#neither person is necessarily in the right imo

[unproduciblesmackdown]

non post here just collecting current thoughts abt the [what's up with atlas' death and the unlikely connection of mitzi and mordecai through some shared secret relating to it] mystery specifically

firstly i'm tending to presume that mordecai did just shoot atlas; he definitely knows that mitzi did Not, "she didn't shoot anyone"....which also i suppose does not necessarily mean that mitzi didn't kill him. it's possible she did, or mordecai did, or someone else did, and by some non [noscoped by mordecai] method, but that mordecai and mitzi then coordinated in covering up how he actually died by, say, quickly staging some kind of other scene, including shooting him while he had only recently died. but really the mystery here is like, what exactly would these two feel so aligned in cause about. doesn't seem like, say, mitzi could've just paid mordecai to take atlas out, b/c mordecai would either not want to do it Or he actually would, in which case why not do it himself, and earlier, since he was at lackadaisy for surely the better part of a decade. it could've been like "with our combined talents imagine how nearly competent we could be" with mitzi having some kind of key knowledge to plan this heist (murder) or something. but it would still require an Alignment between them of wanting him dead Now, and, y'know, why

their particular similarities that we know of, imo, are that they're probably about the same age (supposing mitzi's around thirty / early thirties) and that they're sort of especially Materially Beholden to atlas and more directly, individually collected by him (versus, say, zib saying he's a collected stray because he'd stay around if mitzi did. he's also a saxophonist which is lower stakes than your new wife or your new guy to kill other guys)....neither mitzi nor mordecai seem to posthumously dislike atlas, but naturally mordecai's barely indirectly commented and it seems to me like mitzi regards atlas fairly symbolically, as the potential for her situation to improve, or at least be as good as it was during lackadaisy's heyday. she may have affection for him abstractly, and we also know via mordecai that the marriage was distant enough before atlas died that mitzi didn't live with him and things had Visibly Deteriorated. it sure seems plausible that mitzi might kill him to inherit things, and turned to mordecai for his expertise in a) doing that & b) perchance making it look like an accident / covering things up, but he evidently didn't want to stay on at lackadaisy No Matter What, i.e. if mitzi was running it instead, and why agree to this, it seems very unlikely he'd do anything just for mitzi's sake or the sake of being paid to do it by her, he has to have his own motivation. and it's possible that, despite plausible positive feelings about atlas still (who did also like, throw him right into mortal perilously dangerous work w/little experience lol, mordecai happening to be immediately good at it or not) he could've, like mitzi could've, still wanted to be less beholden to this one particular person, and achieved that by just killing him lol....but even if their feelings Aligned on that matter, there's a few wrenches, like a) how would they realize this alignment. they're probably not having heart-to-hearts. they're both very close to atlas (at least professionally, for mordecai) and it would be very bold to go "would you happen to wanna kill this guy too" either to his wife or his right hand gun hand hook car door man.

there's also the fact that: viktor is Also someone very limited by his being beholden to atlas, pretty much positioned as close to atlas as mordecai since they were partners, and maybe has the added bonus of seeming marginally more Approachable than mordecai, plus that like, being thirteen years older and beat up on more, maybe if you were looking for an accomplice you'd figure that "idk do you want to retire" would also make him marginally more likely to get aboard murder plans if you're just trying to Find someone to help with that who you don't know would already want to. but he also disagrees with the idea that mitzi is particularly vulnerable / isn't herself at least somewhat dangerous, which seems like something he Might have any knowledge about beyond "idk i just get that vibe," like, did he get to be privy at all to whatever went down there. &/or led up to it.

what seems to be implied here, and makes more sense, is that there was some specific event that both mitzi and mordecai consider to have been unfortunate / undesired / things going wrong, and that involves mitzi enough for mordecai to blame her / her to refer to it being her fault, although she may not necessarily agree. (and does "perhaps i will / not to discount your culpability" imply mordecai Also considering himself culpable. whether that goes beyond "if anyone actually shot him, it's mordecai")

but while maybe there's not much love lost between these two, neither seems to like completely hate the other. civil enough one-on-one here, does seem like mordecai would be negatively affected if viktor had died, "very little interest in defending her" is not "no interest" nor "less than no interest and one can imagine mordecai is being both precise and accurate about what he means, and to exit this car chat by advising mitzi fix the conspicuous bulletholes is, in fact, helpful; he's probably not actually interested in / intending to personally dismantle lackadaisy or anything, and makes sense if mitzi's lashing out just a bit while they discuss sore topics (again, seems neither of them Wanted to have to kill atlas either, so what was the specific impetus....) and also they did just have Lackadaisy's Big Night involving foes that have guns while they (almost entirely) don't, thanks to mordecai's transference of those....which, like, did he just do that himself, or was it on order from marigold....either way, seems more like a nudge like Retire Bitch to everyone there, rather than an effort to sabotage them That perilously

there's also this compelling material

not interpreting Bonus Material as the strictest of canon, in some cases more obviously [not at all] than others, ft. generally more of a light tone / elevated humorousness....but also the not obviously complete jokes ones perhaps not Not canon contradictory, either. a) i want to see the shopping trip and b) fascinating how they are outright discussing that mutual Material Beholdenness to atlas. but a couple of other points arising

one being that i was racking my brain like "whaaaat are the usual Murder Mystery Motives" and then landing on "money" wherein like, besides the theory of "what if mitzi just wanted to inherit lackadaisy, while still Actually Married to atlas despite that maybe circling a drain / maybe atlas, being warned about something by asa, was going to get rid of lackadaisy from his inheritable estate," it also occurred to me like, mordecai originally got in hot water as a bookkeeper, which leads me to presume that he may have been embezzling (though maybe he was the fall guy for someone else's embezzlement, or maybe even some third or fourth things, not even involving embezzlement at all) which, if he was, was presumably for his family, whom he left money for (though he also maybe had to skip town too quickly to retrieve it anyways). and there we see that mordecai may have also been bookkeeping for lackadaisy, too, which i'm going to interpret as perfectly canon backstory. i guess this isn't exactly so different from previously mentioned ideas/elements like "both of these two are aware how beholden they are to this one specific guy, and would like to be less so (through embezzling??)" and "this could be about mitzi wanting to inherit lackadaisy much sooner than later (or not at all)" like, still wanting more of some resource atlas has sooner than later (or not at all....see questions of how much mitzi could have been legally considered to Directly possess while atlas was alive, such as, money) with the same kinds of questions raised of like, how would they realize they aligned on this. there's also a question of like, Would mordecai be moved to elevate the flow of funds here versus just whatever he's already paid, though he'd (maybe) already done that in that original bookkeeping gig for whatever reason. but that may have been more time sensitive and motivating if it was indeed at least in part for his family. which i suppose it could still be Now w/the theory of him just turning around and doing that again. wherein i suppose the idea here is just that they're both in on it, and maybe atlas finding out about it / suspecting too much is such a potential impetus like, whoops, well let's kill him :/ hypothetical 2 for 2 lack of embezzling stealth lol

the other more tangential idea here is just that like, well who knows, maybe mitzi and mordecai Did talk / have tête-à-têtes / an unlikely friendship or friendly acquaintanceship going....again that like, even as professional mostly enemies now and with no especial warmth evident between them, they also don't seem to hate each other even though they Could, even when it comes to this secret re: atlas's death that they're both unhappy with....a lot of writing this stuff out is just how it helps get ideas together lol and not lose entire threads / have derailed trains of thought. like maybe mordecai Would do something mostly for mitzi's sake, if evidently at all begrudgingly. and i suppose the other way round could be considered, i.e. if mitzi would begrudgingly commit to helping kill atlas for mordecai's sake, which still seems the less likely arrangement

oh wait Also i sort of rotated freckle & mordecai juxtaposition, as not being entirely dissimilar, see for one: their having the ideal time the one occasion they were in the same place, that is, completely declining to interact with each other at all lol....but i'm presuming the Mystery of freckle's secrets & backstory are a bit less deep than this more central atlas murder secret, and my interpreguess is that freckle accidentally(? probably.) killed someone(? or almost did. or whatever.) probably his dad(? family tragedies....his hat is still on the premises....) and rocky took the blame, which i'm guessing is out of just being the effective older sibling / pretty close. so i was just half wondering like, well what if mordecai killed someone too rather than being in shit over embezzling. maybe! and how this ties in is that i'm also considering, like, maybe any of this has to do with that Past that mordecai has. the arbogasts were saying atlas Settled Some Of mordecai's pursuing grievances....maybe Lackadaisy Embezzling could be about settling even more via financial payoffs. or something. just a potential troublesome loose thread

there's also the Mystery of "what's marigold bothered about. is what's changed there being this lawful prohibition agent you can't pay off and could somehow shut marigold down longer than ten minutes. and who's in charge of marigold" which is relevant b/c the mystery to me is that, where we leave off in the comic, mordecai is Very Motivated by "how does it figure in re: atlas's death" still and at this risktaking crossroads about it wherein he's clearly positioned at odds with marigold. what are the important things called into question. if marigold knew how atlas died, what would they even do about it. is the problem "well mordecai how do i know you won't also shoot Me, the mystery owner of marigold," seems like something he could expect to be more directly confronted about rather than [what, if marigold knows more about atlas's death and is Just displeased with mordecai about it, they're gonna either Not say anything about it or just try to get rid of mordecai by giving him this hands-on work where he Might be killed?] like, just kill him, And the fact we know the prohibition agent drago Was planning to meet with gracie grombach (and his lawyer, presumably the guy mordecai hatcheted to death just the other night at the start of things) for real, so there's actual reasons to assign him these killings....seems like it's more about things Missing to us as readers about Why they felt they had to begrudgingly kill atlas, what their further mystery connection is / what that impetus was....

oh and back to that [very tangential] tangent re: how i wouldn't have figured mordecai and mitzi interacted much But Maybe They Did, i also before now was assuming that, at least b/c mordecai's business was either in the most dangerous &/or most mathematical work at lackadaisy, he wouldn't have interacted much with ivy, who would've been all of around ten or so when he started there. the pilot specifically illustrates the results of his history with lackadaisy by having him entirely refrain from taking the shot when aiming at her, which i'm also sort of [bonus material]esquely interpreting as "not comic canon noncompliant," but at first i was like, well, like how viktor is protective of ivy / playing concerned patriarch as she puts it, and we know he has a daughter maybe around her age, we also know (from bonus material) that mordecai has younger sisters, including one feasibly also around ivy's age. or just that if you've known someone since they were like 9 or something, you're still reluctant to shoot them. but now i'm Noting that a) most everyone else who's been around awhile, mitzi, viktor, even rocky, has commented on mordecai, but ivy hasn't, which may be a bit Mysterious, and b) in her nightmare sequence moment, she sure not only has this Concept of him, but interacts with him in the dream

which might not mean anything really, but sure might imply she'd talked to him readily enough before, and does also serve as a bolstering / reminder of the idea they'd have interacted, especially since there's the entire factor of "if she was interacting with viktor, this would probably involve all the more mordecai adjacency" like well, interesting, noted, etc

oh and it has to also be mentioned how i'm supposing that also what the savoys are saying about mordecai and atlas, via indirectly framing it by discussing how maître carrefour Already Knows mordecai, can be taken as accurate / is not going to be contradicted. so there's how mordecai seems to resent being called the kind that turns on his partners on a dime (while the savoys Probably had a more uncomplicated departure from their earlier associations. though maybe if marigold knows mordecai was involved in atlas's death, he's Also been hired rather than having been shot, in a stroke of generosity)....and then there's the very broadly relevant description of how, once you take that one path laid out for you, you're Obliged To Him Only, Always, the other paths gone forever....the way pretty much everyone involved was in a place with especial vulnerabilities and limited options at the start, and taking one available path left them kind of trapped there / unwilling to get off of it b/c otherwise they're lost again. what might have motivated a couple of people to snuff out their would-be guiding light, when it's not as though they now act as though they'd clearly found some better one....there's also the fact that serafine characterizes their diable as having a hot temper, wonder if that application could be overlapped with atlas too....and it just handily circles around for rooting for this dream team w/mordecai & the savoys; whether the latter anticipate Not sticking around with marigold forever; the fact that it would be quite a surprise if they do assume that for the first time mordecai is, in fact, just having fun tonight; that mordecai sure may be lost in the dark in-between crossroads rn. rooting for them to stay friends no matter what one way or another. mordecai's as much of a wild card as anyone at this juncture really, keep being wild cards together

meanwhile mordecai not knowing what's going on but laying out some of the confusion is helpful but like, well then we definitely are confused too

i'll say too....really i have to imagine that there Is some bigger missing piece in the [Why] of mitzi & mordecai's murder secret that one could only guess at at best, but i think of this as an effort to kind of feel out the shape of What's Missing thusly, figuratively. and this has been an extensive "i dunno" without any epiphanies falling into place along the way but hey lol, laying it out....if marigold already knows about the How atlas died, namely, if mordecai specifically carried it out, you'd think that if nothing's come of that already, he's fine. or maybe he just wants to Know anyways, though it seems as or more risky to Not kill a guy he's supposed to as marigold's professional killer....he says he's not sure if he knows important Things he thought he knew, plural, unsurprising if there's more than one such important thing we definitely don't know, but suspecting that his concerns might have to do with the big mystery Why they killed atlas, which might also align with how mordecai's reacting to asa saying he warned atlas of [something/s] before his death, which sure doesn't otherwise necessarily imply he knows anything about the death itself. and then mitzi, who should also be in the know, is still asking "how does it figure in" re: connecting his death & if asa Did warn atlas of something....i sure don't know either, and you two have so much more info lol

and Does rushing water count as a clue? cue me trying to zoom in on an illustration to see if the silhouette of a figure reflected in mordecai's glasses could be atlas (don't think it was, or that it'd be a Key Clue dropped thusly anyways) like hell i dunno yeah maybe the rivers are relevant somehow in secret ways, that'd fit, but again only guesses. oh and hey, why would mitzi and mordecai have any kind of gun handoff? maybe as like, a burner revolver lol. i always end up going Shruggg at mysteries but i am enriched by rotating them anyways, especially when it's so tied to character here, and when they're not the only thing relevant to ongoing story so it's just intriguing rather than simply frustrating / stifling to not have already solved them / not the only point of interest. e.g. who Knows why mordecai's having his off the shits saturday but it's so fun that he is. good for him (ultimately) (probably) (hopefully)

#NOT me ever in the past 16 yrs: time to see what [dae notice this] / hypotheses / theories other people have #(which i am saying would probably be useful lol. i'm never the number one mystery solver out here) #the lackadaisy mystery marinators are postinnnnnnng #long post xoxo #hmm also now that i am going over it in my mind: viktor may have yet said fuckall abt mordecai in canon #might be getting tripped up thinking about bonus material lol....intriguing

[understandingbimbos]

Rosalie Duthé, Anita Loos, Bill Wenzel, and Barbie.

I think at this point we've all accepted there's no single bimbo point of origin (or, POO). No bimbo ground zero. Rosalie Duthé is often cited as not only the first example of a bimbo but the first dumb blonde.

At the moment, she's even on the Wikipedia page!

Which is honestly really unfortunate imo seeing as she was a real person and a prostitute, but that's neither here nor there, I guess. Anyway. Unless I'm mistaken, we don't actually know much about Rosalie Duthé. And even if she was a singular influence on the very concept of bimbos and dumb blondes, then what happened? Where are the examples of dumb blonde and bimboish characters appearing in plays and literature from 1775 onward? How far did this idea spread outside of France? I'm not saying its not possible or that these examples don't exist, but its hard to pin down. When Rosalie Duthé was alive "bimbo" was still only Italian for "little boy". And while the play mocking her may have introducd the concept of the dumb blonde that doesn't mean it was necessarily solidified as an archetype right then and there.

Enter Anita Loos. By the time her comic novel, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, is published in November of 1925 (after having been serialized in Harper's Bazaar) the dumb blonde, bimbo, and gold digger are already established archetypes. While Loos most definitely helped popularize these idea with her internationally best-selling often-adapted satire, she was utilizing what was already there. If anything the original idea she pushed was that men prefer blondes and that blondes have more fun. Anita Loos also wrote the screenplay for the 1932 film, Red-Headed Woman, where Jean Harlow plays an ambitious flirty giggly woman that fucks pretty much every male character that appears in the film (and doesn't appear in the film).

(pictured, Jean Harlow and Anita Loos)

Then of course in the 50s we get Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Mamie Van Doren, and Judy Holliday. There were also men's magazines like Humorama featuring art from artists like Bill Ward, Dan DeCarlo, and Bill Wenzel. Featuring women who were either clueless, horny, or gold-digging, but all extremely buxom.

And 1959 saw the release of the original Barbie, which was just a slightly modified version of Bild Lilli, a German sex doll. I don't have much to say about that, its still something I need to do more research on, and that's part of the point of this post. Connections are there but hard to find. I really can't speak to what influence Barbie has had specifically, I think it may all be surface level, but there's something to be said about the fact so many women I follow will cite or invoke her. And that "doll" is even considered a compliment/ideal in general, physically and non-physically. You know in the sense of "You're such a doll" or "She's so pretty she looks like a doll." Its interesting. My friend says dolls represent "an easily replicated curated aesthetic" and that may be the reason for the point of reference.

There was a lot more I was going to say and this post was going to be a lot less nonsensical but I am extremely tired. I thought I could clearly and quickly get my thoughts out before I had to go to sleep. I was wrong. Sorry. Goodnight!

#understandingbimbos #bimbotxt #bimb0 #bimtheory #bimbo theory #bimbeau #bimboz #bimbeaufication #anita loos #gentlemen prefer blondes #bill wenzel #red-headed woman #jean harlow #idk #rosalie duthe #marilyn monroe #bild lilli

[amarriageoftrueminds]

So I wound up in the antisteggy tag rabbithole and read some of your meta (excellent use of examples, btw!) and found it odd that CAtFA!Steve is so dismissive of Peggy compared to how he is towards all the men in the film, because he IS pretty respectful of Natasha in later films. He disagrees with her like he does anyone else sometimes, but he respects her skills, experience, knowledge, etc.

So it felt off to think 1940's!Steve is sexist when 2010's!Steve isn't, since they're the same Steve just a few weeks or months apart.

I've decided to headcanon he's actually dismissive of Peggy not because of sexism, but because he's canonicly the son of Irish immigrants who would've had Opinions on posh upper class Brits exactly like Peggy.

Hey thanks Anon, glad to hear someone's getting some reading out of them, I know they're pretty whoppin' big! 😅

(Not intentional, it's just that I keep thinking of new things to add over time until they become ginormous.)

.

My feeling about CATFA-Steve vs Later-Steve, re: sexism, is that-

and as a Celt it pains me to say this

-he wouldn't judge an English person pre-emptively just by their Nationality.

(In the same way he didn't hear Erskine's German accent and jump to conclusions, and doesn't appear to have a problem with posh Monty, or Morita, for example.)

In my hc he'd be dismissive of her:

A) because she keeps acting as if she has the job title, authority, experience, and right to tell him what to do when she just doesn't,

B) he judges the person as an individual not a demographic. And she personally has done so much horrible bullying in front of / to him, which he wouldn't find charming in a man.

C) she keeps being wrong about everything.

So he's not going to hold her input in high esteem.

And he's certainly not going to give her a free pass to be a horrible person and fuck up all the time, just because she's a rich woman and it's the 1940s. (If he doesn't do it for Tony, he's not going to do it for her).

Her combined class and nationality would be a black mark against her, certainly, but even then my hc is Steve would wait and see before he decides that- yeah, her class privilege and nationality have corrupted her, specifically.

But his dismissal would still be grounded in her individual personality, not her class/nationality/gender etc. as if those automatically = evil.

(And we just have to ignore that creepy SheHulk shit Feige and M&M said about 1940s Steve abusing his USO fame to bag chicks. They appear to have got him confused with Howard Stark. 🤮 )

.

(But yh Doylist reasons for his apparent dismissal of Peggy is sexist writing and boneheaded dudebro writers who think, for example, that negs are just innocent slips of the tongue by the inexperienced, rather than predatory attempts to harm the opposite sex's self esteem.

Plus:

1) no other women are allowed to be in the movie because Peggy's manufactured Specialness is too fragile for other women to be worth risking screentime on, so Steve's treatment of The Only Woman Allowed is made to stand in for his treatment of All The Women, which isn't necessarily the case.

2) Peggy is just there to recite exposition while failing the Sexy Lamp Test, so what she's saying is actually genuinely not worth Steve listening to anyway, and he can't listen because that would make her, y'know, actually have been written as important. 🙄 )

.

Further evidence for this take on Steve's politics, IMO:

Steve wakes up in 2012 and is greeted by a pretty woman (originally supposed to be Natasha!)

And he doesn't go easy on her just because she's a woman.

He also doesn't automatically trust her just because she's a woman acting all nice (which would've dovetailed nicely with that friction he had with Nat in CATWS).

He isn't distracted from his job by her thinly-veiled honeypotting *coughbecausehe'sgaycough* and he calls her bullshit out straight away. Exactly like he would to a man.

That's the opposite of misogyny; he has women neither up on a pedestal nor down in the gutter, as it were. He can see them with clear eyes.

He's also an equal-opportunity comforter -- when someone's angsting alone, he'll go comfort them and do the Concerned Dad lean in their doorway, regardless of gender (Tony, Nat, Wanda, and Bucky all come in for the same treatment. It's even hinted Steve learned this habit from Bucky.)

.

Sidenote: A Thing I've noticed...

I have no solid evidence to support this, it's just a hunch, but I think Steve's un-sexism later on is mostly down to Cevans' performance choices?

The fact that like 50% of his deference to Natasha is in non-verbal beats, and those little nv-beats have tended to be Cevans' own ideas in other examples in the past, to me suggests they weren't in the script.

Which in turn suggests Cevans and Scarjo just decided between themselves to make Nat more relevant / more respected by Steve than the scripts actually do. 😕

#mcu critical #long post #antipeggy #antisteggy #steve meta #p*ggy meta #steggy is hydra trash party #catfa meta #hey nonny #toAyourQ #meta #mcu meta #steve rogers #mcu #sexism #dat's me #yet each man queues the thing he loves #irish steve #my meta

[loreholdlesbian]

Changes I would make to the creature typing in WHO

I'm sure there were specific requests by the BBC not to mention numerous other factors going into deciding how creature types for any set let alone a UniBey one are determined that I don't know about. However, I have Opinions anyway and wanted to share.

Long post ahead

Honorable mention

For a while, I was of the opinion that silurians like Vastra should be given the creature type "Dinosaur". Is it phylogenically accurate? No absolutely not. But let's be honest, neither is lizard. Silurians would be far enough removed from either category that scientific accuracy is not a factor here. I preferred Dinosaur though, because I think it's more evocative of being from earth's primordial past than lizard is. It also is better for creature type synergies, and is just more fun imo. I eventually got swayed in the opposite direction though when someone pointed out that Vastra refers to herself as "A lizard woman from the dawn of time". Who am i to argue with the lady herself?

Moving on from the silurians to earth's other nonhuman primordial inhabitants: the sea devils!

WHY IS THE TOKEN CREATED BY THE SEA DEVILS SAGA AN ALIEN?

The sea devils aren't aliens! They're native to earth! They got this right for silurians and even the sea-devil related fish in the temur deck, why couldn't they for sea devils??? What's really frustrating though is that, if you cut "Alien" from the token's type, you could Universes Within that saga as "Cryptohistories" and make it a perfect reference to Gor Maldruk. I don't think universes within versions of cards should really affect this kind of decision making necessarily. Make the best decision for the card in its original conception and work backwards from there. If sea devils should be aliens then make them aliens, but they SHOULDNT and now we miss out on that opportunity for nothing.

Another one that, like madame Vastra, I originally had a different opinion about but changed is the use of "Cleric" for characters who are doctors. The two relevant cases here are Martha Jones and Strax Sontaran Nurse.

While going forward, I think they should consider using "Doctor" in cases like this where it makes sense, I think that that would be the wrong choice for WHO. In this particular set, "Doctor" should (and does) mean The Doctor. That part's fine. I just think it makes more sense to have no class type than "cleric" when a character is a healer but very much not a cleric. Eventually though, I decided that while Strax shouldn't be a cleric, Martha should. This is depicting her in her time as "The Woman Who Walked the Earth", going around the planet and sharing about everything the doctor has done for its people to get them to have faith in him at one particular moment in time. And you know what? Yeah, she is a cleric here. Fair enough. Strax should just be an alien though, which is why this isn't also an honorable mention.

Astrid Peth should not be a human, on account of she isn't a human. Simple as really. There are several times in doctor who where we meet aliens who look identical to humans, and Astrid is one of these cases. In most instances, the WHO cards took the approach of giving them only a class type. I assume they didn't want to do the type "alien" on cards that people won't realize are aliens. Personally, I would do alien anyway, but I can see the reasoning behind not. If that's what you're doing though, stick with it. Don't make astrid a human when she's not. Maybe this decision was made because she didn't have a class type to do instead- magic doesn't have a very wide selection of classes to refer to non-combat jobs. But something like "citizen" would work perfectly fine.

Now I'd like to address the important ones, the new types:

Dalek and Cyberman should not be creature types. They should be Alien Mutant and Robot Zombie, respectively. I admit, there is good reason to want the actual words "Dalek" and "Cyberman" on cards. They're words with a lot of meaning behind them. But in most cases, those words are on the cards, in the name. So I don't think you're losing much by not having them also be in the typeline. But I do think something is lost by having them in the typeline. If a non-whovian magic player wonders "what's a dalek", the typeline "dalek" doesn't tell them anything. "Alien Mutant" does. Not a lot, sure, but a bit more. It might tell you enough to hazard a guess that they're some kind of genetically engineered species, like a lot of mutants we see in magic via the simic. Cyberman -> robot zombie tells you even more. One, it lacks the "alien" type which is very notable. It suggests these might come from humans. "Robot" doesn't tell you much that cyberman doesn't, but adding "Zombie" in implies the cyborgness and the way people can be converted into cybermen. And since the cards very much lean into that conversion, I think adding that type would be a serious boon to the flavor. Additionally, these changes make both synergy and reprintability a lot easier. "Alien", "Mutant", and "Robot" don't have much in the way of typal support but are all far more likely to get it than these creature types tied to a very specific UniBey set. And zombie very much does, and I think it'd frankly be really cool to let zombie-matters necromancy effects interact with cybermen. I think that's frankly interesting flavor. And like I said earlier, I don't think that should be the primary concern with UniBey types- if something wants a new creature type give it to it. But I don't think Dalek or Cyberman does.

Time Lord and Doctor are a bit more complicated. Doctor, I'm totally fine adding for this and then having in the roster as a potential class type. That's fine, "Doctor" isn't an issue. "Time lord" I do think should be the type Alien, but the existence of the doctor's companion mechanic complicates things. With that mechanic, I think it's *better* to have a very unique creature type that's not going to get used in other circumstances. In a vacuum I would be criticizing it, but I think in context it was the right decision.

What I don't like, though, is the typal cards for these new types. It makes them feel extremely insular, only working with the cards from this set.

Going by the earlier changes, the two Dalek typal cards could be Alien typal. Admittedly, there's good flavor in dalek typal since they're a genocidal group who wants to eliminate anyone who's not a Dalek, and that would be lost. But that flavor's already a bit funky by having them as part of a generic "villains" deck anyway so it's not a huge deal, and this change would make these cards a lot more synergistic with that deck. It also makes them a lot less insular in general, working with Aliens from Unfinity, presumably other UniBey sets down the line, and the upcoming space magic plane. Exterminate! might need a power level level adjustment, but the Dalek Emperor is definitely fine as is.

Doctor typal, I think having some is fine, I just think they way overdid it. Especially with the tutors. I'd pare it down to 14, Clara, Gallifrey Stands, and The Day of the Doctor. 14 and Gallifrey Stands are meant to encourage "Play all the doctors in one deck!" and like, ya know what that's fine. It's insular, but that's something people are gonna want to do anyway, so it makes sense to lean into it. Maybe I'd add Rose Noble to the list as well, since she's clearly meant to be the companion for that same "play all the doctors" deck though clara can easily fill that role. I'm not sure what else a rose card might do though. Clara is meant to be a companion good with any doctor, and doctor typal is the clear best way to do that given the disparate mechanical themes. And Day of the Doctor, while a little bit typal, doesn't feel insular. I could easily imagine playing that in a deck even without any doctors, or with just a doctor commander. The rest though, all the tutors and such, I don't like so much. They feel very insular.

The time lord cards... im not quite sure what to do with tbh. Time Lord Regeneration I'd rather be more generic, I think a more general "target creature dies and turns into a creature that shares a type with it" would be fine, though that would have to be decently more expensive. TARDIS and Trenzalore Clocktower are hard though, because the "If you control a time lord" condition is meant to be something pretty easy for these decks to do while not being generically powerful, and I'm not sure of a better way to do that even though I don't really like the restriction. I think it'd be cool to be able to put these cards in other decks that aren't specifically doctor who. Maybe like, "If you control two or more commanders"? Idk.

#mtg #doctor who #not custom mtg

[cookinguptales]

So my dad, while an avid movie lover, always thought that he did not particularly like horror. Honestly, he'd mostly just watched a lot of horror that was either bad or not to his taste. (He's not a fan of slasher/gore films and neither am I, tbh.)

I recced him some horror that I thought was good and he's been slowly making his way through that, and we've had some winners! He's told me how much he enjoyed El Orfanato, Lake Mungo, The Woman in Black, etc. It seems that, like me, he enjoys films that have creepy vibes and weird mysteries rather than more explicit monsters/slashers.

For me personally, the sense of unease and slowly mounting dread is what I love about horror. I love ghost stories that are just as much about the human psyche as they are about the actual supernatural creatures. Gore tends to instill a different and entirely unrelated emotion in me (disgust, annoyance) so it doesn't do anything for me, and movies that rely on mostly gore for their scares just kind of bore me.

I think that Dad and I have similar taste in that respect. So I keep turning to dad like "Well, have you heard of 1408? What did you think about The Ring? The Descent is fantastic, but I think it was actually scarier before the monsters showed up..."

I've also gotten him into some tv shows! I am very happy to report that I have found a new person to talk to about The Exorcist (TV). I still stand by my opinion that that show was better than it had any right to be.

But I was thinking, and I'm trying to decide if next I want to introduce him to internet horror...? I mean, I think something like Local 58 or My house walk-through can be just as scary as a lot of mainstream horror films. That said, it's often a very different way of interacting with media...? And I'm not sure if he'd enjoy that or not.

Like, when DHMIS first came out, he enjoyed the first one! I think he was still teaching middle/high school at that point, so of course his students played it for him. (I actually saw that first one at a film festival around this time, so it was fairly mainstream.) I think he thought it was a bit tryhard but he did like it. But when I told him that there was basically an entire cottage industry of people trying to piece together what the series was about he was like "well, it sounds like those people have too much time on their hands."

He's... kind of a "the curtains are just blue" sort of person. lmao

I personally really enjoy the kind of media that you really have to work for (see: my obsession with interactive theater that requires you to investigate details and assemble the "plot", such as it is, that way) but Dad... idk! Not everyone likes it when their peanut butter is put in a kong toy. Sometimes you just want a straightforward jar. Neither option is necessarily better or worse, imo. It's just preference.

Maybe I'll try him on a few videos when I see him in a few days... I'll have to think through my game plan.

#local 58 may not be a bad place to start... #it gives the vibe of this new genre of horror but at the same time is more straightforward than most #I do not think my father is ready for full ARGs lmao

[77ngiez]

Hello! Do you think, had Yuuki/Utsuro survived, if they'd rescue the SDRA2 yuuki who'd they'd left on life support somewhere, and if they did do you think Yuuki would ever forgive them?

On a lighter note, how do you think they'd interact? Would they get along?

oh hell yeah baby my area of expertise (yuki and utsuro)…….. ty for asking >:3 btw to avoid confusion ill be referring to dra’s resident maeda as yuki and sdra2’s resident maeda as yuuki, cos thats my personal preference . anyway onto the fun !!!

i think yuki would absolutely want to revive yuuki, both because its the Right Thing To Do and to ease his guilty conscience. utsuros suppressed all his guilt and negative feelings for ages but i think that if he was able to sort out the Emotion Repression Bullshit he has going on he would also want to save yuuki. honestly i think utsuro does care abt akane, even if its hard for him to admit or even realize himself, and watching yuki and akane’s interactions helped him realize that hes.. not the best person for her. i think reviving yuuki might also be tied into that whole complex? assuming akane also survives here.

anyway, while both of them do very much want yuuki to be revived, they don’t necessarily want to be the ones doing the reviving.. for yuki itd only aggravate his existential crisis, and for utsuro he’s just. he’s gonna be awkward. and he doesn’t like being awkward. since neither yuuki or aiko r rlly dead yet it’s not like they need to be the ones rescuing them anyway.. they can have another member of the kisafoundation do it for them.

as for how theyd get along.. i think that once they start interacting, yuki realizes that him and yuuki are really quite different. yuuki is very much a lot more anxious, and a people-pleaser, while yuki is pretty decisive. (also yuuki probably likes girls and yuki definitely doesn’t.) meanwhile utsuro is just his usual self, seemingly cold and abrasive bcs he kinda doesnt know how to be a person. the three of them are probably awkward at first, but luckily thats where aiko comes in..!!

aiko is a doting mother figure imo, probably even to an extent where yuuki even finds her smothering, but after she learns utsuro and yuki’s backstory i think she’d try to adopt them, or at least mother hen them. this would probably be what forces them closer to yuuki, and also probably what pushes yuuki to forgive them. especially once yuuki himself ends up getting put in the utsuroshima killing game (assuming that still happens in this au), when he gets out he starts understanding just what let utsuro to make the decisions he did.

i’m not sure if yuuki would ever actually forgive-forgive them, but i think he’d probably let bygones be bygones, even if it’s just because things are easier when he’s not expending so much energy being angry and bitter. and honestly i think eventually he’d enjoy having the wielders of divine luck in his corner, lol.

#amia.txt #loz #sdra2 #dra #dra spoilers #yuki maeda #yuuki maeda #utsuro dra #dra utsuro

[aprofessionalwithoutstandards]

some demo and/or pyro potrayals in fic really make me want to grab the writer by the shoulders, shake them and yell at them to for the love of god be normal about these mercs

TBH and while I have the mic a lot of Medic portrayals too. As I always say there's generally an overall trend of like, a lot of fanfic not being particularly Good and having kinda flat, boring, flanderized, or otherwise out-of-character characterization, which is to be expected. It's mostly written for fun by not necessarily experienced writers and I ultimately don't really care about any of that. But when the trait someone is flanderizing or the highlight of their angst fic or whatever is mental illness or disability or addition or race it can become really really shitty really really fast, in ways that like actually affect real people. The ways people choose to represent these stupid joke characters who mean nothing in their own right usually represents more than just what they think abt the characters, it also shows how they think abt similar people who actually exist in real life. And when your portrayal of a nonverbal person with delusions is "stupid child and/or animal who is unable to make any of their own adult decisions" and your portrayal of an alcoholic black guy is "stupid and lazy and aggressive and violent", especially when neither are particularly adherent to how they are actually portrayed (actually quite contradictory, imo) it kind of sucks a little, yknow

#also bc i brought up medic stoppppp with the wwii thing. stop. if it is not your place do not FUCKING bring it up #but also stop being weird abt him being a narcissist or whatever. like you know he Actually cares about people lol #i'm very tired and in a weird headspace idk how much sense this all makes but i appreciate the opportunity to talk i love talking #ask #anon #tf2 #demo #pyro

[spicyicymeloncat]

Sorry gang for being late to the party but this guy

And every other lava shipper is so right and I can’t believe I never even noticed I’m actually disappointed in myself.

Under cut I ramble aimlessly

When you think, oh yeah lava is no more valid than any other non canon Ninjago ship but then you get reminded

Cole is the most queer coded ninja, his true potential was about him coming out to his father. Also Kai is the most touchy in that episode, hugging him

In s7 when Jay calls out Nya’s name and Cole calls out Kai’s (Ik this and a lot of other points might be handwaved that Kai and Cole are more of a default match up just because everyone is already in relationships, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t in one too)

S10 Kai’s reaction of trying to turn back the ship, and then crying to Cole falling (although I’ll accept that this is more of his reaction to grief,m, counterpoint from Cube - Kai only really reacts like that, here and then with Nya both times she died)

S10 when Jay and Nya help each other up, Cole does the same for Kai (and then Cole takes his hand off Kai’s shoulder when Kai points to Zane coming over - yeah that doesn’t mean anything it’s just kinda sus)

S10 Kai and Cole paralleling Jaya’s hug also

Wildbrain era really said lavashipping

S11 Cole is the one supporting Kai when he brought back fire to the village. That could have been anyone it could’ve been Lloyd or Nya in that shot with him but it was Cole

S11 Cole being the one to comfort Kai when the village was frozen. S11 said “you can have all these close ups of Kai but it’s mandatory that Cole’s face is in the corner of the screen”

S12 and everything about it. “On one life Kai” jumping off the mountain to save Cole

S12 Kai watching Cole dance before Cole pulls him into dancing

S12 them sharing a car and then having the gayest sacrifice in the whole show (on the race track)

S12 also being notable for its dance lesbians (who aren’t confirmed to be gay but if it gets censored in Russia and Malaysia then I think it counts) and

Also s12 including couple moments for every other character (Jay and Nya, the Pixane episode, even Lloyd and Harumi show up (not saying their a good pairing, just that technically they were a romantic pairing at some point)

Cube mention s13 where Kai is the one to demand to search for Cole (which Ik can be handwaved as just Kai’s personality) and then Kai being one to call out to Cole just before the tunnels collapse whilst Zane doesn’t (again this could be chalked up to their personalities; Kai is the loud one and Zane doesn’t need to follow suit, but these are less of evidence and more of increasingly interesting add ons when after you watched prime empire). Tbf s13 had Kai and Cole separated so they couldn’t have interacted much anyways

The island, where Kai and Cole share more moments tm with Cole complaining he’s hungry and later on Kai getting Cole something to eat. This actually contextualises that one comment from Cole in s11 where he says he’s done with cake jokes from Kai. Anyways it’s cute that Kai first makes fun of Cole and then goes out and gets him food

Seabound where they both stayed behind to play video games. Do I need to say anything?

Crystalised, the only thing I remember is that one scene where Kai went for a hug but Cole ran passed him to get water

Besties that’s actually a lot yknow. Pretty sure that’s more interactions than both of those characters and other characters. It’s like lava is in a weird position where its not canon but it’s definitely more canon than the other non canon ships. Including kailor and conia.

No shade to either shippers but Conia’s only claim to canon is that Vania is a girl introduced in the Cole season, he said he didn’t even like her, and Kailor are not even dating. I think Tommy Andreasen and Chris Wyatt also tweeted that neither are dating (also Tommy replied in a tweet in regards to Cole’s sexuality that anyone’s interpretation is valid). (Also imo I personally see Vania is younger than the ninja yknow)

With Kailor, Kai barely knew her and she barely new him or literally anything other than the island, and they go their separate ways in the end. I mean Skylor definitely needed to establish her own identity after being an extension of her father her whole life so I think it’s fair. Yeah they continue to be good friends but Kai doesn’t even have Skylor’s number. Ik Kai visits Skylor in s7 but that’s to talk about his dad with someone who understands. Ig the more convincing moments are near the end of s9 where whilst some can be seen platonically, there is this one shot where they look at each other in a more romantic way (the same shot in which Cole embraces his true soulmate, cake), idk ig it can be just a hug but I will say, that post s4 that shot is probably the biggest Kailor contender. But as Cube said, it’s just a little awkward. Kai doesn’t really visit Skylor often and their closeness in s9 could be due to the fact that everyone nearly died? I’m assuming there’s a chance Kailor, regardless of whether it’s a thing in the past or the present, will be addressed in crystalised tho.

What is interesting is that both s4 and s13 have a lot of parallels. In both, the ninja stay over at a new place hosted by the villain, who underneath his house, owns slaves who he uses to earn money, and his daughter turns to the side of the ninja. Kailor and Conia have a lot of similarities (and therefore a lot of similar issues, such as the assumption that woman = love interest)

Also I don’t think I have to argue that Cole was ever interested in Nya. He was much more concerned with kicking Jay’s ass and we all know it.

But yeah lava is surprisingly a lot more convincing. Also some of their interactions (s10) do imply they’re keeping it a secret from the other ninja. Either because they’re worried how the others would react (although it’s hard to believe the legos are homophobic. Imagine. Homophobic Zane 🙀) but also, in a world where there probably is homophobia (considering there are pride flags) it’s still possible that there is a worry. I could see Kai being closeted since he very clearly showed interest in girls since s3 to s6 so the realisation that he is anything but straight may have shaken him and he’s not quite ready to be open about it (oh look a fanfic idea), and I can see Cole maybe wanting to be more private about the relationship since he tends to withdraw when anxious (see pilots, where the death of his mother made him leave home and climb mountains, see s4 where the group’s fight made him retreat to the forest to become a lumberjack, see s5 where he wanted to quit the team because he was a ghost, s11 where he leaves on his own because he felt bad about losing the tea, this guy has a history). The last romance related thing Cole was a part of was s3’s love triangle which was not fun, so maybe Cole is still kinda traumatised but that. Or on a lighter note, maybe they’re both seeing long it takes for the others to notice. An out of canon explanation is that it’s making fun of how Russia and Malaysia wouldn’t accept them either. Also that was in s10 and tbh since they canonically killed of Hageman (idk which one) in s11, there has been a lot more lava so maybe in canon they’ve become more of a relationship as time went on and they might be out now, if they weren’t before. Or maybe I’m reading into it too much.

Anyways they’d definitely have double dates with jay and Nya can you imagine Kai and Nya getting ready and then Cole and Jay (cuz they’re besties) getting ready because that’s cute.

That’s it. Just know I’ve successfully turned into a lavashipper (I mean polyninja ftw but as in this could literally be canon if Lego says yay to the gays) this is all I’m going to think about this week.

#Youtube #ninjago #lego ninjago #lavashippers how does it feel to be bigbrain #again no shade to ppl who disagree but yeah #Ik this is old new to everyone else but listen #I’m learning this for the first time let me have it #Ninjago kai #Ninjago cole #ninjago lavashipping #ninjago spoilers #ninjago crystalized spoilers #ofc #below tags sound so awful out of context #they made Zane learn stupid gender roles so im sorry to say but Zane homophobia is a possibility; slim and upsetting but it’s there #which means that his one episode in crystalised is him realising that actual yes to gay rights #homophobic Zane has potential that’s all I’m saying #remembering homophobic Zane is from one millisecond of s10 I took wildly out of context yknow maybe ignore me entirely #I hope I do not start homophobic Zane discourse tho #that’s why this is under all the tags #oh no

[cherrymoonvol6]

so... about lunter.

...i'll understand if you stop reading now, but i still have some meta to squeeze from this so tag along for that at least.

well. if you know me at all you'll know i have a thing for problematique pairings. i crave complex romantic dynamics that have a lot of narrative potential and explore every aspect of its characters and their development throughout (and after) the story. usually, that means being into stories that involve trauma and grief. think asgore and toriel in undertale.

this is not my first time keeping up with the owl house: to satisfy my curiosity, i would check the tumblr tag every time it trended [tumblr trending tab is my newspaper], but it never caught my attention beyond that. well, that's until i came to know about lunter. see, there's something about fandom hated pairings that just speaks to me - what is it that people are so outraged about? is it because the dynamic it's too complicated? well then give me it, i will chomp it down! anyways.

so, what's the verdict? before i go into that, let me talk about Luz and Hunter™.

BUT…. BUT, SIBLINGS!: i was well aware of this claim while watching the show and i was worried that i wouldn't be able to dispute it. look, i wouldn't jump ship either way (ha, get it?). i've survived dear ships of mine becoming incestuous through weird loops (vlr/ztd i am looking at you). it's fine. not the end of the world. but, to be honest, i don't necessarily think the sibling aspect is the point of hunter and luz's dynamic.

i think their dynamic is definitely playful, and i can see how people can say it's sibling-coded. tbh, i'm just tired of every platonic relationship between guy and girl being labeled as sibling-like: it's a trend that started as a response of the opposite case when people assume guy and girl getting along equals romance (along with the “dumb of ass & lesbian”), but lately it's plasted over EVERYTHING and i just miss when people would be like "you know guys and girls can be just friends, right?" my point is that both luz and hunter have other clearly defined sibling-like relationships: luz and king, and hunter with gus. although the later isn’t as clear-cut as the former (luz and king refer to each other as siblings a handful of times), i believe that’s what the point of the episode is when hunter consoles gus in his “room”. the mere domesticity of it, and the fact that hunter is the first in the show to breach gus’ space like that and encourage him is, IMO, enough imagery to justify that claim. if anything it’s way more explicit than what is done with luz and hunter. i am open, however, to revise the claims that might indicate that siblifying luz and hunter could be the show’s point. in my eyes, the evidence is:

the fact that hunter has a deeper connection with luz out of everyone in the group.

how hunter is neither witch nor demon nor human and he's up for "adoption".

i won’t count the family line because, found family, duh - it’s the whole point of camila taking care of the kids in TTT, and the only person who has a genuine parental link to camila besides luz is vee. previous to FTF’s release i was genuinely considering an ending where hunter would migrate to the human realm, in which case him staying with luz and camila could lead to the canonification of the sibling claims. however, a main point in that argument was about hunter not having magic - with the newfound knowledge that hunter does have powers due to flapjack’s sacrifice, i believe the chances for hunter ending in the human realm are significantly less, especially when we consider that it’s very likely that luz will stay in the boiling isles.

dynamic wise, i would take the playfulness claim a lot more seriously if that ever developed past their first (real) meeting in hunting palismen. i think playfulness is just something that is baked into luz - we see it when she sticks out her tongue at amity after she sees her belittle willow, for example. however, these instances are just meant to be humorous, as i believe that what their dynamic truly is (pre-hollow mind) is more of a commentary on hunter’s self-seriousness contrasted with luz’s carefree “i’m here to make friends” attitude. hunter expects her to be afraid of him and to treat him with respect, and the times that she doesn’t he either gets mad or retaliates back. to me, it proves a point about how young hunter actually is, something that is remarked a handful of times during hunting palismen - luz won’t treat him like that because she can see hunter is a kid, just like her. even the most sibling-like they get (smacking each other after the fake-kiss) is just meant to subvert expectations via using the trope of the waking up kiss and then turning it around where they act like siblings instead [it’s also a way to establish hunter as far as it can from being a love interest for luz]. again, those instances are not part of hunter and luz’s dynamic as it stands now. like, if someone could point out the supposed “playfulness” in their interactions in TTT… nah, you can’t. their friendship has evolved past that. and you know, you can interpret that however you want. but your reading of their dynamic as “sibling-like” is just that: a reading. therefore not supported by canon atm and i’ll take full advantage of that.

speaking of siblings… it’s time to talk about the wittebane brothers.

BUT THE PARALLELS!: i do think in the show there's a real attempt to parallel phillip and caleb to luz and hunter, but i wouldn't say it's with the intentions of siblifying them. in actuality the point of it is that it's "debunked" at the end of TTT, when hunter states that belos fools people - and breaks the cycle of the "you and i are very alike" villain speech that luz has internalized due to her guilt.

[side note: i love that such a strong realization for hunter is also so narratively sound for luz’s own guilt. a testament of how great both characters are.]

therefore, the parallels are subverted by the show itself. another part of it is the foreshadowing: the show wants to make it clear that belos continues to be a threat and that he'll appear by the third act of the episode, and that we'll get to see some background of the wittebros too. besides that, the parallels do NOTHING to establish luz and hunter as siblings. after all, the whole point is that phillip betrayed caleb and he chose to shatter their bond, which is absolutely not what happens with luz and hunter. the subversion is a huge part of that, and then there’s also other aspects like belos never making that connection when he reveals himself to the main group. he goes out of his way to identify flapjack as evelyn and hunter as caleb, yet he never projects onto luz, instead only indulging in her guilt. moreover, it’s an aspect that only lasts during this one episode - kinda how most of the playfulness dies in hunting palismen. even if it gets referenced in the last episode, the fact that the connection will only be made in two episodes makes it so it’s not strong enough.

and honestly, i don’t have a lot of reasons to believe luz and hunter will become “siblings” by the end of the show in the likes of king and luz’s dynamic. for starters, they barely interact in FTF, hammering the point that luz and hunter’s connection grew based on the secrets they were keeping from the others - and so they could only rely on each other. now that everyone knows that hunter is a grimwalker and that luz helped belos, there’s no real reason for them to be paired up, much less during the neck-braking pace that these last episodes have been forced to take. moreover, i believe at this point hunter and luz are headed for very different paths, and it wouldn’t make that much sense for hunter to either become eda’s protegee (he wants to study magic at hexside and eda is anything but a traditional “teacher”) or be adopted by the nocedas back in the human realm (so many hints that luz will decide to stay in the demon realm, and we’ll see what camila will choose then).

HOW THE FUCK DO PEOPLE THINK LUZ IS NOT EVELYN: at this point, with only one 45 minute episode left for the entirety of the show, it’s impossible that the writers could imply that luz and hunter have a romantic connection. i’ll take the L on that, don’t worry. but holy FUCK if it isn’t clear as day that luz and hunter mirror the story of caleb and evelyn.

i hate to not start chronologically but let’s look at hollow mind first: there are pointed parallels to the silhouettes of caleb and evelyn and luz and hunter running away from belos.

this becomes even more pointed when you realize that this is the first time that hunter unambiguously rejects belos, by taking luz’s hand.

i actually love that look belos gives hunter because my god. he’s once again seeing how caleb rejects him. he has to watch yet again as he runs away with a witch.

allow me some indulgence as i repeat this: the show is explicitly paralleling evelyn to luz. she’s the evelyn in that situation. the imagery is there and it’s clear as water.

but okay. by those standards, luz and hunter being paralleled to imagery of the wittebane bros would support the point that they’re uhhh sibling-endgame. you got me there. counterpoint: who is evelyn supposed to be in the story?

evelyn, as the story masha told says, is the witch that dazzled caleb with her magic and drew him away from philip and their witch hunting agenda. now, it’s important to note that this story is obviously told from belos’ perspective: we also see how masha is skeptical to the recounting, judging philip as a jealous brat. we’re meant to criticize the story because we know it comes from philip’s perspective. therefore, while the story portrays evelyn as a bad influence that took caleb down the wrong path with her temptations, it’s most likely that caleb had already changed his mind about witches and wild magic, and him falling for a witch is just further proof that, at that point, he didn’t see them as threats anymore. this would make sense taking into account how hunter behaves in the show: he’s eager to help belos and to do that he’s accumulated a lot of knowledge about everything concerning wild magic, but also it’s extremely clear that hunter is deeply interested by it. even when he’s convinced that wild magic decimated his family, he’s still fascinated by it. it is for that reason that is really important that the first time luz and hunter bond is through their knowledge and passion for magic.

this is because, in my eyes, that’s exactly how caleb and evelyn would have bonded all those years ago. evelyn doesn’t show him something new that caleb is entranced with: she’s part of a system that he’s already warmed to, that he probably studies in his own time. evelyn just happened to be the last straw that made caleb fully commit to abandoning witch-hunting.

and as we just revised in hollow mind, that’s exactly what happens between luz and hunter. she reaches out, and he accepts her.

luz is hunter’s first real connection to wild magic: it’s clear by the way he simply doesn’t contain his fascination and catches himself after the fact. up to that point, no one has filled that spot for him. not even flapjack!

it’s funny to me because of hunter’s little monologue at luz about her not planning ahead. at this point, he’s just projecting onto her: hunter clearly doesn’t know what to do about this revelation that he likes talking about magic with luz. he folds so easily the moment that she expresses her disappointment. and i love how flapjack is completely divorced from this moment: he clearly has no problems with belos feasting on palismen, even understanding how crucial it is for the emperor’s survival, and since flapjack is yet to choose him he doesn’t even have that connection to a palisman to understand the real horror of putting them in danger. no, he lets luz go because she’s the first person that he’s talked to about magic without mincing his words or expecting punishment. the fact that luz doesn’t consider him a friend is reason enough. and not only does he let her go: he reveals his real name to her. i wish this moment would’ve been given more weight by hunter like, not telling his name to every person who crosses his path from that episode onwards, but oh well. still it’s a real moment of connection and vulnerability that is absent from any other relationship hunter has in the show (especially fucking willow sdjfhdjsk like you could argue for gus, darius and even AMITY but NOT willow), especially during the time hunter was 100% still on belos’ side.

again let me bring up the imagery: hunter lets a wild witch go, during a mission where whatever she’s taking is key for the emperor’s survival. he makes that decision, and then he goes and makes that decision again when he takes luz’s hand in hollow mind. think about this moment compared to hunter’s behavior in eclipse lake: the moment he sets eye on the titan’s blood, he doesn’t rest until he takes it for himself, relentlessly fighting amity to do so. in hunting palismen, he deliberately avoids fighting luz - and even protects her from kikimora -, even when she’s proven that she’s capable enough to kick his ass in combat. not out of pity, just genuinely out of a desire to honor the connection that they now have.

flapjack is also pretty important in this whole equation. masha makes a point in using the imagery of flapjack (not any other bird: flapjack) to show the things evelyn used to “charm” caleb away.

if they’re drawing from philip’s notes to create the imagery for the story, then it’s almost guaranteed that flapjack used to be caleb’s palisman, and it checks out as flapjack suggests the name “caleb” when hunter is undercover in the flyer derby episode. if flapjack was able to find hunter now, then it’s really possible that he’s detected most of the other grimwalkers and even been a crucial piece to allow them to break free out of belos’ control. again, belos saying “goodbye, evelyn” when he mortally wounds flapjack also contributes to this.

it’s not my intention to draw significance away from flapjack’s connection with hunter. it’s clear to me that the writers want to highlight this dynamic and flapjack transferring his powers to hunter when he brings him back to life is their way to homage their link. however, flapjack seems to immediately take a liking to luz even before hunter arrives to take the palismen away. i hate not being able to draw a clear conclusion (aka, flapjack knew that hunter would be arriving soon, for some reason) because palismen behavior is uhhh kinda erratic? and i’ve felt this way since the palismen episode in S1. but still, as the palismen cower in fear when they’re kidnapped, flapjack confidently heads out along with luz to confront hunter. if anything, he might be the exception to the rule, having identified the fact that hunter was indeed coming in close contact during that night.

what i want to highlight in the hunting palismen episode is that flapjack sticks to luz first and foremost. again, coming back to the imagery used in TTT, it’s implied that evelyn either carved caleb’s palisman or gave him the tools to do so. likewise, it’s important that flapjack uses luz as a vehicle to get closer to hunter, and as it happens in the show, luz meeting hunter is what leads to flapjack becoming hunter’s palisman. and if we take into account what i discussed earlier about hollow mind, to me it’s abundantly clear that luz is hunter’s evelyn in that moment. and this is supported by the fact that flapjack allows luz to use him to get closer to hunter once he gets possessed by belos during TTT, after we see the story of the wittebanes.

furthermore, all these little hints take on a deeper meaning when you realize that none of these parallels are given to willow, ever. not even by showing that evelyn specialized in plant magic or something like that. even in TTT hunter’s crush on willow is inconsequential to the larger plot, as the show frames hunter with luz during the wittebros story.

OKAY. LUZ IS EVELYN. WHAT NOW?: well. not much else, unfortunately. even if caleb and evelyn are explicitly stated as having a romantic relationship, luz being paralleled to evelyn doesn’t have to mean that she gets to be hunter’s romantic partner. there’s intentionality in luz meeting hunter after she gets a crush on amity, which leads me to believe that hunter was absolutely never meant to be seen as a possible LI for luz (the “sibling-like” interactions also contribute to that) as canon stands right now. like i said, i’ll take the L on that.

however i still feel that this should’ve been pointed out in the show, since the imagery is purposeful in linking luz and evelyn together. like i said on my review of the show, i feel like an easy fix to the boring dynamic between hunter and willow should’ve been to make hunter crush on luz instead. IMO, that’s the easiest way of following through the parallels without putting luz into a dumb love triangle: let her have her endgame with amity as hunter grows out of his crush and considers luz as a loving platonic companion. that way, it avoids the problem of making hunter betray belos just because he’s crushing on a witch. but, y’know, there are options beyond what we can already do with canon.

so, what’s the verdict?

i’ll be completely honest with you and say i fell completely in love with luz and hunter’s dynamic and was actively seeking their [romantic] endgame. as i said in the beginning, i love me a great, narratively compelling pairing, and luz and hunter fill the quota to perfection. whereas eda and raine do nothing with their complicated backstory (read my review for more thoughts on them), luz and hunter connection is implemented really well in canon and there’s a very compelling back-and-forth as they figure themselves out. unlike amity, hunter is crucial in the plot (amity only gets her parents’ business, which is not even that impactful either). and unlike willow, luz has a very defined dynamic with hunter that has evolved as the plot progresses.

just… part of me wonders if luz and hunter not being together is yet again part of the trope deconstruction. you expect luz and hunter to get together? sike! they get other LIs that aren’t half as interesting as what they could be together. and what annoys me is that the show could’ve done the same with belos: imagine if the show found a quick replacement for belos as the new big bad that’s not even half as interesting as the emperor, just for the sake of subverting expectations. and before you tell me “ummm, the collector?”, by now it’s clear that belos continues to be the big bad, since he’s now back in action manipulating the collector once again.

i just really, genuinely wish the show was able to go through a main ship comparable to luz and hunter’s potential together. like, if the representation is so important in the story, then make hunter a girl! like, i don’t know. there’s just unlimited potential in lunter. they’re foils to each other (both believed they were put in roles by a greater force and great things were waiting for them, only to realize that was a lie/a fantasy); they’re both deeply integral to the plot; they’re characters that challenge each other and become better people because of that; their dynamic grows and transforms due to their connection to the larger story; they’re paralleled to the couple that kickstarted this whole conflict to begin with; extremely long etcetera.

as canon stands right now, i’m very unsatisfied with luz and hunter’s romantic endgames. that won’t stop me from appreciating and loving the potential of a lunter endgame. however, potential is the key word here. in a world where they were meant to end up together, this show would’ve been a lot better as a narrative. it’s a shame that it isn’t, and i will mourn that forever.

[also. luz and hunter have the delicious size difference that lumity is lacking :)]

#toh #lunter #mine #this was supposed to go in my og review but i chickened out at the last second) #(so here it is instead)

[lovehours]

one day we’re gonna have a serious conversation about how misinterpreted daria, the literal main character of the show that’s named after her is. she’s either girlbossified or hated but neither are for the right reasons imo

daria’s not someone who hates everyone and everything, she’s someone who cares deeply about issues. she’s disappointed in the idiocy around her and how the adults in power who can solve these issues don’t do much out of corruption (ms. li) or are idiots themselves.

behind the sarcastic front that daria puts up shows a person who’s afraid to be alone and is afraid of being hated if she put her best effort in, making her not put any effort to reach out to others at all (“and im so defensive that i actively work to make people dislike me so i won’t feel bad when they do”). it’s someone who’s actually self depreciative and hypercritical of herself. despite her criticisms of everything around her, daria is deeply insecure of her talents, her appearance, and her ability to connect with other people.

this is why boxing daria is such an important episode to not only her but the show. daria was someone who was constantly isolated and bullied for being different, and it stuck with her. back then she DID put an effort in, and all it did was get her shunned and mocked. when she puts effort in to connect with others in the show (episodes like the new kid or the old and the beautiful come to mind) she’s abandoned or not wanted, reaffirming the pushing everyone away mentality that she’s had for so long. for daria, it’s easier for her not to get hurt if she has no one around.

but a huge part of the show is confronting this idea, the front that she puts up. the idea that daria is completely antisocial is denied by the show itself (her mother saying that her antisocial mask isn’t real, but if she keeps isolating herself it will become real in iify). having her acknowledge that she does want some form of connection with people, even if it’s not necessarily her classmates. it’s learning to appreciate those around her even if they don’t completely understand her because they love her (and realizing that she wants to have her family around her despite their flaws/that she wants to be loved by someone). it’s learning that the attitude she has to cope will only hurt her in the end.

so she grows. she acknowledges her mistakes and the fact that she isn’t always right. she realizes that her worldview is actually quite small because she’s only a teenager and she still has a lot to learn. she reaches out to children who she believes may suffer the same fate she did growing up. she stands up for classmates who she may not respect, but she feels that are being exploited. she begins to expand her worldview and grows closer to quinn who once represented every problem she had with being a teenager. she starts to allow people into the bubble few could enter. she starts to show how much she truly cares about things, getting out of her comfort zone by submitting her work that she’s passionate about to newspapers. but people still like to act like she has no interest in anything at all and just doesn’t care.

daria is a teenage girl. an incredibly flawed teenage girl, but a teenage girl nonetheless. one who we see grow massively over the course of five seasons and it’s annoying to see people treat her growth as if it didn’t exist. if you sit here and try and tell me daria is the same person from esteemsters to is it college yet you need to rewatch LOL. and it’s just so tiring to see her mischaracterized so often despite her arc being so clear

#daria #long post #idk if this is coherent but. well #got a dumbass comment on tiktok and had to just get this out somewhere that isn’t my twitter

[thesherrinfordfacility]

would love to know your thoughts!!! ask and ye shall receive; i have many! your responses are great food for thought.

firstly, please accept my humble apologies for the late-late answer to this!!! i got into a hyperfocus with an amv first things first, i'm pretty sure given the length of my ask your answer doesn't qualify as late. i'll take the dance though lol. also the amv is fantastic! meat loaf is one of my favourite artists and your editing is amazing. p.s. should you decide to do another meat loaf song at some point may i cast my vote for original sin? imo his best song and well. on the nose title is on the nose.

im firmly of the opinion that god in GO is omniscient, but strictly amoral. anything else has rather concerning implications i think. i mean, if it's all just god's plan then free will - which angels and demons do act as though they have - is fictitious and if she doesn't approve i'm not really sure how aziraphale and crowley are a) still alive and b) ever going to be able to have a happy ending because i don't think you can exactly defeat an omniscient omnipotent being.

especially if anyone subscribes to some variant of the scapegoat theory - that being crowley, aziraphale, lucifer, or any combination of them. i think i might just subscribe to every variant of this theory. including the possibility that some of the stuff you noticed is relevant not to the fall but to the modern day. really hoping something like this'll be true. (also really hoping for a pieta; those promo photos are ominous and they have me in a chokehold.)

now, i can see metatron's rationale going in two different directions (so far, and might be both or neither): this was definitely helpful for parsing my own thoughts on the metatron. i'd be inclined towards a mix of both but with the former weighing more heavily: less 'i follow what i think is god's plan and if it benefits me then that must be part of it without considering the subconscious influence of my desires' and more 'i do what i want and since i am an infallible vessel of god's plan my will must be hers'. i find that would make a more compelling villain but that's just me. i'm not exactly sure how and whether this fits with my fall theories though. i do think crowley's fall was something personal which makes me think whatever he did be it just asking the wrong questions or also finding the wrong answers - i prefer the latter because i'd love to see the forbidden knowledge thing pay off but i think the wrong questions are plenty dangerous enough for my speculation to still work - it threatened not just god's plan/authority but also specifically the metatron's. although this does open the question whether he sees taking over heaven as subverting god. you could probably make an argument that the two aren't necessarily equated. i'm still intrigued by the demons discussing the final victory of hell over heaven - and following the plan they believed to be god's to do so?!

hell are short-staffed - irrespective of why, we know this is an issue. which. how did that even happen? as of the airbase there are 10 million demons around according to beelzebub. assuming they're not lying what happened in the last four year to change that?

i think there's something there. something something if it happens twice it's an institutional problem. there can't be another rebellion because of what that would say about heaven so all issues are neatly swept under the rug before anyone finds out about them. crowley's extremely public execution vs aziraphale being quietly made to disappear. *

well, it's actually somewhat understandable how they regard aziraphale. it makes sense i'm just not sure it doesn't make it worse. harking back to what i said about the metatron antagonists who fully believe they're doing the right thing are chilling.

so, to watch as aziraphale presumably treads the same path must be terrifying, because of what it could precipitate. * sweeping issues under the rug before anyone finds out and the situation escalates.

all of this to say that i don't think it's inconclusive at this time to implicate the archangels in what, as the hypothesis above indicates, is entirely metatron's doing. i'm not sure what you mean with this sentence, sorry! would you mind clarifying? trying to give as vague a response as possible so it fits in any case: i don't think the archangels are completely innocent, but the metatron clearly outranks them and presumably has plans that they're not privy to.

bear in mind that despite the recent trial, uriel and michael don't even recognise metatron. which is distinctly odd. wonder if there's something going on there.

it might not necessarily change anything about the fall retrospectively, but it does inform on how they punish angels, that step out of line, in a post-fall era. those dynamics could also end up being relevant to season 3's plot it's just that i was trying - and let's be honest failing - to stay at least somewhat on track.

and in any case - im not convinced that either of them, or indeed anyone(?) fully remembers the fall. hmmmm. the metatron might have blurred everyone's memories a bit especially regarding the specifics of how falling worked, but you'd think if a full wipe happened to every single angel, fallen or not, there'd be more awareness of it as a phenomenon? based off dagon's rallying in season 1 the other demons do seem to recall fighting and aziraphale also remembers details from the war with the halo thing. while we get crowley quite specifically and directly emphathising with gabriel's situation there's no indication aziraphale relates in the same way. an institutional scale wipe makes sense from the metatron's perspective but i feel more like it's being set up more as a directly targeted at crowley thing - maybe aziraphale if that version of the scapegoat theory is true - which would fit with knowing something he shouldn't have, which is probably still my leading theory on why he fell. i think if the scapegoat theory shows up it's more likely to be in the form of how the narrative was framed afterwards and not with that being the actual reason for him falling. but i will fully admit that my speculating is heavily influenced by what i would like to be true and my brain sank its teeth into the thematic-ness of the angel who would become the serpent of eden falling for acquiring forbidden knowledge fall of man style and won't let go.

but i am still fairly convinced that crowley is going to own a lucifer-ish narrative as concerns his fall. fingers crossed that you're right! i want this so badly. although my ideal scenario if i'm not theorising but just going by what i'd find cool to see is that the lucifer-ish narrative is something that was at least partially imposed on him afterwards after he got mind-wiped to distract him from the real reason (see above, i'm trying not to repeat myself too much lol).

but i think he massively downplays his part. and if the memory loss theory is true, i really think that might be the reason why he does it. he can't consider that he might have done something a little bad because he's scared he did something that would horrify him *. brace yourself tangent incoming. i started thinking about whether you can exend that to the present day and i think you just might be able to. he's stuck in a very strange in between where he can't admit to any of his positive traits or softer emotions because hell would come for him but he also can't acknowledge his flaws because for all that's he's got plenty he's not bad or evil or whatever which is precisely why the thought that if he started digging into his flaws he might find out exactly that about himself terrifies him so much. he did something bad enough to warrant falling and apparently he himself was/is so bad he didn't even realise how bad it was (thank you job!) so if he starts with self examination what if it just keeps going and going and he finds out he's no better than hastur or ligur or dagon or any of the other demons he reports to who all delight in suffering. feeling sorry for him.

i think perhaps lucifer and the gang start to panic, panic at the concept of falling (regardless of who is dolling out the sentence, god or metatron), and they pin the blame on AWCW. i hadn't even considered that the scapegoat aspect might come from the rebels. i always figured that if such a narrative was implemented it was the archangels who did so. there's a post floating around talking about what happened that crowley stopped being friends with the other rebels and i don't think i like what i get when i put your and their ideas together. ouch.

but that would potentially be a big chunk of his character core that once realised could make a lot of things about him suddenly make sense. i mean you saw my ramble on the psychological ramifications of something like that in the lucifer theory interlude. how the fuck do you reconcile six millenia + however much 'time' elapsed between the fall and the beginning living with the knowledge that you're essentially the root of all evil and suffering in this universe? (* aka the even more painful alternative explanation for the downplaying.) if this is true i'm amazed he isn't more messed up. feeling even more sorry for him.

in terms of crowley's rank... sigh. i know i did argue for it in my last ask but honestly? i have pretty mixed feelings. if i'm trying to simplify them they mostly boil down to that i think there's a case to be made in either direction and that on the whole i can really take or leave the theory. high ranked characters who are nonetheless regarded as utterly irrelevant is a very specific dynamic that i really enjoy, i think at some point you move past red herring into 'well now you do have to deliver something' territory and there are some interesting character/narrative implications this opens up. on the other hand there are other character/narrative possibilities that would get shut down and i can offer a counter argument for all the hints. so. overall i think it's probably the theory that affects the circumstances of his fall the least. if he was an archangel then the metatron's disdain is because someone he disliked anyway nearly exposed him. if he wasn't then it's because some nobody nearly exposed him. he can still have been a threat without needing the clearance. the scapegoat theory isn't changed. like it works if he was an archangel but it also doesn't really matter all that much if he wasn't.

but my understanding is that a lot of his themes work with the concept of being "ordinary" which... this theory would arguably shoot out of the park i've seen a few people argue this and i have to say i disagree. his power is clearly tied to his imagination and not his rank so that wouldn't be affected. and so i personally feel it would actually reinforce the ordinariness. he protested the end date of the universe as a high ranking angel and achieved nothing beyond a sulfur bath for his troubles whereas as a demonic nobody he successfully helped avert the apocalypse. he accomplished things as someone ordinary that he didn't manage when he was still somebody.

we know that shax is not the sharpest of demons in this respect *snorts*

in which case, i personally think gabriel was just being sarcastic and childish, and simply reinstating "hey, im the top dog here, im the only one at my level, so what i say goes'. i mean you may very well be right. but, and maybe it's just because of the way it made me do the mental equivalent of slamming face first into a wall on my second rewatch, i can't shake the feeling that there's something going on with this line. of course the cut to crowley could just mean that he knows something to contradict it; not necessarily that he is the contradiction. (or it's just a very painful piece of foreshadowing that aziraphale's going to take the metatron's offer but i'm hoping there's more to it than that.)

there's a whole, obviously interesting, conversation missing there, and i dont think that's inconsequential... potentially. oooo i hadn't even gotten around to considering the potential content and consequences of that conversation yet. the whole thing felt oddly like there was some kind of history there to me. that doesn't have to mean he was an archangel but i did find it noticeable. did the circumstances surrounding his fall warrant the entire council of archangels getting involved as well as the metatron? could be a point in favour of the scapegoat theory and/or my forbidden knowledge thing.

so morning stars... might just be morning stars? probably lol. even in a show with as much to discover as good omens i'd imagine a good third of the things we find didn't actually mean anything deeper. so yes most likely answer. the more boring one too though. i will say that despite my suggesting the more literal meaning i'm pretty sure that if it does somehow end up pertaining to crowley then it's just metaphorical: a nod at a lucifer reminscent fall narrative. 🦭

p.s. you certainly didn't forget or ignore anything (your responses are amazingly thorough!) but i did figure since you've been, as you say, biased towards being more critical of crowley, i figured i'd have a shot at tempting/challenging you to analyse a positive aspect of his character to balance it out again ;)

p.p.s. obviously only if you want to; i don't mean to pressure you or anything!

resending this because i think the wifi might have eaten it (you do not want to know how often that happens); apologies if that wasn't the case and you've now got it twice!

hello again 🦭 anon!!! hope you're good!!!✨ i did get your first one but no matter! i ended up having to make notes in order to be able to plan my response to you - literally 5 pages, but i think better pen to paper - and just as i was about to start typing it all up, you re-sent!!!✨💕

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!

anyway!!! once more unto the breach✨

(previous ask)

i completely agree with your remarks on the implications of god - i discussed this at some length with LWA, but i'll say it again; i have some major reservations about the God Ships It trope in the fandom for this very reason. now, don't get me wrong, in the world of fic etc., i totally get it's just for fun, and i 100% stand by the notion that everyone should just get to write what they like for the purposes of entertainment (and they're legends for doing so!!!), but in the case of discussing god in general in GO, and her involvement in crowley/aziraphale, i simply... can't get on board with it, nor with the idea that god created them specifically to find each other, or that they were meant to work together/fall for each other. it, for me personally, just feels incongruous with other aspects of god's characterisation or indeed the theme of the story - to my interpretation, anyway.

i do however consider that aziraphale may perhaps - however funny the idea is and therefore the plethora of jokes that have been made about it - may have somewhat of a special place in god's esteem. i still consider the thoughts that:

aziraphale was a cherub at the time of and before eden, and if we consider both hebrew and christian angelologies, cherubim are consider to be the throne-bearers of god, and attendants to god, respectively

obviously this is not confirmed in GO, but if we work with the understanding that humanity is god's greatest creation, built in her image, it indicates some level of trust and prestige that aziraphale would be working on building them

aziraphale seems to understand the ineffable plan on a profound level, even if he doesn't quite consciously realise it. let's go with my rationale that ineffable plan = no plan = free will of everyone else, aziraphale has shown repeatedly that he follows this, and is never punished for it. examples: giving the sword away, lying to god about it, lying to the archangels, preventing armageddon. all instances, i'd wager, all directly contravene the Great Plan, and yet aziraphale is - to my recollection/understanding - never once punished for it.

so essentially, in my eyes, aziraphale is sort of the embodiment of god's will; again, even if he doesn't realise or know that, his decisions made out of the Right Thing To Do all indicate him thinking for himself, going where his moral compass is pointing him. he arguably resists it, finding it hard to reconcile this with what he thinks god's plan is (ie he thinks he's disobeying her - and by extension heaven's - will), but that's where crowley comes in. it's all a little main-character-ish, even for me, but it's currently the only thing that makes sense for a lot of god's actions and inactions in the narrative; that free will is her greatest gift, if only her creations would use it. i also love the metaphorical imagery, the poetry, of crowley being the question, and aziraphale being the answer (this sparks narrative analytical joy).

so let's segue back to the metatron; i know i said it in my previous answer, but personally my thinking on his motive is the other way around 😂 i really like your thoughts, especially on 'infallible vessel', and whilst that certainly speaks to me as being his behaviour, im not personally convinced that is his motive. imo (so please do ignore this if preferable!!!), i don't think it's narratively compelling in GO to actually have a villain, so to speak; obviously metatron fulfils the role of it, he's the Big Bad, but i can't help but feel that "blur the edges... something to said for shades of grey" speaks about more than just crowley and aziraphale's grapple with their moral identities, or indeed that of hell and heaven; for me, it's the specific, simplified concept that moral absolutism doesn't exist. noone is completely evil, just as noone is wholly good.

it would make sense, to me, for this to extend to metatron; whilst his actions are - to the audience especially - objectively immoral, i can't help but see the angle where if your whole purpose as you understood it was to be the voice of god, and to enact her will as she left it in her handover (ie. the great plan) before FO'ing out of heaven, i don't think it's beyond comprehension that his actions to preserve that will are understandable... to some extent. i want to see metatron's arse kicked as much as the next person, but at the same time i interpret GO as posing the dichotomy of conflicting morality, of good and evil, and exploring how far the two are intertwined... it therefore doesn't personally make sense to me that metatron would completely fall outside of this. his actions are detestable, but i want to see a story that makes me think about why he does what he does, and question my evaluation of whether - in context - he did the right or wrong thing... or maybe a bit of both. every villain is a hero in their own story.

as for his beef with crowley, well... i think it depends on what you (general) would consider personal. i think it could totally be personal in the perspective of 'im doing what i can to follow god's will and preserve the sanctity of heaven, and you're getting in the way of that - you are therefore a threat', and also the alternative of 'im the voice of god, im literally the highest authority, and you are directly challenging me". 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.

where crowley/AWCW is specifically concerned re: 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, constantly questioning, and instead in s3 he gets 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'). AWCW not getting any answers to his questions would, imo, also make more sense for the dialogue on the wall of eden (again, reluctant to chalk everything up to a memory wipe).

right, ten million demons!!! this one is absolutely boggling me, and i did, at some point in a shitpost, question this - someone quite logically said that the demons were pushing for armageddon so that everyone dies and demons wouldnt have to work anymore, and that as the human population kept going up, so did the number of the damned (compared with the static number of demons to govern them), but im still... undecided. crackpot thought: perhaps in contrast to how aziraphale is treated post-retiring from heaven in s2, demons have taken inspiration from crowley, especially as armageddon 2.0 kept getting postponed after s1, and they've gone AWOL?

couple of things in this: it has the potential to tie into the various nina/maggie theories. we also have a lot more insight into demon dynamics in s2, and a common theme im seeing is demons... asking questions. eric (my beloved) in ep5, beelzebub's PA/bodyguard, furfur, even shax... they all feel very different to hastur and ligur in s1 in terms of characterisation, and even very different from dagon as we see them in s2, and i wonder if this has any correlation - any cause and effect relationship - with the decreasing demon population. it also seems to follow the trajectory of beelzebub losing interest in ruling hell; again, i wonder if essentially demons have had mass walk-outs and they're basically floating around earth, staying under the radar... similar to crowley. thoughts?

re: the archangels... i meant 'conclusive' haha!!! (edited on the previous ask, apologies!!!). what i mean is that i don't think we can necessarily, at this time, assign the same level of culpability or blame to the archangels as we do to metatron. it's the 'following orders' thing again, but put it this way - aziraphale arguably has the benefit of being assigned to earth, and being around crowley, to fully realise that he can think for himself and according to his own sense of morality. the archangels have not known anything other than heaven, god's plan, and the metatron's voice. they're not innocent by any stretch, 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.

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? im soooo not sure because there are so many counterpoints to each eventuality, but here are some scattered thoughts:

im personally not 100% convinced that metatron necessarily has anything directly to do with the memory issue thing. i know michael and uriel don't remember him (saraqael presumably does, same as crowley, because they had just watched the trial footage), and that is one part i can't quite get my head around... 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

as i said (iirc) in the last response, there's the question of how crowley and - we can assume from the dialogue - beelzebub both remember the detail of frightening cherubs with the extreme sanctions threat. this makes me wonder if it's a case of them forgetting the fall specifically rather than their entire time as angels - or if their ability to recollect some memories is linked to their particular levels of power or rank. ie. the higher the angelic rank/individual power, the more they're able to remember? idk

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. also - quite right to point out dagon's rallying speech, but (and im probably flogging a dead horse here but im trying to work stuff out, so bear with me!!!) if the war occurred before the fall, the 'rebels' lost and fell, ending up in hell, i don't think there's any reason why the fall specifically might not have been wiped. idk, this whole thing needs so much more thought and research in general

one thing that i do think is interesting is that aziraphale hasnt ever spoken about his experience in the war, except to nina and maggie. this could just be how the narrative evolved organically, sure, but could it also indicate some level of guilt? some level of aziraphale feeling like he was to blame, the fact that he remembers the war where crowley doesn't fully seem to? i have my #halo theory wherein i wonder if aziraphale was the specific angel to actually declare the war in heaven - and this kind of links in with a couple of recent asks ive had where aziraphale may have had a judas iscariot-type role in the fall itself... (discussed here and here) i think him carrying some degree of shame and responsibility for the fall on his shoulders could make a lot of sense in regards to his characterisation after the fact, particularly on the wall of eden (this could arguably negate any scapegoat theory for aziraphale pre-fall, but i also think it could work concurrently. hmm.)

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. 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. there are quite a few instances where i think, to some degree, that he shows this, but i think that's another post!!! (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!!!)

last couple of bits, re: AWCW's rank - i think there's a distinction in the conferment of importance on AWCW by way of rank, vs by way of power, and that the two are not necessarily the same. you're exactly right - AWCW had an imagination, same as crowley does, and i too think this is the source from which all his power stems; nothing to do with his prospective rank in heaven. personally, i think it reads more poetically to have, essentially, a nobody be the one to precipitate an event that rocks the stability of heaven, and being the first (?) to question the system. but ultimately, like you said, it's immaterial, and 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!!!✨

#good omens #ask #ill sort out the tags in a bit

[revvnant]

misconception: that mike is a brooding uwu sadboy. yk what I mean right.

send me a misconception you think people have about my character and I’ll explain if it’s true or not.

on god i think this is because michael gets no characterisation in the games, but neither do most of the other characters. and yeah my take is that he is fucking anger-y, like so fucking anjry, but that's because i'm following an abused kid line of logic, and while most people seem to agree that michael was abused in some capacity, i don't necessarily think they're really thinking through it from his pov? which is not actually a shot at the fandom. rather, i think a lot of fnaf fan content exists For the Scene. that is to say, people will want Something in their favorite series, usually a standard trope -- the way a need for shipping has produced v*nilli*am because the only real flesh and blood woman in the entire series needs to be bonked like a barbie doll against the man with the most characterisation and presence ( fnaf being a villain-main-character series is both extremely cool and extremely frustrating ), and jere/m*chael for the young queer rep crowd ( necessity breeds innovation i.e. creating a dude out of whole cloth, technically two dudes if you really think about it ).

in other words, creators will want a scene or story, and will work backwards to pick a character most suited to it, whereas rp imo sort of requires you to start from the character and think forwards. and so, in fanfic and fanart, you're going to get a lot of sadboy michael, because if you want sadboy content in general then mike is the best candidate. if you want a relatively identifiable character ( human and has an appearance, kind of ) and you're not into middle aged men ( sadboy william is like the white wine to sadmike's red wine; i am gentle on Sad Henry because if my best friend killed my daughter and filled my beloved business with child corpses i'd be sad too ), you really only have one option. and so mike, like fnaf's story as a whole, becomes the chameleon who can serve anything. i want him angry so he's angry. others want angst in the rain so he's sad. some brave souls want to fix him and manifest him a surfer boyfriend ( powerful! ). mike is the ultimate blank canvas because scott has never written a solid character in his life <3

so that's why i think that happens. but purely from my own perspective and what i want to see out of michael, i need more of him frothing and screaming and eating cement. he deserves it. i am not going into a rant about how some people do not want to acknowledge ugliness in trauma survivors because that feels a little heavy to me for this and i don't wanna throw baseless accusations at my strawman, who is doing me the service of warding off some crows and guarding my field. ( in general i don't know why people do this, whether it's discomfort based off a purity complex or just material they aren't comfortable with touching for personal reasons or like just the fact that it can be upsetting and exhausting, which is extremely fucking fair -- or something else! i'm trying to be more relaxed about it and not assume the worst. i will produce the angry michael content i think getting scooped was the last straw and after that he was powered by distilled rage. )

#ithas #abuse cw #oh boy six a.m.! ( ooc )

[fourstarsun]

@risingsouls

[It's not necessarily his character for me as much as it's the narrative that was originally surrounding Goku in Z. Originally, he was sent to Earth because he was considered weak by Saiyan standards, a third class warrior. However, through training his whole life and bettering himself, he went toe to toe with not only his more powerful brother but an ELITE of the race despite Vegeta being adamant that he could never battle on his level. [1/2]

But he did, showing that the class distinctions were bogus and not rigid because a third class rose to the same level as an Elite. However, when it was Bardock and Gine sending him away, thay narrative is weakened because he wasn't sent because he was weak and had to "prove himself" useful and valid to his race. It was just to save his life instead, so the implications from the original story of Goku shattering the expectations of his race [2/3 oops]

As well as showing that hard work and proper training are what got him as far as he gets aren't as powerful. Instead of his race rejecting him and Goku proving them and their system absolutely wrong (which is even more interesting when placed beside Bardock's story), it's just his parents saving his life which doesn't have the same connotation and power toward that narrative as being forcefully sent away by your people's practices. But that's just how I feel.

I get that! I understand how that belief there comes into being because of Goku basically having parents that cared about him. My thing is that I personally think those themes of Goku overcoming what his race thought of him are still present and as strong as they were originally, because he's still a low/third class Saiyan. It doesn't matter that he so happened to have parents that cared about him (parents who were also generally considered among the "low class trash" in Saiyan society), because they don't represent the rest of the race. In the eyes of the Saiyans as a whole, in particular the elites, he was a nobody. That "wouldn't ever change", as we see Vegeta say in the Saiyan Saga, who was easily the biggest representation OF their race (back in Z’s beginning at least).

It also isn't as if Goku ever met Bardock and Gine and learned how he was sent to Earth (or that he was a Saiyan) either. His identity being a Saiyan still came from Raditz, and since Raditz was the very first experience he had interacting with another Saiyan, it was driven into his head that he would be considered meaningless in the eyes of his own kind. That's intensified by his future interactions with Nappa, and especially Vegeta.

Goku still rises above the Saiyan's beliefs through hard work and training. The only difference now is that his parents cared about him, but again, that doesn't change how most other Saiyans would view him - the Saiyans that you could say ""matter"" since Goku meets THEM and not ever his parents. I could go so far as to say that Bardock and Gine saving his life, unknown to him, actually makes his journey of coming to grips with his Saiyan heritage & overcoming how his worth was pre-determined in his infancy more sweeter in a four wall / meta-y sense because it pushes the fact that Goku has always had worth (to us, the readers since we first meet Goku when he’s a child). In-universe, he didn’t and he had to prove it, which he still did with his own power.

That narrative imo hasn’t been dampened by only his mama and papa thinking he was worth a damn, since they were in the very small minority, and he’s ignorant to who they even were. (Barring whatever tf Super’s doing rn, but I think that’s Super’s other contrived, writing problems being more of a heavier influence than this mere retcon.)

But what you feel is valid! Honestly, I think we're just looking at this matter from different sides of a coin. Neither of us are right or wrong. It's all subjective / up to personal perspective.

#discourse cw #long post #risingsouls #🟊🟊🟊🟊 ▋ ooc.

[strangeswift]

hi! i'm the person who sent the first 'active choice' anon but i actually didn't send the second one (though i do agree with that person completely - i think it would show huge character growth for mike to actively decide to be with will). i also sent you this ask abt the monologue a few days ago btw!!

i just wanted to say that the ask reminded me of a lot of gay!mike talking points about el which say something about how mike actively choosing will over el would insinuate that there's something inherently unlovable about el and i....really do not vibe with that take.

(i don't have a problem with gay!mike, i just feel like this one specific idea is kind of a shitty thing to say and is a tad misogynistic)

imo mike and el breaking up and mike choosing to be with will does not mean that el isn't lovable or that there's something 'wrong' with her as a person, it just means that she and mike are not compatible as a couple, and this is true on both ends - mike is not a good bf to her and el isn't a good gf to him. neither one of them is a bad person, they just don't work romantically (similar to jncy/stncy where steve is a fantastic guy but not the right fit for nancy at all).

also, for someone like el who is still figuring out her identity as a person, breaking up with someone at 14 is not the end of the world, especially since the narrative seems to imply that independence is what she needs and where she's headed in the future. in fact, i think she will be the one to point out that mike isn't loving her the way that she wants to be loved and they will mutually break up once mike finds out the truth about the painting. i don't think there's going to be any real bad blood there bc imo el already accepted that mike doesn't make her feel loved in 4x03. she'll be sad about the breakup ofc, but it's not going to be crushing for her and she'll get to focus on building her platonic relationships with hopper, the byers family, lucas & dustin, max when she wakes up, and (hopefully) mike too.

sorry haha that turned into a ramble but my point is just that bi mike and byler endgame isn't inherently harmful to el, especially if the mlvn breakup takes place before the timeskip and mike and will get together after the timeskip. of course if they go with gay mike, that would be cool too, especially bc of what you said here:

This is because I think the idea of Mike choosing Will doesn't necessarily have to manifest in Mike choosing Will over El, which is what you're talking about here.

this is a good point and i enjoy this interpretation. ig i just prefer what that anon said - i think it makes more narrative sense and would feel more satisfying for both mike and will if mike goes out of his way to want to be with will romantically despite also liking girls. i think it would be a nice full-circle moment for will bc we know that will felt like a mistake for liking boys, so seeing the boy will loves choose to be with him even if he has other options would be a perfect ending.

Omg I even thought to myself.. can I assume this is the same anon? And then I was like mmm yep I think so. And I was WRONG! For shame. So sorry anon. But at least you agree with them that makes me feel better.

Anway.

I realize that a breakup wouldn't be the end of the world for El and that Byler endgame isn't inherently harmful to her. But I do think the breakup is probably gonna suck initially. It might even suck a lot. For a while. That's a real possibility. And I just don't want that. That's all I can really say to that point, this all really just depends on what's going on in El's head, which we don't know either.

I definitely don't think that Mike choosing Will over El insinuates that El is unlovable. I hope I haven't said anything that has come off that way because I don't think that at all. I just think that rejection will always make a person doubt themselves, that's just human nature.

But anyway, let's expand on that thought: Mike choosing Will over El doesn't insinuate that El is unlovable.

By the same token, I don't think that Will should need Mike to choose him to prove to him that he is loveable!

*mic drop*

(Just kidding, I'm gonna ramble more. But that's a good point, no?)

They're all loveable. They're all worthy of love. Full stop. Mike Wheeler's affections don't determine Will or El's worth.

I realize we're talking in the sense of Will simply feeling unworthy and the idea of Mike choosing him alleviating that self doubt. But Will shouldn’t rely on Mike loving him in order to feel worthy of love. Not to say that he shouldn't accept Mike's love, I'm just saying he needs to work on himself as well. (As does Mike! For the same reasons!)

So I'm not in love with the idea that Mike choosing Will gives Will the self worth he needs and therefore that's what makes the most sense narratively. Will shouldn't need Mike. He loves Mike, and that's beautiful. He shouldn't need him, not in a literal sense. It's a flaw just as Mike's need to be needed is a flaw. Both are flaws which are hurting them, and they need to be addressed in ways other than just dating each other. Like. In therapy.

Lastly, as I said, whether Mike is bi or gay, choosing to be with Will is still choosing to be with Will. Which is meaningful. It's very meaningful. I just don't think Will's arc should be relying on that specific sentiment.

#asks #byler #abby rambles

[maybe-a-little-wicked]

I find how ethics is applied in fiction to be massively interesting, and since I’ve admitted to my crime of watching HOTD, let’s talk about an interesting ethics dilemma! 

Was there a consent issue between Rhaenyra and Criston Cole? 

Yes, but it’s a lot muddier than some people are playing it out to be. 

1. Please remember you are applying modern day ethics to a historical fantasy show and its characters. I’m not saying your morals are ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. I’m merely stating that it’s difficult to judge characters accordingly when those morals may not necessarily apply in their society. You are still of course free to make your own conclusions, it’s just a reminder to take the society and culture these characters live in into your judgements. You cannot separate a person from their culture, and that includes the ethics of their culture. You must judge them with that in mind, or you’re not seeing the full picture. 

2. A few cultural/societal points: Westeros is a patriarchal society where women have very little/no power, and they are often very ignorant or naive about many topics, including sexuality. Westeros is a monarchy though, where one individual is given near complete command over a country and that command is passed down through the generational line. Therefore, those in that generational line inherently, whether male or female, have some form of power over other people. What does this mean for Rhaenyra and Criston? 

     a. Rhaenyra, in some ways, is at a disadvantage to Ser Criston Cole. Not only is she a women in a highly misogynistic and patriarchal society, but she is young and impressionable (timeline is a little wonky, but it appears Rhaenyra is newly 18). Ser Criston Cole may not have the power of being in the monarchy as Rhaenyra is, but he is still an individual of relatively high standing in her world. He is a man, and he is a Kingsguard, both of which give his word weight in their world. He is also older than Rhaenyra (though by how much is up for debate), he is more experienced, and he is her protector. He is physically stronger than Rhaenyra. It is also up for question, but it is likely that Rhaenyra was under the influence of alcohol. (There are at least two instances in which it is brought up in the episode. First is when we see Rhaenyra take a drink from Daemon, the other is when Rhaenyra tells Alicent her and Daemon had been drinking. However, the latter could’ve been part of a lie to convince Alicent, so it’s hard to know for sure how much Rhaenyra had drank that night). 

    b. So, where does that leave Criston Cole? Well, he is also at somewhat of a disadvantage to Rhaenyra. Rhaenyra may be a woman, but she is the heir to the throne. Her words carry tremendous weight, perhaps more so than his, in at the very least the eyes of the King (her words likely carry much less weight amongst other powerful individuals such as the hand of the king and the other members of the small council). Rhaenyra is in a position of power over Criston in that regard. It puts Criston in a difficult position, regardless of whether he chooses to sleep with Rhaenyra or not. 

3. So, who is wrong? Who is right? Neither. This is a consent nightmare. No matter how you look at it, when you take these issues into account, neither were in a position to fully consent when you view it in contemporary and western moral standpoint. But, they don’t live in a western contemporary country. They live in Westeros. And in the standpoint of Westeros, both have a lot to lose. Criston Cole would, at the very least, lose his life. Rhaenyra would be labeled a whore and would at the very least be disinherited if word got out. IMO, Criston would take more of the blame for the moral lapse in judgement in the eyes of Westeros. The idea that ‘well she’s a princess, she has power over him’ would not be something many would consider if the issue were to come out. There would be no question of who took advantage of who- Rhaenyra would certainly still be labeled a whore and be disinherited, but Criston would assume more moral responsibility in the eyes of Westeros. 

4. Personally, I think Criston has the slightly greater power advantage over Rhaenyra in terms of power, but only just. I also think it’s hard to apply these concepts of consent to a fantasy world where they don’t really exist. In that regard, I don’t really think the tryst could be labeled ‘consensual’ or ‘nonconsensual’ on either side (although the alcohol thing makes me nervous, and if it comes out to be true that Rhaenyra was drunk it would likely change my viewpoint a bit). 

#HOTD #House of the dragon #Rhaenyra #Criston Cole

[bookishfeylin]

Hi! This isn't necessarily an ACOTAR-related ask, but it is relevant to Feylin, so I hope you don't mind me bringing it up!

I know you were very excited for the movie "Wish", once upon a time. (I personally haven't gotten my hopes up over any Disney fairy tale since Frozen let me down back in 2013, but that's not important right now.) I also remember you said you passed on the film, but couldn't remember why, and Tumblr's search function is less than functional, haha.

Anyway, I thought of you after I stumbled across some concept art of Starboy (who was scrapped in favor of a rather Nintendo-looking marketable plushie star-shaped character), and it seems that he was originally going to be Asha's love interest! The original demo for the song "At All Costs" was even going to be a love song between the two of them (instead of the vaguely romantic song between the lead and the, uh, villain, for some reason).

All this to say that I watched a fantastic animatic using the original song, and I got major Feylin vibes from it! Now, those vibes could be wishful thinking on my part, haha, but the fact that each concept features a human girl who falls in love with a guy who is practically made of magic made me think you would appreciate it! ❤️ (And the fact that, ultimately, both love interests were discarded for various reasons. 🥲)

Regardless, I hope you enjoy the song, and the video, and the vibes!! (I needed someone to geek out over it with me. 😂)

This ask has been sitting in my inbox for wayyyyy too long but I waited because I wanted to see the song as it was used in the movie and then compare to the animatic you linked here and yes I like this sooooooo much better. (And it definitely does have Feylin vibes!)

I did not end up seeing Wish, at first because I was genuinely very busy opening weekend, but then because I started hearing some rumors about AI being involved in the creation of the movie and I didn’t want to support that. In the end, I’m not entirely sure if that’s the case, but the movie was, IMO, in what appeared to be an early drafts stage where much more could and should’ve been fleshed out (and I feel like it’s was purposely done dirty by Disney but that’s neither here nor there…)

But Thank you so much! I really did appreciate it and it was so cute 💙

#Ask