I haven't played Scarlet Hollow yet but every time I see Tabitha all I can think is
That smile can't be real. What does it even *mean*? What is the emotion she's trying to convey?
Girlbosshood
God, I don't know, it's indescribable
I think it's supposed to look *suggestive*. I'm afraid it's meant *for the ladies*.
She's insinuating that she's vaguely sympathetic. I think she's sort of pulling it off too, in a *sad little meow-meow* kind of way. There is some charm to it.
This is part of my efforts to transcribe @seananmcguire's holiday Mari Lwyd Twitter threads. The hashtag for now is #Mari Lwyd Project, the first post is here, the thread's source is here.
(Many thanks to @dor-min on finding and linking this one, along with linking the amazing Mari Lwyd fanart by Sue Rankin Pollard.)
2020 is going to take a bit to work through, as there were even more challengers and single replies and I'm trying to find them all, but I'm working on it! This round is Seanan + @kbspangler, with Sue's support/cheesing.
As always, credit to the authors/poets/cheese protectors and sharers. CWs for food and a confused Mari Lwyd getting cheesed.
Seanan:
(Am I planning to randomly yell at my mutuals in skeleton horse until someone plays along? What else was I doing today?)
K.B.:
Gimme.
Seanan:
Hello new contender! You've asked me to play!
Today is the solstice, I seek cheese today.
I don't really care if it's vlaskaas or brie:
I know you have cheese, so please give it to me.
K.B.:
Sorry, o mare with your thousand-yard stare
There's cheese in this house it is true
But we shop at Target Instead of Fresh Market
We've Kraft pre-wrapped singles for you.
Seanan:
You know it's quite rude
To placate the Mari with processed cheese food,
But it's better than nothing, we are not denied,
So pick up your singles and place them inside.
K.B.:
Okay, so...logistics
For a mare quite so mystic
I've found a huge problem with that
The bony heuristics of your characteristics
Means you must wear this sliced cheese as a hat
Seanan:
My new hat is fetching, so lovely and fine,
I give you my blessing, new good friend of mine!
K.B.:
Bid you good year
with holiday cheer
and happy to see you now leave
This skeletal mare
processed cheese in her hair
An omen for Conjunction Eve.
I see many posts about Harry's Expression, both from people arguing "It looks creepy, disturbed, disgusting" and people saying "it's just a very normal expression" but both miss what the Expression represents to Harry - it is genuinely an expression of his pain, because it represents a time in Harry's life which he cannot move away from, a time he has felt left in, the people who he was mimicking who no longer exist. The Expression began as an attempt to mimic Guillaume de Million, representative of the disco era following the failure of revolution, who died during a bender. It is a man Harry wanted to be when it was chic, and is now representative of Harry's worst fears of himself.
The scene with the mirror is a showcase of Harry's self loathing, and it is disturbing and strange to Harry, because it is about the disconnect between the culture he began using drugs and alcohol in and the man this has left him as. It does not matter if you simply see a normal man, or a drunken creep (which Harry is not, I do think you are just being mean to long-term alcoholics if you hold this belief), because Harry only sees the expression of himself as a young man who began drinking and partying as a way to enjoy himself in a breaking society, on the face of a man this drinking has destroyed.
It is showing that Harry's body is trying to live in an era where he was still very much an addict, but before it was visibly destroying him, and a reminder that this cannot be the way he continues to live.
I will not, in fact, shut up about it (this is what, the 4th post I've written about it?).
HOW THE FUCK does fandom manage to interpret the Vision handover as something romantic?
I mean look at this face.
Does he LOOK like someone who would hand you his most prized possession for sentimental reasons/merely because he trusts you? PLEASE.
Yes, he's normally a bit uncanny but that's beyond his normal levels of uncanny. He's scaring me there.
(he also has a very smug expression when he leaves but I can't capture it in a single screenshot)
He is THINKING of something. This is a SCHEME and he isn't even subtle about it.
This isn't trust, it's calculated risk (I can appreciate that he's insane like that though).
*
But also, well... he talks about his life goal/core trauma and then hands over the thing that symbolises having a life goal. And then there's Navia's story with a theme of handing over your quest to someone else because you won't be able to see it through (genshin authors love their thematic parallels).
So for half a day I even considered that this might be a request for help. "If I kick the bucket, kill that thing for me, would you? You'll know what to do." Or maybe even "if I turn into that thing, I'm sure you'll find a way to kill me" (it's Childe, you never know with him).
But then I rewatched the cutscene and nope. No way. He'd look relieved in the end, not smug if this was the case. So it's something more practical.