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antianakin · 1 year

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So I've seen a few arguments that Jedi could have relationships with planetary leaders/Senators so long as they're not letting themselves get attached and all parties are aware that the Jedi is going to have to place their duties before their personal relationship. And while I understand the appeal of putting Jedi with characters who can understand the responsibility and duty aspect of their lives, I'm not ENTIRELY certain that this is inline with what we know about the Jedi and their philosophies and values. While there's no rule FORBIDDING those kinds of relationships, I think there'd be a few reasons why the Order would probably heavily discourage them.

The first is straight-up just favoritism or the appearance of it. The Jedi are supposed to be serving, if not the entire galaxy, then at least the whole Republic. This is a major reason why they've chosen to be beholden to the Senate and the Chancellor as a sort-of symbiotic relationship based on a hell of a lot of trust. While FRIENDSHIPS with Senators and planetary leaders is totally fine and probably even encouraged to some degree, romantic or sexual relationships start adding extra levels of expectation and obligation that could end up being a problem.

As an example of this, we see in season 1 that when Padme discovers the Blue Shadow Virus becoming an issue on Naboo, she straight up LIES to the Queen and the Jedi Council in order to specifically get Anakin there by insisting that the Gungans revere Obi-Wan as a hero due to the events of Phantom Menace and so it would make things easier of Obi-Wan were there, knowing that it will mean Anakin comes along as well presumably. However, Obi-Wan is then never asked to speak to the Gungans at any point within the entire two episode arc once he does arrive, nor does speaking to Gungans even ever seem necessary. Padme straight-up takes advantage of the Jedi Order itself just so she can force a situation where she gets to see her secret Jedi husband again. This means the Jedi are now playing unintentional favorites, something they would theoretically try very hard NOT TO DO.

Obi-Wan having friendly relations with multiple planetary leaders obviously DOES come in handy more than once, but Anakin's secret romantic relationship with Padme is something that causes the Jedi themselves to be taken advantage of in a way that could've come back to bite them in the ass later if things had gone differently.

I used to sort-of scoff at the season 3 episode where Padme and Satine meet up on Mandalore and it's PADME who says she has sway with the Jedi Council and can therefore ask them to send a Jedi to Mandalore to provide advice or something, despite the fact that Satine is close personal friends with Obi-Wan. However, if Satine is choosing NOT to call upon Obi-Wan and their personal relationship in order to ask for a personal favor as a planetary leader, this falls in line quite nicely with the way they seem to be handling their relationship in general. As a Republic Senator, Padme can presumably go through more official channels to ask for this favor on Satine's behalf in a way Satine, currently, cannot. The ONLY time we see Satine make use of this connection with Obi-Wan is when her government is being literally overthrown and her life is in danger, so the stakes are a lot higher. Satine waits until there's quite literally no other option for her before she pulls on her relationship with Obi-Wan, and she ASKS for help from Obi-Wan and the Jedi. Padme on the other hand seems to have very little hesitation about leveraging her personal relationships with the Jedi and lying to the Jedi in order to ensure their help comes to her planet. Satine is choosing to be RESPECTFUL in a way I didn't quite recognize before.

The second aspect of this is political agendas. It flows into the first one, obviously, they're connected. The favoritism issue stems from politicians having their own personal political agendas. Obi-Wan even states this outright in Attack of the Clones pretty early on when he's coming up against Anakin's feelings for Padme starting to blind Anakin to most everything else. He reminds Anakin that as much as they might LIKE Padme, as kind and selfless as Padme seems and can be, she is also a career politician which means she has political agendas by definition. It's literally part of the job. Padme is beholden to her people and her Queen and what they expect and ask of her as a Senator.

They can't trust that Padme will not attempt to use the Jedi to push her own agenda. They can't assume that Padme would set aside her agendas just because she's friends with them. They can't assume that their relationship to Padme would be her priority. It's her job to prioritize her people, her system. And it's a GOOD thing that she does so, that's the whole point of having a Senator. But this does mean that Padme's personal political agenda may not always line up that nicely with the Jedi's job of serving EVERYONE equally.

We see a good example of this relationship and the Jedi pushing back against it in the season 1 episode with Riyo Chuchi. Riyo attempts to order Obi-Wan into basically doing Riyo's job for her. Obi-Wan, however, says no. He argues that him stepping in at this point is no longer going to truly fix the problem, and convinces Riyo to do her job and speak for herself. Riyo wants to help her people, doesn't trust herself to do it well, and so tries to ask Obi-Wan to do it for her and won't listen when Obi-Wan tries to protest that that plan won't work anymore. She attempts to order Obi-Wan around specifically because he's a Jedi and she's a Senator. And Riyo's not even in a relationship of any kind with Obi-Wan really, they're barely even friendly acquaintances at this point.

Padme is required to push her political agenda in whatever way she thinks is best. As a Jedi, Anakin is supposed to treat everyone in the Republic (and ideally everyone in the galaxy) equally. Which means he CANNOT prioritize Padme OR her agenda, and he cannot trust that Padme is not at some point going to ask or expect him to do exactly that if they're in a relationship.

I don't think the Jedi discourage relationships of any kind, and are actually generally fine with their members having romantic relationships (and obviously have sex as per Word of God) so long as they put their duties as Jedi first and don't become attached. But that being said, I think they would GREATLY discourage relationships with planetary leaders and Senators, which is why we see Obi-Wan explicitly telling Anakin that while his FEELINGS for Padme aren't really an issue, he does need to keep that relationship strictly "friends." Obviously everyone sort-of knows Anakin's doing it anyway, three members of the Council are entirely aware of it existing and do exactly nothing about it, so it's clearly not explicitly forbidden or against the Code on its own, but I don't think any of them are particularly happy about Anakin's choice there given how dangerous it has the potential to be politically, and they're probably hoping at some point he'll be smart enough to end it.

#jedi #jedi order #jedi council #obi-wan kenobi #satine kryze #padme amidala critical #padme critical #anidala critical #this all came about because i had the immensely sad realization that this means obi-wan/bail can't happen either #not unless i go for a post o66 au where obi-wan stays on alderaan or something #and the complete lack of a jedi order means that relationship dynamic is entirely changed now

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the-final-sif · 4 months

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The godling/little god Dream & Dream XD is literally insane. This is so good. I cannoe put into words just how much I love it. The worldbuilding with the gods?? The tragicness, the unfairness, the sheer greed of those gods who want to live forever? This slaps so damn hard. And I know you might not want to say it yet, but I am SO curious how dream's cough cough actual godling status will work with his overall goal in the dsmp and the prison arc. Just, like, great job sif your hands are blessed

I'm glad you're enjoying it! I like having complex and fucked up gods, and it's a fun AU to build.

I think I've talked about it a little bit, but c!Dream up until the end of the AU both is and isn't a godling. The mask keeps his status almost entirely repressed cutting him off from both his hybrid side and his god side. Only a little bit can leak through.

This fucks him up over time for two reasons, first, exposure to XD. While XD does try to minimize his impact on c!Dream, the amount of time c!Dream spends exposed to a god does add up. It's part of why XD has relatively minimal contact with c!Dream during the SMP, since he's doing everything he can to avoid that poisoning going too far.

More importantly for the events of the SMP, at that point, c!Dream has killed his first god. He's growing up and his power is growing and starting to hit the limits of what the mask can contain. But the mask is still keeping him almost entirely human. And thus not immune to constant exposure to a god.

As such, he's effectively poisoning himself and the people around him to various degrees. He's got it the worst, but other people are affected to. So it's kind of like in medieval times where you just had an entire village of people tripping on ergot accidentally. Not quite as extreme, and certain people have more resistance, but a similar sort of vibe.

A big impact for his growing power is that he's also starting to get worshipers once the SMP gets founded. Full end gods don't really require worship and draw their power directly from the universe itself. But End Gods can still draw power from worship, and end godlings will often draw power from worship to complete their worship.

This extra power does come in handy once he's ready to kill that second god, but prior to that the extra boosts are significantly more dangerous and just make him worse. c!Sam, c!Punz, c!Wilbur, and to some extent c!Tommy are all guilty of a level of deification. It's mostly c!Wilbur's fault though because when he makes c!Dream the Big Bad Guy he starts that process of deification/dehumanization that helps push c!Dream over the edge.

Also while all of this is happening, XD is just kinda there biting his lip trying to figure out where he needs to intervene. It probably should've been awhile ago, but like, it works in the end, so whose the fool now?

#sif answers #klm-zoflorr #godling c!dream #godling dream #dreblr #c!dream #c!wilbur #dreamXD #dsmp #dream smp

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fantasy-mixtapes · 2 months

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Kristen Applebees S3 Playlist: Side A

Here's Part 1 of Kristen's Junior Year Playlist, I am obsessed with it so far and will probably continue to be. Descriptions and key lyrics below. Spoilers for Episodes 1-10

Genres include: Pop-Punk, Alternative, Punk, Folk

1. Lavender Bones, Stand Atlantic

I know I'm out of my depth, but I just float in it I try to do my best, stop picking fights with it I wanna be upset, you're not alright with it I can cover it up, I can cover it Try to speak my mind, wish it was by design But I can only confess to having doubts with it Don't wanna feel regret, I'm not alright with it I can cover it up, I can cover it

So this is a perfect background music for the start of a movie about Kristen's life right now and I LOVE finding those songs. It's perfect on so many layers, it talks about feeling trapped, wanting to fix empty habits, and not to mention how "lavender bones" really hits home to my queer little heart. This entire playlist is really a game of guessing when the "you" in songs chosen mean Tracker and when they mean Cassandra, level: impossible

2. Starchild, Sweet Pill

What do you want from me? I am not a charity Work hard at everything Do it all for free What do you want from me? I am not a guarantee Go all or nothing Lose your money ... Set up to win Wind up disappointing everyone In the end I am disappointing mostly myself In the end Hang your Head

I AM SO NOT NORMAL ABOUT THIS SONG Guys its like it was written for this very specific situation. AND THE TITLE???? FOR A CLERIC OF THE GODDESS OF MYSTERY, DOUBT, THE NIGHT, AND STARS???????

anyways just please please listen to it its so great like even without the connection to Kristen, go support Sweet Pill they have a new album being released tomorrow (March 15th)

3. Uneeda, Deady

What about the bones The bones have no problem Turn them into ash And this never happened Your ashes big asses Your brains on the pavement Oh no! I can feel myself rot Unless I take your hand

Ok so this is kind of a genre outlier on the playlist since it is very very alt punk but for me it represents the rage at the mall, Kristen's relationship to Cassandra, and both of their respective reactions to what happened. It's very chaotic, but it was a very chaotic situation and I stand by it plus I love adding modern bands to things

4. Bite the Hand, boygenius

I can't hear you You're too far away I can't see you The light is in my face I can't touch you I wouldn't if I could I can't love you how you want me to I can't love you how you want me to

Yeah, sorry had to whip out the queer break-up big guns. I don't feel sorry I feel right.

5. Untitled God Song, Haley Heynderickx

When you're drunk near a sunset, look straight in her eyes She's a quick glimpse of heaven, forgetting her headlights are on When you misread her fortune, don't misread the joke She's the note on your lampshade, the honeycomb holdin' you And she spins me around like a marionette Oh, my web is still spinnin' My web is still spinnin', you can't see it yet

Immediately going from having total contact with a divinity figure to having to grasp for straws once again to a memory you hold onto, literally holding onto the shards of your faith. Having to both embrace doubt and faith at the same time. Girlies, I'm ruined

6. C'est Comme Ça, Paramore

In a single year I've aged one hundred My social life a chiropractic appointment Sit still long enough to listen to yourself Or maybe just long enough for you to atrophy to hell ... I know that regression is rarely rewarded I still need a certain degree of disorder I hate to admit, getting better is boring But the high cost of chaos Who can afford it?

I love Kristen, and I think her arc this season is extremely relatable; currently, 90% of what she does are bits, and I KNOW it's a coping mechanism, but STILL, WHY ARE YOU SO MESSY. I love you; keep being 17, but god, keep your clothes on and stop going to the steel plants girlie you're gonna give Riz a heart attack

#dimension 20 #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #d20 #d20 fhsy #fantasy mixtapes #kristen applebees #d20 kristen applebees #fhjy spoilers #d20 fhjy #ally beardsley #Spotify

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super-ion · 9 months

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Valiant

(based on this post)

Chapter 1

Night has fallen and the chill is setting in. Stars blaze overhead, I wish I could stop and marvel at them, but I very badly need to find shelter for the night.

It was a normal day, I worked an extra half shift, figured it would be good to bank up a few extra credits. By the time I got out, I was starving, so I stopped at my favorite noodle stand as a treat. All of this is to say that I wasn't at the tenement where I've been staying when corpo security raided it. By the time I got there, civil protection had the entire block cordoned off.

It happens.

I don't even know what the raid was for. It could have been revolutionary activity, it could have been drug cookers. I don't know, and I don't particularly care.

You learn to carry everything you can't bear to part with. Honestly, I carry all my tools with me to work anyway, since the government furnished ones are crap.

I did leave a decent blanket in the tenement. That's a shame. Hope it finds a good home and gets put to good use.

Anyway, that's why I'm hurrying through this abandoned part of the junkyard. Tonight promises to be particularly cold but exposure is the least of my worries right now.

There's a clatter on one of the junk piles behind me followed by a distant baying. No way in hell am I stopping to look around, but I can say with a high degree of confidence that I've picked up a pack of junk wolves on my trail.

I round a corner and a hulking warehouse looms before me. I've probably passed it a few times, but never paid it any mind. It's exactly the same as hundreds of others in the region, the kind Tanaka-Kuiper was pumping out about a hundred years ago during disarmament after the Second Contact War. If there was anything of value in there, it would have been scaved and looted decades before I was born.

It could be shelter though, and that's currently the most valuable commodity I need.

I hurry to the door, trying not to run lest I make too much noise. I hesitate at the scav mark of three interlocking triangles - not a place of honor.

There's more baying behind me, closer this time. I hear the scrape of paws on dirt as one of the pack's scouts reaches this avenue.

Fuck it. My rad counter isn't particularly angry, and maybe death by maybe radiation is better than certain death by junk wolves.

There aren't any locks on the door, which is good, but it's clearly been a long time since anyone has opened it. The baying of the junk wolves is getting closer and I throw my weight against the door. It groans in protest and I'll probably have bruises on my shoulder, but gradually it inches open.

When it's just wide enough, I cram myself into the gap. As I struggle though, I accidently glance behind me to where several pairs of eyes gleam in the darkness. Scraped and bruised, I dive through the gap and slam the door behind me. The door latches and I stand there panting as something snuffs and scratches at the other side.

It's dark.

Outside it's night, but there's still the moon and the ever present light pollution from the city center and the industrial district. In here it's almost pitch black… almost but not quite. There's a faint illumination coming from somewhere.

I'm in a small reception room… from back when this place might have needed one, I guess. Now it's just a desk bolted to the floor and a series of empty shelves. There's even a burned out hole where a safe might have been once. Everything else is long gone.

I slowly make my way past the desk and through the door into the warehouse proper.

I blink up in incomprehension.

Metal beams arc high overhead, filling the space of the massive room, like the ribs of some massive beast. If I had to guess, I'd say it was either a small starship or a war mech. Either way, it's likely a relic from the Second Contact War. My eyes follow the curve to the metal sphere suspended at their central like a cold heart. Scaffolding spirals up from the ground to wrap around it.

I realize the dim blue-white light I've been seeing is coming from gaps in the plating of the sphere. I scramble back in a slight panic and dig my rad counter out of my jacket pocket… not that there's very much I can do about it at this point. Fortunately, the counter is ticking happily along with the background radiation. The sand and grit in my clothes is probably putting off more radiation than this core is.

That's the only thing it can be, a massive positronic core, the brain of a mighty war machine that outlived the conflict it was built for. That explains why it's sitting in a warehouse. A positronic core exposed to the elements is functionally an antimatter bomb waiting to go off. Better to leave them somewhere for several centuries as the internals slowly decay away.

A thought occurs to me. If this core is indeed operational, it would have to be highly sophisticated and highly resilient. It may still be able to process external stimuli.

"Hello?" I call.

The light pulses, confirming my suspicion.

Curiosity gets the better of me and I cautiously ascend the scaffolding like I'm on a pilgrimage to a holy relic. Despite my efforts, each step lands with a clang that echoes in the vast space and brings another weak pulse of light from the interior of the core.

As I reach the top, where the scaffolding circumscribes it, I get a sense for how big it really is. The diameter of the thing is at least twice my height. I see positronic cores all the time. It's part of my job. But the ones I work with can fit in the palm of my hand. This one is… immense.

An impulse seizes me and I step closer and strip off my gloves. Any active sensors have long since been scrapped, but it might respond to electrostatic contact. Most cores can pick up on body capacitance from touch.

Before I let myself think better of it, I place my bare palm on the plating. There's the tiniest spark as I make contact with the cool metal.

The light pulses again and I can feel the faintest hum from within. It probably has military grade thermoelectric generators buried inside it. That might sound like a tempting prize, but to get at them, a scav would need to get past several layers of shielding and risk positron exposure… assuming cracking it open didn't result in a runaway antimatter reaction first.

I drag my fingers idly as I circumnavigate the core. Dim luminescence trails after me. I still don't know if the core is actually aware of me or if it's just reacting.

My fingers snag on something. There's a rough spot, something etched into the paneling. I peer closer to examine it, but there's not enough light to make anything out. The etching is linear, regular, writing.

My curiosity gets the better of me and I did a torch out of my pocket.

VALIANT 3426-90087523-33

A name and a serial number. Definitely second contact war, when puritanical names like Fortitude and Allegiant were in vogue.

"Valiant," I murmur.

The core flares bright and I stumble back a few steps, throwing an arm over my eyes.

A faint crackly scream echoes in the room. It sounds terrible until I realize that a tiny embedded speaker is probably one of the only parts that hasn't been stripped.

I lower my arm and squint against the light.

The screech echoes into silence.

"Is that your name?" I ask.

No response.

"Um… my name is Eloise," I reply, feeling almost ridiculous. I don't even know if it can process speech.

The sound returns, but broken and clipped.

". .-.. --- .. ... ."

That… that was a pattern. It's trying to communicate.

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that?"

It repeats slower.

I've heard something like that before… like some kind of binary code. I wrack my brain. Single short pulse is e… three long pulses is o… three short is s…

Holy shit.

It's my name.

The core heard me, processed my words and replied.

"Yeah, that's me," I reply. "Or Ellie, I guess, I'm still working some stuff out."

I rest my bare hand on the plating and the core flickers in response, some kind of plasma discharge centered at my touch.

"You must have been alone for a long time."

"-.-- . …"

"I can't imagine," I whisper. "If… um… if it's okay with you, I'd like to spend the night? I don't really have anywhere else to go right now."

"-.-- . …"

I let out a small breath of relief.

"And… maybe tomorrow I can come back and I can see what I can do to fix you."

The light pulses, almost like breathing and it doesn't reply for a moment. I start to wonder if I've overstepped somehow.

"-.-- . ... / .--. .-.. . .- ... . / -.-. --- -- . / -... .- -.-. -.- / . .-.. .-.. .. ."

It's too fast and I don't know enough of the code to parse it anyway. But I catch "yes" and "Ellie", so I take it to be an affirmative.

I lean forward and rest my forehead on the cool metal.

"You're not alone any more."

#my writing #lesbian #scifi #scifi lesbian #science fiction #robot/mechanic #lesbian robot #robot x human #writeblr

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pain-in-the-butler · 10 months

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I hope this question doesn't bother you, but I wanted to ask you a bit about that weston arc rewrite you mentioned once in your tags? Like, any kind of info is welcome.

Hi again, friend! It's not a bother to be asked things like this in the least! And I'm definitely excited to ramble about my writing, so thank you! Here's some bare bones of what I've thought up for this AU so far:

Cricket's O-U-T. Yana did fine with the sports angle, especially in retrospect (at the time, everyone was sick of it), but I want to focus on character drama because I think it's juicier -

Instead, I'm changing the angle of the Weston arc to consistently be about the school's social dynamics, with the emphasis on becoming a prefect's fag like it was in the canon arc's first half -

Being a prefect's fag in this AU means automatically becoming a prefect when the prefect graduates (can't remember if this is what it means in the canon story). Therefore, these positions are sought out by students who care about the hierarchy to any degree -

Maurice Cole is going to have a slightly different role this time around. He's not Redmond's fag yet but he wants to be more than anything. As a second-born son, he sees it as the one chance he'll get in life to feel what it is to have an inheritance, and so he and that enormous chip in his shoulder covet the position like anything -

I want Cole's villainy to be much campier. Instead of threatening actual violence and humiliation, he merely threatens to kick boys out of his posse. However, he has pretty big plans for the school — plans that would make particular students want to stay in his good graces... -

Students in different dorms will get along and become friends. The standoffishness between dorms was really just there in the canon to make it easier for Yana to hide certain details until later down the line, but it doesn't actually make much sense. There won't be so much rivalry this time -

While I'm going to try not to venture fully into Dadbastian territory, I do want Ciel and Sebastian to examine their relationship more closely following the Campania incident and consider what they would feel if the other was out of their lives forever. Is Ciel just a meal and is Sebastian just a loyal dog? Or do they actually maybe care about each other's well-being? I wonder.................. -

Sebastian wouldn't be a professor this time! Sorry, but I just never bought him becoming a dorm master so easily. Where'd the old one go? Do the Blue House students not see Seb's arrival as weird at all? Don't they have any loyalty to their last dorm master lol?? The idea's frankly too underdeveloped -

Instead, Sebastian is going to work in the Blue House kitchens as a chef. He isn't very excited about being so out of the way from the action, but Ciel has his reasons for wanting him there... -

The student body will talk about Derrick Arden going missing as if it is an actual big deal. But there will be more details that muddy the waters around Derrick's disappearance... as well as revelations that come to light sooner than they do in Yana's telling -

Now for the biggest change: it will be addressed to the reader from the get-go that Ciel is pretending to be his brother. I have always wanted to explore what it would be like if we knew from near the start that Ciel was faking his entire identity. The Weston arc may not take place close to the beginning of Kuro, but I think it's as good a chance as any for me to showcase how revealing Ciel's identity early on pointblank has a lot of potential for drama and character building

There's a lot that I haven't really decided yet, to be honest, but there are also a few twists and tricks that I would LOVE to mess around with. I kind of let my stories slowly incubate over time, though, so I hope when I actually get to writing this, everything will be in place and I can just go for it. It should be a very fun project, if and when the time comes...

Thank you for asking! I hope this answer piqued your interest... though it'll probably be another two years before any of it gets written lol 😈

#kuroshitsuji #I should probably make a tag for these so that I can find them again someday. probably #ask

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angieloveshua · 2 years

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“My five stars danmei novels.” | Short maybe not short reasons why I like them.

🎋 —Yuwu.

carrd.

Another one by the Queen. I wanted to read Yuwu a long time ago, and when I finished it, I was extremely satisfied. Meatbun just doesn't fail.

Mo Xi and Gu Mang are characters that I both love and respect. In fact, Gu Mang is one of my best friend's protégé (in this parentheses, I want to cheer on her because she had to bear with my curses on a certain character at 5:00 a.m.)

Yuwu is a novel that shows the cruelty of slavery. It makes feel horrified when you read the pain slaves have to go through —people of high class often forgot that they were humans, just like them. The fight for their rights is depicted in the book and the way it was managed with was immaculate.

Yuwu also has two of my favourite things in novels: politics and cultivation. There are a lot of intrigues, and I want to mention that this novel is connected with 2ha and if you have read said book before, you'll understand more about the character's origins.

Did I cry? For God's sake, this is a novel by Meatbun. I remember I was traveling with my family when I was reading the last chapters and I was this )( close to cry in public. Meatbun just has a way to get into your heart with her words.

🎋 —Fanservice Paradox.

carrd.

This is my most recently read novel, and the first thing I want to say is that YOU NEED TO LISTEN TO THIS BOP NOW. Pozhen help this novel get its five stars.

Fanservice Paradox is about a boyband! I actually stan BTS, and Kaleido sort of make me thing about them because they both started in a small company and now they're superstars love by millions of people!

Zhichu knows how to write that tension between her characters. It was so satisfying reading it —you end up shipping them as hard as TingJue fans!

This book also has a lot of philosophical and mathematical thinking. Fang Juexia has a degree on mathematics and Pei Tingsong is a student of philosophy. Their studies have a lot of influence on the way they view life and they make you reflect.

🎋 —TGCF.

carrd.

TGCF holds a special place in my heart. I read it when I was going through a hard moment in my life, and it helped me a lot.

I didn't know I could cry so much reading a novel until Hua Cheng popped up. Yes, that handsome gentleman made me realised I wasn't as strong as I thought. There moments I was doing OK and then I thought about him and I had tears in my eyes, I'm not lying.

And guys, there's a reason why Xie Lian is Hua Cheng's only god —he makes you want to worship him once you've gone through all his story (but remember to worship them together so that your wishes come true!)

THEIR RELATIONSHIP, OMG. Just one word: devotion.

I liked the way the story is written, with one volume in the present and the other in the past. The arcs are also amazing <3.

🎋 —Wushuang.

carrd.

I TAKE FULL OFFENSE if you've been following me all this time without reading this novel, seriously, stop what you're doing right now and go read it.

Wushuang is a Qian Qiu's sequel (another amazing novel, by the way), and it has POLITICS AND MARTIAL ARTS. 💖

Feng Xiao is a beauty with amazing martial skills (hey, he even had a fight with Yan Wushi once), and Cui Buqu has the kind of brain you want to kiss. FengCui is my best friend's favourite couple! Although these two aren't the kind to recite poetry, their actions speak how much they care about each other.

The plot is [chef's kiss]. I didn't want to do anything besides reading Wushuang at that time because it was just so addictive.

🎋 —Nan Chan.

carrd.

I remember this novel as the one with the best first chapter I've read in my life, just read the following:

“What do you see?”

“A mountain of corpses amidst a sea of blood.”

“Why have you come?”

“To kill.”

AND THIS IS LITERALLY WHAT YOU FIND WHEN YOU OPEN THE NOVEL. Tell me you if you're not baited.

Nan Chan is a novel that covers the Eight Sufferings in life according to Buddhism in a series of arcs that have characters that make you easily connected with their stories.

The main characters are 🥺. And, oh, this novel has a dragon, A DRAGON. Cang Ji is the best. ♡ And Jing Lin, get behind me, I'll protect you! (said the girl who is 1.50 m tall). Reading their wedding was literally one of the best things that could happened in my life.

And, ah, how can't I not say this? This novel has the character I hate the most. Tao Zhi, fuck you.

And that's it for this part of Angie recs! Hope you give a try to all these amazing novels. ♡

I'll post pt. 4 when BAB has more official art.

#angie recs #danmei recs #danmei #nan chan #yuwu #fanservice paradox #wushuang #tgcf

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mountainsideturnip · 5 months

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Ignore literally every typo n stuff. I wrote this up as a summary of a 3hr convo I had w a buddy not long after the Jason Fear Augmentaion issue dropped 👍

(Below cut bc I'm insane👍👍)

Opening with Tim at Jason’s funeral, just going through the motions. It passes quickly. It’s only been a couple days and it was a small funeral of close family and friends. Everyone is a little wary of Bruce being there since it is kind of his fault. Tim goes home and continues to monologue to himself about how Jason can’t be dead, and the story begins taking a similar route to Bruce being lost in the timestream during RedRobin 2009, including Dick coming by to check on him.

Debating on if/when I would want to resurrect Ives or Lonnie. Ives would be decently early on, before Tim has gotten the chance to leave Gotham and start looking for Jason/processing death. So that Ives ends up dragged in because he’ll know he died. Versus Lonnie being resurected after Tim has ran rampant for a while and mostly overcome denial of Jason’s death. (Either way) This leads Tim into a mode of, “well, if you came back, he can. He has before.” Which is a very in-your-face Bargaining Metaphor. I’m thinking Lonnie returns because of Darkseid stuff during Tim’s world-tour. He ends up acting as a moral compass but moreso in the sense that he’ll ask why Tim chose to do/not do certain things. (They’ll get some degree of philosophical about it all. Morality Napkin will be mentioned). It’s after Lonnie’s return that Tim starts to privately get necromantically dubious to potential bring Jason back. This inevitably gets used on local civillians and teammates. He’s insane. Continuously through this bargaining arc, he’s mulling over how and why Jason “”died”” (double quotations because Tim thinks it’s not real) and where he might really be. It’s important that the reader also thinks Jason can/will come back. We gotta tie the audience to Reader-Insert Tim Drake, lol. Have flashbacks to Jason having a “civillian” life and being a discount personal Oracle to Tim and just general brother bonding, since Tim had more recently leaned back into properly balancing his work/vigilante life with civilian life. And not once else was really checking in and hanging out with Jason anyways, since they’re so busy and he’s clearly so capable. Maybe Tim was already actively working on a backout for the brain alteration, but couldn’t work it out before Jason had a lethal reaction or offed himself. I think Tim should have some kind of grudge and/or animosity towards Bruce before storming off. I think Tim should blow up at Bruce in the back during Jason’s funeral yelling that Jason’s “”death”” was Bruce’s fault.

As for running rampant, I’d like to bring Pru back into light, she’s fun(and whenever he gets back to Gotham, before(/if?) Jason comes back, bring Tam in again. I really want him dealing with villains other than the usual Gotham crowd, because there’s monotony in throwing the same guys in jail/asylum over and over again. You know what they’re going to do and how. It’s easy to not kill them or even want to. Other villains, though. Other states or countries.. Yikes. It gives perspective. At some point, I want him to grieve over a villain that dies while he and his crew are fighting them. He doesn’t kill. This is his fault. Maybe a member of a temporary teamup(someone local to the area) dies. He should’ve been able to save them. It’s his fault. Again. There’s a villain that continues to let Tim percievably get close to winning, but continuously kills some other hero and/or civillian. TIm doesn’t kill this villain, but a teammate does. “Tim/[“hero” name]. You don’t kill.” “And I didn’t.” “You let me.” Some degree of shock and satisfaction, but mostly worry. Maybe “It’s equally my fault I let you off [villain] as it is my fault that it’s my fault [causalties] died.” “But [villain] killed them. How is that your fault?” “Then how is it my fault you killed [villain]?” It’d be so morally fucked up if he resurected villains because at least if he did it wrong, they were already dead, right? Kill ‘em again. 99 pile up. I’m making him resurect 99 things. I feel evil. I can’t let him resurect Ives, though… I can’t. I think if, during his necromancy era, he did think of resurrecting Ives, he’d think about it way harder than other subject. He’s a civilian, he’s been dead for a while, he had/has cancer, he has family, he doesn’t know about the reality of heroes and stuff. I think Tim choosing not to resurrect Ives would be a key shift to move on from bargaining.

Enter in depression about his friends and family and civillians and villains, even, dying. I think he’s still being morally dubious, but again, another key turning point of him choosing whether he’d choose a heroic or villainous path. He’s good at acting as a villain, he might’ve even enjoyed it for a while. Maybe even notice that he can get away with more, knowing that his foil heroes aren’t going to kill him… He gets perspective. He flips back and forth, uncertain of his place in the world. Stuff about him taking the Renegade mantle and Slade popping up a couple times during that. Whatever, I’ll need to read Stuff to understand better( or maybe Druid& will dump on me 🥺). Slade dies, I guess. Joey, Rose and Tim grieve together. Rose and Joey have done it before, and Tim’s mostly through his Jason Journey already. It’s nice.

Tim comes home. And, I don’t know what order/if I want to do all of this, but.. Is Jason back already, or does that happen after Tim’s settled back into routine(choosing to balance civvie and vigilante life)? Tim gets a new gifted vigilante name, but from who? Pru&co? Once Again Risen Jason(new bread type)? Joey/Rose? Slade? Fuck, man.

Fuck, grief that Jason’s back? I don’t even want to bring Jason back at this point, actually. Keep him dead. Would be funny if Tim’s recent necromancy just let’s him called the beyond dead to catch up over the phone, lol. He won’t bring him back, that’s an established agreement between them both. But the concept of secondly resurrected Jason having to cope with his own death and moving on from his own death. The coming to terms with being your own person(Tim) and coming to terms with being a new person(Jason)... They’re fundamentally different than they used to be. They’re different together. Blah, blah. Either way it’s a probably nice ending.

#tim drake #W guest appearance tagging of Jason Todd Lonnie Machin mainly #Turnipverse #Different Turnipverse #dc red robin #dc anarky #Lonnie Machin

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the-monkey-ruler · 1 year

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How do you think would have happened if Sun WuKong went to the Journey to the west alone?

Boring.

Horribly extremely boring.

And horribly lonely as well.

And that’s just to say that if he actually was told he had to walk the entire way rather than using his somersault cloud.

Like the man can get the job done in a second. He can hop around the world in a single leap.

But if he was told he had to walk, and no doubt he would complain the entire time.

Then again, he did spend 10 years trying to find an immortal to teach him alone as well. But that’s without having to fight demons at every corner. And actually, that would also lose the reason for demons to try to attack him due to him not making them immortal by eating him or sleeping with him, so I actually that would be just like that.

Not only there needs to be a good reason to why he isn’t allowed to use his somersault cloud and even if all his magic was taken then demons would still have little reason to attack him along his way as while he is Sun Wukong. At best there would be bandits trying to rob him or he has to fulfill our saving humans, which without magic is still a feat he would probably be able to handle with general ease. He still has his golden staff and it only takes one hit for someone to go down.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have anyone to talk with or to tell him right from wrong. He simply just goes about beating anyone that has gotten his way and be straightforward as any carrier mission. I think it would definitely be less of a religious pilgrimage and more of a delivery boy being told to go from point A to point B. He will certainly get the job done possibly within a timely manner of even three years I can bet. But he wouldn’t have gone through any kind of redemption arc, or character growth of where he is pushed to move to nonlethal solutions to solve his problems. Rather this kind of reinforces that brute force is the easiest path.

There is no need to worry or really learn anything new if what you got isn’t broken.

However, he could be dedicated to changing if he was still saved by GuanYin and see her as his benefactor, and perhaps tried to convert to Buddist for her sake, because a huge reason he is so dedicated to descriptions is because Sanzang what is the one to save him. He has expressed how grateful he is to Sanzang and how he wants to find the ripe fruit at thunderclap mountain showing to be a very dedicated monk to his practice.

So I guess if it was a good spin is Wukong is still a very dedicated monk then they could be something to play with in how he has to learn how to put that into practice, especially with encountering different people within each kingdom, but it would leave every demon encounter to fall flat since he is very firm on his stance at the start that demons (or humans) best dealt with through violence. So perhaps trying to work around how he can’t always immediately try to kill his problems. Like each new issue, he is pushed to find ways to subdue rather than kill to probably complete his mission? Maybe they can be things where he meets new people every once in a while, started to talk to them, and even grow a little with each new encounter. But there isn’t really a guarantee of that as there’s no one to hold him accountable for those kinds of changes. He is a centuries-old deity that is tasked to go from one place to another, maybe save a few people, maybe kill a few people, depending on his mood. Maybe demons are fighting Wukong with the mind of revenge for how he was able to kill hundreds of thousands of them in his warlord days and thus that is why they are trying to stop his path.

But I think he would still be very alone, maybe he can enjoy his isolation from nature to a certain degree, but just the idea of even going on a trip for a single year without talking to someone except for the occasional town or kingdom every few months sounds like it could be really mind-numbing honestly. At least with companions time seems to merge together. But by yourself, the days would seem to drag on.

#anonymous #anon #anon ask #jttw #ask

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wfagamerants · 1 year

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A thing I often see people bring up and have also had some…questionable experiences with, is the concept of Mario canon and lore.

Because of it, I wanna give my take in a more detailed manner, to have it out in the open.

Right off the bat, I do think Mario has a degree of lore, because frankly, a certain base amount is normal to have. We do see concepts revisited and older games referenced. Every once in a while, we even get some surprising examples of tighter continuity.

The shining example of this is the Mario & Luigi series. These games are remarkably tightly knit into each other, with many recurring characters, original and established, as well as genuine arcs for characters like Fawful, Luigi and Bowser. There is also Super Mario Land 1, 2 and Wario Land all following up on each other or WarioWare calling back to old stuff in a surprisingly tight manner a lot.

Those are some examples and here is a key thing: this tends to happen more when a series keeps the same developer. A sub-series can have surprisingly continuity at times on its own, but how much we see of that elsewhere varies strongly. Luigi’s ghost hunting career has gotten plenty of acknowledgement, but Mario being the head of a toy company? Not so much.

While there is something there, I do heavily, heavily disagree with the idea that Mario has a consistent continuity and canon, because frankly, it doesn’t.

This Miyamoto quote says it best:

He doesn’t say the characters are actors, but more so compares Mario to old cartoons that could always do their own thing with say, the characters taking on new occupations every episode, without needing to fit in with what came before. Mario is very much like that.

To add to this, Mario has no officially recognized canon. There is no Mushroom Kingdom Hystoria or leaked internal documents or interview statements or TailsTube kind of shows that give us a timeline of when what game happens or which ones ‘’count’’.

This especially goes for the spin-offs. Nothing ever stated them to be lesser or any kind of ‘’non-canon’’, Mario is Mario and Nintendo has never made a hierarchy of how much each game ‘’counts’’ or ‘’matters’’.

The only games I’d genuinely call out of the picture are Smash, due to official statements that the characters there are toys and old licensed stuff like Hotel Mario or the edutainment games, which Nintendo has distanced itself from.

Aside from that, I firmly believe every game is fair game to take into consideration and not be dismissed, which often happens with the spin-offs when discussing inconsistencies, which Mario has a lot of:

Dry Bowser

While multiple versions of the same character appearing on spin-off rosters is nothing unusual, Dry Bowser has some more oddities to him.

In the first New Super Mario Bros, Mario Party 10 and Jr’s Journey, Dry Bowser is Bowser’s undead form, simple as that.

Meanwhile in spin-offs he often appears as his own character, but that isn’t where it ends. He appears as a explicably separate character in the Mario & Sonic games, even in a story mode capacity, Puzzles & Dragons has him as a bonus boss and unlockable character, with Bowser already in your party at this point and Mario Party Island Tour goes as far as to call him a close family friend:

It extends outside of spin-offs too, since he also appears in Super Mario 3D Land and New Super Mario Bros 2’s special worlds, even kidnapping Luigi in the former right after Bowser is defeated. What’s notable here is that Bowser is shown alive and well in the credits of both games:

So yeah, there is no consistency here. 3D Land and NSMB2 are more of an implied case, since we never see them together, but it does show how Dry Bowser is just whatever the game needs him to be.

Where did Mario come from?

The Yoshi games and Mario & Luigi Partners in Time portray Mario and Luigi as having been born and grown up in the Mushroom Kingdom, even knowing Peach since toddler days in case of the latter. Many take this to assume that the original backstory that Mario is from New York, was a western invention, with no basis in japanese materials but that is not the case.

Miyamoto himself has confirmed that Mario Bros takes place in New York:

And Perfect Ban Mario Character Daijiten, a japanese Mario character guide book, written in collaboration with Nintendo, further states that Mario is italian, Foreman Spike an american and that Pauline lives in New York, indicating that Donkey Kong Arcade, Mario Bros and Wrecking Crew all take place there. Most recently, we found out the movie is gonna go with the New York backstory.

While the movie is it’s own take on Mario, Nintendo is directly involved with its creation, so them accepting this backstory in Mario’s biggest mainstream outing outside of video games yet, is telling. It’s even specifically Brooklyn, which was only specified in western materials, showing once again those do matter.

Worth noting is that the series has had other instances of a real world too. The GBC and GBA Tennis and Golf games have story modes centering around humans in a real world, who compete to earn the right to travel to the Mushroom Kingdom. The Mario & Sonic series is also a thing, as odd as the series is, it has never been singled out as not counting and the same can be said about Mario Kart Tour’s real world themed tracks.

Super Mario Odyssey meanwhile goes for an odd middle ground with New Donk City. The New York inspiration is blatant and it is said to be the place Arcade Donkey Kong took place in. At the same time the New Donkers are at odds with the otherwise cartoony Mario humans and we previously already had Big Ape City in Donkey Kong Land, as the city implied to be where DKArcade took place in. It’s not impossible for them to be the same place, but there is nothing official that confirms or denies it.

Dr. Mario 64’s Wario Land Cast

In Wario Land 3, the mooks you were facing are eventually revealed to be the people of the music box world, cursed by Rudy and once he’s defeated, the curse is broken.

In Dr. Mario 64 meanwhile, these same mooks return, either explicitly as minions to Rudy or hanging out, away from the music box world. There is no explanation for it, it’s just a very different interpretation of them.

Paper Mario

The Paper Mario series was never really implied to be a different world from regular Mario. Several PM64 characters even show up in other games and things like Mario’s paper abilities are contextualized as curses, rather than natural abilities, with nobody ever pointing out someone being made out of paper.

Sticker Star onwards change the latter at least, significantly. The paper gimmicks go from visual gag reminders of the artstyle, to being a main attraction and the characters are so fully aware they are made out of paper that they not only regularly point it out, but part of Origami King’s plot even hinges on it.

That said, while this is a big shift in the series, it still makes it little more than an increasingly more stylized take on the Mario universe for the day. It’s not unlike how Yoshi’s Story and Yoshi’s Topsy-Turvy gave a story context to the visual style of the games, while Woolly World and Crafted World just treated it as being how the world always was. It’s just how the world looks for the day, like a special cartoon episode to call back to that Miyamoto quote.

Paper Jam meanwhile specifically treats Paper Mario as its own world, which has never been revisited or acknowledged since. It’s just a one-time thing they did for the sake of the crossover, rather than something with big franchise-wide implications.

The lack of non-Sticker Star elements in Paper Jam and how difficult it can be to reconcile the old Paper Mario world with the current one (especially how much the current genericness of the species is being pointed out in the new games), invites the idea only the new games take place in the book, but that is again, never officially said in any capacity.

The Star Festival

The Star Festival in Super Mario Galaxy is said to occur every 100 years. Despite this, a new one happens in Galaxy 2.

I have seen many arguments that this is the result of the universe being reconstructed at the end of Galaxy, but not only has this never been officially stated, but it’s framed like Mario never met Rosalina before, with her even introducing herself during the ending:

And no, there was no implied memory vibe, Mario even hears her voice at the end of Galaxy.

King Boo.

Luigi’s Mansion Dark Moon frames it like King Boo hasn’t seen Luigi ever since the first Luigi’s Mansion, since he just broke out since, which is framed like a twist:

In the context of the LM games on their own, this isn’t a problem, but it is strange given the many appearances King Boo has made between the two games as well as a line where he mentions Baby Luigi as if he was a separate person, like in the spin-offs:

Just an oddity since there is no official timeline that places the games into a particular order and no, LM King Boo and Spin-Off King Boo have never been treated like separate characters.

Those are some notable examples I can think of. There isn’t a clean way to reconcile things without jerry picking and I don’t agree with that practice because again: Mario has no officially recognized canon, so doing so would only end up being a series of pick and choose with no official backing on what sources are the correct ones.

And the thing is, that’s okay. As that Miyamoto quote already went into, Mario is a loose cartoon canon, where things can be altered as needed in the name of making a fun game.

There are plenty of series with a genuinely defined canon you can track, read up on and see officially set in stone. Mario is not one of them and it doesn’t need to be.

#super mario

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luciferinn · 11 months

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it kinda sucks to me that in comics (media in general i guess, but comics is what i know best) that "representation" as a. . generally flawed presentation of what People Are, given to us by these companies leads to characters only ever being allowed to be One Thing, if that makes sense? there's this certain quota for how many lesbians are allowed to get canonized how many bisexuals how many transgender characters ETC ETC but these characters aren't allowed to Explore what they are really (aside from the occasional minor arc that leads to a concrete definition by the end) but basically what i'm saying is once you're on the dc or marvel wiki for whatever thing you are .. you are that forever which feels. . untrue to real life and to how self-discovery Works. . idk this is just kind of a ramble but as someone who explored through the whole ""mainline"" "lgbt" acronym (plus some) before really feeling solidified in who i am as an adult in my 20s we just don't get to see characters Do that, and like part of that is that they become meaningful to these communities and people which .. is important in some degrees (if you are under the impression that company owned representation is of physical importance which is .. it's own complicated and nuanced topic) but idk i guess i'd just like to see more characters go through these weird eras, the awkward breakups when something no longer aligns, the reiterations, the corrections, the awkward ashamed walk backs on aspects of your identity just to come back reassured years later idk . .just all that stuff that sometimes happens in life and doesn't get to happen to characters because they can only ever be What They Are and they'll never explore past that because it's like .. on the wiki now guys

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randomnameless · 1 year

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I know you love to call sothis the worst mom but I can't help but feel the only reason her (byleth too to a degree) gets shoved into never being able to take stance on anything is due to edelgard.

The multiple route systems and the devs trying (and failing) to make every side "have a point/reason". We can't let byleth (who sothis is stuck to) make choice by default to go against edelgard. Few characters are allowed to get pissed and stay that way with edelgard in both games. They shackle both byleth and sothis to "any route can be canon" so they don't get to react or remark to anything. No matter the route in hopes its the same for them. I wish they just committed to having byleth/sothis be the main villain protecting their family in hopes but they needed them both for marketing.

I don't see either character truly bad due to being underutilized and stagnant. The multiple-route system has to have them agree with all the routes regardless of whether it makes sense or not.

Of course anon!

That's the Doylist answer to Sothis being, well, nothing more than a plot device who has to follow the player's choice to side with X or Y, even when Y sides with Agarthans and swears to obliterate her kin.

Tru Piss is basically "fuck Sothis" route, but with a greater emphasis on Rhea because red herring and because "Rhea BaD", even if Supreme Leader is barking at the wrong tree!

And yeah, ultimately, all those characters are written in a doylist POV to fit with what the devs intended.

However, even if the Fodlan continuity is rife with, uh, writers and devs wanting to convey one thing but doing it in the most roundabout way possible so no one actually buys it - time and time again they could have written Sothis as a character who gives a fuck about her family, but doesn't.

Voice Line Anon (tm lol) is kind enough to provide me with a translation of her lines in Nopes, but basically yeah, the writers had her actually interact with her fam in an AU of an AU with NG+ on top.

And it would just be, annoying but okay-ish if a certain character's entire arc - as we're supposed to believe per the writers - is about meeting her again!

Mind you, even in SS (or VW), we don't see Sothis, fully aware, react to Rhea giving the most important infodump of all infodumps - answering one of Sothis's biggest questions after she woke up - and in the worst S-Support of the game, we're told they, uh, spoke while Rhea was flying in her half-berserk state and told her some words that made Rhea wonder if she should be happy not to have died.

We're not even in "any route can be canon", because Felix can be recruited to other routes than his own, but at least in AM Felix has plot relevance, has words for Dimitri and reacts to his dad's death. SS could have been the route where Rhea's despair, crying or begging for Sothis just to hold her once again, would amount to something... but no.

To give a parallel, the devs deliberately wrote Dedue as unrecruitable, but who participates in SS/VW to take down Supreme Leader. The same devs wrote Hilda as unrecruitable in Tru Piss - even if in Nopes she dgaf about Supreme Leader anymore and can join her team.

But the devs never bothered to make an event, less a line where Sothis talks to her children - especially to her heartbroken daughter - save for Nopes' AU of an AU. Heck, even in FEH they dance around it, and she looks even more callous because F!Rhea in her FB pleads for Sothis's presence and just wants to see her (even her lvl40 quote!) but Halloween!Sothis refuses to see Halloween!Rhea - when she knows she's the progenitor god!! - for some reason, and I'm pretty sure it's not one that is only tied to Supreme Leader.

Ultimately, yeah, I agree, Sothis is underutilised and stagnant, but both her apparition off-screen in SS and her S-Support in Tru Piss (any routes but Tru Piss takes the cake) really makes me wonder, did the devs really intended her to be a mc guffin but unconsciously wrote her to be the worst parent of the franchise - heck even Sonia looks better - ?

Nopes's NG+ lines really made me reconsider because gfdi she has lines she could have acted/reacted in the game damn it, they even got a characterisation for her regarding each of her relatives... but no.

At times I really wonder if the main crux of the game isn't the corollary to Hresvelg Tea - everyone should love Supreme Leader, of course, but "Rhea BaD" because if she's not "BaD" then what is the player even supposed to be/do? And as sad as it is, Sothis - in general - was used to fuel the "Rhea BaD" pyre more than, imo, the "Hresvelg Grey" uwufest, even if indeed, the two are closely linked.

#anon #replies #sorry I prepared something then TUmblr ate my reply #damn it #Worst mom #is her parenting looking like shit only because of the devs not realising what they wrote?#maybe maybe not #someone put it in better words than me #if FE4 gets a remake we will inevitably get the Lachesis discourse #but mothers being crap in fandoms is rare enough to be noted #and writing Rhea's main trait being desperate to reunite with her mom #while said mom knows it but doesn't pop up to say hello is just gfdi idk #shitty? I mean look at all those fanfics around #they could have turned tru piss as Sothis turning against her kid but being vocal about it #not 'btw idk what my daughter did but no worries about the crest stone let's get married uwu'#Is Sothis ending up like a shit mom only a result of the devs forgetting to code events in CF or not caring about her?#Or was it actually on purpose?#4 years later and I still can't make my mind

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thesherrinfordfacility · 7 months

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hope you're good!!!✨ i did get your first one but no matter! very good thanks! you? oh well. i've lost a few emails to the connection in the last few days so i figured just in case.

also thank you re: the amv, haha!!! i ended up doing another using The Darkness, but your suggestion of using Original Sin is inspired, ive put it on the list!!! as for being on the nose... well, i did one to lewis capaldi's heavenly kind of state of mind, so make of that what you will! you're welcome! it really is fantastic! (as are your others; i'm looking forward to the abba one.) lol true about heavenly kind of state of mind and original sin is just such a good song.

i completely agree with your remarks on the implications of god... feels incongruous with other aspects of god's characterisation or indeed the theme of the story - to my interpretation, anyway. yes to this entire paragraph. absolutely celebrate everyone writing whatever they want and god getting increasingly frustrated as increasingly ludicrous fanfic like matchmaking schemes keep failing is potentially hilarious but in my opinion it doesn't work with god or the story at large for her to be involved in things.

i also love the metaphorical imagery, the poetry, of crowley being the question, and aziraphale being the answer (this sparks narrative analytical joy). oooo yes that is great imagery. i agree that free will has to be the plan and aziraphale and crowley do represent that in a way but i think that might be - from god's perspective not the authorial one - fairly coincidental. like it didn't have to specifically be those two? i don't know. i tend to consider god pretty much entirely a non entity as speculation goes. she narrates and that's it.

whilst that certainly speaks to me as being his behaviour, im not personally convinced that is his motive. i think the motive question might end up going round and round in circles once you start digging into it. where do we exactly put the line between 'god wants' and 'i want' to establish a starting point? i don't think he's trying to undermine her authority. i do think he's trying to take/has already taken over heaven but maybe he thinks that's what god would want him to do. she's not talking so he's just going to have to defer to his own judgement of what god's will is and his own desires are certainly influencing that judgement extensively. to what degree he's aware of this? tricky question if you ask me. i prefer him to be fully aware and nonetheless certain that he's doing the divinely approved good/right thing but that really is just personal preference and you do make a good case for the reverse. might just call it a mix of both and give up on the details before i accidentally talk myself into a paradox.

for me, it's the specific, simplified concept that moral absolutism doesn't exist. noone is completely evil, just as noone is wholly good. good point! this is why i agree that the metatron should think he's doing the right/good thing (even if he fulfills the function of the major villain). i guess i just feel like a bit more self awareness might give him more agency?

it would make sense, to me, for this to extend to metatron this whole paragraph also makes a very good point. i said above that he thinks he's doing the right/good thing but might it be more accurate that he believes he's doing the necessary thing? that he needs to put himself in power and do all these reprehensible things because it's the only way to preserve heaven and with it god's will and the concept of 'goodness'? that could open up a bunch of things around the end justifying the means.

i think both absolutely could be correct, a mix of them - for me, the former being personal against metatron's motive, and the latter against his character. don't have anything to add here i'm afraid; just wanted to say i like this a lot!

his questions, i think again for me it makes for a more compelling character arc that crowley has existed throughout his fall and being a demon as not getting any answers you're probably right here narratively speaking. i got attached to the whole serpent thematic but the more i think about it that does also work with just questions. the serpent only opens up the path to knowledge without directly partaking of it themself after all. and the wrong questions are still dangerous. maybe even more so than the answers.

albeit, i have a feeling that the answer will essentially be that there are no answers, and it's 'up to each of you to find your own ones' oh yeah. definitely.

thoughts [about the demons]? hmmm. i'm inclined to say seeing more demons asking questions is just because we're seeing more demons now. not to mention hastur and ligur were fairly major antagonists (and i'm not yet convinced hastur isn't coming back!). it's the same as muriel to me. just because heaven and hell are absolutely terrible it doesn't mean all angels and demons are so we're now getting nicer characters on both sides to show this and balance out each side's antagonists. as for why the short-staffing: i like the idea that demons are just defecting but i think maybe something's wrong in hell? shax tells crowley beelzebub 'put some of the lesser demons on half rations'. this is a new aka post armageddon development so presumably pre armageddon hell had enough resources for everyone to be getting full rations. now there's less demons around than before but less resources per demon. of course i'm assuming that the half rations is because of lack of resources and not some other reason like punishment but I don't think that's an unreasonable assumption to make: when eric keep interrupting to draw attention to the lack of demons he also points out that they won't be able to take the large transporter which seems like a resources issue as well. it's almost like something's draining hell. i haven't the foggiest how or what or why but i'm pretty sure it'll matter next season.

i meant 'conclusive' haha!!! ah ok. that makes a lot more sense then and in that case i agree. the archangels aren't innocent but they're not as bad as the metatron either.

but the bottom line - as i see it - for them is to preserve heaven. we can view their actions as deplorable, and that is true, but in their unique circumstances, what other action would, could, or should they have taken? i refer back to my thoughts above on moral absolutism and its place - if it has any - in GO and its characters. yep! it's very likely the archangels think what they're doing - including the things they do to maintain their power (and they infight and try to exercise power over each other but they always present a united front to other angels) - are necessary. though as i said in ny last ask i'm not sure that doesn't make them more dangerous. righteousness is, shall we say, not good.

re: memory of their time as angels, this is where i largely fluctuate on how much i subscribe to the memory wipe theory - but i don't think it's a full wipe, but potentially partial? oof. yeah there's something happening with memory but the details?

but i think perhaps that the memory wipe is attributable more to the BOL than to the metatron himself - i do think there's potentially a link between falling/erasure of grace and divinity, and to memories of being an angel gabriel though. he was going to have his memory erased - depending on whether putting it in the fly was just backup or full removal, did - while staying an angel. i feel like tht might counter the fall/memory loss connection.

as for demons not being aware of a wider issue, that's a fair point - but do demons really talk to each other? wouldn't that indicate a weakness, vulnerability? if there is a large-scale memory problem going on, which is a very tentative thought anyway, im not sure that any of the demons would in fact talk to others about it. true and why i didn't discount the collateral damage option after the first season. though if it happened to everyone it might have been acknowledged in company policy? just another part of falling. like i said i really think it might be something that happened only to crowley because of whatever specific role he played and not a large scale operation. if we can trust his drunken ramble he still remembers the act of falling itself just not what led up to it and that i would tentatively hazard the other demons do based on what we see and hear from them. p.s. this doesn't really properly fit into my speculation but i still wanted to say it: 'we are the fallen. never forget that.' 'it's not the kind of thing you forget.' gains a certain kind of irony if there's as many holes in crowley's memory as i suspect.

i have my #halo theory wherein i wonder if aziraphale was the specific angel to actually declare the war in heaven ok that is a very interesting idea for parallels and mirroring. first he declares the war in heaven, then he introduces war to humanity and finally he declares war in hell defending the bookshop in episode six. rule of three. *pauses* oh shit. and hereby i just found a narrative argument for having the scapegoat theory apply to both pre fall and present day crowley. awcw get scapegoated for the fall, the serpent of eden gets scapegoated for the fall of man and crowley gets scapegoated for whatever happens with the second coming/the still unresolved declaration of war on hell. rule of three. that of course would set them up for not only mirroring/paralleling their own story arcs but also as counterpoints to each other. ok this possibility fascinates me. might need to think on it more and then get back to you about it later! and then of course there's the characterisation element of carrying the weight of that kind of guilt around, which is plenty interesting in its own right, not to mention could add another layer to him accepting the metatron's offer.

i absolutely love your interpretation of crowley's inner conflict, i think that's so well put, and i like it a lot!!! i certainly don't think crowley is willfully ignorant or in denial of his potential part in his own - or the wider - fall, but perhaps just doesn't want to examine or confront it, as you said... or perhaps doesn't remember altogether, and has just cobbled together why he thinks he fell. firstly, thanks! i tend to the latter option, but think the internal conflict/fear of finding himself to be evil would work with either especially if we lean into the scapegoat theory which does also work with either.

but similarly, i think it's also fair to assess crowley as having some measure of the same mentality as he did before he fell; that he can be quite blinkered, self-assured, and at times quite arrogant. yep! though - without trying to excuse it away - i do wonder how much of it's also a defence mechanism at this point.

and please, please do not think im hating on him - critique of a character does not mean i dislike him or find him reprehensible, i promise; it's quite the opposite honestly!!! no worries, i absolutely do no think that! if that's how my p.s. came across i'm very sorry. absolutely not my intention. i enjoy your analyses so it was just a passing thought i had that it'd probably be interesting to see you discuss an aspect of the story and/or characters you don't talk about as much; i find it usually is when people do. (you can blame the history teacher i had in my last few years of school for that lol. she was big on that sort of thing and i guess it just stuck with me.)

the narrative would still hold and be profound if it were the other way around. just personally i like the idea of him being a heavenly Nobody to becoming a hellish Somebody is rather compelling!!!✨ fair enough. i think there's definitely great things you could do with either so i'm more than happy to just sit back and see where it'll go. 🦭

hey 🦭 anon, lovely!!!✨💕 two gorgeously long and complex asks (second under the cut) - gosh, where to start!!!

okay let's get cracking with the first!!!

the abba one has been placed on hold for the time being (inspiration did not vibe with me for it BUT another is in the works and is actually shaping up to be a Slap so stay tuned!!!)

i agree with you re: metatron, i think his motive is going to be somewhat cyclical, and mutually inclusive - to be motivated in what he determines as 'good' and as decreed by god by lack of any other instruction, and to be in his own selfish or narcissistic interests - can and i think probably will exist simultaneously.

i don't think he necessarily would be unaware of what he's doing, per se, but more that he's convinced that as the voice of god, whatever he thinks and does is sanctified as being god's will (because god hasnt told him otherwise) and is done in the name of preserving heaven - and, by extension, the balance of good and evil. therefore, of course, it must be inherently good.

personally, i don't believe that that would remove any agency from metatron (same as aziraphale who, for all of his questionable decisions, to my mind hasn't lacked agency), even if we would evaluate metatron's actions as being bad or wrong - to him, they truly wouldn't be... but like you said re: necessity, i think metatron would potentially see his actions as necessary, and what is necessary is to uphold the 'good'... so does it therefore remain up to everyone else whether those actions are right or wrong? yes, imo - but it's the context that's key.

i guess the closest i can liken metatron to as a 'villain' type character (and please, mea culpa, im not very imaginative) would be javert from les misérables. the law is created, in his eyes, to uphold justice (good); when that law is broken, he is compelled to mete out that justice (also good). it's not a perfect analogy, and obviously there is compelling context on valjean's part (his parolee papers for time served on a justifiable crime make it impossible for him to start a new life as a free man), but ultimately he broke his parole and the law, and javert, whilst operating in a broken system, is doing what he believes to be the good, right thing.

LOVE your thoughts around hell and the short-staffing/dwindling resource issue. i did some writing around shax a couple of days ago, so in hand with that I'll think on your points a little more, they're excellent ones!!!

re: fall/memory loss - possibly, but i personally don't think so. i did a little bit of speculation around the BOL and saraqael, especially in relation to the trial scene, a while ago - it's probably in my #book of life and #saraqael meta tags, if you wanted a peruse!!! but the batshit thought essentially was: what saraqael has access to, in that scene, was the BOL, and she operates it on behalf of metatron... and did during the fall, too.

re: crowley critique, no no it didn't come across like that at all!!! ive just unfortunately had asks previously where people have questioned whether or not i like him, because ive been quite heavily critical of him, and wondered if i find anything redeemable about him... suffice to say, i feel the need now to ensure that any readers do not think that i dislike him if i point out his more... questionable traits; i just find them way more interesting and compelling in a character than the good ones!!!💕

onto your second ask, and just to clarify - it wasn't my mum, unfortunately!!! (the most insight my mum ever gave on GO was this beauty -

- she gets it).

but regardless!!! first of all, LOVE your speculation and what you've thought out!!! i will honestly need to think on it more before i can come to any kind of conclusion, but i am - and i hope you don't mind - essentially going to use this as a scribble pad for some speculation. some of it is in direct relation to your spec, some is general to the fall/war, and some is just Stuff feeding into it... hope that's okay!!!

could totally see it happening - that AWCW fought on heaven's side, and was made to fall essentially at the last minute/unexpectedly for a reason he doesn't even really know, and had to rationalise after the fact

however, i think that removes, as we've batted back and forth already and in the bit above, a little bit of agency on AWCW's part. i don't think AWCW chose to fall, of course, but i do think that he asked questions/made decisions, and followed through on them/stood by them, that resulted in his becoming a demon, regardless of whether he fell or was pushed

agree that hell can't make angels fall; it doesn't make sense, and i refer back to my thoughts/theory on BOL on this

also hard-agree that, without the memory-wipe theory in play, it doesn't make any sense for AWCW to have answers to dangerous (?) questions, because of the risk he'd pose once fallen. it would make far more sense, like they planned with gabriel, to just simply wipe his memory and demote him to a lesser choir*. so i think that's where, personally, i simply do think that he just didn't get any answers at all

now this all could arguably skew the scapegoat theory, but not necessarily, because the idea that he could have been scapegoated by his own 'friends' still stands, imo

my conclusion at the moment, but it will still require more thought for definite, is that i don't think it will have been the case - i think in a way it would feel a little overcomplicated, and whilst devastating i think would erase some of crowley's accountability for his decisions... not necessarily bad decisions! but decisions nonetheless.

*this has just precipitated the unfortunate thought (unfortunate in that it's gone 1:30am and i need to sleep) that - well, what if that was what was meant to happen to crowley??? same as muriel (we speculate), and same as gabriel, he was initially intended to fall but to a lower rank, with no memories, and instead he legged it? like gabriel did? immediately i can think of multiple reasons as to why i don't think this was the case, but... still interesting to think about.

anyway! this response snowballed a bit and for that please have another apology dance 💃 but let me begin with, pure hypothesis, a rough sequence of events re: the fall:

> AWCW and aziraphale meet, he starts asking questions

> meets lucifer and co, AWCW falls in with their little group that does not consider it bad to ask questions, and maybe he reiterates his 'if i were in charge' thought because he feels comfortable to do so amongst them

> lucifer starts getting bolder, as do his closest cohort, about challenging god, and crowley gets swept up in it, or fully agrees with lucifer and actually fully supports him - and aziraphale knows none of this is going on/nothing about AWCW's association with them

> all comes to a head, god nopes out of the whole thing (free will argument), and when things can't be reconciled, war* is declared (👀 at aziraphale and his halo frisbee)

> war, etc., possible temporary ceasefire or lucifer concedes; all the rebels are brought for their Final Judgement before the metatron and the archangels etc

> lucifer implicates AWCW for leading him astray, that he was the one asking questions, and now lucifer has been corrupted or something, idk, but metatron decides all of them need to go - and yet perhaps a particularly harsh punishment is in fact due for AWCW (so yeah, actually, perhaps it is only crowley that doesnt fully remember heaven? that was his own personal punishment, to not remember parts of his time in heaven/the fall?*)

> initiate::Book Of Life Protocol

*now that im writing it out though, i do wonder if that makes sense, that the war would precede the fall...? i think it would, because it seems like the fallen would, well, fall, as punishment for rebellion, and then go off to plot their revenge etc in hell furfur confirms in ep4 that the war/"dubious battle" indeed came "just before" the fall!!! wahoo!!!

*the thing is... in leviticus, there were two goats - sacrificial goat, and the scapegoat. so this is where, i - in equal conviction which is, to say, shaky at best - also personally hold the thought that AWCW might never have been the scapegoat, and instead aziraphale* potentially was - leaving AWCW to be the sacrificial.

this last thought is slightly tangential, but stick with me:

*we know aziraphale was a cherub during the pre-fall scene, and in eden. that doesn't mean that he stayed a cherub in between these points

i recently added some ramblings to this meta on his ring, which i think is the hallmark of the archangel rank - and the fact he wears his on his opposite hand to the others, and constantly covers it, feels very indicative of some unseen backstory

it also feels that him being on earth is an ostracism, a roundabout punishment by way of being cast out but not falling...

and the thing is that genesis 3:24 (KJV) reads the following:

"So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."

so if aziraphale, as a singular cherub, was placed in eden, it was after the fall of humanity, after original sin. we only see aziraphale arrive to give adam the sword as they were leaving, not beforehand. and after eden, it's suggested, he was demoted to principality (the angelology is debated i know but im sticking with christian/GO-confirmed combination angelology for the moment)

so it can't, to my mind, be because of the apple business that aziraphale was demoted - it's not as if he let the serpent in (if we follow genesis, he arguably wasnt even there at that point). it could be because he gave away his sword, but a) god knows and let him get away with it, and b) neither gabriel nor the quartermaster knew that he gave it away in s1

so what other reason could it have been? well, the only plausible reason i can think of is that it's because he didn't smite crawley when given the opportunity on the wall

others have debated whether or not it was aziraphale telling AWCW about the stars that led to AWCW's fall, and perhaps in point of fact it was... but im not certain that anyone would have known about it, other than them. maybe aziraphale refused to fight (after knowing that AWCW was amongst the other side?), he refused to wield his archangel power in some way (like gabriel refused?), or he actually defended AWCW (personal favourite)?

idk, but either way, whatever he did, he was punished for it with the demotion to cherub, and then demoted again to principality for not smiting the serpent of eden

instead of AWCW being the scapegoat for the fall, was he sacrificed as an example, to atone for fallen, and aziraphale was scapegoated to atone for the fall of humanity? had the blame of not destroying the serpent of eden placed upon him, and was cast into the wilderness (earth)?

i realise how ridiculous it all sounds, believe me, but my sleepiness is now officially winning so i shall leave it there (honestly 🦭 anon, im so sorry for the unrelated ramble, but it's actually so helpful for me to type this out, it helps with understanding what my own theories even are when i write other stuff... so thank you!!!)✨

#good omens #ask #the fall/the great war spec #pre-fall aziraphale spec #AWCW spec #s3 narrative spec #scapegoat theory

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lang-rangler-enjoyer · 1 year

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FOR THE VIV ANON IM SO SORRY I ACCIDENTALLY DELETED YOUR ASK😬

Here’s my answers:

•First Impression:

•I felt really bad for him during his fight :( he was just an average guy who got dragged into Pucci’s conflict without his consent. I was just really glad Araki never outright confirmed his death (even if his body did mysteriously disappear from the stairs during the Dragon's Dream fight).

•Impression Now:

• Baby boy. Baby. I love him so much. I love how weird and extreme all the other Stone Ocean characters are, and then Viv is just. aggressively plain-looking. He’s still super duper duper hot tho, like holy shit, but just LOOK AT THIS FUCKING LINEUP

POV you asked your straight brother to pick you up at the gay bar

Araki doesn't always make good writing choices, but having one of his villains just be Some Guy who has a regular 9-5 job and isn't a part of this conflict at all was great. Sad for Viviano that he got dragged into all this, but conceptually a very fun arc.

•Favourite Moment:

•I just find it so funny that one of the ONLY things we know about Viv is that he's into some degree of CBT. I love the vague implications of this, like what other situation Mr. Westwood? Is he referring to a normal, out-of-work CBT session....or does he just legit get off to prisoners attempting to crush his genitals to escape being detained??

•Idea for a Story:

•Post-Survivor, "holy shit I have a magical ghost now and other people do as well". Not only is he recovering from being supernaturally forced to kill his coworker and friend :( he also has to deal with now having a stand, which must be absolutely terrifying for any adult who's gone their whole life without knowledge of this phenomenon. Especially considering his first experience with other stand users was so awful. Like, once he realizes he wasn't just hallucinating the whole thing, where do you start? He doesn't even know they're called "stands", how do you find information on them? IDK maybe I just like the worldbuilding aspect of this, but I wanna see stand user culture, how do new adult stand users (which aren't unheard of, like Tonio and Aya) find out about how stand stuff works?

• Unpopular Opinion:

•Hmmmmm once again with the minor villains not a lot of people really have serious opinions on him. Just APPRECIATE HIM MORE HOLY SHIT. HE'S HOT. HE'S GOT A STRONGMAN BOD. REAL MEAT ON THOSE BONES. HE'S NOT DEHYDRATED-LOOKING LIKE SO MANY OTHER "MUSCULAR" JOJO CHARACTERS LIKE HE ACTUALLY HAS A HEALTHY AMOUNT OF FAT. HE'D BE SO GOOD TO CUDDLE WITH. HE CANONICALLY LIKES COCK AND BALL TORTURE. I MEAN COME ON WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT WHY DON'T MORE PEOPLE LIKE HIM???

•Favourite Relationship:

•The brief period where he was just hanging out with Sonny Likir was nice. I wish Stone Ocean showed us more antagonists interacting! That’s like, one of the best parts of jojo, when you have a villain duo or squad like Cioccolatta and Secco, La Squadra, Oingo and Boingo, or Sale and Zucchero, seeing how these characters act with the people they love/respect/tolerate before we see them trying to kill the protagonists adds so much depth and sympathy and investment. Seeing Sonny and Viviano just have some regular coworker banter before the fight was really fun and makes me wish we could see more of that in Stone Ocean.

•Favourite Headcanon:

•He's bisexual and literally the most closeted man to ever exist. He's the type to laugh at the homophobic comments his friends and coworkers make, and even make some of those comments himself, it's a learned defensive habit. I'm not trying to make him super angsty or anything, he just gives me mega bi energy. I don’t think he grew up in a particularly abusive or neglectful household, just the kind of environment where people in his family/community would make gay jokes because they honestly didn’t think anyone around them was gay. And I can’t see a prison in the early 2010’s as being the most accepting place either, so he’s just learned to keep certain things to himself, and hope those feelings he has about men sometimes just go away on their own.

#asks

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glowyjellyfish · 1 year

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OUAT Rewatch Report Part 6: Tallahassee and Child of the Moon, and Heart of Stone and Who’s Alice

I’m past the initial excited rush of starting a rewatch project, so I’m slowing down a bit. But I want to post the next set of notes before proceeding to the next few episodes, and I REALLY want to at least finish OUATW and s2, perhaps going as far as the whole Neverland arc. So here we go.

1. I’ve watched OUATW more recently, and also analyzed it TO DEATH in times past, so I generally seem to have less to say about it. Especially as it is pretty tightly written and doesn’t leave a lot of unanswered questions other than stuff that relates to regular OUAT. I love the tragedy of Will and Ana’s past as much as the pain and heartbreak, and also adore seeing tiny baby Millie Bobby Brown having way too much fun playing a creepy child Alice. And it took very good actors to really sell the moderately bad CG Rabbit as a character, and they really nailed it. Hot Jafar still managed to be hot and menacing while yelling “RABBIT!”, excellent job

2. NEAL. He doesn’t come off great here, all scruffy and barely getting by, but I’m glad he gets his shit together over the next ten years. And I mean, he doesn’t exist as a person in this world; there are no records or paper trails he’d need for things like drivers’ license and jobs. Obviously he managed to obtain these things to some degree, but considering that he started as a lost teen who grew up in a medieval fantasy world and then spent probably decades surviving Neverland, he’s doing remarkably well. And I like to infer from wanting to keep the dream catcher that he has all kinds of nightmares from his past. Also, no wonder he and Emma connected so well, they are the king and queen of abandonment issues; not that he would have ever told her much about it other than maybe “my mom left when I was a kid, and my dad left me a few years later”.

3. August, my dude, what are you doing. Talk about not coming off well. I mean, it’s ten years ago roughly, so it’s nice that in the present day he’s all “I fucked up I gotta fix this” but I don’t recall him trying to make up for stealing $20,000 that was meant for Emma. Anyway, I don’t think this was ever stated, but… he got instructions to break Emma and Neal up from Blue, didn’t he? It’s the only thing that really makes sense; how the hell would August know that being with Neal might take Emma away from her destiny, or who Neal was? This idea requires him to drop by Storybrooke once in a while and not be noticed by Regina, but that’s not impossible and he did claim to have been there before. And it also requires that Blue magically retained her memory, but that’s also quite plausible. She’s powerful and magic, she had the fairies making mysterious preparations as the curse was coming in, August went to her for advice or something before the curse broke, and we really didn’t get enough of her under the curse to say for certain whether she knew. And she’s also the only source for Rumple knowledge that makes any sense; August may have been able to coerce Neal with knowledge of his identity, but there’s no way in hell Neal would have given him a picture of the dagger, and although August is a lying liar who lies, he did say a little fairy told him about the dagger. (Well… he’s sort of a lying liar. Like I said before, I am pretty sure most of the time he just twists things around and talks very carefully so he never literally lies, he’s just lying in spirit) In my memory, the show never confirms or denies this, but I forgot a lot so we’ll see.

4. I would like Hook to stop hitting on Emma and waving his dick around; when he talks like that to her it upsets me that they end up together. Other than that, he’s fine. He’s clearly smart enough to use sincerity to gain Emma’s trust, and to deduce a lot about her from her behavior. And he also behaves like a dumbass sometimes, and I’m not sure right now whether that is him hamming up his Crude Pirate persona or what. I think he was being sincere most of the time so far, up to and including the part where he admits to being willing to help whoever will get him where he wants to go, obviously because he deduced that lying to Emma does not work.

5. (And now I am thinking about how August tended to be precisely truthful without being honest when talking to her, and then I wondered if she got her lie detection power because they shared the wardrobe or something. I don’t think it’s ever explained beyond maybe “she’s magic”, so it makes as much sense as anything to me.)

6. I have made it quite clear that I do not like the love triangle between Neal, Emma, and Hook, but I don’t believe they had planned to do that yet. It’s still kinda fascinating the parallels and comparisons they invite with this episode. Especially considering the weirdass things this show does, like Hook hooks up with both Neal’s mom and Neal’s ex, finds true love both times, and… everybody’s okay with this? And Hook attempted to raise Neal, and is currently trying to murder his father? (Part of me is just like. Well maybe Hook should stop beating around the bush and just go make out with Neal! …but no, pretty sure that’s the one thing that would be a step too far). OUAT you are so weird. Anyway. I think it’s interesting that Neal and Emma’s story was used to show why she wouldn’t trust Hook, and also why she was sympathetic towards the abandoned and frightened giant.

7. Another interesting parallel from the Obviously Wrong Viewing Order: two episodes about the heroine’s backstory in a row. Were they following an Ideal Storytelling Pattern or something?

8. I really like the character development Charming has been getting this season. I think it was a good move to separate him from Snow without just doing more relationship melodrama. I like how he’s shown using skills from being a shepherd to much greater effect than anything he knows about being a prince.

9. There’s a heavy theme of Parents in this season so far, and I haven’t quite figured out the best way to discuss and analyze that, but I have noticed it and it’s very interesting. We’ve had stories with Belle’s father, Charming’s adoptive not-father, Ruby’s mother, and Regina’s mother, as well as stories about Regina not wanting to be like her mother, and Emma and her mother figuring out how to connect and protect one another. I know there’s more, I’ll keep my eyes open. (Of course, OUATW is also packed with stories about everybody’s parents; it might be less a seasonal theme and more a whole show theme)

10. It’s interesting that Whale and Ruby got entire arcs in this season. Not to link them together gratuitously, but if memory serves they both conclude their arcs in the same episode (the next Victor one), and then they’re pushed aside a bit in favor of Neverland before gradually being mostly dropped. I just think there was fair reason to think they might have been important and connected, and wish I knew what the original plan was. They definitely got favored over most of the other minor characters, at least so far.

11. love Ruby basically being Charming’s right hand woman, as well as her quick friendship with Belle

Today I made a special effort to find a gif for each OUATW episode so far, all because I wanted to showcase the most apt one there ever was. Again it makes me wish I had the wherewithal to do full liveblogs with silly gifs accompanying, but that would be too much effort for me.

#ouat

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