#a foreshadowing of things to come?

[egophiliac]

Have you heard of the "Crowley is Malleus' dad" theory going around? Where Prince Levan (or whatever his name is) didn't actually die and just went out to get some milk and is now known as Dire Crowley, the silly man? The implications of that theory is absolutely hilarious when you think about it

hold on, we can figure this out, we just need LISTS

PROS THAT CROWLEY IS SECRETLY REVAAN/LEVAN/LAVERNE/WHATEVER:

unspecified fae of some kind, with similar coloring to Mal

the animal masks are apparently a Briar Valley thing

has some kind of big blackmailable secret that was alluded to in episode 4, and then as far as I know never brought up again

(unless this was just Azul bullshitting, which is extremely possible)

based on Diablo, which...maybe means something?

has canonically worn Dad Shorts

CONS:

(gestures to Crowley's entire personality)

NO LISTEN Revaan was the guy they sent off on diplomatic missions and to take care of delicate political situations, and...look, I love this dweeb, but would you trust Crowley to be in charge of negotiating your war treaties

despite my brain insisting on reading his name as "Raven", Revaan's title does imply that he was also a dragon (or super into longan berries, I'm not ruling that out)

currently unclear why Lilia "my closest friend Revaan...he is no longer with us...I used to make fun of him for being kind of a priss about eating jerky..." Vanrouge has somehow not noticed or said anything

Malleus' Aloof Anime ~Aristocrat~ vibe had to come from somewhere, and by all accounts it was NOT his mom's side of the family

???:

turns into a bird in the opening, I don't know if that means anything but it's kinda cool, I guess

all that aside, if Malleus and Yuu are any indication, then the Draconias have...questionable taste in their social choices. so anything is possible!

[mammoth-clangen]

27/3/25 update: chopped off everyone's carpal pads because Homotherium didn't have them

Itty bitty reference of everyone bc i am Tired of colourpicking from the previous page (and bc everyone has some semblance of consistent design now XD )

I drew this between posting Moon 3 (part 2 and 3) so sorry for the lack of Small Boi, he will be added when i get time + when he has a name revealed!

Fun notes!

- Poppy's short tail and Dart's nub-butt are both caused by the manx gene, Dart just has a higher expression! (it's dominant so Pine doesn't have it at all)

- Burnet and Quiver have the exact same eye colour and very close skin tone

- Pine's mullet will get bigger as he grows but it's important to note even as a baby bc i think it's funni

- Poppy looks like a unit but is mostly fluff, Burnet is actually stocky

- age can be at least partially determined by how yellow someone's teeth are lmao

- Quiver's angry eyes started as a joke but stuck around bc it's fun to draw

- Pounce (and Lilac to an extent) is the only character with dark brown pads bc of a silly headcannon I have regarding fully white characters being polar adapted, most characters will continue to have pinkish red ones! (except new lil guy bc he has melanism)

- I like to imagine Burnet isn't piebald but actually has a somatic cell mutation similar to bloodmark horses. Why? idk, i think it's fun, and also genuine piebaldism comes with health issues

- everyone has different ear tufts bc i think that's cute cx

- Lilac is tall

has ANYONE noticed the sclera thing yet? No? ok

[crownedwithstars]

the reasons I think Fëanorians should not get the Silmarils back

it's a better and more compelling story this way. their fall from grace and the way they corrupt and destroy themselves because of a hopeless quest is peak tragedy, which would be ruined by their success.

it's a justified consequence of the Kinslayings: the right of ownership is not and cannot ever be more important than somebody else's right to live.

it's also a justified consequence of them stealing and destroying someone else's priceless semi-sacred property: Teleri will never get their ships back because Fëanor burned them out of spite, so it's only fair and square that the Silmarils are never returned to him or his heirs. 

if Stuff is so important to you that it causes you to ruin the lives of all your children, losing that Stuff forever is probably just karmic justice. (see also: "if more of us valued food and cheer above hoarded gold...")

And no, nobody else should have the Silmarils either. It's clear that having a Silmaril messes with your brain. At the end of the Silm, they should become public property. I would go even further than this and say that the actual resolution of the Silm, where nobody can have them and the single surviving jewel is carried as a star that everyone can indiscriminately see by a guy who never expressed a desire for it, is probably the only correct one. 

[demaparbat-hp]

For the Spirits —Chapter XI: Into the Depths

Read here!

Like that man

I looked down into the depths when I met you

I couldn't measure it

—Through Me (The Flood) by Hozier

.

Before, Zuko had seen the endless blue of his dream on Amarok's eyes and thought he had found purpose. He had found fate. 

Now, as Zuko's gaze was held coldly by eyes even brighter than those he had dreamed of, he learned he truly knew nothing.  . “Who are you?”

[mikimeiko]

The Expanse | Season 1 (2015-16), Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby

[dandylion240]

Neon Pill

[jicklet]

1.15 || 4.03

Was it after you drank Karen's fake poison for me? Earlier.

[rainbowsandwhumperflies]

The Winged Servant - 14

content warnings: unhealthy ideas about food (I'll put a more detailed warning about this in the comments but I don't want to spoil stuff here), brief discussion of religion, mention of death, begging

prev chapter | masterlist

“Here you go, bud.”

I stared at the plate in front of me. It was ceramic. Less detailed than what we’d had at the house, but breakable all the same. I would have to be careful, then, but I knew how to do that. The crepe itself was a different story.

“Thank you, sir,” I said anyway, beginning to scissor a piece off with my fork. Crepes were meant to be eaten with hands, I remembered, but that wasn’t how a servant was supposed to act. Not in front of other people. Really, servants weren’t supposed to eat at all in front of other people if it could be helped, but exceptions could be made when food was handed right to me.

Dubhe sat down on my left, a bowl of fruit in front of him. There was mango in it. There was mango in my crepe, too, if Dubhe had really put everything he’d said he would. Prince Ryan didn’t let me eat mangos when he could help it. They made my cheeks red, my lips puffy, and my throat itch, but they weren’t so bad that I could refuse them. Not by a long shot. I’d have to eat egregious amounts before I was in any real danger, so I took a small bite of the crepe.

That was- shit, that was good. It wasn’t the strawberry jam that I was used to, but the combination of flavors more than made up for it. The mangoes that I was not supposed to eat practically melted on my tongue. Or maybe it just felt that way because of the gnawing feeling in my stomach, because of the tiny portion of dinner I’d received the night before.

“I’m assuming you don’t know much about who I am,” Dubhe said from his spot next to me, reminding me that he was there. I dragged my fork back and forth as I swallowed.

“His Highness Prince Ryan talked about you last night. When we were on our way to your room.”

“Yeah? What did he tell you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

I shrugged. “He said that he is more fit to run a country than you, sir. He is more fit to run a country than most people.”

“Because of his qualifications?”

“Because the Rao family has held the crown for sixteen generations. Sir. That is all the qualification they need.”

“I don’t think-” He hesitated. “Okay. Let’s take this in a new direction, actually. What’s the point of having royalty?”

The point? What was the fucking point? Did it matter? I was a servant. I wasn’t supposed to understand things like this. The point of having a ruler was for them to rule. And that’s what the Rao family did, which meant that they could not have been unfit for it.

“Um,” I said slowly. “The point of having royalty is to make things easier for people who aren’t royalty, right, sir? Like… they make decisions about important things that other people don’t understand. They protect their subjects.”

“Yes,” he agreed, and I sighed in relief, cutting another bite of my crepe off with the dull edge of my fork. It would take longer this way than with a knife or my teeth. It would give him a longer time to have this conversation in an environment where eye contact was not expected. I wondered if he’d noticed me staring at the tablecloth while he’d asked me questions with Blue. I would have to be less obvious next time.

“Yes,” he repeated, “they are supposed to make things easier. And if every citizen gets together and decides that the royalty is making things harder, why shouldn’t they pick new royalty?”

“Because that would make them traitors, sir.” That was an easier question. I knew the answer just fine for that. I took another bite of my crepe.

“Not if they succeed. If they manage to overthrow the previous royals, and put new ones in and adjust the laws, it’s no longer treason.”

“Treason is illegal whether or not you’re punished for it, sir,” I said, covering my mouth while I chewed. It had been a long time since I had eaten in front of anyone except Jayden, but I couldn’t let my manners slip now. “Even if you’re the only one who knows about it, you aren’t supposed to think treasonous things.”

“Hm.” I did not turn my head to look at him, but I could feel his eyes on me. These were different questions than he’d asked with Blue. Those had been about me. These were… philosophical, maybe, or a test of some kind. “I am the current king of Sathenn. DId you know that?”

I stared at the table. I was supposed to behave. Prince Ryan had told me to behave. But Dubhe was wrong.

“Do you have an objection to that?” he asked.

I stared intently at the crepe. “... No, sir.”

“Right. You’re supposed to listen to people. I keep forgetting, sorry. If a… a well-meaning subject who was loyal to the crown had an objection… what would that objection sound like?”

“Um. Well. Sir. The royal family has the divine right to their power.”

“Divine right?” he repeated, and he almost sounded like he was holding in a laugh.

“It’s, um, a theory from hundreds of years ago, sir. Monarchies are passed through families because their bloodlines are superior.”

“I’m familiar with the concept. The most recently I’d heard, the Raos aren’t religious, though, so I’m surprised that they taught it to you. The word divine in that phrase implies that their right to rule was given to them by some sort of god.”

I frowned. I supposed that technically, Dubhe was right. I hadn’t thought about that before—or rather, I hadn’t been told. I wasn’t supposed to think through it the way he was doing, I was just supposed to listen to what I was told.

“It’s not about a god, sir,” I said eventually. “Divinity is not just from religion. The first Rao royal brought back the stars. They are the reason any of the kingdoms are able to exist at all.”

“Brought back the stars, yes, because they were one of the most brilliant scientists we’ve ever seen. But there are plenty of brilliant scientists we haven’t seen.” He took another bite of his fruit, giving me a few moments to wonder what the hell he meant before he continued.

“I used to know a person who was accepted to college at the age of fourteen, but xe died before xe could graduate because Lucia had xem killed. Xe could have been brilliant, too, if xe’d been given a chance to become that. Instead of giving xem that chance, Lucia nipped it in the bud. The first Rao may have brought back the stars, but fast forward a couple centuries, and Lucia was pulling shit like making it illegal for angels to fly at playgrounds without something attaching them to the ground. When the royalty does not serve the subjects, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with starting over.”

I swallowed another bite. My tongue was starting to feel awkward in my mouth. That was fine. It would swell a bit and probably get itchy, but it would not put me in actual danger, so it was fine. It wasn’t lethal. It didn’t even affect my breathing. It was fine.

I did not see the issue with what Dubhe had clearly listed as a failing of the queen. She knew better than I did what was safe at a playground. She knew better than any subjects what was safe at a playground. That was the problem with subjects deciding that their country was in need of new royalty. If the Raos truly had been unfit to rule, that was up to the Raos to decide. Not the subjects.

“It’s not technically illegal to be loyal to them,” Dubhe said when I didn’t respond. “Legally, you are free to have that opinion, as long as you don't try harassing people who don’t or something. But it’s ignorant at best to pretend that they did not hurt people while they ruled.”

“Their job isn’t to help people or hurt people, sir. It’s to rule, and to make decisions that no one else does. That’s what they did.”

“I guess.” He shrugged, taking a bite of his fruit. “They could’ve ruled much better than they did, though.”

I did not look at him as I mumbled, “Yes, sir.” He started staring at my face anyway.

“Is your… mouth swelling, Onyx?”

“Yes, sir. As is the usual result of me eating mangos.”

He grabbed my hand on its way to lift my fork to my mouth. “Please tell me you’re not allergic to mangos.”

I blinked like a deer caught in headlights, glancing between my crepe and Dubhe's face. “I’m… not… allergic? Sir?”

“Please tell me the honest truth about whether or not you’re allergic to mangos,” he amended, and I nodded. His mouth set in a tight line. “I asked you if you had dietary restrictions. Why didn’t you say anything?”

How was I supposed to know this is what he’d meant? “My apologies, sir. I thought… um, my mango allergy is included in the list of foods that the royal family did not allow me to have. I was under the impression that you did not care to know what they did not give me.”

“Well, yeah, but-” He released my hand, running his own hands through his braids and tugging on the ends. “I mean, I asked if there were foods you couldn’t eat. You said you could eat whatever I saw fit.”

“And if you saw fit to give me food I was allergic to, sir, I could eat it. I am grateful for any food I receive.”

“That’s not what I meant,” he hissed.

My eyes traced the grain in the table to avoid looking at him. “My apologies, sir. I did not mean to misinterpret your command.” Would Dubhe punish me? Was he allowed to, out in public, in the middle of the day? Prince Ryan wouldn’t have tolerated it. Prince Ryan was in jail at Dubhe's order.

“How allergic are you? Are you risking your breathing ability when you eat mangos? Are- are you risking your life?”

“No, sir. I’m only mildly allergic. Previously, it hasn’t resulted in any more than mild swelling and itching.”

“I don’t have angel medicine,” he said through gritted teeth.

I was frustrating him, I knew, but I didn’t know how to respond to his questions. I knew how to respond to things Prince Cardan said, or Prince Ryan, or Her Majesty, but I did not know Dubhe. I did not know what he wanted from me.

“My apologies, sir,” I said again. He shook his head sharply.

“It’s fine! It’s fine. I’m glad that your allergy isn’t worse than it is.”

His shoulders were tense, and when I glanced at him, he was glaring at the table too. It was not fine. I had messed up, and I hadn’t even said all the things I was supposed to say. “My sincerest apologies for not informing you of the allergy when you wanted me to, sir. It won’t happen again, and I would be grateful if you would punish me to help me remember.”

Dubhe turned his glare toward me. I flinched back. How had I forgotten already how disapproving he had been when hearing about my punishments? Of course this was not what he wanted me to say. What was I supposed to say? I could fix this. I could still fix this, couldn’t I?

He started talking before I could, reaching out and taking my plate.

“I am,” he said, and his voice broke, so he cleared his throat and started over. “I’m going to take this back to the kitchen. Stay here until I return, please.”

I stared at him in horror as he stood up with the crepe. The royal family did not permit me to beg, didn’t permit me to want things enough to beg, but this was not the royal family. And it wasn’t want that I felt as he took my plate—it was plain old hunger. I had slept for maybe four hours the night before. I had been tired and hungry before, but the royal family was careful. Prince Ryan paid attention to my body’s limits. If I continued to be deprived of both sleep and food, I would collapse soon, and then I wouldn’t be useful to anyone at all.

“Please,” I blurted out when Dubhe began to walk away. “Please, I- my apologies, sir, but I didn’t mean to seem ungrateful. I can eat it.”

“Onyx, I’m not going to force you to eat something you’re allergic to.”

“But you could, sir,” I insisted. My heart was racing, and I knew my words were too fast, not making sense, but I needed the crepe back. “You wouldn’t even have to force me. I appreciate you going out of your way to have breakfast made for me, and the mango really isn’t that bad, and-”

“Onyx.”

“Please, sir,” I repeated, trying not to cry. Her Majesty hated when I did that, when I tried to make other people feel guilty about my own body’s failings, but I couldn’t quite get rid of the pinch behind my eyes. It worsened and twisted until it turned into a familiar wetness building up behind my eyes. I couldn’t cry now, not if I wanted to convince him I deserved the crepe. “Please. I didn’t even eat half of it. I’m so hungry.”

Dubhe stared at me for a long moment, eventually bringing his free hand to rest on my shoulder. I held as still as I could. It was okay if he punished me. I had broken so many rules in the past few hours, he had every right to correct me, but all he did was gently squeeze my shoulder.

“You’re going to eat breakfast,” he told me softly. “I am taking your crepe back to the kitchen, and I’m having them make a different one without mango for you. Okay? I’m sorry that I wasn’t clear about that. I’m not going to punish you, and I’m not going to starve you. I know I seem frustrated right now. I’m sorry. It’s not your fault.”

A different one, he said. Without mango. For me.

He’d just apologized to me while he explained that he was making me a personalized breakfast. People weren’t supposed to apologize to me. People weren’t supposed to give things to me.

I stared up at him. I remembered what he had said about how royalty is supposed to help subjects, about how he was the king.

“Thank you, sir,” I whispered.

He nodded, and then he turned around and briskly walked back toward the kitchen.

~

taglist: @kaleidoscope-of-thoughts @toyybox @rainydaywhump @risk606 @jay--o

[towards-toramunda]

Gradually going from “awe imodna is kinda cute” early campaign to “I would die for them I need them to have a cute lil cottage together after all of this or I will sob” after this past episode has been fun

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Bobby lives - and the proof is in the opening disaster!! (Plus everyone else’s arcs are there too)

This is a bit all over the place - but I’ve been trying to write it for days - but upfronts happened and well I;ve been a little distracted - but I’ve managed to pull it all together before 818 happens!

I’ve said for the last few seasons that the opening disaster of 911 always gives us clues at to what is in store for us throughout the season and I wrote a bit about it at the start of this season with some of the things I thought we were going to see based on the opening disaster with the various passengers on the plane and their arcs throughout the disaster being representations of what was in store for the firefam.

Now were at the end of the season and faced with the supposedly dead Bobby arc everything is becoming very clear in terms of all the clues that the opening disaster was giving us for the season and makes it very very clear that Bobby is not going to remain dead!

Going to try to keep this pretty brief, but let’s start with a quick rundown of what all the main characters get up to over the 3 episodes in relation to the plane and also the various key people on the plane.

On the plane we have the captain and copilot, the cabin crew, a group of sports students, Jem and his dad, the older couple going to visit their new baby grandson, the lady with a dog and the business man sat next to her and then also Athena and Dennis.

We also need to look at which passengers the fire fam are helping during the disaster

- Hen is helping out with high altitude pulmonary edema - business guy,

- Chim is helping Dennis with the athletic groups leg injury

- Eddie is helping the cabin crew with the unconscious co pilot.

- We also have Buck trying to get hold of Bobby and then ultimately going to the film lot to get him, separated from the rest of the 118 and ultimately from Bobby as well (when he goes to light the flares) before reconnecting with them once the plane has landed.

- We also have Athena making calls to Bobby but not being able to get through to him so leaving a message - while talking to atc and flying the plane - before she finally is able to talk with him with a little help from dispatch and she is able to bring the plane into land safely.

Each of the various passengers and crew on the plane are a representation of the firefam and what happens to them reflects a key point in their arc for the season, and the key members of the team who help them with that moment.

The group of sports students are representative of Hen and the Wilson family, the leg injury is the injury Denny gets when he is hit by the car and trapped against the wall of the house. Dennis has to improvise a knife in order to save the girls life, and this reflects the fact they have to improvise a field transfusion for Denny to save his life. It is Chim helping with this incident on the plane, in the same way it is Chim helping Hen when it is Denny injured.

The older couple are Maddie and Chimney - we are told that they are going to visit their new born grandson - who is mistaken for a girl by the woman with a dog. This is telling us Maddie is having a boy, but that it will be mistaken for being a girl - which is exactly what we have seen happen with the pregnant Maddie arc. This couple also have all the things needed to help the businessman who has a high altitude pulmonary edema who we’ll talk about next.

The business man is paired up with the woman with her dog who doesn’t like men. Originally when I wrote about the plane disaster, I thought the woman was a representation of Buck and the business man being a representation of Tommy (I was also of the opinion that Eddie was the dad with Jem and that’s why I didn’t think he was part of the concept here) - with the woman’s dog who doesn’t like men symbolising Bucks animosity towards tommy when he meets him in 704.

However, now I have more context from how the season has played out, and understand more about what is being foreshadowed in other parts of this opening disaster, I feel I was in the right ball park, but a little off with my thinking so I’m revising what I think here to have the business man be a stand in for Buck and the woman a stand in for Eddie.

There are many reasons for my thinking this - not least the man having a pulmonary edema being a call back to Bucks own pulmonary embolism. We also have the woman being dismissive of the man’s attempts at conversation - which we see happen between Buck and Eddie to varying degrees throughout this season (not that Eddie is dismissive of Buck but there has definitely been a shift in their dynamic since Buck came out - its subtle but Eddie is low key pulling away and less open with Buck - has been shorter with him - which to me feels a bit like its an intentional play into Eddie slowly becoming aware of his feelings for Buck and trying to hide them). We get Eddie being ‘dismissive’ of bucks feelings and behaviour at the firehouse around the Gerrard of it all and later on around his boils and the billy boils of it all, as well as further animosity when Eddie chooses to leave for El Paso.

This is all reflected by the way the woman is dismissive of the business mans attempts at conversations and the way she puts the screen up between them before the flight takes off. The screen being put up is a metaphor for the distance between Buck and Eddie when Eddie goes to El Paso - they are both still there, but they are effectively no longer visible to one another - only through a screen!

It is Hen on the phone who helps the woman save the businessman’s life, along with the various items the older couple are able to provide to assist. To me this is showing us that it will be Hen, Maddie and Chimney who ultimately help and support Eddie and Buck - which again is exactly what we see playing out this season - Hen talking to Eddie in 817 about Bucks list and about him getting a job offer in El Paso, as well as her comments and support through 8a and the Christopher of it all.

Hen is more focused on talking the woman through things, while the older couple are providing the things that will help - which is reflective of the fact Buck has received his help this season from Maddie and Chimney (and Josh) in a more physical sense than Eddies more verbal help from Hen.

Their help comes in the form of a nebuliser and viagra - which are both metaphors for Tommy - temporary assistance and the viagra especially is a play on fakeness - that Tommy is all about sex and there isn’t much else there - no emotional connection - it is effectively a mask for ED. It’s a play on Tommy providing support etc as a helicopter pilot rather than as a boyfriend - he was intended to be a boyfriend but is actually more useful for being a pilot and the erection is basically a temporary side effect - Viagra doesn’t increase sexual desire it just creates an erection through physical stimulation - it’s essentially fake and purely physical requiring no true emotional connection - the implication being that bucks feelings for Tommy aren’t real - they are purely physical and are masking (haha that episode title had more than one meaning 🤣) his actual feelings -which he needs to discover - at the same time Eddie does - which is why the woman and man and the dog are shown connecting at the end when they’re off the plane - exploring/ the beginning of something new.

The fact that the woman puts a (rainbow) towel over the resulting erection and hands over her dog to provide comfort - a dog who doesn’t like men, yet warms up to him and happily sits with him is a metaphor for Eddie’s queerness - we keep being told Eddie is straight in the same way we’re clearly told the dog does not like men - and we’re shown it when the man tries to pet it. The implication being that we’re going to see Eddie figure it out and in the end be happy with a man. The idea that Buck and Eddie are going to discover their mute feelings for one another in the aftermath of everything this season is clearly laid out and is hinting at them Ending the season moving into a new tentative phase of their relationship - we are shown them having been separated for a good chunk of the plane disaster arc - reuniting to deal with the fire etc on the plane towards the end - foreshadowing their separation through 8b reuniting at the end of the season in a work context - Eddie returning to the 118 and helping with the building collapse.

Jem and his dad seem to kind of represent all of the mains at various stages of the season and specifically their interactions with Athena - the way they all ultimately support and assist her throughout the season. Then we have the captain and the co pilot. The captain gets quickly sucked out of the plane never to be seen again - she is Ortiz - a brief flash and then gone, while the co pilot is Gerrard. The copilot is knocked unconscious, regains consciousness and then has a heart attack before ultimately being revived and got off the plane.

This mirrors the coming and going of Gerrard. Copilot gets injured and is a bit out of it - a reference to Gerrard nearly getting taken out by the circular saw blade. He then manages to direct Athena how to put the plane into autopilot - a reference to Gerrard helping the 118 bring down Ortiz. He then becomes unconscious - reflecting Gerards time on Hotshots - he is away from the 118. He then wakes up and is prepared to take back control of the plane before he has a heart attack and we spend the rest of the time on the plane with the cabin crew and passengers undertaking chest compressions on him. This is reflective of his return to the 118 to keep them functioning in the aftermath of Bobbys death - the play on the 118 being on life support until it can get a permenant captain - to hospital for full medical treatment.

Then we have Athena and Dennis who are Athena and Bobby - Dennis being Bobby - his assisting Chim on the plane with the surgery on the girl who is part of the party representing Hens season arc - creating a shiv and then being the one to do the surgery is foreshadowing Bobby in the lab having to improvise and undertaking surgery on Hen under Chims guidance while he quarantine’s himself.

It’s worth pointing out here that we get a flashback to Emmett’s funeral - a full police funeral with a grieving Athena and a voiceover of the last call for Officer Washington - it’s clear and obvious foreshadowing (even more so in retrospect) that Athena is going to go through the same thing in the present day - losing a partner to the job. Weve obviously just watched this foreshadowing play out with Bobbys funeral.

We’re also shown Athena overcoming her residual trauma from losing Emmett through the use of that flashback/memory and by explicitly showing her forgiving Dennis and being able to move past it. - let the past be in the past and be at peace. This is an important moment for her because that trauma has influenced her entire life up to this point.

Athena making peace with Dennis and that trauma from her past - a past that shaped her future is foreshadowing Bobby being able to get to a place where he is able to let go of his own trauma - around losing Marcy, Brooke and Bobby jr in the apartment building fire and his own culpability in that event - something he has carried ever since and something that has shaped him and his future - with his book of lives saved and his intention to end his life once he has completed the mission he set himself of saving a life for each one lost in the fire.

In the lab we are shown bobby reaching a place where he wants to live - that he is no longer suicidal and has found a new purpose and reason for living. This is key in connection with Athena choosing to bury Bobby in St Paul with Marcy, Brooke and Bobby jr - it is a moment symbolising Bobby making peace with his past and choosing to move forward (even though it has come at as part of his apparent death) it is his past and his trauma being buried in that coffin.

The other key part of the Dennis being Bobby and foreshadowing Bobby being alive is the fact that Dennis is being chased by the FBI (fake or other wise) before they get to the plane - a time when the motivations of the people supposedly in positions of authority is questionable and they can’t be trusted (remind you of anyone in the contagion arc? The military and FBI perhaps?!)

Once the plane is landed and we see the fake fbi agent chasing Bobby, Athena and Dennis to the parking lot and culminating in Dennis taking the bullet to stop Bobby from being shot. This is all foreshadowing the death of Bobby arc - Dennis is Bobby and Bobby is Chim - Bobby basically taking the bullet for Chim (by giving Chim the antidote). Dennis was in a kind of witsec scenario - related to the little black book that people in positions of power and influence wanted kept quiet. The same can be said of the Lab scenario - the military and government is going to want to keep what happened in the lab quiet - they will want to ensure that the public don’t know how close they came to this new strain of CCHF getting out and becoming a new pandemic, especially without an antidote.

Dennis survived the bullet he took and to me that is suggesting the same thing is playing out here with Bobby - that he’s basically ended up in some kind of government witsec place having made an agreement with the military man on a private radio channel (they made sure to show us various moments when people were able to communicate privately) which will allow the development of the antidote and for research to be carried out on him to determine the full parameters of the strain of CCHF Moira created (or whatever random reason that doesn’t actually make sense that Tim has come up with to explain it all away) and will eventually get to return to his family - as we saw Dennis getting to do in the hospital - making me think we’re going to get some form of Bathena hospital reunion!!

The opening disaster episodes always reveal sooo much information about the season and I am more convinced than ever that Bobby is alive! If this plays out - I will be in Tim minears walls!!!

[grntaire]

dies irae decisions that were made specifically to torture me

[natjennie]

i think mostly we as a culture need to stop pretending media is for us and instead recognize that it's for the people making it. "the show didn't do the thing I wanted it to" is so not the point. did it do what the people making it wanted it to do? did it tell the story they were trying to tell? than it was successful. if that doesn't align with what you wanted to happen, don't get up in arms about it. don't badmouth the creators and throw a tantrum. that's what fan works are for. the text is the text, and it told the story it was telling. you wouldn't be like "ugh shakespeare is insane for act v btw like there was no reason for juliet to kill herself she should've just waited and then her and romeo could have been together wtf this ruined the whole play" like no!!! the themes were there the set-up was there the foreshadowing was there shakespeare did what he intended to. just because it wasn't a happy ending and just because you thought it should've went differently doesn't mean it was bad. read a fic where juliet lives and move on.

[maximura]

[bestworstcase]

Anything from Volumes 1-3 that is setup that you don't think is given enough attention or respect for good setup?

Sidenote to this:

Open seat with no person in it + Salem having someone looking for the Choice Relic was hinting at Summer Rose. Did we have anything hinting at her pre Beacon's Fall or just things that she fits given additional context?

regarding summer specifically, while i wouldn’t call them hints per se, there are a handful of beats in v1-3 that smell like foreshadowing to me:

the first is “she was right about you; such arrogance.” – cinder might well be referring to salem here, of course. however. what strikes me about this remark is that arrogance is not a characteristic that salem seems to perceive in ozma; rather she describes him, in her soliloquies and songs, as a self-destructive, deceitful, manipulative fool blinded and trapped by his faith in the old gods. cowardly. fallen from grace. think of what she says to oz in 8.9—look how you’ve diminished, how you’ve lessened yourself—she sees him groveling at the feet of tyrannical monsters and sees debasement.

does it follow for salem to characterize ozpin to cinder as, primarily, arrogant? i’m not convinced it does. but summer rose? well… hm. consider, also, that the full line is “this whole time, right beneath our feet… she was right about you; such arrogance…” <- i think it is more likely than not that “she” is someone inside the brackets of “our,” and in context “our” is either [cinder + ozpin] or [cinder + her associates physically present at beacon].

in the event that “she” is not part of “our” the more naturalistic phrasing is “beneath our feet… salem was right about you” – because “she” otherwise has no antecedent. of course, some allowance here for this to be a narrative choice not to name salem yet, but we’re one (1) episode off from revealing her face and by this point we’ve known for a while that cinder works for someone else, so the choice to drop the name here or in the volume credits is of fairly trivial importance. unless of course cinder isn’t talking about salem.

second: “Oh! We've also stopped some bad guys, too! I guess it's like they say: "like mother, like daughter"! I still wonder why Ozpin let me into the school early…” [laugh track] – obv this part of ruby’s address to summer’s memorial headstone foreshadows ozpin’s conspiracy and team strq’s involvement therein. but it also foreshadows this exchange:

RUBY: We don’t have to kill you to stop you, and we will stop you. SALEM: Your mother said those words to me… she was wrong, too.

and i think it bears pointing out that ruby is wrong here, and later in the volume qrow specifically calls attention to this and lays out why she’s wrong. team rwby didn’t stop the bad guys; they cut off one avenue of attack and cinder circled around from a new direction that took advantage of torchwick’s imprisonment, and this also resulted in the public break between ozpin and ironwood which eroded the cohesion of the inner circle. ergo, ruby thinks she stopped the bad guys but in the long run the consequences of the breach all benefited salem.

looks into the camera like im on the office.

like mother, like daughter!!!

further, that sequence of events ultimately leads to the final confrontation between her and torchwick – wherein he declares “if you can’t beat them, join ’em,” and shortly gets eaten by a grimm right after making it clear that he intends to kill her. torchwick’s death is thematically motivated – a narrative rejection of his cynical every-man-for-himself, dog-eats-dog outlook – but consider that:

summer rose, if she is indeed salem’s willing agent, is certainly at beacon tonight – because she’d be the one who stayed behind to hold the fort.

summer is thus the one salem instructs to “reinforce our numbers at beacon,” meaning the grimm; that instruction only makes sense if the person receiving it can communicate with or command grimm. ergo, summer must have some degree of control over grimm.

ruby is disarmed and on the ground getting beaten by a man who fully intends to kill her, and a grimm swoops down out of nowhere to eliminate him faster than he can blinks. and then… the grimm rears up, roaring at her, and comes down with a sweep of its wings that creates a blast of air that pushes her away. that isn’t aggression!! that’s a defensive threat display!! (the feilong in v4 does the exact same thing – trying to push the boat away). it’s ruby who charges the gryphon, and while it lunges forward in reaction to her charge, all that happens is she gets her feet on its head and pushes off to leap over it, and the grimm goes fucking flying so hard it crashes into the ship’s interior and never emerges. the point being,

math.

it’s plausible that the grimm was drawn to torchwick’s murderous rage. but the way it behaves immediately after it swallows him – that very clear “get away from me please” body language, and ruby -apparently- kicking a grimm the size of a goddamned clydesdale dozens of feet and then through the hull of a literal warship? ruby is strong, but she’s not… that strong. but if the grimm didn’t want to engage her and propelled itself under and past her at the same time as she vaulted off its head? that would explain what happens perfectly – ruby’s kick altered its launch trajectory just enough that it crashed.

minutes later, someone loyal to salem scraped a very badly injured cinder off the top of beacon tower and left ruby alive where qrow would find her. salem’s vested interest in keeping ruby alive is VISIBLE throughout the battle for beacon, and notably include a perfect opportunity to capture her while she’s in a coma atop beacon tower that isn’t taken – suggesting that salem makes her singular attempt to capture ruby solely to reassure cinder that Something is being Done.

and if summer rose has command over grimm and was at beacon that night… the gryphon’s behavior is exactly what i’d expect if all the grimm had marching orders to insure this one girl in particular – the spitting image of their commander – doesn’t come to serious harm. there’s a nonzero chance that gryphon did in fact save ruby On Purpose!

…and that happens in the context of a fight between ruby and the bad guy she thought she stopped (but she was wrong), who joined salem because “if you can’t beat em, join em.” (salem voice) she was wrong, too…

also

<- like mother like daughter. summer had a nevermore’s eye view of the battle for beacon, in this essay i will –

third: this one is something i didn’t really Think About until v9 and specifically the v9 ost dropping, but some of the things cinder says in v2-3 strike me as like – she got that from summer im sure of it. for example, in midnight, cinder’s view of huntsmen is that they’re free, they have power, they can go anywhere and do whatever they want, and rhodes never contradicts this. where did she get “huntsmen and huntresses should conduct themselves with honor and mercy”? who taught her the aspirational moral ideal?

summer rose, maybe.

but in the deeper sense,

where did cinder get the ‘destiny’ conceit? her underlying beliefs about how the world is are a product of her childhood, but the overt framing of fate/destiny isn’t present in midnight; nor has salem ever spoken of destiny and her philosophical views are in many ways a rejection of destiny – salem does not believe in fate, she is the woman who dedicated her life to toppling the gods.

and on close examination this looks like yet another suspiciously summer rose shaped hole!! “you’re special, ruby […] special the way your mom was special […] it was said that those born with silver eyes were destined to lead the life of a warrior.” – in after the fall, ozpin gives coco an entire pep talk whose central conceit is embracing and submitting to the turns of fate – sacrifice “show them gods and deities/blind and keep the people on their knees” & guide my way “you were born to hypnotize them all/they all said their prayers/can you hear me up there?”

cinder, of pyrrha: “people assume she’s fated for victory, when she's really taking fate into her own hands. interesting. add her to the list.” & “it’s not about overpowering the enemy; it’s about taking away what power they have.”

<- that second statement is salem’s strategic doctrine, through and through. but the ‘power’ cinder is talking about here is derived through manipulating the perception of destiny; the self-fulfilling prophecy. the invincible girl cannot be touched because she makes subtle adjustments to insure that no one is able to try. it is pyrrha’s belief in destiny that destroys her, as it destroys ozma. ozpin invokes fate to justify and explain his choices. those born with silver eyes are destined to lead the lives of warriors.

summer rose was destined to live and die fighting the grimm – so the world promised her. maybe she believed, maybe she felt like she had no choice but to accept her prescribed fate. until she met salem, and took fate into her own hands. made a choice. broke the chains. it’s about taking away what power they have, like salem did when she tore the scales from summer’s eyes, like summer did when she refused her destiny and joined hands with the grimm instead.

what does summer rose look like through cinder’s eyes? she was a huntress. she was literally destined to be one of the greatest huntresses in history, a hero, the shining pillar upholding the world order that chose the enslavement of children as a fair price for peace. fate dictated that she be the icon, the idol, the embodiment of the system that brutalized and subjugated cinder – she had every privilege cinder could ever dream of, freedom and security and a home, a loving family – and she chose to walk away.

and if they talked about that like, ever, and specifically if summer talked about that warrior’s destiny as a cage, a curse she had to escape – is it any wonder that cinder would adopt that framing to make sense of what happened to her? if summer rose was fated to stand at the pinnacle, then does it not follow that cinder fall was fated to be ground into the foundations? and likewise, if summer rose can shatter her pedestal and fall from grace, then cinder fall can shatter her chains and rise. summer proves that the idea of destiny is powerful but not inviolate. and it is hollow, it is a lie, a fiction, and that means it can be taken away. revealed as a deception. destroyed.

anyway

to the broader question

i think people really, really do not give the jaundice arc enough credit for the long-term set up it’s doing.

(or the very overt textual statement from THE HISTORY PROFESSOR! placing the blame for the violent radicalization of the white fang squarely on human bigotry and persecution of faunus in general; the white fang arc is clunky and hamstrung by the inadequacy of its vocabulary, but the fandom talking point that the narrative perspective on this subject has “evolved” or “improved” is just. not true. v1 is very emphatically clear that 1. terroristic violence is not activism, 2. ascribing the terroristic violence of a few to an entire minority group to rationalize bigotry is bigoted in and of itself and completely unacceptable, and 3. violent radicalization is created through relentless discrimination and hate, which creates a self-reinforcing circle wherein the justifiable outrage of the persecuted outgroup and the extreme violent reactions provoked by the persecution are distorted into a justification for further persecution by those of the in-group who materially benefit from perpetuating this cycle!!! all of this is explained in an almost afterschool special manner by the main character faunus rights activist and the history professor!!! in volume one!!! what changed is that the writers developed the skill and vocabulary necessary to weave these ideas into their storytelling in a more effective and more cogent way!!! literally begging the rwby fandom to start listening to the actual words the characters say)

ahem. the jaundice arc lays so much of the groundwork for jaune’s and ruby’s character arcs reaching all the way to v9 and undoubtedly beyond; it sets up the first pieces of the ozlem fractal; it foreshadows the white fang arc and sets up blake’s character arc of self-reclamation and figuring out how she wants to use her voice as an activist; it draws attention to the misogynistic cultural norms that define and are defined by the history between ozma and salem; it lays the foundation for the scene in v2 where ozpin questions blake, which hits the way it does because we have the context of anti-faunus harassment occurring openly at ozpin’s school and nobody doing anything about it, and by extension is the first stroke of the salem-faunus connection that is almost certainly the keystone holding the entire narrative together because it is her relation to the faunus that provides the key to decipher the lost fable.

the jaundice arc is a crucial load-bearing pillar that supports the entire narrative and people revile it because nobody in this fandom can be fucking normal about jaune. lmao

[numberonetribble]

I have a 3 day weekend coming up next week you know what that means:

[knifeeater]

burning down the house indeed