#<- every other tag is just in case

[howlsofbloodhounds]

{ @qin-qin16, @averageimp. The post I was talking about. }

Had a random thought while scrolling through the arcane tag but the way some caitvi shippers hate on Maddie for “getting in the way of caitvi” instead of also hating Caitlyn (both cait and Maddie, but I feel there’s a lot better reasons to dislike Maddie outside of “ruining” a relationship that was hardly even a relationship like Cait wasn’t equally as willing and responsible—such as ya know, being an indoctrinated seemingly sadistic spy helping a military force invade and conquer another nation) for—

not only choosing to sleep with and share her bed with another woman while the one who she supposedly “loves” is being beaten in a pit for money and drinking herself half to death,

But also using her power and authority and money and position to oppress and abuse the people of Zaun instead of helping them or even using all those resources to look for Vi and apologize or some shit,

Also abusing her power over Maddie. Maddie introduced herself to Vi as a “junior officer.”

Caitlyn is a Commander/Sheriff. She is Maddie’s commander. She is Maddie’s superior. Now I don’t know if the Enforcers would be considered more like the police force or the military, maybe both, but I think this could be considered Fraternization and an abuse of her power.

Now we all know that it turns out Maddie is a Noxus spy and her superior is actually Ambessa, but Caitlyn doesn’t know this. She believes she has power, authority, and rank over Maddie. She believes Maddie is her subordinate.

Caitlyn abuses her power and authority in more ways than one, and if Maddie weren’t a Noxus spy and Ambessa wasn’t buddy buddy with Caitlyn, Caitlyn could’ve very well ruined Maddie’s life and career if she so chose to do so on a whim,

Not to mention: Maddie’s whole spy gig wouldn’t have worked at all if Caitlyn weren’t so eager to abuse her authority and sleep with her subordinates.

Between Maddie and Vi, maybe Cait has a thing for women who are of less power and privilege than her—or at least women she views that way. Or maybe she just truly is that blind and ignorant of the power and privilege she has, or perhaps she just doesn’t care.

Regardless, it’s a little strange. Caitlyn is a full grown woman who has enough power to declare martial law and a warlord of another nation and her forces behind her. Maddie is a junior officer, who Cait does not know is actually a spy.

She is perfectly okay with the knowledge of this, and felt it was perfectly okay to allow a relationship with someone below her in rank and status and authority.

This sets up an inherent power dynamic where, in a more realistic world or if the writers had acknowledged this/Maddie hadn’t been a spy, she very well could’ve been at a risk of being fired or discharged from her job if she ever decided she didn’t want to sleep with her Boss anymore; even if the reason is as simple as Cait doesn’t want to take the risk of Maddie telling anyone and getting her in trouble.

Or, considering the fact that Cait had the power to declare martial law and is basically a dictator, could potentially have Maddie executed and claim it was for reasons such as “treason” or “being a traitor,” regardless of if it’s actually true or not in this scenario. Because Cait has so much power that her word is basically law, especially when compared to Maddie’s.

All in all, Maddie only “got in the way of caitvi” because Cait allowed her to and actively refused to use her massive manpower and resources to go look for Vi and make things up with her for months on end—instead wasting that time oppressing the lower class, hunting down and obsessing over Jinx, training with Ambessa, and using her subordinate’s body for her own gain while also acting cold and dismissive towards her once she got what she wanted for the day.

[coddda]

I wish we could have met in some other way.

Lawlight Week Day 2: Soulmates

If you saw me repost and re-edit this several times uh No you didn't </3

Still frames/Individual gifs:

If you know what every frame is from you get a free cookie. by the way

[sesamestreep]

it’s wild to me that like every modern adaptation of Sherlock Holmes (and by modern I mean “made recently” not “set in modern times”) is like Hell Bent on coming up with a Reason™️ that Watson stays with Holmes and trots around with him on adventures all the time despite the inconvenience and the danger and all, and so it’s like “oh, Watson’s a gambling addict, he loves uncertainty and mystery” or “oh, Watson’s an adrenaline junkie, he gets off on being constantly in danger from criminals” or even like “Watson’s atoning for sins of the past of BEING IN THE WAR by solving crimes with Holmes now” or WHATEVER. And it’s like, girl, maybe he’s just in love! Did you think of that?? Maybe he’s got a crush and it’s making him do stupid things. Maybe he’s just got bad taste and his type is guys who don’t know how to refold newspapers properly but can identify different types of cigar ash by sight, smell, and taste. And wrote a monograph on the subject. Maybe he’s down bad is all. I mean, Keep is simple, stupid!!!

[genericpuff]

i've seen the sentiment floating around that people would read LR if i weren't such a salty dickmunch about LO

i respectfully and firmly disagree with this

while death of the author is very much a thing and the interpretation of the work is now largely out of my own hands and in the hands of the audience, i firmly believe my work - and art of any kind, really - is made for a very specific audience which exists because of the opinions attached to the work, and that arguing that those opinions should be kept entirely separated from the work - or that those opinions existing at all devalues the work itself - undermines the point of the work itself and why it's so appealing to its audience

as much as i'm sure it would be more comfortable for some of my readers to enjoy LR without my critical viewpoints attached to it and instead with the false belief that it was made by a 100% wholehearted fan who never criticized the series ever

it was not.

and frankly, as much as a hot take this might be, I don't think anyone but a chronically online devout LO hater could have possibly made it. why? because that hater was once a 100% wholehearted fan. and that is why this particular hater holds the series to such high standards and why this particular hater felt compelled to make an alternative retelling of it, for other haters who also lost their faith and love in the work over the years.

there's a reason there are so many transformative works for LO that have come out of the critical side of the fandom. treating the critical side as some all-encompassing shithole that's incapable of providing anything positive to the discussion or to the fandom as a whole is really just doing yourself the disservice of experiencing some pretty cool stuff. yes, there are assholes in this community, there are people who have nothing to offer and are just "hopping on the bandwagon", but just as the rabid and protective side of the fandom doesn't represent the fans as a whole, the worst of LO's haters don't represent the entirety of the critical side of that same fandom. there are more of us cut from the same cloth than you might like to think.

that's not to say you're wrong to want to avoid my own opinions or the opinions of the anti's in this community, because that's your choice and your freedom to do so. not everyone wants to read LR and also a bunch of wordy critical diatribes about a comic that ended over a year ago.

but i do highly encourage you to find some peace with the fact that as much as they may not enjoy the work the same way you do, many of LO's most rabid haters are also its biggest appreciators and fans, and in many cases, have 10x more understanding and insight of the work than the diehard fans do. that's why they're able to create such transformative works, because they analyzed the original series more thoroughly than the surface level fans who read it on the toilet and pre-order the merchandise.

and treating the work that comes from that part of the fandom as lesser as soon as you find out it was made by someone with critical opinions towards LO is, again, doing a massive disservice to the works that have come out of this side of the fandom that are absolutely 100% worth experiencing as extensions of the original work.

fan content is fan content is fan content, regardless of whether or not the opinions of the creator align with your own. thank you for coming to my TEDtalk.

[dustskullv]

I'm gonna throw in the absolutely hilarious thing i made. i was browsing behind the name dot com like one does. and then i saw that name and Immediately knew i had to draw this. ITS SO FUNNY TO ME . PLEASE.

[gingermintpepper]

For the longest time, the quintessential song describing Apollo's wrath and consequent murder of Coronis for me was Marah in the Mainsail's 'Your Work isn't Done'.

It's dark. It's seething. Its image of Fate pushing the scorned speaker to complete his foul, terrible work of killing the man who stole his lover away from him is particularly powerful and it's always evoked this gruesomely tragic evolution of a glassy eyed Apollo stumbling through the streets, weak-legged and trembling from the betrayal growning more and more wrathful 'til he can think of no other course than to aim his bow and shoot. The price of betraying his trust is death and Coronis betrayed so much more than just his trust by taking Ischys as her lover.

The song itself captures that sensation of building wrath so well too. From the lonely guitar and vocals at the beginning which evoke this lonely, stripped back but distant grief to the way the singer is practically screaming his refrain of "Your work here isn't done" by the end, accompanied by the full blasting of instruments and an omnious chorus at his side, everything about this song is centered around building stakes, building realisations, building tensions and it creates this feeling of the speaker growing closer and closer with each new verse and chorus that adds to his anger.

There's also the absolute treasure trove of lyrics that work so well for specifically this tale. A brief overview of some of my favourites include;

- There's a crow overhead singing "Oh, Death is my friend."

- And though you think your time has come, the wheels of Fate have spun. Death has declared your work here isn't done.

- There's a girl on my heart safe ashore in her lover's arms

There's just such a vivid image to be drawn here - of Apollo's emotions being swallowed by his rage, of his resolve to end everything the more he bears witness to Coronis' brazen affair. There's even a strong female voice in the first two verses which seem to egg the speaker on in his spiral - a perfect opening to include Artemis who wishes for her brother to hunt that which brought him such pain alongside her. An Artemis who reinforces just what Coronis has done, an Artemis who does not want her brother to repress his anger after such grave an insult just because love was once there.

To me, it was perfect. Apollo's killing of Coronis was a crime of passion, an execution he sometimes cannot even bring himself to commit according to who is telling the tale. It's a wretched situation, harrowing, suffocating and cruel but if not by Apollo's hands, Coronis would simply die by another's. She cannot live after what she has done. The gods simply would not allow it.

AND THEN MY BIAS WAS COMPLETELY WRECKED BY LORD HURON.

Now, let it be known, I am a huge Lord Huron fan. Strange Trails is perhaps the most Apollo-coded album I've ever heard and songs like Yawning Grave and The Balancer's Eye capture such a visceral, gorgeous portrait of cosmic grief and anger that they haven't really left my brain since I first listened to them. Still, 'Setting Sun' from their Lonesome Dream album completely flew under my radar. Maybe it's because the commercial version is so much snappier than the Alive from Whispering Pines recording, maybe it's because I just hadn't listened to Lord Huron's discography in a while but my god. My god.

This song has it all; a quiet menace in its music, a strong male singer who sounds only barely restrained, an absolute HOST of lyrics that are so wonderfully perfect for the scenario -- after getting over how wonderful the song itself is, I immediately dethroned Your Work isn't Done because ultimately, 'Setting Sun' has something in abundance that 'Your Work isn't Done' minimised in order to focus on the wrath driving the song forward.

And that's love.

Setting Sun is so powerful because it's not just a revenge ballad - it's a dirge, a breakup song, a lament, a regret manifesto. So many times during the song, the speaker wonders when his lover stopped loving him. He recounts intimate moments and wonders if his lover was thinking of the other man when she was enjoying herself, wonders if anything she'd said was even real. And I love that so, so much.

Ultimately, Apollo adored Coronis. As inevitable as her death was, he regretted every second of it. No matter how angry, no matter how betrayed, no matter how intensely he was shamed, he still loved her. He weeps for her when she dies, he screams and grieves and cries when he's faced with her corpse. In some tales, no matter the cocktail of emotion driving him, he simply cannot bring himself to kill her. He'd rather cry in Artemis' arms and take his anger out on his own servant than hurt her. His own father has to dispatch Ischys since Apollo can't even bring himself to hurt that which Coronis once loved. Of course, in this case, Apollo's going to kill someone but the point is, it's not a decision of pure anger so much as its this complicated, horrible mix of resolve and lost love.

And my god does Setting Sun capture this conflict, passion, grief and love so well. UGH, I'm vibrating just thinking about it -- there are so many points where I hear its lyrics and can vividly picture Apollo, jaw clenched looking Coronis in her eyes and quietly confronting her.

Coronis, returning home at twilight after spending the day with Ischys to Apollo stringing his bow, "Oh? Is he ready to die for you baby? No, but you know I would."

Coronis lying to him about who she's spent her time with and Apollo's soft, near pained, "Does it hurt when you lie to me? If you asked, I would set you free."

I even really love the image of a Coronis who runs away from Apollo upon realising what will soon happen, not to escape his arrows but to warn Ischys who does not know what will happen. Of Apollo getting into his stance, taking aim at them and gathering his strength as the final refrains rings out "I know I'll never reclaim your love and that's as hard as it gets, so I'll be taking a life when the sun sets."

Other favourite lines of mine include;

- Oh, is he ready to die for you baby, now that the deed is done?

- Tell me when did I lose your love? Was it him you were thinking of?

- And I could never betray your love, you had me heart and soul. You might never have known it girl, but I was all yours.

And ultimately, I just like this conflicted portrait of premeditated murder much more than the crime of passion 'Your Work isn't Done' paints. Crimes of passion - especially when Apollo is concerned - are tragic in their own right, but in Coronis' case, I think I prefer it so much more when there's no way for Apollo's action to be misconstrued for anything other than what it is, especially since he goes on to cut Asclepius from his mother's corpse then carry on with building her funeral pyre. I think there's something so much more impacting about Apollo being unable to hide away from Coronis' blood on his hands and him having to raise Asclepius with those selfsame hands.

Love of the mortal does not supercede the responsibility of the divine. If Coronis' sentence no matter what is death, who better to lead her gently to the knife than he who still loves her?

[returntosunder]

I thought nightmare would look cool in my other art style, so I did some doodles in my sketchbook. Drawn with just a pen

Uhhh, would yall believe me when I say I used to be a horror artist?

:/

[miasmaghoul]

*creates a whole human au just to have an excuse to write rain getting groped on a crowded train*

im so glad im normal about these characters 😊

[parksrway]

people who tag general loz things as LU are annoying but I think that zelink shippers are even worse tbh

[aropride]

guy who "should probably be in therapy"

[psychopomp-namine]

hey so. random thought. what are the odds that liu xiao was the client that approached qiao ling for the S1E1 case

[beatx-mavie-archangelx]

"pronouncing 'Þerindë' as 'Serindë' is not that big of a deal" just say you've always been called right your whole life.

[omagpies]

hypothetically... lets say i have an obsession with looking at mouthwashing aus and thinking about my own oc in them. and lets say for the sake of debate i came across yours and was like wow i want to insert my character into this for my own enjoyment and rotate this in my mind for a while.

would you happen to be comfortable with that. its ok if not i just feel weird not asking first tbh

(only on anon cuz im shy and nervous)

brother do what you want forever

[musicalmoritz]

“Mitsukou is cute but-” cannot relate, every time I ship Kou with someone else Mitsuba is still inexplicably there. Whether he’s present or not he is haunting the narrative. Not the side chick nor part of the actual relationship but a secret third thing. Those male best friends in every series that have more chemistry than the main couple but don’t end up together. You, me, and Steve.

[1doesnotsimplyhavejust1fandam]

Rewatching the first few episodes of Young Justice, and this is kinda birdflash kinda not (you can absolutely take it as them just being besties), but Wally grabbing Robin’s utility belt when Dick uses it in CADMUS, so Wally doesn’t get left behind is SO cute to me. Dick is just minding his business, being one half of the dynamic duo who doesn’t play well on teams, but then there’s Wally who is so clearly repeatedly saying “if you’re going, I’m going” by sticking close to Robin. Dick isn’t thinking about the others, but Wally is SO prepared for Robin’s next movements, and it speaks to such an amazing friendship and partnership in the field😭I miss them so much - they were never the same again after the 5 year time skip what HAPPENED to THIS version of them goddammit

[biscuitscheesebiscuits]

Reading physical copies of The Queen's Thief series for the first time and realizing that the maps in them are inconsistent???