#And I'm drawing parallels to my real life as to why I had this dream in the first place

[butterflies-and-bumble-bees]

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH

[amerricanartwork]

True Love Conquers All (Lilypad Essay cont.)

Ever since I realized the fairytale parallel was one of the main reasons I ship Lilypad, I've wanted to draw this, so here it is! Sig and Moon as Prince Phillip and Princess Aurora!

Actually, though, besides the drawing I'm also making this because I wanted to expand on that point from my Lilypad essay; there's still more I wanna gush about regarding the fairytale parallel!

I was too nervous to say it before, because it's derived largely from my personal tastes. However, I really wanna just write about my opinions on it now. Much of it's actually the feelings I've had about several ships before in various other fandoms, yet I've never really had the courage to express these feelings openly because I have yet to find even one person in any of these fandoms who feels the same way. However, I started thinking about it again, and I think it's about time I get it out somehow, at the very least to express these feelings in some tangible way so they don't stay bottled up forever. And maybe, just maybe, to find someone who likes these themes as much as I do!

Again, it's definitely very personal, so I don't mind if you completely disagree with all of it. But with that being said, if you want to read an additional 1,846 words on Lilypad fantasies, it's just below the cut!

To elaborate on why I love ships with fairytale parallels so much, it has to do with the poetic feeling stories like Sleeping Beauty seem to carry. I must preface that I don’t know the original fairytale, I’m pretty much entirely going off the 1959 animated Disney film, but even so I still love various themes within it and how they can be applied to other stories. Sleeping Beauty isn’t the only old Disney movie where I interpret these themes, or even the only animated story in general where these themes can be interpreted, but I think it’s overall the most similar to Lilypad specifically because of the whole “fair maiden dies and gets revived by the prince’s love” dynamic.

Something I’ve come to realize, especially upon developing a love for Rain World specifically, is that I adore stories about accepting one’s own nature and learning how to have it coexist with your personal goals rather than conflict with it. Sleeping Beauty has this not only through the eternal bond between Aurora and Phillip (I mean, “Once Upon a Dream” literally seems to be about how the singer will always love the person they fell for even if their love seemed too good to be true), but in the whole curse put on Aurora and the “true love conquers all” message. The conflict is all about how to ensure Aurora’s safety despite the impending doom of Maleficent’s curse on her, which is made more intense by how the curse can’t really be stopped, only lessened in severity. However, the inevitability of true love’s triumph over all obstacles, and really the inevitability of nature as a whole, is just so beautiful to me because it’s something so universal. As much as we may try to hide it, we humans are still animals, and still a part of nature as much as any other animal is, so the idea that forces as powerful and omnipresent as natural phenomenon could just as easily be on your side and working to help you reach your goals instead of trying to hurt you and keep you from them is very comforting specifically because of how powerful and inevitable these forces are. I mean, if forces like those can pose a seemingly impossible challenge when they seem to oppose your goals, what if they could also supply seemingly invincible support if you learned to work with them? Hence, why true love conquers all. It’s basically, “I can’t stop this thing, but maybe I don’t actually need to”. And the fact that both this and the next theme I’ll write about are present in stories which are, by this point, quite old, and can even be interpreted in newer and more recent stories just helps to further support their eternal, everlasting power by adding a sense of real-life timelessness to it all that I just find so beautiful!

Part of my love for stories like this actually comes from a specific natural force I freaking love and have been craving more of ever since I rewatched the old Disney movies and really begun to appreciate the poetic themes of them, and that force is the classic attraction between men and women. I’m not gonna get super into it now because I imagine I’ll have other chances to talk about this (again, Lilypad is far from the first ship I’ve derived this theme from, and I doubt it will be the last), but I’ll provide an intro of sorts to it here. If you’ve seen my full Lilypad essay you already know I’m a BIG fan of “inverses attract” ships, where the characters display opposite sides of the same base trait, conflict, or subject, and when they come together they help balance each other out in ways no one else can by offering each other the benefits unique to the other side of that subject. Well, simply put, if you ask me, what better example of this “inverses attract” dynamic exists in real life than the natural inverses of male and female, where the strong protectiveness and creative nurturing combine to literally create a family, from which all people come? The presence of the inverses attract dynamic is always nice to see in ships regardless of gender, but whether or not it occurs in this way specifically — that being whether or not it showcases the inverse characteristics of men and women and the positive potential when those forces combine as a team — is another major factor that, throughout my fandom experience so far, has determined which pairings I actively ship rather than just mildly smile at from time to time. (And on a side note, now that I have much more skill in art and feel more confident about my art, I figured it’s about time I start acting on that love more openly!)

So what in the WORLD does this all have to do with Lilypad?

Well, even disregarding how this very idea will basically be the major theme of my personal worm-off-the-string AU (I may elaborate on that more later because it’s just SO perfect for these particular characters and can even be interpreted in the base game to some degree), I think Lilypad, at least as I choose to imagine it, is the Rain World ship that best embodies this idea — that nature and instincts can actually help you once you simply stop fighting and accept them — more than any other in the fandom for a variety of reasons.

I’m actually going to start with how Looks to the Moon and No Significant Harassment, as strange as this may sound given who and what these characters are, actually do still display that feminine and masculine energy I love at least when I picture them, especially with Sig being confirmed as a “he” according to the wiki. It’s clear to me that Moon is very feminine (I mean, c’mon, her design in the CGs, how the moon is often associated with femininity and feminine things in real life, how she tries, even after her collapse, to connect with Five Pebbles and nurture their relationship in a very caring way, etc.), but I wanna elaborate on how part of the reason I love Sig as a character and the slag reset keys as a plot point so much is because it perfectly demonstrates that masculine protectiveness that happens in stories like Sleeping Beauty, where a man faces great trials all to rescue the fair maiden. Again, it may not have happened literally because Hunter had to deliver the slag keys, but the sentiment is the same if you ask me! And it’s always so nice to see because, again, he literally brought her back to life! How could it NOT be a sign of deep love and devotion that someone would go through so much trouble just to make sure you’re okay? 

It’s also great because I imagine the local group would have a tendency to not always take Sig seriously because he’s so careless about their purpose, so I’m sure the slag key stunt would also warrant a lot more respect for him from the other iterators. This is another thing I love seeing — both when the character everyone else overlooks finally uses their full power and their peers have to re-evaluate their impression of them, but specifically when men feel inspired to use their full power and skills to help the women they love! I love it because it demonstrates just how powerful and valuable femininity can be, shedding light on a more subtle kind of power, that being power through influence and aura rather than raw strength and stubbornness. Heck, I like to imagine wanting to protect Looks to the Moon and make sure she lasts as long as possible is a major reason why, in my AU, their physical interactions are when Sig and Moon finally begin to act on their love despite it having existed almost since Sig came online. Moon’s collapse would’ve shown both of them directly that she won’t be around forever, and if you ask Sig, someone as beautiful, kind, intelligent, noble, and all-around beloved as Looks to the Moon deserves to at least enjoy her life a little more before she fades (again), even if all the iterators falling apart is inevitable. But, coming back to what I said about nature, the inevitability of the eventual end is what makes the time they have left all the more precious!

And that’s the next part of Sleeping Beauty and fairytale-esque stories I see in Lilypad — there’s also the inevitability of this dynamic, which hits hard with Rain World iterators specifically because their whole purpose is fundamentally opposed to natural phenomena. Solving the Great Problem is, as far as I know, all about trying to escape the natural cycle of life, death, and reincarnation, and likely about escaping all natural cycles as a whole. And the iterators exist specifically to facilitate this rejection on a massive scale. So think about how poetic it would be that even they, seemingly so far detached, so far above these things, STILL fall in love and embrace these forces despite every attempt by the Ancients to prevent them from doing so! It’s made better by the fact that the iterators are machines and, even though they’re very much biomechanical ones (a big example of natural phenomena still manifesting in them despite their attempts to separate from it), one can argue they’re therefore somewhat detached from nature inherently, especially that bond between masculinity and femininity I discussed. So again, the fact it still finds a way to show up in them despite seemingly having much less reason to exist and the iterators themselves likely having much less desire to possess it just re-emphasizes how eternal it is. But once again, are they (and by extent, we the audience) sure that’s such a bad thing? 

Lilypad in an ideal scenario, to me, is of all the Rain World ships the strongest embodiment of “true love conquers all, and that’s not a bad thing after all!”

And it makes me more eager to develop my worm-off-the-string AU because I imagine that’s where their relationship really gets to flourish. Moon and Sig can finally enjoy that physical aspect of romance, and Moon in particular would, by that point, more confidently join him in rejecting the Ancients’ ascensionist philosophy. Not to mention how cute it would be to see them drawing parallels between their relationship and the love the Ancients used to feel for one another long ago, once again supporting true love as a truly timeless phenomenon. And it would branch off to not just embracing their romance that existed for so long but could never fully go anywhere, but learning to enjoy and partake in all the aspects of the world that were denied to them and that they were told to deny for who knows how long! And when it comes to not just for Sig and Moon, but the local group as a whole, what could be more poetic than that?

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Man, a HUGE thank you to anyone who made it to the bottom of all this! To know that anyone bothered to at least consider what I have to say in this fandom is always nice, but with this in particular I greatly appreciate anyone who read it all! And again, PLEASE let me know if you agree with any of this, especially the parts about masculine-feminine teamwork. I'd love to know even one other person in one of my fandoms who's into that as well, and maybe even hear possible additions to it!

Regardless, I've gone on about this for so many words already. I hope you enjoyed the ideas, or at least the art! Thanks again for reading!

[septembersghost]

Everything you said regarding haylor is right. This is why I have a pet peeve when people use MR to haylor edits. If anything they were both midnight rain and that's what drew them closer. They were constantly looking for light in other people to balance the darkness. Their relationship itself and the parallels between them as individuals is what makes us still talk about them. Not because we think they are meant to be. Harry and Taylor fandom has the biggest crossover of fans because there is an undeniable/unintentional mirroring that fans are unintentionally drawn to. I lost the count regarding the number of people who compared HsH and 1989 era and overexposure(though T had it worse because of misogyny). There is an unintentional parallelism in their music even when the songs have nothing to do with each other. They are the BIGGEST male and female pop artist RN and through their music we know they struggle with similar issues (listening to AIW and Dear Reader back to back is one hell of an experience. ) Which is why they need partners who can give them stability and comfort. T knew it after 1989 era and found it. And considering the way HsH era has gone I won't be surprised if harry came to a similar understanding. (And I hope he finds it someday). Like you said they were meant to meet because without these dead end streets Taylor wouldn't have met joe.

people have used "he was sunshine/i was midnight rain" for...harry...??? "chasing that fame, he stayed the same"????? how

i love what you said about them both being midnight rain, they really are - and this JUST made me connect ttds/midnight rain to changes, the song harry gave to cam. "there is a town, somewhere down a country road/I see it now, I take it everywhere I go/the river sways, I can almost hear it now/as if to say, "You're not the only one who wants a way out"/so, I go 'cause I don't wanna feel like I don't know you anymore/I memorize those roads.../God bless the young hearts sippin' cheap wine/Gettin' drunk with their friends for the first time/Thinkin' nothing's gonna change/'Til everything changes/They never leave/They're all havin' babies now/Watchin' daytime TV/Livin' off the gossip of a cruel small town/So, I go/'Cause I don't wanna feel like you don't know me anymore/Don't recognize my face," and that's very connected to love of my life too: "take you with me every time i go away, in a hotel usin' someone else's name.../i don't know you half as well as all my friends, i can't pretend i won't be doin' everything i can, to get to know your creases and your ends, are they the same?" it's: the road not taken looks real good now, and it always leads to you and my hometown. and it's: i guess sometimes we all get just what we wanted, and he never thinks of me, except when i'm on tv. they are the midnight rain, the one dreaming to get out, escaping, and finding themselves haunted. "we're just two ghosts standing in the place of you and me..."

They were constantly looking for light in other people to balance the darkness. this is very interesting in them too, because they're often perceived as light/bubbly/upbeat people (and they both do have that sparkle and those bright aspects!), but then we know from the songs they've written and things they've shared that they grapple with their darkness and loneliness too.

Their relationship itself and the parallels between them as individuals is what makes us still talk about them. Not because we think they are meant to be. Harry and Taylor fandom has the biggest crossover of fans because there is an undeniable/unintentional mirroring that fans are unintentionally drawn to...There is an unintentional parallelism in their music even when the songs have nothing to do with each other. exactly! the reason why many fans love them both and connect in similar ways to their music is because that mirrored expression and empathy and artistry draws us in! there are themes and emotions they both express that we connect to. the expressionism in how they craft their lyrics and how they present their art strikes something in us.

listening to AIW and Dear Reader back to back is one hell of an experience. oh nooo, i've never done this! you're no good alone /// a house, not a home, all alone 'cause nobody's there /// why are you sitting at home on the floor, what kind of pills are you on? /// my fourth drink in my hand, these desperate prayers of a cursed man...ouch 💔

yes, they need that groundedness and quiet and comfort to balance everything else out. the person who only wants sweet nothing. without all of the exes, fights, and flaws, we wouldn't be standing here so tall. all of the dead end streets led you straight to me, out of all the wrong arms right into that dive bar...and i think that makes so much sense, that you need someone constant and who gives you a sense of peace and freedom and completion to be your whole self, and who loves you in the best and the worst of it. the person who loves you for you, in the noise and the silence.

[somenerdfromwhatever]

The Wednesday Video is Done!

Well everyone, it's done.

For the past months, I have edited, discussed, and made a personal vlog about my journey discussing the outcasts paralleling society's mistreatment of minorities (especially us neurodivergents and autistics). Now as I am typing this, it will be live in the coming days. I want to thank each and every one of you for your love and support, not just for my cosplays, but for this video in general. It was paramount, as all of you really wanted this to become a reality, and I had a lot of fun pouring my heart and soul into it. This was a very personal project, and in terms of my career and how important it is to get our stories out there, I had to do it, and it wasn't a decision I made lightly. Months ago, you recall I posted this:

Back then the video was simply straightforward, but the more I reflect on myself and the more I see those little details from the outcast characters and the little pieces of Jericho's lore, these connections that parallel our real world through organizations like Autism Speaks downplaying us and making us look like a joke to stereotyping, I had a lot of thoughts to include my own story of my life.

Again, this wasn't a decision I made lightly. But when your story and the connections are so paramount, well, you have to create your own "I am Iron Man" moment, and in this case, I have to do it for the greater good. If I share my story, my dream, and showcase my talent as I did in this video, I believe we can inspire change and foster greater understanding, not just for me, but for everyone of us neurodivergents who feel the same way.

Throughout my life, I've encountered a significant amount of misinformation regarding individuals with autism, but I've persevered and managed to overcome the odds. I've learned how to regulate myself and control my stims, successfully maintained control over my behaviors, and, most importantly, I've become an advocate for autism acceptance. I've also devoted myself to learning essential life skills that I was initially denied, striving to become as independent as I possibly can be.

Society doesn't just need to accept us; it needs to embrace us. Yep, they need us now more then ever. We are all unique. Not a puzzle that they need to correct us on. They need that uniqueness. As I mentioned, even if my dream doesn't come to fruition, despite the talents and the love I've poured into it, sharing my story with the world and shedding light on the challenges we face, while drawing parallels to how it's portrayed on the show, can have an even greater impact.

Thank you for your continued support. Accept us. Accept Autism.

[dreamersscape]

Curiosity Killed the Cat: A Dreamersscape Story

Which doesn't seem quite fair, really, considering although I like cats a great deal, you still wouldn't call me a cat person.

Step #1: Love Kakashi Hatake far too much as a character.

Step #2: Scroll through his tumblr tag. Slowly start noticing that people often draw parallels between him and another character from the currently-running Jujutsu Kaisen manga and anime, Satoru Gojo.

Step #3: Think, "This is fine. It appears they're mostly just comparing their similar character designs and they both have unique things going on with their eyes. I'm not seeing anything that's really piquing my interest with this series; I'll just quickly look up if there's anything more to these comparisons beyond surface-level resemblances and that will be that."

Step #4: One of the next things you learn about Gojo is that a common clickbait-y way to frame discussion around parts of his personality is along the lines of, "Does Gojo have a God complex?"

Step #5: Think, "Ah, okay. That's likely an exaggeration, but probably Kakashi and Gojo can't be all that similar, or at least I likely wouldn't feel much the same about them as characters. Now I'm simply curious how far off Gojo actually is from having a God complex and then I'll be done."

Step #6: Did not back out of this rabbit hole at this juncture.

Step #7: Hard to recollect exactly the order of things from here, but learned that Gojo is the teacher for his own group of 3 fifteen-year-old students (and also previously taught older students since he's the head of first-year high school students at his very small school), learned back when Gojo was a student at this same school he had a very close friend who was instrumental in imbuing Gojo with his current moral principles and this friend is now dead, and learned that Gojo is the unequivocally strongest character within his universe's power system, and thus while he has a LOT of confidence in his own abilities and can be a bit cocky and a show-off, he definitely doesn't think of himself as godlike (anyone who's familiar with JJK and reading this--I'm aware of 'the honored one' thing, hang on a sec).

Step #8: Decide, "Alright then. Well, I am starting to get more intrigued by this series. Maybe I'll look up a little more about it and watch the first episode or two. It'll be fine. After all, I get now why people are reminded of Kakashi by Gojo and vice versa, but it certainly sounds like Gojo's personality is basically the opposite of someone who's convinced they're scum and is incredibly unassuming and humble and could honestly use a bit more self-worth so he at least possesses a modicum of self-preservation inclination. Gojo seems to have a lighthearted, goofy side that is partly used as a cover for his deeper emotions, and I might get attached to that based on other characters I've loved, but that still ought to be pretty safe. If I do wind up liking Gojo the most out of all the characters, there's no way he'll put me through the same heart-wrenching agony as seeing Kakashi being a paragon of strength of character and sheer goodness, while inwardly he can't see anything of value in himself."

The thing is, I wasn't wrong.

But clearly, I underestimated the pain I could still experience at the hands of a Kakashi-adjacent character.

(All I'm about to explain is completely non-spoilery, by the way. And by that I mean I'm not going to be ruining any major plot points or the "viewing experience" of watching the anime or reading the manga. Anything I reference that happens at any point beyond the first few chapters, I'll be as vague and opaque about it as possible, as well as very brief. And it will also all be basic background info/set up level stuff.)

Okay, so before I get to the real kicker, let's start with Gojo's dream.

In the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, the chakra equivalent is called cursed energy. However, cursed energy is not a life force. Cursed energy arises from people's negative emotions, and if the quantities of negative emotions emitted by the populace is large and concentrated enough, this creates cursed spirits of various sorts. For example, humanity's collective fear and pain experienced through natural disasters created a cursed spirit out of that resulting enormous amount of cursed energy. Cursed spirits usually aren't sentient, but almost unerringly they cause great harm and often death to humans. The number we're given at the start of the manga is around 10,000 unexplained deaths and missing persons per year in Japan are the result of curses.

Jujutsu sorcerers are the people who exorcize (or destroy, more like) cursed spirits to mitigate that as much as possible. They exorcize the curses with cursed energy-fueled techniques that are unique to each sorcerer. A sorcerer's innate cursed technique (CT) is said to comprise around 80% of their potential/talent as a fighter of curses. We're told that over the course of the last, I don't know, century or so (?) - the date at the start of the series is June 2018 - curse spirits have been increasing in strength and number. However, the incredibly rare combination of the Limitless cursed technique and the Six Eyes in-born trait Gojo was born with is so powerful that his birth alone swung the balance from being in the curses' favor back over to the side of the jujutsu sorcerers.

Details on Gojo's childhood are quite sparse, basically the only things we know about the Gojo family are it's one of the three big clans in jujutsu society and they're very wealthy. As far as I'm aware, Satoru is the only member of the clan we've ever met. So there's only supposition for what his home life was like up until he started at Jujutsu High, but we do know that because his possessing both the Six Eyes and Limitless was the first occurrence of such in 300-400 years, his existence was something of a spectacle and many sorcerers came to visit him just to see it for themselves, and too, he was the target of curse users (sorcerers who use jujutsu for evil and their own selfish gain) in pursuit of the over 100 million yen bounty placed on his head since he was very young.

It would be pretty reasonable to assume Gojo was subsequently rather sheltered and perhaps quite lonely as a child, but at the same time praised and lauded for how he was so naturally, prodigiously powerful. It only makes sense that Gojo has more than a little pride in his strength and puts so much stock in that. I'm sure he really enjoyed the attention and notoriety he received, and he never expresses resentment regarding any pressure that might have been put on him as a kid to be the infallible (future?) vanquisher of curses (although later I do think he places more and more pressure on himself to "take care" of everything and be responsible for the safety of everyone in the jujutsu world and beyond), and yet I do believe it's apparent he understands he didn't get to have a "normal" childhood. As a part of one of the big clans, he was surrounded and immersed in the political power plays and jockeying for prestige and influence by jujutsu society's elders/leaders/'higher ups' from the start (we don't know when or how it happened, but presumably because he's the strongest living Gojo, at the start of the story Satoru is the head of the clan), and these higher ups view Gojo in terms of how he can best be used for their own benefit. Outside of his high school best friend and later a few of his students, Gojo has very few people who have more than a cursory understanding of who he is as a person, who seem to want to know him, not the living embodiment of the title 'The Strongest', but just Satoru Gojo. Gojo likes being The Strongest, but when that's all everyone around him appears to care about, it leaves him feeling very isolated and alone.

As I mentioned before, though, Gojo never complains about this. He doesn't ever even imply "because I was treated this way, I want to prevent anyone else having to go through that." He does tell one of the people he's somewhat close to what his aim is and what the reason is behind it, but it's worded in a way where the person is confused by Gojo's explanation, and we as the reader can't even be sure he's referring to himself, since it could just as easily be in reference to his deceased friend.

It's informed by his experiences growing up certainly, but Gojo's fierce desire to give the kids he watches over the opportunity to fully and freely enjoy their youth is not about regretting what he missed out on; it's about what he can do for them, doing all he can to protect and preserve their childhood and making sure no one can take that away from them.

I realize I haven't exactly explained what precisely Gojo's 'dream' is and how it ties into all this, so I'll attempt to circle back to that now.

Jujutsu Kaisen begins with our main character, Yuji Itadori, accidentally stumbling his way into the jujutsu world by doing something very dangerous in order to be in what he thinks is a better position to help his friends out of a bad situation. He succeeds in helping his friends, but what he had to do to make that happen is an action that is punishable by death under jujutsu regulations. Naturally, Yuji was unaware of that, but it doesn't matter to the sorcerer higher ups. Gojo hears about the situation, intervenes, and is able to get the elders to suspend Yuji's execution for the time being. I'm glossing over a bunch of stuff but let's roll with that for now. While Gojo is explaining the whole situation to Yuji, the first thing he tells Yuji about the higher ups is that he thinks they're a bunch of cowards. And really, that's just the tip of the iceberg for how Gojo feels towards these leaders. He's not a fan of them by any stretch of the imagination. I said above Gojo never voices resentment directed at them over his lack of a carefree childhood, and that's true, however his dislike of the higher ups does seem to be partly personal. We just don't know the specifics other than that when he criticizes them (to their faces or a fellow colleague) he sticks to their wrongful actions on the whole, not how they've wronged him. A handful of episodes later, the higher ups pull something really awful and underhanded while Gojo is away on another mission, a scheme that is partially motivated by wanting to get back at Gojo for interfering with Yuji. Newly and deeply angered by this, Gojo delves further into the corruption at the top of the jujutsu world and then tells us about his dream:

A similar scene happens one year previous to this:

(Gojo doesn't use it anywhere near as frequently, but his saying 'what a pain' about many a situation still manages to give me Shikamaru feelings and I enjoy that.)

What stands out to me the most here is how much Gojo WANTS the students/his allies to be equal to or surpass him in strength. He's not at all concerned with keeping his position and accompanying power all to himself like the higher ups are. During one of the first chapters of the manga/show, to allay someone's uneasiness over potential danger, Gojo tells them, "Don't worry, I'm the strongest." It's only later that we learn when he was much younger he was originally quite happy to say, "Anyway, it should be okay. We're the strongest." I really think he would like nothing better than to be able to say that once again.

In an unusual turn of events for me, when I caught up to the JJK manga a few months ago, I actually had pretty good timing with what was currently going on, but now the story is starting to enter into its final stages and it seems like a lot of people in the fandom feel the narrative is very possibly leading to Gojo's death in some way that will better enable this brighter, less corrupt future for the jujutsu world and his students that he's been working towards this entire time. I don't think that would be a bad outcome, I'm not against noble sacrifices entirely, but I really, really, really don't want to see this happen. And here's where my unexpected Kakashi-adjacent feelings come into play. The reasons for why I'm so invested in seeing both Kakashi and Gojo live to be a part of the better world they helped create are pretty different. Yet, they're also not miles apart. I don't think Gojo has as many doubts as Kakashi that he has a place in the future of which he dreams, but from what I can tell his main focus is on that future existing for everyone else. Maybe he believes that is his purpose as The Strongest? Probably he does have every intention of being there with his fellows. I just want that for him so very much. For the few glimpses of kid!Gojo we got, who always looked so solemn; for the teenage Gojo with the biggest, goofiest smiles, who had so much connection ripped away prematurely; for Gojo the teacher, who works so hard to make every kid feel welcome and excited and to know they aren't alone. I'm aware of the kind of story I'm reading--Jujutsu Kaisen is unrelentingly brutal to its characters. It's a matter of course to have your heart mercilessly stomped on over and over reading JJK. It's not the sort of story where you can reasonably expect a happy ending. Unfortunately, I'm much too optimistic of a person for this manga and I'm far too attached to the story and characters and I'm in way, way too deep.

But let's ignore all that for now and get to the Kakashi-adjacent part of Gojo which clobbered me over the head with feels even worse than what I've already detailed!

@panharmonium, when you've reached this part of the post, I can't really guess what you're thinking about it all, but what if I told you that one of Gojo's students, Megumi Fushiguro, the Sasuke-adjacent one, was, along with his one-year-older step-sister Tsumiki, quasi-adopted/looked after/raised by Gojo from the time Megumi was six/in first grade and Gojo was just nineteen? By blood, Megumi is actually a member of the Zen'in clan, another of the three major clans in jujutsu society. Gojo, fresh out of high school and still newly, painfully estranged from his best friend, hears by chance that Megumi, who's on his own at this time apart from Tsumiki (also parentless), is about to be sold to the Zen'in because of the cursed technique he's just manifested, and although it has nothing to do with him, Gojo goes to Megumi and asks him if he wants to go live with the Zen'in. Upon learning if he chooses this, Tsumiki will be very unhappy (the Zen'in clan cares nothing for her and they are by-and-large super blatantly misogynistic), Megumi says no and Gojo's like, "Cool, that's great! I'll take care of everything and I'll make sure you two have everything you need. I want you to grow up strong!" And then there's a moment in the manga, where present-day Gojo is taking a nap and dreams of this first meeting between himself and Megumi and when he wakes up to his three students coming to see him he does this:

AND THE SECOND SEASON OF THE ANIME JUST STARTED AIRING A FEW WEEKS AGO AND THAT MEANS I'LL BE ABLE TO SEE THIS MOMENT ANIMATED POSSIBLY AS SOON AS AUGUST 3RD (DUB PROBABLY AUGUST 17TH) AND I'M GONNA DIE. HE LOVES THAT KID SO MUCH!!!!!

So obviously that's super sweet and all, but maybe you're thinking, "Okay, that's nice, but do they really have that Kakashi 'n' Sasuke vibe?" and to that I say, "CHECK OUT THIS SHORT VIDEO AND THEN HOPEFULLY I CAN REST MY CASE."

Also, it is now my most important goal in life to draw a Kakashi & Sasuke version of these panels so I can dedicate it to you (and padmerrie if she wants in on this):

Of course, I'm not saying Sasuke and Megumi are carbon copies of each other (or Kakashi and Gojo for that matter, as I've tried to delineate above). Megumi has a bit of a grumpy disposition, but he's also very polite; he always calls Gojo "Gojo-sensei" and he uses "-senpai" for all the upperclassmen (who he met previously to becoming a student at Jujutsu High). Megumi is the dog guy in JJK and Gojo's more reminiscent of a cat in some respects. Etc., etc., etc. But in general, I really hope you see the vision!

While I'm at it, I might as well show you the little Gojo & Yuji video that naturally gives me all the Kakashi & Naruto feelings:

Yuji's already got the jubilantly-tackle-hug-your-sensei part down! (Although, of course, Gojo's much less resistant.🥰)

It is admittedly much more of a stretch to say Nobara is Sakura-adjacent, but I have seen someone describe her as a 'gremlin child' and I love that about her! <3

Anyway, I totally get if none of this is up your alley for whatever reason or you don't have the time to get into JJK if this happens to persuade you or if you just want to prioritize other stuff right now. *I* didn't mean to get into it, after all! The plan for my looking into JJK was to be purely for enhancing my love for Kakashi, and I failed spectacularly at limiting myself to that. I just thought I would share to see if it would be a fun read for you. :)

[tobiasdrake]

Villain Breakdown: Najma

Najma is a hard character to talk about because so much of her conflict is steeped in symbolism and parallels to a real-world event that I literally only learned about from this show. I was educated by the American public school system. I didn't even know Pakistan was a place that existed until my twenties.

As a symbol, there is a clear and unambiguous parallel that the show is drawing between the Clandestines involuntarily migrating to Earth and the Muslims involuntarily migrating to the newly formed state of Pakistan. But it's so heavily steeped in the history and culture of Pakistan that it's not something I'm super comfortable trying to analyze with my limited perspective. I see it. But I'm not really qualified to explain it.

As a character, there's something that's hilariously batshit about Najma. She acts with so much severity, intensity, and urgency. Leaping in the span of an afternoon from letting Kamala take the Bangle home to trying to murder Kamala for not turning over the Bangle RIGHT NOW. Murdering Aisha for the Bangle and casting Kamran to the wolves for his reluctance to kill everyone.

And then she flipflops and sacrifices herself for Kamran so easily. Kamala's like, "Have you tried caring about your son?" and BOOM, instant turnaround.

Her sacrifice would have been an easier sell for me if she'd been a more two-dimensional character. If she'd actually ever demonstrated any shades of caring about... Well, anyone, let alone Kamran. But she's such a one-dimensional card-carrying supervillain. The kind of entertaining scenery-chewing bad guy who fully knows that they're the villain of a superhero story and makes choices purely for maximized evilness. And that makes it really hard to believe she'd suddenly give up on going home and commit magic suicide for Kamran.

(I mean, it's implied that they can't get through the Rift; That going home isn't an option at all. But she blows that off and insists she's going to do it anyway seconds before her spontaneous change of heart.)

Najma's death reminds me a lot of Xu Wenwu from Shang-Chi. They're in much the same position. Faced with the horrifying revelation that the goal they've burned all their bridges to achieve was never what they wanted after all, they make a last second decision in their final moments to give their life for their son. They end their life not necessarily a good person - They'd probably do it all exactly the same given the opportunity - but doing one good thing with their dying breath.

But despite having much more time to tell her story, Najma's version of this comes across much weaker due to the choices made along the way. The decision to depict her as entirely evil in every possible regard where Wenwu's love for his family gave him nuance that fed into his sacrifice. And the decision to never truly confront her with the reality that what she's been chasing is a lie, making it questionable why she would suddenly turn her back on it.

Making either one of those choices differently could have sold it. If Najma blew off the horrifying truth but had a well-established love for her son, then we could have seen her voluntarily turn her back on her dream and give her life for his sake. Or if Najma was cruel and callous to her son but was forced to realize that she'd been chasing a lie all along, we could have seen her recalculate her values and have a startling revelation over the cruel sacrifices she's made to accomplish nothing.

But for a character who a) seemingly has zero compassion or love for her son and b) instantly rejects out-of-hand the idea that what she desires is not inches away from her face, I simply cannot fathom why she would do anything but go for it. Najma reaches her end with a level of nuance unearned by the rest of her journey.

[mothfishing]

radi our friend radi

miss radiance...

favorite thing about them

i just think the most about characters and factions who existed on hallownest's fringes, and the radiance is the ultimate example of that. and she's just a character who we see very little of, and not for no reason! so you have to piece together a lot of shreds of information to get an idea of the kind of person she was...

like for one i think the fact the moths are peaceful as a rule is something that would make sense if it reflected on her? ive seen people refer to her as a war god and that's like. okay then explain to me why a war god would create people who aren't known for carrying weapons...and i spoke about it in the seer ask, but her being associated with death and funerals and ghosts is also something that makes sense to me. basically i think it's interesting that she's a character who exists almost entirely by implication, who you have to go to a decent amount of effort to figure out anything about her

least favorite thing about them

no one in the world has ever been normal about her (SAD)

trying to figure out how to put this...are you really gonna tell me there's nothing at all fishy about the pale king coming to hallownest, sealing the radiance away so he could rule without equal (this is stated explicitly in a dev note...), having the goal of ruling over the entirety of hallownest unopposed, and having bad relationships with every single other faction that didn't bow to hallownest rule...? like there's nothing weird going on there at all? the mantis tribe's treaty explicitly stated that it was something they agreed to to protect their village from hallownest expansion. like are you telling me he's not a colonizer and imperialist,

idk it gives me a weird bad vibe. like very genuinely the impression i had after doing dream no more (& again, i played hk totally blind save for knowing ghost & hornet were siblings) was like. "huh? so the radiance and the moths got subjugated by some dude But Actually taking revenge for that is so much worse and we have to put her down now you guys:((((((("

and i literally thought that was unfair and i was probably misunderstanding, which i note to say i really am not approaching this in bad faith and this isn't a square reading i'm trying to force into a round hole. the reason i stopped doubting it was because i spoke to multiple friends who saw the same thing without my input =/

it makes it so i just can't dislike her. and it's pretty disappointing how fan reaction to her is primarily to either demonize her and attribute bad things to her that we either don't have evidence for or we have evidence that contradicts it, or they bring in real world struggle in a way i find wildly disrespectful & fetishistic. we are in a nightmare world basically

favorite line

she isn't really a character with dialogue, so instead i'll talk about a piece of the seer's dialogue which gives me Thoughts about the radiance. even though i already talked about it in the seer ask. which is months ago at this point so whatever i guess

What a terrible fate they've visited upon you.

To cast you away into this space between body and soul.

Will you accept their judgement and fade slowly away?

Or will you take the weapon before you, and cut your way out of this sad, forgotten dream?

i just think it's so interesting! it's difficult for me to think the seer isn't drawing a parallel between ghost's situation and what happened to the radiance...this is not the first time ghost has been judged unworthy of life; if they were a good child, they would have died all that time ago, another body lining the abyss

the dreamers have condemned them to the same fate. there's no way to escape the dream; without the seer's aid, all they can do is, as she puts it, fade slowly away. and what for? yet another sacrifice extracted from them for the sake of this dead kingdom. by this point it isn't possible to do anything the dreamers fear - they need the dreamnail for that. they are condemned because they are inconvenient

and, well, the radiance was also put in that position...a lot of the game is about death and accepting that things will end, and the core arrogance of hallownest is repeatedly framed as the pale king declaring it would last forever. it's what vespa says the bees will have no part in, and there's ozymandius signs all over the damn place. so at least personally i find it significant that the radiance is repeatedly associated with the dead and the remembrance of the dead, her sacred place being a graveyard and her last follower being its groundskeeper, and she's also the one who pk needed to get rid of in order to make his eternal kingdom possible.

but accepting that things end is not the same as lying down and dying just because someone wants you out of the way for their own gain...which is exactly what the pale king wanted for both of them

brOTP

for a literal "bro" i actually see grimm as her brother who she's on fairly good terms with. idk, just never thought there was any particular reason for them to be at odds, and my own read of grimm's actions and the ritual was that he's enacting some kind of belated vengeance against hallownest for what happened to the radiance. by his nature, he could never have arrived "on time", but desecrating a corpse is well within his abilities.

nOTP

all of them. my god

random headcanon

the whole "erasing her memory" thing was referred to as a seal in a developer's note. it's even referred to as a prior attempt before the hollow knight plan - "Thus the first attempt to seal Radiance failed, and the King had to try another method - the Vessel."

i really can't think of her as not being a death god; it's just the impression i get from both her explicit connection to dreams, and how the dreaming and the dead are so tightly linked. the dream nail shows you both, after all, and the ghosts you fight are dream warriors. also, a place important to the moths, and presumably to her as well, is a literal graveyard. and that adds another dimension - it is specifically important to her that the dead be remembered and honored.

she has no physical form, which is funny because every other god we know of does. the pale king, the white lady, unn, grimm, even the lifeblood creature...grimm and unn both have some connection to dreams as well, so it isn't like that precludes you from possessing a physical form.

so...well...i keep thinking about that first seal, and that attempt to erase her memory. did it involve killing her? is there a corpse somewhere, long forgotten in an unmarked grave? to one such as her, what greater insult could there be?

unpopular opinion

man. i have so many.

first is that i think it's honestly kinda gross to say that the pale king and the radiance were equally at fault for what happened - one of them's a fuckin colonizer who goes around trying to absorb every group in the area into his kingdom, and the other is the god of one of those groups. they are not on equal terms here...

i also think it's gross to make her worse for the purpose of making whoever your fave is - often grimm or the pale king - Better. like she needs to be the worst most evil sister so grimm can get some pathos, she needs to be the most violent beast so the pale king can get some pathos, etc.

i could go on but i would literally never stop.

song i associate with them

toothsmile by bent knee is such a radiance song to me...

favorite picture of them

this art

[come-see-our-show]

hiiiiiiii I would love to hear some of your thoughts about miss saigon!! I saw the show a few months ago and I love hearing your takes about different shows :)

oooh time to ramble!!

I saw it on Broadway in 2017 (so I was around 12 years old) and the memories aren't vivid but I remember a few things.

The set and the spectacle of it all was beautiful!

THE SCORE??? FUCKING BANGERS

Eva Noblezada ATE!!

The audience was very serious? It was the most emotional intense musical I'd seen at the time and it was the first time I'd been to a show where no one cheered, only clapped. I remember whooping once but no one else did so I felt really embarrassed lol

Also near the end Chris's mic cut out for like 5 seconds which was weird?? Idk why I remember that

So yeah, that's what I remember liking about the show! No of course, there are plenty of problems that I didn't realize until I was older.

It's written by white people for white people

The Jonathan Pryce thing.... oh dear god

The racism, misogyny, and orientalism I’m gonna rant abour rn:

First off the Vietnamese in The Wedding Ceremony is actual gibberish

I'M GONNA RANT ABOUT KIM NOW!!!! There is so much potential with Kim's character but the only time you see her as as a strong, layered person is during I'd Give My Life For You. Do you think a traumatized survivalist in the middle of a war is gonna put all of her trust in a guy to save her? After not seeing him for 3 years?? It would make much more sense if Kim learned that she's strong without Chris! She raised their son all on her own! She could’ve been a badass but they didn't run with that which I'm pissed about

Chris is a white savior. Like I said, the brave white guy is coming to whisk away the poor Asian girl who can't fend for herself. Chris only loved Kim for her innocence and purity; Kim only loved Chris for his bravery and privilege. I'm totally okay with love at first sight (it's theater, deal with it), but at least have a foundation based off of real love. Thank God Lea Salonga and Eva Noblezada are talented as hell and had chemistry with their co-stars because if you totally ignore the context then Sun and Moon is pretty cute.

The two Asian male characters are villanized. The Enginner is a sleazy scheming opportunist (because I guess it’s bad to want money when you have none) and Thuy is an entitled misogynist (because I guess it’s bad to not want your cousin to marry a white soldier, AKA the soldiers killing your people)

They should've emphasized more how fucked up the US is. The Engineer's song The American Dream is clearly a satirization of how we glorify America, but they should've had that energy throughout the show! Obviously FUCK communism and FUCK re-education camps, but the show just does the opposite of what it wants to do by glorying the US military, especially when you draw the parallels between Chris and Thuy.

anywho the score fucks but the book sucks <3

[smolfailure]

FUCK IT, DREAM SMP HOMESTUCK AU

but it's only half shitposts and there are actual Thoughts in there.

You don't need to have read the comic to understand because I tried not to spoil anything major, but it'd help if you knew basic stuff about classpects, SBURB and the hemospectrum.

disclaimer: i'm not a good pixel artist and this is my first actual sprites ever so please be kind to my weird pixels

The Kids:

Tommy

Fundy

Techno

Tubbo

tommy, tubbo and fundy one of the kids because they're the kids in dream smp canon (with fundy being son of wilbur)

techno's there because i want to make a dave strider reference (haha get it because techno's name is also da-- *gets shot) and also because they are both coolguys except instead of using irony, techno has adhd

The Trolls:

Wilbur Soohte (fuschia)

?????? Ehrret (violet)

J????? Shlatt (purple)

Nihacu Niikki (indigo)

Skeppy Diamon (cerulean)

Quacki Tthiey (teal)

Philza Myncra (jade)

Dreame Wastkn (lime disguising as olive)

George Notfou (gold)

Sapphe Nahfpe (bronze)

Badboy Haelow (burgundy)

don't come at me saying only females are allowed to be jades and fuschias; gender is fake and this is an au

more of the AU and the talksprites are under the cut:

Tommy

Lunar sway: Derse. Types in: Red

chaotic. the first person to be introduced.

when he gets introduced instead of the “Zoosmell Pooplord” bit, Tommy is initially going to be the name inputted but then backspaced it and decided that Tommyinnit was better and he was fuming until he’s named Tommy.

Gives me big Blood/Hope vibes. Blood because a lot of the conflict of the dream smp connected to someone breaking his trust or harming the things he cares about, Hope because a lot of the plot of the dream smp stems from Tommy starting shit based on his ideals and what he thinks is right.

the first to instigate fighting against the trolls

bbh contacts him once and tommy keeps cursing until he disconnects from frustration rip

wields Gunkind and his only strife weapon at the beginning is the Vlog gun. He has Gunkind as his strife specibus mainly because he looked up at schlatt and he imitates him.

Fundy

Lunar sway: Prospit. Types in: Orange

it was his idea to play SBURB but only through Dream.

he talks to dream the most among the other trolls fwt stans getcha juice this is the rosemary of the session

dream’s the one giving him exposition about the game so that’s how he knows how to play SBURB.

wilbur trolls fundy once and instantly adopts him.

“You’re my son.” “How does that even work??” “I was one of the people who created your universe. It’s basically the same thing.”

Fundy relents anyway.

Techno

Lunar sway: Derse. Types in: Pink

dave strider but dead-inside voice + rose lalonde english major vibes

he slices the text box when you try to name him "Dave " like in

techno gives me time player vibes (contantly on the move. his skyblock series, his “stays in the pit” monologue,) but also rage vibes (anarchy,  the “theseus” monologue, political alignment is Chaos) alas i am not sure what class

uses Tridentkind and claims "it came from god"

 it was dream, he accidentally transportalized one of wilbur’s weapon while he testing the transportalizer.

Tubbo

Lunar sway: Prospit. Types in: Green

the jade harley of this session. the only thing keeping them from going apeshit. where would they be without him.

but also jade harley in a sense that he seems nice and wholesome but also don’t fuck with them they can mess you up

Heart/Life vibes??? someone good at classpecting help

i put them in prospit bc of the "tubbo third eye" instead of tubbo having a sixth sense or smth, they see the future from the clouds of skaia when they sleep

wields Stress-relieverKind at some point

bonus: everyone’s actual hair colors

Ideas about the Trolls

no i haven’t done their sprites yet bc it would take so much time and i’m not even sure if people wanna see more of this au skjdkdsakdfkl,, but i have Design Ideas.

events of the dsmp revolution are just a FLARP session drawing parallels to how the homestuck trolls had a FLARP session that spoiler alert: destroyed friendships. dtrio, eret, will are involved. eret betrays will's faction and wilbur's still Bitter over that.

on the context of alternia (highbloods and lowbloods) lmanburg and dreamsmp have their roles SWAPPED.  the emancipation theme thing is completely gone since highbloods are in more power than the lowbloods (the dream team) . 

wilbur made a faction called l’manburg because he wants a place where he and his fellow highbloods could make drugs vibe.they take a piece of land that was owned by the dream team. in normal circumstances, they shouldve stood down because lowbloods aren't supposed to start shit with highbloods (especially a group of highbloods that has the alternian heir among them)  but dream turned it into an activism thing about lowblood rights. the story plays as close as possible without tommy or tubbo in it (which is pretty hard ik but this is the best can do).

like in the dreamsmp revolution, dream kinda let wilbur do what he wants but this time he has more reason to because he’s in a lower caste. dream really only fought back when wilbur announced that he’d be building lmanburg on their land and calling it theirs.

eret betrays wilbur by supporting the lowbloods and wilbur and co. technically won but only because he finally called the drones in, as a reference to how lmanburg absolutely got crushed by the dream team in the smp but technically won. l’manburg keeps the piece of land and the dream team scatter away to find a new home.

wilbur soot's a fuschia because a) he's in a position that has a lot of power, b) yknow how he wrote a song about squids and his thing with sally… yeah.

eret's a violet because nobility!! dream looks down on him because he's ambivalent on fighting for lowblood rights when he's in a power to do so "you just sit there, and you look pretty that's it"

also like eridan he has a minor aesthetic mutation (herobrine eyes) that won't classify him as a mutant.

jschlatt is purple because it makes sense thematically because of the gamzee parallels (a. substance abuse b. if you know what happens in act 6, you know this already but spoiler alert, he ruins the main protagonists' lives) also he's a funnyman he deserves the clown caste

 quackity's a teal because he’s a law student. moving on--

 ok but for real it also makes sense thematically because he's the one who wrote the thing that tricked schlatt into agreeing also he gets manipulated by schlatt which also draws parallels to certain events in the comic

skeppy and bbh are BEST FRIENDS despite being highblood and lowblood respectively. initially, skeppy just wanted to bother bbh but they grew to be good friends in time. y’know like how they actually becane friends :D

philza minecraft is a jade because dad friend. also works thematically, because spoiler alert he gets to murder a seadweller for going batshit crazy. 

he also god tiers early. he dies fighting his quick undead denizen (haha baby zombie) but the consorts of his land carry him to his quest bed because he’s treated them all so well.

dream was initially going to be another caste but then i realized that means i have to make his hoodie something other than green which is unacceptable so its a good thing the fact that he's a lime works out

dream was the one who thought of playing sgrub in the first place- initially only planned to have gogy, sap, and bbh in the session but then realized that they four won't be enough so he invited more into his session

he’s also the first to go godtier ez clap blind speedrun not sure what classpect tho

the only reason why dream avoided being culled at birth for being a limeblood is because his rng is That Good. he quickly picked up the fact that he’s not supposed to exist and masqueraded as an oliveblood and kept mostly to himself to avoid suspicion.

george is still colorblind but he has lazer eyes along with it instead. dream lives with him in the same hive since being a mutant means dream doesn’t get a lusus of his own (dnf fans getcha juice “and they were roommates”) 

despite living in the same hive, he never really figures out that dream is a limeblood. possibly because a) he’s colorblind and when he sees dream bleeding he just sees yellow b) he’s just that fucking oblivious and it’s so valid of him.

sapnap’s a bronzeblood mainly because i know he’s the instigator of the pet war with tommy also because i associate him with the color orang in my mind so bronze it is

that’s the end of this long-ass post!! if you have other ideas PLEASE i want to hear them. i don’t know the other streamers i mentioned in here very well so if you have ideas that would be fitting to them like with classpect or lunar sway that would be GREAT. 

the only thing i’m confident about in here are the kids’ lunar sways. i’m not an expert in classpects and homestuck lore so there’s that too!! i just wanted to make this post because adhd means that the idea wouldn’t shut up until i finished it. This initially started as a single shitpost edit of tommyinnit talksprite but then the hiveswap 2 trailer came out and that means i have to combine my two hyperfixations.

also i have ideas about potential quadrants but idk how much of that is breaking some streamers’ boundaries about shipping (even the non romantic quads such as kismesistude, morallegiance and auspisticism) so i decided not to include it.

edit: apparently people want more so i made a discord server as a place to brainstorm!! please pm me to join!

[toujoursmiraculous]

Thoughts and Reaction to Gang of Secrets!

I'm very late today at writing this because life ;-; You know it's a bigger episode when they start off with a problem. Ladybug doesn't want to detransform so she's desperate to find reasons to remain Ladybug. I love how the entire time, Chat Noir knows something's wrong and wants to get her to talk about what it is, but she just tries to pretend she's fine. If anything, Chat Noir would probably be the best person to talk to considering everything he's dealt with too both with Kagami and his responsibility as Chat! She could mention that she was seeing someone but they broke up because of her secret, and she could tell him how much being the Guardian's having an affect on her. All perfectly well and good without exposing any identities or things like that with questions for details asked. Instead she puts up a front with him and pretends she's okay in front of him and it's just so sad. :/ I understand why she doesn't, probably because she doesn't want him to know how much she's struggling. But ugh my heart hurts for her. Chat: I know where we can go where we won't have to talk! Ladybug: Yes, take me there Chat! *in the theater* Ladybug: You lead me into a trap. I MEAN HE'S NOT WRONG THOUGH! Not many places you can go where it's okay or encouraged to not talk without there being an awkward silence. But that cracked me UP. Also that casual attempt to wrap his arm around her lolol still hasn't give up, I see. I also find it simultaneously hilarious and extremely depressing that Ladybug's ranting like that in the theater because of a romance movie. When your heart is broken, that's probably the last thing you want to be doing. And Chat Noir yanking her down asking that she be quiet 😂 Literally just rants her entire love life out for everyone including Chat to hear in that theater. CHAT NOIR, YOU BETTER BE LISTENING BECAUSE SHE'S TALKING ABOUT ADRIEN HERE "She takes a long time to tell him and stutters and blah blah blah" lol sound familiar, sunshine? If anything please have him recall this later and be like, wait, didn't Ladybug say girls stutter around a guy when she likes him? BAM. Then he's off on his path towards Marinette. I can dream. Ladybug: And how do you know if he loves her? IMPOSSIBLE. Adrien: No, Marinette couldn't possibly be in love with me. *eyetwitch* But at the end of the day. This is Marinette ranting to Adrien about how she had to give up on Adrien and then couldn't make things work with Luka because of her secret. Ooof. And poor Chat having to apologize for everyone because Ladybug's disturbing them XDD THE GIRL SAVES EVERYBODY'S LIVES PRACTICALLY EVERY DAY AND THEY'RE PISSED SHE'S RUINING A MOVIE THEY CAN JUST REWATCH? 😂 She's clearly having a hard time right now, c'mon people! Chat can tell she has a broken heart. This boy is so sweet. He wants her to at least admit that and talk about it so she can feel better but you know, Ladybug's stubborn. I WANT TO GO SWIMMING LET'S GO SWIMMING CHAT, WOO HOOOOOO! Ladybug acting like Chat to hide her pain just like how Chat acts like Chat to hide his pain. YOU KNOW WHAT, IT'S FINE. :') It doesn't matter how much pain she's dealing with, those pictures mean too much to her to remove them. x3 Thanks Juleka for showing us how sad Luka is now, that's very helpful. Marinette's been going into the bathroom at school to cry, and then had planned stupid looking glasses to hide her tears so people wouldn't have to know she's cried because wearing a ridiculous pair of glasses that's embarrassing is better than being asked what's wrong. Because the pain I feel for her wasn't already enough. Ugh I adore Trixx. Trixx being the voice of reason when Tikki's not there, trying to help and letting her know that Tikki may need to rest too when she's so upset it doesn't cross her mind. And the tears in her eyes when she apologizes to Tikki for not thinking of her like she should. ;-; SO MUCH PAIN. OH DANG Alya was literally a second away from seeing a detransforming Marinette lol But she did say DETRANSFORMATION or well in the English dub it'll be "Spots

off" I love Rose, she's really sweet. and considerate But she also shouldn't be touching things in others rooms like that. I never liked it when my friends went around my room touching stuff. Also didn't help that a couple of them stole from me... but it's just not a cool thing to do. Would've probably ended up much better had she not had to desperately hide an exposed Miracle Box. But then we wouldn't have had what happens so it's all good c: Marinette saying she doesn't want to be friends with the girls anymore

It hit Alya deep. Everyone else is like *le gasp* but her eyes all shrunken like that, you can tell it really got to her hard.

This entire exchange right here. Alya's glance at her in the first picture is piercing, like I can feel that OOF feeling in my chest when I see it. The new music dramatizes it so well that a lot of people probably didn't pay attention to it the first time around. Can we just appreciate how these animators got all these emotions so right and did such a good job animating everything for us? And those that work on the music too? Everything's so spot on. Marinette's red-rimmed eyes is so well done. "No, it can't end like this!" Awww Alix getting super upset too x3 I honestly think Alix could be the next one.... you know what I mean BUT I'll wait until the end to talk about it. Trixx pulling a Plagg and rescuing Marinette! x3 I seriously love Trixx, I really do. I know the other Kwami's got mad, but if he hadn't done that it would've been disaster, probably. And the episode wouldn't have ended how it did! And Plagg knowing it was Trixx who caused the Eiffel Tower to be all weird xD Why do I get the feeling the relationship between Trixx and Plagg would be like that of Chat Noir and Rena Rouge? And I want to point out, we got 7 whole seconds of Adrien again! Aren't we lucky? The last time we got so little of Adrien in an episode was when we had his parallel episode Lies. I don't think that'll happen this time but I do hope it means more Adrien later on. Ladybug: They're after Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Chat Noir: Okay but remember everybody likes her (so don't go thinking she's a bad person for causing their akumatizations) Yes, I read between the lines. Ladybug being able to get through to Lady Wifi and have her deakumatize herself was absolutely amazing! I know Chloe was the first to fight off being akumatized but once you're akumatized it's obviously extremely hard to break. That says a lot about Alya. "Because you're an incredible friend, Ladybug." One, AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW Two, did you notice the little jerk of her head, gesturing to Ladybug like that when she said it?? It's the little details guys that make this so good. 😍 "Chat Noir, nooooo!" Guys, we got our tiny little Marichat scene! It's not actually real, but still! (okay but why do I also get this really weird feeling like something like this may end up being real later?) Alya giving Ladybug that hug 😭 Marinette has such good, supportive friends. I love them all. x.x YES THANK YOU. Alya's finally realizing there are more things going on with her than just boys. One of the things that's always irked me since Chameleon is that any issue Marinette has, be it with Lila or otherwise, she always assumes it has to do with Adrien. Of course, at the time she didn't know she was Ladybug but she should've still listened and realized there's something else up. But now she finally is noticing and I love how she was going to respect her regardless and not push. Pushing has always been one of Alya's characteristics, but she knew whatever it was was something too big and serious to push her on. "Marinette, I'm your best friend, and I always will be." 😭😭😭 This episode brought me so close to tears so many times. Marinette admitting she's keeping secrets, lying to everyone. Admitting that that's why she draws a line between her and Adrien, and why her and Luka didn't work out. Alya saying however heavy it is, they'll carry it together (MY HEART) And then Marinette saying "If I tell you, things between us will never be the same. It's going to destroy everything, change it all." It sounds like this girl is thinking about Chat Blanc and oop there's the sound of my heart breaking again. So much paaaain. "Je suis Ladybug." YESSSSSSS Why they had to leave it off on a cliffhanger But YESSSSSSS First, the expressions she had flash on her face, the gasp 😮, then the expression like she's trying to get her mind to process. Then if you notice, Marinette gives a little nod, as if letting her know that it's true. Then the way her eyebrows furrow and pulls her into the hug as she understands all that she has on her shoulders as that music plays. I'm getting

emotional just writing this. 😭 This episode is just so amazingly good in so many ways, I don't think I can actually cover it all. I'm very impressed. I've loved nearly every episode this show has put out, even those that a lot of people seem to hate. But this one, I don't see how this could actually be hated if you're trying to think of everything that happened from Marinette's point of view, her thoughts, feelings, struggles, depression. I will say, personally I hoped Chat Noir would learn who Ladybug is first. He's been such a good partner, very thoughtful, always putting his life on the line. He's also been dealing with a lot of the same struggles. I felt like he deserved to know first. However, this isn't about who deserves what, it's about what Marinette needs. It's not that she doesn't want to tell him who she is! Don't misunderstand. There are many times throughout the past 3 seasons where she wants to or regrets not being able to. But now, Chat Blanc's in her mind. She knows what could happen if she tells him with Hawk Moth still there, so she can't do it. So instead, she tries to pretend in front of him that she's fine even though talking to him about everything would help and fix so much. In her mind, that's not an option. I just hope that when he finds out she told someone else first, he doesn't think that she doesn't trust him enough to tell him. Next I thought maybe Alix. That way it'd be more understandable to Chat that she'd know, after all future Bunnyx clearly knows and said to Ladybug that she chose her because she's capable of keeping secrets (notice how Alya said that to Ladybug in the alley? I bet Alix will find out in the near future. Maybe not this season, but she'll find out.) But that's for another time. But now Alya knows! Her best friend, the one to have her back and will no doubt have it even more so now! Watch out, Lila. Alya doesn't hold back so I can imagine how vicious she could be to her (and I can't wait). And that brings up a very interesting thought. Alya will realize Adrien has been the only one to have her back in Lila situations. Why would he do that, hmm? When everyone else was so sure Lila's an angel and Marinette must be bad for saying anything negative about her. Journalist Alya, incoming! There's also the matters of Alya bringing up Marinette's feelings for Chat Noir because duh, everybody can see how much she loves him! There are even photos of them kissing, one of which happened in front of Alya's own eyes! Though affected by an akuma, they all know that kiss didn't happen because of it. And of course, Alya has brought up twice in the show so far that Adrien and Chat Noir could be the same person. And last time Alya said that neither of them could be Ladybug and Chat Noir. Except, she's now found out that Marinette is Ladybug. So maybe Adrien could after all be Chat Noir. I look forward to seeing how their new dynamic is. I wonder how this affects their relationship with the other girls. And I'm most curious about how Nino and Adrien may react to this change. I thought during Truth and Lies both that their best friends were going to find out about their breakups. Gang of Secrets was Alya finding out. Even though I feel like another parallel episode is just wishful thinking, I can't help but think it may be a possibility. Nino and the boys are going to wonder what's up with Adrien too. They're going to wonder why he's not with Kagami anymore so suddenly. So what if i the end, Chat Noir ends up telling Nino? I could see it, if this takes place shortly after Gang of Secrets, where she tells Chat that she's confided her identity in a very close friend and somehow they agree that he can tell someone too that he trusts to make it fair. It'd be an amazing way to exercise Ladybug's trust in Chat Noir too. Then we'd have both Alya and Nino in on it, keeping their best friend's secrets for them without knowing about the other one. Oh that'd be so beautiful! And also let them keep their Miraculouses too after the charms are given to them and Alya has the ability to break

free after being akumatized. I adore Rena and Carapace so much I'd be ecstatic if they kept them. 😭 Anyway, so much potential can come out of this episode and I honestly cannot wait until episode 4!!

[wyattjohnston]

Don’t Wanna Miss You Like This

We all need a friend like Jess!!

‘Canadien women were braver than any man in the sub-zero temperatures’ not my old Canadian roommate literally carrying a blanket around at work because she was always freezing 😂

The parallel between Avery hiding her boobs and the other girl showing her boobs pls why is that so good??

Fuck you, Josh, fuck you!!

‘The longest of her life- even longer than the week after the breakup’ oh honey 💛

The sassy subtweet, love that

She works at a craft store?! The dream!

THEY’RE ON A BLIND DATE IT’S FATE IT’S FATE

Yes, Matthew, you did behave awfully that the club

Communication, people! We don’t break up with our significant other without talking our worries through with them first

Bun is the cutest lil’ nickname!

I like how Avery doesn’t just accept the way Matthew acted. He has to realise that his actions were hurtful, and had an impact on her, before she wants to restart their relationship. It amazes me how you fit so much backstory and emotions into 3.9k of writing. Every time I finish a fic of yours, it’s like I’ve just read a whole novel! Your characterisation is so strong that it just stick with me, ya know?

-✨

This fic was written out of spite, which you might be able to tell by how awful i made Tkachuk hahaha i have one regret with this fic (that i don't know if i've ever said outside of DMs) and it's that he didn't get on his hands and knees and beg to get Avery back.

I guess I'm able to get so much into fics because they're really not just those words? Every OC I've ever made has so much more to them than I was able to put into the fic, so I think that helps make them feel real. I can draw on so many things to just drop into one line of a fic and make them feel a bit more three dimensional! This is an amazing compliment, thank you so much 💚💚💚

Your Canadian roommate is valid, workplaces are cold af hahaha

[letterstothemidnightsociety]

Alright, so if you've been following along with me, Supernatural season 3 starts out on a trio of episodes that are Really Fun, slides into some episodes that are Pretty OK, then takes a real nose dive into Bummersville. Hoo boy guys, I really hope that this season picks up. I mean, it won’t, but I can still dream. 2021 was maybe not the year to start watching this season. Fair warning.

The next three episodes for this season are just, like, real downers. First we get “Fresh Blood,” which, aside from the terrible title, starts out on a high note. Gordon (gross) somehow manages to catch up with Bela (HOW??) and threatens her if she doesn’t hand over the Winchesters. Bela, in all of her class and grace, won’t give them up because she has a high price point and Gordon is really lowballing her here. Just like, yes, ok, please stay forever, you’re amazing and I love you. And what a scene this is! You have two characters, one with a strict moral code (albeit one that allows for violence and winning at all costs) and the other with almost NO moral code, but an allegiance that can be bought with the best price and it’s such a fun back and forth until Gordon pulls out a gun. And then she pulls out her phone and just has Dean on speed dial and that’s maybe my fav part. Bela has run into the Winchesters twice and they maybe legit hate her but she’s very much like, oh yeah, my BFF’s the Winchesters, I love those idiots!

I love that we come back to this moment later in the episode when Bela, like, three days later, is like, Oh! I guess I should warn the Winchesters that some crazy guy is after them! She’s just so casual about it you kind of get the feeling that, even though technically Gordon was threatening her life, she doesn’t view him as A Threat. She gives the Winchesters a heads up just to be like oh yeah, you might want to watch out for this mild inconvenience, and she seems legit shocked when Dean freaks out. There’s this moment that plays across her face like, oh shit, did I...did I fuck up? And it adds a nice bit of depth to her character. She’s seems honestly worried, both for the lives of the Winchesters but also that Dean won’t like her anymore and that is just a charming bit of A C T I N G!

I am gonna miss her SO MUCH when she dies at the end of this season. WHY did we CANCEL HER???

But despite the fun beginning, this episode is about monsters and how people become monsters and how other people are probably the reason. Because our main baddie is a vampire who hunts to...well, listen if we look at the facts that he lays out in his monologue, it’s a little more tragic - he’s trying to replace the daughters that he lost hundreds of years ago, cool motive, still murder. In practice though, he goes around turning hot blonde coeds into vampires and then ?????? Who knows. I’d like to believe that this was a problem with the CW executives or maybe casting/directing and not with the writing, but it’s SPN and you really can’t be sure with anything. The fact is, this is a CW show from the early 2000’s and a lot of their extras are cast to type. And that’s maybe me exhibiting some girl-on-girl crime, but there are other episodes that did a much less blatantly gross job casting their extras/Very Special Guest Stars.

Anyway, the POINT of this guy is that he’s a monster because someone killed his daughter and he’s just been trying to fill that grief hole inside of him for centuries. This is not unlike Gordon, who ALSO has been trying to fill a grief hole that he’s had for decades, except he’s not killing people and resurrecting them as blood suckers, he’s just killing them. And then, when the Vamp decides to turn Gordon it’s a real sweet moment of comeuppance for like, a HOT second and then you’re like, awww dude, ya done f’ed up. That was a bad idea. You’ve made a HUGE mistake.

More importantly, our Vampire In Question finally runs into the Winchesters and get’s to say things like “I was desperate! You ever felt desperate? I've lost everyone I ever loved. I'm staring down eternity alone. Can you think of a worse hell?” and also “I just ... I didn't care anymore. Do you know what it's like when you just don't give a damn? It's like ... it's like being dead already.” and Dean’s v. much like, THIS IS TOO REAL ROY.

Sam may ALSO be feeling Too Real feelings because he is DONE dicking around with Gordon and honestly yes, I like this, this is good Sam development. It’s nice to know that Sam has a breaking point. And I admit I’m of two minds about this moment because 1) I love the idea of Dark!Sam this season and that maybe Sam’s decision to actually kill Gordon is just one step in that process but 2) I ALSO love the idea of Sam Lite finally having a breaking point and Gordon is IT. I don’t know which theory I like more in this scenario, but they are both good theories.

I think as much as this episode wants to draw parallels between the monsters and Dean (thank you artful editors), you can’t look at the “I’ve lost everyone I ever loved,” line and not think of Sam? Cuz he’s got one (1) person left in his life that hasn’t died horribly, so how desperate is he about to get through the end of this season? I’ve definitely been watching this season with eyes on all the ominous Dean foreshadowing, but the Sam foreshadowing is also there, just buried under the heavy weight of a thousand smulders and suicidal levels of denial.

And also, FUCK the tag on this episode! Guys, it is CUTE but it is also HORRIBLE. Dean starts teaching Sam how to fix the Impala and at first it’s all, “Oh! Adorable Brothers Being Brothers!” and I loved it but then I almost immediately hated it because you realize this is about making sure Sam can get along without him once he’s gone and Dean just accepts his own death with such casual ease that it’s just...INFURIATING!

This scene was rude and I HATE IT!

Cut to - “A Very Supernatural Christmas” Special!

Guys, I was so excited when I got to this episode. THIS is Classic Supernatural Shenanigans. Plus, you know a Holiday Special is the ultimate sign that this show has Made It, right? Or it could be a sign that they’re selling out, who knows, but I think we can say that at this point in the series, SPN is established enough to start having fun with their fans. That’s what this says to me. BUT THEN what we get is like...oh boy.

First - like, I’mma beat this horse to death, but what is WRONG with this FAMILY? John Winchester very quickly devolved into the sort of father that forgot about every single holiday and did not ever, even a little bit, make up for it. It’s not a surprise, but it kind of wrecked me seeing a flashback where Baby Dean is just so attached to a father who can’t be bothered to actually care for his children. I know he’s not in this episode because Jeffrey Dean Morgan was tied up in other projects, but the fact that John doesn’t show up at the end to button the flashbacks with a But then he DID show up for Christmas! just makes this plot line that more gutting. And despite Dean’s hero worship of their father, this is maybe the Christmas where Baby Sam stops believing in his own father. The only bright side to this is that it continues to enforce the fact that Bobby should have sued John for custody. Bobby should maybe STILL Sue for custody so that Dean at least would feel like someone wants him for once in his life, damnit.

And then we wrap this episode up with the Best Worst Christmas of all, because we see Sam start to...also?? accept that Dean is about to die? Cuz that’s what this episode is really about - Dean’s Last Christmas. And everything about that makes me ~ u p s e t ~.

So Sam decides to put his curmudgeonly grinchy attitude aside in order to make it a special day for Dean and ugh. UGH. UGHGHGHG. Season three is the worst guys, and I can’t believe I didn’t realize that until right this second now.

So let’s wrap this up with "Malleus Maleficarum", honestly an episode that is mostly forgettable until we get to, like, the last five minutes. Sure, witches and curses and selling your soul, woohoo whatever.

But then we get some real Ruby centric reveals and like, WHAT is happening?? First off, the scene where Ruby and Tammy have a moment is a real Moment. There is some baggage and tension here and it is heavy. And then Tammy drops the mic when she reveals that Ruby used to be human.

THEN, Ruby legit saves their asses by killing Tammy with a fancy magic knife. Ok, Dean does the actual killing, but Ruby brought the fancy magic knife. So between the hot and heavy tension with “Tammy” and her repeated attempts to keep the Winchesters alive, we’re left wondering what IS Ruby’s deal? I personally wonder how much of the show’s mythology the show actually has figured out at this point? Because interviews with Kripke definitely walk the line between “Oh we definitely have this whole thing worked out,” and “yeah, we’re sort of finding things as we go along,” which is maybe why it’s able to last as long as it does. More on that later.

Of course the big kicker is the final scene between Ruby and Dean. Dean is almost on board with Ruby at this point in the season, and much like his scene with the demon in “Sin City”, they share a kind of vulnerable moment together where Ruby admits that, yeah, she was human once and yeah, Hell will destroy you, body and soul, and yeah Dean’s worst fear will probably come true - he will become the thing he hunts, no ifs, ands or buts about it. And Dean knows that Ruby knows that Dean knows that there’s no way to save Dean from his fate, but they both agree that they can’t take Sam’s last ounce of hope away from him because, for both of them, Sam is their hope. Ruby and Dean both see the war happening around them and they know that with Dean gone, Sam’s maybe the last guy holding back the tide to save all humanity.

Which, honestly? Bull shit. Do you know how many hunters are out there? Neither do I, but this season seems to indicate that there are a LOT. We have barely scratched the surface on the hunter community and it’s a damn shame that they are all weirdo loners because there is a war going on. You know what works great in a war? An ARMY. Buncha mentally unstable, martyr-complex ijits who can’t put their differences aside for one damn MINUTE so that maybe, JUST maybe, the could actually defeat the evil they’ve spent their entire lives dedicated to fighting. And if Ruby and Dean wanted to help Sam, what they should probably do is get him plugged in to that community. I do believe that of all they backasswards, self-obsessed, painfully anti-social crazies out there, the Winchesters are THE WORST.

Listen tho, this was like, a solid scene between these two. Just a lot of work goin' into this and it paid off.

Anyway, back to the mythology for a hot second - This sort of loosey-goosey stumbling into your own world building is probably another one of those things that you’ll only really get in a show with this many episodes per season? It’s that room to play and experiment and just make stuff up as you go along. I think the slow drip method of releasing episodes ALSO helps in this scenario because you’re able to see what fans are reacting to in almost-real time. When viewers are binging episodes, I think you're less likely to see what specifically they’re reacting to and more wholistically they’re reacting to. And that’s not to say you won’t see those specific things that they like/love eventually, but by the time you get there, your season’s been produced in its entirety and you’ll have to bear that in mind for (hopefully) next season. But with SPN, they were writing and producing the show at the same time that some of the episodes were airing. That’s why they were able to make decisions on the fly, based on what fans responded to. And definitely by this point in the show, there was a sizeable and vocal fan base that made their feelings VERY well-known. We’re only in season three, but they’ve already had a number of con appearances and a pretty active online presence. That kind of feedback has got to be helpful, from a writing perspective, but it also allows for things like characters getting cut because nobody liked them for some dumb reason. BUT, if you’re fighting to stay on the air for 100 episodes or longer, responding to fan reactions is what’s gonna do it and that’s a fact.

[kaypeace21]

Hey I'm sorry to bother you, but I was putting together a post about david harbour's cryptic instagram posts and one in specific where it is explained how rainbows work and then randomly "a pale stuffed yellow lion" is mentioned and I remember you had a post where you mention the lion symbolism in stranger things. I know we shouldn't put too much faith in what actors say about there shows, just wondering what your thoughts were

@helloitisiamazing messages/questions are never a bother, so don’t worry about it :)

 I don’t have instagram, so I didn’t know about this … 

But i think this relates to my DiD theory (about Will).Please read theory first to avoid confusion.

The prequel novel established Psychics hallucinate rainbows when they use their powers.

In the prequel novel “Suspicious Minds” Both Alice and Terry when using their powers had hallucinations of a rainbow, Kali also formed a visual-allusion of sunflowers and a rainbow (implying all 3 have seen this rainbow, as well, when using their powers). And when Will was very young- he drew that ‘rainbow ship’-implying he has powers .

-Terry: “Spots bloomed behind her eyelids. Every color … as the sunlight turned to rainbows” ( p44-45), “The rainbow stayed with Terry for a long while, but eventually it faded and in its place: darkness. A pit.”(p. 48).  “streaks of rainbow appeared (p47)”, “Wavy rainbows seemed to radiate from her hand even once she stilled it. (p. 88). “Her eyelids drifted shut, rainbows and sparks flying behind them. (p. 89).

-Alice: (who sees visions of the future) : “Snarling, snapping monsters, rainbow lights playing in the air around them (p. 121).

-Kali using her powers: “field of yellow sunflowers grew up around them. A rainbow arcing over the golden tops.” (p. 139).  “He noticed she’d (Kali) drawn up there, a rainbow with her colored pencils.” Maybe he’d suggest that for the playroom” (the rainbow room we see in s2) (p. 298) 

In the show, Terry also saw sunflowers and would chant “sunflower, rainbow” over and over -and in s2 Will had a sunflower book. And we were told Will drew a rainbow ship.

As far as Lions:

Will in s1 had a stuffed female lion and El had a male lion.

“Chinese guardian lions-are lion statues that are common guardians of villages (*Hawkins) and even private homes (*Castle Byers and El’s bed room).  These lions can be a sign of protection of an individual or family. These lions are always depicted in pairs consisting of a male and a female, the female representing yin and the male yang. The ever-changing relationship between them is responsible for the constant flux of the universe. When, there is too great an imbalance between Yin and Yang, catastrophes can occur.”

I think this explains a very significant aspect of the show. When El was in great distress, she opened the gate- causing the disasters that later occurred in Hawkins. And after Will disappears, El appears to the audience for the first time. Hopper even tries to track down El, assuming it was Will who’s hair was shaved- because a witness said the kid with the buzzcut “could of been the Byers boy”. Mike even says “Do you really think it’s a coincidence we found her in the same place Will disappeared?”

The answer being ‘no’, it wasn’t a coincidence. We see as the show goes on, El who has never had a normal life, slowly gain normalcy in it. However, Will, at the same time, who was born into a relatively normal circumstances, has had his life become stranger and more entrenched in the supernatural. And as of the first 3 seasons, they’ve barely interacted (let alone bonded/are in balance)!They are imbalanced and because of this (symbolically)… catastrophe after catastrophe continue to occur!

When either Yin or Yang falls out of balance, they affect each other. That means they change their proportion and relationship to one another to achieve a new balance. There is normally a harmonious balance of Yin and Yang. However, they weaken — or consume — one another when they fall out of balance.”

“As an increase in one brings a corresponding decrease in the other, a correct balance between the two poles must be reached in order to achieve harmony”. “yin-yang represents the coherent fabric of nature and the mind (control of their psychic powers/ Will’s did & alters), and the interactions between the waxing and waning of the cosmic and human realms, and its harmonization (the real world vs the upside down/innerworlds)”

- Also…“Yin represents femininity, and water. While Yang represents masculinity and fire.”

The water and fire analogy is a consistent theme in the show. Will is always referenced with fire in both the comic and show . He drew his wizard character shooting fireballs in s1 and in the first ep he rolled the dice and yelled “fireball”, he had the ‘shadow monster ‘ exorcised out of him with fire, and in the comic he shoots a demogorgan and yells “fireball”. El’s element or ‘substance would be the opposite of fire, “water” - the sensory deprivation tanks are filled with water, the void floor is covered in water, she escaped the lab through a drainage pipe, was found by the gang in rain, looked at a reflection of herself in a puddle and cased ripples in it using her powers,  in s3 is shown sinking in water /using goggles.

*When Hopper saw Will’s lion plushie in the upsidedown he had a flashback of sarah with her tiger plushie.

Will even has a tiger poster (shown in s1 &2) which is associated with both Sara Hopper & Kali. 

Kali’s fav animal in the prequel novels is tigers. And Sara has a stuffed tiger (similar to El & Will’s stuffed felines).

In chinese mythology/culture: “The tiger is personified by the constellation Orion (interesting given Sara’s interest in space/blackholes). The tiger represents protection over human life (hmm?). Tiger charms were used to keep away evil and disease (that’s awful ironic if she died in the manner she did). In Buddhism, wearing tiger skins during meditations was believed to bring protection from spiritual interference and potential harm while exploring astral dimensions.”

Kali in ‘Suspicious Minds’ says…

“I was named after a goddess. She wore a tiger skin and was fierce in battle.”

Then Kali says to Alice (a women who can see future visions): “I love you, Alice. We can be tigers together.”

This parallel (in relation to Alice) is fascinating because Kali actually uses her powers to fake Alice’s death- and to trick Dr. Brenner, and allow Alice to escape. The allusion was so realistic, that Terry could even touch the ‘dead’ Alice. 

So the tiger symbolism could be a HUGE hint- that Sarah’s death was simulated and she’ll come back and travel the innerworlds/alternate dimensions of Will’s mind (as Hopper’s guide). Hopper about sarah “galaxies the universe-she always understood that stuff.”

* so yes… Sara will come back. Since alters can have simulated ‘deaths’ and then resurrect later.

Also… a little of topic, but there’s a lot of animal symbolism in the series

- the fox, the owl, and the bear. We see this in El’s room (in Terry’s house) and castle Byers/ the byers house (in s1).Will has a bear and fox illustration in castle byers and a stuffed teddy bear in his room (in s1) and a stuffed owl (in s2). While El has multiple stuffed bear plushies (in s2-3) . And Terry (in El’s room, in s1-2) had fox and owl drawings on El’s bedroom wall.

Foxes, bears, and owls are all associated with wisdom - aka ‘Will the wise’.

*El’s room at Terry’s house also has bunnies (a ref to how Lonnie made Jonathan-and prob Will kill bunnies on hunting trips). The white rabbit is also a ‘alice and wonderland ‘ ref (when El was at Benny’s an alice and wonderland song played called -white rabbit).

* Also the first time we see butterflies (associated with kali) is actually in s1e1 cause there’s a butterfly painting above the phone Will electrocuted.

blue butterflies usually represents many things- love, change or rebirth, passage of time, or  a malicious or vindictive spirit. These examples are prob the most applicable. Given that Kali is a goddess paradoxically associated with motherly love and violence ,giving freedom to children, and only killing demons in folklore.cough like those working at the Hawkins lab.

I Updated/revised this old post because i think it’s another solid did hint I wanted to talk about. David is (probably) showing us how his character is an alter of Will’s similar to Kali, El, Terry,and Sarah.Why he brings up the sunflowers/rainbows which are both connected to Will and the others I mentioned. I think it’s very possible sarah comes back -and Hopper while exploring the various ‘innerworlds’ of Will’s minds (like the Russian one, the memory scapes , etc ) reunites/ finds Sarah .And Sarah helps him . look at some of the season 4 movies:  In ‘what dreams may come” a guy with his dead kid explore a heaven like world influenced by a painter’s emotions.We also have the movie ‘inside out’ -which involves “memory islands” (distinct worlds based on a child’s memories) which are influenced negatively by the kid being depressed since she moved to California. The characters traveling to these memory islands are constructs of  kid’s mind -and 1 of them also has a guide helping them explore the ‘memory islands’.in  Inception a guy says he’s a construct of a guy’s mind and needs to help/protect him escape the many different Ievels of the dream world.Hopper about sarah says “galaxies the universe-she always understood that stuff.” And sarah being associated with ‘tigers which are supposed to be used for protection while exploring astral dimensions (could foreshadow this).” I kind of assume movies like inception, matrix, Truman show, total recall, the cell, enter the void, wizard of oz, Peter Pan , hellraiser 2, dreamwarriors, bill & ted’s bogus journey, and  welcome to marwen ,  also allude to this: because they involve entering simulated abstract worlds usually created from happy& traumatic memories / fears . And bladerunner 2044/total recall has the theme of false implanted memories… relating to hopper realizing he’s an alter and not in “actual Russia.” Before seeing the other segments of the innerworlds. Like in total recall- the bad ass spy is told all his memories:his wife/ years of marriage ,even his name, are just implanted memories. And she says “you’re life is a dream.” . And she says “you’re life is a dream.” Meanwhile (in assasain’s creed) an evil psychiatrist tells a character trapped at the facility -who can explore memories of another person (and who’s dad killed their mom-aka sort of like papa/terry ) that the reason she can go into a person’s memories is cause it’s her past life (aka El’s an alter). So I think that will play out in s4-5 somehow.

This hint also reminds me of when David played d&d and made his character  a fireweilding wizard (who’s powers appeared at 14),  has a ‘special connection’ to fin’s paladin, and doesn’t know who his dad is.

[joannalannister]

I'm not sure who to ask this question, and I tried Googling, but came up with no answers. Why is it that iron is so prominent in ASoIaF? There's the Iron Throne, Iron Islands, Ironborn, Iron Price, Iron Bank, Ironwood, etc. So just curious why that's the element GRRM chose to use/focus on so much. BTW, I love all your lovely blogs! 😊

Thank you so much! I love these kinds of questions! We would probably have to ask GRRM to know for sure why iron inspired him in ASOIAF, but we can speculate!

Iron features prominently in folklore, including in-world westerosi folklore: “A child’s rhyme echoed in his head. Oak and iron, guard me well, or else I’m dead, and doomed to hell.” Interestingly, this rhyme is not invoked by any highborn POV, only by Dunk. And Davos remembers something similar: “A knife in the heart, though…even demons can be killed by cold iron, the singers say.” Even lowborn Will of the Night’s Watch, from the AGOT prologue, takes comfort in cold iron.

Perhaps it’s only a smallfolk superstition, but I’m inclined to believe the smallfolk remember a truth the nobility have forgotten. Whether they remember or not, lords often build their gates and doors of oak and iron. For example, one enters the Great Hall of Winterfell by “wide oak-and-iron doors,” big enough to ride a horse through. More importantly, Winterfell is guarded by “massive oak-and-iron gates” though by the end of ACOK they’re hanging “charred and askew”. Combine this with @racefortheironthrone​‘s idea that Winterfell was built as an engine to fight the Others, and I think GRRM’s grand design might be getting a little clearer. All the stuff listed here is going to be important in the War for the Dawn:

“Winterfell…grey granite, oak and iron, crows wheeling around the towers, steam rising off the hot pools in the godswood, the stone kings sitting on their thrones…how could Winterfell be gone?” 

Winterfell isn’t gone. Just dormant. 

Winterfell lies dreaming, waiting to be reborn in oak and iron and granite. There’s magic in Winterfell’s walls. (More about Winterfell here.) 

I know you didn’t ask this part, but I think we need to explore the question of “Why oak?” before we tackle “Why iron?” Oak trees represent strength and steadfastness, endurance and long life. The oak is considered a holy tree, closely associated with pagan gods of Northern Europe, and GRRM is aware of this association. In King’s Landing, “The heart tree was an oak, brown and faceless, yet Ned Stark still felt the presence of his gods.” The Ghost of High Heart also associates oak with the old gods. 

“Oak-trees have always been regarded as great protectors and guardians of the virtuous.” A fitting tree for Duncan the Tall to be invoking. Arya herself is called an oak tree. The oak has a duality to it, with “deep roots [that] penetrate as deep into the Underworld as its branches soar to the sky.”  

“The Sanskrit word, ‘Duir’, gave rise both to the word for oak and the English word ‘door’, which suggests that this tree stands as an opening into greater wisdom, perhaps an entryway into the otherworld itself.” [x]

I don’t know if there will be a connection between oak and the Others, or if oak is just symbolically important in the War for the Dawn, but it will be interesting to find out. 

“Of all the trees in Britain and Ireland the oak is considered king” and we know what GRRM thinks of kings: “a king protects his people, or he is no king at all.” Oaks are a popular fantasy element. C.S. Lewis used oaks and other trees to fight alongside the Narnians in Prince Caspian and of course Tolkien had the Ents, some of which resembled oaks. I don’t think GRRM’s trees are going to get up and start walking around, but I think ASOIAF themes support the idea that even the trees oppose those who would seek dominion over you. The Others are certainly seeking dominion over the earth. The walls of Winterfell are going to fight against them, oak and iron and granite, and protect people. 

So, what about iron? Because you’re completely right to pick up on the iron motif. GRRM references iron from the very beginning. In the prologue of AGOT, when Wymar Royce battles the Other while Will climbs a tree (not an oak but something GRRM calls a sentinel … which is not a real type of tree but GRRM’s own fantasy brand of evergreen) … Will is mentioned to have “cold iron”. 

He whispered a prayer to the nameless gods of the wood, and slipped his dirk free of its sheath. He put it between his teeth to keep both hands free for climbing. The taste of cold iron in his mouth gave him comfort.

He’s unwittingly invoking oak and iron. And remember, the Others leave Will to be killed by wight!Wymar. Could the Others have killed Will? Did Will’s iron make any difference? idk, GRRM isn’t saying, but I hope we get more definitive information in future books. “Cold iron” in literature has historically meant any weapon designed to draw blood, but I don’t know if GRRM is making a distinction between iron and steel. 

*****

ASIDE: What is the difference between iron and steel? I didn’t know so I had to look it up: 

Steel is a mixture of several metals (this is called an alloy) but most of it is iron and often some carbon. Steel is harder and stronger than iron. Steels are often iron alloys with between 0.02% and 1.7% percent carbon by weight. Alloys with more carbon than this are known as cast iron. Steel is different from wrought iron, that has little or no carbon.

Something made of pure iron is softer than steel because the atoms can slip over one another. If other atoms like carbon are added, they are different from iron atoms and stop the iron atoms from sliding apart so easily. This makes the steel stronger and harder.

Changing the amount of carbon added to steel will change its properties:

Hardness

How easily it bends

Ductility: can it be made into thin wires

Strength

Is it magnetic

Will it rust (or corrode)

Steel with more carbon is harder and stronger than pure iron, but it also breaks more easily (brittle).

Iron is an element and a metal. It is the second most common metal on Earth, and the most widely-used metal. It makes up much of the Earth’s core, and is the fourth most common element in the Earth’s crust.

***

I’m out of my depth here, but I would like a chemist or metallurgist to discuss the potential carbon-content of Valyrian steel and relate that to the fact that all known life on Earth (and probably Terros - with the exception of the Others, probably) is carbon-based, and then tie that into ASOIAF’s life-affirming themes in the War for the Dawn. 

something something carbon as a life force in the Valyrian steel being anathema to the Others something something steel made with human blood sacrifice something something…

Has someone already written an essay about this? If so, please link me. 

*****

In the meantime, we can consider iron in folklore. Iron is believed to repel fairies. GRRM has said that the Others are like “the Sidhe made of ice” and the Sidhe are the fairy folk of Ireland. So when Westerosi invoke “oak and iron" to guard them, I think this is a remnant of the cultural memory of the Long Night. (I’ve talked about the Others here and in my tag for #the Others.)

(There are other scraps of cultural memory that recall the Others. For example, in TSS, Egg hears vicious rumors about Rohanne Webber from the smallfolk:

“Four,” said Egg, “but no children. Whenever she gives birth, a demon comes by night to carry off the issue. Sam Stoops’ wife says she sold her babes unborn to the Lord of the Seven Hells, so he’d teach her his black arts.”

Obviously these rumors about Rohanne were not true, but demons coming by night to carry off babies is eerily similar to the deal Craster has with the Others in exchange for protection.) 

What’s special about iron? Pliny the Elder, who lived in the first century, believed that iron could protect and heal people, and some of these ideas persisted well into the 20th century. 

I don’t know if the potential magnetism of iron is important but idk, the heroes probably have to go to the North pole, that might be important. 

Also, “iron can attract and conduct electricity, focus and release it, store it as magnetic energy, or disperse it by returning it to the earth. Iron can change form. It can be made molten, fluid, and malleable, and then set into unbending forms of our design.” Considering that ASOIAF is about rebirth and duality and transformation and shapeshifting (please see this post about Tyrion - please click), iron is thematically important to ASOIAF, to our malleability, our rebirth. 

Victorians believed that the first iron found was in meteorites. “Of course, even today, iron still seems magical in many respects. It is the most plentiful metal in the universe. All iron was initially forged in the hearts of stars, and only gifted to the cosmos when they exploded in supernovae. This stardust is in each of us; it is what makes our blood red.”

Consider:

Dawn, forged from the heart of a fallen star. 

The Daynes of Starfall are one of the most ancient houses in the Seven Kingdoms, though their fame largely rests on their ancestral sword, called Dawn, and the men who wielded it. Its origins are lost to legend, but it seems likely that the Daynes have carried it for thousands of years. Those who have had the honor of examining it say it looks like no Valyrian steel they know, being pale as milkglass but in all other respects it seems to share the properties of Valyrian blades, being incredibly strong and sharp.

The iron content in Dawn is probably important. 

***

(GRRM has said that, while the Daynes share the violet eyes of the Targs, they’re not the same ancestry. I’m guessing that Dawn and Valyrian steel are like that too, parallel in their formation but different. (There is a term for parallel evolution in biology but from completely different ancestors. Biologists, help me out!))

EDIT: @victorvontooms supplied the term I was looking for: convergent evolution. That’s how I think of Daynes vs Targs and Dawn vs Valyrian steel, both made to fight the Others but forged completely differently.

***

Also, Tyrion tells us:

Dragonbone is black because of its high iron content

(No one shows the dragon bone in ASOIAF as black!! But it is!! Dragonbone is black!!! 

^^Detail of art I commissioned from @bidonica, showing the dragonbone as black!! Will I ever stop screaming about this? No!! It’s my desktop, it’s so important to me!!! Not that I ever see my desktop through my tab forest but it’s the principle of the thing…)

Anyways, “Dragonbone is black because of its high iron content”. If that doesn’t set off the Others’ alarm bells, it should. I really think the Others dislike iron, not just Valyrian steel, and we have these giant high-iron content, fire-breathing beasts coming for them. 

In terms of the setting, I think GRRM might be invoking a lot of iron imagery to suggest humanity’s Iron Age, a period that extended into the early Middle Ages in Northern Europe. All this iron carries connotations of a time long, long ago.

TV tropes actually has a great little article on cold iron, suggesting that iron is part of some magic vs technology symbolism.

The Iron Age is generally understood as the period during which the technology to make iron items — particularly weapons — spread from the Hallstatt culture in western and eastern Europe during the 8th century BCE. […]

Clearly, the peoples of this extended period did not one night go to sleep in the Bronze Age and awaken the next morning in the Iron Age. There were considerable overlaps as the technology of iron developed and travelled throughout the European continent by way of trade. This also appears to coincide with a violent period of history, with hill forts springing up all across the British Isles, particularly in the southern regions. […]

The Britons had a reputation for being small in stature yet fierce warriors, and possibly adept at magic. They seemed to be able to appear and vanish at will from among the trees of the forests and among the hills. According to some early Roman accounts, the Britons would spike their hair with white lime and cover their bodies in swirling patterns of blue woad for battle, possibly to enable them to vanish into the pattern of clouds in the sky or reflected on the surface of lakes. This resulted in a belief that they could appear out of thin air and make their getaways via ‘portals’ in lakes and rivers. Some have suggested that this is where the myth of the fairy folk began. These ‘fairy folk’ who used ‘magical’ tactics were armed with bronze, which was no match for the iron blades of the invaders. Therefore, iron became known as the enemy of the ‘fairy folk.’ [x]

I’m not sure that the magic vs technology war applies to ASOIAF (idk maybe it does!) but what I would say applies to ASOIAF is a war between the Old Way and the New, obviously a reference to Ironborn culture, but something I think applies much more broadly to ASOIAF as a whole. 

Right now in ASOIAF there is a war between the Old Way of doing things by dehumanization, led by men like Tywin and Randyll and Roose, and the New Way of doing things by valuing people’s humanity, spearheaded by people like Jon and Dany and Brienne. 

So people paying the iron price in blood, sitting the iron throne … I think that’s all representative of the Old Way, something outdated and tired and without forward motion or progress. Something that is (hopefully) on its way out. 

Just as the early Britons’ bronze swords yielded to iron, I think we’re witnessing in ASOIAF the iron Old Way (metaphorically) yielding to … I don’t know yet…kindness? valyrian steel? idk, ask me when the books are done. 

Whatever it is, we have to be careful. Iron can be a force of good (repelling the Others), but it can be terrible too. We have to be careful. Because the iron is in our blood. The potential to dehumanize is inside all of us; as Professor Moody would say, “Constant vigilance!” Or as GRRM might say, the war is inside us. We’re all capable of great acts, and terrible ones. We have to choose. And we have to be careful. 

*****

“There are more esoteric explanations, like iron being seen as the lifeforce of the earth, or associated with lifeforce because blood smells like iron.“

“All iron was initially forged in the hearts of stars, and only gifted to the cosmos when they exploded in supernovae. This stardust is in each of us; it is what makes our blood red.”

The War for the Dawn is a war between life and death … a war between life and something worse than death. 

It’s a war for our humanity, it’s a war for the earth itself. It’s a war for our flesh and blood and bone. 

I said … way up above now … I said the trees are fighting for us against the Others’ dominion. Not the way Tolkien’s trees fight, but still they’re fighting. 

GRRM likes to trick casual readers into thinking his world is nihilistic … but deep down, it’s not. The Magic wouldn’t have saved Daenerys from the flames if it was truly uncaring. 

In this war, (almost) everyone’s pulling for us, I think. We’re all in this together. The weirwoods and the ravens and the Children of the Forest and all the elements of life, all the way down to the iron in our blood … it’s all rooting for us. Winterfell is rooting for us, with its fires deep within the earth and its life-giving waters rushing through its walls “like blood through a man’s body” and the earth is rooting for us, lending us its lifeforce of iron to oppose the Others. 

But we have to stand. We have to fight for it. 

*****

So there’s lots of possibilities right now in terms of what Iron means as a motif. Ask me again when we have more books and maybe I can talk more. 

PS - I think those bankers are gonna fuck people over in twow. Watch out for them. This might be my Lannister bias tho. 

EDITED TO ADD: 

@essayofthoughts replied to your post:

Iron swords were the first really meaningful weapons (bronze dulled too quickly) and would sometimes by ritually broken and sacrificed due to their value. An iron or steel sword that has been used and let get rusty, when polished will “bleed” the bloodiron back out. 

Oak and Yew have significance as life/death dichotomies in tree folklore. Without English Oak the British Empire and Navy wouldn’t have happened. Oak mistletoe is sacred bc Oak as a hardwood would almost never grows mistletoe, also ties into its status as kings of the forest. Oak once cut and aged is one of the hardest woods out there and even a modern steel knife can’t easily cut aged oak (speaking from experience; my home is made with century old oak beams). Oak also ties to dryads and hamadryads - life from trees in myth -and technically all dryads are of oaks. idk why but the dryads thing makes me think of the children of the forest

@nobodysuspectsthebutterfly replied to your post:

re the first war against the Others– the First Men didn’t have iron as such, they were bronze users. Iron and steel only came to Westeros in sufficiency with the Andals. (Possible proof of the theory that Ironborn are not First Men, but from somewhere else? As their islands are a great source of ore.) What little iron the First Men had was rare and treasured, almost magic to them probably. See Jon’s description of similar among the wildlings today (including the bronze-working Thenns).

Think of the First Men fighting the Others with their bronze, failing. Except for the few who have help from the CotF and are using dragonglass too. And the very few with their rare iron, they must have considered it magic– no wonder it became part of a crown! And then the Last Hero somehow got a sword of dragonsteel– even more magic–and saved the world.

Though interestingly the Others may hate cold iron, but it can’t kill them. See them checking out Waymar Royce’s sword before approaching him, it’s only regular steel. Iron defends, but dragonsteel, Valyrian steel, that’s the game-changer.

[fortunatelylori]

You may have answered this already but what are your thoughts on a Targ baby? I'm 50/50 on a pregnancy with more certainty on it never being born if she is pregnant. Story wise there really is no reason for a baby. The only thing it does is give Dany a baby she didn't think she could have show Jon honoring his vow of not having a bastard by marrying her. So foreshadowing a Targ baby is either a legit foreshadowing or a misdirect.

This misdirect can be a complete mislead where nothing happens or it can be a misdirect where if it does happen there will be a twist. Because let’s be real this foreshadowing has also helped with the whole Dany is Fire and Jon is Ice and together they make miracles. (I want to add real quick that for me this Targ foreshadowing has nothing to do with Sansa writing Cat’s wrong and loving a bastard baby. She already loves that bastard baby. Cat not loving Jon had to do with Ned’s choices

and what she assumed about Jon’s mother. It was about their marriage.) This is why I’m 50/50 because I can see it as a misdirect which can be for 2 reasons. I do think it might happen but not exactly how people think it will. (Targ miracle baby). Jon saying he will never father a bastard. After learning what Ned did for him and the choice he made I can see Jon making a similar choice. Choosing to make the baby a bastard for whatever reasons. My guess is to go against Dany.

As far as Dany maybe she has something to do with the child not being born like she did with her Drogo baby?

Hey, nonnie!

I swear this Targ baby foreshadowing business will be the death of me. lol I actually haven’t answered any asks regarding this but this theoretical “b0atie” (isn’t that what the cool kids are calling it these days?) is just everywhere. 

I really don’t know what to say about it honestly …

My main gripe with this baby business is that I don’t like that it’s being brought into the story, particularly since Cersei is apparently pregnant as well. What is this? Days of Our lives?!? How is this supposed to be remotely interesting to me? We have a zombie apocalypse to get through, a Dance of Dragons, Jonsa to finally happen as well as a host of other well loved characters that I want to see through to their endgames. Why the hell bring the whole idea of “b0atie” into this?!? I really, really would hate for this theoretically baby to rob me of precious time with Arya, Brienne, Jaime, Tormund, Bran etc., etc. I genuinely do not care about D*ny and Cersei’s baby drama and in many ways it cheapens their characters. They have enough to do without having to check if they’ve gotten their periods. Just leave well enough alone. 

My second and biggest gripe with b0atie is not so much Sansa related, as is Jon Snow related. Fathering a bastard has been Jon’s greatest nightmare to date. This man stopped himself from having sex with a prostitute because, and I quote: “I didn’t want to father a Snow. It’s not a good life for a child”. This would be a catastrophic event for Jon and he’s been through enough of those, thank you very much.

But … since Cersei is actually going around telling people she’s pregnant and the writers essentially held a huge, neon sign above D*ny and her womb, the b0atie and the lion cub will come into play one way or another. I have no doubt about that. So I don’t think it’s a complete misdirect. 

Now … the real question is will these babies be born? I’m going to go with no on that one. The fact that both Cersei and D*ny’s fertility is brought up at about the same time feels to this simple brain to mean they are paralleling these two supposed pregnancies. Which would make sense since both Cersei and D*ny were given children related prophecies. Cersei’s been told that she will have 3 children and they will all die while D*ny has been told that Drogo will come back to her when her womb quickens and she’s able to give birth to a living child (meaning never). 

We know that Cersei’s baby, if she indeed is pregnant, won’t be born. Does that tell us anything about D*ny and b0atie? I would say yes. Now if you think D*ny’s story is one of triumph and heroism, this might seem like a juxtaposition instead of a parallel. So where Cersei fails to have the baby, D*ny delivers b0atie and she and Jon will be the happy parents of a lizard controlling second coming of Renesmee Cullen (Gods! That’s a stupid name!). Yay! Fun!

If you have been around my blog for long enough, you know that I don’t believe D*ny is the hero of this story but rather the ultimate antagonist, hidden under our noses since the beginning of this story. So going by that, the reason why Cersei and D*ny seem to be sharing this baby story line is in order to draw parallels between the two of them, instead of setting them up as foils. Which means, by extension, that D*ny will not give birth or at least not to a baby. A lot of things can come into play here, of course. D*ny could in fact become pregnant but lose the baby. D*ny might think she is pregnant when she isn’t, in a play on Bloody Mary with her phantom pregnancies which would keep in line with the historical references that GOT/ASOIAF are littered with. 

My favorite theory, though, and one I’ve seen only a few people mention (sorry I don’t have a link on this. I saw it a while back) is that D*ny will give birth … she’ll just give birth to a shadow baby. GOT/ASOIAF has always played with the idea of monstrous motherhood: Lysa Arryn comes to mind, D*ny and her dragons, Cersei and Jofferey and … Melisandre and her shadow king killing baby. 

We know Melisandre is coming back in season 8. Now … it’s pretty obvious that Jon isn’t going to welcome her back with open arms. He promised he would hang her for the murder of Shireen and Jon is a man of his word (or he tries to be … lol). D*ny on the other hand took a liking to Mel instantly, once she heard of the possibility of being even more special than she already thinks she is and adding a new title to her list of monikers: “The Princess that was Promised”  ( I agree with Tyrion. It just doesn’t have the same ring to it :))) ). 

Mel’s intentions are good in that she wants to stop the Long Night and the WW. However she is a religious fanatic with a penchant for burning people alive. She really did a number on Stannis and Stannis was much harder to sawy than D*ny would be. Stannis didn’t believe in the Azor Ahai prophecy, at least not for the most part. D*ny is already inclined to believe just about anything that confirms how awesome she is. So I could see Mel working on D*ny much in the same way she did on Stannis. And what better way of ensuring D*ny trusts her and keeps her around than to give her what Mirri Maz Duur took away from her? 

Of course, Mel’s plans are never truly successful in the long run and she bungles everything she touches (with the exception of bringing Jon back - incidentally the one thing Davos had to talk her into doing) so instead of a baby, D*ny gives birth to a shadow. It would also be a nice parallel to Rhaego and Mirri’s description of him as being monstrous and having been dead for years. And also in another parallel, since I also believe D*ny is Azor Ahai, she will end up burning Melisandre, fulfilling Mel’s dream of dying in the service of the true savior but flipping the whole story on its head because Azor Ahai would not be a savior, she would be an antagonist on the same level as the Night King and Mel would die basically for nothing. 

That’s essentially all I got on that, nonnie and I’m sticking with it until Renesmee- come-again rips it from my trembling fingers! :)))))

Thanks for the ask!

[loudest-subtext-in-tv]

Okay, but if they were doing a What Dreams May Come thing then wouldn't that mean Sherlock actually died and John killed himself? And if Sherlock is only in the confines of his own mind wouldn't that mean all of the character development is Sherlock's, none of it John's? I've never seen the movie, but your meta has a lot of great parallels. I'm just worried this would kind of waste a season... Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us, though!

Drawing inspiration from a movie and including parallels to it does not mean that it has to go exactly the same; in fact, it almost never works that way because then it would just be the same story. Writers generally try to put their own twist on things, and Moffat and Gatiss always do. If someone wanted to watch What Dreams May Come then they’d just go watch What Dreams May Come. It’s like how there have been a jillion retellings of Hamlet since Hamlet was written: just because they’re lions in The Lion King, and just because Simba isn’t haunted by the ghost of Mufasa and Nala doesn’t go crazy and die, doesn’t mean The Lion King isn’t an intentional retelling of Hamlet.

As for John: John hasn’t had any character development worth keeping since HLV. He just steadily retreated from being the decent guy who would sacrifice for Sherlock, to being an asshole who forgives folks for nearly killing Sherlock and blames Sherlock for everything and viciously beats Sherlock and abandons Sherlock more than once when Sherlock is near death and needs him. If you wanna keep that be my guest, but if EMP theory or something similar doesn’t retcon this most recent bit of John’s character arc I wouldn’t even want Sherlock to end up with John as a friend. It makes perfect sense for Sherlock to have John treat him that way in his head as Sherlock battles his own fears and insecurities, but if he put up with that in real life, he would need a whole other series-long arc about getting some self-esteem just to be alone in a healthy way.

And frankly, John had all the character development he needed up until the point Sherlock got shot: all through TSoT he kept trying to broach his feelings to Sherlock, and Sherlock would just dodge (like when he fled the bench) or back away from serious conversations by making a joke of it; John was ready to have the discussion after Sherlock overheard him and Irene at Battersea, even. John’s always been brave, John’s always been willing to put Sherlock first. John hasn’t needed the same amount of psychological work that Sherlock has needed in order to have a healthy romantic relationship, because while John doesn’t want to alienate Sherlock with emotions he fears are unreciprocated, John doesn’t actually have any fear of emotions or romance itself.

That’s why I feel like this is all going to end with Sherlock waking up in a hospital bed and he and John dealing with Mary (and probably Moriarty) together. Their character arcs work with EMP theory, and John’s arc is ruined without it.