#There is a lot to analyze

[teamtardis-notdead]

"All that matters is order vs chaos"

That quote summaries one of the most prominent themes of this season.

Sylvie and Renslayer stand in a direct opposition to each other. They literally have been defined by the show as the representations of order and chaos.

What is interesting is that Loki and Mobius seem to be a parellel of the same theme to a lesser extent. Loki tends naturally to be drawn to chaos but has learned to "take a look at the bigger picture" and let order rule from time to time. Mobius on the other hand gets naturally drawn to order but he appreciates and understand the need for chaos.

Both Renslayer and Sylvie judge Loki and Mobius for their duality. Sylvie seems rather disappointed in Lokis compliance with the TVA while Renslayer thinks that Mobius doesn't has it in himself to lead and make hard decision. She has called him more than once a "coward".

This makes me believe that the main conflict isn't necessarily between Loki/Mobius and He Who​ Remains, but rather between Sylvie and Renslayer and the Chaos they will wreck (again) on this universe.

Also they clearly have established different concepts and characteristics for this "chaos vs order" theme and its reasonable to expect that it's going to find some sort of conclusion at the end of this season, depending what type of story the creators want to tell. It will defiently be interesting to see what they do with it.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

I hope you take this as the compliment it is intended to be, but you strike the same chord of irreverence-as-love, jokes-to-showcase-sencerity that I get from Chuck Tingle, and I adore both of you.

You have bestowed the greatest honour upon me.

[elbiotipo]

Nameless Bandits are perhaps the worst of Bethesda's (and other RPGs) design. I hate it so much. In an RPG, you cannot put yourself in the role of a good person if you have a kill count in the hundreds, and you cannot do anything about it because those Nameless Bandits cannot be talked to or even avoided. You HAVE to kill them. They are there to provide you human targets so you can play shooter. There is no story behind them (they outnumber named NPCs by magnitudes), no names, nothing. You cannot try to cross peacefully, they will attack you, always.

And perhaps if it was a FPS game, where you are in a combat situation (though that's a whole another thing), you could understand there's no much time for dialogue or peaceful options. But in an RPG, you can't put yourself in the role of a 'hero' if you're mowing down hundreds and hundreds of people. I wanna just say, for once, 'hey, can we talk this out', but you can't. It just takes me out of it.

Starfield also has featured them, so I've lost hope that this piece of design will go away anytime soon.

[tenisperfection]

An underrated thing about the bachelor party scene where Tommy hugs Buck before going to work is Buck's small little "yeah, okay" when Tommy promises him that he'll try his damnedest to make it to the wedding. It is such a small moment but maybe because of his history of love interests putting work over him as well as his own abandonment issues, there is a part of Buck that doesn't look like he believes Tommy, that takes it as what someone says when they leave and don't come back or intend to come back, even when Buck waits and waits (I'm going to be right here when you come back, okay?). So the fact that Tommy literally ran from the fire to the hospital, still in his turnouts and covered in soot, all because he promised Buck he would try his best to show up and he meant it? I love that for Buck. I love the look on his face as he reads Tommy's text, because this might be new but it is good for him to finally feel like a priority in a romantic relationship in ways he's not experienced before.

[detectiveposting]

my stages of watching columbo

1: hahah hes just a silly detective ;)

2: columbo is actually a cunning manipulative liar that hides his true persona behind the facade of a slow and clumsy middle class detective

3: hahah hes just a silly detective ;)

[introspectivememories]

too many of you guys think nico is the loser and not lewis for letting the divorce go on for so long. like they're both losers about each other. emotionally constipated idiots who can't talk about their toxic homoerotic friendship that imploded on itself like 8 years ago and are now making it everyone else's problem. yeah nico's on television or in beer gardens talking about lewis all the time but like every other month some reporter is like "lewis, what's your favorite moment in your career?" and lewis no hesitation is like "oh man, karting, y'know? everything was simpler then" and then spends another six months skirting around nico's name. like this whole thing they're doing in the media isn't some kinda extended foreplay for them. they're both still pressing on the bruise to make sure it's still there!!! every few months, they're literally just asking on public television, does it still hurt for you like it does for me? and like clockwork, someone will release new information about them or one of them will say something about each other (in my heart, he's still my best friend/yes... and teammate) and the answer will remain the same, yes, of course, always.

[hyperfixating-rn-brb]

honestly I think I forgot that good omens is a comedy?

like just unreasonably goofy and ineffably silly?

aziraphale dancing around with a feather boa and being adorably proud of his magic tricks?

crowley being really into ducks for no discernable reason?

they dance as an apology when they put themselves in danger?

they try to stop the apocalypse by raising a child in disguises they really didn't need because the Dowlings have never seen them before?

the antichrist's reasoning for nuclear energy being bad is that it wasn't green and bubbling?

like yeah a lot of stuff in this show are so heartbreaking and have torn my own heart out many times over, but I'm taking this rewarch to just appreciate the surface silliness when I can without looking too deep into it.

[swords-and-starlight]

i feel the need to remind everyone that Damen’s literally one of the smartest and most well-educated characters in the series. He’s extremely well-read and knowledgeable about military tactics and strategy, which if you didn’t know also includes a huge depth of history knowledge, and his talent comes from both education and years of experience. He’s smart enough to know geography and terrain information of an area he hasn’t needed to have information on in seven years, and even then, the lands they are talking about were in mainland Vere, not Delpha, so his studies were his own initiative. he has favorite poems! HE ENJOYED DEBATING OBSCURE PHILOSOPHY WITH HESTON!!! like y’all Damen is just as intelligent as Laurent, it’s just that Laurent’s intelligence is about manipulation and chess and Damen’s just a nerd.

(also people are gonna be coming for me for this one but i think Damen likes books and libraries a lot more than Laurent ever did)

[bi-hop]

having read the manga now... I still think they're t4t but in a new unprecedented fashion. I have no idea what's going on with Laios, but take my hand...

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

A-Qing, the little fox.

[thirdmagic]

[let-roman-bite-someone]

i think that something that the fandom doesn’t acknowledge much is that roman is canonically a perfectionist and often stresses over getting work done properly. i have nothing more to add to it, i just wanted to bring this to your attention.

[mintaikk]

Analyzing Tumblr sexymen so people don't feel the need to judge someone for their "HEAR ME OUT" characters, Vox from Hazbin Hotel addition! Also, since I think this is like, the first actually terrible person that I've covered, plz note that someone liking a terrible character doesn't mean they condone their actions!

Part 1, Prev

There's probably other stuff in there as well, like how shipping him with Val probably enhanced his chances of being a popular sexyman 🤷‍♂️

[coddda]

Hiiiiiii. Episode 25/26 lawlight analysis rant thingy here. I don't know how to write an intro for this so let's just get to it LOL

I think one of the reasons that the rain/foot scenes stick out so much (the. Sheer insanity of a Foot Massage Scene in an anime revolving around two guys trying to kill each other aside 💀) is the fact that the anime specifically suffers a bit in terms of adapting a few of the "emotional" moments in death note.

And I don't mean "emotionally impactful" exactly. For example I think the adaptations of scenes like Raye and Naomi's deaths were very impactful and the atmospheres of their final scenes were great, but I mean more from a characterization standpoint (if that makes sense). Being more focused on mind and logic games, Death Note as a whole isn't as invested in individual characters' deeper feelings as it is in its action (which isn't necessarily a criticism per say, it's simply part of the nature of a mystery thriller series). But just because they're fewer and farther between doesn't mean there are none at all. In the manga we do get to see, for example, how much Light actually cared for his family and especially Sayu, and how he actually felt more conflicted and suffered lack of sleep/appetite when he first used the Death Note.

The anime specifically as an adaptation is pretty good at adapting the main mind fuckery and action of Death Note, but its lacking in properly adapting scenes like the ones I mentioned above is a criticism I see somewhat often, and it's pretty fair imo. Compared to all the other adaptations, it certainly seems to fall short on an emotional level: the musical has entire songs going in depth about the characters feelings and relationships, the 2015 jdrama is. Insane and has its emotional moments in spades (because it's a TV drama, which are more focused on portraying emotional conflict and the like), even the 2006 movies has its emotional beats and L Change the WorLd is. Well. Oh Man.

Anime Light to a lot of people is like. Light but he's "already evil" (which I have my own thoughts on but I digress). Light but after using the Death Note for like 2 minutes he's already like "fuck yeah time to kill criminals". Basically the anime doesn't take as much time to delve into his less cynical sides or really delve into his already vague and harder to decipher feelings in general, he is noticeably colder from the get-go here, etc.

But that's part of why I think episode 25 manages to stand out so much tonally (apart from it being, y'know, the episode L literally Dies). I love the episode so much and could probably rant for hours about how much I love the artistic choices made in it but what I'm trying to get at here is that it's one of the very few moments where the show tries to go deeper into specific character's emotions, and one of the very few moments where the show Attempts (emphasis on "attempts" because, well, you'll see in a bit) to get more in-depth into Light's feelings apart from his cynicism/apathy/justice. ness.

L in these two scenes in episode 25 is, well, pretty damn open about how he feels. It's usually interpreted as him knowing that he's going to die, and you can see it. He visibly looks/sounds lost, somber, etc. He never really had much to hide around Light to begin with (since he doesn't really care about hiding himself the same way Light does) but especially not now and it Shows, and I personally thought it was pretty cool to delve into his thoughts/show how he feels this way. The somberness can be felt throughout the entire scene, even people who don't already know the plot of Death Note from the manga could probably tell that he's about to die.

In the manga, once L starts suspecting Misa again and Rem realizes what Light is trying to do, it goes straight to Watari and L's deaths, but the anime instead gives a distinct and unexpected pause in the middle of this where L contemplates his own death. It's fucking great, and the shift from straight action to slower emotional weight makes these scenes stand out a lot, since, like I said, the show usually focuses more on the former. But it's kind of ironic, too.

Not only does the anime open up L's feelings more in these scenes, but it also tries to dig deeper into Light's feelings as well through L. And it's really funny honestly because while, yes, these are the more "emotionally open" scenes of the anime Light still manages to be Incredibly avoidant and contribute almost nothing to the entire ordeal.

L is visibly upset -> "Yeah Ryuzaki, you're not making any sense at all" (Not addressing the obvious conflict from L)

"Tell me, Light. From the moment you were born, has there ever been a point where you've actually told the truth?" -> "[The most stale, over-explained, avoidant answer to a "yes/no" question that you could ever hear + blatant attempts to reframe the question]"

(L's half-smile here kills me) "I had a feeling you'd say something like that" -> [Nothing]

"I'm sorry" -> [Nothing]

"It'll be lonely won't it? You and I will be parting ways soon" -> [Nothing]

^ From this point Light continues to say literally Nothing for the rest of the scene. I'm not even joking, from then on the rest of Light's voicelines are reduced to nothing but vague noises of confusion.

Everytime L calls Light out as a person ("Has there ever been a point where you've actually told the truth?" / "I had a feeling you'd say something like that." / "Won't it be lonely?") he doesn't actually acknowledge anything. Out of those three lines, he only answers verbally to if he's ever told the truth, and even then it's the most blatantly people-pleasing answer ever, as it usually is with Light. And I don't think it's because Light just. Doesn't care about any of what L's saying at all, or that he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about (questioning Light's authenticity as a person, saying it would be lonely when they part), instead he's choosing not to acknowledge any of what this means about himself or him and L at all. He's like a fucking wall.

And like, for the truth question in particular, the show makes sure that you know it's not something that Light just. Doesn't care enough about to answer. The hard cuts to silence are a very rare but extremely effective way that the show conveys an extremely important moment (see: Light regaining his memories, Matsuda noticing Light opening the warehouse door before he escapes (not as much of a "direct" cut to silence but still)), and cuts to multiple angles/framings/zooms of the exact same shot are also used for the same purpose (see: Light hugging Misa when she was crying, Matsuda aiming his gun to shoot Light, Light regaining his memories Again). Just like the scene where Light gets his memories back, the moment L's question finishes the show utilizes both. That question cut Deep. There's is a solid Almost 5 seconds of silence before the sound of the rain gradually starts fading back in, and honestly that should be telling enough as is (but of course Light doesn't actually admit that. Or anything at all really, so). Oh also another fun detail! We do not see Light's face At All (except for the shot where you can see his mouth moving but not his eyes), for the Entire time that he's going on his spiel to L. We Will Be Revisiting This Later, by the way. This is not, in fact, the first time you're going to see this detail from Light.

The only sort of reciprocation that we see from Light during Any of these two scenes is when Light dries L's hair while L dries his feet. Biblical meanings/references aside it's interesting because it's the only time he directly does anything "for" L in these scenes, but even then he doesn't try to pass it off as anything meaningful really the same way L does ("You're still soaked", a purely neutral and factual statement. It doesn't Add Anything compared to L's. Sin atonement loneliness grieving stuff. While Light is showing his own reciprocation to this more personal moment he also tries to keep it impersonal enough that it doesn't actually have to mean anything deep). And when L says "I'm sorry" after he once again gets no response from Light. It's also after this that L gets that pained look on his face, like he knows that at this point he's not actually going to get anything meaningful from Light (again, very significant and rare from L in the show. We've seen him in distress (see: when Ukita died, hell, when Watari dies), but even then he mostly manages to keep his usually neutral expression), we never see him "look sad" like he does here):

I just think it's interesting that this is one of the few scenes in this particular adaptation of Death Note where they try to open up the character's thoughts/feeling (especially considering the fact that they. lowkey blunder in adaptations of original scenes from the manga), and L himself is being rather open (not that he ever really tries to hide what he thinks nearly as much as Light), and yet all Light contributes to it in return is like. Actually nothing. Bro fumbled it. There is no resolution to any of this, to any of what L asks at all, to any of the many opportunities for a meaningful conversation, and the only thing even relatively close to an answer that you can get from Light is what you can infer from how he acts in the episode after L dies, where he's just going through the motions, but hardly acting as if he's actually living at all.

(Honestly I think the transition from this scene with the taskforce to the subsequent scene with Misa says enough on its own. Light's expressions and tone says everything:)

(Oh sidenote but. This shit again:

"Light, this is our first date in forever. can't you enjoy yourself a little more?" ('Why don't you seem happy? We can finally be together since L is dead') -> No response, Light instead changing the topic to him wanting to move in with Misa without changing his mannerisms at all

Also there's that one detail again. You pretty much don't see Light's expression when he speaks here at all, except for one shot of his eyes, which is quite literally the exact same shot they used when he "saw" L, just altered for the new setting. You have No idea what he looks like when he's responding to Misa, although it's probably fair to assume that it's the same empty stare he has for the whole Two Shots where you can clearly see his whole expression in the entire scene.

Something something Light Yagami bad at feelings I think you get the point though)

I guess Light's Kind of showing what he's feeling now? He'll admit to himself that it's boring without L, but no more than that. Light never actually admits to anything "significant", and L's dead already anyway, so what would that even do?

And then we get, uh. Basically nothing from Light. For the next 5 Years. Except that he joined the NPA, so, uh, yay? Good job, Light you totally nailed it! Thank you for allowing us as an audience to delve deeper into your inner thoughts and feelings as a character so we can find out more about you as a person! Very helpful! Thank you for not sabotaging one of your few dedicated opportunities to look into yourself as a person and reflect on your relationships with others and being 100% honest with yourself! We stay winning guys.

Anyway, this got way too long for a scene that's over a decade old, and I've probably just said everything that everyone else has already said in this fandom before. But unfortunately this has been living in my head for way too long and I must scream. I just think this episode's neat is all :)

tl;dr Part of the reason why the rain/foot scene (tbh episode 25 in General) stands out so much is because the Death Note anime specifically was a bit robbed in terms of its more emotional character moments compared to the other medias, which makes more somber/introspective scenes like the ones in episode 25 stand out a Lot in comparison. But it's also incredibly ironic because it's one of the few moments where the show (or specifically L) tries to look deeper into Light's character, but because he is so avoidant for the entire duration of these two scenes he adds basically nothing at all. It's almost funny. Mostly sad. It's also very gay. Aand post

Okay actually nevermind one more thing I talked about how the jdrama is supposed to be more emotionally in-depth because it is a TV Drama and just for the record, same thing happens there! I could probably do an entire analysis of the Blue Scene in this context like I did with episode 25 but I'd literally be here forever, so uh, just take this iconic line as my main example:

Same Thing. L's statement "I wish we could have met some other way" is personal. It's his own wish, his own regret that he is expressing to Light. While Light's reply obviously has that same regret implied it's also phrased in a specifically impersonal way. It's closed off. "This is the only way we could have met" it closes off the topic and simply renders L's wish as ultimately futile. Light does not say that he Also wishes he could have met L a different way even if it was likely impossible, instead it's a cold statement of cynical fact.

Idk just. Something something L being able and Willing to be more openly sentimental/emotionally open towards Light/about Light vs. Light's inability to be honest with anyone including himself and his own nature preventing any form of meaningful reciprocation. Something something self-sabotage, y'know the drill. God don't even get me Started on how sincere L's tone is when he says "It'll be lonely won't it?"(at least in the eng dub) in the anime I could talk about his tone in that scene for ages. Also yes all of this relates to L Change the WorLd too by the way. Don't ask how it just does okay.

I do think that scenes like these (rain/foot scene, The Blue Scene. Uh. L Change the WorLd The Novel Adaptation) show, at least in those adaptations, that L does genuinely care for Light, and show that he values him as a friend not just in the mindgame-equal sense but also just like, a more sincere sense you know. Idk if that made any sense and that's a whole other topic for another day but you guys just have to believe me on this one alright please please believe me buries head in hands. Okay post over finally thanks for coming to my tedtalk hope you enjoyed my very-unnecessarily long analysis of the week

[sillyzombiedelusion]

it just hit me that Maelor and Jaehaerys were brutally murdered by Rhaenyra’s supporters, without her consent, just like we’ve said they would be. That’s just the thing isn’t it? We don’t even need to speculate- we already know what happens. No matter if you believe that Rhaenyra herself wouldn’t have harmed them- which I personally do for most scenarios- it doesn’t matter. Rhaenyra is not the end all be all, like Otto has been saying literally this whole time. “You either prepare Aegon to rule or cleave to Rhaenyra and plead for mercy” the problem being that Rhaenyra’s mercy just isn’t enough!

[spidercoris]

i love the semi-canon idea of aiden giving ash his clothes (or her just taking them, who knows?). like in the first two photos it looks like the same sweater (plus ashlyn never wears red as far as i know) but we can’t be too sure cause maybe it’s just a regular sweatshirt. then again it also looks a little baggy on her? idk. but it’s SO OBVIOUS in the second photo cause there’s literally a smiley face on it PLUS it’s red so it has to be aiden’s. it looks like they’re in a store?? either ashlyn just has a bunch of stolen hoodies from him or she got cold in the store and he offered it to her. ITS STILL CUTE EITHER WAY THOUGH. someone needs to write a fic on this entire interaction or i will. plus do you see how she’s clutching that plushy? in my mind it reminds her of aiden justttt a bit :3 BONUS LOGAN AND ASHLYN SIBLINGS CONTENT!!!!!