#(i must infer they only saw that post?)

[dreamcaught]

Some of you are still in weird denial about the relationship between the Doctor and Rose.

Seriously, I just saw a post saying that the Doctor opened up more to Martha and Donna than he ever did with Rose. That is like, flat wrong. Flat. You don't understand perspective - the nuance of their story. The in-between-bits we infer but don't get to see on screen and the implications of their comments and comfort toward each other.

Do you people realize that the first thing he did was take her to destruction of her planet, to share with her that his planet is gone and he's the last one left? Do you realize that she's the first one he travels with after losing that planet, and how much that must mean?

Do you people realize that Rose tells stories of traveling with the ninth Doctor that we never, ever get to see? These things still happened, are still canon, which imply a great amount of time that isn't on screen?

Did you notice how close the Doctor, Rose and Jack become, despite having literally only two episodes together before they get chucked into the Game Station? Those three did not just travel to two places, folks. That could have been months, years, that are just between them.

Do you understand the implications of Ten's song after he regenerates?

Do you really not notice how Rose specifically refers to their first trip as a date, and how he doesn't deny it? Do you realize that, in The Impossible Planet, the Doctor implies that he would live with Rose on the slow path, and that he'd like it?

(Do you realize that he does, as Tentoo?)

Do you honestly think that they don't talk? By Doomsday, Rose is learning how to fly the TARDIS.

Here's a thought. Established on screen in The Parting of the Ways, Rose says she doesn't remember how they escaped the Game Station. If that's true, how does she know that she's the one who turned the Dalek emperor to dust? How does she know?

We never saw that happen, but we didn't need to see it. There is an entire relationship worth of conversations over breakfast and hugs goodnight and trips to space markets for trinkets and coffee that we don't need to see to understand that their relationship was deeper, open and more honest than what we get to see on screen.

Ten opened up to the audience via his conversations with Martha and Donna on screen, but he was only able to do so then because he got to do it behind the curtains with Rose first.

[helaenalyst]

god. so much to unpack with alicent and her good knights. the way gwayne and criston left this time as opposed to the first time. "my brother has volunteered to march with you" against "i have to go with ser criston". the delicate hand kiss against the little hand squeeze. alicent just giving criston a small nod as a goodbye snd him returning it with a tired smile. they're all so pained and tired they actually started interacting like human beings instead of through courtly gestures now. also was gwayne drunk i think he was at least a little bit drunk

also!!! god!!! aemond wanting to marry alicent off and dismissing her from the council and IMMEDIATELY sending criston away as soon as he takes her side, then not letting them have even a moment to comfort each other as they were walking away. he's joining the war on his parents' divorce on the side of the divorce. i know it's because he knows how much criston cares for aegon and because of what he saw and because he wants alicent isolated but i wouldn't be that surprised if he is somewhat jealous of criston for getting to bang his mom as well. targaryen prince things

the horror of being forced to bear an old man's children only for one of them to become a rapist and another to grow up to want to inflict the pain you suffered on you again? not because he doesn't understand but maybe precisely because he does? i didn't think the show could find many more ways to hurt alicent beyond killing what's left of her family but they are very very resourceful as i now see 💀💀💀

alicent trying to connect with gwayne. gwayne telling alicent that she was always otto's favourite has got to be the statement of the century. thank you god for giving us the angsty gwayne backstory at last. the bond he must have with daeron after he too was cast aside to be raised without parents. but from alicent's POV they are free and they were spared the endless horrors that she and her other children were subjected to at the red keep. still she tried to connect with him and sympathise with his pain. these siblings will be the death of me. the glances they and criston were exhanging in this scene. the way gwayne ended up reassuring alicent about her motherhood and did not leave without showing her some affection. i am unwell

the way gwayne doesn't know anything about what alicent and criston went through in all these years but he can still infer it just from spending a few days at the red keep god. truly truly unwell. there is so much more to say but this post is long enough. i would kill and maim for these three i'd give anything for a happy ending for them

[just-living-in-a-marvel-world]

Trial of the Youngest

Pairings: Kate Bishop x Reader

Reader: Female

Appearances: Natasha Romanoff, Wanda Maximoff, and Yelena Belova

Summary: Kate is tired of being treated as the youngest. Y/N shows her that it is not such a bad thing.

A/N: HI! I'm sorry that is has been awhile since I posted. I wanted to thank all of the people who responded and explained how to use readmore! It was really helpful. And for the person who asked about Forgotten Part 2, I normally do not write continuations unless I have it planned out before I post.

It was late at the Avengers tower -around 11 or so-, and you were sitting on the couch reading, while Natasha sat to your left scrolling through the TV to find something to watch, as the two of you waited for the rest of the Avengers to return from a mission. All was peaceful-

"I'm fine! Can you guys leave me alone!?"

-or it was supposed to be.

Ears perked from the noise, you looked towards the hallway where you heard the sound of a door slammed open and shut and the sound of arguing voices and angry foot steps. You bit you lip in confusion as you turned to Natasha, whose eyes were narrowed in concern.

"What was that?" She asked.

You look back down the hallway again listening to the growing voices, and looked back at Natasha. You purse you lips, "Well, I'm not expert, but it sounds like the team is back."

Natasha rolled her eyes at your snark and hit you on the back of the head with a nearby pillow.

"Hey!" You grumble, rubbing your head.

"Don't be a smart aleck." Natasha got up to head towards the hallway to meet them.

"That wouldn't be any fun" you mumbled as you turned around in your seat to face the entrance.

"I was doing fine! You don't need to babysit me. Why don't you guys go take care of yourself?" Ah, sound like Kate's whining.

"We are just making sure you're okay." That voice is sweet and concerned, must be Wanda.

"Yeah, stop being a baby and let us help." And that brash sentiment must be Yelena.

Whatever they were arguing about, it seems as if it has lasted for a while. Natasha was only a few feet away from the couch as an annoyed Kate stormed in, followed by an equally exasperated Wanda and Yelena.

"Hey, what’s happening?" Natasha raised her voice a little to stop their squabbling.

Keeping her head down, Kate tried to barrel past Natasha toward the hallway containing the bedrooms, but Natasha caught her by the shoulders before she could.

"Woah, kiddo! What's the problem?"

Looking over Natasha's shoulder, you saw her hands move to the base of Kate's neck to lift her head up. Kate's eyes finally met Natasha's, and you could see a horrible black eye on the right side of her face and a cut over the bridge of her nose.

"Malen'kiy, what happened?" Natasha asked, the concern was practically radiating off her. (little one)

Kate huffed as she shrugged away from Natasha's grasp. "I'm fine. I'm honestly okay. It's them that you should be-"

"How can you say you're okay, Kate Bishop, when your face looks like you auditioning for a role on Dead of the Walking."

Kate was about to respond when she stopped from confusion while you scrunched your eyebrows.

"Do you mean The Walking Dead?" You ask.

Yelena waved you off, "No matter what it is called, she still looks like a zombie."

"Hey!" Kate said offended. "At least I don't have-"

"We've been telling her she needs to see Cho," Wanda said to Natasha.

"I don't need to see Dr. Cho," Kate argued back, glaring at Wanda.

"I'm not sure, Kate. That looks bad," Natasha said worriedly as she got closer to examine Kate injuries. Kate tried to dodge Natasha as she continued to fight the three older women. You just look on in quiet contemplation.

After seeing Kate's injuries and listening to how this conversation is going, you quickly inferred why Kate was so adamant that she was okay. You glanced over at the other two who came back from the mission to confirm your theory.

While both Yelena and Wanda had only a couple scratches on their face, Wanda was heavily limping, leaning most of her weight against a nearby chair, and Yelena - who was no longer wearing the top half of her suit, showing only her tanktop - has her shoulder roughly patched up with blood seeping through. With the way they were holding themselves, you guessed they probably had many more bruises that you couldn't see.

Of course, Natasha hadn't noticed this since Kate's injuries stood out more and the other two kept putting the attention on her, but after looking over Kate again, you saw that she was moving around like normal. It appears that only her face seemed to have taken damage, which was definitely the least concerning of the injuries in this room currently.

You zoned back into the argument and smirked to yourself as you readied to get Kate out of this.

"Hey, Wanda. Is that a new walk or are you just limping? I can't tell with all the wierd stuff people do now days. And Yelena, I really like the splash of red gushing down your shoulder. Brings the whole warrior aesthetic together," You state with what could pass as genuine curiosity and sincerity.

Natasha stopped trying to examine Kate’s injuries and snapped her head towards Yelena and Wanda, finally noticing their own injuries.

"What the hell are you doing up here?! You two should be in the infirmary right now!" Natasha exclaimed, half mad at them for not telling her and half mad at herself for not noticing.

Kate looked dumbfounded at the sudden turn of events and looked over at you.

Get in the shower, you mouth to her, gesturing to the hallway for her escape, as if it was obvious. Finally getting the hint, she nodded slowly and quickly snuck away.

Both Yelena and Wanda's eyes widen at the suddened attention.

"We were, but Kate-" Wanda started.

"No, you should understand that these injuries need immediate attention," Natasha argued while pinching her nose, not believing that she has to explain this to them. "Yelena is shot, and who knows what happened to your ankle."

"Technically, it is a stab wound," Yelena defended, as if it would help her case.

Natasha took in a deep breath and sighed. "Yelena, you are practically bleeding out, and Wanda's foot is literally dangling. You two are going to see Dr. Cho now." Natasha stated pushing them towards the elevators.

Yelena resisted a little. "Wait, what about Kate. Where is she?" Her Russian accent pointed out. Everyone just now seemed to notice Kate's disappearance.

"I got her," You pipe up.

"See, Y/n's got her. Let's go." Natasha stated firmly.

Wanda - with the help of Natasha - hobbled to the elevator like a kicked puppy, while Yelena trudged over, turning her head around to glare at you as she picked up on what you had done.

You simply smiled as back and stuck your tongue out at her as the elevator doors started to close.

Once they were gone, you went down to hallway to Kate's room. Putting your ear to the door, you heard the faint sound of the shower running, signaling Kate listened to you and was getting the grim from the mission off of her.

Satisfied, you walked back to the main room and headed over to the miniature kitchen area. You preheated the oven then grabbed a frozen pizza from the freezer to thaw on the counter. Turning around, you opened the designated medicine cabinet and grabbed the first aid kit. You placed it on the counter next to the pizza and rummaged through it to see if it had all the supplies you needed. After finding all the supplies, you heard the oven ding, signaling it was time to put the pizza in. You got it out of the box and placed it on a pan. Since you didn't grab an oven mitt, you held on to the edge of the pan and gently lowered the pizza in.

After closing the oven door and setting the times, you go to throw away the pizza box when you caught movement from the corner of your eye. Glancing to the side, you see Kate with wet hair and pajamas by creeping against the wall, trying to reach the front door. It was almost comical how she thought tiptoeing like a cartoon character was a good strategy to escape this situation.

Not making any indication that you saw here, you continued disposing the pizza box and started opening the med kit. “If those are the stealth skills you exhibited on the field, I understand why your face is wrecked.”

You smirk to yourself as Kate groaned loudly. “How do you do that?” A pitter-patter of footsteps followed that ended right beside you. Looking up from Laying out the supplies you would need, you saw Kate standing at the adjacent counter-side with her bottom lip sticking out.

“Why would I tell you? Put the pout away and sit down,” You gesture to the stools across from you. Kate huffed as she followed directions and plopped onto the seat. You hopped on the counter and moved so Kate was in front of you between your legs with you slightly looking down on her.

“What are you doing?”

“This is how Natasha patched my face up after missions. Now shush, and stay still,” You grabbed her chin and titled it to the light in order to inspect the damage. The eye was swelling, and there was a hint of discoloration already appearing. There would be a big bruise around the eye tomorrow, but for now you needed to stop the swelling. However, you decided to take care of Kate’s nose first, in order to get that out of the way. Luckily, the shower Kate took washed away most of the grim from the mission, and you were able to clearly see the cut. It was clearly deep and ran across the the whole bridge of the nose.

“This would have bleed a lot.” You mumble as you absently reach for the antibiotic wide.

Kate shifted uneasily. “Yeah, we were able to find a towel in the jet to stop the bleeding. I had it against my face most of the ride home.”

We fell into silence again as i did everything i cold to ensure Kate’s nose wouldn’t get infected. Satisfied, I reached out to grab a butterfly nose strip that should help the wound close a little faster.

“That’s not how it happened you know,” Kate spoke up, not able to handle the salience, not even for a minute.

“How what happened?” you asked absently, completely focused on apply a the butterfly strip on Kate nose.

“My face. To make it look so Walking Dead-ish.” You chuckled at her phrasing. Kate smiled in response as she continued, “It wasn’t a stealth issue.”

“Then what was it?” You had finished with the strip and looked directly in Kate eyes, so she knew that she had you full attention.

Kate sighed in defeat. “Yelena and Wanda were supposed to do the heavy fighting since I’m still a junior avenger. My job was to stay at a safe distance as support. Be the eyes, assist, take down who I could.”

“And you left your post?”

“Ugh, no!” Kate responded indignantly. You raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “Why is that your first guess?”

“From what I’ve heard from Clint, you tend to improvise a lot.”

“Since when?”

“The Tracksuit Mafia.”

“That was one time!”

“That’s not what I heard~” you singsonged with a smile.

Kate tried to role her eyes but winced at the moment. You decided to shimmy off the counter and walked over to the freezer.

“Anyway, I stayed in place, but someone found where my perch was. I was so focused on helping them, I didn’t notice until he wrenched my bow from my hand and got several punches in.”

“Oh, so its not stealth we need to work on but awareness,” you tease while opening the freezer.

“Please don’t, I already got a lecture from Yelena,” Kate whined. “Although I think her point got lost since she has a literal gunshot wound in her shoulder.” Kate

“Don’t worry. When Natasha hears this story, she will be sure to drive the lessen in.” You state while rustling through the freezer. While you couldn’t see Kate, You could tell her mouth was opening in protest. Cuttings her off before she could start you say, “And, yes, Natasha will know. She is probably already hearing Bloody and Limpy’s side of the story as we speak.” Kate groaned but didn’t protest. “How did that happen, by the way? Yelena and Wanda?”

Kate bit her lip and look down. “My startled cried distracted Yelena, and she got shot trying to make her way over to me. Meanwhile, Wanda flew to my side in a second, he only got three punches in before she three him off. But in her haste, she landed on her ankle really wrong.”

“While that was reckless, and I’m sure Natasha is chewing them out about it now, at least they didn’t come. I mean, I know you love the color purple Kate, but it’s not flattering around the eye” You pause for a second. “Unless it's eyeshadow.”

You could practically feel here unimpressed look. “Haha. What are we doing about my eye?”

From depths of the freezer, you pulled out a bag of peas and tossed them across the counter. She grabbed the bag tentatively with her left hand, wincing before quickly transferring it to her right hand and placed it over her eye. She then cradled her left hand close to her stomach.

“If it looks worse in the morning, we will go down and see Dr. Cho.” Kate was about to open her mouth, but again spoke again before she could,

“Ah! No arguments,” You pointed at her. “You’ve gotten away with not going tonight, but we will see her about you eye if needed. Especially since you probably sprained your wrist as well.”

Kate mouth dropped open as she gaped, “Wha- how could you tell?”

You walked to the med kit and grabbed the roll of bandages. Cutting off a strip, you walked to Kate’s side of the counter and held out your hand. Kate turned to face you and placed her hand in yours as you began to wrap it up.

“You’ve been favoring it since you’ve been in here. I’m guessing when the guy that got a jump on you and forcible took your bow, it turned your wrist a bit too much before you let go.”

Kate's mouth was agape. "Wow, that's amazing."

"Naw, I'm just used to getting injured and hiding it," You nodded. "Natasha was able to catch it everytime though." You cut the bandaged and secured it to her wrist. You stepped back with your arms spread wide and a smile on your face. "And voila."

Kate looked down and rubbed the bandage. "You hid injuries?"

You sat in the stool beside hers. "Of course, loads of times. Never made a difference though, not with those three."

Kate huffed, "Yeah. They are completely overbearing."

"Of course, that what big sisters are for."

"They don't need to look out for me," Kate argued. "I can handle myself."

"Is that why I was the one who took care of your injuries?" You shot back.

Kate pouted. "It different with you. You don't act like them"

"It's because I understand where you are coming from."

Kate raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

You sighed. "Look, you're just not used to it yet. An only child, looking out for yourself, its going to take a minute for the realization that others are looking out for you too sink in. It did with me."

"You were an only child?" Kate asked confused.

You looked at Kate sadly. "No, I was the oldest."

Kate squinted her eyebrows, "You have a younger sister?"

Looking up, you smile lightly with watery eyes, "I had brother. He died in the invasion of New York."

Kate gasped, "I'm so sorry." Kate hugged you.

You hugged her back, "It's okay. We all lost something in New York.

Kate nodded, thinking back to her dad. Shaking her head, Kate focused back on you, "What happened then?"

“Eventually, I was recruited by the Avengers, and Natasha immediately jumped into the older sister role. And I was completely adamant against it the whole tim. I was used to being the older sister and caring for others, not the other way around. And it got worse after we got Wanda after Sokovia. While she was new, she was also older, and so was Yelena."

"What did you do?"

"I learned to roll with it. Found a balance with my new situation, and embraced little sisterness. It has many advantages that I had not previsouly known."

"Like what?" Kate asked.

You shake your head. "I'll tell you later. It's a trial being the youngest in the group, but I also don't need you knowing my secrets and using them against me." You nudge her playfully.

Kate smiled lightly. "What about their overbearing attitude?"

"As far as I'm concerned, they are just looking after us. You can’t exempt the fact that we do get injured sometimes." You look at her pointedly.

Kate shrunk in on her self for a second before remembering the nights events. "Even if it means hurting themselves?" Kate asked a little angrily, "That's stupid!"

You nod. "Yes it is. An unfortunate side-effect I'm still working on." You wrapped an arm around her. "In the meantime, that’s when little sister power comes in. One of the first advantages I learned, which I will give you for free, is if they won't listen to us, we act sweet and adorable, and bring it to the attention of the next oldest."

"Like you just did with Wanda and Yelena with Natasha?"

You smiled mischievously and winked. " Exactly like that. It works even if they get injured in general and are too stubborn to admit it."

The timer to the oven then went off. As you walk over, Kate asks "What do we do if Natasha is injured?"

You grabbed the oven mitts from the drawer. "Then we all band together and nag her until she goes."

"And that works?"

"Not all the time," You say as you snatch the pizza.

"What do we do then?"

"When all else fails, and this is for everything, tell Steve." You turn around and place the pizze in front of her dramatically. "Ah ha!"

Kate perked up. "Pizza?!"

"Yes!" You smile wide as grabbed the pizza cutter and started cutting. "The best way to finish a mission."

You and Kate both drug into the pizza, extremely hungry after the physically and emotional eating. After a while Kate looked at you tentatively. She coughed to clear her throat. "Umm, Y/n"

You looked up at her, "Yeah?"

Kate looked down, "Thank you for taking care of me. You're a good big sister."

You smile. "Of course, and thank you."

Kate jerked her head up. "For what?"

"Allowing me to be a big sister again." You both looked at each other smiling. At least, until you heard the sound of the elevator reaching the floor. Your eyes widen as you started to gather you pizza. "Run! We need to run!" You said urgently."

Kate stood up frantically, not knowing what to do. "Why?!" That is when the sound of thre distinctive voices, one normal, one Russian, and one Sokovian, were heard coming down the hallway. "Should we not check on them?"

"Trust me, if Yelena and Wanda are allowed to come back up here, then they are fine. But if we don't leave now then we have to share the pizza!" You whisper urgently.

Kate'seyes widen in horror,"Oh, heck no!" She scrambles to help you grab all the slices, which was difficult with her wrapped hand, before booking it down the hallway to Kate's room.

Right before the door close closed, you both heard a Russian accent ask, "Does anyone else smell pizza?"

[scoobydoodean]

Okay so in 1.03 Dead In The Water, there's this exchange Sam and Dean have at one point in regards to Lucas—the little boy who watched his dad drown, who Dean connects with during the episode:

DEAN Andrea said the kid never drew like that till his dad died. SAM There are cases—going through a traumatic experience could make people more sensitive to premonitions, psychic tendencies. DEAN Whatever's out there, what if Lucas is tapping into it somehow? I mean, it's only a matter of time before somebody else drowns, so if you got a better lead, please.

And the last time I watched this episode, I went "Oh cool! A little Psychic!Sam Easter Egg." Right? Sam goes through the traumatic experience of losing Jess, and he's tapped into "whatever's out there" (the yellow eyed demon) and he's having premonitions about what he's going to do next. Which definitely makes a lot of sense.

But when I was gif-ing stuff from 1.03 today, I realized that... funnily enough, within the context of this episode we also have some fun stuff relating to the "slightly psychic Dean" posts that have gone around this year... Or if you prefer, Cassandra!Dean. Cassandra, in reference to the prophet in Greek myth, cursed by Apollo to utter true prophecies but never be believed.

Dean often knows when bad things are going to happen in Supernatural. He doesn't have visions—but he has "bad feelings" and makes predictions that turn out to be scarily accurate at times. Of course we can infer that Dean is just good at 1) reading people and 2) understanding how sequences of events tumble one by one in a row like so many dominoes. It's another sign of his incredible intelligence. But it IS fun to think about Dead In The Water as the first indication of Cassandra!Dean.

First, because Lucas has premonitions, and Lucas and Dean are paralleled and connect on an emotional level.

Dean and Lucas have similar traumatic childhood experiences. Both watched a parent die and both lost the ability to speak afterwards:

DEAN You're scared. It's okay. I understand. See, when I was your age, I saw something real bad happen to my mom, and I was scared, too. I didn't feel like talking, just like you. But see, my mom—I know she wanted me to be brave. I think about that every day. And I do my best to be brave. And maybe, your dad wants you to be brave too.

Dean is able to connect with Lucas through their shared traumatic experience. He's the only one who's able to get through to him—and after a short conversation and just drawing together for a while—much to his mom's shock. Dean is able to understand what Lucas is feeling without Lucas saying it.

Second, because Lucas has bad feelings that tell him the locations where the spirit will strike next, but no one listens to/believes him.

...Kind of like people usually don't listen to/believe Dean's bad feelings.

DEAN Anyway. Well, maybe you don't think anyone will listen to you, or, uh...or believe you. I want you to know that I will. You don't even have to say anything. You could draw me a picture about what you saw that day, with your dad, on the lake.

Of course, this line is just Dean paralleling Lucas with himself and his own reasons for not speaking, but it must hit home, because Lucas begins communicating with Dean through drawings.

Further, despite Sam also knowing Lucas is having premonitions, when Lucas reacts with extreme distress to the idea of going home and clings to Dean desperately, Sam still... doesn't think it means anything. He thinks the case is over.

Third, Dean has a bad feeling that the case isn't over, and Sam doesn't believe him.

The sheriff had just threatened to arrest them if they stayed in town, so of course going back to town is a big deal. When Dean turns around based on a bad feeling, Sam thinks he's just being paranoid.

SAM But Dean, this job, I think it's over. DEAN I'm not so sure. SAM If Bill murdered Peter Sweeney and Peter's spirit got its revenge, case closed. The spirit should be at rest. DEAN All right, so what if we take off and this thing isn't done? You know, what if we've missed something? What if more people get hurt? SAM But why would you think that? DEAN Because Lucas was really scared. SAM That's what this is about?

Dean sticks to his guns, and they arrive just in time to save Lucas's mother from drowning in a bathtub.

[kohabielnin]

Hi I really like your truth and inference posts and wondering if you can do a headcanon of their reaction if reader betrays them?

As you didn't make it very clear what kind of betrayal it would be, I assumed it was related to work, as I don't feel comfortable writing about betrayal in a relationship.

Truth & Inference Responding to Betrayal

D.M/Désire Mélodis

• He wasn't surprised because he already imagined that you were working with Lady Truth and Mr. inference,

• Of course, he was very disappointed because you were the one responsible for the information,

• Business must continue, so he gave you a choice of leaking information from Mr. Inference while leaking information from him to the detective,

• Obviously he saw this as a new way to play with you and Mr. Inference,

• If you refuse to do this, then let's say it's over, after all DM will never forgive a traitor,

• But if you agree, he'll never trust you as much as he did before.

Tuberose/Jack

• To say he felt betrayed was an understatement,

• Come on, this man was your co-worker and you simply told Mr. Inference and Lady Truth about his existence,

• He can't look at your face without feeling repulsed,

• He was really very disappointed in you,

• You never went on a mission together again because he asked D.M that this never happen again,

• Congratulations, you made it to the Tuberose blacklist

Noir/Saphir Mélodis

• He already imagined something like that, he quickly realized when you started acting strange,

• He was very disappointed in you, obviously.

• He tried to make a deal, that he wouldn't tell D.M that you were betraying the Mélodis family, as long as nothing compromising was leaked,

• He didn't pretend that something like this didn't happen while you moved on, after all you betrayed his trust,

• If you don't end up accepting his deal, he won't hesitate to end you, don't take him the wrong way, he's only faithful to his brother,

• Even Leon was sad when he found out and the hawk really liked you

Gatto/Aesop Carl

• He suspected that you were slowly becoming clear about the Silent Rebel's identity,

• When D.M entered his laboratory with you by his side, everything became clear to Gatto,

• The person he trusted betrayed him by handing him over to D.M and now his life was gone,

• Cat never wanted to come near you again, neither she nor the other kittens,

• Even though the penalty that D.M gave him was light at his request, Gatto was never able to be in the same environment as you again,

• In other words, Gatto reacted in the same way as Tuberose, or even worse

Mr. Inference/Naib Subedar

• He threw a fit of rage when he found out, Lady Truth managed to calm him down,

• Come on, he never thought you would go to D.M's side even though he knew everything,

• He kicked you out of the agency even though Lady Truth begged him not to,

• The last words he said to you was to do whatever you wanted and never look for him again,

• Lady Truth was angry at Mr. Inference's overreaction, but she couldn't go against her best friend,

• It hurt him a lot when he found out about such a thing, but you had made your choice

White/Saphir Mélodis

• Congratulations, you broke it,

• When he had the vision of you cheating on him, he just felt broken,

• He had done everything to make you feel good around him and you did this to him, why?

• Owl was sad that White wouldn't let her sleep on his head or shoulder anymore,

• At first you didn't understand why he suddenly started acting like that, but when the penny dropped, you felt guilty,

• But now there was no going back, the mistake had already been made.

[drdemonprince]

i dont agree with the way the person who added onto your post framed things, but I do want to say that sometimes i have similar thoughts (especially because i still often feel very depressed/unhappy) but then when I really think back to how truly awful it felt to inhabit my body pretransition.

when i look at old photos theres a period of time where i look like a pretty happy kid, and certainly i had issues back then too, but the oictures of me in the midst of my natal puberty and the years before i transitioned really do show a deeply uncomfortable deeply sad person trying to dissociate and overall completely unhappy with my physical body and presentation.

Now, of course there are a lot of factors that go into it, but even on my bad days and times where I am still dissatisfied with my body and struggling with dysphoria or anything else, I know that my baseline is much higher than it was back then. And I always forget how bad things were once I'm doing better

Like yes in a superficial sense i did start caring more about my appearance once i was able to transition, and I do look more conventionally attractive (or at least put together) but that's the result of me actually feeling more at home in my body and like I have a future to look forward to.

Some people who say i look happier or more myself looked at me and only saw the surface level stuff, but I try and believe that my friends and loved ones actually do see what's there, which is that I really am happier and more myself. If I wasn't, I wouldn't have wanted to transition so badly.

A lot of my response to people making such comments is an inherently Autistic one. People cannot read me well. Even dear friends and loved ones. Just as much as I cannot empathize with them, other people are terrible at empathizing with me. They guess all kinds of wrong emotions at the wrong times -- they think I'm nervous or preoccupied when I'm not, mistake euphoria for anxiety, miss my anger, constantly think that I am tired or aloof just for having a flat resting face, are fooled by the mask, think a scowl of concentration is annoyance, mishear my voice as mocking, etc. I do not like people guessing what I am feeling at all. It's virtually always wrong. And trying to draw inferences even more globally about how my life or transition must be going based on such superficial easily misunderstood data is even more wrong.

I just completely reject the idea that we should be evaluating a person's relationship to transition based on anything to do with their appearance on so so many levels.

[remingtoniii]

BSD Theory

(Summary at the bottom)

I saw a post (https://www.tumblr.com/sherxplained/743992135434518528/so-long-awaited-fyodors-backstory-asagiri?source=share) that said that Fyodor could have created the abilities, and that's why we see him in the time of the crusades. (I personally thought this was very interesting, and it made me think.) His ability name could have been inspired by that, as he did the crime and must accept the punishment:

Immortality

Whatever punishment Bram Stoker decides on

Being something completely new [will explain] )

So, as we can see, Dostoevsky was caught at Bram's palace. In the newest chapter, Bram orders that he is executed. This leaves us to wonder how Dostoevsky managed to take control of Bram. So, many years later, Bram is under Dostoevsky (but different version). It's clear that Bram has lots of enemies (the Sultan, Rome, etc), as he's accused of being a spy for a few people before his punishment is ordered.

Dostoevsky talked about how Bram is "the Devil", and it leads to a conversation about how both the Devil and humans were created by gods, which "Would it not stand to reason that both are just as cruel?" (Bram Stoker). Clearly, people have been attacking Bram for many years, and he's under the impression that humans are all cruel (we'll have to see how this ties back to the person who looked like Aya Koda). According to the wiki, his cells were mutated due to an ability, which caused him to, you know, vampire it all up in here. My prediction is that Bram was shunned by humanity due to this, and all of the people against him and the vampires are people he has deemed cruel and devilish, like him.

Dostoevsky could have been replaced. Based on the memory that Sigma sees, we can infer that he was lying about the split personality, like he said. The scar on his face most likely didn't heal, so what happened to him? How has he lived this long?

My personal theory is that he is eternally youthful, but when he passes away due to being murdered or however, he spawns in somewhere else, for lack of a better word, completely free of that scar. I think he got the scar by doing something humane, maybe saving a person. In the original Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov saves a girl early in the book, and wonders why he did it. He later thinks he has no humanity. What if Dostoevsky protected someone, and by doing so, committed a crime worse than mass terrorism, like killing a priest, or some other holy figure? His punishment is to live forever without the thing that reminds him of his humanity.

We don't know his ability, but my bet is that he was shunned by humans for it. There, he turned to the church, believing that as God was the one who blessed him with the abilities, he would still love him. There, he met someone worth protecting, someone who gave him life (My bet is that there is a parallel to irl Nikolai Gogol and BSD Dostoevsky), and he suddenly has someone to live for. Then, something happens, he protects the person, but they no longer think of him as human, or probably start praying while he watches, praying to be saved from Dostoevsky. There, he uses his ability on his friend, killing them. His punishment for the crime is for his humanity to be stripped away. This is also a parallel to Jesus, where he died as a punishment for humanity's sins, but instead of coming back only once (or twice with the rapture), he repeatedly comes back, and every time, his humanity leaves him again, coming back more and more inhuman as time goes on, paying for his own sins.

Now, this is all incredibly farfetched, but these are my own theories and thoughts on the newest chapter.

Summary: Dostoevsky will reincarnate into a new, injury free version of his body as a punishment for his actions before BSD 113

[utilitycaster]

You commented on not being a fan of non-pc pov scenes in ap, something that Aabria used in the first go of exu (which was one of the main things that put me off of it, tbh). Do you have any thoughts on how this is applied in EXU compared to WBN?

So for EXU there's some parts that are better, and some that are worse. The good thing is that they're very brief snapshots vs. the one in WBN that was like, an extended several-minute scene. I also actually kind of like the ones for Ted, since that makes sense; we know it's impossible to really get Ted's perspective otherwise and you can kind of handwave it as being related to Opal and floating about in her unconscious.

The ones for My'ratta and Poska on the other hand, while again, brief, sort of underscore their lack of development. We did not know what Myr'atta wanted until episode 93 of Campaign 3, and as I've said before I literally could not tell you what the goal of the Nameless Ones or Poska is. They serve no purpose narratively except as a ticking clock and shadowy threat to get the Crown Keepers to leave a place quickly.

I mentioned Otohan in my original post on this topic as an example of an underdeveloped antagonist, something Brennan mentioned as something he hoped to avoid, and Myr'atta, Poska, and Otohan are all ultimately cut from the same cloth: cool aesthetic, cool abilities, and a severe lack of in-game development. I don't know what motivates them (or in Myr'atta's case, didn't while they were an ongoing part of the story) and so they all bore me. They are flat, dull villains who say threatening shit that means nothing because I don't know what drives them. I don't want to keep getting into it because it kind of derailed my original point anyway but what frustrates me the most is how people keep saying "oh but I'm sure they have a motivation." Like yeah bitch. I'm sure they do. The GM has a responsibility to convey that in-game. And they can do so subtly! Believe me, I am glad to do the work of unpicking motivation from allusions or what is carefully unsaid; this is what makes Ludinus and Liliana (and Lolth in EXU) interesting! But it's telling that whenever I'm like "what the fuck does this character do other than serve the purpose of a Plot Device to either threaten or move the characters", no one ever like, explains their motivation to me; it's always "give it time! I'm sure the GM has something in mind." Well, both Myr'atta and Otohan died before we got that (we still don't have it for Otohan) so I think we can safely say the waiting game is for suckers. Like, if you like characters based on aesthetic alone that's valid as a choice, but I'm not taking your meta or arguments seriously because that's a superficial judgment.

It's also frustrating because it's like...the GMs and the fans who keep insisting to be PATIENT long after a boring antagonist has worn out their welcome for me are simultaneously like "the audience will not remember this guy if I don't shove them in their face in a stilted cutscene" and also "clearly, the audience will infer that this boring-ass antagonist MUST have something deeper going on and therefore they will extend credit indefinitely." It's the absolute opposite of what they should be prioritizing. Instead of trying to jingle the antagonist in front of me like keys while still doing nothing to develop their personality, maybe have the party...idk, have a vision. find a letter. learn something secondhand from someone talking in a bar that sheds light on their motivation.

In WBN it's actually a totally different problem. The scene is 100% unnecessary. We know what the Man in Black wants. We know what's going on with him. We know his goals and his allies. We saw him only a couple episodes ago and he's been a topic of discussion throughout a good chunk of the arc. Hell, we even know how dope-ass his aesthetic is. This is just showing something the party doesn't know and can't act on, for several minutes of Brennan talking to himself, and I think it actually destroys what would be a gut-punch of undead Sir Curran showing up on the opposite side of Eursulon, whose entire deal is being inspired by him.

So: The EXU scenes are less intrusive for their brevity, the fact that the Ted ones are pretty good, and that at least they don't spoil a moment, but at the same time they still don't solve the problem of an underdeveloped antagonist for Myr'atta and Poska. The WBN scene meanwhile drags on, and actually does too much by taking what could be an unbelievably devastating reveal and having it happen when Eursulon isn't even there to respond. I couldn't tell if this actually spoiled it for Lou, since they record well in advance, but if it did that's such a missed opportunity.

Anyway I think my point is that (with the exception of the very first scene of a campaign that is setting the stage, before the PCs are introduced) these cutscenes only work if they are extremely short and purely for vague flavor. I think if you want to have a scene with no PCs present, you should perhaps write a book or a screenplay instead of playing D&D.

[babacontainsmultitudes]

always always thinking about your post that was like “normal has a very high threshold for being loved that is nearly impossible to meet and he will do *anything* to feel validated” and then today in the discord during the part where willy reveals it could’ve been either normal or scary, will said “willy fucked up normal would burn the entire world down for the tiniest crumb of validation” and just. screaming screaming forever about this boy’s inability to ever feel loved enough, he is every webweaving post about always devouring and never feeling full from love, this boy is RAVENOUS and it’s hard to understand how the oak good-boy morality can even supersede that, he has every trait imaginable to become a villain and it feels like the only thing preventing that is the desire to be good, bc tbh I don’t think he wants to be good more than he wants to be loved

SORRY FOR TAKING ALMOST TWO FUCKING WEEKS TO ANSWER THIS ANON!

Eheh, firstly *thank you* because this message is very sweet and made me extremely happy. The post you’re talking about took a good while to write and came with a lot of anxiety so it’s very nice to hear that you’ve kept fragments of it with you, I really do appreciate that!!! 💜

I’d debated for a bit on answering this privately to be honest with you, as not every fire I’ve sparked is one whose flames I wish to fan, so to speak, but everything you wrote is just so on-point and well-articulated that I couldn’t resist. Otherwise. *Ahem*. I know it's very very silly to respond to a response about an essay with what is essentially another essay, but you see, in thinking of how to answer your message, I got a little caught amongst many other things that have been on my mind... And I've seen some takes that have annoyed me for one reason or another and couldn't decide how to address those and. Well. Ultimately I decided that the stuff I wanted to talk about was connected *enough* to the stuff brought up in your message (as well as in my original post) that I could put it all together, soooooooo if you'll entertain me rambling once more~

Let's start by saying that, I recently saw a take going around stating that “Scary’s internal issues caused her external issues while Normal’s external issues caused his internal issues” (among a number of other statements that I frankly found pretty questionable), and I must say, for reasons that I hope to explain, I disagree with this assertion on both accounts!

In Scary’s case, this statement completely erases and undermines the trauma of her dad walking out, and what that does not only to her confidence and sense of self-worth, but to her relationship with her mother as well. And the degree of the impact of this external trauma on her internal view towards and treatment of herself is clear as day just by looking at the stark contrast between Terri and Scary. Scary (Terri) is someone who once had confidence in herself and could find validation and motivation internally, most recently evidenced by Terri's words of encouragement to Scary whilst under beacon of hope:

But then her dad leaves, and things get harder at home, and Scary starts to fight with her mom (her mom who she once called her best friend!!!), and she starts to feel worthless and unlovable- something that only gets worse with time as Willy alienates her from the rest of the group, case in point with this revealing exchange:  

No one’s told her they’re proud of her in a long time (sound familiar??),

her teachers at school shut her down when she tries to speak her mind or otherwise dismiss her behavior as “acting out” seemingly without any sort of intervention or attempt to actually check in with her,

[the above teen fact is from episode 31]

Only then, in response to her diminished sense of self-worth does she begin to cut herself off from the rest of the world and from her former self, most importantly quitting soccer (which we know matters a lot to her!),

and those things leave her even more vulnerable and supportless and ashamed. Not to mention all the mixed emotions she must feel when Terry walks into the picture, between actually liking him but not being able to see his love as genuine due to her relationship with her bio dad and all the frustration and shame she must feel as a result.

This is not to claim that Scary’s internal struggles do not inform a lot of what happens to her and the people around her over the run of the season- of course they do! (In fact some of the later things mentioned above are examples of that- I guess I got a bit carried away). But Scary’s major internal struggles that affect her throughout the course of the adventure are preceded by a slew of important external events that negatively affect her psyche and are in many cases out of her control. Scary’s internal struggles did not originate in a vacuum, and I absolutely would not say that they “caused” the bulk of what she has been through.

Unlike Scary, Norm’s excessive dependency on external validation to feel like he’s worth anything begins when he is very young. [Emphasis on “excessive” here, since obviously everyone requires validation from others to some degree, the point being just that this trait is so very pronounced in Normal and, as I argued a bit in the post anon is referring to, usually the most important factor informing his courses of action, superseding (but not implying the absence of) any desire to be good and help those around him. Will’s statement (the one which anon quotes) seems to corroborate this.] We know that things go so far back from Sparrow’s account in episode 17:

It’s important that this is about Normal’s kindergarten experiences too, because it tells us that Normal’s predominant internal issues go back farther than this and hence were not caused in and of themselves by his peers- instead being perhaps more fundamental to who he is as a person.

This is not to say that external events do not exacerbate the state of Normal’s psyche. In his youth most notably, we can infer that he interpreted Hero’s treatment (which of course he did not understand at the time to be her training) as favoritism, and I think it’s pretty clear by this point that his resentment of her is tied to the degradation of self-esteem that he experienced as a result.

Then of course there is the dance. Sparrow’s words to Normal during the dance obviously consist of a very pivotal moment for Norm within the context of the season, but I think it’s important to remember and not erase the fact that Normal’s internal issues with validation do not begin at the dance, as established in the kindergarten case but also further exemplified by Norm’s primary motive in becoming the school’s mascot in the first place (to get everybody to like him). I think it’s important to remember this in part since it informs so much of Normal’s reaction to what his father has to say, immediately afterwards but also throughout the whole rest of the season. No kid wants to hear that their parent isn’t proud of them, but the severity of the response to this sort of statement is going to vary drastically depending on the person, and in Norm’s case, given his natural disposition, it’s devastating. [and I swear there’s a teen talk moment where Will says basically this but I can’t find it for the life of me rn damn it lol maybe I’ll edit in the clip later if I do]

Of course in this specific case, one can still mostly say that the problem stems from outside of Normal, and that his preexisting issues exacerbate his response but are definitely not the cause of it. Outside of this instance, however, this is not always true! In fact, Normal’s excessive dependency on external validation and related rejection sensitivity (negatively) inform a large amount of his interactions with those around him, particularly Lincoln and Taylor (imagine me underlining “Taylor” several times as I say this). Truthfully that’s a whole ramble on its own, but with respect to more recent events, I have to admit that I was genuinely quite irked to find a lot of people blaming Taylor and Lincoln for Norm’s response to their uh. mech shenanigans in episode 37, choosing to frame this as an act of moral failing or even malice on their part, rather than a reflection of Normal’s own issues and room for growth. Lincoln and Taylor were simply focused on the mission at hand, and there was no good reason realistically speaking to have expected them to be aware of Normal’s emotional state at that point in time (or in general, to be aware of the jealousy their bonding moments evoke within Norm- particularly when Normal consistently fails to communicate and address those emotions with them in a manner that is direct and not passive-aggressive). Lincoln in particular is very clearly stated as not even having fun in that moment, very understandably being focused instead on the fact that his friend Scary is around his father, who he just witnessed, you know, murder someone. This is not an instance of the world going against Norm for no good reason other than to put him through it, this is a very clear example of Normal’s internal issues affecting the way he perceives external events in a manner that is not actually very reflective of the reality of the situation, and which of course feeds in further to his cycle of self-loathing (and I won’t go into it here since I sort of did in the post anon is responding to- but Normal’s negative reaction to Lincoln breaking the pick to gain Scary’s trust is another important example of this [tbh all the more so now coupled with the hypocrisy of how he handles the anchor in Goofs but that’s a tangent]). As aforementioned, Norm also struggles a good chunk of the time to actually explain his feelings in a manner that is direct and does not rely on blaming others for not picking up on his dejection, as exemplified in how this discussion goes with Lincoln in the most recent episode:

The treatment from fandom of this whole instance being reflective of a reoccurring issue I tend to have with a large chunk of the fandom, wherein the collective memory of canon tends towards getting warped to account for Norm’s mental state. Sometimes that’s hailing him as some morally-perfect, emotional reincarnate of Henry (as though the pride layer didn’t happen, as though Goofs didn’t happen, as though all of Norm’s relationship with Taylor isn’t what it is- …I feel like I should stop implying stuff about the significance Taylor and Norm’s relationship and not elaborating but it really is an essay in and of itself LOL), other times it’s just downright turning everyone around Normal into a villain, a persistent phenomenon which I sort of illustrated in the above example but also touched upon in an earlier essay (arguing that despite the fandom’s quick jump to villainize him- Lincoln breaking the guitar pick would prove to be an act of love). Sparrow also takes a good brunt of the damage from this. Sparrow saying he’s not proud of Normal gets turned into Sparrow not loving Normal (despite an abundance of proof in canon to the contrary), his apology for what he said and the support he shows for Norm in light of his alternative plan on dealing with the Doodler are completely ignored by most of the fandom, as are any other demonstrations of emotional availability and shows of growth that he displays throughout the course of the season, and the true motives behind Sparrow’s insistence on Normal living a “normal” life- to protect him from the childhood that he but also that Hero had to undergo- is somehow framed as Sparrow actually holding some kind of favoritism for Hero. It’s as though there is a complete inability on a larger scale within the fandom to see Sparrow as separate character outside of the filter of Norm’s emotions, and the other teens (including Hermie) get a similar if less pronounced treatment.

[Actually, I would argue that to some degree all of the kiddads except Terry (and Lark since he’s not officially a dad) tend to be perceived and criticized predominantly through the noise of their respective child’s emotions/behavior. In Grant’s case, Lincoln 1. spends a good part of the earlier half of the season asserting that his dads are the best dads in the world despite everything going on and 2. has a very unfortunate tendency to compartmentalize and push down his negative emotions as much as possible- in typical Wilson fashion- so the complexity and severity of Lincoln’s issues with his dad generally go understated, and only now that Lincoln has begun to be more vocal and upfront about his issues has some of Grant’s parenting finally begun to come under fire, and even then mostly only his more recent transgressions. In Taylor’s case, Taylor’s emotional security/stability and general fondness for his dad mean that Nicky is being hailed by many people as “the best dad” where in fact Nicky- while certainly helping the teens out in many ways and perhaps even acting as a friend to them- has done just about jack shit for Taylor as a *father*, and really if Taylor has anyone to thank for being as well-adjusted as he is now, it’s definitely his mom! But I digress.]

Normal and Scary are very similar, but the way fandom treats them is very different. People (mostly) seem to be able to acknowledge that Scary, in spite of her mistakes and flaws, is a scared, tired kid with a good heart who is capable and deserving of love. In Normal’s case, I just can’t seem to shake the impression that the fandom (in general) would rather strip Norm of all the things that make his character complex, and nuanced, and flawed, reducing him to an utterly uninteresting husk of a character before depicting him as anything other than a perfect goody-two-shoes who has never hurt anybody in his entire life or daring to acknowledge the fact that “Normal has been through a lot, is hurt, and deserves a good support system and emotional validation” and “Normal can at many times be his own worst enemy, sometimes makes mistakes that affect those around him, and has room to grow emotionally” are notions that can and should coexist. Or at least, that's my two cents on the matter.

[tackypies]

the many layers of kiara

hello! im here to shill about why kiara's a fantastic villain and why i love her so much :^) the deeper aspects of her character are veiled behind subtext and tidbits of lore sprinkled throughout fgo and ccc, so here's a post compiling them!

cw child abuse, child neglect

kiara is described as a woman who's "introverted" and "timid" yet "active" by the fate/extra materials. she's a mass of contradictions - a nun who's sensual, a submissive personality who acts solely for her own pleasure. andersen... doesn't have many nice things to say about her

the shingon tachikawa school actually existed. it's a failed branch of shingon buddhism drawing inspiration from esoteric buddhism, specifically sexual pleasure and intimacy to achieve enlightenment. records of it are scattered, as its reputation is... Not Too Hot

needless to say, kiara was raised in a cult since her birth. from her max bond ce, the materials, and the fgo ccc manga, we can infer that she lived an isolated and lonely life. after all, what cult would neglect a sick child to the brink of death?

what hammers the point home is that fgo!kiara was happy. she was saved by an outsider who cured her sickness. because of that, she was able to leave the cult and have a normal life - to experience everything ccc!kiara was not able to. when zepar puts her ccc memories into her, kiara is horrified. she's traumatized. the weight of what she experienced - the childhood she underwent in another universe, coupled with the madness growing in SERAPH - was so bad that zepar had to remove her kindness in order for her to accept what had happened to her.

which leads to her character-defining lines, her reason for her hedonism and evils:

there was no one to save kiara. there was no one to let her out of the hell she was born into. in the end, she still died before ccc's beginning, existing only as a spiriton copy, and she no longer had a place in the real world.

the true tragedy of kiara is she's a twisted version of the little mermaid. she wants to understand what it means to live a human life, to feel human emotions. at the end of ccc, she begs andersen to tell her the difference between ai (愛) and koi (恋) - she's never known "koi." andersen puts it aptly in his confession to her:

kiara's tragedy is that she was born and raised to be a symbol and savior, without any regard for her humanity. because of this, she had to struggle to justify WHY humanity was worth saving when there was a lack of it in her home. all she ever saw was pain and chaos

again: she is the only human. she must be, bc that's why others would enact such heinous crimes in her name. bc that's the only way she can continue being a savior when she was exposed only to humanity's ugliness.

anyway! i love kiara and if u want an in-depth abt her i wrote one here :^) thank u bye

[meimi-haneoka]

i feel like i need to give you this ask as a free space to talk about yunaaki in the final chapter 🤭 i need yunaaki content in my life and i KNOW you're the right person to ask for it 🤲

YOUUUU, YOU ANON! YOU'RE A GOOD PERSON!!!

I dunno who you are but you're a friend to my heart and I thank you for it! 😂 (why do I have the feeling I already know you, though...? 😂)

Okay, since you so graciously gave me the chance (I would've probably made a post anyway but this motivates me more), let's explore the final chapter from the YunaAki point of view and let's analyze what happened!

UNDER THE CUT!

It was obviously wonderful for me to see them finally reunited and living in that house again. I have to be very honest before diving into the analysis of their scene, I had expected Kaito to "talk a little more", express a bit more how he felt, what he understood from all of this, but I guess CLAMP really want us to infer it on our own by what's shown in the scene itself. Ohkawa did say, during a Space, "I hope that people will re-read the story once it's over, and ask themselves why a certain character acted the way he did". With Kaito, the understanding of his character is a job they leave completely up to us. And it kinda makes sense because he's a real introvert, he doesn't really speak earnestly about his emotions or feelings, he's just barely started to accept to let them out and follow his heart so in a way, it's totally in character. Just like Syaoran, his feelings are not really expressed by words, but by actions. And in this finale he did something huge, to pass the message through.

But let's take a step back and talk about the beginning of their scene: what caught my attention is that Akiho didn't even hang her coat, probably she went straight up to his bedroom and took it off there. This is why I love CLAMP so much, they tell you so many things just by portraying certain details. Details that tell a story. Akiho couldn't wait to see and talk to him and didn't even give herself the time to remove and hang her coat. Probably that was the first day he felt good enough to talk, and she must have waited in agony all those days (he took longer than Sakura, I want to remind you). Despite what she'll say at the very end, this girl truly loves Kaito with an unconditional love.

Another thing that I loved to see, is Kaito's sweet smile while she tells him of the reaction of her friends at school, after hearing she'd be tranferring abroad. She said "I was happy to hear that" and that is enough for him to feel his heart filling with warmth and bring on his face that sweet smile that we saw so many times directed at her, throughout the story. It is a bit difficult to frame precisely his expression because now he's got the dragon eyes, so you don't see his pupils like the other characters, you only see a "fog" where the pupils are supposed to be, but if in your mind you "replace" it with the normal pupils you'll feel the warmth and sweetness of his expression better.

Everything speaks of love in this scene. The way Akiho nonchalantly says "I'll make the no-fry croquettes" and any soul who's reading this manga and cares about their story even just a little can't help but remember "awww, the ones she asked Sakura to teach her, to cook them as a surprise for Kaito". It was her first step towards autonomy (something she felt bad about, because she always had to rely on other people and she couldn't be ok with that anymore) and it was for him. She made those croquettes even for their date... That's also why it hurt a little when they've shown us she cooked them for the Kinomoto family. It made sense because without him, they were the closest ones to her, but that was something that she learned for him... So this scene reconciled me with that low blow I had felt earlier on!

Kaito apologizing really felt like the world started spinning in the right direction, like everything was coming full circle. There was nobody else who could make him stop and understand what he went wrong about. She truly is the only one who got any type of "power" over him. Not even Momo could reach there. And I love that he's apologizing for thinking and deciding things on his own, without asking her anything, but he's not apologizing for wanting to save her. He'll never regret that, I'm sure. And I don't think anyone in Tomoeda (and beyond) is blaming him for that. Kaito knows perfectly well that Akiho is someone strong enough to decide her destiny on her own, her strong spirit was forged by overcoming the child abuse she experienced. And this is not something he understood now, Kaito always had a lot of respect for her and for her strength, in fact that one time he almost lost control of his emotions in front of her in chapter 61, he had already expressed how much he believed in her.

But the heart is a complex beast, and when you mix love and fear there's going to be irrational outcomes. The fear to lose someone you love can be destructive. Moreover, this is something that started and was decided when he still didn't know her very well. When he accepted to have the Seal of D. imposed on him, he signed off his demise. Because it was either about staying (and not saving her), or freeing her from the artifact. And there's no doubt that he would choose the second one, no matter what. Even when he started feeling that heart inside beating faster and making his hand try to reach out to her multiple times. Even when his face was screwed into pain everytime the topic of the play came up. Nothing was going to be more important than her survival. Despite all of that, he doesn't make up excuses in this scene, his apology is absolutely honest.

And then, to show her how serious he is with this, he does something that I had hoped for this finale, because it would've confirmed even further just how much he loves her. The true name revelation to me felt equal to a declation of love, I'm not exaggerating. As CLAMP fans know and as it was explained by Yuuko in xxxHolic, if you give someone your true name, they can take your soul. Not only that, but Momo did remind him in chapter 51 of how dangerous can be to disclose one's true name, especially for a magician: "When you made the contract with me, you told me your true name. We could say I have your magician's heart in my hands. You wanted the power of the Book so much that you didn't care about betting it away". Kaito was just lucky that Momo is a very kind creature (or better, he already knew and that's why he did it), but he did make a dangerous move, there. Momo tried to use that warning to make him realize who he was doing this for.

And I think it's kinda emblematic that he decided to reveal his true name to Akiho right after apologizing. Akiho had cried about not having a name to call him with to scold him as he deserved, and here he wants to make up for that, with something more important than the name she's called him with till now. Kaito surely is barely starting to realize all matters concerning love, he's surely just beginning to get a grasp of what he feels for Akiho (and that's perfectly fine and works well for them), but if there's something he has understood in the last 2/3 chapters is that Akiho is everything to him. Her existence is stronger than the call of death, than his depression, than his little self-worth, than his destructive tendencies. Akiho is what pulls him towards life, and she proved to him that not even a tremendous forbidden magic could erase her feelings for him. She proved to him that she truly loves him. Hence why he wants to reveal his true name to her. Akiho is perfectly aware of the importance and even danger of revealing a true name, since she comes from a family of magicians (and Momo, in the Drama CD 2, did spell out that Akiho knew of the whole true names matter), that's why she asks him if he's sure. And his reply, of course, sent me over the moon, with that あなた between brackets. 🥹 If there's anyone who can know his true name, if there's anyone he wants to know, it's her. With this act, he's basically telling her "take my soul, it's yours". I mean, is there anything more powerful than that??? See, the first time he tried to "give all of himself for her", it didn't go quite well. But now that he understood what he needed to understand, he's trying again, this time giving her the most vulnerable part of himself, without damaging anyone.

In CCS, there are several ways in which the characters tell "I love you" to their loved ones. Sakura chose the iconic "you're my most important person" (it is to be noted that, till this day, she's never said the most classic "suki da yo" to Syaoran). Syaoran, as the straightforward and honest boy he is, went for the classic and direct "suki da" (I love you). Akiho first tried with a poetic and indirect way, "the moon is beautiful", but in the finale, when she desperately felt the need to express her feelings, she chose "my most important person" just like Sakura, and she repeated it several times. For Kaito, we could say he chose this indirect but also very powerful way to express what he feels. He feels enough for her to entrust his entire soul to her. And Akiho, well....we can barely see her hand and torso when she agrees to listen to the precious information, but the panel is framed in such a shoujo way (with all those bubbles in the background), that I'm sure she felt really touched by that....I think she understood what he was trying to do.

The moment he reveals his true name will forever be at the top of my favorite scenes. There's just so much emotional tension here. It's like you can cut it with a knife. And the way she replies, I have already mentioned in my commentary post how significant it is, how she appropriates that g*ddamned "blank book" comparison to turn it into a way for her to decide her life from now on. And his true name, his true essence, is going to be on the most important page of her book, to make sure she never forgets about it ever again. But I have to admit that I've also thought "dear lord Akiho, that's so cheesy, are you already flirting???" 😂😂😂😂 Well, it's not like Kaito minds, actually, he's pretty happy here 🥹

Again that sweet, tender smile, those eyes he only reserves to her. 🥲 Only Akiho can make him happy in this way.

Other things to mention: Kaito's stopped time. OF COURSE I've screamed when I've read that, because of what it means for a ship with an age difference like this one 😂but at the same time, it seems to me like a very powerful statement from CLAMP: these two will keep being always themselves, nothing will change even if their external appearance will, because Akiho will keep growing up eventually into a beautiful young woman, and he's likely still going to look like he looks now. I don't see them finding a way to fix Kaito's problems anytime soon. But the fact is, what really matters here is their mental maturity, and that will proceed hand in hand because Kaito is just so inexperienced and immature, and that already made him closer to her than his external appearance might have suggested. These two will basically grow up together and I think that's so beautiful. I think they've already shown plenty of how the external shape doesn't matter at all when it comes to true love, cause Akiho had recognized her beloved Kaito even with the appearance of a dragon. It is a bit unfair that we couldn't see his reaction to her "my most important person" with his true face, but I think that was done to reiterate the concept. So, age gap or not, these two for me are soulmates and CLAMP have reiterated the same stuff in countless ways.

Other thing of course I cannot avoid mentioning is the scene we got right at the end, where Akiho confides her true name to Sakura and says she will withhold it from Kaito for the moment being, because she's still a bit mad at him! 😂A month passed by but it's just normal that she still feels the burn, cause he really messed up big time!

I absolutely love that part for two reasons: first, it's so funny to see how the tables turned; she was the one who looked more in love out of the two, and would do anything to get his attention, but now things are kinda reversed and we know that Kaito literally changed an entire world for her, and even gave her his true name: as I always say, she basically owns his ass 😂😂 This is *exactly* the dynamic I've always pictured between them, even after the events of CCS and I'm glad that canon confirmed it for me! 🥹 Second, it's just another confirmation of her strong, assertive personality and self-awareness: Akiho knows that Kaito hurt her a lot with what he did, and knows that her feelings are valid, so she's got the right to still be mad and take things easy with him. After being hurt by someone we love, we might need some time to get back on track and trust them completely, 100% again. Forgiveness isn't automatic, it's a process. The deeper the wound, the longer it'll take to heal. And even after a month, there's seemingly still so much she has to elaborate about this. It's not that Akiho wants to withhold her true name from him because she doesn't love him as much anymore, but choosing to entrust your soul when you're still so vulnerable might be quite difficult at the moment. Kaito needs to work hard to have such a intimate and important part of her, but I'm sure she'll be ready to disclose it at a very important (and romantic) moment. (I'll have to imagine it by myself???? CLAMP??) For that reason, I loved how CLAMP have shown once again that Akiho now is completely in control of her choices, she's never been emotionally dependant on Kaito and she's never had a toxic relationship with him. This truly isn't a thing of chapter 80, but not even of chapter 78, she's been assertive like this for long time (chapter 52 chapter 52 chapter 52).

The future looks radiant for Akiho, despite the difficulties they might find on their way to heal Kaito, but she truly looks happy at the thought of travelling around with her true love. Look how beautiful and happy she is here!!

By the way, I think Kaito asked Syaoran for his contact also because he needs to ask advices for his relationship with Akiho!! 😂😂😂😂 Now that even Momo left them, he's really on his own for that!!!

Of course I always hope to see more in the special chapter in March, but I am quite satisfied with what they've shown us in the finale! ❤️

Thank you again, anon, for giving me the opportunity to talk about these two in depth once again!

[outofangband]

@imakemywings I really love the collection of Narn quotes you made here and your awesome responses to them and obviously because I am very biased My favorite one was the one about Morwen

"But when they bade Turin turn and look back upon the house of his father, then the anguish of parting smote him like a sword, and he cried: 'Morwen, Morwen, when shall I see you again?' But Morwen standing on her threshold heard the echo of that cry in the wooded hills, and she clutched the post of the door so that her fingers were torn."

It’s such a vivid quote; I have always thought about how it’s impossible to tell if Morwen is intentionally replacing her grief for the physical pain of her fingers being cut open or if she is unaware of the pain because of her grief and/or her suppression of it. Both of those seem in character for her. I really loved @imakemywings ‘s analysis of it; Morwen is cold and blunt but she is absolutely not unaffected by her child’s grief, we see it again and again, like in this quote yoo. She is acutely aware of it, perhaps even more so than her own, but she is determined for her son to survive and for her son to survive not as a thrall to the occupying men. And it’s not just that he is her son, he is also among the last Bëorians left alive. There is a cultural legacy as much as a family one and even by sending him away she knows at least some of this legacy may well be lost

but I just keep thinking about Morwen having to send Túrin away and how in my opinion this cannot be separated from the implicit separation between Morwen and her parents some sixteen years before.

Morwen’s past is within the lines of The Children of Húrin, not directly stated beyond “the sorrows of the house of Bëor saddened her heart she came as an exile to Dor-lómin from Dorthonion after the ruin of the Bragollach”. We know her father is Baragund who remained in Dorthonion with Barahir until he and the other outlaws were murdered, several years later. We are not given names or fates of either Morwen or Rían’s mothers but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to infer that Morwen was effectively orphaned in the Bragollach. We know she was a child when this happened (None of this is new information or anything, I’ve rambled about it a million times before in my houseless for exiles tag)

She sends Túrin away knowing that when her parents sent her away for safety, she never saw them again and that her safety was temporarily and fragile and has now been broken. It’s such a devastating decision for her and I love her so much.

I also think about this passage, which comes two pages before, and is probably the most emotionally honest that Morwen is in the entire book, and I am sure you know I do not mean this at all as an insult to her 

“I am sending you away so that you did not learn it. Morwen answered, and she set him before her and looked into his eyes as if she were trying to read some riddle there. “It is hard, Túrin, my son,” she said, at length “not hard for you only. It is heavy on me in evil days to judge what is best to do. But I do as I think right for why else should I part with a thing most dear that is left to me.”

(Note The parallel here to Túrin, noticing “that his father often looked steadfastly out him as a man might look at something dear that he must part from”.)

Morwen has no allusions about what might await Túrin when he leaves and it speaks a lot to the horror of post Nírnaeth Hithlum that she will risk this to spare him death or captivity at the hands of the incomers. She’s survived invasion before, after all.

[captain-grammar]

My main take-aways from Zach and Keith's conversation on the latest TryPod episode, for anyone interested in one woman's Thoughts And Opinions:

I truly commend Zach, Keith and Miles for approaching the podcast with some level of humour; whether it's a case of "if we don't laugh, we'll cry" or after a month, they're ready to make jokes or they simply wanted to maintain a level of normalcy for us, the audience, I appreciate the levity of certain moments. Zach, for the love of God, get that dishwasher fixed!

The fact that Keith referred to the grieving process as being cyclical and he kept/keeps going through it... Man, I truly feel for him. I think the more time they have to process the various levels of Ned's actions, the more it'll happen. The whole process must traumatic to go through and I truly hope it'll get easier with time.

To hear Keith, Zach and Miles comment on how the stress of the situation has affected them was heartbreaking. Keith's anxiety about being in public and having to discuss it, Zach putting his self-care on the back burner, Miles losing weight... They don't deserve to be going through it like this, especially because they're not the ones in the wrong.

There was genuine concern from Keith and Zach (and we cn probably assume the same for Eugene) that any of their personal/side projects would take a knock-on hit as a result of this situation; it seems that not only were they worried that their own reputations would be tainted by association but Zach voiced that he was worried that a short film/writing project he had planned might not go ahead now as a result of having to take the time to address this matter instead. I cannot stress enough how selfish Ned's actions were; he put everyone else's career at risk as well as his own.

Given the way the entire podcast they seemed to be truly careful about what they said and how studious and meticulous it sounds like they've been throughout the entire process (farming out the HR review to a 3rd party, legal advice etc.), they must be genuinely concerned about legal repercussions and the potential for any lawsuit and claims against them. Whether that's because they really want to do this as by-the-book as they can or whether certain parties intimated that they might take legal action remains to be seen. I give the 2nd Try team full props for covering all their bases and protecting their brand and staff going forward.

The damned statements. Zach and Keith made it clear that while they let Ned see the public statement they posted to social media in advance, they never saw his. They also made it *very clear* what they thought might have been Ned's motivation behind making both their statements look as though they'd been created and posted in concert: they believe that it was a calculated move on Ned's part to give the subliminal impression that there was a level of synchronicity and support between the two parties where clearly none exists.

Zach states that what Ned did was a "workplace violation". From that, we can infer that there was definitely something in Ned's contract or in the company paperwork that told him that fraternising with any of the company's employees in a romantic way was a big no-no. He knew what he was doing was wrong. He knew what he was doing went against company policy. He knew he'd get fired. He did it anyway.

The announcement that Eugene will be taking a step back from the podcast wasn't a huge surprise. The guy is incredibly private and guarded and I always got the impression that being open and vulnerable in the podcasts was a little uncomfortable for him. I look forward to his guest appearances!

I'm glad they're not ruling out Ariel remaining on the You Can Sit With Us podcast and that they're more than happy for her to take as much time as she needs to heal and get into a better headspace; that the door is always open for her.

The not-so-casual shade Miles threw at "a certain employee who would always walk out" during the Advice That Will Go For Miles song was truly a thing of beauty and if you didn't stan him before, you should for that alone

This might not be the end of the situation - perhaps in the future when the dust settles and the legal side of things has been locked up, we'll get more information - but for now I'm glad that the boys have a chance to take a breath and move on. As a fan of the Guys, I'll still be watching and supporting them. They haven't lost an inch of ground with me and I cannot wait to see what the future holds.

[faythian]

Discourse on Lyse Hext

This screencap popped up for a background on my computer today, and it got me thinking about the discourse surrounding Lyse Hext. I do not think she deserves any of the hate/spite sent her way. My thoughts below (long post below cutoff):

Lyse comes from Ala Gannha. She was five years old when Curtis Hext, her father, bundled her and her sister, Yda, up and left. They went to Sharlayan, probably the colony in Dravania. Yda became an Archon; Lyse idolized her sister.

Papalymo was the one who had to tell a young Lyse that her sister and father were dead. To cope, she took on the identity of Yda. She lived as Yda for five or six years. She was always paired with Papalymo, who became a surrogate father for her. He is shown multiple times lecturing her, admonishing, and guiding her. While he knows it’s not a healthy coping mechanism, he still went along with her request to assume Yda’s identity and work. Or as much as she was able.

Then she lost Papalymo.

She decided to reclaim her identity of Lyse, but she didn’t have much of an identity to reclaim at the time. She needed to untangle herself from Yda, but did not get the time (either because she was thrust into the push to liberate Ala Mhigo, or because she herself would not give time for such a delicate task).

She is understandably shocked by her reception in Ala Gannha. She grew up fairly sheltered after the trauma of the uprising against King Theodoric, leaving at a young age, being a refugee, and then settling in a foreign land. Lyse still saw Ala Mhigo as her home, despite growing up in Sharlayan and not truly understanding what was going on in Gyr Albania. She was blinded and made naive by her father’s legacy as a hero of the Resistance.

The Legacy of Curtis will haunt her for a while.

She tries desperately to understand what those who stayed behind have gone through, trying to draw on what she knew best: Yda’s personality. Lyse does not start to truly come into her own until she leaves for Doma. There, she has no legacy to live up to. She also finds a friend and mentor: Hien. Hien is the same age as her but was brought up knowing who and what he was meant to be. If one watches carefully, while in Doma, Lyse is watching and taking note of Hien’s moves politically. She is also watching Yuuguri. Yuuguri knows the villages and their people, unlike Lyse back in Gyr Albania.

While we get to see some fantastic character development of her, it’s all in the background, as the Doman part of Stormblood is focused on Hien, Yuuguri, and freeing Doma. Unfortunately, upon returning to Gyr Albania, Lyse is still trying tactics that aren’t her own and trying to live up to other people's expectations and identities. She is not using what she learned in the way Lyse would use them; she is trying to do what Hien or Yuuguri would do, or how she feels her father might have used these ideas. She still hasn’t truly found her own voice yet.

When Conrad dies, he named Lyse the new leader of the Resistance. M’naggo accepts this, seemingly readily. Most people see this as a nepotistic move, and it is, but it’s also more. M’naggo, I feel, accepts this because she sees what Lyse represents to the Resistance—Curtis’ dreams and ideals.

His legacy.

Lyse now has the added burden of not only living up to her father’s image, but now his ideals and goals. We do see some of her struggles as she tries to lead the Resistance, a lot of that being how heavily she leans on the Scions and the Warrior of Light for help.

The game does a disservice to Lyse by not letting us see this struggle fully. All we get are snippets from which we then must infer what she is going through. She is a legacy without understanding and being given very little support from those she is meant to inspire and lead.

There were golden opportunities for others to truly assist her in discovering her own voice:

Urianger, who understood intimately how the shadow of one’s betters can cloud a person’s path and self perception;

Y’shtola would have been a fantastic mentor due to her more pragmatic view of the whole situation;

Conrad should have been more of a presence for her as he had local knowledge as well as historical knowledge (i.e.: Curtis’ actual goals);

and even Raubahn should have been there (and behind the scenes might have been) as he also knew Curtis, the Resistance, and what they were all up against, in addition to what it means to be a leader of a nation.

Instead, she was allowed to become a symbol of something she didn’t fully understand and set out on the balcony to wave and smile.

By the end of the main plot, she is seen as a leader, and she does show many traits of a good leader just coming into her own. But we are not truly shown her journey to this point. Lyse is just suddenly Leader.

The writing for her was fairly terrible. The lack of attention paid to her character and character growth throughout Stormblood was, at best, disappointing, and at worst appalling. We get to see Alphinaud’s continued journey, we get to see Hien and Yuuguri’s journey, we even get to see Fordola’s journey, but not much of the trials and tribulations of the character SquareEnix seemed to call the Main Character (if the posters and official art are to be considered).

As I write my narration of a couple of my own characters going through the MSQ, I will be visiting Lyse a number of times during this expansion and putting in those scenes that I feel are needed. I will be giving her mentors.

[know-the-way]

Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears Discourse(?)(maybe idk?)

So… at this point I’ve watched the entire 3 series and film. Twice. I was going to post episode reactions for series 2 and 3, but I really need to skip ahead to Crypt of Tears because I have… questions. If anyone knows the answer or potential answer to any of them, please weigh in because I am just… struggling to understand some of the narrative decisions they made here.

(Btw, overall I enjoyed it, so I don’t want it to seem like I’m coming from a solely negative perspective - obviously, the last 5 minutes in particular… talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, etc etc. I may do a separate ‘things I enjoyed’ post. I just needed to talk this out. lol)

****Full warning, this is a very long post, I am so sorry in advance.****

1. Alright, first things first - wtf do you mean it’s been a YEAR since she left Melbourne?! What was she doing that whole time? Like obviously, you could infer that she got caught up in local shenanigans and hadn’t seen everything to a satisfactory end yet, but I feel it would’ve taken maybe 1-2 minutes to just briefly explain that for the audience’s sake.

I also totally understand that they were attempting to make a stand alone project that could be independent of the series, so referencing where the series left off would be antithetical to that. HOWEVER, I think at the point where fans of the series invested $1 million… that should have maybe made tying up loose ends from the series a bit more of a priority?

I also saw that they hoped to garner new audiences from the film. And maybe it’s just me, idk, but - I’m a new audience and the only thing that brought me to the film was the knowledge that I had 3 seasons worth of backstory to immerse myself in beforehand. There are very few scenarios in my mind that would’ve had me watching just the film and nothing else. So… help.

2. Similar to question 1 - SIX WEEKS?! Where was she for six whole weeks? How did she escape the train? Was it like a Bear Grylls situation out in the desert for a while or did she have to barter with local villages or something? Just again… 1-2 lines of dialogue and I’d be good. Instead, I’m just sitting here confused like, “okay cool, I’m super glad you’re alive and stuff, but um… HOW?!”**

(**acutely aware that this is how Jack must feel all the time) (and he deserves a pint from the pub for his troubles ‘cause omg)

3. SPEAKING OF JACK - *r2d2 screech* This poor man. Jesus. How many times does he have to grieve the love of his life? It’s kinda rude at this point.

I’ve read articles with the writers where they talked about wanting Phryne to be strong and independent without emasculating Jack as a character. And I remember thinking, “Yes! They do such an excellent job of finding that balance in the show and it’s really satisfying. It’s one of the things I love most about their dynamic - the freedom to be themselves while still having this very strong collaborative connection.”

^These scenes, though? Whaaaatttt happened? 🫠 I don’t think it emasculated him, but Phryne’s almost non-reaction to him being there… grieving her... it comes off kind of insensitive and perplexing at its bare bones, to me.

Upon a few rewatches of that scene, I’ve been able to slowly formulate potential justifications for her behavior - i.e. she did tell him to come after her and he didn’t, so maybe she lost hope on her end and dove into the first perilous mystery she could find to help herself get over him. Thus, when she finds out he’s there for her memorial service, I could see her inwardly going, “Okay wow, it took me dying for you to make any moves whatsoever. Cool. Good to know I’m only worth the trip if I’m not here anymore. (Hence, the ‘And I’m very sorry that I’m not dead!’ line later.)”

Which would be a fair point, imo, and they do have a track record of just… infuriating miscommunication, but ultimately… it’s all still hypothetical. We aren’t given any actual, spoken insight into her motivations or feelings in regards to Jack (the smallest glimpse we get is her teary eyes outside the door at his guesthouse along with the “damn it, Jack” line). So, without any further follow-up clarification in the film - at face value, that scene is harsh and almost callous imo. And, despite their many conflicts in the show, there was never once where I felt they weren’t at least making an effort to understand each other. Like there is never a point in the film where they take a moment to acknowledge the time lost between them. They don’t get to have that (necessary) release of emotion and mutual understanding (there’s no nightcap moment), so it just feels incomplete.

4. I promise not to make all of these redundant, but the quicksand scene. Obviously, I love it ~*for reasons*~, but I found myself once again choosing a side (Jack’s)???? Which, throughout the entirety of the tv series, I never chose a side between them ‘cause I could always understand both of their perspectives. In this scene and the reunion scene, I’m left confused both times about Phryne’s perspective. Maybe because Mac isn’t there to pull the full truth out of her just afterwards? That’s probably it.

But her lumping Jack in with “any other man” she doesn’t need to explain herself to - either that was a fear response or a flat out dishonest one. Girl quit playin’… we all know he’s not just any other man and we all know he has never tried to change you or take charge of you. Please, the bottom-leaning switch vibes that come off that man… he LIVES for you telling him what to do. He doesn’t want to control you, he just wANTS TO BE BESIDE YOU. GOD.

I so didn’t want to be frustrated with Phryne (I love her**) and I was honestly upset that I was, but there was just something… missing in both these instances for me (vulnerability maybe? idk) and I can’t quite get it to add up. It really probably was a lack of Mac, though.

(**again, Me 🤝 Jack, complicated feelings for a complex modern woman, we’ll both be at the bar if you need us)

5. Last one - “Is this your idea of sweet nothings?” “I thought they were out of the question?” “They are. Continue.”

Did I miss a scene where they laid ground rules for their partnership going forward in Shirin’s case? Or was that something that was cut/not included? Because… if there was a scene of them discussing that before Jack agreed to stay… that would have taken care of most of what I said above in and of itself.

(But no fr… did I miss a scene? Is my copy broken? Help?)

Gonna Leave on a Positive Note, because if you asked me if the below scene made it all worth it, I’d have to say yes:

[3-frogs-in-a-trenchcoat]

guys after hunter managed to get rid of belos, he says “you dare stab me in the back, Caleb?!” that’s the SECOND time belos has called hunter Caleb

Hes become unable to differentiate between caleb and hunter. He created hunter to “bring back” his brother and have some form of post-portem control over him; he’s hopscoting between the stages of acceptance and serious denial. He knows he killed him for a righteous reason yet he treats him as if he’s alive at any opportunity he gets. He arguably never saw the grimwalkers as equals to Caleb yet kept trying to force them to be replacements. So once hunter left him WITH Caleb’s palisman, made for him by the person that for him turned his brother to the dark side, the two truly fused in his mind to become exactly one and the same. One could argue that the “Caleb!!” was meant to reference the reminder of flapjack but no it was directed at hunter; belos already saw Caleb standing before him, against him once more

And the actual question asked: you DARE stab me in the back? Hunter had long ago betrayed belos: if not forced to do it in hollow mind then absolutely in king’s tide. In hollow mind, Phillip is fully aware hunter did not want to leave but tries to kill him anyways, as he did the others, and in kings tide, seeing the unique factor in hunters betrayal, he begins to confuse the two and with it comes the same conviction that he can turn him back, even if possession is what it takes. The stabbing in the back, how belos killed his brother, is equal to hunter telling him he never wants to serve him again and he must be having flashbacks to Caleb telling him he wanted to stay on the boiling isles. But while hunter explicitly told him to fuck off, it’s doubtful caleb said something to that end. To the contrary, Caleb must have begged Philip to stay with him, like how hunter begged to stay with belos in hm. Both pleas were ignored and punished. So it takes hunter explicitly telling him what he wants to do with his future, carving palismen and leaving the emperors coven (which I’m sure is similar to what Caleb must have told his brother back then) for phillip to register a betrayal that equates to Caleb’s and that merits extreme measures.

And luz responding “you did it first”. Belos has no comeback to that. Again, he doesn’t give two fucks about anything he may be wrong about, and he’s aware there’s plenty. Furthermore, HOW does luz respond that. As far as I’m aware she and hunter, much less the others, have no way of knowing the wittebanes’ story, unless they were paying attention to the old portraits, which is the audience is informed of the backstory. They only enter the portraits having to do with belos’ deceit, none about his past. The rest of the time is dedicated to the grimwalker revelation and Caleb is only referred to as “him” (“you were the one that looked most like him”) and his name is first relevantly mentioned in kings tide. Hunter learned he is clone of someone through this research on grimwalkers and infers his original is someone close to Belos and therefore a witch hunter, which we know is not true. The first time the partial story is told to the characters is in the truck ride and everyone should have the same context and information to fill in the blanks and to be unaware of a brother in the situation. They know about belos, but not Caleb in anything but name. So either one of two things happened: luz heard the story and connected the brother in the legend to one of Phillip’s companions, the drawing in the journal, the person of which hunter is cloned and the name Caleb and, knowing belos was addressing hunter as is he was caleb, responded by saying he literally stabbed his brother in the back first OR took the “caleb” as referring to something else and meant he metaphorically stabbed hunter first by trying to kill him and pushing him away. or yknow both.

And I also wanna talk about the graveyard were the fight took place bc between the altar appearance and the sitio of the golden guard in the entrance arc, I’m betting so much it’s an unmarked grave to Caleb. Seeing as how the portal door was passed down though the clawthornes and ended up buried in their backyard, Caleb and Evelyn could have been the first to own it. Maybe Caleb had time to bury or hide it himself broke his brother came for him. The point is belos is just sick enough to go back before caleb was even dead and secretly build a grave to an idealized version of him in the human world, like some form of “the caleb I knew died already by not coming back with me”. the sigil then becomes not the symbol of the golden guard but the symbol of gravesfield turned into a brand that marks the golden guards, the grimwalkers of his brother, property of the human world, a tool to be used by belos to conquer witches in the name of humanity. Of course once caleb was dead, Phillip lost his access to go back and declare his death blamed on the witches, which he probably planned to do, instead looking for his own door and conquest of the boiling isles for himself. It doesn’t explain the stash of titans blood with an owl cap. Maybe Caleb put it there himself in case he was forcefully dragged out by Phillip and needed to go back, the hill was a significant place for them; Caleb buried his plan b there and Phillip unaware build the altar there.