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vaguely-concerned · 7 months

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Thinking about the symbolic weight of smoking in the TLT universe that comes to the fore in The Unwanted Guest -- the way it moves through from person to person: Pyrrha smoked, and Augustine wanted to impress her in all her stone cold fox MILF James Bond glory (and tbf who wouldn't) so he started too. and even though as far as he knows she's been gone for a myriad and is never coming back, he keeps the habit. Ianthe sees something in the hollowed-out Faberge eggshell of Augustine that resonates with her, all that gilded eloquent emptiness and disdain through the ages, so she picked it up from him to try to emulate it. She picked it up so hard that Palamedes -- the exact spiritual antithesis of the 'smoking! on a space station! what a powermove' ennui Ianthe so admired -- spontaneously unnerded enough to even known how to, simply from a sort of contact contamination of the soul.

G1deon and Augustine sharing a jittery smoke after their near-Harrow experience during soup night, and it's the closest thing to any real sense of brotherhood that remains between them. Pyrrha going ten thousand years dying both literally and for a smoke (and then Camilla sold her fucking cigarettes (for a third of what they were worth, probably Pyrrha's own good, and also more importantly grocery money). what an entirely haunted time to be alive etc.). Augustine and Mercy trading a cigarette back and forth in the middle of their collusion over the love and murder of god.

An act of small and measured self-destruction in the name of something a little bit like connection when you're stuck somewhere in yourself where love itself dares not or cannot tread (ritualized, transmissible)..........

#the unwanted guest #the unwanted guest spoilers #the locked tomb #ianthe tridentarius #augustine the first #pyrrha dve #palamedes sextus #this series is going to make me lose my mind completely one day (affectionate)#the locked tomb meta #the fact that ianthe seems to have had some genuine admiration for augustine makes my head spin. of course though.#of course she sees the person who looks the most like he's successfully made himself impervious to the world #utterly untouchable and impossible to hurt because he isn't even really there #and she believes it! even after seeing the john mercy augustine mess at the end! because it's such a seductive idea #when you've stuck yourself in an inevitable ocean of pain to think you could make yourself numb enough that it doesn't matter #it's the emotional equivalent of 'oh there's water all around? well I just won't breathe in then. easy lmao get on my level'#she holds on to that thing from him even when it's been proved to be both impossible and ultimately untrue even in him #because uh. oh I'm about to be kind of sad for ianthe what the fuck is going on. he might actually have been the closest thing #to parental and especially paternal affection she's ever known. certainly known enough to try to model herself after #IMAGINE how fucked up the nine houses must be when augustine the first registers for anyone as a model of psychological survival #ianthe do you really want to be yourself completely so much that you're willing to be nothing. I mean yeah probably but. oh my god #gaining nothing at the cost of everything

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sacchiri · 29 days

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Hellsing 2002 calendar illustration.

Ein wunderliche und erschröckliche Hystori von einem großen Wüttrich genant Dracole wayda Der do so ganz unkristenliche marrter hat angelegt die mensche, als mit spissen als auch die leut zu Tod geslyffen

A wondrous and frightening story about a great berserk called Dracula the voivode who inflicted such unchristian tortures such as with stakes and also dragged people to death

#hellsing #alucard #kouta hirano #translation was found in a comment by u/lazyfoxheart on r/Kurrent #fun fact this is the highest quality version of this image that exists online #i know because i've been looking forever for a version that's clear enough to actually read what hirano wrote under '1443'#but there weren't any so i had to take matters into my own hands #the real image on the back of the guidebook is only 2 inches tall so i had to take this with my smartphone and will my hands not to shake #anyway i'm pretty sure it's supposed to say Eğrigöz (the location vlad was imprisoned) so yeah. thank you hirano very cool #if i might rant for a sec it took me an embarrassingly long time to figure that out because i didn't have the guidebook at first #and in the images i could find online that part was just a blur that looked suspiciously like a person's signature and i was like. who tf #i was thinking matthias corvinus since he issued some political propaganda against vlad iirc but it didn't match his signature on wikipedia #then i thought it might be vlad II dracul's since he probably had to sign an agreement to send his sons over as hostages at some point #but that didnt seem right either so i kept skimming vlad's wiki page #and then i was like goddammit...hirano.....you just misspelled Eğrigöz didn't you.. ....#i maybe should've made a separate post dedicated to this instead of writing a novel in the tags but eh #the hellsing brainrot runs deep #also- i put it in the source link at the bottom of the post but the german inscription is copied off a real woodcut of vlad from 1491 #except instead of depicting him as an adult hirano drew him as a child which gives the inscription a very different feel imo #the one final thing that interests me about this is the fact that hirano published this calendar in 2002 #which is REALLY early in the series. like this was before volume 5 came out??#i have no idea why he decided to do a massive spoiler drop in a random piece of japan-only merch #sandwiched between a drawing of alucard as john travolta from saturday night fever and integra as a fish no less #it makes me really curious to know what the fan response to this was back then. like did people even know who this was #maybe im just an idiot and everyone back then was like 'ah yes its alucard as a 12 year old. how very informative'

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askblueandviolet · 2 months

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To our lovely duo:

*a Bai He doll appears along with a tiny Mao and Hershey figurine*

Now the gang is complete! :D

Would it be alright if I could get a head pat from one of you guys? You don’t have to if you don’t want to tho-

For our amazing Hershey: *gives her a little icy blue bow with violets embroidered onto it*

To our darling author: *gives you a virtual hug and a basket full of baked goodies cuz you deserve it*

And that folks, is the final ask in the box!!! Sorry that you had to wait so long, but I have finally done it, haha!

Now, since the Blue and Violet Series is on hiatus, I have decided that as of now, the ask box shall remain closed :'))). At the very latest it will open again when the new instalment for the series comes out, but who knows! Maybe I will bring back the ask blog sooner.

If I counted right, then we have had a total of a whopping 147 asks! Far more than I could have ever expected. So thank you to everyone who sent asks to this blog and following, it's been a real pleasure entertaining you all (⁠◍⁠•⁠ᴗ⁠•⁠◍⁠).

Until next time everyone!!!

MASTER POST

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marsbotz · 1 year

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no matter what happens, no matter how much it hurts, you don't stop dancing, and you don't stop smiling, and you give those people what they want.

#I DONT POST NINJAGO HERE ANYMORE FOLLOW @LEGOGENDER #ninjago #cole brookstone #cole ninjago #be nice im still learning to paint LOL #if even one perspn can understnad this ill be amazed #sorry today we are going for the cole art drenched in personal interpretation #um. well first off hes trans. and i will say i think his entire s1 arc w his father feels very trans. if you dont understnad dont worry #but uhhh. i think a lot about how cole canonically still struggles with living up to expectations #despite making up with lou. and tbh honestly in my mind that didnt even happen #ive said before maybe but i Personally think the stronger arc for cole would have been having to make the choice to stay a ninja despite #his fathers disapproval. that maybe even tho lou disowns him it doesnt matter. bc the ninja r his real family now #bc honestly lou is so absent in the series it might as well ahve never happened LOL #but yeah in s11 is the obvious one. w the travellers tea #and again in s13 not being able to do the burst #feels a Lot like how he reacted in the royal blacksmith ep #i think lous expectations of cole and harsh treatment definitely cld have been the source of his issues.#and especially considering he says he had to do all the chores after his mothers death... makes his anxiety around being leader #(in early seasons)#a lot more sad. i think this was in books confirmed #um. yeah. i think abt cole. hes rlly interesting hope u understand now kinda #so yeah. and i used the bojack quote cus i think its similar in that cole was only young when lou installed these fears in him #'a song you taught me when i was small' and all that #altho i think the gina version fits jay also LOL #artsbotz

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idleorbitals · 7 months

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this scene?? the way ray moves from scared and angry and guarded to resigned to hearbroken to shattered and furious and hysterical; the way you can see every time his anger comes up how much hurt is behind it...the way khaotung played this!! the way you can tell that even though ray knows rationally what happened with sand and his dad he still hasn't fully accepted it until he realizes sand's not going to deny it

I'm far from the first to say this but I really think very few actors could manage to make ray as sympathetic a character as khaotung has. and it's because you can see how fragile and pathetic and hopeful ray is under all that lashing out. he's been crushed so many times and he expects it entirely; he expects that everyone around him including he himself will keep letting him down and hurting him, and there's still some part of him that's surprised every time the hammer lands. and he hates that about himself, and he has no good coping mechanisms for this entire paradigm. and khaotung is doing all this characterization like. almost entirely via minute facial acting choices.

I was honestly so relieved when I realized this scene was coming this ep because it meant no more anticipating it; because it has been so patently obvious that it was going to be heartbreaking to watch ray hurl horrible things at a crushed sand who has done nothing but try to be good to him. and don't get me wrong! it was!!

but like so many of their scenes it had that perfectly twisted fate feeling to it. the narrative and the production manage to validate both ray and sand's perspectives here, to victimize and villainize them each in turn. of course ray feels heartbroken and betrayed by what's happened; his trust is so shaky and so broken here. of course sand doesn't deserve what ray is saying and doing to him, even if he had a part in breaking that trust. of course they must see their way through to letting themselves believe the other cares for them the way we know they both do

a moment of praise for first who also absolutely killed this scene, especially in managing to make sand's quiet devastation match the magnetism of ray's volatility, and the release of tension after ray left and he slid down the lockers feel inevitable and brutal and so real

fucking nailed it all round. what an episode

#and a moment of silence for me watching this back through on half speed to screencap 💀#meanwhile fkt on twitter giggling twirling their hair going #/poor babyyy bruises on his back and he didn't even complain/#/awww he loves me 😍🥺✨/#enough! we are suffering over here #ofts #only friends the series #sandray #firstkhaotung #ofts meta #yeah might make a post about that other scene too #if i get my energy back in time

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akkivee · 6 days

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the mood is still like this pic of reol, femme fatale’s writer, in between the chuuoku seiyuu btw lmao

#vee queued to fill the void #reol’s thing is praying hands emoji but i see that look in her eyes LOL #having a holy moment fr lol and yeah i feel the same opening up my pics to look at stage chuuoku lol #i am so curious how the stage is about to interpret chuuoku lol i saw one post in the wake of the drop #that reminisced on the 10th live and watching the three of them stand as one as the series antagonists #and hoping that despite them being the villains they won’t be depicted as sheer villains by the story #like the chuuoku women are not good people by any means (except nemu she’s trying her best lol)#but they’re still sympathetic people shaping a world against one that shaped them and it was very profound lol i don’t disagree #this is making me want to ramble about canon lol but i hope the stage crew puts in as much thought into who the chuuou ladies are #as they do the og divisions lol i’m kinda expecting something closer to late game otome and anime ichijiku lol #and as for nemu i hope she’s already free from her brainwashing lol #honobono inori and tsukuyomi might be narrative foils for our main three the possibilities are endless it’s so exciting lmao

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thejadecount · 6 months

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Me: Yeah I don’t cry from tragedy romance

Me after watching the end of Loki:

#loki series #loki laufeyson #mobius #lokius #loki god of stories #loki x mobius #THE FINALE FUCKED ME UP OKAY #I HAVE CRIED FROM A MARVEL FILM SINCE ENDGAME HOLY SHIT #so yeah can we just get the Loki crew to write all Marvel films from now on okay thank u #HOLY SHIT #WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT #WHAT DO YOU MEAN ‘I’ll let time pass’ AND THEN LOKI HERES IT #AND THE CENTURIES TIME SKIP #MOST BEAUTIFULLY FUCKED UP MARVEL FILM GOES TO THIS EPISODE HOLY SHIT #THE FICS ARE GOING TO BE SO SAD I MIGHT ACTUALLY BRING THEM UP IN THERAPY #FUCK ROMEO AND JULIET THESE GUYS ARE STAR-CROSSED LOVERS #AHHHHHHHHHHH #NOW IF YOU ALL NEED ME ILL BE ON SPOTIFY MAKING AN ANGST PLAYLIST

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saphira-approves · 6 months

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Okay so I finished Murtagh last night and I think I’m just going to put a lot of my slightly more coherent general thoughts here under a readmore. Spoilers ahead! Beware!

Right off the bat I want to bring us back to The Fork, The Witch, and The Worm. Not to Essie (although reliving that encounter from Murtagh’s perspective was EXQUISITE), but to Eragon, because the thing I love most about that story is that Eragon is glad to see his brother, even from afar, and is glad to see he’s alright, and hopes that Murtagh will one day join him at Mt. Arngor. We’ve talked recently on the blog about ill feelings and condemnation towards Murtagh during the war, especially on Eragon’s part, but the ending of The Fork makes it clear that—while I would love to see Eragon acknowledge and work through them—Eragon no longer holds those feelings, and in fact really wants the chance to reconnect with his brother and his friend, because he loved him like a brother before he even knew they were related, and after everything that’s happened, he loves him still—even if Murtagh is going to have some trouble believing or internalizing it.

And so I present the theme of this initial reading response: Murtagh is so, so loved, to an extent that he does not fully realize. He knows that Thorn loves him, obviously, but I believe it’s significant that—even though he has some Complicated™️ thoughts about Selena and harbors resentment towards her for, in his mind, choosing Eragon over himself—the memories of her that we actually get to see/“hear” (page 90 my beloved) are fully memories of Selena’s love for him. “…beautiful boy” anyone? “My strong boy?” That is her BABY and she LOVES HIM. Also, again, DESPITE HIS RESENTMENT, Selena’s love is the REASON HE KEEPS HIS SCAR! Scar lore alert! Scar lore alert! SELENA WAS THERE AND SHE’S THE ONE WHO HEALED HIM! (though I am still partial to thinking Brom was involved. I’ll write about that later it doesn’t matter right now)

(Also, on a bit of a lighter note, HIS HORSE TOY?????? Horse girl Murtagh CONFIRMED!!!! Little me would have been so jealous. …on a completely different note, I have woodworking connections and access to real horse hair. Hm. The Ideas.)

And then Tornac, son of Tereth, may your name live on forever. THE FIRST MEMORY WE GET OF TORNAC IS A HUG. THE FIRST TIME HE HUGS MURTAGH. MURTAGH HE LOVES YOU SO MUCH DO YOU KNOW??? I KNOW YOU KNOW A LITTLE BIT BUT DO YOU KNOW????? And the way he LEAPS to Murtagh’s defense when he falls in their escape, he REFUSES to let Murtagh languish in Urû’baen, that’s his BOY, his BEAUTIFUL STRONG BOY, that’s HIS SON, NO TAKE BACKSIES, MORZAN! He sees Murtagh’s darkness, yes, but more importantly he sees Murtagh’s goodness, and he knows Galbatorix will do everything in his power to destroy it, and that is something that Tornac simply cannot abide. You remember how I posted about Brom saying it’s easy to die for what you believe in, and then like ten pages later he dies for Eragon? Yeah. Yeah that one. That post. Do you see the point I’m making?

Tornac died for Murtagh. Selena did too, I’m pretty sure—it’s never been explicitly stated, in this book or the rest of the Cycle, but we know Selena was anxious to leave Carvahall as soon as Eragon was born, and that she died shortly after returning to Murtagh. I think Murtagh knows, on some level, but I also think that actually acknowledging it is going to break him just a little bit. Selena left Eragon and returned to him, presumably to spirit Murtagh to Carvahall as well, but she left too early. She wasn’t recovered. The real tragedy of this is that, if she’d left any later, she might truly have been too late—Morzan had been killed, and Murtagh would have been collected to Urû’baen before she reached him. Depending on how much she was coordinating with Brom, she might have known this, and made the choice to return to Murtagh anyway, because it was the easiest choice in the world. Eragon and Murtagh both believe that Selena left them. As Murtagh believes Selena chose Eragon over him, I’m pretty sure Eragon believes the inverse. In truth, Selena was trying to choose both of them, to save both of them. It’s a tragedy that she failed, but the most important thing about such a tragedy is that the love is there. It didn’t save them, not at first, not until much later, but the love is there and it matters because those are her babies, those are her sons, and she would gladly die for them. She did die for them. It was easy; she believed in them.

So yeah, I think eventually Eragon and Murtagh are gonna have a talk, and some revelations are going to be made, and a good long cry is going to be had all around. Catharsis! They need it!

But that’s not all! Murtagh is loved not only by the dead and the distant, but by the living and the near, too. Up to this point, the werecats we’ve met have been aloof, proud, intentionally distant. I always got the sense that Solembum likes Eragon and Saphira, but I don’t know that he would call them friends, even if Eragon and Saphira would, and he’s the most in-depth werecat we’ve met. But now we also have Carabel.

Carabel, who, from her position within Gil'ead, watches the people around them, and discerns their character: this is a skill I would say she has honed to near-perfection. When we meet her, she is desperate, though she hides it well. She sees Murtagh, and she measures his character, and what she sees is enough to make her take a chance on him, and she's right. Murtagh saves Silna, compromising his own principles to do so—swearing an oath he knows he'll have to break—and is so clearly relieved to see Silna safe with Carabel, despite the deceptions. We know, also, that Selena had been liked enough by Solembum for him to speak with her, and I wouldn't be surprised to discover that Selena was at least respected by werecats, if not outright known as a friend; it's possible that this, too, helped push Carabel to take a chance on Murtagh, though she makes no comment about it. Whatever the case, ultimately it is Murtagh's character that she gambles on, and Murtagh being simply who he is fulfills her hopes—not only in saving Silna, but his kindness towards her even when she was difficult, carrying her only when it was necessary and setting her on her own paws when he deemed it safe. Just in being himself, he earns love from two strangers, and the respect of an entire race.

(This echoes throughout the book, in all of Murtagh's interactions with children—he cares so much about kids. Not just as an abstract moral stance: he truly, genuinely cares for children on a deeply personal level. Essie in Ceunon; the two boys in Gil'ead he gives coins to, twice, and reprimanding their father for using them to pick marks; Silna; the children in Nal Gorgoth. In telling his story to Nasuada, he broke when he reached the children he slaughtered under Bachel's control.)

And Alín! Alín, who was raised to revere dragons, who cannot help but idolize Thorn. She is terrified of Murtagh, as a stranger and a strange man, but his connection to a dragon allows her to view him in another light. I can write so many essays about Alín, I'm probably going to, but here I'll just say this: despite her circumstances, despite how she was taught, despite how thoroughly she has been programmed by the cult of the Dreamers, the simple truth of Murtagh's compassion gave her the room to question, to think for herself, to ask herself if what she has been taught and raised to believe is truly right. Murtagh doesn't make the decision for her, he physically can't—it is Alín herself who finds the strength to break herself free, inspired by Murtagh, but not wholly because of him.

And in the dungeons of Nal Gorgoth, Murtagh meets Uvek, an Urgal shaman, and can I just say: I would kill and die for Uvek. He's got similarities to Murtagh that aren't discussed in plaintext, but are easy to draw: they both tried to be alone in the wild, thinking it would be better for them—different reasons, but they came to the same conclusion—but both have come to discover that they are better off in a pack. With friends. With brothers. With family. (As an aside, I really hope Uvek becomes one of the first Urgal riders.) I love the metaphor they share, about trust being a knife with a blade for a handle; and I love that once they decide to trust each other, they both jump in, feet first, 100% on board. That's always been Murtagh's method anyway (Eragon-era Murtagh my beloved, looking after this stupid dumb kid with his whole ass), and it is incredibly refreshing to see someone else with the exact same mindset throw their whole lot in with Murtagh. The gentle forehead bump! Uvek loves this crazy squishy Murtagh-man.

And finally, finally, Nasuada. The Guinevere to his Lancelot, and there's not even an Arthur for them to dance around, except for the Arthur of Public Opinion that would prefer to view Murtagh as dread Mordred. I couldn't keep from laughing, just a little bit, every time Murtagh was encouraged to/shown visions of taking the throne, because lol! Nah, you dumbasses, that's the love of his life for whom he broke his own shackles and turned on his tormentor and slave-master. The day he turns against her of his own volition is the day he is No Longer Murtagh. He keeps the newly-minted gold crown so that he can keep a piece of her with him—a coin!! A tiny little portrait!! An accurate tiny little portrait, to be sure, but one he'll soon be able to find in any decently full purse!! He may not want to admit it to himself, he may try to distance himself for her own good and the good of her rule, but he cannot truly deny his heart. As for Nasuada himself, she doesn't even hesitate to take him in—and she would have no reason to, having heard about Gil'ead, except that she knows him, she has seen his true being in a way only Thorn can relate to, and even in uncertainty she cannot believe evil of him. She's the one who reaches out to comfort him when he crumbles in telling his story, she supports him without a word when he struggles to stand, and she wants so badly for him to stay, Public Opinion be damned. She won't destroy what she's built, but she will move heaven and earth to be able to keep him near, for as long as he wishes to remain.

This whole book, really, was just a chorus screaming to Murtagh, "YOU ARE LOVED!! YOU ARE WORTHY OF LOVE AND YOU ARE LOVED!! IT IS THE LOVE THAT ENDS WARS, THAT DEFEATS FEAR, THAT PERSISTS IN THE FACE OF DEATH AND RUIN!! YOU ARE LOVED!!" And maybe he can't hear it yet, not with his ears, but his heart, eventually, might start to catch him up. And I absolutely cannot wait to see it.

#murtagh spoilers #one (1) aspect of my Many Many Thoughts on this wonderful beautiful brick of a book #anyway. i'm so glad we got to see murtagh be a dumbass. there were some eragon levels of dumbassery here.#'i don't have anger issues' sir yes you DO they're just not as bad as your father's #'i don't have anger issues' *proceeds to make decisions driven by righteous anger*#also HIGH KEY accidentally skipped a couple lines in lyreth's introduction and thought they were exes. whoops.#i mean they still could be. i might write that. we love a shitty ex in this series.#anyway this is far from all of my thoughts. i have so much to say about Alín. so much to say about thorn and his claustrophobia.#SO much to say about murtagh's thoughts on command and responsibility #i'm going to be here A Lot in the coming weeks #yeah i’ll do my nanowrimo goal today but first TWO THOUSAND WORDS ABOUT MURTAGH

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