#Assuming We Survive

[aquickstart]

ok sure i'll talk about farleigh start. i'll talk about his tragedy of never being enough as it were and then having to deal with fucking oliver. sure. disclaimer: it's about class (and race) and the horrible reality of the rich. the horrible reality of living as farleigh.

another disclaimer: i'm white! and poc definitely pick up on everything i'm talking about here as it is, and better. i was and am specifically interested in farleigh vs. oliver but it's impossible to examine without considering race. definitely let me know if anything abt this sucks!

farleigh and oliver are similar. it's annoying because every intruder that is not himself is annoying, partly because felix's attention swaying from farleigh is dangerous; there is always a threat of being discarded, even if no precedent existed. the potential is terrifying.

but you'd think he's seen this before, every summer (if venetia is telling the truth) or at least often enough to learn to recognize it fast, so he should know this will pass. part of it is i think still the deep anxiety, and i think he hated every boy that was there before, and it is sort of routine.

but definitely a huge factor in farleigh's annoyance is the fact that he's a biracial (black for cattons, that's all they see) man in a white rich household. he's alert and exhausted all the time. of course he's angry at oliver, regardless of whether he's the first to crash at saltburn for the summer or the fifty-first.

but the important thing is this.

farleigh is very jealous of and angry and pissed at oliver because farleigh sees all the similarities between them. outsider, in financial trouble, whatever it is, in need of cattons; and yet oliver is preferred. and farleigh seems to be the only one to really consider it. felix does not pick up on the hint when farleigh brings up the birthday party vs. his mother. felix's clumsy "different or... anything like that" is as much about race as it is about class, of course. the "we've done all that we can" bit is felix absolving himself of guilt because surely they had, surely the mysterious collective cattons that he's not really part of had tried all they could do. to him, farleigh is different from oliver, because farleigh has been helped. felix is rich and white and twofold uncomfortable with farleigh, even if he's nice about it, even if he genuinely enjoys his company; he doesn't look too close at farleigh because he feels too guilty to come too close. and farleigh can't do anything about it. he can't nice himself into it. the fucking tragedy of him is that he's never enough in the world of the ultra-rich white, even if (especially because!) he's born into it.

farleigh is very pissed at oliver because farleigh also sees all the differences between them. you know who can be nice poor white enough to fit in? fucking oliver. felix says "just be yourself, they'll love you" when oliver first moves in. farleigh was also probably told the same thing, and felix also probably believed that farleigh could just be himself, but even if the cattons were magically not racist at all (impossible), it wouldn't make a difference to farleigh. he would still self-censor, keep in check, be in dangerous waters (because racism is not just about the individual, but about the system). we see that he'd won himself leeway by years of trial and error by the way he speaks to the family, but it's still within the boundaries of acceptable, built by the cattons. he's part of them because they allow it, and farleigh is very, very aware.

the annoying thing is oliver can be himself. like, truly, genuinely, he can just be. and farleigh can't help but envy that.

as a side note, oliver is obviously jealous of farleigh in the beginning as well, because regardless of the reality of farleigh's situation, he was born into it, and hence, at least in oliver's mind, has his position solidified. oliver's whole thing is unquenchable thirst and hunger for whatever and everything the cattons have (including themselves!). he wishes to have been a catton from birth. to oliver, at first, there's nothing farleigh can really do to lose it. and until he figures out the cattons completely, he can't help but envy that.

but i think farleigh senses something different about oliver early on. at least on the level of the text, we have "you're almost passing [for] a real, human boy", which is so important because farleigh is the first to point out oliver's weirdness. the next to do so is venetia in the bath scene calling him a freak, but it's too late. farleigh is too early.

and i like to think he clocks oliver too early because he sees the jagged edges that he recognizes in himself. i think that one other thing that farleigh envies is oliver's freedom to let go. freedom to let go is very similar to freedom to be, but not quite the same.

to be is about perception: farleigh knows he cannot fall out of line, but would like to, and oliver does not have to worry about it at all (i mean, he does, because oliver also performs for felix, but farleigh doesn't know that).

to let go is about the self: farleigh is too scared to even want what oliver eventually does, to even consider the possibility. oliver can let himself want. oliver can let himself act. oliver just can do things and want things. i'm not sure farleigh can.

and so in this scene, when oliver's wants and actions have landed him nowhere with farleigh, felix, venetia, the cattons, of course farleigh gloats. he can let himself do that, because if the cattons are slowly discarding him, farleigh can allow himself this one small victory. he's relieved because despite the dangerous similarities, oliver is, thankfully, not really the same as farleigh, right?

but like. this movie is a love letter to all things gothic. oliver is a white man. he prevails. the brief performance that oliver put on did eventually end up more effective than farleigh's lifetime of constraint. my heart fucking breaks for him to be honest.

the issue that remains is the fact of farleigh's survival. i like to think that oliver came to respect him. oliver is smart, but farleigh is clever. he picks up on everything oliver does (to refer back to the karaoke scene, farleigh immediately retaliates in the cleverest way, in the moment), and he's the only one to do so consistently (venetia, again, for example, comes close, but too late; oliver doesn't like that, there's nothing to work with). hence, stay with me for a little longer, the paradox: farleigh survives because he was never enough for the cattons, but he is very worthy of oliver's attention. in his own freaky way, oliver wants him. look at that.

so. farleigh. farleigh might come back. he always comes back. and i think oliver wants to try harder next time.

[stromblessed]

Mel 🔆, Viktor 🌌, and Jayce 🔥 symbolism

SUN 🔆

Mel's association with the sun is self-evident and still mostly shrouded in mystery, though her love scene with Jayce is notable, which is overlaid with starry imagery, where her silhouette and her freckled face are compared to the cosmos. The sun is also a star. It's just the star that's closest to Runeterra and has the most influence over the world.

Mel and the Hexcore are the POVs of the scene.

Hexcore and starry imagery is more strongly and consistently associated with someone else, though!

STARS 🌟 / THE COSMOS 🌌

Viktor's blue to purple pipeline is real

But seriously, the starry/swirly shapes point toward distant stars, the cosmos, a galaxy. There is no moon in Viktor's night scenes throughout the season, only stars.

Viktor's character regresses as the season goes on (blue to purple, ready to fall into Shimmer-like magenta as his corruption nears its peak).

His hubris opens him up to some kind of corruption by the Hexcore, or by whatever - or whoever - is using the Hexcore as a gateway, like what Jinx points out. Singed as his mentor plants and encourages the lie that Viktor believes, that he's better off alone and that the ends justify the means.

These perfectly ruinous circumstances lead to him getting Sky killed (Sky like sky blue, like Inspiration, lost as Viktor has lost sight of good in his pursuit of great).

In his running scene, Viktor runs not from left to right, filmspeak for progression - he runs from right to left, as though backstepping.

(And also for the Rocky Balboa reference called out in this brilliant post, but hey, I think it all works)

It's also worth laying the foundation that Viktor is a fantasy interpretation of Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American inventor who was fascinated with electricity, radio signals, the cosmos, and [REDACTED for another post probably lol]

If you've fallen down the rabbit hole of League lore like I have, you might have picked up that peoples and warriors who are sun-worshipers are (at least anciently) tasked with hunting down and destroying Void beings, who are eldritch beings associated with the distant stars, or are Runeterrans constructed by the Void Watchers trapped between realms. The sun fights against interlopers from other dimensions or celestial bodies.

Mel and Viktor have the same ideas about risk and the nature of progress, and they are both technically foreigners living in Piltover and pursuing that progress - in two very different (but complementary) ways. They are most likely the two characters whose literal bodies are celestial, imbued with the Arcane. Their bodies are most likely augmented with magical metals.

Yet the arcane imagery that seems to accompany them respectively are diametrically opposed - Sun vs. Void, possibly. (Also, purple and yellow/gold are opposite or complement colors on the color wheel.)

Whether they wind up working together or whether they clash (as Viktor loses himself) or if it's a mix of both, I think Mel and Viktor are destined to collide in season 2.

So where does this leave Jayce?

FIRE 🔥

Fire for Jayce means more than one thing. The first thing that should come to mind is the fire of the forge. Creation and industry. The legacy and hard work of his family.

However, his FIRST imagery with fire occurs when Elora says "Speak of the devil" and Jayce is framed in flames at Mel's fundraising party.

He's similarly framed in the flames of a Molotov cocktail on the bridge between Piltover and the undercity with Viktor, after he's just called the people of the undercity dangerous.

What I think we're being shown here are Jayce's choices. He can use his talents and influence for good - creation and industry - or he can use them for destruction and oppression. A hammer can create.

A hammer can also be a weapon, a tool of destruction:

Fire can quickly burn and spread out of control.

Hey look, blue all the way to magenta in one scene!

And if you know his original League lore, the reason why his rivalry with [REDACTED] crosses the point of no return - fire and destruction. Yeah.

Jayce is interesting because his point position in the Mel-Viktor-Jayce trifecta makes it tempting to assign celestial imagery to him, too. However, adult Jayce is only present with Hexcore, star, and sun imagery when he is sharing a scene with Viktor or Mel respectively.

The show makes it a point that Mel and Viktor are the reasons he is the Man of Progress at all:

Note that Jayce in the center of his Man of Progress posters is backed by a gear (Viktor) and the sun (Mel). If Viktor had not intervened in episode 2, Jayce would be dead or disenfranchised. If Mel had not intervened in episode 3, then Jayce AND Viktor would have been kicked out of the Academy if not imprisoned or exiled, and Hextech with Jayce and Viktor at the helm would not exist.

(This is reaching, but I like to interpret that the circle + notches in the gear shape are like Viktor's star symbolism, but even if that's the big reach that I think it is, Viktor is a machinist, engineer, and techmaturgist with Artificer parents - the gear definitely represents him on a meta level)

The imagery that I believe is Jayce's and Jayce's alone is that of fire. He is terrestrial, using magic contained within tools the way he has always wanted to bring Hextech to every household, while Mel and Viktor are influenced by magic on a whole other level.

Sure would be a shame if Jayce found a reason to choose the path of destruction and be corrupted further, diverging from Mel and Viktor's core values

Sure would be a shame if Viktor's personal choices had consequences that radiated out further than season 1 and he gets put on a disastrous collision course with everything that Jayce and by extension Piltover hates and fears

Sure would be stressful for us if Arcane decided to be a Greek tragedy about it

Though possibly the most important piece of this picture is how Mel - gold like the sun, gold that doesn't tarnish or rust, gold that is an excellent conductor - has already faced the abyss and said NO to her own corruption:

It sure would be something for her to have to watch Jayce and Viktor go down a different path, huh

[fatuismooches]

If there's a will, there's a way.

I may be 160cm - or less, I don't know I thought I was 165cm but my last visit at a clinic said otherwise—

I WILL drag this snarky science lad on my lap and die a happy man if I get crushed by him

I'm in the height of delulu, I seriously think that having someone taller than me sitting on my lap would be somehow comfortable for both parties

Dottore has to be used as a pillow AT LEAST once I mean look at him?? His waist is meant to be held???? Wrap my arms upon them and perish at my own discretion 🗣

He needs pretty princess treatment IM asdfghkl

(Also like, the imagery of tiny reader holding onto him behind his chair is way too funny, he just has to shift a little and at the right angle you wouldn't be able to tell that he's on a lap)

YOU'RE SPEAKING THE TRUTH ANON!! It doesn't matter how tall or short you are. Pull that man (by his tiny waist) into your lap, who cares about the consequences! You may get crushed a wee bit but it is a very small price to pay, who else can say they ever had Il Dottore blushing and grumpy on their lap? (I too am the height of delulu anon. Let's just pretend that Teyvat's physics are different okay??! But even so when facing reality, sure your back is killing you and your legs are growing numb YOU DON'T CARE!! 🗣 Dottore can sit on your lap for hours and you'll be dying but you're fine with it!!)

AHHHH YOU'RE TOO FUNNY AND RELATABLE ANON !! THE WAIST IS TOO REAL!! It's actually really funny to think about reader's obsession with Dottore's waist, like you're always wrapping your arms around it automatically. Doesn't matter when or where... it's why you LOVE hugging Dottore from the back because it's very easy to access that waist. Dottore gets snippy with you in the beginning and then he finds himself interested as you why you like that part of him so much... then he just gives up and lets you squeeze because he has no other choice at your persistence. 😭 And his chest too? Pillow material as you said. 🥺 I just want to squeeze him there too, to be honest. Pretty princess deserves a comfortable seat (you) while he does work!!

In conclusion, Dottore and his segments can crush me and I'd be the happiest person in Teyvat.

(And yes!! Tiny reader would literally be HIDDEN and not visible to the eye at first, especially if the desk is blocking your hands around him. Your face is buried into his back and then you peak out to look at what he's doing. 😭❤️)

[thelostgirl21]

"...there’s something star-crossed about these two. There is a deep connection there, but the turmoil, war and politics of this world are pretty intent on pulling them away from each other." - Joey Batey (x)

Yeah...

Just so you know, if you're a guy with a 3 syllable name that begins with "R", and you so happen to experience a strong case of love at first sight for someone that sort of happens to be named "Juliet" or "Julian", you might find yourself facing a few obstacles getting in the way of your relationship.

Just saying!

[choices-binglebonkus]

Marguerite and Duchess Eveline are gonna need so much therapy after this is all over.

[shit-people-probably-didnt-say]

Klaus: *Comes home face bruised and bloody*

Five: Let me guess, I should ‘see the other guy?’

Klaus: Wouldn’t recommend it

Five:

Five: Who am I killing?

[lottieurl]

i hope nat does something deeply morally fucked up in s3 that makes the people who decided to sort her into Good Person Box (in contrast with All The Rest Of Them Who Are Bad) shake in their boots going but she's good?????!??!?!?!

[ladyalicentshightower]

Criston Cole isn't really been afforded a lot of nuance by the fandom and it's starting to annoy me.

I think a few more small scenes would've done so much, say hearing the ladies of the court gossiping over an illegitimate child or even he himself discussing his background with either Alicent or Rhaenyra, which would've added to his development and his eventual crisis of faith, his Catholic guilt. I think people forget Criston is one of the few main characters who isn't a noble or a direct part of the family. As an illegitimate child in Westeros, all his life he's been told that he is the sinful thing, that he was born of sin and therefore unclean as result. By taking the white cloak and becoming a King's guard, he was able to put that "sin" behind him and become "clean". By sleeping with Rhaenyra he's stained and tainted that, something he can't handle or stand at all. He committed the ultimate sin, he's broken his oath, stained his honor and may have created a child doomed to be unclean too (obviously no such child was conceived or born but there was always the chance one could've been and I think that ate Criston alive inside and will probably be a factor of why he behaves the way he does towards Rhaenyra's sons). It's why he's so eager to run off and marry Rhaenyra so he can (in his mind) set it right. He wants to see himself as clean again. It's why he confesses so quickly to Alicent (also did some of you not watch the episode? Criston knew Rhaenyra snuck out, he had no way of knowing Rhaenyra was even with Daemon, he wasn't in King's landing to hear the gossip regarding Daemon & Rhaenyra that Larys spoke of and he was summoned immediately by Alicent so of course he assumed the rumours Alicent spoke of was referring to him), to seek forgiveness and regain some of that "cleanliness" before dying. Alicent offers him salvation, sanctuary, forgiveness while Rhaenyra shattered the version of herself he had built up in his mind. She betrayed that ideal he had of her and cannot understand why the "sin" they committed haunts him so greatly. For her it was a pleasurable night they spent together, to him it is his damnation, his ultimate sin. It's why he follows Alicent, in his eyes she offers him salvation while Rhaenyra can only offer him ruination.

I could ramble so much more about this, I don't know what it is but Alicent and Criston and the religious themes surrounding them both is absolutely fascinating.

[variousqueerthings]

actually you know whose reaction I'd be really curious about, potentially coming across fourteen in the shops? Francine!

[chronically-ghosted]

ever since you put 'ermagerd' in the tags on one of your rbd posts i legit started saying it out loud as a reaction to everything. thanks.

bring back early 2000s memes so i know what the fuck is going on

[bartholomew-junior]

lil analyzing sketch sheet

[shkika]

Honestly I think it's awesome, reinforces the fact they're cyborg computers and can just dump infected body parts out of the can !

Imo Pebbles may have dropped his labs first, realized he still got rot cysts crawling on parts he cannot just throw away, then started to resume giant water intakes to flush whatever clung on away. Moon collapses afterwards.

If anyone would like to give me an iterator anatomy lesson I'd actually love you so much I'm neither good enough at biology or technology stuff to know anything.

ANYWAY I don't know if there's any other part of Pebbles he has actually thrown out that we can see but hm...

I wonder if this little guy had selfish little thoughts. Not born out of malice, but fear and frustration. I mean his project has failed, everything is going WRONG.

Now.

Moon is already in a horrible state. She's not stable, she's also part of why this is happening. The water he could stop taking wouldn't do much for her, she's a lost cause.

But he's still functional. He can still try and finish his work. I mean it makes sense why he shouldn't stop. Moon will collapse anyway. While Pebbles has the chance to solve the problem still.

He was this close after all.

[purplecritter]

Me: "Return to Moria" sounds interesting but it's been so hush-hush that I don't have my expectations up too high

Return to Moria after Gamescom 2023:

Me: GNC DWARF OC REAL??? 🥺

[lavenderjewels]

(JJK 225 Spoilers)

when I get over the sudden shock of sukuna trying to behead gojo, im actually living for this. every time gojo gets challenged as the strongest is interesting to see play out, for his character and the story. also that panel of him bleeding rocked

[area51-escapee]

One of the many hills I’ll die on is my defense of the Girl Scouts if you hear the “girl” in Girl Scouts and immediately assume “well, clearly all they’re teaching them is how to bake cookies and manage a household and become a good wife and mother who stays home and cooks and cleans” then that shits on you yeah some troops aren’t going to be as good as others it all depends on the leadership and resources available but that doesn’t negate the fact that at it’s core it is there to teach young girls valuable skills and it can provide unique opportunities and a nice community for people who may need it

[gammija]

ive been trying for 30 mins to write a post about why the Web's plan is still confusing, but I think I should face the truth and admit to myself that it's not that it makes no sense, it's just... so convoluted