#wrt the previous posts

[kindacreepy-kindaugly]

In hindsight that was almost definitely mafia honey n not me

[aliusfrater]

similar cinematographic choices to portray the same imagery with insanely different circumstantial contexts

[box953]

i agree so much he has zero sense of personal identity he only considers himself a vessel to continue decima so interesting HE RDIDNT CARE THEY WERE GOING TO LEAVE HIM TO DIE!!!!! all he cared about was that his work would be continued and they were probably definitely lying about that and he never got to find out

Dooont even get me started man (lighthearted) that shit makes me evil. Genuinely one of the nails in the coffin of Hilbert being the most interesting character to me was that he just didn’t fucking. Care if he died. So long as he knew his work was being continued. I wrote a whole post going insane about it actually. He doesn’t care!!! He doesn’t!!!!! What is wrong with him!!!!! And then you realize that his work wasn’t even going to do what he wanted it to do if it made it back to earth anyways because cutter was just going to use it to mega death bomb the entire earth as a threat to the aliens. Okay!!!!!!

[wardensantoineandevka]

tbh "a dark lager and a cheap whiskey" is a great phrase, has a lot of vibes and color and texture attached to it

[worldofgoo]

i would go on so many beautiful adventures during my online hermit period and idk how to get back to it, i just got super into chinese media for like a month or two then never thought about it again

[misskamelie]

I'm not even using post its anymore, I'm putting up full A4 pages like Martin Luther and his theses on the church of Wittenberg

[stopaskingme]

The curious case of Adeyemi's (missing) watch in Conclave (2024)

the longer watch friend and I think on it, the more it blows our minds how intentional the costumers were wrt to the friggin watches in this movie. If you're interested in watch meta for Lawrence, Benitez, Bellini, Tremblay and Tedesco, I have linked the previous posts :D

This post is about Adeyemi's watch and what it means.

The Different Shorthands the Watches have throughout the movie

Despite like 100 close-ups of hands in Conclave, only six characters are depicted with watches. Only the serious contenders for the papacy.

Before the conclave starts, Watches are windows to a Character

they are quick snapshots of who a character is, or their current state of mind.

Tremblay and Tedesco: Watches with black dials, signalling their roles as antagonists; Bellini and Lawrence: White dials. more on Bellini later. Benitez: Digital watch face, neutral unknown

Two characters stand out because of how plainly the camera shows us their watches

– and then how completely those watches disappear once the conclave begins.

Benitez's Casio in his first full-profile shot, and Lawrence's Orient in the emotionally vulnerable bathroom scene

Which leads into the second role the watches play.

Once the conclave begins, Watches are Signals of Ambition

BENITEZ & LAWRENCE Their watches are gone. Even in settings which you'd expect to see them, like the bedroom. Because they lack any desire to be pope.

What's the point? Well, Adeyemi's Watch.

We see glimpses of it when he was still in the running for the papacy. But that's all we get. Glimpses. His watch cannot be identified.

It can't be accidental, since the movie has been so deliberate about who wears the watches. Rather, the camera refuses details on Adeyemi's watch because there's nothing more about him we needed to know.

ADEYEMI He didn't need to prove himself. He was the 'natural' successor. He led the votes in the first three ballots. He's the closest thing to a shoo-in candidate. That changes, however, when Lawrence comes to confront him. When he pleads with Lawrence to give him a chance, this unidentified watch peeks in and out from under his right wrist (left screenshot). By the following ballot scene, however, that watch has been stripped from him (right screenshot).

To hammer the point home, the camera shows us the individual candidates following the results of the next ballot.

Adeyemi sits with his hands tucked under the table. Tremblay has a watch, but as the new frontrunner, the watch is mostly hidden.

Bellini and Tedesco's watches are full-faced, out in the open. They are still actively chasing the papacy. Lawrence, on the other hand, genuinely doesn't want it, so his hands are firmly under the table.

The One Time Bellini loses his Watch

When Tremblay is outed for simony, his watch goes through the same treatment as Adeyemi's. More interesting to note is that Bellini loses his watch when he was prepared to support a Tremblay papacy.

True, he was in a nightgown when Lawrence shares the incriminating report with him. Most people don't wear watches with their nightgowns. At the same time, Bellini had also given up on his own candidacy.

After Tremblay is out of the running, look who's wearing a watch again!

Lawrence

Most telling of all is Lawrence's watch. The only time it appears after the conclave begins is – you guessed it – WHEN HE VOTES FOR HIMSELF.

And Benitez?

His Casio is hidden even during his game-changing monologue. It only appears in the final voting scene after he's lectured the curia.

Benitez might not have dreamt of becoming pope. Rather he'd grasped the situation at hand and knew what direction he'd steer the Mother Church given the opportunity. And that was enough.

His watch is symbolic proof of his conviction and visual proof of his character.

In short, the watches show up when the candidates need to prove themselves worthy of being the next pope.

They lose their watches when they are no longer eligible.

Going back to ADEYEMI when he realises he's lost his chance, Lawrence places his hand over Adeyemi's right wrist when praying for him, covering where his watch would be. Adeyemi's watch makes its last appearance when Tremblay is outed; his hope rearing its head. But he also realises he doesn't stand a viable chance because the watch is gone when he's clapping for Benitez.

After BENITEZ has been elected Tremblay's hands are beneath the table. The camera lingers only on the crack in his glasses. Bellini's Seiko Dolce is there in its full tank face glory. He was never 'disqualified' from the race. Should there be another conclave in his lifetime, he might run again. Tedesco's Oris out and in even fuller, naked display. He hadn't been 'disqualified' either. He could and would run if he's alive for the next conclave.

And after the conclave?

In the Room of Tears, Benitez holds Lawrence's hands. Benitez wears no watch. There's nothing more we need to know.

We already understand who he is and why he deserves to be Pope.

🐢 Conclave watches part 1 / part 2 / part 3

[florenceisfalling]

i always love a nonfiction book rec thank you

idk ive made an active effort over the span of multiple years to get better abt bugs and not being scared of them and letting them outside when possible and so on. but the moralizing of people online over things that potentially pose a risk to ones health has not made it easier actually

[mixelation]

wrt that previous post, i am imagining that via whatever process signing up for training grounds is, you can also be like "want partner to practice [thing] with" and you can consult listing of ppl looking for partners. like usually people prefer organizing their own training partners, but sometimes your usual buddies aren't available or you don't HAVE buddies or you don't know who to ask for specific kinds of help. so what keeps happening is tori gets close to whatever deadline and realizes she doesn't have enough practical hours and then she just signs up without prejudice to spar with whoever wants a partner at the time. this is a deeply insane thing to do UNLESS your background is being the punching bag for a bunch of oto-nin and akatsuki. tori is just kind of like "yeah i think i can just handle anything a career chunin wants to throw at me :)" which sounds deeply egotistical but lbr she's kind of right (she can't necessarily assist the way you want but she has definitely dealt with something significantly more bizarre than you before)

anyway i want to write a scene where tori is like "oh no, my training hours--" and signs up to spar with some guy but when they get the training ground there's people already using it. and usually if you show up and a bunch of high powered jounin are there you usually just let them have it. however tori has yet to met a man woman or god she wouldn't talk back to if she knew she was right. so imagine you're Akimichi Unimportant-san and you're like "oh i'm sure they'll be done soon, want a snack while we wait--" and your tiny sparring partner is like "I DO WANT A SNACK BUT I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS >:( EXCUSE ME, SHINOBI-SAN--" and she takes the meat bun you offered her and stomps into the training ground despite the ongoing a-rank jutsu being thrown around and through a mouthful of food is like "hi sorry we have this training ground reserved actually, you can see our names on the list outside :)"

from tori's POV usually people do respect "hey this is our reservation time, actually," even if they're surprised she ~dared~ to ask but today one of the jounin is an asshole and he's like "well, our training is more important, so shoo" and tori is like "what so the rules don't apply to jounin? maybe i misunderstood something and should go ask the hokage...." and jounin number #2 is like "oh my GOD are you really going to make this poor girl try to get an appointment with the HOKAGE?" and then they leave and tori is like "akimichi-san this snack was very good. also can i collect some rna before and after you use the expansion jutsu i just wanna check some things, thanks"

[melrosing]

I’m sure you’ve talked about this before but tumblr’s search function is ass 😭 what’s your endgame prediction for Jaime esp in light of the show? I think Jaime is def fighting the others as hinted in his weirwood dream. But the way got ended doesn’t feel right to me. On Reddit everyone’s saying it makes no sense so it has to be a bad adaptation of what GRRM told them but idk I don’t buy it. Especially since it seems like Cersei replaced young griff’s role

i have talked about it before but even i can't find it ha so i don't mind talking about it again however.... my thoughts on this are vague. longwinded post ahead which is more thought starters than anything definitive.

to briefly address the show ending... I mean it's literally impossible for Jaime's story to end like that, because we know that Cersei's can't end that way. Cersei is going to be murdered by the valonqar, whoever that turns out to be. and even apart from that, the book version of the twins are so done romantically. sure, there are the barest vestiges of that connection in Jaime's ADWD chapter ('back to Cersei, another part of him whispered'), but ASOS/AFFC otherwise make for an extremely thorough deconstruction of that relationship that ends with Jaime leaving Cersei for dead and wandering off the grid with Brienne. like.... GRRM didn't write all that for nothing. and sure, some people still think he might still bounce back to her in some way or another, but generally i have found.... that those theories don't tend to accompany the strongest takes on jaime's character dhjkls

for the same reason, I don't really know where this leaves us wrt the valonqar prophecy. if Jaime were still preoccupied with Cersei's cheating, he would've acted on it by now. Tyrion thinks in ACOK that if Jaime ever found out about Lancel, he'd have killed the kid himself. Jaime in AFFC suggests Lancel eat something and go to therapy. Jaime himself imagines in AFFC scenarios where he exacts revenge on the Kettleblacks and Cersei herself, and yet given the opportunity to do so.... he wanders off in the opposite direction.

the reason being that the connection Jaime once felt to Cersei has died. that bond was his reason for living, for doing anything at all - and now it's not enough for him to even stick around long enough to see what's happened to her in KL, never mind return to her side to exact revenge on her himself. in practise, he doesn't harbour the kind of action and rage he dreams about, or claims to Ilyn Payne. it's the same as how he claims he's Tywin's heir, and then keeps letting people off the hook t any given opportunity. like for all Jaime knows, he could die fighting """"the Hound"""", and never see Cersei again, and that's apparently just fine. the opposite of love isn't hate it's indifference etc. and no I don't think Jaime will ever feel truly indifferent to Cersei - she is his twin, the mother of his children, and the woman he has loved all his life. but I think it's entirely fair to say that the extremes of love and hate he felt within the context of their romance are gone, because the romance itself has gone. Jaime's feelings towards Cersei exist outside of that now.

returning to the valonqar prophecy. I don't think it's necessarily guaranteed that Jaime the valonqar, but I do think it would be myopic to claim that he isn't a real possibility. and since Cersei's end has to factor into what Jaime's is or isn't in some kind of way, I'll suppose that he is the valonqar for the sake of this post. it's not written, so I can't say how exactly I'll end up feeling about its execution, but per the previous paragraph, I don't imagine this will have anything to do with the 'Moonboy for all I know' shit. that was for AFFC. that was building to Jaime burning her letter. Jaime in TWOW is going to have left much of that behind, bc frankly he'll have other stuff to worry about.

but we know that Cersei will be dealing w wildfire (apart from what happens in the show, this is one of the most heavily foreshadowed events in the book), and whilst it's not clear when or why she'll use it, it seems like a natural site for the valonqar prophecy to come true, in whatever way it does. and Jaime has been here before w Aerys etc, this has perturbed him in other Cersei x wildfire scenes in AFFC, so it seems it's a likely full circle moment. potentially Tommen's life is wrapped up in this too - I think it's also foreshadowed that Cersei (I assume accidentally) will manage to kill Tommen in the wildfire blast as well. so like, sure, ig that would set the scene for valonqar Jaime. I've never really liked this prophecy for a whole host of reasons, but the idea of spurned lover Jaime tramping back to KL to kill Cersei over Moonboy is uh. ??? yeah im not worried about that

[as for the more sensitive implications of Jaime being the valonqar as Cersei's ex lover, which I believe exist regardless of whether the act is about Moonboy or not: I think that's an important conversation to be had, but not one I feel effectively able to have until we have the scene itself. so whilst i want to acknowledge that context, I've found that conversations aren't often productive when participants are each imagining a different version of the scene in their minds]

then we're just left to contemplate where exactly any of this comes in the broader picture of TWOW/ADOS. if it is (per the show) effectively the last act of the series, then idk. maybe Jaime dies in Cersei's wildfire/the general pyre that is KL by this point idk?? like ok sure. he saved the city once but he couldn't save it this time etc.

however I tend to believe that TLN will follow what happens in KL, or in the very least will follow Cersei's death. i'm never certain of this, but if not, it leaves you wondering what exactly Cersei, Aegon, Arianne, Joncon etc are even doing in the south throughout all this. like. carrying on as normal?? do they even notice TLN?? winter is setting in everywhere.

and I do fully believe Jaime will fight in TLN per the weirwood dream, widow's wail etc. Jaime's story is a redemption arc (whether ppl like that term or not, GRRM uses it himself), and fighting in TLN is a natural conclusion to Jaime's pivot to the pursuit of honour, and his arc's own gradual turn towards the northern storyline. Jaime's story has always been about leaving behind loyalty to individuals and institutions, and instead fighting for causes he believes in, according to his own set of values. there's also the fact that he has to attain widow's wail somehow (which i'm certain he will), and as it is currently in KL.... it seems reasonable to assume that Jaime will be stopping by KL before he moves north again. this could be a tenuous assumption or it could be entirely correct, guess we'll see. but whatever

so if TLN is the final act of the series, then Jaime either dies in TLN (fine), or possibly even survives the series (though on this I always hedge my optimism). survival possibilities include becoming Hand or a KG to Bran, joining the Night's Watch, becoming a hedge knight, literally whatever. I like the idea that he stays with Brienne whatever ends up happening, but if it's some bittersweet long distance shit then sure whatever that's workable. however i do prefer to just assume he'll die for my own sake xo

[belladeum]

I think the main thing that bugged me wrt Belinda in this finale is just. well. the character assassination. The sudden fact that, spoilers + tldr, Conrad's World!Belinda expectations of perfect motherhood are inserted onto Belinda in the True Reality when it has no previous basis.

Throughout the series Belinda has been critical and wary of the doctor, warming up to him quite suddenly in the Interstellar Song Contest as a matter of sudden life/death perspective on account of all of the things she's seen with him -- and yet in that very episode she sees him torturing someone and just kinda lets it slide. Okay, odd, but we move on.

In Conrad's world she fulfils the role of model wife and mother in a relationship with the Doctor, something ludicrous that even the two of them find funny upon reality reset. We're primed to see this world and this state as wrong. Part of Condrad's World is ye olde classic sexism. She has a child, because of course the perfect couple must have a child, the perfect family, and she must love her child because what mother doesn't love their child? And she must want a child because what woman doesn't want a child?

We've never in the series seen or heard Belinda be interested in starting a family. Even within Conrad's World she senses this situation isn't right, that her child isn't real - she doesn't have a daughter.

And yet

When the Doctor brings her into that half-world where Unit can retain their memories of both Conrad's World and the true reality belinda is still very very protective of Poppy. She still holds that romantic relationship with the Doctor "John Smith" close to her.

I can understand why she might empathetically not want this child to die, but it's just so odd to me that while everyone else can shake off their existence in Conrad's world Belinda cannot or does not. She's still the doting perfect mother, willing to sacrifice anything for her child. There's something here about motherhood fundamentally changing someone - is this good or bad. Doesn't matter, the episode moves very quickly. Belinda is kept out of the action - though it is out of kindness at least, I can see her not wanting to leave a child alone, in a box, potentially forever, even ignoring Conrad's World's reality. And the Doctor encourages this because he's projecting his desire for family - for Susan, who he seems to be ignoring and has forgotten about in lieu of Poppy existing as his apparent daughter. Post-reset back into the True(ish) Reality the idea that Ruby can remember Poppy is probably it's the Doctor's wish she still exists.

Even when Belinda tries to laugh it off having forgotten "her daughter", she's convinced that Poppy needs to exist, that she must have been happy to have her. And then the Doctor makes it so. Reality is changed so that of course Belinda wanted a daughter, had one the whole time! And of course she's happy with her family, raising her child alone whilst working full-time in medicine. It just. It just feels so unfair to just overwrite Belinda with this desire, or just acceptance, of the responisbilty of raising a child which stemmed from a bigoted man's wish of a "perfect happy world" where everyone is forced to be happy because to Doubt that this situation is anything but, and that someothing is wrong and you are, in fact, Unhappy, is Wrong and Bad. From a story standpoint the retcon works perfectly, Belinda wanted to get home so so her chlld wouldn't be alone because no-one would be there to look after he otherwise. But from a character standpoint it's diappointing.

And as a side-note which I mentioned earlier: the Doctor is so obsessed with Poppy because of the idea of him having a miraculous daughter, of a family, of not being the Last Time Lord (somewhere, Rogue and Flood!Rani are rolling their eyes at his dramatics) is very strange when he literally has had contact from the very alive Susan. Unless we're meant to assume that was a psychic projection from Belinda (who he thought was dead at the time) or of Poppy, from the future, wanting to be brought into existence... IDK. The Doc could have easily used Poppy as a way to want to search for Susan, but he didn't. We've just kind of. Forgotten her whole appearance. Very odd.

Still waiting on her to be The Boss.

tldr sexism? weh.

[fruitysalamander1398]

i hate to see movies compared to each other just because they deal with some of the same general subject matter. i made a post about this awhile ago wrt the godfather and goodfellas, but i think another really egregious example of this is when people try to compare the deer hunter and apocolypse now. obvious disclaimer, everyone who has spoken to me for more than five seconds knows that deer hunter is my favorite movie of all time. and additional disclaimer i also LOVE apocalypse now and its one of my favorite movies. i just checked my letterboxd top 30 list and i apparently have it as number 14 on there lmao. and so i feel like people comparing these is particularly annoying to Me because they are so different.

i think the impulse with this one is maybe a little more understandable than my previous example because they came out in the same year and are both part of the new hollywood movement. both are very long and made by slightly insane (/pos lol) auteur directors. but in terms of actual substance, the only thing these two movies really have in common is that they are both anti war movies that deal with the vietnam war.

but the themes, intentions behind these movies, and the way they use and explore their subject matter could not be more different. the deer hunter is a character piece about trauma responses, love, and the community of the town. it literally spends about fifteen minutes of its three hour runtime showing actual scenes of war. the hometown setting is by far the more important setting and overall the movie relies on character dynamics and development, and how the characters undergo a loss of innocence and of themselves. the movie is about relationships.

apocolypse now on the other hand is basically a horror movie. the entire movie takes place within a war zone and the setting itself is the primary focus imo. it's through the setting that we understand the psyche of the characters as they journey slowly to their destination. it's very much a dante's inferno and becomes very surreal by the end. there's also a strong sense of mystery that serves as a thread through the entire film which only gets weirder and more fuzzy as it goes on. it's very trippy and otherworldly while the deer hunter is grounded in its characters and their quiet interactions.

to compare these two is kind of insane imo. they examine totally different aspects of their subject matter and convey things through a completely different tone. both do an incredible job at what they are trying to do and what they are trying to do has nothing to do with each other.

[rhythmic-idealist]

posting a reaction message sent to my partner after we watched Severance S2E6:

also like What do you Mean miss huang is literally just doing some kind of fellowship for some kind of school opportunity.

the previous episode was really drilling into the racial dynamics surrounding Milchick so I read that mirror scene in part as just, the amount that he is perpetuating some of his own experience on Miss Huang and is probably quite aware of it but has enough beef with a ten year old to get past it

anyway. it's good fucking writing because. I can't fault it! it isn't an unbelievably far cry from situations where children are able to volunteer in limited capacities at a hospital or retirement home setting. high control environments where something has happened to the people inside them to in some capacity legally and culturally strip them of a level of perceived humanity while not stripping them of any actual humanity, and the ways children are introduced into those systems. if you're going to normalize a subhuman class you don't always wait until children are "old enough" - you sometimes wait, but you sometimes start the ugliness very early wrt how those children are going to conduct themselves around that entire class of people

[sea-buns]

hey to a gorgug liker what do you think about his nightmare section from sophomore year? cause I feel like the horror there is less “ah my grandparents were racist” and more “fuck am I being a stereotype? are the people who hate me right about me?” cause wrt to his having to modulate between barbarian and artificer in fhjy it’s like. idk

oh boy do I have thoughts

Tbh, I had zero recollection of the racism stuff until reading this. It was just SO MINOR. His trial in the forest felt really lackluster to me. I feel like everyone else's really dug into an issue at the core of their character and his felt more like "everyone is getting a trial, what do we do for gorgug?" And idk if that was just a bad delivery/call on Brennan's part or if it could have been helped by Zac engaging more in it but it just. Didn't feel like anything. It was a lot more about the dice than the horror of the claustrophobia and the bugs and you've never fit in anywhere you live to make yourself smaller wherever you go you're just the loser who hits hard. Like yeah I guess there was an overarching theme of Gorgug gaining confidence in himself but it was done very poorly imo.

And I think his trial in the forest was wrong for putting such an emphasis on his intelligence. I think that would have been much better suited in fy, back when he was still being heavily bullied, but beyond that it felt like a quick and easy thing for them to grab. Yes, he had insecurities about his intelligence with all the complications with Zelda. But, to me, the focus of fhsy was his HEART. It put a spotlight on how his social circle has grown, and his bully is his friend now, and he's not alone anymore. His interactions with Ayda, the friendship book, trying to help Fabian, I believe in you spring break, it's Gorgug keep going. I made a post earlier in the season (including a great addition by another user) that I think articulates that emphasis on his emotional intelligence very well.

Fhjy HOWEVER. I think it's doing everything that sy failed at. It's giving him space to have an inner conflict. It's addressing lots of little issues and conflicts he's had over the campaign and combining them into one coherent piece. Like, guy was in a relationship pretty much all of fy, and then dealt with the fallout in sy, but I don't think we've EVER seen as much quality relationship development with Gorgug as we have in jy. He and Fig spent an entire summer together trapped in a tour bus and no season has indicated that bond and friendship more than this one. He and Riz have found something to bond over, meanwhile in previous seasons there was pretty much zero one-on-one personal interaction between them. Fabian expressed sadness over Gorgug leaving the Owlbears, because it was the only thing they had that was just for them to hang out and be friends.

Just with that, we're already doing leagues more with Gorgug's character than we ever have. And I haven't even STARTED on his barbificier journey, oh dear god lmao.

Gonna preface this bit with a post I made before the season even started. It was about Zac's steady improvement in his performances with every PC, and how I was predicting that it was gonna culminate into a Gorgug that does him the justice he deserves. It was initially supposed to be a criticism, but I got a little lost in the sauce of loving my boy lol. Still very relevant to the topic of this ask!

God, where do I START?? Addressing his relationship with rage? I'll be honest, I didn't think that would ever be used as a character arc. And I'm not even sure why I've felt that way. I just didn't think... I didn't think about how he might've had a dislike for his own rage. Like, the WAY he rages isn't bad by any means, but I don't think it ever crossed my mind how actually harmful his lessons to sing to combat rage were. No, I did not like the way Porter went about teaching him (a bit too unsupportive of his capabilities and reminiscent of shitty teachers for my liking). But his point about EMBRACING anger; that rage is not bad and does not— should not— need to be stifled. THAAAAT. That opened up such an interesting dialogue for Gorgug.

I do appreciate the beginnings of Gorgug's interest in artificing in fhsy. I think the crumbs of it back then did a great job of leading into his larger commitment to multiclassing. And I think what he's been doing with it this season is exactly what was lacking in his section of the nightmare forest. His trial was a puzzle, based entirely on die rolls, where his solution after failing even when he's assisted by the enemy is to essentially give up. I understand that facing their fears was the whole point of the trials, but his section came off as incredibly anticlimactic and unfulfilling. Just the fact that it was a trial based on stat numbers more than the development of the character itself.

Where junior year succeeds in actually showcasing his intelligence and the evolution of the worth he holds in himself is with the hands-on approach it takes. Yes, the academic rolls are still dice and stats, but there's a physical manifestation that wasn't there before. Gorgug is smart when it comes to getting his hands dirty. It is in the practical applications of his skills that his brand of intelligence shines the most.

And while, once again, I did not LIKE Porter's heavy resistance to multiclassing....I have to admit that I don't think Gorgug would have had such a boost in confidence without that struggle. Even if my boy had trouble expressing it to Porter verbally, HE STOOD UP FOR HIMSELF. Instead of simply rolling over and agreeing that he wasn't built for a technical class and it was stupid to try– he was DEFIANT.

The kid who said "I'm a dumbass. Eat me you stupid bug." took on FOUR CLASSES. Three school years worth of artificer simultaneously. AND stayed with the Owlbears. AND went along on party missions to help Kristen's candidacy. AND was always on deck to help the party with the overarching plotline.

AND HE ACED IT!!! THE FIRST BARBIFICER THAT THE AGUEFORT ADVENTURING ACADEMY HAS EVER SEEN!!!!! He is paving the way for every unprecedented multiclass that follows.

Just in comparison to who he was in the previous season, the amount of drive and self-worth he's gained is astounding. In my eyes, it's done more than enough to makeup for the way his development fell flat in sophomore year.

i hope this fulfilled the ask in the way you were hoping! i told you i'd get carried away lmao. writing a bunch about any of zac's characters is always such a joy. gorgug had always been my favorite of the bad kids but i always found myself wishing he went deeper, y'know? and now it's real. my precious anxious boy has been handled so well. and watching zac's growth as a performer has been such a blast.

thanks for the ask! :D

[becauseimamastermind]

Is it true that hunger games tiktok is experiencing post nut clarity. so to speak. wrt sotr?

What do you hc happened to Tigris’s parents? I always imagine she was the daughter of Crassus’s sister, not his brother, but I love hearing what other ppl think!

I have heard hunger games tiktok is experiencing post nut clarity with sotr but don't have any example myself but I have this.

if that tells you anything.

but to the part I'm excited about

TIGRIS' PARENTS.

Licinius and Ophelia!

I'm literally so excited

so! Licinius is Crassus' brother, I say Tigris is the daughter of Crassus' brother because Coriolanus and Tigris are always called and referred to as "the Snow cousins" canonically as well, so I do think Tigris has the last name Snow, which she would have from her father. So about that father

Licinius Snow. crazy sense of style. kind of very much based off Ika/@mr-nauseam 's post. Older than Crassus by 3 years, Grandma’am having him at 27 as opposed to 30 with Crassus. THATS IMPORTANT TO THIS FAMILY'S LORE BECAUSE MY GOD DID I FUCK THEM UP. He was pushed into a military career by their father, Xanthos (I haven't fledge out his character much yet but he was also a high up military man, often in the company of a certain barracks bunny, which after too many encounters (and some years in an official relationship), she got a ring on her finger) but since he had too much empathy to kill, he was discarded as weak and his younger brother, Crassus, came through as mommy and daddy's little shining star again, and did it. Having no remorse at the idea of taking a life. A rabbit, a human, he'd kill his closest companion if he needed to, life, death, it all meant nothing to him. So chucked out of the army life, he was a business man of sorts (still figuring that out). Licinius is confusing and I have kind of this resentment towards him for giving me nothing to go off, so to Ophelia!

Ophelia Snow, Tigris' mother. She was a lovely woman, doting, beautiful, everything Xanthos had taught Licinius to look for in a woman. SHE WAS ALSO HIS AGE. SHOULD SAY THAT. NOT EVERYONE IN THIS FAMILY WAS GROOMING MINORS. I'm still fledging a lot of her earlier life together, but she had some mental illness/ mental health condition that significantly, like meds, home ridden, worsened after Tigris' birth. So while she was ever loving, she wasn't exactly a stable mother figure, often being incapacitated from meds or very distant mentally while Tigris could be standing right next to her.

Because of Ophelia's exampled issues after birth, Crassus often used them in argument against Junia. Junia found out Crassus was (still) cheating after she had Coryo and confronted him about it and he claimed she was crazy, acting out of line, overreacting, and something along the lines of "has birth messed with your head?! wouldn't want another Ophelia, would we?" and that terrified Junia. She knew she wasn't experiencing some kind of postpartum psychosis or whatever, but with a previous case in the family (Ophelia's wasn't solely postpartum psychosis), no one in the family trying to protect her or help her from this man, Ophelia was kind of motherly towards her "before she lost her head" but that was gone, she was 19, that already opens up so many risks along the lines of pregnancy, she knew she didn't have the best case here, and that would be grounds to have a baby taken or kept away from her. that was her worst nightmare.

she's also who Tigris got her coat from, when she died during the war, she was a civilian casualty, I think Licinius killed himself when he got drafted, realised he was most likely going to die anyway and "coward-ed out" which is why he has no "honor" in the family, it was the one thing she still smelt like her, scent is a big thing in this family I suppose, although it did lose it pretty quickly, and was her one thing that she was allowed to keep from someone passed. Her father didn't really leave anything

THATS WHAT I HAVE THERE. I LOVE THE SNOW FAMILY LORE THAT IVE CREATED IN MY MIND AND ACCEPT AS CANON.