#There’s obviously still some similar bits between both versions

[incorrect-fnaf-quotes]

You said in your Dr. Scraptrap AU that his first living creation was Plushtrap- are Plushtrap and Dr. Scraptrap still in animatronic suits? Or are they instead more-so organic?

Also, what is Dr. Scraptrap's backstory? Is it the same as William's, or is he a completely different person than the original?

Apologies if these things were already established and I missed them!

Okay, so, they are just animatronic suits. They aren’t regular rabbits or anything—and that goes for most other animatronics that appear, such as Spring Bonnie.

They’re animatronics... but are at least a little different? Imagine Spring Bonnie. They’d actually be pretty fluffy/soft, and would happen to have actual rabbit tendencies—but is still an animatronic, etc.

The same goes for Dr. Scraptrap and, again, most of the others. Minus Scrap Baby (who is something that he’s making), when it comes to the more human animatronics—Ballora, for example, they’d actually be human.

Plushtrap is mostly like an actual living animatronic that Dr. Scraptrap actually happened to make—following the same rules. Though, there are parts of them that are just more of actual... plush and similar things.

I was rambling a bit with that one—I’ll move on. Point is: Not real animal that they’re based on, still animatronics—except for the more human ones.

The next bit—Dr. Scraptrap’s whole thing is just sort of similar to regular William’s, but there’s still several differences here and then, considering the AU.

He still worked with Henry—who is still just a human here in the AU. Except, while in canon, the two of them did the whole pizzeria thing, here, they worked together on something completely different.

By the time he actually met Henry, Dr. Scraptrap had already been doing a bunch of stuff for about 30 years at that point.

He and Henry worked together for about five years—during the fourth year, he still did kill Charlie, as well as Cassidy (though the others are still alive). Henry only discovered that it was Scraptrap who did it in the fifth year.

Dr. Scraptrap has always been an animatronic here. He was never a human, so there’s no remains in him—he was never really William here. He’s just Scraptrap.

Though, he still uses the name Afton for a couple of purposes every now and then.

And, before the present time of the AU, there’s still three more major events that I want to mention—even if I’ve done it before.

Ten Years Prior: Spring Bonnie becomes his assistant—although reluctantly. Spring Bonnie happened to be a very good scientist, and that was why he wanted them.

Three Years Prior: Finally created his very first living creation—Plushtrap.

Four Months Prior: Went and adopted Elizabeth (she’s still human).

Another bit that I mentioned, but he does care for Plushtrap and Elizabeth. He loves his kids :)

I think that’s all I have to say for the questions for now—this was really long, sorry. But there was a lot that I wanted to say. Hope this helps!

[noemilivv]

Hi 👋,

If you're still taking requests, I absolutely loved the most recent one you did with Lucifer, Adam and Vox proposing and marrying their s/o.

If possible could you do one similar to that but for Husk and Alastor?

If not, it's totally cool and I'm loving your work 😊

hellooo, dw i’m still taking requests haha, yeah i can do that for you!! the first part was undeniably fun to write so obviously i’ll do it again for ya haha

Warnings: None(?)

Alastor Proposal + Wedding Headcanons

Alastor never really knew what love truly felt like, until he met you, from that alone — he knew you were the one

His proposal was simple, but still very gentlemanly, his shadows were his band, playing some of your shared favorite songs, and Alastor stood in a different suit than the one he normally wears, a black version with a red streak instead of the white line that goes down the collar

He stood in the center of your room in the hotel, awaiting for you to get back from work, with a bouquet of spider lilies in his hands and a ring box in his pocket.

When you arrive, he has a soft and gentle smile on his face, in contrast to the big grin he usually shows, he didn’t feel vulnerable or at risk with you, so he could wind down with you

He hands you the bouquet and gets down on one knee, taking your ring out of the box, holding it to you, as his other hand takes yours in his and kisses the back of it

“My dearest and truest love, you have made me feel more alive than I ever have, even in my years on Earth.” He started, his radio affect softer than you’ve ever heard it, it’s unlike him, given he usually has a more cheery tone.

“You have showed me what love truly feels like, what in feels like in here —” He said, putting a hand to his heart, “That being said, would you make me the happiest man in Hell and be my lawfully wedded spouse?”

You and Alastor have a wedding almost immediately, thanks to his magic staff.

The ceremony is like any other, other than the fact your soon-to-be husband has a massive fucking grin on his face that did not falter the whole time, other than when you came down the isle, and it seemed to inch up his face more.

When it came to the kiss, he does turn you both around as he does not enjoy displaying affection infront of others, but he also won’t break tradition, so…

The reception is nowhere near boring, he knows how to have a good time, there’s excitable jazz music that has a good chunk of guests swaying and moving their feet

He also may or may not freak out some family members of yours…but that’s okay!

He also does not wish to be in wedding photos, due to his opinions on modern cameras and tech, but will for you, and either way, he knows his grin fucks up the photos in contrast to your beauty so he doesn’t really see the point tbh — but he’ll most likely make you guys use an old camera for effect

Husk Proposal + Wedding

Headcanons

Husk genuinely did not care to get married, well, he would be fine if you did, but he was content the way you both were, but he knew how much of a romantic you were so…

Quite frankly, he probably had the laziest proposal out of everyone I’ve written for for this, while you guys were laying in bed, bitch asked you if you would ever wanna get married and proceeded to basically chuck the ring box at you.

You and Husk were in your shared bed. It was late, you were just about to doze off for the night, until you heard Husk’s gruff voice pipe up.

“I have a question for ya.” He said, staring at the ceiling with you on his furry chest. “And that is?” you ask, popping your head up in curiosity,

“Would you ever wanna get married?” He asked, looking down at you, a soft and subtle smirked played on his lips. “Oh!- Uh, probably!” You answered, a bit thrown off by the question.

“‘Kay, great.” Husk muttered, plopping the ring box in between you two. “Husk, what the fu-”

Yeah before you could finish he was already asleep 😛

Husk mainly leaves wedding planning to you, not cause he’s a dick, but it’s just not his thing, he will help out when need be though

At the ceremony, Husk is holding back a couple tears, only a few though!

He never saw himself as the sentimental type, and he knows he didn’t really have the desire to do this in the first place, but now? He knows he made the right choice, even if it was at 2 in the morning.

The reception is chill, it’s kinda just sitting around and chatting, and yes there’s a bar, and Husk is pissed he can’t work it.

There’s chill jazz music in the back, but it’s not like Alastor’s where it had people swaying, it was more soothing, and it wasn’t like Adam’s where people were absolutely bopping to music either

You guys still don’t know if you’re having a honeymoon, Husk is still way too tired and way too hungover to make that decision.

[the-s1lly-corner]

Their ideal partners

Silly little hcs because ive been thinking what each of the lads look for in a s/o

Slenderman;

Given I'm aiming for the "he's been observing humans for centuries and has grown used to their antics," vibe with him, I feel like he'd like someone who keeps him guessing

Nothing TOO crazy, because he can be irritable, but if you intrigue him he'll definitely stay around

Does he have any peculiar icks? Tastes?

Can't stand messy people... doesn't mind if its unorganized, or a chaotic system, but if you live in muck it's a deal breaker

Doesn't care what you look like, or what gender you are; he sees beyond that because, again, ancient being that's been watching humans for a long time.. kinda desensitized to that sort of thing

Laughing Jack;

He WANTS someone who can match his energy; but he NEEDS someone who can mellow him out

As much as I hate the "I can fix/change him" thing (well I dont HATE it, it really matters on execution and all), Jack needs someone who can make him chill out a bit

Icks? You know those people who kill the energy in a room? Like total buzzkill + downers? He doesnt like those. Not like the "he hates depressed people" way, obviously, but in the way that

Okay so idk if this is just a me thing but I come across a lot of people who do it on purpose for attention/quirkiness, those are the kinds of people he doesnt like

Like slenderman, he doesnt really care what you look like; bros gonna slip himself around you like a snake (affectionately)

Eyeless Jack;

Right off the bat he needs someone who's understanding

It ain't easy being a cursed man who's forced to eat human meat

Someone who's willing to listen to what happened to him, and help him see the brighter side of things

Basically a "storm cloud x sunshine" ship dynamic

Icks? As long as you're not too chaotic or hyper he's fine with it; Jack is more quiet and reserved energy wise, stress tends to make the curses symptoms worse

Prefers short people; he himself is also short (I hc hes about 5'5), and he's a lil insecure, but he's not totally opposed to dating taller people

Masky;

Writing for specifically masky for this one instead of the usual tim, hope that's alright!! I just wanna flesh out him n hoodie more

Bro is kinda..... whouf... rough around the edges; kinda feral

Not like FERAL feral, but this is the kind of dude who tunnels on someone during his work and wont be afraid to body slam into stuff full speed/force

So naturally, he gets hurt a lot. So a caring and soft partner is an immediate go to; especially since in my hc/au tim still exists, just as a different.. persona? Headspace? I really dont know the correct terms <\3

He likes observing as well, but he'll occasionally join in on whatever activity you're doing!!

Icks? Loud people... I would say spontaneous people as well, but considering my take on him, he kinda falls into a softcore version of that category

Hoodie;

Very similar to masky, but also not... between the two hes more.. calm and calculating; whereas Masky tends to dive straight in, in most cases

Should not that neither of them verbally speak; so they both need a partner who's fine with physical touch since that's one of their main ways of communicating/showing affection

Especially with hoodie; dude always has a hand on you and guiding you in some way

Unlike all the others, hoodie does not have ANY preferences for partners. Doesn't matter the personality, body type, and he doesnt have many icks

Like

Probably doesnt like arrogance, kinda just annoys him.... but hey, makes his.. job.. easier

[notnights]

So obviously it's still too early to properly analyze the exact relationship dynamic between Jax and Gangle in canon. I promise this is less of me trying to find legitimate proof of any character speculations, and more just a string of very quick, messy personal thoughts on the topic. Context and motivation for their behaviors are likely to be explained in future episodes, and until then there's still quite a lot of uncharted territory left to explore. (Although I will say that both these characters are surprisingly more active and engaging with each other upon rewatch. aka, their willingness to be around one another seems mutual, the bullying is not.)

The only information that we can currently gather about Gangle are her canon appearances, the preview screenshot Glitch posted on the official account and to a lesser extent, Gangle's concept art sketches: Alot of it being about her fixation and dependency towards her comedy mask. We don't know whether she's fixated on the actual sensation being happy 24/7 or just the ability to appear joyful around everybody else just yet, or What her real-world equivalent of the mask was, or even if there ever was a real-world equivalent to begin with. But, Personal indictment is that she does genuinely want long term companionship and meaningful connections with other people. Or at the very least, not be subtly ostracized out of social convention. I think she believes that curating her outward demeanor might change the way others perceive her, and hopefully the way they interact with her as well. It doesn't really help that each of the circus crew are all a bit too much in their own heads to notice, one way or another. Even if they do mean well at the end of the day, it's never quite what she's really looking to accomplish. (It also doesn't help that her digital design is so detached from being human either, she's essentially a flat face on a piece of string. One can't really blame her for trying to make the most of what she's able to display tbh.)

So far, we know Jax is apathetic, violent and generally antagonistic towards everyone in the main cast, sometimes deliberately towards the girls. I think it isn't all that farfetched to believe he latched on to Gangle because she was malleable enough to target without facing most of the consequences. Subsequently, there's also the idea of him relating Gangle's tragedy mask to her willingness to comply: It's an emotional vulnerability for her (She already sees herself as less deserving of human interaction in this state, she won't have anyone else to go to, she doesn't seem to like being left alone). It's not farfetched to assume Jax sees the tragedy mask as a more "complied version" of Gangle, more entertaining and easier to string along. Me thinks he prefers it, but again. It's too soon to tell. Anyways something something designated role in group activities something something internalized self-worth I think Gangle and Ragatha have very similar philosophies when it comes to people pleasing and it almost makes me believe in the theory that they secretly don't get along even more.

(btw plz feel absolutely no pressure to respond to any of this at all - Again, very messy thoughts that I barely had time to collect. Ribbun is an unexpected infection with unfortunately very thought consuming brain fodder to me personally. Have a nice day.

I like these thoughts! It'll be really interesting to see how the Comedy and Tragedy masks work for Gangle.

I do agree Jax probably prefers Tragedy Gangle as even if it's only as deep as "she's funnier like that." And Gangle is the easiest victim for him in that state.

We've seen everyone (but Kinger, who Jax kind of doesn't bother too much, and you could argue it's because Kinger doesn't give an entertaining reaction) fight back against Jax's behavior in some way. Ragatha yells at him, Zooble isn't afraid to get physical, and we can tell Pomni had death on her mind when he threw her off the truck. The most Gangle has done is timidly resist for a few seconds before compiling. Steps on her mask, pushes her, grabs her and puts her in the drivers seat, she doesn't say anything.

She has a couple of bite back words, but then Jax just bites back and it shuts her down. Which is interesting because when Ragatha yells at him it's clear he thinks its funny and merely snarks back at her, often getting her to yell more. He gets different reactions out of everyone in the group and picks different entertainment from that. Gangle might be the one he knows he has proper control over.

As for the Ragatha and Gangle thing, I was really interested in the fact no one cared when Gangle broke her mask in the pilot, not even Ragatha who is our outwardly most caring. You could say it's because she had tunnel vision on Pomni, but I immediately interpreted it as, yeah Gangle's mask breaks all the time, she's crying all the time, eventually people stop caring. The boy who cried wolf, etc etc.

Even if Ragatha doesn't have direct conflict with Gangle, the fact Ragatha is someone who internalizes everything, and projects a positive outlook, I imagine someone like Gangle would make her pretty uncomfortable.

Here Ragatha is trying her darnest to keep it together and remain positive, meanwhile Gangle is crying all the time behind her.

"It's not so bad here Pomni, I promise!" as Gangle cries in the background.

Gangle being a constant reminder of how Ragatha, and maybe all of them really feel about being stuck here. Too early to say if Ragatha resents Gangle for this, or how she really feels about it. But if she does that's so sad because (we also don't know yet) Gangle has no control over these feelings, it wasn't her choice for her avatar to work like this.

Which honestly could be a good allegory for how certain people view mental illness in the real world too. Ragatha being a loved one who's uncomfortable with Gangle's moods, or even believes if Gangle just tried hard enough like her (example: keeping her comedy mask safe) she'd be fine. Ooh sad comic ideas.

[melverie]

So I've seen some discussion about the way Mammon talks in 24-11, and how some think Asmo forced Mammon to speak this way while others think it might be because of a issue with the translation. And since I speak some Japanese, I figured I'd break down what's actually going on here

If you don't want to read through the Japanese grammar explanation, just skip to the last section, but for everyone else I'll try to break it all down. Just keep in mind that I'll simplify some things to (hopefully) make it easier to understand for those that don't speak Japanese

Right away, here's the dialogue above in the Japanese version + written in Romaji for those that can't read Japanese:

understanding sentence-ending particles

(not really relevant to Mammon's dialogue itself, but I think it'll help make the function of 「です」 ('desu') and 「ます」 ('masu') in the next section a little clearer)

Sentence-ending particles serve to indicate the overall tone a sentence is meant to have. There are a few of them and each one gives the meaning of the sentence a different nuance

The two easiest examples to understand this concept are probably the following:

the 「か」 ('ka') particle basically just a spoken question mark; turns any sentence into a proper question

the 「ね」 ('ne') particle literally functions the same way as 'isn't it'

ちょっと寒い。 ('chotto samui') -> It's a little cold.

ちょっと寒いか。 ('chotto samui ka') -> Is it a little cold?

ちょっと寒いね。 ('chotto samui ne') -> Bit cold, innit? It's a little cold, isn't it?

the auxilary verbs 「です」 ('desu') and 「ます」 ('masu')

Similarly to the sentence-ending particles, these two change the tone of the sentence and are placed at the end. Both make the sentence polite, and depending on what the sentence ends with, you use one or the other. If it ends in a verb, you add 「ます」 ('masu') at the very end, and if it ends in anything else you use 「です」 ('desu')—you cannot use both back to back

Which finally brings us back to Mammon's dialogue

As you can see, he goes a little overboard. Since 「やり直す」 ('yari naosu'; 'to redo') is a verb, the first use of 「ます」 ('masu') is correct, but everything after that is just overkill and wrong but it sounds very cute (The way Mammon speaks here actually reminds me of how half of my classmates used to speak the first few weeks of uni lol)

But yeah, it's definitely not Asmo forcing Mammon to speak differntly since all of the brothers are talking more politely. And given that they're all under Asmo's charm and serving him, it makes sense that they'd adopt a similar manner of speaking as Barbatos. It's just that Mammon is the King of Casual Speech™, dancing gracefully between 'still acceptable' and 'straight up rude' more or less gracefully at least, so obviously he'd struggle with switching to a more butler-like speech style

It's the same with Beel actually. He's usually the type to just cut straight to the point, which is why he also slightly messed up when speaking politely. To me the original Japanese version reads more like a cute little joke that's in line with both their character, that unfortunately got lost in translation since English just doesn't have an equivalent

[canmom]

reading Herbert Mason's translation of the Epic of Gilgamesh, as you do!

I went with Mason's translation after I saw it quoted here and there and seemed pretty solidly written - but it isn't precisely right to call it a translation, more a retelling of the story as Mason understands it. so it's not a line by line translation, and some major parts of it are presumably interpolations or paraphrases.

i knew the broad outline of the story but it's fascinating to put it in context, and discover parts of the story i hadn't heard about. for example, i didn't realise the concept of droit du seigneur was part of this story - I'd thought that was basically a goofy myth about the medieval period, but here in the oldest surviving written story, it's just a thing the mythological king Gilgamesh does. though the exact translation seems a little contentious - Mason writes:

As king, Gilgamesh was a tyrant to his people.

He demanded, from an old birthright,

The privilege of sleeping with their brides

Before the husbands were permitted

But Wikipedia quotes a different translation by Stephen Mitchell which says:

He is king, he does whatever he wants... takes the girl from her mother and uses her, the warrior's daughter, the young man's bride.

The general thrust is similar in both cases, but the details of the custom are different. I don't have Mitchell's translation so I can't find how he describes the moment Enkidu arrives to interfere with Gilgamesh doing one of these kingly rapes (like let's not beat around the bush here, it's a different social context and whatever but you can't possibly say no to the demigod king).

Moving on...

Viewed with modern eyes, the transition between the first chapter and the second is kind of abrupt. We've got this great establishing story for Gilgamesh and Enkidu having a rather homoerotic fight and becoming best bros, but then we abruptly skip forward to Gilgamesh declaring that they're going to go fight a monster called Humbaba, and Enkidu is all like, no, that guy is way too high level, you'll die! Modern writing advice would hold that you'd want to spend some time building up Gilgamesh and Enkidu's relationship 'on screen' here, and perhaps foreshadow the existence of Humbaba a bit sooner to build up the threat a bit - but then I'm not carving this into stone tablets, I can afford to be a little bit roundabout, and who knows what's been lost? (scholars of the Epic probably have some idea lol)

The word used for Gilgamesh and Enkidu's relationship is 'friend'. This feels like it's probably a bit of a lossy translation to me - would lover/boyfriend be projecting too much? I obviously don't know the nuances of Sumerian that well, so maybe this is the best available word, but their relationship has a lot of physicality and a lot of affection.

The woman who goes to Enkidu in the wild and has a bunch of sex until he becomes civilised is described here as a 'prostitute'. My understanding was that she belongs to a religious role here, harimtu, that's usually translated as 'sacred prostitution' but apparently this identity is contested, and also she has a name, Shamhat? I don't know why Mason doesn't use her name. Shamhat has a pretty big role in changing Enkidu and convincing him to come meet Gilgamesh, but her own motivation isn't really explored.

Still, I don't want to come off as only complaining. Whether they originate in the Epic or with Mason, I'm enjoying a lot of the poetic turns of phrase in this version - the style is just the right level of minimal - simple appropriate words, but effective for that. Mason writes in verse, but doesn't rhyme - I'm not really familiar enough with meter to say more than that. There are a lot of fairly short, declarative sentences, mixed up with an occasional much longer metaphor across multiple lines. I think you could fairly easily delete the line breaks and just have prose, but having them makes it flow in an interesting way, like waves? Poetry is not my bailiwick so I'm probably describing some fairly basic facets of the medium, but it's interesting to observe.

I'll add more when I've read a bit more, I'll be in this train a while...

[darkmasterofcupcakes]

Headcanon : the Exorcists are the biggest Disney fans of Heaven after Emily and of animes with female protagonists that actually kick asses without too much of a man's help.

They like seeing the women be happy and kicking asses, though they're also part of the judgemental "Cinderella is weak" crowd.

When Lute and Vaggie (Vaggie is basically Angel equivalent of young adult, but they still live together) first watched Hunchback of Notre Dame, Lute took a liking of Frollo but also felt weird about it because she found him pathetic in many ways, so she's stuck between liking him and Phoebus.

Meanwhile Vaggie loved esmeralda both for her personality and for more... Sinful reasons, though she never shared the later with anyone due to being embarrassed about it, especially when Adam loudly praised how hot Esmeralda was.

I also wouldn't be surprised if Vaggie found Adam and Lute in Phoebus and Esmeralda cosplay and crashed with some pals of the Sisterhood for two weeks to process that embarrassing and horrifying sight.

Surprisingly, Adam liked the Beast far more than Gaston, when asked why, he said it was because he could beat the shit out of Gaston and is the one that got the girl, and also he's named Adam so obviously Dickmaster is gonna prefer him.

The actual reason is that the fairy punishing him remind him of when he was cast out of Eden, and his love story with Belle made him think fondly of his own care for Lute (seeing Lute cry is one of the things he hate) and he wrongfully interpreted it as how Belle was what Lilith and Eve should have been, loyal, and the beast founding his humanity back after almost dying remind him of how despite losing Eden he found something similar when after death he got into Heaven.

Basically, faulty interpretation mixed with interesting parallels (he's still Adam, he's not gonna understand these movies that well).

I don't have much to say on this, sorry, but it's all very interesting. I do think Vaggie would have a bit of a crush on Esmeralda if she ever saw the Disney version of the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Also, the idea of Adam feeling something of a connection to the Beast is really fascinating.

[storiesofsung]

TWST HP AU 🪞⚡️ !!

AcexYuuxMalleus

Yuu will be depicted as female in this with she/her pronouns

I’ve been thinking of an AU of this for a while now due to the similarities between each story (magical school of wizards with respective houses of each powerful mage), however as I think more there are even more character similarities some, depending on how you view Yuu

🪞⚡️🪞⚡️🪞⚡️🪞⚡️🪞⚡️🪞⚡️🪞

Golden Trio ⭐️- obviously Ace, Deuce, and Yuu, my favorite trio

Deuce ♠️ - Harry Potter. I can’t connect many similarities between them, but at the same time I can. They’re both boys who love their parents and just try to do the best in what they can, especially since both have been given a second chance to succeed in this magical world. Now, Deuce isn’t perfect but he is trying and is not overtly prone to breaking the rules. He’s sweet, innocent, while still having bite to his bark. A bit clueless at times but with good intentions.

Ace ❤️- Ok now this asshole is perfect for Ron (I’m joking). But honestly his more outlandish personality does have some comparison towards Ron’s sarcastic personality. He’s more on the laid back side whilst still being a valuable friend. (Also they’re both ginger lmao) Plus his relationship with Yuu is more on the chill play fighting side, anyways…

Yuu 🦐 - Hermione, this one can be taken lightly depending on how your version of Yuu is but one thing is for sure: they always get Ace and Deuce out of overblot situations and manage to use some sort of semblance of a brain to figure shit out. However, in my AU let’s say that Yuu too is trying to make a life for themselves by working hard and doing the most they can of their schoolwork. Yuu also being the glue that holds these two idiots together. And honestly her whole schtick as the school therapist now makes sense

Grim 🐱 - Crookshanks. Nothing more to say, just Yuu’s stupid cat (with love)

Also the whole racist thing with Hermione and Yuu could have a connection, since Yuu basically has no magical abilities, yet are able to attend this magical school and work their way up. And because of this, there may be students opposed to Yuu’s magiclessness (mudblood—)

Extra:

Malleus 🐉- Victor Krum, this is slightly stretching it a bit but I can see these two sharing similarities. Malleus and Krum are both exemplary at their respective wizarding sport (Spelldrive, and Quidditch) and are known to be prodigies of it. They don’t have many friends due to being viewed as Gods, Celebrities, etc. in some way and therefore are quite lonely. Attracted to this specific person for not fawning over them and for seeing who they really are, and are able to appreciate their brains for what it’s worth 💚💚

Extra extra:

I totally see the Yule ball sequence happening in the TWST HP au because of these specific lines

❤️: Hoy, Yuu, you’re a girl arent you

🦐: Oh, well spotted

❤️: How about uh you and me go, since we don’t have dates as it is. Don’t wanna show up by ourselves right

🦐: for your information I already have a date *shuts book and walks away*

❤️: What’s got her wand in a knot

♠️: *clueless, spacing out* huh

And malleus totally showing up as yuus secret date AAAA—

🦐: Would you care to join Malleus and I?

❤️: Care to? You’re fraternizing with the enemy

🦐 *irritated*: The point of interhouse games is unity and—

❤️: *rolling eyes* So what

🦐*understanding the situation*: You’ve been rotten the whole evening. Next time there’s a ball, pluck up the courage to ask me before someone else does, and not as a last resort

❤️: Women are scary

🦐: ACE, you’ve spoiled everything.

*cue weeping on the steps*

♠️: 🧍

And in likeliness, Yuu could end up with Malleus, and become the next Queen of Thorn Valley…but it could also take to the more erm in-canon Harry Potter ending cough (do you see where I’m going with this)

“Emotional range of a teaspoon x Nerdy Bookworm “

I love this AU, I could honestly go in so many directions with this AU

🪞⚡️🪞⚡️🪞⚡️🪞⚡️🪞⚡️🪞⚡️🪞

[jicklet]

Oh no I forgot you ship Ted/Becca.

😆 Hi anon! I hope this doesn't ruin your day or anything, whomstever you are. If you don't ship it or ship something opposing or whatever's your bag, I'm sure we can still be friends, or whatever we are.

But I've been mulling this all over since the finale, and this is a good excuse to get my thoughts out. Because I come from ye old timey shipping days of "the idea of them together is cool, regardless of whether it happens or not." so that wasn't really my problem with the ending.

Here are the things that are true:

I really like themes and parallels. I like connecting dots and finding connections and all that jazz

The number of themes and parallels they set up between Ted and Rebecca was delicious and very fun for me.

My reaction to the finale is less upset than it is frustrated and confused.

My frustration isn't purely 'they didn't get together romantically so it sucks.' I had started making peace early S3 with realizing it probably wasn't gonna happen

I am frustrated because I wanted all those bits of cool narrative shit they laid out to Do Something

I am frustrated because it feels like Ted and Rebecca have had very few emotionally connected scenes since season one, and what's the point of parallel journeys and soulmateism if their journeys are going to stay so parallel and not join up more, and then just apparently diverge completely

And on the apparent diverging, I don't love it but it would have sucked less if their lines just matched up more in the middle! That could be poignant! But as is, it's more disappointing than tragic, because whatever potential was there wasn't almost realized and then lost, but instead just... never really approached. It feels wasted.

The show did not owe us them getting together, but what it did give us, I found unsatisfying. That's just a bummer, man.

Forgive me this metaphor but I cannot find a better way to put it: I am frustrated because I feel like I got ridden for 3 seasons while they went 'just wait it'll feel so good' and then they were like 'are you ready?' and then just hopped off and left.

I am confused because at the end of their story, I cannot figure out what I am meant to be feeling about it.

Again, I didn't need them to get together romantically, they totally could've found some other way to make it satisfying! But. Ted and Rebecca getting together romantically would have also tied it up in a lot of ways that worked and made the narrative satisfying.

Having a romance arc that works with their character arcs and the themes they've built on is just really cool as a story.

Obviously all that parallel journey stuff would've actually been leading them somewhere, ie to each other, yay woo

And not to each other just because they've been through similar shit, but because, as that last post said, among a lot of other reasons, they've been set up well to be what the other person needs.

Romance is not the be all, end all. But:

Ted and Rebecca both want to be in love with someone, someday.

Here is someone who already understands and balances and supports them.

Like, that's awesome. Is that not the qualities you want for them in a future romantic partner?

I can't see how it diminishes their friendship if it caries on very similar to it has been, just like, sometimes they smooch. Maybe I'm just too demisexual for this idk

Boat guy. I like boat guy, but he's a chiller version of Ted. I can't find that post that points out all the parallels there, but that episode by the time we got to Kenny Rogers I was like. Uh. Hm.

It's confusing to have boat guy have a beautifully intimate evening with Rebecca, all the while having so many specific details similar to Ted, and then just act like romantic Tedbecca is a wild, character-ruining concept.

Because the show ends with Ted leaving and Rebecca miserably walking out of the airport and straight into proxy-Ted. I have no idea how to feel about that.

I could keep going, but I'm about out for now, so uh. Woe, wasted Tedbecca potential be upon ye~

[fraeuleintaka]

Remaining new names in the official Investigations 2 Localisation - Cases 1-3

This is the 68th post in the Ace Attorney Investigations Collection Countdown: 13 days left until release!

Today's topic: the remaining new names in the official Investigations 2 localisation from cases 1-3!

Thanks to the release of the demo of the Investigations Collection and some very hard-working people we now know of all the remaining new names for the characters and cases in the official I2 localisation. Since there are so many names to discuss I'm going to divide this into two posts, one for the cases 1-3 and one for cases 4+5, because most of the names we already know of (that I discussed in previous countdown posts) are from the first two cases. First, the names of the characters:

Bastian Rook (for Ethan Rooke): His last name was already known and I've talked about how I don't like that it's just the name of the chess piece he's supposed to represent, I prefer the fan translation for that one, it's a little bit less on the nose (same with "Knight" and "Knightley"). His first name sounds similar to bastion, a fortified building, which fits what the rook is and Rooke's job as a bodyguard protecting his "king". His first name in the fan translation has a similar connotation meaning "safe and strong". Between those two I don't really have a preference, they're both good choices for his first name.

Samson Tangaroa (for Jeffrey Masters): A very drastic change! His official name has a more elaborate meaning with both parts referencing mythical figures: Samson to the judge in the bible who lost his superhuman strength and was subsequently imprisoned, fitting Masters' own imprisonment, and Tangaroa to a Māori god of the sea, fitting the nautical theme of his chocolate desserts in the contest. In contrast, his fan translated name is a play on "master chef" (even going as far as giving him the nickname "Master Jeff") and not much more. Purely from the meaning his official name is obviously better but I prefer the sound of his fan translated one. It sounds more like a complete name instead of two that just got stuck together, though that might change once I read his official name in context a few times.

Judy Bound (for Katherine Hall): In this case the name puns are about equal, the official localisation goes for "duty bound" referencing her loyalty to Masters whereas the fan translation goes for "catering hall" (even more so with her nickname "Kate") keeping the mansion reference from her Japanese name and the chef theme with Masters. However, I vastly prefer her fan translated name because it's so much more elegant! Her present design doesn't fit "Judy" at all but it perfectly fits "Katherine", her past self might fit but it also fits "Kate" perfectly, and I love the contrast between the two and how much of her personality gets conveyed through it. I hope her official full name is "Judith" or something similar to get a little bit of the same sentiment across.

Carmelo Gusto (for Dane Gustavia): For Gustavia's name the change isn't as drastic but still significant. His official first name is a shortened version of "caramello" which is Italian and translates to caramel referencing his candy making. "Gusto" comes from Latin "gustus" which translates to taste, very fitting considering his business and his taste issues, and doing something "with gusto" means doing it with a lot of passion which is exactly what Gustavia has for his goal of becoming the greatest pastry chef alive. His fan translated name has his last name going for the same association with taste, "Gustavia" sounds similar to "gustatory" which comes from the same Latin source. "Dane" is a reference to "danish (pastry)", the English name for a type of pastry from Denmark keeping to his pastry chef theme. I also like the interpretation of his name referencing Gustavus Swift who apparently invented the first refrigerated railroad car which is wonderfully hilarious considering what Gustavia does in the case. I don't really mind his official name, it's a good choice, but I slightly prefer the fancier sound of "Gustavia" from the fan translation.

Delicia Scone (for Delicia Scones): Not much to talk about with this one, the names are almost the same and just use her Japanese name without changing much (referencing "delicious scone" like the British quick bread). I don't think the change from "Scones" to "Scone" makes any difference and I like that both the official localisation and the fan translation chose "Delicia" as her first name, it fits her well.

[Spoilers for Investigations 2 in the next two name entries]

Artie Frost (for Isaac Dover): The meaning of his official name is pretty obvious, "Artie" referencing his job and talent as an artist and "Frost" referencing his work with ice and his corpse being frozen. His fan translated name focuses more on the "ice" part with "Isaac Dover" being a play on "iced over" which is, again, the type of dessert he uses in the contest (sherbet) and how his corpse was hidden. I hate to repeat myself but yet again I slightly prefer his fan translated name because it sounds more serious and mature and not like a nickname. (Artie? Couldn't they at least have gone for "Artus" or something and have Delicia use "Arty" as a nickname?)

Paul Halique (for Pierre Hoquet): With this name they couldn't change around too much because the initials still had to be "PH" for the signet ring to make sense. The official localisation just used an alternate spelling of his Japanese name (Paul Holic) while the name in the fan translation doesn't have any meaning associated with it that makes sense in the game's context apart from just sounding nice. In that sense the official localisation easily wins with this one.

And now for the case names (my discussion for the new name of the first case is here):

The Captive Turnabout (for The Imprisoned Turnabout): Nothing to complain about here, "captive" and "imprisoned" mean almost the same thing. They both sound great as well, I don't prefer one over the other.

Turnabout Legacy (for The Inherited Turnabout): Wow, that official name is amazing! I love the fan translated name, don't get me wrong, and it fits but the official one has such a weight to it - Legacy - you really feel how significant this case is, to Miles in particular but also to the series as a whole. Its impact cannot be overstated and the official name absolutely does it justice. Perfect choice for one of the best cases in the entire series!

[adobe-outdesign]

Really enjoying the neopet reviews and holding myself back from asking for half a dozen species. What are your thoughts on the Ruki?

As an insect lover, I've always really liked Ruki. There are actually two bug Neopets, Ruki and Buzz, though ironically they're kind of opposites to each other—Ruki have insect-like bodies with normal eyes, while Buzz have normal bodies with compound eyes. Between the two I prefer the Ruki, as the body shape captures more of that bug aesthetic while the eyes help it be more expressive.

Visually, the Ruki is probably closest to a mantis (more obvious in the pre-customization art), though it mixes in a few non-mantis traits such as a beetle-like shell. It's actually a very complex design for Neopets, which tends to keep things simple—it's more or less got the anatomy of an actual mantis with all six limbs, just with the body bent 90 degrees to be slightly more anthro. There's lots of detailed line work in areas like the chest, joints, feet, and abdomen, for example. Still, it does follow the Neopets rule of using color to divide out the body for easy readability, with areas like the joints, feet, and elytra being a darker shade of the base.

Ruki went mostly unchanged in customization, and still look pretty darn good. The only drawbacks are that the forelimbs used to be sleeker and pointer, similar to that of a mantis (stylistically speaking), while the post-customization's forelimbs feel too thick and clunky in comparison—it seems like they mostly got changed so they could hold items, which no one wanted them to do in the first place. Also, the bottom four legs all got inexplicably changed so the knees bend in the opposite direction. The way they are now is more bug-accurate, but I felt like the backwards knees were more interesting.

Favorite Colours:

Desert: Ruki canonically hail from the Lost Desert, so thankfully the desert Ruki looks really good. I like the use of warm tones—brown for the base with gold and red accents. The way the armor is integrated directly into the body's natural plating also looks great, and makes it feel like a very natural color.

My only complaint is that the converted version inexplicably lost the veil that was supposed to be coming off its head piece, along with the eyeliner at the top and the darker spots. It's weird because the rest of the body is pretty accurate. Hopefully they'll do a UC style for this one some day, but in the meanwhile, the customized is still pretty good.

Faerie: Admittedly, the converted faerie Ruki is a bit of a downgrade from the UC style version—mostly because the wings actually used to be coming from the abdomen, like real bug wings, which was really unique and looked great. There are also some more inexplicable changes, like the legs having the serrated look but not the arms or the antennae like the original. Still, the peach and purple palette combined with the detailed markings looks beautiful on both versions.

Transparent: Transparent gets a spot here because it's actually fairly automatically accurate! Relatively speaking. Insects obviously have exoskeletons and not internal skeletons, but this is a giant fantasy bug so I don't mind. The rather long organs are insect accurate as far as I'm aware, and the bones seem to be modeled after an insect's respiratory system. A+ for research instead of just sticking a normal skeleton in there. My only nitpick is that the head could've used some bones, as it feels weirdly empty.

BONUS: I'm tossing in two bonuses this time because I picked the transparent more for anatomy than aesthetics. The camoflauge Ruki has a very pretty tan and brown palette with some high contrast and lovely darker legs, while the polka dot is a ladybug and just plain cute.

[system-positivity]

Dunno if the anon asking about headspace or not will see this, but I'd like to add my experiences in case they or anyone else having a similar question works. This is mostly directed at anon or anyone else reading it.

We don't have aphantasia and we struggle to have a headspace. Our situation is a bit more unique. But we have never truly had one. It is partly affected by us being a polyfrag system and the fronters not having access to it. But for some people, it can take time to develop. And for others, it just may not at all. And both are perfectly fine. :) However headspace or no headspace works for a system is perfectly real and valid. Systems can be very different and are individual to the person themselves. <3

It was a long while before we even became aware that we DID have one. And even then, the front section where we stay...isn't really anything. It's a void. And we can't see the rest of headspace.

Obviously not exactly what was there, but just to say that headspaces can be real weird. We didn't really "have one" for a long while. We happened to discover there was one, but we also cannot actively think of it or anything. We have struggled with seeing many systems with such unique headspaces while ours is foggy or barely there.

Headspaces are just one aspect of DID and like with any disorder, it can be experienced in many different ways. That would include people that may not have one even without aphantasia. I may have ended up having one, but at the time I really didn't think I would ever have one so I can understand how people feel somewhat with not having aphantasia but also not having a headspace.

Even with us having a headspace, we know it doesn't work quite the same and is actually very difficult for us to imagine. We are extremely imaginative and have a vivid imagination, always able to envision things with great detail. Yet when it comes to headspace, there's not a lot.

So mostly just wanted to say: whatever your headspace or lack thereof is like, it's very real. Since the account holder already answered your question, thought I'd just leave some reassurance and a unique perspective in case anyone may be curious or whatever else. And yes I ended up having one to an extent, but I'm not trying to say "Oh you could have one and not know it" at all. I genuinely just mean, yeah, not having a headspace is perfectly fine and possible for your system. Because we are far from aphantasia and yet still struggle with headspace or seeing it at all. Even what we know is very little for us fronters. And did seem like we didn't have one for a while. So yes and you're not alone. Headspaces are often talked about in system communities so I can understand just wondering that kind of thing. And here's a bit of support and encouragement and love for any systems that don't have headspaces whether they have aphantasia or not. :) <3 /genuine

Honestly, that's quite similar to our experience as well. When we were more pro-endo and groomed to believe we were endogenic we had a greater ability to see our inner world - we uncovered a lot and could even find stuff that a way younger version of ourselves set up to try and cope with severe trauma.

Nowadays, it's near impossible for us to see into our inner world as a fronter. More often than not, a lot of the memories of it get zoinked by the time someone reaches the fronting space. While we've kind of taken steps back in our recovery in that regard - as well as higher barriers between layers than we had previously.

Overall, it's been better for us to treat our disorder as. Well. A disorder. And not some quirky tumblr and discord thing. Overall we've managed to get a better control on our split rate and can manage our triggers better and easier than we used to, while we can't communicate as well as we did in the past - that's okay. It's getting better, and that's all that matters, really. Recovery is never going to be in a straight line. Sometimes, you stumble backwards and there's nothing wrong with that.

Ramble moment over!! We're currently very sick and have a high fever, but I do hope this entire response makes. Sense.

[batsplat]

continuing with rgu/motogp and casey&vale thought exercise. during Casey’s ducati days the team (and also some tracks) were sponsored by Alice and they literally had an eye as a part of their logo design. it’s just too good not to use it and one could go in a pretty surrealist direction with it even.

right! yes! agreed anon! absolutely!

the way my ask-answering process currently works is that this genre of asks get a sort of instant prioritisation (the other asks are lovely but I need more active brain cells than I currently have at my disposal for a lot of them), which means I actually did start answering this like... immediately when I got it. then I got side tracked answering this ask about the similarities between casey/valentino, which I kinda feel like has ended up forming a lot of the spiritual foundation for the stuff here. now, quick look behind the curtain - where I'm at right now with life is that most of my ask answering happens a) when I'm commuting, b) when I'm eating, or c) when I'm about to fall asleep. except this past week, this process (and much of my life in general) has fallen apart as I have been ravaged by first a malfunctioning smoke alarm, then the combination of a malfunctioning smoke alarm and fever, and now just the illness. anyway basically this is my lengthy way of putting a disclaimer at the top that everything in this post was written in a state of mild sleep deprivation OR severe sleep deprivation fuelled by a smoke alarm in my bedroom beeping loudly once a minute for six days straight OR illness-induced fatigue. like my brain is empty at this point, there is nothing left, I just sort of long for oblivion. luckily at most three people will read this ask, so it's all good. let's roll <3

you're so rightttttt anon, yes!! that logo!! I had not clocked the surreal possibilities at allllll but obviously. they are there. here's the logo on the bike!

man that was such a nice looking bike. like 800cc was an awful era of racing but you can't argue with the aesthetics

here it is with the ad board backdrop

it's actually quite a nice logo.... here's a clean version of it:

I don't think this company exists anymore in this form, some italian tech thing idk, so no concerns over being a capitalist shill here. also it was still a fair bit less crowded back then, it's one of five logos on the bike rather than one of fifty. I like the idea you have these eyes sitting all around the track, very panopticon-y. as you zip by them and they watch you go round and round. both on the circuit, on the bike itself, on the leathers... in an early 2008 race, in estoril I believe, casey had some kind of issue with a camera dorna was making him test that ended up swinging around during the race. he talks about it in his autobiography in the context of his rough start to 2008 and all his various frustrations, but somehow entirely fails to miss the irony of a literal camera tormenting him. like come on casey, that's the thing you're always complaining about, don't you think that's kinda funny? how it's now not just like, abstractly making your life hell but also literally doing so? come on casey

AND ofc it's there when he's fighting valentino

this will be some time in 2007, I like how it looks like the eye is kinda peaking out at valentino from the side of the bike

you can kind of go in a few different directions with this eye thing, right. in a way, the obvious one is to position casey as the object of observation, of how he was constantly being watched and judged, of how he would have preferred to be riding out on his own without any of this other stuff but he was constantly forced to be part of the world of the paddock. the media was waiting for him to slip up, he was always being assessed, even his bike has sometimes faulty cameras attached to it. that's sports as entertainment - the aspect of his occupation casey was always least comfortable with, which made him so very different from valentino. you can even tap into the uneasy relationship with ducati, how they were watching him and judging him and all of it... blaming him for their troubles, not giving him enough credit for their successes. judging his diet! such a major theme of the 2009 saga, right, how they just refused to give him adequate support.... there's really something to like,, specifically the element of them judging his body, I think, this sort of 'oh, if only he ate and trained directly, if only he wasn't eating so many sweets' (a real bit of rhetoric they used btw!!) that has such a pernicious and controlling and nasty vibe to it that it really fits with having the eye on the bike itself. staring back at casey and demanding perfection from him and not even paying him his dues when he is actually perfect. big brother may be watching you, but he will never love you. creepy. awful

I've been thinking a lot about casey lately (yes yes, I'm sure this'll come as a shock) and what I find so compelling about him. and there's a version of him that I... look, not to judge anyone, do whatever, but there's an interpretation I do 'sometimes' see that I just personally find both slightly off base and also boring as shit. like, you can make casey into this very one dimensional 'always right about everything' opinionated hater who went in, beat valentino a bunch of times, showed everyone how talented and amazing he was but he was the victim of valentino's malevolence and then he left again, and now he keeps dropping correct hot takes about how awful everything is about current motogp. to me, this is all very flat. if casey were just very talented and a great guy and simply a bit introverted, I would find him boring as shit. so I was thinking about like.... how talented he is, how he's kinda the talent in the sport, and how usually the phrase 'the greatest talent this sport has seen' has to be the biggest turn-off imaginable in sports for me. but for him specifically, the sheer extent of that talent I think is a really key storytelling detail. I actually find it an interesting starting point to say that he really might just be as good as it gets on that specific metric. like, I don't care about measuring talent as a literal metric because... idk man, I just don't care, but it is narratively compelling to allow him to have the most raw potential of literally anyone. it's all there. he was born to ride, he was raised in a way that allowed him to become a truly unique rider - the kind you'll never see before or since. it's very primal, isn't it, taps into that early stage of the development curve: you have all this promise as a young child, where there are no other complicating factors, just an expression of raw ability, of a sort of purity... and at that stage, everything is possible. the talent is there to win twenty world titles. the talent will never, ever be the stumbling block

but of course, winning twenty titles isn't as easy as just having a lot of raw talent. I think there's something very nicely bildungsroman-y of casey setting off away from australia to european soils, where it's... you know, every step of the way up the ladder in the australian system, then through the british ranks on a whole different continent, then through spanish where he doesn't speak the language... it's obviously quite radically expanding his horizons, step by step, and it's also this horrifying process where he's slowly being subjected more and more to the world's gaze. you know that thing where casey had thought mat oxley was the guy doing him dirty when riding in the british championships - beyond being a funny story, I think it's actually kinda noteworthy that casey is already so hyper aware of how he is being perceived when he's a fifteen year old riding in a national championship. obviously, casey was making through his ranks with a real lack of security... the hypersensitivity always has to be attached to the context that for so many of his formative years, what people thought about him really, really mattered. he wasn't always the best at distinguishing between what was just, y'know, a journalist doing their job and the sort of unfair criticism that was actually fucking with his chances at career progression - but obviously that's pretty understandable. it's a real vulnerability that stems from... being beholden to that world's gaze. that constant pressure of young athletes, where they simply have to impress whoever happens to be watching. the talent spotter, some management agency representative, some team member who could open a door one day, a random journalist.... it all matters

and of course in that context, it's key how uncomfortable casey always has been with being watched. from his autobiography (in this post, which is about the gnarly topic of how the dream of being a rider was forced onto him by his parents - not irrelevant to this conversation):

well, y'know. that's all right then! if he's just crying because he finds the attention of others so distressing, it's not a problem! it'd only be a problem if he was crying because he doesn't want to ride! I'm sure this is something that casey will just magically deal with by the time he's grown up! nothing to address here if you're his parents, just a normal part of the process of becoming a professional motorcycle racer!

there's a romantic ideal to casey that I do have mixed feelings towards. both fascination and wariness, certainly. I think you can really lean into it with this pure, natural talent business, this sickly child becoming this fragile adult who has this sort of fast burning genius that is very bright very soon but inevitably consumes itself. the mystery illness, the early retirement, all the questions of 'what if'... people really love that angle, the tortured genius of it all, how there was always more possible if their bodies and minds hadn't conspired against them. I have many issues with this, from my distaste towards treating talent as the ultimate metric of worthiness in sports (you don't deserve to win more if you're more talented lol), to my dislike for how casey's mental health ends up being framed in these conversations, and just a general bleh feeling about injecting too much of a tragic note into the discussion of this type of career. you get the sense people pay less attention to casey's actual career than they do to a theoretical idea of the career that exists in their heads, and even then a lot of the time it's to push some kind of an agenda about a non-casey rider. still, listen, we're talking surrealism here - and sometimes you can lean into a trope to critique it, right. like, the trope is clearly there, might as well acknowledge it. and the exact manner of his 'downfall' really does come through the weight of the world's gaze, doesn't it, where he's constantly being exposed and picked apart and taunted. he hated it even when he became a child, and he just was in no way prepared for how big a role that constant attention would play throughout his racing career. it's just this fundamental incompatibility... the way this raw talent ends up running into the brick wall that is the reality of what modern professional sports looks like. again, this isn't a framing I'm a massive fan of - but that kind of prodigious talent does kinda get given a sort of... ethereal dimension, where it's not really suited to the true nature of the world and inevitably gets ground down by the cruelties and injustices. that tension between the elevated, the otherworldly, and the material realities it is subjected to. now, if casey had responded to this by being some sort of suffering shrinking violet poor martyred lamb, he wouldn't be anywhere close to as fun. he might be a prodigy, but he's also a whiny little shit who wasn't always doing himself any favours with how he was dealing with all those material realities. the general point still stands, though - and there's something kinda fun to giving The Gaze itself a corrosive power, the ability to eat away at casey through its mere existence

time to bring valentino back into the picture. I also think the talent element is really key with the valentino rivalry. like, to be clear here, I do not give a shit which one of casey and valentino was literally more talented, in large part because I just don't really believe in talent as a valid construct. everything about this is a boring debate to me when there's so much interesting stuff going on with these two that nobody ever seems to want to discuss :(((( so let's do that discussion here. and let's just say for a minute that valentino does look at casey and at the very least believes he might be as talented as valentino is, if not more so. from the similarities post:

like, we can quibble with phrasing here, but I think if you are saying that someone's 'pure talent' is 'unbeatable', then you might kinda be calling him the most talented guy to ever do it? does kinda live rent free in my head! valentino also said casey was "one of the greatest talents ever in motogp" which, while phrased a little less extremely, does give us a baseline to operate from with regards to how valentino perceived casey's abilities. when we're talking about 'gaze', in my mind there's something fun when you lean into the interpretation that valentino's gaze was not only very much on casey, but on casey quite early. the paddock was all over the place with regards to casey in his early years - where obviously people did spot the talent but didn't clock HOW good he was and also tended to dismiss him for various reasons, including his actual performance (often it really was his bikes that were more to blame) and, well, his personality. the rumour goes that casey was blocked not once but twice from joining yamaha, first in 2005 for the 2006 season with a satellite contract and agreement to join the factory team in 2007, and then in 2006 for the 2007 season. with the second one, casey does kinda imply in a very *wink wink nudge nudge* way that he enjoys deploying that valentino was the one to block him, and this is also something his father has said in interviews (yeah I've watched interviews his father has given, that's the rare level of fan dedication I've reached with this bloke). now, I'm a teensy bit unconvinced by the evidence here because by late 2006 yamaha clearly were leaning quite heavily towards jorge as their future. they also seemed to think valentino might be off to do f1 - or at least that's how lin jarvis more recently sold the decision to sign jorge, as a situation where they never actually intended those two nutcases to be teammates. more recently, casey has also suggested that yamaha were deliberately stringing him along as a way of pushing down the price of the guy they actually wanted to sign, which to me sounds fairly plausible. I'm not saying valentino wasn't badmouthing casey within yamaha - it's entirely possible that this is a thing that was separately happening - I just am way less sure whether it actually achieved anything. which leads us back to the 2005 contract cycle... in all honesty, I do kinda want valentino to have blocked casey here, for the reasons I was talking about above: I think it's fun and narratively spicey for valentino's Gaze to have been on casey early and have already had this malicious quality, where he's actively hurting casey's career prospects. I do feel this would be like... a little bit of a stretch, just in terms of how much long-term thinking and planning and behind the scenes malice and also power we're ascribing to valentino here - to make him block a satellite signing that only maybe possibly could become uncomfortable for him a year down the line. still, by the same token... that's exactly what would make it fun. I'm not going to take a stance on whether it happened or not, but I would like the possibility that it might have happened to bleed into the narrative at all times

and then we've got casey's autobiography line about how valentino was hazing him in his rookie season, putting questionable moves on him in practises and during races. I love this so so so so much. look, casey had a strong start to his rookie season, and he DID fight valentino in his very second race which was very cute. but let's be real, valentino had limited opportunities to fight casey in races that season (I'm still struggling to actually think of a non-qatar race.... and having rewatched that fight a few times, it's one of those things I kinda want casey to talk me through, explain what his issues with valentino were) and really should have had bigger things to worry about. like, the man has four championship rivals and none of them are satellite honda rookie casey stoner. if valentino really was bullying that child in practise, then, y'know, what was the vision there. so obviously I really need this to be true... valentino might be a bit of a dick in general on-track but there's just something so charming about the idea that he had a bit of a special treatment for casey from day one. like, yes, that's my favourite talent spotter!! he knew there was something about that surly, stubborn crash prone kid. I want that malicious gaze directed on casey nice and early. obviously, casey has this entire thing where he doesn't believe valentino rated him until he'd basically already lost the title in 2007 and even then wasn't giving him proper credit, which doesn't entirely stand up when checking the historical record... but crucially, let's just accept casey's stance for a minute and say that valentino wasn't being sufficiently complimentary - for all intents and purposes, valentino did understand exactly how good casey was! going back to those autobiography sections I included in the similarities post, with valentino's whole thing about how he knew exactly why he won and lost every single race... I think it's really key that valentino did recognise just how good casey was, that he had quite a clear-sighted understanding of the level of prodigious talent he was dealing with here. that's why the gaze needs to be turned malicious, right. casey's stance here is the 'well the victory doesn't mean as much if you play dirty' approach, but valentino doesn't care. even if he was open to the idea that casey might be 'more talented' than him, obviously that doesn't mean he's going to roll over and die. because at the end of the day, raw talent really is only one of many tools in an athlete's locker. if the only way you can beat the kid is in the head, then so be it

one thing that does go under the radar a bit with casey is just how young he was during the heyday of the valentino rivalry. like, everyone's always on about how marc was only 22 during sepang 2015 - but for what it's worth, casey was 22 during laguna 2008. casey already experienced crowds booing him when he was 21, no honeymoon period there. maybe it's the lack of such a big age gap with valentino (they clock in at six and three quarter years), maybe it's the perceived lesser severity of valentino's crimes in this relationship, the lack of an active betrayal of hero worship, maybe it's how casey is a bit less baby faced and a bit more ill-tempered, maybe it's just lack of interest in casey in general... (to be clear, I do not want any discourse about this rivalry. like casey, I also do not need The Gaze to be directed at him too much.) but y'know, it is important to remember. laguna 2008 as a formative experience for casey is at its most coherent when we treat it first and foremost as one of humiliation. I talked about humiliation in that black rose arc post and then also did address that a bit in the similarities post:

this is what the gaze does to you, right. nobody is humiliated in private - that's not how humiliation works. you can be embarrassed in private without anyone else knowing what you did to embarrass yourself, even though you can argue about how there's an element there of judging yourself against an imagined external observer. still, though... with humiliation, it's far more direct. humiliation requires an audience. and humiliation has so much potential as a formative experience. the crash itself is really key here imo - it's not a scary crash, it's not a dangerous crash, it's a comically slow one as the bike goes into the gravel and then goes into the slightly deeper gravel and then tips over. it's one the commentators treat as a little bit silly, because it is. it feels like such an anticlimactic end to the battle, but it works perfectly because of it. casey is even denied any real pathos in the moment of his downfall... it's his own mistake, it's one that has so slender, seemingly harmless consequences. and then he has to ride to second place, he has to sit with the sting of that mistake, of knowing everyone watched it.... the entire show valentino puts on in parc fermé, perfect for the cameras, interrupting casey's tv interview and all of it... they both know they're being watched. valentino leans into his triumphalism in a way he never has in quite the same way before or since. casey cannot hide his bitterness and must eventually worsen his own humiliation by apologising to valentino. that's the kind of thing that sticks with you, yeah

and it's predicated on all the watching and studying and learning valentino has been doing throughout the course of the rivalry... valentino has come to understand casey and come to understand just how unbeatable his adversary can be. when you're fighting a god, after all, you kinda need to pull out all the stops. valentino reinvents himself in that laguna race, he's willing to take a massive risk on several counts, and it's all because he knows just how good casey is. it's the coldness of the whole thing, the violence, the radical steps valentino has taken, that make the whole thing so compelling. a series of calculations based on valentino watching casey, assessing not only his talent but also his character. and in that race comes the moment of revelation, where their characters are tested to such an extent that you inevitably expose a lot of said characters. valentino is inviting the audience in on the show... it's a spectacle - that's why it works

so, let's flip it and make casey the observer. after all, it's casey who's got the eyes plastered all over him

including in pressers where it's a backdrop! got it nicely displayed on his chest too as casey watches valentino talk. I did already give a lot of my thoughts on this dynamic in the similarities post - it's such a key theme to me of that entire rivalry that casey is so... actively engaged in the process of learning from valentino. jorge and marc used valentino as a 'reference' before they entered the class; casey felt first hand what happens when valentino focuses in on a rival and knew he needed to learn some of those tricks. luckily, he's talented enough to be a quick study. I really like the angle of this photo because it does kinda make it look like all the eyes are on valentino... which they obviously are. a man who is always aware of where the cameras are! sometimes for better and sometimes for worse

kinda have to bring it in when we're talking eyeballs, right? valentino really is the master of bringing in his own surrealist imagery. as all the best bits of valentino symbolism, you can interpret this in several ways... it's him paying extra attention to where he's riding a year after the leg break, but also him deeply, deeply aware of the eyes of the world on him after his ill-fated switch to ducati. the world gazes - and he shows his awareness of that gaze by gazing right back at it. acknowledging the camera, making his own humiliation into a bit of a show

anyhow... see that overly long post of casey and vale photos WAS good for something because the ask made me take a closer look at some of those photos. check this one out lol

you're right, anon!! this slaps! perfect gaze from casey, perfect placement of the eye right next to him. it kind of functions in two different ways, right, because you've got the element of casey studying valentino and learning from him - but also the gaze of judgement. again, you've got laguna as this decisive moment of revelation... "valentino showed who he really was", after all. casey's gaze is one of moral consideration, of condemnation. it's that duality that's really fun with them, where casey is on the one hand so fundamentally disgusted by valentino and his entire deal, but on the other hand is also learning to become more like him. leaning into his 'worse' impulses to fight him - the spite, the grudges, the determination to hold his own against his enemies that will supersede morals or self-preservation. if you look too long into the darkness, the darkness may end up looking back

it's that kind of vibe where... y'know, there's such a disparity between how the pair of them experience the rivalry, but also just how it functions narratively for them... part of the point I was making in that post is that it's like. valentino is obviously capable of these ultra heartfelt emotionally thorny rivalries. this was not that, but it was for casey - and so in some ways casey ended up taking on the valentino role. spite, grudges, delayed retribution... it's all a lot more straightforward from valentino's end, especially during the time period where they're actually competing for titles, where there isn't any real interpersonal animosity and valentino is just sort of willing to do whatever it takes... it's not like he even massively wanted to make an enemy out of casey; he just had a far more liberal understanding of acceptable tactics than casey did. and then casey's got so much going on... which means these two rivalries just end up operating on completely different levels, where valentino's dealing with this tricky and kinda fun challenge and casey's confronting demons... casey judges valentino, casey learns from valentino, casey never entirely understood valentino. this lingering awareness that he never really knew valentino as a person - that's catnip for this discussion. he can look all he likes, but all he sees is a shell

speaking of... well, valentino having these two natures, valentino's perceived fickleness, valentino being so slippery and tricky to pin down for casey... you can kinda bring in another symbol already featured in one of these posts, right

sun and moon on one rider vs an eye on the other. now, remember, valentino liked using this as a way of distinguishing between two sides of his character:

lovely stuff. not a million miles away with the internal distinction casey sometimes seems to draw between valentino the person and valentino the character. and that's what the eye is supposed to do, right - perceive the truth. see valentino for what he really is. positioning casey as the heretic who won't shy away from seeing valentino's true nature... the callousness casey has been exposed to, an awareness of everything valentino would do to win a race, to win a title. to beat casey

another link I was thinking of going through my lil collection of photos - this pair of photos which I think are both from qatar 2007:

while I generally prefer my sun and moon logos a bit less minimalist, valentino does have a nice helmet design here with the sun on one side and moon on the other. I mean this is just fantastic stuff, isn't it, like it really writes itself. two photos from different pov's, one where you see casey's face and one where you see valentino's. one where you see the sun and one where you see the moon. you can play around with the interpretation a little depending on what you want the sun and moon to symbolise respectively, but it's all in there lol. casey sees the moment one way, valentino quite the other. casey sees one side of valentino, but valentino's other side is already lurking, biding its time. valentino wearing a helmet at all is of course also quite a nice touch - see casey hiding in his helmet as a teenager, embarrassed by how good he was, see valentino deciding against taking off his helmet when he goes to confront casey after jerez 2011. it's a literal mask, a way of maintaining distance. works very nicely, doesn't it

here's a photo of them on-track, where you can just about see both sides of the helmet:

so you get a bunch of nice photos that year where depending on the perspective it's being photographed from, you get a different side of the helmet visible. casey spends so much time in front that season, he really doesn't need to be studying valentino's helmet all too closely. and sitting behind someone is overrated, as laguna 2008 showed so nicely

valentino also has a more intricate version of this design at phillip island 2007

which I'm mainly including because I think the whole thing looks kinda snazzy

but that's!! not!! all!! because there is one last 'casey and eyes' theorem that absolutely needs to be included here. like, this whole thing of casey watching valentino, having all these eyes around him doing the watching, perceiving valentino's true nature... it's all a bit third eye, isn't it, of having another eye open and being able to perceive truths your two regular ones can't. and, well, eyes... if we're talking about eyes and symbolism, then there's one symbolic link you just need to bring in: conspiracy theories. plastering a bunch of eyes on things, it's all a bit illuminati innit, a bit eye of providence, a bit freemason. one of my favourite things like,, narratively with casey is to really lean into the paranoia and the conspiratorial leanings; it's fun and juicy and adds so much to his character. he's just the type of guy who ends up being very attuned to a certain type of pattern! a certain type of colour, even - the bloody luminous yellow thing really is just such a perfect little detail that is so unintentionally revealing. casey noticing it, casey exaggerating it in his mind, casey including it in his autobiography.... he's got such a particular way of seeing the world, such a specific and slightly odd viewpoint that just makes you want to prod at him... and he does have a little bit of the flair of the traditional conspiracy theorist

that built-in wariness, disillusionment from systems and the establishment and all the rest of it, the alienation, the suspicion of malice... the whiff of paranoia! all absolutely perfect to make use of all the eye imagery. I think it's so so telling that casey thinks valentino might have been a victim of a plot like that, like it almost feels a bit counterintuitive the first time you think about it... casey's whole thing with valentino was about how valentino was always being favoured, always being given preferential treatment - casey complains about it several times in that same book! but, like, at the end of the day he really does view the system as the main villain. valentino is almost like an unwitting, unsuspecting, undeserving beneficiary of the whole thing, who doesn't even know what's Really Going On.... it's not valentino's malice behind these neverending injustices - though he might be representative of all of them. apparently, it is possible for valentino to be stitched up too. it is kinda a little bit that classic conspiracy theorist dynamic of gaining satisfaction from being one of the few who actually know the truth... like on the one hand it's frustrating in the isolation it causes, but on the other hand it's also extremely rewarding because it makes you special. 'welcome to my world, mate' - you almost get the sense casey wants to yank valentino behind the curtain and explain to him how the world really works. casey wants valentino to understand him, remember. maybe at the end of the day casey wants valentino's gaze to be a little more finely attuned. oh, please let me moderate a dinner between the pair of them, pretty please

still, for balance, let's chuck in some casey paranoia actually aimed directly at valentino:

10/10, no notes. watching someone closely isn't always a good thing

anyway this is probably the place to wrap up this post lol. basically I agree, anon, the eyes are great. I do not have the energy to edit this, so hope it is at least vaguely coherent. everyone's always watching each other and it's all fun and kinda creepy and unsettling and long live paranoia

[magicalhideoutengineer]

Newt & Theseus

Crimes of Grindelwald:

Callum Turner: I play Theseus, who is Newt's older brother, even though I'm younger than Eddie, which is interesting! He's kind of the opposite of Newt. He's gone through the same schooling obviously, but once he got out he decided that the establishment was the way to fight the good fight. Theseus is or may be quite more rigid or just part of the establishment. You know, he's the head Auror at the Ministry.

Yeah, I mean, he's the opposite to Newt. I guess he's more rigid, and he's conformed to the way that people want you to … he's become one of them I guess, and he went to Hogwarts. He was taught by Dumbledore. He’s from that school, and he became this, which you can take...

- Collider

What are Theseus’s thoughts about the creatures? What are his relationships with them?

Callum Turner: Yeah, I think he has bigger fish to fry and it’s his little brother’s thing. That’s his sort of looking down on his brother.

- Collider

Callum Turner: He'd been educated at Hogwarts underneath Dumbledore the same way Newt had, but for some reason he'd separated and it always felt unnatural that Theseus had become part of the establishment when his natural instinct would probably not to be that, but like Newt, you know, they are brothers. There's a similarity. But he's somehow like closed that bit off and he's gone that way and he's gone really high up into the Ministry of Magic and pretty much runs it and that's how he decides to fight the good fight. As Newt is part of the rebellion so I look at it, and Theseus is part of the establishment, and that's the kind of main difference between two brothers. Apart from that, very similar.

- ChicagoSciFi

Eddie Redmayne: I'll never forget. I don't know if you ever saw it. I saw an early version of the script in which the young guys were...

Callum Turner: The flashback.

Eddie Redmayne: Yeah, flashback when they were at Hogwarts together. He [Theseus] came like flying past the window on a Quidditch team, on his broomstick. He was clearly like a schoolboy sporting hero.

Callum Turner: Like a jock.

Eddie Redmayne: Definitely. The antithesis of Newt.

- Movie'n'co UK

Eddie Redmayne: Thank you. He's kind of the opposite of Newt. He is like the schoolboy hero. He was great. I'm sure he's like a brilliant Quidditch player, so they have a bit of tension and animosity, and yet they also have great love for each other, and that's kind of what you see through the film, is they start kind of not on the same side, but they progress through, and that thing that family does, like however much your brother irritates you, there's still some－I have three brothers who I love dearly. They never irritate me－They feel great sort of affection for.

- Dingo Movie

Eddie Redmayne: But also she [ J.K. Rowling] watches and she even says the way Callum’s character, Theseus, was written in the script was quite like, he was quite a bit mean to Newt, but the way Callum played him made him so human in trying to do the right thing and ‘I’ve got my own struggles’ and when Jo saw that and said to me that … when she then sees that footage she then responds to that in how she writes the characters going forward so it is kind of a lovely dance in some way.

- Knockturnal

Eddie Redmayne: It is really complicated. [Theseus] is an Auror, he’s very establishment, and Newt is kind of the antithesis of that. But what I loved, actually, was the way Jo had written their relationship. It was quite antagonistic to begin with, and it certainly is filled with complexities. I mean, his brother is engaged to this girl who he had a huge affection for growing up, so there’s obviously a real tension there. But one of the things I loved is, actually, Jo said to me seeing what Callum [Turner] was doing and how David was directing – there was a lot of love there – that she progressed the relationship as a consequence of that.

- Buzzfeed

Callum Turner: Theseus is the polar opposite of Newt. In a sense they're both fighting the good fight, but Newt is part of the rebellion movement and Theseus is the establishment.  

- MTV News

Callum Turner: The focus was very much about the brother relationship. I don't have a younger brother. I have a younger half-brother, but we didn't grow up with each other and I got these stories and it's very much the older brother shouts at the younger brother a lot and so bullies him in a certain way because there's a responsibility. It's all about two people just playing at the same patterns they had for years.

- Evanna Lynch Interview

Callum Turner: Theseus is head Auror at the British Ministry Of Magic - it's a tongue-twister! - and is really straight-laced. And Newt's not. He's the complete opposite, and he actually wants him to get in line and try to save the world. Because he knows he's special, but he won't do that. And that's the tension. That's what's going on between the two brothers. A brother trying to boss his other brother around, basically!

- Total Film

Callum Turner: He's an establishment man. He's worked really hard and rose to the top incredibly quickly. His brother won't conform. Newt sort of sits on the fence, and Theseus is a man of action.

- Entertainment Weekly: The Ultimate Guide to Fantastic Beasts

Callum Turner: He [Theseus] decided to fight the good fight by joining the Ministry, whereas Newt is part of the rebellion. They're both on the same side, but fighting in very different ways. Other than that key detail, the brothers clearly care for one another. While Theseus may be a bit more self-assured and confident than Newt, they share a deep sense of humanity.

- The Archive of Magic: The Film Wizardry of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Callum Turner: What was important was not to focus on that friction but to try and understand maybe why. You look at the facts: [Theseus] is very successful through the establishment, and wants Newt to join and fight the good fight in the way that he knows how and the way that he thinks best. Newt doesn’t want to do that.

- Fandom Interview

Callum Turner: He is on the promise to fight the good fight in the ways he knows how, which means that he has to conform to the rules and the regulations of which the wizarding society is deemed acceptable within the establishment. He doesn't think that Newt's doing the right thing. Spiritually, I think probably Newt is the one that has figured it out. Yeah. He's doing what he wants. 

- HBO Asia

Callum Turner: He’s risen to the top of the ranks at the Ministry, he’s the Head Auror, and is fighting the good fight in the way he knows how. He’s incredibly stubborn and wants his brother, who he understands to be a more powerful, special wizard, to join the fight on his side, through the establishment, which obviously Newt is repelled by and I think that's the journey he goes on. Maybe he's making mistakes or had made mistakes.

- Futurepreviewsllc

Turner wracked his brain trying to figure out why Theseus would be so desperate to get everyone close to him to join the Ministry, and found a simple answer: Protection. “[Theseus] wants to protect his brother, he wants him alongside him, he wants to [know] that his brother will be OK.”

- Fandom Interview

Callum Turner: I think Theseus and Newt are complete opposites. He's worried about his brother and he wants his brother to basically do what he wants and to fight the good fight in the way that he know how, which is through the establishment. He does it through love. It's like an overbearing thing and that's obviously the worst thing possible for Newt.

- Crimes of Grindelwald UK Premiere

What does your character think of Newt’s newfound success? Does he resent him at all for it?

Callum Turner: I think there’s a sort of a relief. Theseus is really successful. He’s a very determined man to reach the top, and I think having his younger brother sort of float around in this obscurity, in a sense, was quite worrying for him.

- Collider

Callum Turner: And with Newt, the thing that drives Theseus actually is love. It’s very important to him, the brotherly thing. It’s not that he’s the older brother and, ‘You’re going to do what I say.’ There is that element to it, too, but I think the friction really is in Theseus suffocating Newt. Theseus is overprotective of Newt and doesn’t allow him space. But really that comes out of love.

- No More Work Horse

Callum Turner: As brothers separate at times, this is the moment that they have. We refind them. He's risen to the top of the Ministry of Magic and he's quite successful, quite stubborn, but this is a man that loves and this is a man that cares deeply about humanity in the wizarding world and his fiancee and also his brother, and I think that's where the stress comes between the two is that he wants to protect Newt and he wants to look after Newt, but Newt doesn't need it, but Theseus can't see that. And that's the dynamic. That's why older brother telling younger brother what to do, younger brother saying, "See you later."

- Sensacine

Callum Turner: I didn't grow up with a younger brother -- I have a half-brother but we didn't grow up with each other -- and my research was to understand what that's like, and to get into why Newt doesn't like him and why they don't connect. The communication has gone bad. Theseus is very head-in-the-sand in a sense. He's blind to what Newt needs, and, objectively, there's a selfishness to that and an arrogance to that and a brute force-ness to that. But subjectively, it's about protection and it's about love and it's about caring. Theseus is a carer. He's described as a hugger, and I think he's trying to hug the whole world. Newt, in particular. When you aren't able to give what someone needs, to facilitate what they need, you then either push them away -- which he does -- or suffocate. I think the friction between them is Theseus doesn't understand what Newt wants, and he is overbearing. It's almost like he's got him in a big, old bear hug and Newt doesn't want that at all.

- Etonline

The actor [Callum Turner] also found that it was easy to find similarities between the two characters, both from a character standpoint (they’re both “stubborn in their ideologies”)

- Fandom Interview

Callum Turner: I had obviously seen the first film, and then I looked at Newt and thought I’d do the complete opposite – because Theseus is the complete opposite.  Even though they’re very similar – and the similarities are through their stubbornness, and being successful, driven and powerful – it wouldn’t make sense if they were the same. There were little things, like having ankle swingers, I call them, in the costume; that was a nod to being brothers. But then, the writing’s so brilliant and layered and textured that it was awfully free, really.

No More Work Horse

Callum Turner: We tried to find loads of little touches that would draw the brothers together, like little details in the pocket square, or the tie pin, or having the trousers a little shorter at the bottom, that would link the two together. There’s a panache to Newt, and to Theseus, too — but it’s subtle. He’s engaged to Zoë Kravitz, so he’s got to have some style.

- Fandom Interview

Eight years Newt's senior ( although Turner is nine years younger than Eddie Redmaync), Theseus is less eccentric to the eye. 'Generally, he is part of the world, dressed in a fine suit,' says Turner. 'But there are tiny similarities between his and Newt's look: ankle swingers, a pocket square, these wizard-ish touches in the shapes of the lapel and the collar.'

- Lights, Camera, Magic!: The Making of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

Hair and makeup designer Fae Hammond didn't have to do much with Callum Turner's hair in order to make it look like he and Eddie Redmayne were brothers, just lighten it. Her challenge, however, was that Callum has no freckles. and Eddie has a well-known smattering across his face. 'So one of my team ... Carefully freckled him up,' says Fae. 'But its a work of art and really necessary,' she confirms. Freckling took about fifty minutes each day.

- Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald: Movie Magic

Rebuffed, she comes to a halt. NEWT walks away toward THESEUS, who is very like NEWT, but more outgoing, easier in manner. THESEUS winks at LETA before turning to NEWT.

- Secrets of Dumbledore: The Original Screenplay

Callum Turner: He’s my younger brother. They love each other. It’s a lot of fun playing an older brother as well, someone who’s very sturdy, a war hero and we’re doing a scene today and Eddie gets slapped by Grindelwald with a spell and I was like my instinct in this kept saying, “Get up." You know. "Get up.” Not like, "Are you OK?” “Get up.” Like looking after him. I have a half-brother and a half-sister, but they grow up in Australia, so I didn’t grow up with them. So I didn’t know what it was really like being an older brother, feeding into that “get up” thing. Normally I’d be like, “Are you OK?” I actually did a lot of research for that. That was an important thing for me, to find the essence of being an older brother, and someone... I mean Newt is a worry for Theseus.

- Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - Makers, Mysteries and Magic: Chapter 7

Callum Turner: And with Newt, it was very important not to play the hardened brother because that's not what he is. And I think the relationship between Newt and Theseus is that Newt is running away. Theseus is worried about Newt. He thinks he's slightly odd, he's not part of the same society or the system that he's in, and Theseus is actually trying to drag him into line, into what Theseus thinks Newt should be. And I think that's the mistake. But actually, it's born out of love. It's not born out of authority or anything. He's worried and he realizes the world around them is crumbling. He says it to him at the beginning of the film. "You have to pick a side. You have to make a choice." And that's the theme of the film, for me. And actually, what he's doing is suffocating him. He's not allowing him to breathe, instead of that "Easy, easy." I'm sure Newt, then, would be like, "Hey, Theseus, what's going on?" But he's not. He's like, "Do this. Do that. Because I know best." And that's the similarity between the two. They're so stubborn. Theseus says, "Do this," and Newt just goes, "No," straight away. He doesn't even think about... and that's the beauty; by the end of the film they're in line and they take force of the situation that they're in. But their ideologies combine, in a sense.

- Mugglenet

David Heyman: Family is a big part of it, and, you know, it's both the family you're born with and the family you make. That's a big part of, I think, of the themes of Jo's work. So family is a part of it, including the relationship between Newt and Theseus. Seeing Eddie and Callum next to each other, they really do feel like brothers, and you know, Theseus is a Ministry man, but Newt is still his brother, and that relationship is really beautiful and strong. So to answer your question, yes, family is very much a part of it, where you come from, who you are.

- Collider

David Heyman:  Callum brings such an authority and an authenticity to the part. I mean, you really believe that he’s Eddie’s brother and, as he so rightly said, they are opposites and yet are very clearly brothers. And what he did so brilliantly in his audition – and it’s in Jo’s [J.K. Rowling’s] writing, as well – was that you had a sense that these two people have a history. So, there is both an affection, but also a little bit of that brotherly or fraternal thing, which I think really comes across. And, you know, Theseus is a Ministry man. Newt is not a Ministry man. That brotherly love, I think, is one of the heartbeats of the film.

- No More Work Horse

THESEUS: This isn't going to be like the other times. This is . . . Just try and keep an open mind, will you? And maybe a little less— A wordless gesture indicates Pickett, NEWT'S blue coat, and his messy hair.

NEWT —like me?

THESEUS (not without affection): Well, it can't hurt. Come on, let's go.

- Crimes of Grindelwald: The Original Screenplay

David Heyman: But what I love about brothers in this film is that ultimately, brotherhood is more important than anything and that the two of them begin on opposite sides of it. Theseus is a Ministry man and Newt is anti-establishment. And yet, even while that is going on, Theseus whispers in his ear, "They're following you," which is a betrayal of the Ministry, but it is his brother and he's trying to get his brother to go to him. He's trying to help him, I think, not because he wants him to be on the Ministry's side. He knows what's true for Newt. And he wants to help. So the way these people both move, Newt comes through realizing he's going to have to join the battle, and Theseus realizes he might have to do it outside of the traditional Ministry platform. They're doing it as brothers, stronger together.

- Mugglenet

Callum Turner: I hope they are friends. I hope they they are best buds. I think they deserve to be friends, right? There’s been a lot of bad press in the press about their relationship. I’m sick of it. 

Eddie Redmayne: I feel like by the end, they really bond in this film. It’s an amazing thing in family, isn’ it? Where you have difficult times and dynamics, moments when there’s friction and then something happens and you kind of lean into each other a bit. I’m excited for the prospect of the Scamander brothers taking on the world together.

- IGN España

NEWT shuffles over awkwardly to the bereft THESEUS. NEWT hesitates, struggling to find words of comfort. Then, for the first time in his life, he puts his arms around his brother. They hug.

- Crimes of Grindelwald: The Original Screenplay

Secrets of Dumbledore:

Eddie Redmayne: One of the key themes is siblings really. It's there with my brother Theseus played by Callum Turner who I adore, and the complexity of those relationships in families when you're all of the same blood, but you've got completely different personality traits, and you have great love even though you are entirely different people.

- ChicagoSciFi

Eddie Redmayne: Newt is not a social animal. He is much more at ease with his creatures. He' s not inherently someone that' s good at being part of the system and he didn' t really fit in at school. In fact, he ended up being thrown out! Whereas Theseus is very much the schoolboy hero who' s gone into a life within the Ministry, was a war hero himself and has a physical authority and a facility with people that Newt just doesn' t have. So they' re sort of chalk and cheese and yet because in this movie they have to work together they begin to realise that actually they complement each other quite well.

- Secrets of Dumbledore: The Original Screenplay

Callum Turner: Between the brothers, they're re-entering a stage in their relationship that they haven't been there for a long time probably since they were kids, both of them trying to be more open with the other, I'd say that Theseus maybe a little bit more than Newt, and they're developing an understanding, a respect for the way that the other person thinks and using that for the greater good.

- ChicagoSciFi

Callum Turner: Well, I think what's so brilliant about the way that Steve and J.K. wrote this relationship is that it's complex. It's like two brothers that have a fractured relationship of growing apart, unfortunately, for every reason, and I think the reason is that they both think they are right. With this one, they align themselves. They both allow themselves to be slightly more flexible and see the way the other fuses the world a little bit more, and that allows them to come together to fight the good fight together.

- Secrets of Dumbledore Interview

[watchmakermori]

rereading The Bedlam Stacks: my feelings six years on

until recently, I'd only read The Bedlam Stacks the once - back on release, within the span of a few days. I'd enjoyed it at the time, though not nearly as much as my beloved Watchmaker, so I thought it was time to go back to it and see how my feelings on it have changed.

back in 2017, I recall enjoying the first third of the book a lot, finding the middle section a bit slow, and thinking that the ending was a bit sudden. Having reread it again, my thoughts are similar in some respects - I still think that the pacing is strongest at the beginning, and hits a sluggish section once Merrick gets to Bedlam. My feelings on the ending are complicated, because part of me thinks that it's missing something, but part of me thinks it has the best conclusion of any Pulley book so far.

Bedlam is a difficult book for me to critique. There is so much that I love about it, so many isolated scenes and concepts that stick with me, and the prose is fresher and more beautiful than I remembered. The scene where Raphael turns to stone for 70 years is so beautifully, horrifyingly handled. The markayuq are a haunting, fascinatingly original concept. Merrick and Raphael, while hitting a lot of the classic Pulley duo tropes, stand out in many other ways - the fact that their romance is only implied, and left somewhat ambiguous, is actually a novelty against the context of her other works. They also feel more...mirrored than other Pulley pairings? Most of her romances seem to thrive on difference. Differences in class, in race, in intellectual standing, in physical strength. And obviously Raphael and Merrick have some of that, but they're also markedly similar in a lot of ways. Even though Merrick doesn't have Raphael's strength, he does have the memory of being a much stronger and healthier man. Both characters have a past of physical violence, and they are both shown to be capable of it in the narrative itself, as with when Raphael shoots the passing traveller and Merrick strangles Martel to death.

Their relationship to disability is also similarly mirrored, because both of them are haunted by old versions of themselves. Raphael is watching himself turn into a markayuq, feeling himself lose time and mobility, knowing that his transformation is impending and inevitable. Merrick also knows that he will never again be the man he was before his leg injury; he has to adjust to it, to work around it and accept that it has changed him. The acceptance of inevitability is a really interesting theme in Bedlam, which feeds all the way through Merrick and Raphael's central friendship. They don't really get the best of anything - they meet under bad circumstances, for less than a month, and they will never have enough time together due to Raphael's condition and a thousand other factors. But that doesn't mean that their friendship isn't worth something, that it isn't immensely precious.

So there's a great deal that I love about Bedlam on a thematic level, but I do think that the actual plotting of the book is quite weak overall. There are lots of isolated scenes that I love, but the connecting tissue is somewhat thin. The middle of the book involves a lot of waiting - waiting for the snow to clear, waiting for Clem to return, waiting for Raphael to tell Merrick the truth and take him beyond the salt line. Merrick does not have a great deal of intentional impact on the narrative, so it does often feel like you're sitting around waiting for the plot to come to him.

That's not to say that the plot needed to be bolder or bigger. It didn't need to focus more on the search for quinine. Honestly, I don't think high-stakes drama is one of Pulley's strengths - her forte is small interpersonal conflicts between select units of characters. In Watchmaker, the conflict and stakes don't really come from the lurking bomb threat or the police investigation - it's about Thaniel struggling with his own desires over the impulse to do the 'right' thing. Grace represents a more conventional path for him - a wife, a house, a future with children, and the money to look after his sister and nephews. But Mori is who he actually wants. And those warring desires come into greater and greater conflict as the story moves from beginning to middle to end. Thaniel's goals are not static.

But in Bedlam, there isn't that same sense of escalating tension and raising stakes. Merrick has his reservations about Raphael and whether he is dangerous, but ultimately, those reservations don't really change the decisions he makes. So much of what happens feels like it was always going to happen, which means that a lot of the tension feels somewhat...inorganic. Intangible. There isn't even the threat of discovery for most of the book, because Raphael knows exactly why Merrick is in Bedlam and Merrick makes no attempt to hide the truth. He keeps quiet about the threat of the army, but even if Raphael had discovered it sooner, it doesn't feel like it would've materially impacted how the story played out.

So it's a hard book for me to articulate my feelings on. The themes and concepts and characters and isolated scenes are excellent, but the story feels - just slightly - like it is less than the sum of its parts. At times, it seems more like a series of episodic events than a narrative, even if those episodic events are still deeply enjoyable.

But the ending is immensely powerful. The melancholy and the joy of it. The simple devotion of Merrick being there when Raphael wakes, 20 years later, with a cup of coffee - which was what Merrick had gone to make when Raphael first went into stasis. It is simultaneously an act of mundanity, and also an act of incredible loyalty and dedication - and love often does shine brightest in those small moments of devotion.

A while ago, I was lamenting that Pulley only ever gives us happy, cosy endings rather than something more tragic and bittersweet, but I don't think I was actually accurate on that. The conclusion of Bedlam is desperately sad, for all its loveliness. Because while Raphael and Merrick are reunited, we can't know how long they will have together. The story denies us that knowledge, that closure, by ending just as Raphael laughs.

I'm so glad I reread it. It is a bit of an odd fish next to all of Pulley's other works, and that makes me appreciate it much more with retrospect. This reread also reminded me, on a more general level, of everything I love about Pulley's writing - the sublime weirdness and the quirky characters and the nonchalance with which she handles speculative elements. For all her flaws as a writer, nobody is doing it like her, and I truly cannot wait for The Mars House.

[sushisocks]

since sean was the first to die(rip king😔), we never rly saw him deal w the death of the other members. how do you think a situation like that would go and who's death would impact him the most?

Oooh boy, what a great question!! 

So, I do think Sean would feel obligated to keep things light, but we also KNOW that he’s the one that likes to remember people and talk about the ones he cared for. I can 100% see him being the main push for letting people feel grief in a safe manner; Sean would be the one sitting at the campfire telling funny and heartwarming stories about the dead person, and encouraging other people to open up and share stories too.

At the same time, I 100% see him being weighed down HEAVY by certain deaths in private. If he survived past Arthur’s death, for example, that would absolutely rock his world. Same with Lenny’s death; if not from a shipping perspective, simply because Lenny is the youngest gun, is smart, and a friend of Sean’s. I think that would put some things in perspective for him real quick, and internally he’d be having a REAL bad time. Thing is, Sean isn’t really one to show a whole lot of negativity, so I don’t think this would be apparent to anyone who didn’t know how to look for it.

Additionally, I do genuinely think both Kieran and Molly’s deaths would hit him HARD. I’ve talked with several friends now about how Sean, Molly, and Kieran do all three have a connection with Ireland, and probably did feel a faint sense of kinship over it. Molly feeling unsafe and more alone after both Sean and Kieran dying right after one another makes a world of sense, even if she wasn’t really close to either of them, simply because of what they represent to one another. I can imagine her death hitting Sean in a similar way, and Kieran’s death would also absolutely sour certain things for him – ESPECIALLY since if you get all their possible interactions over the course of Horseshoe & Clemens Point, the two DO actually develop a repertoire between one another. 

Hosea’s death is a rough one, I think. Sean and Hosea’s relationship is of great interest to me, because there’s a LOT of conflict there, and Hosea is definitely among the– Less kind gang members, to Sean. Still though, Sean does clearly have some regard for Hosea as a wiser older man, as shown by him actually asking Hosea about their situation, clearly seeking advice and/or comfort regarding it. In large part I think Hosea’s death would be somewhat overshadowed by Lenny’s, to Sean at least, but there would very much be a sense of… Indignation, maybe? The context of this being one of the founding members of the gang, Dutch’s partner in crime, this voice of authority, now dead for what? 

Sean, at his core, is a people person. There’s no way any of the deaths wouldn’t leave an impression.

One thing I can then see happening is… A sort of disillusionment for Sean, when it comes to Dutch & the gang? Imagine all these rapid rate deaths of people you care about, and when you look to your leader he doesn’t really… Do or say anything? About it?? 

I think, similarly to my reasoning as to why I think Sean would’ve sided with Arthur in the end had he gotten that far, Sean isn’t as fully sold on every aspect of Dutch’s talk nor as fully invested as Arthur and John are (with their specific daddy issues lmfao). That WOULD allow Sean to grow more critical, and as more people die, I can imagine us actually getting to see Sean possibly become more– Well, for a lack of a better word, more Arthur-like. “He’s just a younger version of you” and all that, here’s Sean at around the same age Arthur was when he lost Eliza and Isaac, watching people that matter to him die through a failure of leadership, if you will. It makes sense to me that Sean would start harboring a similar sense of anger, that would probably start grounding him a bit more. 

This is all obviously assuming that Sean survives and everything happens the exact same way, which, as I’ve talked about before, I think is extremely unlikely! But it’s an interesting thought experiment for sure!!

Thank you so much for this question!! I enjoyed writing this a lot, and Sean’s potential journey in the story when surviving his scripted death has always been a point of deep fascination to me, so I LOVE getting to think abt stuff like this!!!