Is this what Happiness is?
- hey so I haven't seen an interpretation of the bar scenes in Half that I fully agree with, so I wanted to throw my own two cents out there into the void and pray that it makes sense !!!
so, in the bar scenes in Half we see what I interpret as a hangout with old friends (or, hangout with old friend + his wife.) These scenes used to be the biggest piece of evidence for the cheater theory, but now that that's been debunked by the man himself, I have a new way of looking at them
~ before I go any further, I just wanted to say that I'll be calling the brown-haired woman whiskey for simplicity's sake
In this scene, Kazui turns to look at Whiskey, saying the lyrics:
"laughing together, side by side, this distance in our relationship is misleading me, is this what happiness is?"
With my guess (cuz that's really what it is there's no evidence for it) that Whiskey is the Bartender's wife i think this scene is Kazui being conflicted with what he's been told is true, that marrying Hinako is "true love", versus what he feels is true, that marrying Hinako has brought distance into their relationship.
He looks at Whiskey, a woman happily married, and wonders why his relationship with Hinako isn't like that.
~ shout out to @prisoner-000 for the following screenshot
in this post he points out that Hinako and Kazui's rings are silver in Cat, not gold like they were in Half, yet Bartender's ring colour stays the same.
For the sake of this writing I'm going to go with the first meaning they put out, that Bartender's ring is gold because his marriage is genuine.
But wait!! I hear you ask. This is Half and Kazui's ring is still gold in Half!! EXACTLY MY FRIEND!!
Kazui's ring IS still gold in Half because at the time of these scenes he's still fooling himself that this relationship is good, that he will eventually garner real romantic feelings for Hianko.
"laughing together, side by side, this distance in our relationship is misleading me, is this what happiness is?"
Remember this lyric that plays during the Whiskey -> Hinako scene. You know what other scene in Half this lyric reminds me of?
laughing together, side by side,
this distance in our relationship is misleading me,
is this what happiness is?
He's beginning to doubt if what he believes is true, he's beginning to believe the feelings telling him something's wrong (and remember, the scene right after this one is when he confesses (?) his secret to Hinako) ARE infact true, and that maybe the logic he's been following for so long has a couple holes in it.
I think these scenes are meant to show Kazui gradually realising that his relationship with Hinako will not work out. It just won't, no matter how hard he tries.
He's able to laugh together and talk with Whiskey because she's his friend, yet he can't do the same with his own wife? Even though, according to his gold ring, their relationship is supposed to be real and true and genuine?
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Thinking about the fact that sevro is a carvers creation too.
“We went to a carver to see if we couldn’t make ourselves some magic. We did.”
Sevro, just like Darrow, is created in a lab, but their purposes are completely different. Darrow is created as a machine of war, his whole purpose after being saved by the sons of ares is to infiltrate and tear down the gold machine. He can’t separate himself from this war, because his purpose is not yet fulfilled.
Sevro, on the other hand, is created out of the love his parents have for each other. And when his mother is killed his father starts this revolution, and he does it in big part for him. It’s no coincidence that the organization fitchner starts is called the sons of ares. In sevros life, the war hasn’t just been about tearing down the society, it’s about the possibility of what comes after. The possibility is own birth represents.
I think iron gold and dark age really highlight the differences between their individual philosophies. You can see it in the fact mustang says she’d like to retire with Darrow and their children, plural, despite the fact that in ten years they’ve only got the one (who certainly wasn’t planned). Meanwhile sevro and victra have had three and another on the way in that intervening time. You can see it in the way Darrow continually struggles to pull himself away from the war, while sevro is able to compartmentalize and prioritize his family when he’s home. You can see it in the sevros palace chapter in dark age, when Darrow says sevro “didn’t close his mind to his family before battle, because he knew they did not make him weaker, they made him stronger than he was by himself.”
Darrow can’t start living life for himself until his purpose is fulfilled, while sevros purpose has always been that very life, so he finds a way to fit it in.
So in the end, it’s not surprising that when it comes down to it, Darrow chooses his army and sevro chooses his family. It’s not about one of them being right and one of them being wrong. It’s about what they were created for.
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uhhhhhh that tiktok (thanks @peter-pantomime, hope you don’t mind the tag) that points out that Eddie coulda zipped up his leather jacket and tac vest combo and maybe not been eaten by bats, but it’s Eddie saying “Steve? [significant pause] Make him pay” and Steve taking a step forward to zip up his jacket and saying something cheesy
...upon reflection i didn’t think i was actually going to sit here and write this all in one go but lo and behold i’m supposed to be working on an article shhhh
further update: this is now on ao3
Something crosses Steve’s face when Eddie points out that he and Dustin are nooooooot heroes, but Eddie ignores it in favor of indulging himself, just for a second, watching the set of the three heroes’ shoulders as they move toward Creel House.
“Hey, Steve?” It’s out of his mouth before he can stop himself, some unchained impulse to at least let Steve know Eddie respects the fuck out of him now, just in case they both die.
The real heroes turn back, waiting.
“Make him pay.”
Steve retreads those last few steps, back over to Eddie and Dustin, claps a hand to Eddie’s leather-clad shoulder, the sound of it drowned out by sickening red thunder. He leaves his hand there, too, and Eddie’s confusion is only silenced by the thudding of his heart when Steve’s free hand comes up to his chest.
He tugs at the teeth of Eddie’s War Zone vest, real live actual tactical armor to replace the battle vest that Steve’s still got over his fresh War Zone shirt and under his fresh War Zone jacket, for reasons Eddie doesn’t have the brain power to contemplate. It doesn’t seem at all like him -- they’ve been all tense and snarky at each other (and Eddie supposes he gets why) since he’d pinned Steve to that boathouse wall and held glass to his throat. That felt like a lifetime ago, though. They’d been different people then, or at least, Eddie thought maybe he had been.
“You should zip up,” he tells Eddie, like he’s actually saying something else. “You’ll catch your death.”
Eddie does not catch his death, though the blood under Dustin’s fingernails from keeping pressure on his neck loudly proclaims just how close they came. He knows it’s just luck that he didn’t bleed out anyway -- a couple inches toward his chin and he’d be just as mangled as the poor, brave vest Robin had insisted on confiscating for cremation later -- but now that the anesthetic has worn off and the fever has gone and the fresh stitches in his face and neck start to itch like a lot, actually, it occurs to him that if Steve Harrington hadn’t taken that one moment of absolute character-breaking insanity, Eddie’d have been ripped apart. Bled out, there on the rocky ground of the Upside Down, probably all over Dustin since the little shit had come after him anyway.
Fucking kid. Eddie loves him so goddamn much.
But back to Steve, and his incomprehensibly tender moment in the middle of the apocalypse.
Once they were all patched up and cleared and definitely not rabid, thank you Robin, they’d been released. Free to go. Nary an NDA in sight, just a withering look from Agent Stinson and an edict to just “please, for the love of God lay low until we sort this out.”
Cool, as far as Eddie’s concerned. He’s too busy not scratching at his stitches and reeling over Steve inadvertently saving his life.
Eventually, he can’t resist the urge. The line rings and he fidgets with the cord.
“Robin,” says the voice after the ringing ends, no greeting at all. “For the last time, I’m not rabid, none of the blood tests showed any scary Upside Down shit, everything is --”
“Steve.”
Steve stops on the other end. Which is fair, really, since Eddie’s literally never called him on anything that’s not a walkie talkie before, and that was mostly incidental. “Eddie. What’s going on, man?”
The edge in his voice is subtle, enough to dismiss and make the question either casual or an alarm bell, but Eddie doesn’t miss it. He just gets to the point, and Steve-on-the-other-end can do with it what he will. Eddie’s not his mom. But Wayne raised him right even if the rest of Hawkins doesn’t think so, so he’s gotta say something. “You know you saved my life, right? The jacket thing. Down in... Before we split the party.”
“What?”
“You told me to zip up my jacket, and the vest,” Eddie insists. “I’d have been chewed up like a cheap dog bone if you hadn’t. I just. Thanks, man.”
Steve’s quiet on his end of the line. At first, Eddie thinks maybe he’s just stunned that The Freak has any manners, but as the silence stretches on, he begins to wonder if actually the line’s been cut or something.
“Steve? Buddy? Steeeeeeeve,” he croons into the phone. “You OD on pain meds over there or something?” Steve, having been significantly more chewed up and run around on it far longer than Eddie, had been stuck in the hospital for several days with a high-grade fever, after all was said and done and Vecna was burnt up to a crisp. None of it had seemed particularly Upside-Down-y, just regular exhaustion, dehydration, and good old rampant infection, but once he’d been released, Eddie had it on good authority that he was a champ about taking antibiotics and an absolute nightmare about taking the pain pills they’d given him for all of the…everything on his back, arms, and sides.
There’s a strangled noise from down the phone line, and Eddie wonders if the phone actually is fucked. Before he can ask, though –
“Guess I did, huh?” Steve’s voice is soft. “Don’t mention it.”
Eddie scoffs a little, playful but casual. “Don’t worry, I don’t want to think about it much, either.” Steve actually does let out a chuckle at that, and Eddie grins, since there’s no chance of anyone seeing and calling him on it. What, then, is the harm? It’s just a little hero crush. “Hey, I’ll let you go, man. See you around, when Buckley lets you rejoin society.”
Steve groans just a little at that. “Yeah. Robin.”
“Robin,” Eddie agrees. “Later, Steve.”
And then Steve’s voice is all soft again, like it was when Eddie thanked him, like it was when he told Eddie to zip up his vest, and now – “Yeah. Later, Eddie.” There’s a lingering silence on the line, like Steve’s waiting in case Eddie has more to say.
Eddie hangs up first, and resolutely doesn’t think about it.
Who doesn’t get crushes on heroes, anyway.
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idk how popular this fantasy might be, but imagine both jacob and nick have a crush on you, constantly making fools of themselves vying for your attention jacob especially
although jacob still has his supportive bro attitude, nick’s never gotten any game after all! always encourages him to talk to you but always teases him when he comes back dejected after fumbling his words (and hopefully his chance), because jake’s secretly happy he might still have a shot, just in case…
you’re way too fine to leave single, if nick doesn’t end up with you, why shouldn’t he? even if he is starting to get impatient
“you better make your move, before a real man swoops in”
when they shoot for the peanut butter butterpops it’s so competitive because it’s not for the pops, it’s for YOU
at the campfire kaitlyn decides to stir the already-boiling pot after you choose dare, and when she asks you to pick one of the two to kiss, the boys’ heads snap towards you— jacob is quiet for probably the first time in his life— as they both lean forwards to hear your decision, eyes glimmering with hope and the light of the hot embers
and maybe, in some timeline or another, they both get infected during the night— nick can’t help but be all over you as he starts to shift, and when jacob can just smell it once you break off from the group to meet up with him, let’s just say it sets him off in the worst way…
i just want two cute clingy boys to obsess over me <3
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I'm back on my Bail/Breha/Fox bs (I haven't left even for a second but anyway) and I was thinking of that one post where someone said that just imagine the political implications these three together would cause, and I think there would be one moment where everything would start to go different with them in the timeline, and it's the wrong Jedi arc.
Padmé is close friends with Bail. She is close friends with Breha. They belong very closely to the same political movement and couldn't make things work without each other. I'm not saying Padmé's political career is wholly dependent on her relationship with Bail, but them working togerher is one of the main things that keeps them afloat against the war. Now, Bail would be professional enough to work with her even if they have personal differences (which they do already), and he knows better than putting one person above everything else, but I do think he wouldn't take Anakin threatening Fox lightly. I don't think he would make up a huge fuss, but he would, most likely, make his disagreement about his behavior known to Padmé. Now, Padmé knows about the whole Tusken massacre, so she knows how Anakin can get when something gets in his way. She knows, even though she wants to pretend that Anakin is a good person, that her husband is perfectly capable of treating people he doesn't like badly and even worse. She can try and tell herself that no, Anakin wouldn't do anything, but she knows. This is about Ahsoka, after all, whom Anakin has said is like a little sister to him. His personal feelings are on the line.
Padmé can either be delusional about it, tell herself that nothing will happen, and hey! Maybe nothing will happen! But she cannot be entirely sure. Because what if. What if something does happen. What if something happens to Ahsoka, and Anakin reacts badly? What then?
She would have to decide then. Does she stay with Anakin, to the end, and thus claiming that his personal feelings are more important to her than what's good for everyone, and thus ending his friendship with Bail and Breha, which would more than destroy her whole career and put everything she stands for in danger? Or does she say no, and stand with her ideals, no matter what Anakin feels is correct or justified? Because this time it's not a group of people who have no impact on her life and who she can forget about. This time she would have to decide her course of action even before anything happens.
Maybe trying to decide would make her think harder about their relationship in general. Maybe, just maybe, something that he does having consequences to her would make her do something about it before it's too late.
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Daisy I will never never understand the desperation in this fandom for Louis to be 24/7 signaling the lgbtq+ community. They're now calling the SIBWAWC lights pride representation when they're just multicolored lights. Pride representation is the pride flag he had on stage. The apple tshirt he wore. His triangle. He has signalled before but 80% of what they say just isn't true. It wouldn't bother me if it was now and then but it's all the time. Also the need to make every song of his queer. I understand having a queer interpretation but they treat it as fact. His songs are about a wide range of topics and not only about his sexuality. Where does this desperation come from?
Super interesting question, anon 💕
Firstly I think there’s a lot of anxiety around Louis, perhaps more so now than there has been in a while, likely due to the documentary and how he chose to present himself in it. It feels like people are looking for more signs as some kind of reassurance that Louis is still who they think he is.
Another thing is that honestly I think some people just don’t really look into things too much, they just go with whatever’s the most popular interpretation on their dash or timeline. Which, related: just because Big Popular Blog says something it doesn’t make it true.
I think people like to think Louis’ signalling all the time because it makes them feel like they’ve got a better read on him than other people and / or it makes them feel part of something. A secret. A code. The queer community have always used signals and codes to communicate with one another, but there’s a fine line between interpreting an intentional signal and reverse-engineering a code to fit in with what you’d like it to be telling you so that it fits the narrative you already believe. I loved seeing the fan’s pride flag on stage the other night sticking out of the speaker stacks, and the fact that it had Louis’ name on it too felt like a statement. But there’s also things we don’t know about how that flag came to be on stage. Louis doesn’t set up the stage himself, it’s likely a roadie or engineer put it there. We don’t know if Louis wanted it there. I think Louis is part of the queer community but I don’t pretend to understand his motivations or feelings about things that happen around him.
I don’t have as much of an issue with people interpreting songs as queer. Lyrics mean different things to different people. What I do have an issue with, when it comes to song lyrics, is people who are desperate to convince others that their interpretation is the only interpretation and that everyone else is wrong.
I feel that way with the SIBWAWC lights as well but to a lesser extent. It’s either “I believe this and you have to believe me otherwise you’re an anti” (which I’m not) or there’s an underlying anxiety that leads to people needing to convince as many people as possible that their interpretation is correct because it’s one of the threads they’re clinging onto in their bid to prove something about Louis.
One other thing I wanted to mention was how this type of thing becomes “lore”. I’ve talked about this before; the way present-day interpretation of something becomes fact to fans who weren’t around at the time. “I’m gay it’s unfortunate” is a good example of this - you’ll still see folk on here and on Twitter talking about this as fact, when it was debunked years ago. He didn’t say that, and yet there are folk who think he did. They haven’t read a debunk so they take it as fact. It’s the same when people make posts saying “Remember when XYZ happened, yeah me too” and it isn’t about something factual, just their interpretation. It becomes Something that Definitely Happened. And I think that’s quite scary to be honest because it shows that people have no problem presenting a personal interpretation as fact. When you apply that in a wider sense, you start to wonder what other things you’ve read over the years could have been presented in the same way just because you were only following people with one specific viewpoint.
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