makeourlovecount

[makeourlovecount]

Wilhelm and Simon + holding hands

[makeourlovecount]

Erik is a metaphor for the Monarchy

This season has given me so much to think about Erik and Wilhelm's idolization of Erik, and how it plays a dual role in Wilhelm's arc as a character.

I think Erik represents Wilhelm's motivation to carry forward the legacy of an institution which is slowly crumbling in its relevance (in the fictional Sweden atleast, I have no idea about the geopolitical scenario of the real-life monarchy in Sweden). Yes, Wilhelm does come from a lineage of a family relevant in history, but not only he is too young to understand that burden but he is also someone who does not feel a personal connection with that burden, unlike August(which ironically also stems from his love for his father). But he does feel that personal connection to Erik, not only because they are brothers but also Erik seems to be the only one Wilhelm can fully be vocal about his thoughts until he meets Simon. Erik is what separates Wilhelm from that burden of legacy and responsibilities.

But then Erik dies. Erik's death not necessarily represents the death of the monarchy, but it's still the death of the stability that the system thrives on. Royals want everything in control, and we can see that a lack of control runs everything berserk in that system. Erik's death is the beginning of the legacy weighing down on Wilhelm in full force, how the monarchy is just a system that thrives in perpetual succession and does not care if a spare fills the shoes of an heir unwillingly. He is expected to mould himself in the image of Erik, and the personal connection Wilhelm lacked with the Monarchy takes the shape of Erik in his mind- he believes that he is doing good to Erik's memories if he steps up as a suitable Crown Prince, but in the end, he's just catering to the system, not Erik. Even if the system is full of lies and secrets and he is forced to part ways from his authentic self.

But then he realizes that he does not want to part ways with himself, and how he stands apart as an individual when he is with Simon. Trying to get Simon back was also an attempt to reclaim his individuality, and the more he tried to gain everything back by the easiest way possible, the more he lost Simon and got pushed to the deep end. The Monarchy still loomed on the horizon, he still wanted to uphold Erik's memory by complying with the mould his mother and the Royal Court has been preparing for him. But when he gets Simon's love back, he also gets back his individuality, and how it leads to an epiphany only his free self could have made in his speech.

The illusion reigns supreme even in his relationship with Simon, because Wilhelm thought that he can be a Crown Prince and Simon's boyfriend at the same time, but the more they progressed with the burden together, it became clear that what Wilhelm wants to be is at clear odds with the system he is being prepared for.

Then the illusion shatters with August's confession. It's utterly heartbreaking that Erik and his homophobic actions put deep cracks in Wilhelm's illusion because in the end, he was still his brother. But he will forever remain scarred by the possibility that maybe Erik could have not accepted his individuality and his love for Simon. His first safe haven he found as a child, and which continued to be one when Wilhelm's grief became too painful, all shattered by a revelation he had no answers to. And suddenly all the comparisons with his older brother became a suffocating chain around his head, and he explodes in a rage of fury to his parents.

Erik was not only a literal figurehead of the institution, but he was also a phantom manifestation of the Monarchy for Wilhelm's character. The ever-present apparition of a system he does not thrive in.

[makeourlovecount]

—wentworth's letter to anne, persuasion, jane austen

[makeourlovecount]

he is an idiot but I still love him 💙

[makeourlovecount]

Ok but you know what also makes me cry, besides aziraphale's Hand?

Either crowley is pulling him even closer OR (as it happens right when aziraphale activaly touches him with his Hand) aziraphale pushes himself closer to crowley for a second AND I CANT BELIEVE THIS WEIRD KISS HOLDS SO MUCH LOVE IN IT

[makeourlovecount]

they make me so sick in the head it’s actually unreal

[makeourlovecount]

it’s insane to me the Choices michael sheen made following the kiss. it’s not disappointment like the audio description states; he’s furious. anyone else would NOT play that moment with anger because the implication of the religious character getting angry after a queer kiss is (in most media) fueled by homophobia and disgust. but michael didn’t shy away from how people may misinterpret it, and in the end it makes so much sense. because aziraphale IS angry — angry at having his beliefs dictated for him and STILL misunderstood, angry at the injustice in the world, angry at heaven most of all. angry at the fact that this is how you leave us, crowley? the potential YOU’VE given up for us when i could have lived my life pretending we still existed in the ambiguous? crowley finally voicing what they are to each other after rejecting aziraphale’s offer is the only thing he could have done as a character and also the worst possible thing he could have done to the person he loves. sooo insane for aziraphale’s character arc and what good omens represents as a whole.

[makeourlovecount]

A little hopeful moment which I missed on the first watch, but which I think is so important. Nina and Maggie come to have their talk with Crowley. Now, we all know that Crowley is Maggie—yes, sure, Nina is sarcastic and suave and cool and calls Maggie angel—but it’s obvious that Crowley is Maggie and Nina is Aziraphale. Crowley even admits it himself in the very beginning of this conversation when he tries to justify meddling to get Maggie and Nina together:

“Nina needed rescuing.” Yeah, you know who else always “needs rescuing”? Anyway, moving on.

Nina says she just got out of a relationship and it would be a disaster to get into another one right away. And then this happens:

Nina says she hopes Maggie will still be around, but she knows she can’t ask Maggie to just wait while she figures out her own baggage. There's no guarantee. And then Maggie interjects—

The parallel between Maggie/Nina and Crowley/Aziraphale is so intentional as to feel heavy handed. So what does it mean that we get this exchange in at this particular moment in the script—buried within the conversation which is the catalyst for Crowley confessing his feelings, occurring in the lull immediately before the spectacular dissolution of everything the first two seasons were building towards?

“We could have been us,” Crowley says. Crowley walks out of the bookshop. Crowley turns off their song in his car. Whatever tentative blooming thing has been building between him and Aziraphale for six thousand years appears to be very clearly over. Aziraphale presses the kiss to his lips and knows there is no guarantee they will ever have a chance to be together. There's no guarantee that Crowley will ever want to forgive him, that he will keep on waiting for him.

But.

There is.

[makeourlovecount]

Little sketches I did while watching the new season :-)

Still trying to fight the anxiety I feel when posting my more sketchy stuff but there wasn't much art that I do for my enjoyment on here lately and I thought these would be a nice change ★

[makeourlovecount]

I made this to slap onto the bumper of my car faster than fucking light

[makeourlovecount]

Good Omens x Fleabag

[makeourlovecount]

sonne by rammstein is so viserys’ kids core……

prints available here (including no lyrics versions)

[makeourlovecount]

luke growing up, having a growth spurt and being taller than aemond. aemond getting annoyed but when the younger pushed him against the wall and towered over him amidst one of their argument he got an awkward boner. Which led to one thing…or more

[makeourlovecount]

Nathan: Wow.. the council really hate us.

Gabriel: Maybe they're homophobic?

Nathan: We're not a couple, Gabriel.

Gabriel: We're not?

Nesbitt: You're not?!

[makeourlovecount]

Asexual Awareness Week day 4:

Kelly Bennett, from the Green Creek Series by T.J. Klune.

A friend of mine introduced me to this series and I fell in love with it immediately, specially with Robbie and Kelly.

Kelly is a strong, caring man who puts his pack above all. He's canonically ace and a good representation that aces are not necessarily sexless, and can have sex too if they feel like it, even if they don't feel that type of attraction.

I must admit that the thing that hurted me most on Heartsong (!!spoilers!!) is all that Kelly went through; from losing his mate, to find it again, then losing his brother (his world).

I still didn't read Brothersong, because I'm not ready to let it all go, I'm not ready to let them (specially Robbie, Kelly and Carter) go.

#self reblog

[makeourlovecount]

Asexual Awareness Week day 4:

Kelly Bennett, from the Green Creek Series by T.J. Klune.

A friend of mine introduced me to this series and I fell in love with it immediately, specially with Robbie and Kelly.

Kelly is a strong, caring man who puts his pack above all. He's canonically ace and a good representation that aces are not necessarily sexless, and can have sex too if they feel like it, even if they don't feel that type of attraction.

I must admit that the thing that hurted me most on Heartsong (!!spoilers!!) is all that Kelly went through; from losing his mate, to find it again, then losing his brother (his world).

I still didn't read Brothersong, because I'm not ready to let it all go, I'm not ready to let them (specially Robbie, Kelly and Carter) go.

[makeourlovecount]

Please make a post about the story of the RMS Carpathia, because it's something that's almost beyond belief and more people should know about it.

Carpathia received Titanic’s distress signal at 12:20am, April 15th, 1912. She was 58 miles away, a distance that absolutely could not be covered in less than four hours.

(Californian’s exact position at the time is…controversial. She was close enough to have helped. By all accounts she was close enough to see Titanic’s distress rockets. It’s uncertain to this day why her crew did not respond, or how many might not have been lost if she had been there. This is not the place for what-ifs. This is about what was done.)

Carpathia’s Captain Rostron had, yes, rolled out of bed instantly when woken by his radio operator, ordered his ship to Titanic’s aid and confirmed the signal before he was fully dressed. The man had never in his life responded to an emergency call. His goal tonight was to make sure nobody who heard that fact would ever believe it.

All of Carpathia’s lifeboats were swung out ready for deployment. Oil was set up to be poured off the side of the ship in case the sea turned choppy; oil would coat and calm the water near Carpathia if that happened, making it safer for lifeboats to draw up alongside her. He ordered lights to be rigged along the side of the ship so survivors could see it better, and had nets and ladders rigged along her sides ready to be dropped when they arrived, in order to let as many survivors as possible climb aboard at once.

I don’t know if his making provisions for there still being survivors in the water was optimism or not. I think he knew they were never going to get there in time for that. I think he did it anyway because, god, you have to hope.

Carpathia had three dining rooms, which were immediately converted into triage and first aid stations. Each had a doctor assigned to it. Hot soup, coffee, and tea were prepared in bulk in each dining room, and blankets and warm clothes were collected to be ready to hand out. By this time, many of the passengers were awake–prepping a ship for disaster relief isn’t quiet–and all of them stepped up to help, many donating their own clothes and blankets.

And then he did something I tend to refer to as diverting all power from life support.

Here’s the thing about steamships: They run on steam. Shocking, I know; but that steam powers everything on the ship, and right now, Carpathia needed power. So Rostron turned off hot water and central heating, which bled valuable steam power, to everywhere but the dining rooms–which, of course, were being used to make hot drinks and receive survivors. He woke up all the engineers, all the stokers and firemen, diverted all that steam back into the engines, and asked his ship to go as fast as she possibly could. And when she’d done that, he asked her to go faster.

I need you to understand that you simply can’t push a ship very far past its top speed. Pushing that much sheer tonnage through the water becomes harder with each extra knot past the speed it was designed for. Pushing a ship past its rated speed is not only reckless–it’s difficult to maneuver–but it puts an incredible amount of strain on the engines. Ships are not designed to exceed their top speed by even one knot. They can’t do it. It can’t be done.

Carpathia’s absolute do-or-die, the-engines-can’t-take-this-forever top speed was fourteen knots. Dodging icebergs, in the dark and the cold, surrounded by mist, she sustained a speed of almost seventeen and a half.

No one would have asked this of them. It wasn’t expected. They were almost sixty miles away, with icebergs in their path. They had a respondibility to respond; they did not have a responsibility to do the impossible and do it well. No one would have faulted them for taking more time to confirm the severity of the issue. No one would have blamed them for a slow and cautious approach. No one but themselves.

They damn near broke the laws of physics, galloping north headlong into the dark in the desperate hope that if they could shave an hour, half an hour, five minutes off their arrival time, maybe for one more person those five minutes would make the difference. I say: three people had died by the time they were lifted from the lifeboats. For all we know, in another hour it might have been more. I say they made all the difference in the world.

This ship and her crew received a message from a location they could not hope to reach in under four hours. Just barely over three hours later, they arrived at Titanic’s last known coordinates. Half an hour after that, at 4am, they would finally find the first of the lifeboats. it would take until 8:30 in the morning for the last survivor to be brought onboard. Passengers from Carpathia universally gave up their berths, staterooms, and clothing to the survivors, assisting the crew at every turn and sitting with the sobbing rescuees to offer whatever comfort they could.

In total, 705 people of Titanic’s original 2208 were brought onto Carpathia alive. No other ship would find survivors.

At 12:20am April 15th, 1912, there was a miracle on the North Atlantic. And it happened because a group of humans, some of them strangers, many of them only passengers on a small and unimpressive steam liner, looked at each other and decided: I cannot live with myself if I do anything less.

I think the least we can do is remember them for it.