#and red string theory my way into madness

[mumms-the-word]

Shadow Curse Events Pt. 1

Ketheric, Selûne, Shar, and Aylin

I’ve played through the game a few times at this point and I always find myself struggling to understand the timeline or at least order of events that occurred with the Shadow Curse. I know some things conflict because there was one version of the story in Early Access (the version where Halsin accidentally killed Isobel) and it was heavily altered for the final version of the game, and some things just got *gestures vaguely* waved away, but I keep wanting to make sense of it anyway.

So that’s what this post (edit: I mean series) is going to do. After the cut, obviously. Long deep dive post ahead! Picture of a tired Ketheric for attention and because same bro c':

TLDR: These events happen either in the 1370s or the 1390s. Ketheric loses Melodia (his wife) and Isobel (his daughter) and turns to Shar. He captures Aylin, then builds a Big Dark Justiciar Army, training them and forcing them to kill Aylin over and over. Meanwhile, a Selûnite resistance is brewing in the town, and it's kind of making everything worse. One Selûnite rebel even goes so far as to make a deal with a devil. And all of that is BEFORE the Harpers and druids arrive as an army.

We don’t have dates, unfortunately, aside from knowing that the shadow curse itself was unleashed about a century ago, so “timeline” would be a loose term to use if/when I use it. But I have two theories about when it happened.

One theory is that because the Spellplague was happening between 1385-1395 DR (during which there was neither a true Weave nor a Shadow Weave, which is what the shadow curse is made of), the shadow curse likely started around 1396-1399, just shy of a full 100 years before the game’s events in 1492. But that’s just me conjecturing based on the idea that if the Shadow Weave is gone…how does the shadow curse stick around? 

The other theory is that the shadow curse was unleashed sometime between 1371 and 1374. This is because a) Dark Justiciars were still being sent by Ketheric Thorm to destroy Moonhaven (the Blighted Village) in 1371 (Ketheric writes a letter about attacking Moonhave and a journal dated 1371 boasts that Ilyn Toth, the basement apothecary-necromancer dude, got killed by Dark Justiciars) and b) because Khelben Arunsun himself, the literal Blackstaff (super powerful and very old wizard), wrote a letter negotiating surrender on behalf of the Harpers.

We cannot be party to the suffering of the people of Reithwin, and indeed, of the great loss of life that this war will visit upon the Sword Coast - and, perhaps, beyond it. So it is written, and so let it be done, Khelben Arunsun, on behalf of the High Harper Council and its allies.

Wiki says Khelben broke his alliance with the Harpers in 1370 due to some disagreements, but it’s possible his splinter faction was at the battlefield with the other Harpers. I doubt he was there personally, but who knows. I wouldn’t go any earlier than 1371, though, because Baldur’s Gate II happens in 1369, and Jaheira would have been too busy dealing with those events to deal with Ketheric too. But it can’t be later than 1374,  because Khelben Arunsun dies in 1374.

(I have questions about how the shadow curse survived the Spellplague and the loss of the Shadow Weave, but the answer to that could simply be All Magic Was Weird and Unstable at the time…plus Thaniel was already in the Shadowfell by this time, so the land couldn't heal.)

So it’s either 1371-1374 (because of the Khelben timeline, and I guess the Spellplague didn’t affect it) or it’s 1396-1399 (because of the Spellplague, but the writers just forgot Khelben was dead by that point, or maybe his ghost wrote the surrender notice idk). Both are good enough for Halsin and Jaheira to talk about things happening “a century ago,” but you can see why I’m avoiding dates.

But let’s push it back a few more decades. Back when Ketheric was a Selûnite and Isobel a very small child.

As we’re probably all well aware, during this time, Ketheric worships Selûne along with his wife, Melodia. At some point, he even commissions the local Mason’s Guild to build Moonrise as a testament to Selûne herself, according to Morfred the mason (who you can talk to in House of Hope, it’s pretty cool). Ketheric and Melodia have Isobel, but then Melodia dies while Isobel is still pretty young. Ketheric remains a Selûnite, mostly for Isobel’s sake, until she dies too.

Ketheric: I’ll tell you a story, True Soul. About a man who sold himself piece by piece. He had…everything. A wonderful wife. A brilliant daughter. They lived not far from here. His wife died too young. Grief tore through their home like a thief, snatching away the scent of her hair, the rustle of her skirts. But the man did not break. He could not break. His daughter needed him whole, after all. She grew up—grew strong. Challenged him. Filled his heart with such joy it supplanted all sorrow. When she was killed, the man…he tried to remain whole, but it wasn’t possible. Do you understand? Player: So the man fell to pieces. Ketheric: The pain was unbearable. All-consuming. He decided he’d do anything for reprieve. First, he sold himself to the goddess of loss. But the pain did not subside, no matter his obscene feats of devotion. Then a new god came—a god who promised the man something wonderful: his daughter. Her life returned. Imagine it. He would have to give everything: his body and soul entire. He did not hesitate. Not for a moment.

We know this story. Ketheric turns to Shar and everything goes Very, Very Badly. But the exact details/order of Ketheric's Sharran days are a little hazy. So here's what I've been able to piece together to sate my own curiosity.

While Ketheric is still a faithful (but waning) Selûnite, Dame Aylin visits as an emissary of Selûne. Moonrise/Reithwin is a Selûnite refuge and the Thorms are allegedly devout favorites of the moon goddess, so it's a big deal. While she's there, she and Isobel fall in love. Ketheric disapproves, in part because Aylin is immortal and Isobel is not (Isobel and Aylin both say this in dialogue).

Plus, and this is a personal opinion, I think Ketheric might have seen Aylin's interest in Isobel as another thing Selûne was trying to take from him. It isn't enough that Selûne let Melodia die, now her daughter is trying to woo his daughter and take her too.

But then Isobel dies. Somehow. The launch version of the game isn’t clear how. Aylin mourns but Ketheric spirals. He turns to Shar, hoping she will force him to forget about Isobel, but he doesn't. Nevertheless, he becomes a zealous Sharran.

[A journal spanning years, beginning with the birth of a child and ending with what appears to be a series of dateless tragedies.] How can she be gone? Where did she go? The Moonmaiden cannot be so unfeeling - so cruel. Not toward her most devoted servant. Not after Melodia. It makes no sense. It makes no sense. I won't survive it. That much I know. Forgetting is the only possibility. The embrace of oblivion. The reprieve of nothingness. It would not be possible for a man to survive knowing what he knows. Knowing what can be lost. Shar understands that. Hers is the only mercy I can comprehend. My mind is full of holes - yet not enough. The emptiness. The time. The nothingness. And still I remember. Still I remember it all. There is no mercy in this beating heart. There is no mercy in life at all.

He builds the Gauntlet of Shar (or maybe renovates and Shar-ifies it, maybe it was already there) beneath the Thorm mausoleum, connecting it to the much more ancient Grymforge area. Grymforge becomes a kind of base or stronghold for the Justiciar army while the Gauntlet is designed to test their mettle and prepare them for the task that will make them official Dark Justiciars—killing Aylin, though it's not clear when Ketheric and Balthazar lure her into the Shadowfell.

I'll get back to that later.

We know that Grymforge was used as a Dark Justiciar stronghold and possible training ground because of all the Sharran stuff we find there. It's like super obvious. The feasthall room, the dormitories, the weapons that lay everywhere. There's basically a whole Sharran city in the Underdark beneath and near Reithwin, some of which we can see from various points in Grymforge. In fact, if you go through the poisoned room where Nere is, you can see the Gauntlet down below.

(It's a little hard to see here 'cause I play on console but there's a glimpse of the giant Shar statue that takes up a ton of space in the Gauntlet. Somehow, the two places used to connect.)

Ketheric's new Sharran teachings are ruthless and vicious. He encourages his Dark Justiciars to kill a Selûnite once a tenday or more as part of their training and service to the Lady of Loss.

The Law of Nightfall: From the moon falls the foulest of lights. iIt peeks through cracks and fissures, illuminating the most remote recesses of the Underdark. Light bestows hope, a pernicious notion which must be extinguished. At the darkest hour, pray to your Lady and feast in Her honour. The second day after, slay a disciple of Selûne. If none may be found, a Lathanderian or Mystran are an acceptable offering. Do this once a tenday, and the Lady of Loss shall know you.

Reithwin and the surrounding village soon become a hunting ground. Most people convert. Those who don't get hung in the square as examples (according to a shadow memory). All faithful Selûnites are forced to practice their devotion to the Moonmaiden in secret, led by Morfred the mason and his brother Halfred the innkeeper of Last Light Inn. Halfred hides Selûnite relics beneath Last Light (you can still find them) while Morfred plots a true resistance.

[Hidden amidst columns detailing the income and expenditure of a tavern is an aside, written in tiny, urgent handwriting.] I have concealed the sacred relics of our revered goddess in the darkest corner of this place. Morfred, my loyal brother, seeks to forge a network of allies to stand against the oppressive reign of Ketheric Thorm. Sadly, fear has gripped the hearts of many, turning them away from our cause. I cannot truly blame them, for trepidation fills my soul as well - but I must put aside my own fears and reunite with Morfred in the bowels of the Mason's Guild. Together, we shall preserve what we can of the Moonmaiden's light, and hope that the banners of the faithful soon rise against that treacherous dog, Thorm.

But as time goes on, Morfred grows increasingly distressed with the events happening in Reithwin and the ease with which people are eager to switch faiths.

- How quickly things change. The Thorms are Selûnite through and through - or so I believed. Perhaps Ketheric only converted for Melodia, and with her death - and then his daughter's - his faith died too. But to turn to Shar? It beggars belief. - Ketheric's Justiciars are growing greater in number, and more determined to rout out any traces of Selûne in Reithwin. Why do they think this town was built? One cannot rip out the foundations of a building and expect it to remain standing. - Brother and I remain the last two bastions of Our Lady of Silver in the town. A few - the trusting few - come to worship in secret by moonlit nights. Others - converts, all. Whether they truly believe, I cannot say. Impossible, isn't it?

(Don't worry, the second page is further down lol spoilers!)

Life is not going well in Reithwin, even if you're not a Selûnite. Ketheric is determined to destroy all traces of Selûne and treason of any kind. His Dark Justiciars begin tormenting citizens to reveal pockets of Selûnite resistance. He also suffers no treasonous word against him, even if the citizens in question aren't Selûnite. We see a glimpse of this and of the Justiciars' cruel influence during the questline with He Who Was and Madeline, who ratted out her friends' innocent(?) complaints about Ketheric to some Justiciars, resulting in their brutal deaths.

Eventually Morfred realizes that the Dark Justiciars are too powerful to resist and turns to Raphael, offering his soul in exchange for something to destroy the Dark Justiciar army.

- Sick of standing idle while Justiciars gain power in our humble town. What will become of us if we allow it? I met a man who was no man. Touched by a devil. Or maybe worse. But he offered me something I couldn't refuse - help. - The time is now. Ketheric's Justiciars, their stronghold in the temple below - they will be wiped out. All of them. I didn't ask how. I just want them gone. Let the Harpers have at Ketheric now. They'll make short work of him.

You can ask Morfred about this in the House of Hope, actually, where he confirms the details. I mean, he's in Raphael's house, so it's pretty obvious the he did, in fact, make a deal with him.

Infernal Mason: When tragedy came, my master fell into darkness and despair. He marshalled a great army to ruin the world and bring all into shadow. I could not let it happen. I sought out the devil Raphael and signed an infernal pact with him. He promised to destroy my master’s army, and I promised him my soul in return. The devil was true to his word. Fiends slaughtered my master’s forces, but he endured somehow, and blighted the land.

The Fiend in question here is Yurgir, who ends up crashing through Grymforge and the Gauntlet to kill all Dark Justiciars in his path. (He misses one, because Raphael is a sneaky bastard who let one get away by turning him into a swarm of rats, but I digress.) We know Yurgir caused the destruction in Grymforge, too, because of the Merregon masks and hellbeasts we find around the area, and the fact that if you pass all the checks with the Duergar mason examining the stone, he helps you piece together this narrative:

Stonemason Kith: An ancient city, hewn from the stone by the disciples of Shar, later abandoned. Untold centuries later, a new tribe revives it. Fresh walls, fresh sculptures...until a great hellbeast charges through, toppling the walls and crushing the people! Heh - that explains the infernal plate I found. Perhaps you might have use of it.

Further proof that Grymforge and the Gauntlet were once connected...somehow.

Anyway, by the time Yurgir is called in, Morfred's already been found out. Thisobald overhears him drunkenly complaining about Ketheric in the Waning Moon and informs Ketheric of his treachery. Ketheric orders a raid on the mason's guild, leaving Halfred the lone source of Selûnite resistance. It's unknown what becomes of Halfred, but considering the fact that the inn was still taking guests (like Art Cullagh) and housing the Harpers right before the shadow curse descended (there's a shadow memory of a Harper toasting his comrades in Last Light right before the battle with Ketheric long ago), it's likely he's a victim of the curse and not Justiciar brutality.

I’m not sure which is worse, honestly.

It's unclear when Morfred dies, though he admits to witnessing the first part of the shadow curse (i.e., "...but he endured somehow, and blighted the land"). But Morfred's deal coincides in some ways with the arrival of the Harpers and druids. I think he probably makes the deal with Raphael before the Harpers officially march against Ketheric and then gets caught after he hears rumors of the Harpers.

Raphael makes good on his deal around the same the Harpers arrive, perhaps a little afterward. This means Yurgir's slaughter of Justiciars in the Underdark must happen concurrently with the battle happening topside between Ketheric's army and the Harpers/druids, meaning Ketheric is losing his army on two fronts at the same time. Victory seems assured for the Harpers and druids, but of course we know now that Ketheric had a way of cheating death already in place.

He had already imprisoned the Nightsong in a Shadowfell soul cage.

Again, we’re not sure exactly when this happens, but it’s after Isobel dies and before the shadow curse, which unleashes with Ketheric’s supposed death in the battle against the Harpers and druids. However, Aylin herself says that Ketheric and Balthazar lured her into the Shadowfell under the pretense of saving an innocent.

Dame Aylin: He and his loathsome advisor Balthazar lured me into the Shadowfell, claimed they'd found someone in need of my aid. There they trapped me in their infernal cage. I was killed, murdered, made dead, over and over and over by Justiciars of every make and kind. I was reborn, for it is my nature. And Ketheric fed upon my immortality all the while.

This makes me think that Aylin wasn’t aware of Ketheric’s conversion yet, so it must have been very soon after, because otherwise, why would she trust a known Sharran telling her to enter the Shadowfell, the realm that is entirely under Shar’s control? I also suspect Ketheric built (or renovated) the Gauntlet around Aylin after her capture, perhaps at the behest of Shar due to their collaboration in making up new Justiciar teachings, or perhaps out of a sick, vengeful desire to see Aylin tormented for daring to love his daughter.

If this is true, then there’s a very real chance that Ketheric was unkillable before he truly started to torment Reithwin town, and well before the Harpers stepped in to take him down.

Anyway we at least know that Ketheric trapped Aylin in the Shadowfell before the big battle against the Harpers because a) both Isobel and Aylin talk about her being there for a century and b) because Ketheric is already using her invulnerability to survive assassination attempts on his life prior to or during the actual battle against him and his army:

23 Elient The Harpers came too close - they poisoned Father Ketheric himself, yet he professes no ill effects. Malus insists it a fluke. Doctor he may be, but he is no less a fool for it: Father has achieved that of which I can only dream: immortality. I have long suspected. I can guess Father's purpose, but I cannot fathom the means.

This brings us to the eve of the battle itself. But this post is already hella long, so keep an eye out for part 2, all about the Harper and druid battle against Ketheric!

[blazinginsquids]

Arcane and Macbeth, and what this means for Caitlyn, Ambessa, Jinx, and Isha Theory

Somebody on Reddit mentioned that this image from the season 2 intro of Caitlyn looked like a Macbeth poster. Obviously I wasn’t the first to notice this, but I did decide to make this post explaining what this means.

Caitlyn being in the position of Macbeth immediately tells us something- She’s in a position of power. One she feels guilty for being in- The guilt eating her alive. After killing King Duncan, Macbeth begins frantically washing his hands in water, and comes to a sudden realization that becoming king comes with the cost of guilt for the unjust way he obtained his power-

“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hand? No, this hand will rather the multitudinous seas incarnadine, making the green one red” (Act 2 Scene 2) the literal meaning of this quote is that no amount of water can wash the blood off his hands and that his attempts to clean himself would turn the entire ocean red. Taking this metaphorically, he’s saying he’ll never be free of his guilt and anything he does to try and save himself would just poison the world around him.

I see people wondering if Caitlyn will have her own “pitfighter Vi” moment. I think the Macbeth symbolism is proof she will. Following the parallels, Caitlyn will act in ways to try to rid herself of the guilt she feels for hurting Zaun, and for hurting Vi. Whatever she does in an attempt to rid herself of guilt will backfire and hurt the people closest to her, and Piltover as a whole.

Based on LoL lore and the fact Caitvi are canonically together by then, I have a hard time believing Caitlyn won’t get an onscreen redemption arc, meaning her similarities to Macbeth end there. However I think this could still give us insight into how Ambessa, Jinx and Isha will fair the rest of the season.

I’ve already seen people compare Ambessa to Lady Macbeth, given that she’s the pulling the strings, the one who convinces Macbeth to kill King Duncan and take the throne. Lady Macbeth goes mad of grief throughout the play. Act 5 Scene 1 shows her sleepwalking and revealing the truth as she speaks. This could possibly indicate that Ambessa herself isn’t as unfazed as she first appears to be, and will reveal the truth through an unintentional admission of guilt. I personally don’t see Ambessa doing this, but I thought I’d mention it regardless since I’ve seen others draw parallels.

Now, something I haven’t seen mentioned at all is that there’s one key thing stopping Macbeth’s future lineage from becoming king: A vision that Banquo’s children will become the future kings of Scotland. After obtaining power, it becomes Macbeth’s mission to eliminate Banquo and his son- A parallel I think best suits Jinx and Isha. Jinx has become the defacto leader of Zaun and represents every bit of grief Caitlyn feels. By killing her- She solves “the problem”. But if Jinx became leader in place of Silco, her father figure, who takes Jinx’s role? Logically, a child who looks up to her. enter Isha, the stand in for Banquo’s son.

In the play itself, Banquo is killed, but his son survives. Do I think this means Caitlyn will succeed in killing Jinx, but not Isha? I can’t say. I feel as if these parallels exist solely to set up the way Caitlyn feels/reacts in Act 2 as opposed to a step by step instruction on how the plot will move forward (Hence why I’m hesitant to claim Ambessa revealing the truth as akin to Lady Macbeth seems like a stable idea- It does not). I do however think there is intentionality behind adding in Macbeth symbolism, and I fully believe that some parts of the play will parallel with the plot of season 2.

[azaharinflames]

"And, actually, let me say it wasn't even Ryan and Oliver. 95% of them are obsessed with Ryan and wanted to see him kiss a man." Not the anon you were replying to, but I totally agree with you! I've been thinking for a while now that if we had had eddietommy, they wouldn't have become so mad and vicious about it... and they just would accept it... unfortunately, they don't care enough about buck...

I wonder about eddietommy, too, Nonnie. My personal take is that it wouldn't have hit as hard as Bucktommy, mostly because 1. Lou and Ryan have great chemistry, but the furthest I've seen from romantic 2. Ryan isn't the strongest actor when it comes to drama or small moments. Lou and Oliver excel at those and at microexpressions. I genuinely don't think Ryan could've done the scenes as brilliantly as we got them with Lou and Oliver (but this just might be my personal take). 3. Part of why BT is so special is how perfectly unplanned they are, and their red string theory. Ofc it's not all, but it's something that makes the couple super special. EddieantTommy wouldn't have that.

Would they have been a bad couple?... Potentially. They just don't go together romantically, not as far asI can imagine.

But would Buddies have been more accepting? Honestly... I don't think it's too crazy to say that - most likely, yes. At the very least, I don't think they would've been as upset.

95% of bobs (and that's being generous) barely like buck, or oliver. had eddie been the one with a queer storyline... they would've been way more pleased.

[cillyscribbles]

i promised cats metaposting 2 bagpipe boogaloo and i am a bitch of my word here we go

cats 1998: the rum tum tugger + these hands are rated G for grizabella

(theory wank under cut call that catracter development)

(theory wank about munkustrap & grizabella here for those uninitiated)

RIGHT SO unfortunately this one is no longer semi-coherent overanalysis of microexpression but a full descent into conspiratorial madness, so please remain aware of the fact that this is a tangent missing textual support at the best of times. it's entirely possible and even likely that rum tum tugger is genuinely just a bitch to grizabella because that's who he is as a person and doesn't like what she smells like or something idfk. anyway.

welcome to my red string board of why rum tum tugger actually doesn't dislike her for no reason and totally has depth and yeah we're poor little meow meowing a white boy with more hubris than eyeliner, classic essay genre on tumblr, at least he's a catboy this time and the hubris-eyeliner ratio is actually a close call.

anyway, for any of my theorizing to make sense, here are the two headcanons it's all based on:

grizabella is an (ex-)wife of old deuteronomy and the mother of rum tum tugger (and munkustrap if you're so inclined)

grizabella left the jellicle cats at some point when rum tum tugger was a kitten or otherwise a very young cat

and honestly the rest just flows from the mommy issues to be honest. there's a load of alternate explanations and theories and headcanons and mine's by no means the right one necessarily, but i do have to admit the family angst it allows for is balls to the walls insane because it just. it fits what we see on screen so well!

look at this clown i love him. he ONLY does the puff-up at grizabella. and even though that supports my theorizing it's also honestly a bit of a loss i think. it's such an evocative cat-thing. i want him to do that when something jumpscares him lmao. i NEED him to do that at old deuteronomy jokingly and get cuffed on the back of the head by munkustrap for being a professional youngest child. anyway

don't get me wrong, the fact that tugger has a grudge against grizabella isn't anything special, most older cats do; hell, some of them deliberately walk past her Judgementally (bombalurina, notably) or shake their head at her in disapproval (jennyanydots), but it's so pointedly constant and so pointedly Pointed with tugger that it draws my eye. every time she appears, he has to clearly and explicitly broadcast his displeasure with the fact that she's daring to breathe at them.

like, she's not In His Way or anything here. he doesn't have to walk past her if he doesn't want to. he doesn't have to look at her; plenty of other cats pretend she doesn't exist when she looks at them. but not only does he do all those things, he explicitly looks at her and puffs his coat up again. he's walking at a fairly brisk pace toward her and actually slows down to do it. it's such a deliberately mean thing to do it's stuck between really extra and really petty. exactly the same with the jellicle choice scene.

my man's being so petty this should be constituted as bullying lmao. look at that! nobody likes you still! sucks to be you i guess! like. this man would be pouncival doing the fake pranks and scratching her if he was a kitten. he's just, constantly upping his level of mean to her. in the first scene he at least has the decency to walk out in the opposite direction of her.

a really professional youngest child. again, all that ^ is fairly grounded thought on character performance i think if you don't really connect it to anything, but i'm connecting it to abandonment issues for maximum ouch lmao.

so, bear with me for a moment: for whatever reason, grizabella leaves the jellicles, including her husband and kid(s). (if you're a fan of the theory about macavity being the third brother to munkustrap and tugger, i mean, she might've just left with him because he was her kid. i dunno.) and you're tugger. Baby tugger, even. you don't understand why she'd leave you. was it you? were you too much? were you not enough? of course not, but you're a little cat with a lot of pride and all the makings of a Petty Little Bastard in you, so you say fuck all that. i'm not too much; i'm actually more than enough. i'm the best! and i'll make damn sure you never forget it!

i feel like if you include munkustrap in that too it gets to be a really interesting dynamic. tugger's mean and angry and going out of his way to show it, and munkustrap is just kind of. "can we not do this" about it. really seems like he'd rather be somewhere else, but, i mean, welcome to The Unpleasant Shit being his job. professional eldest sibling.

she approaches him and he actively goes absolutely not oh look at that what a nice corner i'll just go stand over there. meanwhile tugger's determined to be all OH! OH LOOK WHO'S HERE!!!! WELCOME HOME CHEATER!!!!!! about it. like i already made a post about this so i won't get into it again but i really don't think munkustrap is all that mad at her, which gives tugger's attitude some nice contrast.

continuing with dynamics for a moment, i feel like tugger either has real Attuned Parental Figure Senses or is surprisingly perceptive for his character? this isn't necessarily connected with the point before, but i mean, he stops his whole entire number MID-DANCE MOVE to point out grizabella. he does do it with great flow though you must admit.

he loves attention!! that's established!! whether or not he's up for it at All Times we can have a discussion about (he really just dips out after his number to recharge for a good while lol) but he's here having the time of his life, BOOM one whiff of grizz and he's tearing down the party decorations, that's it, everyone go home.

i'd attribute it to him just Really Having That Big of a grudge if he didn't also kinda sorta activate his Deuteronomy Detect power during the lad's arrival LMAO.

look at that! he beats munkustrap to it! admittedly i can't see the rest of the stage so it might be that all the other cats already saw it and he's just pointing old deuteronomy out to munkustrap as the latter's too busy looking the other way. but it's still a funky way to get in character traits besides Mean & A Whore!

ok and another notable thing, and to me something really interesting, it that tugger never does end up touching grizabella, even though he has the choice to.

after she's first accepted back via touch from victoria, the cats sort of line up to show their affections too. it's a really nice scene in my opinion, you get the sense that all those cats really are happy to be able to take back an old friend and i'm all for it. but the cherry is that tugger is being Really Interestingly Acted here - he leads cassandra closer so she can reach out to grizabella, but tugger himself stays behind with this sort of blank expression over him. even those cats i mentioned before - jennyanydots and bombalurina - get the moment to hold grizabella's hands and smile and encourage her on. tugger doesn't do that.

grizabella doesn't touch every cat, granted, but even those she doesn't touch are reaching out to her, which is pretty much as good as. they all do enough of that sort of implied gesture throughout the musical that it shows it's affection and acceptance all the same whether or not physical contact is made, like for example old deuteronomy's greeting and the moments before the jellicle choice; the first one's posed similarly to grizabella's return, everyone's trying to touch old deuteronomy, but they're perfectly fine with sort of just reaching out and being reached out to (note mr mistoffelees and bombalurina). in the second one it's even sillier because both munkustrap and old deuteronomy could clear the like 10cm of distance between them, but the reaching and willingness is more than enough for that mutual understanding to come between them. basically intent > result (side note: this is not a good rule for life outside of the cats musical).

tugger doesn't reach out. doesn't try to get any closer than he already got and stays in the shadow behind the rest, just watching her go for a bit before he dips again.

with the way he's squashed behind asparagus jr here i can't tell if he's bowing or nodding or what, but i think it'd be really funny if he was just trying to make himself shrink a little. like hanging his head nope i'm not here don't look at me goodbye. so completely contradictory to his usual vibe it's hilarious.

it is interesting to think about though, in my opinion, that he spends pretty much the rest of the musical in the shadow and separated from the other celebrating cats. he climbs up onto the chest and stays on that platform for the rest of the show while the other cats are being directed by munkustrap to follow and then surround old deuteronomy.

it's interesting - he may be positioned above the other cats physically, but it makes him feel sort of separated if you know what i mean. there's usually this pretty clear separation between munkustrap and the other cats when they're on screen, they might crouch when he stands and reach out to him when he's talking, but this time munkustrap is just down there calling upon the vibes with the other cats, and only makes his way up to old deuteronomy's right after grizabella's gone and it's time for the closing number. rum tum tugger straight up bounces as they're going to the russel hotel LMAO.

he does hype her up as she's going up, which is also really cute. he's off to the side so the other cats aren't really looking at him, but even as old deuteronomy shows her the rest of them, grizabella's eyes linger on tugger's wee rockstar schtick and it just kind of melts me.

anyway. man may be conflicted but he's happy mum gets a retry whether anyone likes it or not. and i think that's nice. :)

[loumandaniel]

Loumandaniel s3 predictions ( I don't necessarily mean this in a shippy way- this can be about characters too)? ( I know I know we don't have anything to go on- no shooting dates nothing but still).

at the end of the day, the hardest prediction is whether they'll cut the vampire lestat in half. i don't think they should because i'm tired of 8 episode seasons, but they may. anyways, i'm not sure how coherent this is, but ummm bon appétit:

for some plot, i do think louis will take over the interview when they revisit nola+claudia while daniel potentially chases down armand, or interviews marius mid way into s3. regarding armand, marius states in tvl that older vampires need to have another 'death' (sleep) to maintain their sanity with this unending life. so, my opinion has been that he's not intentionally missing from 2022-26, but sleeping under ground. it would be fun to have him wake up to lestat's music (i know this is something lestat does in that book, but idc because it's funnier with armand). he'll likely appear at some point because daniel will want to cross-reference the story of nicolas de lenfent and gabrielle with armand's version. also, in rolin's words they'll have "plot points leading up to devil's minion." there's also no doubt in my mind that an entire episode will be armand's backstory. my hope is that it's armand telling it to daniel rather than lestat, but who knows?

going forward with louis and daniel, situationship? not sure, but i can imagine daniel's begging for it. i think their relationship is on shaky ground from louis' perspective. louis retracted consent on the book, and daniel broke his trust by selling louis' entire life story anyway. to be honest, my number one theory has been that the book was a ploy to tell daniel his precautionary tale of vampirism before louis offered to turn him at the end of the interview. those jokes about louis and armand interviewing for a third? not jokes to me. i take armand's "i hope you'll join us" line in the finale literally. regardless, i think louis is carrying guilt for daniel - not guilt for his being turned, but rather HOW he was turned. that guilt is probably the only thing keeping daniel in louis' good graces. i'm sure the rumspringa journey daniel and lestat go on won't help either.

the big thing i hope and predict for louis and armand is that louis is reconciling that he still loves armand. like, i would really love a scene of louis telling lestat that there's still a lot of love for armand within him, even after learning the truth of the trial. it's something lestat can relate with. i mean, these guys do love armand, but armand is...well, he's armand. louis does forgive, and i don't think he's happy to lose armand. i could imagine he's hoping armand atones so he can have him back in his life. the difference between lestat and armand with louis is that lestat suffered for seventy-seven years with his shame, and armand did not. if he sees that armand is hurting, it would bend louis towards him in my opinion. and hey, after making an impulsive fledgling post-divorce? armand is suffering.

with armand and daniel, predictions get difficult because all we have is the book chapter and really cryptic comments from in and outside of the show (jacob's quotes specifically make me go red string theory crazy). i could expand some other time, but i do think louis and armand were more involved with daniel's life in the 70s than daniel knows. i think there will only be hints at whatever the fuck they've got going on in s3 though, and we won't have complete answers until qotd seasons.

also, i do think daniel's madness arc is definitely still on the table. in fact, i think he's losing his mind in s3. i think it's why armand abandoned him after turning. i've said it before, but daniel's eyes changing colors is either power level or instability. s3 could have moments where daniel is losing his mind, lost in a forgotten memory or start in on the dreams about (book spoilers) the twins. i love daniel being a sponge for characters so having him as this voltron of paul, claudia, amadeo, and nicki that louis, lestat, and armand project onto is so fun to think about.

[potahun]

A FRKZ timeline?

i was wondering about the dynamics in M20 between furukaza and how it might differ from subsequent movies (being kazami's first ever appearance). we all know that M20 kazami was almost jarringly ruthless and cruel towards curaçao, and when we see him in ZTT (ultimate moe) and in the main manga (moe and moe again), it makes one wonder what happened to this character, beyond "he has gap moe".

my final impression is that M20 fits nicely as a story that takes place soon after kazami's been appointed as furuya's liaison. i think, taking into account all of kazami's appearances in detco media, kazami can be interpreted as being sensitive to social context, status and hierarchy. i personally can see him riding on the high of his new role and having a cocky phase in which he's over-compensating a bit to match the part (or his image of the part): furuya rei is a member of the highest-ranking agency in the police. he's infiltrating an extremely dangerous organisation and god knows what that entails. as his liaison, kazami too should be able to stomach anything (or so he thinks)

By M22, he's starting to grow disillusioned and skeptical of furuya's ways. perhaps, getting his hands dirty simply doesn't feel the same in practice as it did in theory. perhaps, he didn't think it'd involve that much fucking around with the lives of innocent people. he still obeys because respecting structure is how he has always worked and he has his own convictions about what Public Security is, at the end of the day... He's just not convinced that furuya rei is fully aligned with him on what is just and fair (until the end of M22, when, furuya does redeem himself a bit with haba)

meanwhile, ZTT happens! And kazami slowly goes through all the stage of moe and shoujo manga love interest, from being overly conscious about his boss and how to speak to him, to slowly being power-harrassed led into co-raising a dog with him, visiting him at ungodly early hours, going to play baseball and other games with him...until all the lines blur between private and professional, and furuya-san stops being a perfect being in his eyes, instead becoming a person who judges, gets trapped in basements, is childish about the color red, and will lose his cool about his dog eating ice cream...

And then, M25 rolls around. Personally, I see this as a time where kazami has truly come to be at peace with his own role vis-à-vis furuya, the things they do, their ups and downs, and whether or not he likes everything he does, M25 kazami gives this vibe of someone who's accepted the bond between him and furuya as "ah, well, our hands are both dirty anyway, and the red string of fate will drag us both to hell, so i guess i'll follow him even in death". (Cue in the wedding vows being spoken at the beginning of the movie during their scene) he'll step into furuya's quarantine box and disarm his bomb with his own hands. no questions asked.

In parallel though, kazami has definitely grown to become more and more relaxed and cute in furuya's presence. and the gap moe IS real. hatoyama farm case and his "yatta!" at furuya, the kid heist and his "eeehh! please let me stay!!! i'm dying of curiosity!!!"

Professionally speaking, M25 is where they're at. Ride or die and completely unhinged, but cool about it, and will not address the unhingedness of their bond in any way. In private, or even when they're even slightly aside from others, kazami has grown into the most moe of subordinates. he's spoiled. he's been fed hand-cooked bentous every other morning. furuya just cannot get really mad at him anymore....

And now, we've come to M28...and I wonder what it reserves for us.

++++

PS: the only remaining question i have about M20, is the amount of reliance furuya seems to have on kazami in it (which is more than i'd expect if they were paired up only recently). we see him confirm more than once that he's "counting on" kazami for things. he even reflects at one point that he has to "meet up as soon as possible" with kazami. It does feel like he trusts him and knows him very well already! but hmm, i guess it wasn't jarring to the point of being irreconcilable with the rest. after all, furuya too is a guy who respects structure. i can see him as someone who feels "closer" to a counterpart in the beginning of their professional relationship because of their respective roles. that is the person "assigned" to him. before getting to know that person on a personal level, this person is his "liaison", his partner, his teammate, someone he can trust. and so, he does.

at least, that's one way it would make their whole relationship work chronologically for me!

[helpimstuckposting]

Okay I saw someone else putting characters to the four elements, but that got me thinking about the actual statements that have been read out and I got a hunch. Below are my red string ramblings of a mad man

So I looked up the elements of alchemy and found the planetary metals and what they can represent

Lead, Saturn - Harvest, Crops, Husbandry

Tin, Jupiter - Internal Organization, External Relations

Iron, Mars - War and Bloodshed

Gold, Sun - Helios, Light and Sight

Copper, Venus - Love and Beauty

Mercury - Messages and Communication

Silver, Moon - Intuition and Subconscious, Hunters, Crossroads

Now, seeing them all makes me wonder if my hunch is correct or if I’m just seeing things as confirmation bias, but I went ahead and assigned each to the cases they reminded me of, and included the four elements as well. One of the planetary metals connects to communication and technically all of the cases are communication in some way, but I specifically only put it as a label on cases that were categorized with the communication type (chat boards, phone calls, email, etc)

MAGP01 - Venus, Mercury (love for her husband, message boards) EARTH, FIRE

MAGP02 - Venus (beauty)

MAGP03 - Saturn (crops) EARTH

MAGP04 - Mars (bloodshed)

MAGP05 - Sun (sight) AIR

MAGP06 - Mars, Mercury (Needles, phone call)

MAGP07 - Jupiter, Mercury (response department, email) FIRE

MAGP08 - Moon (crossroads, liminal spaces) AIR

MAGP09 - Mars (bloodshed)

MAGP10 - Jupiter, Moon (external relations, intuition) WATER

MAGP11 - Venus, Mercury (beautiful tattoo, email) WATER

MAGP12 - Jupiter, Mars (external relations, bloodshed)

MAGP13 - Mars, Mercury (bloodshed, voicemail)

MAGP14 - Saturn (husbandry)

MAGP15 - Moon, Jupiter (hunt, external relations) WATER

MAGP16 - Venus (love, heart) EARTH

MAGP17 - Mars (anger, murder)

MAGP18 - Moon (subconscious? could also be sight if an archivist did this, but I’m not totally sure) AIR

MAGP19 - Jupiter, Moon (internal organization, Diana’s Tree) FIRE

This could absolutely just be confirmation bias, and none of this is accurate or real but it was fun to research anyway. Idk anything about alchemy so all of this information is just wiki-based and might be majorly incorrect

The AIR labels are mostly based on the Lonely, falling, and disappearing.

EARTH is labelled for cases that mention dirt or digging

WATER is labelled for cases involving the deep, drowning, or dampness

And FIRE are all the instances of what I assume is The Magnus Protocol (burn it all down)

If anyone got this far, thank you for listening to my red string conspiracy ranting! This is more a case of “throw 100 darts at a wall and maybe one of them will stick” rather than an actual comprehensive theory, and it’s probably wildly incorrect but I had fun anyway so 🤷‍♀️

This all mostly stemmed from the fact that Jupiter being linked to “external relations” was ODDLY SPECIFIC, and also the EXACT WORDS used by Wikipedia so I definitely spiraled from there

[literaticat]

Hi Jenn! So, I've been ready to go on sub for weeks now. My agent agreed as well weeks ago, but she keeps pushing it back, saying she's super busy and hasn't had time to work on my pitch materials or sublist, but then she rushed to put one of my agent sibs on sub (who finished her book way after me). I emailed her days ago to FUP & no response. It's so hard not to read this is as lack of enthusiasm. I'm chronically scared of being a "problem client" and bugging her too much. Any advice?

Are you one of my clients, I ask in a panic

if so I'M SO SORRY AND IT IS NO REFLECTION ON MY ENTHUSIASM, TRULY

OK, I doubt this is one of my clients, BUT, the fact that I did worry it COULD be should tell you that this is not weird and not about YOU. There could be A BAJILLION reasons for a delay in going out, or why one of your agent sibs went out sooner than you.

Yes, it's partly about being busy. From my perspective, to get a good sublist and pitch materials together takes me many hours, it would be amazing to have like... SIX or more hours of absolutely uninterrupted concentration. There are not six hours of absolutely uninterrupted concentration to be had in a week, I fear, so these hours are often snatched a half-hour here, 15 minutes there, in between meetings and surprise fires to put out, etc, and usually takes (sometimes quite a bit) longer than a week all-told, unfortunately, particularly because I'm usually working on more than one at once, and all those authors are equally keen to go out!

Part of why it takes so long, and part of why sometimes things don't go in the order in which they are ready and can "jump the queue" or whatever, is that there's a kind of JENGA that goes on. Let's say your book is a Funny PB. (Picking a totally random example). Well, I have a fair number of clients who write Funny PB -- and there are only so many editors who DO Funny PB.

Ideally, I wouldn't send more than one project to a single editor at the same time at all. Since that's usually impossible, at the very least, I can't send material that is TOO SIMILAR to the same editors - otherwise, those books are competing with one another. So let's say they do PB, both fiction and nonfiction. I could send two PB, if one is funny and one is serious/nonfiction, etc. But it would be wild to send them two funny PB from two different authors in quick succession. Like... which one are they supposed to prioritize? They probably aren't gonna buy BOTH of them! So I'm basically throwing one away if I do that.

That means, at a certain point, I gotta pump the brakes a little on sending more Funny PB out and let some of those responses come in, so that then I have PLACES TO SEND the new stuff again. In the meantime, I can send things that are very different. Or I can send out so-and-so's option book, or a book that is going to a few editors on a limited round, etc -- and then get back to the Funny PB. (or whatever).

Keeping track of who already is considering what and where I can and can't send is one of the most brain-breaking things I do, and it involves databases and spreadsheets and basically a MURDER BOARD with red string and me, crazed look in my eyes, explaining it like a conspiracy theory.

So anyway, if your agent is anything like ME, that's probably what is happening -- it's not about you, except insofar as they really want your book to have the best chance to be considered, and taking the time to make a good sublist and remove as many obstacles as possible from it potentially being acquired as they can. So like... it's about you, sure, but not in a BAD way!

(And again - a few weeks in real time is a few days in publishing time, so pls don't get too mad at them. I promise you, this process takes so long that a few weeks here or there will not even matter A BIT at the end of the day. And if taking that time is the difference between somebody buying it and somebody not buying it? It will have been well worth it!)

ANYWAY, I bet they didn't respond because they want to respond WITH POSITIVE NEWS, like "it's out in the world!" or whatever - - but by all means nudge if you don't hear back in a week's time.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading update: March 2024

March was so !!!!!! so fucking long, but that means that I got to read a lot of books - more than I did in January or February. they're pretty all over the place in terms of quality, but I think they're also all going to be pretty memorable in one way or another. shall we discuss?

what have I been reading?

The Ballad of Perilous Graves (Alex Jennings, 2022) - I bought this novel at Crescent City Books in New Orleans last June, then tucked it away to wait for exactly the right moment. and I'm so glad I did, because it was a gorgeous little flash of NOLA in the middle of a gray midwestern winter funk. this novel is so, SO steeped in celebrating the art, history, and culture of New Orleans, creating a version of the city filled with talking animals, living songs, and moving graffiti that hardly even feels that different than the real New Orleans. and in this book, Nola is distinct from New Orleans; there's some interesting multiverse stuff going on in the city that might be really interesting to my fellow fans of Dimension 20's Unsleeping City and N.K. Jemisin's City We Became. not every part of the book totally worked for me: the parts of the books following the kids - the titular Perilous "Perry" Graves and company - are definitely the strongest, and the actual details of how the plot got resolved got a little muddled for me before the surprisingly abrupt end. but! it must be said that the vibes are immaculate, and vibes will get you really far with me. I want to see a thousand more stories set in this world.

Thank You For Sharing (Rachel Runya Katz, 2023) - with god as my witness this was one of the most boring romance novels I've ever read, and that's saying something considering I literally just read Red String Theory. what I really adore are romances that take place at around an 11 on a scale of 1-10, under circumstances where absolutely no normal person should even be able to contemplate fucking but our protagonists power through because they're horny to a degree that renders them clinically unwell. this book was hovering somewhere around a 2; it's literally just two adults having jobs and hanging out in pretty mundane circumstances. the only thing that really strains my belief is that an otherwise well-adjusted woman is still upset about something that happened at summer camp over a decade ago, but I guess if she wasn't mad about something then the protagonists wouldn't be able to have a conversation about their feelings to show off how good they are at therapy speak.

Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent (Dipo Faloyin, 2022) - genuinely one of the most excellent pieces of nonfiction that I've read in a hot minute. Faloyin's book consists of interconnected essays that just dazzlingly brilliant, in turns solemn, sardonic, and sly, always ready to offer the audience a little wink as it subverts expectations. Faloyin walks the reader through the history of several African countries, from colonial looting to rocky political regimes to the common tropes that plague modern media with depictions of Africa as universally backwards, impoverished, and struggling. I really felt like I was *learning* while I was reading this book and learning the specifics of so many places that are often portrayed as interchangeable in American media. I really sincerely can't recommend this enough, it's an excellent read.

That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon (Kimberly Lemming, 2024) - I can't in good conscience say that I enjoyed this book, but it is kind of a great read if you enjoy updating your housemates on the latest bullshit in your horny fantasy romance. Lemming's in a weird middle ground where she's putting a lot of effort into the backstory of the world that justifies our protagonist (who's named CINNAMON HOTPEPPER!!!!) meeting and hooking up with a demon (who's also a dragon, because all monsters are just a subspecies of demon. I'm not crazy about that but the worst part by far is definitely that his dragon form has hair) but also stops giving a shit about it the second it's not necessary. like (spoilers) but all of the human characters are REALLY chill about finding out that the goddess they've been worshipping for CENTURIES is actually an evil lich? and there's another human character who pretty casually watches the city where she's spent her entire life get razed to the ground by monsters with absolutely zero remorse, which is genuinely bananas. also this book misses SOOOO many opportunities to be really nasty horny because it's so focused on hyping up Cinnamon and Fallon's all-consuming five day spiral into unhinged magical demon marriage. even the "light bondage" promised in the content warning was disappointing; the emphasis was definitely more on the "light" than the "bondage." what does a bitch have to do to find a decent monsterfucker book. for the love of god please.

It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror (ed. Joe Vallese, 2022) - I've heard a lot of hype about this book, an anthology of queer writers musing about the queerness that draws them to the horror genre. I was expecting the essays to be of an analytical nature, but it turns out they're much more personal. that's not necessarily a bad thing, but some of these essays ended up falling SUPER flat for me, with weak analogies that felt like the result of authors remembering at the last second that they were supposed to be relating their life to a horror movie somehow. which isn't to say that there weren't high points as well, but overall the collection was low lows and medium highs for me.

Sex Criminals Volume One: One Weird Trick (Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky, 2014) - I'm trying so hard to remember to read comics that aren't 30 year old Batman stories, and my friend Emily lent this to me months ago when I helped them move, so it seemed like high time to get around to checking out Sex Criminals. the premise is fun! what if time stopped when you had an orgasm? then what if you met someone else with the same ability and the two of you could have sex and run around in a time-stopped world together? and then what if you robbed banks? and I'm a huge fan of that. the writing isn't the most gripping thing in the world, and now that it's a decade old I find that it feels very emblematic of the kind of aggressively offbeat, Whedon-ish writing style that felt like it was really unavoidable in the 2010s, which I can't say has aged MAGNIFICENTLY for me. but I'm willing to read more, see where this series goes, and give it the chance to really win me over. stay tuned for Volume Two!

Rental Person Who Does Nothing (Shoji Morimoto, trans. Don Knotting 2023) - I can't decide if I want to sit Morimoto down for dinner to pick his brain or just skip the niceties and put his brain in a jar to study it, but either way this guy definitely has something fascinating going on. tl;dr: in this memoir Morimoto recounts his experiences using Twitter to let other people hire him out as a person who will do nothing. "doing nothing" covers all kinds of things: accompanying people to eat a meal that they felt too self-conscious to eat alone, keeping someone company so they don't get distracted while they should be working, or waving goodbye to a stranger at a train station. he's not paid for this, either, or at least doesn't charge a fixed rate; all the Morimoto asks for is the price of his train ticket to meet clients, who sometimes buy him extra gifts as a thank you. there are so many FASCINATING ideas presented in this book about work and value and interpersonal connection, and yet the book clocks in at under 200 pages. Morimoto isn't here to tell you how to feel about anything he's done, only to present some experiences and let you unravel the meaning for yourself. and I guess that's sort of brilliant. throughout the memoir he's adamant that Rental Person doesn't offer advice or tell anyone what to do, offering only basic responses when prompted. telling someone else what to think or attempting to offer up any wisdom gleaned from his rental work would count as doing something, wouldn't it? I really recommend checking it out for yourself and deciding what you think, especially if you're in a slump seeking something quick, engaging, and easy to read.

[toasted-valentine]

Still Got Adamandi Details I’m Not Normal About, So Here They Are

A lot of these are going to make me sound like a massive fucking nerd lol

•Beatrix slapping Vincent’s hand away when he tries to grab the archive records from the table.

•Beatrix clearly not wanting to be there during the first two interviews, then just relaxing and teasing Vincent during their interview with him since they’re friends. The switch from strict professionalism to being a bit more playful is a good way of establishing that the two already know each other and are comfortable with one another, especially the opening line about Beatrix not knowing Vincent’s middle name. It’s just a simple thing, but gets the point across well.

•All of Portia’s reaction, highlights include the sweet to surprised one during the beginning of A Little More in Love and her “I’m not mad, just disappointed” look during Ghost Writer.

•The little flourish Beatrix does with the pencil during The One Who Pulls The Strings, I’m curious how many times the actor accidentally stabbed themself before they got that down lol

•This is something I notice gets done in both TAOPP and Adamandi, with the same actor too. The actor for Ambrose and Rowan changes the pitch of their voice and how high the notes they hit are depending on how vulnerable the character is being. Higher is more vulnerable and expressive, lower is more closed off. Extra fucked up points for the fact Ambrose’s notes get higher after he fucking dies.

•I’m going to be a massive music nerd for a minute, my music analysis skills are a bit rusty, so forgive me if I’m a bit wrong. The motif I like to call the “Beatrix Does A Bad Thing” motif. It plays whenever Beatrix does something wrong, it’s the skeleton of their three major songs. Starts with The One Who Pulls The Strings, gets a bit more complicated in the reprise, and is at full force in Ghost Writer. It’s like a building monster, first the bones, then the muscle, then the creature itself.

•The actors for The Saints and the other Phaethon nominees are the same people, so Vincent does in fact cut The Saints up lmao

•The glowing under Ambrose’s shirt goes from a visual of his muscles hardening to a show of his slit throat, which is evil and I love it.

•Beatrix covers their eyes and looks away when Quincy stabs Vincent, I can’t tell if it’s the fact they can’t stomach the murder, or if they fucking got blood on their face and that’s why they’re staring at their hand in horror when Portia comes on stage. It’s also a good transition motion to guide the audience’s eyes from the killing blow to them. They couldn’t actually use blood on stage, stage blood has to be minimal since it’s sticky, stains costumes, and is difficult to get rid of for continuity, so reaction shots like that get the point across well.

•Beatrix has a ring on in The Other Side of Failure, might be just a show that time has passed, or it could be that it’s to help them remember stuff but they’re no longer being tugged around on strings by the admin. Or crackpot theory, it’s one of Portia’s rings from earlier in the show, but I can’t tell if it’s the same one since none of the shots I’ve dug through are close enough to get details.

•The little hand motions Beatrix does in the show are mimicking a puppeteer pulling strings.

•The admins red coloration call back to Beatrix’s red string, it’s a visual callback to the fact she’s being strung along by them and manipulated. The Admin have it on their cloak collars too, keeping the collar in their designs.

•In Read All About It, one of the chorus actors fucks up their newspaper and forgets to close it when they’re supposed to with the others. It’s just something that makes me chuckle, cause you can see how fucking stressed they are about it, and that they close it when they pass behind Beatrix’s actor cause they didn’t think the camera would catch it lol

•When The Admin lift their arms in Read All About It Beatrix does the same, and when the music cuts out they’re super confused on what just happened and are staring at the newspapers contemplating what they just did.

•I just realized that the marks on Ambrose’s face in the second act weren’t meant to guide where his chisel was, but was a guide for where Vincent had to cut.

•Ambrose looks flattered when Quincy says their professor led a moment of silence, even in death he has his head up his own ass.

•Ambrose is projecting so fucking hard on Vincent during Sound Body Sound Mind, and it makes me laugh.

•There is a continuity error in Oh, Ms. Reporter! The drawers had red strings in them in the previous scene and during the wide shots, but they aren’t there during the close ups.

•This is just a story note, but it’s clever that they had Portia get a better position in The Daily. It serves a duel purpose in the narrative, it emphasizes the fact Rosswell has implicit bias and that she picks the person whose more white passing instead of the more skilled Latina with seniority, and gives an explanation to how they managed to get the article about Vincent and The Admin published. Beatrix wouldn’t have been able to on her own, but Portia’s position allows them greater access to The Daily’s resources.

•In Me, Myself, and I, I think the actor for Ambrose accidentally made their microphone crackle and you can actually hear a small pop in the recording, dude performed so hard the equipment had a small stroke. You can only hear it in the album tho.

•The is just a music thing, Vincent slowing down for his part to explain why being loved is great in Me, Myself, and I serves the music in giving a brief breath of air so when it comes back it feels like it’s going faster and more frantic. It’s a really common technique to make something feel like it’s going faster when it’s keeping a consistent, just had a short slow down.

•Ambrose grabs Vincent’s face during Student Body, it’s creepy, thanks I hate it. The actor for Ambrose did not have to put that much effort into being unsettling, but they did, and they made Ambrose as likable as he is in the show.

•Everything the actor for Ambrose does when the character dies, they’re jerking around like a corpse that’s gone stiff from decomposing. Give them a medal for managing to be the creepiest mf in that show, and keep them ten feet away from me because it kind of freaks me out.

•The little transition in Oh, Ms. Reporter of the chorus members spelling out Ambrose’s name but Vincent cutting it off to continue his song. It’s a creative lyrical moment and hints to the fact that Vincent cut Ambrose’s life short.

•A couple of the people who Vincent mention’s in Oh, Ms. Reporter are actual some of the people Beatrix was interviewing in the first act, you can hear them saying their names when they’re all yelling over each other.

•The little pieces of advice the main four give Portia during A Word to the Wise are foreshadowing. Ambrose trying to be perfect gets him killed, Quincy’s ambition and academic perfectionism causes them to snap, Vincent deciding to murder people instead of an actual project since there isn’t a use of trying anything else, Beatrix being a bystander and waiting to “do something great” gets people killed.

•Whoever wrote the line “What use is a candle if both ends aren’t burning?” is a menace to society and I want to give them all the money in my wallet, because Quincy burns both their hands later on, and that’s evil.

•The mic on Beatrix’s actor accidentally picks up them tapping the notebook too hard during The One Who Pulled the String, just something I find funky.

•Apollo was the god of young men, being eternally youthful, but was also the god of plagues and disease. Ambrose wants to be the white ideal of an eternally twinkish gay trans guy, but ends up falling victim to Vincent, who compares his actions to a disease killing someone.

•The music used to introduce Beatrix into Me, Myself, and I is the same as the beginning of Read All About It, they’re doubting their actions, and their mind is racing like the music.

•Vincent tries fucking squaring up with the other Ardess students during A Word to The Wise when Quincy is about to jump, dude just is ready to throw hands, it’s great.

•Ambrose tries to defend Vincent from the others, but turns around and betrays him after.

•I like the little spin that Roswell does to Beatrix, she’s getting them confused so she can take advantage.

•Vincent and Quincy aren’t singing during the “And two or three students like you” part, but Beatrix is because she’s internalized the racism of Ardess and is trying to fit in.

•Beatrix just is not having a good time during the interviews, and you can see them get annoyed when the nominees try sucking up to them.

•Fun little thing, they get around the fact Beatrix’s actor can’t spin around like the others when the names are read out during A Word to The Wise by having them stagger and open their arms. It’s a little thing, but gets around that nicely.

•When everyone starts stomping to the beat at the end of A Word to the Wise you can see Portia hesitate to join in, start slowly, then join in fully in the end and begin to sing with the others.

•The poses everyone strike at the end of A Word to the Wise actually have a lot of personality in them, Ambrose is being a dramatic dude bro, Quincy is stiff and nervous, Vincent stands out by having their hand to their chest, Portia is hopeful, and Beatrix just continues to smoke and seem disinterested.

•The “I don’t know, do you have any ideas?” guy is the funniest mf in the room.

•The A papers during Perfect at School form a halo. Again, the people who made this are evil and I love that for them.

•The umbrellas in Where Can I Run harken back to a funeral environment, which is nice foreshadowing that death follows Vincent everywhere for most of the show.

•Vincent wants to go home back to China, wants to go back to his family, to the environment he knows, but he’s stuck at Ardess. Without that degree he’s got nothing, he’d be a complete failure, so they’re stuck at a school they hate surrounded by people who hate them with only two people that like being around them.

•I want to find whoever decided to have Quincy accidentally smack Vincent in the face when he goes to kiss them during the first act as foreshadowing to the fact Quincy later harms Vincent, buy them dinner, and then make them pay for my therapy bills.

•I want to know what god the actor for Beatrix had to kill in order to gender so fucking hard. What kind of sacrilegious actions did they have to commit to win that?

•The newspaper that Beatrix’s actor has in one hand during The One Who Pulls the Strings is a random Princeton one and you can see the university’s name during some of the close ups lol

•During A Little More in Love you can see Ambrose’s actor getting ready for their cue under the bookshelf in a few shots.

•I find it funny that Portia hugs Quincy after A Little More in Love while Beatrix just looks offended and brushes Vincent off. Motherfucking Beatrix, blue hair and pronouns, Campbell tried denying the homosexuality allegations and is failing.

•This maybe speculation, but I think the reason Ambrose’s chest is highlighted in red is because he’s trying to work out enough to make his chest smaller. My friend actually does this, a lot of trans masc gym rats do.

•Vincent “Oh, Ms. Reporter!” Lin denies stalking people.

•Vincent keeps writing in their notebook during Sound Body Sound Mind, you can see them pull it out when they go to hide under the ladders.

•Vincent only calls Ambrose by his name instead of Bassford after killing him.

•I like Ambrose getting annoyed at Preston and Adrian not doing the kick line right lol

•I don’t know what Mandela affect bullshit is going on, but I always thought Ambrose kept the pages from Vincent’s notebook, and I have no clue where I got that idea from.

•I like that Portia starts wit “Hi hi!” when she’s nervous, and that she’s so frazzled trying to interview Beatrix that she can’t find a pencil and Beatrix has to give theirs to her. It’s just a cute little bit of character building. Beatrix actually pulls the pencil out from behind her ear, which is also a nice little bit of characterization.

•As soon as the interview starts Beatrix starts wrapping one of their strings around their fingers to try and not forget what they’re lying about. If you pay attention to what the actor is doing with their hands the entire show you can catch a few little fun character building bits like that.

•In the wide shots of the Beatrix and Portia interview scene you can see Beatrix start to stress smoke when Portia compliments them and says they should’ve gotten nominated. Mf feels the weight of her lies on her back real fast lol

•Beatrix sits like a bisexual, and I find that funny.

•Vincent almost manages to talk Ambrose down, but when Quincy gets brought up he almost starts crying and gets violently angry. So close there bud, so close.

•When Beatrix’s actor starts doing their funky little hand motions in Me, Myself, and I it’s actually on cue with the music, reference to Beatrix pulling the strings. They also move their hands on cue to Ambrose and Quincy singing “me, myself, and I” and on cue for when the singing stops. Nice touch.

•The person who Vincent takes the place of during Me, Myself, and I is who saw him fleeing the gym. Just noticed it, that’s such a cool thing. Was super confused on why a chorus member was there, then I remembered the line in Read All About It.

•Portia is still editing articles in the background while Beatrix is having a crisis of morality in the foreground lol

•The actor for Vincent pulls off the ribbon trick to symbolize Ambrose’s death by grabbing the ribbon from the bag while moving towards the back of the stage, hiding their hand behind their back while they continue to sing, and pulling the ribbon out with his free hand when time comes. The song is so grand in scale that no one in the audience would be being attention to his hands.

•The flour cigarette trick is actually refilled a couple times when time allows it, you can see the actor for Beatrix puffing fake smoke out with it a few times, but can only do it once in a scene due to the limits of the trick.

•It is hilarious how disinterest Beatrix sounds when reading Ambrose’s memorial, they know it’s not true and are bored by it lol

•One of The Saint’s actors, Saint Jude specifically, has the remote for the candles in their hand and are the one controlling it during Litany of Martyrs. You can see them accidentally reveal it during one of the close up and quickly try to hide it in their sleeve.

•Saint Jude’s actor doesn’t actually tie the bandage onto Quincy’s hand right during Litany of Martyrs so the actor for Quincy just uses their thumbs to keep it in place.

•When Beatrix gets their strings caught in the typewriter, the mise en scene us is used to emphasize how small The Prize Section is by having Portia sit on the glorified nightstand Beatrix is using as a desk instead of an actual chair.

•Vincent puts his feet up on the “desk” when he breaks into The Prize Section office, which is apparently a habit of theirs since they also do it when Beatrix is interviewing them.

•Adrian and Preston’s actors aren’t on stage as their characters until Oh, Ms. Reporter! because they’re also chorus members in Read All About it, so needed time to get changed and get their makeup done.

•The Saints are mimicking hellfire during I Hate and I Love, creepy as fuck, but one hell of a visual. They’re still there when Quincy is talking to Portia too, like goddamn, leave them alone you weird religious bongos.

•You can see Beatrix’s actor struggling to keep their glasses on their face the entire show, and it is the funniest thing to me, because I have similar glasses and I know how much of a pain in the ass they are to keep on when trying to move around quick.

•Of course English major Beatrix would correct Portia’s grammar when she’s trying to tell them that Vincent is the killer.

•I find it funny you can see Beatrix mouth “fuck” when Portia goes to raid The Prize Section for information after suggesting they stop Vincent.

•Alright, I think the way they spliced together the audio and video for the YouTube version is with two dress rehearsals and the two nights the show was put on combine. The dress rehearsals are the close ups, but you can tell which one of them came first based on the costume for Beatrix. The earlier one has gloves with the tags still on and the red string in the second act is shorter, plus they used to have a flower pin on the jacket but lost it for the actual show. The audio is from the actual performances from show night asides from a few bits where they needed to cut the audience’s reaction out, but the music on the album is a mix of all of them and just the best takes they had put together. It’s why the mic cracking on Ambrose’s actor can be heard on the album but not on the YouTube version, in the YouTube version the audio tech didn’t turn Vincent’s actor’s mic on in time during his part, so they had to use the cracked audio for the album.

•The Admin are casually homophobic and racist towards Quincy and Vincent during their meeting, actively try to divide them, and I want to kick all of them in the skull. You can see just how manipulative they are, calling Quincy and Vincent’s relationship a friendship, openly insulting Vincent, hinting that Quincy is being held back, they’re so fucking bitchy and I want them to get slapped with a tuna.

•You can see the different mentalities Quincy and Vincent have with how they react to the admin, Quincy is acceptance, and Vincent would definitely kill them all if possible. I love the “bullshit” line so much.

•I love and hate how hurt Vincent gets when Quincy accuses them of not caring. The entire Where Can I Run (Reprise) scene is so good, Quincy shoving Vincent off, the ghosts dragging Vincent’s jacket off them, both their parts being haunted by their respective demons with The Saints and the ghosts of The Marmorius.

•Explanation of the staging trick used to make it look like Beatrix and Portia’s actors are kissing. It’s a really old trick, but a useful one. The actors are both about the same height so it’s possible, they quickly press their foreheads together, turn, and the lights dim. They aren’t actually kissing, but the quick motion of it, the fact you can’t see their faces, and the dark lighting hides it. It’s also why Quincy and Vincent’s actors couldn’t do that, Vincent’s actor stands solidly at chest height with Quincy’s actor, and it would look too awkward to have them kiss like that. Quincy’s actor would have to bend down, and that would look really weird.

•Vincent calling his murders the “smoothest” murders just make me think of him being a smooth criminal lmfao

•The prop for Quincy’s notebook during I Hate and I Love and Vincent’s notebook for The Other Side of Failure are the same notebook, just a basic molskine I think.

•The boots for Beatrix’s costume don’t have laces because those are doc martens, and doc marten laces are a pain in the fucking ass to keep tied, so they just are using zip ups lol

[sanctaignorantia]

Just adding a few things about this post here.

I think about it in two ways now. Because when we first thought of puppets, only the idea of being manipulated came to mind. But what if that's not all?

Higgs touches Fatih Akin's puppet directly and asks what it would be? Another soulless little husk? Another... Higgs has met a lot of them out there, Higgs knows what these things are.

Higgs is perhaps another one of those soulless little husks, in the same way that Lou's pod is a soulless little husk.

And then it makes me think that maybe that's why he knows more about Lou's condition than the rest of us, he knows because maybe they have something in common.

But back to the point about the puppets!

So it wouldn't just be the idea of being manipulated, it would be the idea of being a body, a husk without a soul, without desires, without love or thoughts and which is trapped by these cords that are supposed to signify some kind of connection, but which are actually used to manipulate these little husks like puppets in a theater show, telling or not telling true stories, entertaining or terrifying the audience.

We can research the origin and history of puppets and puppetry throughout history just to be sure (puppet|puppetry).

I could also add dolls, which can basically be what puppets are, but without strings to manipulate them, without anything to give them "life". But just to make it clear how much the idea of puppets can expand to these "little" things that can bring symbolic/metaphorical meanings into the narrative.

And then I'll remind you that there are 3 basic ways of using puppets and manipulating them:

-> with strings:

-> with sticks:

-> with your hands:

x

You can't say that this has nothing to do with Death Stranding. The string, the stick and the hand. Even here I'm thinking "my madness makes sense because it makes sense with the universe, but how far is Kojima going to take this?" - 2025 is a long way off. T_T

I could say that the idea is about manipulation, but it's not just manipulation.

It's about empty husks yearning for something and being manipulated by someone in order to tell a rehearsed lie to fool those watching.

And all because the red lines remind me of theater curtains too. We need to sit down and stop being crazy about this game!!! (self-criticism).

Another thing I noticed. Fatih Akin's character has a stop-motion effect, as Kojima told us, which is basically dolls moved by hand if you look at any creation of this kind, people basically use their hands to position them throughout the process, but it's not just this that I want to point out, it's the effect that these behind-the-camera videos give us: the sensation of time distortion. And with this sensation of distorted time we get the idea that the puppet is moving too slowly while the person manipulating it is moving too quickly, temporal distortion or the feeling that each one belongs to a different space-time.

So I take this and combine it with Death Stranding, where we have the idea of a multiverse and spiritual and carnal dimensions, what I get is the feeling that what controls Fatih Akin's puppet is not only somewhere else, but that this place could be another dimension, and another dimension with different temporal issues from the one the puppet is in. So would that dimension be the Beach? Maybe yes, maybe no. We don't know these soulless husks, we don't know where they came from and what moves them, so we couldn't assume they're BTs controlling receptacles (although I'll stick to that theory to the end).

If the theory is that Higgs is trapped on the Beach and this new body on earth is being controlled by his Beach Self, then wouldn't it make sense to say that the same happens to Fatih Akin's character because only he is moving in a distorted way and Higgs isn't?

And now to finish, I wouldn't be surprised if at some point in DS2 our dear Higgs appears singing Master of Puppets.

Master of puppets, I'm pulling your strings Twisting your mind and smashing your dreams Blinded by me, you can't see a thing Just call my name 'cause I'll hear you scream

[theroyalmisfitmess]

Another whole reason why I believe in my heart that Sid is Sophie’s baby daddy is the fondness they both have for each other.

When adult Sophie tells the story about the father, she has so much fondness talking about him. Ruling out Charlie since he’s confirmed to be out of the game, we can say that she has fondness for Jesse too. However, if you look into it a lot closer, her fondness when talking about Sid is different.

Do I sound like I’m reading into this? Perhaps. But I major in communication arts where film is also tackled so bear with me.

We are watching the show in the perspective of Sophie narrating. In stories about her relationship with Jesse, Sophie had negative quips on the situation. Whereas with stories about her friendship with Sid, Sophie didn’t have something bad to say about him. Take for example the episode where Sid was almost gonna meet with Taylor after going into a state of emotionally cheating on Hannah, instead of Sophie telling her son something negative (like how mad she was when Jesse kissed Meredith and got back together with her), she emphasizes that Sid is not that type of guy. That he wouldn’t purposely cheat on Hannah like that.

On another note, Sid himself as the story is narrated has some sort of fondness for Sophie. It feels less obvious right now, but the way he banters with Sophie, smiles at her antics, and goes along with her crazy ideas is something. I got my friend to start watching the show, and she says that Sid really reminds her of Ted (but honestly Sid is more lovable LMAO). I started looking into her statement after that and I did pick up things like Sid owning Ted’s room, him a romantic, and having some similar quirks. And you know? This could all be coincidental. BUT the entire “How I Met” franchise is built upon the legend of the red string (what TikTok calls the “invisible string theory”). And based on what we have from the show so far, only Sid really fits that category as being invisibly tied to Sophie as he had the poster of Sophie’s mom that was taken while pregnant with Sophie.

Don’t get me wrong, it is hard to actually say if my analysis is correct (because it could be wrong). A part of me still thinks that the father could be Jesse, but I’m set on betting Sid.

[littleliongirl16]

Tagging YouTube channels I like (or in some cases liked) as TMA fears because I have so very many hyperfixations and have no choice but to combine them...

disclaimer: I don't know anything about most of these people outside of their youtube channels, it's really the channel and how they are on the channel specifically that I'm tagging as a fear

Overly Sarcastic Productions: End & Eye

This one was a bit hard to tag because they make so many different things, but I think the Mischellaneous Myths videos that really stick in my brain are the ones where Red is trying to puzzle out information about a god or story and how it developed and the information is just gone. I think there's also some of that in History Summarized on Blue's end. I think OSP as an embodiment of fears of knowledge being lost, that tries to prevent knowledge from being lost, but also feeds on the horror of everything that's already gone because it's End aligned would be very cool.

Kennie JD's Bad Movies And A Beat: Stranger

This is specifically bad movies and a beat because I don't watch most of her other stuff and can't speak on it. A lot of Bad Movies And A Beat involves movies that are badly written and acted in a way that you could easily push towards human imitators and the uncanny valley and "why does this writer write like he's never met a human being? Because he hasnt". Also like! She doesn't always do her makeup but I feel like the fact that Kennie is changing her appearance with makeup, especially since her look is heavy foundation, very extreme, very far from how she looks without it, really does add to the stranger energy.

Film Theory (and that whole quartet of channels): Spiral/Eye

Matpat is elbow-deep in red string and thumbtacks, he is claiming that the Cars in Cars are actually insects, he is giving in to the madness. I think there's something inherently very spiral about trying to find patterns in details that in many cases probably just weren't well thought out by the original creators of the media. (like the scratches on Rubble's helmet in paw patrol when it should be new). At the same time, fiction is maleable, and sometimes he's trying to create a story that arguably makes more sense than the original using thoughtless details thrown in by the creators. There's another Spiral component of there being no "real answer" in fiction and it not mattering what the author originally intended if Matpat can use clues they accidentally left to create a different story. And then there's also an Eye component in that sometimes he is looking at details the author intentionally left and piecing together a story they intended to be found! And an Eye component in that some of the other channels, like Food Theory, do have more objective answers, like yes, the best thing to eat with spicy food to make it less spicy is something that can be scientifically found.

iilluminaughtii: Stranger... because everything was plagarized...

Kurzgesagt In A Nutshell: Extinction if it's real! Probably Desolation if it's not but Kurzgesagt has elements of almost every fear when I think about it.

I cannot think of anything more Extinction-coded than Kurzgesagt. I don't even like the Extinction that much but I want it to be real just so Kurzgesagt can belong to it. This channel has a video called "How To Kill The Universe". It's almost a running joke that 70% of their episodes are about an apocalyptic scenario, from the heat death of the universe to "what if we set off all the nukes. what if we turned all the uranium into nukes and then set off all those nukes" to horrifying antibiotic resistant pandemics to "what if we turned the earth into gold" to climate change bad scenarios. Kurzgesagt wants to end the world so bad. From impossible hypotheticals for funsies to things that could happen to things that will happen.

If I'm not allowed to say Extinction I guess the raw destruction for the sake of it of Desolation maps to that the channel the best? The more heat-death type scenarios read as End. They do a lot of astronomy content and also have some scale of the universe episodes and episodes on how the size of an organism affects its biology dramatically, which all feel Vast to me. They explain how a lot of pathogens and notorious diseases work, which is obviously corruption. Then there are a lot of more human psychology videos that dip into Stranger and Lonely. This channel has bits of all of the fears but I'll reluctantly go with Desolation.

[fantasyiswaybetterthanreality]

My Experience with Lego Friends

So way back in 2011, when I was but a wee 8ish year old, my mother and I were walking through the Walmart toy aisle. We moved through the girls section and saw this:

And my mom screamed. No Joke. An employee came over to ask what was wrong and she yelled. "There's Lego's for girls!!!"

That was my first introduction to the franchise/Lego theme. Now I was just as excited as her. Before Friends, I only had one Lego set that Mom had to search extensively for because there weren't really any proper sets for little girls.

So she bought me Lego Friends.

And more Friends.

As a budding Lego lover, I built them. I watched the corresponding TV shows on Netflix. I talked about them with my friends. I received a bunch of sets on my Birthday and Christmas.

A few years later, Lego started to release Disney Princess sets and Lego Elves. While I never got into Elves while they were released (something I regret now that I'm older), I watched the mini movie and series that were released on Netflix.

And then in 2018, Lego rebranded Friends for the first time.

Originally in 2012, Lego Friends advertised a young group of highschool girls and their subsequent adventures in their hometown of HeartLake City. This is what the lineup looked like:

(From Left to right: Emma, Stephanie, Olivia, Andrea, & Mia

Four white girls and one African American, and an extremely light skinned one.

And the "new" line-up in 2018:

(From Left to Right: Andrea, Mia, Emma, Stephanie, & Olivia)

One Asian, one one Hispanic, one African American (dark-skinned not light), and two whites.

Now my 12 year old brain was mad about the changes, especially since American Girl (another toy brand I loved) had rebranded one of there lines and honestly, butchered the best parts about the line.

But after someone told me it was wonderful that they were being more inclusive, and after I looked at some of the sets, I came around.

So I continued to collect the sets. I watched the corresponding show on Netflix.

Then January 2023 rolls up, I innocently stroll down the toy aisle at target and see

"What the hell is this? What's wrong with the logo?" (<- Actual thought from my brain)

After a quick scope around the Friends section, I figure out it's another rebrand. Now, I'm on the fence, holding out judgement.

A few months pass, I see a few new Lego models. A boy in a wheelchair, a girl with half an arm, a girl with Vitiligo. I'm starting to feel hopeful about the rebrand.

However, the core 5 girl squad don't seem to appear as much. So finally, I turn to google like a normal person. And find out that they got rid of the core 5 girl squad and that there's a "New Generation of Friends".

...

Yeah, that ticked me off. The girl squad was my favorite part of the Friends brand.

So after finding this out, I go on a mini-boycott, because apparently, I am still a petulant child when it comes to Legos.

And then around September, I tread into the Lego section of a store for the first time in a while.

And spot a set that has the cutest animal in it. The familiar longing itch to buy a new set returns. My mom approaches me, and we start talking about the rebranded sets. She points out a couple sets with cool architecture.

And I let myself enjoy window shopping for Legos again.

Fast forward to Christmas, I get a set titled HeartLake City Community Center. I haven't built it yet, but I'm looking at the box \/,

Wait a minute, who's that in the corner? Is that who I think it is?

IT IS!!!!!! IT'S STEPHANIE!!!!! AND SHE'S THE MAYOR. HAJKSHJKDHKJLSAS

So I make a red string/conspiracy board theory, that this 2nd rebrand of Legos is *literally* the next generation of Friends. Like, the core 5 grew up and these are all the new kids that live in the city.

I bring this up to my parents, and Mom's thinks it's an awesome theory since it's been a decade. The girls should be allowed to grow up and have adult lives.

I don't think much more about it until I'm browsing the Lego store this afternoon for Lego Monkie Kid Sets, and come across a new set titled Andrea's Modern Mansion. Of course I click on it.

(All following pictures are screenshots from the Lego website)

Front ^ and back \/

Wait, what's that in the middle?

Are those pictures?

THEY ARE!!!!!!!!!!!

Stephanie and Mia graduating! Family portrait! Andrea with her baby! Olivia and Emma!

That's it. The rebrand has won me over. I love seeing all this later in life core 5.

Stephanie's the Mayor, like her idol from the original show. Andrea's a singer, has won some awards, is married, and has a child.

I can't wait to see what they do with the other girls.

Also, look at the reunion!

They're doing karaoke! I can't take it.

[sparkle-skitty]

gitm live reaction

"You look like a colonist" HELP??? WHAT???? THAT IS THE MOST UNEXPECTED AND SCATHING STATEMENT SOL ARE YOU OKAY

all right so we can see that Sol is deeefinitely not okay

why is he so CURT g-d damn dude chillllll

oh no I love Fool, he gave us The Puffy Shirt

well! I haven't even met Sophia and I'm already foaming at the mouth to snap her fucking neck. red flags ahoy on that one. girl wants his money that's what! I'm sure

Okay yep she's an Umbridge please kill her maybe

idk why Sunspot is so shy and embarrassed about his interests like ?? sir you ✩ can ✩ be ✩ anything ~✩

omg Misuta called y/n Hoshiko and that's so fucking cute I'm die

PLEASE GIVE FOOL A BIKE AAA PLEASE

lowkey wanna see him freak out over y/n not being there I must have chaos

Fool calling y/n Sweetling but being the Sweetling himself aaa

Fool possibly? keeping y/n safe? but having no idea how and why because he Moon AI takes over suddenly is bewildering. I wonder what it was he saw?

NO WAIT HE KNOWS AFTER ALL HOOO SHIT. What is going down?! What's going down in the house!? Literally he won't let the reader into the house for the rest of the night?? Is this the reason he has his secret base?? WHAT DOES HE KNOW?

*narrows eyes* ohhh he lies when he says it's just for games

omg wtf for real wHAT HAPPENED IN THE HOUSE THAT NIGHT

and now everyone's mad at Fool like LEAVE MY BOY ALONE (though it was kind of a bitch move for him to not take the tree himself but I can theorize on excuses)

AND FINALLY THE CLIP REVEAL. ohhh I love the way he talks. oh no I am in love.

I need Sunspot in my life, need a sweet little android to force me into a good life

oh Sol and I would not get along because yeah I AM stubborn with no sense of self preservation nor do I ask for help ya bitch DEAL WITH IT. omg so sick of this man. reminds me of Kyubey with the way he is like "lel you didn't ask" when he damn well knows y/n needs their fucking coat at SOME point. is there an equivalent of "lying by omission" that isn't about lying but about being a petty & particular lil bitch like "ooo you didn't explicitly say xyz therefore it's your fault I didn't do xys uwu"

I'm gonna fight him. I will I will.

Why are we scared of Clip? He just wants love.

not Moon repeating mantras to himself like fucking Lightning McQueen xDD

oh I'm biting and fighting Sol oh ohhhh I'm snapping

OH I'M BITING AND FIGHTING SOL OH OHHH I'M SNAPPING

NO SUNSPOT SHUT UP don't play mediator with bullies! AHH. Sol has literally done nothing but be antagonistic to everyone and keeps acting like Misuta is a monster why the HELL are you saying it's like Misuta just "eggs him on" no no no no no Sol comes out of nowhere with nasty comments without Misuta saying a damn thing shut upppppppppp

SUNSPOT OMG HOW ARE YOU THE LEADER WHEN YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE HOUSE BRUH

lmao Misuta stomping on Sol's mouth "like a kiss" is just tickling me to death, that's so demeaning in ways I don't know Sol would understand lol

no don't you DARE tug my heart strings Sol you nitwit I am still SO MAD at you even if you may well have some fucking trauma because you are still SO SHITTY

jsfksafsd Clip is not having it about fucking repressed memories like "jesus kid what HAPPENED to you are you FUCKING okay" (theory 2: Clip did something and that's why y/n was suddenly removed)

(but then why would he be so interested in making them remember? wouldn't it be more beneficial if he didn't remind them he did something? does HE not remember? no no it sounds more like he's pissed about whether something fucked happened, I think)

Clip wants to travel the world I see

WHY IS LITERALLY NOBODY HELPING SUNSPOT bitch he was the only one NOT involved in the fucking fight. Sol has a partial excuse because he's broken but g-d damn y'all CAN DO THINGS AROUND THE HOUSE TOO

yo Sol stripping? this boy strips?

AHA I knew Sol was hiding some shit under that glove! though I do wonder, clearly he is not dual-AI, unless ate Moon like how twins eat each other in the womb sometimes. or was he a successful removal of Moon? but... he's not as old as Sunspot and Ruin...? Hrm. hrm...

Sol "How Dare You Be Gross" Eil out here just ignoring the massive fucking messes he makes

Misuta finally deciding to do something by assembling one (1) shelf. Lord have mercy how is Sunspot sane

oh my wondering has been answered about whether the gang has any idea about the Sight and hauntings and shit. is that like... a world secret? is that something people don't talk about? I would like to think y/n could talk to at least these dudes but idk

why is there beef between Sunspot and Fool. like for real Fool's been a heeheehoohoo guy up until it comes to Sunspot specifically.

everyone: "y/n is such a child ugh!" also everyone: "yo why they taking us seriously aren't they an adult?"

omg I just realized Misuta can't leave the house so Fool specifically asked him first to manipulate y/n into volunteering that little bastard

Clip stop being a brat or idk COMMUNICATE MORE EFFECTIVELY??? what are you going to accomplish by just being discordant and noisy??

FOOL IT IS NOT NICE TO SNATCH

okay clip is trying to communicate more effectively in the worst way possible

g-d damn two brats no feet apart from each other because they have no self control and y/n has no sense JUST PUT IT ON THE GROUND

WHAT NOOOOOOOOO YOU CAN'T FUCKING STOP IT THERE WHAT HAPPENED!? Is Fool saying that about in his head?! Or?? Something?? AAAAAAAAAA THE SUSPENSE WILL SHATTER ME LIKE ALL THOSE DAMN CABINETS

this above all is now a bit outdated since I joined the gitm discord server and have had a grand ol time with discussion and simping and-- mostly simping lmao -- but I took so damn long to make these fucking dumbass memes that it happened out this way

and now for dumbass memes I've made in this whole experience

I was gonna add a Sol one but I fucking. can't stand to put this post off any further it makes me so mad to look at now lmfsdklfjdslkgdlfkg

(these will be added to a separate post btw)

[melliejellybellybean]

The Swift Lineage: folklore (Padme's Version)

Padme is first and foremost, a girl's girl. Above all else. So she never really buys into the media's depiction of Taylor as a "serial dater" who can't keep a man. She has her own experience putting up a public image, so she knows better. That being said, Padme was not super into her music during her Queen of Naboo days. She was too busy running a country.

"But Mellie," you argue, "Satine is also running a country and she's an og swiftie!"

And to that, I say, true. However, I think that Satine has a personal connection to Red and Taylor's other albums that Padme did not have until Satine introduced her to folklore. And yes, Satine was the one who introduced her, who else do you think did it? Pre-Satine's introduction, Padme knew Taylor as the Naboo artist who had some catchy music that her handmaidens would occasionally play and sing along to. But once, she met folklore, that all changed.

folklore was the album that really established Taylor as the master lyricist that she is, and Padme, as a political figure, really can acknowledge and appreciate Taylor's lyricism and way of words. She dissects each and every song on the album. She holds invisible string, mad woman and the lakes real close to her heart. And, on sadder, darker nights (i.e. the time that she breaks up with Anakin for a hot minute in CW) really relates to illicit affairs.

And the kicker is, let's consider how much Padme is a mirrorball girlie. She literally changes her whole image to fit whatever she currently needs to serve her country! Where are my sources?! The whole Padme trilogy! Just read any part and you'll see what I mean!

I don't think that Padme is super into all the theories and general other craziness that swifties participate in, but I do think folklore is her gateway album to fully committing to Taylor's music.

Swift Lineage "Masterlist"