#And at that point I have no idea if we're sorting out evidence of a crime or working on a puzzle mystery game

[wordsinhaled]

the thing about crowley’s confession is… he must have thought about it in the bit of time he had before doing it. i mean... he went and sat outside marguerite’s with his wine, and thought. he thought very hard about how there was a threat—a sleeper—a ticking time bomb in aziraphale’s bookshop that could explode at any moment, take away all their hard-won peace, their safety, their comfort.

but most importantly, a threat to aziraphale. gabriel had tried once to destroy aziraphale already, and only hadn’t because they'd swapped bodies. and crowley's clearly terrified that this time, what they're doing feels reckless, feels like playing with something far too important at stake. it's like... already knowing someone is so important to you—and then having the possibility that it could really be something dangled in front of you—and then knowing there's an existential threat to that potential? awful. horrifying. no wonder he can't find the words.

we know crowley is a romantic. we know how much joy it brings him to see other people fall in love. and... honestly... i'm not sure it’s that nina needed to spell the nature of his feelings out for him, exactly. crowley's known where he stands towards aziraphale for a long time if we're to judge him by his acts (which are always acts of service, care, and attention, which always speak louder than his words). so i don't think it was that, as much as just—the experience of being perceived by someone else, sort of jostling something for him.

because crowley's watched the romance films, hasn't he, he knows the exact tropes he's working with, but the idea that they could apply to him—to him and aziraphale? i don't think he considered that until it was offered to him as an option. and once it was, there was crowley's mind far exceeding the speed limit trying to wrap itself around all of this.

and so he must have looked at it, and all signs, all signs, were pointing to aziraphale being receptive.

crowley probably thought about all the times aziraphale had touched him in the last day alone. all the little glances and looks aziraphale had been giving him, which crowley surely hadn’t missed because he’s always staring right back. he probably thought about how aziraphale thinks the bentley is their car and the bookshop is their shop, about how aziraphale told him that he thought they’d carved a peaceful existence out for themselves. and after the ball, he probably thought about how aziraphale asked him to dance, at this event that was meant to get other people to fall in love, but aziraphale had wanted to dance with him.

so crowley most likely looked at all of this and thought he’s finally ready. he’s finally caught up. when i ask this time, he’s going to say yes. and he watched aziraphale so warily, too, after the realization, because there's a way that it feels, to be holding on to a truth so direly important and so terribly exciting and so very requited, as far as crowley can tell. it's like, am i holding myself differently now? can he tell? has he always been able to tell? am i about to muck it up? i'm about to muck it up. i muck everything up, but not this. not this. he's the center of my universe so it's worth it. and it's alright, even if i muck it up, because he's going to say yes. dear god: i'd only ask if it was important.

and so he queued up their song in the bentley and he talked to muriel like they’re a them, like they’re going to be a couple, a couple who needs us time. he gave himself the luxury of imagining it, of planning it all out in his mind—how everyone was going to finally leave off pulling them toward some greater purpose and just let the two of them be together, and aziraphale was going to at last let crowley be to him what he’s always wanted to be—what he’s been being already, evidently, to the point where strangers on the street ask how long they’ve been together.

and then in the end, to be rejected like that. to be rejected even while the love is pouring off aziraphale in anguished waves—and if he loves me too, then why won't he say yes? to be rejected and to know this isn't how it's supposed to go, even though it's the way it's always gone. crowley always asks and aziraphale always says no. somehow, this time was supposed to be different. he'd dared to hope properly. and how had he misjudged it so terribly this time? how much of it had been wishful thinking? and he had to have felt aziraphale's hands grasping at his shoulders, had to have felt the start of a kiss returned, and thought that maybe there was a spark of hope yet.

but there wasn't.

because nothing lasts forever. apparently.

[bun-z-bakery]

A/N: whooo finally posted everything I've written so far for this story ^^ ofc there's more I gotta post BUT we're getting somewhere!

My Angel Doesn't Need Wings (6)

The feeling of pain courses through your body, forcing you to wake from your unsolicited slumber. You instantly realize you're not in the same area as before or even remotely close to it. It took you a few seconds to remember how you got here, once you remember, the image of that creature watching you from the shadows sends a shiver down your spine.

It brought me here

At this point, it feels like you're wandering aimlessly. Home Sweet Home wasn't exactly welcoming, and the chill in the air made you feel like you were being watched.

So many eyes were on you and this time you knew you weren't imagining it. Sighing happily you open the door, leaving home sweet home the same way you came in, you only managed to take two steps before you're tackled onto the floor and pinned down by a pink blur.

"H-hey it's me!"

Kissy Missy holds you down as you try to squirm away, she was stronger than you had thought.

"NO! NO! LET THEM GO!"

That familiar voice fills your ears, you weren't exactly too happy with her but you're glad she was there to help you.

"THEY DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!!"

Kissy Missy moves off of you and helps you stand

"You're alive?! That train situation wasn't cool. What even happened?!"

You ask as you dust yourself off and straighten out your filthy and now-tattered outfit.

"It... It's a long story"

"Well I'd like an explanation"

It was more of a demand, your guard was up once again.

“You’ve been through so much… you deserve an explanation. Come on.”

She explains what you should've been filled in on a while ago. Nothing in this place makes sense and this just made it worse, you had more questions but little time to spare. Catnap, Ollie, and the prototype were new names you've never heard before, one was a friend but the other two sounded like more trouble for you.

‧₊ ๑˚.・

The sound of a phone ringing catches your attention, hesitantly you answer

"Hey... Hey can you hear me?"

A kid?!

"H-hey kiddo, ya lost?"

You're concern for him was evident, how could a child survive down here? Especially in a place like this?

"You look kinda lost. I don't want you to die- so I'm gonna help you!"

His cheerful attitude made you smile, it made you feel something after being trapped here for who knows how long...

‧₊ ๑˚.・

Ollie was able to aid you the best he could from wherever he was. If anything he helped you get further than you would've on your own. The thought of a kid being trapped down here for who knows how long makes you shiver, it makes you wonder how he even got here or managed to survive for so long on his own.

‧₊ ๑˚.・

"Crap!" Your blood rushes as sweat runs down your face. You thought the schoolhouse would be a safe place to rest if you found an empty room, but you were far wrong.

Ms.Delight was the one who roams around the school and she was horrifying; her damaged condition made the sight of her even worse.

The clicking of heels echoing behind you is hot on your tail.

"I'm gonna make it! I'm gonna make it!"

You chant as you bolt towards the room just ahead. As soon as you make it you notice there's a lever next to the entry you have no idea what it did but you pull it in hopes it still works.

You gasp and cover your mouth, gagging at the terrible crunching sound that fills your ears.

Ms.Delight was crushed under the heavy metal door. The disgusting sound of metal and plastic being crushed would haunt you for a long time. 

You move your trembling hand from your mouth and stand there, staring at her destroyed form. You back away hesitantly from the scene and sprint away.

At this point it felt like you were walking in some sort of endless maze, the hallway you found yourself in was odd, it was eerily quiet and the smell of blood was as strong as a freshly painted room.

Did they use these...as prisons?

You scan what you believe to be cells, slowly making your way through the halls, until a voice stops you.

"You..." The voice made you whip your head around, you weren't sure what you were expecting but it wasnt this...

"You're Poppy's angel, come to save us." His voice rasped. He was strung up by belts, he was mangled, filthy, and obviously left for dead. The state of him made your heartache.

"Nothing left to save, not here–" he was abruptly cut off by the weight of his arm hitting the floor. You cut the decaying belt with your switchblade. 

"Angel, please–" he pleaded as you cut the other belt and snapped. 

"NO!" Your response came out harsher than expected, but it caught his attention. He tries using his arms to sit up and stares at you; the despair in his eyes is as clear as day. 

 

"The amount of death and suffering I've seen here is enough to last all of us a lifetime," you begin as you crouch down to meet him.

"I've been helped this far by those who are tapped as well." 

You gently pet his matted ear.

"So now it's my job to do the same. No one gets left behind."

The dog sniffled as if he were holding back tears. 

"We have to go, now!" He pointed back at the little toys you both were familiar with.

"Hold on to me!"

"Wha–"

"Please there's no time!"

He cuts you off and you quickly hop onto his back, you two just barely escape the small critters.

You felt terrible that he had to drag part of himself on the floor but it couldn't be helped. You took note of his arms, they were trembling, but he did his best to keep moving.

"HOLD ON!"

You had no time to react, your body jerked as he took a sharp turn, it was difficult for you to properly take aim and use your flare hand to ward off the toys but somehow you managed to hit a few. The tight squeeze of the tunnels gave you flashbacks to when you first got here, you hate being in such a tight space and being chased through them.

"They're gaining on us!"

You shout as you try to shoot another flare at them.

"A jump is coming! Hold on!"

You brace yourself for the jump and your bodies bounce as you both make contact with the platform.

The landing was rough but you're glad you both made it. You two try to catch your breath and you make an attempt to stand, but suddenly you're back on the floor and entrapped in a tight embrace.

"Angel, you're amazing, you freed me, you... You saved me!"

His hug becomes tighter once you wrap your arms around him. "Angel" seems to be a nickname they gave you upon arriving. If it gave them even a sliver of hope, then you didn't mind being their "angel". The giant dog sobs onto your shoulder as you carefully pet him, gently reminding him he's safe now. 

 

"What's your name?"

He perks his ears up but remains silent for a moment.

"My name... is DogDay..." The hesitation in his voice made you question his intentions, but once you recognized him, you hug him tighter and smile into his chest.

"Nice to finally meet you, DogDay!"

As much as you hate to admit it, he was a bit terrifying compared to his animated counterpart that you grew up hearing stories of. But you put aside your fear to comfort the giant dog, you're his angel after all.

[mariposa-drowned]

Abby x injured!reader fluff 🥺🥺🥺🥺

Hello lovely! Thank you so much for being my first request! I'm sorry this took so long, I struggled with this one for a bit, and it was stuck in my drafts for longer than I'd like to admit. I know this isn't pure fluff, and I apologize for that, but I do have some period comfort/fluff in the works, so hopefully that makes up for this. I did my best to make this gender neutral aswell, so I hope I did okay:)

Warnings- hurt/comfort, small interaction with icky men, smidge of blood, bad and inaccurate medical descriptions, swearing, reader doesn't like taking medicine, that should be it but if I missed any lmk!

--🤍🖤🏹🤍🖤🏹🤍🖤🏹🤍🖤🏹🤍🖤🏹🤍🖤--

It was a pretty normal patrol day, you had been paired with Abby once again, you were convinced she was tugging some sort of strings to get paired up with you whenever you were out. But you werent complaining. Patrol was almost over, you just needed to check an abandoned convience store on the corner and then you could radio back to be picked up.

It seems that the seraphites had a different idea in mind about that. Before you could even register what was going on, you and Abby had been ambushed just as you were exiting the store. Bows and large rusty guns all pointed your way.

"Well, well look what we have here." one of the men on the front horse said. He looked to the others on horses and spoke again "What do you think men? Should we blow their brains out right here? Or have a little fun with these sinners?"

You looked to Abby, trying not to show the fear on your face and ultimatley failing, you reached to your hip for your gun before feeling Abbys hand covering yours, you looked to her with confusion evident on your face as Abby whispered to you.

"We're outnumbered, I radioed for backup when I heard them coming. Just stay calm for a minute." You trusted Abby with your entire life, so you slowly took your hand away from your hip, taking hold of Abbys hand instead.

You were snapped back to reality as one of the men got off his horse "I don't know, I think the little one would be nice, might take her back huh?" a murmur of agreement was heard from the other seraphites.

Abby gripped your hand harder, trying to gaurd you with her large frame.

"Don't fucking touch them."

"Oh protective one eh? I don't think you're in much of a position to have a say in this, do you?"

You heard a low growl come from Abby. You took a quick look around, trying to figure out what was taking the rest of patrol so long to come get you. Once you were distracted, you felt yourself being ripped away from Abby, the movment catching herself so off gaurd that her grip faultered. You let out a small yelp before your back was pressed against one of the men who had gotten of his horse. His hands digging into your wrist and hip where he held you. You could feel his hot breath on your neck trying to think.

Taking a deep breathe, you did what seemed most reasonable at the moment. You lifted your leg up and kicked backwards, hitting your captor right in the nuts. The man groaned, stumbling back as you tried to run forward back to Abby. You were a mere 5 feet away from her when you felt a searing pain in your leg. Dropping to the ground you let out a louder scream this time, the arrow doing deeper into your leg as you fell.

Abby screamed your name, quickly running to you as the men surrounding you started laughing. Their laughter was cut short though as you heard one of the WLF vehicles pull up, gunshots rang around you as bodies fell to the ground, Abby got close to you, sheilding you with her body. You couldnt help but start crying, you could feel the pain crawling up your leg as you tried to curl in closer to Abby, hoping she would take some of the pain away.

Once the gunshots ceased, you looked up with blurry eyes, seeing people rush towards you, medkit in hand. You could see mel come into view, a grimace on her face before she quickly hid it.

"We need to get them on the truck now, they need to go to the medwing, too much blood loss." Mel hurriedly spluttered out.

Abby nodded, she whispered a quick 'I'm sorry baby' before lifting you up bridal style, you yelled out in pain, a string of curses coming from your mouth as she carried you.

Abby laid you down on the truckbed sitting down next to you. Mel sat down by your leg, trying to asses the damage she got out a tourniquet. You looked to her knowing exactly what that was for and how much it would hurt. You tried to shuffle away, Abby quickly slid behind you, holding you still.

"no no no, Mel please, we really don't need to use that"

Mel gave you an apologetic look before starting to slip the tourniquet around your leg just above where the arrow stayed. You kept spluttering out pleas making pathetic attempts at kicking away, it got you nowhere. This was gonna hurt like a bitch. Mel leaned closer to Abby whispering a small "keep her still, it'll hurt worse if she's moving" Abby nodded at the request, still behind you she took both your arms to cross them over your chest, hugging you tight.

"you're alright angel, doin so good baby, so strong. Just need you to try and be still."

You looked up at her in question, still panicking when you felt the tourniquet start tightening. You screamed out, trying to wiggle out of Abby's iron grip despite her soft words.

You were so tired, and in so much pain, eventually your yelling stopped and you went slack in Abby's arms. She felt for your pulse, elevated, but still okay. She figured it was probably best for you to be unconscious right now anyways.

⁠●●●⁠●●●●●●●⁠●●●●●⁠●●●●●●●⁠●●●●●⁠●●●●●●●⁠●

You woke up feeling extremely groggy, like you were living in a cloud of fog. You tried to sit up, assessing your surroundings only to find you were in yours and Abby's shared space in the stadium. You were tucked into the bed, trapped in a cucoon of yours and Abby's blankets. Abby could see movement from the corner of her eye as she was tidying up the small kitchen.

"Hey my love how you feeling?" Abby walked over to you and sat on the edge of the bed, being cautious of your leg.

"Like I got shot with an arrow." You deadpanned, Abby laughed at your response "what happened? I remember passing out in the back of the truck."

Abby sighed "Well, once we got you back to the med-wing they took out the arrowhead but found that those asshole seraphites dipped it in some sort of natural poison found in plant roots. So they had to come up with a concoction of medicine to help your body process it, but they only had so much to spare. Long story short, you've been out for two days and the poison is likey still in your system and will be for the next few weeks. I've been checking on the wound and it does seem to be healing okay. We've both been given a month off and you're allowed to stay here with me as long as I look after you. Mel said she might still come by for checkups just to be safe though"

You kept your gaze on the blankets that surrounded you trying to process the information.

"I'm gonna be okay though right? We can still go out together?"

Abby could hear the tremble in your voice, she knew you were most likley overwelmed with the surge of information and the pain that you were in. She scooched in a bit closer to hold both sides of your head in her hands.

"You will be okay. You will heal overtime and I will help you in any way I can, we will do this together okay?"

You met Abbys eyes, you knew deep down that you would recover, and everything would eventually go back to normal, but you needed that reassurance. You put your hands over Abbys that currently resided on your face, taking a deep breath and closing your eyes focusing on her touch and how her smell had surrounded you, being redressed in one of her big shirts, her blankets mixed with yours all around.

You enjoyed the moment for several minutes before a sharp stinging pain radiated throughout your leg. Your face twisting into a grimace, Abby took notice of your expression and quickly pulled away from you, muttering under her breath 'be right back baby' you sat there as Abby went to go retrieve whatever. Taking a fistful of the blankets into your hand as you slunk down on the bed into a laying position you could feel the pain getting higher up your leg, letting out a small whimper in response. When she said that there would still be lingering poison she was not kidding at all.

Abbys footsteps neared the bed as she helped you back into a sitting position, her face contorting as she heard your small cries as the pain intesified, she placed her items on the side table and quickly positioned her frame behind yours.

"okay i have something here to help but its gonna taste like shit and burn like bad alcohol goin down okay?" You let out a small sob, Abby shushing you before speaking again "I know angel but it'll help lessen the pain, I have water right here for you afterwards, just need you to take one big gulp of it and you'll be all done." she held up a small bottle to your lips, you tried to take in a deep breathe to prepare yourself for the awful taste, but you would do whatever to stop the nausiating sensation in your leg.

You opened your mouth, Abby taking it as her signal to bring the bottle to your lips. You had to hold back a gag as you tasted the revolting medicine of sorts, squeezing your eyes shut you managed a full swallow before pushing back into Abby signaling yo her you were done. You reached around, searching for the water she had mentioned, wanting to rid the taste from your mouth.

Abby replaced the small bottle with a glass of water, bringing it to your lips and whispering soft praises into the air. You finished the whole glass noticing the pain in your leg had lowered back to a tolerable amount already.

"what the hell was that sin of a drink" Abby laughed at your comment, wrapping her arms around your torso

"Something that Mel and a few others downstairs put together as a morphine like substitute, but it has to be ingested orally unlike morphine which would require an IV. Does it feel any better?"

"I dont feel like tearing my leg off anymore so I guess so. Just aches on my upper leg now, I think I just wanna try and go back to sleep." you yawned through your last statement only proving your point more.

Abbys hand lowered down towards your injured leg as she started softly kneading the fat there trying to soothe the ache you mentioned "I'm fine with you going back to sleep but I need you to eat something first."

You whined at both the mention of eating something right after that horrible "medicine" and from the relief of Abbys hand on your thigh. Before you could protest Abby had shoved a protien bar in your hand. "Just this and I'll massage you til' you fall asleep"

You took the bar with a small grumble, knowing that her hand was currently working magic for your injured leg and you would probably start crying if she stopped. You quickly chomped it down, hearing a hum of approval from Abby. She repositioned you so you were laying on your good side leg, as she remained behind you. Her hands contined to rub on your leg, the other rested under you on your side, giving small squeezes of reasurance every now and then.

She contined her motions until she heard your breathing even out, your body fully relaxing into her as you slipped off into a dreamless state. Abby let herself doze off aswell after making sure you were okay.

Abby startled awake feeling small movements and whimpers of discomfort coming from you. Often times your dreams were riddled with nightmares but she knew that you were just uncomfortable from your body language. She maneuvered your body so you were laying on the matress flat on your back and started lightly kneading a bit further down your leg, trying to help rid your discomfort.

You settled down after a minute or two, waking Abby up a few more times during the night as she helped readjust your body, ultimately propping your leg up on a few pillows. She didn't know if it was doing much, but judging by how you slipped back into sleep so easily, she figured you were comfy enough.

Giving a final kiss on your forehead, she fell asleep with you, interlacing her hand with yours as she joined you in slumber.

[bigmilkagenda]

Of the many, many plates of pancakes* that were offered to the listener in magp 1-07, this one may be my favourite

[ID: A screenshot of an unofficial transcript to The Magnus Protocol. CELIA is saying "Yeah. I mean, it's an old system, but it could have been worse. It's not like we're wrestling with tape recorders and manila folders." /end ID]

When we meet TMA-Celia for the second time, she's lost her name. She was Lynne Hammond, and now she's not. She doesn't seem to remember Martin, either, but it's not clear how much of herself and her life from before the change she does remember. She's freaked out by the tape recorders that start showing up, and there's no indication that she associates them with the Institute specifically.

If Celia Ripley is, as we are clearly intended to believe or consider, the same Celia as in TMA, why is she making knowing comments about manila folders and tape recorders? Tape recorders in particular are hardly standard equipment at what seems to be mostly a text data-entry and cataloguing job. She could have said typewriters, or carbon paper. Fax machines, if we're dunking on Freddy specifically.

She says "tape recorders and manila folders." Celia Ripley is referencing The Magnus Institute, particularly the outdated technologies in use in the Archives.

Maybe she learned more from Melanie about what the recorders were and did at the Institute, sometime after MAG 190. Maybe she has those specific memories of giving her statement in MAG 100, and little else. Maybe Martin grew an apocalypse beard and she remembers everything, but just didn't recognise him out of context and in a tunnel and during A Pretty Weird Time Overall.

Maybe she stuck around with Melanie-Georgie-Basira for a while after things returned, and that's how she learned about the particular significance of tape recorders.

Maybe she found some tapes and listened to a couple hundred of them.

Or maybe she's simply an AU Celia, with a knack for oddly specific and kind of clunky comparisons, drawn into this through the powers of metafiction and string theory.

Or maybe someone filled her with spiders and sent her to finish the job of spreading Fear to this particular world.

And the reason this particular plate of textual pancakes** (short stack, butter and nightmare syrup) is one of my favourites from "Give and Take" is because I genuinely have no idea! None of these are theories because there isn't enough evidence to point me in any particular direction. It's a mystery!, Jon voice, etcetera.

If you cornered me and paid me to have an opinion about it I could say which options I thought were more likely, I guess. But the odds are high that I'd be wrong, and I think the boat for me getting paid to interpret texts probably sailed fifteen years ago, besides. I'm in this for the love of the game.***

November is the true spooky season in the northern hemisphere.**** Yeah, October ends with Halloween, but you know what month starts with Halloween? Mmhmm. By November of 2019 TMA had been on my list for a few years, and someone I was getting to know and really liked recommended it to me specifically in the days after 159 aired. The conditions were correct for me to get into something new, is what I'm saying. I still remember listening to "Anglerfish" for the first time, walking home from my office job in the blustery November dark. I got home starry-eyed and red-cheeked and thrilled by the story I'd just heard.

It took a couple of months for me to catch up, and though I loved having so much to listen to there were times when I wished I'd started earlier, to have the experience of seeing things unfold.

And now we're back at a beginning, and get to experience the horrible joys of finding out.

[ID: A screenshot of an unofficial transcript to The Magnus Protocol. LENA is saying "Of a sort. I hope you're as ready for it as you think you are. Consider yourself "in." /end ID]

*Sabrina pancake meme

** the best kind, especially if it's a contest between textual and fluffy pancakes. Keep those spongy bastards away from me, I'll take the kind with a typeface instead

***Being a huge nerd

**** For more of my opinions on November, see https://www.tumblr.com/almostmolly/188799234276

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

I think we as a society really need to get over the idea that 'natural' automatically = 'good'.

And I don't just mean in a 'use actual disinfectant instead of cobwebs and wishful thinking!' kinda way, although that is part of it.

I mean in the way that so many people seem to fucking valorise the neolithic period as some sort of Pure and True Garden of Eden where everything was Perfect and humans got it Right.

Obviously we all know conservatives do it. The whole evolutionary psychology 'pink is for ladies because they evolved to see berries better, while blue is for boys because they evolved to hunt under the sky and we're going to ignore that these trends are less than a century old' thing. Yeah, we all get that that sucks.

But for some reason the Left Wing response is so often to just pull out the Uno Reverse card and be like "well actually the Neolithic era was a socialist utopia because-" which is surely a much less revolutionary argument than people seem to think it is.

Firstly, because it encourages historical revisionism. Like, if everything people learn about the lives of Early Humans ends up getting twisted into some political argument about the Right Way To Live in the modern day, then people are obviously going to be motivated to interpret the facts in a way that supports their own personal values.

To give an example: suppose one day we somehow found incontrovertible evidence that Stone Age autistic people were not actually valued for our ability to sort animal bones or stay awake all night or whatever, but were rather beaten to death with rocks the moment we started showing symptoms.

What would we do with that information? Given that 'autistic people were valued members of society in Stone Age times!' is currently being used as a key argument for our right to exist?

Ignore it? Refuse to believe it? Shrug our shoulders say "well, guess we were wrong" and start beating people to death with rocks as an expression of the wills of our Pure Divine Ancestors?

Which brings me to my second point of: while I don't think stone age societies actually did beat autistic people to death with rocks for no reason, they almost certainly did a fuckload of stuff that we would consider immoral today.

I mean, they definitely didn't vaccinate their kids. If you went back in time and told somebody from the Neolithic era "poke your kid with the Magic Needle and they will be Protected From Disease" they'd probably go for it, but if we're going for natural = good then technically the anti-vaxxers have it right.

There's also a fair amount of evidence for cannibalism. And massacres. And infanticide as a method of birth control. The natural state of humanity is pretty shitty by most modern standards.

And like, I'm not saying that stone age cultures were cruel and inhuman either. They were very human.

The nature of humanity isn't inherently brutal or inherently pure… it's mostly, in fact, the desire to build something for ourselves and our communities that is better than what we have. Medicine. Shelter. Warmth. Clean sources of water. Consistent sources of food.

Humans didn't Get It Right in the stone age, and we sure as hell haven't Got It Right yet. But billions of people didn't spend their whole lives working to make things better for future generations, only for us today to decide that the only way to Get Things Right is to go all the way back to the beginning.

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

Ok so im the same person who’s been asking these endgame/superinjunction questions. I’m sorry if you may have to explain these stuff to me like a dummy, but i figured i’d rather ask than be stupid. So what you’re saying is there’s a possibility there really is some kind of deal between the palace and the murdoch establishment and it’s not simply a good old out of court settlement that involves monetary compensation, it also involves some sort of deal to supress the affair rumors? and this deal might have benefitted harry too if he waited? but also h&m and scobie believe the deal also involves bad press for the sussexes?

No worries, anon! Ask as many questions as you like. (I know I can talk in circles when I start rambling. I've even confused myself.)

I'll take your ask point by point because I think that may be more helpful and less rambly. I've also done a bit more research into what actually happened in court last year and that may be the missing piece to clear everything up.

there’s a possibility there really is some kind of deal between the palace and the murdoch establishment and it’s not simply a good old out of court settlement that involves monetary compensation, it also involves some sort of deal to supress the affair rumors?

Yes and no. What we know about the deal is in 2012ish, an agreement was made, authorized by The Queen, that the royal family wouldn't pursue litigation or claims of litigation against the News Group Newspapers (which is owned by Murdoch) until all of the other cases in the phone hacking scandal had been resolved first in exchange for an apology and a settlement (i.e. cash).

The affair rumors were not part of the original 2012 deal because, well, there were no affair rumors in 2012. Let's leave that aside for a second.

So after The Queen makes the deal with NGN/Murdoch, the BRF basically sits back and waits for all the phone hacking lawsuits and court cases to resolve. This takes about 8 years. In 2019 or 2020, NGN/Murdoch calls up the BRF and says "we're ready. Let's talk." They meet and start negotiations for the settlement. William eventually walks away with X, cash in hand.

We don't know what the terms of that settlement is. There's speculation it was $80-$90 million because someone looked up the NGN/Murdoch financial reports after Harry spilled the tea and found NGN's profits dropped by $80-$90 million. But we don't actually know.

Now going back to the affair rumors. They started in February/March 2019. Soon as it started, all the royal reporters and society reporters immediately began investigating. They were crawling all over Norfolk and talking to everyone/anyone they could but they couldn't find any evidence and kept digging, thinking it was a massive coverup. Eventually they couldn't find anything and they all stopped talking about an affair or rumors of an affair, except for one: Dan Wootton and The Sun, which is owned by NGN/Murdoch. Wootton kept investigating and kept talking about it, until all of a sudden he stopped, in June 2019. Never brought it up again.

My personal theory is as William/KP and NGN began meeting about the settlement, William had some kind of leverage that made them realize 'oh we fucked up with the affair rumors' and it was addressed in the settlement he walked away with. I've no actual idea what the leverage could be - maybe Christian Jones had something on Wootton? Maybe William did the "let's tell people fake stories and see which one gets published" thing (he's done it before) and it fingered people other than Wootton? I've no actual idea if there was any leverage in the first place. I've no actual idea if it contributed to the settlement. All I know is that The Sun stopped talking about it around the time things may have started moving to execute the 2012 deal and the timing seems important.

and this deal might have benefitted harry too if he waited?

Yes, absolutely. When The Queen initially struck the deal, it applied to all members of the royal family - so William, Kate, and Harry were covered by it. What's important to remember is that the deal was contingent on waiting out all the other lawsuits and cases first. So had Harry just waited, he would've been able to split the money William walked away with.

Instead, in 2017, Harry started getting antsy about how long it was taking to close everything out. He started pressuring the BRF to push NGN to move faster - he didn't want NGN/Murdoch's people covering his engagement, his wedding, his future children, etc. He wanted to ban them from certain events as retribution/revenge for violating his privacy and he believed that NGN was dragging out their lawsuits and cases to continue covering the royal family. (Quick aside here: Harry and Meghan did not invite the rota or members of the press to cover their wedding, as is their prerogative, but it's thought the reasoning behind this decision was because of Harry's anger at NGN's phone hacking and what he perceived was a lack of consequences.)

This goes on for a couple years: Harry keeps pressuring the lawyers to force NGN to settle and the lawyers kept saying 'no, we need to wait, remember the deal.' Summer 2019 rolls around and Harry has had enough. It's his money, he wants it now! So then Harry pulls out of the 2012 deal and begins filing two lawsuits.

Lawsuit #1: Against NGN/Murdoch

Lawsuit #2: Against MGN/The Mirror

I don't remember which one gets filed and looking it up sends me down a wormhole I can't afford to go down right now. I think the MGN/Mirror lawsuit is part of the cases that are announced in September 2019 while they're in Africa and the NGN/Murdcoch lawsuit comes some time later.

Now there are three separate cases: a) William's settlement which is still bound to the 2012 deal, b) Harry's lawsuit #1 against NGN that's part of the bundle with Hugh Grant and Elton John and all those other celebs, and c) Harry's lawsuit #2 against MGN/Mirror.

So as Harry's lawsuits begin to working through the court system, William is negotiating the terms of his settlement and at some point in 2020, he finally gets his payout and it's a big one.

Fast-forward 3 years. It's 2023 and Harry's lawsuits are finally getting its day in court. In April 2023, NGN/Murdoch is arguing that Harry's lawsuit is past the statute of limitations* and should be dismissed. Harry says 'no, actually, I couldn't file my lawsuit earlier because of a deal my granny made that I didn't consent to.' As part of that testimony, Harry has to describe the deal and that's how we know what happened in 2012 and that William got his payout in 2020. The judge decides 'Harry's right' and finds in his favor: the NGN lawsuit stays. That was in April 2023, I believe. In June 2023, Harry's back in court to take the stand (the lawsuit goes horribly awry).

*I think they call it something else in the UK though. The actual phrase "statute of limitations" didn't come up in any of my research. I'm using it here as a shorthand because it's easier for us Americans to understand. (Apologies if you're not American, anon!)

In July 2023, Harry is back in court for lawsuit #2 against MGN. MGN makes the same argument: it's past the statute of limitations and should be dismissed. Unfortunately for Harry, this judge agrees with MGN and his case is dismissed. So lawsuit #2 is done.

In December 2023, the judge from lawsuit #1, the NGN/Murdoch case, rules that the phone hacking was "widespread and habitual" awards Harry damages of $175K(ish). That's not enough. Harry wants more money, so lawyers do lawyer things and eventually, last week, Harry finally settles with NGN for damages ($175Kish) and legal fees ($500Kish).

So, long story short is this: If Harry had waited for the 2012 deal to play out, he would've walked away splitting $X million with William in 2020. Instead, because he was too impatient and too greedy, he's walking away with less than $700,000 in 2024.

How do you like them apples.

but also h&m and scobie believe the deal also involves bad press for the sussexes?

No. They do not think the 2012 deal leading to the 2020 settlement involves bad press for the sussexes.

They think William used the bad press for the Sussexes to kill media coverage of the affair rumors in 2019. They think Christian Jones made a deal with Wootton/The Sun back in 2019 involving bad press for the Sussexes to stop writing about Rose and William had approved of it because William didn't immediately fire Christian as Harry wanted when he told William of his suspicions of Christian's relationship with Wootton/The Sun.

-------------

So what actually happens in Endgame is that Scobie speculates that connections between

an abandoned investigation of the affair rumors

bad press for the Sussexes,

an embargoed report on the behavior of British newspapers (which may or may not be a superinjunction), and

William not doing anything to address Harry's concerns about Christian's relationship to Wootton

is the clearest signal that William is using the power of his position as heir to control, suppress, and influence how the media covers him. It's an implication that the power has gone to William's head.

I definitely muddied the waters for you by thinking it may all be connected to the phone hacking deal. There's no evidence that says it is - that was just me thinking "it can't be a coincidence these four things are happening at relatively the same time, and then they all just kinda stop at the same time, the same time that we now know William received a huge cash payout."

I hope this untangles things for you, anon. If it doesn't, please keep asking questions. (If anything, this round of questions led to some research that helped untangle the lawsuits for me so they're as much a chance for me to learn as they are for you!)

[giantchasm]

Peony, do you know about mechanical stuff?

I'm really proud of my cybernetic hand. I... don't look all that much like my mom. Most people can't even tell we're related at a glance. So it's nice to have one thing in common with her. It's like we match. I'd like to have more cybernetics one day. I think they're SO cool. Although, of course, that's only something I'd consider if I can find a way to negate their interfering with a person's magic flow. Can't risk losing my powers, after all! I'm sure there's a way it can be done, though. Anything can be figured out with enough time and research. But! Yeah! Magic and tech? More similar than you'd think! Uncle Magolor told of me to think of it like this: 'magic' is when people harness the energy of the universe naturally, 'tech' is when it's harnessed artificially. The end result is the same, though. Be- uh, careful who you say that in front of, though, okay? A lot of people still get... pretty aghast when you point it out. There's this big schism between magic and tech and lots of debate about which is better, so the idea of them being equivalents can give some people a conniption. But I don't know what else to say. The evidence is there, and scientific facts are scientific facts regardless of whether people believe them or not. And I for one think it's pretty nifty how they go hand-in-hand!

Goddamn it, Peony! You're supposed to be talking about yourself, not about my Kirbyverse worldbuilding! What are you doing!?

...You really do take after your pops, don't you? I still remember getting to insert like 2,000 words of worldbuilding into the middle of Cicada Days (my Taranza backstory fic... which everyone should totally read, btw. It's canon to the weird little AU Peony exists in) just because he was also a know-it-all who didn't know when to stop infodumping.

Nerdy spiders! I swear to god! 😭

Putting the fact that Peony seriously pulled out the whiteboard just to explain something again aside, though, this was fun to get to have her talk about! She's a smart kid so she has a real interest in this sort of stuff.

She's telling the truth, by the way, when she says stating "magic and technology are two methods of achieving the same thing" is like throwing a lit bomb into a crowded room. That shit is mindblowing for people, and not in a good way. Even her mom, as a pretty staunch 'realist,' thought the claim ludicrous up until just a little while ago. It was a common point of contention between her and Magolor. She's slowly come around, though.

Because here's the thing (and this goes for real life, too!): what is science if not just magic we understand?

I dunno. Makes you think is all I'm saying~

@kirbyoctournament

[nabulsi]

But the UN themselves confirmed it? Was it not 7 people who were let go? Dismantling Hamas and defunding it is as important as a ceasefire and peace solution, it is as important as dismantling the current israeli government. Palestine will never be free under Hamas regime and if children in UNRWA schools are taught that they must become martyrs than UNRWA too must at least be built from the ground again

The UN did not confirm it in any meaningful way. The allegations were accepted without any sort of unbiased 3rd party investigation based purely on Israeli intelligence's word as far as I could find in my own research. I don't consider that conclusive in any way.

Every single piece of evidence mentioned by the UN is sourced to the IDF or COGAT. Bro the IDF?? We're taking the IDF at their word now?? The IDF who are notorious for the ridiculous planted weapons in MRI machines video?? That's the conclusive evidence that confirms all allegations?? We're trusting the "we need to fabricate permission to continue this genocide" people whenever they shit out lies that give them permission to continue the genocide?

The idea that UNRWA schools sit around teaching children to become martyrs is also Israeli propaganda. That certainly wasn't mentioned by the UN as far as I could find. That's pure propaganda straight from the bullshiter's mouth.

And I would not phrase it as "dismantling the current Israeli government" I believe the entirety of Israel as a state should be dismantled. It should cease to exist. And that does not have equal weight or importance as "dismantling Hamas". It is INFINITELY more important to combat Israeli misinformation at every turn.

In fact if you're so worried about Palestinian children, you should be happy to know that the Hamas charter has stated that Hamas will be dismantled just as soon as Israel is. The only purpose of Hamas is the dissolution of the state of Israel.

It really sounds like you already have an established point of view that Israel can be trusted in any capacity to provide reliable information on Hamas. Erase that from your mind if you want to consider yourself an ally to Palestinians. Please we have to do better than this, guys.

PS. We do not condemn Palestinian resistance here. I have my own critiques of Hamas as a Palestinian, but I will never voice them because y'all freaks jump at the chance to invalidate Palestinian resistance and Palestinians' right to violently resist their occupation. We don't do that here.

[emeraldmew]

Hey, sis.

#also someone remind me to make my Cosmic Horror Toddler theory into something coherent

Whenever you have the time.

Okay. So bear in mind we're only like seven episodes in and I have no evidence and really no thought behind this beyond "would that be fucked up or what?" and "ooh I'd love to see what an eldritch abomination growing up is like."

There are also like, all of the spoilers for the original TMA below so like, if you're just listening to Protocol you might want to skip the rest of this post.

Tenuously connected point 1.

One of the things from what Jonny and Alex have said about Protocol is that it's supposed to involve exploring "what makes a person" right? And we also already know Jonny's answer to this question from his, uh, cannibalism discussion.

Short version: a "person" understands their actions as something that actually does things to the world around them beyond simply fulfilling a want like hunger/capable of choosing to do evil.

Tenuously connected point 2.

In the Archives universe, a point is made that the Fears "don't think. Not like we do." They work off instinct.

Tenuously connected point 3.

While I never looked into the ARG before Protocol's release I have since looked into the summaries of what it revealed. Among other things the ARG revealed Magnus Institute of Protocol was studying children via... psychological experiments of dubious morality. Aside from this being why Sam is snooping into the Magnus Institute (for those who haven't looked into the ARG yet, his name is among the children researched) the experiments are pretty much looking into how children at various stages of development display empathy and whether they conform to orders or choose not to and stuff like that (I'm sure I am not wording this part right someone with a better background in psychology can probably expand further).

Anyway, my point is the idea of choices and such is being studied in relation to psychological development in children.

Tenuously connected point 4.

The way the cases so far have played out in Protocol does seem to show a difference compared to Archives.

Smirke's original categories don't seem to fit quite right anymore as each of the cases seem to have stuff that doesn't cram into the original boxes. As the blurry categories were already a major point in TMA regarding creating the Eyepocalypse and even Sam calls out the categorization the OIAR use in the first episode this isn't surprising. But it does suggest that the Fears have changed from what they were before.

Quite a few people have also suggested that in the cases we've seen sometimes the incidents seem to fulfill a desire (in a monkey's paw way, of course) rather than simply finding a random victim. This might suggest the presence of intent rather than only instinct.

So what?

I'll admit it's just sort of my own "ooh wouldn't that be messed up? let's explore that further" thought process doing the talking here, but The Thing that was Fear has existed since things could feel afraid. It's ancient. But it's also a cosmic horror entity that has been shown to grow from it's initial state to what we saw in Archives (see ep 200).

It's something on a cosmic level. Maybe it wasn't done growing. The Fears don't think "like we do"...

but neither do babies.

What if by Protocol the Fears have developed more after leaving their cradle? To a point where they can at least begin to think or choose.

What if the Fears are eldritch toddlers and they're learning how to play?

[maningning]

In a recent episode of the podcast Busty Asian Beauties, me and Crystal finally got to discuss asian fetishization in supernatural. We went into a pretty long discussion on how asian fetishization came to be, and why it is bad and why Supernatural pushing it for as long as they did is actively harmful to many asian people both inside and outside the US. At first, I honestly had apprehensions on whether this discussion was even necessary because I was under the assumption that everyone was just aware of these things, but apparently not!

If you are one of those people still wondering why asian fetishization is actively harmful, the portion of the episode linked above where we discuss it goes from 54:08 - 1:15:09. I have included a transcript of this conversation under the cut.

Note that we are not academics on this matter, and most of what we say are from our own readings and personal observations. Still, I would appreciate if you use this discussion as a starting point to your own awareness into why asian fetishization in supernatural is bad, and why you should work on making the fandom a more inclusive space for us asian people, as well as other people of color.

Here are some further readings that we included in the episode description as well.

White Sexual Imperialism: A Theory of Asian Feminist Jurisprudence by Sunny Woan

Converging Stereotypes in Racialized Sexual Harassment by Sumi K. Cho

"My Body Was Not Mine, but the U.S. Military’s" Inside the disturbing sex industry thriving around America’s bases by David Vin

G: We're here.

C: So Sam opens his laptop. And he goes like, "Were you on my computer? Because, like, it's frozen now. On bustyasianbeauties.com!" [laughs] Okay. So-

G: Yeah.

C: This is like- this is a pretty like, fleeting mention, but it definitely- it starts a trend throughout the show, so we are gonna like, talk about it in depth here.

G: I would say Busty Asian Beauties is the longest and biggest running gag in the show.

C: Yeah.

G: So yeah. This is gonna be quite long. Well, I mean who cares. Strap in, though. [laughs] We're gonna have a discussion about Asian fetishization.

C: Yeah. Oh god, how do we start? We have our Google Doc, but I don't know who's starting. [laughs]

G: You can start.

C: Okay, so, Asian fetishization is a pretty common thing in the West. And generally, like, most of the literature out there and most of the anecdotal evidence out there is more about East Asian and Southeast Asian women, so generally, when people talk about Asian fetishes or "yellow fever," like, it's about that. There are like, different issues that other like, Asian groups face. But yeah, so generally, white people have fetishes for Asian women where, like, the traits that they generally think are common to all Asian women or find attractive in Asian women are like, ideas that they're docile or submissive, but like, really good at sex.

G: Yeah.

C: There's like, stereotypes about like, Asian women having like, really tight vaginas or something? And then, like, the physical traits that they often hone in on are like, daintyness or pale skin, and like, things that sort of verge on like, hairlessness and things that are more common with like, prepubescent women. So yeah, that's like, generally, what the fetish is.

G: Yeah. I would say that leans more on the East Asian side. In the Southeast Asian side, like, it leans more on exoticism, right? Like, "Oh, this is an exotic woman who can do exotic things." Yeah.

So let's do a little view on the history of why this is. Like, why is Asian fetishism a thing? It all comes back down to imperialism, you guys. [both laugh] This is where it all comes back to. And, I'm using like, broad terms here. Like, "the West," "the East," but basically, like, I'm talking like, white European and, later on, like, white American and American people view like, Asian people as like, a conquest, right? Like, there's a lot of instances of military attacks and conquest in the Asian geographical area. And with war, there usually comes a lot of like, violence against women, specifically. Because women are seen as spoils of war, and women are seen as like, the reward, in a way, for like, men who go and conquer places. So the idea of, you know, violence against women and rape and imperialism all go hand-in-hand. And this is further exacerbated by a lot of colonialism being based on the idea that, like, the white man is helping uncivilized people. So it comes off from that idea to like, "we're actually doing these people a favor by doing these things to them."

C: Yeah.

And yeah, a lot of this- like, basically a lot of like, American and like, Western anxieties about military power in Japan and other parts of East Asia. Like, as a reaction to that, there was like, this feminization of the East where, like, in order to feel like they could conquer it more easily, they like, emasculated Asian men- which actually like, led to like, a new wave of homophobia in China, like because they were like, "We have to show that we're not sissies!" But anyway, like, back to the general thing- yeah, so emasculation of Asian men and then like, oversexualization of Asian women, because, as you mentioned, like, women are considered spoils of war. Like, dominating a woman, like in Asia, through rape or through like, some kind of consensual sexual intercourse is considered like, domination of like, the men who like, own her or whatever. I mean, you see this concept in like, the "I'm gonna fuck your wife" jokes too, right? Like, that's the way you show your dominance over like, an enemy force.

G: Yeah, you use their women.

C: Yeah. There are a lot of examples of this throughout history. For example in World War II, I feel like we've all heard about like, Japanese comfort women, which was when the Japanese army would either like, deceive women and girls into like, joining brothels or like, literally kidnap them from their homes. And these were like- they could be like, like, 13-year-olds, you know? And like, force them to provide sexual services to Japanese soldiers. What isn't mentioned as much as that is US soldiers in the area also like, used these stations, like, they would pay to rape these women as well. And like, there's like, in general- there has been like, a lot of like, thriving sex industries with like, people who are like, coerced into being there that are like, still near military bases today. And, I mean, yeah, so like, a lot of that shaped- like, that shaped like, Western perceptions of Asian women as like, always being willing, and it also- people were also more willing to do those things because of previous conceptions of Asian women that were formed through like, literature.

G: Yeah. For example, in, I guess the United States, one of the most prominent portrayals of geisha culture in Japan is the book Memoirs of a Geisha, which is a book that was written by a white man. And the research that he did on the book was he interviewed this woman who worked as a geisha in Japan. And she actually sued him.

C: Yeah, she sued him for breach of contract and defamation of character.

G: Even in media portrayal, like, for example, in movies or television, there's a lot of portrayal of Asian women being, like, submissive or such. A very specific thing that's happening is, for example, portrayal of robots as like, specifically Asian, like Asian women. At the top of my head, like, Ex Machina does this, where an Asian woman is a robot and she is basically like, she has no lines, and she's used for sex and for services. Meanwhile, like, another robot that is a white woman actually has agency and shit. You know, s tuff like that.

C: Yeah. And also back to your point about like, white people viewing themselves as civilized and viewing themselves, like, going after Asian women as like, civilizing the uncivilized, I think we see this in, like, Madama Butterfly and like, Miss Saigon, which is based off of that. Where it's like, "Oh, this poor languishing Asian woman who wants- like, she's in such a bad situation, and then this white soldier, like, comes over and like saves her for a little bit, and then he abandons her and she kills herself." [laughs] Like- it's- what a narrative. [G laughs]

And, okay, yeah, so Miss Saigon is set during the Vietnam War, during which there were like, a lot of relations between American soldiers stationed there and Vietnamese women. And, you know, like I'm sure some of it was consensual, but you know, the power dynamic of you being like, a white soldier stationed in this country where like, you know you could like, do anything you want to these people and, like-

G: Yes.

C: - the courts are not gonna go after you for it is just- it's not good. Yeah, I think this is where I'm gonna recommend When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, which is a memoir written by a woman who was like, around during the Vietnam War, and there's a movie called Heaven and Earth that's based off of it, which I watched in class, and I thought was like, pretty good. It's just about her experience. It's like, a semi-autobiographical thing about her experience during the Vietnam War, where she does end up like, marrying an American military contractor, and it doesn't deal directly with Asian fetishes, but I think it gives you a good idea of sort of the environment that these women were in during the time and the ways that even a relationship that seems like it's good and is like, "saving" you from this war-torn country can like, be very bad for you as well.

I mean, so like, all of this has had lasting effects. Also, going back to sort of before all this wartime stuff, something that people don't know about very much in US history is that before The Chinese Exclusion Act, there was the Page Act of 1875, which was a reaction to Chinese immigration into the US, but specifically like, immigration of Chinese women. I think the text of the act itself was just like, "Don't let, like, undesirable immigrants in," and that's defined as- the only part of that definition that got enforced was like, East Asian women who they suspect were coming over to do sex work. And, I mean, this was sort of just based off of the idea that, like, the Chinese women coming over were immoral, they were going to like, lead white men into sin. There was also, like, people saying that they carried like, different germs and diseases that like, could infect the American population. And the whole process of like, inspecting a woman to make sure she wasn't coming over to work as a sex worker was like, extremely invasive, and they didn't- they basically didn't let anyone in. And I think this shows both, like, the already existing concepts that like, these exotic Asian women, were super sexual and were like, just here for you to do whatever you want with them-

G: Yeah, it shows you that the way Asian women are treated is bad, both for outside of the US and inside of the US, which is a trend that is still present to this day.

C: A few examples of this, like, continuing into the modern day that you can see is, for example, I know there have been studies that have shown that like, one-third of like, porn in the "torture" category features, like, a white man torturing an Asian woman. And like, there's like, a really big sex tourism industry in some Asian countries, such as Thailand, so like, there are like, white men from the West going there to have sex with like, people who might have been coerced into being there, might be underage, etc. And like, yeah, generally, like, the idea that Asian women are submissive, you can do anything to them, and like, that's why they're attractive has also shown up in like, some studies done on dating apps that show that, like, basically, every race of man besides Asian men, like, have like, a marked preference for swiping yes on Asian women. And then, obviously, I think the most recent, like, big thing about this was the shooting in Atlanta in 2021 of like, several people at Asian-owned massage parlors, specifically done by a man who said that he was doing it because he had like, a sex addiction that went against his religion, and this was his way of fucking coping with that, I guess? Like, I don't think that it's a coincidence that he was targeting like, Asian massage parlors, especially because he's mentioned that in the past, he's gone to massage parlors for like, sex when he was like, breaking his like, celibacy or whatever, and like, a lot of these massage parlors are operated by Asian people and, like, involve like, sexual favors.

G: To wrap this up, I want to talk about the- not as recent as 2021, but this was from 2014- it was a case in the Philippines where a US marine soldier murdered a Filipino trans woman who he was having sex with. And it's a very significant case because it was the first homicide case that was actually, you know, pushed through, and a guy was convicted for. I mean-

C: An American soldier-

G: A US soldier was convicted for after like, a visiting forces agreement was signed back in 1998. And the agreement, basically, is that, like, soldiers can come into the Philippines- American soldiers can come into the Philippines and do trust exercises with our soldiers from the Philippines, and all that, which, you know [laughs], is a sign of US imperialism that- Overall, the case was very significant for many reasons, including that, and also the fact that Jennifer Laude was a trans woman, and the guy used that fact to lower his sentence from murder to homicide and all that. But, basically, he was convicted, but last year, or was it 2020? But pandemic era, he was released by our government. And, of course, they don't say this explicitly, but everyone knows that he was released because it's a good bargaining chip. Because, you know, pandemic time is very difficult, we need those vaccines, I guess, let's let the American man out. And also, like, throughout this entire process of getting this guy convicted, the US did not want to give him up at all, and it was like, a real battle to get him convicted, so the fact that it was- like, he was just given up back to the United States- that's the reality of the situation. Like, imperialism, colonialism, neocolonialism, sexism, racism, these are all tied up together, and these are not things that we can extract from each other, and Asian fetishizism- is that a term?

C: [laughs] Sure.

G: Asian fetishism adds on to that, like, contributes to that, and is caused by that. So yeah. It's a complicated topic, and we've talked for a while, but we will still be linking some things in the description if you want to read more stuff about this.

C: Yeah.

G: It's just a conversation we wanted to have, especially with the title of our podcast, and-

C: [laughs] Yeah. I guess, just to to mention one more thing, if you guys are like, "How is- like, you've gone, like, way too far from the topic. How is this related to Dean's Asian fetish?" Remember when John Winchester volunteered to fight in the Vietnam War?

G: [laughing] Yeah!

C: 'Cause, like, when we're talking about like, these atrocities, and like, these stereotypes coming from like, US involvement- US military involvement in Asia, like, John Winchester in the world of Supernatural was part of that. He either did those things or was friends with people who did those things. And also like, Sam and Dean were both born pretty close to the Vietnam War era as well. So like, if you think that John wouldn't have passed those ideas down or that the general environment they grew up in wouldn't have passed those ideas down, like, you're wrong. Like, yeah, no [laughs], this is like, really directly related to like, Dean’s Asian fetish, actually.

G: Yeah. A couple episodes back, you- Crystal- you said, like, "I wonder, like, where did Dean get these ideas of Asian fetishization? I wonder what kind of magazines John had under his bed?"

[lrgcarter]

So, lots to say about the Cass review, all of which is being said by people more qualified than me.

However, there was one thing I wanted to raise. It's the least of the review's problems in the grand scheme of things, but it has sparked a new Bigot Behaviour you might want to content screen for.

The Cass review says that while some gender is learnt socially, some of it is genetic. Apparently this includes the sort of toys kids play with.

I have seen this lead to multiple bigots linking to a news piece about some chimps who were given toys to play with. Apparently the male chimps enjoyed playing with trucks and the female chimps enjoyed playing with soft toys/dolls.

My disability means I haven't yet had a chance to follow the news piece links to the actual source. But even the news piece quotes the toy givers as saying something akin to 'This doesn't show male chimps are instinctively drawn to trucks. Maybe they preferred the colours or moving parts. Maybe the female chimps just really liked the colour or textures of the soft toys' [paraphrased].

The bigots, however, have pointed past this and said "See! Boys like masculine trucks and girls like feminine dolls!! Cause of their male slash female genes!!!It's just science!!!!"

Now, I know you can all see this is absolute crap. Evolutionary psychology always is.

But I want to highlight three points that I need to get out of my brain before it explodes.

1) I'm a big believer in the principle that palaeoarchaeologists don't have "The Earliest" anything. Earliest fossil showing X feature? Earliest tool of a particular type? No, whichever one we have found, there will be some earlier one that didn't survive or we haven't found yet. Time-Resolution is just hazy like that.

At the same time.

I'm going out on a limb to contradict this principle by saying …

The most recent common ancestor of humans and chimps did not have trucks. I really don't believe we'll be finding evidence that trucks had been invented at that point of time.

Therefore, chimps and humans can't share a "Boys play with trucks" gene from this common ancestor. Even if it existed (which it doesn't) it would at best be a case of convergent evolution.

2) Even if there is gendered play in chimp kids (which is perfectly possible but I suspect is more complicated than "boys like trucks")

Even if there is gendered play in chimp kids, that doesn't mean it's proof of genetic as opposed to socially taught behaviour, because,

get this …

Chimps also learn through social taught behaviour! Loads of animals do!! Different ape species are known to have different social rules!!! So it still doesn't prove there's a "Boys like trucks" gene.

and 3)

3)

And I can't stress this enough …

Humans are not chimps!!!!!

Like, fuck me, a really key point of evolution is that biological features change over time. That's a really basic part of it. So, even if our common ancestor with chimps did have this "boys like trucks" gene, there is no reason to assume we've still got it.

Like, seriously, we're in Jordan Peterson Lobsters Are The Platonic Society territory here.

With these three points, I've given this Bigot Behaviour waaaay more credit than it deserves. As I say, I just needed this out of my brain.

I realise I've only scratched the surface here. And I admit I might be misrepresenting the original research, having only read a piece of press coverage. I'm hoping to do a bit more research into this once I'm in a healthier state.

I also realise that my own phrasing above is sloppy and facetious. I'm venting, not polishing a scholarly essay. Once I've read up on the actual research, I will have more cogent things to say.

But,

At the same time, I realise I'm already falling into the trap of spending too much time arguing something that the bigots said in seconds and that they don't actually care about.

But some people might genuinely be swayed by the idea of monkey science and what it says about us as humans.

Please don't fall for it. It's just not how anything works.

[lockedtombbrainworms]

Patriarchy and the Nine Houses

I've been mulling this one over in my brain on long drives recently, and as I'm currently at home resting up after an insanely busy few days and also some sort of illness flareup, I want to put some of what I've come up with into writing. These are coming from the perspective of a somewhat masculine-presenting queer trans woman with some degree of familiarity with anarcha-feminism, a lot more familiarity with anarchism in general, but not really much academic feminist background. I'm also white, which may well impact what I'm taking away from this here.

Something else that might influence what I've written here are the frankly insane doses of decongestants I'm currently on, but here goes.

So firstly, I don't think 'Patriarchy' as common feminist discourse uses the term exists within the Houses.

In terms of "Evidence Against", for one, there is seemingly no gendered violence in the Nine Houses - I've seen more than one post about how at no point does Gideon Nav feel like she's in any sort of danger of sexual assault or anything like that from the men she interacts with - she's quite happy to walk into Silas and Colum's room, and at no point does the narrative mention her being concerned about sexual violence while she, a teenage butch lesbian, is trapped in a room with an older man whose intentions towards her are unknown. She gets worried, sure, but mostly about swords or necromancy, not sexual assault. Our Griddle may be a bit sheltered, sure, but she's read a lot of adult-oriented comics, which in my experience tend to be fairly lurid about any and every fucked up thing that happens in the society that produced them, and none of those, nor anything she's been told by Aiglamene or witnessed on the Ninth, seem to have instilled any fear of patriarchal sexual violence in her.

The houses also don't seem to have a concept of homophobia or particularly rigid gender roles - at absolutely no point does anyone take issue with Gideon's sexuality and gender presentation, despite various other characters being absolute shits to her in various other ways throughout the book - Crux, Naberius, Silas, the Reverend Parents - at no point is it even hinted at that any of them were homophobic or shitty about gender-non-conformity. I don't really think you can get rid of any of those things entirely without also at least taking a big chunk out of patriarchy, if not eliminating it - they're all too tightly linked together.

I honestly don't think you can describe, for instance, Palamedes or Silas or Naberius as benefitting from "male privilege" in the context of the books without getting into some weird gender-essentialist bollocks about how being male Just Does That For You, at which point you may well be sliding into terf shit and I don't really think we have much of a common ground to discuss this from. The fandom's treatment of gender (and race, while we're at it) is another matter, but in the context of the books, I genuinely don't see "male privilege" or "patriarchy" existing within the wider society of the Nine Houses. You can look at the necro/cav dynamic as a sort of metaphor for gender, and I do consider them through that lense in some cases, but it's not a 1:1 map for gender and I don't think it's trying to be.

You could argue there's some weird patriarchal ideas of manhood in Mortus' treatment of Ortus - the guy very clearly abused his son to try to "toughen him up" and make him into a warrior when Ortus wanted nothing more than to write poetry, but while that's arguably written with a patriarchal bent to it from a doylist perspective, at no point does anyone actually tell Ortus he's less of a man in the text. What they do tell him is that he's less of a cavalier, which is why I actually view that dynamic as much more of an exploration of cavalier-hood as a metaphor for gender - 'toxic cavalierhood' rather than toxic masculinity, albeit via a dynamic that's unforunately very familiar to a lot of us.

The big flaw in my argument is that, unfortunately, in the literal sense of the word, the Nine Houses very much are a capital-P Patriarchy. They're run by an immortal God-Emperor dude with some fairly intense catholic shit going on! John actually was raised in a patriarchal society, and while his experiences as a he remembers it, and while he seems to have done an OK job of not passing homophobia, misogyny or strict gender roles onto the society he built after literally fucking nuking the one he grew up in, I don't know if someone in his position of power is really in a position to unlearn anything more at this point. To a lesser extent we see it with Augustine as well - the Saint of Patience definitely reads as a misogynist at times during the text (telling Mercymorn "you have made yourself unlovable" and his whole thing about Ianthe chosing to be broken spring to mind), and while he may not remember the pre-resurrection world, it still shaped him (and his brother, who is as much a part of the man we meet in HtN as the original Augustine who was resurrected).

Also none of this is to say the society of the Nine Houses is perfect - far from it! There's all sorts of fucked up abuse dynamics present, and the entire thing has been a fucked-up expansionist empire since it found someone to do expansionist imperialism on about five millennia before the story takes place, before which it was still a fucked-up death cult living on the reanimated wreckage of a dead solar system. If anything, the lack of misogyny, homophobia, rigid gender roles and the like are a parable - it doesn't matter how inclusive and egalitarian the society of the imperial core is when it perpetuates brutal violence on the imperial periphery.

[palmviolet]

true detective rewatch s1ep5 thoughts — two meta posts in one day now we're cooking on gas

— each episode post seems to have had a different central idea thus far, i guess because each episode presents a different variation on the big themes. this episode's theme is: time. here the whole circularity of the series is made most evident, as rust presents his thesis statement: time is a flat circle. this episode is so concerned with time because it's the episode that crosses the most time periods, encompassing '95, '02, and '12 at once. it addresses rust and marty at each different phase of their lives as we see them, showcases the dramatic changes they go through, highlights the effect time has on them while rust insists that this effect will be circular, undone.

— on some level this is metatextual. as a television show it can be rewatched, rewound, paused. and its nonlinear structure means we the audience somewhat take on the role of those extra-temporal beings who can see time for what it supposedly is — a circle. when marty talks about feeling “like the future’s behind you, like it’s always been behind you”, it's ironic because his future is already behind him, as a character frozen in television time, cursed to repeat it. this is the function of rust's specific statement of despair regarding the children at ledoux, that they'll be in that room 'again, and again, and again' — it invokes the tradition of procedural crime television, in which horrific murders are rehearsed to the viewer's satisfaction, week after week after week, differing only in minutiae. the metatextual details of TD (including its preoccupation with the exploitation of the camera — think the photos of dora that incite the ledoux connection, the photos taken at shepherd's flock) are designed to reflect on this critically. not to condemn us for watching it, necessarily, but to condemn a state-led condonation of violence that is reflected in societal media habits.

— and then, as @black-market-wd4o astutely pointed out in the tags to this post, there's the way rust and marty each sit within this metatextual engagement with time. rust considers the infinite circularity of time as a source of horror; marty believes he has all the time in the world. he longs for a time that is frozen and unmoving in which his daughters will never grow up and become sexual beings (echoing rust's twisted relief that his daughter will remain forever an innocent child) and he will remain virile and strong forever.

— but in this episode, time begins to catch up with him. we see marty studying himself in the mirror, worrying over his gut and his thinning hair, looking longingly at his rodeo belt buckle kept in his locker. this is the same buckle he's wearing during the ledoux showdown — a symbol of his performative strength not only as a sportsman but as a character of the american west, a man in the tradition of the old frontier heroes, protecting his women from the 'savage' native population. rodeo is more complicated than that but at its heart it captures the american death drive as it marries with the colonial project — and the buckle represents marty's chase for immortal infinity, paradoxically acquired by confronting real danger, just as he felt in that moment of power over ledoux.

— but rodeo is staged. at every turn in the series, marty's macho strength is undermined by rust's lived experience, and his first moment of real violence is against a defenceless prisoner. marty's past heroism was never heroism at all, and so his longing for the past is a longing for something that never existed — hence, he's already living in a sort of eternity.

— similarly with the eternal past, at the end of the episode rust returns to the school they visited in '95. he finds it full of devil traps; the final shot is of him holding one up to the light, framed by a broken window with stars drawn on it. the meshing together of childhood (a school) and death (the devil traps) collapses time. here's the shot:

he's facing left, which to a western audience (ie. an audience that reads left to right) implies a looking-backwards, a reversal, and the stars invoke both ledoux's 'black star' but also the stars and the darkness he talks about in the series' final scene. framed by the window, he's trapped in this cross-section of past and future (death and childhood; childhood and death) but the window is also broken, implying a possible escape from the circle.

— a final small point regarding laurie: we don't get much of laurie, but what we do get is more subversion. we see her and rust cuddled on the couch as she's flicking through channels on the tv; then we cut to marty in 2012, as the detectives ask him what went wrong between laurie and rust. marty says, “what always happens between men and women. reality.” but what we just saw wasn't reality; it was the television. it's another metatextual point about an ingrained misogyny that isn't real, that is favoured and propagated by fiction but does not need to have a basis in real life. marty and rust only believe that reality precludes respect for and peaceful coexistence with women; we, the audience, ought to know better.

[gentrychild]

Tbh the idea that Miguel is projecting on Miles when it comes to the while canon thing seems like. So accurate? Because their situations are almost nothing alike?

The only true commonality between them is: they're both the second spidey of their reality, and some multidimensional shenanigans happened.

But on Miles' end, everything that happened was sort of an act of universal entropy/wrong place right time shenaniganry. He didn't actively seek out to become spiderman it only happened because Kingpin was trying to get his family back.

Meanwhile Miguel actively went out and *replaced* his dead self. (Which depending on how he got rid of his own body, meant there physically were two of him in one reality.)

And. It's entirely possible this is a situation of correlation does not equal causation.

He pointed to the massive hole in Pav's universe as evidence that breaking canon causes reality to destabilize. But what happened before that black hole thing appeared? The Alchemex building that was cut apart by dark matter(?) and was *actively being consumed by it as it fell* landed there. And while the could be the theoretical argument that "Miles broke canon and made Spot, so it was still a canon break that caused the hole", but no, it's explicitly said that the captain surviving caused it. (Anyway sorry this got long as hell, I have so many astv thoughts)

Their situations are absolutely nothing alike and it's so funny because technically, Miguel pulled a reverse Kingpin. Instead of trying to drag alternate version of his family to his own universe, he was the one to go there and to replace his alternate self. He made that decision.

While, as you said, Miles was just at the wrong place, wrong time. That boy was bitten by a weird bug and immediately had to step up afterwards.

While I do not believe in the whole "canon theory" thingie, I also... I have my doubts about Miguel's little trip in another dimension causing the collapse of said dimension. I truly believe that there is something we're not being told here. But I digress.

I completely agree with you saying that this is a situation where correlation does not equal causation. Yes, the singularity happens after Miles has helped Pavitr save his girlfriend (ahem, i mean that young lady he doesn't know) and the captain. It also happens right after the Spot has tinkered with the collider that is known for pulling random objects into other realities.

The very first anomaly in the multiverse was Alchemax creating the technology to access other realities. From this moment, it weakened the fabric of the universe.

[seijorhi]

I absolutely love how well you characterize Oikawa because before I read your fics, I saw Oikawa as an ambitious playboy who wouldn’t want to settle down or would have commitment issues outside of volleyball. Could you expand on your inspiration for how you drew those different qualities so well out of his canon character?

(You’re so fucking talented and phenomenal, I hope you know that💗💗💗💗💗💗💗)

so my philosophy towards writing any of my oikawa's is simple: hit it til it breaks.

oikawa, once he sets his mind on something, is relentless. he's gonna give everything to get what he wants, and in a yandere setting, that just so happens to be the reader.

now if we're talking commitment issues, as far as yandere fics go it's sort of a moot point. the character is obsessed with the reader, therefore the idea of settling down/commitment because sort of null. of course they're going to want the reader around at all times, away from everyone else, tucked away safe and sound <33

having said that, i know that that's sometimes how oikawa is portrayed in fanon, because he is charming and yes he does have lots of fangirls (and fanboys i'm sure) but... where is the canon evidence??

there is exactly one mention of oikawa having a love life in haikyuu – takeru tells kageyama that oikawa got all sad because his girlfriend dumped him, which to me doesn't give playboy vibes. it gives obsessed with volleyball to the point you forget you have a gf vibes (but you're still bummed out about it).

yes he does have fangirls, but he's not trying to hit on them like we see with say terushima, or even yahaba with yachi or the summer camp guys with kiyoko. he's charming and nice to them, maybe a little flirty but it's pretty harmless.

now in high school, i'd say yeah, volleyball is number one, the only thing on oikawa's mind. however similar to hinata, oikawa's got his own path to figuring out that pushing things to the absolute limit all the time can be hugely detrimental. plus, outside of a dark fic setting, i happen to like the idea of oikawa realising the benefits of having a support system via a partner, coming home and having that comfort/whatever. that same determination still applies, but it's a much healthier, more balanced approach.

as for a yandere oikawa (assuming we're going with a canon setting of him as a pro volleyball player) you dial back the healthy balance and push more of that, 'i want both and i'm going to have both, no matter what stands in the way' mentality. he can dominate at volleyball and work his way to be the very best, and he can and will have the reader to himself as well.

now if we're talking settling down to have a family, it's not something i blindly paint across every single one of my oikawa fics. certain iterations, like say in scion, the usual suspects or even heedless heartless, while not necessarily averse to the idea, aren't racing to knock the reader up any time soon. wife her up, sure, in a heartbeat, but that's more to tie her legally to them, because it strokes their pride and their ego, solidifies that bond.

pregnancies, and subsequently children, do also have that affect, but i think there's a lot to be said for the selfishness too, and wanting to have the reader alllll to themselves before they have to share her with a kid. as was the case with the drabble i wrote, that oikawa wasn't above using said children to manipulate the reader either. it ain't always a wholesome thing haha.

we know oikawa has a big sister, and that he's involved in taking care of takeru – or at the very least involved with babysitting/occasionally minding him. clearly oikawa cares about takeru, to me it's not so much of a leap to think that a) family matters to him and b) he'd one day see himself having kids.

my approach to writing dark takes on canonically good guys – in haikyuu's case at least, is always to take what we're given in canon and twist it to the extreme. oikawa's determined, talented, charming, a little obsessive, he's got a bit of a vindictive mean streak and he's got a bit of a complex. when i write him, i take all of those traits, dial them to eleven and then make the decision exactly how fucked up and cruel i wanna make him this time hgjfkdlknvjfkd

[coraniaid]

The online Buffy fandom seems to really like talking about the "original plans" for the show, but also to hate the concept of citing sources or providing evidence. So there are all sorts of ideas from the "original plan" floating out there in the aether that you seem to have to choose whether or not you believe based largely on vibes.

Generally I'm inclined to be pretty skeptical of the concept of an "original plan" for the show, whether that's the idea that Dawn was "originally" going to have telekinetic powers or that Faith was "originally" going to kill herself in the middle of Season 3 or that Buffy's parents were "originally" never going to be appear on screen. It is very hard for me to square ideas like these with the general tone or theme of their respective seasons. (If they're true, I think my main takeaway would be that we're fantastically lucky that the show turned out as well as it did.)

Similarly, but somewhat distinctly, I'm very dubious of readings which suggest that, for example, Amy's actions in Season 2's Bewitched, Bothered & Bewlidered are a sign that Amy's characterisation in the first half of Season 6 was actually planned out well in advance. I don't think that interpretations like this are really supported by the text of the show at all, and frankly I don't think they give the writers enough credit for the very real skill involved in making things up as they went along.

For the most part, and barring evidence to the contrary, I'm inclined to put most of the "original plans" people like to talk about down to misunderstandings or miscommunications. Maybe an idea got idly tossed around for a few minutes while a season of the show was first being brainstormed, or maybe an actor initially only signed up to appear in five episodes, and from those tiny true fragments an "original plan" for the character was retroactively inferred which was never intended by the show's creators.

But there are a small handful of exceptions to this general rule -- the idea that it was "originally" Xander who was going to come out as gay, not Willow; the idea that "originally" Angelus was going to kill Oz rather than Jenny Calendar; the idea that "originally" Kendra was going to survive Season 2 and go on to have Faith's Season 3 arc -- that I think are different. I haven't been able to find hard sources for these claims either, but they've all been repeated for so long, and for so often, with so little variation, that I think it's more likely than not that the writers have at some point described these as the original plans for the show. These, I'm reasonably sure, aren't misunderstandings on fandom's part.

Let's call them what they are instead: lies.

The show's writers may well have claimed these, but if they did I don't think there's any reason to believe they were telling the truth.

Yes, it's very easy to read Xander as a (deeply, deeply repressed) gay or bisexual man. It's the most sympathetic way to make sense of his awkwardness around Larry Blaisdel, and of his frequently expressed opinion that Angel and Riley and Spike and Oz (and all the other men his two best friends date) are attractive and of his jokes about wanting to date them. And if you believe that Buffy herself is bi -- as I do, but (perhaps crucially) the writers explicitly don't -- then it makes a certain amount of sense that her metaphorical Heart should be as well.

But nothing about the way the show actually treated gay men over its seven seasons suggests to me that the writers would ever have seriously considered having one of the leading male chararacters come out as attracted to men. The actual show gives us Larry (who boasts to Xander about how out he is without ever actually showing romantic or sexual attraction to another man on screen, then is quietly killed off and seemingly never mourned), and Andrew Wells (whose obvious but unacknowledged attraction to both Warren and then later Xander is always played as a 'hilarious' joke) and Jane Espenson tried to smuggle Giles/Ethan past the other writers for an episode or two but ... that's really it, isn't it? (Not counting things unique to Angel the series, anyway.) We didn't even get the (supposedly) originally scripted kiss between two men in Smashed, allegedly because the writing team that brought us Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered were worried about there being "unfortunate implications" to having sexual attraction be something that magic could influence.

Equally, yes, it really sucks that Jenny Calendar died and it's nice to imagine that the writers at least considered keeping her alive and trying to do something interesting with the character. But I'm pretty sure that the writing was on the wall for her as soon as the show retconned her as being linked to Angel's curse (if not well before).

Why would Angel kill Oz, specifically? What links these two characters? Why not go after somebody Buffy has actually had a conversation with first? Or somebody that Angel ever had a conversation with? When you know the show's full history -- when you know what happens to not just Jenny herself but also Gwendolyn Post and Maggie Walsh and Joyce Summers, to Cordelia and Tara and Anya, to every adult woman with any impact on the plot and to any woman who dares to break up with one of the Core Four -- how plausible does it really sound that the writers ever considered sparing Jenny at the expense of Oz?

And yes, it also stinks that Kendra only got to appear in three (or, let's be honest, something more like one and a half) episodes before she was killed off. And that her name is only spoken once after Becoming, and only as a bit of exposition to set up the new, more plot significant, more interestingly written vampire slayer. It's infuriating to realize that of the six Slayers we see called before Chosen it's exactly and only the two white Slayers who get to live and have full character arcs. It would have been great if Kendra could somehow have stuck around, or if the writers had found a pretense to bring her back somehow.

But the fragments we see of Kendra's personality -- painfully shy around boys, a stickler for following the rules, raised from a young age to respect the authority of her Watcher -- suggests she's utterly unlike Faith. How could she have had Faith's Season 3 arc, without her character being totally rewritten from the ground up? How could she have this arc and still be Kendra?

Yes, Kendra should be important. She's the second Slayer we ever meet, somebody who's very existence upends everything we know about the show's mythology. The first -- and for a while, only -- person we meet who can really understand Buffy and appreciate exactly what she's going through as a Slayer. Kendra should be one of the major characters on the show, and her untimely death should have long term ripples and ramifications for years to come. But equally it seems very obvious that the writers didn't care about her at all, and that they never did and were never going to.

So she isn't a major character, and her death doesn't matter.

I think it's doing the show more credit than it deserves -- and willfully downplaying its very real and persistent homophobia and misogyny and racism -- to pretend that any of these things could have been different. Even if it does turn out that the writers ever claimed otherwise.