#also can we talk about how much those are worth now.... i only paid like £40? for mine. which is still a lot

[chqnified]

The feeling when you accidentally drop or rip an album

[bloogers-boogers]

More Marriage au ~

Adam was dragged to a small office for more privacy. He was never the problem?, what was this bitch talking about??

Anyways he was being questioned in almost everything that happened, felt and did while freshly married to Lucifer, it got to the point where it went too deep, and thats when it hit to his first marriage.

"So in the Bible it states you were married two times, is that true?"

"No. It only states when I was married to my awesome smocking hot ex wife: Eve~ and us being created."

"So that's a lie?"

"Not entirely, they just covered up the small mistakes, glossing the story up a bit."

"Which was?"

"Lilith. That unfaithful bitch. They covered her entire existence. Everything related to Lucifer, his rebellion, they didn't even stated his real name in the bible, cause he wasn't "worthy" of being recognized as his angel self. I personally think it would've been a lot more harsher if they kept his old name instead of Lucifer but whatever I guess. Then somehow those nosy ass theorists from the afertmath of Noah's shit load started looking into it too much and found actually more dirt in the hole, that revealed more to our creation. And that's how we got many split versions of it in different scriptures."

"What's his real name?"

"We're not allowed to say it. It's an angel thing."

"Prehistoric heaven stuff huh. But you're no longer a angel, your highness.."

"Fuck you. I was originally a angel before I was murdered totally unjustified btw. How does any of this information does anything in fixing my marriage?!"

The counselor scoffed, but kept her own opinion on that matter (exterminations) to herself. She's a marriage counselor not a therapist, and she wasn't getting paid enough anyways, "you were human. Originally human. Not an angel."

Now it was Adam's turn to scoff offended, but said nothing. He hated to see that side of him after his death on earth. It only brought bad memories, linked to only negative feelings, sorrow and thoughts.

"Tell me more about your marriage with Lilith."

"Pssch what's there to say? Where do I even start? What exactly do you want to know. I can go all into detail about how shit she was as my wife."

"Go on. Tell me everything you want to share, I'm here until 8 and your paying so.."

"More like aPplE hUbBy is paying for everything but whatever, took his card and shit HAHAHAHA! HAAAA," Adam snicker for himself, wiping a tear; thinking he was being funny. But he wasn't. At least for anyone else in the room which was just Gladis (counselor's name) and the only response she did was write a note to that comment.

Note one:

'Apple hubby. A subconscious, possible meaningful name for his spouse. If it referring to events of the bible, may mean about the whole apple incident (weak spot?) or it could be related to King Morningstar's obsession with apples (concerning). Or both.'

"Firstly she cheated on me. Obviously. That's the whole tea, bitch. Secondly she didn't agreed on anything I did, suggest or thought. It's like she wanted to be against everything I believed in. Nothing I did to impress her sastified her. She made ME question my entire faith and existence!" The more Adam spoke the more his pupils shrank by the dark memories of his past.

Note two:

'First wife trauma.'

"Then Lucifer shows up and POOF! Now everything that twink ass looking angel did was 'amazing' and worth looking forward to. He only sang and dance with her, ONCE, and it was like, her whole world turned around.. facing away from me..."

"And did Lucifer have any connections with you at the time? Did he also approach you when he firstly approached Lilith? Did you two spend time together? Talk? Bond?"

"More like it was all a whole distraction for their affair to continue."

"So you two did have a relationship."

"It's complicated."

"Why was it complicated, Adam?"

Adam's face soften in sadness. The question taking him off guard. He wasn't entirely sure?

What went wrong. What did he do, to not deserve Lucifer and Lilith's loyalty? Friendship, honesty.

Why wasn't he ever worth something. Enough.

"I have no fucking idea, man. I was literally perfect, still am and yet they wanted more than what they could bite and CHOKE on it in the progress."

"You're including Lilith in this. Why's that?"

"Because those two bastards were a team. The damage was done by both, all planned out and ready for what was gonna come. Got both me AND Eve. It's plural. I wish I could say I was alone in all this but I wasn't which is why it makes things hard to forgive and forget."

Note three:

'Gayass.'

"So how did you two end up falling in love?"

"We didn't, we kinda just poofed into existence already married and stuff."

"I meant you and King Lucifer."

"Just call him Lucifer he doesn't deserve that sorts of respect, he's an ass. A snake full of cock that doomed humanity."

"How did you and Lucifer get together," she asserted much more frustrated seeing Adam was getting nowhere to the subject in hand.

Adam then realized immediately everyone actually thought they were truly an item. Well this went awkward all of a sudden. So he decided to keep up the lie.

"I died."

"And—— what else?"

"Wdym 'what else'? Bitch wanted to complete the full set y'know. First dick, father of humanity, the only one that refused to join him. I'm basically his forbidden apple."

"And you just let him?"

"Sure. Why not? What's there to lose y'know. That's my jam. I just go with the flow. If it works for me then let it be damn and fuck me hard, I'm fucking doing it."

"Adam, are you taking this session seriously?"

Adam in response digs his pinky finger inside his ear with indifference, "Look. I just want answers, babe. I don't want spiritual solutions or tips. Tell me how to fix this."

She sighed, "when was the last time you two were intimate?"

"WOW, wow. WOAH. Where going to that territory now? Little tea maker right here but whateves."

So Adam went on full detail on one of his sex escapes back in heaven, plastering Lucifer’s name on whatever freak he has fucked in the last centuries. He was not in any way gonna go on about sex with Lucifer (they did it only two times; one outta traditional terms, the second we don’t talk about the fucking second.) that shit was private and humiliating to say the least.

He blushed. Just the thought of Lucifer’s claws running down his skin and his fangs digging through his neck and wings. It sent shivers down his spine. Made his throat go all dry and his limbs all numb.

Previous >> Next

[sapphic-agent]

Let's Talk About Hazbin Hotel

Just a casual review. Hazbin Hotel's been coming up on my Tumblr dash a lot, and there's been some controversy around it. So I decided to give it a try.

(Note: I haven't engaged with anything that came out before its Amazon Prime debut)

To summarize: it's pretty okay. The animation is great and the songs are bangers. The plot is pretty solid; there are some hiccups but in only eight episodes it does pretty well in world building.

Though I guess that's where we have our first problem. Eight 23 minute episodes doesn't mean a lot of time for our characters to be fleshed out. Sure Angel Dust, Husk, Sir Pentious, Alastor, and even Lucifer get their moments. And don't get me wrong, that's great. But I feel a lot of that could have been geared towards our main characters: Charlie and Vaggie.

Let me just say, I love Charlie and I think she's well-written for the most part. She's flawed, but wants the best for the people around her. And that's great. That being said, it doesn't feel like we've gotten a real deep dive into who she is. What gave her the idea to redeem sinners in the first place? How has she interacted with the people of hell prior to the hotel? We know she helped Vaggie when she was injured, did that come before or after her idea for the hotel?

(If any of this is answered in the pilot, I'm sorry. But there's a good chance new fans like myself didn't watch the pilot either)

The most introspection we get into her character are Husk's offhand comment about her bleeding heart who focuses on others' problems instead of her own and Rosie mentioning her "moxie." And those things are being told to us, not shown to us. It's hard to view her as complex, though I am holding out hope that we'll get more into her in the next season especially with Lilith's inevitable return. I'm eager to see her grow more as a leader.

(I also hope they explore her temper. For me, that's when she's at her most dynamic. Feminine rage ftw)

Now, onto Vaggie.

I'm sorry, but I really can't get into her character at all. She's mean and untrusting and... that's it? Unlike Charlie she doesn't seem to have any defining character traits. No goals or aspirations that don't have to do with Charlie's. And even then, she doesn't display a lot of confidence in her, consistently doubting Charlie's input and even outright refusing that some of the patrons can change. It's like she doesn't actually believe that sinners can be redeemed and only puts effort into the hotel at all for Charlie.

(This isn't a problem with Vaggie per se, but her encouraging Charlie to confront Valentino felt so off to me. She's supposed to be more levelheaded and rational than Charlie, so wouldn't she know that Charlie doesn't really hold that much power? Her and Lucifer are basically figureheads, the Overlords are the ones that really run Hell. Considering she's so distrustful of Alastor, Vaggie would know that right? So why push Charlie into being assertive against one?)

And this is a direct contradiction to what is being told to us about her character. She, as an exterminator, showed mercy to a sinner and paid the price for it. If she believed that the child she spared was worth sparing, she should have some optimism that sinners deserve a second chance. But outside of hyping Charlie up, that's never shown to us.

Even in Scrambled Eggs- an episode that was centered around her- doesn't tell us much about her. Just that she's a semi-competent fighter who learned trust the "hard way." But nothing about her growing closer to the residents- despite being entrusted to teach them trust- just a song about her love and devotion to Charlie.

And I know that this is supposed to be her parallel to Carmilla and that the duet sets up their meeting later. But Vaggie's goals being so focused on Charlie and not the hotel or the residents means that there's such a disconnect here. Carmilla is singing for her daughters (and even Zestial), but it's also for all of Hell. She wants to keep them out of unnecessary war. Her goal has different facets to it while Vaggie's is extremely one-way.

To put it simply: Vaggie is boring.

And it's because of these things that I really can't get into Chaggie. It's... Okay. I guess. There's so little focus on it that outside of the reveal that Vaggie's an angel, it doesn't hold a lot of relevance throughout the show, good or bad. They could have been best friends and nothing would have changed.

If I'm being completely honest, Charlie has more interesting relationships with everyone else: Alastor, Lucifer, Angel, and even Emily who wasn't even on screen with her for that long.

(Unapologetically a RoyalHalo shipper. Also an Emily stan)

Speaking of Emily, I love what they're setting her up for. It seems like she'll either Fall like Lucifer and join Charlie in Hell or take over Heaven from Sera and work with Charlie to bring a better system. Either way, I'm excited for what they'll do with her.

Although I have to say, even though I love You Didn't Know, I do have some things to say about it and the whole trial scene.

As I said, the Hazbin Hotel songs are good. There's no denying that. But a few of them- like YDK- kind of hinder the plot. There's so much going on in this scene- so many important revelations- that it being a song I feel undercuts that. Like Emily finding out about Extermination Day and confronting Sera about it could have used a lot more attention. Her and Charlie aligning themselves together, while freaking amazing to listen to, kind of comes out of nowhere. Even- especially- Vaggie being revealed as an angel to Charlie is a lot less intense being sung through a song.

(It still slaps though)

But a lot of songs also have the opposite effect. More Than Anything, Poison, and Loser Baby convey exactly what they're trying to. You feel the emotion and flaws of these characters, you feel the pure connection/strife.

(Songs like Hell's Greatest Dad and Respectless are for fun and do help move the story along. They also give us a glimpse into the characters. I could do without some of them, especially because that time could be better spent, but they're still fun to listen to and watch. Respectless is so fucking good man)

I'm excited to see more of Lilith and her relationships with Charlie and Lucifer. It's implied during MTA that she was the one fostering the distance between Lucifer and Charlie. I wonder if that was intentional or just through Charlie's/Lucifer's POV. Also, her being gone at the same time Alastor was is definitely hinting at her being the one who has him on a leash.

Sir Pentious in heaven🥹 I don't have a lot to say about it, it just made me happy

All in all... Pretty good. Enough to keep me engaged. Looking forward to the next season👍🏾

[fortheloveofhens-zine]

Hello!

This is an introduction post explaining this project and hopefully garnering some attention!

🥚 What's this about?

This is a fanzine by Shane fans, for Shane fans. It's a fan project to appreciate this character, his story, and his growth, and how much it means to a lot of us who have been through similar things.

🥚 How will this work?

Like most other zines! The project will begin on a certain date, and artists and writers will have several months to complete a piece of their choosing for the fanzine. We will use discord to communicate, schedule, and smooth out any issues.

🥚 When is the projected release?

I think aiming for spring 2024 would be nice! It'd be nice to release the zine around when Shane's birthday would be.

🥚Will this be a paid zine?

This is a charity zine to raise money for the mental health charity Samaritans! Samaritans is a charity that operates free and confidential phone lines for people to reach out and talk to someone whenever they're having a difficult time. They provide a listening service for those who may be suffering from suicidal thoughts or otherwise unpleasant feelings. Donations will be raised via ko-fi during a certain fundraising period and after that's over, the zine will go free to download.

🥚What format is this zine in?

The zine will be formatted to A4 paper size, HOWEVER this zine will only run digitally and will not have a print release as things stand. (Mod honestly can't afford a print release as cool as that would be...)

🥚Who can join?

Almost anyone can join! There is no requirement on skill, online following, previous zine experience etc. If this is your first zine, that's awesome! We welcome you with open arms. This is a zine for anyone who has ever struggled with their mental health, and has felt comforted by a certain stardew valley character. I do require that contributors be at least 13+. Not only would it be against discord terms of service to have under 13s on the platform, but mod here, as a fully grown adult, would also be uncomfortable with it - sorry!

🥚Are there any other rules right now?

There are a few! Let's list them, and please read carefully.

We have a zero-tolerance policy for racism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, fatphobia, and anything else that falls into similar categories. ZERO. This is non-negotiable. This is a safe space and anyone displaying any of the above will be kicked off the project.

That said, proship, comship, darkship etc are not welcome on this zine. This is a safe space for everyone, including minors, survivors, and everyone else.

This is a SFW zine. There will be no NSFW art or writing included.

Every artist and writer is free to depict Shane as they like. If they choose to depict him as trans, POC, mlm, or anything else for the sake of representation, that is their choice and you must respect it. See the first bullet point about zero tolerance.

Ableism also extends to bigotry toward those suffering with mental illness, and addicts. We are trying to promote empathy and acceptance. Ableist comments will be warned (e.g. complaining about Shane's room being messy).

Your piece must include Shane as the focal point! That should be clear already, but just in case! So long as he's the focal point, you can draw or write anything! Ships are allowed.

🥚How do I get involved?

For now, I have an interest check form that I plan to run until the end of September! After that, contributor sign ups will open. Remember to follow this blog to see updates on the zine! You can also send questions to my inbox and I will do my best to answer them. For now, here is the interest check:

[skyevie]

I finally finished both mcl new gen episodes (kind of long post about my opinions and feelings)

Tbh I wasn't so sad about the old mcl coming to an end because I think when armin was removed back in hsl it just prepared me for whatever could come next LMAO. I am a big fan of Jason and Amanda, the rest of the Li's... are there I guess ! I think the new point system is kind of weird and overcomplicated for no reason, I really don't like the fact that we have to pay AP's for dialogue and clothes because I can either buy more clothing/recolors and be satisfied with how my character looks or save up for the new episodes... and the fact that you can't buy AP with money, only the blue hearts that can be traded for AP? (not to mention that the prices went up comparing to go mcl at least in my country) But you also need the blue hearts for those special moment with LI's every ep... like idk its sad that there is a part of content you can miss out because you simply don't want to spend money every time an ep is here lol. The missions (which is basically the eldarya expeditions) are fine since we get clothes for that. The calendar is a nice touch up because it's something new and refreshing. But the paid part and vip subscription and the clothes offers in the shop are the next thing that don't seat well with me.... Like we could get a little more for that price... especially since it rounds up to 120 dollars per year... And the fact that all the cute outfits are locked behind a daily shop rotation that have to use real money on... Oh and the last on the more negative side why does our uncle only give stuff for our fuckass goose.... We love you Taki but it's not that serious we could get like a t-shirt... or smth...

On the positives, I really like the fact that our Candy can have a personality now! Like finally we aren't a blank page that adjusts to the people we talk to and we can have opinions AND THEY MATTER! Also the clothes are much cuter, like finally someone thought - yes u can be an adult and have fun clothing and not dress boring! We love that! And I giggled to myself a little when I read why Candy switched her job lol. Reminder me of Eric's arc Eric we love you forever idc about what other said about your route.

At the end of the day I think I will try the vip for one month just to see is it really like worth it for someone who is going to be rather active on this game. Idk im excited for the plot tbh and especially how much it changes depending on the fact if we romance the Devenementiel LI's or Jason.

Also if anyone needs help with answers to the episodes I can help :3

[alpaca-clouds]

Democratizing Media

Alright, one thing first: When politicians speak about "democratizing media" they usually mean something else then what scientist say, when they use those words. Politicians mostly mean something along the lines of "media should say what I want instead being controlled by some coorporation, because like I am elected, right?" Meanwhile scientist mean something else.

You see, before the internet became easily accessible for most people, the only way to access media was through certain outlets. TV stations, the cinema, some publishers and some record lables.

Yes, sure. Technically self-publishing was a thing even back then, but without the ease of the internet... How were you to market your own book or comic? And self-made music usually just circulated on copied and copied again casette tapes.

Usually, if you wanted to create media that actually people would see, you had to go through a big company. And those companies could very much decide who got to make movies and tv, who got to publish music or books or comics. Not only where those decisions controlled by capitalist interest, but also by nepotism and cultural biases, given that a lot of the people making those decisions where (and still are to these days) white, cis, abled men.

But when the internet came around things changed. Because suddenly everyone had a way easier time in getting their stuff out there. Pretty early on there were websites where people could just publish their stories and comics online. Either free and hosted by some other website or paid on their own site. Which was pretty revolutionary, especially as suddenly ideas that had been ignored could reach a new audience.

Voices, that by news media and such had been ignored so far - voices of women and marginalized folks - could suddenly broadcast over all sorts of channels.

And yes, you could also just publish your music and what not online, could also do your own research and offer it to the world and could actually get heard.

Now, we all know that this came with ups and downs. Because while finally marginalized people were heard like this, it also gave a bigger platform to some fringe conspiracy groups and the like. But at least there was a chance to get your stuff out there.

Social media websites and the like played a big role in this. Especially Youtube, of course, but other sites, too........ which of course brings me to the problem. Or rather to the question: "Is media democratized right now?"

Because it isn't, of course.

Right now we have these chokepoints, where you kinda are forced to push whatever you create through a channel. Sure, you can upload your videos on your own server, but probably nobody will see them. They need to be on youtube. Just like your music now needs to be on spotify and itunes. And if you self-publish a book, it kinda needs to be available on amazon or you won't sell shit. And if you have your own little blog and do not promote it on social media (or have it not integrated on a blogging platform such as tumblr) it will not be seen.

And this brings two issues with it (well, actually three). For one, as private companies those sides are able to censor you in any way they want to. They decide you cannot say the word "queer" anymore? Welp, no more talking about queer issues for you. And because they are a private company nobody can do much against it. Like with the tumblr purge. No more "female presenting nipples" for you.

The next issue is closely related: The companies in question want to make money. This they do mostly through advertisement and maybe subscriptions. Hence their goal is to keep you interacting with their website for a long while. And thus they have algorithms that decide what content you see - and hence if the content decides that something you do is not worth it or will get the wrong kind of attention... Well, nobody will get it shown. On a lot of social media we see, for example, that the negative content gets shown to more people. So writing about positive stuff does often not get you seen. (Which is why algorithms are bad. Don't fucking build your social media websites around a fucking algorithm.)

And lastly: A lot of media additionally to all of that also uses a system of partly manual currated. This is true for Netflix, who obviously want to make sure that the front page does show the stuff they either paid a lot of money for or that they produced themselves. Like, there is an infinity of great indie movies on Netflix, but if you do not know it is there, you will not see it. Same goes for a lot of Indie Games on Steam, that just go unnoticed, because they do not appear anywhere near the front page and just happen to go overlooked by folks. And in the end the big studios obviously have the money to get their games on the front page. Same with books on amazon, where just the difference in marketing budget makes sure, that certain books will end up front.

So, why am I telling all of that?

Because we still do have the tool. We can make a free, democratic internet like that. Where we do not have censorship (please note: banning people for saying hateful shit is actually not censorship, so yeah, ban them nazis). Where we do not have fucking algorithms. And where just everything has the same chance of getting seen.

Like, does not mean that there cannot be any currated lists. Like, those currator pages on steam? Those are fucking great. Lists where everyone just can make those and you can subscribe to their lists. That is amazing. But... you know. Not for the baseline experience, but for what everyone wants their experience to be like.

Just... a thing that bothers me. Based on the stuff I spoke about yesterday.

[evita-shelby]

They didn't know we were seeds

Chapter 21

Cw: the usual so mdni

@justrainandcoffee @emotionalcadaver @call-sign-shark @peakyswritings

The games are long, by the eighth day Eva’s tributes are both dead even after Polly Gray paid a fortune to send the boy medicine to have survive the fire and the infection from a wound he sustained in the bloodbath. And because she got the woman to spend a precious dime on a dead boy, Snow refunds Gray’s whelp with Eva on the tenth night.

The boy’s barely twenty-one, his first time here and being primed to betray Tommy because Snow knows a mother would do anything for her child.

Even betray the holy cause.

Not that Jack would blame her, if it was his kid on the line, he’d serve Plutarch’s head on a platter for Snow. Family was a weakness, but it was also their strength.

Jack’s sword could deliver the Heads of every member of Snow’s Cabinet to the elusive President of 13 if anyone even so much as breathed too hard near his wife and little boy. Campbell would die painfully, by his mother’s hand if she’s wants to beat Polly Gray to the punch.

“Wish I could just fuck off with you and come back when it’s over.” The victor admits pulling his wife onto his lap no longer caring who sees them now that the game is at a record breaking fourteenth day.

The rules have been changed to see which duo would take the other out first and face Thresh. The rules would be changed again because this would be a nice little trap to generate the drama that will keep the Capitol entertained a while longer. People don’t like the games when they last too long.

And after the alleged riots in 11 after Aveline’s kid died, Snow needs their tribute dead to keep him from joining them. So far Clove had died at the feast yesterday and Cato has been hunting Thresh for the past day and night.

The storm proves a good danger for both boys, somehow the girl from 5 evades everyone. Thresh has spotted her but gives no chase, he only wants one person, and that person is hiding in a cave faking a romance to keep them both alive.

Haymitch has no idea how right he was about her being like Eva. Sometimes he doesn’t see the girl and boy from 12 in a rainy cave, sometimes Jack sees his twin brother and Eva wandering a desert.

Enobaria can keep the night shift, he needs to be away from these screens if he wants to keep himself from seeing the 61st games repeat themselves before his eyes.

“I’ll keep you company like this every day if you like, handsome.” the witch gave him a sultry smile as she got comfortable and drank her champagne still wearing that fucking persona like a second skin.

Everything’s different, the touches, the words and all that only had the intention to seduce and make the recipient believe she was the real thing. But this was the only way they could get away with being this close in public and those false caresses held a tiny hint of the real thing to make it worth it.

“Shame we’re in public, doll,” he nuzzled her and kissed the side of her neck with one hand wandering under her short skirt. Jack had wanted to fuck her against the bathroom stall earlier, but with everyone betting on Haymitch’s girl after the sendoff she gave Aveline’s kid, there was no fucking privacy.

“My place tonight, Jewel invited Matty to a party and I’ll be all by my lonesome in my big and empty bed.” Eva plays the whore to perfection, discards her glass an lets her cold hand run up and down his chest with very clear intentions.

This one was genuine, with the new escort and Helvia fearing for her own job as well, they haven’t been able to be together as often as they are used to.

Last time they were at her place, Jewel had caught them red handed and couldn’t believe the rumors were true. Helvia had talked to the girl, but now Hel was fretting about blabbermouth telling Caesar any second and getting her put to pasture as well.

But whatever punishment they get will be set for next year, they got one fucking year to make it all count.

Who knows if the Girl on Fire proves to be the Victor in this game, they won’t even see the horrors of the Quarter Quell.

“'Baria can hold the fort for me, how about now?” He suggests when the blond kid in the cave morphs into his brother’s face.

The last three days of the games provide enough entertainment for the Capitol for them to pass by unseen.

Jack tries not to show it, but he clings to Eva because he knows how that romance will end. He’s woken up from night terrors calling out for his brother, begging her not to kill his brother and, even worse, begging her not to kill him.

He’s drinking more, numbing himself in hopes the end of the games won’t fuck him up even more. It’s late evening when Cato uses Jack’s fighting stances to kill Thresh in Clove’s name and Jack pretends he is confident that the kid will win.

They’re on the couch again, Eva snuggled up on his side and his arm around her shoulders as the other holds his fourth whiskey.

“If you ask me, Katniss won’t kill him, she would’ve let him die in that cave instead of saving his life.” Eva tries her best to reassure him that her story isn’t playing out before them.

She has nightmares of her time in the arena and every moment after thanks to the star-crossed lovers. Just like Jack, she dreams she must kill him to win, to go home to Laurie with his father’s blood in her hands.

It’s not always her arena, sometimes it’s his or this one they are watching.

Eva is seventeen again, Jack is sometimes the teenage heartthrob she rolled her eyes at when he checked her out after her interview, and sometimes he is the man she loves and is a menace in the kitchen.

“You know the games won’t allow two victors, Evie. She’s got a sister and a mother who depend on her to survive, Peeta’s best chance is that Cato or the ginger take him out first.” He doesn’t look at her, his eyes glued to the screen as the cameras go to the ramrod thin girl from 5. The girl could win, hiding had helped the two victors from 6 and Annie Cresta as well.

But she is not the girl on fire or else Cinna would’ve picked her.

And sure enough, Marissa from 5 dies when starvation has her forget Peeta Mellark knows little about foraging like his fake girlfriend. She gorges herself on the things she stole and hesitates with the nightlock berries before eating them all in one bite.

An accident or suicide, no one will ever know. Marissa, with her foxlike character, dies after the excess of berries cause a violent seizure after the vomiting and sweating drives her to dehydration even at the edge of the water.

When her picture is broadcasted in the fake sky, the cameras focus on the girl’s blue eyes in the wolf mutt with the collar reading:5.

Eva cannot help but wonder what sort of creatures will be unleashed on them next year.

Neither sleep that night, even the comforting sight of Eva’s farmhouse in his ceiling cannot shake away the feeling that they will see her story play out once more. It was what Snow wanted them to see, to show them all no one can bend the rules and go unpunished.

Seneca Crane’s life was in Katniss Everdeen’s hands and the girl didn’t even know it.

“You don’t have to see him die.” Eva tells him in the afternoon of the 17th games when his student stops being the hunter and becomes the hunted. The boy reaches the Cornucopia by late evening and when he goes for the easy kill, Peeta Mellark, the girl’s last arrow sends him careening down to his slow and torturous death.

“I stayed the entire day like this in your games, I had hoped you’d be killed by Aveline’s kid because I knew Laurie wouldn’t do it.” Jack admits keeping his eyes on the boy being mauled to an inch of his life as a punishment for everyone watching. “Then I saw the snake in your hand when you went to him knowing he wouldn’t suspect a thing. They cut the footage of you killing yourself here too, they made it look like you didn’t care about him and only wanted to win. Heavensbee is damn fool for thinking his symbol exists, his symbol wants to live like we all did.”

And then on the morning of the 18th Games, Katniss convinces Peeta to commit a double suicide and forces Snow to change his rules.

Jack was right, Katniss wanted to live as badly as they do. Only she will have to live chained to Peeta and their false romance until the Games are no more.

The odds won’t be in their favor.

They never are for victors.

End of Part 3: Mentor

[ordinaryschmuck]

Why I Love The Owl House: Part 4-The Arcs

Prev Part

Salutations, random people on the internet who are already skimming past this! I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons. 

One thing that impresses me the most with The Owl House is how it juggles its many stories and narrative arcs. And if you were to ask me, I would say that the show is more character driven than story driven, with every arc being connected to the characters and their ongoing struggles. This means that whatever story an episode focuses on is dependent upon who’s the center of attention for the episode. It’s an Eda episode? Well, we’ll continue what narrative threads she has. Do we have room for a subplot? Then give it to King and maybe develop any story he has. Is there any narrative that needs to take top priority over others for a bit? Well, shelve the ones we CAN’T incorporate for now and focus on what we can.

This is how The Owl House handles each narrative thread, knowing exactly when it’s the right time to follow one while temporarily pausing another for later. It flows well with a few twists and turns sprinkled in on the occasion. And today, we’re going to follow those threads ourselves to see how well each one was and whether or not they paid off to a natural conclusion.

However, it’s worth noting that we’re NOT talking about character development. We did enough of that in the last three parts, and while characters growing into people and forming stronger bonds can be stories of their own, there’s not much I can talk about here. This also means we’re not talking about Amity and Hunter’s redemption arcs, as I said all I could in previous parts regarding these two and the way they’ve grown. Oops.

Instead, we’re going to focus on the arcs connected to the characters and the bigger stories that the show tries to unfold. And because a story is often linear, we’re going in order of the first thread introduced to the last. Starting with…

(Fifteen pages of discussion below...)

Luz Learning Magic—Okay, admittedly, this is more of a character’s goal rather than a story, but I still say it counts. This was the main hook of the series: Luz learning magic to be a witch. It’s what drove her for most of Season One before…getting straight up forgotten in Season Two. Yeah, this is something a friend of mine is VERY vocal about, because so much of Season One showed how cool Luz can be as she learned a new spell or improved ones that she had. And I do agree, it’s weird that the show started with her wanting to learn new spells only to trickle to a stop at a certain point. However, I like to think that there might be a narrative purpose for this.

Luz’s enthusiasm to learn magic started in her naive phase in the show. What do I mean by that? Well, every modern cartoon protagonist nowadays goes through what can best be described as a naive phase, a period where they start off goofy and optimistic only to slowly become more serious and angsty as the series goes on. It happens with characters like Steven Universe, Rapunzle, and even Star Butterfly. It’s to show how much they’ve grown and matured over time, and Luz is no different as she was so hyper focused on being a witch. That goal meant that Luz wanted to become more like her fictional idol, Azura, with each spell she learns bringing her closer to that unrealistic expectation. And you root for her because, well, it’s Luz. A ray of sunshine so pure that whenever she’s happy, YOU’RE happy. So whenever she learns a new spell, it’s a physical showcase of her development and growth. But when it stops, making it feel like her development becomes stagnant, it seems a little weird at first. That is, until you think about what Luz goes through in Season Two. For one she’s trapped in the Isles with no way home, with Luz getting back to Camila being in the forefront of her mind unless she hits a wall or needs a distraction. Now, granted, I feel like the writers could work around this by having Luz doodle plausible glyph combinations in her notes while researching a way back home. Could be risky if she ever touches them and causes an entire page of notes to crumple into a spell, but it could still work to continue what she’s going through this season while progressing her magical skill at the same. However, there’s one argument to counter this: By Season Two, Luz is unsure if she wants to be a witch anymore.

Upon coming to the Isles, being a witch is all Luz could think about. It was her dream, her passion…and then “Hunting Palismans” made her realize that it was all too vague. Because while being a witch was Luz’s goal, she technically already accomplished it by her first spell. It’s not like she wanted to be the BEST witch, like your average anime protagonist, winning tournaments and reaching the highest ranks through the power of friendship. Luz just wanted to be a witch in general…in a world where everyone was already a witch. Not only that, but a world where people are defined by their greatest talents and best skills with a specific type of magic. Luz, again, isn’t looking to be the best and isn’t focused on learning ONE type of magic but ALL kinds of magic. Because her thoughts weren’t on anything specific, it led Luz spiraling to figure out what kind of witch she wants to be or if she even wants to be a witch at all. The episode ends with her not really finding an answer, with Eda telling Luz to take her time. And Luz definitely does because that episode is the last time Luz ever goes all in with learning magic. She never really gets back into learning spells again after this, only making new glyphs to distract herself in “Reaching Out” and “Them’s the Breaks, Kid.” They’re not even spells that Luz uses unlike the ones she found or made, nor is there a similar passion to making them as there was before. Luz’s conflict about who she wants to be got mixed with the conflict with getting back home and even if she’ll be allowed back to the Isles. All of these questions and circumstances lead Luz’s desire to learn magic to come to a stop because there are bigger things going on. Because the naive phase has come to an end. Life is no longer simple enough where Luz can go on silly adventures and become her favorite fictional character. There are now situations taking place that forces Luz to grow and rethink who she wants to be. It DOES feel like the story of Luz learning magic ends unceremoniously, but I can at least see what was MEANT to be done. For the most part, I’d say it’s done well, even though I wish it had a proper ending.

Luz Lying to Camila—Ah, the story thread that inspired my very first Owl House fan fic. And yes, you can feel free to check it out if you haven’t already. The last chapter is the only one that’s no longer canon, but I’m still proud of how it turned out.

ANYWAYS, the second Luz lied about going to summer camp, she basically made a ticking time bomb where the fallout will only get worse the longer she keeps the lie going. The truth would have to come out eventually, because there’s no way that Luz could keep this huge part of her life a secret forever. Not from Camila. As we’ve already made clear, Luz LOVES her mother, and the series established from the getgo that lying to her made Luz uncomfortable. She’s hesitant to do it until King’s there to unintentionally offer comfort, with his cuteness giving Luz the gentle push to tell her first lie. Like with most decisions one makes late at night, Luz likely convinced herself that this was a good idea, as it keeps Camila from being worried and, more selfishly, keeps Luz from leaving too early. At the time, it seems harmless, as long as Luz returns before summer camp ends and can ease Camila into the truth. Except that “Enchanted Grom Fright” reveals how keeping the secret weighs heavy on Luz’s heart. Lying to Camila is getting harder and harder to do each time, to the point where all Luz can send are vague emojis that don’t convey much, if anything at all. Because it’s not an easy feat for Luz to lie to the one person who makes her human life bearable. In fact, we soon learn how telling Camila the truth is one of Luz’s greatest fears due to the uncertainty of how she’d react. The worst Luz already expects is anger and heartbreak, emotions most children would hate to make their parents feel. And it’s not like Luz is afraid of being punished by Camila for the lies. What hurts Luz the most is the possibility of breaking Camila’s heart with worry, and I think that’s something most kids with loving parents can relate to. I, for one, love my mom and she loves me. So the idea of adding stress to her life after all the warmth and support she gave me is a nightmare I don’t want to go through, so I can more than understand Luz’s plight. It can be scary to reveal a hard truth to a parent that you love, and you can see why in an episode like “Yesterday’s Lie.”

What’s fascinating about that episode is that Luz went in ready to tell the truth. She already expected that summer camp had ended and that Camila must be losing her mind with worry by now. Only for Luz to learn that Vee had taken Luz’s place and Camila’s on the assumption that summer camp worked too well. Once Luz learns more about Vee, the first thing Luz thinks is that this gives her an opportunity to keep the lie going. If Vee can successfully keep the act up long enough for Luz to find a better way home, further securing the fact that Camila won’t freak out about where Luz is and who Vee is. And this…is very clearly just Luz stalling for time. At that moment, it seems to make sense to these two teen girls who don’t want to upset the kindest woman alive. What they don’t realize is that they’re thinking short term, not long term. The longer they keep this secret going, the worse Camila’s reaction is going to be. She was already initially freaked out over Vee pretending to be Luz for a few days, maybe even a week or two. Imagine how worse her reaction would be when she finds out that Vee was pretending to be Luz for months. Now, that’s not how long Luz remained stuck in the Isles, but it COULD have been. That’s a possibility that neither Luz nor Vee considered when they went about keeping the lie going. They’re teens, after all, and teens aren’t exactly long term thinkers. Trust me, I was a teen once. So them trying to find the solution for the present problem without thinking ahead lines up, even though they’re clearly stopping themselves from revealing the truth sooner, fearing that big reaction from Camila. Only for that stalling to lead Luz in a position where the truth HAS to come out for Vee’s safety, putting Camila in a worse, more stressful environment to have all these shocking reveals pile up on her all at once. And, well, you saw the fear in Camila’s eyes when she first saw Vee transform. You heard the panic in her voice when she realized Luz was telling the truth. You witnessed how she broke the second she got the chance to breathe. This was a LOT to put onto Camila and it would’ve been better to ease her into the truth like Luz intended. Some complications arose like Luz being stuck in the In-Between and Vee’s…whole deal, but it would have still been better than telling Camila in order to save this creature pretending to be her daughter from a deranged individual. Camila would have been stressed out if Luz and Vee revealed the truth right away, but significantly less than how she did when the episode ended. Not to mention that Luz would have more time to explain things instead of scrambling to apologize as she admits the truth. Camila might not have been left as emotionally distraught if she knew sooner. In fact, this whole thing could have been avoided entirely if Luz was honest from the start.

Would Camila have approved of Luz staying in the Isles? Most likely not, no. She would have put her foot down immediately and questioned so much about what went down with Vee. But all the emotional stress could have been avoided if Luz told the truth sooner. It all worked out in the end and I’m sure Luz learned to NEVER lie to her mom again, but this little narrative thread proves that a parent hates dishonesty more than whatever it is that you’re covering up. Every parent wants you to know that you can trust them. Of course, there are those of us who have secrets we don’t want ANYONE to know due to shame and guilt, while others have secrets they don’t want parents to know out of fear of what the parent will do to them. But for a kind and understanding woman like Camila, one who is nurturing and comes to apologize for her own mistakes, it shatters her heart to know that Luz doesn’t trust her. And her reaction proves that the longer you keep a lie going from someone who genuinely loves you, the worse it will be when you tell the truth too late. It all worked out for the best in the end, but if this arc proves anything, it’s that honesty really is the best policy.

Eda’s Curse—Now this is the one arc that contains some legitimate intrigue. At least, it does it in a way that gains interest quicker than our first two threads. Luz learning magic is something that the series can do over time and Luz lying to Camila is a bombshell that left fans anticipating the worst. When it came to Eda’s curse, however, it was interesting for the fact that it was a mystery. Who cursed her? How bad can Eda get? Can she be cured? These are the immediate questions that popped into my mind with this reveal, and, odds are, I wasn’t alone in that. Eda’s curse became a main draw for her character, with the biggest question of all being what could come from it. And the answer is…surprising, but in the best way possible.

The way that the writers treated Eda’s curse was to make it an allusion to chronic illness. It’s something that Eda can’t really control or fix, and she has to live with and make it manageable for the rest of her foreseeable future. So every time an episode focuses on Eda’s curse, it’s about the ways to live with it. What does she do when she runs out of potions? What happens when her condition gets worse? How worse can it get? How does it affect her everyday functions? How does it affect her relationships? These questions get answered throughout the course of the series, proving that one’s life isn’t over because of a…complication. It makes living a little more difficult than it is for others, but if you take the right steps, you make it something manageable. That, and letting people in. Eda’s curse got noticeably easier when she started letting people help her through it. Luz and King were there to help Eda get potions and even forced the Owl Beast to drink them if needed. And thanks to Hooty, in an attempt to get Eda to sleep, he indirectly helped her find a way to make the curse work WITH Eda instead of against her. It goes to show that when a person has a condition that gets worse with time, all they need is a proper support group and materials to help them. However, with the curse being an allusion to chronic illness, Eda could never be cured of her curse. Most with an illness of their own don’t get a quick cure, especially a quick cure given to a character at the end of their story. So, unfortunately, the series ends with her still cursed, with it likely STILL getting worse with age. But one thing to remember is that it takes more than getting a curse cured to give a story closure.

For one, there’s still the mystery behind WHO cursed Eda. And it’s…fine? I mean, the mystery is only brought up in “The Intruder,” left fans speculating and theorizing who the possible culprit for the rest of the season, and then revealed the answer in “Agony of a Witch.” There’s not really much of a mystery or enough focus to make it FEEL like one. The writers only presented a question and held off answering it until the end of the season. There were SOME bits of foreshadowing, like how Lilith stopped the first witch’s duel the second that Eda mentioned the curse. Or how “Wing It Like Witches” showed us a picture of Lilith at a young age and how her big, curly hair and glasses could match the figure Eda sees in her dreams. But even then, it’s not much, making me wonder if the mystery behind Eda’s curse was even meant to be a mystery at all. The reveal that Lilith cursed her is still a shock, though. Just not one that was properly built up. As for what WAS properly built up, that would be Eda’s acceptance of her curse.

Yeah, that’s another way to give closure: Having Eda accept this…less than ideal part of her life. She’s spent years running from it, fighting it, and letting it control her life. Eda eventually got to a point where she made the curse manageable, but she still clearly feared and resented it. It wasn’t until Hooty intervened that Eda was forced to confront her curse and all the pain it caused her. Only to realize that the curse was also in pain. It was once a creature, flying freely, only to be trapped sharing a body with someone who hates it. Eda sees this and decides that both their lives have been ruined enough by this curse and instead of resenting one another, they could…live with it together. And this decision results in Eda’s harpy form, and…Okay, no person with a chronic illness will suddenly get superpowers for accepting the disease as part of themselves. It’s mostly the show leaning into symbolism and fantasy elements to get the same idea across and show something beautiful with it. Eda’s harpy form is a physical way to establish that she’s accepted the curse as another part of her, something to live WITH instead of work AGAINST. The fact that she got cool powers as a result makes the metaphor a little messy, but it handles things a lot better than if Eda was cured.

Eda’s curse was both a tragedy and a triumph. We see how badly it affected her life, but we also got to see Eda bounce back and prove that her life wasn’t over because of it. It became difficult, but she learned to work around it and even flourished better than she did before. That’s not going to be the same for everyone, but Eda’s little journey can potentially be inspiring to those worried about what to do when diagnosed with something that could change their life forever. You could get better or worse, but Eda shows that life doesn’t have to be over just because things are more difficult. It takes hard work, but you can still survive. It’s a pretty wholesome message in a narrative that’s built up well through the course of the series…It’s a shame that it’s semi-connected with a less wholesome narrative.

Lilith Hunting Eda—To me, this is basically the “Gideon Rises” of The Owl House. Lilith, much like Gideon from Gravity Falls (And spoilers for that series, I guess), is basically the first boss that the main cast continuously deals with, building up to a final confrontation in the first season finale, and moving onto the REAL threat for the next season. It plays about the same, with Lilith’s introduction establishing her as a threat, we get episodes of her trying to capture Eda mixed in with fun shenanigans, and end the season with an intense two-parter that also introduces the REAL antagonist of the show. It’s similar in a lot of ways, but there’s ONE main difference that hinders this plot thread as opposed to Gideon’s: Gideon is meant to be an irredeemable antagonist where Lilith was meant to be a complex one. Each episode featuring Gideon is meant to show him getting worse and worse, with each loss making him more of a threat due to getting both desperate and frustrated. It’s almost the same for Lilith, but her reasons are because she’s failing to heal her sister. That’s the real kicker behind this narrative thread, as Lilith’s motivations are all about her trying to bring Eda in so Belos can heal her. It’s a selfless motivation to make up for a selfish act, with every episode meant to be Lilith’s misguided attempts to remove the curse she caused. But that very motivation is what kind of hurts this arc.

Gideon getting worse and drastic with each episode makes sense because he’s the bad guy. He SHOULD develop into more of an active antagonist who does worse stuff because that’s how being an antagonist works, even if you’re not the CENTRAL antagonist of the story. His goals are selfish and it’s entertaining to see the lengths Gideon will go for the sake of accomplishing them. But for Lilith, in order for her inevitable redemption to make sense, we can’t have her go too far. Most of Lilith’s time in the first season is her being foiled comically, acting as a minor inconvenience at best and even someone who begrudgingly works with Eda in one episode. It almost works for her character and what she’s meant to be…but it also makes her actions in “Agony of A Witch” all the more flawed. On paper, it makes sense: Lilith is finally at the end of her rope and needs to get Eda, no matter the cost. Even if that cost is endangering a child to lure Eda in and make her lose a fight. It’s one of the worst things LIlith did that season and it ALMOST worked, narratively speaking. The problem is that desperation was never properly developed enough. We get a glimpse of it at the end of “Wing It Like Witches,” with Lilith on her hands and knees as she’s shaken with defeat, but even that feels sudden and out of place because we never got a real sense of what could happen to Lilith if she fails too much. Maybe if we had ONE more episode of Lilith being a direct antagonist to Eda and maybe showed her talk with Belos sooner, it would have made Lilith’s hunt for Eda feel better developed and definitely more engaging because, to be brutally honest, it’s the least interesting thing going on in Season One.

Like most of these serialized cartoons, The Owl House has a pretty relaxed first season, sucking audiences in with the cast going on simple adventures, making people care about the characters before they dive headfirst into darker trials and tribulations in future seasons. With that said, there was some narrative stuff going on to give the season a sense of progression. There’s the arcs I’ve mentioned before as well as the development of characters and their relationships. With Lilith hunting Eda, it was nowhere near as talked about as Luz learning magic, Amity’s redemption, or Eda’s curse. Even the show didn’t treat it seriously enough, with everyone (mostly Eda) treating Lilith as a joke and a character like Steve reminding Lilith that she should be hunting Eda still. The only time that things felt serious was in the second to last episode of the season, something that we’ve established had come out of nowhere because there was not enough time focused on it. Gideon may have had four episodes dedicated to his widdle ol’ arc, but Gravity Falls at least established him as a decent threat. In fact, he was established as the only threat before Bill showed up. Gideon was the one consistent problem that Dipper and Mabel faced, with most of the supernatural monsters being one-off villains and characters like Robbie and Pacifica being inconvenient rivals at best. Gideon was the one true threat that season, so it didn’t need much to build up this final confrontation with him. Just show him doing worse stuff every episode, like almost squashing a tiny Dipper in a fit of rage, and seeing our main antagonist of the season lose becomes all the more satisfying. But with Lilith, we’re not exactly rooting for her to lose. At least, we’re not meant to. We’re supposed to see a character cold and distant with Eda, but willing to reconnect through the shared dream they had as kids and make things right after cursing her. The problem is that we never got to see MUCH of that character, so when “Agony of a Witch” revealed that Lilith cursed Eda and showed her nearly killing Luz, it caused fans to go on a week-long rage fest over how Lilith is the worst and needs to be destroyed, with her explanation in “Young Blood, Old Souls” BARELY saving her reputation. In the attempt to make LIlith a valid antagonist for Season One, the writers either went too far or not far enough, making LIlith’s little arc feel more like an afterthought in favor of more magical hijinks, better characters, and making Belos more of a threat. There was some joy to be had like the badass witches duels, Eda and Lilith bonding over their search for The Bloom of Eternal Youth, and them having a high stakes grugby match. It’s good stuff, but rarely is it enough to ENGAGE me.

The Day of Unity—Or, in a way, this show’s version of Sozin’s Comet. What do I mean? Well, for the uninitiated who HAVEN’T seen Avatar: The Last Airbender (Spoilers for that series, I guess)…

The Last Airbender is a show where people can magically bend the elements of air, water, earth, and fire. Most can only bend ONE element, except for the Avatar who can bend all four. THAT is who the protagonist is: A plucky boy named Aang who has to learn to bend all elements to stop the evil Fire Nation from destroying more lives and culture. And if that already sounds like a difficult task for a twelve year old, he soon realizes that there’s this comet that will soon pass over the Earth and make every fire bender immensely powerful in the process. Meaning that to save the world, Aang has to learn to master all four elements and defeat the Firelord before the comet arrives and everyone is literally toast.

THAT is what The Day of Unity is meant to be: A looming threat that the characters have to prepare for and stop before everyone they know and love dies. It’s a great way to add tension to a serialized story except that it’s…not really played up as much as it should be. Or, at least, not as much as it WOULD be if it was meant to be the show’s Sozin’s Comet.

You see, in Avatar, we’re given a pretty good idea of what the comet can do and how badly it can hurt a lot of people. It’s a simple concept of how this bad thing can make the bad guys stronger, but it works because of its simplicity. We’ve seen how bad the Fire Nation can be and the knowledge that they’ll be stronger spreads more fear to the heart because that’s the last thing anyone wants. As for the Day of Unity, we’re told at the end of Season One that it’s something coming up SOON…and that’s about all the information we get at that moment. We’re not told what the Day of Unity means, what it could do, or why we should fear it. When we DO get more of an answer in Season Two, it’s still a little vague. Yes, we know that Belos SAID he’s planning to bring the Titan to the Human Realm, but it doesn’t answer one important question: Why? Why would he do this? Why is it a bad thing? And why should we be worried?

“Because he’s invading the human realm?”

That’s an option, but it’s disputed by Belos telling Luz that “The Titan has bigger plans” in “Young Blood, Old Souls.”

“Well, he’s clearly lying.”

Not CLEARLY. Sure, we know LATER how much of a liar Belos can be, but for all we know, from the Season One finale, he could just as well be telling the truth. We didn’t really know then and we wouldn’t know until much later. That’s because the Day of Unity is something that is closely tied to Belos’ character. The more we know about him and his motivations, the more it becomes clear of what the Day of Unity COULD be. And that’s what makes it less imposing than Sozin’s Comet. We didn’t NEED to know the Fire Lord’s plans or motivations that involve the comet. We just needed to know he’d get an insane power buff when the comet comes, and it’d be enough to understand the threat that the comet brings. But because the Day of Unity IS tied so close to Belos’ character, it feels as though it’s meant to be intentionally vague. Now, that DOES make sense. Belos would want his devious plans close to his chest with no one picking up on them lest he risks failure via uprising. The issue lies in how, for the longest time, we never really feel the threat that the Day of Unity has. That is, until “Hollow Mind.”

Once “Hollow Mind” tells us that Belos plans to wipe out the entire Isles and “Edge of the World” reveals that the characters only have a WEEK to prepare for it, THAT’S when I start feeling the intensity. We’re finally given the details of what to be afraid of and a tight time table to work with, with our characters doing everything they can to prevent the inevitable. Luz and King go off to get a potential army, Hunter tells all of Hexside what Belos is planning, Eda calls Raine for help, they all plan a way to stop Belos, and even Amity tries to convince her parents to stop making war machines for a genocidal maniac. There are many aspects of which these characters go to end the Day of Unity before it starts, yet there’s still moments to let them shine as characters. King learns he’s a Titan and tries to cope with it, Eda realizes that she can’t stop Luz from doing the right thing, Willow proves her worth, GUS proves his worth, Hunter joins the good guys, and Amity gets some form of closure with her family. The characters never take a back seat to the story, allowing them to develop WITH the buildup as we get closer to this conclusion. And best of all, we still have these fun adventures that also play alongside Belos preparing the Day of Unity. We get Luz and King visiting a warrior clan, Hexside students being stuck in an illusion maze, Eda and Luz going on a heist for King’s toy, and King going on an emotional journey with Steve of all characters. The fun, near-self-contained episodic adventures are still there and intact. They just play alongside a story that’s coming closer and closer to concluding. But the worst part is that after all the fun characters have mixed with trying to prepare for the end, it’s still not enough.

The absolute crazy thing about the Day of Unity…is that Belos almost won. He had contingency plans in place, his blind followers played their parts perfectly, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop the draining spell when it started. It took a literal act of God (er, A god) to put an end to Belos’ plans before anyone could actually die. The characters failed, large in part because they didn’t have enough time to prepare. If they knew what the Day of Unity was sooner or had twenty more adventures to work with instead of five, they could have maybe done a better job at stopping Belos, or form a plan with less risks. But they didn’t, and it makes me think that the initial vagueness really WAS intentional, due to how well done the final result is. So many dictators keep their true plans close to their chest, never revealing a scrap of truth to anyone. By the time people finally catch on, it’s almost always too late as plans have moved too far forward and the dictator has gained an oppressive following that are unwilling to listen to what should be considered reason. Belos is no different, and if we DID have time for twenty more adventures where the characters do all they can to stop the Day of Unity, it might not have turned out as well as it did. Or, at least, not as INTENSE as it did. If the characters had more time to prepare (and more chances for fun one-offs in the process), the intensity would drop considerably, with the slight possibility of rising the closer they get to that deadline. But because the time they have is short, it makes their desperation to prevent the Day of Unity FEEL dire with their brief moments of reprieve hitting harder. The Owl House getting shortened didn’t improve some stories in Season Two, but this is the one arc that I feel like was made better due to less time.

Luz and Belos Building a Portal—This is what the first half of Season Two focuses on the most, with every episode showing two portals being built with Luz and Belos having a sort of race to see who can finish theirs first. At least, a race that neither was really aware of the other taking part in. That was how it was until halfway through the season when Luz learns that Belos is finding a way to the human realm. It makes you think that the race is REALLY on now except it…never was. And that’s because building a portal was never actually the biggest thing in the series. It was more like a goal that managed to tie-in to other episodes and stories. Eda reconnecting with her mother, Luz working through her crush on Amity, Amity helping/fighting Hunter, introducing Vee, Luz and Lilith bonding, and the reveal that Belos was Philip are all big story elements that happened because of Luz building a portal and, more importantly, get back to Camila. The journey to build a new portal was more like Dipper’s quest to find the author of the journals in Season Two of Gravity Falls (Lots of Gravity Falls talk in this one). It’s there and you’re excited to see what comes from it, but the real engaging stuff comes from what goes ALONG with the story, not just the story itself. It’s just more or less an excuse to let other things happen in the series, with Luz getting some kind of progress with the portal to show that the story’s moving forward. In a way, it’s smart. It allows the show to allow character-focused situations while allowing the story to move forward instead of coming to a halt. A good serialized story lets the characters develop ALONG with any narrative threads that the writers think are important. This thread is no different, though it does meet a similar problem as Luz learning magic.

After all the focus that was put on Luz trying to find a way back home, it was pushed to the side when bigger stories took more of a priority. Hunter’s redemption, Belos’ plans, and even King’s identity were all deemed to be more important than anything else going on with any other character. Even using up the last of Luz’s Titan blood is barely acknowledged because the season is almost over and we’ve gotta rush to this big finale that becomes the biggest part of the story. By the time Luz DOES get a way to go home, it’s a solution handed to her for convenience and she doesn’t even want it because things went from bad to worse. Now, it’s an understandable choice and one that’s partially Disney’s fault. The writers had the first half of Season Two’s scripts finalized before Disney came in and said the show was getting shortened. So when they started writing the second half, they had to rework the rest of the series and STILL make something good for the fans. The result is that the race to home between Luz and Belos had to get pushed to the side despite all the attention it got earlier on in the season. I get it, and pushing it aside was handled better than with previous arcs. It just doesn’t stop it from having a sort of anticlimactic ending for the sake of giving another story a better one.

Where King Came From—I talked a bit about this in Part One, but this was the story that gave King’s character some intrigue and investment, taking away his desire to be the King of Demons and replacing it with a desire for identity. Upon his introduction, there was a lot of speculation of WHAT King was, even before the writers started acknowledging it. Was he really a King of Demons or was he just a stray Eda took in and allowed to play pretend. Turns out the answer is…technically both.

Once we’re introduced to this spire that Eda found King in, it at first makes it seem like there’s some legitimacy to King’s claims. There are these wall paintings of a mighty creature that looks like King, to the point where, for a second, I almost thought that he was a King of Demons. Of course, Eda shows up to set the record straight and finally tells King the truth about how she found him. It was eight years too late, but, you know…Better late than never. And while Eda’s explanation is close to what fans expected, there was still everything in King’s spire that hinted how there was more to the story. The art on the walls, King’s golden room, and the fact that he had his own personal bodyguard were signs that perhaps King COULD be the son of someone important. Maybe not a KING, but definitely someone with a high enough status to be treated as one. Yet, it wasn’t the knowledge of WHAT King could be that interested him. At that moment, what drawed his attention the most was that he had a dad.

The majority of King’s focus in the first half of Season Two was about finding answers of what he is and where his dad went. For the longest time, King spent his life so sure that he was demon royalty. So when the truth finally rears its ugly head, it leaves King with a dozen questions he never asked himself before because he never thought he needed to. It’s why King goes all in at first to find answers. He lost every sense of identity that he once clung onto despite the logic that everyone else but him picked up on. So by searching for his dad and any source that can tell King what he is, it fills this hole inside that tells him that something is missing. Interestingly enough, though, I don’t think what’s missing is his father. King makes a big deal of wanting to find his dad, but he also goes back and forth on wanting to meet him, sometimes feeling betrayed that his father “abandoned” King. He still considers Eda and Luz as family, even gets paperwork together so Eda can officially adopt him. It’s just that King wants to reconnect with his birth family, maybe even bring his two families together in some way. King just doesn’t want to leave Eda, he wants to find closure over who he is and believes that his father can give those answers. He’s not AGAINST the idea of having his dad back. In a way, having a father is just a bonus. Yet he still longs for one, hoping to do all the son and father stuff he thinks parents and children can do together. It’s why he is elated to be among the Titan Trappers… before realizing that he shouldn’t be.

Initially, King feels as though he FINALLY has all the answers he’s been looking for. He’s surrounded by what LOOKS like his own kind and couldn’t be happier. Just look at King when he’s experiencing the Trappers’ culture and getting close to all the people there. It’s filling the hole in his heart as he gains more of a sense of identity. Maybe HE could be a Titan trapper, maybe some of the trappers can become a family to him like Luz and Eda are. He even looks at Tarak as a plausible father figure to fill the role that King’s real father couldn’t. With Tarak looking more than willing to do so. It all looks like things are wrapping up nicely for this arc. So, what went wrong? Well, King being a Titan, for one.

This twist was a stunning one, not just for the episode but for everything it says about King. After believing he found his people, it turns out that he found those who sought to hunt his species to extinction and wear the skulls of King’s brethren as tribute. It was scarring for a number of reasons, most of all because it tells King that he’s the last of his kind and that he’ll NEVER get the answers he’s looking for. Not really, at least, as the only ones who DO know anything about Titans are either too young, too dead, or too psychotic to tell King anything. He has to live the rest of his life figuring himself out and what he’s capable of. But most interesting of all is how this gives King what he wants in Season One, but he doesn’t want it NOW. I said it all in Part One, but King dismissing the idea that he’s an all powerful god to be feared and respected is a perfect culmination of King’s character development. After spending so much time looking for answers and liking NONE of them, all King wants is a simple life. He wants to be the adorable little guy people always treated him as and nothing like the god someone like Lilith expects him to be. After all the mysteries, red herrings, and longing for SOMETHING to make him feel whole again, he comes to the realization that all he wants is to be a KID. Nothing more. It’s a great end to his arc this season…even if the whole thing has a similar problem as Luz making a portal door.

Just like building a new portal, King finding out who and what he is had a good amount of focus in the first half of Season Two. Four episodes, darn near back-to-back, was all about King looking for answers and slowly getting bits and pieces. If King had to play a big enough role in an episode, it was him and his identity crisis. Only for that to be shelved by Hooty eating a letter that has all the answers and then have him spit it out with five episodes left of the season. Now, I’ll admit that the conclusion is handled much better because it gives King his answers and allows the final three episodes of Season Two to let him react to this revelation. Everything involving King from “Edge of the World” and “King’s Tide” is done perfectly and it does feel like this was the natural conclusion that was the most closely executed as originally planned, unlike certain arcs. But it still feels off that it had so much attention in the first half, and then not address it until there’s five episodes left in the season. It worked out better than it could have, but I can see how it can feel a little off. Especially with how the show sort of spoon feeds us the twist that King is a Titan. There are some hints, like how King’s spire was noted to be older than most architecture Lilith’s studied, the painted mural showing how big King COULD be, and the fact that it’s been noted how King’s unlike any demon alive. And yes, all the answers would have come forth by the time King would have gotten that letter, but we don’t need him to get that letter to continue the story. We could have had King figure out what his powers mean or study the symbols in his spire. There aren’t any books, but there’s Jean-Luc. He may not talk, but he can verblessly show King SOMETHING if he asks in the right way. There are ways to continue this story thread through hints and careful thought, but because we don’t have time for that, we have to let other stories play out first before having the conclusion to King’s be wrapped up as quickly as possible. It’s not the best option, but all things considered, it worked better than it could. This thread may not have got the attention it deserved, but it at least ended in a nice way.

The Collector’s Playtime—Or as I like to call it: Amphibia Season Three…Also, spoilers for Amphibia Season Three from here on out (Man, I’m spoiling a LOT of good shows today). Because that’s exactly what this is. You have the protagonist and her friends stuck in the human world, them trying to get back, them realizing the world they return to has gone to Hell, a form of rebellion started in that Hell, a big, final battle with a lot of glowing, and it all ends with death, coming back from the dead, and a lot of hugging. Beat for beat, it’s more or less the same, with one big difference that changes the course of the story: The Collector.

The Collector is a different flavor of redeemable baddie than King Andrias. Where Andrias is a conqueror that followed his father’s orders for centuries only to start changing with the last moments of his life, The Collector is…just a kid with too much magical prowess. Everything that he does isn’t done out of malice or a need to gain more power. They’re already one of the most powerful beings in the series. All The Collector really wants is to play games with his new best friend, only for those games to cause a bit too much damage because The Collector doesn’t understand how fragile mortals are. Therefore, the conflict is less about stopping the maniacal monster with an army, but more like talking a child down because playtime should have ended five months ago. It’s a similar tactic for how Andrias was defeated, but handled more clearly and effectively, as the writers quickly established that talking The Collector down was the one true solution, whereas Andrias barely had any time to show how that’s even an option. Plus, The Owl House avoids an issue Amphibia causes through Andrias and The Core. Both shows, halfway through their second seasons, introduce these bigger threats that our main antagonists are buddies with. With The Core, it’s eventually treated as the REAL antagonist of the story, turning Andrias into a secondary baddie that the other characters have to fight THROUGH to get to the actual threat. With The Collector, they’re POTENTIALLY a bigger threat, but remain as a problem that the main cast has to deal with while Belos keeps his role as the story’s primary antagonist. The Collector is just a character that EVERYONE reacts to, even Belos, who has to come up with a NEW evil plan after The Collector ruined his last one. It’s a great way to differentiate The Collector from The Core, and make the finale more its own thing instead of a carbon copy of Amphibia’s. And while there ARE a lot of similarities, I’d go so far that The Owl House handles things better than Amphibia…Also does some things worse, but let’s start with the positives.

First of all, I still love that “Thanks to Them” just speedruns the “Back to Earth” arc in Amphibia. We still get shenanigans of Luz’s witch friends being stuck on Earth and gaining new hobbies. It just reserves those moments to montages and pictures in Willow’s scrapbook. Would it have been fun to see the Hexsquad go on a shopping spree or seeing them have a fun yet potentially chaotic beach day? Oh, absolutely. But as fun as it would be, it could potentially fall in the same trap Amphibia did where the fun would come across a distraction. Sprig playing a superhero is fun and the Plantars trying to take Domino to the vet is cute, but don’t really add much that couldn’t have been done alongside the developing story. Let’s look at “Spider-Sprig” as an example. That episode may end with him making a new friend that helps rescue the Plantars from Mr. X, but he could have made that friend at any point when finding a way back or discovering the secrets of that artifact they found. Instead he met her when trying to find his place on Earth, which is a concept, by the way, that makes no sense to focus on when the story ends with Sprig being separated from Earth and Anne. Again, it comes across as a distraction met with the best intentions but poor planning. With a final season, a show needs to focus on wrapping up as much as possible to give characters a sense of closure and make it clear that these are the last adventures they’ll have. Instead, Amphibia just…does what it always did, by having characters go on adventures that went nowhere instead of developing them outside the story. Filler can be fun, especially for a TV series. It allows the writers to play around with their characters and flesh them out more. Except that there’s a way to do that without stalling the story, like how Hunter’s hobbies in “Thanks to Them” unintentionally caused Belos to possess Hunter’s body. We still see Hunter have a love of sewing and take great interest in Cosmic Frontier, but those same interests led to huge consequences, showing that Hunter still suffers even when he’s happy (Told you that he’s the writers’ favorite punching bag). That’s a lot of development and good ideas to explore with Hunter, and the writers did it all within an hour when Amphibia had…seventeen episodes? Well, regardless of how many, Amphibia felt like it wasted the little time it had left where The Owl House made sure to use every second to develop Hunter, Luz, and Camila, characters who have yet to find closure for their arcs and deserve more of the focus. All the time for shenanigans is brief and doesn’t take away anything. They actually add more, showing us how close this group got, all while not lingering on the antics too long and giving us enough information to know what happened within these months to make up our own ideas of what must have gone on between them. Remember, where canon fails, fanfiction is always your friend, giving you the downtime you want these characters to have without halting the story. So, it makes The Owl House’s first third of the final season better than Amphibia’s first half…though the same can’t really be said when we get to “For the Future.”

I have mixed feelings towards the second half of Amphibia’s third season. It really feels like it forces its humor, its attempts being episodic while also wrapping up the story just did not work for me, and an episode like “Newts in Tights” was so bad that I almost decided to stop watching the rest of the series and wait until it came onto Disney+. If it wasn’t for the fact that the show was almost over, I just about would have. The second half is flawed in ten ways to Sunday…but I’ll admit that it does things a LITTLE better than “For the Future.” I don’t HATE the special. I think that overall it does more things right than wrong, with everything with Luz, Camila, Hunter, and Willow being some top-tier stuff. But when it comes to doing the stuff Amphibia did, Amphibia did things a little better. We got to see how negatively Andrias and The Core affected the world, with the skies being red and cloudy or how there are factories everywhere you look. We even got to see the return of a lot of characters, both the frogs of Wartwood and previous one-offs from Season One and Two, reminding audiences how far the show has come since meeting these characters. It was a bit of a mess in places, but helped make it clear that this was the end, all while showing how everyone reacted to this big disaster. When Luz and her friends return to the Isles, they spend the majority of their time in Hexside, where the students hid from The Collector and made a mess of the place. We don’t really see how the rest of the world reacts to this big change. Granted, most of the denizens of the Isles got collected into The Collector’s toy box, and most of the characters we grew close to are in Bonesborough anyway. But we don’t even get to see how Raine, Eda, or any other big players deal with this, with most of the juicy stuff happening off screen so Luz and her friends can go on an adventure dealing with Boscha and Kikimora of all characters. I don’t hate either and I like the ATTEMPT of what the writers did with Boscha. It's just that sticking to Hexside and dealing with those two characters specifically kind of makes you realize how small the world in The Owl House is and how limited its characters are, at least compared to Amphibia. There’s a purpose behind it and the show doesn’t HAVE to be like Amphibia, but in terms of making the problem feel bigger than it is and hammer home that we’re nearing the end, I gotta give it to Amphibia for this one. The crazy thing is that I actually prefer “Thanks to Them” over most of what happens in Amphibia Season 3B. It’s just the fact that Amphibia…did the job better even if the episodes weren’t as strong.

As for the finales, things are pretty even between The Owl House and Amphibia. Neither is really better or worse, as they fit the endings both shows wanted to build up to. Amphibia ends with all the characters coming together for three different final battles. The Frogs, Newts, and Toads storm the tower in Part One, Anne and company stopping King Andrias and The Core in Part Two, and the Calamity Trio take on the moon in Part Three. For a show that made itself more about goofy adventures and characters screwing around only to SLOWLY build up to a fantastic conclusion, it really did end the series off with a bang. As for The Owl House, after having Luz, King, and Eda separated for so long, “Watching and Dreaming” is all about them going on one last adventure, reliving memories, watching as Luz experiences death, and going on the offensive with Belos while the rest of the main cast goes on the defense in The Collector’s toy chest. And with everything featuring Luz, King, and Eda, it’s almost everything I could have ever wanted for The Owl House’s ending to be, fit with Luz having incredibly awesome magic as a kickass version of the show’s theme song plays in the background. It’s an epic ending that satisfies me and others in a way that’s not better than Amphibia’s ending, but offers something different that works for the show. The only thing that I would say is done better is…Luz’s death/revival compared to Anne’s. I vaguely mentioned it in my review for the special, but Anne dying, meeting The Guardian, and getting revived to live out her life before taking The Guardian’s place as she dies again is just…too much done in so little time. It just feels out of nowhere and cheapens the sacrifice she made by going, “Nope. Act of God says you live.” Sure, same thing happened to Luz, but she didn’t sacrifice herself. She died in an accident and The Titan brought her back by HER choice. And The Titan’s appearance wasn’t sudden either, as he was shown in the previous special and in the beginning of “Watching and Dreaming.” It left fans expecting them to show up in some way, and bringing Luz back from the dead because she was so nice to King honestly works and makes the revival feel slightly more like a natural progression. I mean, it’s still a god bringing Luz back and begging her to choose life, but the story laid down the foundation enough to make it make sense. With Anne, I’m glad she survived, but it doesn’t change how cheap it feels to reward her for dying. Say what you want about Rooster Teeth or the scumbags who ran it into the ground, but with its series, Red vs. Blue, the writers had SOMETHING  to say about heroic sacrifice. With a fantastic speech from one of the characters, it goes into how the hero never gets to see that ending and all they have left is faith and…highly unrealistic expectations of what happens when they’re gone during their last moments. Regardless of a person’s feelings towards the now dead company and its show, I personally think that they handle self sacrifice a lot better, showing the real weight of it and how it’s not the best option. So making Anne live again, even with that nonsense about her being a clone or copy or whatever, takes away a BIT of the emotional punch out of her sacrifice. You can say the same thing with Luz, especially with how long “Watching and Dreaming” stretches out the fact that she’s dead, but I feel like making it an accident caused by Luz caring about someone else’s life more than her own makes me care a little less. Hell, if anything, a god telling Luz that her life DOES matter and that she can go back on HER choosing means something a lot more compelling than Anne getting a reward for killing herself. I’m SURE fans will try to tell me that it’s MORE than that, but I can’t help but feel like it’s the most out of pocket thing in the entire finale. Even if it is one that made me cry five times.

All and all, while it’s the same in the lot of ways, The Collector’s Playtime still offers a unique flavor of a final adventure compared to Amphibia’s third season. It’s better in the first third, moderate in the second, but evens out in the end there. Is it the final adventure I wanted? Not really, as I wanted way more adventures instead of condensing a season into three specials. But with all things considered and how most shows don’t even GET an ending, I’m fine with this last concluding arc being a gigantic send off for the series that has a lot of its best parts, some of its worst, all while ending on a high note. It’s not what I wanted, but it’s something I’m happy with.

And…That’s it. That’s the last arc of The Owl House…Huh. You know, with how often fans point out that the story arcs or narratives are more important than Lumity or one character getting the spotlight, there’s really…not that many arcs in the show. Now, not every series needs a whole lot. If anything, that can cause the show to feel overcrowded as writers are stretched too thin to figure out when to utilize which narrative. Heck, even the few that they had, The Owl House writers were still sometimes struggling, what with having no time to really work out a few threads they planned for Season Two. Still, for a serialized show, it is a LITTLE crazy that The Owl House doesn’t have that many arcs. I could call that a criticism, but here’s a reason why I won’t. To go full circle, The Owl House is character driven, not story driven. Seeing characters grow and develop is part of what makes The Owl House’s serialization work. If I HAD talked about the character development of Luz, Amity, Hunter, and many others, we’d be here all gosh dang day. Again.

And yeah, the few narratives are nice and make one excited to see what happens next, but only because we want to see how it affects each character or see how they react to big reveals in the story. It handles things way better than Amphibia (Last comparison, I promise), which tries to be character driven too, but constantly brings up all these narratives that I want to see continue only to stall for way too long and making the character development feel slow so the writers can save the big stuff for the grander narratives. It has its audience, and I’m happy for the fans who ARE into it, but I much prefer how The Owl House handled things. Its first two arcs are introduced as something closely tied through the characters, with episodes having us care about them enough to see them make it through some hardships. Plus, the character development is always moving forward, with Willow getting bolder, Amity acting warmer, and Luz getting more powerful with each episode. And that’s all in Season One alone. The characters drive the narrative, not the other way around, meaning that the show doesn’t need these BIG and complex arcs to make it one of the best shows. It just needed compelling characters, and you can tell by now that it does. Because even when talking about the narratives, arcs, and all that, the characters are still, and always will be a part of the conversation.

But it’s easy to tell a story. Just make a coherent beginning, middle, and end, and you got yourself one, easy as that. It might be good or stand out from others, but it’ll still be a story. If you WANT it to be great, however, you have to do more than tell a story. You gotta SAY something with it. As for what The Owl House has to say, you’ll see next week when we go over the themes and messages of the show.

Next Part

[andrigyn]

❄️

1920s Neris mafia AU just for you <3

Nesta traced a circle on the dark, shiny surface of the counter with her index finger. It was impossible to ignore the feeling of the man’s intense stare, although she wished to avoid eye contact. He was handsome. In her initial assessment, she observed an angular and defined bone structure. His eyes were large, with russet irises framed by thick eyelashes. The man’s hair was an eye-catching shade of red, and he was well dressed. The suit he wore was dark grey, and tailored to fit his lean frame. Nesta’s eye was drawn also to the expensive looking watch that adorned his wrist. 

“We could leave right now, you and I, for the right price,” Nesta said, barely choking out those dangerous words. There was no going back now, she had really done it. Whether or not she wished him to say yes, she couldn’t be certain. 

He only laughed in reply. What started off as a low chuckle progressed until he became borderline hysterical. Nesta’s face twisted into a scowl as he sat there, mocking her. “Now you’ve offended me. What makes you think I need to pay for the company of women?” he asked. 

“I can’t say for sure, you just have that look about you,” Nesta quipped. Her insult caused his face to fall for a moment, which was enough to keep her going, “Don’t be ashamed, there are advantages to paid company, as you well know, but I won’t waste my time, or yours detailing the merits.” Nesta rose from her seat, well aware of the fact that her cheeks were now beet red. This type of rejection stung. In fact, it made her feel so low that the idea of whoring herself out like this began to disgust her. An empty stomach couldn’t bother her anymore now that this place stunk of failure. In the morning, Nesta would report to the school and plead with the principal for her job back. 

“Sit back down, we aren’t finished yet.” His tone was teasing at first, but by then it became firm. It carried with it the type of authority that most would obey instinctually, but Nesta wouldn’t give in. 

“As much as I’d love to stay and chat, my time is valuable.” What a lie that was. 

The man reached into his pocket, and pulled out some money. He then reached for her gloved hand and put the bill inside, closing her fingers into a fist. Nesta quickly unfurled them and to her shock it was a fifty dollar bill. She quickly shoved it into her pocket, not wanting anyone else to see it, and decide to try their luck at robbing her. 

“Now, sit back down and humor me for a minute.” 

She sat. 

“I’ve never even seen you here before,” he said with a genuine curiosity. 

“What does it matter?” Nesta snapped. She could have explained that it was Emerie who told her of this place, that even though she seldom reached for the bottle, it was worth the risk to her livelihood to unwind every now and again. Perhaps the stranger would have recognized her pretty dark eyes and neatly cropped hair. Perhaps he would have said yes to her. 

“It matters because I don’t think you belong here.” He took a long sip of his drink. “You’re letting that go to waste.” The man gestured towards Nesta’s untouched drink. 

She raised the glass to her lips, and let the liquid burn as it slid down her throat. “How would you know anything about me, or where I belong?” 

“You can learn a lot about a person before they ever open their mouth. Your eyes keep darting about the room, and you’ve hardly looked at me directly for more than a few seconds at a time. You are constantly in motion, like how right now you’re tapping your fingers against the counter. That’s a clear sign of nervousness.” 

Nesta’s hand froze, and she laid it down flat. 

“Your dress is awfully long for a call girl, and once you started talking, I could tell you were well educated, intelligent perhaps, but not streetwise,” he explained.

[sirensplayhouse]

hii it’s ‘🪦’ anon. i wanted to come back for a quick second and share some stuff. recently, i’ve manifested so much stuff since i first sent an ask and even before that with only being in this year for two months.

month of janurary in order:

- my parents divorce being over after years (everything working out how we planned). this was also the reason i had got into LOA all those years ago, so i did cry for like a day straight, it was really my wakeup call.

- 2 week vacation to my favorite tropical area for the month of feburary (i just got back from traveling and i enjoyed myself sm)

- i tapped into the void state about two times that month as well. i affirmed for always being aware of when i’m in it.

- a healthier relationship with my family. the past few years i did struggle with feeling close with them but we’ve grown so much in a short amount of time now.

- 300 dollars worth of clothes + a skims dress (the package was gonna be way more and i had already spent a lot of money for the vacation in advance)

- three new pairs of desired shoes

- this was random but, my mom always gives me money monthly to spend freely or to save but i had already gotten that months worth. so i was like my mom is gonna give me more money, not even 30 minutes later she’s asking how much i wanted?? 😭😭

month of feburary in order:

- over the years my family has definitely gotten more lenient especially since i’m damn near grown LMAO but it feels nice to do stuff without feeling like there’s going to be consequences, so i manifested for my family to be more lenient with my desired things.

- to get rid of my cold/flu a few days before vacation. i had gotten “sick” (like a common cough and runny nose) from a family member. i haven’t been sick in years so i was genuinely pissed about it. i affirmed one night when i was sleepy to wakeup without the sickness, and when i woke-up it was gone.

- my sister got paid earlier than she expected. and the amount was a few more thousands than she normally would get. it was funny when she came to tell me because she always has to make a joke out of everything. 😭

- my mothers approval for more piercings and maybe even a tattoo? (probably not, i’d def pussy out LMDAOO)

- so this was the biggest one besides the divorce but we got offers for two homes. the same homes that we looked at years ago and it honestly freaked me out. i genuinely did want to move again so i could be closer to my friends house to hangout more (we both met through LOA about three years ago and just so happened to live almost an hour away). i glanced at both house listings online after talking to her and i believed that i was gonna move. NEXT DAY, MY MOM AND SISTER GOT TWO CALLS BACK TO BACK. so now we’re moving into both homes because of something that happened 😭 it’s not bad but it was funny. i’ll be there in less than a week so i’m excited!

- another thing that happened was earlier this month. i tapped into the void for fun through this guided hypnosis video post made by gorgeouslypink and i was curious. i didn’t have any intent on manifesting anything there nor did i actually think i was gonna go through with it. i laid down right after and i tapped into it immediately while following the last speaking. personally, i don’t feel the need for the void because at the end of the day, ts is a deep meditative state inside of me. manifesting in the void is instant, and so is manifesting any other way. i also texted my friend right before and after. she thought i was gonna do it another day by u disappeared for like an hour or two and she was shocked. i was gonna send proof of everything but idk how to do this shit through anon but changing the font tbh this is sad.

all of the stuff that i mentioned within these two past months were all manifested without using the void. i hope that this can bring more positivity and enthusiasm for a lot of people who’ll see this post. ofc you can use the void but realize your power, it all starts with you and ends with you. don’t forget that you promised yourself these things so give them to yourself. sending love 💓 i’ll check back in monthly probably bc this is fun sharing my experiences and using the pink font color 💟 see you next time!

babes……. HELLO YOU DID THAT🥺i’m so proud and happy for you ! 🫶🏾 you’re only gonna get better and better and i can’t wait🥰i hope you enjoy all you’ve manifested 🕺🏾and have an absolute ball

[lady-stardust-incarnate]

Just finished watching the red white and royal blue movie, here are my immediate thoughts:

1. Omg this movie actually made me so emotional, I didn't expect to cry, I don't cry at movies much but this one, for many reasons, really made me feel a lot of things. I can already tell it will be a huge comfort movie for me going forward and this is simply because of the incredible story that Casey Mcquinston created, the directing of Matthew Lopez, and the acting of Taylor Zakhar Perez, Nicolas Galitzine and many more. (If ANYONE wants to say they have no chemistry I will fight you)

2. The way that the relationship between Henry and Alex is shown is incredibly well conveyed and in a way which could be realistic. We see that sweet sweet enemies to lovers but even after they get together it continues to develop and their connection grows stronger into a special bond which we see at the end of the movie (no not the post credit scene, that was a lil silly, nice touch though). Also going off on a slight tangent here, one of my main complaints about heartstopper season 2 was that Nick and Charlie are always kissing/making out, I was worried that this would also be the case for rwrb, but it definately wasn't. I read so many articles on how the intimacy coordinator directed the two actors and how much they themselves researched into the role to really deliver their best performences. It definately paid off. I felt that there was a really nice balance between the really intimate scenes which we see a lot of in the book and sweet tender moments where they really show that these two characters really love each other and aren't just super horny.

3. The sets and the way they filmed the whole thing. yes. The main one I want to comment on is the iconic cake scene, which as I said, I read a lot of interviews, and from those I know that Matthew Lopez had a vision for this scene which he worked really hard to get perfect, and it had a really good turnout (I know I already mentioned it but I love the post credit scene so much). One of my favourite things was Matthew Lopez revealing that the birds eye shot of cake falling onto Alex and Henry was him and another crew member dumping cake into them, this isn't that relevant to my thoughts but I just found that detail hilarious as Lopez said it was a "good way to let off steam." Other than that scene, which for me was a very important part of the film, I don't really know much about the technical side of a production like this, but as a viewer it all came together nicely and the sets were nice.

4. A reason I really connect with this film is the fact that I am a queer teenager who has learned to accept themself, gone through the coming out process (somewhat, we don't talk about extended family). I absolutely love the positive representation that this movie gives to the queer community. For people who have not read the book, it is an incredible story, and for a lot of people it shows for the first time in media that LGBTQ+ people can have their happy ending, it won't be easy to get there but it is worth it in the end. While in reality we see this with queer couples a lot, the community has had to fight for their rights and are still in that process, in countries where it is legal it is still very common to be judged, attacked and even killed for your self expression. So for me this was a very fresh (even though I read the book) story for the community, to show that the battles are worth fighting for your happiness. As I touched on before, I think a reason that this works so well is that the characters are so relatable to the average viewer, despite their positions. The are made to be comedic and actually have banter like you'd expect, it's not uptight and only about the romance and spicy scenes. This is really comforting to so many people out there and it feels very appropriate with the world we live in now. I would say my favourite scene in the entire film was the v&a scene, it's so cute I don't know how else to put it, literally a romance dream. Sorry if that was my worst tangent yet, you can tell I'm passionate on the subject.

5. I just wanted to mention some of the other characters. Like a lot of people I was really disappointed to find out that characters such as June and Liam would not be in the movie, however I think this is made up for by the great portrayal of other characters, my favourite being Nora who, let's be real, is not only Alex and Henry's number 1 shipper, but also just gives the best advice. Everyone in this movie genuinely gave such a great performence and I can only thank the entire team for giving us the adaptation that the book deserves.

6. I'm giving the spicy scenes their own point to mainly say that they aren't even that spicy, I personally don't even see why this film was given an r rating and I believe, as many others have said, that if this film was a straight romcom then it wouldn't be given that rating. Yes you see them with clothes off, there's no dick, you only actually see them having sex once, the others are mainly foreplay, really nothing that explicit.

7. I thought I would also dedicate a point to the travesty that is certain quotes from the book that were not included, "you obtuse fucking asshole." "fucking eyelashes." and "Remus John Lupin is gay as the day is long." (ok they probably couldn't get copyright permission to add that one) "I'm gonna take your pants off now... yes good carry on." "for fucks sake man you just had my dick in your mouth, you can kiss me goodnight." and "what in the rich white people sex dungeon." I know that they probably didn't want the script to be a direct copy of this book but some of these quotes would've been nice, also I like that they atleast mentioned the PowerPoint, despite not having the actual PowerPoint.

I hope you enjoyed my overly formal review/thoughts on the rwrb movie which slowly got more deranged in the hour that I was writing this, I began writing this around 3:20am just after I finished the movie, and it's safe to say, I won't be coming back to this to correct any spelling or punctuation mistakes. Overall I love the film, as typical as it is for a romcom, I love the characters and I really like what they were able to do in the 2 hours of the film. Obviously it's never going to be a perfect adaptation but I loved every second of it nonetheless. It's cheesy, it's romantic, but that's what gives it it's charm and makes me love it so much. I'll be hoping for a series to futher explore the story but that'll probably stay in my delusions.

It is now 4:20am, goodnight (I'm not going to sleep, I'm just not being formal anymore)

[this-daydream-is-dangerous-13]

There are so many songs that I find hard listening to cause they were written about YB, and knowing what we know now and how Taylor put him on a pedestal and made him out to be this perfect boyfriend when it wasn't true just absolutely disgusts me., plus the underlying layer of anxiety and her fear of him leaving, but no other song can quite literally trigger me like Peace does. His integrity made her feel small, feeling like she was wasting his honor for talking shit with her friends. Meanwhile, he was probably shit talking about her behind her back to his friends based on the Anti-Hero Remix. No wonder why all her friends unfollowed him so quickly. They were probably relieved she finally left him. Writing a song like You're Losing Me and STILL staying for over a year trying to fix things and his ungrateful ass couldn't do anything, not even the bare minimum. Like, you have THE TAYLOR SWIFT begging you to make things work and is willing to stay with you through all your bullshit and put up with your carelessness when she could so easily find someone new and have men lining up in a quee just to be with her, and you TAKE HER FOR GRANTED?????? Choose YET AGAIN (at the last minute cause you weren't even the first choice) your 5 min worth of screen time background role in a movie that probably no one's going to see over supporting your girlfriend ??? (Jack had Covid and couldn't attend, but he still watched through a grainy screen live on insta or tiktok and I'm sure Joe did not do that) When she's done nothing but supporting him and prioritizing him and following him around from country to country only to have him leave her behind to pack things up, cook for his cast mates, allow them to record music using her own equipment, him throw birthday surprise parties for his female co-star when he can't bother make time for her birthday, send his mom or brother to her events cause he can't show up, but is perfectly capable of showing up to events where he's got nothing going on for himself and take his own friends over his girlfriend who probably got him in the room in the first place, the list goes on and oooooooon. He was also fine with staying with her rent free and going on luxury vacations on private jets, get paid royalties from her music (Taylor definitely overexaggerated his contributions and was very generous with him only to have her craft compared and diminished to baking surdough bread in quarantine), but couldn't put up with her fame that was providing all this. (He strikes me as one of those people that secretly want the fame and attention on them but are going to complain and bitch about how that's not what they want once they get it. The thing is, the attention was on Taylor, and he couldn't be a side character or merely her boyfriend cause of his insecurities... well now he's Taylor Swift's ex first and foremost much to his inconvenience)

I can imagine him being jealous and insecure of how well the All Too Well short film was embraced by the industry he's been in for so long, only to have Taylor come in and be praised right and left for her talent. He's been basically "Hollywood's next big thing" each year ever since 2017 and each year being unsuccessful at it. It's embarrassing. (Even Harry, who's not the best actor out there and has no prior training or much knowledge in that field, has more talent, charisma and appeal in his pinky finger when it comes to acting than Joe does.)

I'm so here for YB lashings out on X. He's not a saint as some think. I can only imagine how he might've gaslighted and manipulated Taylor for her to always put the blame on herself in all her songs...

^^^^

Bring on TS11, where even if we don’t get more detail YB’s shitty behaviour, we WILL get more reflections on Blondie the Phoenix has risen.

Thanks for the detailed ask.

[meraki-yao]

An exchange student from Canada saw me crying and gave me a tissue. We talked. He's really nice. I'm sane now.

This is going to be a full vent. This is my full story on this situation. Only read if you want to and if you're okay with it. Also warning, this is long as fuck, I really trauma dumped here.

tw: suicidal thoughts, self-harm

Backstory: High School

I was labelled as a jack of all trades, master of none. I'm naturally a more art/social science/emotion/humanities person, but I took STEM subjects in high school (Physics, Chemistry, Information & Technology/ Computer, and Calculus & Algebra), partly because these subjects had objective, standard answers, which supposedly makes getting marks in exams easier, partly because I felt like I had to as my parents are both PhD in engineering, and at that point I still thought I had to be "my parents' daughter".

So throughout high school, all my external achievements were humanities/arts related while my studies were STEM orientated. But I struggled a lot with my STEM subjects (except for Computer because a lot of that is just stuff you would know if you use one a lot), and I mean, a lot. As in failing quizzes, fucking up assignments. Thank God I had really kind teachers who cared more about my mental health than my grades and were willing to help and accommodate my needs. But there were many times when I straight up broke down during a lesson and ran off to the social worker's. I skipped several lessons because I just couldn't go to class and try to listen when voices in my head were all yelling at how much of a useless piece of shit I was. I would spend three hours on a single question, and still get it wrong. It always felt like no matter what I did, I would go nowhere. And it didn't help that when I asked for help from my parents, their response would always first be "How can you not know something so simple". By senior year I gave up and started asking my friends and the internet.

On the contrary, I thrived in my language classes and liberal studies class. Even if I initially sucked due to the change in the system, I asked, I studied, I worked and I improved. I got somewhere. Effort paid off in a fair ratio. I never needed to ask my parents anything about that. I never needed to ask anyone other than my teacher. I loved doing my homework in those subjects. My writings were printed out as examples for the whole class. It was great.

Backstory: College Selection

By the time college choices rolled around I had no idea what to choose. At the same time, my mother was also suggesting I go to mainland Chinese universities for my undergrad, and I didn't want that. Going to the States or the UK wasn't affordable for my family, so I opted to stay local, to the dismay of my whole extended family.

So in the mess of all of this and no parental support because they are Chinese stereotypes who think the only courses worth studying are doctor and lawyer, my school's career counsellor suggested Bachelor of Arts and Studies to me (here's their website) a new personalized interdisciplinary degree in HKU. And I was so happy. It felt right. It felt like putting a on tailored dress. And despite my parents' protest, I put that as my first choice.

College entrance exams came and went. Overall I did pretty well. Got top scores in Chinese, English, Liberal Studies, and Computer. Got average for Chemistry, Math and Physic despite spending most of my study leave on these subjects. Just passed Calculus.

So the way the local system works (it's called JUPAS if you wanna look it up) is that by the end of November, you need to submit your 20 university programme choices, but after the public exam result is released, you're assigned 24 hours to change your choices.

And this is where everything started going to hell for me.

My parents, who in the first round of selection, compromised and let me put what I wanted, looked at my marks, and my choices, and vetoed everything. They said I'm not gonna get a job with an interdisciplinary degree, there's no career path for psychology, that the arts and science degree was created because the art, social science and science faculty didn't have that many people.

A different advisor, one who didn't know me personally suggested my current programme: biomedical engineering, which basically combines medicine with engineering. They said it's a lucrative career since health service is in demand, and with my basis in STEM subject I would do well, and that it's easier to go from a science subject to humanities if I want to do something different in post-grad than vice versa. By this time I had 2 hours left before confirmation.

If we were to completely ignore me as an individual, they're right. This would be the logical choice.

But at that point, I already knew it felt wrong. But unfortunately for me, all I could say is it felt wrong, which isn't a strong rebuttal.

With no "logical" rebuttal, two yelling parents and a fucked up head, sobbing, I changed my first choice to this programme. I cut my arm with a cutter over the myriad of scars I gave myself over the years. I told my best friend who was asking if I was ok, that I'll give it a go, and if it doesn't work I'll find a way out. I told the rest of my close friends that my undergrad will be me paying a debt to my parents, and I'd figure out my own dream in the future.

I shouldn't have caved in.

Back Story: University

University started. Immediately it felt wrong. Save for my elective (HKU has this really cool thing called Common Core, look it up if you're interested but essentially it's compulsory electives) I felt so detached from my engineering courses. I couldn't explain, just an inherent feeling that I don't belong here.

It didn't help that it was at this time that I realized I straight-up don't like biology.

Managed through year 1 first semester with average grades. Semester 2 I didn't have any courses directly related to the programme save for a probability & stats course that I fucked my way through. The rest of my grades were pretty good, even got two A- s. The feeling that I didn't belong persisted but popped up a little less.

Now: Breaking

Year 2 came, and from the moment in August when I had to sign up for courses, the feeling of wrongness came back in full force, amplified, even. It felt all-consuming.

This is from my diary:

"I don't wanna be here. I don't want this degree. I don't want this career God I don't want it. It's doesn't fit. I don't fit in this space. This isn't mind. It feels like dysmorphia. It feels like tar, black and toxic and vicious, sticking to my skin, trying to mould my body into something I'm not, to seep into my skin and dye my blood a dull shade of grey. I wanna fucking run away. I wanna fucking die. I don't fucking know what to do."

You guys kind of know the rest, because that's when I met you guys and started feeling safer here than anywhere else, and vented here. But for reference

September

October

November

December

January, January, Fuck you January

I skipped class. I got antidepressants. I binge ate and became overweight. Failed three classes. Parents didn't find out anything until the grades came out. Then they lost their mind.

Now: Not Enough

They blamed me for not trying hard enough.

They said oh failures happen, you have to learn from your mistakes and try again.

I have to set up a proper routine. Dedicate all my time and energy to staying physically healthy and studying. Spent my "free time" thinking. I even got berated for listening to music with headphones on.

Dad asked me why did I fail biochemistry. I said it was hard, the pace was fast, and I don't like the subject. He said there's no point in not liking it.

Mom said I needed to get rid of the idea that this degree is against me and accept it, that I shouldn't dwell on what-ifs from the past, and all the reasons they convinced me to choose this still stands, that learning is a fun and interesting thing that I should take joy in, that I won't be able to handle being a psychiatrist, that I used to be such a star student what the fuck happened to me, that each path has their own difficulties and I'm already on this road so why won't I just keeping going for the next two years, that if I quit and start over I'll be older than my cohort and my friends will all graduate before me and why won't I just follow the normal path dammit

SO EVERYTHING IS MY FUCKING FAULT HUH??

I don't fucking know anymore.

Now: The present

The reason I was crying earlier, was that I went to have a meeting with an academic advisor to ask about the possibility of transferring to a different programme.

There are two ways.

One, apply for an internal transfer by June. But that requires exceptional grades, and I don't have that.

Two, quit university and re-apply with my college entrance exam results. But then none of the credits I earned in the past two years will be transferred. All will expire. I went through shit for nothing except to confirm my mistake is a mistake.

I might figure something out when I'm not crying my brains out but right now neither option sounds like an option to me.

I could barely ask anything intelligent afterwards because I was trying so hard to stop myself from breaking down immediately.

Now: How I feel

I'm not supposed to feel like this. This is not normal. This is not how my university life is supposed to go. It cannot be normal to want to die every day.

The moment I realised this was fundamentally wrong was when I looked at my high school friends' social media, and saw them living their best lives: dating, joining the committee of societies, getting awards and scholarships, jobs and internships, travelling, going to parties, everything a young person should be doing. My best friend is chasing her dreams to became an actress at NYU TISHC, already getting paids acting jobs at year 1, going to prominent events, maintaining a 3.9 GPA, goes out partying all while maintaining a long distance relationship with her athletes boyfriend who is the best of the best in Asian youth, handsome, and just a great guy in general.

I'm supposed to be on the same level as them.

I'm from an elite class of an elite school in an elite city. I've been on city radio four times and city-wide broadcast television once. I was on four department/society committees, two of which I was chairlady. I wrote and directed my own play. My name was followed by seven internal awards when it was my turn to get my diploma during the graduation ceremony. I aced my classes. My drawing and writing had been in my school's anthology and yearbook. I genuinely enjoyed learning.

I'm not supposed to be this.

I'm not supposed to be this depressed, overweight person who can't get out of bed and skips classes and fails courses. I'm not supposed to be this stagnant, I was always moving. I was always giving it my 100%. I'm not supposed to not make any friends and want to stay in my bed all the time. I'm not supposed to be insomniac, or sick, or depressed, or overweight.

I was always fighting.

I don't have any energy in me anymore to fight.

I'm not supposed to turn out like this. This isn't who I want to be/ I hate whoever I am now. This isn't right.

But I'm fucking stuck, I don't know what's the truth, I don't know how valid "I don't like this" is.

A lot of people tell me to just ignore what my parents say but it's really not that simple. I only realized they can hurt me despite loving me and it's not my fault last year. And even then it's hard to stay firm on this belief. Because truthfully, I don't know what's right, I only know what feels wrong.

Fuck this. I want to fast forward until the day I figure shit out. I want to live here on Tumblr.

Fuck everything.

[sisterofficerlucychen]

Hello,

I love your take on the Rookie. I have been seeing a lot of posts everywhere from people wanting Tim and Lucy to break up to create angst and drama. I personally hate that route i have stopped watching shows I loved because they did that. To me that is lazy writing and cliche. What is your take do you think they will break up? There is ways to create angst and drama without characters breaking up. It has been done many times before: Castle, Bones, Blue Bloods, Brooklyn 99 just name a few.

that’s so sweet, thank you! ♡ 

i don’t think they’ll break up, i feel like there’s far too much at stake for them to do so. i just keep thinking back to lucy’s “if we do this and it doesn’t work, i’ll have ruined the most important relationship of my life” like those were such powerful words and them breaking up feels like lucy’s worst fear come true, and it makes me wonder how they’d get back the trust between them? i do have to put a quick disclaimer though because i’m such a sucker for some good angst that i would eat up any break up scene especially anything that parallels 5x02 because they broke up without even being together????? i was not emotionally okay for a while. anyway, i think back to when they were in relationship’s with ashley and chris, they both stayed in them because it was safe. they were keeping their feelings bottled in because it was safe. lucy saying it wasn’t worth the risk because from her point of view, the idea of losing tim was so much worse than the possibility of exploring things between them until he tells her that maybe it is worth the risk. she was resigned to things being how they were because at least that kept him in her life even at a distance and even as a friend. the thing with it not working out means that he’s no longer in her life, she’s lost her person. like that’s huge. 

it’s also hard for me to see them breaking up because of how well they communicate with one another and work things through. 5x02 aside when they entered their pining era, they have always been really good at resolving conflict whether it’s with one another or helping the other with whatever comes up. in 5x12 we saw them face their first obstacle as a couple and how they navigated it. when tamara asked if they were going to break up, lucy immediately dismissed it. she had no idea how they were going to resolve things but she knew that it was worth the risk. when they were talking about their two options, breaking up was not even a debatable option for either of them. even during their last shift on patrol, tim mentioned that there was the possibility that they’d see each other less and lucy was sad about it but it wasn’t enough of a reason for either of them to call it quits because this matters so much more than anything else. 

i love, love, angst and drama but them breaking up isn’t a way i’d personally see this happening. i think that they can go other routes without having to fall into this one. we also already saw this with wopez so i don’t know if they’d repeat it? i think that they can create angst and drama with them through other avenues. i’m all for conflict because one of them is in danger on the job. i’m a sucker for life and death panic moments but even then, i don’t know. i’ve personally really enjoyed season 5, in general and with chenford, so i’m really just kind of here for the ride right now. like overall i’m pretty content with what the writer’s are doing and the moments we’re getting so i’m choosing to give them the benefit of the doubt that they know exactly what path they’re putting chenford on and why. i don’t think they’ve given us a reason for us as an audience not to trust them like it was a slow burn but i think that so far it’s 100% paid off like i’m still in absolute shock and awe that chenford has been canon for only four episodes when it feels like so much longer than that and i’m so excited to see what’s coming next ♡ 

[alpaca-clouds]

Why AI sucks so much

(And why it doesn't have to.)

AI sucks right now. Because it was never to be used, like it is used right now. Because the way AI is currently employed, it does the one thing, that was always meant to be human.

Look. AI has a ton of technological problems. I wrote about it before. Whenever you have some "AI Writer" or "AI Art", there is no intelligence there. There is only a probability algorithm that does some math. It is like the auto-complete on your phone, just a bit more complex, because it has been fed with basically the entire internet's worth of words and pictures. So, when the AI writes a story, it just knows that there is a high likelyhood that if it has been asked to write a fantasy story it might feature swords, magic and dragons. And then puts out a collection of words that is basically every fantasy story ever thrown into a blender. Same when it "draws". Why does it struggle so much with teeth and fingers? Well, because it just goes by likelihood. If it has drawn a finger, it knows there is a high likelihood that next to the finger is going to be another finger. So it draws one. Simple as that. Because it does not know, what a finger is. Only what it looks like.

And of course it does not fact check.

But all of that is not really the main problem. Because the main culture actually just is the general work culture, the capitalist economy and how we modelled it.

See, once upon a time there was this economist named Kaynes. And while he was a capitalist, he did in fact have quite a few good ideas and understood some things very well - like the fact that people are actually working better, if their basic needs have been taken care for. And he was very certain that in the future (he lived a hundred years ago) a lot of work could be done by automation, with the people still being paid for what the machines were doing. Hence having the people work for like 15 hours a week, but getting paid for a fulltime job - or even more.

And here is the thing: We could have that. Right now. Because we did in fact automate a lot of jobs and really a ton of jobs we have right now are just endless busywork. Instead of actually being productive, it only exists to keep up the appearance of productivity.

We already know that reducing the workdays to four a week or the workload to 30 or even 25 hours a week does not really decrease productivity. Especially with office jobs. Because the fact is that many, many jobs are not that much work and rather just involve people sitting in an office working like two hours a day and spending the rest with coffee kitchen talk or surfing the internet.

And there are tons of boring jobs we can already automate. I mean, with what I am working right now - analyzing surveying data - most I do is just put some parameters into an algorith and let the algorith do the work. While also part time training another algorithm, that basically automatically reads contracts to make notes what data a certain contract involves. (And contrary to what you might believe: No, it is not complicated. Especially those text analysis tasks are actually super simple to construct, once you get the hang of it.)

Which also means, that half of my workday usually is spend of just sitting here and watching a bar fill up. Especially with the surveying data, because it is large, large image files that at times take six to ten hours to process. And hint: Often I will end up letting the computer run over night to finish the task.

But that brings me to the question: What am I even doing here? Most of the time it takes like two hours to put the data in, run a small sample size for checking it and then letting it run afterwards. I do not need to be here for that. Yet, I do have to sit down for my seven and a half hours a day to collect my paycheck. And... It is kinda silly, right?

And of course there is the fact that we technically do have the technology to automate more and more menial tasks. Which would make a lot of sense, especially with the very dangerous kinda tasks, like within mining operations. Like, sure, that is a lot more work to automate, given that we would need robots that are actually able to navigate over all sorts of terrain, but... You know, it would probably save countless lives.

Same goes for many, many other areas. We could in fact automate a lot. Not everything (for example fruit picking is surprisingly hard to automate, it turns out), but a lot. Like a real lot.

And instead... they decided to automate art. One of the things that is the most human, because art for the most part depends on emotions and experience. Art is individual for the most part. It is formed by experience and reflection of the experience. And instead of seeing that, they decided to... create a probability generator for words and pixels.

So, why?

Well, first and foremost, because they (= the owner class) do want to keep us working. And with that I mean those menial, exhausting, mind-numbing jobs that we are forced to have right now. And they want us to keep working, because the more free time we have, the more time we have to organize and, well, rise up against the system, upon realizing how we are exploited. Work itself is used as a tool of oppression. Which is why, no matter how many studies show that the 30 hour week or 4 day week is actually good, that UBI actually helps people and what not, the companies are so against it. It is also why in some countries, like the US, the companies are so against paid sick leave, something that is scientifically speaking bonkers, because it actually harms the productivity of the company. And yes, it is also why still in the midth of a pandemic, we act as if everything is normal, because they found out that in the early pandemic under lock down and less people working, people actually fucking organized.

And that... also kinda is, why they hate art. Because art is something that is a reflection upon a world - and it can be an inspiration for people, something that gives them hope and something worth working towards to. So, artists are kinda dangerous. Hence something has to be done to keep them from working. In this case: Devaluing their work.

And no, I do not even think that the people programming those original algorithms were thinking this. They were not like "Yes, we need to do this to uphold the capitalist systems", nor do most of the AI bros, who are hyping it right now. But there are some people in there, who see it just like that. Who know the dangers of actual art and what it can mean for the system that keeps them powerful.

So, yeah... We could have some great stuff with AI and automation... If used in other areas.

I mean, just imagine what AIs could do under communism...

[queenkoalas-corner-of-hell]

Well the Tobirama characterization poll for Useful (working title) is doing better than I thought, as far as like interacting goes. Ok, so while that does its thing lets talk “Tobirama's Dowry Issue”, I'm once again asking to pick the masses' collective brain to like fact check me and spot the issues I'm not seeing anymore.

Here’s the problem/solutions I'm settling on (well the multiple problems in one mathematical issue, I asked historical reddit but no dice)… it's lengthy, but maybe it'll help someone not writing Tobirama/Madara bc this stuff was a task to figure out.

Yuinou. Like a bride price + food and drink + engagement party but where the family taking whichever spouse is paying for the other family’s investment in the kid. Its almost like a retirement fund for the family whose kid left bc that kid won’t be there to help their elderly parents as much. From what I can tell, it was determined based on how much the that investment was. Now it seems like it's a salary's worth multiplied by the region's exception. (n x salary = yuinou). SO I need Madara's and Tobirama's wages. Easy peasy right? Right?

Ninja Salary. How much everyone makes in Naruto is actually impossible to figure out. Because of the many factors that go into how the economy works in Naruto, you also have the pseudo benefit to have it connected to real world currency. The whole 1 ryo -> 10 yen all well and good but if you know even a passing whiff of an idea of Japan's economic history you begin to see the issues (rant for another day). The only solid thing we have in prices is how pricey the reward for a completed mission is. (Which actually sucks as far as info goes because it implies either an ungodly inflation rate, taxation to the high heavens, and/or ninja are responsible for their own retirement pension.) If we use Itachi's numbers for missions completed that are weighted toward the middle-higher scale and his freakishly well documented amount of time he took to do said missions, dump his D into A we have about 3,300,00 ryo a year/275k a month for a well to do ninja. But what about the warring period?

Wages for our old timey boys. Our best real world example is samurai were paid a nebulous annual 200 koku by their daimyo. If we pretend that the ryo was worth a koku as intended, without the drama of Japan's banking, then he should only be making 16 ryo a month. OBVIOUSLY that's not going to be it in modern standards because the Senju and Uchiha are well off enough to feud. You can't feed and clothe an army on 160 yen a month unless inflation actually hit the Naruto world like a freight train. (Honestly, possible, those wars had to be doing something). So the Ryo had to have lost value before Kishimoto decided the 1 ryo = 10 yen thing or whatever Narutoverse's equivalent of a koku was is vastly different. But if we take the actual worth of a koku in modern terms we can guess the Naruto ryo's worth. To clarify 1 koku should be enough rice to feed a man a year, about 150 kg/330 lbs. If 1 kg of rice is 463 yen then 1 koku would be 69,450 yen aka 6,945 ryo. Make that 200 koku and you get 1,389,000 "ryo" a year, 115,750 a month. It may not be 3m. But! What we get from that is real world historical buying power... which I can use to do some typical writer BS. If a clan of 200 had an active 50 ninja, consumed 200 koku minimum then the income of the clan as a whole would be around 66,561,000 ryo a year from ninja alone. Not counting purchasing metals or cloth or livestock that can be refined by the non shinobi or already processed things and luxuries like spices and medicines. The civilians would make a generous 7k annually (some likely not making anything because they're children and some being too old to work) so all together they'd add 1,225,000 ryo which again would likely go towards food and clothing costs but it would lessen the burden on the shinobi being bread winners (even though they are), it'd keep a certain level of luxury to the main clan's living conditions.

All these factors considered it'd make 200k ryo a month for an heir, maybe 250k for a leader. (2-2.5 million yen (14,880-18,600 USD or 13,496-16,870 EUR as far as conversion goes today)) So now we got (n x 200k = yuinou), what about this region number? Well, I can can be completely arbitrary with this since the only examples I have are modern. 3 or 4 wouldn't be a strange number, so let's say the low end is 3 x 200k and the extreme high end would be 4 x 250k. Making a yuinou between these clans a whopping 600k ~ 1m "ryo", this number would work for most of us in the Warring Clan corner of Naruto. It's an obscene amount considering 72% of people following the tradition now is half or lower as much. It does work though when you consider how old money both clans are. Madara/Izuna marrying Hashirama or Tobirama. Hashirama/Tobirama marrying Madara or Izuna, heck, it's a good estimate for how much yuinou was paid for Mito.

But then... what is Tobirama's dowry? Yuinou isn't dowry, it's coming from the Uchiha... and there are manuals for appropriate items to take from your parents home to where you're marrying into (I just can't read or find them so second hand sources are my main). Amount though... Basically I'm going to fudge it after looking at the buying power of the clan and Tobirama himself. Then fudge it more to fit the story I'm concocting. Will anyone care? Probably not. But I spent the last two days down this rabbit hole simply because I needed to know what was within Tobirama's monetary means. The driving point of my yaoi slash fic is the man doing everything he can to be useful.

(Also if you found this doing a deep search for Naruto economics or Japan's traditional marriage practices, I am so sorry.)