#at least this generation has the potential to break the cycle

[hel-phoenyx]

(TW suicide mention and suicidal ideation, also internalized homophobia and dark af intrusive thoughts)

"What do you mean, Leonard attempted suicide ????"

The most surprising part for Willy wasn't the fact her brother did try. He didn't seem well these days, after all, and refused any kind of help. The most surprising part was that the one who told her was Emerens.

He knew very well his cousin would be dumbfounded. Him and Leonard had the coldest relationship in all their generation. They were too different, polar opposites in every way. Emerens often expressed how much he didn't care about his eldest cousin. His face, however, was pale when he told her the news.

"Yes. Doctors say he's not in danger anymore, but he refuses to see anyone. Except me."

"Wh-what ?!"

"I'm as surprised as you are, Willhelmien, sighed Emerens. That's how I came to know, by the way. I'm going to the hospital in the afternoon. I'll give you some news, if you want to."

"And you want to go."

That probably was the most surprising part for Willy.

Emerens nodded.

"You know me enough to remember I take suicide very seriously. Whoever it is that attempted."

Those were the words running in his head when he opened the door to his cousin's room.

Leonard was sitting in his bed. Far, far away from the stiff jurist Emerens was used to know, his hair was disheveled, hanging around a pale, adorned with dark circles face. His glasses couldn't even hide the emptiness in his eyes, not fading even when he heard the door open.

He didn't even say hello to Emerens.

The visitor sighed.

"Hi, Leonard. I heard you wanted to see me."

A pale smile dug into emaciated cheeks.

"I didn't think you would come."

Emerens said nothing. He just sat down on the bed, trying his hardest not to look at the perfusions, the scars he could see on his cousin's arms. They were old, not the method he used to end up in that bed, but still there, unnoticeable before but overwhelming now. He could only look at how much Leonard had grew thinner these days.

Adelheid died three years ago. Since then, Emerens had distributed the immense van Heel wealth to everyone he cared about, including, surprisingly, his eldest cousin. In an act of fairness, he said. He even left him the mansion, prompted by Leonard's demand, and he thought possessing something proving he would live on the family legacy would made him feel a little better.

He was no stranger to the man's inner turmoil. He just didn't expect it to take such proportion.

"I guess asking you how you are feeling is out of the question, said Emerens, a little wicked smile on his lips. You look like shit, Leo."

A little pause.

"Well. Not dead, at least. That's good."

And he meant it.

Leonard shrugged.

"Apparently medication is not that efficient. I will ask the psychiatrist to up my antidepressants dose like I meant to since Adelheid's death, maybe at the very least it would lead to a success..."

"I'd rather not, Leonard."

That sentence was sharp as a blade. Joking about suicide this way was absolutely out of the question, no matter how much he hated his cousin. because of the memories, because of the thoughts that still ran into his head, further and further away since Hope's adoption and Alexander's birth but still there.

And because he didn't want to go to another family funeral yet.

He already skipped his grandparents'.

Leonard's smile faded.

"Surprising to see you care so much. Genuinely. I didn't think I was worthy in your head."

"The fact you were a piece of shit bootlicker that made a point to tell me how I was weak to surrender to my "darkest desires", and by that i mean me being queer as hell, doesn't mean I want to see you kill yourself. Everyone is worthy to hope."

He didn't name his daughter that way for no reason, after all.

A little laugh went past his cousin's lips. Painful.

"Weak... I insulted you so much, and look at me now. I'm the weak one. I couldn't even suppress everything that told me I failed at my life. I failed at finding a wife, producing a heir, even in inheriting the family legacy. I failed at making my family proud, or even in having my siblings love me. Everything I got was nothing but handouts, from Adelheid, my father, and even you, the one I held so much in contempt. Pretty pathetic isn't it ?"

"Well, life is handouts, Leonard. My whole existence, celebrity, wealth, happiness is a handout. I am no self-made man. Nobody is."

"You take it so much better than I do, though."

"Maybe it's because I attempted earlier."

This was said under a joking tone, but Emerens's face was dead serious. Since his children's arrival in his life, he really worked on facing his whole trauma. As of right know, only five people knew what exactly was the Saint-Cyr Tragedy : Himself, the mother of his second child, his two best friends, and, as of right now, Leonard.

Leonard's eyes widened. Just a second.

"... I remember. It was something Adelheid tried so hard to erase from our counsciousness. But still... Getting the news... About Willy, too... Not my fondest memory."

"Fair. Wasn't mine either."

He chuckled.

"I now more than ever see that I was wrong to think you're weak. Joking about that requires quite the strenght of will."

Silence followed that little banter. Long, heavy silence, words only carried by green eyes locking into green eyes. The dark circles on both their faces were so similar, noticed Emerens. And he could recognize that haunted expression anywhere.

Maybe that's what prompted him to visit his cousin.

It lasted for so long. Minutes, maybe, stretching thin in words none of them could say. Before Leonard sighed, eyes lowering, going on his arms covering in scars, and those, now tattooed, of Emerens.

"... How can you stand it ?"

"What ?"

"Everything. The feeling of being a disappointment. Those thoughts everyday that murmur in your ear that you will never be worthy. That taking that knife on the counter to cut your own head would be beneficial to everyone. That you are not what this world needs, to your very core."

Emerens kept silent. Somehow, he knew Leonard needed this. Even if he didn't think himself to be the one fit to receive all those thoughts, at least he was getting them out, one way or another. And he understood that all too well.

"I tried so hard," said Leonard, voice heavy with tears. "To be the son he wanted. To be the heir SHE wanted. I suppressed everything they didn't like, my desires, my.... inclinations, everything, to mold myself into perfection. And it still wasn't enough."

A single tear rolled on his face.

"She deemed the legacy a failure to the point she gave everything to the one who hated her the most. And he discarded me immediatly afterwards. My life was assured, but I ? I just lost everything I fought for."

Emerens wasn't even sure he was still aware of his presence.

"What's the point ? At least you realised that sooner and could enjoy your fucking life. I'm almost fourty, goddamnit. Even if I wanted to, even if I wanted to embrace that role as well as you do, it's too late for me. My best years are behind me, and I ruined them myself. What's fucking left of me, Emerens ?!"

There was only supplication on his face.

Just enough to create an ache in his cousin's chest.

Just enough to feel Leonard and him weren't that different, after all.

He smiled. Still coldly, but there was only compassion behind the fortress of ice he built all those years.

"That's a lot of questions. For which I will start to say I'm not holding out as well as you think."

Leonard blinked, but Emerens wasn't finished.

"What I lived at thirteen fucked me up to the core. While you were repressing yourself, I was destroying myself. It took years to rebuild something good enough to even consider having children, or just talking with you about what I... what we both suffered from. The only difference between me and you is that I reached the breaking point sooner."

"You still look more free than I ever was."

"Well, considering you tried to overdose on prescription, at the very least you got help before you attempted suicide. Also, as for the gay part, since I saw you on Grindr, I'd say you weren't completely repressing yourself, eh?"

"Oh, ew, don't remind me about that time we matched, I still cringe even remembering that."

Emerens laughed a little bit. Funny memory it was than the day he matched with Leonard while they were both under false identities. Him because of his celebrity, and Leonard because if his father saw him on a gay dating site, he would lose his shit. Or maybe because, now that he thought about it, to indulge in his sexuality Leonard created a persona that could live what Leonard van Heel was never allowed to.

He knew the feeling all too well.

"Seriously, Leo, it's never too late to start rebuilding your own identity. Talk with your therapist about that. And if you want advice to navigate through very much homosexual hookups, well, I am an expert in the matter."

Leonard sighed again.

"Oh, how I don't want to remember your little shenanigans. They created so much conflicted feelings in me."

"Jealous of my fabulous sex life, dear cousin?"

"You're laughing, but a little. Not exaclty what, or who you were getting into," he said with a frown when Emerens burst out laughing. "More about the absolute collectedness you told it with. I wasn't even allowing myself to think about a man.... that way, so hearing you narrating your hookups as they were just another adventure? Quite the experience."

"Thank you, thank you. I am after all not a renowned writer for nothing, am I?"

Emerens' smile was getting a lot warmer by the minute. Something Leonard was no stranger to. Him, too, was smiling more and more, forgetting just for a moment the ache in his heart he tried so hard to dull out with medication. Just listening to his cousin talking seemed to do the trick, after all.

He never thought he would get such a confession from a man that hated him with the fierceness of ice, and yet Emerens was still talking, more and more warmly.

"To tell you the truth, Leonard, when I still was at the hospital for my cancer, I listened to many stories. Stories about people like me, but people like you, too. Trans people who started transitionning at fifty. Gay people who buried themselves behind layers and layers of hate and lies. People who always were happy, on their death bed, to at least have tried."

"... You think I can still try?"

"You're still alive, eh? Then you can. End of story. Or better, the beginning."

Leonard smiled a little more widely.

"You know what ? Thank you. For coming even after everything I did to you. And telling me that. And... You know. Surviving."

"Hardly think my life is anything to thank me for."

"I would have said that years ago. Because I was jealous. because you were living the life I wanted. But I think now it's more something like hope. Never too late to be free, right ?"

Emerens winked.

"You're getting the hang of it."

[verysium]

PLEASE DO BLUE LOCK ICKS IM BEGGING🙏😭🌹

😏 coming right up anon. gonna channel my inner critic and not hold back on any of these.

RIN

brother complex. not much else to say except that he needs to get a life. not everything is about metaphorically crushing your older brother's dreams and brooding in the dark hate of retribution.

competitive but only because he is a desperate whore for external validation. ignores everyone but craves the attention of a sole person named sae itoshi. was defeated by isagi once and has never let go of it since. has a one-track mind that is impossible to derail. stubborn when he wants to be.

probably a virgin and will continue to be one until his late 30s.

has not known a single day of peace ever since sae ditched him for the popular girlies. as a result, he has developed a very concerning case of social awkwardness. his idea of a conversation involves a brick wall and thirty minutes of you staring at his resting bitch face. constantly looks like that one grumpy cat meme. judges you for your poor decisions but then gets aggressively defensive when you point out his own mistakes.

reeks of so much teen angst that even metallica can't save him. the problem is that he has nothing to back up his emo persona. his insults lack creativity and, unfortunately for him, phrases like "lukewarm" and "half-baked" and "hell" do not make his words carry more weight. uses the f-word but in the most embarrassing context that it makes you facepalm and internally cringe.

SAE

zero social awareness. this boy's head is empty. the lights are not on up there. there are no picture frames or furniture. the curtains are drawn, and there is not a sliver of clouds or sunshine. cannot read body language and does not know what a filter is.

the source of all of rin's stress. he is the original trauma projector, creator of generational cycles. not even subtle about it. "turns out i was wrong. i thought japan was incapable of ever giving birth to decent forwards." sir....with the way you worded that, you knew exactly what you were doing when you gave rin false hope.

swears but it's even worse than his brother. literally called his elders a "fatso and bob cut duo" and "insect turd." i mean....there is a line between what is considered a legitimate burn and what is a first grader making up insults in his coloring book.

has a horrible haircut and no fashion taste. i already talked about this previously, but it was so bad it deserved a second mention.

a freak but tries to justify it rationally. like what do you mean you can tell a person's athletic ability from their buttock size? just admit you have a kinky fetish already.

somewhat of a coward but i'm gonna give him some leniency due to his tragic child genius backstory. tbh he's just an eighteen-year-old boy who needs a goddamn break.

KAISER

alexa please play clown music. this man sets himself for failure and then wallows in self-pity when he actually fails. like what did you expect? you knew what was going to happen the moment you challenged isagi like that. it was most definitely your fault you got violently humbled.

has a borderline god complex (currently calls himself an emperor but has not evolved into a deity yet.) unfortunately, he does not stand on business. cue the dramatic meltdowns when he realizes there is an actual gap between his ability and his reputation. if you're going to lie, at least make it believable.

insecure and mentally unstable. he probably cuts and re-dyes his hair every single time shit happens. no wonder his locks get shorter every time.

lazy when it comes to anything that is not football and expects others to do it for him. demands princess treatment wherever he goes. unfortunately, not all of us have servants with no self-respect like ness.

"it is not enough that i should succeed, others should fail" type of person.

does not wear shoes and even if he does, it's sandals. put them grippers away.

NAGI

a literal sloth who has so much potential but uses none of it. has no intrinsic motivation of his own, so if he's going to do anything, it has to be you behind the wheel, making sure he gets put to work.

does not have a close relationship with his parents, and so he has no sense of community, holidays, or traditions. no fun at all if you want him to do things like christmas shopping or birthday celebrations.

rots in bed all day and then has to nerve to ask you to carry him around. your back better be strong because his 190 cm body is not going to be light.

not loyal (need i say more.)

REO

second male lead syndrome. also known as that one popular guy who's always picked last.

acts like a victim but then when you realistically tell him to how to change his situation he refuses to do so. you cannot ask for advice and then take none of it to heart. no wonder you're still not over your ex.

"i can fix him" mentality. no, you can't. you are a seventeen-year-old child, not a licensed therapist and nagi isn't even all that.

NESS

touch-starved to the point he will stay in a toxic and abusive relationship in order to gain some scrap of affection. just because you were the black sheep of your family does not mean you can lose all sense of personal dignity.

probably stalks all the people he hates. has a burn book like regina george from mean girls. cuts out and glues little pictures of kaiser all over his bedroom. doodles hearts all over it with glittery gel pen. isagi's face and name are scratched out of every team photo.

delusional and prone to mood swings. medicated but at this point, he is beyond saving.

ISAGI

a home wrecker. has ruined more relationships than he can count on ten fingers yet still manages to smile like he's some angelic saint.

solves jigsaw puzzles for a living (not very cool if you ask me.)

has some unresolved anger management issues. probably repressed all his negative feelings when he was younger, so it all comes out when he's on the field. unfortunately, his twilight-sparkle-friendship-is-magic agenda is not going to work if he keeps cussing out his teammates like that. but then again, he is the main character, so i guess his plot armor makes up for his pitfalls.

says that he's a good guy but then holds personal vendettas against rivals he doesn't like. boy was so ready to throw hands when #kaisagi was trending on the internet. but when you actually think about, he's similar to kaiser in more ways than he'd like to admit.

BAROU

has the worst case of high and mighty "holier-than-thou" attitude. isagi put his ego in check, but it still peeks out from time to time.

he was the ugliest baby when he was born. i am not going to hold back on the child barou slander because it is true. no, he was not a cute and lovable bundle of joy. he looked like a demonic gremlin.

he needs to take more risks in life and try cross-dressing. simply imagining him in a maid uniform will not suffice. it needs to be made into a reality.

with how nit-picky he is, i doubt people can realistically stay within a 1-meter radius around him. unless you are a clean freak yourself, his constant complaints will start to get annoying after a time. even if he does have good intentions, he needs to let people have a little breathing room sometimes. a messy room is not going to kill you.

BACHIRA

this boy's brain is smooth. no folds. no gray matter. no intelligence either. his pencil and eraser have been left untouched since day one. if he wasn't crazily good at football, he would be unemployed and homeless in the future. not even a mcdonald's wants him.

one of those people who will do the literal opposite of whatever you say. you want him to stop talking? well, now he's never going to shut up. you tell him not to step on a pile of dog shit? well, now he's going to walk right into it. you want him to quit running around and act normal? well, now it's his life's mission to make you as annoyed as possible. please pray for your hair follicles because at the end of the day, you're not going to have many left with how much he makes you want to tear your hair out.

has the cerebral capacity of a toddler. if he thinks monsters are real, he's going to think anything is real. super gullible when it comes to any form of scam, ploy, or trickery. the only way he would not be fooled is if he's also played the same prank before.

SHIDOU

a brazen pervert. says the most out-of-pocket things and refuses to apologize for them. sometimes it comes out a little too sleazy for your liking.

"to me a goal is fertilization! a shot is the seed and the goal is the egg!! and the birth of that joy i call an explosion!! my genes are gonna knock you up!" let us give ourselves a moment of silence to digest this quote. only shidou ryusei would come up with a sperm and egg metaphor to describe football. (i guess protection means nothing to him.)

has no empathy. if you dislike him or cannot keep up with him, you're a literal nobody in his books. no sportsmanship. no compassion. no self-awareness.

you cannot say "balls" to him in a serious tone without him misinterpreting it as something dirty. that alone should tell you enough. stay the hell away from him.

where do men get the audacity? right here. from this little bastard. he invented the term "shameless slut." boy was getting off during the u-20 arc and on live TV too. no wonder sae said he was disgusting.

and finally, he comes from a long line of cockroaches. he's even got the antennae to prove it.

i think this might have been a little excessive, but i have no regrets about it. you're welcome anon ♡

[stars-obsession-pit]

I feel like the potential of different methods of treatment of Jason’s Lazarus Pit side effects in DPxDC fics is often underutilized.

Like, yeah, the crossover brings in more ghostly stuff that could help, but it’s contamination on his literal mind/soul (definitely soul in a DPxDC context, idk about in DC canon) brought on by an unnatural resurrection. At least to me, that feels like it should be significant.

Having Danny just reach in and pull it out or Frostbite treat it in a basic procedure feels almost… cheap?

Like, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it being easy. Stories don’t need to go deeply into the soul healing process; if it’s not meant to be major plot point, it can absolutely be just a quick thing! I’m not trying to insult those stories at all!!

But I feel like there’s a lot of room for more complex or esoteric stuff in there to be explored!

Some ideas for such unique condition things under the readmore:

What if his “revenant” thing some fics use comes into play and the only way to remove it is to fully achieve his revenge? And if that’s the case, what if someone/something else kills the target of the revenge without his influence? Yeah, the person is dead now, he’s technically avenged, but he wasn’t the one to get the revenge. So does it still go away, or is he stuck with it? If he still has it, is it just permanent now or can he just find some other revenge method (ruining their legacy or etc) to break it?

Or oppositely, what if he literally can’t achieve that revenge or his body will die again, its mission complete. Thus, his only way to survive and remove the side effects is to smother all those vengeful urges until they fall silent. Which could make that “someone else kills the target unrelated to him” thing from the previous idea now the good ending - basically guaranteeing his survival since he can’t achieve the vengeance as easily now and can move on. Or maybe it’d be even worse as it forces him to move on regardless, dying randomly when the target of his revenge meets their comeuppance.

What if cycling out the corrupted ectoplasm is a long-term process of meditation (and/or emotional control) - something that takes up significant space in his life and forces him to plan/work around until it’s complete (reduced work hours, avoiding certain situations that might cloud his thoughts, etc)

What if he needs to obtain some sorts of special items/materials (either connected to his own life or more general ghost stuff) for a cleansing ritual, forcing him to go on some sort of quest(s) before he can perform it and recover

What if the tainted spots on his soul can’t be fixed, only excised, leaving other types of consequences for his mind/soul (some that will gradually disappear as the “incisions” heal, others that persist in the scars left behind)

What if the healing process requires him to go over his memories and smooth out the jagged emotional edges left by the Pit, and he isn’t experienced enough with ghostly matters to do on his own, so it forces him to get help from another ghost (and thus bare all his secrets to them)

What if the Pit Rage has to be fully pulled to the front - leaving him completely consumed by its control - before it can be literally fought back and suppressed

What if it can be healed only by taking pieces of healthy ghosts to patch him up - which’d require a lot of smaller ghosts (e.g. blob ghosts) or could potentially only need a couple if he’s willing to harm more intelligent ghosts for it (which Jason likely wouldn’t do, but he’s hardly the only person who’s been revived by the Pits…)

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hi, Raven! I just wanted to ask if it's very pressuring to be seen as like this type of fandom authority/big figure in the twst fandom? Which you're not, and I'm aware of it but I can't help but think and notice that a lot of people generally view you and your blog in that manner. I hope that hasn't soured your enjoyment in the fandom btw if it is the case, it can be daunting to be kind of upheld to a standard and responsibility you didn't ask for. But I hope you're still having fun and enjoying yourself because that's what fandom really is about at its core. Hope you have a good day!! 💖

Well 💦 it’s stressful, yes. but only when I’m made cognizant of that. Typically I don’t think of myself as being in that position, but I’m reminded of it when I receive the occasional ask that opens or closes their question/comment with really intense praise.

Thankfully, I have the luxury of being selective about which asks I reply to, but sometimes it can be as simple as skimming an ask that brings about a churning dread or cognitive dissonance in my stomach. I take a lot of time to formulate what I hope are thoughtful responses in part because I feel like I have some degree of responsibility for those who seem to place so much stock in what I say… It makes me anxious about all the potential ways it could go wrong. Unclear wording/tone misconstruing the intended message, people weaponizing my posts to justify their own takes, arguments breaking out, etc. Then that leads into worries about not deserving this position (ayy, love imposter syndrome/j) and it becomes a cycle that’s hard to break.

If people want to view me as some higher authority or big figure, then there’s only so much I can do to stop them. I can tell others all I want that I don’t like being put on such a high pedestal all I like, but it would do very little to change their mindsets. The best I can hope for is reminding them of where my boundaries lie when people start to act too attached to me. Like, you definitely should not be soliciting free favors, seeking validation, asking for life advice, and/or traumadumping to me, a complete internet stranger. (These have all happened before.) Remember, me being friendly ≠ being friends with me.

I’ve never been someone who reacts well to parasocialism or celebrity culture (something which I highlight in this post). I like to compartmentalize, separate reality from fandom, keep to myself and my own lane, be a private person… so it’s unnerving for me to suddenly be the recipient of parasocial behaviors. Again, I must stress that parasocialism is, in of itself, NOT a bad thing. It can, however, quickly snowball into emotional dependency or a falsified sense of intimacy. That’s why I keep stressing—especially recently—that I have to draw the line and make my boundaries clear.

Now, that isn’t to say that all of my parasocial experiences have been negative ones. Far from it! I’ve had the honor of meeting and getting to know many cool individuals through my activity in this fandom. (If you’re reading this, you know who you are 🫵) I’ve been able to participate in numerous group projects and activities alongside those people. I’ve gotten fan art and interesting asks from so many Twsties that are just as excited about my OC or new story content as I am. I’ve received kind words when I really needed them or when I least expected it. I will forever be grateful for that ^^ and I’d still say that the majority of my time in the TWST fandom has been chill and fun.

In my experience, I’ve seen both the highs and lows of fandom as the result of parasocialism. I of course evaluate them on a case-by-case basis, but what I want to point out is that I do not want overfamiliarity or people overstepping, especially if I have never spoken with you one-on-one off-Anon before 💦 I think that’s reasonable for me to request.

[mickeys-malarkey]

Pt. 3/3: My BATDR Timeline & Plot Twist Theories!

First, I think both BATIM and BATDR take place sometime between 1978 and 1991. I already suspected BATDR was happening in the ‘80s based on the fact that card readers – which have featured in many of the environment screenshots we've seen – were invented in 1979...

…and Audrey's clothes and hairstyle look very 1980s.

Then they released the images of Audrey's office, where her chair and desk lamps also look very 1980s, and the wallpaper and flooring looks pretty 1970s…

…and @inkdemonapologist pointed out that the type of bankruptcy we see documents for in Joey's apartment didn't exist until 1978…

…and I remembered that Joey's apartment also had a newspaper whose headline took place in the future— Princess Diana's 30th birthday which, as TetraBitGaming on YouTube pointed out, would be in 1991 since Princess Diana was born in 1961. She should be two years old if BATIM were really taking place in 1963!

Maybe, at the time, they didn't mean for these two to be clues, since they seem to have rolled the date backwards a bit from the newspaper one; but at this point it feels pretty clear when BATDR takes place, to me. And I'm even more certain than I already was, after finding out that this image from the JDS website…

…is titled “museum” (good work yoinking it, @halfusek /gen 👍🏻), that we know the ink dimension's new home: Nathan Arch Sr.'s private Joey Drew Studios museum that he mentioned he was curating in TIOL (meaning it's existed since around 1972).

“Over the years, I have collected every single piece of the studio memorabilia I could find to restore it to its former glory, to create, in a sense, a private museum that gleamed with the true vision of Joey Drew…” ~ Nathan Arch, The Illusion of Living, pg. 2

Also, besides the fact the museum image has clearly aged, here's some more evidence that at least a few years have probably passed since Bendy was purchased: it generally takes a fair bit more time (years!!) to make movies/documentaries, as Archgate Pictures seems to have made about Joey, than it does to make shorts.

As for BATIM, I think that time has been moving as normal outside of the loop, we were just seeing a repeat of that significant day in 1963; Henry and Joey have been trapped in the ink dimension for somewhere between twenty and thirty years, and the bankruptcy paperwork and Princess Diana newspaper were pieces of the real world leaking into the memory. This explains how there seems to be evidence of Audrey in BATIM and how BATDR is still supposedly neither sequel nor prequel to BATIM despite all the evidence that it takes place long after 1963! They're happening at the same time!! I wonder if Audrey is the daughter of the little girl we hear at the end of BATIM? So, Henry's (great-)granddaughter or Joey's (great-)great-niece?

Now, onto my big theory: the plot twist.

If they handle it right, it would be really, really cool if “break the cycle” really doesn't just mean “end the time loop” but also “break the cycle of abuse/trauma” and a lot of the huge cast of not-so-innocent characters wind up with the potential to get redemption arcs. I have an idea of exactly how they might be planning on even providing the opportunity for Joey.

Victor McKnight commented this on his Artistic Hallowing music video and pinned it:

Those last two sentences. “Make sure you're watching every second! You don't want to miss any vital information. 😉” Does that not sound to anyone else like he's got insider information? Now, I want y'all to watch these music videos that either Victor himself or his brother Noah were suspiciously involved in all of (and one of which is supposedly a BATDS song but for some reason involves Audrey) and tell me if you notice any patterns.

This one seems to be a duet between Sammy and the Ink Demon, both singing to Audrey. Sammy mostly sings in the default sepiatone, asking us things like “Can you see me? Can you feel me?” (that feels so… sad… and desperate…) and telling us things like “make sense of the consequence we witnessed on that day” (Excuse me, you're telling me that there was a consequence for something on a specific, significant day that we witnessed?? 👀) The demon, on the other hand, mostly sings when the grayscale effect is on, and seems to just be playing a stereotypical villain roll until you notice “be forced to believe what I see” (why would we even give a crap about what you're seeing /srs? How the actual heck would we see what you're seeing /gen? You don't even have eyeballs, bro /j) and “be damned in this evil received” (how do you receive evil that damns you? Maybe by being abused and becoming an abuser in response?).

Two apparently-separate characters singing with the same voice but very different tones and outlooks on the situation, still both singing to Audrey, in this one. One mostly sings in the default sepiatone, again, at first seeming more hopeful, helpful, and friendly until you start noticing ominous comments like “you've made mistakes, accept the change. You will be punished too” (*incoherent noises* 🚨🚨) and “welcome to my dream . . . you still think you are safe in my dream.” The other mostly sings when the grayscale effect is on, again, and seems much more aggressive and seductive until you start noticing comments like “take up your weapons, just leave my friends be” (why is this stereotypically evil-seeming character both telling us to take up weapons, not just letting us have them, and asking us to leave his friends alone with them?).

More hints that the demon who will rise and presumably is most important to the story is linked to grayscale, in this one.

And, in this one, Sammy's asking if the grayscale-linked demon is the one who will set him free (as he claims to be in the first two videos).

Across all four of these first videos, there seems to be an overall “things change when we switch from the default sepiatone to grayscale” and “grayscale is dangerous and seems hopeless but it's important and linked to truth and freedom” theme…

…You're telling me that Sammy and his followers' past (BATIM?) selves were worshipping an imposter demon…? And the truth will be revealed in BATDR…?

Hum, hum, hum… fascinating. I'd noticed the sepiatone vs. grayscale split and imposter vs. true savior thing long before I read the books; for the longest time, I thought it meant we would be dealing with a Henry-Bendy and a Joey-Bendy, as I've been seeing people theorizing. But then I read TIOL, and discovered what I think is evidence that this info is indeed canon and was not left on the cutting room floor while BATDR was in development limbo.

Nathan makes a very strange note on Joey's story about the Sparkle Unicorn speakeasy…

“…I remember this night well. Though I remember it being at the Bee Room, gold and black, not silver as the main design aesthetic. Doesn't really make much of a difference though, I suppose.” ~ Nathan Arch, The Illusion of Living, pg. 44 (emphasis added)

Nathan remembers that night in sepiatone, Joey remembers it in grayscale.

Now, I've seen all kinds of theories all over about how Wilson actually “banished/killed the ink demon…” “Wilson took advantage of some sort of blip in Bendy's existence that happened when Joey died,” “Wilson got rid of him by purifying him and turning him into Dapper Bendy,” “Wilson got rid of him by fusing him with either Henry or Joey,” “Wilson got rid of him by trapping him in Henry's loop,” “he didn't, Wilson's just another liar manipulating everyone,” etc…

What if we're looking at this from the wrong angle? What if the point is that, whatever happened, neither of the BATDR Bendys is the original soulless monster we see in BATIM and the books? What if, whether they share a body or are separate, there are two human souls involved here? What if one of those souls is the “new evil” in the ink dimension, not Wilson, who may have been meddling in ink dimension affairs since 1963?

Going back to the time frame I propose BATDR is happening in… Joey was born in 1901, which means that if Nathan was 18 or 19 when Joey was just turning 16, then he was born in 1899 or 1898. So, in 1978, Nathan would've been 79 or 80, and in 1991 he would've been 92 or 93. Especially considering the clues that point towards Nathan having been a smoker, it wouldn't surprise me if he's straight-up already dead in BATDR. Mayhaps for 211 days? During Loop 414…? Could this be why the BATIM loop is different, with Henry apparently not remembering anything that previous versions of himself could? The now-previous owner of their prison has died of old age and/or lung cancer? And could that be why the JDS museum has fallen into bankruptcy? Has Nathan Jr. taken over and isn't as ruthless a businessman as his father?

Itsjustjord on YouTube pointed this out in his trailer reaction, which when he said it set my Clue Radar off so that I went to the trailer again to get a closer look. And… well… *clears throat*

…Do y'all see this weird effect over Dapper Bendy? Compared to every other character we see in the trailer as well as the environment around him, does it not look as if we're seeing him, specifically, through some sort of cartoony filter? Maybe it'll only be in circumstances like this (far away in weird lighting) that the edges of the illusion will fray in-game, based on the other teaser image we have of him, but it definitely looks off to me.

Especially with what I now suspect Allison and Susie's situations were in relation to Nathan, I think that the ink creatures’ perfection vs. imperfection has nothing to do with how pure/good vs. impure/evil their hearts are as we've been lead to believe/is the conventional surface-level reading, but instead how intact vs. broken their hearts are. I think that the more horrific the ink being's appearance, the more the soul inside was abused while it was alive. Allison isn't a perfect Alice because she's a better person, it's because she obeyed Nathan and wasn't made to suffer as severely as Susie, who Nathan chose to be his next Isabel. So, why is one new Bendy (apparently created after Joey lost everything, I suspect even being made to watch his Shoulder Angel's murder before being murdered himself) so much scarier than the original (created before Joey lost everything) and the other so goshdarn perfect, proportions and all?

Maybe the banning of everything related to Sammy's demon cult and Henry under Wilson's rule has to do with his decades-old mission to keep the Creators from joining forces, as well as everyone including himself feeling like they're finally free from The Great Puppet Master?

I love Dapper Bendy's design as much as everyone else!! He's positively adorable, and it would also be a nice outcome if the baby boy is exactly what he seems and just a precious lil friend to love forever; but I theorize that Dapper Bendy is the perfectly sane, untraumatized, and truly evil one, that (assuming we actually get choices in BATDR, unlike in BATIM) his route, no matter how things seem in the moment, is the wrong one, that he's Nathan. And I think Freaky Teeth Bendy (that's been my nickname for him since we first saw him and I'm sticking to it lolol) is the damaged as heck but able to be saved one, that his route is the correct one, that he's Joey. I also think that we won't get to see either demon for what they really are – won't be able to get the True, Broken Cycle, “Joey's Redeemed & Nathan Faces Justice” Ending – unless we somehow unlock Grayscale Mode like we could in BATIM and gain the ability to see Joey's truth. Until then, we'll be seeing the demons the way Nathan wants us to see them. Through Nathan's tainted, gaslighting, sepiatone filter.

If I'm right, the fact that they did choose these color palettes is so perfectly poetic~! Sepiatone is what happens when black-and-white images have been chemically altered for preservation purposes; Nathan's altered our perception of himself, Joey, and all the events surrounding them, and his version of events is much more resilient. Meanwhile, Joey's would be more pure and unaltered but easily destroyed— including by himself, with his Illusion of Living coping mechanism… The only thing that could make it more perfect is if not only do we get to see Henry in BATDR, but when we do he's an angelic toon… *Vibrates with excitement*

Please, please, please, JDS, let me be right about where you're going with this!! Cause this would genuinely be so freaking cool…!! 🙏🏻 I hope that we eventually get to “rejoice with our founders,” as Artistic Hallowing says, when they're reunited.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk, rofl. Congratulations on making it through the ramblings of a hyped AuDHD fangirl (though, I guess we already knew you were capable, if you've read TIOL. I could do a whole nother rant on evidence that Joey's basically confirmed canonically ADHD(+?), my freaking gosh). 😝

Read the Rest of the Original Analysis/Theory: Part One • Part Two • Unexpected Part Four

BATDR Analysis/Post-Playthrough Theory Revision: Part One • Part Two • Part Three • Part Four

[sepublic]

            Oh but it’s doubly tragic how Manny’s gradually worsening health and eventual death hurt Luz in OTHER ways too, ways that no doubt agonized Manny. The show has made it clear by now that there were or WOULD be people in Gravesfield that Luz could find and get along with, fellow weirdoes like Masha and Vee’s friends, Mike and Bridget (that’s what I call those two kids who suggested the Haunted Hayride, given who they were based off of), that thing.

         But they’re constantly moving around. Luz and Camila never get the chance to settle down in a place and truly engage with a community. They’re always going from place to place, and so they’re just USED to being strangers and never having a definitive area to call home, at least not anymore.

         Obviously the Boiling Isles is rather unprecedented to Luz, but also how familiar did it feel to her, to casually move to another place and stay there? How much did it hurt when her mom sent her away; Because it was the first time Luz had to leave, and her parents weren’t there with her? The Nocedas moved to keep themselves together, now Camila is seemingly sending Luz off to be away with her.

         Luz has always been a wanderer, trying to find a place to fit in, or being forced to travel before she CAN adjust. I wonder if Caleb and Philip had ever been like that before Gravesfield, and that’s part of why Philip latched onto that place’s traditions so much, it seemed to work out, or it HAD to when Philip lost Caleb and couldn’t move with him like before, and he HAD to stay this time.

         When Camila begged Luz to stay with her in Yesterday’s Lie, and leave the demon realm; When Luz chose to do so, how many times did she have to give up a new home with friends, potential or otherwise, for the sake of a parent? How familiar was her resignation, as it had been for Manny? Resigned for the futility of wanting to stay but leaving anyway for a parent, for a place that either wasn’t much better, or worse? Just like the futility of doing so much to save Manny, wanting him alive, just for him to die regardless?

         Not to mention the meta implications of Camila and Manny being immigrants, or at least coming from a generation of immigrants who traveled to the U.S. How they’re just used to it. How Luz was excited so much over the idea that she finally found a place she could stay in, but then she just accepts going back to the human realm and leaving the Boiling Isles, because she’s used to that? Sure, THIS time she made friends, but in the end, she’s used to losing people. She lost her dad, after all.

         How much did Eda’s curse remind Luz of Manny’s deteriorating condition? Did Manny ever try to hide his illness, did that accidentally influence Luz’s tendency to bottle up and not talk about her issues??? Eda must’ve reminded Luz of Manny so much; Willing to defy conventions by supporting their loved one’s love of the unorthodox. Manny’s last gift led Luz to Eda, like Eda and the Demon Realm was his last gift to his daughter in a sense; He made her feel like she belonged, so it was the least he could pass on.

         And Eda’s curse wearing away at her health must’ve reminded Luz so much of her dad. Remember when she gives Eda health tips on how to not wear herself out, lift with her knees, drink water? It’s not just because her mom’s a vet. It must’ve been because she had to apply that same advice to her dad. Luz is USED to taking care of a parent. And she’s so desperately trying to prevent it from happening again, she just FINALLY felt like herself again with Eda, with a parent who supported her.

         And then she breaks down at the end of Agony of a Witch. Because Luz lost yet another parent like that to their gradual condition. And then she has to move again, leave a home she settled in, can’t get attached; It’s like a never-ending cycle for Luz. The monotony and despair must’ve been maddening.

         Plus, it plays into Luz’s desperation and need to feel responsible for helping Eda, her guilt; Because she SO BADLY doesn’t want to lose this again. Did she blame herself, did Camila too, because they didn’t ‘do enough’ to help Manny, after sacrificing so much? Failing Eda is like failing Manny again. God, this trauma must’ve done so much to Luz when she enthusiastically chose to help Gwen with Eda’s curse, and then found out she was being scammed.

         Luz is USED to this. She’s used to having to keep quiet over her dad’s death, to constantly losing a sense of community. To doing everything for someone, only to fail regardless. To lose someone to that illness. It’s a repeating tragedy, especially on Camila’s side; Just like Luz, she grew up neurodivergent with fictional hyperfixations, she got bullied and ostracized. Camila had to conform to survive, and she sees the same thing again happening in Luz.

         There’s so much talk of this show’s frequent parallels, but. God. There really is this idea of things changing but also staying the same, and how horrific and trapping that can be. And it can be good and inspirational, it’s kind of a generational issue, and about what you pass down for others to carry over. People are so different yet still the same. People want to fit in but also be themselves. This show.

        The Owl House really is just about finding a sense of belonging. A place where you can feel comfortable in your own skin. Grief over losing loved ones and going through the same things again, being a force of change instead of tradition. Holding onto people but without keeping them trapped. Luz held onto Manny’s memory by enjoying what he gave her, embracing what he loved about Luz.

       So to lose Eda, who she found through Manny’s encouragement of her weirdness; To lose her passion for her hyperfixations. It’s like losing her father all over again, or even for real this time, a final death beyond just physical, but also in terms of emotion and legacy. It’s losing the neurodivergent joy he brought her, the happiness he represented to Luz that she associated him with. I just can’t.

[commsroom]

It’s my birthday too! !! Happy Birthday! I wanted to ask you about Jacobi since he rotates around my brain like he’s on a microwave plate 24/7. Just, general Jacobi thoughts, go crazy , I think about him all the time

yayy, shared birthday!! i hope you had a good one. you're actually the second person who told me it was their birthday too... june 21st birthday club!!

i feel a little guilty saying this, since it was your birthday too, but jacobi is one of my least favorite characters. not to say i don't have things to say about him, but. i don't care for him at all.

some things i can say about jacobi:

i think the most compelling thing about him is that his character arc is a perfect loop back around to his backstory mini episode - two people are dead. he feels responsible. he's out of a job. what now? in things that break other things, he deflects. he rationalizes - "it wasn't anyone's fault; everyone was just doing their jobs" - but is that really true? or is that what he has to tell himself in order to live with himself, and to keep doing the work that he wants to do. when jacobi says "i was wrong and people died, and the only thing i can do is not be wrong again" to kepler in the finale, it's as much about the deaths that weigh on him. maxwell's most of all.

... and i think there's potential for change there, now that he's able to confront it, but in a lot of ways that's the start of a character arc rather than the culmination of one. i will never believe that jacobi wants to spend any more time around minkowski, eiffel, and hera (nor vice versa, really) - they are also the people who killed maxwell to him, and they will never be "his" people. but i think if you were going to write about post-canon jacobi and that theme of survivor's guilt + escaping destructive cycles, lovelace would be a good counterpart to him for that - she's further along on that journey, he expresses a kind of respect and even almost-friendship for her that he doesn't for the rest of the hephaestus crew, and she has a more... biting sense of humor; i think they could actually be friends (or at least narrative parallels) given the right conditions.

and speaking of narrative parallels: he actually has a lot in common with minkowski. jacobi plays at being a rebel, a loose cannon, etc. because it gets people's guards down, but he's very, very patient, calculating, and measured. he is not an impulsive person, and more than that - he's a follower by nature, and a rule follower. jacobi doesn't believe in the "bigger picture" for his own sake, but he is deeply committed to maxwell's bigger picture. he wants to be told what to do, he wants to feel like he has a purpose within a greater system/structure, and - crucially to dirty work - he wants to be able to shirk responsibility when something goes wrong. jacobi craves certainty, he needs that faith in the judgment of the people who give him orders, and i think what dirty work does by positioning jacobi and minkowski as narrative foils highlights a lot of similarities in their faults.

(it does drive me a little crazy when people compare him to eiffel or say they'd get along under different circumstances, like... no? for all his other faults, eiffel is distinctly anti-authoritarian and sincere. they're like, coworkers with different politics who would really rather not speak to each other if at all possible.)

appearance-wise: i firmly believe he needs glasses (the line about his eyesight not quite being good enough is the kind of thing he'd downplay + it's a fun inverse of people drawing maxwell with glasses when she canonically doesn't need them), he has very specific military masculinity issues (thanks to his father) (and gabriel urbina once said jacobi's car is probably the civilian model of something used in the military) so i think he keeps his hair very short, and. i actually don't think he has notable burn scars. i respect that it's a distinct design choice, but canonically i think it makes more thematic sense that he wasn't personally, physically hurt by that accident (and i think someone would probably have made a remark about visible burn scars on the guy insisting he "is that good" with explosives.)

[mysticstronomy]

WHAT WAS BEFORE THE BIG BANG??

Blog#304

Saturday, June 10th, 2023

Welcome back,

In the beginning, there was an infinitely dense, tiny ball of matter. Then, it all went bang, giving rise to the atoms, molecules, stars and galaxies we see today.

Or at least, that's what we've been told by physicists for the past several decades.

But new theoretical physics research has recently revealed a possible window into the very early universe, showing that it may not be "very early" after all. Instead it may be just the latest iteration of a bang-bounce cycle that has been going on for … well, at least once, and possibly forever.

Of course, before physicists decide to toss out the Big Bang in favor of a bang-bounce cycle, these theoretical predictions will need to survive an onslaught of observation tests.

Even earlier, this thinking goes, at some point our entire universe — all the stars, all the galaxies, all the everything — was the size of a peach and had a temperature of over a quadrillion degrees.

Amazingly, this fantastical story holds up to all current observations. Astronomers have done everything from observing the leftover electromagnetic radiation from the young universe to measuring the abundance of the lightest elements and found that they all line up with what the Big Bang predicts.

As far as we can tell, this is an accurate portrait of our early universe.

But as good as it is, we know that the Big Bang picture is not complete — there's a puzzle piece missing, and that piece is the earliest moments of the universe itself.

That's a pretty big piece.

The problem is that the physics that we use to understand the early universe (a wonderfully complicated mishmash of general relativity and high-energy particle physics) can take us only so far before breaking down.

As we try to push deeper and deeper into the first moments of our cosmos, the math gets harder and harder to solve, all the way to the point where it just … quits.

The main sign that we have terrain yet to be explored is the presence of a "singularity," or a point of infinite density, at the beginning of the Big Bang. Taken at face value, this tells us that at one point, the universe was crammed into an infinitely tiny, infinitely dense point. This is obviously absurd, and what it really tells us is that we need new physics to solve this problem — our current toolkit just isn't good enough.

To save the day, we need some new physics — something that is capable of handling gravity and the other forces, combined, at ultrahigh energies. And that's exactly what string theory claims to be: a model of physics that is capable of handling gravity and the other forces, combined, at ultrahigh energies. Which means that string theory claims it can explain the earliest moments of the universe.

One of the earliest string theory notions is the "ekpyrotic" universe, which comes from the Greek word for "conflagration," or fire.

In this scenario, what we know as the Big Bang was sparked by something else happening before it — the Big Bang was not a beginning, but one part of a larger process.

Extending the ekpyrotic concept has led to a theory, again motivated by string theory, called cyclic cosmology. I suppose that, technically, the idea of the universe continually repeating itself is thousands of years old and predates physics, but string theory gave the idea firm mathematical grounding.

The cyclic universe goes about exactly as you might imagine, continually bouncing between big bangs and big crunches, potentially for eternity back in time and for eternity into the future.

Originally published on space.com

COMING UP!!

(Wednesday, June 14th, 2023)

"WHAT IS VACUUM DECAY??"

[simreaper]

ruby yew is not for the faint of heart. for the last four years she has lived off the land-- her current campsite is next to an active volcano. dating prospects around active volcanoes are...slim. ruby wants a life partner who can keep up with her explosive (heh) lifestyle. 

so the natural next step was to trick six sexy singles into competing for her affections on national tv! for the duration of the challenge, ruby and the potential lovers will camp out on a private island. and by “camp,” i mean camp. each competitor will be expected to fulfill their fair share of chores-- cleaning, cooking, laundry, fishing, gardening, repairing all of the things that will inevitably break...and so on. with so much work to do, will the sexy singles have time to find.....love?!?!?!? 

read on for rules/requirements! and if it wasn’t clear: this is a casting call hehe

contestant requirements: 

1. diverse sims are highly preferred-- ethnicity, gender identity, body shape, etc etc etc. i love sims that feel real! bonus points for identifying any quirks or oddities that can be used as a storyline in the challenge. give them negative traits, give them weird hobbies..whateva

2. cc can definitely be used but please try to keep it somewhat minimal/be okay with the fact that i will add/change outfits and may potentially swap skin overlays to match my game. please list cc used thank yewwww 

3. must include tray files, sorry if that’s a problem! you do not/should not include the cc used. i do not have access to the gallery :(

4. you don’t have to give your sim skills, but please give me a general idea of their talents and interests so i can assign them skills accordingly!!

5. occults are okay, but ruby IS afraid of two kinds of occults so it’s like russian roulette. 

3. please tag me in your sim’s post, and if i don’t like or reblog it within a day or two, send me a message! 

okay take a breath 

basic rules of challenge:

1. each cycle will last 3 days. i will aim to go on at least one solo date and one group date during each cycle. the “rose ceremony” happens on the night of the third day. one contestant will be eliminated during each rose ceremony. 

2. eliminations are entirely vibe-based. i will take into account ruby’s relationship with the sim/the sim’s relationships with the competition, their attraction/general affinity, and the events of their dates. i’m going to try to let autonomy take over as much as possible, so i’m going to take special note of their autonomous interactions.

3. solo dates may be chosen at random or (more likely) as a prize for winning a competition. competitions will be based games as well as homesteading tasks, like...who can harvest honey without angering the bees. and so on. the sims will remain at camp during the entire challenge, but dates will take place off the lot. 

4. i reserve the right to create more rules as needed HAHA

excited to see ur sims!!! terrified that i will receive no sims HAHA in which case...you never saw this this never happened

I FORGOT TO ADD: ideally submit sims by the night of sunday jan 1st but if you need an extension just lmk!! i want to start playing before my semester starts LOL

[littlesparklight]

Was thinking a little about Paris' love interests, and how there are only three named ones - Helen, Oinone, and Antheus - and these three are the only ones we can say with certainty that he's actually been sexually/romantically involved with, in one version of a story or other. To be sure, Paris' letter to Helen in Ovid's Heroides includes the (bragging) note that other (specifically royal) women have shown interest in him, and that "even" nymphs (or at least one) has done so.

When it comes to Ovid specifically, compared to Oinone, who basically all three letters confirm Paris has been involved with/married to, I'm not sure those other, unnamed women are supposed to be imagined as actual romantic/sexual incidents/relationships. Paris clearly brings them up in the letter as a way to apparently seem more attractive (to Helen), and so the women's (supposed) interest in him, not any actual realization of either his or theirs attraction, is what's the point. The Iliad has a couple other mentions that could be interpreted as some sort of "generalized womanizing behaviour" I suppose (Hektor and Diomedes' insults). But given the culture of the time, I think that's unlikely. And given the context of the circumstances, the war in general and Paris backing away from any duel with Menelaos in particular, him being called woman-mad (or ahem, driving women mad) and a seducer would make more sense if it's not about any random amount of women, but specifically the one instance and particular woman that has led to the circumstances of the war, and the war being ongoing.

I. Helen Helen is undoubtedly love interest that is the oldest, most important, and, frankly, for the story the only one that matters and is necessary. Since I've already talked about it elsewhere I don't want to go on about the point of how Helen's interest in Paris is basically constant (even when in some later sources she is explicitly kidnapped) and her complicity, if not outright action, in her leaving Sparta with Paris is almost always a factor in their story. The Trojan war in general but Paris' character in specific does not need any other relationship to both show what sort of character he is (willing, at the very least, to seduce/sleep with a married woman showing interest in him and then convince her to leave, and at the most to kidnap her against her will; either way he will be willing to break xenia and refuse to give her up).

Honestly, the fact that Paris refuses to give Helen up no matter what is just as much potential proof of his loyalty to Helen/the relationship and the earnestness of his feelings, as it can be proof of, as many likes to look at it, him being arrogant and refusing to give up ~his prize~. (With the implication he doesn't view her as anything else, but if so that is no different or worse from the majority of men in the tradition.)

II. Oinone Oinone's most important function story-wise (aside from adding background to both her and Paris' lives prior to the war), is as part of one of the methods of Paris' death. One of, which is why I don't actually consider Oinone necessary to the story. In the Epic Cycle's Little Iliad, Paris dies right there on the battlefield to Philoctetes' arrows. Which means that the first textual survival of Paris' death does not require Oinone. Doesn't necessarily mean Oinone and her part in Paris' life in some matter is much later; she could well be just as ancient! But the point rather is, that for the story to happen at all, up to Paris' death, she isn't actually "necessary". Oinone is first potentially mentioned by Bacchylides (5th century), referring to her probable death, but the fragment is uncertain so it could be about Althaia instead. Hellanicus also has some part of her story around the same time, we just don't know exactly if all the parts were present yet.

Oinone is a nymph, and presumably older than Paris (potentially by a lot). She marries a teenaged boy (not that girls weren't married teenaged, either, but given the probable timelines involved with Judgement/recognition/Paris leaving for Sparta, Paris wouldn't have been particularly old at the time of any potential marriage). He's also a slave at this point. Oinone and Paris only seem to exist as a pair on Mount Ida; Oinone never comes permanently to (if one wants to pay attention to a mention of her having met Kassandra in her Heroides letter)/settles in Troy, unlike most other nymphs that marry mortal men (kings and princes). They live in her realm, basically. And Oinone, as a nymph, has no "need" of Paris like a mortal woman marrying a mortal man would. She has a life, a home, a family she can (and does!) go back to when Paris leaves her. She isn't shamed, and is not without recourse or resources to keep living as she did before she got involved with Paris.

Obviously it hurts to be left behind when you still love someone and they leave you for whatever reason. And Oinone clearly loves Paris to the very end, so much so she regrets not saving him, thus causing his death, and kills herself for him. (Which is part of why I, personally, go with the Little Iliad's version of Paris' death.) But relationships can end (and divorce is a thing, was even back then and in the myths themselves), and with Oinone not being mortal, the "only" damage to Oinone is her injured heart.

I think what's interesting with the Oinone-Paris-Helen connection is that Paris seems to be basically just as serially monogamous as Helen is (Blondell in her book uses this phrase for Helen). He goes from one wife/relationship to another, and does not keep sleeping with the previous woman. "Not cheating" on either woman involved here is, ahem, certainly a low, low bar to clear, but given the general sexual behaviour and licenses of male characters in Ancient Greek myth, it's a bar seldom cleared.

III. Antheus I've seen the full version of Oinone and Paris' story being called a product of Hellenistic (heterosexual) romanticism, and while that may or may not be true since we can't exactly know if all the necessary parts weren't existant before the Hellenistic age, Antheus' story seems to me to be exactly this.

His earliest mention (and only surviving such, as far as we have it) is in Lycophron's Alexandra, firmly Hellenistic era. Antheus and his story seems to be tied into either an alternate way for, or maybe an additional explanation how, Paris goes to Sparta. The Judgement can certainly still exist in their story, but when you look at the extent of it I've vaguely begun to wonder if later audiences/authors didn't think the vague potential of simply going off on a guest-friendship journey was enough explanation/incentive, and came up with something else.

The full version is basically this (mind the slight repeats), explained by Tzetzes' scholia on the Alexandra:

The only thing that doesn't make sense, really, is that Troy then takes Paris back; usually expiation exiles do not get to go back home, but the tradition of course needs Paris and Helen (in one form or another) in Troy, and so he will be welcomed back.

I know I'm not alone in having delighted in taking advantage of Antheus as a potential love interest, but I have to point out that as we see here, there is nothing that actually implies Deiphobos was involved with Antheus before Paris (or, as happens in my own spin on this, that he is the one Antheus eventually chooses). All we have vouchsafed for us is their common interest in the same young man, and Paris accidentally killing him.

(You'd think male characters in myth would stop playing discus around or with their male lovers/love interests after the first time someone died that way...)

Antheus is as unnecessary to the story as Oinone can be. Even more so, really, as much as I love each and every instance of proof of same-sex desire in Greek myth. His function in this version of things actively interferes with the more common version of the story of how Paris goes to Sparta, compared to that Oinone is basically a past relationship and then a future end and can easily be slotted into what exists as the "mainstream".

[theallianceofcelestials]

Welp, here we go again, lol. Moon (potentially) dying again.

I did see many people talking about, and has been mentioned in the MGaFS the potential of merging the two Moons. Ya know, to get the best of both worlds, I guess.

This might have a couple issues, especially given the current mental state of Newmoon and Oldmoon's general issues. I don't think combining Newmoon's apathy and lack of familial care and Oldmoon's ruthlessness and line crossing tendencies is a good idea. I mean, just imagine this ruthless, apathetic individual crossing all and every line, not even caring if their dear family members get caught in the crossfire. Awful.

And even if, let's say, that doesn't happen, who's to say this newer version, this Fullmoon, would even care about anyone? They'd have two lifetimes' worth of memories, both of which would tell them they'll go insane and die either way. And then that brings the question. Which is the better? Being insane at the beggining and then gaining some semblance of sanity, with occasional fallbacks, or being sane in the beggining only to then break down and lose it in the end and die?

We saw the first example with Oldmoon. Him being not the sanest of individuals at the start of his lifetime, lashing out at his fellow victim because he was the only one there to blame for their unfortunate situation (them sharing a body). And then later becoming better and better, until he actually cared and tried to do better by Sun, (even if he failed a lot). And we all know how that story ended. Him dead.

And we have an example to the latter with Newmoon, who started out his life sane, and even friendly, only to fall into this dark pit of apathy and selfishness, potentially because of some sort of corruption/virus (possibly shown in thumbnails). His story did not end yet, but with how things are going, he'll probably die.

As Ruin said in yesterday's MGAFS episode, are all Moons destined to go insane?

And even if not, then we still have so many moral questions about this, some of which even Monty brought up. Should the two Moons be merged together, would that be killing two people to make an entirely new one? And how would that new person react to the fact they can only exist because two people were killed for them?

Or would you only be killing one individual and fusing some of their essence into the other? One way or another, at least one person's oil would dry on your hands.

And would this person even have the memories of whom they were forged from? Would they remember dying TWICE? Would they remember being born two times before this one? Which version would they try to imitate? Or would they cycle between "I'm going to make your life a living hell!" to "Sorry if you'll be collateral!" to being gruff but caring and overly protective and unhealthily attached, to being best bro ever? Phases of the moon and all that. Would these cycles just repeat eachother randomly? What then? How could we be sure then that this person could be trusted, when they don't even care about their own loved ones at times?

We have a person who remembers dying multiple times, and being brought back the merge of two people. Eclipse questions if he could even be called Eclipse, being a copy of Solar with the memories of a dead man.

And if they don't have the memories, then wouldn't that just be another Newmoon situation? Wouldn't that just be another random guy waking up in a corpse that belongs to someone else, and be expected to take up the same name and same position as before? We can see how that went, clearly not good, even if Newmoon used to love and adore his family.

And what will this newly born person do once he watches the whole chanel? How will they go on knowing one version of them was a dick, who while loved his family, struggled to show that properly and was even downright abusive at times, while the other version of them was sweet and loving, turned insane and selfish with only one desire that hurt all those around him? Will they be afraid that if they follow either of these examples they'll die? Oldmoon died in his head after one last gesture of trying to change, while Newmoon, while not dead yet, was thrown out of the family, somewhat reasonably given recent episodes holy shit, and was hunted down at the word of his brother. These are not really things I'd want to see if I knew I had predecessors.

Would this person even attempt growing close to anyone, when all they've seen is either them being insane at the beggining, going insane and dying either way? Would there even be a point of becoming someone, when you'll inevitably die? And cause harm, again, to these people a deep part of your Frankensteined code loves and cares about deeply? Is there even a point to existing when all you've seen is examples of people with YOUR name and FACE dying and hurting others and themselves? Is there even a reason to try, when all you have are negative examples?

And if this Fullmoon doesn't happen, then what will? Will Newmoon be saved? (despite that being highly unlikely, given the whole collateral thing) Will Oldmoon be brought back? (which, while I do miss him, I love Newmoon, and he deserves the rest, especially given the world already moved on, so it'd be just a cruelty to throw him into the deep water) Will we just fucking lose Moon alltogether??? (unlikely, given it's the Sun AND Moon Show, not Sun and the Family show, but ?????)

And if Oldmoon is brought back, then what? Will Newmoon die? I don't want that. :( I love them both.

Or will they switch places, so Newmoon's the one locked in the deepest part of their mindscape, forever frozen? (until reactivated by someone going in there that is)

What now?

My friend I mentioned in my previous post, has said, and I quote "Do we always have to mourn one Moon for the sake of the other?" and by the looks of it, it seems she'll be right.

(I just want the both of them man T-T T_T)

[averygayplant]

You ever think about how, like,

themes of abandonment and found family and breaking cycles and loss and grief and realizing that having emotions is okay and that bettering yourself as a person upon realizing than you're more than your generational trauma and just overall that learning and growing from past mistakes is normal just...

Run rampant, in Ninjago?

Cuz like,

I sure fucking do-

Like-

Lloyd is the obvious example, right? He tried to continue Garmadon's legacy as an evil and deeply feared dark prince of pure evil and it just didn't work out. Instead, he broke that cycle. He created a place for himself in a dysfunctional family of other runaways and orphans and ambitious children who set out to be more than they were told they could be, found a strange team of people who all cared in their own unique ways, and ended up being exactly the opposite of everything he thought he was destined to be

Which comes with it's own problems. Cut to later, closer to the end of the series, and by then you've gotten to a point where most, if not all of Lloyd's traumas are from misdirected anger and violence, actions based in blind rage and seeking vengeance as closure. Lloyd's worst fear is being just like his dad, but... that's not quite it, is it? He's afraid of anger and how it consumes people, afraid of how easily it blinds others. He's afraid of allowing himself to feel anger because he doesn't want to be like everyone he's ever been forced to deal with on that level, and it ties into how seasons 9 and 16 both resolved.

But that.

That's just Lloyd briefly summarized.

It continues.

Zane is another good example. He had no idea who he was for a good long time, and yet he too found a new home for himself among others who seemed just as aimless, had Wu not come along and offered them his training. Even when he did find out, the others just suddenly had a lot of context to the weird things he would do and moved the fuck on, like, that fast. So fucking fast. It wasn't an issue.

But let me stop you right there.

It was usually used in gags, but it's emphasis repeatedly that Zane's primary objective is and always has been to protect others.

Translation: He was built and programmed to have a savoir complex UNRIVALED, and that makes itself PRETTY DAMN APPARENT, PRETTY DAMN FAST. Like, do I even need to give you examples? Zane actively puts himself in harms way SO OFTEN that he literally, no shit, HAS A REOCCURRING THEME THAT SIGNALS GREAT HARM HAS BEFALLEN HIM.

It's never said directly, but Zane puts himself into a lot of dangerous situations under the logic that it's better him than anyone else, his skin is made of metal and thus he's harmed the least. Which is. So bad. Like, I really hope I don't have to explain how bad that is, because wow.

This never really goes away, but he does get a lot better at thinking about the risk certain actions pose to himself. Just based on his actions during early crystallized, he now prioritizes the well being of his family above all else- even with his emotions turned so low that he's effectively only capable of taking the most logical of approaches. Breaking into the high security cell to release one of the highest priority villains of the city? That has no rhyme or reason, nor does it ensure the safety of the city- it actively endangers it.

And yet.

He does it anyway. Because of Nya.

Zane is fucking built different bro. Literally.

Oh, I'm sorry, did you think I was done?

Idiot.

...I mean, I am done, I'm tired and it's late and I have shit to do in the morning, but I could go on. I could. Cole and Harumi and Kai and pretty much everyone are sweating in their fucking boots right now.

I probably will.

...Later, when I have more time.

TL;DR:

Basically, Ninjago is a fucking masterpiece and should really sacrifice their PG rating to explore some of these topics a touch better because DAMN THERE'S POTENTIAL HERE

[ganondoodle]

so, i have thought more about what we now know about botw2 and honestly, setting aside the smaller things i am not a fan of (like the building aspect) my biggest gripes about it are the plot looking like its gonna be very generic, especially regarding ganondorf, while i hoped it would perhaps finally give us a little more interesting take instead good vs evil; and the oh so mysterious figure you see in in the trailer very likely to be hylia, since shes mentioned constantly in the first game (among other things like her design being pretty much a carbon copy of zelda for the most boring reasons imaginable)

and no its not just bc of my stupid little fanworks (that i do bc i love the franchise, as much as i am critical of it, it comes from being very passionate about it, hence me working my fan lore around the canon so it doesnt disturb it much, its more meant to expand it on parts i think are a little lacking without me trying to sound superior, literally just as an act of love (and a little spite ill admit that) to add something to it)- BUT bc i have little hope they would do anything more than just going full blown "this monstrous beast is pure inherently evil, and this is the pure inherently good white little girl goddess whos just protecting her god given perfect and unshakable good tm monarchy" with no little to no nuance (theres also alot more to be critical of the general structure and implications like racism, orientalism, nationalism, that while i can see alot of wrong or questionable things in the games i lack the eloquence to talk about in its full range) yes i am personally biased bc i just .. hate that kind of story/worldbuilding structure, but i dont think im the only one who would think of it as boring and .. disappointing?

i dont need ganondorf to be redeemed, i dont need him to be the good himbo bf that some people think all ganondorf stans want, i just want him to be more than to shout "i will conquor this kingdom bc i am evil and want it" and send a horde of monsters after you, at the very least id want the game to just aknowledge that there must be a reason for it, why it turned out like this

the zelda series and its world has so much potential, which is probably a reason for its popularity in fanworks, but also keeps not using it, no i dont expect a company like nintendo to deliver on all my hopes, of course not, im not that delusional, but the further i think and learn about this universe and concepts they created i find myself asking "why" more and more where the games never elaborate, never question

i like a clear structure, i like when your choices dont have a big or any impact on the story bc i want to live the story, not worry about every decision like i already do every second of my life IRL, i want to partake in a movie, in a theater piece i can influence the pace of but not change the outcome, yet i feel kind of ... ignored? let down? asking why and how, how do they know this is right and this is wrong, how do they keep enacting this seeing it never works out, keep saying defeat this evil, but evil yet returns stronger than before over and over, how do they never ask "is this the right way?", they say "we need to kill it more next time"

i know they are fictional little characters made up to sell a game, with a convevient plot point to ever repeat the same structure, but it cant be wrong to say "i love this world, i want to see and know more, i want to see it grow and change, break the cycle and be better, show me characters not puppets"

theres very surely nuances and ideas i am sorely missing bc i lack the knowledge of japanese as a language, culture, and mythology, but i dont think it invalidates all that i feel for it ..

.. right?

[blueskittlesart]

Since you're like insane about the games and do awesome analysis, where would you place the past stuff in TOTK on the Zelda timeline?? Like part of me thinks it might actually have been *before* Skyward Sword, since there's no triforce and Ganondorf gains power through the secret stones instead, no Zelda of that era and no Link nor any mention of Hylia in the past, but I'm not sure if that holds up?

disclaimer i have not finished the game yet so i am operating with incomplete info rn but i think there are 2 potential theories. the first is the one you mention where the kingdom of hyrule that sonia and rauru created was between the initial demise conflict with hylia and her reincarnation in skyward sword. this accounts for the lack of triforce and would also explain why they self-identify as the first king and queen, and could also explain the sheikah presence on the surface in sksw. however i do think operating under this assumption creates some lore plotholes which i'll get into in a second.

the other theory & the one ive kind of been operating under up till now is that sonia & rauru's kingdom was founded sometime between botw and the games that came before it. we know that botw is AT LEAST 10k years removed from the last game, but likely longer. hyrule, according to the official timeline, has been destroyed and rebuilt MANY times across multiple timelines. i don't think it's too much of a stretch to suggest that hyrule might have been destroyed and subsequently rebuilt by sonia and rauru some time in the period before botw, and they're the first leaders of their NEW, rebuilt hyrule. this accounts for the fact that the zonai ruins don't show up in any other games, which would be harder to explain if rauru had been around since before sksw. the zonai could even be explained as a sect of people who remained in the sky post-sksw and evolved seperately from surface hylians. the lack of triforce can simply be explained with the assumption we were operating under in botw--it's been lost to time in the thousands of years since the last cycle. i think it also makes a little more sense when thinking about ganondorf, because assuming that the initial imprisoning war happened before skyward sword means that demise's hatred/curse/spirit/however you want to think about it had already manifested.... before he vowed to do all that in the first place. he would have been simultaneously imprisoned as demise AND manifesting himself as ganondorf, which like... why would he not just channel that energy into breaking out of his seal himself? plus it also means that there would have been two ganondorf incarnations in existence at the same time in every other game where ganondorf appears--one sealed by rauru under the castle, and one wreaking havoc on the surface--which generally doesn't fly within the rules of the universe. it makes more sense for there to only ever be one ganon at a time imo.

[eagna-eilis]

The metaphysical mechanics of Anakin's Force Ghost are the single biggest mystery of the period between RotJ and TFA to me.

If he can Force Ghost, or at least sometimes, then what governs what he can and cannot do, and who he can or cannot speak with?

If he can appear to others the way Obi Wan, Qui Gon, Yoda, and eventually Luke can, it makes very little emotional sense unless something is blocking him.

I like to think that Anakin, in death, had enough respect for Leia not to appear to her. His actions killed her real mam and dad, the people who raised her into a kind, strong person with integrity in every step. He tortured her, he destroyed her homeworld and her culture. He wouldn't be so stupid as to think that a nice father-daughter chat would solve everything.

I like to think that he loves her from an observational distance, and brims with pride at every step she takes for the galaxy that he injured gravely and so nearly destroyed. So like Padmé, her justice-seeking Naberrie qualities nurtured like rare orchids by Bail and Breha, who were themselves so principled and just. Anakin might also see the ways in which she is not like any of the senators or royalty who made her who she is. He might want to take credit for the parts of her that are so brave, so impassioned, so willing to challenge any authority she sees as unworthy or unjust. Obi-Wan told her, when she was very young, that this was her inheritance from Anakin. But Leia doesn't want anything from him, and he understands. So he spends time watching, in grieving pride, at what his daughter became in spite of him.

I also like to think that at a certain point he would have to try, if he could, to intervene in what was being done to her family. In my heart there is no version of a redeemed afterlife Anakin who does not try to save another Skywalker child from what he went through.

He would have tried to materialise, blue-aura-lit and kind eyed, into the living room of a Chandrilla apartment, to try to soothe the terror and discomfort of a tiny child levitating cambiblocks and breaking glass in distress. He has far more experience with child murder than child rearing, but by the Force he'd damn well TRY.

It probably wouldn't work, and I think some of us fans (esp those who love the sequels or those who are more interested in the Skywalkers than the Disaster Lineage as a family) deserve to know why.

Why, in my headcannons, does Anakin spend years trying to send thoughts of 'no kiddo that isn't me, I'm me, your grandpa, and I can tell you that your mom and dad love you so much and that those other voices are full of bantha-poodoo, please trust me, please believe me, please hear me' out through the Force, only for them to never find their way to their intended recipient?

Why can he not appear to Leia and say, 'I know you don't want to talk to me and I don't want you to have to endure the distress of talking to me but it's about your kid. I can't make the past alright, but let me please give you the information you need to stop the cycle repeating'.

Why can't he warn Luke? 'There's a storm coming and the lightning is not natural. You have seen that lightning before, standing right by my side, and it comes from the same source. Our nephew dreams things that are not his own. Consider striking him and you will doom the world, but also our family. Don't let the Darkness guide you, its only goal is to make more Darkness.'

There are several potential answers, of course.

The first is that Anakin can get through but nobody listens. It's a steady stream of 'stay away from my child, stay away from my academy, don't corrupt our future with the evil of the past'. This option reflects negatively on Luke and Leia, but it also feels true to traumatised families. I'm a firm believer in the fact that Luke, Leia, and Han as having unwittingly done poorly by the next generation of their kin does not 'ruin' their characters, it makes them more sympathetic and human, and so it doesn't upset me if this is the option. It's bad parenting and good storytelling.

The most obvious answer is of course, Palpatine. He can block Anakin's access to the likes of Luke, Leia, and Ben. This means that a dead Palpatine is still torturing a dead Anakin. Excuse me while I cry for a thousand years. Now either this means that Palpatine thinks Ahsoka is small potatoes and it doesn't matter if Anakin can see her in the WBW, or that Anakin could only communicate with Ahsoka BECAUSE she could enter the WBW. So, considering that the Ahsoka show takes place after 'Last Shot', it still makes no sense that Anakin doesn't go 'please see what's going on with Leia's kid, I'm worried about her and about her lil guy.'

The third option is the one that I find genuinely upsetting. Not in-world upsetting, but what-are-they-doing-with-our-story upsetting. It's also the one I find the most likely:

DLF in general and Favroni in particular are pushing Disaster Lineage out in front, and trying to sublimate the Skywalkers. I see Ahsoka as Anakin's sister, and I don't think it is inappropriate for him to love her the same way he loves his children, his grandchild, or his brother Obi-Wan. It makes emotional sense for him to reach out to her, and love is not a finite resource.

But a set of wider storytelling choices is highlighting that the most important inheritance of the story is Yoda to Dooku to Qui Gon to Obi Wan to Anakin to Ahsoka to maybe Sabine, or Jacen Syndulla. I feel in some ways that shifting Anakin's attention, or the context in which we encounter him, may give the audience a sense of the greater legitimacy of the Disaster Lineage to the long term future of the galaxy.

I have ZERO problem with this being the thread by which Force training is maintained in the GFFA through the sequels and into the post-sequel era. I prefer it to watching my beloved Rey of Jakku doing it all alone.

I have a HUGE problem with the idea that we may never get more Skywalkers in context with one another. And more importantly, the idea that we really shouldn't care about what happened to them after Return of the Jedi. That the sequels don't matter.

Anakin is the greatest silence in the sequels. I suspect that they didn't get Hayden back because they were still nervous of prequel hate (sweet summer children that they were, not knowing that the penis-brains were gunning for them, too). Many of us hoped that the New Republic Era TV series would inflect upon the ST the way that Clone Wars inflected upon the PT.

So far it really hasn't.

[bibibbon]

Hi. I dont watch nor read JJK but I ger the gist and some spoilers here and there. Not sure if you are up to everything it happened but you think JJK is being way dark? Ok this feels an incomplete question. JJK does promete itself as a dark shonen (its what I heard) my question is...isnt passing the mark?

Bc all I hear is characters dying left and right. Despair for others. And again, JJK is a dark story...it would be stupid of me to ask "hey why cant all get along" but as someone who lurks in others fandoms....

Isnt JJK being way too dark? Too hopeless?

Maybe this will be the story where the MC dies but sometimes it feels gratuitos how everyone is griefing and suffering and losing people they love.

I send this question in good faith. I dont watch the anime nor read the manga. It felt too dark for me. It reached a dark point to me to say no.

But this is my opinion.

Hi👋 @mikeellee

I definitely see where you're coming from and to be honest to me jjk has gotten a bit too much with killing characters left, right and centre at this point it feels like a cheap way to create and build up higher stakes and tensions.

I definitely think that gege akutami should at least build up the characters properly before killing them off and destroying them. We have so many characters that lack development whether dead or alive I believe they should of gotten better treatment by the narrative like tsumiki,Yuki, shoko, utahime, momo, uro, Hana, nobara, remi, higumara and a whole lot more. These are the characters that come to the top of my head when I think of wasted potential.

Jjk is a series that uses characters and their deaths to help other characters develop like junpei, haibara and riko where both plot devices of a character but they had their own mini character arcs and actually felt like proper characters who where supposed to be there and to their own things but just got their lives snatched from them too soon.

I kinda believe that jjk is a story that repeats itself to basically show the idea of how history repeats itself or rhymes so it has a whole lot of parallels and characters going through similar character arcs. However, the story has a big theme of showing the younger generation and older generation differences and one way it does it is by having the younger generation break the older generations cycle and actually succeed in their own way so Iam hoping that we get a bittersweet ending where the younger generation is able to break the cycle that was established but we still have a long way to go from there.

In my opinion jjk is definitely not the darkest shonen I have seen I think currently speaking chainsaw man or attack on titan takes the win for sure