#and not to mention their 4 elements projects

[somewhereinneptune]

Astrology Observations II

Note : these are based on experiences and personal observations. Observations mentioned may not accurately apply to everyone 🩷

🫀Someone's life path number could be the number which is strongly tied to that person's signature sign in their chart, either being the number of the house that originally rules their signature sign or a characteristic that is tied with that signature sign.

Examples: My signature sign is Aquarius and I'm a life path number 9 , life Path 9 is associated with being the humanitarian and serving the collective

My mother is a life path 3 and her signature sign is Gemini , which is originally ruled by the 3rd house. My brother is a life path 6 and his signature sign is Virgo, which is Virgo’s house. I also read about life path 4 being strategists and I've known someone who's signature sign is Capricorn which corresponds with such energy

🫀Unpopular opinion but if I had to switch the signs elements, I'd put Scorpio as a fire sign and Aquarius as a water sign. With Scorpio it's probably because it was originally ruled by Mars, Scorpio always gives me such a fire energy compared to Pisces and Cancer. Not exactly Scorpio sun but dominating Scorpio energy in the chart, i think it's also the intensity they ooze and the level of confidence and also self- assertion, they have such a commanding presence which gives me fire energy too

As for Aquarius, despite having the characteristics of being quite distant at times or having difficulty with opening up, it's usually for how intense they are, it's a form of protection. I've made the mistake in the past of seeing aquas as detached until they actually unfolded which shocked me, the amount of depth and intensity of emotions they hold is a 360 and I've observed the same in my chart. It might be due to them being a fixed sign,but definitely that depth doesn't give the air sign vibe. Another reason is how they tend to be more introverted or reserved compared to Gemini and Libra, it gives me that water energy too

🫀Chiron in first is such a difficult placement in my opinion. It either puts you in a constant self - conscious state or you project your trauma on every situation and blur reality from there

🫀Uranus and Neptune in third 🤝 mental illness. That's it, that's the post

🫀Pets and the 6th house man….Aries / Taurus on the cusp is a cuddly adorable pet but one that will literally not do what you say no matter what, also energetic asf and has attitude esp when you say no to them- oh and very reckless, will do things that will have you question your life choices and have a heart attack on the spot because they were curious about something like jump off a high desk and not care or run into something that would harm them, literally no brain cells just impulse

🫀The degree of the planet could indicate the age that planet unlocks for you , and weird thought but hear me out : that degree could stretch up until it's time for the next planet to unlock

Example : I have Jupiter at 24 and I'm turning 25 this May . Yes I've been in my Jupiter theme and actually it seems it's only going to properly expand even more. Now the only planet left for me is Saturn at 29, and I have the theory i’d be living the Jupiter theme until I turn 29 or untill I officially start my Saturn return

I  also have most planets at 5 too like Uranus , and Venus and Neptune at 1 : i was literally the calm kid that has a crush each time she gets (and sometimes is front about it without shame 😭😭 literally one time in second grade my crush's tummy was in pain and the teacher asked who knows their house to help them go home and i stood and said MEEEE in front of everyone and kept asking to be the one to take them home til i got yelled at 💀) i also had 4687357766 anime crushes as a kid and for Uranus , was the type to get mad and throw things on the ground when told no (I threw my tea mug once cause i didn't wanna go to school and slapped my kindergarten teacher cause she didn't let me go home with mom when i saw her visiting the principal 😭😭😭)

🫀Saturn in Aries 🤝 almost dying of cringe and shame at the thought of acting child - like and doing goofy stuff/ having fun

🫀 this is popular but Leo placements and secretly checking your own posts and stories and giggling at them lmao

[brickcentral]

Hello community!

We've asked to our spotlighted artist Yuan He to provide an exclusive picture for Brickcentral along with some insights on how he made it, and here's what he have to say:

"I’m an interior designer, therefore most of my MOC projects are setting up in interior spaces or architectural scenes. I haven’t done too many projects in natural environment, which sometimes I found it very challenging and interesting. In this shot, I wanted to create a scene of bunch of friends gathering together in a forest, sort of like a camping trip, and in this case, it’s the characters from Winnie the pooh. In this project, in order to hide the boundary of the scene and creating a more realistic environment, I designed some rocky structure on the back, along with some trees and bushes. There is an awning at the center, and the friends of Winnie are playing music, telling stories and dancing, surrounding a fire pit, enjoying themselves and having fun. I planned the scene to be set in night time, in that way I can create contrast of cold and warm lighting colors in this shot, and the viewer can easily focus on the characters, to experience their joy.

Despite the scene looks complicated, it’s actually a relatively simple scene, just lots of random items and repeatable steps, and takes time to build. I spent almost two weeks on it, most of the time are just placing flowers, grasses and trees.

As I mentioned this is a night time scene, I needed to set up some camping lighting to light up the awning area. I’m using micro-LED lights inside of the translucent bricks, but they are not that bright, just for decorative purpose. Another light source is in the fire pit, again it’s not bright, but sometimes it would be helpful to add more details at the scene.

After posting all the minifigures, and it’s time for the big boys to actually light up the whole scene. As you can see in this photo, I have 4 blue lighting fixtures to create the night time atmosphere. The two tubes on the back are for slightly lighting up the blue backdrop paper, to separate the trees and also mimicking the night sky, will get into that later. Besides of those, the front left light is serving the purpose of creating the general blue-sky light at night, which can be reflected on the front elements like trees, grasses etc. There is only one warm lights in front of the scene, since those decorative micro-LED lights are too weak, this small cube light is the key to light up the awning and minifigures, and generating a growing spot at the center. The small LED tube at the front right acts as a fill light, specifically for brightening minifigures, restores more details on the dark side.

If we are shooting indoor, there are few tricks to create more realistic background for the photos. I used to have my computer monitor as a background to simulate the sky, distanced buildings etc. But sometimes it can be tricky, I might need to adjust lighting and monitor brightness levels to accommodate each other, or my scene is just too big to move. In this project, since the trees needed to be blended in with the “sky”, I’m using a blue paper as a backdrop to creates more depth on the scene and making it look bigger, it works great for night scene, but different scenarios like broad daylight might be too bland for just using a paper.

Hope you enjoy this project and found it useful for creating your LEGO photos. I’ve learned a lot from other amazing photographers and creators all these years, I found it very interesting and inspiring to watch how others create their amazing photos. And like I said earlier, for LEGO photographers, camera gears are not that important, what matters is how your story want to be told."

Thanks for all the insights Yuan He! If you want to read this artist profile, head to our blog at https://brickentral.net/ - @theaphol, Community Outreach Manager

[eluminium]

Useless Facts about ImpulseSV: the post

Welcome to “Useless Facts about Impulse”. The title says it all. I am Eluminium, that one fuck who decided to watch every single Impulse hermitcraft season and actually fucking did it, and I have a bunch of completely useless knowledge from it now. AND I SHALL SHARE IT WITH YOU SO YOU TOO MAY ALSO BE ENLIGHTENED! Also cuz i’m bored as shit (Btw i’ll probably keep adding onto this post as I remember or gain more useless knowledge) People who’ve blessed this post with more facts: @bucket-of-amethyst  @tsukinouta  LET THE FACTS BEGIN! First addition of facts: August 7th 2022

-Out of every single base Impulse has constructed on Hermitcraft, 3 and a half of them have featured water as a major design element. These would be the City of Atlantis (S5), iBay (S6), The Pyramid (S7), and the half is his “starter base” temple (S3).  (I count it as a half because he spent a considerable amount of time designing it but it isn’t his main base so to say.) -Impulse has two seasons of Hermitcraft that are the exact same lenght in terms of episodes, these being S3 and S4, both having 57 episodes. -Impulse’s longest season is S6 with 113 episodes, and his shortest is S8 with 35 episodes -Out of every base Impulse has built, only 2 of them do not feature his logo on the inside or outside in it’s final design. These are iBay (S6) and The Pyramid (S7)

-Impulse is shorter then Bdubs IRL. Bdubs claims to be 5′10 while Impulse claims to be 5′8. This makes fanon extremely hilarious

-In S4, the safe rooms Impulse and Tango constructed in the Wither Skeleton farm were called “The Sissy Room”, but only for one episode. After that it’s never mentioned again.

-Impulse’s wife (Ms. Impulse) has never touched Minecraft because she’s an interior designer and would most likely disappear off the face of the Earth if she ever let herself play the game. It hasn’t stopped Impulse from trying a few times though.

-Impulse has a habit of biting off more than he can chew. In 4 out of 7 seasons he’s been in there have been obvious projects that were never finished. These are in order: The roof of his and Tango’s shared Mega Base (S3), A fair amount of The City of Atlantis (S5), The missing farms on the Phinias Board (S7) and the interior of The Candy Factory (S8)

-Impulse’s current keyboard (At the time of writing) was custom made by his son

-In both S3 and S7, Impulse used the exact same floor desgin and armor stand gimmick for his Patreon Monument.

-One of the reasons Impulse and Skizzleman remain such close friends today was because he found a book on networking on Skizz’s bedroom floor when they were both looking to go to a new collage. They both went to the same Networking class after Impulse suggested it and have been glued together ever since. -They absolutely hated that networking class though

-Impulse has had 4 piercings in total. One in the tongue, one eyebrow one, one nipple, and one in the ear. Both the eyebrow one and the nipple one were taken out after they got caught on various zippers, and the ear one was something he did together with his drumline. None of them survived to the present day though.

-Impulse has sold enchanting related things in 4 out of 7 seasons (S4 S5 S6 S9)

-Impulse used to be completely bald and beardless until he grew out his hair and a beard for a No Shave November challange and people said it fit him. He hasn’t returned to baldness since that (At the time of writing) -Every since their introduction, Impulse always carries a totem on him. Although he has a resource pack that makes the totem invisible in first person so it won’t block up the screen as much.

-His Guardian Goodies shop building in S7 is an exact replica of a Guardian “shop” (everything was free) xB designed in S3

-Impulse has won every single “How to Kill” compitition, and with the exact same concept to boot. In “How to Kill a Doc” he made a bunch of traps that looked like the final blow but weren’t, instead having the killing strike be deliver by Impulse himself. In “How to Kill a Tango” he did the exact same thing, although the final blow should have been delt by a Magma Cube instead. Both of these killing machines also share similar surprises. Both involve fire charges (One from dispensers, one from a live Ghast), anvil launchers and TNT. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it i suppose?

-Impulse actually bought the “copyright rights” to the “i” brand from Iskall in S6 so he could keep iTrade open without confusion. Never got something similar from iJevin thought.

-When S6 updated to the villager update, Impulse managed to obtain a glitched Farmer Villager who never locked up his trades no matter how much you traded with him. Although he did lose a fair amount of villagers in iTrade too, so it was more a soul for a soul.

-The only season Impulse was part of that never had Elytras was ironically S3, the one with amplified terrain.

-The first time Impulse properly tested out the Elytra, it lagged so bad he died from fall damage by falling into Xisumas Guardian Farm. The elytra refused to open.

-Impulse and Tango has had an agreement since Impulse joined in S3 that they can take certain resources from each other’s storages and farms without asking before hand. They call this “Mi casa, Ti casa” or “My house, your house”.

-In 4 out of 7 seasons, Impulse has had at least one entire video that centers around either a request from xB, or featuring xB himself. (S3 S4 S5 S7)

-The “SV” in impulseSV could be read as “impulsive” but it actually stands for Impulse’s IRL initials

-Impulse was introduced to Minecraft via his son, who wanted to get into gaming. Impulse mostly played shooters but he didn’t want his kid to play those types of games at his age, so a coworker suggested Minecraft. Although his kid didn’t know anything about the game, so he had to hop on and learn too.

-Impulse plays Minecraft with an inverted mouse. This is because he got so used to flying helicopters in various shooters it made more sense to his brain that dragging the mouse down means up, and pushing it up means down.

-Impulse started out as a fan of Tango’s until he learned that he and Tango are pretty similar in age and in video style. So he e-mailed Tango about a collab and he accepted. Later they learned they lived incredibly close to each other and went out for some “sodas” (aka BEERS). The rest is history.

-The name Impulse along with the black and yellow colour scheme is something Impulse stole from his drumcore’s name and colour scheme. His favourite colour is actually purple.

-Impulse and Skizz live in the same neighbourhood (at the time of writing)

Second addition of facts 9th of August 2022

-Impulse has a dog (specifically a Border Collie) named Prim and a cat named Luna. Luna was a gift for his older daughter. Impulse wasn’t the biggest fan of cats until his wife got one, and he fell in love as well.

-He and Skizz have been best friends for over 25 years (at the time of writing)

-Impulse has a collage degree in computer information systems, because he was too spooked by a full on computer science degree.

-Despite being born in Iowa. Impulse has lived in Arizona since he was 5 years old.

-Impulse was born in 1981. Skizz is 2 years older. You do the math.

-Impulse ain’t no single child, he has a sister who once saved him from drowning. This was after he had colided with a boat on a Jetski as a kid.

-Impulse is a father of 3, his oldest is heading to collage (at the time of writing) and his youngest is 10.

-If any government or HOA people asks what Impulse’s new studio is (at the time of writing), it’s totally just a guest house. nothing else. nothing to see here.

-He met his wife in collage.

-His channel was originally made to be a sort of memory box of him and his son playing games together.

-His wife has a Etsy store where she sells custom made jewlery. It’s called Desert Medows Design (it’s actually pretty sick ngl)

-Impusle is a pretty big “sportsball” (aka Sports) fan and usually brings it up in streams. Not for long though considering he recognises that most people who watch him aren’t that into sportsball (his words not mine. honestly though it is pretty cool to listen to, could be just a me thing.)

Third addition of facts 12th of August 2022

-Impulse has a back injury that appearenly reappears to cause problems sometimes. He got it from playing Volleyball one time and messed up a muscle in his back when jumping. According to the man himself, when that pain flares back up it can leave him stranded on the couch with ice packs and heatpads for a fair while.

-According to Skizzleman, Impulse doesn’t handle blood very well. He got hit in the face with a pizza box once and the bleed he got from that made him serverly nauseous.

-Impulse has a slight gluten intolerance Fourth addition of facts 18th of August 2022

-Impulse has back teeth retainers.

-Impulse hates olives. Like “Will throw up” levels of hate. He shares this hatred with Tango.

(thats enough for now but i’ll probably add more as i think them up)

[zara2148]

Interesting Bits from Midnight Mass’s scripts

So I mentioned being a nerd who actually compared the final episodes with the available scripts for Midnight Mass episodes (episodes 3, 4, 5, and 7). One point that jumped out at me was how it more obvious that Riley wasn’t just tolerating Father Paul’s company in AA meetings in the original scripts.

That through line IS still there in the final product, I just think it’s not as obvious and many walk out of the series thinking Riley is only tolerating him or dislikes him the whole time. (deep sigh)

The two cut/altered scenes I have to point to for that are from episode 3.

This first scene survives in an altered form, as the scene we IMMEDIATELY cut to after Hassan brings up his concerns about bibles in school to Bev and everyone, and Bev manages to regain control of the whole situation and is even applauded for wanting to help the children understand miracles.

... like, really kind of strange of Riley, a staunch atheist and someone critical of the church and organized religion, to leap so fast to Paul’s defense against the childhood friend he’s reconnecting with/potentially falling back in love with. Unless we assume that yes, he’s come to like and trust Paul as a person.

(my guess is this scene was trimmed down because we are kind of being TOLD what to think about Paul, versus drawing our own conclusions about him).

Then there’s later in the episode, where the script has Riley speak more casually to Father Paul as he walks in for the meeting than in the episode, where he enters the rec center silently.

A certain level of comfort with Paul is being projected there. A vibe of “You have got to hear the latest shit that Bev is pulling now.” Gossipy housewives the both of them.

There’s also the brief, blink-and-you-miss it mention in this scene that Riley has been talking to Paul more than once a week during AA when Paul urges him to not give such a pat answer to Joe (this part is in the finished episode, I just find it easier to screencap the script).

Speaking of... this bit was cut from the AA trio scene after Riley tells Joe it’s enough he showed up:

From context, it reads very much that Paul is saying he and Riley are friends, rather than suggesting that Riley and Joe will be/are friends. Like you could read that into it and I think it is a part of it (Paul just wants Riley to be surrounded with friends, guys), but it reads more to me that Paul is saying he wanted to push for and challenge Riley to be his best self as a friend with his “that’s bullshit” speech.

But I think the most obvious moment of “Oh, Riley isn’t just talking with Father Paul to fulfill a parole requirement and is hesitant to speak with him otherwise” that survived to the final cut is in episode 4, after Riley’s spent a while comforting Erin about her abortion and Joe’s death has more or less been handled.

Like... he didn’t have to ask that question. He could have just talked about his feelings surrounding this event or not even brought up Erin’s miscarriage at all in the meeting. It’s a very personal thing to share, even with a priest acting as a therapist. 

He’s not doing this for Erin’s sake, it’s not a roundabout way to get the priest to go comfort his religious friend as he’s quick to dissuade Paul from that. Riley brought up this topic to get his own emotions about it out.

And he wanted to hear what Paul thought you should do in that situation. He trusted that perhaps, he might have a better idea than Riley himself did.

And of course, it’s a twist of the knife that not long after this emotional honesty, he catches Paul in a pretty significant lie.

(Also, the sheer number of points I can gesture to as evidence that Paul ALSO very much cared about Riley could really be its own series of posts... and it might need to be, since it does seem to get missed/overlooked as an element of his character. It’s a twisted bromance and I love it so.)

[poppetsisters]

How did the Fantastic Four cosplay get made?

It started with an idea: to create the most comic accurate fantastic four costume possible. Already I'm hit with the question "but there's so many suits in the comics, so which suit will you choose?" I decided the easiest answer would be "The First One"

Okay I meant "The Second One."

There we go.

Now this costume is not the same as the the costume they wear for the majority of the Kirby run. By issue 6, the costume above was phased out for one without a turtleneck, a blue ring around the 4, a thinner belt, and no drop shadow on the 4. The only change I prefer is that Susan is no longer wearing high heels.

I like the first design better for its distribution of color. The thicker belt just reads nicer to my eyes, and the blue ring around the 4 makes no sense to me. Blue on blue? I also just really like turtlenecks.

Tangent aside, once I decided on a costume, it was time to get to work on the design. Part of the reason I made a Fantastic Four costume retrospective was in preparation for this project. Using the combined lore of the F4 costumes, I could synthesize the most accurate design possible, and my findings can be found below.

I've seen a lot of cosplays too, and part of my secondary goal was to avoid a lot of their shortcomings. I didn't want any bad materials, so I did my research and found materials that best fit my autism texture preferences. I also wanted to be very precise about where the gloves, belt, boots, and turtleneck were placed, hence why I decided to sew them all on, rather than be separate pieces. In an ideal world, there would've been no zipper, but what good is a suit you can't put on?

My brightest idea was separating the leotard from the trousers, instead of having one body suit. This was done as a practical measure to prevent tearing (which is exactly why real strong men in the circus wore them, which in turn inspired Superman's design, and the rest is history. For the F4, I interpreted Jack's artwork as a leotard, or maybe just underpants on the outside. As far as I'm aware, no cosplayer has noticed or applied this to their suit.

Next was a matter of finding someone to make this. I'm an artist, not a tailor after all. Twitter bots flooded my DMs, but what didn't disappoint me was Etsy. I DM'd a few sellers, gauging their personality and their previous work. I settled on PingPing, who you can find here: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/PingPing

Their portfolio was exactly what I was looking for, and they were wonderful to work with. They asked for additional measurements, were up-front about materials, and were very fast!

Here's the catch. Their page says they use polyester spandex, which was what I wanted, but when they got back to me about materials, they gave me a nylon spandex blend. This made me nervous because I didn't know how this material felt, but every website I read told me it was ideal for sportswear and moving around as it was comfy and good at keeping sweat in, which was what I was looking for regardless.

The real issue was that nylon and spandex is one of the worst fabrics for printing. Nylon/Spandex doesn't do well with a heat press, either melting the fabric or causing shrinkage. In addition, the tight weave makes it really hard to allow flex in printed elements, not to mention adherence.

Their solution to this was to stitch on the logo, but I watched the 1994 Fantastic Four movie where they did just that, and it looked like crap! I took a big risk and told them that I would do the printing myself. I live in Toronto after all, surely there's at least one shop in the city that had the ability to do this.

Right?

That was a problem for Future Penny to solve, so I sent the payment and waited eagerly for my california-based commissionee to finish... and finish they did!

I was so excited seeing this. Even without the logo, it was already exactly how I envisioned it! It even wrinkled the same way around the belly that it does in the comics. I was floored! I was a little shocked that they shipped it before I was able to give notes, but then again, if I had requested any changes, they'd likely have to start all over. Thank goodness it's perfect.

It arrived at my apartment shortly after. I put it on, and it was the most comfortable thing I've ever worn in my life. Because it was tailor made, it hugged my body so well, I was quoting Ned Flanders in his ski outfit! I showed my girlfriend and she was a blushing mess (it was perhaps too revealing).

But there was still the matter of the logo. I called up several places across the city, got into email correspondence with them, and discussed what could be done. Unfortunately, out of the seven places that got back to me, none of them felt comfortable with the material.

I was stuck, if the city of Toronto couldn't do it, who could? That's when I realized how stupid I was:

"Don't I attend an arts school?"

With a tote bag in hand carrying the suit, I made my way to the campus, marching toward the textiles department. I had lied to them saying this was for a school project, but I think they all knew what this was really about. Despite this, they were fully on-board to help me.

The first thing that had to be done was make the screen layers. Their process of printing on fabric was to make stencils of the logo that represented each color (in this case, black and white. The blue was just the fabric itself). I hopped onto photoshop and whipped up the layers pretty fast.

Now it could've been printed that day, but there was a request. They wanted a swatch to print on to make sure printing on this tricky fabric wouldn't damage anything. In hindsight, it was really funny having to buy a $1 swatch with $20 shipping and handling. The swatch arrived quick, and I immediately set up an appointment to print the suit the next day.

It was raining hard, the thunder was so loud I thought it was right above my head, and Passover had begun. I was greeted by two wonderful students named Mya and Nicole. They brought my stencils into the dark room and had them imprinted on a screen like so:

They started out on a white canvas fabric, just to make sure it printed well.

Success! The next test was for the pigments themselves.

Uh oh, what happened? Well the black they were using was a transparent black, which was overlayed on the white dye, making it more see through than we wanted. The fabric itself shifted as well, so it was grossly misaligned. Always tighten your fabric with pins, folks. Another student who I can't remember the name of was able to search the storage area for better black dye.

Don't be fooled by the yellow lighting, that's a black print on blue fabric, not a gold print on a white fabric. Regardless, the black worked! The final test then... was the nylon/spandex swatch.

I couldn't believe it! It actually looked really great! The colors are really crisp, and it even allowed for a bit of stretching (an accidental benefit of the blue part being just the fabric is that it creates less strain on the print itself).

The big problem was that, during the drying phase when the white was applied, they used a hair dryer, which due to the heat, caused warping, hence the misalignment. That meant that when it came time to print on the suit for real, it had to air dry in a dry environment.

Through the leg holes, a block of wood with foam attached covered by a canvas fabric is placed inside (wasn't expecting to get any wood thrust in the suit, feels violating). Euphemisms aside, this was to steady the sheet used to print, as well as to hold the fabric and place and prevent the bumps created by the zipper on the back.

We must've spent 5-10 getting the logo to center and at a right angle. The entire time we were applying paint, we were nervous as hell. I had made the mistake of telling them this suit cost me $600, and there was no going back.

We watched with baited breath.

ALRIGHT IT'S GOOD IT LOOKS GOOD OKAY IT'S HAPPENING IT'S REALLY HAPPENING!! We waited for it to dry for about 45 minutes I think. I got something from the café and sat there thinking about how I was doing this on Passover. Jack Kirby's faith meant a lot to him, and it felt fitting that I brought to life one of his creations during a holiday he would celebrate. I think about my own faith sometimes... I'll leave it at that for now.

I got back into the studio, and they were waiting for me to put on the black coat. We spent another 5-10 minutes lining up the logo with the other logo so it would be the cleanest possible.

The last step was now.

And there it was. Words failed me, I admit. All I could do was look in stunned amazement that this was REAL!

We let it dry for another 45 minutes, where then they took out the pins and presented the fabric to me. They told me not to wash it for a whole month, which I then asked them what settings I should use for the washer. They told me to machine wash cold and delicate, and hang dry, which is thankfully exactly what PingPing told me to do. I walked home with the costume, hung it up in my closet, and joined my roommate for the seder meal.

Thank you for reading.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

just me rambling again

You know what?

Something I’ve noticed is that Riddle and Azul garner far more forgiveness from the TWST fandom compared to the other OB boys. I so rarely see people saying that Riddle is in the wrong for being a tyrant to his dorm members (they usually dump the blame entirely on his mom). In the case of Azul, I often see him being encouraged to keep up his shady business dealings and even being praised for being “a capitalist king” in spite of his childhood in which he was the one being pushed around.

I think it’s somewhat understandable that these two are the ones that get the most (for lack of a better term) sympathy. Elements of their backstories are extremely relatable (strict parenting and/or being bullied in childhood) and easy for players to project onto. Meanwhile, it’s much more difficult to relate to specific circumstances of the other OB boys. Very few people in real life can say that they were so severely shunned and ostracized in favor of an older sibling and lost their claim to a family inheritance due to being second born, were born into a family with a generations long history of servitude to another family, were a child star that was constantly typecasted as a villain, or were a child genius that accidentally got a sibling killed. People will naturally be inclined to empathize with Riddle and Azul more than the others, and this, in isolation, is fine.

What I don’t agree with is that Riddle and Azul are somehow... less “guilty” of their terrible actions. All of the OB boys have done bad things. I don’t think any of them should be “let off the hook” so easily for them, and I don’t think they should be coddled or encouraged to act a certain way while excusing their past actions. If they aren’t held accountable for their wrongdoings, then how will they be able to recognize that they were being cruel and then change for the better? They won’t.

As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t see many people calling Riddle out for being as strict as he was in episode 1. I will concede that, of the OB boys, Riddle is one of the few that makes an active and more overt effort to better himself following his own Overblot. However, often when people speak of how “bad” Riddle was in episode 1, they attribute his wickedness to his mother (which is, in part, true), but then where they lose me is leaving that wickedness attributed... solely to his mother. It’s so ironic, seeing as Ace explicitly states that Riddle himself should be held accountable for his own  actions, rather than excusing his actions by saying it’s Mama Roseheart’s fault why Riddle ended up like this. Yes, she definitely influenced his thinking and yes, her parenting style is NOT good, but at the end of the day, Riddle is not his mother. Riddle is his own person, and his actions and words are his own, and he therefore needs to own up to them himself. He may have lost out on his childhood (which I do think he deserves a chance to live out), but that doesn’t mean he should be coddled by the fandom over it or told that nothing was really “his” fault--because then he won’t have a chance to really think or to decide anything for himself, and he won’t reflect on where he went wrong and where to go from here (ie episode 4, where he mentions wanting to speak with his mother).

As for Azul, I can see why people would think his story is... inspiring (?) in its own way? I don’t think it would be unusual for victims of bullying to want to “get back” at their tormentors by surpassing them, or even outright seeking revenge against them, both of which are things that Azul has managed to achieve. It’s admirable in a twisted sort of sense, but I also feel that it is these feelings that give rise to the support that Azul enjoys from the fandom space. He was able to overcome difficult circumstances and find success in spite of all the adversity. However, this should not excuse the fact that he used duplicitous means to acquire that success. Azul has lied, tricked, and exploited loopholes to force others under his thumb--he has become a bully himself, in an effort to prove his own bullies wrong. Oddly enough, I almost never see anyone calling him out for this hypocrisy. Instead, the fandom tends to focus on how much of a “boss” Azul is while rarely condemning the fact that he tricked and turned 225 students into unpaid laborers for him (and that’s not even counting the people outside of NRC, like students from his middle school). Sure, those debtors do bear some responsibility as well for not paying attention to the terms and conditions, but Azul is the one that knowingly deceived them--yet he is always being praised for this, when it’s not really meant to be seen as a good thing.

All of this is to say that 🥲 I have yet another uncommon opinion compared to the rest of the TWST fandom/s It’s totally okay to enjoy the characters for what they are, be it good or bad! The point of this post was to point out an observation I’ve made about the fandom and nothing more than that. This just so happens to be a topic that I’ve thought a lot about (especially as someone who can personally relate to Riddle and Azul’s pasts, but still finds it weird that those two are so easily forgiven for the bad things they’ve done), so I wanted to word vomit it out into a post. TWST has such rich and complex characters that they really the cogs in my head turning 👀

[pyramidmedia369]

IXCHEL, the Mayan Moon Goddess

Official Pyramid Media 369 website: www.pyramidmedia369.com

Here is a picture of the Ancient Mayan Goddess, Ixchel (pronounced Ischel) and sitting on the Moon and holding a rabbit while fishing. The fishing pole and the fish are also symbolic. Have you ever heard of the Fishers of Men? I will explain this in a different article. The Rabbit she is holding symbolizes fertility, sex and abundance (good fortune). The Moon Goddess is known to be a goddess of love, midwifery, sex, fertility, pregnancy/childbirth, water, rain, textile arts, agriculture and natural medicine. In hieroglyphs, her name appears as Chak Chel, which means “Big Rainbow”. Ixchel is one half of the original Creator Couple. Yes you heard it right, the Creator is a companion! There is always a masculine-feminine counterpart in the untold stories of the Creator. The male Creator God is known as Itzamna, the Solar God, the Supreme Being, Father of The Universe, etc. Ixchel, Itzamna’s wife, is also believed to have just been the feminine manifestation of the Creator, as she is the mother of both the Sun and the Moon. Some also referred to as an evil old woman that had unfavorable aspects, due to her association with destruction, floods. But she was honored because of her many different healing powers. She is also depicted as an old woman emptying a vessel of water on certain hieroglyphs.

She is also referred to as “Goddess O’ in the Dresden Codex, the original Mayan Tablets found in Dresden Germany, hence the name.  “Goddess I” is her younger counterpart, ie. a younger projection of herself. She is the Goddess of Marriage; as well as human procreation, as they aid the health & vital functions of the fertile woman. Together, they are the representation of Frigg/Frigga in Norse mythology, which is ultimately Venus. Hence the term Fri-day. See my previous article about the days of the week and their names. But nonetheless, all Venusian deities are Mother Goddesses.  

The serpent on her head not only represents the shedding of old skin, it also represents transformation, Divine Feminine, Healing, Kundalini and Christ energy. She also was known as the Jaguar Goddess of War, due to her fierce ability to protect her tribe the same way a Grandmother would for all her family’s children. Although there is little information regarding her association with the Jaguar. Her energy is very subtle and supportive, and is known to aid both men and women who are on a path to transformation. Just like a Grandmother right?

The Temple of Ixchel

Among the Mayans, physicians and priests hailed her as the patron deity of divination and medicine. Mayan women visited sanctuaries dedicated to Ixchel when they wanted a happy marriage or a child. She has been depicted as overlooking childbirth in scenes painted on vases from Mayan Classic era. Certain other sources also hint her to be an Earth Goddess as well. She has various different expressions and is held to the highest regard out of all Goddesses in the Mayan pantheon. These assumptions are primarily made by identifying one or more of Ixchel’s traits with those of the other deities mentioned. I mean, she is 50% of the creator, isn’t she? Makes sense to me. Below you will see ancient Mayan transcripts indicating that it was advanced levels of science being exemplified.

The Dresden Codex (Mayan Tablets)

Mayan Cosmovision

This is the Mayan depiction of the Earth, cosmos, elements and the 4 corners of the earth. Below you will see Ixchel floating amonst the firmament. The Red, White, Yellow and Black all represent one N, S, E, & W as well as the 4 elements.

Mayan Elemental Wheel & Tree of Life

[redacted-metallum]

Image description: two scans from the 1980 edition of the TSR Advanced Dungeons and Dragons sourcebook Deities and Demigods.  The first is of the text accompanying the entry for Hastur, a full transcript of which is under a readmore link.  The second is a close-up of the illustration and depicts a lizard like creature covered in tentacles behind a castle.  It is considerably larger than the castle and there is a bolt of lightning in the background.  The upper right corner has a stylized signature of the letters E and O, indicating that Erol Otus is the illustrator of this particular image.

End image description.

My dad owns a copy of the Deities and Demigods book from before the copyright strike, and I haven’t seen any scans of Hastur from it around tumblr so.  Here it is!  The whole thing is very influenced by August Derleth’s interpretation of the Cthulhu Mythos, and I have Opinions about that, but this is specifically where the “don’t say Hastur’s name more than four times or he’ll come Get You” thing comes from, which I think is a very neat bit of history and trivia!

One other thing I find interesting is that there is no mention of The King in Yellow (the play) in this section.  There is also no mention of the Yellow Sign, Cassilda, or Camilla, though Lake Hali and Carcosa are mentioned as part of an “alien planet”.

The book is credited to James M. Ward and Robert J. Kuntz, and edited by Lawrence Schick.

The illustrations are credited to the following: Jeff Dee, Erol Otus, Eymoth, Darlene Pekul, Paul Jaquays, Jim Roslof, David S. LaForce, David C. Sutherland III, Jeff Lanners, and D. A. Trampier.

Text transcript is as follows:

HASTUR THE UNSPEAKABLE (He Who Must Not Be Named) “Master of the Air” Greater God

ARMOR CLASS: -2 MOVE: 36″/36″ HIT POINTS: 400 NO. OF ATTACKS: 2 DAMAGE/ATTACK: 20-200/20-200 SPECIAL ATTACKS: See below SPECIAL DEFENSES: See below MAGIC RESISTANCE: 50% SIZE: L (600′ TALL) ALIGNMENT: Chaotic evil WORSHIPER’S ALIGN: Chaotic evil SYMBOL: Image of the god PLANE: Prime Material Plane (distant planet) CLERIC/DRUID: Nil FIGHTER: As 16+ HD monster MAGIC-USER/ILLUSIONIST: 23rd level in each THIEF/ASSASSIN: Nil MONK/BARD: Nil PSIONIC ABILITY: I S: 25 (+7. +14)  I: 22  W: 23  D: 21  C: 23  CH: -4

This god has a scaled, elongated body, a lizard’s head and maw, and taloned lizard claws.  It also has 200 tentacles projecting from its body that give it the ability to sense all things around it.  It is able to strike twice per round and also attack magically.

At will, it can teleport anywhere in the Prime Material Plane.  Hastur regenerates 5 hit points per melee round, and can summon 2-20 Byakhee to aid it in battle.  It cannot be magically controlled.  Creatures that are able to fly naturally will never attack Hastur, even if controlled.  Any being trying to attack the god must make a saving throw against fear.

Hastur is half-brother to Cthulhu, and like him Hastur has been imprisoned by the star-shaped Elder Sign.  He lies in a crypt at the bottom of Lake Hali near the alien city of Carcosa.  Hastur exists partly on the Prime Material Plane (and this part is imprisoned in the crypt) and partly on the Elemental Plane of Air (thus he is immune to cold and the vacuum of space).  Hastur is never more than partially on the Prime Material Plane and is therefore not completely solid.  This accounts for much of his great size.

Any time the name “Hastur” is spoken, there is a 25% chance that Hastur will here and send 1-4 Byakhee to slay the speaker.  If the Byakhee are defeated, there is a 25% chance that Hastur himself will appear to destroy the blasphemer.

[foundtherightwords]

The Road Forgotten - Chapter 10

Pairing: Arthur Havisham (Dickensian) x OFC

A/N: I made Arthur bisexual and paired him with a female character in this. I know some writers have gotten flack for pairing Arthur with a female character (or reader), so if it's not your cup of tea, please walk away.

This is mostly based on the events of "Dickensian", but I've also incorporated some elements and characters from "Great Expectations". Most notably, Satis House is in Kent (as in the book) instead of in London.

Summary: A few years after his plan to swindle his sister ended in tragedy, Arthur Havisham is a shadow of a man, living in guilt and fear. When Elsie Bradford, a young woman also wronged by Compeyson, enlists Arthur's help to hunt down his former partner-in-crime, Arthur must face his demons and other strange, new feelings, to redeem himself.

Warnings: slow burn, angst, guilt, revenge, psychological trauma, mention of prostitution, mention of suicide/suicide ideations, some violence, a bit of smut

Chapter word count: 3.1k

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Chapter 9

Chapter 10

This wasn't how Arthur had imagined his night was going to go. Between the raid at the gambling house, the attack of the two thugs, and that bewilderingly, disturbingly vivid dream, he was drained, physically and mentally. Yet Elsie's touches had brought him back to life.

It had perplexed him somewhat to see that she was annoyed with him, avoiding his eyes, and was brisk, almost brusque, in her manner, while she was cleaning him up. He was terrified that he might have embarrassed himself, and that Elsie knew and was angry because of it. What if she didn't feel the same way about him at all? What if her kiss on his cheek had meant something completely different? He had little experience with romance. How would he know? But when she embraced him, all those fears faded away. He knew then. By her touch, he knew how she felt. And it gave him the confidence to show her how he felt.

Being with her was unlike anyone else he'd been with before. He had been with a few women, but those times had been unfulfilling or humiliating, or both. Truth be told, though, his encounters with men were the same. His physical needs might have been satisfied, but the dark void at the center of his heart remained empty, and only became more gaping, more consuming as the years went by.

But Elsie, Elsie was different. It was like returning to a home he'd never had. Every touch, every kiss, every little cry, every whispered word filled his heart with light and warmth, until it overflowed to even the darkest corner within him. It wasn't even about the pleasure, though there was plenty of it. It was more that, for the first time in a long time, he was with someone who looked at him not with pity or contempt or disgust, but with compassion, affection, and dared he even hope, love. And it was also the first time he could look at someone and not think about what she could give him, but about what he could give her instead.

But even as he felt her warm body nestled against his, a cold, insistent voice, sounding eerily like Compeyson's, was whispering at the back of his mind, She doesn't know the real you. She doesn't know how despicable you'd behaved. And you're lying to her, even now...

I've tried to tell her the truth! he wailed inside his head. I've tried, but she thought I was talking about something else... 

Excuses! Pathetic excuses! Coward! the voice mocked, sounding like his father's.

But I'll make it up to her, he thought, trying to stamp it down. I'll keep her safe, and loved...

Love? You know nothing of love, the voice continued, unrelenting, now sounding female, cold, and broken. You've never loved anyone but yourself.

He could feel the demons coming back, their claws scratching at the flimsy door to his mind. But then he heard Elsie's soft voice calling his name, and the demons backed down.

"What is it?" he said, wondering if he should tell her that she had just saved him again.

"Have you ever been in love?" she asked.

Arthur was startled. Had she been reading his mind? Had she somehow sensed what he had just been thinking? Then again, it was only natural to ask about love when they'd just finished making love...

He took a while to answer. He had never told anyone this, and even bringing up the memory was painful. But he knew he could trust Elsie.

"There was a boy from school," he said. "Christopher." It took some effort to speak his name again. "My bed was next to his in the dormitory. When I first arrived at school, I was so homesick I cried every night. He would reach out and hold my hand until I fell asleep."

He could feel Elsie smile against his chest. "Like I do."

"Yes. He shielded me from the bigger boys. We did everything together. Studied together, played together, ate together, slept together. Even after he was moved to a different dorm, he would sneak out at night and climb into bed with me. And that was when it fell apart."

"What happened?"

"One of the prefects caught him in the corridor after lights out. He didn't say where he was going, to protect me. I should have come forward. I should have taken the blame as well." So many "should haves". His whole life had been nothing but "should haves". "But I was a coward, and I kept quiet. So only Christopher was punished. He was made to stand outside in the snow for hours. He fell sick. He was sent home, and I never saw him again." He could not tell her how his father had found the letters he had written to Christopher, and what punishments he had received for them. But even those punishments had done little to alleviate his guilt.

There were tears in Elsie's voice. "Oh, Arthur."

"Afterward... it was just a string of furtive, anonymous encounters. Like the one you saw. Nothing that lasts."

"What about... women?"

Again, Arthur paused, but Elsie's voice didn't sound perversely curious or probing, only full of sympathy and understanding, and he was moved to tell the truth.

"They're worse. They look at me and all they see is the son of a cook, the black sheep, a stain on the great name of Havisham, not worth their time." It was hard to keep the bitterness out of his voice. He cleared his throat and added, "Although I have to admit, my behavior didn't exactly elevate their opinions of me. I just thought I deserved their respect, without doing anything to earn it." He knew that now, had known that for the last five bitter years, but it was only to Elsie that he could confess it. So many mistakes, and it was too late to atone for them. "What about you?" he said, to prevent his thoughts from going down that dark road again.

"Never."

"Ever?" He was a little disappointed. He'd hoped she'd say she loved him. Why else had she brought it up?

"No. Not even when I was a girl. All my friends were always giggling about boys or whispering about things that go on between husbands and wives, but I'd never been interested. I guess that's why I could take the work at Mrs. Hill's. It didn't mean anything to me. Sometimes I wonder if there is something wrong with me."

Those words were hauntingly familiar to him. "Yes. I know."

Elsie lifted her head to look at him, and Arthur was overwhelmed by a sense of closeness, so much deeper than their physical intimacy that he felt a kiss would be inadequate to show her his feelings. He wanted to tell her that this, with her, was the closest he had come to being in love, after Christopher. But that, too, was inadequate for what he was feeling, and he didn't want to frighten her off. So he simply took her hand and laced his fingers through hers. That seemed enough for Elsie.

"There was this one man though, the captain of a merchant ship, who came to Mrs. Hill's to see me every time he was on shore leave," she continued. "He was kind to me. He promised to pay off my debt when he could. It was only with him that I felt... not love, but perhaps a connection. Then one day, he left for the Malays and never came back." She added grimly, "I hope he's dead."

"Why?"

"Because that would be preferable to the other explanation, that he'd simply forgotten me."

"How could anyone forget you?"

"Exactly." She grinned at him, then leaned down and kissed him again. As he had in his dream, he grabbed her wrists and drew her to him, only this time she was real, blindingly, tangibly, reassuringly so, from the tickling of her breath, to her hands tracing abstract shapes on his skin, to her legs entwined with his. He was certain that no ghosts or demons could get through such a fortress, and let himself get lost in her.

When he woke again, the window had turned bright. At some point during the night, Elsie had slid off of him, but her head was still on his shoulder and her arm still draped across his chest. Sleep seemed to have softened her. Her lips parted slightly, the permanent scowl was gone from her brow, and her hair was a mass of ebony on the pillow, with only a touch of pale yellow at the tip where it had been bleached. Even her restless hands, one placed in his, the other on his chest, were quiet. He had never seen her sleep so soundly, and his heart soared at the thought that she felt safe enough with him to do that. Perhaps it wasn't too late. He could still atone, with Elsie.

***

What they had in the next few days was as close to perfect happiness as Arthur could remember. There were no more ghosts, no more night terrors, no more talk of killing and revenge, only Elsie and the comfort in knowing that she was his and he was hers. Every little thing they did now took on a deeper meaning because they were together, from the way he poured her coffee for breakfast to the way she absently put her feet in his lap while she was reading. And their intimacy was unmatched. He had thought his desire for Elsie would diminish or at least become less acute now that they were together, but it only got stronger. He kept discovering new spots on her that demanded to be kissed or touched, her earlobes, the back of her knees, the hollow at the base of her throat, and he delighted in finding out how their bodies fitted together. He could never tire of waking up and seeing her smile at him with her eyes lit up like the sun coming out behind a grove of trees, or falling asleep with her arms around him, keeping him down like chains around his heart.

But of course, it wasn't perfect, not really. Unlike the days when Elsie first came to stay with him, now they avoided speaking of Compeyson and the future, wishing only to focus on each other and the present. But no matter how hard they tried to shut the door and pretend the world outside had nothing to do with them, they couldn't escape themselves. There were constant reminders of those dark clouds that hung over them still—his cuts and bruises, which were healing but not fast enough, her father's pistol, her tip of bleached hair, the voices of guilt gnawing at his heart like rats. He could forget them for a moment in Elsie's arms, but they were always there, waiting, hungry, ready.

Elsie's ghosts were still there as well, he knew. When his bruises started to fade, turning from black and purple to green and yellow, he noticed a return of her restlessness. She would no longer sit with him or read, but would stand for hours at the window or pace the room like a caged animal. That anxious, watchful stare was back in her eyes, which had resumed the sunken look of sleepless nights. For a while, Elsie's knitting was forgotten—she had other things to fill her nights now—but when Arthur woke one night to the familiar sound of her needles clicking again, he realized their honeymoon had only been a brief reprieve, and it would take a lot more than kisses and embraces to exorcise those demons.

"Go to sleep, Elsie," he whispered.

"I can't." Click, click, click.

He sat up, gently took the knitting from her, and cradled her to his chest. She let him, but her hands were plucking at his nightshirt, twitching, trembling. It pained him to see, and he put his hand over hers to calm her down.

"Tell me what to do," he said.

"Nothing." Her voice was quiet, almost inaudible. "You don't have to do anything."

"But I can't stand to see you like this."

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'll try to sleep."

But he wasn't talking about sleep, and she knew it. There was only one thing that could calm her. So he breached the subject they had been avoiding. "We've followed every possible clue. He is gone, Elsie. Perhaps we should forget this whole thing—"

At that, she sat up and shoved him away. "Don't ever say that to me," she snapped.

He reached for her hand, afraid that she might just decide to leave there and then. "But what would killing him accomplish?" he tried to reason with her. "It wouldn't bring your father back. It wouldn't cure Marianne."

"No," she said coldly. "But it would allow me to sleep at night."

"You have been sleeping," he reminded her. "When you're with me."

There was a flicker of uncertainty in Elsie's eyes. "Not for long."

His heart fractured at the idea that their love wasn't enough, that he wasn't enough. But perhaps he could still convince her...

"But what would I do if you got caught?" he said. That fear had been haunting him ever since he realized he was in love with Elsie, perhaps even before that, but this was the first time he gave voice to it, and the prospect was so horrifying that he could feel its icy fingers clawing at his insides. Elsie had once asked what he would do once this was over, and he'd thought he would do nothing. That future had looked grim even back then. Now it seemed unbearable, the idea of life without her.

Elsie looked at him. He could see that the flicker had turned into tears, and the fracture in his heart widened.

"I will try to return to you," she said. "But I can't promise that."

A wild idea occurred to Arthur. "If we find him, we'll go together," he said.

"No!" She grabbed his hands. "I won't allow it."

"What else is left for me?" he said, echoing her words.

She hesitated. "You have to take care of Marianne for me," eventually she said. "I can't see her again, but I will rest easy knowing that you're there for her."

She must have been thinking about this for a while. On the one hand, he was glad that she trusted him enough to leave her sister in his care. On the other, he wasn't sure he could face Marianne again if Elsie was dead.

He placed a hand on her stomach. "Perhaps you can plead the belly."

Elsie laughed then, an actual laugh, without a hint of mockery or hysteria in it. She wiped at her eyes with a corner of her chemise. "Are you honestly offering to get me with child, so I could get away with murder?" she said. Then she saw the desperation in his face and sobered up. "Even if I plead the belly, I would only escape the noose. I would get sentenced to transportation, and that is a fate worse than death. Besides—" She looked down, her hands plucking at the sheet. "It's not going to happen."

"What?"

"I'm not going to get pregnant. I can't." Still keeping her head down, she explained, "I—slipped up, in the first year I started working for Mrs. Hill. There were complications. I almost died. And when I recovered, the doctor said... Mrs. Hills was delighted, of course. A whore that doesn't have to worry about pregnancy? It's her dream come true."

"Shh." Arthur couldn't listen anymore. Her calm, quiet voice was like a knife twisting in his heart. He tried pulling her to him again, but she shook her head impatiently.

"Why are we discussing my death as though I'm going to kill Compeyson tomorrow? We don't even know where he is!"

"Please, Elsie." He kissed her, a lingering, desperate kiss. "Forget about Compeyson. I'm willing to find work. We can move to the countryside, somewhere close to Marianne, and leave all this behind..."

She touched his face, brushing her thumb lightly over the cut under his eye, and gazed at him with such love and tenderness that he felt his heart breaking, the pain of it choking him. Then she dropped her hand and turned away from him.

"I can't. I'm sorry."

There was nothing left to say. Intolerable despair welled up within Arthur when he realized Compeyson had poisoned another good thing in his life, without even having to touch it. By a twist of fate, Compeyson had brought Elsie to him, and now Compeyson was going to take her away again. Perhaps Elsie was right. Perhaps the only way to stop all this pain and misery was to kill the source.

"You're never going to stop until you find him, are you?" he said.

"No."

Arthur's conscience fought with his heart. He could say nothing. He could suggest they go to some clubs he used to frequent with Compeyson or track down some mutual acquaintances. They would all be fruitless, he knew, but they would allow him to stay with her for a little longer. He could lead her on chase after wild goose chase, until he could think of another way to convince her to give up the pursuit or until she was tired of it, or perhaps until she was tired of him. But he loved her too much for that. He would not let her become another "should have" in his life. And if giving up the truth was what it took to bring her peace, then he would give it up, even though it could mean losing her. It would be his atonement.

So he took a deep breath and said, "There is one person we haven't talked to that may have some knowledge."

Elsie turned back to him. Some of the dull, dejected look in her eyes was lifted, replaced by a spark of interest. "Who?"

"My sister."

Her mouth fell open in shock. "Your sister? You never told me you had a sister!"

Now was the time to admit the truth, but Arthur hesitated. Perhaps... perhaps he could tell Elsie a half-truth. Perhaps there was no need for her to know everything. Perhaps he could hold on to her for a little longer. Finally, he settled for "We no longer talk".

"Why? And why would she know something about Compeyson?"

"Because she was engaged to him."

Chapter 11

[obsessivelollipoplalala]

Another top 5 most insane Brian moments tbh.

___

What are your top 5 insane Brian moments 👀

Lol well specifically regarding Freddie, it’s hard to choose, but in no particular order:

1. Writing “Save Me” about him (just read the lyrics, no further explanation needed)

2. “I wanted to put those words in his mouth” with the butterfly lyrics in “The Show Must Go On” and him feeling a serious need to give Freddie beautiful lyrics to sing about himself

3. Brian posting the following message on his old website publicly like it’s nothing. It’s heartbreaking, but like, he really sat down in front of his computer and decided to post this.

“Thought so” wtf wtf

4. Him apparently wanting to name a book with various people’s stereoscopic photographs that had absolutely nothing to do with Queen “Stereoscopy Is Good For You, Darling” in honor of Freddie and not understanding why his colleagues didn’t want that name because, “If Freddie were here, obviously that’s what he’d say 🤷🏻‍♂️” Like, this man does not understand that most people aren’t thinking about Freddie all the time and his colleagues in an unrelated field don’t want their collaborative project named for him lol. But his brain is like, “of course we have to mention Freddie :)”

5. I have a couple from instagram: him posting a video on Freddie’s birthday once of just him playing guitar and looking at the camera and saying, “Hey, Freddie” at the end and him talking to Freddie and saying “let’s hope we can do this again one day” in another video where he shows a pic of them playing together. Honestly, Brian directly talking to Freddie after his death guts me in general, but again, he really decided to post it for his millions of followers to see like it’s nothing! He just told everyone he hopes he can play with Freddie in the afterlife, like…

And then there’s when he shared a bunch of pictures by marilyn_artistyk and this was the very first one in the post:

I’m sorry, can we talk about how nuts it is that Brian saw a drawing of Freddie hugging his upset self from beyond the grave and not only liked it, but liked it enough to share it publicly to his millions of followers? Like, if I were in his shoes and I really liked the pic, I’d probably keep that private because there’s something painfully raw about wishing your dead friend could hug you!

There are other moments that are really intense, too, like him crying on stage over Freddie or choking up and saying he’d tell Freddie he loves him if he could, but I consider those to be purely sad, you know what I mean? With these^, there’s an element of, “God, Brian, what the hell was going through your head when you did this?” in all of them. There are other smaller insane moments, too, but these are the big ones I can think of right now.

[bloodymarymorstan]

My initial thoughts about queer rep in Thor: Love and Thunder

So I just came back from the movie feeling pretty good about what I’d seen in terms of representation only to find out that a lot of people are really unhappy so here’s my take:

I didn’t personally really follow the press for the movie so I didn’t see that Taika and Natalie had called it “super gay”, which I definitely understand is iffy considering what was actually there. That being said, I feel like people calling the representation “blink-and-you’ll-miss it” is a little harsh. Valkyrie’s queerness was referred to several times, as was the gay nature of Korg’s species. I’ve seen blink-and-you’ll-miss-it representation and this did not feel like that to me. When my friend and I were walking home from the movie we were actively praising it for the fact that the queer elements were brought up multiple times and were actually relevant to the characters instead of, say, in Loki when his bisexuality was mentioned one time and then completely ignored for the rest of the show.

I can see why people would be disappointed if they went into the movie fully expecting a major queer romance but considering how abysmal Marvel has been in the past in terms of queer representation this movie was miles better. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t be critical of it, but I think that taking the context of Marvel and Disney into consideration is important. I would have loved it if Valkyrie had a relationship with a woman in this movie, but queer people also do not have to currently be in a gay relationship for their identity to be valid, so the fact that she was explicitly confirmed to have been with a woman in the past still counts as representation. Also, at the end of the day this is still a movie about Thor, who I don’t think anyone expected to be kissing a man, so I’m a bit surprised that people are so surprised that it was focused on the straight relationship.

Ultimately everyone is entitled to their own opinion and these discourses are always important to have, but I do think that being completely dismissive of all representation that isn’t romance-based and totally central to the plot can be a dangerous road to go down. It’s also important to be wary of putting people like Taika, who is still a (presumably) straight man at the mercy of Disney, up on pedestals because of other projects like Our Flag Means Death. There is no doubt that the queer rep in Thor 4 is not perfect, and I hope to god that Marvel actually gives us a main queer romance soon, but it’s also kind of the best we have at this point and I don’t think that should be ignored either. The sad truth is that this is a slow fight, but this movie is still an important step along the way.

[communistkenobi]

Hey sorry for bothering you, but I cannot find it in the tags. I believe some time ago you were reading a book about facist personality? Do you recommend it? And do you know were we might find it?

Not bothering at all! The book is called The Authoritarian Personality, and this is the tag I used for liveblogging/discussing it (I’m on mobile so if the link doesn’t work, it’s just “#the authoritarian personality” tag on my blog).

My short answer is yes I would recommend it. It’s given me a much more robust way to approach fascism as a political project, and it echoes a lot of other profiles of fascism that I find useful.

The big caveats I would offer about the book are:

This was written in the 1940s in the United States, and 3 of the 4 authors are psychologists. The back half of the book has large sections that are dedicated to psychoanalysis of “high scoring” (ie, those who scored as very susceptible to fascism according to the surveys the researchers created) and “low scoring” participants. I skimmed or skipped these sections entirely. I don’t want to say not to read them, but you should do so with a high degree of skepticism. The psychologists employ Freudian psychoanalysis quite a bit and I have very little respect for that approach to fascism (or anything for that matter, but I think it’s an especially poor analytical tool for understanding ideology).

This book’s description of fascism is that it is an intellectual product of capitalism, but there is very limited discussion of white supremacy or settler colonialism - two historical processes (I use the word historical not to imply these things exist only in the past, but that they were developed alongside other political and social forces over a period of many centuries) that are integral to understanding capitalism. I think the book is very good at diagnosing how antisemitism is integral to fascism (and the point of the research is to investigate antisemitism as the primary or original bigotry of fascism, a position I generally agree with), but it has limited utility for talking about how fascism is an imperial/colonial project that cannot be decoupled from white supremacy. This book should be used to better understand antisemitism, but you should seek out other discussions of fascism that attend to its colonial and white supremacist histories (Aimé Césaire’s essay Discourse on Colonialism is a great starting point for this).

Adorno (the one sociologist who authored this book) is a great writer but his writing can be kind of dense sometimes, and his chapters tend to be in conversation with his other work on mass culture, but he doesn’t explicitly state that in this book, so if you see him going on a two-page tangent about industrial cultural standardisation and are like wtf are you talking about, that’s what he’s doing. I actually like those tangents and think they add valuable insight into how fascism functions in capitalistic societies, but they can be kind of inscrutable sometimes if you aren’t familiar with his other work. Also in general don’t feel bad if you aren’t getting everything he’s saying, his writing can be dense and jargon-y sometimes, which I know not everyone is a fan of.

This book’s focus is on fascism as it is expressed through the personality structure (which is a complicated framework for thinking about individuality that I have conflicted feelings on, but they use “personality” as a coherent object that can be analysed, a thing that exists in all people), so this research doesn’t directly deal with the economic and social forces that inform fascism. It definitely does discuss those things (primarily in Adorno’s chapters), but it doesn’t do it comprehensively. They will mention race as a factor in fascist belief, but they won’t really discuss like, systemic racism in society. The same is true for gender. They talk about class more, but again not systematically. I say this so that you don’t go in expecting them to tackle the economic/societal elements of fascism in a comprehensive way.

I have the 2019 edition of the book, which has a forward by Peter Gordon (not familiar with his work) that I generally liked. It also has a chapter dedicated to Adorno’s reflection on the research as a whole after it was initially published that I really enjoyed. This edition is just shy of 1000 pages long. It’s a thick ass book and it took me about a year to finish.

I got it off the publisher’s website (Verso I think it was?) when they were having a sale. It’s pricy (~$50 CAD), so if you don’t want to invest in that you should be able to borrow it from a library. It may also be on libgen or zlibrary online.

Hope that helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

[give-soup-please]

Personal Message From The Narrator FAQs

Heya! really happy to see the positive response I got to posting the commission I got from Kevan Brighting. Many people have been asking similar questions, so I thought I could group them in one spot.

1. How much did this cost?

865 pounds, which is almost 1100 dollars. It was around 495 pounds for the script as is, and the rest was paying for licenced use on Tumblr. If you feel like pursuing your own project, price will vary depending on how long it is and whether its for personal use or public use. Price also varies based on which country you’re in, for strange and unknowable tax reasons. (VAT? I don’t understand these things at all) 

2. Can I use this recording/repurpose it for my own project?

Sorry, no. The licence I have forbids me from using it for commercial projects because they want you to have a different licence if you’re going to make a profit from his work. So please don’t upload it with copyrighted music to Youtube, or anywhere that would violate that rule. I can’t edit clips from the audio either, as far as I can tell, so please don’t ask. It took a lot of money to get the commission, I can’t afford a legal battle if this gets out of hand. I have trouble reading legalese, so if something changes, you guys will be the first to know. Otherwise, please don’t touch it. 

3. What’s with the mention of an��‘original script’?

The original script I sent in was different from the final project. There was a lot of mentions of elements from the stanley parable game. Unfortunately, the contract that Kevan has between himself and crowscrowscrows means that he can’t mention the game directly. Some sort of copyright issue that makes things complicated. I ended up rewriting it so it wouldn’t violate the contract he’s under. If people request it, I will post the OG script for everyone to look at. Though it may make you upsetti spaghetti, because the OG script I wrote was really cool. 

4. If it was that expensive, why did you do it?

There were a lot of reasons. This was a message I needed to hear myself. Without going into too much detail, I don’t come from the friendliest of homes. While I was debating pursuing the project, a family member told me that I was dumb, and that I was lazy, and that if I had enough spare money to afford a commission like this that my job was paying me too much. She said a couple of other things, but i’ll leave it at that. I decided to go for it after that because I needed a strong and wonderful voice to drown out what had been said. and... our beloved narrator has one of the strongest and most wonderful voices around.

The other reason I did it is because I am not immune to the parasocial relationships that form on tumblr. It takes a lot for me to follow someone, so I do a lot of lurking. I recognized many people who I had come to appreciate within the fandom were struggling with various problems. You are beautiful, wonderful people, and I’m not someone who can contribute easily to a fandom space. My art skills are lacking, and writing for the narrator is very difficult because I have such a need to get his character right. My interpretation is that he’s someone with a lovely heart who’s got a whole bunch of ego and anxiety on top of that. He’s someone who desires affection and praise but is unable to directly ask for it. (#RELATABLE) I also imagine it’s difficult for him to comfort others, because vulnerability is hard, whether giving or receiving. He’s really complex, and hard to write for, so I can’t do that easily either. The amount of time it took to write the script and keep it in character was way longer than I’m willing to admit to. But posting the commission I got was within my ability. This is my contribution to the community here. I hope it helps everyone get through another day, because we all deserve that much. (maybe i’ll rant about this in another separate post, but this is already getting long, so...)

5. How were you able to afford it?

It wasn’t easy. I am a full time college student with a part time job that’s slightly above minimum wage. It’s been my dream to commission something like this since 2013. I’ve been squirreling away bits and pieces for a very long time. I am not rich by any means. Which leads to an unfortunate question...

6. Will you do this again?

Unless I get a job with an excellent salary or win the lottery, it’s a firm no. If I had the funds, I would immediately write more and more, and drown us all in comfort. I want to make it absolutely clear, Kevan Brighting deserves to be fairly compensated for the work he does. But his work is not something I can afford on a regular basis. I got lucky having the resources I have, and having the wiggle room to do this was a miracle. If he doesn’t retire by the time I’ve saved up enough to do it again, maybe I’ll consider it. But realistically, this was a “once in a lifetime” project.

7. Can you accept donations based on this project?

Nope. I am doing my absolute best to err on the side of caution for this, because again, I will not survive first contact with a lawyer. I believe donations may fall under some sort of commercial use indirectly, so we can’t do that either. You are welcome to donate to me on my Kofi, but it can’t be because of the recording. 

8. Was it worth it?

Yup. 

9. Are you sure?

There’s no doubt in my mind that this was the right thing to do. Based on the responses i’ve seen, this was something we needed. I’ve been listening to it on loop since it appeared in my inbox last night. Honestly, I consider myself lucky that Kevan did such an incredible job on it. I fretted and debated over the script when I sent it in, wondering if I had pushed his characterisation too far, because the narrator in my mind plays the “lovable asshole” trope very well, and it is a really hard balance to maintain. Kevan smashed it out of the park. He carried the script, making the lines I wondered most about sound believable. I believe deep down that the narrator cares for his audience, and getting that side of him to show was beautiful.  

(And feel free to pop in the inbox/chat to say hi. I love ranting about this game, so don’t be shy.)

[redeemedbytheking]

Adam’s Rings

i headcanon that adam is a bit of a ring collector. i think he likes wearing them to accent his outfits and also enjoys fidgeting with them <3 so i thought i’d make a post about the rings he’s always wearing!! just going from left pinky to right pinky.

1. B ring - left pinky finger. i think this came from maurice, a little gift possibly for their first wedding anniversary. he designed two rings, an A (for adam) ring for belle to wear, and a B (for belle) ring for adam to wear. i think they look something like these. belle’s is definitely that smaller one with an A, perfect example. adam’s i’m less certain. it’s either identical to belle’s or it’s one of those medium/smaller ones in the right image. either way, you get the idea.

2. wedding ring - left ring finger. unlike the rest of his rings, i think he would purposefully want his wedding band to both be simpler than the rest, and to match belle’s in design. these two are similar but i think that’s the general vibe. also yes, it wasn’t as common for men to wear wedding rings then, but adam wears all his rings for a reason, and his loyalty to his wife is the most important reason of all.

3. fidget ring - left thumb. while this isn’t one of those spinning rings for fidgeters like we have today, i do think he likes playing with all his rings. that being said, he wears a thick & textured band (such as below, he may have all of these and trade them out depending on his mood) on his thumb to twist and pull off and on so he can stim whenever he needs!

4. belle’s gift - right middle finger. this ring actually has origins in a fic of mine! check it out!! but the basic premise is that, when they were still courting, belle went to a week-long art market with maurice. when she returned, she had purchased this ring for adam as a gift, because she knew about his ring collection and he had mentioned he was excited to get back to wearing them, now that his fingers were far less like claws. it was the first gift belle ever gave him, and he absolutely treasures it!! i couldn’t find an exact match, but of the below examples, i think it’s the dark green of 1 & 3, rectangle shape of 3, and the band is like 2.

5. family crest - right pinky finger. another gift from maurice! this one was sort of one of maurice’s projects while adam and belle were away on their honeymoon (which i think was around two months — belle had a lot of places to see!!! they did royal things too though, but anyway). i don’t know what it actually looks like, i should try to design it sometime, but the story behind it is this: maurice had a family crest ring, HIS family crest. but when he had to leave paris behind, he sold most of their belongings so he wasn’t completely destitute while he searched for shelter. and this included the ring. he still knew the crest by memory, though. so when maurice gained a son-in-law, he decided to create a new crest. it includes elements of his own family crest (the larue’s), adam’s royal family crest (the house of beaumont), and some new parts that maurice added. even though maurice and belle were very much joining adam’s royal family — maurice wanted adam to feel just as equally welcomed into their little family, to be his son properly. so, upon returning, maurice gifted adam with a new family crest, one that could be theirs, passed down to adam’s son and his son thereafter. adam of course cherishes it dearly. (and he definitely cried a bit when maurice explained this whole story to him.)

Bonus! the other rings adam wears <3 so, those five are the ones he wears daily. the wedding ring is the only one he NEVER takes off, the others are just routinely added in the morning and removed in the evening. that being said! the man has more fingers! i don’t think he wears a ring on every finger though. in addition to these five, he probably just adds one on each pointer finger, at most. those ones look like these, and generally are there just to accent his outfit. (though he absolutely knows the history behind every one, whether it’s a family heirloom, a gift, or a personal auction purchase. and, even more than me, he’d be happy to infodump about them all.)

[onyx-archer]

A Follow-Up Post About Stringbean (Sort Of)

Well, I didn’t expect my first real post on Tumblr in... *checks notes* about 4 years (that wasn’t just OC art related stuff) to get any steam, but it’s doing pretty okay. Probably because it’s about The Owl House, but hey, so far (at time of writing), nobody has said my take is bad or anything. I look forward to eventually seeing that, but until then, I wanted to make a follow-up post to address Stringbean’s role in the story, and why it’s one of the few things that I was disappointed by in the specials. Spoilers will be discussed here, much like the last post, but I’ll put it under the cut as per usual.

So... Stringbean. If there are any specific things that I can point at and say “the cuts really hurt this,” Stringbean would be one of them. In fact, of the things cut, Stringbean is the biggest casualty of Disney’s Apple Blood fueled bender. The Collector and Hunter are the other big two casualties, as far as characters are concerned, and the stuff involving the Human Realm is the biggest bit of the story next to Luz’s Palisman as far as I’m concerned. I might make a post about Hunter in the future, since he’s a topic I have a lot of thoughts about too, but that will have to wait. If people actually want to hear my thoughts, then by all means, let me know.

Now, before I get too deep into this, I want to address the Owlbeast in the room: I’m speaking from a place that involves a great deal of speculation on my behalf, and unless Dana reads these posts and tells me I’m right, take stuff I’m saying with the appropriate amount of salt you deem necessary. Obviously, when talking about a character or plot element that had it’s potential affected by the powers that be in a negative way, you can only really speculate on these things. I’m looking at how things could have been in relation to how they are, and I’m far from an authority on the subject of the story of The Owl House.

Stringbean, as previously mentioned, is a plot element that I feel was cut off at the knees when the show got cancelled prematurely, and naturally didn’t have the most room to breathe as far as plot is concerned. It’s clear that she, much like Hooty’s Origin Episode (which we know was a thing Dana and the TOH crew wanted to do) was more or less cut. I say it that way because of the imagery within The Titan’s eye in the realm in-between seems to imply Hooty was a creation of the Titan, and Stringbean DID appear, albeit in a functionally neutered form. This is basically how most plot/character threads that could have gone somewhere that were set up in Season 2A ended up by the end.

As stated in my previous post, I firmly believe that the early stages of Season 2 (i.e. most, if not all of the first half) were written back when the show got greenlit for a second season. A lot of media, especially cartoons, have a long period of preproduction before we hear so much as a peep from the creative team or the production house reveal that stuff to the general public. Cartoons in particular generally have a long creation pipeline. Unless you’re South Park, you typically can’t get away with lackluster writing. Disney, being one of the cornerstones of animation, likely has tight production schedules, but they’re likely still at least 6-9 months on the low end.

Dana has said that she was just told one day, likely weeks after it was decided, that the show was getting cancelled. I’d hazard a guess and assume that she and her writing team for the show had already submitted plot outlines and basic script stuff for approval for early episodes of Season 2, up to a certain point. I believe this to be the case because Standards & Practices are pretty quick to demand rewrites and the like, as seen with Alex Hirsch’s little montage of actual things they told him to change on Twitter on Gravity Falls’ 10 year anniversary. 

That’s the thing with creative projects where you have to answer to a studio with investors: you have to do what they say, and while you can fight certain decisions, you’re ultimately not in charge of your own creation from a business angle. This isn’t always a bad thing, but it largely depends on the state of a show. This can ultimately save a show from having a terrible conclusion, or it can highlight just how little the team had left in the tank (see Star Vs.). Either way, you are beholden to people who are largely not creative types, and are more about doing smart business. Whether or not the business decisions they make are actually smart or not is irrelevant, as the intention is doing right by the company’s pocketbook.

Now, none of this is to say that I’m gonna kiss Disney’s ass and say that Dana should have planned things better just in case the show got cancelled, because that’s often not how I think creative people think. It’s my belief that if you get a single season, or even a single movie, to make what you want to make, you’re going to do your best to have everything fit within that timeframe, and you’ll kill your darlings more liberally because you want to make the best possible representation of your vision within that limited amount of “space.” When you get greenlit for more though, you start thinking about those ideas that you had to push to the side, and you want to do more with them. You then start thinking in a more “long-term” sort of way, insofar that you’re thinking with what I like to call “trilogy brain.”

I think this is something that is born from how a lot of stories tend to have conventional 3 Act Structures, and seeing a trilogy of things rather than a duology slots into that part of your brain that recognizes the 3 Act Structure. It’s one of those “you may not have noticed it, but your brain did” kind of things. That why I firmly believe that if you’re greenlit for a second season, and you have the ideas for more story beyond the first season, you immediately push for a third season before you so much as lift a finger for season 2. This way you can fulfill the feeling of a 3 Act Structure, and you get room to tell your more complex ideas. Don’t push your luck beyond 3 seasons though.

“Well Onyx, that’s all well and good, but how exactly does this relate to Stringbean?”

Simply put, I believe Stringbean is one of those things that was written before the cancellation was finalized that was set up and needed to be resolved in some capacity, even if not the way that Dana wanted, because the set up was likely already approved. I feel this because Season 2A and Season 2B feel like they were written with two different mindsets: 2A is pre-cancellation, 2B is post-cancellation. While they could certainly edit parts of the plot for 2A to minimize the damage dealt by a cancellation, it seems pretty likely to me that some things just couldn’t be cut out without pissing off the fans. It was a very “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” sort of things.

Stringbean’s eventual existence ties into Luz’s growth as a Witch, and the idea that Witches earn their magic staffs (aka their Palismans) when they are “ready,” which presumably refers to a point of magical maturity or something to that effect. Eda directly says that Luz will earn her staff one day, and that was enough to get people thinking about Luz earning her staff. It’s kind of like how Hunter appearing in “Young Blood, Old Souls” was written before the team even knew they were cancelled. That episode was already in the can by then after all. They couldn’t just not use him going forward. Yeah, they could have downplayed the role in his case, but the fact that they didn’t tells me that Season 2A was written without the knowledge of that cancellation in mind, and by the time they knew that was a thing, they’d likely already been greenlit to start production with what they had, and could only make minimal changes to reflect the truncated run time.

Stringbean’s role is very clearly trimmed down to the bare minimum, and you need only look at how Stringbean is used in the episode following her debut (aka, the finale of the series) to see what I mean. Her impact on the story had served what little purpose was left after the cuts in “For The Future,” as I have to assume that Titan Luz was something that was planned for the finale before the cuts. I imagine elements of the Titan form date back to early planning for the series, and were considered the logical endpoint for the way Glyphs work lore-wise.

Now, I want to briefly explain why, in my last post, I think that Stringbean would have been used in a more climactic moment than what we got in “For The Future,” had the series not been cancelled too soon. Or rather, I want to address a misunderstanding caused by that thought. As stated near the beginning of this post, I was speaking from the stand point of what I assume would have been the case, based on my reading of the way the series was set up versus how it ended up because of the cuts. I don’t think we would have gotten “For The Future” had the cuts not been made. Maybe we would have had an episode by that name, sure, but the events of Season 3 are very clearly speedrunning through things to make the best possible end product within the very tight restrictions born from the circumstances of the show’s cancellation.

As said earlier, I think that Season 2A and Season 2B were written largely pre-cancellation and post-cancellation respectively, so the story we got in Season 2B is likely a truncated version of what we were going to get had we got a proper Season 3. They had to make the best of a bad situation, rather than continue on like nothing changed and hope Disney would change their mind. Otherwise, The Owl House very well could have ended on the same sour note that Star Vs. did, and it would have likely stung more than that show’s ending did due to how much better a show The Owl House is considered to be when compared to Star Vs. I obviously don’t much care for that show, but I’m sure even the most devout fan of Star would tell you the show lost it’s spark somewhere along the way.

Stringbean’s execution very much feels like they planned to have the reveal likely serve as the Season 2 finale or even the mid-season finale for Season 3, had we got the story as the team likely intended when stuff like Eda’s mention of Luz being able to earn her staff one day, or when Luz got her piece of Palistrom Wood in “Hunting Palisman.” Otherwise, Luz could have just gotten a Palisman in that episode. It very clearly was something that was written before the cuts, and couldn’t just be swept to the side either. If they scrapped that part of the episode, then Luz would have been better off adopting a Palisman like everyone else. If they didn’t, but then act like Luz never got the piece of Palistrom, the audience would be like “hey, wait, why hasn’t Luz carved her Palisman yet?” Likely, as a result of the cuts, they were stuck in a tricky situation, and ultimately decided to go with what we got because at least then we’d get something rather than nothing.

The reason I suggested adding the idea of Luz and her Father coming up with the idea of a Snakeshifter together was, in part, to give Stringbean’s debut an extra layer of emotional depth. It’d do more to make the best out of what we got, it would have potentially had Camila’s words about understanding her daughter mean more, and it would give the mention of Luz’s dad being dead more narrative and emotional impact. Of course, I’d ideally prefer this to be part of a more fleshed out Season 3, and a less truncated Season 2B, but that’s what fanfiction is for.

Anyway, I spent a lot of this post talking about industry stuff, and less about Stringbean, but to be fair, the industry stuff is why I feel Stringbean was narratively kneecapped. Anyway, as always, feel free to let me know what you think. You can reblog it without writing that stuff in the tags if you want by the way.

[laf-outloud]

Did you see this? https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/jensen-ackles-daneel-ackles-first-look-tv-deal-amazon-1235592800/amp/

Wonder what happened

There are so many things that could have happened. The speculation is endless: The WB didn't like their work on TW and let them know they wouldn't be renewing their first-look deal after their contract was over so the Ackles decided to shop around; Jensen made the right connections at Amazon and asked WB if they could be released from the contract; the WB is reorganizing their outstanding deals and decided not to go forward with CMP; or any other random reason.

This could be good for Jensen, though I will remind people that a first-look deal is just that. Chaos Machine Productions brings project ideas to Amazon and Amazon gets to be the first to decide if they want to move forward with the project, or if they'll let CMP shop it around to other studios.

So, CMP still has to come up with good enough ideas for Amazon to be interested, and it sounds like, with the acting element in there, Amazon will give Jensen first-look for lead roles within any one of those projects.

Now, Jensen's fans are just going to have to wait for Amazon to bite on one of those projects. Knowing the little I do about Hollywood, that could take quite a while. I mean, even the announcement took 4 months from when Jensen first mentioned it at the Vegas convention. LOL!