#also this is just my interpretation of that scene

[sincerelyrki]

but i love the taste of you

Heeseung never did enjoy lollipops, their overrated taste never interesting him. But perhaps tasting it from your lips could change everything. As for the laptop? It just happened to be in the perfect place, at the perfect time.

pairing : bf!heeseung x fem!reader

warnings + genre : smut. profanity. licking. biting. heeseung is lowkey obsessed. unprotected sex (pls don’t!). oral (both ways). kissing over a lollipop (trust 🙏). recording. switch!heeseung. switch!reader. little bit of degrading (just a bit, promise). spit it mentioned a few times. 18+. mdni.

wc : 3.9k

a/n : you can probably see my addiction to secondhand tasting [ cherry lips, a cherry for my cherry, and now this one… (the lollipop was def cherry flavoured in my head)] anyways, this is only my second time writing full smut so please lmk how i did! fb + rbs are always appreciated <3

Heeseung sat with his jaw clenched; hands fisting by his side as he watched your lollipop glide down your tongue, satisfying pops sounding out whenever you pulled it from your mouth. 

He felt like he was losing his mind, his patience wearing thin the longer he listened to your soft hums of delight. 

The sounds were identical to the ones he had you making just hours ago, your body still clad in nothing but his t-shirt and your cute little panties. 

You were daunting him, you had to be. There was no other explanation as to why you were making all these erotic sounds, why you were licking your lollipop in the same way you had done to him that same morning. 

Heeseung rose to a stand, feet bringing him towards you without hesitation. He stood tall in front of you, his body blocking your vision from your computer’s screen. 

“I can’t see, baby. Can you please move over?” You looked up at him over your lashes, wide eyes matching your perfectly pouted lips.

Heeseung swore under his breath, his pants tightening as he laid a firm hand on your shoulder, gently pushing you to lean back against the couch. 

You sat back with a smirk, teeth still pressing down on the lollipop stick. At first, you didn’t mean to make the whole scene suggestive, but you’d never pass up the opportunity to tease your boyfriend. 

You knew how easily he got turned on, how easy it was for you to turn him to putty in your hands. It wasn’t that you always took advantage of it, but there’s no harm in doing it every once in a while. 

Especially when he looked as good as he did now, his messy hair - courtesy to you- stirring your arousal as the reminder of your long morning came rolling back.

You sat still under him, your eyes never leaving his heated ones, basking in the way he glared down at you. You had been fantasizing about his reaction, about how rough he would take you.

There’s nothing that irritated Heeseung more than when his good girl teased him, but there’s also nothing that turned him on more. 

There was something about your innocent facade, your delicate eyes staring at him with the warmth of the morning sun. Something about the way you conceived everyone into thinking you were some perfect, flawless, princess. 

The way you convinced everyone that you were nothing like how you actually were, you’re just a brat wearing a pretty face. But you were only Heeseungs brat, something he proved to you whenever he could.

Heeseung turned his back towards you, bending at the waist to pick up your computer. He rolled his eyes at the rotting footage playing across from him, some random romance sitcom with no specific plot.

It was the same genre you always chose to indulge in, sitting pretty while your brain worked on autopilot to create its own interpretations of how these soulless actors would portray these tedious scenes. 

That’s when an idea hit Heeseung, one that he’d been fantasizing about since the day he first touched you. What better movie is there to watch, than the one you create with the person you love?

It was perfect, everything about it. 

And so Heeseung turned back around, putting his weight on one knee and he moved the other on your other side. He sat down on your plush thighs, straddling you as you sunk deeper into the couch. 

You had long lost eye contact your the man before you, the computer blocking your sight. You ignored the way your show suddenly turned quiet, rolling your eyes at what you thought was Heeseung being over dramatic.

But what he had done next, was something that you’d be thinking about the next time you needed some sort of relief, your hands down your parties as you pleasured yourself to the thought of your boyfriend. 

Heeseung placed the computer on the side table, the two of you fitting perfectly in frame. He barely glanced at the screen before he grabbed your jaw, one hand holding it as the other pressed down on your bottom lip.

Two sides of Heeseung’s fingers touched against the lollipop in your mouth, sandwiching it between his fingers as he pried your mouth open. 

You looked up at Heeseung in shock, the lollipop sitting loose in your mouth as you allowed him to control your body in the ways he wanted. 

“You know, I’m not a huge fan of lollipops…” Heeseung trailed off, his fingers crawling from your mouth and onto your tongue. He swiped two fingers across the sugary surface of the lollipop, trailing it in a line across one side of the candy.

He then dragged his fingers from the lollipop, across your tongue, and to your lips. He used his fingers to rub the sweetness across your mouth, a sweet coat of sugar replacing your long smudged lipgloss.

“But I love the taste of you.” He used the same two fingers to pull the candy from your mouth, leaning it to vertically press against your lips. He leaned down to your face, pressing his lips to the other side of the lollipop.

He then angled the stick in a way that allowed the lollipop to stick in the middle of both of your lips, the taste transferring to the both of you. 

He closed his eyes, uncaring of the fact that yours were wide open and staring directly at him. He gently stuck out his tongue, removing his lips enough to run his tongue across the side of the lollipop.

He turned his head as his tongue slowly moved across it, eventually meeting the end and ending on the corner of your lips.

Heeseung stayed in that position, his lips barely touching yours as he let out a quiet hum, licking the sugar off his lips as he reopened his eyes. “Delicious” He pressed a small peck to the side of your lips, pulling back to sit up straight.

Heeseung was still holding the lollipop to your lips, only this time he turned the stick so the end was facing towards his chest, the candy facing towards your mouth.

He made a show of opening his mouth, sticking out his tongue as he let a hushed “a” sound leave his lips.

He gave you a small smirk as you followed his command, lips opening wide as you stuck your tongue out the same way. “Good girl” Heeseung cooed at you in a tone that was anything but proud. 

He pushed the candy back in your mouth, using his other hand to close your jaw around it. “You’re so pretty like this, with your dirty lips wrapped around something.” Heeseung quirked an amused eyebrow as you responded to his degrading words with a whine, furrowed eyebrows staring up at him.

“Oh? You don’t look pretty with something in your mouth?” You whined again, eyebrows furrowing even more. Heeseung tilted his head to the side, face pulling up in an unfamiliar way.

 “Lips aren’t dirty” You tried speaking through your closed mouth, words barely recognizable. Heeseung humorlessly chucked at your words, a proud grin settling on his face.

“M’sorry baby, you have the prettiest lips.” Your forehead smoothed as you sunk back down, satisfied with his answer. “Should we show the camera?”

Heeseung leaned over to grab the laptop, his teeth on display as he replayed your reaction in his head. The way your body tensed at his words, eyes widening a fraction and legs jolting. 

“You must think I'm dumb, don’t you? Don’t think I haven’t noticed.” You were filled with the same desires as Heeseung, your fantasy of recording each other haunting you every time you have sex. 

“I know my dumb baby too well, there isn’t anything I haven’t already seen.” Heeseung was now watching their reflection on the screen, his desire growing as he watched the way you began pushing against him. 

“Is my baby getting needy?” Through the screen he watched as you rapidly nodded, teeth still pressing down on the lollipop. “Good, let’s show the camera how pretty your lips are first.”

Heeseung brought the laptop up between the two of you, holding it near your chest as he stared down at you, “hold it.” 

With the laptop held securely in your hands, Heeseung turned his attention back to your candy. This time, he opened your mouth in a different way. 

He pushed down on the lollipop, forcing your mouth to open due to the pressure. He slowly slid it out from your mouth, his mouth salivating as the sweet scent reached his nose. 

The camera got a close-up of the way a small string of saliva connected from your mouth to the candy, caught the way it disappeared as Heeseung’s head swooped in from over the laptop as pressed against yours.

Filthy sounds filled the room, your messy kiss being caught from a lowered angle. Though many might now think the angle would be ideal, it was nothing less than perfect.

It perfectly captured the way Heeseung’s tongue wrapped around yours, the way your head chased after his as he pulled back to change angles. 

It caught everything, including your pretty moans. 

Heeseung carelessly tossed the lollipop behind him, the table close enough for it to land on without having to look. He moved both of his hands to wrap around your waist, his hands pressing down on your curves.

“Wait, let me fix the camera” You stuttered mid-sentence, mouth refusing to leave his as you placed the laptop on the couch beside the two of you, everything above your knees visible. 

Heeseung slid his hands under your shift, sliding it up and over your head in a vast movement, disconnecting your lips for no more than five seconds before pressing against you again.

His hands squeezed at your skin, his hands coming up to grope at you.

Your head tilted back with a loud moan as he disconnected your lips to kiss the exposed skin at the top of your bra, his hands pushing your tits up as he sucked dark marks onto your skin.

He acted like a man who’d never seen a pair of breasts before, ravaging them like a starved man. He moved lower down your legs as he undid your bra, kissing and sucking spots along his path until he reached your pants. 

Heeseung slid off the couch, slotting himself between your open legs as he bit along your lower stomach, kissing your stretch marks as he appreciated your entire body. 

“My girl is so pretty, the prettiest girl in the world.” He mumbled out, sounding drunk off your skin. “So so pretty” He repeated over and over as he placed more and more kisses.

He slid his hands back down towards your legs, fingers wrapping around your waistline before he looked up at you, eyes hooded as he waited for your consent. 

At your nod, Heeseung quickly undid your pants, pulling them down and off your legs. Your panties quickly followed, getting tossed across the room in a random pile that would soon be joined by his clothes. 

Due to the shift of weight, the laptop toppled over to the side, landing in the perfect view of Heeseung between your legs. It was a sight worth millions, the sight of a man who was actually willing to sacrifice anything to get a taste of pussy. 

Heeseung pulled your legs over his shoulder, using his hands to pull your body closer to his face. His eyes closed with a loud hum, the familiar smell enveloping his senses in the most pleasurable way possible.

“You smell so good, I love you so much” Heeseung spoke once before placing a small kiss against your folds, one of his hands coming up to spread you for him.

He gave your inner thigh one last kiss before he leaned in, his lips wrapping around your clit as his vibrations caused mass pleasure to wring out across your body. 

Your back arched as his tongue circled you, your sensitive nerves reacting to his loving movements. Heeseung always started slow, paying attention to your most pleasurable parts as he submerged himself into you.

His tongue was now replaced with his thumb, fast circled getting rubbed against you as he stuck his tongue flat against your opening, slowly curling it as he collected whatever juices he could. 

A mixture of his spit and your arousal was nothing more than his wettest dreams, the taste automatically beating the one of the sugary lollipops. He could happily drown within you, the only way he’d ever want to go. 

After a few minutes of prolonging your orgasm, he finally decided to finish it off, bringing you to your most craved high. 

He pushed his fingers into you, his tongue replacing the spot his thumb was moments prior. As good as Heeseung’s fingers felt, nothing compared to his tongue.

It felt like magic, the way he was able to make you feel so much in such a short amount of time. Your back arched as your legs quivered around his head, thighs tightening around his head as your heels dug into his clothes back. 

Broken moans left your lips, the sound rising the more you felt the waves coming up. Heeseung felt it too, the way you clenched around his fingers while your hips began rocking against your face.

He used the hand that was wrapped around one of your tights to go up and press against your lower stomach, pushing on it as your high washed over you. 

Loud slurps and moans filled the room, your breath caught in your throat as your back arched as far as it could. Heeseung felt you through it, both his fingers and to continue moving unrelentingly.

“Too much.” You gently shinned, legs still shaking as Heeseung licked you clean. He hummed against you, removing his fingers as he finished off, “I know baby, I know.”

Heeseung sat back up, one of his hands grabbing at the bottom of his shit to pull it off his head. You watched through tired eyes as your boyfriend palmed himself through his pants, head tilting forwards as his eyes stayed glued to your face.

It was a habit that Heeseung couldn’t seem to shake, the action starting when your relationship first started. You used to get shy after Heeseung ate you out, cheeks heating up as you tried hiding yourself.

Obviously, you weren’t shy anymore, the hundreds of minutes he’d spent between your legs long swishing that shyness. 

While you were calming down and preparing yourself again, Heeseung busied himself with getting undressed. He removed each article of clothing, throwing them roughly in the same direction as yours. 

The sight of your boyfriend bare before your eyes caused your body to light up with electricity once again, legs tingling as you obsessed with the way his cock twitched at your watchful eyes.

Heeseung leaned down to grab the laptop, placing it on the table that it was on, to begin with, one that gave it the sight of the entire couch. 

You changed positions, turning your back towards the roof as you crawled towards one side of the couch, arching your back for your boyfriend as you playfully looked over your shoulder at him. 

“I’m not going to fuck myself.” You fluttered your eyelashes, arousal growing as Heeseung playfully snickered at you in disbelief. “Don’t worry, I’ll fuck you so good.”

He kneels on the couch behind you, hands spreading your ass as he pushes himself to glide between your lips. He coated himself with your wetness before sinking into you, bottoming out as you pushed yourself back into him. 

His nails dug into your love handles, grabbing them for stability as he pushed himself into you. His head fell back as he felt himself continuously bottom out.

It was rare that you went without a condom, and there was no better feeling than the friction of your bare skin rubbing together. 

“Fuck, you feel so good.” A loud pitch moan left your lips in response, a little more dramatic due to the camera recording you. 

Heeseung could feel himself losing control, the warm feeling of being inside of you chasing his hips to push into you harder. 

Quiet swears left his lips as he found his constant pace, hips hitting against yours as he leaned over your back, hands leaving your hips to wrap around your hands. 

He pushed your hands down against the couch, his new angle allowing him to get more depth. 

“Please, I want to cum whilst riding you.” Heeseung swore one last time before pulling out, flipping your position as he leaned his back against the back of the couch. 

Your feet pressed against his legs, hips raised as you used your hand to place his dick against you. You circled his tip around your entrance one time before you sunk onto him, hand moving down to play with his balls as you bounced up and down. 

Heeseung threw his head back, eyes narrowing to slits as his pleasure weighed down his body. One of his hands rubbed up your body, grabbing your chest as the other squeezed the soft skin of your waist. 

He turned his attention toward the area where the two of you were connected, his mouth drying as he watched a ring of white froth form at his base. 

His abdominal muscles contracted as he trusted his hips forward, louder clapping filling the room as he changed the tempo. 

There was a moment where both of your eyes met, the primal desire mirroring back through your own reflections. Heeseung gave you a small smirk, one side of his mouth quirking up.

He winked at you once before he grabbed your hand, his fingers wrapping around the entirety of yours as he brought it to grab his neck.

“Use me” You tightened your hand around his neck at his suddenly sultry whisper, knees burning as you dropped against him harder. 

You bent forward, chest bumping against him as you used your hands to tilt his head back, his hair falling back to reveal his damp forehead. 

You pressed your tongue against the top of his sternum, licking a strip up until your nose touched his earlobe, teeth replacing its spot as you bit down on him.

His back arched beneath you, small sounds leaving his lips as you marked him. You treated his neck the same way you had the lollipop, using him the way he liked. 

“You feel so good.” Heeseung breathlessly praised you, his voice coming out higher than usual. It was easy to tell when Heeseung was getting close, the way he started touching your body more. 

Even with Heeseung under you, he always made sure you came undone first. The way your pleasure contoured your body caused his own long-awaited high to multiply tens fold. 

Though the feeling of his skin against yours caused a euphoric sensation to ring out across your body, you couldn’t stop yourself from teasing him a little more.

You halted your body, palms pushing down on your boyfriend's hips to stop his constant buckling.

“I want to make you feel good before.” You rose higher on your knees, only his tip remaining in as you shot him your best attempt of an innocent smile.

Heeseung tried not to let your words affect him, the pleasure that faded with the lack of stimulation returning at the thought of your lips wrapping around him.

“I much prefer you over the lollipop, nothing compares to the way you fill me.” 

Heeseung let out a shaky breath as his left leg began to shake, arms flexing as he fisted the cushions under him. “Fuck, do whatever you’d like, I’ll take anything you’re willing to give me.”

You removed him from you completely, your palm reaching up towards his lips as you looked at him with an expected gaze. Heeseung puckered his lips out, a sizable drop of spit landing between the crevices of your fingers. 

“That’s not enough.” You clicked your tongue at him, faux disapproval seeping out through your lips as you pulled your hand away from him. “You’re lucky I'm still wet, I'll just have to do it myself.”

You reached down, fingers collecting your wetness before you wrapped your hand back around him. Heeseung’s mouth fell open as you placed a small kiss against the base of his shaft, a trail of kisses following your hand as you slowly moved it up.

A sudden whimper left his mouth as you hollowed your cheeks around him, the suction perfectly squeezing around him. 

His sounds only rose as you added your tongue, the soft muscle tracing along his prominent vein. He almost forgot about the laptop, a small red light reminding him of the almost hour-long video. 

He stared directly into the camera, maximizing his expressions knowing that sooner or later, you’d be watching this back. He knew what got you off, what he could do to make you feel as good as possible. 

It was completely mutual, your knowledge of his body aiding in drawing out a loud, genuine, sound from his pretty lips. 

His back lifted from the couch, body flinching as your finger pressed against his perineum, sharp shocks of pleasure shooting across his body.

His breath caught in his chest as his hand shot out to grab your head, your hair fisting in his hands as he pushed you down further.

He didn’t stop, not even after hearing your choking sounds. As said before, he knew exactly what you liked.

 He wasn’t the only one who enjoyed being choked, you just experienced it differently. 

You continued stimulating his prostate through his perineum, spit dribbling down from the corners of your lips as you drew him closer to his orgasm.

He barely warned you before letting go in your mouth, the only telltale being the trembling of his legs. 

You tried your best to swallow everything he gave you, his familiar salty taste replacing the coating of sweetness in your throat. 

You pulled back, tongue peaking out to lap at the drops you had missed before, cleaning him from your shared mess. 

Heeseung panted from above you, his eyes closed as his heart pounded loudly in his chest. He felt the way you raised from your knees, your hand wrapping around his jaw as you pulled him in for a messy kiss.

The taste of himself no longer caused any reaction, he’d long gotten used to tasting himself on your tongue after you’d gone down on him.

“You’re not going to be able to walk tomorrow.” Heeseung said completely seriously, masking the truth behind his words with a joking tone. 

“That’s just the way I like it.” You replied back, scooting back to rest your head against the arm of the couch, legs spreading for your boyfriend to get a good view of what you were going to do next. 

“I’m ready when you are, show me how good you can treat me.” You never looked away from his eyes as you pressed your finger down against your clit, basking in the way his cock twitched at you.

“Or are you too tired?” Heeseung rolled his eyes at you, his body moving to hover over yours as he pushed himself between your legs.

“Why don’t you see for yourself?” You returned his wolfish grin, hand leaving your body to grab his waist, pulling his hips against yours. 

“Show me.”

#sincerelyrki #sincerelyrki : one shots #heeseung smut #lee heeseung smut #enhypen smut #kpop smut #enhypen heeseung smut #enhypen lee heeseung smut #enha smut #lee heeseung x y/n #lee heeseung x reader #heeseung x reader #lee heeseung #heeseung #enhypen scenarios #enhypen #kpop scenarios #heeseung fic #heeseung x yn #enha heeseung #heeseung enhypen smut #lee heeseung enhypen smut #enhypen lee heeseung #enha x you #enha x reader #enha x female reader #heeseung x female reader #heeseung x fem reader #lee heeseung x you #heeseung x you

[blusocket]

I've seen some people express some confusion about what Fortnight is about, why it opens the album, what's happening in the video, etc, so here's my attempt at an analysis. For the most part I'll be referring to the characters in the video with the names of the people playing them (Taylor and Post) but at times I'm going to be making direct reference to the events of Taylor's personal life and referring to the muses by their names (Joe and Matty) for the sake of clarity and simplicity.

The song itself uses the suburbia conceit as an extended metaphor for the beginning of her relationship with Matty (he's the neighbor she runs away to Florida with, Joe is the cheating husband.) For more eloquent and detailed thoughts on the narrative of the song you can check out Jaime @cages-boxes-hunters-foxes's post here.

The video is really dense, and I'm not 100% confident in every aspect of my interpretation, but I feel pretty sure that it's making extensive use of visual metaphor in order to tell roughly the same story as the song, just in a different setting. To start, Taylor wakes up chained to a bed in a white dress.

To me this suggests that she's been driven mad by being left at the altar, and is now trapped, surveilled and controlled, in a type of asylum. This represents the end of her relationship with Joe--waiting for a marriage that never came, feeling trapped, mentally unwell etc.

She then takes 'forget him' pills which reveal Post's tattoos on her face when she looks in the mirror.

This represents Matty (the "miracle move-on drug") and shows that he made a mark on her while she was still in the asylum--that is, still in her relationship with Joe. Additionally, in the wide shot where we see the mirror, its size and shape are very reminiscent of a one-way mirror, often seen in interrogation rooms and psychological experiments, further reinforcing the idea that Taylor is imprisoned here.

She then is able to go to the typewriter room and do her work, creating art about how she's feeling, shown by her repeatedly typing "I love you, it's ruining my life" on the typewriter. She's still in pain and feeling trapped. While there, she encounters Post and they create art together, which creates beauty and color in her life. The blue and gold obviously reference her writing about Joe, but the fact that her work is gold and Post's is blue may be a deliberate choice to draw parallels between Matty and Joe, as she does on numerous songs throughout TTPD.

The next scene, where Taylor's hair is down and she and Post are wearing the same black coat and pants, takes place inside her head (symbolized by the shape of the papers they're laying on.) She is dreaming about them being free and creating art together, represented by the papers surrounding them and book she's holding, which has the word "us" written on the cover. She's writing their story before it's begun.

She then reaches for his hand in her fantasy, accepting and asking for this relationship

Then we see that she's being studied and experimented on--the results of the lie detector test read "I love you, it's ruining my life." Her pain is an object of fascination.

Interestingly, Post is part of the group experimenting on her, but when the experiments begin to cause her pain, he liberates her.

This inspires Taylor to destroy the place where she's been trapped, which we see through her opening the filing cabinets that cover the walls and destroying the mirror. I also find the shot of her standing still while papers burn around her interesting and significant; I interpret this as Taylor destroying her own work about Joe. By choosing to leave, she is metaphorically burning--rejecting--the story she wrote about them.

Finally, Taylor and Post enter the dangerous outside world together; the rain echoes the lyric "I chose this cyclone with you" on the album's title track. While I do feel the meaning of Post being in the phone booth is somewhat ambiguous, the framing and the accompanying lyric--"I've been calling ya but you won't pick up" suggest that he's attempting to communicate with her but can't reach her. They are free of her prison, but still separated.

Then, he hangs up the phone and reaches for her hand, and she takes it. The final shot of the video is a close up on their linked hands, presenting us with a cautiously optimistic ending--they are lost and vulnerable in the middle of a storm, but they have each other.

I feel this is a somewhat less sinister, for lack of a better word, portrayal of the start of Matty and Taylor's relationship than is suggested elsewhere on the record, though I believe Post's character being part of the group experimenting on her is significant and the editing creates some ambiguity about exactly when and why she decides to break free. But I hope this clarifies how the video sets up the beginning of this story, the fallout of which is then chronicled over the course of the rest of TTPD.

#taylor swift #the tortured poets department #ttpd #fortnight

[sparkplug02]

My take on the Final Fifteen

To Aziraphale, I don’t think the choice was “stay with Crowley on Earth” or “leave Crowley for Heaven.” I think the choice was “go to Heaven with Crowley” or “go to Heaven without Crowley.” In other words,

“No” wasn’t an option (to Aziraphale) (gif is not mine).

From the coffee shop scene where the Metatron orders coffee from Nina:

Metatron: “Do people ever ask for death?”

Nina: “What?”

Metatron: “The name of your establishment, ‘Give me coffee or give me death’ - I assume they always ask for coffee?”

Nina: “They don’t ever ask for death, no.”

Metatron: “I don’t suppose they do. So predictable.”

Death isn’t an option. “No” isn’t an option. Not to Aziraphale, who goes along with Heaven as best he can.

With Job, there was wiggle room to bend the rules and interpret things in Job’s behavior. Aziraphale lied but he didn’t outright refuse anyone. Technically, Crowley was the one who made the trick happen. Aziraphale only affirmed it.

During the Final Fifteen, Aziraphale had effectively just started a war. To quote Crowley, “Heaven won’t like that.” Then Voice of God personally came down and, rather than issuing a punishment for using his halo, the Metatron told Aziraphale he would be the new Supreme Archangel.

If God (or God’s voice) says so, then it must be. Aziraphale IS the new Supreme Archangel. The Supreme Archangel must reside in Heaven, so Aziraphale will go to Heaven. For an angel, there is no choice in that. I doubt it crosses Aziraphale’s mind that refusal mighty be an option. There is no option.

Aziraphale’s time on Earth is up. Maybe that is how he sees it. Nothing lasts forever, and he has to go. I doubt he wants to go alone though.

(gif still not mine)

If Crowley came with him, that would make Heaven more bearable. Making Crowley into an angel again might not be an “I can fix you” but a “this is the only way we can stay together.” It is not within Aziraphale’s new jurisdiction to refuse the call of the Lord, but it is within his jurisdiction to give a call of his own. I doubt any angel has the power to make a demon an angel again, so the Metatron was probably banking on the fact that Crowley doesn’t trust Heaven and would never willingly return there, but I also doubt Aziraphale knew that.

If you approach this from a perspective of no alternative, no choice for Aziraphale to stay or leave, only the choice for Crowley to join him or stay behind, then the response to “tell me you said no” was a very honest and genuine “I couldn’t.” Not because Aziraphale values Heaven over Crowley, but because he has no choice in the matter. He IS going to Heaven. He doesn’t see a way out of that.

Of course, Crowley does, and why wouldn’t he? He makes his ‘too late’ love confession, and when that doesn’t work outright, he tries to convince Aziraphale that he has a choice, that he can refuse, that he should refuse, that he ought to refuse.

One of the things I learned in a public speaking class (shoutout to Donna) is that if you’re trying to persuade someone, you can’t expect to get them to swing from one extreme to another. You have to know where your audience stands on the issue and aim to move them one, maybe two degrees towards your side at a time. If you want to change someone’s mind the easy way (talking to them instead of forcing them through an experience that changes their perspective), you have to go slow and steady. If you try to argue someone from one extreme to another, then all you’re likely to do is push them even further away from the stance you want them to take.

This was not a slow and steady persuasion. This was a last-ditch attempt at a long shot. Aziraphale had just started to separate himself from Heaven, enough that he stopped Armageddon with Crowley, but he wasn’t completely detached from them. They still sent Muriel to watch him, which implies that he’s still under Heaven’s control, even if he has gone rogue.

Aziraphale doesn’t see staying behind as an option. He cannot do it, it will not happen. He spends all that time trying to convince Crowley to come with him because that it is the only thing that will make this inevitable future bearable. He must go to Heaven, he will go to Heaven. When Crowley asks him if he said no, he doesn’t respond because this isn’t something he can say no to. It doesn’t occur to him, and he doesn’t consider any possibility…

…until Crowley kisses him.

This is only one example. He keeps turning around, keeps looking back. THAT is one step in the right direction. THAT was enough to make him hesitate, to wonder if maybe he could choose not to go to Heaven and that maybe he should. One fabulous kiss and now, all of a sudden, he’s second-guessing himself.

He still goes, but in the elevator, the Metatron tells Aziraphale about the Second Coming. Crowley figured this out earlier, and Aziraphale knows it now. That final look? Well, they both know how Crowley thinks the Big One will end. Heaven and Hell against Humanity.

In order for Crowley to succeed at stopping the Second Coming, Aziraphale would have had to stay with him. In order for Aziraphale to succeed at thwarting the Second Coming, Crowley would have had to come with him. They probably both feel like the other is abandoning them in their greatest time of need.

Here’s the thing, though: Aziraphale may be Supreme Archangel now, but he was Guardian of the Eastern Gate first and foremost. Aziraphale might stand by and watch Heaven and Hell fight, but the second Heaven turns against Humanity, ohhhhhh it’s over. He was only willing to kill Adam because he thought the rest of Humanity’s survival depended on it. He knows humans kill each other and die all the time, but the last time he’s watched a holy or unholy being kill people was the Flood, and that was God Herself doing it. If his captors fellow angels start killing humans as collateral for the Second Coming, then that will knock him over the edge.

And Heaven doesn’t want that. The Metatron gets Aziraphale in line before the Second Coming starts. If Aziraphale and Crowley team up (you know, the angel and demon who tried to subtly perform a double-half-miracle and instead produced a 25 Lazari smoke signal), it’s over. The day Heaven loses their grip on Aziraphale is the day Heaven loses.

I think Crowley’s kiss worked better than he thinks it did. It made Aziraphale doubt, and it walked him one step closer to turning around. Aziraphale’s protective Principality nature will take care of the rest, and as soon as Aziraphale realizes he has a choice, we all know the choice he will make. Crowley is an optimist. He’ll be there when Aziraphale figured it out.

He’ll be pissed off, but he’ll be there. They both will. Crowley is still on Their Side. My guess is that Aziraphale will go radio silent for an episode or so before he sabotages Heaven so bad that the only way they can recover is by teaming up with Hell. The second Crowley sees Heaven’s plan going up in flames, he’ll know his angel is behind it. He’ll know Aziraphale is on Their Side again.

#good omens #good omens season 2 spoilers #good omens season two #good omens season 2 #good omens s2 #good omens season 3 #ineffable husbands #aziraphale #crowley #aziracrow #crowly x aziraphale #final fifteen #metatron #neil gaiman

[autismprotocol]

TMAG Theory Board Update (EP 11-12)

Hi guys sorry about the late posting I've just started a new quarter of college and its been pretty hectic. also got into my school design BFA program so pretty stoked about that! Anyways lets get into the Episode Breakdowns because even though not a lot of lore related things happened I still have a lot to talk about

For the breakdown I'll separate each by episode in sequential order

What Happened in Episode 11: Marked

Celias Rude Awakening- we jump right into the weirdness straight away with Celia waking up on the side of the interstate. she indicates that this is not a weird occurrence and ends the scene by telling someone named Jack that she's "on her way." If you remember episode 8 after Celia and Sam talk to Gerry and Gertrude, she mentions stuff about wanting help with her own mystery. When Sam asks about it she says she's looking into Time travel, other dimentions and teleportation. Many people have theorized that maybe Celia is just a super heavy sleepwalker, but I think the she teleports random places out of nowhere. This could be a side effect of her reality hopping if this Celia is originally from The archives universe.

As for the identity of Jack I'm not quite sure about that yet. I cross referenced the name Jack with past episodes of TMA. The only thing that came up was Jack Barnabas from the statement about dating Agnes Montague (aka an avatar of the desolation and Jesus-like figure for the cult of the lightless flame) So Unless Celia is secretly Agnes of Agnes reincarnated , I can't find any way to link Barnabas to Celia. (if anyone has a theory feel free to send it my way.)

Sam Lore- this one is pretty minor story-wise but I thought it was interesting. Before the statement for the episode is presented we get some classic Sam and Alice Banter ™ most of it is pretty lighthearted but I noticed Sam mention something that could indicate he might be an amputee.

These could not mean anything and I find it weird that it hasn't been mentioned until now but thought it was kind of cool and I will probably be drawing sam with a prothetic leg in the future cause I really like this head-canon. It also begs to question if he is missing a leg. it might have anything to do with his past as a Magnus institute test subject but then again could just be a fun character detail added by Jonny and/or Alex .

The Statement- Getting into the statement we get another Ink5oul appearance. Also possible Ink5oul identifying as she/they. (and lets be honest being a fear avatar is pretty non binary core). I found this Episode gave me a feeling of a hybrid between the Vast, Buried and the Flesh some people are theorizing that is might be a new entity called the Deep but I think that the fear of the ocean could easily apply to the vast or buried. Not much to say about this story though pretty standard Magnus horror that also gave us a hint to what Ink5oul's goal could be/which entity they serve.

Post Bonzo- Gwen has a debrief with Lena after her first Externals Liason assignment and her meeting with Mr. Bonzo. Undoubtedly Gwen is still pretty shaken from her encounter, even arriving late to work due to sleeplessness. Gwen is able to ask Lena a few questions mainly she wanted to know who's name was written on the letter given to Bonzo

Lena is largely unhelpful but tells Gwen she should have worked it out by now and if not to pay close attention to the case load for the next couple of days. before the latest episode my guess was Klaus because that is the only person mentioned so far that the OIAR intends to kill. but more on that later

Marked- Now were getting to my favorite thing about this episode. This episode title can have two meanings. The first is the more literal interpretation. Tattoos are marking of the body and the case this episode was all about tattoos so easily a good name would be marked. But I believe this is a red herring meant to misguide listeners who have not consumed all 200 episodes of TMA because if you know the world of Magnus Archives the term Marked takes on a entirely different meaning.

In TMA the term marked is used to indicate that somebody has been influenced by one or more or the fears and are one their way to becoming an Avatar. I think this could be a coded way to tell the audience someone in the OIAR has been marked. I have two potential candidates

Alice Dyer- Alice has been having dreams about the Institute after her and Sam's adventure into the ruins. also she mentions feeling like someone's watching her (common to people influenced or fed upon by the Ceaseless Watcher/The Eye) My guess if she is marked it would be by the Eye.

Gwendolyn Bouchard: Probably the most likely culprit. The main way an entitly tends to mark people is through encounters with other avatars. Gwen has just had an encounter with Mr Bonzo last episode who I strongly believe must be an avatar of some sort.

What Happened in Episode 12: Getting Off

Aww Sam!!- Sam asked Celia out and it was adorably awkward. not much to say I just loved this interaction and I'm longing for a new Magnus brand office romance hopefully is wont be an agonizing slowburn that ends tragically like a certain pair of morons from Archives (I love you Jon and Martin but Jesus christ)

It's Bonzo time bitches!!- Probably one of the most gruesome Magnus statement I've ever listened to (good work Alex) Mr Bonzo completely annihilated some poor dude at his bachelor party. Based on the date of the Incident the I can confidently say that whoever Baz (the groom) was he was our mystery person the OIAR sent Mr Bonzo to get rid of. Along with some of the bloodiest imagery we learned a few things about Bonzo. The most interesting detail is that Bonzo has to be summoned by playing his theme song I think the CD of his theme song acts somewhat like the tapes did in TMA by materialising out of nowhere. Also fun fact you know that torn seam that is right down Bonzo's middle? that is actually is his mouth lined with rows sharp teeth so I guess I know that now (so fun) Moral of the story dont f*ck with Mr. Bonzo

Alice knows something: Theres been this recurring audio glitch throughout TMAGP thatnks to a few extremly observent fans we have started to relize that these glitches are not at all random and are actually letting the audience know when a character is lying (i actually reposted somones deepdive into all the istances of this glitch so far if you guys are intrested in knowing more) why i bring this up now is becuase since we know when any charater is lying we also know when they are being truthful if there is no glitch when they say somthing and at the end of this episode this interaction occurs

Alice goes ahead and makes a joke about this to annoy Gwen but the fact theres no audio glitch when she says "I know" means she does actually know who is behind the OIAR and is activly refusing to share it with Gwen or the others. What do you know Alice!?

and that's about it im already loving these next batch of episodes and am so excited to learn more (ERROR has to show up somtime )

thanks to everyone who resonded the poll on the last update I will continue to include drawings into the breakdown even if it takes me a little bit of time to post. anyways I wrote this all in one sitting and I'm about ready to pass out so thanks again and the ask box and comments are always open for discussion and theory crafting.

-Echo

#the magnus protocol #augustus tmagp #tmagp #chester tmagp #gwendolyn bouchard #jonathan sims #lena kelley #martin blackwood #norris tmagp #tmagp theory #ink5oul #tmagp fanart #tmagp spoilers #the magnus pod #magpod #tmagp speculation #magnus protocol #magnuspod #alice dyer #gwen bouchard #samama khalid #lena kelly #celia ripley #tmagp celia #rusty quill #alexander j newall #celia x sam #tmagp thoughts

[glorious-sunset]

LBFAD Opening Artwork – Hidden Meanings

The created artworks used for the opening scenes of LBFAD (Love Between Fairy and Devil) are unique and have many hidden layers of meaning! Sheer genius on the part of the artists and designers :D Here are my interpretations of these stunning works of art.

Image 1: Bone Orchid (image above)

Although I’ve posted stills, each image actually moves. Here, flowers bloom on the Bone Orchid and leaves grow on previously bare branches around the sides. This is the original form of the Bone Orchid prior to DongFang QingCang (DFQC) transforming it into a bracelet for Xiao Lanhua (XLH) in ep. 9.

The two parts of the Bone Orchid, the crescent-moon-shaped bone and the vine of the orchid plant wrapped around it, each represent DFQC (the Moon Supreme) and XLH (who was disguised as an Orchid), and their close bond. This is a new magical artefact that DFQC created from his blood in ep. 9 (similar to Lady Yan creating the Heart-hiding hairpin). That he chose to give it a form symbolising a bond between himself and XLH is deeply significant! Consciously, he may have meant their connection through the one-heart curse, but subconsciously he already had deep affection for her by this time.

Orchid flowers blooming on the previously bare vines of the Bone Orchid represent the blooming of their love for each other. (As their love blooms, XLH bonds with the Bone Orchid to the extent that removing it would end her life by ep. 29). It also refers to the many times that XLH makes flowers bloom when DFQC does something to make her happy :D The leaves growing on the bare branches around the sides of the image symbolise XLH’s resurrection of DFQC’s Tree of Emotions and his healing process. The Bone Orchid representing the love between our Fairy and Devil is the central theme of LBFAD, so no wonder it is the first image we see!

Image 2: Xiao Lanhua

Here XLH first transforms from an orchid flower tethered to its stem, into human form as a young and innocent girl. The white swirls around her represent her usual spiritual powers (not her green Goddess powers). When she uses her powers to repair destiny leaves, etc., her energy appears as white light (important note - we see a different type of energy later in the opening artwork!) The pink tinge to some swirls represent her femininity and affection. XLH appears weak and vulnerable but her love and tenderness are the most transformative force in the series. Her reflection in the water below shows an orchid plant only, not a girl – this symbolises the illusion of her orchid form in hiding her true identity.

Image 3: Haishi Rescue

In this scene from ep. 3, initial obstacles to their love are presented including their power differential (symbolised by her small size within his giant hands), his view of her as an object and his underlying lack of emotions. The city of Haishi is below, the giant Sun made of DFQC’s formidable Hellfire is to the left, and the floating debris represents the destruction DFQC has wrought and is trained to continue to wreak. His mission is to destroy Shuiyuntian and conquer the three realms.

XLH looks vulnerable, her cloak resembles an orchid petal, and white/pink swirls of feminine energy again surround her. However, DFQC has just saved her life and continues to shield her within a protective bubble – an important ongoing dynamic of their relationship.

Images 4-7: Flashback

Images 4-7 are artistically presented as a series of opening doors, like opening the pages of a history book. They are a flashback to events 30,000 years ago and set the scene for current events and obstacles to the love between the OTP.

Image 4: The Two Tribes

The two different tribes that our OTP belong to are presented. Shuiyuntian is light and airy, and floats above the clouds with dozens of golden birds flying in the sky. They are the emblem of Shuiyuntian (as the crescent moon is for the Moon tribe) as shown by the golden bird brooches worn by celestials. Similar to Shangque transforming into a black dragon, the true form of some celestials may also be of golden birds and they can transform into this form. The position of Cangyan Sea below Shuiyuntian, the darkness in which their people live and their comparative lack of manpower (there is only one black dragon in the image) suggests that they are oppressed by Shuiyuntian.

Image 5: Battle of Two Tribes

Prior to Lady Chidi’s sacrifice, the people of Shuiyuntian and Cangyan Sea fight each other, their forces coordinated by Lord Dong and DFQC. This is the culmination of a hundred millenia of warfare between their tribes. Again there is only one dragon, and Lady Chidi in the forefront leaps into Cangyan Sea territory to confront it. Her red cape traces her active path through the battlefield. White and red swirls of energy (+/- blood) emanate from her.

Image 6: Lady Chidi’s Sacrifice

After invading Xuanxu realm of Cangyan Sea, this is the pivotal moment where Lady Chidi explodes her spirit to seal the 100,000 soldiers of the Moon tribe. Red blood sprays from her body and her earth magic envelops the Moon Tribe soldiers, sealing them within the earth. Her sacrifice foreshadows XLH’s own sacrifice in ep. 31.

Image 7: The Capture of DFQC

After the sealing of his soldiers, a weakened DFQC with white hair is suspended within the circular Haotian tower, his arms and legs magically bound. Magical glyphs surround him to seal him in place, representing the magical seal of the Haotian matrix.

Image 8: Xiao Lanhua of Arbiter Hall

Back to the present - the series opens by introducing us to XLH of Siming Dian (Arbiter Hall). The archways in this image are similar to the archways in the lower level of Arbiter Hall. Vines grow around the pillars, symbolising that XLH’s primordial spirit is connected to the plants at Arbiter Hall. The trees behind her may represent the nearby Shuyu Forest that she frequently visits. As XLH moves to the right, new white trees start to grow in front of the black trees, demonstrating her ability to create new life and make plants grow. White swirls of her spiritual energy again surround her.

In line with her selfless and giving nature, XLH offers up her spirit! She does this four times in the series: 1) In ep. 1, she offers up her life and spirit to protect Changheng, whose destiny leaf had changed and was destined to have his body and spirit destroyed (more detail here). 2) Also in ep. 1, she fuses part of her spirit to DFQC’s, restoring his spirit and body and giving him a part of her spirit (which he later extracts in ep. 33 to resurrect her). 3) In ep. 31, she sacrifices her life and spirit to protect DFQC’s life, to resurrect everyone that died on the battlefield and free the 100,000 sealed soldiers of the Moon Tribe. 4) She promises the Great Turtle in ep. 33 that she will sacrifice her spirit to defeat Taisui and bless the Three Realms. XLH’s fate to sacrifice herself is another obstacle to her and DFQC’s love for each other :(

Image 9: DFQC’s Tree of Emotions

Thanks to XLH’s resurrection of his Tree of Emotions in ep. 1, DFQC begins to grow beautiful glowing golden leaves on its previously bare branches, symbolising his breathtaking transformation.

Image 10: The Great Turtle

I believe this is another flashback. At the end of XLH’s first life in Xishan, her parents disguised her as an orchid flower with no human form. At this time between her first and second lives, she meets the Great Turtle. The orchid flower sprouting from her hand is the new form she transforms into, and orchid petals float around her during her transformation. The Great Turtle calls XLH an old friend in ep. 9 as they have met before – in this scene.

To the left of the image is a crescent moon with a dead tree growing on it. This symbolises DFQC (the Moon Supreme) and his Tree of Emotions which was dead at that time 30,000 years ago. There is a wisp of haze around the tree indicating that it has the potential to regrow. Despite XLH’s destiny to sacrifice herself for the Three Realms (which she might have discussed with the Great Turtle here), DFQC is waiting in the wings to change her destiny!

Image 11: Our Fairy and Devil

XLH gazes upward in hope, while DFQC’s eyes are closed and his head bowed, portraying both his reserved nature and that initially he was emotionally closed off, aloof and distant. The asymmetric gold crown that DFQC wears indicates that this scene is from after their return from the mortal realm back to Cangyan Sea – XLH also wears Moon Tribe attire.

On the Bone Orchid between them are flowers in full bloom, representing their love, which is now in full bloom :D Also between them is DFQC’s Tree of Emotions, now fully regrown with gorgeous white blossoms similar to the scene where he sits beneath his tree in ep. 24.

Despite the beautiful development of their love and of their characters, war between their two tribes is imminent. The image of Shuiyuntian between them sports a red flag, indicating their impending invasion of Cangyan Sea. Cangyan Sea is outnumbered, represented by one dragon vs. dozens of golden birds, and they face annihilation at the hands of Shuiyuntian D: Another reason for DFQC to bow his head, as he faces both the destruction of his realm and the loss of his love at this time.

Image 12: Peace Reigns

Just look at the swirls of energy emanating from XLH and DFQC as they float in a boat along the Oblivion River! There are again white swirls for XLH, but DFQC has red and gold swirls for Glazed Fire!! This scene occurs after DFQC’s return at the end of the series! :D The red belt around XLH’s waist is reminiscent of blood pooling from her wound in ep. 31 when she stabs herself with the Zhengying sword. This image (and the opening theme song Jue Ai, “Farewell Love”) pays homage to both her sacrifice, and DFQC’s sacrifice in ep. 36 which produced his Glazed Fire. Only through both of their sacrifices, were they able to bring about first a ceasefire to war, then lasting peace between Shuiyuntian and Cangyan Sea, breaking through a hundred millenia of unending conflict!

Only by creating peace are they finally able to be together happily. The boat is deeply significant for our OTP - there are three situations where they are alone together in a boat during the series. XLH reminisces fondly about this in ep. 24, and Siming sends a boat for DFQC (and fireflies for Changheng!) as a sign that she knows their most significant connections to XLH. To the bottom right are the peaceful waters of Cangyan Sea with the watchful eye of a black dragon at rest. To the top left is a peaceful Shuiyuntian with Yunzhong’s watchful “Eye of Heaven” (seen in ep. 14) accompanied by a flower in bloom, symbolising peace and prosperity. The positions of each are in poetic parallel to image 4 which showed conflict – the defensive black dragon in image 4 is now restful, and the golden birds also seem to be resting :)

Here is a link to my article: How Immortals age in cdramas – clues from LBFAD

All of my LBFAD articles can be viewed with the tag #lbfad reflections (hyperlinked) and the table of contents to these is here.

#lbfad #love between fairy and devil #canglan jue #clj #dongfang qingcang #dfqc #xiao lanhua #xlh #cdrama #lbfad meta #cang lan jue #lbfd #lbfad reflections #cdramasource #asiandramasource #asiandramanet #dylan wang #wang hedi #yu shuxin #esther yu

[tzthrowbacks]

oh by the way i just came back from challengers..

some thoughts :

everybody was acting DOWN

such an entertaining plot from beginning to end. low stake movies about messy people...that's exactly the kind of movie i needed right now, and i actually liked the flashbacks (saw some complain about it)

everyone is pathetic in their own way but i lowkey expected waaaay worse from art given what everyone (im looking at you z) was saying. he's a looser and a snake absolutely, and i know what he did initially was shitty, and i think he's boring as hell so i understand why tashi was losing her mind in this marriage lol. but idk i thought he was going to be way more.... insufferable ? in terms of scenes and dialogues i mean

chemistry wise, tashi and patrick oh man.....was giggling and kicking my feet everytime they were together. i know they were written that way but tashi art scenes felt soooo bland in comparison

don't jump me but i expected more tashi ? not in terms of screen time, but more about her as a character. i know she's the connective tissue between them all. i think she's an interesting character, she's complex, but i wished it explored more of that complexity. i have a clear idea of who the boys are, their personality and quirks, idk if i feel the same way about tashi, but maybe i need to sit on it and rewatch psa : i didn't read the script, that's maybe why i expected more

anyone want to discuss the ending ? how did you interpret it ? i smirked when patrick did his special move letting him know they fucked, but also i feel like it gave art the drive to outperform and their embrace at the end sums up their relationship. all their problems would've been solved if they just got together lmao. and tashi only cared about watching some 'good fucking tennis' and she ended up having it, hence the final shot of her, smiling

i need josh

#what a time to be alive

[arliedraws]

In the books, Sirius's devotion to Harry is of course very deep, but it never translates to something physical. He only shakes Harry's end when he leaves his bedside in book 4, and in book 5 there is something resembling a hug, like twice...? As a dog he stood up his hind legs and front paws on harry's shoulders and a half hug after Christmas. Idk it sort of drives me crazy, because in the movies Harry and Sirius are so affectionate! That first hug when Harry arrives in Grimmauld!! Gary and Dan had an amazing chemistry that other actors were jealous of, they mirrored the book characters, so it palpable on screen, the few scenes Gary is in at all at least.

So, what do you make of this? Do you in musing for art imagine a more affectionate relationship between Harry and Sirius? Maybe if Sirius survived the war? Molly's hug in book 4 was a poignant moment but imo that should have been a moment between Sirius and Harry. Sirius already says he expected something catastrophic to happen to Harry in the third task, that's what he stutters when Harry comes in with Dumblebore. So he is literally afraid of his godsons life and it still shows of course, Sirius staying at Harry's side was very beautifully written, like the devotion is clear, but I am foaming at the mouth for more affection between them in canon? Platonic, not shipping. So between the movies and the books Im just kinda torn what's better

It's more a rant than an ask, sorry lol, but if you have any input I'd he so stoked to read it. Not many peeps in the fandom even give Sirius and Harry any time of day, nvrmind even understand what they had (which also drives me kinda nuts but ok)

Ohhhh, anon, you’ve come to the right spot! Mostly because I love them. I would say that 80% of my fandom interest is just Sirius being a dad to Harry.

To your question, I don’t think one is better than the other. Each has their purpose. Let me share my thoughts:

1. I am soft for movie Sirius and Harry’s affectionate touching. However. The dynamics of their relationship were NOT mirrored from the books, which…is fine. Honestly, I just don’t think it was a priority for the filmmakers. This particular bit doesn’t bother me because the movies are not supposed to replace the source material—they are an interpretation. To me, watching the movies is like reading fic—fun to watch but not canon. Also, the filmmakers removed so much of their relationship in GoF that they HAD to make Sirius and Harry physically affectionate in order for movie audiences to see what losing Sirius would mean to Harry. Their complexity is completely unexplored in the films, and they had to do SOMETHING to get the audience to feel sad when Sirius died. This started in PoA when they really downplayed the context of their relationship. (Lol, see my rant on PoA. I really don’t like that movie hahahahaha.)

2. In the books, Harry and Sirius are not physically affectionate with each other despite their intense love for each other, and I think this is an effective way to show characterization. As I tell my students, this might have been intentional by the author, but it could have been an instinct that she followed (what feels right for the characters).

Here’s what I think: both are so terrified of losing the other that they won’t allow themselves to get too close, and, crucially, they both fear showing vulnerability. Touching someone and reaching out for a hug or comfort is an extremely vulnerable thing to do. If you reach out for a hug, you are showing your true feelings. To be rejected physically is sometimes more devastating than someone telling you to just “go away.” It’s a sign of trust to touch someone—you are trusting that they feel the same way about you, and you are trusting that they won’t pull away. Both Sirius and Harry understand rejection, and both avoid it. How do you avoid rejection? You distance yourself.

I’ll put the rest under a cut because I think this might get long…

Sirius and Harry, for all that they love each other, fall out of trusting each other by OotP. Part of this is trauma, but it is also miscommunication. Harry is worried that Sirius will do something stupid—either out of concern for Harry or because he wants to get out of number 12–but he’s worried he’ll lose Sirius. So by withholding affection (which I’m not sure if he knows how to give physically), Harry distances himself from Sirius which will, theoretically, keep Sirius safe (of course, it backfires). Sirius is…you know…going through stuff in OotP. He is already vulnerable—he perceives himself as being emasculated because he’s not allowed to leave his childhood home and he’s relegated to performing ‘uninteresting, domestic work’, and he must be inactive when he’s a man OF action.

When it comes to Goblet of Fire and the odd handshake… I think Sirius is reeeeeally holding back. Harry does NOT want him to go, and Sirius knows this. (Why DOES Dumbledore send him away? Literally anyone else could have “alerted the old crowd” and NOT the convicted murderer. This is clearly the author’s excuse to get Sirius away from Harry—and, I’ve spoken to this before, Sirius is too much of a miracle character—too smart, too loyal, too loving to support the story that the author wanted to tell.) Sirius, if he had stayed, would have been the emotional support that Harry needed. So if Sirius holds Harry, what if Harry doesn’t let go? What if Sirius himself can’t let go? A handshake will have to do.

So Sirius leaves Harry with that bizarre handshake. That Sirius leaves at all damages their relationship—it could have been repaired with time (if they’d been allowed time), but this moment makes Harry realize that he cannot rely on anyone, not even Sirius. This leaves Harry to be isolated in OotP, and it leaves him to feel like he cannot trust anyone. I’m not blaming Sirius for leaving, but I believe this action causes a rift between them that carries into the next book.

My point is, I HATE that they don’t touch but it is very important that they don’t, at least when it comes to the story that the author wanted to tell. I think it was the right move when we look at the story as a whole. Do I like it? NO! But it’s interesting, and it DOES feel right for them. Is it devastating? Yes!!!!!!!

TL;DR: I don’t think either interpretation is necessarily better than the other, but they both have their purpose. Both are effective!

Touch is…huge in HP. Consider Voldemort’s “I can touch him now” and causing Harry pain. Touch is a privilege, and to be touched without permission is a violation. Harry kills someone by touching them. He is only touched by his family when Dudley beats him up or he gets shoved in his cupboard.

Weirdly, one of my absolutely favorite moments when Sirius and Harry touch is in PoA when the Dementors are closing in on Sirius, Harry, and Hermione, and Harry, as he’s about to faint, reaches out to grab an unconscious Sirius by the arm, thinking something along the lines of “the dementors weren’t going to take him” and such. And this is about two seconds after Harry has accepted that Sirius is telling the truth! Harry physically tethers Sirius to him—this touch-starved teen reaches out to this man who is now everything to him, who is now his only real family, willing to risk death (or worse) to keep it. BUT THEY JUST MET!!!!! Devastating!!!

Also…another thought: the first time Sirius and Harry touch is the first time Sirius has been touched as a human in twelve years. And Harry is beating the absolute shit out of him…and then Sirius nearly strangles him…

Also, also, not to like…self-promote, but if you want some Sirius & Harry family feelings and a wee bit of affectionate touching, I wrote a one-shot where they talk about their feelings in OotP.

Anyway, this got longer than I thought. Thank you for the prompt!!

#if this sounds critical of sirius it’s not #he is a Very Good Character #if he were ‘perfect’ he’d be boring #i like his messy parts #and i like harry’s #i wish there had been more of them together #but i like that we can build the relationship outside of what we’re given #i love AUs #sirius black #harry potter #hp meta #long post #asks

[wanderingwomanwondering]

Maddie’s word choice when Buck told her about his date with Tommy in 705 was so gentle and supportive, as we’ve all discussed. But her words were also SO SLICK!!!

She was treading lightly because she of course knew that this was a sensitive time for Buck AND she also did some math in her head over the course of the conversation and realized that there’s a piece of the equation that Buck is missing. She couldn’t just give Buck the answer though. Some puzzles he’s gotta work out on his own.

So. Looking more closely at the actual dialogue…

Buck gives Maddie the rundown of the evening’s happenings. Maddie notices the date’s pronoun. Then:

Buck: Yeah, okay, I was on a date with a guy. Again, not-not really the point.

Maddie: Mmm, it could very much be the point.

Remember, Buck is upset with himself for lying to Eddie *and doesn’t understand why he did that* He thinks it’s about dating a man in general. I think Maddie suspects it’s actually about Buck’s unrealized/unexpressed feelings for Eddie. The lie Buck is reeling over probably isn’t about dating a man, but about dating the wrong man.

Back to the conversation. Buck explains his allyship, then:

Maddie: So-so now you’re more than an ally?

Buck: It was my first time, it was dinner and a movie, and I - I didn’t even make it to the movie.

Maddie is following Buck’s reasoning in the ally part of the conversation, but clearly not quite vibing with parts of it. She’s in support mode, basically honoring Buck’s process and his journey. But still trying to navigate her own in the moment reactions without freaking Buck out. Treading lightly.

After Buck’s last remark above, cue Maddie’s haunted facial expression in which she clearly reviews countless past events and conversations with Buck in light of his new discovery about himself:

Maddie: Wow.

Buck: What, ‘wow’?

Maddie: No, not ‘wow’. Like, ‘Wow. I didn’t think that’s where your interests would lie.”

From my perspective she clearly and firmly rejected the ‘wow, you’re queer, what the hell. Way to be a massive enigma little brother’ interpretation…because obviously she would reject that. But that second clarification ‘wow’ doesn’t mean what Buck thought it meant. I honestly do NOT think she was saying ‘I didn’t think/know that you might be into guys too’.

Maddie is basically Buck mom for all intents and purposes, and she knows him well. To be fair, most people close to Buck know him better than he knows himself in key ways so with Maddie’s canon comments about Buck’s sexuality over the years, there’s no way she didn’t have her hunches. Period. What I think Maddie actually meant was that she didn’t think Buck had eyes for any guy but Eddie at this point. After doing the new math in her head real quick, of course.

I think that tracks with what she said a little later and how she said it:

Maddie: Okay, I don’t think you’re a fraud, I just think that maybe you’re not sure of your own feelings yet. And if there’s something that you need to tell Eddie, you will. Just, in your own time.

Between that line and her facial expressions, Maddie was on a damn journey! Imho it took everything in her to not just say ‘Wait what?! Eddie is your person my guy let’s be so for real right now’. She was a mix of confused and exasperated in the home stretch of that conversation lol. Still she showed up, met Buck where he was at, and supported him.

Then to top off that whole ‘coming out’ and ‘feeling like a fraud’ scene, Maddie says to Buck “so tell me about the hot pilot” and the scene immediately transitions to Eddie in bed with Marisol. Yeah, Eddie is the hot pilot in question. Buck just hasn’t figured it out yet, and Maddie realizes **all of that** now!

#evan buckley #maddie buckley #buddie #tommy kinard #911 meta #911 7x05 #911 abc

[howlingday]

on a scale of Gomez Addams to Vernon Dursley (for treatment of Harry not Dudley) where do you think Jaune's dad falls in terms of neglect?

Hm... That's a pretty good scale.

Gomez is especially attentive of his kids, and though his enthusiasm may get taken away when praising one of his kids, he will quickly shift gears to support his other child, though it may take some guidance from his wife, Morticia, like we've seen in the animated series. So, let's put him at... 10.

Vernon Dursley is... clearly at the bottom of the scale, even if his weight scale only shows three digits, considering he puts more attention and care to his biological son than to his adopted son/nephew. Dudley has his own room while Harry sleeps in a storage space under the stairs. To be honest, the only good Dursley in the house is Dudley, though he starts off as an entitled shit, he actually apologizes to Harry later on for how horribly he treated him (sure, I only know this because it's in a deleted scene, but eh). So yeah, 1.

Obviously, there are worse fathers in media, just like there are better fathers in media. Now, let's look at Jaune's dad and... Oh... Uh... It seems he's... misplaced... Not to worry, though! We can just look at what kind of person he was based on what his kids are like.

First off, we have Jaune's dad's "infamous" quote of "all you need is confidence". And I put infamous in quotations because people don't like that this was something he learned from his dad. But, to be honest, I think this is a great first step. Jaune's dad is clearly offering life advice for his son. It's not perfect advice, but it is good advice, especially for a lanky teenager like Jaune who only just decided to become a huntsman.

People will harp on Jaune's dad, saying that he should have trained his son to be a huntsman, but... I don't think Jaune wanted to be a huntsman until he was much older. Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and probably everyone else in the show already had training under their belts from an early age and chose to go to Beacon to continue their training so they can become huntresses. Jaune... didn't, if I'm assuming right. Jaune basically did the same thing as hopping on a bus for boot camp- Wait, no. No, it's more like he jumps into a platoon, SKIPPING boot camp so that he can get that OJT. Then again, there's probably a better analogy for this, but my point is that I don't blame Jaune's inexperience as much on his dad as I do on Jaune himself.

BUT there's also one scene that shows us what kind of parents Jaune's dad AND mom were like. Jaune says in V3 that when he left for Beacon, his parents told him "Hey, if this doesn't work out, you can always come home". Normally, this is common rhetoric for parents telling their kids that they can always fall back to their family whenever they fail. But Jaune interpreted this as "You are going to fail, and we'll see you when you do". Jaune believes his parents don't believe in him, which, if you consider they raised him, they probably have good evidence to believe this.

That said, let's look at how Jaune's sister turned out. Saphron, whom we meet in V6, is a married homemaker mom who opens her home to her brother and his many, many, many friends. That said, I want to take this time to say that if my sister dropped in on me with a dozen people looking to crash for the night, I'm... hesitant... to welcome anyone but her into my home. But Saphron, champion Arc that she is, welcomes everyone. Overall, Saphron seems happy, like, genuinely happy with her son and wife. She even goes along with Jaune's plan to steal the bullhead from Cordovin.

I'm probably speculating here, but I think there's two ways to look at this. You could either see this as "Mama and Papa Arc kicked out their daughter and she's much happier having left them" OR "Papa and Mama Arc raised their kids to rely on each other because family always helps family". Me, I prefer the ladder, and the second of the two options.

So on a scale between "maliciously neglectful papa" and "accidentally neglectful but still well-meaning papa", I would put Papa Arc higher on the scale simply for the fact that Jaune and Saphron don't really have anything to say about their parents being neglectful, intentionally harmful, or in any real negative light. But they still let Jaune run off to be a Huntsman with the family sword, so... 8/10. Good parents, but not perfect. He's no Bandit, that's for sure.

#rwby #papa arc #my thoughts #character analysis #saphron #saphron cotta arc #jaune arc #my answer #my answers #harry potter #the addams #the addams family

[bawbawbridgie]

third addition of going through some absolute insane changes wooooo!!! also the last one was soooo long so I promise this one will be shorter. this one is albus’ new lines with harry. there is no og script i can compare it to as they are completely new lines. 

Slytherin dormitory scene - 

Current: 

Albus: You shouldn’t have forced us apart dad. Scorpius matters to me. You know that don’t you?

Harry: I’m beginning to understand that. 

Last scene - 

Current: 

Albus: You do know right, that Scorpius is the most important person in my life, and he might always be the most important? 

Harry: I know and I like it. In fact I really like him. And if Scorpius is the most important person in your life, then I’d say that is a very good thing. 

Albus Severus Potter, I know what you are. We are all aware that these lines were added in for the new version of this play. This places an emphasis on these two boys, and especially what scorpius means to albus, as the OG script doesn’t touch on the importance of scorpius in his life. If this doesn’t confirm that this new script was purposely changed for the benefit of this relationship, I don’t know what will!

The first scene comes after the whole V-World universe. Harry and Albus’ relationship is difficult, as we know, and for albus to say that is a very important milestone for him. As it’s clear throughout that harry never truly understands his son. Albus is trying to communicate to his dad that scorpius means so much to him and that keeping them away from each other ruined their lives. I also kinda feel this line is albus almost trying to come out to him?

The last scene is read and interpreted as a coming out scene for albus. And yes I know this is my own opinion but I know for a fact that one of the casts throughout the run of this play said that their harry and albus actors chose to play it as a coming out scene (I don’t want to disclose who because it was a private conversation!). 

Even without this confirmation, you can just feel it as you have this 14 year old boy having a deep talk with his dad and decides to just say this out of nowhere. Not only is it albus wanting harry to accept and understand him, I think it also allows albus to finally accept his feelings for his best friend as throughout it’s evident he tries to ignore it. 

ok so maybe this was still a long post but i have to do these 2 beautiful lines justice! 

#absolutely dreading talking about the palace scene as i just have so much to say so be prepared for that #don’t forget that scorpius is the most important person in albus’ life #and they were boyfriends #cursed child #hpcc #harry potter and the cursed child #albus severus potter #scorpius malfoy #albus potter x scorpius malfoy #albus x scorpius #scorbus #harry potter

[kookidough]

analysing vance hopper because he lives in my head 24/7 !

tw for like. literally everything the black phone covers!!!!!!

also there's some special effects gore rather far down in the post idk just i feel like i should warn you just in case

okay so before anyones like "but bee!!!! he only had 6 minutes of screen time in a 102 minute long movie!!!!! he was only on screen for 5.8% of the movie!!!!!" and to that i say i Know it was a real tragedy so a lot of this will be built on personal interpretation and subtext and stuff said behind the scenes and whatnot

so firstly i wanna rot about what his childhood/upbringing might've been like..... i havent quite decided on something definitive but i think we can take one look at his character and realise that is glaringly obvious he had a bad childhood, in one interview the actor that plays him (brady hepner) says "the background i had set up for vance is that the reason he was the way he was is his home life was fairly difficult, you know maybe his dad was either not there for him or he wasn't supportive, maybe he was fairly abusive, and so that creates a hair trigger sense of rage in vance" hair trigger meaning his patience is literally as thin as a strand of hair it does Not take a lot for him to snap

there more to it after that which i'll get into soon but yea thats the gist of it it's clear he had absent/neglectful/abusive parents and that would certainly contribute to why he's so angry all the time, maybe acting so explosive was the only way to get his parents' attention, either good or bad, so he just internalised that. obviously rage and anger issues like vance's lead to violence (not in all cases but in his case it does) and i think a neglectful and abusive upbringing would obviously expose him to more violence than a normal childhood would, therefore normalising it and desensitising him to it, whether he's seeing it play out in his own home and/or on television or something like that (because i doubt his parents would be the kind to monitor what content he's viewing)

i feel like he has little control over his life and that only adds to his anger, which in his case leads to a fight when his buttons are pushed too many times. i think he probably takes great pride in being the toughest in town and whatnot and winning fights and being perceived as strong and scary is good to him and helps him regain control/power, something he doesnt have at home. the rest of the quote from the interview i mentioned earlier states "this pinball machine could have been the only thing that he has in his heart that's like, good, like 'holy cow i did this, i set the score,' so when someone comes along and messes it up for him, it takes away the only thing that he has. i think that that's when he switches to a 'now you're gonna pay for that'"

similar to what i said about fighting, the pinball machine and his high score is something he has control over and its an important part of his reputation/image like. hes literally pinball vance ! and the whole thing about that high score being the "only thing he has in his heart that's good" implies that hes. well. pretty shit at everything else, which is pretty much canon if you remember that gwen said vance was held back twice in school. makes me think that while he's not the brightest in school he's certainly street smart

moving onto ermmmmm him getting kidnapped era because im sure youre wondering "well bee if he's so street smart then why did he get kidnapped" so may i raise two theories (this is. literally all i got and its not even concrete, me and my friend gray (@staggersz) tried to figure out how this could even happen and this is the most plausible thing we've got. so shoutout to him real quick he has had to deal with me being unnormal about vance for like a year and a half thanks king couldnt have done all this without my rotting buddy)

so either he got taken by surprise (most likely option) or vance's trust was gained first via getting given quarters at the pinball machine and small talk and shit like that but this is unlikely because i feel like it'd take a loooooong time for someone like vance to trust a some random stranger adult man when he clearly has issues with trusting and respecting people older than him and people with authority (e.g. cops, his parents, or school officials) so yea being taken by surprise would probably be the most realistic option, i always see people on tiktok being like "how did the grabber kidnap vance hes so strong!!!!" dude its a 15 year old boy against like. a 45 year old man who's already claimed two lives its really not gonna be a fair fight here

before i get into the next part i wanna quickly address a theory i absolutely Hate and it is so easily disproven and that is the theory that vance is the grabber's son or is related to him in some other way and i see it Far too often on tiktok and i HATE it. from what ive seen this all stems from his dream sequence where he kicks open the fence to albert's house and, presumably, goes inside after being dropped off by the police after the grab n go fight. idk if some people just straight up didnt realise this but clearly in real life he is going to his Own House??? in the dream it's only albert's house because this is how he chooses to show gwen the house she's trying to find her brother in, the house that he himself was killed in??? i hate the theory i hate it sm

the dream sequence itself is interesting though as the ghosts seem to only be able to conjure up what theyve seen in real life (like how bruce can picture the outside of the house and show that to gwen but the house number is all flipped and not right beause he doesnt know it) so vance being able to picture the house and the number and the gate and every detail would imply that hes seen it before, but im going to explain that away as either he got out once before like with finney's failed escape attempt, or the house is most likely on the route he walks to school or the grab n go or something and he hasnt actually been there prior to being kidnapped

mini rant over now onto being kidnapped i guess, so i used the missing posters to try and estimate a timeline of how long each ghost boy would've been in the basement for (although the missing posters are notoriously unreliable for details such as looks/height/age/etc, the dates seem to all line up). so we know the order is griffin, billy, vance, bruce, robin, finney, right?? if we use the poster date then billy was taken on may 4th, 1976, a month and two days after griffin was taken (april 2nd 1976). vance was taken on september 23rd 1977, almost a full year later (stay with me im going somewhere with this), and after that bruce was taken on july 18th 1978, again almost a full year later

its established in the movie that the grabber stalks his victims before he takes them (canon because we literally see the van watching finney and gwen as they walk home from school early on in the movie) but we dont know how long he does this for since griffin/billy and robin/finney were taken such short distances apart and then the others were taken such long distances apart, also it's possible he could stalk his next victim while the previous one is still alive, etc etc lots of confusing factors, but if i've done the maths right then the absolute maximum time vance could've spent down there is 9 months and 25 days, or 298 days, so erm . let that sink in !

howeverrrr in the movie gwen states that vance went missing "last spring" and september is definitely not in spring, meaning he could've been down there for a year or even longer. an explanation or excuse i could think of for the movie and the missing poster saying different things (other than the missing posters being known for some areas being wildly inaccurate) is that maybe he was taken in spring but wasnt labelled as officially missing until september, when he was properly linked to griffin and billy's similar disappearances and the mysterious grabber? i can imagine it'd be very easy for law enforcement, especially in the 70s, to dismiss someone like vance as a runaway until they get solid evidence that he was taken. idk though thats just my personal excuse / angsty headcanon for the difference in information

not sure what exactly killed him but we do hear from vance himself that "he took his time with me" so it was probably blood loss from a variety of injuries, if we look at him in his ghost scenes we can see his hair is absolutely covered in blood which indicates head injury, he clearly has a broken nose and bruising around his eyes as a result of it, he has these deep cuts on his abdomen area (apologies for the image quality but i believe they're like. sfx pieces you would wear under clothing)

and he also has just like. minor bruising (like the fingerprints on his arm) and other random blood splatters on his face and neck (assuming the blood down his neck comes from wherever he was bleeding on his head) so Yeah overall very unpleasant way to die obviously

okay now the part thats actually in the movie and it only took me 13 paragraphs to get here: vance as a ghost!! first thing i wanna point out is appearance wise i just want to say that when he's a ghost he's missing his choker and that fact Pains me. anyway personality-wise i feel like being violently murdered has, understandably, kicked his rage up to like. the highest level it could possibly go. he's insanely snarky and downright rude to finney on the phone, showing no empathy to the fact that finney is literally in the exact situation he was in

i feel like the whole "this is the nightmare end of your pathetic little life" and "if you knew what you had coming, you'd be fucking terrified" thing is definitely to scare finney on purpose and to get him to do something, vance might as well have just told him he's never going home cuz thats how it came across LMAOO, it is startling though because vance is clearly speaking from experience, that he was literally fucking terrified, and he is warning finney in his own weird way

the thing i think sets vance apart from the other ghosts is that while he does help finney, he does it for a different reason than they do. the other ghosts want finney to escape, to get out, to be free, to live, but personally i dont think vance cares about that. the only thing he wants is for albert shaw to be dead, for someone to seek vengeance, to do what vance couldn't. vance doesn't care if it's bruce or robin or finney or whatever boy could've come after that, he doesnt care as long as that man gets what he deserves after what he put vance through, and i see this through the scene at the end of vance's call where finney thanks him for his help and vance says, and i quote, "helping you? this isn't about you, fuck him! and apologies for being repetitive but to me it just literally proves that to vance, this isnt about finney or his escape, its just about revenge

we dont get to find out what happens to the ghosts once the credits have rolled, and i dont think we quite know enough about tbp's version of ghosts to guess what theyre up to, but i have a few theories :3 maybe theyre no longer bound to those two houses and they can now go anywhere they want in town? or maybe since their shared goal of stopping albert has been achieved, the ghosts can finally pass on to whatever is waiting for them next. i dont think vance would be content to pass on that quickly or easily as anger lingers, but i hope he'd be able to let go of it eventually, and hey we might find out in the sequel. i pray it mentions him cuz i will just die if it doesnt

sometimes, ok thats a lie, frequently i think about an au where he survived or escaped or whatever but ohhhh boy this post is already a train wreck so that au would deserve its own essay of a post :3 if u actually genuinely read this far then Wtf thanks for reading the ramblings of an absolute madman, only pure delusion could get like 20 paragraphs about a guy with 6 minutes screentime but hey thats how i roll, thanks again to my pal gray for letting me rot and thank u to my other pal ana for also enduring all this rot

hope u enjoyed my interpretation of vance hopper im going to crawl in a hole now and probably brainrot some more, thanks again for ur time :3

#the black phone #tbp #tbp vance #vance hopper #character analysis #i literally rotted my entire brain for this one #normally i hate when ppl tag characters in a post that isnt really about them im gonna tag the other characters cuz i do mention them quite #a few times so apologies to ppl that are fans of anyone that isnt vance this post is Vance Centric #tbp robin #robin arellano #tbp finney #finney blake #tbp griffin #griffin stagg #tbp billy #billy showalter #tbp bruce #bruce yamada #tbp gwen #gwen blake #the grabber #albert shaw #the black phone 2022 #i am the number 1 vance hopper fan and this proves it #if vance has 100 fans im one of them. if vance has 10 fans im one of them. if vance has 1 fan its me. if vance has no fans im dead. #sorry to everyone that followed me for total drama content i have an absolute disease for this movie and this guy #back to regularly scheduled content soon trust #not expecting this to do numbers cuz theres actually only like 4 tbp fans on earth but had to let two years worth #of absolute brainrot for this movie that has like. barely any merch and only the slightest scraps of fan content #i stayed up all night writing this

[sonkitty]

Crowley S2 Hair Post #18 Redone

(For reference: The Sideburns Scheme)

Crowley, Good Omens 2, Episode 2, The Clue, meeting with Shax in the car

...

Sideburns Check

The sideburns are long and are what I've generally gone with calling the default demon reading from the car. Once Shax is inside the car, the lighting favors Crowley's right. So, the left sideburn looks more full in hair than his previous demon encounters and the preceding night's miracle.

...

Brighter Red Streak Check

For the most part, there are two more saturated red streaks that can be found above Crowley's left eye. They are close together and spread a little between each other.

...

Hairstyle Changes

The hair is darker and not as saturated compared to when it was last seen charged up with so much red for the miracle in episode 1. Based on my own observations, the darkness can be attributed to Crowley being in his demon space with the car. One could guess he's been in the car for awhile since he's asleep at the start of the scene.

...

Earthly Objects

(For reference: Earthly Objects)

This scene is quite unusual because so little is shown of Crowley's hands and him making pockets with his own body using a limb or fingers or hands. I think the scene is designed to offer clues to The Window Trick, which is the last Threshold Trick of the season at the end of episode 6. It concludes right before Muriel's last scene.

Crowley starts with his arms folded in the car, presumably with his back to the seat. Due to the camera's movement, the nearby buildings cast a darkness that looms over the front window, allowing part of Crowley to be seen more clearly, such as the longer sideburns. Still, due to where the camera stops, it's not as clear with the window pane's glare that Crowley's right shoulder is touching the back of the seat. It's a good guess, just not easily seen. Meanwhile, his left shoulder could be in the space between seats.

Due to this position, he is covering the thumb joints and thumbs of his Tied Hands.

Shax knocks on the window. Her hand's reflection can be found in the window pane this time.

When Crowley opens the window, it's more clearly confirmed that yes, he has his right shoulder on the back of the seat.

Shax is not reflected in his sunglasses. For The Window Trick, there will be humans walking to Crowley's right that will have parts of their bodies reflected in his sunglasses to indicate what he sees.

Generally, I've interpreted that to mean that Crowley doesn't see the way humans see by choice because it works to his advantage to sense with his eyes instead. The sense operates in a very similar manner to seeing while not actually seeing the way most humans understand it. His special sight is what allows him to perform The Window Trick at all because he can show what the windows of his sunglasses see, and that it changes when he moves enough for the reflections to disappear.

Such things also help communicate that the ending trickery is not an appearance swap because only Crowley could even do it with how he uses the sunglasses as his own double door set with lenses for windows. Well, at least I would hope so given all the effort put into the whole thing.

For Shax's "Hello," she greets Crowley with, "You're in trouble."

Once inside the car, Shax is shown with her right arm against the back of the seat. Crowley is also shown with his back to the seat.

Otherwise, the scene shifts to focusing on their head shots as they talk. Shax's reflection can at least be found in the window pane to her left.

The scene itself never shows Crowley closing the window but based on how things are structured, I would think the window by Crowley closed once Shax entered. Crowley's reflection is never found in it to be sure. Part of The Window Trick is indeed to leave the window open while blurring it and making it harder to confirm it's open while the reflections are happening. That blur is a pass or share with the sunglasses. However, The Window Trick ensures an open window with its full window frame is shown at its end. That's not what happens here.

There are white window frames of the nearby buildings, and these things repeatedly appear as reflected in Crowley's sunglasses throughout this scene. That's another clue to what Crowley sees and chooses to see with his special sight. Light is the most common reflection I've found in his sunglasses, but here, it's not light. It's something lighter in color and specific to the space of the supernatural zone outside his own domain of the car.

Plus, window frames themselves are important thresholds for figuring out the game's mechanics, both for looks and physical touches.

For paying attention to the pockets, the Tied Hands never show their thumbs or thumb joints. Or rather, the tie never shows its clasps and tassels. Only the knot is partly revealed early on before Shax knocked and then before the scene itself shifts to being outside the car as Crowley starts driving.

With the window open and addressing Shax, Crowley makes a pocket with is own ear, neck, and shoulder to the passenger seat of the car. Some of the plants and the cardboard box they are in is in that pocket. He is visually pocketed briefly between the greenery of the plants.

The plants are important to The Window Trick because it is their Green that represents the maintained Rainbow Connection between Crowley and Aziraphale after Aziraphale has completed The Door Catch. They represent Earth and a shared love for Earth. With my latest studies in these posts, they also contribute to how Crowley's sideburns shorten during the drives of the present day.

When Shax starts talking about the miracle, a self-made pocket of hair can be more clearly be seen on Crowley as he listens to what she says. This pocket contains some of the roof of the car.

The main pocket Crowley makes with a limb is when he uses his right arm to start the car before fully kicking Shax out of his space. The pocket is between his arm and the lower part of the screen. It visually contains the window pane, frame between the window pane and the door, and the door. As the camera zooms out, some of the steering wheel ends up included in the pocket before Crowley fully lowers his hand.

Once the closer head shots start for the conversation, the plants end up pocketed between Crowley and the right side of the screen. Such pockets keep happening. Meanwhile, they keep not happening with Shax. There is extremely little of the plants that can be found in the cut where her right arm is shown touching the seat. After that, she is framed without the plants in the car, even when they start shuddering.

Not only that, before Shax entered, she had a pocket between herself and her giant bow. Once she's in the car, she's not making that pocket anymore. I don't think she's avoiding that pocket on purpose. I think her play isn't advanced enough to consider that option. She does seem to be one of the more aware players in the game because she has one of the more notable play styles. She's very intentional about when she is willing to make skin contact touches, for instance.

She seems to continually "dress down" over the course of the season, when it comes to her head and not taking on the appearance of a specific human. Once the hat and gloves are gone from her earlier encounters with Crowley, she has a headband and earrings when she talks to Aziraphale in the car. Once the headband is gone, she has no hat or headband and smaller earrings in Hell, both in 1941 and the present day before she addresses the gathered group of demons. Once the earrings are gone to address that gathered group of demons, she has red highlights in her longer hair that last from that point onward.

If I'm remembering the overall series properly, she is allowed to say Crowley's name the most of anyone who isn't Aziraphale.

Back to this scene, when Crowley's right hand is finally seen after first opening the window, it's blurry. I can't make out the fingers and can only reasonably guess there's a thumb joint of relevance near the steering wheel.

For my tangential reading progress of a desperate attempt to improve my play, I have finished Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett and The Sandman Volume 2 by Neil Gaiman.

Guards! Guards! has at least two familiar passages that certainly resemble what can already be found in the Good Omens book and season 1. In Good Omens the book, the narration describes things as follows:

This proves two things: Firstly, that God moves in extremely mysterious, not to say, circuitous ways. God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players,* to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won’t tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

Note the game and "smiles all the time". Season 1 switches things so that God is a She, and She describes the game in much the same manner. I can assure you, the word "ineffable" has occurred to me in trying to describe and figure out the rules of Earthly Objects...the funny thing is, some rules can actually be found. You gotta look really hard and really think about it though. Still, they are there.

Now here's another "smiles all the time" in Guards! Guards!

Nobby looked up from the table in the corner where he was continually failing to learn that it is almost impossible to play a game of skill and bluff against an opponent who smiles all the time. The Librarian took advantage of the diversion to help himself to a couple of cards off the bottom of the pack.

Did Terry Pratchett have some challenging poker opponent who smiled all the time? Or is this some reference I don't get because the next batch is definitely a pop culture reference done many times over outside these two books? A quick Google search attributes some variation of the Good Omens quote to Neil Gaiman and the actual quote to the Good Omens book, so...it might be a joke they shared and he re-used.

Time for "feeling lucky", which a frequent pop culture reference to the Clint Eastwood movie, Dirty Harry. This reference is made in plenty of other places besides these books.

Here's how it goes down in the Good Omens book:

“Maybe I am,” said Crowley, in a tone of voice which he hoped made it quite clear that bluffing was the last thing on his mind. “And maybe I’m not. Do you feel lucky?”

And here's how it is in Good Omens Season 1:

"Maybe I am. Maybe I'm not. Ask yourself: do you feel lucky?"

Now I doubt you were asking yourself if Crowley was making pockets for that scene in the TV series, but yeah, he was. There's a pocket between his right arm, chest, watch, left arm, and the bottom of the screen. There's yet another between the plant mister, back of the right hand, watch, and bottom of the screen. That then effectively puts his watch and some of his left arm in a pocket between the plant mister and chest. He's got all 5 digits of the right hand visible and his 1 right thumb for a *gasp* 6 digits total. As I've said before, 6 is a number strongly associated with Crowley himself in season 2. Also, when two hands are involved, that ensures over half of the 10 available digits are in use.

Anyway, so here's the "feeling lucky" bit in Guards! Guards!

“Now I know what you’re thinking,” Vimes went on, softly. “You’re wondering, after all this excitement, has it got enough flame left? And, y’know, I ain’t so sure myself . . .” He leaned forward, sighting between the dragon’s ears, and his voice buzzed like a knife blade: “What you’ve got to ask yourself is: Am I feeling lucky?” They swayed backward as he advanced. “Well?” he said. “Are you feeling lucky?”

Meanwhile in The Sandman Volume 2, guess who makes an appearance there and in Good Omens season 1? William Shakespeare.

Anyway, time to move on...

...

Story Commentary

It's Tactical Turtleneck Tuesday!

Well, the implied Tuesday anyway.

In season 1, Crowley wore a turtleneck while plotting to steal holy waiter in 1967.

It's got something to do with him enjoying James Bond movies and James Bond wearing a turtleneck at some point. So I've heard.

So, what's Crowley's scheme? What's so important that he chooses this day of the implied days to wear a tactical turtleneck? Well, this demon has been scheming quite a bit already with the sideburns, the Earthly Objects game, and in that game....pockets. Indeed, there is going to be some big-time pocket-scheming later because The Pocket Trick starts in this episode. Dun dun dun.

But not yet.

This scene with Shax is the last of the three demon visits to Crowley's own demon space where he kicks out the visiting demon from that space.

We aren't going to see Crowley in this special supernatural zone for the rest of the season. These are the clues we get and have to use them with the other pieces of the puzzle found elsewhere.

Studying this scene all the more, I still can't find any humans or animals. There are no flies this time around either. There are still plants inside and outside the car. In fact, the plants outside the car move as if in a breeze behind Shax to make me look all the more closely just in case I still somehow missed a human presence because of the movement. But no, it's still just plants as best I can tell.

As the scene starts, the car mirror from within can be seen positioned as if to face Crowley. That is to say, Crowley presumably made sure those sideburns were long before falling asleep.

In the Good Omens book, Crowley sleeps because he likes it. He doesn't need sleep, but he's found it to be one of the pleasures of the world. So, here, I generally assume the same. It's probably also what allows Shax into the supernatural zone compared to her earlier phone call in episode 1. For that visit, I believe Shax had to wait up to an hour for Crowley to answer the phone.

When Shax brings up the "miracle of enormous power", Crowley looks like he's nervous and trying to hide it. She specifies the power as something "only the mightiest of archangels could have performed".

Crowley says, "How'd you know I didn't do it?" It sounds boastful, but there are a lot of signs in season 2 he's not just saying that. Shax herself doesn't deny the possibility.

That is one of several clues about Crowley's past rank as an angel.

Even so, Shax doesn't question further for if he did it and what it was.

An interesting technicality in the dialogue is that Shax says the miracle was "somewhere very close" to the bookshop—not in the bookshop or from the bookshop, like the angels will say to Aziraphale in an upcoming different scene. No, Shax said, "somewhere very close". The actual lightning Crowley shot out was very close to the bookshop, but it wasn't at night and happened before Beelzebub summoned him—well, according to the deceptive presented story that is. He did recall that power with less dramatic flair very close to the bookshop after the summon that night, I'll admit.

I mentioned earlier in the Earthly Objects section above about the window frame reflections and will add a little more here. I was recently going over season 1 after noticing certain things in the minisodes, and I did find one place where Crowley does have a person, Aziraphale, reflected in his sunglasses and moving. That's been a big factor in why I've considered The Window Trick reflections so important and special. Such reflections generally do not appear in Crowley's sunglasses. Even when people are seen reflected on the sunglasses at least three different times in Good Omens 2 that are not The Window Trick, they are not shown to be moving.

In season 1, this found moment I refer to is not when Aziraphale is discorporated, which is also a special case on its own. Still, this found moment is when they are entering the car after leaving the tent for the birthday party, and Crowley's about to contact Hell to ask about the hell-hound. Crowley has already opened the door to his car and not closed it yet. Aziraphale is entering. Then I can find Aziraphale moving and reflected in the sunglasses. Wow. I always keep an eye out for such things, afraid I've somehow missed it and still have missed that one. When Crowley opens the door to the car during The Window Trick and crosses the threshold, that's when the people reflections first show up. Said reflections do not show the faces of the bodies walking by. This found moment in season 1 does have Aziraphale's face.

~Start excerpt from my main post~

Crowley allowed Shax in by not verbally denying her entry and looking at where she would manifest. He kicked her out by non-verbally revving up his car even more after doing it once and giving her a second look. The home base understood it was about to de-activate and kicked her out.

~End excerpt from my main post~

I prefer to head-canon that the plants are scared because they sense Crowley's anger, not fear. He did easily kick out Shax, and even if his space did not have the special rules it does now, the last demon who didn't leave his car was discorporated by Crowley driving through a wall of fire in season 1.

While studying the minisodes, it looks like even hats affect how a space reads Crowley, so I'll at least acknowledge Shax is wearing a hat here, as she was in her last two encounters with him. Crowley isn't wearing a hat though he has altered his clothing enough to have a turtleneck for his shirt.

I haven't quite figured out how the hats make things go one way or the other because it's more like they change things when combined with factors like if there is fire around and what Aziraphale himself is doing with his hat, such as wearing it, removing it, plain touching it, or has a hat at all.

Focusing on this particular scene of season 2's present day, the sideburns stayed long whether Shax was inside or outside the car while she kept her hat on for both. The space is stationary and acting as a home when Shax enters. There's no visible fire though it's established the street is wet enough for visible water on Shax's arrival. The roof is visible for Shax and Crowley once she's in, though it stops being visible with her after the initial shot with her arm against the seat.

So, whatever is happening with hats doesn't force the sideburns to change here. The longer sideburns usually associated with supernatural readings for the present day—in the earlier episodes—stays on Crowley.

...

That's it for this post. Up next is a special one! We're going to the pub! The visit to the pub is the first touch of The Bigger Thresholds Trick.

...

That's it for this post. Sometimes I edit my posts, FYI.

...

Main post:

The Sideburns Scheme

...

Past version of this post:

Post #17 (meeting with Shax in the car)

The numbering between older and newer posts no longer matches because I went ahead and covered the first minisode scene with Crowley this time around. I'm almost caught up to where I left off before I put this project mostly on hold to study Earthly Objects.

#crowley #good omens 2 #good omens #david tennant #good omens s2 #good omens season 2 #good omens meta #good omens analysis #good omens crowley #crowley good omens #crowley sideburns #crowley s2 hair project #good omens theories #good omens theory

[anonzentimes]

Hii!! I agree with your points and your interpretation is valid. But just wanted to say that I think that using a guy character not acting like a pervert and borderline assaulty around women as a proof of them not being attracted is a very flawed and harmful logic (talking ab the scene of Komaeda falling under Mikan’s skirt you mentioned). I’m attracted to women but if I fall under girl’s skirt or witness an embarrassing situation I will be uncomfortable too. Komaeda’s reaction is how a normal respectful person would react and I’m very saddened that the amount of pervert anime characters has normalized such behaviour

That's super fair! I only realize now I am using it under the expectations of Danganronpa since there are so many perverted characters in the franchise, you're right and thank you for pointing that out. That actually is really upsetting now that you mention it, yeah I'm going to edit that out ew.

I've made posts on twitter of small, even if silly, praises about how Nagito seems to really value consent. He's always the loudest and most annoyed about teruteru's behavior, and within the franchise he's the one who's the most respectful and realistic when it comes to the problematic subjects. It's sad that not every character is as respectful as him. In fact almost all of the dr2 male cast is crushing on girls, some being gross about it, the only ones who don't are Nekomaru and Nagito. Crushing on girls is definitely not the issue, but half of them being gross about it is.

Just to redeem the example because I'm upset by it here's some instances of his weird somewhat lack of interest in women that we've seen or general vagueness

Chiaki saying this isn't as straightforward but it still implies her being sexy wouldn't work to get Nagito's attention which still says things about his possible disinterest or respectful nature maybe even both.

During fan service scenes in every manga adaptation he never blushes while every other character does

He avoids the question of sexuality every time it's asked, he either doesn't know it himself, doesn't think about it because he thinks he's unworthy, or has to beat around the bush because he's closeted. Although outside of characterization wise it may just be kodaka staying vague because that's the common pattern Lmao. The question is avoided during Q&as and during ultra despair girls he just ignores Kurokoma altogether lmao (would add more but image limit on mobile is my worst enemy)

i've seen multiple interpretations for this so just ???

Either way the status of canon is: Nagito shows interest in men and we see he has sexual desires, he's anything that isn't straight or aroace. He doesn't show evident interest in women and there's been no official word on his sexuality, it is up in the air when it comes to specifics. He is absolutely a queer coded character, whether he's gay, pan, bi, or something else there's no doubt about that. I believe Nagito is gay because there's a lot of evidence supporting this, I think it also makes his storyline more impactful. But at the end of the day there is no said canon and people are free to headcanon what they want to, whatever people say that isn't invalidating important parts of his character we actively see is preferred.

#nagito komaeda #danganronpa #danganronpa komaeda #sdr2 nagito #danganronpa nagito #sdr2 komaeda #komaeda nagito #sdr2 #danganronpa goodbye despair #komahina #kamukoma #nagito sexuality #nagito #komaeda #nagito asks #anon ask #anon asks #danganronpa ask #danganronpa asks #danganronpa 3 #sdr2 nagito komaeda #dr nagito

[thswrtchdthng]

Okay here are some Magshawe prompt questions for your pleasure

1. Could Jonah kill Jonathan? Could Jonathan kill Jonah? I feel like they both have reasons to.

2. Who'd be willing to do cannibalism on the other?

3. Who do you think "died" first, Jonah's official death or Jonathan?

4. How do you think they met up?

5. Did they ever kiss?

6. Are they ever capable of being soft or are they stuck forever in passionate mode?

7. What if Dr.Fanshawe got time travelled to modern times and met Elias, would he fall again?

OH MY GOD THANK YOU SO MUCH

always coming in clutch, love that of you

1. well I've always thought of Jonathan as being quite a lot more physically strong than Jonah, so he definitely could kill him. I imagine it would be in a fit of that mix of rage and passion and fear and general morbidness that characterized the later part of their relationship. probably an accident too, and he'd feel equal parts like a hero for erasing an evil like that from the world and like absolute shit bc, well, he just killed the only person who understood him. he just killed his Jonah.

and as per Jonah, I don't think he could do it himself (even poisoning him or shit like that, it's just not his thing. I reckon he'd feel kinda meh about getting his hands dirty back then and he knows there are better things he could do). what he could do, and what he did in my interpretation of their relationship, is drive him to suicide. like just manipulating him and generally fucking him up emotionally and psicologically that he just kills himself yk. also in my brain it was a very gorey death, I might write something about that. of course, Jonah feels terrible about it too, but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do yk.

2. cannibalism as a metaphor for love is so them. both. idk what it'd take for Jonah to do something like that but he's definitely not above it. I think a big part of his feelings for Jonathan in their later years together is the desire to metaphorically swallow Jonathan whole, which might translate to something literal. I'm not sure why or how, but he definitely could do it.

and Jonathan- well of course he could. I get the vibe that that desire to metaphorically devour the other was mutual, and along with his general Feelings by that point (the love, the rage, the constant panic, the distrust, the morbid curiosity) who knows what he could have done.

3. Jonathan. definitely. Jonah was not letting Jonathan outlive him, and I always thought the whole bodyhopping ordeal came as a surprise to him. so yeah he would've taken good care of Jonathan before anything.

although now that I think of it, the other option is also fun. Jonathan catching wind of the stuff going on both at the Institute and ar Millbank and being like "wtf are you doing now" but not wanting to give in to curiosity (and the need to see Jonah of course). Jonathan finding out about Jonah's 'death'!!!!!! he wouldn't know how to feel lmao.

4. hmmm I always thought they might have met at some sort of conference (those did happen back then didn't they) or symposium about some really morbid, really understudied branch of medicine (yk those that would piss off the church). Jonah did that thing where he starts asking the weirdest fucking questions like one asks about the weather and Jonathan was immediately like "he's so clever and interesting and curious and unashamed I need to talk to him" and they just hit it off

my second idea for a meetup is back in their university days. Jonah didn't study medicine (I have my own headcanon on that) but I think the general social scene was pretty open. maybe Jonah was out for drinks with some friends and saw Jonathan sulking in a corner and thought "interesting specimen, need to investigate"

a third idea I had was one of Smirke's little gatherings, but I wanted to see if I could come up with something new lol

5. yep. and much, much more. I imagine Jonathan was very reluctant at first, but by the time they first kissed the tension was unbearable and Jonah was already, well, a whore, so they were fine in the end (no they weren't).

6. wonderful question. I believe it's a mix of both. like their deranged passion has a bit of helpless softness mixed in, and back when they could be soft (before their entire relationship went to shit) even that softness held a passion that made it impossible to think straight.

7. oh that's a good one. for starters, it would be so fucking funny. like "what are you doing here" "what are YOU doing ALIVE. and how did you get there"

at first Jonathan would be absolutely outraged and disgusted by everything Jonah's done, but then, of course, he'd get curious. in my brain Jonathan was one of the first Flesh avatars, back when they were discussing whether the Flesh was real or not, so I think he'd have fun with that. and he was always big on the modification of the body from what it's born as to what you want it to be (Dr. Fanshawe said trans rights) so when he found out Jonah'd been straight up switching them around he'd be equal parts enraged and thrilled. can you imagine his reaction at how much medicine has progressed in the last 2 centuries? bby would be fucking elated.

Jonathan reading about modern medicine and being all euphoric while Jonah just watches him with heart eyes the entire time.

and it might get Jonathan far more into the Fears, especially into the Flesh. maybe he ends up like a different version of the Boneturner or something (and then monsterfucker Jonah kicks in and well, the rest is history yk).

this was so much fun tysm!!

#cw suicide mention #magshawe #jonahfanshawe #jonah magnus #jonathan fanshawe #tma #the magnus archives

[gerandor]

Nandor babygirl you were so unhinged for this

gifs by the ever awesome @deliciousnecks

#im still not sure how to interpret the first gif #like my impressions was that nandor wanted to have his arm around guillermo without appearing obvious #but guillermo interpreted it the wrong way #but i also saw some ppl saying nandor was pushing guillermo away #but it could also be seen as unintentional with guillermo pushing against nandor’s hand #anyway this two scenes weren’t that long apart #nandor went from the first gif whatever it was #to the second where he sat next to guillermo and just draped himself all over him #like its the most natural thing in universe #wwdits #nandor the relentless #nandermo #wwdits spoilers #what we do in the shadows #guillermo de la cruz

[laurents-secret-diary]

oh damen we're really in it now.mp4

#captive prince #damen #damianos of akielos #damen of akielos #kings rising #prince's gambit #ITS HIM ITS MY GUY #also can i just say #i know i made him blush in the rip pitcher sketch because thats the correct interpretation of that scene. cuz he saw his thighs #but can we all agree that those must be the palest pastiest legs a man has ever put in direct sunlight #diogenes said to plato “this is a man” about that peeled chicken because he mistook it for Laurent in a chiton #i bet he burns like a lobster #you leave him in direct sunlight for too long and he starts heaving like an office laptop from 2016 booting up Baldurs Gate 3 #i am still in the middle of book 3 and when i tell you i am in DIRE NEED OF SOME LAURENT POV DECRIPTIONS OF DAMEN #TELL ME HOW LOVELY HE IS I NEED YOUR PASTY ASS TO SAY IT #I want to hear those rapid fire thoughts because you just know he is extinguishing them like summertime mosquitos #if the govart dies chapter is anything to go by #damen oh damen you really thought ancel was gonna shove that stick up his ass during that one performance. i love you. #you are THE funniest motherfucker in that book and your obsession with that blue eyed featherless biped only adds to it #who drops a pitcher when they see a white boy approach #god out of fear maybe #i would never live it down straight up never #that memory instantly became damen's dark horse in the championships for the most embarrassing shit that he will think about in bed at nigh #caprisun