#back half speculation

[cosmereplay]

...can Radiants even swear oaths even more? Would Taravangian be willing to give power to his enemies? Cultivation is gone so she can't accept the Words. And Syl (and the Heralds) can't cause she's stuck in therapy time. And the Sibling is asleep. Guess it depends if Taravangian has to in order to not cause conflict with the Shard of Honor

Ahhhhh great question!

If we leave Tetribution (haha) aside, I think the only one left who could theoretically accept oaths is the Nightwatcher!!?? And now that there's an endless night stretching across most of Roshar I imagine she's going to get more powerful. Plus, she's notably obsessed with trying to understand people. Should be fun 👀

The idea of Retribution accepting oaths is also fascinating! If Taravangian refuses to accept oaths, that would likely really offend Honor's power, so I doubt he'd do that. Plus he wants more warriors for his off-world conquests, so I imagine he might try to win them over, or failing that, try to manipulate them into serving him.

OH I forgot that there was a little child-shaped Honor out there in the Spiritual realm. Is he part of Retribution now or is he still hanging out in the Spiritual Realm? My guess is that he's part of Retribution and still at least somewhat self aware, remembering Dalinar's lesson, watching Taravangian and learning. Might he be able to accept oaths without Taravangian?

[milktearosethorn]

Torn between wanting Venli to learn to do cool stuff with the powers she can channel from her voidspren VS wanting Venli to discover a new Listener form with her own research and choose to adopt it and thus reject the final piece of Odium residing in her

[zariahthechocolatecookie]

Well... then it seems like that is a definite possibility.

Your idea is now more terrifying than it was before. I mean... just think of all the chaos the kandra could cause. Especially when Kaladin returns at some point and he hears about people seeing "him" or whatever. There's a lot of possibility for bad stuff to happen.

If I'm remembering correctly, in Wind and Truth it says that Kaladin left behind a corpse when he became a Herald and Szeth buried it. What if in Arc 2, a kandra robs his grave and uses his bones to pretend to be him?

[hahahafangirl]

In praise of good martial forms

One thing I alluded to earlier is that Suo has really, really good martial forms. As someone who dabbled with martial arts at various stages of my life, these details jump out. Of course, any martial artist worth their salt must have good forms, unconventional style or not (as Suo described the forms he learned as a "jumble of mixed martial arts"). Wind Breaker is one of the best choreographed manga I have seen, so these details are very much worth analyzing :P

Table of contents:

Martial arts start with good forms

Suo v. Oobiki: Is Discipline Rigidity or Fluidity?

Foundational Grounded-ness: Defense as Offense

Circularity; Yin and Yang

Suo on the Offensive: no_fist.megamind?

I will first go over the basics — how the choreography demonstrates Suo's solid skills, which segue into Suo v. Oobiki's debate about "discipline" (spoiler: Suo wins because he has better forms, i.e. better discipline), then moving on to make more observations about his styles— particularly the circularity and how the narrative is restraining Suo from using his fist to attack.

Martial arts start with good forms

As an introduction, I will note that Suo always sits and stands very properly, with his back straight and his posture supported by his hands behind his back.

Notice also that while Sakura casually leans back against his chair, slumping backward, and Nirei "cowers" -- leaning forward -- Suo sits straight-backed like the epitome of a polite young man :3c

This is another fun contrast between Suo and most other delinquents in the story— in an environment emphasizing rebellion, freedom, and a bit of teenage arrogance mixed in, sparking all sorts of wild and flamboyant self-expressions (dyed hair, undercut, piercings, etc.), Suo alone stands with a very traditional, conservative, and almost a prudent sensibility, in both his clothings and behaviors. Had he not don his Furin jacket, would anyone believe that this gentleman is a delinquent?

That is to say, Suo's trainings are baked into his bones, to the way he holds and moves himself, most likely to even his speech. Good forms from the beginning to end. Suo likely has practiced martial arts for a good while.

The thing that makes me notice how good his form is is from his fist placement in the Kanuma fight:

First, note that Suo's right fist is in the ready position by his hip, ready to hit. It's small, but surprisingly easy to forget when you are starting out. It's somewhat about being ready to punch at anytime (even though we never see Suo actually punching anyone), but more about the discipline of always being ready for your next move.

Similarly, the fist is there during the Oobiki fight. Note that Suo was able to surprise Oobiki and get a hit in because the ready-to-go fist exists as a camouflage, distracting the opponent from his other arm (out of frame— out of Oobiki's visual field). Having the fist there is an excellent basic form, and it allows Suo multiple options of attack.

Let's transition to legwork. One of the most important thing in martial arts is stances. Generally, the deeper your stance is, the lower your center of gravity, hence the more stability you have. This is, of course, at the cost of mobility, which is achievable with narrower, higher stances. An exercise at the advanced (masters') level of karate is to stand in kiba-dachi, the basic horse stance (first thing you'll ever learn) continuously for an hour or more. That's how strong your legs have to be. And practice staying in proper stances is how you hone it. Having a strong, solid stance is essential for balance and power,

Notice the solid, deep (low) stance— and how much power is behind it as Suo very gently seize Kanuma's fist and flips him. We can see the difference in speed (and thus input power) by the blur in both frames.

Again and again, Suo does a lot of "flipping people over" like this (I'm sure there is a proper term for it, in what I assume is Aikido, but that's a martial discipline I haven't flirted with lol). I will labor the point of Suo's moves being primarily circular later, but just to demonstrate the power behind his seemingly-effortless moves:

Note the stance— and the engaged legs muscles

Same here— the deep stance provides a tremendous amount of power required to fling a grown man and knock out two more people. Note again the difference in speed/input momentum (top right panel).

Doing mixed martial arts doesn't means that every move is a hodge-podge of everything. Suo's starting stance is a very basic/common starting form in kungfu:

As a side note, visually this starting form is very representative of Suo as a character/fighter :P He doesn't start (seemingly) looking for a fight; his stance is neutral, relaxed; one hand is inviting the opponent into his space. However, when we look closer, his feet are position such that he is ready to lunge forward (front-facing leg) and a fist is hidden behind his back, also ready to pounce.

It is a basic stance because it is good, and great when done right. If there is one (1) single thing you get from all the ramblings I do, let it be that Suo has very good basics. From his resting stance, fist placement, low stances, to kick— everything is solid.

This brings us to the "debate" between Suo and Oobiki about what "discipline" means.

Discipline: Rigidity or Fluidity?

Suo v. Oobiki is, ultimately, a fight about their philosophy regarding "discipline". (In this manner, we can say that Suo participated in at least one conversation, lol. But more on this later in Crisis of Contact or The Failure of Language (coming soon. at some point.) perhaps.) Firstly, Oobiki brought up discipline with the context of punishment for bad behaviors:

Which suggests that a (rigid) social code was violated here— which is that Suo, the underclassmen, had insulted his superior (in age and school-year). Discipline, here, is a violent mean to "bend" someone back to the appropriate behavior; or, perhaps, discipline means the rigid code of appropriate behaviors itself. Regardless, we get the sense here that "discipline" is rigid, meant to be followed to the letter, and even somewhat hierarchical: the elder enforces discipline onto the younger, not the other way around.

Ironically, this rigidity and hierarchy of discipline is what Oobiki forsook in the first place when he gave up competitive gymnastics:

Rigid routine, rigid rules;

The hierarchy of ranking and rigid scoring system;

And yet, old habits die hard. The brutality of competition and gymnastics is engrained into Oobiki's conception of discipline, and what it means to be, yourself, disciplined, or to discipline somebody else: beating the same stringent routines and rules until submission.

Afterwards, Suo relays a very different view — another definition altogether — of the word:

(Yeehaw! The first visual of Suo's master--- the same narrative role as Akari, yet so much further away...)

Discipline here is not a rigid code of rules or behavior, but rather the transmission of knowledge. This may be due to localization (can somebody please supply me with the Japanese version), but notice that Oobiki uses "discipline" as a noun, while Suo uses it as a verb. One is a thing that you have; the other is an action you impart upon someone else. Already, we see the rigidity of an object without care for whom it affects, versus an action that involves two people at the minimum (the teacher and the student) and widens the possibility of what could be taught. Martial arts is a discipline; so is calligraphy, for example, or tea ceremony, or life philosophy, or math, or science, or literature, etc.

Discipline, to Suo (relayed to him by his Master, by the quote) is a living, mobile thing, means to share knowledge without forcing it upon somebody. You can try to train or teach someone; it doesn't mean they will learn it that exact way, or they may modify your teachings to their needs. Suo is already innovating upon the discipline passed down to him by teaching Nirei to protect himself and fight back at once

It's a living thing in the same sense that humanity is a living thing, as culture and knowledge get passed down and modified generations by generations. It's quite generative, to employ a pun here. It's more philosophical and metaphysical than the concrete, object-like "discipline" that Oobiki wants to impart, or force upon, others.

How do these two views of "discipline" duke it out? By fighting, of course! And, I will argue that Suo wins because he has the better discipline, narratively speaking. Of course, it's nearly impossible for two definitions of the word to duke it out— this is why we have stories and narratives :D The key observation I want to make is that Suo has the more solid and proper forms.

I noted earlier that Suo was able to get a hit into Oobiki with his elbow because of his good ready stance with the fist. The more demonstrative example, I think, is in this sequence here, which immediately follows the aforementioned example:

Oobiki begins with a gymnastic-inspired cartwheel, using one leg to attack and hook Suo's arm down. Note that the force is concentrated on Suo's wrist. With his momentum, Oobiki's arms push upward to complete the cartwheel, and, theoretically, slam Suo's body down by his wrist (a very tiny fraction of Suo's body mass— which is proportional momentum). That's cool and all, but I think Oobiki makes a grave mistake next…

... of attacking with his other leg instead of landing. He expects Suo's whole body to go down with his wrist (which, again, very small fraction of body mass— Suo is a lot stronger physically than Oobiki expected). If that is the case, then Oobiki gets the point. However, I think, giving yourself zero point of contact on the ground — your form and stance not being grounded at all — is a risky gamble. You risk standing on nothing and having no foundation beneath to push you on. While you are falling mid-air, your opponent easily get a grasp on you, and, supplying some (seemingly) minimal amount of force, turns gravity against you. Again, no foundation, nothing solid to land on.

This is, also, the last significant movement in their choreography before the winner is decided. This ending is signified by Oobiki saying, "I can't read you at all..." before the narrative naturally descend to the conclusion of their fight with Suo as the winner. Oobiki's "encore" is merely the last desperate swipe in a conversation already closed.

Foundational Grounded-ness; Defense as Offense

Another observation: throughout the Oobiki fight, most of Suo's stances are low, deep stances, which emphasizes stability and grounded-ness. We see these in the previous examples— in the one immediately above, Suo's stance is so "deep" that he is kneeling on the ground: very stable (which also necessitates no small amount of core strength, mind you) in contrast to Oobiki's ungrounded-ness.

Here, Suo starts from a neutral, high stance, then steps out and down to move his opponent down along with his own center of gravity

Next, a very impressive (holy crap I can't properly express how fucking insane of a move that is) swing: from a low (kicking) stance, which provides the normal force necessary to push, and over

To a solid, whole foot (HEEL FIRST! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT-- note the angle where the heel is closer to the ground) and a forceful slam down.

While Suo adeptly utilizes high, middle, and low stances, I want to point out that in this fight, all of his move begins from a low stance. Narratively, Suo is focusing on stability, grounded-ness (purpose-wise, Furin's job is to hold their ground, too), and defense — which is his specialty. Suo rarely initialize attacks as offense; here, he relies on the same grounded-ness of his defensive practice as offense. You have heard "the best defense is offense" before, now, welcome to "the best offense is defense" :P.

Combing through the manga, I am struck with how solid Suo's stances are, which I'm sure I have more than adequately emphasized by now. He is agile, mobile, and responsive, yes, but he agilely steps into a sturdy defensive stance in every fight, as demonstrated above in the Kiryuu introductory fight as well as in Roppo Ichiza.

I think this does say something about Suo as a character; just as Sakura's agility, adaptability, creativity, and ferocity says about his, or Tsugeura's high-spirited, principled (even if seemingly odd) virtues being supported by his muscular sturdiness— emphasize the simplicity of pure force, or, Sugishita's long-armed, forceful, but single-trajectory attacks says about his single-minded determination. It doesn't have to be anything too deep lest we step too close into Backstory Speculations territory (though I would not blame us for that, seeing that that is the #1 mystery right now, lol). But, to me, there seems to be an interesting contrast between Suo's image as a lighthearted, blithe, socially-adaptable child and his principled and grounded stances, which are primarily employed to protect or defend someone else.

(Suo's return to the group post-Oobiki is blithe and lightfooted. At this moment, his return is more to a social effect, reconnecting with the rest of the class before the fight resume. Note that, in contrast to his earlier heel-first landing, toe-first landing is used for very light landing— a spirit of windless calm, as I love to say these days. His first impact is this lightness — relieving Nirei from his post, signifying a victory, like a balm upon the toiling soldiers.)

There is, still, a hidden sternness and practicality underneath such a light and humorous character. We caught glimpses of it: Suo who, on the first day of class, "fact-and-logic"'ed Sakura and Sugishita into resolving their conflicts:

Suo who represents the foundational philosophy of fighting as a group to Sakura:

Suo is also teaching Nirei the foundation of fighting, etc. etc.

These roles fit perfectly into his motif as a "teacher" in the narrative, conveniently also as the narrative mouthpiece: I discussed in another analysis Suo's role as the one delivering "conclusive remarks" — the final deliverer of message to Sakura's journey. Just like his conception of discipline as "passing down teachings" — passing down something fundamental, grounding, upon which new innovations can be made — Suo provides the elementary, foundational "bricks" to the story, upon which Nirei, Sakura, the audience, and whomever else he will teach next, can build up their unique substances. It all starts with a good basics— that’s the thing that struck me with Suo’s fighting styles: it’s graceful and simple, based on strong and solid foundational skills.

Circularity; Yin and Yang

By now, it's clear that Suo's fighting motif is primarily circular: he twists and flips his opponents both parallel to and perpendicular to the plane of his body

@darkersolstice and I briefly discussed this point earlier, here, where they insightfully compare Suo to the eye of a hurricane. Inspired by this, I remarked that the philosophical basis of Suo's style is something to the effect of "A steadfast heart amidst the ever-turbulent circumstances" (In Vietnamese, "Tâm bất biến giữa dòng đời vạn biến"). As the calm in the eye of the storm — the central, unmoving axis of rotation — Suo controls himself and the vortex of life such that they all pass by him. He sees and acknowledges the turbulence; but he remains unperturbed and untouched by them.

There is a nuance between what I argue here versus what I argued by Suo's evasiveness, in that it is not the fighting style that is the evasive one, but Suo is. The evasiveness — the "letting life flows by" physical philosophy — is just one of the many possible motivator for his evasion. The bulk of Suo's dodging, I think now, is social rather than physical; the physical aspect just further enforces the motif. (Or, I may argue, the physical aspect may hints towards a deeper motivation for the habitual deflection, without it being the main culprit of the evading act.)

Coming back to the circularity itself; the perfect circle has been symbolically important, throughout many culture, as a symbol of perfection and completeness. The Aristotelian view of the universe was that of a series of enclosing sphere, because circles — and spheres — are perfect. In Chinese philosophy, the same ideal is reflected in yin and yang

There is light in darkness, darkness in light, as circular force and motion rotate in the universe. This is the total encapsulation of everything. Suo's circular form, where he controls the sum total of his force and the opponent's momentum to his advantage, symbolize this philosophical totality. By Suo's association with a heavily Chinese motif, this could be the intended basis of his form.

Suo on the Offensive? no_fist.megamind?

Another thing that is apparent is that Suo has yet to (actually) attack with his fist; both time, against Kanuma or KEEL, he was thwarted from doing so:

Both time, Suo going for the punch was considered an excessive use of force— explicitly so in the KEEL's case, where it was considered the wrong and overly-aggressive choice. There, it also marked a break from his serene and mature characterization.

Suo does attack— but it is always with his legs, palms, or elbow (in the Oobiki fight).

Never the fist. Why?

I, to be honest, still have to ponder more what this means in relation to the rest of his defensive, circular (yin-yang), and deflective (utilizing the opponent's momentum) fighting style. An oath of non-violence, perhaps?— an oath to respond to your environment, to defend as the need arise, to seek not violence but repel it? These are compelling statements. Why kicks and push, but not fist? Perhaps there is an "excuse" of repelling and deflecting in kicking away, pushing away that does not exist in punch in, punch at, punch through. With its various prepositions, punching is rarely away, but always offensive, violating, stepping inside in a sense. Suo's discipline seems to be that of pacifism or at least, minimal violence. Violence cannot touch him, and he cannot exude violence with the discipline he was taught— handed down to? constrained in?

There are still so many interesting thoughts to extrapolate on, so many narrative trajectories wide open for Suo (and his backstory) to take— but that shall be the story for another day.

[diabolichare]

(4/?)

The next day, the Terrans are with Bumblebee while Tfe goes to the meeting with the Autobot High Command (It was quite a shock when the seeker basically dumped the kids with the yellow scout then left). They're the center of attention, everyone is friendly overall and very interested in the first sparklings they've seen in ages. But the Terrans were getting uncomfortable, luckily Bumblebee steered them away to somewhere else more quiet.

They get to watch soap operas with the Autobots and play old videos, they have a great time. The Terrans talk about technology in their time, and what they usually do back home for fun. Hashtag mentioned Bumblebee being much taller in the future, so the scout asks more about his relationship with them. The kids think back to what Tfe Starscream told them, as long as it's not about the Emberstone it should be fine right? (completely forgetting the future part)

So they gave some vague stories about Tfe Bumblebee being their mentor, teaching them. And some more stories about their siblings. Everyone is invested. Then someone asked about their "sire". The trio quieted down, sharing glances. This makes the bots suspicious.

"What's wrong? Do your parents have strange rules about talking to strangers? You can tell us"

"No not that, our parents love us. It's just that Starscream doesn't like them much. But we're working on it!" (What does that even mean)

"There's this human organization called GHOST, that worked with the Autobots to catch and imprison Decepticons to "protect" Earth. But they were actually experimenting on their prisoners. Starscream, still won't tell us what happened just that it was Shockwave's level of bad?" (What)

"The humans were involved with our birth actually. Starscream didn't really want us at first but Hashtag managed to get through him so here we are! Now most of the time he is down in Nightshade's lab doing nerd stuff with them and Dad 2" (The Autobots are starting to get not very good feelings about how this story is going. Also who is Dad 2???)

The conversation stops when the Terrans see Tfe Starscream arriving, the kids circle him telling him about their day and all of these things the Autobots show them. The seeker goes along with their stories, ooh and aah while steering them to a table and dug around in his subspace to give them some snacks (barely bothered by the loud cheers or the fact that Hashtag is like a limpet attached to his leg). He spared a glance at the frozen Autobots who were giving him strange looks. Tfe Starscream is pulled back to the kids when the kids continue to talk about the soap operas they are watching.

The Autobots who were listening (eavesdropping) to the conversation - plus Ravage who was in the vent - are now horrified by the implications of how the sparklings came to be and Tfe Starscream's situation.

Prev/Next

[cosmereplay]

One of the most interesting things about therapeutics/mental health across cultures is that the definitions are different! The concepts of causality are different! The interventions are different! And if we're talking about epic fantasy where you are entering multiple cultures based in different worldbuilding concepts, then the concept of mental health should also be unique to these cultures!

One of the super cool things about Kaladin's interventions is that he's clearly based them off his own experiences of what worked for him. His metaphors come from the army. His "just listen" comes from Adolin. His group intervention comes from sitting around the fire with Bridge Four.

But the development of various concepts of mental illness, like melancholia/depression or battle shock or personas, should have some kind of connection to the worldbuilding, and not linked 1:1 with modern Western conceptions of mental illness. Not to mention the mental illnesses that are unique to the Rosharan context. Do we have people who claim to have spren but other Radiant spren can't see them and they don't seem to be able to breathe in Stormlight? Can we see the consequences of a fucked up Identity on Radiant healing?

Anyway not to tangent too hard about Rosharan mental health worldbuilding... yeah I agree it would be deeply disappointing if Rosharans developed psychologists who push for CBT.

like I don’t mean to be cynical* here but I guess what I’m worried about is that i get to the back half of the series to find that roshar’s proto-therapy has evolved into a (perhaps less advanced) imitation therapy/psychiatry as we know it today, and that this would reify the idea that the main problem with locking the insane in dark rooms is that the rooms are dark. lol. rather than getting more of what kaladin was doing (seeing an unbiased third party work through trying to help someone** while consistently affirming their autonomy and operating on an equal level. good shit.) or at least deconstructing the concept and its ethics & etc.

*the reason I don’t think this cynicism is without cause is the use of modern therapy language in the most recent book, coupled with an unfortunate tendency ive noticed in sanderson to set up really interesting concepts in cultural or social systems and then fumble the ball on them repeatedly. sad! wellthere are other books.

**okay he’s not like, great at it at first lol, he’s untrained in things that may be likely to help and is working entirely off of experience, but that sort of goes back to the fact that what he’s doing isn’t therapy at all. it could certainly be improved upon, but kal did a lot right that my real-life licensed psychotherapist shit the bed on, which is part of what’s so interesting about this

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Sick day potentially being the first of the 2 parter has me intrigued - it’s kind of giving me under pressure or 7.1 vibes!!!

I’m guessing we’re getting some kind of bio terrorism type situation - a pathogen of some sort making everyone sick in LA somehow and Buck and Athena team up to figure out what’s going on (kinda thinking that Bobby might be one of the ones who’s sick - which is why they team up!)

Something something about Buck being in denial and it making him ‘sick’ - making him unwell - possibly physically but mostly psychologically - and he needs to face his feelings - embrace and accept them in order to be well - which he will do by the end of the 2 parter!

[pieceofourworld]

Thinking about how Silver doesn't have a Book 7 card yet... what if he gets one for the big finale that marks a huge change to the status quo (ex. School Uniform Ortho).

Imagine his SSR drops and it's "Silver Vanrouge".

[true-bluesargent]

engaging in 911 speculation based on real-life interviews and press feels sooo futile to me like im watching you guys all go crazy over a mention of buddie on gma or whatever and im like. you could not catch me doing that i have no idea what any of it means and i will not be trying to figure it out 🙏 to me it could mean Anything

[covertblizzard]

an analysis of nocturna as the human parallel to the night of gotham

(or rather, what she could have been)

she's raised by gotham essentially, and she's been on both sides of the gotham life, an orphan on the streets of gotham and the rich (and criminal) of gotham

she's hurt by the existing system in a sense, she got injured working in gotham observatory, i'm assuming some kind of state lab funded by wayne enterprise which is definitely one of the rich and powerful

she's simply not cruel enough to be the night of gotham, but perhaps that is a statement that it is not the night of gotham that is inherently cruel, but some of the people (in power) of gotham and their actions are what is the actual cruelty

she basically steals from the rich and technically, up to this point, her actions have limited harm to the poor. a lot of the rich aren't even reporting because what she's stolen wasn't worth the trouble of the spotlight of the news going to them. of course we know the nights of gotham are infinitely more dangerous to the poor and helpless than the rich and powerful, but i like imagining the implications that by staying in gotham, their investments actually aren't growing as much as they could have (nocturna steals from them but not enough to really hurt their pocket, gotham doesn't quite cause their investment to fail, but choosing to move elsewhere could potentially increase it)

i know jason is still jason circus-boy todd here, but let's set that aside, and just think of the idea that jason as a hopeful little child of gotham despite everything softens the night of gotham and brings her to her heel to stop her misdeeds. that gotham night's salvation is not in what power can bring her but in what she can do for herself in light of something kind and lovely and innocent to protect, to care, and to nurture.

in conclusion, i think gotham's rich and powerful should just leave and let the people take back the land and space and opportunities that is theirs and build back their own community in their own way (does this even make sense? i don't know. i'm just badly interpreting the storyline and i like to imagine the idea of people given the opportunity to grow and succeed and make something together on their own and not having some rich weirdo dictate "how i can help you improve". the end)

[cosmereplay]

As we all know, Moash is gay. As he continues his character arc in the back half, let's say twenty years have past. Worlds are colliding. Which lucky guy does he end up with? (Taking out Kaladin and Odium because apparently they would both sweep lmao)

[makorragal-312]

Personally, I don't think Chris is gonna come back home in 8x03. But, I DO think that it's gonna be the episode where he finally reaches out to Eddie. Or at the very least starts answering his phone calls or messages.

[fideidefenswhore]

did anne have the motto "me and mine" some time? i don't hear much discourse on it compared to the grudge one

oh, i've seen discourse about it...

(ahem,)

tracy borman (recently) cites a secondary source (book, published 20c) for this motto, but as i don't have access to that, i don't know what his source is...

"The falcon was often painted in silver, with a gold crown and sceptre, standing on a gold trunk out of which spouted red and white roses and the words 'Mihi et mea' ('Me and mine' or 'me and my love') ." Pinches, J.H. and R.V., the Royal Heraldry of England (London, 1974) p.146

[raingerr]

these are nowhere near as concrete as they will be in the future but for now. my super awesome version of a six-limbed vertebrate that would serve as the ancestor to creatures such as dragons and griffins. i have a document with much, much more detailed evolutionary steps but these are more fun to look at

[seaweedstarshine]

To soothe the pain, love, while I don't believe the Doctor - that is 1-12, the others might - ever SAID 'I love you' to River, I am convinced they taught her Gallifreyan just so she'd understand they kept tracing 'I love you' onto the back of her hand at random moments

Awwh! :’) I love the idea of the Doctor randomly tracing Gallifreyan on her skin to express all the things that they can’t say! I’d sort of thought River knew Gallifreyan instinctually with it on the TARDIS screens, but with her connection to the TARDIS being so inherent, maybe there’s no need.

…but now I’m imagining River recognizing (with their lives out of order), that the shapes he’s tracing are Gallifreyan circles. And maybe she’d connect the dots and study Gallifreyan on her own. And then she would understand what he’s writing — and start to take it wrong that he’s writing it but doesn’t have the guts to actually tell her, and she would overthink forever but not actually ask him…

Until the Doctor notices asks why she’s being cold — and then she tells him — and he says he thought she already knew—

(Crying and hugging ensues.)

[imminent-danger-came]

I saw your tag that out of the 3 monkeys, macaque is the most mentally well, and i had a mini breakdown about the fact youre right. You shouldnt be right, but you are

IT FEELS WRONG RIGHT. Like, Macaque is the red and black edgy monkey with shadow based powers, and yet he's also the only one whose positive character arc has impacted the story in an undeniably constructive way. Who knows what would have happened had he not been there to help MK in both 4x10 and the s4 special.

And like, MK on the other hand has had a negative character arc for the whole show (with "Revenge of the Spider Queen" and "The Emperors Wrath" being small hills in the road, but knowing MK we're going DOWN next season). MK is still going to get worse before he gets better (I'm predicting mega guilt over having a hand in Azure's death, but we'll see—also everything about his monkey form/himself is pretty much unresolved soooo) and don't even get me started on Wukong. He ALSO has had a negative character arc the whole show, with his main improvement being his resolve to be more open with MK. But like, between Mei chewing him out in 3x10, getting possessed by LBD, and now his time spent in the scroll—let's just say I'm worried for the Monkey King.

At the start of the show I'd say MK, SWK, and Macaque are all mentally unwell in their own special and equal ways, but Macaque actually got somewhat better (thank you 3x13). He's the only one. It's ridiculous.