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gregoftom · 11 months

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good fucking food

#tomgreg #OH GOD OH FUCK #greg has agreed to do whatever tom has asked every time and this is the first time he's been like #no actually i'm gonna go to the bros myself despite the fact that tom told him not to #and tom's already taken the hit of nate being invited to the party which is still a sore spot #bc it was supposed to be his and sh*v's party just like it was supposed to be his and sh*vs wedding yet nate is there. again.#so he's like. ok greg let's strategise [i find strategy sexy] make me feel secure with you #and when greg does in fact not do that... oh man. tom's face he's noooot happy about it!!!#his voice goes all high pitched and he does an expression actually similar to sh*v lol #like FINE WHATEVER I DONT CARE DO WHAT YOU WANT [narrator voice: he did in fact care a lot]#but then he touches greg's back!!!!! aaargahrga! tom you are so transparent!!!! he's so very clearly attached to both sh*v and greg #like atp i don't care. he feels similarly to greg as he does to sh*v i've seen enough evidence this season to prove that to me #as in. feelings. romantically. when they hurt him he still loves them and is gentle with them until he can't take it any more.#i don't know when we'll see what happens with greg maybe next episode GOD #if the firing thing does happen which i don't want!!!! god!!!!! maybe THEN we'll see it #maybe an argument somewhat like his and sh*v's tho obviously not to the scale but like. WHO HAS HAD YOUR BACK THIS WHOLE TIME #WHO HAS EVER LOOKED AFTER YOU IN THIS FUCKING FAMILY #god. i need to seeee that. don't just leave it hangin jesse i'm begging you bestie #but like he is soooo bpd it is actually insane. i shake his hand #also ''team kenro'' probably wasn't grea tfor him to hear adksjds #WDYM TEAM KENRO DONT YOU MEAN TEAM NERSPOR >:(((

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momokarp · 2 months

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Heyyyy I saw your Danny Phantom comic about him reading the Great Gatsby during the fight with Vlad (great art btw), and I was wondering if u could give a long-suffering student a rundown of the themes?

I’m gonna cover the themes I can think of off the top of my head and if you really need me to go into more details, I CAN??? But this is just a quick “it’s 7 in the morning for me and I’m actually gonna hyperfixate real quick” kinda moment.

Yes, there are two kinds of rich people, and yes, one side really doesn’t like the other. It’s apparent in Tom and all of his opinions of Gatsby are later on in the book when he finally attends one of his fancy parties.

Old money gets their opinions and styles and tastes from their parents who got it from their parents. It’s a boys club, if you’re in? You’re in, and it’s hard to get in unless you’re of a certain pedigree.

New money? Loud. Outrageous. Doesn’t even know what to do with all that money and everyone is welcome to enjoy it. Gatsby owns a BRIGHT ASS YELLOW CAR not because it’s of a certain model but because it screams loud and expensive and “look at me” and it’s not just cause he’s trying to get with your wife. He knows how to ACT like old money, to a certain degree, but at the end of the day, he can’t hide that he wasn’t born into it.

An unreliable narrator is usually a story told from a first person point of view and their own biases can often warp the reader’s perspective on the events unfolding. Nick even tries to clarify that he doesn’t judge people. Yeah, OUT LOUD, but he’s judging internally. Which is making you, the reader, judge. Tom has an affair with Myrtle Wilson. Nick IS quietly judging them although he tries not to and how could he not? Daisy is his cousin, and he sees the man she’s married make her move away from Chicago and Tom is not hiding his affair very well, she clearly knows about it and hates it.

Oh but here comes Gatsby, with this beautiful story of how he fell in love and went to war and couldn’t be with her and came back and she’s MARRIED and now he’s trying to win her back- and Nick HELPS HIM. THAT’S NOT UNBIASED. HE IS SWAYED. He sides with Gatsby through and through, even when he starts to see the flaws in Gatsby’s vision, he wants to cheer for him.

We’re going back to the green light here for a minute. Gatsby gets a house DIRECTLY ACROSS the lake from where Daisy’s is. There’s the green light at the end of her dock that flashes, that’s a reminder to Gatsby when he looks out that his dream is just over there. Daisy, the perfect gal, along with acceptance into the fancy rich lifestyle. He wants to meet her parents, he wants to have kids with her, he wants to be a somebody, an established respectable person.

But he’s kind of fooling himself too. He wants too much. It’s not enough to have Daisy, she needs to RENOUNCE her ever loving Tom and then properly marry him. He wants to be a part of the boy’s club, but Tom finds out that he has gained his wealth through the mafia and that’s not very respectable! He wants Daisy to call him in the morning, a call that never comes because she won’t cast aside her lifestyle for him. She was raised to trust and live in the sheltered life she was brought up in, even if she’s unhappy. It’s safer than the unknown. She chooses to stay with Tom, as even she realizes she can’t live up to Gatsby’s ideals.

It’s ironic cause this is the Oxford English Dictionary definition and Gatsby is an “Oxford Man!” Not only has Gatsby idealized on the American Dream, but it’s a dream that was never real. Yes, he did get rich, but not because he had equal opportunities. He got lucky to help out an old rich man on his boat (WHICH HE DIDNT EVEN GET ANY MONEY FROM) to learn the rich social skills, and he worked with the mafia to get all his wealth. Yes, he got Daisy, but not REALLY. He had an affair with her. They didn’t marry properly, didn’t have kids, didn’t move in together. And Daisy never intended on doing any of these things. She wanted to run away.

And Gatsby was never going to get these things because he wasn’t BORN rich. Tom represents the concept of Old Money so well not only in how he lacks any genuine character that isn’t inherited from his father, but how protective he is of keeping the status quo, so that he remains in power and no one who doesn’t fit the club can come in.

And Gatsby pays the price of his affair while Tom gets away with everything. How is this the American Dream? It isn’t.

Okay, that’s my stuff. I can go into symbolism on the yellow car and big billboard and all that other stuff if this was helpful at all. I hope it is helpful???

#the great gatsby #I am not an English major #momoask #can’t believe I got this ask because I made a Danny phantom comic #that’s so wild

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bitterkarella · 5 months

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Midnight Pals: Large Adult Son

Eric Stenbock: hello midnight society Stenbock: i'm Count Eric Stanislaus Stenbock Stenbock: [producing life-size mannequin] and this is my son le Petit Comte Thomas Ligotti: Ligotti: Ligotti: Ligotti: Stephen King: you're uh King: really staring at that mannequin kinda intently there, tom Ligotti: hm

Eric Stenbock: submitted for the approval of the midnight society, i call this the true story of the vampire Stenbock: one sec, let me just get le Petit Comte comfortable first Stenbock: how are you doing le Petit Comte Stenbock: Ligotti: Stenbock: Ligotti: Stenbock: Ligotti: Stenbock: he says he's doing good

RL Stine: hey does your puppet talk Stine: my puppet talks Stenbock: does my what talk? Stine: your puppet Stenbock: Stenbock: you mean my son? Stine: yeah your puppet there Stenbock: Stenbock: never speak to me or my son every again

RL Stine: i just wanted to know if le petit comte talks RL Stine: [producing ventriloquist dummy] cuz knothead here talks RL Stine: especially when i drink a glass of water RL Stine: watch he'll sing the old gray mare Stenbock: how dare you

Stenbock: submitted for the approval of the midnight society, i call this the true tale of a vampire Stenbock: it's the story of carmilla Sheridan Le Fanu: Stenbock: not THAT carmilla Stenbock: a totally different carmilla

Stenbock: this carmilla story is not to be confused for sheridan la fanu's carmilla Stenbock: for one thing, this isn't a lesbian vampire story Stenbock: it's a gay vampire story Stenbock: extremely gay Bram Stoker: oh no Anne Rice: oh yes

Stenbock: so carmilla lives in a castle with her sexy brother gabriel and their dad Stenbock: and she's narrating this story so Stenbock: she's all "hey its me carmilla, let me tell you what i look like" Stenbock: "i'm just an average girl, but i think i'm pretty hot" Stenbock: "but boy my brother, damn what a smoke show" Stenbock: "pouty youthful mouth, tangled blonde locks, the whole deal" Stenbock: "you know how it is"

Stenbock: "so my brother was so kind and gentle, filled with nothing but love" Stenbock: "just loved animals" Stenbock: "and animals loved him" Stenbock: "he was a delicate cinnamon bun too good for this cruel bitch of a world"

Stenbock: "anyway this vampire comes to our castle" Stenbock: "and he's always hanging out with my brother" Stenbock: "but my brother is suddenly all sick and pale and doesn't have as much blood as usual" Stenbock: "suspiciously vampiric"

Stenbock: "anyway then my brother died and the vampire left, the end" Stenbock: what do you think of that Ligotti: Ligotti: Ligotti: King: thom it's not going to move, it's not real Ligotti: hm

#midnight pals #the midnight society #midnight society #stephen king #eric stenbock #rl stine #thomas ligotti #anne rice #bram stoker #sheridan le fanu

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maryellencarter · 10 months

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Andy Serkis, of course, as *the* expert in motion-capture acting ever since he first played Gollum 20+ years ago, is a shapeshifter in ways beyond even most character actors to achieve.

He's also a high-level shapeshifter by normal character actor methods -- when I saw him in Black Panther (I think possibly the only place I've seen him wearing his own face, me not being a great moviegoer at the best of times), there was only one brief moment where an expression that reminded me of Gollum flickered through.

Recently, it turned out that a free trial of Amazon Prime which I happened to have running could be converted into a second free book credit on Audible if I should take a free trial there. I've been curious for some time about the 2021 audiobook of LOTR performed by Andy Serkis, and while trying to get my sleep schedule right way up for job-hunting purposes, I've been working on listening to his Fellowship of the Ring. (I've just reached Moria.)

It's a straight-up audiobook, not a play, by the technical definition: one performer, no music or added special effects. But *damn*, you want to talk about shapeshifting? Serkis does startlingly accurate impressions of every actor in the Peter Jackson movies, plus unique voices for characters with no movie casting, and he sings the songs that are described as having tunes.

(I don't have the ear to tell whether he's using new compositions or some kind of traditional tunes, except that I can say for certain he doesn't use Tolkien's rendition of "A fox went out on a winter's night" for Sam's "Troll Song". If anyone with a better ear than mine happens to investigate, I'd be delighted to know what's discovered.)

His narratorial voice isn't 100% Jirt, which is a Choice, but one I honestly support. The Professor had a thick Old English accent which would probably be a chore to listen to or perform for 60+ hours of total audiobook length. Serkis seems to be using something close to his natural Middlesex accent for the narration, as far as I can tell, but there are enough of the familiar Tolkienian twists (like using the "o" sound from the word "tossed" in "shone" and "wroth") that I'm favorably impressed so far.

His Elvish pronunciation isn't perfect, but it's solidly movie-quality (positive); you'd likely have to be me, with a quarter-century and counting of Sindarin as a second language, to snag on the tiny things I'm snagging on, stuff like the Finnish-style double-length "m" in Remmirath or the "eth" sound represented by the "dh" in Caradhras. (There is properly no D sound in Caradhras; the middle consonant sound should be that of the "th" in "these clothes", but I've never actually heard anyone besides myself say it that way.) He gets a lot of the tricky sounds correct, better than I do when I'm being sloppy, like the long-i-adjacent diphthong in Edain or the broad second A in Gandalf.

Also, the unique voices and the vocal effects he brings in for certain scenes are just... I don't even have words. The Barrow-Wight is as terrifying as it was when I was ten. Tom Bombadil sings about 95% of his dialogue, which I've never imagined any performance acknowledging unless it were the hypothetical LOTR opera I suggest every so often, but goddamn if he doesn't somehow make it work. For the movie-cast voices, he flips so smoothly between the mishmash of accents that I keep forgetting I'm not actually listening to a full-cast play with Billy Boyd's chirpy Glaswegian, Sean Bean's gruff Yorkshire, and Sean Astin's earnest put-on West Country all complete.

As for the lowest bar, the reason I refuse to recommend Rob Inglis's older unabridged audiobooks as an entry point -- Inglis regularly inserts contractions that aren't in the original text, turning the formal tone of scenes where "cannot" and "will not" are important signifiers into something incongruously conversational. I do not forgive that kind of alteration in a text where the formality level, and the changes between levels, are such an incredibly fundamental part of what's being conveyed. Serkis has already successfully cleared one dialogue point where it would have been easy to change "can not" to "can't" (Pippin talking nearly as fast as hobbitly possible), and I'm very optimistic that he'll continue to hit those marks.

Wow, that got longer than I expected, but I'm *really* enjoying this rendition. Unless it majorly blows up in my face somehow, I fully expect to have a new go-to recommendation for How To Experience LOTR for people who can't get through it by reading the text. (And even for people who can. I've said on many occasions, that book is written to be read aloud.)

#lotr #andy serkis

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aethon-recs · 4 months

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HP Rec Fest, Day 16 ❄️

@hprecfest daily prompts running through Dec 31. Goal is to find lesser-known or underrated works, even by well-known authors, to feature here.

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Day 16: A Fic that Made You Laugh

Make a Wish by @crowcrowcrowthing (E, 3k, complete)

Summary: Tom Riddle is wasting away in his hospital bed, far too young to succumb to such a terrible and mysterious illness. The only thing that gives him solace is the hope that football star Harry Potter might visit him in his final days. Why I rec it for this prompt: Tom's utter audacity in this fic is so true-to-character, and so funny. Also, I love that this is told from Riddle Snr's POV, which adds an extra layer of comedy (or horror, depending on how you look at it.) And! There are 3 alternate endings for this fic, and they each get better and better.

Do You Want Fries With That? (part 1) / Tom's Time Has Fry-nally Come (part 2) by jellybeantarot (T, 16k, complete)

Summary: Harry really needed some money, Dumbledore needed someone to dress up as Wendy, and Tom was the only one with the desperation to be Ronald McDonald. Why I rec it for this prompt: Harry and Tom as high school-aged fast-food workers is too good of a brilliant, absurdist crack scenario. Everything from the banter to the plot arc to Tom's SoundCloud rapper name had me in stitches. I can't continue describe this fic without ruining it — just go read it if you're in search for a good laugh.

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Running list of recs:

#hprecfest2023 #tomarrymort #harrymort #tomarry #aethon recs #tomarrymort recs

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frasier-crane-style · 20 days

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I think you can see a genuine loss of craft and storytelling integrity in the Spider-Man reboots over the years.

Tobey Maguire has NO ONE to talk to about being Spider-Man until MJ in 3. His inner conflict is conveyed entirely through sparsely used narration, cleverly written scenes, dream sequences. Think of how many ideas in the trilogy are delivered through striking images.

Andrew Garfield has Gwen to talk to. When he can't talk to her, he writes his innermost thoughts on a... vision board or something?

It's goddamn stupid, but then, Garfield is the canonically dumb Spider-Man who needs Gwen to explain science shit to him. Fucker.

Fucking everyone knows Tom Holland is Spider-Man and loves talking to him about every little thing he's going through. He's got an AI, he's got Happy, he's got Tony, he's got Ned, he's got Aunt May, he's got... her, and he's even got Mysterio. Nothing is conveyed through filmatism or subtext, it's all just plainly rendered talking head dialogue tossed under hand to the audience without any nuance because anything more complicated would take time and money they're either unable or unwilling to commit.

I would say they're not even trying to communicate with the audience, they're trying to obscure a lack of ideas at the core of their story. Far From Home, Mysterio wants to be an Avenger. What does he intend to do when he's an Avenger? How does he intend to cope when an actual, non-hoax threat shows up? Are there even any Avengers for him to join? Why is being an Avenger a glamorous and desirable position in this movie, but in TFAWS, it's an unpaid internship that doesn't net Sam any respect or goodwill?

This vapidity is all papered over with a bunch of bantery dialogue in an attempt to distract from how paper-thin the plot really is. And in case you think I'm being overly harsh, remember the conflict in No Way Home is that five villains don't want to be cured of their afflictions or have their lives saved. They're fighting to stop Spider-Man from helping them. Their motivation is I guess just to stay on an alien world where they have no friends or resources or even government ID, and where superheroes who can beat them up are plentiful, to, uh... hang out with each other? Seriously, what does Doc Ock's endgame look like if he succeeds in killing Spider-Man, which he's trying to do for most of the movie?

You don't know because, ha ha, Zendaya said his name is stupid. That's a better thing to spend time on than the antagonist's goal or motivation.

Seriously, what does Norman Osborn's characterization amount to besides "he's kk-razy"? Raimiverse Norman wanted to make Peter his heir out of disappointment with his own son. What is MCU Norman trying to accomplish? He's the main character besides Peter and you can't tell me; he's just doing random shit because the plot demands it.

#spider-man

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dc-polls · 5 months

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"That Really Happened?!" DC Comics Tournament Entry #34

Shvaughn/Sean

[ID: Cover of Legion of Super-Heroes #1 that says Young Romance. Shvaughn Erin cries into a handkerchief and says, "*choke* He spends so much time saving the world... When will he find time for me?" In the foreground Element Lad looks off into the distance. A narration box reads, "All my life, happiness eluded my grasp... and nothing I ever cared about lasted! Was this the way it had to be with Jan, too? The Elements of Heartbreak!" /END ID]

What Happened?

Shvaughn Erin was a member of the Science Police, the 30th-century cops who assisted (or hindered) the Legion of Super-Heroes. During the Paul Levitz/Keith Giffen run in the 1980s, she became romantically involved with Legionnaire Jan "Element Lad" Arrah. This upset some members of the Legion fan community who had a theory that Jan was gay. The character wasn't traditionally masculine, wore pink, and had curly blond hair (look, this just how gay coding worked in the 70s and 80s).

When Giffen and married couple Tom and Mary Bierbaum (who got their start in the Legion fan community) took over the title with 1989's vol. 4 (aka, the "Five Years Later" run), one of the things that Giffen wanted to do was kill off Shvaughn to establish Element Lad as gay. They were already using Jan's archenemy, the criminal Roxxas who years ago had genocided the rest of the his species, the matter-transmuting Trommites, as the villain for the first arc. Shvaughn was eventually spared this fate, but the writers still had to square the circle of why a "gay" character would be involved with a woman. Their solution? What if "she" was a "he?"

I'm going to try to explain the rest of this story in as sensitive a way as possible. This is a story that was written in 1992 by, as far as I know, three cishet people and your millage will vary (and as a cis person myself, I can't really speak to how well this holds up). I will generally be using she/her pronouns when the character is presenting as Shvaughn and he/him when presenting as Sean.

In Legion of Super-Heroes, vol. 4 #31, the Earth is recovering from the devastation of losing the moon due to the machinations of the alien Dominators who have infiltrated and subverted the planetary government (note also, the Dominators have an extremely problematic "yellow peril" design so there's a lot going on here). In the midst of this, Jan and Shvaughn meet for the first time in a while. Jan finds out that Shvaughn is going through withdrawal from not being able to obtain the drug Profem. She explains that she had been born male under the name Sean on a very conservative planet. While growing up, Sean developed a crush on Element Lad, who as a teenager was intergalactically famous as a member of the Legion. Thinking that the only way a boy like Jan would find him attractive, Sean started taking Profem, changed her name to Shvaughn, enrolled in the Science Police academy, and eventually became the liaison to the Legion. Now, without access to the drug, Shvaughn is reverting back to her more masculine appearance.

Jan takes all of this in, before telling his former lover that "anything we ever shared physically...it was in spite of the Profem, not because of it!" Shvaughn later runs into the teenage clone of Element Lad from the Dominator's Batch SW6 (we can't get into that right now), and in future appearances shows up fully presenting as masculine and going by Sean. The adult Element Lad goes into a coma and Sean is at his bedside.

Then the Legion gets rebooted in Zero Hour, all of the Legionnaires are teens again with new continuity, and Shvaughn (when she shows up at all) is back to presenting as female with no indication that she was ever Sean. Element Lad (unless I missed anything) is only given female love interests or sexual partners by later writers, or implied to be asexual with a spiritual bend.

While Shvaughn is far from the first female love interest who gets her storyline derailed to support a gay headcanon, it is surprising that it 1. happened in canon and 2. the solution was not to kill her off, but to reveal she is trans (ish?) so the character can detransition back to a man so that his love interest can be gay. What's really weird is that Giffen and the Bierbaums also made canon a romance between Light/Lightning Lass and Shrinking Violet, but never felt a need to invalidate their previous relationships with male partners, which maybe points towards the culture of the time's perceptions of male vs. female bisexuality.

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Tournament polls will be posted after all entries are up. As always you can find all posts related to the tournament using #dc-polls-trh

#dc-polls-trh #dc comics #shvaughn erin #jan arrah #element lad #legion of super heroes #losh

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noahmullariii · 13 days

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a much too whiny rant about fic icks

I die a little every time pup, cub or Prongslet comes up in a wolfstar raising Harry (together or separately) fic. especially cub - it makes literally no sense????? are you sure it's Remus John Lupin I'm reading about??? it's his evil doppelganger, I'm telling you. I'm not even sure I could stomach that word ironically.

Prongslet is fine in moderation, I guess, but only as an inside joke, only coming from Sirius and only when Harry's a smol bean. but when it's Prisoner of Azkaban compliant I wanna claw my eyes out.

it's even worse when those terms are used not just in dialogue but in Remus or Sirius' internal monologue as if pup and cub are Harry's freaking pronouns or something. my cub, my pup, cub did this, pup did that... just call him boy or kid or his name for god's sake. I once saw sprog pop up and was delighted cuz at least it's actually british slang.

and don't get me started on Hadrian(us) James Orion Potter-Black (which is just... why the fuck would James give his son the name of his best mate's horrible father AND the last name of his horrible family?? and why would Lily agree to that?) who's simultaneously Lord Potter, Black, Peverell and Slytherin (and, sure, I have a visceral reaction to aristocracy wank in general but even ignoring that - the last 3 literally make no sense since "Lord Black" is Sirius until his death; and both Peverell and Slytherin lines bled into other families ages ago. so being a Potter automatically means you're descended from Peverells as well as being a Gaunt - from Slytherin. and the last of those is Tom Riddle Jr. but that wouldn't make any Potters "Lord Peverell"s or any Gaunts/Riddle "Lord Slytherin"s. those last names are dead. smh).

but, uh, this tangent technically has nothing to do with my initial complaints, it's just that at some point I started thinking of this naming stuff in tandem with nonsensical nicknames as they began appearing in fics together. which is a double homicide, truly.

and look, I definitely understand the desire to make Harry's original name something else cuz it fits nicely with POC Potters headcanon and Dursleys being racist dicks about it, but... Hadrian? I mean, it's not really a big deal when the fic mentions it being his full name but both narration and characters still refer to him as Harry for short - that makes total sense. however when after the name reveal Hadrian replaces Harry completely, it feels super weird and uncanny, making it hard to identify Harry's character in the story altogether.

although I guess you should all knock me off my high horse for being the biggest hypocrite ever, cuz I myself have a headcanon for Harry's name, even if it's less elaborate than Hadrian. also less Roman? that's another thing I don't get - if you want to create a better connection between Harry and his roots, why choose a name of a Roman emperor for a desi kid? since he's usually explicitly desi in all the Hadrian fics. so it's not that I have a problem with renaming him, per se, I just don't understand the choice of Hadrian.

for example, I recently read a fic where he was Pakistani and his name was originally Hami, which is a very nice idea, actually, and makes total sense for such headcanon. mine is Hari btw (हरि in Sanskrit), since I headcanon Potters as Indian, but I didn't come up with that name myself - just saw it somewhere a couple years ago and fell in love. I think it's actually a pretty popular hc now? anyway, it's closer to Harry than any other name I've seen and has so many beautiful meanings that resonate with what I think James and Lily felt towards their son. so yeah, I'm one to talk, boo me.

now, I probably should shut up since this rant has been entirely too negative already, but while I'm on the topic of icky names/nicknames I should circle back to wolfstar cuz gods know I'll never be brave enough to talk about this particular pet peeve in its own post.

Siri, Remu and Remy make my blood boil. Siri could be kinda cute when it's a silly childhood nickname from Regulus, but if any marauder or Lily calls Sirius that - immediate death. Si and Re are a teensy bit better in moderation and if used ironically, but still stab me in the chest. a couple times for good measure. the only somewhat acceptable short form of any of their two names for me is Rem, albeit with a stretch and only because it's an actual version of the name Remus in Catalan and Russian. I know I'm being way too dramatic about this (just like with all of my previous points) but I just don't understand the need to shorten their names. at all. they're only 3 and 2 syllables long and so mystical on their own that any shortening just makes them simultaneously more nonsensical and less remarkable.

both characters literally have established quirky nicknames in canon that you can play with and even shorten to Pads and Moons if you want. Sirius is not a digital assistant and Remus is not the main character from Ratatouille. stop this madness.

plus James is right there. his name has a ridiculous amount of diminutives - Jamie, Jimmy, Jim, Jam, Jem, Jay and even Jimbo if you're into that. why strip Remus and Sirius' magical names of their charm if you can have fun with common names? but I digress.

at the end of the day, my pet peeves are mine only and I should live with them in fragile peace. this post is a personal rant first and foremost and if you disagree, I'm genuinely happy that you enjoy the things I can't. fandom is a playground and we can all find some fun in different corners. I'd also like to point out that I'm not trying to take a jab at fic writers who use any of the aforementioned terms, names or diminutives. I'm only one person, so if I stop reading your work because of my petty biases, it's only my loss and not your problem. hundreds of other fans will enjoy it instead. so keep doing what you love and writing those characters however you want, it's your right!

so yeah, writers and readers - don't take it personally and have your fun! don't listen to me being mean! I'm just making my fandom experience way too convoluted for my own good.

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iamabigbox · 6 months

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Okay my much more coherent rambles of TSH and The Great Gatsby

So, Richard compares himself to Gatsby in the book, the two do have similarities with imitating a certain class/aesthetic and making up lies about their history but I wouldn’t say that Richard has a longing to get super above his class like Gatsby does. I mean sure everybody wishes they could be richer but Richards whole thing was fitting into the aesthetic of the greek class which happened to be expensive. The biggest difference between the two is that, yes, Gatsby romanticises a lot of the upper class life and Daisy but he’s also just flat out DELUSIONAL, which I would say Richard is not

This is why I would say Richard is much more similar to Nick who just goes along with everything Gatsby says and romanticises everything he does, similarly to Richard and the Greek class. If u wanna go with the whole Nick is in love with Gatsby theory then it also makes sense with Gatsby being Henry in this case (which I will get into later)

Another way in which Richard = Nick is how they treat Camilla and Daisy, now I wouldn’t say Nick romanticises Daisy all the much but due to his unreliable narration (another reason why he’s similar to Richard) we don’t actually know how Daisy feels about the situation, again similar to Richard and Camilla. What really makes me see the Richard and Nick, Camilla and Daisy comparison is them both kind of having this idk spite/apathy towards the latter, with Nick referring to Daisy as a “grotesque rose” and the whole “protecting your own interests” scene with Richard and Camilla.

Next we have Henry and Gatsby, with them both being romanised by the narrator and both being DELUSIONAL, with Gatsby being Gatsby and Henry thinking he could take over the college, I do think calling Henry delusional is a bit extreme but I’m gonna go with it for the sake of this comparison. I also find Henry sort of similar to Jordan but that’s mostly due to them both having more distant and independent personalities (this may be the winterpapen shipper deep within me coming out though)

Another person I would compare to Jordan is Francis, but that’s mostly due to her relationship with Nick and the “angry and half in love with her I walked away line” because that’s so Francis and Richard coded to me

That rlly just leaves Charles and Tom but I don’t rlly want to make that comparison since I like to keep the whole incest thing at the very back of my mind at all times. All I’ll say is that the Gatsby and Tom fight lowkey gives the same vibes as the Henry and Richard fight

If your gonna take anything from this it should be that Nick and Richard are just the same person

#the secret history #richard papen #bunny corcoran #camilla macaulay #charles macaulay #henry winter #the great gatsby #jay gatsby #nick carraway #daisy buchanan #jordan baker #tom buchanan

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o0anapher0o · 8 months

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Miss Lily and character stereotpyes

I’ve been re-reading @halo4life2017-blog's rewatch blogs and the discussion we had about Miss Lily and about how Lestat might at some point tell us he only killed her because she was actually planning on blackmailing Louis or something like that, and I had some more thoughts I need to get out.

The thing about Lily as Louis presents her is, she’s a stereotype. The ‘whore with the heart of gold’ is a common trope. It’s a cliché the same way the though, street-hard, black pimp is, or the rich European genteel who is abhorred by American racism, the stately southern matron who saves face at all cost even if it means waving off a guests outburst with a comment about the weather, the sassy little sister who supports her gay brother and only wants to see him happy, or the religious zealot who is really a gentle angel when he’s not possessed by the holy spirit. All those are sterotypes that Louis uses when he introduces the people in his life to the story, ways he tries to shape the narrative perception of them. Or maybe lies he tells himself about them.

And all of these stereotypes get dismantled within the first episode: Louis is really a sensitive baby gay who likes to read and cries at the opera. Lestat is a terrifying vampire, who we can rightfully assume has never cared about how black people are treated anywhere prior to meeting Louis, and really still doesn’t. Florence is an emotionally abusive bitch who happily unloads her own grief on her child, Grace is mommy little princess who deserts Louis when he needs her most to side with Florence and Paul is a condescending brat who shamelessly uses his mental illness for the liberties it gives him (we don’t talk about it enough because mental illness is tricky and Paul is a great character, but the way he acts towards Grace’s fiancé and wedding, and how he talks to the priests when he goes to confession are on a level of entitlement that’s breathtaking. And that’s instances when he’s supposedly ‘right in the head’. My favourite is ‘I wasn’t being rude”, like, yes, you were. Just because the voices in your head told you to say it doesn’t mean it’s not rude to say it and the fact that you’re trying to justify it tells me you know that.).

You could probably make a similar case almost all other characters, Bricktop, Tom Anderson, Levi, all of them are initially presented in a very stereotypical way and later we’re shown they are not quite what they seem at first (Fenwick might be the exception here, he’s always a horrible racist pig). Except for Lily. She never gets the chance to be shown as more, because she gets killed off-screen and is never brought up again.

But we do get hints that everything isn’t as Louis presents it with Lestat’s throwaway comment on her wretched life, or the fact that it takes Louis two weeks to even notice she was dead, which tells me they weren’t as close as some people seem to believe. (Yes, he was a regular customer, one she might even have liked but they definitely weren’t friends.). So yeah, I won’t be surprised if we do learn about some nefarious goings on she was involved in. That’s not to make Lestat look better btw, he did kill her and the main reason was no doubt to get a reaction from Louis and/or to dismantle his support system, but I do think there was more to it than that just ‘she was a poor substitute’. And just as a side note: since we tend to treat Louis as an unreliable narrator (justifiably so) if and when the time comes we certainly need to look at Lestat’s story the same way, because I’m pretty sure if anyone is trying to make Lestat look better, it’s going to be Lestat.

#interview with the vampire #amc iwtv #iwtv meta #there is also the question how gabrielle survived that long #louis de pointe du lac #miss lily

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hypocriticaltypwriter · 9 months

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The Lost Boys Musical Idea (Screenplay/Sneak Peek~!)

Here's a little sneak peek of the unofficial TLB Musical idea I'm working on! I just got the first scene of the movie done, and I hope it's good! But let me know what yall think and what might need to be edited or added! I'd love to hear your thoughts :] Enjoy~!!🩸🩸

🦇🦇🦇

The scene starts of with a narrator that’s off stage, speaking about Santa Carla and how it seems like a normal place, maybe a few places you wouldn’t want to be caught dead in or wander around alone, but with it’s infamous boardwalk, it does get a few tourists. But as he continues, he speaks of the dangers and that this town has a dark side behind the twinkling lights. As he continues to speak, and his voice grows more mysterious and malicious, we slowly begin to hear the chorus of ‘Cry little Sister’ play, sort of like the opening of the Lost Boys movie, a choir chanting ‘Thou Shall not fall, thou shall not die, thou shall not fear, thou shall not kill.'

(NEW SCENE)

While the choir sings, a set of the carnival ride would be setting up, and a few more things to give off the boardwalk opening. We’d start with a few folks talking and chatting, the main focus on a couple having indistinct chatter- but cutting through the silence would be laughter and shouting- The one and only LOST BOYS making their way onto the scene, stopping at a few crowds, and causing a little chaos as they push between the couple, making them stumble as the four unknown Vampires. The couple make some complain about the four always causing trouble for everyone on the boardwalk - probably making more complains that they don’t know that the Boys overhear.

MARKO or PAUL would say something about lighting up as DAVID would make some comment to The Boys about the people around here, not understanding that when the sun goes down, the town is theirs. That’s when the first song would begin (which is an official song by G Tom Mac, which you can find here on Spotify!) Sleep All Day, Party All Night.

As DAVID would sing (plus the other Boys singing backup) they’d go around the set dancing and singing whilst doing things to tease or bother the other tourists and passerby’s, before they finally go to the Merry-Go-Round, flirting with a girl who’s already taken as they continue to sing- causing a little comedy chase as the boyfriend stands up and tries to throw a punch at DAVID- who dodges before quickly running around the Merry-Go-Round set piece with the other Boys Tailing behind as the boyfriend chases them. They continue running in circles as the song would finish, swiftly being cut off as the Policeman steps in and stops DAVID with his baton around his neck.

He tells them the whole ‘I told you to stay off the board walk’ yadda yadda, and releases DAVID, who is anything but pleased. But they oblige, walking away as the three other Lost Boys grumble and groan in complaint, until DAVID turns back to look at the scene. He sings a small thirty second reprise of Sleep All Day, Party All Night’ at least to the same tune, slower and more sinister as he says something about this town not being able to see what’s coming to them. He then smiles evilly and fully exits the scene; the stage goes dark.

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cleabellanov · 4 months

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💙 hi and welcome to my ted talk about the latest episodes of what if, please read through (3) 💙

First of all. Why is season 2 so...happy?

I'm not complaining. Marvel has enough sad stories for a lifetime, but I found that, instead of exploring demises, we're now seeing victories. Old villains find their insight and become heroes (Hela, Nebula, Gamora) and lives are influenced for the better, earlier on (Peter Quill, Bucky, Hope).

It might be nothing.

But I think it's something.

You know what season 2 of what if comes right after? Season 2 of Loki. And, as you'll see at the end of this post, their colors are making themselves known.

Could it be that, from his throne, Loki got sick of watching sad stories and seeing worlds die? There is a chance, I don't know how plausible, but there is, that he's influencing all that we saw this season. A little hope here, a little time there, and, using their free will, everyone gets a second chance.

That, or Uatu felt bad for us and wanted to gift us in honor of New Year being in 1-2 days. Do tell me if you have additions on that.

If I had to bet on something, it would be the overall fan reaction to the opening scene. I screamed, yes. Did they expect us to see Loki's name there in the subtitles and be totally chill about it?

"To be or not to be, that is the question"

I can totally see Tom having this idea for the opening scene: just Loki reciting Hamlet, and altough to his brother's bordedom, acting from Shakespeare. And it was the best idea he could have.

It's a missable detail, but Thor mentions Mjölnir! And you know how? As a gift...for Loki!

He responds to that with "I...have misplaced it" which is, yeah, typical, but how do you just lose Mjölnir, Loki? The idea, however, is that he'd be able to lift it, which I would have loooved to see on screen. But this was fun to have too.

And the response to Captain Carter's "You're a bigger drama queen than your brother" (talking to Thor)?? 😭

"Blessed"

Can we also point out how insane it is that after just being stripped from her home in an unknown world, Peggy still wanted to help?

She not only has a hero's soul, she is that brave as to turn down The Watcher's warnings and offers to take her back safe. And remember, not everyone can hear Uatu as he narrates. But she can, sometimes.

"What if, what if, what if. I have to try."

"Not on my watch"

This ambition of hers, is, of course, given by her humanity too. But that's not only a bad thing. The Watcher's all knowing, his experience of seeing worlds die everyday, has made him unsensible (from our point of view). That's not the case for Peggy.

Amidst all her adventures, however, perhaps she's also searching to avenge the love she lost, searching for her happy ending. In the movie Endgame, I have to admit she felt optional, like Steve wasn't meant to be there with her. But not now.

I wish The Watcher told her she has a happy ending somewhere.

I don't know about you, but this episode...is my favourite ever from the series. It used to be the Strange Supreme one, but that's on the second place of the podium now.

We got to see queen Hela, drama prince/ actor Loki, king Thor. Bucky, NOT the Winter Soldier, and Steve, finally on the same page! Scarlet Witch!! Using her powers for good, not corrupted. All of them in cool costumes too. If things like these were on live action, I'd lose my f- mind, if I haven't already. :))

And now the green. The "rifts" that are tearing this world apart are very familiar in color.

And this is not the only thing that's turning green, when it used to be multi-colored. The prism, too, the one from which The Watcher watches and narrates. And I'm not talking about the Time Stone. I'm talking about the tree of life, and how it might actually have a serious impact over everything. I mean, does Uatu know anything? And what was that decorated Yggradsil in the trailer, before the holidays?

Nevertheless, I think it's related in some way, and if it's not, don't blame me. I really like green.

That being said, thanks for reading <3

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mischief-lies-and-stories · 5 months

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Loki spin-off ideas

I'm going to preface this by saying, I do not think we will ever get a Loki spin-off. But that doesn't mean I can't think about all the great possibilities there could be. And also I am quickly running out of ideas again.

Spoilers for Loki.

TVA workplace comedy, featuring B-15 Verity, Casey, OB, on occasion Sylvie and Mobius, and introducing new (queer) characters. Casey and OB stumble their way into a relationship, Verity once and for all establishes that she can detect lies, Mobius is sad until in the season finale (with special guest star Tom Hiddleston!) someone figures out how to get him to Loki. And we get Lokius in the last ten seconds, because they pull a Will Shatner and purposely ruin every other take that isn't them making the fuck out.

TVA training shorts, featuring Miss Minutes (ugh), reminiscent of those high school PSAs they made Cap do ("So you got detention," etc.), but animated in the style of the introductory video Loki watched in the first episode. You could also have a second season of them as an updated version following the dissolution of the Sacred Timeline and how the branches are seen as good things now. Maybe the new ones are narrated by members of the Time Revengers, since Miss Minutes is still being rehabilitated. (I'm still deciding if the idea of listening to Mobius tell the story of how the multiversal tree was created would be heartbreaking even if he managed to remain professional and not break down in tears, or if it would be really sweet that he gets assigned that video.)

Lokis in the void, following mainly Kid Loki and (if we retcon it, set this before the show, or he somehow survived) Classic Loki, but also ridiculous schemes of President Loki (yuck, no thank you) that constantly get thwarted. The B-plot is Alligator Loki sneaking off and getting up to some shit in an anti-Perry the Platypus running gag. (Wait, maybe I just want a Phineas and Ferb parody where every character is a Loki and it takes place in the void. That could be so stupid it's hilarious.)

Classic Loki in Valhalla please I need it. Like we start similarly to the events of my fic After, where Classic Loki arrives in Valhalla and reunites at long last with Thor (don't ask me how, I know technically his timeline was reset). Then the show continues with Classic Loki and Thor getting up to hijinks in Valhalla, maybe scheming to break out of Valhalla (a storyline for Loki in various contexts I've played around with a few times). We could have different characters from the Thor movies and comics in Valhalla, but since they're all dead, they're all played by older actors. You could make some easy, low-hanging old jokes (back pain every time they use their weapon, etc.), but they're gods and they're dead, so technically they should be fine. They're just old and dead. (But like, Tony Stark is for sure in Valhalla, too. You could have some frostiron going on. Or Fandral. He's there, too, Ewing.)

Mobius's adventures in the multiverse, just episodes of him traveling through time and experiencing it (I'm realizing now that this is basically just the premise for Doctor Who...). Also going on in this series is obviously Mobius missing Loki and looking for a way to get to him. Of course (because this is my show and I say so), the series would end with them reuniting and confessing and staying together, either in the tree if need be or in the wider multiverse if Loki is able to leave the tree. And there would certainly be episodes throughout the show featuring the other members of our Time Revengers. Maybe the workplace comedy and this show are occurring simultaneously. (Like one episode of TVA someone's like "Where's Verity?" "Oh she's on a mission." And you're like oh the actor has a break or is filming something else, and then later that week the episode of Mobius airs and THERE'S VERITY!)

Sylvie in Broxton. That's it, that's the show. Just Sylvie living her best life in the small town, working at McDonald's, hanging out at Lyle's record store, ignoring 90% of the calls on her TemPad (unless it's Mobius, because in spite of herself, she's a little worried about him).

#loki #loki tv show #loki theories #sylvie laufeydottir #mobius m mobius #lokius #loki spinoff ideas #loki season 2 spoilers #loki tv show spoilers

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therealvinelle · 3 months

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Wait this is super late and already February BUUt

what was your tumblr blog wrapped? Favorite ask of 2023? Most thought provoking?? Strangest ask of 2023?

Better late than never! Although we have an immediate problem: I have absolutely no recollection of which asks I received in 2023, so we'll have to dig through my drafts for this one (as interesting questions are the ones I start answering only to be overwhelmed by, and then shove into drafts where they are forgotten).

So, looking through my 2023 drafts we have:

Most thought provoking

Which Agatha Christie plot would Carlisle actually stand a chance of solving? Like he wakes up human and is told he's the famous Hercule Poirot, what's the best case scenario there?

Anon has no idea how much joy they bring me when they ask me to think about murder mysteries, my only gripe is that anon is clearly not a Christie veteran because while Poirot was her most famous detective, the woman had lots of detectives. Poirot, Miss Marple, Tommy and Tuppence, Superintendent Battle, or one-off characters such as Calgary in Ordeal by Innocence. The one-off characters are typically ordinary people who suddenly find themselves in the middle of some insane plot unfolding (see: Calgary finding out that he was supposed to be a hanged man's alibi, now he wants to set things right, or the narrator of Crooked House who got engaged to a nice girl only to find out her family is insane).

All of this to say: Carlisle doesn't wake up as Poirot, he is the Poirot, our Christie hero of the day who gets entangled in a conspiracy of some kind.

Which means I'd have to think of an Agatha Christie-esque plot of my own to fit Carlisle into it, and then explain how he solves it and this frankly is a fic, not a tumblr post.

Kudos also go to the person who very stupidly asked me why I'm so obsessed with Alphard Black recently when he's a non-character in the Harry Potter franchise, they got this reply. (TLDR: I squinted at the Black family tree until I'd gone insane.)

Favorite ask

Somebody asked me about the RMS Titanic :')

Also this one: Voldie metamorphosis anon here, I can't believe someone already asked you that lol. Weird! Now that you're a wizard terrorist with mind control spells, what terrible Oslo city planning decisions would you interfere with?

Splendid question, anon, but I was overwhelmed and just wanted to type "Barcode. Barcode!! THE PLANS FOR GAUSTAD SYKEHUS" and attach lots of pictures of Ullevål hospital, my beloved, and ended up stepping away from the keyboard with my hands in the air.

Strangest asks

I'll just list a few as I scroll down my inbox.

You have purgatory, where there are Tom Riddles from different "universes". What would Edward Cullen's purgatory look like? Are they all sad because they're in hell? Do they have complex polycules? They don't talk to each other at all? I want to know your thought What gets me about this one is the first sentence, where we take a Purgatory of Tom Riddles for an established fact. I feel @thecarnivorousmuffinmeta probably made a post about it at some point except neither of us have any recollection of such a post actually existing.

Do you think the cullen would like you Never have I felt more like Regina George walked into my inbox than when I received this one. No, anon, and I know you know it too.

klaus wants to date rebekah & elijah ?? would you please explain I've never been more flabbergasted than by anon watching one of the CW Incest Shows and being shocked, just shocked, by the idea there might have been hints there. I wonder what anon made of Wincest, I really really do.

#about this blog

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angelofthepage · 6 months

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If I had a nickel for every time a FNAF video got me thinking critically about Bendy, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. Today it's about how there's a lot we don't actually know in this series, and how maybe I need to stop driving myself crazy trying to figure it out.

So, this is where I reveal that I am anal about what I consider to actually be canon to Bendy, and that framing matters to me a lot. Like, if we're talking about The Illusion of Living for example, I will be very explicit in saying the canon is that Joey claims that Bendy was created by him, Henry, and Abby while sitting on the floor of his apartment. And that is the only thing that's canon, Joey claims this event happened in this way, but whether or not it actually happened in this way is unclear, since Joey perpetually lies to people throughout this series. Now, this is one of those events that I think he's telling the truth about personally, but no, all we have for the canon of that event is that Joey tells us it happened that way. That's not the same thing as "this is decidedly what happened". And this goes for every character, these characters are not guaranteed to be telling a truthful or accurate version of events at any time, some of them have reasons to either purposely abstract the truth, or unreliable memories due to the horrors of this world affecting their minds. I feel this VERY strongly with the books especially, because we know most of them have a lot of mental stuff going on because of the ink, but it's not just them. Look at Sammy and Susie, look at Tom, look at Wally and how charming but suspicious he is in what he knows. This series has VERY FEW reliable narrators, there is so much you have to interpret in order to get anywhere with it. So when people tell me something is "canon," I am immediately skeptical and want to know what their source is. Can't take anything at face value.

And the thing is, when you look at the canon through this lens, it is exhausting, technicalities will become the bane of your existence. This week I went back to some of the books with some friends, and the descriptions for Brant and Archie in TLO and FTB don't entirely line up with them being lost ones specifically as ink monsters (thank you Victor @reanimationstation for pointing that out and for the Sammy take that will follow here, I was so caught up in the moment I missed it on my first read-through). I feel like that's the intent with them, at the very least I feel like that's the intent with Brant because his book is literally titled "The Lost Ones", but the skeletal structure, the glowing eyes, things I would consider to be KEY FEATURES of that kind of monster are missing from their descriptions, and it leaves me with a lot of questions about what they actually are and what creatures they DO line up with. And I'm fascinated by the possibilities, because it creates a lot of fun options for fan interpretations, like making Archie a similar creature to Sammy to further unite their common threads (like why is Sammy the only character built the way he is??), or developing a new creature altogether. It is also frustrating from a theorizing standpoint because I can't say either of them are lost ones definitively, that's not the canon. They are ink monsters with x features, that is all we know, anything else is putting a label on them without knowing all the ingredients that make them up. I think Brant is probably a lost one, but I can't say that's the canon, that's something I've inferred and interpreted from the information available, which isn't a complete picture.

I want to do more with theorizing, but I think, I just wanna let myself have fun for a bit too, and not care about the canon by my usual high standards. I wanna go be a little indulgent with letting the hallucinations from Fade to Black exist as real creatures, even though there isn't enough evidence to say whether they are or not. I wanna play with the glasses more. I want to overthink about how Wilson may have used the glasses to enter and exit the studio as a possible "in" for Dark Revival. (Frankly Fade to Black has me asking a LOT of questions about Wilson that I want to mess around with.) I want to think about how Memory Joey, and how he might believe Henry and Allison are clones wholeheartedly, but he might have been fed bad information that he believes to be true (I don't think he'd intentionally lie to Audrey, but he is liable to be misinformed, he's a Joey after all). I want to contemplate "what ifs" that don't have to be based on completely factual things. I want hypotheticals. Maybe I just want to write fanfiction! X'''D Isn't that all theorizing is, fanfiction you're trying to validate with the canon? Like hell if I know!

There is a time and place for being anal about the canon I think. Establishing a timeline or a baseline of our factual information is useful and can inform a great deal of things, and it also gives you some room to anticipate where changes might occur if something gets revealed as a new twist or retconned in the future. Maybe that's just me, trying to justify things and make them fit within my view of this world (which let's be real, we all do it, I'm just hard on myself for it). But sometimes, you gotta let go. Sometimes you gotta let yourself be a little silly, maybe a bit unhinged. Sometimes you have to say, fuck it, maybe the hallucination of Henry from FTB becomes Borkis and writes golden ink messages for Cyclebreaker Henry to find. It's out there, it's stupid, but damn is it fun to consider based on nothing at all. Sometimes you get to ask if Keepers have souls for shits and giggles.

Maybe I need to stop framing theorizing as "solving the canon". Maybe we all could stand to have more fun playing with the world. And maybe we could stop calling things "canon" and debating the "canon" and just, enjoy the ride regardless of the canon. Because ultimately, it is frustrating to argue about the canon, especially for a series like Bendy where half the fun is from getting interpretative with it. Part of the fun is creating the story, using your imagination with the pieces the story gives us. And we're not always gonna agree on what kind of story this is or what's valuable about it, nor what direction it should go in or what is the best way to tell it. That's a huge part of enjoying stories, you're not supposed to all get the same takeaway from it. Bendy's story means different things to different people. And that's part of the beauty of it. And maybe, I need to be a little nicer to myself about it. Maybe I need to go learn to play again.

Maybe I need to learn not to take things so seriously. ^^''''

#bendy theorizing #bendy commentary #batdr #bendy fade to black spoilers #bendy ftb spoilers #bendy fade to black #bendy ftb #bendy and the dark revival #long post #been thinking a lot about this this week

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skylitcreations · 3 months

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Hi! choosing violence with 1 and 13 🤔

This is old and I don't remember the exact questions, I just remember that I planned to respond entirely in regards to Scratch. Obviously, everything here is theory and everyone's theories are valid, I just have my own take that I feel a lot of people haven't talked about.

I honestly feel like too many people separate AWAN Scratch and AW2 Scratch instead of thinking of the possible ways the first could develop into the other. I know a lot of people are jumping on the idea that Scratch is just Tom now rather than thinking of more options. Don't get me wrong, I love that theory too, but I interpreted it differently personally.

I honestly think it's more along the lines of Tom took on the 'acceptable' bad traits Alan has while Scratch took on more of the 'unacceptable' traits. But even that is a bit too much of an oversimplification, I feel.

Whenever the echoes talk about Scratch off-screen, he's still charismatic and charming. But what would be the point of showing that to Alan? With the scenes Alan writes involving him, there's very singular goals in mind. I feel like when Alan 'cut the fat' in his writing, he took out the little taunting fun times and just left them off-screen so he could avoid making things too complicated.

I also feel like Alan is an unreliable narrator. He refuses to see that what Scratch is could very well be him if he just let go of his inhibitions and empathy. He'd rather turn him into a boogie man made up of rumors about him rather than face that he's actually made up of the sides of him he doesn't want to acknowledge. Why would he want to see any of the charm and charisma when he could instead make Scratch into a disembodied force that he just has to run away from? It's easier to not face his demons if his demons no longer look like him or have a proper voice of their own. And if he can just give Scratch the bloodthirsty, angry aspects he doesn't want to acknowledge and then never have to actually see him and only see the aftermath, he can pretend those aspects are not a part of him much more easily.

Meanwhile, I feel like Tom is the traits he's come to acknowledge as bad but is willing to accept. He likes to party, he has a substance abuse problem, he can fake interest in people to keep the party going (to an extent, of course), he can be manipulative, he procrastinates to avoid writing, etc. Basically, the relatively tame stuff that's easier for most people to acknowledge and accept. Most people don't want to accept that they might enjoy killing people or be fine with sacrificing others to get what they want. Most people will look at killing and excessive anger as unacceptable traits and find it hard to reconcile with those being a part of their own yearnings.

And between AWAN and AW2, Alan has a LOT more blood on his hands. AWAN Scratch had fun with individual killings, picking people off one by one, much like Alan had only sacrificed a few people so far and thought more about them individually throughout that process. By the time AW2 comes around, though, he's killed countless people, many just from the Hiss invasion alone. And many of those deaths were not thought out on an individual basis. AW2 Scratch seems to take on this approach to killing, sacrificing innocent people in mass murders for the sole reason of setting the scene. Hell, I'd argue that just the fact that he puts the deer mask on the fan above Alan for the lulz is a sign that he's still the same guy, just off-screen. Let's just commit mass murder in as bloody of a way possible and then take a moment to clean off one of the deer masks, get it up onto the ceiling fan, cover Alan in as much blood as possible, and then lay down underneath the fan like 'lol he's gonna love this'. That sounds a lot less like the feral beast people have interpreted him as and much more like the Scratch we knew already.

And why show that side to Saga? She's keeping him from his goal and he has no reason to care about how she perceives him. He's angry and focused and who knows how much control he actually has over Alan's body? He clearly can't hide when he's out because the darkness starts showing externally, so why bother being charming and trying to get the Clicker in any other way? She is merely an obstacle and he can't fool her.

I feel like there's so much potential for character development between AWAN and AW2 Scratch that people are just not bothering with cuz they would rather think Tom is the new Scratch and I honestly think that's a shame.

#alan wake #mr scratch #tom zane #meta

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