#Imo i think mimic wins

[chaotichyperfixations]

mimic vs mendo who wins

[blueskittlesart]

Lore questions huh? What do you think about dark link and what he represents? (Oot or otherwise)

HI. I LOVE YOU. this is long as hell but it's your fault for asking me about oot

so dark link is the mini-boss fight in oot's water temple. this is the 6th dungeon in the game overall and the third out of 6 in the adult segment of gameplay, meaning it comes when adult link has already experienced the time-switch and is about halfway to ganon. One of the things that makes this battle so immediately striking imo is the fact that the room it takes place in is immediately aesthetically different from the rest of the dungeon, which isn't something we see basically anywhere else in the game. the reason for this, materially, is because everything in that room is a symbol that the writers want you as the player to notice and take in.

the opening of the fight goes like this: link enters a room within the water temple that appears to be an endless foggy void, with a thin layer of water on the ground and a single dead tree in the very middle of the room. there is a distant door on the other side of the room. When link passes the dead tree on his way to the door, his reflection in the water disappears, and when he turns back around he's ambushed by dark link--a reflection of himself. Dark link will be semi-transparent for about a minute at the beginning of the fight but will eventually materialize enough to land hits on link, and will mimic link's attacks while dodging any attempts to hit him. Dark link's health is based on the player's heart containers, meaning the stronger Link is, the stronger his reflection becomes. Gameplay-wise, it's extremely difficult to defeat dark link using the master sword because he can counter almost any attack from it, so most players will use a different weapon that he can't counter in order to beat him.

so let's unpack the symbolism there. first, the room itself: an empty, foggy void with a single dead tree in the middle. This room is pretty obviously a reflection of link's psyche, and link is a kid who grew up in a lush forest, surrounded on all sides by living trees. link was RAISED by a tree, a tree which is now functionally dead, an event which he likely still blames himself for. And since this temple comes chronologically after the forest temple, link has recently learned that everything he thought he knew about himself and the environment in which he was raised was a lie. that dead tree in an open void is representative of link's trauma regarding his childhood--it's the opposite of the security and safety he believed he had in kokiri forest. the tree is slowly rotting away as he slowly loses faith in both himself and the people who raised him. he loses his reflection as he passes the dead tree, functionally losing himself, unable to rebuild his self-image after learning that his entire life thus far has been one big lie.

gameplay-wise, this fight is generally pretty difficult to beat using the master sword. (it's possible, but hard.) i think this is also intentional. The master sword, within the greater narrative of oot, is representative of adulthood, but it's also representative of the childhood that was stolen from link. If he'd never claimed that sword he would have been able to grow up like a regular kid, but because he did, the adults in his life decided that his feelings mattered less than keeping him out of ganondorf's hands, and they took the opportunity to grow up naturally away from him without his consent. when attempting to battle back what is essentially a manifestation of his pent-up trauma and fears, of course it's going to be difficult for him to win using a weapon which was basically forced onto him, representative of a stolen childhood he can't get back.

tldr: dark link is everything everyone ever did to hurt you coming at you all at once. he's link's fear of failure, his resentment over what's been taken from him in service of a greater good he never agreed to, his anger and his trauma. feelings which it's natural for him to have, but which he HAS to work through and understand in order to keep going. it's an unusually violent therapy session basically

[atthebell-moved]

Okay and then after that avalanche of clips I have a few thoughts myself:

First thing, Etoiles kicked ass today, no doubt about it. The only reason he had to nope out of the fight with Not-Dapper the first time was that it was spawning 500 HP moscos with strength 10 and resistence 10-- there was no way he was winning that fight. And the final code ended up leaving because it knew it couldn't take him alone in a fair 1v1 (or even a 2v1, as evidenced by him killing not-dapper).

Second thing: The codes are continuing to mimic the eggs, but not particularly well. Again, Etoiles knew immediately it wasn't Tallulah, and Not-Dapper didn't even show up as an egg initially, it just switched mid-fight. I'll be interested to see how this evolves as they keep learning; for now, I'm not convinced they'll ever be that convincing, at least not anytime soon and not if everyone comes up with ways to check if it's genuinely their kid, as Pomme as done with her parents already.

Third thing: Keep seeing folks point out that it was QNPC06 and not QNPC04, so it couldn't have been Dapper's actual admin. Guys, I understand that at this point we've all memorized the admin accounts, but I would not be remotely surprised if they decide to switch things up for things like this. Getting too comfortable with the status quo and what's "allowed" in terms of meta is exactly what the players should not be doing-- otherwise they could very easily get caught up on whether the code monster named Tallulah attacking them is actually QNPC02, and if that means it really is Tallulah. Besides that, QNPC06, from my understanding, isn't typically used for eggs and is generally used for Walter Bob and things like that. I would not be remotely shocked if some egg admins still have login powers for it and can and have played Walter Bob and other QNPC06 admins. Getting too attached to how it's been before and having certain set expectations is, at this point, actively dangerous.

Like I'm always saying with Quackity, anyone could be lying. The updates accounts could be lying or partially hiding the truth, the admins can be coy about how much they say, and it makes perfect sense, in an already suspicious and paranoid environment, to want players to maintain that sense of distrust when it comes to the codes mimicking the eggs. That doesn't mean this was for sure Dapper's admin; Etoiles said he knew details about mobs and strategy that he'd mentioned specifically to Dapper, but pretty much anything said on-stream is fair game for admins to use as info, IMO, as the Federation or the codes could be spying at any moment, and depending on how secure the location is, could have any number of ways to have witnessed info passing hands like that. And it seems like they've set decent precedent for that before, which is important to note. TL;DR on this one: I think everyone should be a little more suspect about trusting the admin account numbers, and really any info that isn't distinctly and explicitly out of RP, since so many meta elements are folded into the server as well.

Final thing: This fight (well, fights) was absolutely brutal, and it was clear the codes were heavily targeting Etoiles. Whether it's a grudge from the election dinner, them deciding they've learned how best to attack players by watching him, or something else, it was really interesting to watch, and I'll be curious to see how it plays out. I can't imagine anyone else getting targeted that hard while on their own, so any further attacks will, I think, provide some cool insight.

[shouldprobablybereading]

Why Gavinor should not be Odiums champion

A way too in depth argument against a (sort off) crack theory

And I don’t mean in the “of course he shouldn’t he’s a baby” way. But that it would actively go against the larger ideological messages of the story.

Taravangian is strongly utalitarian, he believes that the end justify the means. It’s why he is willing to make a deal with Odium about preserving Karbranth at the expense of roshar as a whole. He believes this is the best option because he believes that it is the only way he can save anyone.

The knights radiant as a group believe in journey before destination, it is what you do that is important. It’s really only the windrunners that lean towards a kantian approach (actions matter and value the human life, but you can kill as punishment) Dalinar is imo more on the aristoteles route by looking at individuals that he views as just and then mimic their behavior (Gavilar, Nohadon etc.) Szeth is even more extreme in this case. What they exactly believe is somewhat irrelevant as the point is that they are not primarily utalitarian.

This isn’t saying that Sanderson or even the books are against utilitarianism, morals are complicated (an understatement) and I think there are few people who can actively choose one model that is applicable to all situations. Jasnah is notably utilitarian, although the story frames her approach very different from Taravangians. He is more or less an extremist and in a lot of ways a personification of some of its negative attributes.

This way the duel of champions becomes to a degree a fight between ideologies. Making Dalinar face of against Gavinor would be an extremely on the nose way of asking“would you kill a child if it meant saving the world” putting one innocent life against millions, making Dalinar lose as a result of this would make the statement that his morals is what made him fail, making Taravangian ultimately right.

That could be a very interesting story. We even see it to a smaller degree in Oathbringer when Jasnah has to decide whether or not to kill Renarin and ultimately lets her love for him win.

The problem is that it is Dalinar doing the fighting. His inability to murder children or even loved ones has never been a character flaw. See the burning of Rathalas. To pit him against Gavinor or any of his loved ones like Adolin would while creating great and enjoyable angst also suggest that the Blackthorn would have been able to save the world. Had he just remained as he was at his worst, never evolved or changed, the world would have been better off. This would be extremely unsatisfying after spending nearly 5 books working away from that.

Having an adult loved one like Adolin might work if the tension comes from a difference in belief as well as the pain of it being a loved one. Gavinor is just especially bad since he is too young to have any complex philosophical views or even consent to being a champion under fair terms. His unwillingness to kill someone like Sadeas would imo make for a more compelling conflict since him being too trusting of problematic people is an actual flaw that is consistent through his life. (Gavilar, Sadeas, Amaram, even Taravangian himself)

The tricky thing here is that he will most definitely have to loose somehow so it is possible that Sanderson will go this route. I just do not think that it would make for a satisfying or narratively compelling story based on the characters involved as well as the larger themes at play.

[mira--mira]

Ok so, questions for OoT: Do Hashi + Madara cheer when Rock Lee kicks Sasuke's ass? If that still happens. Do they save Lee from getting his leg + arm crushed by Gaara's sand? Do Kabuto + Hashirama ever fight one another? If so, does Hashi kick Kabuto's ass? What does Hashi think of Kabuto's regeneration ability? Do Tsuande + Hashirama ever team up + kick ass? Please, I need this so bad. Also maybe Hashi hugging Tsunade when she has her freak out over seeing blood? Please? Does Madara face off with Itachi after Hiruzen dies (if Hiruzen still does die)? Do Hashi + Madara manage to save Sasuke from getting beaten by Itachi when Itachi + Sasuke see one another again in canon, when Naruto is doing his training with Jiraiya? (Also please tell me Madara at least stabs Jiraiya for stealing all of Naruto's saving when Jiraiya had plenty of money himself, AND was supposed to financially support Naruto as Naruto's godfather. If Madara doesn't just outright steal/demand Jiraiya give Naruto his money back or pay him back. That bothered me so much in canon.) I haven't been able to keep up with out of fic stuff in a while because of irl stuff, so I'm sorry if you've already answered these. Just link me, please, if you have?

Hey no worries! OoT is a monster that takes most of my energy to manage, lol, I don't expect everyone to be able to keep up with everything so please don't feel bad or like you're bothering me by asking! I haven't answered most of these questions, I'll answer a few below the cut but not quite all because 1. got to keep a few secrets :P and 2. I don't have specific answers to all of them yet either lol!

Do Hashi + Madara cheer when Rock Lee kicks Sasuke's ass?

Doesn't quite progress to that point! All of Team 7 and Gai's team go out for Sasuke and Lee's fight (here with a slightly different set up and explanation for why Gai's team was outside of the room bc that scene still irritates me in canon lol) but Team 13 gets lost (read: Hashirama and Madara not used to big buildings like the school and Sai laughing as they stumble around) and wanders in right before the fight happens and interrupts it. Even if they had been watching and not interfering they wouldn't be cheering outright I'd say. Hashirama has nothing against Sasuke and neither really does Madara. He doesn't has a grudge from the clan head duel, but Sasuke is a walking trigger for his own trauma that he subconsciously avoids.

Do they save Lee from getting his leg + arm crushed by Gaara's sand?

😶 The Tenten v Gaara fight happens and she's pissed at him so...

Do Kabuto + Hashirama ever fight one another? If so, does Hashi kick Kabuto's ass?

Not in the chunin arc (maybe in search for Tsunade, but probably not? Honestly idk at this point). Kabuto has a very good sense of self-preservation and he pegged them almost immediately as weird kids that he does not want to get involved with.

What does Hashi think of Kabuto's regeneration ability?

Honestly idk. I'm still trying to figure out how to classify it in a way. It's not from the mokuton, that really wouldn't make sense with my lore, but I'm not sure what else it stems from. I'm open to ideas and reactions to this, if anyone wants to suggest something! Otherwise I might make it where Kabuto doesn't have a regeneration ability, but he's such a competent medic, it's like he mimics the ability.

Do Tsuande + Hashirama ever team up + kick ass? Please, I need this so bad. Also maybe Hashi hugging Tsunade when she has her freak out over seeing blood? Please?

Yes, eventually. Their meetings are...rough at first. Hashirama and Madara know how Madara dies at this point and Hashirama has a grudge the size of the five elemental countries against his edo self (which will also be revealed if it's him or a parallel version by this point 😉) and he connects Tsunade to that at first and it puts an initial strain on their relationship. Add in Hashirama is very different from the "god of shinobi" Tsunade grew up with, 5 imo is too young to recognize the flaws and humanity in parents/grandparents so she doesn't have that perspective, and it leads to a clash. Not to mention the giant elephant in the room, Madara, and well...it's just a tough family reunion. I will say though the longer the fic goes on the bigger the "ripples" and canon divergences will be. There's a big moment at the end of the chunin arc that impacts...pretty much everything else in drastic ways. Just be prepared for a pretty sharp diverge!

Does Madara face off with Itachi after Hiruzen dies (if Hiruzen still does die)?

Hiruzen does die but I'm going to be mum about the rest of this 😉 Note I do have plans though 👀

Do Hashi + Madara manage to save Sasuke from getting beaten by Itachi when Itachi + Sasuke see one another again in canon, when Naruto is doing his training with Jiraiya?

Another one that's a mix of I have ideas but not solid enough to commit yet lol. Also the big spoiler at the end of chunin will affect this as you'll see!

Also please tell me Madara at least stabs Jiraiya for stealing all of Naruto's saving when Jiraiya had plenty of money himself, AND was supposed to financially support Naruto as Naruto's godfather. If Madara doesn't just outright steal/demand Jiraiya give Naruto his money back or pay him back. That bothered me so much in canon.

Oh fam, let me just say Madara and Jiraiya do not get along and the hate is mutual. Madara is 12 and he's going to fight that old man for custody of another 12 y/o and win. The money issue will definitely be brought up and dealt with. He, and all of Team 13 really, has zero tolerance for Jiraiya. I try to avoid the cliche "bashing" fic style, but I'm not going to shy away from Jiraiya's shitty canonical behavior and the "heart of gold pervert" is a character archetype that I loathe with the passion of a thousand suns. He's not getting excused for that either. Tsunade and Jiraiya have a complicated relationship with two people (three with Orochimaru) have experienced war and some of the absolute worst that humanity has had to offer and only each other to depend on...but then that trusted friend betrayed you and your boundaries and treating you like an object not a person and suddenly your entire relationship can never be the same (ie the peeping in the bath and almost killing him scene isn't going to be treated like a cute little jokey-joke~ Top 10 things I hated in canon, I can write an entire long post about this alone lol.)

[theuniversitychallengereview]

UC 51.03 - London Business School vs Hertford, Oxford

Since it was introduced at the 1988 Olympics, every single Gold Medal in the Women’s Team event in the Archery has gone to South Korea. Including yesterday’s win that’s nine straight victories, and their period of unparalleled dominance continues. The men’s team have also won six of the nine they have contested, and a mixed team won the first staging of that event in Tokyo too. Adding their success in the individual events, South Korea have won 26 gold medals, and 42 in total, in the 43 archery events which have been thus far staged at the Olympic Games. 

As Twitter’s own @tarequelaskar pointed out in the brilliant article which alerted me to this story, this is a perfect example of specialisation, an economic concept whereby countries or companies focus intensely on one particular aspect of a given industry and come to serve that niche in such a specialised fashion that they become the ultimate experts and nigh-on irreplaceable. This is done in government and business by providing companies with incentives to specialise, and supporting those who succeed at it. 

With respect to Korean archery, similar forces are at play. There are a bunch of professional teams and leagues in the country, giving archers financial stability while they focus on their training, something not as common across the world. Said training involves such things as practicing in live baseball stadiums and replicas of the Olympic venues, to mimic first the atmosphere and then the conditions that will be present on the day of the actual tournament. 

This philosophy of marginal gains - the same system used by Team Sky and Chris Froome to win multiple Tour De Frances on the trot - puts their preparation miles ahead of the competition, which goes some way to explaining their dominance. It is not the only reason. Before the fine-tuning of the elite shooters comes the discovery of the promising young ones, and the inspiring nature of past success (along with a historic national love of the sport) helps to create a virtuous cycle which give Korea a far larger number of archers to choose from than any other country. This greater choice means that there is a greater chance of finding the next Gold medallists.

Making the argument that professional footballers are at a higher level than other elite sportspeople, Michael Cox used this same argument in a recent article for The Athletic. To summarise, he stated that because there are a far higher number of people who wish to become professional footballers, that must mean that the ones who do make it are at a higher standard than those who make it in other sports. Initially, I was drawn in by the pure maths of this point, but having thought about it some more I’m no longer sure to what extent I agree. 

Now, the fact that hundreds of millions more people play football than rugby, or basketball, will certainly confer some level of “eliteness”, but only up to a certain point. Because football has been so popular for so long, the general standard of the play, relative to what it used to be, has had longer to improve. In the same way that if you transplanted a 100m runner from the Olympic final in the early 20th century to now they probably wouldn’t even qualify for the games, a footballer from the 80s would stand less of a chance of making it were they playing today. Many other sports don’t have that level of natural progression, afforded by decades of technical and tactical advancement - at least not globally. 

But the numbers argument only goes so far, as can be demonstrated by the Korean archers. Yes, there are more archers in Korea than anywhere else, relatively, giving them a higher chance of uncovering those with a natural aptitude, but the reason behind their bow and arrow dynasty is the specialisation. The hyper-detailed level of training and focus which allows them to be the best they can possible be. 

Now, archery is unique in that there is a theoretical maximum score (I understand that this is to some extent arbitrary, and related to the rules of the game as defined by some human being, semi-randomly, but it works in terms of this argument, because it gives a percentage score of how good the archers are based on the agreed-upon parameters of the sport), which, at the Olympics, is 720. The Olympic record is 700 (held by Korean Kim Woo-jin, giving an implied “eliteness level” of 97.2%. 

The best player in the history of football (don’t @ me) is Lionel Messi, and few would doubt that he operates at or above that level of perfection in his sport. But I also don’t think you could doubt that Novak Djokovic, or Serena Williams in her pomp, were similarly magnificent at tennis. Cyclists on the Tour De France put their bodies through more in three weeks than most people endure in a decade, and have every aspect of their training and diet strictly controlled so as to bring them as close to perfection as possible. There will certainly be a higher number of these elite performers in football, because there are a higher number of paying jobs for said elite performers, and because more people attempt to become elite performers, but I don’t think that it follows on from that that they are better at their sport than other elite athletes, all of whom have undergone years and years of specialised training to get them where they are.

Does any of this matter, in terms of how each sport should be enjoyed? Probably not, but its interesting to think about, and kind of awe-inspiring to try and appreciate just how good those at the top of their respective games are. And if there is some discrepancy in the level of eliteness between the different sports it doesn’t detract from the fact that they would handily dispatch any civilian challengers without breaking a sweat. The joy comes from watching people who are good at stuff doing that stuff - and, as evidenced by the crowds which gather for non-league football, it doesn’t matter whether or not they are at the absolute pinnacle of said stuff. They’re still going to be much better than the rest of us. 

Competitive quizzing is different from the activities previously mentioned in that any normal person can have a guess at pretty much any question, with a chance that they’ll get it right. What sets the contestants apart on shows like University Challenge is the speed of their recall under pressure - the quickness of their knowledge as well as the knowledge itself. But there are plenty of armchair quizzers who think they could wipe the floor on the show, so just how good are the actual contestants? (Compared to an elite footballer or archer on an imaginary scale that accounts for relative skill in all disciplines?). I don’t know (and in case you hadn’t noticed by now I’m just fascinated by people who are really good at anything, and wanted to share some of that fascination with you all), but I’ll try and have a go at answering it anyway. 

So, the World Quizzing Championships have been dominated by British and Irish quizzers since its inception in 2003, with 16 of the 18 winners coming from either Britain or the Republic of Ireland (who have four wins courtesy of The Egghead Pat Gibson). This, in my mind, makes this neck of the woods comparable to South Korean archery. It is a hotbed of talent, and the infrastructure is in place to encourage and aid talent maximalisation. Indeed, if you scroll down the list of highest ranking players at the WQC in any given year you can see a significant cohort of UC alums, so clearly there are a number of elite quizzers who have passed through the show. 

This specialisation can be seen in microcosm with the preponderance of top-level quizzers produced by Oxford and Cambridge, who both have a long-standing culture of competitive quizzing far beyond other Universities. The debate is there to be had on the fairness of each institution having so many teams, but clearly they produce enough elite players to compete with far bigger Unis when entering as (sometimes tiny) colleges. 

In conclusion, I think it is pretty obvious that UC is a breeding ground for world-class quizzers, and though no one has won a World title straight off the bat after appearing on the show, there are top-50 and top 100 finishes abound, which is still greatly impressive, and helps to give an idea of just how good these students really are. 

Hoping to justify the 1000 words I’ve just written about their exceptional talents are two teams from the London Business School and Hertford College, Oxford. The Oxford side have never made it beyond the second round, but LBS reached the semi-finals in 2006, their only previous appearance on the show. Anyway, there is quite literally no time for me to recite the rules; here’s your first starter for ten... 

Paxman mentions that LBS were in the show in 2006, but doesn’t mention that they reached the semi final, which is lazy imo. A bunch of them are studying for MBAs, which makes sense. He doesn’t mention Hertford’s previous appearances either, but that’s more understandable.

Hertford’s Hitchens takes the first starter with Kennedy, and the Oxonians added a full set of bonuses on words made up by authors - including a couple of educated guesses. LBS hit back with the next question, but can only manage one bonus on famous scientists. One of the two they miss is Rosalind Franklin, and Paxman teases them for not spotting an apparently obvious clue within the question.

The first picture round is on national emblems, and LBS are first to recognise that of Vietnam for the starter. They don’t know Laos or Belarus, but do know that Mozambique has a machine gun on its one. Butterworth then jumps the gun with argon on the next starter, giving his answer just as Paxman says it in the question. Butterworth makes up for it with the music starter, recognising Fat Boy Slim before anyone else, and LBS know Primal Scream and Wu Tang Clan too. They’re still fifty points behind though, and will need a big second half to turn things around.

This task gets more difficult for them, as Hitchens takes another starter. Lloyd adds a second in a row for Oxford and they are nearly one hundred points clear. LBS really need to get some points on the board, and Ruess duly obliges, knowing that there is a massive sculpture of a spider called Maman, which sounds needlessly scary, to the extent that I’m not even going to google it.

The comeback is ended before its even begun as Oswald takes a starter for Hertford, which gives them the picture bonuses - the starter having been dropped by both teams. Lloyd produces another excellent guess of Reuben, demonstrating how useful it is to have vague knowledge as well as specific knowledge. This is one of probably five questions he has answered in a throwaway manner, but which turned out to be correct. 

By this point LBS seem to have accepted defeat. Ruess takes another starter, but there is little to no urgency on the bonus questions. They’re right, granted, to have none, they have no chance of winning, but if they gave it a go they might scrape a high scoring loser spot. Ruess is the only one who seems bothered, and bags himself ten more points. They have an amusing discussion about methods of poisoning in Agatha Christie novels (’it was used as a curry ingredient?’, Ruess wondered aloud, trying to figure out which spices could be poisonous, before Butterworth pointed out that it wasn’t something commonly used as a curry ingredient, prompting respectful mirth from the audience) on the bonuses, but still languish miles behind. 

Lloyd grabs the last starter of the night for Hertford, who win by eighty at the gong.

Final Score: London Business School 100 - 180 Hertford, Oxford

At the end, Paxman mentions Hertford’s stellar guesswork, which means I wasn’t chatting nonsense (at least on that front, the jury is out on the rest of it), and says that they’ve done a really good job. Incredibly effusive praise for a score of 180. He really is going soft in his old age.

Phew, that was a long one. If you made it through the intro you deserve a prize. And that prize is that you get to come back next week for the next episode of this blog!! Woop woop! 

And if this wasn’t quite enough UC content for you then you can subscribe for extra blogs on my Patreon, which features Retro Reviews from the 2015/16 series of the show. Ta x

[phoebehalliwell]

How about WMC all getting into the food game? Like Wyatt doesn't start anything himself but he loves working at Halliwell's, Chris and Piper co-open a little homey lunch cafe called Penny's. And Mel. PJ, and Kat open a queer bookstore/coffee shop that also sells magical ingredients/potions/spells

you know how like like working with your hands is meditation like knitting and stuff all that is really recommended for like. mental health. i think the halliwell kids get that through like mise en place like chris especially like you give a box of daikon and say make matchsticks and he’s like fuckin in the zone his Most Zen State (and of course bc he’s also him with like whatevers going on in his damaged little brain with magic he also hones his knife skills telekinetically something i think neither wyatt nor melinda does). i think melinda and wyatt would definitely be more into baking that cooking just because (as stated somewhere previously on this blog) i think melinda is like a shade ocd so like. in baking with the precise measurements and the specific steps and all that and just like. everything being an exact science and going exactly how you think it will like you can control it and anticipate it and if u follow it to the letter than wallah baked good : ) (which is also how melinda goes about potion making imo like again its this kind of belief that if everything isn’t organized or like you know whatever then something will go horribly wrong and as she practices actual magic she feels like this is a very accurate belief like chris and even wyatt will like eyeball stuff like ehh whatever lord the way the mitchells make potions damn near gives her a heart attack she’s just like. stop. there is an order!! u gotta do it by the this by the that don’t just throw things in willy nilly!!!) so yeah i think melinda likes baking because it’s like low stakes potion making. i think she can also cook, but she’s not a chef. she’s not gonna be visionary and go off book she’s no remy ratatouille but she knows how to mimic piper down the the smallest movements and when she cooks it’s the bomb dot com. i think wyatt also likes baking i don’t think he’s anything like melinda. i think i’ve said this before i think wyatt like. keeps trying to make bread. like he keeps trying to make sourdough bread and it never really goes right but like he’s gonna keep trying. i also don’t think wyatt is the best chef i think chris is arguably a better cook than wyatt but this boy can meal plan like nobody’s business. for starters, given his craft and then also just like who he is as a person (gay) he’s really into plant and the like and is super attune to what’s season this boy Loves i mean he fuckin loves his farmer’s markets all the vendors know him by name he asks them about their families blah blah blah chris can’t even remember the names of like. the farms. he’s like yeah i think i got this beef from stonehenge? he recognizes them visually alright and he knows their geographical location and he can even recognize some of the faces but just like. he cannot tell you shit. but back to wyatt i think wyatt definitely ends up having a heavy hand in producing the menus at halliwell’s which i do think are like these kind of ever changing season menus where it’s kind of like the whole family gets together to plan it but for the most part it’s wyatt and piper doing the strategizing with chris contributing and melinda and leo just sitting there like yum : ) that sounds good : ) that also sounds good : ) that one? it also sounds good! : ) bless their heart they cannot help menu plan but they will certainly eat all of that food. 

i feel like i could totally see chris opening his own restaurant if that were the path he were to go down however i would kinda love to see the restaurant be a collaboration between wyatt and chris (i also think bianca could come on board as more of the business side i think she’d kick ass at that) just like. i would like to see it. and mel pj and kat all having their own queer magical cafe!! i love. i feel like pj is definitely going to control the aesthetic of this cafe the most like once it gets to valentines day?? don’t even get me started. to the nines. balls to the wall. the full nine yards. even just like local things like if the warriors or giants or something (i guess we can invite the niners bc they’re “san francisco” but like. they’re santa clara. oh i forgot the a’s lmao.) when some local team wins a championship or whatever pj goes all out celebrating actually i’m sure she goes so all out that i wouldn’t be surprised if their little cafe had like a room you could rent out for parties kind of like tea parties et cetera that pj really just like. is the visionary behind. i think melinda would probably be the books and then also a baker but as previously established she’s very by the book she’s not the wild card so it’s kat who’s the one who gets real weird with it and does all of their experimental recipes. i also think it could be nice if this was like y’know like a brunch morning cafe that closed at like three or four then on certain days of the week open again from like 7 to 9 for assorted witchy activities. paige makings custom paintings of the major arcana and that’s the art on the walls of the cafe.

[inaflashimagine]

I hear Naruto so I come running. Pein’s arc is by far the best arc in naruto, hands down. It should have just ended there, and everything else just went downhill from there. The Akatsuki were great villains, and don’t get me started on how we were ROBBED of their screen time. I have so many feelings about this.

On a side note, Haibara definitely reminds everyone of Rock Lee and ofc gojo and geto would try to imitate his weight drop thing from the chunnin exams during one of the watch parties, breaking the beds and the floorboard in the process. Gojo tries to get everyone to do a “what’s under kakashi’s mask?” episode with him, no one takes the bait. They do a drinking game where you take one shot everytime there’s a flashback scene. Orochimaru definitely gave them all nightmares.

I also come Naruto-running when someone mentions Naruto LOL. I COMPLETELY AGREE!! 

Don’t get me wrong, some of the individual fights during that long ass war arc were pretty great (the first one that comes to mind is Kakashi v Obito, such an emotional scene), and I actually enjoyed learning about the Founders (younger me had a phat crush on Madara, Hashirama and even Tobirama LOL), but Pein’s arc just hits different. It didn’t just feel like constant explosions and there was a ton of good character development. I was upset we didn’t get more Akatsuki screen time because all of the members were so interesting and had badass uniforms. 

YES, Rock Lee!! I totally see that (imo he definitely deserved more screen time. His fight with Kimimaro is one of my favorite fights in Naruto ngl LOL). Geto and Gojo would do that, those two share one brain cell when they’re together...but poor Nanami because we all know it’s his bedroom that’s getting destroyed😭 

I’m glad no one takes the bait with Gojo’s attempt to be like Kakashi in that episode fjakldsjfskdl. You know how Akutami said Gojo’s design was modeled off Tobitake Tonbo? Imagine, years later, Gojo starts wearing the blindfold and Shoko makes fun of him for looking like Tonbo LOL.

Shoko and Nanami are winning that drinking game, it’s canon😭 and a drunk Gojo and Geto try to mimic the drunk Rock Lee fight with Kimimaro pls jklsdafljs

Orochimaru gave me nightmares when I was a kid so I relate to their fear. Back then, I was also terrified of Kakashi and Rock Lee (I thought Kakashi was a double agent or bad guy for some reason while my cousins told me that I looked like Rock Lee so I think that spooked me a bit haha)

I like to think that the SSS trio and Haibara + Nanami got to unwind a bit when watching Naruto. At least for 20-30 min they didn’t have to worry about curses🥺 

[trunkzbriefs]

Any Son and/or Briefs family headcanons? Spicy hot takes? Truths Toriyama and Toyotaro themselves can not handle? Straight up lies?

GODDAMN SORRY this took a while cause i suck at putting thoughts together. i apologize for my obvious briefs bias i have more hcs for them than the son family despite loving them both :pensive: anyway heres some random stuff

briefs hcs:

all of the briefs are pros at non-verbal communication. i hc that saiyans have their own language (and also in my own Mind Canon they still have their fuckin tails) and a lot of it is done through tail movement/body posture/grunts/etc. etc so theyve all sort of picked that up. even bulma, who doesnt have a tail, is pretty good at getting across what she means without actually speaking. they still do speak normally but it comes in handy sometimes considering that both trunks and vegeta are prone to running out of speaking energy or getting very frustrated with words, so having another way to communicate works very well for them

vegeta is fffffffffffffffffffurry. without getting too deep into my own General Saiyan hcs (thats why i made a whole ass four subspecies!!) i think that the entirety of planet vegeta tended to be very hot aside from the part where the castle was, where the temperature would drop. meaning that saiyans working in the palace would grow thicker fur around certain parts of their body, and in the royal saiyans theyd be Especially fluffy. he kept it down on earth, but he has thick patches of fur around the bottom parts of his arms and legs. kind of like snowy boots and gloves! he also has fur that grows in on his neck like a lions mane.

future trunks is an actions sponge, vegeta is a words sponge. vegeta will pick up words VERY quickly regardless if he fully understands the meaning of it or not (completely inspired by 'THATS RIGHT BOYS... MONDO COOL' in z) and future trunks will unintentionally mimic the actions of people - around people he looks up to he might take a few small mannerisms from but this extends to copying the disposition of anyone; he's just very adaptive. this is the most obvious (and funniest) when he's around vegeta bc it really shows like. yeah damn that sure is vegeta's son

vegeta & bulla have an intimidating bastard smirk naturally. their natural smiles are pretty frightening and they have to put effort into a 'normal' one. this also extends to current trunks, his default smile is the Vegeta Bastard Smirk but he learned to have a normal smile quicker than his father and sister. future trunks has a slightly unnerving natural smile (the fact that his pupils are always drawn so fucking small makes me hc that he just has a very intimidating look of 'cat thats about to pounce on an unfortunate trapped mouse' whenever he smiles) but he learned to look normal even quicker than current trunks since he's around humans a Lot and is sort of their uh, Hope. don't want to look scary to the people who depend on you!

bulma has some fighting knowledge and mildly good ki control. vegeta taught her it as a just in case so that she'd be able to defend herself against Bigger threats if he wasn't there and also so she could raise her own ki to alert someone to her if she had to.

vegeta is extremely clean and can not stand to have things disorganized for more than like... an hour before he has to tidy everything up. every time he goes down to the lab and bulma is passed out in a pile of bolts and circuit boards it kills him inside just a little bit

future trunks has little concept of power control. since his timeline was always in danger it wasn't really an important thing for him to learn. the amount of mugs he's accidentally crushed is impressive

vegeta tends to not sound like he's asking questions when he is. he doesn't add the proper infliction to the end of his questions and just sounds flat most of the time. it's confusing to people who dont know him well.

im not even gonna lie, im a BIG fan of the chill demon panchy headcanon so i love the idea that the briefs have a Lil bit of demon in them but just dont know it ghjnkm

[banging my fists on the 'hcs that not even got could take away from me' table] future trunks has OCD

vegeta doesn't really get labels but he's bisexual & "debatably a man", bulma is bisexal & bigender transfem (sometimes shes Wamen and other times its like "gender? no"), bulla is a nonbinary lesbian, current trunks is a bisexual trans man & future bulma forgot to explain the concept of gender and sexuality to future trunks so he's a little confused on that front and his gender & sexuality are "i have literally never thought abt these concepts in my life but i think men are nice. i refuse to think about gender though" (i actually have two main hcs for future trunks which are either gay trans man or more-feminine-presenting nonbinary bisexual)

son hcs:

goku is Not as fluffy as vegeta at all, but he does have fur on certain parts of his body. namely on the back of his elbows + ankles, down his back connecting to his tail, and on his shoulders. its inherented from gine!

gohan is learning saiyan language from vegeta! vegeta acts grumpy about it but he's glad to have someone to teach. when gohan learned that most of the history had been lost he basically wished shenron for a big ol book on saiyan culture and gave it to vegeta just as an act of kindness and vegeta was like [in an angry voice but very touched] "Ok. Sit down. You're learning." by extension gohan is also teaching the rest of his family!

i will take ox king being actually non-human to my grave so like, chichi has horns and a very short ox tail! gohan and goten both have horns, but they're hidden by hair. goten's horns are bigger than gohans.

goten also has a more ox-like tail, with a little puff of fur at the end. generally, gohan looks more saiyan-like and goten looks more ox/human-like.

although he keeps up his cheery demeanor very well, goku is still haunted pretty badly by like... everything that’s happened in his life. he still has frequent nightmares about cell & buu specifically.

gohan will freak out at worse, zone out at best, if he's even tapped on the neck. it reminds him of the whole 'getting his neck snapped on namek' so that area is pretty off limits to everyone

goten gets along really well with android 17. they both have a love for nature and 17s kind of like his chill uncle, so whenever he gets too stressed out or just needs a break you can find him face down on the ground outside of 17's place on monster island.

goku is really really good at remembering completely random shit. bulma uses this to her advantage whenever she's working and has him memorize random technology stuff. a week later goku can not remember what he had for breakfast that morning but as soon as bulma asks "hey do you remember what i told you last week" hes like "oh yeah sure i have no idea what it means but [blurts out three hours worth of technical garble]"

oh boy is this a headcanon that has a lot more depth to it than just a bullet on a tumblr post, but gohan has DID!

goku, like vegeta, doesnt get labels either, and does not even Try, ask him about any of it and hes like "i dont get the gender thing but i think lots of people look nice :)" gohan is gay and like vegeta, "debatably a man", goten + chichi are both bi nonbinary, & pan is a lesbian trans woman.

both:

bulla and pan are both into music! i think theyd mess around making their own stuff w/ launchpads

i have a general hc of ki mixing or shielding, essentially, if youre close enough to someone people wont be able to tell apart your ki and you can also 'shield' someone with your ki for a small amount of time. if vegeta has his energy low, his and bulma's energy are the same. same thing with goku and chichi! goten and trunks are near impossible to tell apart, and same thing with gohan and videl.

though goten and trunks are both protective over their younger siblings, gotenks is that protectiveness times a thousand. look at bulla or pan wrong for 2 seconds and you're going to have an angry gotenks in your face asking if you have any last words. i like to think that trunks and goten fused casually a lot, especially around the time where bulla and pan were young, so its basically goten and trunks own attachment to them PLUS gotenks' attachment to them as his own person combined.

i like to pretend end of z did not happen the way it did so uub, using nimbus, travels back and forth a lot. goku isn’t the only one who teaches him how to fight as goten, gohan and trunks all think of him like a little brother and love training with him!

fuck you letters to toriyama/toyotaro hot takes:

cell, as cool of a villian as he is, definitely should have had a creepier final form. or multiple- just something that really drives in the fact that he's made up of other's dna & fuckin ABSORBS people. also his first two forms should have had a different absorbtion method other than the tail thing (not the drinking thing thats fine) it just feels.   Weird. not good

it would have been far more interesting to keep the bitter attitude towards vegeta that future trunks had imo... in super trunks was going through a Lot granted but the fact tht he wasnt more confrontational to vegeta being a dick to him seemed kind of off considering his attitude in z i just.. think it would be interesting and far better if they had more of a back and forth 'family but lowkey hate each other' relationship

i dont want to rant about super so heres some super condensed takes, goku black arc specific because thats 90% of what ive seen of super:

mai is a fucking freak ass weirdo, why did they not just make another character to pair with trunks

trunks not flipping the fuck out at his timeline being erased feels... out of character. also trunks deserved the win against zamasu

future bulma did NOT need to die

trunks should have just stayed in the current timeline

please fucking let trunks and goten grow up. we SAW a version of trunks who looked 14 (history of trunks....) and the versions of goten & trunks we have r/n in super do not look 13/14 respectively what in the goddamn hell is going on in the character design department

super definitely should have taken place later down the line

supers version of bulma and videl look awful. why are they That stick like.

vegeta needs to kill frieza. just once.

fu has enough potential to be a very interesting mainline character and i am so sad he's not

i would actively enjoy a sdbh anime with more  budget that isnt just a promo anime and has a plot that makes sense... i think db should have more wild spinoffs

xenoverse deserved a better story that went FULL in on the 'what if' type of timelines- like they did in raging blast which is a FUCKING GREAT GAME

straight up lies:

dragon ball z is a good series

[shogikappa]

Rockin’ Pretty (Nintendo DS)

Rockin’ Pretty (Japan: Happy Star Band; Europe: Diva Girls: Making the Music) is a Nintendo DS band/music/rhythm game published in 2009 where you can choose between any of the 4 instruments the band members play and work your way through the different stages which offer new songs that can be unlocked.

I really love this game and there are several unique things about it. I’ve been looking for a game that lets you play as the various instruments in the band and this game delivers that, as well as music that’s instrumental (although the endings hint that the band isn’t actually an instrumental band, though throughout the game the music that’s played is all instrumental). Besides those, it also differs from conventional rhythm games that are in the style of say Guitar Hero, Synthesia (if you could call it a rhythm game), and Bang Dream where, instead of the music coming down as dots/bars down onto the horizontal line where you’re supposed to press buttons, the equivalent of “lines” in this game is spread out at various distances to mimic playing the actual instrument. The gameplay is played entirely using the stylus, and no buttons are used (though you can use the buttons to navigate menus and options, etc.).

The 4 members of the band are Mai (Japanese: Mahiru) on guitar, Kara (Jp: Kanami) on bass guitar, Mio on keyboard, and Reena (Jp: Riko) on drums. Although the US localization changed most of the names, at least their biography and looks remain intact, unlike the previous game, Princess on Ice, which, during localization, had the appearances of all characters completely redesigned for a “Western audience”. Anyway, onto the gameplay.

Just as a note, for each individual song, you can always choose between any of the 4 instruments to play (as well as the characters to dress up/equip instrument skins), so you aren’t stuck with 1 instrument throughout the game and can play the same song using all 4 before you move on to the next song, if you so wish. You get to choose between 3 difficulty levels for each song/instrument. Each song/instrument also has an autoplay mode where you could just watch the song being played.

The Instruments

Mai/Guitar

If you choose Mai, you get the guitar game. You’re allowed to choose your preferred hand so that the game reorientates. Anyway, there are 2 lanes which the music notes come diagonally down on. As you can probably already tell, depending on the colour of the blocks, when you actually pick will be different, so if the block is blue you need to pick when it reaches the blue zone on the lane, and so on. This creates a desirable (IMO) challenge that requires a little bit of calculation when a bunch of blocks of different colours come down in succession, which can happen more frequently when you get to higher stages. To pick, you place your stylus on the double-diamond-shaped thing between the lanes and slide it towards the side the block is on. Getting the precise angle can take minimal practice when you need to tremolo-pick (picking alternatively between the 2 lanes back and forth). The 6 possible zones reflect the 6 strings on an electric guitar, at least in my mind.

Kara/Bass

The bass is similar to the guitar game, except you have a single lane of 4 possible colour zones, reflecting the 4 strings on a bass guitar. Here, the main move, instead of sliding your stylus, is to simply tap the colour zone when the music block hits it, but there are also special blocks that require sliding, which the game calls strumming. Again, same calculation is needed when multiple colours come down.

Mio/Keyboard

Like Synthesia, but, a bit worse. I think this instrument can get quite unfair but good thing this is really just my main complaint of the game (otherwise I do quite love it). Lines come down and well, you tap the keys when the lines hit them. The unfair bit comes from how the lines often, in later levels, cover up lines that are below them (so you actually need to tap the key 2 times in a row but because the top line obscures the bottom line, you miss the 2nd tap). This becomes a game where you probably need some memorization to ace the song, although you don’t need to ace a song to complete it. Sometimes you’ll see multiple lines coming at the different keys simultaneously, which is when you need to slide your stylus across all the keys, similar to playing a glissando sweep on a keyboard.

Reena/Drums

Possibly my favourite to play and the one I do most well in, although I do prefer the guitar one for its creativity. The 4 circles essentially semi-simulate the crash cymbal, the bass drum, the snare drum, and well, that green one is rarely used so I don’t quite remember, might have been the high-hat/ride cymbal or so. Anyway, the notes slide in from the opposite side so that they always take the long way to get to the circles: the yellow and red notes always come from the right. Again, a similar calculation challenge presents itself when multiple notes of different colours come from both sides, although it’s easy (for me anyway) to get the hang of it when you focus more on the rhythm of the drumming than just looking at the notes. Some special notes require you to slide the stylus rather than just tapping.

Plot

Mai is a newcomer to this band Starlight that’s looking for a guitarist because their previous one dropped out. Mai and Kara are schoolmates, although they had never actually talked before. It looks like Mio and Reena are from the same school, but it’s not explicitly mentioned. Mio and Reena though don’t go to the same school Mai and Kara do.

Anyway, now a 4-member all-girls rock band, they start playing at different venues and enter the annual music contest Rockin’ Pretty (RP).

As you move one step closer to the finals, a new venue/stage is unlocked and 2 new songs become available, and you get a bit of progress on the little bit of story, if you wanna call it that (it’s pretty much dialogue presented in a visual novel style about them moving on but hey, it’s nice to see).

Music

The band plays a number of songs throughout the game. These are given by stage number below:

1. See You Again

2a. Heaven

2b. Prayer

3a. Good Morning

3b. Ambitious Ladies

4a. Your Eyes

4b. I Love You!

5a. Fluttering Heart

5b. Happy Sunday

6a. Fiery Glance

6b. Boyfriend

7a. Summer Fun

7b. Fight For Your Love

8. Rockin’ Nova

The music feels a bit mediocre. The tunes are not anything great, but I do enjoy this game enough to want to go back to listening to the music, but less so because the tunes are that great. The gameplay though, I think, makes up for it. The music ranges from softer pop-sounding music to something in the mid area. I wouldn’t say anything in this game falls under hard rock. Maybe a bit hard, but nothing too much.

Endings

There are 3 endings to the game. A good ending (which I unexpectedly got the first time round), as well as 2 normal endings. There’s no bad ending. There’s been various sources talking about how you get the good end. One page claims that you need to beat all songs on hard and do well in the finale which I can attest is not true cause I only played and beat 1 song on hard and yet I got the good end anyway. What is sure is that you need to ace the song in your finale (as any instrument), and just a normal performance would not do. And apparently the clothes/instruments that you bought also affect it, according to another source, but by that point I’ve really bought everything that you can buy so I couldn’t test it out. It’s a good idea to anyway, since your score caps at like 50000 or so. Your score is used to buy the girls new outfits, hairstyles, and instruments. Simply play a song and you’ll earn some points again, depending on your performance. The same source also mentions how you need to “get used to playing on Normal/Hard rather than just Easy”.

So I suppose the best bet is to warm yourself up on Easy, then move on to Normal (which is what I did), and buy outfits and instruments as you progress. After that, you can see all the endings depending on if you ace the finale or simply do average, and you’ll see the 3 endings. Maybe play one song on Hard like I did but I can’t say if it really changes anything.

If you only perform average, you’ll get 1 of the 2 normal endings at random. Good thing about this game is that you’ll see an ending each time you play the finale song, so you can check out all 3 endings at any point, but it does mean you’d have to sit through the credits every time you just wanna play the song.

Well of course the normal endings are well, you don’t win the contest. But as a character points out in one of the endings, making it all the way to the finals still means you put on a great show, even if you aren’t the best! After all, do you ever just listen to your favourite piece of music of all time and think your second favourite piece of music is not worthy? Another quote from the anime Sound Euphonium: music wasn’t originally intended for competition. And really, not to downplay the excitement of winning a music contest, but it’d have been lots of fun just to play music all around the city and make it to the finals, having your music be enjoyed by so many.

Anyway, even the normal ends aren’t too bad and they continue to play and keep on rockin pretty so hey, things are still good.

You unlock a photo studio where you can “take photos” of the band after you beat the game but the 3D models don’t exactly look that impressive. I’d rather have preferred a gallery for the endings I’ve unlocked but oh well.

Overall

Well I do very much love this game, especially since I came across it while on my music craze, hunting for band games and shows. And I got to live the fantasy of playing music with others a bit. My only complaints are that the keyboard game feels especially unfair and that the game’s a bit too short. If you enjoy a unique rhythm/band/music game, I’d say this one is worth checking out. Heck, I don’t really enjoy rhythm games but even I love this game because of the band atmosphere and the simulation (kinda) of playing different instruments. So maybe give it a go even if you don’t like rhythm games but want to play a game relevant to music bands.

[15-dollars-and-a-dream]

even though we're only partway through spoiler season, what legendaries are you all most excited to brew? For me it's Xantcha (and I'd love to see a budget rakdos politics deck for her), but Gyrus is definitely a close second

I think everyone is a bit disappointing in Jund not being as land themed as we were lead to believe, however I think that the creatures we did get are really cool. Xantcha is going to be such an interesting political commander. Between the huge body and the drawing cards you both want and do not want her to be given to you. Gyrus is another interesting one, reminds me of Felidar but Jund and harder to use. 

I know @garrukked mentioned Brudiclad looked interesting to him. The fact that the ability doesn’t end at the end of turn will be interesting. Mimic vat feels like it will be powerful there. 

Personally I was really looking forward to what turned out to be the new Planeswalker Aminatou. Her art was just so compellingly creepy. I was actually looking forward to Esper the least, and while overall I’m underwhelmed by the Planeswalker Commanders I was at first most dissapointed by her. But I still want to build her. The +1 is interesting with Miracles, the -1 is interesting with her -6, but also any way to exchange permanents. It also combos nicely with Felidar Guardian. The -6 is uhh... weird... I’m sure there’s something really rude you want to do with Deepglow Skate, and a sac outlet for all your stuff.

To be honest though, the only Commanders so far I don’t want to build are Windgrace, and Thantis. 

Windgrace just feels bad most of the time imo. Hes a 5 drop Planeswalker which comes with both a high opportunity cost and a high vulnerability to just getting killed by attackers. Dies to removal is normally an awful argument, but planeswalkers in commander tend not to survive a full turn cycle. His +2 isn’t card advantage unless you discard a land, even then its +1 card, which makes him at best a 5 cmc Phyrexian Arena that lets you see an extra card (and can be attacked). His -3 is fine, but not exciting. Id rather just play Azusa in that slot. And the -11 will never happen. You cant Doubling Season it, something they made sure of for both green walkers. It also doesn’t just win the game like most walker ults do. He’s fine but just, not what I was hoping for.

Thantis as well is just boring to me. Just feels like Kresh 2.0 I guess the idea is you can force them to attack with stuff they don’t want to die elsewhere. But for 6 mana, I feel like it should do a lot more.

I am really looking forward to seeing the Bant Enchantress stuff. Also, shout out to my boy Treasure Nabber A.K.A. the new auto include for red decks!

-IZ

[jonsalways]

The 3 Queens of Westeros: A Costume Meta

I should be finishing my  sewing projects but here I am writing this meta lmao. I had a lot of requests for it, so I hope you enjoy it :D

Season 7 clearly had three major characters when we talk about outfits: Cersei, Daenerys and Sansa. I’m gonna talk about Jon’s outfits later but these three ladies are the hot topic when we talk  about hidden meanings. So here we go.

They are Queens

I know Sansa wasn’t crowned [yet] as Queen in the North but let’s be honest she was the queen in the north this season. And not only we feel that, but her costumes have common elements to Daenerys’s and Cersei’s that [alongside with other things] makes me believe she will be fighting for the title of Queen of Westeros next season. The more I analyse the costumes more evident it gets. Also Michele Clapton herself makes sure to talk about Sansa’s outfits everytime she talks about the queen’s costumes, to make sure we’re aware Sansa is connected to it.

Their Inspirations

The first important thing to notice is how the costumes these characters wear mimic characters they are trying, intentionally or not, to be like. The items they wear, the colors but most important the textures they wear show who they are trying to become.

Cersei is mirroring her father, Tywin Lannister more and more. Tywin was a man of black clothing and the texture of his coats would be more rudimentary if he wanted to show  aggression  or smoother at moments he was less a general. Cersei does the same at moments she’s negotiating in private.

She’s  also wearing high collars as her father used to.

Daenerys is mirroring her brother Viserys..She is slowly losing her own style [skirts, long winged sleeves and lots of dragonscales] and heading to a more straight style that resembles her brother.

Sansa is also mirroring her brother. Well, actually her cousin, not that she’s aware that. But aside from episode 7, all Sansa’s outfits are the female version of Jon’s costume as King in the North.If we think Jon actually mimics Robb and Ned, we could also say Sansa mimics them as well.

As the show builds them as wannabe final queens of Westeros they connect through similar elements to show how they share this important role, but at the same time, they wear slightly different versions of items to show how they differ from each other too.

They all wear dark colors.

Sansa wears light grey outfits with brown tones and very few black details. Daenerys wears dark grey with red and silver elements. And Cersei is the only one who actually wears black with lots of silver items.

Cersei is mourning for her children so the  black is always there. By the end of the season as her pregnancy goes on, her dresses became more greyish but the black details still appear. It’s important to notice how Cersei is so obsessed with the Iron Throne she distance herself from the Lannister colors. We see no more red on her outfits, only black and grey with a very few touches of gold.

Sansa is the character more connected to her house colors this season. Grey is the official Stark color alongside brown in the show, and these are the colors we see her wearing all the time, to show her loyalty to house Stark, to Jon and to the North. She wears a lot of unusual textures which I tinfoil  bit about their significance here if you’re interested.

Daenerys is on the edge this season. The more she embraces her Targaryen side more she loses her own clothing trademarks and colors. At her first scene at Dragonstone we see her very usual style, but at the end of episode 7 she’s wearing a way more Targaryen style. I think this is such a shame, since Daenerys’s outfits at season 5 and 6 were so elaborated and full of beautiful details. As season 7 goes her costumes became way more plain, we see no rich embroidery or dragon textures anymore.

Her color became a very dark grey, and she’s wearing red for the very first time, which is literally a red sign. The more red she wears more threatening she is trying to look.

It’s nice to notice that Daenerys was half way madness this season, with very questionable decisions. My guess is that the moment she embraces “fire and blood” for real, she’ll finally wear black and red instead of dark grey and red. Daenerys as a villain would wear only blackwith waaaaaaaaaay more red. A complete red outfit is unlikely but the more red she wears more a threat to everyone else she becomes.

They wear a crown

Michele Clapton only gave a crown to Cersei when she was officially crowned Queen. That’s why Daenerys doesn’t have a crown yet neither have Sansa. But they do have a representation of a crown, they wear chains. If we look back at season 6, before Cersei blows the Sept of Baelor, she wears a chain on her outfit. At that moment she feels powerful, she feels as the true queen because she knows Margaery is going to die. But she wasn’t wearing a crown there, she was wearing a silver chain to symbolize the crown she would wear very soon.

Daenerys and Sansa do the same. Daenerys has this silver chain built over a dorsal spine of a dragon. It represents her strength as  a  dragon queen. It’s very dramatic as Daenerys likes to wear and the silver imo makes a reference to the Iron Throne as well.

Sansa’s chain is very humble when we look at it. Its meaning is also very unique for her. Sansa’s chain is part of her necklace which represents a stitch. Sansa’s chain ends on a needle she hitches at her belt as Jon hitches Longclaw to his. The needle is her weapon, she sews her own destiny with it, and it represents her pride and feeling of safety. It’s important to notice Sansa’s chain is vibrant golden to counter Cersei’s and Daenerys’s and show Sansa has a different kind of “crown” and its inspiration is not the Iron Throne itself.

They have the same silhouette

One of the most fabulous thing about her costumes is the fact they look so similar and yet so different at the same time. They all have the same a similar shape when we look at the shoulders, but in three different versions of it.

Cersei wears a more rounded kind of shoulder pad. Daenerys wears a more triangular one while Sansa wears a more squared shape.

The shoulders may seem a very stupid detail at first but it’s nice to notice Stannis, Robb, Robert, Renly, Tommen and Joffrey they all had different shoulder shapes on their costumes.

I could tinfoil a bit and say the shoulder pads represent somehow what these characters care for and carry over their shoulders as rulers, but their individual meaning I’m not very certain so I leave it to your interpretation.

They wear an armour

All of them wear a piece of clothing to represent an armour somehow.

The more threatened Cersei feels, more embroidery she wears on her costumes and higher the collars on her outfits become.

When she meets Euron for the first time she’s so triggered the embroidery of her outfit is almost ridiculous. She wears them as a protection to her neck, [we would probably do the same if a witch have told us the valonqar was coming for it, right?].

At moments she wants to feel  powerful, her embroidery armour became very threatening, almost as if was thorns coming out of her costume. It’s pure art to be honest.

As Daenerys is never on defensive mode, her armour is way more an item for attack. She wears her chain as a shoulder armour when she fights and  adds a cape to it to send a political message during a meeting. A red one if she’s being aggressive or a more friendly color if she’s being more tolerant as a queen. When she doesn’t see need for a warning, she doesn’t wear it.

Sansa is the most humble queen when we talk about costumes as you can see. Sansa is always protecting her shoulders from the cold, but when she sides with Arya to defeat Littlefinger she changes her fur cloak to a cape with a wood that resembles Arya’s coat. During Littlefinger’s trial she even wears it over only one shoulder as Arya does. Every time Sansa was in a dangerous situation she wore a cape. This tradition was kept at season 7 too, so the cape is her armour.

Cersei x Daenerys

One of the most interesting outfits for Cersei imo is the one she wears at the Dragonpit. Michele Clapton said that was a sort of “undercover Cersei” outfit. It was supposed to make you believe she was being honest but it should reveal she was actually lying the whole time, if you’re smart enough to notice.

Her costume is grey, to deceive you and make you believe she’s not that evil being she is. The black is there as a reminder of her mourning, but the embroidery is not visible over her neck. It makes us believe she’s not on a defensive mode like a lioness. But when we look it at close we see her silhouette looks like there’s a shoulder armour hidden over her coat, and when she turns around we see her threatening back detail. It’s a warning sign almost as she was holding a hidden dagger on her back. That’s precisely its meaning.

The interesting part is that Daenerys winter coat have a similar feature. The threatening back is also there, in Viseryon colors. Of course it may only be a reference to dragons, but if it means something more I leave it up to you.

Cersei x Sansa

Sansa and Cersei share a lot of past experiences together, but at this season they share a very similar outfit. When Arya is questioning Sansa’s loyalty to Jon, Sansa wears one of her most amazing  dresses ever, with only her cloak.  Her  outfit resembles a lot the outfit Cersei wears when Jaime leaves at episode 7. It’s funny to see Sansa is talking about fighting together to  win the great war while wearing this costume, and Cersei is talking about letting the entire north die in the great war while wearing her version of this costume.

Sansa x Daenerys

I have a huge meta about how Daenerys looks resembles Sansa a lot this season and I tinfoil a bit why this is happening, but Daenerys battle suit is waaay more similar to Sansa’s standard dress this season than to any of Cersei’s outfits. At her most vulnerable moments Daenerys wears a very similar hairstyle to Sansa’s as well. Especially around Jon, Daenerys’s looks seem to approach way more to Sansa’s and the reasons for that I leave it up to you too.

Winter is here.

Before the end I’d like to talk about the winters outfit. Jon’s winter costume is amazing. I really love it. It’s just what I think the King in the North should wear.A lot of people thought his coat matches Daenerys’s. Well I’m here to tell you it doesn’t.

His whole costume is very connected to the wildlings, specially to Mance Rayder. Jon’s costume is a younger and more luxous version of Mance’s outfit, with a little bit of Jon Snow on it, with his huge cloak protecting his nape.

I think it’s a very clever joke, about Jon being the King beyond the wall, either he’s aware of it or not. It’s also nice to notice how Jon’s position with Daenerys this season resembles a lot Mance’s with Stannis. They were both trying to save their people from the threat beyond the wall; They  face a ruler who enjoys burning people alive demanding them to bent the knee. Jon’s lines sometimes echo Mance’s and they have this inner struggle of saving their people or losing their respect by submitting to a southerner ruler. Jon is Mance 2.0 this season and this costume reflects that.

Daenerys’s winter coat is very peculiar. The first thing I noticed is how it didn’t look warm enough to be north the Wall. And if we see the backstage shoots we see Emilia was actually freezing on it, because it wasn’t a  warm coat at all. The dragon back is a reference to Viseryon, that’s where its color comes from.

The texture with furs is imo a reference to the Night King himself.While Jon’s is a random pattern made with fur, Daenerys is a regular and somehow geometrical pattern just like the NK. Daenerys’s outfit presents her a the ultimate enemy to the WW’s. Almost as a Yin/Yang thing. She was supposed to be  an alternate, more humanized version of him. Their outfits are two sides of the same coin. His is all in black and blue tones that evoke the cold and frozen winter, while Daenerys’s is all white and cream with touches of silver, to evoke the snow and beauty of the winter.

Daenerys wearing white is something we see a lot when she is trying to be a savior.She used to wear only white at Meereen, where she was considered a mother, a mhysa. So now that she feels like a savior again, rescuing all those people, the white is back.

To be honest with all the drama they put on Daenerys’s wardrobe I was expecting a much more impressive coat for her beyond the wall costume.

This coat it’s not something I really like to be honest, not because I find it ugly or something like that  but bc this coat kind of disappointed me as a costume maker, because I know Michele Clapton could do so much better for a winter design, specially for Daenerys which is such a drama queen when we talk about outfits.

I was thinking a lot about Clapton’s motivations, and then I realized Daenerys’s is not wearing the best winter outfit in the show because Clapton is keeping her best winter design for Sansa.

If Sansa really is going to be crowned Queen in the North next season she’ll have to wear an amazing outfit that stands out how much she IS a Winter Queen. Her costumes will have to be gorgeous so the viewers will look at it and have no doubt about which queen really rules the north.

I’ve always enjoyed Daenerys’s costumes but this season I must say Cersei’s were far better. Now that winter is here I want to see Sansa’s outfits as well.  I’m so excited. Lmao.