raging-femur - Tumblr blog

[raging-femur]

I was like "huh, loads of alchemy in Magnus Protocol, better pick up some books on alchemy to see if they help me understand some hidden themes" so I picked up "Secrets of Alchemy" by Lawrence M. Principe and guys, I'm just sitting there, reading it like:

THERE IS SO MUCH STUFF THAT'S CURRENTLY RELEVANT. DYES (INKS??) BEING ONE OF MAIN SUBJECTS, AN ALTAR WHERE YOU SACRIFICE MEN OF THREE METALS AND ASK THEM QUESTIONS (FREDDY?), GERMAN CODE BEING RELEVANT (???), ONE OF THE MAIN ARABIC SCHOLARS OF ALCHEMY WAS PRINCE FUCKING KHALID (like, ya know, SAMAMA KHALID??).

I'm only TWO CHAPTERS INTO THIS BOOK and already had like five points where I'm gleefully reading it and suddenly going "...wait". I will go insane before S1 even ends.

[raging-femur]

The mischaracterization of people from PJO is so funny, but ESPECIALLY from HOO onward like.

“Hazel’s such an innocent little angel. She’s always nice and kind and confused.”

Hazel, who’s always ready to fight in the same way Percy is? Hazel, who made it explicitly clear she probably would’ve rocked Octavian’s shit had he not been blackmailing her? Who gets so angry on behalf of the people she loves, to the point where she doesn’t forgive those who have wronged them? Who Percy described as cursing up a storm in one of their first interactions? Who’s been shown time and time again to be FAST to anger? That Hazel?

Or Nico, who’s “a misunderstood emo. A small bean. Cute like a wet cat and innocent like a bunny.”

Nico, who’s cannonically described by most characters as “scary and unnerving?” Nico, who, for a long time, is one of the angriest characters in the series? Who’s only sassy and sarcastic because it took him FOUR YEARS to mellow out? Who’s described as being one of the most powerful demigods, who a lot of people still consider the scariest? Who’s come into his own as a character from TTC to TSATS? That Nico?

Or Annabeth who’s, “cold and calculating. Doesn’t show emotion or express herself”

Annabeth, who’s the most expressive person in the series? Who cries in EVERY book in the OG series? Whether it be for Luke, or Thalia, or Percy, or Chiron, or a literal DOG? Who expresses passion like no other when it comes to architecture and her other interests? Who’s expressed compassion for people she didn’t know? People who at times posed a threat to her? Who isn’t afraid to be angry, or happy, or snide, or rude, or excited, or scared, or ecstatic? Who’s been unapologetically herself since the moment the series started? That’s who doesn’t show emotion? That’s Annabeth?

[raging-femur]

I spent a normal, human amount of time on this.

[raging-femur]

So I was thinking about how ATLA inverted the favored sibling trope -if u can call it a trope-. Like usually in fiction, it's the older sibling that is the favorite and the younger one is kind of the underdog. And then I realized that they didn't only invert it they also subtly executed the classic version of it. It's never said explicitly but in the one scene, where we see Ozai and Azulon interact with each other, it is abundantly clear that Azulon favors Iroh - his older son- and completely dismisses Ozai. Ozai is the one lacking, Ozai can't do anything right in his father's eyes.

And now we go one generation further, Ozai is now an admittedly terrible father to two children. Zuko and Azula, and who does he favor?!

THE YOUNGER ONE

AZULA

Of course he does, Ozai heavily projects on both of his kids. He goes the extreme other way and puts the same abusive pattern on his own children, just reversed.

- Iroh himself btw never has the opportunity to develop that pattern, first of all because he only had one child, and second of all because he was the one who got the at least somewhat "healthier" dynamic with his father and probably his mother, if we go with the theory that Ilah died in childbirth.-

Because he sees the exceptional prodigy of Azula as himself, the second child, who in his narcissism is the better option. Who he can form to be the perfect successor of his legacy.

And in that way of thinking he treats Zuko, his older child with the same neglect and dismissal as he was treated as a child. He himself does not realise it, but he creates in that way in Zuko a kind of distorted mirror image of himself.

With one difference. Zuko has his mother and his uncle to teach him compassion. Not only that but Zuko himself is someone who as a person has a strict honor code he follows. (See 41st division).

Zuko is with that in mind, not just a reflection of Ozai but also a WEAK reflection from his perspective.

Which puts us back to the reason of, why he burned the face.

So in conclusion did ATLA not only invert a trope, it also used it to develop a unhealthy family dynamic and create a realistic picture of the cycle of generational trauma.

[raging-femur]

CELIA WHAT THE HECK !!!!!! WHEN I SAID SHE WAS MOTHER I DIDNT KNOW IT WAS LIKE THIS !!!!!!!

[raging-femur]

How I wrote my first fanfiction I guess?

So, I fairly recently finished the Magnus archives and started the Magnus protocol. And I love it, it's so incredibly well written and kind of just draws you in, I first started listening to it for some background noise while I was making a scavenger hunt for Valentine's as a gift my boyfriend, and I have been hooked on it ever since. There was an incredibly brief period of time when I planned to take a short break from the podcast after I had a rather disturbing nightmare about being stuck in an elevator with a man turning into a lump of flesh. When the episode 12 came out, I commented about my dream and a couple of people told me it sounded like a statement, and suddenly in a strange burst of inspiration I wrote a short story in the form of a statement in the comments section about my dream. It was such a freaking THRILL. It was so much fun! anyways I just thought id share it here, and say that it is important to be able to let go and do things for fun, even if it whatever the result is isn't perfect. Statement of Hannah Watson regarding a stranger in an elevator. Statement taken directly from subject on the 18th of April 2024. Statement begins. It was stupid of me to take the elevator that day, I never do. The one in my building is small, rickety, and cramped, not to mention poorly air-conditioned. Honestly, the death trap could double as an oven in the summer or a freezer in the winter. And the sound it would make… it almost sounded as if it was groaning in pain. I normally take the stairs, paranoid that if I took the lift something would break, and I would end up in a freefall that would leave me as nothing more but a splattered pile of flesh, left to rot in a metal box. But I was running late that evening, I had promised to help my sister move and figured speed was more important than indulging my fear. When I stepped inside and saw…. Him in the corner I figured he was high, his eyes were bloodshot and he seemed a bit out of it. I gave him a polite nod as the doors slid closed……we didn't move. I frowned, pushing the button for the first floor. Nothing happened.

After about ten minutes of trying to get the damn thing to in some way work, I started to panic, I tried getting the doors to open back up, I flipped the emergency switch and I pressed every button on that control panel to no avail. nothing was working, and I was frantic. Sure that at any moment I would be shooting downward to my death. An odd wet squelching sound came from the corner of the cab followed by a thud, I turned in shock, I had forgotten about the man in the corner. I will never be able to forget him now, I can picture it so clearly his face had...melted? No, it was more like his skin had loosened, hanging off his face, melding with his neck, and flopping back onto his shoulders as he flailed about trying to push the skin back into the shape it once held. He was trying to scream, but all that came out of him were pained, cut-off whimpers as the anatomy used for human speech was crushed, as what used to be his throat transformed into nothing but squishy bloated tissue that spilled out of him. His lungs wheezed out bits of air as they were oh so slowly folded into that formless mass. I screamed and screamed, as I struggled to find a way out, to distance myself from the hungry flesh that was slowly seeping out of his clothes and onto the floor. I tried not to look at him as I did so, tried to ignore the sounds that reminded me of the ice cracking when it began to thaw in early spring, somehow, I knew what that meant, the flesh was eating his bones, and when it was done it would come for mine. I knew then, knew that there was no escape, I could scream and cry and break my nails trying to get those damn metal doors to open as much as I liked but I was going to die there, in the cramped metal box I had always hated, I gave up in the end. I curled around myself in a tight ball with my eyes tightly shut and waited for what felt like days...for it to find me, to consume me, to become me. And then ... the elevator moved, and just as I felt the feverishly warm touch of firm flesh on my foot the doors slid open. There was a scream and I kicked the thing away from me scrambling toward the horrified couple and out of that horrible thing that had almost cost me my life. Away from the thing that had cost the poor man his. And so here I am. The police didn't believe me, they told me to get my brain checked. Apparently, their opinions trump those with medical degrees. I didn't even get checked before they dismissed it as a mere hallucination. I doubt you'll believe me either. I am not insane, even if sometimes I wish I was, so that I could go around with the hope that the starving flesh didn't consume all that the man once was, because it wasn't real. It couldn't have almost gotten me, because it was just in my head.. What a wonderful, lovely lie. It would be comforting in a way, if that were true. But it isn't true, it was real. That man who haunts my dreams was a real person, not a hallucination. A person with brown bloodshot eyes and crooked teeth. I AM NOT insane, I know that. Well... that's all I have to say, I wasn't going to come here at all really but, well, I figured I owed it to that man, to let someone know what became of him. Statement ends

[raging-femur]

"Some benevolent, most not."

Wait a minute! So there are actual benevolent forces in this series? They aren't just all bad like in TMA? Somehow that manages to be even more shocking then the reveal that they manage monsters. Admittedly I did guess that much but still.

Is the implications here that these benevolent forces are people who are fighting to protect others against the powers that be? Or are there entities out there actually do good in the world? Because, to be honest, I think the idea of something other worldly and that doesn't totally understand human nature trying to do good is actually really interesting.

I've mentioned it before but there was a line in TMA where Jon mentioned the Eye was "very fond" of Martin. At the time I assumed it meant something more than it actually did but I still find the concept unnerving. Because the concept of some eldritch horror, which doesn't understanding human nature, falling in love with a human would be absolutely horrifying. Because how does something like that express love?

That's what I imagine in "benevolent" entity would be like. Not totally understanding humans or how they work perhaps expressing those kinds of feelings in truly horrifying ways.

More than that, how does such an entity handle rejection? Funnily enough, we might actually know the answer to that question. Just look at the end of the statement in the episode Rolling With It. The dice or possibly whatever entity is attached to them absolutely destroyed anyone who tries to get rid of them.

This is all just speculation of course but I can't help but wonder.

[raging-femur]

The guys from episode 8 and 13 sitting on hospital beds next to each other

"...and then I jumped"

"to profit monetarily off your own misfortune?"

"No to get away from the brutalist vampires! What is wrong with you?"

[raging-femur]

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes 🎲📱

[raging-femur]

How I wrote my first fanfiction I guess?

So, I fairly recently finished the Magnus archives and started the Magnus protocol. And I love it, it's so incredibly well written and kind of just draws you in, I first started listening to it for some background noise while I was making a scavenger hunt for Valentine's as a gift my boyfriend, and I have been hooked on it ever since. There was an incredibly brief period of time when I planned to take a short break from the podcast after I had a rather disturbing nightmare about being stuck in an elevator with a man turning into a lump of flesh. When the episode 12 came out, I commented about my dream and a couple of people told me it sounded like a statement, and suddenly in a strange burst of inspiration I wrote a short story in the form of a statement in the comments section about my dream. It was such a freaking THRILL. It was so much fun! anyways I just thought id share it here, and say that it is important to be able to let go and do things for fun, even if it whatever the result is isn't perfect. Statement of Hannah Watson regarding a stranger in an elevator. Statement taken directly from subject on the 18th of April 2024. Statement begins. It was stupid of me to take the elevator that day, I never do. The one in my building is small, rickety, and cramped, not to mention poorly air-conditioned. Honestly, the death trap could double as an oven in the summer or a freezer in the winter. And the sound it would make… it almost sounded as if it was groaning in pain. I normally take the stairs, paranoid that if I took the lift something would break, and I would end up in a freefall that would leave me as nothing more but a splattered pile of flesh, left to rot in a metal box. But I was running late that evening, I had promised to help my sister move and figured speed was more important than indulging my fear. When I stepped inside and saw…. Him in the corner I figured he was high, his eyes were bloodshot and he seemed a bit out of it. I gave him a polite nod as the doors slid closed……we didn't move. I frowned, pushing the button for the first floor. Nothing happened.

After about ten minutes of trying to get the damn thing to in some way work, I started to panic, I tried getting the doors to open back up, I flipped the emergency switch and I pressed every button on that control panel to no avail. nothing was working, and I was frantic. Sure that at any moment I would be shooting downward to my death. An odd wet squelching sound came from the corner of the cab followed by a thud, I turned in shock, I had forgotten about the man in the corner. I will never be able to forget him now, I can picture it so clearly his face had...melted? No, it was more like his skin had loosened, hanging off his face, melding with his neck, and flopping back onto his shoulders as he flailed about trying to push the skin back into the shape it once held. He was trying to scream, but all that came out of him were pained, cut-off whimpers as the anatomy used for human speech was crushed, as what used to be his throat transformed into nothing but squishy bloated tissue that spilled out of him. His lungs wheezed out bits of air as they were oh so slowly folded into that formless mass. I screamed and screamed, as I struggled to find a way out, to distance myself from the hungry flesh that was slowly seeping out of his clothes and onto the floor. I tried not to look at him as I did so, tried to ignore the sounds that reminded me of the ice cracking when it began to thaw in early spring, somehow, I knew what that meant, the flesh was eating his bones, and when it was done it would come for mine. I knew then, knew that there was no escape, I could scream and cry and break my nails trying to get those damn metal doors to open as much as I liked but I was going to die there, in the cramped metal box I had always hated, I gave up in the end. I curled around myself in a tight ball with my eyes tightly shut and waited for what felt like days...for it to find me, to consume me, to become me. And then ... the elevator moved, and just as I felt the feverishly warm touch of firm flesh on my foot the doors slid open. There was a scream and I kicked the thing away from me scrambling toward the horrified couple and out of that horrible thing that had almost cost me my life. Away from the thing that had cost the poor man his. And so here I am. The police didn't believe me, they told me to get my brain checked. Apparently, their opinions trump those with medical degrees. I didn't even get checked before they dismissed it as a mere hallucination. I doubt you'll believe me either. I am not insane, even if sometimes I wish I was, so that I could go around with the hope that the starving flesh didn't consume all that the man once was, because it wasn't real. It couldn't have almost gotten me, because it was just in my head.. What a wonderful, lovely lie. It would be comforting in a way, if that were true. But it isn't true, it was real. That man who haunts my dreams was a real person, not a hallucination. A person with brown bloodshot eyes and crooked teeth. I AM NOT insane, I know that. Well... that's all I have to say, I wasn't going to come here at all really but, well, I figured I owed it to that man, to let someone know what became of him. Statement ends

[raging-femur]

“I think I’m done with Magnus stuff” Sam, my brother in christ, this is called the Magnus Protocol and we are at episode twelve. You may be done with magnus stuff, but magnus stuff is not done with you

[raging-femur]

alice acting like sam's offer didn't affect her at all and trying so hard to play it cool i love her so much

[raging-femur]

tmagp 12

I WAS LATE TO THIS ONE AND THAT DEEPLY SADDENS ME

aww celia and sam

a bonzo related episode so soon? thought theyd make us wait after dropping the "look out in the next few cases" last episode

the transcripts arent out yet :')

this lady is sounds so spiteful lmao

comic sans mr bonzo gdhdjsjfk

MR BONZOS ON HIS WAY HE WANTS TO PLAY HE WANTS TO STAY

OMG DISTORTION MENTION hehehhe

why do they want this guy dead though what did he do

the dates match up btw! gwen met bonzo on 9 march and this case is listed as 9 march

maybe the name was who to spare? cuz its implied to only have one

aww alice and gwen

alice knows. definitely.

[raging-femur]

i just adore him

[raging-femur]

[raging-femur]

If Kaladin knew about the fandom he would hate us lol. He hates that everyone on Roshar idolizes him and thinks he's strong and cool.

And then there's us. Across the fourth wall, we can see all the struggles and the dark parts, the depression and the ptsd and the self-hate, and we STILL think he's admirable.

He would find that very annoying. Perhaps hit us with a "Bah!" like the elderly man he is.

[raging-femur]

Honestly it's giving my Serbian ass and Bosnians😭🙏