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Kathryn Hahn and the season 2 press quest

Earlier I made this crack vid to cheer myself up a bit and it made me laugh so much. I hope it can make you laugh too :')

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Agatha All Along Episode 7 - "Death's Hand In Mine" Tarot Analysis Part 2

Part the Second - Here I’m gonna talk about three separate readings - the Reading Lilia starts for Billy, the 2 cards he draws, and Agatha’s spread. The latter two could theoretically be dismissed, because neither Billy or Agatha know what they’re doing or have any real intention as they’re doing the drawing. But that doesn���t mean they’re not worth looking at, because sometimes even without a specific intention, the cards could be trying to say something. Also because it’s fun to analyze, so why not?

If this is the first post of mine you're seeing, I am definitely an amateur, so it's possible I get some things wrongs. I have done analysis on other episodes, and also Lilia's True Reading, and links to that are at the bottom. So here we go:

Billy's Reading - The Traveler - The Magician - So he’s been associated with The Magician for awhile now, before the show even came out. Upright the card represents power, taking action, creativity, and resourcefulness, all things Billy has shone in spades. He has the power he inherited from Wanda, he’s consistently shown amazing problem-solving skills, and creative approaches to getting what he wants; which includes approaching Agatha in the first place. He has, and has always had, everything he needs to go after what he wants. Reversed also has some fitting aspects; untapped potential, lack of clarity, poor planning. He is an impulsive teen, after all, and struggles with controlling his full power - fitting well within his original question - namely “Am I William or Billy?”

What’s Missing - The Sun - This is interesting, because the Sun represents energy, enthusiasm, and success. It’s a super positive card. Even the Reversed is mild; basically a call from your inner child saying ‘come out and play’, although it also refers to feeling a bit down and experiencing temporary setbacks. Lilia calls out “reunion” ,and that catches Billy’s attention, but that’s not normally part of the reading of that card at all. The only thing I can think of is that Lilia is already seeing something in the reading; she’s seeing that what’s missing is a connection to William/Billy’s childhood, and the strongest representation of that is his brother Tommy.  Personality wise, Tommy fits the card very well - of the twins, he was more energetic and happy-go-lucky, and we associate him very strongly with Billy’s childhood. Not sure, entirely. It could just be that the writers decided to fudge the meaning a little, or a lot, for the desired effect, but they’ve been so good with the cards otherwise, and there’s better cards they could have chosen if they wanted one with reunion in it’s meaning. But lets look at what else this card could potentially mean for Billy. One is that, since the card is referencing Tommy, it could be an indication that his twin, wherever he is, is doing just fine. Happy, successful, full of energy. Or it could mean that, one of the reasons he doesn't know who he is, is because he’s missing something; confidence, enthusiasm, or even just the belief that he will be successful in his quest. Without the rest of the reading, it’s hard to tell. 

And we don’t get the rest of the reading. The Path Behind is drawn, but we don’t get to see what it is. It doesn’t really matter; we know what was on his Path Behind. Westview, Wanda, Vision, The Kaplans, and more recently Alice; the Knight of Wands. It could be any number of cards drawn, too many for me to even speculate, although it would have been fun to see. The rest of the cards aren’t even drawn; which is fair, most of the rest refer to Billy’s future and that would be spoilers. I guess we’ll find out!

Billy’s Draws - The Chariot and Seven of Swords Reversed. They don’t know the layout they’re playing with, so he’s just drawing randomly, and it’s a bit unclear who he’s drawing FOR. So let’s take it one at a time.

The Chariot - The way I kind of like to describe it is that it’s kind of a bulldozer of a card. It mostly represents determination, focus, victory, assertion, conquest. On the Reversed, it represents aggression, lack of control, and lack of direction. (Given that he pulled the card without intention, it would have been very fitting and VERY FUNNY if he had pulled it Reversed). It does speak to their state of mind at this point; there’s a focus to getting to the end of the Road and survive, and beat it, but there’s the chance that this determination is maybe misguided; they’re trying to brute-force their way through a trial that requires intuition and finesse. In my opinion, this card is a warning; they won’t win by being the Chariot. 

 Seven of Swords Reversed - Billy says the Reversed is the opposite of the Upright, but that's a simplification and shows just how inexperienced he is with reading Tarot. Reversed is a flip from the Upright, but it’s more like… it’s the same energy, but redirected. For example The Tower Upright represents destruction and chaos and upheaval, and it's kind of a violent card that way. The Reverse is equally about the chaos and upheaval, and violent in it’s own way, but it’s transformation, not destruction. In the case of Seven of Swords Reversed, which is what he draws, his interpretation is off because he expects it to be a matter of honesty being the opposite of deception. Upright is about deceit, betrayal, and selfishness - deceiving others. Take the same deceptive energy, but you flip it’s direction and you get self-deception- deceiving yourself, self-sabotage, which is what the Reversed actually represents. In this case, it could mean a couple of things. Taken with the Chariot, it continues the warning; their bull-headedness and single-minded focus on getting to end is only deceiving themselves into thinking they can do this without Lilia. It could be a card specific to Agatha - she is her own worst enemy, she uses deception as a mask and as protection, but she’s doing the most damage to herself. For Billy, it could also represent some of his imposter syndrome; he still doesn’t truly know who he is, and it’s an uncomfortable situation to be in. 

Agatha's draw - I had to pause the show to try and catch what she drew, but I think it's important. I’m not gonna go super in depth, but I do want to get a quick read, and see what it might be foreshadowing or telling us about Agatha. Note that other than drawing the Hanged Man second, I don't know the order she drew them, so I can't even begin to guess how they play together, or if it’s meant to be read the same way as Lilia would read them. I might take a guess on the two whose positions I know for sure, but otherwise I may ignore it. I think it’s also interesting to note that Agatha doesn’t put ANY of them directly into their correct space; they’re mostly readable as upright from Agatha’s position, but all of them are cocked, off true Upright or Reversed. Now of course, we know that’s because she doesn’t care about Tarot a whit, and isn’t thinking about it, but it could also indicate that any of these cards could be read as either.

Five of Wands - it is in fact the Five of Wands in the Traveler position, and man was that a tricky one to figure out, since most of it was covered up by the Ten of Swords. Luckily, they’re using the Rider-Waite deck, and there’s just enough showing that identifying the card was possible. Five of Wands is a combative card - competition, rivalry, strife, and disagreement, fighting for dominance. And outwardly, that’s Agatha all over. She’s abrasive, she likes to poke the bear, and she deliberately eggs people on, because let’s be real, she gains power that way. It’s not always a bad thing; she’s survived for so long because she’s competitive and they might have all died during Jen’s trial if she wasn’t so quick to snap Jen out of her funk. Reversed speaks to someone who internalizes their problems, and we all know Agatha would rather die than admit she has problems or needs help. So Agatha can definitely be the Five of Wands.

The Hanged Man - This is the one she drew second. Hanged Man represents taking a pause, looking at things from new perspectives and letting go. Reversed represents delays, stalling, indecision and crossroads. From what I can gather, this is telling Agatha that she needs to stop and take a look around her instead of barrelling through. She’s so unwilling to look at things from a new perspective, unwilling to let go of the things that have allowed her to survive and it’s not serving her anymore. At the moment, she’s stuck, and can’t go forward. The card is another warning, but it also gives her the solution; stop and breathe, and open up the mind to new possibilities. 

Clockwise from the Hanged Man, we have Two of Wands - discovery, progress, planning, moving forward, but on the Reversed, fear of the unknown, disorganization, lack of planning. It’s a card about taking a spark of inspiration and moving forward towards your goals. Fitting, actually, for how the journey started for Agatha; there was a spark of an idea; a decision to travel the Road, and the momentum to go for it, assemble the Coven, and start. But Agatha didn’t have a particularly clear goal in mind, other than getting power back and hiding from the Salem Seven, and that her progress forward has been haphazard, inefficient, and beset by problems. So far in her draws, its cards that are basically telling her to slow the everloving fuck down and actually think things through. 

Next up Wheel of Fortune - Highkey, my favorite card in the deck, and the one I associate most with. It’s a card about change; everything is in a cycle and everything is temporary, both good and bad luck. Upright speaks to destiny and good luck, but also that there are things changing outside your control and you just have to deal. Reversed, bad luck and resistance to change, but also breaking cycles, especially those that need to be broken. Both readings have their positive and negative connotations, but we’re here to talk about what it means for Agatha. Taking everything into account, I think what it means is that she is at a critical turning point; the Wheel can swing in any direction, and it’s gonna be up to her how she deals with it. She can meet her destiny head on, and maybe good luck will come her way, and if she chooses kindness, she can be met with kindness back. She could resist the changes about to happen, and be beset with problems, and the Wheel can swing negative. Or she could break the cycle entirely; break the cycle of trauma that kept her angry and jaded, break the cycle of abuse that kept witches persecuted for centuries, break the rules of the Road. Again. The Wheel also reminds us that even good fortune is temporary, and we should cherish it while it exists. At the moment, she has a Coven - she needs to embrace them while they’re still her Coven. 

Next - The World - Upright it refers to completion, integration, accomplishment, travel. Reversed; seeking personal closure, shortcuts, delays. This card feeds really nicely from the past cards; It talks about having achieved goals and feeling whole and potentially a greater understanding of the world around you. It’s a cycle that has come to a close, completed, a reassurance after the changeability of the Wheel of Fortune. But like some of the earlier cards, the Reversed suggests that while completion is near, there’s some obstacle, mostly self-imposed. Lack of focus, lack of planning, a desire for shortcuts and an easy road have led to hardship and not true achievement. It says that one should re-inspect their goals. It’s not hard to see how this can apply to Agatha - every trial, she’s been looking for the shortcut, for a cheat to get through the Road, which suggests that she’s been looking at it the wrong way, and she needs to figure out what her real goal for Road is. We’ve been given some indication she has unfinished business - that with Rio, and what happened to her son; and maybe her real purpose on the Road, whether she knows it or not, is to gain closure on that. 

Page of Swords is next, and its placement is why I haven’t spent a lot of time talking about how most of these cards relate to the “Safe Passage” layout. If she drew it properly, with The Traveler first, that means Hanged Man would be “What’s Missing” and we would land on this one as “Windfall”... which I have a really hard time reading that way. It’s a sword card, which is a high energy suit. Upright it refers to curiosity, energy, new phases, communication, new ideas. Reversed is haste, undelivered promises, unforeseen events. All talk, no action. Which, while the Reversed speaks to how Agatha has behaved on the road, and the promises she made to… well everyone in the Coven, I’m really not sure the other side applies. Perhaps it’s what she needs to do in order to avoid the pitfalls promised by the earlier cards? There is one other thing though; Page is a face card, and face cards could also refer to people in her life. And who does the Page describe pretty well? An aspiring witch like Billy. Maybe if she plays her cards right, at the end of the journey she could find herself with a mentee, a student to guide under her wing. It’s a tricky reading, and I’m really not sure about my interpretation there.

Finally, in the Destination - Ten of Swords. Agatha is going to lose. And Lose BADLY. Ten of Swords is all about hitting rock bottom, betrayal, deep wounds, and loss. There’s nothing left to do but pick yourself up and move forward. If it wasn’t clear which way the Wheel was going to swing earlier, this all but says it. If she’s lucky, the Reverse will also come into play; clarity and recovery. From the ashes of defeat, she could rise again, wiser, smarter, better. She could let go of all the old hurts and gain hope and a new sense of self and purpose. One can only hope.

There’s one more card I want to talk about. I’ve talked about it a few times already, but I want to mention it here. 

Lilia’s Final Card - The Tower Upright. Lilia, you absolute LEGEND. We've talked about this one a lot. But now everything makes sense - Why specify the Tower Reversed earlier? So that it could be turned Upright when needed. And what happens when you have an upright tower? Your world turns upside down. Lilia, always seeing the past and the future and the present, in the end, she made her own damn fate - she chose to face destruction and chaos head on because it saved her coven. And because she knows what her future has in store for her. It’s such a beautiful move from the writers; the setup and execution of it was perfect, and it shows just how much care and love were put into the characters, that Lilia got such a cool moment with one simple flip of a card. I just couldn’t end this analysis without touching on what was one of my favorite moments in an episode that was filled with so many of them. 

Anyways; that’s it for my analysis for now; there’s only two more episodes left and without Lilia shuttling back and forth between time, it’s unclear if we’ll get more tarot cards, but if anything pops up, I’ll be sure to talk about it. God knows, when I started this, I didn't actually think it would turn into a series, but here we are. It’s been an absolute pleasure getting to do a deep dive on the Tarot in the show, and doing a little bit of close-reading/media analysis within it. I feel like it’s also helped me understand Tarot a little bit better than I did before. I hope you’ve enjoyed it as much as I have!

Links to Past Posts

Episodes 1-3  Episode 4  Episode 5  Episode 6  Episode 7 part 1

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Tarot Time - Agatha All Along, Episode 7 - "Death's Hand in Mine" Part 1

HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS EPISODE. There's so much to talk about with regards to the Tarot used in this episode. I had to take a couple of days and watch it a couple of times to catch everything. First off, all of the kudos to the writers - their use of tarot is inspired, the way they connected it throughout the show was BRILLIANT, and I honestly didn't see the reveal that Lilia was seeing her final reading coming. I am legitimately in awe of these writers.

So lets talk about it, as this is mostly going to be me trying to wrap my head around everything that happened. As always, I'm an amateur, so I may get things wrong. I'm also splitting this up into two parts because there's A LOT. First part is Lilia's Reading, the Second part is going to be all of the other cards drawn in the episode.

First up; Lilia's True Reading. I'm starting with this one because I've already talked about a number of the cards and what they mean, although even they take on some new aspects now that they are revealed to be part of the final draw. If you haven't read my earlier posts, there's links at the bottom of this one. This is also going to be tough for me, because while I have a decent familiarity with what each card symbolizes, I've never been particularly strong when it comes to layouts, and how to take in the cards as a whole reading instead of individual pieces. But also, someone can correct me if I'm wrong, "Safe Passage" is a layout that - while visually is based on the Celtic Cross - is made up for the show.

The Traveler is The Queen of Cups - Lilia. She described this card in the show - Full of intuition, but also calm, compassionate and nurturing. Warm hearted in tune with those around her - though in this case not consciously, since earlier callouts of the cards were done involuntarily and out of time. She has some aspects of a Reversed reading; her gaps and out-of-time phasings indicate a bit of emotional insecurity, and by her own admission she's bottled things up so she doesn't have to deal with the pain of seeing the future. But the Upright has been stronger with her by far. The fact that she put a sigil on Billy to give him time to come to terms with who he is speaks volumes about her compassion. It's a card that fits her to a T. I also love the modified card - for the most part, they're using a bog-standard Rider-Waite Deck, but most of the cards are in this drawing are modified. The Queen is usually depicted sitting in a throne, but this deck has her in front of a table - ready to divine and interpret and intuit. Less above her people than the normal card, and more of an equal.

What's Missing - Three of Pentacles - The Coven. I talked in depth about this one before. The only thing that changed is who the reading is for - in the first episode it showed up, the reading was for Agatha. But she wasn't the only one who lost her original coven, Lilia lost hers too. She needed them as much as Agatha did; after all, what is a witch without her coven? And as much as they bicker and lack trust in each other, they have become what they've been missing. This card is modified by making the figures standing in a group look like the Coven - Lilia, Agatha, Jen, Billy, Alice, and yes, even Rio. Oddly enough, not Sharon, suggesting either a) the art department didn't have enough room to fit her in, b)she was never a true witch, therefore not part of the Coven, or c) she was close enough to death even before the Road that Rio was essentially following her - metaphorically.

Path Behind - Knight of Wands - Alice. I talked a lot about this card in episode 5, and I don't know that there's a lot to add here. Lilia goes for the simple definition; a knight full of fire and energy. She leaves out the impulsiveness, but probably has to do with sentimentality and choosing to remembering her heroism. Path behind is obvious; her death was significant, and affected the Coven strongly. Since this is Lilia's reading, I think Alice's death is maybe the catalyst for her to start really confronting her own mortality, and her own Path. Again, the card is modified, depicting a knight holding a staff (interchangeable name for Wands) in the same stance Alice was using to save Agatha. Normally it's a knight on a reared-up horse, with the staff held upright. Both versions of the card indicate a very aggressive, action-oriented person, which Alice very much is.

Path Ahead - The High Priestess - Jen. This one is making me FERAL. So the card here is barely modified - the only difference is the High Priestess looks like Jen. And I've talked about what that means in the first post I made about tarot in this show. What it means HERE, however, is super interesting. First of all, Lilia uses the phrase "unwilling or unable to use it" which specifically refers to a Reversed reading, even though the card itself was drawn Upright. And we know that while Jen succeeded in her Trial, all it really did was help her feel confident in her knowledge of the craft; her origins as a root-worker. It didn't remove her bindings. So in some ways, she's not yet the High Priestess Upright, But given that this is the Path Ahead, I think it means she will be. But what does it mean that she is the Path Ahead? I have a guess, but stick with me here. First of all, The High Priestess is the master of the unconscious and spirituality. Secondly, the Path Ahead is for the Traveler, meaning it's specifically LILIA'S Path Ahead. Also, There's a line in the Ballad about "Spirits as our Guide." So my guess, is at some point, Jen is going to be unblocked, and when she is, she's gonna call on the spirits of those who died on the Road - including Lilia. There's a reason Lilia was okay making the sacrifice she did, and why she was so insistent on Jen specifically getting out of there. I could be wrong, but I think the signs are there, and I cannot wait to see if I'm right.

Obstacles - Three of Swords - Agatha. Interesting, this one probably has several implications. Three of Swords represents heartache and grief. For Lilia specifically, one of her biggest obstacles has been her grief over seeing everyone she knows and loves die well before they do, and being unable to stop it. It's stopped her from using her power to it's full potential and kept her from connecting with and caring about people. She's needed to let that go, accept that Death comes for everyone, and that her visions having meaning and purpose, even if she can't change them. The card is mostly the same, they've just put a figure in the foreground that doesn't normally exist, aka Agatha. So it also kind of implies that Agatha, specifically Agatha's own heartache, has also been a giant obstacle to Lilia, and probably the coven as a whole - continuing the theme that actually, Agatha is her own worst enemy, which tracks.

Windfall - Tower Reversed - William/Billy/Teen. I've already talked about how this relates to Billy, but this reading is for Lilia. So the personal transformation is HERS. Violent and disruptive, but she'll become something new. What will she become? A spirit, maybe? Something else, something more? Or is it that in her final moments, she becomes the strongest, most complete version of herself? I'm inclined towards something beyond - she looks almost ecstatic when she draws it, and tied together with her Path Ahead being The High Priestess, I think she realizes while she may die, she's not done, and she's gonna be GLORIOUS. The card here isn't significantly modified, I believe it might be, but it was so quick I couldn't catch exactly how.

Destination - Death - Rio. And we get the (highly telegraphed) reveal that Rio is Death. Normally the card is Black Knight on a White Horse, but here it's just Rio in Grim Reaper guise. Makes sense, given that in this universe she predates Tarot, so in this deck, the card is based on her. Reading superficially, it's just that all roads lead to Death. But the card is more complicated than that and Lilia knows it. Because the Death card isn't just about physical death. It's about embracing the endings and accepting fate so that something new can begin. The personal transformation promised as the Windfall cannot happen unless one is willing to let the old self end. And Rio is the original Green Witch. A flower cannot grow without nutrients, and soil is enriched by what dies in it. So Lilia knows at this point she has to die. But it's okay now, because it's not an end, it's a new beginning. And I'm crying as I'm writing this. And I think the writers were SO CLEVER that the last shot we see of Lilia is of her as young girl, with her mentor saying "Let's Begin".

I think overall the writers have been very good with their use of tarot, and their layout is very cool. I also think it's very smart that they've associated certain cards with certain witches, and that the words Lilia was using in association with the cards were their basic definitions only. It makes sense; we're talking about a visual medium, and the way she did it was punchier, and more dynamic than doing an in depth interpretation of the cards. But what it didn't do was give us the reading as a whole, and almost tricked the audience into forgetting or dismissing the idea that the reading was for Lilia alone instead of the coven, and that the cards are working together to paint a fuller picture. But this episode has also shown that somebody on the writing staff knows their tarot, or at the very least did a lot of research. And I think there's a deeper interpretation to be had; Lilia's died, but she is not done.

I'm so excited for the last two episodes. I don't know if we'll see more cards after this, but I'm not ruling it out as a possibility. I also have the rest of the cards that were drawn this episode, which I'll go into in Part 2 of this (maybe 3, who knows, there were a LOT of cards). It should be up soon, but I need a bit of a break after writing this one. hope you all enjoyed it!

Here's the Links to Past Episodes

Episode 1-3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7 Part 2

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Agatha All Along - Episode 6 "Familiar By Thy Side"

The Tower Reversed - Our first explicit mention of a Reverse reading, this one's triggered as Lilia reads Billy Kaplan's palm during his Bar Mitzvah. As I've said in past tarot posts, I'm an amateur, so I could be misinterpreting/missing things in my analysis. I do my best.

LET'S F'ING GO.

So starting with the obvious. The Tower is a notoriously scary card, and Reversed readings are often thought to be more negative, but it's not true in this case. The Tower Reversed is mostly about a personal transformation, a HUGE one. Like the upright reading, upheaval and change is a huge part of it, but Reverse is mostly internal. Billy Kaplan is about to become something more; he becomes Billy Maximoff. The upheaval in his life is so great, he doesn't really know WHO he is. Tower Reversed can also indicate an existential crisis, which is Billy in spades.

The thing about ANY reading of the Tower, is that the change is inevitable. There will be upheaval, whether one likes it or not, but the Reversed reading suggests that disaster can be avoided. In this case, Billy Kaplan is going to die in a car crash, Billy Maximoff is going to be unmade, but true disaster is avoided when the two events happen simultaneously. Neither of them is truly gone-gone. There's a reason both Billy Kaplan and Billy Maximoff are names protected by the sigil.

The thing that's clear to me is while Lilia was spooked by what she read in his palm at first, the Tower Reversed (and whatever else his palm said) was enough to tell her that he was going to survive in some fashion and would need protection from people like her. (Or Agatha, or Wanda even; who knows?) I hope we get to see what she sees when we get to her trial.

The thing I also want to talk about, is why she specified Reversed, when Upright could just as easily applied to the situation at hand. After all, Billy Kaplan didn't cause the car accident that killed him, Wanda was the one who undid the spell that had brought Billy Maximoff into existence in the first place. So one could definitely argue that those fall under more of an Upright reading; destruction, chaos, upheaval. Especially given Wanda's magic was explicitly labeled as Chaos Magic. I think its because the writers of the show are trying to tell us something; that the death and destruction that make up HOW Billy came to be is far less important than WHO he is; which is simply a boy becoming a man, and trying to figure out who he is and what he wants in the world. The whole Billy Kaplan/Billy Maximoff thing is a metaphor for a coming-of-age, and calling out the Tower Reversed is as much of a tell as setting the whole thing the day of his Bar Mitzvah.

One last note; I'm so pleased that The Tower came into play again, after it showed up in a promo poster which has Lilia holding the card Upright. My guess is that it's there to indicate a couple of things; 1)Lilia's the Divination Witch (and Tarot's a big part of that), 2)We can expect some form of chaos and destruction, 3)Definitely a nod to the fake "Coven of Chaos" Title. But I think the poster was a nod to the usage in episode 6, and the connection Lilia has to Billy, only with a slight misdirect by having it Upright instead of Reversed. And while I think that probably has more to do with readability and clarity than anything else, I wonder if some of that was to throw people off the track. IMO Tower Upright invites a pretty shallow, general take when thrown onto something like a Marvel promo poster. Tower Reversed, because it indicates that someone making these posters knows more than the bare minimum about Tarot and is using it to plant clues about the show, invites a LOT more speculation.

This post went a lot longer than I thought, but I hope you all enjoyed it, and if you want to check out my analysis of the Tarot cards from past episodes:

Episodes 1-3 Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 7 part 1

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Agatha All Along Tarot Reads

Episode 5 - Darkest Hour, Wake thy Power

Back again, with Lilia's tarot reads from Episode 5. There's a LOT to talk about with this episode, but other people are going to do that to death, so I'll focus on the tarot. As always, I'm an amateur, and I may get things wrong - see the edit on my post on episode 4. I've also done analysis on the cards mentioned in Episode 2 as well.

Knight Of Wands - This one is triggered when Alice goes to save Agatha by blasting her with power - and thereby triggering Agatha's magic suck power. It's a card that's absolutely referencing Alice in that moment.

At it's bare minimum, this could just be a basic, literal-ass read. Face cards tend to refer to people in your life as much as energy, and Wands are the fire suit, ergo the Protection/Fire Witch is a heroic knight.

Alice is definitely those things in the moment, but why stop there, when overanalyzing stuff is so much fun?

Knight of Wands is a lot about energy and motivation. It talks about someone who has found their passion, energy, and drive, and has the enthusiasm to move forward towards their goals. Given the events of the previous episode, I think that gives us a good idea of where Alice's head is at now. She battled the curse, came out triumphant, and now has the motivation that she'd been lacking most of her life, and the energy to finish the Road for her mother. She started to really be the Protection Witch for her Coven. It's interesting to note that of the four real Coven witches (still not sure about Sharon, Rio is something else entirely, and Teen is... ), Alice was the only one who started on the Road with all of her of her powers reliably intact. (Agatha's lost her purple, Jen's bound, Lilia's is a bit wonky) Because of the curse, and her mother's death, though, she didn't really embrace her power. Her trial changed that, and she definitely now has that Knight of Wands energy.

But the Knight of Wands is an impulsive card; in the "new project energy" vibe, it's easy to get in way too deep to quickly. Those it represents tend to be more "act first, think later". It's very much Alice's downfall; in a rush to do what is right, she makes herself vulnerable and gets hurt for it. I firmly believe that the ill-advised impulsiveness are probably what triggered the read from Lilia in the first place, even if Alice fits other aspects of the card as well.

The difference between Upright and Reversed readings on this one is.. odd, and I'm not sure how applicable it is to Alice. Both axis of the card reference impulsive thoughts and behavior, but the Reversed implies there's frustration and anger tied to an inability to properly express creative/motivated energy. And I don't think that's something we saw in Alice at that moment. It may be possible to read it as her 'misdirected energy' being the magic she blasted Agatha with, but it feels a little like a stretch. It might be more of a reference to Alice's past; a witch working dead end security jobs, blocked from doing any real good, any real craft because of a curse that made everything she touch go bad. Another possibility is that it could come into play later; despite what we saw, I don't think we're done with Alice Wu. I really hope not.

Anyway, that's my read the Knight of Wands; hope you all enjoyed it, and if you want to see my analysis for the previous episodes they are, Episodes 1-3 Episode 4 Episode 6 Episode 7 part 1 Episode 7 part 2

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Agatha All Along Tarot Time! Episode 4 - If I Can't Reach You, Let My Song Teach You

Okay so we got a new one; appropriately enough the Three of Swords, triggered while they were all dealing with Teen's injury/near death. I say appropriately, because traditionally Swords is the suit associated with fire, so it makes sense that it shows up as a result of The Protection Witch/Fire's Trial on the Witch's Road. (EDIT; SO MANY LIES. Wands is fire, Swords is air. Sorry folks, don't write posts at 3am without editting)

Now onto the specifics. As with my last tarot post, I'm mostly in it as a hobby, so my interpretations may not be perfect.

Sword cards are usually pretty intense, and the Three of Swords is no exception. It centers around grief, heartbreak, sorrow, emotional pain; all things Agatha is feeling as a result of almost losing Teen, who she all but says she thinks is her son (is he? absolutely not, but I love that she thinks he could be). It tends to refer to sudden grief - and given how fast Teen went down, their sorrow would feel very unexpected and sudden indeed. Three of Swords suggests that the thing needed is a good cry (or a hug from ex-girlfriend who's the embodiment of Death), but that one shouldn't get lost in it or wallow for too long when there's more going on (like the rest of the road). First glance, it's easy to keep the association simple; Teen's dying, and they (mostly Agatha) are sad about it.

But there's a reason it's done here, and not during, say... Sharon's death. And that has to do with the Reverse meaning, which is complicating things for Agatha. Heartbreak is still a large component of Three of Swords Reversed, but instead of current, immediate pain, it talks about older hurts; the end of a relationship (like Agatha and Rio), a loss that hasn't been gotten over (like Agatha with her son). Because Agatha at this point thinks Teen is likely her lost son, seeing him dying triggered ALL the pain both old and new, and it's like the Three of Swords smacked her in the face.

The Reversed Three of Swords is ultimately hopeful though - it suggests a path of healing, forgiveness, and a release of pain tied to those old hurts. I kind of hope that that's foreshadowing for what we'll see with Agatha and the rest of the coven. The Road giving them the chance to heal, maybe.

We're already seeing that a little with Alice, who definitely has strong ties to the card because of the trauma caused by her mother's death. By the end of the episode, she's started to come to terms with what happened and the curse that haunted her family for so long. Honestly Three of Swords could just be the thesis statement of the entire episode; the only reason I focus more on how it ties to Agatha is because Teen's predicament (and Agatha's reaction to it) was the clear trigger.

That's all I got for this one, hope you enjoyed it, and If you're new to this post, I've done analysis on other Episodes, starting with the first 3, and then individually after that.

Episode 1-3 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7 part 1 Episode 7 part 2

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One of the things I'm loving about Agatha All Along (among many, many things) is Lilia's sudden outbursts involving tarot. So far we've had two cards mentioned, and I kinda wanted to analyze how they're being used. Note; I'm fully just an amateur hobbyiest when it comes to tarot, I mostly use it as a backdrop to my homebrew D&D campaign cause I enjoy the symbology of it, so I may get things wrong.

So first up -

Three of Pentacles - This one is triggered when Lilia sees the 'Three Star' on her eviction notice and she writes down the names of the rest of the coven. This one is pretty straightforward - at its most basic Three of Pentacles represents teamwork. Kinda important when you're forming a coven. It emphasizes collaboration and shared goals, all the things Agatha is going to need to survive the Road.

What I find interesting is that the Reverse reading is equally important; lack of cohesion, conflict, poor motivation, and ego are all part of the Three of Pentacles Reversed. They are also very much Agatha's flaws, and her current predicament is a direct result of those flaws.

So all in all, it's use in Agatha All Along is pretty straightforward; Agatha needs a team, they need to collaborate and work together. They, especially Agatha, need to be wary of ego, selfishness and disharmony, or they will fail.

The High Priestess - This one is triggered the first time Lilia meets Jennifer Kale. This one is waaay more interesting in what it means, IMO. In it's upright position, the High Priestess invokes intuition, sacred knowledge, and the subconscious mind. It speaks of femininity, although maybe not quite as strongly as the Empress. It makes sense for Jen; she's the most overtly feminine of the witches, wearing soft, light pink when Lilia meets her. Her speciality is Potions, which speaks to having a good deal of specialized knowledge.

However, this is a case where on first glance, the Reverse is actually stronger in Jen. The High Priestess Reverse is all about the disconnect from intuition, withdrawal, and repression. Like a witch who has been disconnected from her magic because she's been bound. It's no wonder that Lilia pegged her as The High Priestess immediately, since she seems to represent at least parts of both aspects.

What's really interesting though is what we see in the third episode. It's a trial, especially tailored for Jen, and we see just how fully she represents The High Priestess. Her self-doubt, caused by the disconnect from her magic, is STRONG, because she doesn't trust the intuition and knowledge that still exist within her. They only survive when she starts to trust herself again. There's also kind of a neat detail about the fact that they all hallucinate - bringing their subconscious to the surface - which is just another facet of the High Priestess.

One other fun thing; I very much doubt this was intentional, but The High Priestess is 2 of the Major Arcana, which makes it the 3rd card (since The Fool is 0). This is the 3rd episode of Agatha All Along, but since the first 2 were shown together, this is the 2nd night of aired shows. I just think it's a fun connection.

It does suggest that the show is using the cards to do some decent foreshadowing. For sure at the end of the 2nd episode, I assumed that the reading wasn't that deep, and for the Three of Pentacles, it may not be. But after the third episode and the way Jen's connection to the card grew stronger, I'm more interested to see what other cards will be mentioned and what role they'll play in the show. I know Lilia is holding The Tower in one of the promo posters, and I can't wait to see if that ties into Lilia personally, or if it's just part of the general theme of the show. It could go either way - The Tower represents chaos, and one of the working subtitles of the show was Coven of Chaos, so it's possibly just a reference to that.

Here's the links to my other episode Tarot Posts

Episode 4 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7 part 1 Episode 7 part 2

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sorry for missing stuff out or combining stuff this is the max number of options tumblr let me list

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I just got my first duo boon in Hades 2 and its Hera/Zeus and I have to say, I am delighted. Is mechanically good? Maybe? Probably depends, but not for the run I was on. Is it hysterically petty, as a Hera/Zeus team up should be? 10000%

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I have to talk about the devils in Baldur's Gate 3 because they're kind of my favorite thing. I promise; its probably not for the obvious reasons. Sure, they're charmingly evil, and intelligent and sexy and all that. But what Larian does that I fucking love is really take the devil contract thing seriously. Not only do they make it clear that most of them are lawful evil and therefore LOVE contracts, they also have unique contract styles. Which is a great bit of detailed world building and has the added benefit of making devils BIG FUCKING NERDS. Spoilers ahead and also casual swearing, 'cause I'm like that.

Anyway, first up; Raphael? Drama queen. Apparently wishes he was a bard because not only do his people have to sing their contracts, but he has his own damn theme song. Its SO EXTRA and ridiculous. Like... Sure he's dangerous, he's a devil. You meet him for the first time and he drops these clever lines and is vaguely threatening, but by the time you get to the House of Hope, you learn he's a theatre kid on a power trip with an ego the size of the Sword Coast. 10/10 characterization, and it almost made me not want to kill him. Almost. I'm not one to leave a devil alive when I can loot the body afterward.

And Mizora? No singing for her; bitch is the insurance agent of your nightmares. Her contracts are labyrinthine and full of opaque business legalese and she takes great pride in knowing every word of it. She references clauses and subclauses of Wyll's contract with all the glee of a Trekkie rattling off the specs of the USS Enterprise. Fucking Nerd. No wonder she managed to get herself captured; she's a pencil pusher, not a fighter. You can see why she's the right hand of a more powerful Archdevil like Zariel, because quite frankly, she gets too caught up in the fine print to ever successfully execute a grand ambitious plan of her own. (The fact that Mizora doesn't appear to have ambition beyond furthering Zariel's goals is probably a whole post unto itself, the conclusion of which is definitely "they fockin'"). Don't get me wrong, she's still terrible, but you start to get the impression that devils aren't that different from cats; it's just their nature to be a bit of a shit.

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Been on a Baldur's Gate 3 brainrot, so I thought I'd share my Tav and Durge.

First up: Tav aka Is'lei - she/her, wood elf, Circle of the Spores Druid, Outlander Background

So I've played Is'lei in other D&D games, and normally she's Eladrin, but since that's not an option in BG3, she's wood elf instead. She's the very definition of a hippie druid, with a scary knowledge of all of the ways plants can kill people, and while wise and knowledgeable in many ways, she's spent almost no time around people and is sorely lacking in social skills. Freedom and free will is her creed, with an alignment thats true neutral trending towards chaotic good. Is'lei has very little desire for power or even material possessions, she mostly just wants to do her part to keep a harmonious balance in the natural world and enjoy it's wonders. Illithids, being aberrations, are ananthema to her and she refuses using any of their powers, especially the mind-manipulating ones. Despite her lack of people skills, or maybe because of it with these weirdos, she gets along well enough with most of her party members, although she and Astarion have diametrically opposed world views and she's constantly annoyed that Gale has a tendency to treat druidic magic as lesser or not real. Is in a polycule with Shadowheart and Halsin, and their homebase is in the former Shadow-cursed lands and filled with flowers and animals.

Durge - aka Rhapsody - she/her, Mephistopheles Tiefling, College of Lore Bard

Rhapsody is not the name she was born with, but is the virtue name she took on; it's meaning is one of strong emotion, exuberance, and ecstasies and it speaks to her musical training, her character, and especially her ambition. She's never wanted to be forgotten or dismissed - she'd rather evoke strong negative emotions in people than indifference. Post tadpole-insertion, however, she's mostly forgotten the dark paths her ambition led her down and thinks that she's capable of being remembered as a hero saving the world. She's just... not great at it. Her moral compass is quirked more westerly than true north. She has very few qualms about getting her hands dirty or using her silver tongue to get her way and definitely trends more towards chaotic neutral. After all, her impulses keep telling her things like 'roast dwarf is delicious' and when compared to that, a little theft and a lot of grifting don't seem all that bad. But beyond all that, when things get too weird and rough, she turns to music, every time. It's the only positive thing about herself that she remembers and she takes great pride in it and uses it to ground herself and her party. She gets along well with most of them, and is inclined to encourage their more ambitious goals and dreams. Become a god? Sure, why not? She's also a bit of a flirt, and enjoys talking to Astarion a lot for that reason, but it's very shallow. For something deeper, there's something about Wyll's heroic, noble nature that draws her to him.

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*Not all Greek Gods listed because we ran out of space.

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All Minds Burn is just Matt Mercer going "What if the core of Burning Man was an eldritch horror?"

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i think the funniest possible star trek viewing order might be strictly chronological.

you’d have to start with that Voyager episode where they go to before the Big Bang, then work your way through every other time travel episode, the one with the whales, and First Contact before you even get close to anything approaching a normal viewing order.

at some point you’d have to watch “City on The Edge of Forever” followed by “Little Green Men” followed by “Far Beyond the Stars” which is about the most tonal whiplash you could possibly get from three consecutive episodes of star trek. I think I want to try this now.

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tng: welcome aboard the starship enterprise, a luxury cruise ship drifting among the stars. our crew contains notable elements of Diversity and our captain gets pegged by an omniscient being from another dimension. enjoy the soft jazz concerts, shakespeare performances, and infinitely powerful holodecks at your leisure

ds9: hop aboard Station On Fire Trash Can bitch. does our shit work? no. is this a safe place to live? fuck no. senior officers include Space Dad, Lesbian Terrorist, Trans Worm, Goo, Dr. Twink, and Perpetually Confused White Guy. if you want to get dragged into an elaborate crime syndicate, contract a deadly space disease, or get stabbed in a barfight, you’ve come to the right place. also, holosuites are for fucking. yeehaw

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ATTENTION NEW TUMBLR USERS: This website is different from twitter and there are actually four (4) things that every blog needs. Go to the woods and fetch the cow as white as milk, the cape as red as blood, the hair as yellow as corn, the slipper as pure as gold