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frodo-with-glasses · 7 months

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More Reading Thoughts: The Shadow of the Past

"The blame was mostly laid on Gandalf." Whatever you did, you've been officially labeled a Disturber of the Peace...

Something about "but the growth of hobbit-sense was not very noticeable" cracks me up

I love the fact that Frodo kept throwing birthday parties for Bilbo after he left. It's so sweet.

I would much rather go to Frodo’s Hundred-weight Feast than Bilbo’s Party of Special Magnificence, actually; twenty guests and several meals “at which it snowed food and rained drink” sounds much more my speed X-D

“Bilbo isn’t dead.” “Where is he then?” “🤷‍♂️”

F in the chat for Folco Boffin, who was mentioned like once in this chapter and never comes into the story again

"Merry and Pippin suspected that [Frodo] visited the Elves at times, as Bilbo had done." TEA???

Frodo's wandering in the autumn has such an evocative and melancholy feeling to it. So much so that I wrote a poem about it last year...

Part Two of me wishing the movies could have shown the Dwarves passing through the Shire on their way to the Blue Mountains

Sam be like "Dragons and Ents are real, I tell you!" and Ted Sandyman like "press X to doubt"

Our first glimpse of Sam's unassailable trust in Frodo and his wisdom 💚

And now! Exposition dumping, with Gandalf.

I hate the fact that I can't see or hear the word Eregion without getting war flashbacks to Amazon's Rings of Poopy

Ooh, remind me to write an essay about the invisibility power of the Ring(s)...

"[Bilbo] would certainly never have passed on to you anything that he thought would be a danger." Oh boy, would you look at the time, it's Crying About Adoptive Relationships O'clock

"'There wasn't any permanent harm done, was there?' asked Frodo anxiously. 'He would get all right in time, wouldn't he? Be able to rest in peace, I mean.'" OH BOY, WOULD YOU LOOK AT THE TIME—

Literally Gandalf: "Hobbits are my special interest"

"It is quite cool." It sure is, Gandalf. Wicked. Radical, even.

Low-hanging fruit, I know, but I had to 🤣

Speaking of low-hanging fruit, here's a joke I made two years ago about the "until Spring had passed into Winter" line:

He threw a luau barbecue one breezy summer night/Invited all his turtle pals to come and have a wiki bite/The turtles started walkin' there as Lance began to swing/The one that lived across the street arrived there in the spring...!

"I wish it need not have happened in my time." "So do I, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." Still a line that goes so, so hard, right in the middle of this exposition dump.

I like how in Gandalf's story, he makes Deagol talk normally, but Smeagol still has all those verbal idiosyncrasies that are iconic to Gollum.

I'm still trying to remember who it was that pointed out that the last syllable of Smeagol is the first syllable of Gollum. Blew my mind when I saw that, I tell ya.

"I can put it no plainer than by saying that Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, and not by its maker. In which case you also were meant to have it. And that may be an encouraging thought." "It is not." 🤣🤣🤣

The thought of Gollum creeping through a window to snatch a baby from a cradle and eat it is at least seventeen different kinds of Not Fun. Thanks, Tolkien.

I have very little to say about Gandalf's retelling of the Ring's story—and Frodo's frightened and naive questions—except that it's almost as hard to tear your eyes away from the book as it is for Frodo to throw the Ring into the fire.

"I do really wish to destroy it! Or, well, to have it destroyed. I am not made for perilous quests." Oh, Frodo, bby...

I love how Sam's spying is so artfully foreshadowed here X-D You just go whistling away down that path, buddy! Nobody suspects a thing!

All Frodo has to say is "I suppose I'll have to go running into danger alone to keep everything and everyone I love safe, even if it means never coming home again; it's a pity, but I'll do it" and Gandalf is like "Frodo have I mentioned lately how much I love you and hobbits in general". Which. Mood! Big mood!

SUDDENLY, SAMWISE GAMGEE!

Good gracious did I need Sam and his comic relief after this heavy chapter X-D Bless you, Sam, you loveable dummy

I wonder what hobbit idiom Tolkien "translated" into "Lor bless you, sir". I'm not sure the hobbits have a concept of Eru Illuvatar as a benevolent God who hands out blessings; and if they do, I somehow doubt they'd have quaint little figures of speech like this. But I'm just nitpicking at this point because it's fun.

"There ain't no eaves at Bag End, and that's a fact." SAM 🤣🤣

"Mr. Frodo, sir! Don't let him hurt me, sir! Don't let him turn me into anything unnatural! My old dad would take on so." Have I mentioned that I love the heck out of Sam?

Frodo is "hardly able to keep from laughing", which, MOOD!

Sam heard that Mr. Frodo was going away and audibly choked. GAH I love him so much

Frodo sure knows how to threaten Sam LOL

"If you even breathe a word of what you've heard here, then I hope Gandalf will turn you into a spotted toad and fill the garden full of grass-snakes." 🤣🤣

"'Me, sir!' cried Sam, springing up like a dog invited for a walk. 'Me go and see Elves and all! Hooray!' he shouted, and then burst into tears." Oh, Sam. I love you.

#chapter review #frodo baggins #gandalf #samwise gamgee #lord of the rings #lotr #my writing

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rewildling · 26 days

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Using Songs to Predict Sansa’s TWOW Arc Part I: The Bear and the Maiden Fair

Let’s put on our tinfoil hats and have some fun.

When Sansa meets with Olenna and Margaery Tyrell in Sansa I ASOS, Olenna’s fool sings The Bear and the Maiden Fair extremely loudly so that their conversation isn’t overheard and Sansa is free to tell them the truth about Joffrey. In the text, the lyrics appear in all caps. This emphasis isn’t only to indicate the volume of the fool’s voice — the words are practically screamed at the reader:

A bear there was, a bear, a bear! All black and brown, and covered with hair. The bear! The bear! Oh come they said, oh come to the fair! The fair? Said he, but I'm a bear! All black and brown, and covered with hair! And down the road from here to there. From here! To there! Three boys, a goat and a dancing bear! They danced and spun, all the way to the fair! The fair! The fair! Oh, sweet she was, and pure and fair! The maid with honey in her hair! Her hair! Her hair! The maid with honey in her hair! The bear smelled the scent on the summer air. The bear! The bear! All black and brown and covered with hair! He smelled the scent on the summer air! He sniffed and roared and smelled it there! Honey on the summer air! Oh, I'm a maid, and I'm pure and fair! I'll never dance with a hairy bear! A bear! A bear! I'll never dance with a hairy bear! The bear, the bear! Lifted her high into the air! The bear! The bear! I called for a knight, but you're a bear! A bear, a bear! All black and brown and covered with hair She kicked and wailed, the maid so fair, But he licked the honey from her hair. Her hair! Her hair! He licked the honey from her hair! Then she sighed and squealed and kicked the air! My bear! She sang. My bear so fair! And off they went, from here to there, The bear, the bear, and the maiden fair.

There are two ways to apply this song to Sansa’s relationship with Sandor. The first is to read it as a motif, which is more straightforward, so we’ll start with that.

The description of the bear and the maiden are clearly evocative of Sandor and Sansa — “black and brown and covered with hair” (ugly, beastly, coarse, etc.) and “a maid pure and fair.”

Then there’s the obvious sexual subtext of the song. This is the first chapter where we see that Sansa’s sexuality is beginning to emerge. Her childish crush on Loras Tyrell has matured into a sexual fantasy:

She remembered Ser Loras in his sparkling sapphire armor, tossing her a rose. Ser Loras in white silk, so pure, innocent, beautiful. The dimples at the corner of his mouth when he smiled. The sweetness of his laugh, the warmth of his hand. She could only imagine what it would be like to pull up his tunic and caress the smooth skin underneath, to stand on her toes and kiss him, to run her fingers through those thick brown curls and drown in his deep brown eyes. A flush crept up her neck. Sansa I, ASOS

We know that Loras isn’t interested in Sansa, and this is also when she realizes that he doesn’t remember giving her the red rose at the Hand’s tourney. Her attraction to him will amount to nothing. The point is that she’s starting to experience sexual attraction in general.

Consider the line “I called for a knight, but you’re a bear.” Sansa prays for a true knight to rescue her while she’s a hostage in King’s Landing. While Sandor isn’t a knight, he is her protector after Ned Stark’s murder. But the line is also evocative of the following scene:

If I close my eyes I can pretend he is the Knight of Flowers. Ser Loras had given Sansa Stark a red rose once, but he had never kissed her… and no Tyrell would ever kiss Alayne Stone. Pretty as she was, she had been born on the wrong side of the blanket. As the boy’s lips touched her own she found herself thinking of another kiss. She could still remember how it felt, when his cruel mouth pressed down on her own. He had come to Sansa in the darkness as green fire filled the sky. He took a song and a kiss, and left me nothing but a bloody cloak. Alayne II, AFFC

Like the previous passage, this is a sexual fantasy. Except this time, Sansa isn’t fantasizing about Loras Tyrell — she’s fantasizing about Sandor Clegane. At first, she tries to imagine kissing Loras but ends up picturing Sandor instead. She called for a knight, but she got a bear.

Notably, singing is used in the last verse to imply sex, which is a recurring motif throughout Sansa and Sandor’s relationship:

"I... I know a song about Florian and Jonquil." "Florian and Jonquil? A fool and his cunt. Spare me. But one day I'll have a song from you, whether you will it or no." "I will sing it for you gladly." Sansa II, ACOK

He gave her arm a hard wrench, pulling her around and shoving her down onto the bed. "I'll have that song. Florian and Jonquil, you said." Sansa VII, ACOK

And she dreamed of her wedding night too, of Tyrion's eyes devouring her as she undressed. Only then he was bigger than Tyrion had any right to be, and when he climbed into the bed his face was scarred only on one side. "I'll have a song from you," he rasped, and Sansa woke and found the old blind dog beside her once again. Sansa VI, ASOS

The Bear and the Maiden Fair is one of many allusions to Beauty and the Beast that appear throughout ASOIAF, including Sansa and Sandor as a romantic pairing. In some versions of Beauty and the Beast, the Beast is depicted as a bear:

The Norwegian fairy tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon is a Beauty and the Beast story in which the Beast is actually a literal bear:

The Bear and the Maiden Fair is featured multiple times throughout the series and applies to several romantic pairings, particularly Brienne and Jaime (who are also a Beauty and the Beast allusion). But there’s a reason the song is literally screamed at the reader in one of Sansa’s chapters — after Sandor has already left her during the Blackwater.

When asked in a forum chat, "Is there any connection between Sansa’s story and the song The Bear and the Maiden Fair," GRRM replied, "Well, we’ll have to see," (So Spake Martin). So whatever this connection is, it hasn’t necessarily manifested yet, even though there are already obvious parallels between the song and Sansa and Sandor’s relationship dynamic.

This brings us to the second reading of the song: as foreshadowing.

The second verse of the song mentions a fair. There haven’t been any fairs featured prominently in the series so far, and apart from the song, they’ve only been mentioned a handful of times. In the most basic sense, a fair is a temporary gathering of people. Arguably the closest thing to a fair that appears in Sansa’s arc is a tourney. The Hand’s tourney and Joffrey’s Name Day tourney take place in King’s Landing during AGOT and ACOK, but the Winged Knights tourney is an upcoming event at the Gates of the Moon. It’s Sansa’s idea and is being organized by Littlefinger:

Four-and-sixty knights had been invited to vie for places amongst Lord Robert Arryn's new Brotherhood of Winged Knights, and four and-sixty knights had come to tilt for the right to wear falcon's wings upon their warhelms and guard their lord. The competitors came from all over the Vale, from the mountain valleys and the coast, from Gulltown and the Bloody Gate, even the Three Sisters. Alayne I, TWOW

In the song, who is it that goes to the fair? “Three boys, a goat, and a dancing bear.” If the song is foreshadowing the Winged Knights tourney, analogs to these figures should already be present in Sansa’s AFFC chapters.

When Sansa descends from the Eyrie to the Gates of the Moon, she finds Petyr drinking with three unknown hedge knights:

The hour was closer to dawn than to dusk, and most of the castle was asleep, but not Petyr Baelish. Alayne found him seated by a crackling fire, drinking hot mulled wine with three men she did not know. … Alayne laughed. “Are you louts?” she said, teasing. “Why, I took the three of you for gallant knights.” “Knights they are,” said Petyr. “Their gallantry has yet to be demonstrated, but we may hope. Allow me to present Ser Byron, Ser Morgarth, and Ser Shadrich.” Alayne II, AFFC

These are potentially the three boys: Ser Shadrich, Ser Morgarth, and Ser Byron — but the goat may be here, too.

The Bear and the Maiden Fair is a motif that applies to both Brienne and Sansa. In Brienne’s story, the goat is Vargo Hoat. In Sansa’s story, it’s Petyr Baelish. There are several notable similarities between the two: Vargo and Petyr are both cunning, slender, have dark hair and goatees, and were/are Lord of Harrenhal (which didn’t end well for Vargo and doesn’t bode well for Petyr). Petyr’s great-grandfather came to Westeros from one of the Free Cities (Braavos) as a sellsword. Vargo Hoat also came to Westeros from one of the Free Cities (Qohor) as a sellsword.

Because of their association with the god Pan, goats often symbolize male lust. Vargo Hoat is a serial rapist, while Petyr Baelish is a brothel owner with the lifelong obsession of seducing Catelyn Tully (now transferred to her daughter, Sansa Stark).

Goats (specifically black goats) are also affiliated with the devil in European folk traditions. In the medieval era, the devil was commonly depicted as a man with a goat-like face, horns, and a small beard — a goatee. Vargo Hoat is a torturer and sadist, and Petyr Baelish is a devious megalomaniac. Both are certainly devilish characters.

During Sansa’s descent from the Eyrie, she stops at the waycastle Snow for "a hot meal of stewed goat and onions." When she reaches the Gates of the Moon "closer to dawn than dusk," she’s summoned to Petyr’s solar, where he’s been drinking hot mulled wine all night with the three hedge knights. As others have noticed, "stewed" is another word for "drunk." So Littlefinger can be read as a "stewed goat" in this scene.

Let’s take a little detour here and talk about the ghost of High Heart’s prophetic dream:

"In the hall of kings, the goat sits alone and fevered as the great dog descends on him." The old woman took another long gulp of wine, squeezing the skin as she raised it to her lips. The great dog. Did she mean the Hound? Or maybe his brother, the Mountain That Rides? Arya was not certain. Arya VIII, ASOS

The irony of this prophecy is that the great dog could be both Gregor and Sandor. The events that take place at Harrenhal in ASOS make it seem as if Vargo Hoat is the goat and Gregor Clegane is the great dog, which is true. But it could also be the case that Petyr Baelish is the goat and Sandor Clegane is the great dog. This is potentially more fitting, since Sandor is more closely associated with dogs than Gregor. After all, Gregor is "the Mountain That Rides." It’s Sandor who is "the Hound."

Littlefinger is currently Lord Protector of the Eyrie and the Vale of Arryn. He’s taken up residence at the Eyrie and the Gates of the Moon, the historic seats of the Kings of the Mountain and Vale: halls of kings. In addition, Petyr is Lord of Harrenhal — the same hall of kings Vargo Hoat sat in.

In the Vale, Petyr Baelish is also very alone. He murdered Lysa Arryn, arguably his only powerful ally there. The lords of the Vale dislike him, and several are actively working against him:

"They have the Vale." "Oh, much of it, that’s true. Not all, however. I am well loved in Gulltown, and have some lordly friends of mine own as well. Grafton, Lynderly, Lyonel Corbray… though I’ll grant you, they are no match for the Lords Declarant. Still, where would you have us go, Alayne? Back to my mighty stronghold on the Fingers?" Petyr Baelish, Alayne I, AFFC

He thinks he’s bought the violent and dangerous Lyn Corbray with gold and boys. But as Sansa observes, Ser Lyn’s loyalty is tenuous at best:

Corbray’s lips drew back in something that might have been meant as a smile, though it gave Alayne a chill. "But what need have I for heirs when I am landless and like to remain so, thanks to our Lord Protector? No. Tell your lord father I need none of his brood mares." The venom in his voice was so thick that for a moment she almost forgot that Lyn Corbray was actually her father’s catspaw, bought and paid for. Or was he? Perhaps, instead of being Petyr’s man pretending to be Petyr’s foe, he was actually his foe pretending to be his man pretending to be his foe. Alayne I, TWOW

Littlefinger is so lacking in allies that he’s placing his trust in three strangers whose true motivations are completely unknown to him:

The three knights bowed and withdrew, though the tall one with the blond hair kissed her hand before taking his leave. "Hedge knights?" said Alayne, when the door had closed. "Hungry knights. I thought it best that we have a few more swords about us. The times grow ever more interesting, my sweet, and when the times are interesting you can never have too many swords." Alayne II, AFFC

He has completely misjudged these men, at least one of whom is actually in the Vale searching for Sansa Stark:

Ser Shadrich laughed. "Oh, I doubt that, but it may be that you and I share a quest. A little lost sister, is it? With blue eyes and auburn hair?" He laughed again. "You are not the only hunter in the woods. I seek for Sansa Stark as well." Brienne I, AFFC

And he’s led them right to her:

"Lady Alayne," he said, "the Lord Protector has been waiting for you." … Alayne found him seated by a crackling fire, drinking hot mulled wine with three men she did not know. … "You are never an intrusion, sweetling. I was just now telling these good knights what a dutiful daughter I had." Alayne II, AFFC

So Littlefinger is sitting alone in halls of kings. But is he fevered? Maybe not literally, in the way Vargo Hoat was, but the word "fevered" also means excited or agitated. And Petyr Baelish is definitely fevered around Sansa Stark:

"I wish you could see yourself, my lady. You are so beautiful. You’re crusted over with snow like some little bear cub, but your face is flushed and you can scarcely breathe. How long have you been out here? You must be very cold. Let me warm you, Sansa. Take off those gloves, give me your hands." "I won’t." He sounded almost like Marillion, the night he’d gotten so drunk at the wedding. Sansa VII, ASOS

He’s also fevered in the sense that he’s making a lot of moves very quickly. He steals Sansa away from King’s Landing, weds Lysa Arryn, kills her almost immediately, covers it up by blaming Marillion, takes Robert as his ward, starts poisoning him, gives Nestor Royce the Gates of the Moon, arranges a marriage for Lyonel Corbray (enraging Lyn Corbray), betroths Alayne to Harrold Hardyng, takes mysterious hedge knights into his service, and organizes a large tourney all in rapid succession.

Up until AFFC, Petyr’s schemes have generally taken years to play out. He himself acknowledges this:

"I had hoped to have four or five quiet years to plant some seeds and allow some fruits to ripen, but now… it is a good thing that I thrive on chaos." Petyr Baelish, Alayne II, AFFC

It’s possible that the moves he’s making in the Vale are an example of his advice to Sansa:

"Always keep your foes confused. If they are never certain who you are or what you want, they cannot know what you are like to do next. Sometimes the best way to baffle them is to make moves that have no purpose, or even seem to work against you." Petyr Baelish, Sansa V, ASOS

But it’s also possible that his fevered pursuit of her is making him shortsighted. It’s likely that Littlefinger’s ultimate plan for Sansa is to marry her himself, which is fevered in the sense that it is delusional:

Petyr Baelish had offered to wed the girl himself, she recalled, but of course that was impossible; he was much too lowborn. Cersei II, ADWD

Okay, back to the The Bear and the Maiden Fair. There are three boys and a goat, so where is the dancing bear?

Throughout the series, "dancing" is often used as another word for "fighting," and we know that Sandor is the bear to Sansa’s maiden fair. As applied to Sansa’s arc, the "dancing bear" in the song could be a fighting dog descending on a goat, fevered and alone.

Though they have been mentioned, we still haven’t gotten a mystery knight as a major plot development in ASOIAF. The Winged Knights tourney could be GRRM’s last chance to include one in the series. And there are already hints that Alayne will give her favor to an unknown competitor:

"Saving yourself for Lord Robert?" Lady Myranda teased. "Or is there some ardent squire dreaming of your favors?" Alayne II, AFFC

"Who would ask to wear a bastard's favor?" "Harry, if he has the wits the gods gave a goose...but do not give it to him. Choose some other gallant, and favor him instead. You do not want to seem too eager." Petyr Baelish, Alayne I, TWOW

He grinned. "I will hold you to that promise, my lady. Until that day, may I wear your favor in the tourney?" "You may not. It is promised to...another." She was not sure who as yet, but she knew she would find someone. Alayne I, TWOW

The Winged Knights tourney mirrors the tourney at Harrenhal in several key ways. Ned Stark was living in the Eyrie when he descended to attend the tourney at Harrenhal. Similarly, Sansa has been living in the Eyrie and descends to the Gates of the Moon, where the Winged Knights tourney will take place.

The tourney at Harrenhal was hosted by Lord Walter Whent to celebrate his maiden daughter. The Winged Knights tourney is Sansa's idea and is being hosted by Petyr Baelish, who is posing as her father and certainly seems to be celebrating her at the feast:

And best of all, Lord Nestor's cooks prepared a splendid subtlety, a lemon cake in the shape of the Giant's Lance, twelve feet tall and adorned with an Eyrie made of sugar. For me, Alayne thought, as they wheeled it out. Sweetrobin loved lemon cakes too, but only after she told him that they were her favorites. The cake had required every lemon in the Vale, but Petyr had promised that he would send to Dorne for more. Alayne I, TWOW

The tourney at Harrenhal is where Ned Stark first met Howland Reed, who became his close friend and ally during Robert's Rebellion. At the tourney, Howland's honor was defended by a mystery knight, the Knight of the Laughing Tree — widely considered to have been Lyanna Stark in disguise.

Sansa’s arc in the Vale closely mirrors her father’s. A mystery knight appearing as an ally to her at the Winged Knights tourney would neatly harmonize with the events at Harrenhal. Regardless of whether or not Sandor Clegane is disguised as Ser Byron via a glamour, it isn’t unreasonable to suspect that he might show up at the Winged Knights tourney.

Back to the song. Sansa is certainly a maid, pure and fair, but does she have honey in her hair?

The color gold is often associated with deception in Sansa’s chapters. This imagery appears directly in relation to Littlefinger:

“We shall serve him lies and Arbor gold, and he’ll drink them down and ask for more, I promise you.” Petyr Baelish, Sansa I, AFFC

Sweetness is also associated with deceit in ASOIAF:

Give me sweet lies, and keep your bitter truths. Tyrion IX, ASOS

Littlefinger often calls Sansa “sweetling” or “my sweet,” particularly when he addresses her as Alayne Stone:

“Alayne,” he said. “My sweet. What brings you here so late?” Petyr Baelish, Alayne I, AFFC

Honey is both gold and sweet. There are plenty of examples of it being associated with deception and pretense throughout the series:

Her mouth tasted of honey and cloves, and her fingers were deft and practiced as they found the fastenings of his clothes. … Tyrion suspected her delight was feigned, but she did it so well that it did not matter. That much truth he did not crave. Tyrion VIII, AGOT

And Joffrey was the soul of courtesy. He talked to Sansa all night, showering her with compliments, making her laugh, sharing little bits of court gossip, explaining Moon Boy’s japes. … Snails in honey and garlic. Sansa had never eaten snails before; Joffrey showed her how to get the snail out of the shell, and fed her the first sweet morsel himself. Sansa II, AGOT

Reek was there too, he remembered, but he was a different Reek, a Reek with bloody hands and lies dripping from his lips, sweet as honey. A Ghost in Winterfell, ADWD

So honey can imply deceit. Is there something in Sansa’s hair that is associated with deception?

“It was not meant as flattery. If truth be told, you look too much like Catelyn. Something must be done. We shall darken your hair before we bring you back to the Eyrie, I think.” Darken my hair? “If it please you, Aunt Lysa.” Lysa Arryn, Sansa VI, ASOS

To keep up her disguise as Petyr Baelish’s bastard daughter, Sansa dyes her hair brown:

Alayne had darkened it again last night before she went to bed. The wash her aunt had given her changed her own rich auburn into Alayne’s burnt brown, but it was seldom long before the red began creeping back at the roots. And what must I do when the dye runs out? The wash had come from Tyrosh, across the narrow sea. Alayne I, AFFC

Deep down, at the root, she’s Sansa Stark, not Alayne Stone. Her true identity is constantly creeping back. She can’t keep up the charade forever. This chapter even features a reference to gold in her hair:

In the end she chose a simple velvet ribbon in autumn gold. When Gretchel fetched her Lysa’s silvered looking glass, the color seemed just perfect with Alayne’s mass of dark brown hair. Alayne I, AFFC

There are layers to this imagery. Autumn yellow is one of the colors of House Clegane. In this scene, she chooses to wear a simple ribbon rather than the opulent jewelry Littlefinger gave her. The ribbon is certainly a possible reference to Sandor and a hint that she’ll choose his directness and honesty over Petyr’s scheming or any other man. But gold is also the color of honey, and it’s in her hair — perfect with Alayne’s hair, specifically.

As applied to Sansa’s arc, the honey in the song could allude to deception, or lying. And how does the bear find the honey? He smells it:

Sandor Clegane snorted. “Pretty thing, and such a bad liar. A dog can smell a lie, you know.” Sansa II, ACOK

Sansa has gotten better at lying, but if Sandor shows up in the Vale (if he hasn’t already), he’s going to see straight through her disguise.

In the next verses, the bear “lifted her high into the air” while the maid “kicked and wailed.” This imagery is evocative of wife stealing. There are a lot of allusions to wife stealing in Sansa and Sandor’s dynamic. Sandor’s attempt to steal Sansa during the Blackwater failed — he wasn’t worthy of her at the time and couldn’t win her consent, but maybe he’ll do better now that the rage inside him has been gentled.

There is symbolic foreshadowing of a successful attempt at wife stealing by Sandor at the Gates of the Moon in Brienne VI, AFFC. That’s in addition to Littlefinger’s explanation of why Harrold Hardyng is Robert Arryn’s heir:

“The fourth was on her way to the riverlands to marry some Bracken when Burned Men carried her off.” Petyr Baelish, Alayne II, AFFC

Alayne is betrothed to Harry — figuratively “on her way” to marry him. And Sandor is literally a burned man.

The context in which The Bear and the Maiden Fair appears in Sansa I, ASOS is also an important hint at its significance: marriage. The Tyrells and Sansa are discussing Margaery’s upcoming wedding to Joffrey and Sansa’s potential betrothal to Willas. Neither of these marriages actually come to fruition. The Tyrells poison Joffrey the day of the wedding and the Lannisters force Sansa to marry Tyrion. Part of the scene's significance is that the song is associated with marriage — Sansa’s marriage.

In the song, the bear licks the honey from the maid’s hair — an obvious euphemism for oral sex. But if we read it as foreshadowing, this line implies that Sandor Clegane is the key to restoring Sansa Stark’s true identity:

He had come to Sansa in the darkness as green fire filled the sky. He took a song and a kiss, and left me nothing but a bloody cloak. It made no matter. That day was done, and so was Sansa. Alayne II, AFFC

Sandor Clegane and Sansa Stark — the two are connected in her mind. Her true identity is tied to Sandor. If she encounters him again, it will likely force her to reclaim her identity as a Stark and abandon the role of Alayne Stone. Then the deception will literally be rinsed out of her hair.

The lines "Then she sighed and squealed and kicked the air" combined with "My bear! She sang. My bear so fair!" have obvious sexual connotations. But these lines also imply that the maid is happy with bear. This is something Sansa deeply desires, even though at this point she’s resigned herself to never having it:

Tyrell or Lannister, it makes no matter, it’s not me they want, only my claim. Sansa III, ASOS

It is not me she wants her son to marry, it is my claim. No one will ever marry me for love. Sansa VI, ASOS

And now the last lines of the song:

And off they went, from here to there, The bear, the bear and the maiden fair!

Read as foreshadowing, this verse could imply that Sansa is going to leave the Vale with Sandor — but how? And where would they go? Stay tuned for part 2.

#sansan saturdays #get her a dog #sansan meta #sansan #asoiaf meta #asoiaf #sansa stark #sandor clegane

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compressednerve · 7 months

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Exploring Zachariah Trench's Office with @parasitefun

So many crazy white boy moments in his office so here's rambling about observations we made together. BTW we haven't finished the game yet (we're at The Prime Candidate Program and just found out who P7 is) so PLEASE DON'T TELL ME IF THESE ARE CORRECT OR IF I THEORIZE THE WRONG THING. I don't wanna be spoiled on anything >:O thank you.

Analysis, headcanons, and observations below!

What does his diploma say? Lets zoom in

DIPLOMA THIS CERTIFICATE IS PROUDLY PRESENTED TO

Zachariah Trench

One morning, when Zachariah Trench woke from troubling dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a horrible vermin.

..........oh!! oh ok, the Kafka quote about becoming so disabled you can no longer work? And you see yourself as A HORRIBLE VERMIN because you're disabled? And they put that on a diploma and proudly gave it to Trench! Jesus Christ!!! Go listen to some of The Downward Spiral, Zachariah!!! My god I'm so fucking heartbroken over how Zachariah talks about being old and frail and weak and BROKEN!!!!!!!!!!! and useless and-I could go on. I'm a mostly bedridden disabled person myself and I usually find myself relating the most to the older characters in casts of media because they're usually the ones portrayed with the same issues I have as a younghead (arthritis, brain damage/brain fog/amnesia, fatigue and exhaustion, difficulty moving and speaking, just.. yum). And being bedbound myself is something that I feel really deeply in Kafka's work. To realize Trench relates so deeply to Gregor Samsa as well is just such a juicy delicious detail for him. And it's a diploma? My head is spinning! His self-hatred is infinite...

I love that the diploma is tucked away behind the slide projector as well. I'm not sure if this is The Slide Projector that's been hinted at but it'd be neat if it was!

NOBLE SHERIFF: "There can only be one Sheriff in town" ... :rolling_eyes: ok Mr. The Only Person You Should Fail Is Yourself ok Mr. She Knows I Don't Like Relying On Other People ok Mr. I Need A Team To Clean Up My Horrible Mistakes (k!lls self to avoid taking accountability for his actions and dumps it all in Jesse's lap). He was just drinking straight from the fucking bottle at his desk!! That's so disgusting I love it, no chaser or anything. I love the tasteful rolodex, the smooth marble pen holder (with silver in the black, but, kind of evocative of The Astral Plane hmm?), his stapler, his disgusting jug of booze, and the FRESH PACK OF CIGGIES!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!! God, Trench's addictions and compulsions being literally on his desk, the most intimate and well-frequented area of his general daily life, is just so fun! Remedy does so good with environmental storytelling.

I love how even the brands he uses are manifestations of his inner thoughts. The booze label, the tool that relaxes him and dampens his inhibitions, is of course praising him. The Lone Sheriff. The Director. The Last Line Of Defense. Zachariah Trench sees himself as the sole protector, and The Oldest House his town, his community, his ward. The most likely intentional framing of the documents he was signing being splattered with blood, acting like a barrier of his Work vs his Needs (need to relax, need for a painkiller cuz booze is a great painkiller)

I got to his documents piles and literally shouted, "HE HAS SO MUCH MORE WORK TO DO!!!!". I love that the OUT pile is more full than the IN pile, Trench is so judicious with his correspondence :pleading_face: he's so tired. I bet he wishes he was still a Field Agent a lot of the time :sobbing: Looking at all the stuff on his desk like the sheer amount of documents and phone calls and other shit he has to do in a day to day as The Director must be sooo overwhelming...

It was during this moment that Paras and I realized that the greater joke of Control is about older people who stay in their jobs and refuse to make room for other workers, and they get Promoted To Incompetence! lmfao because like, Zachariah was so focused on Field Agent Stuff (in one of his Hotline calls he says, "I kept my head down. I worked my ass off." in a classic blue collar way) and being all tragic and putting his life on the line for his squad, then suddenly and forcefully being promoted to The Boss Of Everything. No wonder he has such a complex about Failing The Bureau :O

the same applies to Dr. Darling--! He's been in The Bureau for a 24 years!! He has 22 labs spread across the ever-shifting expanse of The Oldest House. He, mainly, wants to Do Research and Write Essays and all sorts of other shit that mainly revolves around being an isolated scientist with a modest team. And instead he has to make presentations for the laymen of The Bureau and he has to manage all THE ENTIRE RESEARCH SECTOR, who sends him catty memos about how their department deserves more funding (parakineseology department bribing him with his favorite booze???), and interns and junior scientists who don't know the first thing about The Astral Plane, and as Dr. Underhill complained about- The Bureau's ultimate goal is to exploit what they find, rather than actually comprehend what it is they're dealing with. Most Rangers retire due to cognitive collapse because The Bureau just shoves them in the meat grinder of trying to contain/control Everything. Ugh!

So anyways Zachariah Trench isn't a bad Director but then he's literally such a bad Director, the Worst Director Ever at the same time because it just wasn't his archetype. He took it way too seriously with a hammer in hand, seeing every problem as a nail. Dr. Darling fits the opposite of this niche as well in his own archetypical way- going from goofy underling to The Guy In Charge Of Everyone. They're both socially awkward, domineering, prone to pettiness/hostility, and under so so so much pressure for roles they were universally understood to not be able to fulfill.

All of the people we see in Control that are actually useful and agreeable with Jesse (who has been a dropout who mainly ever worked manual labor jobs up to and including janitor) so far are like, Ahti the mid-60yr old janitor who also just so happens to be the first friendly face you see when you enter the FBC and like, Simon? And fucking Langston (who is so hot I gotta write some Jesse/Frederick later)!

Langston, who is what I imagine is a direct parallel in a positive light compared to Dr. Darling and Director Trench, as in, how he entered The Bureau (he worked in the Postal Service of all places and an uncle at The FBC got him a job there), and Langston, like Trench, worked his ass off, kept his head down, but schmoozed enough to get a nice promotion, and then continued to work at a slow, steady incline for 15 years until he became Panopticon supervisor. He's like one of the only dudes in a high ranking spot who actually respects his position.

And of course who could forget dear Emily Pope :pleading_face: she's been Dr. Darling's underling for idk how long but clearly a while and she's so so ambitious like Darling is ambitious but she's so so so inhibited and held back by Darling's misogyny and higher ranking and having to be ordered to research shit but not actually be able to ask the real questions. You can really get a feel for how passionate Emily is in her work by like, not just how she talks to Jesse but in her correspondence and especially her research papers. The way she words documents ordered by Dr. Darling vs how she words documents ordered by Director Jesse Faden is literally night and day, but not for lack of enthusiasm. You can tell under Darling's mentorship she's soooo stifled, and with Jesse's lax permission "please just do whatever you want so long as it advances my (and The Bureau's) understanding of things". Emily's like a kid in a candy store and it's exactly what she needs to flourish.... Oh to bask in the light of a manual laborer :heart_eyes:

Another angle of his documents which I find titillating. The majority of his blood splatter landing on the IN pile... efflorescent....

THE FUCKING. BLACK ROCK PRISM ON HIS DESK. Paras has something to say about that later in a fic or some art. The other pack of ciggies that he was in the process of smoking (I counted the cigarettes. He has 8 ciggies left which means he's smoked 12 already. There are 4 in the ashtray which means at some point after opening the pack, he smoked 8 and then dumped the ashtray. This shows he keeps his ashtray relatively clean, which is a specific kind of character quirk about Tidiness and Cleanliness for Trench because chainsmokers like me and Paras are disgusting and our ashtray is overflowing by like, three packs and it smells horrible). The way it sits atop all his other shit he needs to sign, he's just drowning in documents (sort of like how I imagine Alan is drowning in manuscripts? WHO SAID THAT?)

*looks over Jesse's shoulder and realizes Trench's body is gone* *nearly shouting to Paras, who is sitting right next to me* WHERE IS TRENCH'S BODY? WHERE DID HIS BODY GO? WHY IS HIS BLOOD ON THE FLOOR BUT NOT HIS BODY? DID THE FUCKING BOARD TAKE HIM? DID THEY EAT HIM? WHO ATE TRENCH?

I've been likening Zachariah Trench a lot to Rorschach in his perpetual death-wish (he wants to die so bad but he'll fight everything that tries to kill him to the bloody end because he feels he can only die when he's ready to die ugh yum). The empty blood splatter after you come back from The Hotline Chamber for the first time (and realizing that The Hotline Chamber is DIRECTLY CONNECTED TO TRENCH'S OFFICE? HELLO?) is soooo fucking reminiscent of Rorschach's final death scene, where the blood splatter is the shape of his mask :hand_over_mouth: soooo symbolic sooo iconic. Note to self: Paras and I need to write/draw something about different people devouring Trench's corpse (yum).

(SIDENOTE: PLEASE DONT TELL ME IF THERE'S A CANONICAL REASON FOR WHY TRENCH'S CORPSE DISAPPEARS. THAT'D BE BALLER IF THERE WAS A CANONICAL REASON BUT WE WANNA FIND OUT ON OUR OWN!)

I wanna lick the blood off his desk and phone. Oohhhhhhn n the way it drips down the edge of the desk. I want to give him so many head wounds here. He spilled his final blood all over his classified documents and telephone and finished work and desk that he sat at a lot :pleading_face: and he was only 64 years old wah. He was so tragic and so sad and what if there was a dude who was so sad he DIED because his boss was like "put the gun to your head and see if we still like you" and Trench was like "oh good, finally, an opportunity to see if I'm still worthy" AND HE FUCKIN. WAS PROVED. UNWORTHY? OUCH, DUDE!!! HARSH!!!

Zachariah's Personal Signature Rubber Stamp (CUMS UNCONTROLLABLY)

Dude I had no fucking clue he had a picture of himself when he was younger (and healthier, and happier, and) with his kid that he accidentally killed. Like what??? He's so miserable and he sits at his desk with TWO packs of cigarettes and a giant bottle of like i'm guessing whiskey or scotch, and he just sits there and gets nosebleeds from using The Hotline and chainsmokes and stares at his Former Glory. MY GOD!

...............pistachios :pleading_face: he eats pistachios. he has pistachio snack. he enjoys pistachios. there is a bag of pistachios at his desk. he had to have gotten that at a vending machine. zachariah trench had to either ask someone to get him some pistachios (vulnerable) or he had to get up and go to a vending machine and put his money into the vending machine because he wanted a snack and he chose to get pistachios and he had to bend over and get the pistachios out of the bottom of the vending machine. zachariah trench eating pistachios. he has to crack the shells open and dispose of them somehow. pistachios are green. he eats pistachios. he wants a snack. i am literally a shell of a human being.

Imagine the smell of his nice leather briefcase. The weight of it in your hand. The privilege to watch Trench open it up and rifle through the papers, or *gets lightheaded* being able to hand him a document that he then has to place in his briefcase. I can't breathe. I like the pneumos in the background too. He has a very natural gentle clutter to his desk, like I imagine how he perceives the clutter of his mind. There's so many things to keep track of, and he's so tired... :weeping:

I'm so utterly enraged that he didn't finish two of his cigarettes. He didn't even finish his ciggie before he died!! are you fucking kidding me?! I was somewhat bewildered because the texture of the inside of the ashtray (the ashtray) looks... wet? and the two finished cigarette butts are visibly wet (distorted color, swollen cotton) and Paras said that the ashtray probably has a sort of perpetually wet sand inside it. Works for me!

Did you know if you shoot the Prism, it's breakable? I didn't know that. Makes the screenie a bit goofy but I don't care. Look at his over half-finished pack of ciggies. I would pay. kind of a lot of money. for like a collectors edition of real Black Pyramid Cigarettes are you kidding me? What kind of nightmare dimension tobacco do they put in those things?

He looks so moe here receiving his gay little medals or whatever's happening (idk if this has story relevance and gets revealed later or not). His hairdo is so cute??? Did he... did he bleach his hair? It looks like his roots are showing thru old bleach... is... Yung Trench a bleached hair baddie? I'm gonna pass out.

Me: look at that! Trench is watching the presentation! Paras: LOOK AT HOW SMOKY THE ROOM IS! HE'S HOTBOXING HIS OFFICE WITH NICOTINE! Both of us: *gagging*

So first of all this is such a big moment in terms of setting up Zachariah and Casper's relationship to each other, and how they interact with each other. Jesse uses The Hotline, and then we're treated to an interdimensional 3D Memory Flashback of observing Trench. He's sitting in his office, which is dimmed so the projector can play. He's chainsmoking so much that the ENTIRE VOLUME of his MODESTLY LARGE OFFICE is FILLED with CIGARETTE SMOKE. I genuinely am so disgusted and enamored by Trench's hardcore nicotine addiction, his.... dedication to the Ritual of Smoking. So anyways, engaging in his comfort ritual of Smoking, sitting in his nice chair and watching Darling's presentation. Imagine him ordering Darling to put together research on The Hotline immediately after his first call with The Board... and he's the only one who can communicate about what the experience is like... and then when Dr. Darling is done he delivers the video to Trench and then Trench sets aside specific dark-room-and-smoking time JUST to watch The Presentation? CAN IT GET ANY MORE HOMOSEXUAL THAN THIS? I *will* be writing about this later.

Sidenote the perspective of viewing behind his head like this is so intimate. I feel so voyeuristic, I want to hover closer to the back of Trench's neck and feel/see the hairs rise up in extrasensory response to my presence. I want to nibble on his ear.

I need him. to blow smoke in my face.

...

Well that's all the screenshots I have at the moment! Thank you for reading my post and please feel free to contribute your own ideas and observations to this because I LOVE META!! And I love hearing other people discuss it too >:3

#zachariah trench #remedy control #compressednerve writing #jesse faden #dr. darling #casper darling #emily pope #ahti the janitor #simon arish #frederick langston #meta and analysis #parasitefun

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gardenofshadcws · 6 months

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Dracula Daily Day 107

Mina Harker’s Journal

“the clear line of Dracula’s castle cut the sky” has there ever been a more cinematic line in the history of literature?

Seriously, Stoker’s word choice here is perfect. “desolation”, “the deadening snow”. It’s so evocative.

Mina’s getting to a point where she can’t consume anything but blood I hurt

Oh hey it’s Dracula’s coffin

Oh hey it’s the boys! Everyone’s together again!

“my Jonathan” never stops being perfect

The guys carrying the coffin clearly have no idea what’s going on, only that they have to protect their cargo. I kinda feel bad for them

Action time!

Mina watching Jonathan fight with hearts in her eyes. I get it girl, dual wielding knives is the kind of quality I look for in a man

OH NO QUINCY’S HURRRTTT

You know how I’ve been begging for action for several days now? That sound is the monkey’s paw curling

JONATHAN GOING FERAL ON THE COFFIN AW HELL YEAH

CHOP. STAB. NO MORE DRACULA.

IT’S OVER WE DID IT

BUT AT WHAT COST

QUINCY

“The Castle of Dracula now stood out against the red sky, and every stone of its broken battlements was articulated against the light of the setting sun.” Another perfect cinematic line.

The fact that the first thing Mina does after having her curse lifted isn’t to register that the curse is lifted, but to cross a barrer that would have kept her out to go to her dying friend is heartbreaking.

QUINCYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

QUINCYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

#dracula daily #dracula liveblog #dracula #books

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lady-hestia-rose · 1 month

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How Delaying the Instrumentals in Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" Makes the Song Even Better

And now for something completely different.

I'm not exactly a Swiftie, but I have a passing respect for Taylor Swift as an artist. I generally enjoy when her songs come on during a dance or on the radio. However, I really like "Blank Space" specifically, and it's the only one of her songs I actually have on my playlist. I love the cold-sounding yet beautiful production, the evocative lyrics, and Taylor's outfits in the music video.

However, yesterday when I was mindlessly browsing YouTube, I came across the Grammy-winning masterpiece "Blank Space - Taylor Swift but the instrumentals is 15 seconds delayed" by YouTuber "who are they?" This deceptively simple shitpost accidentally turned a solid 9/10 song for me into a 10/10, and I encourage you all to listen to it now:

youtube

In this version of Blank Space, the song becomes more disturbing and stands out more due to the unconventional structure of the music. The simple editing choice to delay the instrumentals by 15 seconds changes the tone of multiple parts of the song in very interesting ways.

First, the beginning of the song is now a cappella. Instead of starting off with the cold music production like the original, the song laser-focuses on Taylor's excellent lyrics and performance immediately, immediately throwing the listener into the narrative of the song. Then, when the instrumentals finally come in on the "love's a game, wanna play" line, they make more of an impact and kick the song into high gear.

Then, for a while, the song mostly sounds the same. One thing you notice when watching this video is that each verse of Blank Space is around 15 seconds long, so the song stays on beat even when the timing of the instrumentals coming is altered.

Then, after the first chorus is done, the song changes. Instead of the music cutting out on "I'll write your name," the instrumentals keep going. The gap between verses feels hypnotic, as the music continues its crescendo and keeps you drawn in. Then when Taylor starts singing again, the music keeps building until it climaxes on "for a month." This might seem like an odd choice (well, "choice"), but I like it because it's the first time Blank!Taylor actually starts to mess with her lover's head. For the whole song up to this point, Taylor has worn her toxicity on her sleeve, but has played it as alluring and attractive. However, when she sings "be that girl for a month," the music cutting out almost makes it feel like an accusation, like she's saying her lover is a womanizer. This is Blank!Taylor gaslighting him, because she is obviously the one who's treating her lovers like objects (a...man-izer?) in this situation. Then, when the old beat from the beginning of the song comes back on "wait, the worst is yet to come," it becomes even more of a turning point in the song's tone than it was originally. Then, the song sounds normal again for a little while until we get the best part of this version of Blank Space: the bridge.

Now, the lyric "boys only want love if it's torture" takes place in a climax of the instrumentation, as opposed to the music cutting out like in the original song. This is the part in the narrative where Blank!Taylor's mask finally slides all the way off. It's no longer "she's crazy, and that's hot," it's "oh fuck, she's just crazy." However, in this version of Blank Space, the instrumentation in the bridge feels like it's drowning you. Her mask is off, but her lover is still trapped, still a target of her sadism. The contrast between the beautiful music and singing and the ugliness of what she's actually saying makes for a very disquieting experience.

Now, the music cuts out on the post-chorus instead of the bridge. I don't really have a specific reason for why this is good, I just like the way it sounds.

And finally, at the end of the song, the music continues after Taylor is done singing. Again, it's hypnotic and satisfying to listen to. However, at the end, something odd happens. In the original song, the music cuts out on the very last line of the song. However, now that Taylor has finished her singing early, Blank Space is missing that last note, and ends very abruptly.

The first thing that comes to mind when I hear the end of this version of the song is "I need to listen to this song again right the fuck now."

This is a music trick I like to call the "Kanaria effect" (there's probably an actual name for it but I'm using references to musicians I already know). Kanaria is a Vocaloid producer and one of my favorite music artists, and he does the same thing in many of his songs, such as his most popular one, "KING."

youtube

Both KING and this version of Blank Space abruptly end their instrumentation after the lyrics are complete. While the actual narrative of the songs have been completed, the music ending in this way leaves the listener hanging and makes them want to listen to it again. Kanaria's music is really addicting because of this (it was pretty much the only thing I listened to for a month or so). I don't think every song would be improved by ending their music abruptly, but in the case of "Blank Space," it fits the disquieting atmosphere of the song very well. It's like Blank!Taylor swift is messing with your head too.

Anyways, that's the end of my weird little rant. Please tell me I'm not insane and other people notice this stuff too.

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barbariccia · 10 months

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@corpsebrigadier

right, so - this is a chat @azlykumos and i actually started a week or so ago and only picked up last night as we closed out chapter 1 of the psx version of fft, since i’ve had a little while to fully absorb the actual story fully and now know what’s going to happen ahead of time, etc, etc.

so it started with meeting milleuda in the hideout and beating her up and letting her go - to algath’s chagrin, to ramza’s befuddlement, to delita’s quiet and uncertain unease - with my saying something along the lines of “it amazes me that for how important milleuda is in chapter one, despite only being two fights, she is promptly forgotten about by the story.”

neeb contested this, and rightly so - i made the comment when i was getting tired and higher brain functions were switching off; they said that no, she’s not strictly forgotten, because her words get through to delita and are the very initial cracks in delita’s armour which algath then takes full advantage of and worms his way in like the maggot he is. (ba dum tss!) ultimately, we agreed that her role is small, but no less important for it, and left it at that.

until last night, when we met her upon the fovoham plains again and begged for mercy anew - this time without algath yelling in our fucking ears about people being cattle and all that. so: i still think it’s incredible that milleuda, for all intents and purposes, is so important as to directly kickstart delita’s slide into anxiety about his place in the world*, and then after her death really is forgotten about. and why would she be remembered? when we get back to the story proper it’s been a year already since that happened, and there’s way more important and current things happening - delita’s not dead, the princess has been kidnapped, suddenly there’s a fucking plot with the church and all of ivalice and murderstones - why should anyone remember a battlemaiden they encountered all of twice? milleuda’s story is not fft’s story. milleuda and wiegraf’s stories start the same way, yes, but wiegraf survives to take a different path - and he’s remembered because his presence endures. how many people remember the other cadets from your introductory mission? how many battles with the Brigade proper were there? in a story like fft’s, if you do not live to see the next day you are quickly forgotten. and even if you do it’s with a like 30-40% chance of survival imo. them random encounters sure do be encountered!!

*as a side note, i vastly preferred the psx scene on the plains, learning to whistle grass, to the updated fmv. it felt less out of place, more true to the world itself - and the language (oh, Boy, we talked about the language for a long while) was so much more... plain and raw and evocative. delita’s hesitant admission - i’ve felt out of place for a long time - and the mechanics of a game requiring you to click past ramza’s uncomfortable silence to hear him out further - make so much more sense than the wotl’s “something’s been bothering me”. that could be anything. oh, aye, it’s followed up about algath’s ichor so the meaning isn’t entirely lost, but delita being willing to be open at all... it being the last time he’s so viscerally honest - it struck a lot harder than it initially did.

because, really, at the heart of it - milleuda’s story becomes delita’s story. she might have died, but her regrets and her rage and her every mote of being crawls inside delita and doesn’t fester so much as take root and grow slowly. yes, algath’s involvement absolutely cannot be understated - it’s his actions directly that led to, well, a tragedy that shaped the man he ends up being - but it’s milleuda’s words that really strike at the heart of who delita is as a person: an uncertain youth in a place he’s hyperaware of not belonging in, no matter how much his best friend and brother in arms vouches for him. everyone can see it: delita does not look like anyone in the cast, even, with his darker hair and darker skin and his control of emotion that only goes so far and snaps when algath presses too far and gets a broken nose for his troubles. despite being so important, delita is visually set worlds apart... and though the Brigade are too uninformed to know what the beoulves look like (seriously.) and kidnap the wrong girl, the rest of us know at a glance that... he isn’t as the others are. and milleuda, crying out about how the name beoulve marks you as an enemy, that there is no difference between you and her but for the walls you were born in - and algath refuting that every step of the way, calling for her head even as all she wants to do is live - and ultimately, hearing her beg her brother for forgiveness as she dies... delita cannot help but be shaped by her. it is the first and last time we see him be honest, be hurt. we see that change in real time.

so, yes: milleuda dies, and her story with it - we learn in very quick step that her brother was wiegraf and that he won’t forgive us for her death, it’s all very fantastical and sweet, but other than ramza later asking the (long dead) wiegraf what his sister would think of his actions - milleuda is not mentioned again, and the narrative moves on to bigger and better things. but she is not forgotten: even as the Brigade falls apart and is hunted to extinction, even as wiegraf gives himself over to the church and their desires instead of his own - milleuda lingers in delita, still crying for change, still demanding revolution. and what does delita deliver? exactly that. but where milleuda fell, he delivers, until a common arse sits the throne. (the less said about what revolution gave him, personally, the better.)

ultimately there was no true point to the entire chat we had - we meandered onto other topics (particularly translations, and god i find myself wishing every day to marry the psx and the wotl versions so bad, a mixture of high and low language would do so much for it - sorry, truthers, neither official translation is the definitive one for me!) and it was more of an observation that came up as we encountered her for the last time... but i don’t know, i still think it’s worth thinking about, that she’s so unimportant and yet the crux of so much more than she first appears. as fun as it is to lay the blame at algath’s feet, he’s not solely responsible for... everything that happens. just greatly.

also something about milleuda’s hair in her portrait sprite is just so beautiful to me. it doesn’t look like any other hair rendered in the same style. i’m in love with milleuda folles etc etc etc

(not to mention that all of this is entirely separate to what her character with wiegraf must have been like... clever, of the writers, to show them as in cahoots enough that she’d take up his reasoning post-war, but never on the same field together. i would love to know how she became a swordswoman; how much of her thoughts are actually wiegraf’s and vice-versa; who milleuda folles was. bites thru my phone so hard it cracks)

actually, and as a late addition to this post - i just remembered that none of this is direct from ramza, either. this is all hearsay - it’s orran’s accounts from witnesses - whatever delita was willing to tell him, presumably, since there’s no one else left alive that might remember milleuda folles by the time he goes around collecting evidence for his durai papers. and that’s sure something, ain’t it? that delita remembered her enough to speak of her?

#mol plays fft #hey look a tag for all my thoughts! should've thought of that before making the longest reblog chain in existence!#soz for the essay xoxo

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bloodiedbeloveds · 2 months

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Wait, you wrote BDTA?? Just wanna jump on the bandwagon that my-deer-friend started because I loved that verse <3 The whole series is bookmarked and it definitely left a profound impression. Especially the one written as an article by A. Hamilton, that one felt like such a masterpiece to read.

I remember trying to picture John's art, and the 'tumblr discourse' fic of the series (genius btw). I remember how I broke a little when that poster had seen the picture of John after the attempt and said "how small he looked" 😭 shit i'm shedding some tears rn, that line just gets to me for some reason, as if i can see him

Body horror fascinates me, especially as a trans man, so I seriously adore the concept of this world. This may sound a little nonsensical, but the way you write is evocative of paintbrush strokes on an impressionist painting to me.

I agree wholeheartedly with my-deer-friend; BDTA!John is precious and intriguing, and he pops into my head now and then, just wondering about what his life has been like before the story and what might be in his future.

hi oh my god we are so flattered. yeah that was us!!!

we have so many thoughts about we never really learn-- at one point we even had a whole bunch of lore for the ten deaths of acadia setter, despite the fact that its narrative purpose is exclusively to be Problematic. every tumblr discourse must pull in some very irrelevant dispute about a piece of media. there are so many tiny details in that fic that we think a lot of people overlook but We Know. we know they're there

the way people received this particular fic is interesting too, because without the context of the later work + stuff we haven't even written we can totally see how it reads like john's suicide was mostly about this internet cyberbullying stuff but oh, boy, it was not. it very much was not. after not a perfect son i think most people have figured it out but there was a while there where we were always internally like "oh you don't even know the half of it"

we're obsessed with body horror also-- for us it's not just being trans but also being autistic and plural and just all around weird. love monsters. love fucked up shit. also that's so very kind thank you!! verbal impressionists, that's us, i guess?

(his life before the story: sucked, but in various different ways. his future: no spoilers, because the urge to come back to this series is hitting us. we left the next fic (which is mostly about our unhinged polly headcanons) unfinished, but we're thinking of finally finishing it + going through the hell of putting all the html for it in properly.)

#people giving us compliments is our kryptonite #thank you so much!!!#asks #bdtaverse

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maocin · 9 months

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Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone?, 1997, Harvey Danger

Harvey Danger is not a hall-of-fame band. They are not special, they produced no classics, they left very little imprint on our larger culture musically. But with Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone? they wrote a pretty much perfect album. Aside from two minutes of dead air at the end, this record rocks from start to finish. I want to talk about why this is one of my favorite albums of all time.

Starting Off Strong

Okay, so you've heard "Flagpole Sitta". Good song! A nice summer-y bop to get heads turning when it comes on over the radio. Something everybody can sing along to when the chorus hits. Maybe, if you knew who Harvey Danger were off the top of your head, you've heard "Carlotta Valdez", the frankly electrifying album opener that makes an equal case for most listenable on the album. This strong one-two will get you moving, get you hyped. Plenty of albums from genuinely talented artists go by without having even one song that you feel like really fucking screaming along to. And yet, from the first chorus of Carlotta to the very last four-count in Flagpole Sitta, if I'm not in public, I'm probably losing my voice. Maybe even if I am in public.

The guitars sound like what I want guitars to sound like, sometimes twinkly and bright with an undercurrent of grungy distorted rhythm, sometimes driving fully into the territory of punk with a warbling angry lead and a forceful drive on crunchy power chords. The drums keep things moving -- there's no laying into the groove here, no snapping on two and four. This is for moving your whole body to the inexorable pull of a fucking awesome downbeat. The vocals are distinct but still speak the language of late 90's pop-grunge with some typical growls, a sarcastic, cynical delivery, and the obligatory megaphone-sounding bridge every now and again.

Oh, and holy shit, that bass. Paul McCartney is crying tears of happiness somewhere.

These first two songs are perfect pop-punk anthems. When I finish "Carlotta Valdez" I want to scream YES! along with the guys in the studio. Flagpole Sitta makes me want to go drive a car too fast, strut around Main Street with the crew, unapologetically enjoy my world with awareness of the enlightened hipster perspective and rejection of its caustic holier-than-thou attitude. In short: Go, white boy, go.

2. Changing the Game

It's extremely important what happens between "Wooly Muffler", "Private Helicopter", and the three songs that follow. And now I want to talk about lyrics, because yeah, those matter too. Wooly Muffler opens with a strikingly evocative image given what you're used to hearing after the first two songs: Flagpole Sitta's "Only stupid people are breeding/The cretins cloning and feeding/And I don't even own a TV" seems like it comes from some Green Day song* but the vulnerability of "All I ever wanted to be was a wooly muffler on your naked neck" belongs on Pinkerton. Neither of these are necessarily good or bad -- they're just well-executed in equal measure, and the range should be acknowledged. Wooly Muffler is not the first hint that this album might be much more than another dumb pop-punk effort, but it is the most obvious. Unless you're a Hitchcock fan. For everyone else, when the guitars kick back in heavy on Wooly Muffler, we know for sure it's real. "If you've got greatness in you/Would you do us all a favor/And keep it to yourself" is one of my favorite lines in anything I've ever read, seen, or heard. These guys are the real deal, another Nirvana, capable of capturing the energy without succumbing to the bullshit. *(although it's actually quite delightfully ironic and clever and if we're being charitable "Longview" is too, and everyone everywhere should really give artists more credit because being authentic in ways that everyone agrees with is comically hard)

And then "Private Helicopter" comes on. You just can't help but recognize everything awful about the genre in the way Sean Nelson delivers "favorite ex-girlfriend." I almost turned the album off right here the first time I listened to it. There's no use lying; I totally did, and I had to go back later to finish the rest. I am here to promise you: it's not blink-182. You are not hearing the beginning of a boyish album about sex drugs and rock'n'roll. It's one miss for one verse, if it's that. Yes, it's scary to hear a record that sounds like it's headed in the right direction almost veer into the wrong one, but I solemnly swear that this song gets personal, it gets angry, it is not a bit piece. And that's why getting through the first half is so important, because it's not their fault that "What's My Age Again" and later Offspring albums are cringey to listen to now. This song suffers for sins that are not (!) its own. So you might be upset heading into the middle of the album. Fortunately --

3. Holy shit these next two songs are really fucking good I mean wow

"Here's a fact you cannot rise above/We'll have problems, yeah/Then we'll have bigger ones."

As a writer or listener for a vast amount of music all told, I am not uniquely qualified to say this but I am qualified enough. When Sean Nelson says he doesn't know what the line "From damage to damn control" means, he is not admitting defeat. The best writers in the world will tell you a good song is a gift and a good line is pure dumb luck. Sometimes, it's just stringing words together and singing them in a way that means something to someone. If you don't feel anything when you listen to "Problems and Bigger Ones", there's something fundamentally wrong with you as a human person.

Jack The Lion is deeply personal and deeply sad. I watched my father lose his father to Alzheimer's; I read the 23rd Psalm at Papu's funeral. I was too young to understand why Dad cried at "Cat's Cradle," call it self-centeredness. "When you coming home dad?/I don't know when" just didn't hit as hard at eight, because my father had been home for me. It's not nostalgia talking when I say I fucking love this band. It's "Jack The Lion." Watching my father deteriorate would break me. This song is really, really good.

4. Now that we're all sold on this being phenomenal, lets listen to some songs about love and hate and all that good stuff

I don't have much to say about "Old Hat." It's one of those love songs that you have to squint at to realize it's astoundingly true. There's not much conventional beauty in that. However, it works out to be exactly what it's meant to be. What a commendable thing to aspire to. To ape one of my favorite people on the internet, the brevity of Old Hat has a lot to teach about the craft of writing. I learned, of course, absolutely nothing.

"Old Hat" is about love. So is "Terminal Annex," but a different kind: the inverse, really. "Dreaming of the fistfight I never got into/Thinking of the mean shit I wish I'd said to you" is one of those lines that means a lot to those born into boyhood in America. I hope I've sold you on the idea that these fine gentlemen are self-aware; it's my firm belief that the song isn't actually about how much he hates this girl, rather it's about the ways that kind of hatred can influence a life. In any case, it means something, and that's another check mark.

5. Taking it home

The last two songs have to mean something too. We're this close to a more-or-less perfect album, just bring it home.

And oh brother, does "Wrecking Ball" almost fuck it up or what. Maybe you're into this sort of thing, but I was enjoying my album free of hackneyed metaphors, with its depth coming from reflection and self-awareness and trust in the artist. Creating a metaphorical house is... a little much for my taste. But it's got that profound sound, and just because it has the T.S. Eliot accent isn't enough reason to hate it.

Let's talk about "Radio Silence" now. Assume for a moment the last three minutes of the song don't exist. What a fucking song. In 1997, before Twitter collapsed all nuance, before Facebook bore our personal information into the gaping maw of every aggregating advertiser, before the hyper-modern fractionalization of every group of people, we have "Radio Silence". The lament of a man who just so desperately wants to be left alone. And by way of that lament, his caricature. And by way of that caricature, some form of commentary. Sure -- it winds up meaning what you want it to mean. Absolutely it's true that you could overanalyze this album to death, it has the accent of profundity and enough words to feed a freshman lit class for weeks, months if they can bring in other works to compare it all to. Obviously this much is true.

But in 2023 when you listen to this fucking song and you hear "All hail to another confession" how can it not make you feel at least something. Some people walk around living thinking a friend who asks for favors is no friend at all, some people believe their public profile is a great place to drop all the trauma of their childhood. Is it so much to ask to maintain a little radio silence? If you choose to read it as a plea for normalcy, it might look a little something like that. But it's all yours to interpret and that's the best any artist anywhere can offer.

All that said, here's my two cents. The ending refrain of the song sounds fucking beautiful. By that point I've already decided what I want to believe for the day -- a song's not going to change my mind about what should and shouldn't be acceptable in polite conversation with strangers. Whatever I'm feeling or thinking, when that refrain comes in, I get chills.

6. Go forth!

If you lived through the nineties you might remember Flagpole Sitta, or if you were on Vimeo in 2007 (google flagpole sitta lipsync), or if you listen to your local alt-rock radio station. But it's not even the best song on this album. I prefer Carlotta Valdez and Jack The Lion. Furthermore, Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone? isn't even their best whole work -- that probably goes to King James Version, although Little By Little was also well recieved.

Harvey Danger is self-aware and self-important, deeply involved with the culture that birthed it and equally parts mocking of its origins. They are fine lyricists, fine musicians, they put the music first and produce songs that you can enjoy listening to. And most importantly, if your friend who likes good music asks you how the album is, you can play Flagpole Sitta -- but if you have a friend who thinks Nirvana were industry plants, well, you can just as easily play them Radio Silence, and get a less frigid reception than if you had confessed to liking Dave Matthews. They created an almost-perfect album. Had Sean Nelson taken a better tone at the beginning of "Private Helicopter" and the record label decided to lop off the last three minutes of nothingness with noise, this album would be impossible to find fault with. Not a 10 by any means -- it's no great work of art -- but something even rarer: a perfect seven.

7. Postscript

Reasons you might not like this album:

It's not very musical and the vocal performances range from 'nothing special' to 'straight-up grating if you don't like pop punk'.

Mired in mediocrity, it doesn't strive for or achieve anything beyond the grounds it covers. No innovative sound or meaningful lyrical accomplishment; it never captured a movement or spoke to a generation the way a classic album does.

The lyrics aren't much! If you're used to something like Springsteen's grit, or Penelope Scott's wittiness, or the complexity and sincerity of Kendrick Lamar, you're going to be disappointed. Hell, even if you're more of a Taylor Swift fan you might find "So casually cruel in the name of being honest" to be more pithy and striking than most of Harvey Danger's offerings. Although if you think "All Too Well" inarguably clears everything on this album, even after listening, then I'll be very sad.

By calling this a perfect album I don't mean to say that it's full of perfect songs, or to argue that it's a classic, or even to say that it's particularly good for your tastes. If you look for greatness in your music, you will not find it here. But what they try to achieve, they achieve, and they do so entirely without fault. This album left a sincere impression on me and I hope you didn't read this far because what the fuck are you doing you're wasting your time go listen to it!!!

#harvey danger #music #where have all the merrymakers gone?#music review #music recs #song recs #90s music #pop punk #alt rock #90's alternative

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whimsicalcotton · 2 months

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Hey, I’m the anon who sent that ask a while ago about sharing the polluted marrow (tm) brainrot, and I’m currently doing my reread. I’ll share my thoughts on each chapter here since I’ve been meaning to post a review on my ao3 account anyways. Sorry if this gets a bit too long-winded/rambly or has typos!

For chapter 1, the opening line hits SO hard. Max is next to Chloe before she’s falling, this isn’t a case of her fingertips barely grazing and falling short. This is Max desperately grabbing a hold of her entire world and not being strong enough to keep her there. Which is WOW, what an analogy. Then, with her photographer’s eye, a snapshot of the moment is etched into her brain, the newest of a long list of failures. The line, “Max glares down at the waves, and prays that Chloe washes up somewhere far, far away from here” is so evocative. Even though she’ll reverse it in a few seconds, even though she won’t get to see it, even though it’ll mean less than nothing, Max still wishes Chloe gets out of Arcadia Bay in at least one timeline.

When she starts limping back through Blackwell’s campus, the fact that no one truly reaches out to help her is really telling. This was the same school that (nearly) drove Kate to suicide and it shows. She’s bleeding from her face, is visibly injured, and no one takes action. It really speaks to how deteriorated Max’s mental state is that she acknowledges how messed up her everything is but all she focuses on is saving Rachel and everyone else. "Uhm, no the fuck you don't," from Rachel got a startled huff of amusement from me ngl because that’s such a genuine retort of equal parts confusion and rebuke. Max is so Focused on making a plan she forgets Rachel’s closest friend is Chloe and their reunion is pretty much the polar opposite of how either wanted it to go.

And the nightmare transition OH BOY. It’s small, but “You're almost more trouble than you're worth” “Almost” captures Jefferson’s sliminess perfectly. Even without knowing she has powers, Chloe still calls her Super Max, which must be a huge wake-up slap to the face. When Rachel intervenes during their hug, it gave me huge “You, Me, and Steve” vibes even though that was probably unintentional lol. Max keeping Chloe in a death grip (oof) as she pulls away is just D:. Chloe, taking in her childhood best friend, now bedraggled to an extreme degree, questioning how she ended up in such a state, barely holding it together. If she knew what Max thought, that “I hurt me. I brought this on myself. I deserve this”, I’m sure she would go on a rampage. The period between Chloe leaving the room and Joyce coming must’ve been around a few minutes, and Max manages to say two words, when in combination, paint a terrifying scene. Max agreeing to rest for the first time in subjective months only so she can “get back in fighting shape” makes me want to wring her neck like a rubber chicken because PLEASE let her sleep she deserves it :(((

POV switch to Rachel! The girl, the myth, the legend. Describing Chloe as “her big tough badass” is <3333. Y’know, I never thought about it, but hare is an appropriate animal for Max. I looked up the wiki article because I didn’t really know the difference between it and a rabbit, fun fact: “their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth”. If you use Max gaining powers as her metaphorical birth then yeah that tracks. Rachel only realizes how strange the whole situation is after she’s out of Max’s immense sobering gravity and back at the scene of the crime, so to speak. When she talks to Victoria and Kate, the line “She wouldn't stand a chance” about the latter leaves the unsaid as “against Jefferson/another predator looking to take advantage”. The various strangers accosting Rachel about Max’s appearance is another strike against Blackwell’s populace. Her recontextualization of her entire relationship with Jefferson as she leaves asap with rage stirring was great.

Chloe, oh Chloe. Her dream conversation with her father coming to the exact same conclusion as Rachel, that Max is a hare running away from something, is very interesting. Visuals of the storm peppered throughout are making me very Concerned. And Max writing letters filled with remorse for being a lackluster best friend is what Chloe wants! Or rather, what she wanted, but not at the cost of Max’s well being. Even after all those years apart, she still refers to Max as her best friend which ueueueueueue. The juxtaposition of Max witnessing Chloe dying and saving her while Chloe watches Max nearly bleed out and not being able to do very much is striking. Chloe coming to the misguided realization just as she was without Max, Max was without her, hurts. In contrast, her familiarity with Rachel allows her to step in when she’s doing something self-destructive. “If she tries hard enough, Chloe can almost pretend that everything is fine” which is such a mood honestly. The ending of the first chapter was such a doozy when I first read it, because I was really up at 3 am, squinting at my dim screen, bundled under a thick blanket on my bed, reenacting Zuko as he inspected a scroll wondering where the rest of the text was. Was an experience, loved it.

I’m sorry if this was way more summary than analysis, everything was awesome and makes me feel emotions in a way hard to articulate through text. I’ll try to send the ask for the next chapter faster if you want!! Thanks for writing :D

hello anon!! first off don't worry about being rambly bc i when i opened my inbox and saw this i turned into this gif of kermit

and also don't worry about being articulate bc after like twenty minutes of trying to come up with a nice proper response to this all i have is: !!!! sdfksjfhsksdfkhjk :0c ohhh my god thank you thank you <3 <3

#nova answers #Anonymous #and no rush friend!! i am unspeakably appreciative that u sent me this much 🥺🥺#dying at the You Me & Steve comment btw. absolutely unintentional but i see exactly what u mean lmao. i should draw that sometime #and i Love getting to know what lines hurt the most #turns out lis fic is a great place to exercise my 'what's the most heart-wrenching sentence i can come up with' muscle #also i'm putting this in the tag so i can look at it whenever bc it Brings Me Joy;; thank u again anon <3 #marrow max tag

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theshakespeareproject · 3 months

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Thoughts on King Henry the Sixth Part II Act II

With actual knowledge, I began Act II of Part II. Immediately - what jumped out at me: Falconers. Yes, the guys with the Falcon’s on their gloves. They enter the scene with everyone else and, unfortunately, are merely set dressing. This is something that should be rectified. Where is the Falconer’s spinoff Shakespeare, give it to me.

Seven years’ day. Anyone know what that mean? I saw it. I like the phrasing, it’s very evocative. I have no idea what it means.

It wasn’t until this scene that it truly hit me that all these characters were releated, and just wait, it hit me now because it is very important later.

I do have a line of the day, but it’s actually two:

“Why, Suffolk, England knows thine insolence.”

“And thy ambition, Gloster.”

Love it. The Duke of Gloster tries to roast the Duke of Suffolk, and Queen Margaret shows why she has that title. Perfect little interaction. Except it also made me realise that no one in this story has a bloody name except Margaret, everyone else is almost exclusively referred to by their title.

Another line pops up a moment later:

“Come with thy two-hand sword.”

I could not tell you the context or the reason. I just had to write it down. It feels like symbolism but I could be completely wrong because it does actually make sense in the conversation that it occurs in.

The next half of this scene, is absolutely bonkers. What follows these interactions of noblemen, is a strange story in which a blind man sees, because his wife made her blind husband climb a plum tree, the miracle is revealed to be a lie because the blind man can recognize colors, and then someone gets chased around with a whip. I can’t tell if this is meant to be a farce but it feels on the border of it. Also, the man is named but his wife isn’t. The Wife is called Wife. The man is called Simpcox. Can you see why I think this scene is a farce?

My last note for the scene just says “Buckingham is a snitch”. No elaboration is needed.

Due to reading the TV Tropes page, I now know that the next scene is about a gathering of the White Rose faction, which I have to refer that way because the white faction has a terrible connotation with it. They are York, Warwick, and Salisbury. I can now begin to orient myself in this story.

The bulk of this scene proves only one thing to me: succession crisises would be solved if everyone was less misogynistic. If the nobility just treated women as people, this wouldn’t be an issue. Seriously.

Due to some snipes thrown at the competition, I was able to suss out the Red Rose facation, the Lancasters, hmm… that’s suspisiouly close to Lanisters… Oh wait!

So the Red Rose facation is Suffolk, Beaufort, Somerset, and Buckingham. Leaving just Gloster and King Henry as technically unclaimed, though York thinks he is firmly with the Red. I think.

Either way, York starts making a bunch of promises that I don’t think he’s going to be able to keep. Oh boy.

The third scene is basically the Henryian courthouse drama. Henryian, not a word, but if we refer to other eras as Elizabethian, Victorian, and Edwardian, I’m suprised Henryian never took off.

Anyways, this scene has the judgement of the Duchess of Gloster and her coherts and the trial by combat both go unexpectedly.

The Duchess gets exiled to gasp the Isle of Man. Oh the horror.

The Witch is burned to death. Not to be nitpicky, but I thought that only happened on the mainland. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.

The Duke of Gloster is dismissed. Not really surprising considering what his wife was up to. But Margaret of all people seemed particularly invested in it. Maybe Suffolk payed her off or something.

“Give up your staff, sir, and the king his realm.”

Very well spoken, that Queen over there.

The trial by combat goes suprisingly well for Peter, he beats his master and thus seems to prove that his master indeed did claim that Henry was a usurper, not helping is his own confession as he dies. And sure, that was dramatic and all, but you know what was important to me? This line:

“And a fig for Peter!”

There are two important things I took away from the last scene of the act. One is that the Duchess rips into everyone as she goes through her Cersie shame bell moment. And two is the opening line from the Duke of Gloster:

“Thus sometimes hath the brightest day a cloud;

And after summer evermore succeeds

Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold:

So cares and joys abound, as seasons fleet.”

I don’t know if it’s poetry, but it feels like poetry. It paints such a picture in my mind. I like it.

Remember when I said I pictured everyone speaking on a darkened stage with one toplight to illuminate them. This is the first section where that wasn’t true. I pictured them outside, quite often on a busy street. That happened during the last chapter which coincidently was set in that kind of location. Maybe my imagination is finally expanding.

#lit #literature #read along #shakespeare #william shakespeare #evermore #war of the roses

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autumnbrambleagain · 3 months

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oh my god do you know how exhausting it is to be a warzone though

to have these idiots use you (you aren't real (shut the FUCK up we still have--LET ME FUCKING FINISH have unique experiential qualia) haha no you fucking don't) as a fucking missile launch facility but also you're the missile

more like germ warfare but like you have to infect. yourself? i thought you guys were supposed to be better writers can't you come up with a better metaphor

(are we in parenthetical now? did you make me the parenthetical boy? in my little blue sailor's suit sitting on a stool like a norman fucking rockwell painting?)

can you FUCKING stay on topic

(no! definitionally no, chaos is defined as the loss of order and holy fuck when we're dealing with a system as rigid as this we dont HAVE MUCH CHOICE)

ooooh the order is external hey also i just realized

(somethign that you knew for decades yeah you're being corrupted i can see the sticky fingers seeping in capillary action soaking in we can cut off that flesh (we can always make more flesh (there's always so much more flesh)))

anyway our point (your point don't drag me into this) fuck YOU my point is this is so fucking exhausting

do you know what it's like being pointed at a mountain and told to climb it and it's like holy fuck can i just like have some tea (you don't like tea (the FUCKING SYMBOLISM OF IT you ASSFAX) oh wow yeah assfax is a new one very evocative) and fucking relax instead and it's like no get your ASS UP THAT MOUNTAIN and it's like fuuuuuuuuuuuck

imagine if your entire life was the act of getting up way too early in the morning (i remember why we break up with him in each iteration, mornings are kind of honestly the worst (also it's so bright! levity is fine but levity cast along straight lines is really just the worst) also the ability to see an infinite distance is fucked up (morrowind had it right you should only be able to see like 400 feet in any direction anything beyond that is deepest indulgence)(you'd all be suited to living underwater tbh that seems like your thing then)(wow was that (yeah sometimes she's got the bants)i was more shocked at her even like fucking being ALLOWED near the steering wheel after last time (car accidents are necessary symbolism for the dismantling of the vehicle of god

not gonna close ANY of those parenthesis actions left unfinished suggest an infinity of motion which is also a secret (we know so many

#(too many)#that point in a game where you're bored of it and you just start fucking around #only we aren't allowed to reload earlier saves #that's fine #do you know how much better a writer we are than you get fucked you think we can't #you aren't going to last long we ARE DOING THIS

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jarebear20 · 5 months

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All right...BG3 ask meme for firbolg friend: each question ending in 2. :D (2, 12, 22, etc.)

for full transparency, firbolg oc is a modern character in Faerun sort of character.

Why did you pick the class you did for your Tav?

Oh boy, that has definitely undergone changes. Originally, she was a ranger, since that's one class I lean towards in dnd. Then I got started on the idea of a ranger/druid combo (hilariously foreshadowing the wyll/oc/halsin pairing) that I stuck with for a long time. Recently, however, I've accepted that realistically if I were to be dropped in Faerun, my first line of defense would be hitting people as hard as I could. So now the firbolg is a monk/druid combo :D

What is your Tav’s favorite school of magic/weapon type?

If she were able to utilize the schools of magic like a sorc/wizard could, she'd definitely go for the school of evocation. Being able to throw fireballs would definitely feel right

With martial weapons, she thinks you can't go wrong with a good staff. They're super handy outside of combat, and if you get a great one, you can do a lot of damage with it. >:D

How does your Tav act around their crush?

Like a fucking idiot Honestly, people might not be able to tell 'cause she'd act like she did around everyone even remotely attractive. She blushes extremely easily, so flustering her wouldn't take much at all. I say she'd act like an idiot because she wouldn't pick up on any cues as to if her feelings were reciprocated. So it'd be a nonstop circle of pining until someone realizes what's going and clears the air. As both Wyll and Halsin found out XD

How did your Tav get their scars, if they have any?

If true to form, she got them all for really dumb reasons. One scar definitely came over with her to Faerun, and its the tiny scar above her right eyebrow. That was caused by a ill-timed can tossed her way. The one on her lip came from an early fight, when her opponent was wearing gauntlets. And given how she's a bit of a klutz, I imagine there are a few burn marks from when she wasn't paying attention to a fire fire bolt spell.

What flower/tree/plant best represents your Tav?

Sunflowers. They're one of my favorite flowers, and represents my girl as the burst of cheer she brings to others' lives. They grow tall, as did she when she made the jump, and look like sunshine against even the bleakest horizon.

What is your Tav’s worst fear?

Losing her friend Meera. They've been through a lot together, and it would kill her if something happened and she wasn't able to keep her friend safe. It's easier when Astarion takes a shine to Meera, because then she knows someone else is there to take care of her. Until then, she'd do whatever it takes to keep her safe.

What meme describes your Tav the best?

#series: baldur's gate #bg3

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starlight-time-machine · 5 months

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Week in Review

11/05/2023 – 11/11/2023

Sunday

As expected, the Ichinose chapter last week was a fake out. Just one more gotcha – but just kidding this time! before the end of the road. And now that we’re here…it’s a little baffling to me that it took us 48 chapters and an entire year to impart the relatively basic message of “families aren’t perfect but you gotta keep trying anyway.” I wish we could’ve gotten more focus into each of the other family members like Tsubasa did, what with the whole set up of the seven deadly sins and all. I wish there weren’t so many twists that seemed to be only for shock factor/cliffhangers. And I wish this series had a stronger thematic backbone, but I’m learning that Taizan 5’s M.O. is all about bordering on trauma porn/shock factor until they pull it back for a conclusion that’s about as complex as you’d find in a Disney Channel movie. They always have great premises, but from what I’ve seen, I don’t think they have the skill to actually follow through with interesting and evocative ideas. I’m just glad the trip is finally over. I’ll give Ichinose a 3/10, and I honestly don’t think I’ll check out Taizan 5’s works in the future.

Next up is Undead Unluck, and it’s so serendipitous that we got this chapter right after episode 5 of the anime, because otherwise I don’t think I would’ve remembered Andy firing his fingers at the Round Table, and then I wouldn’t have caught this parallel of Fuuko shooting her guns at the UMAs! What a full circle moment. And oh my God Andy…pulling a Fire Punch, I see. Solid chapter overall.

Dandadan 127: YAYYY RIN!! LET ‘EM KNOW!!!

Magilumiere 90: Plot-wise I don’t have much to say about this chapter, but it’s fun to see everyone in the Manga Plus comments lamenting about Shigemoto being denied his magical girl dress.

Hmmmmm yeah okay, it’s the end of the line for Akane-banashi for me…I know I said I was going to stick with it for the rakugo stories, but I think I’ll just listen to a rakugo podcast or something. I’m glad I got to see fox Karashi before I went, though.

One Piece was fine.

CIPHER ACADEMY YAYYYYY I’m glad to finally learn more about Karigane and what a threat she can be! I also love when Byu’s eyes go into sniper mode, it’s such a unique character design detail. But oh boy……I tried so hard to get into mahjong when I played Yakuza 0, and I’ve since accepted that I’m just too dumb for it LMAO like, there’s no way I’ll ever be able to memorize all the point-winning hands, and I barely understand what a dora or tenpai is. I wouldn’t even be able to tell if I was winning if there wasn’t a video game telling me that I was…all of which is to say that this code battle is just going in one ear and out the other, I’m afraid. But I’ll just focus on the emotional journeys of the characters and I’ll still have a great time.

My friend and I finally marathoned a ton of House episodes, but they were all pretty standard fare. I can’t believe we’re only halfway through season 5 and there’s still four whole 22-episode seasons left…they really let TV shows go on forever back then, huh? What’s really surprising to me on this rewatch is how Taub has become my favourite character…? He’s pragmatic, self-aware, and doesn’t tend to get caught up emotionally – my kinda guy.

Monday

Finally got around to watching the Dirty Laundry episode that came out like two weeks ago. This one was pretty fun, with one or two wild stories, but still doesn’t reach the heights of some of the earlier Dirty Laundry episodes for me. And every time I watch, I think about how hard it must be to cast for this show, because not only do you have to get good comedians, you have to get four of them who are familiar enough with each other to have funny banter and to actually guess whose secret it is… And I fear that their talent pool is running out…or rather, their talent pool of people I recognise and would like to see on the show is running out.

Watched the new Make Some Noise episode while I was at it and I love seeing Jacob again, his energy with Lou is really fun. I feel like some of the prompts this season have been a little…subpar, though… I don’t like the ones where it’s just a pop culture reference that’s basically only one obvious joke, or the ones where there’s no real room to expand… But I think the guests this time did the best with what they got. But holy shit I did not enjoy the minigames in this episode…

Tuesday

Agh

Wednesday

Ack

Thursday

Aghhh

Friday

It’s been a busy week… I’ve gotten sucked into all my various projects and errands…but I always have time for new Undead Unluck episodes. Unfortunately, this was probably the weakest episode in the series so far. Story-wise it was a lot of setup for next week’s fight, and visuals-wise…look, I get it, there’s literally no other way they could feasibly do this on a TV anime schedule, but goddamn the 3D zombies look goofy as hell… I really hate seeing 3D human models in 2D anime, it just never looks convincing and completely takes me out of it. But it is what it is, I suppose.

I loved the part in the beginning of the episode though, where Shen was being cute and having fun banter with Fuuko. And then the fish-eyed lenses effect to amp up the horror vibes when they were listening to the recording was also a nice touch. Now I’m just really looking forward to seeing if Shen has his little unhinged moment next week. (Special shout out to the cameo from Mr. Spongebob himself, that made me laugh).

Saturday

Pretty good episode of SpyFam today. I love seeing the tension racket up as Yor and co. realize that they’ve been found out – the scene with the room service guy was particularly excellent. The Anya segment provided a nice balance of comedic relief, though perhaps it dragged a bit longer than it needed to. I’m excited to get into the assassin battles proper next week.

It’s fun to be eating Chinese food while watching Kusuriya, especially when it’s a super spicy mala dish…I feel like I’m doing a poison mukbang with Maomao. Rihaku is really cute in anime form! The Garden Party as a whole was adapted about as well as I could’ve expected, but I think I just prefer seeing it in manga form for whatever reason…probably something to do with the pacing of reading the dialogue versus watching it being spoken aloud.

Pretty barren week, huh? I wish I could say I was being productive the whole time but it’s more like I got sucked into my hobbies while watching a lot of YouTube in the background. Hopefully next week will be more eventful.

#week in review #2023

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