now somehow cancels out Isa's ability to rule later. Presumably, she'd just ditch the title when she took the throne.

#elena of avalor #eoa #isabel castillo flores #eoa analysis #ditto answers #thank you for your patience with these asks #i'm gonna start working through them this week

[dittolicous]

yknow, as like... a demi person on just like this side of being ace, its really tricky articulating my feelings on shipping as interaction with media without feeling like im bothering others

cuz there is a totally valid 'ugh not everything is about shipping!' stance but at the same time, i feel like maybe a good deal of shippers arent necessarily *ignoring* every other element or incapable of grasping themes or the like, but looking for the aspects *not* found in their favorite medias...

hence why, yknow, tragedies get fluffy aus or fix-its, cutesy stuff gets darker reimaginings, fantasys get coffee shop aus, modern stories get fantasy dnd aus, and things like say shonen series - which usually dont do romance at all or very well but have friendships down pat - get shipping!

(and maybe theres something to be said about modern media treatment of romance that many find lacking so even romances might not meet expectations...)

so of course, if they find all other elements fulfilling, i would say turning to shipping for fanfics is relatively harmless so long as they clearly know what theyre getting into and arent belittling the media for being something it was never meant to be or harassing about ships

for me personally, i turn to shipping a lot because... well i am actually a romantic at heart and would like to find love, and there can be such compelling love stories between strongly built characters! im not going to expect canon stuff to be about it, i just like exploring the things canon wont and probably doesnt need to to tell a well written story of its kind

#ditto rambles #shipping #fanfic talk #i just have thoughts #cuz i feel bad for being such a big shipper at heart sometimes #cuz i totally get how TIRING it can be to downplay or ignore platonic relationships #along with the issue of treating all media like romance #at the expense of the stories that are trying to be told #but if i read fanfics... im gunna be looking for fun escapism mostly #not text literacy analysis (well not ALWAYS lol) #too much of any one thing can be annoying #bur fuck man #i love love even as a demi romantic #and found family of course

[aliceksoo]

New Jeans "DITTO" MVs analysis

or: how I fell in love with this group

I apologize in advance, but when I love something to such an extent I HAVE TO TALK ABOUT IT so here I am writing a massive post no one will ever read. If you do, kudos to you, and thank you.

(I actually had so many things extra to say, but I reached the limit of images allowed so I had to cut parts of it, but there are SO MANY INTERESTING DETAILS!!!)

Let me start by stating something: this is NOT a mystery, thriller, or horror kind of story. This is 100% a coming-of-age story.

I understand the vibes and some of the shots might hint at it, but that ain't it, sorry.

It is safe to say that this MV, or well, two MVs, have instantly become one of my all-time favorites.

The reasons are:

1) I'm a sucker for coming-of-age stories. I never get tired of it, I am 30 years old and I still cry like a baby over them. Love them.

2) The team behind it, the actors, the shots, the director, EVERYTHING works so well together it actually is insane to me how people in the industry are aiming for that level of quality sometimes.

I WILL TRY TO KEEP IT A REASONABLE LENGTH THIS WILL BE EXTRA LONG, I CAN'T KEEP IT SHORT, I HAVE A LOT TO SAY.

Let's start!

The main character in this story is Heesoo, a young student that we see more and less directly throughout both MVs.

The MV actually begins with her in the present, as an adult, opening a box with "memories" from the past, and starting a VHS of her past recordings.

Her POV is represented through the camera she holds through most of the MVs: this is important not only for the narrative but to actually understand the meaning behind what we're seeing.

When the reprise is in the retro, VHS style, it is what we see through her eyes; when we actually see wider shots with her in it, it switches back to neutral, HQ shots.

The story is shaped around a coming-of-age kind of narrative, which is a very popular trope we are experiencing among several K-pop groups, particularly within HYBE, with BTS in the past and TXT now.

Heesoo is introduced to us as a young girl in school, who loves to record all the time her group of friends while they have fun and they dance. While she is not necessarily represented as an outcast, it is clear that she might be a more introverted, shy personality, the one that loves to be "behind the camera" more than in front of it.

SIDE A

Heesol is the main character, and she is shown since the very beginning with a cast on her arm. In this MV, she is shown fully part of a group dynamic, with the girls directly involving her, smiling and talking to her, sharing makeup, and snacks during breaks at school, making jokes while running around both inside the school and outside, getting wet in the rain, writing on her cast. While we DO see parts of her perspective in daily life, the narrative is mostly shown from an external POV. The girls consider Heesoo part of the group, falling asleep all together, and in general experiencing all those youthful, happy moments a group of friends has while growing up.

Except, none of it is real.

The girls are not really there, and through the MV we finally get a glimpse of the reality: Heesoo was all alone the whole time, wishing for friends who would care about her, about her strugglings, about her thoughts and happy moments.

And her loneliness, her isolation, and her struggles have been invisible to everyone else in school, except this guy who keeps looking at her. And maybe because she does not understand why he is always watching her, she always turns the other way and stops the recording.

He might be her first youthful love, but in my eyes, he is also the first and only person who sees her struggles, and because of that he is very important in the story.

Before her waking up, showing us the truth about her loneliness, we see her dream of being in a winter landscape full of snow, with a fawn staring at her from the distance. This also comes with the reason that the scene is meant to have a symbolic meaning. The winter storm is her general feeling of loneliness and sadness, and the fawn represents herself. But there's more: a Fawn is widely recognized as a symbol and representation of youth and innocence, often tied with youthful, feminine representations.

She is in the middle of a winter storm, the storm being something negative in her real life, or simply her feelings, and she starts to see herself, her own youth, and her innocence.

She is growing up.

SIDE B

This is not an MV showing the same time but is in fact a continuation of the first one.

The MV starts pretty much with a similar shot we have seen in the previous one, except now we know the truth, and we notice the quick cuts that allow us to see beyond her camera, behind her fantasies. She is not recording her friends, cause they do not exist: we can actually catch some of her classmates looking at her with puzzled faces (cause they probably don't understand why someone is recording them doing nothing), and we also get glimpses of the empty halls that in her imagination were filled with New Jeans members running around freely.

We now see her alone on the roof; outside in the garden, she seems to be surrounded by her friends... Except they are not there, and when that same guy looks at her and SEES HER being alone, she realizes and runs away, not ready to face the reality. Not ready to come to terms with her feelings and pains.

But she can't run away forever (remember the dream from side A?), which is why we see her remember her time spent with her friends writing on her cast, only for her to realize that it never happened, her cast is all white and no one drew anything.

We also see her looking at five girls in a parking lot, in casual clothes, dancing to their song: this is to show that her longing for a group of friends actually comes from her sense of isolation. She wishes to fit in, to have friends caring for her, so she projects this on a group of strangers, young girls who she would love to see having fun with her.

Remember the whole premise about different kind of recording? We see clearly now that the shots with the girls on the roof are all from Heesoo POV, while the same shot from an external POV shows us her being all alone.

The camera and her shots, are all projections of the loneliness and struggles she is now forced to face. Which is why she tries to avoid it and throws her camera from the roof.

But she is, inevitably, growing up.

She is now fully aware, whether she likes it or not, that she is experiencing growing pains and struggling with new, unknown feelings, and she cannot rely anymore on her imagination and fantasy world.

She has to face reality. She now walks alone in the rain alone, without waiting for her friends, but she is now using the umbrella, she is caring about herself instead of running around and having fun. She is slowly developing a sense of responsibility.

Alone at home, she is once again facing reality. Part of her still wishes for a friend to call her on the cellphone (Minji, in this case), but she now knows it is not real, and so she is ready to let go. She does not pick up.

She is now looking the dawn right in the eyes, and it is staring right back at her for a long, important moment, before finally walking away, allowing her to let go of that youthful innocence and begin her walk toward adulthood, starting with someone at her side to grow up with, the guy we see her walk with (possibly her first love, but maybe just a friend... in any case, someone that for the first time made her feel SEEN, someone who CARED, who decided to STAY).

In the end, we came back full circle to the present, where adult Heesoo opens her box of memories of the past: she is now looking back at her struggles, at her pains shown in her recordings, while smiling. She recognizes now, that everything she went through served her to become the woman she is now, and she finally makes peace with her past. She finally smiles.

So what was the role of the members in the story?

They were, to put it simply, a projection of Heesoo's feelings, hopes, dreams, and fantasies she had in her youth.

Feelings she was not ready to leave behind to face adulthood... Until she was. Feelings, good and bad, that made her the woman she is in the present.

And isn't music a form of art? isn't art, in every sort of form, meant to express feelings, thoughts, and moments in life both good and bad? The girls provided the perfect soundtrack for this story, but by appearing and acting in the music video they also gave us a visual representation of the purpose of their own work.

They are here to grow up with the public and to show us all the spectrum of the emotions behind this beautiful moment in life.

(edit from future me, cause I really keep watching it and discovering new thoughts: it's not so much that the girls aren't real, they are, it's just that they are NOT the girls heesoo is portraying, they are a group of friends, classmates, that are very much real but probably not involved as much in heesoo's life. Friends who she wishes were closer to her to give her that supportive system and care she desperately needed at the time.)

(ALSO: the cast might or might not be a symbol of her pain, of her struggles she has to deal with, but this is just me overanalyzing everything.)

[AND ALSO!!! That single painted nail she has in the first MV, where we see her loneliness, might or might not be a not-so-subtle nod to the Polished Man Project, an international non-profit project born to raise awareness over violence against children, particularly to start a conversation over children traumas, their preventions and recoveries all over the world.

This project was born after the real life experience of Elliot Costello, co-founder of it, who came up with the idea for Polished Man after a visit to campaign beneficiary Hagar International in Cambodia. One evening, he met a young girl named Thea, who after playing naughts and crosses for hours, drew a heart on Elliot's palm and painted his nails (rings a bell??? Minji, who is the same girl she was painting Heesoo's nails, drew a heart on her cast with the nail polish).

Later, Elliot learnt how Thea came to be in Hagar's care - she was physically and sexually assaulted on a daily basis.

Elliot made the decision then and there to paint one nail to remember Thea, making it a symbol of the whole campaign.

This famous project has been discussed and promoted by several idols in the K-pop world, most noticeable ATEEZ' Hongjoong, IKON' Bobby, CIX' Seunghun, Wonho etc.]

#new jeans #kpop #newjeans #newjeans ditto #minji new jeans #new jeans hyein #new jeans hanni #new jeans danielle #new jeans haerin #nwjns #music video #kpop mv #analysis #kpop girls #kpop news #growing up #coming of age #mv #music #kpop girl group #hybe entertainment #ditto #hybe

[pocketsizedowls]

"Ditto" & "Melty Land Nightmare": Allegories for Idol/Fan Relationships.

TLDR: "Ditto" by Newjeans and "Melty Land Nightmare" by More More Jump are about the way parasocial relationships can be toxic to both fans and content creators (in this case, idols). While "Ditto" encourages fans to look outside of the escapism of K-pop for happiness, "Melty Land Nightmare," when covered by More More Jump, encourages idols to not sacrifice their own happiness and well-being simply to fulfill the heavy expectations of being an idol (i.e. bringing happiness to their fans).

"Ditto" is sung by Newjeans, a K-pop group known for their youthful charm and y2k aesthetic. The music video features the Newjeans girls as typical Korean middle school students, laughing and dancing and going to school until it is revealed, in the end, that they never existed. "Melty Land Nightmare" is by Harumaki Gohan, a Japanese VOCALOID producer whose songs have vague but intriguing storylines. This one is about an unhappy human girl (i.e. Blue Girl) struggling with nightmares and a half-human, half-baku girl named Melty who consumes her dreams and brings her comfort.

While "Ditto" is clearly about the parasocial relationship between idols and fans--with Newjeans encouraging their fans to enjoy real life instead of relying on the escapism of K-pop for temporary happiness--"Melty Land Nightmare" is not. I would argue that "Melty Land Nightmare" does not at all have anything to do with idols, actually, unless you play Project Sekai.

More More Jump, the cutesy idol group of Project Sekai, covers a wide range of Vocaloid songs, from uplifting ones like "Happy Synthesizer" to sadder ones like "Shoujo Rei." "Melty Land Nightmare" is a song that sounds pretty but, once you look at the lyrics, turns out to be kind of sad, much like another MMJ cover that I really love (i.e. "Patchwork Staccato").

When viewed in the context of More More Jump, "Melty Land Nightmare" has a similar tone to "Ditto": From the way Melty checks in with Blue Girl about her nightmares ("Did your mother say something to you? Was somebody in class cold to you?") to the way she holds the Blue Girl close, it is clear that Melty is a place of escapism for Blue Girl. Just like Ban Heesoo, the main character of "Ditto", would rather spend all her days recording videos of the Newjeans girls instead of living in reality, Blue Girl visits Melty every night to avoid real life. Both of these scenarios show that parasocial relationships, when taken to the extreme, can be unhealthy. This is why the Newjeans girls disappear at the end of "Ditto" - because they are just idols, just people, and they cannot be your reason for living.

"Melty Land Nightmare" is a fitting allegory for More More Jump because when Blue Girl disappears from Melty Land, having been cured of nightmares, Melty falls apart. She begs Blue Girl not to forget her as if she has no purpose now that Blue Girl is gone. Unlike the Newjeans girls' casual acceptance (and encouragement!) that they cannot be your reason to live, the MMJ girls struggle (at least initially) with not being your reason to live. From Haruka quitting ASRUN when she fails to save a teammate, Shizuku leaving Cheerful*days due to toxic competitiveness, and Airi being told she'll only make it big on variety shows, all three girls give up their dreams when they realize that they are not enough--not enough to save their Blue Girl, or worse, enough to save the Blue Girl but not enough to keep her around.

In our digital age, it's hard to not care about what people think. We are obsessed with the likes, comments, and reblogs on our posts, obsessed with being loved by strangers on the internet. While Haruka, Shizuku, and Airi's original purpose of being idols are noble (i.e. inspiring hope for others), it becomes convoluted due to the bureaucracy, politics, and jealousy of the idol industry. Plagued with imposter syndrome and guilt, these former idols stay disillusioned until they met their own idol: Minori, a former Blue Girl on a mission to become Melty. She inspires Haruka to become an idol again not by asking her to save someone else, but by showing her an ocean of blue, which reminds Haruka acutely of her original mission and how much she loves performing. And that, my friends, is how More More Jumps thrives: Outside of the system as freelance idols, where their mission is always clear, always real. Where bringing hope to others depends heavily on bringing hope to themselves.

#project sekai #pjsk #prsk #more more jump #mmj #if mmj has no fans then i am dead #minori hanasato #haruka kiritani #airi momoi #shizuku hinomori #hatsune miku: colorful stage #melty land nightmare #harumaki gohan #song analysis #pjsk song analysis #analysis #newjeans #nwjns #ditto #newjeans analysis #kpop #ditto analysis #parasocial relationships #kpop girls #kpop gg #i wrote this instead of sleeping #why can't i stop analyzing project sekai music #Youtube

[adotrevsleft]

INTRO:

I decided for after my huge hiatus from this account to post about ditto. Ditto is a beautiful song which is supposed to hit you straight from first listen. I did feel upset and hurt after watching both of the music videos. However, many people have been going on about theories about the music video of Ditto. Because it may seem sad but there seems to be dark aspects behind it. In which I will talk about later.

CONTEXT:

I want to clarify that there is a Korean (I think) movie (or series) that is called Ditto. The plot is that this boy from the year 2000 is able to communicate by an amateur radio with a girl that was in the school in 1979. A hand cast is mentioned in the movie in which the girl in 1979 signs on one of her boyfriends that are in hospital. After the girl realises that the boy's parents are her friends, a bit too close, and she's in love with the "Dong-hee" the boy's father. She realises that she felt bad and broke up with him, as they were in a relationship beforehand. Then the boy decides to find this girl but he doesn't recognise him. In the end, the radio stops working and all communication is lost between them and they continue on their lives.

Obviously, with this context in mind the music video makes a lot more sense. However, there are still many raised questions even knowing this. The most obvious, why two different music videos? One in which she decides to stay with them (being NEWJEANS) and the other being to go away from them and moving on?

MEANING BEHIND:

I personally don't think this has anything to do with the fandom. Many people say different things about what the meaning behind the music and music video. It's about loneliness in youth, it's about youth, it's about romance, it's about moving on from traumatic events, or traumatic events will still haunt you, some even say that this putting attention to bullying when not knowing what is going on in someone's head. These all are very valid. But really, what is the meaning or should I say purpose of this? Is there something we should be aware of.

HANNI:

My main question is that of the character of Hanni in the music video. Why is it that (majority of the time) whenever the camera goes towards her or focuses on her the camera glitches? An examples below:

Hanni is the only one that is glitching out in the group.

Another scene I have a lot of questions about... (This is after the camera is thrown in Side B mv)

She is the first to be shown after it is broken...

And the last to be shown staring at the camera...

Is she a significant character in the plot, she is wearing the same uniform as the girl in the video, yet the other members are wearing grey uniforms. Is this of any significance?

Also this...

THE FEMALE DEER:

What is the female deer supposed to symbolise, coming in the end of both music videos... In the end? At the same time? Why? Is there a reason?

CONCLUSION:

There are so many questions to be raised by this music video and majority are unanswered.

This may just be me because I'm a reveluv and the lore in Red Velvet is huge and very interesting and I find these difficult to understand. I feel like there is something much darker in this music video. I think the innocence that plays in this music video, in which played with our emotions is supposed to throw us off the scent of the danger in the music video that is presented. Something far more sinister...

What do you think about Ditto?

#kpop #kpop gg #kpop girls #ditto newjeans #new jeans ditto #newjeans layouts #newjeans #new jeans #ditto #song analysis #song review #song recommendation #favorite songs #song of the day #song recs #song #kpop icons #music #music review #music recommendation #music blog #music recs

[justawanderingbabbit]

Rewatching various Liu Sang scenes (as one does) and noting that Xiaoge didn't actively push Liu Sang away during that first not-a-hug scene after Thunder City.

If anything, he turns to Liu Sang as if prepared to hug if hugged. Which, Liu Sang being Liu Sang interprets as meaning that whether or not a hug is allowed, it isn't desired and pulls himself back.

He does much the same after Warehouse 11, and I strongly suspect this is Liu Sang feeling he should observe boundaries, rather than an active rejection on Xiaoge's part.

Sidenote: The video where Xiaoge does appear to be pushing Liu Sang away is part of the behind the scenes footage and appears to be them goofing around.

#dmbj #scene analysis #liu sang deserves hugs #but should be allowed to choose when he gets them #so does xiaoge #and ditto

[dream-a-little-bigger-x]

I Can See You | Spencer Reid

Add yourself to my taglist! | Here’s my masterlist!

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader

Summary: When Penelope's best friend comes to help out the BAU on a couple of cases, there's an immediate connection with the youngest of the team. After longing glances, soft touches and wild fantasies, the truth comes out accidentally. What is the resident genius going to do with that information?

Warnings: mention of serial killers and bombings, inappropriate thoughts

Author's note: I've wanted to write this one every single time I listened to the song but when @pastanest wrote it first, I was scared to do it too because that one is just too good (read it here)!! Anyways, hope y'all like this one, too :)

Words: 3K

Being Penelope Garcia’s best friend came with a lot of perks. Aside from it being impossible to ever be sad around her, it also came with the perk of doing the odd job at Quantico. We had met during her days as the Black Queen online and ever since, she had taught me all she knew about hacking and tech analysis. While she worked for the FBI, I worked across the yard at the Capitol as tech support. 

Her job was a little more tantalizing – sometimes more traumatizing – than mine. While I simply helped the employees with their technical issues, Penelope actually helped save people. 

And sometimes, she called for my help with a case whenever she figured everything would go so much faster with some helping hands and flexible fingers. 

The first time she had called me on a case, I didn’t even know what I was in for. She just told me to get to Quantico as soon as I possibly could, that it was a matter of life and death. So, I packed everything up, and rushed across the street to the FBI building. I didn’t even bother to tell my boss. I was certain Penelope’s boss would vouch for me and get me out of trouble, even though I had  never met him. 

“Thank you so much for coming, y/n/n,” said Penelope as she took me into a hug as soon as I burst through the front doors and into the hallway. 

“Penny, what’s happening? Are you okay?” I asked and held her at a short distance to inspect her for any injuries. 

She waved away my question. “Yeah, I’m fine,” she said and grabbed my hand to drag me towards reception where I had to register. It wasn’t until after my bag had been inspected and I passed through security that she started to explain what was happening. “We’re working on this really tough case and though my dainty fingers are quick at tip tapping away on the keyboard, I’m gonna need your genius to get me the answers twice as fast.” 

On the way up to the sixth floor, she briefed me about the case, just so I was up to speed before we actually started. I was too distracted listening to her rambles that I didn’t even notice another person rushing through the hallway on our way from the elevators to her office. 

My shoulder bumped into theirs, causing me to stumble ever so slightly, but firm hands on my shoulders kept me from actually falling. “Oof, sorry!” The both of us apologized at the same time. 

What I didn’t expect to happen when I looked up at the person was being so taken aback by the beautiful pair of eyes that locked onto mine. The hazel orbs had tiny gold specks in them, making them look almost honey-colored. 

I was so distracted by his eyes, I didn’t catch Penelope’s mischievous smirk she would only get whenever she had expertly set me up with someone when we were out at a bar or a party. 

“Y/N/N, this is my wonderful colleague and resident genius, Spencer Reid. Reid, this is my almost-as-sexy-and-smart-as-me best friend, y/n y/l/n,” she introduced us as the guy – Spencer – retracted his hands from my shoulders, convinced I was steady enough on my feet. 

He offered me a smile that nearly wiped me off my feet again. “Hi, nice to meet you.” 

My lips curled into a smile that mirrored his. He didn’t offer his hand to shake, so I decided not to offer mine, either. “Ditto, Spencer,” I said instead, unable to tear my eyes away from his. 

“Okay,” Penelope then interrupted, “Enough chit-chat. We gotta go!” As I managed a quick wave at Spencer, my best friend pulled me along to her office where we settled behind her computer screens. While she explained how her system worked, my mind involuntarily drifted off to the disarming genius I met in the hallway. 

For hours, Penelope and I worked on the case together, taking turns in getting drinks and food to keep us nutritioned. We were discussing a list of potential UnSubs after we had finished our lunch and I was chewing on the straw of my Sprite when Spencer burst into the room. 

“Garcia, y/l/n, I’ve got something to narrow the search,” he said, causing my heart to flutter at how my last name sounded from his lips. He leaned between us, placing a piece of paper on the desk. His stomach was pressed against my shoulder whilst his arm brushed mine. 

A chill ran down my spine, but I remained poised, trying to be professional. “Those are the places he went to in the last twenty-four hours?” I asked, deducting the theory from the map in front of me. 

Spencer had drawn lines across the map, connecting at least five dots. “Uh-huh,” he hummed, then leaned in closer, his face right next to mine. “We were able to get these locations from the GPS of the rental car he used and ditched at the last murder site.” 

His breath felt hot against my skin, but it didn’t stop me from starting to tap away on the keyboard, trying to find any CCTV footage from any of the establishments in the neighborhood of those locations. Within seconds, I’d found some footage from a service station where the UnSub was seen leaving the shop. 

“Was this what you needed?” I asked sassily and turned my head to look at him. He was a lot closer than I anticipated him to be, my nose nearly grazed his cheek. Even up close he was pretty. 

He stood up straight again, much to my dismay, and offered me a shy smile. “Only if you can give me a name, too,” he told me. 

Raising my eyebrows challengingly, I turned back to the computer and ran the footage through Penelope’s software. Within seconds, I found a name, his age and address, which was someone on the list of suspects Penelope and I had been looking at for the past ten minutes. 

“Can you send that to the team?” he asked as he took out his phone, already dialing one of the team’s numbers. 

“Already did, pretty boy,” I smirked and watched as he walked away with a quick ‘thank you’ thrown over his shoulder towards us. When I turned back to Penelope, she looked at me with that teasing look she would only ever give me when she was about to give me shit. “What?” I asked. 

“Nothing,” she sang, though her face said something else entirely. 

I didn’t feel like getting into it. It wasn’t like I was going to see Spencer again. This was a one-time thing. Or at least, that was what I thought. It wasn’t until Penelope called me two weeks later with the same request. Even then I managed to stay somewhat professional around Spencer. 

But they didn’t leave it at two times. At least five more cases, I was asked to help Penelope out on. It didn’t bother me, at all. In fact, I actually enjoyed helping the BAU team on their cases. It gave me the opportunity to work together with my very best friend as well as secretly flirt with the young doctor. And, you know, learn something new and everything.

Every time I saw him, I could just imagine him pushing me against a wall and kissing me senseless. Every brush of the arm, every longing gaze we directed to one another. It all drove me completely insane, but there was not much I could do about it but sit back and act as professional as I possibly could. 

When we finished case number five, I was packing up my stuff and exited Penelope’s lair. My mind was still racing with the images I had seen about this gruesome case, but all of it seemingly cleared up when my eyes landed on the person standing at the very end of the hallway. 

“Oh, hi, Spencer,” I greeted with a smile as I approached him. 

He offered me that same knee-buckling smile. “Hi, y/n. I wanted to-uh, I wanted to check up on you. See if you were doing all right?” 

I wanted to push him against the wall and kiss his jaw. That man was the most considerate person alive and it was absolutely turning me on. Coughing, I recomposed myself. I couldn’t act upon these feelings building inside of me. 

“I am,” I said. “Though, I got to admit, this last case was a whole lot more brutal than the previous ones I helped on. It’s gonna haunt me for days.” I let out a chuckle, taking my eyes off him for a second. 

Spencer hummed. “Yeah, it, uh, it takes a while to get used to it.” 

“Do you ever get used to that?” 

Chuckling, Spencer shook his head. “No, not really…” 

A chuckle rolled off my lips too and for a moment, the two of us fell silent. It was a comfortable silence with the two of us just gazing into each other’s eyes as if we were under a spell. I knew that if I didn’t break eye contact, I would actually kiss him. 

“I, uh, I’m gonna go home,” I told him and finally tore my gaze off him. 

“Right,” he mumbled and turned towards the elevator. “You-uh, you want me to walk you to your car?” 

Eyes widening, I almost immediately let out a sharp, “No!” The moment he and I would’ve stepped out together, I would’ve jumped his bones. I coughed to recompose myself again. “No, I’m okay,” I repeated, softer this time. 

“Oh, okay,” Spencer nodded and stepped aside. “Well, I’ll, uh… I’ll see you another time then?” 

I offered him a smile. “Yeah, see you next time.” 

From the second I left the BAU, Spencer occupied my mind for the foreseeable future. Every corner I turned, every meal I had, every day I worked at my regular day job at the Capitol,... Spencer had taken over my mind and every fiber of my being. 

It had been a good week since I had last seen the BAU team, since I had last spoken to Spencer. I couldn’t focus at all. He was all I could think about to the point where I couldn’t even properly function. I had to do something about it. Even if it was just getting that feeling of frustration off my chest. 

That was why I had marched my way over to the BAU, went through the protocol at FBI security and clipped on my Visitor’s badge before trudging down to Penelope’s lair where I burst through the door without even knocking. She had given me the code to get in, so I didn’t have to knock. 

“Y/N? What are you–”

I ignored her and plopped down on the sofa with a groan. “I don’t know what to do anymore, Penny,” I told her defeatedly, resting my head back against the back of the sofa and looking up at the ceiling. 

“About what?” she asked. 

“Spencer, of course.” I didn’t catch Penelope’s wide-eyed look as I continued my tirade. “Unfortunately, I need him in a way that will defy the laws of space and time and set feminism back seventy years.” Rubbing my hands over my face, I rolled my head back to look at my best friend, who hadn’t given her unsolicited opinion immediately like she always did. 

That was when I saw the look of horror on her face. “Sugar plum,” she started, “Don’t be mad but…” My eyes landed on the device with the blinking red light behind her. She had been on a call and I could all but guess who was on that call. 

“No,” I muttered, my heart plummeting to my stomach and my cheeks heating up in embarrassment. “Don’t tell me –” 

Penelope pressed a button, putting her coworkers on speaker rather than through her headset. All I could hear was Derek’s and Emily’s giggles. “Wow, y/n,” came JJ’s voice, a bemused lilt in her tone. “I did not expect that coming from you.” 

I squeezed my eyes shut before rushing forward and pressing what I thought to be the mute button. “Why didn’t you mute us as soon as I came in?” I asked before starting to pace the length of the room, but didn’t give Penelope the chance to answer. “Now everyone knows and to make it all worse – Spencer now knows.” 

“Oh, mama, it’s not like we didn’t already know,” came Morgan’s voice through hiccups of laughter. 

“PENELOPE!” I screeched, realizing I hadn’t pressed the right button. 

With a simple shrug, Penelope turned to me. “Maybe it’s not so bad?” she tried and I just groaned in frustration before turning on my heel and leaving her lair. Now I had to debate whether to wait for Spencer to come back and explain everything to him or to just go home and never show my face here again. 

There wasn’t much of a chance for me to think about it because the team quickly filed back into the offices. As soon as my eyes landed on Spencer, I froze. Our eyes met and I could tell he wanted to tell me something, but there was a serial bomber to catch. Rather than leaving and going home, I decided to stick around and help Penelope. 

But before I could head over to Penelope’s lair, it was impossible to avoid the other’s relentless comments. Through a sea of giggles and quoting of what I had said to Penelope in confidence, I made my way through the bullpen, rolling my eyes. 

“I’m gonna get a cup of tea,” I told Penelope, getting up from my seat in her lair. “You want one?” 

“Yes, please, sugar,” she answered without taking her eyes off her screen. 

With a chuckle, I left the office and made my way to the break room where I put on the kettle for two cups of tea. While I busied myself picking out a flavor, my mind drifted off to what I could possibly say to Spencer if I ever got the chance. 

“Oh,” I heard the mumble behind me and when I turned around, I found Spencer in the doorway. “Hi.” He smiled a little awkwardly before making his way to the coffee pot. 

I returned the gesture. “Hi.” 

My eyes were trained on him while he poured the coffee and scribbled something down on a notepad beside him. My mind filtered through every possible word combination possible. I was so distracted, the click of the kettle turning off startled me. 

As I poured the hot water into two cups, Spencer placed a folded piece of paper in front of me on the counter and scurried away before I could possibly react. Curiosity rising within me, I unfolded the piece of paper, only to find “Meet me tonight” written in his scrawny handwriting. 

“That’s not vague at all,” I scoffed before pocketing it and continuing making the tea. Once the teabags were in, I made my way back to Penelope’s office, but not without one last glance at Spencer in the bullpen. Together with Derek and Emily, he was bent over a file on Emily’s desk. 

He seemingly felt my eyes on him as he, too, looked at me. Feeling my cheeks heat up underneath his gaze, I quickly looked away and rushed towards my best friend. I leaned my back against the door as soon as I shut it, trying to catch my breath. 

“What’s gotten into you, pumpkin?” Penelope asked when she saw the state of me. 

I chuckled and rolled my eyes, annoyed at myself that I let a man make me feel this way. “Not Spencer, unfortunately.” My best friend let out a loud cackle. “He gave me this note–” I placed her octopus mug in front of her before handing her the note. 

“That’s vague,” she mumbled, her brows furrowed. 

“Exactly what I thought,” I grumbled. “He was gone before I could even ask.” 

Penelope tsked before patting the chair that had been mine for the last couple of weeks. With a sigh, I plopped down carefully so as to not spill my hot tea. For the next hour, I tried to focus on the case more than on Spencer and what I was going to say to him. 

However, it was hard not to think about him. 

So, once the case was wrapped up, I packed up my stuff and went out to the hall where Spencer had waited for me merely a week ago. I didn’t even bother to say goodbye to Penelope as I would be seeing her soon anyway and she knew I had to do what I had to do. 

It took a couple of minutes before Spencer walked out of the bullpen, eyes focused on the phone in his hand. 

“‘Meet me tonight’?” I asked, capturing his attention. His honey eyes met mine, his lips twitching into a smile. “Could you be any more vague?” 

“Sorry,” he chuckled and chucked his phone into his pocket again. “I just–” he sighed, unable to finish his sentence. Another soft laugh rolled off his lips as he looked down to the squeaky-clean floor of the FBI Headquarters. He looked back up at me, his eyes tender and searching for something I didn’t even know. 

“What?”

Not even bothering to answer my question, Spencer grabbed my hand and tugged me into the closest room, which happened to be the family room. As soon as the door was shut, he pushed me against the wall by kissing me, his hands on my hips to hold me in place. 

“Does this set feminism back seventy years?” he asked between kisses to my lips and jaw. 

My toes curled and my stomach fluttered. This was all I had been dreaming of ever since I met him that first day. I had wanted him flush against me, fingers tangling up in my hair and his tongue warm against mine. 

“No,” I breathed while he worked his way down my neck in open-mouthed kisses. “But it does defy the laws of space and time.” 

The words seemingly set something animalistically off in Spencer as his kisses became hungrier and his hands roamed my body in ways I had never been touched before. He gave me enough to brag to Penelope about the next day. 

He gave me everything I had been dreaming of. 

Everything taglist: @calamitykaty@littlemissaddict @n0wornever @wanniiieeeee @unnowhatthisistbhbh

Criminal Minds Taglist: @boimlers-gonna-boim @samsbirks@tinaasthings @dysphoricsanity @love4lando @elenamoncada-ibarra @r-3dlips @magstheslayer @astess 

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid x fem!reader #spencer reid imagine #spencer reid fluff #criminal minds

[windvexer]

What counts as a spell? Is intent all you need or do you have to do something before to get it all juicy and stuff.

Hi Anon! What a fun question, because there is no answer except this CAN OF WORMS you just opened.

There is no consensus anywhere as to what constitutes a "spell."

There is even LESS consensus as to what makes a spell go.

Intent is a good starting place. It is probably where you should start for all acts of practical magic.

But I find that in it's common form, the idea of intent + willpower = magic has been diluted past the point of utility for most people.

Like if we're talking about "intent is everything" I'm reminded most closely of Chaos Magic. But Chaos Magic is not a school of "just set your intent and you've worked magic!". It's a very rigorously developed system.

In Hine's Condensed Chaos, he lists the third Core Principal of Chaos magic as technical excellence, and I quote:

One of the early misconceptions about Chaos Magic was that it gave practitioners carte blanche to do whatever they liked, and so become sloppy (or worse, soggy) in their attitudes to self-assessment, analysis, etc. Not so. The Chaos approach has always advocated rigorous self-assessment and analysis, emphasized practice at what techniques you're experimenting with until you get the results you desire. Learning to 'do' magic requires that you develop a set of skills and abilities and if you're going to get involved in all this weird stuff, why not do it to the best of your ability?

Later in the book, Hine likens "magical powers" to the concept of achievements, and goes on to say:

Something which is an achievement is the result of practice, discipline, and patience.

Shortly after:

Chaos Magic is not about discarding all rules and restraints, but the process of discovering the most effective guidelines and disciplines which enable you to effect change in the world.

(In above quotes, all emphasis my own)

But these ideas get taken - and I'll give a big nod to the LOA which is just the worst kind of brainrot for encouraging the "intent is all that matters" mindset - and the ideas get diluted so much that people are literally out here saying, "so all those people who spend years studying magic in order to get results are buffoons? All I have to do is imagine what I want and it will be delivered to me? All humans since the start of history just have to decide they want something and it will happen in a miraculous manner?"

(Not you, Anon. I'm just in a mood)

In my mind, yes - something beyond intent must occur in order to make spells go.

But what?

Anon, have you ever heard that dumb belief floating around that all herbs in a spell can be replaced by rosemary, and all stones in a spell can be replaced by clear quartz, and these two things are "universal substitutes"?

I am 95% sure that this nonsense was based on two very popular dictionaries Cunningham wrote in the 80s, the Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic, and Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs.

In the very long entry for Clear Quartz:

Quartz crystal is used as a power amplifier during magic. It is worn or placed on the altar for this purpose.

And from Rosemary:

Rosemary is generally used as a substitute for frankincense.

And I believe that someone somewhere got the idea that since clear quartz amplifies all other powers, it therefore somehow magically Ditto-copies all other powers, and like a shapeshifter somehow becomes something it is not nor ever was.

And, you know. What's the difference between subbing out frankincense and blackthorn between friends?

These beliefs have become so popular that sometimes when unscrupulous blogs rip off entire Cunningham encyclopedia entries and paste them into tumblr posts (without credit), THEY INCLUDE THE EXTRA MADE-UP BIT ABOUT ROSEMARY BEING A UNIVERSAL SUBSTITUTE.

Anon, your question is "is it just intent or do we need other stuff to make it go," but sadly,

IMO common beliefs about the stuff that makes spells go have also been diluted past the point of utility for most people.

Because if I sat here and said, "hey Anon, it's not just intent, you also have to use correspondences ^-^/" then the very first thing you are likely to run into is absolute nonsense about correspondences. IMO, effective utilization of correspondences is a skillset based in research, theory, and technique.

Or if I said, "you also have to raise energy! 👍", this may be mistaken to mean, "set intent but also visualize white light inside of a candle," because the concept of raising energy and visualizing has been (IMO) diluted past the point of utility for most people. I believe that effective utilization of energy work is a song composed of many notes and chords, several of which you must practice before you can utilize it.

And to complicate all of this, which non-diluted things in which combinations you need to make the spell go depends on what paradigm you operate off of, because while there are approximately one billion ways to do magic that works, my currently very dim worldview is that most people who are talking about magic are doing magic that doesn't work,

and in my opinion the actual basis and reasoning, like the rationality behind the magical systems is really important. Because you need that shit to understand what it is within that system that makes the spell go.

And you need to understand what makes the spell go to make the system fit into your life without breaking it, and in order to troubleshoot problems without making things crumble further.

Because when people don't understand the basis and reasoning you end up with "rosemary is a universal substitute" and "imagining white light makes the spell go."

There are a few circumstances where you can totally strip technique from theory and be successful, but there are also a hell of a lot of people out here feeling shit about their practice because their spells never seem to work.

So.

I really just recommend choosing what school of magic you would like to learn about and participate in, and reading an introductory book on it.

This is because it is the job of introductory books to explain the principles and theories behind a system of magic, and most importantly, what makes the magic go, and a step-by-step primer on what you, the practitioner, are supposed to do to make that kind of magic go.

Despite above rambles I'm really not a Chaote, so I can't recommend a strong primer. As far as I'm aware, Liber Null & Psychonaut by Peter J. Carroll is a core text.

For Traditional Witchcraft, try The Crooked Path by Kelden.

For something more Wiccan, I can't recall having anything bad to say about Psychic Witch by Mat Auryn.

If either of these things are too Witchcrafty for you, try Six Ways by Aidan Wachter, which is still witchcraft, but it hits different.

For a general primer on helping your spells go, try Elements of Spellcrafting by Jason Miller.

#answered

[deripmaver]

What’s The Point Of Elaine?

There are three eras of Casca in Berserk so far: Golden Age, Elaine, and Revived Casca. I find that within the fandom, Elaine is written off as not particularly worth analysis, that she just represents a transition state between the real Cascas, pre-eclipse and now revived. 

I do in some ways understand this feeling - Miura has said that in developing the story of Berserk, he ultimately decided in keeping Casca alive only because he needed a way to keep Guts’ rage intact, and not let the sands of time dull his need for revenge. This comes from an interview with Miura from 2017, that he spared Casca because she makes sure Guts never forgets the Eclipse. If I may editorialize, though, I think there are narrative reasons to keep a character alive, but that doesn’t mean said character isn’t being independently developed and doesn’t have their own inner world, especially when Miura has said repeatedly he’s trying to write real people and not archetypes. If I may also be snarky for a moment, considering one of my first interactions on Berserk tumblr had someone arguing that Casca stans read too much into Miura’s quote on her recovery to the point where you can’t even really assume he intended to have her recover - perhaps it’s reading too much into this quote to extrapolate that “Casca remained alive to fuel Guts’ anger = Casca as a character is only a plot device for Guts and Miura had no intention of developing her outside of that.”

Another reason to overlook her as a character that I do understand: Elaine is completely voiceless. She literally does not speak except for baby-ish noises from the time after eclipse until chapter 355, practically 275 chapters. For all of that time, we are given no indicating of how Casca is processing the eclipse (or not processing) - and so in some ways Elaine is just a narrative place holder as Kentaro Miura found his footing with her recovery. 

My intention with this post is to show that it is possible to gain a bit of insight into Casca’s feelings and emotions as Elaine from some key moments, even though she is never given a voice. Much like (in my opinion lol but also I’m right) Beast of Darkness is just a facet of Guts’ mind and not a separate being, ditto Femto for Griffith, Elaine is Casca, and she’s being written as Casca, just a shallow and surface level version of her. 

Elaine has these few shining moments where Casca comes through, showing that deep inside her mind, Casca is there, a terrified little sprite shielded by this childish outer shell, hiding from the world. First, when she jumps down the cliff during Conviction Arc:

Next, when she kills the men who attempt to rape her during the Winter’s Journey. 

I won’t post any more panels from that chapter lol. It would be better if there was just... A look into her mind during those moments, just for an instant. What made the actual Casca come through in those moments? How did she feel, suddenly being back in her body, in a world infinitely more terrifying than the one before she regressed? What happened to make her go back in, in her safe little cocoon of Elaine? 

Another moment where Casca comes through just for a moment is, in my opinion, one of the most powerful in the series: 

Casca has run to Griffith on the Hill of Swords. It’s not clear why - perhaps she remembers their closeness before the eclipse, or perhaps she’s being drawn to the moonlight boy, her son, in his body. All of a sudden, the unstable rock wall cracks, sending boulders tumbling towards her, and Guts isn’t close enough to get to her in time...

But Griffith is.

He protects her from the falling rocks, and we get the page posted above. This is the first time Casca has seen Griffith since he raped her during the eclipse. She starts to shake and sweat with him holding her still, her noises becoming terrified. She reaches out to him with a trembling hand, her eyes filling with tears. Her brand lets out a burst of blood, and her trauma and terror overwhelms her, while Griffith stares down at her impassively. Casca is still in there, and being confronted by her rapist again, she is absolutely terrified. This, to me, says so much about Casca in this state. Again, if we only could have gotten a glimpse into her mind at the moment, even if it was through the jumbled confusion of Elaine. I think it would have added so much.

I kept waiting for this scene to happen again with Casca revived, but at this point it hasn’t happened. Even with Casca in Falconia it hasn’t happened. MAYBE ONE DAYYYYYY.

There’s a particular look Casca gets when she’s terrified and dissociated, and that remains constant from the Golden Age, to Elaine, to post-revival. 

I also especially like that second panel, when she first wakes up as Elaine because her first instinct when terrified is to attack and bite Guts. It feels like a very Casca thing to do, and in fact that’s more or less what happens on their first meeting in the Golden Age, just a tragic perversion of it. Also, her expression is so similar to the one she made when she was begging Judeau not to die.

I think it’s worth noting that the impacts of Elaine on Casca are ongoing, and unlike some of the discussion I’ve seen, I don’t think anything that’s happened to her as Elaine will be brushed aside. As Elaine, we’re first introduced to her because she is absolutely terrified of all men, even her companions. 

This is reflected in the corridor of dreams, in my view, with the very unsubtle penis monsters (which I won’t post an image of LOL) - the association of men with sexual violence and sexual assault. Her close companions as Elaine were majority women, and this remained true after her revival. By the time Guts and Casca were reunited in Conviction arc, she seemed to have lost some of her mistrust of men, and him in particular - but of course that didn’t last long.

There’s also this imagery of her in a coffin, which is again reflected in the corridor of dreams.

Finally, and most interestingly, in chapter 372 it was pointed out to me that it seems Casca remembers her ordeal at the Tower of Conviction, and being surrounded by Falconia’s soldiers reminds her of the mob trying to burn her at the stake. 

There’s a lot to say also about Casca and Guts’ relationship and how his assault of her as Elaine impacted it, but I think that’s been discussed elsewhere and better than what I could. My point in writing this is to show that Miura was writing Elaine as Casca, and that there are moments where Casca seems to come to the surface and break through the protective façade. I think it could have only helped to give us just a brief glimpse into her mind in those moments, and it’s a detriment that there was nothing. In looking at the panels of Elaine, I think we can get a sense of where Casca’s recovery might go.

Interestingly, most of the moments I’ve shown here happen from before Farnese and co. join the group, and as the later arcs drag on I feel like Elaine gets goofier and less serious of a character, kind of like chestnut puck. Still, I still hold out hope that with Casca revived, even if she is in Falconia, we’ll start to see her process what happened to her as Elaine - especially if she comes across Luca and the girls, as I’m sure she will. 

Must protecc

#berserk meta #berserk #casca berserk #casca #gutsca

[mollyringle]

Laughter in LOTR

My household has been rewatching the Extended Editions of The Lord of the Rings, and this has inspired me to excavate some of the LiveJournal (!) posts I wrote twenty (!!) years ago. In this one, I ran a search on all the times laughter is mentioned in the books, and listed them. It’s a long list—view the link only if you dare. My shorter sum-up is pasted below, however. The grim/bitter/nervous laughter section intrigues me now: I’d forgotten about Galadriel laughing upon being offered the Ring, or Pippin laughing about the palantír. Those moments were definitely not in the films!

Analysis from 2004:

I'd say we have at least three varieties of laughter: the genuinely happy, the grim/bitter/nervous, and the disturbing/evil.

The Genuinely Happy variety is what the hobbits do most of the time. It's also what the other good guys do when in the company of friends, old or new, when they are not currently under active attack from Mordor. Bombadil, the Elves, and the Ents engage in a lot of Genuinely Happy laughter, being pretty much without a care in the world. Gandalf engages in a lot of it too--and surprisingly so does Aragorn--despite both of them having plenty of cares. The sweetest and most touching instances of the Genuinely Happy laughter, in my opinion, are moments between Frodo and Sam: when Sam somehow makes Frodo laugh on the quest (e.g., see that passage about Samwise the Stout-hearted). Indeed, these tend to be the only times Frodo laughs on the quest, and it's good to see that they're genuine laughs and not laughs of our next variety.

The Grim/Bitter/Nervous/Ironic laughter encompasses those moments like Eowyn's laugh on the Pelennor Fields when she takes off her helmet, or Sam wondering what kind of spider made cobwebs like these. I would also count here the laughs I'm not sure what to make of. For instance, Galadriel laughing when Frodo offers her the One Ring? Is this really a funny moment to her? Maybe, but only if you consider it shocked/nervous laughter. Or Pippin laughing after the Palantir episode, saying he wants Gandalf to tell him everything there is to know. I can't imagine Pippin laughing at all that night, after getting psychologically knifed by Sauron, but if he did I suppose it would be to relieve the tension. We could probably put Gollum's cackling in this column too, since it comes of being mentally unstable. Ditto for Denethor and sometimes Saruman, though they're shading into the third category.

The Evil laughter is yet another beast. We find it in places where the movie also had it: Saruman, Orcs, Ringwraiths, and other evil creatures tend to laugh when contemplating the helplessness of their good-guy victims. That's standard fare for this type of tale. But Tolkien also includes laughter the characters fancy they hear in the wind howling off Caradhras, or in the depths of Moria, or from the roots of a nasty willow tree. Those instances are the laughter of the haunted house, the laughter we don't want to hear at night. Cruelest of all may be the Mouth of Sauron, who seemingly can't stop laughing when telling Frodo's friends that Mordor has caught him and the quest has failed and he'll likely die a painful death.

I think I've babbled enough now. You can easily compare it to the films, since we've all got the films memorized. One addition comes to mind that wasn't in the books: "It's the beards." Other things in the film were funny, but only the audience laughed; not the characters. ("In fact, it's better if you don't speak at all, Peregrin Took.")

Feel free to discuss.

#lotr #lord of the rings #tolkien #laughter

[efplanning]

Eon stopped hanging out w garchomp mostly bc ditto said that it would make her feel better if he stopped. and since he respects her more than he respects himself...ofc he should do whatever she wants. Also he feels like he owes her that at least since he also leaned into garchomps advance a little too much. This isn't to say that eon didn't also think it would be the best course of action himself just for different reasons....

On that note. The idea that eon just threw garchomp aside like it was nothing to him isn't really true tho....he was so clearly depressed and confused(...or at least by eon standards) about his weird friend breakup that he was having a hard time getting all his work done...he even went to bed early one night while he was studying w ditto(I feel like I'm not selling that this was a bad thing but again. By eon standards)...and like he didn't understand how or why this was impacting him sm...("how can I be so affected by this when I don't have that emotional capacity to begin with?")

...I think if someone hadn't told eon during a group project or something or other to "get yourself together" he probably would've been moping about it longer than the few days that he "allowed" himself...hell Ditto almost backed down on it(not that he was purposely trying to get her to. He was just that pitiful about it in her eyes😭) but then he came back after ^that class same as ever so......

#Idk if you can point at an individual character in this situation and go “it was all their fault”😭 #analysis post #Also tbc ditto is not telling him he should blindly do what she wants him to all the time and stuff ... #Eon just doesn't have the healthiest ideas of how relationships work....

[dittomander]

In “Spellbound” Mateo said that the reversal potion for the stone/petrification spell could only be found in the Codex Maru. Another thing that was found in the codex Maru was the information on the Scepter of Night. However, Ash was able to recognize the Jewel of the Scepter upon seeing it. Does this mean that information in the Codex Maru, is known to other Wizards and Malvagos, even if they’ve never had access to the Codex Maru before? Or does only the codex hold certain information?

I think it's probably a bit of both. Like I doubt that everything in the Codex Maru is universally known among wizarding communities, and I also doubt that everything in it is exclusive. Realistically it's just gonna depend on the exact piece of information, but we don't see enough of its contents to really assess where that line is.

More rambly analysis and headcanons below the cut.

Mateo's explanation of the Codex in Spellbound is:

"The kind of magic we need can only be found in the Codex Maru. [...] It's an ancient Maruvian spell book passed down through generations of royal wizards. It contains the most ancient and powerful magic in the kingdom."

Note that Mateo doesn't say that this spell can only be found in the Codex, but that this "kind of magic" can. Personally I didn't interpret this as strictly meaning "the Codex is the only thing that will have this information" but rather "only something like the Codex will have this information." Only a powerful spellbook would have that info, and the Codex is the most powerful spellbook that Mateo, at the time a relatively inexperienced (and honestly pretty naive) wizard, can think of and knows is in the palace. It's also an incredibly lucky guess - Mateo hasn't seen the Codex at this point, he only knows of its existence. He has no way of knowing that akatok and its reversal potion will be in there for sure, but the amigos have no other leads to go off of.

I find the latter two sentences more interesting than the first, honestly. It's an "ancient Maruvian spellbook", but it's not written entirely in Maruvian, since the cover and akatok pages are written in modern Avaloran. And it's clearly not the most "powerful magic in the kingdom" when we consider the secret library of master level spells from season 3, containing spells that even the Codex didn't cover.

Since the Codex was "passed down through generations", written in multiple languages, and not kept with the other advanced magic in the palace, I like to headcanon it as a collaborative work that's added to by each Royal Wizard in turn rather than an ancient relic that's been preserved in that exact state for centuries. It's not necessarily the most powerful spellbook, but it includes whatever each Royal Wizard thought was most important to write down for the next one. A lot of times that will happen to include more powerful or obscure knowledge, since more commonplace spells could be easily learned elsewhere. This could include spells, potions, or relics they learned about elsewhere, justifying why other people might know about them without having ever seen the Codex, and it could include things they figured out themselves during their research that no one else would likely know in advance.

Mateo, of course, would have little to no context for that, and it would be easy for him to assume otherwise without anyone to fill him in.

(I hope he at least jots down that akatok is, in fact, reversible after the next sunrise.)

Re: the Scepter of Night - I feel like that's probably one of the more obscure tidbits of info contained in the book, but we do see it depicted on a mural in Tepet Muul, so we know there are some other places Ash could have learned about it.

#elena of avalor #eoa #mateo de alva #ditto answers #eoa analysis

[givehimthemedicine]

soo. you're saying the massacre is mostly just the s1 demogorgon finale shoved in a blender?

ok I need to break this chunk off my other analysis because it's getting long and creeping off topic, so I will definitely be addressing more aspects of this in my coming-soon portals post but.

like okay the demogorgon/One banishings were an obvious parallel since the second we saw it, but I never realized how many similarities there are throughout the whole finale especially when you include the flashback part:

I hope my editing is mostly self explanatory but some notes -

El walking down a dark hallway with particles floating towards her towards a glowing red exit hole = visually similar to El's trip down the birth canal [so specifically the 4x7 massacre version with the vaginal birth memory]

El turning around with the crack in the chalkboard behind her = El turning around with the crack in the RR wall behind her [so specifically the 4x1 version of this shot because that's the one with the gate]'

the party taking El into the classroom = Brenner being in the test room for lessons with Ten when the massacre starts [this being a Brenner-only scene sorta rules out this being purely based on organic memories of El's? unless El = Ten]

at the end of the school part, El is "born" into a stark white school hallway that, even upon a s2-era watch, seemed a bit labby. but post-4 we can really appreciate this set design... horizontal stripes wrapping the walls and a corresponding pattern in the floor tiles? blood smeared all along the floor like somebody got dragged? El, covered in a nasty substance, falling perfectly centered onto the floor pattern after "experiencing" her own birth? that's pure Rainbow Room, baby.

I'm not trying to construct a narrative with that video, I'm just matching shots that reminded me of other shots, so its parallels are all out of order and roles switch around (but then, ditto the actual massacre).

had to kinda shoehorn in El getting dragged because we don't see how those blood trails happen in s1 but you'll forgive me. (someone else getting dragged through blood here vs us seeing El get dragged in the massacre smth smth multiple els in the massacre)

also.. where are the bodies?... disappearing/moving massacre bodies... MPs wouldn't drag their dead down the hall, they'd pick them up. so the demogorgon dragged them? creature massacre theory save me

there of course are a lot more things in NINA that could be other remixed memories besides the s1 finale, but I'll expand that into another video later.

anyways. losing my mind 👍

#givehimthemedicine analysis #video #analysis #mine #massacre stuff #the longer I would sit here the more clips I would think to add but I'm hitting post now and moving on with my life. you get the idea

[sixteenstrikes]

PLEASE talk more about DurgeWyll and Hozier, PLEASE... I am rotating the songs you posted and the vision is so good

thank you for asking me :) (the doors close sealing you in the crypt)

i joke. ok first of all i need to cite ten @bladesmitten as a resident durgewyll expert and direct you to his blog... she's written some incredible fic & analysis of the durgewyll romance and made a lot of gorgeous wyll edits and art in general, can't rec his blog enough.

i have sadly never played through the durgewyll romance & only watched it so there are undoubtedly story details i am unaware of. alas i have only played the tav version of his romance so far

some spoilers for durge beneath the cut. i tried to be vague but a warning there. also i didnt stick my oar into unreal unearth or any of the adjacent eps for that album .. sorry

all that being said here are my 2 cents

i think the main draw for picking hozier songs for durgewyll is that incredibly sexy dynamic they have of being each other's foil as well as each other's love interest. both wyll and durge are bound to an inescapable doom within the story: to pay with their body and soul for the fate of baldur's gate. durge must destroy it to please their father, wyll must save it. (wyll's saved it already, at the cost of his soul, and durge has to sacrifice their soul to destroy it as (redacted), but i wont go further on that tangent lol. its fascinating though.)

i think a core concept of wyll to focus on here as well is his faith. in his act 2 dance scene, in response to one of the dialogue options, wyll replies that he 'still keeps faith in the old tales of true love'- this is crucial. wyll is the man to whom the gods gave a cold shoulder. he has no love or faith for them. but he keeps faith in the old tales- he keeps faith, specifically, in durge.. 'his greatest adventure'.. and if durge chooses to resist their father's authority, they spurn a god for wyll's sake. there's an incredible amount of mutual devotion there.

there is also the monster hunter/monster dynamic. i haven't delved into it much here bc i am more interested in how eerily wyll and durge parallel each other as twin mirrors and exiles from the gate, the light and dark sides, sharing almost a common doom, trapped in the long shadows of their fathers.... man. but the monster dynamic should absolutely be examined and explored, it's fascinating. i think it's another compelling aspect of wyll's character. he's a man with a lot of resonant contradictions. a monster hunter who refuses to hunt the monster of baldur's gate and instead severs them from the one who made them .... a monster hunter who holds out his hand to the monster he is supposed to kill... wyll's love of the mysterious and strange and his kindness, i think, predispose him to see durge as an ally and a friend. not from naivete, but from an open heart

my hozier picks for durgewyll overall:

it will come back - i love the way the view shifts in this. one of my top durgewyll picks for the way it evokes a lot of the horror & tragedy that wyll looks into and doesnt flinch away from & the hunger durge has toward wyll extending his own lonely & friendly hand

shrike - i see this as primarily from durge's view. picked for the devotion & regret

NFWMB - applies beautifully to both of them. theeeee durgewyll song to me from andy's works... consider the lyrics from both person's perspective to feel the world open beneath your feet lol

as it was - ditto, i think it encompasses both perspectives. also one of my favorite songs he wrote so im biased lmao. i think this is another very resonant choice for the durgewyll dynamic

like real people do - feels an overly obvious pick but it could work especially well for a resist durge

no plan - could be an intriguing choice. i can't quite swing it but some of the lines in this for durgewyll... i like them...

you could definitely make a case for from eden for another from durge's view. gives me a feeling of a durge who's not resisting but idk

#thanks again for asking me this was fun :) i had a huge answer drafted bc i didnt realize at first you asked for hozier specifically lol

[sixth-light]

TGH/TDR vs WoT season 2: what's in and what's out pt 1 (characters)

WoT's in and WoT's out, that is

I thought it would be fun (for me, sorry to the rest of you) to do a little analysis of where we're actually at in terms of adapting book material and the show, now we have officially passed the adaptation of the first three books. I am looking at this, as the show/showrunner have repeatedly stated they're doing, as a whole-series adaptation question: what happens in the first three books, in terms of worldbuilding, character introductions, and plot points, which is vital for the series arc as a whole? And of that, what remains to be shown on screen and thus might end up getting cut?

This is long, so I'm going to divide it into three posts over the next day or two: Characters (who has shown up and who hasn't), Worldbuilding points (ditto), and Plot points (has it happened or not). Major book spoilers obvs as I'll be discussing which of these continue to be important throughout the series.

NB before I dive in: what doing this has shown me is that despite TDR being one of my top 3 books of the series as a whole and much-beloved more generally, it...honestly has bugger-all in terms of plot that can't be handled by the show in other ways. The structure is a straight repeat of TGH and most of the really memorable scenes are vibes and character work (Mat's duel, Perrin's blacksmithing, Egwene's Accepted test) that the show likely doesn't have time to indulge in and/or that can be used as fodder for character development on the show in different contexts (like, Perrin's blacksmithing scene is lovely and you could do a version of it whenever the show character needs to re-centre himself pretty much...right up through the end of the series.)

Anyway, on with the actual programming!

CHARACTERS

My test for listing characters here is 1) is this character a PoV character and 2) if not, do they have a genuine impact on the plot or character development of PoV characters. For example: Carlinya and Breane Taborwin appear repeatedly through the series but do nothing someone else couldn't, so there's no point in assessing the significance of them not showing up in S2 even though they first appear in TGH. Characters struck through are ones who have now been introduced or mentioned by the show.

Introduced in TEoTW but not S1 of the show

Bayle Domon Elaida Gawyn (mentioned in S2, h/t @hxans) Galad Morgase (mentioned in S2, h/t @hxans) Elyas

Immediately obvious that it's the Caemlyn crew we're waiting on, and since casting has been confirmed for at least two of them and the other two were mentioned on-screen in S2, I think there's no question Elaida, Gawyn, and Galad will be in S3. Morgase is more questionable; my money is that she either won't be in the show and/or will actually be killed by Rahvin. Hate to lose a not-really-dead mum but some characters have got to go and it will make it much harder for show viewers to accept Elayne as Queen in the late series if she's still alive actually.

Introduced/mentioned in TGH

Suroth Renna & Seta Egeanin Verin Anaiya Liandrin (S1) Alanna (S1) Siuan (S1) Leane (S1) Vandene & Adeleas (Vandene now merged with Verin) Sheriam Alviarin Hurin (merged with Elyas in the show) 'Selene' Erith Aludra Masema Uno Mazrim Taim

Of those who haven't appeared in the show, Alviarin and Anaiya are frankly questionable in terms of whether the show needs them/highly likely to be merged with other Aes Sedai the way show!Alanna and show!Verin are book!Alanna x book!Myrelle and book!Verin x book!Vandene merges. ETA: thanks to @vriah for pointing out Anaiya was mentioned by name in 2x06, although I think the rest of this point stands. There's no point introducing Erith or Aludra until the show is ready to follow through on the storylines they are crucial for, which are both late-book storylines. I don't think we'll see either of them until S4-6, although I think we WILL see them.

ETA: I forgot Egeanin first shows up here! (h/t @butterflydm) Given what they did with all the Seanchan characters I think that's a deliberate choice to not confuse the narrative with a sympathetic Seanchan character until a season where we start to ask 'can individual Seanchan be anything except antagonists'. And since we likely won't hit that until S4 at the earliest, no point casting an actress here who might not be available (c.f. Birgitte). As an example, they've already had to re-cast Egwene's mother because the S1 actress was no longer available for S3.

Introduced in TDR

Aviendha Bain & Chiad Gaul Rhuarc Juilin Sammael Be'lal Pedron Niall Jaichim Carridin Faile Noam Rahvin Liandrin's thirteen, including Joiya Byir Faolain & Theodrin Tallanvor Dyelin Berelain Darlin Sisnera Laras (h/t @undeterminedvintage)

In contrast, most of the new-in-TDR characters haven't been mentioned yet!

Rhuarc and Faile: I think you have to have Rhuarc as a male Aiel leader in S3, there's no reason for it to NOT be him, and we know Faile has been cast. Makes total sense for her to meet Perrin in S3 as they will clearly be slow-burning that romance.

Berelain: Key to a bunch of plotlines, a very fun character, but there's no point bringing her in until Perrin/Faile is a going concern (but I think crucially in the show BEFORE they are married) which won't be for a season or two. Likely to be the first example of a ruler proactively pledging to Rand.

Jaichim Carridin, Liandrin's thirteen, Noam: Necessary but also won't be brought in until they're needed, and in the case of Liandrin's crew, will just be Black Ajah sisters as needed rather than a coherent group.

Pedron Niall, Dyelin, Darlin Sisnera, Faolain & Theodrin: I think elements of all of these characters will make the show (e.g. Elayne needs a buddy noble for the Succession, the Whitecloaks have to have a commander for Valda to assassinate, Egwene needs followers within the rebels) but they could be radically different and in some cases will likely take on other roles as well, though more likely than not under these names.

Rahvin, Gaul, Juilin, Tallanvor, Laras: I don't think any of these characters will make the cut for the show or if they do they'll be significantly merged with others. We only have room for two other male Forsaken and one of them has to be Asmodean, Tallanvor only matters if you do a Morgase storyline, Juilin and Laras are fun flavour and that's mostly it, and sorry Gaul fans but really what does he do aside from create sideshow romantic drama.

Be'lal: Out for sure since there's only 8 Forsaken.

Introduced in TSR

Lanfear-as-Lanfear (for Rand) and Moghedien...both don't show up until TSR actually, so we're ahead of the game there! Also possibly with Anvaere if she takes over Colavaere's later role (sob).

One other character note - it is still fascinating to me that the show chose to use obscure or non-existent names for the Brown sisters Verin spoke with in S2, as there are 30+ named Brown sisters in the books, many of whom could easily have filled those roles. The show isn't afraid to use existing sisters and even kill them (c.f. Maigan) so...what drove that decision? I thought it might be so they could be killed in the Tower Coup but now Maigan's dead I'm not sure!

Next time: worldbuilding!

#wheel of time #wot tv show #wot s2 spoilers #wot book spoilers #wot s3 speculation #I don't THINK I missed anybody v important but let me know if I did!