#but mostly speculation

[egophiliac]

so on the subject of the "Crowley is secretly Revaan/Laverne/Levin/please Twst give us his name" theory, I think my feelings are best summed up as "I don't really buy it, but it's funny". like, in all seriousness, I'm not opposed to it; I have enjoyed the writing in Twst so far and I'm willing to trust that whatever happens will, you know, make sense and not be terrible. but I'm just not really convinced by the current evidence! maybe that'll change once we learn more, we'll see!

with that said, may I propose a few alternate theories about the possible Crowley/Revaan connection:

[blue-mood-blue]

Rio’s request for Miles, before everything went way, way off the rails, was to take care of her little boy when no one else would - treat him kindly and remind him that he belongs

How literally do you think Miles is going to take that

Miles (1610): I just want you to know, if nobody else told you today… I love you

Miles (42): No

Miles (1610): I appreciate you and how talented you are at punching things

Miles (42): No shut up

Miles (1610): And even though you’re not a spidey and were prevented from your fate of becoming a spidey due to circumstances outside of your control in a cosmic mistake that only made your life worse, I want you to know… you belong

Miles (42): Shut up shut up shut up I hate you

[infinitecyanroses]

It's funny how in the promo for this prison event, they made it look like they were locking everyone up for legitimate crimes when really what happened was the Feds realized they need to keep the islanders away from the eye workers so they wouldn't spill any secrets to them or cause anymore trouble while they tried to do damage control but they already ran out of options to relocated them to. Egg island was hijacked by a cyclops that traumatized and forced the islanders to kill each other and after that they probably realized any other remote location they could send them to could be compromised as well. So what secure space do the Feds have left to send the islanders to? One max security prison. Yeah that might be screwed up and certainly kill any credit they have left with the islanders but hey, at least it's secure! The islanders were already calling the original island a prison anyway, might as well show them what a real one is like! Plus what better way to closely monitor them all and conduct experiments on their psyches then by committing to the bit with security guards, prison jumpsuits and everything! Besides, with all the available islanders securely locked up, none of them can kill more workers or infiltrate their offices. Might as well keep the eggs there too so they aren't a security risk and bring back egg tasks so the islanders are more invested to stay in the prison to provide for their eggs

[franklyimissparis]

what do you mean ‘what happened in india between john and paul?’ THIS is what happened in india between john and paul

[lloydfrontera]

lloyd 'survived on one meal per day for years' frontera would absolutely see sharing food as a love language and javier 'lived in the streets for months as a child' asrahan would be fluent in it

i do believe there is a point in their lives where they both heal from the trauma of going through severe food insecurity but neither of them ever quite really forget just how important food can be. and when the other shares their food with them, they appreciate it as the show of affection it was meant to be

[trek-tracks]

The funny thing is, I think the Kobayashi Maru is a very odd test, psychologically, depending on what it’s actually trying to determine. It changes over time.

Particularly after it’s been around for a while, you know it’s unwinnable going into it. Not only does that promote a sense of fatalism, but it paradoxically absolves the participant of any responsibility. If you can’t win, then you can rest secure that it wasn’t your fault, your choices didn’t matter, and the system was rigged against you. It’s not an especially good lesson to teach, though I suppose it does get you ready for evil Starfleet admirals and bureaucracy.

In a way, what Kirk did was more than change the conditions of the test for himself; by opening up the possibility of winning, he changed the psychological value of the test for everyone who came after him.

This raises the question: what is the Kobayashi Maru test really trying to measure, and what kind of captain is Starfleet really looking for? Someone who will accept an unwinnable situation with grace, or someone who knows the situation can’t be won, but fights anyway?

…or, possibly, someone who can change the parameters of a situation before it even happens?

[unexpectedstormy]

Okay in so this scene in the LU comic "Miss Her"...

Time is challenging Sky to separate himself from what makes him a hero and think about what makes him a good person. I can't help but wonder if this is going to be foreshadowing for whatever Sky's story arc will be in the comic. Will there be a point when he has to choose between doing what a hero would do and what a good man would do? (Like Frodo's choice between kill Gollum and have mercy on Smeagol.)

I also love how in the last 2 panels Sky is looking up at the sky and seeing 2 random birds, but it symbolic of his and Sun's loftwings.

[filurig]

new creature dropped (totally not harpy harpies)

[assapoopshitsmassachusets-blog]

Love how the Transformers fandom created the concept of seeker trines. We took Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker, gave them very distinct personalities, and assigned them a very complex emotional bond. The actual nature of that bond varies depending on who you ask, but everyone agrees it is spark-deep and very special.

We did all of this for three characters that probably only exist because some suits at Hasbro (or Takara-Tomy) in the 80s were like hmmmmmmmm how do we sell the same toy three times and get 3x the profit out of one character design

[amphibious-thing]

People who don’t like Lucius are wild. ‘He had sex in public’. The ship is his home. He doesn’t have a room!

[sunderwight]

I like to think Michael and Uriel in GO have a same-but-opposite version of Hastur and Ligur's friendship. Or the enemy version of Aziraphale and Crowley's bond.

Proximity and their jobs brought them together, they share almost identical outlooks, and if it was at all permissible they would claw one another's faces off like feral cats. Circumstances and their similar views on morality and divine administration have produced a noxious set of interactions which make everything about them worse. If they had to separate with the potential of never seeing one another again it would be the happiest day of their respective existences. Six thousand years of working towards similar goals in a high pressure environment has led to a pure and abiding hatred that will still exist even after time itself no longer does.

They would both sell one another down the river for a single corn chip, and neither of them know what a corn chip is or why anyone would want it.

[loveyourownsmiilee]

You are single handedly making my buddie heart float. I need more of your energy in this fandom because quite frankly the takes I’m seeing is very worrisome. They threw Eddie to the side for a white man version of him and I just want my boys together and happy. Am I the only one who thinks Tommy is a plot device ? 😭 Long live Buddie

Oh that’s so sweet of you to say!!! Like I said, could not and would not be me. Buddie is literally everything to me and we’ve been watching them make this beautiful story. They literally made their love from scratch and the show has consistently shown us time and time again that none of their other romantic relationships work. I have to believe it’s all done for a deliberate reason. And this season, all of Buck’s scenes thus far have included Eddie one way or another. He’s either in the scene with Eddie, fixated on Eddie, or talking about Eddie. It’s all Eddie Eddie Eddie. And if that itself isn’t a dead giveaway to where to story is eventually heading, then idk what it is. Tommy is clearly a plot device and he really is so similar to Eddie in a lot of ways. And I’ve mentioned before how I personally think Buck got his wires crossed and he’s confused about the truth of his own feelings. Tommy is new and shiny and he thinks he’s all that. He did the same thing when he met Eddie and realized how cool he was. It’s paralleling them to a t. Not only that but Maddie’s wording when she was talking to Buck when he came out was very telling bc why did she tell him to talk to Eddie when he’s ready. So I’m just riding this storyline out bc I know it’s all meant to be for a specific reason and I’m certain that Tommy will fly away in his helicopter soonish. We still need to get to Eddie dealing with his religious trauma and opening his eyes to the possibility that maybe he’s queer and he’s always been queer. A nice catalyst would be when he finally sees with his own beautiful brown eyes Buck and Tommy together, whether it’s them dancing or kissing or holding hands. I just know a flip will switch in his head and booom, his life will be flipped upside down. So I’m hanging in there and I just know this entire season has been very Buddie heavy and Tim is an evil genius. I believe it’s all planned and it’s slowly coming together!! But we will preserver and Buddie will be the endgame I know it in my heart 💜

[sugar-konpeito]

One thing that kind of really bothers me about watching Sailor Moon in the 2020s (and outside of Japan), is how much context is missing. Sailor Moon was designed as a multi-media franchise and the information is distributed through multiple mediums that run along side each other. A lot of this media is no longer accessible. What's bothering me about this specifically is Tuxedo Mask's title is never established in the anime, but it was in the hero shows (live performances put on in public areas like malls).

Tuxedo Mask's title is a "tuxedo-wearing pretty guardian of love and beautiful people", but this is never really established in the anime. It just kind of expects you to know this already from the hero shows. This becomes an issue when people watch Sailor Moon today, in English, and Tuxedo Mask makes his speech about something like "protecting beauties". Viewers misinterpret it as him being a ladies' man when I'm pretty sure it's gender neutral most (if not all) of the time and literally his job as a guardian.

It also probably has a lot to do with why he waxes eloquent about the beauty of the objects, places, or people that are currently under attack. They have to be within his area of protection. (It's also why he has a tendency to bring up how the thing he's protecting "helps people be beautiful". Viewers who hear this without context oftentimes assume he's being shallow or sexist.)

He seems to be a guardian of beauty in the sense of the artistry of beauty, with the technique and discipline that go into it. Meanwhile, the beauty Sailor Venus protects refers more to attractiveness and natural good looks. This makes sense for a guardian based off, well, Venus.

(Edit: this is a big part of the reason he's so perpetually graceful and elegant once transformed too :>)

[tea-kettlezz]

Okay

So if the Princess you leave with at the end is Shifty's heart and not Shifty herself. What happens to The Shifting Mound when you leave with the Princess at the end? Does she cease to exist without her heart, or does she remain trapped forever?

Or, like, does she just become that Princess you leave with?

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

everybody stay with me im shifting back into speculation & analyzing mode, this time about everybody's favorite pair of besties. ill put this under the cut for everyone's sakes

and please, take all of this with a Hefty grain of salt.

so ive been... thinking about a thing. a maybe-possibility. which if this has some merit, the part of me that loves characters having a good time and feeling good feels is screaming in fear. but the louder part of me that loves angst and hurting characters is rubbing its little fly hands together.

short version: i think Barnaby is going to emotionally distance from Wally, if not outright grow to resent him. maybe temporarily, maybe not.

full version: *cracks knuckles* strap in folks. so.

first of all, an entire chunk of Barnaby's bio is dedicated to his character relation to Wally. everyone else only has one-off lines dedicated to their relationships to other neighbors - even Frank & Julie just have single sentences about each other (note that they're described as "partnered with" and "depicted with" respectively. more on that soon). even Wally's bio has his Barnaby mention tacked onto the end of his first paragraph instead of being its own dedicated section

and then there's their character designs - their bios explicitly point out that they share characteristics; color schemes, hearts on their soles, similar outfits.

they were made to be best friends. literally. this quote is what made me start turning this theory over in my mind (sourced from @ /theneighborhoodwatch's collected & absolutely fascinating livestream trivia)

it appears that Barnaby literally did not have a say in whether or not he and Wally are friends. their bios even say "illustrated pages note that they were best friends multiple times." they have to be best friends.

which brings us back to Frank & Julie. they briefly reference each other in their bios, but they aren't described as best friends. it's incredibly likely that they were meant to be a romantic couple - i briefly covered that theory in this post (dont read the first one i was going insane) but they managed to avoid that. Frank and Julie defied the script and chose to be best friends instead.

and then in the trivia document a few more character relationships are briefly touched on, like how Howdy considers Barnaby a close friend, and Sally considers either Barnaby or Poppy as her closest friend, etc.

everyone else seems to be choosing who they're close with. they're forming their own opinions and dynamics and relationships. & its interesting that Barnaby is stated for both of these - as if implying that he may return the friendship feelings, or at the very least he's developed enough of a relationship with them to earn their affection

Barnaby and Wally... i doubt they ever got that. they were best friends from the start, no development, no choice. it's written into them.

and then there's how their relationship has been portrayed so far. i believe i saw an ask where Clown stated that Barnaby is very polite to Wally, which struck me as odd. have you ever had a polite relationship to your best friend? have you ever seen best friends be polite? i'd be surprised!

best friends mess with each other! they tease and rib and roast! what is a best friend for if not mutual tomfuckery?! jesting around? playfully pushing boundaries? a Polite best friendship... that's a straight up oxymoron. no such thing. that sounds boring and exhausting.

not only that, but the fact that Barnaby is often used for Wally's painting segments, and is the go-to guy for teaching Wally something new, is kind of concerning. it gives me the vibe that a big part of Barnaby's literal reason for existing is to be Wally's friend & guide.

which would make the fact of him being described as polite to Wally make sense. of course he's not going to push their relationship or try to deepen it - he's forming his own dynamics with the other neighbors. with Wally... it's already established. that is how they are with each other. that is what they are to each other.

and it's not like Wally can be the one to introduce nuances. i don't mean that as a slight or anything - he's just the way he's been described and the things stated about him that make me think that he wouldn't really... know how to? it just wouldn't occur to him. he probably thinks his and Barnaby's relationship is what a best friendship is and is how it should be.

but they have to hang out. they have to refer to each other as best friends. and while i believe that Wally does wholeheartedly think that they're best friends, close as can be... i doubt Barnaby feels the same. like - yes, he probably does care about Wally. everybody likes Wally.

but it's gotta be frustrating for Barnaby, especially as time goes on and he becomes more himself as a person over just being a character playing a part. it probably stunts his relationship growth with others, since his ~best friend spot~ is already taken and who would want to encroach on that? especially since its taken by Wally mcfuckin Darling?

their friendship might become less of a role and more of a responsibility. Barnaby might grow to feel obligated to stick with Wally as his "best friend". someone invites Barnaby to hang out and/or help with something? sorry, he has to pose for Wally's painting. Barnaby is trying to do his own thing? sorry, Wally is knocking on the door and asking for help with something.

i wonder if Barnaby ever hopes that Wally will go to someone else, or feels relief when he does. and then does he feel irritation/guilt over that denied hope or that granted relief? then does he get angry at himself for those emotions?

how would this effect how he treats Wally and acts around him? this confusing muddle of emotions and this strange growing resentment for his painfully earnest friend who only ever means well, if he means at all.

it makes me curious whether or not this theory has merit. and how this could come to a head. what would Barnaby, in this situation, do if/when he discovers that they're puppets on a set, and he's literally written to be Wally's bestie while everyone else changed their scripts and chose their own relationships.

personally, i don't think he'd be happy, and i doubt he'd handle it well.

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

It is truly fascinating how the common tumblr narrative around John and Paul somehow makes the guy who literally got violent multiple times over people insinuating he was queer appear more "on board with the whole gay thing" than the guy who said some awkward/dated stuff in interviews a couple of times.