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sorry we're an hour in and this IS the greatest show they've ever made. delightful. enchanting. loser children and terrible lesbian counselors. veth being a hypocrite. emo voice-cracking luc brenatto. sam gming. beau and yasha trying to figure out how to talk to kids. anecdote about caleb making a little girl an entire fucking unicorn. swear jar. i've never been happier

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thinking abt how harrow needed the grave dirt placebo for the shuttle ride with ortus but didnt need it for the shuttle ride with gideon. thinking abt how harrow was too overwhelmed and overstimulated to start the prayer at canaan house with ortus but not when she was with gideon. im thinking. sir this is my emotional support griddle. weeping.

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Sunrise on the Reaping changes the whole game. Suddenly, Katniss isn't the chosen one anymore, or the only person who can make the capital pay for what they have done. She's just a girl with a long list of grievances, coming from a long line of people with even longer lists who have been trying to make them pay for years.

She finds her victory standing on the backs of hundreds or thousands of people who came before her. All pushing for the same goal, all guided by the same anger and grief and the need to go out on their own terms. The same things that caused Katniss to reach for the poisoned berries for her and Peeta in the first place.

When Katniss gives her "fire is catching" it echos the same purpose the districts have had for centuries; honour the dead, make the capitol take responsibility: Sejanus with the breadcrumbs, Reaper; who covered his dead with the capitol flag, Haymitch running with Louella to make Snow face what he'd done, Haymitch running again with Lou Lou, Katniss covering Rue in flowers, Peeta painting a mural of her for the gamemakers, so when the last stand finally comes she has all of her living allies behind her, but not only that. It's like Haymitch said: "Those 31 allies I boasted of to the head game maker? I can feel every one of them at my back"

She has every person who suffered at the hands of the capital, every person who was abused, every person who was reaped too soon, every person who died, standing at her back and in the end I think that's what gave her the strength to finish the fight.

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Kissen this is just Kissen from Godkiller.

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Sort of bums me out that so many people didn't seem to Get the Cat King so here are my thoughts:

So let's start with Edwin's crime. He uses something the cat desires (a sardine) to lure the cat to him and then uses an enchanted string to trap the cat with magic. He demands the answer to a question in exchange for its release. Edwin knows it is dangerous to use magic on a cat, that it violates Rules but he does it anyway.

Binding a creature and agreeing to set them free under a certain condition is very Classic Fairytale. its also a favourite trope of Neil Gaiman's (he did not write this show but his influence is there). In both the Sandman and his novel Stardust (and the film adaptation) trapping a creature with magic and demanding a task/favour in exchange for their freedom is an extremely important plot point. Edwin binding a cat and demanding an answer in exchange is exactly in line with this Fairytale trope

And so is the Cat Kings response. The Cat King is a trickster. What he does to Edwin is exactly what Edwin did to one of his subjects. He entices Edwin, he binds him with magic and when Edwin demands to be free he turns his own words against him "why all the fuss for one little spell?" Edwin did something wrong. He imposed his will/magic on another creature and the Cat King is punishing him for it in a way that is poetic. Its fairytale. its trickster. its classic.

I've also seen people complain that the task Edwin was given 'count all the cats' is 'impossible'...except its fucking not. Edwin does it. He does it so well he actually BEATS the Cat King ("you didn't count yourself" Are.You.Kidding.Me. Classic!Fairytale!Vibes!)

The Cat Kings choice to bind Edwin to Port Townsend is good on so many levels. From a storytelling perspective it forces characters who can travel anywhere in the world to stay in one place, and increases the stakes for these characters who are supposed to be on the run. From a genre perspective...its an excellent use of fairytale tropes using both Rules of magic, a protagonist who is unkind to a seemingly weak creature who is punished by a more powerful law, a binding, a task to complete, etc

Which just leaves the character perspective which it ALSO does really fucking well and introduces the final aspect to the Cat Kings character. He's seductive. He is responsible for Edwin, 100 years old ghost boy, finally unpacking his internalized homophpbia. he is the catalyst (cat pun not intended)

He pushes Edwin, challenges him, at times literally forces the truth out of Edwin, but he really never does violate his consent. Significantly Edwin is attracted to him, like its an important part of his character that he is. He may not like the Cat King but he is attracted to him!

The Cat King is such a great example of a trickster, a morally grey character who imposes a sense of justice on Edwin after he crosses a line, but also has his own selfish interests and meddles. Hes so important to the plot of the show, to Edwin's character arc, to the genre.

And he's just fun. Unapologetically queer, powerful, complicated. Silly little outfits. Petty cat behavior. Deep heart.

Some of you just didn't get it. And I'm sorry for you. because the Cat King is Excellent actually.

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DEAD BOY DETECTIVES S1 + TUMBLR REACTIONS

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Ianthe thought she was so fucking smart when she achieved lyctorhood before anyone else without seeing any of the chambers. Thought she was so clever to just eat her cavalier whole against the will of everyone.

How stupid must she have felt when she watched the birth of Paul, and realized that if she'd done more work, tried just a little harder, taken a step back and slowed down she could have united hers and Corona's souls for eternity.

Corona who cried that she hadn't been chosen at her sister's ascension. Ianthe who hadn't chosen her because she couldn't bear to lose her, like a naive fool. Choosing immortality condemned Ianthe to inevitably lose Corona. That moment she started the stop watch, and I'll bet never even realized until that impromptu birthday party.

And to rub it in Paul tells her there is still time for her and Naberius to be perfect, like she cared a scrap about Naberius. but there is no time for her and Corona, she and Corona will never have that chance again.

God she must have screamed and screamed

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i love how as you read more into tlt, the ninth house seems more and more normal. Like if i'm at an immoral evil government competition, and i use human fat as soap and animate skeletons to do menial labor, i'm gonna LOSE if my competition is the third house, represented by ianthe "who HASN'T eaten human flesh and fucked a corpse" tridentarius. My weird skeleton thing seems normal, suddenly. Well-adjusted, even. It's recycling. They're using resources in a sustainable way. Normal and regular and productive for a post-climate change apocalypse universe.

People go on and on about how Muir drops you into gtn hearing from the person who knows the least about whats happening, and does not hand hold the reader through the crazy shit that occurs, and that's all true. It truly is a crazy writing decision to make your first pov character come from the universe's equivalent of amish fundamentalists. But the reader is actually done a huge favor being dropped into the ninth house first, because we already understand that space is cold and what catholic nuns are, and what goths look like, and what lesbians are. Very little time is wasted in the first chunk of gtn ripping hair out of your head wondering what the fuck is going on, because for all of its strangeness, the ninth house is already the most familiar thing we're gonna get.

Because THEN we learn that this whole universe's medieval chivalry system is designed to groom people from CHILDREN to not only be exploited and used as human batteries for necromancers, but to LIKE it. to wax poetic about it. to confuse it for love, to write fucking academic papers about it! Then we learn about planet flipping, an act so horrific and violent it turns the planet's soul into a massive vengeful monster capable of killing GOD. Like what do you MEAN the animals "change"? Is this why noodle has six legs? I would MUCH prefer to wear skeleton makeup and repent forever if the alternative was to witness my family dog grow TWO EXTRA LIMBS because the planet he lived on fucking died. Suddenly, living in the asscrack of a planet where no light gets in seems like a sweet deal when the whole solar system is lit by a sun that MAKES YOU GO CRAZY. The ninth house's WORST sin, killing 200 babies to make Harrow, a waste of resources and an act so terrible it haunts Harrow for the entire span of her life, is like a BLIP compared to the death count Jod's empire. God even hears about it and he's like, no big deal! The cohort probably kills that amount of people in a DAY.

And its ALSO tragic because you realize that all of this trauma and abuse that Gideon goes through is not really because of the ninth house at all. It's really just an individual skill issue that she wasn't treated with compassion. Nobody hated her because she's jesus or a bomb, nobody even KNOWS she's a bomb. It's just Priamhark and Pelleamena being deeply guilty and scared people that motivates her treatment, and absolutely nothing else.

They did something bad, and they know it, and Gideon survived it, and they can't kill her to cover it up, and that's IT. They killed themselves for pride, because they were afraid of the consequences of their actions (both the baby killing and Harrow opening the tomb) coming back to bite them. You can argue this is the catholicism of it all, and I wouldn't say you're wrong, but compared to the cavalier system, where exploitation is in the very lining of the house's institutions, the ninth house is really removed from the space empire's blood factory. This is compared to the fourth house where they have tons of children to be CANNON FODDER to join the cohort at fucking 14, compared to the eight house uncle nephew fuckery, even the fifth house which actually does seems nice to live on but also seems to have the fourth house in some sort of fucked up political bear hug??? (maybe the fourth house has so many kids in order to fight the fifth's battles? which is EXACTLY what jod's whole empire is about; politely stirring your tea and acting nice while you destroy everything) compared to ALL OF THAT, the cruelty that Gideon faces is really more a bug of the ninth's system than a feature.

There's nothing baked into the culture and everyday life of the ninth house that necessitated that cruelty; in fact, for such a pragmatic and resource-scarce place, it's WEIRD that a strong able-bodied young person was treated like a waste of space and resources. It could just have easily not happened, if Harrow's parents had been different people. Maybe they were products of their environment, but so was Harrow, and she values Gideon's life SO MUCH that she'd literally rather carve out parts of her own brain than exploit her. Gideon grows up knowing really NOTHING about cavaliers, so remote from the horrors of the empire that she develops an idea of what the cohort is from porn magazines. And in a lot of ways, that upbringing was desolate and terrible, and in a lot of other ways it literally DID NOT HAVE TO BE.

Gideon's MAIN THING is that she wants to be useful, to be needed, to be loved and it SUCKS that she couldn't even get it in the one place where she was actually an invaluable resource, where the death empire had the weakest reach. Gideon can't even blame her lack of love on the fucked up chivalry system like everyone else can because it JUST WASNT REALLY RELEVENT!?!?! This is like if i rolled up to the trauma competition and everyone else was raised in a nuclear warzone by wolves or something and i grew up in like, the suburbs and was raised by teachers and i somehow STILL WON. truly what the fuck guys.

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if aught but death part me and thee

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so ive tried to play in a dnd campaign myself. it didnt work out cause of roommate stuff at the time forced me to drop out of it but being on the player side and not knowing what was going to happen made me SOO anxious. waiting for my next game after my first one was so grossly overwhelming for me and it wasnt even my dm’s fault (he was great!! and i enjoyed making a character with him + playing my first session!!)

but i feel like if i tried again as a dm this time, i would manage it. bc then it would be Me at the helm and i wouldn’t be so anxious abt what was going to happen to my character specifically. i also feel as if i would be an… emotional dm. my players having emotional beats/moments with each other? I’m Cryin In The Club. my player(s) having emotional beats/moments with my npcs/me? oougjgj im cryin. how dms hold themselves together, i’ll never know

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i love that literally half of the table rocked up to a regency setting, where actions only mean what is said about them and social graces are everything, and decided that they were gonna be the most socially awkward motherfuckers in existence

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The awesome thing about the band of boobs is that they're soooooo soldier poet king... but not in the way you'd think.

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thinking about Him again. Beverly Toegold V my most beloved little boy <3

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had the urge to draw young moonie as this photograph

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beverlin will always be THAT BITCH to me. like. it’s the duality of being in love with the chosen one and being in love as the chosen one. it’s the both of them saying “he’s too good for me.”

like erlin will never be as strong or brave or significant as Beverly. he isn’t the one who killed the gods or the devils, he isn’t the one time was reset for over and over, he isn’t the one who saved the world. he was just one of the pawns on the board, the body on the altar. loving a hero of the realm casts a hell of a shadow. your hands must seem so small against his. how are you supposed to deal with that? when you’ve never been good with a sword, when all you do is give yourself over to other people?

and bev’s love is dangerous, because power is a magnet for risk. you kidnap lois lane because she doesn’t punch as hard as superman. you lock erlin in a crystal because the heart of a hero is the only part that’s flesh. there’s always a prison gem or an eternal damnation, and bev can’t shake it off. he’ll never be able to just sit one out because part of being important is that the personal things aren’t anymore, part of being important is that you never really get to go home. you don’t stop moving, something always needs to be saved, someone always has to intervene. your life isn’t your own. a hero is selfless. he puts himself aside.

bev walks, erlin trails. erlin rests and bev has to stay on his feet. it’s this inherent distance that they didn’t ask for, that they can only bridge if they really mean it, right? but it works. it works because they love each other. because they’re wrong when they say “he’s too good for me.” because an angel needs the ground when his wings are failing. and a cleric needs something to worship.

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sweet sixteen