#mabelblogging

[andromerot]

sorry if this looks cringe to the followers

#mabelblogging again

[equalseleventhirds]

mabel: a thing can be both inside out and outside in at the same time. like a klein bottle. it's just math. the simplest thing in the world.

me: oh she's a math gay

#mabelblogging #good! for! her!! #she also knows physics! lovely!

[gaydelgard]

ok im listening to mabel and anna gets on my nerves a lil bit sometimes

like the fact that she left you the house doesnt keep you there against your will

the stipulation was that you couldnt sell it for the next 10 years

you can still fuckin leave it didnt say anywhere you had to BE THERE you just OWN IT and have the MEANS to stay should you want to

like sorry she fuckin made it legal for you to be in her house instead of squatting there with no income for the forseeable future

#ur just whining abt nothing at this point #when theres plenty of fucked up shit to complain about going on #alexi talks #mabelblogging #podcastblogging

[andromerot]

o-(-( <- his mutuals are mabelblogging and she wasnt prepared to think about mabel

[equalseleventhirds]

i know i already said mabelpod love-in-horror-in-love, but like. letter from juniper? letter from juniper????

juniper is the monster, the girl from the hill, the girl in the mirror, the girl who does not die. and she loves lily. she will go to her against the king's curse, against her mother's warning, and she will love her enough to save her.

it is not uncommon for us to want to eat what we love, and juniper does want it, she is greedy for lily, she would be lobelia on her tongue.

and yet, her love for lily is like a knot in her heart, like a stone in her shoe. like something that will hurt her. and lily, human lily, doomed lily, turns away from that devouring, redeeming love, and breaks them apart, and breaks juniper.

love as hunger, and hunger as something to be fed, i said? in lily we see the coldness of denying that hunger. we know the horror and fear and pain of love, and we know that lily should have fed it.

#mabelblogging #this show this FUCKING show. i think abt letter to juniper i discover new emotions. #(ofc we also see a bit about lily with thomas; we're not entirely sure about what happened #but it seems likely that she took his love for her and instead of feeding love-horror-fear back she just. took it. #and left him empty and torn apart bcos the secret to love as devouring is that you must both feed it #love is a leash that pulls BOTH ways.)

[equalseleventhirds]

in other news, currently obsessing over the in-universe flower shop au in mabel

specifically how it showed a different-but-similar perspective on mabel's relationship with her family and her racial identity

like, that was there before, but it got tied up in the spookiness of the house and the world under the hill, right? like we know that sally and lily were pretty fucking awful, but they were awful in the context of a family curse that kills you. and we knew a bit abt mabel's heritage (especially bcos we meet thomas), but she's lived under the hill for so long that she's half-fey by this point and her relationship to how the world above views race is... different, bcos her relationship with the world above is different.

but! in the flower shop au! when she has been raised by her mother, when she has lived in the mundane world and her survival turned to that instead of the faeries!

first of all she's willingly estranged from her family, there's no kidnapping by faeries to muddle that. she's not precisely open about the fact that abuse happened (she wasn't particularly open about it in the other world, talked around it, avoided mentioning it, up until the house revealed it), but she's open about the fact that she hates her family and they hate her and she'll break into their house to spite them, so you get it.

she's a mixed indigenous mexican girl in a WASP town, and she connects with anna over this, immediately and instinctively. but the way she responds when anna casually references their shared ancestors (and cocoa, which, hell yeah the way mabelpod treats food) is... idk, it feels very 'mixed kid' in a particular way, right?

like, she talks about her last name with this snooty french accent ('martin. martin, if you listen to my mother.'), and you know her mother and grandmother at some point told her something about this name, this name from the white side of her family, about it meaning something, about it requiring a certain behavior from her. likely behavior she never quite emulated; likely an amount of whiteness, of conformity, of erasure of her mexican heritage in order to uphold their family image (and oh, that family is obsessed with image) that mabel was never willing or able to achieve.

and 'why would you think we had the same ancestors?', as though she expects to have half her heritage erased? we don't know where thomas is in this world, but we can assume he's not living in the martin house, that lily and sally with their pride and their money may not have allowed him there. maybe mabel got to connect with him later (she at least knows his name), but it sounds like she's used to people trying to dictate an identity to her based on being a martin.

but: 'you look a bit like an aztec statue.' she is recognizable to anna, another mixed indigenous mexican woman. whatever the martins may have tried to deny mabel, anna knows her. anna brings her to a place with proper cocoa and casually, confidently drops 'the ancestors knew what they were about', because she knows her. mabel has been rejected for everything about her, including her race, but anna sees her, and mabel wants to be seen. revels in it. recognizes something of herself in anna, and wants to stay with her.

'am i wrong?' asks anna, and mabel, obviously pleased: 'no.'

#mabelblogging #abuse mention #racism mention #anyway mabelpod gives me feelings about being mixed and connecting with ur heritage through other ppl? oh what a surprise! #mabel flower shop au lives in my head at all times. the line abt lookign like an aztec statue. the 'i wore my trespassing boots'. etc etc #i'm not even currently relistening i'm just...... thinking abt it.

[equalseleventhirds]

thinking so hard abt the characterization of lily in 'letter from juniper' and her diary that anna finds, vs the characterization of her in what she did to thomas, vs the characterization of her in the flower shop au where she seems to still be alive but either participated in or did not stop mabel being kicked out of the family, and 'my last name is martin *snooty french accent* martin, if you listen to my mother' and what that means for a girl who 'looks a bit like an aztec statue' to have a mother like that

mabel real mabel didn't rly know her mother much, but we have......... clues.

#mabelblogging #perhaps once she was young and innocent and made the mistake of sacrificing love for love #but CERTAINLY by the time she meets thomas she is selfish and cruel #was it because she knew she would die on the hill? or was there something else? #something she learned from her mother; something she learned by being a white woman in the world #(we know sally was an 'old white bitch' we know mabel's indigenous mexican ancestry is from her father #it's possible lily was mixed but.... clues. 'martin'. etc.) #letter from juniper makes me FERAL but considering who lily became as an adult #are we glad she did not leave with juniper? are we glad juniper left her faithless love to die? #(or would juniper have been just as bad? or would going with juniper have changed her? #'you have to leave it all behind and i can keep you safe' #would the king stop his punishment for broken promises if she would only leave it all behind? #her mother the house her place in the world? i wonder i wonder) #(it's abt ur parents and who they once were vs who they are to you etc etc. sometimes.) #dysfunctional family cw #abuse mention #well abuse implied but we know what sally did

[equalseleventhirds]

also on a different theme but i am just Thinking abt mabel 8.5, but 'my mother taught me many things, but she did not teach me this'

the. the awe? the reverence? of her voice. of now i know you, now i love you, and it is not something i could have learned anywhere else.

especially considering juniper is a fairy, is immortal, is from under-the-hill where she likely was taught about magic, about the secrets of the world; but it's lily who taught her something so wondrous. not by like, telling her anything, but by existing. by being something juniper could not help but love.

and, of course, taken in context of 'was my mother warned me against you', bcos her mother likely knows the shape of things, knows the dangers of the martin family and lily's doom in particular. knows this will not end well, that this will end with a closing of a door and juniper crying and blood on the hill.

and yet, and yet, for all her mother knew, she could not teach her this.

#mabelblogging #it's abt being very gay and very doomed i think #it's the wonder and fear of loving. it's the pain and resignation of not being loved back ENOUGH. #and still moving forward with the love bcos it's something beyond what you've ever known #like. look am i so so glad that mabelanna are not so doomed and that they love each other enough? YES #that being the main storyline is so so wonderful i would not change it for anything #but 8.5 hits in a... particular way

[equalseleventhirds]

also also do u ever think abt how the martin house, the house sally wanted, the house she loved like a religion, the house she broke her promises so she could have, because she wanted to be a wife with respect, with money, with land, with a house

it never loved sally back. it never pulled itself apart for her, never remade itself and remade her, never grew her fruit trees when she was starving. it did not keep her safe from harm, it did not bend its stairs and banisters to stop her from being hurt, it did not shelter lily when sally realized the price for her lies

but it protected mabel. it stifled her, maybe, but it loves her, it protects her, it warps itself around her and what she needs to survive and, eventually, to flourish. anna eventually has power in the house, but i think it only gave her that because it knew she loves mabel too and will protect her (and, when anna talks it into loosening its stifling hold on mabel, i think it's because it knows anna will keep her safe)

sally destroyed things and people and herself to get that house, and it never loved her back. she never deserved its love. but mabel? mabel who sally hated and hurt and wanted gone? oh, the house loves mabel.

#mabelblogging #abuse mention #sally wanted the house and respectability but she COULDN'T have both i think #the house was never meant for her kind of respectability #it was meant for mabel #and it's so sad that they were both held and hurt by a woman like sally #but they were two wounded wild creatures and they found each other #yes mabel hates the house but only bcos it went too far protecting her! #bcos it's a little broken a little wrong bcos of what it's been through and so its caring goes wrong #but i think they will get through it eventually! bcos it is learning to let go a bit

[equalseleventhirds]

'time is strange in hospitals' says anna limon, who just got back from a trip to fairyland where like an hour took several days

#mabelblogging #she has a point but STILL #'oh what odd liminal spaces there are in the world' says girl who lives in a house which exists half in another world

[equalseleventhirds]

relistening to mabel while i work and u kno what.... episode 1, anna says that sally goes out of her way to be kind (to anna, it's implied) and tells her stories and is great... but she has secrets

and it's not until later that we find out that sally abused mabel, and like, it's hard to listen to, knowing that

but it's also... it's rly fucking accurate huh. how sometimes your abuser will put on this face of niceness for the world at large, even for people who love you, and those people don't see it until way later

(and anna eventually sees it, and by then sally's dead but anna can at least curse her memory and support mabel; it took a while but she got there and she changed her views of sally immediately upon learning the truth, and i am. so glad of that.)

#mabelblogging #abuse mention #u can like. feel what a true portrayal of abuse mabelpod is. #like this is an experience that abused ppl KNOW about and so often other stuff will be like #'oh it's super obvious from the outside that someone is abusive' when it's NOT #i do also appreciate how we don't have to hear ongoing abuse to know that mabel was abused #we hear a little bit from her diary but mostly we just. accept what mabel says. #obviously she is one of the main characters of course we accept what she says #but it's nice that like. we can believe her without having to view it happening. that's good i think.

[equalseleventhirds]

I got into Mabel because of your posts, and I was wondering if there actually was going to be a season 7? I was confused by how it seems to have ended-- can't seem to find much information online.

there definitely is!! it’s in the works and the creators said it should be happening later this year i believe? fingers crossed bcos pandemic, u kno.

#mabelblogging #they've got a tumblr blog at mabelpodcast and i think there was a recent ask abt it #there's also been a casting call up on the website for a bit #which i assume they've filled by now but who knows? #but yeah it's been a stressful time and they needed a bit of a break prolly #but sometime soon!!

[equalseleventhirds]

'i'm not strong or brave or particularly smart, but i'm little and sturdy and i'm here, here in your pocket, here in the dark with you'

the!! way mabelpod says this is love!! not shining heroic perfection, but just being there and trying and keeping your promises as best you can!!

#mabelblogging #...and sometimes u fuck it up and sometimes it's terrible and sometimes it's beautiful #and sometimes you become god along the way; just for that person you love #but it STARTS with little and sturdy and here

[equalseleventhirds]

mabel episode 7 and the repetition with the changes and the way you can hear mabel's tone changing with each message, bright and cheerful and pretending everything's normal, over-familiar and then remembering that anna doesn't know her, fae and strange and telling a truth no one would believe, discouraged and angry at anna and the king and the world because she's stuck here...

anyway. delightful episode.

#mabelblogging #continuing the relisten during work #i already listened to ep 7 the other day but u kno what...... again. #also the intervals with weird shit going on the background? oh lovely

[equalseleventhirds]

hey i know i’ve got a lot of tma followers, and it’s the mid-season hiatus now, so if any of you are looking for something to listen to while you wait, and you particularly like any of the following:

the existential horror, the confusing body horror, and the ancient unknowable forces manipulating the world and the characters

the mostly-a-single-voice-talking-into-a-recorder format slowly growing into having more voices

slowly uncovering the mysterious past and the supernatural worldbuilding, and piecing these things together from old letters and recordings and so on

an orpheus & eurydice-style love story (but gay)

the relationship dynamic of two people desperately in love and willing to sacrifice themselves for each other over and over, but also bickering with each other in petty but also adorable ways

someone trapped into becoming monstrous while holding onto their humanity beneath it all

...jokes about the character’s name being the actor/writer’s name

AND you think this all would be very interesting and engaging if it was centered around latina women (which like, OBVIOUSLY it would be)

you might enjoy: MABEL

in which anna limon is hired as a home healthcare worker for the elderly sally martin, and gradually discovers the fate of her granddaughter, mabel martin. and then falls in love with her.

(in addition to the above, this story also features: scary fae without human concepts of morality; inter-generational trauma/ghosts/secrets; a house which loves you and will not let you go; labyrinths; changelings; death aesthetics; fire aesthetics; catholic religious imagery taken and made about two women being in love and powerful in their love; JUST A REAL GOOD TIME OK. A REAL GOOD TIME.)

episodes can be found on your podcatcher of choice or mabelpodcast.com. transcripts are also available on mabelpodcast.com. there’s some distorted noises at certain points, so transcripts can be! v useful.

#fair warning there's a few recent eps i haven't listened to yet #and it's been a while since i first listened so this may not be perfectly accurate but i'm p sure it is? #anyway i'm planning a full relisten and then catching up #there's also a new season in the works which!!! yeah!!! #mabelblogging #algie recs podcasts

[equalseleventhirds]

ohhhh ariadne betraying her family and being abandoned by her love and then being loved & saved by the god of madness... something something mabelanna....

#mabelblogging #when anna gets all into the mythology and is like 'i am the ball of twine' #i mean yes but also ur ariadne and mabel is dionysus #and vice versa #everyone is everything....... complicated metaphors