#and it fucking annihilated me

[cry-ptidd]

‘Oh shit’

[knic28]

Me, teaching children: boy I love my job I love to be a teacher of children I am having so much fun

Me, getting sick like clockwork: the children..... they are evil...... they're full of devilry and parasites......

[bearsandswears]

Revisiting the conversation you can have with Gale about Halsin’s proposition. I think it should be worse.

[kookoofufu]

Oda is a good writer with good ideas. But sometimes he's a good writer with bad ideas, and I hate/love it because he'll introduce a concept like "sanji is a secret crime prince" which I think is objectively Lame As Hell but then he'll explore sanji's abusive childhood and feelings of worthlessness and have sanji list all the reasons he thinks he's terrible and unimportant and undeserving of love which luffy genuinely can't comprehend because sanji that's what makes you you and i love you and you're wonderful and i'm just sitting there tears in my eyes like

[all-the-fun-of-the-cirkus]

generally i save my politics posting for twitter, but i'm really hopeless and fairly drunk so fuck it; i hate that i can't celebrate the tories being bantered, but labour have adopted all their policies, happily supported genocide in palestine, don't give a fuck about poor people or climate change, are getting fucking j k rowling in to consult on their policies towards trans people, and i'm supposed to celebrate them winning a landslide? nah, fuck the lot of them. scumbags, every one, and they can rot in hell

[valtsv]

probably the funniest thing i ever did as a kid was try to convince anyone who'd listen to me infodump about my favorite media that my ocs were actual canon characters in the story and then if they expressed genuine interest in checking it out i'd panic and be like no you Can't and just never speak to them again

[four-pointed-leaf]

If you still taking requests... Siffrin and Dragon!Loop flying over (any place really. whatever isn't a nightmare to draw) to calm sif down from a panic attack?

this probably shouldn’t be as calming as it is.

[vigilskeep]

can’t play dragon age origins because i’m too busy vividly imagining the npcs i made up for dragon age origins

[hopeworth]

bringing back morrison's dmc5 letters again because this was such a juicy bit of characterisation

Met Lady around the same time. Dante always played fast and loose with his money, y'see. I'd see her toss a few bones his way sometimes, even a job or two (griping about it the whole time, of course). The way they carried on, you could tell they shared some kind of past. Nothing romantic or some nonsense like that. No, it's more like...they got what the other had been through. I tried the roundabout route to figure it out, but those two dodge questions the way they dodge bullets. The past isn't something they bring up lightly. One time, Lady let something slip about "cutting ties that bind." She was on a pretty heavy bender...mentioned something about them each having killed family. Dante, his brother...and Lady, her father.

[lilies-n-slander]

Hazbin Hotel would be so much more interesting if charlie’s naïveté and surface-level kindness were treated as the actual flaws they are and didn’t work. Heads up, this kinda just turned into a text wall of charlie neg and ranting so don’t read if you don’t want to see that.

How she currently is, she just doesn’t make that much sense in the setting. I’ve seen ppl say that charlie is a fresh take and contrasts the edginess, but I just don’t see how she is possible. You’re telling me she’s been in hell for 200 yrs but still has this childish and naive personality, is still disgusted by the sinners being cannibalistic, violent, and even just horny, and is so detached from those she calls “her people”? She was born in hell, shouldn’t that make her more used to the sinners’ depravity and not less? She doesn’t seem to have a good grasp on what the sinners want or how they behave. It would make more sense if the show leaned into the toxic positivity white savior nepo baby angle (or rather, actually portrayed it as a *bad* thing) and rather than naïveté, her ignorance was out of self-centeredness and/or lack of true empathy for the other sinners. She would be more interesting as a character too imo.

She looks down on the other sinners (and honestly so does the show?? When she’s showing lucifer around and introduces him to her friends, they’re framed as unappealing as a joke… these are the characters the audience is also supposed to care about.. and many of the bg chars, such as the cannibal town residents, are portrayed as simple-minded brutes), there’s a lot of condescending “….ooookay” type of lines and she constantly has to think of nice ways to frame the clearly negative things she thinks about others. So why does she want to save them so much? The more reasonable explanation is a sense of white savior-ness than actually caring about them.

She’s eager to excuse whatever sir pentious did (which I’m assuming she doesn’t know?) and let him in, despite how he makes the other residents (including her own gf!) uncomfortable. And yes I say excuse, because she never inquires about his past sins or discussed him repenting. It seems to start with sorry, but also end with sorry too. This could’ve been made interesting if she simultaneously looked down on but also excused all sorts of heinous acts. Like val is the most openly manipulative and scummy character, he licks her arm, and yet she’s still apologetic about ruining things (Side note, if she’s genuinely apologetic, then she’s actually an idiot because why is she talking to the boom-mic employee *while they’re filming???*).

She doesn’t know what she’s doing and has no concrete plan but gets incredulous at ppl who don’t blindly trust her. Angel has to leave in ep 4 and she gets SO frustrated over it, like you seriously expect everyone to drop all of their other commitments for you? She has her webster definition notecards for the meeting with heaven and has to improvise and rely on angel being good at the club but she gets mad that lucifer isn’t 100% behind her plan?

Also, trust falls? Really? Then she goes “why isn’t this working? We’ve tried everything!” But on that note, the actual episode portrayal is kinda exactly what I’m going for. Not only do the trust falls not work, charlie says, “I love all of you so much,” pulls her puppy eyes, and only vaggie catches her. It’s surface level and shallow, and does not win anyone else over.

In contrast, vaggie’s attempt at building trust, throwing everyone into a battle, *actually works* (despite vaggie only being in hell for 3 years and being heaven-born, she already knows how things work better than charlie!) and yet charlie talks about it as though it already failed. She says “we work best as a team,” with the underlying message being “I can’t trust you to do things on your own.”

If she was waiting so long to reconnect with lucifer, then why hasn’t she called him in years?? Altho I’m currently rotating lucifer in my brain so I might be a bit biased

“If angels can do whatever and stay in the sky” they can’t?? Your dad is RIGHT there. I. What

She has a power dynamic with every other character except lucifer since she has her demon powers, not to mention she’s giving them a place to stay. When vaggie says she appreciates that charlie doesn’t use her powers, charlie doesn’t say “it wouldn’t be right,” she says it would be too *mean.* But if someone pushes her buttons, who’s to say they wouldn’t slip out (see her flip on a dime after val hits angel. Obv it’s justified in this case, but it shows that she’s willing to use her powers on sinners)? Again, it would be interesting if the show actually leaned into this angle. Imagine if she put on a nice front, never swore, seemed genuinely touching and understanding, but the second someone annoys her she annihilates them and becomes threatening and violent. Then she turns around and is nice again. Too much like alastor? idk

Also, many characters refer to her by calling her lucifer’s daughter, so clearly ppl know that if they cross her they’ll face his wrath by proxy (this also fits in thematically with what lute tells her in the first episode, that she’s exempt from the exterminations bc nepotism privilege). So realistically, everyone else would be a bunch of sucking-up yes-men bc they’re afraid of her. Which they kind of are when push comes to shove?

At first, she doesn’t help at all during the war and lets everyone else fight for her. Doesn’t want to get her hands dirty ig, even though all of this was caused by her in the first place. She only starts fighting at vaggie’s urging.

Like husk points out, every meeting charlie has with the angels makes things worse for all the sinners. Despite lucifer’s warnings that the meeting with heaven won’t work, and against vaggie saying to calm down, charlie basically picks a fight with heaven at the risk of *everyone else EXCEPT HER.*

What were charlie and lilith doing to stop the exterminations before lilith took her 7 year leave? Hell, what was charlie doing during those 7 years? Why does she have 0 connections outside of vaggie, who she only met 3 yrs ago? Why does she have to introduce herself to rosie, rather than her already knowing her name?

Also in ep 7 she says to alastor “I can’t believe how you can do exactly what you told me you would do!” (standing by and watching everyone fail at redemption) almost like she wasn’t paying attention to him at all.

“Why would vaggie hide that she was an exterminator” -> Rosie asks “how did that make you feel?” “It made me mad and doubt if she loves me” like I get it, it was a betrayal, but IS she stupid

Ready For This is charlie manipulating a town of ppl to join the army. Her pitch includes “on the way to the hotel the scenery is nice and you can make friends :3” and “have you ever wanted to die for a cause? Notably I myself am spared from being killed but uh that’s your problem.” Alastor pipes in that you can eat the angels and that’s what actually moves the crowd, because he understands them.

Her perspective on violence and where she chooses to draw the line is really confusing. Why does she care about sinners being violent to each other if they’ll just respawn? She stops alastor from beating up sir pentious at an arbitrary point, but is fine with him eating and presumably killing the gangsters who come after mimzy. (Edit: forgot to point out yet another example, that she was fine with vaggie tossing sir pentious and angel off the balcony but stops her from tossing niffty as well for no reason.) Why is she so apologetic to the angels actively killing sinners but was distraught over vaggie having partaken? Why was she opposed to the CANNIBALS being eager to eat the angels and saying “idk, they seem kinda murder-y” WHAT. What? I’m struggling to even begin to describe how ignorant that is during a WAR. What did she think was going to happen, that she wouldn’t have to fight anyone herself? Why did she stop her dad from killing Adam but doesn’t react strongly to Niffty finishing the job? If it mattered so much to her, the lack of reaction seems strange to me.

Isn’t it just so poetic that her weapon in the war is a shield that she uses exclusively on herself, which she hardly even needs due to her contractual immunity?

Why doesn’t she think to use her powers to build and maintain the hotel? That doesn’t require any violence or domineering. Yet when lucifer comes over it’s run-down and falling apart. Or ask lucifer to help her build it? She was concerned that asking for the meeting with heaven was such a big ask—why not start with this small thing? Father-daughter bonding.

Why does the show end w lucifer + the sinners congratulating her, and in particular, rebuilding the hotel? Hell doesn’t know that sir pentious got redeemed, so from their pov charlie’s idea didn’t work at all.

Can you tell that I’m writing this while I’m rewatching the show?

Aaand that’s that. Her char has always come off to me as somewhat condescending/fake, but I keep finding more and more things to dislike about the way she’s been written. Unfortunate. Honestly tho I might enjoy watching her more if I read her through this lens. You could probably write a similar post for most/all other chars in the show, limited only by the amount of screentime they get lmao

[undead-knick-knack]

Chetney once again trying to get Ashton to indirectly say they love him

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

Cyanide narwhal thought of just. Ajax has spent so long plotting and planning meticulously for his blorbos. Getting to meet them. Does he ever get excited and forget that like… he’s a god? He’s not just some rando excited to meet someone to these people he’s the god of annihilation? Like the craziness of him reserving a plot for Waming is fun but like. I’m just imagining the stage fright and performance anxiety that Yunjin, or Gaming would feel because that’s a god in the audience. Or Barbara or Nilou counts too ig? Would Lyney and Lynette? There’s so many people goodness just. Childe can be such a menace accidentally forgetting he’s not just Some Guy.

i think at some point guizhong would point out the exact same thing and they would start the tradition of actually getting good disguises and going about the blorbo thing incognito. so while he's still a well-known menace as a god, nobody knows the extent to which he's a menace. and since he's so openly just around as a god, nobody's going to suspect he might be present when in disguise, since he seems to have no problem existing aroud without a disguise. if that makes any sense,,

[gorgynei]

we dont talk about the biologist's violence enough

[frnkiebby]

faces that will kill me~🎃

[the-ghost-bird]

Rant over Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer:

Note: I wrote this while drunk months ago and my drunk self accidentally saved this as a draft instead of posting it. Against my better judgement, here's how bad I was obsessing over Annihilation, with the correction of the horrenous whiskey induced spelling mistakes. Spoilers ahead (obviously)

I was thinking back to the book, trying to figure out what about it hit me like a damn train, even after years and multiple rereads.

And i think part of it is just.... idk, there's something about the calmness of the biologist when she realizes she's contaminated from the spore inhalation. There's something about how she accepts it and the changes after it that just speaks to me. It's not a morbid acceptance, it doesn't come across as just her choosing to accept it for the saking of keeping her emotions in control. This acceptance of hers is less morbid and more like a... relief.

She just accepts it, and as she and nature merges, there's this feeling that Area X is not as dangerous to her as it is to everyone else because she's meant to be there. She is this reminder that nature and human are not separate, and we see it from the way she's always been so deeply connected to nature, more than anything else society could provide to her.

Her career choice isn't just an interest to her but an excuse to be connected to nature as much as she can, like a person who chooses to become a surgeon not because they want to help people but because it gives them an excuse to cut them open. I mean for fuck sakes, she kept getting removed from any research projects she would work on because she would just hyperfixate on the environment surrounding her and get lost instead of doing her actual job.

The biologist has always belonged to Area X. She's always felt like an entity that transcended humanity and connected to the lifecycles around her. That's why the husband highlights in his journal that he would've understood her better when he volunteered for the 11th expedition.

So when she inhales those spores, and remains calm, and accepts her changes all so easily, it gives the impression that now that feeling of hers, that feeling that she's meant to be in the remote, in the wild- all of that isn't a feeling anymore, it's physical, it's real, it's irreversible and you can't ignore it or brush it off or undermine it.

She transcends and becomes Area X, and it's what she always wanted, what she was always meant to become, what she's always been.

[saintvainglorious]

alicent's whole life has revolved around keeping her children alive, even and especially at the cost of their own happiness. everything she's ever done, everything she's ever sacrificed - her body, her freedom, her dignity - has been to that end. so her decision in the finale is a pretty stunning reversal.

if you're gonna make alicent suddenly overcome the sunk cost fallacy and decide that she's willing to sacrifice the kids she destroyed her life for to attain personal freedom at long last - an idea that I do actually find quite compelling!!! no one else on this show deserves to be monstrously selfish more than alicent!!! - you have GOT to build up to that shit more. getting fired from the small council cannot POSSIBLY be the thing that convinces alicent "i'm done w this shit i'm gonna sacrifice my sons and escape my ongoing self-destruction". one frolic in the woods CANNOT convince me she's ready to abandon it all. alicent's woodland adventures were not nearly cool enough to be the straw that breaks the camel's back.

this is not a character arc y'all. this is a "hey wouldn't it be cool if alicent and rhaenerya thematically switched places" coming up in the writer's room and then the writers tossing it in the last two episodes rather than working towards that endpoint throughout the entire season. It's not just a stretch, it's a slap in the face.