#and the whole games message is about empathy I think

[sergeantcowboy]

Haven't been able to continue any of my digital drawing projects because I've been stuck at my parents place and my pc is not here but here's some random sketches I've been doing. I love you Jorji Costava <3

The last one is my interpetation of the inspector as a child because I happened to re-play that one day where that one entrant says she worked with your dad and claims you were a little brat and it got me thinking. I like to think he was some scrawny nerd that was a lot more sensitive than some of the other boys but because being sensitive as a boy isn't allowed in the mid 1900s especially in some small village he kinda put on a rougher exterior and picked fights with kids half his size as an attempt to prove something.

[theballadofthesunandthestars]

After reading SOTR, it was so refreshing and heartbreaking to read from the point of view of a character who loves so openly. Haymitch bleeds love everywhere he goes; not just for the obvious people like Lenore Dove, or Sid and Ma, but for everyone.

His complete and utter adoration of Lenore Dove? How her flaws, her recklessness and impulsiveness just makes him love her all the more. How he can’t always keep up with her, but he doesn’t resent her for it, just tries his best to and loves her when he can’t understand. The contrast between Snow wanting to control Lucy Gray, even going so far as to say that he wishes she was back in the Arena so he could know where she was, and Haymitch wanting nothing more for Lenore Dove than to be free, even trying to tell Lenore Dove to move on from him when he dies in the Arena.

The way Haymitch expresses such adoration for Hattie, how he admires her hard work and hugs her when she gives him his birthday gift. How he tries to protect her during the Interviews.

Haymitch’s love for his family; how he finds them annoying sometimes, but he loves them. He ruffles Sid’s hair and takes on the role of his father, how he lets Sid drag him out on a clear night to look up at the stars. He hugs his Ma and speaks of her with admiration for her work, even as he’s just as annoyed by her work ethic.

Louella McCoy, who crushed on Haymitch for a week, and it just endeared her to him, made him fiercely protective of her. He never looked down on her for being childish, and he did everything in his power to get justice for her.

Lou Lou, whom he despised at first, only to love her anyways. He didn’t even know her real name, didn’t know anything about her except that she was from Eleven and that she was recording what they were saying, but he loved her anyways because he can’t help it. It spills out of him. He protected her and tried to make her death quick, tried to get justice for what happened to her just as much as he did Louella.

Wyatt, Maysilee, and Effie are my favorite examples of how Haymitch sees the flaws in people, but loves them anyways, embraces them even. Wyatt Callow, who he started by resenting him for his father’s gambling practices, only to grow to love Wyatt for his quick wit, then to mourn him when he was killed on the first day. Maysilee Donner who was spoiled and mean in his eyes, yet he could still see her rebellious and determined nature, her kindness for the other Tributes as she wove their tokens, and he held her hand as she died, cementing her in his mind as his sister. Effie Trinket, who despite her Capitol upbringing, despite her parroting Capitol propaganda lines, Haymitch can’t help but notice her empathy and kindness, and she becomes the only one who can seem to care for him after his Games.

Every single Tribute that he adopted as his own, his flock of doves. He never once thought about winning over any of them, choosing instead to do everything in his power to protect them. He kept the fire running and made nightlights for the young Tributes who feared the dark. He tried to play it cool when meeting with Amphert, but when Amphert hugs him, he just drops the act and hugs him right back. He stayed with Wellie and helped to feed her the best he could, reassuring her the whole time and strategizing how he was going to make her the Victor. He blamed himself for every one of their deaths.

Fuck, even the rabbits in the Arena he becomes fond of. He viewed them as allies and felt guilty when he had to use them to determine what was poisoned.

Haymitch Abernathy loves hard and fast. And that’s what Snow took; his ability to love. He trapped Haymitch into the rascal persona he had put on for the Games. The message he sent with Lenore Dove and Ma and Sid and every single Tribute who Haymitch couldn’t save, was that he would kill anyone Haymitch loved. So he drove people away from him. Forced distance between him and the District Twelve tributes. I think that didn’t even stop him from loving them too, only to watch them killed in the Arena. A yearly reminder of that message.

I hope after the revolution, Haymitch felt free to love without fear again.

[theuniverseiswithyou]

before tsc came out I was all for the idea that the Trojans would care so much about jean they'd break their good guy streak and get a red card defending him, but after having read it I don't think that's the message Nora is heading toward.

all through the sunshine court jean is coming to terms with the Trojan's kindness and empathy. many times he's had conversations about the raven's play style and how toxic and unnecessarily violent it is. jean thinks it's normal and the way the game should be played, he says exactly that to them a lot, but in his head he also acknowledged that the Trojans are the second best right behind the ravens. he knows in his bones that the trojans are going to win championships now that the ravens are gone. according to jean's definition of how the game should be played, nobody but the ravens 'play it right'. but then how are they part of the big three? how are the Trojans championship material when everything about them is antithesis to what he was taught?

I think jean is hurtling towards the realization that the ravens didn't play right. that none of the violence enacted on him and on their opponents was correct or necessary. the Trojans confuse him the same way Neil confuses him, they refuse to give in to pressure. no matter what physical or verbal abuse is thrown their way during games, they never return it. and jean thought at first it meant they don't fight back, but I think in the next book when he starts playing with the Trojans he'll see that they do fight back. just not in the way he was taught.

as vindicating and cathartic as it might seem for the Trojans to get red carded, I think what would be even better for jean's healing is to be nice himself. to play a whole season without getting carded once. to push away instead of towards. to do it so much that by the end he doesn't even think about it.

I want jean to break his cage. I want him to spit on everything the raven instilled in him about how you're 'supposed' to play exy. when he's facing off with an opposing team, and they're calling him a whore and a traitor, I want him to look them in the eyes, smile, and say in the words of the iconic Catalina Alvarez, "have a winning day!"

I want him to kill them with kindness.

[glitter-stained]

Please do tell us about your literal head canon. I’m so interested. I’ve seen your post on what Outlaws should be, but please let us dive further!

So for a moment there I thought you were talking about that joke I once made about giving the canon head and was very confused lmao.

That being said, wrt the canon that exists in my head (aka complete rewrite of Jason's Red Hood run but I'm head of dc editorial): with pleasure! This should also help understand the context of the fic I'm writing rn!

Glitter's complete Jason Todd Head canon (the canon that is in my head)

Batman and Robin 2025, Batgirl and Robin, Nightwing Annual

> First there's the Extended Robin Run: this one I won't spoil because I'm actively working on writing it and it's not necessary to understand the continuity: it's a bunch of jaybin stories intended to fit into Jason's post-crisis robin run and develop it, give it cohesion while also exploring themes such as class consciousness, trauma, mental illness etc. It's not related to the rest of the continuity in so that it's meant to be understood as an expansion of canon rather than a replacement of it, but I do like to think there's a logical continuity between this one and the stories/themes/idea in the Red Hood rewrite so I think it's worth mentioning.

Now onto the meat of it. I do wanna say first thing first, I don't like the ambiguity around Jason's age in the og Batman Annual/Lost Days storyline and the way it seems to serve some psychoanalytical/psychophobic plots, and the whole point of the rewrite is a big fuck you to DC's bias and attempts at manipulating our empathy. Ergo: Jason crawls out of his grave three years later than he does in canon and is sixteen at the time he comes back to Gotham.

Batman: Antigonish

The UTH. Often from Bruce's perspective, lots of Edgar Allan Poe references. Also lots of disguise fuckery. Because Jason looks and is so young, and mostly because I like it, we're leaning fully into the horror genre. Jason, crucially, is not a crime lord in this one.

The main plot points:

> Jason, in disguise, visits Judy Koslovksy in prison (she had actually been convicted after the canon events of The Dumpster Slasher) and tells her to get in contact with her lawyer. Jason then steals evidence, leading to Judy winning her appeal and getting out.

> Jason begins a campaign to demonstrate that Bruce's campaign of ruling through fear cannot work if he never kills anyone ever. To do so, he targets several people who he believes are 1) key players into systems of oppression/mass violence and/or 2) criminals who he thinks are never gonna change their ways and deserve to die for the horror of their crime. Amongst these targets are (amongst others) Black Mask, an extremely corrupt and wealthy politician, and the cop who sexually abused Jason as a child (this one is implied rather than developed because we'll address it properly in its own time, which we get to do because I'm the head of dc editorial). To start his campaign of terror, Jason adopts the identity of the Red Death and sends several unnerving threats to his targets urging them to quit their activities (leaving bloody handprints on their doors, burning stuff down etc). Jason goes after his victims covering himself completely in blood and gore from the slaughterhouse he keeps breaking into, and makes a ghastly apparition. Jason's game doesn't scare the targets (at least not at first not before the first victim) so he goes after them to kill them. He also sends messages/hints/general psychological fuckery to Bruce about his death, actively haunting him.

> Jason's murder always have a veneer of legitimate self-defense, always make it seem like hey the bad guy did it to himself he could have just not tried to attack Jason with a knife Jason just accidentally diverted that knife in their throat, etc. There's a criticism of the pointlessness and hypocrisy of Bruce's line in Jason's eyes, with lots of references to Starlin's Bruce's deadliest moments (ie locking someone in a room in the subway to die).

> Because this is right after Steph's death and "Who killed Stephanie Brown", Jason is haunted by a hallucination of Stephbin who follows him as an incarnation of his rage and guilt. She is in the robin suit and despite Jason having seen pictures of her he can never recall her face, her image looks like someone has smudged black sharpie all over her face.

> Black Mask, having seen what Jason did to his other targets, eventually flees Gotham after Jason cuts him off from his support and sends a rocket into his building, almost exploding him. From Bruce's perspective, this is evidence that fear>death does in fact win, a reasoning we're meant to find flawed (// Bruce's reasoning about Felipe in Diplomat's Son).

> Jason may be a killer, but he's far from cold-blooded about it (yet). After he goes after his last target and ends up fighting on a balcony in front of roadwork, the villain tries to push Jason into the roadwork down the street; Jason defends himself but ends up accidentally pushing the man and watches him die a painful, horrifying death in some kind of press, a much more gory and terrible death than originally planned.

> Having retraumatized himself, Jason cries on the balcony, the rain washing the gore off his face, and then picks up a red hood/mask get-up and assumes the identity of the Red Hood to go to Arkham and kill Joker, knowing that Bruce will follow him there.

> The confrontation happens like in canon (oh Bludhaven also explodes) but without explosives because I can't bomb Arkham. Bruce sends the batarang through Jason's neck and he clamps on it, starting to bleed out; but before anybody can do anything, Judy shoots the Joker dead with the phone Bruce discarded, revealing that she'd been tracking Jason to repay a debt and also that she did Gotham and humanity a favour. Bruce hesitates, Judy claims that this time, she won't be condemned for sure, and that Jason is bleeding: if Bruce goes after her, surely he will die. Bruce hesitates but goes after her and arrests her. When he comes back, the Joker's body has been taken by an Arkham guard and burnt, there's a large, large puddle of blood on the floor and Jason is gone.

Nightwing: Ash to Ash

This one I need to flesh out much more but basically, Jason, dissociating, walks to Bludhaven (which just exploded) and finds a dissociating, suicidal Nightwing. Ensues a comedy of horror where both end up convinced Jason is dead and his ghost is haunting Dick, with classics such as Dick telling Jason to go away and stop haunting him, Jason almost jumping off the roof, Dick hauling him up and begging him not to leave him, nobody being okay enough to wonder why Dick was able to haul the incorporeal ghost up the ledge and some kind of weird "you don't die and I don't die/leave" pact with your ghost dead brother who's not actually dead. In the end, Dick is a little more stable and Jason decides he doesn't need him haunting him anymore and leaves; Dick wakes up and calls one of his friends and finds evidence/realizes that Jason was actually alive the whole time and not just a hallucination but it's too late, Jason is gone. Dick is the one to inform the hero community that Jason is back, but is in crisis/need of help. Idk if it's shown here since this is Dick's POV, but Jason is also absolutely still hallucinating Steph.

Green Arrow: Double Red Daisies

Seeing Red rewrite! Again, not extraordinarily fleshed out, but the idea is that I wanna keep the parallels and Mia's story, the fact that this is foremost a Mia story where she views Jason as a dark mirror she's terrified of becoming, and the contrast between Oliver and Bruce's parenting, while also pushing the reader to feel empathy for Jason/highlighting his, arguably pretty valid, point about teenage sidekicks. In this one, the reference to Jason's csa backstory is explicit and not open to interpretation. At the end, having been thoroughly rejected by Mia and her conviction that she'll never be like him, Jason leaves.

Red Hood: The Hourglass

Voluntary time-loop time! A mini where Jason finds a time machine and attempts to solve his death/relationship to Bruce/be saved in time/save his mother (Catherine)/save his mother (Sheila) and restarts the time-loop again and again and again. The point is the heartbreaking realisation that you can't fix trauma, you can never save anyone, it already happened, you're never going to have been saved. However it turns out this isn't a time machine but some kind of dream/stasis machine. In the end, someone (Black Canary) ends up freeing Jason under Barbara's lead; it's revealed she's monitored his comeback but cannot bring herself to approach him.

And at the end, training montage! Jason thinks back on everything and decides he was fucked because his hands shake when he holds a gun since the events of Antigonish, so he practices again and again to become more cold-blooded, convinced this is the only way to survive. We are officially entering Red Hood's most ruthless era.

Red Hood: War Hounds

Jason voluntarily enters an illegal fighting ring (dog fight symbolism be upon ye) lying that he is 15 and portrays himself as super vulnerable, and successfully catches the eye of the child trafficking ring he's been tracking due to its ties with Black Mask (who has continued its activities outside of Gotham after Antigonish, surprise surprise). Jason is then sent to a facility that attempts to train child soldier, where he is the oldest, older than their recruitment age. There, the children are trained for combat and murder, and the staff uses torture to "break them". Jason meets and protects the oldest of the kids, a ten years old red head girl called Sasha. She calls him out on some self-destructive behaviour and he replies he has nothing to live for. A couple of Jason torture sequences later, he sneaks into an office and steals intel of their communication with Black Mask. He sends Black Mask false info while pretending to be the head of the ring, then steals a chess piece from the chessboard. He then rescues the kids, going through the facility in a one-man army and either killing or locking anyone he meets up. He tells the children to run, and then goes back to set the whole facility on fire (yes, with all the people inside it; I did say it was the ruthless era.) When he comes back, Sasha is watching the fire and tells him she wants to be like him. He tells her not to and she tells him he was wrong about having nothing to live for because he fights like a survivor.

Batman: Hour of the Mask

Very chess-themed!Jason's plan for torturing and. killing Black Mask goes awry when it turns out Steph is alive. Between Steph finding out about what happened, Black Mask thirsty for vengeance, a righteous Batman and a furious Selina,

Jason, with Batman hot on his heels, still manages to kidnap Black Mask and is found by Steph first; finding out then and there that she is alive, he pivots to offering to kill him for her or letting her do it if she wants; she hesitates but can't bring herself to do it or let Jason do it. They are interrupted by Selina, who decides actually, she wants to be the one killing him for what he did to her family. To give her time, Jason surrenders himself to Batman, smiling even as he kneels with his head behind his head and is taken to Blackgate, looking very much like the cat that got the canary.

Red Devil #16-17: Sympathy for the Devil

Jason escapes Blackgate by poisoning the food of a whole lot bunch of rapists, child abusers and human traffickers (how he managed to do that selectively is future me's problem). He then comes to help Eddie Bloomberg who is struggling with something, but does so in disguise, under an anonymous identity. The two have intense chemistry, they're both such yearners. Despite Jason's acknowledgement that he is a person from Eddie's past and refusal to confess to who he is, they end up kissing about it (well, Eddie kisses Jason's mask) and then Jason ties a scarf again Eddie's eyes and gives him the mother of all blowjobs. At the end of the story, Eddie finds himself in love with this stranger from his past, and Jason realizes that his childhood crush never went away and finds himself in love with Eddie, and thus decides to leave him because he's decided that's something too precious to ruin and he won't be able to take it when Eddie finds out who he has become and abandons him.

Red Hood: Ash Wednesday

Lost Days rewrite! (Taking a page out of Winick's book and putting this flashback mini right after Jason's most brutal crimes to bring back empathy for the character and remind the reader of how young he is to be doing such things). A whole bunch of horror elements in that one too!

We see over the course of the year a progression of a freshly resurrected Jason from his jaybin era to developing his philosophy in Antigonish. This arc has no psychoanalysis, no Talia character assassination (idfc about Death and the Maidens and you can't make me), issue titles are a bunch of "First" because it does follow a teenage/child development/coming of age structure, ie First Steps, First etc. and the last one: First Kill. We also see Rena for the first time since the Jaybin era! She's back in Gotham for college and trying to uncover Jason's grave by washing all the dirty/abandoned/unreadable tombstones in all the cemeteries in Gotham. She started this work as at fifteen but had to leave because of her dad's work and promised Jason she'd come back someday. The panel of her leaving the cemetery in the evening, hands covered in dirt and exhausted, is of course immediately followed by Jason, an alley after the one she was working on, crawling out of his grave alone that night.

[smileposting]

what are your feelings on inspekta being both a sympathetic character and a (now former) fascist?

WELL. first of all, i think it's Probably worth noting that even while GGG's representation of the conditions that can give rise to fascism are Uncannily accurate at times (as outlined in this very excellent post by elkian) it is Also a story in which the central message is "maybe talk to your friends instead of conspiracy-posting when you start to feel bad about yourself, dipshit," and therefore its representation of fascism/fascist thought As A Whole is very... how do i say this without sounding disparaging. "saturday morning cartoon"-esque. i think this is pretty apparent in how the worst that the bizzyboys' reign of terror ever gets is banning The Concept Of Art and not, like. genocide. the only Actual fatal threat (the rift) is saved for the very end, and inspekta/hector is talked down before it can actually cause any fatalities -- otherwise, inspekta and the bizzyboys would be very different antagonists that would require the narrative to treat them much more harshly, and this would result in a very different game overall (although not one i would be opposed to playing.)

second of all, i wanna talk more about the idea of GGG being less of a game about taking down a single power-hungry fascist and more an examination of the conditions that can eventually lead to fascism if left unchecked. for just one example, we can see that even before inspekta came into power (or at least, before he started his corruption arc) and even in a world where every god is genuinely kind and just and deserving of their position, it was generally The Norm to not really call them out To Their Face - any displeasure a character voices with a god's (apparent) decision is directed to each other and the godpoke, not to the god themselves, even when that god is perfectly open to visitors and/or feedback. and this is bad because despite the gods no longer being Physically human, they are still just as fallible - they have a tendency to jump to conclusions, they let their devotion to their interests or one another cloud their judgement, they struggle with showing vulnerability (which, ironically, makes them more vulnerable than they would be otherwise.) not only does the grove benefit from regular contact with the gods to make sure that their needs are being met -- it benefits the gods, too, by way of keeping them from getting lost in their own heads and losing touch with their own humanity.

i think it's also worth noting that the bizzyboys are not the only characters we see buying into fascist rhetoric, or at least stuff that benefits fascism in the long run. you could argue that anyone who bought into inspekta's framing of king in the first place also counts, given that to do so would probably Also require one to believe that the gods are infallible. it's also worth noting that a Lot of the more notable supporting characters who fall into this are also doing so out of a profound sense of alienation; saul can't remember the last time he talked to any of his friends and he thinks nobody takes him seriously, pollina's students don't sound like they're being taught much of anything about milldread's history and therefore they have very little to actually connect them to milldread, nobody likes rick brick and he has no interiority to speak of By Design, etc etc. all of these characters, however, are also treated with a fair amount of empathy - ol' bloom turns out to be Correct in believing that saul doesn't have what it takes to kill him and once the issue of the harvest is solved, he's welcomed back with open arms, pollina's students are like 8, and even rick brick's story ends with him beginning to realize that maybe it's okay if a story only appeals to its author and nobody else.

tl;dr: if ggg was even Slightly less cartoony than it actually is, this aspect of inspekta would come across as pretty jarring, but given the aspects of fascism that GGG chooses to focus on and how it treats smaller antagonists, i can't really imagine inspekta's story ending any other way. if i Did have any actual concerns, i'd say maybe it's that the bizzyboys being from the drain + the drain having such a negative connotation can get kinda dicey? something about the idea of fascism being an Evil Foreign Entity and not something that can just as easily start at home doesn’t sit quite right with me. but ofc a lot of emphasis is placed on the bizzyboys' humanity and potential to do good if not for inspekta's own Complexes getting the better of him (and even inspekta's own genuine capacity for leadership before that happened) so that's probably more of a potential bone to pick with fanwork, given how little exploration drain actually Gets in canon.

also i hope this doesn't Need to be said but just to be clear: i'm not trying to like, call out limbolane or Inspekta Himself, just examining what this aspect of his character was trying to Accomplish + how it relates to the game's themes and such. with that said i am very much still a novice when it comes to political analysis of media so if anybody more well-read than me wants to chime in, Please feel free to do so lol.

[rootspiral]

Agatha All Along deep dive: episode 9 part 5

(Wandavision entries: [1][2][3])

(AAA entries: ep1 [1][2][3][4] ep2 [1][2][3][4] ep3 [1][2][3] ep4 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][+1] ep5 [1][2][3][4][5] ep6 [1][2][3] ep7 [1][2][3][4][5][6] ep8 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] ep9 [1][2][3][4][5][6])

question for you: it that only a reflection from set lights, or did agatha have tears in her eyes?

because, well, this is agatha. she's putting on a show, so you know that she's not as confident as she wants to appear. I imagine that suddenly turning into a ghost is not an easy adjustment. super interesting from a nerdy scholary prospective, but psychologically?? idk

billy, as usual, has to beg her to PLEASE BE SERIOUS FR

I toOK A calCULateD RiSK

whatever you say you big loser

then she demonstrates being a ghost by trying to slap billy. it's scientific and not ridiculous at all

at long last, and very, very late in the game she explains the nature of the Road to billy - and notice how she's still not able to be completely honest, despite all the previous moments they shared. the song means the world to her, but she's not ready to admit that yet.

the Road was very very very much real, and all the deaths that happened do count

I'll die on the hill that billy is a good person at heart. the tower, the potential for tragedy and destruction, is just that, a potential that the people in his life - the kaplans, eddie, the coven and yes, even agatha - are helping keep unfulfilled.

agatha shakes her head, gently, carefully. and we can see there has been some growth here: the first time billy supposedly killed someone she went on a whole speech about how Killing Makes You a Survivor Actually, a speech that was more about her than him. she's at least considering his feelings now

and btw agatha's "death" not being final like the others' doesn't cheapen the message at all. these are shows about dealing with / accepting mortality, and that is a journey agatha has just started. she (somehow, crying and screaming and flying by the seat of her pants) cheated death and will get herself a new body, and that's just one step forward and two steps back on her way to learn to finally stop running.

remember when nicky was upset about killing witches and agatha avoided the subject by singing a song to him, because she didn't know how to relieve a child of the guilt that was hers and only hers? she is trying now. she sees how this is devastating billy and she (badly) tries to absolve him. she is the one who lured the coven into a trap, who didn't disclose the nature of the Road, who very much killed alice.

and mark my words: she knows who sharon is, she absolutely remembers her name. I think she feels the most guilty about killing sharon, because with alice it was kind of an accident, but she went out of her way to doom this poor little lady, and she's been distancing herself from her with callous jokes since the beginning.

look at her face. this is Empathy. I've talked a lot about how for agatha it's easier to feel empathy for people with similar stories and backgrounds to hers. she felt it for wanda and ran from it. billy has the added quality of being perfect son material (I'll get to that in a minute) and right now? she knows what he's going through. she was once a girl born with the power to kill people, a power she didn't know how to stop, and it ruined her life and doomed everyone who crossed her path.

and she's still trying to have her cake and eat it too! consoling billy while still keeping her "whatever I don't care anyway" fake vibes. I'd say that she's matured a little, sure! from toddler to at least first grader. she even dares to roll her eyes when mentioning jen, this actual piece of ghostly turd.

please please please let jen come back in a marvel property that doesn't suck / hopefully written by jac and her team. please please please let us see what she does next

"should I go check on how agatha and billy are doing? nope screw them bye bye losers omw to rebuild my empire!" *nyoooooom*

(I don't know what I'd like to see more, jen becoming a force for good right away or still on the road to recovery, clashing heads with agatha.)

agatha takes a deep breath (can ghosts actually breathe tho) and gives billy a speech reminiscent of what she told nicky all those years ago. if you want to survive, get used to this feeling. we are supposed to read this interaction with the added context of her relationship with her own son (hence the callback). so why does agatha gives billy the nicky treatment now?

I think billy is all that agatha hoped and wanted nicky to be - a partner in crime who can keep up with her intelligence and sense of humor, a powerful witch she can pass her knowledge to, and a son who will love her and stick by her side no matter what. billy is the whole package, from the very beginning she couldn't see him as just the carrier of the very power she needed to bring nicky back; another hunger took over, the hunger to claim him and raise him as her own.

which brings us to the crucial question: why does agatha want a son? why did she have nicky in the first place? the answer, in true agatha fashion, is selfish, flawed, tragic, human. she wanted to fix her own childhood. she wanted to raise a version of herself who had all the love and support of a mother. and so she made sure that nicky had what she never had, including books and lessons to learn magic from. she tried to make him immune to life's heartbreaks - get used to this feeling, like she never could (because she never managed to make her own heart impervious, she only hid it away and tried to ignore it.) she essentially imagined her child as a a mini-me who committed all the same atrocities with no guilt or remorse and the added bonus of a mother cheerleading them on. another cheat sheet, a way to fix herself without actually working on her issues.

except nicky wasn't exactly what she had expected. he didn't like killing witches. instead of a talent for magic, he showed a talent for music and, credit where credit's due, agatha encouraged and nurtured it. when nicky died, agatha was on her way to accept that he was his own wonderful person and that being a parent is an exercise in selflessness. despite all her mistakes, she did one fundamental thing right: she loved nicky so freaking much, and was genuinely loved in return. who knows what could have happened if they were allowed to continue on that path.

billy is also very much his own person (not to mention almost and adult) so he simply won't let agatha project her issues all over him. (agatha is like, "challenge accepted.")

her love for billy is not in question, but now she has to be selfless and admit he doesn't exactly need mentoring in serial killing. what did billy need from the Road after all? it wasn't power. it was a sense of identity, a community, help in finding himself and his brother. agatha knows this perfectly, she's just *gestures in her general direction* like that.

go to episode 9 part 6

[otori0]

talent and expectations | arturo giles rant

I was really hesitant to post this here, but it has been a while since I've posted an analysis and I feel like Arturo isn't talked enough, so why not. This was written on a twt thread that was meant for me and one friend so it's a bit messy. Also take into account that we're lacking a lot of info on him so none of this is my definitive opinion and I'm sure my thoughts will change and develop when more DRDT releases. And like in all my rants, this is just my opinion and interpretation, and I 100% respect other different perspectives!

VERY messy, very incoherent thoughts and opinions.

Much like David, Teruko, Arei and Ace, among other DRDT characters, Arturo is another example of a person who closed themselves off emotionally to the point of losing empathy because they dont want to face their issues. I feel like the fandom fails to see this because he's the icky one, the one that makes people uncomfortable. There's nothing wrong with being uncomfortable with Arturo's actions, he IS a weirdo, but I think it's a shame that he isn't as understood and talked about as the other characters who fall into this. I would even say that this is a huge part of DRDT's message. You have to open yourself up to others and trust, you have to face your reality, and so on.

Arturo outright denies what happened with his sister because he can't handle the guilt that would come to admit that he had some sort of responsibility over his sister's suicide. If we take his word for it, his sister commited suicide because of him leaving to make his own life (although I don't doubt there's more to it), which he absolutely rejects and denies to the point of threatening Eden. This comes from the extreme distress the situation gives him. He often shows being emotionally closed off, being extremely evasive of his issues, and a lack of empathy constant through the game that is in no small part because of this. Because if you hate and reject others and don't even stop to consider the effect your words has on them, then your mind is at peace and you don't have to face these flaws. It's like they don't even exist- just like Arturo himself says, they're all below human to him. In return, he seems deeply affected by J's rejection and attitude, so it's easy to assume that he is generally affected by other people's actions, just shuts that down more often than not. Arturo is a mess, he's full of contradictions, but this is not all that surprising considering his life until now.

We know that all DRDT characters are over 18, but Arturo is specifically 18. As far as I know, Min has mentioned being 18 on her bonus episode, so considering a few years should have passed, she is probably above 18, or exactly 18. Either way, this makes Arturo one of the youngest, if not the youngest in the cast. And yet, I feel like the fandom fails to see this sometimes and always expect better from him— which is another focal point of his character, in my opinion, and the next point i want to go into. Just like the meme says, I feel like a lot of people have fallen for the character's facade that's meant to be dismantled by the viewer, much like David's lies (I will keep bringing him up bc he's the easiest to compare, but this applies to many other characters, which makes me believe even more that it's the case for Arturo too).

I believe the point of Arturo's characterization is that your talent doesnt translate to actual ability when faced with certain situations, and also, that intelligence doesnt translate to maturity. This is more easily seen in David and his complex relationship with his speech persona and the world as a whole, but that's a different topic that many people have already delved into and not the point of this rant. (I will sidetrack for a second to say that one of my favorite things about DRDT is how you can make some sort of connection between almost any duo of characters, it's really interesting to me how they're all just constantly projecting their issues onto each other despite how much they have in common). But we can still see it on Arturo, especially with his attitude during the trial when he doesn't see himself as able to save Levi, of course he doesn't, he's young and doesn't have the type of experience the others assume he has. Adding to this that Arturo started studying ONLY plastic surgery since he was 12, it's easy to assume that he hasn't grown up normally, even more if he did actually leave his house to pursue his studies. I believe that Arturo's immaturity (despite his intelligence) comes from here.

Part of me hopes that Arturo doesn't get a redemption arc like Arei, I hope he doesnt get redeemed at all, because a lot of people can only sympathise when a character shows the specific emotions they can sympathise with (fear, sadness and regret, mostly) but as soon as they break that mold, there's a lack of willingness to sympathise and understand them (I have a separate rant on my twt priv about how characters who display anger instead of sadness are way more disliked and misunderstood, if anyone wants me to post it I'll think about it, although it's even more personal than this one). I think it'd be more interesting if he takes a different direction, although I'm definitely very curious to see how will Ace's words affect him in the future, and whether Levi lives or dies.

Lastly, although obviously DRDT is a fangan and not an official game, I think it's important to remember one of the core aspects of Danganronpa when discussing DRDT, which is how talents affect people's lives and personalities. This is easily seen in many DRDT characters so I won't go too into it aside from Arturo. We have characters whose whole personalities were shaped around their talent (Junko being the biggest example, but many others come to mind), and I believe Arturo is another example of this that goes unnoticed. Veronika herself has theorized that Arturo's initial slight aversion towards ugliness, before it was an actual issue, was worsened by his talent. Obviously Veronika isn't Arturo, but judging by his reaction and her talent to pinpoint people's deepest issues, we can assume this is true to an extent. This also connects to Arturo's quote about Mai: ''A girl who sees the beauty in everyone''. So there's definitely more to his personality than meets the eye, and as ''weird'' (i hate the use of that word esp in fandom spaces) as he is, I don't think he's all that worse or hard to comprehend than the rest.

My original rant stopped here so I don't really know how to end it. But I hope it was interesting!

[cesussy]

songs(well, mostly lyrics) that remind me of aventurine <3

JAKSJKAJAJA kinda nervous this is my first post on tumbrl so ahahjaus im so in love with aventurine i cant stop thinking about him lately💔 so some of these might sound delusional😭(but i like to think that i understood his character right so.. 😌) ALSO!! i doubt anyone is gonna see this but let me know if you'd like some other character from star rail<3 (or genshin, zzz etc, i have the games i like on my description profile, but you can just ask and if i know the character ill try my best to answer😌)

back to the topic<3(songs down bellow):

Million Dollar Man - Lana Del Rey

"You're screwed up and brilliant, look like a million dollar man.. so why is my heart broke?" - this song reminds me sm of himmm, the whole idea of a man who is so fascinating but so distant and cold at the same time, like the kind of person you can watch but never get too close

"You've got the world, but baby, at what price?" - i think this fits well with everything he had to endure only to work for the ipc.. you know, like, the idea of an illusion of freedom, he has money and all, but.. is he really, truly, free?:(

Big Spender - Peggy Lee

"The minute you walked in the joint, I could see you were a man of distinction.. A real big spender. Good lookin', so refined.." - ok i really have no explanation for this one, i think it speaks for itself😭

Luxurious - Gwen Stefani

"Working so hard every night and day and now we get the pay back, trying so hard, saving up the paper, now we get to lay back" - this one i feel it more, like, in terms of vibes, the whole sensual vibe, the song having the whole theme of working for money but it still has a rich vibe to it, you know?

Money Power Glory - Lana Del Rey

"I want money, power and glory, I want money and all your power, all your glory" - you'll see a lot of Lana, but I really think he fits with some songs. as for the lyrics, the song itself doesn't fit with his lore totally, but i like the chorus, i think it fits with WHY he likes the idea of having money, back then when he was a slave.. he meant nothing to the world. now that he has it, he is considered powerful.. glorious. i like to think that he understands this mentality, how much, unfortunately, money controls the world

"My life, it comprises of losses and wins and fails and falls" - i think this really works with his luck, how he always emerges victorious even after so many hardships he has to go through

Beneath the Mask - Lyn

"I'm a shapeshifter at Poe's masquerade, hiding both face and mind, all free for you to draw" - it feels a little silly to put a persona song on a star rail post😭 but i feel like beneath the mask works so well with characters that don't show their true self(haha did you get that) to the world, which works so much with the flirty, confident persona(im so funny) aventurine puts on, the "mask" he so created to conceal his feelings

Summertime Sadness - Lana Del Rey

"Think I'll miss you forever.. Like the stars miss the sun in the morning sky" - this line doesnt really work with him😭 but it plays in my mind once in a while while thinking of him<3 especially in the (!! spoiler for the 2.1 quest? !! tho i think everyone finished it already) quest where everyone thought he was dead

Numb Little Bug - Em Beihold

"Do you ever get a little bit tired of life? Like you're not really happy, but you don't wanna die? Like you're hanging by a thread, but you gotta survive 'cause you gotta survive.. Like your body's in the room, but you're not really there? Like you have empathy inside, but you don't really care?Like you're fresh out of love, but it's been in the air.. Am I past repair?" - i actually found this song on an edit on tiktok with him and i think it fits so insanely good with him. i recently saw(again, spoilers for 2.2 quest?😭) the messages he sent to the trailblazer after argenti rescued him and i noticed he told the trailblazer something like "but i survived, and im happy about that". i cant tell if he was being sincere or not, but id like to think that he indeed was happy to get the chance to keep going; i like to imagine that aventurine has an interesting view on death, he doesn't fear it and he probably wished more than once he could just vanish, but i think he accepted that he still has a long journey ahead of him

The Death of a Bachelor - Panic! At The Disco

"I'm walking the long road, watching the sky fall" "I'm cutting my mind off, feels like my heart is going to burst. Alone at a table for two, and I just wanna be served.." - the first line fits so well with whatever happened with him and acheron and that whole black nihility hole; as for the song itself? the lyrics dont exactly fit, but the whole vibe is so him<3

i also made a playlist with some other songs as well if youd like to check it out(not all fit lyrically, ive added some just for vibes), you can check it out here!! aaand let me know if you have some songs that remind you of him! id be happy to listen to them<3

[kryaaas]

hey I hope you are well! I really like your disco analysis and I was wondering about how you felt about the speed freaks!

I really liked them when I first played, they are all charming in their own way and I think they are a really fun part of the story, but it wasn’t until my second playthrough that I really started thinking about some of the more complicated glimpses we have into the group, like Noid’s ideology that has fascist underpinnings (but not completely? He has really contradictory ideas that are a little overwhelming to parse through) and Andre seeming a little more unpleasant/ potentially not a good person or at least not a good boyfriend? Like how he’s maybe much older than Acele and the empathy check where it says something like “he’s furious acele has ruined this for them. She was going to be in trouble” and him selling her headphones. also Of Course Acele’s backstory as the daughter of basically a mafia member is SO interesting and I want to know everything about her. Also Egghead’s everything. I was just curious how you felt about them/ your thoughts on their place in the story!

Ohh I love speedfreaks, the nightclub is one of the best parts of the game

Noid is very interesting. He seems to be somewhat anarchy-adjacent nihilist — denouncing right-left axis, hating authority/oppressive institutions. Yet the the game makes a parallel to fascism, even though Noid clearly states he is not one:

There is also this moment where he mentions “always already”, which is a phrase made by a Nazi

Since these ravers are a representation of counterculture - it's possible that the game references the overlap between fascism and some real punk movements (though I’m not expert on this subject)

Noid also seems directionless with his self-made ideology. He may talk all about how we should destroy the whole system and embrace “unity”, but he doesn’t have any real concrete ideas on how to achieve it, except for his abstract belief in ✨hardcore✨. I gues its easy for some fascist ideas to get hold in this case, even if its unintentional

For Andre, yeah he doesn't seem like the best boyfriend. Though I have no idea what age gap he and Acele have. The whole thing about speedfreaks being possibly being older than they look was kinda a shock to me lol

Egghead is described as “much older than you thought” and “at least 45”

(god being such an asshole to them hurts so bad)

While the only thing we know about Andre’s age is that he is “older than 20”

So possible he is 30+??? Acele is said to be in her late teens, so the potential age gap is concerning lol

Their relationship doesn't seem all bad though - at least she completely trusts Andre

(and "control him?" Whatever that means……Acele is full of mysteries isn’t she. There is more to her than meets the eye, having experience in organised crime because of her father)

And yeah Egghead is Egghead, he is perfect. HARDCORE TO THE MEGA

In general though, despite all their flaws, ravers’ story has a hopeful message. Their little nightclub may not stop the pale, or the nuke, it may not even last for a long time, but their desire to to create something new, something mesningful in the ruined church *mattered*. Giving a chance to create this nightclub *mattered*. Completely destroying the dance floor with them and Kim *mattered*

[highfantasy-soul]

I really loved re-watching Rogue One after watching Andor and reading Rebel Rising - they lead so perfectly into each other and really do fill in the gaps as to why Jyn views the world the way she does and what's going on with Cassian.

Tevik is complaining he's been trying to contact Cassian - and we now know that it was because Cass was saving Kleya on Coruscant and getting the intel that Lonnie had passed on. So when Cassian gets to him and he's confirming so much of what they've just learned - and adding more info to it - everything falling together like puzzle pieces.

There's no indication of how long it was between finding out the info about Galen Erso and prison breaking Jyn, but from the novel, we know that people who had run with Saw and knew Jyn were now working with the rebellion - there are still factions that exchange info and Jyn had been working with one when she got caught - I'm sure it took a little bit of time, but everyone putting together their own puzzle pieces could have led them to realize who Jyn really was and how to find her.

I see Cassian seeing the same rebellious and independent streak he himself has in Jyn - and can't trust that she'll use it to agree with his side of things. But in the end, their first 'confrontation', he does let her keep the blaster - he knows how the average person can make a difference with the right tools even if they'd never been part of the Rebellion before (but also knows the damage they can cause if they do the wrong thing). It's not to protocol, but the first thing Jyn experiences is Cassian breaking protocol to let her, an unknown, be able to defend herself.

Krennic's scenes with Tarkin even take on a deeper understanding - when Tarkin complains about leaks, he's talking about failure after failure, not just Bodhi defecting. We see in Andor all the failures of Krennic with Dedra and her fallout and no matter how much Krennic did with the Ghorman massacre and all his machinations, it wasn't enough and Tarkin still took control.

Cassian was sent to kill Galen but he disobeyed orders - knowing the power of a message and detailed information and how to change a plan mid-mission. Each small piece of the puzzle helps them get closer to the end game and he knows exactly when and why to disobey. He watched as Galen threw himself in front of his men who were about to be gunned down, he made a calculation and decided that Galen either had been turned or could be to help the rebellion - and keeping one more family together couldn't be a bad thing.

Jyn accusing him of being no better than a trooper was from her perspective, one we completely understand from Rebel Rising and her experience with the rebel sects in her past. But even in the 'omniscient' perspective of the scene, we know Cassian didn’t "just follow orders" nor has he this entire movie: he let Jyn keep the blaster - a hint that he's not all 'perfect soldier' and we haven't seen him ever 'just follow orders' when they were wrong. He also HAS lost everything due to the Empire - maybe not in the literal sense that people took it when Rogue One came out, but just because he has a found family in the rebellion doesn’t mean he doesn’t miss Maarva, B2, Brasso, Bix, his sister, Ferrix, freedom.

Why would the point of a war story about rebels against a cruel and unfeeling Empire be that the Rebels, too, are cold and unfeeling and have no family? That's the whole crux of rebellions: connection and empathy for others. Why would a major theme be 'actually, none of them have anyone and they spent all this time at the Rebel base and chose to not connect with anyone there except for Jyn because she's the chosen one'? When he said Jyn wasn't the only one who lost everything, I think it was opening up the theme of 'even after you've lost so much, there's still the opportunity to connect again - that's what's waiting for you in the rebellion and that's what we've all experienced'.

Cassian knows when and where and how to break orders - he knows the cost of breaking those orders and the havoc it causes in the organization. Jyn doesn't understand the ripple effect and how hard it is to make those decisions (like keeping a hidden radio and rushing off to save someone without getting permission) and Jyn is blaming him for…. doing the right thing. Exactly how Cassian used to do before he was fully 'in' the rebellion. He's giving her Luthen's tough love his own way - and it makes sense he's so pissed because Luthen would have taken the shot - Cassian didn't and yet is still getting chastised for thinking about it by someone who has avoided making big-picture calls. Jyn doesn’t know him (nor do the watchers) but everything we've actually seen Cassian do hasn't been 'rebellion approved'.

I don't know where the fandom version of Cassian who's a "good rebel soldier who only starts questioning it when Jyn arrives" came from because I think his frustration in the getaway ship is that he's /been/ choosing his own path but Jyn hasn't been there to see it and is just making a bunch of assumptions about him. Understandable assumptions due to her past, but that's part of Jyn's journey: unlearning her assumptions about the rebels. But Cassian has been getting chewed out by leadership his entire life so I can imagine it's mind-numbingly frustrating to have just disobeyed to help someone he doesn't even know only to have them, also, chew him out for it.

I love the scene after Jyn tries to convince the council so much: Cassian wasn't even in the meeting because he /knew/ what the council would say, so he went ahead and gathered a team to be waiting when she got out.

When Cassian says "They were never going to believe you" he's talking from experience. He just had the same argument with them right before Kafrene. He really sees himself in Jyn and he believes her, he saw Galen throw himself in front of his men about to be gunned down - he's disobeyed orders for the right reasons before and so has Melshi. The refrain "make it worth it" has been a thread through all of Andor and it comes to a head here in Rogue One - we've seen the things Cassian has done and we've seen how his decisions to do it hinged on the success of the Rebellion and a hope for a future. This is Luthen's last mission and he's not just going to sit it out because the council said so. He believes in Jyn's hope, so he's going to follow through.

When Jyn says "I'm not used to people sticking around when things go bad" and Cassian says "Welcome home" - it shows that this is what he does. This isn't out of the ordinary, it's natural and 'home' to not give up when you're in the rebellion, even when the council says no. This is who he is, not some change in him. And we see the same in Mon Mothma and Bail: they ignore the council's wishes too and prepare for war. Bail wanting to go down swinging, Mon knowing that you have to work around group decisions and set things up for war. This is further emphasized when the rebels get the Imperial transmission that there are rebels on Scarif and General Raddus has already taken off in his ship to go fight with them. Despite the surface-level 'we agree as a committee' they try to stick to, there are TONS of rebels who will go off-book to do what they feel is right.

Jyn and Cassian are great parallels as characters: Jyn tries desperately to not care about anything and everything around her tries to tell her not to but she ends up caring anyways. Cassian is desperately trying to pretend that he's a just a random guy who has some luck and not taking initiative, but he ends up putting himself on the line and taking those wild chances anyways because of the faintest chance of a hope.

They both try to intellect and logic their way out of doing illogical things for the rebellion, but the thing is:

"There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. [the Death Star, invading Scarif and getting the plans out while overwhelmed by the enemy]

Remember this, Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they’ve already enlisted in the cause. [Jyn, Baze, Chirrut, Bhodi]

Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. [literally everything in Andor that led to Rogue One, Raddus setting off already with his crew, Bail sending Leia to get Obi Wan so that she's in the right position to get the plans and pass them on]

And remember this: the Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. [Krennic and Tarkin]

Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empires’s authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege. [the rebels that get the Death Star plans off Scarif by sacrificing their lives]

Remember this: Try.

And that's exactly what Jyn and Cassian (and the rest of the crew) do: they try because it is so natural for them to do so. Because the rebellion isn't about following orders and ceding control - it's about community and empathy and freedom. There is no one, grand leader to show the way and to be obeyed - it's a collective striving together, making mistakes, finding love, sacrificing everything for someone else's sunrise.

[emblemxeno]

Random Fates thoughts that I wanted to write down

I think a personal reason why I love Fates' (and most other FE games') writing so much is because Fates doesn't shy away from meaningfully analyzing and criticizing how war comes to be and what it does to people.

It rightfully points out that Nohr's militaristic culture is bad, as well as Hoshido's isolationism and xenophobia. Most of all though, it rightfully deduces that war is unnatural, a product of terrible and/or aggrieved and resentful people stoking prejudices and anger in others, so they can end up profitting off it when the innocents start fighting each other.

Anankos even says, verbatim, "Why should I suffer alone?" He's all powerful, but access to power can corrupt someone over time and make them go off the deep end. It happens where one unfair backlash forces him into exile. He becomes resentful, paranoid. And he begins to spread that volatility to others. The war that eventually breaks out is then able to fuel itself because of cyclical violence, vengeance, and ignoranace, aspects that Fates also heavily touches on.

Nohr and Hoshido would not have as hostile a relationship that they have were their cultures not set into motion by Anankos' influence, first by razing Valla, then corrupting Nohr through Garon, then by attacking Hoshido. Nohr, while still suffering from poor harvests and rough terrain, would not be obsessed with conquest as a way of survival. Hoshido, while still isolationist, would not sink into outlandish xenophobia that results in anyone with ties to Nohr being branded a monster or a traitor.

And who else profits from the war? Other notable scumbags, like Iago (wants power), Hans (wants his own country), Kotaro (wants Hoshido for himself), etc.

There's other little things that, thanks to Corrin being the protagonist, sets up a certain lens to see through, as well.

Every life is precious and every time one is lost, it's treated with necessary weight.

Being a prince and a relative of both royal families means your action has more consequence than just fighting your siblings, it affects the situation of the common people and military as well.

Compassion, empathy and will is the cure to destructive warfare. Corrin would never meaningfully be able to pick a side, had he not been written being raised in Nohr, nor written as a character who's unendingly kind, broadening his horizons and has an unflinching moral code.

I just love this stuff! I know most people prefer the "both sides have a point, no one's truly at fault here" kind of message that a certain other game presents, but I think that comes across as victim blame-y and almost inane in how there's no endgoal.

No, actually, it's not reasonable to propose that people will always eventually devolve into war because they have clashing ideals. In fact, what hastens a war's ignition is unconditionally validating every single perspective while not offering any criticism. When you have no endgoal for your grand war story beyond "war is bad, isn't it tragic that good people fight each other", to me, that reads as pretty infantile and lame. Especially when it's obvious that avoidance of proper criticism and analysis in-universe is done in the name of protecting the good reputation of certain characters over others.

What I like about most FE stories, is that after establishing that there are differing perspectives, the heroes communicate where the root cause is for this war, who is responsible, who profits off of it, and solve it. Is it often a Problem Dragon? Yeah. But a) the Problem Dragon is often a metaphor for a bigger theme and so shouldn't be so easily dismissed and b) a story that just says "well war happens because humans disagree and that's always gonna be the case, feel sad about it" fucking blows. It's banal and empty, giving the illusion of depth because people say "it doesn't shy away from grim tragedy", when in actuality, it's just a whole lot of nothing.

What are you providing in your story when your big picture rests upon a supposed "perpetual truth"? Because not only is that not inspiring, it provides no meaningful answer to the big "So What?" question that is asked of any literature.

Fates, on the other hand, answers those questions handily. If the game's actual prose was written better, I have no doubt that more and more would consider my belief on that.

[lines-in-limbo]

Lily is absolutely flirting in Snape’s Worst Memory - but I think this is one scene that has dated the series and is easily overlooked if the reader is not a Brit of a certain age. Lily and James are bantering in that scene in the way that Beatrice and Benedick do in Much Ado About Nothing or the way that Elizabeth and Darcy have crazy sexual tension while she’s telling him that she hates him and that he’s the last person on earth she’d ever marry.

People don’t see it now because James’ approach has so many red flags that are widely acknowledged as red flags in 2024 that they see Lily’s responses as genuine disgust and dislike, instead of her getting drawn into his game because she’s interested. But it was obvious in 2003 what JKR was going for here. The implication is that Snape lashes out at her *because* he sees her half smile and her flirtatiousness in this moment, and properly realises for the first time that his ‘best friend’ is totally into the guy tormenting him in front of half the school.

None of this is to say that Lily wasn’t a) completely right to terminate the friendship and b) wasn’t overall a very decent person. But she’s supposed to be a pretty shit friend here - put any one of the trio in Lily’s shoes and imagine their response to the same situation and it becomes clear that her half assed, rather impersonal defence was indeed intended to be half assed. Now of course this is directed by JKR needing to keep the connection between Snape and Lily secret until the very end, but she makes this work retrospectively from a characterisation perspective in the Prince’s Tale by depicting a Snape who is difficult to be friends with and who doesn’t recognise what true friendship *should* be because he’s never had it, and a humanised (not a saint) Lily who’s been quietly realigning herself away from her difficult friend for a very long time without making it crystal clear to him what she’s doing. It doesn’t make her bad, it makes her a very normal 15 year old pretty, popular girl with all the positive traits that entails (confidence, vivaciousness, fearlessness) as well as the negative (thoughtlessness, a lack of empathy towards those less socially adept).

Thank you for your message, anon. 

I understand where you’re coming from, and while some people interpret the scene as flirting or as "laying the groundwork for their eventual romance," especially when viewed through the lens of classical literature and 'enemies to lovers' tropes, I see it differently. For me, attraction doesn’t automatically equal flirting. I do recognize subtle cues in Lily’s behavior that suggest she might be physically attracted to James, and yes, there’s some tension, but I wouldn’t categorize that as flirting. To me, flirting is intentional—a deliberate way to say, "Hey, I’m interested in you; let’s date.” That’s not what’s happening here. While Lily may have had some attraction to James, her intention certainly wasn’t to express that to him, particularly because his bullying and arrogance were significant turn-offs. This is consistent with the fact that she only began dating James in their seventh year when he supposedly "deflated" his ego and stopped bullying others. She valued the growth she saw in him, which made him someone she could consider dating at that point. (Whether he genuinely matured is another discussion, but I won’t delve into that here.)

I don’t deny that Lily’s conflicting feelings toward James might have influenced her defense of Snape to some extent, but to call her defense completely “half-assed" because she was supposedly “flirting” with James seems like a stretch. (Honestly, I’m considering posting the whole scene because it feels like people may have forgotten what actually happened or have only skimmed it.)

From an external perspective, Lily’s defense might appear somewhat weak or insufficient, especially given the severity of the situation. However, it's crucial to understand that this perception does not fully capture the complexity of Lily’s internal experience. Lily’s primary goal was to stop the bullying by publicly insulting and embarrassing James. She’s clearly trying to de-escalate the situation by first shouting at them, and when that doesn’t work, she takes out her wand, ready to escalate things if necessary. While it may not have been the most forceful defense, it was still a defense, and it clearly demonstrated her disapproval of their behavior. Initially, it even seemed effective, as James did perform the countercurse to the full body-bind curse. However, after Snape called Lily a Mudblood, she left, and James and Sirius resumed bullying him.

From an internal perspective, in my view, the primary factor influencing Lily’s defense was the state of her deteriorating friendship with Snape. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts and reblogs, their friendship was strained, and she likely had conflicting feelings about him. As you pointed out, she was gradually distancing herself from him due to his behavior. After years of standing by Snape, excusing his actions, and pretending everything was fine, Lily likely felt frustrated and betrayed. She was torn between her past loyalty to him and her current disapproval, making it challenging for her to respond more forcefully. While I do wish she’d done more (and she certainly could have), her feelings are understandable given everything that had transpired between them.

Regarding the notion that Snape noticed any "flirting," I respectfully disagree. Snape didn’t lash out at Lily because he saw her "flirting" with James or noticed any subtle expression. His focus was on defending himself from Sirius and James. Additionally, he wouldn’t have seen her expression since his robes were hanging over his head while he was suspended upside down:

"James whirled about; a second flash of light later, Snape was hanging upside down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of graying underpants."

The more likely reason for his outburst was that he felt humiliated and emasculated by James, especially when James said, "Lucky Evans was here Snivellus —,” as he let Snape down. That likely exacerbated Snape’s embarrassment, leading him to lash out with, "I don’t need help from a filthy little Mudblood like her." It seems like he was trying to regain some dignity, and the slur slipped out in a moment of anger and shame.

All in all, you’re right—Lily isn’t a saint; no one is. And while I’m not eager to compliment JKR the TERF, I do think she did a good job of humanizing her characters. Lily isn’t as fleshed out compared to other minor characters like James, and I do wish we’d seen more of her flaws. That said, her response to the situation, while somewhat imperfect, reflects the complexities of her character, which makes her more relatable and human.

While we may not completely agree, I appreciate your interpretation and opinion, anon. Thank you for sharing your perspective. 💫

*As a side note, I want to clarify that I’m not trying to excuse Lily for not defending Snape more effectively; I’m simply trying to view the situation from her perspective, as I do with other characters when analyzing them. Additionally, I want to emphasize that I’m not hating on Snape. Some people have taken my posts and reblogs about Lily as an excuse to criticize Snape, but that’s not my intention at all. I clearly identify as a "Snape defender" in my bio. Just because I’m exploring Lily’s perspective in SWM doesn’t mean I don’t also understand Snape’s situation. I have other posts dedicated to him on my blog.

[thesweetnessofspring]

hi! i’m going to london (eek!!) for the hunger games stage adaptation, and i was thinking of seeing a west end musical while i’m there. i noticed that hadestown is one of the options, but i don't really know anything about it.

i know you’re a big fan, so i wanted to ask... why do you think i should go? i would love to hear your thoughts <3

Yeeeeeee!!!!! I am MORE than happy to do Hadestown marketing for them.

Ok so Hadestown is based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice ft. Hades and Persphone, with Hermes as the narrator, but make it a modern commentary on capitalism and how the powerful stay in power while the working man fights for change. The musical centers and parallels the new love story of Orpheus and Eurydice and the strained relationship of the old married couple, Hades and Persephone.

I saw a reviewer once compare Hadestown to a whiskey. For some it takes a few listens/views to acquire a taste for it and see the layers and notes in it. Personally, I loved it from my first listen, but definitely got more layers the more time that I spent listening to it and thinking about it.

Reasons why I love it and I think you (like, specifically you, Kate) would, too:

The music is banger. Sometimes if I'm in a mood to hit the highlights I'll skip a few songs, but mostly I listen to the soundtrack all the way through. The melodies, the lyrics, the instruments: all of it is top-notch.

You will have so much to analyze! You, meta queen of Everlark, I know love a good analysis. Like I said, there are layers to this show. You have the two couples and how they parallel. You have the message of hope. You have the commentary on capitalism. The commentary on climate change. The worker's rights. Art in resistance, and so much more. The themes and topics are so in line with what THG fans enjoy. It's there in the lyrics, the melodies, the way the actors choose to portray the characters, the sets, the costumes, the lighting, everything.

It's just a masterfully produced show, and I don't just mean because it has money. The choreography is great, its use of sets is wonderful, and omg the lighting is phenomenal. It took true talent and hard work for them to get the show to where it is in terms of the overall production.

You will cry. Of course, being a retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth is tragic. But the tears (at least for me) come before the tragedy, because the turning point in the show is about empathy and love.

The love stories. Look, they have their differences, but Everlark and Orphydice are very, very similar. A girl hardened by life falls for the hopeful, romantic artist. The pipeline is pretty seamless. And also, I really love that Hadestown is different from most other modern portrayals of Hades and Persephone, because they're older and have their issues because she leaves six months out of the year. They love each other, but there is doubt and strain.

I have a friend who prefers to watch shows before listening to the cast recordings of them, so I'm not sure if you feel similarly, but I think listening to the cast recording can help you decide if it's the show you want to see. There are four possible albums that might come up, and I would suggest first listening to the Original Broadway Cast Recording because it tells the whole story, has all of the songs, and is most like the version you'd see on the West end. Some lines have been changed to be more inclusive (for example, Hermes is now played by any gender, so previous lyrics like "Mr. Hermes" have now been changed to "Excuse me, Hermes") while one of the big numbers Epic III has gotten a whole verse rewritten for current productions and unfortunately I do prefer the OBC version of the song. This was a professionally recorded album, so it's more polished and studio than the other option, which is the Live from London album. This one does not have all of the songs on the album, so it'll be one to listen to after you know the story. As it was recorded live, it captures more of what it sounds like in the theatre, which can be much more raw and emotional than the studio OBC (though if you watch a bootleg of the OBC you can see on stage they were just as passionate).

Then if you've really fallen down the Hadestown rabbit hole after that, there is the original concept album that has a much darker vibe to it as well as the Live Original Cast Recording which has a completely different archetype for Orpheus and many songs with different lyrics than what you'll hear on stage these days, but many people prefer.

As a final bit of persuasion, I have selected two videos for you. One of the OBC Orpheus and Eurydice singing their love duet:

And another of the original London cast performing Wait for Me (Reprise), as in London you'll be likely to hear a variety of accents, even though these performers have all closed their time on the show:

So that is my pitch as to why I think you'd like Hadestown and it should definitely be a contender for which show you decide to see in London!

[onestormeynight]

Neil's Birthday

The Delgato-Harpers were celebrating Neil's birthday. Ida had made him a matcha cake and they watched his favorite movie as a family. Altogether, it was a perfectly normal birthday for the first half. But as all middle children know, nothing can ever be entirely about them.

As he was playing video games with Jonas in the living room, Neil could hear his parent's voices getting raised in the kitchen. He was torn between wanting to hear everything and turning up the volume on the TV to protect his younger brother's ears.

"What do you mean you went over there?" Pierce hissed, trying to keep his voice low. "Ida, we need to cut them off. At least for now."

"You are out of your mind if you think I'm cutting off my sister," Ida snapped. "Are you insane?"

"Ida, they are not good for our family! Look at what her brat did!"

"Call Prim a brat to my face one more time. Go on."

"You are being so unreasonable right now!"

"I'm unreasonable!? Have you no idea what empathy is? How nice it must be to have had nothing truly terrible happen to you in your whole life, Pierce. You act like there's no cause and she's just malicious."

"It was malicious!"

"She is a child acting out because she doesn't have any strong male role models in her life! You could have been that, but instead you have been prejudiced against Nellie for years and take it out on her daughter. You are acting like Prim has an open invitation to our house. She doesn't."

"Alice is going to see this as a betrayal. She doesn't like Nellie, either, it's not just Prim. If you really supported your daughter in this moment, you'd cut them off. What kind of message are you sending her?"

Ida looked at her husband, furious in the evening light of the kitchen. They had been officially together for two decades. There had never been anyone else, only Pierce. She'd been sure about him for years. Right now, as the shadows highlighted his rage, she wondered if she even knew him anymore.

"The message my actions tell my daughter will be one of empathy, forgiveness and accountability," Ida said. "And let me be crystal clear, Pierce. I will not cut off Nellie. Ever. The only thing separating us will be the grave. If you continue to push the matter, it's not her I will cut off. It's you."

"You'd divorce me?"

"If you continue to disrespect me and my fucking boundaries, yes. I love you. I had your babies. I made vows, but so did you. We vowed to respect each other. If you break your vows, I will not keep you around. I want you, but I do not need you."

Neil, from the living room, decided next time he would turn up the volume on the television. Hearing his mother threaten divorce was not the thing he wanted to hear on his birthday.

((prev)) ((next))

[but-a-humble-goon]

for, https://www.tumblr.com/but-a-humble-goon/754670294342500352/name-a-character-from-one-of-my-fandoms-and-ill?source=share

Cassandra Cain, naturally.

If you already got Cassandra then I'll take a wild swing and go for Emerald Sustrai.

I ain't got Cassandra yet funnily enough. Cassandra Cain Three personal headcanon facts about them -Even after she learns to talk she's still trying to figure out what's going on via inference in 90% of social situations. Words are challenging and not the kind of challenging she likes. -Cass hates stakeouts more than anything in the world. She is a creature of pure motion, she must be free. It takes all of her considerable will and discipline to sit still for longer than an hour or so and it feels like actual torture. -She gets sincerely very emotional listening to Evanescence. She's got no idea about their pop culture context, she just feels very seen by their music. Like she senses a spiritual kinship. A reason they suck Basically everything about how she treated Stephanie in Batgirl 2000. Didn't trust her, didn't respect her, tried very hard to drive her away, completely took their friendship for granted, was generally insufferable and mean to her constantly, took Bruce's side against her and pushed her into getting herself killed. A reason they are great Cassandra Cain is genuinely the kindest soul in the entire DC universe. She is the very essence of empathy and compassion. She would take on the entire world to fight for the life of even the worst person who ever lived. I've said it before but no matter how much the universe tries to hammer the message into her that you can't save them all her response will always be "watch me." A reason I relate to them She's terrible with her emotions and even worse at social interaction and everybody around her misconstrues this as her being emotionless or just projects their own biases onto her. People talk about her like she isn't even there and even though she acts like it doesn't sting, it does. She feels like everybody around her got given a manual on how to be human properly except her. Top tier OTP I don't really ship Cass with anyone. If she's gonna end up with someone at this point it should definitely be Stephanie to give the middle finger to all of the queerbait between the two over the years. Five things that never happened to the character that I believe should have happened. -We should have actually gotten to see her seeing Steph alive again for the first time after War Games and gotten all the devastating emotional fallout of that. -they really should have done a Cass vs Jason storyline at this point, it's kinda ridiculous that they haven't. -Batgirl 2000 should have had a real ending and not just sort of fizzled out the way it did. -Bruce really does need to sort his fucking life out and admit he's basically been feeding her self-abuse, ruining her life and failing her as a father and mentor. -SHE NEEDS A GODDAMN SOLO BOOK AGAIN Five people that the character never fell in love with and why -Conner Kent, much as I think there's probably still some not entirely platonic feelings between them, I don't think anything could ever really come of it, that's why I like where they left off. -Tai'Darshan, because that whole plotline was stupid. -Rose Wilson. If you were to ask Cass she'd tell you it's because Rose is a punk ass bitch. -Zatanna. I know it's like the joke that every bat is at least a little bit in love with Z but Cass could never be with somebody cooler than she is. -Any of her brothers, no matter what people seem to think, because that's disgusting.

[soapywankenopy]

I'm watching the Death Cure movie for the first time and I have some thoughts

First of all, I'd like to say I never finished the book series. I've only read Maze Runner and Scorch Trials. but something I noticed on my last attempted reread of Maze Runner was that Thomas is such a bland character. I think he's definitely better in the movies, thanks in large part to Dylan O'Brien's performance because he just has so much raw charisma and he imbues that into every character he plays no matter how bland the source material is. but Thomas is a bland character even in the movies, even with what little personality Dylan was able to infuse. and I think that's in stark contrast to Katniss in The hunger games (in the books) and a big part of that is because her story is told in first person so we are actually in her head, and it gives us a lot of insight into her psyche, she feels like a real person. she has real emotions. she is complex. but in the books Thomas's story is told in third person and it removes you. it takes you out of the character's head and we don't get a sense of who he is. but beside that, he's still very much a blank slate and I think that this contributes to him having a little bit of main character syndrome, Mary Sue-ism, whatever you want to call it. like he's a born leader, he's Super smart. he's literally the Death Cure, like his blood is the Cure, like that's op as hell.

and even the main premise of the story you know like, it's called The Maze Runner series. The maze doesn't make sense. why were they in a maze? I still don't get it. And I don't know if my theory can be backed up by truth, but my theory is that James dashner had this cool idea for this post-apocalyptic zombie story and then the success of hunger games happened and he was like all right, i have to gamify this. how can I make this a gimmick, what's the catch. thus, the idea for the maze was born because if you think about the story as a whole, it really does feel tacked on. I was thinking about it the other day and I was like, it really does feel like the Maze Runner movie/book, that section of the story (the maze trials) is detached from the rest of the story. it feels tacked on in my opinion. it's so unlike The hunger games because everything in The hunger games is intentional, the games aren't just games you know like The Maze Runner had its gimmick divergent had its gimmick, but the games in The hunger games had a purpose in the story. it all goes back to the point that Suzanne Collins was trying to make. and I think that's why so many of the copycats fall short. their message was a bland one and it wasn't strong enough to come back to. it wasn't the center point of the story. the copycats boiled The hunger games story down to its basic parts and in doing so they missed the whole point of the series.

and I'd like to go back to comparing Katniss to Thomas because they're both the main characters in their series, but they have the opposite impacts because Katniss is a character who is not a leader but everyone makes her out to be one. Thomas is claimed to be a leader but it falls flat on a meta level because he doesn't inspire, Katniss worked as the rebellion's spearhead because she inspires. she literally leaks empathy. she has this facade of apathy, of being completely closed off but she is a kind and giving and she is passionate and fiery and that's why the rebellion chose her to be the Mockingjay. her kindness and peeta's kindness was the crack in the capital's dam. kindness was the instigator that propelled the movement forward. but with Thomas it just seems like he is a leader out of happenstance, which is a fine story to tell, but I don't think it was told in the right way because he doesn't feel like an actual leader, and maybe, maybe in the books, he does feel like more of a leader and I just haven't gotten to that part yet. or I am misremembering, it has been a while since I read them. but in the movies we don't get very many examples, we are told and we are not shown. it's hard to feel anything for Thomas because he doesn't feel real. he feels like a cardboard cutout of what a lead character should be.

So those are generally my thoughts. if I have more I might reblog this with them later. if you have thoughts about this reblog it or comment I want to know what people think, especially people who actually finished the book series because I do feel bad for critiquing a book series that I haven't finished, and only watched the movies. I'm always hounding people for not reading the books and just watching the movies so I do feel like a little bit of a hypocrite. I want to know what people think. I don't mean to start any fights if Thomas is your favorite character, he is also my favorite character out of the series. I just can't turn off my critical thinking brain even when I want to because this was supposed to be a chill watch, something to enjoy because I love Dylan O'Brien but alas I cannot turn off the critical thinking right now and can't help picking things apart, so here we are, writing an essay when I should be folding laundry and watching a movie.