#and just things id like to infer about her character as a whole

[astrowaffles]

toji to me is a very downtrodden character and thats the base of like aaalll my analysis of him. i think its a good idea to keep in mind that they're all living in a Secret Society with like negative morals and seemingly a core principle of might makes right. its not Just a lack of therapists, here, right, its an actively hostile environment. and then you have the zen'in upbringing which kicks that up a notch. i dont think toji is actually all that convinced of his power, bc he grew up being told he was worthless without cursed energy. he Never gets revenge on the zen'ins. why? his trauma response to this (get OUTTTTT) is different than maki's (spite them & eventually overcome them-- for approval ? hm.). shes intimidated by them sure but shes got that rebel spirit! girlboss. anyway back to the point bc i have one -> toji never escaped the zen'ins. he Wants to affirm that he's strong without cursed energy despite all the evidence that he actually is (and look how that final attempt went!). id like to propose a theory: he didnt think he could hide a child with The Zen'in Power Of All Time from the zen'ins. i dont think he could either tbh. ok actually are you caught up on the manga 🤨

Hello again! I really love this view of Toji's character, and it will surprise you to learn that I agree with you. I actually do. When I've been replying to your asks before, I've been talking from the perspective of his parenting decisions. But you're right, to take this any further we need to look at his actual personality/character.

Reasons to be sympathetic to Toji (a.k.a extend him the poor little meow meow factor):

abusive ex-family

no support

no therapy

dead wife

poor

gambling addiction

Toji was abused and was brought up in an environment where he literally meant nothing. He was useless. His reaction to this (get out, cut all ties, get stronger) is a response I'm actually proud of him for. So many people are probably still rolling around inside the Zen'in clan, having never got the balls to get out. Toji even chooses to change his name.

Being a cycle breaker is hard. For many people, it's impossible. For Toji - it was impossible. I extend sympathy and empathy to him here because it's DIFFICULT to let go of your upbringing and do it differently, do better. Toji can't bring him self to leave the jujutsu world. Nanami did it, and could have left forever if he so chose - but Toji can't. He's not a sorcerer but he can't let go of that being part of him, he can't stop his Zeni'in upbringing from shaping him. Neither can Maki, but Maki chooses to actively confront the clan and make physical changes to her life.

Toji just drowns in his spite - again, another thing we can hand him a poor little meow meow card for. He doesn't have the tools to heal or make better decisions. We feel bad for him. We sympathise. We want to still see him as a basically good person (and, to be honest, he probably is) who's just been scarred by the world.

So, to go back to what you said: you're right. He doesn't escape the Zeni'ns and I'm not convinced he wants to. He wants to show them he's better but he also can't bring himself to directly call attention to himself.

So let's bring this full circle and talk about what the original post was about: Toji's parenting. You said you still don't think he's a good parent. You're right, he isn't. He never will be. No Toji stan will ever be able to convince me that any of Toji's parenting choices were the right ones. But let's be sympathetic again, let's see how we can cut him some slack for those terrible decisions.

Does Toji even know how to be a parent?

We don't know a whole lot about Toji's parents. We know he hates them, if he ever truly knew them. We can infer he doesn't want to be like them. We're sure he never actively abuses Megumi, only passively, through abandonment. Perhaps he feels this is better than getting directly involved with a small child. He's described by the wiki as a cold person, specifically since his wife died and he 'reverted to his old self'. It's highly possible that Toji chose to abandon Megumi since he thought it was genuinely the best possible path. Toji can be cold, violent, and calculating, and he maybe felt he was in no position to be doing any parenting. We can sympathise with this!

(But he's still a bad father).

Did Toji sell Megumi to the Zen'ins so the kid could train to be a sorcerer?

It's definitely possible. I think this is what @honestlyyoungtyphoon was trying to tell me. Toji can't help a sorcerer kid, but he knows that Megumi needs training and he knows the Zen'ins would love to give it. And, yeah, maybe he's had this plan ever since he realised Megumi's technique, because he knew the Zen'ins would find out somehow.

Reasons this is still a bad parenting decision: the Zen'ins, while they treat their sorcerers well materially and are much kinder to them than they are to non-sorcerers, are still power hungry little bitches. Everyone knows this. While Toji would have no way to create a better plan, he knew himself it was bad. You ever wonder why Gojo went to see Megumi straight away? Because was Gojo was raised how the Zen'ins would treat Megumi. Gojo was living the life that Megumi would live in the future. And Gojo knew that it wasn't a life fit for anyone.

Toji knows that Gojos knows this. Toji knows Gojo could help Megumi. Toji passed the baton. And honestly, this is probably a reveal of part of Toji's true personality. He willingly sent a guy, his own personal enemy, to Megumi because he knew it was good for Megumi. Toji has a lot of pride and it must have taken a lot to ask that. THIS is probably what the aggressive Toji stans mean when they tell me Toji was a good parent.

So, overall: Toji is a damaged person who never received any kind of help and support from anyone except his (now dead) wife. There are many factors that help shape his decisions and parenting choices. Toji is probably a basically good person who is simply hurt by his circumstances, and even his truly awful decisions such as abandoning Megumi could have their roots in a belief that it was truly for the best. However: a good person does not make a good parent.

Toji was a shit dad and we love him <3

[kaladinslefttesticle]

ooh tell us why siri is your favourite!!

i think i mentioned this in some comments before but i just find her so wonderful idk! i will waffle a lot and also one of my wonderful mutuals is reading warbreaker rn so ill put a little read more just in case !

also this doesn’t mean i dislike other female characters !! i just find Siri personally really great. but tbh many of the girls speak to me in many different ways (looks at marasi) and it’s really hard to pick a favourite..

i find her really quite relatable with the whole doing what she wants and not wanting to fit in thing and not really being accepted by anyone in her life from like a growing up as an undiagnosed autistic + OCD girl perspective because i found myself in a similar situation with my own family at times

but i think the main reason i really like her is because she has no clue what’s going on. she’s essentially been sent on what everyone thinks is a death sentence by her father just because he likes vivenna more.. she’s in an unfamiliar place and is very much scared. she gets frustrated often which feels very human, because who wouldn’t in that situation? but she also acknowledges that she doesn’t know, she’s not vivenna and she isn’t trained for this situation but despite this she’s very determined to make the best of her situation and cope in her own way !!

she just sort of takes it in stride. she treats the servants nicely! she goes out of her way to at least try to inform herself of what’s going on, even if her naivety does get taken advantage of quite often. she’s absolutely shit scared of susebron at first, but even despite her fear she treats him with respect and kindness and teaches him everything she knows. when she probably had every right to be angry and bitter at him for her situation she understands he’s a victim too.. she could have yelled at everyone in that palace every damn day if she wanted to and i think that’s fair, but she doesn’t, she just tries to learn and understand.

and she’s not vivenna but that doesn’t mean she’s not smart! maybe vivenna wouldn’t have fallen for bluefingers’ plot, but she definitely wouldn’t have given susebron the time of day like Siri did in my opinion. Siri learns so much about the reality of her situation just by being nice to people like susebron, whereas vivenna I think would likely rely on what she’d been trained to know and trained to fear instead of being open to speak to others.. Siri infers so much as well based on gestures, body language, subtle sounds from around the bedroom… she is smart, just in an entirely different way to vivenna is.

i find operating despite fear much more admirable than operating fearlessly, and I think the fact that siri managed to stay true to own personality and tried to see the good in everyone despite her fear and frustration and probably grief too makes her all the more lovely :)))

i also enjoy her just getting to the palace and being offered pretty clothes and being like fuck it ok how bad can this be i get to play dress up every day because girl same.

tldr i think her ability to stay kind despite everything happening to her is really admirable and i think if she were real id love to be her friend!!!

[wrappedupinlight]

DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS CLASSES  ( bold what  applies  to  your  muse. repost  ;  do  NOT  reblog )

tagged by: i found it from a draft from a different blog, and i can’t remember who i grabbed it from?? sorry!

tagging: anyone who’d also like to do this as well!

(im gonna make this first one for chrissy, and hopefully get around to a couple of my other muses later!)

𝙱𝙰𝚁𝙱𝙰𝚁𝙸𝙰𝙽   »   toothy  grins, stories  around  the  campfire,  clothes  covered  in  pet  hair, hot  temper, old  jeans,  heartbeat  in  head, potatoes  and  steak, beaded  jewelry, bruises like  galaxies, mementos, backpack stuffed full, craigslist furniture, spontaneous road trips, air  ripped  from  lungs

𝙱𝙰𝚁𝙳   » homemade  bread, white  lies, easily  excited,  trying  on  hats, band  geek, pep  talks,  no impulse  control,  sunsets, vintage  fashion, long  showers, selfies,  following  dreams,  rosy  cheeks, song  mash-ups, pink  lemonade  with  tequila, loves  easily, animated  storyteller, full  of  comebacks

𝙲𝙻𝙴𝚁𝙸𝙲   » list  of  wishes,biting  their  tongue, band-aids  and  neosporin, shoulder  to  cry on, morning  sun, necklaces, trial  and  error, homemade  quilts, formal  clothing, astrology fan, messages  in  bottles,  pleated  braids, speaking  up  for  friends, feathers, motivational quotes, vivid  dreams

𝙳𝚁𝚄𝙸𝙳   »   bird  watching,  shy  kid, wind  chimes, trying  to  whistle, summer  camp, apple orchards, lost  in  their  head, glow-in-the-dark  stars  on  the  ceiling, hoodies, thrift shopping,  saving  worms  off  the  sidewalk,  pig  latin, bare  feet, thunderstorms, numb fingers, braided  hair, naming  potted  plants

𝙵𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃𝙴𝚁   »   goose  bumps, leather  jackets, adventure, chewing  nails,  cares  deeply but  can’t  show  it,  bronze  locks, no  sleep, taste  of  iron, netflix  binges, never  forgets, combat  boots, stories  behind  scars, table  for  one, official  soundtracks, sore  calves, trusts  themselves  the  most

𝙼𝙾𝙽𝙺   »  always  trying  to  be  better, wanderlust,  meditation, sweat  pants, old   photographs, yoga, sleeping  in  hammocks, nostalgia, minimalist  design, breath  of  fresh air, baby  animals,  volunteering, perfectionist, doesn’t  care  about  fashion, healthy  snacks, noticing  the  little  things

𝙿𝙰𝙻𝙰𝙳𝙸𝙽   »   school  uniforms, thick  jackets, sleeping  with  the  windows  open, logical advice, scrapbooking, compasses, i  fight  for  my  friends, sculpture  gardens, cold morning  air, big  soul, likes  routine, secret  romantic, last  to  get  jokes, sunflowers, practical  presents, misty  weather

𝚁𝙰𝙽𝙶𝙴𝚁   »   herbal  tea, smell  of  rain, blinking  away  tears, camping  trips, collecting  bones, swiss  army  knives, first  impressions, anxious  thoughts,  bobby  pins, burnt  marshmallows, too  competitive, clothes  lines, messenger  bags, holding  grudges, gets  along  better  with  animals  than  people

𝚁𝙾𝙶𝚄𝙴   »  flirtatious  sarcasm, candid  photos,  lost  phone  chargers, adrenaline  rush, picking  dirt  out  from  beneath  their  nails,  social  chameleon, clashing  clothes, self-deprecating  jokes, claw  machines,sits  in  chairs  wrong, smudged  eyeliner,  has  too many  sunglasses, eats  nothing  or everything

𝚂𝙾𝚁𝙲𝙴𝚁𝙴𝚁   »   infectious  laugh,  family  trees, shivers  down  their  spine,  lipstick  and  roses, mood  swings, clumsy, believing  in  destiny, high  expectations, sleeping  in  darkness, collection  of  nail  polish, passionate, good  grades  but  never  studies, poetry  books, blowing  kisses, not  knowing  their  own  strength

𝚆𝙰𝚁𝙻𝙾𝙲𝙺   »   knowing  everyone’s  secrets,  backpack  covered  in  pins,  envy, being  in walmart  late  at  night, earl  grey,  selective  memory, conspiracy  theories  and  cryptids, keysmashing, need  to  know  basis,  can’t  cook, bags  under  eyes, experimental  art, flickering  bulbs, black  clothing  all  year  long

𝚆𝙸𝚉𝙰𝚁𝙳   »   piles  of  textbooks, cat  in  lap, keeping  a  diary, indecisions, scented  candles, studying  alone  in  a  café, lingering  touches, museum  dates, unanswered  questions, taking  on  too  much  responsibility, collections,  chalk  dust,  comfy  robes, unnecessary apologies, coming  home  after  a  long  day

[kimsnnn]

Part 1

Disclaimer: This post is in favor of my ship, Elriel. No hate, just an opinion. This is what makes sense to me. If this isn't your cup of tea, and it came up on your feed, no worries just skip please. 

If you look at it this way:

If the series were to officially end at ACOWAR then that would mean that there would be no need to add any more books due to the majority of the plot being resolved. If there were slight questions or plot holes that were left open, we as readers can basically create our own conclusion based of where these characters and their stories were left off at. That’s the beauty of being a reader, being able to use our imagination to extend the stories based on canon information to infer or even speculate what happened to those beloved characters of ours.

If its easy to answer these questions, fill these plot holes and resolve any issues within that story, then there would be no need for any additional books, and lets say there were questions that were pressing but not complicated to answer, a simple extra book could be added to resolve that like ACOFAS. ACOFAS could’ve concluded everything. She could’ve also showed Feyre or whoever freeing Vassa and then created a whole spin off on Vassa and her adventures including the plot of her defeating her captor Koschei while also dealing with the queens and humans basically introducing us to a whole new world and continent with new fae/fae territories (like chaol introduced in his book from ToG). Her LI would most likely be Jurian because Lucien would have ended up with Elain which we know because she resolved that in ACOFAS.

BUT

That’s not at all what happened. Things were not answered/resolved during ACOFAS.

The author which in this case is SJM knew that whatever obvious inferences/speculation we the fandom would have is not the accurate ending she had for these characters. So she decided to introduce far more books into the series as standalones but, still part of the overarching plot to truly get the full scope of what she has in store for these characters. Why make additional books based on the obvious ?  She’s a writer, she knows the importance of creating mystery or writing plot twists that we either didn’t or decided not to realize or even accept. So ACOFAS and even ACOWAR wasn’t there to answer last minute questions, to show us that our favorite ships did end up together, no it was there to be used to set up future stories like SJM said and be as close as can be as opposite of obvious.

At the End of ACOWAR we have :

Nesta

-THAT Nessian moment 🥰  (& Nessian moments in general in ACOWAR)

We can infer based on where those characters were left off that :

-They would end up together eventually.  I mean come on, Cass’s line *chef’s kiss*.

BUT what people forget is that was also her breaking point (trauma) 

-We didn’t know how her trauma would affect her, her life and loved ones, & how she’d heal Or what were even her powers. These questions were built up throughout all of ACOWAR

So what did SJM do?

-She wrote the answers to those questions in ACOSF while also resolving questions about Nessian’s status especially since Nesta first had to start healing to let herself be loved.

The evidence ? The set up to gain support to find these answers ? Its in ACOFAS

-Nesta’s drinking, isolation, rage, fear, loneliness and self hate

-Nesta’s avoidance of her sisters, the IC and Cassian

-Cassian’s persistence, confusion. Feeling helpless.

Same thing can be seen for Elain

At the end of ACOWAR

Elain

-Civilness between E and L.  She seems more at peach and want to plan gardens/rebuild

We can infer

-Elain talked to Lucien so she forgave him or is on track to forgive him. From this we can assume the possibility of Elucien being endgame.

Elain also must be healed because she smiled and wants to help rebuild. So that all equals acceptance of her powers (on occasionally seeing things and that it, that’s her power), her new life and bond

BUT what we forget is the iconic Elriel moments (Hybern camp & truth teller connection), Elain’s world/future going up in flames, the consequences/trauma of having been gifted these powers

-We don’t know the full scope of her powers, why the cauldron adores her, how she feels, why were we given blooming moments between Elriel 

So again what will SJM probably do?

-Set Elriel to be endgame. Cause civility/friendship/forgiveness/CLOSURE between Elain and Lucien. Get In depth about her powers, her trauma and how it has affected the life she thought she would have. Have her come into her role in the NC and have self growth. 

The evidence? Its in ACOFAS & ACOSF

-Elain’s anger and desperation to have a choice, to have her own agency

-Elain’s avoidance, tolerance, discomfort of Lucien ( she wilts and regresses)

-Elain’s push to contribute more and firmly declare she’s a member of the NC

-Elriel’s tension & build up ( glances, smiles, blushing, gifts, humor, awareness, longing, protectiveness, attraction, actively trying to distract themselves, etc I could go on and on)

-Confirmation of Elain’s power still existing. Her whereabouts: where is Elain when the IC are facing obstacles?

-Her visions still to happen. The fourth dead trove needs to be found: it makes sense that it would be found by Elain (& Az) ( the crown: Braiylln, the harp & mask: Nesta, the fourth trove: Elain)

*If there are 3 cauldron made and Braiylln found one (& is now dead), Nesta found 2 but couldn't get a good read of the fourth, that means it'll be up to Elain & Azriel because they are basically the only two in the IC who closely work with shadows and even mist. Maybe Nuala and Cerridwen would also join in searching which id love.

Now let’s ignore the evidence.

From that moment at the end of ACOWAR again: 1) we see Elain who seems better and 2)we have Elain and Lucien who seem to be in a civil place 

So we assume she’s healed or on track, and her relationship with Lucien is looking up. So why would SJM write a whole standalone on the obvious?

If she’s healed and okay, if she and Lucien will be a sailing ship why be so secretive and unclear on Elain’s story, on who she ends up with?

Nessian was so clear, there was no REAL doubt that they would not end up together despite the obstacles between them, two of them being her rage and trauma. But Nessian would be and are endgame period. All the other “prospects” were just for angst, development and humor. Not real threats.

She wrote Nesta’s story because the worry and question wasn’t on Nessian’s validity, she established their validity and their romance when Nesta prepared to die with Cassian, when Cassian promised to find more time with her, when Nesta called for Cassian, when Nesta Wass worried for Cassian, when Nesta would constantly pay attention to him without realizing it (his wings) when Cassian ran after her during solstice, when Cassian bought her a gift etc. The worry and questions were ALWAYS on and about Nesta’s role, powers, and trauma because they were the influencing factor that affected everyone’s future, Nesta’s life/health and Nessian’s ability to finally able to come together.

If Elucien were endgame we as a fandom would know without a doubt that they are. There would be many more moments of ooh’s and hmmm’s and less mystery and confusion on their validity. There would be far more angst and these characters would have be seen more often together (seeking each other out, but Elain never does) or at least have them have more than one scene of mutual civilness where they dont talk awkwardly, and have a real conversation not one that seems forced, especially by Feyre. Even with the obstacles between them and their distance (because of the obvious elephant in the room) we should have scenes that showcases clear interest between them but we don’t. There is only one true scene where we have that and its at the end of ACOWAR, Im not blind i could see where people might interpret it as Elucien confirmation and who knows maybe I'm wrong and it is but, I read that differently. That to me was confirmation that a friendship between them is possible. Something completely platonic but just as sweet in a different way. That scene to me wasn’t charged it was not even a slow burn or even a spark it was healing and the foreshadowing of a possible friendship.

ALSO:

*Possible ToG spoiler below*

I don’t think it’s too far fetched to assume that Vassien is a thing. And in all honestly I also don’t think its too far fetched to have Lucien (& Vassa) have their own book like Chaol (& Yrene) did. Chaol was an important/original main character from the very beginning of the series who ended up doing grave mistakes. He found himself lost in life to later finding himself gaining a new purpose outlook & perspective when he left the continent to only meet his new LI Yrene freaking Towers who SERIOUSLY changed the whole game ( I freaking love her) and was extremely valuable to winning that war. This is so similar to Lucien’s story so far and Vassa (the firebird) who I expect to resemble Yrene in value and vitalness  BUT it is important to state that Lucien is nothing like Chaol and is far more SUPERIOR. So No this is not me saying Lucien is like Chaol. This is just me seeing the resemblance in their journeys so far, which might be due to SJM possibly reusing the same template on purpose.

Part 2

[sunnys-rewatch-blog]

S2, E18

"A Kiss Before Lying"

How are you telling me Caleb can blow up this garbage graphic to get a detailed photo of "Alison's" fake ID/driver's license? I don't even think they can do this in law enforcement.

"Why would Ali need an ID that didn't even look like her?"- looked like her enough for you to identify her in half a second.

"We just have to generate more heat"- girl, can you not grab his face while he's driving???

Ashley cares about nothing except how she looks.

This is a very cute Mayaly scene, but I think Emily is a little insensitive to how Pam's homophobia also affected Maya.

"Because, based on how you treated Hanna, everyone's gonna see how ugly you are without any help from me" ahh! Yes, this is precisely why Spencer was so many fans' favorite!

Why does Aria act like hanging out with Holden is weird? Aren't they childhood friends? They haven't seen each other for a while. If I were to meet up with a childhood friend I haven't seen in a few years I would be hyped to hang out with them.

I really don't understand why Maya was made out to be "in the wrong" for this stupid weed joke. Pam went through her personal belongings without permission to find anything she could to justify her homophobic rampage so she could split the two of them up, went behind her back to report it to her parents- people she didn't even fucking know- and got Maya sent off to some religion-based rehab for months. By the time she got back, she may have been behind in school, her family ended up moving again, she has to go to a different school, now, and the boy she hooked up with while she was away became her stalker. It's clear that this was a traumatic experience for her based on how she reacts when she's thinking her parents might send her off there, again. And now that I've been exposed to weed, I have no idea how Maya kept it a secret from her parents- especially if she was smoking in the house. That stuff has a potent, noticeable smell. Anyways, Pam owed Maya an apology just as much as she owed Emily one. Em got one, Maya didn't. Emily thinks that just because her relationship with her mom was repaired while Maya was away that Maya's relationship with her should be made a blank slate and that's not how this works. The correct response would have been for Pam to say something like "I was way out of line, and I'm sorry. I would like a chance to honestly get to know you," not for Emily to be mad. It would be forgivable for a teenager to think like this, except that the narrative validates it.

If Hanna makes a habit of going through people's photos without permission, she's going to see stuff she really doesn't want to. What if Spencer had an OnlyFans?

I hate Byron more every time his bitch ass is on-screen.

Hanna is the one who's out of line on this whole flashdrive thing. I'm sorry, but this situation involved everyone- not just her- and she had no right to try to make that decision without consulting them.

Garrett stopping Caleb like that is complete abuse of police authority.

"Darkbloom" is no one's fucking last name. They just call her that like it's totally normal.

And where the fuck is this place? Ali seemed pretty shocked that someone she knew would see her here, but why would Hanna go a super long distance to get her hair done? Why are they treating the wig like it's Alison's actual hair- or was the wig part of...whatever she was having done?

I had a pretty thorough analysis of Alison's personality way back when, I feel like this monologue about how she gets tired of being herself was definitely part of it. This was a concerning interaction. I am also super curious to know about this "Vivian Darkbloom" character- why was she made? Just as a separate identity to Alison? What was her personality? I guess I'm supposed to infer that Alison was using an alias to track down the person who was stalking her and her response to Hanna might have just been a lie, but this doesn't at all seem out of character for her. She spends a lot of time in the flashbacks lying about who she is, and then says something to the effect of "If you can't believe your own lies, what's the point?". It sounds an awful lot like Alison DiLaurentis didn't like herself very much.

Did none of the adults in her life notice she was doing this? To be fair, I have known some young kids to do similar things and kind of experiment with themselves, so maybe it isn't super weird.

I feel like there's a subplot in here about "Lolita" and a story full of underaged girls being in completely inappropriate relationships with older men- especially Alison. Not to harp on it too much, but "Lolita" was meant to be read as a crime novel, and some humans somewhere read this book and found a fire romance story. The glorification of child predation...they drop it in here so casually, are there a lot of teens in this day and age reading "Lolita?" Like enough that someone who's never read it would have memorized the cover? I don't even remember hearing that it was a book until I was eighteen, maybe seventeen, and I don't think any of my friends read it. I was familiar with the term from anime, but I thought it was a Japanese word. I guess I didn't ask a lot of questions about it. For the record, I have heard nothing positive about the impact of this book. I wonder if them dropping this book in here like this is their way of paying homage to a book that provided inspiration for this story.

[fahbee]

So Endgame Steve stayed in the main timeline existing with the Steve that was under the ice right? I get that the directors talked about the different timeline when, as they should’ve done, people were like “so atrocious things (re: Bucky and Hydra) happened and he did nothing” but still it’s at least for me a bit better because this way I can only presume he decided to step up and save whatever he could. If he stayed in the main one he knew everything that was gonna happen and just went 🤷🏻‍♂

I’m not trying to be harsh to you, anon, with this reply.  But I’ve already written out my thoughts about this exact issue in the weeks after Endgame was released and rather than re-write that stuff, I just went and copy-pasted from some old posts, so if my tone below sounds pissed, it’s because in the immediate aftermath of Endgame, I was extremely pissed.

re Steve actually creating a separate timeline in which he does heroic shit, rather than living in the background of the prime timeline doing nothing:

“Many of you have started to tell yourselves that your coping mechanism is the same as a solution…”

This is what mcu fans are doing right now, and it’s exasperating.  

Let’s take shipping out of it completely.  To see the this “coping mechanism” in action, all you need to do is ask anyone that liked the movie, in particular, that like the ending: How did Old Steve end up on that bench in 2023? And what did Steve spend those 70 years actually doing?  Watch them create entire headcanons (watch them actually ADMIT ‘well my headcanon is…’) out of whole cloth in order to “cope” with Steve’s poorly-thought-out, sloppy, out of character ending.

Just because you can “imagine” a scenario where Steve went to an alternate timeline and finished killing off Hydra and rescued Bucky, etc, doesn’t mean that the movie’s ending actually supports that interpretation.  The film clearly implies that Steve went to the past and lived out his life in the background of the primary timeline, changing nothing, and naturally aging-in to the year 2023 in the primary timeline.  This is why he appears on the bench in normal clothes without the chrono-gps wrist thing, rather than appearing on the quantum portal in the quantum suit at the time he was meant to return.  But wow, shockingly many fans find the idea of Steve sitting back for 70 years to be so out of character, that they firmly believe he MUST have created an alternate timeline instead, wherein he did heroic shit!  And that is a coping mechanism being treated like a solution to an ending where Steve Rogers acts out of character.

And just because you can “imagine” a scenario where Steve decides to be “selfish for once” and sit back and do nothing for seventy goddamn years while Peggy spends her life building SHIELD/Hydra and Bucky is being tortured, just so Steve can get his heteronormative happily ever after, doesn’t mean that Steve acted in-character.  Just because your coping mechanism allows you to accept (maybe even like!) that Steve “i can do this all day” and “when i see a situation pointed south, i can’t ignore it” Rogers, would now be totally fine with doing nothing all day and ignoring situations pointed south for decades, that does not make Steve’s ending in-character!  It is clearly NOT.  Your coping mechanism for accepting the ending as it was presented is not a solution to the ending being out of character.

If it’s garbage, then it’s garbage.  Don’t cover it in frosting and then sit there eating it.  Just because you had the frosting and used it to choke down the garbage, doesn’t mean it was right to be served garbage in the first place.

My support for why I believe the movie shows us that Steve lived out the rest of his life in the past doing nothing, rather than creating a new timeline:

Let’s talk about the time travel in Endgame.  Specifically how Old!Steve was able to appear on that bench, and what we can infer about how he spent those missing decades of his life.  In this essay I will identify the “rules” of time travel as they are presented (either explicitly stated or implied via the narrative) within the movie, and then apply those rules to the ending.  And then pass judgment.

1. When you travel to the past, you travel into the past of your own timeline to revisit events which occurred during your own history.

This is never stated out loud but it’s so obvious that it doesn’t have to be.  However, it’s an important rule to establish, especially as things begin to get complicated, below.  Everyone who goes back in time does so by using their own “prime” timeline.  You can’t go back in time and arrive in an alternate timeline featuring a history of events that didn’t occur in your “prime” history.  The chrono-gps wrist device allows you to specify a time and a place for you to appear in, that’s it.  It doesn’t allow you to pick and choose a “reality/alternate timeline” to land in.

2. Changing an event in “the past” will not change your “future” because “the past” has become your present and “the future” has become your past, and you can’t change your past by changing your present.

Banner’s explanation was just a complicated way of saying that YOUR life is linear and the events you’ve lived are fixed.  Even if those events include traveling to the past.  When you’re in your own past, you can’t do anything that would cause the events you’ve already experienced to change - FOR YOU.  That means you can’t go to the past and accidentally kill your own grandfather, thereby causing you to blink out of existence.  But what would happen if you went back to the past and DID change something?  Something big?  Something like allowing a god of mischief to abscond with an infinity stone?

3. Changing the past causes an alternate timeline.

So you can’t change things in the past that would retcon/undo/erase your own lived history.  But that doesn’t mean you can’t change the futures of everyone else around you, for whom the timeline is currently “the present” instead of “the past” as it is for you.  When Steve, Tony, and Scott travel to 2012, their actions cause two major changes for everyone living in that “present.”  Loki escapes with the tesseract, and Steve fools Sitwell/the Strike Team into thinking he is Hydra.  The elevator is first.  The moment Steve utters those words into Sitwell’s ear, a new alternate timeline is born.  Time keeps on advancing in this new timeline and it takes everyone with it - both those people who are experiencing this timeline for the first time, AND those people who are time traveling, because remember - for them “the past” is now their present.

This version of 2012 will continue and events may play out more or less the same as they did in the prime timeline, say if Thor quickly recaptures Loki and the tesseract, if Hydra never does anything with the “knowledge” that Captain America is one of them, and if 2012!Steve never acts on his “knowledge” that Bucky is alive (or if 2023!Steve wiped 2012!Steve’s memory with the scepter).  But any ONE of those things has the potential to cause massive ripples that could make that timeline’s future 2023 look much different from the prime one.  

After the Loki fuckup, Steve and Tony travel back even further to 1970 in order to steal both the tesseract and more Pym particles and then they return to 2023.  Scott takes the scepter directly to 2023 from 2012.  But wait a minute.  If they created an alternate timeline in 2012, how is Scott able to return to prime!2023, rather than just traveling further along the alternate timeline?  And for Steve and Tony in 1970, going to 2023 will require them to blow right past a branch in the timeline.  How are they able to control which 2023 they arrive in - the prime one, or the alternate one?

4. The quantum portal you depart from acts like a tether anchoring you to your prime!present, no matter how many alternate timelines you create in the past.

The time travelers are able to return to their present because their “home” destination is pre-programed into the trip.  It’s meant to be round-trip with a fixed return time and place.  This is why everyone arrives at the portal at the same time, mere seconds after departing.  It’s like being attached to a retractable line, and when it’s time to go home you allow the line to re-spool and pull you through space and time until you reach your original departure point.  We are not told this explicitly, but it must be true because we see Nebula from the alternate 2014 leave her timeline and arrive in the prime one.  Also, it is how alt-2014!Nebula can open the portal that allows alt-2014!Thanos to arrive in our prime timeline.  Additionally, the movie always shows someone returning to the prime present by them arriving at the quantum portal…

With one glaring exception.

5. How is it possible for Old!Steve to be sitting on that bench in prime!2023?

Here’s what we know based on that last scene:

- Old!Steve is Prime!Steve, aged up.  In other words, this Steve isn’t some alternate Steve (like the 2014!Gamora who is now running around in the prime timeline), he’s our Steve, just old.   - Old!Steve is not wearing the time travel suit nor the chrono-gps wrist device. - Banner says Prime!Steve “blew right past his timestamp” ie when the fixed return time arrived for Prime!Steve’s round trip, he did not appear.

Those facts either contradict the Endgame time travel rules or they contradict everything we know about Steve Rogers, period.  

There are only two ways that Old!Steve could be on that bench.  He either arrived in the prime present via the portal from an alternate timeline he created (and lived in for decades) when he goes to 1945 and reveals himself to Peggy.  OR he aged into the present by going back to 1945, revealing himself to Peggy, and then living his entire life in secret so as to not “change events” and create a branching timeline.  That’s it.  One or the other.  

The Russo brothers have said in post-Endgame interviews that Steve created an alternate timeline when he went back to 1945, and we don’t know what he did in that timeline, implying that he could have saved Bucky, rooted out Hydra, saved Tony and Maria Stark, prevented Ultron from ever existing, etc.  But if Prime!Steve created an alternate universe, there is no way he could be in prime!2023 without having landed there via the quantum portal he left from.  And if he HAD arrived via the portal, his arrival time and place were fixed.  He would have arrived at the portal 5 seconds after he left, but as Old!Steve.  If the directors intended for Old!Steve to live for decades in an alternate timeline, then they needed to show him arriving in prime!2023 via the portal.  If we take them at their word now, that means they fucked up majorly by putting Old!Steve on the bench rather than on the portal.

Or Steve could have aged-in to the prime present 2023.  The mere act of going back in time doesn’t appear to create an alternate timeline - it is only by changing something significantly enough that the consequences of that change ripple outwards into the future, that you create an alternate timeline.  For example, Hawkeye’s test run involves him going into the past, taking his kid’s baseball glove, and calling out his daughter’s name.  If you ascribe to the “butterfly effect” theory then any change, no matter how minor, would cause an alternate timeline.  But the Ancient One warns Bruce that taking the time stone to HIS present is what will cause HER present to branch off from the prime timeline, not just the mere fact that he’s there in “the past” talking to her.  The change in the past therefore must be significant in order to create an alternate timeline.  

In order for Old!Steve to be on the bench in prime!2023, prime!Steve would have had to go back to the 1940s and live anonymously for decades while making no significant changes that would cause events to play out differently than they did the first time around.  If he were to make changes then he would be creating an alternate timeline and have no way to get back to prime!2023 without using the quantum portal.  That means Steve went back to the 40s and convinced Peggy to keep his secret too.  Steve did nothing while Hydra grew inside Shield for decades, while Hydra tortured and used Bucky for decades, when Bucky murdered Howard and Maria Stark (and JFK!), while the non-time traveling Steve remained under ice until 2012, while the Battle of New York happened, and Ultron and Thanos, etc.  That’s a whole lot of “situations pointed south” that he would have to “sit back and do nothing” through.  

It would also mean that Old!Steve lived secretly in the background of Prime!Steve’s life from 2012 to 2023.  Old!Steve would have been Peggy’s unmentioned, unnamed husband all along.  Those kids in the picture frames by Peggy’s bedside in the nursing home would be Old!Steve’s children (ie the future children of 2012!Steve).  Furthermore, Steve’s children (and any of their descendants) would have also had to lead quiet lives in order to minimize the risk that they alter the future by changing things that they otherwise would not have been able to change, had they never been born.  Old!Steve would have had to tell his wife of 70-something years that he has to put her in a home so that 2012!Steve could visit her there (presumably after he got her consent during one of her lucid moments).  ALL that, just so Old!Steve could show up in prime!2023.

In conclusion, how did Old!Steve manage to appear on that bench?  He either lived his live in an alternate timeline doing god-knows-what and the Russos fucked up the reveal of his return (by accident, or on purpose in order to have the scene play out the way they preferred and damn the logic); OR he lived his life in the background of the prime timeline, sitting on his hands while allowing decades of preventable evil to happen.  

Personally?  After almost two years of time has passed since Endgame?  This is where I’m at - Steve went back in time, left the past version of himself in the ice, let Peggy create Hydra/SHIELD, let Bucky be tortured and then compelled to kill some pretty important people, let Ultron happen, let Thanos happen, etc.  That’s canon and I hate it.  Endgame turned Steve into a full-blown villain.  It is what it is.  My fan fiction happy-place is one where Endgame never happened, or at least, Steve’s ending never happened.  I can live with that because I have no other choice.  I’ve made enough peace with it to no longer be in a constant rage about it.  But I will never forgive or forget what the Russos and M&M did to Steve at the end of the line.  Never.

[lizacstuff]

SCK episode 46 asks!

Hi folks, below the read more you'll find a smattering of asks about this week's episode as well as a few spoilers for 47.

Good asks this week:

(under the cut)

Anonymous asked: this may be superficial of me, but why are they dressing Serkan in such ugly tops? they finally brought Eda's hair back but now this

BWAH! You're not wrong. You know what I'm wondering, if they've put him in some of those outfits because they are showing his suburban dad side? It's kind of a subtle nod to him embracing father hood and a different way of life? He's now all about running around the yard after his daughter and not about what he looks like when he's being SERKAN BOLAT, FAMOUS BUSINESS MAN and WORLD'S BEST ARCHITECT.

Also, Eda's hair, thank goodness they let that go once the flashbacks were over and we didn't need something to distinguish between then and now! Those curly bangs were not it.

Anonymous asked: They built up the Edser chemistry soooooo well throughout the episode... for that ending? Who decided to cut it there?! The scene was BEAUTIFUL I’m actually upset lol. are not we going to see any more? I’m not asking for a sex scene, I wanted to see THE moment they decided to get back together (the tattoo line doesn’t do it for me) - a few words, tears as they embrace, him walking through the door as she closes it, one passionate kiss, something! But it doesn’t feel like a cliffhanger that continues next week. I’ll be so underwhelmed when they cut to the morning after and we have to infer that they got back together overnight *sigh* if they were allowed 1 kiss only, id rather it have been here instead of ep 2

We do deserve to see how they reconcile, that should be one of the biggest moments of the season after 7 episodes of build up to it.

90% of final scenes in this show have continued uninterrupted the next week. To me there's no reason to think the next episode won't pick up right where this one left off. Crossing fingers!

Anonymous asked: It just hit me that Serkan is the “Kiraz” for Kemal - but Kemal actually missed his child’s whole 35 years 😬 this is an interesting turn of events. Also that line Serkan said about how fathers should love their child’s mother and how he didn’t have that with his own parents....but his real dad does love Aydan, more than she deserves haha.

Oh so true! Kemal really does love his mother more than she deserves! How he puts up with her, I don't know.

The parallel between Serkan/Kemal and Kiraz/Serkan is strong and I hope it gives Serkan some perspective when he starts grappling with this knowledge. I'm sure it's going to be very disconcerting for him, because while he expected to never see his father again, Alptekin is still his father. He's still the man who raised him and formed him into the man he is. Serkan still runs the company he founded and bears his name.

I don't expect any of that to change, but hopefully he can forge a separate relationship with Kemal that might fill some emotional holes that he has and bring him some peace.

None of that even contemplates how Kemal will feel, thankfully Aydan didn't willfully hide the truth from him. How awful to realize you lost 35 years.

We aren't there yet, but I wonder at what age with Kiraz learn the truth, that her dad is not an astronaut, that her parents went through hell with with cancer and plane crashes, and that her father didn't know of her existence until right before they met?

Just something to think about.

Anonymous asked: i'm so happy for hanker, don't get me wrong, and i'm also so happy we get "together" edser for so many episodes until the end, but i'm already tired of the constant "hanker improvising" comments i know i will be seeing. not that they don't improvise in some scenes, but i just know that every romantic edser scene is gonna be analyzed to hell bc ppl want to look for hanker in them. like there's no possible way that ayse, the writer ppl hate the most, could write any romantic scenes.. nope no way!

Yes, this is one of my pet peeves, I can't stand the "Edser left the chat" and all the "that's Hanker, not Edser" type conversation. it's so invasive and most of all disrespectful to not only the writers, but Hande and Kerem and all the work they pour into bringing Eda and Serkan to life.

One of the things in fandom that sets my teeth on edge is when folks take some interpretation of the character by the actor and then decide because it wasn't "scripted" (pro tip the vast majority of physical movements the actors make are "unscripted") that it must just be the actors themselves and have nothing to do with the characters. What an embarrassing and naïve assertion. Actors literal job is to take what's on the page and then translate that. So, no, OF COURSE, every look and touch is not scripted. The actors interpret how their characters would think and feel, and what they would do in given moments and then do those things.

Eda is not touching Serkan's arm just because Hande can't hold herself back from touching Kerem. Puh-lease, they are professionals. Grow up.

However, having said all that, I do think there was one scene that seemed to be very improvised this episode. The bean scene in the grocery store did feel like them just eFFing around. LOL.

andhewonherheart asked: @andhewonherheart: SCK promo department is best and worst all at the same time, cause giving away the last (cliffhanger) scene in fragman is just cruel. But based on the next week’s fragman thing happens that we we think happens *wink*

Hee! So true. The thing I'm grateful for is that in season 2 not one fragman has made me dread the episode, I think there was at least one fragman an episode from 29-37 that was hella upsetting.

As far as I'm concerned these fragmans are doing there job, making me want to watch.

I am really excited for Serkan planning how he's going to ask Eda to marry him, I wonder what Kiraz's reaction is going to be. So far she's been their very own cupid!

Anonymous asked: I didn't find it surprising that Serkan removed his tattoo as soon as Eda left. His logic is always out of sight out of mind though it doesn't work. He did the same when he broke up with her when he found out about the death of her parents. He removed all of her belongings. But their memories are too strong and enough for him to continue to remember her.

Truth! Will he ever learn that it's never going to work? He'll never be able to erase Eda, she has left an indelible mark on his soul. Let's hope he's never faced with that situation again! From here on out, he and Eda are together, a unit, and will live a long life together and in love.

Anyone have any guesses where Eda's tattoo is? Will we find out or will it remain between the characters.

Anonymous asked: I've seen some people say that Edser are getting married now way too fast and to that I just have to laugh lol. First there were complaints we don't have happy Edser and now when we do, of course there's something else. These two have had a rollercoaster of a year when they first met and a five year separation.. they've been through the dating phase, the engaged phase.. of course they'll head straight to the altar! It's not like Eda's plane proposal and that first wedding wasn't rushed either!

I'm on team head straight to the alter! No more waiting. They've had terrible luck, so they just need to tie the knot and make sure there are no easy outs.

As for people who think it's too fast, they don't even know the storyline yet, I swear there are folks who complain just because that's their personality and they're never satisfied.

Anonymous asked: From some of the spoilers of BTS pics, and the fragman we got, I was just reflecting on this season and Turk romcom dizis in general and I just wanted to say how LUCKY we are to see Edser married (again, from spoilers) and with a kid on screen for more than just 10 minute at the end of the finale. Like, it is really rare and as much as people have nitpicked on this season in general, I feel like watching these last episodes have been such a breeze after the last arc of S1.

Oh agreed, I think these episodes have been very enjoyable. The writers are giving me exactly what I want from this show. Comedy, UST, romance with a little light angst thrown in now and again. I would rewatch this season a dozen times before even thinking about watching anything from the 30s.

We are very lucky that we've got to see them as parents, and actually forming their family. We've gotten so much domestic goodness so far and we still have a ways to go. I'm very appreciative of this season and that Ayse came back, got rid of the constant ridiculous melodrama for melodrama's-sake and is telling a very human story about family and love persevering.

Anonymous asked: the last scene gave me chills for some reason. you could actually see eda fighting her head and her heart and deciding to take the step (metaphorically and physically!) towards him for good. i wanna SUE whoever decided to end it the ep there though.. it was actually cruel. also looking at the next frag.. it makes my heart soft that in the flashbacks we see serkan pushing off their wedding bc of his fears and now he can't propose and get married fast enough.. can't believe we're really getting it

I know, it's almost surreal at this point. Since we're near the end we know it's for real and won't be ruined by psychos or awful family members or terminal illness. I just hope that they give us an emotional scene when they get married, whether its just them or the whole cast is there as guests, after everything they've (we've) been through we need to see them both feeling that moment and reveling in it.

FYI - I'm out of town next weekend, so I may be slower than usual in replying to asks and in posting gifs of 47, but I'll get to it all eventually!

[pastamic]

So I’ve seen quite a few posts complaining about the way Entrapta was treated by the Princesses, particularly with a lot of vitriol towards Mermista. I know a lot of us who are neurodivergent are really excited about Entrapta as a character because she’s autistic coded and a lot of us can really relate to her. I think a lot of us are also, and rightfully so, very defensive of the way these types of characters are treated because they get treated honestly so badly by show creators and other characters in their series more often than not, and that’s totally reasonable. If you’re uncomfortable with the way she was treated in regards to what I’m about to talk about I’m in no way saying you can’t still be uncomfortable about this because this is just my opinion and the way I saw it as one touch-averse ND person. To preface this I have not received an autism diagnoses, but I have an ADHD diagnoses and have started to suspect that I might be autistic as well (though it’s hard to tell with the overlapping symptoms.) My fiance is autistic and also has ADHD and has agreed with me on several of these points. 

SO 

[id: Screenshot of Mermista pulling Entrapta’s hair while they approach Horde Prime’s spire in season 5. Caption reads “I’m sorry I’m bad at listening!” end id]

This scene, which a lot of people had an issue with. I had an issue with it at first too bc like pulling peoples hair is generally like not okay! Though the situation was very stressful and dire and Mermista was under a lot of stress. I think this episode was actually particularly important because it showed Entrapta’s issues with feelings and people (like not realizing they were all upset with her) and the stress and residual resentment from fighting on opposite sides and the issues that the other princesses had with understanding Entrapta with a resolution that got talked through. Something that in my personal experience is really important for everyone, but especially ND people and people with mental illnesses. Miscommunications and misunderstandings happen and they all talked it through and I thought it was very sweet. 

But, the hair pulling (and the weird leash thing that Perfuma made with vines but that’s a whole post on it’s own and I’m not gonna get into it) 

Now like I said I thought it was kinda shitty at first, but thanks to quarantine and depression I’ve re-watched spop probably fifteen times now and I’ve noticed a bit of a pattern. 

Most of us have already noticed that Entrapta uses her hair as hands for stuff 

[id: Screenshot of Entrapta leaning over in Hordak’s lab and shaping one of her pigtails into a hand. Caption reads “Failure is a vital part of scientific endeavor.” end id]

Like literal hands

[id: Screenshot of Entrapta standing in Darla’s doorway holding her tools with her hair and making a suggestive face. end id] 

It’s her superpower, and while the other princesses do use their powers as a bit of an extension of themselves, for Entrapta her hair is straight up another body part/limb for her. Tbh if I had hair like that I would use it for literally everything and never touch shit with my hands. 

I think I’ve seen people point this out to an extent before but I noticed that Entrapta never really reaches out to touch anybody with her actual hands with the exception of Hordak.

[id: Screenshot of Entrapta smiling  in the Fright Zone squishing Catra’s cheeks with her hair. Caption reads “Hi, Catra. I saved your life. You’re welcome.” end id]

When she convinces Hordak to send Catra to the Crimson Waste instead of to Beast Island she like grabs her cheeks with her hair, and again in season 5 she pats Catra on the head when she tells her she forgives her. 

[id: Screenshot of Entrapta and Hordak in Hordak’s lab. Entrapta is using her hair to hold out Hordak’s arms in a T-pose. Caption reads “And you’re really way too obsessed with this whole failure thing.” end id] 

And when she’s talking about Hordak’s disability and brainstorming about his suit. I actually chose both of the above screenshots because I thought at first that she only used her hair in place of her hands because her hands always had her tablet in them but both of her hands are free in these scenes, though one could argue that she needs to use her hair to reach Hordak’s hands, she could lift herself up with her hair if she really wanted to reach out with her hands. 

Actually there’s a point in Season 3, episode 4 where she straight up just scratches her hair with the Shera sword so I’m not even sure she has feeling in her hair??? 

[id: Screenshot of Entrapta in Hordak’s lab scratching her head with the Shera sword. Caption reads “I’m not sure if we just need the sword or if we need She-Ra, too.” end id] 

She’s scratching her head with a big fuck off sword so I think that we can infer two things from that: that she can’t really feel much through her hair, and that her hair is like durable as fuck. Considering she lifts herself up by her hair a ton I’d imagine it’s not attached to her scalp in quite the same sensitive way that like non-magic hair would be. 

So I think it makes sense, and might be a respect of her boundaries, to reach for her hair over her hand if they need to keep her from going somewhere. You could argue that grabbing someone in general is a disrespect of boundaries, and in a lot of cases it can be, but in the case of a battle or dangerous mission grabbing someone isn’t really out of the ordinary. We see it with the Best Friends Squad a lot, but also with Scorpia and like literally everyone she’s around. 

When Hordak saves Entrapta from the portal exploding we do see him grab her by the hand, but it’s continuously established that Entrapta exhibits way more intimacy with him than with pretty much anyone else. She allows touch from others and doesn’t seem bothered by it, but Hordak is the person she most consistently reaches out to in regards to touch. 

[id: Screenshot of Bow kissing Entrapta’s pigtail like it’s her hand. end id] 

When Bow first officially meets Entrapta he kisses her pigtail like it’s her hand, which by the way is just super adorable I love fanboy Bow, but it’s not just Bow. Catra and Scorpia also mainly interact with Entrapta through her hair.

Whenever someone needs to interact with Entrapta in a tactile way, it’s pretty much always through her hair. When Entrapta needs to interact with others in a tactile way, it’s pretty much always through her hair. Entrapta’s hair is like another set (sets?? She can split her hair up a lot) of hands. So I don’t think it’s as rough of a treatment as people are making it out to be. It’s not like pulling a non-magic person’s hair. Entrapta’s hair is magic and she uses it in place of her hands near constantly. It’s not like pulling someone else’s hair because Entrapta’s hair is her power, it’s an extension of herself in a way that other’s hair is not. 

It’s okay to feel uncomfortable with Mermista (or others) pulling Entrapta’s hair if that makes you uncomfortable, especially if you’re neurodivergent as many of us have experiences of people completely disregarding our bodily autonomy and infantilizing us in a way that’s frustrating and harmful, but (and I’m not gonna name names bc this isn’t meant to be a discourse post and I’ve seen it a lot) demonizing Mermista for pulling her hair in a high stress situation when she’s struggling with leadership already and Entrapta is seemingly ignoring her orders to do whatever for the sake of science. Though we find out that’s not the case, Mermista doesn’t know that at first and was intending to keep Entrapta from putting herself or the rest of the team in danger which is a foundation of leadership responsibility. 

Should she have tried to be more understanding of Entrapta and actually try to communicate frankly that she was mad instead of assuming that Entrapta would realize it on her own? Absolutely, especially as a leader. But she’s new to leadership and that’s like half of what that episode was about, and people make mistakes, especially with communication. That’s something that I think spop as a show handles really well. People make mistakes, people do things they regret, and people struggle with things like communicating and boundaries even when they have the best of intentions. What matters is that it’s talked out, apologized for, resolved, etc. I’m ND myself, and I’m friends with a lot of neurodivergent people and miscommunications happen A LOT even with like the base knowledge that we need to speak bluntly, clearly, and honestly in order to be understood. Sometimes even when you’re blunt and honest and open things still get miscommunicated. I definitely think the princesses infantilize Entrapta far too much, but I don’t think the hair pulling is as much of an issue as I’ve seen people make it out to be and I definitely don’t think Mermista is some Vile Bitch (tm) for doing what she did. 

(Also I took all these screenshots myself please appreciate that I spent like two hours combing through spop episodes to find them djsfjklds) 

[bukatra]

Guess the Game Of Thrones Character Description Game

Ok so. I have never seen Game of Thrones. Not one single clip. But I have, of course, existed in America, so I've picked up on quite a bit. So here are my impressions of the characters. I'm looking up their names and photos online.

First off:

Daenerys Targaryen

This one is easy. She's the dragon lady. come to stop an evil government by bringing back the dragons. She wins but becomes more evil than the other guy because the writers suck and hate her even though everyone liked her. She is in love with the snow man

Jon Snow

He's the main character. everyone loves him. he is soft and tragic. has a lot of love for the Dragon Queen. He probably cries a lot. seems like a whiner. But he's very cute. in the finale, she like has him killed or excommunicated or maybe says she hates his hair. either way, he is sad. everyone is sad. everyone loved him. they hate it when he cries. the writers are so mean to him.

Ned Stark

It's Boromir!!! No, he's just the dad of the three kids. He isn't around much, I think. I bet he dies. That's probably why the three do the things they do. Other than that, no one cares about him. Fans forget he exists. Ater all, he's nowhere near as cool as Boromir. 

Bran Stark. 

The baby Stark. Has powers. dunno what kind. He and Snow are supposed to be opposites I guess. looks very emo. He also must be like... 13. he's an emo preteen. whatever. I think he died. people were sad. they kinda liked the Emo Stark. they thought he was nifty.

Arya Stark. 

Ok someone took the horoscope sign Scorpio and condensed it into a tiny girl. she is fury. she is rage. shes gonna fuck up your whole day. She's probably super scary. but I think people like her. she is the angry half of the angst twins. you even think bad things about the House of Stark and her weapon of choice is already carving your brain into pieces.

Sansa Stark.

she seems like Susan from Lion Witch and the Wardrobe. sensible. Fierce. physical embodiment of the quote “I don't have a plan B. That infers that I only have 26 plans” Likely pulls the other 2′s asses out of fires regularly. Is basically a mom by age 9. has never heard of taking a break or having fun in her life.

Tyrion Lannister

Short man. very funny. evidently spends the whole show trying to tell a joke about a donkey. He is money man. basically goblin!kin. loves money. will sell anything or money. his mom, his wife, his own dick. someone else's dick. who knows. He's all about the money. probably dies because he decided to do the Right thing rather than the Rich thing ONE time and it all goes to shit after.

Brienne of Tarth

TALL LADY. Biggest Lady. mean and nasty too. very not nice Id think. Shes like either an evil queen or the head of an army. Everyone hates her. The actor though is I guess super sweet? Idk. Anyway, she and the Dragon Lady face off at the end and for no apparent reason at all, Dragon Lady becomes bad and Tall Lady becomes good. Ending sucks.

That's it. That's all the people whose names or faces I recognize from pop culture. How did I do?

[uberoll-oystercrackers]

assortment of thoughts i guess?

i fixate pretty heavily on the neuroses present(ly hinted at...) in the characters Lars and Sadie. their anxieties and insecurities are very interesting to me (mooostly bc they are very Relatable). i spend a fair amount of time considering where these social inhibitors started w/ them. of course ppl dont have to survive trauma to be mentally ill, or to have low self esteem... but on the other hand, isn’t surviving low self esteem and poor self image after years and years sort of an elongated microtrauma in itself..? hm idk, should educate myself on that. but we can at least confidently deduce that both charas have been dealing with it since they were quite young (Lars fighting with Ronaldo over how he would be presented in the flashback of Horror Club, Sadie explaining that every new thing she’s been interested in became a chore of a bad memory from her mother’s [well intentioned, but ultimately harmful] over enthusiasm. i at least can imagine that starting and stopping so many interests would leave her with some modicum of guilt, a sense of leaving things unfinished or letting ppl down by not living up to the potential being projected on her) in Sadie’s Song.

personally, my anxiety, depression, and all the other fun flavors i’ve got, were undoubtedly caused by trauma. at bare minimum, the bulk of my disorders were anyway. so while, as i’ve mentioned, perhaps nothing especially traumatic happened to these charas................... some bad shit still def could’ve went down. and uh i cant help but consider those avenues so.

as a fat person who was always a fat kid, when season 1 of SU was airing originally, i always shared a lot of the rejection feelings Sadie would have. if this happened to her on screen, i could reeeeally feel it. i was always worried that it was her size and shape that othered her amongst her peers in Beach City, as she’s polite and helpful enough to get along with most of the town otherwise. when she mentioned to Lars that she knows he doesn’t want to be seen in public with her, i read that as her internalizing not only her “uncool”ness but also her low position within social capital as a young fat woman. her intentional focus on Lars spending time with Jenny, when Lars was hanging out with the Cool Kids as a whole (”After all I do for you, you LIE to me? So you can sneak off with some other girl?!”) was particularly telling. Jenny is taller, thinner, and arguably “curvier” (altho admittedly it feels gross to talk about her like this???)... she’s also undeniably better at a particular way of socializing. The intersections of fatphobia and misogyny seem to be some of the biggest drivers for Sadie’s anxieties/insecurities wrt Lars. This also makes sense bc... remember how Lars talks about women and girls in season one? He was a little spicy, a little raunchy, a little grody about it. Def not a scumfuck or anything but, ya kno, dumb dude shit. Any pre-existing insecurities would def multiply or at least complicate when hearing that from the person who is arguably ur best friend and ur not-so-secret crush.

as an aside here whewwwwww im so glad Sadie and Jenny are becoming friends in current canon it melts my heart <3

so with Sadie at least i s’pose my inferences are relatively safe and simple. Lars is a lot harder to pin down.

im not gonna go too much into this at all bc i am le tired but trans Lars (whether Lars would ID as a woman, a man, or non-binary [they’re all great imo]) headcanons deeeefinitely strike a chord (im an nb person myself so lol).

but also like... did Lars always live in Beach City? His parents don’t have accents like the elders (Kofi and Nanefua) of the Pizza family (who Crewniverse have confirmed the Pizzas are a Ghanaian family), so is there an amount of trauma from moving as a very young kid (let’s say 5-ish)? His parents seem to have a great relationship, their house is warm and decorative, and from what we’ve seen of them they love their son immensely. I can’t particularly see his parents fighting with each other, and the way they approached him (when it was actually Steven...) over his poor grades was very patient and kind... it doesn’t seem like they’re abusing him to any extent.

Back on track here... Is there trauma surrounding his ethnicity living in Beach City, which we can argue is still the U.S.? He referred to the ube roll he made as a “weird purple cake”... but he grew up eating it. His ube roll wasn’t weird to him, but he was very worried about it being weird to a bunch of non-Filipino kids he wanted to impress. Where did this anxiety come from? Who ‘taught’ him his culture was weird? Whose racist ass do I need to beat is what I’m getting at.

edit: didnt mean to b so damn obtuse here, of course his parents dont have to have any type of linguistic/verbal indicators. i was trying to get at the fact that one less indicator is one less piece of evidence (usually), so i dont seem like im taking myself too srsly here lol.

i am sure i have more elaborate thoughts on these issues but my brain is flickering out on me so im just gonna let this be a post i guess!

[worlduniversityrp-blog]

Accepted Sweden App

Accepted! Please have a blog up within the next week, and send the URL to this blog so we can add you to the members page. @dolcexsnaps​

OOC

Name: Drey Pronouns: He / Him / His Contact URL: dolcexsnaps.tumblr.com

Character Wanted: Sweden Activity Level: 5-6 Time Zone: GMT + 8 / Philippine Standard Time Password: accepted Members Page Icon: http://red-panda-tea.tumblr.com/post/157333309833/can-you-draw-one-of-the-nordics-plz

Extra : None / Can’t think of anything at the moment.

IC

Full Name: Berwald Hendrick Johansson Age / Year: 23, 3rd Year Gender / Pronouns: He identifies as a bisexual male. He / His / Him

Appearance : One of the his most noticeable features, is his averagely-large sized body. You could say quite well-built, too. A broad chest, broad shoulders, slightly muscular arms and legs, and, of course, his calloused hands. Hair is somewhat of a light blond, and uneven on the tips, and is often shown lazily combed. His hair also parts to the right. Like the shade of the tropical marine seas, his eyes spots an unusual blue-ish green color, on most days. Quite ironic, due to his rather prominent nose, thin eyebrows, chapped lips, and very fair complexion, given the fact that his home country spots a northernmost location. In terms of clothing and fashion, one can infer that he dresses, like the modern Scandinavian man, in mind. Scarves, and / or turtlenecks, if the weather demands it. But on normal terms, you usually can find him clad in button-up shirts, often adorned with a minimalist design. His upper body also has some freckles scattered about.

Personality: Taciturn and stoic, but is actually quite playful on the inside. If one wants to summarize him into a single sentence, that would be it. A rather odd addition to that, Berwald is adamant person. He keeps his beliefs intact, and it’s quite hard to make him re-consider. Even if it means that he is wrong. Paired with his stubborn attitude, is the fact that he might come out as slightly nonchalant about the things around him. Though, he is not a lax individual, and will always try to persuade, and coax someone into perceiving his way of thinking. Setting aside, he can be quite the patient person. Berwald is genuinely nice, and will not hesitate to lend a helping hand. Concerning speech and language, he chooses to speak in truncated words, in a seldom manner, but aside from that, he is quite well-spoken, and his lexicon is rather large, due to his curious nature. But, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t cuss or curse, especially if the situation demands of it. He, especially, finds it pleasing in using both Swedish, and English, in his everyday life and conversation. He has select hobbies and interests, too. He likes The Arts, especially Woodworks and Wood-sculpting, and finds them quite interesting. Literature and Baking, both comes in as close second. To add to that, he also adores things related to, or pertaining to, international affairs, issues, and globalization, as a whole. He is openly drawn to the twists and turns of the outside world.

Skills :  - Musically-inclined : Berwald grew up with music. His mother was a musican, and he was taught how to play the violin at age 6, and later on, the piano at age 9. He likes surrounding himself with tranquil, and classic melodies. Noteworthy persons of interest are Tchaikovsky, and Mozart.

- Baking : This hobby is an essential in Sweden, a country known mostly for a wide range of baking traditions, most notably, fika. From an early age, he was already taught the basics of culinary delights, and is proud of himself, for the ability of making himself his own food.

- Bookworm / Avid Reader : He adores, and loves reading. He has this unique hobby of collecting books, not just for the heck of it, but it makes him feel intelligent, and vintage-like. Due to his penchant for this, he normally would know much, things ranging from useless trivia- to wise and sane advice.

Flaws : - Perfectionist : He tends to dabble much, over things that would normally be, considered a bit over-dramatic. Stuff like symmetry, general cleanliness, or his work-ethic.

- Adamant : Due to his rather, rambunctious upbringing, it can be quite difficult to change his mind. He’ll certainly protect it, whether he’s true or not. He’s not always like this, though. It depends on his mood, and the topic at hand.

- Mischievous : He can be quite sarcastic, and misleading at times. Other times, he’s a prankster, who tries his best to be secretive. This side of him, shows up more noticeably, whether he’s feeling vengeful, or something malicious happened, that may concern himself, and others.

Back Story: Berwald experienced the early years of his life, in the Kungsholmen district in Stockholm, and into a family that consists of his father, mother, and older sister. Growing up, he developed a mischievous attitude, and would often cause trouble, in some way or another. This leading to his family doubtingly classifying him as a ‘rambunctious’ child. It would also be a cause of surprise for other people, due to usual calm disposition, it would be hard to guess that he’d hide his frolicsome behavior underneath. Random skirmishes, often provoked by him and his older sibling, would ensue and cause tantrums every now and then, usually with the latter one having a higher probability of winning over the younger. But, it wasn’t really like that, all the time. He’d usually help his mother with baking, especially before 'fika’ time arrives, and got into loving the activity at heart as time progressed. Him and his older sister would, either read books together in a mini-library inside their home, or spend their afternoons, aimlessly walking around their garden, or the broader neighborhood if they felt like it. Picking the fat, black cherries that hang in a tree over another garden wall, on their way back. One by one, then comes his father. Whom he’d always admired, and watched from afar. Whilst working in a private workshop antiquely tucked inside their home. Working for a company that specializes in finance, he uses his spare time into woodworks, due to the fact that it seemed to please him, and ease his stress. Berwald was, then eventually allowed to work alongside by his father, and they’d spend all the available time they have, and made wood sculptures, petite ornaments, and small furniture. Then, they’d talk about everything that would cross their minds. Traveling elsewhere. New experiences. Life choices. Getting a top-notch education. Frequent subjects and topics of interest that arouse every afternoon. And, all that constituted his childhood, and pre-teen life. but not everything was made to bring joy to light.

By the time he was 15, his father and sister were both caught up in a fatal car accident, which left them both dead, and his remaining family, now reduced to shambles. His mother became afflicted with so much grief, and reduced herself, both in physical property, and in personality. She became reduced, and colder, and took over as the breadwinner, for the remainder of the Johansson family, which consisted of him and herself. That threw things off for Berwald. It seems like everything became lopsided for him, and he had to endure the tremendous amount of pain by himself, which somehow made him close off himself from others, in the process. Friendships grew weak, and life became bleak, and dull, even for his studies in high school. To which depression soon followed, leaving him in an austere manner of things, even after he graduated.

Luckily, for him, his mother had been assigned to relocate to New York, chosen to work there to further the global foothold of the company. In all of his life, leading to now, Berwald felt a spark of hope inside of him. He’d always wanted to go to the States, to further his rightful thinking of the world, and its processes. Knowing that it would help him realize both his, and his father’s dream. To be successful, and try to flip the coin, and revert things to the way it should be.

And he was going to make everything worthwhile. It could’ve- No. It will be great, he’ll make sure of it.

Headcanons:  Berwald likes to be minimalistic. Personality-wise, it’s his aesthetic, not just in clothing.

After everything that has happened, he still hopes, and clings to the thought that his mother would break her facade, and re-invigorate their frigid relationship.

His favorite / preferred coffee drink is a caffè latte, and even has his own recipe, which suits his tastes.

Classical, Rock, and Pop are some of his more well-received genres / styles when it comes to music.

Major(s): Majors in Cultural and Global Studies & Interior Design Minors: Minors in  English Literature, Language, and Writing Courses: Human Geography and Globalization ( C&GBS), Design History and Criticism ( ID )

Ships:

OTP(s): SuFin / DenSu / SuNor / SuIce / I don’t mind.

NOTP(s): None, really.

Writing sample : ( Based on an RP that I did )

Sitting down on a chair, he eloquently picked up a book, and began to read. It might seem a bit too much, but it’s his way of concealing all the emotion that was forming in inside of him. Even though he calls him all these nasty nicknames, petty accusations, and throws downright, frigid insults at him, he still loves his Luther. His most precious younger brother. It was just that, he’s not really that keen on showing it off on a regular, open, and more expressive basis. But, what made today an exception to this rule, was just like the times when he’d think, and ponder on and on, for answer that seems, oh-so fleeting. Was it because of him receiving his paycheck yesterday? Was it because he saw a group of brilliant musicians performing in the park? Was it.. Was it because he made a cake for his brother? This array of thoughts swirled, like swings and roundabouts, in his mind. It also began to hinder his progress with the book, which, sort of, irritated him. But he made no lasting comment about it.

Brushing it aside, and continuing to read, he spoke with a more soft tone, eyes flickering with an unknown glint, “Was? Nein. Don’t. That’s all for you. It was- It was just an extra baked good. For you. ” On top of this, he was greeted with an unfamiliar feeling. It wasn’t toilsome, though. He hid his face behind the pages, and smiled.

[petty-crush]

“Alien: Covenant”

-I fucking loved this film, utterly and wholly because Ridley Scott let his freak flag fly

-this film is mythological in stature; combining Greek gods, Mary Shelley, Old Testament, haunted houses, the cosmos; goddamn delightful

-as the first shot implies, the android David is our protagonist

-in fact this film starkly makes me realize that he is kinda the whole key to the “Prometheus” saga (which makes it separate from “Alien” saga) +everyone else plays second fiddle /he is an id for Ridley

-this might be Fassbender’s greatest performance yet; he is given great leeway and pedestals for the character and hits all of them on the bullseye

-I think the little opening mini movie is marvelous; deftly setting up the idea of mortality and creation

-nice to Guy Pierce play Weyland young, allowing him to put his distinctive gravitas stamp on the character

-the shot of David at the piano is a scrumptious shot that exists inside the film and by itself

-the scope of the space station with the yellow sail, immediately tips us off this will be a grand adventure, far away from the tight corridors of “Alien” and very much its own thing, in the 50’s sci fi mold +I love it

-didn’t expect a person to burn to death in their cryo sleep chamber. A sharp note to unsettle our nerves

-Fassbender plays a second, pretty much identical looking android named Walter, and his very small adjustments become pronounced the more we see him interact, creating a separate identity

-he is much more docile and very tender to the grieving Daniels (the wife of the burned man)

-Daniels is played by Katherine Waterson, who has a moppet look but fierce convictions

-I find her scene mourning his loss and their shattered co life together very moving and well done +interesting to note a woman getting over a man’s death when often in films it’s very much the opposite

-what is up with both films in “Prometheus” saga making the pilot the most amusing character, and a name actor playing them? Ideas Elba before, Danny McBride killing it here

-I laughed out loud when the Daniel’s ex is revealed to be James Franco; face timing while rock climbing without a safety rope is exactly what his reputation would infer he would do

-I find the use of McBride humming along to the transmission to the tune of John Denver very amusing +again echoing Elba playing Stephen Stills’ “love the one you’re with” (and I suppose the disco in Scott’s “The Martian”). 70’s music in the 22nd century. Interesting motif

-I like how the film establishes billy crudup’s character as a total chickenshit, unable to handle the responsibility of leading the crew +interesting detail where it talks about him being super religious, referring to his fellow colonists as “my flock”, leaving him thought to be unsuitable to delegate and survive under pressure

-crudup of course ignores waterson’s perfectly good advice and reservations, which makes me wonder if the morale of the Universe is “He should have listened to her; the story of the cosmos”

-it is very strange to see so such forest and green land in this series

-I particularly like the line “do you hear that? Nothing. Absolutely nothing”

-the chemical warfare of “Prometheus” is very pronounced as the black substance makes its way into the victims ears noses; again, this directly clashes with the Ripley saga but it’s doing its own thing here and and is pretty consistent

-nice little moment as Walter tries to comfort Daniels’ reservations by simply stating “it would make a lovely spot for a cabin” then walks away; contrast to Crudup’s character overselling how great he finds it, and continues to rattle off how over worried he found Daniels, this smothering her and make her apprehensive +brevity is the soul of wit is set up here

-good god, there is a ton of blood here, a smattering of it

-I find the scene where the first infected strobes out and spurts blood out his back to be effectively creepy

-I’m considering the creature in this film (“neomorph”) a in between. Not as well designed as the giger perfection, but a huge step up from the black sea liquor from “Prometheus”. It is startling and very well directed

-a masterful little shot as a dead colonist is shown partially in frame, his wedding ring clearly in shot, another man cupping his head, and whispering to his mouth “I love you”; succinctly setting up their same sex love and marriage

-the neomorph is definitely far more animalistic in this film. It’s given unhuman like movements, that suggest more primal instincts

-I cannot do justice to the goosebumps I felt as the party was lead by its stranger savior and we see the charred bodies and landscapes

-the stranger savior is at this point revealed to be David (with iggy pop type hair at first) who then hijacks back the film, rightfully so

-immensely hilarious moment as David shoulder knocks Walter, and adds “Hello there, brother”

-David is giving me Dr. Pretorius (“Bride of Frankenstein”)/Dr. Moreau (“Island of Dr. Moreau”) vibes +ie creators who bent the structure of biology and didn’t care who got destroyed in the way

-there is a long, long scene where Walter and David take turns playing the flute that is frankly worthy of an entire essay in itself

-firstly, it’s a big fuck you to anyone who was dismayed by the flute segment in “Prometheus” +there it was five seconds, here it’s like 10 minutes and two identical people are doing it at the same time

-secondly, they are playing the fucking theme to “Prometheus” on said flute +those is self-reference in the scale of Mel Brooks (and makes me think Ridley was grinning during the Sean bean-“lord of the rings” scene in “The Martian”

-the line to Watler from David “just blow, I will take care of the fingering”

-it is revealed that David unnerved people by being so human like in temperament that future versions like Walter were “streamlined”/neutered, so that Walter can play but not compose +there’s going to be a whole genetic modification bit coming up, but now I realize how eugenics/forced sterilization this sounds

-the contrasting glee in David’s voice and unease in Walter’s eyes as David relates how he was around their creator when he died, and David notes “he was stupid and weak, like all humans”

-the whole scene the camera is robotically swerving around clearly adding to the tension the audience feels in witnessing this unorthodox meeting

-needless to say, the film takes a monumental leap and variance in tone hereafter

-David mentions that Shaw (From “Prometheus”, last seeing going with David as a decapicated head) died, but she was “so kind to me” and David loved her -“much the same way Walter looks at you” (Daniels disagrees) “oh, does he call it ‘duty’? I know the difference”

-Ridley is really digging into the horror elements of the film as the neomorph comes up the wall and severs a woman’s head, leaving it floating in a full sink +the neomorph is eating her shoulder, shoring carnivore habits for the time in this universe

-one of the strangest moments (and there will be plenty coming up) where David and the tall albino neomorph are communicating via breathing

-the most emotion David has is when crudup kills it and David screams “how could you?!? He trusted me!”

-crudup has a equally odd non sequitur where he threatens David to “tell me what is going on, or I will destroy your perfectly calm composure”

-this film is bizarre and exploitive in the extreme

-for those that are keeping track, the importance hierarchy is as follows David neomorphs/xenomorphs humans +we are fucked

- my favorite sequence in the entire film as we see (via David’s memories?) that he dropped the entire payload of black goo/chemical weapons upon an unsuspecting engineer population (who look totally different from ones we saw in “Prometheus” in facial structures and eyes) and they die as the goo descends upon them like locusts. +it seriously looks straight out of Exodus as God wrecked his vengeance upon Pharioh

-so yes, that was the charred bodies we saw before

-we see the lair of David as it is littered with graphs, illustrations, designs of his work in the goo into the neomorph and beyond + his response, dripping with sarcasm: “idle hands are the devil’s anything”

-we are officially one step closer to classic “Alien” universe as the first facehugger is introduced (to kill crudup)

-Daniels is trying to reach Tennessee (Danny McBride) as still others are getting slaughtered, the neomorphs are clearly the hounds to David’s Satan

-line of the film as crudup wakes up to see David, asks him what his religion is, and he responds “Creation”

-a early beta of the xenomorph is here (still not quite Giger 100), as he splits from Crudup’s chest after the question, and he dances, mimicking the moments of David +David looks like a puppet master pulling the strings

-more facehugger madness as others go after the remaining human sheep

-much like “Prometheus” this multi million dollar film has a strikingly low opinion of humanity + at this point, two films in, the expendable nature of the vast majority of people therein is a feature, not a bug

-positively bizarre sequence as David tempts Walter to his side, kissing him(self) on the lips, before ripping out his neck battery, depowering him

-I neglected to mention just before that my second favorite line of the film, after Walter cited a line then asks who did it, David answers Byron but Walter correctly notes “No, Shelley. If one section of the orchestra is off, it changes the entire symphony doesn’t it?”

-David has officially gone too far

-David coos “no one knows what it is like to dream and be perfect like myself”

-remember early when I said the importance scales? Well, since Ridley seems to see David as a propionate of creation, therefore a creator it would perhaps follow as such Artists Art People

-possibly subliminal moment where David corners Daniels and she’s asks what really happened to Shaw, and David says “this” then forces a kiss upon Daniels +so did this robot, who was too human for other humans, teach the neomorph to rape?

-Walter is back (they made a few safety measures since David) and this we get to see someone hitting his own face repeatedly +it is fucking weird to see this brawling action in a Ridley Scott film

-Tennessee is here to save the day, but now the brute pronto xenomorph is here, and this murder is getting more grisly by the second

-David asks Walter to decide whether to reign in hell or serve in heaven as he reaches for a knife

-the sequence where Daniels is held by a straight line as she keeps falling over the side of the ship, swings and shoots at the proto xeno is jaw dropping

-is Tennessee the giant claw dropper of doom as he uses an arm to crush the proto xeno? Seems like it

-you better believe I was eagle eyes to see if it was Walter or David helping Daniels

-aboard the main ship there is a unidentified life form aboard, but where are the co pilots?

-in a scene straight out of the sleaziest slasher from the 80’s (like prime “Friday the 13th”) the co pilots are having shower sex (to some r&b music) when the xenomorph puts his phallic tail between their genitals +then impale tongue’s the guy’s head. Sexploitation!

-every close up on Fassbender’s face is a mini master class in suspense

-I fucking cannot believe they brought back the xenomorph point of view, the first time since “Alien 3”

-this second proto xeno is slobbering like the cerberus he is

-my heart is pounding like a jackhammer the entire time Daniels is staying barely ahead of the creature

-“care to lend a lady a hand?” might be the mantra of this depraved series

-the subtle continuity of the cabin comes up as her face screams in terror as she realizes David is here, and there are no cabins in hell

-one final twist of the screw as David coughs up some proto xeno eggs and looks upon the vast laboratory of human frogs to dissect

-this film took everything I loved about “Prometheus” and kicked it up ten notches, while adding many many more layers of cosmic craziness. Oh, and blood. + I am fully confident the “Prometheus” saga will gain a cult following and be seen as one man’s tremendous exploitation of his own creation(like David?) and a particular, articulate and demented journey into space hell.

-I myself feel the flames get higher and higher, and wonder if I will be making repeat journeys to this particular corner again. I feel it to be so.

[hawksmoor17]

Characters as facets of Sherlock’s subconscious mind within TFP: A TJLC Meta

I’m so convinced I’ve got it right and cracked the Da Vinci code with this one, guys. This is just the beginning. If this doesn’t convince you another episode is coming in which Sherlock and John confess their feelings for each other, I don’t know what will.

Following along the same thread of the EMP theory that TFP actually occurs deep within Sherlock’s subconscious mind, I’ve been thinking a lot about why characters are depicted in the way they are — that is to say, seemingly out of character.

If we view the events of this episode as existing within Sherlock’s Freudian Id / the deepest part of himself, though, characters can represent parts of his identity while simultaneously showing us what they mean to him / represent in his mind.

Important side note: I think after TAB, progressing through Season Four, Sherlock’s been going deeper and deeper into himself, moving down through Consciousness, to Preconsciousness, to the Unconscious. When he jumps off of the Reichenbach Falls he is surrendering to emotion, going deeper, not waking up. He’s still trying to solve The Final Problem.

Possible Character Interpretations:

If this theory is true the representation of characters in this episode is extremely important because it means they’ve been stripped back to what Sherlock unconsciously perceives as their most fundamental characteristics.

(in-depth character analysis under the cut)

John:

Doesn’t initially appear to have much of a role, but is a constant reassuring presence

This is reminiscent of the ideas that arise in the Balloon!John scene in TST / the fact that Sherlock often keeps talking because he just assumes John will always be there

“Soldiers?” - “Soldiers”

This links to John’s military experience / “nerves of steel” — something Sherlock is attracted to / admires deeply about John.

Stuck in the well

Probably the most important part of the episode. Sherlock’s ‘final problem’ to solve; the one he’s been trying to figure out this whole season. His love for John always puts him in mortal danger. As water = emotions this acts as a double entendre. John is in danger not only because of the dangerous people who want to hurt/manipulate Sherlock by getting to his pressure point (e.g., Moriarty, Magnussen ...) but because he is drowning. John’s own emotions are killing him, as we saw in TLD. He’s tearing himself apart and the only way for Sherlock to save him is to open up and be vulnerable first. TFP is Sherlock realising that to save John he has to confront his own demons.

Euros:

The manifestation of Sherlock’s primal self: his loneliness, emotions (sadness/anger/fear/borderline madness), repressed feelings and desires

Most importantly, Euros is the part of Sherlock which represents his capacity to love. (Ammo / Amo. Euros / Eros.)

Child/Flashback Euros has similar clothing to John

This indicates that child Euros is a possible mirror for John, but what I think is more likely is that she stands in for Sherlock’s feelings towards John. She wants Sherlock to play with him but he’s always too busy playing pirates with his friend. (I may be reaching here but this could reflect Sherlock’s “married to my work” attitude. This is in addition to the fact that Sherlock’s first case was the drowning of Carl Powers.)

Plane!Euros represents Sherlock where he is now, at this point in the series

He is still stuck on the plane in TAB (most likely transported to a hospital somewhere in a catatonic state) stuck deep within his Unconscious / mind palace, too clever to get out. His mind has “created the perfect metaphor.” He is lost and scared and alone, so smart that he feels like everyone around him is asleep and he will never feel connected to anyone. (Ouch.)

When he comforts Euros at the climax of the episode he is comforting himself, reintegrating his emotions back into his identity. He is admitting that he is scared of being alone and that he needs to feel connected to people and to love.

What’s key about the scene in which he hugs Euros and erases the hurt she caused (this episode follows dream logic), he also does it to save John. Sherlock needs to embrace his emotions and fears in order to save John. He has to be the one who says “I love you” first. As reflected in the Molly scene. I’ll get to that in a bit.

The violin duet with the Holmes family as an audience

Sherlock and Euros’ violin duet represents his reintegration of his emotions back into himself that first began at the hug scene. His family watches on, happy and proud that he has finally been able to embrace his whole self.

The sexual Moriarty mirror dance

This scene represents Sherlock at his lowest point. This is what Moriarty has always wanted, to “burn the heart” out of Sherlock. At this point in the episode we get a glimpse of how things would be if Sherlock surrendered himself to being a cold, unfeeling genius and he and Moriarty finally became the perfect match. Moriarty’s interest in Sherlock is both sexual and romantic, and his goal is to either destroy Sherlock’s love for John so in a sort of backwards way he is “choosing” Moriarty, or if that fails, Moriarty is going to remove John from the picture all together. Either way, Moriarty is trying to coerce Sherlock into ‘falling in love’ with him. He is an obsessive stalker. This is why all of the ‘villains’ in Sherlock act in a sexually predatory manner towards him - because they are all Moriarty mirrors.

Mycroft:

Throwing up / not wanting to kill anyone

Mycroft has killed many people before without batting an eye, but perhaps in the land of the Unconscious Sherlock has come to realise that Mycroft doesn’t hold the same power. Within this primal, emotion-driven domain the only ‘useful’ thing Mycroft is capable of doing is sacrificing himself to save Sherlock. This is also the only emotional weakness Mycroft has ever admitted to having. “Your loss would break my heart” - “What the hell am I supposed to say to that?”

The Great Clown Heist (TM)

Sherlock and John devise a plan to get Mycroft to confess to Sherlock about Eurus. This scene doesn’t make sense because Sherlock already knows about Eurus. Why go to all that trouble to get Mycroft to tell Sherlock himself? However, if we view Eurus as Sherlock’s emotions the scene equates to Sherlock and John staging an intervention in which they force Mycroft to admit that Sherlock is an emotional person through scaring him. At the end of the scene Mycroft asks how Sherlock knew that this was the only way he would confess, and John admits that it was his idea. 

I’m not sure what the exact metaphorical implications of this scene are, but it provides a basis for you to build deductions upon. It’s something to do with Mycroft admitting to Sherlock having emotions through his own fear. Although the fear is directed at Mycroft in the form of creepy clowns / horror movie references, Mycroft’s only real fear is losing Sherlock (the horror movie references are a stand-in). Perhaps Mycroft needs to realise that through Sherlock repressing his emotions he’s actually causing himself harm.

Side note: Considering that water = emotions and Mycroft’s umbrella is a metaphor for him never getting ‘rained on’ it makes it absolutely hilarious that in Sherlock’s mind, as they’re trying to get Mycroft to admit to Sherlock’s emotional side, Mycroft pulls out his umbrella, which is also a sword, which is also a gun.

BONUS: “Sup BRO”

Sherlock views himself as the typical ‘annoying little brother’ around Mycroft.

Molly:

Molly as a mirror for John

Since the beginning of Sherlock Molly has acted as a mirror for John. Both of them have feelings for Sherlock, try to cover this up by dating people who are then Sherlock mirrors, wear similar clothing, say similar lines etc. etc. This is why this scene is so important.

“I love you” to save ‘Molly’s’ life

Euros, Sherlock’s primal, emotional side, forces Sherlock to get Molly to admit that she loves him in order for her life to be spared. In order to do this Sherlock has to admit that he loves her first. He doesn’t want to say it because he doesn’t love her, and he doesn’t want to hurt her, but Euros forces his hand. This is the only way that Molly will say the words back to him and she will be saved. Then it is revealed to us that there never were any explosives rigged up to her house, that it was just a game of emotional manipulation.

This is followed up by a ridiculous scene in which Sherlock destroys Molly’s coffin with the words “I love you” engraved on it with his bare hands.

From this scene, viewing Molly as a John mirror, we can infer a few things. First, that Sherlock has to be the one that says “I love you” first in order for John to be able to say it back. Second, that if he doesn’t confess his feelings soon, John is going to kill himself. It is heavily implied throughout S4 that he will attempt suicide, unable to cope with the extreme guilt and emotional pain he is in.

Where this scene deviates and the mirror begins to break down is that, as Molly is the one Sherlock is saying “I love you” to, there’s no real danger, not real explosives. Molly isn’t feeling any grief or guilt. She still has unrequited feelings for Sherlock, but she’s not suicidal over them like John is. When Sherlock smashes her coffin then, it can be interpreted as both his anger at having to hurt Molly in such a way, as well as the fact that he doesn’t want his love to be the reason he dies.

“This is another one of your experiments” 

When Sherlock is trying to coax the words out of Molly she thinks he’s playing a trick on him. That he’s just manipulating her. That he doesn’t understand the pain that can result from toying with someone’s emotions in such a way. John feels the same way about Sherlock. He’s manipulated John’s emotions so many times as a result of his own feelings (e.g., love, fear: Reichenbach, the bomb scene in TEH, the anxiety he feels in THoB) that John, if he ever could before, now cannot trust Sherlock to not manipulate him into confessing his true feelings. Sherlock has to show John that he has a genuine heart before John can open himself up and be free from his emotional burdens. (Three Garridebs is happening.)

Tagging people who might be interested in these ramblings. Sorry if this isn’t your cup of tea or if you’ve already meta’d this:

@toxicsemicolon @drugsbust @graceebooks @kinklock @moriarty @thismythicalbeast @holmesguy @intune-ideas @timey-wimey-consulting-dragon 

TFP tl;dr: