#and it would probably be an incredibly lovely sequence tbh

[tathrin]

Hey, so do you ever stop to think about how the premise of Lord of the Rings being an in-universe book written by some of the characters who lived through that story means that they decided what parts and perspectives to use to tell that story...?

And when our authors weren't there to experience the events themselves, they have to rely on what they're told about them by the characters who were there, right...?

Okay so stop and think about the Glittering Caves.

We never actually go to the caves in the narrative. Tolkien LOVES describing nature and natural beauty, but we don't actually see the caves described "by him" the way we do other places. Obviously Gimli's words are Tolkien's, yes; but we only see the caves filtered through his words about them, after the fact.

When Gimli and Éomer and the other Rohirrim take refuge there, the narrative doesn't follow them. Obviously from a narrative standpoint this is to keep the focus narrow, and not to interrupt the battle-sequence with a long ode to the beauty of the caves, and to create tension in the reader who doesn't know if these characters are okay or not. Which all makes sense!

But think about it in terms of the book that was written in Middle-earth by the folk living there. Why DON'T we get to have a direct experience of those caves? Gimli obviously related several other parts of the story that none of the Hobbits were there to witness to them, and which were written into the books as Direct Events Happening In The Narrative (think of the Paths of the Dead scene, for one of the more visceral moments!). So why not the Glittering Caves?

Was it because they wanted to keep that narrative focus and tension, and so they didn't include his perspective on that part of the battle? Perhaps, that's certainly a possibility to consider.

But also consider: when we do hear about the Glittering Caves, what we hear is Gimli telling Legolas about the Glittering Caves. THAT is the part of that event that is considered of importance to include in the book: not Gimli's actual experience when he was in them, but rather the part where he relates that experience TO Legolas.

And I kind of just THOUGHT about that today.

And went HUH.

#i mean that's pretty neat right? #the story could very easily have included gimli and eomer in the caves #and probably tolkien could have done some really beautiful stuff with language and tension and contrast #balancing the beauty of the caves with the fear and bloodshed of the battle outside #and it would probably be an incredibly lovely sequence tbh #then the gimli/legolas discussion about the caves could be easily glossed-over on the way to isengard #with the narrative just telling us that gimli told legolas about the caves and he was moved by gimli's words yadda yadda #since we would have already experienced the wonders he was talking about for ourselves and thus wouldn't need him to go on at length #and then they make their bargain to go to aglarond and fangorn together tra la lally resume normal service here #that would have also been a perfectly fine and lovely way to write that part of the story #BUT #that is not how the story was written #and i just find it really interesting and lovely that THAT is what was considered the important part about gimli's discovery of aglarond #lotr meta #gimli #legolas #aglarond #glittering caves #lord of the rings #lotr

[faith-lehane-summers]

the descriptions that spike gives faith actually get more insane as they go on when you consider that these all almost certainly come from buffy (or maybe dawn? but considering her attitude towards faith i’d assume she doesn’t want to talk about her much, so i’m going with buffy)

anyways lets review

1. Leather pants

Yeah, fair. She does wear a lot of leather pants. Recognizable trait of hers. Still firmly in the normal category.

2. Nice right hook

Ok, slayer-normal. They did spend a lot of time sparring. Mostly makes sense to know what your previous kind of enemy favors. Telling Spike about it is a /little/ weird, because why would he need to know, but maybe that’s just recognition again.

3. Doe eyes

Veering into weird. Have you spent a lot of time thinking about Faith’s eyes? Why are you telling Spike about them? Doe eyes is also just like. An interesting thing to choose, I think, since they’re commonly associated with vulnerability, etc.

4. Holier-than-thou glower

What Now. This says insane things about what Buffy feels about s7 Faith tbh. Also, once again, incredible important question: why the HELL is she talking to Spike about this? The interpretations…..probably need their own post actually.

anyways, overall, wild. imagine showing up in town bc you thought your ex-but-not-really turned enemy turned vague-ally-that-you’re-still-in-love-with needed you there and you try to rescue her from a vampire (both of y’alls entire thing) and then the vampire knows a really weird sequence of things about you and now suddenly she’s there. and semi-endorsing the vampire punching you.

#they’re FREAKS i tell you #like seriously. need someone to write the buffy and spike scene where she’s just going on abt this. would be so funny #this too is fuffy #faith lehane loml #buffy <333 #BBB

[possamble]

Do you have any songs you associate with the group and or a particular DunMeshi character? I have a few I associate with Laios and Kabru (mostly Hozier tbh) but been having a harder time for Falin, Marcille, and even Thistle.

the way this launched me into a day long project of making playlists lmfao

This one I haven't curated super well, but I think i put it in a general progression that makes sense. Unfortunately I have a very small range of music that I listen to so Falin just turned into my millionth Sara Bareilles/Ingrid Michaelson themed girlie LMAO

Highlights on this playlist for me:

"Let the Rain" is just an entire mood for post-canon Falin I think. the line that hits the hardest about her for me is "and I always felt it before, that the world was filled with much more than the drowning soul I've learned to be."

"Twenty-three" i know i know i know it's kpop and no one's gonna get the lyrics but I couldn't not put it on the list. it's literally about being 23 and not knowing what kind of "woman" you want to become and still feeling like you want to be a kid a little bit and wanting to be understood but knowing that you don't even understand yourself and feeling like you're running out of time because you're firmly in your 20's now

"Secrets" i know is incredibly personal to Mary Lambert but most of the lyrics really fit and that like... intensely joyful self expression is just so delightful and lovely and what i want for Falin in the post-canon.

"I Am Here" to me, is just the ultimate celebration of being alive, of being joyful and grateful and happy that you're a messy animal that can laugh and hurt. I think Falin would cherish being half-monster, the fact that it gave her a second chance at choosing to be alive rather than sacrificing herself for others and letting that be her entire story, and the freedom it gives her to keep living.

you have to promise not to judge me on this one. you have to. yes i went ahead and curated an entire playlist that has okay-ish transitions/flow between songs and thematically follows Marcille's journey through the story. i also put a bit of kpop on it but it FITS okay she's a girly girl!!!!

It's rough. it's really really rough right now and i'll probably come back to it but the concrete songs i was trying to build around are like...

"What is Love?" it's literally just a girly girl song about wondering what love might feel like. complete with daydreaming about romantic stories and hoping all that wonderfulness will happen to you.

"Men of Snow" okay i know it's Ingrid Michaelson again but hear me out. this song is so fucking heartbreaking. it can be taken in different ways but if you put in Marcille's context it's gutting. it's a song about mortality and the impermanence of everything set to an almost cutesy waltz-beat piano accompaniment.

"Que Sera, Sera" self-explanatory, I think. im lucky this cover is on spotify because it's such a perfect song for encapsulating the entire sequence where Marcille decides to become the dungeon lord. (the second iteration at the end of the playlist is happier, taking the happy and calm interpretation of "what will be, will be", and also includes the second verse about a "sweetheart")

"What Sarah Said" it's a song about being in the ICU waiting for news about a loved one while suddenly realizing that there's nothing you can do. i think almost every line in this song guts me about Marcille, picturing her waiting for Falin to wake up the second time. (it's also my very pretentious attempt at tying the playlist together by answering the earlier question. What is love? "Love is watching someone die.")

"The Last Snowfall" is just. Vienna Teng has been my favourite artist since I was fifteen and part of it is that she has this incredibly beautiful way of leaving lyrics impactful but ambiguous. This song isn't about being afraid of losing someone but miraculously getting a happy ending, it's just an exploration of that fear with a "what if" built in, and I just think it's such a good way of capturing how Marcille was prepared to lose Falin and that was so important, almost even more important than the fact that it ended up being a happy ending anyway. also I wish i could have put in the live version because it's insane

For Thistle the only recommendation I have is Bird Song by Florence and the Machine it's wonderfully eerie, i literally think it's the best musical depiction of that specific kind of guilty murderer anxiety of "the telltale heart" from edgar allan poe

#asks #dungeon meshi #playlists #my taste in music is super limited i know i know #shush #and don't come after me for the kpop okay #it's really hard for me to keep korean songs out of my playlists bc they're just like. normal music to me #my one-sided falin pining playlist is just fucking loaded with the saddest korean songs you'll ever hear lmao #i always joke about how my internal emotional infrastructure is made out of vienna teng and crj songs #but surprisingly carly doesn't make many appearances in my dunmeshi playlists #ostensibly the vibe fits marcille but the inherent honest horniness kind of just bounces off her virgcel ridiculousness #also im not a Disney Adult i promise #that one song from tangled just has exactly what it takes to become 10x more eerie and tragic within the context of the resurrection #marcilleposting

[sage-nebula]

It's been so long since I've played the original trilogy that I honestly couldn't tell you which of the three is my favorite, but at this point I'm starting to think that it might honestly be the first one, if only because the first one doesn't have a single case that makes me want to concuss myself. (Which isn't to say that T&T does, but just that I really don't remember T&T well enough to say for sure.)

The four original cases in the first Ace Attorney game are all excellent, both in terms of story / character content, but also in terms of gameplay. Although I hadn't played in so many years, I didn't pick a wrong answer even once in the first four cases, because the puzzles were laid out so masterfully that the answer became clear with only a minute or two of thinking. I want to note that this is different from hand-holding; it's not that the game told you what the answer was, but that logic allowed for puzzling out when it was time to show this or that evidence. You also didn't have to Press on every single line of testimony usually, because pressing on just the ones that it was intuitive to press on was usually enough.

Now, that's for the first four cases. The same can't really be said for "Rise From the Ashes," but that's because RftA was written after the main trilogy was already completed, and thus suffered the same issues that JFA (and I'm assuming T&T) had: extremely finicky cases which were incredibly picky about when and where they wanted you to show this or that evidence, or requiring you to backtrack to rooms because it refused to make a crucial piece of evidence appear during an investigation sequence unless you had talked to some completely unrelated character already beforehand.

This might sound like griping because I am just not good at these games, but I don't think that's the case. Again, the first four cases in the original game didn't have this problem, at least in my most recent experience. Both the trial sections and the investigation sections made sense with very little nitpicky "this must absolutely be done in This Particular Sequence" bits. It's just RftA, and so far each case in JFA, that seems to have this issue. This could be because Takumi or Capcom wanted to up the difficulty in the later games, or at least increase the length of the cases (both RftA and the cases in JFA so far have significantly more evidence than the first four cases in the original game), but either way, it's noticeable.

Having said that though, although RftA had numerous parts where I had to look up a walkthrough because I didn't interact with the exact pixel of the evidence room at the exact right moment in the investigation and thus couldn't get the evidence I knew was right there, I still forgive it because I love the story and the characters. Although there is legitimate critique to be made about it (most notably how they retconned Edgeworth having ever forged evidence because of his popularity by that point in the series timeline), I still enjoy the story and the characters so much that it doesn't matter as much to me. Plus, tbh, it explains even more why Edgeworth would make the drastic choice he made between games, even if you don't take the retcon into account. The man was really going through it for those few months. (Though having said that, Phoenix being like "all prosecutors are evil scumbags" in light of him knowing Lana is still . . . lmao. You really can tell that RftA was made post the original trilogy.)

So at least, thus far into my replay of the OG trilogy, I rank the first game (with all five cases present) as above JFA, since while JFA has what is quite possibly my favorite case in the entire series (Farewell My Turnabout), it also has Turnabout Big Top, which just . . . well, you know. I feel like TBT is probably the most universally hated case in the fandom, lol.

But we'll see how I feel when I get to T&T, since that's the game from the OG trilogy I remember the least. I do know that I loved playing as Mia and I also love Dahlia as a villain, and getting to play as Edgeworth vs. Franziska was also delightful. So it definitely has aspects I am looking forward to. We'll just have to see if I find all of its cases enjoyable like I did the original game before I can make the final determination on that.

#seriously though RftA is great for giving us the Skye sisters . . . I love them . . . wish we could see Lana again #feel like shit just want her back etc etc #like how cool would it have been if she was working at the WAA after the timeskip? bc you know she can't be a lawyer again #or probably even a cop given. you know. her criminal record for forging evidence. #but she could have been a private investigator at the WAA. that would have been so awesome. you know Phoenix would give her a job #and Phoenix WAS in contact w/ Ema at least a little given the pin camera #so many missed opportunities man. so much wasted potential #like dgmw i still like AA4 and AA5 but. where Lana :( #ace attorney

[iciatheguardess]

And now for some random AU ideas

“Miss Amnesia”

Named after an old character concept of mine, this is basically “heartstrings but sad”. Everything plays out as usual until Jessy almost abstracts. In this universe, Dusk fails to help, and he becomes a monster. But because Caine is…kinda busy, he isn’t put into the cellar. Dusk decides to continue the quest against Her without him, seeing as she’s still a massive threat. Unfortunately, because Jessy isn’t there to help her during the “Game Over” dungeon sequence, she gives in and becomes a being known as “Amnesia”, who still has Dusk’s kind personality, but is much more unfocused and prefers to leave the world to it’s own devices and stays in her own little bubble. She’s immune to abstraction, so I wouldn’t be surprised if her and abstracted Jessy end up as a very bittersweet-wholesome couple living in some hidden part of her domain.

“An incredibly random swap AU”

TBDK and The Kingdom of Lull switch places in the plot/worldbuilding. So Icia is from Lull and Arthur is from TBDK, so on and so forth. Hexe and Her probably switch places as well, meaning that Lull is probably under constant attack from Dusk, but TBDK is all but impenetrable. Instead of the dungeon being the massive issue, it’s probably the whole country of TBDK that needs to be traversed.

“A second incredibly random swap AU”

Everyone switches moralities. So all our protagonists are now evil (for various reasons) and all of our villains are now good. She probably replaces Dusk and Sun as the “goddesses who care”, being the embodiment of hope instead of suffering. This could go a lotta cool places and I’m curious to hear other people’s ideas for this one.

.... good lord this was much more detailed than I thought.

Amnesia: GOD I WOULD SOB, POOR JESSY AND DUSK... but at least they'd have a somewhat happy ending

Kingdom Swap: Jeeeeeeeeesus.... that would be COOL- they'd definitely have to make it through the entire kingdom AND THEN the Bewitched Castle to reach Hexe.

Morality switch: I can't even imagine an evil Icia or Dusk tbh 😭 but the idea of her being a caretaker like Canon dusk and verie would be so interesting!

I honestly love these ideas- these are awesome!

#iceanswers #modstar

[needsmorewlw]

Again I'm so late to this tag train but I'M HERE NOW

Ty for the mentions everyone! alot of em got lost in my feed but ily. if you said I was your fave writer because of my hcs just know I DID cry about it. Y'all are adorable. I can't write for shit. I use "like" as a conjuntion. But I love you.

Favourite and least favourite counselor and why:

No one is surprised my fave counselors are Dylan and Kaitlyn. They can do no wrong they will live in my head forever.

Least fave?? Ehh... honestly this is one of those things where when I replay the actual game, there are characters who annoy me but when I'm interacting with the fandom I love those same characters and they're my beautiful babies.

So I guess if I had to pick some it would be Jacob and Laura. Don't get me wrong I love them in the fandom but like I said, when I replay the game I find myself getting irked by their writing. Y'all fanfic writers are too good tbh. Giving me unrealistic expectations.

Favourite and least favourite chapter and why:

CHAPTER NINE and yes entirely for the scrapyard scene. Best sequence of the whole game hands down.

Least fave would probs be chapter 7. Like it was obviously an exposition chapter but it definitely coulda been more interesting. Laura and Max escaping and making their plan woulda been fun to play instead of it ending as soon as it got interesting 😭 the Laura/Ryan/Travis scene at the end of chapter 10 also sucked ass. I've made my peace with the ending being Garbo but I'll still say it.

Favourite ship:

Just like everyone else, Radioheads and blygbank. Absolute babes. Can't get enough of them. I need to eat the content.

Biggest counselor crush:

This may come as a surprise but it's Emma. Idk if it's because of Halston Sage but I know that if I met Emma irl I would be intimated by and attracted to her just like all my past gfs

How would you survive in The Quarry?:

My instinct is to say I wouldn't but let me give myself the benefit of the doubt here.

I would have been right there with Dylan overthinking and bringing up stuff from horror movies Ive seen and comparing it to the situation I'm in.

And I'd also befriend Kaitlyn and hide behind her so I think she'd do all the work keeping me safe tbh. Although I do have a really good aim not to brag 💅 I clean up at those shooting games at fair and carnivals and I can throw axes with accuracy so maybe I'd be fine 😌🤌

Favourite fic writers and fanartists:

Writers: @drylan @five-rat-lore @mothamcity  @dylan-lenivy-appreciation-day @lowonmelatonin @chipper9906 there's undoubtedly more but just off the top of my head <<

Artists: @divomria (you breathe air right into my lungs. I hope you're safe and well x) @denkicide @korianderbandit @garbage--chan @somecleverartname05 @lenillusion again there's probably more but just off the top of my head y'all are incredibly talented.

Some friends you've made in the fandom:

I've been wildly busy and bad at making friends as of late I'm sorry, but I'll just shout out all my mutuals and people I keep seeing in my activity feed. @lowonmelatonin @wlwmages @amberpriceenthusiast @drylan @stressedanime @blygbank @goodpointsandbadpoints @faeremis @116t98 @ggh0stb0yy @alwaysher @bisexualmultifandommess and everyone else who I tagged earlier and everyone who's all up in my notes interacting with my posts you've made this fandom so fun 💕 You're all so fun and sweet and I consider us friends 😌🤌

#tag game #the quarry #fr this fandom is so fun youre all the cutest #im so sorry if i missed anyone im on my lunch break zooming though ny notes for people to tag 😭

[sockgate]

What did you think about the doc? I thought it could've been a bit better and it's not even because of the bg stuff, just idk something felt lacking but I guess that makes sense with Louis' situation

this might be long but at least its not the 12 minute video review i recorded in my car on the way home. let me try and organize it by ~theme~ at least

fans: latam fans... incredible showstopping props to them. their insane energy alone made those concert sequences so sick on camera. the americans and italians following him on the other hand were fucking embarassing and it was hard to watch ngl. lthq encouraging camping and stalking is nothing new but it's just getting annoying at this point. also. if you still need to ask your parents for permission to sleep on the street, you probably shouldn't be sleeping on the street.

narrative: i don't really get what charlie was trying to do tbh. like the time skips and forgetting a bunch of shit that happened (that we KNOW happened) is just weird and lowkey feels like lthq trying to rewrite history and gaslight us into forgetting things happened. like don't worry about 2018!! nothing absolutely nothing happened here!! let's just fast forward to walls promo and tour!!

footage: i felt like there was so much missing. the broken arm?? him going to the hospital? like the fucking drama they could've got out of that situation alone would have been insane to see. think about it. you're on the second leg of your multi leg world tour and your arm breaks from running into a fucking wall. we deserved greys anatomy and got ... whatever this is. charlie filmed so many fans over the last couple and got so many perspectives and all of that was underwhelming. and the footage was just? stuff we've already seen? i could tell there were so many "harries pretending to give a shit about louis" at my showing bc they gasped when niall came on the screen. like we knew that was gonna be in there? it was in the igtv from 3 years ago?? and so much stuff was already in the afhf doc that i was literally saying out loud "i've seen this before." bc it just kept coming. so my theory that he used afhf to pitch this concept was true i guess, he just added some more stuff. it felt jumbled and rushed in a lot of places with little flow from place to place

interviews: the only one that was genuine to me was oli, because of course it was. especially the f scenes, you can tell louis was unconvincing on camera and had to adr some lines over all the totally definitely not set-up beach footage. though i did like hearing from his extended family and having them featured, the scene with them at the donny house sitting in circle was kinda off... not in a "they're lying way", just that the shots were not at all creative or genuine. i honestly wished charlie shot their perspective and commentary differently. the more traditional interview style with the sisters were better imo

the band: they're incredible. i'm so happy louis has found such a great group to travel and make music with. you can tell they all care so deeply for one another and i'm really happy for him. sidenote: their chemistry and vibes are INSANE. i just know their gonna love touring together again this year. from the words of oli, "it were better than a one direction gig"

tldr; if promotion for his upcoming tour and establishing some sort of bg narrative to get things moving was the point of this, i can understand where this doc came from. i still find it very interesting there is a lot of louis footage charlie didn't film that fits the "poor louis not knowing what to do next" narrative. stuff is definitely missing from the film. but if you like the band and oli, and overall just like people talking ABOUT louis, the film is definitely worth checking out

#i dont think i missed anything but yea #i forgot how nice it is to get asks without someone telling me to kms #asks #anon #aotv

[ohnomybreadsticks]

Ao3 WIP Tag Game!

I was tagged by @itshype - thank you for including me in your tag list <3

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 160! Which is an absolutely wild number to think about, tbqh

2. What's your AO3 word count? 917,682, although some of those aren't mine due to some of my longest works being shared RPs I posted

3. What fandoms do you write for? I have works mostly posted for Detroit: Become Human and the Witcher Netflix, but I've written a few for others, like Transistor and LotR. And now I have 2 that are original works!

4. What are your Top 5 Fics by Kudos?

Starting with most kudos:

1) More Than Enough (Witcher, E)

2) Alike in Both the Heart and Mind (DBH, E)

3) What's It Going to Take for You to Feel Good? (DBH, E)

4) Too Tired to Ask, but Not to Receive (Witcher)

5) In Which Gavin Learns to Love an Elder God (DBH)

shocker lmao, almost all of these prominently feature smutty sections!

5. Do you respond to comments? Always! If a reader has made a comment, I'll make sure to reply, even if it's just to say 'thank you' :) It just might take me a while to get to it sometimes

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? There Are No Atheists in Foxholes (DBH, E)! Can't get much more angsty than MCD lmao (altho does it count if he comes back in like 300 years?)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? I am a fluffy gal usually lmao, almost all of my fics have happy sappy endings!

8. Do you get hate on fics? Thankfully no, I've never gotten any hate on my fics. Very grateful for that, but I'm very much not afraid of the block button.

9. Do you write smut? LOL I've written my fair share. I've got 41 E rated fics on AO3, and 17 M rated fics, so that's a decent amount of the spice. Lately though I haven't been feeling that vibe as much, so much so that the last bit of smut I wrote was quite difficult!

10. Do you write cross-overs? Mmmmmm not sure if I've written a traditional crossover, where characters from both franchises interacted... But I popped some Witcher characters into a LotR setting, and some DBH characters into a Witcher setting at some point!

11. Have you ever had a fic translated? Nope, but I've had podfic made of my fic, which was incredibly flattering <3

12. Have you ever cowritten a fic before? Yep, several times.

13. What is a WIP you would like to finish but doubt you ever will? Mmmm...I don't tend to abandon WIPs, even if it takes me a long time to return. The few chaptered fics that are 'unfinished' on AO3 are the only ones I'll never return to

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship? I could never pick while I was in the trenches lmao, and now that I've been kind of out of my fandoms for a while I don't have an opinion either XD

15. What are you writing strengths? Folks always tell me my descriptions are engaging, which makes me happy because that's something I work very hard on. I hope my characters and their relationships are a strength as well

16. What are your writing weaknesses? Probably niche-ness lmao. I love to create a hyper-specific scenario that only I enjoy, so it doesn't reach any kind of audience. I also know I'm very bad at writing action sequences, which is why I never write them lmao

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I'm not a fan, tbh. Unless it's a language you're really familiar with, the chances of getting it wrong are too high. And the clunkiness of putting it in the fic makes it...oof.

18. First fandom you wrote for? For my own sanity I'll pass on this one lmao. My first AO3 fic was most certainly DBH

19. Favourite fic you’ve ever written? Also hard to choose...Privately I'm very fond of Let Me In (i'll be good to you, i swear) - any of my prairie-based fics hold a special place in my heart

20. What fic would you want to rewrite one day? Hard question - right now I'd have to say none! I'm very much a 'when it's done it's done' girlie

Tagging: @catoeirienind @sinclairsolutions but no pressure <3

#bready blabs #tag game

[akari-hope]

Dear mutual what is lgts about? I was pretty happy for the team and very impressed by the game's quality I already loved the artstyle of pocket mirror so much and they clearly only improved their presentation but the start of the game did not compel me story or character wise and the mechanics seemed like an intimidating amount to keep track of. So yeah I wanna know why you like it I wanna give it a proper shot eventually ><

okay disclaimer, i've never played pocket mirror and know only bits and pieces about it relative to what are the "canon" endings to lgts (i'd like to play but i always struggle with games on pc). the quick pitch is elise works tirelessly to be able to feed herself, and dreams of wealth and luxury. after finding a pair of red shoes, things begin to change - she starts to investigate the rumors of a secret in the woods, with hopes of it leading to the fulfillment of her wish. along the way you must keep a good reputation with the townsfolk to avoid suspicion of witchcraft, keep elise fed and sane, and spend time with the three potential love interests.

i personally picked up lgts partially bc i was intrigued by the premise, which was already appealing to me since it's not so subtly based on the fairy tale "the red shoes" which is a semi-niche fave of mine. pretty shortly after starting it up the game gives a few breadcrumbs to get started on the initial strangeness surrounding the town and elise's past, and for me that was enough to get me interested in the plot. a story about a girl trying to be seen as normal to the small town she lives in, while secretly investigating bizarre occult happenings that are tied to her past? yeah def appealed to me specifically. the investigation of the disparate threads and linking the pieces together was the part i liked best in regards to the main story. finding out more and more about the strangeness surrounding elise's past, the town's faith, and the secrets of the woods and how they connected was incredibly satisfying to me, even if it got off to a somewhat slower start. i think an early moment that totally sold me was when you get prompted to investigate a cave - like damn i absolutely loved that sequence. if i hadn't already been into it i was definitely hooked after that.

tbh...i straight up didn't know the game had lesbians until i already bought it. so it was honestly just a wonderful surprise. for me, i didn't immediately love freya or lebkuchen as characters. i grew to love them and find a lot fascinating in their stories, but initially i remember i thought freya was a bit boring and i was unsure of how lebkuchen's whole deal would progress. rozenmarine on the other hand was absolutely the character that immediately caught my eye. between the witchy design and the star-crossed lovers setup between her and elise, she was definitely my early pick to romance. and MAN. if you've already played pocket mirror you probably can put together what the "canon" end for her is. as someone who loves that sort of thing i absolutely ate that up. each ending for me was satisfying, but man that one fucked me up in such a fantastic way.

in regards to mechanics, i'll be SO real, i'm a person who loves resource management and whatnot in games so i had a natural inclination toward lgts and its balancing act, but i can see it being a deal breaker if you're not into it. for me the parts i disliked about gameplay were all tied to the witching hour segments which...honestly were FINE, i was just admittedly not very good at times with figuring out what exactly to do. but i'm also pretty forgiving of mechanics if i like a game's story, so take that with a grain of salt.

overall, i'd say if you're willing to work with the mechanics, there's a lot to love about this game's story and characters. all the routes have value imo, so it's really just up to whatever you enjoy the most.

#mortellanarts #this got so long i'm so sorry #i also tried to keep it relatively spoiler free but i may have omitted too much? unsure #anyway!

[riddlerosehearts]

just rewatched raya and the last dragon for the first time since it came out, so... here's some scattered thoughts on it. be warned that i didn't rewatch the movie until now because i felt very lukewarm to it on my first viewing and while i feel more positively about it after a second viewing, i’m still not giving it 100% glowing praise, and also be warned that this post is probably an absolute mess because i didn’t bother to try perfectly organizing everything or do much editing:

- i love the shadow puppet/2d sequences, like at the very beginning and when raya’s father asks what she knows about the lands and the couple of 2d scenes they do later on, those parts were so cool to see and i think they're my favorite bits of animation in the whole movie tbh

- i also love raya’s messy hair and sisu’s fur (mostly how well-animated it is more than the design itself), i love how the animation looks when raya and her friends transform back from being turned to stone, i love the environments all throughout the movie, the palace in heart is beautiful, fang is beautiful, i love all the gorgeous lanterns in talon, and although i’m generally a fan of bright colors i do i like how this movie’s more muted/dark color palette is really unique for disney!! thought some of the water animation was a bit weird--the water itself i liked, i loved the scene when sisu was swimming, but i thought sometimes the characters just didn’t look wet when they really should’ve?? i know water is pretty hard to animate though

- i hope a future kingdom hearts game adds more princesses of heart simply because i think it would be a huge missed opportunity if raya, princess of heart (honestly i forgot that was her title until now lol whoops), didn’t get to be one

- i really like that raya calls her father her ba. that’s an adorable word and i think it’s such a nice little detail. also the fact that his nickname for her is “dewdrop”. even though we don’t get to see much of it i really do like their relationship and how at first everything she’s doing is just because she so badly wants to see him again.

- the scene when raya summons sisu and all that water from the river becomes droplets of water suspended in the air that come together to form sisu herself?? another one of my favorite bits of animation in the movie

- speaking of sisu: i understand why people think her dragon form looks like elsa seeing as she has the same general style of face that disney’s been using for most of their 3d girls, and she’s blue... but i just cannot manage to look at her and see elsa and maybe that’s because their personalities and the ways they carry themselves are so incredibly different. and also because i like to think elsa as a dragon would definitely not be all fuzzy (dragon anna might be fuzzy though, i think that would suit her).

- however i also am not the biggest fan of sisu’s design in general and i’m sad about it because i was absolutely in love with this concept art they showed back in 2019:

i understand that concept art is just that, concept art, and will often drastically vary from the final product by nature, but we saw concept art of raya and tuktuk the same time we saw this and they stayed the same. why couldn’t sisu look more like this design :(

- i do like her human form though, i have to admit i think that design is very cute.

- apparently the novelization reveals that dep la means best friend?? that’s cool and all but i’m still pretending that it means beautiful like i heard it did when the movie first came out.

- i forgot sisu said cats have no souls. worst disney character ever 0/10 /s (that honor actually goes to john smith.)

- jokes that at least made me chuckle: “i still have a big chunk of it” “is that supposed to make me feel better? if you lost a puppy, and i said ‘well, we still have a big chunk of it!’, would that make you feel better?” (mostly for the way awkwafina delivered the line)

- jokes that did not land with me at all: all of the rest of them, unfortunately.

- i don’t... understand the scene at the talon port where raya asks sisu to lay low and stay on the boat and instead she walks into a trap with that old woman. like i don’t understand the point of it so maybe someone can explain it to me?? but what i saw was that she blindly trusted someone and faced consequences for it, quickly apologized to raya for betraying her trust (lol i wish) leaving, and then raya tells her the world is different now and you can’t trust anyone and it looks like they’re gonna have a little chat about that... but that’s immediately dropped in favor of cute little con baby shenanigans. sisu was undeniably in the wrong there and i not only don’t get why she wasn’t allowed to be wrong in the narrative, but if they weren’t gonna have an actual conversation about how maybe trust needs to be earned first or something, and sisu wasn’t ever gonna learn from it (like maybe by not doing the exact same thing when they go to spine), then i just don’t get why the entire thing was there and it seems to go somewhat against the lesson the movie is trying to teach? but maybe i’m misinterpreting it lol

- i also don’t understand the whole “maybe the world’s broken because you don’t trust anyone” thing sisu says ajkfdgfds the entire problem happened literally because raya did trust namaari when she shouldn’t have?? but you know who was wrongfully distrustful 6 years ago? literally everyone else. in fact, raya was raised in a world where nobody trusted anyone outside their own tribe and when she was willing to reach out and offer her trust, she was betrayed! if i were her i would feel the exact same way she does.

- “i know how to push namaari’s buttons” did they keep running into each other and fighting each other over those six years we didn’t see or were they originally supposed to be friends for more than like, half a day?? actually that’d be really cool tbh, if their friendship lasted a few months at least or even if they’d already known each other before all the tribes met up at heart.

- i think sisu’s design individually doesn’t bother me as much as just. this:

i just wish all the dragons together were more visually distinct from each other. if they have to all be fluffy, can’t they at least have slightly different faces? they’re not differentiated by anything other than their horn shapes and colors and i just think it’s a little boring, but not too big a deal imo.

- narratively i like this scene, though!! i like how raya and sisu’s relationships with trust are contrasted with each other as she explains that her siblings putting their trust in her was deeply empowering and that’s why she has so much faith in others and specifically in namaari. i like how raya shows that deep, deep down she does still want to trust namaari again and bring back kumandra like her father dreamed of, but she’s been hurt so badly that she just doesn’t know how at this point. i like how sisu gives her the hope that she needs...

- and i love the scene after where namaari reveals to her mother that seeing sisu has given her hope as well, that she too wants to fix things and now believes they can, because she never actually wanted to hurt anyone. she really is a dragon nerd and at least on some level, her initial friendship with raya was real. i love the way her mother ends up convincing her that working with raya to bring everyone back would be a bad thing because fang will be hated and blamed for what happened, leading her to think she has no choice but to betray raya a second time. i find her mother’s characterization a little confusing tbh and i personally wish she was a bit more villainous than she is, but i love namaari herself. she’s a very interesting and complex antagonist with an awesome design.

- although i’ve gotta admit i don’t really understand what her mother’s plan was--either at the beginning or later in the movie--and i wish fang was developed better in general?? like. fang did in fact cause the problem at the beginning of the movie, whether they meant to or not, and they seem to be very safe and prosperous from what i can tell which confuses me because was the rice thing namaari mentions at the beginning just a ruse to get sympathy or are they genuinely struggling that terribly with resources, that they can hardly afford/access something like rice? i wish it was clear that they were and that namaari was driven by her people actually really struggling and starving while her mother was afraid of things being even worse for them if everyone came back and then hated them, or something along those lines. maybe that was the intention but if so then i feel like it wasn’t very well explained.

- AND i also wonder, what is sisu’s special power?? maybe this is just me being stupid because i know she’s a water dragon and says she’s a strong swimmer but is that literally it? is that really even a power? i kinda wish there was a thing where like. she didn’t have any and had an inferiority complex about it and that’s why her siblings trusting her was so meaningful to her.

- the whole “we don’t have sisu’s magic anymore but we can still put the gem together and use it because it’s not about magic, it’s about trust” thing is admittedly very cheesy but i also think it’s very cute and i kinda love it tbh. i love that in that moment, namaari has to be the one to trust raya that putting the gem together will work even though she has no reason to believe that, and raya has to trust not just that namaari will do the right thing but that her companions will trust her and be willing to follow her lead. resulting in the antagonist of the movie standing up and fixing her own mistake as she understands that she is worthy of trust and love. also she did not have to put her hand on raya’s shoulder before being turned to stone but she did anyway?? gay

- honestly i just know that if one of them had been a man this would’ve been that one emotionally charged moment where they suddenly realize that somewhere along the way, despite everything that’s happened to them and between them and what a long and difficult road it was for them to get here, somehow they fell in love, and then they kiss:

- i mean, come on, just look at them??

- seeing namaari pulled into the hug at the end was so heartwarming and sweet. i wish there was time to flesh out her character and her motivations a little more and show more scenes of her being a sympathetic character prior to the last 10 minutes of the movie, but i honestly don’t care that she didn’t say the words “i’m sorry”, i think she showed well enough that she was through her actions and facial expressions.

- but for someone who has trust issues as a result of trauma that came about when she trusted someone too deeply too quickly, i wish raya had been able to spend longer than a single scene distrusting boun... or anyone for that matter?? she trusts the con baby immediately after getting her stuff back, though to be fair the con baby is an orphaned baby, but tong had them tied up and was threatening them and less than 5 minutes later raya trusts him to stay back and keep everyone safe just because he revealed that he was the only one in spine who didn’t get turned to stone. idk i just felt like all the scenes of the people from the different lands joining raya’s group were a little rushed (as was namaari’s redemption to be completely honest, even though i did like it) and i guess i wish the movie was like 10 minutes longer, maybe.

- especially because like, i kinda didn’t even really care very much about tong or noi or the three monkey things? i think boun is adorable, fun, and full of personality but the rest of them fell flat to me and i don’t think it’s just because this movie was juggling a bit of a large cast, because encanto showed that it’s possible to have tons of side characters in one movie who all feel memorable and get some time to shine.

- also i wish there was some sort of hint that the way all these people from the different lands came together helped inspire and unite everyone at the end, and that all the people of kumandra were now going to be generally friendly and willing to reach out and help each other, which is another thing i felt was rushed--i remember the first time i watched it i was just like “wait, that’s it??” when it ended. i know we can expect that everything works out since it’s a disney movie, but i just would’ve liked to see a bit more of the aftermath.

- overall, i think... the message the movie is trying to tell about trust is a little messy (as is the general tone of the movie imo), but i think what it’s trying to say is not that you should immediately trust everyone no matter what but that sometimes people may do bad things for misguided reasons, such as because they’re all alone in the world and will do anything to survive, or because the people who raised them taught them that they’re only doing what’s best for their people, but you shouldn’t immediately write them off and even if you don’t think you can trust them anymore, they just might surprise you if you’re willing to give them a chance and get to know them. and i think with the scenes with raya trusting the different group members so quickly, they were trying to do a thing where they’d gradually build her trust: sisu is someone who she’d obviously wanna befriend, boun is more neutral, and from then on she meets people who show increasing levels of hostility until she’s able to talk to them and come to understand them. as a concept i like that, i just think they did it too quickly, but... *sigh*, it’s a disney cartoon with an hour and a half runtime. it’s fine, i guess.

- i haven’t talked enough about raya herself so here we go: i actually love her anger and resentment, her trust issues, and her character arc. i love how her character shows that anger, on its own, is... pretty neutral. anger at namaari’s betrayal caused her to be blinded by rage and rush to fight namaari on her own despite the danger everyone, including her friends, were going to be in. anger channeled into fear caused her to hastily toss her sword out and, together with namaari, accidentally cause sisu’s death (i mean if i’m being honest i think the blame her is like, 80-20, but the movie wants us to think they’re equally at fault... which i hate, but oh well--i guess the point was supposed to be that they messed up together so they have to fix it together, i just wish that was executed a little better). but anger at her father’s death, however, gets channeled into hope that she can fix the world if she can only find sisu, and then she does. i love that she’s not the optimist here, that’s sisu’s role, but she’s still able to take her bitterness and pain and let it drive her to do all she can to try and get her father back. her anger at the injustice that occured and desire to fix it is what keeps her from giving up for those six years, and without it she may have never found sisu and ultimately saved the world and brought kumandra back.

- (and on that note i also think it’s interesting that trust ended up seeming like a bit of a neutral thing, but i’m not sure that’s what the movie was going for and if it was then i wish that had been shown a little better, such as, like i said before, with the scene at the talon port having more of a payoff and effect on sisu’s character. it would’ve been nice to see her have a bit more development. not to mention that there’s a difference between sisu’s own siblings trusting her, and raya having to trust complete strangers in a broken world or people like namaari who’ve hurt her before--it would’ve been nice to see this brought up imo.)

- anyway, raya is a very relatable and complex character and i love that she has this arc of learning to let go of her anger and hurt and learn to trust again. her entire character has a lot of traits i tend to love in other characters, and if only i were more attached to the movie she comes from she might’ve been one of my favorite disney girls. maybe someday she will be, because it’s very possible that raya and the last dragon will grow on me more over time. i probably need to give it another rewatch in a little while, one where i don’t think too hard about the movie’s pacing or morals and just try to enjoy the ride. because ultimately this is just a disney movie and it is a fun one! i like it! it just didn’t grab me and make me fall completely in love with it like luca or encanto did, but i am still glad it exists and means a lot to the people who do really love it.

- i’ve never seen any fanart or gifs of boun, which admittedly may be because i haven’t really looked and wasn’t actively on tumblr when this movie came out, but i have seen posts about raya, namaari, and sisu on my dash and none about any of the side characters and i am definitely about to go look for some boun content because again, he’s an adorable and fun character and i love him.

- also i’ve never read any raya fics and probably should, so if anybody has any fic recs feel free to send them my way. there’s probably still even more things i could say about this movie, but this is already long and messy enough as it is so i’ll end it here!

#disney #raya and the last dragon #long post

[amphibious-entity]

TMBS Book 1 Brain Dump

~An Embarrassingly Long Post~

I don’t know why I’m writing this or why I’m so determined to do it. Maybe to finally assume my true form and become a mega dork on main, or maybe just for fun!

This is basically a compilation of all the main points running through my head after reading The Mysterious Benedict Society (2007) for the first time. Rather than posting a ton and spamming the tag, everything’s here in one neat package! (hopefully this gets it all out of my system rip)

Contents:

The Book Itself

The Book Itself, for real this time

The Characters

A Funny Parallel

The S.Q. Section

Lines & Scenes I Liked

Spoilers abound!

The Book Itself

Upon acquiring the first three books (don’t judge me pls), I was surprised at just how long they are. Like, they’re still pretty light being paperbacks and all, but these books are hefty lads.

The first book has this Disney+ Original Series circle thing printed on it, which is kind of unfortunate. Regardless, I love the cover illustration and yellow is actually my favorite color :D It made me weirdly quite happy whenever I saw the book lying around in my room

Also, it’s really cute how there’s a letter from Mr. Benedict at the end! (It only reveals that you can find out his first name if you “know the code”, meaning the bit of Morse printed below the summary on the back.) Shock and horror, though, as I realized I’m starting to recognize some of the letters

The Book Itself, for real this time

It’s wonderful how the tone of the book really shone through to the show adaptation. Something about the deliberateness of the aesthetic, from the set designs to the fashion to scene compositions, that really sells that particular style— like it’s very clear that this story is being told to us, rather than one we’re seeing unfold, if that makes sense.

Where that narration style stood out to me the most was the first chapter. We are told (rather than shown) how Reynie gets himself to the point of the second test, and there’s this whole twisty time maneuver for that whole sequence of events that’s really interesting

A super secret fun fact about me is that I wanted to be a writer when I was younger! So this particular balance of show vs. tell is really neat, since it runs counter to my own tendencies. The sheer amount of commas in every sentence is also kind of comforting, since Ahah, I Do That in those few serious-ish attempts at writing lol

Overall this book’s style reminds me a lot of Roald Dahl’s books, which are very nostalgic for me :D The whole “kids are more competent than adults” angle helps a lot too haha

The Characters

Oh boy here’s where I get a little bit critical! Overall I did really like this book!! it’s just that that expresses itself in all this weird “”analysis”” lol

Reynie - much better in the books than in the show

It’s sort of a lukewarm take but I feel like show!Reynie is kind of boring? He doesn’t have a lot going on flaw-wise, and obviously since he’s the protagonist he can’t have too many weird traits or else the kids watching can’t project themselves onto him as easily

(I call it the difference between an aspirational protagonist and a vessel protagonist. Going off of the Roald Dahl vibes, think Matilda vs Charlie. show!Reynie is more of a Charlie)

Thus when we get to see him really struggle with the Whisperer and doubt himself it gives him a lot more dimension, at least in my opinion

It is a federal crime that the white knight scenes were not adapted into the show

Sticky - my son

I’ve long held to no one besides myself and my long suffering sister that Sticky is The Best Member of the Society

He happened to hit a lot of the Bingo squares of Stuff I Like In Characters: glasses, anxious, nice :), kind of a coward but ultimately is there for his friends, etc

For some reason I don’t talk about him nearly as much as you-know-who, but I love him just as dearly

Kate & Constance - I don’t have much to say

Kate is really interesting in this book! I like how we get to see more of her depths, in particular that one passage about her belief that she is invincible being the only thing that keeps her from falling apart? :c

Also her constant fidgeting is relatable lol

Constance is somehow a lot more tolerable in the book. I think I’m just one of those people with no patience for small children, unfortunately lol

(Some of) The Adults

It’s interesting that they had such an offscreen presence for most of the book. Giving them more time was probably one of the stronger changes of the show

However if that decision was made at the expense of the white knight scenes I think the choice should have been clear

I like the way Rhonda and Number Two are written

Milligan always on sad boy hours 😔✊

The “mill again” passage is touching but kind of messes up the pacing of the getaway, at least for me. Maybe I should read it again to make sure I didn’t miss something

Miss Perumal is much better in the show. We see so little of her in the book she doesn’t function well as an emotional anchor for Reynie, imo

The Institute Gang

Jackson and Jillson serve their purpose well, and Martina was surprising to say the least. I like the direction they took her in the show! I can’t imagine how funny it must have been to watch the tetherball subplot come out of nowhere lolol

These sections were written out of sequence, so random tidbit I couldn’t fit in The S.Q. Section: I like how he stumbles over his words. relatable

Mr. Curtain

While I think I know why they decided to not give Curtain the wheelchair in the show, we were totally robbed of Actor Tony Hale’s performance for the reveal during the final confrontation

Speaking of the wheelchair, it’s such a powerful symbol of his need for control or rather, his fear of losing it

The Contrast between him and Mr. Benedict. This point is expanded on in A Funny Parallel

Mr. Benedict

Oh boy, Mr. Benedict… How do I say this

I find it hard to trust Mr. Benedict, unfortunately

I mean to say, I do in the sense that I know he would never hurt the kids, thanks to knowing that a) this is a children’s book series and b) the meta (tumblr) states that he is really nice and lovable and stuff, but seriously. Why do the kids trust him at first?? I probably missed something somewhere

I like to think I’m an optimistic person, but unfortunately I’m also super paranoid. The premise of “a bunch of vulnerable orphans team up with a strange old man” is just so odd to me I don’t know how to explain it

I don’t know!!! I really want to trust Mr. Benedict

One of the strengths of the show is that we get to see him more often, and thus he gets to acknowledge more often that the plan is weird and that he feels really badly for putting the kids in danger and that he’s trustworthy and genuine

But his lack of presence for most of the book just makes him into something of a specter, invisible and unknowable, speaking only in riddles from across the bay

Which is why the white knight scene is so important!! I loved that scene ;-;

Because here’s an actual emotional connection! We can actually see it happening, rather than only being told that it exists

Reynie asking for advice and receiving encouragement, in words that demonstrate that Mr. Benedict actually cares about him and worries about him and agghh

It is a federal crime that the white knight scenes were not adapted into the show

But overall this whole issue didn’t ruin my enjoyment of the book at all! It’s just ->

A Funny Parallel

Okay, ready for my biggest brain, hottest take ever??

Mr. Benedict and Mr. Curtain…. are… the same

I mean obviously not entirely, given that one is benevolent and kind and the other is… Mr. Curtain

But seriously. Genius old man seeks out children (mainly orphans) to enact a plan. Said children often end up incredibly devoted to his cause and deeply admire him this is a little flimsy

Undoubtedly that’s intentional and is supposed to show the difference between them, like some kind of cautionary tale? “Let yourself be vulnerable and let others help you, lest you turn eeeeviiillll”

I guess that’s where the aforementioned epic contrast comes in. You get Mr. Curtain, strapped into his wheelchair and hiding behind those mirrored sunglasses, terrified (but unwilling to admit it) of ever showing the tiniest hint of vulnerability, vs. Mr. Benedict, who can let himself fall knowing that someone will catch him :’)

Anyhow I have nothing against the parallels, I just think it’s funny

The S.Q. Section

The S.Q. Quarantine Thread so it doesn’t leak out everywhere else <3

I’d like to meet the emo angstlord genius who read this book and decided to make SQ into Dr. Curtain’s son. What in the world

Okay I should probably preface this by saying that I absolutely adore both book!S.Q. and show!SQ with all my heart. Somehow, despite being a completely different character in both mediums, he has managed to be one of the best characters in either and certainly one of my favorites (besides Sticky of course) in the entire franchise, despite the fact that I’ve only read the first book/watched the show so far. I am confident in this statement.

But seriously! How?? Why?? I could probably write a whole other essay about why show!SQ is such an interesting character, and the change works so incredibly well. I’m just. Baffled

Okay, focus. book!S.Q. is such a sweetheart, oh my goodness. Like, 100% one of the most endearing characters in the book. Poor guy. I don’t even know where to start!!

He just seems to be a genuinely good guy at heart, despite being technically one of the bad guys. He’s genuinely happy for Reynie and Sticky when they became Messengers and helped Kate when she “fell” and was concerned about Constance when she looked sick and how he was in that meeting with Mr. Curtain and Martina?!!? aaahhhhghgh ;-; he just wants people to be happy TT-TT

Comparing him against literally every character at the Institute is probably what makes him so endearing tbh. When everyone else is so awful to the kids, it really makes him stand out. Like a cheerful little nightlight in the worst, most humid and rank bathroom you’ve ever been in

It’s kind of pointless to theorize about a book series that’s already concluded (I think?) but. Is the implication of S.Q.’s forgetfulness supposed to be that Mr. Curtain used him in brainsweeping experiments somehow? The timeline probably definitely absolutely doesn’t line up but like. How did he get to being a Messenger being the way he is now, given how cutthroat the process is? And then of course Mr. Curtain keeps him around as an Executive because he’s fun to mess with and presumably his loyalty. I’m very curious as to how their relationship develops in the other books, if at all. Those are probably where the seeds of the “let’s make them family” logic were planted

But wouldn’t it be hilarious if the reason we don’t know what “S.Q.” stands for in the books is that he just. Forgot

Another thing that occurred to me. Given that he and the other Executives were Messengers at some point, what were their worst fears? What is S.Q.’s worst fear?? Inquiring minds need to know

One last horrible little anecdote: I was thinking about book!S.Q. while eating breakfast, as one does, and suddenly it hit me.

I want to believe The Author Trenton Lee Stewart had the name for a character, S.Q. Pedalian, and was like, “Hm! What sort of quirky trait should this young fellow have?” Because, of course, in this style of fiction every character has to have at least one cartoonish or otherwise distinguishing trait to stand out in the minds of children. (For instance, Kate has her bucket, Sticky has his glasses, Constance is angry, and Reynie is Emmett from the Lego Movie)

Anyhow, he looks around the room, searching for inspiration. Suddenly he comes across a jumbo box of plastic wrap. Completely innocuous in design, save for one line of text. 300 SQ FT.

“…large… S.Q. …feet? THAT’S IT!” i’m sorry

Lines & Scenes I Liked

In no particular order!

Sticky quotes Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Evil combination aerobics/square dancing in the gym with the Executives

Everyone being happy at the end :’)

Everyone partying after Sticky reunites with his parents, and later finding Mr. Benedict asleep at his desk from the moment they shook hands :’’)

Literally any scene with Sticky in it

Any time Kate says “you boys” or “gosh”

[“Um, sir?” S.Q. said timidly, raising his hand. “A thought just occurred to me.” / Mr. Curtain raised his eyebrows. “That’s remarkable, S.Q. What is it?”] clown prince of my heart </3

S.Q.’s determined monologue about searching for clues after he bungled up the first time

Literally any scene with S.Q. in it (please refer to The S.Q. Section)

Reynie trying to resist the Whisperer.

[Let us begin. / First let me polish my spectacles, Reynie thought. / Let us begin. / Not without my bucket, Reynie insisted. He heard Mr. Curtain muttering behind him. / Let us begin, let us begin, let us begin. / Rules and schools are tools for fools, Reynie thought.]

NO MORE HURTIN’ WITH CURTAIN

Milligan showing up on the island!!

Remember the white knight hhhhhh

“controle”

A Super Secret Bonus Section

I would be extremely surprised if anyone read through all the way down here lol. Regardless, here’s a little acknowledgements section :D not tagging anyone since I don’t want to bother all of these people

Special shoutout to tumblr blog stonetowns for unknowingly yet singlehandedly demolishing my reluctance to read the books by posting a ton of cute quotes. Thank you for your service o7

Thanks to the two OGs that liked the post I made right before this one, for being my unwitting enablers and for sticking around despite being a) technically an internet stranger (hello!) and b) someone I haven’t spoken to irl in literal years (hey!!)

Last but not least thankz 2 my sister for putting up with me ranting about the book when I first got it and for asking about “CQ” sometimes lol. (i desperately hope you’re not reading this orz)

#the mysterious benedict society #this took me like three days to finish rip #it’s worked though! i feel less of a Mighty Need to think about this stuff constantly now #however!!! today through some conniving i have gotten the Second Book #now I’m at 3 out of 4 infinity stones. muahahaha #was going to include my villain origin story about why i like show!SQ so much but cut it for being too long and irrelevant. however #if the words jeff naomi and Sweet Dreams are Made of These mean anything to you please hit me up. it’s kind of a funny story

[miraculouscontent]

Didn’t Need Burrow (May 3rd-May 22nd)

Anonymous said:

Don’t Need Burrow to know that Ladybug’s distrust of Volpina will be played off as though she was simply jealous of her because she thought she was going to steal Adrien/Chat, even though she didn’t like Chat! Oh, but she did, she didn’t know it yet. That’s why she kissed him in Dark Cupid!

Not like she didn’t have a bunch of other reasons to distrust Volpina.

(the show also does this a lot where Marinette has an extra reason on top of “““jealousy,”““ like in “Oni-Chan” where the thing she was concerned about actually ended up happening, but the fandom boils everything down to jealousy anyway)

Anonymous said:

Didn’t Need Burrow: Su Han will take the Miraculouses from all the girls because he thinks girls don’t have the “physical and mental fortitude” to be heroes, giving them tto guys instead. The girls will find out about each others’ identities and join in the battle to get their Miraculouses back without any powers, led by Marinette, despite the fact that the genre of Miraculous Ladybug is supposedly Magical GIRL and thus the girls being powerful should be a given

(there was another part to this but I didn’t get it all so I clipped this ask a bit so it could work alone)

tbh the true ending should just be Marinette and the girls kicking each misogynist to the curb without any powers, and Su-Han goes last.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Luka and Zoe, from their styles and hints like the ice cream Luka holds in Truth and the flower on her shirt.... I'm sure at this point the writers will either send him on a tour with Jagged, or make him Zoe's bf offscreen somehow... Also more torture for Mari mentally :)

Of course. :)

Gotta make sure Marinette doesn’t have any choice but Adrien. :)

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Zoe will be Adrien's new love interest because she's "very sweet". Mari will be okay with it because she feels the Guardian must be alone. (And she's still punishing herself for hurting Luka.) The New-Bee and Chat also bond, making her feel even more alone. (But now Lila can't claim she's jealous and her hold over the class is lessened as Zoe becomes more popular.)

I’m super not here for Marinette punishing herself (and the show possibly presenting it as her “growing up” and “doing the right thing”) and for Ladybug getting jealous over the playboy cat.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Prince Ali/Rose turns out to be endgame, while Rose/Juleka gets Lukanette'd -- their relationship happened mostly off-screen and we only see them pulling apart. Juleka has to let Rose go so she can live out 'every girl's dream', possibly even being put on a bus/written out of the series.

In which the Couffaines aren’t allowed nice things because they’re poor-coded.

Anonymous said:

I can’t believe the Pig’s weapon is ACTUALLY a tambourine. I’ve had that down as my guess for the pig miraculous for ages but I never thought I’d actually be right. On that note - Didn’t Need Burrow: the Ox’s weapon will definitely be a hammer, and the Goat’s might be a shepherd’s crook or grappling hook, and the Rooster’s could be a horn.

Congrats on being right!

We’ll definitely see on the whole weapons things.

Anonymous said:

Don't Need a Burrow: That Rose's mysterious sickness from "Guiltrip" episode will be ignored in other episodes.

Honestly, it was ignored in “Guiltrip” too. Rose’s illness seemed to be related to headaches and then they literally have her headbanging in her transformation.

Anonymous said:

Don't Need a Burrow: After "Guiltrip", the dynamics of Juleka and Rose's relationship will revert to the "romantic standing next to each other somewhere in the background".

Just look at them doing [friendly task]... romantically!!

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Tikki's comments about not really understanding love are later treated as her being in denial about her being in love with Plagg. Because the two of them are 'soulmates' *just like Adrien and Marinette*, and there's no such thing as a PLATONIC bond. Plus, it's denying another feminine-identifying character the right to define and declare her own feelings -- she's not ALLOWED to not love him that way! If she says otherwise, she's either in denial or mistaken! Or both!

[flashbacks to “Animan” where Alya denies feelings for Nino as being “like a brother to her” and then gets together with him at the end of the episode]

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: In the upcoming Mr. Pigeon episode, Chat Noir's behaviour toward Mr. Ramier in Lies will not be brought up at all.

Yeah, this is why I knew writing “Lying on the Job” was the right choice. :P The show wasn’t going to do it.

(part of me hopes that this acts as a jinx but I doubt it)

soap-lady said:

Didn't Need Burrow: It will be revealed Adrien always knew about Mari's crush. He tells Plagg it's because not only would rejecting a friend be hard, her akuma would be even scarier than her dad. He later admits at the end of the episode to Plagg that having an "awesome person like Marinette" crushing on him makes him feel good about himself. The show will frame this as charming rather than egotistical.

wow i hate it

throw the whole man away, Marinette

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: The "reverse love square" will happen as a result of Adrien being drunk on a love potion/under the control of a spell which makes him fall for Marinette. This will result in Marinette being uncomfortable with Adrien's relentless pursuit of her...AGAIN...which is, of course, played for laughs...AGAIN. Her friends will probably shame her, saying, "why are you so upset? You used to like Adrien and now he's returning that affection! What is WRONG with you, Marinette?". Meanwhile, during battle sequences Chat Noir will be less playful and intrusive of Ladybug's personal space because he's in love with Marinette now and not her, which is good(minus the"in love with Marinette" part, obvs), except that it will cause Ladybug to suddenly fall in love with the new Chat Noir who is being respectful(and "just like Adrien used to act"), and she'll act like a giddy schoolgirl over him, which will be used to humiliate her for comedy as Chat treats her like a freak now. And no, the show will NOT "call him out" for suddenly being averse to the affections of the "girl of his dreams" but will treat him as justified, because guys who pursue girls are gentlemanly and entitled to love back, while girls who pursue guys are pushy and obnoxious. There will even be a lesson on how you shouldn't have to put up with unwanted advances. Chat will be the one to learn it. There will also be a lesson on how you can't force someone to love somebody else. Adrien will be the one to learn it.

Wow, how’d you get the synopsis to Season 5? Impressive! (⊙o⊙)

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Chat will complain about Ladybug not trusting him, so she tries trusting him with further responsibilities which he then shirks, blows off and whines about. Naturally, Marinette is Wrong for DARING to think that her 'partner' should share more of the burden -- no, she HAS to carry everything herself and enable him to keep treating their duty as a game! It's not FAIR for her to expect anything more from him--!

oh my god

he would *gestures loudly to “Lies”*

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Chat Noir will *deliberately* mess up a vital task that Ladybug assigned/entrusted him with, either to punish her for some petty/imagined slight (which is treated as Incredibly Serious and Deserving his retaliation) or because he simply doesn't want to have to deal with the extra responsibility. Much like somebody who 'never learns' the right way to load a dishwasher/do laundry/other chores so that somebody more responsible is forced to pick up their slack.

Sounds about right.

“Bonus” if Chat Noir is presented as in the right because Ladybug’s task was “too difficult”/”she didn’t instruct him right”/”you can’t expect him to be perfect on his first try,” or Chat Noir’s shirking is treated as “payback” for something she did that he maybe doesn’t even know about.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Marinette gives up on becoming a fashion designer because her duties as Ladybug/Guardian take priority. Tikki protests not for Mari's sake, but because she enjoys her creative drive/justifies it as a form of honing Marinette's creativity. Thus the lesson is not that Marinette was Wrong because she deserves to have things that make her happy/goals outside of her duties, but because she can fold them into her Greater Purpose.

Miraculous: Tales of Marinette Not Being Allowed to Be Happy

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Chat Noir will be (temporarily) killed during one of his 'Pity/Praise Me!' stints, because he decides that he can't function without Ladybug kissing his ass and she's too busy fighting the akuma to coddle him. Naturally, this is presented as Marinette's F-Up of the Week that she must fix at all costs and apologize for, insisting once more that she 'can't do this without him' despite being constantly forced to do this without him.

It’s Ladybug’s fault that Chat keeps sacrificing himself, obviously! She’s just not telling him not to in the rIgHt wAy, and she should be

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Ladybug will finally learn the truth about how Theo was akumatized, but Chat Noir will insist that he didn't lie and that she really WAS to blame for it. And anyway, that was 'so long ago' that she's not allowed to be mad over it anymore. (Bonus: this or other episodes will have callbacks showing that Adrien is still salty over things like being 'stood up', with HIS frustration presented as perfectly valid, as there's no expiration date on HER screw-ups.)

[flashbacks to “Stormy Weather 2″ where Plagg retcons Ladybug’s avoidance of Chat’s date as her standing him up]

+ Yeah, I don’t see Adrien not having expiration dates on his mistakes, and his are always for the better (i.e: stealing the book in “Volpina,” which was wrong obviously, and then Marinette covered for him immediately to get him back into school).

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Chloe is given a 'redemption arc' after all... in the vein of her falling for Kim or some other male character and being convinced to change her ways for/by them. On top of being grossly sexist, this lets them slam Marinette even more, painting her as a failure who couldn't help Chloe despite that never being her responsibility in the first place.

“Bonus” if it’s Luka who does it.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Rather than confirming Juleka/Rose, CHLOE is officially revealed to be a closeted lesbian, retconning all of her bullying into the tried-and-trite 'They're only tormenting you because they LIIIIIKE you'. Bonus points if this is used to reinforce the notion that Chloe is irredeemable because 'Evil Jilted Lesbian can't be saved by Hetero LI'/she lied about crushing on Adrien/other toxic and heteronormative bullshit. AND her evilness is Mari's fault for not loving her back!

It’s always Marinette’s fault for not loving people back.

Also, this just reminds me of how much I hate the “lesbian bully” trope fdkjgdfgdfg.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Chat Noir throws another Pity Me Party in the middle of a fight; Ladybug is sniped by the akuma while scolding him to stop fooling around. Naturally, this is presented as HER fault for not immediately accommodating his demands for attention. After saving her, Chat mockingly echoes her words about concentrating and keeping her head in the game.

╰（‵□′）╯

EVERY TIME!!

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Chloe gets another chance at redemption by learning how to mimic Adrien/Lila and feign niceness. Whether or not her 'redemption' sticks depends upon her patience level; if she sticks to it and 'grows' into another Lila/holier-than-thou lecturer like Adrien, it's considered good (and Adrien gets full credit for helping her change 'for the better'), but if she goes back to being *openly* judgy and bitchy, it's another sign that she's 'irredeemable'.

Ugh, when Chloe’s options are either to be a Lila or an Adrien. All I feel is disgust.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: The Love Square is reversed when Adrien learns Ladybug's secret identity and decides to focus on pursuing her as Marinette. Mari is put off by his advances/still convinced that she can't HAVE a romantic relationship with all her other responsibilities, and is further distracted and concerned by Chat Noir growing distant (as he's bitter over his failures and taking it out on LB/holding a grudge after learning she confided in ALYA and not HIM).

i hate it

And of course the method of “now she’s not interested so I’M interested.”

Anonymous said:

Didnt Need to Burrow: Despite being 'twins' with Juleka, Luka will never show up in another episode. Ever. And the only mentions of him are only about the breakup. Even in Juleka-centric episodes, Luka will only be a passing mention. Oh, and Juleka will 100% stick to just mumbling outside of episodes where shes akumatized. Because gIrL poWeR

I’m honestly just--expecting Luka to have like one/two episodes, maybe to get a charm, and then he’s gone forever.

I don’t know if it’s a mercy or an insult, but the constant mentions of the break-up between Marinette and He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named-Outside-Of-Spiting-Him definitely are an insult.

Anonymous said:

Don't Need a Burrow: "Gigantitan <insert high number>" episode

NO

NO

ANYTHING BUT THAT.

Anonymous said:

Didn’t Need Burrow: Ladybug and Cat Noir will be able to power up in some way, but they have to form a special bond (this is implied to be a romantic bond). They use this power up to defeat Hawk Moth. bEcAusE tHe pOWeR oF “LoVe” cOnQUerS aLL! Bonus if the characters imply that Ladybug should’ve accepted his affections sooner (Adrien won’t be mentioned at all, i wonder why:p)

I’m cringing so hard right now. I hate everything about this because you sound so correct.

Anonymous said:

Don't Need a Burrow: Lila will be written out/ret-conned from a show because she was only a Unredeemed!Chloe stand-in for time of Chloe "redemption arc". Every speculation about Lila (next Hawkmoth etc) will be applied to Chloe instead as a "plot twist".

I’m half-expecting that she’ll get akumatized as a season finale bad guy, then just immediately move.

Anonymous said:

Didn't need Burrow: Alya is the one who comes up with the akuma repellent charms and Marinette is going to be jealous that Alya is so much a better guardian. Alya'll also probably be able to wrangle the kwamis better than Marinette.

Honestly I might as well just put this one on the card right now. :P

Anonymous said:

Didnt Need Burrow: When Ladybug tells Chat that she told somebody her secret identity, hes gonna be mad, talking about how she broke his trust and the show will portray it as her fault for breaking under the pressure of being guardian. Meanwhile the fandom is gonna be mad at Ladybug. Ignoring, of course, the entirety of the New York Special.

We could sum up the fandom card as just, “Adrien is right and a sad uwu sunshine child, Marinette is wrong and OP and doesn’t give Chat the respect he deserves.”

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Rose's 'mysterious illness' will naturally flare up during times where Pigella might have been useful, with Ladybug getting blamed for her flare-ups/worsening condition.

BANNED

I HATE IT DX

Anonymous said:

Didn’t Need Burrow: Building off of the “Adrien knows about Marinette’s crush and manipulated her for it”, any time Marinette does something Adrien doesn’t agree with or disagrees with Adrien himself, Adrien will play the cute, naïve, sad boi we all know and “love”, complete with Bambi eyes and gratuitous long eyelashes, forcing Marinette to give in to what he wants. This is treated as cute, quirky, and hilarious, never abusive, selfish, or misogynistic.

I mean, considering Chat Noir and “Chameleon,” yeah.

Anonymous said:

Don't Need a Burrow: a) Episode, where Chat Noir is even worse than in "Lies" b) Situation where Chat Noir during meeting with Ladybug is like always (M'lady, Bugaboo, unwanted psychical contact etc.) then Ladybug reveals that she recognized him as impostor because "real Chat Noir never will be so pushy" (bonus points if false Chat Noir is akumatized Felix) c) Writers somehow manage to put both above options in one episode (obviously with real Chat Noir being even worse than his impostor)

“Copycat” but worse

differenttriumphdragon said:

Didn't Need Burrow to somehow correctly predict Zoe's identity as a joke based solely on some blurry pictures and an offhand comment about "secret siblings". Like, a YEAR or two ago.

I’m guessing this is referring to the writers creating her?

Because yeah, probably.

Anonymous said:

Didn't need the Burrow: We will get Lukagami. One of the reasons will be the clash of the Tsurugi-Motto of "No Second Chances" and Luka's snake power of "Second Chance" resulting in some weird sparks flying.

*puts head into hands and groans loudly* kill meeeee

Anonymous said:

Don't Need a Burrow: The Multimouse!Mylene's model will be based on the Multimouse!Marinette's model (in the same way that the Rena Rogue's model is based on the Volpina's model)

plz no

plz

Anonymous said:

Didn't need burrow: Guilt trip hints at Adrien having actual depression, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but knowing the show, two things will happen: 1. His depression will only exist to make people feel bad for him instead of exploring his mental state and seeing him working through it, and 2. his depression will be magically cured when the LS becomes canon because "true love heals all your mental issues".

All of the above, yes. :|

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Ladybug gets a fresh new look (for the sake of more Real-Life ML Merch), and Chat Noir gets sulky about it. Both because he didn't get an upgraded appearance at the exact same time (despite doing absolutely nothing to earn it), and because he didn't get any input on her new look. So he passive-aggressively complains about the change, saying he preferred 'classic Bugaboo', and Marinette is presented as Wrong for not letting him dictate her power or appearance.

*stares at “Mr. Pigeon 72″* I’m waiting.

Anonymous said:

Didn't need burrow: Imagine after you made that fic where Bustier and D'argencourt get the miraculous they reveal in the show that Bustier's husband/boyfriend/fiance is D'argencourt.

I WILL DIE.

OF LAUGHTER? OF PAIN???

THE ANSWER IS “YES.”

“Bonus” if it’s a DJWifi dynamic where Bustier can get D’Argencourt to do whatever she wants and suddenly becomes aggressive/upset when he doesn’t, which D’Argencourt immediately folds to (because the only “““girl power”““ the show knows is “lol girls are scary when they’re mad”).

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: The Love Square gets 'Reversed' via Alya deciding that Marinette MUST have a crush on Chat as well, since she personally ships LadyNoir. All insistence to the contrary is waved off as denial, and Alya is bound and determined to hook up her BFF with ONE of her crushes, come hell or high water. Thus, Mari gets shoved towards Chat in much the same way she's forced towards Adrien, creating much awkward hilarity at her expense.

Marinette’s entire being: i want to go home

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Alya learns about Marinette getting jilted by Chat Noir during 'Weredad', possibly from Tom and/or Sabine.  She rubs this into Mari's face as proof positive that she really DOES have a thing for Chat, crowing about how she 'does her research' while teasing her about her awful luck with guys. This casual cruelty is 'balanced' by her insistence that she'll help her hook up with ONE of them by forcing her towards both.

Alya, looking at her plans and just shrugging: Hey, now her odds of getting a guy are doubled as far as I’m concerned.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Alya will insist that all of Marinette's romantic woes are her own fault due to her being interested in multiple guys. (Mainly meaning Adrien and Chat Noir; 50-50 on whether she acknowledges Luka's existence as more than just proof of her 'fickle heart'.) She 'supports' her by shoving her into humiliating scenarios with her love interests, blaming all her failures on her 'divided loyalties' and giving her grief for being a 'dirty two-timer' that can't even get off first base.

Yyyyup.

And of course Luka would only be mentioned to shade Marinette.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Tikki will keep nagging Marinette about her inability to solve her romantic woes until Mari snaps that Tikki doesn't know what she's talking about, throwing her own words about how kwami don't understand love back in her face. Naturally, this is Mari's Mistake Of The Week, as Tikki is driven to tears over the rebuke and all the other kwami get pissed off at Marinette for upsetting her, giving her grief until she apologizes.  Tikki barely apologizes in return, if at all.

Ugh, I am just dreading an almost-inevitable “all the kwami are mad at Marinette” episode, since Marinette literally cannot escape from them since the Miracle Box is in her room.

Anonymous said:

(Mylene's personality anon) Don't Need a Burrow: Mylene's "Marinette's trait" will manifest in Multimouse!Mylene's introduction episode.

Mylene: Soon, I will have successfully swiped a personality trait from each of my friends to form one of my own.

Anonymous said:

Don't Need a Burrow: Characters who are popular fandom choices for alternate Miraculous Holders (Bee!Aurore, Fox!Lila, Cat!Felix etc) are akumatized into evil versions of Core Five Miraculous Team (Ladybug, Cat, Fox, Turtle and Bee)

Season 2462 finale.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: There will be more immediate self-contradictions, where Marinette is berated about how something she's doing/done is Wrong, badgered into following somebody else's 'good advice', and then promptly punished for doing so when the results blow up in her face.  These turnarounds will become so fast that they happen within the same episode.  Naturally, this is treated as entirely her fault.

At the rate her treatment is escalating, I would be 0% shocked. Still disappointed, but not shocked.

Anonymous said:

Don't Need a Burrow: It will turn out that the mysterious future Hawkmoth successor that Timetagger talked about is simply the Shadow Moth.

I laughed at this one so hard because it’s so accurate. I don’t know for sure if it’s a reference to the whole “new villain who’s been around since the beginning who just turned out to be Shadow Moth” thing but omg.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: The akuma-resisting pendants are used as an excuse to push Marinette even further past her breaking point, subjecting her to ever worse humiliations and traumas.  If the fact that she basically NEEDS the pendant to survive is ever brought up, it's in a chiding way; obviously, as Ladybug, she needs to be mentally stronger than this and not rely on a 'crutch'.  Nobody else is insulted for needed the pendants' protection.

Imagine the pendants as metaphors for medication and this takes on a whole new meaning.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: In a counterpart to "Chat Blanc", one episode visits a Bad Future where Marinette was akumatized.  Naturally, this is depicted as entirely her fault, with both Maris being raked over the coals.  No matter what the breaking point was, it's treated as though it was petty and pathetic for her to let it effect her so much.  For bonus points, this was at a point after she got the pendant, but she accidentally ditches or pitches it while reacting to whatever broke her back.

Especially with the reveal of two new seasons, I’m very much expecting Marinette to get akumatized at some point.

“Bonus” for a “Miracle Queen” set-up where Adrien needs to wear the ladybug miraculous and is suddenly good at it despite being awful at it before, ala Snake Noir.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Marinette will wind up making most of the anti-akuma amulets.  This is purely so that, when they inevitably fail, she can be blamed for it.

It’ll probably be like--Marinette needed to do something specific to make the pendants and they’re “only as strong as she is.”

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: The Love Square gets reversed when Alya decides she ships LadyNoir more than MariAdri, pushing her newfound agenda over her BFF's protests.  Meanwhile, Adrien reveals that he knew all along about Marinette's crush, starting to pursue her because he just doesn't uNdErStAnD why she's pulling away, feeling entitled to having her chasing after him even if he never intends to actually reciprocate.  Marinette is caught in the middle and blamed for all this drama.

Marinette, counting down the days where she can finally drink alcohol.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: One or some of Adrien/Chat Noir's past lies gets revealed to Marinette/Ladybug... for the sake of a moral about forgiveness and 'letting things go'.  Meanwhile, he continues to grouse and hold grudges against Ladybug for her supposed slights against HIM without being seriously challenged.

I’m seething.

Anonymous said:

Didn't Need Burrow: Marinette is shown a 'better world' wherein she never developed a crush on Adrien.  In this 'better world', Ladybug and Chat Noir are romantic partners.  Bonus points if this pushes forward the agenda of reversing the Love Square by getting Marinette to start seriously considering Chat as a potential love interest, treating this as her 'missing the point' of what she was shown... even if the goal was rather unclear beyond guilt-tripping her for having FEELINGS and DESIRES.

The true goal/moral is that Chat’s feelings are valid while Marinette’s are not.

Anonymous said:

Don't Need a Burrow: Hawkmoth will somehow get Black Cat Miraculous and attack as Moth / Cat Fusion (Cat Moth?). After defeating this form, Black Cat Miraculous will be taken from him and without any questions returned to Adrien. Whole thing will happen in one episode.

“Bonus” if Hawk Moth just stumbles upon the ring and doesn’t question it.

Anonymous said:

Didn’t Need Burrow: All Ladybug and Black Cat Holders are soulmates/ have gotten romantically involved. This gives Chat even MORE motivation to invade LB’s boundari-I MEAN to pursue her. Also, LB reacts in horror to this (who wouldn’t?) but its played for laughs.

At this point, I feel like this is the only way for them to push the love square as hard as possible. “Chemistry” has just flown out the window and they need a crutch.

Anonymous said:

Don't Need a Burrow: Reveal that Rose has rich parents because ML writers can't make sad blond(e) character who doesn't have rich parents (and also to increase the "You see! They love each other despite so many differences between them" factor of JuleRose)

Zag, “Stop Giving Rich Kids Sad Backstories” Challenge.

Part of me imagined an episode that just shipbaits JuleRose constantly, with Juleka constantly asking Luka and others advice on “getting closer to Rose,” which just ends up being Juleka asking Rose to be best friends.

#Didn't Need Burrow

[levmada]

For the AOT anniversary ask!

8, 20, 27

Favorite episode?

this is SUCH a tough one, so im gonna go by season

1 - the one where Eren FINALLY plugged up Trost with that boulder. there was so much build-up to it after he lost control + the music + the tension in the dream he had inside his titan before Maria fell + the doubt and confusion in everyone else that he could do it. so cool.

2 - Bert and Reiner's reveal as warriors. there was sm conjecture on who the armored+colossal were, the way reiner just said fuck it, im tired of this island and we've already come this far, and mika trying to kill them + when bert transformed and hange was leading everyone to fight, ymir's condition being up in the air - and the BETRAYAL in eren's voice when he shouted DAMN YOU!! YOU TRAITORS!!😩 so good

3 - the one in the cave!! where levi went god mode and eren cried like a baby when it looked like the cavern was gonna collapse. that one or 'Friends' (can tell how much i love that episode bc i remember the name of it lol) where kenny's backstory is explored + a glimpse of kuchel + levi and kenny's final moments together.

4 - there were SO many great moments in the final season idek. declaration of war?? OMG when i first heard the odm gear firing and pieck was like 😨 lmao. WHEN WE SAW LEVI AGAIN😩 tbh when we saw the SCOUTS again in an AIRSHIP of all things. crazy. that episode aired before i started reading the manga and i was lowkey screeching.

OR the one when eren's head got chopped, we got ymir fritz's backstory + that whole sequence where eren seized control of the founding titan and paths. god that was trippy. s4p2 has been incredible in general, definitely my favorite season in aot.

What was the hardest death for you?

Sasha … not a doubt in my mind. It happened so suddenly and I just remember Mikasa and Armin fleeing from the cabin of the ship and sobbing. the tear on Connie’s cheek when he informed everyone that she was dead. the way LEVI looked when he got told that one of his kids just died.

Ugh and it’s widely accepted that Sasha’s last word was ‘meat’ (niku?) but she could’ve also been trying to say Niccolo. and how her death impacted EVERYONE like several episodes after. PLUS her funeral.

the agony never stopped. i was sobbing when i first saw that episode😭😭😭 definitely the hardest death (but when chapter 132 is animated ….. that may change).

Who would you hate irl?

annie ... definitely floch - i could see him as one of those incel guys who think axe body spray = showering - and probably gabi. none of them for their actions in canon but for their personalities. gabi is so. boisterous and loud and stubborn that we just wouldn't vibe. floch has a big fat ugly ego and as for annie, she's mostly rude and super quiet - maybe i wouldn't hate her, but i would never associate w/ her irl lol

—

ask me about attack on titan for the 9th anniversary!

#aot spoilers #ask game #attack on titan #★play!★

[scintillatingshortgirl19]

Episode 4 Rewatch Thoughts

So first of all, I would definitely say that I have...calmed down a considerable amount since my first watch, so to speak. @delyth88 said some things in her rewatch post about being able to adapt to things and enjoy the episode more the second time due to knowing what's coming rather than having to deal with the uncertainty - which I how I feel about it as well and is a trend I experienced with episodes 1-2 as well, and in some ways episode 3. Once I had a chance to recover a bit from the narcissist thing and the romance thing, it turned out there were a lot of things I really liked! The big issues I had haven’t gone away by any means, and honestly a couple of the biggest ones aren’t even things that specifically happened in this episode - the first is just the gradual realization I’m having that I don’t think they are ever going to properly address Loki’s past trauma, and all those plot points the MCU just dropped are probably forever going to stay that way. And that fucking sucks, there’s no reason it had to be like this, and I don’t see how I could ever not be upset about that or truly get over it. The other thing is that it’s just incredibly frustrating and sad to me that all those theories about Loki having some kind of other plan in episode 3 to explain the bizarre incompetence we saw, or payoff for the weirdness that was the TemPad breaking scene, literally just amounted to nothing. All these things I hoped were intentional subtext turned out to just be nothing more than...bad writing? So yeah, I’m pretty disappointed about that. But at this point I’m trying to enjoy the series for what it is as much as I can, and on the second watch I really did enjoy a lot about this episode. So yeah, long-ass intro aside, here are my (hopefully more coherent this time) thoughts about episode 4:

Damn, that scene with Sylvie as a child really highlights how inhumane and barbaric the TVA is. Seeing her in that little prison uniform was...oof. Not that we didn’t already know the TVA was terrible, but I appreciate that they’re making it unmistakably clear for the general audience.

It's genuinely a good thing that they're going into Sylvie's trauma, and it's important to the plot, but I can't even put into words how frustrating it is to see them do that while simultaneously refusing to address Loki's. (you know, the protagonist?)

"Kind of an asshole and a bad friend" LMAO Mobius the TVA was holding Loki captive and was eventually going to kill him, can you really blame the guy for trying to escape?? Also an additional episode establishing that friendship would have been good - as much as I'm glad they consider each other friends, it felt premature for either of them to use that word yet.

I have mixed feelings about the Sif scene - overall I like it, but I do have some issues:

Pros: 

-   Loki whump! Both physical and emotional! (I want to see Loki win but I also like whump. It's complicated. Also I'm confused about where exactly she kneed him? Everyone is saying crotch but the first time he's holding his inner thigh so I thought it was there? Anyway if it is the crotch I'm not a huge fan of that particular decision, but my general feelings about whump still stand.) 

-    Lots of sad Loki faces, talking about fear of being alone - good stuff!

Cons: 

-    The first of the dreaded "narcissist" mentions

-    It’s kind of odd that he never even tried fighting back?

-    This also could have been an opportunity to acknowledge Loki's trauma, and as usual, they did not take it. I would have maybe liked a scene where Odin was being a dick to Loki and we got an acknowledgement of some of the emotional abuse. They probably could've worked Loki's fear of being alone into just about any memory. Did it really have to be a scene about how Loki's in the wrong? And in itself I have no issue with Loki facing the mistakes he's made! But I've been waiting 10 goddamn years for just one character or even a single solitary line of dialogue to acknowledge that Loki was wronged too, and by all appearances it still isn't going to happen and I'm just fucking tired.

And about the narcissist thing - it's frustrating because if they would just do it right, it could actually be really good?? If an element of the story was Loki (and Mobius) thinking he was a narcissist and then realizing he actually isn't, that would be amazing. The problem is, I'm fairly certain they are not going to go that route. I feel like it'll be more along the lines of "yeah you're a narcissist but you can be Good!" instead of acknowledging that Loki was never a fucking narcissist in the first place. Tbh it makes sense that both Loki and Mobius might think Loki's a narcissist, or throw around the term without knowing what they’re talking about - there are great explanations and meta about that - the real problem for me is that, in the eyes of the general audience, it confirmed a harmful and unfortunately very popular misconception about Loki, and it also perpetuates an incorrect view of what a narcissist is. Those are the main reasons I'm mad about it; if they purposefully, explicitly contradict it later it'll probably be fine! I just really don't think they're going to.

Tbh, after the second watch I'm a lot less mad about the shitty things Mobius said while interrogating Loki - it still hurt to hear and I'd still love an apology, but from Mobius' perspective it honestly makes sense that he wouldn't pull any punches considering he thinks Loki is partially responsible for killing the minutemen and Hunter C-20, and is trying to bring down the TVA.

I do still think Mobius turning on the TVA felt rushed. I'm delighted he got there, and the way he realized things made sense - it just happened unrealistically fast. I felt like a lot of things were rushed, and honestly I think more things will probably feel rushed in these last two episodes as well. This is something I felt with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier too - like they needed at least eight if not more episodes to give proper space for the story and character arcs they were trying to squeeze in. Six episodes just isn't enough.

Although, that said, while I still think this episode had weird pacing it didn't really bother me that much on the second watch? Probably because I already knew what the sequence of events was going to be.

The scene when Mobius was pruned was amazing - I loved Loki's emotions, and the way he walks down the hallway still kind of crying but mostly just looking utterly dead inside? *chef's kiss*

The timekeepers scene still felt off to me, and I still can't really articulate why. It honestly doesn't matter that much to me so I don't want to waste time on it, but I guess it just felt...sort of low-budget? Like we already knew the timekeepers probably weren't real/weren't what they seemed, but did they have to look that obviously fake? Idk.

I'm going to make a separate post about the romance stuff, but basically where I’m at with it is: it's a terrible shame to see such beautiful platonic/sibling energy go to waste, I'm real annoyed about it but trying to make peace with it for my own sanity, and I think there are a million clues pointing to it not actually being romantic but I don't trust that any of those were intentional. So I guess we'll see? 

I'm very intrigued by all the Loki variants. Also I'm curious if Mobius is there as well, or if each variant person has their own world? Either way I'll be shocked if Mobius is actually dead (there's a million reasons for that but the main ones are that it's likely pruning doesn't actually kill any of the variants (not just the Loki ones) and anyway he's supposed to be in 5 episodes). I'm really curious about the variant world in general though and I wonder what exactly the dangers are - why Loki "will be [dead]" if he doesn't come with the other Lokis.

#loki tv series #loki spoilers #the nexus event #loki series negativity #positivity as well but tagging anyway

[lonelier-version-of-you]

I... did not expect tonight’s Henruss stuff to play out like that.

It was becoming pretty clear that Russ would actually leave, inevitably to return in the final episode and invite Henrik to come to Leeds with him. But I was not expecting Henrik to handle the whole ‘encouraging Russ to leave’ thing the way he did. The spoilers made it sound more like he’d try to let Russ down gently. Instead, he went in all guns blazing (no unfortunate pun about his dead son intended) and lashed out as he projected his own pain and hurt onto Russ (that line about “paying attention to your daughter for once in your life” was the real giveaway).

It’s spot-on Henrik behaviour - Patrick Homes really knows how to write him. You can really tell where it was coming from - to Henrik, this was like ripping off a plaster; something best done quickly and harshly to get the pain over with. He probably feels stupid for letting himself think he had any kind of future with Russ in the first place. He’s slipping right back into that mindset that he’s inevitably doomed to suffering and that he can’t expect anything more than pain. Goddamn. Poor baby :(

As I was talking about just recently, last night I rewatched Henrik’s scenes from S14E16, where Sahira is planning to leave with her family and Henrik hires her husband as a way of forcing her to stay, completely disregarding her wants and needs in favour of his own desires. Comparing his behaviour there to tonight’s episode is fascinating - 10 years on, he encouraged Russ to leave to focus on Billie, completely disregarding himself and his feelings for Russ.

Henrik has gone from too selfish to too selfless and it breaks my heart. It makes perfect sense - he’s always been a man of extremes. But it’s really fucking sad. Like, sad to the point that I managed to nearly cry at the last scene even though it’s really really obvious this is not the end of Henruss.

...Also, at this point I am, as that Marina and the Diamonds song goes, “putting on the crown of clowns” but... since we know Henrik talks to Lexy about his relationship with Russ in the second-to-last episode... do you think we’re gonna get him delving into why he feels like all his relationships have to end in pain? And by extension, get a Gaskell mention?

We won’t. But let me dream. I just want the show to acknowledge that Henrik had a male love interest way before Russ came along. For god’s sake, we wouldn’t even HAVE Russ if Gaskell hadn’t existed, why are they still pretending that storyline didn’t happen?!

Other Henruss thoughts:

- Billie breaking into Henrik’s office to talk to him just like Russ did months ago was FANTASTIC. I adored that. She really does take after her dad.

- Henrik forcing himself into the meeting between Russ and Larry was hilarious. As was him getting shoved over the table. And saying “you twit!”. A word that people who see Henrik as this super uptight reserved bloke probably think is OOC for him to say, but is actually 100% in character.

- Usually I hate the whole “overprotective dad who gets angry at his daughter’s boyfriend (or friend with benefits in this case) for no reason and treats his daughter like she has no agency in the situation” trope, but I can just about give it a pass in this case because Russ was clearly just looking for someone to blame to avoid confronting his anger at himself, and this week it was Larry, just like last week it was Henrik.

- Guy Henry’s acting tonight. GAH. He was just incredible in every scene.

- Also, that opening scene with Henrik seemingly doing one of the annoying melodramatic voiceovers and then it turned out to be an actual speech he was giving and that everyone hated listening to absolutely cracked me up. Most Henrik thing ever tbh.

Onto the Jac stuff. Oh my fucking god, I DESPISED the Jac stuff tonight. I just. How misogynistic can you GET? The episode was pretty much just one long sequence of men reacting to JAC’S terminal illness. What the fuuuck.

As my mom pointed out, they literally just turned Jac, one of the show’s strongest female characters, into a damsel in distress who had to be fucking bridal carried by Fletch. Ewww.

The IRONY of Holby airing an episode where a woman’s terminal illness is made all about manpain on International Women’s Day. Add this one to the list of: “things that have happened on Holby that sound like satire of how bad and offensive this show is, but no, they actually did it”.

And the whole idea of bringing Flac back up again and treating it as this big great romance when they kissed once and immediately decided they would never work, and Rosie Marcel and Alex Walkinshaw both hate the pairing... ugh.

You know, if they wanted to make Jac’s tumour about a man, they could’ve at least had the decency to have that man be SACHA. Her best friend of over a decade. But no, apparently Fletch is more important to her now. Yikes.

I won’t go into this too much because I’m sure some of my Jac fan anons would be able to talk about it much more eloquently than me, but it’s just infuriating. Jac fan anons, when you’re ready to come into my inbox and rage about tonight’s episode, I’m ready for you.

Other thoughts:

The Jeongsoo stuff about the Junior Doctor Award and how so many of the doctors who won it died was hilarious. I’ve missed Holby making fun of itself.

Madge’s storyline is really interesting to me, and I find it a real shame they’ve only introduced it right at the end.

WTF was up with Guy’s return? And it being some secret plan concocted with Max to talk Jac out of the surgery? I just... what.

I’ve forgotten almost everything about Lexy the vicar by now but it was nice to see her again regardless.

TL;DR: the Henrik stuff was great but heartbreaking, the Jac stuff was just horrible, everything else was just okay.

#Holby City #Henrik Hanssen #Russell Faber #Henruss #Holby City spoilers

[alwaysahiccupandastrid]

His Dark Materials S2 Ep 6 - Rambling/Thoughts

I really cannot believe that we’re at the penultimate episode already, oh my gosh. It’s gone by so fast??

Again, because I’ve reread TSK in the last couple of weeks, the book is fresh in my mind but I’ve probably still missed stuff

Also last week was so intense and seeing the “previously on” section made me remember just how intense that was, so it’s a hard job to top that!

ANGELS AHH RIGHT AWAY IM GEEKING OUT

“The last time they were seen was to make war” - IT’S HAPPENING ASDFGHJKL

Ruta going off to see Asriel and me just remembering what exactly went down between them while she was there with him... heh

So Will’s hand looks AWFUL oh my god poor Will 😭

Pan is REALLY into his Red PAN-da form oh my goodness

So the other kids out for revenge terrified the living SHIT out of me, dear god I don’t think it could be any creepier than dozens of them appearing out of the shadows like that, like it’s genuinely terrifying

Serafina just dropped right in to rescue them and I was both relieved and a little disappointed? Because in the book the whole chase sequence is so much longer and more important, like it takes up most of an entire chapter I think, and here it’s like two minutes?

Serafina: What does this edge cut? // Lyra: Everything (Will at the same time: Nothing.) - 😂

I missed Lee and Jopari tbh so yay to seeing them once more! And they’ve crossed into the next world!

Oh hi again Mary!

^ I wasn’t expecting to see Mary again this series because in TSK book, her last appearance is going through the window (which was last episode), so I’m a little curious as to whether we’re going to get a TINY little peek into The Amber Spyglass here (it’s been years since I reread it, I apologize). Because last series they did a bit of TSK (namely introducing Will + him crossing into Cittagazze), so it would be interesting!

“Good, something I can understand for a change” - LOL Same

Serafina wants to take Lyra back to her world?? Really??

Not gonna lie, the two girls spying on Mary was kind of low-key creepy

Lyra mentioning that she crossed worlds to find out about Dust and mentioning Roger 😭

Also I’m so emotional over just how much she wants Will to be safe, like she would really do anything to keep him safe and I love it

Lyra asking the Alethiometer where Will’s dad is and “he’s in this world” - ahhh it’s going to happen!

Also I really hope that the BBC/whoever decides to sell replica Alethiometers because the design is so beautiful?! I would fork out serious dough for one, and it would go nicely with the one I have from the film

No but seriously, words don’t describe just how badly I want a replica

“I wanted to fly so I summoned you here, now I’m flying” - LOL OKAY THEN JOHN

Ooh damn, that outfit Marisa is wearing is FINE. I’m slightly gayer than I was before, ngl

I was like “nooo Mary don’t be nice to these kids, they’re awful”

But it’s very sweet that she offers them food?? Like she pulls a chocolate bar out and is like “it’s no good for you, it’s full of sugar”... I love her

The way that Mary was so happy and excited when they mentioned Lyra, only to tell the girls off for trying to kill her - more of a mum than Mrs Coulter tbh

“Miss, can I have a hug?” - AWWW OMG WHY AM I SAD

They asked Mary to stay and look after them omg 😭😭😭

“Come with me, I’ll bring you to your adults” - ooh okay this could go any number of ways... Either she actually reunites them with their families and all’s well, or she takes them up there and their parents/adults are all dead (for lack of a better word)? Or the Spectres attack after Mary leaves them with the adults??

Jopari talking about meeting his dæmon and also a little bit about trying to get back to his family :(

“Can you magic us up a fire?” “One moment” *presents a box of matches” - LMFAO

Wait did Serafina seriously just imply that she thought Will might hurt Lyra?!?

Serafina saying that if protecting Lyra means protecting Will as well... Yes, protect Will please! Protect BOTH of these children, I literally BEG you, they’ve gone through far too much

Ooh okay so the witch ritual/spell was kind of cool to see!

Lyra saying “please tell me he’ll be alright” 😭♥️

The fact that Lyra curled up close to Will and then Pan (in ermine form) curled up CLOSER to Will is so cute, they both love Will so much

Pan: “We feel safe her... don’t we?” / OOF OKAY THIS IS F I N E

I already know what Lyra’s “other name” is because I read the book but the hints are anything BUT subtle tbh. “Mother of us all, cause of all sin, tempted by the serpent”... I’m not even that religious but I think it’s pretty obvious.

Also, if Mary is playing the part of the “serpent” within Lyra’s destiny, does that mean that Mary has tempted Lyra? Or that she will?

Boreal being nervous about being in the city and Marisa is just so unimpressed by him... Mood

That smirk she had when going up to that Spectre victim was so chilling, we have to stan Ruth Wilson and her incredible acting

Also, fun fact, Ruth Wilson went to my sixth form college and is from Surrey (like me), and she grew up in Shepperton, which is where my Nan used to live when she was alive (my uncle and aunt live there still), so that’s super exciting!

“We could learn from this” - PLEASE DO NOT MA’AM

God I hate the Magisterium so fucking much, the patriarchy is so strong with them

Oh great, now they’re gunning to kill Lyra :/

Also, off topic, I’ve only just connected that Will Keen, who plays Father MacPhail, is Dafne Keen’s dad?!?

“She’s lost a lot for one so young” - AND SHE’S STILL GOING TO LOSE PEOPLE, WHY IS THIS FAIR PHILIP PULLMAN 😭

“She must be protected” - AGAIN, they BOTH need protecting PLEASE

The Spectre noises reminded me of the noises of the Smoke Monster from LOST, so that’s definitely trippy for me

Thanks, I hate it

I nearly shouted “WHAT THE FUCK IS SHE DOING” out loud in front of both my parents, I seriously thought she had a damn death wish

I have never been so damn tense in my entire life as I am watching this show - and I KNOW what happens

HOW DID SHE DO THAT WITH THE SPECTRES SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN

Lee’s so worried about Lyra - 11/10, Father of the Year

The Magisterium airships... NO. FUCK. WE’RE AT THAT POINT ALREADY AND IM NOT OKAY BECAUSE I KNOW HOW AND WHERE THIS ENDS AND I HATE IT

I deadass thought Marisa and Carlo were about to kiss when he ran up to her and I actually said out loud “NO please don’t”

Look I must just be so dirty minded but when she said “let’s celebrate”, my immediate reaction was “NO NO NO NO EW EW EW NO” and “I hope she just means having a drink and not doing the frickety-frack”

I was so close to tearing up as Will was talking about his mum, her illness, and the boys who were mean to her because of it. His love for his mum is so beautifully written and the way Amir Wilson is playing Will is so wonderful

I was also close to tears when he was talking about his dad and how he used to imagine about his dad, so maybe I’m just emotional anyway

“Could go to school... have friends” - okay yeah no I’m definitely crying 😭

“I couldn’t trust anyone.” “Until you met me.” “Yeah.” - EXCUSE ME ♥️😭 my HEART

I love one (1) soft boy, and one (1) feral girl and her dæmon

The relief I felt when I saw Marisa and Carlo were literally just having drinks 😅

“They consume what makes us human, so I just suppressed that and hid it” + *cut to the monkey looking kinda sad/uncomfortable* - Umm fUCK OKAY THEN

Why am I feeling sorry for the monkey?!?

“You think we’re equal?” - LMFAO RIGHT

EWW THEY KISSED. No, just... nO

When I saw his snake dæmon moving towards her monkey, I thought one of two things was about to happen: 1) the monkey was going to pet and paw and the snake as Marisa seduced Boreal, or 3) the monkey was going to strange the snake and kill Boreal

OKAY THIS TOOK A SHARP BUT NOT UNWELCOMED TURN

“You’ve NEVER been my equal.” “You’d only hold me back.” - OH MY GOD YES THE SHADE

She’s not wrong though let’s be honest here

So she poisoned him I’m assuming? She poisoned his drink because the monkey didn’t actually touch the snake... damn.

Her just sitting there and continuing to drink with his dead body there is... damn.

“Into that valley” NO NO, please no

Jopari really just summoned a whole damn storm huh

Also the fact he fully trusts in Lee’s abilities to land them safely :3

Lee: “Can we trust him?” // Hester: “Do we have another choice?!!” - LMFAO I love them so much

THE WAY I NEARLY SCREAMED WHEN THAT WITCH GOT ATTACKED BY A SPECTRE OMFG AT LEAST WILL WAS THERE TO SAVE HER

Okay but did Marisa REALLY sit there for HOURS with Boreal’s corpse sitting opposite her?!?

Her burning her hand on the flame in front of the monkey, and the monkey clearly whimpering and in pain was so agonizing to watch, I can’t take this show

Also, you have to wonder just how many times she’s harmed herself (and him) for her to keep doing it with next to no problems (like separating from each other all the time)

I was so excited to see the birds attacking the zeppelins, like it was one of my favourite details in the book, and I worried that they wouldn’t have the budget for it but yay!

I do kind of wish that we’d had Sayan Kötor as the “eagle Queen” leading them though - she probably was but I wish we’d actually seen it or heard Jopari say it or whatever

THEY SHOT THE GAS CANNISTER OH SHIT THEY’RE GOING DOWN HARD AND FAST IN THAT BALLOON

HOLD ON BBC YOU CANNOT END THIS THERE?!? EXCUSE ME?!

The last episode is next week and on an hour earlier, so that’s exciting! I have no idea what I’ll do once this series ends, or when we’ll even get the third and final series because of COVID and filming delays, but I’m excited for it nonetheless and hoping it’s next November/December or something!

#his dark materials #hdm #lyra belacqua #lyra silvertongue #marisa coulter #mrs coulter #will parry #serafina pekkala #ruth wilson #dafne keen #amir wilson #pantalaimon #john parry #lee scoresby #hester