#*DOES CPR*

[batcavescolony]

Katniss is such an unreliable narrator. She says "Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me" girl you deliver strawberries to the Mayor, you hunt and trade for the district, when you fell at Prim being chosen someone caught you, when you went to Prim people parted for you, when you volunteered EVERYONE stopped. Idk how to tell you but I think you're a pillar of the community.

[thatgaywizardoverthere]

Arthur “Disaster Bi” Pendragon learning about true loves kiss as a cure like:

Gwaine: For fuck’s sake, he’s not enchanted every time he smiles at someone else, Arthur! He was literally just laughing at my joke!

Arthur, aggressively frenching Merlin on the council room floor: YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO CAREFUL OKAY-

[lazycranberrydoodles]

xie lian texts like a grandpa … i imagine pre confession their texts would be a graveyard of hua cheng’s failed attempts at flirting

xie lian's profile picture is from the manhua by starember / follow for more of hua cheng Ls

[morganbritton132]

Eddie, in the middle of a stream: Yeah, the first time Steve kissed me I was unconscious

Steve: It wasn’t a kiss! It was CPR!!!

Eddie: The second time Steve kissed me I was also unconscious

Steve:

Steve: So was I.

[sloasis]

METHANE in the WATER is turning the FIREFIGHTERS GAY

[markantonys]

apparently when some group of WOT fans went to see hadestown a while back, donal outright told them that he'd filmed in south africa, god bless that man just giving out leaks for free. this is how cauthor CPR can still win!!!!!

so, if this fan is to be believed (they did have a picture of meeting donal at hadestown so at least that much is true lmao), donal filmed in south africa. but i remember we were all monitoring his hadestown schedule closely at the time, and to the best of my memory, there was only a single 1- or 2-day stretch where he was off hadestown at the time that south africa filming was going on.

so, he filmed in south africa, but only a tiny bit

per sharon gilham, there is a character who appears in only one scene in either episode 7 or 8 who looks like nothing we've ever seen before and who required a big collaboration between the costume & makeup departments

we've long suspected that the s3 climax would be moiraine & lanfear's mutual doorway yeeting merged into rand's TSR climax in rhuidean

thus, i propose that the theory of mat entering one doorway in the tanchico museum and getting spit out in rhuidean is indeed true - but it happens during rand's SECOND visit to rhuidean in 3x08 rather than his first in 3x04.

no way that donal could've filmed 4 episodes' worth of stuff in south africa, but he COULD have filmed just a scene or two at the end of the final episode. and the finn would perfectly fit the clues for sharon gilham's mystery character; at the time we also considered characters like a new forsaken or the seanchan empress because we didn't think it would take until the end of the season for the finn to show up, but we've seen forsaken and seanchan before, so the finn are a better fit for a completely crazy brand-new aesthetic that requires lots of makeup as well as costume work.

so, mat enters the doorway during the fight with moghedien in the tanchico museum. he has his encounter with the finn and asks for a way out, and they spit him out through the rhuidean doorway instead, hanging from avendesora. at the same time, rand is having his big rhuidean showdown. moiraine and lanfear tackle each other through the doorway and it gets all twisted and melty, indicating there's no coming back out. rand is distraught........and then he catches sight of mat hanging from avendesora. he rushes over, cuts him down, and gives him CPR, and this way, as observed by @butterflydm, rand does get to end the season on a small victory even amidst all the horror of what's happened to moiraine. he couldn't save her, but he could save mat :') and asmodean is there the whole time having a live slug reaction to all of this cauthor hurt/comfort, amen!

this would get mat in position to kill couladin and assemble the band in rand's first post-waste battle in s4. we've speculated that mat, elayne, and nynaeve could join up with rand's crew in s4 (since E&N have several cuttable sidequests in the next chunk of books and the show could perhaps instead use this time to shepherd them back to their love interests for relationship-building and have them join in the retaking caemlyn plotline to head straight into their late-middle series storylines), but mat is the only one who kinda needs to be with rand *immediately* when s4 kicks off, whereas elayne and nynaeve could arrive later in the season after doing something else in the first chunk. (my assumption here is that they would waste no time bringing everyone out of the waste (particularly if they don't want to return to south africa for s4; could be more practical to start the season after a small timeskip with rand's crew already back in the wetlands) and thus that the post-waste battle would happen in the first or second episode.)

i've seen this theory floating around twitter and reddit today, so it's not original to me! i will only take credit for tying it in with sharon's mystery character, which i haven't seen anyone do yet and which feels like a very key piece of supporting evidence to me because most of the other evidence is hearsay.

a potential problem with this theory (aside from the riskiness of hearsay) is that wotseries believes south africa may have also been used for some tanchico scenes, so it's possible that donal was only there to film tanchico scenes. however, wotseries isn't really conclusive about how much tanchico stuff may or may not have been filmed there (although we do know that ceara was in south africa while filming was happening).

[hadleysmis]

During Lockdown in 2020, I remember my first tackle at writing an Asian character in Les Misérables fics.

Before, I would often just have characters who were inexplicably, culturally 'broadly East Asian' despite being French or British. Ah yes, the duality of Man.

My Modern AU characters would often be White as snow, live in Paris or Isle of Man, but also think in a very honour-based system or do things like bowing in an Asian way to show respect.

Anywho, my first attempt at an Asian headcanon surprisingly wasn't what one would've guessed: it was Vietnamese.

Fun fact about me is that I often use Les Misérables as a motivator to learn about things I would usually otherwise not really find the push in real life to learn. This meant that I would also make headcanons or AUs such as 'Les Misérables set in Wales during the Thatcher era' in order to push me to learn about the world.

That must've been the reason in why I had a headcanon of Wasian!Éponine.

To get to the point, I'll explain the plot went as follows:

Éponine had a deadbeat father whom she has beef with. The only strong connection she had was with her mother. The story begins with Éponine grieving the loss of her mother as she had died from a long-term illness.

It had been months ever since her death, and her father's absence and lack of care irritated her. She had thought grief would bring them together; and it did for a couple of weeks, but he had moved on too quickly for her liking.

As she drank her misery and frustration, she was questioned on her mother's identity and past. The mother was British all her life, but she was actually adopted from Vietnam.

Her orphanage ran during the Vietnam Civil War, and she was placed into an orphanage nearing the end of the said war. She was a toddler when the Americans scrambled to leave the country.

Afterwards, foreign aid workers came back and forth until a couple they took sympathy on her situation and whisked her away to the United Kingdom. Whenever her mother talked of her tale, she was quite quiet and admitted that she remembered next to nothing about her time in Vietnam.

Deciding that she needed to connect with her mother and leave her dissatisfactory life in the UK, Éponine set off to find out more about her mother in Vietnam (I never chose a specific area).

Soon, the visit turned into an investigation as she was given clues from the people she would meet and question, that there was more to her mother than she had first perceived.

Her mother having been an orphan during the Vietnam Civil War made it more of a struggle to get records of and find the relevant people to interview.

From Éponine's young age, she had once asked about her mother's ethnicity- as Éponine was visibly brown while her mother was light skin. Considering she was Wasian, she had found this odd as a child.

Her mother had told her that it was even more odd, as through her heritage, there's a chance she could be American. Éponine had pulled a face at that comment, and soon her mother showed a grey look in her eyes- an indicator of regret of telling such a statement.

Éponine believes that there was a probable cause in that belief that her grandfather could've been a US soldier.

She digs more and more of the truth until she eventually finds out that her grandfather was indeed a soldier, but he was Korean.

Upon finding this out, Éponine learns of Korean affiliation and role that they played during the war. She is devastated and refuses to research of her grandfather's identity further, and instead directs her attention to her grandmother's mysterious identity.

I never did continue on from that story, and I'm assuming it would've ended with her grandmother alive and the two connecting...

[princescar]

what makes me so crazy is matsuda doesnt really want to hurt anyone, he wants to do good for the world but is stuck in this endless cycle of trying to keep the girl he loves safe. did he have to kill those people? yes. because it would keep her safe. did he have to hide those bodies? also yes. because it kept her safe. did he have to drug her? yes. because shes trying to end the world and hurt herself along with it. while technically he didnt have to do any of this it wouldve killed him to let her get hurt or die, thats why he tries to kill her because maybe then she’ll stop being such a risk to herself. fully believe he either wouldnt have gone through with it or if he did kill her he wouldve gone down with her. he cant live without her, and after everything she does remember him. scrubs face Hi

He loves her so much it slaughters me.

Like, the contrast between his previous two murders and how he tries to kill her. With Soshun he's trying to dissociate, he dehumanizes him and refers to him as a "thing", and he has to squeeze his eyes shut because he just can’t handle it. It's horrific. With Yuto, its quick but violent, head completely snapped at 180 degrees. He feels guilt, but he’s at the point where he doesn’t really care, because its no longer the worse thing he's done. His death isn’t lingered on. Its detached.

But with Ryoko, he is described as being gentle multiple times, he's looking into her eyes. He tries to be comforting by telling her she doesn’t have to remember anymore. Its romantic. Soshun is a threat to junko's safety, so he is viewed as a monster. Yuto is an obstacle in the way of protecting Junko, so he is viewed as an object. Ryoko is Junko, so this is viewed as an act of love.

I noticed that he will often talk about how necessary killing them was for junko's sake, but he’s only saying that to himself to make the guilt go down easier; as mastuda knew soshun couldn’t hear him and yuto was dead (and he didn’t acknowledge ryoko's presence until after) when he said he needed to kill them for her. But he outright says that killing Junko is for his sake, and its another parallel i find so interesting.

[harbingersecho]

grif's surgery but just a little more... obvious?

I actually rly rly ADORE frankengrif but I don't have an in-show reason why he'd have extensive long-term allogeneic skingrafts on his face 😔

[icallhimjoey]

new crumb of joe on taylor john smith’s story!!

I NEVER CONSIDERED BUZZCUT AND GLASSES

[micamicster]

George clooney was never not going to be a movie star after ER jesus christ this is insane

[redheadgleek]

The medicine/science stuff wasn't as bad as Fringe, but WTF is with these depictions of placing your own IV? The angle is wrong, even with the plumpest of veins.

[deathbirby]

What happens in SS is especially weird because it DOESN'T happen in CF where Rhea would realistically have way more despair and hopelessness and anger or just any other wildly high emotion to make her "lose control" (which is basically what FEH says happened to her). Which makes it seem like it's JUST the five year torture that made her lose control, but then it doesn't happen in AM. Which THEN makes it seem like it's the five year torture AND being slammed in the face by bootleg nukes that made her lose control, but then it doesn't happen in VW!

Literally every single possible explanation as to why Rhea suddenly loses control is contradicted by it NOT happening in any of the other routes and it's so annoying how obvious an asspull this writing choice was. All just to justify why the player NEEDS to A support her to live when no one else but DEDUE has that stipulation (with his paralogue) - which doesn't even make sense why THAT would save her! At least Dedue's makes sense!! I hate it!!!

EXACTLY LIKE I STILL CANNOT FIGURE OUT WHAT THE DIFFERENCE IS

IS IT BECAUSE SHE HAD TO TALK ABOUT BYLETH'S BIRTH IN DEPTH? SHE TALKS ABOUT HER FAMILY GETTING MASSACRED IN VW SO WHAT IS THE DEAL?

We just needed a final boss for SS that isn't Edelgard ig

[glove23]

this sucks this sucks this sucks this sucks this sucks I miss my dad

[hershelwidget]

yeah this is exactly the difference between the three crews. Alternate Crew is depressed and bargaining with Inkling to let them go back to the Octopod safely, Beta Crew out here living their best lives before they inevitably implode, and Player Crew can’t go 5 minutes without the Cha Cha Slide

[markantonys]

thinking more about the garden scene, rereading it has just made me want even more for the show to do a "rand and egwene trespassing in the caemlyn palace and meeting gawyn, galad, morgase, and elaida" version of it in early s3! because gawyn is adorable in the book version, but mostly exists as an extension of elayne and a helpful infodumper to explain to rand and the reader what's going on while the other 4 caemlyn characters are carrying the scene.

so in a version of the scene where elayne is not there (as i'd imagine she'd go straight from falme to tanchico, which is pretty nearby, while the rest of the gang could pass through caemlyn in their longer travels), that automatically brings gawyn more into the spotlight and makes him an independent and more noticeable character during that whole sequence. now gawyn alone is defending rand (and egwene) from galad, morgase, and elaida, which would be a strong and memorable first introduction to him as a character. (it would also be a great meetcute for gawene <3 and i'd love to keep the book vibe of gawyn being so kind and friendly to rand and having a huge crush on him when they first meet bc it makes the forthcoming events all the more angsty.)

and in general, the book version of course has elayne as the focal point of the caemlyn sequence, so in the show where the audience already knows and loves elayne from other scenes, an elayne-less caemlyn sequence would be a great opportunity to let the other 4 caemlyn characters shine more. seeing gawyn, galad, morgase, and elaida argue over what to do with these trespassers, without elayne present, would do a lot to shed light on all 4 of them as characters and on the various relationship dynamics between them, which would be really good because the gawyn-elaida dynamic will be key to understanding his role in the coup later in the season (maybe we see him being willing to stand up to galad for the trespassers, but then being kinda cowed and backing down once elaida gets involved), and both gawyn's and galad's relationships with morgase are very central to their individual storylines and motivate a lot of their behavior down the road (more so than elayne, who ofc loves morgase and mourns her death, but doesn't really have those feelings as a main motivator for her behavior).

also, i've gone back to reread the wotseries articles about the shohreh aghdashloo (elaida) and olivia williams (morgase) casting leaks, and uncovered a couple interesting tidbits about the caemlyn filming!

both actresses were spotted on a set that is almost certainly the caemlyn palace (filmed inside a real-life castle with andor's banner hanging up)

wotseries believes that since this set is a location shoot 200 km away from jordan studios, not too much time will be spent there in s3 as frequent shoots there would be inconvenient

this filming occurred in late may 2023 and was for sometime in the first 2 episodes of the season

this all supports my theory of a one-time caemlyn trespassing sequence in approx 3x02! however, wotseries didn't report anything about josha or madeleine being spotted on this set, or about galad's actor or any potential gawyn actors being spotted. but that definitely doesn't mean none of them were there, maybe some or all were but just weren't leaked. on the other hand, i could also imagine maybe there's just one brief caemlyn-set scene of morgase telling elaida to go to the white tower and ask about elayne, and then G&G are introduced later when tagging along on elaida's trip and none of them meet our main characters during this season (or even just gawyn tags along with elaida while galad is instead introduced as a whitecloak in perrin's storyline, though personally i think it's important to galad's story for him to NOT be a whitecloak at first and then become radicalized out of worry for elayne). or it could be that there are multiple scenes in the caemlyn palace but some were filmed on a studio set and this location shoot was only used for a particularly grand room like the throne room or something. many possibilities and such little concrete info to go off of yet!

anyway, overall, i think that first introducing the rest of the caemlyn crew to the audience via their interactions with main characters we already know could potentially be more interesting than introducing them in a vacuum as a totally separate storyline (and indeed, most of the new characters in s2 were introduced via preexisting characters meeting them, iirc). and i think that it would be really great for rand and egwene to get a chance to meet the caemlyn crew before they get tied up in other storylines for the foreseeable future, since elaida and gawyn, in particular, are quite important to both rand and egwene later on (or rather, rand is important to gawyn but not vice versa djkfjg poor gawyn). but only time will tell if i'm onto something here or if i'm way off base!